#sw nr legends tbt.

[delugenal]

𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄, coruscant was everything but. rain expected more from the pliant heart of every galactic regime that’d come before this newest of republics. millennia tall duracrete constructs without a touch of artistry disfigured an otherwise jewel-colored sky. blaring neon adverts soliciting everything from holodramas to suggestive delights accosted peripherals on every side street and thoroughfare. a city of automated aesthetics; designed by organics and built by dreamless machines. a city a creature like the queen mother might appreciate if anything outside her own abysmal perfection could touch her basal standards.

      although thoroughly unimpressed, there were pockets that fell within the realm of beauty. like the garden rain sauntered through. an illusion of nature’s glory, manicured by . rain heard the rapacious song of life all around him. a choir fueled by crystalline blood through chlorophyll veins. yet amid the jungle of harmonized chaos, the trail he followed like an instinct remained untouched.

      for a woman who spent the better part of her still fresh adulthood absconding herself from imperial clutches, leia organa was not a difficult woman to find. her presence called to his magic like an echo’s drip, cascading in silence off the walls and across the open air. even without the spectral current drawing him through assemblage of imported flora, the courtier imagined he’d trace her steps with the same patent ease. if he’d been subjected to the queen mother’s ego in the way organa had, he too would flee to a sanctuary inhabited by a merciful lack of mouths.

      ❝ you’ll find a hapan’s sense of time depends on her mood. ❞ his face was entirely obscured save his eyes beneath rich hues of violet and pale pelagic blues, but the upward turn of his voice was a clear companion to a smile delivering the jab.

      with a click of wood against the path, rain planted himself before a column a respectful distance from alderaan’s heir. vines like threads of jewels encircled the pillar he’d chosen as his post. at the end of each spreading limb was a heart-shaped leaf accompanied by a pair of delicate buds: one a dawn-soaked magenta, the other a twilight periwinkle. rain recognised them as totally innocuous in their natural state, but when crushed and combined with certain . . . obscure components, the wispy aroma that bloomed from their hearts became a nerve-crippling gas.

      ❝ i hope you don’t find us a tedious bunch, lady organa. i’d hate for the queen mother to fall on your bad side. you already brought one empire to its knees. ❞

                           moisture clung to the back of her hand as leia drew it across her brow, sinking onto the elaborately carved bench which thankfully appeared around one well-appointed garden turn.   painted lips curved earthward, a soft, chiding voice which sounded much like one of her late aunts echoing in her head.    ( you wouldn’t be sweating now if you had simply not run.   what princess sprints across a garden? )    grimace deepening, the senator allowed herself the most ungraceful of all movements: a full slump, leaning against the sturdy back.

                           relishing in how the relief stone bit through her thin gown into her spine, she let her head tip skyward.   this, this was something real, unlike every interaction since she opened her heavy lids this morning.   what was keeping her here?

                           obligation.

                           the same which kept the mantle of alderaan’s senator upon her shoulder, which led some tens of thousands of beings to still declare her princess even though nothing of their world remained.   the role which made her so attractive a candidate to the queen mother.   what could be more prestigious a match than to an heir presumptive who could never have total loyalty to their throne… because their throne no longer existed.

                           the faint brush of a mind against her expanded senses functioned like a fly caught on a spider’s web, leia straightening, composing herself into something merely mildly tired in a heartbeat.   just in time for one of the hapan courtiers to round the grassy bend.   out of no obligation to rise, the hint of a smile faded onto her lips, easily cloaking herself in sheepish chagrin.    

                           ❝  have i been gone that long already?  ❞

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ— @delugenal 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓