Please Hold your Applause

[Doctor Azure]

"Why does every girl ask me if I'm a creeper? It's a tiny bit disheartening."​

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Lorane waved off that conversation for another time, and nodded at Rawnie.​

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"I've got a Firespray. Might have to mod it a bit to make it livable, but it's fast."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Firespray. Not bad at all. She could make it work for her. It was fast at least. The sooner they got from place to place, the more credits they'd make. Corrin wouldn't even know she was gone until he looked at the clan account and say all the credits she'd been raking in. She'd be the best damn hunter this side of the Galaxy!

"I can give you a hand there," she shrugged, "I helped to build half of the buildings in the village."

Good with a blaster, good with a sword, good with a hammer. What wasn't she good at?
Talking. Talking was something she wasn't really good at. Talking and controlling her temper.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"And I make the guns and ammo I use. I'm sure we can make that ship a nightmare, you and me."​

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Lorane smiled at Rawnie. There was probably a real reason she wanted to partner up with him. There always was, in his experience. Boredom, greed, revenge, whatever. At least this girl wasn't as overt about it as the others had been. He honestly hoped he was wrong. As he walked out of the bar, and towards his clinic and his ship, he started talking again.​

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"So... you get along with your brother?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The Tal'verda daughter stopped dead in her tracks. What a question... Did she get along with her brother? Short answer, yes, but only out of necessity. Truth was...

"Corrin in the new Cheiftan of Clan Tal'verda. It is his birthright as Calico's eldest child. I respect him, but I do not think for a second his position was earned, nor do I think he is suited for it."

Her voice was cold as the winters in the fringed north of Mandalore.

"I follow his orders.... when he can be bothered to give them."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane quickly glanced at Rawnie, and then looked back ahead of him. He couldn't tell whether she was sad or angry, but he had this weird little bit of his brain telling him to just pat her on the shoulder and tell her she didn't have to deal with it. He fought the urge and the urge lost. Trying to cheer her up through physical contact was not the way to not look like a flirt or a creep.​

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"So, same problem as every other feudal culture ever. Older kid sits in daddy's chair whether or not they can fit it. Until somebody interrupts their breathing, or they get forced off their spot overwhelmingly."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The Mandalorian girl raised a thin white eyebrow. Yes. It was only a matter of time until Corrin did something irrevocably stupid. The Tal'verda clan was proud. Proud, yet loyal to a fault. Even with a weak leader, they might not do what was needed. But Rawnie? Rawnie was not just mandalorian. She was Echani too. And she knew what Mother told her about Echani culture. A weak leader would never have the title of Clan Chief. The next in line would step up and throw them down, if for an instant, the leader showed weakness.

Corrin. Was. Weak.

He was always weak. The golden child, yes, but weak, fragile. Mom always stepped around him while she walked right through Rawnie. Because she knew Rawnie could take it. But her poor, space wizard son. He needed protection. He was... special.

"Oh, I am loyal to my Chieftain," she replied slowly, "But I am more so loyal to my clan."

One day, she would find her time. One day, they would finally see. Calico Tal'verda's true heir.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Like I said. Feudalism annoys me. Too much bullchit involved."​

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Lorane looked at Rawnie and sighed heavily. He had to say something.​

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"Look. Don't go down that road. You'll end up with a bigger chip on your shoulder than you've already got."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Tch."
That was the only response she gave for a moment. She shoved her helmet back on her head. moving her blonde hair back and out of her face as she did.

"You don't really get to tell me what to do or not do," she snapped, "But your advice is noted."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Noted and ignored. I know."​

​

People always assumed that Lorane didn't know what he was talking about, or that he was some jackass trying to get something out of them. He shook his head and sighed again as he reached the clinic, dragging the now-unconscious bounty target up the stairs. His arm gestured towards the door.​

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"C'mon. Ship's parked behind here."​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie wasn't really one to ignore advice. Mom always said that even when she was young, she always listened to what the Echani elders said. Sure, she ignored half of it, but she remembered for the future. It was important to listen. It was what a good leader did. A strong leader.

"Not ignored," she responded, "It will be considered."

Later. When she had some time. After she saw her brother again. After she could successfully size him up. And if he did not meet her expectations...

"Do you think I would be out of line challenging him?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"I think I need to get a little bit of background here, first. What is left of your clan after Calico's, um... disappearance?"​

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Lorane, as always, had to see different angles of the thing to judge. Guns, advice, ships, medicine... They all had to go through the same process in his brain. Angles, then opinions, then decisions.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"Everything."

The answer was simple. Calico had disappeared, Calico's wife was often gone too, but the rest of the clan, the people, family, they were still around. They were still raising their young, fighting for the clans pride.

"It's not just me and Corrin. Dad's Brothers, their families, the ones they adopted into the clan... There's a lot."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"So it's not just a matter of principle, then. Good to know. Too much of that out there. Entitlement. Hurt pride. It's all crap."​

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Lorane dropped their captive on the floor, and leaned against his desk. He grabbed a once-abandoned bottle of Gargle Blaster and took a few sips of it. Warm, but that was okay. He looked at Rawnie, gesturing to the gun and knife at her belt.​

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"It comes down to who'd vouch for you. Your immediate family's out. Anybody who's not Mandalorian is out. And I'm assuming that your charming demeanor hasn't made you many friends in the other clans. It might even be likely that anybody Corrin has trained with in his space-hoodoo stuff would be up against you."​

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He finished the bottle and sighed again.​

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"Like my time on Csilla all over again, listening to myself talk 'bout this. Same kind of feeling of entitlement. Made me feel dirty to get involved in it. Anyway, I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying you're most likely outnumbered, and only idiots get famous for being outnumbered. Got me?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Outnumbered. No. She wasn't. Rawnie was the reason the damn clan was fed. When she was home, she hunted to meat for her people. When she was gone, she hunted for credits to buy food. It was obvious. People often remembered who fed them when the time came. But he had a point still about her brothers creepy space powers.

"If I challenged him to a one on one fight, nobody would interfere. You can't interfere with a challenge."

Well, okay. Technically, you could, but it was incredibly bad form.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Honor and naivete are a lovely and self-destructive combination. Unless Corrin directly attacks you first, your challenge could simply be construed as a way to one-up your brother."​

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Lorane gave Rawnie a serious look, grabbing another couple of bottles out of the fridge and handing her one.​

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"Look, I was raised on Csilla. All those sterotypes about the cold political atmosphere in the clans? True. Every few weeks, somebody would disappear. Usually at a party, or a concert, or some other bigwig social event. Mandalorians aren't Chiss, but the politics are the same. If somebody is attached enough to your brother to want him in the big chair..."​

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He drew a line across his neck with his finger.​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Was it the same? Was it really? Rawnie loved all her family. She didn't want to hurt her brother, but having a weak leader could destroy the clan. Should she just.... let it happen? He was Calico's eldest child, after all. Sure, Rawnie thought him a weak leader, but she thought a lot of things. Was it really her place?

"So you think I should just leave it alone and let the clan collapse when my brother fails in his duty, is that it?" she asked darkly, refusing the bottle offered, at least for the moment, "My father really failed us, disappearing like he did. Perhaps neither of us deserve to lead."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"What I'm saying is that you should wait. If your brother is bound to collapse, I have no doubt you'll move fast enough to pick up the pieces. If he's not, either you accept it, or you find his weak point. If he doesn't have an exploitable weak point, you give up. That's how that works."​

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Lorane sighed and knocked back most of the bottle of Gargle Blaster before he said anything else. God, this was a depressing conversation. Made him think of Csilla, and getting arrested, and getting adopted, and then getting fed up with his rich new 'family' after medical school. And then... Wow, he was so not drunk enough to be introspective right now.​

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"It also comes down to this: Even if your brother's a bit of a kark-up, would you rather be on Mandalore, or keep running around and hunting?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Doctor Azure]

[member='Rawnie Tal'verda'] ((Sorry, tag didn't go through))

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

It was a good point. Rawnie hated standing still. She'd hated it since she was a child. Always in the village. She'd so often sneak away to go hunting, just to get away. The ice and snow, the chilly wind, that was what she loved more than anything. The way it all made her nose numb, the way her fingers froze to her bow. Nothing felt better.

"I see your point," she admitted, removing her helmet again and taking the drink that she'd previously refused. With one swift movement, she knocked it back, draining it. "What the feth is this stuff anyway?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Oh, the Gargle Blaster? Excellent stuff. Better hope you've got a pretty big tolerance for acidic stuff, though."​

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Lorane was glad that he'd at least been able to dissuade Rawnie from going off and trying to challenge her way into leadership... He'd left his adopted family because his father had insisted on something similar. A coup. Through direct challenge. A duel. One that'd ended in both challengers dead, the doctor had found out, and left House Nadono leaderless. A civil war in the shadows had briefly caught his attention, but that had ended by the time he'd returned to see if those rumors were true.​

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Lorane gestured towards the rest of the building his clinic was attached to.​

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"Anything you really wanna see before messing with the ship sucks us both in? Armory? Food? The weird boots that let me flip over your head?"​

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[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​