For Now [Post-NJO vignette series]

[emlayy]

Title: For Now [Vig #1: Prologue]
Author(s): emlayy
Timeframe: Post-NJO
Genre: Humor, possibly some angst. I'm trying to keep it happy, though.
Keywords: strike team, post-njo, family
Characters: The remaining strike team members, maybe a few other characters.
Summary: The Yuuzhan Vong war is over, and finally, it's time for peace. And it's funny, how people you were never close with can suddenly be your family.
Notes: I like happy SW fics. This is mostly happy, and yeah. This part of it isn't that great, I'm just trying to get it started. It'll be a series of viggies.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Lucas. The title "For Now" belongs to Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote "Avenue Q."

---------------

They were like a family now.

It was odd, decided Tahiri as she looked around the Solos' apartment where they had gathered. Jaina, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Zekk, Lowie, Alema, Tekli, Tesar, and her -- somehow, some way, had become a family. It was...weird.

Very weird.

But not unpleasant. Not at all.

Tenel Ka and Tekli were the adults, the only ones that really grew up. They reigned the rest of them in, reminding them that they were adults too, and yes, it was probably a bad idea. (Not counting the time they all got drunk and ended up playing dress-up; Tenel Ka had woken up in a purple furry skirt and Tekli was wearing the lime green evening gown that puddled around her feet.)

She and Alema were the bickering sisters. Arguing over who got the dress, the hair accessories (Tahiri always won that argument, since Alema didn't even have hair), the boyfriend. But in the end, when they were sitting around the apartment with nothing to do, it was Alema offering to do Tahiri's hair, and Tahiri helping Alema put on makeup. Having a sister was something Tahiri had always thought about, but somehow when it was a sister and a friend, it was even better.

Jaina was that older sister that you looked up to and admired, the one that managed to pull you into all her crazy schemes, the one who would let you sit on her bed while she regaled her night out with all of her (boy)friends. Jacen was her twin, the one that, when she got that look in her eye, would shake his head and say, "Do what you want."

The path of least resistance is the easiest one when it comes to dealing with Jaina.

Zekk, Lowie and Tesar were like brothers, only more evil. Tesar would siss and cackle, Zekk would work on corrupting the values of everyone there, and Lowie would chuff with laughter whenever something particularly hilarious happened.

And of course, being a family, that was where the insanity reigned supreme.

-------------

The next post is coming right after this, because this is just a sort of introductory post and it doesn't feel right to leave it on its own, because then it's just not that good.

[emlayy]

Title: For Now [Vig #2: Shopping!]
Author(s): emlayy
Timeframe: Post-NJO
Genre: Humor, possibly some angst. I'm trying to keep it happy, though.
Keywords: strike team, post-njo, family
Characters: The remaining strike team members, maybe a few other characters.
Summary: The Yuuzhan Vong war is over, and finally, it's time for peace. And it's funny, how people you were never close with can suddenly be your family.
Notes: This part is mostly how my friend can sometimes act when she wants to go shopping. Alema just seems like the kind of person to be very focused on her looks. Also, why Alema and Tahiri are friends: honestly, they don't seem like the kind of of people who are stupid enough to just completely lose themselves over a guy. And since he's dead, why would they be resenting each other anyway, right?
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Lucas. The title "For Now" belongs to Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote "Avenue Q."


-------------

Tahiri was lying on her bed -- well, the guest room bed -- idly flipping through a holomag, giggling at the trash they wrote in there.

The blonde's original plan for the day was to sit around eating and reading trashy holomags. Just a nice, ordinary --

"HEY THERE!"

-- day.

"Hi, Alema."

Well, that was her ordinary day right out the window.

"What're you doing?"

"Reading."

"I know that, but, like, what are you doing today?"

"Uh, nothing?"

"GREAT!"

The Twi'lek grabbed Tahiri's hand and proceeded to drag her into the main area of the apartment.

"Alema, what are you doing?"

"We're going shopping!"

"What?"

"Shopping!"

"Why?"

"All of my clothes are too small. If I bend over, my pants are going to split at the seams."

"Since when has that stopped you?"

"...it hasn't. But the Jedi supply nearly everything for us, and I need something to spend my credits on."

"I think you're insane."

"Like you have any new clothes either!"

"I don't want any!"

Alema gave her a knowing look.

"Okay, so there was this really pretty shirt I saw at the center yesterday -- "

"GREAT!" Alema yelled again, and paused only long enough to grab Tahiri's bag from the table before dragging her to the shopping center.

Well, at least life never got boring.

--------------

I'm sorry if Alema seems a little crazy, but when she's not be all angsty or evil, I figure she's like this! Hee~ Also, about the ending: I know it's sort of sudden, but I couldn't see the shopping trip in my head. Hmmm. Maybe that'll be a later vig. As for, "At least life never got boring," that's the ending I got stuck with. If I think of a better one, I'll edit this. XD~

[Courtney Solo]

Hey, I like Alema here!








ONLY HERE!

[emlayy]

Hehe~ I used to hate Alema too. I don't know, she just became a really awesome character to me.

XD But yeah, and I always thought that she and Tahiri could be friends, since neither of them seem like the kind of people to be all, "OMG I STILL HATE YOU FOR STEALING MY BOYFRIEND EVEN THOUGH HE'S DEAD", y'know? Kinda stupid for them to still be feuding over that, yeah? ;P

[emlayy]

Title: For Now [Vig #3: Holovids]
Author(s): emlayy
Timeframe: Post-NJO
Genre: Humor, possibly some angst. I'm trying to keep it happy, though.
Keywords: strike team, post-njo, family
Characters: The remaining strike team members, maybe a few other characters.
Summary: The Yuuzhan Vong war is over, and finally, it's time for peace. And it's funny, how people you were never close with can suddenly be your family.
Notes: I like happy SW fics. This is mostly happy, and yeah. This part of it isn't that great, I'm just trying to get it started. It'll be a series of viggies.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Lucas. The title "For Now" belongs to Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote "Avenue Q." Also, the titles of the holovids actually come from titles of fanfics. I don't own them. Or the plots of them, which I know nothing about. XD.

---------------

"Where are the guys going?" asked Tahiri absentmindedly as she flipped through the holomag. Alema was sitting behind her, scraping back Tahiri's long blonde hair into a braid.

"Somewhere," Jaina said, from where she was sitting on the floor examining her nails.

"Helpful," the blonde muttered, and then gave a small yelp. "Alema! That hurt!"

"Sorry," mumbled the Twi'lek as she continued to part and cross Tahiri's hair.

"What do you want to do?" asked Tekli from where she was sitting at the table organizing files and folders.

"We could watch some holovids," suggested Jaina. "Girls' Night In or whatever."

"It does not make much difference to me," Tenel Ka said. "What should we watch?"

"The Darkening?" asked Jaina. "I'm pretty sure we have it."

Tahiri made a face. "That one always scared me."

"Oh?" Alema said. "Alright, then we can watch The Music Box."

"That one is so sad, though. I always cry when they're looking for their parents and in the end, they never find them," Jaina insisted.

The Twi'lek shook her head. "I don't believe it. The slayer of Tsavong Lah and the Jedi-Who-Was-Shaped can't watch a couple of cheesy holovids?"

"Shut up," Jaina said, blushing. "It's just so emotional!"

Tekli looked up from her work. "I always liked Someone Has to Spike the Punch."

The four other girls exchanged glances, and three of them burst into laughter.

"The truth comes out," giggled Tahiri. "Tekli, the closet drunk-comedy fanatic."

The little Chadra-Fan smiled. "I saw it for my sixteenth lifeday, and I thought it was hilarious."

"I don't think we have that," Jaina admitted sheepishly. "Uncle Luke likes that one. I think we gave it to him for his lifeday."

"Awww," said Alema. "Oh well. How 'bout someone -- Tenel Ka, you do it -- just close their eyes and grab whatever holovid off the shelf and we're watching it."

Tenel Ka shut her eyes, leaned forward, and took one off.

"Well? What is it?"

A smile was pulling at the warrior Queen's lips as she read off the title. "13 ABY: Jaina Presents Her First Customer in the Beauty Industry: Jacen."

"What?" Tahiri asked.

"I was really bored...so I gave Jacen a makeover. He's going to kill me. Dad filmed the whole thing. Can we watch something else?"

"No way!" Alema said. "Put it in, put it in!"

Jaina hid behind the pillow as her friends watched and cackled throughout the very embarrassing holovid that Han had filmed when the twins were four.

"Friend Jaina?" Tenel Ka said, pulling the pillow away from her friend's face. "The holovid has ended."

"It was great," Tahiri said with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah," Alema agreed. "Hey, next time you see your brother, tell him that I think the pink shirt you put on him really brought out the definition in his abs."

The female Solo twin groaned and pulled the pillow over her face again.

---------------

I had to say something silly. It was just too good not to. XD

[Courtney Solo]

Yay! I liked that! ;D

[emlayy]

Aw, thank you!

I should probably have the next one -- which deals with UNCOOKED CHILI DUMPLINGS -- up tomorrow.

Or tonight. WHO KNOWS?

[Courtney Solo]

TONIGHT!?!? Oh, ok, tomorrow.

[Dorian Ravencroft]

I like chili!

[emlayy]

Title: For Now [Vig #4: Power Outages]
Author(s): emlayy
Timeframe: Post-NJO
Genre: Humor, possibly some angst. I'm trying to keep it happy, though.
Keywords: strike team, post-njo, family
Characters: The remaining strike team members, maybe a few other characters.
Summary: The Yuuzhan Vong war is over, and finally, it's time for peace. And it's funny, how people you were never close with can suddenly be your family.
Notes: I pretty much spent ages looking for names of food in the GFFA -- so yeah. All of these are actual foods.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Lucas. The title "For Now" belongs to Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote "Avenue Q." Oh, and some lines in this belong to Jonathan Larson.

-------------

"The power's out," Zekk said.

"What happened?" frowned Alema, staring out at the Mon Cal night sky. "The power's almost always on."

"Something happened to the grid," said the dark-haired Jedi. "And I think Jacen forgot to pick up new power cells for the glowpanels. They were running on the grid."

"Perfect."

"Hey there!" Tahiri called as she and Jaina walked in. "We got some food and stuff and -- why isn't there any power?"

"We don't have any power cells, and the planetary grid is offline," Alema said. "Are there any candles around here?"

Jaina shrugged. "In the drawer."

"You'll never guess what day it is," Tahiri said suddenly.

There was a long moment of silence.

"Guess!"

"I thought you didn't want us to guess," Alema said as she finally found a candle stub. She held it out to Zekk. "Got a light?"

He fumbled around in another drawer and finally found a battered pack of matches. He flipped it open and lit the candle.

"Thanks," said the Twi'lek. She turned around to face Tahiri. "Alright, what day is it?"

"My eighteenth lifeday!"

"Oh!" Jaina said. "I can't believe I forgot. Happy lifeday!"

"Happy lifeday!" Zekk said. Alema held out the lit candle stub.

"Make a wish."

"Huh?"

"It's a Twi'lek custom that's spread to a few different worlds. You blow out the candles on your lifeday -- normally they have a candle for every year, so this year there would be eighteen but of course we don't have that many -- and you make a wish, and it'll come true. Now hurry up and blow it out before the wax starts to dr -- ow!"

Tahiri laughed as Alema swore in a few different languages before sticking her finger in her mouth.

"Laugh it up, Veila."

Tahiri shook her head and blew out the candle.

"Yay, Tahiri!" Alema said, before turning back to Zekk. "I think you need to light it again."

Zekk rolled his eyes and yanked out another match. This time, Alema stuck the stub into a candle holder.

"So...what should we do?" asked Jaina.

"No strip sabaac," Zekk said as Alema opened her mouth.

"You're no fun!"

Jaina and Tahiri burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Jacen said, walking through the door. "Sorry about the power cells, guys, but the whole grid is offline and none of the stores are open. So we're just stuck like this."

"Alema wants to play strip sabaac," Tahiri said.

"No," Jacen said. "Besides, in the dark, we wouldn't be able to see anything."

Alema pointed to the candle.

"You'll never guess what day it is," Tahiri said, trying to get the subject off strip sabaac.

"What?" Jacen asked.

"Ha, see! You're supposed to guess!" Tahiri said triumphantly to Alema and Zekk. "Anyway, it's my eighteenth lifeday!"

"Happy lifeday," Jacen said. "How should we celebrate?"

"We could -- " Alema started, but Tahiri cut her off.

"I don't know what you're going to say, but whatever it is, I highly doubt it's moral."

Alema pushed her bottom lip out in a pout. "You're no fun!"

"Funny, I think I've heard that before..." Zekk mused. Jaina gave him a swat on the arm.

"The Festival of the Twin Suns is coming up," Jacen said as he opened the food storage unit and pulled out a package of congealed chili dumplings.

"What about it?" asked Alema, as she took one of the uncooked dumplings. "By the way, Jacen, this is really gross. Chili dumplings are better cooked and with soups."

"We don't have much else. Mom and Dad are offworld negotiating, so we're holding down the fort here. I'm leaving soon to go study the Force, though -- to try and understand it better. Oh, and about the Festival, I was just wondering if anyone was going."

"I am," Tahiri said. "I'm going back to the tribe. Eating sand and jerked bantha meat for two weeks will be fun."

"Is that all the Sandpeople eat?" asked Jaina as she dipped her finger into a jar of gelmeat that she found in the unit.

"Sometimes we eat flatbread. I'm spending two weeks with the tribe, and then the third week in Mos Espa. The whole festival goes on for four weeks, but I'm heading out to Sekot."

"Getting in touch with Riina?" Alema asked as she rummaged around in the unit.

"Yeah."

Zekk shrugged as he ate some of Jaina's gelmeat. "I'm not from Tatooine. I've never been there, so it's not that big of a deal to me. I might go back to Ennth for the Cycle of the Moon celebration -- don't ask me why they celebrate it, since it destroys their world every eight years."

"I thought you didn't like it there," Jaina said.

"I don't. But it's free food. What can I say?"

"What do they do during the Cycle of the Moon?" asked Alema.

"Celebrate. The first few days they just eat and have parties. The next week or so, they get into worshiping the moon, that sort of thing. I'm not sticking around for that, though."

"Hmmm," said Alema thoughtfully as she dissected one of her dumplings.

"What about you, Alema?" asked Tahiri. "Anything big going on in Ryloth?"

"Nah. We don't go in much for celebrations over there. We have Trade Day, where everyone celebrates the prosperity of the slave trade or whatever -- it's not that great. Everyone goes and they have this huge auction...not a big deal. And then when they choose new rulers, but that's not too important either."

"We should have our own holiday," Jaina said thoughtfully. "Make one up."

"The-Power-Went-Out-On-Mon-Cal-So-We-Sat-Around-And-Talked-Pointlessly-About-Holidays Day?" suggested Alema.

"We ate gross food, too," Jacen noted, pointing down at the open and hardly-touched bag of chili dumplings.

Jaina lifted the can of gelmeat. "To holidays!"

"To uncooked chili dumplings!"

"To free food!"

"To power outages!"

"To -- "

"Alema, if you say strip sabaac, you're a dead Twi'lek."

"You're no fun!"

--------------

YEAH. (Alema, that silly Twi'lek~) I'm not actually sure how old Tahiri is at the end of the NJO -- I'm thinking about sixteen or seventeen?

Also, about the Twi'lek lifeday thing -- I don't know if that's an actual Twi'lek custom. It's probably a human custom. But I'm taking a bit of artistic license here.

[Courtney Solo]

Well, in the 1st book of DN, it's been 8 years since Anakin's death, and Tahiri was 15 when he died, so ...

do the math.

[emlayy]

Math isn't my strong subject. I'm more going that she was around 13 when the NJO started, which lasted about three years, making her sixteen/seveteen when it ended. DN didn't start until about seven and a half years later, so this is perfectly plausible.

[Courtney Solo]

There ya go.

[General Aleema]

That was great, I can't wait for the next one!!!

[emlayy]

Hehe, thanks Arya!

Right now this is sort of on hold, 'cause I'm working on The Melancholy of Jaina Solo, but I might poke something together for this later. We'll see. XD

[Cassa Solo]

*grins*funnyfic.

[Dorian Ravencroft]

keep writing

[Cassa Solo]

What the annoying dude said.

[Courtney Solo]

LOL.

[Cassa Solo]

I know....if you amuse,I amuse. ;D

[Courtney Solo]

Hehe, evil twins.
Oh gosh, now it's scary.

[Cassa Solo]

Sometimes I accidently take it seriously....