acts_of_gord | (no subject)

One thing for sure about the Bar: wherever it's teleporting things in from, the warehouse is top-notch. When Gordon went up to inquire about a movie, it produced not only a DVD of Star Wars, but an appropriate player and television to go with it. Rentals, of course, clearly marked as such, but still.

"I probably should've asked for some popcorn too," Gordon notes as he gets the last few cables plugged in. "Then again, I think we're both full at the moment. Are you ready?"

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From:

acts_of_gord

"I think they built this in a real desert, so it had to stand up to local conditions," Gordon says. "I'm not sure what they're farming, though."

Threepio manages to talk his way into Owen's good graces, but R2, not so much. Not until Luke whines does R2 get his chance to sabotage his competition and come along for the ride.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx quirks an eyebrow at the droid with the 'bad motivator,' and cringes when C-3PO starts talking about 'oil baths' and 'dust contamination.'

"Okay, they're just making up words now, aren't they? He needs cleaning. Can't they just say that and be done with it??"

Edited Date: 2008-10-06 05:37 pm (UTC)

From:

acts_of_gord

"1977," Gordon murmurs. "Most people seeing this movie thought robots were supposed to have giant plastic heads full of flashing lights and wander around waiting for a chance to kill people."

From:

vance_prime

"Ignorance is no excuse," Alyx mutters, but quiets down for the next bit.

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

From:

acts_of_gord

"Oh, he says it's nothing, sir. Merely a malfunction. Old data. Pay it no mind-"

But of course Luke just can't let it go. Old Ben Kenobi's going to be getting a visit soon, it looks like. Gordon leans back to watch what unfolds, and Alyx's reactions.

From:

vance_prime

A visit from somebody, at least.

"It wasn't my fault, sir! Please don't deactivate me! I told him not to go, but--he's faulting, malfunctioning! Kept babbling on about his 'mission'!"

Alyx smirks. "'Too little to run away on me,' my ass... Clever little bastard."

From:

acts_of_gord

"If you ask me that little astromech's the smartest being in the whole movie," Gordon agrees.

Unfortunately for Luke, that's going to be a problem that can't be resolved before nightfall. And come the morning Luke's speeding out into Sandpeople territory in search of droid or hermit.

Threepio, for the record, is even snippier than Gordon remembers.

From:

vance_prime

"Well, there are two Banthas down there, but I don't see any--wait a second. There's Sandpeople, all right, I can see one of them now--"

Alyx huffs a laugh as Luke is surprised by a Sandperson rising up right in front of him. Kid deserved it for not paying better attention, as far as she's concerned.

From:

acts_of_gord

This is really not a good day to be Luke Skywalker, if that horrible bellowing moan is anything to go by... oh, wait. That'd be the old man faking something else's noise, apparently.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi...Obi-Wan? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...a long time."

From:

vance_prime

The old man takes Luke and the droids back to his home, where he fills Luke in on his heritage, and gives him a little present...

"What is it?"

"Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster... an elegant weapon for a more civilized age."

Alyx's jaw drops. "Holy shit. That's the sword Dr. Stantz was using! The one he gave me the patents for!"

From:

acts_of_gord

Gordon blinks several times. "Somebody actually built one of those? How the hell do you get the laser portion of the blade to self-terminate and keep that kind of coherence? The power drain alone..."

From:

vance_prime

"From what I can tell it's a really thin loop of energy that goes up out of the handle and back down in," Alyx explains. "It just looks like a single beam to the naked eye. I could be wrong, though, the papers were kind of confusing."

From:

acts_of_gord

"That's... I don't even know where to start with that. You're sure it worked?" He shakes his head. "Never mind. Obviously it did, but trying to imagine how is making my brain hurt."

Ah, there's that hologram again.

"General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

From:

vance_prime

Alyx shrugs. "It worked fine for him."

"I can't get involved, I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now! It's all such a long way from here..."

Alyx sobers as she listens. It's a refrain she's heard too many times from the civilians in City 17.

From:

acts_of_gord

"You must do what you feel is right, of course."

The Empire might just be more of a threat than Luke thinks, judging by the subsequent meeting on board the Death Star.

"The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."

"Remind you of anybody?"

From:

vance_prime

Alyx nods grimly.

"Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the rebels' hidden fort--urk!"

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"...But I'm pretty sure Breen couldn't do that."

From:

acts_of_gord

"That's pretty much what I was thinking of when the gravity gun started picking up Combine," Gordon admits. "That scene, right there."

Back on the planet's surface, the single most ridiculous line in the movie- about Imperial Storm Trooper precision of fire- gives rise to a sudden and horrible realization on Luke's part. The whole thing was more or less inevitable, of course, and Gordon's seen the moment of discovery more times than he can count- not to mention worse things in his own world- but he still winces when Luke discovers what's become of the farmstead.

From:

vance_prime

Alyx's grip on Gordon's hand tightens considerably when she sees the smoking remains of the Lars household.

And a little bit more in the next scene when the torture droid is brought in for Leia's 'interrogation.'

She knows, objectively, that none of it's real, it's just another way of telling a story... but there are some things that she finds harder to distance herself from than others.

From:

acts_of_gord

The door closes on that scene before anything can be shown, but it's not likely to matter. Lucas knew just how well imagination could fill in that particular blank.

There's no particular point to attempting graves at what remains of the farmstead; Kenobi's finishing what the Empire began when Luke arrives back at the crawler.

"There's nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there. You'd have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire."

( "And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste..." Guh. Yeah, he needed to remember that. )

"I want to come with you to Alderaan. There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father."

Edited Date: 2008-10-06 09:47 pm (UTC)

From:

vance_prime

And then it's off to Mos Eisley--"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy... we'd best be cautious"--and the cantina.

"So these are all humans in costumes too, right?"

From:

acts_of_gord

"If they're not costumed humans, they're puppets," Gordon says. "Mostly costumes, though."

With a crowd like this you just know a fight's gonna break out eventually. "Don't insult us. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence in twelve systems." Might as well say 'gentlemen, start your engines'.

Though most car races don't generally end with an arm on the floor and an old man giving an entire room the 'do NOT fuck with me' faint little smile Kenobi offers the suddenly much more polite spectators.

"... do the patents he gave you let you do that?"

From:

vance_prime

"Not yet. All I've got so far are schematics for a system to grow the crystals that make the blade," Alyx murmurs, obviously impressed. "I should get to work on that."

Now Luke and Kenobi are talking to a thirtysomething human in a rumpled shirt and vest. "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"

"Should I have?"

"It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial Starships--not the local bulk cruisers, mind ya, I'm talkin' about the big Corellian ships now..."

Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "Astronomy isn't my specialty, but isn't a 'parsec' a unit of distance?"

From:

acts_of_gord

Gordon gestures towards the screen. "He's bullshitting. Kenobi isn't buying it. Luke, maybe, but Kenobi knows when he's being lied to."

As the bargain's concluded and Kenobi and Luke get up to leave, someone else enters the scene. "Oota goota, Solo?"

Bar, unlike Lucas, appreciates a real masterpiece. On this DVD, Han shoots first.

From:

vance_prime

Another huff of laughter from Alyx. "Nice."

A couple of short scenes later, they've evaded the Stormtroopers--just barely--and are prepping to make the jump to lightspeed.

"So how is FTL travel supposed to work here?"

From:

acts_of_gord

"Hyperspatial travel of some kind. As nearly as I can tell the ship drops partly or mostly out of realspace and passes through a dimensional zone where the normal laws governing relativistic travel don't apply." Gordon shrugs. "You got a lot of dimensional casualness in science fiction when you were talking about space travel."