#derry writes

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Kallus talked about how Zeb had flipped his whole world upside down, but he never seemed to grasp that he’d done the same for Zeb. For so long the Empire and everyone in it had been a fortress; unmoving, unyielding, unbeatable. The odds were stacked against the rebels and would never change. Zeb had been prepared to die fighting the Empire, but after everything he’d seen he didn’t hold out hope of winning. He’d always pictured going out in a blaze of glory, even after finding Lira San. Then Kallus had done the impossible. He’d changed himself and changed the odds.

Chapter 4 of Woven is up on Ao3!

Summary: Kallus loses a bet.

Thanks so much to @loth-creatures for being my beta reader for this one! Everyone who sees this post is legally required to go read their Lothwolfwalkers comic, it’s amazing GO

Fic: Untitled (Hera’s first mission with Kallus)

“You know,” Hera sighed, “when we pulled you out of that pod after Atollon I thought the crew might finally have a responsible adult to balance out the crazy.”

(I’m working on something a little different y’all ;) )

For as long as she could remember, Agniezka Kallus Orrelios had begged her fathers every night before bed to tell the story of their escape from Bahryn.

“How did you get out of the cave, Adan?”

“You know how we got out of the cave, Plum,” her father would chuckle from his seat on her bed, his big hand ruffling her pale curly hair. She would wrap her arms around it and wriggle out from beneath her blankets to climb up onto his shoulders.

“I like the way you tell it,” she’d insist. Her fathers would smile at each other and then her Adan would heave a great dramatic sigh and continue the tale of their escape.

“It was your Da’s idea to use the pillars but he couldn’t get up them by himself.”

“Did your leg hurt a lot, Da?” Agni interrupted, craning her head backwards and upside down to look at her other father behind her. His brown eyes twinkled in amusement as he tipped her back up, saving his husband further wincing at the pull on his fur. He leaned over the bed to wrap his arms around them both in a loose mimicry of how he’d clung to the Lasat’s back all those years ago.

“It did. But I was distracted by the bonzami coming back to eat us-” he said, “-and by how handsome your father looked up close,” he added devilishly.

Agni pressed her cheek into his long blonde hair. “Tell the stoorryyy,” she would whine when her parents inevitably got caught up making moon eyes at each other. Her Adan lifted her off his shoulders and held her in the air as he stood.

“Your dad certainly didn’t think I was handsome when I-“ he dragged out the sound and pretended to lose his balance, swinging Agni around in the air. “-Threw him!” he finished, tossing her shrieking in delight onto her bed. Her Da scooped her up and began tucking her back in, saying,

“He threw me so hard I stuck to the ceiling. Then when I fell he threw me again, from on top a bonzami’s head, right out of the hole where our escape pod had come through!”

Her father crouched by her bed and placed a stuffed version of the very creatures that had chased them in Agni’s arms. “I wouldn’t have made it out myself if your Da hadn’t grabbed my Bo-rifle.”

Agni squeezed her toy and tried to imagine the enormity of a real bonzami, an animal that could swallow men as large as her fathers in one bite.

Were you scared? The question wasn’t even worth asking. Her parents were warriors. Surely they didn’t feel childish things like fear.

“I bet I could climb an ice pillar,” she declared. “I made it to the top of the rock pile by the cliff today!”

“Maybe you will someday,” her Da said and kissed her forehead. “But you’ve definitely got more growing to do before you go running off to Bahryn.”

Agni pouted while her Adan purred a laugh and rubbed his cheek against hers, her purple stripes a perfect mirror of his.

“Goodnight, my love,” he rumbled as he turned out the light, leaving only the glow of the fake stars scattered across her bedroom ceiling.

Scrimshaw follows Kallus on his journey from Coruscant orphan to ISB agent. It’s gonna set up a lot of stuff that’ll be important in the big fic I’ve been writing in my head for forever that takes place after the Rebels finale.

There’s definitely gonna be some real dark stuff in there so reader discretion is advised. I listen to The Magnus Archives and Ethel Cain to get in the right headspace for writing. I want Scrimshaw to be the story of a good kid who always seems to make what the reader knows is the wrong choice but to him seems like the only option.

Here’s a snippet for you!:

“What’s with the new kid?”

“I think he’s sick. Or maybe he’s deaf.”

“How d’ya know it’s a ‘he’? We can’t see its face.”

“He looks like he’s got worms.”

“Shut up nerherder, you’ve got worms!”

The crowd of voices descended into a chorus of insults and scuffling. Alexsandr wished they’d all leave him alone, let him stay curled up in the corner trying to sink into the floor.

Sometimes the constant curious eyes and questions left him for a while; to eat, to work, to sleep. But one in particular always came back.

“Hey. It’s been a couple days now. You’re gonna starve if you don’t eat.”

It was hunger that pulled the little boy out of his shell shock. He slowly lifted his head from his arms and looked at the bag of food that crinkles in front of his face. His eyes trailed up a red arm to the face of the girl holding it out to him. She was a Twi’lek, about his age with crimson skin and purple eyes so dark they were almost black. She smiled at him with a gap in her front teeth.

Summary:

Agniezka has always wanted to go on a real adventure like in her fathers' stories. But when her family's ship gets shot down on their way to Kashyyk she gets far more than she bargained for. Threatened by dangerous wildlife and trandoshan trophy hunters, it's up to Agni and her sister to get help.