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Yesterday Xhva had celebrated her ninth birthday. Today grandfather was preparing to give her the family's distinctive facial tattoos. Xhva, who normally was bouncy and excited about even the smallest things was amazingly calm.
"Do you think she's nervous?" Xhrro asked his twin.
"I don't think she knows what nervous is," Xhldran replied smiling.
"Okay, but which is more likely, that she's nervous... Or that she's being calm and reverent?" One of Xhrro's eyebrows raised sarcastically, his green eyes glittering.
"Excuse me mister sassy pants! I can be reverent... When it's appropriate," Neither of them had heard Xhva come in.
"Krething hell, Xhva. When you want to be, you are heart stoppingly quiet," Xhldran said.
The young girl smiled. Scaring her older brothers was one of her favorite pastimes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be properly reverent, Va,” Xhrro told her.
“But these are my first tattoos. I have to be reverent. It’s important!”
Both Xhrro and Xhldran cocked their heads to the side and raised eyebrows at their sister skeptically. She crossed her arms and pouted. At this her brothers doubled over laughing.
“You are the worst!” She fumed, then after a moment’s pause, “I’ll see you at the ceremony. I have to get changed because I can be a proper Mirialan, no matter what you Ack-heads think.”
The boys just continued to laugh as she stormed off.
***
Xhrro sat in the chair quietly. The needles rhythmically jabbing his lower left bicep were a nice distraction from the pain in his right arm, still held to his chest in a sling. He was in a small shop on Nar Shaddaa, one of the few places he had been able to find that still tattooed by hand. Sure, he could get this done with a newer gun or laser application, but it just didn’t feel right. He looked across the room into the full-length mirror and saw his bruised face solemnly reflected back. The tattoos across his nose and chin had been applied by hand, and if he couldn’t have these done by family this was the next best thing.
The artist held up a hand mirror and grunted at him, signaling she wanted an opinion before beginning to fill in the geometric design.
Xhrro nodded. He had walked away from his first starship crash, and now that would be a part of his story forever.
***
Xhldran was gearing up for his most recent assignment. He was not looking forward to what would likely be weeks on the blazing desert planet of Tatooine. He didn’t much care for Tatooine to start with, but unlike his last visit, this trip was for work, and that meant keeping the majority of his tattoos covered. Inwardly he groaned as he packed nothing but long sleeves and gloves, the perfect combination for a miserable time.
Most people overlooked his facial tattoos. His green skin was usually enough to distract them from remembering the pattern too well. But if he were to wander the cities of Tatooine with his arms bared, someone was bound to take note of the patterns that stretched from his shoulder to left wrist and shoulder to elbow on the right.
His facial tattoos were a family marking, and thus could easily be mistaken for another Mirialan. But his exploits were written down his arms, unique to him in the order they were applied, even if the patterns were universal to his people. Those could be used to blow his cover, track his movements, or blackmail him. So regardless of working in contested space, within the Empire, or forays onto Republic planets; Xhldran kept his story covered.