devotedgossamerreader

[devotedgossamerreader]

here is a fun little star wars scenario that has been pinging around inside my head like a screensaver:

so let’s say there’s some very zealous, very low-ranking fresh young Imperial officer on duty the day they take the Senator from Alderaan into custody. 

and he is very very nervous because a) he’s been here for like a week and b) none of that week required him to be in a room with Darth Vader. which he now is. so he is trying to focus very very hard on Doing Everything Exactly According To Protocol, as a means of not focusing on the seven-foot evil wizard standing fifteen feet away.

and part of the protocol for processing new prisoners is to make a new file for them in the prisoner database, and enter all their biographical details and vital statistics and a gene sample and their known associates and the nature of their terrible crimes against the Empire and so on. which he does! very meticulously!

except the computer keeps throwing an error message. the stupid thing keeps beeping at him, this awful grating little noise that makes his shoulders ratchet up tighter and tighter every time it honks at him, and he can’t fix it and Darth Vader is right over there—

except oh god oh fuck the beeping noise must be annoying Darth Vader, too, because he’s coming over here and our poor junior officer is convinced he’s going to die before he even lives long enough to send his first paycheck home to his poor widowed mother —

he stammers out an apology. Vader just stares at him. he swears he’ll figure out the problem right away, sir, it’s probably a bug in the system, it’s just that for some silly reason it keeps saying this gene sample doesn’t match the one on file for the Senator so he can’t get her logged as a new prisoner just yet —

“Dismissed,” says Vader. the poor kid flees, gratefully.

Vader considers the matter. in fact, his underling was correct: the gene sample, which he saw taken through his very own helmet lenses, does not match the official record of Senator Leia Organa, heir to the throne of Alderaan. so: perhaps the sample on record was falsified. not impossible, but very, very difficult. and ordinarily a crime attempted by the lowly and desperate. he cannot see any need for it, in the daughter of a queen.

another possibility presents itself. Alderaan has no history of using royal doubles, as some worlds do. but Bail Organa has worked closely with royal houses where the practice is long-established. perhaps he was inspired. perhaps the girl they captured is not Leia Organa at all.

Vader runs the gene sample against the ship’s database. it is woefully incomplete, of course, containing only a fraction of the Empire’s billions of citizens: the ship’s own complement, a selection of known criminals and Rebels they might encounter, high-ranking officials whose identity must be confirmed should the Emperor require their presence. unlikely that this girl, whoever she is, would have a record here, or even a partial match—

the computer beeps at him. it’s a cheerful beep, this time, not the error message that stymied the junior officer. the computer reports that the gene sample is a partial match for Pooja Naberrie, the Senator from Naboo. they are, with eighty-nine percent probability, first cousins.

and Vader just. kind of stands there. for a minute.

when he goes to Leia’s cell, there’s no interrogation droid with him. he goes in. he shuts the door behind him. he stands, there, silent, for frankly a worryingly long time, until Leia has run through her entire stockpile of  “how dare you, I’m a member of the Senate on a humanitarian mission” and “whatever you want, you can’t possibly think I would be of any help” and “well, if you’re going to interrogate me, get on with it already” and “are you even listening to me?” and  falls silent herself. 

Vader has been listening to her. he has also been listening to the Force, which seems to think that she’s not lying. obviously the humanitarian mission part is bullshit, that goes without saying. but the “I’m Senator Leia Organa” parts and the “I won’t help you” parts? yeah. he searched his feelings. he knows them to be true. the Force is singing in his head, bright and clear, in a way it hasn’t for nearly twenty years.

there’s still Tarkin to deal with, though. Vader turns and leaves the cell without a word.

Tarkin wants to blow up Alderaan. this is unacceptable, obviously, and Vader forbids it on the grounds that the Queen and the Viceroy possess vital intelligence, not disclosed to their daughter, that must be acquired. said intelligence being, not that he’s saying this out loud, how the fuck Bail got his hands on his daughter, and who else knows about it.

“the fate of the galaxy rests on it,” is what he does say out loud. from the way the Force harmonizes with his words, that might even be true.

so the Death Star just. parks there. in an incredibly threatening orbit around the planet. they issue a demand that the Organas surrender themselves, or else, but apparently the happy couple just left for a low-tech weekend retreat in the mountains, what awful timing, they’re sending someone to fetch them right away. Vader shuts himself up in his quarters, to seethe and watch the surveillance feed from Leia’s cell. he’s not really paying attention to much else. 

and it’s not like a random freighter getting tractored in for being an incredibly obvious smuggling vessel is the kind of thing you’d alert Darth Vader over, anyway. 

so he’s still sitting there, one great big thought filling up his whole entire head, watching Leia take a frustration nap, when her cell door opens. 

and a trooper comes in.

and the trooper takes off his helmet.

and he says, “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”

[devotedgossamerreader]

having thoughts about one of this season's seemingly lighter, sillier episodes (the hustler job). it was harry's episode, sure, but the thought bouncing around in my brainpan at the moment is about parker.

specifically, her full-tilt bloodthirsty outrage about the villain of the week "rolling nanas."

parker doesn't have much ingrained reverence for familial roles. and why would she? the closest thing she had to a father for most of her life was a man who used, manipulated, and isolated her, reinforcing in her the idea that she is fundamentally broken and unable to be like or around "normal" people, undeserving of real family. (yes, archie did also have love for her, but he still took a troubled child off the street and crafted her into a mini-me master thief off whom he personally profited, all the while drawing a hard line between her and his actual family. nate's scorn and disgust for archie was frankly extremely well earned.)

parker never had a nana.

but hardison did. hardison, who could've ended up a lot more like parker than any of them imagined, had he gone through the same cycle of use-abuse-neglect-violence-crime that parker experienced in foster care and even after it. but hardison, hardison ended up one of the lucky kids in the system.

he ended up with nana. a woman who cared for and fiercely nurtured him, loved him and instilled pride and confidence in him, gave him a home and family, and who would never, ever turn her back on him.

parker never had a nana, but she has undoubtedly heard a ton about hardison's over the years, met her and spent time with her, probably got a little taste of that same acceptance and warmth. parker saw her not just with hardison but with breanna, and however many other children who went into the system and found refuge in nana's house, against all odds.

i can only imagine parker has developed a mythlike admiration for nana, for the role of a nana, something sacred and purely good and as should-be beyond threat as children are, to parker.

her violently gungho fixation on the episode's villain as a predator of nanas is, like many of parker's oddities and quirky behaviors, played largely for comedic effect. but if you don't pay attention to the parts of parker's character that get framed as "for laughs", you'll miss a lot of the depth and nuance in her character.

as we've seen time and again in leverage and redemption, parker is easiest for people to dismiss as a crazy weirdo, silly and childish and incomprehensible. her weirdness often comes across in bright, brash tones, with the brightness set high enough you're not supposed to see the shadows, and the parts of her found in them.

parker never got her own nana, and until knowing hardison, possibly until meeting the woman herself, couldn't have managed to believe in such a concept as a real person. it was too entirely out of her frame of reference.

but nana is real. which means parker could have had one. but she didn't. and i'm sure she's wondered before... who might she have been had she been taken in by someone like hardison's nana, instead of a series of shitty people culminating in the man who cultivated her into a professional criminal?

would she still have been broken? this broken? would she still have been too strange for most people to connect to? could she have been something closer to normal?

and those questions, of course, can never be answered, and parker's not the type to dwell on them past the initial pondering. but it's quite easy to see how the sacrosanct myth of a "nana" who should never, ever experience harm and be protected at all costs could be built in her head.

because a nana saved hardison. and breanna. and so many others. so many children, vulnerable and afraid and alone.

might've, in another world, even saved someone like her.

so anyone who touches a nana could only be the lowest evil. and we know parker doesn't waste moral energy on trash like that. she takes them out.

[devotedgossamerreader]

God is not the author of our suffering, but He never lets it go to waste either. He is through and through a Redeemer and he's gonna redeem everything. Nothing is wasted. Nothing.

[devotedgossamerreader]

So the previous owners of our new place left behind their two ring cameras and this is a new daily experience for me:

[devotedgossamerreader]

[devotedgossamerreader]

drawing people i see in the city (47/?) lil dude also had the best conversation opener:

[devotedgossamerreader]

[devotedgossamerreader]

well it looks like I needed it, if my spelling is any indication

How to get an overly tired Virgil to sleep:

Redirect anxious thoughts to safer topics of conversation

Discuss something positive that is not a source of worry or stress

Do not mention sleep

Focus Virgil on the conversation by asking him questions about something that he enjoys

Once Virgil is sufficiently distracted, offer a warm drink that does not have high amounts of caffeine

Slowly shift the conversation so that you are talking more than Virgil is

Do not mention sleep

Wait until Virgil is focusing less on the conversation. (If he appears to be focusing on something else, rather than beginning to zone out, redirect his attention)

Slow the conversation down, but do not create potentially uncomfortable pauses

Do not mention sleep

Yawn. If he also yawns, end the conversation in a way that feels natural and leave

[devotedgossamerreader]

How to draw Dreadlocs!

See Part One: Rendering Natural Black Hair Coming Up Next: VOTE by sending to my Ask box!  (Until March 1st). Feel free to suggest any style or subject matter within drawing natural hair!

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[devotedgossamerreader]

Reblog to give prev a hug. The type of hug where you’re squeezed extra tight and all of your negative feelings drain away and you put your head on their shoulder and everything feels better 🫂

[devotedgossamerreader]

i see a capybara and my brain goes “capybapy” and there’s nothing i can do about it

[devotedgossamerreader]

[devotedgossamerreader]

“Corgi butts can float. Not sure what to do with this info, other than share it with you.”

(via)

[devotedgossamerreader]

[devotedgossamerreader]

[devotedgossamerreader]

hey did i ever share with you guys the absolute funniest thing i have ever seen a fic description lead with

[devotedgossamerreader]

robot studies robot studies