flourish_or_perish | MHA #7 | Wednesday Evening

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MHA #7 | Wednesday Evening

This past weekend sure had been A Thing, hadn't it? And while nothing had happened to Faye, other than getting stuck with the cutest baby in this or any other galaxy (no, she would not be taking questions), she was a non-crappy enough person to know that that had all probably not been especially easy for Din. Or, rather, that Monday morning and the realization of how many people had seen his beautiful mustache had probably not been easy.

So, Wednesday night found her inviting people over to her apartment. On purpose. Look, stranger things had happened, surely, than Faye actually cleaning up and putting out drinks and snacks for company.

She'd even found some of those straws that Grogu liked, since, you know, this was more for his benefit and Stark's than for Din's. Call her crazy, but she didn't think this past weekend was gonna change much about certain be-helmeted individuals eating in front of other people.

[for an alien, an alien, and that guy who looks kinda like a shiny Boba Fett.]

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"So let's say you took off your helmet, hypothetically," Faye proposed, "and I put it on. Am I a Mandalorian, then?"

Because the helmet seemed to be the defining characteristic. Maybe the armor, too?

Stark was going to shoot her a mildly alarmed look at that idea.

"I'd rather you didn't. But... is that how it works? You just put it on one day and never take it off again?"

"No," Din said firmly. "It's a creed. The armor is part of it, but if just wearing it doesn't make you a Mandalorian. You might actually get threatened by a real one."

He'd try not to threaten you, Faye. But the level of discomfort. Oh man.

"Most of our people were purged by the Empire and those of us who are still alive... hid. To survive. From what they say, they even glassed the planet to try to wipe us out."

It was just a hypothetical! When would she even get his helmet, anyway? She'd have to sneak in while he was preoccupied with mustache-grooming or something.

"Why?" Faye asked simply, leaning her chin in her hands. "What'd you guys do that pissed 'em off so bad?"

"Sometimes," Stark said, looking down, "you don't have to have done anything. My people didn't." They were just easy to conquer.

"I'm sorry," he added to Din in a quieter voice. "I didn't know."

Edited 2021-10-07 18:31 (UTC)

Din let the kid go to toddle on over to pat Stark in a comforting fashion. Grogu was good at that, after all.

"For our resources, because an army of us was a threat, I don't really know," Din replied. "You remember Cara? They destroyed her planet completely. Some super weapon."

Kinda made Mandalore seem kinda tame, right?

Well, now Faye was laying a hand lightly on Stark's arm, because that was sad. Even if Grogu was better at comfort than she was.

"Her whole planet?" That was distracting, though, and enough to actually horrify Faye into seriousness. No wonder Cara had seemed...angry. Tough. "So -- wait. Wait. Are Mandalorians from a particular place? It sounds more like a...religion, almost."

Well. Creed, and all, but now she was sort of confused as to how the empire had located them all. They must have been at least somewhat centralized, right?

Grogu got a small jsmile from Stark, and he shifted a little closer to Faye in response to the hand on his arm.

"I'd like to understand, if you'll explain. If you don't mind," he said to Din. "It does sound more like a religion."

"There's a planet, but I've never been there," Din replied. "I suppose it is like a religion of sorts. You vow to protect each other. To take in any foundlings and offer them to become one of us."

Like him and Grogu!

"You're trained as a warrior. Kind of old fashioned these days."

Plus side? He could bear people up with a spear. Which was nice.

"So does that mean that Grogu's a Mandalorian?" Faye wondered.

Picture his ickle helmet!

Grogu in a helmet would be too adorable. Like Grogu in most outfits.

"Did you have any choice?"

Did Grogu?

"Of course I had a choice." Lol, nah. "But they took me in after..."

Well, after all that rampant droid violence.

"I couldn't really leave if I could help out. Grogu is... different. His people, the Jedi, they were apparently our enemies?"

If he'd heard of the Jedi as a kid, it was long since forgotten.

Faye just looked a bit confused. And then looked down at Grogu, and back up at Din.

"How?" she asked, thinking that that word sounded awfully familiar. "Do you know why?"

(It was familiar because Faye was sort-of enemies with a Jedi! And had also made friends with one in a hole.)

They did know a couple of Jedi. Who also knew Din. None of them seemed to be fighting. Huh.

"He's your people too," Stark said. That was very obvious to everyone, wasn't it? "They saved you, you saved him. Even if he comes from somewhere else."

"I know that, but I can't teach him to control it like I could teach him to use a blaster." Now everyone picture Grogu with a blaster. "And... I don't know if I'll be alive for it either. He's fifty standard."

This tiny toddler child.

"Fifty standard...?" Faye asked, confused for a moment longer than a women in her position should have been.

And then it clicked, and she was looking over at Grogu with a surprised little smile. "Holy sh-- oh, honey, you're almost as old as me."

They both looked great for their ages, thank you.

They both looked fantastic. In very different ways.

"He couldn't learn to be both?"

Although the helmet would cover those giant eyes that were so effective in getting him what he wanted.

"If there were someone else to teach him what you couldn't?"

Grogu cooed up at Faye, clearly delighted by that news.

"An older... him showed up that one weekend there were guests and hit Skywalker with a stick to get him to help, but I don't know if that's a long term thing or not."

Or to just keep Grogu from choking out raccoons.

Edited 2021-10-07 23:12 (UTC)

"Oh, wait, Anakin's a thing, isn't he?" And here's Faye, bringing up the rear, everyone! "A Jedi. But you mean one that looks like our little buddy?"

Probably really old, if Grogu was still clearly developmentally a toddler at fifty.

"Anakin is 'a thing,'" Stark agreed, amused. "I would think he'd want to help."

Maybe if someone told him helping Grogu would irritate Stark?

"But then he does a lot of things that don't make sense. I didn't know there had been anyone here that looked like Grogu."

Stark had been preoccupied that weekend, for some reason.

"He called him Master Yoda?" Which seemed weird. Hella weird, right?

"...but Grogu's not a master of anything, right?" Faye had to check, because she had definitely heard 'Master Skywalker' bandied about before and if she had to start calling this little green toddler by some kind of honorific, that would be -- well, adorable, but also really silly.

Stark looked down at Grogu, trying to picture him in Anakin's robes. It was an adorable thought. Of course it was.

"Could he tell us if he were? And he wouldn't need the help from Anakin then, would he?"

"That Master Yoda could talk just fine." If in a weird rhythm. But hey, who was he to judge? "But he was apparently over 900."

THIS WAS NOT AN OPTIMAL TIMELINE.

"...is Anakin 900?"

Focus, Faye.

"Okay, so -- he spoke English, though?" she asked, focusing like her narrative told her to. "Maybe we should be trying to teach Grogu. He's the right age to learn language, right?"

And that seemed like an easier task than teaching him Jedi stuff or whatever The Way was.

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