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ficsnooneaskedfor · 2 years

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#StarWarsCultureWeek

Day 1- Fashion

I can't begin to express how excited am for this event! For those who don't know about it, check out this post (x). I really wish I was an artist so I could draw what I envision in my mind but I will do my best to describe with words and provide references. These prompts will be based on my fic "Call the Twi'lek Midwife" (masterlist is here if you want to check it out x ) but you do not need to have read my fic to appreciate my posts for this event. I will mostly be writing about a culture of Twi'leks I created for my fic. This culture is based on my Métis (Métis are people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, and one of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada), Apache, and Indigenous Mexican heritage. This first post will be about clothing and jewelry.

Twi'leks are one of the most common species throughout the Star Wars Universe. Though their homeworld is Ryloth, they live throughout the galaxy and have for thousands of years due to immigration and the enslavement of their people. As a result, there is a lot of diversity in their cultures. Twi'leks have different beliefs, customs, food, language, etc depending on what planet they call home. On Ord Mantell, a unique culture of Twi'leks developed over time (in my fic), referring to themselves as "The Twi'leks of Ord Mantell" or "Mantellian Twi'leks" to distinguish themselves from other cultures.

Mantellian Twi'leks are a hunter/gatherer society, though some individuals (like my OC) do live in other communities on the planet or in cities. Their traditional clothing is made from leather, animal hides, furs, and woven fabric and the material of clothing they wear depends on the time of year. Most of their clothing is typically embellished with elaborate embroidery and colorful beadwork and is not simply considered clothing but works of art. Designs are usually of geometric patterns, plants, animals, and constellations and styles differ depending on what village the person is from, the person's individual style, their family/clan, and their role in society. For example, midwives, healers, and apothecaries typically wear clothing with beaded/embroidered medicinal plants to signal their trade. The chief of hunting would wear clothing decorated with animals. Beads are made from a variety of materials, (glass, wood, and seashells being the most common) but they are also made of pearls, bone, seeds, and stones.

High-ranking individuals in Mantellian Twi'lek communities (such as healers and chiefs) wear even more elaborately decorated clothing and headdresses with feathers and gemstones during sacred ceremonies. Feathers in their culture (like in many real-life Indigenous cultures) are considered sacred and one earns the right to wear them through great deeds such as being selected as a leader of the community, becoming a healer, or proving themselves to be a great warrior. The artwork above was a commission done by@imrowanartist of my OC Citali wearing a sacred ceremonial outfit. Original post here (x), please give it a reblog if you enjoy this post.

Beads are also used to make bracelets and necklaces, as well as jewelry to hang on a Twi'leks lekku. Instead of rings, a couple gifts a beaded bracelet they make for one another when they are married. Prayers are said as each bead is put on.

Mantellian Twi'lek midwives wear crystal necklaces as all midwives on Ord Mantell do, regardless of what species or culture they come from. The crystals are made of kyberite, the base mineral of kyber crystals. Apprentices wear orange crystals (usually as a gift from their first mentor) and once they take the oath to become a midwife, they are given a teal-colored crystal.

While family and community are very important to Mantellian Twi'leks, individuality and creativity are highly encouraged. The color, materials, and style of clothing and jewelry vary greatly from person to person. One item of clothing that is nearly universal to everyone in this culture regardless of their role, gender, or age is shawls or sashes.

These shawls and sashes come in many variations and the colors/patterns mark what community they are from as well as their family/clan. They are worn not only as fashion but for warmth, to carry infants/small children, and to ease discomfort during pregnancy. They are also utilized during dances.

Again, I wish I was an artist so I could actually draw these things myself but alas, that is not a skill I possess. If you read this post, I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about my cultures as well as the fictional culture I created for my fic.

I'll try to make another post today about other aspects of fashion in this fictional culture if anyone is interested (like tattoos, makeup, etc)

#starwarscultureweek #star wars culture week #pregnancy mention #slavery mention #call the twi'lek midwife #sw culture week #StarWarsCultureWeek

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collapsedsquid · 3 years

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He found a pee bottle that had tipped and spilled behind a large-screen display. Fort’s eyes started to take over for his nose, and he took it all in.

“There was debris everywhere,” Fort said under oath. “Food debris, food waste, uneaten food, half-eaten food, personal gear in the form of books, workout gear, workout bands, kettlebells, weightlifting equipment, the status boards had graffiti on them.”

“I’d never seen a CIC like that in my entire time in the Navy,” the surface warfare officer of more than 25 years recollected.

[...]

Much of Fort’s report explores how a state-of-the-art warship outfitted with expensive electronic sensors could go blind, but a key finding soon emerged: It wasn’t merely that they didn’t know they were blind. They didn’t know how to see.

Beyond the human waste and garbage collecting in the CIC, Fort’s investigators found CIC watchstanders who “demonstrated a lack of knowledge about radar functionality and material condition.”

Although the Fitz’s SPS-67 radar was listed as operational on the eve of the collision, it had actually fallen into a “degraded status,” according to the report.

CIC watchstanders couldn’t use their remote control to guide it because it also was broken.

A dead radar control button had been “covered by a piece of masking tape,” but Fort’s investigators couldn’t locate a casualty report chronicling the malfunction.

[...]

On the night of the ACX Crystal disaster, the SPS-67 radar seemed plagued with gremlins but no one was available to fix it and sailors didn’t talk to each other about the electronic “clutter” they watched on the display, according to Fort’s report.

Beyond talking to each other inside the CIC or conversing with the bridge during their watch, the sailors there also had “zero communication” with other onboard departments for vital tasks like turning the radar, Fort later testified.

“Most of these folks we interviewed were not even aware that the radar-set controller was out of commission or what functionality they did or did not have, or what ability they had to even control it,” he said.

While the crew could’ve turned to an auto-track feature on the SPS-67 radar, they didn’t use it “because they ‘don’t want to mess it up,’” the report states.

“It was generally accepted that using the auto-tracking feature caused problems with the radar, and so it was just turned off,” Fort added during the hearing. “And folks accepted that.”

That’s why a CIC petty officer worked in manual mode, punching a button 1,000 times in an hour just to track four of five vessels, when the radar could’ve auto-tracked 50 contacts for him, Fort testified.

“That’s a lot of activity, but it’s not really what I would call vigilant activity,” Fort said.

Fort’s report found that other sailors barely fathomed the rudiments of radar.

“One watchstander said he has routinely seen the radars poorly adjusted to the point that visible targets would not show up,” Fort wrote. “One watchstander stated seeing other watchstanders seek out (a supervisor) for help on radar tuning, and receiving the response, ‘do it how you like it.’”

Electronic technicians said users reported problems that really were just operator errors.

“Another watchstander called to complain that the radar was not acquiring targets, when in fact the watchstander did not know what actions were necessary to acquire a target,” Fort wrote. “Watchstanders will use the rain adjustment features when there is no rain.”

At last year’s hearing, Lt. Cmdr. Ritarsha Furqan, a former Fitz officer who left the ship before the collision, attributed some bugs in the SPS-67’s auto-tracking system to “a ghost in the machine.”

But she said when the Fitzgerald got back to port in Japan, technicians couldn’t replicate the problems and it was never fixed.

Our elite US Navy alien-finders in 2017. Admittedly I could buy that the 7th Fleet was the worst of them.

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stormhawksplanb · 5 years

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Nova’s Relationship With other Squadrons and people: The rest of the Squads

The Rex Guardians- An old time Client of Nova’s. they only Commissioned her once or twice for art work of their squad, and a map. She has an honest opinion of thinking they’re way to posh, and her and stork enjoy mocking them when they aren’t looking. Stork more or less just giggling at her fake accents and goofy walks. Between her and Harrier, it’s a friendly game of endless teasing, and who’s the better human being. There’s an underline respect and it’s a way for her to get her witty on, and don’t you dare think stork isn’t present to help her. Or at least face palm when Harrier runs a full circle around Nova and she winds up insulting herself. Aerrow very quickly becomes the referee, but isn’t below sending a few opening statements towards their way to start a little squall between them. Harrier did however opened a Museum of some of the greatest artist of Atmos, and when Nova and stork caught wind of some of the darker artworks taking present, they snuck into a closed of exhibit to take a peak. Neither realizing it was the wrong room and was immediately caught after Harrier noticed they went M.I.A and heard them rambling over not having a torch to see. Nova came very close to tears when Harrier, literally, shined some light into the room and it was a full exhibit of her older artworks, mostly containing depictions of other squadrons since she was the only one to keep track of them all. Not many other artist had records of major battles and stories like she did, and it was a very important thing for her, and the sky knights and squadrons to remember just how important they were to Atmos.

The Absolute Zeros- Just keep Nova away from all Rambunctious and noisy people, because chances are she will be joining them and making it 1000X worse. Even though she tends to baby stork over him being cold, i.e she buys him a rather expensive heating jacket, she traveled country side, and it terrified the storm hawks as to how reckless, and wild she can prove to be. If she wasn’t by stork’s side she was off with the boys racing, or trying to best them. The issue being she wasn’t really besting them at anything, but she was doing things in such a different way to what they were use to it was like fanning a fire. Eventually she calmed down after the first day because it was more energy she could take. They actually had to tow her back on her skimmer because she was falling asleep by night fall. After that she had a 180 and could barely stay awake and the lesson taught itself. She decided to join stork on the condor for some much needed nap time. Atmos forbid they ever challenge her again though.

The Rebel Ducks- They automatically became family to her. Take how she feels about the storm hawks but triple it. She knows what it’s like to be kept from family and pretty much have her Terra scattered and hunted down, and they remind her so much of her family that she can’t ever speak to due to an oath for the Nova crystal’s safety. Also she loves cheese. It’s her top favorite food, and once she meets Dove and her father it’s game over. The storm hawks thought she was at an art fair but when she called them out to the Terra to bring her carving tools they all had a nice laugh when they came upon Dove’s father, Wren being carved out of cheese, they couldn’t help themselves. Nova had to shoo away Raddar and Junko several times from the delicious statue. and once night fell they devoured the artwork anyway for it was a little celebration of their freedom. Organized by Nova and Dove of coarse. Nova and Wren slightly weeped at their fond goodbyes.

The Red Eagles- Keep her away from them. For their safety and not hers. She has this exempted ability to sniff out liars and Carver is one of them. She had no clue he was a traitor but as soon as the name left Aerrow’s lips on a quick pick me up on Terra Atmosia, she went full. On. Protective. Mode. She expressed her distaste for him and when stork questioned her about ‘So you heard about him’ her response was ‘Cunning liars like to leave their presence in the wake of a pained tone of voice. Aerrow has already expressed that’. She knew they were almost godly to the Terra but she has had experience with those who are too high on their horse to be true, and never felt comfortable about it. She’s not really mad at the squad, just Carver. But even then she has an understanding of his desire to protect his Terra, even if what he was doing was wrong. She never bothered with him since he was imprisoned but, least they ever cross paths not a single storm hawk will get a say in before Nova makes her point. It mostly rubs her the wrong way because she sees the ‘easy way out’ of Joining the Cyclonians as cowardice, and selfish. It reminds her of her own Terra’s Original Sky knight, dusty, and his betrayal.

The Screaming Queens- Nova may have let it slip that they’re slightly over being tied with the storm hawks for favorite squadron. And she automatically darted off for signatures when she spotted them at one of the races. None of the other storm hawks minded the fact they’re her favorite squadron since Nova has practically adopted them all as family, and knows better than to harass her about those kind of things. Mostly because she can, and will win that argument simply for the fact she’s constantly smoothing over situations, and disrupting her personal life (or quality time with stork) to help them out. They’ve become her personal models for art because Nova draws them in such a strong, but respectful manner. they’re a bit shy to request anything art or craft related mostly because Nova will refuse payment, and it’s a token of her appreciation of them. Aerrow eventually convinced Nova to agree to at minimum half payments, or to at least bum rides from them when she decides to run off and disappear.

The third Degree Burners- Let the games begin. They automatically recognized Finn and at first Nova was in ‘Mom Mode’ and defended Finn… until she learned what he did during one of Saharr’s races. after that there wasn’t much interaction, other than the occasional banter and bragging. Nova felt quite intimidated by them. It took a while for her to be comfortable around them, and was fairly shocked they liked her art.

She only knows about them from Finn. She thinks they sound pretty cool- and it was a ‘I’m kind of proud this happened’ And made note to visit their Terra with their ‘leader’ one day. The more the merrier.

The Neck Deeps- No one told her not to go swimming with Bessy. Stork practically had a heart attack. She discovered Bessy’s weak spot for petting, much to Stork’s jealousy. Tritonn and his squad automatically took to her when they saw her. Called her a crazy lady, must be a siren. Once they dragged her out of the waters she got into a tattooing contest with one of the docks best, and won, so she’s pretty much bragging rights for them. The tattoo artist she beat is now pen pals with her. She didn’t interact with the Neck deeps first time around, but her and stork did get notably… well drunk. And she surprised everyone with the amount of Liquor she can hold. Stork, by the way, is a silent, aloof drunk and will constantly stare at his hands for no reason. Nova is the emotional rowdy drunk, for all of 15 mins before passing out. She still hold the record for most drinks in an hour. Don’t remind either of them about the hangover the day after.

Vaposians- She became Finn’s personal artist, and it was purely because she started mocking Stork for his jester outfit he’s forced to wear when he’s around. Issue being she was given a very attractive silk gown and stork just kind of suffers more so. She does ‘borrow’ his hat. And Finn knows better than to try and over rule her. As for the citizens they hoard around her when not around Finn. She doesn’t like the attention and eventually sneaks aboard the condor with stork to do literally anything, but slave away for Finn.

The interceptors- Her and Starling get along quite well. Starling, almost like stork, anchors her energy down to at least stay in one spot. She’s accompanied Starling on a few missions when the others can’t or Aerrow doesn’t want to go in alone without the rest of the team. They usually talk about their lives before the war ended, and they have a lot in common. It’s a purely respect based relationship.

#stormhawks #storm hawks #starling #squadrons

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