tatooine_doofus | Room 317 [after workshops]

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Room 317 [after workshops]

After his workshop with Mr. Winchester, Luke came back to his room to convince Artoo that Leia had gone home.

Artoo, still in the closet, remained unconvinced.

"I wouldn't lie to you about this," Luke told the door, rolling his eyes. "She came, she saw him, she had ice cream, she went home. Really."

Artoo let out a mournful whistle.

"Fine," Luke said, flouncing back to his bed. "I'll be over here, practicing levitation with Yoda who's a turtle again, thank the Force."

Yoda? Not thrilled by getting spun through the air again, but he couldn't talk any more, so no one cared.

The door was cracked open.

[OOC: Conversation between Luke & Rikku is locked to them and the topic is NFB, thanks!]

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

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"I don't think it's been an easy year for any of you," Rikku said, giving him a sympathetic smile. "And your hand, that's so ... that's why it has the weird machinery thing? ... Wait, your dad did that?! He cut it off!?"

She stared for a long time and then leaned in to squeeze Luke again. "I don't blame you," she said softly. "I mean, it's not just the hand, it's ... everything. Yeah? That's a lot to ask."

"Well, he blew up my sister's homeworld and dropped her boyfriend into liquid metal," Luke said. "I got off kinda easy."

"No," Rikku said softly. "You didn't."

Luke blew out a breath. "Yeah," he admitted.

"Anyway, back home the Emperor decided that rebuilding the Death Star was a fantastic idea. The Rebellion, you know, disagreed. A lot. We caught what we thought was a lucky break--we discovered where it was being constructed and believed that its weapons weren't operational. I went home to help. Vader went home for his own reasons."

Rikku nodded. "He ... he went to help set it up? For the Emperor. And why ... why was he so ... tied to him, anyway? The Emperor, I mean. Were they using each other or ..."

Luke nodded. "The Emperor was a Sith, too. I don't know if he was ever a Jedi, though. Records are, not surprisingly, really, nonexistent about him. He was the master. Vader was the apprentice."

He paused. "I don't really know a lot about how it worked. My father's not exactly an unencrypted data card on, well, anything."

"Have you tried asking him?" Rikku shrugged hesitantly. "He's ... it's different now, right? I mean. I bet he doesn't want to talk about it much, but ... if it's important ..."

Luke pressed his lips together. "He'll talk when he's ready," he decided.

Luke was always a little too forgiving.

"So I went home, saw the Death Star and decided that it was now or never in bringing him back. I surrendered to a regiment of stormtroopers on Endor and asked him to remember who he was."

Rikku stared. "Wait, you mean ... just like that? Hey, I let them arrest me, stop being evil, let's go home?"

"It worked when I was rescuing Han," he said quietly.

Well, sort of. If you squinted. And ignored the part where he was almost eaten twice.

"Okay," Rikku decided. "You don't get to be vice-president. Even I have better plans than that one."

Luke gave her a rueful smile. "Okay, so it could've used some tweaking. Leia thought I was out of my mind. And Vader took me up to the Death Star and turned me over to the Emperor, so...that could've gone better."

Gee, Luke, ya think?

Rikku closed her eyes and shook her head. "You're ... but that means ... Luke, you're lucky to be alive, do you know that? That's ... crazy."

"Yeah, that occurred to me when they took away my lightsaber," Luke said. "But I had faith in my father. He was just so...conflicted. He wouldn't have let me die."

That's...a hell of a lot of faith.

And he meant every word of it.

Rikku took a deep breath and tried to understand the magnitude of what he was saying.

Finally she just gave him a light squeeze and shook her head. "I'm ... really glad you were right."

"Me too," Luke said softly. "I wasn't sure I was going to be, towards the end. The Emperor was trying to get me angry--to lose control. He pulled out all the stops. It turned out that the Death Star was a trap--the entire fleet flew directly into a fully armed and operational space station that could blow entire ships out of the sky with one shot." His face went pale remembering. "Jedi can feel other beings' emotions--and that kind of fear, that magnitude of death--leaves a mark."

"They ... they killed people, just to hurt you," she breathed. "How do you even ..."

Rikku held on for a long moment before asking, with a note of confusion, "Any emotions? Like, mine, sitting here talking to you, you could just ... pick up what I'm feeling?"

Luke nodded. "I could read thoughts too, but that's rude."

Rikku shivered. "I'm not sure if that'd be a good thing or a bad one. To be able to do that, but then, if you couldn't switch it off ..."

Luke nodded, very serious. "It was one of the first things Master Yoda made me control. I don't mention it often--it has a bit of a stigma around here." He pursed his lips. "I think my father did something he shouldn't have as a student."

"You mean, if I were sitting here, being sad or angry or happy, you'd ... pick that up, or does controlling it mean you wouldn't?" Rikku shook her head. "You mean he kind of ... went looking for information he shouldn't have, in someone's mind? Can you ... do that?"

She shuddered a little, imagining someone pulling secrets out of her mind, using them against her.

"Oh, I always pick up the emotions," Luke said with a small smile. "I just can't tell if you're thinking 'wow, Luke's going around the bend' unless you project it at me."

He was quiet for a long moment, then nodded. "I think it was more that he altered someone's perception of their memories. It's called the Jedi mind trick, and it's only used in very specific circumstances. There were a lot of lectures on that."

Okay, Rikku couldn't resist. She focused for a few seconds on a single very clear thought. Wow, Luke's going around the bend. HI, LUKE!

Luke totally cracked up, then thought back, Hello, Rikku, in a very amused tone.

"Whoa!" Rikku jumped a little, then giggled. "I heard that, in my head! That's so cool!"

She blushed. "Sorry, I totally couldn't resist, uh, you were ..."

Rikku dissolved into giggles again, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry, you're telling me about your dad and all of it and I'm being a dork, I don't mean to ... act like I'm not, you know."

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