Arduino master to arduino slave code not working correctly

so i took another module, this time modifying it for

#define slaveSDA 11
#define slaveSCL 13

still doesnt work as slave. tried both 6K and 1K pullups. seems to just lockup after a short while.

so i tried another approach: hardcoding the interface into the variant file... and it works?! so i think i have pretty much proven that onReceive and onRequest only work in the hard defined i2c pins?? why might this be? is there a workaround?

  // Digital High
  { PORTA,  6, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER|PIN_ATTR_ANALOG), ADC_Channel6, PWM1_CH0, TCC1_CH0, EXTERNAL_INT_6 }, // TCC1/WO[0]
  { PORTA,  7, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER|PIN_ATTR_ANALOG), ADC_Channel7, PWM1_CH1, TCC1_CH1, EXTERNAL_INT_7 }, // TCC1/WO[1]
  { PORTA, 18, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER), No_ADC_Channel, PWM3_CH0, TC3_CH0, EXTERNAL_INT_2 }, // TC3/WO[0]
  { PORTA, 16, PIO_SERCOM, PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL, No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_0 }, // TCC2/WO[0] D11 SDA U11
  { PORTA, 19, PIO_TIMER_ALT, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER_ALT), No_ADC_Channel, PWM0_CH3, TCC0_CH3, EXTERNAL_INT_3 }, // TCC0/WO[3]

  // 13 (LED)
  { PORTA, 17, PIO_SERCOM, PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL, No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_1 }, // TCC2/WO[1] D13 SCL U13
/*
 * Wire Interfaces
 */
#define WIRE_INTERFACES_COUNT 3

#define PIN_WIRE_SDA         (26u)
#define PIN_WIRE_SCL         (27u)
#define PERIPH_WIRE          sercom3
#define WIRE_IT_HANDLER      SERCOM3_Handler

static const uint8_t SDA = PIN_WIRE_SDA;
static const uint8_t SCL = PIN_WIRE_SCL;


#define PIN_WIRE1_SDA         (11u) //D11
#define PIN_WIRE1_SCL         (13u) //D13
#define PERIPH_WIRE1          sercom1
#define WIRE1_IT_HANDLER      SERCOM1_Handler

static const uint8_t SDA1 = PIN_WIRE1_SDA;
static const uint8_t SCL1 = PIN_WIRE1_SCL;

#define PIN_WIRE2_SDA         (28u) //D22 PA12
#define PIN_WIRE2_SCL         (39u) //D38 PA13
#define PERIPH_WIRE2          sercom2
#define WIRE2_IT_HANDLER      SERCOM2_Handler

static const uint8_t SDA2 = PIN_WIRE2_SDA;
static const uint8_t SCL2 = PIN_WIRE2_SCL;