voidtreckerexpress | Hey look, it's a Tony log

Entry tags:

Hey look, it's a Tony log

Who: Tony and OTA
Where: Kitchen/ Dining car
When: Bassoon 4-ish
What: Tony's cooking meals, making treats, and generally trying to keep himself busy
Warnings: Irreverence and Language? The usual.

The last team had done a respectable job in the kitchen. He'd had few complaints during the last month. However, between himself and the rest of the red team, especially Feanor, people were going to be very well fed this month.

Even though there were plenty of cooks in this kitchen for the month, this particular day Tony had taken over the kitchen. He was only sort of sticking to the recipes he'd been given, preferring to use his own or make them up as he went (shocking, I know). Currently he had three dishes he was working on at once. He had some salmon he was curing to make lox, some gummy candy he was making, and the main dish for the evening meal- whole roasted salmon with herbs and farfalle pasta with asparagus and tomatoes. Thanks to Evie and Feanor, they also had sourdough bread to go along with it and a fancy Elvish dessert.

Off to one side, he had an eggplant out, ready to fix for certain individuals who saw fish and fled in terror.

[ooc: Feel free to catch him at any point of this meal prep, during clean up, or during the meal. Whatever, you guys know I'll tag anything.]

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"Thank you, sir--"

Luke aborted the sentence too late, though he still had the grace to look sheepish as he accepted Tony's hand. He gave it a firm shake, before letting go and settling himself against the counter.

"Sorry, a military upbringing make it hard to shake off some habits," he supplied as an excuse. He was accepting the loaf piece a moment later, taking a happy bite out of it and trying not to roll his eyes at the question that came next, managing to swallow before he answered.

"I've been called a 'Jedi' so many times in the last couple days, I almost expect an Inquisitor to be looming over my shoulder everywhere I go."

He gave Tony a desperate look.

"What is it that everyone seems to know me, yet know nothing about me?"

Tony nods, waving the apology away. "It's fine. I have several of the kids calling me 'Mister Stark' anyway, so whatever you're comfortable with."

It was moments like this, he wished he could share a beer or a glass of bourbon with a new friend. Unfortunately all they had were much softer drinks and those just didn't cut it. However, it was just his style to offer whatever he did have without asking permission to give it or waiting for a request to have it in the first place- such as the bread.

He picked up the glass of iced tea he'd been sipping while cooking, and gives Luke a look caught somewhere between highly amused and sympathetic. "It'll calm down. These kids have the attention span of a toddler. In the meantime, let them start to get to know the real you. You don't owe them anything, especially not to be someone you're not."

"Mr. Stark, then," Luke replied softly, an almost shy smile coming to his face, before he preoccupied himself with the offered bread. He was never one to turn down food, even though there was a small voice in the back of his head that told him he needed to be more careful. He was the son of Vader, the clear next in line to the Imperial throne, at least to those that knew his father well enough; anyone could take advantage of his kind nature at any time, any way just to end the Imperial line. He stubbornly ignored that voice right now; no one here seemed to know him as that. All they knew him as...

He swallowed after a moment, absently fiddling with the remainder still in his hands.

"I'm more worried about them expecting something of me that I'm not, and being disappointed when the truth comes out," he replied, before focusing an intense gaze on Tony. "How is it you know me? I know you and other seem to think I'm a Jedi, but why?"

If that made the young man feel better, it didn't bother him to go by that. He'd long since given up on making Peter call him anything else. He nods, giving Luke a warm, easy smile. It was strange, even to him, that he was talking with Luke Skywalker, but the young man needed a friend.

As they talked he went back to doing a little bit more prep on the fish, but he pauses when he notes the not!Jedi Boy fidgeting. The question has him looking up, with that same partially amused, partially genuine expression. "So? Let them be disappointed. You're you, screw them. Besides, is what you are such a bad thing?" He asks, straightening up and meeting Luke's gaze. "Or is that part of why you're so offended by being called a Jedi over and over again. You're the opposite?"

"Like I said before, I'm not a Jedi, nor a Sith," Luke explained. "My father is teaching me how to use the Force, but allowing me to choose my own path."

He trailed off a moment, finishing off the piece of bread, before letting his hand drop, absently running flesh fingers over the metal plating of his prosthetic. It was still weird having it bare like it was; he was going to need to find some kind of glove to cover it eventually, but he had more pressing things on his mind at the moment.

He wasn't stupid; if people thought he was a Jedi and a hero, well... Jedi didn't exactly go parading around in the open in the Empire. And that meant...

"I'm worried if people think I'm a Jedi, they may have... misconceptions about my place in things back home," he replied delicately, having trouble looking at Tony, part of him worried that his attitude toward him would immediately change.

"I'm pretty sure the Imperial army- Empire, whatever- isn't just made up of Sith, but we'll leave that alone. It's not really important right now anyway. The point is, it doesn't matter what is happening at home stayed at home. Who cares? You're here and you get to decide what people learn about your version of your world and what you want to keep to yourself. I destroyed a small country. Like obliterated it, people, buildings, everything, because of something I did. Am I going to share that with just anyone? No. I didn't even share I had a family with the one person here who is from my world until a week or so ago."

He turns around and slices off a bit of mango, handing that too to Luke. "Am I going to judge you for not being the Luke Skywalker these kids had posters of in their bedroom and Star Wars- that's the story of you back home- pajamas? No."

And just like that, everything that Luke had been worried about just faded away, and he felt himself deflate as those fears just disappeared. He gave Tony a soft, grateful smile, especially when he shared the fact that his own past wasn't exactly perfect either.

"Thank you," he murmured softly, graciously accepting the mango piece... before he paused, frowning. "...pajamas? That's... weird."

He wasn't sure how he felt about that one, honestly. How would they even look like? Would they be themed off of certain people? The thought of his father's armor reduced to a child's night cloths immediately sprang to mind, and he had to fight against a snort, smothering his smile with a hand.

"But yes, I do serve as part of the Empire," he said, once he got his expression under control. "I ran away from home when I was young, and stowed away on a ship supplying the Devastator -- my father's flagship at the time. He realized who I was when I told him my name, though he didn't tell me we were related at the time, and sent me to an Imperial Academy..."

He paused, looked toward the ceiling as he tried to remember how his father put it later on.

"...'as far away from the Emperor as possible without dropping me in Wild Space'," he finally said, a grin coming to his face.

"It is weird. I'm still not sure what to think of the toothpaste they designed after me. Like.. what connections is there possibly between me and fluoride?" He shakes his head. "The cartoon show is pretty good though. I've watched it a couple times." It put way too much emphasis on Steve.. but whatever.

"If your father is concerned about keeping you away from the Emperor, that was likely a good move, wasn't it?" He isn't sure what to think about Vader Luke. Or was it Darth Luke? Luke Vader? "What was the academy like?"

Luke laughed at that; apparently Tony was popular enough that his own world idolized him as well? That was an even harder thing to imagine, especially coming from a reality where the HoloNet was so tightly controlled.

"It was... difficult," he admitted. "Academies originally were intended for older students, ones that were already through basic schooling. They didn't know what to do with an eleven year old at first."

He paused, before shrugging sheepishly.

"When they realized Lord Vader was essentially sponsoring my whole way through school, they figured it out very quickly."

He makes a face at hearing Luke was sent somewhere at eleven. "What is it with the age eleven around here?" It was an odd number to keep popping up in people's stories. Did he have anything interesting happening at that age? No, not really. He'd already been shipped off to boarding school. He shrugs, back to Luke's story.

"I know what that's like too," he admits, before taking a bite of a mango chunk. "Stark Industries is a huge company back in my world. My dad, Howard, built it and became very famous for it. He would've loved to get the title 'Lord' somehow, but.." He shrugs. "So tell me about him. You obviously admire the man." There wasn't any judgment in that statement as Luke might be used to. Tony just went back to finishing up his meal prep, slowly feeding them both random bites of this or that.

Luke peered over at him curiously at the mention of Tony's own father, but... there was an odd sense underlying his words, something he couldn't put his finger on. He let it be, for now.

"I do, though he did scare me at first," he admitted. "I was... always very small for my age. Meeting him for the first time was... intimidating."

Tiny eleven-year-old, over six-foot tall man in durasteel armor... intimidating didn't quite cover it.

"Back then, he presented himself as someone that knew my parents," he explained. "He... was the first person to tell me who my mother was, who my father had been. He kept in touch with me for the eight years I was in the Academy, checking up on me, telling me stories about my mother and father. He helped me find some unedited recordings of my mother's speeches."

He paused, smiling faintly. What he wouldn't give to have some of those recordings right now.

"As I learned more, I came to realize what a great commander he was; a great warrior and an amazing pilot," he continued, looking up at Tony again. "He can be tough on others under his command to the point of cruel, I'll never deny that, but he never expects things of others that he wouldn't do himself."

"I'll bet," he agrees, hearing Darth Vader had been intimidating to an eleven year old. How could someone like that not be? Especially if they were real and not just someone in movies.

"What do you think about the fact he was lying all those years?" He asks, glancing up. Would this ever stop being strange that he was talking to someone who's personal history was legendary where he was from? It was unfortunate he didn't have access to movies or music from back home or he could also give Luke some of those speeches. He wondered how accurate they were.

"So you think his methods make sense? The goals something you want as well?"

"I didn't mind," Luke admitted, his smile turning a little sad. "I think... my father isn't very subtle. My best friend at the academy figured it out, more or less, and I think part of me always knew, but I just..."

He trailed off, looking down at his hands again.

"There's a lot of responsibility in being the son of Darth Vader," he finally continued after a moment. "I wasn't ready for that responsibility at the time, so I'm glad he didn't tell me."

Dealing with being the outcast at the Academy and the knowledge that he was Vader's son? He would have cracked and he knew it.

"We both want peace for the galaxy," he continued again. "I know my father had... a different idea of peace before he found me--" To put it mildly-- "but we're on the same page as to what it means now. We both agree the Emperor needs to be stopped, even if that means bringing some of the uglier things my father has done to light."

He could see the kid's point there. He wasn't an expert on Star Wars like the kids were, but he could easily imagine the pressure of being Darth Vader's son would be intense.

"But you survived it and flourished, I'm assuming? At the academy." This was all new, obviously, since it wasn't the Luke Skywalker story he had heard before. That, of course, made this far more interesting.

"How do you plan on achieving that?"

A small, humble grin crept onto Luke's face. "Graduated top honors in both written and practical assessments," he answered. "If my father didn't already have a claim on me, I'm certain just about every TIE squad commander would have been scrambling for me."

But they wouldn't have had a chance to get him; he knew very early that he was going to be part of Black Squadron when he graduated.

Tony's other question got him to blow out a sigh, shaking his head.

"That's... complicated," he answered. "The gist of it is to gather people who are more interested in serving the Empire, rather than just appealing to the Emperor; to subtly shift the tide of war so that Palpatine and his followers are forced to fight a war on two fronts, with the Rebellion on the other side."

Edited 2019-09-14 04:53 (UTC)

"Attaboy!" Tony grinned at Luke and picked up a wash cloth nearby and tossed it at the kid playfully for that. "It's not you're fault you're the smartest in the academy."

He tilts his head, looking like he's trying to remember something. "Palpatine? Is that.. that's the Emperor?" He could piece it together based on the context. "Isn't one of the powers of the Force that you can read other people's minds?"

Luke laughed at that, easily catching the wash cloth. He turned it over in his hands a moment, a brightness in his eyes, before he held it up with the Force, sending it spinning lazily back toward Tony.

"Yes, Emperor Sheev Palpatine," Luke replied, "and there are defenses for such abilities, though the Emperor is strong in ways even my father isn't sure of. We have to move as cautiously as we can, and stay under the radar."

He gave a helpless shrug at that. "It's about as easy as it sounds."

Which was to say, not easy at all.

Oh hey, that was cool. He let some of that even show on his face.

"Sheev Palpatine? God, he should be murdered just for that name. Sheev." Another slice of mango was handed over. "Speaking of.. are you going to be Darth Skywalker? Luke Vader? Darth WalkingVader? This is an important part of your journey- picking out a badass name. Although anything is better than Sheev so the standard is really low at the moment."

Luke didn't accept the mango piece right away; he was too busy laughing at Tony ridiculing the Emperor's name. It wasn't something anyone dared to do back home, least of all out in the open where just anyone could hear. It was honestly refreshing.

"I'm sticking with 'Luke Skywalker'," he replied, pausing to take a bite. "Though the 'Skywalker' part may get me in trouble in the future, if Palpatine saw fit to call me out as a heretic for being the son of a Jedi. I haven't exactly endeared myself to our 'illustrious' Emperor."

Tony laughs right along with him. He was so pleased the young man had visibly lightened up. Even if he was on the wrong side, it seemed he might be trying to make it right in the end. And who was he to judge? He created Ultron.

"I don't know," he teases. "Sheevy might just be jealous of your name. Maybe you didn't really do anything to him except give him name-envy. 'Sides, what's wrong with Skywalker? Is it copywritten to be a Jedi or something?"

Luke flashed a big grin, struggling not to break out laughing again. Sheevy.

"No, it's illegal," he replied, his expression sobering slightly, though he still remained amused. "It hasn't stopped the more clever Jedi, especially my sister, but when the Jedi were declared traitors, everything about them was deemed 'heretical' and banned from existing."

Luke rolled his eyes in a clear sign of what he thought of that, because his father didn't bother to hide the fact that he used the Force, and anyone with half a brain could figure out Palpatine could as well.

"Besides, he doesn't appreciate being talked back to either," he continued, a bit of a mischievous look coming to his face. "And I... may have said I didn't have time for his games. To his face."

"Hmm, too bad. That just makes it all the more fun," Tony joked, saying it was more fun to do the illegal thing. "What do you think about the fact being a Jedi is illegal? Do you know what they stand for, or their purpose is?"

He pauses to slide the baking sheet with the fish on it into the oven. "I'm not trying to encourage you to go be with them, I'm simply curious how much knowledge is going back and forth about both of your positions. It's always helpful to know your enemy and their cause as well as possible."

It was a problem between Captain and Tony, after all. If they'd been more clear and talked out their sides better, would they have really dissolved into a split in the Avengers? He didn't know. It was still difficult to understand why Steve couldn't agree to the treaty. How could he justify having no consequences for all the mistakes they had made to the people? Or how could Steve justify what he'd done to Tony? He shook his head, trying to rid it of the dark thoughts he'd gotten sidetracked by.

Fortunately he tunes back into the conversation just as he heard what Luke did to the Emporer. He laughs, finding this Luke to possibly be more fun than the movie version. "Skeevy Sheevy has you on his shit list, huh?"

Luke grinned at that, fighting against a laugh. Skeevy Sheevy; he hoped he would have the opportunity to tell one of the others that. He had a feeling Aphra would latch onto that one.

"Yes," he replied. "I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm still alive, is because my father was in the other room."

He paused a moment, seriously considering Tony's question.

"My father's opinion is... biased, at best," he began slowly. "But from what he's said and what I've managed to read and hear from my sister, I've gathered that the Jedi were meant to protect the peace, but they had lost their way, something that was made all the more apparent during the Clone Wars."

He shook his head.

"They didn't deserve to die for that," he added quietly. "I don't know what could have been done, but killing all of them wasn't the answer. Palpatine manipulating everyone in the galaxy just..."

Luke cut himself off, folding his hands together before him as he took a deep breath.

"I'm not a Jedi, and I won't be a Jedi, but they're not my enemies," he continued. "Not Ahsoka, not my sister, and not anyone in the Rebellion. My enemy is the Emperor and those that follow him."

Tony listens, finding it strange but interesting that he's getting such an intimate viewpoint from the canon's hero. True, it wasn't the same exact one, but he can understand some of what Luke was talking about.

That switch from considering the possible mistake of the Empire to suddenly shoving that consideration aside was downright fascinating. "And what will you and your father do differently once you have the Emperor's forces destroyed? How will you not become him?- Do you like coffee?"

Luke paused, trying to get used to how quickly he changed topics.

"Is that like caf?" he asked, before he nodded. Even if it wasn't, he wasn't going to mind trying it. He may as well get used to whatever food and drink was available to him.

"As for that..." he continued, before he took a deep breath, the familiar unease creeping up his spine. "I don't know, yet. I know what my father wants, but I..."

He swallowed hard; it was still hard for him to think about. He went from a loyal follower of Lord Vader to his son, to the person his father wanted to take the throne when the Emperor was removed in a matter of months, and it was still so much for him to process. Did he want to be Emperor?

"I don't... think I would ever be ready for such a thing," he replied. "I'm not even sure I'd want to do it, but I want to do what I can to help transition the galaxy to whatever government we settle on after we remove the Emperor."

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