Too Many Fandoms, Not Enough Girl

Epilogue - Part 2

The end.

Thank you for everything.

Read Heartstopper Online

More info/buy the books: https://aliceoseman.com/

The Heartstopper webcomic has now concluded.

Epilogue letter in text form:

Cobb risked a prolonged inspection of his passenger, his hands on the controls of the landspeeder as it barreled full speed towards Freetown.  Din had slumped further down into the bucket seat and his helmet had tipped back to loll against the headrest.  Reassuringly, the pressure applied to the wadded up red bandana at his side was still firm.  It was difficult to tell from the angle and the color just how much blood his friend had lost. 

“I’ve felt better,” Din admitted, his voice carrying none of the urgency Cobb seemed to be feeling vicariously.  “We’re going to need to take care of this soon.” 

“Well, you’re in luck then!  We’re not that far out.  Ten… fifteen, max.”

“I’ll try not to pass out between now and then.” 

Cobb felt his guts sink for the third time this trip.  “That’s good.  You do that.”    

He broke the rules and came careening into town, bypassing the area designated on the outskirts for parking, and shot down the main street.  Townsfolk out and about stopped to witness the commotion.  Others ducked out from inside their dwellings.  Cobb pulled up in front of his home, cut the engine, and threw himself out of the vehicle.  “Jo!”

She was already running towards them. 

“I’m gunna need the trauma kit.  Also, get Shand on the comm.  We might need an evac.”

Like, he sees this dude, some random stranger in pure beskar carrying not only his child, but Bobas armor through the fucking dune of tatooine and his brain short-circuited

He doesn't think anyone else treated his armor with that much respect ever.

How this stranger was ready to throw hands to protect the armour of a stranger, without knowing if it's owner is even alive, and then he recognized his right to it, willing handing it back.

Trusting him to save his child.

And then, then he learns that this man flew into a fucking Krayt dragon and blew him up from the inside.

For his armour.

Turning your back on Boba Fett is dangerous, but Din does it with ease because he is oh so kind and trusting.

He deemed him as ally, as friend.

And it takes his breath away.

He doesn't really care about Mandalore but he cares about Din and he thinks there was never someone more fit to be a ruler.

He rules with Fennec by his side. He has no need do bow to someone. People should bow to them.

Except Din. He was special.

Someone he wants by his side, someone he wants to support and watch him succeed.

Someone, he wishes to serve. To show him his devotion, to offer his heart and soul

Fennec teases him but he can't bring himself to care.

I submit for consideration, this little slice of life on Nevarro.

-

After they get back from this latest mission, Din has a bit of a self-reckoning. 

Grogu’s been sticking closer to him since they’ve been home. The kid’s even hesitant to go help the Anzellans if Din’s not in his line of sight. 

Din hasn’t been honoring his obligation as a Mandalorian. He should have taught his son what to do if he was hurt and Grogu had to get by alone. 

As time goes on, Grogu turns out to be an excellent blurrg rider, thanks both to his talent for communicating with animals through the Force and to the fact that Din buys treats for the blurrg whenever he's in town.

Every night before bedtime, Din and Grogu go out to the blurrg pen so Grogu can give each of them a handful of sweet grain, or maybe a crunchy round fruit or some spicy flatleaf, or whatever blurrg-safe delicacy the market had in stock. Grogu won't go to sleep otherwise. 

"Time for bed, kiddo."

Grogu didn't budge or show any signs of hearing his father.

"Hey."

Finally, he reluctantly turned.

Din interpreted his son's downturned ears and lackluster eyes. He put a hand on Grogu's shoulder, turning him further away from the window. With the other, he flicked the slats completely closed. Grogu responded by emitting a mournful whine.

"It's okay," Din reassured him as the rain intensified. The showers escalated into a deluge as the sound of thunder rumbled closer and longer. The crack of a nearby lightning strike seemed to shake the house and rainfall rushed with the sound of a river.

"We're safe. The gullies will lead the floods away from us."

His ears tucked in further.

Din picked him up, turned off the lights in the living room, and wandered into the bedroom. The single bedside lamp cast the room in an inviting glow. "Sometimes our bad memories can be trigged by something we see or hear. It was raining like this when I was taken. Are you thinking about that right now?"

Grogu had dug his head into an armpit, hiding. Din could feel him nod. A tiny gesture. A secret shared between them. An admission of feelings he didn't want to relive.

"You want to sleep with me tonight?"

Timeline here was imagined somewhere post-season 2, in a time when Grogu's back, they have a new ship (but not the N-1!), and Din's gotten a bit more complacent about letting the kid see him without the helmet on.

-

Grogu doesn’t care one way or the other about taking your basic bath. He submits placidly to having his face scrubbed and to having someone wash behind his ears. He does love a bubble bath, or a tub full of floaty toys, because then there’s something to do. Bubbles make shapes and patterns! Toys can be moved around and pushed underwater so they pop up again! They can be filled with water that can then be flung on the floor! (Din sighs and keeps an extra towel handy.)

But you know what’s really interesting? Other people’s baths. Other people’s baths usually involve them doing something behind a curtain, or behind a closed door. What are they doing and how come Grogu doesn’t get to do whatever it is, too?

Din’s used to having a tiny face peeping around the water-blocking curtain in the new ship’s refresher room. They’ve negotiated a deal, which Grogu mostly sticks to: Wait until the noise of the sonic’s turned off and Din has grabbed for the towel that hangs on a hook. Then Grogu’s welcome to sit nearby while Din shaves and trims his mustache.

Peli, on the other hand, is not at all accustomed to having an interested audience. And she and Grogu have not worked out a deal. When Din arrives back early from a job, having paid Peli extra to keep an eye on the kid, there are screams from a room at the back of the shop and he dashes in that direction, blaster drawn.

Peli is standing in a half-filled bathtub, clutching at a robe that’s hanging half off her shoulders, its hem trailing in the water. Her wet hair is plastered to her head. Grogu is calmly looking up at her as she glares at Din. “You need to teach your child some manners."

Din & Grogu, fried, greasy, and spicy!!

Grogu vs. the Grease Detonator

"You really want that one?" Din asked, pointing to the menu where a holo of a giant fried feast sparked in and out of existence. Grogu clapped with excitement. Din was less than enthused.

This place wasn't exactly a fine dining establishment, which usually suited him fine, but everything he could see on the menu looked like a one-way ticket to the vacc tube. And this was the best spot they'd seen all night. The kid had to eat something. He resigned himself to cleaning up some form of biohazard by the end of the night.

"One Grease Detonator," Din said, long-suffering. The shifty-looking Rhodian in a grease-stained cap took his credits and got to cooking, which consisted of dunking something that already looked fully cooked and congealing back into a sizzling vat of fat. His nose twitched under his helmet. It did smell kind of good, though. The Rhodian hauled it out of the vat and dusted it with a shower of red and green flakes from a rusted seasoning shaker, then tossed it into a pile of flimsi and handed it to Din.

"There ya go. Enjoy," the Rhodian said.

Din shook his head, then found a cramped corner of the bar to tuck himself and the kid away. He set the food down on the rickety table. The grease was already glowing through the flimsi, not exactly an encouraging sign, but Grogu's eyes gleamed with excitement as he grabbed a steaming nugget of some kind of meat and crammed it into his mouth.

"Just be careful," Din said. "I'm not sure how spicy it --"

Grogu hiccupped. He blinked in surprise at the sound, then grabbed another nugget and inhaled it just as quickly. Hiccup. Hiccup. The kid's eyes watered, and he looked up at Din, lower lip trembling.

"You okay? It's just spicy food. It does that sometimes," Din said, though he was regretting everything and calculating how long it would take to get back to the ship and to a privy.

Snot poured out of Grogu's nose, but he snorted as hard as he could, sucking in some of the mucus dripping down his face. Six more hiccups burst out of him. The little ridges above his eyes creased into a look of sheer determination. He reached out for another nugget, and took a defiant bite.

"We can look for something else, you don't have to eat it all --"

But Grogu waved Din's protestations away and took another bite. He hiccupped so forcefully that three people in the crowded bar turned and stared, but -- and Din had to be proud of him for it -- he kept eating. And he finished every last bite. His cheeks and ears were bright red, sweat dripped down his forehead, snot and tears leaked down his face -- but he gave Din a cheeky little look and let out the biggest belch he'd ever heard, and Din just had to laugh.

"Good job, kid."

sometimes I’m reminded that there are still people who don’t know ao3 was literally created by incest shippers — and the site’s sole purpose is to 1. be completely against censorship and 2. host all kinds of dark, taboo fics that are banned on other platforms — and the first ever fic that was posted on ao3 was a fic about an incest ship from supernatural.

you are in the house that was created by freaks. for freaks (affectionate). every disgusting thing you can think of is rightfully allowed and welcomed on ao3, because they are exactly the reasons why ao3 was created in the first place.

ao3 was created because its creators got tired of censorship, they got tired of dark and taboo fics getting banned on pro-censorship platforms, and they wanted a place that was safe for ALL FICS THAT WERE DARK AND TABOO.

ao3’s main principle is being against censorship and being proship / profic.

there are some things in fiction that make me uncomfortable, but instead of shaming people who are just minding their own business and not harming anyone in real life, I choose to curate my own internet experience by blocking/muting what I don’t want to see. ao3 has excellent tagging system, so instead of being rude, instead of asking why the world doesn’t revolve around your personal comfort, use their tagging system properly and you won’t see the things you don’t want to see.

it’s your job to curate what you see. it’s not other people’s jobs or responsibilities to censor themselves for your personal comfort. the world does not revolve around you.

also you cannot censor “only the things you personally hate” without expecting everything else, that isn’t of conservative beliefs, to be censored too. because censorship is a slippery slope and a fascist tool. I promise you there are people who think “why do tags for queer love even exist on ao3? they’re grooming children”.

if you allow the things that you hate to be censored — because someone with enough power gets to control what other people can and cannot create/consume, it will not stop at the things that you hate.