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bedlamsbard · 4 years

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All right, reactions to Mando 2.05, “The Jedi”, in...semi-coherent form. Spoilers, obvs. I hated this episode, so keep scrolling now if you don’t want to see negativity. This is not in any kind of order except stream-of-conscious.

again, I reiterate, spoilers.

again, I reiterate, this is REALLY negative.

Rosario Dawson...yikes.

how...did Bo-Katan know that Ahsoka was on Corvus? are they in contact? since when? Ahsoka seems to have been on Corvus for long enough to be a nuisance to the Magistrate (Morgan Elsbeth), but normally Ahsoka is very efficient and she just...really does not seem to be here? I did not get the impression she was planning on sticking around for any period of time.

(the same could be true for Frog Lady and Bo-Katan on Trask several episodes back. that wasn’t a convert, that was three Mandalorians hanging around the port in cloaks. I guess they could be doing that on the regular, but? would the Empire not then be more worried about being attacked by Mandalorians?)

there was only ever a very, very slim chance that I was going to be happy with any translation of Ahsoka from animation to live action. I am on record as thinking that animation is the medium for Star Wars and that live action is always going to be a weaker medium than animation and that a lot of things that can be done in animation just cannot be translated to live action in any meaningful form. I knew Ahsoka’s fighting style couldn’t translate to live action convincingly (here’s what I said about the mo-capped duel in TCW); it never occurred to me that they couldn’t pull off TOGRUTA given that Shaak Ti, you know, exists, and also there are so many excellent Ahsoka cosplayers.

(Consider KM Creations’ excellent silicone lekku (S7), which have beautiful movement; the cosplayer behind that is CallMeSnips and her epilogue prototype is from SWCC is in there somewhere. I think Rei Kennex’s are latex (you can tell they don’t have much movement) but at least they’re the right length. I think Ahsoka94′s are also latex (again with the movement); this is her Mortis vision grown-up Ahsoka.)

AND YES, THE LEKKU/MONTRALS WERE A DEAL-BREAKER FOR ME.

I feel very “you have made your bed and now you have to die in it” about that -- apparently the reasoning is for stunts and movement, but for me here’s the thing: her lekku length wasn’t optional. This is not the equivalent of changing a hair style, which some people seem to think (believe me, I have read so many hot takes); this is like...I’m trying to think of a good comparison. Like putting Peter Mayhew or Joonas Suotamo in a wig because Chewie’s head was too hard for the actor to see out of, or giving them normal human hands because they can’t grip with the Wookiee hands.

Also your main character wears a helmet at all times that (if it’s anything like my Mandalorian helmet) is pretty poor visibility and full body armor and THIS was your breaking point for stunts?

Ahsoka’s lekku and montrals grow as she ages. These are about S7 length; as @reena-jenkins put it, THEY DE-AGED HER HEAD. Ahsoka fans coming in know this. PEOPLE SAW THE REBELS EPILOGUE.

I wonder how many of the people being self-righteous about being totally fine about Ahsoka’s lekku are the same people who claim that Katee Sackhoff is too young to play Bo-Katan.

this also puts them in a weird position in regards to the inevitable merchandise: do they go with normal Ahsoka from TCW and Rebels, the one everyone is familiar with, or do they go with these stunted lekku?

(I can’t believe they’re going to make Her Universe sell merch with this Ahsoka on it. it’s not going to happen but I wish HU was going to be petty enough to not sell any nu!Ahsoka merch.)

Here is some nice art of how Ahsoka’s lekku and montral should have looked.

hoo boy were those prosthetics also just Bad.

“but the stunts” buddy I’m sure Pedro Pascal and his various stunt doubles aren’t having a great time in full armor with almost no visibility either

if you’re going to put the character in, do it right

YOU CAN’T CHEAT

look, I am really, really aural -- the best example I can give is that even though intellectually I know that Matt Lanter and Hayden Christensen both play Anakin Skywalker, I literally cannot parse them as both being the same Anakin Skywalker and for that reason TCW and the PT don’t exist for the same continuity for me. (This also goes for Ewan McGregor and James Arnold Taylor, Natalie Portman and Cat Taber, and Samuel L. Jackson and TC Carson. I can kinda cope with the multiple Palpatine VAs. Yes, the decision to use Hayden and Sam in Ahsoka’s vision in “Shattered,” even blending into Matt’s voice from Hayden’s, threw me so badly I couldn’t take the vision seriously.) Ashley Eckstein has a very distinctive voice, and moreover has been the only person to ever voice Ahsoka up to this point (even in the Ahsoka novel audiobook). Barring a MIRACLE I was never going to be able to parse another actress’s voice as Ahsoka’s, solely because of how my brain works.

I could probably have parsed someone else’s face because animated Ahsoka is pretty stylized but the voice thing is a huge problem for me because of how aural I am.

(I say this but when Squadrons did a more live action-style Hera -- knowing they mo-capped Vanessa Marshall I think they used Vanessa’s face for Hera’s, which is also what it looks like on the revised art and face sculpt for the Black Series Hera -- I kind of had a meltdown about it (for...weird reasons). And that was the same VA.)

(The timeskip between TCW and Rogue One, then Rebels, probably saved Saw Gerrera for me here, but he was also never a main character.)

can you believe that Sam Witwer’s Maul got more live action respect than Ashley Eckstein’s Ahsoka

I love Sam’s Maul but wow

this is particularly jarring because Dave Filoni and Ashley Eckstein always seemed like they were friends? I realize that this gets skewed by how little of their actual lives we see online, but that is the vibe that I’ve gotten from interviews and social media posts.

can you believe that TROS gave more respect to Ashley Eckstein’s Ahsoka than Dave Filoni’s Mando episode did (here is her statement on TROS.)

back in March, when the Dawson casting rumors first dropped (or leaked, as the case may be), Ashley posted a statement about it saying that she was not involved in The Mandalorian. she has over the years been very vocal about desperately wanting to play live-action Ahsoka, who is a character solely associated with her up until today, and honestly this just breaks my heart.

I am not the massive Ashley Eckstein fan that many Ahsoka fans are, but I have never heard anything bad about her (I saw her at my hotel at SWCC while I was waiting for my roommate to arrive! that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to her, a distance of about six feet), and I really desperately hope that someone told her about this beforehand and she didn’t find out from watching the episode.

Also, while I’m here talking about Ashley Eckstein, the characterization here was extremely off, in that specific way that happens when a writer/director is working with their absolute favorite character, DAVE FILONI. I do trust Ashley to course-correct Dave on Ahsoka (in the same way we’ve heard about Sam Witwer pushing back on people about Maul), and that...was not happening here. (I think Katee Sachoff said something similar to this about Bo-Katan in her interview last week, as well.)

how did you get Bo-Katan so right and Ahsoka so wrong

look, Dave Filoni is truly living up to George Lucas’s legacy in that he can story tell pretty well but he’s not actually that great at nitty-gritty of writing and directing. (none of the really good TCW episodes are his.)

this episode made me think of A Friend in Need (which he directed) which is not, like, a BAD episode but quite notoriously includes the Bo-Katan ass-slap and also Ahsoka beheading four Mandalorians at once.

it also includes a helpless village of oppressed and exploited Asian-coded civilians who are there mostly as background scenery so the bad guys can be bad and the heroes can feel righteous

I’ll come back to that one

the level of violence in this episode was...weird. honestly, too high? in a way that probably would not have registered if it was anyone but Ahsoka. look, I am an animated shows person. I know TCW and Rebels inside and out. I know that neither one is particularly shy about killing off faceless bad guys (though if you watch Rebels S1 compared to Rebels S4 they really dial back the amount of fatal violence the main characters commit in the last season, lol). But this felt off for Ahsoka in a way I can’t really articulate.

why is Ahsoka attacking a random Mandalorian (her allies are Mandalorians!) who is walking through the woods WITH A BABY? WITHOUT WARNING?

part of that is just her movement -- when they animated her for TCW back in 2008, they made a deliberate decision to give her mannerisms and movement and a fighting style that a human can’t do because she isn’t human and animation can do that. which means that they hobbled themselves when they came to translating her to live action because uh a human can’t do that.

something about her lightsaber blades looked really, really wrong and I can’t put my finger on what. it’s like they just used the illuminated blades of the stunt sabers but didn’t do the extra CGI that the films do? I don’t know.

Ahsoka did a LOT of dramatic posing and what WAS that?

Dave can’t direct live action, that’s what that was

since when can you canonically convey that much information mind to mind

are Ahsoka and Grogu a dyad in the Force (I know the answer is no but also: what? what was happening?)

the only people we’ve seen who can do that sort of thing are Quinlan Vos and Cal Kestis, who both have the rare talent for telemetry, and even that’s not mind to mind communication, that’s touching a thing and going “YIKES”

you are telling me that Ahsoka Tano, whom six months ago we saw take on Darth Maul, a whole barrage of Mandalorian warriors, and her entire clone trooper battalion and walk away without a scratch, had to work up a sweat fighting one woman with a spear

you do know that we all saw TCW and Rebels right

and here’s the problem! this episode makes zero sense if you HAVE seen TCW and Rebels because (1) she doesn’t look right (2) she doesn’t fight right (3) timelines? we’ve never heard of them? (4) is Thrawn back? did you find the Chimaera? (you all do remember that Ezra and Thrawn aren’t out there alone and are in fact with a 40,000 man crewed star destroyer right) (5) did you NOT find them? (6) are you even looking? (7) this is supposed to be AFTER the Rebels epilogue unless you’ve decided to take advantage of that specific ending scene not being super specifically dated and if it’s before IT MAKES IT EVEN WORSE! because I desperately hate that epilogue and its implications EVEN AS IT IS! (8) why would you call this episode “The Jedi” when since 2013 Ahsoka’s whole thing has been not being a Jedi

to be fair I’m pretty sure S7 tried very hard to course correct that but unfortunately, they could not because the rest of canon exists

are you still trying to deny me grown Ahsoka and Rex when we know you got Temuera back for a five second shot of Boba

to be fair I would have the same aural problems with Temuera voicing Rex because that’s Dee Bradley Baker as far as I’m concerned (I reiterate that this is because of how my brain process character and sound, not anythign else)

if you haven’t seen TCW and Rebels this is a random Jedi wandering around for no specific reason namedropping a completely random person who has no prior significance unless it’s going to turn up later

this entire show has consisted of namedropping random people and things with no prior significance within the show itself and it remains entirely unclear whether they’re ever going to have significance within the show itself

look, I can buy Ahsoka not wanting to train the kid both for her stated reasons and for some implied stuff from earlier on in canon (the kids in the Ahsoka novel, the babies from Future of the Force), even what happened with Ezra, and obviously she has Plans and cannot haul a baby around with her when that baby is going to be a baby for an indeterminate amount of time

which honestly is something that ought to come up because even if Ahsoka wanted to train the kid by the time she grew old and died he might, if we were very lucky, have advanced to being essentially a pre-teen and then would be on his own again? this is also true for Din.

lol sure go cast yourself out into the Force, I’m sure there’s absolutely not a single darksider still wandering around the galaxy who might perk up at “ooh, free apprentice!”

I’m literally starting to think that this show takes place in an alternate universe where Luke and Leia either don’t exist or died at some point in the OT

me, baffled, last season: you’re telling me Cara Dune, Alderaanian, had never heard of the Jedi? was she not keeping up with whatever Leia Organa was doing? was the Rebel Alliance actually big enough that PEOPLE IN IT HADN’T HEARD OF LUKE SKYWALKER?

what...is Luke doing right now. isn’t he training Leia?

WHAT HAS AHSOKA BEEN DOING FOR TEN YEARS are we seriously supposed to believe she peaced out of the Rebel Alliance after Malachor and whatever the hell they’re going to make that out to be (honestly at this point I’m betting on “they will never touch it”)

does or does Ahsoka not know that Luke exists

hoo boy can you just see them trying to cast a younger Luke, or do you think they’d CGI de-age Mark Hamill?

oh yeah let’s go through this again in a season with someone else playing young Luke, let’s, I’m not emotionally invested in that so I’m prepared to be entertained

hasn’t Sebastian Stan been floated (even if just on Twitter) for young Luke?

why are these not-imperials on this planet. what are they doing here. what’s the point.

why is the planet...being burned? I was half-expecting, like, normal deforestation (in terms of logging for lumber) but I’m also a bit ??? about this.

since when is beskar resistant to lightsabers, I thought cortosis was the only thing that was? whatever, it’s new canon, they can do whatever they want. (ETA: apparently that’s been true for a while; I am more a Jedi person than a Mandalorian one as far as the EU goes and my Mandalorian lore is my weakest point.)

dear god were these fight scenes bad

I did spot Morai and I appreciated the tookas

okay, I am taking the next thing out of bullet points because I was really, really upset by it, and as an Asian-American woman it affects me directly.

I was really, really shaken by the use of village of (space) Asian people who were portrayed solely as background victims to be tortured and exploited. Star Wars has a long history of Orientalism, and some of it I can look away from and some of I can’t. Mando especially has a very bad track record with its treatment of Asian characters (Fennec Shand), and in recent years the rest of Star Wars live action has also been pretty bad about it; I will never forget how shaken and upset I was by Paige Tico’s death at the beginning of TLJ, and Rose’s sidelining in TROS was a lot to deal with. There has also been some pretty appalling anti-Asian racism from the Mandalorian fandom that I have seen in regards towards casting rumors about Sabine (which brought me to the point of tears as recently as yesterday).

I had been braced for Rosario Dawson Ahsoka because it’s been rumored for so long, if never officially confirmed by Lucasfilm, and after they pulled the original VA for Leia from Resistance a few years ago (without ever making an official statement but it was after she made really dismissive statements during the Kavanaugh hearings) I was still really hoping they’d pull Dawson for the transphobic assault allegations, or that the rumors were false, or...something. I was not expecting the way that they treated the Asian civilian population here. I kept hoping that there was going to be something, and it’s like they kept almost going there with Governor Wing (you want to make either his name or his position clear in the actual episode, maybe?) but then kept pulling back, which just made the whole population victims that had to be rescued by outsiders. And exploited, and tortured, and abused in general.

And yes, I’m aware the Magistrate/Morgan Elsbeth is an Asian-American woman. That doesn’t make it better? Since Ahsoka presumably kills her offscreen?

(Also Diana Lee Inosanto is a stunt performer and a fight choreographer, why is that fight scene so wooden, damn.)

okay back to bullet points to wrap up

I realize I haven’t said much about Din and the kid and that’s because they didn’t...do...much? I guess if you’re actually invested in them “YAY HE HAS FEELINGS” is a major thing but I’m not

I have flashes of being invested in Din, but the problem is that I never know what the hell this show is doing because it’s all over the place. We are 5/8 of the way into season 2 and I have no idea what it’s trying to do: they keep setting stuff up and then not doing anything with it. I can make vague predictions based on what’s set up and based on my knowledge of canon, but this show is so weirdly set up and paced that I can never tell if they’re something for A Reason, for the lulz, or for the Aesthetic.

I feel extremely vindicated by the revelation a few weeks ago that Din grew up in a cult but I also straight-up feel like I spent the past year being gaslighted about what Mandalorians were, and that’s...not a great feeling. Do I think that the show is going to do anything with that? Fuck, I don’t know. I hope so. I know what I’d do as a writer. But I can’t predict anything they’re doing and that makes me really uneasy.

jeez, at least when George Lucas was making Star Wars you knew he was doing it to entertain himself and tell a specific story rather than constantly having to go back and wonder what story lines got compromised for a project down the road.

like, is this why they did mo-cap Ahsoka in S7, to brace us for live action Ahsoka here? I know they had already filmed Mando S2 before S1 came out. WHY THEY DIDN’T THEY REUSE LAUREN MARY KIM AS AHSOKA’S STUNT DOUBLE THEN? it’s not like she hasn’t stunted in Mando before?

if this was supposed to be a backdoor pilot to a Rebels sequel...I will flip a table

I enjoyed the Bad Batch eps in TCW S7 but knowing that there’s going to be a Bad Batch show I’m now wondering if they’re only in S7 to backdoor pilot that show

how far back does this go? did they put the Legacy of Mandalore story line in Rebels S4 solely to set up for this? especially considering that that’s the one thing in S4 that actually has saga weight and then they immediately got rid of everything it accomplished to set up for this?

I presume that this is the reason they refused to release the turnaround for Ahsoka’s epilogue look two years ago. apparently it doesn’t matter given they changed her entire epilogue color scheme and also her lekku and personality.

Look -- at the end of the day, there was only about a 2% chance I was ever going to like this episode, but I was holding out for it nevertheless. I do get surprised from time to time! I liked the Bo-Katan episode! This was, however, a hot mess. And yes: a lot of the things that bother me are not going to bother other people. (I haven’t seen anyone comment on the Asian villagers, for example.)

#just so there is no doubt: I HATED THIS EPISODE #the mandalorian spoilers #bedlam watches the mandalorian #mando the jedi

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bamfdaddio · 3 years

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X-Men Abridged: 1975

The X-Men, those super dramatic mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 94 - 96) - by Chris Claremont, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum

You think I won’t automatically be able to include a powerful Storm-moment in every instalment? Watch me. Claremont is a much bigger Storm-fan than I am. (X-Men 96)

So, originally, the plan for the All-New X-Men would’ve been very different: the series would have remained Giant-Sized and it would’ve come out four times per year. This format would have allowed enough room to split focus between thirteen team-members. However, when the Krakoa-issue turned out to be crazily uncannily astonishingly popular, the series became a bi-monthly series. This necessitated some changes, especially in the roster.

Also, there’s this new writer? Chris Claremont? idk man, he seems a little dramatic

The first thing this new kid on the block does, is clean house: he jettisons almost all of the original X-Men, except for Cyclops. In a tear-filled goodbye, we finally get our first on-panel kiss between Jean and Scott. Fucking finally, only took you twelve years, but also: aw.

C’mon Scott, you can try long distance! Consider the benefits, like not having to look at your girlfriend dressing like a Hart-of-Dixie villain. (And don’t think you’re off the hook, Lorna. You look like a Christmas ornament) (X-Men 94)

Sunfire, surprising no-one, also leaves. (For real this time.) I’ve always wondered what the original plan for him would have been, but considering there are two other grumpy and angry rebels on the team (Thunderbird and Wolverine), I understand why Shiro would be a little redundant. It is a shame that it’s a POC that gets discarded, especially considering what happens later.

No time for absent souls, let’s get into the plot! Thunderbird desperately wants to prove himself, while Scott wants him to show some restraint. They butt heads and T-bird gets hurt during training. Despite his injury, he insisting he joins the team on their next mission! Because it’s the Avenging Ex-X-Man Beast who calls for aid.

I love that Beast brushes aside this almost entirely new team of X-Men just as easily as my aunt brushed aside the new boyfriend I brought home for Christmas. (X-Men 94)

As an aside, I’m assuming y’all know what happened to the Beast: in the Avengers, he experimented on himself and turned himself furry and blue. One of his most iconic moments! (And it didn’t even happen in an X-Men comic.)

Count Nefaria has once again allied himself with a team of silly super-villains and invaded the NORAD (North-American Air Command) in order to ransom the entire world with nuclear weapons. When the X-Men approach, Count Nefaria shoots them from the sky and we get one of the hallmarks of Claremont’s writing: the sometimes unnecessarily DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER! Because the issue ends as the X-Men plummet to their FOR SURE INEVITABLE deaths…

Except, you know, Colossus doesn’t really do falling damage and Storm and Banshee can fly.

Look, realistically, all of them would’ve hit the ground somewhere around Kurt’s second sentence. (X-Men 95)

When everyone is safely down, Nightcrawler teleports inside the base and lets the rest of the X-Men in. Colossus gets to shine by protecting the rest of them from bullets, while Storm washes the hypnotized soldiers away with a quick flood. They fight the Ani-Men but the two X-Men who haven’t had the time to shine… are promptly knocked out.

“Gort wanted to take out that mutant, so Gort just threw the first thing Gort could find.”

“Which was?”

“Another mutant.” (X-Men 95)

Banshee and Thunderbird perform pretty poorly, while the other X-Men try and stop the Doomsday Clock that Nefaria started.

It’s a little confusing how the clock is stopped - somehow, all the fighting and ruckus in the base stopped the clock from going to zero, preventing the launching of the nukes? Seems like a design flaw, US government! Anyway, the Doomsday Clock is not the focus of this story, not really: this is a story about John Proudstar and his desperate need to prove himself. In order to stop Count Nefaria from escaping, the heretofore useless John jumps on his plane and begins tearing at it.

It’s a foolish plan. The plane ascends and begins to smoke while John keeps pulling off bits and pieces. Banshee gives chase, screaming at Thunderbird to get the fuck off that thing (laddie). But…

Just like John, Charles doesn’t recognize a hopeless situation when he’s right in the middle of it and is just as unwilling to let go. (X-Men 95)

Now, John Proudstar is not entirely unproblematic as a character. With Storm, they get things mostly right, especially considering what decade this was and how white Marvel was. Thunderbird, on the other hand, veers dangerously close to becoming a nasty indigenous stereotype, especially considering his outfit and attitude. Claremont will redeem himself in the future by writing much better characters that are Cheyenne and Apache - Forge, Mirage, Warpath - but as it stands now? John is barely a flat character and it’s a shame that, after writing out Sunfire, the first character to die is also a POC.

And yet, despite the fact that this storyline is Claremont’s first X-Men attempt, and despite the fact that it’s uneven, over-dramatic and has a silly villain, it still takes balls to kill a member of a barely established team. (Especially considering the time and age.) And, while the plotting is a bit thin, the moment where Xavier feels Thunderbird die is pretty effective.

The next story is a lot more typically Claremont, and a lot better. Back in Westchester, Emo!Scott, in all his failure-as-a-leader, someone-died-on-my-watch anguish, damages a cairn when he lets loose. Randomly, this is a capstone to some demonic dimension and Scotty accidentally unleashes a demon.

Can´t you imagine this scene being a lot funnier if the yellow panels are just Claremont shouting at Cyclops? Can’t you?! Can’t you?! (X-Men 96)

Meanwhile, Stephen Lang, an anti-mutant army-man, wants to kick off Project Armageddon, which builds on themes established by the Trasks. Michael Rossi, a colonel who gets imported from the Ms. Marvel-lines Claremont was working on before, wants to hear none of this, so Stephen has a little accident arranged.

Back in the mansion, a surprise new addition to the cast arrives!

Maybe housekeeper was one of the identities Moira X had tried out in a previous life, before quickly realizing that being a scientist would better suit her purposes. (X-Men 96)

Her welcome is rudely interrupted by the arrival of the demon!

More like Unholy Hannah, amirite? (X-Men 96)

Both Wolverine and Storm get their chance to shine, before Storm manages to restore the cairn and lock out the demon invasion. And this is where Claremont actually shines. He’s great at building concurrently running storylines, teasing future plots instead of making it a mishmash of X-Men being attacked by random villains. Furthermore, he actually uses action scenes to further the plot or give depth to his characters. Deftly, he introduces Wolverine’s berserker side and teases at Storm’s claustrophobia. Check it out:

Hey, James, I think your barbarian just unlocked the berserker rage feat. (X-Men 96)

Sure, Claremont sometimes makes the X-Men little more than a superhero soap opera, but he does it so well. We’re truly in a new era now. I can’t wait.

For Whom the Death Tolls: Thunderbird. One of the few X-Men for whom death is actually a sort of permanent state. Has he been spotted on Krakoa yet?

What could have been: Imagine X-Men if Sunfire or Thunderbird had taken the place of ‘angry loner’ on the team, instead of Wolverine. Also, I wonder why Claremont never bothered to connect the demons under the cairn to Limbo - the N’Garai are an entirely separate dimension. Maybe Westchester is just a hotbed of demonic activity.

What to read: None of it is truly pivotal, but X-Men 94 and 95 are hallmarks for the death of Thunderbird. X-Men 96 should be on your reading list if you’re a fan of Wolverine and Storm.

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tanyawritesstories · 3 years

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Liquid Hearts | The Mandalorian x Reader pt. 7 finale

It's the end! This is the last chapter in this series, I hope y'all have enjoyed the entire thing thus far. I hope you think this end is satisfying, sorry if this chapter is so much shorter than the other ones. I hope you enjoy! 🥰

Series Masterlist

Word count: 2.6k

Warnings: fluff, so many feelings, arguing, canon divergence, more fluff, hints at past abuse, Din is adorable when nervous

•••

Din’s jaw dropped under his helmet. The Supreme Chancellor’s daughter. How was that even possible? This entire time he’d been traveling with an extremely powerful and important person and he hadn’t even known it. “That makes sense,” he heard Cara say from behind him. Din walked over to Y/N. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She sighed. “It wasn’t important and I was trying to stay away, to be invisible,” she answered. “I left the Rebellion just before the war ended. I was tired of it. Tired of being held hostage, tired of being protected and treated like an object of power.”

“My husband was an X-Wing pilot, I married him right after my mother said it was ok if we left the rebel cause. I never turned my back on them, never betrayed them. But I hated being in the spotlight, having to give orders, having to kill, having to tell families that their loved ones had died in combat,” tears accumulated in her eyes again. “I could only live that life for so long.”

Din wasn’t mad at her, how could he be? He realized now that the past she didn’t want to tell him about had been riddled with hurt and abuse. He understood now.

“Fett should be here soon and I’ll be gone,” Fennec said. She walked to Din and Y/N. “I hope everything works out,” she said to Din. “Thank you, Fennec,” Y/N said, “for helping rescue me and my daughter.” Fennec nodded to her and left the bridge. “What now?” Koska asked. “We wait, until the New Republic arrives and we sort everything out,” Bo-Katan answered her.

~~~~

It was a tense hour and a half until the New Republic X-Wing transports showed up. Luke hopped back in his X-Wing and helped escort the light cruiser to the nearest habitable planet with a suitable secluded spot where they could land. The X-Wings landed first, their pilots exited the craft and waited.

Y/N came out of the light cruiser with Din, Cara, Koska, and Bo-Katan all behind her. Din had offered to carry Mandi for her while she did official business. Y/N greeted Carson and Trapper beside their X-Wings. “So how have you boys been?” “Getting old,” Carson replied. Y/N laughed, “it’s good to see you both again.” Carson put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry about your husband,” he said. Y/N smiled sadly and nodded. “The Chancellor is on her way here, she should arrive in a few minutes,” he said.

“She’s coming in person?” Y/N questioned. “Of course she is, she hasn’t seen her daughter in four years,” Trapper put in. Within a few minutes a large New Republic transport landed. Several armed guards and security exited the craft first and stood at attention. Then Mon Mothma herself came out of the craft. She looked at her daughter and saw the turmoil in her eyes, walking towards Y/N with her arms open. Y/N ran into her mother’s arms, hugging her tight.

“I missed you, my dear,” she said. “I missed you too, mama,” Y/N replied. They pulled away and Mon Mothma pushed Y/N’s hair out of her face. “I’m so sorry about Aogen, I heard what happened,” Mothma said. “Are you doing alright?” Y/N nodded and smiled sadly, “I’m getting there.” Mothma cupped her daughter’s cheek. “Last I heard, you were only weeks away from your due date. I haven’t seen my grandchild yet.”

Y/N smiled and turned around, motioning for Din to bring Mandi over. He hesitantly approached with Mandi in his arms and Grogu in the shoulder bag. Y/N took the baby from him and placed her in her grandmother’s arms. “This is your granddaughter, Mandi,” Y/N said. The older woman smiled and cooed over the baby. “How old is she now?” “A little under three weeks,” Y/N answered. “She seems like a healthy, happy young one,” Mothma stated. “We have this Mandalorian to thank for that,” Y/N said motioning to Din. “He delivered her, and has been helping me take care of her ever since.”

Din flushed under his helmet, not used to the attention and he wasn’t sure if he liked it. “You have my deepest thanks, for protecting both of them,” Mothma told Din. He wasn’t sure how to respond. “Um, it was my pleasure,” he managed to say. She handed Mandi back to Y/N. “I hate to have to talk business but you said you captured Moff Gideon,” she said. “Not me,” Y/N said. She turned around and faced the others that came with her. “They did, plus a couple others that couldn’t stay for the festivities.”

Mon Mothma addressed the three women and Din. “You all have my utmost thanks and the thanks of the New Republic,” she looked back at Y/N. “Where do you have him?” Y/N smiled and jerked her head towards Cara. “New Republic Marshal Dune will lead you to him.” Cara smirked as Mothma told a few guards to go with Cara to get Gideon. “I will address the situation of Mandalore with the other two later, they have been on the radar for sometime, I will work something out with them,” Mothma ensured.

Luke approached and the Chancellor greeted him. “What was your issue with Luke this time?” Mothma asked her daughter. Y/N got a determined expression on her face. “He wants to take this child away from his father,” Y/N answered. She pointed to Grogu, who looked up at the strangers with curious eyes. “He must be trained or he will continuously be at risk,” Luke said. “Fine, but can Mando at least be allowed to visit your school and see his son, you can’t take him away forever!” Y/N protested.

Luke thought for a moment. “I suppose that could be an option,” he said. “Anytime he wants, they’re extremely attached to each other, and the kid only listens to Mando anyway,” Y/N added. “I can agree with these terms,” Luke said with a nod. “Does that sound good to you, Mando?” Y/N asked Din. He looked between the three expectant faces all waiting for an answer from him. “I just want the kid to be safe,” he said. “Very well, perhaps you would like to visit when the school is finally finished,” Luke offered. “Then you could see your little one in action.”

Din nodded slowly. “I’d like that.” Luke nodded respectfully to Din. “We have one more thing to discuss,” Mothma said. “This Mandalorian hasn’t exactly had pleasant run-ins with the New Republic recently.” Din sighed, there had to be a catch. Y/N stood tall. “I will take on any lawful repercussions that he may have warranted,” Y/N announced. Din looked between Y/N and her mother. “No,” he said, putting his arm around Y/N’s back. “I can’t let you do that for me. You already let yourself get captured and tortured by the Imps.” “I know, and you saved me, so we’re even,” Y/N said. “Now I’m doing this for you, so-”

“No, I can take responsibility for my own choices,” Din said, taking her hand. “That won’t be necessary,” Mothma interrupted. She called to someone behind her who walked over. “See that this Mandalorian’s criminal record gets wiped clean.” Y/N and Din exchanged glances. “You have done a great service to the New Republic today, it’s the least we can do for you,” the Chancellor said. Y/N got excited and wrapped Din into a tight hug. He chuckled and hugged her back. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some other Mandalorians to talk to.”

~~~~

It took a couple weeks to sort everything out. The New Republic had promised to help Bo-Katan any way they could although it looked bleak. Y/N hid the Darksaber on the ship they were taking back to Trask to pick up a couple other Mandalorians. Din was given plenty of time to say goodbye to Grogu and even flew him to Luke’s Jedi school on Ach-To to drop him off. Y/N had come with and Luke took them both on a tour. They decided to stay the night and Din found Y/N away from everyone else, sitting on a rock and watching the sunset.

“Can I join you?” Y/N smiled. “Of course.” Din took a seat next to her and stared out at the water. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who I was initially,” she said. “It’s ok, I understand why you did,” Din replied. “I’m still sorry, that I was such a burden, that I dragged you into the whole New Republic mess, I know I-” “Hey,” Din put his hand on her knee. “You weren’t a burden, not at all. In fact….I enjoyed our time...together.” She smiled at him again, “As did I.” Y/N took his hand off her knee and held it in her hands. “Mando, I...I meant what you saw me say when I was taken,” She stuttered. “I know you may not feel the same way, but I have to get this out. I love you.”

She looked out at the setting sun. “I thought it was wrong at first, my husband hasn’t been gone that long but it….I’ve never felt this way before, and…” she trailed off. Din shucked off his gloves and couldn’t resist reaching over to cup her cheek and turn her head to look at him. “Y/N I….I love you too.” He sighed shakily, might as well let it all out. “I’ve tried to deny it, tell myself it wasn’t real, but I’ve never felt anything like I do when I’m around you. You’re so good with both the kids and you’re such a strong person…”

Y/N smiled and leaned over to him, pressing a kiss to the cheek of his helmet. “I know that’s as close as I’ll ever get to you, but that’s ok. I love you regardless and I always will, you’ve done more for me in a matter of weeks than anyone has in my whole life. Thank you for that.” Din's heart rate sped up as he thought of an idea. “That’s not exactly true,” he said. “Family members can see my face, I..I let Grogu see me just before I let him go with Luke. And Mandi saw me without it by accident.”

Y/N laughed, a heavenly sound that Din thought could drive away any bad weather. “What do you mean on accident?” Din sighed. “The first night on that frozen planet, while you were sleeping she woke up so I took her up into the cockpit with me and got her back to sleep, I was eating and bumped my helmet and woke her up. I picked her up to calm her down and she opened her eyes,” he explained. Y/N giggled again. “No wonder she thought you were her father, you were the first male face she saw.”

Din chuckled and took a deep breath, standing up and pulling Y/N with him. “I...I want to show you…” She shook her head. “If you don’t feel comfortable then don’t, I’m not pushing you to-” “I want to,” Din said. He slowly placed both hands on his helmet and lifted it off his head. Awe was written all over her face as she looked at him. “Stars, you...you’re beautiful…” she breathed. Din blushed and looked at the ground. She cupped his cheeks in her hands and made him look at her. “Would you look at that, I’ve fallen in love with the most stunning being in the whole galaxy.”

“You, you’re stunning too,” he said, still blushing. “Yes, most beautiful..” It was Y/N’s turn to blush now. “You’re too sweet, Mando,” she said. “Din,” he corrected. “My name is Din.” She smiled. “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any better,” she mused. “What happens now?” He sighed, setting his helmet on the ground and taking both her hands in his. “I know we haven’t known each other for long but I’ve been all over the galaxy, met all kinds of people and I’ve never known anyone who makes me feel the way you do. I don’t want to pass it up and never have the chance again..”

“Neither do I,” she agreed. “What do you say? Together from here on out?” He nodded. “Yes, I’m not losing you again.” Y/N smiled up at him as happy tears welled in her eyes. “Can I kiss you, Din?” A smile came to his face, “yes.” Y/N leaned up and her lips met with his in a passionate kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he pulled her closer by her waist. They stayed connected for as long as they could go without air before reluctantly breaking apart. Their foreheads rested against each other, basking in their newfound love. Din quietly asked her a question.

“Marry me?”

Four years later…

Mandi bounded off the Razor Crest, her bare feet touching down on Ach-To’s lush grasses. She ran up the hill and searched through the groups of children in Jedi training, looking for her older brother. She spotted him with a group of other children, practicing their levitation. “Grogu!” She called out. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her over to her brother, greeting him with a hug which he returned. “Mandi!” He gurgled happily. The little girl was now taller than Grogu despite the fact that he had been growing.

“Mandi!” She looked over her shoulder to see her father walking with her mother. “Don’t disturb them while they're training, you can wait,” he called. Luke came out of a nearby hut, smiling at his visitors. “It’s quite alright, Mandi. They can have a break,” Luke assured her. Mandi took Grogu’s hand and the children wandered off together. Luke strode over to Din and Y/N. “I see a lot has happened since I last saw you both,” he remarked. “Only ever good things,” Y/N said, rocking the newborn in her arms. He looked more like Din than Mandi did. Luke placed a gloved hand on the baby’s head.

“It’s been a bit of a wild ride,” Din said with a smile, “she went into labor early again.” Luke watched as their child slowly woke up and looked around. “What’s his name?” Din and Y/N exchanged glances. “Mar’eyce,” Din answered. “It’s Mando’a for discovery, and finding a state of heaven,” Y/N added. “He’s a result of the heaven we found with each other.” Luke smiled and looked back down at the little one. “A perfect name.” He let the baby clamp onto his finger and Luke’s brow furrowed for just a moment, something Din noticed. “What is it?”

Luke chuckled. “You two are going to have your hands full,” he said. “This little one is Force sensitive as well.” Y/N’s jaw dropped and she laughed. Din was shocked. “How do you know?” “I can feel it, most likely Mandi and Grogu can as well. Mar’eyce is strong with the Force,” Luke informed. “Stars, you’re potent,” Y/N joked, slapping Din’s chest plate. “Hey, hey,” he admonished lightly. “We’re in public.” Luke smiled at them. “I’d best find where Mandi and Grogu ran off too, he will be eager to help teach her how to levitate things.”

Luke left Din and Y/N and the woman laughed. “What’s so funny, my love?” Din asked. “We are outnumbered by Force sensitive children, this’ll be fun.” Din put his arm around her and held her close to him, smoothing his hand over his biological son’s little head.

“Yes, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #din djarin x reader #grogu #frozen series #star wars fanfiction #series finale

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fallen420 · 4 years

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Rebel Spy - Chapter 12: The Trio

After all the chaos that happened with the ice planet, the frog lady, the baby eating her eggs, landing the practically destroyed crest, reuniting the frog lady with her husband, we finally seem to catch a break. These Quarrens know where other Mandalorians are and agreed to take us to them on their boat.

The baby's pod floats in between me and Din as we look out onto the ocean breathing in the salty air.

“You ever see a mamacore eat?” A Quarren says to us, “Quite a sight.” When neither of us responds the Quarren speaks again,” Child might take an interest. You should take a look. Come on over here.”

We follow the Quarren to the middle of the ship where there's a huge hole covered by a cage. We stand at the edge of it and we watch as the Quarren open the cage and drop fish inside. The Quarren is talking some more but I don’t listen.

I watch as the water begins to bubble and before either of us can react the Quarren pushed the baby's pod into the water right above the mamacore.

“No!” Din and I yell at the same time. Next thing I know I’m also being pushed in.

I hold my breath as I try to look around but it's no use in the murky water. I hear a splash and I know it's Din jumping in after us.

Din and I swim up to the top, grabbing onto the bars, coughing as we attempt to catch our breaths. The Quarrens above us hit our hands making us let go of the bars.

I take a deep breath and I sink back down once more. Din seems to be having more trouble than me as he goes back up for air sooner.

Once the burning in my lungs becomes too much I go back up with Din just in time to see a blue Mandalorian land and attack the Quarrens. Din continues to cough as we see two more Mandalorians land helping the first one.

I only get a glimpse of the first ones helmet but I immediately remember that day the first and only time I ever met her before today.

The cage opens again and I grab onto the edge holding myself up. Bo kneels down in front of the water and puts her hand out in front of me. I shake my head, “Him first.” She puts her hand out in front of Din and he takes it, “Theres a creature,” I say through ragged breaths, “Has my kid.”

As one Mandalorian helps me out the other jumps in to get the kid. Bo sits Din and the Mandalorian sits me next to him. “The Child help the child,” Din begs Bo, his voice strained from all the coughing.

“Don’t worry brother. We’ve got this.”

Din places a hand on my thigh and squeezes as we both try to catch our breaths.

After a few agonizing moments, the Mandalorian jumps out with the pod in her hands. She kneels down next to us and rips off the lid of his pod.

She takes him out and hands him to me. I make sure he's alright and I hold him close to my side. Din reaches over to brush his ear before looking back at the Mandalorians, “Thank you. I’ve been searching for more of our kind.”

“Well, lucky we found you first,” Bo says.

“We’ve been quested to deliver this child I was hoping that…” Din stops speaking when they take off their helmets

Oh no

Din stands up getting in defensive mode, “Where did you get that armor?”

“This armor has been in my family for three generations.”

“You do not cover your face. You are not Mandalorian.”

“Mando,” I say, stepping closer to him, “This is Bo-Katan, she was the leader of Mandalore. Last I knew of at least.” I know he's wondering how I know her but he decides to ask later.

“He's one of them,” the man says

“One of what?” Din asks.

“She's right, I’m of clan Kryze. I was born in Mandalore. I fought in the Purge. I am the last of my line. And you are a Child of the Watch.”

“The Watch?”

“Children of the Watch are a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Mandalorian society/ Their goal was to re-establish the ancient way.”

“There is only one way. The way of the Mandalore.”

Din walks over to the edge of the boat before I follow I whisper, “I’m sorry,” to Bo.

Din grabs on to me tightly, he turns on the jetpack, and we fly away.

“What do you mean it makes sense?!” Din practically runs ahead of me with the baby in his hands. We walk through the doc trying to get back to our ship. It's dark and both of us are very irritable after the past few horrible days we’ve been having.

“I mean it makes sense.”

“Would you care to explain?” he stops walking and turns around.

“I told you I knew another Mandalorian for some time. She had her helmet off most of the time. When I met you I figured you had older views.” He just huffs and turns around, “Just because your way is different than theirs doesn’t make you or them any less of a Mandalorian.”

“How is it that you know everybody?” He decides to take this argument in a different direction.

“You meet a lot of important people when you fight in a rebellion,” but that answer isn't good enough for him, “Look for a while I hung out with a crew and we went on a mission to save one of the members' fathers. Bo came in as reinforcements that's all.”

He turns around and keeps walking, “Look I can’t imagine what it's to know that something you’ve been told your entire life is not the complete truth. I’ll never know. But aren't you slightly open to the idea that there's another way?”

If he was planning on responding he doesn’t get to because Quarren comes out of the dark corner. “Hey!”

“Oh come on,” I whisper angrily at the fact that we have to deal with yet another problem.

The Quarren steps closer to us, “You killed my brother.” More Quarrens come out of the darkness.

“Let us pass,” Din says.

“I don't think you understand.” Din and I both notice the Quarren charging their weapons, “You killed my brother. And now I’m going to kill your pet.” My hand hovers above my blaster as he gets closer to us.

Luckily, Bo and the others come down to help us.

“They didn’t kill your brother,” Bo says, “I did.” Bo shoots and we all take that as a queue to shot the rest. Which we do. In just a few seconds all the Quarren are dead.

“Can we at least buy you a drink?” Bo asks.

“Please.” Is all I say before walking towards the nearest Cantina.

“Trask is a black market port,” Bo says. We all sit around at a table. The baby sits in between me and Bo. Dins hand finds my thigh again probably his way of apologizing for snapping at me earlier. “They’re staging weapons that have been bought and sold with the plunders of our planet. We’re seizing those weapons and using them to retake our homeworld. Once we do that we’ll seat a new Mandalore on the throne.”

“That planet is cursed. Anyone who goes there dies. Once the Empire knew they couldn’t control it, they made sure no one else could either.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear. They wanna separate us. Mandalorians are stronger together.”

“That's not apart of our plan. I’ve been requested to take this child to the Jedi.”

“What do you know of the Jedi?”

“Nothing. Only what Auroras told me.”

“We were also hoping you could help,” I say, “I lost all contact with the ones I knew.”

“I can lead you to one of their kind, but first we need your help on our mission.”

Why is there always a mission?

“You see that Imperial Gozanti freighter?” Bo asks us. We stand on a broken ship in a junkyard of some type, looking at the freighter that is sitting on a doc, “It's being loaded with weapons as we speak. “According to the ports manifest, its scheduled to depart at first light.”

They explain how they scan for life forms before taking off which means that we have to fly up there once it takes off.

After discussing the plan Din and I drop the kid off with the frog lady where he will be safe. Both of us make sure to tell him not to eat any more of her eggs.

Before Din and I can even land, Bo and Koska take out the stormtroopers guarding the doors to the ship.

Axe uses a splicer to open the door. When it opens Bo runs inside killing the three stormtroopers that were waiting for us. The rest of us follow in behind her. Din and I stay further back and I’m slightly behind him since I don’t have beskar protecting me.

In front of us, doors open revealing more stormtroopers. We use the sides to take cover. Each of us shoots at the troopers as we slowly inch forward.

Lucky for us troopers have bad aim and we don’t so we take them out easily. We walk over the troopers' bodies and we carry on onto the next room.

We take an elevator into the cargo bay where the weapons are. Again we are met by stormtroopers. We take out the troopers in the hall but before we can enter the cargo bay the doors closed.

Without saying anything I walk over to the panels in front of us. I press a few buttons and the screaming confirms that the doors to the cargo bay opened making all the imps in there fly out.

I close the doors and I open the ones in front of us so we can get the weapons.

The Mandalorians start opening the boxes and admire all the weapons.

Bo talks on the comlink to one of the imperial officers "Oh, We’re not jettisoning anything. We’re taking the entire ship.”

“Huh?” I say in confusion.

“What?” Din also questions.

“Put some tea on we’ll be up in a minute,” She puts the comlink down and Din and I walk up to her.

“Bo, this is more than we signed up for,” I tell her.

“There is something I need to rule Mandalore. Something that was once mine. You were there when I first go it, Aurora.”

“You lost the darksaber?”

“I was stolen from me,” she says defensively, “Look they know where it is. Regardless, we are taking the ship for the battles ahead.

“I got you your weapons,” Din says, “We have to return to our ship with the foundling.”

“If you want my help finding the Jedi, you will help me take this ship.”

“You’re changing the terms of the deal.”

“This is the way,” she says almost mockingly.

She walks out and the other two follow leaving me and Din alone.

“The faster we do this, the sooner we can be back on the crest with the kid.” He just nods his head before following the others.

We start to make our way towards the front of the ship where the cockpit is. The ship moves suddenly and we all fall to the sides. Din grabs my hand as we hold on to the walls. The pilot is taking the ship down to try and get us off of here.

“Let's move!” Bo says. Din lets go of my hands and we both pull out our blasters, “There’s the bridge. Come on!”

There are more stormtroopers waiting for us and we take cover on either side of the doors.

“How many troopers?” Bo asks.

“Sit to ten. Two with heavy repeating blasters,” Axe answers her.

“We need to move now.”

“They have too much firepower!”

“Were still dropping,” Koska reminds us.

Din puts his hand in mine and he squeezes which means he's about to do something stupid. He lets go and he takes two charges out of his utility belt, “Be careful.” I tell him and he nods.

“Cover me!” Is all he says before running out into the trooper's blasts. All of the blasts bounce off his armor. I see him lay down before throwing the chargers where the stormtroopers stand.

I cover my face as fire and smoke begin to fill the area. Once it clears we run out and Din is already standing up, running towards the cockpit not giving me the chance to even ask if he's okay.

We open the door to the cockpit. Din grabs the pilot and throws him out of the chair. Din sits on the pilot's seat while I sit in the co-pilots.

We both grab on to the control wheels in front of us. Both of us pull up trying our hardest to stop this ship from plummeting into the ocean.

“Easy, easy,” Din says his voice strained from using all his strength to get this ship up

After a few moments of pulling up, we feel the ship start to go up in the air again. We both let go and start to catch our breaths.

“No!” Bo yells and as we turn around the imperial officer is on the ground.

“Look we have to go, he sent a distress signal,” I tell her.

Din and I stand up and Koska takes his spot.

“Are you sure you won’t join us?” Bo asks.

“There’s something I need to do,” Din says.

“The offer stands if you change your mind.”

“Where can we find the Jedi?” I ask her.

“Take the foundling to the city of Calodan on the forest plant of Corvus. There you will find Ahsoka Tano. Tell her you were sent by Bo-Katan. And thank you. The both of you. Your bravery will not be forgotten. This is the way.”

“This is the way,” Din repeats.

We get the kid back from the frog lady and her husband. We finally sit on the falling apart razor crest the kid seated in my lab as Din starts the ship.

Once he gets the ship in the air I ask, “Are you good?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he doesn’t turn around to face me like he normally would.

“I mean with everything Bo said. Don't you wanna talk about it?”

“There's nothing to talk about Aurora.”

“Right, it’s always nothing isn’t it.”

#Pedro Pascal #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x oc #the mandalorian #the mandalorian x oc #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x oc #bo katan kryze #bo katan #baby yoda #agent whiskey #Frankie Morales #oberyn martell x reader #agent whiskey x reader #pero tovar #dave york

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sheresh0y · 3 years

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Mar'eyce: Chapter Ten

Pairing: Din Djarin x fem!Mando OC Kaiyah Awaud

Word Count: 8.0k

Rating: M, 18+, no younglings. This is a mature fic.

Warnings: Language, sexism and lewd comments, Kaiyah has big issues with Bo-Katan, non-sexual nudity, a little angst and some miscommunication, Grogu attempts electrical work. As always no beta and too much Mando'a with translations and lore at the end.

Author’s Note: I have thrown some personal lore in this chapter that I'm hyped for. However, this means that Kaiyah and Bo-Katan do not get along, if you're a Bo fan I'm sorry. There was really no other way around it. I also make mentions to Kaiyah's height and hair again in this chapter, if I missed something let me know!

Summary: “Are you proposing? The answer is no, Mando. I’m not marrying you.”

Read from the beginning: Mar'eyce Masterlist

Kaiyah didn’t have a good feeling about the Quarren’s ship. She hadn’t had a good feeling about anything since Mr. And Mrs. Frog got reunited. Hells, even before that. It didn’t help that it seemed like Mando was mad at her too, in her defense she didn’t think that wandering off would be so terrible. How was she supposed to know that ice spiders were a thing? They all just wanted something to do since Mando was being a grouch and not letting anyone touch the Razor Crest and the hot spring seemed like a good idea.

It didn’t help that Mando was a wanted man either and the New Republic was on their ass. She had offered to go out there, use some fancy Rebel slang and get it taken care of by being an ally but the stubborn man had just told her to stay put. Why was she being sidelined for things? Even now on Trask with him being so close to something he wanted he ignored her telling him that something on the planet was watching them.

The feeling of eyes on the back of her head had followed her out to the middle of the ocean where the Quarren was trying to get them over to the mamacore. Reaching out to grab Mando’s elbow when their host had his back turned, Kaiyah shook her head. She wasn’t worried about the mamacore, she was more worried about being cornered somewhere. The edge of the ship meant a quick getaway if this was going to go south, the middle meant they could be picked off easily. Mando just shrugged, not getting why she was making a big deal of it and walked with Vor’ika to the middle letting him get a good view of the open grate.

Kaiyah stood her ground next to the railing, keeping a watch on the deck. Maybe she was being paranoid, the Quarren were taking them to a Covert for a decent price. They probably just wanted to be good hosts, there was no reason to think that they weren’t going to keep their word.

Standing back the two men and small child got sprayed as the mamacore went to town on the fish in the sack. Vor’ika leaned forward slightly as the captain started talking again. “She must be hungry. Oftentimes we’ll feed her in the early morning, but we missed that ‘cause we were heading out of port,” he grunted as he punted the silver pram into the water.

Laughing they started to prod Kaiyah with their spears, “Beskar is ours! Quick get ‘er in there!”

She deflected blows while Mando dove in, searching for the baby. A few made it past the gaps in her armor, not enough to wound her but prod her to the closing grate. In a surprising turn of events, she wished that her sentra wasn’t busted, it would have been easier to get them out of her immediate range.

“Come on, pretty. You’re making it easy for us!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t kill ‘er. Might be worth something extra.”

“Bet she’d make a good pet.”

At the smarmy remarks, Kaiyah switched to the offensive, shoving and forcing them out of her space, getting in one good kov’nyn as she drew her kad. Dancing around the grate as it shut, she saw Mando sink. Fending a few more sailors off in a series of parries and short strikes Kaiyah attempted to make her way to the controls, only to be pushed back to the beginning as Mando’s jetpack lit up the water.

He coughed as he broke the surface, hands dancing around the bars as Kaiyah tried to draw more attention to herself. Nothing was working as she ducked and dodged their lazy jabbing attempts. When he inevitably lost his grip again and sunk, she was struck with a paralyzing thought.

Did Mando not know how to swim?

Before she could make a move, two blue Mandalorians dropped from the sky and Kaiyah ran straight to the control panel in the distraction. If he couldn’t swim he didn’t have much time left and these two - no, three - Mandos had it covered. He needed her and she would be there.

One of the kebiin crew was there as the gate slid open and Kaiyah shouted at them to move as Mando broke the surface. Hoisting him up he coughed out something about Vor’ika, Kaiyah didn’t know. She couldn’t hear anything over the blood rushing through her ears. She barely registered one of the others confirming they had it taken care of.

Setting him down on the deck Mando’s chest racked with another round of coughs, “The kid.”

“They’ve got it, Mando. Look at me,” Kaiyah snapped. She couldn’t do much with him wearing the helmet and she damn near wanted to rip it off him so he could breathe air like he was supposed to. It had never been a temptation for her before, seeing Mando without the helmet. His creed was his own and she would never jeopardize that or belittle it. Everyone followed The Way a little differently and no one practiced it correctly, too many wars had been fought and lost to know who was truly right.

At this moment, with terror filling her and the prospect of losing her soulmate dangled in her face, Kaiyah wasn’t sure she cared. Patting him down the best she could she ran through the questions that Ba’buir and Ro asked after some kind of traumatic injury, looking for any sign of discomfort. He answered them all, albeit with a confused tone in his voice. Before her hands could move to his neck he stopped her. Locking her wrists in his grip he pushed her hands away. “I’m fine,” he puffed through the vocoder, still breathing heavily.

“But - “

“I said, I’m fine.”

He didn’t get it. He never would and Kaiyah couldn’t blame him for that. It was better not knowing what happened to soulmates that lost each other. It was a road she could never go down and honestly hadn’t been too worried about when she met Mando. He was competent, smart, steadfast.

The bounties, Koresh, hells even the fucking dragon she had never had a second thought about his safety because they were in control. They could course correct at any moment and be completely fine. But this? Losing him over something so innocuous? Kaiyah knew that if this situation had gone any differently, even with him mad as hell at her, she would have died with him.

She stepped back at the sound of water breaking as one of the completely royal blue Mandos brought the crib over, ripping it open to reveal a perfectly safe Vor’ika. She was ashamed that he could see through her, know what she was planning before she did. Avoiding looking at Mando she got a good look at their rescuers, two of the three sported a T-Visor she had never seen before. Instead of going straight across the eyes, the visor went into a dramatic arch, carving out an almost feminine look to the helmets.

Mando thanked them as Vor’ika made some unsettled grunts, he didn’t seem too happy about the arrangement he had found himself in. The Mando in the middle of the group, the only one who sported a color other than blue with a bright white marking in the center of their helmet, spoke up, “Lucky we found you first.”

As Mando went on to discuss his quest, the three lifted their helmets. Kaiyah was half tempted to join them, but it didn’t seem like the time to push Mando farther. She knew that he was upset, she was on thin ice, and pushing her luck didn’t seem to be the smart move at this point.

Mando sighed in annoyance as he cut himself off from the ‘I need to get my kid to a Jedi’ speech and stood up. It felt like the last bubble had finally burst. These weren’t Covert Mandalorians like he had hoped for. These were Mandalorians like Kaiyah, somehow able to be both dar’manda and not at the same time.

The only other man on the ship scoffed after a tense pause in the conversation, “They’re one of them.”

“One of what?” Mando questioned.

The redheaded woman spoke up but didn’t answer the question, “I am Bo-Katan of Clan Kryze.”

Kaiyah barely registered the scoff that escaped her at the mention of ‘Clan Kryze’. They were aruetiise, hiding behind the cowardice of genocide and using the cover of pacifism to get away with it. They had shuttled real Mandalorians to a moon, stripped them of their dignity, and shoved them side by side with people who wanted to kill them. That clan was the clan of cowards.

Striding up to Mando but keeping her gaze on Kaiyah, Bo-Katan continued, “I was born on Mandalore and fought in the Purge. I am the last of my line.”

Kaiyah wasn’t surprised and didn’t show it. She heard the stories, she knew. Pacifism was never going to work on Manda’yaim. Turning to Mando she looked him right in the visor, “And you two are Children of the Watch.”

The urge to correct Bo-Katan was strong, almost as strong as the urge to end the line of hut’uun and chakaar, but Kaiyah’s curiosity was peaked. Every Mandalorian knew of the Purge, Night of a Thousand Tears, everything The Empire had done to them, it didn’t matter if you weren’t a native Mandalorian, stories got passed around. But she had never heard of Children of the Watch.

The more Bo-Katan explained the more Kaiyah got confused. Mando wasn’t a zealot. None of The Covert was. A little untrusting, sure, but they weren’t forcing everyone to go by their rules or running holy crusades against the galaxy. Zealots were Death Watch.

Kaiyah was pulled out of her thoughts when Mando grabbed her wrist, “There is only one way. The Way of the Mandalore.”

Holding Vor’ika in one arm and Kaiyah in the other, he took off from the deck, “Mando, I don’t think-“

He just held her tighter, squeezed her nearly painfully to his side.

When they landed on the docks, near where Mr. And Mrs. Frog found each other, the tension in his body was obvious. He stood straighter, his shoulders sat lower, his chest puffed out slightly in blink and you’ll miss it breaths.

Kaiyah often forgot just how big Mando was when he wanted to be. How broad and tall and encompassing his presence was, it was like he was a mountain, immovable and taking up her entire horizon. He stood there, silent in his rage and it made her uncomfortable. Kaiyah didn’t like the quiet. It suffocated her, pushing down everything inside of her until it exploded.

Clearing her throat she muttered, “We should get out of the way.”

Mando nodded and it was like the crowd parted just for him. Folks stopping or making a wide berth in the unspoken language of prey and predator. Moving in between some crates, Kaiyah reached out for Vor’ika who was surprisingly silent. Mando flinched, twisting his body into the movement to cover the toddler.

“I was just - I didn’t… You look like you need a minute, Mando. Take a walk, I can watch him. Unless you want to talk about it?” she offered hesitantly. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, what he was going to do. All she knew was that this was a man on the edge, he was close to snapping and she was sure it was going to be explosive.

“No,” he sneered.

Mando could be described as stand-offish. Aloof. But he wasn’t generally cold or short to anyone. At that moment though, his voice could have froze the ocean. Turning sharply his cape cracked in the wind, leaving Kaiyah behind.

Din was embarrassed. Ashamed. Confused. And all of that culminated in him settling into anger because that was easier. It was easier to be angry than to admit that maybe there wasn’t one way. That The Way wasn’t all-encompassing.

Arumorut was a one-off. It was nothing more than a group of good people who had taken The Covert in when they needed it. It was easier to categorize it that way, even if it wasn’t true. Passing comments had been made - when were they not - about The Way, his Way, while he was there.

“The helmet thing, that’s like, forever?”

“Even your riduur?”

“We didn’t wear it that way on Manda’yaim, but if you’re comfortable.”

Din was forced to face the fact, that he was an outsider, even among his people. Even among Kaiyah. Maker, Kaiyah. It was like she didn’t know what was going on either, she accepted whatever he was throwing at her.

She had finally found them at the tavern hours after he left her at the dock, Bo-Katan and her crew had cajoled him into food and he felt like he owed them after saving his skin a second time. He was better than this than them.

His brain whiplashed, seething, are you? Are you better than real Mandalorians?

Din had dealt with his fair share of bullying growing up, he was too old to be a foundling, too clumsy, he didn’t get it, foundlings weren’t real Mandalorians. It had gotten better with time and proving himself to the clan over and over again. Now it felt like he had to do it all over again, try and prove to Bo-Katan that he was just as good as she was. Better, even.

Kaiyah had rented a room at the tavern, brushing off any recommendations that Din had. He was only going to be gone an hour, less if this mission went well. In the not-so-far reaches of his mind, he knew it was wrong to ice her out of the plan. It was an Imperial ship, carrying Imperial weapons. Kaiyah had to know that schematics like the back of her hand, she used to be a Rebel. His pride won out in the end, howling at Din that he just needed this one thing for himself, to prove that he didn’t need her, he didn’t need anyone.

The hallway was silent and filled with tension as he went to pick them up, it tickled the back of Din’s neck like adrenaline right before a fight. He punched the code in the door, the innkeeper was all too happy to not have problems in their establishment and gave it to him quickly, mentioning to keep the destruction minimal.

Looking around the room took all of two seconds. It was small, enough for a bed, side table, and fresher. The kid was on the bed, asleep, wrapped in a blanket that Din hadn’t gotten him. It looked expensive, a rusty orange color with some kind of silk edging on it. Pulling off one glove Din rubbed the fluffy fabric with his fingers, it was soft. The softest thing he had ever felt, he didn’t have a basis for comparison.

The shower shut off, Kaiyah stepping out the steam and humidity towel drying her hair but leaving her body uncovered. Din wasn’t a prude. He had seen naked people of every size, shape, and species before. The body wasn’t something to be ashamed of for Mandalorians, it was another weapon in their arsenal, and Kaiyah’s was deadly. Din knew what training hid under the valleys and peaks of her body.

He could see every scrape, nick, and blaster shot that littered her body. It felt strange, to see them all on someone else when he had always worked under the impression that he was the only one with them. A majority were where the armor didn’t cover, overlapping knife wounds and shots that caused heavy scarring.

A few droplets of water got caught in their race down her arms, sticking to the tattoos and raised skin. The designs jumped with her movements, they were impressive, just like the rest of her. Tattoos for Mandalorians were more than decoration, though a lot of them used the ink that way, it was a way to memorialize their achievements. Kaiyah had both, thick, dark designs that openly boasted her Verd’goten, time in the Rebellion, and family covered her left arm.

Din let eyes drift over them, it seemed like she used the tattoos to highlight her scars, not hide them as some people would. His eyes caught where he was sliced by the vibroaxe of the Trandoshan when he first grabbed the kid, the cauterized scar slicing an Aryx skull in half. Part of him felt guilty, he had taken something from her without ever knowing it. Tearing down her achievement because he was caught off guard.

He should have been more careful. It wasn’t just his body on the line, Kaiyah would suffer with him now and he had to live with that fact. It wasn’t fake or someone faceless, it would affect her every day for the rest of their lives.

Snapping fingers pulled him out of his thoughts, “Mando, you okay?”

Heat ran all across his body, just because he wasn’t a prude didn’t give him an excuse to be a perv. Din swallowed and settled on annoyance to try and cover for his staring, “We’re leaving. Now.”

Kaiyah had her fingers tangled in her hair as she redid her braid, “I’m not.”

“What do you mean you’re not?” The anger he had thought he worked through on the Imperial ship was coming back. It settled in his stomach like a heavy, acrid thing. How could he be so stupid to think that she would stay with him when he wasn’t even a ‘real’ Mandalorian? Just some fraud she couldn’t be seen with when she returned home. He wasn’t the prize she wanted to reclaim Arumorut.

“I mean, I’m not leaving with you. I thought that was pretty clear,” Kaiyah tied off her hair and stepped over to her discarded clothes, dressing leisurely.

“Joining Bo-Katan on her mission?”

A loud, ugly scoff came from her, her lips curved in a sneer, “That aruetii? Never.”

Din was more confused than when he left, his fists anxiously clenching by his side. If Kaiyah thought Bo-Katan was a traitor then why wasn’t she leaving with him? What had he done wrong?

“Why aren’t you leaving with me then?”

Kaiyah turned to face him, “I don’t spend time with people who don’t think I’m valuable.”

His fists closed, every piece of him tensing, “I never said that.”

“You’ve never shown it. We’re a team, Mando. Or I thought we were. We were supposed to make decisions, together. Work, together. I understand that I’m joining your quest at a weird time and I knew my spot. Protect you and Vor’ika. I could do that, I have done it. Since Tatooine, all you’ve done is be mad at me and push me out of plans. I can’t do my job when you won’t let me,” every sentence she said had her stepping closer until she was shoving a finger in his shoulder. Din’s hand flew up to grab her wrist, he wasn’t going to let her taunt him.

Pulling Kaiyah close he snarled in her face, “I have protected you and the kid. I have been doing my job. Do you want to talk about Tatooine? The panic attack you don’t talk about? What about Gor Koresh’s fight club? That Zabrak could have killed you. Taris? I took that shot. And you are right, this is my quest. I have never had to run any of my decisions by you.”

She pulled her hands away, shaking her head as she dryly chuckled, “So all you really wanted was a cute little wife? Figures.” Kaiyah turned back to her armor, wiping it down with a rag before she placed it on her body.

Din knew he couldn’t go to her now, he was furious. They both were. He also couldn’t just stand there while she bad-mouthed him. So he paced, “You don’t get to pass judgment on me.”

“I’m not. You want a wife, I want an equal. I’m going to find that.”

“Woves isn’t going to give you that,” he scoffed. It was a low blow to bring the other man up, Din knew that. He just needed her to stay. He couldn’t let her leave, if they were arguing she was staying, yelling at him, and not going out unprotected in the universe.

“We’ll see.”

Din had never been so frustrated he laughed. He didn’t do this, lose his temper, get angry at people. There was a time and a place and they were both in combat. Somehow Kaiyah was pushing buttons he didn’t know existed. “I thought you hated Bo-Katan, now you are going to woo her right hand man?”

She faced him then slipping her helmet on, “I do. Would you like to know why? The Kryze family came out on top after the civil war. Sent anyone who participated to Concordia and destroyed what it means to be a Mandalorian. Used Jetti to fight their battles and through peace committed genocide when peace was all we wanted anyway. I know the stories, how they told us to live alongside the enemy, Death Watch, on Concordia, how their pacification destroyed Manda’yaim and let a Darjetti become Mand’alor.

Do you know who they turned to first? Where they sent their refugees? Arumorut. We took them in, we fed them. Honored our creed as vod after the Kryze spit in our face because that’s what you do. That is what being a Mandalorian is. Honor. Bo-Katan has none of that, no Kryze does.”

Din had no clue. He knew about The Purge, everyone did, but a dark Jedi ruling Mandalore? Civil War? He didn’t know that Arumorut was that old. Embarrassments slimier cousin sat uncomfortably in him, making him ashamed that he lashed out at Kaiyah like this. If honor was all she thought made a Mandalorian he wasn’t acting like one. He was being angry at her because he could be. She was angry at him because of it.

Kaiyah knelt beside the bed and murmured a goodbye to the kid, lightly kissing his forehead and stood. “Bye, Mando. I hope you both find what you’re looking for. If you’re ever in need Arumorut will always answer your call.”

The wording of her goodbye was deliberate. Kaiyah wasn’t going to help him anymore and it was his fault. Din couldn’t blame anyone else. He couldn’t let her leave though, not when it felt like half of him was leaving out the door with her. He was desperate to keep her here, tell her anything. He was frantic in his head, scrambling to come up with something to get her to stay.

Following her out the door he called her name, “I shouldn’t have said anything, I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Her T-Visor turned to look at him and he could feel the disbelief through the helmet, “You’re sorry for mentioning Woves but not sorry for not respecting me? Mando, do better. I just wanted you to treat me the way I treated you. I didn’t know asking for respect and trust was too much.”

Before Kaiyah could turn away again, Din twisted her to face him, “It wasn’t. It’s not. Just - Please, come back inside.” He knew he was being a hypocrite and she was doing him the gracious favor of not calling his bullshit. He wasn’t talking to her, he was fighting with her, things he made her promise not to do. Kaiyah left everything behind to travel across the galaxy and he couldn’t even tell her his favorite color.

“Why?”

Panic crawled up Din’s throat at her question, he couldn’t let her leave and if his answer wasn’t good enough she would. She was already more than halfway out the door. It wouldn’t be too much longer until she left him and took everything. Squeezing his eyes shut behind the visor he took a deep breath, “I need to tell you something.”

Her head tilted in confusion, “You can’t tell me here?”

“No.”

“I -“

“Please,” he whispered. Din felt fingers clenched in her flight suit, he needed her close. He needed her to stay. He wasn’t sure who he would be without her anymore.

“Alright,” Kaiyah said doubtfully and moved inside the door. It slid shut behind her and Din swallowed the panic back down his throat. Only a handful of people knew his name and most of them were because of Moff Gideon. He had never willingly given his name to anyone. He had to give it to Kaiyah, a last ditch effort to get her not to leave.

Silence stretched in the room. Din didn’t want to look at her helmet when he gave her his name. He wanted to see her face, know that she knew what this meant for him.

Finally, Kaiyah broke it, “Well? I’m here.”

“Yes. Uh, I -“ Din’s hands fidgeted again as they left her flight suit. “I need to ask you something. Then I can tell you.”

“Are you proposing?” Kaiyah squawked in surprise. Her helmet peaked around him to the kid as she shook her head, “The answer is no, Mando. I’m not marrying you.”

“No, no. I - it’s not that.” Maker, how was he fucking this up already? He wanted the floor to swallow him up so that this interaction could just be over. “I was just going to ask you if you could take off your helmet. I - it’s - I wouldn’t ask unless it was important.”

Her helmet cocked again as she responded, “Okay… I can do that. Then you’ll tell me this secret?” Her unending amount of trust in him was shocking. Din knew he didn’t deserve it.

“Yes, of course.”

Kaiyah nodded and slid the helmet off, a few hairs had already escaped her braid, flying around and sticking to her forehead. Din had to stop himself from fixing it for her. He should have just left the helmet thing be. He didn’t know why he was so determined to tell her to her face.

Careening forward before anything could interrupt them he rushed out, “I know that our tribes are different. For me, being a Mandalorian is being one, everyone who knows your helmet will know you as an ally. Vod. Because of that, we don’t give out names, not unless they’re family. My name is-is Din Djarin.”

Kaiyah’s eyebrows crawled up her head, her mouth opening, and closing in shock. “Man-Din? You didn’t have to tell me that. I - You shouldn’t have told me. That was for your riduur, your family. I’m not that.”

Din’s visor looked away from her. She was still going to leave. Of course, she was. Why would his name be enough reason to stay, everyone had one. He gruffed, “Nobody knows my name. Don’t go spreading it around.”

“So I have to bare my soul to you all the time and you get to shut me out when you’re uncomfortable? This is what I was talking about, you push me away and I need to spill my guts. It’s not fair.

Osik. His luck had run out. She had been too patient for too long. She huffed, annoyed with him, and repeated her statement from hours earlier, “Unless you want to talk about it now?”

Din honestly didn’t want to. He didn’t want to tell her all about the mission, what a mess it was, how he was feeling. He didn’t want to ask her why it was so easy for her to leave when he felt like something was shredding him in two. But he did owe it to her, he made her promise and now it was time to keep his end of the deal.

Sighing heavily, he kept his gaze away from her, “No, I don’t. But you’re right.”

“So tell me as much as you can, or want to. I meant what I said about us being a team, that’s what I want. It’s the only thing I’ve wanted. Let me help you, Di - just let me help, please,” Kaiyah said exasperated. He wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t say his name. He gave her it to use and there was no one around.

Setting her helmet down on the side table she stood directly in front of him. Her head was tilted like she was thinking. The pregnant pause was swelling, near bursting. Din could feel the way it was going to pop soon.

“Kai’buir doesn’t talk. I don’t know if you knew that, we’ve tried to keep it out of the public but people talk and speculate and it’s hard to keep a leader out of the spotlight. Especially one like him. I swear, when he and my buir were together they were unstoppable. He was larger than life. Then it was like it all shriveled up in him and died, he joined the ranks of the dead even though he was alive. I can get by with him, how he communicates because I know him. I don’t know, I guess, what I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to talk. I just need something - not your name - I need to know you’re not just angry at me. I’m not a punching bag.”

Din didn’t know that Kaiyah’s father lived in silence, he knew that he hadn’t been seen in years, delegated his leadership to his parent and children, was unreachable. Kai must be the reason she hated silence. She filled it all the time, talked until she passed out, hummed to herself, anything to keep it at bay because she lived in it all the time. Now he was doing the same thing to her, making her live in an uncomfortable spot because he was, what? Scared? Embarrassed? Insecure? All things that a man his age shouldn’t be feeling.

Interlocking their pinkies, Din squeezed lightly. Kaiyah matched him, flexing her gloved finger against his until the leathers squeaked. “It’s just a lot,” his voice scratched out.

She hummed, not interrupting him, just letting him know she was listening. She had moved her weighty stare to their hands and he was grateful. He wasn’t sure if he could say it all if she was looking at him.

“I’m not a zealot.”

“I know.”

“Why does it feel wrong? The Way.”

Kaiyah blinked up at him, “Because everyone in the galaxy thinks they’re right.”

“There has to be one way to follow Resol’nare. Otherwise, it’s not worth anything.” Was it a harsh criticism? Yes. It had to be true though if every Mandalorian thought they were right then every Mandalorian was also wrong.

She sighed, “Did your buir not teach you Mandalorian history? We’ve fought wars for years over who is right and wrong, we are stubborn. The civil war I was talking about? That was all over the creed, Death Watch wanted to follow the old ways, expand our reaches into space, conquer the galaxy through war and pillaging because that is what our ancestors did. My ba’buir followed the last Mand’alor to battle. The Mand’alor had a strict moral compass and stated that we should conduct ourselves as honorable warriors in business and life and that there was no honor in what Death Watch was doing. So many people died because everyone thinks they’re right.”

“So it worthless? The Resol’nare?”

Kaiyah’s head reared back, looking at Din like he was crazy, “Absolutely not. It is a guideline for our lives, how we show that is a personal choice. If you believe that being a collective is The Way, that wearing your armor all the time so vod know you as one of them is right who is anyone to tell you differently? We’ve spent so long fighting each other that we’ve destroyed ourselves. Bo-Katan can’t decide The Way for you and neither can I. Anyone who thinks you aren’t Mandalorian needs to get over it. We’ve all taken the Resol’nare, we are all one under the manda.”

“How are you so good at this?” he questioned. It was like she knew exactly what to say to make him feel better, even if it was only marginally. He was still a Mandalorian, at least in her eyes. No one was right about anything, ever, and as depressing as that sounded it made him feel better. If Kaiyah could live with every walk of Mandalorian life and not be bothered over it then he could too.

“Practice,” she shrugged. “I’ve lived around nearly every kind of person. You can’t be unyielding and a part of a team.”

There was that word again. Team. She wanted them to be together in all things and was more than willing to find someone who could give that to her if Din couldn’t. It was terrifying, knowing that she might not feel the same way towards him. Tatooine could have just been a one-off, comfort when she needed it and now that she didn’t need him anymore she was just… Waiting. For something. Someone. Maybe Woves would be better for her, he seemed blunt enough to go toe-to-toe with her. Tell her things. Show her his face.

Gearing up for the question that he wanted the answer for but didn’t want to ask he shifted, “How does the soulmate bond work? When you threatened to leave it felt like I was going to die without you and you weren’t even sweating.”

Kaiyah brought herself closer to Din. They were standing chest to chest as she laced all of her fingers through his, locking him in place. A soundless way of telling him he can’t run away.

“I won’t let my worth be dependent on your moods. I’m not that person and you were treating me like I was expendable. When I found you and Vor’ika, you weren’t worried about me. Didn’t seem like you wanted me around and I knew I couldn’t be happy here. Even if it felt like I was ripping a piece of me out. I’m not a Sonja, I won’t be happy with that life. I will end up making us miserable if that’s what you want.”

Din nodded, she was right. They were entire people before they came into each other's life and part of being soulmates was treating each other fairly. They couldn’t be happy together if they didn’t respect each other, who they are and how they cope. It wasn’t fair.

“I know. I’m sorry,” Din went to push his forehead to hers in a kiss, then immediately retreated. He didn’t know if she was still staying. If she wanted to be his soulmate anymore. There was a good chance this was still goodbye.

The look Kaiyah gave him was all he needed to know. He knew the answer now. Untangling himself from her took longer than he thought and she put up a fight, trapping his fingers between hers. “What are you doing? Aren’t you leaving?” Din griped as his index finger got trapped in her fingers.

“Maybe. We’ve both said we don’t want to leave. That it was painful and would be hard to be apart. So… What do you want? What are we doing? Do we need to make a ten-year plan?” she asked.

Caught off guard by Kaiyah’s statement, he laughed. A full body one that could be heard through the vocoder. It made her face break into a grin and her eyes light up. “That depends. Do you want baby names now or later?” Din joked.

Pretending to be deep in thought, she tapped her index finger on her chin, “Hm. I think as long as we don’t do what my parents did we’ll be fine. I don’t think our names would mix well and I’m not doing thirty more years of Kai, Kay, and Kaiyah.”

“Come on, Kain is a great name,” Din could hear his grin through the vocoder and it just made him smile wider. She wasn’t leaving, she was planning the next phases of her life with him.

“Didn’t that guy kill someone?”

“Hasn’t everyone?”

Kaiyah shrugged, “Fair.” Detaching her hand from his she scooped up her helmet. “Speaking of kids, this little womprat screamed himself into unconsciousness. Shook the windows and lifted a bunch of shit. He was none too happy to be left with me.”

“He’s never done that before, he’s pretty good about me leaving. I’m sorry,” Din swaddled the kid in the blanket and handed him over to Kaiyah. He usually held the kid when they went out, it just felt better, he knew that everyone was safe that way. Kaiyah on his left and the toddler in arms let him know where everything was. How it was supposed to be.

Kaiyah’s helmet looked up at him in surprise, “Why are you handing me Vor’ika?”

“Because it’s our mission to keep him safe. I know you can protect him. And it will leave my hands free for any more Quarren,” he downplayed. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t like Kaiyah had never held the kid before she just hadn’t ever held him in public. It felt like a big step that shouldn’t be one.

“If you’re sure…” she trailed off.

“Of course I am.”

The Crest had seen better days. Everyone knew it as they trailed up the ramp. The Mon Calamari had been able to patch up the exposed parts of the hull but everything was tied together with rope, seaweed, and even a few sea creatures that Din went about squeezing to death his one hand.

Kaiyah would never tell him how hot that was. That he was so unassumingly strong. She wondered if he -

She stopped that train of thought as soon as it began. It felt wrong, to be thinking of Mando as Din and possible partner. She wasn’t sure she should be. He had never given her a clear answer on what he wanted if he didn’t want her to leave just because it was painful if he even wanted her. It was rare, but she had heard of soulmates that stayed platonic. For whatever reason, that spark just wasn’t there and it was a minefield of trying to find a riduur who wouldn’t be weirded out by their very special friend bond.

She knew that it wasn’t like that for her, she was already in love with him. If he didn’t feel the same then that was that she would either have to shut up for eternity or leave. It scared her to do it and Kaiyah didn’t think that Din was going to let her get as far as she did. She didn’t have a plan for leaving, other than calling his bluff. She just wanted to see if she was worth it to him.

It was the most painful thing she had ever done, even worse than the burn. It felt like something spiked and heavy was tearing its way out of her chest leaving her to bleed out with no one to help. Kaiyah didn’t know how her Ba’buir did it and didn’t end up like Kai’buir. She knew if she left if he didn’t want her around, that it wouldn’t have ended well for her.

Vor’ika was up finally, the munchkin had been out for hours and playing his word game in Kaiyah’s lap. When she brought it up it didn’t worry Mando-Din, apparently, he could move fireballs and toss mudhorns and was out for a while after that so shaking windows and tossing a bed wasn’t too much to worry about. Babbling and looking up at her every few minutes he smiled showing off how he did. He didn’t have much down but he recognized ‘buir’ and ‘shereshoy’ and she not so secretly hoped that this meant he recognized the two of them.

Mando-Din was futzing with something on the dashboard, clicking and flipping switches, “Hey, kid. Wanna help me with something?”

Vor’ika giggled and cooed as he crawled down Kaiyah’s armor and to his buir. “Alright, I need you to get the red wire and blue wire down there, got it? Ge’tal and kebiin,” his dad reminded him as he hoisted him into a control panel.

“Hey, hey. I don’t think that’s safe,” Kaiyah moved to the panel. “I can try it before the baby does.”

Mando-Din glanced at her, “You’re not small enough. We’ve worked on his colors, it’ll be fine. As long as they don’t touch nothing will happen.”

“I don’t know…”

“We don’t have another option.”

He was right, they didn’t. So, she relented and let the boys be boys. To no one's surprise, the wires touched. Kaiyah gave him an ‘I told you so’ look and went down to the galley to make lunch as he checked Vor’ika for injuries.

“We should stop by Nevarro, we’ll never make it Corvus in this shape,” Din mentioned as he lifted his helmet for a drink. Terror flooded Kaiyah as she tried to look anywhere else. Why was he doing this? Giving her his name, almost letting her see his chin? It felt like a sin, knowing all these things about him. It felt like she was breaking his creed, that she was somehow his keeper to make sure he didn’t ruin himself.

Vor’ika found his second wind at the mention of Nevarro, one of the few Outer Rim planets Kaiyah had never been to. She didn’t see a reason, it was the head of The Guild and she wasn’t a hunter. Whoever was there, though, had the kid running laps around the adults and missing his nap time.

It was a losing battle trying to keep him up until bedtime, Vor’ika was very particular about his sleep and when he got it but Kaiyah didn’t want to be up all hours of the night with a toddler and she was sure Mando-Din didn’t want to either. They eventually had to give in, it was exhausting trying to keep Vor’ika happy and entertained when nothing, not even food, could sway his opinion on sleep.

Slumping in the co-pilot chair she had claimed for herself, Kaiyah huffed her hair out of her face. She had assumed that Vor’ika would be content for thirty seconds if he got to play with it, every baby she had ever met loved to rip out her hair, but the womprat was having none of her games and continued his tirade. “He’s your son when he acts like this,” she accused his buir.

“Only because he acts like you when he’s tired,” Mando teased. Ice filled her veins again. Did he think she was buir material? For his kid? Why now?

“Whatever, just put him to bed. I’m warning you now, I’ll only be powered by caf tomorrow.”

Bouncing his - their? - baby in one arm, Mando-Din squeezed her shoulder, “I know. You usually are.”

It was sweet, it was teasing, and it was right. They had burned through all of the caf on board and had to restock nearly every time they stopped for supplies because of Kaiyah’s addiction. The passing comment sent her into a spiral she couldn’t stop. It felt like whiplash, being sweet on Tatooine, angry on Trask, sweet now. She wanted this, wanted sweet, wanted teamwork, but it also felt like the other boot was going to drop at any point. Kaiyah wasn’t a mind reader, she didn’t know what he wanted and he never answered her. He only teased her about baby names and she had preemptively decided Kain was on the never in a million years list.

When Din reentered the cockpit she launched her attack, “What are we doing?”

He sat in the pilot’s seat and turned the chair to face her, “What do you mean, we talked about it on Trask. Kain, remember?”

“We joked about it on Trask, we never made any plans.”

“Oh,” he sat up straighter. “I thought that was the plan.”

Kaiyah chewed on the inside of her cheek, “Kids are in your ten-year plan?”

“They aren’t in yours?” Din asked, obviously confused as to where she was coming from.

“Well, yeah. They are,” it was sort of an unspoken rule in her community. Kids were important, everyone had them.

“Okay.”

Din let the awkward silence sit for a minute. Kaiyah wanted to curl up and die, if The Maker was real maybe he would take pity on her and take her out now. This wasn’t how it went in her mind, she thought that he would just answer all of the questions she had without having to ask them.

Clearing her throat Kaiyah threw out, “Marriage?”

“Yes. I can’t show my face to anyone outside of my clan.”

“Makes sense.”

Din fiddled with something on his armrest, not looking at her, “Is marriage important in Arumorut?”

She shrugged, “I’ve never really thought about it. For some, yes, they like the security of it. Ba’buir has always put more importance on just finding the soulmate. However, it’s supposed to work out is up to the manda or Ka’ra or whoever they ramble about.”

He hummed in return and Kaiyah wasn’t sure what to say now. Pulling the first thought from her head she blurted out, “So your name was a proposal then?”

“Not unless you wanted to be. I thought you didn’t want a proposal,” Din’s voice wavered in trepidation.

“I don’t want my marriage to be a trap. If you want to be married to me I would like to know it’s because you at least like me, besides I don’t follow your creed. You said there’s only one way, could you be married to dar’manda?”

He nodded, “If I’m not dar’manda to you then why should you be dar’manda to me? The way you explained it made sense, you just have to be okay with me not changing my Way. And I do like you. I trust you and I’ll respect whatever you want to do, Kaiyah.”

With some of the broad strokes out in the open and an answer to the question that had plagued her most, she felt better. They wanted a lot of the same things and he was honest, if she wanted something else he would respect that. No matter how rocky it had been lately it was starting to shape up.

Breathing out a sigh of relief she looked at him, leveling him with the most serious look she could muster, “Then I’m going need a redo on that proposal, Din Djarin.”

Translations & Lore (in order of appearance):

Vor’ika: Little green

Sentra: Jetpack

Kov’nyn: Headbutt, noun

Kad: Sword

Kebiin: Blue

Dar’manda: Mandalorian who has lost their heritage, identity, and soul

Aruetiise: Traitors

Manda’yaim: Mandalore

Hut’uun: Coward

Chakaar: petty criminal, grave robber. General term of abuse.

Riduur: spouse

Aruetii: Traitor

In Jango Fett’s Legends biography a governor harboring Death Watch set up the True Mandalorians to take the fall, calling on the aid of the Jedi Council to take out ‘political terrorists’. Jango ended up killing six Jedi with his bare hands before he was sent to the governor who was harboring Tor Viszla, the Death Watch leader and man who killed Jaster Mereel, and was then sold into slavery. Between that and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan taking Satine (the Awauds would have only heard rumors of this because of them moving around so much even though they stayed in Mandalorian space and would have assumed that Jedi kidnapped a Mandalorian) and the fact that the Kryze only won the civil war because of that massacre, none of the Awauds would be happy with the Jedi or the Kryze. They were both the reason for their cause failing and why they had to leave their homeworld so the Awauds would have insane beef with any and every Kryze. I also am saying that Jaster Mereel is Mand’alor in this AU because he’s dope as fuck and I hope that Disney gives him the credit he deserves (also justice for Jango’s short Mand’alor reign, I would really like to see more of that please).

Jetti: Jedi

Darjetti: Sith

Vod: Brother, sister

Osik: Shit

Buir: parent. Masc parents usually have the first three letters of their name then buir, femme parents/single parents usually just went by buir.

Resol’nare: Six tenants, the basis of the Mandalorian faith.

Shereshoy: Lust for life, in armor colors it’s orange.

Ge’tal: Red

Kebiin: Blue

Manda: collective soul, heaven

Ka’ra: council of kings

#din djarin fanfiction #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin x oc #the mandalorian x oc #din djarin x original character #the mandalorian x original character #din djarin x female oc #the mandalorian x female oc #din djarin x female original character #the mandalorian x original female character #din djarin #the mandalorian #kaiyah awaud

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tonksie-writes · 4 years

Text

A Mark and a Soul||Chapter 2

Summery: Din has always wanted to meet his soulmate. The moment that he met Cara he knew it was her. Now he’s all but alone in the universe he has to decide his next steps and she distracts him.

Rating: M (This chapter)

A/N: Ok! So I continue to have NO IDEA where this fic is going to take us so join me for this ride of unknown! I’m also shocked because I’ve actually been doing really well with keeping up on this! I’m not normally very good at that especially with no plan! If anyone has prompts or things they’d love to see I would love to hear them cause RN I’m flying blind! This chapter has smut! It’s very obvious when it’s about to start trust me you’ll know! And it goes to the end of the chapter so if you aren’t a fan of reading that you can easily skip you won’t miss anything I promise! Also it’s been a HOT minute since I wrote smut and while yes I have my history with it I’m looking at you 20 pages of one BDSM scene I haven’t written anything like this is a FEW years so please forgive me if I’m rusty. So please enjoy

Prologue, Ch 1 , AO3

Din has spent a lot of his life dreaming about his soulmate. He had always wondered what that person would look like, what they would be like. His parents had been soulmates and while mandalorians took an oath to give up their soulmates, just as they gave up their ability to show their face, Din had grown up on a planet where Soulmates were a constant. There were thousands of stories and fairy tales told to children of all ages. He had been told from the time of birth about all kinds of different soul matches. There were Prince's being saved by the daring princesses and knights in shining armor. There were even love stories of star-crossed lovers from different planets in different galaxies coming together to solve wars out of the bond. As a child Din had been enraptured by those stories and the thought of having a connection to someone that went beyond what he could see and hear.

The bond was supposed to be this magic that knit two people. The very energy of the universe that knit two souls and allowed them to pick up on things in each other more easily. It was that thing that let you know exactly when your lover walked into a room. It was the prickle on your neck and tingling in your gut when your lover was watching you when you weren’t looking. It was something that went down to the core of you knitting you together beyond anything else in the universe.

It had actually been the hardest thing for him to give up when the Mandalorian’s saved him. He didn’t think twice about giving up his face or anything else, even his name was easy to lose to the sands of time. He lost his family, his home planet, and everything he’d held dear and the mandalorians had saved him. They had given him a place to live and a reason to keep going. He was happy to give up anything to have a place to belong. But giving up the hope of finding a soulmate had been the hardest thing that he could imagine. It was the one thing he had wanted to keep even as he promised himself to the Mandalorians. Eventually though, he let that go just like he had everything else. It was the way.

Din had second-guessed his choice many times. Every so often he would wonder what he would do if he ever came across his soulmate. He figured it was probably some lovely woman on a Backwater planet who had a beautiful smile. Perhaps it would be a dashing gentleman with his own farm who would take him by the hand and make him want to settle down. Din had always imagined that his soulmate would lead him to another life, make him want something else, something different. That's why it was so surprising when the Rebel Shock Trooper that he ran into a rundown bar had the exact image on her jaw that he had on his.

While on Sargon, Din had just ignored it. He assumed that it probably just was a trick of the eyes and he hadn't actually seen it. It wasn’t possible and even if it was he wasn’t supposed to let it happen. He was on the run, he had a foundling to care for. He had duties to fulfill and he was a Mandalorian. It wasn't just a trick of the light though. After he had taken off, saying goodbye to Cara, he had finally found a place where he was alone. He had taken off his helmet and looked into a reflective surface seeing rthe mark that was burned into his mind staring back at him. It was the one he had seen flashes of over and over as he fought with and beside Cara Dune.

Perhaps that was why he had instantly thought of her the minute he needed help. Of course she was a fearless fighter and unerringly loyal but she wasn’t the only one he knew like that, at least he didn’t think she was. He couldn’t think of a name or face for it though. He tried not to think it was that connection, that hope of the young boy on a planet far away and so long ago, that had pushed him to find her when he needed her. Over and over there have been times where he looked into her eyes and just wanted to tell her everything but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Then he watched his child leave after just getting him back.

Watching Grogu walk away with the Jedi had been one of the hardest things he could ever imagine. He had grown so fond of his small traveling companion and now he could hardly imagine life without him. Din knew the kid had to go, that has always been the plan. Din would find Grogu’s people and then he would let him go, that had always been the plan. It didn't make it any easier though.

Then Cara came into his room of isolated sulking holding a bottle of some sort of alcoholic beverage. She was like some Goddess from his deepest imaginations. A few words from her and suddenly the world felt a little more stable. It was a talent she’d had and he wasn't entirely sure when it had started. Somehow between fighting and nearly dying and coming back just fine he had fallen deeply in love with his soulmate and nothing was going to stop that. He was so close to telling her right then and there. Instead he said he was going to go off and look for her; try to find her the woman sitting right next to him. He had hoped that with his helmet off she would come clean she would see what he knew. She had to have noticed. But she didn't say anything.

For a moment he started to wonder if he hadn't been mistaken somehow. Maybe she just forgot what her own soul mark looked like. He wasn't entirely sure how that could happen but he supposed with all he knew about her background it wouldn't be a surprise. Maybe she was just so wrapped up in everything, maybe she just didn't realize it was him. Maybe he needed to show her again. Or maybe she just didn’t want him like that. Just as he was about to think about that too much, noises of a fight sounded up the stairs of the small ship and they were off.

Din wasn't entirely sure if he was relieved or frustrated that the shouting wasn't actually a firefight with another ship or the Empire coming after them to hunt them down again. Instead was Boba Fett fighting once again with Bo Katan and Koska Reeves. By the time he and Cara made it up to the top of the ladder Bo had Boba by the neck and Koska and Fennec were locked in a stalemate.

“What the pfaask is going on up here?” Cara hissed as the two made their way into the room.

“Just a little disagreement. Nothing to worry about Mando.” Boba said with his charming and congenial tone that let both Cara and Din know that he was lying.

“This waste of genetic material is flying us into a trap.” Bo informed them.

Din looked between the four of them and his eyes narrowed at Boba. He didn’t have the capacity for this right now. He wanted to take Cara back down stairs or just drink away his soulmate and his son’s memories. Neither was an option in this ruckus.

“Show a little respect. We helped you on your mission.” Fennec grit out between clenched teeth.

“Enough!” Din said, finally getting everyone’s attention. “I’m grateful for everyone’s help. The child is safe because of all of you. I pulled you all from your lives and I understand you need to return to those. I am the one in your debt.” He said to everyone before turning to Boba Fett and Fennec specifically. “If you are willing we will drop Bo Katan and Koska off on Trask and Marshall Dune on Nevarro and then I will help you with whatever you need.”

“Not a chance.” Cara said, drawing the eyes of everyone in the group. “I’m staying with you.” She said with finality speaking only to Din. She had worked well with the girls as they took the ship, it was actually rather impressive and beautiful to watch as the four of them took out everything like machines.

Bo hesitated and stepped forward “You have the dark saber. Like it or not you are the Mand’alor now. If we are to retake our planet you have to be at the head.” She pushed and he could nearly feel Cara’s glare at the redhead over his shoulder.

“To even look for more Mandalorians we need a ship that can’t be tracked, that needs credits unless you want to be in even deeper debt to Boba Fett the mission to reclaim Mandalore and find more Mandalorians will have to wait.”

“And what do you plan to do to get that ship?” Bo Asked forcefully. “Run around playing bounty hunter for Boba Fett?”

“Marshall Dune has offered me work on Novarro. After I repay my debt I’ll work with her and come to Trask when I have what we need.” He said firmly his mind flicking back to the Ugnaught Kuiil he lost in the battle with Gideon I have spoken. “Or you could take the saber and do it yourself.”

Din watched the emotions flying across Bo Katan’s face and he had to wonder why the hell she didn’t just take it when he offered it. It seemed he still had a lot to learn about other Mandalorians. He had been raised by the Children of the Watch, apparently a cult, but still so much culture seemed lost on him. For a moment he thought Bo would strike out to fight him and he felt more than heard Cara shift behind him and all but growl out “Try it.” over his shoulder.

Koska seemed to tense ready to defend Bo in an instant but Bo stepped back with a smirk and nodded. “Fine. We will return to Trask and gather what we can. The Saber is in the hands of a Mandalorian and that is what matters.” She said with finality. “If you would be so kind as to return us to Trask…” He could hear the insult on the tip of Bo Katan’s tongue but she finished with “We would be grateful, Fett.” and he felt his body relax some as he finished.

Bo and Koska walked toward the storage compartment that they had claimed as their room and the other four stood looking at each other. “I appreciate the offer Mando but you do not need to stay. Fennec and I can take care of a small slaving operation like Fortuna. We’re even now. Our debt to you is paid.” He said offering a hand.

“Bib Fortuna?” Cara asked this time with interest in her voice. Din looked to her and as if she could see the expression of confusion she continued. “The head of the Hutt crime syndicate and known slaver?”

Fennec nodded “That’s the one.”

“He’s a high level target for the Republic. Dead or alive coming in with a Moff and Fortuna... “ Cara didn’t have to finish for Din to know the end of the sentence. It’d be enough credits to buy a ship and the repairs and then some. Besides that she’d be a hero enough to have as much leeway as she wanted.

“Are you saying you want to help them?” Din asked her.

“I’m saying I wouldn’t mind playing a part in the downfall of one of the universe’s most infamous crime bosses. I owe him for a princess of mine.” She said and Din wanted the explanation of that later.

“Then you’re coming with us?” Fennec ask.

Din simply nodded his head and Boba clapped and rubbed his hands. “Excellent. I won’t turn down the help! Especially when it comes in such a lovely package as Marshall Dune.” Boba flirted. Din tried to ignore the spike of annoyance that drilled into him, it wasn’t as though Fett meant anything by it. Cara was beautiful, it was just an observation. It still drove Din to want to growl posessively.

“Charming but I’m just here for him and to get paid.” Cara responded easily. The air of her words was almost playful. There was no bite or insult and Fett seemed to take it well.

“Understood. Well, looks like I have coordinates to put in. You two should rest we’ll plan in the morning.” He offered.

“No more fighting?” Din asked. The question and tone once again made him feel like a father and he got another shooting pang of missing the kid. As if she could feel his sadness Cara was there, stepping up to his side a strong and silent comfort.

“I assure you as long as the princess stays in her quarters, I will remain at peace.” Boba charmed. It was enough for now and Din and Cara returned to the area below deck.

“You’re sure you want to come?” Din asked once they were carefully locked in the guest bunk the ship had for reasons Din was not about to think over.

“You can’t have all the fun.” She joked but he could see something else there. There was something she wasn’t saying, something tugging at her mind and heart. “Besides with the kid-- with everything someone’s gotta look after you.” He wasn’t sure whether he was grateful she cut herself off or if it hurt more. The pain of losing the child was overwhelming but it wasn’t a loss. Grogu was going to be learning, growing. He was where he needed to be. Now it was Din’s turn to look for his own place.

He sat just looking at her for a moment. The silence was heavy and it almost felt like she could see him under the helmet. As if to break some sort of trance she reached over to the bottle they’d been drinking before the tussle up stairs and took a big swig. “Look, I don’t do well with feelings but even I know this has been a long day so I’m going to give you an offer and you’re not going to overthink it or freak out about it you’re just going to nod yes or no.” she instructed “Understand?” She asked.

He felt like he had just been asked to calculate advanced hyperdrive mechanics without a datapad. He had no idea where this was going or what she was thinking but he also couldn’t fight her when she was standing there in front of him resolute and in control when he felt so out of control. So he nodded his head.

“Good.” she said walking over to the door and locking it before pulling off the armored shirt she wore leaving a dangerously tight tank top as her only covering.

“What are you--” He started but she held up a finger.

“No talking. You take that bottle over to the corner. Have one cup, just one, and then I take you over to this rack and distract you. One night, no strings just you getting out what you need. You can even keep the helmet on.” She offered. “Or you say no and we never talk about this again.” She added.

Din didn’t know what to choose in this. How could he? Part of him wanted to ask her about the bond. What she was planning to do when it was solidified by skin to skin contact. They’d never touched skin before but he knew from the stories what happened when they did. Did she know? How could she not? When two soulmates touched they grew a bond that couldn’t be severed except by death. Even without the bond Cara could see more of him than anyone he’d ever met. She always seemed to know what he was thinking or when he needed her to duck left as he went right. It seemed like they’d been able to read each other from the moment they met. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if it got even stronger. He wasn’t even sure how it could.

He was silent too long, he could feel the time stretch and for a moment his confident Shock Trooper looked like her resolve was about to buckle. The momentary flash in her eyes was enough for him to make his choice. Bond or not he was going to spend tonight with his soulmate. The universe owed him that much. He stood up with the bottle and moved over to the corner. “I’d rather just turn the lights off.” He said as he walked over to a screen taking off his helmet.

“That’s so much less fun.” She joked but he could hear the rustling of her taking off her clothing and he took off his own after downing the shot. Suddenly the room was completely dark.

“Cara?” He asked into the darkness. He didn’t need to, he could feel her in the dark by the light controls. He could feel her blind eyes searching the shadows of the sealed room magnetically summoning him to her.

“I’m here.” She said taking a step then another. He walked from behind the screen towards her easily feeling where she was even without eyes. He could blame it on the soldier’s senses and all his training. He could blame it on years of being on the lookout for threats. He could lie to himself. Here in the dark with nothing between them but air as they took step by step he couldn’t bring himself to. He knew this was different. He knew he could find her in any situation without needing to look. Whether he could say it out loud or not there was no question to him that this woman was his soulmate and somehow that made this so much more important.

His hand reached out on its own and hesitated just over her jaw before it lowered right onto the mark they shared. In a flash the coil snapped and they sprank at each other lips crashing tongues tangling and hands roaming.

In the dark with nothing but the sensation of her calloused fingertips he wondered just how many hands she had. One was in his hair the other on his neck then down his chest and on his biceps feeling every inch of him. He was sure he was no better as his own hand slipped from her jaw to her shoulder, his other smoothing up and down her side avoiding anywhere too forward.

Her hands suddenly grabbed his and for a second he thought she was changing her mind. “It works a lot better if you do this.” She said, pulling his hands to her breasts and encouraging them to squeeze. She let out a lewd moan and that broke the dam.

He pushed her back against the wall seeking leverage to pull her closer. His hand went to her hip squeezing her ass and trying to pull up her leg over his hip but was surprised when she took that opportunity to leverage their weight and flip them so she was pressing into him. He shouldn’t be surprised this would be a fight. Everything else with them was. He could feel her smile and glee as they warred for dominance, her hands raking over his chest and nails lightly scratching making him hiss in pleasure.

She pulled back from the kiss biting his lower lip and just when he was about to move his mouth to her neck her lips met his jaw just over their mark and a rush pulsed through his body. He was sure she felt it too from the way her hips ground to his and he pulled her closer, his grip on her hips bruising. “Kriffing pfaask.” He hissed trying to flip them again but she had his shoulders pinned to the wall as she kissed down his jaw with little nips.

“That’s quite the mouth you have there.” She teased playfully against his skin and an idea hit him. His hand snuck up to pinch her nipple playfully rolling it between his fingers and her head fell back as he kissed her neck and used the hand still on her hip to pull her forward and force their weights to shift so he had her pinned against the wall. “That’s playing dirty.” She hissed to him.

“Keep up.” He growled playfully and her mouth was on his again pulling him in by the hips her hand going back to his hair and he was starting to wonder if she just liked the feel of his curls between her fingers as much as he was enjoying feeling it. Suddenly one of her hands reached up and she found a pipe above them that he’d noticed earlier hung lower than the others. She pulled down slightly to ensure it was strong enough to hold her weight and suddenly her legs were pulled up and wrapped around her waist. As he felt the soaking folds of her vuelva come into contact with his own hard cock and that was nearly the end of him.

His forehead fell forward finding purchase between her breasts and his hot mouth bit and sucked the skin on her sternum. “Please Cara.” he breathed into the dark.

“Now.” she breathed back a demand. It spoke to her strength that she was holding herself up on the tiny pipe as he shoved himself inside of her bucking in with a surprising ease. “Fark.” She hissed rocking her hips against him.

“Let go.” He breathed to her as he set a slow gentle pace. He could feel her surprise tickle his mind and it warmed him through to feel the connection that had slid into place as they touched. “I’ve got you, let go.” He assured and she did. She dropped her hands as he took her full weight and easily navigated them to the bunk. As soon as her back hit the mattress she rolled on top of him and this time he didn’t fight her, he was certain this wouldn’t be their last time. It probably wouldn't even be their last time tonight so he’d have plenty of opportunities to take his turn.

He lost himself in the feel of her hips and her depths. His hand went to her center and gently pressed to her clit rubbing as she angled her hips to a position that made her moan with every thrust. He could feel her hands on his thighs and his mind flashed images of what she looked like over him: Back arched and breasts bouncing as her muscles clenched and unclenched through her stomach and up her shoulders and arms. He cursed himself for asking for the lights off because he was certain it would be his favorite image in history.

With particularly deep thrust and a skillful press of her clit he felt her come around him and if that wasn’t enough to throw him into his own orgasm he heard her whisper his name “Din.” To the room and the squeeze of his heart threw him into the abyss as quickly as his body did. Rasping her name back to her like a prayer.

If the world shifted and their lives changed, if they felt the tug of the bond they had both refused to acknowledge solidify, they both ignored it for now. Tonight was theirs to ignore the rest of the world. Tonight was about them. No strings.

#Caradin #Cara Dune #Din Djarin #The Mandalorian #minor ships if you squint

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auburnfamilynews · 4 years

Link

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Down go the champs

SEC football is back in all it’s glory. For some schools, football being back was awesome as they watched their teams start the 2020 campaign with a W. For some, it was fun to see their favorite programs play but disappointing to start the year off with an L. Then there were LSU fans....

The Bayou Bengals became the first defending champs to lose their season opener since 1998 when Notre Dame fell to Michigan. Turns out replacing a Heisman winner, both coordinators, most of the offensive line, top three wide receivers, top running back and the majority of defensive starters is kind of a big deal.

Also, it turns out Mike Leach and his Mississippi State Bulldogs are ready for SEC defenses.

With one data point now available there were some shakeups to this week’s rankings. Let’s take a look. Also a quick note, I decided to drop FEI because it doesn’t appear those rankings are being updated on a weekly basis.

#1.) Alabama 1-0 (—)

SP+: 3 | FPI: 2

Last Game: 38-19 W @ Missouri

I admit that I watched exactly 2 snaps of this game so I don’t have much to offer in the form of analysis. It appears the Crimson Tide took care of business and then cruised to the finish line. Najee Harris scored three touchdowns, Mac Jones was efficient and Jaylen Waddle is still impossible to cover. Not sure there’s a ton to takeaway from this game for either team except that the Tide aren’t going to be surprisingly bad. We will learn more this weekend when the Aggies come to town.

Next Game: vs Texas A&M

#2.) Georgia 1-0 (—)

SP+: 4 | FPI: 6

Last Game: 37-10 W @ Arkansas

Per 247 Composite, there are sixteen former 5-star recruits on Georgia’s 2020 football roster. That’s the most of any program. More than Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. It’s more than Auburn, Florida, Texas A&M and Tennessee combined. They opened the season with a road trip to Fayetteville to take on a Hog program stuck in the mud. A program with only four more 4-star players than UGA 5-stars.

And yet...

Hilariously, Arkansas took a 7-5 lead into halftime. Redshirt D’Wan Mathis did not look ready for collegiate football and it took the insertion of walk-on Stetson Bennett for the Dawgs to finally take care of business. The offensive line did not look it’s former dominant self either. The biggest question facing UGA heading into 2020 was whether or not this offense could take the next step. So far, it ain’t looking good....

But it might not matter. After allowing a 7 play 91 yard touchdown drive, UGA’s defense allowed only a field goal while picking off Franks three times including taking one back for six points. That’s why I still have them in the #2 spot over the Gators. This offense might not be great again but this defense is good enough to prevent a total meltdown. This weekend will tell us a lot about what this Dawg team is capable of accomplishing this fall.

Next Game: vs Auburn

#3.) Florida 1-0 (—)

SP+: 8 | FPI: 9

Last Game: 51-35 W @ Ole Miss

The University of Florida Fighting Kyles lit up the scoreboard in Oxford over the weekend. Kyle Trask threw for 416 yds and SIX touchdowns Saturday. WR/TE/Freak Kyle Pitts caught 8 of those passes for 170 yards and 4 touchdowns. Needless to say, Ole Miss fans won’t be naming any kids Kyle in the near future.

But while the offense was spectacular, that Gator defense had some serious struggles. I expected Ole Miss to put some points on the board but I didn’t see 600+ yards coming. The main concern I had about this UF team heading into 2020 was whether or not this defense was good enough to slow folks down. As of now, that question remains unanswered. It will be interesting to see how they look against an ok South Carolina team this weekend.

Next Game: vs South Carolina

#4.) Auburn 1-0 (+1)

SP+: 6 | FPI: 7

Last Game 29-13 W vs Kentucky

Auburn had the 2nd best win of the weekend taking down a veteran, physical Kentucky squad. The Wildcats controlled the first half for the most part but the Tigers dominated the 2nd half and were able to come away with a somewhat comfortable win.

Bo Nix looked good in his 2020 debut and Seth Williams is gonna be a problem for a lot of defenses this fall. Defensively, Auburn got knocked around early but settled down in the 2nd half. The big question is still the offensive line which performed admirably in their season debut but must improve if the Tigers are going to end that awful drought in Athens on Saturday.

Next Game: @ Georgia

#5.) Mississippi State 1-0 (+7)

SP+: 38 | FPI: 35

Last Game: 44-34 W @ LSU

Ok so I got a lot of apologizing to do to State fans. I thought this State team would be pretty bad this year. Sure Leach added an outstanding grad transfer at QB in K.J. Costello over the off-season but cmon... This Mississippi State team isn’t exactly overflowing with talent especially at the skill position (sans Kylin Hill). And that defense lost some major contributors and are switching to a brand new scheme. They will be luck to win 3 games I thought...

Welp....

Turns out this team is ready to create mayhem in the SEC. Costello carved up that vaunted DBU secondary and if he hadn’t kept turning the ball over this game might have been a legit blowout. Costello set the single game SEC passing record throwing for 623 yards and 5 touchdowns. Three State players crossed the century mark including star tailback Kylin Hill.

I don’t know how this season goes for Mississippi State but it’s definitely going to go much better than I expected. Gotta give an immense amount of credit to Leach and his coaching staff. They came out ready to go and made a massive statement this past weekend.

Next Game: vs Arkansas

#6.) Tennessee 1-0 (+1)

SP+: 24 | FPI: 30

Last Game: 31-27 W @ South Carolina

I picked Tennessee to lose this game but the Vols were able to make less mistakes than the Cocks and a few more big plays to escape with the W. It wasn’t necessarily an impressive performance but it was effective. The Dawgs look vulnerable and Tennessee has more talent than Kentucky. Can Jeremy Pruitt capitalize and make that final game of the year against UF the de facto SEC East championship?

Next Game: vs Missouri

#7.) Texas A&M 1-0 (-1)

SP+: 19 | FPI: 19

Last Game: 17-12 W vs Vanderbilt

Technically, Texas A&M won Saturday. But if anyone ventured over to the SEC Alternate channel to watch this cluster of a game, you probably didn’t come away super impressed with the supposed top challenger to the Tide in the West.

Turns out Kellen Mond is still Kellen Mond. That offensive line is still pretty bad and losing all that WR production is not easily replaced. I don’t think things are going to go well in Tuscaloosa this weekend....

Next Game: @ Alabama

#8.) Kentucky 0-1 (—)

SP+: 43 | FPI: 27

Last Game: 13-29 L @ Auburn

For one half of football, it looked like the Wildcats had a shot at living up to the preseason hype. Maybe this is the year they could go on the road into an SEC West venue against a ranked opponent and get the W. Then the 2nd half kicked off...

A disastrous 4th quarter resulted in a frustrating L for Big Blue Nation and they don’t get to lick their wounds. An explosive Rebel attack is set to visit Lexington and if Terry Wilson doesn’t get those turnovers cleaned up they could very well be 0-2 this time next week. I still think though this is top 3 team in the SEC East. We will see if they can get right against the Lane Train.

Next Game: vs Ole Miss

#9.) LSU 0-1 (-5)

SP+: 25 | FPI: 13

Last Game: 34-44 L vs Mississippi State

Turns out you can’t just easily replace literally your whole organization following a national championship. Weird huh?

It didn’t take long for LSU fans to learn that the Myles Brennan and Bo Pelini hype ain’t for real. The Tigers new QB struggled much of the day and wasn’t helped by drops and a porous offensive line. Pelini refused to switch out of his man defense and allowed Mike Leach to put on a clinic on how to beat it over and over again. There are some serious problems on this LSU team and I don’t know if they can all get fixed in the coming weeks.

Fortunately, a trip to play a not very good Vanderbilt team should get Ed O back to .500. However, if LSU wants any shot at a repeat they gotta find a way to adjust to this new world.

Next Game: @ Vanderbilt

#10.) Ole Miss 0-1 (-1)

SP+: 44 | FPI: 37

Last Game: 35-51 L vs Florida

I honestly didn’t wanna move Ole Miss down a spot it just kinda happened. The Rebels showed they are exactly who I thought they were over the weekend. An explosive but inconsistent offense paired with a very bad defense. The Rebels are going to give DCs around the SEC headaches but they are going to need some stops on the other side of the ball if they wanna string together any Ws. Big opportunity to make a statement this weekend against a frustrated Kentucky team.

Next Game: @ Kentucky

#11.) South Carolina 0-1 (—)

SP+: 34 | FPI: 40

Last Game: 27-31 L vs Tennessee

South Carolina has mastered losing to Tennessee in frustrating fashion. They fought to the bitter end but a punt off the backside of a blocker ended any opportunity of a dramatic finish. Offensively, South Carolina looked ok. It’s clear outside of Shi Smith this team is lacking in terms of play makers. This Saturday is a must win for Coach Boom.

Next Game: @ Missouri

#12.) Missouri 0-1 (-2)

SP+: 48 | FPI: 42

Last Game: 19-38 L vs Alabama

As I said above, I didn’t really watch this game so I got nothing really to say about this Mizzou squad other than they covered and that’s all that really mattered.

Next Game: @ Tennessee

#13.) Vanderbilt 0-1 (+1)

SP+: 110 | FPI: 68

Last Game: 12-17 L @ Texas A&M

They did their darndest to pull the stunner but then they are also Vanderbilt so of course it didn’t happen. I was impressed overall with the Dores performance though and rewarded them with what will likely be their highest ranking of the season. No way LSU loses this game too right?

Next Game: vs LSU

#14.) Arkansas 0-1 (-1)

SP+: 75 | FPI: 59

Last Game: 10-37 L vs Georgia

For one half of football, Arkansas stood toe to toe with one of the giants of the SEC. Hog fans rejoiced that maybe just maybe Sam Pittman was going to do the impossible. Then reality hit like a train in the 2nd half...

Outside of a few skill players on offense and the best named linebacker in the country in Bumper Pool, this program is devoid of SEC caliber talent. Feleipe Franks is still not a great quarterback. With Mississippi State not being the dumpser fire as hoped, I am not sure there’s a W on this schedule for the Hogs....

Next Game: @ Mississippi State

War Eagle!

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