Star Wars: Return of the Sith

33: Female Empowerment

By Nanaki

Syvris

Denan hurried down the spiral staircase leading to the Justice's cargo bay, only to find most of the girls gathered near the same wall the stairs were in. Looking at the wall even as he backed away from it, he saw that Tenn was using a datapad to project a chart of Aurebesh letters on the wall, in rows of ever-smaller sizes. "What are- Oh, a vision test?" He figured it out pretty quick.

"Yeah." Tenn nodded absently. "After we realized Rayna was nearsighted, I figured it wouldn't hurt to check everyone's eyes, since that's clearly something the brothel never bothered with. But..." She turned to look at the girls gathered behind her, looking a little sheepish. "It turns out more than half of the girls don't know how to read, so we had an alphabet lesson first. I'm just getting started on the actual eye exams."

"Oh, I suppose we should have figured that out sooner." Denan realized quietly. From a purely practical standpoint, why bother to send a girl to school, if she was only going to be sold into slavery anyway? Now that he was thinking about it, he wasn't sure if Joona knew how to read, though if not, she hid it well. "Anyway, Jerin just called in to say he was heading back with the new starfighter."

"That's good. I don't think anyone wants to hang around here longer than we have to." Tenn said, keeping her gaze on the wall. Syvris was a sparsely populated moon orbiting an enormous gas giant that swirled with angry looking bands of red and purple clouds. It also orbited incredibly close to the surface, less than 100,000 miles away, so to someone standing on the surface of the moon, the giant planet filled up nearly half the sky. Combined with the fact that Syvris' economy depended entirely on smuggling, and that it was part of Hutt Space in spirit if not officially, it was not exactly a tourist hotspot. Tenn fiddled with the datapad a bit more, then turned to look at Denan. "Did he say what kind of ship it was?"

"No, he wanted it to be a surprise. He sounded fairly excited about it though." Denan observed.

"Oh, I hope it's not a Basilisk war droid." Tenn groaned.

"A what?" Denan frowned in confusion.

"Never mind. I doubt any of those still exist." Tenn shook her head, then went back to the eye exams. Just a few minutes later, the sound of twin high-pitched engines grew steadily louder, until the nose of an A-wing came into view at the rear cargo bay doors. Jerin waved as he gently set the ship down in the rear of the Justice, with a good amount of room to spare on either side. An A-wing more than met the requirement of being compact, that was for sure. As soon as it settled in place, the girls hurried forward to get a good look.

Jerin popped the canopy open and hopped out of the cockpit even as the noise from the engines was still dying away. "Well, what do you think?"

"Hmm..." Denan eyed it carefully. "Based on the colors and shape of the engines, it looks like a New Republic A-wing. They were definitely fast and maneuverable, but..." He hesitated, not wanting to criticize it too much.

"But their weapons were on the weak side, and the shields were lousy. I know." Jerin nodded. "There wasn't a huge selection to choose from. But, check this out." He reached behind the pilot's seat and pulled out a toolbox, then hurried over to the port side engine, quickly removing an access panel. "Look at the date of manufacture."

"Whoah, is this for real?" Denan's eyes widened.

"What's so interesting?" Tenn asked as she wandered over.

"This isn't a New Republic A-wing, it's a Rebel Alliance A-wing." Jerin explained. Tenn looked unimpressed by the distinction.

Denan looked thoughtful. "I'm not too much of a military history buff, but I do seem to remember reading that the Rebel Alliance only had about two hundred A-wings when the Battle of Endor came around."

"Yep, that's right." Jerin nodded. "And look in here." He gestured for everyone to take a look inside the cockpit. "It still has the same flight yoke as the R-22 Spearhead, the fighter the A-wing evolved from. Within a year of Endor, the New Republic had switched to a different control setup, and all older A-wings were supposed to be upgraded as well. Clearly, this was assigned to a fairly high ranking pilot who could get away with ignoring those orders."

A smirk appeared on Tenn's face. "Only boys could be THIS interested by details THIS boring."

Jerin's jaw dropped a bit in surprise. "This isn't boring!" He sounded mildly insulted. "This ship could have been assigned to someone like Pash Cracken, or maybe even Wedge Antilles himself."

"Wait. Didn't Wedge Antilles only fly X-wings?" Denan wondered out loud.

"Well, Rogue Squadron definitely specialized in X-wings, yes." Jerin admitted. "But Antilles was one of the greatest ace pilots in the galaxy! I'm sure he flew all kinds of fighters."

"Okay, you two waste all the time you want to on this." Tenn shrugged. "I'm going to get back to what I was doing." She walked away without another word.

"I WILL waste all the time I want to on this!" Jerin called after her. "I mean, wait..." He shook his head. "Actually, I do need to spend a few hours working on it. The weapons don't even work right now." He reached for the toolbox again.

"Um... Shouldn't we take off first?" Denan gently suggested.

Jerin looked up in surprise, clearly having forgotten about that detail. "Oh, absolutely. Yeah, let's take care of that." He hurried up to the cockpit, obviously very eager to get back to his new toy.

.

Later that evening, Jerin had just emerged from a sanisteam and found himself regarding his armor where it rested on its display stand. There were a disturbingly large number of dark scorch marks on it, and he should really take the time to repaint it soon. Then Jerin actually took the time to feel the scorch marks with his fingertips, and he realized the metal in several of them was noticeably thinner than what surrounded it. The armor didn't just need to be painted, what it really needed was to be melted down and reforged. However, Jerin was doubtful that he'd find a forge capable of handling beskar in this part of the Outer Rim.

Out of habit, he looked over at Zairina's helmet, where he always left the activation chip for his speeder bike when he wasn't using it. The chip was right where it was supposed to be, so why did it feel like something was missing? Then it hit him that there should be TWO chips there now. He had left the chip for the A-wing plugged into the cockpit controls. While he doubted that any of the girls would take it out for a joyride, especially while they were in hyperspace, he should go ahead and remove the temptation. Once he got dressed, he quickly headed down to the cargo bay.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the staircase, he stopped short. The nose of the A-wing was draped with several blankets, held in place by fist sized rocks, apparently as an improvised curtain. As he slowly drew closer, he could hear the coversation of a group of teenage girls who thought they were being quiet, but really weren't, along with the occasional giggle. "Um, hello?" Jerin rapped his knuckles on the nose of the ship.

One of the blankets was drawn back to reveal a dark blue face. "Oh, hi captain." Jerin was pretty sure that this was Nina, but not sure enough that he'd actually say the name out loud, if he could avoid it. The sounds of conversation behind the blankets quickly died down. "You're probably wondering what this is all about."

"I do have a question or two." Jerin kneeled down so that it didn't look like he was staring down at her sternly. Now more of the blankets were pulled to the side to reveal all five members of what he thought of as Rayna's group, plus a few more who were apparently just visiting. "Were the cubicles not doing the trick?"

"It's not that, exactly." Nina looked like she was searching for a way to explain the exact thought process. "It's just that the ceiling of the cargo bay is VERY high, and this felt a lot more cozy."

"If it's a problem, we're happy to move back." Rayna added quickly, but quietly.

"No, a few blankets aren't going to hurt a starfighter." Jerin smiled gently. "The thing is, there may be times when I have to take off in this on pretty short notice. And in that kind of situation, I won't have time to neatly move your stuff off to the side before I do."

Nina nodded in understanding. "Well, in that situation, we figured we'd hear shots being fired or missiles being launched, and we'd be able to clear everything away before you get here."

Jerin shrugged. "All right, as long as you're okay with the possibility of losing some possessions to the vacuum of space, it doesn't bother me."

"Well, when you come right down to it, what possessions?" Rayna responded quietly.

"I don't know, clothes? Makeup, I'm guessing." Jerin started ticking things off on his fingers, then stopped when he realized he couldn't think of any more. "At this point, I bet you have at least a few things you'd prefer not to lose."

"Well, yeah, but you paid for all that stuff." Nina responded. Looking mortified, Rayna quickly smacked her in the shoulder. "Oh, which we're super grateful for, by the way." Jerin had a hard time not laughing at how Nina had instantly understood why Rayna was hitting her, to the point that she hadn't even visibly reacted to the slap.

"All right then. Good night girls." He stood back up.

"Good night captain!" Seven voices replied, all at slightly different times, which resulted in more quiet giggling as the blankets fell back into place. Jerin hopped up to the cockpit, removed the activation chip, then headed back up the stairs.

It was good to see the kids actually acting like kids, he reflected. Not for the first time, Jerin found himself wondering how anyone in their right mind could walk into a brothel, look around at all the grown women, then see a gangly fourteen year old and think, 'Yep, that's for me!' And that was ignoring the issue of how anyone in their right mind could walk into a brothel where they knew the girls were slaves, anyway. Clearly, Rayna and her friends were all going to be lovely young ladies when they grew up, but that was still several years away.

'Your own wife was only fifteen when you first slept with her.' The thought came unbidden to Jerin's mind. 'Yeah, but the circumstances were entirely different.' He immediately thought back at whatever self-critical aspect of his personality the thought had come from. 'I was only sixteen, and I married her without hesitation.'

Although, now that his train of thought had headed off in this direction, he found himself wondering if Maya and Meena Tanisen were over eighteen. If they were, it couldn't be by very much. 'And... Why is that thought even in my head?' He scolded himself. Not for the first time, he told himself not to play favorites. At least, not more than he already did with Joona, which was probably bad enough. Although that case was strictly platonic, he might need to make that clearer to everyone, given the conclusion Denan had jumped to. But how could he do that tactfully, without being obvious about it, and also without being a jerk to Joona? He had no idea. 'Zairina, what would you tell me to do?'

To his chagrin, his thoughts took on her tone of voice as they answered, 'I'd say, it's been too long since you've gotten laid, buddy.'

'Thanks, that's a big help.' Jerin responded dryly. 'Very constructive.'

.

Joona stretched and yawned in her seat in the cockpit. It was pretty early to go to bed, but there was absolutely nothing going on up here. Tenn was still in the copilot's seat, but she was either meditating, asleep, or something in between. Joona had been a little surprised that Jerin left them alone in the cockpit, but he apparently trusted them completely at this point, and Arfive was almost always up here in any case. "All right, I'm calling it a night." Joona told Tenn, but she didn't respond.

Moving slowly down the hall, Joona hesitated between the door to her room and the door to Denan's. She wanted to talk to him for a bit, but, now that they had some actual privacy, talking would probably turn into a lot more in short order, and she didn't feel ready for that quite yet. But, why was that, exactly? Honestly, what was the point of her self-imposed celibacy? To prove that her higher brain functions were in charge, and not her libido? If so, hadn't she proved that to herself by this point? It wasn't like anyone else was keeping track, other than Denan. Her right arm came up, poised to knock on his door... then came back down about five seconds later. 'Maybe tomorrow.' She told herself.

The door to her own room slid open to reveal Adona lying on her stomach on the bed, propped up on her elbows, apparently reading a book. That was surprising, but not as much as the fact that she was wearing grey sweat pants and a white T-shirt, practically winter gear by Zeltron standards. "I take it there's nothing interesting happening in the cockpit either." Adona surmised, without looking up.

"Nope, not a thing." Joona nodded. "Are you reading a book?"

"Oh, I WISH we had a book." Adona kicked her feet in the air in agitation, before she flipped onto her back and sat up. "This is a brochure for some of the casinos in Hutt Space. We really need to get a datapad on the next planet we come to."

"Well, that would be nice, but with what money?" Joona wondered. She kicked her shoes off, then stepped up to the large mirror on the forward wall and tugged her shirt off as well. Though Joona definitely appreciated having clothes again, she still wasn't really used to them, after seven straight years of being functionally, if not literally, naked all the time. As a result, she usually started to feel confined in them by the end of the day.

"With whatever money Jerin is willing to give you?" Adona suggested. "Which I'm guessing would be a fair amount."

"Well, maybe, but I don't want to be a mooch." Now Joona started to slide her pants off as well.

A wry grin appeared on Adona's face now. "I hate to break this to you, but we've already been mooching off him this whole time." Then she observed Joona neatly hanging her clothes back up in one of the tiny closets next to the door. "Aren't you cold like that?"

"Aren't you hot like that?" Joona shot back, alluding to the Zeltron species' famous aversion to having their skin in contact with any more fabric than what society considered to be the bare minimum.

"No, it's freezing in here!" Adona hugged herself and shivered theatrically. "Jerin is so used to wearing his armor all the time, I don't think he considers what it's like for the rest of us."

"Isn't there a thermostat somewhere in here?" Joona started looking around the room.

"If there is, I couldn't find it." Adona shrugged.

Looking all over the walls, even behind the lamp by the bed, Joona couldn't find any temperature controls either. "Huh, that's strange." Even the brothel, which didn't give the girls control over anything that couldn't be avoided, had installed a thermostat in each room.

"Do you really not feel it?" Adona shivered again. "You come from a home planet that's even hotter than mine."

"Yeah, but where just about everyone lives underground." Joona pointed out. "I don't know, I guess I'm still acclimated to space stations." She shrugged, then she stepped back in front of the mirror again. "Hoo boy, I've been putting on a few pounds." She patted her abdomen.

"We all have." Adona admitted. "But so what? You know the managers at the brothel kept us underweight. They didn't even try to hide it. So that just means you're approaching a normal, healthy weight for someone of your height and build."

"I suppose that's the positive way to look at it." Joona continued to frown at her reflection in the mirror.

"Hmm..." Adona tilted her head to the side quizzically. "Something's bothering you, Joones, and it's not being five pounds underweight instead of ten. But I can't sense exactly what it is."

A slight smile came to Joona's face now. "I'm just... having some primitive urges, that's all. And I know Denan's right across the hall, but it doesn't seem fair to rely on him for that, if that's the only reason I'm doing it..."

"What?" Adona's brow knitted in confusion. "Denan's eighteen. I PROMISE you, he could care less about the particulars of WHY you're getting naked with him, as long as you're doing it." Then another thought occurred to her. "Besides, didn't you originally seduce him as the opening move in an escape plan that probably would have gotten him killed, if it had actually worked?"

"I know, I know." Joona was wringing her hands in agitation now. "Maybe guilt is a part of my hesitation here." She admitted. "Maybe I feel like a scheming whore like me doesn't deserve an actual boyfriend, who clearly cares about me more than I have any right to expect."

"Joona..." Adona said in a tone that she hoped was only mildly scolding. She got up off the bed, then walked forward and enfolded her friend in a hug.

"Wow, your hands are freezing." Joona observed dryly as they came in contact with the bare skin of her back.

"I told you." Adona giggled. "Anyway, we're ALL scheming whores. And not one of us had any say in the matter. We're all a product of crushing poverty on our homeworlds, an underfunded Republic government, and law enforcement that's stretched way too thin where anti-slavery laws are concerned." She paused a moment, then added, "And you're not the only one who's feeling primitive urges."

"I suppose everyone is, at this point." Joona said quietly. "I guess I should be glad I have the option to do something about it."

Adona headed back to the bed now. "Well, you may be the only one who has a fella on board, but we've all got the option to do something about it."

"Yeah, true enough." Joona glanced toward the door of their room's small fresher. "But Jerin's been complaining about how much water we've all been using in the sanisteam, so..."

"Oh, well, that IS one option." Adona smiled. "But that's not what I meant."

"No? Then what did you mean?" Joona wondered aloud, genuinely confused. Adona simply raised an eyebrow in response, the smile remaining on her face. "What? Oh, come on!" Joona waved dismissively at what that raised eyebrow implied.

"Well, why not?" Adona shrugged. "It's nothing we haven't done before, dozens of times. Maybe over a hundred. I didn't exactly keep count."

"Well, true enough, but that was for work!" Joona protested. "We didn't have a choice."

"Yeah, but if we choose it of our own free will, I think it counts as a form of female empowerment." Adona observed.

"What?" Joona snorted out a not quite supressed laugh. "Adona, you sound like a guy trying to talk us into having a three way. 'Come on ladies, it's a great way to assert your independence!'"

"Well if you're going to make it sound weird..." Adona turned away, reaching for the casino brochure again, "never mind."

"I'M making it weird?" Joona asked, incredulous. "You seriously thought the two of us could have sex, and it WOULDN'T be weird?"

"Well anything sounds bad if you use that tone of voice." Adona replied calmly. "But yes, that's what I thought. Why would it be weird? It's never affected our friendship before."

"I... Well, that's true, but..." Joona suddenly found herself unsure of how to explain her hesitation.

"Besides, I didn't expect this kind of reluctance from the person who volunteered to break in all the new girls." Adona pointed out.

"What...?" To Adona's surprise, Joona's hands balled into fists. "Because I was worried about their safety!" Joona replied in a voice that now didn't sound hesitant in the least.

"Whoah, hold on." Adona stood up again, holding her hands up in a placating gesture as she sensed that Joona had taken that comment as an accusation that she'd taken advantage of the younger girls. "I know you were." Adona had thought that she was only reminding Joona of something her friend already knew about herself, deep down. But apparently not. "I wasn't saying otherwise." Now Adona walked forward and gently grabbed Joona's hands. To Adona's relief, Joona's fists unclenched, and she allowed their fingers to entwine. "All I was saying is, I doubt you would have volunteered for that duty, if you didn't enjoy it on some level. Of course, I might have been mistaken about that." She was quick to add.

"I..." Joona looked away, biting her lip. If Adona was a prosecutor in a courtroom, she would have a pretty convincing case. Besides, Joona reflected, she was probably taking this all way too seriously, considering it was coming from a Zeltron. Virtually every member of the Zeltron species was bisexual, or pansexual, or whatever you wanted to call it, pretty much by default. When you could sense the emotions of others, their happiness became your happiness. It didn't much matter what particular genitals they might happen to have. "You make a convincing argument." Joona admitted, a slight smile appearing on her face.

A smile of relief appeared on Adona's face in response. "Look, I wouldn't be acting so pushy anyway, if I couldn't sense that you want some relief as badly as I do."

"Wait, you can sense THAT?" Joona's eyes widened in surprise. "Horny is an emotion?"

"Well, yeah." Adona shrugged. "It's based on an elevated rate of electrical impulses in the brain, just like anger or excitement, or anything else." She laughed a little. To her surprise, Joona leaned forward and wrapped her up in a tight hug. "Joones?"

"I hope you understand," Joona said softly, "that my hesitation is not a reflection on you. It's all about me."

"Yeah, I knew that already." Adona waved that concern aside. "You might be feeling confused, but you're not crazy."

With that reassurance, Joona took a few moments to seriously think about it. Everything Adona had said was true. They had worked together a lot in the past, and they had taken comfort in each other's presence when the work got unpleasant, which it had a tendency to do. It had never seemed to affect their friendship during their off-duty hours. Also, Joona couldn't deny that it felt great being held like this, especially by someone else who understood what she'd been through.

On the other hand, Joona couldn't help but wonder if this seemed at least somewhat appealing because she'd been conditioned over the years to become aroused at the drop of a hat. Wasn't this just a lingering effect of her enslavement? If so, shouldn't she reject it without hesitation? But there was no doubt that Adona was a genuinely trustworthy friend, and a drop-dead gorgeous one at that...

Joona hadn't noticed just how lost in thought she'd become until she suddenly realized that it WAS, in fact, pretty cold in here. She suddenly realized it because Adona had swiftly unhooked her bra with one hand, and was now slipping the straps off her shoulders. 'Wait. Are we really doing this?' She thought dumbly. "Adona, what are you-?" She began, but it was such a stupid question, she cut herself off before finishing.

"You know darn well what I'm doing." Adona's grin took on a more mischievous look. "If you REALLY want me to stop, all you have to do is say so." Then she bent down to kiss the nape of Joona's neck.

Joona felt goosebumps erupting all over her arms, but not from the cold. At any rate, she was feeling less cold by the second. "All right, but if we're doing this, we're going to do it right." At that, Adona pulled back to regard her with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry, forgot who I was talking to for a second."

"Joona dear, have you ever known me to NOT do it right?" Adona asked with feigned indignation.

"Nope."

.

An indeterminate amount of time later-Joona would never be able to figure out exactly how much-Joona was startled to hear a light knocking on her door. She was about to call out for whoever it was to come back later, when, to her eternal embarrassment, the door slid right open. There stood Jerin, looking down at the datapad in his hand.

For his part, Jerin's mind was full of thoughts about logistics for the next planet they'd be visiting, and not, he would realize later, any consideration for the fact that he'd given Joona basically no time to respond to his knocking. "Hey Joona, I just wanted to get your opinion on..." He finally looked up. "Uh..." It was rare for an experienced Mandalorian warrior to be truly frozen in surprise, but what he saw now achieved just that. Joona was desperately clutching at the blanket on her bed with her right hand, apparently planning to use it to cover herself. But since she was lying on top of the blanket, and Adona was lying on top of HER, the effort was doomed to failure.

For her part, Adona was so absorbed in what she was doing, she didn't even notice Jerin was there until Joona gave up on the blanket and started tapping insistently on her thigh. Even then, it took a few seconds to get her attention, and then she turned around to look at Joona, still managing to miss seeing Jerin in the doorway. "What? Am I cutting off your airflow?" When this only produced an exasperated groan from Joona, Adona finally looked the other way and saw Jerin. "Oh, hi captain." She greeted him cheerfully. "Didn't mean to ignore you, but I'm a little busy."

"...It can wait." Jerin finally found his voice again. "Don't mind me, just... as you were." He said awkwardly, taking a step back from the doorway.

"Oh!" Adona held up a hand to stop him from leaving, a thought occurring to her. "You know, you're welcome to join us, captain." At that, Joona began tapping on her thigh again, more insistently than before. "Oops! Never mind, apparently I shouldn't have been speaking for everyone there. Sorry." Jerin stood there a second more, blinking in confusion and surprise, before he finished backing out of the room, emitting a sigh that somehow sounded both frustrated and world-weary as he went. As the door slid shut behind him, Adona reached back and clamped down on Joona's hand with her own. "What, Miss Tapper? Just what did I do?" Between Jerin's reaction and the fact that Joona was clearly upset, Adona was sure she'd done something wrong there, but she honestly didn't know what it was.

"Adona! That was very rude." Joona hissed.

"How so?" Adona wondered. "I wasn't teasing him. I really meant what I said."

"That's not what I mean." Joona clarified. "Although, thanks for volunteering me without bothering to ask first. But don't you know hitting on a Mandalorian is a very bad idea? In their culture, it's considered extremely inappropriate unless you're serious about one of them to the point that you'd be willing to get married."

"Oh. Well, no, I didn't know that." Adona admitted. "Still, he must know I didn't mean to be rude, right? Besides, if he was up for it, I'd marry him without hesitation."

"Adona! You... Wait, really?" Joona's curiosity got the better of her.

"Well, why not?" Adona shrugged. "He's handsome, he's brave, he's generous... Probably not great in bed, considering he's only been with one woman in his life, but I could help him in that department." Joona just lay there, blinking in confusion, not sure how to respond to any of that. "Anyway, what are we doing here?" Adona wondered. "Are you mad enough at me that we're done for the night? Because it definitely didn't SEEM like we were done..."

"Adona!" Joona groaned in exasperation, but she couldn't keep a smile from creeping back onto her face at the same time. "OF COURSE we're not done! I'd be more mad at you if we were! Still, that was really embarrassing."

"Why should you be embarrassed?" Adona wondered. "He's seen you naked before, after all."

"Not helping!" Joona declared, then she quickly got back to what she'd been doing before Jerin knocked on the door. It seemed like the fastest way to shut Adona up.

.

Jerin blinked in disbelief as he walked back up to the cockpit. 'Did that actually just happen?' He asked himself. It felt more like the kind of dream that you didn't tell anyone about, but that you were secretly glad you'd had. He thought that Tenn was asleep in her chair, but as he sank back into the pilot's seat, she turned to look at him.

"Oh? What's with that grin on your face?" She wondered.

"Am I grinning?" Jerin hadn't been consciously aware of it, but there was no point denying it. "It's just... Once in a while you see something that reminds you there is true beauty in this galaxy."

Tenn's brows knitted in confusion. "WHAT are you talking about?" Then a look of comprehension appeared in her eyes. "Oh, wait. Did you walk in on Joona changing?"

"Well, no." Jerin answered honestly.

"Did you walk in on Joona and Denan together?" That seemed to be the next logical guess.

"Also no." Jerin answered quickly.

"Well then what...?" Tenn stopped to think for a second. "Is this one of those things that I'd probably be happier not knowing?"

Jerin's grin broadened as he turned to look at her now. "Most likely, yes."

"All right then." Tenn shrugged, then closed her eyes again. "You're being weird." She added, but it didn't sound like a criticism, just an observation.

Jerin just shrugged too. "Yeah, well, I'm not the only one."

.

"Don't you dare stop." - Ciena Ree, Star Wars: Lost Stars

.

(Nanaki's note: If you haven't read Lost Stars, you're probably thinking that the above end of chapter quote is being taken out of context. I assure you, it's not.

On a more substantive note, there was a question I kept asking myself while writing the end of this chapter: "All right, is this really legitimate character development, or is it just gratuitous fan service?" And the answer I kept coming back to: "Well, can't it be both?"

Of course, scenes like that have existed in my head ever since I first created the character of Joona, but if there was something that convinced me it wasn't too crazy to put that kind of content in the actual story, I'd point to it being when Donald Glover said that he'd played the part of Lando Calrissian in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" in a pansexual way. Shortly after, an article on Cracked pointed out, "Really, wouldn't basically everyone in Star Wars be pansexual?" In a galaxy with literally millions of different self-aware species, some of which probably have more or less than two genders, would anyone actually confine themselves to just the opposite gender of their own species? A few, sure, but probably not the majority. Plus, wouldn't the Zeltron species embrace that outlook even more than most?

I also thought it seemed realistic that more than one of the girls would be a little confused about their sexuality, after everything they've been though. Out of everyone, it seemed like Joona would be the most likely to do something about that confusion by actually exploring it, rather than just trying to put it out of her mind.

So no, it wasn't just gratuitous fan service. I mean, of course it was PARTLY; I'm not denying that for a second. But it was real character development too, I promise.)