Beyond - Legends (completed for 2015) Notes for When You Are Older – Elena Shelvay; DDC; new 12-22

Replies - for 11 & 12

Sorry for the extreme belatedness of my replies to your comments! Here’s the next batch.

Eleven

Nyota’s Heart

Love the message from Damaya. Too funny and awww! more progress on Lydia's chattiness and love of magenta! Antinnis - looking forward to that visit and understandable that Elena would feel "huh, what's gonna happen with that"? Especially with Ahnjai in the picture.

Thanks! Damaya’s message was a bit of a surprise to me, in the sense that I could not seem to find her voice... until I tried textspeak (of all things ). And yes, Elena is definitely mixed in her feelings about Antinnis showing up more or less out of the blue.

Twelve

Nyota’s Heart

@Kahara - I like the tone of this entry! Elena is speaking warmly to an older prospective Lydia giving her assurances that will doubtless ease many of the questions Lydia will develop about her career path & the choices her parents made and what that all meant for what they felt about her.

Elena is definitely a little worried about how Lydia will perceive her family as she grows up; what seemed like an acceptable status quo to Elena pre-youngling arrival is nonetheless not the kind of close and connected (not to mention stable) relationship that her own parents had. So I think that does make her want to assure Lydia that she is cared for and accepted by her parents, even though things are definitely weird there. Given how important careers are in the Empire (pretty much all-consuming when it comes to jobs like those Lydia’s parents hold), I wanted to show that Elena’s already thinking of that as something that her daughter would be pondering as well -- especially in light of her possible traces of Force-attunement. Thanks!

Findswoman

A very cool and in some ways very different couple of entries here that run the gamut from highly amusing to dead serious. Even for its moments of hilarity and its humorously terse style, Damaya's message to Corwin has undertones of that already: hunting for his sister and niece could definitely turn dangerous for him if he's not careful.

I think at this point I just assume that mood swings are the normal state of this fic. Damaya is definitely concerned and has reason to be, but she also lived most of her life on Dathomir (and during an era of conflict between her clan and the Nightsisters) and so danger is not an unusual state of affairs. She tends to understate things just a trifle.

And the advice "no picking fights with idiot cyborg stalker" is, of course, absolutely spot-on. (No anything with idiot cyborg stalker would be good advice for Elena to follow, though she doesn't realize it—more on that below.)

No kidding! More on Elena later, but yes. Though the potential trouble is pretty serious and Damaya knows as much, I think there’s also this element of “ugh -- really, are you two fighting again?” when Corwin has had this Sherlock versus Moriarty problem with Tremayne for the whole time she’s known him. The way I see it, Tremayne probably pretty much always starts any trouble since Corwin matured into more of a pragmatist. Corwin would just as soon avoid a direct confrontation if he can do so without endangering others. But still (and given the steady and battle-hardened type that I’ve imagined her to be), I can see Damaya as much rolling her eyes as worrying over it.

I was very intrigued by the news in the first entry that Antinnis would be coming to visit, because, as I've aid before, I am very curious about the nature of his relationship with Elena. We've really only gotten hints of it here and there in the story (which isn't a bad thing—it's the right amount for the kind of story this is and the way it's being told).

It’s been difficult to figure out how much to tell or show, so I’m glad if it seems to be working. Though I had some ideas on their relationship and that it was quite strange and complicated, it’s definitely grown more so as I’ve been working on this project. One of the reasons why I also want to do some short stories from other POV’s than Elena’s diary is that it’s proven a bit challenging to depict a relationship between two masters of self-deception.

Antinnis's visit in this very latest entry satisfies some of that curiosity, but also raises lots of questions. Elena and Antinnis seem to be at least on amicable terms—the vibe between them here is like the one between good office colleagues. And yet at some point they, well, got close enough to each other to make a baby. These seem to be deep and troubled waters.

That “office colleagues” vibe is something that I had already written into Kibble and it was one of those things that feel like they make some sort of intuitive sense -- and then of course I have to go back and figure out just why that is. But yes, there’s an odd ambiguity about the closeness/distance in their relationship and hopefully it will make some kind of sense in the end (even if it takes until I get those short stories written ).

And indeed there are some disturbing things here. One is kind of the fact that Elena is apparently on such amicable terms with the man who, as you said up above, kidnapped her at 14, killed her family, and, as you said on page 2, "has the moral backbone of a blenderized sea slug." Despite what she says about solitariness, etc., she still seems to be a little attached to him in a weird sort of way—enough to let him come over and meet his biological daughter. (And I use that terminology because it remains to be seen, at least to me, how much he'll actually be involved in her life.)

It’s all very messy. I always knew that, but boy does it continue to surprise me with further messiness as I write. The funny thing is that I had initially started out thinking that Tremayne was, while definitely having a rather sad story and definite reasons for being the way he is, pretty much incapable of real emotional connections. And that Elena’s affection for him was so heavily influenced by her early experiences (where she kind of imprinted on him like a duckling) that there was little room for anything I’d think of as romance there. But then I realized that it’s much more interesting if that’s not the case, because then it’s one twisted and weird relationship with an awkward side of heartfelt (if not really unconditional) affection.

Related to that is the rather unnerving way Elena goes on so calmly about both her and Antinnis playing a solitary part in service of the Empire, etc., etc. She insists that Lydia not be discouraged by the circumstances between her parentss, but if I were Lydia many years from now reading that, I would very likely have the opposite reaction.* (*I speak here as a child of divorce who was well aware that yes, that was the best thing for us at the time—but that didn't make it hurt less.)

Absolutely, on Lydia not being entirely comforted by this. I think Elena was doing her best to at least put a kinder shade on the issues, but she knows full well that on some level it’s going to smart. (Lydia does turn out pretty well-adjusted, all things considered. But her father’s mostly-absence is a thorny issue for her.) So Elena takes refuge in “for the good of the Empire”, which I think was pretty much what her conditioning left her with as a duct-tape solution for everything.

Another question is, of course, what did Ahnjai think about having him over after all?

Good question! I’m not sure if we’ll get a clear answer any time soon, but Ahnjai definitely has his opinions on Tremayne (I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to say that Ahnjai thinks of his former master as slime and a hazard), which will inevitably resurface in the future.

And finally, this possibility of Lydia's borderline force-sensitivity is intriguing. Force-sensivity in the GFFA, at least as I've seen it, seems to be usually presented as such a black-&-white thing: either you are or you aren't. I like the suggestion that it may be more shaded than that—that there might be a class of individuals who to full-fledged Force adepts what Squibs are to wizards and witches in the Harry Potter universe. I am guessing this is something that plays out (or doesn't) in your Lydia diary.

For that, I’m giving a lot of credit to what canon writers did with the characters of Zayne Carrick and Tyria Sarkin -- both late bloomer Jedi with a somewhat off-kilter Force connection -- and to the idea of Force-attuned people which I ran across on the Wook.

So yes, more wonderful and characteristically Kahara work here. You never disappoint!

Thanks! See, I feel like the characteristic is that I don’t know what I’m doing. So it’s always great to hear that somebody likes the results.

Ewok Poet

Eleven:

So...Corwin is involved with a witch? And she's into text speak. This is getting very, very interesting! And I love her view, according to which everything is a trap. Not to mention the way she characterised the sexay cyborg baby daddy. Even at the end of that, she remains idealistic and loving Corwin more than stars. Will have to steal that because I can see somebody else saying it, totally.

It is a little cracky perhaps, but I think the textspeak lends itself to the way that I see Damaya’s personality so far. It’s not that she’s immature in outlook, but I think she took to advanced technology and offworld life with a lot more comfort than some of her clan sisters who also trained with the Jedi. And the terseness of the textspeak style appeals to her partly because of how she’s used to communicating at home. “Sexay cyborg baby daddy”, now that’s a phrase to remember. And steal away re: the stars phrase.

The rest of the entry makes me wonder if Tremayne can sense Lydia's presence in the Force, or if he is using some other means to track her. I can sense a fight with Ahnjai if that happens and that makes me worried.

As for how he located Elena and Lydia, I think it was probably through Imperial channels. They just run slower with all of the recent disruptions. Which isn’t to say that he couldn’t track someone he knows well in the Force. (Although, Lydia is a bit on the quiet side in that department. He’d have much better luck looking for Elena.) Re: fighting, we’ve already passed the spoiler point on how the visit went. But there is still that unpleasant history with Tremayne and Ahnjai, yes.

Twelve:

OK, there was no fight, my obsession with arguments and betrayal was proven wrong (again).

Well, it’s not as though the setup for this particular story doesn’t lend itself to such theories. It’s a pretty treacherous situation on many levels.

But an entry that started out as if the whole Imperial Remnant was to read it and reeked of propaganda of wonderful cyborg dads turned into pure sarcasm in the end. A deadbeat Inquisitor dad? This...is going to full new levels of interesting and I just can't even. At this point, I am more likely to believe the tone of the deleted bit of the previous chapter and assume that Elena, deep inside, isn't too keen on her kidnapper-turned-sperm-donor.

Elena is kind of trying to be her own mini-Imperial propaganda department here, isn’t she? I think she (at least subconsciously) worries that Lydia might come to resent the Empire the way Elena resents the Jedi -- for taking her family away, at least in some portion. So there’s a strong motivation to try to stop that problem before it starts.

Elena is feeling a kind of disappointment at Tremayne here, though that’s moderated by other things that we see in the later entries. (I, on the other hand, am full of sarcasm for deadbeat Inquisitor dad. The fact that I do think he has some caring for Elena and Lydia does nothing for the fact that he’s supremely incompetent at: A) showing his feelings honestly, seriously you emotionally crippled product of evil bureaucratic Sith lackey training piled on “repress it all” Old Republic Jedi training; and B) actually putting someone else’s interests before his own on any kind of permanent basis -- that isn’t at least somehow tied into his own ends.)

The few times that he has actually held you, the two of you looked identically baffled by the situation.

Shivers. *gulp*

Makes me a little uneasy too, although actually she’s in no danger from him at this point. Later in life, when she might become an ally or an adversary, that’s a whole other matter.

earlybird-obi-wan

Caught up with reading. Love her notes and humor

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

Tarsier

I'm sorry I've failed to comment on this story up to this point, but I have been reading and thoroughly enjoying it.

No problem; I’ve been very behind in reviewing things myself lately. I’m happy to hear that you’ve liked the story so far.

In the last entry, I love the way Elena tries to explain herself and Antinnis, so Lydia knows she is loved.

Thanks! It’s a difficult “conversation” for Elena to have, knowing that she can’t even entirely predict Lydia’s response -- much less be sure of influencing it. But she knows that it’s something that will probably matter a great deal to her daughter and so wants to at least try.

JadeLotus

Loved the message from Damaya! It was fun, and yay, Dathomiri witches!

Thanks. Though they appear often enough that I guess one can’t say they’re underused, the Dathomiri witches are interesting to me. Perhaps as much because of the worldbuilding that one could attempt with that culture as because of what’s already in place. And I’ve grown attached to the backstory and personality that I invented for Damaya, since she seems to be kind of a blank placeholder character in canon. So I hope to write more about her, though I don’t know if it’ll appear in this diary or not.

This passage was very moving, in Elena's own unique way as she tries to explain her life to her daughter - I really get the sense Elena knows somehow that she won't be around as Lydia grows up to tell her such things herself.

Possible spoilers if you haven’t read Shark Kibble, but it’s true that Elena isn’t going to be around forever. She’s very aware of that possibility since she lost her own parents when she was a teenager.

The Force sensitivity is very interesting - I don't know the intricacies of how it is dealt with in Canon or Legends, but my own headcanon was that people could have some aptitude in the Force, but it simply wasn't strong enough to manifest in an obvious way, but that they had some unconscious ability or skills - for example a talent for piloting, or general "luck". It will be interesting to see what happens with her "subtler gift"

Force-sensitivity tends to be a yes/no thing in most of canon. But there are some interesting stories that seem to suggest there’s at least a spectrum of sorts, and/or that Force-sensitivity can increase or decrease with time and expertise. Zayne and Tyria, who I mentioned in an earlier reply, are the examples that come to mind. My own theory is similar to yours; I think that the midi-chlorian levels attributed to Jedi level Force-sensitivity are where they’re certain that a person can both sense and utilize the Force, but there are probably all sorts of people below that threshold that are a little uncanny in some way.


Raissa Baiard

I apologize for having fallen so far behind in my reading and reviewing. DRL is finally letting me catch up a little on things, so.... You've obviously done your research on parenting, since I'm nodding along with pretty much everything Elena is going through. I especially remember all the conflicting advice you get (usually from relatives; at least Elena is spared that). I loved the alien intelligence agent's puzzlement over watching her interact with Lydia; being around babies is certainly enough to reduce otherwise rational humans into babbling weirdos.

Well, I am personally so far behind on everything that I’m answering about three months worth of replies at once. No worries! And I’m really glad that you found the parent-stuff relatable; while I’ve done some research it’s all been pretty slapdash. Re: advice from relatives, that’s probably the eleventy billionth reason why Elena never let on to Corwin that she had a daughter living with her. Jedi child-rearing advice from the long-lost brother, now that could only result in a duel. Re: the alien perspective, I couldn’t resist writing from that POV once I thought about how strange it would all seem from the perspective of any species that wasn’t wired to interact with their young that way.

There are some interesting family dynamics at play here...and by interesting, I mean occasionally disturbing.

Don’t I know it. Yeah, it’s a pretty bizarre and troubling situation for many reasons.

There's such a duality to Elena. On the one hand, she's a loving mom who's fiercely devoted to her daughter, on the other she's Miss Imperial Collateral Damage. Having read "Shark Kibble," it's easy for me to see the mom parts of her and forget that the New Republic has good reason to call her "Crazy Ells." She's obviously not been a good person in a lot of ways, and yet she's trying to make a normal life for her daughter. It can't be easy for her given her past and the career path she's been forced into. It's quite fascinating the way you've made someone who's violent and unstable enough that she's known for leaving a trail of collateral damage and make her sympathetic.


That duality is something that I’ve been trying to achieve, so that’s wonderful to hear. It’s sometimes hard to figure out how to showcase some of her more negative aspects. For one thing, she has changed since her more infamous episodes and is trying to keep more level. She’s also usually in a fairly controlled state of mind when recording things. And having Lydia around suppresses the violent streak, since Elena’s pretty well terrified of letting herself get out of control when she’s got a baby depending on her. But yes, she’s got something of a scary persona tucked away in the corners and it’s not so much dead as buried.

And then there's Tremayne. I can't help but wonder if Elena isn't seeing what she wants to see in his reactions to Lydia. Nothing in his character suggests to me he'd have any particular paternal instinct. Then again, there have been interviews with the children of genocidal dictators who thought they were great fathers, so maybe he does (or maybe those kids were as brainwashed as Elena). It will be interesting to see what develops. Like @Findswoman, I wonder what Ahnjai thought of his visit.

If it’s not spoilering too much, I’d say that it’s a little from both possibilities when it comes to Tremayne’s parental instincts. He isn’t completely devoid of warm and cuddly feelings, but neither the Jedi nor the Empire were exactly great in the whole “teaching your members how to deal with emotions and family matters” area. And given his history, I interpret him as always being in survival mode to some extent. If it’s a “them or me” choice, he’s going to do whatever he thinks he has to in order to save his skin (no matter how badly he may feel about it later). Re: Ahnjai, I wonder about that too.

 

Apologies for being far behind on replies, to everyone who has been commenting. It's one of my Things on a List for the month of October.

Seventeen

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 5:33 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: It's been raining for days. Since we’re now well into the autumn season, this is a cold, damp, miserable drizzle that makes going outside a trial. And you have apparently taken the foul weather personally.

There is literally nothing we can do with you without you having a crying fit, and your sleep cycle seems to have been disturbed. It was fairly reliable for a while, but now it’s like old times. I really did not miss that part of the old times at all. Maybe you reacted to the autumn rain like this then too, and it was just lost on me in the general chaos of your newborn wailing. Who could tell?

The summer storms a couple of months ago didn’t affect you like this; in fact you seemed to regard the lightning as a kind of fireworks display if you could see it. Sometimes you were bothered by thunder, but that was rare.

In less depressing news, you have at least come to understand the phrase “stop that”, which is a timely development. Though you’re not walking yet, you do motor around on all fours at an astonishing rate and your skill at getting into everything only grows with time. I have been learning an all-new degree of skepticism for the term “childproof.”

[end entry]

[deleted text]

While things have been much more settled at work than they were in the beginning, today was bizarre. It must be the rain bringing out the oddness in people.

The city security forces normally avoid bringing my quiet corner of an ISB center into their business, although as we’ve had to cooperate on occasion the situation has gone from my being the last resort to only nearly so. Dayja, of all people, has outright encouraged this – much to my confusion. But this morning it was like a train of people passed through. Well, four separate visits seems like a train compared to the usual zero. None of the issues had anything in common that I could see, but I’m keeping an eye out for something just in case.

Stranger still, the afternoon was marked by a visit from the Bureau of Intersystem Agriculture. Not my usual customers, that’s for certain.

It was peculiar that all three of them were cybermodified clones – very obviously so. I never knew that they were in use outside of the various local Imperial security forces. I’ve known about the Cybermodified Agent System since my first visit to the Nebula, of course. It was developed under the supervision of Moff Pelles several years back as a stopgap measure for keeping up the numbers and quality of skilled Imperial personnel in this backwater area. The basic setup involves a small-scale cloning project – nowhere near the sophistication or production level of the Clone Wars, but making at least a few dozen clones per year. These clones are bioengineered for optimal response to flash training and to specialized cybernetics.

Usually, I’ve met cybermodified agents traveling alone or with clones of different generations (and thus a series of different templates). These three were clearly derived from the same template. Admittedly, it was a bit of a shock to recognize that template. It looks as though Xacall has been using his own genetic material in the manufacture; they had his features, and the same red hair and pale green eyes. I’ve met clone troopers rarely. I didn't much care for them. Though they were personally competent and unobjectionable, in proximity to their brothers they made my senses buzz whether I was trying to see in the Force or not. These men were not buzzing like that, but that did not reassure me greatly. There was a kind of imperfect synchrony in their movements, right down to the point where if I looked for it I could see a shift in weight or a blink travel down the line; it was almost like watching falling dominoes. It made the back of my neck itch. And those eyes kept reminding me of glass shards.

They wanted to know details about something that happened a few weeks ago. It took a bit of checking through the files to remind me what in the stars they were talking about. I had helped sort out a situation for a woman named Ziisel Medarda who had recently immigrated to Tulekahju to join some far-flung relatives by marriage. She got through customs fine, but for some reason her children (and there did seem to be something of a complicated story there – two of were them were the Grannan/Human hybrid children of herself and her late husband, and the other three a Grannan niece and nephews she’d adopted after their parents died) had been flagged as a biohazard risk at the health center. They had gotten separated from her and held in the quarantine section for several hours.

It didn’t take me long to debunk the alert once I was aware of the situation and examined the evidence. There was definitely no cause for alarm. It was something the quarantine center personnel really should have been able to sort out on their own, but some of those kids were right around your age and I suppose that triggered some sort of vicarious maternal instinct. The quarantine center is perfectly safe and has nanny droids and at least one sentient on hand at all times. Still, I would not have been comfortable waiting indefinitely for you if it were our problem. So I was happy enough to be able to help resolve the issue.

Now I wonder how resolved it was, and whether I should have been more suspicious of this Ziisel character. Or, perhaps, worried about her. The last time I saw her, I gave her directions to the public information center and library complex downtown. But according to my visitors, she hasn’t registered residence anywhere. That isn’t necessarily evidence of foul play or of dishonest activities. Out in the hinterlands, record keeping is not a high priority, and her relatives were farmers who could certainly be expected to be found outside town. And if she and her younglings left the city with a civilian ride-sharing transport, there may not be a record of her movements for perfectly normal reasons.

It does sound a bit off though, doesn’t it?

The agents seemed as though they were halfway to becoming alarmed but would not state clearly what it was that they needed from me regarding the issue. It was all evasive phrasing and double-checking for further information – I got the distinct feeling they would have liked to try out a truth serum on me, as though there were something I could be hiding. It was all very strange and uncomfortable.

[end deleted text]

 

Eighteen

[message sent to Dawn Arkanian (trader, co-owner of Sulon Sunrise merchant ship) by Corwin Shelvay (New Republic Intelligence, Special Threats Division) – 22 ABY]

Dawn,

Spotted something in the background of a recent vid from a contact in the Nebula Command that I thought you might find interesting. I’ve sent it along.

Can you check with Ruithava’s nest and see if she can match the beings in the footage against any unaccounted-for Elellumiwi in the Pemmirit archives? The picture quality is not good, unfortunately. There is a chance these might be ordinary backyard avians, but I don’t think so. The ages and build of several of them are a possible match for that unknown nest that I encountered on Sedri. I’m not completely certain because Lelluim identifying marks can be altered or faked well enough to fool the Human eye.

By the way, how are you all doing? Last I heard, Matt’s youngest was getting interested in chemistry and you were all preparing for the catastrophic consequences. How did that turn out?

May the Force be with you and all that,

Corwin

[end message]



[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 5:35 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: This morning has been clear of rain and warm for the season. It's about time. Ahnjai went up to the roof of the complex to check on possible storm damage, but really to soak in the sunlight. I told him to take his time. You're calmer and even sleeping now, which may be the nice weather or that you’ve run through whatever else was throwing you off this week.

I think I’ll take you down to the market today and see if Rilkan has any fresh blue cakes. Rilkan’s blue cakes are delicious enough to overcome the usual human aversion to blue food and even Ahnjai will eat them – which is saying something, since his normal diet is nearly a hundred percent carnivorous.

[end entry]



[deleted text]

Dayja has let me know that he spotted some strangers trailing him lately – people who happen to correspond to the description of those “Agriculture” agents. He’s very concerned about this turn of events, as am I. Whatever they’re doing here, it stinks of trouble.

[end deleted text]



Notes:

Dawn Arkanian (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dawn_Arkanian) – In this story, she switched over to running a regular merchant vessel after the New Republic became pretty established and she still works with Matt Talon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Matt_Talon), an old friend from her Rebellion days.

Blue cakes are an invented bit of local Shullian cuisine, baked from the blue-green nisu grain. This is normally dyed when used as food, but for this particular treat it’s left in its natural turquoise glory.
Sulon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sulon) is one of the moons of Sullust.

 

rain and more trouble in disguise of agriculture agens

 

LOL on the realism on the crazy sleep cycles and reactions to weather and the yeah right about childproofing. Whew, the influx of visitors and interrogating on details. Something is up at work, at least the agents think so.

 

Great entries - I loved Elena's reflections on the misnomer "childproof" as well as Lydia motoring around at great speed.

And yes, it does seem like trouble is brewing...

 

Replies for 17 & 18

Since I have yet to catch up on all comments, I'm going to start with the most recent chapters this time. I'd promise to reply to all the others soon, but lately it seems like the more I promise the less I actually get around to delivering. Eventually it will happen, or so I hope. Anyway, thank you all and I hope you're having a great October!


earlybird-obi-wan:

rain and more trouble in disguise of agriculture agens

Definitely trouble. Thanks!


Nyota's Heart:

LOL on the realism on the crazy sleep cycles and reactions to weather and the yeah right about childproofing. Whew, the influx of visitors and interrogating on details. Something is up at work, at least the agents think so.

Thanks. Lydia is a pretty easy kid to have around, except for when she totally isn't. And yes, there does seem to be something rotten in the state of Shullia...


JadeLotus:

Great entries - I loved Elena's reflections on the misnomer "childproof" as well as Lydia motoring around at great speed.

And yes, it does seem like trouble is brewing...

"Motoring around" is a great phrase. Something is off-kilter, yes.


Findswoman

17: Well, Elena's absolutely right about childproofing—oxymoron of the aeon. Young kids have the persistence of squirrels and will eventually find a way into everything.

No joke! And Lydia grows up to be a curious, tinkering and trouble-making type of kid to boot. So you can guess how that goes.

I wonder what the extra crying might mean—teething? Or a Force-based premonition? I almost lean toward the latter, given the way things have gone up through now, because even now amid the excitement of Lydia's vastly increased mobility and rapid-fire development there seems to be trouble brewing.

Well, I probably shouldn't spoiler too much. But there's more than one kind of storm brewing and it's entirely possible that Lydia might be picking up on something -- though her ability is generally kind of blink-and-you'll-miss-it, I think she's actually much stronger at detecting warnings/problems that relate to Elena. Kind of a mother-daughter "spider sense." Whether Elena fully realizes how noticeable that connection is from Lydia's side, that's something I'm not sure about...


Why does the agriculture bureau, of all things, need cybermodified clones (viz., clones of the Antinnis type, if I recall aright)? The three visitors (a very dark, twisted version of the Hospitality of Abraham icon?) do seem like very odd specimens; the glass-shard eyes seems like an important point somehow.

Yes, there's a certain subconscious resemblance that I was trying to evoke. They're all green-eyed cyborgs, though Xacall (their genetic template) is different enough to Antinnis in general appearance that Elena wouldn't perhaps notice that echo on first glance. Re: the Hospitality of Abraham icons, I hadn't thought to connect to that imagery but it's a really nifty idea. Wish I had thought of it! They are definitely meant to be an unnerving presence in a "can't figure out why this seems so wrong" kind of way.

And then this mysterious Ziisel Medarda and her kids. Given the deep interest the three clone visitors seem to be taking in her and her case, it sure seems like there's more there than just a garden variety "children and family services"-type situation at work here. I'm kind of not sure whether to be more afraid of them or of her, and I don't blame Elena's Force-sense for tingling!

There are some dangerous undercurrents to the whole thing, but Elena hasn't figured out how they connect -- yet. And yes, it's hard to tell at this juncture who is up to what kind of trouble.

18: Found documents, woot! And found documents involving possible Elellumiwi spies? Doesn't get much cooler. I wonder who Corwin got this footage from, and what connection it may or may not have with the developments of the previous entry.

Thanks! It's fun to integrate some pieces of the puzzle in here, though I don't know if all questions will be answered in the end or not. (For one thing, I'd have to know what I'm doing. I never know what I'm doing, though I have lots of ideas. )

The plot is certainly thickening around those three mysterious "agriculture" agents—I don't like that they're trailing Dayja this way, and I hope Elena and especially Lydia will be safe. At least for now Elena and Lydia will get to enjoy little day out at the market (love markets!), and it's a relief that Lydia's sleeping better now.

It's not reassuring behavior for these mysterious strangers, is it? And yes, I think Elena and Lydia are both enjoying the chance to get out of the house and be in the sunshine for a while.

 

Nineteen

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:4 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: Apparently the price for sunny weather outside is that now the weather indoors has turned mucky – to be more precise, we are both now suffering from the mother of all common colds. Apparently that petri dish of pestilence otherwise known as your childcare center has contracted a runny nose. Most of the children are out sick, and their responsible adults aren’t faring much better from what I’ve seen. I could see it coming from the empty desks at work before I caught it, though I’d already had you stay at home for a couple of days – too late. Mika Eveerley from the records section, Sigurd Tanis from the dispatch office, Gwen Taara and Nethan Dev from the custodial staff, all got the sniffles and vanished over the last week.

While I did my best to get us both on vitamins and such, I’m afraid that sometimes there is no staving off the inevitable. We are both sick as blarths and Iiving in the midst of an impressive snow pile of tissues.

Ahnjai keeps bringing home chilpoctli-nuna soup from the Twi’lek food market where he recently started working part-time. (I think he got bored with having nothing to do when neither of us is home, and it gives him an income that isn’t dependent on the Empire, which I suspect he much prefers.) Ahnjai is truly a gift from the gods. The soup is fiery-hot but delicious and it makes the symptoms recede for a little while. I’ve given you a very watered-down version of it to avoid traumatizing your taste buds with too much spice. It seems that I needn’t have bothered since you pick out the pepper chunks from my soup when I’m not looking and nibble on them. You take after your namesake in that department. She used to dare me to eat the most inhumanely spicy peppers in existence.

It’s frustrating that I can’t get any real work done, and I think you’re feeling much the same way. If I don’t watch you, you try to go scrambling around the apartment and remember only too late that you feel like death warmed over. We are currently watching the entire fourth season of Kayli the Krahbu and I must love you very much – because I have never wanted to murder a bunch of probably-innocent if annoying voice actors so strongly. And yet here I stay.


Notes:

Blarth (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Blarth)

Chilpoctli is the Nahuatl word for chipotle peppers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle) and I imagine the GFFA version to be pretty similar.

Krahbu (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Krahbu)

 

Twenty

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:11 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: It somehow figures that you would manage your first steps while we are both supposed to be laid low with the cold. Congratulations, kidlet. You seemed pretty pleased with yourself, in spite of the snot and all.

Fortunately, we’re both doing better than before. I’ve been able to accomplish some actual work of the from-home variety. Unfortunately, you’ve picked up a pitiful cough that makes it very difficult for you to sleep. We’ve been working through the market’s selection of traditional cough remedies – apparently Ahnjai has already gained the high regard of the other employees there and so they’re indulging in a bit of culinary concern over us. Or else they have just been waiting for new test subjects. I have a suspicion it might be a bit of both of the above.

[deleted text]

Dayja would choose a time like this to show up out of the blue with more disturbing news. The only saving grace was that he had the sniffles too.

He’s been contacted by the “agriculture” people. The mysterious vanishing Ziisel Medarda and her children are now under a plague warning and arrest order, supposedly in connection with the strain of gornt flu that is currently affecting Tulekahju. (People from the childcare center have been having fits over this, but what everyone from there actually has is an ordinary cold. A nasty one, but still a cold.)

The kicker is, from what Dayja has discovered, there’s another weird illness-related blip in their history. All six of these people survived the Salkari fever epidemic that devastated the settlements on Ondene five months ago; that was actually when Ziisel’s husband and the in-laws who were the parents of her niece and nephews died. Needless to say, that information isn’t being released since nobody wants to cause a panic. But from what Dayja has hypothesized – and I agree – it seems unlikely that they’re carrying Salkari fever. It seems likely that they’re carrying some sort of secret that someone wants very badly to hide. I don’t want to begin speculating further until we have more information. But I’m very worried about this.

[end deleted text]



Notes:
Gornt (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gornt) – gornt flu would be something similar to swine flu, so it’s fairly bad news

 

Love her descriptions of the cold and fever with the funny details

 

Yuck the colds sound intensely unpleasant & Dayja's news Even if the illnesses are not the same ones - they seem to point to biological type warfare. Ahnjai is proving very handy in their sicker-than-dog times

 

A/N: So, after a temporary freak-out this month, I've managed to get some short entries done that will carry this diary through the end of the year. After that, Notes will be going on a hiatus for a while. (Think months, not weeks.)

It will probably be a long while before another update after December. My apologies for that delay. It's the best way that I could think of to make this work with the way that my brain apparently works -- which is not especially well when it comes to updating works in progress.

I need some time to plot out and write all the way to the ending for this beast. If and when it's done, I'll start posting the end chapters once every two weeks. Just to be clear, I won't consider this abandoned at the new year but it may not be possible to finish -- though I really, really hope that's not the case. Endings aren't my strong suit. But I intend to give it a shot.

Thank you to everyone who has been following this, whether by reviewing, liking, lurking, or sending PM's. It's been a great year and I hope you'll enjoy these upcoming mini-chapters. Think of this as an intermission of sorts -- though I also accept any and all thrown peanut shells and/or paper TIE fighters as my due for blanking out on the lead-up to the big ending plot.

Twenty-one

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:18 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: The plague upon our dwelling has passed for the time being. You were the first to rebound, of course. It's a good thing that whatever it was didn't seem to hit Ahnjai at all. Now that you can walk a bit, you've been stumbling around with great energy.

I have been back to the office during the daytime for a few days. It seems a shame to miss out on a minute of this time in your life. However, Ahnjai has been sending cute holovids of your wanderings to my comm. He really likes the vidrecorder feature on his comm unit. That Srrors'tok has logged somewhere around thirty hours of filming squarriks doing ridiculous things to get at food. His new project is apparently to film you doing ridiculous things for the sheer fun of it. It's a bit more adorable than the results of my many hours of recording Imperial persons of interest doing ridiculous things to get at... well, any number of goals.

[end entry]

 

Twenty-two

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:20 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: Though our sickness seems to have passed, the city as a whole is not faring so well. The system governor has ordered a level two quarantine: no ships in or out of Tulekahju, early curfew, and Imperial health inspections of the residents of any region of Shullia with a spaceport. It isn't the worst possible case, but it isn't good either.

[end entry]

 

I like the tones of the last two entries. Relief at Lydia's recovery and concern that this plague whatever it is is striking the general population. Could be worse but it is not good either, a very concise and realistic appraisal of a situation you have no way of knowing will get worse before it gets better.

 

A/N: Hi, everyone! Last set of story posts for the year, after which this diary will be going on hiatus for an undetermined length of time while I try to figure out how one does endings.

Thank you to the commenters and readers here -- and yes, I do intend to eventually reply to comments! Special thanks to Ewok Poet and Findswoman for their encouragement when I was having a last minute battle with Darth Writer's Block. This is the first time that I've made it through a whole year of the Diary Challenge, so that's a good thing. (I know, I know, there's no conclusion yet -- but still! )


Twenty-three

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:21 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: Since the ladies at Ahnjai's work were kind enough to send us Rylothian cure-alls when we were under the weather, I've taken it upon myself to make some Galtean spiced bantha broth for them -- seeing as Ahnjai reports that Der'yalal and Polena have been out sick recently.

Though I cannot let you help much directly yet at your age, you're very interested by watching me prepare the food from the secured play area that I placed on the other counter for you. Either you are particularly intrigued by cooking, or else you just find it as engrossing as any other sort of mess!
[end entry]


Notes:

The play area thingamajig (which is so far unnamed -- suggestions anyone?) is something that I thought might be popular in the GFFA with the level of tech they've achieved. It's got an anchoring and force field element, and the shape of it is flexible and can be adapted. Probably most widely used among families that live on a spaceship -- or among very concerned Imperial agents with hyperactive younglings.

 

Twenty-four

[Elena Shelvay – entry dated 24 AE: 6:25 – 5 ABY by New Republic calendar]

Lydia: It's become well and truly winter here. Snow is rare here, but the biting winds are there to greet me like a slap in the face each morning when I step outside. After a moment's surprise, you seem to have a total disregard for the icy temperatures. I think you would run around until you froze into a happy little toddler statue, given the chance. It worries me. However, at least you enjoy your short trips into the big outdoors. The big just-outside-the-door, anyway.

[end entry]

 

Congratulations on completing the diary even if the story continues. I love Elena's comments on things which seem so ordinary but are eventful because Lydia is happily engrossed in stuff.

 

This. And big fans, we are. R-right, Finds?

I have a lot to catch up with, but it's a priority.

 

Oooookay, so I finally got around to reading this, only one year late and I'm realising now how much I missed by not reading it earlier. Elena has got to be one of the most unusual characters that have been written on these boards. She comes across as very touching and attached to her daughter, but also as, quite frankly, unhinged. Her relationship to her brother is unbalanced, her relationship to Tremayne is bizarre and even creepy, and the awkward family-like unit she has established in her new life is, well, just awkward. If the comments of the New Republic people that you inserted are to be believed, I'm not the only one who thinks all this No wonder Lydia grew up to be an... unusual kid.

This story had everything I would expect from a Kahara offering -- well thought-out characters, hilarious moments (the various comments on children and child-proofing methods were priceless) and fantastic world-building. Plus, of course, a sprinkling of intriguing titbits here and there, which I am sure will be important in future instalments. I'm very curious to see where this whole Isard-killing-off-people thing is going (and I have the proverbial bad feeling about it) but there were also other little things that grabbed my attention, e.g. the Elellumiwi spies???? What was that about?

So now you know that I'll be here for the continuation, or the sequel, or the prequel, or any of the above

 

I apologise for having remained behind at some point in September. This won't happen again, once it continues, I will be its Katy Bates.

Regarding this thing you said:
Just to be clear, I won't consider this abandoned at the new year but it may not be possible to finish -- though I really, really hope that's not the case. Endings aren't my strong suit. But I intend to give it a shot.

If you need any help or feedback, I'm here. Endings are killing me slow and all.


Seventeen

Lydia's crying fits have got to have something to do with her mother unconsciously transferring her own woes to her and the fact that the SexyCyborg was there in the first place. And even if the deleted text block wasn't there, it would've been obvious that something quite scary is going on. Even if she wasn't a Force!Baby, she would've been able to feel that her mommy is worried.

In less depressing news, you have at least come to understand the phrase “stop that”, which is a timely development.

That's the first step. Knowing when and when not to listen to it will be the next step.


Now on to the deleted part...

While things have been much more settled at work than they were in the beginning, today was bizarre. It must be the rain bringing out the oddness in people.

One'd think they don't have THAT in the GFFA, because they don't drive on the ground and blabla. But yeah, I'm wrong.

While I'm sure that this will be the exact entry we'll all need to go back to over and over again once whatever scary thing is around the corner has developed; for now my only guess is that the mother, not the children was biohazard and the children were a red herring, and that Elena made a horrible miscalculation here. At the same time, of course they sent these cyborgs - they're probably immune to whatever this is!


Eighteen

By the tone of Corwin's message, I can sense great friendship between him, Matt and Dawn. And that sort of downplays the incredibly scary things they're talking about. And we have already seen how Elellumiwi can fool just about anybody.

And then, Elena's "public" entry is almost idyllic - there is Ahnjai sunbathing and a blue cake in store for little Lydia.

The deleted part, on the other hand...eeek.

What I found interesting is that there is no such thing as blue food on Earth, yet these grains are actually blue, yet they dye them. HA.




Nineteen
This one almost looks as a challenge response and it isn't a challenge response. Very snotty and uncomfortable, to the point I'm shivering. And now I want that hot soup, even if it would burn my throat.

For some reason, no matter how harmless this chapter looks like, I kept on looking for details that may fit into the creepy stuff hinted in the previous two entries, but I found nothing. I surrender.



Twenty
Well, babies. Babies. B.a.b.i.e.s. When they're really young, they can emit fluids through all their orifices at the same time, and when they're older, they provide us with such surprises.

And those coughs in children can be so exhausting. Hope Lydia is going to be A-OK soon.

Now, the sole idea of biological warfare freaks me out!



Twenty-One
Ahnjai is going for some sort of Funniest Galactic Video here, isn't he?


Twenty-Two
One word: gulp!


Twenty-three!
I want a fictional cookbook with all these things in them. Pleasepleaseplease.

The play area thingamajig (which is so far unnamed -- suggestions anyone?)
Not sure if this was meant to be funny or not, but according to Suns of Fortune, that is how Vagranites are kept away from the dangerous flora and fauna of Vagran and vice-versa. O_O


Twenty-four
Snow is always an interesting leitmotif and I'll take liberty to translate this entry into a single sentence: It's not over yet!