Presenting filler episode-esque clownery for your perusal as I interrupt my wallowing in angsty and bloody wips with this drabble tonight, just because~. This is some looney toons in haunted house type of shit…
The context is that I have done the Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival with Faro and Qyrhu, the two characters least likely to ever want to own a farm and do farming stuff. But alas, here they are, for a little while. Old farmer Ozo took one look at those two black-clad assholes asking about his secretly haunted farm and thinking ‘Oh, good, they deserve this.’ So, yay, farm acquired. Faro mostly busies herself with growing special crops. When he’s not intimidating recruiting farmhands to work for Faro, Qyrhu attempts to bake pies. When they stay there longer than Vette and Theron thought they would (they both lost bets because of this), they come for a visit. They didn’t anticipate the decoration on display there, though. The beautiful, awesome Sith relic from ages past that Qyrhu proudly presents. Only lightly haunted, just some nice mood lighing, maybe some weird shapes out in the fields, nothing else...
Word count: ~ 1000, content warning: sliiightly horroresque imagery? (tho the tone is supposed to be funny overall)
Vette wakes up in the middle of the night. At first, she isn’t sure why, she’s still sleepy and comfy half in her sleeping bag, one bare leg luxuriously sticking out. But something has woken her up. Something that seems to come from her guts, an innate danger sense. She carefully peeks out from under the covers. The room is dark. The light from the moons that might come through the thin curtains is dimmer than she expects and makes the shadows in the room almost impenetrable. Good thing she isn’t afraid of the dark, right?
Then she hears a dull shuffling sound and freezes.
It stops again, but it has come from outside the room, in the hallway. She tries to make out more, but it’s quiet.
Oh, come on, they said they never come inside…
She’s annoyed now, but still spooked, too, contemplating how considerate she should be. Should she really suffer awake while the others happily snooze the night away? And what if it’s actually something else, some low-budget assassin that can’t even sneak around properly?
She immediately discards that possibility again when a truly awful moan comes from the hallway, keening and gurgling like there’s something thick and wet down its throat. The shadows around the door seem to grow.
“Oh fuck no,” Vette whispers loudly, crosses over Qyrhu’s sleeping form still half in her sleeping bag, “I’m not sleeping on the outside.”
She tucks herself in on the inside of their sleeping arrangement, feeling a lot more like she won’t be the first one getting grabbed if these things come inside, sandwiched between a slowly rousing Qyrhu and a Theron whose back is turned to her. She can’t see his head because it’s under an entire pillow that his arm is holding in place over his head. Wait, has he just been trying to continue to sleep like this? Next to Theron is a motionless Faro, laying flat on her back and her arms on her chest like an entombed mummy.
“Whzhgh?” Qyrhu groggily intones as he appears from out his own sleeping bag.
“There’s things in the hallway. You asshole said they wouldn’t come inside.”
“Hnm?” his eyes still aren’t open while he’s rubbing his face. “They don’t.”
The sound that wafts over to them now is like the splashing of vomit hitting the floor. The air in the room becomes inexplicably thick and damp. There’s no smell to it, but it really feels like it should smell like rotten corpse.
“You wanted to keep that shitty relic!” Vette hisses and pulls his own pillow away from him to bury her nose into. She has forgotten hers on his other side. “So go fix this. I can’t sleep in these conditions!”
Qyrhu grumbles but unzips his sleeping bag and reluctantly rises from their mats. He shuffles through the room, collecting his lightsaber and throwing on a bathrobe over his downtime clothes. He’s taking his sweet fucking time putting on his mismatched slippers while heinous looking shadowy goo creeps in from between the upper crack of the door.
At the sound of Qyrhu exiting the room like he’s just going to the fresher, Theron’s head comes out from bellow his pillow, sleepily looking after him as he closes the door. He doesn’t seem all that enthused to follow though.
Everything is quiet.
Keeps being quiet.
Vette and Theron are straining their ears.
Then there’s one wet slap, loud in the dead quiet, like someone just hit a huge dead fish.
A many throated scream pierces the air, discordant and dreadful. Vette feels goosebumps popping down her entire back. She watches as, out of thin air, deep scratches slowly grow downwards on their walls, and she grips Theron’s arm in horror. Theron tenses and grabs Faro’s arm in turn. Faro is still lying on her back and looking up at the ceiling with a flat expression. She simply shifts the knife she has been holding in her one hand to the other that isn’t restricted by Theron’s grip.
Meanwhile, the hall is still a cacophony. There’s lightsaber noises, screaming that alternates between piercingly high and vibratingly low, sounds of breaking glass and shattering furniture, one enormous stomping thud that shakes the entire floor of the barn floor they’re on. They aren’t sure if the harsh hitting sounds are Qyrhu’s doing or if they are being done to him. The muffled grunts that come every now and then tell them he’s still alive at least.
As they are beginning to wonder if they should maybe go look if he needs some help the screaming changes into blubbering gurgles and finally, a relieving silence. They hadn’t noticed how dark it had become as the shadows seem to return to grey instead of deepest black, and beams of cool moonlight trace the floor.
The door opens on creaking hinges. Qyrhu comes back inside, re-tightening the belt of his bathrobe. There’s something dark staining the front of his robe, but otherwise he looks surprisingly unscathed.
Theron releases himself from various forgotten grips and clambers over to look at the stained robe. His fingers come away red.
“Jam has run out,” Qyrhu says to that.
Faro intones a sigh from deep within her chest, not having budged from her mat.
“I always thought that kitchen was lacking,” she says. “The next one is all in stone.”
“It’s not that bad,” Qyrhu assures, “but um… I’m going to the market tomorrow. The milk is all curdled.”
“How about durasteel for the kitchen,” Theron adds, sucking the jam off his fingers, “I don’t want any more stone in this hut, feels like all of it’s cursed.”
“When did you say that buyer comes in again?” Vette angles her head over to Faro, “Please say tomorrow…”
“You know it, Vette,” she says with eyes already closed again.
Unsurprisingly, Qyrhu scoffs at that and looks at them reproachfully. “Excuse me? You just decide to give away the one thing that makes this hovel look like it has some class?”
“Yes,” everyone intones at the same time.
Qyrhu makes to continue his protest just as an eerie howl warbles from out in the fields. He closes his mouth and does not speak again.
more oc questions, since i'm feeling nosy (feel free to ignore if you have enough on your plate already!) - family and time, for the beloved faro?
Hello! Hee hee wonderful, thank you, I really appreciate all the questions, slowly going through them. The Faro mood is strong lately (looking at all the writing I've done the past weeks putting her in situations. She used to make fun of Qyrhu for having his shit aired out by me but now she's crying into her hands bc it's her turn, haha)
Family: would they change their family if they could? be raised by someone else, have a different number of siblings, know someone they've never met?
Faro has effectively died, that is to say, her civilian identity did when she was introduced into being a cipher agent, and that also meant that she was dead for any familial and other relations in her private life. She felt bad for her father, who had only ever been good to her, raising her alone and doing his best like he did. His wife had already walked out on him, and now years later his daughter was doing the same (although he would think she died a patriot in some border skirmish). But that didn’t stop her from pursuing that path in Intelligence. Like her absent mother, she was too ambitious, too focused on wanting to make a real difference, and even though dad had tried to make the simple life seem worthwhile to her, he supported her when she applied to all the special programs, even if he couldn’t help her much with the course matter (did he suspect, even then, that he was going to lose her?)
She wouldn’t change her dad, even if she thought him too even-minded and humble. Her mother? Her parents separated when Faro was a young child, and her mother didn’t visit her often, sent unpersonal presents, all in all making her feel like she wasn’t interested in her, so in turn Faro wasn’t interested in her mother. The contact those two had was sparse and superficial. Maybe having her mother be more present, effectively having been a different mother, would have been nice. But Faro doesn’t really care, she was doing well without one anyway.
Faro isn’t family focused. Having siblings or other (I may give her one for flavor), it would not have changed that she enlisted and vanished into the shadows never to return. Her story isn’t about her family, they will never reconnect, and remain forever in the past.
Time: how do they feel about aging? do they worry about lost opportunities or miss experiences they can't go back to?
She's got a black humor and a soldier's education, she usually thought that she wouldn't get old. She’d do her job, and one day she’ll croak doing it, that’s how it goes. For the Empire, and all that. Things happened, however, and she found herself struggling to wholly subscribe to that mentality again. It’s still a coping mechanism, but something is raging inside her core now, throwing the furniture around, refusing to lay down quietly.
She’s had to learn to deal with various health problems in the time after the brainwash reversal, she knows the body and mind can fail and cause problems regardless of age. So when dealing with that becomes less terrible than its early stage, it's an improvement, regardless of her body's regular signs of ageing. She's in her late thirties (kotfe+) and forties (current events) and feeling better, so her outlook on the future is better. I'll have to see how that continues. Faro has a lot of bitterness in her heart, but that all stems from her past in Intelligence. She doesn’t particularly fear to miss out on things by getting old. She's actually glad for the distance in time that ageing brings.
headcanon meme fears, scars, safe, oc of your choice
Finally, here it comes! Idk if you even remember sending this ask a month ago lol, but Thank You so much for indulging me and sending it anyway, godbender, you're the best!
Honestly, still not entirely happy with Faro, but it's okay, I finally started her playthrough again (hitting me all over again on how the fucking imp agent is the most chefs kiss of class stories). But first, the smuggler:
Tevuuk + Fears
Many of the smuggler’s fears are tied to their freighter. And rightfully so, as it was the means for their financial stability, their first and successful foray into independence. Being a freelance smuggler wasn’t easy at first, they had to scrape by for a lot of it. All their anxieties turned around their ship. What if they don’t have enough money for the next fixing, what if it breaks irreparably, what if it gets taken from them? In their mind, this ship had become their salvation from the dregs of the underworld. They had had to start over many times in their life, and used to think that they were good at that, that if there was one, they would find a way to survive. But now that they tasted a life they actually enjoy, the thought of losing that is too horrible. They can’t do it anymore. Please no, please no, please no.
Prologue time was, predictably, a nightmare come true. Corso was surprised later on that Tev could relax and crack a genuine smile, because that’s not how he got to know them. Also, Tev was ready to tear Risha apart when they first met on the ship, and it took a while until they let her implement changes to the ship unsupervised (Risha rolling her eyes while going over regular calibrations as the Zabrak equivalent of a growling little dog scrutinizes her every move)
(they recognized what a godsend Risha was, being an experienced mechanic and pimping up their ship in a way they never could do themselves. They still were worried that she would either abscond with it or build in something she could then blackmail them over. But she never did. She knew all too well this was the captain’s baby, and she treated it like that. Surefire way to the captain’s heart.)
Even when they could afford new freighters, several of them, it was always out of the question to change that ship. Maybe the self-rending anxiety was lessened, but it still was kind of a superstitious no-go. I want to explore an old Tevuuk finally realizing that this ship cannot be fixed anymore and will never fly anymore, and how they have to come to terms with that. Or maybe it’ll go as they wish and they will die on this ship, flying apart as it does. But this is needlessly dramatic, as everyone keeps telling them.
Faro + Scars
Faro collects an assortment of scars over her career but is used to have the more egregious one’s buffed out by Intelligence. The still a bit visible facial scars she covers with a thick layer of foundation. For professional reasons, she doesn’t want to attract attention to herself with memorable facial features. (She briefly used to wish that the non-physical scars were as easily dealt with. It would be nice if they could be buffed out, too. But then she got ill at the thought of more tampering with her mind. Wish dropped immediately).
When she gets older, she starts to not care so much about her scars being visible. Starts being defiant to that part of herself that cringes away from being noticeable in a genuine way. It’s not really about the physical scars anymore, but letting others notice that she’s the ways she is, that she has her dysfunctionalities and quirks and damaged ways to do things. She’s letting her cool and smooth manner be a bit more grainy and scruffy, and a byproduct of that is the presentations of her scars.
Faro + Safe
She finds safety hard to define for herself. An impossible thing. You’ll hear her say: “Life’s not safe. Life is never safe. Might as well enjoy it until consequences finally catch up with you.” And mean it too. You’ll also catch her bunking in a shitty bolthole not coming out for months because she can’t take going outside for fear of being caught, of being seen by anyone, everyone could be reporting back to someone who shouldn’t know about her. She’s tossed around between the desperate want to provide her own safety, to never be dependent on organisations again that will all fail her eventually, chose their own interests over her when pressed. This need to be untouchable battling the desire of being involved. She likes to meddle, she likes to prove others that she isn’t a pawn, that she’s not someone that just lies down, she is terribly competitive in that sense, and so just disappearing somewhere to a quiet idyll is… not quite so satisfying. She can’t take it. She likes the game, the crazy play life can be, vibrant and bleak and brutal. Her life has made her very careful on how she goes about it at times, too careful sometimes. Mistakes were made. In her undeserved luck, they didn’t cost her everything. And so she keeps walking that tightrope as long as there’s rope, really, swagger in her step, throwing looks over her shoulder and then looking forward again smiling one of her dangerous smiles.
change for qyrhu, body for faro, time for tevuuk AND (because I must) dance for all three?
Thank you, squirrel! <3
Change: if they could see how much they've changed over their life, coming face to face with a past or future self, how would they feel?
Oh wow yeah, that’s A question for Qyrhu.
The Qyrhu of say, Onslaught onwards (37+ yo), has had to deconstruct a lot of Empire induced beliefs he held, has realized he doesn’t want to go back to the Empire, has had to face his disillusionment with it, and the identity crisis that followed. He has also managed to get over his wounded pride and his fear of appearing weak and work on his mental health (a bit. Not that he’s figured everything out, but he’s had to accept that he is not powerful enough, not unreachable enough not to fail on some major points of his life, and that reaching out and receiving help from other people can be very necessary in the process to get better).
Put that Qyrhu in front of his early class story self (22 – 24 yo) who is all about getting ahead, playing the power games, hell bent on conforming to the image in his head of what a Sith must be, putting his all in the war effort. They’re going to look at each other and both disapprove. This is really not what his younger self wanted to turn into, some washed-out weak traitor. Fucking embarrassing. What is he busting his ass for all these years, huh??? He will deny this to be true.
And the older self is sick of this self-absorbed idiot. While there are things that he is still proud of, and he will not be going around all remorseful either way, he sees many of his failings, the many ways he made himself blind or callous or miserable. And what disquiets him the most is that he doesn’t know if he has changed all that much. How easy it is to slip back into some of it. That’s… he wants to look away so bad. But he can’t quite allow himself to do it.
Also, he briefly marvels on what a tough bitch he had been, how did he do it back then, how did he manage, he’s getting old… (burning out and never entirely recovering is what actually happened).
Neither of them cares to be sympathetic to the other. Both are like: Stop embarrassing me!!!
Body: if they were made physically unrecognisable, what would they do?
On a practical standpoint, Faro would find this useful. Especially once she’s trying to get out of the Empire, suddenly looking completely different without all the hassle of a generator (or however those eagle network guys and Hunter do this) would make things much easier and less costly.
However, she would mourn her old body. She hasn’t always had the easiest relationship to it, sometimes she felt like her body dictated too much about what she was, how other people treated her, and resented her body for that. But she and it worked hard to find a comfortable accord, and now you take it away? That’s just rude! She’s probably not going to give it up without stabbing someone about it if that's at all possible. But she would eventually get with the times and adjust to the new looks. What’s one more thing, am I right??
P.S. Ok, maybe she would take it worse if it was the mind control plus her body being different at the same time. Like that might make her snap for good this time. (Hasn’t she already snapped? – Yeah, but, even worse, trust me.
P.P.S. I first tried to talk about her cybernetic implants, but although those changed the feel of her body, they haven't brought much physical altering.
Time: how do they feel about aging? do they worry about lost opportunities or miss experiences they can't go back to?
Tev hopes to get old and well set up. She can picture herself, liver-spotted, probably bald, smoking one (1) expensive cigar per week (just one, get off her ass, Risha), humbling the young’uns at pazaak, giving solicited and unsolicited advice in merc bars, knowing she has nothing to prove anymore, stars, that’s the life she’d want. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels like a pipe dream. Although her chances multiplied, unreachable still. Even among the stars it’s a brutal world. A brutal world heralds a brutal end. Every year she gets older is a step towards this dream, and that is a win to her. Financial stability has also a lot to do with it, and as that starts being a thing, growing old doesn’t seem bad at all to her.
She does worry about losing opportunities constantly but it’s all about her business, making bad calls, missing out on clients, overlooking a forming coup, stuff like that. Personally, she feels like she got farther than any possible other version of herself ever could, feels like she has cashed in on every nine lives or however many a Zabrak gets. She's not missing out. Sometimes, she gets brief vertigo at having gotten this far (it’s very brief but it’s there).
And I think everyone has seen my dancing monkeys (you had to, and I am eternally grateful :))
Soooo 6, 18, and 34 for whoever inspiration strikes for (and feel free to change anything about those of course)
Beautiful prompts, thank you <3
Laughter
In neutral interactions it is not uncommon to never see Qyrhu laugh. His public face is severe and deadpan; he doesn’t feel obligated to smile out of politeness or to defuse a situation. When he smiles it’s usually threateningly, and when he does laugh, it’s mocking or sneering. In a more private setting and especially with people he likes, he smiles and laughs more, and more genuinely too, though it still sounds kind of mean (he’s stuck with that). It’s possible to make him silently laugh tears, interspersed with undignified snorts, especially if you’re called Vette. He often puts his hand in front of his mouth when he laughs.
Tev smiles a lot. It’s really all about the toothy grins and the huffs and chuckles. Xir smiles normally have something aggressive about them. Xe smiles to show everyone xe’s still standing and woe to them if they got something against that. Xe smiles to remind anyone that xe’s not afraid of anything. Honestly, when xe is trying to be inconspicuous or pass off as a regular normal civilian nothing to see here, xe tries not to smile, because xir smiles always have something provocative that just pisses people off. Xe doesn’t laugh out loud often, but when xe does, it’s infectious, because it’s just a dorky, hyena-like kinda laugh.
Oh, Faro, she smiles so sweetly. Laughs so softly. Truly one of her easiest ways to make people feel at ease, her smiles are So Nice! Of course, it doesn’t feel so nice anymore when she's got you at knifepoint, even though the smile is unchanged. It doesn’t change when she means it. You will never really know if she means it by smile alone. She doesn’t smile or laugh much in public or in a professional setting (all in true imperial fashion), but laughter comes to her easily all the same, even if it’s also for spiteful or bitter reasons, not only for joy.
Qyrhu + Winter
Winter in the Kaas City region means the rains are getting lighter, there is less flooding, less downpour. It’s never actually dry, the Dark Temple and its atmospheric impact are too near. Qyrhu’s opinion on winter on Kaas is that finally speeder biking is enjoyable again. Having the time of his life biking through dry but still highly active lightning weather meanwhile his caretakers want to staple his teenage ass to a wall in the compound during the entirety of the season.
Qyrhu got to know chilly cold, snowy winter once he went to live on Ziost for [handwavy preparatory military] school. He was much more sensitive to the cold in comparison to the locals, especially in the first two years, but he got used to it a bit. He’s still not a fan of cold climates but he knows how to dress to be warm enough (the running gag of Ziosti people is you will always recognize a Kaasi by the contempt and the three coats they wear simultaneously).
The Alliance base on Odessen probably also gets snow or at least cold, judging by the autumn colored trees we’ve seen… joy for Qyrhu.
Qyrhu + Affection
Qyrhu is reserved with showing affection. Even when he likes people, he can sometimes be a bit of a hardass to them. He can switch, and does, when he notices the initial approach is too hurtful or counterproductive. After all, he wants his loved ones to feel comfortable and safe with him. But otherwise, there will be ribbing (and he can take as much as he dishes out. mostly). As for receiving affection, he sometimes has issues when others are too gentle with him. It makes him feel weak, delicate like glass, like others think he can’t handle it otherwise, and he appreciates a little curtness and roughness more, makes him feel like he’s normal, taken seriously. It’s not always like this, he can appreciate gentleness too, when he’s open to it, when he can get over himself.
He is not what you would call a touchy person, but he likes showing affection physically. Sometimes words just tend to be… insufficient. It’s not with anyone, but with some people, he’s gotten used to a kind of physicality, to grip their shoulder reassuringly, touch their arm in passing, gently rub their back. Although he wishes he could be expressing himself like this a lot more than he actually does in reality.
Okay this is might be a long one but! Kids, Change, Control, Body for Qyrhu, Faro, Tev and whoever else you would like to talk about :)
(I'm curioussss)
A shadow falls over your face. You look up and see a massive wave blotting out the sun. There is a figure on the very top crest of this gargantuan tsunami, their arms outstretched, hair violently streaking behind them akin to wrathful Eris come to flood the mortal plains. You zoom in and --- it’s just me! going :D :D :D ‘tHanKs fOr tHE aSk!’
This is a small novel. Come on a journey with me, get whiplashed left and right by tonal shifts. And most of all, take it easy and don’t feel like you have to respond right away, or ever. I had fun :)
[rakghoul’s ask game]
Kids: do they want any, or would they mind if they had to take care of one? how does their own relationship with their parents affect this?
Faro
Faro does not want to be a parent, isn’t interested in the role. She had to kiss parenthood goodbye when she signed up for more hardcore agent work*, and that was it then to her, she never feels the need to revisit it later on. For rational reason like her life just not being suited to offering the things children need to grow well, but also because she shrimply doesn’t want to. Unavoidably she was very aware of how her own mother evidently didn’t want to be a parent either, and has asked herself why she did in the first place. Did she not know this beforehand? She won’t be this stupid.
*I might overdramatise here but I think Intelligence is pretty strict with birth control, they have full say on that topic on their agents (well, that’s far from the only thing). I think on uterus havers it’s more strictly policed, and the many stims that are part of an agent’s arsenal would stifle this even if they weren’t on hormonal birth control. I wonder if it has long time effects. I’m that meme: I’ve been pondering the elf’s uterus removal…
Faro looking after some children: she could do it, theoretically, it would go fine, but it’s not something that she would want to do repeatedly for enjoyment. Though as with hanging out with adults, it would also really depend on the kid. Her first plan of looking after a kid would be to give them a crosswords & sudoku puzzle book and leave them to it. Did she like that as a kid? She doesn’t really remember. But isn’t it kinda neat and also easy? (she gave them the hard mode version, didn’t she…)
Tevuuk
Hasn’t thought much about it, but if confronted with the idea of parenthood, they would not find the thought appealing. They already got enough responsibilities, adding one more sounds terrible. Also their parental role models were in no way encouraging about this.
They aren’t interested in babysitting some kids, but if they had to, they would probably tell them age-inappropriate stories. The kids are coming home disturbed and with many questions.
For future, older Tev (not class story or expac Tev) I could see them taking some youth (older teen or twenty-something) under their wing, be some kind of loose mentor to them, because they actually like showing people the ropes, and definitely see themselves in some youth with no way out of crime. They won’t go around fixing this in any structural way, but there might be a chance encounter where they’re like ‘Alright kid, you shoot like ass. Let me show you some tricks so you don’t shoot yourself next time’ and it becomes a regular thing. (Bonus if that ‘kid’ had originally been pointing their gun at Tev. You know. The classic).
Qyrhu
Growing up in the traditional, bloodline obsessed Sith circles, he knew that he would one day have children to continue the legacy (his mother certainly was reminding him often, her only child), but that notion soured the more real it became, and it was one of the big topics that made him distance himself from his family. He really doesn’t want children and he’s proud that his imbecilic bloodline will one day die out with him. It’s a bit of a touchy subject, he clearly chose what was important to himself and is glad of it, but deep down there’s a little nagging, hurt feeling that he failed something. (failed his family, failed his society, failed at being a good Sith). He doesn’t like failing. It’s going to evaporate some day, especially once he’s out and away from imperial society.
(I had an AU where he marries traditionally with another Sith and has a child to satisfy the expectation placed upon him. It’s the difficult divorced parent AU for pain and suffering. Because he wouldn’t be indifferent to any child of his. this little person hasn’t done anything to deserve this. But he would feel so caged. And would feel so guilty about that.)
Even when we untangle having kids from legacy (difficult for him), his idea of fulfilment isn’t him nesting and raising young, he truly wants different things from life. He’s someone who really likes going all in on his projects and career and campaigns and having children on the side would stifle or distract from that too much.
However, this evil question (kidding, i love it) has prompted me to think about when Qyrhu would ever be confronted with looking after kids. Which, you know, he doesn’t have any experience with. They’re a type of small civilians to him. I concluded that it would be when he’s running with Vette and the growing organisation for Twi’lek culture and liberation that she’s a part of (and that she’s heavily funding with her share of that heist pay out she earned). It consists of mainly adults but has some families and children in their more secured places. And for some cruel reason (groceries? meeting someone where a human/sith was not welcomed?), Vette and the other adults leave him with a handful of Twi’lek kids for like half an hour. He can do half an hour right? (it’s never just half an hour…)
(Mister Khovar, what’s your favorite color?” – “Pink. Now go play with tooth-gap and bogey-eater over there.” *the kid runs off yelling ‘It’s pink, I knew it!’ to the others*)
“Mister Khovar, I need to pee.”
“Then go pee.”
“Can you come with me?”
“No.”
“There’s weird noises in the toilet…”
“This is just the dianoga.”
“…”
“…”
“I’m scared.”
*supressing a sigh and lowering his magazine* “This is a good day for you, Bog- nevermind. Do you know why?”
*the bogey-eater is shaking her head*
“You have an opportunity to raise above the mediocrity of your peers. You can go out there and piss on a beast. Who can say the same among us here? Your ferocity and daring will strike fear and respect in the hearts of your enemies. So. You know what to do.”
“……..I can’t pee when I’m scared.”
“Then problem solved.”
*another kid* “Well cousin Evin has peed on an ant!”
*other kid jumping in* “I want to go pee on a dinagona!!!”
Tearing my hair and thinking about Qyrhu kickstarting the dianoga pet mission not while buying an abandoned cantina but with the three kids he has privately dubbed Tooth-gap, Bogey-eater and Gundark-on-sugar during their adventures of peeing and plumbing. [No Dianogas were urinated on in the making of this scene.]
Change: if they could see how much they've changed over their life, coming face to face with a past or future self, how would they feel?
Qyrhu covered here
Faro
She imperatively doesn’t want to face her past self. She will just not look at her. (stop being childish faro cmooon. you coward).
Her past self is confused about this, she would love to question her. Is it worth a try to use the tactics that she obviously would know about, because she’s her? Should she test if old spies are forgetful? She’s pleasantly surprised that she’s still out there and kicking. That’s… a good sign. She’ll take it. :)
Man. This could be a weird kind of fic. The only one who could make old dog Faro look at her pre-brainwash self is that very self! Pity she’s dead. Maybe I could actually pack that into the Voss ritual thingy the agent can do there… Although that’s probably too soon for that. Hmmm… It would be nice if Faro did some more introspection, but it might be she never will. I cannot say more for the moment.
Tevuuk
Tev would feel all kinds of sad, and also kind of guilty, if they met their younger self, probably the one who freshly dropped out of school and left home to join their first gang. This kid is so green, and they shouldn’t have to go through all of this, they shouldn’t have to do all of the things they did to survive. But they will, because they did it, and it seems like it was the only path to somewhere better. Or would it be? They’d feel protective, and they wouldn’t like that feeling.
Teenage Tev would be a bit shocked by the gender. She hadn’t been considering that at the time, that this was a thing people, even less herself, would do. She’s not sure if she likes it? I think this would make her quite unsure about herself, even though she normally is rather self-confident. But what she likes to see is that she looks like a hardened, badass bitch that won’t fall over at the first gust of wind. She wouldn’t realize why her future self was like that.
Control: what do they think of mind control? would they use it on others? do they draw lines between acceptable and unacceptable versions of it?
Faro covered here
Qyrhu
Ramping up fear and stress is a Force technique that Qyrhu uses regularly. That could be classified into a form of mind control, right? He doesn’t use its subtler form (Force persuasion) much, but not really out of some moral reservation but because he doesn’t see much use for him. He’d rather just outright threaten people. It’s a Force technique, fair game for people to use it. Would they rather he crushes their windpipes about it? He can do that, too, he thinks he’s being considerate to just disparage them with fear. The damage seems less permanent.
He has been on the receiving end of the fear thing (Baras a bit, but especially Dread Masters) and he would agree it is not pleasant, but so is skewering you with a lightsaber, and he won’t stop doing that either. The force persuasion probably never really worked on him, he’s too wildly stubborn and strong in the Force. Maybe Valkorion managed it, but it was probably just regular manipulation tactics with a bit of Force juice behind it.
Anything that changes people for longer or for good is going too far to his liking, the way the Dread Host was, Valyn, (trying to think on what he knows, he definitely isn’t aware of ImpInt brainwashing for the longest time, but similarly he would think it cruel). He doesn’t approve of this and might even try to stop it. Really depends on if these are colleagues/allies or actual enemies. With the latter he wouldn’t want to sacrifice too much for it, but still. He really doesn’t want to use the control word on Valyn. He is full on planning to undermine her through her subjects. He is also terrified of her, her Force power is on another league altogether. So if she backs him into a corner too heavily, he might get desperate and reach for anything.
Tevuuk
Tevuuk hates and fears it and will get violent whenever he comes in contact with it, as much as it is possible. Which he is lucky about. If he lived in the Empire, this would be much harder. (If I ever manage to do put Tev in fic I want it to be the Tatooine smuggler story finale where he effectively comes in contact with Force persuasion for the first time in his life, getting yanked around by both a Sith and a Jedi and he will crash out. Brutally. The ingame scene is kinda funny. This will not be funny.)
Body: if they were made physically unrecognisable, what would they do?
Help idk if I’m interpreting this question like it was intended or with enough seriousness dkjfdfkf
Faro covered here
Qyrhu
He likes how he looks and would be very sad about that change. Undoubtably. I don’t want to give any false impressions; he likes his body. There just might be something about it that would console him. He has fantasized about having a completely different body on more than one occasion. That would be fascinating to him. What if he was a different species, what if he was a different gender presentation. Or also, what if he looked like someone else who exists? What if he looked like Theron all of a sudden?? Yeah, this turns into kink very fast, I am so sorry you find out about it like this. He will get kinky with it. Might as well profit from it, and once he’s bored again, he would clear his throat and motion to give his body back. Or else.
(dude, what did you do with Valkorion’s body in your own mind in the final fight *I get resoundingly slapped bc No, that’s different!!!!* ok ok, fair, fair… not the trauma…)
Tevuuk
Noooo, they will go on a rampage. Give back their ugly body, it’s theirs!!! They would get the same tattoos in the same spots as their old appearance had, and bleach their hair the same way, to at least feel a little bit like themselves again. Their body is important to them. Maybe when they were younger, they would’ve cared less. But now, they would grieve. Tev and the way they hold on with a white knuckled grip to the things that once changed their life.
Qyrhu consoling an unconsolable Tev: “There, there, captain. It’s alright. … There might be ways to get to know your new body better again. um, if you know what I –“
Tev through gritted teeth: “You better Not be meaning what I think you mean, darling sweetie honeybunch, I will hold you out to the next black hole and watch you get spaghettified and then eat your sorry ass with fucking parmigiano on top!”
“…........If that is what makes you feel better.”
(qy is not insinuating anything unprovoked. Tev has rizzed him up enough on other occasions. Revenge of the sith.)
