The Color of the Force
I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack. Sorry, but I had a serious case of writers block and when I finally did get inspired, I couldn't get a moment to myself to write this. So... YAY! FOUND 'PUTER TIME!
Well... I haven't ALWAYS been alone.
It's kind of complicated... I guess I only consider myself alone if I had trouble sleeping.
For as long as I remember, probably just as long as I've had this crystal, I've had trouble sleeping if I don't have something living, breathing, with a beating heart next to me. Before I got Zeebo, I'd either have really bad nightmares or I wouldn't sleep at all. I told Commander Skywalker about that: It was probably the most personal thing I ever told him... course it was more so he wouldn't freak out when I'd poke him in the middle of the night and say I couldn't sleep, asking if I could sleep with him... WHAT? WHAT'RE YOU STARING AT?
Anyway, speaking of Zeebo... I woke up the day after my incident with DeeJay at the tubular transport and there was something licking at my face and 'kssh'-ing in my ear. So, I opened my eyes and there's this little, fuzzy face with a stupid little grin pressing it's nose up against my nose.
Okay, so I did kind of panic and fall off the bed, but after my head cleared, and I could actually process the idea that it was a mooka sitting on my chest.
Well, from that moment on, Zeebo was practically an extension of my body. If DeeJay hadn't forbidden me from bringing Zeebo to classes, mostly because I couldn't concentrate on lessons with a mooka in my lap, trying to lick my ears, I would've brought him every day.
Zeebo slept on my pillow at night and I didn't mind, because I'd always press my ear up against his chest and hear his little heart thumping... did you know that mooka's hearts beat almost as fast as mouse hearts? You can hear the individual beats, unlike mice, but still... a mooka's heart beats three or four times per second. I don't know why but the sound would always make it easier for me to sleep. The sound was just so... relaxing... I could fall asleep and not have nightmares.
And then, some nights, Zeebo would still be awake and prowling around the stuff in my dome house, sniffing at this sock, chewing on that shoelace, and I'd be so tired, I would just fall asleep without even changing into my pajamas. Those would be nights that I had nightmares and I'd wake up to Zeebo whining and nudging me with his nose and shaking his tail feathers and I'd hug him, which always made the nightmares go away, because he'd be so warm and soft and cuddly and.
In the mornings, Zeebo would pounce on my head, 'ksssh'-ing into my ear (which drove me up a freakin' wall, once I got older), licking my nose (which annoyed me, no matter WHAT age I was), and if I wouldn't get up after the first eighteen seconds of this treatment, he'd bite my ear, which HURT, so I'd hit him with my pillow, or push him off the bed, or some other thing to express my displeasure at being woken up early, but Zeebo, being as stupid and determined as mookas and puppies are, would keep jumping back up on top of me and by the time I would be awake enough to REALLY be crabby at Zeebo, I was already awake enough to realize that he was only trying to wake me up because he missed me while I was asleep.
It's kinda hard to stay mad at someone who misses you while you're sleeping.
Zeebo wasn't really like a mooka, in the way he behaved... he was sometimes like a puppy. Other times, he'd be a kitten. Yet another time, Zeebo seemed to think he was a human.
Some days, he wanted to play with a ball, other days, he wanted to play with a piece of string. One day, he would be chasing his tail from the moment he woke up to the second he fell asleep, and the next day, he'd be napping all day. In the morning, I'd be able to sneak him my vitamin syrup that I didn't want to eat, and at dinner, Zeebo would look at me like I was crazy and then he walked away.
Sometimes, Zeebo would do things that REALLY irritated me. There was this one incident when I was working on a calligraphy assignment and Zeebo wanted to play, so he clawed at my leg and trust me, his claws HURT, so I messed up my assignment. I had an urge to make 'Mooka Stew' after that (particularly because DeeJay was REALLY mad at me for that assignment), and at the most, I sent him flying after kicking him off my leg, which hurt just as much as when Zeebo had originally scratched me.
But, really, that was the worst that happened. Either than that one time, Zeebo never really did anything that made me lose my temper like that. But... he was always there for me... I didn't feel so horrible that I was the only human (or living, sentient being in the Lost City of the Jedi, for that matter) at home, because there was this little fuzz wad waiting for me to come back to my dome house so we could play.
Zeebo made it easier for me to deal with DeeJay's lectures and scolding, too. One day, I hadn't gotten enough sleep, so I did pretty terrible in class and, well, DeeJay was pretty annoyed and went off on some rant about how I need to pay more attention when he was talking to me and show respect for my elders. Sooooo.... by the time the day was over and I went home, I was feeling pretty bad and Zeebo somehow or another realized this and nuzzled my face and purred in my lap and listened as I bitched at him about how bad my day had been... yes, I just swore, get over it!
Okay, sometimes I felt kind of stupid talking to a mooka, but... even though he didn't speak human language, I felt as though Zeebo understood me even more than Chip did. And for anyone or anything to understand me better than Chip was an accomplishment in itself.
I guess that's why I was always so upset with DeeJay whenever he told me that the Jedi were discouraged from being attached to people and things: It seemed like such a STUPID principle. What was the point of being a Jedi if you didn't care about the people and places and things you were protecting.
I'm glad I ignored him about stuff like that. Zeebo made it worth every minute.
Did you know that mookas use twenty percent of their brain, whereas humans and most bipedal alien species only use ten percent of their brain? So, technically, mookas are smarter than their owners. Did you also know that mookas are the only mammal where the female has brighter colors than the male, or that the male mooka makes a whistling noise similar to a bird call during mating season, or that a full grown mooka can jump up to sixteen feet vertically and twenty feet horizontally, or that a baby can produce a screeching noise twenty decibels louder than an ion cannon if it's in danger? Or, how about this: one breed of mooka that's wild is a carnivore, and it's actually more likely to attack a human and cause serious damage than most wild carnivores, including Ratillian Tigers and Corellian Sand Panthers.
... I know that's completely irrelevant.... I just thought you'd be interested.
This IS on topic, I swear: the average mooka only lives to be four or five years old. So, Zeebo was really above average. I mean, he wasn't NEWBORN when he woke up a six year old me... I'd say he was at least six months, if not nine... and then he lived with me until I was fourteen... that's at least eight years... so... he was old.
But, by the same token, that made it harder for me to deal with it when he died... I was so used to having Zeebo around... and now he's gone.
I don't mean to whine... I just miss him.
So... I guess I'm just saying... well... thanks... for being here and... for listening to me.
THERE! ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE! Phew! Took me a while, but I did it! So, waddya
think? Feedback, peoples! Authors starve without feedback.
I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack. Sorry, but I had a serious case of writers block and when I finally did get inspired, I couldn't get a moment to myself to write this. So... YAY! FOUND 'PUTER TIME!
Well... I haven't ALWAYS been alone.
It's kind of complicated... I guess I only consider myself alone if I had trouble sleeping.
For as long as I remember, probably just as long as I've had this crystal, I've had trouble sleeping if I don't have something living, breathing, with a beating heart next to me. Before I got Zeebo, I'd either have really bad nightmares or I wouldn't sleep at all. I told Commander Skywalker about that: It was probably the most personal thing I ever told him... course it was more so he wouldn't freak out when I'd poke him in the middle of the night and say I couldn't sleep, asking if I could sleep with him... WHAT? WHAT'RE YOU STARING AT?
Anyway, speaking of Zeebo... I woke up the day after my incident with DeeJay at the tubular transport and there was something licking at my face and 'kssh'-ing in my ear. So, I opened my eyes and there's this little, fuzzy face with a stupid little grin pressing it's nose up against my nose.
Okay, so I did kind of panic and fall off the bed, but after my head cleared, and I could actually process the idea that it was a mooka sitting on my chest.
Well, from that moment on, Zeebo was practically an extension of my body. If DeeJay hadn't forbidden me from bringing Zeebo to classes, mostly because I couldn't concentrate on lessons with a mooka in my lap, trying to lick my ears, I would've brought him every day.
Zeebo slept on my pillow at night and I didn't mind, because I'd always press my ear up against his chest and hear his little heart thumping... did you know that mooka's hearts beat almost as fast as mouse hearts? You can hear the individual beats, unlike mice, but still... a mooka's heart beats three or four times per second. I don't know why but the sound would always make it easier for me to sleep. The sound was just so... relaxing... I could fall asleep and not have nightmares.
And then, some nights, Zeebo would still be awake and prowling around the stuff in my dome house, sniffing at this sock, chewing on that shoelace, and I'd be so tired, I would just fall asleep without even changing into my pajamas. Those would be nights that I had nightmares and I'd wake up to Zeebo whining and nudging me with his nose and shaking his tail feathers and I'd hug him, which always made the nightmares go away, because he'd be so warm and soft and cuddly and.
In the mornings, Zeebo would pounce on my head, 'ksssh'-ing into my ear (which drove me up a freakin' wall, once I got older), licking my nose (which annoyed me, no matter WHAT age I was), and if I wouldn't get up after the first eighteen seconds of this treatment, he'd bite my ear, which HURT, so I'd hit him with my pillow, or push him off the bed, or some other thing to express my displeasure at being woken up early, but Zeebo, being as stupid and determined as mookas and puppies are, would keep jumping back up on top of me and by the time I would be awake enough to REALLY be crabby at Zeebo, I was already awake enough to realize that he was only trying to wake me up because he missed me while I was asleep.
It's kinda hard to stay mad at someone who misses you while you're sleeping.
Zeebo wasn't really like a mooka, in the way he behaved... he was sometimes like a puppy. Other times, he'd be a kitten. Yet another time, Zeebo seemed to think he was a human.
Some days, he wanted to play with a ball, other days, he wanted to play with a piece of string. One day, he would be chasing his tail from the moment he woke up to the second he fell asleep, and the next day, he'd be napping all day. In the morning, I'd be able to sneak him my vitamin syrup that I didn't want to eat, and at dinner, Zeebo would look at me like I was crazy and then he walked away.
Sometimes, Zeebo would do things that REALLY irritated me. There was this one incident when I was working on a calligraphy assignment and Zeebo wanted to play, so he clawed at my leg and trust me, his claws HURT, so I messed up my assignment. I had an urge to make 'Mooka Stew' after that (particularly because DeeJay was REALLY mad at me for that assignment), and at the most, I sent him flying after kicking him off my leg, which hurt just as much as when Zeebo had originally scratched me.
But, really, that was the worst that happened. Either than that one time, Zeebo never really did anything that made me lose my temper like that. But... he was always there for me... I didn't feel so horrible that I was the only human (or living, sentient being in the Lost City of the Jedi, for that matter) at home, because there was this little fuzz wad waiting for me to come back to my dome house so we could play.
Zeebo made it easier for me to deal with DeeJay's lectures and scolding, too. One day, I hadn't gotten enough sleep, so I did pretty terrible in class and, well, DeeJay was pretty annoyed and went off on some rant about how I need to pay more attention when he was talking to me and show respect for my elders. Sooooo.... by the time the day was over and I went home, I was feeling pretty bad and Zeebo somehow or another realized this and nuzzled my face and purred in my lap and listened as I bitched at him about how bad my day had been... yes, I just swore, get over it!
Okay, sometimes I felt kind of stupid talking to a mooka, but... even though he didn't speak human language, I felt as though Zeebo understood me even more than Chip did. And for anyone or anything to understand me better than Chip was an accomplishment in itself.
I guess that's why I was always so upset with DeeJay whenever he told me that the Jedi were discouraged from being attached to people and things: It seemed like such a STUPID principle. What was the point of being a Jedi if you didn't care about the people and places and things you were protecting.
I'm glad I ignored him about stuff like that. Zeebo made it worth every minute.
Did you know that mookas use twenty percent of their brain, whereas humans and most bipedal alien species only use ten percent of their brain? So, technically, mookas are smarter than their owners. Did you also know that mookas are the only mammal where the female has brighter colors than the male, or that the male mooka makes a whistling noise similar to a bird call during mating season, or that a full grown mooka can jump up to sixteen feet vertically and twenty feet horizontally, or that a baby can produce a screeching noise twenty decibels louder than an ion cannon if it's in danger? Or, how about this: one breed of mooka that's wild is a carnivore, and it's actually more likely to attack a human and cause serious damage than most wild carnivores, including Ratillian Tigers and Corellian Sand Panthers.
... I know that's completely irrelevant.... I just thought you'd be interested.
This IS on topic, I swear: the average mooka only lives to be four or five years old. So, Zeebo was really above average. I mean, he wasn't NEWBORN when he woke up a six year old me... I'd say he was at least six months, if not nine... and then he lived with me until I was fourteen... that's at least eight years... so... he was old.
But, by the same token, that made it harder for me to deal with it when he died... I was so used to having Zeebo around... and now he's gone.
I don't mean to whine... I just miss him.
So... I guess I'm just saying... well... thanks... for being here and... for listening to me.
THERE! ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE! Phew! Took me a while, but I did it! So, waddya
think? Feedback, peoples! Authors starve without feedback.