“Take all the time you need” prompt for your least written about characters
Hurt/Comfort Dialogue Prompts
Thanks for sending this! It took me a bit to write it but I really enjoyed exploring this vulnerable moment for Rugama. Is she my least written about character? No, I have some I haven’t written at all (GASP) but she is the one I have dabbled with that I really want to do a whole story for but just haven’t been able to dive into another wip with everything I already have going.
Characters: Rugama Neiu and Theron Shan
Timeframe: sometime during the war with Zakuul
Rugama’s hand shook as she reached for the object on the table before she lost her nerve and snatched her hand back to her lap. This was silly, she chided herself, she should be better than this, afraid to even turn the damn thing on. She was Sith, a former Dark Council member and a Darth - the leading of an Alliance to save the whole galaxy. She didn’t need to prove herself to anyone.
Except herself, she thought with a sigh. She’d managed her whole life without this, what was the last few years? The way things were going she wouldn’t live to old age, right? Rugama closed her eyes and sighed again, the war was never ending but no excuse to give up. She was only alive today because she refused to surrender, regardless of how hopeless the situation was.
Sitting with her eyes closed, Rugama felt Theron’s presence in her mind before hearing him enter their shared room. She feigned ignorance of his arrival as he moved about the space, leaving his boots at the door, dropping his jacket over the back of a chair, all the routine things he did everytime he retired to their room for the night.
The sofa dipped slightly as Theron sat next to her, close enough that the movement made her smaller body slid into his side.
“Avoiding practice again?” Theron asked, his voice soft as he broached what he knew was a sensitive subject.
Rugama opened her eyes and glared halfheartedly at Theron. “No.” She paused for a beat and sighed for the third time in so many minutes, “yes.”
Theron reached up and toyed with a loose lock of hair that had fallen out of her bun, “why?”
Inhaling deeply, Rugama looked away and stared at the datapad on the table. “I don’t know, it’s just so… difficult.”
Fingers brushed her chin softly before Theron turned her face back his way, “I’ve never known you to back down from a challenge Ru. Why does this have you so hesitant?”
The question made Rugama’s chest tight, anxiety rising to an all time high. Theron was right of course, she’d faced harder challenges. Hell, this wasn’t even a life or death situation - she wasn’t even risking a flimsy cut. It was the big “what if” that was stopping her everytime she reached for the datapad. What if she couldn’t do this? What if there was something wrong with her? What if she was not smart enough? She’d never been to school, and that was where people learned to be smart - wasn't it?
“What if I can’t do it?” Her voice was barely a whisper but the widening of Theron’s eyes showed he heard her. “What if I try and I’m just not bright enough to understand?”
Theron shook his head, turning in his seat to face her properly. “Ru, that’s probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say. Look at what you have accomplished, earning your freedom, a spot on the Dark Council - impressive even if I still disagree with their politics. Hell, the Emperor himself picked you out as his greatest threat. And you did all of that without a basic skill most people fail to appreciate.” Theron shook his head, lips turned up into a smile, “that will never fail to impress me. I honestly don’t think there is anything you can’t do but babe you have more than proven you don’t need to be able to read to succeed.”
Chewing nervously on her lower lip, Rugama turned Theron’s words over in her mind. He was right of course, she only had the most basic understanding of aurebesh but that had never really stopped her. Slowed her down occasionally perhaps but there were endless ways to get information, many without any reading required on her end. But still… “I want to learn, Theron.”
Warm eyes studied her expression carefully for a long moment before Theron leaned forward, snagging the abandoned datapad off the table. He offered it to her with an encouraging smile, “then take all the time you need, but you can’t learn if you don’t try. Don’t forget I’m here to help anyway I can, I’m not going anywhere.”
Finally taking the pad, Rugama pulled up the youth holonovel Theron had helped her download weeks ago. Instead of the nervous fluttering in her stomach she felt earlier she felt grounded, ready to face this challenge and she had no doubt it was the support of the man at her side. “I hope you meant that,” she said, smiling up at him before settling more securely into his side in to practice, “I plan to hold you to that one Shan.”
