tatooine_doofus | Room 317 [early afternoon]

After spending some time removing onion dip from Artoo’s internal systems—Force know how that had gotten there—Luke finally reached for his comlink and made a long-delayed transmission.

Leia answered immediately, and Luke chattered happily on about his workshops—and Tori— and some of the new students he’d met, including Bigg’s cousin—and Tori—and why getting bit by a gremlin had been a terrible mistake.

Leia laughed for a solid minute once Luke explained who Siegfried and Roy were. “It sounds like you’re settling right back in,” she said.

Luke nodded, then took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he said quietly. “I shouldn’t have taken this long to do it.”

“What happened to the shuttle?” Leia asked immediately, eyebrows flying up.

“Nothing,” Luke said, “but when I came back to Fandom, I wasn’t alone.”

Then he told her who’d been with him.

Leia’s momentary silence was the dangerous calm of the Tatooine desert before a wind storm kicked up.

“He’s WHAT?! You WHAT?! You waited how long to tell me?!” she exploded, her voice loud enough to be heard down the hallway.

Artoo moaned and rolled into Luke’s closet.

Luke chewed on his lower lip. “I was wrong,” he said quietly.

“’Wrong’ doesn’t come close to describing this, Luke Skywalker,” Leia spat, her image going in and out of his view as she paced. “He stood there on the Death Star and did nothing as Ald…he put Han into…He’s alive?!”

Her eyes finally focused on Luke’s and the anger in them made him flinch backwards. “I’m coming to see him,” she said, every inch the icy royal. “I’ll be there on Friday. We’ll talk about this more when I arrive.”

Her image shut off abruptly and Luke let out a deep sigh.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered.

From the closet, Artoo wibbled his agreement.

[OOC: Leia was loud, ya'll. Feel free to knock on the door.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Threepio's a bit of a whiner," Luke admitted, "but he means well."

Artoo let out a peevish little honk.

"And Artoo is generally nothing like him."

Artoo blatted at him again.

Luke shrugged. "Welcome to my world."

"Oh, I see." Tori nodded, smiling a bit. "Will he be accompanying Leia on her trip?" It would be exciting to meet another droid, if he happened to come along.

Tori grinned. "I like your world." She meant it.

Luke burst out laughing before he could stop himself. "Probably not," he said when he stopped. "She's going to be agitated enough. Three days on a ship with Threepio would just add to her frustrations."

Tori wasn't really sure what was so funny. "Oh, yeah. I definitely wouldn't want that."

"Sorry," Luke said, looking apologetic. "It's just that Threepio's a little...high strung. He doesn't react well to tense situations and it seems that the last year has only been tense situations. Leia's patience with him is wearing a little thin."

"That's okay." Tori smiled, no harm done. "Oh wow, okay. Yeah, I can understand that."

"He means well. He's just...better about fifteen minutes at a stretch." Luke grinned. "With months in between visits."

Tori chuckled. "I gather he's quite the talker?" She grinned. "I guess you can't really fault him for that."

"Someone tweaked with his programming somewhere along the way," Luke said, "he's way twitchier than any other protocol droid I've ever run across."

Artoo blatted out a snicker from the closet but refused to elaborate.

"Oh, so I guess that doesn't help sometimes, huh?" Tori grinned, amused. She really wanted to meet Threepio now.

Tori couldn't help but laugh a little at Artoo's reaction.

"It's not terribly useful, no," Luke admitted with a grin.

Tori smiled, shaking her head in amusement. "I honestly sometimes wonder what I'd be doing if I hadn't decided to come here." Random thought, she knew. But it was had popped into her head.

"Having a normal boyfriend with a normal family?" Luke asked a little self-consciously.

Tori tried not to grin at that. She shook her head. "Nah, normal's not appealing to me."

Luke beamed at her. "Good to know."

"Besides, I'd choose you over any of the guys back home any day." Tori grinned brightly, nudging him slightly.

Luke smiled back, blushing. "That's always nice to hear."

"I was hoping you'd think so." Tori chuckled.

Room 317 [early afternoon]

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...

Re: ...and here's where we go NFB, please...