Jedi Council Forums - “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]

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Author	Topic: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
Thrawn McEwok Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: May '00	Date Posted: 9/10/05 7:58am Subject: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR] - Date Edited: 10/1/07 3:13pm (3 edits total) Edited By: Thrawn McEwok
	Against a backdrop of stars and darkness, two lazer-swords blaze and clash, green against red – a male human and an alien female, locked in the intimate, improvised dance of a lightsaber duel. Old scars and fresh sweat glisten on his skin; the black scales of her dragon-hide pelt glitter like diamonds in the night. In the Force, both of them are beacons of light. She thrusts at him again, striding powerfully forward in a march of stomps and slashes, driving him back towards the darkest corner of the vast starlit chamber, as though she owns the space and he belongs there. With every step, with every stroke, she varies the timing and angle of her strike – high chops, low thrusts, sideways slashes and circling thrusts. He catches every one. Then he vaults into the air, springing up in a Force-fuelled leap. He flips like an acrobat, and his sword slashes down as he drops, battering down against her blade. She grunts as she blocks, and gives ground, half a step. He lands like a spukamas, and is back on his feet in a flash of speed, lashing out. His sword singing like a whip as he drives two thrusts against her guard. It’s only on the third that she manages to block him squarely, and hold her ground. For a few passes, a few heartbeats, they fence against each other’s blade, but neither can find an opening. Quick again, he breaks away and steps back, and they both drop into guard – his blade aimed low towards her belly like an emerald-shafted javellin, hers crooked back over her shoulder – a bright, blood-painted cleaver. In the momentary pause before they dance in close again, they grin at each other. They are enjoying this. They are both Masters, both the children of harsh Outer Rim worlds – not so different as they seem on the outside. The Barabel woman has height and weight on her side, as well as all the natural advantages of belonging to one of the Galaxy's most perfect predator species. Standing well over six feet tall, her scaled skin is living armour, her body a corded cable of lean muscle, from her needle-fanged jaws to the tip of her raptor’s tail, from her clawed hands to her clawed feet. And every ounce of the weight and ferocity that defines her being is centred behind her Jedi blade. Her sparring-partner is slight even by human standards, and where her rhythm is broken by bursts of raw, savage energy, he answers with elegant, accomplished passes, understated almost to the point of diffidence; but there is no real indication in the way that he fights that he is anything less than her equal. The rest of the time, he ranges around the training room in acrobatic leaps and bounds, striking back from unexpected angles. He feints with the angle of his body behind his grip, and lunges out of the darkness, lightning speed. “This iz fun,” she says to him, cocking her head out of the way as she only half-deflects a lunge from him. “Is that what you call it?” he asks in answer, thrusting his blade up in a horizontal guard to catch the power of her chopping blow, then tumbing away to the left to avoid the followup kick. Saba Sebatayne laughs back at him, and spins her lightsaber handle in her hand as she charges. She attacks with raw power, inflected with sudden whipping strikes of subtlety. Luke Skywalker answers with grace and fluency, disguising the fact that his basic instincts are those of a bush-pilot, or a womp-rat. If there is a common chord that binds the two of them together, it is that both of them will use every means at their disposal to win the fight. Neither of them is afraid to fight dirty in the cause of good. They lock blades and wrestle, and it’s Luke who’s first to break the deadlock this time, kicking out with a scything heel-hook designed to sweep Saba’s legs from under her, forcing her to stumble back to avoid taking the fall. He closes, battering her blade down, negating her height advantage and forcing her to defend. She crouches, and feints his right, but he knows that she’s going come in straight on the left. As she straightens up, he’s already switching his blade across. What he doesn’t expect – because the idea only occurs to her at the last moment – is for her push back to her feet to become a full-body pouncing jump. Luke catches the lunge in a parry, and twists their lightsabers out to his left, sending her thrust coursing along the length of his own blade – but there’s simply no way to stop twice his own bodyweight’s worth of killer lizard, propelled straight into him by a Force-boosted leap. He crumples under the impact, brought down like any other quarry, and crunches again as he hits the deck, a human crashmat to break her fall. Both lighstabers fly out of their hands as the impact jars them, and the momentum of her leap carries them skidding across the floor in a crazy, scything spin; but by the time they skid to a stop, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind who’s lost the duel, and who has won. She’s on top of him, resting most of her weight on the forearm braced diagonally across his chest, on the knee and shin shoved down into his hip and inner thigh. He feels the clawed fingers of her free hand grip the deltoid of his left arm, her skin rubbing rough through his Jedi tunic. But his face shows only serenity, and it’s with the calm, bright gaze of a Jedi Master that he looks up into her alien eyes. Saba Sebatyne has big black eyes, deep-set beneath a ridged forehead. Her mouth is long and slim-lipped, full of fangs. But there’s something else in the way she tilts her head and narrows her eyes, something in the wrinkle of her forehead ridges and the way her broad, beak-like reptillian muzzle twitches as she looks at him. “This one enjoys that,” she says, smiling at him, with a tilt to her head that seems to ask: did you? Luke Skywalker looks back at her, at this massive reptoid alien that’s just beaten him in a lightsaber duel, and is currently crushing him to the deck; and, with a jolt of surprise, he realises – far too late – what she’s thinking. “Saba!” he gasps, almost laughing. She laughs back, taking his sudden flash of understanding as consent, and mashes her muzzle down against his lips, her long lizard tongue snaking into his mouth. Luke Skywalker gasps, and tries to struggle free, but her claws are crushing his biceps, and he finds himself gripping the alien flanks of her body, oddly aroused by the shape of her torso, the lean narrowness of the waist below the ribs. “No!” he says, thrashing free. “Saba, stop!” She pauses, and lifts away. In the Force, she feels satisfied, but curiosity still shines in her eyes. Disappointment. “Saba,” he breathes, trying to find other words. There are none. So he just looks at her Saba Sebatyne likes him – she’s still toying with the idea of celebrating her victory by tearing his clothes off and making love with him right here on the naked the deck. The scariest thing is, he doesn’t know if he could stop her. He’s not entirely sure he wants to. For a female of a species driven by predatory hunger, whose entire civilization is built around a rough-and-tumble, full-contact attitude to life, it could hardly be any other way. Puzzled, dazed from the impact, he looks into her big black eyes again. There’s a dangerous heat in those eyes, like low-burning coals – very different from the cold, hard black of her hide. You could say that her eyes have a crimson glow, shading into infra-red; or perhaps her scales are a dark, dark green, and it’s her eyes that are truly ebony. He frowns. Then she laughs. “Saba,” he says, his eyes switching anxiously. He swallows. “I’m married.” “I know,” she teases him, with a lazy look. “It’z cute, you humanz and your single matez.” “I’m very happy with Mara.” “Of course,” she nods, her tongue whetting on her lips. “But extra matez add to happinezz, not take it away.” “I’m very happy with Mara,” he repeats, trying to use the Force to give his words extra weight. “She… I, we. We don’t. We… no, Saba; I’m sorry. Mara is all I need, or want. And I’m loyal to her like that, as well. We took a vow.” “Loverz take vows, and break them too.” Saba’s claws tighten on his arms, her knee shifts against his crotch. As she intends, it makes him shiver. But he’s a Jedi Master, with the discipline and control that that implies. “Not us,” he says. “Not me and Mara. We’re happy together.” “Iz that so?” she inquires. “Yes,” he says. Voice flat. She shusshes her amusement – perhaps reconsidering, perhaps not. “Thiz one thikz you could uze a good kizz,” she teases, her accent thickening. She lifts one hand away from his arm to stroke his jaw, and her thumb-claw tickles his chin. “No,” Luke counters, trying to get a read on how serious she is, how much this is just a game. But black Barabel eyes don’t show emotions like human ones. They just smoulder quietly with passion, hunger and smoky amusement. “I’m quite happy enough kissing Mara, Saba. She’s… good enough, more than good enough.” “A better kizz, then,” she shrugs. In the Force, she is suddenly bright and open, laughing at him. Luke Skywalker, Master of the Jedi Order, clears his throat, and tries to shake her feelings out of his mind. She leans closer, her jaw thrusting with the same strength that she uses to wield her lightsaber. “Later, perhapz,” she laughs, sprining to her feet and thumping the deck with her tail in amusement. She reaches one clawed hand out, and her lightsaber is back in her grip. Flat on his back, Luke Skywalker watches her buckle her weapon back to her belt. From down here, she looks impossibly big, scary like a first crush. Crush, he thinks wryly, rubbing his chest. There’ll be a bruise there tomorrow. And probably on his lips as well. She throws his own lightsaber back to him, and grins as he catches it. “Perhaps,” he says, very slowly. I don’t think so, Saba. He takes a deep breath, and tries to remind himself of his wife. He has an unsettling feeling that Mara will just find this funny. But then he remembers what he felt in the moment when Saba kissed him, and he wonders how he can share that with his wife. He sees the way the Barabel is still looking at him now, her thoughts turned towards him, at once fond and predatory. In the Force, her attention finds an answer in his body, hot and heady. She laughs at his discomfort, and turns to leave the training room. Mara, he thinks, chastising himself. But his eyes track to Saba’s tail, swishing behind her as she strides proudly out through the door – a mocking good-bye wave and a teasing beckon in a single gesture. It’s a gesture she’s given him enough times before, after meetings, briefings and sparring-sessions – and he’s always answered with amusement and affection. There is a difference, he tells himself. But no amount of mental control can deny that she does – did – something to him. His control, his loyalty to Mara, feel strangely dishonest. He feels uneasy. What is the difference between the gestures that define their relationship and the kiss that she just offered him? Between his surprise and the fact she took it for consent; between what he felt in that moment, and how the thinks he ought to act? What’s just happened has highlighted a conflict between who he is and what he believes in. And he’s not at all sure how that sits with Jedi teaching. He’s built his entire life around the belief that openness to the Force involves surrendering your own desire for control, accomodating others people’s points of view, and trusting in your natural instincts. But… perhaps, he thinks, with a reluctant sigh – then blinks, and realises that he’s just conceded – even if only a little – to Saba Sebatyne’s proposition. “Oh, great,” he groans. “Oh, this is all I need.” -----signature----- A/T = OTP :===8[#]8===: Kyp/Jaina fans: stand up and be counted!
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Killik_Twilight Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 9/10/05 8:45am Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	Whoa… this is odd, but also very good, McEwok. Nice job. KT -----signature----- "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Spike2002 Title: Former FF-UK RSA and Arena Manager Registered: Feb '02	Date Posted: 9/10/05 9:40am Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	checks into a mental institute to clear his head of bad images -----signature----- There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
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Thrawn McEwok Title: TFN EU Staff Registered: May '00	Date Posted: 9/10/05 1:37pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	KT: Whoa… this is odd, but also very good, McEwok. Nice job. Thanks! Spike: checks into a mental institute to clear his head of bad images </Saba>"This one iz laughing at you..." Seriously, though; I don't think I have Luke's reactions/POV quite right, but I hope it makes a twisted sort of sense... - The Imperial Ewok -----signature----- A/T = OTP :===8[#]8===: Kyp/Jaina fans: stand up and be counted!
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JDH3 Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 9/10/05 5:06pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	That's just wrong on so many, many levels. All teasing aside, I really liked that. What that says about my tastes, I dare not speculate. Superb, Thrawn. JD. -----signature----- Winner of a Golden Ewok™ with Corellian Bloodstripes. Uncontrollable (LOTF AU): http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/29523035/r29532300/ The Future is Now: A Clone Wars Tale: http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/29270805/p1
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SilSolo Registered: Mar '04	Date Posted: 9/10/05 5:32pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	nice Saba fic. Not a whole lot of those around here. -----signature----- http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/27517284/p1/?11 Like this quick sketch: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32848083/ ? Then commission me. Prices are negotiable.
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Golden_Jedi Registered: Jun '05	Date Posted: 9/10/05 6:33pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	Whoa...! Mmmm, sticky, in many levels... But good, very good. -----signature----- New Bespin Café - come visit THE place for H/L fans http://boards.theforce.net/fan_fiction_resource/b10304/29538471 Diving (a H/L intertrilogy AU) http://boards.theforce.net/the_saga/b10476/27836852
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Tristitia Registered: Sep '05	Date Posted: 9/10/05 6:39pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	You manage to do a great job of capturing Saba's humor as it is depicted in the EU, but gulp Yeah -----signature----- I am a feeling that everything must end. The music. You and I. The moon and sun. Everything...
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Quiet_Mandalorian Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 9/10/05 7:06pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR] - Date Edited: 9/11/05 12:55pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Quiet_Mandalorian
	I'm going to have to study this... -----signature----- Fey'la was right! Bring Asyr Sei'lar to justice!
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jagsredlady Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 9/10/05 11:20pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	“Thiz one thinkz you could uze a good kizz,” Thiz one iz extremely amuzed and entertained. -----signature----- Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. ~ Mark Twain "He's not that good." ~ Jag Puh-leeze, she's not in his league..... The socks are multiplying like rabbits.
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Tahi Registered: Jun '02	Date Posted: 9/28/05 2:48am Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	Cool bananas, [bThrawn[/b]. I absolutely LOVE this. The portrayal of Saba is zpot-on - zzzzz zzzzzz zzzzzz - and it's so good to have her written as a creature with emotions and with such empathy and warmth. Thank you. I've noticed a lot of the non-humans don't really get explored on an emotional level in the EU. Wonderful work. So good to see a work of this nature on the boards. too. Kudos to the new order. I think it improves the scope of what we can post immeasurably. So thanks to all those responsible. -----signature----- "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1 Master to THE_PIED_PIPER
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Quiet_Mandalorian Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 9/28/05 8:37am Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR] - Date Edited: 9/28/05 7:11pm (4 edits total) Edited By: Quiet_Mandalorian
	All right, after in-depth examination of the story, I'm going to try and offer an analysis of it: Luke is conflicted regarding the feelings he's just experienced for Saba, because his standards of morality, including most especially the ingrained sense of the necessity of fidelity towards his wife dictate that it would be entirely wrong to become "involved" with Saba, so to speak. At the same time, however, as a Jedi, I'd be willing to assume that he takes the "respect towards all" races/cultures/customs etc, very seriously, which presents a problem, since Barabels seemingly have no concept of the monogamous, one-partner-for-life mating favoured by humans. There might be instances of polygamy or polyandry amongst the galaxy’s multifarious human cultures, but the concept is still long-term partnership, not short term copulation. Since Luke believes the Force is universal, then logically it should follow that there is one universal standard for morals, but there isn’t, or at least not as practiced by the Jedi, to the best of my knowledge. Slave-trading is generally considered evil, but for the longest time Twi'lek slavery was tolerated by the Old Order, apparently because it was a long-standing “part of their culture”. By the same token, how is Luke to judge Saba’s behaviour, based on the Jedi precedent? Barabels evolved (or were created, whichever you prefer) in a manner that dictated short-term pairings with multiple mates. From a normative human point of view, this multiple-partner behaviour would probably be considered immoral, but Barabels aren’t human, they’re humanoid reptiles with a different physiology and different mind-set. As the moral relativist saying goes, “they’re not bad, just different”. By that reasoning then, are Saba’s advances towards Luke not immoral, but only “different” as well? Since Luke has professed belief in what is, in many ways (at least to my mind) a moral relativist position, whereby there is no real universal moral standard, save the usual prohibition against negative emotions and unnecessary killing, he has no real means of refusing Saba, except perhaps a vague feeling that he ought not to let her have her way. He could of course argue that, as a human, to engage in such activity with a Barabel would be wrong, but on the basis of what? Because no children could be brought into being by such a union? How? To judge from some of the X-Wing books, among others, recreational intercourse is by no means unknown, in the GFFA (or perhaps “uncommon” would be more accurate), nor are inter-species pairings. Luke could argue (as he did, to some extent) that he can’t accept Saba’s proposition because he swore to be faithful to his wife in their marriage, but that would necessarily mean that he “push his standards of morality” on Saba, rather than “respecting” her point of view like a Jedi should, leaving him with only two choices really. Ultimately, Luke must either accept a “judgmental” position regarding morals, assuming the position that his human moral standards must be accepted as universal by other species who might have vastly different ideas of proper relations between the sexes, or admit that he really has no argument against Saba and accept her advances. Ultimately, at the most fundamental level, he must decide that one of them is right, and the other is wrong, that either the code by which he's lived for the past quarter-century is meaningless, or likewise his marriage vows. ~ Well that’s it, my attempt at dissecting the themes behind Thrawn McEwok’s Hunt the Moment. Hope it wasn’t too pathetic. -----signature----- Fey'la was right! Bring Asyr Sei'lar to justice!
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Quiet_Mandalorian Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 10/26/05 2:23pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	Now, to take this philosophical quandary to the next level, you'd do well to write a sequel featuring Luke and a female H'nemth Jedi........ -----signature----- Fey'la was right! Bring Asyr Sei'lar to justice!
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Jaina_Solo_15 Registered: Dec '02	Date Posted: 10/26/05 2:38pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	McEwok they need to upload a [face_mind_blowing] smilie for your fics. Actually the scariest thing is, I could actually see it happening. I really thought that Saba's actions were very in character for her. I would have thought she might be a little more wary of Mara's wrath though...or perhaps that meant that subconsciously she really didn't expect Luke to reciprocate? I really like the similarities that you drew between Saba and Luke in the beginning of the story. I hadn't considered that before. I also found Luke's rationlization very interesting. It kind of reminds me of the whole changing philosophy of the New Jedi Order - the way that he tried to avoid temptation but found himself giving in to it anyways. In short, very interesting, mind bending fic. I like it! -----signature----- Proud Dark Lady of the DLC
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Healer_Leona Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 10/26/05 3:27pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	A very unique piece, one quite well done and written in a way I can believe that Luke, might think about her proposal. Excellent TME. -----signature----- I've been waiting so long to be where I'm going
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Vongchild Registered: Apr '04	Date Posted: 10/26/05 3:29pm Subject: RE: “Hunt the Moment” [ISSR]
	No, they need a [face_just_read_a_mcewok_fic_and_now_is_ashamed_of_own_pathetic_attempts_at_interspecies.] Chalk up another win for the 'wokmeister! He's done it again! -----signature----- "Oh," the other clerk said, as if it was nothing new, "You got one of the kid's drawings." http://boards.theforce.net/Beyond_the_Saga/b10477/21158399 - Mechanical Dreams Apprentice to Zonoma "I'd take a Yuuzhan Vong Warrior over Jacen Solo any day."
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