x1 | video.

[t65]

[Hey, it's Luke Skywalker, sitting at his pastel desk. There's plenty of junk littered on it, mostly scraps of droid parts and tools, but the inquisitive observer will notice a few mystery vials of colorful chemicals, and a hypo of fast-penta scattered among the rubble.]

I noticed there aren't any service droids on the ship-- when I mentioned that to the captains, they said I should... make some? [Luke has a distinct look of 'what have I gotten myself into' on his face.] We definitely need some mouse droids and basic repair droids-- we already have good engineers, but this would help them out in a pinch. Do you think we need gonk droids?

[Well? Do you?]

Have you noticed any droids we could use? A 1B prototype couldn't hurt...

[That's right, request a droid, Luke might be able to make it for you eventually. He's serious. Though they probably won't have much in the way of lively personalities, who doesn't want a robot?]

Oh- and Doctor Yewll? Mr Banner? Ed? I know we discussed some kind of prosthetic... if I'm going to be making droids, I might need that sooner than later. [He kind of cringe smiles before cutting the feed.]

Comments

[ex_forcechoke292]

[He notes how strained this is--how can he not, when he seems to always be the one killing the mood in the room? But that won't stop him from trying. Not unless (until?) Luke pushes him away.

He leaves the subject alone, at least. He's not sure how else he can leave it when he barely understands it himself.]

You never did get back around to the droids--is that something you're familiar with?

[t65]

I don't know- [How did he end up on the defensive? Oh, right, he's talking to Darth Vader.] I mean, yes. Owen always had me get them ready for the harvest. I was better with them than him... or most of the other kids near Anchorhead.

[It occurs to like that Anakin might not even know Owen-- he'd always thought they were siblings, but could Owen's brother really be Darth Vader? Anakin might not even know what he's talking about. Luke would ask, but he suddenly doesn't want to. It seems like every question leads down some dark and complex corridor.]

Anchorhead is a settlement near my aunt and uncle's farm. We're from an outer rim world. [He finds himself strangely hesitant to give the name.]

[ex_forcechoke292]

[Owen. There again. Little by little, the twins' origin stories are driven into sharper focus, but as far as Anakin's concerned, it's too slow, and there's little relief in any of it.

Leia's adoptive parents are good people; he knows his step brother to be the same, and in that, he supposes, it could be worse? But what in the hells happened to him? To Padmé, if nothing else?

It sharpens the picture by fractions and answers absolutely nothing all at once.

And to make it worse, he can't help but laugh by the time Luke is done.]

I'm familiar with Tatooine, Luke.

[If only the familiarity stopped there. Though how Luke is raised by Owen Lars, carries his own surname, and doesn't think of this is yet another question added to the litany of others Anakin could likely spend the next eternity asking.

He feels like he's missed everything. And from the sound of it, may still.]

[t65]

[Is that good or bad? Luke isn't sure. Should he feel relieved his father is a man closer to who he imagined, or more petrified? Angry that he wasn't sure, that this could be another one of Ben's half-truths? His lies? At least when Owen and Beru wanted to keep something back from him, they'd just tell him, they'd just say they didn't want to talk about it, or they didn't know, and they'd walk away. They never lied outright-]

[...Did they?]

[Suddenly, this is the most important thing in the galaxy; Luke blurts out:] Were you really his brother?

[ex_forcechoke292]

["Were you really his brother?" Anakin isn't even sure what to make of the doubt in that. Where does the question of "really" even come from? An assumption of their stark differences, or something else?

It isn't an easy question to answer, and there's a pain in it he can't quite suppress when the memory of his mother rises, unbidden, as it always does. Stern and soft in equal measure, and as much as he wants to remember her as she was, all he can see is the hurt. The end.

Gone, and yet she seems to inform everything. Warning him. Haunting him.

He tries to smile anyway.]

That depends on what you mean by "really." But step-brother, yes.

[What answer is it that sends him running this time?]

[t65]

[Luke's expression settles into one of relief. They didn't lie. Owen never mentioned his mother, or having a stepmother, but Owen didn't mention plenty of things. He never lied, though.]

[...Did he know Anakin was a Jedi? That he became Vader? If he did, that was different; it was never information he desperately needed at a critical time. Owen and Beru would have told him if... if they'd gotten the chance.]

[It doesn't occur to him that his father might be lying.]

Thank you. I- I wasn't sure... of a lot of things, lately.

[ex_forcechoke292]

What do you mean?

[It could, honestly, be the result of a lot of things. The Moira as a whole--which often leaves him too with more questions and answers, something back home, something to do with Owen specifically, or something...else.

All Anakin knows is that something here is off. The connection between them, already distant for all of their relative proximity, is constantly tense, wary, and sometimes downright fearful. But it's elusive too, tenuous and unsure, like that connection really has yet to solidify itself into anything at all.

He can't push and be the reason that shatters before it's even formed, but that fear...

It's too recognizable. And that's precisely what worries him.]

[t65]

[Luke shifts nervously on the video feed, avoiding his father's gaze. He often finds it just as intense as the soulless eyes of a metal helm. It doesn't seem to bother Leia, though; maybe it's just him.]

[Staring at his hand, he considers his options. He could say anything to that; his father couldn't argue.]

[But Luke is getting very sick of lies.]

A lot of what I was told... wasn't true. About you, mostly.

[ex_forcechoke292]

From who, Owen? [He doesn't exactly sound too shocked. It's the only assumption he can easily make, and given that Owen had only Shmi to hear about him from...well.

No one knew much of anything when he left, did they? It's not as if she'd ever sent letters, or kept correspondence. His own stepbrother had been a surprise, why wouldn't that work the other way around?]

We met once. [Under awful circumstances that didn't really lend well to "what have you been up to"s.] He's a good man, Luke, I doubt he'd lie.

[At least not intentionally. He can't be that bad at reading people. He knows he isn't.]

[t65]

[Luke, in turn, leaps to his uncle's defense.] No! I know- I know he didn't. It's why I asked. He didn't... tell me things, but it was probably because I didn't know. And I- I always asked questions at bad times. [There's a moment of boyish embarrassment as he bows his head, scratching at the nape of his neck.]

I'm sorry you only met him once. He was a good man- you would have gotten along. [Luke has absolutely no proof of this other than a biased hunch that says people he loves ought to be easy to get along with, and family most of all. He knows, objectively, that Owen was never an easy man to love, but his own experiences as an only child longing for family tell him that brothers should overcome that. He doesn't question it.]

[ex_forcechoke292]

Luke, it's okay. [The sudden defense seems so out of nowhere when he hadn't been especially pressing about it.] I don't blame him for it, it's not like the circumstances were really ours to change.

[Which, he hopes, sounds more wistful than bitter.]

[t65]

Don't I know it. [Luke can certainly sound bitter enough for the both of them. Mentions of Owen have brought the circumstances of his death to the fore-- he wonders how much influence Vader had in that decision. He wonders if Vader knew.]

[After a moment-] You were asking about droids-? [He's trying, for once, though the effort is noticably strained.]