Loudly and boldly

From the moment Eli and Thrawn set foot off the shuttle from the Palace, he could feel everyone’s eyes fixed firmly on the newcomers.

And he had no doubt that most of those eyes were hostile.

The alien, and the backwater yokel. This, Eli thought glumly, was a classic joke in the making.

Commandant Deenlark clearly thought likewise.

“So,” he ground out, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two of them as they stood at attention in front of his desk. “Is this Admiral Foss’s idea of a joke?”

Thrawn didn’t answer, apparently leaving this one to Eli. Great.

“The Emperor himself sent us here, sir,” Eli said, not knowing what else to say.

“That was a rhetorical question, Cadet,” Deenlark growled, glaring at him from under bushy eyebrows. “You do have complicated words like rhetorical in Wild Space, don’t you? [] What’s your excuse, alien?”

“My excuse for what, sir?” Thrawn asked calmly.

“Your excuse for living,” Deenlark bit out. “Well?”

Thrawn remained silent, and for a few seconds the two of them locked gazes. Then Deenlark’s lip twitched. “Yeah, like I thought,” the commandant said sourly. “You’re damn lucky the Emperor’s taken a fancy to you. Though why, I can’t guess.”

He paused, as if expecting Thrawn to explain it to him. Again, the Chiss didn’t respond. []

There were times, Eli had learned, when it didn’t pay to say anything.

This was one of them. He kept his head up, his eyes focused straight ahead, and his mouth closed.

~

Surely, a bitter excerpt for this beautiful original watercolor art, a gift of the immensely talented @psiibee.

But it is a hard time for everyone who is blue.

Or comes from the Wild Space.

Too black, too feminine, too foreigner, too masculine, too outspoken, too poor, too gay.

Differences make some people feel uncomfortable and afraid.

They want to erase that nonconformity, put humanity into boxes.

Limit and hurt.

"Can you be, I do not know, a little less... *blue*?"

"Ultimately, being *blue* is a choice, isn't it?"

"This is probably not something for *blue* people, right?"

"Do you really want to be *blue* all your life? How can you be sure?"

Hard times.

But Eli was wrong.

And we must speak.

Loudly and boldly.