Romcom

“I appreciate your willingness to share” Thrawn said. “One may learn a great deal about a people by the stories they tell of others”

“And?” Vanto asked. The wrinkles return. His head turns slightly to his right.

“I do not understand”

“I ask what you have learned about humans” Vanto said. His eyes narrow slightly.

“I misspoke. Apologies. I meant to say I could learn about one person, you, from the stories you choose to tell”

“And what have you learned about me?” Vanto asked. His eyes return to normal size. His vocal tone lowers in pitch.

“That you do not wish to be here. [] You wish to return to your numbers and inventory lists []”

“Fascinating. [] What I don’t know is why you care”

“Why I care about what?”

“Why you care about me” Vanto said. His eyes narrow again. His tone returns to the lower pitch. “You’ve been studying me—don’t think I haven’t noticed. You ask me to tell you one of the legends I learned as a child, then you ask about my home or background or childhood. Always small questions, always delivered very casually. What I want to know is why” He folds his arms in a crisscross pattern across his chest.

“I am sorry” Thrawn said. “I meant no harm. I was merely interested in you, as I am interested in everything about your Empire”

“But why me?” Vanto asked. “You never ask about [] any of the other senior officers. Or even about Emperor Palpatine or the Imperial Senate”

“They are not connected to my immediate survival” Thrawn said. “You are. [] You are my translator. You hold my words in your hand, and their meanings” []

“Krayt spit” Vanto said. He makes a snorting sound through his nose.

“Forgive me?”

“I call krayt spit. [] You speak it as well as I do. Probably better—you don’t have a Wild Space accent people can make fun of. []”

“What is meant by krayt spit?”

“It’s a slang term for nonsense” Vanto said. The left corner of his lip twists upward. “Especially nonsense that the speaker knows is nonsense”

“I see. Krayt spit. I will remember that”

~

I survive on coffee and slow-burn romcoms.

And this *is* one of them.

[Checking each other imperceptible physical reactions!

The hate/love game!

The final grandiose declaration!]

Melting the divine

He opened one eyelid and nearly jumped out of his skin when he was met with four beady eyes staring back at him.

"I told you not to disturb Eli," came Thrawn's voice, gently chiding, and the yellow lizard was plucked up with a squeak. Eli turned around to see the Chiss holding the lizard high and close enough that it could play with his nose.

"Humans need six hours of sleep to function optimally," Thrawn was warning it, even as it evidently paid no attention to his words or the commanding tone of his voice. "If you disturb Eli again, I am going to have to leave you with Bridger, or keep you in an enclosure for the night. We don't want that, do we?"

*I kind of want that*, Eli thought, but sat up on the bed with an agreeable smile. Annoyed as he was with Thrawn for choosing a thrice-damned lizard over him the previous night, he couldn't deny that it was criminally endearing to watch the usually stoic, serious Chiss former Grand Admiral melt like chocolate the moment the diminutive ysalamir did anything cute.

Thrawn, thankfully, set the lizard down on the floor where it scampered off and went underneath the curtains, and turned his glowing red gaze on Eli.

Eli grinned. "Good morning."

~

Stars, I did it again.

Shame, shame, shame on me.

I even already shared this excerpt in my captions before.

And, still, after all this time, here it goes uncredited.

I wouldn't say I like that AO3 is not indexing the actual content of the stories, so I cannot search for it, as instead, Google allows me to do with books.

Dear author, I am so incredibly sorry!

I promise I will credit you as soon I find you.

I can (partially) compensate for my offense, acknowledging instead the lovely art of this charm by iovitus (on Etsy).

Back to the quote, I can actually hear Thrawn's low, calm, warm voice (yes, yes, I know it's Marc's) while he addresses the cute ysalamir in the most charming tone.

And, folks, I find that it is kind of a capital crime that we will never witness him and Ezra, after months of hilarious banter, finally bonding, heart-shaped eyes and all, over an irresistibly adorable uber-fluffy pup from whatever remote planet they are stranded in.

But we can dream.

[or open AO3]

Still here

“All these years, and you still remember that?”

Thrass shrugged. “It made an impact on me.”

“It’s really not that important,” Thrawn warned.

“You’re my brother, and my friend,” Thrass countered. “If it’s important to you, it’s important to me.”

~

If it’s important to you, it’s important to me.

And it is.

It is.

I'm sorry I was absent during the last month or so.

Missing all your posts and shares.

But I thought of you. A lot, actually.

How this community truly saved me and cherished me.

During COVID and hard times.

So I'm back, with a little giveaway.

[I will "officially" post it on Thursday]

As you know, @pocketimaginaire just finished publishing a very lovely paperback edition of the Ascendancy Trilogy, including the astonishing art by @magali_villeneuve

They are simple mass-market French editions, sent to me by Amazon with not such a high care.

[And I am sorry for it]

But they are unique in the US, in a way, especially if you loved these stories and characters.

Thank you for being here.

Still.

The last day of sun

Last Thursday in Italy, and super short caption.

'Raw'n and I thought about you all a lot.

Thank you for your comments and love (really, really).

Drowning in jasmine smell

I prepared this simple picture the week before leaving and planned to write a nice caption about Thrawn and his "Watsons."

Then Italy happened.

And I'm here.

Sunbathing and drowning in jasmine smell.

And boom.

This will probably be the shortest post ever.

Sorry for that.

But you're in my thoughts these days.