#road to lira san

[nimata-beroya]

(ID in alt text)

It's time for bringing back my first Kalluzeb fic ever ☺️ The series is not near finish but I'm working on it slowly. Someday they'll get to Lira San.

RECRUITMENT

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: None

Words: 3556

Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios

Characters: Alexsandr Kallus, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Jun Sato

Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Scenes between episodes and post series finale, Canon-Typical Violence, Author's knowledge of canon is seriously lacking so beware, Missing Scene, canon compatible

Series: Part 1 of Road to Lira San

Summary: Commander Sato orders Captain Orrelios to meet a new informant.

More fics: here and here

Garazeb walks into the command center of the Chopper base in Atollon, and finds Commander Sato alone, waiting for him.

"D'ye wanna see me, Sir?"

"Yes. I have a solo mission for you, Captain Orrelios."

Zeb looks at Sato with wide eyes, unable to hide his reaction to the unexpected news. Since joining the Phoenix Squadron, he goes on missions along with the Ghost crew, or at least, is partnered with some of the Spectres; seldom, not to say never, alone. "What mission, Commander?"

"A defector from the Empire has contacted us, claiming to have valuable information, but he's willing to deliver it only in your hands."

"Why me? Who's this person?"

"I was hoping that you could shed some light on the identity of the defector. Maybe you know this individual."

"I don't know any Imps," Zeb says. Except for Agent Kallus, Zeb's mind points out. Nah, it can't be 'im. Or can he?

"From what I could tell, and by the way he expressed himself, it's a high-ranked officer, but I could figure out nothing else."

Again, Zeb's thoughts wander to the ISB agent, who maybe heeded his suggestion to look for the truth of the Empire's tyranny. There's a chance that what Zeb said to Kallus had a lasting impression on the man, enough to make his allegiance to wave in favor of the rebellion. Zeb almost wishes it so, but he'd rather not get his hopes up. Besides, mentioning the Imperial agent now would force Zeb to confess to Sato what actually happened on the Geonosian frozen moon. To be honest, the idea holds no appeal to him. He hasn't told anyone about that night, not even his Ghost family. "Dunno whatta tell ya, Commander. I've no idea who could be," he says, scratching the back of the head with his claws.

"Even so, the mission stands. Your job is to go to the given coordinates to retrieve the intel, and extract the individual if he wishes so."

Zeb is willing to do this job, but he has doubts about being the right person for it. He's not a spy, but give him bucketheads to bash and he could do it all day long. Not to mention that almost-extinct, purple-furred Lasats tend to stand out in any crowd. Stealth is hardly his strongest suit. He says as much to the Commander.

"It has to be you, Orrelios. The contact was adamant in the terms for the in-person delivery, negotiations via holo won't do, and we cannot lose this opportunity. I've seen what you and the rest of Captain Syndulla's crew are capable of, even when circumstances put you out of the comfort zone. I have full confidence in your ability to carry out this mission without a hitch."

Keep reading

[bearboyboy]

‘I Know a Place’ by Conan Grey is THE ‘on the road to Lira San’ song.

[mymblesbuir]

@kalluzebcreatorclub Holiday Exchange gift :D

Summary: Kallus knew that Zeb wouldn't have invited him to Lira San if he wasn't deeply sure he wanted him there. He just couldn't shake the persistent feeling that he shouldn't be there. In which Zeb and Kal (who continues to feel guilty and uncertain about his place in Zeb's life) are still dancing around their feelings for each other when they first settle on Lira San, but an upcoming romantic festival -- along with some comments from Chava -- finally spurs them to have the conversation.

Rating: T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Category: M/M | Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels | Words: 1796

Relationship: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios

Tags: Planet Lira San, Getting Together, Alexsandr Kallus Has Issues, Forgiveness, Lasat Culture and Customs, First Kiss

[guyclement]

URBEX Guy Clément LA MAISON DU VILLAGE ABANDONNEE VIDEO - Merci de vous abonner, c'est gratuit, et cela m'encourage! Thank you for subscribing, it’s free, and it encourages me! Une exploration en Sicile, dans le Village Fantôme, Borgo Borezllino, situé sur la route de Palerme à Sciacca. L'ancienne voie de Camporeale à Palerme aussi abandonnée et jamais mis en fonctionnement est à proximité. Construit entre 1940 et 1941 mais jamais terminé, un investissement de 1 580 000 lires. Vous avez 6 bâtiments de la mairie, la poste, le commissariat, école, trattoria, boutiques d’artisans, logement pour les employés. A l'issue de  sa construction, de nombreuses interventions d’entretien eurent lieu, pour la réparation des dommages de guerre et pour le remplacement de matériaux structurels de mauvaise qualité. Un projet, de transformer le village en un centre touristique été à l'étude par les élus, sans concrétisation... An exploration in Sicily, in the Ghost Village, Borgo Borezllino, located on the road from Palermo to Sciacca. The old road from Camporeale to Palermo also abandoned and never put into operation is nearby. Built between 1940 and 1941 but never completed, an investment of 1,580,000 lire. You have 6 buildings of the town hall, post office, police station, school, trattoria, craft shops, accommodation for employees. At the end of its construction, numerous maintenance interventions took place, for the repair of war damage and for the replacement of structural materials of poor quality. A project, to transform the village into a tourist center studied by the elected officials, without concretization... Una exploración en Sicilia, en el Pueblo Fantasma, Borgo Borezllino, situado en la carretera de Palermo a Sciacca. La antigua vía de Camporeale a Palermo tan abandonada y nunca puesta en funcionamiento está cerca. Construido entre 1940 y 1941 pero nunca terminado, una inversión de 1.580.000 liras. Usted tiene 6 edificios del ayuntamiento, el correo, la comisaría, escuela, trattoria, tiendas de artesanía, alojamiento para los empleados. Al final de su construcción, se llevaron a cabo numerosas intervenciones de mantenimiento, para la reparación de los daños de guerra y para la sustitución de materiales estructurales de mala calidad. Un proyecto, para transformar el pueblo en un centro turístico que fue estudiado por los elegidos, sin concretar... Un'esplorazione in Sicilia, nel Villaggio Fantasma, Borgo Borezllino, situato sulla strada da Palermo a Sciacca. L'antica via da Camporeale a Palermo anche abbandonata e mai messa in funzione è nelle vicinanze. Costruito tra il 1940 e il 1941 ma mai completato, un investimento di 1.580.000 lire. Hai 6 edifici del municipio, ufficio postale, commissariato, scuola, trattoria, negozi di artigianato, alloggio per i dipendenti. Al termine della sua costruzione ebbero luogo numerosi interventi di manutenzione, per la riparazione dei danni di guerra e per la sostituzione di materiali strutturali di scarsa qualità. Un progetto, di trasformare il villaggio in un centro turistico estate in studio da parte dei rappresentanti eletti, senza concretizzazione... Исследование на Сицилии, в Ghost Village, Borgo Borezllino, расположенный на дороге из Палермо в Sciacca. Старая дорога из Камореале в Палермо также заброшена и никогда не вводилась в эксплуатацию. Poszukiwanie Sycylii, w Wiosku Duchów, Borgo Borezllino, znajduje się na drodze z Palermo do Sciacca. Stara droga z Camporeale do Palermo również opuszczona i nigdy nie oddana do użytku jest w pobliżu. Zbudowany w latach 1940-1941, ale nigdy nie ukończony, inwestycja 1,580,000 lirów. Masz 6 budynków ratusza, poczta, posterunek policji, szkoła, trattoria, sklepy rzemieślnicze, zakwaterowanie dla pracowników. Pod koniec jego budowy miały miejsce liczne interwencje konserwacyjne, w celu naprawy szkód wojennych i wymiany materiałów konstrukcyjnych słabej jakości. Projekt, aby przekształcić wieś w centrum turystyczne badane przez wybranych urzędników, bez betonowania... Построена между 1940 и 1941 годами, но так и не завершена, инвестиции составили 1580000 лир. У вас есть 6 зданий мэрии, почтового отделения, полицейского участка, школы, траттории, ремесленных магазинов, жилья для сотрудников. В конце его строительства были проведены многочисленные ремонтно-эксплуатационные работы, связанные с устранением ущерба, нанесенного войной, и заменой строительных материалов низкого качества. Проект, чтобы превратить деревню в туристический центр, изученный избранными чиновниками, без конкретизации... Retrouvez-moi sur les réseaux / Follow me for daily content: 👍 Facebook:  Urbex Guy Clement  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... 👉 Youtube  URBEX Guy Clément  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhQ... 📸 Instagram:  @abandoned.urbex.world  https://www.instagram.com/abandoned.u...     🎵TikTok: @urbexguyclement https://www.tiktok.com/@urbexguycleme...     🐦Twitter: @GuyPellegrin https://twitter.com/GuyPellegrin   #amazing #lostplace #urbex

[spectres-fulcrum]

I'm not saying The Joker and the Queen off of Ed Sheeran's new album is literally one of the most Kalluzeb love songs ever but it captures the Yavin IV stage of feeling like Kal doesn't deserve to have Garazeb because of Lasan we've all written/thought about.

"How was I to know? It's a crazy thing. I showed you my hand and you still let me win." I mean, pretty self explanatory. It is crazy, the way they ended up entwined, even if their ending is solely platonic. How they started and how they ended. And Zeb, out of anyone, knows what Kallus did. What the results were, as one of the few survivors. He knew Kallus, but he still let him in. Prodded him, called him a friend when everyone was hesitant. And when Kallus was allowed to be his own person, as a rebel, caught feelings. Knowing who he had been, but letting him in. Letting himself fall for Alexsandr.

"And who was I to say this was meant to be? The road that was broken brought us together." Broken road is an understatement. Their road were both on fire, unknowingly entwined years ago, lit by a weapon in Kallus' hand. They fought to kill, argued to wound in the deepest part. But an intersection of that road was prophesized long ago, as the Child and his Warrior. Kallus didn't know, and wouldn't know until Zeb takes him to Lira San, about the prophecy they unknowingly played out, but it still felt like they were meant to be brought together, despite their terrible past.

"And I know you could fall for a thousand kings. And hearts who could give you a diamond ring. When I fold, you see the best in me. The joker and the queen." Kallus sees Zeb as a reminder of everything good that he forced himself to forget, after Onderon. After the death of his troopers. And he deserves so much more than Kallus. Kallus, who did the bidding of the Empire. Who killed his people. He deserves someone who isn't tarnished-kings and hearts and diamonds. But yet, when Kallus folded, when he betrayed the Empire, Zeb saw the best of him. Saw flecks of honor when he said he won his bo rifle. And gave him a chance of start anew. And Zeb didn't seen him as tarnished, but loved him. Loved him because of who he was on Yavin. And on every planet after Yavin. It didn't matter where they went, Zeb's love never changed.

"I was upside down from the outside in. You came to the table and you went all in. With a single word and a gentle touch, you turned a moment into forever." Kallus was. Upside down from the outside in. He was betraying himself. But Zeb tried hard with him. He wasn't gentle, but with one night he had Kallus questioning everything. That night turned into the best decision he made. Turned into forever. And that forever, had Zeb right next to him, everyday the Alliance allowed them to be. Until the war ended and they could choose where to go, where to love.

"When I folded, you saw the best in me." I like the change in the last chorus, to the past tense. Like they're more solid, he's not folded anymore but they still love each other. Zeb still sees the best in Kallus, but now Kallus sees what Zeb sees him in.

Okay, it's past bedtime but I LOVE this song. It kinda reminds me of Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince by Taylor Swift which reminds me of like Fulcrum era them??? Like TGINTF on AO3 where they're talking after Bahryn/kinda flirting/dating and it's the only thing getting Kal through the craziness of losing faith in the Empire(No cameras catch my muffled cries/I counted days, I counted miles/ To see you there/It's been a long time coming but/it's you and me that's my whole world).

[bifinmediasres]

So my husband's been playing Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and well my hand slipped:

4 ABY

Zeb and Alex sat in the kitchen of their home on Lira San enjoying a quiet cup of caffe before their children woke up for the day. Zeb watched his husband over the rim of his mug as he took one last large gulp. 

Swallowing he asked, "Anymore ships stopped in at the new transit hub that just got built you know of?"

Alex shook his head, "Not since that monstrosity from Latero came in the other day."

Zeb laughed gruffly, "That 'monstrosity' is a Lateron luxury yacht."

Alex drained his mug and shrugged, "It's ugly."

Zeb stood and took both of their mugs to the sink, "You're just hung up on freighters."

Alex crossed the room to join his husband, slowly wrapping his arms around Zeb's waist, "And whose fault is it that I'm so fond of a certain freighter? Hmm?"

Zeb leaned forward pressing their lips together and kissing him before grinning, "Hera's?"

Alex leaned back and swatted Zeb's chest playfully. He was about to say something else but a shrill cry rang through the house suddenly. 

Alex sighed, "Ziri's awake. I better go get him up before he drives his sister to distraction."

"Good thinking," Zeb smiled stroking his husband's cheek quickly, "I'll start on breakfast."

He watched his love turn and walk out of the kitchen before setting about preparing his children's meal. Just as he was finishing chopping up some fruit, there was a knock at the front door. It wasn't loud, but it was persistent, grabbing Zeb's attention. 

Wiping his hands he called, "Comin'! One minute!"

He entered the main room at the same time as Alex who was carrying Ziri, their year old son. Hearing the continued knocking Alex mused, "Who could that be? Ziri did you invite friends over?" Alex tickled the kit's stomach eliciting a chirping giggle. Zeb grinned at the kit before moving across the room to open the door.

"Hul-lo?" Zeb greeted the empty porch. He moved to look out the door and nearly fell as a droid darted through the doorway and between his feet. 

Alex instinctively stepped back and moved Ziri away from the droid despite the kit's insistent attempts to grab at it.

"No baby," Alex cautioned before turning to his spouse, "Garazeb? Where did this...BD unit I believe it is...come from?"

Zeb shrugged scratching his head as he watched the droid circle his mate and his child, all the while beeping frantically. At that moment their daughter entered the main room rubbing one eye and yawning. "Morning," she yawned. Addressing Zeb she beamed, "Papa I dressed me!" As if to emphasize this, the kit spun in a circle, holding the edge of her dress out in front of her. Before Zeb could do more than grin, she stopped spinning and caught sight of the droid, "Oooh! He's so cute! Dada can we keep him? He's just like Chop-Chop!"

Alex huffed from his spot where he was still being circled by the droid, "We most certainly are not. Chopper is bad enough when he's here."

Zeb laughed gruffly, "Aww c'mon! I bet Chop would like a little buddy." No sooner than Zeb had finished speaking, the droid stopped its investigation of Alex's feet and dashed back out the door Zeb had left open. 

The toddler immediately followed after giggling, "Wait for me!" 

Zeb just failed to grab her as she scampered past him. Looking back at Alex and Ziri he sighed, "I'll get her, one minute." Running out after her he yelled, "Lydal Wren Orrelios you get your behind back here!"

He needn't have yelled though. Both the kit and the droid had stopped just a few yards from the edge of the porch. The BD unit had begun spinning in circles again, this time emitting a patterned series of beeps. Lydal stood by watching and giggling. Both Zeb and Alex, still holding Ziri, watched from the porch for a few moments.

Suddenly a voice called out from down the dirt road, "There you are! I wondered where you'd gone!" 

The BD unit sped off to meet the owner of the voice, a human of average height and build from what Zeb could see, with reddish brown hair. When he'd come a bit closer the droid proceeded to scale his back where it settled hanging on to the poncho the man wore. 

"Comfy?" The man asked. The BD unit chirped in response. "Good," the man grinned. 

He turned to the kit and was about to address her when Zeb called out, "Lydal, come inside love."

This drew the man's attention up to the house. Raising an arm in greeting, he smiled at Zeb who'd stepped down from the porch, "Good morning! Could you possibly help me with something?" 

"Depends," Zeb responded skeptically as he scooped up his daughter, "What is it you need?"

The man nodded slowly, "I'm looking for someone. Mr. …?"

"Orrelios," Zeb supplied. 

"Captain!" Lydal chirped and both adults smiled.

"Once upon a time my little love," Zeb agreed rubbing her back continuing, "Both my mate and I, but we're retired now. We have a family," Zeb nodded to indicate Alex who was coming down the path to join them, but the man didn't seem to notice. 

"You were both captains?" The man asked clearly getting excited. Zeb nodded as the man continued, "Rebellion captains? Then you definitely know the person I'm looking for."

"Well if you give me a name I can try to help you out," Zeb answered as he turned and walked up the path to meet Alex and handed Lydal off to him.

The man followed and seemed about to respond until he stopped in his tracks, eyes glued on Alex. Zeb turned to look at him and then, taking in his expression, turned to Alex. To his surprise Alex appeared to be in a similar state of shock staring back at the man. Neither moved or spoke for several moments. 

Finally, Alex found his voice asking, "Cal? Is it really you?"

Cal smiled nodding, "Hey big brother. Long time huh?"

[nimata-beroya]

I failed to post the last 2 weeks because I was sick (Fuck Covid 😠), but I'm ok now, so back to introducing my darling babies ☺️☺️ It's the turn of someone new!!! I've mentioned her before in the passing while talking about Orys, but I think it's fair that you all meet:

NASSA LUVIRA

Personal Information

Species: Human.

Born: 29 BBY.

Height: 1.33 meters.

Hair Color: Brown.

Eye Color: Amethyst.

Build: Lean.

Tattoos / Scars: Family tattoo under her left eye.

Biography

She and her mother were refugees on Coruscant after Separatists conquered their homeworld, Checcond. But tragedy followed them to their new home, and Nassa was left an orphan when her mother died when the Zilo beast attacked the city. It was when Orys Kinall, a doctor working in the free clinic her mother used to take her, adopted her.

Nassa is a sweet and caring kid who loves drawing and painting. She's determined and tenacious, but sometimes gets frustrated by the limitations of her disability; she has cerebral palsy, which affects the motor skills of her left arm and leg, as well as her speech.

Will soon appear on

Road to Lira San series and Rough Awakening. (But she could pop up all over the place, where Orys also appears on. They're a package deal)

[guyclement]

URBEX Guy Clément VILLAGE BORGO BORZELLINO VIDEO - Merci de vous abonner, c'est gratuit, et cela m'encourage! Thank you for subscribing, it’s free, and it encourages me! Une exploration en Sicile, dans le Village Fantôme, Borgo Borezllino, situé sur la route de Palerme à Sciacca. L'ancienne voie de Camporeale à Palerme aussi abandonnée et jamais mis en fonctionnement est à proximité. Construit entre 1940 et 1941 mais jamais terminé, un investissement de 1 580 000 lires. Vous avez 6 bâtiments de la mairie, la poste, le commissariat, école, trattoria, boutiques d’artisans, logement pour les employés. A l'issue de  sa construction, de nombreuses interventions d’entretien eurent lieu, pour la réparation des dommages de guerre et pour le remplacement de matériaux structurels de mauvaise qualité. Un projet, de transformer le village en un centre touristique été à l'étude par les élus, sans concrétisation... An exploration in Sicily, in the Ghost Village, Borgo Borezllino, located on the road from Palermo to Sciacca. The old road from Camporeale to Palermo also abandoned and never put into operation is nearby. Built between 1940 and 1941 but never completed, an investment of 1,580,000 lire. You have 6 buildings of the town hall, post office, police station, school, trattoria, craft shops, accommodation for employees. At the end of its construction, numerous maintenance interventions took place, for the repair of war damage and for the replacement of structural materials of poor quality. A project, to transform the village into a tourist center studied by the elected officials, without concretization... Una exploración en Sicilia, en el Pueblo Fantasma, Borgo Borezllino, situado en la carretera de Palermo a Sciacca. La antigua vía de Camporeale a Palermo tan abandonada y nunca puesta en funcionamiento está cerca. Construido entre 1940 y 1941 pero nunca terminado, una inversión de 1.580.000 liras. Usted tiene 6 edificios del ayuntamiento, el correo, la comisaría, escuela, trattoria, tiendas de artesanía, alojamiento para los empleados. Al final de su construcción, se llevaron a cabo numerosas intervenciones de mantenimiento, para la reparación de los daños de guerra y para la sustitución de materiales estructurales de mala calidad. Un proyecto, para transformar el pueblo en un centro turístico que fue estudiado por los elegidos, sin concretar... Un'esplorazione in Sicilia, nel Villaggio Fantasma, Borgo Borezllino, situato sulla strada da Palermo a Sciacca. L'antica via da Camporeale a Palermo anche abbandonata e mai messa in funzione è nelle vicinanze. Costruito tra il 1940 e il 1941 ma mai completato, un investimento di 1.580.000 lire. Hai 6 edifici del municipio, ufficio postale, commissariato, scuola, trattoria, negozi di artigianato, alloggio per i dipendenti. Al termine della sua costruzione ebbero luogo numerosi interventi di manutenzione, per la riparazione dei danni di guerra e per la sostituzione di materiali strutturali di scarsa qualità. Un progetto, di trasformare il villaggio in un centro turistico estate in studio da parte dei rappresentanti eletti, senza concretizzazione... Исследование на Сицилии, в Ghost Village, Borgo Borezllino, расположенный на дороге из Палермо в Sciacca. Старая дорога из Камореале в Палермо также заброшена и никогда не вводилась в эксплуатацию. Poszukiwanie Sycylii, w Wiosku Duchów, Borgo Borezllino, znajduje się na drodze z Palermo do Sciacca. Stara droga z Camporeale do Palermo również opuszczona i nigdy nie oddana do użytku jest w pobliżu. Zbudowany w latach 1940-1941, ale nigdy nie ukończony, inwestycja 1,580,000 lirów. Masz 6 budynków ratusza, poczta, posterunek policji, szkoła, trattoria, sklepy rzemieślnicze, zakwaterowanie dla pracowników. Pod koniec jego budowy miały miejsce liczne interwencje konserwacyjne, w celu naprawy szkód wojennych i wymiany materiałów konstrukcyjnych słabej jakości. Projekt, aby przekształcić wieś w centrum turystyczne badane przez wybranych urzędników, bez betonowania... Построена между 1940 и 1941 годами, но так и не завершена, инвестиции составили 1580000 лир. У вас есть 6 зданий мэрии, почтового отделения, полицейского участка, школы, траттории, ремесленных магазинов, жилья для сотрудников. В конце его строительства были проведены многочисленные ремонтно-эксплуатационные работы, связанные с устранением ущерба, нанесенного войной, и заменой строительных материалов низкого качества. Проект, чтобы превратить деревню в туристический центр, изученный избранными чиновниками, без конкретизации... Retrouvez-moi sur les réseaux / Follow me for daily content: 👍 Facebook:  Urbex Guy Clement  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... 👉 Youtube  URBEX Guy Clément  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhQ... 📸 Instagram:  @abandoned.urbex.world  https://www.instagram.com/abandoned.u...     🎵TikTok: @urbexguyclement https://www.tiktok.com/@urbexguycleme...     🐦Twitter: @GuyPellegrin https://twitter.com/GuyPellegrin   #amazing #lostplace #urbex

[shadowsong26fic]

The Family of Spies AU

AKA ‘Shadowsong should not have unsupervised access to multiple fandoms at once: Exhibit A.’

I kid. Mostly.

Anyway, it’s that time again--time for an AU Outline! It feels like forever since I’ve done one of these. …and by ‘forever’ I mean the last one was the SPN/Person of Interest crossover back in January.

This one is, uh, also a fairly niche crossover. It’s inspired and helped along by @tigerkat, who introduced me to one of the two fandoms and whose Star Wars OCs I’m borrowing to make it work. (Also, one or two bits in here are more or less lifted from our IM conversations on the subject

Basically, the short version is, I’ve been watching Nikita, and TigerKat and I have put together this whole extended family for Kallus and Zeb and one thing led to another, wires got crossed in my brain, and here we are.

Welcome to my Star Wars/Nikita fusion.

So, first, some relevant background:

In everything TigerKat and I developed, Alex and Zeb end up collecting/adopting four kids. (TigerKat, feel free to correct me on any details that are Off in any way!)

First kid they adopt is Mirah, shortly after the events of ANH.

Mirah is Human, and around three or four at this point; her parents were part of an extremely pacifist sect, of the kind where even defending yourself against someone trying to kill you is Not Okay. The sect was wiped out (probably not by the Empire, last I heard?) and Mirah was the only survivor; she watched her parents died right in front of her. Alex ended up there on an unrelated mission, and brought the little girl back to base.

Turns out, she’d gotten Attached and would not sleep without him close by.

(I mean. He’d gotten Attached as well but there is a Conversation to be had here, and he and Zeb haven’t actually had it yet, so…yeah.)

So, that’s how they get Kid #1.

Mirah later grows up to be essentially a mob boss/puts together a semi-legal syndicate. She doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in the law.

Second kid is Orryn, something like a year or two later, I think?

Orryn is a Donogh (species name subject to change; they’re basically like human-sized rabbit hobbits), and four or five years older than Mirah. His father and older brother were killed when he was born, and his mother eventually found her way to the Rebels after that. Donoghs tend to have very large families, so the fact that he’s an only child is a little Weird.

His mom is a friend of theirs, and when she dies, Alex and Zeb take Orryn in as well.

He is very Soft, both physically and metaphorically (like I said, rabbit hobbits), and like the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet.

(Mirah learns very quickly to weaponize her brother’s Sad Eyes. She’s very good at getting what she wants.)

The other three kids all end up taking Zeb’s last name; Orryn keeps his original one (his people are matriarchal and matrilineal).

He grows up to be a mechanic, and has a more typical family for his species with nine kids.

Third is Shamie, who’s roughly halfway between Mirah and Orryn; they get adopted a month or so before ESB.

I’ve written about them here; but the most important bits--

They’re Human, agender, and a former street thief/pickpocket. They help Zeb out when a mission goes sideways after his local contact fails to show up, and Zeb decides to keep them, because he really can’t leave them there for a long list of reasons. They’d been on their own for close to a year at that point, and were roughly eight or nine.

(The conversation where Zeb checks in with Alex about this is very entertaining, because he texts to confirm that a third kid is okay in the middle of a firefight. Alex is less than thrilled.)

Shamie and Mirah are basically platonic soulmates. There’s just a sort of click when the two of them meet.

They grow up to be a priest of a sun/fire deity.

Fourth is Hanula, better known as Hanny.

She’s a Lasat baby who they adopt a few months after Endor, after Zeb mentions to the elders on Lira San that he and Alex have been considering a fourth kid, maybe starting with an infant this time, and maybe someone of his own species this time…

Some time not too long after that, Hanula is placed in his arms and he’s told ‘good luck.’

She’s stabby, as in she likes to Stab Things as a baby (usually with, like, a fork), which later gets translated into cooking--she ends up as a Chef.

While she does turn up, of course, she’s not super relevant for this crossover, but she’s Delightful so I thought I’d share anyway XD

(There’s also Alex’s sister and her sons, plus, uh, the various grandchildren, but they’re also not super relevant to the crossover. I can share details about them if anyone’s curious, though.)

As a note, I’ve only seen like half a season of Nikita at this point; so while we’re starting from the same basic premise, I don’t really expect this to converge with actual future plot points like at all. So.

Also, as a result of that, this outline will probably also take on a certain resemblance to Alias and/or other similar Spy Dramas.

Anyway. So. Let’s get this show on the road.

Kallus takes on Nikita’s role in this--Death Faked For You; trained to be a super spysassin by a Shady Black Ops Group from his late teens/early twenties. Much like Nikita in her canon, he meets someone while on an extended cover assignment and falls in love.

Division is less than thrilled with this, and so arrange orders Zeb’s death.

(Obviously, this doesn’t take, because I am Not About That. But Kallus genuinely believes Zeb is dead, which is what pushes him to break free, much like Nikita’s reaction to Daniel’s murder.)

(Zeb also thinks Kallus is dead; he, of course, got picked up by the Ghost crew, but more about him later.)

Mirah will take on Alex’s role (which is why I started referring to Kallus that way, even though in my head and in this outline up to this point he’s mostly Alex XD).

Probably a blend of the two backgrounds--her parents/the sect she grew up in were taken out by Division; probably with the cover story that they were a Dangerous Cult, but the exact reason was more likely Profit or something. Since they mostly weren’t? At least not in the ‘need to be dismantled’ sort of way.

Kallus, like Nikita, was on hand and made sure that the little girl survived, but wouldn’t/couldn’t follow up since he was still a mostly-loyal Division agent at that point. He tracks her down after he breaks free, and they start working together.

She eventually talks him into the idea of her infiltrating Division, as that will better suit their plans to dismantle the organization.

(…really, most of this early part is not super different from Nikita and Alex. Mostly summarizing for anyone reading this who’s unfamiliar with the show.)

Shamie is an older/prior recruit; they’ve been here a few months. Their marksmanship is pretty much bottom of the barrel, so far as the current crop of recruits go, and their hacking skills could use some work, but they’re one of the best at hand-to-hand/other close-quarters combat, and they’re probably top third with explosives and other detail work. And they’re generally a pretty phlegmatic person. Not many of the other recruits keep cool under pressure as well as they do.

They’re probably fairly close to being evaluated and promoted to full Agent status when Mirah is brought in.

The two of them, as in their normal lives/timeline, immediately click. Mirah reports back to Kallus, confirming her infiltration was successful, and also mentioning Shamie.

“Remember what I told you about making friends,” Kallus warns her. “Losing them will be hard. And you can’t know how loyal this person is to Division. Be very careful.”

Mirah internally rolls her eyes, because she’s not dumb, she knows that.

A few more quick parallels, for the Higher Ups at Division:

Arindha Pryce stands in for Percy.

She just has the right blend of Genuine Competence buried under Not As Good As She Thinks She Is to match up with him.

Founding member and leader of Division.

Thrawn stands in for Amanda.

Like, okay. The two of them, for a variety of reasons, have vastly different management styles.

But in terms of his actual skillset and the role Amanda plays, at least on paper? Which is to say, supervising training/constructing covers/monitoring recruits and agents and their mental states?

(Plus, the whole…resident torturer/interrogator/etc. thing…)

Yeah, he could pull that off.

Pellaeon stands in for Michael.

Because I love him.

Also the Vastly Different Dynamic between the Head of Division, the Whatever Amanda’s Actual Job Title Is, and the 2iC/Head Field Operative with these three as opposed to Percy, Amanda, and Michael entertains me.

(Pellaeon is more loyal to Thrawn than Pryce, but only if it came down to an Actual Contest between the two of them would that ever be relevant. He’s extremely competent, but occasionally a little too involved with the recruits, in a fairly paternal sense. Especially since he’s probably a good twenty years older than Michael. But I digress.)

So, Mirah is successfully inserted. That goes pretty much the same as in Nikita canon, completely with Kallus making a splashy return to Division’s radars.

(Probably not at Zeb’s grave, though; if Zeb even has an actual grave.)

She starts interacting with other recruits, including Shamie. The two of them click pretty quickly, all things considered, but given the circumstances…yeah, they keep a certain level of distance, at least for now.

…well, at least on the surface, anyway. Mirah is even more determined to burn Division to the ground if they breathe harm in Shamie’s direction.

(For their part, Shamie may or may not start to notice a few anomalies, but they keep that knowledge to themself for now.)

For a few months, it’s pretty much the pattern the early S1 episodes have--Mirah will get details on an official Division op, pass them along to Kallus, he’ll be on hand to foil it. She gets activated briefly once or twice, but is mostly just working as a regular recruit for her cover.

Plus, you know, evading Thrawn’s suspicions; all that good stuff.

Pellaeon does take a liking to her--she reminds him of Kallus, who was one of the better recruits, and he keeps an eye out for her, much like Michael does for Alex in canon.

Shamie gets activated for their final evaluation/first kill mission about two or three months after Mirah gets recruited. They succeed, but some of the aftermath/followup confirms their previous suspicions about Mirah, and they’re left sort of struggling with what to do about it.

On the one hand, they’re a fairly loyal Division agent at this point, and what Mirah’s doing is probably going to get a lot of their fellow agents, maybe even some recruits, killed. And they know that probably some of what’s been reported as Kallus’s activities is exaggerated, or at least spun to make him look Evil and Division look better, but they know there’s a grain of truth to it.

On the other...they spent a few years, as a child, working for a thief-runner/gang. This was…not a good situation. Gotta keep the baby thieves in line. And they’ve seen other recruits get canceled before. As much as they don’t necessarily want to go against their superiors in Division (again, gotta keep the baby thieves in line; they know what the consequences of that would be), they also know that that loyalty does not go both ways. They are expendable. All of the recruits and agents are.

And they like Mirah. And if they don’t look out for each other…well, who will?

Besides. It’s not like they have any actual proof. Bringing this to Pellaeon, who likes Mirah, or Thrawn, who likes no one--let alone Pryce--seems like it’ll backfire.

So, they stay quiet about what they’ve guessed, and wait, and watch, and work.

Things change when Orryn is recruited.

Mirah and Shamie both take one look at this sweet, gentle boy and have the same thought--he won’t last. He’ll be cancelled within a month. Maybe sooner.

Pryce questions the choice of bringing him in, too; it was Thrawn’s idea. No, he’ll never make field agent, but the boy’s good with mechanics, and computers. If he can survive the training process, they can put him to use there.

Sort of considering him for Birkhoff’s role.

Shamie, even as a full agent, doesn’t have the access or the tools they need to spring Orryn, as much as they want to.

But Mirah--Mirah has Kallus, and a way to contact him.

“This isn’t about my friend. This is about a sweet kid, too sweet for Division, who will be killed or broken if we don’t do something,” she says. “And isn’t that part of what we’re doing here? Trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else?”

Kallus is torn. Because, on the one hand, she’s absolutely right--it’s why he was reluctant to send her in undercover (oh, yes, the thought had occurred to him) until she suggested it.

But on the other hand, getting a recruit out of Division without compromising Mirah’s emergency exfiltration strategy is going to be Hard. And as much as he wants to help this kid, he also wants to help/protect the one he has already.

He tells Mirah, eventually, that he can’t promise anything, but he’ll start working on a plan.

Mirah…

Remember what I said earlier, about Mirah tending to get what she wants?

Mirah gets to work on her end. The way she sees it, if she figures out a way to get Orryn outside somehow, whether it’s getting him temporarily activated like she was that one time, or some other excuse, then Kallus won’t have a problem rescuing him.

Of course, she’s just a recruit herself, and she can’t muck around with that without compromising her cover. She’s half-tempted to just shove Orryn out her escape tunnel, her own exit be damned, but Kallus specifically told her not to do that, so she holds back.

The opportunity comes when one of Mirah’s prior breaches is discovered, two or three weeks after Orryn’s brought in.

Possibly the shell program she and Kallus have been using to talk; possibly something else and she didn’t cover her tracks quite well enough (i.e., breaking into Pryce’s office). No one’s tied it to her, not yet, but things are Tense.

Kallus asks Mirah if she needs an extraction, and she again brings up Orryn. “I’m good,” she says. “But the sweet kid I was telling you about…”

“We talked about this,” he says. “And I am working on it, I promise.”

But before either of them can do anything, Orryn ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time, and one of the guards is convinced he’s the mole.

Thrawn points out that this doesn’t make much sense--the serious breaches started well before Orryn was brought in.

Pryce agrees, but insists on letting the situation run its course, to see if it can flush out the real mole.

And Mirah has a Thing about people she’s attached herself to getting hurt.

Mirah manages to somehow get Orryn out of wherever he’s being held. She sends a quick message to Kallus--“Sweet Kid coming out, they think he’s me”--and takes him to the exit tunnel.

They are pursued, of course. By the overzealous guard--and by Shamie.

Mirah gets Orryn into the tunnel and prepares to stand her ground.

Shamie catches up first.

And handles the situation Very Differently from the way Thom does in Nikita canon.

“I’m not turning you in,” they say. “You got Orryn out?”

“Yeah.”

They nod. “Good. Okay. They think he’s the mole, but they’re gonna realize someone helped him escape, unless--”

And then the guard catches up.

There is a Fight. The guard manages to shoot Shamie (not seriously; through-and-through in the upper arm), who tosses Mirah their gun, and she fires back, putting two in his chest.

“…we can work with this,” Mirah says, pressing her hands onto where Shamie’s bleeding. “If we…if we stage it so he pointed the finger at Orryn to cover his own crimes…”

“You have any evidence we can plant on him?” Shamie says. “M’good at that. Planting evidence.”

“Yeah,” she says. She has a key card, and a few other bits and pieces. Shamie, hands shaking slightly, positions them appropriately. “And Orryn…”

“Was also a plant,” Shamie decides. “Sent in when the guard’s cover got shaky, to extract him. But he managed to get away in the confusion. We underestimated him.”

Mirah thinks about this for a minute, then nods. “I think I can sell that,” she says, as more guards start heading their way.

“Good,” Shamie says. “…talk later.”

Mirah nods, and Shamie blacks out, leaving her to spin the lies they need to survive this.

A few hours later, Mirah touches base with Kallus to confirm Orryn got out safely, and to inform him he has another inside agent.

So, the situation has improved somewhat! Unfortunately, it’s also been damaged--since the shell program was found, Kallus and Mirah don’t have secure communications. That first message she got out, about Orryn and Shamie? Yeah, she can’t use that route again, or she’ll establish a pattern.

On the other hand, Shamie is a full agent, which means they have an apartment and the freedom to move around and set an in-person meet. Which Kallus wants anyway, to evaluate Mirah’s friend.

(And, if they check out, to spoof their tracker and give them freedom of movement. Always a plus.)

So, Shamie and Kallus use another one-off communicator to set an in-person meeting, so they can talk.

“You did help Mirah and Orryn,” Kallus acknowledges, after they’ve run through their prearranged confirmation signals. “That counts for something.”

“But you think it could just be me establishing a cover,” Shamie said.

“The thought occurred.”

Shamie doesn’t say anything right away. “I hear all kinds of things about you,” they finally say. “Some of it seems true. Some of it seems exaggerated. I know you’re Division’s enemy, but that…” They shrug. “I trust Mirah. And she trusts you. That’s good enough for me.”

“And Division?”

“I know how gangs work,” they say, flatly. “I used to work for one--they ran a bunch of kids, pickpocketing. Thing about gangs is, most of them do some good in their community--take care of external threats, or whatever. That’s how almost every gang started, anyway. Division may have more money and fancier gadgets and a bigger community, but they work the same way. And most gangs, even if they keep helping their communities sometimes…somewhere along the line, it turns out to be about profit and power more than anything else. But that’s not the issue. The issue is…you can tell, when a gang’s leadership, the loyalty they demand from their members…you can tell when they reciprocate.”

“And Thrawn and Pellaeon and Pryce don’t,” Kallus says.

“Pryce for sure,” they say. “Pellaeon does, but he’s more loyal to Thrawn than the rest of us. Thrawn…is harder to read.”

Kallus considers that for a moment. “You know, what we’re doing--it’s dangerous. I can’t protect you. I burned my one extraction route getting Orryn out.”

“All of my choices are dangerous,” Shamie says. “But like I said. I trust Mirah. She trusts you. I don’t trust Division.”

Another moment of silence. “Here’s our communication protocol,” Kallus finally says. Because Mirah trusts them. And I trust Mirah. If I don’t trust her--what am I even doing here.

Shamie also, as it turns out, has valuable information Mirah didn’t have access to. While not as successful as Kallus, there’s another group working to take Division down; getting involved and throwing off some of their ops.

“Should we reach out to them?” Mirah asks, when this filters back to her.

“No,” Kallus decides. “Most likely, they’re another mercenary group. Trying to be another Division, another Gogol, and take out the competition. There’s a slim chance that they’re actually on the level, but if they’re not…Best to stick to ourselves and avoid drawing in any outsiders.”

The kids agree, because he’s the expert, and drop the subject.

He does, however, ask Shamie to keep tabs on this other group as best they can without compromising their cover. Which should be easy enough.

(Of course, Shamie can only tell him as much as Division knows about them, which isn’t much. They’re a small group, probably a five- or six-person team, and they tend to ghost in and out of situations without leaving much evidence behind…)

The other new advantage they have is Orryn.

Remember why Thrawn wanted him recruited? He’s good with tech and gadgets?

Orryn gets a look at Kallus’s setup, particularly when he’s trying to figure out how to re-establish communications with Shamie and Mirah.

“I can fix that,” he offers.

Kallus blinks. “Plan was, establish an identity and get you out of the country, into hiding,” he says. “Which I will do, I’m working on it, but--”

“Division hurt me, too,” Orryn says. “And Mirah and Shamie are in trouble, and so are you. I want to help.”

Kallus eyes him. He knows, just as clearly as Mirah and Shamie did, that he cannot take this kid into combat. On the other hand…he would’ve been recruited for a reason. And Kallus is well-trained and skilled, but there might be something to said for raw talent and an expert touch.

“All right,” he finally says. “We’ll prep an exfil for you, just in case, but it’ll be some time for me to put it together anyway. We’ll see how things go.”

Orryn nods, and gets to work.

And so pass the next few months, with Mirah working her way up towards qualifying and passing the information she has access to, and Shamie and Orryn supporting Kallus in the field.

Eventually, Mirah goes on her qualifying evaluation, and passes with flying colors. She’s an interesting counterpart to Shamie--she’s a sharpshooter and just as deadly as they are in hand-to-hand, but she doesn’t work as well with the explosives and so on.

Meanwhile, Shamie is a very tactile person--if it’s a hands-on task, especially one that requires a lot of detail work (such as setting up a bomb), there are very few people who can match them. But they have issues with distance kills and with the computer stuff.

Mirah is set up in her apartment, not too close to Shamie, but enough that they can meet. They’re in the same city.

The two of them, on their own, are pretty terrifying assassins.

Shamie is fairly innocuous-looking; dark hair, dark eyes, skinny, blends into a crowd. They’re also the most chill/calm person in the known universe, so people tend to gravitate to them in a crisis. And they’re kind. Genuinely kind, in a way that invites people’s trust.

This is what makes them an excellent priest in another life. And in this one…Beware The Nice Ones is a trope for a reason.

Mirah, on the other hand, is much more overtly intimidating. Unless she’s making an active effort to pretend otherwise, she exudes Danger. She is ruthless and practical.

She is also extremely skilled, good at manipulating people, and very hard to convince to back down.

Now imagine the two of them working together.

Unstoppable and terrifying.

And Division (and Kallus) are both aware of this.

So, they actually end up partnering quite a lot.

The four of them are circling closer and closer to closing in on Pryce and taking her out permanently--Thrawn as well, and Pellaeon as a third priority, but Pryce is their top target--when things Change again.

Mirah and Shamie are put on a wetworks op that requires a team. Probably similar to that one prince dude and the museum.

They feed Kallus the intel, as always, and he comes up with a plan to foil it.

But there are a couple of issues.

He needs Orryn for this op, for one thing. And not just as background, on-site.

When he scouts around to do his own prepwork, there are some technobabble things he need handled, but they need to be within range. Twenty yards, twenty-five on the outside.

So, his first priority--well, maybe not first, but certainly Up There--is to plan out Orryn’s escape route if things go wrong.

The second issue is that Shamie thinks this might be another mission the Unknown Third Party may also crash. Since they still don’t have a lot of intel, that’s potentially another five or six people coming in.

And that’s if they’re correct in that it’s the mystery team, and not Gogol or someone already on the radar.

But the opportunity to interfere with Division and save a life or two is too good to pass up, despite these problems. Kallus plans his counter-mission, and they get to work.

Phase One of the mission goes fairly well. Shamie does confirm a third party is involved, but at first, their presence doesn’t cause too much difficulty for either Our Heroes or Division.

Shamie gets the assassination target pinned down somewhere Kallus and Orryn can extract them; Kallus gets the victim to the prepared escape route, and then returns to deal with the secondary objective; the one that required Orryn--some sort of hacking/virus/Planting Evidence type thing.

Well.

So my Art Skillz are far from up to par, but here’s a general overview of the layout of the scene where they do:

...so I can’t figure out how to make tumblr embed it without throwing off all the rest of my formatting so, click the link.

Where things go wrong is when Kallus gets a good look at the closest member of Team Unknown.

Who is very, startlingly, distractingly Familiar.

And he does the worst possible thing he can do in this situation.

He freezes.

Naturally, another member of the Division team sees the opportunity and takes it.

He gets hit three times in that second--chest, abdomen, upper thigh. Serious injuries.

Mirah immediately runs to him, laying down cover/suppression fire at her supposed Fellow Division Agents.

(…yeah, remember that whole bit about her parents dying in front of her? She’s. Uh. She’s come to view Kallus as a second father. This is Not Okay.)

Shamie follows, of course; she gets to Kallus.

They hesitate for half a second. “…get him out of here. I can handle this. Go.”

Mirah nods and drags Kallus back to the van--

--only to find that Orryn has been taken.

She can’t--she can only be in one place at a time. She’s good, but she’s not that good. And Kallus, her teacher, her unofficially-accidentally-adopted dad, is dying in front of her.

She gets into the driver’s seat and books it.

Shamie fires after her, but…well, marksmanship has never been their strong suit, so they fail to stop her.

This is basically Mirah’s worst nightmare made real.

Her dad is dying.

Her brother is missing.

Her other sibling is trapped and about to be probably tortured.

She is holding together by a thread and the only thing keeping her going is if she falls apart now, Kallus will die.

Okay. Time to do something about that. She can’t do much, but she can do even less about the other things, so. Time to do something.

She gets a tourniquet on his leg, pressure dressings on the other wounds, but she’s pretty sure his lung’s collapsed and she doesn’t know how much other internal damage there is. Her training in field medicine/dressings Will Not Cut It on this one.

Now, Kallus has a contingency--he always has contingencies, he loves contingencies--but Mirah doesn’t know his medical contingency and he’s too unconscious and bleeding-out to tell her.

She can’t take him into an emergency room, obviously, but there’s an urgent care center close by. And Orryn’s stuff is still in the van. Which means she can hack into their records find out who’s coming off shift--because there will be someone coming off shift--and stick a gun in their face.

Which is exactly what she does.

She drags the doctor into the van and points her at Kallus.

“Fix him,” she snaps, but she stops pointing the gun at her at this point--she needs her attention elsewhere to drive and fend off Division agents in pursuit, among other things, and surely this doctor will be overcome by that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.

Doctor stares at him. “He needs a hospital, I can’t--” Even as she moves towards him.

(Because there’s that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.)

Mirah starts the car. “I’m not gonna tell you again.” She tosses the doctor their first aid kit--which is pretty Extensive. Not on the level of the one at the safehouse, but still impressive. “Anything you need that’s not in there, I’ll get at a pharmacy. Now. Do your damn job or I swear to God.”

The doctor looks at Mirah one last time, then turns her attention to Kallus, and opens the kit.

“Good,” Mirah says.

(And then, while the doctor is stabilizing her dad, as soon as she can pull over for a second, she gets rid of her tracker. She has the standard one, in her thigh.)

(And probably kills a Division agent or two pursuing them along the way…)

When the doctor has finished patching Kallus up as best she can with the supplies on hand and what Mirah stole from a convenient pharmacy, she says, “He really should be in a hospital. He needs a transfusion, and should be on IV antibiotics. And I think there was damage to his femur I couldn’t fix without imaging.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Mirah says. Note to self: rob a blood bank. And a hospital. Saline won’t cut it. I wonder how hard X-ray machines are to steal…

“I’m guessing you know how to change the dressings, and how often to do it,” the doctor says.

“Obviously,” Mirah says. She grabs a handful of money, and shoves it at the doctor--she did her job, she should be paid for it; people should always be Appropriately Compensated for the things they do and in this case that means actual money--as well as the badge she’d pulled out of the doctor’s purse. “You can go. Oh, and, Doctor Sloane? This never happened. You never saw us.”

“Right,” she says.

“Because if you say anything,” Mirah says, “I will hunt you down and kill you. Clear?”

“…crystal,” she says, and takes the money and walks away.

Mirah takes a few more distracting turns (with a couple pit stops for those last few Necessary Supplies), a very roundabout route, and eventually makes it to the safehouse. She gets Kallus set up as comfortably as she can, under the circumstances, on one of the beds, manages to take thirty seconds to check for any messages from Shamie or Orryn, and then curls up in a corner and just…melts down.

Like I said Mirah’s Worst Nightmare.

Let’s check back in with Shamie, who is about to have an extremely rough several days.

Because they get to go spend some Quality Time with Thrawn in full interrogator mode.

And they get the works--torture, hallucinogens, manipulation, everything. To figure out how much they know about Mirah’s compromised loyalties, back to Orryn and everything.

When that comes up, they repeat their older story--that they spotted Mirah pursuing Orryn and the guard, and followed. They got there, there was shooting, and they were sure it was Orryn, or the guard, but maybe it was Mirah. They know she killed the guard, and Orryn was never good at combat skills, just tech…

After somewhere between three days and a week of this, Thrawn can’t get Shamie to admit anything incriminating, and leaves them in a cell to report back to Pryce.

“I would estimate there’s somewhere between a twenty and fifty percent chance that Mirah managed to turn them,” he says.

“So, we cancel them,” Pryce says.

“We could,” Thrawn says. “But that is not my recommendation.”

“Oh?”

“I recommend surveillance,��� he says. “My prior sessions with Shamie indicate that they’ve had very little human connection or affection in their life. Even we, for all we provide them, have a tendency to view our recruits more as tools than as individuals. It is absolutely within their makeup to latch on to the first person to treat them and value them as an individual. Which may mean they joined Mirah and Alexsandr’s crusade--or may mean that affection blinded them to things they should have seen in Mirah. If the former, they will lie low for a while, but eventually grow complacent and reach out to their partners. If the latter, they will redouble their efforts to prove their loyalty. And their skillset is not one we can replicate at this time--there’s one recruit showing a certain promise, but they’re very new, at least a year away from graduation. Assuming that particular recruit actually lives up to their potential.”

“So,” Pellaeon cuts in, “letting Shamie live, either way, we gain something valuable.”

“Precisely,” Thrawn says.

Pryce considers for a moment. “Very well, I’ll bow to your expertise. Shamie can return to their prior status. Add more cameras to their apartment before sending them home. And I want to upgrade their tracker.”

“I agree,” Thrawn says. “This would be an excellent time to test out the kill chip program.”

So, Shamie is kept in medical for another day, to have the surgery for the new implant and patch up some of the more significant damage from their interrogation.

They use one of the Contingencies to send a quick message to Mirah and Kallus, confirming they’re alive, and that they have a new tracker and may not be able to keep in regular contact for a while.

So! Let’s see what became of Orryn in the meantime, shall we?

And to do that, we actually have to jump back five years, to the night that made Kallus leave Division and vow to bring them down.

Zeb was military, special ops. He met Kallus when the latter was living on extended cover, and Zeb was about to get out.

They met in some kind of dojo/gym/whatever, and had one of Those sparring matches.

(You know the ones I mean. Where it’s like 30% fight and 70% foreplay?)

They danced around the issue for a while; Zeb knew Kallus works for the government somehow, and is pretty sure he’s either CIA or NSA under some kind of NOC (non-official cover). Eventually, though, they get together.

They have about six months, with Kallus staving off Division as best he can, and Zeb going through the process of finishing out his military service/resigning his commission--as soon as he wraps up one last investigation--and then he proposes.

And, yeah, he thought about waiting until he was completely out, but then he figured--there’s only so much time in a life, and why waste it?

Kallus is getting everything together so the two of them can disappear, when the Cleaner comes.

I’m…not sure exactly how this all works, so we’ll handwave all this. Basically, each walks away thinking the other is dead, and can credibly believe this without a body.

I think probably Kallus saw Zeb go over a cliff or something after getting shot, and Zeb found a whole heck of a lot of blood when he climbed back up to where he’d fallen from, and figured it was Alex’s.

Ooooh, better idea--while he’s climbing back up to help Alex--he thinks this attack has to do with him. With that last investigation, which was actually into some kind of Hinky thing that was either Division or Gogol…

And now the building is on fire. And Alex was still in there.

He tries to run in, but the building is too unstable, and the entrance collapses in front of him. Burying Alex--or whatever’s left of him--completely.

Kanan finds Zeb kneeling in front of the rubble, and takes him home.

He and Hera patch Zeb up, and basically explain what they do--which is something to do with trying to uncover groups like Division; essentially terrorist/assassination/murder-for-hire organizations that operate under a thin veneer of government officiality.

“Modern-day privateers,” Hera says. “Only we’re not at war, and these people commit atrocities at least as awful as the ones they’re supposedly trying to avert.”

“We work in secret,” Kanan adds. “Because when we try to work out in the open…”

(Yeah, this is how Depa died in this AU. She started this operation, possibly with Cham Syndulla, and things went Badly.)

“We think you caught on to the operations of one of the groups we’re trying to identify,” Hera said. “We don’t have a name for them, but they’re US-based, with ties all over the world.”

“Most of…most of what I had on ‘em was in the house,” Zeb says.

“So, we start again,” Kanan says.

“But…at this point, Zeb, you’re legally dead,” Hera says. “We all are. You won’t have the access to intel that you used to.”

“I don’t care,” Zeb says. They killed my fiancé. What does it matter if they killed me, too? “I wanna bring them down.”

Kanan smiles, and offers him a hand. “Welcome to the Ghost Crew.”

So, for the next two years or so, the Ghost Crew, along with Zeb, does more or less the same thing Kallus has been doing--try to suss out Division operations and interfere with them as best they can.

Of course, they don’t have insider information.

They don’t even know the name of the organization they’re hunting.

Plus, Division isn’t their only target, even if it’s the one Zeb’s most interested in. They also interfere with Gogol when they catch on to their missions, and a few other organizations throughout the world.

So there’s only so much they can do, and while they are certainly a nuisance to Pryce et al, they don’t have the same level of impact that Kallus does when he comes out swinging.

Naturally, things shift a little when a mission goes slightly less than as planned.

It’s mostly under control--it was primarily surveillance at that point; Zeb was in a restaurant scoping out their target. Unfortunately, one of said target’s bodyguards ID’d him; maybe not specifically as Ghost Crew but certainly as a Threat to their principal.

That’s about when the shooting started.

Zeb can’t get to the front door; the bodyguards now actively trying to both kill him and extract their principal are in his way; so he heads for the kitchen instead.

Yeah, he could try to pursue and complete his objective, except it was a capture mission, not a kill, and he can’t get through that many guards and get out with the target. Not by himself.

He yells at the staff to get down and stay down, and most of them listen. There’s a couple of cooks, a waiter who was grabbing a couple plates to run out, and a kid washing dishes.

Of course, Zeb loses his footing somewhere along the line and skids. He recovers fast, but the closest guy chasing him did not have that problem and is too damn close for--

--or Bad Guy could get smacked in the face with a soapy cast-iron skillet, courtesy of Dish Washing Kid.

Split second to consider the consequences, but there are two other shooters in pursuit; so Zeb does the sensible thing and grabs the kid so she doesn’t get hurt, and finally makes it to the exit. Steals the first convenient car he sees, and books it.

Once he’s pretty sure they’ve lost pursuit, he turns to the kid, who’s--shit, he’s not good at guessing kids’ ages. Maybe twelve? Shit--anyway, an actual kid, which complicates things.

“Uh. Sorry about back there,” he says. “Listen, I’ll take you back to your parents in a couple hours, after the heat’s died down, I promise.” Pretty sure the bad guys aren’t gonna hunt you down if they couldn’t grab you right then and there…

“Foster parents,” she corrects. “They’re okay, I guess, but it’s not like they actually pay attention to me. They own the restaurant.”

“I should still get you back to them,” he says. “Better for you in the long run, kid.”

“Hanny,” she says. “My name’s Hanny.” She looks at him expectantly, but he doesn’t respond in kind.

“Right,” he says instead. “In the meantime, uh…” He pulls off--they need to switch cars anyway--and takes a second to text Hera.

“So I accidentally kidnapped someone.”

“…accidentally.”

“Yeah, there was shooting, had to run through the kitchen, she hit a guy with a frying pan, couldn’t leave her there.”

“Right,” she responds, after a few seconds where he can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “How much of a fuss is she making?”

“Uh. None at all, actually.”

“All right. Bring her here, we’ll figure out how to handle this later.”

“Thanks, I owe you another one.”

He gets Hanny back to the safehouse he and the Ghost Crew are currently using.

Hera glowers at him for a minute, then makes sure Hanny is settled in an inner room before going out to have A Word.

“Zeb? That’s a child. An actual child.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zeb says. “Still couldn’t exactly leave her there. I’ll take her back to her parents…well, foster parents…”

“Our rule is, we don’t hurt kids!” Hera says.

“Does she look hurt?” Zeb says. “Look, this wasn’t my fault. I went through the kitchen, she got involved all on her own. Not like I told her to bash the guy over the head with a skillet!”

“I know,” Hera says, and takes a breath. “I know, sorry. I shouldn’t’ve snapped at you. But you need to take her back sooner than later. Tonight, if you can.”

Zeb nods. “Uh. Soon as I get her to actually tell me who her parents are. She said they own the restaurant, but…”

“Yeah, you probably don’t want to go back there.” She considers a minute. “I’ll see what I can dig up, get you an address.”

“Good,” he says.

“Why can’t I stay here?” Hanny asks, from the door.

“…because you’ve got parents--”

“Foster parents.”

“Who are probably worried about you,” he finishes.

Hanny snorts. “No, they’re not. They’ve got six of us, and mostly use the money they get from the state to keep their shitty restaurant afloat. They won’t miss me.”

“That’s a shitty situation, I get it,” Zeb says. “It’s still better than staying here.”

“Why?” she demands.

“Because I’m legally dead, for one thing,” he says.

“But you’re not actually dead,” she points out.

“I also do a lot of really dangerous things,” he says. “What you saw in that kitchen back there? Ordinary Tuesday for me.” Which is, yeah, a bit of an exaggeration, but…

She rolls her eyes. “Not like I’m asking to come into another shootout with you. Just stay with you instead of the Smiths.”

“Why do you want to stay with him?” Hera cuts in. “And ‘because he’s not the Smiths’ isn’t a good enough answer.”

Hanny chews that over for a minute. “I like him,” she says. “He actually gives a damn about something other than his stupid restaurant, or self-image, or whatever. And he apologized for kidnapping me, which is sort of weird, but nice, I guess? I don’t know, I just do.”

“…that whole bit about doing dangerous things,” Zeb says. “I can’t really look after you.”

She rolls her eyes again. “I’ve been looking after myself for ages anyway. Besides. I’m seventeen.”

He and Hera stare at her.

“…would you believe fifteen?”

Zeb’s less sure about that one, but the look on Hera’s face is answer enough.

“Okay, thirteen, but still. Plus, I cook. I’m really good at it, too. Especially when I have access to decent knives. I’m guessing that’s not a problem here?”

Well, okay, it’s not like they have a lot of kitchen knives floating around, but he could--

…shit.

Zeb turns to Hera. “…sorta running out of counter-arguments here…”

Hera looks from him, to Hanny, and back again. “…fine. I’ll babysit when you’re out in the field.”

Jumping back to the present!

So, Zeb doesn’t actually spot Kallus at this point.

Or, rather, he sees that another party is involved, and does out of the corner of his eye spot the guy going down and then Division agents running at him, but not enough to actually identify him.

He alerts his team to the presence of the Third Party--who they’ve been aware of, since Kallus and his team went active a few months ago.

(It was Sabine’s idea to nickname the team Fulcrum. Since they seem to be a pressure point that really gets to the Shadow Agency they’re chasing, and might be enough pressure to move the lever and make actual progress…)

(Look, it made sense in her head at the time, whether or not the others bought the reasoning, and it stuck.)

Of course, they’re not sure if Team Fulcrum is actually on their side, or just looking to cause Generalized Chaos. Or take Shadow Agency down to take its place. After all, they seem to have an almost personal vendetta against the Shadow Agency and some of the tactics they’ve used…

Ezra and Kanan slip around to the Fulcrum van, and find Orryn inside. They see this sweet kid, assume he’s a hostage, and extract him. There’s no way their team will get through the firefight between Division, Mirah, and the reinforcements intact, so Kanan calls Zeb back, they get Orryn into their vehicle, and they go.

They get Orryn back to their base, and he makes it Very Clear that he was not, in fact, a hostage.

“The people that had you in that van--”

“Were not Division,” he says. “They’re the ones who rescued me from Division, after I was recruited.”

“…I’m sorry,” Hera says. “We made a mistake. Division--they’re the government agents who were attacking that building back there?”

Orryn blinks. “…you didn’t know that?”

“We’ve never had a name for them,” Kanan says. “Maybe we should start from the beginning. I’m Kanan, this is Ezra, Hera, Zeb, Sabine.”

“Orryn,” he says. “…you’re trying to bring Division down, too?”

“Damn right we are,” Zeb says.

“…okay,” he says, and fills them in on what he knows.

Which is, comparatively, not all that much. He didn’t see too much of the internal structure--he wasn’t there for long enough--but they have names and so on to attach to them.

He tells them how Division recruits people in their late teens/early twenties, and trains them as assassins. He tells them how Mirah went in as a double agent, and she and Shamie and Kallus broke him out. He tells them how they tried to get him into hiding, but he offered to stay and help with their tech, which is what led them here.

(He doesn’t, of course, know Kallus’s real/full name--not something shared readily; and even if it was, that might not be the full name Zeb knew him under, so Zeb remains in the dark.)

(Part of why Orryn’s being so open about this is because he’s gotten a pretty good idea of the kind of team Hera and Kanan are running here; he also…it’s something to focus on other than the Very Strong Probability that Kallus is dead, likely Mirah with him, and Shamie, and…)

(On the other hand, if his new family is somehow still alive, they could use all the help they can get. And maybe Kallus would’ve been more cautious, and Mirah would’ve been more suspicious, and Shamie would’ve held back a little more, but Orryn knows how hard this fight will be, and how much they need genuine allies. And so he makes the first move/takes a leap of faith.)

So, to sum up the last few sections before we move on, here’s where we stand after the FUBAR mission where Kallus finds out Zeb is still alive:

Kallus has been badly hurt--near-fatally--and is more or less out of commission for the foreseeable future; not to mention whatever long-term/permanent damage he might have sustained.

Mirah’s cover is blown, and while she pulled herself together after her meltdown once Kallus was safe, she’s still teetering a little on the edge, especially as more and more time goes by without hearing from either of her siblings.

Shamie is fighting desperately to maintain their cover, still deep in Division, but now with little to no support.

Orryn is with Zeb and the Ghost Crew, with no idea if any of his family is still alive, and missing a few Key Pieces of Information that might help smooth things over.

(Yeah, this day went Super Well for everyone.)

After a couple days, though, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel--Kallus wakes up.

Okay, technically, he’s sort of half-woken up a couple times, but this is the first time he’s been lucid enough to actually process being awake and/or interact with Mirah.

She sees him trying to sit up and is instantly there.

“Stay down, you’re hurt.”

He sinks back without too much argument, and she takes a second to make sure he’s really awake, really back with her, and then, as people with her particular personality and background are likely to do, covers up her fear with “How dare you.”

“Mirah…”

“You got yourself shot! You froze!”

“I know, I--”

And then the look on her face, she’s clearly just barely holding back from bursting into tears (which, she’s done enough of that over the past three days damn it) and he just…wordlessly holds out his arms, offering a hug.

Very, very carefully, she curls up next to him and clings, and she does burst into tears at that point, and stays there until she’s cried herself out.

“…sorry,” she says, when she gets her breath back.

“It’s fine,” he assures her. “And…so am I. For scaring you.”

She nods. “I know it wasn’t on purpose.”

He laughs a little, which is a mistake, because that hurts, but manages to get out, “when I get shot on purpose, it’s generally not this…bad.”

“I know,” she says, then hesitates before blurting out, “Iloveyou.”

He’s taken a little bit by surprise--he was her handler as much as her friend, and that’s not exactly conducive to…but he can’t deny that he’s come to think of her as a favorite niece, or maybe even a daughter, and…

Between being caught off guard, and the pain, and the bloodloss, and the drugs she’s probably got him on, he can’t find the words to respond.

So, of course, she tries to backtrack.

He cuts her off, “love you, too, Mirochka.”

(LOOK fandom has decided he’s a Space Russian ANYWAY so for this AU either one or both of his parents was a first-generation Russian immigrant so FAKE RUSSIAN DIMINUTIVES FOR EVERYONE. Also it makes me smile. So there.)

She brightens and clings again. Very, very carefully.

But he can already feel the room start to spin and blur at the edges. “Probably gonna pass out again. Don’t be afraid.”

“Okay,” she says. “Just don’t die.”

“Of course not,” he says, already fading. “Still have work to do.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not allowed to die when we’re done, either.”

“Right,” he manages to say, before he’s out again.

The next time he’s fully conscious and lucid is just after Shamie finally managed to send word they’re alive.

Which is, naturally, his first thought. To ask about Shamie and Orryn.

Mirah tells him--Shamie’s at least alive and free enough to make contact, but Orryn is still missing.

Kallus, at this point, is half-convinced he hallucinated Zeb--it would make more sense, obviously; Zeb is dead, he knows that, he saw him die, and yet…

On the other hand, he finds himself desperately hoping it wasn’t a hallucination, for more than just his personal needs. If Zeb has Orryn, then he knows Orryn is safe.

“I tried to get him,” Mirah says.

“I know,” he says. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was.” It was mine.

“What happened?” she asks, and the question had to come sometime, but he’s not sure he can explain. Not sure he should, as on-edge as she is already.

But she’s asking, so he does the best he can.

“I thought I saw…someone,” he says.

“…interesting pause there…”

“A ghost.”

“…cryptic. Are you gonna keep doing that, or…?”

He looks away. He can’t bring himself to say his name. “It couldn’t have been…I know it couldn’t have been, but I saw him, I was sure, and for a moment, I…I lost control. Again.”

I let you all down.

“…again?”

He struggles for a moment, then says, “I told you, before you went into Division…I told you why I left, didn’t I?”

It takes her a minute to get it. “…oh.”

“I only…I only saw him for a moment, and I may have been seeing things.” He takes a shallow, shaky breath, and blinks rapidly for a moment. “But if it was real, and Orryn’s with him, then he’s safe. I am certain of that.”

Mirah nods. “Then I’ll go find out.”

“Be careful,” Kallus cautions. “Division will be out in force, looking for you. And Shamie can’t--they have to keep their head down. Even if they’ve managed to satisfy Thrawn for now--” He starts to get up, because he needs to hit the ground running on this one, pain and shakiness be damned--

“Don’t you dare,” Mirah snaps, pushing him back. “I’ll be careful. Trust me. Papa.”

“I do,” he says; his head is spinning again and he’s gone chalk-white. “Just…don’t get overconfident.”

“I won’t,” she promises. “Go back to sleep. I’ll text every hour.”

“Please,” he says.

“I will,” she promises, and by the time she’s out the door he’s unconscious again.

Of course, by the time she gets back, he’s somehow managed to muster the strength to get himself over to the computer.

“What did I say?” she says, annoyed.

“I did sleep, for a while,” he says. A little breathless, but he’s still conscious, and it doesn’t look like he’s torn any of his stitches, which is probably a goddamn miracle.

(Of course, they are long overdue a miracle or two.)

“I found footage of the incident,” he says. “Target had security cameras all over. I wanted to see if…see if I could track Orryn that way.”

“And?”

He shakes his head. “But I can be sure Division didn’t take him. I accounted for all of them.”

“That’s good.”

“Yes,” he says, then hesitates. “Nothing more from Shamie, which…I don’t know. You find anything?”

“Maybe,” she says, and hands him a blurry photo, of Orryn--with Zeb.

The world spins around him again, just like it did back in that firefight, because there’s no mistaking it this time.

Mirah mistakes his reaction for him being about to pass out again; he vaguely hears her mention going to kidnap Dr. Sloane again; he cuts her off.

“No, it’s…it’s him.”

“Oh!” She considers for a moment. “Good. I’ll go get him.”

He nods; he can feel his heart beating erratically and knows he should probably do something about that--relaxation exercise, get horizontal, something--but first thing’s first. “Tell…no.” He can’t think of a good verbal code, but he has something even better.

Using the chair to hold himself up and keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible, he starts over to the wall.

“Let me--” Mirah starts.

“Wall safe,” he says. “Keep forgetting to program your fingerprints.”

She makes a face. “And you’ll go to bed as soon as you get whatever it is?”

“Yes, fine,” he says. He makes it to the safe, and opens it, pulling out a fist-sized stone and handing it to her. “Show…show him this. He’ll know you’ve seen me.”

“I will. Now, bed.”

“Right,” he says. But his head is spinning and it seems so very far away right now. I possibly overdid it. “I’m just going to…sit here for a moment first. Catch my breath.”

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll be back soon.”

“I know.”

There is, of course, a slight problem with sending the meteorite instead of some kind of verbal message. One that, if Kallus had been firing on all cylinders, so to speak, he would’ve figured out.

A verbal message can’t be pulled off a dead body, after all.

…yeah, Zeb pulls a gun on Mirah when she shows up.

She restrains herself from responding the way all her training has told her to respond to a gun in her face, because she knows how important Zeb is to Kallus. “Rude,” she says instead.

Zeb snarls at her. “Where the hell did you get that.”

“From Papa,” Mirah says, like it should be obvious. “Are you going to let me in?”

Papa? Zeb had never imagined the monsters that killed Alexsandr--who did the kind of things Orryn described--would have children. “…no,” he says. “You’re going to take me to Papa.”

It’s the best, most solid lead he’s had in forever, more concrete than Orryn in terms of tracing back to the specific people who killed his fiancé, he finally has an actual agent, a string to pull to unravel Division and end them.

“Well, yeah,” Mirah says, because that is the plan. But not right now.”

Zeb glares at her. “No. Now.”

Mirah sighs. “ORRYN!”

Orryn, who heard the commotion and was already on his way, joins Zeb at the door. “She’s okay, Zeb. Really. This is Mirah, I told you about her?”

Zeb is…not at all sure what to make of all this. But he lets her in while he tries to figure it out.

(Keeping her covered with the gun, of course. As much as he can when the first thing she does is wrap Orryn in a flying tackle hug.)

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Orryn says, clinging back so hard. “I was worried.”

“You were worried!” Mirah says. “You know what you’re supposed to do in a firefight! Keep your head down, and wait for Papa to come get you!”

“I know,” Orryn says. “But I saw him go down, and then…” I got grabbed, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.

Mirah nods. “I already yelled at him about that.”

Which is not what Orryn would’ve done, but he knows his sister, so he’s not surprised. “And…and Shamie, are they with you? Are they okay?”

“They’re alive,” Mirah says. “They got in touch. But they’re still undercover. We’re working on it.”

“Touching as this reunion is,” Zeb interrupts, “you need to tell me where the hell you got that rock.”

“I already told you.”

“Not enough.”

“Well, then ask,” Mirah says. “I don’t know what you know.”

“Who the hell is Papa, and how the hell did he get that meteorite?” Zeb asks.

“No idea where he got it,” she says, which is true. “He just told me to give it to you.”

Zeb stares at her, for a long moment. “What the hell kind of sick joke--”

“What?” Mirah says. “Explain, because I have no idea what the hell you mean.”

“He’s taunting me,” Zeb says, flatly. “Whoever he is.” ...on the other hand, that means I’m close…or they know I have Orryn. He frowns, then shakes his head. “But to use this to lure me out…”

Now it’s her turn to stare. “Lure you? You’re the one who demanded I take you places!”

“Because you turn up, out of the blue, on my damn doorstep, holding that!”

“Because Papa told me to!” she says. “What’s so important about it, anyway?!”

“It’s something I gave to--” He stops. “Your people, Division, they took it off him after they killed him. I’ve spent the last five years trying to track down the bastards who did it.”

And SUDDENLY EVERYTHING IS CLEAR.

“You didn’t see him,” Mirah realizes.

“…what.”

“Okay,” she says. “We can go see Papa now. But leave your gun behind, he’s been shot enough this week.”

“No, seriously, what the hell,” Zeb says. “Saw who?”

“Papa,” she says. Obviously.

“You still haven’t told me who that is!”

“Because I love him, but he’s sometimes a secretive jerk and I don’t know his full name and that’s embarrassing, okay?”

Zeb just stares at her for a moment.

Mirah sighs, exasperated. “Orryn, do you know Papa’s full name? I don’t have any pictures, and I don’t want to wake him up by calling.”

Orryn shakes his head. “Never had that much access to Division’s computers, and you know he doesn’t talk about that stuff. …Shamie might know, but…”

“I’ll text,” she decides. “They won’t get it until it’s safe.”

“Like hell I’m waiting for that,” Zeb says. “Take me to him. Now.” “First, leave the gun behind,” Mirah says, and there is No Room For Argument in her face or her tone.

Zeb considers this for a moment.

He’s dealing with one guy who’s apparently been shot all to hell, and one baby agent…he’s got the raw physical strength to overpower her if it comes to that. Besides, she didn’t say anything about other weapons.

“Fine,” he says, and ostentatiously puts both the gun he already had out and the backup from his boot on the table.

“Thank you,” she says. “Orryn, you coming?”

Orryn hesitates for a second. “…someone should probably stay with Hanny.”

“Who’s Hanny?”

“My kid,” Zeb says. “…kinda. Long story. Can we go?”

“Sure,” Mirah says. “Hanny can come, too.”

“Hell no,” Zeb says. “I don’t bring her into potential danger if I can avoid it.”

“If you say so,” Mirah says. “Just a suggestion.”

So, Orryn and Hanny stay back at Zeb’s place. Mirah texts Kallus to let him know they’re coming.

He. Uh. Wakes up on the floor by the wall safe when his phone buzzes. Never quite made it back to bed…oops.

Part of him thinks he should probably correct that, but on the other hand, standing up sounds like Work right now. He’ll just…wait here. Gather his strength.

Oh, right, I should text back. “Fine, see you soon.”

As they approach, Mirah once again warns Zeb that Kallus has been shot, so he is not allowed to get him worked up or let him out of bed.

“Yeah, you mentioned.”

“It bears repeating,” she says. “And he is not allowed to die.”

“Copy that,” Zeb says, though he makes no promises. Whoever Papa is, he had Alexsandr’s meteorite, which means he Knows Something about the people who killed him.

She opens the door to the safehouse. “PAPA YOU HAD BETTER BE IN BED.”

…well, at least he hasn’t moved from where she left him last?

Mirah gives him her best Aggrieved and Disappointed Face.

“…I think I fell asleep here,” he says, wearily.

And then Zeb has a Moment.

Because he couldn’t quite see Mirah’s papa from this angle.

But he knows that voice.

“Did I or did I not tell you to go back to bed,” Mirah says, but she knows it’s gonna be a lost cause for at least a few minutes. “…I’ll lecture you later.”

“Alex?” Zeb says. Whispers. It takes him a few seconds to actually get the name out and it comes out strangled and disbelieving.

And even though he already knew Zeb was alive, he’d seen him in person and then the picture, something about it…he’s here now, it’s real--

Fortunately, before Alex can try to get up, Zeb is right there.

“You were…you were dead, I thought--”

For his part, Kallus cannot form words right now. He just reaches up, hand shaking, to touch Zeb’s face.

(Mirah, in the background, discreetly texts her siblings with an update.)

(Orryn, upon reading the text, asks Hanny if she’s ever seen The Parent Trap.)

(“Because I think your spy dad and my spy dad used to be together. Wanna go join them?”)

(Hanny doesn’t need to be asked twice.)

Zeb, at that point, just scoops Kallus up and, very gently, puts him back in the bed.

“Oh, good,” Mirah says. “Now we need to keep him there.”

“No arguments here,” Zeb says.

And this had better not be a dream, he adds, in the privacy of his own mind.

Of course, there’s a lot more catching up to do from there, and a creepy organization of spysassins to take down, but I think we got enough here for one outline, lol. XD Future developments, of course, involve Team Fulcrum (who keep the nickname because Why Not) teaming up with the Ghost Crew to actually take down Division and shoot Pryce in the face; getting Shamie’s kill switch removed; and then…whatever adventures the Family of Spies might have in the future. Maybe head down to Miami, run into another team of former spies. Or up to Boston, run across a team of thieves…

The point is, they’ve found each other again. The rest…well, the rest is just Details.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Food, gas prices pinch families as inflation surges globally (AP) From appliance stores in the United States to food markets in Hungary and gas stations in Poland, rising consumer prices fueled by high energy costs and supply chain disruptions are putting a pinch on households and businesses worldwide. Rising inflation is leading to price increases for food, gas and other products and pushing many people to choose between digging deeper into their pockets or tightening their belts. In developing economies, it’s especially dire. “We’ve noticed that we’re consuming less,” Gabor Pardi, a shopper at an open-air food market in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, said after buying a sack of fresh vegetables recently. “We try to shop for the cheapest and most economical things, even if they don’t look as good.”

Rocky Roads Ahead (NYT/Washington Post) President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package puts $110 billion of new spending into roads, bridges, and other megaprojects over the next few years. But it could take months, even years, for some of the major undertakings to begin. Why? Because America’s biggest projects have a dismal history of long delays and billions in cost overruns, portending egregious setbacks to delivering on promises. In recent years those cost overruns, engineering challenges, and political obstacles have made it almost impossible to complete a major, multibillion-dollar infrastructure project in the U.S. on budget and on schedule. In 2008, California voters approved a bond for a high-speed rail system from L.A. to San Francisco at an estimated cost of $33 billion and a completion date of 2020. Construction has encountered serious delays due to land acquisition issues, environmental litigation, permit setbacks, employee turnover, and significant design changes. The job is now projected to finish in 2033 for $100 billion. And that’s just one of many delays and overruns in major projects. As America begins her national infrastructure spending spree, many projects will likely face the same kind of cost, scheduling, and technical problems that have bedeviled ambitious efforts in the past.

Leftist holds commanding lead in Honduran presidential vote (AP) Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro held a commanding lead early Monday as Hondurans appeared poised to remove the conservative National Party from power after 12 years of continuous rule. Castro declared herself the winner despite orders from the National Electoral Council to political parties to await official results. Thousands of people packed the capital’s Morazan Boulevard blowing car horns, waving the Libre party’s red flags and setting off fireworks. After midnight, the street continued to fill with Castro’s celebrating supporters. In 2017, after a protracted election filled with irregularities, protesters filled the streets and the government imposed a curfew. Three weeks later now-outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández was declared the winner despite the Organization of American States observation mission calling for an election re-do. At least 23 people were killed.

Turks abandon the lira for dollars as currency crisis deepens (WSJ) A currency crisis is battering Turks’ confidence in their government’s ability to manage the economy, causing droves of people to buy U.S. dollars and sending crowds of people into the streets to oppose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies. Riot police lined the streets in parts of Istanbul as the country braced for a third night of scattered protests over Mr. Erdogan’s inability to stop a precipitous drop in the Turkish lira. The lira’s depreciation has undermined nearly two decades of economic gains that had lent Turks a sense that they were ascending into the world’s club of top economies. Such protests have been rare since Mr. Erdogan concentrated power following a 2016 coup attempt, and local police said they had launched a legal inquiry into social media accounts that it accused of sharing "manipulative content" about the lira’s historic crash. The Turkish lira’s rapid slide—13% in one day this month and about 38% since the beginning of the year—resulted in a wave of Turks exchanging their liras for dollars, euros and other currency. Foreign currencies held by households in Turkish banks last week through Nov. 19 rose by nearly $1 billion, according to data released by the Turkish central bank on Thursday. About 59% of retail bank deposits are now in foreign currencies, up from nearly 57% the week before.

Interfaith love a risk amid India’s Hindu nationalist surge (AP) Arbaz Mullah’s love story began, as romances often do, when he first laid eyes on the woman of his dreams, Shweta Kumbhar. They agreed to get married. The romance so angered relatives of Kumbhar, a Hindu, that they allegedly hired members of a hard-line Hindu nationalist group to kill 24-year-old Mullah, who was Muslim. On Sept. 28, his body was found on a stretch of railroad tracks. While interfaith unions between Hindus and Muslims are rare in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, and other Hindu nationalists have forcefully decried what they call “love jihad.” The discredited conspiracy theory holds that supposedly predatory Muslim men deceive women to coerce them into changing their religion, with the ultimate aim of establishing domination in the majority-Hindu nation. Rights groups say violence against interfaith couples has increased in recent years, perpetrated by hard-line Hindu nationalists out to stop such relationships. Hundreds of Muslim men have been assaulted, and many couples have been forced to go into hiding. Some have been killed.

Japan shuts borders to nonresident foreigners in response to omicron variant (Washington Post) Three weeks after reopening its borders to a limited number of foreigners newly arriving in the country, Japan is slamming shut again amid growing fears of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Monday that the country would take emergency measures for at least one month, while researchers study the variant and assess its risks. Beginning Tuesday, Japan will bar nonresident foreigners, including business travelers, international students and foreign workers, from entering the country. The ban applies to all countries, not just ones with confirmed cases of the omicron variant. Japanese citizens and foreign residents are exempt.

Australia delays border reopening as Omicron cases rise (Reuters) Australia said on Monday it would delay the reopening of its international border by two weeks after reporting its first cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said earlier this month Australia would reopen its border to foreign visa holders on Dec. 1, in the latest steps to restart international travel. The country shut its borders in May 2020 and allowed only restricted numbers of citizens and permanent residents to enter.

Calm returns as clean-up begins in Solomon Islands (Reuters) Soldiers and police from Australia and Papua New Guinea were helping to restore calm in the Solomon Islands as clean-up operations started, after several days of rioting left three dead and led to dozens of arrests, local media reported. The Solomon Star newspaper said Australian soldiers and police and troops from Papua New Guinea had helped to restore normalcy in the country’s capital Honiara, halting the looting, rioting and burning of buildings and shops.

Cash-strapped Lebanon wakes up to countrywide roadblocks (Al Jazeera) Roadblocks were set up by demonstrators across much of cash-strapped Lebanon after the currency plummeted to a historic low. Protesters across Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, and other cities closed highways and intersections on Monday morning with their vehicles, and set tyres and rubbish dumpsters on fire. They called on the government to control the plunging Lebanese pound, which for the past week has hovered at about 25,000 to the US dollar. The pound has lost about 90 percent of its value in about two years. Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government remains gridlocked and has not convened in almost two months, unable to resolve a diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia and several Gulf countries and settle differences over Beirut blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar. The government for months promised to introduce a one-year ration card programme to cushion the financial blow for about 500,000 families. However, they have yet to secure funding for the plan, which costs more than $500m.

Israeli president celebrates Hanukkah at West Bank site (AP) Israel’s president on Sunday visited one of the most contentious spots in the occupied West Bank to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, sparking scuffles between Israeli security forces and protesters. President Isaac Herzog said he was visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to celebrate the ancient city’s Jewish past and promote interfaith relations. But his visit to the city, known for its tiny ultranationalist Jewish settler community and difficult living conditions for Palestinians, drew widespread criticism from Palestinians and left-wing Israelis. About 1,000 Jewish settlers live in small enclaves guarded by Israeli soldiers in the city, surrounded by some 200,000 Palestinians who must cross through Israeli checkpoints to move from place to place. There is frequent violence between the sides and the Cave of the Patriarchs, revered by Muslims and Jews, was the site of a massacre by a Jewish settler who killed 29 Muslim worshippers in 1994.

The secretive Libyan prisons that keep migrants out of Europe (New Yorker) In the past six years, the European Union, weary of the financial and political costs of receiving migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, has created a shadow immigration system that stops them before they reach Europe. It has equipped and trained the Libyan Coast Guard, a quasi-military organization linked to militias in the country, to patrol the Mediterranean, sabotaging humanitarian rescue operations and capturing migrants. The migrants are then detained indefinitely in a network of profit-making prisons run by the militias. In September of this year, around six thousand migrants were being held. International aid agencies have documented an array of abuses: detainees tortured with electric shocks, children raped by guards, families extorted for ransom, men and women sold into forced labor. “The E.U. did something they carefully considered and planned for many years,” Salah Marghani, Libya’s Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2014, told me. “Create a hellhole in Libya, with the idea of deterring people from heading to Europe.” In the course of his reporting on migrant prisons, journalist Ian Urbina and his team were arrested, beaten and detained at a secret jail in Tripoli, where interrogators accused them of spying before confiscating their equipment and deporting them; Urbina said that his arrest left him with two broken ribs and kidney damage.

Merriam-Webster chooses vaccine as the 2021 word of the year (AP) With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day in 2021,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, told The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement. The selection follows “vax” as word of the year from the folks who publish the Oxford English Dictionary. And it comes after Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as tops in lookups last year on its online site. The word “vaccine” wasn’t birthed in a day, or due to a single pandemic. The first known use stretches back to 1882 but references pop up earlier related to fluid from cowpox pustules used in inoculations, Sokolowski said. It was borrowed from the New Latin “vaccina,” which goes back to Latin’s feminine “vaccinus,” meaning “of or from a cow.”

[rhondahowse]

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Book A Holiday To Malta

Malta is a small island state in Europe, in the middle of the Mediterranean and is a popular holiday destination for many Europeans, mostly from the U.K., Germany, Italy, France and Holland. Tourists visit the island for various reasons and the island offers a variety of facets that will be of interest for most types of travellers. This article provides you with the top 10 reasons why booking a trip to Malta is a great idea, not only for next summer’s holiday season but all year round!

10. Language and money in Malta

The Maltese have their own language (‘Maltese’) but the country has two official languages, with the second official language being English. Malta was under British rule for 160 years, gaining independence in 1964, but leaving the Maltese with a relatively strong knowledge of the English language, although Maltese is much more widely spoken and is the mother tongue for the vast majority of Maltese. For English speaking tourists this means that communication is almost no problem, which is definitely a benefit when on holiday. Although at the moment the Maltese Lira is still the only valid currency, the Euro will be introduced on January 1st, 2008 and many retailers in tourist areas already accept Euros for cash payment.

9. Sports and leisure activities

Malta is a great location for a variety of sports, including hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, para gliding, wind surfing and yachting. Plenty of activities to keep you entertained, no matter the time of year. Most materials needed for these sports are available for low-priced rent and there are various locations on the islands where these sports can be exercised. Gozo is a particularly popular location for rock climbing, thanks to its steep cliffs, and mountain biking thanks to its quiet roads and excellent hill climbs.

Events, such as pop concerts and theatre shows, but also historical re-enactments such as In Guardia are popular among both tourists and locals and provide great entertainment for the whole family. Are you a fan of watching sports? Don’t worry about missing any big matches or events – satellite reception is widely used by the more popular pubs and there are plenty of appetizers and beer around to enjoy your favourite sports.

8. Getting around in Malta is easy and cheap!

Don’t you hate it when you go for a holiday and it takes you ages to get to the beach or to visit a few cities, museums? Don’t you hate it when it takes a whole day to take one excursion, when you waste so much time on travelling from place to place which makes you wonder whether it was even worth the hassle? If your answer is yes, then Malta is definitely the holiday destination for you. It takes less than an hour to get from one side to the island to the other and there’s such a high concentration of places of interest, beaches, holiday resorts and places for entertainment (restaurants, clubs, cinemas etc.), you’ll wish you’d have known about Malta earlier!

A lot of tourists decide to visit Malta a second time and sometimes more, simply for the reason that there’s just so much to do and to see, and it takes so little money and time to get around and spend quality holiday time.

7. Gozo offers a peaceful setting to your summer holiday

Malta is not just about Malta. Yes, that’s right, The Republic of Malta also covers Gozo, which is Malta’s sister island and is said to be the island that Malta used to be a long time ago – rural, quiet and untouched. Gozo is a great place for a peaceful (family or couples) holidays, with beautiful beaches and countryside views. Visit the capital Victoria, with its Citadel in the centre – a fortified part of the village which used to offer the inhabitants of Gozo shelter against foreign invaders, similar to Mdina’s surrounding walls on the main island Malta. The seaside town of Xlendi is a popular tourist destination, offering a beautiful view of its bay surrounded by high cliffs. Ramla l-Hamla and San Blas Bay are beautiful beaches to go for a swim, one being larger and busier, the other being more secluded and more difficult to get to (steep hill descent) but much worth the effort.

As of recent, a shuttle bus service is available, taking you straight from the airport to the ferries in the Northern most tip of the island of Malta, making arrangements for a Gozo holiday a little easier to plan for.

6. Malta has a rich culture and heritage

Throughout the ages, the Maltese islands have seen various foreign rulers coming and going, and leaving behind their stamps on Maltese culture. As a result, Malta is soaked in culture and heritage and offers a large number of cultural and historical sites in very short distances from each other, making Malta a unique place in the world map of culture and heritage. Both in the Maltese language and culture remnants of Phoenician, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French and English invaders can still be found today and this melting pot of cultures is of interest to many tourists visiting the Maltese islands on holiday.

5. Good quality hotels and accommodation

Good quality hotels and self-catering apartments are widely available at very reasonable prices. Package deals are usually the way to go, but booked separately the cost versus quality of accommodation is very good. The main areas for holiday resorts are St. Julian’s, Bugibba/Qawra, and Sliema, which are all situated in the Northern part of Malta. Accommodation in St. Julian’s is recommended if you enjoy spending your nights going out but, being close to the nightlife hub of Malta, is not advisable for couples and family who are looking for peace and serenity. For those travellers, places like Mellieha and St. Paul’s Bay are much better places to stay.

4. Malta is an all year round destination

A flight from London to Malta takes less than three hours, but the difference in climate is huge. Mild winters and warm summers with an average temperature of 32C means excellent weather for both hot summer holidays as well as great holiday weather in winter, to escape from the cold back home. There are plenty of activities to keep you entertained all year round and for example hiking is a popular way of spending days out in the countryside in winter, enjoying the scenery and serenity. Most cultural and historical hotspots are open all year round, and although open air clubs don’t open during the winter months, nightlife in Malta goes on throughout the whole year.

3. Malta offers a great nightlife to complement your daily activities

Nights out on the town are a ton of fun, since Malta hosts a true clubbing hub that goes by the name of Paceville (St. Julian’s) and which offers a large number of clubs which are situated literally door to door and which play different genres of music to suit everyone’s tastes. Open air clubs, however, are what makes clubbing in Malta rather special. Spending your warm summer nights dancing to the latest club and trance anthems or smooth R&B and hiphop beats under the stars is just something else and a must do on your holiday to Malta.

2. Malta holidays now come with cheap flights

That’s right – low cost airlines have found Malta and offer dirt cheap flights to the island outside of the high season and regular cheap flights in summer. These airlines offer flights departing from a select number of places in Europe, such as London, Dublin, Barcelona, Oslo, Stockholm, Pisa (Italy) and Bremen (Germany). Look for airlines the likes of Ryanair, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Clickair, but don’t forget to check Malta’s national airline Air Malta, which regularly offers low cost flights to a much larger number of European destinations.

1. Malta offers more than any other Mediterranean destination

You could say that the top reason for visiting Malta is a combination of all other reasons listed above: There are a lot of different things you can do during your holiday in Malta and you’ll never be bored if you get the right info. Baking in the sun on the beach is great for relaxation after a long year of work or school, but most people would prefer adding a little variety to the time they spend on holiday. So if you’d like to go somewhere else besides the beach, why not visit on the many places of interest around the island? Visit the old capital city of Mdina, for example, surrounded by bastions and oozing with history and an ambiance you’ll never forget. Why not take a trip to sister island Gozo, with its serene country views and attractions such as the Azure Window, a rock formation sculpted by the sea.

Evenings will never be boring when you know where to go. There is plenty of choice when it comes to dining out, as quality restaurants can be found in most parts of the island. Wine bars and pubs are also popular in Malta and provide quality wines and both local and international lagers, beers and various popular brands of liquor. There’s plenty of opportunity for clubbing and open air clubs and parties are a must see if clubbing is your ideal night out.

Source by Edward Penza

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[greenbagjosh]

20 April 2001 - dithpickable ducks in Lugano, DJ BoBo’s new CD - for 2001 anyway, and with an easy puzzle

Grüezi Mitenand!  Bonjour!  Buongiorno!  Hi everyone!

Thank you for joining me on the second day of the April 2001 journey.  On Thursday the 19th April 2001, I had departed Washington Dulles for Milano Malpensa MXP.

For the most part, the flight was uneventful.  About 5 AM UK time the flight was just entering British airspace.  The flight still had to cross French territory.  The flight landed at Malpensa around 9:10 AM.  The difference between September 2000 and April 2001, was that there was no jetway assignment for April 2001, and that there would be a "remote staircase exit" with a shuttle bus.  I took the bus to the terminal, went and did the passport check and baggage claim.  I turned my radio on, to tune into Italian stations.  The two major rules of digital tuning in Europe, AM stations are on 9-kHz steps instead of 10-kHz steps as in the USA, and FM stations are on 100-kHz steps instead of 200-kHz steps, but nowhere in the world anymore is 50-kHz step used.  I tuned in an adult contemporary station, I think "Radio Italia, solo musica italiana", and heard "primo treno per Marte" (first train to Mars) by Gianluca Grignani, and after that, "Campi Flegrei" by Edoardo Bennato.  I made sure to have hit the Record button.  And there would be more songs when I boarded the bus to Lugano.

About 9:50 AM, I left the airport terminal for the bus station next door.  I saw two busses empty that were to go to Lugano.  I picked the one that was due to leave sooner.  The fares were the same, 25,000 Italian Lira or 20 Swiss Francs.  The driver for FlyCar (sponsored by the Swiss Post, no longer exists, was since replaced by a regional rail service) came about 10:25 AM and let the few who were present board the bus and we went on our way.  The bus made its first stop at the old terminal, Terminal 2, which I remember flying in with my family in June 1987 when we were going to drive to Orta San Giulio in the Piedmont region.  During the bus ride I remember hearing the song "Questa nostra storia d'amore" by Matia Bazar.  The bus went north past Gallarate on A8 and my video camera was showing 11 AM local time.  I tuned into a radio station that was playing "Crying at the discotheque", a cover version of the 1979 Sheila and B Devotion's song "Spacer" by a new Swedish band called Alcazar - the videos of both songs are just as bizarre to watch.  The bus exited A8 just south of Varese and went on local roads to Gaggiolo where the border with Switzerland was located.  We had to sit for fifteen minutes for passport control.  I received a stamp in my passport as Stabio Confine with the 20th April.  After that, we were in the Ticino.

The bus went to Mendrisio, the first rail connection.  Everyone was going to Lugano, and between Mendrisio and Lugano, the bus was only on a drop-off basis after leaving Malpensa.  The bus skipped Mendrisio and went north on A2 to Lugano FFS.  It went past Fox Town mall, Bissone and Campione (one of Italy's exclaves surrounded by Switzerland), Melide (has a miniature museum) and ended at the station.  I did not have a rail connection at Lugano.  The hotel knew I was going to arrive about 1 PM, so I withdrew some money in Swiss Francs, and paid 5 Francs for a day pass for the bus.  At the time, bus line 9 went from the rail station to within a block of the hotel.  There also was a connection to the former trolleybus lines.  I arrived at the hotel, and they had a room for me.  It was a single room with a balcony facing Mt. San Salvatore.  Sadly the weather was not quite as nice.  The Ticino usually does not get visitors between November and March, and as a consequence, many hotels are closed between Airolo and Chiasso.  I had asked for a half pension for the night, so I should be awake about 6:30 PM.

I was not quite tired at 3 PM but would soon be.  I went to the Migros Supermarket at the bus stop, bought some food for lunch, then walked from the hotel to Riva Paradiso from Via San Salvatore.  I ate at the park on the lake.  I watched some ducks having a hassle with each other, some going as far as saying to the other duck, "you're dithpickable!" in the manner of Daffy Duck, making the AFLAC duck seem like Big Bird from Sesame Street.  About 3:45 PM I was getting tired and went into my room to sleep.  I turned on the radio and recorded an hour of the German-language station DRS 1 (you cannot get DRS 3 in the Ticino using a conventional radio, or anywhere south of Göschenen UR for that matter, but you can tune in its Italian-language equivalent.  DRS 2 is also available in the Ticino as is DRS 1 but not DRS 3).  About half an hour included an interview in Swiss-German with DJ BoBo.  He was invited to discuss his new CD "Planet Colors".  DRS 1 played a bit of "Color of life", one of the songs from the CD - “Chihuahua” would not be released for another couple of years.  After that, DRS 1 played "Yellow River" by Jeff Christie and "Layla" by Eric Clapton.  I don't have the recording at the moment but I remember there were a few more songs on that tape.  I went to sleep for a while.

The front desk called at 6:45 PM wondering where I was.  I came down fifteen minutes later.  They were still serving supper.  They served fish (cod, I think), penne pasta alfredo and steamed spinach.  It tasted excellent.  The hotel offered me more of the vegetables which I accepted.  The meal cost about 20 Francs. About 8:20 PM I left the hotel to go into downtown to see what had changed.  You might remember the San Carlino delle quattro Fontane church in downtown, on display in September 2000 when I was last there, but that had since been dismantled.  I walked to Piazza Alighieri Dante, where I remember in September 2000 seeing the thunderstorm and buying a point and shoot camera at the Manor department store on sale for 60 instead of 100 Francs.  There was a big sign with Helena Christensen's face, asking "C_e cose _anca a Lugano?"  It was an ad for a clothing store, and I do not want to give the name away.  I took the bus back to the hotel to sleep.  I recorded about an hour and a half of a local station, Radio Campione, which I remember from my last visit.  About a quarter of the songs were in Italian.

Tomorrow after we are well rested, we will go to Bellinzona, Locarno and maybe some interesting places off the map.  Please join me for tomorrow's journey.  Buona notte!

Auf wiederluege!  Au revoir!  Arrivederci!  Goodbye!

[keywestlou]

SIZABLE PORTION OF BIG SUR WASHED AWAY

America has been blessed with many beautiful nature scenes. One is Big Sur in California. Officiously known as California Highway 1.

Many years ago, I was in the area of Big Sur to play golf at Pebble Beach. My tee time one of the days was in the afternoon. I decided to see the Big Sur I had heard so much about.

Rented a car and was on my way.

The coast of California near San Francisco and running through Carmel is one huge cliff. Not as high as those in Santorini. High enough, however. At least 1,500 to 2,000 feet up.

A highway was carved out which runs sometimes on top of the cliff and other times a road has been cut into the side of the cliff.

Below the Pacific Ocean! Majestic waves pounding the base of the cliff.

Majestic! Beautiful! The only way to describe Big Sur.

I was sorry I was alone. The drive is one to be shared with someone with whom you have a close attachment. Such is the mood!

This morning’s news carries the sad story that a significant portion of the highway has been washed away by a winter storm. Obviously that portion of the highway will be closed till repaired. Could take quite a while.

One last observation. There are very few homes along the way. Only nature in all its pristine glory.

Joe Manchin is Governor of West Virginia. A Democrat who seems over the years to have voted more Republican than Democrat.

Can’t blame him. West Virginia a deeply Republican state. Coal mining a major industry.

It was announced yesterday that West Virginia was a “vaccine success” story. Eighty five percent of its doses requirement received and used. Yes, 85 percent of West Virginia has been vaccinated.

Only North Dakota has done better.

Why West Virginia and North Dakota can do it and the other 48 states still struggling to get going, I do not understand.

The numbers reported were by the CDC and not West Virginia itself.

A civil servant in charge of the program said it was the result of “creativity” and “innovation.” West Virginia studied what was happening in the rest of the U.S. and came up with their own plan.

The State did not activate the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens. Instead went it alone.

West Virginia is more rural than big city. The State went to the small independent drug stores. Many mom and pop operations. State officials thought such would prove productive. Obviously, they were correct.

The small drug stores went to the people’s homes and farms. They did not wait for them to come to town for a shot.

Many persons live 40-50 miles away from the big cities and chain drug stores.

One story told involves a mom and pop type operation with a couple of employees. They stored the vaccine in a special refrigerator in their home kitchen. Six every morning they were at their kitchen table figuring where to go that day and arranging the vaccines to be carried.

It all worked! God bless Joe Manchin and the people of West Virginia!

I would like Florida’s Governor DeSantis to plan better as Joe Manchin did. Every DeSantis planned program thus far has failed. Looks good up front and then peters out.

Going to run Day 6…..Greece the First Time at this point. Then return to some other news items I wish to share.

  DAY 6…..Greece The First Time

Posted on June 2, 2012 by Key West Lou

Greece is a time bomb waiting to explode.

The people are unhappy. The financial crisis is choking them.

Economics is the topic of conversation everyday. Expressed with increased vehemence each day.

Riots around the corner. Protests already. The situation a tinderbox ready to ignite.

I was on my way to the Metro Underground beneath the plaza in front of Parliament yesterday. Thousands of people walk the plaza hourly. In one corner near the entrance to the Metro, several young people were carrying signs. One was talking into a loudspeaker.

Speaking Greek, of course. I neither speak nor understand the language.

About 50 persons milling about listening. I mingled in the crowd. I was able to pick up the gist of the protest from comments made by onlookers. Economics. The euro.

Listeners aroused. The name Merkle caused several to spit on the ground.

Recently, Greece had an election. Neither the left nor right obtained enough votes to control the government. So the Greek Parliament is floating along. The country in limbo.

A new election is scheduled some time in June.

Italy’s former Prime Minster Berlusconi announced yesterday that unless Germany backed off the euro, Italy should return to the lira. Germany appears the only European nation benefiting from the euro. The Greeks and Italians dislike the Germans. They feel Germany is being hard ass about doing something corrective regarding the economy. Whatever might be done would not be to the financial benefit of Germany.

Beware. I sense bad days ahead. Keep in mind that we live in a global world. Whatever happens in Greece and elsewhere affects us in the United States.

I spent 3 hours doing yesterday’s blog. I sat in one position and typed for the three hours. When I finished, my legs from my knees to my ankles were full of fluid. I went back to my room, took a fluid pill and lay on the bed three hours till the problem was relieved. Today I am getting up and moving about on occasion as I write.

I took the Metro Underground. It is a subway. I have not been on a subway since my senior year in college in New York City in 1957.

The purpose of taking the Metro was to visit Acropolis and the Parthenon. Way up a hill. Better to ride than to walk. One stop on the Metro.

A problem. The Metro Acropolis stop was still at least a mile from the entrance. An uphill walk. At a constant 30 degree angle. In the boiling sun.

Not my cup of tea. I had to stop not several times, but many times to sit and rest. As I sat, many passed me by going to the top. Many  older than I. Some obviously infirmed. While Louis sat, they marched.

The first part of the return trip was a problem also. The initial path down was of marble. Huge irregular blocks. Slippery. Small cuts in the marble to minimize the sliding factor. I slid, did not fall. It was not easy.

The trip was worth it. I was a part of history during the time I was on top. Acropolis, the Parthenon and other smaller temples. The most stimulating factor for me was the realization that all I saw was constructed BEFORE Christ. Way before.

Acropolis a temple to the Gods. The most exciting feature of the Parthenon the columns.

The smaller temples had columns also. However, they were copies. Some time back, there was a violent earthquake. The columns could not handle the movement. To protect them from a future abuse by nature, they were removed and replaced. The originals sit in a museum at a point down the hill.

Two generationally different fat cats responsible for much of what has been done. Pericles back in the 400s BC. The Rockefeller Foundation in recent times.

All the buildings are fragile. Thousands of years old. Modern man is constantly working to preserve that which was. There are scaffolds and cranes every where.

There had to be a topping on the cake after such a glorious walk back in history. It came in the evening. Dinner at Dionysus Restaurant.

Dionysus sits at the foot of the historical mountain. About a mile away. It is a huge outdoor restaurant. Top self. Great lamb. Greater view. Expensive. Worth it.

There in front of my eyes on top of the hill sat the Acropolis and Parthenon. All brightly lite. Awe inspiring. The viewing emotional.

Traditionally Dionysus was the God of the grape harvest. He was also known as Bacchus. Party boy! Festivals galore!

Did I sleep last night? Finally! The first full night’s sleep since starting this trip. I hope the jet lag is behind me.

Today is my last in Athens. Tomorrow I leave for Santorini. I still have not danced nor thrown dishes around. Hopefully tonight. There is a little Zorba in each of us.

Yesterday was Ally’s birthday. Seven years old. I forgot. I will Skype her later and make up for it. I selected a birthday gift for her before I left and gave it to her. So I am only half bad in forgetting.

I know not what today holds. Whatever, it will be good. I am in a place where it cannot be bad. And tonight….hopefully dancing and dish breaking.

Enjoy your day!

Back to today’s news.

Trump continues to have lawyer problems. Big ones! No one wants to represent him in the Impeachment trial. First Giuliani and some others withdrew or could not accept the responsibility for various reasons. A new team of 5 came on board.

The five lawyers withdrew with the trial scheduled to begin 10 days from today. The reason was a difference of opinion as to how the trial should be handled.

Trump insisted election fraud be the top item. His attorney’s disagreed. The trial should surround impeachment issues and not whether Trump was elected. Sixty one courts had already shot Trump down on that issue.

I admire the attorneys for withdrawing. A doctor does not let the patient tell him how to do the brain surgery surgery he is facing. So too with the attorney-client situation. A competent attorney would do as the 5 attorneys did. My way or the highway.

L. Lin Wood is a Georgia attorney who brought several election fraud conspiracy cases to court. Each wherein he represented Trump in one fashion or another.

The Georgia Bar Association has now entered upon the scene.The  Bar has asked Wood to undergo a mental health evaluation. Lin has refused. Refusal could mean suspension or disbarment.

Lin has opted to fight. He has taken the position he did nothing wrong, only exercised his Constitutional right to free speech.

Amazing isn’t it how many of those who have tried to help Trump eventually end up behind the eight ball.

What happened to the Republican House and Senate members who feared for their lives on January 6, who hid under tables and benches behind locked doors, etc.

With the Trump impeachment trial around the corner, their tune has changed. Poor Donald! He didn’t tell the demonstrators to do bad, etc.

Whores one and all!

January 6 reminds me of the Reichstag fire in Germany on February 27, 1933. Hitler inspired. The fire solidified the establishment of Nazi Germany. Hitler’s government became entrenched.

The U.S. is not yet entrenched in any movement opposite to what it has been for many years. However, it could be moving that way. People on both sides are aroused.

Sunday, oh Sunday! Will my home quarantine ever end? Some days I think it is getting to me.

Enjoy your Sunday!

  SIZABLE PORTION OF BIG SUR WASHED AWAY was originally published on Key West Lou

[nimata-beroya]

Thank you so much for the tag my dear @moonstrider9904!! 🥰💚

What I'd consider my first fic:

Kadala was the very first Star Wars fic I ever wrote, featuring the most badass tin can space dad and his alien green son. I was so hyped after watching season 1 of The Mandalorian that I had to write them. These 2 bring out the fluff in my muse 🥰

My softest fic:

It has to be On An Adventure. What else can it result when one put dear and wise 99, and curious toddler Omega in one short story, huh? Especially when it was written for flufftober 😉😊

Fic I'm most proud of, which also shows my progress

I'm proud of all of them because each is an opportunity to explore ideas and learn new things about writing and myself, but I guess I'm most proud of Rough Awakening. As most of you know, I'm fascinated with Crosshair and the complexity of his character, also with the idea of reuniting him with his brothers and his sister (and de-chip him), and this is the perfect way for me to explore all that.

Funny fact: this fic was/is the prequel to another story that I started writing where Cross was already "rescued". But while writing that other one, ideas of how he was rescued and why there's still a tension between Crosshair and the others pestered me constantly, so I decided to put that fic on standby and write Rough Awakening. In fact, RA has taken flight on its own and every day I get more and more ideas for it, taking it away from the original final point, which is making me rethink finishing the other fic. I might discard that one (i only wrote the first chapter and started the second) and let Rough Awakening follow a different path.

Your favourite WIP:

Even if I've posted only the first chapter of Road to Lira San (which I shouldn't have done until I had more early chapters written, but I have no self-control), I love this story if these 2 idiots in love. Keeping canon intact while playing with what was left unsaid in the show is both fun and challenging. I think this is why the earlier chapters have given me so much trouble to write, while the later ones are in progress. A fact that frustrates me to no end! I want to keep sharing it with you but my muse refuses to bridge the gap between chapter 1 and the ones that were already written, which are, if you allow me to say it, *chef's kiss*

Tagging (with no pressure) @mathmusic8 @bh51 @airlockfailure @megafrost4 @mistr3ssquickly @x-wing-junkie @specter-7-reporting-in @webtrinsic1122 @triplerexthreat @thecoffeelorian

Fic Writers Tag Game

Been feeling a little down in the dumps with lack of engagement on tumblr and AO3 recently compared to the past few months. So to combat that, I'd like to start a little tag game where we can all promote and get excited about our works! (and also get to know more amazing writers so please do share around)

Please state and link/explain the following fics:

What you'd consider your first fic:

Your softest fic:

Fic you're most proud of:

Fic which shows your progress:

Your favourite WIP:

(Feel free to combine some of these if you like, no need to have them all seperate if you don't fancy it)

----

My Answers are below (warning: spoilers for TCW):

What you'd consider your first fic: Date Night With The Captain which is a Captain Rex x Reader fic born from my first ever ask! It was my gateway back into writing after becoming properly obsessed with Star Wars a few months back and I had a lot of fun writing it.

Your softest fic: The (Not So Secret) Super Secret Surprise Party - Anakin and co attempt to plan a surprise party for Ahsoka, but as with everything with Anakin, it's a complete train wreck but in the best way. My first proper crack at pure wholesomeness, it was a lot of fun.

Fic you're most proud of: With You (18+, minors DNI) - My first proper stab at writing my OC Issa Straun, I wanted to write something which went through a lot of emotions during a rough battle in TCW and how that could play on her friendship with Wolffe. I really really enjoyed writing this fic and am glad I got to post it.

Fic which shows your progress: Monster Part 1 - While I wouldn't deem myself an angst writer, this fic goes through what Fox is dealing with during Fives' death and I think getting into Fox's headspace was a big jump for my writing and I think it came off alright in the end.

Your favourite WIP: My untitled Wolffe x OC Issa fic, the first chapter is nearly written and i've got my first ever proper story plan. It's gonna be a long one but I am SO EXCITED to get stuck in with it. It'll start at the beginning of the clone wars and follow the Wolfpack, Plo and his padawan Issa as the war drags on, going through battles, downtime, loss and everything else.

-----

No pressure tags for mutuals/writers I admire: @wild-karrde @milf-maul @spacerocksarethebestrocks @photogirl894 @moonstrider9904 @m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s @nahoney22 @murdertoothpick @hannah-schooler and anyone else who sees this who's a writer, I'd love to find more amazing works on here

[nimata-beroya]

1, 3 for fic ask game

Thanks for the asks @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius!

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)

Well, that depends on what they like the most. If it's fluff, I'd recommend On an Adventure. If they're looking for angst, maybe they should check out Rough Awakening or You're Still There. However, Road to Lira San might be better if hurt/comfort is their thing, or High Above the Ground if they're looking for some sexy times (with a splash of fluff).

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

Hurt/Comfort in general. Most specifically, Whump. I looooooove hurting my favorite characters, putting them through hell, and then giving them comfort, of course. 😈😏

Although, in my old fandoms, I was well known for my kinky fics. I haven't gone back to that genre in full in Star Wars, but I think i might do it soon.

Ask me any of these questions for fic writers

[cryptodictation]

We have ordered micronsis fog machines from many municipalities for disinfection

One of the Albayrak Group companies, Kademe Wasim Technologies San. INC. General Manager Kenan Çelik made evaluations using video conferencing method over “Zoom”.

Pointing out that the orders coming from the municipalities have increased rapidly, Çelik said, “Our priority is to meet the demands of our country. While we anticipate to produce 50 units per week, we are forcing our newly developed” Mikronsis fog machine “to increase our capacity to 150 per week. Also, requests from North Africa, South America and Russia. We started to respond slowly. This is a product that existing municipalities can quickly adapt to their own courses. “

Çelik said that the micronsis fog machine can be installed quickly by adapting to the existing plot, road sweeper or fire truck instead of buying a new machine, vehicle or equipment from scratch, and provides very little water consumption of about 7 liters per minute.

AA

“We are developing tools that have a high impact on street disinfection in the coronavirus process”

Stating that they are producing machinery, tools and equipment for municipalities in environmental cleaning as Kademe Waste Technologies, Çelik noted that they are exporting to 42 countries as a company that attaches importance to domestic and national production and they started working to establish a production line in Indonesia.

In addition to stating that Turkey's export previously imported equipment they contributed more than $ 100 million to the economy of the country by the production of steel, continued as follows:

“In this process, we are developing vehicles that have a high impact on street and street disinfection. The demand for targeted machinery in the world and in our country has increased, we have rapidly produced these products with the R&D work and we are working for more advanced products. In addition to the existing applications, we have developed a product that can be easily adapted to water tankers, road sweeping vehicles and even fire trucks in municipal parks.

The coronavirus struggle showed that environmental disinfection is very important. In this context, we closely monitor the practices made in China. We watched that they send equipment to different parts of the world. Our advantage is that instead of these systems that can fit 40 in the world's largest cargo plane, we can fit 40 in a container and send them quickly. The incoming demands show that our customers are satisfied with our products and we do not have a problem in terms of capacity. “

AA

“The way to fight the crisis is to invest in R&D”

Pointing out that many companies in the world were caught unprepared with the crisis that started with the coronavirus, Çelik said, “The only way to deal with the crisis in the sector is to invest in R&D. We closely follow the industry and the world. I see that many companies have not developed similar equipment. To deal with this crisis, to be sustainable “The only solution is to invest in R&D. If the new products you develop can also respond to the demands, you can get out of this process without getting injured.”

Steel, Turkey and stated that going through a difficult world processes, “Our mainly health workers, including all firms with employees, managers and company owners wish health in this challenging process. As a whole, the public and private sectors must fight in this process. Our government measures are taking, the economy of this The supports applied to survive in the difficult process are promising. “

Stating that the announced economic support packages will enable the companies to survive, Çelik said, “The partial work support provided by our state is of great importance in the protection of employment. Our government announced a support package of 100 billion lira, and there is also a displacement of credit debts. We did not intend to dismiss any of our colleagues in this process. “We continue to take measures to make sure that every employee can circumvent this process more easily.”

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