#aranar

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi Characters: CC-2224 | Cody, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Aranar (OC clone child), CT-7567 | Rex, CC-3636 | Wolffe, CC-6454 | Ponds, CC-5052 | Bly, CC-1993 | Jet, Waxer (Star Wars), Boil (Star Wars), Wooley (Star Wars), Alpha-17 (Star Wars), Ghost Company (Star Wars: Clone Wars 2008), Torrent Company (Star Wars) Additional Tags: Fluff, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Background Relationships, Cody wants to be a good buir SO BAD, Obi-Wan is slightly calmer about it, Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Aranar being The Cutest, Vode celebrations, Self-Indulgent, Inspired by Soft Wars Series - Project0506 Series: Part 85 of Playing in the Soft Wars Sandbox, Part 6 of Ba'jurir Summary: Aranar's first decanting day anniversary after the adoption is approaching. Cody wants everything to be Perfect. Obi-Wan knows perfection isn't necessary, but does his best to be supportive. Aranar deserves a great day after all.

Final chapter is up. Complete with absolutely adorable art by @cobaltbeam​ !

I think there was, somewhere along the line, the thought that possibly being absent from the Marran meant being exempted from some of the more esoteric Dark Side problems. While there is certainly less of it - no eldritch horrors or dark god-princes or anything of that nature - we do still trip across it from time to time. Unfortunately, particularly from the perspective of our large contingent of non-Force-users, it’s enough to cause significant damage, at least on a psychological level.

Trying to get close to Rosfren to hopefully convince him to back off, we played at taking a job to curry some favour. The job was to seek out whatever relics we could find from a site on Darvannis which was once the lair of a Dread Master. ...I honestly should have known. Then again, I suppose I did. I took as many precautions as I could to keep the others out of any direct line of interference. The problem was, I knew they’d never be comfortable with letting me go on my own, even if I am largely immune to that sort of nerfery. I had to bring the others with me at least part of the way. I did at least try to keep them out of the temple proper, once we got there. They weren’t happy about that either so I hate to think what they would have said if I’d suggested just going by myself, even with the guardianship of the Mandalorian clan Aranar and I befriended when we made a supply drop there.

I did not count on the relics in that temple - enhancements for and extensions of the Phobis devices that made the Dread Masters such a threat, in the main; far less powerful but still problematic on a number of levels - being able to affect the others while they were still outside, but they did. That only got worse when ... well, I wasn’t entirely clear on what happened exactly but largely what I got was “spiders with acidic blood and Mandalorians with explosives”. Either way, the others were forced to fall back into the temple ... and that was where all the nonsense really got horrible.

X’antho got it worst, from a psychological perspective. I could feel his sanity start tilting. Aranar ... I’ve never felt such a combination of sadness, resignation and rage before. Kaelira was just angry ... and sick. Very very sick. She apparently got dosed with the ‘acidic blood’. (Side note: I need to remind Rilus of the difference between ‘acidic’ and ‘venomous’. I mean, all right, it was moderately low on the pH scale but all the same...)

Rilus was ... interesting. I mean, he was ... I suppose the best term is ‘creeped out’, but there was more than that. I’m not entirely sure what it was doing to him, but he had probably the least trying time of all of them, one way or another. The worst he got was the isolation, the misdirection ... and, oddly, some sense of other people’s emotional states. I’m not entirely sure why experiencing the world at least in part the way I do would be considered something to ... erm, ‘creep him out’, but I suspect it was something to do with the fact that he’s never been entirely comfortable with ‘that Forcey stuff’, as he puts it. Honestly, while I regret the discomfort that must have caused him ... I can’t help but think it would be interesting to ask, when things have died down, what he makes of my day-to-day input.

I think the worst part for me was not being able to help them. I could sense their emotional states, yes, but I couldn’t pinpoint them to a location. Also, I was busy. I found the artefact storage room easily enough but every time I managed to cleanse and destroy an artefact, another two started to ... well, wake up. They were feeding off the emotional imbalance of the others. It was a bit of a quandary, I have to admit - I wanted to help them, and needed to help them if I was going to actually keep ahead of the artefacts’ nerfery ... but if I left to find them, more would be waking up and increasing the head-nerfing and it would be even harder to actually help them. So I was stuck more or less burning myself out to at least keep a sort of status quo, hoping that someone would get free.

Turned out that Rilus did. I don’t know if I’ve formed some kind of connection to him over the years or if it was just that I was putting out so much cleansing energy that even being in my vicinity broke through the hallucinations and Dark Side influence. It might have been both for all I know. All I know for sure is that Rilus managed to get through on comms, found my medkit and dosed himself with that Flames serum I came up with all those years ago. I keep some handy just in case, as it’s proved to be very multipurpose. Rilus administered it to the others and we finished the job of destroying the artefacts.

...Yes, I know we were tasked to retrieve them for Rosfren. I don’t nerfing care. I didn’t care when we got the assignment beyond being grateful that I’d been pointed to some Dark Side artefacts to take out of working order, and I don’t care now. He’ll just have to learn to deal with disappointment.

In any case, once I finally recovered from the level of burnout that had me not even knowing which end of an injector vial was up, I set to work on an antivenin for Kaelira. Rilus managed to keep her stable with a standard antivenin, but she did need something a little more tailored. It was sort of nice to get back to biochemistry again; it’s been awhile. We have a meeting with Lord Rosfren soon, and we’ll be trying to get him to back off. I’m hoping this can be resolved peacefully and that we can set him and his considerable resources against the Zakuul, rather than against us ... but I’m not counting on it. I am still taking the bahat-mint tea in unreasonable quantities against the headache that comes from quite that level of ... *ahem* ... ‘I WANT HIS FACE’ ... hitting me in the head from all angles.

I don’t know what it is about my little sister. It’s like ... she has that Jedi thing about attachments, but attachments find her anyway and she ends up with the most loyal friends-family in the galaxy and I end up with a smuggler-type who’d take a blaster bolt for her turning up at my metaphorical door saying “Hey, your little sister’s still alive after an impossible situation, so you know, and Things Happened”.

The last time, it was, “Your sister survived the Sacking of Coruscant and now she’s a Jedi Knight and joined some ultra-heroic subsect that keeps its own paramilitary unit” coming from this cyborg PI. This time, this Zabrak guy turns up going, “Your sister survived the assault on Kuat - well, the assault on Rylan III because she wasn’t at Kuat, but same difference - after becoming a Jedi Master and is now running her own little resistance group and refugee settlement and setting up a second settlement and oh yeah she’s married now”.

Y’know, I think everyone expected me to be more surprised than I was. But, see, last time? My brave and gregarious little sister meeping and hiding behind people? That surprised me. But I remember the little girl who lectured someone twice her size for pushing me down in a playground, who hugged a wild kath hound, who could always talk me into her little adventures as a toddler. Her leading a group? My only reaction was ‘about kriffing time’. It’s good to see her closer to whole.

So these people have been good for her, not just good to her. Though they’ve been that too. Her sisters - I don’t know what that makes me to them, but they’ve got that plotting feel about them that makes me think someone’s going to throw adoption papers at me - welcomed me with open arms. Literally. Ever been hugged by three people at once, all of them apparently determined to squeeze your brains out your ears? I actually needed bruise salve and Lira tells me that I’m lucky Al-- Altay-- kriff it; ALTI - didn’t launch herself at me with a jetpack. They all started talking at once after that and it finally came out that they’d split into teams to set me up my own quarters on this desert settlement they call Port Knowhere and the new one they’re looking for new settlers for that doesn’t have a name yet. “So you’ll always have a home to go to with us”, they said. I guess I wouldn’t mind adoption papers if someone flings them at my head. Don’t think there are better sisters, except the one blood-related to me.

One better sibling (except the one blood-related to me), though. Rilus Harridin. No longer a corporal, still a doctor, now my brother-in-law. Lira told me that when she went missing after the Zakuul attacked Rylan III, Rilus never gave up on her. Alti I understand - she’s the type who gets an idea into her head and never lets go. But this guy ... not a smuggler or a bounty hunter or a pirate, but fell in with this excitable lunatic for a whole year, looking for his ‘doll’. Never gave up. Never got disheartened. Put up with the weirdness and helped with conflict resolution and translated ‘excitable Alti’ to Basic. It paid off, obviously, and now I have a brother-in-law. Guess I don’t have to tell him that I have a blaster and have learned how to use it.

...I probably should anyway. Brother’s job, and all.

Then there’s these others. The Zabrak, X’antho ... this guy is made of wonder. Literally. All I get from him is “Wow; how’d I get this lucky?” and this growing sense of wanting to do nice things for people. It’s like my sister threw a switch in him somehow, nudged him into his place in the galaxy, where he’s happy and feeling like he’s doing what he’s been put here to do, and I think he knows it. Plus watching a Zabrak, even if he wasn’t ever the stereotypical Zabrak, leading little kids around on the back of a tauntaun is probably one of the cutest things I’ve ever witnessed.

Kaelira Lakara and Jai-din Sortek are more reserved, but Kaelira, at least, is noticeably happy I’m around for what I mean to Lira rather than my way with plants. Then again, I try to keep clear of Sortek, mostly because he’s one of the former Marran I never really sussed out. Kaelira, though ... the stories I’ve heard. Saved my sister’s sanity. Unleashed assault cannon nightmare retribution on a droid that gut-shot my sister. For that alone, I like her. She reminds me of a younger, less disapproving version of that Jedi Master Lira always talked about - the one with the cybernetic arm who hauled me out of the Rokhans’ burning farmhouse that one time. Not exactly given to obvious gestures of affection, but mess with the people she’s sworn to protect and she will mess with your face.

The weird thing is my sister’s influence on them, in the small things. Almost all of them use ‘nerf’ as a swear word. Even the former Republic military and the smuggler. The only ones who don’t are Rilus, Sortek and the Chiss, that I’ve met so far. Even the Mandalorian. Aranar’aliit. He found out I could grow red gourds out here, given seeds enough, and he went Alti levels of excitable. I can about forgive him for starting a cult with my sister as its deity figure. Plus it’s funny to hear this stream of Mando’a swearing interspersed with ‘nerf’ when he drops a supply crate on his foot.

So I’m going to spend a few weeks here, making some tweaks to their irrigation systems - they’ve been doing pretty well, but there’s room for improvement. After that, I’ll probably spend most of my time on this other settlement, the jungle one. It’s going to be the source of most of their produce, after all. I’ll come back often when I bring and collect supplies, and to visit, but ... my sister has her own life. I'm glad to be a part of it, and I’ll keep being part of it, but ... I don’t have to be right on top of her all the time. She’s got her own life. I can let her live it. But I can be part of it, and I’ve got this bunch of well-meaning lunatics to thank for it.

PERSONAL LOG - KEEPER FYET-GREYSTORM

BEGIN AUDIO PLAYBACK

I have yet more cause to be grateful for the bahat-mint tea. Which Primatrix Alasha calls ‘the blue tea’ but ... well, colours. At least I know what blue looks like, thanks to her.

...I miss her.

She’s not gone, is the thing. She’s still with the Marran, though granted spending most of her time on the Nova Talon these days. Just ... she’s different. I understand why. I’ve seen why in her blood tests. The Harvest is hitting her hard and the changes are getting to her. I understand. I sympathise. Just ... that does not make her any more approachable. So I miss her. I miss well-meant snark. I miss ... feeling understood. Now I watch every word, every action. I don’t know what will get me snapped at.

Which I suppose is part of the rest of the issues. Apparently Klasisa, the Archon’s padawan, reported to the Jedi Council that she felt that the Archon was in some way compromised by the Garhoon, being influenced by the Queen somehow. It’s possible, but ... I haven’t seen any indication of it. I do think that there’s a ... problematic divide at this point, though. For the Archon and Primatrix Alasha, it’s ... the overall impression seems to be that to them, the Garhoon civil war is ‘their people’ first, and a fight against the darkness second. I ... don’t know how much truth to that there is. In the face of their reaction to the situation on Alpherides versus the situation on the Garhoon prison world... Well, I would like the clarification, but as long as it is a fight against the darkness, I’m hardly about to gainsay the Archon’s orders or question whether his mind is his own. No matter how old the Queen is, and even if there are ways around the Flames kicking off, if the Queen’s intentions aren’t strictly dark. After all, the Flames did not stop the Queen from inducing a state of relaxation in Primatrix Alasha - and yes, I know it was perceived as for her own good.

But therein lies the problem. The Queen may have been right in that instance, but the issue with the Garhoon is that they seem to be of the impression that with age comes wisdom, and therefore they are wiser than all of us, and know best. There’s an expectation that we will follow unquestioning no matter what they ask and how few details they give. There’s an expectation that we will simply trust that their intentions are honourable. Or at least, that’s the impression given by the Queen and by Agthas. I tried to explain that perhaps a little humility might not go amiss, but ... that did not go over well. Perhaps I didn’t explain it properly, but being told that the Garhoon would not try to put themselves in our shoes because to empathise too deeply with individuals who they will long outlive is too ... emotionally trying for them ... it put paid to the conversation a bit. I understand that, but ... only on an intellectual level. If I lived as long as they do ... I’d like to think that I’d embrace every experience, every brief and fragile life, and carry it when they were gone. A person returns to the Force, after all; life is infinite. Its infinite variety of shapes is what makes the galaxy worth living in all that time.

In any case, the summation is that there is tension enough around the Rest that it bludgeons me on a regular basis, thus the headaches, thus the bahat-mint tea. I miss speaking to Alasha over things. I wish I knew what was going to happen when the Archon gets back. Agthas says he might never trust us again after what his padawan did. I hope that’s not true. It’s not him we question. Or at least, I don’t. I don’t know enough about the Queen or Agthas to be sure, though I like him, in a way. If it weren’t for the subject matter, I’d find our philosophical debates quite interesting.

The Jedi have been ordered to cease all work on things involving the Garhoon until the Archon’s return. This includes the Doom, apparently. You can’t just pause a research project, though. Samples degrade. Time skews results. I’m still working on it, but they didn’t know I was working on it anyway. That ... did worry me, the implication that they shouldn’t know, but ... I won’t let a species die this way. Ostensibly this is part and parcel of working on Ly’nai’s fertility or potential lack thereof, but that only goes so far. I’ve been at this for over a week, I have preliminary data coming in, and the only way I will stop is if someone prohibits me entirely. And even then ... I honestly don’t know.

Meantime, Alpherides. It’s all gone entirely to nerf and we’re apparently having to face a being that’s a combination of many powerful Sith presences who is making the planet like unto a Ziost. At least I managed to clear Zhara and Maelana (who is still in the brig and may be looking at the end of her military career) and thus not accept the punishment due them in their stead at the hearing, before it all went to nerf. I don’t imagine it would have gone much differently even if Mae hadn’t got Zhara to drug Tyvis Rist. Either way, all I know for sure is that we go down in less than 48 hours to evacuate the Jedi enclave and hopefully destroy the Sith in question, whatever he is now. I know it’s not a Garhoon prison holding a mad and powerful prince who may lay waste to the galaxy if freed because, among other things, the Six had been using him and his ilk like living batteries for a very long time and left them to feel the passage of time in their prisons instead of providing them the mercy of a return to the Force... But it’s still the Dark Side and it’s still threatening an entire people.