#bobkitten

OK, I'm gonna use this as an excuse to talk about my favourite thing in the world: pretentious symbolic dream sequences. Specifically, Faith's in chapter 16 (Seeing Red).

(Spoilers up to Chapter 19 of To Live In The World)

Okay, okay, okay, so I wrote waaaaay too much because apparently I had to work through the angst first (Look Dooku, already bitter and being courted by Palpatine and literally about to leave the Jedi Order because fuck you and fuck this getting saddled with a roughly 5-6 year old Ahsoka would not be A Happy Man Okay With This. Qui Gon had to kick his teeth in before Dooku stopped being a neglectful asshole, and then he still needed to get judged harshly by Anakin (who was ready to commit a minor case of major murder) and Obi-Wan before coming around to it. That is not my fault and I won’t apologize, but unless you really want the angst Imma skip it for what this made me actually think of and want to write out). There was a lot of angst lol, BUT can you picture it? For this to work out, Dooku would need to not leave the Order or Republic. And you know what that means? Time for Palpatine choked on a bagel trope, my favey fave! Enjoy Dooku manhandling his feral trash child!

Padme wasn’t sure how she managed to not laugh instantly. She had become the youngest Senator of Naboo after Palpatine’s unfortunately early passing, and had just finished another exhausting day of learning on the job when she’d run straight into Master Dooku. Who was well known as a Jedi scholar and diplomat, literally digging through the trash while hissing into it. And then, like a magician pulling something impressively large out of his hat, he had pulled a togruta Padawan from the trash by her robes.

It was quite the sight!

The Padwan smiled brightly, “Hello Master, fancy seeing you here!”

“Ah yes,” Dooku said drolly, “whatever might I be doing here considering my Padawan seemed to have vanished from her rotation assisting Senator Taa?”

Padme looked at the young girl again, she must have been older than Padme had assumed if she had a rotation with Orn Free Taa. She did not envy the Padawan, in fact, she could understand wanting to hide in a trash bin to avoid him herself.

“I wouldn’t say I vanished,” the Padawan made no effort to be released, instead hanging happily from Master Dooku’s hand like the galaxy’s least repentant massiff. “I saw that my presence was not required and decided to make better use of my time and his.”

“By hiding in the trash!? Ahsoka...” Dooku sighed heavily before finally putting his apprentice down.

And oh, wasn’t that a bit funny? Anakin had recently met with her for lunch, uncaring of his stained mechanics clothes in the high end restaurant he’d gushed about his best friend Ahsoka. Who was a togruta. She could only hope luck was on her side this time and they were one in the same.

“What?” Ahsoka bristled as she stomped a foot, “It is a better use of my time! It’s not like Free Taa-”

Dooku spoke in the same tired and broken tones that Padme usually associated with her own parents on learning what she’d done this time. “Senator Taa, you will be respectful of the Senator’s title.”

Not that Padawan Ahsoka seemed to be listening. “-and he isn’t even trying to help me understand politics because I’m too young and it’s not earning him any credits-”

“Ahsoka…” Dooku sighed heavily again. Now that she thought about it, it was rather like the way Obi-Wan often sighed Anakin’s name. He rubbed one hand against his face as if to wash his exhaustion off with it. “You are required to finish a rotation to a Senator’s satisfaction, and this is the third time you’ve run away.”

The Padawan crossed her arms and glared at the floor. “They started it.”

“I am running swiftly out of contacts for you to spend this rotation with, how many times do you wish to fail this particular course?”

Padawan Ahsoka scuffed her boot on the carpet, mumbling in embarrassment.

“Padme,” Corde half hearted grumbled through her smile, “no.”

“Padme, yes!” She whispered back before stepping forward. “Pardon me Master Dooku, Padawan Ahsoka, I am afraid I overheard just a bit of your conversation.”

Dooku actually blushed, which she was going to hold as something of a personal award for the rest of her life, and Ahsoka’s lekku wiggled and shifted colors at the attention.

“While I am rather new to the Senate myself, I have been in politics my whole life. I would love to take Ahsoka on, and it would greatly benefit us both I think.” Padme smiled before adding on, “I have heard great things about your from Jedi Skywalker after all.”

Ahsoka, somehow, managed to blush harder. Her lekku going almost more black than blue. Her voice was rather small as she more asked than said, “...Senator Amidala?”

“Yes, that would be me. A pleasure to finally meet you.” Padme walked with confidence before extending her hand for a shake.

Dooku appeared to be either counting backwards from ten or had a massive headache. Perhaps both. Ahsoka, however, happily shook her hand with a wild grin growing on her face now that she realized she wasn’t in trouble.

“Master? I think this could be a very good fit for me,” Ahsoka said, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Padme literally saw her pulled out of a trash can not five minutes ago she wouldn’t have guessed the problems she’d run into here at the Senate. Her posture and tone were spot on for any seasoned politician in the dome.

“Well, that is two against one, but I suppose it is up to you Master Dooku.” Padme kept her voice as pleasant as possible.

After all, in a different timeline Dooku could have been another planetary ruler like herself.

“You will finish this rotation Padawan, and you will behave yourself.” “Yes Master.”

“Thank the Senator.”

“Thank you for the opportunity Senator Amidala.”

Padme smiled, but was able to hold her laughter in. “You are welcome Padawan.”

“Excellent,” Dooku bowed to her, “I wash my hands of this then. I will see you at evening meal Padawan, do not be late.”

Despite the look he was giving Padawan Ahsoka, Padme had a good feeling it was mostly for show. Especially with the way Ahsoka grinned back like a bright white supergiant and bounced on her toes. “Yes Master!”

They watched as Master Dooku spun on his heel and stalked back out of the Senate before Padme finally allowed herself to giggle just a little bit, which was really more Corde’s fault for tugging on her sleeve like that. Ahsoka seemed unbothered as she walked over to join them.

“So, what are we doing next and do you have any embarrassing stories about Ani?”

Padme snickered, “Let’s get a schedule set up and then we can talk about Anakin.”

cosima is the librarian.  she loves people and knowledge so it was the perfect job when she was looking for something.

delphine reads like books are going to stop existing soon.  in her free time, she’s reading more often than she’s not.  so the library is her favorite place to go.

shay reads almost as much as delphine.  but also her veterans’ group therapy sessions meet there.

cosima is ass over tea kettle for delphine; the quiet, shy woman who comes in at opening saturday mornings.  she returns 7 books, hangs out in the periodicals until lunch, and then checks out 7 more books.  to cosima, she is the Dream Woman.

there’s a kid’s craft activity in the community room right before shay’s group meets.  so cosima is usually cleaning it out when shay “punctuality is a virtue” davydov shows up.  when she notices how much of a mess is usually left behind, she starts to show up even earlier to help her clean up.

one week, delphine doesn’t show up on saturday.  but shay does.  they get to talking and she mentions that her girlfriend is sick so she thought she should pick up some books for her to keep her occupied.

and cosima is sad bc shay’s happily already in a relationship with a bookish lady.

and the next week delphine is back.  and cosima is like “i missed you, saturday mornings are usually really slow.  i needed my buddy.”  and delphine is like “i was sick, so my girlfriend brought my books back.”

(idk if you’ve made the connection yet, cosima certainly hasn’t, but shay and delphine are together already.)

and cosima’s like… “really?  both of the girls i have crushes on are taken?  i need to get out more.”

one week delphine picks up “The Ethical Slut” (a book i’ve been eyeing in thriftbooks.com for a while now) not for any particular reason, just bc she was working her way through the sexuality section.  after she reads it she and shay talk about it, in a totally theoretical sense.

it comes up that, if they were polyamorous, shay would want to ask out cosima.

and delphine is like… are you serious?  me too.

and then they have to dive back into their discussion bc….  they might be actually serious about this?

a couple weeks later, shay and delphine go to the library together and cosima is like “OOOOHHHH you’re dating each other okay.”  and they ask cosima out to drinks.  which cosima is confused but into.  they meet up after her shift and talk about dating.  and cosima is very into what they are proposing.  

they exchange numbers and…. live happily ever after