Author's note: I haven't written a fanfic in years, I'm soooo rusty. So please be gentle. I normally write villains and anti-heroes so a Din Djarin fic is definitely new territory for me. Din might be a little more morally gray in this than he is in the show, fair warning. This fic will follow SOME of the plot but not all of it. The first few chapters follow along with the first couple of episodes with some minor changes. After that there will be heavier changes for any of the original plot that stays in as I start weaving my own plot through everything. Oh, and welcome back lovelies.
You'd think a girl with an intolerance to UV rays would have picked a better planet to be dumped on than the barren desert shithole that is Arvala-7. But no. You wanna get lost on the outer rim? Choose Arvala-7. Home to Blurrgs, Jawas, some Sorgan frogs, Kuiil, and lastly and unfortunately, me.
Who am I? Well, that sort of depends on who you ask.
As of 189 days ago, my name is Jax Harkor, and I'm most definitely not on the run. I'm just a simple girl, trying to make her way and not lose her mind on a planet that feels more like a punishment than a potential home.
Before I was left here, I had never been off of my home planet. 'Home' being a poor choice of words because it never felt like a home there either. But let's not get into that right now shall we?
The point is, I'm twenty-six years old, and I have never had a place to call home. I almost feel like I'm not anchored to anything, like at any moment my shoes will leave the ground and I'll fall into the sky.
If Kuiil hadn't found me shortly after I came here, I don't know where I'd be. I hadn't really planned this far ahead. I never thought I'd get here. Not to Arvala-7, but here, away from everything I used to know.
I may loathe this planet with a passion, but Kuiil loves it and I do my darndest to earn my keep. The one thing I'm most proud about and my most useful talent is that I'm a very good mechanic. Since I was a little girl I've been obsessed with understanding how things work. I needed to pull things apart and put them back together. Eventually I started making adjustments, branching past the need to understand and repair. I wanted to create too.
I'm most content buried in metal and wires, covered in grease. A Junker through and through. Someone long lost used to call me a little scrap yard Loth-cat.
They're gone now.
Kuiil is odd, odd in the way that his heart is genuine. He means what he says and always keeps his word. He's kind, that's the simplest way to put it. It's not something I'm used to, I haven't been around many kind people in my life. In all honesty, I can count the number of good people I've known on one hand. Which is pretty depressing.
The Galaxy isn't a kind place. Despite the fact that I haven't seen much of it, I know that with certainty. Good people get chewed up and spit back out. Left to rot.
My only goal right now is to not let that happen to me.
Survive and endure.
Which is definitely easier said than done. I'm a prime target for the merciless galaxy. Standing at five foot exactly, I could be described as nothing other than small. Easily broken was what I always heard growing up from my bully of a broth-
Damn.
You get the point. I've always been this way, short and slender. Weak. The only thing that changed over the years was the development of soft curves and the sharpening of my facial features.
My cold blonde hair has grown long, wavy, unruly to a point of frustration. Having a weakness to the sun has left my skin pale, not sickly, just pale. My most notable feature is that I have two different colored eyes, one dark brown, one light green. A hereditary trait. An annoying reminder of a life I am desperate to forget.
The only upside of being essentially exiled on this desert planet is that heat doesn't bother me. Not heat like this anyways. Which is a damn gift when you're forced to practically be swaddled in fabric day in and day out.
My people's counterbalance to UV intolerance is being heat and fire resistant.. Not immune, no. I definitely can get burned, but it isn't easy and it would take something substantial. Not that I've tested that much, I only really know what I've been told. My race is classified as Near-Human. I look perfectly human, and I have all the same parts as a normal human does. I just have a few differences including the fact that I am horrendously night-blind. A metaphorical kick in the teeth when you can't even stand in the sun without suffering. I can't really win whether it's day or night.
Always out of place.
Never secure.
Never safe.
This planet is kriffing dusty. Sand up your nostrils is awful. I don't care how long you deal with it, it is the absolute worst. And it sticks to everything, and I mean everything. I miss showers, actual water on my skin. I loathe sonic showers more than anything else, that may sound completely dramatic but I mean it. Damn them and the person who invented them. I don't care how convenient they are, they're stupid.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Sure, they get you clean, they do the job. But you don't feel clean, you don't feel refreshed. There's no relaxation and comfort in a sonic shower. That's the only thing I miss from home, actual showers and stars.. a hot bath.
Reaching up I moved to adjust my oversized hood as I took in the near setting sun. I had spent too long roaming, lost in my thoughts. I hadn't prepared to be out this long, I didn't even have a proper light with me. Just me and a very grumpy Blurrg. Said Blurrg was the reason I was having to walk home instead of being able to ride.
Blurrgs were cute, in a weird way. Like they're so ugly they're endearing. But I'm not good with them, not like Kuiil. If it wasn't for Kuiil's insistence I wouldn't have brought one along to meet with the Jawas at all. But he cut off my protests with an 'I have spoken', and once he says that, you might as well just shut up.
I may be stubborn to a fault, but Kuiil... he is something else.
Flexing my wrapped hands impatiently, I once again tugged a little harder on the Blurrg's reins, wishing it would go faster. Earning an annoyed grunt for my efforts, I scoffed. It was going slow to spite me. Scuffing my boot into the dusty rock, I sent a cloud of sand spiraling out in front of me.
This planet was going to be the death of me.
I knew I was in a bad mood, and I didn't want to return to the moisture farm like this, but I couldn't help it. Jawas while oddly adorable, were tiny little devils. I know my Jawaese needs some work, but they mocked me mercilessly for it. I had only known basic when I arrived on this stupid planet and had been desperately trying to learn Jawaese from Kuiil. But no, these particular Jawas were just pieces of Bantha-shit that enjoyed pissing me off. Maker I wanted to just kick one, but nope, if you want parts around here they were who you had to go to.
This time they seemed to have a lot of parts I had never seen them have before. Parts I didn't think you could find on this isolated rock. I had nothing to trade for them unfortunately, no matter how badly I wanted them. Kriffing Jawas.
The sun was dipping ever closer into the horizon by the time the moisture farm came into view, it was my time of day, the only time I could just exist without worry.
Twilight.
Shadows danced across the rocks, the light muted but still bright enough to illuminate the way back. The middle ground I waited everyday for. It was beautiful, probably the only thing I liked about this place.
Moving one hand up, I pulled the hood off my head, letting my hair that was tucked back fall down to my waist with the motion. The color striking bright against my gray and black attire, almost luminescent against the red hue of the land. A beacon that I was careful to only let show when back on the isolated farm. It was too recognizable.
Drawing closer, my Blurrg companion finally started moving at a faster pace. Anxious to be home and away from me. Huffing, I willed my legs to move faster with it.
"You couldn't have done this earlier?" I grumbled under my breath. "We could have been back already you know?" The Blurrg continued to ignore me. I take back my earlier thought, they are not cute. They are a bothersome necessity for travel around here and that is that. I hated them.
Turning away from glaring at the Blurrg, I almost tripped over my own feet. I could see Kuiil, but he wasn't alone. Two other silhouettes flanked him. One was tiny, barely discernable as it stumbled around. The other was tall, very tall. Easily towering over Kuiil.. definitely over a foot taller than me as well. He was broad and covered head to toe in metal and fabric. He looked dangerous.
What the hell?
Hesitating for only a moment, I steeled myself and continued forward. If Kuiil was easily conversing with the stranger, surely he didn't mean any harm? Despite the logic, unease bled into my chest. Paranoia creeping through my veins. Why was he here? No one ever came here. Well, no one but the bounty hunters that were after whatever it was in the valley and they certainly did not come to the farm.
The man's head snapped up suddenly, the t-shaped visor locked onto me as I gripped the reins tighter in my fist. Maker.. a Mandalorian? His hand snapped down to the blaster strapped to his thigh making me freeze in place, my heart picking up in my chest.
Kuiil turned in place at the man's rigid posture, catching sight of me.
"Calm yourself, Mandalorian. This is Jax."