Sparks of Hope (A Star-Wars Advent Calendar)
By Meysun
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6. Lucia, Squid and Dwight (Quinlan Vos)
46 BBY
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The speeders kept racing in the skies above them, and Quin watched them buzz around, painted orange and red in the setting sun, eyes squinting slightly, trying to imagine where they were headed.
Beneath him, Obi was sketching in his small flimsibook, sitting cross-legged against a chimney. Nara was watching the sunset, holding a perfect gym-bridge, gazing at the skies between her hands, and Kit was cracking a handful of Koja nuts, levitating the shells around him with the Force.
"What are you drawing, Obi?", Quin asked, and his friend looked up.
"Just clouds and skyscrapers and speeders."
It really looked alike, even without colours, and for a while Quin watched Obi draw. But then he got bored and picked up one of Obi's stylets, removing his glove and closing his fingers around it.
The light falls this way. Don't forget to draw some shadows here.
Huh. Quin didn't know that was important, and he didn't really care, because there was more to read on the stylet. This was just the first layer of thoughts and expressions – so Quin went deeper, eyes still lost in the skies.
I wonder who lives in those towers. Maybe they are offices? Maybe people just work here – maybe we can ask Master Ti. I think Madame Nu might know, as well, maybe there are maps in the Archives.
Ugh. How boring. There was no way they would go back there, they already spent waaay to much time researching and writing papers, and all along Madame Nu kept shushing them and telling them to be quiet. Quin got antsy just thinking about it and squirmed slightly, inadvertently bumping Obi's elbow.
His friend looked up once more – and noticed the stylet in Quin's bare hand.
"Are you reading it, Quin?"
Kit stopped cracking nuts, and Nara righted herself with a silent backflip, because Obi sounded upset, frowning up at Quin. He held out his hand, and Quin placed the stylet back into his palm.
He wasn't saying anything, he just stared, and after a while Quin squirmed again.
"Sorry, Obi. I was just…
- Why?"
Obi sounded puzzled, and unsure, grey eyes wide as he peered up at Quin.
"I'm right next to you, Quin", his friend said softly. "Why don't you just ask me?"
Because you don't tell. Not really. You just sit here, and I can't make you out. Your shields are too tight, and you barely ever project. And I want…
Quin was not even sure what he wanted. He just knew that, whenever the Force was swirling in his mind, making him almost sick with too much reading because he had forgotten to put on his gloves, the only one helping beside Master Ti was Obi.
Because Obi knew how to draw his shields as tight as durasteel walls, to keep his feelings deep inside while projecting only calm and that strange, green landscape Quin had never seen but had to be Stewjon.
He would cling to his friend's hands, and feel soothed – but at the same time, it always felt like Obi was slipping away, like water bubbling between his fingers. And Quin was afraid.
They were eleven now.
The Choosing would begin soon – and Quin knew, deep inside, that he was a handful. That he made Master Ti sigh more than often, that he annoyed the kriff out of Master Windu – which was quite amusing, to be honest – and that Madame Nu had abandoned the thought of keeping him silent in the Archives, simply putting him under a silent Force-bubble whenever he set foot there. Or asking Nara and Obi to do so.
And it felt… it felt like everything was slipping away. Cracking like one of Kit's nuts. And Quin didn't want it. Quin wanted to stay just like this. On the Jedi Temple's roof, watching the sun set with Kit, Nara – and Obi.
He wanted to hold their hands and never let go, he wanted to cuddle against Obi like when they were little and were allowed to hug without anybody asking them not to.
He did not want to be alone in his own head, because his own head was a whirlwind Quin didn't understand – because the Force was always swirling and pushing him on, and because it was so hard to just stay calm and wonder about light and shadows and people around… as a Jedi should.
But Quin was also brash, and unafraid, and not allowed to say such things aloud – and so he just laughed.
"I know who lives in that building", he began to fib. "It's a nest of bounty hunters. They do so on purpose, very close to the Jedi Temple, because no one suspects them to be so daring.
- Only you", Kit huffed. "Of course, Quin. And Master Yoda's stick is a secret second lightsaber he uses whenever it's needed.
- Really?!"
Quin straightened, and Kit burst out laughing.
"No, you oaf!
- Language, Kit", Nara threw in, gently. "What a vivid imagination you both have, really… Shall we have some nuts?"
They watched the sun set, and the stars rise, eating tangerines and Koja nuts, along with the sweet tea they had manage to cajole from Master Ti. And Quin leant against Obi's shoulder and tried, really hard, to pretend it would stay like this forever.
They were already in their beds, most of their fellow Initiates already asleep, when Quin felt Obi turn towards him.
"Quin…? Are you asleep?
- No. You…?"
I'm talking to you, Quin – Obi projected, gently, and Quin smiled, in the dark.
"Only… I kept thinking… What if there really was a nest of bounty hunters out there and we didn't know? Because - I think it's a very good story…"
Quin's heart beat a little faster at those words, because Obi was always reading something, sometimes even forgetting the world around him.
"It's at least three of them", Quin whispered. "A Twi'lek woman called Lucia, who is so beautiful that everybody falls in love with her before she blasts them to pieces. A fierce Quarren-guy called Squid.
- Squid?", Obi breathed out, shuffling just a tiny bit closer on his roll, and Quin's smile widened as he nodded.
"Yeah. And a droid called DW-8, short for Dwight.
- Lucia, Squid and Dwight?", Obi whispered, projecting excitement, curiosity and something so very Obi in the Force – small and wonderful and precious, reminding Quin that Obi was still a bit younger.
Sometimes it was so easy to forget. But not that night.
"Mhm", Quin whispered back, turning towards him and lifting his covers. "Hop in, Obi. We don't want to wake the others."
Obi crawled in without a noise, small body fitting perfectly under Quin's covers. He had brought his pillow, though, and snuggled against him, soft hair tickling Quin's neck.
"So", Quin whispered. "It all began in a big, big dumpster, where Lucia was salvaging bits of metal to build a new chest plate. She was trying to lift a piece of rebar that was really heavy because she wasn't a Jedi and couldn't use the Force, and that's when she heard a very strange beep."
Obi shivered in anticipation, hand curling around his pillow, and Quin did not need to read anything of Obi's to know what he was thinking.
"Yeah, Obi. That's how she met Dwight."
Squid did not even appear in Quin's stories until seven days afterwards – there was so much to tell about Lucia's past and the way Dwight was built and kept needing replacements for broken pieces. Only a month afterwards, when Squid was finally introduced and was coming to an agreement with Lucia, did Quin realize that Obi's notebooks were not full of skyscrapers or plants anymore.
They were full of words, carefully written down - and of drawings.
Drawings of a Twi'lek, a Quarren and a fierce-looking droid.
Lucia, Squid and Dwight.
A/N: Hello my dears, sorry for the delay - it's much more convenient for me to post on the evenings now, so I hope you will forgive me and that you liked this little bit, even though it was late. Hope you have a wonderful December 6th! Much love, Meysun.