Spoilers [OPEN]

[bailedontheempire]

CHARACTERS: Bail Organa and OPEN
LOCATION: Base camp
WARNINGS: Discussion of planetary obliteration?
SUMMARY: Bail remembers that he knows about Alderaan


Bail's often found around the camp helping wherever he can. Today is no exception. Working, trying to help their little community.

And then suddenly he stops. Sits down. As if suddenly hit by something completely overwhelming. Which is even more obvious when the intense emotions send those Tranquility powers into action completely unintended.

It's a whole chunk of memories all coming back at once. One conversation and every time it's come up since. He's remembered that he knows exactly how he will die.

They tested it on Alderaan.

Alderaan is gone.

That face those from the future always made when people realized who he was.

You expect me to be dead.

Comments

[likescats]

Death is walking past when he sees the man stop and sit down. With a terrible expression on his face.

Which is why he walks over to see.

IS SOMETHING WRONG?

[bailedontheempire]

"I just... remembered something I had learned about the future." Technically, nothing was wrong. Not right now. But someday it would be so very wrong.

Not that he would have known. If things had been different. "How I will die."

[likescats]

I SEE.

He pauses for a moment then asks.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT IT?

[bailedontheempire]

Talk to Death about it. What a strange thought. And yet... perhaps it would help. He waves for him to sit, because this is not the sort of information anyone can take standing up. "If I wasn't so certain Leia couldn't lie to me, I'm not sure I would even believe it. It seems too massive to be true."

[likescats]

He will sit down then. Folding the robe before he answers.

YOUR DEATH?

[bailedontheempire]

"It won't just be me." It would be easier to face if it was. Knowing that he'll die and leave so much work to Leia so young doesn't exactly thrill him, but it would be a different matter if it was a simple assassination. That was a possibility he'd always had to consider.

"It's... I'm going to die when our planet is destroyed." Which should be impossible and he knows that.

[likescats]

Death steeples his fingers as he thinks over this.

WHEN YOU SAY DESTROYED, YOU MEAN THE ENTIRETY OF IT?

[bailedontheempire]

"All of it. Reduced to rubble. Millions of lives." Just that fast. And if what they've learned about returning holds true, there was nothing he could do about it, even knowing now.

[likescats]

BUT NOT YOUR DAUGHTER?

[bailedontheempire]

"She... saw it happen." And in some ways that's the worst part. Bad enough for the entire world destroyed. But to force someone to watch? "Her foster sisters were off world as well." Somehow, his girls survived, and that was something. "But Leia. They made her watch."

Alderaanians are not known for anger and vengeance. But if he ever gets his hand on Wilhuff Tarkin.

[likescats]

I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND MINDLESS CRUELTY.

Because really that's all it must be. Even from an emotionally detached perspective forcing someone to watch their world get destroyed only made them want to defeat you more. And they usually tended to win.

[bailedontheempire]

"Neither will I. Leia says a lot of people turned on them after that. They were able to put a stop to the Empire but... could anything be worth a price like that?" For all that it did backfire, it would be wrong to say it was worth it.

[likescats]

THAT WOULD DEPEND ON WHAT YOU PUT DOWN AS THE VALUE OF ONE LIFE. BUT I WOULD CAUTION GOING DOWN SUCH LINES OF THOUGHT. YOU CANNOT PAY FOR ANYTHING WITH LIVES.

[bailedontheempire]

"Yes, of course." That was the Alderaanian way. "But many of the survivors find some small scrap of comfort in the fact that the atrocity turned many people against them."

It wasn't much. But what could be?

[likescats]

I SUPPOSE IT IS A LIVING THING.

He's still not used to this.

WOULD YOU CARE TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PLANET? I HAVE ONLY SEEN MY OWN AND ONE CALLED EARTH. AND THIS ONE I SUPPOSE.

[bailedontheempire]

Yes, of course he will tell you about Alderaan. These stories are the only thing that will keep the world alive. "It's a beautiful planet. We hold nature in high regard, so we build our cities into cliff faces and on stilts to avoid destroying it. A center of art and culture. Music, poetry, everything that could celebrate life and beauty. That's what we treasure."

[likescats]

WERE YOU AN ARTIST AS WELL?

[bailedontheempire]

"My work didn't allow much time to be more than a patron of the arts. But I dabbled in poetry, when I could. And I always saw a certain artistry in cooking." Perhaps he could have entertained more time for such things, had he not had a rebellion to run. But a lot of things would have been different then.

[likescats]

He nods.

I HAVE MET MANY COOKS WHO WOULD AGREE WITH YOU.

Probably most of them really.

[bailedontheempire]

"Anyone not preparing field rations, I imagine." Maybe that was why Jedi were so poor at it. "And when I cook Breha doesn't worry about whether I'm eating or not."

[likescats]

DOES SHE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT NORMALLY?

[bailedontheempire]

"She insists that I work too hard." She is probably right about that one. But there's always so much to be done. Even more than here, somehow.

[likescats]

AND DID YOU?

[bailedontheempire]

"There was always so much to do." That would be a yes. THat would absolutely be a yes. "But I make as much time for her and the girls as I can. It's sleep that tends to get neglected."

He'll sleep when... well.

[likescats]

I SEEM TO RECALL HUMANS NEEDING SLEEP.

[bailedontheempire]

"So I'm told." Usually be Breha. "There are days where I make a strong effort to substitute copious amounts of caf though." Too many days.

[likescats]

WILL SOMEONE NEED TO REMIND YOU OF THAT HERE?

He's really not one to talk on that front as he needs sleep now again.

[bailedontheempire]

"I sleep when I can." He totally gets so busy with everything and neglects sleep with no one to tell him otherwise. THe people he spends the most time with are just as bad.

[ryuuzaki]

L and Bail have worked together so much for so long that it's not often difficult to guess where the Senator is. Admittedly, that's because he isn't often far, but also because his tendency to be helpful is predictable: he goes where he's needed.

Something has come up in the current programming routine which requires discussion, and Bail is not currently at a console in the little shack they've constructed. Tempting as it is to make an executive decision, that might require backtracking in the future, which would be a waste of time -- the efficient thing to do is to go find Bail and talk to him, leaving Darcy, who has already weighed in on the issue, to hold down the fort for a few minutes.

Bail is not in any of the first three places L looks. That's weird. He wonders if his skills are fading... maybe they've all been through a little too much, maybe the amnesia took something. But if that were the case, wouldn't he be having trouble with more than this? He checks into medical to no avail, no injured Organas seen at any point in the recent past. Eventually, after a few more minutes, he spots his quarry sitting on a rock looking like someone has died.

L makes his way over, hunched and frowning, stopping when he's a few feet away.

"Something's happened?"

[bailedontheempire]

"Sorry." He copes with everything through work. So it shouldn't be surprising that he apologizes for stepping away to process this.

Where to even begin, on something that shouldn't even be possible. Even though he remembers Leia explaining it, it still doesn't seem like it should be. "I remembered something Leia told me about the future. It's... difficult to process."

Even just knowing the hour and manner of his death would have been difficult. But this? This went so far beyond that.

[ryuuzaki]

He shrugs. "Nothing to apologize for."

Bail isn't the first person to get bad news about the future, although in L's case, it had been implications, nothing concrete or specific. Still, it had rattled him more than he'd assumed would be possible.

Moving closer to the rock, he crouches down near it.

"What is it?"

[bailedontheempire]

"How I die." He grimaces. It's not that simple. If it was just him dying, it would be simpler. It's not like no one has ever tried to assassinate him before. He's had to make plans for what would happen if one succeeded.

"Or rather, how our entire world dies." That was the sticking point.

[ryuuzaki]

'Someone', he remembers thinking. Not just someone, as it turns out.

He remembers that day months ago, the day with the newspaper in his locker. Should he be grateful that it came flooding back all of a piece, along with his identity, not some new sharp thing to find among his memories later? He'd known who he was, and where, and why, and he'd strongly suspected that if he went home, he would very probably die.

Bail keeps learning it over and over. Even in terms of their current situation, that's unkind.

L responds with a slow, sober nod -- understanding without being excessively sympathetic. "I can't say I blame you." For being distracted, for taking time: they're only human, after all. "How much of it can you remember?"

[bailedontheempire]

"I don't think I ever knew extensive detail. She told me that Alderaan was destroyed as soon as she arrived. She was... so shaken, to see me. I don't think she could have kept it from me." Maybe from someone else. But he would have known. Those were his own tricks that she relied on.

"The Empire built... will build" It was hard, when you were dealing with timelines like these. "A weapon. That could destroy a planet."

And that was the hard part. His own death he's prepared for for so long. But not Alderaan. Never Alderaan. "They made her watch."

[toomuchtenacity]

Chell has been keeping an eye on him ever since she got her own memories back. Especially her memories of him teaching her to cook and her being good friends with his daughter. So when he looks well, devastated she'll take a seat next to him.

After a moment she'll speak up.

"Bad memories?"

[bailedontheempire]

"Of a sort." Time was a complicated thing. Especially here, where there was never any telling when someone might arrive from. Usually a difficult moment, in his experience. "Something Leia told me about the future."

[toomuchtenacity]

She nods.

"Just a second."

And she'll get up and leave for a minute or two, coming back with a cup of water to pass to him.

"Here."

Wrong dead rebel

[bailedontheempire]

"Thank you." He gives a tight smile before taking a sip. "I didn't even realize I needed this."

Tea would have been better, but they hadn't found anything to brew it with yet. And given what was on his mind, lack of proper tea was the least of his worries.

you do have a type

[toomuchtenacity]

She nods.

"It helps."

Water, actual water to her was always something of a wonder after being trapped without needing it in Aperture for so long.

"I can leave if you want, but if you want some company I don't mind staying around."

Everyone dealt with things in their own way. She had pretty much vanished for a few days after realizing that she would not be getting her memories from before Aperture back, but she knew not everyone was like that.

Re: you do have a type

[bailedontheempire]

"I would prefer not to be alone right now." Something about the scale. If he was alone, he would dwell on it. And the human mind couldn't process something of that magnitude. It could so easily become a statistic. And Alderaan was so much more than that.

"There had always been something, when I spoke to people from that time. When Leia told me how I die... it all made sense." He was actually quite impressed that Solo had managed to keep it to himself.

[toomuchtenacity]

"I'll stay then."

She sits down next to him to listen better.

[bailedontheempire]

"It's still hard to believe. An entire world shouldn't just be lost like that." But it happens. No one would lie about that. No one could lie about that. They'd pick something even remotely plausible.

And this is why they fight.

[toomuchtenacity]

"It sounds impossible. But lots of things do then happen."

Mostly involving science.

"Probably a scientist was involved."

[bailedontheempire]

"They would have needed a scientist to design the station. These things don't just come into being on their own." Which was... something, he supposed. It was bad enough that people were going around deliberately creating them.

[toomuchtenacity]

"No they need people without morals to make them first."

She shakes her head.

"I'm....sorry you remember."

[bailedontheempire]

"People without morals go far under Palpatine." He just hadn't realized one might go this far. It backfired spectacularly, but what did that matter to Alderaan?