Mara Jade Skywalker

I’m going to be cleaning, so reponses will be intermittent, but throw some stuff at my children, pls.

It’s always nice to meet new people and make new enemies. 

Rhys laughed at the thought of some of the people she knew cringing their way through Ryloth’s serpentine underground warrens. “Well, Bespin was a lot brighter than Ryloth, that’s for sure, but a lot of the city was even more cramped than those caverns so we did all right.” She wrinkled her nose and added, “Better views on Bespin, though. You can’t beat a sunset on a gas giant.”

She shrugged off Mara’s sympathy about the Vens – not because she didn’t appreciate it, but because it wasn’t necessary. “Nawara’s clan wasn’t too impressed with his choosing a career in Imperial Law to begin with,” she explained lightly. “They liked when he got a slot in Rogue Squadron of course, because they saw that as being something that brought honor to the whole gang, but by then he’d already gotten out of the habit of caring about their opinions. I don’t think they ever had a big falling-out – if they did, he’s never mentioned it anyway – but if they were ever close, that ended years before I came along.”

Rhysati had been sad about that initially, but it hadn’t taken her long to realize that both she and Nawara were better off without those hide-bound snooty old traditionalists poking their lekku in their life. Her family had never been able to wrap their heads around her choices, either – although in their case, at least they’d always remained fond if exasperated – and her marrying Nawara had caused them to shake their heads no harder than had her flitting off across the galaxy or joining the New Republic military…although she could have done without the unsurprised sympathy during their brief falling-out.

She wondered how that was going for Mara. “What about you?” Rhys asked, shifting so she could lean back against the wall as they talked. “Personally, I’d rather have a hundred angry Twi’lek elders scowling at me than one angry Alderaanian princess…” She said it like a joke, but Rhys meant every word of it. “But you seem to get on well with Luke’s family?” That was how it looked to an outsider, anyway. “I hope?”

Mara nodded with understanding. She knew that Twi’lek culture was very honor-driven. Anyone who had ever even spoken to a Twi’lek in passing could surmise that. She just hadn’t really thought about how it might effect a non-Twi’lek in a relationship. 

“They’re awfully traditionalist about somethings aren’t they? Twi’leks, I mean,” Mara said, resting her chin on her hand. “I can’t imagine that’s always been such smooth sailing or the two of you, but I’m glad to know that you’re making it work.” 

She snorted at Rhysati’s assessment of Leia. “I’m not disagreeing with that. I like Leia. I like to think she likes me. Honestly, it’s nice to have... I’ve never really had girlfriends, y’know? I have friends, but Leia’s become sort of like a confidante, and that’s nice.” 

Jaina Solo: The power to believe in myself?

Mara Jade: No, a lightsaber.

“I hear that,” Rhysati agreed vehemently. “I was never going to be one of those boring women who just married one person and settled down with them for the rest of forever.” She wrinkled her nose and sighed. “Then Nawara had to come along being all dashing and sincere and delicious, and ruin all my childhood dreams. The cad.” She smirked.

There was a special smirk for Corran, though. Rhys had had years to perfect it, and it came out with a snicker as Mara pleaded for mercy. “You’re going to take a Corellian’s word?” she teased. “About another Corellian? Mara, I thought you were supposed to be clever.” Not that Rhys, too, didn’t know far more about Corran than she’d ever wanted to – but a lot of that came from Ooryl, too. Which was somehow worse than Mirax, in a way…

It was Mara’s comment about naming prices that had her positively cackling, though, the sound drawing a few curious glances their way. "Now who’s tempting whom?” she chortled. “Anyway, I don’t see what you’re complaining about. You only have to have one ceremony. I’d barely finished enjoying our nice, simple, straightforward little kiss-and-promise scene on the bridge of Wedge’s new flagship before I had to fly-off to Ryloth for a proper wedding with the families.” She mock-shuddered. “Both of them.”

She raised an eyebrow at Mara. “The only good thing was that my parents had spent enough many years on Bespin to not be claustrophobic in the underground warrens. Not great compensation for the fact that absolutely no one in the Ven Clan was happy that their silver-tongued golden-boy was marrying an ugly human, I have to say.” The smirk came back as she added slyly, “So it’s just as well that Nawara didn’t actually much like any of his relatives to begin with, eh?”

Mara felt a little bit silly. She had actually forgotten about the whole... in-laws thing. She was never going to have any and neither was Luke, so the whole concept had slipped her mind entirely. 

Luke had family, yes, but Han and Leia hardly felt like in-laws at this point. 

“Oh, geez. I’m sure that was lovely,” Mara winced, “I’ve only been on Ryloth on a handful of occasions, but I can imagine that would have gone badly for anyone who isn’t a fan of small, underground places.”

She nodded sympathetically. She’d heard that this sort of problem was often prevalent in families with mixed-species couples. Aesthetic for one wasn’t always aesthetic for all. And, Twi’leks were fiercely protective of their culture on a good day. 

Talon Karrde and Mara Jade by the lovely @ymirr-art-blog!

Ymirr has posted a couple of SWEU portrait roundups over the last couple of years and I have had their tumblr commission page bookmarked for AGES. I like to get art and fic for my birthday, so I caved in and commissioned these precious babes from Ymirr in January. 

Happy birthday to MEEEE~