[Open] This Was Your Choice

[borntorebel]

CHARACTERS: Leia Organa and Various
LOCATION: Lockers, the Gardens, Comms and other places on the ship
WARNINGS: Princesses swearing
SUMMARY: Leia gets some surprises, some good, some bad.
NOTES: Luke's gone, and this is set after the jump.


Lockers - after the jump
Instead of going to hand out the flower crowns as Leia normally did every jump with her dear friend Lúthien, she spent time with her father near his locker, talking. Somehow, talking about home had become harder and easier the more she did it. But the discussion left her feeling more melancholy than interested in trying to be genial and welcoming. Her attitude wasn't helped much by the loss of her twin, a loss that was much more palpable than that of Han Solo so many jumps before.

So, she headed to her own locker, intent on getting the crowns to hand to Lúthien before going for a swim. However, there was something wrong. Behind the dull, ugly jumpsuit that she kept in the back of her locker there was a flash of something metallic. Shoving the icy queasiness down, Leia pushed the jumpsuit to reveal a familiar outfit, replete with the damnable jewelry and the boots on the bottom of her locker. However, before she can shut (slam really) the door, the light reflects from a large glass jar on the shelf where the flowers should be.

And inside the jar is sand. And a tiny, eyeless, gaping-mouthed flesh eating worm. A sarlacc. Just for her.

"WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS FUNNY?"

Gardens
After the lovely surprise in her locker, Leia's footsteps couldn't take her fast enough to the only place on the whole kriffing ship that made her feel steady, the Oxygen Gardens. But instead of heading to the stream near Lúthien and Galadriel's flets, she went to the second floor and sat in a relatively unused corner.

Her mind was a jumble of thoughts about Tatooine, Han, Luke, and him, Jabba the Hutt. The fact that she had killed the disgusting crime lord before she and Luke allowed his pleasure barge to fall into the sarlacc pit wasn't really a comfort at that point. She missed her brother. She missed Han. She missed everyone back home and having that humiliation shoved in her face after two relatively decent jumps (aside from the killer hounds before the jump) was too much.

But before she could fall too far into the pit of self-pity, a strangely familiar string of chirps and whistles caught her attention. She followed the sounds until she spotted a little droid with a blue dome, rocking back and forth as it tried to free itself from the vines of nearby plants. With no effort, Leia smiled and ran over, pulling the vines off before hugging the astromech droid. "Artoo! I'm so glad to see you."

Comms
A few days after finding R2D2 and cleaning him from the debris and making sure he wasn't damaged, Leia decided to bring him down to Comms. First, she wanted to show him off to the people she worked with. Maybe Skye or Darcy would find him interesting (and not take him apart!). And secondly, she was pretty sure that her father could tell her what the parts of Artoo's memory banks she couldn't access were for. Since he'd had possession of the droid as part of the Tantive IV.

Anywhere else
Feel free to spot Leia and R2D2 anywhere on the ship, since the little droid is now attached to the hip with her when she's not sleeping.

Comments

Gardens

[toomuchtenacity]

Chell was working the gardens when she heard....something? So she's going over to investigate. Oh hey it's her friend and....a robot?

"Leia?"

Gardens

[borntorebel]

Leia looked back at the sound of her friend's voice, still hugging the much-missed R2 unit. "Chell, hi." She let her arms drop as she went over to the other woman and pulled her over to face the droid. "This is R2D2, an astromech droid from my world. He...belongs to my brother, Luke, back home."

She turned her attention back the the excited machine. "Artoo, this is my friend Chell."

The unit responds with a few blips and whistles as his top spun a few times.

"I think he said hello."

[toomuchtenacity]

Chell walks over. And nods in greeting to the droid after she greets Leia.

"Hello R2D2." She glances over at Leia. "Is he speaking another language?"

[borntorebel]

Leia blinked at the other woman's question before looking down at the little droid.

"He understands Common and some alien languages, but he mostly speaks binary? That's what you hear." Artoo gives a long, sad whistle. "He's used for interfacing with other machinery. Mostly fighter planes and computer terminals."

[toomuchtenacity]

"...I know binary." Somehow. It was a skill she actually practiced here, even if she didn't remember learning it.

"Haven't heard it spoken before though. Most of the A.I I dealt with spoke English....some Spanish that one time...oh and passive aggressive sarcasm. I think that's its own language."

[mspoots]

Skye was also in the gardens, continuing her search for hidden computer ports or anything else fishy or useful. Her hair was up in the braids that Leia had shown her how to do and she was finding herself with fewer twigs stuck to her person. Also she looked totally badass and that was definitely a priority.

Distantly, she heard sounds that were distinctly computerized and started to slip faster through the bramble with quiet footsteps. It wasn't until she had Leia in view that she realized that she wasn't going to find what she'd expected.

"Holy crap. Is that what I think it is?"

[borntorebel]

Leia looked over her shoulder and smiled at the girl. It seemed her coworker-cum-acquaintance was making good use of the skills Leia'd imparted to her.

"Hello, Skye. Say hi to R2D2. I found him tangled in all this plant life."

[mspoots]

With a wide grin, Skye knelt down as if she was addressing a dog.

"Hey, little dude. I'm Skye and I'm going to make Leia tell me everything that makes you tick."

[borntorebel]

Artoo let out a few distressed sounds and hid behind the princess. Don't let the scary new lady take him apart.

Leia raised an eye at the R2 unit's response. "I actually know very little about what makes him tick. You'd've been better off asking Luke when he was here. Mechanical things aren't my forte, sadly."

Comms

[bailedontheempire]

Bail smiles at the sight of the little droid. Such a common model, but utterly unmistakable. "Hello Leia." And then he pats the droid's dome. "Hello, Artoo."

Of course, if it is Artoo, and he's from Leia's time, well, that was potentially interesting.

[borntorebel]

Leia pats Artoo on the head as well as he beeps, chirps and whistles in response to Bail's greeting.

"I found him in the Gardens a few days ago. He was covered in vines and dirt. I'm not sure if I got it all, but he seems to be okay."

[bailedontheempire]

"He's been through far worse, I assure you." It was a testament to the engineering of astromechs that he even still functioned. And yet he did. And not a single memory wipe in that time.

It really called into question the necessity of the process for anything other than keeping Threepio quiet. "Have you worked out if he's from your time or not?"

[borntorebel]

"Luke said that Artoo got stuck in the swamps of Degobah. I'm sure he has gone through worse. He's a resilient droid and a true friend."

The droid rocks back and forth, swearing about giant snakes and weird green munchkins. It drags a surprised laugh from Leia.

"I'm pretty sure he's from around my time."

locker;

[oversight]

Having spent all of his time post-jump checking on people feels natural, even if the people he's checking on are coming off a little... unnatural. By the time he makes back it around to the lockers, he's dressed but it's clear he hasn't bothered to shower — that can come later — because his hair's spiky and unwieldy and all over the place.

He winces at the sound of Leia's voice, not having any trouble at all guessing she's not happy about something. Poking around the corner, he spies her from the end of the row and decides he ought to check in.

"Leia? You okay?" John asks, stepping closer in the least obtrusive manner possible.

[borntorebel]

Leia turns, eyes hard and jaw already set. She slams the door to her locker, the metal hitting metal ringing out over the sounds of people talking and shuffling out into the halls.

"Not really. Someone thought it would be funny to replace my flower crowns with a jar of sand."

[oversight]

Blake isn't the type to snoop — not unless he's got a damn good reason — but he suspects that when Leia says jar of sand, she really means a very inconvenient jar of sand. Frowning, he approaches her locker and stops a foot or two away, leaned against the lockers with his arms crossed.

"You suspect foul play? Or just... this ship bein' this ship?" he asks because he feels like both options are equally possible around these parts.

[borntorebel]

She likes John and she hopes he doesn't take it the wrong way, but she's very angry at her "gift" and it's hard for her to think past the horrible memories of Tatooine.

"I suspect the jar of sand, complete with sarlacc, is to be the perfect accessory for the...outfit given to me by whomever does this horrible things from time to time." Her hands shake with rage, unable to get the image of Jabba the Hutt's tongue so close to her face out of her mind. "This is hardly the first time I've found something new in my locker."

gardens

[fertilefeet]

Lúthien had missed Leia at the jump, she'd been expecting the other woman to help her hand crowns out but hadn't been able to find her after she'd gotten cleaned up. It was actually a bit worrying and she was afraid that Leia might have disappeared during the jump, leaving her with one less friend she could count on. And on this ship, it was important that she had people to depend on.

The princess had decided that, once she'd settled back in the gardens, she would try contacting Leia over the communicators. If there was one way to quickly find out if she was there, it was that.

The sound of R2D2 drew her attention though, sharp ears catching the chirps and then Leia's voice. On light feet, she ran towards the sounds and practically slid to a stop when she spotted Leia and the droid. While the droid was curious, and she had every intention of asking about it, she focused on Leia.

"I almost feared you would be gone."

[borntorebel]

And just like that, when Leia turned to face Lúthien, the small smile died on her lips and she blinked rapidly. She wouldn't cry, but it was a near thing.

And, because she didn't want anyone else to listen in, she replied to her friend in broken Sindarian. "Luke's gone. I can't feel him anymore." Which meant there was a huge piece of her missing now, as strange as that sounded to even her. "Han is back as well."

[fertilefeet]

Oh. Oh. That explained so much and immediately Lúthien moved to Leia's side and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly. She easily slipped into Sindarin, still hugging her friend close.

"It is alright. He remains with you even if he is not on the ship." A part of her understands. She would understand better if she were married and parted from her husband but that was as close as she'd come to knowing what it felt like to be parted from a twin. "Is he? Where is he now?"

[borntorebel]

Leading a rebellion would be so much more welcome at that point than dealing with the loss of Luke's larger-than-life presence that she'd come to practically rely on, even if they didn't talk.

"I know that, sort of. I just...This isn't like the loss of my planet or a few friends. I'd've lost Han again than this." Every mention of the smuggler hurt, but it was a sharper pain than when he left before. "I don't actually know. I threatened to shoot him before coming here."

Private to Han Solo

[borntorebel]

After her elucidating conversation with John Blake, Leia storms out of MedBay and heads towards the Oxygen Gardens. A sudden noise behind her in the hall reaches her through her anger and grief. She slows, hand quietly reaching for the blaster pistol on her utilibelt.

It's best to be paranoid on the Tranquility in her experience.

She rounds the corner and plasters herself against the wall. When her stalker steps up, she's got the blaster pointed right at his heart. Until she looks up to see him.

"Han?"

hA HA HA HA

[shotfirstt]

It is one thing to wake up on a strange ship, completely naked and covered in slime, it's another to--

Actually, actually no. There is no other thing. That is just plain weird and Han would really, really like some answers right about now. Sure, there was the whole 'find your locker' bullshit (at least he had his usual clothes, that jumpsuit was horrible),that constituted some form of instruction, but Han still had no damn idea as to what the hell was going on. It was a weird ship, with weirder circumstances, followed by the complete lack of any familiar faces.

Well, for the most part.

In a brief moment of near silence, a familiar voice reaches his ear; annoyed and unimpressed and--

"Leia?"

The former smuggler is moving before he has finished fastening his belt properly, feet following the voice, and coming up behind a very familiar figure moving through the halls with a lot more familiarity that he himself possesses.

Leia turns a corner and Han goes to follow when--

"Whoa, whoa there! Ow, not the hello that I was expecting there." He gives her a crooked smile.

[borntorebel]

Her first thought is that she can reach up to kiss him, but she hesitates. Six months and so much pain, death, misery all fade until she remembers the last time he was here and refused to see her or anyone else for weeks before he disappeared.

She takes a step back, hand tightening on the blaster but she doesn't shoot him.

"So, you're back." The smile makes her heart flutter but she's stronger than that. She hopes. "Congratulations."

[shotfirstt]

The crooked smile on his face laters a bit; he knows that tone of voice, knows that look in her eye far better than he should. It makes him wonder just where the hell he is and what the hell he did to make her that annoyed with him. His brows furrow and Han lets his hands come down to settle on his hips (even though he really wants to settle them on hers).

"Okay then, that's-- even less the hello than I was expecting. What happened to you, princess?" He cocks a brow when she doesn't drop the blaster. "And what you you mean 'back'? I just got here! And was greeted with slime, I might add. What the hell was that? I mean, sure it didn't leave me blind, but still not nice stuff."

There is a beat, before Han tries his luck.

"And really? Not even a hello kiss?"