Saga - OT A Rose Has Five Petals (2021 Fanfic Summer Olympics; OC ensemble cast)

Author: Findswoman
Title: A Rose Has Five Petals
Era: Saga–OT (at various indeterminate points between ca. 10 and 0 BBY)
Characters: Crew of the Rose Evergreen, who are all OCs and all female:
Marya-Glocke “Glockel” Sternenkranz (Human pilot)
Lualani’Draba’Takiil “Lua” (Drabatan seamstress)
Telfien Viurraanvi (Gand Findswoman)
Shulma Trilasha Orrelios (Lasat shaman)
R1-K4 “Rika” (astromech droid)
Summary: Five vignettes, one for each of the five women who are the petals of the Rose Evergreen.
Notes: Written as a Star Wars Pentathlon for the 2021 Fanfic Summer Olympics, hosted by the awesome @devilinthedetails.
Related Stories featuring these characters:
Of Urgent Transmissions and Curious Dropped Objects
“Dearest Delphine!”
Box of Visions
In Search of a Hutt’s Dinner Music
The Spacer’s Song
Shaman, Traveler, Oracle: Journal of an Exile of Lasan (from chapter 15 on)
Till the Shades Lengthen
The Sisterhood of the Rose Evergreen
Many thanks, as always, to @Raissa Baiard for beta-reading.

Contents
1. The Astromech / Monitor Meatbag Activity (110-Word Hurdle)
2. The Seamstress / Sewing Is Everything (400-Word Cross Country)
3. The Findswoman / A Sealing Off (200-Word Freestyle)
4. The Pilot / The Glockelite Maneuver (Prime Time Coverage)
5. The Shaman / I Shall Return (Fantastical Fencing)

 

1. The Astromech / Monitor Meatbag Activity
110-Word Hurdle

STARTUP SEQUENCE… DONE
PRELIMINARY DIAGNOSTIC… COMPLETE
COGNITIVE MODULE… READY

OBJECTIVE: MONITOR MEATBAG ACTIVITY/ ASSESS OBSERVATIONS/ NOTE IRREGULARITIES/ FOR MAKER’S SAKE KEEP THEM OUT OF TROUBLE

HUMAN: IN COCKPIT AS USUAL/ MAPPING NEXT HYPERSPACE ITINERARY/ REFUSING TO ASK [self] FOR HELP/ ALSO AS USUAL

DRABATAN: IN LOUNGE/ STACKING GALACTIC TILES IN ELABORATE PATTERNS/ VOCALIZING INDETERMINATE SEQUENCE OF TONES/ [self] TEMPTED TO DIVERT TOWARD NEAREST ASTEROID FIELD

LASAT: SAME LOCATION/ WRITING IN FLIMSIBOOK/ [self] HAS PREVIOUSLY RECOMMENDED HOLOJOURNALING AS MORE ENERGY-EFFICIENT/ TO NO EFFECT

GAND: INSUFFICIENT DATA/ CONFINED IN QUARTERS LAST 2.53 HOURS/ AIRLOCK RUNNING FULL POWER/ FIGURES GIVEN ITS INSTALLATION COST

CONCLUSION: ENJOY THE PEACE AND QUIET WHILE YOU CAN

 

I can't tell you how quickly I smashed the 'like' button on this. It's always so good to see these wonderful ladies showcased in your work, and, so far, this story is no exception for brilliance.

Aw! Rika really has a handle on the pulse of the Rose Evergreen, doesn't she? I really enjoyed reading her observations and deductions about her companions.

I can believe it! Glockel tries so hard to be so strong for her crew. She's the captain; that's what she does. Rika, understandably, wants to be there by her side and doing her own part to support her too, though.

Rika, never change!

No effect for it not having the same affect, certainly! I loved this image of Shulma with her journal - a much loved journal for all of us!

Such sass! As fitting with the best droids in SW, of course!

You know, at the end of it, that's really all you can do! I agree with and support Rika's conclusion.


This was a great way to open this collection, with a lovely look at a 'slice of lifestyle' moment with the crew at rest, all as seen through one endearingly unique point of view! I can't wait for more.

 

Thanks so much for reading and commenting, everyone!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed this "droid's-eye view" of this ensemble of characters!

Oh, thank you so much. It's wonderful to have the opportunity to write about this ensemble again (and to finally get to try out the Olympics for myself), and I am so glad you have been enjoying them!

Thanks! Yes, the droid always has a pulse on the rest of the group in that way only droids can!

That is definitely true, even if Rika herself would be more likely to emphasize the "meatbags can't manage complex hyperspace calculations without droid help" angle.

She won't, you can be sure of that! Now, I will say that I don't know yet if Rika would actually go to such lengths—she's not Chopper, after all, but the thought definitely crossed her cognitive module.

Definitely true—Shulma's the sort who would very much appreciate the tangibility and "objectness" of a handwritten journal. But Rika tried her best!

Indeed—she knows it's on her to keep the ship from devolving into chaos, as you know it will with all these meatbags running things!

Oh yeah, totally, same here.

Thanks so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed! There seemed to be no better role for the "110-word hurdle" event, and I knew from the start that I would make that one Rika's perspective on the others. Always wonderful to have you here, and many thanks again!

Ooh, thank you so much for that—I hope you enjoy what you see, and I'll be eager to see what you think of them!

 

Thanks so much! They really are, aren’t they? And they have that unique perspective on everyone else, and that knack for keeping everyone around them grounded in the here and now—which is exactly why I wanted to kick this series off with The Droid of the group. Many thanks again, and hope you continue to enjoy!

 

Thank you so much, Chyn, and it's such a pleasure to see you here—glad you enjoyed meeting the sassy Rika! What she does is exactly what she says: keep an eye on those meatbags and keep them out of trouble (and enjoy the quiet while she can, because Maker knows it won't last long with these gals). More is coming soon—each vignette of this group this will center on a different one of the characters, but Rika will certainly reappear, because she always does. Many thanks again for coming by to read and comment!

 

And here is the second petal of the Rose. Once again, I thank @Raissa Baiard for beta reading.

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2. The Seamstress / Everything Is Sewing
400-Word Cross Country

Everything is SEWING.

“WHAT you mean by that, Lua?” you may be SAYING now. WELL, it’s WHAT I SAY to Glockel the OTHER DAY, when she FIND me in Engineering fixing the SHORT CIRCUIT in the secondary repulsor POWER conduit. “Lua!” she SAY, or, rather, she YELL. “WHAT you DOING down here? I THOUGHT I FIND you in the common room!” As if a little old lady DON’T DO NOTHING but sit around and SEW BUTTONS on PEOPLE’S jackets! But connecting the RIGHT wire to the OTHER RIGHT wire, and SO ON and SO ON, that just a KIND OF SEWING, too, no? Okay, maybe more like a KIND OF WEAVING, or KNITTING, but I know those, too. Besides, Glockel NOT know IT yet, but long ago back DURING the ROUGH times, RIGHT AFTER I LOSE my poor Sap’de’ (keen), I take some OF his electric WORK along with my SEWING, to make some EXTRA for Pao and me. My BOY FIRST learn about engineering that WAY.

Then there was the time ON Nar Kaaga I TALK to that BIG HERGLIC DEPOT fellow to bargain for a BETTER DEAL on cockpit upholstery, and I SUCCEED, and he promise to SUPPLY US for GOOD AFTER that. I REMEMBER Shulma COME with me, she totally SPEECHLESS! “You a miracle, Lua,” she SAY to me. ’Course, she NEVER SEEN me at the MARKET ON Auditorium Square, I always DO that there with the TEXTILE and notions SELLERS. Same THING with the BIG weekly MARKET in Wrils. That’s how you get WHAT you NEED, and THEY get WHAT THEY NEED, and YOU BOTH get someone YOU happy to SEE later. Making bargains, DEALS, allies, NEW FRIENDS—that SEWING, too. You a sleeve, THEY a BODICE, you DON’T have a TUNIC until you SEW THEM TOGETHER.

You know WHAT else is SEWING? WHAT I got to DO to my heart SOMETIMES. Because SOMETIMES I THINK about Pipada, and Sap’de’, and little Pao (NOT SO little now!), and WHAT the Empire DO to us, and it be like my heart TEAR APART inside, ALL OVER again. But WHAT you DO when something is TORN? You FIND the NICEST fabric you can and PATCH it up real GOOD, that’s WHAT. Or SOMETIMES your FRIENDS DO that for you, like here ON Rose Evergreen. That the BEST OF ALL.

SO I SAY, everything is SEWING, and SEWING is everything!

Spoiler: Notes

For a previous example of my fanon Drabatan speech pattern with LOUD and soft word volumes, see The Drabatan Lady Downstairs, also featuring Lua and her son, Paodok’Draba’Takat of Rogue One. Since introducing this speech pattern in Shaman, Traveler, Oracle, chapter 8, I have been keeping a document listing which words are loud and which are soft, which at some point I hope to make into a Fanon Thread post. Note that loud vs. soft volume does not always correspond to which words we would consider “important—for example, “on” and “of” are both loud!

 

Thanks so much! Yes, it really is all about sewing everything together—not just those buttons on the jackets, but also people and relationships. The result is greater than the sum of its parts, and this lady knows that better than many! Many thanks again for coming by to read and comment.

 

Thanks so much, Nyota, and great to see you here again!

Oh, it certainly can be, with this group, and even the droid can see that!

Thanks! "Feminine" crafts like sewing so often get written off as being unimportant and inconsequential, but they really take a lot of skill, smarts, and knowhow—and some of that skill, smarts, and knowhow is not all that different from what we consider more "technical" pursuits. (And it's not bad to remember that words like "technical" and "technology" come from the Greek word for "craft," tekhnê.) Lua is one of the newer characters of this group, and my goal with her is to show that one should never underestimate an "old lady who sews"—her craft gives her a lot of wisdom.

Many thanks again, and always great to have you here!

 

I LOVED this. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I adore how you've developed Drabatan speech patterns throughout your work! What I 'hear' from Lua is just as important and unique as what we hear from characters like Artoo or Chewie. It's so clever how you are able to convey those loud and soft sounds in your writing. Really: all the kudos for creativity, in short.

&

This was a gorgeous bit of head-canon, too - this connection to her husband and her son. Lua's right, it's all sewing, and I especially love when this little old lady can surprise others with all the tricks she has up her sleeve.

This was so heartwarming, because Lua is so spot-on right! Again!

Also, I can imagine that she's quite the haggler - a miracle, indeed.

Oh, my heart. I had to stop and read this paragraph over more than once, it was just such a poignantly expressed view of healing from heartache and loss. Lua's outlook is something that I think that all of us can relate to, just as much as these dear ladies aboard the Rose Evergreen are helping each other patch up their torn hearts. Gorgeous!


This was another wonderful entry, and I truly can't wait to read more.

 

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and readership!

Thank you so much, I appreciate that! I just basically took that one bit in Wookieepedia about how Drabatese used volume to convey meaning, and ran with it—I've been treating it a little bit like the way tone works in tone languages (or what I know of it, anyway, as I'm no expert in that area).

Thanks! I thought this vignette would be a perfect opportunity to come up with a little bit of backstory for her and Pao. (Sap'de's name is actually taken from part of Pao's super-long name, which I imagine might incorporate both patronymic and metronymic elements—though don't ask me about the whole Drabatan naming system just yet, because I haven't come up with much else! ) And as I said to @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha above, there's a longstanding connection between "tech" and the handicrafts, and little old ladies should never be underestimated

Aw, thanks! Yes, I think she is too, if I do say so myself. When you get to know a skill that well, it can really inform your view of the world, if that makes sense. And yes, yet another talent no one realized that "little old lady" had—but oh gosh, it is the little old ladies who can be the most persistent in a bargaining situation, for sure!

Here, too, when you get to know a skill that well, it also becomes something that can comfort you in your losses, as well as a lens through which to understand your feelings—you can help yourself (and others) heal by taking a tip or two from the skill itself, and that's what I think this very wise little old lady would do. And of course the others pick up on it and do the same right back!

Thank you so much again for that wonderful comment, and as always it's a huge joy to have you here! More coming anon.

Thank you so much! For Lua (and heck, often for me, too), it's all about finding some kind of beauty in the loss and sadness, and there again, it's in her craft of sewing that she sees that brought to life. Taking that extra effort to make it the nicest fabric helps things not only heal but be made beautiful again.

Thanks so much! When writing these characters, one of the things I'm always concerned about is whether I'm making them too similar to other similar thrown-together crews within the GFFA (Ghost, Ebon Hawk, whatever the Ebon Hawk-like ship in Fallen Order is called, Rogue One, etc.), so I'm glad and relieved to hear that they're coming off as different enough to you.

Indeed it is, and where would they be without her—for that and so many reasons!

Absolutely, and I hope someday I can come up with a good story scenario about them doing just exactly that!

Thanks! That piece of background came to me in the course of writing this, and again, it ties into the whole tech-crafts connection.

Oh, defeinitely, never ever underestimate the little old lady! She's got the most experience behind her, after all! What you say about skills is right on: one is never "just" itself but rather ties into so many others. If one is perceptive, one can see the commonalities among all of them—and perhaps, again, being able to notice those commonalities and use them as a means of healing comes with experience. Lua's skill in seeing them will help her crewmates learn to see them in their own lives, too, and for that she really is a treasure. Many thanks again for being here, as always!

Thank you so much, so glad to have you here enjoying this! Those tone languages, as mentioned above, were definitely part of my inspiration for the Drabatan speech patterns. Again, it's something I hope to post in the fanon thread sometime when I can get my ducks in a row!

It's true, absolutely true! What we think of as just a "little old lady craft" gives this old lady a unique perspective.

Thanks so much! Once again, see all my comments above about the tech-crafts connection and all they have in common. Now that I've developed Lua a bit more through writing this vignette (she's one of the newer characters of the group in terms of when she was created), I really think of this ability to see and use those commonalities as essential part of her character.

Thanks so much! I agree—it's a "larger than the sum of its parts" thing!

Isn't she, though, if I do say so myself? In addition to "larger than the sum of its parts," there's also the equally important aspect of finding beauty in sadness and loss, and the metaphor of patching up just seemed to fit.

Thank you so much once again! So glad you're enjoying, and I am so glad you're here! More is coming very soon.

Thank you so much, and so glad to have you here! It's as though the Olympics pentathlon format was made for this group of five characters, and I couldn't resist making it a portrait of each one.

Thanks, and so glad you are enjoying these ladies—I always love writing them! And more is right around the corner!

Oh, thank you so much, Jen! I really appreciate your being here, and am so glad you're enjoying—I always enjoy your stories as well, and it is always wonderful to be part of these challenges alongside you! <3

 

No worries at all! Always a joy to have you here. I always love your comments! <3

Thanks so much! I too am very glad I decided to take part—the variety of vignette-sized events is perfect for little portraits of characters like these. I agree it would be interesting to get her together with Chopper—who would outsass whom? (I think he probably thinks in terms of "meatbags," too!) She's got that "chaos droid" streak, just like Chop does—that's why it crosses her module to divert to an asteroid field to knock over Lua's stacked tiles (and probably stop her from humming, too). But you're right that she also is very much one of the "mom" figures of the group, in her own way, and really takes seriously the nannying and order-keeping side of that job. And if they are indeed "playing nicely," she'll naturally not only enjoy the quiet of the moment but also attribute the calm to her own mother-hen influence!

Exactly, and that is why, in our own universe as well, little old ladies should never be underestimated! She's had a long life in which she's had to do many things to make ends meet and provide for herself and her family, and the skills she's learned along the way are all gifts that continue to give.

Yes, exactly! Got it in one, and I couldn't have said it better. It's definitely not the Jabba approach to bargaining, and I bet back at that Auditorium Square market she was well known and well loved for going the extra mile for anyone she did business with. As she is now, carrying those skills forward with the likes of that "BIG HERGLIC DEPOT fellow"!

Thank you so much, once again, and you won't have long to wait—the third petal is right around the corner! (Not to mix metaphors or anything. )

 

Petal no. 3 is here! Thanks again to @Raissa Baiard for beta reading.

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3. The Findswoman / A Sealing Off
200-Word Freestyle

Most of the others think that when Telfien closes herself in her quarters to meditate, she is shutting herself off from them, turning her back on them. They are mistaken. It is then that she is closer to them than ever, for in the world of the Mists all consciousnesses join and all paths are open. (It does, however, make games of galactic tiles more difficult.)

It is when Telfien is stuffed into a respirator mask, containment suit, and gloves, clumping her way through corridors brimming with poison, that she is most shut off from everything around her. Granted, she is accustomed to being outnumbered by oxybreathers, and has been ever since leaving Gand. It is undoubtedly a small price to pay to be among friends. But if only those friends knew what it is like to always be behind a barrier, to always be sealed off—

Though perhaps they do know, in certain ways. Exile is a sealing off; displacement is a barrier. Telfien feels that still.

If Telfien feels her mask chafe, she can at least call Rika into her cabin for a game of dejarik. Perhaps those oxygenated tiles games help those other barriers chafe less, also.