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[gidge]

PICK YOUR POISON
PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

Comments

[ex_senatorial897]

Padmé takes that as a sign to continue.

"I was fourteen, and my planet was under attack. We appealed to Coruscant, and they sent two Jedi -- Obi-Wan and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn -- to assist with the crisis. But staying on Naboo hadn't been an option. My ship was damaged and we were forced to divert course and land on Tatooine in hopes of acquiring parts for repair."

[velocities]

He listens, still leaning against the bulkhead, eyes on the floor as he tries to imagine these two as children. Her very much the same, just smaller. Anakin like some tiny, long haired version of the Luke he'd met on the same planet. It's odd, and he can't quite manage it, so he looks up.

"Pretty tough place to find parts."

[ex_senatorial897]

"Our engines were failing," Padmé said simply. "We weren't left with much of a choice, and I wasn't about to stand by and let my people be captured by the Trade Federation if wound up dead in the water. I refused to leave myself in a position where my life could be used as a bargaining chip to get my government to fold and cave to their demands."

Even at fourteen, she had her head on tight. She'd gone into politics young, ambitious where other children were focused on having fun.

"Of course, Sabé and I had traded places long before we fled Naboo. If they had succeeded in capturing 'me,' it wouldn't have done them much good. I hid myself among the rest of my handmaidens and accompanied Qui-Gon to Mos Espa as a supposed 'agent' of the queen."

[velocities]

For his part, Han is trying his best to commit this to memory. He's almost certain Leia hasn't heard much of this story, and definitely certain Luke hasn't. They'd appreciate hearing it.

(She sounds a little like both of them. The protectiveness of her people he'd hear from Leia, the plan as elaborate and subtle as Luke probably tried to make his own.)

Even if he was having a little trouble following it, though that's because he's not up on his history and is trying to remember which part of the pre-Clone Wars years this was.

[ex_senatorial897]

"Anakin--" Here, she genuinely falters. Odd for her. Padmé was usually so sure of her words, but in this instance, she isn't sure what Han knows and doesn't. Did Anakin tell him -- tell their children -- that he was born into slavery?

Uncertain of that, she decides to leave slavery out of this tale. The Hutts who owned him and his mother, the Toydarian who ordered him around, and what Qui-Gon ultimately did to buy him the freedom he had, unfortunately, been unable to obtain for his mother. Talk of Shmi's fate was also off the table.

"He worked at one of the shops we visited. He was a few years younger than me. Asked if I was an angel when I walked in," she laughs, blushing at the memory of Anakin's innocence.

[velocities]

She doesn't say it, and Han doesn't ask, but he knows Mos Espa's reputation. He knows those kinds of tells, and what few options there for some human kid 'working' in that place, for a kid that'd be willing to run away with the Jedi.

He keeps it light, though, letting his assumptions fall to the back of his mind because he's made this meeting enough of a disaster already, thank you very much, and he can't let his burgeoning reputation get further tied up in argumentative inquiries about this woman's husband. Then he tries to imagine Anakin spouting off a line like that but can't, so he imagines Luke doing it and it fits perfectly.

"Pretty good line for a kid."

[ex_senatorial897]

"He claims the spacers used to talk about them."

There's a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, and it's telling that her preteen self hadn't thought much of his comment at the time. It had been nothing more than an innocent inquiry from a slave boy who had probably never seen a girl as clean and dolled up as her before. If anything, it had been depressing at the time to realize that her pristine wardrobe and good hygiene had made her appear angelic, of all things.

"Master Jinn sensed Anakin's Force-sensitivity almost right away. He arranged for him to be taken to Coruscant for training."

[velocities]

He almost laughs at the bit about the spacers. They do tend to talk a lot, from Han's experience, about things they aren't exactly ever clear on. (It is being filed away in his mind as something to tell the twins, a piece of the story they should know no matter how irrelevant it is to whatever destiny the Force has in mind for them.)

The arrangement could be a lot of things, but Han is hoping it's nothing terrible. He remembers, vaguely, scandals about the Jedi stealing babies from their homes, but he'd never been too upset about the idea when he'd have much preferred getting stolen by a weird religious order to Shrike.

"And you kept in touch?" Only a little suspicious, thanks to his current understanding of Jedi relationship policies.

[ex_senatorial897]

A shake of her head. It makes the tassels hanging from her elaborate headdress shake and clank lightly against the metal holding her hair in place.

"No. After the blockade, I continued my duties as queen on Naboo while Anakin returned to Coruscant to train as a Jedi."

She says nothing of Qui-Gon Jinn's fate or how he wound up being trained by Obi-Wan instead of the man who found him. That's not a tale she likes to get into, especially since she's missing a lot of the details. Sith Lords and a prophecy Anakin's reluctant to speak of...

"It wasn't until a few yeas ago, when there was a threat on my life, that we met again. After a few near assassination attempts, the Senate assigned Obi-Wan and his padawan to protect me until the assassin was dealt with. Anakin accompanied me back to Naboo while Obi-Wan saw personally to the investigation."

And because there's some of her in Leia, too, she waves a hand dismissively in latent annoyance. "It was all very unnecessary."