Dying kinda sucks

[faithfulson]

WHO: Luke, Skywalker family, and associated friends
WHERE: Obi-Wan's apartment
WHEN: About a week after the Gibbering Mouther escapade
WHAT: Luke comes back after being a big dumb hero.
WARNINGS: Mentions of death.

[ Waking Up ]
It started out slow at first; a twitch of a finger here, a slight rising and falling of his chest, and by the time awareness came back to Luke, he almost felt like he could move. Almost; his body was painfully stiff and his eyelids still felt heavy. He swore he could have just drifted back off into the nothingness that he saw and felt before if he just kept laying there. That didn't happen, though, and he slowly became aware of more aches and pains than he ever wanted to be familiar with, and he gave up on just laying there, slowly opening his eyes and staring up at the ceiling. He just laid there for a long moment, consciously aware of his lungs expanding and contracting, before finally summarizing everything that had happened quite simply:

"That hurt."

[ Recovering ]
Getting back into the swing of things was going to take some time. Luke knew that, but it didn't make it any less frustrating, especially since he needed help to just stand up and move. He refused to just sit until he fully recovered though, insisting on moving as much as he could, even if it led to him falling down a few times.

He was fine; he just... needed to keep himself distracted so his mind didn't go down the path to any dark thoughts, that was all.

[ Wildcard ]
[Feel free to hit him up with any prompts you want, just be aware that he's not moving very far from Obi-Wan's place without help.]

Comments

[Wildcard; Video ]

[pidgewidgeon]

[ Pidge is calling Luke yet again because it's been a few weeks since she's heard from him and she's a bit worried. She's been calling for what seems like days with no answer and, if Luke doesn't answer by sundown, she's about to hack the communications network and physically hunt him down.

This time, he does answer and immediately she starts speaking; not paying attention to the video ]

Luke! There you are! What the hell dude, you just went radio silent with no warning!

[faithfulson]

[ It was probably good that she wasn't watching the video directly, because the aches from dying and coming back to life were shown right on his face. Luke managed a faint smile, noticing that he had quite a few voice mails from her, but he just hadn't had the energy to respond to them yet. ]

[ Still, he couldn't help the sarcastic response. After she finished worrying over him, she probably would have been disappointed if he held himself back. ]

I died. Just got better.

[pidgewidgeon]

[ Her attention immediately snaps to the video and takes in Luke's appearance, noting his haggard demeanor ]

Died?!? What the hell happened? Where are you? Are you okay?

[faithfulson]

[ Luke managed a weak smile, waving slightly. ]

Remember that monster under the bridge? That happened.

I'm with friends and family right now.

[ Being smothered. ]

[pidgewidgeon]

What the fuck?!? [ The pitch of her voice skyrockets on the last word, and if she was in the same room as Luke, his ears would be ringing. ]

Where are you? [ She won't believe he's okay until she sees it with her own eyes ]

wtf idk why I never answered this

[faithfulson]

A friend's place.

[ He managed to look a little sheepish at her near-screech. He's... fine? Ish? Sort of? ]

It's been an interesting couple weeks. You're good

[pidgewidgeon]

[ A scowl crosses her face at that lack of information ]

And more specifically?

[ waking up ]

[onlydoubts]

[ From the look of things, Bodhi has been here some time. Which, he has. He's come and gone - for food, to take Ace on his walks, for some fresh air and coffee, but he's spent most the last week in this room. He's died on more than one occasion and recalls with dizzying clarity how disorienting and confusing coming back to life actually is.

And he doesn't want Luke to be alone when that happens, like K-2 and Poe had made sure of for him.

When he starts showing signs of waking, he clasps his hand until his eyes are opening and relief floods him. ]

You're gonna be sore for a few days.

[faithfulson]

[ Luke's hand reflexively tightened around the one holding onto his, now that he was more aware of it. Slowly, carefully, he turned his head toward his boyfriend, a sad look coming to his face. Stars, he couldn't even begin to guess how much pain he'd been going through this last... however long it had been since he died. ]

Bodhi... I'm sorry.

[onlydoubts]

Hey, welcome back. [ It's a hoarse sound, torn between a laugh and a sob. There's a lot he could say, he could yell at Luke for being an idiot or praise him saving that young man back there, but instead he's swallowing past the lump in his throat and trying to form words. He strokes the hand in his with his thumb.

Both can wait. ]

Can I get you anything... water, maybe?

[faithfulson]

[ He was really thirsty, especially so now that Bodhi mentioned water, but at the same time, he really didn't want him to leave his side. He held onto him tightly, bringing his hand closer to his face, pressing it against his cheek. He could feel hot tears coming to his eyes, and he tried to struggle against them, but they fell anyway. ]

[onlydoubts]

[ There's warmth behind his eyes, now as the thin composure he'd been trying to keep for Luke's sake here starts to crack. ]

Hey, you're - [ Bodhi swallows again. Hand cupped against his cheek, he gently brushes away the tears with his thumb. If he could make this all better, if he could've healed Luke before his injuries took him, so he wouldn't have had to suffer in such a way.

(He knows that he'd never have allowed that.) ]

I'm sorry.

[faithfulson]

[ Luke shook his head, taking a deep breath to steady himself, not that it was helping. He leaned into Bodhi's touch, even as he tried to reach a hand up to wipe the tears from his eyes. ]

S'not your fault.

[fauxmarth]

Lucina didn't learn of Luke's return until going back into work at Helix, and in the moment she did learn of it, it was hard for her to gauge really how she felt. Relieved? Of course. Absolutely! The last memory she had was yelling at Bodhi to haul his corpse away. Dreadful.

But...she was also angry. Guilty. Ashamed. Heartbroken and irate. So many things. It was why she didn't act on it immediately. Why would she? He didn't contact her. He had enough on his plate, probably.

But that would only last for so long before some days passed and she just couldn't stand it anymore, shooting off a message on some fateful evening.

Where are you?

[faithfulson]

By that time, Luke had managed to insist that, no really, he was starting to feel better, and no his father didn't need to follow him back home, and no really, he could move around on his own now he swears.

He loved his family and his extended family, he really did. But what happened was an accident that he just happened to die from. He was fine.

Hearing from Lucina was a relief, and also brought a twinge of guilt with it. He had been so caught up in family affairs, he hadn't had the chance to even think of contacting her, let alone doing so.

I'm taking it easy at home.
Sorry I haven't contacted you yet. Recovery from death is terrible.

[fauxmarth]

I can only imagine.
Forgive me for interrupting. I will see you eventually, if you're still coming back to Helix.


Lucina winced and let out a dismayed sound the moment she hit send on that. It sounded so cold and distant, and guilt only crushed her more for it. Gods, how unfair. She dug the heel of her hand against her eye, mind racing, before she could send a slapdash follow-up as some meager band-aid.

I am glad you are back.

[faithfulson]

Luke stared sadly at his communicator for a moment. He really should have made a point to contact Lucina sooner; he didn't want to make her feel like she was only an after thought, but he ended up doing that anyway, didn't he? An ache settled in his chest at that, one that he normally got when he thought of Bodhi and his circumstances when it came to being here, and it left him feeling uncomfortably confused.

I will be, once I get my strength back up. Then you can toss me around the training room all you want.

...wow, that sounded unfairly flippant, and Luke grimaced as he stared at his own reply. This sort of thing was harder than he thought it would be... but then again, how else where you supposed to handle things where, "Dead now, bbl," was literally an away message that someone could have?

I'm okay, Lu.
I promise.

[fauxmarth]

You did tell me you weren't so delicate, after all.

The prospect of things going back to normal was both ideal and wretched somehow; as if she could just shrug off what she'd seen and how she'd failed. He'll absolve her and she'll hate that, too, because she'll think of all the lives she'd failed before him. Gods, if it was just about bruised pride, it'd be fine enough, yes? But it wasn't her pride that ached.

She thought she'd gotten all of this out of her system when she crumbled in front of Darin.

[faithfulson]

That's right.
Only a hell-spawned beast could take
Survived so many other

Luke stared at the reply he actually managed to send through, frowning. What the hell was he doing right now? He sighed to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose, before attacking his communicator keyboard again.

You can come over, if you want.
I don't think my roommates realize I live here half the time.

[hadthehighground]

It had been hard enough to see Luke's body when it had been brought to him. Harder still was having to tell Anakin. Obi-Wan had been through this whole death process before though, and he knew that Luke would come back to them in due time.

So having placed the young man in his own bed, the Jedi had slept on the couch every night since then.

He still went on with his routine. Going to work and such. So it's a few hours after Luke finally wakes up that Obi-Wan comes home and senses that something is different. Which resulted in him peeking through the door, his voice kept low as he spoke.

"Luke?"

[faithfulson]

Luke had been dozing lightly, halfway between dreams and reality, and the sound of Obi-Wan's voice sent him back a moment, to a year ago when he was delirious and begging to understand why he was never told...

He jerked awake, eyes wide, reflexively calling out, "Ben?"

The pain and the ache in his body hit him in the next moment, and he groaned as he laid back on the bed, glancing over at Obi-Wan with a sheepish look.

"...hi?"

[hadthehighground]

There was only a gentle, if slightly concerned, smile on Obi-Wan's face as Luke reacted. He knew how dying here could affect a person, so he can't blame Luke for being startled.

"Welcome back to the living," he said as he stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him.

Walking over to the side of the bed, he pulled up a chair and sat.

"How are you feeling?"

[faithfulson]

"Like I got chewed on and spat out?" he replied, managing another sheepish smile. He was keeping his humor up; that was a good thing, right?

[hadthehighground]

The humor was good and it brought a smile to Obi-Wan’s face.

“Considering what happened, that sounds about right. You worried a lot of people as a result.”

He wasn’t condemning Luke, rather just stating the fact. Anakin was rather beside himself, but he’s not going to get into that.

“Would you like anything? Some food? Water? Tea perhaps?”

[faithfulson]

Luke flinched at that, a guilty look coming to his face. "Please tell me father and Leia didn't break anything..."

He didn't exactly warn them this time that he was doing anything dangerous, mostly because... it wasn't supposed to be dangerous? Well, maybe it was a little dangerous.

...a lot dangerous.

"Tea sounds great," he replied, struggling to sit up.