Beyond - Legends **NOMMED** The Family Album -- Solo & Skywalker Clans (Post-NJO AU) -- COMPLETE 6/24

Excellent update!

I like how she finds out when he is out of town.

 

Oh meddling brothers! You have to always be on guard with them around.

I too enjoyed the charcter interviews, especially any and all answered to "Stuffed animals?".

 

What a great update! Mazeltov!!!

My brothers are betting it will be a girl because Airen isn?t manly enough to have a son for his firstborn. My father then proceeded to point out that his first was a daughter, so did they think he wasn?t all that manly? Watching the two of them flounder around for an excuse was priceless.

That's awesome!

Beautiful picture Zonoma! (Airen ) I love the colors and the lovely shading. It's so amazing what all you artistic-types can do!

 

Padawan: Thank you

S&F: I don't have any brothers, but I've heard stories. Thanks for taking the time to read the interviews, and I'm glad you liked them.

Blue_Milkshake: Todah! And yes, Z did great work. I consider myself an adept to coloring using a computer, but I have no idea how she pulls off the technique she does. Thanks for stopping by.

 

I TOTALLY thought I replied here! Being pregnant, I thought this post was hilarious - and pretty accurate! I wonder who you've been talking to! *Looks at Z* Uh huh...


Great update, my dear. And fantastic art too! It's absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to see - and read - more!

Voz

 

Padawan: No you didn't reply here, but it's okay. I'm glad you enjoyed the post and thought it was accurate. Z didn't help me with this one (just the art), the rest was my research and overactive imagination. Thanks so much for coming back and leaving a note.

 

whenever my husband takes on a mission, he is incredibly thorough and determined until the mission is accomplished as soon as possible. Naughty.

Airen's story was so sweet!

Great update!

 

Airen being a true Corellian

Nice update

 

These are great!!! I love that Narwa came to look at the holos because she's pregnant. It ties the chapters all together and gives a very nice reason The picture of Jag kissing Jaina's belly is so sweet

Gavin Fel: Sex: Yes please

Airen: Stuffed Animals?: The guys and I once had an eating contest; I'm pretty sure my wife would call that "stuffing animals".

ROTFLMAO!!!

Awesome job

 

Fels: Thanks so much.

Chimpo: Yes, he is. Thanks.

Nat: Thanks for catching up and reading the surveys. Glad you enjoyed them and the art.

 

I love this story so much.



ashes

 

ashes: First, new reader dance! Thanks so much for stopping by and reading all that's here. It means a lot.



Announcement:

I'm now on spring break. I've got a third of an update done for Betwixt & Between (finally), and will also hopefully get a post finished for this one, too. I currently have five images remaining for this story and after much debate have decided that those will be the last five chapters for this story. I will keep B&B open just in case something pops into my head and won't leave, but this story will soon be wrapping up. Thanks so much for sticking with it and me. I really appreciate it.

 

While I'll be sad to see this story end, I'm excited to see where else you can take us BF. Every post so far has brought us insight into your characters like very few can.
Can't wait for the new post on B&B.

 

Thank you, IceFire. Actually from the look of things it looks like this will be updated before B&B. I've got six hundred words done for the next update here, and I usually shoot for around 1,000. My subconscious latched onto the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" before the rest of my brain realized what was going on. Anyway, fingers crossed the update will be go up tomorrow.

Here's a sneak peek:

[image=http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b157/sea102883/Buttons/Used/Soontir_AgingButton.jpg]

 

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! When I did this picture, I knew that you would come up with something for it but I don't think I expected this. I'm trying to focus my thoughts on why this post affected me so strongly, but I can't quite put my finger on it. More later perhaps? Yes. That's the ticket, I'll return with more later.


EDIT:
I'm finally back, as promised!

As I mentioned before, I had trouble pinpointing the reasons I loved your last post (well, at this point anyway - I see you've posted again, but I wanted to get a little 'closure' here). I think that the part I found most poignant was the way hope balances out fear-- especially in matters of the heart. I don't know a parent that doesn't live with that constant hope/fear in and for their children.

So kudos on capturing another Truth.

Z

 

Thank you, Z.











[image=http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b157/sea102883/Buttons/Used/Soontir_AgingButton.jpg]





My grandfather is a man of few emotions, at least visibly. This makes him a menace in battle and at the sabacc table. Don?t get me wrong, he has a quick and fierce sense of humor, but he pulls it off with a straight face, which often leaves young officers wondering if the seasoned veteran standing in front of them is dressing them down or offering a compliment.

I?ve only seen my grandfather cry once. I was fifteen. Two months earlier I had spent the night at a friend?s place and when I got home the following afternoon Mom was the only one there. I asked where Dad was, since he wasn?t scheduled for an assignment, and I saw the shadow of pain and reluctance to tell me what was going on cross her features. She told me Grandma had been admitted to a medical center on Denon. My grandparents always spent two months out of the year away from their home on Corellia; one month spent with Aunt Wyn and Uncle Wes and the other month spent on Ossus with my immediate family. It was near the end of their one-month stay on Denon. I fearfully asked what was wrong.

In our time in history, we have managed to develop systems allowing beings to cross from one side of the galaxy to the other in a handful of weeks. We can restore the most damaged of soils to grow food and feed billions. We can save the most battered of bodies by dumping them into a tank of goo for a couple of days. We can wipe out entire species, planets, and star systems with the push of a button. But we still cannot figure out how to keep cells from rapidly and uncontrollable multiplying their way into tumors and cancer.

Uncle Wes quietly told Mom later that Grandma had hinted that she knew she was sick several weeks before she allowed herself to be admitted to the medical facility, but she did not want to ruin her time together with her daughter with tests and visits to annoying doctors. Anyone who thinks my father?s stubbornness comes solely from his father needs to think twice.

Mom and I packed up bags for ourselves and the men in the family, who had already left for the planet I was born on. We arrived at our former family home with Uncle Jacen and the Skywalker clan, because even though if asked they would have said that the Fels were nearly lifelong friends of theirs, the real reason was because Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara felt like they needed to step into the parent role in difficult circumstances for Mom and Jacen even though they were adults. Once all the families?Fel, Antilles, Solo, and Skywalker?were reunited, the younger generation was immediately relegated to the private waiting room that seemed to serve like the kids? table at a family meal.

The medical staff informed the adults of the family that Grandma was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. That?s one of the problems of having a stunted family tree: even if you get to know a thing or two about the members of the generation above you, odds are they were unable to live long enough to get a clear medical history and know what all can go wrong with your genes.

Only to appease her husband and children, Grandma allowed the best medics in the field to assess her health and offer treatments. But everyone knew, whether or not they were willing to admit it, that there is no known cure for the disease. Regardless of the methods of healing attempted?medication, the Force, surgery, or handmade cards from grandchildren?it was not enough. Any glimmer of hope we came a cross was overcast with another complication shortly thereafter.

Our family temporarily relocated back to Denon for the duration of Grandma?s illness. That is one benefit of being famous, there are plenty of people willing to offer you accommodations immediately and for nearly whatever need you have, including privacy. The Skywalkers and Jacen stayed for as long as they could and visited often as duty begged their presence to return to

 

Wow. I'm all choked up now. That was so powerful.

I left the medical center and began to turn left towards the small eatery across the way when a man sitting on a bench to the right caught my eye. It took me a full two minutes to recognize the old man as my grandfather, and another thirty seconds to register that it was the first time I ever thought of him as ?old?. The bright sunshine of the mid-afternoon caused the tears on his cheeks to glisten and be painfully evident on his cheeks. Unsure of what to do or say, I just sat down beside him. I couldn?t take looking him in the eye for fear of crying myself, which I knew would just add to his pain. So I sat there with my hands tucked under my legs, my feet slightly swinging back and forth, and wishing I could go back to the age my demeanor had reverted itself to.

I can't get this image out of my head. It's just simple and powerful and I can feel the characters' sorrow and helplessness. Amazing job.

?I can?t go in there because I can?t stand there and watch her die.? Grandpa told me that it was just too painful to see her lying there and not be able to do anything about it. He quietly admitted that he felt small for not being able to stay at her side and that part of him was a little jealous that shortly she would be reunited with her parents and their lost children. But another part of him hoped that she would be okay with him sitting outside on that bench and remembering all the good times they had together.



Lovely update. You did a great job handling a difficult subject.

 

It was sad. Very sad. I feel so bad for him

the artwork was great. A very great interpretation of him.

I'm sad to see this finish up, but it's been very great so far, and I'm excited to read the last two sections you have in store for us

 

**tries to stop so as to type**

**sniffles continue**

Oh, Sara... What a heartbreak--and something that hits sooo close to home for nearly everyone.

Have I mentioned my family is terrible at waiting? This was one of those times. We all begged whatever power we could think of to keep her with us for just a bit longer, even though we all knew she would be much better off once free of this troubled and broken galaxy. But we are humans, and therefore selfish. And with our family lines, that selfishness is accompanied with extreme stubbornness.

This is almost universally true: we can't bear to lose those we love, and so hold on to them with that characteristically-human stubborness. It's selfishness, in a way--but more than anything, it's the terrible fear of not having that beloved person in our lives any longer... Been there.

It took me a full two minutes to recognize the old man as my grandfather, and another thirty seconds to register that it was the first time I ever thought of him as ?old?. The bright sunshine of the mid-afternoon caused the tears on his cheeks to glisten and be painfully evident on his cheeks. Unsure of what to do or say, I just sat down beside him. I couldn?t take looking him in the eye for fear of crying myself, which I knew would just add to his pain. So I sat there with my hands tucked under my legs, my feet slightly swinging back and forth, and wishing I could go back to the age my demeanor had reverted itself to.

My own grandfather was a lot like Baron Fel, here: the man I could never imagine weeping--over anything--cried as my grandmother lay dying. It's a sobering thing, to see that: vulnerability in someone we always imagined had none. And, like Nawra--I had nothing I could offer him by way of comfort...other than my presence...

Grandpa and I were close before that day, but we bonded to a whole other level of friendship and love that afternoon and not just because he?s the only one of my grandparents still living. When I found out what I did this morning, he was the second person I wanted to call and tell, after Airen of course. When I was little we would always whisper secrets back and forth. Although looking back on things I think it was just to make Grandpa Han scowl. But after that day on the bench, we?ve continued to tell each other secrets we don?t dare share with others. I can?t wait to see his reaction when I tell him that he?ll be the only living great-grandparent my family has seen.

This is just such a beautiful way to tie in to the previous post, and to knit together so many little aspects of this family's intertwined lives...absolutely lovely! What a poignant and beautiful chapter--and such a beautiful "holo" to go with it!

I, too, like many of your loyal readers, will be sad to see this yarn end at last--but it's a beautiful, funny, dramatic, insightful and touching collection of stories that will no doubt continue to delight readers from the archives. Brava, Sara! Brava!

FF

 

That was so sad BF. I hate it when I cry while I'm reading.

Poor Soontir. I just want to hug him, but alas, he's not real.

Very very heartwrenching update. Glad to know it's not going to be like this until the end. I immediately started to fear in order to end the album you were going to start killing them all off.

Thank you for not doing that.

 

I'm glad you found a powerful voice for this picture, BigFatty.

I sketched him so long ago but this vision of Soontir has stayed with me because I hoped it expressed a lot of what I felt made up his character. It's great that you saw some of that too and wrote about him so well.

oldj

 

How? sad. Poor Soontir. Somehow I'd always imagined Syal outliving him, not the other way around?

KT

 

Have I mentioned my family is terrible at waiting? This was one of those times. We all begged whatever power we could think of to keep her with us for just a bit longer, even though we all knew she would be much better off once free of this troubled and broken galaxy. But we are humans, and therefore selfish. And with our family lines, that selfishness is accompanied with extreme stubbornness.

Lovely, but this update was a little painful for me. I lost my grandmother to cancer a few days after my 18th birthday and I still miss her every day. I know how much she would have LOVED being a great-grandmother.

Anyway, I'm very glad that your loved ones are doing well now.

A powerful chapter.

 

Beautiful update, Sara. Cancer is so tough ? you wrote this update with the perfect mixture of grief and acceptance; endurance and release.

If someone's death to cancer can be written well, you've done it. Simply beautiful.

Voz

 

Very sad, but a good post Was nice hearing more about Soontir in this and I really liked the artwork. Kudos to oldj on her excellent drawing