Please Hold your Applause

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The mando smirked and shrugged. She had the beginnings of a head ache, but that was it, really.

"Only a little," she answered, "Thanks for the coat last night, by the way. Weren't you cold though?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane shrugged back.​

​

"Nah. Probably too drunk to feel cold."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Hm. Rawnie yawned and curled back up. It was like when her father wrapped her up in his coat. Nice and warm. Close. Fathers jacket had always smelled like him too. The scent of his cigars and gunpowder. Sweet and bitter at the same time. So different from this scent.

"Why don't you go back to bed?" she asked, "You don't have to wait out here for me if you'd rather go sleep it off."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled and ruffled Rawnie's hair a bit as he sat back down next to the couch with his coffee.​

​

"Nah. I can drink it off with coffee, and then the crash later will once again leave me both sober and decaffeinated."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The blonde pulled his coat closer, moving her feet to make room for him. That coffee smelled amazing. Better than the coat. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking it in with a sign. Reminded her of home. A lot, actually.

"Can I have a sip?"

Corrin was annoying about sharing drinks. Said it was like indirectly kissing someone. Rawnie hated when he said this. He was so stupid. Kissing was entirely different.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane sat next to Rawnie on the couch, and handed her the coffee. He wasn't exactly picky about where he drank from. If he'd only had one bottle of Gargle Blaster left last night, he would've shared it. Probably one of the reasons he was always needing that bunch of antidotes he carried around when he went out.​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She took a sip. A tiny one. He'd made this coffee for himself, after all. It would be rude to drain it. But it was fresh and fragrant and that was all she really wanted. Just a taste. Enough to banish the acidic taste of gargle blaster from last night.

"Mmm... thanks."

She was thanking him a lot recently.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled at Rawnie again. Wow, he'd been smiling a lot.​

​

"There is more, y'know. I don't mind making myself another cup if you want that one."​

​

Especially since he didn't usually drink it black. It needed sugar.​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

She looked stunned. Really? He'd give her his cup? In some ways, he reminded her of the men in the village. So giving. The village shared almost everything. She smiled and gave a nod.

"Thanks. That's nice of you. Hey. You ever been to Mandlalore?"

Why did she ask that? She surprised herself with her own question.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane grinned at the thought of the kind of havoc he'd cause on Mandalore. He laughed as he walked over and poured himself another cup of coffee.​

​

"Most Mandalorians don't get along with me, Rawnie. Last one I talked to, besides you, set a whole bar fighting because I called him a racist in front of some of his clan-mates."​

​

He grinned and leaned on the couch as he sat back down and looked at Rawnie.​

​

"The fact that I dislocated his shoulder and put my knee in his friend's face doesn't matter. That happened afterwards."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

"There are some racist bastards on Mandalore," she admitted, "I know first hand."

So did her mother. Echani and mandalorians had a... tense history. Her people hated his people and vice versa. There hadn't been an echani-mandalorian marriage In ages. Let alone one that had resulted in children. corrin could get away with passing as human. Rawnie was a different case. She had so much of her mother in her. Her echani heritage shone like a light in the dark. Made it difficult.

"But clan tal'verda is pretty accepting. They seem to be the exception rather than the rule of course. But they accepted my mother into the clan. That's really saying something."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane had known about the Echani/Mandalorian rivalry. It'd been very briefly covered in some textbooks about the 'ignorant aliens' outside the Ascendancy.​

​

"I know about the whole Sun Guard vs. Mando bit. Still, neither bunch's racism is on par with the royal Chiss xenophobia. Not going to school when I was a kid probably exempted me from hearing most of the propagandists, but it still sucked."​

​

He smirked a little bit as he took another sip of his coffee and jokingly raised an eyebrow.​

​

"You do know, though, that the rule of thumb is that whoever the leader of your local group of racists is sleeping with is usually forced to be an exception. The story of every monarchy ever."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

So they were both the exception rather than the rule. Good to know. She smiled sadly.

"Nah. Dad's brothers liked mom before they were together. They were all friends. Worked together."

Until he and mom fell for each other. Then they became more than friends. They were all family. Rawnie took a sip, thinking, imagining the adventures mom and dad told her about when they were teenagers. Just kids, really. Dad had been older than mom by a bit, of course, but they were still young.

She quickly banished the thought of her Father. She really hated thinking about him.

"So, chiss have problems with other races then? You're the first chiss I've ever really sat down to talk with, to tell you the truth."



[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane's smirk turned into an actual smile as he finished his coffee and put the cup down.​

​

"Well, you're the first Mandalorian I've met who wasn't plated like a tank and aiming a fist at my head. It's a pretty marked improvement."​

​

He looked around the room and then back at Rawnie.​

​

"Let me put it this way: Thrawn was stripped of his rank and exiled for allowing humans to help him plan out an attack. Probably the best military tactician ever born, and he was screwed by some racist in a fancy outfit."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Interesting bit of history. Truth was, Rawnie had never had a formal education. Where she lived, the children were taught what they needed to know by the village. They got a very well rounded education in everything from language, geography, arithmetic, biology... and of course, weaponry. She knew what she needed to know to survive.

"So, guess if you ever get the urge to visit the home world, I should stay on the ship, eh?"

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane laughed and put a hand on Rawnie's shoulder.​

​

"Exactly the opposite. You can stab every bigot you see, and I will watch. With popcorn."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

Rawnie laughed, still snuggled in his jacket, both hands on her cup of coffee. This was... nice.

"And you can come to Mandalore and challenge every testosterone fueled di'kut to a fight. I'll watch. Bet you could outsmart any of them."

She was rather sick of the 'sweethearts' and the 'let me carry that for you' and the 'oh, don't hurt yourself on that, darling' 's. For a society that was supposed to be very open and equal between the sexes, there was still an obnoxious amount of flexing in front of her and advances that she could happily do without.
She was a woman. Even if she was thinner and somewhat shorter than most, she wasn't a baby.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane laughed along with her, pointing at his feet.​

​

"It'll be rocket-powered metal boot to ass."​

​

He made a broad gesture around the room as he looked at Rawnie.​

​

"There will be broken beskar butt-plates everywhere."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​

 

[Rawnie Tal'verda]

The mando snorted at that.

"Yeah, well, it would be decoration. This ship could use a...womanly touch."

She snickered again at the irony of it, but said nothing more. Instead, she took to drinking the coffee just a little quicker now that it was finally the perfect temperature.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane snorted back.​

​

"A womanly touch from the girl who said 'hello' with a knife. I feel so... is blessed the word? No, I doubt it."​

​

[member="Rawnie Tal'verda"]​