Saga - PT The Mythologist

“On Wings of Change” surprised me in many ways. Coruscant has always unexpected depths.

“Differences in Doctrine" gave droids an important voice. I love to see stories in which they get a deeper meaning for their existence.

The update “Holiday Fare” gave me a lot of insight into Vestri´s background and on Naboo traditions.

 

Short review for now, but wow is this one that I want to come back to for further thoughts at some point. It's been so much fun to see all the different lore of the various worlds and cultures that Vestri encounters -- and most of it all from the central point of the diner, which is such a fun callback to those old "Tales from" anthologies that are still among my favorite Star Wars books. This series has been a real treat, and I especially found the Can't Believe It's Not Something Like Fruitcake entry and the one with the droid stories delightful! They're both funny and thought-provoking, and show us a richer, stranger version of the SW galaxy. (Also, The Wildlife of Star Wars is fantastic and I'm so glad to see that someone else thinks so too! )

 

Thank you to everyone who's been reading, and thank you especially to those commenting, and their patience with my delayed replies.

Thank you, @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha. You have to figure fruitcake is good for something, right? And the marriage proposal for Vestri was a complete surprise to me. Why don't my characters warn me about these things.?

Food seems to be a universal constant, so the diner seemed like an ideal place to meet a wide variety of people, human and (mostly) otherwise. And as I dig around in Dex's past, there are some fascinating story ideas, so I'm hoping we will eventually get him to elaborate more on his background.

True. In my area, we've had a growing population of peregrine falcons making their home in a nearby city. I had the amazing experience of seeing one up close and personal when a pigeon literally fell from the sky in front of my car and the falcon came swooping after it. Also seeing an increasing number of red-tail hawks around, and recently heard an owl in the forested area behind my house. All to the good, as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you. (Do we seriously not have a "blush" emoticon here? Who do I talk to about that?)

I'll have to look for that game.

I can envision the running gag of Vestri continuously trying to sneak into the kitchen to see if she can confirm FLO's description of the dishwasher as a religious philosopher.... Our dishwasher at home also has its own opinions. However, my mother finally "had a talk" with it (which I missed, unfortunately) and it has since behaved itself. We'll see how long that lasts.

It's amazing what kids can make a game out of, isn't it? Who needs electronics?

This plot point was a complete surprise to me. I've been writing fanfiction for a(n embarrassingly) long time, and have never had a marriage proposal event. I was typing along, and suddenly was like, "Wait, what? WHAT just happened there?" Be interesting to see how that progresses. I'm still not sure where it's going to go yet....

Thank you. I have at least two more stories in progress, and if I ever work up the nerve to do a full- or half-year entry for the Dear Diary Challenge, I've got some ideas for a story set near the beginning of the OT. We'll see.

Thank you, AzureAngel2. Coruscant does seem to have all kinds of secrets that are invisible at first glance.

There have been several recent commentaries into the role of droids in Star Wars, and since Vestri has little to no experience with them, this allows some exploration on my part, too. I'm sorry that D-O is so far in the future, since I'd love to introduce her to him/it.

Ever since I read Mia Mesharad's Welcome to Mandalore, I've wanted to do a guidebook on Naboo. That might end up being a side project one of these days.

I remember those anthologies. I think I liked the "Cantina" one the best, but it was fascinating to see where the authors took some of those background characters.

I love The Wildlife of Star Wars, and wish someone would do a volume 2, or an updated volume, or something. The GFFA wildlife alone is worth the price of admission.

I'm glad you've enjoyed the stories, and thank you for commenting.

 

Time to update a couple of things:

First of all, The Mythologist anthology has been getting plenty of mentions of the 2020 Favorites of Fanfic Festival thread, and I want to thank everyone who has done so. I really appreciate the support.

Second, I am rearranging the Index in the first post to reflect the order in which the stories should be read. It may not always be the order in which they're posted, since I am often hopelessly disorganized.

Third, I have added my name to the list of authors willing to receive constructive criticism, and I will alter the first post in this thread to reflect that.

Finally, I am still working on stories for this anthology. Some will be inspired by various fanfic challenges, some will just be stories I want to tell for whatever reason. I have the next one almost finished; it would have been posted last month, but my laptop and USB stick conspired to eat it -- twice -- so I've had to pull up a very early version of it and rewrite it a couple of times. Technical difficulties aside, I'm hoping to post it before Easter.

 

In for a Song​

“Ah, ah, ex-excuse me, your ladyship, are-are you Vestri Dain?”

Vestri looked up from her padd at the thin Weequay male standing at her elbow, twisting his leathery grey hands. “That would be me, yes. What can I do for you, Myr…?”

“Jastol Bedower, Your Ladyship. D-Dexter Jettster said I had to tell you a story.”

Vestri turned and looked over her shoulder at the Besalisk chef and owner of Dex’s Diner, who stood in the doorway, one pair of arms folded and a third arm propped against the door jamb. He glanced meaningfully at the Weequay and nodded once. “I see,” Vestri said, turning back to Bedower.

“He-he said it had to be an o-old story, like one you’d hear from a great-grand-sire, or older,” the Weequay continued. He had at least stopped twisting his hands and now rested them on the back of a chair at Vestri’s table. Several braids hung from the back of his head, pulled together in a ponytail and tied in two places with green ribbons.

Vestri nodded. “I collect very old stories – myths, legends, tall tales, anything that goes back a long way in time.”

Bedower seemed to think for a moment. “I-I could tell one from the time of the Sith Empire.”

“That would certainly qualify as old,” Vestri said. “And I have yet to hear a story from the Weequay culture. Would you like to sit down, Myr Bedower?”

Bedower actually flinched. “No, no, Your Ladyship, that – that would be inappropriate. I-I have to do this properly, you see.”

“I confess I’m confused,” Vestri admitted. “And I’m not actually any kind of a lady, titled or otherwise, so don’t feel you need to stand on ceremony.” Then she added, “No pun intended.”

The Weequay seemed confused as well. “This i-is a favor I owe to Dexter Jettster – well, first I owed it to – ” here he rattled off a bunch of syllables that made no sense to Vestri “ – but he transferred that favor to Jettster, and he told me I would pay it off by giving you a story.”

Vestri made a mental note to get the context of Bedower’s favor from Dex before she left the diner. “Okay. Whatever works for you is fine. May I write your story down?”

“I-if you want to, I guess.”

Vestri set aside her classwork, opened her story notebook and picked up a stylus. “Thank you. Whenever you’re ready.”

Bedower took a deep breath, leaned forward, and picked up Vestri’s currently unused soup spoon. He rapped the spoon on the table once, twice, three times, four – setting up a rhythm. Head nodding along, he began to sing:

Oh, the year was 2621,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
When a Letter of Marxx from Zodoh’s court
Told a luckless captain to report

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.​

“What d’you think ye’r doing?” Dex roared from the doorway. Vestri started in surprise. Bedower jumped back and dropped the spoon.

“I-I was singing a – “

“Ballad!” Vestri interjected. “It’s a story-song. Right?”

“Aye – er, yes,” Bedower replied.

“And pounding a dent in my tabletop!” Dex snapped. “You need to set a rhythm, tap your hand on the table instead!” The Weequay nodded nervously.

Vestri offered him an encouraging smile. “You were doing just fine. And you have a good singing voice, too.”

Glancing at Dex, Bedower took a deep breath. “Ah, er, thank you. D’you want me to keep singing, or just tell the story?”

“Oh, definitely keep singing. Just,” she glanced over her shoulder at the Besalisk and lowered her voice conspiratorially, “maybe not with the spoon.”

The Weequay swallowed and nodded. Vestri jotted “Letters of Marxx?” in the page margin and asked, “Before we go on, what’s the name of this song?”

“It’s ‘Vekbu’s Privateers.' Back then, a privateer was someone appointed by one of the Hutt crime lords to, uh, liberate certain items from, ah, certain people.”

“They were pirates,” Dex clarified.

“N-no, they weren’t, they were paid contractors –”

Vestri waved her hands. “Okay, privateers, got it. And I’m guessing the ‘Letters of Marxx’ was the contract with the Hutts?”

“Yes.” Bedower stared back at Dex, who had folded his arms again and waited in the doorway.


“Okay, I’m caught up,” Vestri told him, scribbling a note. “Please continue.”

This time Bedower set the rhythm by rapping his knuckles on the table.

Oh, Elcid Vekbu cried the town,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
For twenty brave men all space-wise who
would make for him the Bandigo’s crew

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.

The Bandigo ship was a sickening sight,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
She'd a list to the port with hyperspace lags
And the cook in scuppers with the staggers and the jags​

Vestri finished writing that verse, underlined the last sentence, and scrawled a question mark at the end. She suspected it had to do with unsteady footing (“alcohol? faulty engines?” she jotted in the margin) but definitions could wait. Bedower continued his song. Vestri could hear small sounds of movement behind her, but she focused on transcribing the Weequay’s words.

On that fateful eve when we took flight,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
We were three long weeks to Cadomai
Patched hull like madmen all the way

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.

In our third week out our luck turned gold,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
When a Sith Lord’s transport hove in sight
With forward guns we made to fight

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.

The Sith Lord’s ship was loaded with gold,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
She was broad and fat and loose in the stays
But to catch her took the Bandigo two whole days​

Vestri underlined “loose in the stays.” She definitely heard movement behind her now, but Bedower was focused on his song and she didn’t want to break his concentration.

Then at length we stood two cables away,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
Our gunners’ barrage made an awful din
But with one fell shot they stove us in​

Vestri risked a quick glance over her shoulder. Dex wasn’t standing in the doorway anymore – now it was FLO and another waitress, and what looked like several customers.

The Bandigo shook and pitched on her side,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
Vekbu shattered like a bowl of eggs
An explosion carried off both me legs​

Vestri winced as she wrote the two lines.

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.

So here I lay in my 23rd year,
How I wish I was on Sriluur now!
It's been 6 years since we first took flight
And I just made Oseon late last night.​

“Oseon – planet?” Vestri jotted in the margin. It sounded as though Bedower was winding up his song –

But damn them all! I was told
We'd cruise the lanes for the Sith lords’ gold
We'd fire no guns -- shed no tears
Now I'm a broken man for many a year
The last of Vekbu's Privateers.​

Vestri drew a deep breath. “Well, that was –”

Someone behind them uttered a piercing whistle, and suddenly nearly a dozen beings were applauding (or engaged in their own species’ equivalent). Several people had crowded into the room, while other peered around the door jamb. Dex had disappeared.

“I think you just acquired a fan club, hon,” FLO told Bedower as she wheeled past him to pick up menus from a holder across the room. “Party of three?” and a trio of Rodians followed her path to a booth across the room. One of them stopped to thank the Weequay for his performance. Right behind came an Ishi Tib, who was gushing about Bedower’s singing, and did he by any chance do weddings? Vestri wasn’t sure how anyone would make a mental leap from a tragic space-battle ballad to wedding songs, but maybe it depended on the individual’s species….

A minute later Dex reappeared and told one of the waitresses to escort a stammering Bedower “around to meet his adoring public,” thereby clearing space around Vestri’s table. She exchanged waves with a Gran who was a fellow regular at the diner, and turned her attention to Dex. “So, do I want to know the background on all this? He’s paying off a favor?”

“Yeah.” Dex nodded to the Gran, then bent toward Vestri and lowered his voice. “I met him back when I was still prospecting. He was doing some smuggling at the time, but wanted to get out of that business, so I put in a couple good words in the right places and got him to come to Coruscant for a job. Did pretty well for himself, too, ‘til he hit a rough patch and took a job with one of the, shall we say, less than honest business-people here.”

“It didn’t go well?”

“No, it didn’t. Fortunately, the … individual in question owed me a favor from way back when, and I said if Bedower’s debt was transferred to me, that would make us even.”

Vestri tilted her head and smiled at him. “That’s really generous of you, Dex.”

“Bah.” The Besalisk waved a hand. “Bedower’s basically a decent fellow -- married, three kids, good worker. I don’t need anything from him, which is why he’s paying his debt to me by talking to you.”

Vestri paused, a confused expression crossing her face. “Wait. If you used a favor to take care of Myr Bedower’s debt, and then told him to pay it off by telling me a story, does that mean I now owe you a favor?”

“Great stars, no.” Dex emphatically gestured with all four hands. “Don’t make this more complicated than it has to be. I’m just happy to never need to cross paths with … that unmentioned individual Bedower and I both know, ever again.”

“Well, that was still generous of you on both counts, and I thank you.”

FLO wheeled past with a tray of appetizers. “Good crowd for this time of day. Maybe you should have performances more often.”

“This is a diner, not a theater,” Dex said.

“It could be dinner theater!” Vestri suggested cheerfully. Seeing Dex’s expression, she added, “Local theater groups on Naboo sometimes arrange dinner theaters, where they set up tables and chairs and arrange a meal followed by a performance. Usually it’s up-and-coming playwrights and musicians who want to showcase their stuff.”

“You could use the pitch ‘come for the singing, stay for the sliders!’ ” FLO said.

“Open poetry night once a month!” Vestri added.

“How about a dinner evening for couples with a musician stopping to play at their tables?” FLO suggested.

Eyes twinkling, Vestri asked, “Hey, FLO, does the dishwasher sing?”

“I don’t know – I’ll have to ask.”

Massaging his forehead with an upper hand, Dex rumbled, “Stop, you two, just … stop. FLO – salad course for Table Five.” As the waitress moved away, he said, “I gotta get back to the kitchen. You need anything else from Bedower?”

“If he could stop back and define a couple of terms and give me some historic background on this ballad, that would be great,” Vestri replied. “Who’s Zodoh? Was he or she a Hutt?”

“Probably. I’ll find Bedower and send him over,” Dex promised.

“If you can pry him away from his new-found fans,” Vestri remarked, grinning. “He might just get a music career out of this.” She sobered and tapped her notebook. “It occurs me that I should get a good recording device. Written words on the page don’t do this experience justice. It really is more of a performance piece.”

“Something to consider for the future,” Dex told her, and headed off toward the kitchen.

~*~*~*~​

Author’s note:

This story is actually a repurposed challenge from 2017. (Yeah, ouch. Well, there was no deadline, so here we are at last….) Briannakin was running a sea shanty/ballad challenge (might be worth revisiting with all that sea shanty singing going on over on TikTok now), and I received “Barret’s Privateers,” which was a 20th century song chronicling a fictional incident between Canadian pirates trying to rob an American ship in 1778. Very much an Earth-centric piece.

So I ended up reworking the lyrics to fit something a little more GFFA, dealing with a Weequay pirate looking for Sith gold (never a good idea). Some of the rewording included changing the name of a town to that of a planet (from Sherbrooke to Sriluur, the Weequay homeworld), the ship’s name (from Antelope to Bendigo, a vicious, dog-like creature found on Sriluur), and downgrading the “God damn” to “But damn,” both because I don’t remember God being mentioned in the GFFA and because I personally find the tern offensive. Elcrid Vekbu is an OC and does not exist in Star Wars canon, Legends or otherwise. Zodoh was the primary Hutt crime lord at the time this ballad would have taken place.

I spent almost two years (off and on) working on what I thought was the story inspired by this song, but could never quite get it to fly (pun mostly unintentional). That’s usually a sign that I’m either approaching my story from the wrong angle, or I’m trying to tell the wrong story. I set my notes and written scenes aside and moved on to other things for a while.

However, since many of the Mythologist’s collected stories are legends, tall tales, or myths, a version of this began to take shape for this anthology; plus, who am I to say “No” to a pirate adventure? Pirates (the fictional ones, at least) are fun! And you never know who you will encounter in Dex’s Diner, or what stories they will bring with them to tell.

Lyrics for the original Barrett’s Privateers: http://stanrogers.net/the-music/song-archive/barretts-privateers/

Recording of the original Barrett’s Privateers:





Bibliography:

Bendigo – vicious dog-like creature found on the Weequay homeworld. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bandigo

Sriluur – the Weequay homeworld. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sriluur

Zodoh -- http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zodoh

Galactic Map: https://i.redd.it/1aebgva1yqr51.png

 

How good of you to finally post this beauty here in 2021, the actual year of the Shanty.

It was worthwhile waiting for it. I am glad you finally managed to fit the lyrics into the GFFA. It was the most crucial thing and you pulled it off perfectly. They sounded daring, dashing and "piratety".

Now I wonder if folk like Lor San Tekka, Maz Kanata and Doctor Aphra are the Indiana Jones´es ) of the SW universes, hunting down those legendary Sith treasures.

 

Excellent reception of the performance and great ideas about dinner theater and musicians serenading dining couples

 

That was, in fact, part of the inspiration for finally getting this story finished. I had several variations of "Wellerman" and other ocean-related songs/music playing in the background while writing some of this.

That is a great idea for multiple stories, actually....

I'm pretty sure it was mostly meant as a joke, but you never know....

Thank you,@AzureAngel2 and @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha, for commenting!

 

Critique​

She stood in stunned silence as her whole world came crashing down around her. He was dead, and she was alone. There would be no marriage, no flight to another planet to start a new life away from here. There would just be her family, and perhaps someday an inadequate man for her to marry.

~*~*~*~​

“Let me get this straight,” Vestri Dain said to her male companion a few minutes later. They were seated in Dexter’s Diner, not at Vestri’s usual table in the side room, but at the lunch counter. The young man had just finished telling her what he called “a love story” from Serenno.

“Two families have an ongoing feud, and one teen from each family falls in love with –” she mimicked quotation marks with her fingers “— ‘one of the enemy’. Despite her family warning her that this boy will be the death of her, she keeps sneaking off to see him, makes plans to run away with him, and, when the plan goes wrong and she thinks he’s dead, she commits suicide because –” here she dramatically clasped her hands over her heart “—she can’t bear to live without him. Then he actually shows up and finds out she’s dead and throws himself off a tower because he can’t live without her.”

“Yes.”

“Uh, huh.” Vestri leaned an elbow on the counter. “Let me ask you this. If they can keep sneaking off to see each other, why don’t they just sneak right on out of town and move to the other side of the planet, away from their families?”

“Someone would search for them until they were found. Besides, he needed time to set up a way off planet.”

“Both families are pretty wealthy. So, the kids each pack up some of the family jewelry or other valuables, sell it off on the other side of the planet, buy two tickets off-world, and go.”

“But – that’s stealing!”

A puzzled expression crossed Vestri’s face. “What, neither of these kids are going to get an inheritance?”

“Well, yes, the boy would, but –”

Vestri shrugged. “So, he’s collecting it early. And why doesn’t she get an inheritance?”

“Um, women don’t inherit in this culture –”

“Why not?”

“I – I don’t know. That’s just the way it—” Her companion was beginning to sound flustered.

“Well, it’s ridiculous,” Vestri stated, folding her arms. “Maybe instead of killing herself because she thinks her boyfriend is dead, she should have started a social movement to demand that women receive equal treatment under the law.”

“Uh, okay, maybe, but that’s not really the point –”

“And another thing,” Vestri continued, unfolding her arms and holding up a forefinger. Dexter Jettster, the diner’s owner, was wiping down one of the booth tables and began making a wheezing noise that Vestri suspected was laughter. “Why does this girl kill herself because she thinks this guy’s dead? If this relationship is that big a deal, doesn’t she want to honor his life by keeping his memory alive? Or set up some kind of memorial marker or ceremony to commemorate him? If she’d done that, she’d still be alive when he finally showed up, and this whole unnecessary double suicide thing would have been avoided.”

The young man was opening gaping at her. “You really don’t think it’s romantic that she’d kill herself over him?”

Vestri waved both hands. “Absolutely not. It’s one thing if she died saving his life, or because she stood up against the status quo that gives women fewer rights than men and she wants to change it so she can marry whoever she wants, but just because she thinks this guy’s dead? I mean, she doesn’t even see the body! Go make sure he’s dead, and work from there. Create a better world in his memory or something.

“The Gungans have one story that involves two people in love, but instead of defying their parents, each one agrees to follow a path alone. She trains to become a great military tactician; he studies to become a brilliant engineer. When they meet again, they pool their talents to create a fleet of underwater ships to drive back the massive sea monsters that threaten their people, then call on the gods themselves to approve their union. To this day, their descendants still tell this story, which requires a master storyteller and the permission of the family, since it’s their property. I can’t do it justice here.”

Vestri’s companion stared at her for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, I guess I can’t top that one.” He slid off the stool, tossed a handful of credits on the counter and walked out the diner door.

Dexter Jettster, tidying up one of the front booth tables, shook his head. “Vestri, you’re too young to be this cynical.”

“Sorry, but I just don’t get it. His story doesn’t sound the least bit romantic to me.”

Dex gave the table a final swipe and made his way to the front counter. “I’ve never heard you critique a story before. Everything okay?”

“I guess.”

Dex stowed the cloth and cleaning fluid and leaned on the counter. “Doesn’t sound okay. You wanna talk about it?”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to talk with my parents about it at some point, but….” Vestri shrugged, looking down at her hands, then back up at Dex. “I just had a really strange meeting with my academic advisor.”

“What do you mean by ‘strange’?”


“He suggested that I might want to change the focus of my degree.”

“Okay. Meaning?”

“He said I might be better off focusing on Human-centric cultures, rather than non-Human ones.”

Dex cocked his head. “Did you ever indicate you wanted to do that?”

She shook her head. “No. I came to Coruscant University specifically to study non-Human cultures, because they have one of the best Sentientology programs in the galaxy. My ultimate goal is to eventually go home and work with my father documenting Gungan culture, but first I want to do field work and get some experience. Don’t get me wrong,” she added, “there are plenty of Human-centric cultures out there, including lost colonies, and I’m sure they’re all very interesting, but they’re not what I want to study.”

Dex straightened, pushed open the kitchen doors, and called, “FLO – a pot of hot water and the Alderaanian Spice tea.” He turned back to Vestri. “So, what d’you want to do?”

“Keep studying Non-Human Sentientology. My advisor didn’t push it, really, just asked a couple of times. Well, all right, more like three or four times. But it’s not like they can send the Jedi to force me into a different major.”

Dex suddenly grinned. “Was that a pun?”

“An inadvertent one, I suppose.” The side of Vestri’s mouth twitched into a half smile.

“Wadda’ya going to do about your buddy who was just here? I mean, you were kinda hard on him.”

“Was I?”

“Yeah, you were.”

Vestri winced. “Gods above and below, I’m becoming my mother.”

“She’s tough on people?”

“She’s a lawyer. I think it’s in the job description.”

Dex paused for a few moments. Then he asked, “Can I make an observation?”

Vestri propped her chin on her palm and eyed him warily. “Can I stop you?”

“Sure. Just tell me you don’t want to hear it.”

She blinked at him several times. Finally she said, “Yeah, okay, make an observation.”

“I’ve noticed you’re a lot better at interacting with everyone’s culture except your own. I mean, you’ve had two or three young men follow you in here, and you manage to run ‘em off every time.”

“I’m here to get a degree, not a husband.”

“So maybe not all of those guys are thinking about matrimony.”

“I’m sure they’re not, but I’m not looking for a cheap fling, either.”

“Maybe they’re looking for a study partner, or a field work partner? I mean, you’re not going to be doing field work by yourself, are you?”

“No. But if those guys are put off by my attitude after 20 minutes, I don’t think they’re going to last long in the field. Plus, I don’t know what my recently-departed buddy’s study major is, or why today he just suddenly decided he needed to tell me a story – we haven’t exchanged more than a few sentences all semester.”

“Maybe he’s just trying to be friendly.”

Vestri sat for a moment, studying the ceiling, mouth pursed in a quizzical expression. “Well,” she conceded finally, “I suppose that’s distantly possible.”

“So, you’re gonna apologize to him, right?

Vestri rolled her eyes. “Yes, second Dad, I will track him down and apologize.” Then she straightened up on the lunch counter stool and added, “But if I find out he was doing this as some kind of joke, or he had some stupid bet going with his buddies, I’m going to demonstrate all three of the hand-to-hand combat moves I learned from my Gungan instructor over the summer, and I guarantee I won’t be having this problem in the future.”

Dex leaned on the counter with three hands and tapped the surface with the forefinger of the fourth. “Just don’t get yourself kicked out of the university, okay?”

Vestri placed her left hand over the center of her chest and raised the right hand solemnly. “I promise I will not get myself kicked out of the university.” Then she added thoughtfully, “And maybe this will make my advisor change his mind about encouraging me to switch my major.”

~*~*~*~​

Author’s Note:

This story was written in response to the First Line Challenge on the OC Revolution thread, although the deadline passed so long ago on it that I’m not going to post a notice there. However, I am posting the link, because there are plenty of cool ongoing challenges being offered, and folks should just check it out on general principles.

The “first line” I received was She stood in stunned silence as her whole world came crashing down around her. This line reminded me of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which I was required to read as a high school freshman (way, waaaaay back in the Dark Ages). When we finished, the teacher asked what we thought the most important theme was. I told him, “Always listen to your parents when they tell you to dump the guy you’re dating. You’ll live longer.” He looked at me strangely for the rest of the year. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the answer he expected.

 

Vestri is definite in her goals and she is certainly right not to fall for a cheap trick

 

You always write those things with such an easiness and passion, always getting straight to the point. Well done! Especially getting the Empire´s policy with hon-humans into it this time.

 

Thank you, @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha and @AzureAngel2 for comments about my latest story. It had a more negative tone than most of the earlier works, so I wasn't sure how well it would be received.

 

The Eyes Have It​

FLO greeted Vestri at the door of Dex’s Diner and led the way to Vestri’s regular table in the side room. Vestri glanced at the three young men in a booth across the room; fellow university students, she suspected, but none of them looked familiar. She turned her attention to the menu, placed her order, and thanked the droid waitress. Then she pulled out her notebook and colored pencils and began sketching the illustrations to the Twi-lek story a fellow diner had told her a couple of days earlier.

When FLO placed the mug and small pot of Alderaanian spiced tea at her elbow, Vestri said, “Thank you, FLO. Could I please get one of the bantha-meat rolls to go with lunch? I think I’m going to be here a while.”

“Sure thing,” FLO replied, and wheeled away. Vestri turned back to her work.

“Why are you doing that?” a male voice asked. One of the young men had turned in his seat to look at her.

“Doing what?” Vestri glanced up, then back down at her notebook.

“Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to a droid.”

Vestri stared at him. Finally she answered, “Because it’s the polite thing to do?”

The young man sneered. “It’s a droid. It’s not like it’s a person.”

“How do you know?” Vestri challenged him. “Have you asked any of them?”

Both of his two seatmates joined in a chorus of derisive laughter. “Why would I do that? They’re just machines.”

“The ones I’ve met have all had personalities.” Vestri didn’t mention that her experience with droids was limited to the university’s protocol droid DT-5, a delivery droid that picked up produce from her Ithorian landlord’s shop, FLO here at the diner, and the navigation droid that assisted the pilot on the hyperspace run to Naboo (and to whom she’d never actually spoken).

The young man slid out of the booth and stood up. “It’s just programming, “ he told her. “They can’t actually think – or feel. Watch.” FLO wheeled back into the room with Vestri’s order and placed it on the table. The young man walked around behind the droid; suddenly he turned and shoved her against the table.

“Hey!” Vestri stood up. “Stop that!”

“Or what? Think this thing’s gonna stop me?”

“She might not. But I will.”

“Vestri, I’m all right….” FLO began.

Vestri squared her shoulders. “I’m not.” She could hear the other two males sliding out the booth.

Vestri knew exactly three self-defense moves. They had all been taught to her by one of the Gungans last summer when she had visited Otoh Gunga with her father. The instructor had been an elderly male, a retired infantry soldier in the Gungan Grand Army.

(“Oursen people are all kind, friendly, and he’pful,” he had told her solemnly. Vestri had eyed him dubiously – she’d seen some Gungan behavior that suggested otherwise. He had continued, “Coursen, sometimes somma theys forgettin’ dat, so mesa teachin’ yousa ways of remindin’ thems.”)

Vestri turned, not to the one man already standing, but to the first companion getting out the booth. She reared back and slammed her right heel into the side of his knee. The man cursed, lost his balance, and fell out of the booth onto the floor.

“Call Dex!” she ordered FLO, and snatched up the tray on the table. She flung it sideways at the standing man’s face; he ducked, and Vestri kicked the inside of his knee, causing him to stagger. The third man threw a punch; Vestri caught his wrist with her arm and pushed upward. He slammed into her and she went over backwards onto her table. Colored pencils flew everywhere.

Events afterwards were a blur. Vestri could hear FLO’s amplified voice calling for the Besalisk as the three men shoved her to the floor. “Shut up!” one snarled at FLO, and grabbed the droid’s arm.

A moment later, Dexter Jettster was in the middle of the fray, telling FLO to get Vestri out of the way. There was a lot of yelling, mostly human voices, along with some thuds and cursing. When Vestri could finally focus, Dex had one man by the scruff of the neck; the Human was almost doubled over. Another dangled by the belt from one of the Besalisk’s upper hands.

The third fellow was floating in mid-air.

Both Vestri and Dex stared at the sight, then they turned to look at the doorway, where a being stood, one hand raised toward the floating man. Green skin, unblinking black eyes, a dozen or so head-tentacles – and Jedi robes.

“May I be of assistance?” the Jedi asked calmly.

“Yeah,” Dex replied. “I was just about to escort these three – unwelcome – individuals outside and explain to them what happens when they harass my customers and my staff.”

“Hey! They started it!” one of the men cried.

“Not buyin’ it,” Dex told him, giving him a shake. “I know my staff, and the young woman’s a regular. You three, on the other hand…”

“You are Dexter Jettster, the owner, then?” the Jedi asked.

“That’s me.”

“Very well.” The Jedi lowered his arm slightly, and the hovering man floated in range of one of Dex’s free hands. The Besalisk grasped him by the belt.

“Let’s finish this outside.” Dex nodded to the Jedi as he passed. “Thanks for the assist.”

“Don’t mention it.”

FLO held Vestri’s elbow as the Human carefully stood up. “Are you okay, hon?”

Her ribs and one arm felt bruised, but after stretching a little, Vestri decided nothing was broken. “I think so.” She looked around the room. “My pencils are littering the floor, though.”

“Easily rectified,” the Jedi assured her, and the three of them quickly gathered up the pencils.

“Thank you. For both helping clean up, and earlier with those three… people,” Vestri said.

The Jedi smiled and bowed slightly. “I am Kit Fisto. The Jedi exist to serve, in any capacity, great or small.” He stooped and picked up Vestri’s notebook, which had fallen face down on the floor, still open to the Twi’lek story. “I recognize Dinni’firro. A goddess of the Twi’lek people. She’s associated with dance, as I recall.”

Vestri nodded, then wished she hadn’t. “She supposedly taught the first Twi’lek how to dance and set some of the rules for when different dances should be performed.” She began sliding pencils into their cases. “May I ask how you know of her?”

“One of my colleagues at the Temple has mentioned her. She herself is Twi’lek and has studied her people’s culture – she says it is useful when working undercover, and I concur. While my own people have no one like Dinni’firro, we do have our own myths and legends. One of the best-known Nautolan deities is Thell Ulirr, the Trickster.”

“I would love to hear it.”

“I would be happy to share it with you over our meal, if you don’t mind raw seafood.”

Vestri laughed. “I spend my spare time back home hanging around with Gungans. They eat everything raw – and sometimes live.”

Kit Fisto settled himself at the table, accepted a menu from FLO, and placed his order. Vestri noticed that he also thanked the droid before she wheeled away. Then he turned his attention back to Vestri.

“Thell Ulirr is one of the most powerful beings of Glee Anselm,” Kit Fisto began. “But his greatest power lies not in his physical strength, or in his magic, or in a brilliant mind, but in his heart. He loves the ocean and all that swims in it.

“Some stories say that Thell Ulirr was created fully-formed by the ocean itself. Other stories claim he began as a mortal but eventually achieved godhood as a reward for saving the gods themselves from disaster. Still others say he began as the smallest form of life in the sea and was reborn over and over as more complex creatures, until he died in the most sophisticated mortal form of all and became a god as the next step up. This is why he can assume any form or gender he chooses – he has already been them all.

“In our early days, I’m sorry to say, my people were warlike and violent, fighting over resources, even though the ocean could provide more than enough. Thell Ulirr wished to change this, for he loved the ocean and all that swam in it, even the Anselmi of the surface world, who sometimes did not respect the ocean as they should.

“He thought that if the Nautolans could learn to see their world differently, they would learn new ways to live. And so he went to each of the three great kings of the Nautolan nations and offered to teach them a way to vanquish their enemies once and for all. Of course, the kings readily agreed.

“First, Thell Ulirr taught the kings how to remove their eyes and send them to different parts of the ocean. ‘Look around at everything the ocean has,’ he encouraged the kings. ‘There is much, much more than you and your people could ever need!’

“But once the kings learned this skill, they spent most of their time spying on the other two kingdoms, watching for signs of invasion and attack. Thell Ulirr warned the kings to spend their time looking at the ocean’s resources and bounty, but each of the kings ignored the advice and continued to spy.

“So Thell Ulirr traveled among the creatures of the seas and asked three of them for a favor: the Hammerfish, who swam in family packs throughout the sea; the Lizard-gull, whose wings can carry it across the world without rest, and the Gampassa, who lived much of their life in the ocean but who laid their eggs on land. One member of each group gave Thell Ulirr what he requested.

“Then Thell Ulirr waited until each king sent his eyes out to spy upon another kingdom. He captured each pair of eyes, placed them in sacks, and hid them in a cave.

“Thell Ulirr went to the first king and asked, ‘Where are your eyes?’

“ ‘They are lost!’ the king exclaimed.

“Thell Ulirr examined him. ‘Indeed they are,’ he said. ‘Tell me what happened.’

So the king explained that he had sent his eyes out to spy on another tribe of Nautolans. ‘My eyes did not come back, and I can’t see anything now.’

“ ‘Well, I did warn you,’ Thell Ulirr reminded the king.

“ ‘But how will I defend my kingdom against our enemies if I can’t see them?’ the king cried.

“‘Perhaps I can bring you another set of eyes – then you could see again,’ Thell Ulirr suggested.

“The king agreed. Thell Ulirr went to the second king and found him to be without eyes, and the third king as well. He promised each king a new set of eyes, and both agreed.

“When Thell Ulirr returned to each kingdom, he carried with him three hinged shells, each containing a pair of eyes. To one king, he gave the Hammerfish eyes; to another, the Lizard-gull eyes; to the third, the Gampassa eyes.

“Because these eyes belonged to the different creatures, and not to the kings, the kings could only see what the animals would see. The king who had the Hammerfish eyes watched as the Hammerfish pack hunted together, protected each other, and shared their catches among themselves, taking only as much as they needed.

“The king with the Lizard-gull eyes saw the world from above; there were no boundaries, and while seas in one part of the world were similar to all the others, each had its own unique wonders. The Lizard-gull carried nothing with it in flight and was free of worldly possessions.

“The king with the Gampassa eyes saw how the land and sea were connected and influenced each other; both land and sea affected the weather, and many creatures on the planet needed both to survive.

“Thell Ulirr brought the three kings together in the cave where he had hidden their eyes and asked them to tell him what they had seen. Once the first king had told of the Hammerfish’s vision of the world, of the wide oceans teeming with life, Thell Ulirr replaced the king’s original eyes and took the back those of the Hammerfish. Once the second king had shared the Gampassa’s experience of the land and sea, Thell Ulirr replaced the king’s original eyes and took back the Gampassa’s eyes.

“But the third king said, ‘Wait. I have never before seen the world from the sky. This vision has shown me that we are all one world, and it is vast. Why are we fighting over territory and food when there is already so much? Here, give these eyes back to the Lizard-gull, with my thanks, but I am not ready to take my own eyes back yet.’

“Thell Ulirr smiled. ‘I will do as you ask. When you have had time to absorb what you have seen, call me and I will return your eyes. Until then, be glad you have found a new vision.’

“As Thell Ulirr left the kings to return the borrowed eyes, the kings were describing to one another what they had seen, Soon the kingdoms were sharing more than visions – they were sharing ideas and places to fish and farm. One day their descendants would notice that there were no longer divisions between them, and they became one people.”

Vestri nodded. “And since the three kingdoms became one, in a sense their enemies had been vanquished, as promised.”

“Even so.”

By now, FLO had brought their lunch orders to the table and had stayed to hear the rest of the story. “So, did the last king ever get his real eyes back?”

Kit Fisto shrugged. “The stories don’t say. Perhaps the point is that regaining his sight was less important than what he learned from this experience.”

“Ironic, isn’t it, FLO? A blind individual who can ‘see’ more effectively than sighted folk,” Vestri mused. “The idea that giving up one’s own view actually makes it easier to see the world in a different way.”

Kit Fisto tapped her notebook. “Isn’t that what you’re doing here? Looking at the world through others’ eyes?”

“I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but yes, I suppose I am. I’m hoping my work will allow other people to do that, too. Maybe we’ll have fewer conflicts and more friendly interactions if we understand each other.”

“A worthy goal, and the work of a lifetime,” the Jedi suggested. “I wish you well with it.”

~*~*~*~​

Author’s Note: this story was originally intended for the 2020 Autumn Bingo Challenge, but the deadline is long past and the story has changed from its original focus. I’ve always wanted to write Kit Fisto, and this seemed like a reasonable set-up. In the novel The Cestus Deception, Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan Kenobi go on a mission together, and there’s no reason Obi-Wan wouldn’t have mentioned Dex’s Diner, where we see him AtoC. More information on Nautolans is available here.

"The Eyes Have It" shifted its focus because of a Lakota (Sioux Indian) story called “Iktomi Loses His Eyes.” Iktomi is the Lakota version of the Trickster; unfortunately, he is often greedy, selfish, cruel, and does himself more harm than good much of the time.

In this particular tale, the Iktomi insists on learning how to send his eyes to different places, but overdoes it and they get lost, found by a squirrel, and hidden away. So Iktomi tricks Mouse into giving him one of his eyes, and Buffalo into giving him one as well. The new eyes can either see things very close up (Mouse) or far away (Buffalo), but nothing in between. You can imagine how difficult it becomes for Iktomi to navigate.

Author Paul Goble has written and illustrated several children’s books about Iktomi, and notes that this person represents a part of our own nature, one we must guard against.

At first I thought this idea might be too gruesome to work, but taken metaphorically, it turned out reasonably well.

 

Great to see Kit Fisto show up. He's a very cool dude and I like him.

 

I love this variation of a traditional legend and the lessons within!! I absolutely adore how the insensitive thugs learned a valuable lesson about tactfulness.

FLO has personality and deserves courtesy. L3-37 amongst others definitely has enough personality ... So the question is moot.

 

Agreed. Kit Fisto was one of the best characters to come out of the PT, and I've wanted to write him for ages. Finding a Trickster story for him to tell was a challenge, though. Glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you! I agree, those three guys seriously needed to learn some manners. I've never understood why citizens of the Republic didn't treat droids with more respect, beginning with C-3PO and R2-D2, and continuing right up to the present. Many of them so obviously have personalities and function as individuals, it's hard NOT to see them as people.

Thank you for reading and commenting!

 

I've been meaning to read this collection of stories for quite a long time, and I'm very glad that I now have. All of these stories have that wonderful storytelling, lyrical sense to them, something intangible I can't explain but which puts them in the "oh, I definitely could see that being passed down through generations" category for me. The words and prose of the myths flow like they're meant to be an oral tradition. I think I've mentioned before how much I admire that skill, but if I haven't, then I will now.

I think I've mostly read your stories out of order (oops...) but it was fun seeing some of the earlier aspects of Vestri's life in this collection, like getting the plant from her landlady (which I think I remember being mentioned in another story) and her engagement with Adrick (and I totally need to catch up on "Career Exploration (with Gungans)" too).

During "In for a Song," I admit I thought the movement Vestri kept hearing around her was the predecessor to other diner patrons suddenly joining in with singing the shanty / ballad, LOL. It sounded catchy.

Excellent work!

 

So! I'm here at long, long last to leave my reviews on this thread, and while I can only apologise profusely for coming to this party so late, this was also an opportunity for me to re-read these stories that I'd only skimmed over in the past, and it was a true pleasure. So, without further ado, here is a review of the first three stories (in the order you recommend they be read), and I'll be back in the coming days for the rest!

Battling Winter

I'm hesitating as I type this, because I know that I'll be tempted to say the same thing about every entry of this series, but I think that this one is my favourite. The tale itself is fantastic, with the description of Winter as having a thousand arms, its fight against the Sun, the spirit of Ellix Bristin that rises from her tomb to fight back, and more generally the feeling that this is a myth in the truest sense of the word, a story that a culture tells itself to explain its life and its environment. However, what really cinches it for me is the first introduction of Vestri as a student, the fact that it's told by Dex, who happens to be one of my favourite SW characters, and most importantly the fact that the myth reappears in your story where the li'l Fel-Dains disturb the dean of Sanbra University in his office – and that particular scene was a highlight of my summer!

Lastly, I really enjoyed how, in the last few paragraphs, Vestri explains that there are rules to being a mythologist. Not all stories are available for everyone and anyone to tell, and I find it a great introduction to this series that the rules are laid out at the beginning.

For the Love of Mother Jungle

I chuckled at the fact that this entry begins with FLO preparing Vestri's tea before Vestri even arrives. I had some habits like that in uni with my very own Dex and FLO, although I'm not sure the owner of that café would like to be compared to a Besalisk or to a droid.

Now, to the founding myth of Ithorian nomadism... I must say, only you could make a concept as technical as the preservation and management of natural resources such a moving tale! I was taken into the realm of legend from the very first line, when I understood that this is a world where time can shift – and trees can speak, and gardeners have visions, and they transmit these visions to the population at large... The Ithorians we see in canon and Legends are an advanced, technologically savvy people, but here, they are living in harmony with nature before they develop the means to destroy it, and the moral of the tale is that they chose to continue living in harmony with nature even once they had technology. The final image of Oodu still standing amidst the trees for those who know to look – which translates to those who are in harmony with nature at heart – was simply beautiful.

On Wings of Change

Another wonderful tale, this time about the evolution and adaptation of species, but what really shines in this one IMO is your portrayal of Vestri and her place in the world she lives in. She doesn't operate by the accepted social rules of the big city, inserting herself in straners' conversations and just staying there until she gets to know what she wants, but it doesn't make her socially awkward – instead, it makes others feel awkward, at least buttoned-up others like Satira. Meanwhile, Alex and Satira's behaviour tells us quite a bit about the way Coruscantis feel about things, Satira being more explicit about her bigotry of course, but Alex just stands there and doesn't react one bit. It was good to see Vestri tell them (much more politely than Satira deserves) that there's something they could and should learn from her alien landlords, and I do feel that there was an implication there that there wouldn't be much her landlords could learn from this rather ignorant couple.

And I loved that you gave us a glimpse into how Vestri processes the myths and legends she collects at the end of the viggie, how she transforms the information she was given into a proper tale. Those two lines sound like the beginning of a gripping story, and I'm glad we got to see the making of it!

 

Greetings,

It's Theodore Hawkwood from the Review Game. I figured it was high time I reviewed your story since you were kind enough to review one of mine. Right, let me begin:

I really like the ambiance of Dex's Diner, a place shown in one scene of Attack of the Clones. Your brief description at the start makes the place come alive to me. I particularly liked this:

When FLO asked about Vestri's usual table I cracked a smile, there's a certain kind of joy with having regular status at any given dining establishment or similar. You capture the vibe rather well in this story.

I could easily visualize this interaction taking place on the silver screen somewhere. Great characterization work with Vestri the student of cultural anthropology here. I'm eager to see just what else she gets up to later in her exploration of the galaxy.

I appreciate the worldbuilding you have in Dex's story as he describes Ojom and the Harvest Festival. It's some great show-no-tell here, and I'm wondering if she'd be able to see Ojom sometime. Sounds like an intriguing premise, and I shall read further to see just what transpires next.

I rather like this section of dialogue here. It shows Dex's cultural and personal lack of familiarity with the notion of 'possessing' a story (as an aside I'm sure that copyright lawyers on his homeworld would find themselves rather unemployed) as well as Vestri's knowledge of other cultures when she speaks of the Gungan approach on Naboo.

I adore your treatment of Besalisk and Gungan culture in the pages of this story.

This is very reminiscent of Cheers where everyone knows your name. Great work.

 

Also finally caught up with this series of tales. Vestri and Dex at the dinner are a delight to read about

 

I'm back for round 2!

The Eyes Have It

Oh my, those three young men are a piece of work, aren't they? It was very, very satisfying to see them having their sorry backsides handed to them, first by Vestri (go Gungan self-defence!), then by Dex and finally by none other than the wonderful Kit Fisto. I believe that this is the first time I meet a canon character other than Dex and FLO in your stories, and I was really happy to see him since I love his design and his winning smile.

The tale of Thell Ulirr was very much in keeping with the other stories of this thread in that it focuses on how one's perspective on the world changes when they see it through nature's eyes, and the metaphor that Kit Fisto points out in the final segment of the story about Vestri growing her own perspective on the world by seeing it through others' eyes was very apt. I'm not aware (yet) of any other interactions that Vestri might have had with Jedi in your stories, and I would be curious to know how this one encounter influenced her, in particular in relation to Zodath.

Differences in Doctrine

First of all, I want to try that Rodian Pomgran Cider, it sounds amazing! And here's the first story that Vestri isn't allowed to write down; I love how you brought back that rule from the first vignette of this thread.

I absolutely love droid characters, which is (among other things) a reason I enjoy this thread since FLO gets so much screentime, but this particular story was a real treat, with a droid origin story that even includes the Gonk cult! It's great to see the Maker's first attempts being "recycled" as a scarecrow and a wall, and it's a wonderful insight into an age where organic beings (if the Maker was organic, because who knows, maybe the Gonks are right) didn't have the assistance of droids. It's also interesting that, while droids are supposed to have extensive memory banks, no one knows what the purpose of the first droid was – and TBH, I kind of expected that FLO was pranking Vestri, especially when the dishwasher came into the conversation, but then, maybe she wasn't? I had such a good laugh with the ending that left the tale open for interpretation, and I can just imagine Dex trying to get the dishwasher to "speak" again in the dead of night after everyone is gone.

 

Aaaand I'm finally back for the last round of reviews on what you've posted so far (with the hope that you'll be posting more in the future!)

Critique

Oh dear. I have to admit, I felt for that lad. There he was, telling Vestri the space version of Romeo and Juliet, and he gets treated to the modern-day feminist AU ending instead. I was laughing together with Dex throughout. Poor boy had no idea what he'd stepped into, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't there because of some stupid sausage factory bet – although I wouldn't mind seeing Vestri's Gungan self-defence moves make an appearance.

I do feel that there's something more to Vestri's advisor recommending that she change her major to Human-centric cultures. Do they feel that she's getting too involved with non-Human cultures to be able to study them properly, or is this supposed to indicate rising racism/speciesism in these late years of the Republic? Or maybe they have a really good PhD topic in seach of a candidate (I know a lot of people who were pushed into a specific field like that). Anyway, like Dex I hope Vestri gets to complete her studies without too much chaos, but I have to say that the chaos would make a good story (for another time).

Holiday Fare

One thing that I absolutely love about your stories is how I begin to smile, and then my smile widens, and then at some point I'm laughing out loud but I can't pinpoint when that happened – and this was exactly what happened while I was reading this. I absolutely loved the various ways that Vestri found for the wartroom-ton to drive away or distract people who are annoying her, until it gets out of control with the cousins chasing each other

But then, beyond the humour and Vestri's mischievous machinations, there's a whole lot of Very Important Stuff happening in this story. First of all, Vestri gets to participate in the storytelling competition (and I absolutely loved the return of Ellix Bristin as she battles winter) which for her must have been close to a dream come true! And second, Adrick turns up, and you know that I adore this character. The reactions when she tells Dex's crew that she received a marriage proposal and the contrast to her own attitude about it all were priceless. She certainly doesn't think of marriage the way most people do, and you'd expect Dex & Co to realise by now that she marches to the beat of her own drum.

In for a Song

And yet another fantastic story! Not only for the way you repurposed your assigned sea shanty and starwarsified it, but for the setting itself. Poor Jastol Bedower never expected that he'd have to sing a Weequay ballad to Vestri to repay his favour to Dex, and I'm sure that he expected even less to have an enthusiastic audience for it that would consist not only of Vestri, but of the diners' patrons as well. And Dex was absolutely precious in this. I think that he complained about Bedower's rapping with a spoon just for the fun of terrifying him a bit, but once he explains to Vestri how Bedower came to be in his debt he shows his big warm heart. As a more general comment, I really enjoyed how, throughout this series of vignettes, Dex became better acquainted with Vestri and basically got used to her interests and her eccentricities. Now he knows that she needs a follow-up on the notes she took, and he even approves of the idea of recording the audio of her storytelling sessions.

All caught up at long last! I hope you have more ideas for this thread and that it will keep going. If I may put forward a request, I'd love to find out how Vestri came to know the Wookiee creation myths...

 

Greetings,

It's Theodore Hawkwood from the December Review Race once again and am happy to give this series one more look, as I promised previously.

This is a pretty cool opening with FLO, due to the sense of continuity with the first story. Way to show and not tell me that Vestri is a regular at Dex's diner. I also am appreciative of the diner and conversations there being used as a venue to show the stories that Vestri finds out about. However, in that regard, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.

The sense of Vestri being a regular here works pretty darn well here. Details like FLO saying that her regular table is ready showed me this to be the case.

This is a very cool variation on Mamon Hoole versus Vestri Dain in terms of methodology. Whereas (at least at the moment) the former travels extensively to get his insights, the latter gets hers from other sentients she interacts with in her day to day life. That's pretty neat.

I'm getting a sense of Force sensitivity here, especially in the part I underlined. Way to hook me as a reader here into being curious about Oodu from the get go.

Very Ent-like, for sure, and reminding me of one of my favorite Lord of the Rings characters, Treebeard.

Great way to show me the origin story of the herd ships and why they exist.

This is a very touching conclusion for the second section. I really appreciate how Oodu saved Mother Jungle and Ithorians.

All in all this is a great 'Origin Story' about the Ithorians. Thank you for the bit of worldbuilding you weave into both the myth and Vestri's retelling of it. Looking forward to reading more.

Theodore Hawkwood