Room 317 [after workshops]

[tatooine_doofus]

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

Comments

[the_merriest]

Rikku was bouncing through the hallways singing to herself and being even more hyper than usual. Which was saying something.

She noticed Luke's door cracked open and knocked on it, which was probably stupid in retrospect, but nobody ever accused her of having sense. Knocking made the door swing in a little, and Rikku waved. "Hi! Luke! Whoa, flying turtle! That's awesome!"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"It's kind of practice," Luke said as Yoda wondered if peeing for distance would get the humiliation to stop. "Though Yoda never made me use turtles. He preferred rocks and Artoo."

Still in the closet, Artoo blew a derisive raspberry.

[the_merriest]

Rikku looked between him and the turtle. "Whoa. So, like, you're doing it? That's so cool! I thought maybe he could fly. Rory's got a puppy that can. Uh, at least, she did when we were toddlers? Maybe he's normally not like that, either."

"Can you, uh, how are you ..." She stopped short at the raspberry. "Did you lock up your droid?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it's me," Luke said with a shy smile, dropping Yoda back into his tank, where he immediately scurried behind a rock and plotted revenge. "Kind of a Jedi thing?"

He rolled his eyes towards the closet. "And Artoo's hiding from my sister. Who left yesterday," he said pointedly towards the door.

[the_merriest]

Rikku grinned. "That's awesome! I didn't know people could do that! And hey, your sister! Do you get to see her a lot? That's great!"

She looked over at the closet and giggled. "Uh, they don't get along?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"She was a little, um, yell-y before she arrived. Artoo decided hiding was a rational response." Luke rolled his eyes. "It's not he was keeping a secret from her or anything."

Artoo went strangely quiet. Luke didn't notice.

[the_merriest]

"You were keeping secrets?" Rikku looked at him curiously. "Are you okay? I mean, she's not ticked any more or anything, right? I hate it when Pops gets all yell-y. But that's kinda why I don't tell him things, so it's a big vicious cycle thing. You know?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"She's still upset, I think," Luke said quietly, "but not at me. It's a long, complicated mess of a family thing."

[the_merriest]

"Oh." Rikku stopped, considering. "I'm sorry your family's messy. Is it 'cause you didn't know about them? You've got your clan now, that's good, but it must be kinda hard finding them late."

She shrugged a little. "My cousin Yunie had to lie to her friends about being half-Al Bhed, 'cause people are mean to us. Maybe family's always kinda weird."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke looked at Rikku for a long time, clearly thinking something over, then reached into the Force and closed the door. "We probably set a new standard for dysfunctional," he said, looking very serious. "Remember our conversations about 'save the world, lose everyone?' I was giving you the kinda light version of how it played out."

[the_merriest]

Rikku sat down on the nearest chair, giving Luke a concerned look. "I didn't mean to ... you don't have to ... I don't want to pry, you know? But, uh, are you okay? 'Cause if you're not, that's ..."

She shrugged. "I know we both kinda lost a lot of people. That was just the light version? Whoa."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"I told you that the Death Star killed Alderaan, right? And that was Leia's home planet?" Luke asked. He chewed on his lower lip. "And that Darth Vader was there when it happened?"

[the_merriest]

"Her whole planet!? And Leia's your sister, right?" She shook her head. "My home's gone, but that's just a city. That's ... is she okay!?"

She shivered. "That name sounds really familiar, and I don't know why. The Darth one. Maybe you did tell me and I just forgot."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Let me start from the beginning, then," Luke said with a little sigh. "My uncle bought Artoo and his counterpart, C-3P0, to help us with our moisture farm on Tatooine. But Artoo said he was the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi and ran away into the desert to find him." He ran a hand through his hair. "I knew him as Ben Kenobi. Turned out he was one of the last surviving Jedi Knights--the Emperor and his top minion Darth Vader--who taught Ethics here last year--and he'd been camped out in exile on Tatooine because he was watching out for me while I grew up. He and my father had been best friends."

He took a breath. "Following along so far?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku considered for a long moment, then nodded. "I think so. The Jedi, that's like you and your dad, right? The religion-that's-not-a-religion Force thing. And your dad's friend was trying to watch out for you, while you grew up. That's ... I know someone who did that, for his friends, even though he had to stay around after he was dead." She smiled a bit faintly, then shook her head again. "Okay. I think I'm following. Wait, the Ethics teacher ... he was bad? Like, evil, I mean? That's ... kinda scary."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke nodded. "Exactly. Ben was watching over me because my father wasn't around any more--that's why my aunt and uncle raised me." He made a face. "Not that I knew that then--my uncle wouldn't let him near the farm and refused to say anything about my father, the Jedi, the Force or what life had been like before the Empire. He told me that my father had been a freighter pilot during the Clone Wars." He snorted. "Can you imagine him flying freight?"

Ignoring talking about Vader? The heck you say.

[the_merriest]

Rikku hugged her knees, pulling her feet up onto the chair with her. "That's ... that happened a lot, where I'm from. Your parents weren't around too long, so someone else raised you. Your uncle ... did he not get along with your dad?"

"I haven't seen him fly. I know he teaches it, here. He says you're a heckuva pilot. He beams about it." She smiled up at him. "I'm guessing freight's kinda not the same thing, huh?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"I don't think they knew each other very well at all. From what I've pieced together since I've been here, it was more a step-sibling? Maybe?"

He grinned. "I'm not as good as he is," he said bashfully. "The way he flies--it's like dancing. He does it effortlessly and doesn't realize that what he does is impossible for the rest of us. Having him flying freight--these ugly, slow, hunks of junk -- it's an insult to pilots."

[the_merriest]

Rikku shook her head. "Whoa. So, uh, why would he be all upset and lie about him, then, if they barely knew each other? That's kinda weird."

She laughed. "Man, I want to see him fly sometime, then. I should totally take his class and then show off to Pops, give him a heart attack! And you know? If you're his son, you've probably got the same moves and you don't even know it.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"He knew my father had been Jedi," Luke said softly. "And the Emperor--specifically, Vader--we killing all of the Jedi. I think he was hoping that if he never mentioned them, I'd never hear about them. He was protecting me. I didn't see it like that then."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded slowly. "It's hard, I guess. I mean. They had to be worried about you, if the Jedi were being killed off. And you're a Jedi, you said, so that's dangerous. Maybe they were hiding you."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"They were definitely hiding me."

With his father's last name. On his father's home planet. Way to be passive-aggressive, Obi-Wan.

He shrugged. "So I followed Artoo and Threepio, we ran into Ben and Artoo ran this tape from Leia begging for help. She was on board the Death Star and had included the schematics of how to make the thing explode in Artoo. We had to get them to her father on Alderaan." He blew out a breath. "Of course, the Empire was tracking the droids, too. Back home. When I arrived, the farm was on fire and everyone was dead."

[the_merriest]

"Leia, your sister," Rikku nodded. "Is that how you found out about her?"

And then she heard the rest of it and flinched. Sand dunes, lit up by your home in flames ... she knew only too well what he must have felt right then.

After a few moments, she got up, went over to Luke, and sat down next to him, placing one arm tentatively around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Y-your aunt, and uncle?"

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke stared out at nothing. "It was just the start," he said hollowly. "But I didn't exactly have a reason to stick around. Ben said if I'd been home, I'd have died too." It was clear that wasn't much of a comfort to him.

"So we went to find a ship to Alderaan, but by the time we got there, the entire planet had been destroyed by the Empire in an effort to get Leia to talk." His mouth thinned. "It didn't work--of course it wouldn't work-so they slotted her for execution."

[the_merriest]

Rikku closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Luke, they ... m-my home is gone, too. They were looking for Yunie and they b-burned it to the ground. I got there just in time to see. Most of us ..."

She shook her head. "I keep feeling like it's my fault or I should apologize to all the people, but ... it's not your fault they're gone, any more than it's their fault they are. You're here. You have to make that mean something. Yeah?"

She took a deep breath. "They ... her whole planet?! You can't ... oh. They ... they were in power, and they can do ... anything they want. Oh, Luke." She felt heartsick. "Is she ... how do you even ..."