#b-radley66

[fighterkimburgess]

Very gratified to see your comments regarding Burgess’s survival. I know what I believe, but it helps in those beliefs to see them articulated elsewhere.

It makes no narrative sense for them to build up her story throughout the season and then just end it abruptly. Particularly in the fact that she has arguably had some of the richest character growth and development in the show (maybe even the most, but I’m biased). Especially with an adoptive daughter that has already survived trauma. Plus the fact in which they portrayed her actively fighting to stay alive—for her to survive for her family to find her, (a self-rescue) then to show her not making it in the hospital. (Captain Obvious, I know.)

Even with the rambling commentary above, there is a question to this ask. What do you see for her in Season 9? I see a great deal of PTSD from this and maybe even cumulatively from what she’s gone through, as well as her physical recovery. I also see her dealing with it in typical Burgess fashion. Keeping it all in, trying to take care of it herself, while maybe even pushing everyone else, except Makayla away. There might be a good come-to-Jesus-talk in her future, either from a certain flannel-wearing Canaryville resident, her surrogate mom, an ex-patrol partner, or even extremely tough love from Voight.

Would you foresee the CPD trying to force her into a disability retirement, and her fighting it, or thinking about it for Makayla’s sake?

Ramble finished.

I can't see them forcing her into disability retirement. I can see it being mentioned several times, but I can't see it happening.

I think this is going to make Kim realise she has to rely on her people. Ever since Blair's death (and arguably ever since she ended the engagement with Adam, tbh!) she's dealt with nearly everything alone. Ending things with Matt, Blair's death, the miscarriage, fostering Makayla. She made all of the decisions herself, and while she did go asking for advice (generally from Adam because she knows deep down he's her person) she still did it herself. Even when her sister's rape happened, she didn't let her unit do anything outside of work the case, and she went to be the strong one for them. Kim only knows how to be the strong one. She doesn't want or accept sympathy, and she detests pity.

But in 8x13 she had to rely on Adam for Makayla's sake, and I think that's a bit of an insight into how her thoughts were changing. Before when it was just her she could be a lone wolf. But now she has a child to look out for she had to rely on someone, pick someone she'd trust with the most precious thing she has. So she picked her ex fiancé and the man she was going to have a child with.

With how perfectly foreshadowed everything was in s8 - Hailey's clothes saying she loved Jay, Kim wearing the same coat from the miscarriage to when they found Makayla to when she was nearly shot in 8x13, to the shot in her jacket matching where she was shot in 8x16 - I can't see that as being just a throwaway. She was telling Adam she trusts him to let him into their lives, and for her to not be as alone. And what I really hope is that she'll use trusting him with Makayla as a start for her to trust him with herself now.

Also therapy. Lots and lots and lots of therapy. For her, for Adam, for Kev and Jay (because honestly if Jay's PTSD isn't triggered by having to pick up the bloodied and lifeless body of someone he's close to and spends so many hours a week with I'll be shocked). ALL THE THERAPY FOR HAILEY OH MY GOD JUST BOOK THE WOMAN TWO WEEKS SOLID PLEASE.

I can nearly see an intervention for Kim somewhere around episode 6-8. She's back in work, to the outside world she's fine. But Adam, Kev, Trudy (and possibly Voight although tbh I'm gonna be surprised if he's not arrested and jailed in the first few episodes of the season) actually talking to her about it. And the one way I think they'll get through to her is to tell her if she's not willing to do it for herself, do it for Makayla. We've seen the lengths Kim would go to for that girl before she even fostered her - she'll do anything for her now Makayla is a Burgess.

[shadowmaat]

I’m almost tempted to ask for a story of the first time Mando had to change Yodel, but that might be too much, given your day, but something with Mando and Cara—nothing shippy, as you said. Maybe a prompt of ‘remembering.’

“You ever imagine yourself being a dad?” Cara Dune smirked, her head tilting in the direction of the kid, who was currently gumming a stuffed frog Dyn had bought the last time they’d passed through a sizable port.

“No,” he said. Given his line of work, he didn’t want to risk putting a child through the trauma of losing him. Or risk the child themself getting hurt. He still recalled the day the droids attacked, bombing their village and shooting anything that moved. 

“Dyn! Dyn, we need you to stay put, okay?” His mama said, placing him on the stairs in the root cellar.

“Mama, no!” Dyn reached for her. “Wanna come!”

“It’s alright, Dyn,” his Papa said. “Be brave. We’ll be back for you.”

He caught the look his parents exchanged then, though it would be years before he understood what it meant: they knew they weren’t coming back.

“Please! I’ll be good, I promise!”

“Shhh.” His mama patted his head. She was crying. “You are good, baby. You’re the best. But you have to stay here, and be quiet!”

“Noooo!” He reached up one last time as they closed the doors over him.

The sounds of fighting continued, getting louder. The next explosion knocked him over and he tried to push his way out through the doors, but he wasn’t strong enough. Something was blocking them.

He stayed put, like Mama had asked. He tried to be brave like his Papa said, but he couldn’t stop crying. Eventually he wore himself out and fell asleep.

Time blurred after that. It could have been hours or days that he spent crawling around the root cellar and occasionally trying to force the doors open. Silence had fallen outside, but still his parents didn’t come. He knew they would because they’d said so, but he wanted them NOW. He yelled for them in case they’d forgotten where he was, but the next time the doors opened, it wasn’t his parents faces he saw.

At first he was afraid it was another droid. The figure was all shiny metal and holding a blaster aimed at him, but then the blaster was gone and a woman’s voice was telling him everything was going to be okay.

“Well, you seem to be doing a pretty decent job, so far.” Cara drained her drink. “The kid seems to like you, anyway. Just shows there’s no accounting for taste.”

He allowed the jab, knowing it was meant as a joke.

“What about you?” He asked, unwilling to be the only one under fire. “Ever think about being a parent?”

She laughed, a deep throaty sound. “Me? Kriff, no! I’d be a terrible mom. Probably shoot a kid the moment it sassed back at me.” She reached for another bottle. “Besides, my own home life wasn’t exactly great. Dad was a CIS spy and Mom was a GAR soldier he wooed for information.”

Her expression didn’t change, but his helmet sensors told him her heartrate was increasing along with her body temp.

“Mom killed him when she found out, but it was too late by then.” She spread her hands. “And here I am. What a great legacy to pass on, huh?”

He inclined his head, not in agreement but in understanding. The galaxy was a fucked up place, why risk adding to it? His gaze drifted over to the kid, who’d fallen asleep with the frog dangling from his mouth by one leg.

“I grew up knowing I wasn’t wanted,” Cara continued. “My mother cared for me out of a sense of duty, but she never let me forget my origins.”

He wondered what the kid’s origins had been. Had he had a family who loved him? Or had he been resented? Abandoned? Maybe sold off, if his parents decided to take advantage of his weird powers.

He remembered life as a foundling; it had been rough going, especially during periods when supplies were limited, but at least he’d grown up knowing people cared about him. That seemed better than what Cara had gone through, and better than the situation the kid had been in, too.

“He’s my responsibility now,” he said. “He deserves a chance.”

Cara’s eyebrows went up. She leaned over, rapping her knuckles on his chestplate. 

“That he does.” She smiled. “And if you need any help, well, don’t call me.” Her smile morphed into a grin. “Unless the price is right. But I might come save your sorry ass again anyway. For the kid’s sake.”

“For the kid’s sake.” He clanked his bottle against hers and leaned back in his chair. Maybe in a hundred years or so when the kid was a little older he’d be able to look back and have some good memories of traveling with a renegade Mandalorian, and maybe even of the Mandalorian’s occasional tough-as-beskar partner. As legacies went, it seemed like a good one to him.

[rebekahs-art]

Today I drew @b-radley66 ‘s sweet characters! The absolute goddess above is Dani, and the two adorable siblings are Thorin and Thyla.

[sl-walker]

Dani M—either of your’s that she’s in or mine Breha Q (any) Shiv J Thanks!

For as much as she was on the move, there were times when Dani felt the lack of grounded roots.  She knew her roots, her real ones, were to her family and friends, to those she loved; she knew they were to her cultures (both) and to her cause.  Occasionally, though, there was a longing to be still long enough to watch the weather change around her.

As she watched the bits of ice sliding down the window, she allowed herself a moment of longing; for a set place, an overstuffed chair, an oversized sweater and something hot to cradle in a mug between her hands.

She would get him back gaunt and hollowed out after Zigoola; he would be apologetic, his nearly black eyes swimming with guilt and shame, the frayed edges of his mind openly unraveled, instead of covertly as they had been for so long.  She would hold his too-thin body close to hers and feel the wrenching fear that came with not knowing where he had gone, to end up in such a way, because he had been trying to protect her when she didn’t need nor want him to.

But for now, Breha came back to her office feeling tired and sore from a long, contentious session in the legislature, pulling pins out of her hair as she went, and frowned to herself when she saw she had missed a call from Bail.

Shiv watched from the windows as Rancor got an abbreviated, awkward hug from Husker, and as Raze stood crying his heart out.  A few of the others had also shown up to see their brother off in the early morning light, but Shiv hadn’t gone himself; he knew he wouldn’t be welcomed right now, and as much as that ached in his chest, he could respect Rancor’s wishes.

Only he knew himself how little he would have wanted Flanker’s CO coming to offer anything to him.

Having known what was going to happen, he had asked Dani if she wouldn’t mind going and touring Aldera without him for the night.  Between the plan to save Maul and the fact Rancor was leaving, he needed to narrow his focus and conserve as much of his energy as he could, at least for today.  Their lives in the days ahead were going to require endurance; best to rest while he could.

Once Rancor had turned and walked off for the landing platform and the others dispersed, Shiv ground his forehead against his arm, braced against the oversized window, then turned around and went to crawl back into bed with Maul; it had taken him almost an hour to find Maul the night before, wandering looking like a crash victim, and once Shiv saw that look, he’d decided that neither of them were gonna sleep alone.

[fighterkimburgess]

From your ask game about memorable scenes in your writing: Last paragraph of Recovery. Hands down. Naming all of them and what they had done for Kim, to help her, was so powerful and spot on.

Ah thank you so much! I love Recovery so, so, so much. That entire fic is just my love of those characters and wanting them to be ok in the end.

A fact about it was in my outline, I had a whole extra scene planned. Kim was going to have her first day back at work, do her first raid and realise she was able to do her job. But I wrote that paragraph and realised it was too perfect, I couldn’t write anything after it. For those who haven’t read it, the paragraph is:

They ate pizza and celebrated, Makayla being asked about what she’d done over the summer. It was at that very moment that Kim realised this was her family. It wasn’t blood, it wasn’t the people who’d raised her. It was the woman who when she was pregnant had told her she could do it and be a good mother. It was the man who had let her help raise his siblings and was helping her raise her child. It was the man who held her dying body in his arms and drove her to hospital. The woman who had told her that no matter what anyone said, she deserved that promotion because she survived. The man who, through it all, loved her enough to put his wants and needs behind him because what she needed from him came first. And her daughter, the girl she never thought she’d be lucky enough to have, the girl who six months before wouldn’t have sat at the table, sitting there chatting with everyone, talking about Uncle Kev bringing her to the park. They were her family. They were the reason she’d survived. And they were the reason she’d gotten through her recovery.

[rebekahs-art]

 I was commissioned by @b-radley66 to draw this piece as a gift to @sl-walker. 

I had such a fun time working on it, and if you want read about this group in their glamorous outfits, you can find that here. 

[sl-walker]

I’d assume that you are very talented, as well as compassionate and passionate about what you do, as well as your friends.

[rebekahs-art]

How adorable are they? If you want to read about this lovely stroll in the snow with Maul and Dani, you can find the story here.  

(Commissioned by @sl-walker , and Dani belongs to @b-radley66 )

Want something like this? You can find my commission info here.