The day the ECS Chivalry crash-landed on Draylax was the day Cid Benengeli's life changed forever.
Cid, like all boomers, grew up in space. It was all he knew. He'd never even seen Earth. He'd never even seen Draylax, for that matter. He had a support role aboard the Chivalry. His parents attempted to connect Cid into the operations of the ship by signing him up for a pen pal program, which connected with a Draylaxian youth named Avellaneda, who came from Tarragona province. Avellaneda always said he wanted to be a writer. He'd send Cid, in lieu of actual correspondence, the latest story he was working on. Most of Avellaneda's work was incomprehensible to Cid, but it was also almost the only fiction he read, and he spent a great deal of time trying to figure it out.
He was still a boy when the Chivalry crashed on Draylax. His parents died instantly. Most of the crew died. He was all but completely orphaned.
He went in search of Avellaneda. Nobody knew who Cid was talking about. He finally found the name listed at a local nursery. Avellaneda was four years old, six years younger than Cid. And Avellaneda turned out to be a girl. She had been recording herself telling stories, which her tablet transcribed.
"Hello!" she beamed at him.
"Hi," he replied, crouching awkwardly in front of her.
"Would you like to hear my new story?"
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Star Wars: DJ Did It
In the lockup holds on Canto Bight, there's a legend about a guy named DJ that holds, if you need something done, he's your man. The thing is, it's really only the people in the lockup holds who traffic the legend. Everyone else there thinks they're the ones who can do whatever it is you need.
Canto Bight, in short, is the kind of planet with two distinct levels of social order. The top level is the one having all the fun. The bottom level is the one being tossed into the lockup holds. On any other world, you might be able to get away with dismissing the ones in the lockup holds as criminal element, but on Canto Bight, you have to understand that this is perhaps the planet that best illustrates life under the New Order, where corruption reigns supreme and the only way to get ahead is to not care who you're stepping on to get there. Guys like DJ are the ones who get stepped on.
He'll be the first to stab you in the back, don't get me wrong, but he has limits, and that's what makes him different from that top level. There are no limits in the top level. The bottom level, here's where you get all the poor suckers who set limits, who might compromise themselves sometimes, but who otherwise don't live their lives by compromising their principles. Even if they have no idea what they believe in, they know what they don't believe in.
DJ was a regular scoundrel, let's just get that out of the way. He would stutter when feeling cornered. The only real way to know he existed at all was to stumble across the man himself. But those who knew him, never forgot him.
He could break any code. If there was a particularly tricky job done anywhere he'd been, you can be sure he did it, or was involved or in all likelihood consulted, even by those who were supposed to be his rivals. He was indispensable, once you knew he existed.
But was he particularly liked? Of course not. I mean, he was liked, but he wasn't the type to go out of his way to make friends. He had acquaintances. Friendship implies an interest in sticking around.
Long story short, the residents of Canto Bight's lockup holds considered DJ responsible for...everything. The good and the bad. If anything was ever going to change there, he would be given the credit, even if it was a change for the worse. I didn't say the guy was lucky.
But on the whole, he was a pretty good guy.
Canto Bight, in short, is the kind of planet with two distinct levels of social order. The top level is the one having all the fun. The bottom level is the one being tossed into the lockup holds. On any other world, you might be able to get away with dismissing the ones in the lockup holds as criminal element, but on Canto Bight, you have to understand that this is perhaps the planet that best illustrates life under the New Order, where corruption reigns supreme and the only way to get ahead is to not care who you're stepping on to get there. Guys like DJ are the ones who get stepped on.
He'll be the first to stab you in the back, don't get me wrong, but he has limits, and that's what makes him different from that top level. There are no limits in the top level. The bottom level, here's where you get all the poor suckers who set limits, who might compromise themselves sometimes, but who otherwise don't live their lives by compromising their principles. Even if they have no idea what they believe in, they know what they don't believe in.
DJ was a regular scoundrel, let's just get that out of the way. He would stutter when feeling cornered. The only real way to know he existed at all was to stumble across the man himself. But those who knew him, never forgot him.
He could break any code. If there was a particularly tricky job done anywhere he'd been, you can be sure he did it, or was involved or in all likelihood consulted, even by those who were supposed to be his rivals. He was indispensable, once you knew he existed.
But was he particularly liked? Of course not. I mean, he was liked, but he wasn't the type to go out of his way to make friends. He had acquaintances. Friendship implies an interest in sticking around.
Long story short, the residents of Canto Bight's lockup holds considered DJ responsible for...everything. The good and the bad. If anything was ever going to change there, he would be given the credit, even if it was a change for the worse. I didn't say the guy was lucky.
But on the whole, he was a pretty good guy.
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