The Marooned/Survival Buddy Meme

[cornichaun]

THE MAROONED MEME



When you’re stranded. When there’s no way out.

At least this you’re not alone.

WHERE ARE YOU STRANDED?
1: Island. Surrounded by the ocean, shipwrecked on an island. Far away from any civilization.
2: Planet. Is it an uninhabited wasteland? A teeming forest, crammed with alien life forms? Does it have enough oxygen? Storms? Predators?
3: Moon/Asteroid. Low atmosphere, low gravity. You better hope that you have a survival pod where there’s enough air and heat.
4: Adrift. A ship on the ocean; a power-dead space station; a skimmer floating through the levels of a gas giant.
5: Oasis. Not quite marooned in the same sense, but you’re surrounded by empty desert, too far to cross. You might as well be trapped by the water of the oasis.
6: Cave. Again, not quite in the same sense, but something has left you trapped underground. Did you slide down a chasm? Suffer a cave-in? Either way, you’re down here to stay, for the time being.
7: Other.

WHO’S WITH YOU?
1: A friend. You’re in this together.
2: An enemy. Maybe war brought you both here, and war left you stranded behind. Could be that you’re an enemy in a more mundane sense: school rivals, an assassin and her prey.
3: Strangers. You were both on that boat for vacation, and now you have to survive together.
4: A lover. Some honeymoon, huh?
5: Other. For any other variation.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
1: Food and water.
2: Shelter. There’s a storm coming. The nights are cold, here. Or do you just want a sense of security?
3: Communication. How can you get someone to come rescue you?
4: Predators. Something’s trying to kill you…
5: Escape. If you can just fix the ship…
6: Each other. One more hour and you might kill each other.
7: Injury/Disease. One of you needs medical attention. Hopefully the other can muddle through.
8: Other. Any other problem you can think up!

Comments

[notimeforsorrow]

[ooc; no worries! Please let me know if there's anything you need me to change with this starter, and I hope it's okay. :3]



[Leia had wanted to see more of Tatooine with Luke, even if he'd assured her that there was nothing of interest to be done there. They'd already visited once, back when they rescued Han from Jabba the Hutt. However, now that the war was over and the twins had some measure of free time, she'd asked him if he could show her the place he grew up. (She would have offered to do the same, but since Alderaan was gone, that wasn't an option.)]

[Leia was adamant about knowing more about her brother's life before they'd met. So that was why, in between meetings to reestablish the New Republic, the two siblings found themselves exploring the desert planet.]

[They were resting at an oasis, where she sat underneath the shade of a tent they'd put up, observing the famous sunset that Luke had always told her about.]

There's something about the setting suns here. Something almost sad. But also very beautiful.

[lightsaver]

[Luke started out more embarrassed than anything: he'd seen the holovids of Alderaan (because that's all there is left of it), with its beautiful buildings and breathtaking landscapes, ornate and dignified and green and mountainous: basically everything Tatooine isn't. But after revisiting his own planet and trying to see it through new eyes (her eyes), he can admit that there's a sort of feral beauty to the place. Inhabited, but still largely untouched by technology or progress. Certainly undiminished by the war, except for the places where he'd left the smoking fingerprints of his own direct involvement.

They'd landed in Mos Espa earlier in the day, but even considering that it was one of the planet's largest spaceports and could conceivably (generously) be called a hub of Tatooine civilization, all the buildings were humble, squat adobe structures extending far deeper into the ground than up above it, made to help inhabitants escape the most oppressive of the desert planet's daytime heat. It all looked woefully primitive by comparison almost every other planet featured in Luke's war-sponsored jaunt through the larger galaxy. In truth, the farmboy had never visited Most Espa before either, but enough skulking through old records and the half-remembered stories Aunt Beru had shared with him about his grandmother told him that it was where their father had once lived, and so he'd wanted to see it at least once.

He was very, very glad to leave it behind when they continued on their slow sight-seeing trek back to the Lars' farm - it was just as bad as Mos Eisley had been, maybe worse, and he'd be happier to show Leia smaller settlements not quite so full of criminals and slavers, all of whom were currently vying for the recently vacated seat of power which Jabba had left behind when he'd made the fatal mistake of crossing the pair of them. He'd rather she see places he actually knew, like Anchorhead, even if they weren't precisely interesting (though there's a sharp niggle of fear in his belly that suggests they'll be filled with nothing but strangers, now.)

At her words, Luke turns away from the sunset, smiling despite himself. He's glad she's here, he doesn't think he could have come back without her, not just to see it.] I used to watch them all the time, wondering if I'd ever get to leave. [He sounds a little wry, pulling his knees up to his chest so he can wrap his arms around them. He did miss this, he can admit to that much - there are so few binary star systems in the galaxy with inhabitable planets in them.] There wasn't much else to do, around here.

[Except joyriding through begger's canyon of course, which is what he's got planned for tomorrow. After seeing her impressive performance on that speeder in the forests of Endor's moon, Luke has the mighty need to rent a pair of swoop bikes and race her through the winding rocks until they've both forgotten everything about war and the things they've lost to it, at least for a few hours.]

[notimeforsorrow]

[It was true that Alderaan and Tatooine were polar opposites, and the twins had led very different lives before they once again crossed paths. Alderaan had its stunning architecture, rolling hills and soaring mountains, gem-blue lakes and lush forests - but to her, Tatooine was just as beautiful, with its golden dunes, blazing sunsets, and craggy canyons.]

[She tried to see Tatooine from Luke's perspective as well - how he wanted nothing but to fly away, to have a taste of adventure, to know that there was something greater than what people called this "backwater planet". He knew nothing but the Lars' and their life of farming, and the dog-eat-dog existence of those living under the shadow of the Hutts. On the other hand, Leia had always known that there was a galaxy out there that needed saving, and she had taken it upon herself to do so.]

[Different as their upbringings were, they had come together to fight for one cause - and Leia didn't think she could've done it without him.]

Well, you did. And if you didn't, we never would've gotten the plans for the Death Star and things wouldn't be what they are now. Maybe we'd still be fighting. Maybe there would be more planets gone, more people suffering.

[She reached to take Luke's hand, giving him a smile.]

I'm glad you decided to go with Ben. Not just because wouldn't have won the war without you, but - well, if you hadn't, I still wouldn't know you.

[lightsaver]

[When their palms slide together, Luke automatically laces his fingers through hers and leans against her side. It's an easy indulgence, as the looming red suns have almost finished dropping down past the horizon, and with the resulting temperature dip it's no longer too hot for touching to be comfortable.

(Soon, it'll even be too cold to stay outside of their tent. Not Hoth-cold, of course, but still unpleasant for a desert boy such as himself.)]

Me too. [And he means it. There's a lot about the last couple years he wishes he could change, a whole mess of regrets he has - things he could have done better, fought harder - but meeting her isn't one of them. Never that.] I think... I always felt like something was missing. [Adventure, he'd assumed, for the longest time. Then Artoo crashed into his life and he'd met her, and the hole that he hadn't even fully realized was there was suddenly filled up to bursting.] I guess we know why now. [He nudges her slightly with the elbow he's got tucked up against her side, shaking off the inherent melancholy of so much missed time.] Hey, did you ever go camping out like this when you were a kid? Or were you too busy being a super secret spy rebel senator princess?

[He has the coolest sister ever.]

[notimeforsorrow]

[(Nothing would ever beat Hoth's freezing temperatures. Leia still remembered that day when R2D2 and 3P0 heated her room - with good intentions - but the end result was that all her clothes came out sopping wet.)]

[She leaned easily against her brother, grinning as he nudged her playfully. She nudged him back, arching her brow at him with amusement.]

Me too. It's not that I never felt loved by my adoptive parents - they loved and supported me in every way. But when I met you, it was like there was a hole that I didn't even know existed, and you clicked into place. Does that even make sense?

[Leia let out a laugh.] I sure did, but father - that is, Bail Organa - didn't like it much, although he knew he couldn't stop me all the time. [Her smile was dry.] I was always sneaking out and always getting into all sorts of trouble. I had no desire to be the "perfect princess" type.

[Maybe not as cool as you think, Luke.]

[lightsaver]

It makes sense! [There's an eagerness in the look he shoots her, because every word of it matches his own experience - maybe they grew up differently, but not so differently, after all. There are days that he feels immeasurably guilty that he never truly expressed how much Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru meant to him when he'd had the chance, but-- he still couldn't trade what he has with Leia now for getting them back. He just couldn't.

But he grins at another parallel between them, imagining for just a moment that Bail Organa and Uncle Owen would have had so many exasperated stories to share if they'd ever met.] Who, you? Not a "perfect princess?" I don't believe that! [He can't keep a straight face for long enough to get the sentence out, laughing over his own last few words. No, she had thoroughly steamrolled over any silly ideas he'd had about what a princess would act like from the very first hour he knew her, when she took their rescue attempt firmly into her own hands once it became clear their exit strategy was hope for a miracle instead of anything practical. (That, he can admit, was almost entirely his bad.) Since then, he can't even picture her as anything like the boring princesses or princes in Aunt Beru's sappy romance holonovels that Luke totally never made off with when he was a kid and overly enthusiastic about literally anything that wasn't from Tatooine.] I guess I didn't make a very dutiful farmer, either.

[There's an unmistakably mischievous twinkle in his eye.] What's the biggest trouble you've ever gotten in? [Can Princesses get grounded??]

[notimeforsorrow]

[She made a show of rolling her eyes at him, but her smile was fond. It was true that Leia was about as subtle as a rampaging rancor, for all her aunts' insistence that she become a dainty, simpering Princess. Oh, Bail and Uncle Owen would have much to discuss. After all, the offspring of people as headstrong as Padmé and Anakin couldn't have been expected to be the saintliest of children.]

I can't imagine you as a farmer. You'd probably be bored out of your mind.

[Luke was a lot more mellow than Leia herself, but he was meant for great things - that much was obvious.]

Well. There was that time I put a giant wooly moth in the Minister of Agriculture's drawer. [Her smile was equally mischievous.] It ate the next year's budget . . . Father was furious, and he banned me from attending the huge upcoming ball at the palace.

[The story didn't end there.] I attended anyway, but only to eat the food.

[She couldn't help her laugh.] And what about you? What trouble did you cause?