Saga [UDC VIII] Hyperactive Mouse Droid Strokes

Title: [UDC VII] Hyperactive Mouse Droid Strokes
Author: Ewok Poet
Characters: See individual drabbles
Timeframe: All over the place
Rating: From G to PG-13.
Genre: Character study, poetry, drabble, whatever may creep in...
Canonicity: Canon and Legends, depending on what I decide to write.

Summary: These are my drabbles for Ultimate Drabble Challenge VIII.

A/N: I have another drabble thread, it's called Every You, Every Me. It does not use specific prompts, it covers characters by film/series/game/comic.

 

Week One

Here's a link to the announcement with prompts.


Valour

This was not the time to show off – even though everybody was looking.

This was not the time to joke – even though he had a huge audience available.

This was the time to do something that nobody would have approved of had they known what got into his head.

Run through the ferns.

Jump on the demonic metal bordok with a weird saddle.

Press against its ribs, so it could start.

And then, the forest becomes a series of brown lines and green blurs.

This was the time for the biggest thrill of his young life.

Woo-hoo! Valour was FUN.

Spoiler

(Saga-OT, Paploo)

***

Honour


She was his little girl, in a way. Once upon a time, he had been somebody’s little boy, rocked in a wooden cradle and loved much like his brother, the one who had betrayed him.

He was her stuffed bantha doll, in a way. Once upon a time, she had been somebody’s little girl, twitching her lekku at her caretakers, and her eyes would gleam each time her brother, the one who had left her behind, would return home.

They were each other’s missing pieces. And today, their holostatues stand one next to the other, and they’re holding hands. Forever.

Spoiler

(Before-Legends - Mission Vao and Zalbaar)

***

Sacrifice

The connection broke.

Luke was out of reach and the last thing he knew is that he got a mechanical hand, more sturdily built than his own first artificial limb. So, he knew almost nothing.

This time he won...or did he?

Yes. He won it for his Master. Victory no longer mattered. A son was as much of a curse as his cybernetic prison. Knowing another muscle pumping blood rich in midichlorians caused emotions he had long left behind with his missing limbs. Love. Care. Empathy. Sacrifice.

Empathy? The itch of a new body part.

But...sacrifice? Not for the Sith.

Spoiler

(Saga-OT, Darth Vader)

***

Defeat

The body of a man who claimed he had found the secrets of eternal life is flying towards the Coruscant Sun.

Hypoxia kicks in before he starts burning apart. The faces he can see in a couple of seconds of huge pressure before he succumbs to it are those of his underlings – gone into hiding or dying like him, the Emperor that one of his lackeys managed to slay and give him one last bit of pleasure, and the last expression on Cade Skywalker’s face before he had sent him flying.

Nothing on the horizon.

Nothing in the future.

Nothing.

Spoiler

(Beyond-Legends, Darth Krayt)

***

Victory

A young man in red with black hair and sunken cheeks kneels before a similarly clad woman. He offers his life, to make up for her father’s, for he had to slay him.

“Do what you must, Sia.” He says.

“What I must? Okay. Stand up, Antares Draco.”

“What?”

“I said ‘stand up’.”

He shrugs and gets up. She does not give him a kiss, but she drops her lightsaber on the throne room floor and gives him a quizzical look.

“For now, just hold me.”

“What?”

“Do what I said. I’m your Empress now.”

And they just stood still.

Spoiler

(Beyond-Legends, Antares Draco and Marasiah "Sia" Fel)

 

Wow. These are fantastic. You've really run the gambit in terms of era and characters. I quite enjoyed Honour in particular - from their separate, but similar origins to their legacy together in honour - very fitting of Mission and Zalbaar.

 

A great set covering all of the universe from KotOR to Cade Skywalker

 

Excellent work here!

Valor: I love how the little Ewok describes what I take to be a speeder bike. And he has a blast with it!

Honour: What an interesting format you used! Just like the two characters, just like the statues themselves, the desciptions here parallel and mirror each other. Very clever, and it makes the drabble very touching. I love when the structure of the writing supports the feeling of the writing.

Sacrifice: How strange it must have been for Vader to finally meet his son. And how tragic that he is the sole witness to the way his son, like him, literally breaks. Love the line about how empathy is "the itch of a new body part." Like a reverse phantom limb pain.

Defeat: This is such a sad one. I like the way you fade the words out to nothing, paralleling the man's approaching death.

Victory: I like me some Legends stuff. When your empress says "Hold me," you better obey. Unless you don't and you just stand there instead. Intriguing!

Looking forward to more!

 

All good, but Victory was the most evocative - the father you slew, this is what he would have done for me, and I now need you to do...hold me.

 

I adore that interpretation of Vader up there. It speaks volumes about how off-center he is in his own head about Luke and everything that surrounds him. Well done.

 

Space for replies. Done, sorry for keeping you waiting and thank you so much!

---

Sometimes I'm manic. Or hyper. Or both. I'm not sure.

He's young, callow and he wants to create a diversion as much as he wants to have fun. The draft of Return of the Jedi had Teebo do it and he escapes from it badly hurt, the comic had Wicket. I think Paploo is a far better option and that ultimately, Lucas and Marquand did it right.

I have not played it past early Dantooine because I literally forgot all the commands, but I plan to. And the symmetry was entirely intentional.

...that and phantom limbs in the mirror.

Nothing to add, the bolded part is half of what I was going for, divapilot found the other half.

Antares is one of my favourite boyZ in the Galaxy, despite not being my type physically...BUT DON'T TELL SIA.

I'm blushing here.

And yes, that's what it was - the way I see them, slowly forming one entity, without being siblings or lovers - just friends.

Thank you.

Of course. Paploo is...well, Paploo. If you ever have the patience to watch the cartoon, he comes across as a tad bit annoying, even, because he's all like LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKINS!

That was precisely the idea. Their stories are very similar and while Zalbaar redeems himself and Mission can't bring Griff back from his downward spiral, they will always have each other. Even in the eternity.

The bolded part is what I had in mind.

I always assume that, right before his death, he at least thought of his ways, that's why.

I wanted it to be a dark counterpart to that "deal with this" scene when she kisses him for the first time. And mind you, Cade is slaying Krayt at the same time, or so!

Yes, it looks a wee bit silly. BUT the Imperial Knights' code demands for it - if somebody turns to the dark side, kill them. And Sia is shocked and there is, ironically, nobody that she trusts more than her love.

Yup. He's totally zoned out and irrational there - which is un-Jedi AND un-Sith. He's...suddenly a politician type, yet a father, too. It makes no sense and it would suck to be in his mind that day.

 

Week Two

Here's a link to the announcement with prompts.

Name

Where does a name go to die when there’s nothing to carry it anymore?

Where does a planet go to die when its name, much like its remains, is now just stardust?

Evaan Verlaine had sworn to the map of the dead, the place that used to be her beloved Alderaan that she would protect anybody who had remained alive after the planet’s sudden destruction. The nuns in the bar in Keren. The colony on Sullust.

But most of all, the one she admired and the one she despised so much at the same time – Princess and senator Leia Organa.

Spoiler

Evaan Verlaine, from the Princess Leia new canon comics

***​

​

Title

“It’s just a change of the title.”

“No.”

The Nautolan assumed that his Human friend was paranoid. But still, Jax continued.

“You will be in danger. You’d better head to your homeworld, now.”

“But why? It’s just a formality.”

“Don’t you see it? He’s crazy. This is not the world our ancestors fought for during the past 25 millenia. He killed all the Jedi.”

“They betrayed us, didn’t they?”

“And you believe it?”

Two years later, Sores was a slave and Jax a guard in the penalty colony. And he was sure that this conversation had gone other way round.

Spoiler

Two random beings, right after Revenge of the Sith

***​

Number


“Over 100 000 years in diametre.

Seven dwarf satellite galaxies.

Nine major regions.

Four major trade routes.

Four major arms.

400 000 000 000 stars

180 000 000 000 star systems

70 000 000 inhabited star systems.

Up to twenty million sentient species.

100 quadrillion sentient beings.

25 000 years of democracy.

50 wonders of the Core, 30 wonders of the Mid Rim and the 25 wonders of the Outer Rim.

And nobody like you, my love.”

He could not dare pass the note. After all, she was not Human. What would his friends say? And his mother and father?

Spoiler

A student during the Imperial Era

​

​

***​

Date

“What is this?”

“I don’t know, but they found it in this very, very primitive starship.”

“How primitive is primitive, Antilles?”

“No hyperdrive. No gravity stabilisers. No tractor beam.”

Apparently, the fruit was edible. Antilles bit into it. It was sweet. And…

…and all was right there before him – a man and woman in some strange world that did not even get to the stage they were at before the Tho Yor arrival. They were both Humans. They wore rather colourful, flashy clothes. And their eyes were stuck to their tiny datapads.

“Yes, whoever they are, they didn’t get far.”

Spoiler

Two random beings, at any given time, one having a visions of Humans in 2017.

***​

Legacy

Living with her father’s last name and a revoked title was a burden. Yet, she chose to use it, as opposed to her first. Who would have wanted to be a Chelli Lona, when Doctor Aphra sounded much more mysterious, powerful and the power of a name was not to be underestimated.

She did not want to cross paths with him again. She knew that he must have been looking for her, his only daughter who once came to him pouting after the life she knew had been destroyed and after her mother had died.

For his own supposed ideals.

Spoiler

Chelli Lona Aphra aka Dr. Aphra from the new canon comics

 

You are the Drabble Queen! Seriously, I don't know how you do this, and do it so fast, but you have the gift for writing these mini-masterpieces. You're inspiring me to try my hand at it someday.

Valor: Paploo! Love his crazy bravado here, and how he's taking action because it's right rather than his usual showing off. But he retains enough of his personality to say that "valor is fun!" Yep, that's so Paploo
Honor: as the other commenters have noted, the symmetry in this one is lovely. I had not thought of it before, but both Mission and Zaalbar have been betrayed by their brothers. They both become each other's siblings in a way. I love, love, love the description of Big Z as Mission's "stuffed bantha doll": something furry, comforting and lovable--not necessarily an image associated with Wookiees, but so apt here
Sacrifice: A powerful take on Vader's conflicted emotions after ESB, how he tries to convince himself he's won, that he's a good Sith who doesn't care about sacrificing his son, even as he's comparing Luke's new cybernetic hand to his own mechanical limbs.

Week 2
Name: I'm not familiar with the character, but those first two lines about how there's nothing left of Alderaan but a name--wow! But there's power in a name, as long as there's someone left to remember it. Evaan 's fierce determination to remember and to protect those who remain will ensure that the name never loses the power to recall what is lost and to move those who hear it.
Number: Such a beautiful love poem , and at the end such a sad reminder of how the Empire fosters division in their New Order.
Title: Another wow! Jax is so right--Chancellor to Emperor, Republic to Empire--it's much more than just a change of title. It's the end of life as they know it. And two years later, he believes the lie he argued against

Keep up the good work. Looking forward to seeing future installments.

 

Name: So fitting for Alderaan. AND EVAAN! Man, I love her.

Title: Yeah, so much can change and so many lies can be believed.

Number: Aww. Really shows the day to day impact the empire had, even on such little things like a crush.

 

Number; a perfect poem.
Name; a touching tribute to Alderaan
Title; two trying to cope
Date; funny
Legacy: she could use it

 

Thank you so much for your responses, I'm flattered!

---

SO, THIS IS HOW IT'S MY FAULT. I'M A BAD INFLUENCE, HUH-HUH?

Just think of how WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOO he's like during that scene.

But they can be cute when they love so much as Big Z loves his little friend. He's her saviour and she's his saviour.

Yes. Plus, it's the hand/arm that's mind, in both cases, not the one that's feelings...which is also interesting.

Evaan was assigned to Leia on her mission to save Alderaani citizens around the Galaxy and their relationship was very complicated. She was cold, determined, but great.

Nothing to add here.

Humans were easier to brainwash. Others were easier to win at first and then be tricked into complete and total submission.

Ditto. She's one of the most awesome new characters!

It's 1984-ish in a way, isn't it? The guy is censoring HIMSELF, for no apparent reason.

She could use it, yes, but her dad so far seems to have huge issues of his own, so I'm not sure if he's the one who could help her.

And thanks for saying that the poem is perfect!

...you got it. That (also bolded in the next portion of quotes) and another A that was just a name for fourteen months. As usual.

No, a speeder bike. Widdle and Wunka were in the chicken walker with Chewie.

You know how much I like all three of those characters!

And did you see the ending of "Number"? It was meant to be the way you saw it...but with a twist.

KRIFF, NO. MY ELEMENT IS WTF.

I mean, yes, I'm surprised at how this works for me.

It does not work every time. As I have said, I'm kind of manic. But I love the stream-of-consciousness and seat-of-pants (huh-huh, she said "pants") approach to writing short forms. All my recent vignettes were "born" that way, too.

...much like Evaan herself, r-right?

I'm sorry. See above for what I was trying to depict.

Sorry about that one, too. Empire is just...Empire and people are indoctrinated to the point where only my version of Sacorria can be worse.

*gazes at the screen* WHAT?

I recommend reading about Dr. Aphra, she's an incredibly interesting character. Amoral, in a way, but complex and with childhood traumas.

 

Nope, just the overall negativity of the last line, the fear. But come to think...it would work there, yup.

 

Week Three

Here's a link to the announcement with prompts.

Helpless

Hanging in there, Luke thought he would have met his end. Below was an abyss, the strangest kind thereof. Would he fall through this planet or would the pressure kill him? How does one even manage to hang on like this, badly injured, with just one hand?

And just then, salvation comes. He always felt that there was something more than just friendship between Leia and him and by now, he was sure that it was not romance, but what was it? And how did she hear his cry?

In a way, she was his other hand.

Was it…possible? Hmmm.

Spoiler

Empire Strikes Back: Luke hanging from the weather vane on Bespin.

​

***​

​

Satisfied

There was some large beast of burden, drinking water. But it did not matter. Nothing matter other than getting the precious elixir of life. He was hoping that he was not hallucinating.

There were crystal drops of water falling from the sky. It was the strangest thing. She heard that they called it “rain”, and that some beings hated it. But how? Why? It was beautiful!

She crawled out of the lagoon at the bottom of the sinkhole, badly hurt. The man was nowhere nearby. Using her animal instinct, she determined he was alive. And so was she. Lucky escape.

Spoiler

The Force Awakens: Finn and Rey; Revenge of the Sith: Boga

***​

Enough

“Dear Doria.

Stop listening to Maris. I’m serious. Listen to what your heart is telling you. If you want to be with that man, go for it. Do not make the same mistake I did back in the days. Give him all the love you can and let him do the same for you. I really am certain that it could work, in spite of distance, social and ideological differences. You love him.”

SCREEEECH!

Branna tore the flimsi. It’s not that she had changed her mind. She decided that it would be better to talk to her young friend instead.

Spoiler

The Blind Chart the Stars (sequel to The Black Star): Doria Vorr and Duchess Branna of R'vanye

***​

​

Non-Stop

“Bjuga mjaga tadu kgaskl vidu madu kajh mahjr ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

He was sure that his master liked this particular joke. But was he able to come up with another?

“Ho ho ho!” The Hutt grabbed himself another snack and then gazed at the carbonite display on the nearby wall, satisfied. “E chand tugu Solo? Pejg?”

Salacious B. Crumb rolled his eyes. That was not the first Han Solo joke that he was asked to tell that day.

“Donku mager Solo? Kura maha vagerd bejanut! E he he he he he!”

“Ho ho ho!”

All was fine.

Spoiler

Return of the Jedi: Salacious B. Crumb and Jabba the Hutt

***​

​

Burn

Ravyd held his wife and children close to himself. From the Church of the Force monastery, they could see Anaslinea in the distance. After the Skakoan orbital bombardment, little to nothing remained of an once beautiful seaside town.

“We have to leave.” He said. “Sacorrian system is the closest to Jumus, isn’t it? We are going to get to Saccorata as refugees and then see what we could do next.”

“I don’t want to live on Sacorria!” one of the Anaslineans protested.

“There are always places like Aurea and the beauty, Vagran. But we are not allowed to be picky.”

Spoiler

Forever Away from Home: Ravyd Caraway and his fellow Anaslineans

 

Helpless: Luke realizing something
Satisfied: I love seeing those alive
Enough: that's what it is for her
Non-stop: he has to entertain
Burn: sad for the refugees

 

Week 2.

Name: that first line is such a gut punch. Beautifully written – when no one is left who remembers you, does it matter if you ever lived at all? I also loved the allusion to the Map of the Dead – the place where Alderaan used to be, where it is supposed to be. So touching!

Title: At first, the danger is evident, but after a while the danger becomes the norm and nobody is alarmed anymore. We accept the unacceptable. It’s so easy to believe, without question, what you’ve been told. The two friends become slave and guard and nobody complains. How horrifying in its simplicity – and how familiar, seeing how the world is these days.

Number: I love this poem – and the sad fact that it will be a letter never sent, since the loved one is not “approved.” How many people today still have to guard their love warily because there will always be those who would criticize – or worse.

Date: So you used the word as the name of the fruit? Clever, lady, very clever. And those silly primitives who can’t stop being distracted by their – hold up, someone’s texting me

Legacy: I can’t say I know much about Dr. Aphra, but she sounds like a tough cookie. It takes a strong survivor to completely rewrite your own history, from your name to the refusal of your father. I am sure she has her reasons.

Week 3.

Helpless: That scene in ESB was so cool for me, because it made my favorite, Leia, so much more than I had first thought. How it must have felt for Luke to realize he wasn’t alone, he wasn’t the only one in the galaxy who could send a message through his thoughts and have it received by someone else. In his most helpless moment, broken, emotionally destroyed, dangling above death, he throws out a call – and she responds. He has lost his physical hand but he has her. The Force grants him that exchange in his most dire hour.

Satisfied: I like how this drabble starts and ends with creatures: the big, lumbering one that Finn shares a slimy water trough with in TFA, and the lovely plumed lizard that Obi-Wan rides in ROTS. I’m so happy that she was able to survive the fall into the lagoon that pitched Obi-Wan off of her back. Then, in the middle, the exuberance and pure joy of discovery that Rey feels when she experiences her first rainfall. And interesting mix!

Enough: Doria has had enough of other people making her decisions for her! She deserves happiness. I’m glad that Branna is there to be her friend. And I have to catch up on your diary and other works because you are so not a schedule person.

Non-stop: Salacious B. Crumb sits a little too close to the amphibian snack bowl. He better keep the boss laughing.

Burn: How sad to see everything you loved destroyed, and know that you can’t do a thing about it. You are at the mercy of others. They still have each other, they still have their faith in the Church of the Force. But they don’t have options anymore.

Another lovely set of drabbles!

 

CAPS LOCK THE DIARY IS THE ONLY THING THAT'S ON THE S-THING BECAUSE I PRACTICE THE S-THINGS THAT WAY CAPS LOCK CAPS LOCK PRETENDING TO BE ANGRY CAPS LOCK!!!1111!oneoneone

In all seriousness, with the amount of stuff I'm churning out, I avoid scheduling because people would never be able to catch up. I have chapters for four stories ready at the moment, but I try not to post more than two things within ten days, plus DDC, plus drabbles. And even that is too many.

 

I'm truly enjoying these. I want a translation for Non-Stop. My Hutteese is horrible.