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#Jedi Master Tholme
obes-kenobes-benos · 8 months
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Mace: Some padawans might have gotten into a bar brawl.
Tholme: Well, that was entirely predictable.
Mace: One of them punched a gang member.
Tholme: Quinlan?
Mace: Obi-Wan, actually.
Tholme: Oh, that was going to be my second guess.
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Conversation
Quinlan: I apologize for saying ‘fuck’ in front of Aayla.
Tholme: You just said it again.
Quinlan: ...
Quinlan: I am not a role model.
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hotenemyshape · 2 years
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Tholme: his body showed clear signs that he was killed by Belladonna
Quinlan and Obi-wan: the pornstar ?
Tholme: ...
Tholme: no the poison
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obligatorytropeinsert · 10 months
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Tholme: Your padawan bit my padawan's hand!!
Qui Gon: Now I'm sure he didn't mean it. Obi-Wan, why don't you apologize?
Obi-Wan (struggling in his master's arms): Just you wait, I'll do it again!
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elisbookworld · 2 months
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Quinlan, picking up young Aayla: And see my friends over there all wearing classic Jedi Robes because of force and tradition or something? Yeah we are strong in the force no matter of the clothes our ancestors wore or something so we don't commit fashion sins in this lineage and dress like normal people.
And then Aayla started wearing the space equivalent of tank tops & jeans and Quinlan was very proud.
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ashinaburrito · 2 years
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Aayla’s Final Trial
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hedonistbyheart · 1 year
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I really love the legend story of how Tholme found Quinlan while on an unrelated mission and when his family didn’t want to let him go to Curoscant, Tholme went “guess I’m his private tutor now :)” and just stayed on Kiffu to help him.
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auditect · 5 months
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The third part of Star Wars: Darkness is here and it's gonna spook the spine right out of your butt! Go ahead and watch it…if you have the guts!
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cienie-isengardu · 2 years
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He’s dead. Why can’t we simply say Tyvooka is dead?
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frostbitebakery · 5 days
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LOUD.
part one two three four five
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Obi watches over him like a shadow the first few weeks he’s in the Temple.
Anakin will wake from a memory-nightmare and his protector will sit on the windowsill, bathed in the ever changing lights.
His warm hand will stroke over Anakin’s hair, soothing and more comforting than words could ever be.
He will offer Anakin to sit with him, watching Coruscant through the transparisteel. And Anakin will inevitably end up cuddled up to Obi’s front, falling asleep with Obi’s heartbeat under his ear, the breath in his lungs.
.
The identities of the Shadows are almost considered inviolable. Due to the nature of their chosen path, secrecy is a tenet they adhere to strictly.
The Council knows who they are, and maybe there are one or two Council members who are uncomfortable with how close to the Dark Shadows operate. But as a whole the necessity is understood.
The Jedi stand and fight for the Light, the balance, for bringing peace and help to those who need it. A calling like that inevitably brings enemies and the need to even the playing field.
“Beacon of Light,” Obi-Wan repeats, hands moving in disbelief.
And code names. It was only a matter of time before he got his codename.
“Fitting, we think it is,” Grandmaster Yoda says, amusement twinkling in his eyes and frog tea.
“Of course, Grandgrandmaster Yoda,” Obi-Wan signs, slipping in the extra grand flawlessly, which results in the sign turning grand to ancient. If Yoda gets cheeky with him, he can very well retribute.
Master Tholme coughs a laugh into the sleeve of his robe.
“Congratulations, Master Kenobi,” Master Windu says warmly and Obi-Wan ducks his head, loses the fight against the blush spreading across his nose. “Master Tholme has prepared a briefing package for you where you can access all relevant information. Like the code name for the Temple here on Coruscant.”
Master Tholme inclines his head in agreement, solemn twist to his lips Obi-Wan knows not to trust. “Old Folks’ Home.”
Obi-Wan wishes he wore the mask so he can wheeze in peace.
.
Jedi move different from the people Anakin has seen so far in his life. They flow, they’re carried by a breeze. Gravity doesn’t have a hold on them unless it suits them. They move like they’re one with nature, detached from sentient-made life and creations.
And then there are a few, like Obi, who move with the undercurrent, with the wind just above the ground. Who vanish with the shadows just to reappear around a corner.
They’re not stalking the enormous hallways or sneaking around like bandits.
Anakin doesn’t think they’re doing it consciously, reflecting attention away from themselves as if they aren’t even there.
Obi’s friend Quin moves like that, too, when he forgets himself, somehow managing to disappear while walking in the middle of the floor.
Quin is a strange one.
But Obi-Wan…
Anakin bites his lips to keep from giggling, hands gripping the banister tightly where he’s peeking. He doesn’t think they’ve noticed him yet.
The training salle they’re practicing in is huge, obstacles dotting the ground for them to leap over or off, hide and take the other off-guard.
It seems impossible, the way they fight and lure each other into traps. Obi is especially good at that. He’s directing Quin into exhaustion he can’t defend himself in anymore, and it’s amazing to watch.
Nothing and no one can beat Obi-Wan. He’s too clever for that.
“I will never stop calling you that, Beacon of Light,” Quin laughs when he jumps out of a roll and onto his feet.
Obi-Wan signs something, his back to Anakin which is aggravating.
He’d change position but both Jedi move around too much.
Quin shakes his head. “Shut up, you know it suits you.” He takes the lightsaber off his belt. “I bet you blushed like a meloroon in season.”
Obi changes into a blue glowing blur in answer.
.
Obi-Wan wants to know where he went wrong. What he did to— He thought the connection between him and Cody—
His vision is swimming, oxygen mask placed over his nose and mouth pumping more than air into his system.
His fingers weakly tap the message on the receiver of the comm device he broke off Cody’s suit during the fight. “Beacon. Light. Force.” Hope and the Force sing to him, even as his doing is detected.
Cody roughly rolls him onto his side, takes the device out of his hand where he had hidden it behind his back.
“The Emperor wants you alive, traitor.”
He’s removed his helmet. The one Obi-Wan had destroyed while it was still on Cody’s head. Just… Cody’s whole demeanor flipped to strange and other. He hadn’t made for his blaster during the fight. Shooting inside a rescue shuttle in the void of space at least still seemed like a bad idea even with Cody’s suit keeping him alive in a scenario like that.
But Obi-Wan couldn’t take that chance. So he’d smashed Cody’s face against a doorframe, breaking the visor and any choice Cody could make in killing Obi-Wan by sudden oxygen depletion.
Of course the fight took care to still break his lungs open, making him gasp for air even before Cody held him down and ripped the mask off.
Lying on his side is easier but the room has decided it is done with him and goes dark.
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fanfic-obsessed · 11 months
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Not quite a fall
Here is an idea that takes the horrifying absurdity of the Clone Wars and magnifies it.  Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times…unless you wish to become part of the ride itself. Then grab onto these characters and you too can try to wrangle them. 
I do want to make it clear from the start that the Jedi Council and Dooku are making the best of some fairly shitty options, at this point and in the future. The Jedi do not know/cannot prove Palpatine is Sidious and the reality is that without absolute proof they risk being wrong and if they are then the real Sith master will go to ground and they will be left with nothing.  In addition Palpatine has contingencies for every aspect of his plan (and likely did in canon as well, if he had a contingency clones for himself), including if clones were found early, the chips did not work as intended, and the Jedi found out too early. It may not be obvious, or seem counterintuitive for the Jedi to keep walking forward, even knowing of the trap, knowing that so many would likely die in this fabricated war. But this is not meant to be criticizing the Jedi for the shitty options they had. 
Now we start with Yan Dooku, prior to his Fall. This is also before the Naboo crisis , in fact this is in the beginning when Palpatine is still manipulating him. 
*-As a side note, have you ever tried to look into the timeline for the clones and try to fit it into the greater timeline. That shit is wild. Jango Fett is recruited for Operation Knightfall-Order 66 and the clone project- in 32 BBY. This is the same year of the Naboo crisis and, according to Wookiepeidia, it is also the year that Cody was born. Based on what we know of the Kaminoan numbering system for the clones, there were at least 2 batches before Cody’s-The Nulls and the Alphas. Jango Fett was recruited by Dooku after his Fall, and he is said to have fallen after Qui Gonn’s death. I get that Palpatine had already been building towards this but man for this timeline to work Dooku had a quicker Fall time than Anakin-who went from ‘stop him’ to ‘time to murder children’ in a distressingly short period of time-  All this adds up to 32 BBY being, like, 2020 COVID  levels of crazy. Because we had Qui Gon’s death, Dooku’s fall, the recruitment of Jango Fett-I understand there was a bounty hunt as an audition-, and all of this happened in enough time for at least 3 batches of clones- possibly more- to be born in 32BBY. How long is the gestation period for the clones? How is gestation and decanting set up so this timeline works. The Galactic Standard year is a 12 month/368 day model. Even if we presume that the double aging is also present in gestation, thus instead of 9 months it takes 4.5 months, that is still 13.5 months for 3 batches. Even with a staggered start cycles-batch 1 is the start point, batch 2 starts a week later, batch 3 starts a week after that and we can get everything down to a minimum 5 months, there still so much shit that has to happen in 7 months-*
In this Dooku, as a Jedi Master, does recognize that he is being manipulated and goes to the Jedi Council. He has just enough proof to prove that the Sith were back but does now know who (He knows that Palptine is involved but does not know if he is a Sith, a willing collaborator, or a patsy). The council decides that Dooku would go undercover as it were, to pretend that he is falling for Palpatine’s manipulation and to let it go to its natural conclusion, which they all presume will end with Dooku pretending to fall.  Outside of the Council, there are only three other Jedi that are told of this assignment. Shadows Tholme and Quinlan Vos (though a senior Padawan at the time) were his contacts. The only other person told was Senior Padawan Obi Wan Kenobi, at the insistence of Mace Windu (Now this was not through some belief in Obi Wan as a person, or his value to such a mission. It was purely so that he could keep Qui Gon Jinn from flipping his lid when and if Dooku needed to pretend to be a Sith. Jinn was not told because no one thought that he could keep from endangering everyone through some ‘Will of the Force’ reasoning or trying to be ‘helpful’).  Neither Obi Wan or the Shadows are told who else knows (though Vos and Thome do know the other is aware), and Obi Wan still has no contact with Dooku, so this knowledge does not change much at first. To be exceedingly clear, Obi Wan is only told that Master Yan Dooku is taking a long term mission where he might have to appear to Fall, in which case Obi Wan is going to need to keep Qui Gon from interfering; he is given no other information about to mission or what is being found.  As it turns out Qui Gon dies just before Dooku ‘falls’. 
The clones are still commissioned, but they are not chipped; save for a single clone whose name later becomes Chip, this is the clone that Dooku shows to Palpatine as proof the plan was going as it should. This Dooku is more involved with the Clones. Though the trainers do not know it (having entirely bought into project Knightfall), Dooku carefully teaches the clones th truth of their existence (that the war they are being commissioned for is BS, purely a trap for the Jedi and that they would have been designed to both love and be forced kill the Jedi). In essence he trains them to be spies in the guise of soldiers.  He has reported the existence of the clones to the council, but like Dooku they are stuck by what they can visibly do with the information. There is some limited secret contact between the leaders of the clones (The Alpha’s as the Nulls had been adopted by Kal Skirata) and the Jedi Council, in which the Jedi Council apologizes for what is being asked of the clones and plans are made to help those that need an escape wherever they are able (Dooku ‘claims’ as many clones that were due to be decommissioned for his own ‘experiments’ as he is able, most of the time that meant that clones who were to be decommissioned were sent to live on a small, unpopulated moon in Serrano’s system-the exceptions to this were clones born with fatal, untreatable congenital defects, for example being without enough of their major organs that there would be no way to grow more before the child died in agony-those few who were truly not viable were given a painless death. It becomes a practice amongst the clones that anyone who truly did not want to fight would drop their scores into Decommission range). 
To this end the Coruscant Guard were specifically chosen because they were the best at that kind of subterfuge, the clone equivalent of the Jedi Shadows and the ones who could keep themselves hidden/shielded against mind control 24/7. Fox is the only non Force sensitive, near human in the galaxy who is entirely impervious to Jedi mind tricks and Sith Mind control, the reason he was given the command that would have given him the most contact with Palpatine. They find out, much later, that some strange mutation makes him entirely impervious to any Force based power that will cause him harm.
When the time comes to enact the plans to start the war, Dooku still sends Jango Fett to lure Obi Wan to Geonosis.  But Obi Wan goes to Kamino knowing that he was going to find the Clones (having been briefed by the Council, who had been informed by Dooku). Anakin is not aware of the second layer to their mission to protect Padme, having never been brought into the loop regarding Dooku.  Obi Wan and Dooku have a pleasant conversation about both Qui Gon (and how he was likely watching from the Force), and there is a plan in place for Obi Wan to escape before the gladiatorial arena in a way that still would spark the war, but not cost lives.  That plan had to be abruptly scrapped when Anakin and Padem showed up on Geonosis to ‘rescue’ Obi Wan, after they sent a message to the council.  One of the major changes to Geonosis is how Anakin lost his hand; it was not chopped off by Dooku but lost in an explosion caused by the droids. 
Here is where we start to get into the horror and the humor. Because this war is fabricated, a thing of smoke and mirrors whose sole purpose is to collect power for a few individuals. More importantly this is a Bullshit created war for the purpose of trapping the Jedi. The upper command on both sides (Jedi High council, Dooku and later Ventress, Palpatine, Grievous) know that the entire war is bullshit, though Palpatine does not know that the JHC are aware. The troopers, from the youngest to the oldest clones, are all utterly aware that the war is bullshit. They grew knowing they would be fighting in a war that was utter bullshit.  The reason that the Droids could not be programmed for critical thinking was that it took them a maximum one battle to realize the war was bullshit, and they were not pleased about being cannon fodder. 
In fact there were only two groups who were actually affected by the war that were not aware that the entire thing was contrived bullshit. 
Every office not part of the high command (non clone officers, Jedi Generals, the entire command structure between fielded droids and CIS Generals on Grievous's level-I have no idea how the command structure of the CIS army works and barely any more about the GAR structure but work with me here), which I tend to think of as the middle management is the first group. 
The other is the innocents being attacked by CIS forces.  To them the war is very real.
Until they know for sure who the Sith Master is Dooku, the Jedi High Command(now including a fully read-in Obi Wan), or the Clones cannot let on that they know the war is ultimately bullshit. And there are too many innocents at stake to completely blow off or fake fighting. Yes when Dooku, and Ventress after she is brought into the fold, are in command they tend to try and take worlds with resources but little to no populations and they disengage as soon as they possibly can,  but there are too many who buy into ‘The War’ or the power that they are getting to fake battles and in battles someone is bound to die. 
Imagine being one of the Jedi Councilors and high generals, knowing (instead of just suspecting) that every battle they go into is unnecessary bullshit to trap the Jedi. Knowing that their troopers know that they are being sent into battle for unnecessary bullshit, but everyone having to pretend that they buy into the bullshit, that they have to pretend ignorance of things so gallingly obvious.
-In this world the Jedi council has created a secret process for allowing the defection of troopers that do not want to fight. Pong Krell (who never got to the point of Falling, as he never got used to thinking the clones were non sentient) and a handful of other Jedi spread throughout the system's armies, maintained a deliberately high ‘casualty’ rate to go with their high success rate. Clones that wanted to defect were transferred to these specific battalions where they were ‘killed in action’ and transported to a way point that relays them to the planet the decommissioned clones went to. None of these Jedi know that Dooku is actually on their side, or that the whole war is bullshit, but they are able to hang onto their sanity a bit better for this process. -
Picture Dooku, and later Ventress, staring across the battlefield as horrified at the lives being taken as the Jedi. Still having to pretend to buy in, saying all the right things (Ventress does still take Wolffe’s eye, but it is Wolffe’s idea to help sell that Ventress is not ‘too soft’ on the clones she is fighting). Imagine having to calculate the exact point they can withdraw, when they have to press their victory for appearances. Knowing that they (as Ventress was completing her Jedi training under Dooku, who does not want her to be lost to the darkside) have to reconcile killing for the sake of appearances.  Having to bury their own horror when they work with other CIS high command, who very much know that the entire war is bullshit but don’t care, or are actively enjoying, the lives lost. 
It changes some details, both major and minor, on who dies when, but in the grand scheme of things this knowledge does not change the overall trajectory of the war (though Dooku is not killed). It is still three years in that Palpatine tells Anakin (who, at no point, is brought into the loop about Dooku, the defection of clones, or any of it-mostly because no one not in a very strict ‘need to know’ was told and partly because the Jedi Council allowed the clones themselves to decide who would know about the defection battalions; they could not quite convince themselves that he would not share that information where he should not) that he is the Sith Master. Anakin runs to tell Windu. 
But in this, instead of gathering the council to fight Sidious, Windu’s first action is to comm Fox. All he says to the head of the CG is, ‘Palpatine has just confirmed that he is the Sith Master’. 
Fox responds with, ‘I will comm you when it is done’.
Anakin is standing there, breathing heavily from running all the way from the Senate, very unsure what was going on but certain the announcement that Palpatine was a Sith should be taken with some more urgency than Windu was showing. 
Ponds enters and when he is told who the Sith is he sighs, deeply. “I was so sure it was that odious aide of Palpatine’s” (Whom Pond refers to only by the name of Bastard, if at all).
Just as Anakin is starting to become antsy (very much in the mindset of ‘shouldn’t we do something about the professed Sith in the same building as my secret wife?) Fox comms back. His hair is sticking straight away from his head (he found out that Palpatine’s Lighting did not hurt him the old fashioned way) and reports that Palpatine is very dead (each Guard wanted to make sure…and shooting is a good way to make sure), the Senate is in lockdown, to tell Skywalker that his wife is on a medical transport for the Temple’s Healing Halls (using those exact words),and that Fox will be filing a formal complaint against the Naboo education system for poor sex ed.  
After the call is done, the next call Windu puts in is to Dooku. Windu tells Dooku that it is time to come home.  Anakin watches horrified fascination as Dooku visibly sags with relief, saying that he and Ventress just need to tie up some loose ends here and to have a therapist ready. 
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clawedandcute · 4 months
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hello I'm having thoughts about Aayla Secura in my Accidental Sith AU and I need to write them down somewhere
Something something she is a former slave who is only free because Quinlan and Tholme rescued her, but the Jedi Order tends to forget their members' pasts, so they hand her a battalion of enslaved men and expect her to knuckle under. Something something she is a twi'lek and she sees her people in every nightclub, hanging on every corrupt senator's arm, perpetually silenced, perpetually used, and perpetually ignored by those who could help, and so she wears the clothes of the enslaved rather than those of the Jedi, and she marks those who look at her like she's a thing instead of a person, and she marks every Jedi who walks into a nightclub and walks out without doing anything. Something something she was always outspoken, always getting in trouble for speaking against her slave masters, and none of that changed when she came to the temple (she just mouths off to different masters now, and no one beats her, so why should she stay silent?) until her crechemaster warned her that she could be expelled, that she could get Quinlan in trouble, and she realized that the Jedi Council wants silent soldiers. So she became what they wanted outwardly, but the only thing about her that really changed is she learned to keep her mouth shut. She is a model Jedi, a success story, the reason Quinlan is still seen as faithful even as he defies the Council at every turn, and Quinlan knows she still loves him even though she's drawn away from him, and he knows better than to ask why she did it.
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Conversation
Tholme: Padawan of mine, why do you smell like weed?
Quinlan: How do you know what weed smells like, Master?
Tholme: I-
Quinlan: HA! Busted, Master! You're grounded for a week!
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phoenixyfriend · 2 years
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Here's an AU that's probably been played out a million times by other people, but hey, let's run it again.
Quinlan passes through Tatooine regularly for Shadow reasons. One time, at the tail end of a mission, he runs into 2yo Anakin. He recognizes this kid is Force Sensitive. He manages to steal a baby (and the baby's mom) via Really Illegal Gambling Cheats, because he's got the time and money to spare on this without breaking cover. (Not breaking cover is important, because there's a few dozen slaves he'll be able to save if he succeeds in this mission, and he kind of can't throw their lives away for the sake of immediate relief for one toddler and his mom.)
Talks through options with Shmi. Relocates her to a settler village where she's free but still within easy distance of friends and found-family. She hears him out on the Jedi schtick, and insists he take Anakin to Coruscant in the vein of like. Sending a kid to a faraway college because they got a full scholarship, but more baby. It's very "I want my child to have better than this."
Anakin gets to the Temple. Quinlan introduces him to Aayla, and to Tholme and Plo, and to Obi-Wan, and people are very "oh, okay, those two are Meant To Be Lineage" about Anakin and Obi-Wan, and there's lots of betting going on as to whether they'll be lineage siblings or master and padawan etc.
More importantly, Quinlan tells Obi-Wan about Shmi, just offhand, and includes a vague reference to where she's ended up (Anchorhead, probably).
Seven years later, a cruiser from Naboo ends up on Tatooine, and Obi-Wan is the only person aboard that knows a single ally on-planet.
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ninjigma · 1 year
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QuinFox Week Part 6/7 - First / Previous / Next
Day 6: Sleep/Nap + Psychometry Track: 'Touch' - Sleeping At Last (Spotify / YouTube)
This time it was Quinlan’s own racing heart that woke him. 
His dreams had been filled with blaster fire, flashes of his parents blending into recognized red armor. The screams of his Mother echoed around him as he picked up the broken helmet, saw his own reflection in the visor, his eyes burning yellow- 
The screams became his own. 
He heaved in air, awareness spreading out with the Force into the dim room in search of the threat. He had tried to sit up, felt pain flare in his abdomen and caused him to stall halfway, curling to lean on his uninsured right side. 
“-nlan, focus on me. I know you recognize my voice you joke about it being familiar all the time-“
“Fox?”
He hadn’t even noticed Fox come in, or maybe he had been in the bunk next to him? He hadn’t sensed him in his panic though he had been searching for threats, which Fox definitely wasn’t. If anything Quinlan latched his focus on Fox now and felt only safety, a comfort in the strength of another. 
“I’d say who else could I be but I guess there are at least a couple thousand possibilities,” Fox’s voice became sharper again, falling back on familiar humor at the sign that Quinlan was successfully anchoring himself. 
Another few breaths and Quinlan managed to croak out “Lucky guess then.”
Fox snorted, standing from where he had been kneeling in front of Quinlan. Slowly he reached out, hands barely brushing Quinlan’s shoulder in a clear direction for the Jedi to lay back down, which he did with a soft groan. 
“You should drink something,” the clone Commander pointed out. “Can probably eat now too if-“
“My mother. It was about my Mother.”
Fox pulled up short, half a step from turning away to grab the mentioned water and food. It was the middle of a sleep cycle, so he hadn’t been far when Quinlan’s choked scream woke him, but now he felt almost disconnected as Quinlan opened up in a very rare moment. 
A moment he was sharing, though quietly, as if Fox would push it off- no. As if Quinlan was giving Fox the option to push it off, that he didn’t need to stay and listen. 
But Fox had always listened before, even to things he definitely knew were ridiculous from the man before him. Why do anything different now?
At least, that was the reasoning Fox used as he returned to his spot from earlier, sitting and eyes tracking over Quinlan to check no bandages had come undone in the panic. 
“Your… Mother?”
Quinlan’s head gave the shortest nod but hadn’t managed to look to Fox yet. “She was… murdered. Both of my parents were, sacrificed by my great aunt to Anzati. I was four. They gave me her medallion, the one she wears in every memory I have. And-“
At this, his eyes closed, and Fox watched the signs of Quinlan slowing to find a semblance of control and balance, something honestly quite rare for the straightforward man to do. 
“And they gave it to me knowing full well I was what they described as ‘the best example of psychometry they’d ever seen’. I held the medallion and I relived their deaths like they were my own until Master Tholme found me.”
Fox blinked. He didn’t know truly what to do with any of that information. Surely he couldn’t change the past and had no similar experience of even having a parent to begin with. This wasn’t something he could fight physically or even parse out verbally. But before he could grow any more uncertain with the want to help but no path to understanding how, Quinlan continued with all the calm he shouldn’t have if Fox was to believe he was okay. 
“Sorry if that is a lot. You asked about her and it’s only an explanation of why I panicked. It was long ago, and I deal with it as best I can. I’m telling you not because I think you change anything about it Fox, but just cause you asked,” dark features finally pulled away from the ceiling to land on Fox. “All you had to do was listen, which you did. So, thank you.”
Fox didn’t feel like he should be thanked. Like he hadn’t done anything to actually help, though Quinlan always made it clear that Fox didn’t ever owe him anything. Thus he found himself nodding, agreeing as best he could in the heavy silence. 
Fox could be snippy, strong-headed, and fiercely loyal, pointed himself in a direction and slipped and fought his way to the end with everything he had. And though Quinlan told him thank you, Fox decided he could definitely do more than just sit here looking dumb to receive it. 
He didn’t owe it to Quinlan, he wanted it for himself. 
He reached out, fast before he could rethink it, and took Quinlan’s hand in his own. The Jedi didn’t even flinch, simply gave a short inhale and let his eyes flutter close. Fox had no idea how anything Jedi truly worked, but Quinlan had explained his need for gloves and how his psychometry worked before. Recalling that, he had wondered if Quinlan was strong enough to pick up memories or imagery, and decided he at least wanted to try. A chance to help Quinlan in some way even if it wasn’t with a blaster or armor. 
Face scrunching up slightly in concentration and a thought of how insane this all truly sounded if he thought too long, he pictured Dex’s. He thought about how it had been one of the first places Quinlan ever convinced Fox to eat at. He even recalled some of that meeting, how excited Dex had been, how the food quickly become something Fox loved, and then how it ended with Fox dangling off a speeder while Quinlan attempted to help him and also steer with the Force. 
He really did collect the insane one this time didn’t he? Maybe even give Rex a run for his money in the crazy General department.   
Quinlan suddenly laughed, choked but a laugh nonetheless. So perhaps it wasn’t that insane to think that even without being able to use the Force, Quinlan could reach out and find Fox instead. Like he always seemed able to do.
“Cody is the one with the crazy General,” Quinlan murmured. “But thanks for the nomination.”
Fox thought of some of the stories Cody had told him and snorted softly as Quinlan laughed again.
“I- I can’t tell what you are thinking exactly, it is more an impression and imagery thing, and people are always complicated. But you definitely have no contradictions in the feelings of ‘you’re crazy’.”
Fox rolled his eyes, though at least he hadn’t thought of anything too embarrassing or made a mockery of holding Quinlan’s hand for no reason. “It’s because it isn’t complicated, just a fact. You are crazy.”
“Crazy about you.”
It had been said teasingly, familiar in Quinlan’s antics of flirting playfully with Fox, in which the commander would normally quip back at him. But after everything, Fox being confronted with how much hearing Quinlan say goodbye hurt, how his heart plummeted when Quinlan had collapsed so lifelessly in his arms, how every step carrying him back made him fear he may never again hear those flirting comments again, and thus never feel the resulting small flutters of hope that they could be true; after all of it, he finally put a few thoughts to his feelings. A few realizations that his priorities and wants may have shifted without him ever really noticing. Like the shadow he was, Quinlan had slipped in close and before Fox knew it he found he didn’t want to be left alone in the dark again.
In a blink, he decided he wanted Quinlan to stay with him.
“Fox?” 
And in another blink, he realized his mistake.
“Sorry, I-” he pulled his hand back, every intention of moving away, under the guise of getting Quinlan or drink or maybe even an excuse to check the ship again. But he had barely let go before Quinlan’s own hand wrapped around his, anchoring the clone in place.
“No, Fox, it’s okay. You don’t have to leave,” Quinlan’s voice was low, raw in a way Fox had never heard before. “I want to stay, want you to stay, if you do too.”
Quiet. Neither of them was known for being quiet, especially not when they were together. But now it filled the small room, cushioned them both in silence that spoke louder than any words. Shifted to still and watched as they both took soft breaths.
Fox moved first.
Slowly he slid towards Quinlan, who moved the blanket back like he had been expecting it. And maybe he had with whatever Jedi nonsense Fox still scrunched his nose up about, but what was important is actually how his own stomach flipped over itself as he was now on his side, one arm naturally stretching out along the bed which Quinlan quickly accommodated, laying still on his back to not agitate his injuries.
Again they stilled, Fox’s eyes drifting over the dreadlocks splayed out across the small bit of pillow between them. Now he was close enough to pick apart the smallest scar almost hidden by Quinlan’s eyebrow, how those yellow tattoos complemented the deep color of his skin, a complexion even darker than Fox’s. 
“Don’t forget to breathe, Commander.”
A joke, one that shocked a scoff out of Fox as he tried not to show how he began to consciously breathe again. “And don’t you dare irritate your wounds. I spent way too long patching them up for you to aggravate them again.”
Quinlan’s eyes had shut and left Fox the illusion of privacy even as he could watch the rise and fall of Quinlan’s bare chest. The hand that had come to rest between them looked wrong now that it was empty, and there was still that little space between them.
Fox shifted closer, fingers drifting over the back of Quinlan’s hand. The Kiffar man hummed quietly, shifted his hand above Fox’s and moved closer as well. Naturally, they tucked close together, and Fox found his nose pressed to soft locks and Quinlan's head turned slightly to ghost breath across the low hollow of Fox’s throat.
“So, you really carried me all the way back?”
Fox steadied himself in the note of humor, even if Quinlan’s own voice still had those unsure feelings hidden in it. It didn’t phase Fox, especially because of how his own emotions were still as confusing as ever and thus he focused on that familiar banter.
“Yeah, dragged your self-sacrificing Jedi ass back here and I still haven’t heard a thank you.”
“Awe, would my clone in shining armor like a kiss for his efforts?”
Fox rolled his eyes and sank a bit closer. “I think the painkillers are still affecting you, you sound delusional.”
“Not at all, Fox,” Quinlan hummed. “So much not that I may actually pass out from the pain.”
Fox tried to hide his smile. “Can’t be that bad if you didn’t say anything, di’kut.”
“You would’ve gotten up, and I didn’t want you too.” Quinlan's eyes opened lazily to glance towards their entwined fingers, smile small but bright. “Not a chance Foxie, not for anything.”
“You’re so stupid.”
“All for you Fox. A true menace or you wouldn’t like me.”
Fox felt the other man sag against him. His voice had slurred, being awake finally becoming too exhausting for him. And Fox selfishly accepted the moment, relished in the touch of someone he found he trusted explicitly for the rare seconds he would have it.
Only to realize… he didn’t have to steal the moment. Vos had gifted it to him. Was giving him the chance, the choice, the option. Told him exactly what he wanted, and gave the Fox the moment to back out or get up and leave. To keep the distance they had carefully crafted with their quips and side missions and drunk sabacc games. 
Quinlan’s thumb brushed over the back of Fox’s hand.
Fox stayed.
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ashinaburrito · 2 years
Text
No Jedi is Ever Alone
The Padawan teaches the Master
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