WHO: Luke Skywalker & Leia Organa WHAT: Catch up, first meeting in Starklandia WHERE: COFFEE WHEN: Backdated to Luke's arrival. RATING: Low.
Luke had felt it as soon as he’d arrived, the familiar tingle of other Force users, which was a bit of a relief since this was a place he’d never seen before but then he felt a stronger signature, one that he knew well and smiled. Leia was here and he couldn’t wait to see her. After finding out how to locate her, they’d made arrangements to meet at a place called COFFEE and he was waiting for her, Artoo beside him when she came in.
She looked exactly the same as she had an hour ago which was when he’d last seen her but apparently this was some kind of alternate dimension because she couldn’t be in two places at the same time. There always the possibility of it being a hologram but he’d seen enough of those to know that this was her in the flesh. Getting up, he reached out and gave her a hug. “I’m glad to see you,” he said when they sat down. “I have no idea what the kriff is going on. I saw you an hour ago but it seems like you’ve been here a while.”
Leia held on to Luke more tightly that even she’d expected to, she missed him, she missed Han. She’d also had more than enough time to chide herself for letting them in, becoming a family. Not that she could have predicted this. This place was a weird limbo where the possibility of never again seeing those you cared about most, and in her case, the end of war - were a possibility. But, she otherwise managed to contain how she felt as she took her seat opposite her brother.
“I’ve been here ..at least a month, perhaps a little more.” The Princess shook her head. “Honestly there’s no getting your head around it; what exactly is happening, why ..it does this. How. There are others here from our world, but different times.” Leia felt, and likely sounded every bit as frustrated as she’d been on day one, brows creased. Everyone else seemed to have this cavalier ‘you get used to it’ attitude, thus far Leia had fought that.
“The last thing I remember before I came here ..was Endor. About a month after we’d destroyed the Death Star- I’d recently been on a mission to try to secure Naboo’s support for the New Republic-” She noted, with a look that she hoped would prompt him, wondering how much time was between them now.
“That wasn’t long before I took Shara Bey and raided the Imperial Greenhouse,” he said with a grin. “And I won’t say ‘stole’ the Force trees since they belonged the Order to begin with but yeah, we pretty much stole them. I gave a cutting to her so that she could plant it when they went to their new home.” Luke liked Shara and Kes a great deal, they had fought hard for the Rebellion, leaving their little boy with his grandfather which couldn’t have been easy. He hoped that they had a good life when the war was over.
“Like I said, I had just seen you about an hour before and I went to my quarters and opened the door and I was in the middle of the street with Artoo and I didn’t recognize anything.” he shook his head. “I was so glad to find out that you were here and Ben too. There seems to be a fairly large group of people who know one another, I read some of the network posts, but it got to be a little more than I needed to think about for the moment.” Luke settled back in his chair and looked more closely at his sister. It still surprised him how easily he’d been able to think of her as that once he knew. “I can imagine you aren’t enjoying the whole being stuck in one place thing. I know I won’t be after I get settled. I never wanted to stay in one place for very long. Speaking of which…..where does a person find a place to live? There seem to be a lot of empty buildings but for all I know they could be claimed.
Leia grinned softly. “Hardly stealing.” There’s warmth in her tone as she agrees, not one to think anything taken from the Empire’s hands could be a bad thing. Especially a gift so thoughtful, something they would treasure. “Their son is here, you know? The image of Kes, and a pilot just as skilled as Shara.” That wasn’t the least of it, expression couldn’t help but hint. “Poe Dameron, he’s older than us too.” Her brows arched; as if to dare him to attempt to make any sense of it.
She nodded slowly to his words, his assumptions about those in a bigger group being right. It was just too much to process. “It even brings people back from the dead. This place- or whatever the power attached to it is.” She let out a long sigh. “So. Yes. There’s more than anyone needs to start thinking about.” The little matter of defying of logic and all.
There was a wry sort of smile about her lips now, as Luke’s assumption was entirely correct. “No. Especially not when we’re so close to something beyond just war, and the Empire.” She glanced to the floor, frustrated, but his question kept her focus moving and she shrugged a little. “There’s rooms to stay in here- with the bare basics; but barely worse than Hoth, the Falcon.” Han would have protested that immediately, she thought. “I can show you. Somewhere to sleep. Clothing stores, there’s some food reserves, but they’re growing things here. A lot of people scavenge what they want through the doors that lead to different worlds.” Leia certain Luke would pick up the inherent, somewhat more negative meaning of scavenge. Not that she hadn’t resorted to such, too. “But, like you said, I’m not really interested in getting settled for good-”
“Shouldn’t be hard to find a place then and I’d like to get out of this flight suit, it’s not exactly the most comfortable thing,” whoever brought them here obviously didn’t do wardrobe changes in mid kidnapping. “I don’t have a problem with scavenging. Won’t be the first time. I suppose that would be the best place fo find some kind of computer battery port for Artoo. He’d going to need that eventually. He can stay powered down once we settle which he won’t like but I’d rather have him functional.” Artoo made a noise that sounded very much like a raspberry at him. “He’s got a little bit of an attitude right now. Can’t say that I blame him.” This was defintely way beyond his experience.
“How have the other people been? Are they nice, easy to get along with? A few talked to me on my post and they seemed okay,” Luke had met more people in the last three years than he’d met in his life on Tatooine. Which was to be expected when you lived in a desert. He’d discovered that he wasn’t bad at negotiating when he had to. “Seems like this place is one never ending adventure whether you want it to be or not.”
“I’m sorry you’re stuck here too Artoo-” Leia addressed the little droid directly in a friendly tone, and reached out to give his dome a sort of rub, like one might pat an animal. “I did salvage some parts from a junkyard- I think there’s a battery of some kind, you’ll have to take a look.” It had been when the doors temporarily opened on Tatooine, she took what she could without too much examination. “But, we’ll keep looking if need be.”
Luke asked of those they shared this world with, and she sighed, not finding herself too eager to become “They’re alright.” Leia decided softly, seeming a little indifferent - not so certain of her standing being in a role like this, no connections, a world she knows nothing of, or it’s people, and no other real goal than to find a way home. “They’re nice. Welcoming.” she amended, as if she felt she was doing them a slight disservice. “I think you’ll get along just fine.” She knew how easy it was to warm to him.
Adventure? She nodded. “It does seem it.” She couldn’t help but accept that it wasn’t about to get dull, and there was a lot to learn, to explore this world was inexplicable and unpredictable. “Even so, I’m not certain I want to find out so much about what it’s got to offer. We’ve got to find a way back home, Luke.” Leia thought she never quite held the same level of optimism Luke did. But she did have a good measure of hope, when it came to having a plan at least, and a means to achieve it.
She didn’t really feel the need to give Luke any room to voice his thoughts on that statement, before continuing on.
“Evaan Verlaine was here before you arrived, she crashed here in her x-wing, and ..not so long after I arrived, she vanished. Some think when you vanish, you go home.” It’d hurt to be without her friend again, but she’d hoped that was true. “Anyway, her x-wing was left behind, it’s in pieces- ..but now you’re here.” It might be something that could be repaired?
“There’s an x-wing here?” Luke’s face lit up. “Sure I’ll take a look at it. Maybe some of the things you got will work or maybe we can improvise something but that would be good if we could get it to fly.” There was also the chance that it might not be able to get off this….planet or whatever it was but you neer knew until you tried. “Has anyone tried to leave that you know of? I was just wondering if this place was covered by a force field or a dome or something like that. Something to keep us from leaving. He hoped that vanishing meant you went home, that would be the best thing. “Hopefully she went home, I would imagine that’s what happens.” Unless you had no home to go to but he pushed that thought aside.”
Glad he was on board, almost immediately, Leia nodded. “Exactly. Maybe we can do something- get it working.” At this stage, slim chance or not Leia was willing to take it. “I ..haven’t really asked if anyone’s tried it, but I imagine they have- but, no one’s tried a ship.” She shrugged. “And- I won’t just sit here and accept that ..there’s absolutely nothing to be done.” And they had a lot of important reasons to be back in their galaxy.
“Plus- we might even have a bit of navigational help for Artoo.” She added arching her brows, with a hopeful glance to the droid.
“I hope so.” She looked a little saddened, it’d been nice to have Evaan around. “But- it’s good to see you again, though ..you shouldn’t be here either.” She decided firmly, as if Luke had some sort of say in it - or had come to help, she knew that wasn’t the case.
“I’m sure Artoo will be happy to actually be doing something besides following me around,” Luke laughed. “He’s getting frustrated i think. I agree with you though, there has to be a way out.” He couldn’t imagine being brought into a place and there not being a way out. It might not be easy, it might take time but there was always a way.
And worse accepting there wasn’t a way. Anything, anything at all was worth trying, no matter how slim the hope.
“Understandable, Atroo’s been through as much as we have. He’s just not cut out for a quiet, retiring life yet either.” She ginned, her mood certainly boosted by Luke and the chirpy droid. “I wouldn’t accept anything less.” Leia noted as if to suggest that’s why he’d agreed to help, fear of refusal. Of course, Leia knew it was because he really did feel the same, and most importantly he would support her, that was what mattered.
“Well, I’ll show you the ship when you’re ready- but there’s a lot to take in about this place first- do you want to go take a look around now?”
“Sure, maybe we can find a place for me to stay. Someone said that it was okay to just find an empty spot and move in so we can do that while we look around.” He got up and reached for Leia’s hand to pull her to her feet. “So give me the tour,” he said as they headed for the door.