Little Moments...

[General Dan]

...only to be replaced by three more.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her hands balled into fists for a split second before she continued with her efforts to vacate the offending pieces of gelatin from her clothes.

Exasperated, s'Il half-turned away while protectively folding her arms over the neckline of her shirt. This was not what she'd expected his reaction to be.

In a huff, she began the march back into the bedroom.

"I'm going to bed," she snapped.

[General Dan]

Dan laughed heartily, a broad smile on his face.

"Admit it, that was funny!"

He returned the rest of the stray gelatin blobs to the platter, save for one, which he plucked from mid-air and ate.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

You Have to be the Red and Purple One 'Cause I Said So


Schwartzweld was home, even though she didn't get to visit too awful much. There was always exploring to be had both inside and out, and for a little girl with more energy than she knew what to do with, it was a saving grace for her parents to spend a week on the isolated planet with nothing to disturb the small family. And for Tak, it was wonderful. Not only did she get to tromp around the overgrown courtyards playing 'Monster' with her dad, but there was Rasmuss as well. He always had something new to tell her, or something neat to show her.

But right now, the little girl had taken it upon herself to get him out of whatever book or experiment he'd buried himself in and introduce him to the things that she liked.

Marching down one of the long corridors of the manor, Teagan managed to keep her armful of colorful dewback figures from spilling to the floor.

"Rasmuss!!"

It didn't really matter where the man was; she'd learned early on that he was more often than not quick to answer her calls no matter where he was or what he was doing.

"Rasmuss where are you!!!"

There was no telling where Dama and her dad were, but that didn't matter one bit. She wanted Rasmuss.

"RASMUSS!!"

[Colonel Karrnage]

It was difficult to read a treatise on advanced genetic recombination with a high-pitched call resonating through the house. Karrnage gently set down the book, pushing gently away from the desk in his chair, and rose to answer the girl. If he didn't, she'd keep at it all day.

"Yes Teagan?"

He eventually arrived to see her laden down with an armload of toys.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Oh, good. There he was.

With a grin from ear to ear, the girl stopped in front of him.

"You have to stop reading now."

And before he could offer any sort of resistance to the notion, she went on.

"You have to because I said so. We're gonna go play 'My Little Dewbacks' now."

A nod of her head to affirm that yes, in fact, they were going to be doing as she'd said, and Tak turned about with a flourish to head into the expansive den. One of her brightly colored dewbacks slipped loose, tumbling to the floor, and without missing a step she kept on, fully expecting him to follow.

"Can you get that please?"

[Colonel Karrnage]

Reluctantly, he bent down to pick up one of the rainbow-colored dewback toys off the hardwood floor. He stood, turning it over in his hands, with a curious expression on his face.

"I see, uh. How do we play this game?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"However we want to."

It was said with a sense of affirmation that it was highly apparent she'd played this before. Many times in fact, but usually it was by herself. She'd been able to get Zem to play with her once, but the old Jedi had wizened up fast. After that, she'd managed to get her Dad to play with her twice, but after the second time he'd always refused with a laugh. It was usually enough to make her pout and storm off. Dama never played, having been subjected to the girl's whims and fancies too many times to count by now. Sanis though! He was the funnest to play with. He always turned it into some sort of adventure that usually ended with her chasing him around the cargo bay of Layla, demanding he turn himself over to the Dewback Police for smuggling candy dust in Dewback toes.

Making her way into the den, the little Lupine promptly let her armload drop to the floor before heavily plopping herself down beside the pile.

She patted the spot beside her.

"Sit."

[Colonel Karrnage]

The Colonel did as he was commanded, sitting cross-legged at the corner of a large rug dominating the den. He still looked at the plastic dewback, turning it this way and that.

"How do we begin?"

Karrnage wasn't exactly familiar with such a free-form activity, and he looked for some frame of reference to sort the game out. The plastic creatures were obviously dewbacks, so he thought about it, standing the dewback in his hand on its legs. He picked up another dewback, standing it in a line behind that one, and another behind that.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

With an odd look on her face, Tak watched him pick up each one and line them up. It wasn't long before she shook her head though, and reaching out she took them back, one by one, to set them on the rug.

"No no, that's not how you start."

Splitting the haphazard pile into two groups, she pointed to one.

"That's yours, and these are mine. All of yours are a family, and you have to pick out who the mom and dad and kids are gonna be, and I'll do the same with mine. And then they all have to meet and have dinner together."

Setting the assorted dewbacks in her pile on their feet, she carefully made sure to place each one on a different section of the intricately designed rug.

"That part of the rug can be your dewback family's house," she pointed to the space in front of him, then at a point further away.

"... and that will be the market they meet at. And over there," she pointed again to another spot, "... will be the restaurant."

[Colonel Karrnage]

The Colonel looked at the dewbacks, questions building up on the tip of his tongue.

"The coloration of the Dewbacks is beyond what they would be naturally. I am assuming this is intentional. However, these are all of different colors, and it is unlikely that you would have that sort of variation passed down from parents to offspring."

He held two mis-matched dewbacks up for emphasis.

"Further, they all seem to be of the same size. If there are parents and offspring, wouldn't the offspring be smaller in size? Also, how does a dewback live in a house and eat in a restaurant?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

For a few moments she stared at him, trying to understand what he'd just gone on about. No one else had ever asked questions like that! She gave a sigh that seemed to convey a small amount of confusion.

"Well that's why you have to pretend. All My Little Dewbacks are different colors, so it doesn't matter. And they live in houses and go to restaurants because it's what we want them to do."

Almost impatiently, the girl began to set up his collection for him.

"That can be the dad and mom, and these here can be the children. See? It's easy."

[Colonel Karrnage]

For a few seconds, Karrnage said nothing, just blinking and taking it all in.

"I see."

He tried to remember which dewback was which, and arranged them all in a circle, facing each other.

After a few moments of expecting something to happen, he peeked upwards at Tak, hoping to glean some understanding of the charade by observing her actions with her own dewback family.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Watching him, Tak gave a nod of approval.

"That's right."

Satisfied for now, she busied herself with tending to her own dewbacks. Several minutes of engrossed mumbling passed as she picked up two of the toys in each hand.

"Isn't it a lovely day, Dama?"

"Why, yes it is!"

"I thought so! What should we do today?"

"We should go and pick berries from outside, and then make berry flatcakes for breakfast. Everyone would like that."

"Ok! That sounds like lots of fun! Can we have shaak bacon bits too? And I bet we should make some hawkbat eggs for dad, since he'd like those."

There was a pause, as Teagan seemed to think of how to answer herself. She opted for something she'd heard her Dama say more often than once.

"Oh, your dad would probably rather have a glass of whisky."

[Colonel Karrnage]

"But dewbacks are herbivorous, the likelihood of eating meat in their diet..."

His voice trailed off when he saw the look Tak shot him. He looked at his own dewbacks.

"I think the young dewbacks need to study for a dewback test. Yes, that would be what they should do."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Tak kept a close eye on him, but it wasn't long before she'd gone back to her own dewback family.

Any semblance of normalcy however had evaporated, and it wasn't long before the Dama and daddy dewback were kissing, and their dewback children had decided to leave the house and explore. They made it from one end of the rug to the other without much incident, remarking on the fine weather and chirping birds.

Disaster it seemed, was just around the corner sadly.

With a wide sweep of her arms, Tak produced a small Action Johnny Rebel action figure that her dad had secretly gotten her (Dama would've never allowed that) from her back pocket.

Action Johnny Rebel wanted to take the two dewbacks to the dewback rodeo.

First however, they had to see if their friends wanted to go, and marching her toys up to the 'front door' of Karrnage's on dewback house, she politely inquired if his own dewbacks wanted to join her.

[Colonel Karrnage]

Assuming that one of the parental dewbacks would have to answer, Karrnage positioned one of the designated parents in front of Tak's own action figures.

"Hello I am Mr. Dewback, and I regret to say that our children are busy studying for a dewback test. Would you like to eat some grass?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"This is a stickup!"

In sudden exclamation, Tak scooted close. No, Action Johnny Rebel wasn't going to take ANYONE to the rodeo! He had just found Imperial spies and he was gonna take care of them!

"I know you're a spy! You can't fool me!"

She batted 'Mr. Dewback' out of Karrnage's hand.

"Where's your spy 'quipment? I know you have some!"

Action Johnny Rebel made quick work of dispatching Mrs. Dewback, helped along by Tak who tossed the poor toy across the room.

[Colonel Karrnage]

The Colonel's mouth fell open. This wasn't what he'd expected at all.

"I thought we were being a dewback family?"

He looked at his ambushed and defeated dewbacks, now tossed to the wayside.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

She wasn't listening, as Action Johnny Rebel made sure to explode the 'house' that had once held Rasmuss' dewbacks. With wild arms she threw every toy in the air - even her own - while making explosion noises. The girl wasn't content until each and every dewback was scattered throughout the den.

She stood, holding her Action Johnny Rebel figure high.

"Action Johnny Rebel wins again!"

A wide sweeping motion, and Tak skipped all the way around Rasmuss in triumph before climbing ecstatically - if not a little clumsily - into his lap.

"Action Johnny Rebel always wins," she grinned while throwing an arm around his neck.

[Colonel Karrnage]

"I see."

He was still slightly nonplussed over the destruction of his theoretical dewback family.

"Then if the outcome is always predetermined, does that explain why the steps to arrive at the foregone conclusion are trivial entirely?"

[s'Il]

Many many years ago aboard Novgorod...


It was one of the few times that peace and quiet reigned supreme in the living quarters of the General and his Jedi companion. More often than not the soft hum of a desktop monitor or datapad could be heard, or even the voices of those that the General met with over comm frequencies. It was an unusual thing to hear silence, and when it was prevalent, it was when either none were present or both were asleep.

Now however, s'Il had chosen this time to be alone - it made it easy that Dan was still on the bridge, sorting through whatever duties had fallen to him during his shift.

The Lupine let the quiet seep into her pores, feeling as the Force moved in and around her. With her eyes clothes, she moved slowly, standing on one leg as the other was extended out behind her and her upper body leaning forward. With one arm extended out and the other gripping the ankle of her raised leg, she held the pose for a few short moments before smoothly bringing herself up to stand on both feet.

Another meditative pause, and she mimicked the pose with her opposite leg.

[General Dan]

Dan returned from his posting on the bridge to retire for the evening. The day had been blissfully uneventful. On the run with no enemy contact was about the best you could hope for in a small and nimble ship. They'd managed to beat the odds more often than not, which was saying quite a bit.

Still, the stress of waiting for the hammer to drop sometimes took its toll, and Dan was spent. He returned to his quarters to find Lok contorted into some impossible shape. A perplexed expression on his face, he stood in the doorway as he watched her.

"If you aren't careful, you'll get stuck that way, then you'll be one helluva mess."

[s'Il]

Without opening her eyes, s'Il moved slowly from her pose to another, motions graceful and controlled. Her back arched upward in a movement that brought her to a straight-backed stance, one leg still held aloft as her free arm extended upward.

"I will not become stuck."

Supported on one leg, she held for a short while, then released herself to stand on two feet, spread apart in a wide stance. All the while she maintained a precise control over her body, lowering her center of gravity. Her arms went out to either side of her, straight and sure.

"It is good for balance, and keeps the body calm."

Her good eye opened.

"Do not stand there with the door open, please. You are letting the quiet escape."

[General Dan]

Dan made a face, mouthing silently her absurd 'You are letting the quiet escape', as if to put emphasis on how absurd that was. Shrugging, he stepped in, letting the door slide shut behind him.

"I'd rather have a drink. That keeps my body calm."

He walked to the small unit at the wall, pulling an unidentified snifter from it before plucking a glass from the same storage unit.

[s'Il]

She moved into a crouch, torso twisting in a countermove, hands coming together to form a triangle.

"That is a shame. Your body would much better appreciate Ma'aya... "

Holding her position, she watched him with an almost unreadable expression for only a few moments before closing her eyes once more.

"... especially at your age."

[General Dan]

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The age crack cause Dan to pause mid-pour of his drink.

"Are you trying to imply I'm some sort of stiff, rickety old has-been?"

He carefully continued filling his drink, watching the Lupine turn herself into some kind of pretzel.

"I get around just fine."

[s'Il]

"I am implying nothing of the sort," she answered coolly, though there was a twitch at the corners of her lips that gave away her own amusement.

Slowly, s'Il brought herself back up to stand, her back straight and her hands kept in front of her, still in their diamond shape. Inhaling deeply, she moved her hands to press against her chest, opening her eyes.

"And if you are able to 'get around just fine', as you say, then you would have no difficulties in joining me."

There was the hint of a challenge in her voice, and her lips quirked further upward as she continued to stare at him.

[General Dan]

Dan smirked as he tilted his drink from side to side, mid-sip. Not one to take a challenge lightly, he sat the drink down, kicked off his shoes, and stepped toward the open floor that s'Il was occupying. He eased down into a cross-legged sitting position, and sighed.

"Alright then. Do your worst."

[s'Il]

She'd not exactly expected him at accept, but the Lupine was quick to crouch beside him, her eye critical as she began scrutinizing his form. Deft fingers reached out to unbutton his uniform jacket, and she unceremoniously pulled it from his shoulders, down his arms, and tossed it to the side.

A rough finger poked into his back, just to the side of his spine, pushing in such a way that instantly did away with his slouch.

"Keep your back straight... "

She maneuvered herself behind him, placing a knee in the spot her finger had just been, and reaching up with both hands, gripped his shoulders.

"... and shoulders back," she finished with a sudden pull. Not surprisingly, with her knee still lodged in the small of his back and her hands pulling his shoulders toward her, the audible pop that sounded from his lower spine came almost immediately.

[General Dan]

"Aahhh my back's not supposed to GO like that!"

And with the sudden shock of the movement, Dan's breath exhaled in a deep release. The half moment of sharp pain replaced by a strange mix of calm and euphoria, somehow vying for space amid each other.

"Ow."

[s'Il]

Behind him, where he could not see, she smiled. She didn't release him however, and kept her hold firm. She could tell by his outward breath the relief that he now felt despite his last word.

"Ma'aya teaches that there are doorways within the body that lead to peace - "

Two fingers traced up along the side of his spine.

"... in each person these doorways are in different places, so where you find your Eh'ileh'a is in itself a journey of the soul. Mind and Body protect your soul- "

Her fingers continued up, then split as they traveled up his neck, stopping at his hairline.

" -so you must start in those places."

Her other hand came up then, and with both placed on either side of his head, s'Il leaned in closer to his back, her hands gently rocking his head to and fro.

"You must relax, and allow your mind to clear as your body becomes less tense."

Much like before, and very much without warning, s'Il turned his head sharply to the right, rewarded with yet another crack.

[General Dan]

Dan responded with a sharp intake of breath, followed by a long and ragged exhalation.

"I can't tell if I like it or hate it yet. I'm so confused."

He attempted to look back to see her, but his head was eased forward again.

He waited for another precisely administered tweak to arrive, but it didn't come. Instead, it was only silence, save for Lok's well-cadenced breathing, which he also adopted. The breathing, he figured, had a lot to do with it.

"As long as you don't forget I'm not a lupine. You've got me outnumbered on double joints by a million to one, I think."

[s'Il]

Another smile, and she gave his ear a light tweak. Moving to sit beside him, s'Il crossed her own legs as well.

"Now, lean forward, stretching your arms out as far as you can."

To illustrate, she very nearly folded herself in half over her legs, her arms reaching out to lay atop the thin carpeting.

[General Dan]

Dan gave her a funny look and did the same, although not coming nearly as close to ground as she did. He could feel his lumbars creak as he inched forward, suddenly feeling his breath limited by his own movement. He exhaled a little bit more, and deflated like a balloon, another inch or two towards his goal.

He kept his eyes forward, although he wanted to look at s'Il to see just how long she intended to contort him in this fashion.

[s'Il]

She watched him from the corner of her eye, and slowly reached an arm out, fingertips gently easing his head down. The muscles along the back of his neck would feel the stretch.

"You must clear your thoughts... "

Carefully she eased her own self up, mindful to keep her hand at the back of his head. With her other, the Lupine took his right wrist and pulled it gently to the side, correcting his form every so often as she went.

"Each movement of your body is a step in your journey to finding your Eh'ileh'a. I cannot tell you where they are, only show you the methods to finding them."

He had always been keen to learn all that he could of her people, and s'Il obliged him in her own way, whether it be teaching him small bits of Bast'yr or sharing the lore of old. He'd even gotten her to let him browse through the tomes that she kept with her, and it was with a particularly subtle delight that she watched him devour what little he could understand. What he could not, she explained as best as possible.

But Ma'aya she had never spoke of until now. She had a suspicion that Dan was quietly pleased at seeing this new aspect of her people.

Taking her hand from his head, she reached over to his left wrist, pulling it back in a mirror of his right.

"Pull your shoulders back; don't shrug.

"And keep your head down. Breath slowly, and turn your palms up, fingers splayed out."

[General Dan]

Dan followed her commands, keeping his mind empty but for the small but specific tasks at hand. Mindful of breath, of poise, of relation of his movement and breath, all intertwined. Slowly, his breathing measured in and out, and his hands moved at Lok's urging along her prescribed path. He was no longer looking to her to see if he was right. Another slow breath, and a single word came forth.

"Eh'ileh'a?"

[s'Il]

She continued to help guide him, tweaking his form. He was pliant enough, and willing to allow her the freedom to place his body and limbs in any position that she so wished. It was a strange thought, to know that someone, in this day and age, was knowledgeable enough to have an inkling of her people, and the desire to continue that knowledge. It had been enough to slowly pull her from her tight shroud of self-secrecy. Even if he was the only one that she shared such knowledge with.

"Eh'ileh'a. They are like... doorways."

Another adjustment, and she eased him up with a guiding hand to his shoulder, urging him to now sit up straight.

"The best translation I can think of is... "

Another pause, as she stopped her guiding motions momentarily, fingers idly tickling at the back of his neck.

"... 'Gateway to the inner essence'."

[General Dan]

The strange sense of serene focus continued, and Dan focused on her words, as an extension of the actions she guided him into.

"Doorways huh? Sounds not a bit too far removed from some of that Jedi talk."

Another measured breath, and he focused on the task at hand.

"I suppose that made the transition easier?"

[s'Il]

Without pause, the Lupine gave a pat to his thigh, indicating that he pull his legs out of their crossed position.

"Master Windu seemed to think it did," she murmured absently.

[General Dan]

"Master Windu as in, Mace Windu?"

Dan's eyes opened in a bit of surprise at that revelation. He broke his breathing pattern, half-turning his head to look at his companion.

"He was your master?"

It wasn't something she spoke much of, and not the sort of thing he pried into. Still, even for a lay person such as himself, the name Mace Windu held weight felt across the galaxy. During the Clone Wars, he was possibly the most powerful Jedi of them all.

[s'Il]

s'Il pulled an odd face, those old feelings of once more existing only within the shadow of her former master briefly clouding her features. Always Mace Windu's Padawan.

She did not try to correct his posture as she had before. Perhaps this lesson was finished for the evening.

Inhaling, the Lupine let out a long breath.

"Well, he was. Yes."

[General Dan]

He felt like he touched a nerve, and backed off. Obviously, talk of her long-dead master would be a somber talking point.

She made no further moves to guide him, and Dan returned to a more at-ease posture, before regrouping to stand and face s'Il.

"If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand. I just...it would be interesting to hear. How were you found?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

The Burdens of Matrimony

She stared at him. He was her husband, and her best friend. It was weird to think of how life was before. There'd been Sanis and Cirr, and Dama, but now, with Wyl living with her, Dama, and Daddy, it was something that felt like it'd always been.

They'd just finished a rather physical game of 'My Apologies' (which Daddy had taught the both of them), and like her mother had so many years ago, Tak had very nearly thrown a fit at losing. Of course, her grumpiness was only a convenient cover for the truth of what boiled beneath her surface thoughts, and looking at Wyl, she wondered if he'd come to the same worrisome conclusion about their marriage that she had only a day before.

[Wyl Staedtler]

"Oh come on, stop being such a baby. Who cares if I won?" Wyl sighed and looked at Tak with an imploring impatience. She was sulking and had been ever since they finished playing; he was beginning to regret allowing himself to get caught up in the competitive spirit because if there was one thing more miserable than losing, it was winning against your wife.

Marriage was a hopelessly one-sided affair, he was finding.

The boy pushed aside his floppy mop of hair with a careless hand and glanced over at his best friend from his sprawled position on a pile of cushions. There was no reason for Teagan to be so sore over a silly game. Stars only knew how many times she'd bested him at other things.

He concentrated, tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, and felt his focus dip into the familiar eddies of the Force. With deliberate cheek, the laces of Tak's grubby sneakers began to untie themselves. Wyl grinned triumphantly and waited for the reaction that didn't come.

"What's wrong?" He frowned, eyes narrowing in puzzled inquiry. "Do you have a headache or somethin'?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

A final, forceful shove was given to the gameboard, and Tak leaned back on her own smattering of cushions and pillows, arms reaching down to retie the laces of her sneakers that Wyl'd undone.

"No it's not that," she grumped, her efforts at tying only managing to produce a rather lovely knot instead of a bow.

A huff, and the girl gave up her efforts to look forlornly at her husband.

"I been thinking," was her cryptic start, "... about bein' married."

[Wyl Staedtler]

"What about bein' married?" Wyl asked with slanted suspicion. A troubling thought occurred to him and the boy looked at Tak with alarm. "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Wide-eyed, Tak shook her head with particular forcefulness.

"Nooo."

Why would she have second thoughts? They were the perfect husband and wife (Dama and Dad were a close second), they were the best of friends, and they had the best ever wedding rings.

"It's just... "

Nervously she clasped her hands in front of her.

"I remember stuff my Dama was sayin;, 'bout how when you get married you say all those promises to one another. There was one she told me," the girl hesitated as she tried to recall that one, all-important thing.

"Well I don't remember how you're s'pposed to exactly say it, but it goes like, 'til we die and can't see each other anymore' or something."

[Wyl Staedtler]

What in the parsec was she talking about? What promises? They sure as shooting stars hadn't made any promises when they got married... did that mean that they weren't really married? Was their entire relationship a mockery, a sham?

Wyl chewed on his bottom lip, apprehension blossoming in the corners of his eyes. Dama s'Il was a smart lady and she was like Daria; she didn't tell fibs to make you feel better just because you were a kid. There had to be something to this weird business.

"My master says that when we die we go back to the Force," he frowned. "But I guess that sort of means the same thing, anyway. Why the heck would you talk about dying when you're gettin' married? That's depressing."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"I know," was the equally flummoxed reply. It had been baffling to her when Dama had said it, but it was something that had become a little more clear after two very important revelations.

These now, she shared with Wyl.

"But look. I don't know if it's all that strange."

She held up a finger.

"Cause look - I saw my Dama one day when she came back from th' Wheel. She was tired and moved slow and stiff-like. And then..." her voice lowered to a whisper, "... my Dad gave her a hug and a kiss. After that, she smiled and was all better!"

Another finger went up, and Tak kept her voice low.

"But that's not all of it though. She once told me that if it wasn't for Dad, she'd be dead lots of times. And that she's saved him from dying lots, too."

The words had come out in an ever-increasing rush, so that by the time she was finished, the girl was almost panting, with eyes wide open and the most concerned of faces painted on her features.

"Wyl, what if... what if married people die if... if they don't kiss?!"

[Wyl Staedtler]

He had a very bad feeling about this.

Wyl was under no illusions about his shortcomings. He knew he often made foolish decisions, fueled by an impractical, rapacious thirst for adventure. Trouble didn't find him, he actively sought it out and no amount of ill-resulting consequences had yet been able to deter him. He was boisterous and impatient and sometimes he forgot to brush his teeth.

But he was logical. Contrary though it may have seemed, given his penchant for courting disaster, he did measure and weigh out the foreseeable end points in any given situation. There were a few lines he was not willing to cross and death? Death was etched so deeply in the sand that it was practically a galactic wonder.

The possibility that he could have missed such a grave side effect chilled him to his very bones.

"Um," Wyl cleared his throat and tried to release some of the mounting anxiety from his limbs. "There's... well, there's got t'be... maybe it depends. You know, it could be different for different circumstances. I mean, lookit how we first met; we saved each other's lives then, in a way. We might have starved if we hadn't been a team and we didn't kiss then! That's got to count, right?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

She spread her arms a little, her hands splayed out as they waved a little bit in the air.

"Yeah but we weren't married then!"

[Wyl Staedtler]

"But that's not fair!" Wyl exploded, his voice breaking slightly in panicked outrage. "No one ever said getting married involved death! Cake, sure, but not death!"

A somber silence filled the room, punctuated only by the baited sound of tense breathing.

"Tak." Wyl said. He was very pale. "I don't want to die. And I don't want you to die, either."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

With worry etched onto her face, the little girl stared at her husband, knowing that the very thing that they'd sworn to never do (since frankly, it was so gross), was the only thing that, from her deductions, was going to keep them alive.

Their game of 'My Apologies' was long forgotten, the gameboard sitting between them neglected. Wyl's frantic tone and panicked look was enough to bring up those same feelings in her, and she mirrored him exactly.

And in a frightened whisper, Tak finally broke the silence.

"I think we hafta do it, if we want to keep each other alive."

[Wyl Staedtler]

This was a terrible situation to be in. They were between a rock and a hard place, forced to weigh two equally horrible fates and decide which was the lesser of two evils and for once, death wasn't distinguishing itself as the clear loser.

Wyl clapped his palms over his eyes and grimaced.

"It's unhygenic," he moaned needlessly. Like any rational couple, he and Tak had discussed the finer points of their impending marriage before going through with it. Kissing had definitely been a subject of unanimous opinion - it was absolutely, unequivocally never going to happen.

Scissoring his fingers, he peeked through the gap and mused: "What if we just don't do it on the lips?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

This suggestion caused her to think long and hard, and much as she'd seen her Dad do on more than one occasion, Tak lifted a hand up, placing one curled finger over her lips as her thumb rested beneath her chin. Her brow was knit in deep thought. Idly, Tak reached up to scratch at an itch on her forehead.

"It might work, if we only kiss on the cheek," the girl began slowly and carefully. This was dangerous territory they were both being made to step into; not to mention it was completely disgusting as well.

With a heaved sigh, the sound of it weighted with frustration at their predicament, the girl leaned back so that she was leaning against on of the cushions they'd put down. There had to be a way out of this.

"I just... I just dunno."

She looked down then, pursing her lips and scrunching her face up a little bit. Her breath quickened, but her eyes stayed downcast as she spoke again; this time in a whisper.

"Wyl, I wasn't gonna say this before, but... "

She gave a little sniffle, followed by a swipe across her nose with the back of her hand.

"... but I haven't been feeling good since yesterday."

Shoulders sagging, Tak closed her eyes tight as her voice began to crack.

"I think I'm dying... "

[Wyl Staedtler]

A chill swept into the room, so blindingly fierce that it permeated his skin and drove deep into his bones. Wyl stared at Tak, at the waterfall of tangled blond hair that framed her face, the playful slant to her mouth that made it look like she was smiling even when she wasn't, the scab on her elbow from when they'd been playing wallball and she'd tackled him like a wrothgar out of hell, sliding along the ribbed flooring and grating her skin like cheese. She hadn't even cried when it happened, even though it bled like it would never stop and ruined her favorite jersey.

She was almost crying now. Wyl swallowed hard past the lump rising in his throat.

"Are you sure?" he whispered, scooting closer and draping a gentle arm around her shoulders. He pressed a hand to her forehead; it was warm, but maybe that was because she was upset. "It could be psychosomatic. We're both stressed'n that can cause all sorts of stuff to happen. Are you sure, Tak?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"Of course I'm sure!"

Her desperate tone carried every ounce of her feelings, and with another sniff she leaned against Wyl. She had no idea what psychosomatic meant, and secretly she bet that he didn't either. He prolly just heard Uncle Morgan say it.

Out of fear, the girl suddenly wrapped her own arms around her husband, burying her head into the crook between his neck and shoulder. He wouldn't leave her; ever. He hadn't abandoned her during her first change, and she hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't abandon her now.

"I don't wanna die," she finally got out, the beginnings of a sob leaking into her shaky voice.

And that's when her shoulders began to shake, her first tears squeezing out of tightly shut eyes to trickle down her cheeks and onto the fabric of his shirt.

[Wyl Staedtler]

"Please don't cry, Fang," Wyl pleaded, his arm encircling her all the tighter. He hated it when she cried. It always made his stomach feel real crumby, like it was stuck in one of the acid rivers of Raxus Prime (which was a droid graveyard, totally amazing, and where he was determined to go on their postponed honeymoon.)

He rested his forehead against hers and waited until her teary eyes rose to lock with his.

"Nothing bad is gonna happen to you," Wyl said, his voice calm and steady with the weight of his determination. "I won't let it, I promise. If... if this is what we gotta do, then this is what we gotta do. But you're not gonna die. So don't cry, okay? It's just a kiss, right? No big deal."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

No big deal. No big deal. He was right - it was no big deal. Not compared to dying, at least. Blinking furiously, Tak used her shirt sleeve to wipe away her tears, giving another sniff.

"Yeah," she agreed weakly. "It's just a kiss."

There was a somewhat awkward silence then, as she gave a concerned face.

"How do we start?"

[Wyl Staedtler]

That was a good question, and one he didn't have an answer to. Wyl wasn't the sort to go around thinking about things like sucking face, much less actually practicing it.

"Um," well, clearly they needed to be closer. In the face region. With an air of scientific contemplation, Wyl approached Tak until he could no more tell her breath from his own. He frowned, tilting his head experimentally.

"Your nose is in the way."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

A frown as she thought, and Tak paused for a moment, their lips very nearly touching. Her nose wasn't in the way... his was! But still, she'd seen her Dama and Dad kiss enough to know that there was something missing.

"Hold on... "

Pulling back, the girl scoured her brain for the last time she'd seen her parents kiss, and after a second her face lit up with a smile.

"We gotta do it like this."

Scooting close once again, Tak took his hands in hers.

"I've seen my Dad put his hands on my Dama's face," and gently, she rested Wyl's hands on both of her cheeks, "... and then they kinda move their heads like this... " Her head tilted to the side, and with a guiding finger to his temple, Tak gently eased his head the opposite way.

"Then they look at each other's eyes for a while," Her eyes opened wide, locking with Wyl's so that he'd know she was looking right at him.

"Then they kiss... "

And ever-determined, she leaned in the rest of the way, planting her lips firmly on Wyl's.

[Wyl Staedtler]

It was less wet than he was expecting. Wyl was immediately reminded of that one time a thousand years ago when he had been very small indeed and his mother had taken him to the Coruscant Zoo. By the luck of the Gods, or more accurately a vicious strain of flu which had relegated the head reptile keeper to leave thus elevating Carl (his nervous, too-eager-to-please associate) to his position, there had been a massive Corellian Coral Python draped around the shoulders of a volunteer, a massively thick line of coloured scales that moved with a slow grace that was disquieting in it's primordial instinct.

Wyl had been one of the lucky few asked to come up and pet Nala - a girl, as it turned out. He'd expected slime and slick but instead she had been pleasantly dry and smooth underneath his palm, a sort of steeled softness that gave just slightly at his touch.

Not that he'd expected kissing Tak to be slimy.

... alright, maybe he had a little.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in return but he found that his own mashed lips pressed right back against his wife's with a competitive spirit that came naturally. It wasn't all that bad.

Wyl told her as much as they pulled away from one another, a little breathless. "That wasn't so bad. It was just like first aid resuscitation except without breathing."

He glanced at Tak, giving her careful assessment. "How do you feel?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

The girl thought about his question, and carefully lifted a hand up to feel at her forehead. It still felt a little warm, and she gave a frown.

The kiss hadn't been what she'd expected either; it'd been hard to breath and not at all as gross as she'd originally thought. Maybe kissing wasn't so bad? With a heaved sigh, Tak brought her hand down to rest in her lap.

"I dunno," she finally started, "I don't really feel any different and my head still hurts a little. Maybe we didn't kiss for long enough?"

Then again, they did need to breath. She could hold her breath for a long time (almost as long as Wyl even, if their last breath-holding contest was any indicator), but would it be long enough?

"There's gotta be something we're not doing."

With features screwed in deep thought, she stared long and hard at Wyl.

"What do you think?"

[Wyl Staedtler]

"I think this whole thing is a pretty dumb survival tactic," Wyl muttered. Why hadn't anybody bothered to write this stuff down in a manual for the nuptually-inclined to read beforehand? Just a few months ago Teagan would have been able to see a doctor and everything would have been solved with the beep of a thermometer but now - ha! Now they were relegated to cracking some biological mystery in order to keep her from snuffing it.

The important thing was to keep calm. Wyl took a few deep, measured breaths the way he'd seen his master do. What was missing from this equation? They loved each other, they'd looked at one another, they'd kissed...

Wyl snapped his fingers. "I got it - we didn't do it like it's done in the holos! If you need to be saved, we gotta kiss heroically."

And before Tak could protest, he grabbed her slim shoulders and dipped her low, swooping in to plant a good one...

Unfortunately, it hadn't occurred to Wyl that Fang was a heck of a lot sturdier than she looked. Cooperating with gravity, the two children tumbled to the floor - Wyl just managing to divert his elbows so he didn't do irreparable damage to Tak's vital organs when he landed on top of her - their eyes wide with the shock that their liplocked mouths couldn't express.

[General Dan]

About that time, Dan opened the door to enter his quarters. He paused, saw the scene on the floor before him, and for lack of a better thing to do or say, let out

"Now what in the seven hells is going on here?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Wide eyes went from Wyl's gaze to track over to the direction that she'd heard her Dad's voice coming from. Instinctively she tightened her grip on Wyl, holding him in a grip that allowed almost no movement. She was frozen like a flutterdeer.

This wasn't supposed to happen! She and Wyl were supposed to kiss, she was supposed to get better, and Dad and Dama were to never know! This wasn't fair! What if her Dad kicked Wyl out?! What if he never let the her see her husband again?! What if he didn't even let the two talk ever again?!

Those were the thoughts that galvanized her into action. She would die without Wyl, and she wasn't about to let her Dad kick her best friend ever (and husband no less!) out.

Her hold on Wyl loosened, and scrambling a little so that she was half out from beneath him, Tak propped herself up on one elbow and craned her neck to look up at her father.

With eyes somehow going even wider than before, the girl squeaked out the only answer she could think of.

"Nothing... ?"

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl, for his part, felt his chest seize up in a way that was neither romantic nor magical but laced with a deep and terrible terror. Oh stars. He was going to die and he hadn't even had his first shave, yet.

For some reason Tak confused the proper reaction - get as far away from each other as possible - to the situation with the survival tactics employed against an attacking daggerlip and she clutched his body against hers, making them as small a target as possible.

No, no, no, Wyl telepathically shouted as he shoved at her, simultaneously twisting to look at Dan. He almost collapsed in relief when all of a sudden the hold on him loosened.

"Medical emergency!" he shouted, face stricken. "It was a medical emergency! I saved her life! Immunity! Asylum!"

[General Dan]

The torrent of desperate excuses from Wyl almost completely defused his anger at walking in on...

...what the hell did he walk in on?

He pointed at Tak.

"Young lady, your room."

He jerked his thumb in the direction of the hall, for emphasis.

"Now."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Her face fell at that. Dad was gonna kick Wyl out, she knew it. It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair! And she would've offered up a resistance had it not been for the look on her Dad's face. She'd never seen him with that sort of expression ever, and it quite frankly scared her while simultaneously making her fear for Wyl.

Struggling up and out from under the boy completely, Teagan tried to reason with her father, gesturing imploringly to the 'My Apologies' gameboard and its' scattered pieces.

"I swallowed a game piece," she started almost defiantly, making sure to punctuate her claim with a few coughs.

"Wyl was just trying to suck it out!"

[Wyl Staedtler]

"I..."

There was something wrong with his stomach. It felt like it was turning into duracrete. Belatedly, Wyl wondered if maybe he'd caught whatever it was that Tak had. And then he hoped that maybe it would kill him sooner rather than later.

"This was a necessary evil, General," Wyl squared his shoulders, going for the common ground. "A man in your position - you gotta understand that we had no choice!"

[General Dan]

"Young man, a long time ago, I used to be a kid, believe it or not. And I'm no stranger to spinning a big whopper. That happens, but you become a man by copping up to it when you have to."

Dan removed his coat, setting it aside as he headed to the kitchen.

"Take a seat, Wyl."

He could see Tak still loitering.

"You're supposed to be in your room, Missy. I'll talk to you later."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

She huffed a snort from flaring nostrils, her brow knit in frustration, and her eyes flashed a tawny yellow for only a moment. A small, short-lived moment at that. In the next instant Tak turned on her heel, wringing her hands as she passed by Wyl. She watched him from the corner of her eyes, hoping that her Dad wouldn't make him leave forever.

She kept her mouth shut however; what if she made things worse?!

The girl disappeared through the hall doorway, considering the notion of hiding out of sight, but there was no doubt in her mind that her father would know, and deciding it best to be cautious, Teagan slunk in through the doorway of her room, shutting the door behind her with more force than was really necessary.

[Wyl Staedtler]

With a dawning sense of acceptance, Wyl watched his beloved leave. It was probably the last time they would see each other and so, as she turned in the doorway for one last glance, he glanced his fingers to his chest where the sandpanther charm she'd given him hung, concealed underneath his shirt. He steeled his face in a brave, noble look -

- that faded as soon as she disappeared.

"I didn't lie," Wyl protested softly. It took every ounce of gumption in his possession not to look away from Dan, whose gaze seemed to pierce him right to his very soul, baring every fault and shortcoming and secret that Wyl had amassed in his short (much too short) life.

[General Dan]

Dan opened the fridge, carefully pulling out two objects, and closed it. He took the seat opposite Wyl, and set two juice boxes on the table.

"You like my daughter, don't you?"

[Wyl Staedtler]

"Yes?" Wyl's eyes narrowed, suspecting some sort of trap.

[General Dan]

Dan nodded, testing the waters for how forthcoming Wyl would be, He stabbed the straw into his own juice box.

"Glad to hear it. You make her very happy, and that's good."

He sipped his juice, and set it aside.

"That said, I don't want to come home and see what I just saw."

[Wyl Staedtler]

Corellian Punch. That was good stuff. Wyl slowly slid the remaining juicebox across the table and wrapped his hands around it, fiddling with the plastic-wrapped straw.

"With all due respect, sir," he said, "If you hadn't just seen what you just saw then what you would have seen would've been a dead body. Isn't that worse?"

[General Dan]

"We know what I just saw, Wyl."

Dan patiently drew the narrative back toward the truth.

"I'm not about to belt you or Teagan over it, it's time to own up to it. You kissed my daughter."

[Wyl Staedtler]

"Of course I did!" Wyl exclaimed, his face pinched with puzzled desperation. How was this not clear by now, when they'd gone over it so many times?

"She was dying. You've kissed your wife lots of times for the same reason."

[General Dan]

Well, that one took him by surprise.

"W...what?"

[Wyl Staedtler]

"You know. Because of the oath."

Receiving a blank look in response, Wyl pressed forward. "The oath that you take when you get married. About... about death and..."

At one point it had all made perfect sense. There was a perfectly line of logic leading up to his and Tak's passionate embrace but all of a sudden it was sort of fuzzy and the boy found that retracing those steps was difficult, like chasing chaff in a strong wind.

"And you kiss your wife to stop that from happening and Tak is sick and it's probably fatal because that's what happens to the betrothed and if you don't believe me then go and take her temperature. It's high."

[General Dan]

The rabbit hole just got longer by a few miles. Dan fought hard to suppress a smile.

"Till death do you part?"

That was a heavy concept to discuss with a child.

"What that means, Wyl, is that when two people love each other, and they make those oaths, they promise to be together, even if things aren't going great. That's life. Sometimes good things happen, and sometimes they don't. But if you love somebody, you stick with it."

It was sweet. This little desperate kiss, as an act of complete selflessness.

"You're not gonna up and die without a kiss. But sometimes a kiss makes life a little better. At least you know it's serious."

[Wyl Staedtler]

When it was all laid out like that, it made more sense. Wyl quietly sipped at his juicebox and mulled over the words. As weird as the adult version was phrased, it amounted to the same conclusion that he and Teagan had come to.

From the moment they'd first met there had been a spark of recognition between their souls, an old-world understanding that tied them together. They had forged their relationship on the back of adventure and, in the natural way of things, that bond had flourished and grown. Did he love her? Of course he did. It was a no-brainer that they would throw in together, no matter what the galaxy had up it's sleeves.

But.

"It didn't make life better," Wyl's face was full of frank horror. "It was disgusting. I told Tak it wasn't because you're supposed to be considerate of invalids and she was under enough stress. She told me the same thing, except she was totally lying because her nose did that thing..."

The boy scrunched up his nose in an admirable imitation of the General's daughter.

[General Dan]

At that, Dan did laugh.

"Well, it's about like caf in that respect. Do you drink caf?"

If there was a fixed rule, it's that kids couldn't get near the stuff. It was atrocious.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Wyl frowned and shook his head. "I drink fizzyglug, sometimes."

[General Dan]

"I remember when I was your age, and I tried caf."

He made a face and shook his head.

"Hated the stuff. It was bitter and it wasn't sweet, and I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to torture themselves and drink it."

He leaned forward a little.

"Then one day, somebody was drinking some, and I smelled it, and this stuff I'd smelled before and didn't like, it suddenly seemed like something I'd want to try. And I tried it, and then I liked it.

What I mean to say is that, some things become good, not because they change, but because you change. It was the same caf, I just reached the point one day where I liked it."

Having made his point, Dan gestured with a hand.

"It's a lot like kissing."

[Wyl Staedtler]

"So it's something you grow into then?" Wyl cocked his head to one side. "Does that mean you won't mind so much when Fang and me are older?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Teagan sat on her bed, legs splayed out as she looked miserably to the other bed in the room. Wyl's bed. To say that the girl was nervous would be stating the obvious, and she found herself idly scratching at an itch along her jawline. She still felt a little warm, and decided that perhaps their kiss took a few hours to take effect. It would certainly explain why she didn't immediately feel better.

She sighed, and the itch on her jawline moved up to her cheek.

With slumped shoulders, the little Lupine finally slid from the bed, unable to take it any longer - she had to go out and... and... and do something. Anything to help her husband survive whatever punishment her father was sure to give.

The faint sound of laughter gave her courage, and cracking the door open, she called out in a resolute, defiant voice.

"I'm coming out!"

[General Dan]

Dan looked in the direction of Tak's voice, then back to Wyl. He spoke in a low tone.

"Just remember what I said, alright? I like you, Wyl. I want you and Teagan to be happy, but there's no sense in biting off more than you can chew."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Two days later...

She stood between the two beds, concern battling against sheer puzzlement at the sight before her. She held up two thermometers, checking each one before giving both a shake. Two miserable faces looked up at her from each bed, pouting and fighting the maddening urge to itch at the inflamed red spots that covered them. It was a pitiful sight, and one that Loklorien s'Ilancy hadn't expected to encounter when she'd returned from her trip to the Wheel.

"I still don't understand this," she mumbled to Dan, who was standing just behind her as she deposited a thermometer in each waiting mouth.

"They were both perfectly healthy when I left."

The elder Lupine crossed her arms, but not in any sort of anger; more to the point, it was simple confusion. She was absolutely flummoxed by the situation she'd come home to.

"It just doesn't make sense how they could've gotten Huttpox."

An air of disbelief as she half-turned to look back at Dan.

"On your ship of all places."

[General Dan]

And suddenly it clicked. Tak was burning up. From Wyl's own mouth, no less.

Dan sighed, closing his eyes as he ran a hand down his face.

"It's bound to happen, they're kids. Best to get it out of their system when they're young, I guess."

[Wyl Staedtler]

Only the eternally damned knew the sort of agony that Wyl was in at that moment. Every square inch of his body itched with an angry intensity that was absolutely maddening in it's persistance and made lying in bed the worse kind of torture. It was impossible to get comfortable and no matter which way he shifted, it was only a matter of minutes before the cool sheets became unbearably hot and relegated him to another fit of tossing.

This was all Tak's fault.

"M'ne'her 'issing oo a'hain," Wyl growled around his thermometer, glowering across at the girl. He lifted a hand - socks! they'd bound him in socks! - and rubbed at his spotted face ineffectually. "Ne'her!"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Indignant shock passed over her dotted features, and Teagan pulled a hand out from beneath her covers, a sock that matched Wyl's also covering her extremities. She wasn't about to take any sass from her husband, and she pointed at him accusingly.

A pause, and she pulled back to scratch vainly at her shoulder before returning to point at him.

"Oo shu'up or'ma 'pit on oo."

[Sanis Prent]

The Disturbing Disappearance of the Dozen Doughnuts



On a freighter, night and day are meaningless. Numbers shining artificial dayglow on your face from a nearby chrono, keeping you a slave to their assumed correctness, one factory reset away from insomnia and chaos. The chrono beeped, you woke up, maybe had a stim to your lonesome in your own small corner of privacy before anyone else was around to crowd you.

That's my world. I thrive there.

In and out, the smell of purple smoke thick in my own personal space, the ember so close to my lips trying to compete with the accusatory glare of the chrono across from me. Atmo scrubbers kick on, a computerized absolution of my filthy habits. Still, I sit in the dark until the nicotine reminds me of nature's needs.

A gurgle.

On a freighter, your life is packaged and stowed. Whether it's base commodities like fuel and weapons, personal effects, or cargo. You are what you bring with you, and you aren't what you don't. Goes double for food. First order of business is survival. Buy in bulk, and buy for shelf life. Fresh fruit and veg? It's a shore leave fantasy. This is the realm of the can, the vacu-seal, the freeze-dryer, and the ever-popular preserved food item. From an ivory tower of privilege, you'd probably call it junk. To me, that just makes me a survivor. No matter what you called it, your body was certain to tell you when you needed it.

"Lights."

Yellowed light bars blinked artificial dayglow around age-beaten metal walls studded with posters. Sirens hawking cheap sex folded out in holomag inserts danced their eternal jigs on every wall. Images of comfort when all other scenery changed.

My feet hit cold deck plate, accelerating my wide awake state. A stretch, a scratch, a glance in a body-length mirror that reflected back judgments. Thirty-something, ten pounds shy of where I ought to be. An Adonis made of gristle. Time to try to rectify part of that at least.

My hand hit the switch to open the door, which slid along creaky tracks with a groan. Silence greeted me down Layla's corridors, a rare sound that you could almost lose amid the ambient white noise of engines running below. A few paces foredeck, and a shimmy up the ladder brought me to the top deck, the cockpit, and most importantly, the galley. Visions of artificial breakfast floated through my brain as I ashed the last gasp of my stim in an overfilled ashtray. There on the table, a box waited. I knew the prize that lay within.

I ran a hand over the top to liberate the lid, but the box moved with my movement, betraying a container that was lighter than it ought to be. A cold panic doused the last vestiges of sleep from my brain, and in a sudden motion, I tore the lid free.

Inside the box were signs of a crime.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It had been a late night. A late night of trying to quiet the excitement and energy of youth. It had been an exercise in frivolity at times, but there wasn't much that could ultimately deny a mother's wishes. And so, with a finality that was ironclad, the little ones had been sent to the land of slumber to dream of a land full of candy and sweat treats; of magic talking dewbacks and flying banthas that would take them away from the cold hard reality of living on a freighter.

Morning of course, had come far too early, but thankfully the two sleeping younglings still snored away, their heads filled to the brim with dreams of that which their elders would never allow.

For her part, Loklorien s'Ilancy was relatively early to rise, and careful to not disturb the little bodies still fast asleep beside her, she rose from bed. It was like listening to a chorus of creaks and strains, tendons popping and sounding out their complaints at having to be moved about so early in the morning. She ignored these, and rising to stand fully, stretched a back that was full of as much ache as the rest of her body. She was getting old, she could feel it. Even if she still had a few hundred years left to live, she still felt... old. Maybe it was the thought of so many years to go that gave her that inevitable feeling, she didn't know. Whatever it was the fact still remained.

She didn't bother looking in the mirror - she knew what she would see.

No, best not to look at her own reflection. This early in the morning it would only show her a single bad decision; a past regret that would never go away or be erased.

Instead she settled for pulling on a pair of trousers and the overtunic of her usual Jedi attire, fastening it loosely closed yet leaving it unbelted.

On bare feet she padded quietly from the Cat, her home aboard Layla. It was home now, and a comfortable escape from normal life. She walked quietly along the catwalk, her eye looking down at the cot set up down in the hold and the slumbering pile of rough-hewn blankets piled atop it. A wild mane of grey, unruly hair was all that could be seen of the occupant, and s'Il gave a frown. She'd have to comb it out.

But that thought was soon enough discarded as she made her way to the galley. There was no difficulty sensing the dismay coming from Sanis Prent. The accusation was there as well, but it had no direction - it simply existed for now. Like a searching Sarlacc though, its' tentacles reached out for anyone and anything to lay some sort of blame upon.

She gave a sigh, stopping in the doorway and leaning against the frame as she watched him. She certainly did not cut a dignified picture, and far from being a Jedi, she looked much more like a transient drifter. With her hair pulled back over her shoulders and sleep still ringing beneath her eyes, she was by far the most unattractive creature on this ship.

"It's too early for you to be upset," she started quietly.

"You've not given the ship enough time to break down yet."

[Sanis Prent]

It was too early for jokes. I needed the familiar jolt of sugar in my bloodstream to laugh. My mirthless expression was every bit a part of a crime scene as the barren doughnut box that lay vulnerable and wide open for all to see.

Gruff though my demeanor might be, I let the jab about my ship slide. Red herrings don't make for a filling breakfast.

"There were a dozen doughnuts in this box when I brought them aboard last night."

I didn't have to accuse. I lay my sentence on the table along with the box, a proverbial concussion grenade ready to blow and indiscriminate with it's violence. I needed a kindred spirit to share in my outrage, maybe even get a little wounded by it. Blood begets blood. Loklorien s'Ilancy was probably the least of my worries. Twenty nine days out of thirty, she had no sweet tooth to speak of. The only question was, did I catch her on day thirty? I'd watched her fly solo on a half gallon of ice cream once. It was 31 flavors of regret for the next day after, but she was unrepentant. I was no stranger to crime and the life of criminals. The difference between walking and taking the long walk was often knowing when heat was around the corner. Being a Jedi just gave her a teflon coating. A rap like this wouldn't stick unless I was damn sure.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Cirr was up early, knowing exactly what he needed before a busy day of re-aligning thrust vector nozzles. His internal clock was governed by...

~~grumble~~

He gulped. Okay, yeah, breakfast.

Quickly, he shimmied up the ladder, already thinking about what he needed. A half dozen of those doughnuts, two cans of minced fish, three packets of instant noodle, four eggs...no wait, eight of those doughnuts and all of that, no wait...

A sly smile appeared on his face. Early bird gets the worm, right? If nobody had claimed those doughnuts, they were as good as h-

"Oh no!"

Cirr came to the top of the ladder, staring at the sight of Sanis, s'Il, and a box full of nothing.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She had moved into the galley as Sanis had spoken, a disinterested look going to the empty box. Who would want such things in the first place was a mystery. They were loathsome. Of course, Sanis had a habit of being attracted to loathsome, so she supposed that it made sense in its' own twisted way. It's own very twisted way.

His half-accusation, put out between them like a waiting landmine, was easily diffused as she disdainfully peered into the empty box.

Of course, anything she wished to say on the matter was interrupted by Cirr's less than quiet arrival. Turning to look at the big Cizerack from over the tops of her eyes - well, eye more specifically - s'Il gave him a look. It wasn't accusatory, but it wasn't to convey anything comforting either, and she mimicked his exclamation, making sure that he knew it would mean an explanation on his part.

"Oh no... ?"

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

He looked from s'Il to Sanis, and then to the box, gesturing to the empty container as he frowned.

"The doughnuts, they'rre gone?"

His mouth gaped at the cruelty of it all. Twelve fantastic doughnuts, and he didn't even get one of them?! Everybody knew he liked doughnuts. Well, he liked pretty much whatever was edible in the galley, but doughnuts! He wanted some doughnuts.

[Sanis Prent]

My eyes narrowed as my first mate eyed the scene of the crime. Cirr Raurrssatta had a pilfered food rap the length of a Star Destroyer, and could put away enough chow in a sitting to equal the rest of the crew and passengers combined. How else could the lunk turn a rusty coolant valve tight enough to pass muster at an B'omarr convent?

Of course, his MO was all smash and grab. No nuance. After all, standing between a Cizerack and his food usually meant you were volunteering yourself as a replacement.

"Ease up there, big guy. Got a couple of questions for you. Might as well have a seat."

Cirr did as he was told, taking the opportunity to look over the sad remains of the doughnut box, and scratch away any small flecks of frosting still stuck to the box. Small consolation for desserts-past.

I took a seat opposite, fishing out a stim for myself. I laid the pack on the table, an open invitation if the felinoid figured lighting up would lubricate a confession. s'Il was inscrutable. Along for the ride. There were two more chairs at the table, and last I checked it was a free galaxy. I knew where my odds were resting at either rate.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

With a world-weary air to her movements, s'Il slowly sat down beside Sanis. In some perverse way he was her rock amidst the raging storm that Layla held contained within her bulkheads. Perhaps it was their shared history of a sort, or perhaps it was simply because he was there. No matter. It was Sanis, and for now he was the most familiar and comfortable one to sit beside.

Of course, in all of this she suspected he was the only one wronged as well. He was a hurt child, wounded by a crime that was indiscriminate.

She would've made an attempt to stop him from lighting up, but figured it best to allow him at least that much comfort. It was a small consolation in the face of a larger slap in the face. And being as such, she would allow him the reins in all of this; after all, she was just a spectator.

[Sanis Prent]

Cirr read like an open book, and I didn't like what I was reading. He ought to be sweating before questions even went down. He looked somber, like he'd just heard a line of bad news. Still, if we were even a crumb light on the ship, there was one place to look first.

"You ate the doughnuts I brought back on the ship last night, didn't you?"

Blue eyes flashed back at me like dinner plates in ice cold shock. I pressed on, leaning forward and exhaling blue smoke.

"Don't act surprised, big guy. Isn't that how it works? Food in a container with no name on it? Practically fair game, isn't it? How many meals a day do you run on, anyway? Tank must've gotten awful empty late last night, and nobody was looking, were they?"

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Panic set in Cirr's baby blues, and his ears fluttered as he stammered.

"jI...jI...no! jI djidn't eat any! Not a sjingle one!"

He looked to the box, pinching away a free fleck of frosting which he brought up to his mouth.

"All jI had last njight was jerrky and crrjisps, that's jit, honest!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She looked disdainfully at the crumbs still left in the box, leaning back in her seat while crossing her arms. Why anyone would want such things was beyond her; when Sanis had first tried to get her to eat one, she'd spit it out as if it held the plague. It didn't taste... right.

Lifting one hand, she curled her fingers inward to inspect the nails. Not as clean as she'd like, truthfully.

"You know, back in the day, the old masters had a trick for getting around Cizerack minds."

She lied with such convincing authority that if she didn't know any better, she'd believe her own words.

"... they made sure to teach all of us first-year Padawans."

[Sanis Prent]

Blood in the water, and all the sharks could smell it. We circled around Cirr, waiting for the moment to kill.

"That might be messy, having her poke around in your head. Might not leave things the way they are."

By now, the big guy should've folded like a house of cards. Either he grew a spine when we weren't looking, or there was more to this than we wanted to believe. Was I sorry? No. Drumming up the usual suspects works because it's usually the same shifty-eyed humps who do the deed. No sense reinventing the wheel.

I was already thinking ahead, and Lok wasn't off the hook either.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Cirr grimaced, backing away from the table a bit and cradling his head with his hands.

"No!"

He shook his head, and sighed.

"Look, ljisten to me! jI, uh...uh...okay. jI was comjing up herre thjis morrnjing just now, and yeah, jI was gonna eat some doughnuts."

He looked up at his interrogators, and then a sheepish expression took over.

"Most of them. jI'd leave you each one though, jI swearr! jI only wanted seven!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The cheshire cat's grin sent Cirr's way was in no way reassuring, and s'Il reached her hand out, fingers extended and waggling in his direction.

[Sanis Prent]

"Oh you'd leave us one, huh? You're a real saint."

I leaned forward, pounding the table hard enough to make the doughnut box hop.

"Like hell! You'd better come clean with us or this little lady's gonna make vanilla pudding out of your brains and we're all in line for a spoon!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

And at that, s'Il gave a wink as she leaned back.

Sanis could play at being the bad guy for as long as he wanted, but the Lupine only had a finite amount of time before the two girls woke. Also, before Zem stumbled his way into the galley.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

"jI...jit's the honest trruth!"

Cirr's lower lip shook a little as he stammered, his ears seeming to droop lower with each insinuation.

"jI may have wanted them alrrjight. Okay, jI admjit that. But jI neverr so much as had one bjite!"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

There was a slight sound from the galley's doorway, and a yawning, half-stumbling little girl padded her way in. Her wild blonde tangles were almost a mirror match to her mother's, and though the elder Lupine was adamant in her denials, her morning habits were much the same as well.

Teagan rubbed at her eyes as she trundled her way to Dama, and silently crawled up into the awaiting lap. Dama, like always, was ever helpful in aiding those efforts, and without much fuss the girl was sitting at the table as well.

She sent a sleep-filled gaze to the empty box.

"What's that?"

[Sanis Prent]

Tak sat in juxtaposition to Cirr, looking at the empty box for different reasons. I took the interruption as a moment to take the heat off Cirr, who looked like his goose was cooked already. He wasn't complicated enough to spin a lie and stick to it. My doubts were starting to creep into my head, and I was back to an empty box and a head full of questions.

"Used to be a box of doughnuts. Used to be."

I looked the kid over, careful not to step on toes with her mom around. I wasn't born yesterday. The phrase caught with your hand in the cookie jar wasn't born out of adult deceit. Kids always had a sweet tooth. Question is, how sugar-coated was Tak's?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was a task in and of itself to tame the wild tawny locks, but s'Il was patient in the task, her hands moving smoothly and with care so as not to pull too hard on any tangles.

"Sanis brought back some donuts last night, and someone ate them all before he could have one."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Her mouth formed a silent 'O', as Dama's explanation helped her to understand the full meaning behind Sanis' words. She turned her crystal blue eyes to look over at Sanis.

"Who ate them?"

[Sanis Prent]

The girl sat on the safest seat in the house for now. With her mother hanging over her, she was bulletproof. I wasn't buying the kid act, but there wasn't anything to show for it. I wasn't getting any answers from her unless she was feeling charitable. Kids think like criminals, there's no honor code. There's only living to tell the tale.

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

I cut a glance to Cirr, who only replied by sighing. I turned back to Tak.

"Don't suppose you got up for a drink of water, or heard anything last night?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

This caused her to think long and hard, and she scratched at an itch on her cheek.

Pursing her lips in just the way she'd seen Dama do many times before, Teagan shook her head.

"I didn't get up for a drink, but I did get up to use the 'fresher. Someone was in here though, I could hear them. It sounded like Zem."

[Sanis Prent]

I looked away momentarily.

The old man.

Late night snack? Didn't fit his M.O. Didn't mean he was off the hook, either.

Looking back, I leaned forward a bit.

"Do you remember about when that was?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

With a bit of a funny look, Teagan stared right back at him.

"... Ummm, late?"

[Sanis Prent]

That didn't help me much. I looked to Lok, wondering if she could offer more as to the movement of her kid. Of course if this was going to shift onto Zem, I was also gonna need her to put the squeeze to the old man. They had history, and I didn't have much shot of getting anywhere otherwise.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She knew where this was going. It was only the inevitable path, and Sanis' look was more than enough to tell her what he wanted.

With a few last sweeps to make sure her daughter's hair was more order than chaos, she carefully slid the girl down from her lap.

"I think Cirr needs help cleaning his room - " the Lupine glanced up to give a look to the Cizerack.

"Don't you."

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Exhaling a bit, Cirr felt some relief at being off the hook, and he nodded as an afterthought, standing from the table.

"Come on, Tak. Let's go."

He was still a bit mortified at the accusation, and his tail twitched as he walked to the ladder.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Watching as Cirr herded Teagan out, s'Il leaned back in her seat for a few moments. She personally wasn't invested in this little endeavor, but it was something to occupy time.

She turned to her young friend.

"You can't really pull the same attitude with Zem as you did with Cirr you understand."

[Sanis Prent]

She was right. Zem was an old pro, and wouldn't sit and take the kind of damage we could drop on Cirr. Having Lok at least pretending to be in my corner gave me leverage, and would give me something other than silence. This was her game. I was just playing goalie on this round.

"You go ahead and lead in. The old man's your baggage."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"My 'baggage'?"

She'd become accustomed enough to Sanis' particular speech patterns, and this was something she'd come to know as not necessarily being a good sort of connotation to be attached to.

"I don't like the way you say that," she grumbled, and as if to punctuate her feelings, the Lupine swept her hand in a small motion. Sanis' stim extinguished as if on its' own.

[Sanis Prent]

I let the killed stim drop to my feet, and gave it a small kick.

"No drama intended."

And there wasn't, but this wasn't a village. We lived in a durasteel home with no exits, and everybody knew everybody else a little too close for comfort. Not everyone played nice when things got that forcibly intimate.

I gestured for the ladder as an invitation for her to move along. The old man usually woke early, so no sense in putting things off.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

There was a moment when she felt somewhat the harbinger in this little endeavor of his. She did not entirely enjoy the concept, but in the end she was ultimately along for the ride - as Sanis himself often enjoyed saying.

And so, leading the way from the galley, the Lupine made her way along the catwalk, toward the stairwell that would take them down to where Zem's own little piece of 'home' was.

[Zem Vymes]

He heard them coming, down in the cargo hold. Of course, sound travelled on this ship. He'd heard the whole thing on deck one.

He sat on a cargo crate when Sanis and s'Il climbed down, and crossed his arms.

"I can already tell you, no I didn't eat any doughnuts, and you're wasting your time."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was no surprise, him sitting there. He looked so stoic and calm; his features set in that same stern expression as those many times that he'd sat instructing her on their home planet. She never spoke its' name, unless with him alone, and now was no different - though his expression was very much the same.

s'Il moved to sit beside him on the crate, feeling the closeness of his body and wondering if he felt just a small bit of that old emotion.

She folded her hands in her lap, but it wasn't long before she was reaching up to pull out the tangles of his hair, wild after a night of sleep. His wre far worse than Teagan's, and offered a considerable more amount of effort to straighten out.

"I recall you saying the same thing once, when Master Kenobi asked about his bottle of Ithorian red wine."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem gave a tight smile, thinking back. It seemed so much of what they did involved thinking of days gone by.

"To this day, we'll never know what happened to that bottle, will we?"

Like all good conspiracies, complicity was tangled with blackmail. Yes, he'd stolen that bottle, but it had been divvied up between the two of them, and it wasn't like Master Kenobi wouldn't be making regular trips to Ithor.

He looked at Sanis, again taking an unimpressed expression.

"Not exactly the same league, is it?"

[Sanis Prent]

I didn't take the old man's bait. I leaned against a bulkhead, letting s'Il take point.

"It's just a formality. I have to ask to keep things fair."

I'd leave it to Lok to get the details out of him as far as his whereabouts.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She was not about to take her old master's bait. Of course, he'd made sure that she was oblivious in his little crime - offering to share with her a bottle of specially procured Ithorian wine. It had been something that she'd initially thought sweet, and a bit of a peace offering between the two. Little had she known that she was participating in the scene of a crime of sorts.

"You knew what you were doing back then."

She continued to straighten out the rat's nest that was his hair.

[Zem Vymes]

He patiently let her sort out his bed hiar. It was the sort of thing she found peace in. Still, the question chafed a bit.

"Do you think I did this?"

He ignored Sanis for now. This was between them.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Not really, no."

Gving his hair one last comb-through with slender fingers, s'Il folded her hands once more back into her lap.

"But I know you."

There was far more in those four words than any thousands of words could convey. It was nothing accusatory, simply it was the fact that She - yes - knew him. She knew his ins and outs. She knew his passions and love. She knew his desires and heart.

[Zem Vymes]

He raised an eyebrow.

"So you're going through the motions, then? Asking me just to make you feel better about it?"

He sighed, crossing his arms.

"I went to bed at 21:00, like I do every night. I didn't even know Sanis brought doughnuts aboard, and if I did, I wouldn't eat them."

He looked to Sanis.

"You've already talked to the most obvious suspect, what did he say?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She was never one to be subtle - Zem knew this from long-ago experience. With that sort of thing, it came back like a slap in the face. She was that forward and less-than-delicate creature as before, so many years ago. It was what had drawn him to her in the first place, and as he'd said so many time before, had made her so endearing to him.

"Teagan said she heard you in the galley last night."

Her hand moved upward to run through across his stubble. It was grown out enough that she'd need to run a razor through it.

"Did she?"

[Zem Vymes]

"She did."

Zem rested his hands on the box he sat on.

"Last I checked, that's not a crime. I had some hot blue milk."

He challenged the pair to prove him wrong.

"Had some trouble sleeping. This close to the engines, sometimes it happens."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"Zem-El."

He was not a light sleeper - that much the both of them knew. They had shared so much in the past, and s'Il found herself leaning into him more than decency allowed. It was how this game was played, no? Sanis had often regaled her with tales during his visits on Cathar, and she had only just stepped into the role. Of course, the object being Zem, those old feelings swelled up within her, and she felt almost overtaken.

"You can sleep through most anything," she whispered into his ear.

[Zem Vymes]

He resented her ability to cut through his defenses, but that was due to all their time shared. Nothing could be said in his defense.

"If you must know, I was up taking medicine."

He deferred to look at her.

"It's for my hip."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

At that she rolled her eyes, choosing to be a bit more expressive than her morning routine - or any of her routines for that matter - allowed.

Whether Sanis wanted to hear or not, she did not care.

"Your hips were in wonderful condition last time I checked."

[Zem Vymes]

Zem surpressed a smile.

"It's been a while since you put them to the test."

Double entendres aside, this wasn't helping. He clasped his hands together, again all business.

"But yeah, I've got sixty years worth of mileage, so don't be surprised if I have some maintenance issues.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

And at that, the spell was broken. She straightened back up, her hand going up into the air in a show of helplessness as she shrugged. All in all it was quite the display of aged resignation.

"Eh, I tried."

It was Sanis' show now.

[Sanis Prent]

I held back the bile in my throat at Zem and Lok running through their past. It was a journey down memory lane with no exit ramp, and I wasn't staying on the ride.

"Let's see this medicine."

It was grasping at straws, and Zem looked plenty annoyed, but I wasn't gonna be bluffed. The Jedi looked like he was always a bit rough around the edges, but the shit I'd seen them do, I knew better than to let that fool me.

Zem, for his part, produced the bottle, passing it to me. I gave it a shake, and heard the tell-tale rattle. Read a bunch of chicken scratch on the label. I wasn't a doctor, but that was enough for me.

"There's a tap in the refresher. Why make the extra trip?"

Now, the knife.

"Tak's romping keeping you restless?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Her eyes narrowed only slightly, and s'Il angled her head to afford Sanis a sideways look. Of course, this was soon enough overtaken by the look she gave to Zem, and with a quick hand the Lupine took the bottle from Sanis' hand to inspect it herself.

She let out an exasperated breath before turning to Zem.

"What's this all about," she gave the bottle a slight shake in his direction, the pills inside rattling about. "You don't need to be taking these."

[Zem Vymes]

"You don't have a durasteel hip"

Annoyed, Zem took the pills back.

He looked back to Sanis, giving a shrug.

"Kids will be kids. She was up like usual, yeah."

He kept it curt, leaning back a bit as he pocketed the pills.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

More disturbed at this new revelation than the actual reason for Sanis' own ire, s'Il fixed her old friend with a scrutinizing stare. What exactly had happened to him during those long years the two had been apart?

Finally, she looked to Sanis once more with a sigh.

"Your list of suspects is exhausted I'd wager."

[Sanis Prent]

Time to turn the knife.

"Not quite."

Arms crossed, I shifted my feet, giving her a look.

"Kids will be kids, right?"

Sacred cows make the tastiest burgers after all. Nobody was fooling anyone into thinking that little Tak was a saint.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The Lupine gave him an unimpressed stare, and she crossed her own arms to mimic his stance and posture.

"My daughter is no angel I will be the first to admit, but are you telling me that you seriously think that she would even sleep at all if she had eaten those abominations?"

[Sanis Prent]

"Maybe. Maybe not."

She had a point at that, and it was all a bit too convenient.

"Maybe the sugar rush would push her into a manic over-nighter. Or maybe she went down for the count under the weight of a full dozen."

War of attrition. That and a slug of blue milk would put a bantha down.