a_universe | Blast from the past (1950's Star Wars AU)

Blast from the past (1950's Star Wars AU)

Summer 1952, it was just starting and shaping up to be a beauty. Most kids were getting that antsy feeling of the nearness of vacation and the want of freedom. But there were still three more week of school before that bell rang and let the kids free for the next three months.

Idyllic towns like Havencrest were almost too perfect this time of year. With their well-manicured lawns and pretty picket-fenced houses. The same could not be said of Bleakburn, just one set of train tracks over but a whole different world. The houses were not so quaint and the colors not so cheery.

Mara lived in Bleakburn, her family had for three generations now. She went to Bleakburn High School, or BBHigh as they called it, home of the Imperials. They had a reputation, as many towns that were not as well off as their neighbors, of being rough. That suited Mara just fine, she wasn't the sort of girl who felt like she needed any particular favor with the people of Havencrest and certainly never did anything to seek it out.

There were scuffles often enough between the rival schools but nothing, as yet, had been too bad. Street races, pranks, the occasional party was crashed but things remained a fairly constant level of general dislike between the towns. Both of whom claimed the one place that was any sort of fun, Moe Isleys. A diner that used the wide white back wall of the joint as a screen after dark and doubled as a local drive-in and hang-out. Sometimes they'd clear the parking lot and hold mixers there but more often than not it was used to watch the newest (that Moe could get his hands on) schlock film making rounds.

Mara had been there enough times to be recognizable, not just for her flame-red hair but also because she rode a motorcycle. Something she always grinned about when the 'Cresters looked at her with gaping mouths and dropped jaws. Keep staring, squares. In three more weeks she'd graduate and then she'd hit the road and leave both these towns behind her. She wasn't sure where exactly she'd go but the hell out of dodge sounded good to her.

That's why she was out here tonight, making some early goodbyes to friends she wouldn't be seeing again before she left because of this or that. So, like most bored kids in both towns, she headed to Moe's. Jeans rolled up over engineer boots, a black leather jacket and a black t-shirt beneath she could have been mistaken for a boy riding up. But when she parked and took off her helmet it was very clear she was anything but. She straddled her bike and hooked her helmet to the back and waved to a few people she recognized.

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Fencing helped. So did all the work he did around the farm - they were honestly earned, he could say that much. He strapped himself in with practised ease, and brought the throttle forward gently, easing the Kaydet out of the barn and into the light, the prop stirring up dust in whirling patterns. Slowly, he turned it to face the short dirt airstrip, the sun glinting off her paintwork.

He didn't ask her if she was ready - he knew, somehow. He did his last checks, ensuring everything was fine - and then pushed the throttle forward, the plane starting to trundle down the runway, picking up speed with every meter it crossed.

By the halfway mark of the run, the tail came up, giving Mara a straight-on view of the way ahead. At three quarters, the bumping and rattling would suddenly cease - as gently as a bird, they were airborne.

How could she be ready for an experience she never had before? Mara gripped the sides of the seat when the lift and she gave a lilting nerve laugh that turned into a titter and then a whoop of pure elation when they lifted off.

She was looking everywhere at once, bright green eyes wide behind her goggles Mara had a smile that threatened to leave her cheeks aching before long.

[OOC: Mood music?]

He could almost feel her joy - could see the thrill by her movements. He knew it well. For him, it never quite faded. He climbed upwards in a slow, languid arc. It was entirely unnecessary, but he wanted her to see the world as he did. The view that had helped teach him how small so many of the people around him were being.

Five hundred feet. A thousand. He turned her on her wing, so Mara’s view would be the vast space below, most of the town already visible in the distance.

Elation.

It was a word she'd never found a use for before but it applied now. She understood exactly what he had meant be feeling free now and she understood why he loved it like he did. There was nothing on earth, what a joke in that, like it.

Mara felt like she could leave everything behind. All the petty concerns, all of the judgements and weight of the world and their places in it. Up here it was the air and the clouds and Luke and that felt perfect.

All she could hear was a dull roar of the engine and the sound of wind but she'd never heard anything so sweet in her life.

Her red hair, whipping out from under her helmet, made for such a pretty sight. The joy he could see when her head turned, well. All the more reason to look.

"Have to get the boring part done first!" he called over the noise of the engine, though he had no intention of making it that boring. He completed his turn, lining up with the field - and dove. It would be a feeling much like a rollercoaster, but ongoing as the plane gathered speed and dropped towards the Earth. It was a safe dive, as far as they went - but it would, he knew, do good work for thrilling.

Boring? How could any of this be boring? The roar and rush of wind was everything she loved about riding but more so. There was an absolute freedom to this she'd never before experienced but now knew she would want to again.

Rather than fight the noise to reply she simply took what he said and continued to drink in everything about the flight. Including that feeling of her stomach dropping when he put them into a dive. She thought she would be terrified but instead her feet planted hard to the floor and her hands pressed hard to the walls of the cockpit while she whooped in exultation.

He lined up the first row of the dusting - pulling the lever to start dropping the crops in a long row across the field, arcing up and around after it. And, well, adding a wing waggle while he was it.

The actual purpose of the flight was more or less unnoticed as Mara's attention was fixed on watching the world go by.

A riotous laugh burst out when the plane teetered under his control, if he was looking to leave an impression on her he had certainly hit the mark.

He could almost feel her delight, as he banked in a long, slow turn revealing golden waves of crops below. He fell into the next row of dusting, then the next, each time exaggerating the turn, lifting and falling with grace to give her the maximum experience.

It didn't take long to cover the field, really. And then, in a spiral he started to climb upwards again.

It was unearthly wonder that fueled her laughter and whoops of excitement. This feeling of being airborne and rebelling against the very law of nature that was the most basic. It suited her nature and personality that she would be so taken with this. By extension her interest in the blond behind the stick increased, if he could radically change her world like this, what else was he capable of?

Something clicked then, this was the boy she wanted to be with. She'd never felt seriously about anyone before, but in that moment there was a clarity as pure as the air they hurtled through.

Once he was safely higher, he spun the plane slowly, giving her that moment of utter weightlessness - the wings rotating the world around them with grace and ease.

And then, from on high he took her over the entirety of their two towns. From the air there was no division, not a visible one. No lines to be crossed, no tracks to be on the wrong side of - just a small thing, really, like you could reach out and rearrange it with just a touch of your hand.

It took a moment for her to place the landmarks, but when she did, her gasp was too soft to travel from her seat to his. How miraculous was it to see things from here without the black cloud that her mind had always assumed was over one town and not the other. From here there was hardly anything to tell the two apart.

If Luke, he had graduated to having a name in her mind now, had seen things like this, it made more sense how he could see her as well.

This whole day was something special to her now, it was literally life changing. Not only did it erase the distinctions from her town and his, but it showed how small they both were when viewing the rest of the horizon. She could see cities in the distance with tall buildings and wide stretches of roads that marked ways out. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to explain just how dramatically her entire world shifted with such a brief thing, but it had, and she would never forget it.

It was absolutely how he'd seen her so easily. The world was so different from up here. The walls and barriers that life tended to try to create just didn't have an impact up here. Had they built a wall separating the towns, it would have just appeared as a simple band from this far up - nothing much of anything. Nothing worth getting excited about.

And he didn't need to hear her gasp. He knew. She had the same thrill of adventure that he had, felt the same siren calls; if she could feel the thrill of the new, of the speedy - she would feel the beauty of discovery.

Time to put an exclamation point on that.

"Hang on!" he called, nosing down into a steep dive - the aircraft gaining speed rapidly. And then, just as the wind seemed to make her shake - he pulled back on the stick, pulling her nose sharply up and the airplane careened into a loop, just making it to the apex. For a moment, the world would hang there. A short moment, just a second. Nothing much of anything.

But for just a second it would be like time didn't quite work - that the rules had been suspended, that there was no gravity, no nothing...and then the rest of the loop would pull them back into reality, gravity and speed flooding back.

She would never have thought that he and she could possibly be so alike, but up here and away from all of that it was clear that they were, in so many respects, twin souls.

His daredevil flying delighted her where it would have terrified others, and she couldn't explain the trust she felt for him other than to say that it was complete and total. Whatever he wanted to show her, she was excited to see.

That included the loop with its moment of heart stopping infinity when they reached the inverted apex only to defy gravity a moment longer than she thought they possibly could and soon enough it exerted its will on them and drew them back to the earth. But his deft handling of the craft left her only laughing through the thrill of it all.

Alas, fuel was beginning to run low - his uncle never brimmed the tank, not when he didn't have to - and he had to start making his way back to the farm, though he made sure to slough the craft from side to side as he descended, angling her over the dirt strip.

It was, to his surprise, the smoothest landing he'd ever managed - the Kaydet setting down with grace that defied her age and obsolescence, the tail slowly dropping as she came to a stop, the engine sputtering to a halt shortly afterwards. He hopped down from his perch with practised ease, moving to offer her help if she needed it. Not that he would ever say that, outwardly - but sometimes the first time took people a funny way, the legs not quite remembering they were back on the ground.

The flight was exhilarating, even when it slowed in what she understood to be the return arc. Something about it all just made sense to her even though she had no real understanding of how it worked on a technical level, it just felt right.

She avidly watched their descent with as much enthusiasm as she had their take off. Every aspect of this flight had been fascinating for her. This whole meeting had been more than she had anticipated or expected. And when he offered her a hand she took it to return the surprise, her knees were shaky, but that wasn't the reason she wrapped her arms and one leg around him.

Luke was drawn sharply to her for a kiss that was intended to give him the same feeling of weightlessness that the flight did.

One hand barely was able to press against the fuselage before he was drawn in, his world going from one thrill to another with absolutely nothing in between. Suddenly he was enveloped in her, the world focusing in on the heat of her lips, that leg around him and oh did she achieve her objective.

He took a deep breath after, blinking a few times.

"Wow, hi."

The smile she had when she drew back was exactly as mischievous as expected. She nodded at her own job well done.

"That was for changing how I see the world."

Maybe, in a small way, she'd returned the favor. But if she had or not, he'd shown he was unlike anyone she'd ever known before and Mara did dearly enjoy a good puzzle.

"You too busy to go for a coke?"

"Oh, he managed, a bit crookedly, blinking a few times. "And, uh, sure, just...give me a second to feel my legs again. Or my head."

He grinned, rubbing the back of his head.

"You're just a hurricane, aren't you?"

"Only fair, you left me breathless up there." She was definitely satisfied with his reaction given her own.

He had cokes there, he'd opened all this by offering her one. But she had a different plan in mind. "I'll pull my bike in here, you can lock up and drive." The twinkle in her eye might be dangerous.

"Uh, right, sure," he said, blinking a few times. She was very definitely in charge in this moment, and he was happy with it.

"Let's go."

Mara grinned, snapped her teeth at his nose, and eased away from him to do as she'd spoken. Her bike was walked into the garage and parked neatly out of the way.

She waited for Luke to get his car pulled out, and she slid herself into the front seat. "I was thinking I'd let you take me to the drive-in. I heard House of Wax is playing."

"Let me, huh?" he replied, liking approximately all of this. From the confidence, to the plan itself - to the way she climbed into a car.

"I think I can get behind that plan," he finished, putting the car into gear. And then, because he was in a particularly good mood, he switched into a passable impression of Vincent Price.

"Do hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride."

Mara laughed, there was no reserve on it. A deep, true laugh that somehow had just a hint of that same sparkle that lit up her eyes.

She slid over and wove her arm through his, holding on as suggested. "I'm ready if you are." She nosed along the outer shell of his ear.

"Now that you have my interest, it'll take more than a few bumps to shake me."

This is officially the best day ever. He grins, loving her closeness, the contact, and almost wanting to just forget about driving at all, but - hoo, ok.

"Definitely ready," he replied. "For whatever adventure this brings."

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un_handed - 2023-02-01 04:11 (UTC) - Expand

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from_twin_suns - 2023-02-07 03:20 (UTC) - Expand

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