Yaaay, new chapter. I won't be too much of a jabberjaw in this short little author's note. I'm just here to thank those of you who reviewed, and ask everyone as a whole to review.
Enjoy!
Vivian sighed dramatically, flopping down on her bed and covering her face with her arms while her IPod pumped out songs from her mixed CDs.
Well...I cleaned the clothes and trash. Now I just need to get all this clutter cleaned up, Vivian thought to herself. She'd been cleaning her room for the past four hours, and now she sincerely regretted leaving the place as such a biohazard three weeks ago. She stared up at the bare white ceiling, deciding to take a little break.
She still had to put all of her possessions in their rightful places, wash the dishes that had collected dust and dead bugs in her absence, vacuum, dust…
Maybe she'd just do it tomorrow…
No, because if she put it off she would never get it done. And this needed to be done. She didn't think she could live like this—she'd nearly killed herself three times today alone trying to walk through her room. It needed cleaned: desperately.
Groaning, Vivian sat up to continue along with her cleaning, wishing she was done. She'd already ate dinner thankfully, so she'd be free to clean until she was done, and hopefully that would be soon.
Despondently she went about her task, doing her best to not really think about it. She dusted her two dark brown dressers, one tall one on the south wall and one long one on the west wall, her two light brown medium sized bookshelves placed side by side next to her bed on the north wall right under her three windows, and her white desk pushed up against the east wall. she pulled her old toybox—that was actually a clear tote with a white top—which still housed some toys off of the light blue rug in the middle of the cherrywood floor, taking the time to vacuum the rug before she put the toybox back, placing a black and multi colored spotted cloth over the lid so it would act as a coffee table. she put her nine inch wide, two inch deep red candy bow in the center, frowning at its lack of contents and making a note to get more sweets. She picked the mail and magazines out of her hot pink mushroom chair in the far northeast corner, putting the papers and magazines in their respective places and picking one of her fallen posters—her Star Wars original trilogy characters as a rock band one—off of the floor and putting it back up on its spot on the black walls.
Near the end of her cleaning, she cheered up since it was almost over and happily cleaned her dishes, finished her organizing, pulled her white curtains shut, and flopped onto the bed once more.
"Ouch!" she yelped as she landed on something hard. Then her eyes went wide. "Oh no!"
Frantically she scrambled off of the bed and whipped around, snatching her Luke action figure off the bed.
"Please be all right, please be all right, she mumbled as her nimble fingers quickly inspected the figure. Thankfully, she found no fault, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Good...I'd be devastated to have broken you," she said grimly.
She got on the bed much more carefully now, exhausted as she lay down, placing the Luke figure on her pillow with care even as her eyelids drooped lethargically. She happened to catch the time—about 9:00 at night—before her weariness caught up to her and she knew no more.
Vivian's mother came in at about 12:50 to yell at Vivian for still being up, but paused when she saw the girl passed out on her bed, not even under the covers, the vacuum cleaner still in the middle of the floor. With a sigh, Shana coiled up the wire and wheeled the vacuum out of the room, coming back in to tuck Vivian in. She rolled her eyes when she saw the little Luke figure on the pillow, but didn't displace him, waiting until after she'd tucked Vivian under the covers to put the figure right beside her hand, leaning it against the edge of the pillow. With a sigh, Shana made her way back to the ceiling fan light in the room and clicked the light off, moving carefully to the door and heading to bed herself.
She was peacefully dreaming, floating through the world of sleep on a cloud, surrounded by a comfortable darkness, when something lightly thwacked her nose. Vivian started awake, blinking her eyes and peering through the darkness for the source of what had woken her, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
Something moved.
Suddenly much more alert, Vivian started to sit up…and nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a soft thump and a distinct voice calling out a groggy protest of "Hey!" from below her.
Wait, below?
Vivian's eyes started to refocus, and she zeroed in on the visible white spot moving in the darkness. For a second, she thought mouse, but then…her eyes focused on the object…and the object started to take a familiar shape…
But…but…it shouldn't have been moving!
The little shape straightened, wobbling slightly as if it hadn't been expecting the surface it was standing on, before it looked up and clear, startling blue eyes met icy blue eyes.
Vivian's screech drowned out the figures yell of fright and shock, and on a pure reflex, Vivian's hand shot out and backhanded the tiny figure, sending it flying off of the bed and to the floor. There was a thud and a grunt of pain before it went quiet.
Well, except for the sound of footsteps approaching her door.
A few seconds later, while Vivian was still in shock and denial of what she'd just seen, her mother appeared, clicking on the light. "Vivian? Vivian, what's wrong?" Shana said in apparent alarm.
"N…nothing, I just…I saw a…a mouse. A mouse landed on my nose and woke me up," Vivian stuttered, eyes still wide. "It scared me and I…I backhanded it…I don't know where it is now…but it's gone. I'll be okay. We need to get a cat."
Shana stared at her, and then shook her head with a sigh. "I know, we do, don't we? Well…go back to sleep. You probably scared it enough that it won't bother you anymore."
Vivian nodded avidly. "Thanks, Mom."
Shana clicked off the light and left the room, and Vivian waited for several heartbeats for all to be silent in the house again to reach over and snag her phone off of the dresser, turning on the flashlight app and shining it down on the floor like a spotlight.
Vivian swept her makeshift spotlight across the floor, searching desperately before she finally spotted a tiny motionless figure on the ground.
Did I just imagine it?
Vivian slipped out of the bed, and as she got closer…she realized the tiny figure was far, far too realistic. Her heart stopped for a second and she reached out a shaking hand to poke the soft white fabric, even feeling the warmth of skin. She squeaked in surprise, but much softer this time as she poked the motionless figure again.
Except this time it stirred, and she jumped.
Slowly, the little figure pushed itself onto his elbows with a grunt, putting a hand to its head. "Ow…my head…did I fall out of bed or something? Maybe it was that nightmare…" Vivian stared at the little figure in shock as it spoke and sat up, looking around and shielding its eyes with its back to her. The figure froze, seeming to experience an episode of shock like Vivian kept having. "What the…"
It turned around, and a three and a half, four inch tall Luke Skywalker looked up to see a very surprised Vivian. He shouted in alarm, but Vivian tossed her phone to the bed and scooped him up into her hands, muffling the sound as she practically leapt back into her bed, shaking with wide eyes staring at nothing as she felt little hands pounding in obvious terror against her palms. She simply stayed frozen like that for a few moments, trying to register what she was seeing, feeling, and hearing.
Her…her Luke Skywalker action figure…was alive. And freaking out in her hands.
He was freaking out? She was freaking out! Her little toy just came to life! To life!
"Ouch!" she yelped as something sharp broke skin, and she reflexively dropped the little Luke, hearing him grunt before he scrambled to his feet and darted for the edge of the bed. Vivian reached out and grabbed him again by the back of his shirt. "Did you just bite me?"
Luke's feet kicked futilely in the air, and he didn't even look at her. "Let me go!" he cried out, seeming to reach for…wait, wasn't that where he kept the lightsaber normally? Luke appeared to have a new panic attack when he didn't find the weapon, and he tried twisting and turning in her grip. "What's going on? Get me out of here! Ben!"
"Keep your voice down, you're going to get the others in here," Vivian hissed, and the little Luke finally looked at her.
"What do you want from me? Are you going to eat me or something?" Luke asked in fright. "How did I even get here? I was on a ship! In space!"
Vivian stared dumbfounded at him for a second, at a loss for words. "I'm not going to eat you! What's wrong with you?" she asked in obvious disgust.
"I'm sorry, a giant just whisked me away magically to their lair, what am I supposed to think?" Luke snapped impatiently, though he was obviously still scared.
"I'm not a giant, and I didn't bring you here! You're just…tiny. And I don't know how you're even real!"
"Of course I'm real, it's you who shouldn't be real!" Luke protested in a sudden spark of anger. Vivian frowned.
"No, a few hours ago you were a toy I bought in a store. How are you real?"
"A-a-a toy?" Luke sputtered. "I'm not a toy, I'm a person, a living, breathing, free-thinking person! Now let me go!"
"Look, I'm just as confused as you, but all this fussing isn't going to help anything," Vivian scolded him. "And I still can't believe you bit me!"
Luke scowled, folding his arms over his chest. "Will you at least…please…put me down?"
Vivian blinked. "Right…sorry…you were just about to go over the edge of the bed…" she said bashfully, lowering him to the bed with care. Luke's arms shot out so he could catch his balance on the strange surface, and Vivian re-adjusted her phone light, placing it behind him so it wouldn't blind him but Vivian could still see him.
It really was Luke Skywalker! Down to the slight dusting of dirt on his clothes and the slight smear on his cheek. Luke adjusted his shirt in agitation, which had slid up while she held him.
"Wow…" she whispered.
"What?" Luke asked subconsciously, rubbing at his face like he expected something to be there. Vivian laughed.
"No, no, there's nothing wrong with you, just…wow, you're real. Tiny, but real!"
"I'm not tiny, I'm just over 1.72 meters tall!" Luke protested. Vivian smiled at him.
"Well, right now you're only as tall as my hand. Normally you'd be my height."
Luke gave up on trying to stand and plopped down, looking up at her with an expression that seemed dejected in her opinion. "Why am I even here? How am I here? I was on my way to Alderaan with Ben on Han Solo's piece of junk ship. And I can't find my father's lightsaber! I can't lose that!"
Vivian bit her lip. "Well…I don't know why you're here either. Maybe the Force has something to do with it? I don't know. But…maybe when you became real the little accessories did to—and your father's lightsaber was one of the accessories…"
Vivian carefully shuffled off of the bed, apparently still unsuccessfully as she heard Luke give a soft ooph when the bed shifting weight threw him off balance. Poor guy. She picked her way blindly through her room, sincerely glad that she'd cleaned it now and knew exactly where she'd put the two accessories in question. Normally it would have taken her forever to find the items in the dark, but thankfully that wasn't the case right now.
As soon as Vivian touched the first of the two, the binoculars, she knew that they had become real as well. Very tenderly, she scooped the binoculars into her hand, and then picked up the lightsaber as if it was made of glass, returning to the bed and setting them before Luke. The young man noticeably wilted in relief when he saw the lightsaber, taking it from her hand first.
"Oh, good, it's all right," Luke said with a sigh, turning the lightsaber over in his hand before he hooked the lightsaber onto his belt. An awkward silence followed as he took the binoculars, and they both sat there for a few moments, not looking at each other.
"So…" Vivian said, glancing at him.
"Are you sure this isn't a dream or something? I mean…I already had enough going on before this," Luke stated, gesturing around them. Vivian reached out and poked him, and he jumped. "Hey, what was that for?"
"Just making sure you were real again," Vivian said with a blush. "I'm pretty sure this isn't a dream."
Luke scowled again, getting to his feet and looking around in silence for a few moments. Eventually, he turned back to her. "I'm…ah…I'm Luke by the way. Luke Skywalker."
Vivian gave him a slight smile. "I know who you are, Luke. I'm Vivian Spivy," she stated, offering him a finger, which he hesitantly accepted, placing his entire hand on the tip of her finger and shaking it.
"Um…no offense, Vivian, but how do you know me? I'm not anyone special," Luke said dubiously. Vivian snorted, coughing and blushing at the look he gave her.
"Sorry, that's just…funny to me…" she said, and Luke scowled once more. Vivian stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, you're a whole lot more special than I am, Mr. Grumpy Skywalker," she retorted.
"How old are you?" Luke asked wryly.
"Nearly eighteen, thank you," Vivian sniffed. "I'm just roughly a year younger than you."
Luke rolled his eyes, crawling up her leg to get closer, probably so she could hear him better. "You still haven't answered my question—how do you know me? And how am I a toy to you?"
"Well…" Vivian said slowly, looking over at the Star Wars rock band poster she'd put back up earlier. "I believe you are in the wrong universe. Maybe just the wrong galaxy, but either way, you're not where you're supposed to be. Cause here, you are just a story, a huge movie or holofilm series would be what you call it, entertainment—not real. Well…in your rightful universe, galaxy, whatever it is, you're one hundred percent real. Here…no, just fantasy."
Luke stared at her, wide eyed. "How is that even possible? And I'm in a holofilm series? My life isn't even that interesting, it's just sand, sand, and more sand!"
"But it has started to get interesting now, hasn't it son of Anakin Skywalker Jedi Knight?" Vivian said pointedly, arching an eyebrow at him. Luke sat up straighter.
"You know about my father?" he said, suddenly rapt with attention and eager. Vivian smiled at him.
"I know a lot about you and your father. The series you're a part of is a seven movie series so far. You're the main character of three, your father is the main character of three, and there's a new trilogy I don't know much about beyond the one movie, but there's a girl called Rey that's the main character of those three. Unless they're going to switch it up on us. I wouldn't be surprised."
Luke gazed at her with wide eyes, drinking in her words. "Three? It must be quite the adventure I'm on…isn't it?"
Vivian smiled at him. "Yes it is." She hid a yawn, stretching. "However, it's…Holy Cow, it's four in the morning. This can wait until after I've slept."
Luke leaned back. "I'm wide awa—ah!"
Vivian had to hide a laugh as he toppled backwards off of her knee, landing in a heap on her bunched up comforter. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Luke said, voice muffled as he practically swam out of the comforter.
"Well, if you're wide awake, I can let you down to wander the room until you're tired."
"But won't you be asleep by the time I'm ready for bed?" Luke asked pointedly.
Vivian shrugged, swinging around. "I can stay up long enough to get you a temporary bed made, just give me a few moments…"
She snatched her phone off of the bed, leaving Luke to protest at being left to navigate her comforter in the darkness while she started poking around the room. She found two large bandanas, folding them up a few times and stacking them on top of each other to make a mattress of sorts that was Luke's size. She knelt down by her bookshelf, setting the 'mattress' on the bottom shelf before she stood again, rifling in her jewelry drawers for her wrist sweatband she won at a school fair a while back and the unused handkerchief her mother had bought for her for who knew what reason. With those two items, Vivian returned to the makeshift bed, placing the wrist sweatband down as a pillow and folding the handkerchief once and lying it down to act as a sheet.
It was summer, and her room was the hottest in the house. Besides, Luke was used to the heat.
Vivian stood once more, going back to the bed and holding out her hand. Luke stared at her for a few moments before he realized what she was silently asking him to do, and she lowered her hand for him to climb on, lifting him up and transporting him to the ground by the bed. "Is that good enough, or will you need another layer?"
Luke looked a little apprehensively at the pieced together bed but climbed off of her hand and into the bed, testing it out. "It should be fine. If not, I'll tell you in the morning."
Vivian nodded. "All right. I'll try to make it a little easier for you to travel around, but no guarantees," she told him, getting up to open the drawers of her dressers strategically so that Luke could potentially climb up and down them to get to the surfaces. "And I don't mind you using the lightsaber as a glow stick—just don't slice up anything."
Luke snorted. "Well, I'll try. No guarantees," Luke returned with a small smile.
Vivian rolled her eyes, climbing back into the bed and shutting off her phone light. "I'll be heading to bed now. I'll see you when I wake up. Maybe. I would hate for this to be a one night thing and then sleep through it."
"That would be terrible, but I think you'll be fine," Luke commented. Vivian smiled, closing her eyes, though she had to open her eyes and look when she heard the sound of Luke's lightsaber activating.
She instantly saw the source of the soft blue light, and a thrill went through her to see an activated, working lightsaber. And the infamous Skywalker lightsaber, nonetheless.
Vivian warmed on the inside, and she simply watched Luke wander with lightsaber held high for a few minutes before she couldn't stay awake much longer, and she slipped off into sleep.
Everything is so big!
He'd thought he'd felt small on Tatooine, or out among the stars for the first time, but now…
Luke carefully trod along the soft blue carpet bare-footed—he'd taken off his boots and utility belt and set them by the foot of the bed—and couldn't help but think of how, at his current size, the carpet was more like acres upon acres of blue land.
He was, admittedly, a little tired. He'd been lying down to go to bed, just dozing off, when this entire…ordeal had happened.
A different universe…a universe where his life was a movie series. His, of all people. So how could he rest, when he got the chance to poke around this different universe?
Luke spotted one of the dressers Vivian had toyed with on his right, and he started to make his way towards it.
The entire tossing him across the room thing aside, Vivian was actually rather attractive. Well…for a giant. At least she was a giant to him—she had said that if they were both normal size they would be the same height.
Luke turned off the lightsaber so that he could use both hands, taking hold of the handle on the frond and pulling himself up to it, standing upon it and reaching up to the top of the drawer. He pulled himself up to the top of it, then walked along the edge with care, one foot in front of the other, to begin the process again for the next two drawers. It took him a while, but eventually he made it to the top where he stretched.
I think I'm only going to climb one tonight. It's like climbing a small mountain, Luke thought to himself. And this was the short one—I couldn't imagine trying for the tall one tonight as well. Now that I'm here…what's up here?
Luke reactivated his lightsaber, holding it high once more. He frowned at what he saw, seeing what looked like toy containers lying on his left and rows of other containers in front of him with strange lettering all over it. Luke frowned, studying the characters and trying to make heads or tails of it. However, he only ended up frustrated, unable to understand.
Though when he came to one wider container, Luke paused. He might not be able to read the lettering, but he did recognize the Tatooine desert painted onto the container. Quickly, Luke took hold of both sides, pulling the container out and shuffling over to look at the cover. He started, staring at the image there.
It was the homestead, complete with the setting double suns. But what made him start was the two figures right at the center. One was clearly him, walking out towards the double suns. Though he didn't recognize the smaller child walking away from the double suns.
This…this right here in front of him…it must have been the holofilms Vivian spoke of. Luke studied the cover in wonder, though eventually he thought of how she had said three holofilms were about him, three about his father.
Could the younger boy walking away from the double suns be his father?
Excitement gripped Luke, and he sat down, simply gazing at the image in front of him. Time slipped by unnoticed for him, but when his eyes began to droop, Luke forced himself to stand and back away from the container.
He could look at it more tomorrow…he would learn plenty more tomorrow anyway with Vivian's help, if she had been honest. He hoped she had.
Carefully, Luke jumped into the clothes inside of the drawer, making his way to the edge and climbing out to sit on the top of the drawer and drop into the one right below. He continued the process several times, making gradual progress down the dresser little at a time before his feet hit the solid ground, and Luke made his way back to the bookshelves.
Again, he looked at his makeshift bed dubiously. It wasn't a real bed, but then again, it was better than nothing. Though perhaps they would be able to make something better. Perhaps.
Carefully, Luke climbed onto the bottom shelf, getting into the bed and snuggling under the handkerchief sheet. The wrist sweatband wasn't that comfortable of a pillow, but again, it would do for now. Luke got as comfortable as he could, wondering if back in his universe, Ben and the others had realized he was missing, or if time had frozen.
He sincerely hoped time had frozen. If he was on the path of an adventure worth several holofilms, then he definitely didn't want to miss any of it.
Dreams of grandeur danced in his head—of saving the galaxy, the princess on the tape, joining the rebellion, becoming a Jedi—and acted as his lullaby for the night as he gradually drifted off into sleep.
