You're Not Her

[Razelle Breuner]

Raz's smile faded just a little. "Don't wanna talk about it," she answered very simply.

Her mind threatened to start recounting her time with powers around the galaxy. Criminal syndicates, fascist regimes, empires in their twilight hours... she'd done a lot. Scherezade didn't need to hear about it. It'd be best if she didn't know at all. And, as much as she liked her, Raz's reflex for trust was a little slow. In her mind, she started reciting the breeding and migratory habits of the lesser natham wasp. Its pigmentation had long been believed to be a side-effect of the environment in which it hatched, but around 110 ABY scientists found evidence that it was largely an indication of its sexual activity, with a higher luster indicating a more active mating season.

"I don't have any attachments. A friend or two, a dog. Don't worry about me." The lesser natham wasp, so called as it's the smaller of two very similar species, shares much of its diet with its larger cousin. However, to avoid competition, it supplements this diet with smaller insects, such as the pine aphid. Razelle stood and stretched mightily, one arm far above her head. "Mngh. And my schedule's pretty open."

Two women trying to help the other. They'd be stuck in this whirlwind of interdependence for hours if this kept up. But like...what did you do with a teenage girl? Take her shopping? See a movie? Get manicures? Even discounting the centuries-long gap in her thought pattern, Raz was easily forty years old. Mentally, at least. What did kids even do these days? Listen to trip-core and paint glitter on their skin so they could call it clothes? Jump off skyways and upload it to Holotube?

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"A dog?" Scherezade asked, and her eyes seemed to light up with the excitement of a child at the sound of that. "I love dogs," she smiled. She loved most animals, in general. Of course, there was that whole incident where she basically caused an innocent porg to combust, sending feathers, blood, and bleeding meat chunks on the faces of poor children and their parents, but Raz didn't really need to know about that. It was… In the past. Yes.

"I have a Loth Wolf," she added, still smiling, "he's the silliest things ever. He can do all the cute and goofy expressions one moment only to tear an enemy apart with his mighty jaws the next. I absolutely love him. He used to visit me a lot when I was in the space between dimensions… Now me and Madalena share custody over that big ol' floof. When he's done growing he should be taller than either of us."

Pausing to take a bite from her aclay leg, Scherezade smiled again. "His name is Baal," she said after she swallowed.

As for Raz's schedule being pretty open, Scherezade considered the matter. If Razelle had been part of her mother's stuff, and she knew how to hunt on her own even without having the Force to aid her, that meant she was either an average combatant or better. Looking over the blonde woman, Scherezade figured that the probably better was the true part. There were a bunch of missions she was scheduled for, but most of them included other people and Raz would've probably preferred to avoid those so…

"I have a solo mission about two weeks from now," she said, "need to take some slavers down. Apparently the Confederacy doesn't like slavery for some silly reasons, but the missions that remove them tend to pay well. Would you be interested? We can keep your involvement off the books and I'll just tenser you your share of the credits afterwards."

Oh, the amount of things Scherezade had done and would do that were off the books... In comparison, assuming Razelle agreed, it would be a totally minor thing as far as that was concerned.

[member="Razelle Breuner"]

 

[Razelle Breuner]

Raz shook her head and stuffed her hands into her pockets, shooting Scherezade a little grin. "Don't need your money, kiddo." Mental checklist. This would probably be the best way for them to spend time together. It was what Razelle was good at, and it was the most dangerous part of Scherezade's life. She could be in her comfort zone while keeping the girl out of trouble. Or...well, there was basically no way for them to "stay out of trouble," but at least she could keep her from being in any real danger. "But yeah. I'd love to come along."

An uncomfortable portion of what Scherezade had just said was reassuring Razelle that she'd remain anonymous. Thoughtful little sweetheart, she was. Problem was, she was also bending over backwards to try to accommodate a difficult woman. Right. Nip this in the bud. "You don't have to convince me to spend time with you, you know." She shrugged a bit and stared at the fire, the smell of roast lemony bleach-shark still hanging in the air. "You don't have to hide the fact that I exist. I'm plenty good at that on my own."

Message was wrong. She was just undercutting what Scherezade was saying, not speaking directly. Stop beating around the bush, Breuner. Grow a spine. Speak. "What I'm trying to say is...I dunno. I'm here for you, I guess." Mushy sack of useless emotions. "And I'm here for you. Not them, or credits, or whatever." She had plenty of ways of getting that, herself. Like killing people, stealing their accounts, and running them dry before throwing their credentials into a ditch and repeating the process. No need to worry about taking Scherezade's money.

Clearing her throat, the needlessly gritty old soldier looked off to the horizon. "Anyway. Slaver stuff. Yeah. Where'm I gonna meet you?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade had to fight herself to keep her face from showing the disappointment when Razelle said she didn't need her money. It wasn't that Scherezade wanted to buy her off, but… But it sounded in that moment like she was about to say no. And what else did Scherezade have to offer? Nothing much. She didn't frequent entertainment places (or visit them. At all.), she wasn't really a party goer, she didn't know how that whole coming over for coffee happened and she didn't even like the taste of coffee. If it didn't involve blades, she… Well. She supposed she was pretty boring.

But then Raz said yes and despite her efforts, Scherezade's face lit up and she grinned. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, "I'm… I guess I'm used to it. I don't really get to meet people who want to willingly spend time with me without being forced into it because of the job." And that was how it had always been. Except for Gerwald, except for those few moths recently she spent as Madalena. She couldn't really say that people were delighted to be in her company, because they weren't. Gerwald had, but that… Yeah, it didn't end well from any angle.

And Raz saying she was there for her… Scherezade said nothing. Not immediately. What was there for her to say? Razelle didn't even know her at this point, and her insistence on being there for her… Scherezade really wanted to believe it. A moment ago, she really had. And now her insecurities flushed those thoughts and believes. Was it only because of her mother? Did she really want to be there? Was there something else? It took more than a little effort to swallow those doubts away.

"Tatooine," she said eventually, "we've got some Intel about a group thinking they can hide there. There should be more information by the time the mission is meant to begin. We can meet at Mos Eisley?"

And only one more question. "Would you be interested in meeting my sister?"

[member="Razelle Breuner"]

 

[Razelle Breuner]

Raz raised an eyebrow, turned towards Scherezade, and cocked her head to one side. "The clone?" Hm. Well, that was a tricky little question, right there. She had no idea who this girl was, how stable she was, or whether or not she was dangerous. Normally, that'd be a no. But... if she was going to be there for Scherezade, that meant for everything. Especially the things she didn't want to do. Those were the most important. "Sure, alright," she answered after a few moments' consideration.

She'd have to prepare for that, of course. A few concealed weapons. Maybe she could hide a shield generator. Get a few hours' sleep beforehand, then take a stim or two. Make sure she was rested and alert. Y'know. Just in case everything went pear-shaped. Just because she was being more open didn't mean she had to be lazy. Doubly so, actually. Things had to be safe for both of them.

They were trading heartfelts. Good a time as any, she guessed. "Hey. You wanna come see my dog?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Madalena is not a clone," Scherezade answered with a smile, "there was a whole plot when my mother got pregnant. Someone tried to kill her and a well-placed Force attack had the effect of causing all her eggs to release. Because of how children work and the fact my parents didn't see a point in using protection, all the eggs for fertilized as well."

Why was she explaining this? Scherezade blinked, realizing Razelle was probably more than well aware of those events. After all, if her calculation was correct, Raz had been there when it happened. Maybe something got lost during the cloning though? But there were more than enough details that happened in between which she probably knew nothing about.

"There were four hundred embryos they managed to save. Four hundred potential siblings," she resumed, "and some of them have been stolen. There's a whole political mess going on in Endelaan right now but I don't know all the details. Just that one of the locals was bonded to one of those who are instigating an attempt at a coup, and she stole the embryo he had in his possession and gave it to me. I used Kamino tech to grow it into an adult, and put Madalena in it. There are some physical similarities, but she's far from being a clone."

And that was still a very tiny nutshell. There was much more that happened, but now hardly seemed to be the right time to do it.

"YES!" Scherezade screamed at the offer to go see a dog. A doggo. A pupper. A good boi. The meat dropped from her hands and she looked at Razelle almost like a puppy herself, "when?"

[member="Razelle Breuner"]

 

[Razelle Breuner]

Lost embryos. That was a mental image Raz wanted nothing to do with. Time to be elsewhere doing other things.

"Now, if you want," she replied with a confident grin. Reaching down to retrieve her rifle, Razelle slung it over one shoulder and gave another stretch. "Got anything particularly pressing you wanna do with this little firepit? Carbon footprint or whatever?" She shrugged a bit and crossed her arms. Honestly, Vendaxa's biosphere was so intense that this entire area would be overgrown in a month. The burnt wood would only create even denser vegetation. Not a huge deal.

Whether she had to wait or not didn't matter much. Eventually, the two of them started the trip to her ship together. To say the Rime wasn't impressive would be generous; it was a civilian-issue spacebus with a design that was easily centuries old, retrofits or not. No guns. No external shields or combat plating. It wasn't even fast, judging by its decidedly mediocre engines. When she tapped a code into the side, the inside wasn't any more impressive. Lived-in. There was evidently a reason why Raz wasn't fast to judge Scherezade for living in her ship.

"It's not meant to be much," she explained, hanging her rifle on a hook by the boarding ramp. Even on her ship, even with company, she kept her belt on, blaster and knife at the ready. "Fake transponder for a civilian transport. No illegal modifications. Utterly forgettable." Standing by the bulkhead inside, she rested both hands on her hips. "Welcome to the Rime. Mind the explosives. Mess is on the right, engine room to the left. That'll be where the dog's at."

Not a lot of sound. No yipping or scampering. Was there even a dog here?

Why yes. There was.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Now! Scherezade nodded enthusiastically and jumped from her place, wiping her hands on her pants. If ever there was a person who cared too much about getting dirty, she certainly wasn't it. Besides, there was still drying goop and blood all over her. She was most definitely going to take a shower once she was back on her own ship, but until then? Didn't care. You couldn't camp or hunt if some dirt of goop bothered you.

There was no need to clean up after them. The only thing Scherezade did was throw some earth into the fire to turn it off, and that was it. The rest could remain as it was. There would beno one following them after that.

It didn't take too long to reach Raz's ship. It's exterior didn't move or unmove Scherezade in any way; in some aspects, she was like her mother despite everything, which in this case meant she couldn't even tell when the ship was from or what it could or couldn't mean. She didn't understand ships or vehicles. At all.

Nodding to the instructions, it only took a moment before Scherezade took a left and headed to the engine room. Instantly, she was on her knees by the pupper, her arms wrapping around her, her face rubbing against the top of doggo's head. Did the smell bother her? Nope. She was barely noticing it. "Good girl…" Scherezade whispered, maintaining her hug, and placing a kiss just above her eyes.

Raz didn't exist for a moment. Goodest girl was goodest girl.

[member="Razelle Breuner"]

 

[Razelle Breuner]

Heh. Perfect. Razelle leaned her back against the engine room wall, crossing her arms, one boot on the panel behind her. This was the sort of life a kid like her deserved. Fluffy things and campfires, not chasing down slavers or fighting predators. But Raz wasn't going to stop her from living her life. That was the worst possible idea, the worst crime you could commit against another person. Never take away someone's freedom.

"No idea how old she is. There was another ship, and she kind of came with it." She held up a couple of fingers in a little shrug, but otherwise didn't move. "Ship's gone, but we couldn't leave her there." It was kind of a pain in the ass, at first, since Razelle hadn't actually stocked any sort of dog food or cleaners. Figuring out which outfitters sold food for canis lupus familiaris was a freaking chore.

After a minute or so, she pushed off the wall and rubbed the back of her neck. "Anyway. Hang out as long as you want, kiddo. I'll go getcha my transponder code. Holomail address. That stuff." She sort of hoped, at basically every level, that Scherezade would hang out a bit. Maybe long enough to watch one of Fable's crappy old wuxia Jedi movies? Did she even have anything for dinner?

Augh. Having a family was hard.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"Old," Scherezade replied, still rubbing and hugging the goodest girl, "I don't know how many years exactly, but her blood smells like she's in the last chapters. Doesn't mean they're going to be short though," she added the last line. No one wanted to know their pupper was close to dying.

It was an eternity before Scherezade finally got up, doggo fur covering some of her clothes, but she was smiling from ear to ear. "Yes, give me everything, and take mine," she said, tossing Razelle her commdevice.

So now they were hanging. What did you do when you were hanging? With Josh, it seemed it was always uber heavy conversation, or trying not to die while trying to kill things. With Madalena it was all about getting her re-adjusted to her new body. There hadn't been other friends or people in recent history that just could say she was just hanging with.

So she did what any child in her position would do. She gave the pupper a final hug, asked "What's her name?" and then followed Razelle to wherever it was she was going.