#unkranger

[rottmnt-residuum]

hello i had like. two dreams i remember about this comic

dream 1: you dropped the designs of what the turtles would look like when all is said and done, mikey was a glowing orange mass and poor donnie's limbs were either unusable, either due to paralysis or being turned into a weird noodly shape minus his left arm which he used to drag himself around with

dream 2: you released a good chunk of arc 3 out of nowhere, in which april and raph appeared at the facility and freed everyone, but when mikey appeared it was revealed that 1) the foot lieutenant and brute were his roommates (i'm pretty sure they're basically dead here but they were normal and unkranged in the dream) and 2) mikey TURNED INTO A FUCKING DRAGON SOMEHOW???

residuum mikey frfr lmao

[sl-walker]

#4. Blackbirds - Croft.

Celebrating the Festival of Life on the front lines was difficult, but the Jedi somehow managed to make it happen, helped liberally by politicians who either cared (few) or who wanted to make themselves look good (many), and were it not for the fact that the clones seemed to really appreciate it, Maul would have probably scoffed at the farce and then gone and turned in early to avoid the socialization aspect of it.

However, his Blackbirds mostly seemed to be in the spirit, and so Maul ended up haunting the jury-rigged banquet table, which was catered by droids serving dishes from many, many worlds.  The droids were having quite some time keeping up with demand; after so many ration bars, no one was missing the opportunity to eat real food.

Or, for that matter, to drink.

There was a forward guard who would be relieved later, keeping it so that the rest of the troops could partake and enjoy themselves.  Somehow, during this time, Maul ended up with a cup of something warm, sweet, spicy and rather pleasant to drink in one hand.

Apparently, this cup also never actually emptied.  He– was not sure how that was.  It seemed every time one of his squad walked by, the cup was full again.  Maul would pin it on them, but he never actually saw them do it.

Regardless, he was enjoying drinking it, even if he was drowsy now and not exactly sure he was going to be able to walk back to his own tent.  Even as good as his cybernetics had proven to be, they could get a little less predictable when he was impaired.

He caught a flash of beard and Jedi robes in his (admittedly blurry) peripheral vision and leaned over, pressing his shoulder to Obi-Wan’s and–

–it wasn’t Obi-Wan.

There was a very long moment where he and the bearded Jedi looked at one another, neither of them moving.  Maul blinked.  The man was younger than Obi-Wan and he recognized him vaguely, though not by name; he was the one with the thoroughly impressive beard who had been in charge of the commandos that Maul had sent Raze to politely challenge.  The man went to open his mouth, green eyes a little wide in surprise.

Maul blinked again, then he asked with careful enunciation, “How do you keep food out of all of that hair when you eat?”

It was a genuine question, he really was curious about that, but he never got an answer because Tally and Shiv appeared to tug him away from his improvised leaning-post; Shiv lightly plucking the cup from his fingers with an, “Excuse me, sir, sorry about that,” and Tally sliding under his arm to steer him.

“Uhhhhh–” was all Maul heard the Jedi say, sounding baffled and maybe amused, but then the rest was all a blur of motion that didn’t stop until he was sprawled on his sleeping pad and already most of the way asleep.

Maybe he could ask again when he was sober.

[b-radley66]

unkranger liked your post:*squints* Now the question is whether I should… *eyes* Is that a vote? *smirks!*

Yep!

[sl-walker]

Covenant/Ahsoka 3 sentences-ish Stranded.

Ahsoka kicked the engine housing of the landspeeder, as it sat pathetically on the ground, baring her sharp teeth at it in a moment of truly overwhelming frustration before turning back and raising a lip at Bryne, who seemed to be finding this funny.  “What do you think you’re laughing at, Bait?”

Bryne raised his hands and smiled back at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling some as he answered, “Nothing, I’m just glad that this time, it’s not me who did the bumbling idiot thing.”

She huffed, but then her face softened a little, the corner of one side of her mouth creeping up as she said, “Yeah, well, I have a lot of catching up to do in that department compared to you.”

[sl-walker]

@unkranger; even if I fail to write the bar fight cantina meeting, at least you’ll have this. XD

Everyone else, this is Dani, and I have a crush on her.

[sl-walker]

Are there any more Dani and Maul comm conversations peaking out around the edges?

The unexpected glow from her office window at an hour when no one should have been in there had Dani hovering a hand over any one of her several hidden knives, just in case someone had broken in and was laying in wait for a chance to attack, or was going through her files, or was there for any other nefarious purpose.  (As opposed to someone beautiful being draped across her desk naked, anyway; it had happened before, but then again, so had the occasional rogue asshole, and on very rare occasions, they managed to be both.)

Her eyes narrowed as she pressed her hand to the reader beside the door, ready to find someone on the other side.

Therefore, she felt just a little silly when it turned out the offender was a flower.

It was small; its heart glowed a warm yellow-orange and its petals, by contrast, ranged from pale blue to a barely visible violet at the tips, except where the veins of it spidered delicately out from the center.  When she brought the lights up just enough, she could see that it had been delivered the day before (when she had been out chasing down leads on one of her neverending cases) and was not, in fact, an omen, threat, bomb in disguise or worse.

Many people sent her gifts (some more welcomed than others), but she only knew of one person who would send her a living flower.

Dani picked up the card nestled between the leaves, taking in the distinct cursive script of High Galactic with a little shake of her head and a grin.

Dani-

Don’t worry, it’s not invasive.

-Maul

A quick check of her terminal confirmed the local time on Alderaan, so as Dani moved to grab a snack and make herself something hot to drink, she dialed his comm code; it was later morning there, and therefore unlikely she’d be interrupting anything he would desperately mind being interrupted.

“You went to all the trouble to send me a live flower, only to include a one line note about how it’s not invasive?  In High Galactic, no less?” she asked, once he answered, chuckling.

“What were you expecting, poetry?” Maul asked right back; from what she could pick out of the background sounds, he was somewhere in the city, given the sound of traffic.

Dani almost snorted at that, grin broadening.  “Oh, I don’t know.  Maybe a detailed fact sheet about how to keep it alive?  Or what it even is?”

“I figured it wholly likely you’d call, and then I could just tell you how to keep it alive.”  Maul had the ability to convey a shrug with his tone quite well.  “Though, it doesn’t require much; six to eight hours of sunlight a day, on average, water it lightly three times a week and throw some crushed egg shells into the pot once a month.  I didn’t think that would warrant a dissertation.”

“Not this one, huh?  Well, that’s one mystery solved,” Dani answered, laconically, though she was careful not to sound sarcastic.  It really was a beautiful flower; it looked almost familiar, too, but she couldn’t place it. “What is it?”

“A hybrid of the Alderaanian Candlewick and the Corellian Dragonfire.  They’re related; some eons ago, someone brought the Dragonfire to Alderaan and it eventually evolved into the Candlewick.  So, crossing them was relatively easy to do.  It’s sterile, though, so you won’t have to worry about cross-pollination with any of your native flowers in that family.”

Dani thought about the two dozen quips she could make right there, playing to everything from the reproductive nature of flowers to the fact that they were both hybrids to how it might make a good nightlight for more intimate adventures.  She was also fairly sure two thirds of those would fly right over his head, and the other third might scandalize him.  “It’s beautiful,” was what she ended up going with, setting down her protein bar just to stroke the petals of it.  Though she couldn’t resist adding, “Do you give pretty hybrid flowers to all the people who want to seduce you?”

Maul scoffed back at her. “Actually, that’s the only one of its kind.  Take that however you will.”

[sl-walker]

Just one more, since I was in the neighborhood.  Look, it’s CorSec’s very best recruiting tool!  The secret weapon to obtaining the best and brightest in law enforcement candidates the galaxy over. XD

[sl-walker]

Just a quick sketch of Dani for @unkranger.  Thanks, B.  And happy holidays.

[sl-walker]

GofT: A—Maybe Meglann preparing Dani for the the Great Maul Hike, or the shovel talk from Breha?

“He’s like a malfunctioning traffic signal.  All mixed signals,” Dani said, sitting still while Meglann worked on braiding her curly and occasionally unruly hair.  When she felt Meg stiffen a little, she added, “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  Just– different.”

Meg claimed she wasn’t well acquainted with Lord Maul, but she was the occasional employee of the Queen of Alderaan and thus felt strongly about the royal family, House Organa as a whole and their reputations.  Admittedly, most people on Alderaan did, and most of them seemed to hold the founding family in quite high esteem.  Still, after a moment, Meg said, “I wish I knew what to tell you.  He comes in occasionally, has a caf or some tea, sometimes orders breakfast and then leaves again. He always tips well.  He’s polite and easy on the eyes and I don’t get any mixed signals, but then again, I’m not the one who wants into his bed.”  A beat. “Though, I wouldn’t go jumping out if I found myself there, either.”

“I’m sure you know more than that,” Dani said, with a smirk, tipping her head backwards to look at Meg. “You work for his family.  You’re right in the University District, you can’t tell me there aren’t rumors that fly around.”

“You know what they say about rumors–”

“–one grain of truth in a sandcastle of misdirection.  But that one grain of truth is what I’m looking for.”

“You’re such a cop.”  Meglann plunked her hand down on the top of Dani’s head and pushed it until she was looking forward again, then went back to braiding. “Okay, let me see: Rumor has it that he’s a freeloading conman, a charity case, a very well-camouflaged secret lovechild of Queen Mazi’s with some zabrak lover, an exceptionally pricey prostitute, a hired body-guard– the list goes on and on.  I do know for fact that he was an environmental studies major and graduated about two and a half years ago with high honors and that his name is definitely in House Organa’s charter, penned there by the Queen Mother herself.”

Dani almost laughed at that.  She supposed she could see where the uninformed would get shades of all of those more outlandish suggestions.  She also wondered how many of them actually knew he was sleeping with the current Queen and Viceroy, but figured – probably rightly – that was a topic even Meglann would go mum on if she brought it up.

One thing about Alderaanians; for as open and welcoming as they were, they coveted their privacy highly.  And really, Dani had more than enough experience with Elder Houses to understand why.  Even on peaceful Alderaan, those in power could collect enemies; hell, she wouldn’t be here if not for a case of that a couple months back, which was what led to her meeting House Organa’s mysterious adopted son.

“No dates?” she asked, because if there was one thing gossip was good for, it was seeing who thought who was sleeping with who else.

“No.  The occasional gossip columnist tries to figure him out, but I’ve never seen anything confirmed.”

Dani went to nod, then thought better of it, since Meg still had chunks of her hair caught between nimble fingers.

Maybe, once she was done appreciating said fingers, she could do a little research and see what grains of truth separated from the castle of misdirection.

The HoloNet turned up surprisingly little.  Alderaan’s major news sources had archives and Dani went through them with the speed and practice of an investigator while Meglann slept off their third or fourth coupling.  With the soft flannel sheets tangled around her shins, Dani sat and tried to dig up information, but all she really found were references to when Maul was granted his title and official place in House Organa – at the same time House Organa was granted the throne – and some about his University career, which was about as non-scandalous as it could get.

She could see what she thought were his fingerprints on things, though; when related articles came up about testing a cure for an invasive ash-tree blight, she knew he was one of the scientists on the team which had done it.  When there was mention of an arts school being expanded around old-growth trees, nudged that way on an endowment from House Organa, he had to have been at least partly behind it.  Little things like that.  But for being a highly unlikely member of the royal household, Maul himself was apparently quite good at keeping out of the spotlight.

Which was completely incongruous with the fact that he sure as hell dressed like he wanted to have every gaze in the room on him and largely succeeded at parties.

Dani tapped her stylus against her lips lightly for a moment, then turned to another curiosity: For what zabraks she had encountered in her life, she’d never seen a red one, and she had never seen one wearing such bold tattoos, either.

It was when she started hunting for information on that that she got her first solid trail.

When Meg woke up well before dawn, Dani was still awake following it.

According to CorSec internal documentation – because the HoloNet had provided only enticing hints and nothing solid – the only known zabrak-type sentient that lived in such vivid skin was the Dathomirian Nightbrother.  A hybridized species of some indeterminate mix of human and zabrak, from the Outer Rim world of Dathomir, they were bred and kept as slaves for the purposes of procreation and labor by their counterparts, the Nightsisters.

Dani felt her face twist into something sour at reading that, but slavery was a miserable reality that had not yet been driven out of the galaxy, one which her own people had fallen victim to in times past, and one which she encountered with painful regularity in her line of work.

There wasn’t much about them, though, aside the fact that if they were found off of Dathomir, then likely they were slaves and that all law enforcement should make every effort to determine their status and, if necessary, free them from the slaver holding them and get them help through the social service agency best equipped.  Female slave-holders tended to seek them as pleasure slaves whereas male slave-holders kept them as fighters for the illegal bloodsports that still were waged in dark undergrounds even in the Republic.  There was a warning attached that they were almost always Force-sensitives, but rarely to never trained.  The price list based on their size, markings, colors and patterns made her skin crawl, but that was how it was with any flesh-peddling of the non-consensual kind.

(According to the list, Maul would be worth three times his weight in gold; the vivid, bright skin and rich black markings indicated a blood-purity that had gotten rare among the already incredibly rare Nightbrothers.  It seemed perfectly unsurprising that something about him could make him less mysterious while making him even moreso, all at the same time.)

A public records search turned up a sealed juvenile record.  Nothing short of a full senate vote with a two-thirds majority and an agreement by the Chancellor himself would unseal it.

It was going off of that, though, that lead her to the feature news article from one of Coruscant’s reputable papers detailing an illegal fight ring, where three fully adult combatants were killed by a twelve-year-old zabrak boy, who was taken into custody when law enforcement descended on the crowd in a mass arrest.  But when Dani tried to follow the boy’s trail into the byzantine, murky bureaucracy of the capitol world’s justice system, she had no luck whatsoever.

After that, he became a ghost.

“You’re going to miss your hiking date if you sit there much longer,” Meg said, bustling around the diner as she prepared for the morning rush. “Do I even want to know what you’ve found?”

Dani looked at the single half-blurred image of a whip-thin, by all accounts tiny boy snarling at law enforcement officers, equal parts terror and defiance, then swiped the article off of the datapad’s screen. “Probably not.”

She wasn’t entirely sure if this was going to end up being a hike, an investigation or a fishing expedition.

Though, Dani had to admit, it would doubtless be interesting.

[sl-walker]

+holds hat in hand+ Blackbirds meeting a certain commando unit and their Commander(not yet a General) From Maul’s POV? Or just more Blackbirds and Ahsoka shenanigans....?

“There’s elite– and then there’s us,” Misty said, as they mustered near the supply tent in order to get their rations for their next field op.

Maul turned around from where he had been going over the inventory they had requested (he was going to have to have yet another word with Raze about the number of grenades one man could carry reasonably), following Misty’s line of sight to where there looked to be a group of clones surrounding a Jedi of– some rank or another and a beard to rival Obi-Wan’s.

He didn’t see anything particularly special about them, aside the one who was notably larger, but then again, Maul didn’t have the trained eye of a clone assessing other clones.

“Kind of makes us look like the dregs at the bottom of the barrel,” Tango agreed, not bitterly so much as resigned.

“Come on, that’s not helpful,” Shiv said, not looking up from where he was counting out ration bars.

“We’re not trying to be down, Sarge, it’s just–”

“We’re not that.  Half the GAR thinks we’re a joke.  Those are commandos and we’re just–”

It wasn’t too often that his squad of odds, ends and eccentricities showed signs of poor confidence so overtly.  It bothered Maul, not because he didn’t think them capable, but because he did.  They had their rough edges and they were certainly not outwardly some elite unit of crack troopers, but they were unique.  Undeniably clever.  Different, but in ways that made them particularly well suited for the black ops work they did.

“Raze,” Maul said, “stop caressing the bombs and come here.”

Raze started guiltily from his minor love affair with the cases of bombs, then came over, chewing his lip. “Yes, sir?”

“Go pick a fight.  Politely.  With the big one.”  Maul nodded back over his shoulder to the commando unit.  “Just sparring, no injuries,” he added, when Tally gave him a Look, because when it came to training in combat, Maul was in charge, but when it came to health and welfare, Tally was the one who gave the orders.

Raze blinked, looking at the big trooper, and then blew out a breath and nodded before heading over there, something in his expression both eager and nervous.

Maul didn’t even watch him go negotiate; he already knew what the outcome would be.

The fight was over in six moves; there hadn’t even been time for the clones to gather and circle it properly.  It was probably for the better that there hadn’t been time for bets to go flying, too, because a lot of people would have lost out.

Raze’s face had gone in an instant from the open, earnest and eager look he usually had to something still and calm, and through the Force, Maul could feel the shift in his chaotic demo expert’s signature.  The moment where Raze fell into the centered focus required for teräs käsi, where he shed all extraneous thought and became that alignment of body, mind and spirit.

Raze had excelled in it, as Maul had thought he might; he had progressed well past even Shiv in learning.

He bowed politely at the waist, feet together and hands at his sides, and then fell into the opening rider’s stance.  Murmurs ran through those who had gathered, and admittedly, the big commando was no slack himself, clearly an expert in all the usual forms of hand-to-hand.  But Raze moved like water around him, quick and fluid and graceful, face never once betraying his thoughts.  Within six moves, the big trooper was pinned to the ground.

Maul didn’t bother to check the Jedi’s expression, just waited for his demo expert to bow and return, before turning back to his own work.

“In the entire Grand Army, there’s only one squad being trained in teräs käsi,” he said, ticking off another mark on the datapad. “Even if they asked, I would train no others in it.  There’s a difference between knowing you’re elite and actually being so.”  He gestured with his stylus. “Anyway, I know I wouldn’t trade you.”

Though, Maul didn’t really want to know what message the commandos took away from it, when Raze threw arms around him and planted an enthusiastic kiss on his cheek.

[sl-walker]

Something with Dani in GofT: Alderaan? +hat in hands+

“I swear, it’s just a visit.”

Maul eyed Dani, arms crossed, and squinted in naked (if quite good-hearted) suspicion.  (Naked in terms of emotions; he was, in fact, still fully clothed.)  “No cases?  No I-apprehend-criminals-wherever-I-land moments?”

Dani chuckled, shaking her head, the tumble of dark-and-blue curls sliding against her shoulders. “I promise, no chaos.  Just me, taking a mini-vacation, to indulge in some charming company.  And maybe some hiking?”

Maul could have kicked himself for what came out of his mouth next: “Just hiking?”

Dani eyed him up and down and bit her lip, and in that blindingly enlightening moment, Maul suddenly understood why both Bail and Bre tended to start undressing him with their eyes whenever he did that.  “Welllll,” she said, then grinned at him with her eyebrows jumping, “I wouldn’t mind getting close to the ground.  With the queen’s permission, of course.”

After a moment of staring at her, Maul twitched his head to the side once, trying to process how the hell he was even interested in that prospect, then turned around to walk right back out. “That’s something you’ll have to take up with her,” he said, tossing it back over his shoulder.

If he did happen to throw a bit more of a roll into his gait, though, showing off–

Well, he could facepalm about it later.

--

--

It wasn’t as if Bail and Bre hadn’t discussed it.  Most of the discussion seemed to center on the fact that both of them had gotten to play the metaphorical field in their lives and Maul had not.  He had gone from being essentially a slave, to entirely a convict, to a disaster of dissociated depression, to slow recovery and equally slowly winding his way quite thoroughly into the hearts of House Organa, and by the time he did have the mental health to even be interested in sex, he was eighteen.

And by the time he had the courage to go after what he wanted – which was Bail, and not just in body – he had been twenty.

This never bothered Maul and honestly, it still didn’t.  He loved them.  He wanted them.  They loved him, they wanted him.  It was both that simple and that complicated, all at once.  It had taken him about two years to fall for Bail and two more to act on it; it had taken him about a year and a half to fall for Bre and turn what had been a close, intimate friendship into a sexual relationship.  He’d never even looked at anyone else in that manner before, and he still didn’t.  It just didn’t occur, not even when he was playing up his own sex-appeal for whichever purpose there was and thereby attracting a great deal of attention from many others.

Dani tended to throw all things into disarray, apparently, especially when her eyes went black.

It didn’t help matters that he liked her.  Not even in the manner of attraction, but in the manner of recognizing someone who was, at heart, kind and honorable both and who lived life open to the experience.  She had a wonderful laugh and a sweet smile, and Maul supposed if he ever experimented outside of his quite stable and happy relationship with Bail and Bre, he could do far, far worse than Dani Faygan.

Of course, even if he was willing to tentatively test the waters there, he certainly wouldn’t do so without permission.

“She came all the way to Alderaan to see you?” Bre asked, tipping her chin down and eying Maul over a pair of imaginary glasses.

“I doubt she came back to see me.  More likely to see Meg.”  Maul palmed down his face, then recrossed his arms, feeling more awkward than he knew what to do with. “I’m probably little more than a diversion, Dove.”

Breha raised an eyebrow at that, leaning back in her office chair. “Maul, you’re a lot of things, but never just a diversion.”  Her face went a little more serious, then. “I’m not in any hurry to share you with just anyone, but she seems to genuinely like you.  And you like her back.  And if, by chance, you end up testing the waters…” she trailed off and shrugged.  Then, apparently realizing that Maul definitely wanted something more solid than that to go on, she smiled and shook her head. “You have my permission.  Just let me give her the shovel talk first, and don’t do anything you’re not one hundred percent comfortable with.”

Maul spent a moment wondering what a shovel talk was, but then he was too busy having something of an internal panic attack at the thought that Bre just gave him permission to sleep with someone else.

He probably looked about as dazed as he felt, walking back out of her office, given the way she was chuckling after him.

--

--

Obi-Wan was no help.

Maul had run into him on accident on the way to track down Bail and see what he thought of all of this, and when Obi-Wan asked after him, seemingly worried, Maul had poured out an explanation while pacing back and forth.

Obi-Wan had gaped back, mouth working soundlessly, and then he’d left.  He didn’t say a word, no wisdom, no advice, nothing.  He just walked away.

(Maul didn’t happen to see the way the Jedi turned back once, face a confused mix of longing and envy.)

--

--

Putting themselves back together after that sniper’s bolt hadn’t come easily; it took time and care and work.  It took Bail figuring himself out (and talking to a therapist about how he processed grief); it took Maul learning all over again how to ignore the whispers in his head speaking of abandonment and fear and loss, which had thrown his self-confidence into such a downward spiral that he still hadn’t quite found his feet the same way again.

If there had been any less trust or love there, they might never have made it back.

Despite the scars, though, both physical and emotional, they were at least in that place together.  Healed and healing, and able to laugh again.  Capable of silliness and no longer flinching at the mere idea of allowing themselves to be happy.  Not untouched by the whole thing – Bre’s miscarriages, their loved and lost children, the months of being adrift and hurting and seeing no way out, the soul-crushing guilt that Bail and Maul both had harbored over it – but come out the other side of it intact and holding firm to the foundation under it all, uncracked.

Unsurprisingly, it was only really in Bail’s arms that Maul was able to settle down enough to think clearly about it all.

“I’m not against it on principle or anything, love,” Bail said, broad hand sweeping a steady, soothing path from the back of Maul’s neck to the top of his tailbone and up again. “But it doesn’t seem like you’re that keen on the idea.”

“I don’t know what I am.”  That was a little muffled, but Maul wasn’t in any kind of hurry to pull his face away from Bail’s chest.  “She’s–”  he started, then when he didn’t know how to finish, he raised his hand to wave it once, before just resting it back over Bail’s heart again.

“She’s beautiful.  And smart.  Graceful.  Sweet.  Funny.”  Bail was grinning, evident in his voice. “Reminds me of someone else who makes the color red look so good.”

Maul scoffed back, though he also felt that little glow of pride at the same time. “I don’t know how much of it’s actual attraction or– or that empathic resonance, I– kriff, Bail, I don’t know.  I don’t want to stumble into– into something that drowns me, or–”

Or something that hurts.

He didn’t need to say it; Bail went from petting him to squeezing on him and they just stood there for long moments, lost in the easy comfort of one another.

When Bail did speak, it was considered and warm, “I think you should take the pretty lady hiking.  Flirt if you want, but don’t even think about anointing any trails or anything.  See if it gets more comfortable and less anxiety-provoking, and then we’ll negotiate permission, if it comes to that.”

Having that particular weight taken off his shoulders, temporarily or not, was enough to make Maul’s knees quiver.  He let out a slow breath, sagging a bit more against Bail and then gave a nod. “All right.”

--

--

Hiking, Maul could do.

He never got tired of being out there, in the mountains or in the trees, or roaming broad and grassy valleys.  Never got tired of following the game trails that ran alongside of the rivers, letting the marsh grasses that grew on the banks trail through his fingers.  There was science, but there was also just– this.  Alderaan, in all of her beauty, wearing the colors of seasons.  He could feel it down to the marrow of his bones; what times Maul left, he was usually quick to come back, homesick not only for his family, but for his world.

Thus, he put on his basic hiking clothes, with his worn but well-loved and cared for boots, slung his pack over his shoulder and went to take Dani hiking.  If flirting happened, then it would happen; if it looked to go beyond that, then he would step back behind Bail’s line and they could discuss it later.

But for now, he could show her the world that he loved.

It seemed like a good start.

[sl-walker]

Something with Meglann, if you like, maybe her thoughts on the whole Dani and Maul dynamic? Or her thoughts on Bryne and Ahsoka if you want to really delve....

“Truffles.”

“Truffles?”

Meg nodded, fingers playing over the cup of tea she was given when she forewent the offered alcohol.  Across from her, leaning against her desk, Queen Breha was eying her with some amusement, a smile tugging on her mouth and both humor and curiosity in her eyes.

The fact was, Meg was still kind of awestruck by her queen.  Even though Aldera (and in fact, all of Alderaan) managed to feel like a small town, even though nobility and royalty both walked into her diner to eat, even though their leaders were incredibly accessible, it still blew her mind sometimes that the queen had taken any notice of her.  But thanks to some hesitant but intelligent questions at a university lecture that Breha headed, Meg found herself called aside and then hired; officially her title was handmaiden, as that what the budget allowed for, but in reality, she was part-time assistant and occasional ear-on-the-ground, and only once or twice had she actually been called upon to help Alderaan’s incredibly beautiful queen dress or handle her hair.

Even for as informally as Breha treated her, and as many times as Meg had been told to relax, some part of her still felt what could only be called hero worship around the woman.

Much of Alderaan felt the same way.  House Antilles and House Organa were both among their very eldest and most revered, and their queen was of both of them.  She was loved by most, and those who didn’t had the good sense to be very quiet about it.  The only other woman who inspired that sort of awe on this world still alive was the Queen Mother herself; Meg adored Queen Mazi equally as much as her daughter-in-law.

Now, she was in the– interesting position of trying to explain one Daaineran Faygan, which was a little like trying to describe a force of nature on legs.

“It’s– a pretty typical Dani story,” Meglann started, smiling some both in warmth and for her queen. “Meaning it starts unexpectedly, leads to chaos, arrests, some bruises and, uh, more interesting intimate activities, and ends with her eating enough calories to feed four or five full-grown men.”

Breha huffed a breath out of her nose, saluting with her own mug. “By all means.”

“All right.”  Meg sat for a moment, working out how to tell it, then said, “I met her about six months ago, just after I took over the diner, and it was while I took a day trip to Corellia to buy some truffles.  I know that’s pretty high fare for the diner, but I was catering for House Syrush because their second daughter, Brenna, had classes with me and recommended me.  I figured that was pretty good advertising, but I wanted to wow them, so after having a panic attack looking at the price of truffles here on Alderaan, I found them cheaper by the pound through the common market on Corellia and headed there.”

Breha was listening; Meg knew she had been a teacher before marrying into House Organa, but nothing drove that home quite like the quiet, keen, attentive way that the queen paid attention to people.  As if she was logging every word in her mind and honestly enjoying it; as if the whole galaxy was a classroom, and everyone a student who needed the teacher who believed in them to give them that time and attention.

One of about a thousand reasons Meglann would die in service to her, if it came to that.

“I’ve– never had the kind of funding available to buy truffles fresh before, so I was a little bit uninformed when I was picking over them?”  Meg winced, just a small amount. “But I picked some that looked really good, handed the man my credits, and then this red hand reached out and grabbed my wrist.  When I looked up, she smiled at me and said, ‘I wouldn’t waste the credits, beautiful, those are fake.’”

“How do you fake a truffle?” Breha asked, squinting a little bit, an incredulous grin on her mouth.

Despite herself, Meg grinned back. “I’ll get to that, your majesty.  Anyway, I had the usual reaction most people have when Dani smiles at them and she hasn’t arrested them before – I guess sometimes even if she has – but before I could get too distracted, the man who was selling the truffles came out to give me my receipt and a bag, saw her, and ran.  Dani grinned at me, then took off after him; she vaulted right over the stall display.  In the meantime, I stood there for a few seconds holding apparently fake truffles before I realized he just took off with House Syrush’s advance and followed her, right over the stall, landing in more produce because I’m not exactly experienced in produce-jumping for sport.”

“Bold!” Breha said, laughing, head falling back.

She had the kind of laugh that made it feel like the whole world laughed with her, and Meg found herself doing the same, until they were both giggling.

The queen wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand, still beaming. “That’s a helluva mental image, Meglann.  What next?”

Meg set her tea aside on the side table, rubbing at her cheek a little, then gestured. “A merry chase through the streets and alleyways.  I’m pretty fast, I was able to catch up even with cabbage leaves in my hair.  Dani called for backup, but before it got there, the man ducked into a garage and then nearly ran us over driving through the wall with a landspeeder.  I thought for sure we’d lost him, but then Dani sees another speeder in there.”  She held up her hands. “I’ve never seen anyone hotwire anything that fast.  I jump in and she only tries to kick me out once before taking off after him, telling me to get my restraints hooked up.  She was grinning the whole time, though.”

Just remembering it was a rush; Meglann wasn’t exactly prone to landing in adventures, but being around Dani made her feel like she could not only throw herself into it, but succeed.  The Zeltron-hybrid had that effect; now, Meg tended to measure hangups and setbacks in life much differently.  Much more confidently.

“She seems to have just enough pirate in her,” Breha observed, smile settling to something more warm, though still amused. “And inspires a little pirate in others, too.”

“For a cop, anyway.”  Meg smiled at the memory. “We chased him to the hangars outside of the spaceport and right into the middle of a whole bunch of black market dealers.  At least sixteen thugs.  Dani told me to stay in the speeder and jumped out, and the brawl was on.  I did stay in the speeder at first, I was a little terrified and a little excited, and they didn’t bother me.  Our fake-truffle dealer ran up onto a small ship, one of the in-system kinds of carriers, but since she was surrounded and giving three times what she was getting, there wasn’t much we could do about it.  I saw someone sneaking up on her and the only thing I could find was a spanner in the back seat, so rather than watch someone beat her head in with a bar, I took a deep breath, jumped out, and– well, hit him.  Hard.  Six or seven times.”

She winced again at that; Alderaan was a peaceful world, there wasn’t a lot of physical violence they dealt with here, and it hadn’t really felt good beating that guy up, but she was more worried how her queen would view it.

Breha, though, seemed more impressed than bothered. “I’ve slugged a few thugs in my day.  Sounds like you were good backup,” she said, voice teasing.

Meglann breathed out a sigh of relief.  “I tried.  Thankfully, when Dani had called for backup, they kept track of her by her comm and they all poured in, but not before she had eight of the thugs laying on the ground, either unconscious or clutching parts they didn’t like having bruised.  A few managed to apprehend the vendor and return the credits to me.  I was a little bruised and smelled like cabbage, and maybe a little dazed, but okay.

“They arrest everyone and then Dani comes over and tells me that I was a good partner.  She was a little beaten up, but those guys were definitely worse.  I stammered out a question about what the truffles were if they were fake, and I think I probably looked like I was shaken, because her expression–” Meg gestured to her own face, “She just looked really sweet.  She put an arm around me and led me outside, and told me all about it.  Apparently, some genius got the idea to take the nasty mushrooms that grow on the vaporators on Tatooine, which look just like truffles, and pass them off to the unsuspecting, then use that money to buy off the Hutts for rights to sell spice in their space.  Except, as more people further out caught on, they kept having to move and they were desperate enough to try the Core worlds now.  And apparently, this ring of fake truffles and spice dealing had been going on for decades.”

Breha raised her eyebrows, looking suitably impressed. “Did that, uh, bust it up?”

“No, but it gave CorSec enough people to shake down for the information that lead to them joining a huge, multi-system operation to do so.”  Meg pushed her curls out of the way from where they’d worked loose from her ponytail, still smiling over the memory. “Before I left Corellia, Dani asked me out on a date and took me to a place where I got to try – and buy – real truffles.  Uh– my day trip became a two day trip, and I made her breakfast the next morning.  Then made her two more breakfasts.  We’ve been seeing each other since.”

“Not exclusively, though?” Breha asked, after nodding the rest of the tale.

Meglann knew why she was asking; Dani wasn’t exactly subtle about who she was interested in – which was anyone worth being interested in – but she still didn’t want to frame her lover in a bad light, given that Alderaan tended to be more conservative about such things and definitely more private. “No,” she said, shaking her head with a chuckle, “because if I had her all to myself, I’d go broke trying to feed her.  I’m glad to share the burden.”

“And the benefits?”

Meglann nodded, feeling her heart warm. “And the benefits.”  She bit her lip, then said, “Dani’s– special.  I never feel like just another person she sleeps with.  And– and I think I give her back something special, too.”  Especially when Dani showed up after a tough case and they only went a round or two before she was sleeping against Meg, looking exhausted and relieved all at once, as if Meg was a safe shelter she could turn to.

A fair trade, Meg thought; Dani bringing adventure and brightness and laughter into her life, and Meg giving Dani the warm safety of someone who would hold her all night and cook for her in the morning.

Breha was quiet as she absorbed that, then she nodded. “Good.  Hopefully she’ll only sow the minimal amount of chaos while she’s here,” she said, with a half-smile.

Meg snorted at that. “I wouldn’t count on that.  Our record right now is four adventures per every ten visits.”

(Later, when Breha primed her blaster to go and jump into the latest madness, she made a mental note to tell Meglann it was now five in ten.)

[sl-walker]

Questions 6, 14, and 44?

6. how did writing change you?

Oh gosh.  How hasn’t it?  It’s given me a voice, a way to learn more about myself through learning about others; it’s given me far more insight into human nature both good and bad.  It’s inspired me, it’s been a lifeline during the dark times, it’s led me to my friends and my wife, and has led to adventures I never would have taken if not for having done it.  It’s a part of me.

14. easiest character to write

Already answered. XD

44. do you write linear or do you write future scenes if you feel like it?

Mostly linear inside of a story, but inside of a story arc -- because I apparently chain these things together compulsively -- I’ll skip around more, because then something will come up later and I’ll want to go back and see how it did.  So, both.

[sl-walker]

Taliesin Croft, AKA Bryne Covenant, AKA Jame Blackthorn, AKA Happy fricken birthday, @unkranger.  Thank you for writing such an engaging OC, and for writing such a giant, epic, sprawling love-letter to Ahsoka Tano and the Organas and the Rebellion and everyone else.

To everyone else, I highly recommend @unkranger‘s works.  You’ll probably get very invested, you’ll have hours of reading material, and you’ll cry for Croft and you’ll scream no less than ten times and want to crotch-punch Nola Vorrserrie at least twice that number, about as many times as you’ll want to wrap Dani into soft blankets and give her warm, sweet drinks and good sex.

[sl-walker]

If you want one more - Breha: Beauty

Eye of the beholder.  She finds beauty in a lot of things, both classical and not.  She can find it in all of the beautiful places on Alderaan, but Bre also finds beauty in people.  In kind actions.  In understated ways.  In generosity and in the kinds of people who are generous of spirit.  When you’ve seen some of the awful things she has, you kind of learn to find it wherever it might be.  So, it might be a sunset glinting off of the mountains.  But it also might be the little kid who wraps a limb around a crying classmate.  It’ll be in forests and clouds, but it’ll also be in watching people with next to nothing share what little they have with someone who has less.

There’s beauty in an abandoned battlefield, where new life grows between the craters left in shelling.  And Bre knows how to see it, too.

[sl-walker]

unkranger replied to your photo: Just one more, since I was in the neighborhood. ...

‘Join CorSec and get access to all of the knives that you want.’

"I'll even let you search me for them."