A Duel of Episode 3 Proportions

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Jessica went to sleep right after Summer did. Already from the get-go she is rolling on her side of the bed, due to her sleep being a little slow to kick in. But it's not a problem of the bedding so much as a problem with her own self: clearly her own head isn't on straight. She has haunting visions of several scenes: the first one was when she was being plunged inside the carbonite freezing chamber on Christophsis, and Tanomas told her I'm altering the deal, and pray that I don't alter it any further, and the second one involving Sith Lords as they sow destruction and mayhem on some planet far away from Cato Neimoidia. And the sound of the broken bacta jar from [member="Summer Sovereign"]'s fall from the bed was enough to pull Jessica out of her slumber, several hours before the Pizza Hutt pizza would arrive for them to feast on. Her plan for the next few days is to make Summer eat until she is back to normal: being this thin is unhealthy on the long run.

"Maintenance droid, clean up the bacta spill!" She turned to Summer's hand, before using Force-healing to relieve the pain caused by Summer's fall from the bed. "Much better"

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Summer would awake with a start and seeing Jessica over her looking at her hand. It was better, not fully healed but close enough. She would look into Jessica's eyes. She didn't feel like herself at all these days.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Perhaps, to take your mind off this whole deal on Christophsis, you should eat half that stuffed crust pizza. Your body needs energy to heal. I care about you all the same as I did before you went mad"

Jessica knew that [member="Summer Sovereign"] needed to eat three hearty meals a day until she is back to normal. There are two things she still needs to learn as a Jedi, but she needed to eat well before she could actually learn something: a hungry Jedi doesn't learn very effectively, if at all. Oh and they would have a tray with a candle at the middle of it: how romantic of Jessica. She knew that, to aid in the mental healing process, she had to give her wife a similar amount of attention as she used to before the Christophsis campaign happened. A candle-lit breakfast would be just fine. Said breakfast may be a little heavy, but hey, Jedi ladies gotta eat. That was one all-dressed pizza on a silver platter for both ladies to eat; the silver platter wasn't overly scorched, by the looks of it, but even today they still are the same couple that everybody championing same-sex marriage across the galaxy and their dogs tout as the ideal same-sex relationship.

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I will try my love..." She said shakily standing trying to stand. She would eventually reach her feet and make her way to the food. She would begin to eat and only 1 piece in she would stop

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What's wrong? I thought that you would be happy that I am around you once again, that you have something to live for"

Attachment doesn't, per se, make someone fall to the dark side, but attachment could lead to it, indirectly: she was often told as much in the early stages of her Jedi training, which occurred in the early stages of the Omega war. There definitely was something wrong with [member="Summer Sovereign"] because she didn't eat nearly as much as she used to, but half a pizza that size was just right where the portion size used to be for someone her size. The very same size they used to eat back on Hypori, which was her reference when they ate Pizza Hutt in romantic and not-so-romantic meals. Yet she saw no signs of Summer being on the verge of falling to the dark side. And, for some reason, despite the feth-ton of damage dealt to, and by, the Black Tie Syndicate, and the Confederacy having imploded, even though there were remarkably little Confederate casualties from the first phase. Whereas the Republic defeated them in the Mimban campaign, they didn't cause them to break like Christophsis had. Yet, for all her strategic reasons for doing what she did, she'd regret actually embarking on the Christophsis campaign.

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I am but I know I will vomit if I try to eat too much too fast"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Take your time to eat. I understand that you won't be fully back to normal in just two days"

Jessica had no clue whether half-Omwati women like [member="Summer Sovereign"] would recover from such family-induced traumas at similar speeds from normal humans, but full-blooded Omwati are usually pretty highly attached to their families, even though outside of the family sphere, they were usually rather methodical. But she knew that some people fell to the dark side because of such traumas, and a lengthy process of returning to the light was in order when it came to Force-users. But she was familiar with the five steps of trauma: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, and in that they didn't come in the same order for every trauma or everyone living a trauma. Clearly Summer lived through three of the five: denial and isolation, anger and depression. But she has no idea how long it would take for Summer to finish eating her half of the pizza. Oh, food, how important it was for it to be part of a plan to nurse her back to health!

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Summer would continue to eat slowly for 45 minutes until it was all gone. She would then go and promptly throw it all up. She had no clue how long it would take her to regain her ability to hold food down. As with full blooded Omwati family was very important with the Half-blooded community, this is why she still hadn't fully recovered from the loss of her sister or her family. She would return to Jessica with a sorry look on her face. She felt bad that she had just wasted a perfectly good pizza but she felt even worse for Jess having to deal with her

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Eating and then throwing up, as if vomiting, was something that she knew happened in teenagers; she still remembers these scenes of horror. Thankfully Jessica didn't have that sort of problems and finished her half of the pizza much faster than [member="Summer Sovereign"] did. She put on her sabacc face when the scene of vomiting happens. She was then immediately reminded of a scene during her teenager days back on Loronar. And of the intense pressure of undergraduate admission season, where many in gifted education like her feel the pressure of having to attend institutions like Coruscant or Theed; these two were high on many students' lists. Such pressure could make students crack and become Jessica was rejected from both, but Dammon University on Corulag was still a major research university with a reputation for engineering. She knew more than a share of students that ate and then vomitted, especially the dark-sider whom she knew ran a fitness center and taught tapas for a fee. And used tapas to stay slim, while still bulimic.

"I'm sure that the folks at nut houses would realize that, perhaps, this behavior could be related to your mental illness. I'm not a psychiatrist but I know it happens with mentally ill people"

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Summer would nod to her wife before coming over to her, she would wrap her arms around her lover and hold on tightly. She needed something to ground her back to reality, she felt like she was up in the air. Not grounded at all, Being wrapped in Jessica's arms always helped ground her. She would stay there for a while just thinking. She knew Jessica was worried for her, she wouldnt let this mental illness beat her. She had met a lot of dangers and bested everyone of them

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Oh you can feel my embrace in the Force"

She knew that other planetary rulers, or some people among the very rich, were often prompt to treat their husbands or wives as trophy dependents of varying genders. But [member="Summer Sovereign"], while snuggling up in Jessica's arms, would never be made to be relegated to play second fiddle or to even be idle. Yet, if being snuggled in her arms would help Summer get better, then Jessica would do just that. Oh, using the Force allowed the both of them to remain radiant, and, of course, to keep what beauty they have. Hmmm... if their love was so intense that they would kiss each other, oh wait, they are kissing each other, while in each other's arms! Surely that display of passion ought to help Summer on her path to healing her injured mind. And perhaps Jessica is subconsciously using Force-healing on Summer for some sort of relief. and not just muscular pains this time around. Very similar to the very first time they ever met each other, where Summer used Force-healing to relieve Jessica's pains.

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Summer would hold her love, she would kiss her and try to fight off the insanity that tried to overtake her once again. If it did overtake her again she knew there would be no easy way out of it this time for it had already been the fight of her life. Her hand was still hurting, but as long as jessica was on the other side she would never let go. Without Jess she knew she would have lost the fight already

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You remember how it was at the very beginning between us, love. The seventh heaven, before we got married. You realize by now that our marriage is an idyll everyone and their dogs that champion same-sex marriage in the galaxy use for an example of how it occurs in practice. Now, If you want a baby to come out of it, we have two options. Donor sperm or Force-spawn" she told [member="Summer Sovereign"] after the kiss ends.

Methodology comes first, knowing that Force-spawn would simply require that the genes of the two biological parents and that donor sperm is a lot less predictable than but much more readily accessible. She learned somewhere that Force-users in same-sex relationships often used Force-spawn for getting children; She doesn't know genetics that well, but she knows that having a genius for a biological parent does not imply that the biological child will be, nor that having FUs for parents will result in Force-sensitive children. Some people have claimed that Force-sensitivity is due to a recessive gene that caused midi-chlorians to increase inconcentration but she was no CMB (cell and molecular biology) expert or geneticist. Nevertheless, Jessica is just a bit concerned: she knew that the crown of Glyss would need to remain in the galaxy; if the dynasty ended without a heir, a royal election not unlike what's happening on Naboo would be in order.

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Your choice my love my only wish is that if we go the sperm donor route that it is you who is the biological mother." She said, she hoped that some of Jessica's royal features would carry over to their child or children if it happened to be twins. She liked the idea, "If it was a Force Spawn I would hope it had most of your features but my eyes"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I don't mean any disrespect, but exactly why do you want me to be the biological mother? Donor sperm is highly unpredictable as to what the end result will be, and there is no guarantee that the end result will be anything remotely resembling me"

True, Force-spawns tend to bear more of a resemblance to the original template, and, while not technically clones, it's very easy to get the process wrong. It's a tradeoff between the relative safety of being able to carry children to term in donor sperm, and greater likelihood of retaining traits and the greater dangers of having premature births or stillborn children. But she knew that menopause drew near in Jessica's case especially if she was to bear the resulting child, esecially with donor sperm, whereby the biological mother would bear the child. While she would readily accept to be the biological mother and to bear the child, Summer better had a good reason to her eyes to desire Jessica to be the biological mother. Not that it really mattered as far as the successor to the throne of Glyss is concerned, unless [member="Summer Sovereign"] already had children, in which case the crown prince/princess is already designated.

"Sure, I may have some credibility as the sexiest woman in the galaxy, and I have a few desirable traits, but also Force-spawn has a lot of counter-indications last I've heard about it, a lot more than donor sperm"

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I will bare the child if you wish to use donor sperm." She said looking at Jessica, "What do you love about me Jess?" She asked just wondering what it was that made Jessica like her in the first place. She knew that sometimes childbirth was dangerous, it could lead to death for both the mother and child if you weren't careful. But it was a risk Summer was willing to take

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I always loved your loyalty, how you appreciate me for more than just my body or my intelligence, how you were grateful for me loving you despite having lost your left eye. That, even though I'm known to many across the galaxy as one of those bombshell geniuses that are so hard to get"

Donor sperm with another child-bearing mother other than the biological mother is most assuredly the result of in vitro fecondation. It seem that both women came to terms with how IVF can be highly unpredictable especially if the sperm banks were a little short on variety. Given the legal implications of IVF, as she knew them as applied to the case of same-sex royal marriages, Jessica preferred that the biological father to be a Glyss resident. Sure the biological father of the crown prince/princess would not necessarily be a prince consort or a prince father, but same-sex marriage would open a can of worms for the rules of succession as applied to landed gentry and their associated titles of nobility. Jessica was in the thick of it, and [member="Summer Sovereign"] is a party of the legal debate that will soon ensue, then again so will she. They will both realize how their same-sex marriage will take the galaxy by storm.

"The biological father will become nobility so I would prefer the biological father to be a Glyss resident. I must confess, although our marriage is famous across the galaxy as one of the models same-sex marriage supporters aspire to, it can cause problems for hereditary succession. That is why many hereditary monarchies in history were reluctant to accept same-sex marriage among the nobility, even though non-nobles could readily embrace same-sex marriages in such regimes. Then again, I'm not a family lawyer or a notary. I know the population accept same-sex marriage, just that it will open a legal can of worms on Glyss"

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I would advise we do a force spawn then, I could nip any legal issues in the bud if I needed to but I would rather not have them arise at all. I could carry the child if we went with the sperm donor, then we could use a citizen of Glyss, I know that we have sperm banks there and some of the donors have died by now if you wish to do that." She said thinking of a loop hole from the legal issues that might insue

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Force-spawn. Probably some Dathomirian spell, requiring extensive preparation to do, because of the number of genetic parameters associated with the resulting baby. Agreed, you're the one carrying the baby, you seem to think that none of the counter-indications of Force-spawn apply to you"

Weird: Force-spawn the way [member="Summer Sovereign"] thought about it is usually a thing associated with the Yuuzhan Vong or with cloning with alterations. Cloning of Force-users was a risky business at best, even when not accelerated. Starkiller, Joruus C'baoth and Luuke Skywalker were a few perfect examples of what can go wrong when cloning of Force-users is involved; Force-spawn, on the other hand, allows a few alterations on children of Force-users, which could even be Force-clones of said FUs, but their growth wasn't accelerated. And, in fact, couldn't be. Surely a child would be another package (and token) born and borne from their love... but it has its drawbacks, too. Especially if the child was to prove a genius in the biological mother's mold. Because child geniuses, while envied by many, are not all they are cracked up to be; for every Jessica or Tionne, there are hundreds of kids that are emotionally scarred well into adulthood because of it.

"You understand that a child is a long-term responsibility"

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Yes I do I am well aware of the responsibility" She had always wanted children, this was her chance to give them an heir to the throne, as well as just having children would help Summer's own mental state "So it is the sperm donor for us?" She asked unsure, she knew that it would be a long and drawn out process. But she was ready

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]