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

Saga - PT Cinnamon Bun Earmuffs (Bail, Breha, Leia, OCs; fic-gift for Briannakin) | More replies 09 March 2017

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction- Before, Saga, and Beyond' started by Chyntuck, Jan 4, 2017.

  1. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
    Title: Cinnamon Bun Earmuffs
    Summary: The true story of how Leia came to sport her signature hairdo
    Genre: Family fluff
    Characters: Bail, Breha, Leia, OCs
    Era: Saga - PT

    This is my 2016 holiday fic-gift for Briannakin, who wanted a fic in Saga PT with:
    - someone missing a holiday
    - a fight that ends with tears
    - a happy ending
    - no one mad at the end of the fic
    - Bail and Breha
    - no Sheev Palpatine

    Bri, I hope you enjoy this, and happy 2017!


    Cinnamon Bun Earmuffs

    “No.”

    “No?”

    “It’s ugly.”

    “On you it will be lovely.”

    “I’ll look stupid.”

    “You’ll look royal.”

    “People will make fun of me.”

    “I would like to see them dare!”

    Queen Breha Organa’s attempt at mimicking outrage was credible, but not quite enough to fool her six-year-old daughter. “I’m not doing it, Mama,” Leia said. “I’m not doing my hair like... like... cinnamon bun earmuffs!” She threw the holosheet that her parents had been showing her on the bedside table.

    Viceroy Bail Prestor Organa bravely suppressed the urge to laugh. “Lelila, this is the official hairdo of Alderaanian crown princesses when they attend public ceremonies in an official capacity. You insisted to make your first official public appearance tonight for Founding Day, and we are very happy about it. You’re a big girl and you’ll make us proud. But for that, you have to conform to tradition.”

    The child rolled her eyes. “Conform to tradition? What does that even mean?”

    “It means that there are rules, Lelila,” the queen explained calmly. “There are rules that were established by hundreds of kings, queens and princesses before us, and that will be followed by hundreds more after us. This hairdo and the white dress are part of our tradition. You’re the crown princess of Alderaan, you have to wear them.”

    “I won’t!” Leia stomped her foot for emphasis. “I mean, the dress is okay.” She danced about to make the thin, glossy fabric ripple around her and pouted her lips. “Well, sort of okay. But the hairdo? That’s something Auntie Marial would like, no wonder she brought that holo.” She pointed at the discarded holosheet. “I hate it.”

    “Your auntie likes it because it’s such an honour to be allowed to –”

    “Pffff. She likes it because it’s horrible, and she likes horrible things. She’s horrible even without it and she’d be more horrible with it.”

    Bail threw a worried glance at the door, behind which Leia’s handmaidens were waiting and, perhaps, listening in. “Now don’t you talk about your aunt in such a way, young lady. She cares about you a great deal and –”

    “But I don’t like her. She’s old and horrible and she smells bad and she likes ugly things.”

    “Lelila –”

    “She’s horrible!” Leia repeated in a singsong voice. “She’s horrible!”

    Breha rose to her feet. “Well, that will be enough for today, Leia Organa. Either you will behave yourself and have your hair done, or you will not attend the festivities tonight. Is that clear?”

    “But Mama –”

    “There is no ‘but’. If you want to participate in the Founding Day celebrations as the crown princess of Alderaan, you must behave like the crown princess of Alderaan. That means not only to dress as is expected of you, but also to stop throwing tantrums worthy of a two-year-old.” The Queen and her husband walked to the door. “We booked one of the most famous hairdressers in the galaxy and he is coming all the way from Coruscant for you. He will be here at eighteen hundred hours. I trust that you will be waiting for him.”

    By now Leia’s eyes were full of tears. “That’s not fair,” she whispered as the door closed behind her parents. “I don’t want to be the princess of Alderaan, I just want to be with you.”

    * * *​

    When Breha returned to her daughter’s room at eighteen hundred hours, Leia was nowhere to be found. She called the young princess’s handmaidens, but none of them had seen her since the afternoon, and most were adamant that she couldn’t have left her room. They looked under the bed, inside the closet, behind the curtains – to no avail. There was no sign of a struggle, save for the holosheet that depicted the royal hairdo, which was crumpled on the bedside table – but that was understandable, the queen repeated to herself as she sought to quell the tide of concern that was rising within her. She apologised profusely to the hairdresser, made sure the house staff would bring him refreshments while he waited, and set off to find her husband.

    Bail was rehearsing his speech when she found him in their private quarters. He looked at her expectantly, thinking that she was coming to inform him that the spat with their daughter had been resolved, but the expression on her face immediately told him that something was wrong.

    “She’s not in her room,” Breha said breathlessly. “We looked everywhere. No one has seen her since the afternoon. It’s as if she vanished from the face of Alderaan.” She fell rather than sat on the little couch. “This is my fault. I knew that it was too early for her to participate in the ceremony, she can’t understand etiquette yet, she’s too young! And I went and upset her and –”

    The viceroy came to sit near his wife and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Stop right there,” he said with an amused smile. “She can’t have gone far, can she? Now calm down and tell me everything.”

    He listened carefully as Breha explained what she had found, then stood up and straightened his sleeves. “I’ll go and talk to the security service. She can’t have left the palace, she must be somewhere in the gardens. We’ll find her in no time.” He bowed and kissed his wife tenderly. “Don’t worry. She’s just upset. As you said, she’s too young for this, and she inherited her mother’s stubbornness, which doesn’t help. But she’ll come around in the end.”

    * * *​

    Little Leia Organa believed that she was the only child in the galaxy to have a secret hiding place. In this she may have been wrong of course, but it was true that her hidey-hole was particularly well concealed. She’d figured out at the age of four that one of the latticework panels that covered her bedroom heating unit could be removed, and she kept her most treasured possessions in the small alcove behind it. There was the stormtrooper doll that Papa didn’t like her to play with, her drawings of a little boy in a sea of sand that always made him frown, the sweets and candies that she managed to get from the kitchens and the blue veil that she had stolen from Mama’s closet – but it wasn’t really stealing if the veil never left the palace, was it? And Leia loved that veil. It was soft and shiny and it smelled of Mama’s perfume – she’d actually sneaked into her parents’ bedroom once to spritz it again when the scent had started fading away – and, even though it was dusty and grimy after all the time it had spent behind the heater, she liked to take it out and hug it when Mama was away, when she was busy being the queen. It was a little bit as if Mama were there with her, all the time.

    And she was hugging it now as she sat in the alcove, trying hard not to cry. It just wasn’t fair, she thought. Papa and Mama were always busy with their work, they never had time for her. Well, that wasn’t completely true, she admitted; they did come and play with her every day – but she had to spend so much time with the handmaidens and with horrible Auntie Marial and to learn so many stupid, boring things when they weren’t around, and they were going to all these parties and they didn’t take her along. She was so excited about going to the Founding Day ball and dancing with Papa and seeing the fireworks – but she didn’t want that ugly hairdo, she didn’t like it at all. Everyone always said that she looked pretty with her simple plaits anyway – everyone except Auntie Marial. It just wasn’t fair.

    She heard Mama come to her room at some point, and she thought of getting out of her hiding place and hugging her and saying that okay, she’d sport the stupid earmuffs – but then she noticed that her brand new white dress was crumpled and stained and covered in dust. Mama would be even more angry at her if she saw it. She crawled deeper into the alcove, and she heard other people come – there was a weird squelching sound too – and Mama was asking them where she had gone, and she couldn’t come out because her dress was dirty. She was in so much trouble now. She had upset Mama about the hairdo, then she had ruined her dress and now Mama would worry because she couldn’t find her. She didn’t know what to do. She held her breath until everyone left, and then she began to cry in earnest.

    She cried and cried and cried her heart out, and she didn’t know how long she had been hiding behind the heating unit, until she heard that weird squelching sound again. Then she saw a big shadow through the latticework, and a kind, deep voice said, “You can come out now, dahling. There’s no one here but me. Come out and we can talk.”

    * * *​

    One hour after the search for her had begun, Leia could still not be found. The royal security guards had checked every holo captured by the surveillance cameras during the afternoon, they had combed every room of the palace and they were now exploring every inch of the gardens. Bail had double and triple-checked with the handmaidens, with the staff, with Winter and Leia’s other friends. No one had seen her, and no one had the faintest idea where she could be. He was beginning to worry too by now, finding solace only in the fact that no sensors had been triggered on the outer walls, which proved that she couldn’t have left the palace grounds. The thought helped him maintain his calm composure when he went back to the quarters he shared with his wife. “We know that she’s somewhere in here,” he told an anxious Breha. “And she has a lot to answer for. I suggest that you prepare yourself for the ceremony; there’s only half an hour left. I’ll go and check her room, in case you missed something.”

    He ran a hand through his hair to smooth it out, arranged the folds of his cape in front of the mirror and summoned the queen’s maids as he left. Time was running out until the festivities began, and knowing that Leia was hiding inside the palace and sending them on a wild bantha chase on such an important planetary holiday made him angry. “But she doesn’t understand the importance of all this,” he admonished himself. “She’s just a child, she –”

    He arrived in front of the door to Leia’s room. It had been left ajar, and a deep, bass voice coming from inside interrupted in his musings. “Of course, the hairdresser!” he thought. “We forgot all about him, and the poor sentient has been waiting for hours without –”

    He suddenly heard a second voice answering the first. It was the voice of a child, a voice he knew all too well... He experienced a new surge of fatherly anger, but then he noticed that the dialogue was interspersed with sniffles – and he leaned closer to the door to listen in.

    * * *​

    Leia crawled out of her hiding place with Mama’s blue veil trailing behind her and found herself facing the strangest being she had ever encountered in her admittedly short life. He looked like a giant slug – a very fat one at that, he had the same triple chin as Auntie Marial – and he was wearing a top hat, a bow tie and a black waistcoat complete with pocket chrono chain. She stared at him in puzzlement for a moment, the cause of her sorrow briefly forgotten, and she soon summoned the courage to ask, “Who are you?”

    “Why, I am Eliskandro Fasolia Faké of course,” the slug said jovially. “Also known as the Fabulous Eliskandro the Hutt, hairdresser and groomer of galactic reputation.” He tipped his top hat politely. “And who might you be?”

    Leia suddenly remembered everything that had gone wrong during the day and broke into tears again. “I’m nobody.”

    The Hutt tsk-ed. “Now that is no way for the crown princess of Alderaan to speak of herself, dahling. That’s who you are, aren’t you? Your Royal Highness Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan?”

    It made Leia sob even harder. “I’m Lelila,” she hiccupped. “Just Lelila.”

    That was visibly last reaction Eliskandro was expecting. “Oh my, oh my, I just made things worse, didn’t I?” he muttered. He extracted a neatly folded shimmersilk handkerchief from his breast pocket and used it to wipe away her tears, then he curled the tip of his tail in front of himself to form a small pouffe. “Alright, dahling. You don’t mind me calling you dahling when it’s just the two of us, right? Now why don’t you settle down, and you can tell me what upsets you so much.”

    Leia clutched Mama’s blue veil to her chest as she sat down and began, “It’s all because of the cinnamon bun earmuffs.”

    * * *​

    It took a while for Eliskandro to make sense of the child’s rambling account of the day’s events, as she regularly burst into tears and had to blow her nose noisily in the blue piece of fabric she was holding. He was beginning to understand what had happened, but he couldn’t quite grasp the reason for Leia’s loathing of the royal hairdo, although he suspected that it had something to do with Auntie Marial. So he simply let her vent to her heart’s content, merely prodding her every now and then to get the rest of the story. She was almost done when he noticed that a shadow was lurking behind the bedroom door, and as she buried her face in the blue veil to blow her nose again he took a better look and saw the elegant silhouette of Viceroy Bail Organa.

    “Maybe Auntie Marial was right,” Leia said finally as she drew random shapes on the thick carpet with her toe. “Maybe she was right when she said I’m too little to go to the party. I thought she was just being mean. And I wanted to be with Mama and Papa. But maybe she was right.”

    The Hutt clapped both hands over his mouth in outrage. “She wouldn’t dare say such a thing about a big girl like you. Would she?” Leia nodded emphatically. “You don’t say! She must be quite a nasty old hag.”

    “She is! She’s always saying that I’m not a good princess, that I don’t behave well, that I don’t dress well... Okay, sometimes I do stupid things like today, but I’m trying, you know, I’m trying hard! She’s always so mean to me. It was her idea that I have to wear the cinnamon bun earmuffs.” She paused briefly and added very fast, in an undertone, “She always says that it all proves I’m not really Papa’s and Mama’s daughter.”

    There was a sudden movement behind the door, as if Bail Organa were about to burst into the room. Eliskandro pulled his chrono hastily out of his waistcoat’s pocket. “It’s already ten minutes past twenty hundred hours,” he said a little louder than necessary. “You won’t be going to the party, will you, dahling?”

    “I can’t,” Leia said miserably. “I didn’t do my hair and I ruined my dress. Papa and Mama are going to be so angry at me.”

    The Hutt scratched his triple chin. “Well,” he said, “if you promise to be a good girl tomorrow and apologise to them for acting a bit silly, I have an idea about something we could do to make things easier.”

    By the time he was done explaining his plan, all traces of sorrow had been wiped from Leia’s face. She skipped away happily towards the ’fresher, and as he collected the soiled veil from the floor he saw that the shadow behind the door was gone.

    * * *​

    Breha Organa thought of Founding Day as the most meaningful holiday on Alderaan in this time and age. Not only did it commemorate the establishment of House Organa – an event whose importance in history had grown even further after the Alderaan Ascendancy Contention – but it was also a crucial reminder to the planet’s citizens that, for generations, they had chosen their leadership freely, and that their queen and their viceroy would defend their rights and their interests under the rule of the Galactic Empire. She had always shown great care in preparing her public address for the occasion, and she spent even more time polishing her annual speech since the galaxy had become shrouded in darkness six years ago. Every sentence, every word, every silence had to be decisive and significant, and she went through several rehearsals to ensure that she got the tone, the rhythm, the emphasis right. She didn’t have her husband’s rhetorical talent – Bail was a natural who could improvise the most eloquent of speeches at the drop of a hat – but she knew that, for Founding Day, it was essential that she got it right.

    Which was why, as she took to the podium that had been set up on the palace plaza, she was exceedingly nervous. Bail had said that he was going to check Leia’s bedroom, and he hadn’t come back. She had delayed the beginning of the festivities by mingling with the assembled crowd, and she had instructed the prelates to draw out a little the litany that would precede her address – but now she had no choice but to begin in earnest, and she didn’t want to imagine the awkwardness of having to tell her people that the viceroy wouldn’t address them after her because he was looking for their daughter. She could ask the representatives of the other noble houses to take over, of course – but the breach of protocol wouldn’t go unnoticed, and speculation would be rife that something was amiss between the queen and her husband. But all this, of course, didn’t really matter. What really mattered to her was to know that Lelila was found, that she was safe and healthy, and then everything would be okay.

    Half an hour later, as she finished speaking, Breha had no doubt that the Founding Day royal address of the sixth year of the Galactic Empire would go down in history as an unmitigated disaster, a textbook case of how not to deliver a speech. For the first fifteen minutes, in a feeble attempt at procrastinating further, she had slowed her cadence to the point that Aunt Marial, who was sitting in the front row together with other noblemen and women, was visibly dozing off on her chair. Then a look askance told her that Bail had arrived, and her relief was such that it caused her to splutter. And then, in her impatience to talk to her husband, she had ploughed her way through the end of her speech like a blob racing for the finish line. The audience was so puzzled that they failed to notice that the royal address was over, and she was already on the way back to her throne when a few people applauded politely – but she was beyond caring about the formalities of decorum and etiquette by now. It was Bail’s regal expression as he strode serenely towards the podium that reminded her where she was and what she was doing.

    “Did you find her?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth as she walked past him.

    “I did. And everything is fine.”

    She suppressed a sigh of relief and took her place on the throne. Bail had reached the podium now and was saluting the crowd, but there was an unusual tension in his posture. He remained silent for a fraction of a second longer than necessary after the applause receded, and she noticed that he was giving Aunt Marial a long, hard look.

    * * *​

    This Fabulous Eliskandro was really fabulous, Leia thought as she sat on the floor for the Hutt to untangle her hair. He’d cleaned up her dress and done some magic trick with the sanisteam’s hot-and-cold function, and now it was as good as new, white and glossy as it fell in neat folds around her. He’d washed and dried Mama’s blue veil that was full of grime and snot, and he had the same perfume as Mama in the magic case he’d brought from Coruscant, so that it would smell the same as before. He’d even managed to magically contact Papa to let him know that she was in her bedroom, so that he wouldn’t worry. He definitely couldn’t be just a hairdresser, she decided. He was a wizard.

    “Aaaaand... Shazahm!” the Hutt said brightly with a flourish of his comb. “Oh dahling, it was such a brilliant, brilliant idea you had to add a dash of L’awreal’s Fur Glitter to Ahrmaney’s Exclusive Hair Wash. You look simply mahvelous.”

    Leia looked at herself in the mirror and shook her head to admire the shine of her long, brown hair. “This is so pretty,” she said. “Can’t we just leave it like this?”

    “Tsk, tsk. Nice try, dahling, but we had a deal. Now show me the cinnamon bun earmuffs that your horrible old auntie suggested for you, and I’ll propose different styles, so you can pick one for Founding Day next year.”

    Leia fetched reluctantly Auntie Marial’s crumpled holosheet from the bedside table and smoothed it out on the carpet. Eliskandro gave it the briefest of glances and erupted into a fit of giggles. “Oh dear oh dear,” he hiccupped. “She didn’t seriously expect you to do your hair like this, did she? This style went out of fashion around the time of Xim the Despot. She must really be very old.”

    “Oh yes, she’s very old,” Leia said. “She’s at least, I don’t know, fifty.”

    At this the Hutt laughed so hard that his triple chin began to wobble dangerously, as if it were ready to fall off. “Well then,” he said when he managed to catch his breath, “she has clearly no idea how a young princess of Alderaan should do her hair, does she? You see, dahling, the thing about this style isn’t only that it’s old-fashioned. It’s cheap. Look at these leather bands.” He pointed at the tawny-coloured lines entwined into the hair buns sitting on the model’s ears on the holosheet. “These are counterfeit Doltshe of Ghaban bands,” he whispered conspiratorially. “One would expect the crown princess of Alderaan to use nothing less than the finest creations of Goochy & Offspring.”

    Leia gave him a puzzled look. “What does that mean?”

    “It means that you are a young woman of taste, dahling. Now” – he lifted her to sit on his midsection, opened the folder that was propped up against his vanity case and pulled out a collection of holosheets – “let’s have a look at these.”

    * * *​

    Half-way through the official dinner, Breha took to drumming her foot on the floor so hard that Bail had to squeeze her knee under the table to get her to stop. She was frustrated, she was impatient and she was angry – angry at Aunt Marial for being so cruel to Leia, but also at herself for failing to notice that something was amiss; impatient to go and find her daughter, hug her and tell her how much she loved her; and frustrated that, as the reigning monarch, there was no way she could excuse herself from a planetary holiday to attend to family matters. It was a small consolation to think that Leia was in good hands and was probably even having fun – Bail had spoken most highly of the Hutt hairdresser’s strategy to get her to talk and to comfort her. But she felt that it was her duty, as a mother, to be at Leia’s side in moments such as these, and to explain to her that not only she loved her like a daughter, but that Leia was her daughter, and that no old, nasty, ugly auntie could change that. Because Leia was right, she had been right all along: Marial was old, nasty and ugly, and she certainly wouldn’t have a hand anymore in the crown princess’s education, and even less in her family life.

    Her relief was short-lived when Bail motioned for her to stand up, signalling that the dignitaries’ dinner was over at last. There was still the reception to go – tradition demanded that Founding Day festivities last well into the night – and she was expected to open the ball with her husband to the tune of a classical Alderaanian waltz. Bail offered her his arm to escort her to the ballroom, and she took it like an automaton – but suddenly her eyes fell on Aunt Marial, who was sitting amid a tightly-knit cluster of similarly puffed-up dowager noblewomen. She thought that this was as good a time as ever to let her know that she was required to take an indefinite leave of absence from the royal court. She went to take a step in her direction, but the viceroy tightened his grip on her hand and led her to the dance floor.

    “You seem quite impatient to take up today’s issue with Marial,” he said as they began to swing to the music. The corner of his mouth was twitching, as if he were suppressing a smile.

    “Of course I do!” she said crossly. “I want to make sure that she is never in contact with Leia again, not ever – not even tomorrow morning before she leaves the palace.”

    “I heartily agree. However, this is the sort of unpleasantness that Lelila will have to get used to. There are those among the noble families who will never accept her for one of their own – who will always see her as a war orphan who usurped the throne of Alderaan.”

    “And you think that we should tolerate this behaviour in our own household?” Breha asked heatedly. “This is unacceptable, Bail, we –” She stopped mid-sentence when she noticed the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, Bail. What have you done this time?”

    “Me? Nothing that you would not approve of,” he said as they went through the last few steps of the formal waltz. “I made sure that Marial would be gone by morning.”

    The music faded away, only to be replaced by a much faster, more cheerful piece. More dancers joined in, and Breha allowed her husband to sweep her back to the dance floor. “And how did you do that, precisely?”

    “Do you remember that request we received from one of the noble houses? The request for a specialist to educate their progeny in the rules of etiquette? I offered her the position.”

    “And she accepted?”

    “Of course she did. She was deeply honoured.” He leaned closer as they flew in a circle around the ballroom and whispered in her ear, “But I may have forgotten to mention to her that the request came from Grand Duchess Peascodd of Geonosis.”

    * * *​

    Leia could never have imagined that the cinnamon buns earmuffs came in so many styles across the galaxy. There was the Mon Calamari style – “natural Dac coral embedded with authentic Kristophle crystals,” Eliskandro said enthusiastically, “but it won’t do for you, dahling, you don’t have gills,” – the Toydarian style – “this one is nothing to write home about, let’s move along,” – the Zygerrian style – “elegant, but it requires facial fur to braid it in,” – the Onderonian style – “very, very classy, if you get my meaning, but perhaps not quite appropriate for a young princess like you,” – and so many more. Some of the styles were okay, really – even the Toydarian one was better than what Auntie Marial had suggested – but she hadn’t seen any one hairdo in particular that she really liked, and they were reaching the end of the Hutt’s collection of holosheets. But Eliskandro extracted a model she hadn’t seen yet from the pile and said, “I think we found what we were looking for. What do you say, dahling?”

    The holo represented a young woman of stunning beauty who was wearing a heavy velvet cape of the deepest blue. Her hair was parted neatly in the middle and pulled into two tight bunches that were rolled in delicate buns just above her ears. Leia stared the image in wonder.

    “This is a very special holo,” Eliskandro murmured. “You see, all the other holos I showed you were models. But this is an official portrait of an actual queen. Her name was Padmé Amidala, and she was the queen and senator of Naboo before you were born.”

    Leia ran her little fingers around the woman’s face. “She’s so beautiful,” she whispered. “Can you make me look like her?”

    The Hutt gazed at her for a moment, and then back at the holo. “Yes, I think I can. It will be mahvelous.”

    * * *​

    “We need to tell her that we’re not punishing her, because missing Founding Day was punishment enough.”

    “Agreed. And we don’t know anything about the dress.”

    “Not a word.”

    “Also, we have to work into the conversation that Marial is leaving the palace, never to return again.”

    “And we have to impress upon her that, whenever someone says something mean to her, she should report it to us, not hide her grief and wallow in it.”

    “Definitely.”

    “We should also ask her if she wants us to book the same hairdresser for her next year.”

    “I expect the answer to that to be a resounding yes.”

    Bail and Breha lowered their voices to a whisper as they pushed the door to Leia’s room. It was shortly before dawn, but the queen had insisted on seeing her before going to bed for what was left of the night. They tiptoed their way to her in the dim glow of the neuro-lamp and found her huddled against her pillows. She was still wearing the white dress, her hair was arranged in elaborate twin buns, and she was hugging tightly a thin piece of blue fabric that Breha identified as one of her veils that had gone missing more than a year ago. The mother bowed to kiss her daughter’s forehead, waited for her husband to do the same, and they tiptoed again to the door.

    “You know,” she said once they were in the hallway, “what we really must make sure to tell her is that she’s not the crown princess of Alderaan. When she’s with us, she’s our little princess.”

    -------------------------------------

    Notes:

    Auntie Marial is an OC that I created for the purposes of this story. I don’t particularly plan on using her again, but who knows?

    Eliskandro Fasolia Faké on the other hand is one of my long-standing OCs; he made his first appearance in The Hairdo and then acquired his own story thread.

    Grand Duchess Peascodd, who makes a cameo appearance in this fic, belongs to Findswoman and appears in her fics Early Morning Thoughts of a Hutt’s Gardener, Pandemonium at a Hutt’s Garden Party and Of Urgent Transmissions and Curious Dropped Objects.

    Other bits and pieces:

    Founding Day
    Alderaan Ascendancy Contention
    Blob racing
    My fanon list of fashion houses and cosmetics
    Xim the Despot
    The picture of Padmé that Leia admires so much is this one
    The neuro-lamp is the creation of Viridian-Maiden
     
  2. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    AH! I love it so much! I seriously had to find another corner of the university to read this in because I was smiling and laughing like an idiot!

    I love that Leia tells it like it is :p I love her reaction to the infamous hairstyle

    I love how this line pulls at my heart. She loves her parents, she just doesn’t want to be a princess.

    I love Leia’s little hide away - her collection of things that are so Alderaan like Breha’s veil, yet also hints of a galaxy and a family off this planet.

    You wrote Leia too scared to come out very well - I think we’ve all been in that situation as kids, as well as Breha’s fears and guilt.

    HEHEHEHEHE! I haven’t read too much of your OC, but Eliskandro is instantly recognizable!

    I really enjoyed how not-perfect Breha is during her speech - she’s just a typical worried mom.

    And Yay! love the plan to get rid of Evil Aunt Marial (who funnily enough has a similar name my Evil Step-Grandmother, who is old, horrible, and likes ugly things).

    All the different styles of the infamous buns were interesting, but the fact that little Leia settled on Padme’s image was just so heartwarming!

    And the last image of Bail and Breha looking in on their little princess - just so amazing!

    Thank you so much for writing this! It was a joy to read! I gotta run to class so sorry this can’t be longer (and if I leave this now I will forget to post). The fact that it all revolved around the “cinnamon bun earmuffs” (a hairstyle there is a pic of me sporting one Halloween) just made it that much sweeter of a fic to have this year. I laughed really hard :D
     
  3. divapilot

    divapilot Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 30, 2005
    This is so sweet. She is, after all, just a child - a royal princess, of course, but she's just a little girl. You have the talk down pat -

    She pouts, she twists, she stamps her feet, all like any six year old would do. Bail and Breha are just another mom and dad with a willful little girl.

    This part, though, broke my heart a little:
    She's not being malicious or deliberately difficult. She's a little girl who has no other way to assert herself. The idea that the crown princess thinks of herself as "nobody" and insists that she's "just Lelila" is sweet and a bit sad at the same time. She can't be "just nobody." She's the princess and she has to follow rules that she didn't choose. She just wants to be a little girl.

    I loved that she hides her mother's blue veil and snuggles it, smelling it to remind her of her mother's love. I imagine it must be the beautiful blue veil that Breha wears at the end of ROTS when Bail places baby Leia in her arms. It's amazing how powerful a scent can be. Leia just wants to be Breha's little girl, to feel her mother's love.

    The Fabulous Eliskandro is truly fabulous. He knows what the little one needs - to be listened to, to be empowered, to feel like she has a voice and that someone is listening to her. He does what every parent knows how to do - he gives Leia a choice. That Leia would pick Padme's portrait, with the double bun she wears that day she meets Anakin to tell him that she's pregnant, is such a wonderful symbol. Both of Leia's beautiful mothers, both great queens, both women who love Leia more than anything. What an amazing tribute that hairstyle becomes.

    Such a sweet story. [face_love]
     
  4. Mistress_Renata

    Mistress_Renata Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 9, 2000
    This was wonderful. And I really love the Fabulous Eliskandro (I actually had a hairdresser like him once...cost a fortune but so, so worth it!) I did find myself wondering just how much he knew...

    I'll have to enter the gift swap next year, because I want a fic about a day at his Salon...
     
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  5. Lady_Misty

    Lady_Misty Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 21, 2007
    The ups and downs of being Royalty and a child/parent.

    Severely out of date hairstyles can lead to being mocked or feeling like the butt of jokes.

    Leia's fear is well described and reflects the fears of all children who hide from their parents because of an argument then become afraid to come out of hiding.

    I never thought I would find a Hutt that wasn't a criminal or some other kind of lowlife and a superb living being; I just might read all of your fics he appears in.

    And kudos to Bail for getting rid of Leia's tormentor without causing a scene.


    Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
     
  6. RX_Sith

    RX_Sith Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2006
    Leia's hairstyle definitely was not normal, but you have her scared of the hairstyle like she is being forced to wear it, despite not wanting to.
     
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  7. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    [face_love] Is what I feel for this!

    I feel like Leia is so real here, I can relate to being that age at so many levels, from being forced to wear something I didn't want to wear, the hiding place (though mine wasn't nearly as good as her's was!), loving things of mom's and even down to the line "I just want to be with you". And also what I thought was an actual loving relative that she just didn't like because she was old and smelled funny, but when I got to the line:
    :mad: How dare she!
    I absolutely love how Bail and Breha don't try to rationalize that reaction and absolutely don't put up with it! Leia is theirs and they won't have anyone saying otherwise.



    I adored how Eliskandro dealt with Leia and made her feel better. When he showed her a picture of Padme I just about melted.

    Fantastic job!
    =D=@};-
     
  8. Findswoman

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

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2014
    I always enjoy a good young!Leia story, and given the now-iconic character of her bun hairdo, it's especially cool to see the origin story, so to speak, of said 'do. :) I can just imagine her at that age cutting up rough about dowdy, old-fashioned hairdos, as well as having secret hiding places and comfort objects—and I can totally understand her wanting to have something to remind her of Breha, given how often she (Breha) has to be away on Official Royal Business 'n' Such. That aspect, along with the "not really their daughter" quote cited above by mavjade, give us a nice touch of the seriousness of her situation even amid all the humor and bustle and fun.

    Now back to the humor and bustle and fun. :D Love Leia in this—she's such a little rascal (though her parents, as we'll see, show that they too have quite a rascallish streak themselves ;) ). And I knew, of course, exactly who the hairdresser would be the moment Breha said "We booked one of the most famous hairdressers in the galaxy and he is coming all the way from Coruscant for you." And yes, this is definitely the Eliskandro we know. [face_laugh] Not only is he naturally a whiz in the 'do department, he actually spends the time listening to Leia and taking her seriously, and helping her get her self confidence back—which ultimately is what she needed most of all. Because I can't help but think that Auntie Marial's insistence on this hairdo does indeed relate back to some of those serious aspects mentioned above—we have to do her hair this way because otherwise she will look like the commoner that she is because she's really just a war orphan who usurped the throne, kind of thing. (And I too wonder how much Eliskandro knows about the relationship between the queen in the holo and the princess on his lap... [face_thinking])

    And there's Peascodd! :D Ah, Bail's got a real michievous streak, doesn't he... I do feel for any being, cowish auntie or not, who gets tasked with teaching etiquette and protocol to any offspring of Peascodd's, and can just imagine the Geonosian grand duchess meeting one heck of a matchg in Marial. [face_laugh] But hey, it could equally be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

    Thanks for sharing—this was fun! =D=
     
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  9. Mira_Jade

    Mira_Jade The (FavoriteTM) Fanfic Mod With the Cape star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    Oh, this was such an endearing story about the trials and pains of growing up. Little Leia's fears and concerns, and her means of expressing them, along with the power couple of Bail and Breha doing their very best to be parents to this little girl - oh, my heart - it was absolutely bursting while reading this. You really outdid yourself! [face_love]


    “Pffff. She likes it because it’s horrible, and she likes horrible things. She’s horrible even without it and she’d be more horrible with it.”

    I, for one, tend to agree with Leia here; what a beastly woman. :mad: (Even if I did hear a twinge of young Anakin in Leia's ranting. :p)


    There was the stormtrooper doll that Papa didn’t like her to play with, her drawings of a little boy in a sea of sand that always made him frown,

    A little line, but I love anything that deals with Leia's awareness of Luke before they truly meet and understand their connection to each other. Wonderful!


    And Leia loved that veil. It was soft and shiny and it smelled of Mama’s perfume – she’d actually sneaked into her parents’ bedroom once to spritz it again when the scent had started fading away – and, even though it was dusty and grimy after all the time it had spent behind the heater, she liked to take it out and hug it when Mama was away, when she was busy being the queen.

    Oh! What an absolutely endearing passage that was. Leia's bond with Breha was so perfectly expressed in this story - from both points of view. [face_love]


    “Why, I am Eliskandro Fasolia Faké of course,” the slug said jovially. “Also known as the Fabulous Eliskandro the Hutt, hairdresser and groomer of galactic reputation.”

    I cracked such a grin when Eliskandro showed up, he's one of my favourites of your OCs, and he did not disappoint here! Not that he ever does. ;) [face_love]


    It made Leia sob even harder. “I’m Lelila,” she hiccupped. “Just Lelila.”
    ...
    She paused briefly and added very fast, in an undertone, “She always says that it all proves I’m not really Papa’s and Mama’s daughter.”

    While it's beyond obvious that Leia is so very loved in her adopted family, you make a great point of her having to deal with unkind souls from outside of her family unit. You examined the subject with grace and delicacy here from a few different perspectives, and I adore how Eliskandro helped her feel more at east. He truly is fabulous. ;)


    “Of course she did. She was deeply honoured.” He leaned closer as they flew in a circle around the ballroom and whispered in her ear, “But I may have forgotten to mention to her that the request came from Grand Duchess Peascodd of Geonosis.”

    I fist pumped here. There's my sneaky, clever Rebel being sneaky and clever for the win. Breha's concern for her family beforehand interfering with her duties of state, and her concerns coming full circle with her husband after just warmed my heart to read. It's hard being foster-parents, but they are figuring it out. [face_love]


    “This is a very special holo,” Eliskandro murmured. “You see, all the other holos I showed you were models. But this is an official portrait of an actual queen. Her name was Padmé Amidala, and she was the queen and senator of Naboo before you were born.”

    Oh, oh. I loved the different hair-styles presented, but when Padmé's style was settled on - yep, that was a whole onslaught of feelings that came as a result. What a perfect, perfect homage to Leia's heritage - all sides of it. [face_love]


    “You know,” she said once they were in the hallway, “what we really must make sure to tell her is that she’s not the crown princess of Alderaan. When she’s with us, she’s our little princess.”

    And this was a perfect way to sum the story up! You don't get much better than that. [face_love]


    Thank-you so much for sharing this with us! =D==D=
     
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  10. AzureAngel2

    AzureAngel2 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 14, 2005
    The Fabulous Eliskandro is wonderfully woven into that sweet, brilliant story of yours. If my fellow Kindergarten teacher in my group - actually called ´the rascals´ - gets sick, please send him around! [face_praying]

    Only joking, but he is sweet and... honest... with kids. They love that from grown-ups!

    You also forged a brilliant bridge between the birth mother & the adoptive mother. Thank you! @};-

    All in all a wonderful gift to a fellow fan fic author, dahling! ;)
     
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  11. Ewok Poet

    Ewok Poet Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2014
    What a fun little story! Aunt Marial, as described by Leia, is one of the funniest and most bizarre characters I have encountered lately and the moment where Leia's keepsakes are shown and where she decides that she wants her actual mother's hairstyle is a good proof that nothing in the GFFA is a coincidence. NOTHING. :)
     
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  12. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
    Thank you for the very kind reviews Briannakin divapilot Mistress_Renata Lady_Misty RX_Sith mavjade Findswoman Mira_Jade AzureAngel2 Ewok Poet! I'm going to do a collective reply before I get to bits of your posts, since many of you commented on similar aspects of this story and individual replies would be horrendously repetitive, but first let me talk a little bit to Bri.

    Bri, I'm so happy you liked it! When I started working on this I felt that I wasn't quite fulfilling your request for a Bail-and-Breha fic, because I'm not too familiar with these characters and it was very tempting to "divert" this into a Leia fic. Then I did "research" (meaning that I went and read your Bail/Breha fics, which I still need to review) and that helped at lot :) You've done such an amazing job at writing Bail and Breha as parents that it gave me lots of ideas, and that's how this story became what it is now.

    Oh, and:
    Aunt Marial's name was inspired from Ron Weasley's horrible Auntie Muriel in the last Harry Potter novel, and I also happen to have an elderly relative of the same ilk who also has a similar name and whose flair for interior decoration is a little bit worse than Donald Trump's. I think there's one of those in every family ;)

    Okay, now for a reply to everyone [:D] Thanks so much for all the comments about how the Organa family are seeking a difficult balance between their public life and and their private life -- and this is difficult to achieve both for the parents, who are constantly caught up in official obligations and can't spend as much time as they want with their child, and for little Leia, who has no notion of "officialdom" and who would like to be a little girl like any other with parents like any other. Of course, the fact that Leia isn't just *any* child in the first place, and the manifestations of her unusualness (like the fact that she dreams of Luke without knowing who he is) makes this all the more complicated. I find that the idea of hiding Leia in plain sight as decided between Bail, Obi-Wan and Yoda at the end of RotS is a great idea in terms of narrative -- it allows for all sorts of future plots, ranging from the humorous to the very dramatic.

    I had a great time writing Leia's child behaviours in this story, because I've been spending a lot of time with my nephews and nieces lately and they're the most lovable little monsters, but also because I have very vivid memories of crap I did as a kid. Creating a bad situation, not knowing how to extract myself from it and digging myself in a bit deeper with every move I made was one of my specialties until the age of ten :p And I also used to keep things that belonged to my parents, because that's what kiddies do.

    And thanks for liking Eliskandro so much! Writing this OC is such a treat every time I'm given the opportunity, and I can't thank Findswoman enough for planting the idea of Eliskandro in my head in the first place. As for how much he knows when he recommends Padmé's hairstyle to Leia... well, Eliskandro knows a lot (he is fabulous, after all), but not quite that much. My thinking was that he assumed Leia would like the picture he showed her, because Padmé is so pretty and so relatable for her, being a queen and all. His strategy was to keep that option for the end, so that Leia would accept the idea and think that she found it on her own. But of course, once he compared the woman in the picture and the little girl sitting on his tail, he may have noticed something [face_whistling] (which gives me an idea for a sequel to this story -- plot bunnies everywhere! Send help!)

    Now for a few individual bits and pieces...
    Yup, that's the one. I positively adore Breha's outfit at the end of RotS -- it's absolutely royal, but without the over-the-top elements of some of Padmé's outfits as queen. Funnily enough for such a small detail, this also shaped my idea of the differences between the Naboo and Alderaan monarchies. Naboo has a citizen-queen but a very strong ceremonial component to its monachy; Alderaan has a hereditary monarchy but protocol and etiquette are kept within reason (even though that's more than enough to be annoying for Leia of course!)
    Next year is a loooong time from now. Why don't you just tell me when your birthday is? You gave me (yet another) plot bunny now, so I'm going to have to write it anyway ;)
    Wow, I'm flattered! We have quite a collection of fancy Hutts on the boards already, first and foremost Findswoman mahvelous Bonvika, so you have a lot of reading to do if you want to :)
    Understatement of the century! [face_laugh]
    I mentioned above how the Organas are trying to balance their royal duties with their family life, and that gives them all the more reason to be furious at Marial. Being both a relative and a member of the court, she's in that grey area where their private and public lives intersect, and I wanted to have a moment in the story where it would be clear that, if they have to choose, their family and child come first and etiquette/protocol/tradition be damned :mad:
    Why, oh why, did you have to do this to me? How am I supposed to resist the temptation to write this story? This is just too mouth-watering an idea =P~ But hey, here's my way out: you should write it. I can't even begin to imagine how you'll fit the CoCoToys Deluxe Edition Ultimate Braids Bastila dolls in there ;) [face_laugh]
    Hehehehe. I didn't do it on purpose, but we can chalk that up to Leia's subconscious knowledge of her family heritage :D
    I'm afraid that airplane doors aren't wide enough for Eliskandro's repulsorlift dais, so he'd have to crawl into your KG. The kids won't mind the slime trail -- they might actually even like it -- but are the teachers prepared to deal with it? [face_devil]
    Of course nothing is coincidence in the GFFA. It's all the will of the Force ;)

    Thanks again so much for the kind and detailed reviews, thanks to everyone who stopped by to read, and once again happy 2017 to Bri!
     
  13. AzureAngel2

    AzureAngel2 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 14, 2005
    The kids in my group love slime and odd things. I only would worry about the team of cleaners that comes into the build every night.

    :D
     
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  14. Kahara

    Kahara FFoF Hostess Extraordinaire star 4 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2001
    Aww, I love this version of baby Leia (keeping her mom's veil in her secret stash, that seems like such a daughter-with-a-busy-royal-parent thing, and the drawings that hint at Luke... :D ). And her parents are equally complex here; I love how we get to see Breha's feelings of turmoil about having to give a speech -- and not really liking that to begin with -- while Leia is missing. Out of all the characters, she was my favorite here. Bail's way of dealing with Aunt Marial is poetic justice too. :p
     
  15. Chyntuck

    Chyntuck Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2014
    I saw this yesterday in the meme thread, and I just had to bring it over here.


    And while I'm at it, a few late replies...
    Hehe, yes. My nephews and nieces and just about every kiddo I know love slimy stuff. Their parents and other adults, no so much [face_sick]

    Thank you! I'm glad you liked Breha here; it's a character I know very little about and I based my depiction of her mostly on Bri's fics. Being step-parents to little Leia can't have been easy for either of them, especially since they weren't adopting her as a facade or an obligation but because they truly wanted a child to call their own. Of course, that would occasionally entail some creative parenting, but then you can trust the "sneaky Rebel" (credit to Mira_Jade for the expression) to be sneaky when he has to.

    Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to read!
     
  16. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    Fun, fun fun! [face_laugh] Aliskandro saved the day LOL and was very sympathetic about "that old hag" [face_rofl] [:D] to see the Organa family dealing with typical kid hijinks, although with Leia you know they'll be a teensy bit more dramatic [face_laugh] [face_mischief]