✧Communications #001✧

[borntorebel]

[After some extremely uncomfortable fighting with both her now shredded wedding gown and with the earbud for what she could only assume was a communicator, Leia's patience for all things regarding this day is shot. Very little about this situation makes her happy and when she speaks, it shows in her voice.]

Han? Luke? Threepio? Lando? Where are you? If this is some sort of sick joke of a honeymoon, I'm not laughing.

[After everything, today was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and it had been until she'd woken up somehow in that pod. In the middle of a desert.]

I thought we'd agreed that we'd never return to Tatooine, even if it was the last planet in the galaxy? And what the kriff happened to my dress?

Comments

[borntorebel]

Yes, very much so.

[Luke is literally her brother, but the rest of them were close enough that call them family members, as they were all orphans wasn't that much of a stretch.]

No, I'm sure no one would blame him for the sentiment, but I doubt he's made it easy on you all.

[strangelic]

Perhaps on those closest to him. I admit I've been concerned with other things.

[ But rather than speak about what those are-- ]

Where are you from?

[borntorebel]

[Leia is about to ask about what other things are on his mind when he asks that question.]

That's...complicated. I was raised on a planet called Alderaan.

[strangelic]

We believe that this is the planet of our home, Earth. Based on the position of the stars, at least, it seems to be so.

It isn't supposed to be this way. It was flourishing, beautiful.

Your home--was it beautiful too?

[borntorebel]

It sounds like the planet I was raised on. It was very beautiful and peaceful.

[It's been years since she's fully allowed herself the time to think about Alderaan. She's only talked about it with Winter, Tycho Celchu, Han and Luke. And only for very limited amounts of time. And she can't think about the fact that...she can't. Sometimes that scab is too thin.]

Do you know anything about why this has happened here?

[strangelic]

Not...specifically. It merely seems that a long time ago - decades, perhaps - some kind of virus spread among the people here.

A similar thing happened in my world--we stopped it, and in Daryl's, where it was more successful. There are survivors, but they're... You wouldn't want to share a meal with them.

[borntorebel]

A virus. [Her voice takes on a hard tone. She's sick to death of hearing about people using viruses to kill people. Biological warfare is low and disgusting and usually hurts the helpless first.] Dreamed up by mad scientists, no doubt, eager to share their depraved intelligence to whomever will give them funds to continue their work.

Gartaal!

[Somewhere, her aunts are dying all over again in shock.]

I suppose those would be the cannibals and flesh-eaters Daryl just told me about then.

[strangelic]

That seems to be how it happens, yes.

[ Although he wouldn't really call Pestilence a mad scientist. The delivery of that virus, however--that was pure mad demon science. ]

Can you fight?

[borntorebel]

I can't say that I'm surprised at this point.

[If asked, Leia wouldn't have called Isard's scientists scientists either. More like horrible bantha poodoo that needed to be flushed, along with the rest of the Imperials.]

If I have to, yes, I can. Though, truthfully, I'd rather not. [She's a leader, but she has no problem grabbing a weapon and heading out on the front lines to help take out the enemy. She might've been raised on a planet of pacifists, but she's not some shrinking violet either.] But, then again, what I want is rarely accounted for in most situations.

[strangelic]

[ His voice has a note of approval to it, albeit somewhat dejected. ] Pacifists who don't fight when they have to don't survive for long in worlds like these.

[ He'd been made to fight and smite and kill, and still fled from it--but where did it get him? In Purgatory, it would only have seen him dead. ]

Even so, it's a rare person who genuinely wants to, I'm glad you don't count yourself among them.

[borntorebel]

Can you truly have peace without knowing the horrors of strife and war? No, that's ignorance. It isn't the same thing at all. True peace is earned, fought for with blood shed.

[And it's starting to look like a pipe dream.]

However, even as hardened as that sounds, I want to be able to hand over my own world to the next generation with some relative peace.

[strangelic]

True peace is given to those who deserve it.

[ He might just be thinking of a different kind. Even so, he knows war; it's what he was made for. ]

You have children?

[borntorebel]

In your opinion, how does one deserve peace?

[She's actually curious to his answer.]

No. And I don't have an inclination to have children either. That may change in the future, but I doubt it. However, there are many in my acquaintance who are married and about to have children or already do. It is they I speak of.

[strangelic]

[ Castiel pauses, to reflect his understanding. ]

Peace is earned through living a selfless life, doing good deeds, even in small ways, and not through acts of evil.

[borntorebel]

[Leia lets out a soft, tired sigh.]

I've met men in my life who tried to do the best they could, in many horrible circumstances that didn't know peace. Your definition, I fear, is a little too exact.