eluvio | [video;] un: gen.skywalker

First off, whoever built these buckets of bolts in the hangar bay need to be let go. This is what happens when you let factories churn out garbage in large numbers: who's quality checking?

[He is. He's been here all of a few days, and he's already sequestered in the hangar, lamenting (loudly) over the sad state of automated affairs. This is where the video starts: he has the communicator propped up a short distance away as he's digging into the mechanics of one of the robots that had glitched out and come to a jerking halt with a wrench still clenched in its hand.

He mutters something about matrices before finally looking back up. This isn't the real point behind the message, regardless of how distracted he currently seems.]

Sad state of mechanical affairs aside, I have a question. [He sounds suddenly hesitant, as if he honestly doesn't want to ask it at all. He even rolls his shoulders back uncomfortably, before taking a long, deliberate breath.] I'm looking for a sparring partner. Swordsmanship proficiency if I can find it.

[Hoping against hope, but he doesn't sound too hopeful at all. As far as he knows, those who can really challenge him in this area are all back home, and neither side of that equation has a way to get back to the other... ~~yet~~.]

Might as well make the most of being stuck out here, anyway.

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[ Oh boy. His father doesn't even know about the Empire? But it's been around since... well, basically since he was born, right? Almost to the day, honestly. Which is kind of strange, but he's never really thought about that. His frown deepens. ]

Yeah, the Empire. It replaced the Old Republic around the same time I was born, apparently. The Emperor dissolved the senate a few years ago and... well.

[ Luke blows out a breath. ]

They haven't been good for anyone outside the Core and it hasn't even been that great for people in the Core. They built a space station called the Death Star to kill planets. They enslave people. They hurt people and I - I'm part of the Rebellion.

[ His eyes light up and his body language is right back into excitement and enthusiasm. ]

We're fighting them - and we don't always win, but we're bringing hope back to the galaxy! And I'm a Jedi. Just like you were before me.

[ OK, technically he's still in training, but that counts. ]

[In order to kill planets. Such a thing seems not only insurmountable, but utterly horrifying. Of all the terrible things he's seen done at the hands of the enemy he's still fighting: exploitation, subjugation, usurpation, and far, far too much death, he can barely fathom the idea beyond words. The shock sits clear on his face as all expressions seem to, as he works through the rest of the explanation he'd asked for but hadn't imagined like this at all.]

So we lost. [How else do you end up with an Empire? With him gone? With Padmé? That would explain the need to hide, wouldn't it? He couldn't blame Obi-Wan in that condition, even if he still loathes the idea of it. He lets out a breath and shakes his head. Even if he is right--if it is true--it still isn't the point, is it?]

I'm sorry, this is... [a lot. Never mind that.] Is Obi-Wan training you well, then?

[It's a reasonable assumption, if the man's passing down weaponry like an heirloom. Obi-Wan has a sentimental bone in him after all. ~~He'll never hear the end of it.~~]

Lost...? You mean the Clone Wars?

[ Luke's brow furrows for a moment. That doesn't sound right. Not that he's a huge student of history. ]

The Republic... won, I think, but the Emperor took power almost immediately afterward. I don't know that much about it. Sorry...

[ He's apologetic, unsure of how to explain to his dead father how this all works. What happened, when Luke isn't even sure he totally understands himself. Of course, then his father -- Anakin -- mentions Obi-Wan and his expression settles again, pained. ]

He... did what he could. But he was killed before we could get very far. He was murdered by Darth Vader. The... same man who killed you.

[ This hurts, but he can't know how much this will hurt Anakin. ]

I found Master Yoda, instead.

[Stuck out on the edge of the known galaxy like he has been, it's not as if Anakin should expect endless explanation. He knows how quiet it is out there, how a small bit of news feels like something breaking and at least twice as important as it is, and politics of the Core have always been too far removed from Hutt Space (except when the Republic wants him to barter and play nice with slavers for Hyperspace lanes...he can only hope something in that has evened out in the last--what--20 or so years?

Somehow he heavily doubts it.

The name doesn't register. He's heard "Darth" before. He knows all too well what that half of the confession entails. But the moniker attached is unknown. Dooku's replacement, probably. He frowns. He knows he isn't supposed to want revenge, especially when he knows so little of the context, but the desire burns in his chest regardless.] If I find that Sith scum, they're--

[Pull it in, Skywalker. He doesn't need to see this. Failure compounded on failure. The threat dies just as quickly, with a heavy sigh.]

Let me guess. Yoda was thrilled.

[Anakin doesn't sound too excited in response.]

He, uh, took some convincing.

[ Luke admits and chooses to gloss over his father's anger. He can imagine how he feels. He breathes out and stares down at the little communicator in his hands, trying to figure out what else he can say about his life. How does he explain everything about his life? Anakin wasn't there. He was... dead. ]

But he did train me. Not sure I was the best student, though...

[ And he kind of ran off to fight Darth Vader. Oops. ]

No one is the best student for Yoda, Luke. Trust me.

[He's fairly certain, judging from glances at Council meetings that even Yoda and Master Windu have their differences. For as much as Obi-Wan's criticism can grate, there are small favors in never being left to anyone else on the Council for a significant length of time.

Though it doesn't sound as if the Council matters much anymore, if the Republic is no longer a republic.

Does that mean his relationship is a secret he no longer needs to keep? He's always known there would come a point where neither he nor Padmé could continue to hide it, and Luke's existence seems to make its denial a swiftly moot point.

There's a silver lining in all of that failure. Thin, perhaps, and not what he'd ever expected. But if he doesn't have to lie anymore...]

I'm surprised he didn't tell you that you were too old.

[ That actually makes Luke laugh. He definitely remembers Yoda spouting on about that. ]

He... did, actually. At least once I figured out he was actually Yoda and tried to convince him to train me. I didn't make the best first impression.

[ It was an interesting encounter, but a very long story. ]

Ben convinced him, though. Or... Ben's ghost, I guess.

[ Force ghosts are weird, OK? ]

Ben's...ghost?

[They've moved past the part where Anakin and near everyone dear to him is dead. He's choosing to ignore most of it, lest he gets caught up in trying to prevent something he can't when he's here alone with no way to effect change.

But that, he can't ignore. Force ghosts are weird. Because they shouldn't exist.]

That's not--that's possible?

...it isn't?

[ Luke thought that was... basically just the Force being the Force. Luke frowns, brow furrowed. ]

But... Yoda told me that we're luminous beings. I mean, I almost didn't believe it myself when Ben talked to me again, but he was there. He spoke to me. He spoke to Yoda.

Not that I've ever been taught.

[He doesn't doubt it--he doesn't have a reason. In fact, quite the opposite. This only reaffirms an assumption that the Order is holding back. That they've always been holding back.]

I don't--I don't doubt you. This is just...new.

["New." As if this isn't just one more secret in a life he apparently never gets to finish living.]

[video;] un: gen.skywalker

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