#wookiee monster

[oldschoolfrp]

Basketball is a peaceful planet!

Hardware Wars is getting a Blu-ray release in early 2024. Ernie Fosselius' 1978 short was the first popular Star Wars parody film to air on TV, and George Lucas has called it his favorite.

Extras include several cuts of the film, commentary by Fosselius, a "Hardware Wars Saves Christmas" featurette, and the additional parodies Porklips Now (1980) and Plan 9.1 From Outer Space (2009).

Experience the expensive spine-tingling special effects as you become catapulted into this sprawling space saga of romance, rebellion, and household appliances.

[puppetdaily]

The Wookiee Monster from Hardware Wars

[redbean-nom]

some designs for tusken era boba :)

unarmored/pre krayt hunt armored/post krayt hunt

alternative lighting style and flat colors

[jailofmonkeys]

Monster May the Fourth be with you, first time experimenting with this type of lighting back in May

[crappyandfriends]

C is for Chewy!

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

How is the wampa functionally any different than a wookiee? Why is bigfoot a friend, but the yeti is a monster?

[askbensolo]

please tell me hows space mom

I had prepared myself for Mom to be worried about me. Usually, she wants to make sure that I haven't been hearing voices, and that I haven't been having disturbing dreams, and that I haven't been depressed or anxious, and that I haven't been participating in any weird fringe holonet politics (listen, I only fell down the What If Palpatine Didn't Die conspiracy theory rabbithole one time, and it was for research).

Anyway. I met Mom at the docking bay, where she was waiting outside the Falcon. She was leaning against the boarding ramp, dressed in casual wear but with her hair impeccably braided, scrolling rapidly on her datapad. Dad said she was always taking her work home with her, but that was just Mom. Always going.

"So. Dad let you take the Falcon out without him, huh?" I asked, causing her to look up. She smiled when she saw me, her eyes creasing, and I noticed her hair was starting to go gray near her ears. It reminded me of the mundane horror that had only begun to haunt me as an adult: the mortality of one’s parents.

I jettisoned that thought into space unknown.

"Oh, your father knows I'd never hurt his baby girl," Mom said, matching my playful tone and giving me a hug. "I'm only a little jealous."

She winked, then became more sincere as she looked at me fondly, no doubt seeing her little boy in front of her. "It's so good to see you, Ben."

"Great to see you too, Mom. Who’s your co-pilot?” I asked, leaning to the side to peer into the ship.

“You are, now,” she said, patting me on the back. “It was Threepio before.”

As if on cue, Threepio trotted out on the boarding ramp, his gold plating reflecting the late sunlight. "Oh! Young master Ben! What a pleasure to see you, sir!"

I gave him a salute. "'Sup, Threepio!"

He cocked his head and jittered his arms, flustered. "Oh, well, er...'sup, sir."

Mom and I snickered, and she gave me a smirk that I read perfectly. Threepio was an excellent protocol droid (if a little irritating), but he wasn’t a very good co-pilot.

We got situated in the cockpit. I ran my fingers over the dash…batted my hand at the golden dice that dangled from the ceiling. Took in the familiar musky scent of Wookiee hair and reformed smuggler. We started the Falcon up, and the hum of the engine was like a missing piece of my soul. The ship was a repair crew's nightmare, with so many janky modifications as to render the owner’s manual useless, and her hyperdrive failed half the time. But she was a part of us. A part of our family. Sometimes, when I couldn’t sleep at night, I closed my eyes and imagined I was in a bunk on the Falcon.

“So…how are you doing, Ben?” Mom asked, once we had left Naboo behind and open space spread out before us.

"Fine. No voices, no dreams, no neuroses, no conspiracy theories or extremist politics," I rattled off dryly, doing a Reassure Mom speedrun.

Oh Ben, I didn't mean that, I imagined her saying. I meant: how is work going? Tell me about your friends! How much can you bench now? Are you still writing poems? Have you done anything fun recently?

"Good," Mom said in reality, satisfied and clearly relieved. Something burned inside of me, biting, snarling. I turned my face away.

Chill out, I told myself. She'll probably ask more later.

And she did. In fact, the next thing out of her mouth was a question about a project at work I had mentioned to Dad a couple weeks ago, when I'd asked him to visit.

See? I told myself. The little monster inside of me grumbled and curled up to sulk.

"Maybe I could come visit you for dinner sometime," Mom said, something weird in her voice, a kind of embarrassed hopefulness. "I'm so glad you and Dad hang out. You two seem to have a good time together."

And I wish that you wanted to spend time with me, too, was the part she didn't have to say out loud for me to understand.

"Yeah...maybe," I said, embarrassed as well. "Oh...I have a different roommate, though, if you do come over. Do you remember Fannie? She was one of Luke's students..."

"Oh! Yes, I remember," Mom said. "Sweet girl. When did she move in?"

"Like...a month ago or something."

Silence. I looked at her.

"...Mom? What’s up?”

"Oh, I'm just...a bit surprised you didn't tell me sooner," she said, sounding kind of weird again. My little monster bristled defensively.

"Well...you never ask about me," I said, also starting to feel kind of weird.

"What?" she protested, the whole ship jerking slightly as she snapped to look at me, her steering hand unstable for a moment. "Ben, how can you say that? I ask about you all the time. You never respond to my messages. You've ignored my calls. You have given me every indication that you want to be left alone. I practically gave up on trying to reach out to you."

She was absolutely correct, and I didn't know how to argue with that, or how to explain what I meant. That despite all of it, I still felt like she never really asked about me.

She stared at me for several seconds, expecting me to say something. When I merely disappointed her, she faced forward again with a huff.

I wondered if maybe it would have been easier to just have dinner with Fannie instead.

"...Sorry," I mumbled, feeling five years old.

“What are you sorry for?” Mom asked, correctly not buying it.

“I don’t know,” I said, feeling four-and-a-half.

“Well...all right, then.”

Silence stretched out, like the big blackness of space, and I started feeling…I don’t know. Scared. Lonely. Angry. All those ugly teenage feelings I had declared to be cringe.

Or maybe they weren't teenage feelings. Maybe they were just person feelings, and they never went away.

...Well, one thing that was different from being a teenager is that I knew how to handle those feelings better. Most of the time, anyway.

I took a slow, deep breath to calm myself down, and let it out in a sigh, not taking my eyes off the stars. "...Look, Mom, I...I'm sorry. Really. I shouldn't have said you never ask about me. And I'm sorry I've been so terrible at keeping in touch. It's just...still kind of difficult for me that you're so—" Paranoid? Wait, no. Delete. "—concerned about my safety. I know it's 'cause you love me, but...really, I'm fine."

Mom was quiet for a moment. I looked at her. Her brows were furrowed.

"Ben...of course I trust you," she said finally. "You've grown up to become such an intelligent young man. But...you have to understand that what happened to you with Snoke wasn't...normal. This family isn't normal. Part of it is the life I chose, that your father chose when he joined the Rebellion and when he married me...and part of it, we did not choose, and I often don't understand. I have seen too many things happen to too many people I've loved, and I will never, ever let anything happen to you. Never again." Her voice was strained, as if breaking under the weight of a hundred past experiences I couldn't imagine. She turned to look me in the eyes. "Do you understand?"

Yeah, I understand there's no getting through to you, said the sassy teen Ben who lounged on the couch inside my brain. I kicked him in the shins.

"I understand, Mom," said adult Ben, who was civil, if not always fully sincere. "You've been through so much. Thanks for always looking out for me."

"I'm sorry it's been difficult for you, Ben," she said. "I always wanted you to be able to have a normal life, as much as you could. But...I wish I had realized sooner—much sooner—that in some ways, that was never possible for you. If only I had known that...if only I had been more on guard..."

Then maybe Snoke would never have gotten his hands on you, was the part she didn't have to say out loud for me to understand.

"...Hey. Mom." I reached over to pat her hand, offering a hopeful smile. "It's okay. I'm okay. See? I'm here. I lived."

I meant it as a joke, but I forgot there was a part where I almost didn't.

"What I mean is, it wasn't your fault," I said quickly. "There's no way you could have prepared yourself for something like that. There's no way any of us could have."

Mom shook her head. "I suppose not. But...don't you understand? That's why I have to make sure I'm as prepared as possible—to the extent that I can be, at least—for anything that could happen to our family in the future. To you, to Rey, to Dad...even to Uncle Luke."

"Yes, Mom. I understand," I said quietly.

And I did. I didn't like it or agree with it, but I understood.

The Falcon whirred and hummed like a happy tooka.

Mom cleared her throat. "...So. Fannie. You're...roommates now?"

I rolled my eyes. But of course, how could the conversation not go this direction? It was part of why I hadn't told her for so long in the first place.

"Housemates," I corrected. "She's staying in the living room. Just for the summer. I have someone else moving in next fall—his name is Poe Dameron—"

"Oh my goodness! No way. Kes and Shara's son?"

"Uh. I don't know. Who?"

"Oh, just some friends from the old days. What a small galaxy. But—speaking of friends. Fannie...she's still just a friend, right?"

Normally I would have emitted a groan like a dying tauntaun and shouted "uh, yessssss" with the "yes" part having at least five syllables. But this time...I found myself horrifyingly speechless.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again. The most disgusting awkward little chuckle came out of me, in lieu of actual words.

That was a terrible omen. I died inside.

"It's okay, sweetie, you don't have to answer," Mom said cheerfully, but it looked like she was probably formulating an answer of her own.

[mecthology]

The Honey Island Swamp monster.

According to alleged witnesses, the creature is typically described as a sizable bipedal humanoid standing around 7 feet (2 meters) tall, adorned with gray fur, and characterized by yellow or red eyes emitting a putrid odor. It is also commonly referred to by locals as the Louisiana Wookiee or The Thing. Plaster casts of footprints purportedly belonging to the creature often exhibit four toes, a departure from the natural primate trait of possessing five toes.

The initial reported sighting dates back to 1963 and was attributed to Harlan Ford, a retired air traffic controller who had taken up wildlife photography. Following his passing in 1980, a reel of Super 8 film depicting the creature was discovered among his belongings.

In 1974, Ford and his companion Billy Mills reported discovering peculiar footprints in the vicinity, alongside the carcass of a wild boar exhibiting a gashed throat.

Presently, there are continued claims of the creature's presence within the swamp and the bayous along the Pearl River. Local legends recount a train accident near the swamp during the early 20th century, resulting in the escape of chimpanzees from a traveling circus. It is speculated that these chimpanzees adapted to the environment, providing a potential explanation for the origins of the creature.

Follow @mecthology for more lores and legends.

Source: Wikipedia

[silverwings22]

Song of the Sea: Chapter 31: Homeless

Chapter warning: complicated feelings, being 'othered', near drowning Series Warning: explicit smut, alien anatomy (it's a monsterfucker fic, guys), major character injury, grief, canon typical violence, autistic meltdowns, and my terrible attempts at Mando'a

Previous Chapter:

Next Chapter:

“You look upset, Baby Mega.” Shiani was sitting on the floor in Omega's room, hairbrush in hand, combing out the tangles of the blonde fluff in front of her. She liked doing little sisterly things with Omega, especially lately when she seemed so out of sorts. She’d been heartbroken since Echo had left, and when the tears stopped there had been a brow-furrowed defiance on her face even Shiani couldn’t quite seem to break through. Shiani chalked it up to Omega starting to grow up, an innocent and naive child morphing into a teenager. 

“... Everything is different now, with Echo gone.” Omega said quietly. “We’re a squad, we’re supposed to be together. I wish Hunter hadn’t let him go.”

“Oh, Baby Mega. Come here.” Shiani set the brush down and pulled the girl into her arms with her tentacles. “It’s more complicated than that. Hunter had to let Echo choose.”

“But why would he want to go? Doesn’t he care about us?” Omega stayed hunched over, unhappy and waspish as she’d been for days despite the purple hug she was wrapped up in. She didn’t push Shiani away though, which was progress. 

“Of course he cares.” Shiani snuggled her. “But he cares about the other clones too. And they need a Chainbreaker right now, like him.” 

“We need him too.” Omega said sullenly.

“We want him. Need is different.” Shiani hooked her chin over Omega’s shoulder. “The Bad Batch has each other. I got you, you got me, we got your brothers, and they got us. Clones trapped in the Empire don’t have anyone, unless Echo and Rex fight for them.” 

Omega sighed and snuggled back finally, into the siren’s arms. “You’re starting to sound like Hunter.” 

“Hunter loves you like you were his own daughter.” Shiani smiled. “For me, you are a baby sister. We have fun. We get in trouble together. But it’s still my job as big sister to help you learn and keep you safe. They’ll be your alibi, I’ll be your accomplice.”

Omega sighed. “I appreciate it, Shiani… Sorry I’ve been kinda grumpy lately.”

“You have a hard time with change. You’re not the only one.” Shiani rubbed her face across the girl’s hair like a tooka. 

“What are you talking about? The guys act like nothing happened when Echo left, especially Tech.” Omega huffed, crossing her arms. “Does he even have feelings? He doesn't even act like he’s in love with you!”

“Grumpy Mega is back.” Shiani observed out loud, resting her hands on Omega’s shoulders and squeezing lightly. “Maybe, if you take the time to understand your brothers instead of being frustrated that you don’t, you will see.”

Omega gave her another unhappy look, but the furrows in her brow softened. “How come you don’t get mad at them?” 

Shiani thought back to the Senate, and Chuchi’s whisper for her to control her temper lest it be taken poorly. She’d thought about those words for weeks now, waking up in a cold sweat as it dawned on her what the kind Senator had been warning her about.

Don’t scare them, or you’ll lose all credibility. They’ll think you’re a monster, and call for your death like an animal. You and every siren on Kamino.

“I... don’t have the luxury of getting angry, Baby Mega.” She said softly. “Not the way other species do… and especially not with people I care about.” 

Omega looked back at her. “What do you mean?”

“People don’t know sirens. Not like they do other races… they know not to let Wookiee and Trandoshan in the same room, or expect Togruta to eat vegetables.” She ran her fingers through Omega’s hair gently, careful with her claws. Humans were inherently soft, breakable to her strength, and a child was even softer.  “They don’t know what to expect with me. If I hiss or show teeth, they get scared. If you know about other races, you can say Commander Venomor and Cid aren’t the same even though they’re both Trandoshans. Or that Hunter and Rampart are different even though they’re both humans.” 

Omega nodded, putting her hands on Shiani’s tentacles draped around her waist. “So because you’re the only siren off of Kamino, people think every siren is like you.”

Shiani nodded. “And unknown things scare people. Siren anger looks like a monster to them when they don’t know who we are.”

“But isn’t anger a part of sentient nature? Especially when you have a reason to be angry.” Omega leaned back against Shiani’s chest. 

“Yes, until they don’t consider you sentient. When you’re just another vicious lurca they have to put down, the reason for your anger doesn’t matter anymore.” Shiani opened her palms in front of Omega, letting the young girl put her own hands over them and examine the difference between the little brown hands and lethal purple ones. “Only two people in the whole galaxy have never, at least for a little while, considered me a threat. You and Tech.”

“Really?” Omega frowned. 

Shiani nodded. “Wrecker got over it first. Echo once reached for a blaster when I raised my voice. Hunter wouldn’t take his eyes off me until after Salucemi, when he started to trust me. The Senate was the same, I had to be so careful not to look angry. I hid my tentacles so they couldn’t see the rings, just so they didn’t think my people were threatening… it was so hard to keep my mouth closed.” 

“Does it make you mad?” Omega asked, her own frustration soothed in the cuddle and honesty between them. She never worried about Shiani lying to her, or even sugar coating things too much. Her brothers wanted to protect her, Shiani wanted to share whatever experience it was. Good or bad, the siren had her back.  

“A little. Strangers are one thing, but I hate feeling scared of the family’s reaction… but it means I watch carefully. I learn their hearts. It’s easier not to get angry if you understand why they do things.” 

Omega huffed. “I thought you were full of feelings.”

“I am. Not all feelings are helpful. Real, yes, but not helpful.” 

When the siren faceplanted into her hair and started rubbing her face all over Omega’s head, the girl couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Okay, okay. I’ll… try to understand. But it seems like they don’t care that Echo’s gone and everything is different.”

“Different happens, Baby Mega. Life on the Marauder is very different than Kamino, right?”

“Yeah…” Omega flopped, going limp, and Shiani picked her up in a cradle of tentacles and turned her upside down. “So where are we going anyway? They picked up the mission this morning while I was still sleeping.”

“An ipsium mine.” Shiani explained, continuing to rotate Omega like a puzzle cube. “Tech gave me a debrief. Cid bought a mine, and ipsium is valuable. Well, refined ipsium is. Raw ipsium explodes.” 

“So why are we going?”

“To get the ipsium out of the mine. Tech has a little contraption to extract it and keep it safe. As long as we don’t drop the canister or use the drill wrong, we should be fine.” 

“Is it a big explosion?” Omega frowned as Shiani finally set her down, oddly relaxed after all the turning. Shiani filed that tidbit away in case she needed to do it again… it had always worked on her and her brother when they were young, and their father would simply lift and rotate them while he did official duties. 

“Like a thermal, Tech says. I’d rather not find out what that feels like. Come on, get your gear bag. I gotta get my armor.” 

Omega sighed and nodded, trying to keep the short temper she felt brewing in check. Shiani had said to try to understand her brothers, but that seemed so difficult when they kept their emotions in check so tightly. 

Once the ship had landed, she followed her brothers and Shiani out. It was arid and hot, with only patches of scrubby grass to denote the entire planet wasn’t, in fact, as dry as Tattooine. “This was the only suitable landing zone.” Tech explained as they made their way down the stepped plateaus to the coordinates of the mine. “It will put the ship slightly out of direct line of sight.”

Shiani sighed, shaking her head. “Can’t be helped.”

It didn’t take them long to find the mining tunnel door, and Tech and Shiani got to work getting it open while Hunter looked out into the horizon. There was a gathering storm in the distance he didn’t like the look of, but it appeared to be moving away from them. “Wrecker. You and Omega keep lookout. We’ll need Shiani.” 

“We will need Wrecker in the mines as well. With Echo missing, we are a man down.” Tech glanced at Omega, who crossed her arms at the mention of Echo. 

“I can keep watch.” She said almost sullenly, and Shiani resisted the urge to remind her of their conversation on the ship. Scolding a kid who was already unhappy wasn’t going to help, and Omega had to learn to navigate the galaxy’s many personalities on her own. One day, the Batch and Shiani might not be there to guide her. 

“Not by yourself.” Hunter shook his head. “Cid warned us about poachers. Keep an eye out and comm us if you see anything or anyone suspicious.”

Omega nodded, though she didn’t brighten up like she usually did when given a task. Shiani followed Tech into the cave, Hunter behind her, and fiddled with her claws her husband started scanning for ipsium.

“She talks to you more than anyone. She okay?” Hunter asked softly. 

“She misses Echo.” Shiani sighed. “Change is hard.” 

“Soldiers must be adaptable to change.” Tech shook his head, looking up from his datapad.

“Tech, she’s not a soldier. And even you hate change.” Shiani frowned. 

“That does not mean I am not adaptable.” He raised an eyebrow at her. 

Hunter just shook his head and glanced back towards the mine entrance. “Hopefully she’ll adjust soon… I worry about her.”

“You’re her dad.” Shiani nodded. “You’re supposed to.”

Tech looked up again. “Hunter is not her father. He is her brother, as we all are. She is, technically, older than we are.”

Shiani gestured at Hunter, whose helmet was cocked curiously as he listened to the deranged conversation. Sometimes listening to Tech’s aggressively logical view of the world when it collided with Shiani’s emotions was more entertaining than any holodrama. “But he’s so… father figure.” 

Hunter bit back a snicker as Tech just shook his head. “Let us focus on the task at hand, cyar’ika. I am detecting very little ipsium here. It would appear that Cid was scammed into purchasing a depleted mine.” 

“Let’s just get what we can.” Hunter sighed. The sooner they got out of here, the sooner he could figure out what to do with Omega. She had been the glue holding them together after losing Crosshair. Now, with her so upset over Echo, the rest of the squad was feeling the cracks. Wrecker and Tech were bickering constantly, and even Hunter found himself snapping at them more than he cared to admit. Shiani was the only one who wasn’t more annoyed than usual… or at least she didn’t act like it. Sometimes he saw her eyes narrow, and she’d rub the sides of her mouth like she was trying to loosen the muscles that pulled it open in anger. 

Tech nodded, lightly patting Shiani’s shoulder and pointing as he handed her the precision drill. “Can you get up there, cyare? That glowing yellow substance is the mineral deposit. 

She nodded and climbed up, getting the first vial of ipsium. “There’s more inside the little cave here, but my shoulders don’t fit.” She called down. 

“I will comm Omega for assistance.” Tech said, but Hunter stopped his arm. 

“I’ll comm her. You’ve been pissing her off for days.” The sergeant shook his head and hit his own comm. “Omega, can you come here? We need your help.”

Shiani adjusted the way she was dangling from the side of the rock wall, hanging upside down to look at the two brothers and Omega when she arrived. “Up here, Baby Mega. I’ll show you where.” 

Omega held up a hand and Shiani pulled her up to the top of the ledge, pointing out where the ipsium was. Below them, Tech adjusted his goggles. “You must be extremely cautious when drilling into the fossilized quartz around the ipsium. The slightest friction could cause the mineral to become unstable.”

“I know.” Omega grumbled, taking the precision drill from Shiani and getting to work. Shiani sat by her with the empty containment rods, passing them to her once she’d gotten through the quartz. Once the rods were full, Shiani carefully passed them down for Tech to store in his canister. 

Shiani watched Omega’s face, scrutinizing her grumpy nose scrunch and hard eyes. It was the same face Tech made when he was annoyed. Once all the ipsium was locked away, she gently patted Omega’s arm. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Omega nodded, looking lost in thought, as Shiani offered her a hand and they climbed down together. It occurred to the siren that Baby Mega wasn’t going to be a baby much longer at the rate she was going. 

They walked out of the dark mine as a group, finding Wrecker looking out into the distance. “Good think you guys finished up when you did. I don’t like the look of that storm.”

Hunter nodded. “Neither do I.” 

“The weather is highly irregular on this planet, but we should get back to the ship quickly. We cannot be caught in a lightning storm with something as volatile as ipsium.” 

Shiani looked over at him thoughtfully. “Let’s go then.” She could talk to him in the cockpit about trying to smooth things over with Omega. She didn’t like that his own sister thought he didn’t care about things. Of course Tech cared, he just… looked at the galaxy a little differently than the other clones did. She’d always known he was special, after all. 

But he was the adult in this situation. She couldn’t put all the onus for change on Omega, who was just a kid having a hard time adjusting-

Her ear fins suddenly pinned back. “Someone’s by the ship.”

Hunter stiffened and swore. “The engine just came online.”

They all raced towards where they’d parked, watching in sick horror as the Havoc Marauder whizzed by them with none of them on board. No one spoke for a long moment as it vanished from sight, taking with it both their way off the planet and their home. Hunter’s eye twitched before he rounded on Wrecker with blazing eyes. “You were supposed to be lookout!” 

“There was nobody there!” The giant protested, pushing his helmet up on his head like a hat. 

“Clearly, someone was.” Tech crossed his arms, eyes narrowed at Wrecker.

“You’re the one who parked out of sight!” Wrecker’s voice pitched like he was panicking.

“There was no other suitable landing zone. I told you this was a concern, you should have modified your approach for such a situation-”

“Would have or should have doesn’t get the ship back.” Shiani wiggled in the middle of the three brothers. “Now stop. We work together.”

Omega’s newly hardened exterior crumbled a little, heartbreak in her big brown eyes. “There’s got to be a way to get it back.”

Hunter sighed and looked at Tech. “Anything on the scanner?”

Tech shook his head, typing on his datapad. “I am picking up a spaceport about 40 klicks from here. We may be able to get assistance there.” 

Shiani looked at Omega, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find it, Baby Mega.” She whispered. The thunder in the distance made her look up anxiously, then glance at the ipsium container Tech was passing to Wrecker as he worked at his scanner. “Might have to shelter from the storm first, but we’ll find it.” 

“40 klicks is going to take forever to walk.” Wrecker grumbled. 

“Then we better start walking.” Hunter huffed, still annoyed but softening a little in the light of their current predicament. They were all in this together, at least, and no one was hurt. They could fight about it when they were under shelter. 

He waved for everyone to follow him, heading towards a canyon Tech indicated. It was brutally hot in the sun, and Hunter did his best to try to hurry them along so they could seek some respite in the shade of the canyon walls. “How much further?” Wrecker complained, shoulders slumped. He hated this, and it was only worse with the knowledge that technically this was his fault. If he hadn’t missed the ship being taken, they’d be halfway back to Ord Mantell by now. 

“You do not want to know.” Tech said dryly. Shiani sensed the undercurrent of frustration he was swallowing, that only made its way out through his tone. This probably wasn’t helping Omega’s perception of him today, but she needed to handle one thing at a time. If they could make it through this without a major fight, it would be a Melody-given miracle. 

Next to the siren, Shiani was working at her comm. “Havoc 5 to Havoc 4. Come in Havoc 4.” It was a little heartbreaking to see the girl trying desperately to call Echo, who’s absence was the cause of all her tension. She’d done so well not to call him before, no matter how much she missed him, but this did constitute as the kind of emergency he’d approve of.

He’d probably yell at them for losing the ship, though. He might have been the second in command, but he was the older brother.

Shiani winced. “Baby Mega… without the ship’s long-range transmitter, we won’t be able to get a signal off world.” 

“Even if we had the ability to transmit the signal, Echo has disabled his communication device for the time being.” Tech shrugged.

“Why would he disable his comm?” Omega almost stopped walking, eyes wide with hurt. Shiani winced again. Oh, it was going to be a very long day if Tech kept being utterly oblivious of Omega’s distress. Most of the time his obliviousness to subtlety was endearing. When Omega looked like she might be about to cry, it was significantly less so.

“It is likely that whatever mission he is currently on is of a sensitive nature, and therefore he needed absolute radio silence.” Tech shrugged. 

Shiani sighed, tugging on his sleeve gently. “Tech.” She whispered, voice as sweet as she could muster. “Maybe it’s not so nice to tell Baby Mega that Echo is ignoring us?”

“That is not what I said. I said he has disabled his comm for a mission.” He frowned, turning his head to look at her.

“She’s still a child, it’s going to feel like-” She paused, turning her head. “.... Uh oh.”

Hunter turned a split second after she did. “Something’s coming. I feel it on the ground.”

“More than one something, and it’s scared. Run!” Shiani pushed Tech and reached back for Omega’s hand, pulling the girl as fast as she could down the gulch. They were trapped by the canyon walls that had only a minute ago seemed blessed for their shade, overtaken by a stampede of blue Ipsidon bucks that ran far faster than they could. A sharp hoof clipped Omega’s shoulder and she fell, taking Shiani down with her by the hand. The siren pulled Omega to her chest and rolled, narrowly avoiding being crushed. She spotted Hunter pulling up his dart gun, so she picked Omega up. “Hunter!”

He looked up and nodded as she lawn-dart threw Omega into his free arm and he shot the dart into an over hanging root system, pulling them both to safety. Tech grabbed Shiani by the the toolbelt as he fired his own dart line, pulling her to safety as well. “Are you alright, cyar’ika?” 

She nodded, twisting until she was clinging to him with her legs around his waist and he could hold onto her hip with one arm. “I’m okay. But where’s Wrecker?!” 

When a third dart landed between Tech and Hunter’s everyone sighed with relief. Wrecker hauled himself out of danger, hanging lower but out of the way of the piercing hooves. Tech narrowed his eyes. “Where is the ipsium?” 

Shiani winced and pointed “On the ground.” She watched the bucks’ hooves coming dangerously close to the canister, trying to figure out how she could protect them from the explosion if it went off. They were sitting ducks, dangling just above the stampede, and if it exploded they’d likely be killed instantly. 

Tech had already done the calculations of the likelihood of survive. “Wrecker, you must protect the ipsium!”

“Who’s gonna protect me!?” Wrecker groaned. 

“If that canister explodes, all of us will perish.” Tech insisted, holding onto Shiani a little tighter. It was the only outward sign, once again, that he was in any way upset with the situation. Wrecker groaned but dropped back into the midst of the stampede, while Omega yelled his name and tried to reach for him. 

“Why’d you tell him to go back?!” She shouted at Tech. “He’ll get hurt!”

“Easy.” Hunter breathed as the stampede passed them by, leaving Wrecker huddled over the ipsium case. Hunter carefully lowered himself and Omega, setting her down first so she could run over and check on Wrecker. 

Tech did the same with Shiani and sighed, looking at Wrecker. “Next time, do not drop it.”

“If you’re such an expert, you carry it!” Wrecker grumbled angrily. He was well over being scolded by everyone for what had already happened. 

“Very well.” Tech took the case calmly and put it on his back. Shiani sighed, watching Omega put her arms around one of Wrecker’s and give Tech a baleful look. Yeah, they needed to talk this out, but she had no idea how they were ever going to get an opportunity. Without the ship they had no privacy or safety, which seemed necessary for the kind of vulnerability the conversation would require… 

She just patted Tech’s arm lightly. “Be nice.” She just said gently. 

Hunter looked up. “The storm is getting closer.”

“That would explain the stampede.” Tech frowned. 

Shiani squeaked when the wind whipped around her aggressively, sand thrown into her large eyes. She scrubbed at her face. “Anywhere to hide on the scanners, Tech? Lightening and ipsium are a bad combination.”

He consulted his handheld with renewed interest as she clung to his arm, half blinded from the dirt. It was rapidly getting dark, the storm coming for them with prejudice. It was the worst possible combination, as she’d said, and they were running out of time. “There should be a mining tunnel ahead.” 

“I see it.” Omega pointed, clinging to Wrecker to avoid her small frame being swept up in the rushing winds. The large clone nodded, pulling her to his side and headed for it. He and Hunter snatched the door open, getting Omega to safety first before climbing in. Tech pushed Shinai forward, Hunter helping her inside when his genius brother tripped. 

“Tech!” Shiani yelped in horror as the wind ripped the canister off his bag. It was pulled up, into the cyclone of the storm. Tech’s eyes were bigger than she’d ever seen, watching it vanish into the cloud. 

It was going to explode, there was nothing anything they could do to stop it. Shiani leaned out and grabbed Tech’s belt, yanking him into the tunnel door as the roiling mass of crackling lightening and dust smashed the canister into the mountainside. It blew like a thermal, collapsing the tunnel entrance and throwing everyone back inside the mine. 

Hunter sat up slowly, rubbing his head through his helmet. “Everyone okay?”

Shiani had landed on top of Tech when they’d been thrown, and inspected him carefully. He nodded. “We’re okay.” She called. “Baby Mega? Wrecker?”

Wrecker nodded. “I’m good.”

Omega sighed, checking herself over. “I’m not hurt either.”

Hunter sighed with relief. “Good. Everyone’s okay…”

���Except we are now trapped inside a mine and have lost the ipsium.” Tech grumbled, sitting up and taking his helmet off to better inspect Shiani’s arms. She had minor bruising, but he still didn’t like it. 

“I guess that’s my fault too?” Wrecker snarked loudly, not noticing Omega’s wince. 

“If you had not allowed the Marauder to be stolen, we would be halfway back to Ord Mantell with the mineral.” Tech nodded. “So yes.” 

“That’s enough out of both of you. The only way out is to dig, so quit arguing and start digging.” Hunter huffed, taking his helmet off to wipe his face. 

Shiani nodded, going over to the mouth of the cave to start inspecting the pile of rocks. “This is gonna take hours.” She sighed. 

The guys all groaned, but she was right. This was the only way out, and they had no choice but to start shifting rock and hope it didn’t collapse on top of them.

They’d been digging for a while when Shiani took a quick break to check on Omega. The girl had been working at her datapad since they’d started digging. “You okay, Baby Mega?”

“The Marauder’s transponder is offline.” She sounded desolate and heartbroken. Shiani eased down next to her and offered her a hug, which she took and snuggled to the siren’s armored side.

“It was likely disabled by the thief.” Tech said mildly as everyone else exchanged unhappy glances. 

“But how are we going to find it?” She swallowed hard, looking at each of them. 

“We’ll figure that out once we’re out of here.” Hunter said gently. 

Shiani nodded. “We’ll get it back, don’t worry.”

Tech clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Shiani, you know better. It is highly unlikely the Havoc Marauder will be recovered.” 

Shiani’s shoulders sank a little, and Omega’s face turned red with frustration. “We can’t just give up on it!”

“We can acquire another ship. It is merely a mode of transportation.” Tech shrugged, frowning as Shiani gave him a sad look. 

“It’s our home! It’s bad enough we lost Echo, we can’t lose our home too!” Usually when Omega raised her voice, it was lighthearted and uplifting or scared and they needed to protect her. None of them had ever heard the anger she hit them with, and Shiani’s ears drooped anxiously. 

“We didn’t lose Echo.” Hunter tried to do damage control, hands coming up. “He’s just… on another mission.”

“But he’s not here with us! We’re a squad, we’re supposed to stay together!” Omega got, if possible, louder, and the anger in her voice had the ragged edge of a tear starting to pull at it. Shiani reached for her hand, hoping she could try to talk her down again like she had in the ship before. 

Tech raised an eyebrow. “This squad existed before Echo, and will continue to exist after him. What is your issue?” 

Omega nearly hit Shiani in the head on her backswing when she pitched her datapad at Tech, and the siren covered her ears with her hands. The emotions rolling off the girl were suddenly overwhelming when she lost control of them. Omega grabbed her bag angrily. “I want to be alone.” She snapped, and stormed down the tunnel. 

Tech frowned, taking a step over to Shiani. “I do not understand why she is so upset. I merely stated the truth.” 

Hunter rolled his eyes. “She knows the truth. That’s why she’s upset.” 

Shiani looked up as her mate knelt beside her, making sure she hadn’t been bonked upside the head by their collective little sister. “Are you alright, cyar’ika?” 

“...Wouldn’t an honest conversation cause less despair?” She whispered faintly. 

“I was being honest.” Tech frowned. 

“No you weren’t, Tech. She thinks you don’t care at all.” Shiani muttered, rubbing her gills as the torrent of Omega’s emotions finally faded into a manageable level of white noise for her. 

“Well, he doesn’t.” Wrecker grumbled. “So she’s right.”

Shiani scrunched her nose, curling her fingers over Tech’s vambrace. “I know better than that.” 

Hunter sighed and waved for Wrecker to join him back at digging, letting Shiani handle Tech. The genius sat back on his heels to look at his wife with a frown. “Why would Omega believe I do not care?”

“Because you show it differently.” She sighed, squeezing his hands three times to try to get the message across better. “She can only read your actions against how she would react. And you two are very different people.”

“That is certain.” Tech sighed. “But that analysis does explain why she has been so short with all of us… and me most of all.”

Shiani nodded. “We give her a little space, but then you should talk to her. If you can explain why you react the way you do, she’ll understand you better.” She leaned up and kissed him softly. “I can feel your hearts. Not everyone can.”

He nodded, settling back down beside her fully so she could cuddle to his side. “Have I upset you with my reactions lately?”

“No. But I know you best.” She shook her head. “You feel about Echo like you do about Crosshair. I know it hurts you, but you don’t want to talk about it. You keep feelings like sea glass, holding them up to the light to look at them but not sharing them with others. It’s… impressive. But maybe you should share, so it doesn’t hurt so much.” She headbutted his shoulder lightly. “Or hurts other people.”

Tech nodded quietly. “I had not considered that. My apologies, cyar’ika.” 

“I’m not the one who needs the apology. Baby Mega does.” Shiani raised a non-existent eyebrow at him. “And your brothers, too. Hunter probably knows, but Wrecker’s got a tender heart. You know that.”

“I do.” Tech looked slightly chastened. “You have a remarkable grasp of the emotional states of this squad.”

“I told you. Sirens speak hearts as a first language.” She reached up and tapped the golden lenses of his goggles gently with her nail. “At some point, there had to be something I could teach you.” 

He smiled faintly, curling his fingers under her soft jawline. “I suppose it was statistically likely. I will talk to Omega when you deem it is an appropriate time to do so. You have a better grasp of that.” He pressed a kiss against her mouth before getting up to go back to digging. 

Shiani beamed, deciding to go down and check on Omega herself before she called for Tech. 

Omega was using the precision drill to knock a hole in the wall when Shiani found her. “Digging holes, Baby Mega?” She frowned curiously. 

The little blonde looked up and sighed. “Sorry I almost hit you in the head.” 

Shiani nodded. “It’s okay. You were upset. You okay now?”

Omega went back to drilling the wall. “I don’t understand him. He doesn’t care about anything. He’s worse than a droid, and I don’t understand how you two ended up married.”

Shiani smiled, kneeling beside Omega and putting her hand over the girls on the drill. “He’s not a droid, Omega. He’s different. His mind is different. That doesn't mean his hearts don’t work.” 

“I thought his mind was perfect. He seems to think it is.” Omega groused. 

Shiani shook her head. “Sometimes, people get built different. There’s nothing wrong with the differences, it just takes time to understand them when you’re not the same. It’s… speaking another language, like me learning Basic for the first time. For Tech, his mind is always racing. Always thinking. He feels what we feel, but his mind goes though each potential reaction before he acts them out and decides what’s helpful and what’s not. Before you or I could finish crying, he’s already decided what the best action is to get the result he wants. Sometimes he’s not right because he forgets not everyone can do that, but that doesn't mean he doesn’t feel.”

Omega huffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” She cracked open the wall and poked her head in. “Oooh.”

“What did you find?” Shiani cocked her head to the side. 

“More of the mineral. A whole lot more.”

“Enough to get for Cid? And maybe a little to blow our way out of here?” 

“Definitely.”

Shiani nodded. “Let’s get it, then.” 

Omega smiled faintly. “I’ll do it. You stay there, in case I need help or someone needs to get the guys.” 

Shiani chuckled. “Tech will probably come down here to find us soon. I already kind of fussed at him.”

“Good.” Omega settled herself on a ledge with the drill and started extracting the mineral, when she filled a vial she passed it to Shiani and let the siren give her an empty one from her satchel.

“Don’t be mean, Baby Mega. He’s your brother and you love him.” Shiani huffed. “I can feel your hearts too.”

“Can you feel everyones?” Omega didn’t look away as she worked. 

“Not as clearly as Tech. But I actually sang to his hearts, a long time ago.” Shiani shrugged. “He was about the same size as you back then. He was such a cute kid.”

“Is it weird knowing him now that he’s grown?” Omega finished a vial and looked at her. The siren’s big eyes were soft, thoughtful and kind. She was consistently amazed by the humanity the inhuman woman could display. 

“Not anymore. It was at first, when he would go away as a little boy and come back bigger only a couple months later. Sometimes he’d be limping when he’d come see me, because he grew so fast his tendons hurt. I’m glad that doesn’t happen to you.” Shiani nodded. “Your brothers all want to give you a better life than they had.”

“And what do you want?” Omega asked. 

“I want my family to be happy.” Shiani looked up as she heard footsteps and smiled. “Here comes Tech.”

Omega grumbled and went back to work as the siren turned her head and waved at her mate. Tech frowned, crouching beside her and looking into the hole Omega had made into the other side of the wall. “Are you two aware that you are surrounded by a significant vein of ipsium? The slightest miscalculation could end all of our lives.”

"Then you'd better not distract us." Omega grumbled.

“Baby Mega found it by herself.” Shiani was just as much Omega’s cheerleader to her brothers as she was Tech’s.

Tech tapped at his datapad as he scanned the ipsium around them. "This vein appears to be significantly more pure than what we discovered in Cid's mine. It would be practical to extract as much as possible."

"Do you trust me to do it?" Omega paused to look at him, like she hadn’t already handed Shiani six vials. 

"I know you are perfectly capable of the task." Tech cocked his head to the side, as if he didn't understand why she thought he'd doubt her. Based on Shiani’s explanation of his inner workings, he might actually not. Omega wondered if he really was as condescending as she felt like he had been, or if the siren was right and he was just going with his unending calculations and forgetting other people weren’t built the way he was. 

It’s like speaking another language. 

“This is the last vial.” Shiani passed the glass to Omega as she handed the full vial from the drill over, making space so Tech could look. And talk to Omega once she’d finished her task, so they could make up. It would be a relief to walk back up the tunnel with the two clones she was closest to, both of them in sync finally. Sometimes she missed the way sirens could sing out their feelings to understand each other, because they could avoid the gaps in communication that humans seemed to constantly be running into. 

Omega was nearly done, stretching out on the ledge, when her foot slipped and she fell. Tech’s stomach dropped in sick horror and he clambered through the gap, trying to grab her hand as she clung to the outcrop she’d been standing on previously.  “Hold on, Omega. I am-” 

The little girl tried to reach for him, but his her fingers weren’t strong enough to hold onto the slick rock by herself and she lost her grip. She let out an echoing scream and plummeted into the dark chasm below. 

“Omega!” Tech didn’t hesitate for a second, diving after his sister. Shiani practically threw herself through the gap after them both, forgetting the bag full of ipsium vials in her haste to try to save the siblings. She hit cold water quickly and dove, searching desperately for the clones before they drowned. 

Her vision was designed for underwater in low light, and she spotted both pairs of legs kicking just ahead, caught in the fast moving current. Tech had managed to grab Omega, and was holding her up to get a breath even if it pushed his own head underwater. Shiani glanced down, spotting a whirlpool that would suck the duo under, and shoved herself up to suck in a breath of air. “Hold your breath!” She yelled, and Omega obediently sucked in a gasp. Shiani dove again, wrapping herself around Tech and pressing her mouth to his to push the air she had into his lungs as he gills pulled oxygen out of the water. 

They were sucked straight down into the aquaduct, tumbling violently for a minute until they were shot out of a low waterfall and into a deep pool, the current gone. Shiani hauled the two clones to the rocky little shoreline and pushed them both out first. Omega lay on her back, coughing, as Tech rolled from his stomach to his side with a groan. 

“You two okay?” Shiani sat up, shaking the droplets off her head tresses and looking around. 

“Yeah.” Omega didn’t sit up, staring at the ceiling above her for a minute. “My socks are wet.” 

“As are mine. I despise the texture.” Tech grumbled, finally pushing himself upright and looking around.  His comm was buzzing, mic full of water and leaving everything unintelligible until he cleared it out. 

"Fffffsst- ech? Tech, do you copy?" Hunter’s voice was somewhere between anger they weren’t answering, and panic that they couldn’t. None of the accidental underwater spelunking group had any doubt he’d tear this mine apart with nothing but his knife and sheer familial concern to find them.

Tech coughed another mouthful of water. "Affirmative. Shiani, Omega, and I took… an underwater detour."

"Where are you?"

"That is a good question. Stand by."

Shiani looked around, patting Tech’s back to help him clear any more water before helping him and Omega both up. The blonde girl wiped the water from her face and pointed. “I see a light.”

They followed the barely-visible pinprick of sunlight, finally locating a tiny hole in the cavern wall barely bigger than the head of Shiani’s smallest screwdriver. Shiani beamed, leaning towards it. “Smells like fresh air.” 

“Well spotted.” Tech patted Omega’s shoulder, cringing slightly at the slap of his wet glove on her wet shirt. "I will instruct Hunter and Wrecker to retrieve our gear and meet us down here."

When he backed up to comm Hunter, Shiani gave Omega a fond smile. “Now is a good time to talk. You want me to go away?” 

“No… I might need translation.” Omega sighed. “If he’s a whole different language, you speak both.”

Shiani nodded and gave the girl a cheerful little mock salute. “Protocol-droid Shiani, ready for service.” 

Omega at least laughed, and they waited for Tech to finish up on his comm call. When he was done, they all sat at the water's edge to wait for the others. "Once they join us, we will have a way out of the mine." He said firmly.

"We still have no ship, no way off the planet, and we can't even call Echo for help…" Omega pulled her knees up. 

"We do not need help. We will think of a solution, as we always do." 

Omega glanced at Shiani, who patted her back. “You don’t mean that Echo isn’t important.” She murmured to Tech.  

“No. I simply mean that he is unavailable, so we must make our own way without his help. Not that it would not be appreciated.” Tech said quietly.

"... everything is changing. First Echo, now the ship." Omega finally whispered. "I hate it."

"Soldiers often deal with change. It is a fundamental part of life… I do not understand your aversion to it." Tech frowned. 

“You don’t like change either, Tech. You just adapt easier because you’ve had more experience with it.” Shiani coached. 

"And we're a family, aren't we?" Omega looked at Tech with a look in her eyes he couldn't quite understand. She looked almost afraid of his response, like if he told her they weren’t a family it would destroy her. But why would he ever say that? How could they be anything else? 

"... of course we are." Tech’s brow furrowed with confusion, and he looked at Shiani for some kind of explanation.

"Then why don't you act like it?!" Omega demanded his attention before his wife could say anything. 

Tech’s frown deepened as he sat with her question and what Shiani had said earlier. If Omega couldn’t “feel his hearts” the way Shiani said, he would have to be extremely plain about it. Which meant examining his emotions without the solitude he usually preferred. Usually only Shiani got to be privy to his most personal thoughts out loud.  "Echo… chose another path. As did Crosshair. I have to respect those decisions, even if they can be difficult to understand… I admit I may process thoughts differently… but it does not mean I feel any less than you."

Omega frowned. "So you do miss Echo?" Her focus was on the most recently missing brother, but Shiani didn’t fail to notice he brought up Crosshair without a word from either of them about the sniper. 

"Yes. I miss them both." Tech looked at her for a long moment. “I have always missed anyone I care about in their absence... But I have had to accept it for most of my life. I would have preferred to have Shiani join us years before she did.”

“You tried to send her and me away.” Omega said quietly. “On Salucemi.”

“That was an error on my part. I did not ask your choices in the matter.” Tech sighed. “I regret that immensely. As it stands now, I would prefer to have all of us together, including Crosshair and Echo. I cannot make the decision for someone else, however. But… Shiani is right. I do not like the change of living without them. If I am honest… the only positive changes in my life have been meeting the two of you.”

Shiani smiled, scooting a little closer to Tech and putting her head on his shoulder. “I told you a conversation would help.”

He nodded. “You were correct, cyare.” He looked back at Omega. “I am sorry I was… not apparent about it. I thought it was obvious.” 

Omega leaned over against his other side, and after a moment he put an arm around her shoulders. A near death experience seemed like a reasonable time to hug his sister. And if Shiani’s tentacles twined their way around both of them, it was a more comfortable cuddle. 

Tech and Omega pondered over their new understanding of each other as Shiani just kept her eyes on the waterfall, waiting patiently for it to spit Wrecker and Hunter out of it. It didn’t take too terribly long until they tumbled out ass over teakettle and made their way to shore. “Why are we always almost drowning?” The sergeant grumbled, wet hair plastered to his forehead.

“I’m not.” Shiani smiled and gave him a hand up. 

“Thank you, Princess Smartass.” He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Princess Illumai.” She corrected innocently, taking her tool bag from him and stepping back so he could give Tech and Omega their gear. 

“It’s a… nevermind.” He patted her head lightly. “Okay, Tech. What’s the plan.”

Tech pulled out a vial of ipsium and set to tapping on the wall near the hole, measuring thickness by sound and figuring out angles. Shiani watched him stack rocks and set the vial atop it before waving them all to move back behind cover. “This should have the required force to blast our way out.”

“How come you get to blow it up?” Wrecker complained.

“Because this shot must be precise, or we risk another cave in.” Tech muttered sternly. 

This time, Omega and Shiani looked at each other. There was a tiny change in Tech’s voice that Omega normally wouldn’t have noticed, but when the siren just nodded she realized she wasn’t imagining it. 

He’s thinking about Crosshair. He could have made the shot too.

Tech made the shot after another moment of mental calculation, and the aftershocks faded before any of them moved. Fortunately, there was no cave in or squished members of the family, and everyone stepped out into the sunlight. Shiani put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath, finally free of the stale smell of the inside of the mine. 

Tech put an arm around her waist, his binocs in the other hand. “The detour through the aqueduct has put us closer to the spaceport. It is just over the cliffside there.” 

“Hopefully there will be some food.” Wrecker grinned. 

Shiani nodded. “Nothing to hunt in that mine. I couldn't feel anything alive but us.” She was hungry too, but she had been hungrier before. 

They started walking, Omega taking a spot between Tech and Hunter. The sergeant smiled faintly. “You two okay now?”

Omega nodded. “We’re… learning each other’s language.” 

He put an arm around her. “Good.” His eyes darted up to Shiani, who had her arm wrapped around Tech’s middle as they walked together. She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a smile as well. 

They were all going to be fine.

The spaceport was abandoned, and judging by the dust and tattered cloth hanging from the derelict buildings it was not a recent development. Shiani scrunched her nose and looked around. “No food, Wrecker. And no ship to use.”

"So we came all this way for nothing?" Wrecker groaned.

"I can craft a long range transmitter with this equipment. It appears to be an abandoned communications array, so it would be a relatively quick repair.

"Might be a skiff or speeder I can fix up.” Shiani waved around at the scrap half buried in dust from the recent storm or similar weather. “It won’t make it off the planet but there’s got to be civilization somewhere.” 

Omega followed her to start scavenging, a familiar practice now. Shiani was good at it, Omega noted, as she pulled what looked like garbage up and pointed out the components the siren could make to get them a ride. “This is what you used to do under Tipoca, isn’t it?”

Shiani nodded. “There wasn’t as much useful stuff there, actually.” She handed the girl a stabilizer coupling to hold while she kept digging. “This looks like half of it was just abandoned, not broken first.”

“You think someone just left this stuff on purpose?” Omega blinked, examining the part with a smile.

“Between the weather and bandits? They might have just given up. Not everyone is as resilient as our family.” Shiani ruffled her hair fondly. “Look at you. We found scrap and you’re smiling again.”

“Well… I’m not mad at Tech anymore. Thanks, for helping me understand.” Omega hugged her around the waist, and Shiani grinned and picked her up in her tentacles, making her laugh as she rotated her over the siren’s head while she kept digging for parts.

"I have gotten the communication array functional, cyar’ika." Tech called. “We are going to try to make contact with Cid first.”

“Don’t think she’s gonna be helpful. She’s selfish.” Shiani sighed, setting Omega down to walk over to the group as they got the call through.

Shiani had hope she was wrong, but it didn’t seem like it. The trandoshan looked annoyed the minute she appeared on the holo, like they were wasting her time. "I've got a lot going on over here. You guys are going to have to figure it out on your own."

"Wait a minute, Cid. You sent us here." Hunter narrowed his eyes 

"And you had a ship when I did."

"Cid! You have to help us." Omega put her hands on her hips and sharpened her gaze, doing her best imitation of Hunter’s sergeant demeanor. 

"We did assist you getting your parlor back from Roland Durand, and with Mellegi-" Tech started. 

Shiani simply hissed sharply, mouth open and fangs on display. “Cid.” She said coldly, and the rest of the threat didn’t need translation. If Cid screwed them over, Shiani was going to make herself a personal problem. 

"Alright, alright. I'll see what I can do. Gimme a few days."

Hunter’s hiss matched Shiani’s. "We don't have the supplies for-"

Cid hung up. 

Wrecker groaned. "Now what do we do?"

"We figure it out, like we always do." Omega gave Tech a grin, and he smiled back.

“When we get back to Ord Mantell, I’m gonna bite her.” Shiani grumbled. “I’m about sick of her.”

“I’m starting to agree with you.” Hunter huffed. “But let’s get out of here first.”

[djarindykes]

Your butch Din posts have got me thinking that my ideal Star Wars au is where everything is the same BUT: all the male OT characters are queer women. Luke? Dyke. Han and Lando? Bi dykes. Red and Rogue Squadrons? Dykes. Chewie? Wookiee dyke. I'm 100% serious about this. Because even when everything is the same, the entire original trilogy takes on a whole host of new meanings if all the men (and there are many) are women. Particularly, I think, in Luke's case.

DUDE FUCK yes oh my god everything about this is so so so so good WOOKIEE DYKES ARE EVERGTNINGGGHGGJHD

Every single thing about star wars would be so different if it was a band of queer women. I agree 1000% about luke. Dyke luke interests me just as much as butch din does because the entire protagonist, hero-boy type gets totally flipped upside down if the hero-boy is actually a hero girl!

luke wouldn’t be taken seriously. let’s just admit that and not kid ourselves. She would fight tooth and nail to show the galaxy that she deserves to be known as the galactic war hero that she is but in fucking *joker voice* society it would fall flat. Her looks would come into play. The men of the rebellion would get the credit. Her integrity would be questioned. It’d be a lot

But……to every little girl in the galaxy she would be a fucking MONSTER. A QUEEN. there wouldn’t be a single girl out there wasting away on tatooine without a luke skywalker ballpoint pen. or dreaming up in the sky about what it would be like to be a legend like her, a pilot, a jedi, a total badass. she opens up a window for soooo many dreamers and imaginative women in the galaxy who need a farm girl turned jedi to look up to

dyke luke would be angry at the galaxy. She’d want her credit. She’d be the face of a lot of galactic social issues without even necessarily wanting to be. She’s tired of being a political pawn. but she ends up living her best elderly Jedi life on ossus with her butch wife and heals from all of the mistreatment the Galaxy has thrown her way. she finds comfort and peace. She gives mouse-girl realness and looks like a little pixie

Luke and Leia as sisters…..hoooly fuck I’m gonna froth

[monsterfuckerconfessions]

I don't see nearly enough wookiee related monster fucker content.

.

[positivelybeastly]

What’s the most annoying thing about how the general populace treats you during one on one random interactions

"Well, number one with a bullet is the petting."

"And I genuinely do understand. I'm large, I'm blue, I'm warm, I'm extremely fuzzy - I look like the Cookie Monster, or a Wookiee, or any number of fictional characters that are associated with cuddliness or positive tactile feelings. There's a reason I don't mind when children do it, but when grown adults just - do it?"

"I'm not a cat. I just - look like one. I wish more people would understand that.

. . . I also wish people would stop giving me guff for things I haven't done yet. War crimes this, timestream bumbling that . . ."

[elisemscott1122]

As many of you may know, some of the episodes of Clone Wars were released out of order in the timeline. Some requested I put together a cohesive list of the episodes in Timeline Order to go with my timeline order show/movie list, and here it is:

Clone Wars Chronological Watch Order Broken Down By Episode:

S2 E16 - Cat And Mouse  

S1 E16 - The Hidden Enemy

The Clone Wars Film

S3 E01 - Clone Cadets

S3 E03 - Supply Lines

S1 E01 - Ambush

S1 E02 - Rising Malevolence

S1 E03 - Shadow Of Malevolence

S1 E04 - Destroy Malevolence

S1 E05 - Rookies

S1 E06 - Downfall Of A Droid

S1 E07 - Duel Of The Droids

S1 E08 - Bombad Jedi

S1 E09 - Cloak Of Darkness

S1 E10 - Lair Of Grievous

S1 E11 - Dooku Captured

S1 E12 - The Gungan General

S1 E13 - Jedi Crash

S1 E14 - Defenders Of Peace

S1 E15 - Trespass 

S1 E17 - Blue Shadow Virus

S1 E18 - Mystery Of A Thousand Moons

S1 E19 - Storm Of Ryloth

S1 E20 - Innocents Of Ryloth

S1 E21 - Liberty On Ryloth

S2 E01 - Holocron Heist

S2 E02 - Cargo Of Doom

S2 E03 - Children Of The Force

S2 E17 - Bounty Hunter

S2 E18 - The Zillo Beast

S2 E19 - The Zillo Beast Strikes Back

S2 E04 - Senate Spy

S2 E05 - Landing At Point Rain

S2 E06 - Weapons Factory

S2 E07 - Legacy Of Terror

S2 E08 - Brain Invaders

S2 E09 - Grievous Intrigue

S2 E10 - The Deserter

S2 E11 - Lightsaber Lost

S2 E12 - The Mandalore Plot

S2 E13 - Voyage Of Temptation

S2 E14 - Duchess Of Mandalore

S2 E20 - Death Trap

S2 E21 - R2 Come Home

S2 E22 - Lethal Trackdown

S3 E05 - Corruption

S3 E06 - The Academy

S3 E07 - Assassin

S3 E02 - Arc Troopers

S3 E04 - Sphere Of Influence 

S3 E08 - Evil Plans 

S1 E22 - Hostage Crisis

S3 E09 - Hunt For Ziro

S3 E10 - Heroes On Both Sides

S3 E11 - Pursuit Of Peace

S2 E15 - Senate Murders 

S3 E12 - Nightsisters

S3 E13 - Monster

S3 E14 - Witches Of The Mist

S3 E15 - Overlords

S3 E16 - Altar Of Mortis

S3 E17 - Ghosts Of Mortis

S3 E18 - The Citadel

S3 E19 - Counterattack

S3 E20 - Citadel Rescue

S3 E21 - Padawan Lost

S3 E22 - Wookiee Hunt

S4 E01 - Water War

S4 E02 - Gungan Attack

S4 E03 - Prisoners

S4 E04 - Shadow Warrior

S4 E05 - Mercy Mission

S4 E06 - Nomad Droids

S4 E07 - Darkness On Umbara

S4 E08 - The General

S4 E09 - Plan Of Dissent

S4 E10 - Carnage Of Krell

S4 E11 - Kidnapped

S4 E12 - Slaves Of The Republic

S4 E13 - Escape From Kadavo

S4 E14 - A Friend In Need

S4 E15 - Deception

S4 E16 - Friends And Enemies

S4 E17 - The Box

S4 E18 - Crisis On Naboo

S4 E19 - Massacre

S4 E20 - Bounty

S4 E21 - Brothers

S4 E22 - Revenge

S5 E02 - A War On Two Fronts

S5 E03 - Front Runners

S5 E04 - The Soft War

S5 E05 - Tipping Points

S5 E06 - The Gathering

S5 E07 - A Test Of Strength

S5 E08 - Bound For Rescue

S5 E09 - A Necessary Bond

S5 E10 - Secret Weapons

S5 E11 - A Sunny Day In The Void

S5 E12 - Missing In Action

S5 E13 - Point Of No Return

S5 E01 - Revival

S5 E14 - Eminence

S5 E15 - Shades Of Reason

S5 E16 - The Lawless

S5 E17 - Sabotage

S5 E18 - The Jedi Who Knew Too Much

S5 E19 - To Catch A Jedi

S5 E20 - The Wrong Jedi

S6 E01 - The Unknown

S6 E02 - Conspiracy

S6 E03 - Fugitive

S6 E04 - Orders

S6 E05 - An Old Friend

S6 E06 - Rise Of Clovis

S6 E07 - Crisis At The Heart

S6 E08 - The Disappeared, Part I

S6 E09 - The Disappeared, Part II

S6 E10 - The Lost One

S6 E11 - Voices

S6 E12 - Destiny

S6 E13 - Sacrifice

S7 E05 - Gone With a Trace

S7 E06 - Deal No Deal

S7 E07 - Dangerous Debt

S7 E08 - Together Again

S7 E01 - The Bad Batch

S7 E02 - A Distant Echo

S7 E03 - On the Wings of Keeradaks

S7 E04 - Unfinished Business

S7 E09 - Old Friends Not Forgotten

S7 E10 - The Phantom Apprentice

S7 E11 - Shattered

S7 E12 - Victory and Death

[rndyounghowze]

Young Howze Theatre Awards 2023 Nominees

Our Award Show is March 26 at 5PM EST. If you see your name here please email us at rndyounghowze@gmail.com You can support our work by donating on Venmo @rndyounghowze. We are still looking for ASL interpreters! If you know of any service that could help please let us know!

Solo Awards

"All By Myself Award" For Solo Performer Of The Year

Megan Quick in “And Toto Too”

Anabell Ramirez in “Book of Sirens” 

Timothy Mooney in “Man Cave” 

“Flying Solo” For Solo Show Of The Year

“And Toto Too” by Megan Quick 

“Book of Sirens” by Pro English Theatre

“Man Cave” by Timothy Mooney 

 “Good Adoptee” by Suzanne Bachner

"Campfire Award" For Storyteller of The Year

Daniel Kinch in “Story of the Falling Don”

Erika Eileen Wade in “Da Rhythm Da Blues”

Mina Liccione in “Growing Up Ringside”

Mind-Blowing Awards

"Mind-Blowing Stage" For Stage Writing Of The Year

“Monsters of American Cinema” by Christian St. Croix

“La Race” by Bleu Beckford-Burell 

“Sherlock Holmes Valley Of Fear” by Nick Lane

“Lavender Men” by Roger Q Mason

“Whickams Christmas at Pemberley” by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon

"Mind-Blowing Shortie" For Short Form Writing Of The Year 

“Wookiee in The Wilderness” by Marcus Scott

“By The Way” by Lisa Rosetta Strum

“Faulty Lock” by AJ Maryn 

“Waterlillies” by Christine Hillary Lee

"Mind-Blowing Devising" For Devised Production Of The Year 

“From Number to Name”

“Posthumous”

“Afterlife Job Fair”

“Artemisias Intent”

Artists Of The Year

"Extensions" For Movement Artist Of The Year

Mita Ghosal for “Selected Fabrics”

Alicia Diaz for “Puerto Rico y Richmond”

Lena Adele Wolf and Clemence Debaig for “Discordance”

"Action" Award For Film Director Of The Year

Thomas Cote in “Memories of Over Development”

Yannis Sainte-Rose in “Tuff Guy”

Olivier Sagne in “Lovena”

Iida Valme in “Mirage”

"Dress Up" Award For Costume Designer Of The Year

Wendell Carmichael in  “Lavender Men”

X Hill in “Cymbeline Project”

Gail Russell “Wickhams: Christmas At Pemberley” 

"Mix It Up" Award For Sound Designer Of The Year

Adrian Bridges in “Artemesia’s Intent”

Stepy Kamei in “One Bad Day”

Leonie Bell in “Arrow Of Time”

"Maestro Award" For Outstanding Musical Composition

Diana Oh for “The Cymbeline Project” 

Nathan Leigh for “POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness”

Maurice Soque Jr. for “Non Player Character” 

Director Of The Year

Taylor Reynolds in “La Race”

Lisa Scheps and Brian Cheslik in “Last Five Years”

Alex Borovenskiy in “Book Of Sirens” 

Nick Lane “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide”

Short Form Director Of The Year

Destiny Whitaker in “All Out Of Spoons”

Zhailon Levingston and Tracy Conyer Lee in “Fire This Time Festival 22”

Cayle Komara in “Waterlillies”

Creative Of The Year 

Christian St. Croix

Scarlett Kim

Roger Q. Mason

BIPOC Hero Award

TBA

“Magician” Award For Press Contact Of The Year

TBA

Shows/Festivals Of The Year

Festival Of The Year

“Fire This Time Festival”

“Frigid Fest”

“Talking It Out Fest”

"You Oughta Be In Pictures" For Film Of The Year

“Memories of Over Development” 

“Undine”

“Lovena”

"Billy Bard" For Digital Shakespeare Production Of The Year

“Rome-Oh No They Didn’t” 

“Romeo and Juliet” by Sister Shakes

“Breakneck Romeo and Juliet”

Show Of The Year

“Lavender Men”

“The Cymbeline Project”

“La Race”

“POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness”

"360" Award For VR Show of The Year

“Queerskins” Ark”

“Anakwad”

“Non Player Character”

“Discordance”

"Free Fall” Award For Immersive Production Of The Year

“Section 230”

“Posthumous”

“POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness”

“Afterlife Job Fair”

"Grace Notes Award" For Musical Production Of The Year

“Non Player Character”

“Lizard Boy”

“The Last Five Years”

"Can You Hear Me Now" For Audio Production Of The Year

“You’ve Reached Justin” By Christian St. Croix

“One Bad Day” By Stepy Kamei 

“Arrow Of Time” By Allyson Dwyer

Performers Of The Year

"More Than Merely Players" Award For Outstanding Dramatic Performer Of The Year

Krissy Lemon in "The Last Five Years"   

Mariah Freda in "Artemesia's Intent" 

Susannah Perkins in "Arrow Of Time"

Ben Holbrook in "Arrow Of Time" 

Blake Kubena in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" 

"Fools These Mortals Be" Award For Outstanding Comedic Performer

Imani Waweru in “Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley”

Monique "Momo" Holt in “The Cymbeline Project”

Cristofer Jean in “The Cymbeline Project”

Stacey Sargeant in “La Race”

Melanie Leon in “Afterlife Job Fair”

"Capture" Award For VR Performer Of The Year

Debbie Deer in “VR Christmas Carol” 

Brendan Bradley in “Non-Player Character”

Lena Adele Wolf in “Discordance” 

[suspiciouslypinkrosegarden]

The fact that he still dreamt of the fire and brimstone was his greatest kept secret. Behind his closed eyelids he still saw it, lightening striking and ash fluttering to the ground like unnatural snowfall, marking destruction and filling his lungs with something disgusting. His anger had soared to new heights that night as his bitterness left him empty, choking on a feeling of what he could only describe to be abandonment and betrayal. He did not know which was more haunting, the screams of those he grew up with, or the look on his uncle’s face as he raised his weapon to him.

The night Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy burned to the ground was the very last Ben Solo was alive, and what remained of it all now was an ugly wound across his very soul. Like something created by a saber, it became cauterized by the heat, a gaping hole which refused to heal as vital organs were scorched in its path. A bacta tank could do nothing to save him from his past.

Under his new name and allegiance, he channeled this very reoccurring nightmare into a powerful weapon against those who had wronged him. Drowning within the pain rather than attempting to swim was how Kylo Ren operated, and he could see no ability to heal as he allowed himself to be pulled under. Under the First Order, he would learn to reopen this gash over and over again, twisting the knife deeper into himself whenever he got the chance. Where Ben Solo once felt hope and aspiration, Kylo Ren felt a melancholy sense of intense loathing. In a way mostly unclear to him, his anger was a method of mourning, manifesting further as he watched the newest Rebel fighter receive what love and autonomy he was denied. They gave to Rey endlessly.

Kylo Ren knew he was the product of familial failure, and that voice inside of his head telling him to look towards the facts isolated him greatly from others in his youth. The galactic heroes of the century he called his guardians, the legends turned bedtime stories for new generations born, all left him to rot in their own ways. He knew he was a monster created by their faults, and they were all to blame for his very fall from “grace”, or that set path they assigned to him. Growing up, if he had told another soul that their dearest Han, Luke and Leia were far from perfect poster figures, he’d only have been named a liar. A spoiled brat complaining about what gifts the universe had bestowed upon them, his heritage a huge leverage in both training, politics and more. Listening to that small familiar whisper in his ear, the seeds of truth finally flourished under the green light of his uncle’s lightsaber hovering directly above him.

To start, if thinking of them all again, he hated the man he called father, Han Solo. In his selfishness, that bastard craved his old life of crime and could not stay grounded. He found smuggling alongside that Wookiee to be more entertaining than his family, and at the end of the day still had very little in common with his mother besides the fact that they had a kid together. Han Solo would have rather been footloose and fancy free, head in the stars above than to have played the role of husband and father. Growing up, Ben felt it all, his mind nagging him that this disconnection was in fact his reality. He hated his true name now, Solo not even being a real surname. His father never really wanted more than a fling with some pretty princess…and yet this new girl was already so snug under his wing like a kid of his own maybe. Perhaps it’s because he chases the rush of new people excited to know him as an old hero of theirs.

Then there was his mother, one of the most important political figure heads of the century. Not only was she famed for being spectacularly beautiful, but strong willed and strong minded in her fight against the empire. She was the number one thing that swayed his usage of the dark side, and he was aware of what he’d have to do in order to fix that. Sever the ties…and to think no more of her soft hands against his cheeks as she sang him to sleep as a child. She already started their separation all those years ago shipping him off to become a Jedi, without being granted the same choice she had to follow something else instead…love in order to have him. His loud inner dialogue thundered at the thought of her, sorting her out to be indeed a hypocrite. While he practiced so very far from his mother, alone and missing her, Rey received training directly from her.

And as for his uncle Luke? He made up his mind about Ben all too quickly, deciding to kill his nephew placed into his care. He had casted the scales of judgment upon him without holding a call to court, and Kylo Ren hated him most of all, for judging his pull to the dark when Luke lived with the same. In fact, Luke spared Rey when experiencing hers.

And yet…even with this map sprawled out before him, he cannot find it within himself to hate the girl they dote on. All of the rage he directs through his power cannot be channeled at her, and it’s yet another thing that makes him weaker. Kylo Ren supposes he takes pity on Rey, being a small desert planet orphan longing to hold the stars that kept her company in her lonesomeness. In time, her heroes will fail her same as they did him. He will be there when it happens, waiting.

[tathrin]

🤡 🌞 💞 ?

I'm answering these out of order so I can put the long answer under a cut, shhh.

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Not really. Used to be between the hours of 11pm and 4am but capitalism and age say that's a no-go anymore, so. Whenever in a day that I have time, I suppose.

💞 Who's your comfort character?

Boba Fett. Ner Bob'ika.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

I actually giggle over my writing a lot (because if you aren't having fun with it, what's the point?) and it's usually cackling over things that I hope/expect people are going to love/hate/freak-out-over as often as it is actually funny stuff, but I'm guessing this ask is meant to refer to something humorous, so here's a bit from this fic:

The pilot's ready room was not a luxurious or ostentatious space, but those who frequented its sparse confines in the time between missions nonetheless liked to joke that it had "all the comforts of home"—or at least as close as you could find in the Resistance Fleet. At the moment, Poe Dameron was not feeling particularly comforted either by his surroundings or anything else.

He slumped over one of the small, battered tables at which pilots could eat, drink, play cards, work on their datapads, review mission briefings, or merely talk with one another. Poe was doing none of those things; instead, he was lamenting his foolishness over a mug of lomin ale.

"...didn't realize he hadn't made the connection until it was too late," Poe moaned. "So there I am trying to offer comfort, right? And instead what do I do? I tell him that I spent my childhood having playdates with Kylo-kriffing-Ren. Kylo Ren, Jess! Kylo Ren!"

"Yeah," Jessika Pava said, "I heard you the first three times."

She sat in the chair opposite Poe's. Where he was slouched forward across the table so far that his fingers reached all the way to her edge, she by contrast was leaning back in her chair with her feet up and braced on the table's lower rung. Her arms were folded across her chest, her own untouched mug of ale balanced precariously close to Poe's twitching fingertips, and the expression on her face was dubious even before she raised an eyebrow at him.

"So what?"

Poe didn't raise himself from his sprawl, but he did roll his eyes upwards until they found her face. "So what?" he repeated. "So what? So I freaked him out! So I sent him running away from me! So he probably thinks I'm a monster now, too! I was buddies with Kylo Ren, after all, the guy who terrorized him the whole time he was in the First Order and almost chopped his spine in half when he left! I bet he regrets ever getting me out of that cell, now! Stars, Jess, I am a monster. How could I scare him like that? How could I not think for once in my stupid life?"

With a sigh like a dying gundark, Poe slid forward further until his forehead rested on the sticky table and his wrists flopped into the empty air above Jess's knees.

She snorted. "Okay," she said, reaching out to pluck Poe's half-empty mug from where it rested beside his elbow. "First of all, I think you've had enough lomin ale for one night."

Poe groaned into the table but did not argue.

"Second of all, your life is pretty stupid. Especially right now. Did that deep-freeze a couple weeks ago break what little brains you've got, or what?"

Poe mumbled something that even a Wookiee wouldn't have classified as coherent.

"Yeah, uh-uh," Jess said dismissively, sipping her confiscated drink. "So he freaked-out when he found out his personal bogeyman was Baby Poe's best buddy. Fine. That's a fair thing to freak-out about." A wry smirk pulled at her lips as she added, "We all know you have terrible taste in friends, Dameron. Finn was bound to figure it out sooner or later."

Poe huffed a disgruntled breath but didn't pick his head up. "You don't understand," he mumbled. "I ruined everything."

Jess took another sip, made a face at the taste—lomin ale, especially the cheap lomin ale (not that there was such a thing as expensive lomin ale, but there was cheap and then there was cheap) that the Resistance stocked, was not a particularly refined beverage at the best of times and letting it warm to room temperature did nothing to improve the flavor—and sipped it again. "What'd you ruin?" she asked. She looked and sounded completely disinterested, but anyone who knew her would have seen the sharpness of her gaze where it was fixed on Poe's tousled curls; would have noticed the tension around her mouth as she listened closely to her friend's troubles. Jessika Pava was not a woman who wore her heart on her sleeve.

That didn't mean she didn't have one.

"What did I ruin," Poe repeated. He gave a bitter laugh and pulled himself up onto his elbows so he could bury his face in his palms. "You're right," he said. "There wasn't anything to ruin. I'm being an idiot."

"Oh-kay," Jess said slowly, both of her eyebrows now raised towards her neat black hairline. "Not where I thought this was going." She sipped her terrible stolen drink again. "Go on."

"No, I am." Poe's words were muffled by his hands, his face mostly hidden behind splayed fingers, but Jess was used to crackling, distorted Resistance comms being shouted into in the chaos of a snubfighter battle. She could hear him just fine. "I'm way too old for him, for one thing," Poe continued dismally. "And I'm being stupid. He's clearly in love with Rey anyway, right? Of course he is," Poe went on without giving Jess a chance to respond. This wasn't a conversation anymore; it was a lament, a soliloquy to an audience of one. "He went to Starkiller Base to save her, he fought Kylo Ren to save her, he almost got his spine severed trying to save her, he talked the whole Resistance into attacking Starkiller Base to save her…"

"I mean, there were some other extenuating circumstances behind that mission, but sure."

"So of course he's in love with her," Poe continued as though Jess hadn't spoken. He dragged his fingers down his face, pulling at his skin until he looked, briefly, to be roughly one hundred years old, then dropped his hands to the table as though they had become too heavy for him to lift. "She was the first thing he asked about when he woke up, you know? Not how badly he was hurt, not what happened to Starkiller, not whether we were on the run from the First Order or under attack or anything. Just where Rey was. Why she wasn't there. Stars, Jess, you should have seen his face when he realized she wasn't there waiting for him to wake up—realized that it was just me, and not her. It was like his heart broke…"

"Uh-huh," Jess said. "I'm sure none of that had anything to do with the fact that the last thing he remembered before he blacked-out was fighting Kylo Ren over her unconscious body…"

"Right?" Poe exclaimed, apparently holding his own conversation that had little connection to either Jess's words or reality. "So obviously he's in love with her, and I'm an idiot! And she's better for him to be in love with, anyway. She's his age, she's a Jedi, or going to be a Jedi, and he's going to be a Jedi, at least if stupid idiots like me stop scaring him away from actually learning the Force…"

"Or," Jess offered, "you could try, I don't know, talking to him like an actual grown-ass adult…"

Poe dropped his head back to the table and moaned again. "Aren't you supposed to be making me feel better?" he asked plaintively.

Jess snorted into her stolen lomin ale. "If that's what you were looking for, you'd be talking to Snap right now instead of me and we both know it. I don't do 'comfort' and 'coddling,' I do kick-in-the-pants stuff for when you're acting like a complete moof-milker—which you are, by the way." She pointed her index finger at him as though it were a blaster. "And you know you are, too, or you would be talking to Snap. So pull yourself together and stop swooning around like some tragic holodrama hero and just go talk to the boy before you work yourself into a total swivet and BB-8 comes to tattle on you again because you're too busy moping to take care of yourself, like—"