There's a tumbr book of dayja snippet you posted where dayja wakes up post attallon and is pretty distraught that he 'couldnt get through' to Kallus and wants yularen to know he tried and then he hears/sees Thrawn and it is On Sight. At the time, Dayja isn't thinking about anger/distrust toward Kallus (he also isn't during the WIP where he tells Thrawn to go fuck himself)
(I know that Tumblr wip isn't absolutely promises Canon atm, but I am operating under the assumption that you wrote it for a reason and the spirit of it is true at least)
But, in Cover Me With Pearls, he is outwardly pretty ticked at Kallus for either doing some treason (he thinks for Eli) and/or doing some treason and not having the decency to follow through. (Notably, he is fairly pissy with Thrawn but that seems to be his default state)
Now, I know that two short WIP dayja snippets don't mean he's not angry with Kallus (he seemed less than pleased when he confronted him on the Chimera). He can be mad/upset/heartbroken/scared/secretly a little happy with Kallus all at once and also want to deck Thrawn. (I mean whomst amongst us hasn't felt that way?)
But. I also noticed that you didn't make 'cover me in pearls' start at the battle of attalon. Granted, kallus has had a lot more time for introspection (and rebellion) between the sphinx explosion and attalon that might make him less likely to back out from jumping ship (lol) but I am wondering about Dayja between the sphinx explosion and attallon.
And if Dayja might have learned/discovered something between the sphinx explosion and attalon that changed his perspective about Kallus going rogue/how pissed he is at Kallus/how he perceives Thrawn. And if it has anything to do with whatever Dayja tells the alliance that is 'very disturbing' in 'I want to change it all'.
(Also. It has not escaped my notice that the mysteries around Kallus and Dayja have not, as of yet, been solved in the AUs. While i recognize that, on a practical level, you would not be able to keep up the suspense if you told us Everything in the AUs. But. I also am starting to suspect that we'll learn that there is a Reason we/kallus don't Solve Their Pasts in the AUs. Or, at least in 'i want to change it all' since 'cover me in pearls' is still WIP. Kallus does, however, seem aware of his visions for what they are in 'i want to change it all', though - like when Yularen dies. (but, real talk, dayja seems to be all about continuing to obfuscate Kallus' force sensitivity in 'cover me in pearls' at least thus far). Basically, is it off the mark to think that, in order for Kallus to learn Everything, he had to defect around the time of attallon. and without Dayja?)
(Operating under the assumption that the promises AUs are more or less permutations of the Canon promises timeline)
Semi related: We also see that Dayja looks scared and cries when Kallus chokes him out. Scared for whom? About what?
Or am I reading too much into it and it's just that it makes more sense for Kallus to back out after the first time he really realizes that his actions will cause the deaths of the people he fought beside?
Sorry this is a bit thought vomit-y
!!! You don’t need to apologize for being thought vomit-y, because this reply is also going to be spewing forth in bilious fashion.
First of all, I don’t know whennnnn you sent this because life has sucked me down a very deep, very dark marine trench. I won’t get into what’s down there, but a lot of it never felt the need to evolve eyes. But know that when I DID see this in my inbox, I made a vocal OOH! of happy excitement, so thank you!!! (I came back to polish the next Promises chapter, if anybody was keeping track lol)
Okay. Vomit. I do not control the trajectory. So, you’re right: pragmatically, I’m not going to give the whole plot to Promises-proper in the AU’s and side-fics. But you’re also right in that the side-fics/AU’s are (basically) Promises-canon. How they are Promises canon is tied to the main fic.
I LOVE your observation that for Kallus to “learn Everything” he had to defect, because I think there really is something to that. Maybe there are other paths, but there is something to defecting that is key for him, and we may (lol we will) see how some of those paths play out differently—across multiple fics.
In Pearls, Dayja does (at least as of now) obfuscate Kallus’s force sensitivity. And as long as he does that, there is always going to be a wall between them. Maybe defecting in dramatic fashion wasn’t the most efficient way for Kallus to break that wall down, but it was effective. Trouble is, just as he’s breaking down the wall between him and Dayja, he’s also just left him behind. Fucking tragical—or IS it?? Yeah, no, it’s sad.
As for Dayja between the Sphinx and Attalon, yes: he is learning more. But he’s also experiencing more. Other shit is happening in the galaxy (some of which Thrawn alluded to when he captured Fulcrum and hit him until his hair looked sexy). But also, as calculating as Dayja can be, when it comes to people he loves, he can get a little less calculating and a little more cutty.
And yes. The starting point of Pearls has a lot to do with how believable it felt to me for Kallus to be turning back and why then. In Promises, Kallus helps Kanan and Ezra escape from the factory without knowing that the sabotaged equipment resulted in the deaths of some of his comrades and the near-death of Yularen. So the A of that AU is Thrawn chooses to tell Kallus so (while also pulling him out of the factory to do it—so no rescue). There’s also the more pragmatic reason, which is that when I started writing that AU, that’s where we were in the main fic. But it also made sense to me. (At the time, I didn't realize it was going to take me over a year before I actually started posting the fucker)
Dayja does look scared when Kallus chokes him out, and part of that has to do with the events of Interlude I when Dayja was recruited by Gideon and the aftermath of that (they’re touched upon throughout, and will be touched upon again this upcoming chapter). He also expects Kallus to understand what he's doing and the impact it has, and that's a big part of what really gets to him.
There’s a lot to their pasts that is going to be solved in Interlude II, but not all of it.
I did start writing the sequel last year (two years ago? I forget) so… gotta save some stuff for that. Most of Kallus’s Whole Deal will get addressed in Interlude II, but a lot of Dayja’s will have to wait.
Thanks for vomiting at me. Makes me feel like my own word-vomit is going to people who read it, and not just the great void bucket.
I really regret keeping that metaphor up.
I have so, so many regrets. (Regurts)
