0.1 | video.

[t65]

Who: Luke Skywalker
Broadcast: Fleetwide (Accidental)
Action: Marsiva
When: 2/16

[Luke Skywalker is sitting pensively in front of one of the wide windows on the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck. Rather than staring out into the darkness of space, he's bent over a tiny silver disk in his hands. It's open, revealing a series of wires, something mechanical and complex. Lacking any proper tools of his own, Luke is replying it with careful fingers and, occasionally, teeth.]

[Lacking any proper supplies, he's forced to improvise. At one point, he removes the glove on his right hand. There's a burn over the back, but the flesh cracks open to reveal more wires and mechanistry. Luke pulls some wires out, breaks them and inserts them into the disk. It seems to cause some of the fingers on his hand to twitch irregularly, but the disk is repaired. He presses a button, and a little blue holograph of a smiling couple appears.]

[He stares at it for a little while.]

[Finally, Luke notices that he's being recorded.] Hello, there. How long have you been on, hm? [He reaches over and turns off the feed.]

[Actually wait. A second later, Luke turns the feed back on.] I suppose if all of this is being recorded, I ought to introduce myself. I'm Luke Skywalker. It's a pleasure to meet you. [His smile kind of... twitches.] All of you.

Comments

[resnipstance]

[This is where she really gets into it.]

Instead, he piloted the Star Destroyer all by himself straight into the enemy general's command ship. Boom! Their command ship exploded! Anakin had jumped out in an escape pod a few minutes beforehand, at the same time the rest of the fleet and I jumped out of hyperspace and back into the blockade to back him up, so he wasn't just a sitting duck in his escape pod.

With their commander out of the picture, the Separatist forces were in total disarray. The rest was an easy victory.

[t65]

[Luke listens intently, and he's left sort of... stunned. The idea that Darth Vader would do such a thing, much less his father, all for the sake of other people... his face breaks out into a beatific smile.]

[There was always good in him.]

You must be very proud to have served with him.

1/2 again sob

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka smiles brightly and opens her mouth to say that she is, but then her breath catches audibly in her throat and dies.]

[resnipstance]

[The Clone Wars weren't real-- it reverberates around in her head all of a sudden, reminding her of the horrible truth she found out not so many weeks ago. She fought for nothing. Her friends died for nothing. The whole thing was orchestrated by the Sith.

A shadow falls over her face.]

I-- I was.

[It's a half-truth. It doesn't have the same heart to it that Ahsoka had just a second ago, but her thoughts are too heavy to blurt out to someone who's only just met her.]

[t65]

[Ah, there it is. He'd been expecting to hit this wall eventually, and he's ready for it. His expression turns instantly sympathetic, focused entirely on her. He asks in the gentlest voice he can manage:]

What happened?

[Show us on the doll where he made you an amputee.]

[resnipstance]

Oh, um. [Ahsoka shakes her head quickly, wanting to head off any misunderstandings.] It's nothing to do with Anakin. Don't worry. I'm still-- I'm proud to have been his padawan. No matter what happens, that will never change.

[Said with the conviction of someone who believes it 100%. She isn't lying.]

But the Clone Wars... they were wrong. We we wrong. They never should have happened.

[t65]

I don't know much about the Clone Wars, or why they started. Maybe that information was suppressed, or my aunt and uncle just didn't think a farmer would need to know. [He says it gently, matter-of-factly.]

But the fact that you know it was wrong and regret it means you can do better. It may be a cold comfort, but don't lose heart. It always hurts to grow.

[Yeah, great, just comfort the person you barely know with deeply personal advice. Awesome plan.]

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka shakes her head again, but it's a little frustrated this time.]

No, it's-- I mean, I appreciate what you're saying, but-- you don't understand.

The Clone Wars shouldn't have happened because the whole thing was orchestrated from beginning to end. The Sith created the war to spread chaos and strife, to drain resources from the whole galaxy and leave it vulnerable. To-- to create a massive clone army that could be genetically engineered to obey orders and turn on the Jedi on command. To create a war that would drag on for so long that it would slowly erode the people's faith in the Jedi so that when the time came to eliminate them they encountered no resistance!

We're Jedi, we should have seen it coming! But no one did! Millions of people died for nothing, because we were all too preoccupied with beating the fabricated enemy that we didn't see the real one. We failed the Republic. And now it's our fault that your generation has grown up under a Sith Empire.

[t65]

[Luke's expression goes slowly, softly, from gentle observation to the closest it ever gets to anger outright. There's some flicker of his father in his eyes when he speaks with an almost harsh voice,] It's not your fault, it's Palpatine's.

[His calm returns quickly, though. It always does, like the rising tide.] You shouldn't blame yourself when you had no chance of knowing. If the simple fact of being a Jedi was enough to make someone all-knowing and untouchable, there wouldn't be Sith.

1/?

[resnipstance]

Chancellor Palpatine? What does he have to do with...

2/?

[resnipstance]

... any ... thing ...

[You can almost see the gears ticking into place in her head as her eyes widen slowly.

Somehow all their information always gets leaked to the enemy. But they could never find any evidence of a spy. But who has access to all the movements of the Jedi? Who would be best poised to take over as Emperor after the war was over without it seeming unnatural in the slightest? Who has the power and the money to see to it that the clones have chips in their head?]

done

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka's expression turns from shock to hard anger as she realises something else.

Who likely pressured the Council to have her expelled from the Order and have her tried as a civilian?]

That--! [she calls him a string of not very nice words in Huttese.]

[t65]

[And so Luke learns another thing about his father: he apparently took the time to teach his padawan Huttese swears. His eyebrows slowly raise, and he mutters,] I don't think his mother has anything to do with it.

[Anyway.] He really used to call himself Chancellor?

[resnipstance]

[To be fair to Anakin, he probably didn't do it on purpose.]

That's right. He's the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Ugh! I can't believe this! He always seemed so-- so nice!

[At least until he was presiding over her trial, anyway.]

What a piece of work.

[t65]

Him? Nice? He- he- [Luke doesn't even know where to begin with that one.] He calls himself the Emperor. He killed m- countless people.

1/2

[resnipstance]

Yeah. I know that now.

But-- in my time, he just seems like this harmless old grandfather! No wonder he deceived us all. Even Anakin!

[resnipstance]

Oh--! Anakin...

He'll be so heartbroken! He's closer to the Chancellor than anyone...

[t65]

[Luke kind of just. Sags a little. His expression grows melancholy.] ...He is. [Of course he is.]

[A sigh.] I'm sorry, Ahsoka. This is hardly a light subject for our first conversation, and I know almost nothing about you.

[You are, after all, the important one.]

[resnipstance]

... Well, what do you want to know?

[t65]

[He brightens right up.] Oh, anything, really. When did you begin training with my father? Where did you get your lightsaber? What was training like?

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka can't help it-- she laughs. He's so inquisitive.]

Wow. Well-- I became Anakin's padawan three years ago. So, fourteen.

My lightsabers I made on Ilum. Why, how did you get yours?

As for training... I couldn't ask for a better master. He's tough, sometimes, but fair. He's not perfect, of course. Nobody is. And he was knighted only a few months before I became his padawan. That's pretty rare. War-time exception. But even though I think he felt a bit out of his depth, it was nice in a way. To know that the person you look up to is human too, and you're both kind of figuring out what to do together. And he's the sort of person that-- even if you're in a bad situation, or you're struggling with something... he never gives up on you. No matter what.

[t65]

Fourteen seems... so young. But I heard children started training even younger. [He finds it kind of baffling tbh.]

Oh, you made yours? I had thought they were passed down. My father had wanted me to have his...

[But anyway, it's #anakintime.] He sounds like a wonderful teacher. I never would have guessed... but I'm glad. I'm glad he has so much faith in you and others, especially. It's something I strive for, myself.

[resnipstance]

Not really. I mean, I was three when I was found and brought to the Temple, and that's about the cut-off point.

[Ahsoka nods at Luke's question.] That's right. It's kind of a ritual-- Obi-Wan didn't take you to Ilum? I guess if Anakin wanted you to have his, that makes sense, but...

[Oh. Ahsoka freezes for a microsecond. That sentence brings forth a mental image of Obi-Wan holding a dying Anakin as he tells Obi-Wan to give his lightsaber to his son. She shakes her head firmly, trying to clear it. She's been watching too many soap operas here. That's not going to happen. She looks back at Luke, trying to recover.]

... Good. You remind me of him, too. I know he's a bit shaken up at the moment, but-- give it some time. He'll definitely be proud.

[t65]

I'd heard. What happens when- when someone older than three is sensitive to the Force?

No, he... didn't have time. [He's only somber for a moment, though.] What is Ilum like?

I do? [starsineyes.gif] Well- thank you. I hope he's alright...? He seemed... in a hurry, when we spoke.

[resnipstance]

Usually? Not much. The Order won't take them in. And without any training, a person could go all their life being Force-sensitive and never know it. [Much like Luke spent the first two decades of his life.]

["He didn't have time," is kind of an ominous statement, but Ahsoka doesn't want to dwell on that. She concentrates on the question Luke asked, instead.] Ilum? ... Cold, for the most part. Mostly snow and ice. But it's home to a kyber crystal cavern, so... [So they go there. She shrugs.]

As for Anakin... he'll come around. He's had a lot on his plate lately. ... We all have.