Notes: Okay, friends, I'm starting things off with the 400 Word Cross Country (400 words about your characters with any theme). The title for this one comes from the song "My December" by Linkin Park, which I listened to on repeat for a good portion of the writing of The Lands of the Dead. The melancholy vibe is strong with this one.

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I. "This Is My Snow-Covered Home" | 33 ABY & beyond | 400 Word Cross Country

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They were born at the tail end of winter, when the world begins to wake from its long, dreary slumber, and the earth and the air and the Force itself seem poised on the precipice of rebirth. But their hemisphere clung stubbornly to the cold that year, and the day was gray with sleet and slush.

Dorian came first, without much difficulty. Small and quiet and eyes wide open. Veeran took longer – he wasn't breech, like they feared, but he came out face-up, with some bruising and a crease in his nose to show for it.

(it went away after a few hours, thank the stars – not that they would have loved him any less – and their mother said he was going to be a fighter)

There are holos of her, of course. She smiles wide in every single one of them, and she holds tight to the toddlers in her arms. She was already sick when they were born, though she hardly showed it. And she held on for two whole years before slipping away.

(she was the strong one, a force of nature; but even a storm eventually meets its end)

Dorian's first memory is of his father. He was quiet, which Dorian liked; but he was also sad, even when he was smiling, even when he tucked them in at night, even when he told them he loved them. He knows it hurt his father to look at them sometimes. They're too much like their mother; same eyes, same hair, same smile, even.

(he doesn't remember her, only how sad his father was without her, how he carried her death around like an emptiness inside him, one that he could never completely hide from his Force-sensitive children)

Veeran's first memory is of Dorian, of the way he held his hand during a thunderstorm and whispered that everything would be all right. Veeran swears he doesn't remember their parents at all.

(that's a lie, he does remember his father; but he doesn't like admitting it, because remembering means hurting, and he's never been good with pain)

Veeran is like his mother: magnetic and relentless and always in motion.

(his father's son, he attaches deep and fears being left behind)

Dorian is like his father: quiet and gentle, and he lives too much in his own head.

(his mother's son, he puts on a smile and never backs down)