Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[thespaceopera]

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]

Comments

[imahologram]

[Leia listens with interest, imagining her mother with such close companions. They must have been like sisters, in a way, living so close together for so long. And the thought of Padme using their presence to give herself more freedom...well, Leia can see herself in the story, too.]

I'll bet. [She's heard Luke's stories of Tatooine--it's not exactly the place for the queen of anything, except maybe smugglers.] It must have been quite an experience.

[diplomacme]

It was. [ Thoughtfully: ] I've traveled since I was small, but I never felt so ignorant as I did on Tatooine. I had no idea slavery still existed. It was beyond appalling, but the natives treated it as if it were normal. Those experiences... they were part of the reason I wanted to become a senator.

[imahologram]

[Leia shudders at the mention of slavery, her expression darkening.]

I wish I could say we've wiped it out, but the galaxy can still be an ugly place. [Probably it's best to sidestep personal experience for the moment.] I can see how it would inspire you to act.

[diplomacme]

There will always be darkness in the galaxy-- selfish people thinking only of their own gain, desperate people driven to do anything to survive. I've always thought it my duty to push back against it. As queen, I could only work on behalf of my people. As senator, I can work on behalf of all people.

[ A slight smile. ] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to launch into a speech. I'm sure you know how I feel. [ Bail would've passed it onto Leia, she's sure. ]

[imahologram]

[What a childhood she would have had, raised by this woman: watching in awe of her on the senate floor, listening to her practice speeches, learning about her duty to the people of their galaxy at her side. The lost possibility makes her heart hurt.]

I do. [What she learned from her adoptive mother and father would, she thinks, pass muster with Padme.] I grew up a princess, and that meant I had the responsibility to make the galaxy better for everyone who didn't sleep in a palace. It isn't always easy, but the best work never is.

[diplomacme]

[ A soft smile. ]

You sound like Bail, in the best way.

[imahologram]

Do I? [Leia's chest pangs at the thought of him.] I guess I do. I learned so much from him--and from Breha.

[diplomacme]

You do.

[ Without thinking, she rests a hand over Leia's. ]

It's okay to call her your mother, Leia. You won't upset me. [ She might not be Force-sensitive, but she's noticed Leia's hesitation cropping up whenever she mentions Breha. ]

[imahologram]

[No, is her first reaction. I can't do that to you. Not even for the weight of Padme's hand on her own. It's the kneejerk reaction of a child, an entirely emotional worry that her words will do more to hurt Padme than to help.

But the fact that she loved Breha doesn't change who Padme is to her. Intellectually, she knows that. And surely trying to deny the mother who raised her is an act of disloyalty of its own sort.]

She was my mother. [It's hardly more than a whisper.] She raised me to take her place as the queen of Alderaan. I don't think I'd ever be able to take her place, though--she was a great ruler. [A pause.] As I'm sure you were, as well.

[diplomacme]

[ She can't help it-- her heart twinges a little even though she said it wouldn't upset her. But she doesn't let it show.

Softly: ] I think you underestimate yourself. You have passion and kindness, Leia.

[imahologram]

I do. [It's not conceit--or, at least, she hopes it isn't. It would be worse to put on false modesty.] But she was effortlessly regal. After Alderaan--

[Leia cuts herself off, holding back the stricken look threatening to cross her face. That's a private grief, as far as the people from her past are concerned. She can't ask Padme to bear that knowledge of the future.]

Her death devastated every Alderaanian.

[diplomacme]

(captcha was asking me to do too much math)