oratorical | IC Contact

[Oh. Right. That hasn't come up before now, has it?

Leia glances down at the lightsaber briefly before returning her attention back to Luke.]

I made it here, with help from a friend.

[a friend who knew her in his version of their galaxy, but she hadn't met until their time here.]

You made that?

[ He doesn't mean to sound so surprised... honest. But to think of Leia building a lightsaber, never mind wielding one... it looks like there's never a day that goes by without him learning something new while here. ]

I had a lot of help. At most, I found the outer casing and put it together. The internal parts, I wouldn't have known what to use.

[Because it wasn't her first idea, and she knows full well there's no way she would've been able to build this herself. She wouldn't even know where to start, knowing only what the outside of a lightsaber looked like before arriving here.]

I needed something to defend myself with here.

[ Gently, the stuffed llama makes a quiet sort of noise as Luke squeezes the thing without even really realizing it, too fixated on the lightsaber that Leia has and listening to her reasons for having made one. It causes Luke's blue eyes to look up to Leia, a gentle sort of concern touching him. He knows Leia is more than capable of taking care of herself but to see her with a lightsaber of all things... it's new. ]

I just... don't think of you and lightsabers together... ever.

[ He smiles and wanders into the room a little more, llama still between his hands. ]

Have you had to use it yet?

To be honest, I still don't, either.

[She replies, with a small, almost self-deprecatory sort of smile. Because given the choice, she'd reach for a blaster nine times out of ten. They're something she's more familiar with, something more reliable for her, and something she can use from a distance. But the weapons available here are nothing like blasters from their home, and there's not much here to use to build anything close.]

I've used it when the plants here were growing out of control a few months ago.

[She pauses for a moment, before adding--]

And to scare away a bear.

[ Well, if Leia ever wants his blaster that he came here with, she's more than welcome to have it?

But, he's relieved to hear that she hasn't had to defend herself against another with it, especially with there being other force sensitives here... and their father.

However, plants and bears...? ]

You... scared a bear away... with a lightsaber?

[ He's trying really REALLY HARD not to laugh and it shows with the way his lips slowly curl up. ]

[The galaxy's worst dad is indeed the reason the lightsaber came about, through conversation with Galen Marek and the both of them knowing full well that blasters and anything distanced like that don't seem to have any effect on Vader. Not that her lightsaber skills are anything that would protect her against Anakin; it's the surprise factor she would be counting on. But that reasoning is one she doesn't want to share, to avoid hurting Luke.

Oh, she sees that, Luke. And she raises her eyebrows as if daring him to laugh, but that effect is ruined by her own slowly-growing smile.]

We didn't hurt it, we just chased it away. We had nothing else to scare it off with.

[because how else would you scare a bear off in the woods? In all of her trips in the wilderness, that part never exactly came up before.]

[ We... he can only guess she means Han and the mental image of the two of them scaring a bear away with a lightsaber is... just... he can't hold it in and Luke laughs then to the point of flopping down on the bed, stuffed llama still held between his hands. ]

But, Leia... a bear?

[ He laughs a little more and rolls onto his side before rolling onto his back again, laughter slowly beginning to quiet a little as Luke stares up to the ceiling, gently squeezing the llama between his hands as he does so. ]

I'm sorry I missed that.

[Leia doesn't quite join him in his laughter, but there is a wide smile on her face in spite of her rolling her eyes at how hilarious Luke seems to find all this. She sits down next to him, shoving at his leg with her own. That's what he gets for laughing, okay. It's payback.]

You really shouldn't be. Bears are larger than you'd think. I'd be happy to never see one in person again.

[ Hey, he'll gladly take that sort of payback if it means he can have a couple more chuckles about this. But, after he's calmed himself down some, he turns his head to glance over to Leia, laying there on the bed still. ]

I'll be sure to use my lightsaber if I ever see one.

[ It's said with a smile, clearly meant to tease her before his attention turns back to the llama he still holds and, gently, he squeezes it again. There's a silence that seems to come over him then, something clearly on his mind before he glances to Leia once more and decides to say it. ]

Does he know you have one?

[ He being, well, their father. ]

Edited 2017-12-28 02:01 (UTC)

[Leia tenses at Luke's question, her lips pressed tightly into a thin line as she looks away. She knows who he means without him having to say it outright. There's no one else he'd be talking about after all.]

He's seen it, unfortunately. As for whether he remembers, that's not something I would know.

[It's not as if talking with Anakin is something Leia does regularly, or even wants to do. Part of her wants to hope he's forgotten it exists, if only so she can have some element of surprise on her side, should it ever come down to a conflict like that. And Leia can't say she's sure it wouldn't come to that, after everything Anakin's done in his time here.]

[ The only sort of reply Luke seems to give initially is a quiet hum, gaze drifting back to the stuffed llama held between his hands. Their father- Anakin Skywalker is a topic that he knows is, well, difficult for many to discuss, Leia especially and Luke can't blame her for not wanting to think about the Jedi Knight who eventually becomes Vader. But, for Luke, he considers him his father, someone he's always wanted to know and so... it's difficult for him to not have his thoughts trail off to the (fallen) Jedi Knight.

Looking to Leia, he reaches out then, fingers gently touching at her wrist as a means of comfort, reassurance, perhaps even support. ]

I would never let anything happen to you, Leia. Not while I'm here. I promise.

[Leia can't and won't think of Anakin as her father or anything even remotely resembling family to her. They may be related, but refuses to accept him in any shape or form, or acknowledge any connection there at all.

All Anakin is to her is a hateful ghost that tortured her, destroyed her planet, and nearly killed those close to her, and will continue to haunt her in the future, casting a shadow over everything she's worked to create. Here, between his attacking multiple people, threatening her and Bail, and constantly lapsing into behavior leaning toward the Vader she's met, he has done nothing to differentiate himself from the future he claims to want to avoid. To Leia, there's no difference between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader other than the name he chooses to go by.

She reaches out, taking Luke's hand in hers, a grateful smile, tinted with sadness, on her face.]

I'm glad to hear that, Luke, but I can't ask that of you. I don't want you to choose sides.

[Because she knows Anakin is important to Luke, even if she thinks he's mistaken, and she doesn't want him to feel torn or blame her for anything.]

[ Luke pushes himself up to sit then after Leia speaks, a sort of... determination shining in his eyes as he looks to his sister next to him on the bed. ]

I know you don't but that doesn't mean I'll let anything happen to you, Leia.

[ Because Luke is more than willing to be the one to have things happen to if it really comes down to it and so, he squeezes her hand a little for reassurance, perhaps to show that he means those words. ]

When I was with him at the knighting ceremony... he didn't feel like Vader does, Leia. [ He allows his gaze to drift away, letting his thoughts out rather than keep them in; Leia is an exception to this after all. ] I need to know that what I was feeling was right. That he's Anakin Skywalker and not Vader.

[ Even if some might consider him foolish or chasing ghosts here within this world, he wants to know, he needs to know... he needs to know his father. ]

[Leia shakes her head, the same sad smile still firmly in place. Because she doesn't want to discourage Luke or anything of the sort, but there's still so much he doesn't know. And though he deserves to know, she hesitates to bring it up, purely out of respect for his feelings.]

I just want you to promise me you'll be careful. During the time he's been here...

[She trails off, debating how specific she should be, and what she should even mention. Eventually, she decides being vague is the best option. If Luke wants the details, she'll allow him to ask for it.]

In the past year, he's teetered between extreme behaviors and unpredictability. I was promised multiple times by others that he wouldn't be a danger, but the fact that those promises were made multiple times says more than enough.

[Because after every outburst, after every hint back to behavior she expects from Vader (and thus Anakin), she had been promised he would change. That they would keep an eye on him. That it wouldn't happen again. And yet it had, multiple times.]

[ It's difficult when there's still so much emotional conflict within him, something that Master Yoda had picked up on and even commented on throughout his training. Frustration, his lack of patience, his thinking that he seemingly knew it all and could even do it all with what he already knew... his father being no different despite the dark circumstances surrounding him.

Luke's jaw tightens as he stares off across the room, stuffed llama finally forgotten since he first brought it in here with him. It's not that he doesn't believe Leia or would ever imagine her to lie to him about their father or even her feelings towards him and he would never ask her to change them for his sake.

But it's her words that has Luke look to his sister, hand still holding hers and, carefully, he asks with a soft yet hesitant touch to his eyes. ]

Leia... did he hurt you while he's been here?

[She drops her gaze from him, silent for a moment as she decides what she wants to say here.]

He's threatened to.

[Perhaps not verbally, in so many words, but the effects of his emotions on the environment around them--the ground cracking, the sky darkening, a growing electric storm centered around them--said more than enough about just how far Anakin's anger had grown and how much of an obvious threat he was to her safety. Not that it was her own safety she was particularly concerned about at the moment, and even now, she'd prefer to take the brunt of that anger in place of anyone else she cares for here.]

I refused to tell him who he was to me, and when he found out, he was angry. He hunted me down, threatening to kill my father for, apparently, stealing me and causing me to hate him.

[her grip on Luke's hand tightens as the air around the both of them swirls with hot and cold gusts thanks to Leia's anger and fear about the entire situation. Even this far removed, it's an event still in the forefront of her mind, and something she's not bound to forget or forgive.]

[ Even without having physically harmed Leia, to know that their father has threatened to... threatened to kill Bail who was, in every sense of the word, her father... it has Luke's heart drop for a moment and his gaze drifts away from Leia as those swirls of hot and cold are felt.

It's not that he doesn't believe her, he can feel the way the memories bring an emotional reaction around them. But he can't help but wonder... but question why their father holds such anger, such hatred inside him when neither of those were things that he felt when around him. For a moment, fleeting as it is, he almost has to wonder if it's all in his head with what he's felt when around his father, as if trying to convince himself that Anakin Skywalker and Vader are not one and the same. To be so desperate for his father in his life as Leia has had Bail... ]

Leia, I'm sorry.

[ Perhaps not said as an apology on behalf of Anakin but, for not being here to protect her from that moment. ]

I won't let that happen. No matter what.

[She knows it's hard for Luke to hear, and even though she wants Luke to be fully aware of what Anakin had done here and what he was more than capable of, part of her regrets telling him. Because he has a chance here to meet his father, and as much as she thinks it's a bad idea to have any positive expectations of Anakin Skywalker, she doesn't want to crush his hopes and let her experiences taint his interactions.

She shakes her head, her grip on Luke's hand loosening, but not dropping his hand altogether.]

As I said, I can't ask you to do that, Luke. I don't want to put you in the middle.

[Because it's not fair to Luke to have him torn between two sides like that.]

Master Jinn has promised to help me deal with him whenever there's a problem.

[ There's a glimmer of hope that comes to Luke's eyes when Leia mentions Master Jinn, the Jedi Master that was before their time and yet, with being here, he's become someone that the both of them have seemed to gravitate towards it seems; he's thankful for that.

He nods, knowing that he doesn't even need to say that he plans to talk to his father and that Leia will just know that he's bound to do such a thing. As much as he appreciates Leia not wanting to keep him from his father despite the concerns she more than likely has for his well-being when around the Jedi Knight, he can't not be involved in this with the both of them to some degree and while he's not so sure he can repair anything between his sister and his father, if he can somehow make life easier for the both of them... well.

Carefully, he picks the stuffed llama up from the bed and gives it a gentle squeeze before he holds it out to Leia with a half-hearted smile. ]

I came here to find out what this is and I still haven't figured it out yet, what with you having a lightsaber and all.

[Qui-Gon and Leia have had their rough patches. Many of them. But the both of them had gradually come to understand one another better, and Qui-Gon is now one of the people here she trusts most. Out of all the Jedi here, his views are ones she holds in high regard.

Taking the llama from Luke, Leia looks it over, smiling as she turns it around in her hands. It's a change of subject she's more than glad to have, not wanting to dwell on Anakin and anything at all tangentially related to him.]

You're lucky Han is out right now. I don't think he'd let you live it down if he found out you were sleeping with a stuffed animal.

You're not going to sell me out to him, are you?

[ Luke gives his sister a look that is clearly one telling her to please don't before he reaches for the llama and gives it another squeeze, but this time, a hard one that makes it exclaim don't be scared! which has Luke chuckle a little. ]

And I wasn't sleeping with it. [ Gosh, Leia. ] I found it at the foot of my bed this morning.

[All that look earns Luke is a mischievous smile from Leia in return. She probably won't actually tell Han, but the least she can do as payback for Luke laughing about the bear situation is let him sweat a bit about this.]

I know it's not from me.

[She wouldn't hesitate to admit it if it were from her, but at the same time, it reminds her--]

A few weeks ago, I found a laser pointer on the bedside table when I woke up, and I know for a fact neither Han nor I had one before then.

A laser pointer?

[ Sounds a little dangerous ~~with Han around~~ to have. ]

So is someone going around delivering gifts to people?

[ Isn't that a thing he had seen mentioned that was... over with now? Either way, he drops the little llama to Leia's lap, a bit of a smile on his face as he does so. ]

Do you want him?

[To be fair it's mostly only dangerous when Han is around and awake at some stupid time in the morning. For now.

Leia picks the llama up once more after Luke drops it in her lap. It is cute, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste, regardless of how it came into their possession.]

If you're sure you don't want him, I'd be glad to have it.

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