nawilla

[nawilla]

Fic Excerpt: Yoda and Imp Share Memories

Happy Birthday @nanamitoamata

The holiday season was super busy at work so my writing was on hiatus. Trying to finish up Goblin Child over the holidays, but it will be a while before the chapter is done, so enjoy a little excerpt from it.

Yoda has just met Imp, a young Jedi student who remembers him from a past life

* * *

“Imp they call you,” Yoda chuckled.  “Very fitting that is.”

Imp shrugged.  “Sometimes.”

“Call you that in your old life they would have not,” Yoda told him.  “But a mischievous master you were.”

Imp stared at him a moment, then nodded.  “I thought I was a master.”  He seemed to appreciate the confirmation.

“Taught me many things about the Force you did,” Yoda told him as he returned his gaze to the puzzle.  Imp had found the pieces depicting one of Master Saazel’s eyes and had positioned them quite close to where they were supposed to go.  “My turn to teach you now, it is.”

Imp smiled, still looking at the puzzle.  “Thank you.  I remember a lot, but I know there is a lot I don’t remember.”  He sighed.  “And there is stuff I do remember but they keep saying I’m too young to do.”

“Hrrmm, how old you are?” Yoda asked.

“Five,” Imp admitted.  “And a quarter.”

Yoda laughed.  “Much older you were when last spoke we did.”

“You were much younger too,” Imp told him, filling in more facial features as both eyes came together.  “You had long, dark hair and more colorful robes and your skin was less wrinkly.”  He frowned.  “I must have been wrinkly instead, but I don’t remember what I looked like.”

“Yes,” Yoda nodded.  “Very old you were when die you did.  Missed very much you were but grateful we were that suffering you were not and rest you could.”

“Resting is boring,” Imp declared.

Yoda tsked at him gently.  “Necessary rest is.  Rest you will need if a good Jedi you are to be.”

“I sleep,” Imp explained.  “But I rested for a long time when I was dead.  He did too.  Both of us wanted to do things when we were alive again.”

Yoda’s expression was bittersweet, remembering both Imp and their mutual friend growing old and infirm.  “So many things no longer do you could.  So many things never do he could.  To enjoy a new life, you both deserved.”

Imp shrugged.  “Maybe.”  Being a Jedi wasn’t about deserving anything.  “Lifes are complicated.  There’s always a lot to learn.”

Yoda unsuccessfully stifled a laugh.  “Young you are now, pearls of wisdom you still have.”

Imp stared at him, slowly dissolving into giggles.  “No I don’t!” he got out between laughs.  “I don’t have pearls.  I’m just a kid.”  He covered his mouth, holding in peals of laughter.  “I have . . . blun beads of wisdom.”

Yoda blinked at him, and they both burst out laughing.  Blun beads were large wooden beads used in the creche to teach find motor skills by having the children string them or glue them into different arrangements.  They were often used to make simple necklaces or Night of Light decorations and were objectively much less expensive than pearls.

“Blun beads of wisdom,” Yoda chuckled, shaking his head.  “Still make creative metaphors you do.” 

Imp shrugged.  “I’ll have pearls when I’m old and wrinkly again.”

[nawilla]

A Little Behind

It's Christmas Day and I finally used this crochet kit I bought at ALDI this past fall.

Out of season, as usual.

[nawilla]

Climate change is a bitch. Wondering about the chemical composition of that rain and snow.

Bro I fucking hate December weather.

[nawilla]

Amazing and beautiful.

“🌸 Eleganza Artigianale 🌸 Questa splendida orchidea all’uncinetto, con i suoi delicati fiori bianchi e rosa e le foglie verdi realistiche, è un capolavoro di abilità e creatività. Perfetta per aggiungere un tocco di natura e raffinatezza a qualsiasi ambiente. 🌿✨”

#CrochetOrchid #HandmadeFlowers #Artigianato #OrchideaAllUncinetto #DecorazioniFatteAMano #EleganzaArtigianale #FioriAllUncinetto #CraftingJoy #HomeDecor #OrchidLovers

[nawilla]

Frankly I've always been curious why Padme never took it upon herself to have Shmi freed. Her son saved her planet and it's not like the planet was that far away. WTH Padme?

AU where queen Amidala gets hunted down by a Theed accountant and harangued into explaining the source of funding for this hypderdrive acquisition mentioned in the record of this mission with the Jedi because the expenditure isn't matching and what do you mean you don't know how to go about the reimbursement? Well, either we pay the Jedi to pay the lady, or we pay the lady directly and--yes, this IS as important as rebuilding the city! We get audited! Regularly!

We can't just not pay back the person who technically bought the--no, listen to me.

The kid won the race, yes? The bet that the Jedi made on the race won him his freedom. The winnings from the race, since he's a minor, would have gone to him under the control of his mother, even if it's a bit complicated because it's Hutt Space. His mother was therefore the one to provide the funds for our hyperdrive. From what you are saying, those winnings would have gone towards purchasing her freedom if they hadn't gone towards the hyperdrive, which we own, which means we need to reimburse her somehow. Otherwise it looks like we got money from nowhere--which we arguably did--and then the Republic's auditors, who are here to look over our reconstruction to ensure nobody is skimming from the top on the aid and reparations from the Trade Federation and will include the last several years of our government expenditures in that audit just to be safe, will flag it, and then you, Queen Amidala, will have to explain to the Republic why you basically stole money from a slave.

Oh, it's not stealing? Well, have you paid her back? Was it a tax or legal seizure of property in relation to a crime? No! It's stealing!

Fill out the reimbursement form.

[nawilla]

This is why I bought a bread machine instead of trying to bake bread with cats.

[nawilla]

You are being watched over and cared for on this cold winter night. Or not.

Furnace is dead until Monday so: electric space heaters. However.

why is this thing so stanced

[nawilla]

So many packages. No idea who sent what. Aunt Bug mentioned something arrived.

Also got a card from Cousin J and I put it in down on a box and it slipped off the back side and into a pocket universe. Will have to clean out that entire area of the house to find it but the lighting was poor there, so I'll deal with it later.

It's That Time of Year Again . . .

It's less than ten days until Christmas and it's the time of year of Mystery Amazon Packages!

I know I don't have any outstanding orders . . .

Maybe N the Cat ordered something?

[nawilla]

I may be an old fogey but I don't like this new-fangled math.

apeoijfa;sldk The new canon timeline, when spliced with Legends, actually puts Mace as only three years older than Xanatos

That is ludicrously funny to me.

[nawilla]

Lived this this morning. The week before Christmas. More work to do than hours to do it. Left work at 10:30 pm last night, came in at 7:30 am this morning. Sun was just peeking over the horizon when I got off the bus.

N the Cat is feeling seriously neglected despite the fact that I wrestled her into my lap to give her fluids as a precaution because she was acting antsy.

[nawilla]

Fanfic Writing

I know I haven't been writing lately. Work has been insane and I have more things to do than work hours to do them in each day. I'm white-knuckling it until the university holiday starts (technically on Monday but realistically Friday is the last official work day for a while.

I'm hoping to finish up Goblin Child over the holidays, but I honestly don't know what to work on in January. Any suggestions?

[nawilla]

It's That Time of Year Again . . .

It's less than ten days until Christmas and it's the time of year of Mystery Amazon Packages!

I know I don't have any outstanding orders . . .

Maybe N the Cat ordered something?

[nawilla]

Sounds like sound logic to me, LOL.

Mayhem has decided that the best way to drink from the Big's water dish (which is huge because they don't like it when their whiskers touch) is to just. Climb into it.

[nawilla]

Han Solo is a smuggler. He needs a vehicle that goes fast but is also inconspicuous and likely to be overlooked and underestimated. Not sleek and flashy, but with good bones, or in this case, engines. It's a stealth vehicle. The 'busted' look is by design.

Joking aside, the Millennium Falcon is not the space fantasy equivalent of a busted-ass old panel van.

The Millennium Falcon is the space fantasy equivalent of a busted-ass old panel van that's inexplicably been hot-rodded to have a top speed of 300 miles per hour, which is substantially funnier.

[nawilla]

Holiday Card Preview

I still haven't finished the Inktober Challenge (oops, but I WILL) but I did finally draw my holiday card for 2024.

Starring (the still alive) N the Cat!

Last year (the late) M the Cat was riding in Santa's sleigh, but I think (the still living) N the Cat would not be as forgiving of St. Nick coming down her chimney. The card is captioned 'Hope This Year is a Holiday Worth Sinking Your Teeth Into' or something to that effect.

[nawilla]

As a Gen Xer, I've been doing this for years, starting when I lived in an apartment. My hearing is okay, but not the best and I sometimes have trouble following speech in a noisy environment. Grad student apartment buildings are inherently a noisy environment. I also found I didn't LIKE the sound to be that loud.

I then later rented a room from someone with sensory processing issues who was convinced that if she just turned it up LOUDER it would make sense. It wouldn't, it would just keep me up at night. You could always tell who had used the TV last, because I was set it to about 3 or 4 and she would put it maximum. (She also decided every 4 months of so to visit the eye doctor only to be told her prescription was fine, it was her brain that was the issue and after 4 months she would forget and go again).

Now that I'm getting even older, I sometimes use subtitles on YouTube and the television, and sometimes I don't. I had cats (just one now). They don't need the tv/computer to be that loud and neither do I, even though it's just us in my standalone house. I just don't like things loud. (Current cat seems to be hard of hearing, so she might not care anymore).

ETA: the subtitles on the dvds of The West Wing SUCK. They talk so fast on that show and say so much I was having trouble following them, but the subtitles can't keep up. The subtitles follow the gist of what they are saying, but don't actually follow WHAT they are saying, so when I would hear 'line A' and read 'summary of line A' it got really confusing.

I actually find myself increasingly doing this too, and can think of the following possible reasons:

Actors are less likely now to have a long history of theater work and so routinely mumble their words.

The TV, laptop or phone speakers we now have are smaller and worse than previous generations of (non-flatscreen) televisions.

Sound effects, explosions and background music are now mixed higher than the voices. All these loud noises make people reduce the volume setting at home, and hence the volume of dialogue too.

The people working the sound department are less good at their job and rely on the automated machines rather than their ears.

People now watch TV and movies while looking at their phones, so flit back and forth between the two, and feel they can keep up with what's happening onscreen by glancing at the subtitles.

People also now have the option of playing at different speeds, so have grown used to watching at 1.5x speed or above to get through things quicker and be less bored. They can still easily follow the dialogue when doing this by using subtitles.

If watching with other people, there's always someone talking over the movie and making you miss bits.

Films are now routinely mixed in 5.1 and Atmos surround-sound for cinemas and home theaters instead of stereo (or, even better, mono). When this wide soundstage is folded down through a stereo player, it's possible the decisions made for volume levels for each of the elements in the wide soundstage create a murky stereo mix. Just guessing on this one.

The compressing of audio tracks for smaller file sizes for streaming and the internet might potentially worsen the detail of the audio quality, though again, I don't know enough about this to say for sure.

[nawilla]

Now these are cool!

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