annexednet | (Video)

[ Rey looks terrible, with dark circles under her eyes like she hasn't slept in a while. She hadn't expected the loss of a tether to feel like this; maybe she's just that upset that her friend is gone. ]

I'm sorry, Padme. He went home. I was tethered with him, so I'm sure.

(They can suffer together with nice cups of tea. She doesn't need a tether to know...to feel...the loss. Luke is a sun; everything is much darker for his absence.)

Rey. Where are you?

I'm at my apartment. I don't have to be anywhere else for a while.

[ She's free to mope in peace, which right now looks like working her way through a box of pastries she'd picked up earlier in the week and taking apart something mechanical on her living room floor. ]

I'll be with you in a few minutes. (Maybe with more food. They can eat things they really shouldn't together. It's better than drinking something they shouldn't.

Soon, Rey will have a knock on her door.)

[ Rey wordlessly opens the door and immediately pulls the other woman into a hug. It's clear she's been crying at some point, but she's trying her hardest not to feel this as a loss. Luke had gone home to become a galactic legend; to help win a war. To bring his father back from the Dark. It had to happen sooner or later. ]

Thank you for coming over. I'm a mess.

(Tears are something they share. Padmé usually hides her pain, keeping to herself until she has control again. But this is about family. Anakin had been right - Rey is theirs too.

She returns the hug tightly, shaking her head gently.)

You're fine, Rey. We're both...upset.

[ Rey sniffles and wipes the fresh tears from her eyes as she pulls back and holds the door open for Padmé to enter. She's cleared off her sofa and table, and there's a plate of pastries set out on it. ]

It's the tether, mostly; I shouldn't be this sad. He'll be fine back home.

[ He has his whole life ahead; it only hurt this much because Rey knew she might never see him again. And that she'd indirectly possibly been the cause of his death, though she hasn't admitted she feels that way to anyone else. ]

(Padmé has brought a basket of tea and cookies with her. She sets it on the table beside the pastries. Staying busy helps her hands to shake less and she pours them each a hot cup of tea.)

There isn't anything wrong with mourning someone. It means they connected with us and we with them.

(She sits down on the sofa with a sigh. Even if Rey told her about Luke's death, Padmé wouldn't doubt he had chosen that end for himself. Like father, like son.)

I'm grateful I met him. He gave me hope.

...Luke is gone

Link? You were tethered to him. Are you alright?

[The response back takes…a while. Not that Link is the speediest replied anyway. But there’s a notable gap. One that maybe suggests the response back isn’t fully honest.]

I’m fine

(Link, honey.)

Are you up for a visitor?

A visitor?

[The only visitors Link is used to are Bolson and Karson, who were perpetually camped outside of Link’s house. This…probably isn’t what Padme plans to do?]

Specifically me, I mean. I want to check on you.

(And do what a mother does: make sure he eats a good meal.)

Oh

Okay

[then, after a moment's pause inbetween]

...Can you climb cliffs?

As long as they aren't too steep. Why?

(If she needs to in order to get to him, she will.)

...I'll come down

[They probably are too steep. Not everyone can climb like Link]

Edited 2023-02-25 03:45 (UTC)

If you're up to it. I don't want you to strain yourself, Link.

(She will be waiting at the bottom nonetheless.)

[[ooc: switching to prose!]]

As Padmé will see from her place at the bottom of the cliffs, getting down isn't any strain at all for Link. Namely because he doesn't climb at all: he jumps - and then opens up his paraglider, gliding slowly down to a soft landing next to her.

He gives her a nod, but doesn't say anything.

He hasn't really felt like talking much. Not since Luke went away.

Impressive! She has a small smile for him - an expression that is mixed with sorrow. But considering why they are meeting, that is understandable.

"Let's get something to eat." she holds open her arms and carefully wraps one around his shoulders, "Where did you learn to glide like that?"

They can talk about other things, after all. It's probably best if they do.

Jumping off the Great Plateau. That's what he should say, really. It's what he'd want to say, if things were normal.

He doesn't really want to say anything. The words aren't there, not right now. And what words could he even offer to Padme? Luke's mother? None of them would makes things better.

Silence is easier. So he just...shrugs. A non-answer. Followed by a nod - because yes, he would like to eat. Though they don't need to go far for that, because he has the Slate. He taps at it and pulls out a honeyed apple he made earlier, holding it out for her.

Edited 2023-03-07 10:45 (UTC)

He is adorable. Her heart breaks all the more, seeing his sadness and Link doesn't need to say a word. She leans their heads together and smiles at the gift.

"Is this a honeyed apple? Where did you find it? Or did you make it?" she has a feeling the latter is the answer, "I know a nice place we can sit."

Gently leading them to a grassy patch, she sits down and bites into the apple.

Link nods once, then twice. Once for each question: Yes, it's a honeyed apple. Yes, he made it. Link likes eating - but he likes the cooking, too.

He follows her to the grassy patch. Sits down. Taps at the Slate again, this time pulling out a second honeyed apple. This one, Link starts to eat himself.

Will he feel like talking, after eating the apple? Maybe. He doesn't know.

[ Vader had been gone before she woke that morning and he's been scarce since. A causal self-centeredness born of the Dark Side Anakin hadn't often shown. But he answers via voice, in a manner tightly controlled she's never heard of him before. It's Vader's voice.

But it echoed the difference between her natural voice and Queen Amidala, and Palpatine's mask and his true voice in reserve of her's. ]

He's no longer here my lady.

(The distance is unnecessary - a defensive measure, surely? - and Padmé lets her concern and displeasure be known.)

Anakin, you know me. (And she knows him.) You're hurting as much as I am. Where are you? I didn't see you this morning and then when I went to look for Luke, I just...knew...he was gone.

[ Almost more offensive than defensive - almost. Having spent almost as much of his life as Vader than Anakin, stiff walls in places not impenetrably private were mandatory. This wasn't the holonet after all.

But the displeasure stings. More than anyone else's ever could. ]

An early training session.

[ Mostly: channeling his rage and grief into the local dangerous wildlife. ]

I'll return to you shortly.

(The sacrifices he has made to be with her, to protect their marriage, mean everything to her. She doesn't doubt that he kept them - all of the good they had found in one another - far from Palpatine. But it's in moments like this that she fears losing him.

And she refuses to let that happen.)

Don't be long. Rey and Link have contacted me; they are in one piece.

(Only...sad. Padmé is doing her best to mother both.)

[ She's here. Alive. The good between them died when she did, was reborn when he knew Luke was their's. Has been nurtured and grown here with children and grandchild needing him. She won't loss him now. But he can't break decades of silence and secrets. Her training as Queen helps her. He wasn't given that. ]

I won't be long. Half an hour, roughly.

(She can give him ways to cope; ways to work through emotions instead of succumbing to them. But his passion is one of the things she loves best about him. Until it becomes a monster he can't contain, that is.)

I will wait.

[ Ways of working through emotions is entirely what he needs to learn. At forty-four, he still doesn't truly have those skills. ]

[ True to his word however, he's there, joining her in their shared apartment in half an hour. He's still a little damp, having stopped at his issued apartment turned workshop to shower and change. ]

I am sorry.

[His apology isn't necessary. Padmé welcomes him with an embrace - one that requires her to stand on her toes. He probably won't feel it, but she needs to know he's here.]

He's fine. He has a great future ahead of him.

[ He can feel the pressure of it, at least. He's still quite shy about her touching him - similar to how he'd first been about his right arm. Worried his scarred, deformed, cyborg body would be rejected. But he has scar treating pressure garments on under his clothing, and it's thick enough to pad out some of it. And he's still - at least around her - himself to pick her up of the ground so she can wrap her arms around his next. ]

I want him here. With us.

(He is a silly man and though his body saddens her and frightens her (for his well-being), Padmé isn't disgusted nor is she even close to rejecting him. He is alive and he is Anakin. That's all she needs to know.)

I do too. (She smiles shakily when she is lifted, nestling against him.) He reminded me of when we were young. Everything seemed possible.

[ He may be silly, but when hadn't he been at least a little self-conscious when displaying a scar or injury to her? Although she's entirely right to be frightened for what this all means for his health.

Her slight weight against him is...almost as comforting as a hug from his mother ever had been. ]

Leia was like that as well.

(Video)

[ video ]

[ video ]

no subject

-> (Action)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

[text | user name: liiiink]

[text]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

NP <3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject