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#dead palatine au
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Here's this to think on for a while. Au where the clones learn about the chips and Cody forces distance between him and Obi-wan because he doesn't want to risk potentially hurting Obi-wan in case the chips activate. And in the process Obi Wan tries to stay close and keeps trying to push to stay close but Cody pushes so hard he actually legit hurts obi wan. And then there's a whole 'fine. You've got what you want, enjoy it.' moment and Cody has to either a.) Decide if he's okay with it (he's not) b.) Get the chip removed asap though we both know he'd be one of the last because he'd want his brothers to be okay or c.) Say fuck it and stay close with obi wan and risk it.
Meanwhile chips get activated. Cody hasn't yet fixed things. Literally holds Obi-Wans 'dead' body in his arms and presents it at Palatine's feet (cause obviously that man hates him because he's been preventing him from getting to Anakin) only for obi wan to show he's not dead, knock out Cody and kill....or arrest palps. And then while Cody is unconscious he has him taken to the people removing the chips and either they remove them immediately or put Cody in stasis until they can remove it. And when Cody wakes up angst but happy because they can finally kiss...though they have to work out Cody being a sunshine BITCH first.
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ctimenefic · 15 days
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Since March is idling its way towards the Ides, I hope I can get away with pimping my Galex Roman Emperor AU fic where George is modelled on old Gaius Julius Caesar* himself.
(I'm trying real hard not to be self-deprecating about it, but I made the header myself and ooooh boy it was a journey in learning to hate Canva)
Featuring: knives! plots! dubious use of olive oil! way too much research!
Here's the start to prove I'm not totally insane:
George had cried at his first triumph. Alex had been too far ahead to see, crammed in with the other magistrates, but by the time George climbed the steps of the Capitoline temple, it had been obvious - pale gullies under his eyes where the red paint had washed down his face, dripped down his neck. He'd looked like he was bathed in blood even before he slit the bulls’ throats and offered them to Jupiter. He’d been shaking too. Alex had realised when he’d stepped close and they’d walked to the wooden scaffold to watch the legions march by. The crowds below had been screaming his name, worshipping their king-for-a-day, a roar of noise. The force of that much love seemed to hit George like a physical blow, over and over, so his shoulders twitched under the purple of his toga, under the solid weight of Alex’s hand. It had taken days for him to settle, turn his mind back to the tedium of daily life. Not so this time. George is not crying now. He does not shake. Lying on the couch of his private triclinium, he’s so still he could be dead, or sleeping, but for the warm glow of him, and the way his eyes, half-lidded, track Alex from the moment he enters the room.
He still has the laurels nestled in his curls, but he’s washed the paint from his face and the long line of his neck. Not Jupiter, then, but still a godling, a model for any sculptor at the temple of Apollo. The folds of his purple toga have fallen open, so Alex can see the way George’s knees are splayed, the soft gold of his inner thigh. “Alexander,” George calls, though his lips barely move. “Is the procession finally over?” This high on the Palatine, the drum beat of thousands of sandalled feet is harder to hear, almost indistinguishable from a heartbeat. Alex has to clear his throat twice before he’ll trust his voice. “It will be hours yet - the Sixth Legion are barely off the Field of Mars. But it will be over in time for the games.” He drops his scroll cases on the small table by the second couch, waits for George’s slow nod before he takes a seat. “I brought the grain counts from Libya and Egypt-” “Accounting? On the day of my triumph? You are a harsh master, Alexander, but I’ll take it.” “Your triumph was yesterday,” Alex says carefully, and George rewards him with a smile as slow as a snake.
Read Imperator here on AO3
*Okay, so, Gaius Julius Casear Octavianus, but it still counts
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darkelfchicksick · 1 year
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Ich habe 1.714 Mal im Jahr 2022 etwas gepostet
Das sind 486 more posts als 2021!
264 Einträge erstellt (15%)
1.450 Einträge gerebloggt (85%)
Blogs, die ich am häufigsten gerebloggt habe:
@tayilapologist
@eisbecherovka
@natalieironside
@unpretty
@ptactwo
Ich habe 757 meiner Einträge im Jahr 2022 getaggt
#everquest 2 – 89 Einträge
#the locked tomb – 50 Einträge
#my art – 40 Einträge
#eq inktober – 24 Einträge
#everquest – 22 Einträge
#lucan d'lere – 19 Einträge
#eq2 – 18 Einträge
#tlt – 17 Einträge
#tayil n'velex – 15 Einträge
#pentiment – 15 Einträge
Longest Tag: 139 characters
#a song with two first verses that are so fucking perfect for your fantasy bullshit story. a soldier with his big big sword. the poet who'll
Meine Top-Einträge im Jahr 2022:
#5
two young men were killed in a shooting in a gay bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, last evening
another person was shot and is in the hospital, but their life isn't in danger
the perpetrator fled the scene but has since reportedly been found dead
an anonymous twitter profile that is believed to belong to the perpetrator posted a queerphobic and antisemitic manifesto hours before the attack, citing breivik and hitler as inspiration.
the german article i found has some more info than the first one, but is in german.
105 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 13. Oktober 2022
#4
harrow isn't FEMME harrow wears ROBES because she's a goddamn WIZARD
115 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 20. Mai 2022
#3
alright, so, on a personal note re:crab rave
earlier this year i was fact-checking a planner that had a page with "fun facts about canada" in it
one of the fun facts? queen Elizabeth ii is head of state
this was during the height of the "she's already dead" conspiracy theory
so i decided, quite reasonably, to suggest changing the sentence to "king or queen of england," juuust in case she dies before the new school year starts. i got shot down, of course, and at the end of the day, whatever. as always with my job, literally whatever. gets printed with lizzie's name in it
i forget about it
September 8th: crab day
September 13th: the new school year starts
i love being right
191 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 9. September 2022
#2
So where *is* Tassing, actually?
Obviously it’s nowhere. But actually, it’s also several specific places in a specific area.
As someone who lives and has lived in several parts of Oberbayern, I'm so tickled by placing Tassing on a map. While trying to find a region it would fit in with all the clues the game gives, I also found several monasteries that probably contributed to the way Kiersau was written and created.
Names
Tassing fits a common naming scheme in Oberbayern. Places with an -ing name in Austria and Altbayern (roughly congruent with the present-day administrative districts Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate) were founded in a specific time frame, the Baiuvarian Settling of the Alps. Up until the 7th century CE, the alpine landscape was inhabited by slavs, but from the 7th to 9th century, the Baiuvarii, a germanic group of people, moved into the area and ended up either displacing or integrating the slavic people into their own society. Examples of Baiuvarian -ing names in Upper Bavaria include Pasing (With the people of Paso/Paoso/Poso/Poaso), Menzing (With the people of Menzo) or Poing (With the people of Piuwo). Tassing might have been re-settled, founded or just be associated with a man named Tasso, and should be located somewhere in Altbayern.
Kiersau is a strange name to me and finding an etymologically-based interpretation, like for Tassing, is harder. (In general, trying to find etymologies for place names is often more educated guessing than anything else.) The Bavarian meaning of Au (or Aue) is a flat piece of land with meadows and forests located near a river (also: floodplain). The problematic part is Kiers. I'm choosing to put it down as Kirsche, cherry. Why? Well, cherry trees were brought across the Alps by Romans, and the Roman past of Kiersau and Tassing is important to the story. It might also just be a reference to Hirsau, a famous Benedictine monastery in the Black Forest.
None of the first or last names of the peasants, merchants or craftsmen in Tassing give any kind of hint as to where the place is located. Names like Bauer (farmer), Gertner (gardener) or Zimmermann (carpenter) are extremely common, and the more uncommon ones, like Alban, don't help narrowing it down either.
Area
We get one look at an Early Modern map of Europe, with a few mountain ranges, rivers, some of the most siginficant trade roads, and Tassing marked on it. We know that Tassing is part of the Prince-Bishopric of Freising in 1518 and borders directly on Tyrolia. We know it's in Bavaria, which I'm deciding to identify as the Bavarian territory of the Holy Roman Empire. I'm not getting into the true borders of Bavaria on my overly researched Pentiment post. We also learn that one of the Roman trade routes, possibly relateed to salt, was built to run past Tassing, and that Tassing is located somewhere in the province of Raetia. To identify and overlap all these areas, I have committed a horrible cartographic crime in Photoshop!
I have marked Raetia in yellow, the Roman roads in red, the Prince-Bishopric in brown and the Bavarian territory in blue. This first map shows these areas in a European context.
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This one is a closer shot of the whole possible location of Tassing. Now, you might have noticed a little red dot in the lower right, outside of any of the possible areas, right there in Eastern Tyrolia?
Vollständigen Eintrag ansehen
209 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 23. November 2022
Meine #1 des Jahres 2022
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the popular German kid's science and knowledge program, die sendung mit der maus, aired a segment with and about trans people today!
670 Anmerkungen – Gepostet 27. März 2022
Hol dir deinen Tumblr-Jahresrückblick 2022 →
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oifaaa · 3 years
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hi i'm very sorry if you've gotten asked this before but in your rebels au, where padmé's still alive, is mace dead?
Yeah mace is unfortunately still dead in the rebels au
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la-sopa · 2 years
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Ok om hear me out
Time travel AU.
About in-between move 1 and 2
Luke Leia Han, the resistance and stuff. Si basically like palatine opens a portal to bring people from tge past to now. It's like grevious, doku, Maul and shit. BUT the portal also brings back people form the past for the resistance. Ferus olin, roan lands, siri tachi.
I feel like this would be cool to read
"What are we going to do" Luke ponder out loud to Leia. He and Leia were walking the surface of the forest plant they were on. Luke couldn't recall the name, I should really start getting better at this if I'm to be a jedi.
"I'm unsure about what will be the out come of this," Leia started,"however, we'll keep doing what we've been doing. We will stop the empire, no matter what walls they put in are way."
"Luke? Is everything alright?" He realized he had stopped walking
"Wait, I feel something..." Leia careful moved her hand to her blaster. Luke followed, placing a hand on his Saber. Silence. The leaves shook carefully un the breeze, the animals chirped and scoft. All was calm, peaceful, quiet. Crunch-crunch . They spun around drawing there weapons, ready to face what the empire would throw at them. How? How did they find us so quickly.
"Whow... didn't mean to frighten you, your highness" han spoke hands drawn up in defense.
"Han, u scared the life out us" Leia scolded. " do u still feel it?"
"Yes..." Luke was at a loss, he had begun to feel something like this for a while now. But never this strong, never this close. Why can't I put my finger on it?
"Princess! Look out!" Han was already reaching out for Leia as he spoke his warning. Luke faced the sky. A portal facing the ground. The thing that the fice had been warning him about now hoverd in the sky. Just then. A hand appeared, dangling from the portal. Then as if in an instant a man fell from the sky as the portal closed behind him. -thump-. The man let out a quiet groan as he hit the forest floor.
His black flight suit, did he work for the empire? But he wore no armor, no helmet, who is this man? Luke hadn't realized it but suddenly the distance between him and the man closed, as he now layed right at his feet. "Do you know him?" He asked Leia who approached from behind him.
"No, I don't believe he's working for the empire though," she said as she stood beside him, "he looks at least half firrerreo." The man was almost still. Shoulders rise and falling shakily, and the quiet rasp breaths he was taking.
"How can u tell"
" the silver streak in his hair" she pointed out, motioning to the hair covering most if his face.
"He sound like he's injured. Let's flip him on his back, open the air ways." He proposed to Leia. They stayed still for a moment. The man's hand twitched, he alive,
"Roan" a hard to hear wisper escaped the man's lips. Luke looked over at Leia, she shook her head no. He reached down, flipping the man on to his back. He gasped
"He's... he's got a lightsaber..." look starred at his hand, the lightsaber glistening softly from the forest light. A jedi? They were all dead but, some how he survived, there has to be more jedi out of there. More jedi to help fight the empire. Luke felt hope fill his body, he would find the jedi. He would-
"Han, get a medic" Leia ordered. Luke was shot out of his daze. He's eyes moved above the lightsaber resting on the mand stomach in a clenched hand, up to his chest. Blood soaking through the flight suit, slowly pooling under him.
"Roan" came the whispered voice.
"The doctors are on there way." She informed the man
"I need u to stay awake for me!" Leia spoke A little more harsh.
"Roan" the man wisperd desperately as he slipped into unconsciousness
======================
"Aaaaaa" Ferus yelled as Vaders lightsaber cut into his chest. He body was burning. The room was blurry. You promised Roan you advenge him. He groaned as his body hit the ground. Vader stood before him, turned off his light Saber
"Good bye, ferus olin." Came the machical voice. Vader turned on his heel heading to the door. Ferus just watched. Depreatly thing of something to say.
"Ani?" His voice was weaker then he'd like. His body more frail then he'd like.
Vader paused at the door. "Anakin Skywalker is dead."
"I believe he's still there. He's standing here before me. Even if his been covered and hidden in this persona, he's alive. I believe he can break out if these chains you put on him. On yourself." Vader paused. Looked at him.
" I was planning on killing u quick, giving you a quick pain less death ferus. But, you've over stepped your role in this story, Farwell." Vader turned on his heel, fading from view as the doors closed behind him
It burns
It burns
He was gasping in pain, as the world around him started to spin. Roan. Ferus remember the lake he and Roan would swim in. The blanket tha Donna had made. The blanket he and Roan would take on picnics, to lay in the grass and watch the stars. The stars that would glisten I'm the sky at roans parents lunch parties that would carry on till late nights. The warmth Roan had shown him, the tender love and kindness Roan had shown him. Welcoming him in open arms, going on dates, the most simple and smallest acts to. The small act of kindness that had brought them together at that bakery all those years ago. It feel like yesterday. "Roan" He wisperd.
A tight feeling swirled in his stomach, somethings wrong. The force warned him. His head hurt, his chest burned, body screaming in pain. "Roan" He wisperd, he was afraid, holding on to all of the memories he and Roan made for comfort. He put a hand to the necklace around his neck that held a single ring. The rung Roan had given him, promising they'd get married after all thus. "Roan... forgive me...roan" the world faded to balck... the ground was hard, but then he felt weightless although he was falling. "Hmpht" Ferus groans as ge hit the ground. Where am I? It's humid, to warm to think. Ah he opens his eyes he's met with a jungle surrounding. What? He hears talking bu can't make out the words. Move ferus. Siris voice echos in his mind. She right. But. I can't. What would he do. "Roan" He called out for his husband, not even realizing till the words left him. A pair of hands rolled him on to his back. The figure before him was blurry, he couldn't make anything out. "Roan" there was more muffled sound. The world started fading. "Roan"
"The doctors are in there way." A voice speaks to him. Oh yeah. He thinks, as the burning sensation fills his body again. "Roan". He wisperd as the world started to spin. A cool hand touch his forhead, "roan?" He felt his eyes began to drap, "need-awake-me" the voice was fading away along with is sight. "Roan"
==============================/
Idk something like that u know. Maybe something better that was rushed but. I would be invested to read something like that you know
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jasontoddiefor · 4 years
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Hi, i hope I don't bother you! I just read about your jedi!palatine Au idea and honestly it sounds amazing! Can you write a bit more about it/ elaborate it? Thanks! :D
You don’t bother me at all!!! Honestly, I love getting asks and talking about ideas! Everyone is always welcome in my inbox :D
And yeah, I’ve actually written the first scene of how I’d start the story? Here we go!
Luke had never been good at hating people. It took effort for him to actively hate somebody, to want to destroy them no matter the cost. Ben said it made him a good Jedi, Leia thought it meant he had a bleeding heart.
The only person Luke might have truly hated was the Emperor. So much suffering, so much death were his fault. There wasn’t a single person whose life hadn’t been ruined by him. It must be hate, Luke was sure.
But now he could only feel pity.
“They’re dead,” the child cried. “He killed them. He- he-.”
The boy couldn’t be much older than twelve, maybe even younger. His clothes were covered in his family’s blood and his throat quickly turning blue from the abuse he’d suffered.
Luke could end it now. Prevent so much useless pain and death with just one hit with his lightsaber. Cut down the source of almost a century of pain as easily as he had slayed his Master and yet-
“You’re safe now,” Luke said.
He crouched down and turned off his lightsaber. He had dealt with enough scared children since he’d joined the Alliance, the New Republic.
“He cannot hurt you anymore.”
The boy looked up at him with watery brown eyes.
“Who- Who are you?”
“Luke Skywalker-“ Kriff, should he have gone with a code name? Too late for that now. “-I’m a Jedi.”
Jedi, still known as peacekeepers, diplomats, teachers and mentors. They didn’t have a reputation as terrifying one-man armies yet. If Luke had anything to say about it, they also never would.
Regardless, the boy knew that Jedi were supposed to be good. As soon as the words had left Luke’s mouth, the boy flung himself into his arms, and started to cry terribly.
“It’ll be alright,” Luke tried to sooth him and stood up.
He ensured that the boy’s face was hidden in Luke’s robes, that he wouldn’t see his parents’ or their killers’ body. He had suffered enough.
Luke left the Palpatine estate behind, the child still clinging to his robes, almost 80 years in a past that would never come to be now.
X
So that’s what I wrote! The idea behind that is fairly simple actually? I looked through Wookiepedia for background info on Palpatine’s early life and I’ll be honest, it didn’t make much sense to me. He had not much family to speak of and wasn’t trained. It just seemed strange that despite being from a prominent family, and apparently so Force-sensitive that Plagueis was like “I want that” the Jedi weren’t familiar with him? So I figured, it would have made more sense if Plagueis abducted him and then I got thinking “wait. what if I fix that”. So Luke travels back in time - accidentally - kills Plagueis and figures good parenting can go a long while.
So Luke shows up at the Jedi temple after travelling with Sheev for a while like “yes, I’m totally a Jedi and this is my Padawan” and makes it his goal to annoy the Council into fixing their relationship with a Senate. He might have only experienced like 2 years of the New Republic before he was brought to the past, but Leia and he had made plans about how the Jedi should be treated.
So Luke tries his best at politics while teaching his Padawan. And, you know, some Force abilities are just innate in general. Used for the dark or light - doesn’t matter. And Sheev is a genius at mind tricks - and it worries Luke.  He knows what he could become and he does his best not just to prevent it, but to teach him better. So he decides he has to teach his dear Padawan how to use those powers responsibly and to show him what it means for someone to be without control.
So, by accident, he creates the Senate and Jedi Council’s biggest headache: Jedi Master Sheev “I will personally eradicate slavery” Palpatine, second only to equally “sorry what are rules I follow the first” Qui-Gon Jinn. Did you know they are the same age? I didn’t. They’d probs be the kind of friends who also hate each other. Either way:
Because turns out showing a teenager who had a nice childhood, got traumatizes terribly, and then a nice Jedi Master that slavery exists and is horrible makes him find his capital P Purpose.
(Luke is proud but also can understand how one man managed to trick everyone. Seeing a seventeen year old talk somebody out of owning slaves opens your eyes.)
And Sheev then gets a reputation for leaving the Jedi Temple with a couple thousand credits and coming back with dozens of newly freed slaves. He has a knack for picking up force sensitive people.
Luke is An Old Man, 80ish and not on the council anymore because  “I’m too old” *side eyes Yoda*, but helps out in the crèche. He teaches maybe one or two other Padawans, or spends a lot of his days seeking out other Force traditions and learning from them. He brings back his own grandpadawan from such a trip. Sheev and Maul make the strangest pair together but they work.
But yeah, one day while Luke is teaching a class and Sheev just decides crash the lesson asking “Master, didn’t you say your family was from Tatooine?”
“Yes, why?”
“Did you have any siblings by chance?”
“Sheev, What’s going on.”
“I just freed a mother and her son, both are highly Force sensitive.”
And then Luke gets to meet small three-year-old Anakin Skywalker and the weight he’s been holding for decades finally lifts from his shoulders as he figures that he has actually done it.
And idk maybe out of sheer spite or the Force what do I know, Luke manages to get old enough to see his younger self and sister be born and he dies peacefully, knowing that all is well.
Nothing Bad Ever Happens.
The End.
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djinmer4 · 3 years
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Echo (Spacelord AU)
“You look like shit.”
“Gee, thanks, Star-Lord.  You’re not looking so hot yourself.”
Quill thumped his chest.  “I just got out of a healing vat less than a week ago.  What’s your excuse?”
Bloody Bess turned to look at Quill’s companion.  Kitty smiled and said, “He got shot while kare-”  A short burst of static.  “-while singing at a bar.”
The platinum blonde woman nodded.  “Not a bad story.  I just didn’t get much sleep.”
The male Terran wiggled his eyebrows.  “Fun night?”
She eyed him out of the corner of her eye.  “It’s the Captain annual birthing month.  It’s too busy and too noisy to sleep.”
“Wait, wait, time-out.”  Kitty held her hands in a perpendicular shape in front of her.  “I thought Captain Vag’ner was male?  And what’s a birth month?”
“He’s a Ruler Bamf, so that makes him a hermaphrodite.  But he prefers to identify as male.  Don’t you have hermaphrodites on Terra?  And a birth month is just because he decided it’s easier to boost our numbers all at once rather than spreading it out over the year.”
Quill quirked an eyebrow.  “No?”  But Kitty shook her head.  “Yes but . . . they’re kind of rare.  Or maybe I’m thinking of transgender.”  She shook her head.  “Never mind, I’ve got more questions now but it’s not important.  But I guess timing is why he’s cashing in that favor from running down the Kree Light-Speed Engine?”
The other woman nodded her head.  “Yup.  He really wanted to do this himself, but rumor has it that another treasure hunter got the coordinates too so now it’s a race against time to see who gets to claim the goods first.”  Bess had three blue, fuzzy, collared creatures, two of which she held out to Peter and Kitty.  “Our job is to just get into the palace.  Once there, we contact either the Palatine or the Milano.  My crew will then use these Workers as homing beacons and teleport in.”
“And steal the place blind,” continued Kitty dryly.  “I assume the natives are going to object.”
“Nope.  As far as we know, there shouldn’t be anyone living there anymore.  So your conscience doesn’t have to worry about a thing.”  She looked at the younger woman.  “I assume you’ve got a new suit after the last time?”
“Yeah.”  It was an older version, carbon nanotubes rather than the more advanced holographic one, and black rather than Quill’s (and Yondu’s) favored red, but it’s not like Star-Lord’s little cadre was a wealthy Ravager clan.  They probably had to take what they could get.
“Both of you get suited up then.”  Bess ushered them over to one of the Palatine’s M-ships and then took off towards the planet.
While Bess and Quill took the cabin seats, Kitty looked out the window.  “I don’t see anything but ice.”
Bess focused on piloting while answering.  “We’re not sure that is ice.  The planet’s got an incredible cloaking device, no visual or gravitational clues until we were almost right on top of it.  Cardinal thinks the ‘ice’ and ‘mist’ we’re seeing are actually parts of the shield.”  
They landed on a cubical pillar, no different from any of the others that covered the planet and wandered around.  By chance, Quill stepped on some sort of trigger mechanism and a circular platform began to descend.  Once it had completed its journey, they were left to find their way among crumbling catwalks, rickety staircases, and cramped tunnels.  “This reminds me of HR Giger,” mumbled Kitty.
“Who’s that?”
“You never saw the Alien movies?”
“When did they come out?  Might have been after Yondu abducted me.”
Kitty placed her hand against one of the decaying pillars.  After a second, she frowned.  “I can’t phase through this material.  If we need to cut and run later, that could be a problem.”
“That’s what the Workers are for,” Bess reassured her.  “If it gets bad, we can use them to teleport back to the Palatine.  And why we each have one, in case we get split up.”  At that point, she slipped, grabbed both Quill and Kitty’s arms to try to stabilize herself, and they all ended up sliding down one of the support beams.  “Well, now we’ll have to use the Workers to get back.  We’ll send a second crew to pick up the ship when we’re done.”
They continued down.  The fog got thicker until most of the light from the star was blocked and they had to switch on their lights.  “I wonder who made this place,” whispered Kitty.  Unnecessary, they had encountered nothing living the entire time they were here.
“Probably one of the Big Three,” Bess found herself also whispering and consciously forced her voice back up to normal volume.  “It wouldn’t be a big deal for one of them to strip-mine an entire planet to create something like this, then just forget about it.”
Once again, Quill was the one who found an access hatch.  And when the lever to open it proved too difficult for all three of them, he ended up shooting it with his blaster, freeing it from the ice.  They passed through a brief air lock type passage, with another lever (fortunately not frozen over this time) that opened up into the main body of the planet.
“There are no lights at all,” said Kitty, looking around.
“Fortunately, there’s only one direction to go.”  Bess tapped a few buttons on her helmet.  “Cardinal, are you getting all of this?”
A tinny voice could be heard in all their helms.  “I’m with you.”
“Creepy,” muttered Kitty.  “It all looks completely untouched.”
“Pretty though,” noted Quil, picking up a golden candelabra.  “Are we just going to grab anything then leave?”
Bess shook her head.  “Only as a last resort.  Supposedly there’s some fantastic technology here.  Something that allows you to bring back the dead.  That’s the real prize.”
They found another door.  In front of it was a pillar with an empty slot.  “Dead, unfortunately.”  Kitty tried to phase through it with no luck.  “This almost looks like a keyhole.  There must be a way to turn on the power for this place.”
Bess looked around then made a decision.  “Let’s keep going down.  It would make more sense for the generators to be near the planet’s core.”
Quill eventually abandoned the candelabra he’d picked up, then a mirror gave all three of them a jump scare.  Despite that, none of them could ignore the palace’s beauty.  “It’s all so pretty,” gushed Kitty.  “It reminds me of Versailles.”  She trailed one hand over a tuning fork, but no sound could be heard in the vacuum.
“You’ve been to France?”
“No, but I’ve seen pictures.”
Bess’s HUD pinged her and she followed the tracer symbol.  They came to a pillar, encircled by heavy metal rings.  Inset in the pillar was a scepter, which apparently carried a gravitational charge.  “I think this is our key.  It looks a lot like the pillar in front of the door.”  She hooked it through a belt loop and they made their way back to the door.  Bess inserted the scepter into the slot and . . . 
“Nothing’s happening.”  Noted Quill.
“Huh.  Maybe it really is just a dead world.”  Bess turned away, intent on simply picking up whatever they could carry off on their way back to the entrance when Kitty cried out.  Turning back around, she and Quill saw the pillar retract into the ground and the door open, panels sliding away into the walls.
They stepped inside.  “Do you see that?  That dim glow on the ceiling.”
Bess squinted at the ceiling.  “The scepter may have started up an evacuation procedure.  If there’s one thing that’s going to survive after all this time, that would be it.”  She looked around and spotted a couple of staircases.  “We’ll continue going down.”
They continued walking.  “This place is huge,” muttered the only male among them.  “How are we ever going to find anything without coordinates?”
Cardinal answered that.  “The scanners can pick up energy signatures.  I’ll pin them to your HUDs and you can look for those.”  They went down a few more levels until they came across another door.  This time, instead of a pillar, there was a giant throne in front of it.  Kitty stared at it, wide-eyed.  “What kind of species made this place?”
Bess just frowned.  “Theatrical ones.  There’s a limit to the size you can be in an environment like this, nothing that could actually use a throne like that would have been able to even move in this gravity unless it was aquatic.”  Despite her comment, Kitty had used her phasing ability to climb and sit down on the chair.  Quill quickly caught their attention and pointed out the door had opened in front of them.  But when Kitty got off, the panels started closing again.
“Get back on, and then get ready to sprint as soon as you jump off,” Bess ordered.  “If you don’t make it, squeeze the Worker a little and it will teleport you back to the Palatine.”  She and Quill stood by the door and stepped through easily when it opened.  Kitty waited until the panels had fully retracted, then hit the ground running, barely making it in before the door fully closed and crashing into Bess, knocking her down to the floor.  There was a huge chamber on the other side.
“I think this is it!” crowed Bess.  They quickly climbed the stairs to the small pavilion at the top.  There, the was a large marble slab, with silver circuitry embedded in the top.  At the foot of the coffin-shaped slab, a pillar with arc lightning provided the only other illumination.
Quill stared at the giant slab of marble.  “How are we going to get this out?”
Bess waved her fuzzy little blue elf-thing in his face.  “Teleportation!”  She placed one hand on the slab then did something with the Worker and vanished in a puff of smoke.  Star-Lord and Kitty exchanged confused glances, but before either of them could say anything, Bess was back in another puff.  “I’m surprised, that didn’t work.”
Awkwardly, Quill spoke, “Maybe it was too big?  Didn’t you say these things have a mass limit on how much they can teleport at once?”  She nodded her head.  “Try that pillar instead, it’s smaller.”
Bess walked over to the pillar, it was small enough that she could embrace it with one hand, careful to keep away from the arcing electricity between the top and bottom.  Once again she gave a slight squeeze and vanished.  But again, the pillar was left behind.
When she came back, Bess was frowning.  “I think the whole apparatus is like the walls outside.  Just like you can’t phase through them, Pryde, the bamfs teleportation doesn’t work either.  I guess we’re just going to have to cut our losses and pick up whatever valuables we can carry.”
They made their way to the door but then encountered another problem.  It wouldn’t open.  “I guess that makes sense,” muttered Kitty.  “Someone needs to be sitting on that throne to unlock it.”
The eldest member of the party looked around.  “Still, there are three other doors here.  Let’s go see if any of them will open.”  They split up, Quill and Pryde to the left and right respectively, and Bess to the door opposite the one they entered.
“Locked!”
“No good on this side either.”
They reconvened at the pavilion.  “So now what?” asked Quill.
Cardinal’s voice cut across any potential plans.  “Now the three of you squeeze those Bamfs and get back here.  Another ship just pulled into the system.”
“Shi’Ar?”
“Unknown.  But it’s bigger than the Palatine by a factor of 10.  I think our unknown competitor just showed up.”
Bess sighed in frustration.  “Looks like this whole trip was a bust then.  Cardinal, you’re going to need to send someone down to bring the M-ship back to the Palatine.  Star-Lord, Pryde, we’re going to teleport back to the ship.”
Just before they left, Kitty heard Peter say one more thing.  “Guess even the greatest Ravagers can’t win them all.”
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fialleril · 7 years
Text
Replies to ‘Flowers for the Emperor’
So I’m hideously behind on my replies. (Seriously. So far behind that the folks I’m replying to probably don’t even remember what they said, lol.) But dang it, I’m getting them done! Eventually.
I’m gonna do a post for each fic I owe people replies to, so I don’t spam people.
Here’s the replies for the last DAV fic, Flowers for the Emperor.
@w3-4r3-th3-f1r3 said
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH OH MY GOD GUYS GUYS THE FLOWERS OH MY GOD
OHHHH MY GOD I LOVE THE IDEA OF THE WHOLE FLOWER LANGUAGE BEING WRAPPED UP IN FOLK HISTORY SO MUCH
AND THAT POOJA COULD RECOGNIZE AND UNDERSTAND IT BECAUSE SHZ KNEW THE STORIES THATS SOMETHING THAT MAKZS MY RESEARCH-HAPPY HEART FUCKING SOAR I SWEAR TO GODDDDD
and Leia’s line, “and we’ll have flowers”.. I PUNCHED THE AIR SO HARD I HURT MY ELBOW BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I HEAR HER SAY THAT CLZAR AS DAY IN MY HEAR. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS
Thank you! :) Apparently the moral of this story (and arguably the entire DAV universe) is that it pays to be a nerd. The revolution is fought (and won) with folk tales and poetry and flowers.
@threadsketchier said
  #I HAVE NEVER HIT REBLOG SO HARD IN MY LIFE    #i'm so thirsty for naberrie family fics  #& my thirst is slaked  #night: made  #crack!fic goals  #majestic    #*flaming elmo gif*  #it's ok that we're still not at bespin   #because we get more quality content like this   #the family that slays together  #say it with flowers  #that may be my new tag for this lol  #lastly  #YAAAASSSSSSSSSS
Ha ha thanks. :) This fic basically turned into a vehicle for all my Naberrie headcanons, with a side of double agent Vader shenanigans, so I’m glad you enjoyed that.
Also “say it with flowers” sounds like a catchy advertising slogan and now I’m picturing Darth Vader doing TV ads, so thanks for that.
@miriannemiri said
fabulous!  absolutely fabulous!  the way he told her to get out was fabulous  and just all the inside jokes possible with this  and the way he almost tested her the first time!  Also   as someone who used flower language in literary analysis while getting my master's   this just tickles me   fabulous addition 
Oh my goodness, I’m delighted to get a seal of approval from somebody who actually knows flower language!
I imagine the scene just after the end of the fic is Pooja telling Ryoo all about the different bouquets, and Ryoo cracking up laughing at each one.
@themoosejthm said
#A NEW FIC  #AND IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD  #READ THE THING  #ALSO THAT FAM REUNION IS GOING TO BE AWKWARD AS FUCK  #we also see more of Anakin being an awkward duck and just...swanning away from conversations midway through them  #the language of flowers on naboo is also a thing of beauty  #also it was really beautiful how present Padme was in this piece even though she's been dead for years  #just...FIA AT IT AGAIN WITH THE GOOD FIC   
Yessss, I’m so glad people are commenting on awkward turtleduck Anakin. He’s so awkward, but he gets away with it because people are so terrified that they think he’s being intimidating, when in fact he just...doesn’t know how to end a conversation.
Padme keeps popping up in dreams and memories because the idea of writing a story without her in it at all is just too terrible to contemplate.
@stereden said
#when someone who married into your culture knows your flower language better than you Palpatine it may be time to admit that you're an idiot #can I just say how much I adore the idea of Ekkreth basically telling Palpatine TO HISFACE that he's acting against him and will kill him #FOR PADME #and using Padme's culture to do so #imagine Anakin and Padme spending time together and Padme teaching him about Naboo and her traditions #and Anakin tells her stories of Tatooine #because for all that he hates the planet and what it represents #he learned a lot there #and in his darkest hours it's those lessons he remembers and uses to free himself #one story at a time #one bouquet at a time 
Thank you for these lovely tags!
Palpatine is a Serious Galactic Political Force, the inane superstitions and provincial traditions of villagers and slaves do not concern him.
By the time Pooja sees her first bouquet, Anakin’s been sending them for several years already and got his delivery down to a science, but I think the first time he sent the flowers he actually thought that Palpatine would be able to read them, and he fully expected his Master to take his anger out on him, even if he didn’t suspect Vader as the sender. Anakin was just too depressed to care. But then to his surprise it turned out that Palpatine couldn’t read the secret language of his own people (which, to an Anakin who’s now thinking largely in Tatooine terms, is practically a moral judgment itself). And once he knew he could get away with it, he got really into it.
Both Pooja and Anakin think of the bouquets as Padme’s flowers, though for different reasons.
kiralamouse said
Y’all, if you aren’t reading Double Agent Vader, you’re missing out. It’s fractally beautiful, the little details mirroring the big picture mirroring the middle-ground means, that injustice must be shattered (and shall be, by the reassembled broken bits reforged into immutable objects). Also, secret admirer flowers being secret death threats. Details.
#best au  #incidentally thanks fia for the fact that i can no longer not see your religious worldbuilding in canon  #no seriously thanks  #this fills the hole so perfectly that canon has yet to contradict
Thank you so much for this really beautiful image, wow. I’m flustered.
Also delighted that you like the Tatooine culture. :)
@thecookiemonster77 said
#!!!!!!!!!! #EEEEEEEEE DAV UPDATE!!!!! :DDDDDDD #IM YELL #I love ani what a nerd #*enters conversation* *doesn't know what to do* #*scuttles away* #same ani #same #but also!!!!!!! padmes family!!!!!! pooja!!!!!!!!!!!! #and flower fic!!!!!! #I'm so excited the hate bouquets became an official part of this installment omg #ani u nerd #I'm just. so in love w how they throw their disdain in palatines face #literally #like???? I just love their resistance and how they take whatever humor they can get #and!!!!!! using tales and flowers for rebellion!!!!!!!!!!! #dex as a part of the rebellion!!!!!!!!! #ITS WONDERFUL 
:D I’m so glad people enjoyed awkward!Vader because honestly, he’s so much fun. A giant terrifying nerd. Someday in the future, once a lot of things have come out, Pooja is going to tease him so hard about this.
There’s an old saying that the thing that infuriates the Devil most is being laughed at. I feel like that’s true for Palpatine, as well. Of course, right now he doesn’t realize he’s being laughed at, but there’s a certain satisfaction in that, too. And it keeps people going. Laughter is important for a rebellion.
Also I am literally incapable of not name-dropping Dex at some point in my AUs, so the biggest surprise here is that he took so long to show up.
@fairandfatalasfair said
This was fantastic.
I love the parallel between Ryoo’s research and the traditional stories of Naboo, ignored because how could romantic poetry be relevant? and the insignificant folk stories that inspired Anakin’s change of alleigance.
I love the awkward conversation between Pooja and Anakin, and her complete unpreparedness for being questioned on the floral arrangements by the emperor’s right hand. (I’m not totally sure whether he’s reminding her not to give away the joke, or just checking whether she shared her aunt’s interest in flower language, or something else entirely, but regardless it’s a delightful exchange.)
I love the flower Pooja leaves behind - a last message for the emperor. It’s so in keeping with the rest of what we see of her in this, very different in tone from the gloating, personal hatred of Vader’s bouquets. That principled declaration of unflinching intent to see democracy victorious, hidden in something fragile and beautiful and insignificant, is exactly what she’s been doing here all along. And Palpatine will never know.
#Stories are important
#And everyone knows this except Palpatine
#I'm not even going to go into the dramatic irony because at this point that's just the defining reality of the AU
#But it's still simultaneously delightful and also killing me
#because Pooja's like inches from putting together who sent the flowers and misses it because it just seems too implausible
#okay maybe I'm going into it a little bit
#anyway beautiful story
Thank you for such an epic comment!
This entire AU is not so secretly centered around the power of stories to inspire and create resistance, so I’m glad people are enjoying that. :)
Also I imagine that to someone like Palpatine, things like flower language and folk tales and poetry are all considered childish and feminine, and therefore unimportant. So there’s a double sense of enjoyment in seeing those things lead to his downfall.
Anakin originally approached Pooja in that awkward exchange because he wanted to see if she really understood the meaning of the flowers - and if that meant he actually had an audience for them now. (Anakin’s a little bit of a showboat, tbh, and he hasn’t really been able to exercise that tendency in a long time. Sending messages to Palpatine that the Emperor can’t understand is satisfying, in its way, but it’s much more satisfying to known someone else does understand.)
Only once he’s confirmed that yes, she definitely can read the message, he has no idea how to end the conversation. So he just kind of...leaves. Like the awkward duck he is.
I’m glad you like Pooja’s flower at the end. :) And the important difference, ultimately, between her (and Leia) and Anakin. Anakin’s doing this in some sense for Padme - she loved the Republic so he’ll fight to bring it back - but ultimately, he still doesn’t really believe in the ideal of the Republic, and democracy is still a pretty meaningless concept to him. He’s out for a personal revenge, and he is actually invested in the Tatooine revolution, but the Rebellion as an organization is a lot more abstract to him.
Pooja, though, is really Padme’s ideological heir, even if she’s crafted her public image to be Padme’s opposite. She is fighting for democracy, for a core set of principles, for the ideal of the Republic she genuinely hopes to create.
@astudyinimagination said
#dammit uncle ani pls talk to your niece like a normal person#honestly when everything finally comes out this is going to be the most awkward family reunion in history#in other news#yes that is a washington post reference#i couldn’t resist#and of course the naboo have multiple flowers representing democracy#of course they do#the lyane rose is the flower padme’s parade dress in tpm is made to look like#also i’m continuing my one person campaign to write fema baab as a master spy#in all universes apparently#and finally it’s possible the bits with mon mothma at the end#conflict in minor ways with rogue one
Well, for starters, this is an AU so if anybody minds that it conflicts with Rogue One, that’s just… silly. (And I adored the movie and I ain’t bothered. ;) )
YES ANAKIN TALK TO YOUR NIECE AND DON’T BE SO RUDE. PADME IS PROBABLY FACEPALMING. HONESTLY, ANAKIN.
And what I probably should have started this sort-of review with is that I’m SO GLAD that one tumblr post snowballed into something that made you want to write something as glorious as this. Thank you so much for actually doing it!
AND POOJA IS SO AMAZING. I just… I love the potential of Padme’s nieces as characters. I bet they were amazing. <3 And I love the way you flesh out the Naberries. *gives them all some much-needed hugs*
Oh yes, and the way that this fic is predominantly female characters is lovely. That’s always a plus. :) (Mon Mothma was great. I loved her. And she’s totally enjoying the knowledge that Darth Vader sent an important message through flowers. :D )
I love Pooja’s assessment that Palpatine had never forgiven Padme for being a better person and not being as ambitious as he was. That’s great. :D
I love Leia and Pooja being friends (oh my gosh, they’re cousins and they don’t even know it and cousins who are good friends is a thing I love). And Leia being so gleeful about her bestie’s symbolic shenanigans is wonderful. (I just… it’s odd, maybe, but I just feel like Leia and Anakin are sort of besties—they have a lot that they share with each other that they can’t share with anyone else. They’re unknowingly biological father and daughter, basically adoptive father and daughter… and they’re besties. And that makes me so happy. :) )
“One day we’ll tell all the stories again. And we’ll have flowers.” —I LOVE THIS LINE.
I have to admit, I wouldn’t have thought that there could be a purge of Senators when the Senate is abolished, but it makes sense. And honestly, that part was truly scary in a way that I haven’t felt from any fics in a long time. Maybe because it was a little more real? Pooja’s amazing, but she’s not Force-sensitive and she doesn’t exactly have the Skywalker luck to get out of Situations. (Heck, maybe it even connected with some old recurring nightmares of mine subconsciously, now that I think about it.) That was genuinely scary. *shivers*
So thank goodness Anakin could give Pooja that message, and thank goodness Pooja and her handmaidens and her family got safely away! Here’s hoping she and Anakin saved a lot of lives!
Oh my goodness this comment is epic! :)
Anakin’s always had an awkward streak, but combined with the additional awkwardness of interacting with someone he hasn’t seen in years, who happens to think he’s dead and to be terrified of the person she thinks he is...and then on top of that the realization that, having determined she can indeed read the flower message, he has no idea where to take the conversation next.... Welp. Better to just nope on out of there.
(Also Darth Vader is frequently awkward in the movies and I feel like fandom doesn’t talk about that enough, so I’m on a quest to write awkward!Vader as often as possible.)
I’m glad you enjoyed all my Naberrie headcanons! I had lots of fun with them and I really need to write them more.
Mon Mothma was great. I loved her. And she’s totally enjoying the knowledge that Darth Vader sent an important message through flowers. :D 
She so is. Honestly she’s probably hoping for The Reveal just so she can finally tell people this ridiculous but true story.
I love Pooja’s assessment that Palpatine had never forgiven Padme for being a better person and not being as ambitious as he was. That’s great. :D 
Thanks! I suspect Pooja is right on the money, too, though of course she doesn’t know that Palpatine also has the joy of tormenting Anakin with his endless parties on the anniversary of Padme’s death. But I think he’d have done the same thing even without Anakin, because he really did hate Padme on her own account.
Pooja and Leia already having a pretty close friendship is going to make at least one part of The Reveal easier. And yeah, I think Leia and Anakin do see each other primarily as friends, with a father-daughter dynamic because it’s a friendship with that level of age gap. It’s not unlike the relationship between Shmi and Anakin, actually: a parent-child relationship that’s really a partnership, a relationship between equals. Leia calls Anakin her teacher, and he does consider her his student (though he’s never actually used that language), but the relationship doesn’t look anything like any teacher-student relationship in his experience. He’s not her master, and neither of them have ever called her his apprentice. He doesn’t give her orders. He doesn’t tell her not to ask questions. They’re friends.
My headcanon for this ‘verse is that the entire Senatorial contingent of the Rebellion got out before Palpatine dissolved the Senate, so this operation, at least, was a resounding success. :) And while Palps must think that someone tipped them off, it certainly couldn’t have been Vader, who was light years away chasing down Princess Leia above Tatooine, and who has always hated politicians anyway.
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purpleshift · 7 years
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urgh I promised in the tags of this post I’d upload my Sunday sketches to Tumblr and here it is! (Even if it’s a lot later than 24 hours after.) Please excuse me while I mentally vomit at the thought of showing off my terrible art (but at least it looks anatomical, right??). Notes under the cut (non-Tumblr links bolded because of blog theme):
some context/notes for the main sketch:
yeah, that is APH fem!Prussia in a different, faux-Victorian dress (thing #1 she doesn’t like (clothing); thing #2 is “not very feminist”/”stay out of the direct war fighting” (she adores the fighting); thing #3 is anti-”mutie” prejudice (being an albino))
also, yeah, her looking that middle-aged is deliberate (but yes, bad art was involved), and Ivan Vorpatril would call her one of those “steely-eyed middle-aged Vor ladies who brooked even less nonsense from him than his mother did” (A Civil Campaign, chapter 8), when he’s not calling her “Aunt Julia”, of course.
Fortunately for Ivan, she wouldn’t be caught dead on the ImpWed committee; the sort of nonsense she wouldn’t put up with is more military/legal than moral; and she does do a good military bellow. 
(”What I wouldn't give to hear a nice, deep, straightforward masculine bellow of `Vorpatril!' . . . From someone other than Countess Vorinnis, that is." (A Civil Campaign, chapter 14))
look I know Barrayar is an Anglo-French-Russian(and Greek) cultural hybrid, but the premise of my AU is that APH Russia was too busy to get stranded on a colony planet and that APH Prussia wasn’t, not being a proper current country and all.(that’s Catherine the Great joke #1: not the first Prussian lady to be in charge of a Russia(n-descended culture))
features you probably can’t see: yes she is wearing a (wedding?) ring - tradition goes that District personifications usually take the name of their comital-palatine family, and she agreed to go along with getting hitched because she’s still ambitious for power and all that (so it’s Lady Julia Marie* Beilschmidt Vorbarra to you, now) 
her husband is a poet, and also gay (but they did consummate the marriage, and audibly (to the gossips outside the chambers) - now that I’ve got that image, I just gotta write that scene)
his name is either Anatoly and/or Arkady
they write a tongue-in-cheek poem where he deliberately misdescribes her appearance (you know, can’t have the public thinking that your planetary personification is a mutie (you know, albino)) and also makes geographic jokes; and this is the entire reasoning behind those names
the image I have of the poem is of female Lithuania?
[Anatolia]
[Arcadia]
(* “Julia Maria” just doesn’t quite sound as good to me, mostly because the endings clash a bit.)
in the background they’re practising two-sword Vorish duelling and a ref has crossed his arms, but I can’t be bothered with that much background detail
it’s not mentioned but every other APH canon character is the gender they’re usually drawn as.
brief context/notes for other sketches (clockwise from top right):
I’m self-taught at art and I don’t know how to use those techniques with sketching shapes?
French cover of Komarr (with Ekaterin’s bonsai skellytum), but drawn from memory as a succulent
Fem!Prussia’s canonical boots, but as knee-highs and with sensible heels, like maybe cavalry boots?
I saw it in some Cordelia fanart (probably fanart), possibly melannen’s Cordelia paper dolls? (fake edit: it was not)
it’s actually only mostly unrelated, it’s loosely based on Crusader Kings II’s portrait frames and Greco-Roman wreaths, but I thought it would be a decorative touch that Prussia/Barrayar would like (apart from the obvious birds*, of course) 
(*: Weimar Prussia is best Prussia, mostly because its status as a good democratic place just sounds so hilariously incongruent with the historical image of Prussia as, y’know, a militaristic absolute monarchy; also the bird, just look at it)
this is one possible design for Sergyar, but I can’t really show off the signature Greekie curly split ends with hair that aggressively curly, even if it is meant to be white-people curly
her name is Sofia Frédérique (if I stick with that spelling anyway) and that’s Catherine the Great joke #2 (in verse proposed backstory: Delia Koudelka (when she was young) didn’t want to share a name/namesake with another kid she knew, Prussia/Barrayar picked Friederike <3 because of course <3 (”but [Sergyar] can pick the spelling”), and maybe they were looking through the Vorbarra family tree (Sonia being a diminutive of Sofia) or a baby name book. They know about the Catherine the Great coincidence, though.)
Worm plague
bonus costuming/heraldry details:
I am a Prussian subject of Vorbarra’s District, d’you know my colours? [something something] [silver] and black before me [...]
I mean, silver’s not that different from white at a distance, right?
I always thought that the Imperial blue and red parade uniform would be more blue than red [x], but okay.
headcanon that sometimes you’ll see Prussia (canon, and in AUs) wearing the silliest hats [x] [was going to insert a picture of canon!Prussia in a Pickelhaube as a second image but I can’t find one on Google Images]
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