#but that the clones were kids being raised - her clones weren't /her age/ etc.

[aparticularbandit]

but also for someone who has definitely played around with amnesia and rebuilding and reliving and such stuff in fic before (just because i never posted it doesn't mean i didn't play around with it), i. now kind of want to figure out how to play around with that with junko. the scenario would need to be different. but.

[supervisormeero]

For the ask game: Dedra Meero and 3, 18, 24, 29!

3. A song that reminds me of them

I have a whole Dedra Meero playlist (shocking, I know), so I have a ton of songs that remind me of her. My favorites include "Dream Girl Evil" by Florence + The Machine, "Oh No!" by MARINA, and — somewhat tongue in cheek — "Obsessed" by Mariah Carey.

18. How do you think they were as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc)

This is where I get into some sad headcanons based on interview quotes from Denise. There's one interview (with The Playlist, I think) where Denise said that if the show had proceeded with its original five-season plan, they would've gone into more depth with Dedra's backstory. As it is, she'd said Dedra's younger years were difficult, and that her continued need for control is a result of her unstable and neglectful home life.

With that in mind, I think Dedra was probably quiet as a child, and she probably kept to herself. (I think Syril was the same way.) I think she always intended to get away from her parents and leave her Outer Rim planet. For the sake of paralleling her with Syril, I think she was an only child. Depending on her age part of her teenage years or young adulthood might've overlapped with the Clone Wars, and some of the unrest of that conflict could have shaped her perspective on the Empire and what she now sees as the absolute necessity of it in keeping the galaxy stable. While Syril probably had too many feelings for the emotionless home in which he was raised, I think Dedra was the opposite; I think she strangled most of her emotions to survive, and that iciness came in handy when she joined the Empire — as an anomaly and a continually underestimated outlier, considering her gender and where she came from.

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

Sort of tied to that previous response, I don't think she's ever told anyone about the specifics of her past and the traumas she's endured. Sharing them wouldn't have helped her rise in the ranks and might have crippled her progress, so she bottled it up and created an entirely new version of herself when she landed on Coruscant. If she ever talked about it with Syril, I think she'd find a sympathetic ear and common ground — but I doubt she'd ever be so open with him.

29. How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?)

Not to make these answers a line of relentless bummers (sorry), but my personal headcanon — which I cannot emphasize enough is mine alone — is that Dedra has absolutely no interest in being a parent, both because of her past and because it would threaten the most important thing in her life: her career. As such, even though we know she's never had a serious romantic relationship, I'd assume she's taken permanent measures to ensure it never happens.

Send me a number and a fictional character, and I'll share my headcanons!