#good big

[lamaenthel]

Good Big

Obi-Wan's morning meditation is interrupted by a little Togruta youngling who wants some attention.

|AO3|

Fandom: Star Wars

Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn

Total Word Count: 1,443

There is no emotion, there is peace.

Obi-Wan let his mind go as flat and tranquil as the surface of a still pond. It was imperative that he get his thoughts in order before his mission. He reached out, as Master Qui-Gon so often reminded him to do, to the Living Force; he surrounded himself with the soft, green whispers of the plants that echoed through the Room of a Thousand Fountains and used them to anchor himself to the present moment.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

Despite his best efforts to stay in the here and now, doubt crept in like a fog around his presence in the Force. It brought a sticky layer of apprehension with it; was it a warning from the Force about his mission, or something else? It was frustratingly omnipresent. It felt like eyes were watching him from the dark, like bubbles of a cailpeach were breaking upon the surface of a loch. There was no definitive scream of danger he could identify, just a vague sense of dread.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

Obi-Wan rolled his shoulders and straightened his spine. The feeling of being watched intensified and split off into something more tangible; he cracked open his eye and glanced to the right. A bush of aura blossoms shook and he heard a distinct, tiny, ekekeke noise come from somewhere within. He bit down a smile and pretended not to hear it. The bush growled and shook again, then an orange and blue blur launched from within the iridescent flowers and landed on him.

"Hi Bobi!" Ahsoka said, giggling madly. She settled on her back in his lap like a tooka begging for belly scratches and blinked up at him with her big, blue-rimmed porg eyes.

"Hello, mo nighean." Obi-Wan gently booped her nose. "Were you hunting me?"

"No," she said innocently. "Just, um, just making sure nobody else was." 

"How very thoughtful of you." Obi-Wan lifted her up, recrossed his legs, then settled her upright in his lap. "And who should we expect to come looking for you? Plo, or Vereixem?"

"Vereixem," she admitted. "I can be here, though. He put up the squashes for me."

"The squashes?" Obi-Wan rapidly searched his memory for what she could possibly be referring to. 

"Full of meats." She pointed straight up; Obi-Wan followed her finger to a blue sǫnkë squash with pink stripes hanging from a tree branch high above their heads. He squinted and thought he saw a sausage poking out of one of the hollowed-out sides. "He said I can hunt 'em. I'm not 'posed to hunt the birdies because it, um, it hurts 'em, even if I careful."

Obi-Wan was impressed by the creativity of the casualty-free enrichment activity for the tiny huntress. "Would you like to meditate with me? I've a very important mission to prepare for."

"What's a mission?" Ahsoka asked, tilting her head. 

"It's a task that the Council gives a Jedi when they're grown up," Obi-Wan replied. "I'm headed to Naboo. Have you ever heard of Naboo?"

"Naboo?" She slipped her chubby little hand behind his neck and played with his Padawan braid. "I like that name. Naboooo—"

"Yes, Naboo," Obi-Wan chuckled. "Perhaps I should bring you along. We can use your Empathy to make trade negotiations smoother, hmm?"

"Negoshins?" Ahsoka asked worriedly. Her face screwed up in thought. "I don't know what they is." 

"It's when people want to do things in different ways, but they can only do it one way," Obi-Wan explained. "So they have to talk it out and decide what's fair for everyone."

"Oh." Ahsoka still looked worried, but she raised her chin bravely. "If you, um, you need my help with 'em, then I help."

"It would make things easier, but I believe Master Qui-Gon and I will be able to handle them." Obi-Wan rested his chin between her montral nubs. "I leave in a few hours. Would you like to help me meditate, or would you prefer to keep hunting your squashes?"

"How long will you be gone?" Ahsoka asked, disappointment heavy in the Force around her.

"I don't expect the negotiations to take too long. A few days, perhaps."

"Then I can help you, with, um, do this." Ahsoka closed her eyes and matched his breathing. "There is no emotion, there is peace." 

"Good girl." Obi-Wan pressed a kiss between her montrals before he closed his eyes and allowed the Living Force to envelop him again; this time, with a small, purring anchor in his lap emanating happiness in a way that felt oddly… blue. "Is that you helping, mo nighean?" he asked her with a quiet chuckle.

"You wanted help, so I give you special 'Soka help," she said. She brushed his arm hair back and forth against the grain with careful little fingers. "I not pushin', don't worry."

"I didn't think you were pushing, dearest," Obi-Wan assured her.

" 'Cause we talked about it and you said it wasn't nice." Ahsoka craned her head back and looked at him upside down. "I don't push feelings anymore."

"That's because you're a very good girl who listens." Obi-Wan kissed her nose, making her giggle. "But why are you giving me special 'Soka help?"

Ahsoka reached up and gently touched the mole on his forehead. "You got all buzzy and… and, um, light. White, I mean. Why you nervous, Bobi?" 

Obi-Wan sighed. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I just have a feeling that something very big is about to happen."

"Bad big, or good big?"

Obi-Wan bit the inside of his cheek. "Both, I think," he said softly. "It's hard to say right now."

"I think it'll be good big," Ahsoka decided. "It's gonna be really, really good, and it'll make us smile and make us happy."

"I certainly hope so." Obi-Wan suddenly felt the strong urge for a nap, but its abruptness made him suspect that it wasn't an urge that belonged to him. "Are you tired, mo nighean?" 

"No," Ahsoka lied, yawning.

"Mmm. I think maybe you're a little more—"

"Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon's voice was so unexpected that it made him jump. "Didn't you tell me you were coming here to meditate?" 

"I did, Master," Obi-Wan said defensively, immediately blushing. "I got a bit… distracted, is all."

"Mmm. You seemed to have picked up a little tick again. I did warn you about going through the brush, did I not?" Qui-Gon's hair fell forward around his face as he bent over. "Hello, Ahsoka."

"Hi, Kai-Gon," Ahsoka said cheerily. Though her Basic had strongly improved since she had come to the Temple a year ago, she hadn't quite mastered the first syllable of his Master's name yet. 

"Are you distracting my Padawan, little one?" Qui-Gon put his hands out to pick her up. 

"No, I helpin'," she insisted, settling on his hip. "Special 'Soka help."

"Ah. The very best kind." Qui-Gon rubbed his nose against hers gently and made her laugh. "Vereixem asked me if I'd seen her when I arrived. Given that I knew you had come here to meditate, Obi-Wan, I had a feeling that she wouldn't be far." He looked down his nose at her knowingly. "It's nap time for you."

"Not tired!" Ahsoka protested, fighting not to yawn again.

Qui-Gon chuckled. "That, little tick, is a fight you'll have to have with Vereixem. Now say goodbye to Obi-Wan."

Ahsoka reached a hand down to Obi-Wan. "Bye, Bobi," she said sadly.

Obi-Wan kissed her fingers. "Goodbye, little one."

" 'Member, it's a good big." She waved at him over Qui-Gon's shoulder as he walked away with her, taking away the warm blue feeling of happiness with them.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the Force. By the time his Master returned, he'd begun to gently float a few inches off the ground. "So what is this, ah, good big I've heard about?" Qui-Gon asked lightly as he rejoined him.

"I'm not sure," Obi-Wan answered honestly. "I have a feeling things are going to change, Master, but I'm not sure for the better."

Qui-Gon crossed his legs on the ground across from him with a quiet grunt. Obi-Wan could tell by the way he leaned to the side that his back was bothering him today. "Stay in the present, Obi-Wan. The Force decides what will come next. All we can do is make sure that we are in the place where it needs us the most, and that we let it guide our hands when the time comes."

"Of course, Master." Obi-Wan bowed his head and ignored the way that the loch in his mind bubbled.

MÁOR-GRASTA TRANSLATIONS

Mo nighean: my girl

Cailpeach: an equine ambush predator that lives in lakes, native to Stewjon

MORE NOTES

Vereixim: Veh-RAY-shim

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @soliloquy-of-nemo

Dividers: @saradika-graphics

[najoni]

wanna do this so bad …

[kensatou]

MONKEY MAN (2024)

[sanguinarysanguinity]

Expanding a thought from a conversation this morning:

In general, I think "Is X out-of-character?" is not a terribly useful question for a writer. It shuts down possibility, and interesting directions you could take a character.

A better question, I believe, is "What would it take for Character to do X?" What extremity would she find herself in, where X starts to look like a good idea? What loyalties or fears leave him with X as his only option? THAT'S where a potentially interesting story lies.

In practice, I find that you can often justify much more from a character than you initially dreamed you could: some of my best stories come from "What might drive Character to do [thing he would never do]?" As long as you make it clear to the reader what the hell pushed your character to this point, you've got the seed of a compelling story on your hands.

[veronikablogs-blog]

[mantareidraws]

Giving battinson the big birb hug he so desperately needs 🫂

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[c-tepx]

honestly when I first saw this frame I thought "so laios is good at barking!"

but nope. literally a dog.

[verflares]

just how long is forever? // not long enough, with you

pssst. check this out on inprnt :]

[reasonsforhope]

"In one of Africa’s last great wildernesses, a remarkable thing has happened—the scimitar-horned oryx, once declared extinct in the wild, is now classified only as endangered.

It’s the first time the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest conservation organization, has ever moved a species on its Red List from ‘Extinct in the Wild’ to ‘Endangered.’

The recovery was down to the conservation work of zoos around the world, but also from game breeders in the Texas hill country, who kept the oryx alive while the governments of Abu Dhabi and Chad worked together on a reintroduction program.

Chad... ranks second-lowest on the UN Development Index. Nevertheless, it is within this North African country that can be found the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, a piece of protected desert and savannah the size of Scotland—around 30,000 square miles, or 10 times the size of Yellowstone.

At a workshop in Chad’s capital of N’Djamena, in 2012, Environment Abu Dhabi, the government of Chad, the Sahara Conservation Fund, and the Zoological Society of London, all secured the support of local landowners and nomadic herders for the reintroduction of the scimitar-horned oryx to the reserve.

Environment Abu Dhabi started the project, assembling captive animals from zoos and private collections the world over to ensure genetic diversity. In March 2016, the first 21 animals from this “world herd” were released over time into a fenced-off part of the reserve where they could acclimatize. Ranging over 30 miles, one female gave birth—the first oryx born into its once-native habitat in over three decades.

In late January 2017, 14 more animals were flown to the reserve in Chad from Abu Dhabi.

In 2022, the rewilded species was officially assessed by the IUCN’s Red List, and determined them to be just ‘Endangered,’ and not ‘Critically Endangered,’ with a population of between 140 and 160 individuals that was increasing, not decreasing.

It’s a tremendous achievement of international scientific and governmental collaboration and a sign that zoological efforts to breed endangered and even extinct animals in captivity can truly work if suitable habitat remains for them to return to."

-via Good News Network, December 13, 2023

[canisalbus]

✦ I've been saving all my summers for you ✦

[psychokatrixxxy]

Batfam AU

Damian was captured by some villain, and Dick just saved him.

Nightwing: Why didn't you send a distress signal? You could have gotten hurt. What if I didn't get here in time?

Robin: tt, stop your incessant nagging, Grayson. I can handle myself. Besides, I did send out a distress signal.

Nightwing: Really, cause I didn't get it, and neither did B.

Robin, realizing something: Ah, I believe I may have alerted someone else of my capture then...

Nightwing: who-

He's cut off as a red figure barrels through the window, shattering it.

Red Hood, guns cocked as he looks around the room: Who the fuck do I need to kill?

Robin, deadpan: Impeccable timing as always, Akhi.

[yourangle-yuordevil]

That time in ancient Greece when Aziraphale needed a speedy horse and accidentally invented the pegasus

VS.

Whatever Crowley had going on in medieval times

[irenablogsworld]

🔞click👇👇👇

[nikkinelson1313]

once upon a time