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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Saga - PT [DDC 2016] Letters Never Sent (OCs | ROTS) - COMPLETE, PARTIAL E-BOOK

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction- Before, Saga, and Beyond' started by Ewok Poet, Jan 2, 2016.

  1. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Thanks for reading and commenting. :)




    It's OK. But yeah, I hope you do. It feels kinda lonely out here sometimes. :(

    The fear of unknown can have that effect on many, whether they're believers or not. And hey, I like that (very obvious) mountaintop experience parallel...another thing that I didn't even think about, probably because of Lil's relative non-importance in the big picture type of a thing.

    Glad you caught that. That was the idea. :D Vagran is the opposite AND a parallel to Tatooine and Endor in a way - with two moons instead of suns.

    Vague can result in concrete. Whatever the Goddess of the Chiro Mountain is, if she exists in the first place, the thought of her led Lil to a stream of though that resulted in something good.

    EVERYTHING is connected in my world. Everything. This doesn't have to be good, as it requires lots of pattern-spotting, but yeah.

    Tune into the next chapter of The Black Star for an update on Emy and her mom. :)

    Types like her may take a longer time to open up, but if they do open up, then they're most certainly friends.

    AHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was good. :D

    ...most I can say to all of this right now is "maybe". Kalgo-neet is certainly an interesting creature named after washing machine tabs and there will be more of it/him in days to come.

    Nobody said that he's necessarily right in his assessment of writing in general. That's the beauty of it - he does not see it the way you and I do and he will definitely struggle for a bit before he finds his voice in that field. :) For example, I don't agree that there's a limit to writing myself, which is precisely why it was so fun to put myself in his tiny shoes and assume that there is. :D
     
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  2. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 39

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 00:04>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    Stupid questions eventually lead to bizarre answers. And I found out what the Goddess is wearing when I paid a visit to the Archaeological Museum of Anaslinea-Hoc with the younglings. On the holocards we all got, she is wearing a large piece of cloth that covers her eye-like single breast. Did her mother mate with one of these ay-ko, ay-ko things? I’m scared!

    Yes, there is such a museum and I have discovered it almost three months after I have arrived to the town. Some teacher I am. Really. Really!

    The ruins of lost city of Taliore are not the only ruins below Anaslinea-Hoc. There are also the ruins of another town, Kariyela. It’s like a layered cake of mystery – one town on the top, the other in the middle and the third one on the bottom. There are experts who lament the fact that a modern town was built in this former swamp at all, because the idea of excavating every single trace of every single civilisation that’s ever been here seems more exciting than a bunch of poor refugees from Jumus surviving the plague and quakes that stroke them when they got here. Sometimes, the scientists can be even more selfish than the corporations and the governments.

    The head of the Museum, luckily, isn’t in the favour of the town being moved. He tells us about that one time when the two graveyards – I dare not think why there were two given that this town is only about eighty years old – had to be merged into one, because the burial droid found a brooch while digging a hole for a tombstone. I stopped him before he went on and on about ruins from two towns mixing with decaying bodies of the swamp fever victims, as he seemed to have an almost youngling-like fascination with that. I stopped him. I didn’t want my little ones to have nightmares involving their grand and grand-grandparents’ bones!

    Either way, the brooch somehow ended up in the hand of a decaying corpse. He could not resist whispering that to me and telling me that he wanted to sever the hand and preserve it, as a symbol of multiple lives lived in the same place. What the kriff? Just…what? In the end, he made a cast of the hand and he liked it so much that created a couple of others and that is how all the brooches in the Kariyela section of the Museum have been exhibited.

    I asked him if there was anything other than his fascination with death behind such an, err, radical way to show the jewels of the past to the eyes of the present time. He repeated my sentence, with the emphasis on the world “eye” and then said that the hands as hands used to be like the eyes to some of the citizens of Kariyela.

    There was something called The Church of the Blind. Both Kariyela and Taliore had many religious buildings, but this one stood out, as Kariyelans believed the blind to be sacred in some way. Due to some genetic abnormality and, possibly, inbreeding, there were a dozen of blind individuals at any given time and they were considered to be divine beings, in touch of what was likely the same Goddess as what contemporary Vagranites believe in. They were not allowed out of the temple, it was believed that feeling common things such as wind or rain on their skin would interrupt their divine connection. They were kept inside and the brooches would help them see, despite their empty eye sockets and the red ones were capable of manipulating the stars in the sky, or so says this gigantic scribbling in a language that only barely resembles Olys Corellisi.

    Thanks to their connections to the stars and the brooches, these sacred blind beings were able to predict the future and there was a point where they fled Kariyela somehow, days before the giant wave swept it.

    I don’t quite get what happened to Kariyela and where the giant wave came from. Quakes? An astronomical anomaly? Inability to find the real reason and making up a legend? If these blind sacred folk were able to manipulate the skies, did they just…go and kill everybody else, from a safe distance?

    Then again, it’s alright, because nobody gets it. Nobody has an explanation for any kind of a settlement on Vagran before the hyperspace era, because there is no way anybody could have survived here, but whatever was going on, they’re desperately trying to connect it to a world called Tython in the Deep Core. According to some of the theories, these brooches are not really brooches. Nobody knows what they are, but they’re not brooches.

    My head is spinning, Ranni. I don’t understand anything and I wonder if any kind of censorship is coming into play here. Is this man who loves death so much hiding something because he knows it, or because he is not capable of explaining it?

    He also told me that one of the red brooches was stolen a couple of years ago. The thief was a Human woman in black and she did something that made him disconnect from the world for a couple of seconds, maybe minutes. Once he opened his eyes, she was gone.

    Did she need an eye or something? A mind’s eye? This is getting way too abstract for me to even comprehend.

    Funny enough, the black brooches are the least popular ones, at least when it comes to getting the younglings’ attention. And they look a lot like the pendant on your old necklace. I guess I spent too much time pushing that one around with my teeth and my tongue, but I swear that it’s the same texture, the same kind of a reflection.

    How did this stream of thought go from embalming body parts of people who died from swamp fever to remembering what we were doing between the sheets?

    I miss that, Ranni. I am ashamed to confess that I can still recall the smell of your fur and that embarrassing moment when I saw my reflection in the said pendant in the moment when…well, you know.

    The Sacorrian in me spoke again. Why can’t I just say it the way a liberal Granno or an Aurean would?

    Anyway…the younglings won’t have wacky dreams. I will. I will dream of being molested by embalmed hands while the two moons are making fun of my facial expression.

    Kriff you, museum curator. Hope nobody is actually waiting for you at home, as I can’t help imagining that they’re blind, dead or both.

    Hope it’s just you and your hands tonight.

    I’m talking so much nonsense today. But yes, I’m frustrated. To a certain extent. I guess I should write about the times we were actually in each other’s embrace. I yearn for you, Ranni.

    <<LOCAL TIME: 01:22>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    Be careful, lil’ Lil. The last time you craved closeness, you ended up with that charming green girl, Korgah...who reminds me of my worst childhood nightmare.

    Heh, he’d probably deny that he actually needed it, because he thought of it after that morbid, morbid story.

    So, what if these are the Solari crystals? But what was on Tython? And weren’t those crystals a Sacorrian thing, since he mentioned them earlier? This is confusing.

    Hey…I saw one! It’s got to be one.



    Footnotes
    Kariyela is fanon, obviously.

    The Church of the Blind, the image of the closed “temple” and the strange sibling are some of the prompts that Briannakin kindly provided us with during the June 2016 Word Race. Thank you so much – you helped me create a whole new religious cult within less than one hour!

    The references to Tython and the Deep Core refer to the Dawn of the Jedi era.
     
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  3. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    OK, on the topic of "it's all connected," as you alluded to in your previous set of replies:
    • The last recording ended at 00:04, and now this one is starting at that same time.
    • Hmmm, let's see where else we've seen shiny black pieces of jewelry on Dralls before. [face_thinking] ;) Lil has a very... interesting Proust-madeleine-type stream of recollections there, particularly about the reflection. :eek: (And as a side note to that, well, as I've probably said before, you can take the Drall off Sacorria, but for better or for worse you can't completely take Sacorria out of the Drall.)
    • Though this is the first time the Church of the Blind has been actually mentioned in a story of yours (and I eagerly await a fanon post at some point ;) ), I just know that it's going to connect with other blindness and darkness and eye motifs throughout your oeuvre as a
    • And yes, when is that next chapter of The Black Star going to be coming to a fanfic forum near us? :p
    I have a feeling—just a feeling—that all these ancient secrets of Kariyela, the Church of the Blind, the brooches, etc. aren't going to stay contained in their museum, and that Lil will find himself mixed up with them in a very present and living way soon. He shows signs of almost being so; he worries at first about his young students having nightmares, but I would agree with him that he—as the nonnative of this town that is almost a museum in itself—is the more likely candidate. The rather creepy museum director (unnamed probably on purpose?) certainly isn't helping matters with his morbid fascinations; all those plaster hands holding brooches in the museum cases makes for a rather creepy image, sort of a sick perversion of some jewelry store displays (where the hand-shaped display stands are at least being used for rings and bracelets).

    I would say the Mysterious Listener's guess about Solari crystals is on the right track, because whatever these brooch crystals are, they definitely are connected to the Force: the fact that they helped those blind votaries see confirms that, as does the Tython connection. (it's interesting, and perhaps characteristic, that Lil doesn't make that connection; of course there's no reason he would know the early history of the Jedi Order, but he has certainly come into contact with others who had the power to "see things"—the young Anjie, for example). Though I like the way this Listener is drawing connections... he seems like a very smart cookie indeed. (And if he's right about these being Force-crystal-type things, well, that has potentially big fat implications for the eponymous jewel of The Black Star!) And finally, I have to wonder where it is and in what context that he's suddenly spotted one of these gems. No doubt that too will prove to be another connection between oeuvres! :D

    EDIT: I'll say too that I'm filing away in my mind this bit of info about the gem thief: this "human woman in black" who "did something that made [the director] disconnect from the world for a couple of seconds, maybe minutes" and then disappeared. Undoubtedly someone with Force capabilities herself, and potentially someone we've heard of earlier on... [face_thinking]
     
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  4. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Aaaaand I'm late again. I actually started writing this comment on time, but then I got sidetracked because of - imagine that horror - actual work for money. Tristezza. :eek:

    Thanks for reading, commenting, considering this for a read - just about anything.




    That one was an accident, but it's cool!

    Ever thought about the origin of those?

    As a what? :D

    And yes, of course & yes, of course. :)

    I get...distracted. But it's in the making and it was *supposed* to come on September 30th, but it wasn't done.

    The museum director, who WILL be named in today's entry, is just a lonely morbid type. Not dangerous at all. Sorry

    Let's say that some things are close to right and some are close to wrong. The listener IS a smart cookie, otherwise he would not be owning what he owns and keeping it away from Emy, who is nearby and, as we know, inquisitive, the type who just notices things without necessarily saying so.

    I can say who that is. Nothing to do with this story, actually. I made that up on the fly as an origin story for the medallion owned by Charal, the Nightsister from The Battle of Endor.
     
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  5. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 40

    <<<21 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE LAST LOGIN. REAUTHENTICATION REQUIRED. ENTER NAMECODE!!!>>>
    <<<NAMECODE: *****>>>
    <<<NAMECODE CORRECT. WELCOME, *****>>>
    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 14:20>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    I am so ashamed of myself, Ranni.

    After that sudden urge of basic instinct some weeks ago, I wrote the chapter where we’re making love for the first time. I was stuck on that for quite a while, while everything before that was flowing. Sure, the caf helped it flow, but still…now it’s exactly the way I remember it.

    This was where I realised just how Sacorrian everything I wrote previously was. It was sterile. There was nothing personal about it. It was, no pun intended, stripped out of any actual emotion. I went and rewrote everything. I added the things nobody should know, because I have nothing to lose after all! I even wrote about the most embarrassing of the things, the times when I wondered if I was like the other men. I wrote about my biggest failures as well, but that’s a different story.

    So, while the new version is clearly not pornographic in context, I think I managed to convey what we were feeling that time we ended up alone for the first time. Feelings matter more than bodies themselves, after all. But that sent me into another downward spiral of self-loathing. I tried to imagine you reading that someday and feeling…naked in the crowd, because of what I shared. I would most certainly not share my most intimate moments with strangers just like that! Do all the writers feel like this when they choose to chronicle their own life? How come that saying it out loud into a holorecorder didn’t make me, err, less shy about it?

    The downside to this is…well, I wanted Emy to be my confidante when it comes to this book. I cannot possibly show her the book that has not been censored. She is, what, eight, nine years old?

    I guess Kalgo-Neet is my confidante now. I am becoming more comfortable around it and looks like it…likes the sound of my typing on the datapad. It sucks on the transparisteel more than ever when I’m writing my story. Is that thing attached to me or what? It’s not like it can read over my shoulder or anything, that heterochromatic eye is only light-sensitive, it’s a water mollusk after all. It’s a coincidence and I’m just being silly to think that the poor simple organism can actually read this.

    I should think and talk about something else.

    How about having fun?

    Tonight, we have a festival. It’s the Festival of Wine and Dance, when we’re supposed to sacrifice a bottle of the best wine produced in this region to Goddess and we’ll do it by spilling it into the sea from the pier. Since the angleberries in the wine were chemically treated by, ironically, the same microorganisms that killed one third of the townspeople eight decades ago, they produce a squidlike trace in the sea. Then it’s up to the fishermen to direct the said trace across the Ka’zan Bay to the Chiro Mountain. And we’re going to follow them in small boats, paddling against the tide. I’m slightly scared about this, but I’ll be in the boat with Taide, the Museum curator, so if nothing else, if something eats us, he’ll make a beautiful brooch out of me.

    Wine makes me think of grapes, grapes make me think of snowgrapes and that makes me sad. You know…Nen and the way she died. I should get that out of my head.

    Groyo has been playing with his cam droid all day. He wants to make a HoloNews report, his lifelong dream is the whole Galaxy seeing something from Anaslinea-Hoc on the programme.

    <<***** HAS BEEN IDLE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES:: TURN THE UNIT OFF? Y/N>>
    <<THE UNIT WILL BE TURNED OFF>>

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 02:41>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    Well, that was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. And the last thing I could have expected is my humble, talkative host, Laoda, having an important part on it! When we walked to the pier and found our rowing mates, I honestly thought that she was just going to sit in one of the boats like all of us and follow the trace of the sweet angleberry wine once the boat’s turn comes.

    But no. The “Caraway” in Laoda Caraway Kaeni is something that’s important in this town. Laoda is the grand-granddaughter of the first mayor of Anaslinea-Hoc, one Ravyd Caraway. Therefore, she had the honour of pouring the wine down the edge of the pier and climbing on the raft leading the boats, together with the prime minister of Vagran, Mistress Sorimana Aedemii and the current town mayor, Krill Kaeni. Yes, he’s her father-in-law, but that does not change anything.

    I remembered the clipping function. I…I had almost forgotten about it. I could have clipped up so many things, not just the moment I met Gwynda and Anjie. Ohwell…now I have this wonderful, wonderful ritual, word for word.

    ▲CLIP:START snd.laoda*festival▲

    <<Voice identified as belonging to a Human woman, age 40-55>>
    <<Add a name tag for this speaker? Y/N>>
    <<Name tag input detected. Speaker added to memory as lckaeni>>

    <lckaeni> “My dear townspeople of Anaslinea-Hoc. Her excellence, Prime Minister Aedemii. Master Kaeni.

    We have gathered here to once again thank the Goddess for helping us survive the swamp fever plague and the quakes and ultimately allowing us to remain on Vagran. We are forever away from home, but at this pier, under these two hills, in this former swamp, we found solace. We found ourselves again and we’re sticking together, holding onto every single beautiful thing in our life, every single opportunity the waves bring our way, every single wonder that washes up on the shore or ends up on our humble spaceport.

    Just like our destiny followed the trace to Vagran, we were ultimately pulled by the moons, pulled by the Goddess’ own decisions. Therefore, we are marking the anniversary of our arrival to Vagran the same way we would every year – by remembering our path to the Goddess’ home on Chiro and then celebrating the life as it is, with wine, song and dance!

    The blood we lost during the swamp fever and the colour of our special angleberry and swampgrape wine are the same. By following what resembles the colour of our painful sacrifice and search for our second life on the trace of those who died, we’re telling the Goddess that we are here and that she should be watching over us. Similarly, we’re showing the youth of Anaslinea-Hoc that they should respect the paths their elders took in order for them to be where they are right now and, in case somebody forgot about the Goddess, reminding them of where they could find her, should they need guidance.

    With this, I shall lead the trail to Chiro by pouring the wine into the sea. Our kind fishermen will use their equipment to have it flow where it should. Follow me, my brothers and sisters. Follow the path!

    ▼Clip:end▼

    I was surprised to know that one humble woman, who otherwise speaks in such a strange manner, can learn something as long as this. I guess I was underestimating Laoda, seeing her as far less complex than she actually is.

    The raft was already about two hundred metres away when my and Taide’s boat was the next to follow the spilled wine. Two fishermen ships were to its left and right, equipped by men, women and droids using what was some sort of wave-correcting rods. This is how the wine was flowing towards Chiro and they didn’t stop until we came close enough to get into the danger of crashing against the mountain diving into the sea, marking the very gate of the Ka’zan Bay.

    I was surprised by that at first, so I asked Taide about it. Then I was surprised by his lack of, err, enthusiasm for more corpses for him to play with. He said that every single life in Anaslinea-Hoc is precious, because so many lives were lost and that we can only direct the wine spill to a certain extent. From that point on, the Goddess had to accept it herself and pull it towards the rocks of Chiro’s very bottom.

    It did happen, according to what Groyo’s cam-droid caught on holovid.

    If that’s not swimming against the tide, I don’t know what is. These people are denying the forces of the moons, yet they’re worshipping the equine deity that is herself likely influenced by the said moons. I am not sure where the religions of Taliore and Kariyela come in, but this is the most beautiful kind of a nonsense that has ever kept a town together…I think.

    No wonder why us Sacorrians need the doctrine of Progress and Unity in order not to start stabbing each other in the back. One cannot erase folk beliefs by law. They need to thrive, they need to mix up, they need to be as unreal and as real as people want them to be. Hearts, souls, whatever – they all need to be free to a certain extent. Vagranites and Aureans don’t abide to as many rules as we do, yet they are happier.

    We returned to the town on the tidal waves. I am not sure if they knew where to carry us, or if this was manipulated somehow as well, but we were back to the pier with little to no effort. And tomorrow, after breakfast, regardless of how hot it may be outside, the first dance is going to take place in the centre of the former Kariyela amphitheatre, where The Church of the Blind supposedly carried the final ritual, effectively sacrificing the whole town. This young choreographer from Abatore, a fellow Drall named Roggiere, he came up with some pretty demanding moves and it’s going to be interesting.

    He does not think that imagining the ritual will result in everybody’s doom. He is not superstitious.

    <<LOCAL TIME: 04:03>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    If the blonde eventually read about this clumsy guy doing spice and having sex…no wonder she hates the whole world. I know I would! He would make a horrible Empire-friendly holoflick protagonist. Good Imperials have good sex and they don’t take spice. They also don’t have these random moments where they uncover spies and wish death to Palpatine, but that’s another story. Not that I would know anything about the latter…




    Footnotes
    I got the word Sorimana from the strange entry Belgium submitted to the 2003 Eurovision, a song named Sanomi by the band Urban Trad. The whole thing is…quite something. The character is fanon, but her position isn’t – Vagran does have parliamentary democracy.

    The entire ritual described here is fanon, not inspired by anything in particular. The festival of dance, however, was inspired by a real-life one.

    Note how Laoda speaks here.

    Swampgrape is fanon.

     
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  6. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    I'll start by being my usual rational self and saying, "Lil, you can too still talk to Emy about your book. Just don't talk to her about that one chapter, is all." :p Lil seems to feel so guilty for writing about that one experience, that one chapter, though perhaps he doesn't need to be—he's telling the story of his life, and Ranni was (is!) a very important person in his life. Of course, I do understand the concerns about privacy and about embarrassing Ranni. But there are ways around that, too: not naming names, or taking an approach similar to what he's doing in this diary (where we knew from early on that Lil's not his real name.) Again, I might just be a little more rational than our hero. :p

    I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Kalgo-Neet is indeed reading over Lil's shoulder as he types. But Lil can go on believing whatever he likes about this new molluscoid companion of his, at least for now. :p

    OK, the angleberry wine ritual is just plain cool. :cool: It plays on the similarity in appearance and texture of two liquids with opposite symbolic associations (wine with joy, blood with suffering), and it ties both in to the general maritime character of the place. The microorganisms bridge the gap: they were the cause of the suffering at first, but now they're what gives that wine its special character, both taste (I'm guessing) as well as its behavior when it hits the water. I'm trying to picture the nature of the "traces" the wine leaves: does it sort of solidify or congeal? I love too that, even though the fishermen do try to direct the trace to the right place, they don't try too hard: it ultimately finds its own way, and wherever it ends up, well, who's to say that the Goddess isn't there, too?

    It's interesting—and it seems significant—that this ritual is showing us some other sides of some of the characters we've met. Most obviously, there's Laoda, who absolutely shines with that beautiful speech that is worlds different from the more lowbrow idiolect we've heard from her up till now. Good on Lil for capturing that (and I hope he'll use that clip feature more often!). But even Taide here shows that he's not just a morbid, death-obsessed creeper—it's the conversation with him that really provides Lil with his own further insight on (a) the ritual of the wine, (b) the nature and purpose of ritual in general, and (c) the fact that happiness doesn't depend on rules but rather on these stories, customs, freedoms. To that I would add this: if a ritual like this one keeps a town together, then I'd say it's not nonsense! :)

    And now, on to the dance! :D

    EDIT: It occurred to me: who's conspicuously absent from the maritime ritual of the spilled wine? Kalgo-Neet—the only character we've met so far who is him/her/itself aquatic. Hmmm... [face_thinking]
     
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  7. Kahara

    Kahara FFoF Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2001
    Okay, I have been light years behind in comments everywhere -- not that tardiness isn't my default mode, but I didn't mean to let it go this long! [face_blush] Anyway, finally caught up to the latest entry here and wow! What a long, strange trip it's been -- and will continue to be, if the current signs are anything to go by.

    I love the mixture of genres that we get in Lil's diary. [face_dancing]

    There's the vivid travelogue of strange new places and their cultural quirks, along with the rotating cast of characters (many of them unusual enough that they could be their own epics) who move in and out of Lil's life -- usually not by his or their planning. One gets the sense that Lil never really knows whether people are there to stay for a while or will be gone tomorrow, and that's kind of borne out in many of the things that happen.

    There's the dark and haunting examination of how growing up in the dystopian regime of Sacorria has scarred him, although that's an interesting can of worms in that he seems to hold his indoctrination against himself as some sort of character flaw. (It's not as though he chose to be born there, or to fall into the middle of whatever happened before he fled. If we've learned anything, it's that weird things happen around Lil and he's rarely if ever the one to actually set it all in motion! Most of his life seems to consist of rolling with the punches and dodging the unexpected.)

    There's whatever is going on with Lil's persistent curiosity about the different systems of belief he encounters, including the recent interesting whatever-that-was (moment of enlightenment of some sort, perhaps) with the goddess of a mountain on a world he ended up on by accident.

    And there's also definitely an element of comedy, though usually a graveyard humor or half-panicked sort. (I feel like Lil gets more outrageously goofy the more something genuinely scares him, though some of that may be my own projecting.)

    Anyway, I'm liking Anaslinea-Hoc more than any of Lil's stopping points so far, I think probably because it seems to be his favorite as well. (Though I suppose Aurea could be too. [face_thinking]) The wine ceremony is so cool, and I love how it involves both some GFFA-level tech in trying to direct the flow -- but also that there's part that just has to happen. I really liked this part:


    Lil has so many ups and downs and quick changes of thought, but it just seems like he's been in a much better place since getting to Vagran. I kind of hope that this realization is one of the things he gets to keep, even if he'll probably have more difficulties to face. He's seen an awful lot of the bad in the Galaxy, so it's good that he's able to be (at least for a moment) part of something that doesn't seem to be tainted by the Empire or the Triad.
     
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  8. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    This belated response to both comments was added on October 23rd - thank you and sorry!




    He could be having a problem with opening up in general and looking for excuses not to do so. :p

    [face_whistling]

    I did not think about the traces' consistency, not at all, but as far as the rest is concerned - you nailed it. ;)

    The idiolect might become clear some day. It just might.

    Taide is like a walking, talking Holopedia of pretty much anything. Sure he has a thing for morbid stuff, but he can appreciate life as much.
    I'm so glad you're back!

    I never thought about this in terms of genres, as I really, really try to get into the role of Lil and write each entry in a single take (there are a couple of November and December ones that still have to be finished, otherwise, the whole thing was completed in 2-3 whole-day-takes!), but I would like to know what genres you see here. What not.

    And yup, this thing has had more character rotations than the Heartbreak High! [face_blush]


    Well, his friends ended there by accident, too. So did his creator, once upon a time. ;)


    That's true. He battles fear through relentless self-parody...whether he is aware of that or not!

    You can probably tell that I like it a lot myself. ;)

    And that quote sums up everything that is wrong with Sacorria, in the first place.

    ...we'll see.
     
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  9. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 41

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 11:45>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    The eight days of the Festival of Wine and Dance are over. In a couple of years, it will be nine days. Each decade adds another day of the festivities. And each of the days, a dancing troupe from another planet in the Sector performs some of their own dances to the crowd. It was exciting. I really, really liked the Frozians. They danced as if this was their last performance ever. As if their lives had depended on it. Knowing how the Empire has this new, err, habit of declaring a species non-sentient, that might even be true.

    On the last day, a troupe from Sacorria performed before the closing ceremony. They were a late addition to the programme. The crowd was extremely curious about them.

    At first, the stage was almost completely dark, with only a light orange circle, likely representing Sacor, shown in the centre of the back wall. After an one-minute intro that sounded a lot of like ramship parade music, a pale, red-haired, blue-eyed young woman wearing white walked towards us. Her corpse-like appearance must have been Taide’s favourite thing about this festival, but I couldn’t spot him in the crowd. I gave up on looking for him. Imagining his facial expression was enough.

    It was only then that I realised this girl was the young comradette Maris Inesedam! They didn’t even introduce the members of the troupe, I guess it was not progressive to single anybody out and imply individuality, not even taken into consideration that they were in another star system, but it was absolutely her. She sung Fields of Golden Grains and then she sat on the ground and a group of five Drall, five Selonian and five Human children, all wearing costumes in the four school colours back at home…this really, really bothered me, Ranni…danced around her, to the tune so boring that it must have been composed by Whatevername Lylek.

    There was a moment when I could swear Maris looked straight into my eyes. I put my glareshades on. I guess I was the victim of that stupid belief that the performers are looking at me, me, me and not somebody else, but I wanted to be safe. Turns out this was a good decision, as the unenthusiastic applause the performance received was enough to bring the author of the whole thing onstage.

    It was Saride, the kriffin’ art thief! He said that the choreography was done by Lyneina Lylek – I guessed that, Ranni – but that she had prior commitments with the folkdance entrance exams at the SUPAS, so he filled in for her. He could have as well said that he wanted a free trip to another star system, right? He praised his troupe and said that he’s satisfied by the intensity of the applause, because they needed to remain humble?!

    I almost wanted to throw something at him. Was he even aware that the applause was the way it was because the performance sucked bantha poodoo? Because Lyneina Lylek likely lacks any kind of an art talent, just like most other Lyleks?

    We’re such unimaginative people. I am not even sure if that’s Saride’s fault or not. Or the Lyleks’.

    Once I got to Taliore, I almost wished there would have been more rooms on the inside than the outside. With the anger growing in me, I felt as if…as I was to occupy all the rooms and flats at the same time. And it wasn’t enough, if that makes sense? My anger needed so much more space that you have no idea, Ranni!

    It was only looking at the horizon and the moons appearing that somehow calmed me down. And even then, I went through all sorts of moods, from regretting that I could relay some sort a message through Maris, to wishing I had never seen that performance. She was good, especially given the fact that the last thing I remember was that she was kicked out of the choir for singing too high.

    Saride is so full of himself. One would think he slept with Eeris to get where he is. But that would not make sense, he could not possibly know that she is Her Selonianship. Plus, she hates art. Then again…that could mean something, too…as what he creates is most certainly not art!

    I sat there hating my homeworld and coming up with conspiracy theories until Emy knocked on my door. Her sisters, Kypari and Salix, are teasing her again, she said. I tried to comfort her the best way I could and then we went to the beach. I brought my coal-styluses. She actually has a talent for getting me customers for sketching, oddly enough. I am still not sure if she somehow scares people into posing for me or if she is a natural-born merchant of sorts. I ended up drawing eighteen beach-loving beings! This has never happened before.

    At the end of the day, I asked her how I could possibly repay her. I thought she would ask for credits, but instead of that, she wanted me to draw her and Kalgo-Neet. I posed them with a dark and thick line representing the transparisteel in the middle of the composition and I made it look as if the creature was whispering into her ear. When I told her what I was doing, she managed to crack some sort of a smile. I am…I am very fond of this drawing. I am not sure if she will have the courage to put it up somewhere, given how much Kypari mocks every single instance of her smiling, but I think she should.

    I can also solve it by offering the rest of the family to draw them. I could draw them all together, even!

    <<LOCAL TIME: 13:20>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    This is starting to look like a joke. Didn’t that Maris claim she never went anywhere other than Abatore proper? Also, why is everybody who is here trapped in this holorecorder at the same time?

    I want to punch Saride, though. I guess he never performed live himself, otherwise he would know what kind of a crowd would most likely zap him. This was that sort of a crowd. Who can stand Sacorrians, really?




    Footnotes

    Frozians are a canon species from the Corellian Sector planet of Froz.

    Fields of Golden Grains is Sacorrian anthem and you can read its words in my Fanon entry on the planet.

    SUPAS is short for the Sacorrian University of Progressive Arts of Sublata, also mentioned in the above fanon entry and otherwise a central stage in latter chapters of two different stories.
     
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  10. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    Wow, the convergences between oeuvres continue to proliferate as yet another familiar name is added to the mix: Maris Inesedam, who we see later in her life as Maris Inesedam-Vorr, maternal unit of Doria Vorr in The Black Star! And this is a very, very, immensely different side of her than what we saw in that oeuvre: even the Mysterious Listener notices it, in a way, since he's surprised to learn about this performance of hers in A-H.

    And it's a performance that exactly what we'd expect from a place like Sacorria—of course [/Code:Blue]. Its shallow kitschiness contrasts starkly, almost violently, with the beauty and depth of the other performances and with the festival and its customs in general: the starchy-clean school uniforms, the bombastic march music, and an equally bombastic planetary anthem that we know well. ;) The lame post-performance speech by Saride (who's the most unaware being in the Galaxy if he doesn't understand what that kind of lukewarm applause means) is just the chemical-soaked, artificially colored cherry on top of the whole cake. I don't feel Lil for feeling the way he does afterward: it's almost the repressed, overregimented culture that he has been trying to escape from all these 41 chapters just won't stop following him around wherever he goes. I can tell too that it kindles a certain amount of worry within him that he, internally, hasn't totally left Sacorria behind either (and I know I've commented on this before).

    But it says much for Lil's character that he's able to rise above his dark mood in order to lend his new friend Emy some comfort and moral support. And by suggesting the beach-portrait-drawing excursion, Emy, in turn, shows that she understand the power Lil's artistic abilities have to help cheer him up—if he just lets them. And the result is a dual portrait that both the artist and the sitter are proud of, which I'd definitely say is something to smile about. (The whispering gesture almost certainly shows that Lil's picking up on Kalgo-Neet's likely sentience, too.)

    As always, your worldbuilding for Vagran and Anaslinea-Hoc continues to be just plain awesome. Especially intriguing here is the way the festival goes on one day longer each year—so what will that mean when the 3650th year (or whatever ten times the length of the Galactic Standard year would be—I can't remember offhand) rolls around? Will the whole year itself just be a festival at that point? Or is there somehow some unspoken expectation that the place just won't be around long enough for that to ever come to pass? That is an interesting thought that in a way speaks volumes about this culture and its priorities, and I simply but can't help but place it into dialogue with your very recent far-future oeuvre, which after all takes place almost three times that in the future. [face_thinking]
     
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  11. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Ewok Poet - Just a quick note (after binge-reading! :p) , of how excellent this story is. :D

    Lil is a terribly complicated protagonist (and I mean that in the best way - not only are we getting a fascinating nonhuman hero, he's complicated and flawed and eminently better for it =D=).

    I applaud the sheer work this must've taken you; the hints of the interconnected milieu just add to the whole worldbuilding. :) Skilled authorship tells, and it's telling clearly here.

    And it's wonderful that you're using Suns of Fortune. :) Although I don't prefer FFG's actual game mechanics, I definitely like what they're producing AFA sourcebooks. Anything set in the Corellian Sector, complex as it is, is a welcome difference from Tatooine, etc. (nothing against the SW classics, but Tatooine has been done to death, almost as frequently as Hoth, by this point ... [face_laugh]).

    Thanks for sharing, :D
    Onderon1
     
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  12. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Thanks for reading! And thanks for bearing with me while I'm trying to get back to Tuesday updates. :)




    Ha-ha-ha, "maternal unit"! That was great. And yes, she is definitely more classic Sacorrian and not just "everything and everybody sucks" at this age. :D

    I'll leave Saride's behaviour open to interpretation. He's going to appear as a (very) minor character in a couple of other stories, so I hope that will explain what kind of a being he is. But if the overly enthusiastic audience of Anaslinea-Hoc didn't like something all that much, then it must be really, really bad - since they like everybody and everything.

    And of course, Lil can't completely unsacorrize himself!

    Emy may have a talent for business - turning ideas that would probably not go anywhere if Lil himself was asked into actual credits. They make a good team, in a way.

    As for the latter thing - sometimes we don't figure things out even when they're so obvious.

    One day every decade, actually. So, not THAT extreme, but yeah, at some point, they WILL have quite a problem. :p This was intentional, by all means. :D

    I'm just so excited to get an unexpected commenter, that I actually squeaked and cried a bit. So, I have to let that sound out loud, too: SQUEE! [face_blush]

    It just...takes an effort to read this amount of words, not be put off by complexity and so on and so on...therefore - I have immense respect for people who do that kind of stuff. Thank you!

    While I would not call him a hero, thanks for the rest. He was intended to be horribly, horribly flawed and there are reasons for it. A whole bunch of 'em.

    I actually don't know how to play the game itself and, sadly, I never played a RPG (would like to, though!) I downloaded a bunch of scanned RPG guides after I had the idea of using Sacorria to develop a society that I could relate to in a way; and I was fascinated with the brief guides on other planets. So, I started by adding a lot of my own stuff about Sacorria - as seen here and that's where it all took off. It kinda got out of control at this point.
     
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  13. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 42

    <<<154 DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE LAST LOGIN. REAUTHENTICATION REQUIRED. ENTER NAMECODE!!!>>>
    <<<NAMECODE: *****>>>
    <<<NAMECODE CORRECT. WELCOME, *****>>>
    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 16:27>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    Been a while, Ranni. But this time, unlike on Drall, it was not despair. It was inspiration. There were not enough hours in the day, I needed a Nubian kind thereof in order to do everything I wanted to do!

    Despite that, I did it. I did it all! I completed my class’ contribution to the Abatore Unit exhibition, I did a group portrait of my hosts and I finished my book! I feel accomplished and, since I am not on Sacorria, I am allowed to be slightly immodest about that. I can brag, I can brag, I can brag!

    Can I?

    I blame Maris Inesedam and Saride for this very last droplet of Sacorria in me. And I blame my newly-found Granno optimism for thinking it’s the last droplet. Ha!

    The exhibition was easy. The younglings were so eager to create something new, that they came up with something I could not have thought of in the wildest of my dreams: a replica of the Goddess statue in the Abatore port. We ended up going to the city, the mayor of Abatore gave us the honour of putting our humble creation next to the original.

    The rest of my book was incredibly easy. Just like I made my peace with you, Ranni, I made my peace with everything, including the circumstances that had me leave Sacorria. Is it because it’s been three and half years already? Everything seems slightly better, the further it is behind you. Doesn’t it? I was so, so, so afraid that the book would make me feel even worse about myself, but it ended up making me feel so much better! I am proud of the fact that I am still alive, you know?

    In a slight contrast to sculpturing and writing, drawing the Caraway-Kaeni family took me so long that there was a point where I thought it would consume me further than the book I am writing did, I thought that I would have more muscle strain than I did when I helped my students put the Goddess statue together…but this was harder than everything I have ever done.

    First and foremost, Salyx Kaeni cannot and won’t commit to anything. She would be late to each single portraying session, and she could not follow through with a facial expression, outfit, hairstyle…anything. That is why she eventually ended up looking like a composite hologram of multiple beings.

    Unlike her, Kypari Kaeni was doing her best to look good. She may mention this portrait in her applications to universities. It’s her dream to study on some other planet and come back to Anaslinea-Hoc as the most educated being in its short history. Needless to say that she didn’t make this fun. As unpredictable as her twin was, she was way too predictable.

    For this drawing, Emy was more reserved than when I drew her on the beach. She resorted for what she knew – the resting Duros facial expression and her head slightly tilted to the side, in Ayko…I mean, Kalgo-Neet’s direction. I guess that this matches the family portrait, though. This is what she is like most of the time, this is the way they know her and the way her appearance and thoughts at this stage of her life should be captured.

    Laoda’s mother, Wert, was hard to draw at first, because she refuses to wear any colour other than black, but in the end, I added some more black elements in the background to balance it out. Phew!

    Proto was hugging Laoda, but he seemed absent-minded. He never takes a part in anything, unless he needs to sign his name somewhere. I ended up making him slightly, slightly more shadow-like than the others, including Laoda’s mother. He didn’t give me any directions, he didn’t specify what he wants, or does not want, for that matter.

    Laoda herself was the bright, shining centre of the image. I guess the pride from being a Caraway somehow overpowers the indifference and aloofness of being a Kaeni. This makes me wonder why a Kaeni runs this town, but at least he’s the most vivacious of them. Sort of. I think.

    In the end, to my surprise, everybody was satisfied with the result. We toasted with a glass of angleberry and swampgrape wine, and then I ended up spilling a whole bucket of it over the conserved drawing, creating a large splash. Laoda was confused by this at first, but I managed to convince her that this is my interpretation of Vagranite beliefs. At least I didn’t spoil it all by accidentally saying “Granno”.

    In the end, we hung the drawing on the wall above the reception table. This way, the guests will know that Taliore is a family-friendly place and not, say, a seedy cantina. Sure, Taliore Plus is a Kaeni-owned business, too; but it was never meant to be this simple, right? Or maybe I am biased.

    Following all these small victories, I spent a week above the clouds in a cabin on Chiro. It was much better than the first time around. Groyo and Taide just dropped me with their speeder and told me to comm them whenever I wanted to go back to Anaslinea-Hoc.

    I drew my own interpretation of Goddess, wearing a strange red dress. I think I mixed her with you a tiny bit there, Ranni, because she also had Drall ears despite her Human head and Selonian fur.

    And I didn’t even need her approval for doing this. Not at all. I was confident that she would like it, because she is me, I am her and we’re all each other. Nobody can be on their own for too long without losing the faith in one’s perception, abilities and one’s optimism and this is what my exile eventually taught me.

    However, I did wonder one thing: just where the idea to draw her the way I did came from, in the first place. I had not touched spice for a very long time now and I rarely, if ever, drink alcohol. Is something growing on this mountain or are there some weird fumes? What if she is real? Or both? Guess there are some things that cannot be explained, after all.

    But, at the end of the day, this does not matter. A true believer or not, I am happy.

    I have finally found the absolute and total peace. I am so, so happy right now! And creativity is pouring out of me like a tidal wave! Thank you, Goddess – whether you are in me or somewhere above the clouds on Chiro! Thank you, life! It seems that you and I have finally made peace.

    <<LOCAL TIME: 17:56>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    Whenever he says that he’s happy, something proves him wrong. I dare not listen to the next recording. But kriff, that is one GREAT drawing they have down there in the hall! Good work, Lil!
     
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  14. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Ewok Poet: Welcome. :D Lil is, as you note, not terribly heroic ... but there's that quiet resilience about him that makes me want to root for him, nonetheless.

    And oh, dear. Yes, the mysterious listener certainly has a point. Don't assume anything in this story, because one never knows when happenstance will come along ... [face_worried]

    - Onderon1
     
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  15. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    Lil has every right to be proud of himself, and even, yes, to brag a little! He's accomplished a lot over his time on Vagran—the class project and the portrait are of course wonderful accomplishments, too, but for some reason the completion of his book stands out as a particular biggie—I think it's because part of me wondered if he would manage to finish what he started on that project, given the near-angst that accompanied its beginning. But now it's finally done, and it's offered its author some long-awaited, much-needed closure and catharsis. (There's nothing like writing to do that!)

    It's natural of course that even now his pride in his accomplishments would be accompanied by a Sacorrian twinge of self-doubt, but it's refreshing to see that now countered by some newfound "Granno optimism" as well. (I always considered that the Sacorrian version of "self-deprecating behavior" was always pretty ostentatious in its way, anyway.)

    The family portrait sounds magnificent, and it looks like the nature and personality of each person in the family really came through—which of course is much to do with them, but I think Lil can take some credit for it too. The drawing clearly means a lot to him personally, too; he doesn't just regard it as Yet Another Commission, but also as a genuine gesture of gratitude toward a family that's done almost more for him than anyone. Which is what I take his clearly Festival-of-Win-and-Dance-based wine-spilling ritual to mean. (I sure hope that frame is nice and tight! :p )

    And now we know from the Mysterious Listener's aside that he is now in the very same place where Lil was! Convergences, convergences...

    Not surprising, in a way, to see that the Goddess continues to be present with Lil, and in a way his own little artistic rendition of her with some of Ranni's features seems to have provided him with some of the answers about her and Who She Really Is, in a way. Both figures, in this story, have aspects of that Goethean Eternal Feminine, constantly raising the bar, constantly urging one on to a higher level—the Goddess for the people of Vagran (or at least of Anaslinea-Hoc), and Ranni for Lil personally. So perhaps the fact that these communal and personal figures are converging in Lil's consciousness is hinting that he's finally, really and truly, achieving a sense of belonging somewhere? Just a thought there. :D

    Of course, even after all the happiness, positivity, and accomplishment that's come before, I can't help but share the Mysterious Listener's premonition that this might be the calm before a very large storm—that indeed has happened to our protagonist too many times. [face_nail_biting] I'm immensely glad that Lil's found so much happiness on Vagran, of course—but it strikes me too that he he's still got much to learn, that there's still much to be revealed, and that his story is far from over yet... [face_thinking]
     
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  16. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Thank you so much for reading and commenting! :)





    Stay tuned...for the next entry...which is precisely the way you think it is.

    He's had a lot of catharses on Vagran. Does that word even have plural form?

    Sacorrian version of that is ridiculous, hinting double standards that basically scream in your face and if "Granno optimism" can balance it at least a little bit, the results can be remarkable. Lil is not the first, or last, being to experience that.

    That is precisely what he meant - in a way, they're all divine to him because they accepted him. And his views of them are spot-on.

    Yup, he is in Taliore himself and that is why Emy wants him to keep quiet. But when is this? And under what circumstances?

    This is a great way to look at it. I did not have anything particular in mind, but I love your interpretation.

    The next entry basically has everything play out that way. And the story behind it is strange, strange, strange.
     
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  17. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 43

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 20:00>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: ANASLINEA-HOC, KAZ*AAN BAY, VAGRAN>>

    I shouldn’t have said anything the other day. I really, really should have kept my mouth shut, kept my happiness to myself. The moment I claim I am happy is the moment where everything goes down the garbage chute, straight into the tentacles of the wackiest dianoga known to the Universe. But I never learn, Ranni. It’s my Queen of Air and Darkness, it’s definitely not my strong suit.

    The Imperial Senate somehow decided that almost all the planetary leaders in the Corellian Sector except guess-who should step down. Not sure if the Triad has any actual power or if those whose identities are not known can be formally told to step down. I bet they thought of this beforehand, juuuust in case!

    Sorimana Aedemii has been forced to step down as the prime minister of Vagran. Somebody with the last name Loor, whose first name I didn’t manage to catch stepped in. The word on the street is that there are too many Loors in high positions across the Sector. This should not be surprising.

    The Nubian puppet stepped down. Another puppet took his place. This should not be surprising. After all, the Emperor must be the master of the puppets. Or whoever is thinking up this for him…one person cannot come up with that much, r-right?

    The remaining two members of the Mardri Soulworks Collective Advisory Council were replaced by a Saride-like fraud who proclaimed himself the Overadvisor. Even that word is ridiculous. After what happened to Nen and Finta Kree, it only adds insult to the injury.

    The monarch of Xyquine II abdicated in favour of his son. He is not that old. The son looks like he has a death sentence in at least twenty star systems. I don’t like the rebellious royals and if any of them ever proves useful to the Galaxy, I promise to eat my own foot or something.

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not paranoid just because some rears replaced some other rears in the high seats. In fact, this wouldn’t be an issue hadn’t Moff Naomi Dargon decided that Dupas Thomree, the otherwise kind Corellian Diktat, needs to clean out his junkyard, so to say. And she came up with this delightful idea that, I quote what I read on HoloNet, influential individuals should spread their influence to another planets in the Sector.

    For those with cheaper hoverseats, for those who don’t read High Galactic, that means that monopolists, lobbyists and gangsters agreed to leave to planets other than Corellia. I guess each of them has a deal with the Empire, they would not be doing that just because they were told to, right?

    Vagran got…Blobbo the Hutt! And he was delighted. He even gave an interview where he said that he is looking forward to leading a more healthy life in a secluded location. The secluded location is the Citadel of Kariyela, which is, of course…here! On the taller of the two hills above the town! The patriarch of the Kaeni family, Proto’s father, and Taide as the being in charge of cultural heritage were presented with the ultimatum where they had to hand it over and allow Blobbo to build himself a replica of what the original citadel supposedly looked like. He also requested to have certain amount of control on the future Festivals of Wine and Dance and be mentioned the next time Laoda spills the wine in the name of the Goddess.

    Please. Please. P.l.e.a.s.e! If this wasn’t dangerous, it would be funnier than some holocomedies!

    The other part of Naomi Dargon’s plan to gain more control of this planet was moving the main spaceport from the Vagran City to…here! That is absolutely ridiculous. How come Blobbo didn’t complain about the noise disrupting his, no pun intended, meditative silence, now that he basically became a Granno overnight?

    My decision is clear, I hope. They’re going to run this little safe harbour of mine and turn it into something they want it to be.

    I came to the realisation that a town with the population of barely under seven thousand souls would not be big enough for numerous Imperial patrols, Blobbo’s thugs and me. There is no kind of fur dye, glareshades, self-mutilations, acting and whatnot that could help me remain incognito. I cannot even imagine what kinds of bounty hunters he knows nowadays, when Latts Razzi almost caught me back then. I heard that there are species that enjoy tracing down their prey. I would…rather not experience that, Ranni.

    This time, I will be smarter. I am going to leave before either of the two lesser evils – I still consider the Sacorrian Triad to be worse than any of them – finds me.

    Leaving Corellia and Aurea broke my heart. I almost fully mended it here, but now I feel like it’s going to break apart again. Some months ago, I equated my heart to a mechanical pump from who knows how many thousands of years ago. And since then, it got to the point where I can hear it beat. Where it’s mended. Where it’s real. I don’t want to lose my balance.

    This is where the Goddess won’t help me. This is where I should accept that this situation has nothing to do with me and that I should make it sure that it does not get to that point, ever.

    One thing I want to do before I leave is hide my book somewhere in Taliore. And I think I know where and how I will do it. There is precisely one object in the hotel that is never moved from its place.

    A mental note to self: remember this once you discover a disc protrusion in your lower back. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It’s not like anybody will find it until…

    <<LOCAL TIME: 21:00>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    Holy kriff-fire!

    I never understood how Blobbo came here, but this…I could not see it coming. This also explains how Coovo and Sayran moved back to Kammas, what kind of a true artist would want to be humiliated by a fraud? I know I wouldn’t! Sure, this is a different art form, but-but…still…I…I…

    Keep safe, Lil. I don’t know you, but you’re becoming the kind of a friend that would justify all the stupid things I have ever done, but also…also understand my softer side.

    So, we have to find that book. But before that, we have to bring Blobbo down. After all, we have what he wants. Gulp!




    Footnotes
    Queen of Air and Darkness is a powerful card in sabacc.

    The idea with too many Loors in the Corellian sector was inspired by too many people of…that other last name in Spaceballs. There was, of course, Kirtan Loor, but the idea of having more of them is appealing.

    The Overadvisor taking the place of Advisors at the Mardri Soulworks Collective is fanon.

    Xyquine II is indeed a monarchy, as per Suns of Fortune.

    Moff Naomi Dargon is canon.

    So is Dupas Thomree. The thing Dargon forced Thomree to do is entirely fanon.
     
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  18. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Intriguing ... well, obviously, having a Hutt move into the neighborhood is (usually) going to lower the property values ... [face_thinking]

    Let's hope Lil's advice works out for him. [face_worried]

    - Onderon1
     
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  19. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    Oh man oh man. :( The Mysterious Listener sure was right: another height of euphoria followed by another catastrophic reversal. Indeed, those catastrophic reversals seem to be pretty much the story of Lil's life thus far, and the ones he's already been through have, in a way, made him what he now is. But this reversal is arguably one of the biggest yet, since it's not just happening to Lil—it's going to irreversibly change the face of this very rich, vibrant, and important part of the Galaxy. I'm particularly sad for Aurea, for some reason, because the fact that the collective's advisory council is now defunct and being run by this Saride-like hack no doubt means the end of the peaceful, tranquil, utopian character of the place (and we see that from the fact that even the Ferrys had to move away from there).

    Of course the, um, "relocation" of all these gangsters and fatcats is especially baaaad news. This Moff Dargon sounds like a real piece of work—she obviously knows what the consequences of this relocation are going to be, and that it's going to lead to the ruin of these other Corellian Sector planets. You and Lil mention the Nubian puppet, but I can't help but wonder if Moff Dargon envisions Blobbo and his ilk as becoming her puppets, too, in a way. (And when read in conjunction with the far-future Hutt-controlled Galaxy depicted in another recent story of yours, this all takes on a particularly grim and foreboding aspect—as if those things were beginning to happen even now! [face_nail_biting] )

    But power-hungry moffs aside, this is where my heart breaks at what's going to happen to Vagran. :( Of all the places on this entire planet for Blobbo to set up shop, he has to do so right in the backyard of what's probably Vagran's most beautiful and historical city! Moving to the mountains for the health benefits would be one thing... but noooo, he also has to go and get his slimy mitts all over the local culture and customs! Did you ever see a more puffed-up, entitled glob of... whatnot! :mad: That plus the fact that they're going to make a dirty, noisy spaceport out of this idyllic town... oh gosh, all I can say is that it's so sad, and doubly so right after reading Lil's accounts of the place and its lovely lore. :(

    And then all of this would be one thing if Lil were not a wanted man, both by the Empire and by Blobbo. Yet again, for about the 9875482598th time, he's forced to flee a place where he'd just started to belong, just started to be happy, just started to get his heart back. (Though in my opinion he never really lost his heart—all of his diary entries have, in one way or another, been full of heart.) The difference being that this time he has these incriminating memoirs of his, which he now has to hide. I am going to have to go back and read through some entries to see if I can figure out which object is the one that's never moved from its place. Whichever it is, it looks like the Listener has now made it a bit of a mission to find the book, too—but whether it will even still be there during his time period remains, of course, to be seen!
     
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  20. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Lower.property.values! Ha! That was great. Never thought about it. :D

    He seems to be good with pattern recognition!

    Difficult to see, always in motion, the future is. As in...that's just one of the possible crazy futures. These things could be related, but they don't have to be so.

    Since that's the next stop for the characters in The Black Star, we'll see. From the little that was in the story before, one cannot judge much. And...hehe, "city". :D

    His heart definitely is there, but the way it operates is...probably pretty complicated to grasp!
     
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  21. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 44

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 00:00>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: FILL HERE>>
    <<DISABLE GALACTIC LOCATION? Y/N>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION DISABLED>>

    I spoke to Taide about the best way to disappear and he suggested taking the first starship to the worst place I could think of. Which is precisely what I did, after I left my little book where I wanted to. Yes, that’s right, I had it put on paper, out of all possible things I could have done with it. And it’s more durable than flimsi! Now it looks as if it had been made forever ago. I wish I had had more time to admire my own acquired Vagranite pretentiousness. But that’s reserved for sociopaths like Blobbo and his thugs. I would rather not clash with them, if you know what I mean.

    But the Caraway-Kaeni family and the spirit of Anaslinea-Hoc let me go with the same warmth they accepted me. For the first time in many, many years, I got a true, tearful goodbye. Nobody other than Mariklare Trindello was with me when I fled Sacorria, Jax was not particularly sentimental when he was escorting me from Corellia to Talfaglio, where I somehow wound up again. I don’t even dare recall what happened on Nubia and how I sneaked out on Halin once she paid me all she owed me. Romantic aspects aside, this reminded me of parting from you each time. And just like I won’t get to see the light in your eyes again, I most likely won’t get to see them, so this is the way I want to remember them, as opposed to the way I drew them some weeks ago.

    Emy and Ky were waving to us, their sister was – of course – still sleeping. Sal, do you ever do anything right? Laoda and Proto both sported the largest frowns I have ever seen.

    And then, we disappeared into the hyperspace and it was over. I was forever away from somebody’s home forever away from home.

    Kriff that, actually. It sounds like something Roula of Pelayn would write, regardless of how true it may be.

    <<***** HAS BEEN IDLE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES:: TURN THE UNIT OFF? Y/N>>
    <<THE UNIT WILL NOT BE TURNED OFF>>

    So, this is Talfaglio, the planet Jax Pavan once stopped at and went by his business all day – or maybe two days – while I just slept in his runabout. Now, what was the roundabout's name? Ysica? I never asked him what that meant, but for some reason, it was the first word that popped into my mind when I got here. And I have been pretty stupid all along – that's got to have been his wife, Dale's mother!

    The planet is owned by Corellian Mining, whoever they are. And though most reports claim that it’s run well, I can only, err, determine that “well” is a very relative word here. Apparently, not seeing whatever is the star of this system from a thin miasma of orange ash and mist is “well”. Or maybe, just maybe, they decided that investing in air purification on a world like this – most of its population are droids, anyway and the rest are beings who want to disappear. Orange mist is a good way of disappearing, even if you literally disappear by accidentally falling into a seemingly bottomless lava pit, right?

    This is like my own personal version of hell – it makes me think of how Nen died and it’s a reminder of what happened to me at the Eternal Furnace. Therefore, I cannot stay here for much longer. I will need to go somewhere else and find a home far away from about anything. Especially lava.

    The cantina has a guesthouse…which is just an eerie domed space, resembling every other heat-resistant tower on the repulsorlift platform above an endless sea of oranges and reds. I am afraid of being alone in my room. I cannot sleep, either! So I go and sit down at the cantina.

    Oddly enough, eating at the cantina has its perks – not only that it’s slightly more pleasant than the rest of this excuse for an oasis, but there are also many, many spacers. They are not too keen on the rest of the Corellian Sector, they have been taught to take whatever we have elsewhere and the other way round. Actually staying here for a longer period of time is not how they live their lives.

    Have I become a spacer? No. It’s precisely what annoys me about them – how they won’t listen to my arguments and how all think I should part to one of the rims and forget that I was ever a Core Worlder.

    They don’t get it. They really, really don’t get it. Kriff the rims. I have to stay here, I am still too stupid to make it that far from home! Do they even understand what having been brought up as a Sacorrian is like and how clueless one can be, even after three plus years on the run?

    I could not risk going to somewhere other than Corsec. Dralls rarely ever do it and I would be suspicious solely for being there. And the faraway places? I heard that nobody looks for anybody in the Anoat Sector, but getting there would cost me a small fortune, because it's where the gamblers go, for whatever reason, and the prices are ridiculously high. Not that I know where it is, anyway. Somebody at the cantina mentioned Moddell. That's on the very edge of the Outer Rim, basically wild space. Some forested worlds, some avian humanoids, and a highly-radioactive nebula that the smugglers are hiding in and…err…at least two black holes. Sounds like a lovely place. I’ll pass. It’s not like anything would happen there at any given point in time.

    This man who approached me is from somewhere in the Mid Rim and has weird ideas. He proposed me to go to Roon with him. The planet is apparently located in the middle of something called “The Cloak of the Sith”. I jokingly said that I was already too close to Darth Vader’s alleged cybernetic armpit and he laughed. He said I was funny and he didn’t understand that I was for real. Seconds later, he was trying to charm a hostess who appeared to have been wearing some odd kind of a wig.

    He strikes me as one of those spoiled brats from rich dynasties found on certain worlds. Sure, Coovo Mardri was one of them and sure, he discovered Aurea, but…but. This man is a different kind of a dreamer, the suicidal kind. Youngish, superficially handsome and full of ambitions. He’s going to get himself a good astromech and a protocol droid and prove his family that he can conquer this planet that doesn’t even sound real to me. He also thinks that I would have a better chance of surviving away from here. But the solution he is offering me could kill me before I could even get anywhere remotely close to my hypothetical survival.

    The only useful thing he told me is that, if I am on the run – how did he know – is that I should be disabling the galactic location coordinates on my recorder and input them and the time manually. I shall be doing that from now on.

    But where am I going to go, really?

    I’m thinking of the twin worlds. Tralus and Talus. Nothing much is happening there and it’s not like I could fall victim to unethical experiments like on, say, Jumus; or end up mistaken for a roast, which would undoubtedly happen if I stay here, since I feel like I’m boiling.

    Either way, I’m going back to the Corellian system. Once Blobbo is no longer there, I can be safe there, right?

    <<LOCAL TIME: 00:00>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>

    I am not sure if I’m getting too tired or if this individual just knows everybody whom I know. This cannot be anybody other than Mungo Baobab, the kind of a charmer that puts that arrogant Lando Calrissian from wherever to shame…because he has some standards, you know?

    Wouldn’t it be funny to see Lando with somebody like Emy? No, that’s not enough. He should be with a Sacorrian.




    Footnotes
    Talfaglio is indeed a sparsely-populated volcanic planet, but the other things Lil describes are fanon.

    Roon is a planet in the Abrion Sector, relatively close to Ryloth. It’s known for being the center stage of the third arc of Star Wars: Droids (1985).

    The Cloak of the Sith is indeed what Roon is surrounded by.

    The mysterious listener is right – the spacer whom Lil does not listen to is indeed one Mungo Baobab, a couple of months prior to his adventures with C-3PO and R2-D2. Lil could have been a part of that...if only he knew.

    And I'm not saying that Lando and Tendra will get together in this nu-canon based universe, buuut…
     
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  22. Onderon1

    Onderon1 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2008
    Impressive ... liking the mention of old Mungo; done just enough in passing to keep it within the realm of (IU) possibility. =D=

    And the Mysterious Listener knows Lando and Mungo ... [face_thinking]

    - Onderon1
     
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  23. Findswoman

    Findswoman Fanfic and Pancakes and Waffles Mod (in Pink) star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    "On the road again, can't wait to get back on the road again..." Except, well, I'm guessing Lil would have been glad to have waited to get back on any road leading from his new friends on Vagran, but "on the road again" does seem to be the story of his life. :( As, of course, does "forever away from home"—and I have to say, I was a bit taken aback when he then retracted those very words as something Roula of Pelayn might write. Does he not remember that it was none other than his benefactor Laoda Caraway-Kaeni who uttered that very same phrase during her beautiful Festival of Wine and Dance speech? Or is he referring specifically to that particular sort of tautological formulation "forever away from somebody’s home forever away from home"? Because that does sound like one way a Roula type might mangle that sentiment. But Lil is of course speaking from the sadness of his own heart there, too, and that's understandable. In any case, I could say that I hope he'll have a chance in the future to reunite with the Caraway-Kaenis, but it probably will not be that easy.

    (Side thought: perhaps the precise reason he clicked so well in Anaslinea-Hoc was that he found there a whole community of people who were in that exact same "forever away from home" type of situation. That wasn't quite the case on some of his other sojourns.)

    Just his rotten luck that he next has to end up on a volcanic planet that is just too close for comfort to some of the places where he's had his worst experiences—and something's wrong when the miasmic lava clouds drown out the very sun. There's the very important question of where he'll be going next, since he manifestly can't stay in this particular place, and it's interesting how you and he engage here with one of the "usual" SW answers, namely, "go to some random place in the outer rim." Yes, that's going to be very difficult to do, both for the practical reasons Lil brings up (these excursions have got to cost a good bit, though naturally the silly official lore says very little about that) and for the lingering insecurities born of his Sacorrian upbringing. It sounds like Lil has at least a tentative plan for his next stop, though I imagine it is not going to be the last we see of this flamboyant spacer fellow en route to Roon (identified by the Mysterious Listener as none other than Mungo Baobab!). [face_thinking]

    And that "cybernetic armpit" comment was pretty priceless. [face_laugh] (Yes, I'm afraid I'm laughing too, Lil, though that doesn't mean I underestimate the gravity of your situation! :p ) For all he's been through, I love how Lil has been able to maintain a sense of humor—it's a sense of humor that is very him, in which both his culturedness and his genuine emotion come through. :)
     
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  24. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    The Mysterious Listener seems to know almost everybody. But how? Is Lil like Forrest Gump, in a way? :)

    And I love Mungo! Expect to see him in future stories, too. And one that I currently have. Pretty sure I dropped a mention of him in my far future story, too.

    You answered your own question. The way he phrased it, compared to how Laoda phrased it is more Roula-ish. And it's his way to rationalise things, as well.

    Bingo! :)

    Bet that wasn't in the brochure!

    I did wonder about all of this many times - sure the royals, the Jedi, the politicians and the military can randomly take their ships to any given place, but remember that Obi-Wan, who was essentially a hermit, and Luke had to pay Han to take them to Alderaan? I can imagine that it's not that easy for a mere mortal. In this particular case, I can also imagine that Bespin is expensive because it's an exclusive destination. Cloud City is like, whoa.

    Of course, Mungo will pop up in some other story, but this little encounter more or less took place before he met C-3PO and R2-D2 and embarked on an adventure with them. :) So, what's next for him is Legends. Kriffin' Legends! EEEE!.

    And yes, I had to do that. EEEEEEE! Shoo, ya bastards!

    (*Mods: I am referencing a talking bird, I'm not swearing at anybody.)

    He probably ended up laughing at himself, too - so no worries. :) I mean, seriously - who wouldn't? It's NUTS. :D
     
  25. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    Entry 45

    <<<RECORDING STARTED>>
    <<LOCAL TIME: 00:00>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION DISABLED>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION MANUAL SEARCH INPUT: HOLLOW, CENTERPOINT STATION>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: TWO POSSIBLE RESULTS FOR THIS LOCATION. PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: HOLLOWPOINT, HOLLOWTOWN.>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION SET TO HOLLOWPOINT>>
    <<ADJUST TIME Y/N>>
    <<LOCAL TIME UNCHANGED. 00:00>>

    So, the wonderful thing that the alleged Celestials, Architects or whatever one would prefer to call them is all around me and I’m in its underbelly....or worse… because I could not find a direct ship to any of the Double Worlds and I had to come to the Centerpoint Station first. I never thought I would find myself here, after the years of thinking that it was not real. Thank you, Sacorrian education system and CESA. If I wasn’t running away from you because you want to kill me, I would tell you a couple of things about just how real and tangible this alleged “nowhere” is! And I would probably get the red shirt I never had for that.

    This is where I would normally call myself stupid, but I don’t think I am stupid, for…the Centerpoint Station is really, really, central to nowhere in some way. They didn’t…censor every single bit of truth when they told us about it? I don’t know. Perhaps there is a good reason for an average Sacorrian not to know about it?

    Either way, this spinning top rotates on its axis every twelve hours and, what I wouldn’t have expected at all, you can feel it, to a certain extent. And its inhabitants, half a million of them according to the official statistics, don’t seem to care about it. In fact, they don’t give a kriff about it. They don’t care why they are where they are, they don’t mind the fact that they live in this cylindrical, concave mystery the north tip of which points to Correll and is off limits to civilians with no special permission…hey…wondering why exactly is that? Did they put all the leftover clones from the Clone Wars there?

    From where I'm sleeping tonight, or today, as I have no idea what time it should be, nor do I care anymore, I see Selonia in the distance, like this…this sinister dark blue jewel. That is one planet I clearly don’t intend going to, at any given point. It’s not a place for a creature that cannot tune into an eerie hive mind of those mustelines. And beyond it, there is just void, void, and void. Drall and Corellia can be seen at some weird hour when I was not awake and, as far as Talus and Tralus go, the owner of the place I’m staying at, which is ridiculously close to something called a “turbovator”, told me that I “will see”.

    I am, apparently, in Hollowpoint, with most of the tourists, which I am not too keen on. But this is the place for us foreigners, who cannot stand the fact that the station is so…bluntly…rotating.

    I said “nerf herders” and that was what I meant. This wasn’t a figure of speech, Rani! These are the actual nerf herders and they farm inside of this this spinning top, with two perfectly fine terrestrial planets in sight! Apparently, this is safer. Less criminals. Lovely logic, they have! And Hollowtown is “cute” once you get used to it because the Shells, whatever they are, are worse and Nulltown is full of scum, as well as the South Pole area. T-thanks for letting me know.

    And what’s the deal with these idiotic gravity issues, anyway?

    The Centerpoint Station was built in the days when the Taung left Coruscant and escaped to Roon, the planet my dreamer friend from Talfaglio will die searching for and therefore, it does not go on about achieving artificial gravity the way modern space stations would. Centrifugal power, would you imagine that! Of course that you can feel it! The kriffin’ thing is spinning! Spinning! And for something small in comparison to actual celestial bodies, it spins at the speed more suitable for a gas giant! A “day” here lasts only twelve standard hours. It’s ridiculous. But that’s the price of gravity, otherwise we would really be floating inside.

    The next thing that scared me was the first time one of the Twin Worlds appeared to have been running into us. Or…were we running into it? Eeeeeeeek, it’s happening again! I am being lifted off this thing! Help!

    <<***** HAS BEEN IDLE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES:: TURN THE UNIT OFF? Y/N>>
    <<THE UNIT WILL BE TURNED OFF>>

    <<GALACTIC LOCATION MANUAL SEARCH INPUT: HOLLOW, CENTERPOINT STATION>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION: TWO POSSIBLE RESULTS FOR THIS LOCATION. PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: HOLLOWPOINT, HOLLOWTOWN.>>
    <<GALACTIC LOCATION SET TO HOLLOWTOWN>>
    <<ADJUST TIME Y/N>>
    <<LOCAL TIME UNCHANGED. 00:00>>

    A “walk-in clinic for newcomers”? When a kind medical droid who introduced herself as 2-1A told me where I was, I thought it was a joke. But she assured me that it was not. I had a common case of “gravity panic” accompanied by “newcomer claustrophobia”. I told her that I didn’t remember anything like that from my first aid classes and she said that these conditions were Centerpoint-specific. There are four clinics dealing with newcomers with such issues in the Hollowtown, but none in Hollowpoint.

    She asked me for my documents, I said that they were all in my rented space in the Pod Hotel in Hollowpoint. She shrugged and said that she needed to fill my data in order to give me the medication needed to prevent nausea, paranoid thoughts and vision problems. I gave her a name I made up on the fly – Kestaynick. And she then told me how I came under her care and what happened.

    After what could have easily been a whole day and night of sleep, I decided spend some time in the Hollowtown, one of the places where the locals are…but that ended with running around and screaming my heart out, causing some nerf herders to point at me and laugh…until I bumped into a biolumi-post and hugged it in order to prevent myself from falling off the platform. Getting to the nearest shop to buy some food and dye was worse than a particularly drunk night in my youth – yet nobody else seemed to be having the same problem. Eventually, I shut the nerf herders off, did my best not to look down and completed the longest run for errands of my entire life. But then, I just…don’t remember what happened before I got here.

    Now I wonder what would happen if a mini Centerpoint Station was in the barycentre of Aedem-01 and Aedem-02 in the Vagran system.

    Forget that, I keep on missing the obvious fact that Aedem-02 is a moon of a moon.

    According to the instructions I got from 2-1A, I am supposed to get to the Null Town close to this thing’s South Pole, from where it should be easy to find cheap transportation to either of the actual planets. And that’s what those impossibly loud pipes lead to.

    This place is a spinning top of bureaucracy and I’ve only spent a couple of days here. If nothing else, I made a friend. Sure, I prefer my friends to be of the flesh and blood, bones optional kind and I probably skipped the silicone stage and went straight to heavy metal…but it’s better than nothing.

    <<LOCAL TIME: 02:00>>
    <<RECORDING STOPPED>>>




    Footnotes
    To those who are less familiar with the Corellian Sector and the Corellian System. Tralus and Talus, aka the twin worlds, and the Centerpoint Station between then, are located further than Corell than Drall and Corellia, but closer to it than Selonia and a couple of minor objects in the system (Crollia, Soronia, the Kiris Asteroid Cluster and the Pirate's Shadow Asteroid Field).

    The Centerpoint Station itself was built by the Killiks on behalf of The Ones, descendants of the Celestials. And that's where the Legends and New Canon start mixing up and I just follow the Suns of Fortune sourcebook, which appears to be independent of the events of the post-Return of the Jedi Legends material, as well as anything taking place during the Clone Wars.

    These two pictures should give you an idea of where is what - picture 01 and picture 02. I wrote over the image from the sourcebook and a cut across the vertical axis of the station which did not contain all the elements.

    The station's North Pole points towards Corell, thus also Corellia and Drall.

    The Technology Sector ("TechSec") is the restricter area underneath the North Pole.

    Hollowpoint, where Lil experiences normal gravity, "encompasses the open centre of the station". It's also the place with normal gravity. What makes it confusing is that the structure's "sun", the Glowpoint, should be there, too!

    Hollowtown is located around the Hollowpoint and right above it are the Spheres. These areas are not fully explored, but apparently, one can nerf-herd there. Newcomers and tourists panic thinking that the Spheres are about to "fall", because of lower gravity. This is where the North Docking Bay is as well.

    Null Town is the largest settlement on the station, right above the South Pole. It's known for its high gravity and basically all the scum lives there and the tourists go there to get drinks, spice and the prostitutes. They also refer to it as "Little Socorro". This is where the South Docking Bay is as well.

    The station's South Pole points towards Selonia and out of the Corellian System.
     
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