Voicemail ~ Mask or Menace

[faithfulson]

Skywalker here. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you.

Comments

text; 3/1

[bespin]

Just as a head's up: Han and Leia's commlinks have gone down. I don't know whether you knew already [ Can the Force do that? Lando has no idea. ] but it looks like they've both been ported out.

[faithfulson]

I know.

[ Yes, the Force does do that; he felt their presences leave the planet, and it made his heart ache. More importantly... ]

Kylo knows too.

[bespin]

Good.

Well, not good, obviously. But what else is there to say?

[faithfulson]

I'm worried about him, Lando.
He's not taking it well.
I'm surprised half the planet can't feel it.

[bespin]

Do you want
I mean, I could try talking to him. Who knows what good it would do, but is it worth a shot, you think?

[faithfulson]

If you do try, please be careful. He's violent on a good day; after this, he's likely even easier to set off.

[bespin]

I'll approach with caution. Stick to text. He can't choke me over text, right?

[ Okay, bad joke. ]

Enough about him. How are you holding up?

[faithfulson]

I mean... if anyone would be able to figure it out...

[ He's joking... mostly. ]

I'm okay. I'm just... trying to be optimistic that they'll be back.

[bespin]

Is that even the thing we should be hoping for? I mean... I know our galaxy's not the greatest, but isn't that where we should all hope to be going?

[faithfulson]

[ ...w-why you gotta do him like that, Lando? Luke bit his lip, before answering. ]

I know, but technically time in our world is frozen, right?

If we're here, at least we're all together.

[ With his mother and his father... he knew what he had to do, but losing them on top of knowing what the future held...? He would have to, nothing could stop that, but he wasn't prepared for it. Not yet. ]

[bespin]

I suppose you're right. I just can't help wanting to squash the feeling that this place is ever permanent.

[faithfulson]

I don't blame you.

[ Lando had prospects to go back to. His family had either death or a galaxy's worth of heartache to endure. He was afraid of being a little selfish wanting to stay in a place where that wasn't happening, but he also didn't want to go back to face a bleak future without having resolved at least a few things. ]

[bespin]

[ Doesn't blame Lando, but he doesn't agree. That much is clear. And it's fine, Lando understands why. Luke has all his most important people here. There's no war, no Empire (aside from Hux and his machinations). Why would he want to give this up? ]

Well, if you want company in the meanwhile, give me a ring.

[faithfulson]

I will.

Thank you, Lando.

[bespin]

Any time, Luke.

[faithfulson]

How are you doing, by the way?

I don't ask you that enough, it seems.

[bespin]

Oh, you know how it goes. Trying to keep the world from crashing down. Just trying to make it by.

[faithfulson]

I can understand that.

I saw you trying to run for ambassador. I'm sorry you didn't get the nomination.

[bespin]

Ah, that's alright. I probably would have done a terrible job at it. I don't have the grace or patience of your mother.

[faithfulson]

Oh c'mon, you can't say that.
You ran Bespin well enough, didn't you?

[ Minus the whole... making deals with the Empire thing. ]

[bespin]

[ Hey, now, he wasn't given much choice on that one. ]

I appreciate what you're trying to say, but at the end of it all, Cloud City was a business operation. Nothing more.

[faithfulson]

But there were still people who's well being you were responsible for.

There's a lot of common ground between business and politics.

[bespin]

I suppose you're right. And that's the campaign platform I tried to run on.

But in the end, people decided they'd rather have a leader than a businessman.

[faithfulson]

Yeah.

She seems like a competent leader, but don't let that tell you you're not the same, Lando.

[bespin]

Maybe. But for now I'm happy to go back to just leading my employees while they move boxes.