Jump to content

Parents


Caernos

Recommended Posts

Parents

 

A SWTOR:FF by Caernos

 

“I’ve got it,” Don said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Kali. “I’ve figured it out! You don’t have any tats! That’s what so weird about you!”

 

The other members of the squad raised eyebrows and glanced at their twilek comrade. Kali, the singled out soldier, raised her own eyebrows a bit higher than everyone else’s. “Don, I’ve got tattoos, I’ve shown them to you all. They’re on my back and shoulders, remember?” They were some nice tattoos too; her left shoulder was a hawk bat in a dive bomb, while her right shoulder bore a tally for every fight she’d been in, and her back had the Republic SpecForce symbol. One had to admit that when visible, they looked good on her emerald green skin.

 

Don shook his head, his lekku flopping behind him. “That’s not what I’m talking about.” He jabbed a finger at her face, almost blinding her in one eye. “You don’t have any on your face, or your hands!”

 

Bass, nicknamed after his deep rumbling voice, scratched his bald head as he glanced back and forth between Don and Kali. “What are you drinking tonight?” he asked the twilek.

 

Don rolled his eyes in exasperation and gestured towards Kali with both hands. “She’s a mirialan right?” Everyone at the table nodded their heads, including Kali. Someone muttered that Don might have been dipping in the spice. The twilek pressed on. “So why doesn’t she have any tattoos on her face or hands? Can any of you recall the last time that you met a mirialan who didn’t have at least one little box or diamond tattoo on their face or hands?” Recognition swept through the table and they uniformly made ohs and nodded their heads. Don once more gestured towards Kali, looking her across the table in the eye. “So, why don’t you have any of those Mirialan diamond tattoo things?”

 

Kali shrugged and downed a shot. “It’s simple really,” she said, flipping the glass over and placing it on the table top. She paused to lean back and wave to the waiter for another round. “I’m not a mirialan.”

 

Chuckles and snickers went around. “Sure, and I’m a wookie,” said Imir, smirking and provoking another round of laughter. It was funny since the large cathar had actually been mistaken for a wookie at least twice.

 

Kali nodded and chuckled with the others. Then when it was over she raised her head and looked around the table. “I know I’m biologically a Mirialan, but culturally I’m nowhere close. My parents are human, they adopted me.”

 

Eyebrows shot up around the table for a second time that night. “Huh, Mirialans always struck me as kind of insular,” Bass said, “I would’ve thought your adopted parents would be Mirialan as well.”

 

“It’s a good guess,” she replied, then pausing as the waiter returned with another round of shot’s. She helped the man unload the tray and pick up the used glasses before resuming her tale. “But no, my parents-my real parents-the ones who raised me, I mean-are human.” Kali passed the shots around the table, making sure that they all had at least one in front of them.

 

Don sat across from her with a look of expectation on his face. Slowly it turned to exasperation. Finally, he dropped his head and banged it on the table, then raised it to glare at Kali. “That’s it? Despite the odds, you just happen to get adopted by a human couple looking for an alien baby, rather than a mirialan couple?”

 

Kali hesitated and shifted in her seat uncomfortably. Biting her lip she glanced at her friends and tried to gauge their reaction. Finally she looked back at Don and shook her head. “It’s not quite like that. My foster parents are mando’ade-mandalorian.”

 

Bass whistled. Imir hissed. Don’s jaw dropped. None of them had expected that revelation. Clarification was clearly going to be required.

 

Tilting her head to the side and squinting a little, Kali tried to tell the story as her parents had told her. “This was back before the blockade in the war and my parents were working as mercenaries. They were working with a pirate crew when they hit this backwater colony for plunder and killed everyone who fought back. Afterwards, while searching for loot they found me in the wreckage. My parents were trying to start a family, so rather than leave me to die they took me with them when they left and raised me as one of their own.

 

“Wait, wait just a minute,” said Don, raising his hands into the air to stop everything. When the attention was on him, he lowered his arms till they were resting on the table. Then he folded them and leaned forward to look cockeyed at Kali. “You mean to tell us, that your foster parents, probably killed your real parents and then raised you as a mandalorian.”

 

Bass shrugged. “Makes sense. Mando’s are good fighters and Kali’s the best in the squad. She is the assault specialist after all, and you can’t say she doesn’t know her—“

 

“Bass!” Don snapped, glaring at the bald soldier, “Missing the point!” The twilek turned to Imir for support. “Tell me that I’m not the only one who sees that as disturbed.” Imir nodded his head in agreement. “Do you even remember your parents?” Don asked, shifting his attention back to Kali. “Your real parents, I mean.”

 

“My birth parents you mean,” Kali corrected with a teasing smirk. Then she took a deep breath in and shook her head. “No, I don’t remember a thing about them. I could tell you a lot about my parents, but I don’t remember anything about my birth parents.”

 

Don shook his head, flabbergasted by how calm Kali was on the matter. “And you’ve never been angry at your foster parents for killing your real parents?” He was one of those people who just couldn’t let a subject drop.

 

Kali couldn’t resist rolling her eyes. “Sure, when I was 12 and I thought I knew everything, but I chalk that up to being an adolescent girl.” Despite themselves, a chuckle went around the table at the joke.

 

Kali then continued her story, trying to defend her parents from Don’s incredulous gaze. “The bottom line is this. My parents aren’t crazies who murdered my birth parents to steal me away and raise me as some fanatic little terror,” she said. “My parents are warriors, but when they saw how their fight had destroyed someone’s life and future, they wanted to help out and so they adopted me. I am who I am because of my mom and dad. They loved me, fed me, and took care of me. Mom helped me get through my first heart break, and dad taught me how to fly a speeder bike.” Kali heard someone mutter a disparaging remark about her driving skills but she ignored it and continued. “They’re proud of me, and I am proud to call myself their daughter.”

 

Finishing her self-righteous rant, Kali reached across the table and grabbed one of Don’s shots. She held it up, pointed a finger at him and smirked. “That is why I don’t have any of those tattoos you’re looking for.” She then tossed back the shot and slammed the empty glass on the table.

 

Don frowned. The twilek leaned on the table and tossed one of his lekku back over his shoulder. “Okay, if you’re parents are mandalorian, why are you fighting for the republic?” he asked.

 

Kali grinned, knowing her response would drive Don mad with curiosity. “That, my friend, is a story for another time.”

 

 

 

Just another quick short. As you can see this one is very short, less than 1300 words, but I guess sometimes that's all you need. Feels like a waste of space for so few words but it also seemed foolish to post it in another thread. Also, I could've gone into greater detail about Kali and her family but I decided that wasn't really necessary.

 

As always; questions, comments, criticisms, observations, remarks, etc are welcome and encouraged. While the characters are original, Star Wars and Star Wars: The Old Republic are the property of Disney, George Lucas, Bioware, and EA.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Well written, this is some of the better stuff I've seen around here.

 

You avoided the dialogue being too cheesy, and managed to convey Kali's emotions well.

 

Thank you for the comments, feedback is always greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Certainly. Have you written anything else with these characters, or are they a one-shot deal?

 

Well, Kali may reappear with cameo appearances in future works, if I ever start posting them. I've got an outline and a few chapters for a non-linear story about her parents, so she would appear a few times in that but not as a main character.

 

The rest of her squad mates though? No, they are merely for the vehicle of this story here. If I decide to write more about Kali in her future, then maybe, they might appear as it would be easier to use them again. But otherwise, I have no future plans for them at this time.

 

Though, the thought of writing more about them has already given me a potential idea that I should write down before I forget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, Kali may reappear with cameo appearances in future works, if I ever start posting them. I've got an outline and a few chapters for a non-linear story about her parents, so she would appear a few times in that but not as a main character.

 

The rest of her squad mates though? No, they are merely for the vehicle of this story here. If I decide to write more about Kali in her future, then maybe, they might appear as it would be easier to use them again. But otherwise, I have no future plans for them at this time.

 

Though, the thought of writing more about them has already given me a potential idea that I should write down before I forget.

Yeah, I frequently have those stray thoughts for existing characters, or an idea for a scene that grows into a more developed story concept. Sometimes they pan out and others turn out to be duds. I find that one of the keys to getting high quality ideas is to churn out ideas and then filter and recombine them until you get something unique.

 

As 'Ol Joe Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality all of its own".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...