Room 317 [early afternoon]

[tatooine_doofus]

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.]

Comments

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"She's not particularly happy with me at the moment," Luke said, understating things by almost a ridiculous margin. He patted to a spot next to him on the bed. "This is going to take a bit of explaining, if you're up for hearing it."

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Tori understood a bit about unhappy siblings, especially sisters, given that she had a younger one. She took a seat next to Luke on the bed and nodded. "Sure, I'm up for it."

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke reached and took her hand, then blew out a breath. "Okay. Skywalkers set new standards for dysfunction, so I'll totally understand if you, you know, run screaming from the room. I grew up on Tatooine with my aunt and uncle believing that my father, who had been a great Jedi, had been exterminated with the rest of his Order right before the rise of the Empire."

He made a face. "The official story was that the Jedi had tried to take over the government and rule absolutely, but since that's, well, entirely what the Emperor did, I call banthashit. My uncle absolutely refused to talk about my father, or the Jedi, or anything about how life had been before the Empire. I grew up restless and bored."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

Tori listened intently, and gave Luke's hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm not going anywhere." She smiled at him reassuringly. "Go on."

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"A little less than a year ago, my uncle bought two droids to help out with the harvest--Artoo and his counterpart Threepio, who's a protocol droid."

Artoo let out a little chirp but made no move to come out of the closet. He was staying there until Leia left, dammit.

"We didn't think anything of them until Artoo--claiming to be the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi--ran away. I chased after him, and while I was gone, the Empire's Stormtroopers tracked the droids back to the farm, burned it down, and killed everyone inside."

Luke's voice wasn't quite as steady as he'd like it to be.

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

Tori didn't know what to say. She certainly hadn't expected that. "I'm sorry, Luke." There really wasn't more she could say.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke gave her hand a squeeze. "It kind of goes downhill from there for a bit," he said softly. "If you want to bail out..."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

Tori shook her head. She wasn't about to leave, no way. Especially when Luke trusted her with this. "I'll stay."

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Luke said, taking another deep breath. "It turned out that there was a reason the troopers were after Artoo and Threepio: Artoo had the complete schematics to the Death Star--a massive weapon--size of a small moon massive--that could blow up planets. Leia had put them into his memory and sent him off to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, the only Jedi Knight who was still alive, and that was a closely guarded secret."

He ran his free hand through his hair. "Ben--that's how I knew him--had been on Tatooine watching over me because he and my father had been best friends, though I never knew that because my uncle wouldn't let him within a klick of the farm. Artoo found him, Ben recognized Leia on the tape, the farm was destroyed anyway, so off we went to return the droid to the girl on the message."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"Oh wow." Tori had never imagined something like the Death Star could exist. Now she did.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded. "Ben had fought with Leia's father during the Clone Wars, so we hired a freighter and headed for Alderaan." He swallowed hard. "The Death Star had gotten there first. Billions of lives gone in an instant. And Leia had to watch."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"Oh no." Tori couldn't even begin to know what that felt like, having to watch your home be destroyed right in front of you. She felt immense sadness. "That's terrible." Poor Leia.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"She hasn't exactly gotten over it," Luke said softly. "So we rescued her from the Death Star--Vader had her slated for execution--took the plans Artoo had stolen, formed a plan and assaulted the Death Star in X-Wings, which are roughly half the size of the shuttle we have here."

It was about as hopeless as it sounded. Luke gave her a shy smile. "I hit the right mark and the whole thing exploded. That...didn't make Vader and his Emperor particularly pleased, so the Rebellion sent me here."

He paused for breath. "And Vader followed me for his own reasons."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"I would imagine that's a hard thing to get over." Tori added softly, smiling ruefully.

"I can see why it wouldn't, but that's great that you succeeded there." She admitted.

Her eyes widened slightly at Luke's last statement. "He didn't try anything, did he?"

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke's eyes tracked down to his gloved hand. "He did. For Jedi, there are two paths you can take: you can serve the light, or you can take the power you can channel and use it for selfish ends. Darth Vader...had turned to the Dark Side." He chewed on his lower lip, his hand holding hers almost hard enough to hurt. "And he wanted me to join him."

Deep breath. "Because he was my father."

Which was why Leia was a little pissed.

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"But you didn't." Tori would probably be feeling the exact same way Luke was, if this had happened to her, judging by his grip. He wasn't hurting her, but she could understand the effect of this. "Oh." Hearing the last bit, she couldn't bring herself to say much more.

But Tori did put two and two together, and could see that this might be why Leia was indeed mad.

[OOC: Was in NYC for a show, am back now, yay!]

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded, falling silent for a long moment. "It...wasn't a great November," he said. "So I went home to get a new hand and to learn from Master Yoda, who I told you a bit about."

And to yell at the ghost of a Jedi, but that didn't seem all that important. "I needed to know more about the Force, and becoming a Jedi...and seeing if there was a way to bring my father back."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"No, it didn't seem like it." Tori commented softly, giving Luke's hand a gentle squeeze. "Yes, I remember him." She nodded, wondering what it would be like to meet him.

"There was, right?" Tori hoped that there was. After all, Anakin was here... and Darth Vader had been.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Master Yoda and Ben didn't think so," Luke said a little sourly, "but Vader had killed Ben--I forgot to mention that--so he was a bit...upset."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yeah. I get that." Tori had let out a short laugh at that. She didn't think they'd welcome him with open arms after that. "But you did." Tori was always one for optimism, she'd think there was always hope.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"He was my father. I couldn't just let him go," Luke said vehemently. "Leia...has a different opinion."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

"No, of course not. I wouldn't either if it was my father." Tori offered. "She does?"

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "Vader...stood behind her when the order was given to kill Alderaan. He tortured her...practically killed her boyfriend..." He trailed off. "She had a father already. And he killed him. Anakin's...a complication she doesn't want."

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

[water-wonder.livejournal.com]

Tori sucked in a breath. She hadn't expected to hear that. "I can see why not." She admitted, though if she were in Leia's position she'd still want to get to know her father. Even if he'd done horrible things as a different persona.

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

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Which is kind of why I avoided telling her about Anakin for so long," Luke admitted. "He's turned back to the light, he regrets what he's done--he's practically drowning in guilt on bad days--but I don't think that's going to be enough for her." He shrugged. "I think everyone deserves a second chance."