#lightsabers thing does indeed go the fuck off

[imaybeabear]

A summary of my feelings regarding star wars:

#sorry its just the whole long flowing black cape and standing in dark shadows/fog/smoke illuminated by only the sinister glow of their red #lightsabers thing does indeed go the fuck off #this post is specifically about darth vader of course but you could apply it to any of them i guess #darth vader #darth maul #asajj ventress #the inquisitor #what the heck is her name?? #i havent actually seen any of the new trilogy but i assume it happens there too #however i dont know the guys name and i do not care about it at all but please feel free to tag this however you want #except for s*d*ous he can go suck space milk #star wars #star wars original trilogy #star wars prequels #kenobi series #obi wan kenobi #oh shit i almost forgot #anakin skywalker #star wars the clone wars #rogue one

[phoenixyfriend]

Rey Gives No F*cks About the Grandfather Paradox

Okay so since nobody’s suggested a fic under these terms, I ended up expanding on this post on discord and things snowballed. We kept to the basics of the entire plot revolving around Rey really hating her grandad and leveraging her blood relation to not be unalived about it.

With contributions by @atagotiak​, @dracothulhu​, @thepallaspalace​, and several others. The title comes from @gelpenss​.

The basic thing I absolutely need is this: Rey gets thrown back to the middle of the clone wars, and the subsequent plot leans in really heavily on her being, genetically-via-clone-dad, the daughter of the guy running the entire galaxy.

Nobody knows what to do with her.

The timing is mid-TCW for the past (because I want Ahsoka there) and vaguely between Episodes 8 and 9 because I... never watched E9 and don’t want to worry about the timeline. The only things that matter is that Luke is dead (he can die as he did in canon) and that Rey knows she’s Palp’s granddaughter (not the way she does in canon).

We'll say Luke found out from Anakin's panicked force-ghost and just went "well, fuck, okay, I should tell her this before she ends up in a situation like mine and finds out mid-battle or something."

Luke, prior to time-travel: Okay, so, now that I'm dead I know some things I didn't before. Like who your parents were. In the interest of full disclosure because I was in a very similar situation and I don't want you learning the way I did, I'm just going to come right out and say that your father was a clone was Sheev Palpatine. Rey: ... Luke: Are you okay? Rey: I don't know who that is.

(She grew up on Jakku, the history education was a little subpar.)

Setting The Scene

Imagine Rey showing up during or immediately before the clone wars. There’s this phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater who tells you that if you ran a paternity test, it would probably pop up the Chancellor. She may or may not bring up cloning. She accuses said Chancellor of being a Sith Lord.

Your other phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater, who may not be a teenager anymore but only barely, is very offended by this because Palpatine’s a Very Nice Old Grandfather Figure, but also he’s a little full of side-eye because if the blood test comes back as proof, then Palpatine had a kid and didn’t even know about them, or lied to Anakin, and that’s! Bad! Family’s important!!!

Palpatine hears about this daughter he apparently? Has? And is very confused because the timing doesn’t match up with ANYTHING he was doing, so the kid isn’t natural, and he says as much. (There is an explanation! It’s not a correct explanation, but he does come up with one.)

Finn and Poe and BB-8 all get dragged along because why not have the gang there? Nobody that’s already born, because [handwave] conservation of souls or something, IDK, point is the only person dragged along that’s even remotely close to already existing is Luke’s Force Ghost, who mostly hangs around begging Rey to be less impulsive. Finn is good because he is a nice polite boy, but for actual useful information they need Poe. The unfortunate situation is that the three do not land together. They land at the same time, in completely different corners of the galaxy. This means that nobody is there to curb Rey being her most impulsive self.

Time travel Rey knows two things. Luke’s dad ends up evil. Palpatine has always been evil.

She can solve one of these problems by killing the other, yes?

Rey: Ready to Rumble

See, the initial idea was this: Rey tried to break into the senate to kill Palpatine, got arrested, and then used the "he's biologically my father" card to get out of jail free. (Force Ghost Luke follows her like “please take five seconds to think this through.”)

But.

But.

It would be very, very, very funny if The Force just dumps her in a flash of light in the senate building and she just attacks Gramps on sight. Just a shouted "YOU!" and no-hesitation attempted murder.

Palpatine has no idea what's going on.

Rey took maybe two seconds to get identity confirmation and then started swinging.

[Image Description: An individual in a green metal helmet with an eye slit, holding a pistol. In the upper left, upper right, and lower middle are the phrases “I do not know who I am...” “I don’t know why I’m here” and “All I know is that I must kill.” End description.]

Of course, she gets arrested. There are Master Jedi in the Senate. There are Clone Troopers. Palpatine isn’t the weak old man he pretends to be. Of course she’s stopped.

But she isn’t executed in time for Palpatine to stop her from ruining his entire reputation.

Immediately after Rey fails to kill her Shitty Granddad, Luke's ghost shows up and begs her to not talk about the Sith thing because it will completely undermine everything she's trying to do. Pass off the attempted murder as something else!

Rey, panicking: "that fucker left me on a desert planet for 10 years!" "You owe me 19 years of child support you son of a Hutt!"

The Jedi have to do the investigation, because the girl showed up with a laser sword, and the conversation is, uh... interesting. (“Where did you get that lightsaber?” “I got it from a mysterious old pirate lady I never met before. I don't know, I was being shown around by a smuggler and a Wookie.”)

Interviewer: Why did you try to assassinate the Chancellor? Luke: Say it wasn't assassination. Rey: It wasn't assassination. Int: You weren't trying to kill him? Luke: Assassination has to be politically motivated. Rey: This was, um... not political. Assassination is political, right? Int: You mean this was personally motivated? Rey: Yes. Int: I see. What personal motivation? Luke: Jakku! Rey: He's my grandfather. Int: ... Rey: Possibly father. Nobody was very clear on that. Int: ... Luke: Tell them to run a paternity test. Rey: Oh hey, a blood test would tell us which, right? Int: ............ Rey: I spent ten years as an orphaned scrapdealer on Jakku. He's my father. I'm kind of a little angry. Int: ........... Luke: Good job, kid. You bought yourself some time. Int: I'm going to get a medic to see about that parternity test.

Obviously, it comes back positive. Congratulations, Sheev, you’re the father.

Rey comes with a ready-made built-in excuse for hating Palpatine that nobody can question or fault her for!

Rey, pouring Truth into the Force: I didn't even know I was related to the Chancellor until a few months ago, but it's his fault I grew up the way I did, and he should take some responsibility!

The entire thing is mostly kept hush hush but someone leaks it to the press and Palpatine's ratings tank.

"Chancellor, I think we'll need to waive family visitation until she wants you a little less dead." "I would like to find out why she wants me dead, and indeed, where she came from." "...sir, for your own safety--"

Who would win? A master plan years in the making spanning decades of manipulating and work? or One (1) paternity test

"Okay, so, Rey Palpat--" "Ew, no, I don't want his name." "You--okay. Sure, we can understand that. Is there a name you would prefer to put on the paperwork?" Rey, who would have gone by Skywalker in honor of Luke but can't do that when Anakin is right there and all: "Can I think about it?"

Rey: I don't know what I want my last name to be but I know I don't want his, and most of the people I’d want a name from have famous families like you... Luke's ghost, pointing out the Literal Nobody that she cares about a lot: How about Solo? Rey: ...Solo, then.

(A few months later she runs into Poe again and he offers for Finn and Rey to both take his name because honestly they need SOMETHING but at that point she’s already decided on Smuggler Dad.)

Backtrack a bit. We’ve got a bigger cast.

They all arrive separately. Poe, for one, does better than Rey, who is aiming for a murder, but not quite as well as Finn, who is currently being adopted and hidden like a secret cat by a bunch of Alpha Clones on Kamino. He vibes with the names-or-numbers thing. He doesn’t necessarily tell them where and when he’s from, but he’s very sweet and a great liar and they adopt him wholesale anyway.

The Finn situation is just... "Buir Ti, we need you to hide this man, we've decided he's our little brother but if Nala Se finds out she'll make him leave."

Of course, this leads into Shaak Ti teaching Finn how to Jedi.

Maybe consider Finn needing to almost be tricked into learning Jedi things because he willfully forgets it could apply to him. Finn does not like to think of himself as special, which is super valid, but frustrating for Shaak Ti when it comes to, you know, getting him to acquire knowledge. Finn's training at some point is "here, levitate objects with the Force to entertain the tubies." It’s a lot easier to convince him to practice when it involves the babies.

(Everyone on Kamino looked at Finn and went “oh I love him I’m keeping him and teaching him things.”)

(He’s just very lovable.)

Poe, meanwhile, buys the trust of Anakin Skywalker via R2D2 declaring BB-8 the absolute most baby of droids. R2D2 met BB-8 three hours ago but.

"Hey Obi-Wan this is Poe I met him like five days ago but R2D2 says he checks out because his droid is a baby." "That's nice, Anakin, did you know the Chancellor has a daughter who tried to assassinate him in broad daylight yesterday? Because guess who had to stop the Chancellor from getting assassinated by his daughter in broad daylight yesterday."

A summary so far:

Finn, on Kamino: Hey, um, I don't know where this is, but it's not where I was a few minutes ago. Do you think you could get me a comm? What's your name? Poe, on [dice roll] Denon: Oh, hey, you're General Skywalker? Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry about my droid, she's a little excitable and thought your R2 unit looked like a friend of hers-- Rey, on Coruscant: DIE, GRANDFATHER

Finn: [Peacefully vibing on Kamino, unaware of the chaos and bonding with the clones] Poe: [Trying to explain how he knows someone who tried to kill the chancellor and defend Rey] Rey: [Arrested for trying to kill the chancellor]

Just... just...

Anakin: Some guy ended up lost on base yesterday with his droid, how’s your day going? Obi-Wan: I had to stop someone who claims to be the chancellors daughter from murdering the chancellor after she seemingly blinked into existence in the Senate building. Poe: 😐

(Poe: Oh, so that's where Chaos^2 went.)

Poe: In her defense, she is his... well we don't know if she's his daughter or granddaughter, but she's definitely related to him, and she definitely grew up in a shitty situation that was his fault, so...

(Poe is trying very hard to explain this and not get arrested on the military base.)

As you’ve probably guessed, what's especially funny about all of this for me is the fact that Palpatine is fully aware that this girl shouldn't exist, but can't find a single piece of evidence about where she came from. He didn't start any experiments that could result in a female child, and he didn't have sex in that period of time, so where the hell--

Rey spends so much time in jail... BUT they do eventually assign her a Jedi Master. Possibly before she actually proves her evil grandfather is in fact evil. Most votes went to either Plo Koon or Obi-Wan. Plo, because he’s dad-shaped, and Obi...

"Obi-Wan, you already raised one feral desert child with implausible amounts of power, you handle this." Rey in return is very "Sweet, you vaguely remind me of Master Luke," and nobody knows who the hell she's talking about. Obi-Wan is NOT on board with this plan, she'd really be better off with Plo or like........ Mace.

Reunion Tour

What I need out of this is the eventual Finn and Rey reunion scene that is just excited screaming while someone in the background explains to Shaak Ti that yes this is apparently Palpatine's terrifyingly force-sensitive daughter who hates him.

(Finn senses Rey’s approach and just. Gathers the everyone to wait. He’s just :D REY MY FRIEND REY GUYS MY FRIEND REY IS COMING.)

Anakin shows up with Poe--just a guy who signed on to the military, no big deal--and then Poe and Rey are EXCITED and everyone's just like "Cool, how do you know this literal terrorist child?" And Poe has to scramble and "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh she saved my droid from a scrapheap once and BB-8 is basically my child so I owe her one."

Rey knows that Anakin ends up evil so she’s maybe not actively hostile but definitely very “I’m watching you.” That said, she vibes with him on a lot of things that he maybe doesn’t actively notice.

Rey picks up a snake, snaps off the head for venom avoidance, and starts biting off chunks. Obi-Wan's reaction: [undisguised horror] Anakin and Ahsoka: Ooh, where'd you find that? (Obi-Wan: And now I’m up to three feral children.)

What Does Palpatine Even Do?

OBVIOUSLY at a certain point, Palpatine is just phoning up every ally he has to figure out who broke protocol to synthesize a daughter for him.

So of course, Palpatine blame Plagueis.

She'd have been born five or so years before Naboo, just a few years younger than Anakin. It's such an EASY theory to build a conspiracy around. It is ENTIRELY WRONG, but it’s plausible! And anyone who might have been involved to say otherwise is probably dead!

A random bio-kid shows up you can’t possibly have contributed genes to? Maybe it’s the evil bio spark that did it.

Palpatine tries to placate her with the ‘my genes were stolen for an experiment and I didn’t know’ thing. It doesn’t work because her actual main complaint is he’s evil in her future but he tries.

It'd be a struggle to even get access to her, because of the aforementioned “maybe don’t try to talk to the daughter(?) that hates you” thing, but you know who Palpatine does have access to? The Chosen One.

Rey kind of decides on her favorites early on (she gravitates to Dad Energy and Sad Old Men so Plo and Obi-Wan are on her list, and that means decent time around Anakin and Ahsoka). It's really easy to talk Anakin into helping to some degree because "he'd like to connect to a daughter he never knew" and "a child of her power on a planet like that, you'd know her struggle, my dear boy" and so on. Anakin tries to connect! He tries to play up Sheev’s kind political work and how it can’t have really been his fault! It doesn’t work. Rey does not believe a word of it. Mostly she doesn’t even seem to hear him.

Rey's just like "...oh right, you're the melted mask that Kylo Ren was always ranting about," which means absolutely NOTHING to Anakin, but he mentions it to Palps, who loses his goddamn mind trying to figure out what she's talking about, because it also means absolutely nothing to him.

Here’s the thing: Rey’s already decided that Obi-Wan is cool, because Luke said so, and Plo Koon is dad-shaped, and she also gravitates towards earnest kindness in general, like she made friends with Finn real quick, so Ahsoka? Already getting along great.

She doesn’t dislike Anakin, really, he isn’t evil yet, he’s just... meh. She’s a little suspicious and she likes him less than the others but... Anakin.

Rey, to Anakin: You are my least favorite. Anakin, to Palpatine: YOUR DAUGHTER HATES ME???

And he goes from “she’s a lil standoffish” to “she doesn’t like me” to “she hates me” as is normal for Anakin.

It’s just an escalation of this one time Palpatine wants Anakin to not have rifts and trust issues with a person, at least not until later, because he needs information.

Meanwhile, that very moment, Rey is just like "huh, nobody here is listening to me about how make a sixth-hand carburetor work, where's Luke's dad?"

Anakin is venting to Palpatine about how hard it is to talk to Rey, and she's over in the Temple just like "Hey, that guy was useful last time, I should ask him," but also she only ever thinks of him as Luke's Dad.

(At one point, Obi-Wan is having a bit of a break down, and then Anakin starts having a breakdown about that, meanwhile the clones are (badly) trying to hide Finn behind their backs, Rey is watching Ahsoka practice and being like "I want two lightsabers," and Poe is trying to keep R2 from stealing BB-8 and Force Ghost Luke is just face palming in the background.)

(Rey deserved a saber staff, maybe one that can detach and turn into a jar’kai set. Possibly a pike. Mostly I just wish she got more chances to whack things with a big stick.)

#Rey #Finn #Poe Dameron #Sheev Palpatine #Luke Skywalker #Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Darth Sidious #Plo Koon #Shaak Ti #Ahsoka Tano #r2d2 #bb 8 #star wars #time travel #Rey and the Grandfather Paradox #Phoenix Posts

[squishneedsahero]

Healing Wounds

The Lost Padawan

Part 8 of ?

Word Count: 2122

You were raised in the Jedi order, Padawan of Jedi Master Obiwan Kenobi.

A/N: btw comments are the thing that gives me motivation to continue these stories so anything is appreciated <3

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit-" is the only thing echoing through your mind as you run through the abandoned star destroyer. You'd all been a tad bit late to the party and Wrecker's chip had taken over. He was the reason you were currently running, and now ducking from blaster bolts.

He had targeted you, since the Jedi were the clone's main priority to eliminate. You'd taken off, but didn't want to get so far ahead that he turned his attention to the others. So staying in sight but dodging open fire wasn't something you were excited about. Lightsaber whirling through the air as you duck and cover and dodge and block all the blaster bolts he was eagerly firing, luckily his name was Wrecker and not Crosshair or you'd have been dead by now.

In all honesty you were functioning and fending for your life but trying so hard not to go into a full blown panic attack. Your friend trying to gun you down, while you hadn't personally experienced it you'd been a witness. Every night when you closed your eyes had only brought visions of Cody shooting down Obi Wan, and your many other friends whom you considered family. Only an hour ago you'd dove into murky water to save Wrecker's life and here he was now trying to kill you. It wasn't his fault but it still hurts.

You're brought back from these thoughts as Wrecker shouts behind you, something about you not getting away. You can hear the others shouting, further away but still there as they tried to defend you. You didn't need them dying for you though, so you tried to keep Wrecker's attention.

"Hey-" your voice cracks. You start again, "hey! You can't catch me Wrecker! I'm a Jedi and I'm still alive, you're disobeying orders!" You taunt him, finally gaining some small sense of stability as you duck behind a crate.

You hear him growl and his booming footsteps growing closer. You couldn't take him if he got ahold of you, you knew that much. He'd fought a Rancor and won, you were basically just a kid. Sure a battle hardened veteran, knowing nothing but war your entire childhood, except for when it was kind of just tense, but still you were a kid.

You glance around you as his footsteps grow closer, there's a vent above you. You know for a fact you can fit inside, you'd hidden in them plenty of times. You use the force to pull the cover off and send it flying towards Wrecker.

As you leap up into the vent you hear a solid thud and grunt before the metal clangs to the floor. You then hear another angry shout, you'd definitely hit Wrecker. From inside the vent you crawl back the way you had come, being sure to clang around and make some noise to keep his attention. A few blaster bolts firing through the ceiling and up at you in the vent tells you that you do indeed have his attention.

Your heart is in your throat, your throat is closing up from anxiety and you can hardly breathe, you can't keep this up for much longer and you know it. The tears you've been holding back for weeks are welling in your eyes and you know once you break there will be no stopping it. You'd be too broken to defend yourself for a hot minute while you got ahold of yourself and your emotions once again.

You crawl another 30 feet, dodging the blaster bolts, except for one that grazes your leg but you're feeling so numb to everything you hardly feel it. Once you crawl another 2 feet you realize everything has stoped, Wrecker falls silent, the shooting stops and the others stop their shouting. You allow yourself to collapse to the vent floor and just lay there on the cold metal, taking heaving breaths and trying to get ahold of yourself.

"Y/n? Are you alright?" from the tone you can tell Hunter asking you this.

You take another breath before speaking, hoping to keep your voice from cracking again, "yeah I'm alright. I'm-" you pause in thought, "I'm going to stay up here a minute... at least until Wrecker's alright."

You hear some whispers before he responds, "alright." If you'd cared you would have gone and tried to hear the whispers but you didn't care at that moment. Let them say what they need too, you needed to pause even for the slightest of moments in a vent on a star destroyer, somewhere you felt protected enough to let your masks fall and the emotional dam to break.

You listen to their heavy footsteps move away, carrying Wrecker back to the medical bay, then it happens. Everything you'd been holding in comes falling out. A tear for master Obi Wan, a tear for Cody, a tear for what Cody had done to Obi Wan, a tear for each of the clones you'd been close too, and a tear for the life you had lost. The only thing you'd known and now it was gone and it was slowly setting in that you'd never be getting that back even if you still spent all your time with a different group of clones. Once the tears start you cannot stop, you stay right there on the cold, growing warm metal, creating your own little pity puddle, a puddle of your tears.

~~~~~

"... at least until Wrecker's alright."

Hunter goes to respond but Rex places a gentle hand on his shoulder first and shakes his head, before responding for Hunter, "alright," and you couldn't tell the difference, one of the few perks of being a clone. The two then get Wrecker up and with a nod for Omega, who'd saved the day, to follow they carry their brother to the med bay and get him in the machine to begin the surgery that would hopefully work. The surgery that hopefully wouldn't kill him.

Once Wrecker is settled Hunter turns to Rex and asks, "why'd you leave them there?"

Rex shakes his head gently, but responds, "I served around them enough to know despite their training that they need some time to themselves."

Hunter lets that sink in for a moment before nodding, he trusted Rex on this, he had hardly spent any time around the Jedi, usually their team worked alone. He didn't know enough to dispute the idea that you just needed some time. Sure, you were probably close to the same age as the Clones were, but they aged much faster than you did. You'd had as many years experience as they did, but you were still mentally and physically a child. Order 66 and all the aftermath had to have hit you harder than you let on, but Wrecker going after you had been your breaking point.

Omega is worried about you, but to her you seemed invincible always ready to face danger and sacrifice yourself for your friends. For Omega, Wrecker is the priority of her worry, she stays by his side knowing how dangerous this procedure is to him, how he might not wake back up despite their best efforts. Finally the procedure is over and now they all wait on edge to see if their friend would wake up. After what feels like forever he does, he finally wakes up and the first thing Omega does  is hug him, throwing her arms around his neck as she lets out a breath of relief.

Wrecker apologizes to her, as he'd gone after her at one point, then looks up and asks, "how- how's y/n?" Sure, he remembered some stuff but you'd been in the vents, what if he'd hit you with a lucky shot? He could hardly bear the thought that he'd hurt or killed you. He quite liked you, you weren't stuck up like other Jedi, you fit in with their little family perfectly and if he'd hurt you even on accident-

He's pulled out of his thoughts by Omega answering, "y/n is still in the vent, they weren't ready to come out yet. I'm sure as soon as they're ready they'll be glad to know you're back to yourself."

That isn't the answer Wrecker wanted but his head was aching and the world was spinning so he couldn't go find you at the moment, he had to just lay back down. From there the next person is prepped for the surgery and they begin moving, going to get everyone fixed up before anything else could happen.

As soon as everyone is distracted and paying attention to the preparations being made, Omega makes her move, Hunter was fine, so now she needed to make sure you were fine. Whether you liked it or not she'd made you part of their little family, you were her sibling too, she had all her older brothers, and you.

"Y/n?" Omega's soft voice sounds below you, "can I come up?"

You don't get much of a chance to answer as next thing you know the vent in front of you opens up, and Omega crawls in. Fuck. She was also small enough to fit in the vents. "Uh," you quickly wipe your face and try to dry the puddle where your head had been, "hey- hey Omega, what's up?"

"Wrecker woke up, he's okay... I thought you should know." She settles in place, laying on her stomach and facing you, obviously not leaving.

You offer a slight smile, "okay, thanks..." you trail off not really sure what you should say, and not really in the mood to talk.

Omega obviously picks up on this since, despite being somewhat secluded all her life, she was inteligent and could somewhat read emotions despite not picking up on every little queue. "Are you alright? Wrecker didn't mean to-"

She stops as you look at her, you don't look harshly but you making eye contact once more is enough, "I know Omega. I don't blame him, it isn't his fault," you quietly say, "I don't blame him at all it's just-"

You pause wanting to backtrack, seeing the curiosity in her eyes as she innocently asks, "it's just what?"

You chew on the tip of your tongue for a moment before looking at her for a moment. It had been long enough. She was your sister. You needed to accept that you weren't a Jedi any more even if you were connected with the force. You didn't need to follow all those rules, you could accept that you cared and got attached to people. That you considered them family. And most importantly you could afford to show emotions.

You'd shown emotion anyways with Obi Wan, because you trusted him and you were only learning. You'd seen him show emotion on occasion. It's in this moment as you're facing your sister that you realize and accept the fact that you don't have to follow the Jedi code and you feel a weight lift from your shoulders.

You take a breath then say, "those chips caused me to loose everyone I was ever close too. You grew up on Kamino and never left there. That was all you knew. The Jedi Order was all that I knew," tears well up in your eyes once again but you don't try to hide them this time. "I lost all of that then to have it almost happen again, in a way, to have someone I consider a friend once again try to kill me? I just-" you take a shuddering breath as you try and ground yourself again, "the Jedi tell you to not show emotions or get attached to anyone, and I cannot help but do that, so loosing everyone, it hurt. But I've been trying to following those rules and it's just hard to change and stop it. I need to stop it if I'm going to be able to help all of you." You wipe your eyes and take another deep breath.

Omega smiles softly at you, "that makes sense, but we're family, you don't have to hold everything in."

You smile back, knowing she's trying her best to help, "yeah, it's just a matter of learning that... thanks Omega..." you pause before changing the subject, "you said that Wrecker's awake?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm sure he's worried about me, let's climb down and I'll go see him."

Once out of the vent the two of you share a hug and it's all alright, except for the wound where the blaster bolt had grazed you which you'd been numb too until you were on your feet. Fuck. It hurt, and you'd have to get it patched up, but first you needed to make sure Wrecker was patched up.

#bad batch reader insert #the bad batch #bad batch x reader #starwars bad batch #bad batch x you #Bad Batch #clone trooper echo #clone trooper rex #trooper echo #arc trooper echo #clone trooper wrecker #clones #Clone Wars #star wars clone wars #starwars #starwars x reader #Starwars omega #starwars clonewars #obiwan x reader #reader insert #starwars reader insert #star wars omega #obiwan x you #y/n #obiwan kenobi x you #starwars x you #starwars x y/n #clone wars reader insert

[darkisrising]

Five Times, by DarkIsRising,pt5

Previous parts here on ao3

Five Times Din and Luke Met (and one time they never parted)

5.

Somehow it’s Boba Fett of all beings that gets Luke in touch with Grogu’s dad again.

Fett doesn’t want to help him, of course. Not after all the bad blood that’s been spilled between them, especially with the sarlacc pit thing from a few years back, and there’s a lot of the holocomm where the blue flicker of Fett’s image is silent with his arms crossed while Luke has to practically crawl on his belly to get him to take the call, let alone listen to Luke, let alone relent enough to give Luke a name.

Just a name.

“Come on, Fett, that’s all I’m asking for.”

“Wow, Skywalker. You really fucked up this time, didn’t you?”

And Luke has to agree that yes, he did indeed fuck up though in his defense he was riding high on the Force at the time, but that’s not something that’s likely to sway Fett one way of the other so he goes the meek route, saying quietly: “I really did. Will you help me?”

Fett’s helmet tilts to the side, like maybe he’s finally considering it, and Luke is a deft enough swordsman these days to press an advantage when he sees one.

“Not even for my sake. For his son’s.”

Fett’s sigh is loud enough to be picked up on his voice modulator on Tatooine, travel through the shared holocomm connection—in one end of the outer rim and out the other—to finally make itself heard in the communications room on Yavin IV’s moon.

“Din Djarin,” comes the terse reply before the connection is abruptly cut off from Fett’s end.

Which isn’t much to go on, considering all he knows is his name and that he’s a Mandalorian, but it is a start.

As it turns out, it’s more than enough because not only is Din Djarin a Mandalorian, he’s the Mandalorian.

“I didn’t realize you came from royalty,” Luke says to Grogu not a little bit stunned as they wait for someone to find the Mand'alor and patch their comm through.

After that it’s a lot of back and forth to strategize a time when he’s able to fly over between all the things he’s gotta do as a king trying to reunify his home sector.

The ship that finally settles down in front of the temple is more of a junker than Luke would expect from a king. The paint is peeling, some of the stabilizer flaps are slow to retract, and there’s a groan when the ramp extends that makes the spacerhead in Luke itch to grab some oil and go to town on those hinges.

Instead Luke stays where he is and when he spots the shine of pure, silver beskar coming down the ramp he falls into a bow which he’s only mastered thanks to extensive holocomming with Leia as she berated him over his pisspoor form while he yelled back that he grew up a farmer for druk’s sake when was he supposed to learn this sithspit king-greeting nonsense?

“You don’t have to do that,” comes a soft voice and Luke looks up in time to see that Grogu has raced ahead with his arms raised to be picked up. In a clean motion that speaks of a body honed for movement he sweeps down and takes Grogu in his arms. “Hey, kid. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

Luke intends to make himself scarce for this reunion which has been a long time coming, but is stopped when the Mand’alor starts asking Luke questions about Grogu’s training, about how he spends his days, what he’s been eating, how he’s been sleeping, if he’s been behaving…

“He’s been a joy to have here, Lord Djarin,” Luke says and it earns him a long, silent look.

“I think you can call me Din, all things considered,” he says before setting Grogu down so that he can dig into his belt’s pouch. “Anyway, I brought presents.”

Grogu’s face turns incandescent when he sees the silver ball that Din plucks from his hip. The sound he makes is nothing short of pure elation and Luke has to laugh alongside the gentle chuckle that comes through Din’s helmet.

“Ah, yes. The famous silver ball,” Luke grins. “I hear Grogu thinking about it all the time, I’m happy he’s finally reunited with it.”

Grogu insists on dragging Din around to show his father his favorite places around the Temple’s grounds, and his enthusiasm is catching. Luke trails along, offering commentary that this is the boulder Grogu had managed to lift through the Force two weeks ago, there was the meadow where he’d been able to deflect his first training droid bolt with Luke’s lightsaber, here is the lake where they’ve been watching the tadpoles gradually grow legs. Settling on a log to watch as Grogu chases a pair frogs along the lake’s muddy shoreline, Luke can feel the weight of Din’s thoughts even if he can’t see their exact shape.

“And you don’t worry about that?” Din asks, voice so withdrawn it could almost be mistaken for shy. “All these attachments he’s got going on? The ball and, well, me? You don’t think it’ll get in the way of his training?”

Luke can only shrug.

“I guess it could, but seeing as I talk to my sister and my brother-in-law nearly every other day it would be awfully hypocritical of me to stop Grogu from forming attachments, himself.”

Din is silent at that, considering, as Luke continues on: “I’ve read some of what the Jedi used to believe, and honestly I have no idea if they had the right idea or not. Their way led to the fall of one of their own who in turn brought down the entire Order. Would things have been different if he’d been allowed to love more freely?” He breaks off to watch Grogu, now bored with the frogs, float the silver ball through the air in a lazy curling pattern.

The last afternoon sun catches at the smooth surface and turns the ball gold along the edges.

“I’d like to think it would. So I’m not planning on holding myself away from that sort of love on the off chance that it might actually be the thing that maintains balance in the Force, and I could hardly hold my student to a different standard. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“I see,” Din says and the simple words lay between them in a complicated tangle. “Well, if that's the way of it, then, here: I brought you something, too,” he says at last and reaches back to his belt.

Years of politeness pressed into him by Aunt Beru at the moisture farm have Luke saying “You didn't have to do that” before Din has so much as taken his hand out of his belt’s pouch, which is just as well since the moment he gets a look at what’s in Din’s hand his heart stutters to a halt in his chest so that it can jump into his throat.

“No,” Luke says, eyes wide, while a cold, dawning understanding creeps across his skin and he can only stare at the bounty puck that glints silver in Din’s gloved palm.

“Oh, no,” Luke whispers sickly “What—”

No, no, no. Oh, sweet Force no.

His voice, Luke realizes. He should have known him from his voice. Even if the beskar is different, his voice is still very much the same.

“I can bring you in warm...” Din is saying and Luke can’t hear the rest because he’s blushing so hard now that the blood is landing in his ears, making a high-pitched, tinny whine that drowns out the words he knows by heart because he’s spent the better part of the last few years thinking about them with his hand on his cock.

“You really didn't recognize me?” Din asks when Luke’s hands come up to cover his face, for all the good it does to hide him from the Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian.

Mando.

Din.

Luke laughs helplessly. Horrified. “I wasn't myself on the cruiser,” he whispers at last.

“Yeah no kidding. I didn't realize who you were until you'd left.” Din has clearly had longer to sit with this revelation because he sounds amused, fond even, while Luke is still reeling. “I don’t think I've ever seen you that serious, not even when you were in carbonite.”

“I wasn’t myself,” is all Luke can say again. Din takes pity on him and lets Luke breathe through the worst of it without saying a word, his helmet turned toward Grogu while Luke sorts through the shattered mess this has broken him into.

“You've changed,” Luke says when he starts to feel whole enough to think in such things as words and sentences.

“I’m still tired,” Din says with a huffing laugh.

“Maybe.” Luke feels braver now. He raises his face to look at Din and in the beskar reflection of Din’s helmet Luke can see his cheeks are now only slightly pink. “But not nearly so lonely.”

“Ah. Yeah.” Din concedes with a nod. “I was different, back then. Grogu changed me, I think”

“Yeah,” Luke nods along with him. “Yeah, I think he did.”

Sensing that they are watching him, Grogu toddles back to Din and lifts his arms to be picked up. This time when he gets close enough, Grogu’s hands come to the sides of Din’s helmet. It isn’t a demand, more of a wide-eyed question, and Din doesn’t need the Force to sense what is being asked of him.

Luke hadn’t known, before, that Grogu had never seen Din’s face until that moment on Gideon’s cruiser. He hadn’t known how much that act of quite literally laying himself bare for Grogu had cost Din. Luke knows it now, from all the times he’s seen the flashes of Din go by in Grogu’s memories and he realizes it now, with a rekindling of his blush, from the memory that Din hadn’t removed his helmet in that hour they two had spent in a water-stained room on Tatooine.

“Let me leave the two of you alone,” Luke offers, clambering to his feet, gaze averted.

“It’s okay,” Din says. “You've seen it already.”

“Oh. I mean,” he stammers, staring at the green foliage, the insects that are curling through the dappled oranges of sunset, the ripples of water that skim the surface of the lake... really at anything but Din. “Yeah, I have, but--”

“Unless you'd rather I keep it on.” Din’s voice is different now. Softer, for having taken his helmet off, and the sound of it does something to Luke. It makes him shiver, this transformation from hard-shelled warrior to someone far more human. “Some people have a thing for it and I know how much you liked it on before.”

His eyes are nearly black in the fading day’s light when Luke snaps his face around to meet them. They harbor a glint that Luke stares at suspiciously. “You're teasing me aren't you?”

Somewhere among the rugged stubble on his cheeks and the dark lines of his mustache a smile quirks at the corner of Din’s mouth. “Yeah. I am.”

Luke’s heart beats triple time as he stares at Din’s mouth before letting his gaze skim along the vulnerable curves of Din’s face. Luke’s fingers yearn to stretch the space between them until he can trace the kindness of Din’s expression. He wants so badly to run his fingertips through the fall of Din’s hair where it sticks to the sweaty skin of his forehead.

“Because if you would want to do—you know—that again.” Luke is very aware that there is a child present that is taking in what they are saying with big, green ears and huge, shining eyes. “With or without the helmet. If you’d like to do that again. I would be...you know, I'd like that.”

“Yeah,” Din smiles, and this time it is a true smile, one that stretches across his face, casting a glow that Luke can’t help but reflect back with a hopeful, happy, probably somewhat idiotic grin of his own. “I'd like that too.”

#dinluke #dinluke fic #darkisrising fic

[sugar-petals]

SuperM as Subs

↪ A/N. UGH these guys have me fucking spiraling. very excited to bring you this, please indulge 👀

○ warnings ⚠️ 18+, dom/sub, kinks galore, gender-neutral dom!reader

3.5k words | bullet points | this is all over the place there is so much to say i—

⌈ ten

— motto: kitten has ‘ten’ in it, but so does intense.

wowza honey

best choke out you’ll find

the stamina, too, oh lord. ten can handle a lightning fast riding without blowing up in two minutes

all while you choke him

with a waist harness on and ankles bound

bondage looks so good on him; he’s flexible and enduring. imagine a hogtie... art. 

such a beautiful man.

literally, rope marks, imagine that

we need to talk about his pain threshold as well there

things that have other guys screaming are a mere tickle to him

i can’t emphasize enough how lucky you’ll be. this fella does not have to be trained much. experience? abundant. talent? more than vast. he knows precisely how far he can go with what kind of kink. that is invaluable.

and now, the most mind-blowing part. stress: he encourages you to take it all out on him. in his mind, that’s an extra treat and a promise he gets it raw how he loves it. 

your satisfaction is his fuel, as is seeing you unwind. 

the whole progression from heavy beginnings to breathless ends

the boy needs you to go, for the lack of a better word, buck-wild

so yes, ten is your number one (pun intended) address for all things messy. he asks you to hatefuck him, you spoil him with it.

the sheer masochism of him

are you kidding me

listen i’m not a fan of the sin concept but in this case... you can sin all you want with him

tl;dr: angry sex is his thing. strong emotions. guts will be rearranged.

about the elephant in the room: yeah, this guy can bust some extraterrestrial, dazzling, sexy as hell moves

that means one thing. contortionism. you can bend him into every position you desire and fuck him like that. he’s petite but don’t worry. your babe’s strong

in fact, you can sit on his face and get one ferocious rimming daily

things will get wet wetter wettest

surprise surprise vice versa he likes his own ass filled with plugs and vibrators

the type that buzzes him into a delirium while you slap him. with his neck turning red and those pretty almond eyes going wide. 

they do hold the universe. he’s just so enthralling.

btw. talking about toys. having a fleshlight ready to make him moan and ruin his orgasm is a veeery good idea.

chances are you will draw cute english or thai interjections from him

in return, you can call him your prince and kiss him all over for aftercare. he’s no different, thinking of you as someone figuratively and literally noble to him. he’s thankful you fulfill his greatest sexual dreams. it’s true, you’ll really worship each other.

he’ll do his little mona lisa smile and doze off in your lap...

sub!ten is just priceless okay

10/10

i need a moment

⌈ kai

— motto: local strip club found bankrupt.

oh mY GOD nini

he knows how it’s done

did he go to sub school or something

you’ll find him at the stove around 6:30 AM in his apron

making you breakfast pretty much butt naked otherwise

flustered and sexy butler kim right at your service

looking very sculpted

dancing a little, as usual, he’s getting into it

in other words, you’re sure to get those eggs fried well

now, besides his skimpy clothing and waiter allure

kai as a submissive is almost definite to be an epitome of organization. he’s just good at it. period. lube and protection are always in the house.

you do your part doing maintenance for toys and cracking the occasional whip but really i mean... as the great oh sehun once said... never don’t mind about a thing when jongin gets the chance to put something in order

so lean back — kai is a service sub. he’s the type who wants to break a sweat for you

and have that very visible because he doesn’t own clothes anyway. well, well.

something more about organization

fucking according to a schedule sounds about right

you have it all planned out with a special calendar book just for that purpose

but don’t believe he’ll be boring and hyper-structured beyond that

kai is the precise opposite of dull as a lover but that’s a huge duh

he has both the acute sense of bashful romance and strong erotic feelings that come with a regular eyebrow wiggle

he likes to provoke the wild animal in his partner

reckless abandon

kai is 100% guaranteed to make you let out the beast. he enjoys feeling you go all out and grip him, pin him. everything hands-on is good.

grinding and gyrating is always part of sex. hell, even floating and flying. fuck gravity.

you need a certain level of dexterity. and hey if you don’t, you will pick it up from him in a solid minute

what i’m trying to say is that it won’t happen that the two of you rub against each other in the sheets like two blocks of wood (even when going into aftercare!). it will be fluid, ever-moving, energetic right and left with the mattress creaking all over the damn place

sex with jongin is one thing for sure: fucking fast. he won’t mess up his tempo if you know what i mean. the two of you will be thrusting and moaning until complete fatigue sets in

he whines a lot i’m telling you

it’s the surefire way to know kai is into it, being genuinely vocal is one of his best qualities as a sub

besides handling any rough pace 

this guy will have you sneaking into his gym room and have a quickie on the next best workout bench

and lord knows what else. 

the bathroom is another destination. wet!kai, the yearning romeo, is an image you won’t forget

prepare to get your hands on all of that

he’s gonna melt right into ya

and that is sub!kai for you

⌈ taeyong

— motto: vanilla? hardly heard of her.

to use an nct pun: the options are— limitless.

and another: you’re signed up for a... long flight.

and you’re gonna be the: boss

who gives it to him

and i’m warning you

he’s shy about it but

taeyong is simply insatiable. take his kinky reputation at face value.

what doesn’t he do

the softest softcore (feathers to tease him) to the hardest hardcore (edge play, hallelujah), the whole spectrum without any efforts for transitions

so you guessed it, a normal bedroom really won’t do.

neither does a standard dom

but since you’re knee deep into taeyong — go figure, you’re reading this — news flash you likely aren’t one

plug in all of your toys and cameras for date night. he needs his good dose of lube-dripping fantasy, homemade with a bunch of latex thrown into the mix

yeah i know that will escalate quickly

he wears it well i’m telling you

and also greatly enjoys you donning it for friday evening

it will frustrate him to the max which is a sight to see indeed

no other sub in super m gets harder boners over latex. that’s how it is. he’s just so drawn to the material and how much authority it gives you in particular

noona/oppa kink incarnate

hell, even daddy/mommy

he calls you that when you are forehead to forehead and catching your breath

because man these orgasms are going to get you so high, bodies gently intertwined

and very, very drenched

not just skin-wise

so let me underline this

your dear taeyong, no matter how innocently he can blink at you, gets his daily nutrient intake from cum. 

what fancy-schmancy protein shake is he interested in other than yours like literally none

put him on a leash together with baekhyun and you have two salivating, ultra dirty boys

so ready to please and swallow everything up

taeyong is a handsome handful

you’ll be horny 24/7

or 23/7 maybe because aftercare

where we revert back to adorable yong. he clings to you a lot, you nuzzle him all the time, the affection is off the charts

he’s pouty and sweet, smiling to himself

holding him tight gives him a big sense of security. 

safe to say he wants everybody to know he belongs to you in terms of PDA, too

it’s not restricted to domestic intimacy and sexual aftermath

taeyong truly has the perfect ratio of freaky and soft

god worked hard on him

⌈ lucas

— motto: when bigger is better, things get wetter...

ready for take off are we 

yukhei is one flirty crackhead you’ll love it

teasing will go back and forth

there might even be play fights and wrestling involved. messing around on sofas and carpets, you know the deal. things won’t get too rowdy, he’s being his 6′ baby self and you don’t want to use your whole bag of tricks yet vice versa

lucas eventually lets you win anyways

and acts like he’s lethally injured ffs

he’s an aquarius don’t come for him they roll that way

in comes the patient-doctor roleplay. yep that’s how the story goes

and you sure as hell get to take care of um

luke’s big lightsaber

alright

it’s throbbing a bit too much and needs medicine

so think of yourself as a jedi master training your disciple.

read: edging the living soul out of him. 

rough handjobs are just perfect

as is going on a rodeo trip getting the guy to tame those bucking hips with a lil punishment here and there. and with punishment i mean tickling even when he is close to orgasm

uh-oh

wong yukhei is a cutie pie but he has just about a bucket of cum for you spilling all over the place

he might get a lil embarrassed about it, that’s the sweetest thing

cleaning it up will be his greatest pleasure

so

ready for subby lucas yet?

he’s juicy

so what else do we have... 

(besides that he sounds like harry styles is dubbing him and that voice is going to turn you on so hard)

if his dominant doesn’t have an ounce of a muscle and biting kink that’s, how to put it, a missed opportunity

just licking him and leaving marks everywhere just has to be the biggest feast in history. you have him parade around sleeveless just to see the hickeys on his arms. 

and you don’t have to be frugal. it has to scream mine mine mine. yes, xuxi has some arm sensitivity going on. he needs your mouth on him doing chaotic stuff that leaves his jaw hanging open. to the point of you eating your brunch off his chest and shoulders.

there i said it 

breakfast with yukhei is cancelled. it’s breakfast on yukhei

as for positions: things are usually more chill and standard. just how much missionary will there be, you’ll lose count. he’s good at it. lucas has the condensed passion of ten people, it will be more arousing than you’d think. it’s also a good pause to your usual activities, you both get a chance to um take a breath

if he feels cocky, wong brathei likes to lift you up during sex and here we go again with a staring contest... which ends with a bright smile and kissing 

what did you expect

always remember this one thing. in his big himbo brain only one thought floats around and that. is. his. love. for. you.

a whipped boy

he’s irreplaceable.

patient xuxi reports speedy recovery

⌈ mark

— motto: good boys go to heaven after debuting a couple times more

sirs and sirettes, mark lee.

what did you think the “m” in super m stands for? mario, man, massive, market, model?

nope

SuperMark is what keeps the planet spinning

now here it goes

let’s get one assumption out of the way first

you’d think he fucks how he talks but you’ll be surprised

everything’s slow slow slow

the pace is very casual for someone who raps and thinks that fast

mark is just too friggin’ cute

a blushy cupcake

innocent and always curious what you’re up to

just perfect for all sorts of gentle dominance

you can reassure him when he gets nervous which happens every now and then

and put him into soft sweaters and blankets when he feels cold

maybe even building a pillow fort and just caressing him ad nauseam literally for minutes on end.

tousling his hair would be adorable beyond belief

the same goes for giving him cheesy pet names

or feeding him sweets

you can bet chocolate is his favorite. 

but it’s not just all about pampering him

keen how he is you can expect a lot of gestures of attention from mark, like carefully selected presents and foot massages

there’s a real gentleman at your hands.

a gentlemark

he might have come up with that himself 

you bet there will be lots of humor involved mark just can’t do serious sex

his intellect is yeahhh... superhuman

as much as his heart is squishy for you.

it’s hard out there. this world is tough

but mark is a safe haven to return to and have wholesome hours in bed with

30% sex, 70% aftercare.

you think that’s impossible? look into his puppy eyes and tell me all you’ll do won’t be spooning

it’s an art form and mark is just too inviting not to do a brush stroke on the canvas. 

and after you’re done spooning things are back to more caressing

a smooch left, a smooch right

for the 30% he might need a bit of outside support because his inner perfectionist compels him

so he’ll text johnny at 4:30 in the morning with urgent questions

because his mind is racing and he promised to wake you up with a set of spicy stuff

sex veteran johnny will calmly explain it to mark but also keep it short and simple

because man how early can someone text you 

and mark appreciates a crisp how-to that he won’t forget

even when you are chest to chest feeling each other’s breath and his brain almost shuts down

at the end of the day...

you say hey canada lemme get my hands on those big thighs of yours and ding ding his pants are off. he responds so easily to guidance

and his dancing skill always helps to get groovy with you

so

bust down markiana

you’re that bitch and you know it

⌈ baekhyun

— motto: you and me, relax and ch...oking

leader on the streets 

screamer in the sheets

even the most peace-loving, noise-sensitive neighbors are going to dig the things that come out of his mouth as caused by you

just how good are his lungs

imagine him making audios for you. yes, god is real.

you just hit the lotto

the things his mouth can do 

byun baekhyun is a synonym of oral fixation when will merriam webster admit it

if there’s one person in super m who can nail the picture perfect drooling ahegao face without hesitation it’s him

he will pleasure you with his tongue so vigorously

that level of spit blowing will haunt you

and the slurpi—

THE NOISES. we can’t talk about the noises. nope, nope. the noises are not meant to be described to this world. 

you’ll suffer from incurable lust once you picture it

you know what his voice can cause

that would trigger a mass hysteria

anyway. moving on. 

baeks is the type to appreciate a mix of cheek-on-cheek cuddling and getting his brains banged out

you can toss him around, grab him by the hair, fuck him absolutely stupid

while also kissing his forehead and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. as if he doesn’t want you enough already this will have baekhyun needy for so long

he’s the king of slutty behavior

and making both of you crack up with mid-sex jokes about who knows what, suho’s butt mole or something

he’s just too hilarious. on the other hand he likes being creative and concentrated

in his free time you’ll probably find him reading erotic stories, sketching sexy stuff (i.e., well, you) in a journal, or even a manual to the kamasutra. it gets him all hot and bothered to the point where he can’t stop being chatty about it.

baekhyun’s arousal always first manifests as a wave of words or texts 

your part of the equation is distilling the essence of said texts and getting to work on that perky body of his

and praise him plenty. baekhyun loves a lot of verbal affirmations and you’re glad to shower him with it.

kink-wise: he really has a gazillion ideas to try

costumes, gags, whips, pet play, sounding, collars, semi-clothed sex, cock rings, suspensions, you name it

as the cherry on top, a three- and fourway could be part of your routine for sure. 

that being said he might have a few dicks in him physically or mechanically because geez bacon loves fucking machines and dildos

he is 100% ready to embark on one hell of an anal odyssey

how much he can stretch out you can probably guess. and he’ll make jokes about it either way to turn you on

you’ll be certain to exhaust and stuff your lil’ darling to the brim but i’m telling you what you already know

he’s gonna be the happiest ahegao boy in the world

and throw peace signs when you take pictures of him fucked out

that’s byunbaek for you. one of a kind

a subby gem

⌈ taemin

— motto: 500 points to slytherin! 

this is what you’ve been waiting for i know I KNOW

red carpets out for the sensual sub king and nation’s p.r.e.t.t.y. boy

the international bombshell blonde

a bdsm luminary

DEITY

now, listen. 

some erotic feats are truly hard to execute

but there is always one guy who’s the exception 

and his name is lee taemin

no matter how unrealistic or complex your imagination of sex with him is

with this man, most of it can become real

effortlessly

because he’s a) an open-minded lover b) rich enough to rent ten dungeons — per hour and c) closest to perfection we as a human race have ever come 

taemin is a pro at bringing all kinds of your and his fantasies to life. that’s why it’s important that you sit down to talk about how your intimate encounters could look like every other week

primarily, as far as his taste is concerned

we’ve all heard about his tales of creepypasta romance

literally he’s been an idol for so long and still comes up with new baffling ideal type stories

so according to those

he wants to be run over by you and thinks that’s hot,,, but i say... we stick to flipping him over... like on a bed,,, no car involved

this pal is macabre you have to be an embodiment of the law to rein him in

police roleplay much. arrest this provocateur!

furthermore and on a lighter note

besides being jailed

lo and behold, chained up and decked out in lace, draped on a lip-shaped art sofa is how he feels the most in his element

add a mask and a corset 

just how glamorous is he

this guy has mastered all techniques of drawing you in with the most elaborate seduction. 

tremendous!

including dance: for your eyes only. 

prepare to have your loins set on fire.

because within the 4 walls of your home his every move will be pure danger loaded with sexuality. it would be even more of a public menace than he already is when performed in front of a crowd

keep those handcuffs ready officer

because it is your mission to stop that guy 

the more restraints the better

put five harnesses on him i don’t care as long as it contains him

and once that’s done

taemin likes to be stimulated and teased with you running silk fabric all over his body

he also enjoys you creating artistic pin-up-esque photography of him

with sultry eyes and puckered lips

and no worries. taemin will put his plump lips to good use elsewhere, too. all. over. the. place. servicing his dominant is an honor.

and those moans will be like a melody.

the literal only weak spot he has

is to kiss and tell. taemin gets carried away in conversation and feels pride when the topic switches to you. so... if you lick his earlobe and call him your slave, jongin knows the very next day and finds it very entertaining. 

taemin won’t deliberately spill the beans in a group chat but one-on-one with a close friend? he’s too excited not to talk about your chemistry and lets some juicy details slip if he can’t control himself.

taemin requires a dom/me who’s definitely not insecure and wants others to know who’s boss.

on the flipside, if you enjoy voyeurism? he is your man. it’s a matter of perspective entirely.

so to speak — even his weakness is a strength.

that’s all you need to understand about him

in sum: you got yourself quite an ace 

taem will press your number and you’ll have no sorrow in the world.

we truly are blessed by his existence

peace out

© submissive-bangtan 2017-2019. all rights reserved. do not repost.

#this ended up riddled with song puns #superm #super m #super m smut #super m x reader #sub!superm #super m imagines #super m hc #superm smut #super m crack #sub!super m #sub!taemin #sub!ten #sub!lucas #sub!kai #sub!taeyong #sub!mark #sub!baekhyun #super m memes

[commanderbensolo]

Get Back Down Here And Kiss Me.

A/N: A oneshot requested by my lovely friend and fellow Adam Driver stan @thisisbroganeveobrien​. I made the reader have a commander rank in this just to make it fit a little better. Hope all you lovelies like it :) 

Request:  haha maybe protective Kylo, reader is injured and he has to save them, something along those lines, he's all strong and sexy but a softie for you 👌. 

Pairing: Kylo Ren x Reader 

Warnings: none really, a minor bit of gore (like the tiniest bit), one swear word, fluff  

“Kylo, we’re about to land, you good?” Y/N says to him as she walks towards the cockpit. “Yeah, I’m fine don’t worry.” He replies as he stands up and puts on his helmet and cowl. Clipping your lightsaber to your belt, you follow him to the ramp door of the Command Shuttle and you feel the familiar vibrations of beginning to land. “Remember” came his modulated voice from beside you, “Kill anyone who gets in your way, no matter who they are. Rendezvous back at this point after aquiring what you need. Is that understood, Commander L/N?” Taking a serious position beside him, you pull up the hood of your cape far enough so it conceals your face partially and nod curtly. “Understood Supreme Leader.” You both charge out of the Command Shuttle and head in opposite directions, but not before uttering a small ‘good luck’ to each other before sprinting away. 

You really hated the Forest Moon of Endor, you really did. It was humid, and everything was just forest for miles around. You supposed that it sort of came with the name, but it didn’t mean you had to like it at the same time. Especially the humidity. You didn’t consider yourself to be a vain person or overly concerned with looks, you didn’t have time for that in a job likes yours, but damn you could sure as Force get annoyed when it mucked up your hair for days on end. Tuning into the Force, you tried to figure out where the thing was that you were looking for. Kylo had decided to go on an assignment in order to find an old Sith artefact, one that could apparently help the First Order crush the Resistance once and for all. Even though you were well versed in the history of the Sith and the Jedi, you had forgotten to read up on what it is that you were finding and what it could be used for. All you had been told in debriefing (which literally just consisted of going to Kylo’s quarters at 2 in the morning to look over mission plans) is that it was a scroll of some kind and the language was Galactic Basic, and that it was being held in the forest somewhere. “Well thanks Kylo, fucking everything here is forest, what do you want me to do? Gain x-ray vision?” You muttered to yourself, before gasping as you felt yourself tune in what felt like a very powerful Force signature. Kylo had also told you that this particular object gave off a very dark and powerful energy, so by gauging what you were feeling currently, you guessed you were in the right place. Moving towards where you felt the signal was coming from, you felt a sense of uneasiness, but brushed it off as just feeling the energy from the artefact. You assumed there were no residents on the lush moon (who wants to live in a forest this thick?) apart from the small Ewoks, and you knew for a fact that they wouldn’t be able to hurt you, so you brushed it off and kept on going. That was your big mistake.

You kept following the Force signature as it became stronger and darker, until you found yourself standing in front of what looked like an old bunker-shelter. Turning on your comm and placing it in your ear, you log onto Kylo’s feed. “Kylo, I think I’ve found the place.” You hear a grunt in response, and decide to take that as the go-ahead, knowing he’s probably too busy looking for whatever the hell he needed. He had said that there were two artefacts, so instead of making two journeys, you both just decided that it was easier to split up and meet back at the ship when both artefacts had been acquired. You suddenly felt a sharp ringing in your ears, and scream and swear loudly as you tear the comm roughly from your ear and throw it on the ground. However, the ringing continues, and only later (when you’re stuck in the medbay in critical condition, mind you) that you realise the ringing was the tone of a detonation device, simply the calm before the storm. Sending a flurry of panic through the Force bond to Kylo, you begin to run back into the thick of trees and bushes, only to make it five steps before a loud ‘BOOM!’ goes off behind you and you find yourself flying, hitting the ground with a loud thud. You send a panicked ‘HELP’ to Kylo as you lay there, feeling numb from the explosion, and you pass out with Kylo speaking ‘Please, hold on Y/N’ into your mind.

-----(Later, in the medbay)------

You wake up groggily, eyes opening slowly and blinking to accommodate your eyes to the harsh white light of, what you assumed to be, a room. Realising you were in the medbay, you begin to panic, hearing the heart monitor skyrocket. Suddenly, a large person clad in all black rushes into the room, and its only when he wraps his arms around you and you feel hot tears make their way down your neck that you know who it is. It’s Kylo. “Are you okay Y/N? Please say you’re okay darling.” You stiffen momentarily at the pet name, he usually calls you it when he’s teasing you or joking around, but never in this context before. You admit to yourself that you’ve had feelings for Kylo for a while, but you’ve never admitted it to him before, part of you was too scared because you didn’t want to look like a fool and another part of you was terrified of rejection from him. “Kylo, Kylo, I’m fine, are you okay?” He looks up at you with welling eyes, tears threatening to spill over as he grips you tightly again. “Yes, yes I’m fine, but don’t worry about me. Do you remember anything at all?” You frowned, realising that you only remembered bits and pieces of what had happened on the mission, and even those were little fuzzy around the edges, like they weren’t really yours. “Not really, just bits and pieces, how long have I been out for?”

“You’ve been in a coma for two days, you went into one just after we brought you to the medbay, apparently shrapnel had become embedded in your side and you were losing a lot of blood. The doctors didn’t know if… if you were going to wake up. I thought I was going to fucking lose you Y/N. And that was the worse feeling I’ve ever felt.” You can barely gasp at his confession before his lips are on yours, vying hungrily and passionately for your affection, like he was trying to will you into reality just by his lips alone. And let’s just say, that would certainly work. The kiss slows down into something softer but still equally passionate, and you both break away with the need for air. “Kylo, I do believe you’re starting to go soft, my dear.” You say with a teasing tone, noticing how he tries to hide his smirk at your comment by raising a single eyebrow. “If you tell anyone-“

“Now why would I do that when they would all want a piece of you? I hope you’ve noticed I’m not exactly a fan of sharing over recent years, and I’ll be damned if it’s going to change with you.” You say while laughing, grasping his hand and squeezing it firmly, to let him know that your still here. “Oh really? And what makes you think you do indeed have me Miss L/N?” You smirk at that, and pull him down for another kiss. “I would say, judging the evidence, that you’re clearly mine due to what we just did, hmm?” He smiles against your lips, though pulling away quickly as a doctor enters the room. “Now, Supreme Leader Ren, Commander L/N will have to continue resting so she can heal the contusions which are present on her ribs and arms, but I’m happy to discharge her to her quarters if she is able to go on medical leave for the next couple of days?” He nods firmly to the doctor, indicating that those conditions will be fine, and the doctor smiles as she excuses herself from the room. You smile at Kylo, the strong and fierce man in front of you who can be soft around you only, a side which you are most grateful to see. “What are you staring at?” He says with a smile. “Just you.” You answer honestly, and you’re delightfully surprised to see a pale pink blush spread across his nose and cheeks. “Now, do us both a favour and get back down here and kiss me.” You say with a grin, and he does just that as you both laugh, happy to be in your own little bubble for now.

He may be Supreme Leader Ren, he may rule the First Order with an iron fist, but with you, he was just Kylo. And that’s what made him perfect.

I hope I did your request justice, thank you for requesting this oneshot, it was actually so lovely to write about soft Kylo. 

#soft kylo #kylo ren #kylo ren x reader #fluff #kissing

[ccinagalaxyfaraway]

@exittoyourleft Prompt: Plo getting deaged in the middle of the battlefield (due to Sith artifact shenanigans maybe?) and Wolffe having to take care of this tiny adorable child version of his general. Bonus points for frantic scrambling from the medic to try and jury rig a smaller child-sized mask for him so he doesn't die.

Plo, at the age of 8, had yet to hit his adolescent growth spurt and was much closer to 4’2” than his adult 6’2”. Wolffe has no reason to know this, except that he is at present faced with a squirmy, somewhat moody Kel Dor pre-teen who has been unceremoniously tackled by a full-grown clone trooper medic with a custom rebreather. Said child is drowning in his own robes and gesticulating wildly and indignantly with a lightsaber far too large for his hands, trying and failing to lever Catch off of him with muffled shouting.

Disconcertingly for Wolffe, he is possibly the most adorable thing Wolffe has ever seen. Not least of which because as recently as yesterday he had been plotting to persuade Plo to be wined, dined, and otherwise romanced, but also because they’re actively being shot at and now there’s Force-related bullshit to deal with too. 

“What the fuck,” he says, crouched behind a pile of rubble and staring at his General, whose eyes have narrowed consideringly. “Don’t repeat that.”

“Fuck,” says 8-year-old Plo. Apparently he’d come by his contrarian disposition honestly, though the deep voice apparently took a little longer to develop. He bites down on the rebreather, shoves Catch’s hands away, and starts fiddling with his mask, which had slid off him around the time he had been encased in light. In short order the fit has been adjusted, and he attaches the mask to his face again. 

“Are you hurt, sir?” Catch asks.

“Why are you calling me sir?” Plo asks back. “Why are my robes so big? Why is my lightsaber so big?” 

“Oh ye little gods,” Catch says, as Plo proceeds to ask about their armor, buckets, and faces. “What are we going to do?”

“I have no idea,” says Wolffe. 

- 

The Quartermaster has at least managed to hem a set of blacks for Plo, though they still fit loosely on his lanky frame. He looks very out of place in camp following Wolffe around like a duckling, solemn and quiet now that he’s had a chance to regain his bearings. He hasn’t said anything about boredom or hunger, speaks only when spoken to, and stares at everyone and everything. He is, in fact, more unnerving now than he had been when he’d first been assigned to them with his infinite calm and good mood. 

So Wolffe does the only thing he can think of: he calls Cody. Partly because for the last decade or so, his problem-solving algorithm has ended at “make it Cody’s problem”, but also because whenever Plo calls the Council, General Windu is suspiciously always the person on the receiving end who directs him to conference, and Wolffe is not about to dial the High General himself to say your ad is ad-like again. Cody, besides, has a direct line to General Kenobi, who will make an excellent messenger and second man in the two-man buffer Wolffe is building between himself and the recievers of bad news. 

His comm rings and he activates it absently. He nearly faints when General Windu appears, looking very stern indeed. 

“Commander Wolffe,” says the General.

“General Windu, sir,” says Wolffe weakly, because he doesn’t know what else to say. “How did you get this number? Uh, I mean, how can I help you?”

“Have you seen Plo recently?” General Windu asks. He runs a hand over his very bald head, as though he had hair.

“I was just going to call you about that, actually,” Wolffe lies. “General Koon seems to have been . . . uh.”

“Reverted to chlldhood?” General Windu supplies. “Yes, I know. He just called me asking why he was ‘surrounded by five hundred identical Mandalorians in knock-off beskar’.”

Ouch. Wolffe peers out the tent flap, where Plo is trying to stuff a stolen communicator up his sleeve with minimal success. Apparently General Windu’s comm number hasn’t changed in the last however many decades. He turns back to the hologram.

“Sir, I’m very sorry, but I don’t know what happened,” says Wolffe.

“This really isn’t your fault,” says the General with a sigh. “Has he given any indication of where he is in his training? I don’t want him out there unless he’s at least Padawan-level. I think it goes without saying you won’t be taking orders from him for the duration.”

“No, sir,” says Wolffe. He wouldn’t know where to begin that kind of an assessment, and he’s trained with adult Plo enough to know his General was probably a preternaturally skilled fighter even in his youth. “He hasn’t said much, and we haven’t let him fight. I don’t think I’d want him out here regardless.”

General Windu gives him a knowing look. Wolffe doesn’t like it. “All right. Plo trusts your judgment, and so do I. Commander, may the Force be with you. You’re going to need it.”

Wolffe frowns. “Sir?” he says, meaning what do you know that I don’t?

“Plo . . . mellowed out over the years,” says General Windu. “Good luck. And don’t let him talk you into letting him pilot any aircraft.”

#plo koon #commander wolffe #mace windu #swcw #fic #promptfic #deaged #comedy #exittoyourleft

[yougottalovekyloren]

Until Death Do Us Part (Part 5)

A/N: Ah, at last... the grand finale! I had such a fun ride creating this little series and can’t wait to come up with more little gems like it! Thank you all for reading and leaving such supportive comments! It means the world to me. I’m so glad to have so many new friends to read my stories. :) And, I know I say this incredibly often, but if you’d like to be on the taglist for future updates, please let me know. I will gladly add you to it. :))

-Megs <3

WARNINGS: Angst, Hux being a fucking creep, etc.

TAGLIST: 

@angelias134​

@treblebeth​

-----

Kylo Ren couldn’t even remember how it had all happened. 

One moment, he was staring at the end of General Hux’s gun, and the next, he was out like a light. 

His eyelids slowly fluttered open, an dull throbbing pain igniting from his head. Kylo reached up and touched his head, pulling his hand away to find it speckled with scarlet drops of blood.

The rest of his body, however, remained unharmed.  The traitorous red-haired weasel had only hit him over the head with the gun, nothing more.  But it was too early to celebrate. 

Kylo’s heart nearly stopped as his gaze fell onto the bed that his wife had just been in, seeing only empty sheets and the number of wires that had been connected to her.  

Machines had been pushed over, wires tangled, and trays spewed across the normally organized floor of the room.  Y/N hadn’t left here without a fight.  For a moment, a surge of pride filled Kylo’s veins, but it was quickly replaced with a icy cold wave of fear at what Hux could’ve possibly done to her in the moments that Kylo had been unconscious. 

Ignoring the increased throbbing of his head as he began to move, Kylo rose to his feet and walked towards the door of the med bay. Two Stormtroopers were walking down the hallway and froze when they saw their Supreme Leader standing there without his helmet, blood slowly trickling down the side of his head. 

“You two.” Kylo barked, and without hesitation, they came to stand in front of him. “Sound the alarm. Start looking for General Hux, and make sure he’s still on board. He has a hostage with him.” 

“Who is the hostage, Supreme Leader?” 

“My wife.” 

----

“Let me go.” 

“You’re not in the position here to give me orders, My Lady.” Hux’s grip tightened on my arm as I struggled to move away from him within the small confines of the closet we were hiding in. “At least, not in your condition”

I whimpered slightly as I feel his hand move closer to my bandaged wound, almost in warning of what he would do if I acted in any way other than what pleased him.  He had done it once, resulting in a yelp from me. I didn’t dare challenge it again.  I remained silent, and could only watch through the small window as Stormtroopers marched past, oblivious to what was happening in the closet only feet from them. 

After a few moments of waiting, the Stormtroopers had finally marched away, and the hallway was silent once more. 

“Open the door.” his hand returned to my arm, gripping it tightly.

With shaky fingers, I forced the door open and stepped in the hallway, my gaze moving back and forth, silently praying that someone, anyone, would walk down the hallway. 

“Start walking, girl.” Hux’s lips brushed against my ear, and I shifted uncomfortably at the feeling, quickly beginning to walk forward and away from him. 

“You won’t get away with this. “ I muttered, as he began to practically yank me down different passages, searching for Force knows what. “Kylo will find you... and once he does-” 

“If Ren ever catches our trail, it’ll be too late for him.” Hux reached a door and began to type into a keypad.  “By then, we’ll-”

An alarm cut off whatever sentence was bound to follow, and I couldn’t help the smile on my lips, knowing that Ben was already searching for us. And once he found us... Hux would wish that he had never been born. 

I turned and gave the red-haired man a snarky smile. 

“You were saying?” 

The sharp, painful force of a slap caused my head to whip to the side, a small curse leaving my lips at the pain. 

“I suggest you learn to silence your tongue... if you are to ever be my Empress.”  He snarled before the door opened and he yanked me through forcefully. 

I nearly recoiled at his words, nothing but negative thoughts running through my mind at his words. “I will never be your Empress. And you will never be the Supreme Leader. “

I watched, in slight amusement, as his face began to change shades,  from a pasty white to a burnt pink and finally to a furious purple.   He opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of Stormtroopers running down the hall caused his mouth to fall closed. 

We continued our way down the halls, and my heart dropped as I realized we were approaching the Escape Pods.  He had finally found his escape route. 

As we entered the room, Hux shut and locked it securely, keeping whoever was rapidly approaching from entering. 

Hux furiously began to type into the keypad to one of the pods, his handless arm wrapped tightly around my waist to keep me in place, despite my struggle. My eyes lit up with hope as I heard voices speaking rapidly outside, quickly trying to figure out how to open the door.  

Hux’s eyes widened with panic and quickly typed faster, his grip growing even tighter and pressing against my wound. 

Eventually, the door that separated Hux and I from whoever waited outside finally opened, and we both whirled around to see three Stormtroopers enter, their guns raised with their fingers on the trigger. My heart nearly leapt from my chest as I saw the tall, dark figure of my husband enter behind them. 

His head was bleeding slightly, coming from the nasty hit that Hux gave him with his gun. But the rest of him was unscathed. Kylo’s eyes were burning with anger, but deep in them, I could see the finger that lingered within. 

“Ben...” my voice cracked, and his eyes softened as they met mine. 

Hux pulled me against his body tightly, and I yelped as the pressure increased once more against my bandages.  Kylo’s eyes darkened once more as they focused on my captor. 

“Let her go, and I’ll consider giving you a quick death. “ 

“You are in no position to demand things of me, Ren.” A bitter laugh left the red-haired man’s lips, and a few moments later, I heard the familiar buzz of my husband’s lightsaber. 

My breathing grew increasingly faster, and my eyes began to well with tears as Hux raised the lightsaber, the blade only inches from my throat. I watched as the look on Kylo’s face turned into one of uncertainty and panic, knowing that one wrong word would end your life right in front of his eyes. 

“I love you.”  I whispered, as the tears slowly began to fall from my eyes and my fear beginning to paralyze my body.

“So... here’s what’s going to happen.” Hux smirked, feeling a wave of pride at seeing how distraught Kylo had become. “I’m going to take this escape pod... I’m going to take your wife.... and we are going to go on a little trip together. If you try to follow us, the next time that you see her, she will be in pieces. With the work of this very fine lightsaber of yours.” 

My bottom lip began to tremble as I saw Kylo try his hardest to hold back his tears, knowing that the threat that Hux was making was indeed very real.  I felt myself repeat the same three words that I had spoken before, knowing that this may be the last time I ever get to speak them to his face. 

“I thought that taking both of your lives would be the ending that I needed.” Hux  smiled cruel at Kylo. “But it turns out, keeping your wife for myself, and making you suffer is much better than giving you both a quick-”

His words were cut off as a blaster shot went directly through his head, his body immediately slumping towards the ground, the lightsaber falling to the floor with him. 

I stood, paralyzed in shock, as I watched Hux collapse, his body eventually coated in his own blood.  Two hands grabbed my shoulders and my gaze moved to rest on my husbands face. 

“Oh God.” 

His arms gently wrapped around me, and I did the same, hugging him as if I would never see him again. 

My tears began to seep into the material of his shirt, as I felt his own begin to soak my own.  Eventually, I pulled away and kissed him gently on the lips, which he returned passionately. 

We broke away and turned to see Captain Phasma standing at the entrance of the Escape Pod, her blaster in hand. 

“How did-” 

“Hux wasn’t stupid enough to use the fighter ships. I knew he’d come here first.”  Her voice was clipped and she shook her head as she stared at his body. “What a monster he was.” 

Kylo turned back to me, his eyebrows furrowing as he saw the blood beginning to soak through my bandages. “Did he hurt you?” 

“Hit me in the side a few times... and in the face.” I winced lightly as he wrapped his arm around me, beginning to lead me towards the door. “But I’ll be fine.” 

“Let’s get you to the med bay.”  without another word, I felt him sweep me off my feet and into his arms. 

“Ben, I’m fine. I can walk.” 

“I’m not risking it.... I’m not risking anything with you again. That was far too close.”  His voice was small, almost afraid to show anymore vulnerability than he had so far. 

I gently cupped his face, and his gaze focused on me. 

“I’m not going anywhere.” I smiled softly, and his own smile began to form on his face. 

“Good. Because I’m not either.” 

-----

A/N 2: Okay, the ending was kinda mehhh, but what did you guys think? :))Have a good day!

#kylo ren #kyloren #kylo ren imagine #kylo ren fanfiction #Kylo #kylo ren x reader #kylorenxyou #kylo ren x you #bensolo #ben #ben solo imagine #ben solo #ben solo x reader #ben solo fanfiction #ben solo x you

[shadow-assassin-blix]

It’s A Gray Area

CHAPTER 8

Finished the last episode 9 finally and moving on to more fun stuff. Um. Slight near death experience. Some Smut. Not very detailed but tis there. Some fluff. Secrets revealed. I am still yeeting canon out the door because I can. 

Everything tag: @mikeisthricedeceased​ 

When they finally returned to Ajon Kloss, she told Poe, “Make sure no one makes our newbie uncomfortable until I return?” As she ran out of the Falcon.

Blix ran toward the med-bay, where Leia was resting on one of the beds, while Ben sat next to her.

“Hi! Okay. Let’s… let’s check things out,” She said trying to catch her breath.

She moved quickly over to Leia and began running scans. Minutes later she was looking over the results and was cautiously happy with what she saw.

“Okay. Okay. Well. Good news, your brain is brightly colored again, and I see no dying areas here,” She reported as she presented them.

“And the bad news?” Ben asked warily.

“Not bad news per se. I don’t know if these effects will last is the main issue. I don’t want you working at all. You are on a stress-free lifestyle indefinitely, Princess Leia. I don’t want anything to aggravate your symptoms. Let’s not… Let’s not waste Luke’s sacrifice to save his beloved sister,” She explained with a sad sigh.

Leia nodded her head understandingly, while Ben looked away clenching his jaw briefly.

“Also… may have turned a baby Sith to our side, no big deal. She’s going to help us find Palpatine and defeat him. I suspect he has some nasty surprises for us in store,” Blix explained, before turning to Ben. “What do ya say? Ready to go fight one last battle?”

Ben nodded his head, determination in his eyes.

“Alright, let’s go work out a plan. Amber, make sure our esteemed patient here, doesn’t move an inch,” She commanded giving Leia a pointed look.

Blix and Ben made their way into the command center, where everyone was discussing the best path to Exegol.

They had a solid plan within an hour, the thing was… they didn’t have the manpower. What they truly needed was the Republic to take up arms and join them, but fear ran deep.

They geared up, and every squadron was given orders to head out. Blix who had her lightsabers and was making sure Rey, Ben, and Maeve were ready, looked around trying to find Poe.

When she did, she spotted him by his X-Wing in his flight gear. She walked over to him after telling them to head to the Falcon, which was going to lead the pack.

“Hey.” She greets watching him get BB-8 ready.

He looked up and said, “Hi. What’s up babe?”

She quietly hugs him, and whispered, “Stay safe Flyboy. You’re not allowed to die remember that.”

He gave a soft chuckle as he hugged her back, “Same to you, Consular.”

She snorted slightly at the title, almost regretting telling him about the Jedi Order.

She presses a quick kiss to his lips, gives BB-8 a pat on his head and moves over to the Falcon.

Soon enough, they were on their way. It was about an hour later when they came to a field of red clouds and lightning. It was a struggle to navigate through for everyone.

When they broke through, what they saw made them all gasp. There was a fleet of Xyston-Star Destroyers before them.

“Finn, set us down and we’ll make our way to Sidious. Stay safe yeah? I still got a lot to teach you, so don’t you dare die,” She warned him as they landed.

“Yes ma’am,” He responded with a laugh.

The four of them made their way down to the platform. Once on it, they were confronted with the Knights of Ren.

“Maeve, Rey, go on ahead. Ben and I will catch up,” Blix ordered, taking her stance with both lightsabers in hand, twirling them.

Ben took out his and stood back-to-back with her. He gave a shrug that reminded her of Han, and she shook her head. The knights surrounded them, and they braced themselves.

One knight to her right, lunged for her and she parried with ease. It didn’t take the two of them very long to defeat the knights together. Once they were all down, they ran forward to catch up to the girls. When they did, they spotted Maeve lying on the ground, and Rey was on her knees trying to catch her breath.

Ben rushed forward to help, and Blix moved to join him but was stopped…. She felt something was off… with Poe.

She reached out to him… her mind racing to find him in the chaos above. When she does, she can see and hear the defeat in his voice.

‘Hey, Flyboy aren’t you always telling me to have hope? Where’s that undying flame?’ She asked him in his mind.

He bit his lip worried, and thought, ‘I don’t know what to d-‘

His thought was caught off as Lando Carlrissian’s voice came over on comms, telling him they weren’t alone.

Blix felt the arrival of hundreds of ships and she broke the line off, cheering him on.

She refocused on the situation at hand and noted that Ben was checking on Maeve, as Rey continued to fight her grandfather. Blix rushed forward as Palpatine sent a bolt of lightning toward Rey. She blocked it with her sabers, pushing it back.

The burst ended quickly and as she gave a twirl of her sabers, Palpatine noted, “Ahh. The Kenobi. Yes. You indeed look just like your grandfather. Think of the power you’d have if you joined the dark side.”

“Thanks, and like my grandfather, I don’t give a fuck. Take your proposition and shove it,” She snarled at him.

He frowned deeply at her, and growled, “Same insolence just like him too. I’ll enjoy killing you.”

He sent wave after wave of lightning bolts at her; she blocked each one as quickly as she could. He snarled before changing his tactic. He sent a bolt directly at Ben and Maeve, who had no way of defending themselves quickly enough. Blix ran forward and dove in front of them taking the bolt.

She gasped hard as the lightning surged through her and her limbs locked. Her vision went black as Rey stood up suddenly. Her mind was numb, and she felt pain just radiating throughout her body. Her eyes clenched shut and when she opened them, she was someplace different.

She was in a temple; she could see large city outside the windows. ’Coruscant?’

“Yes. This is the Jedi Temple in Coruscant. Or at least… when it still existed,” She heard her grandfather’s voice.

She sat up looking at him, confused.

“…am I dead?” She asked slightly panicked.

“No. Not yet. You got very close though,” He informed her as he helped her up.

She looked around, noticing that more and more Jedis were appearing around her.

“She did it. She summoned all of you,” She whispered amazed.

“It wasn’t just her. It was you as well. You are going to be an amazing teacher. If you continue on this course, we feel you will bring the balance back and return the Jedi Order back to its former glory,” Anakin informed her.

“Mh. Former glory? How about… a better version? Because… no offense but… there were many reasons why the Order fell way back when. But I will do my best,” She commented.

Qui-Gon chuckled softly at her, “This is why we think you will do well. You will make an excellent Consular.”

“We will be here for you, just like Rey. May the Force be with you, my dearest,” Her grandfather tells her, pressing a small kiss to her forehead.

They all slowly disappeared along with the room. Her vision was dark, and she eventually came to, looking at 3 very concerned faces hovering over her.

“…Hi. That sucked. Don’t get struck by lightning,” She groaned as she fully awakened.

She heard 3 sighs of relief, and some hands trying to help lift her up into a sitting position. Her head hurt but it was not too terrible. Her chest ached as she breathed; it felt a bit like her ribs were bruised.

“Let’s get out of this hellhole,” She requested gingerly standing up.

Ben wrapped an arm around her, keeping her steady as they walked.

Palpatine was dead. The First Order had been defeated. A ship had landed down near them and picked them up, taking them back to Ajon Kloss.

A medic droid checked over ribs, spritzing some Bacta spray onto them to help begin the healing process.

By the time they had landed, her ribs only lightly ached and she was able to walk without assistance. They looked around through the cheering crowd, trying to find Poe and Finn.

Rey spotted them first, sprinting to them. Ben spotted his mother and rushed over to her. Maeve stood nearby Blix, smiling softly at everyone. One of the other pilots, enthusiastically picked her up, cheering. She laughed at Maeve’s look of surprise.

Blix looked around and moved toward her three favorite people. Poe sees her first and pulls her into a kiss that she gladly returned.

He broke away only to hug her; Finn and Rey joining in. BB-8 beeped and chirped happily at their feet, rolling around in circles.

“We did it!” Blix cheered as they pulled away slightly.

The celebrations went well into the night, with every planet contacting them to send thanks and congrats.

The next day, while still in cheerful moods, they planned their next moves which was to get rid of the last of the Empire’s strongholds.

This process took several weeks to carry out, and while that was done with Poe and Finn in command, Blix continued her training with Rey, Ben, and Maeve. Maeve had gotten a new lightsaber, one that glowed bright orange but was “Infinitely cooler than her old one” as she said.

Her and Poe discussed what had happened within her nightmares and figured their best plan was to go see if there were any clues within her mother’s belongings back on Naboo. However, they had a hard time planning a few days to do so.

In fact, they hardly got to see each other much over the past few weeks. One day, she was working in the med-bay, training some new hires, when Poe walked in. She smiled brightly at him, but quickly scanned him with her eyes to make sure he was okay. She finished up her talk with the newbies and walked over to him.

“Hi. Are you okay?” She checked first just to be sure.

“Yeah. I’m okay honey. In fact… I hate to do this but…” Poe said in a mockingly sad tone.

She looked at him confused until he leaned down to lift her up, throwing her over his shoulder. She shook her head at the ridiculousness, ignoring the whistles and catcalls that were thrown their way as he walked. He stopped, and as she heard a small beep, he began walking again, into his room she swiftly identified.

He sets her down into a chair at his kitchen table, where she sees dinner was laid out before her. Poe lit the candles that he had placed and handed her a red rose.

She takes it with a smile, “Poe… what is all this?”

“This… is us making time for us. I haven’t seen my girl in a few weeks and it’s honestly quite upsetting,” He tells her matter-of-factly.

They eat, telling each other about their day’s and enjoying each other’s company.

“So, I hear you’ve been learning how to take care of BB-8?” Poe asked with a smile.

“Yeah. My padawans are pretty well versed and are good about training themselves. The med-bay keeps getting new nurses, droids, and I’ve even hired a few new doctors to help ease up the duties for me. So, I’ve been trying to learn skills. Bee is one of the most important things to you, so I want to make sure he is in top shape when he goes out with you,” Blix explained somewhat embarrassed.

“Thank you. He’s… he really adores you. Can’t get him to shut up about you,” Poe states even though BB-8 beeped from his charging station that Poe was just as bad.

Blix chuckled at them as they playfully argued.

“I guess it’s a good thing I love you both then,” Blix tells them, cutting them off.

Poe looked at her shocked.

“I’m sorry…. say that again?” He requested as he moved around to kneel before her.

“I love you,” She confirmed looking down at him.

He leans up, capturing her lips with his. She slowly stands up along with him, still kissing.

“Bee. Go to bed yeah?” She ordered between kisses.

She hears him beep, saying we were being gross anyway, before he powered down.

Poe slowly pulled away and after taking a deep breath, stated, “I love you. So much.”

The next few minutes was a flurry of clothes flying everywhere and stumbling blindly to the bed. When they eventually got on the bed, they stopped, breathes heavy, and stared at each other for a moment.

Blix bit her lip, mischievously, and flipped them over. She smiled at Poe’s look of surprise and enjoyed watching it morph into a look of pleasure as she took him in and began to ride him. Her control didn’t last long, as Poe sat up, thrusting in time with her movements.

They were so desperate for one another that it didn’t take long for either of them to reach their peaks. They came down from their highs, pulling away from one another slowly. When they were able to move again, they both cleaned themselves up, before returning to the bed.

She laid down on his chest with a soft sigh. She slowly fell asleep laying there; Poe laid there for a few moments… He gently slipped off his necklace, taking the ring off. He slipped it on to her ring finger on her left hand, happy that it fit nicely. He pulled it off, putting it back on the chain, before gingerly clipping it around her neck.

He fell asleep with a smile.

The next morning, Blix woke up feeling rested, and happy. She got up, stretching, snatching one of Poe’s shirts and slipping it on. She quietly cleaned up the mess from last night. It was as she was moving that she notice something was on her neck. Her hand reached up to figure out what it was, finding a chain. She followed it to the weight and gasped when she saw it.

His mother’s ring. She bit her lip softly, gazing at the ring with awe. She didn’t notice Poe sitting up and watching her fondly. He cleared his throat, and she jumped slightly as she turned to him.

She walked back over to him, straddling his hips, kissing him.

“Does this mean what I think this means?” She inquired as she sat there.

“Yeah. I want to marry you. I’m… hoping you feel the same way?” He was hesitant.

She looked down at the ring and said, “Yeah. Yeah. I wanna marry you.”

She took off the ring that he gave her on their first date, the pretty pink opal one, and moved it to her left hand.

“I think this one makes a good engagement ring, don’t you? Then you can put this one on me when we get hitch,” She explained tapping on each ring.

“Sounds like a damn good plan. I didn’t get to tell you last night, but I have some time off for the next 2 to 3 weeks. Finn and Leia, on light duty, are going to take over to give me a break. Figured we could use that time to get things done,” He offered with a smirk.

“Sounds good to me. When do we leave?” She asked excited.

“I was thinking around noon. Gives us time to get packed and give out orders. Then we get the Falcon and head out with Bee. Rey will probably join us,” He thought out loud.

She nodded her head getting up again, to finish cleaning up. Poe packed up a bag, and hopped into the refresher to clean up, and got dressed. Once he was done, she got in the refresher as well, and got dressed. She ran over to her room to pack a bag of her stuff; making sure to get her proper credentials and such for when they arrived in Naboo.

Blix met back up with Poe, once that was done, and they waited on each other as they gave out orders for the next few weeks, and to contact them if anything came up.

When they walked up to the Falcon, Rey was waiting for them, BB-8 nearby and chirping happily. The trip to Naboo would take about 3 hours so, they got on board and took off.

Blix directed Poe to where he should land when they arrived, having to give her credential codes to the guards that were still posted at her mother’s home. When they were cleared, they set the Falcon down on the landing pad and Blix stepped off first, greeting the staff that had gathered there.

Poe and Rey stared at the house before them in shock. It was a large and grand home, that was surrounded by beautiful gardens.

Blix looked back at them, wondering why they weren’t with her.

“What?” She asked looking at their shocked faces.

“I… forgot that you were an ambassador’s daughter. Not gonna lie,” Poe answered as he moved forward with Rey.

Blix made a small ‘oh’ as she looked around, somewhat sheepishly.

“Yeah… Sorry. Is this too much?” She examined looking around, rubbing the back of her neck.

“This is where you grew up? Why would you ever leave here?” Rey questioned rushing forward, her eyes wide as she took everything in.

Blix laughed at her reaction, shaking her head. Poe sidled up next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“So… when you said there was room for your students and our kids, you literally meant… a school and our own squadron. With room for more,” Poe noted with a nod of his head.

She just smiled in response and led the 2 of them forward.

“Dax. Where did my mother’s personal journals wind up?” She asked an older gentleman as they walked inside.

“They went into storage in one of the spare bedrooms,” Dax explained showing her to said room.

“Thank you,” She said as she opened the door and revealed a room that had several boxes stacked on top of one another.

It took a few minutes, moving aside and rearranging boxes to get to the ones marked as journals and photos. They dragged them forward and began to open them up.

The three of them began to read through and look through the photos together. They spent 2 hours going through them before Rey gasped.

“Oh. Ohmy.” She handed some photos over to Blix.

Blix looked at them seeing her mom, at a base she couldn’t recognize. Her arms were wrapped around a man, who was dark haired, and from the side profile of the first picture, he was scruffy. She looked at the next couple of photos and saw a man who had dark eyes and didn’t appear to smile very often.

In fact, the only photo she found of him smiling, was one where he was looking directly at the camera but at her mother, with a deep fondness.

“Ma did always say I got my too serious attitude from him. I can see why,” She mumbled looking at him, as she gnawed on her bottom lip for a moment.

“He was very handsome,” Rey complimented with a smile.

“Yeah. He was. She calls him Cass in these passages,” Blix noted gesturing toward the journal in her lap. “Apparently… they weren’t… exclusive.”

“Ooh. Intriguing. Cass? Like. Captain Cassian Andor?” Poe questioned looking over shoulder.

Blix shrugged not really knowing who that was.

She continued reading long after Poe and Rey retreated to go eat. Her mother tended to be sporadic when she wrote. Either she would write for days or there would be several months gap between entries.

She seemed to stop writing around completely around the time Blix was 5. Her last entry was expressing pride over a podrace Blix had won.

“She did so well today. She was so excited to win. I wish you were here Cass. You would’ve loved it. I know this isn’t the way either of us expected life to go, but I feel you would’ve been so proud of her.”

She remembered that race, it was a smaller race, but it was her first win. It was done on Tattooine and she was aware of the gangs that were there to watch. Her competitors were Huttese gangsters and she wasn’t going to let them intimidate her.

When she won, she was congratulated by Bib Fortuna himself and it was terrifying. She was trying to not let her nerve show, waiting for her mother to appear, to rescue her. When she did, she remembered her mother looking proud but there was a sadness in her eyes that she never could explain.

This entry explained that.

She set the journal down, staring off into the distance. She was vaguely aware of Poe coming back in and urging her to follow him. He dragged her to the dining room, where dinner was being served and she sat down at the table.

She quietly ate thinking about everything, more questions racing around her mind.

They eventually went to bed, and she struggled to sleep. She tossed around a few times, before Poe eventually draped himself over her, to settle her movements. She fell into a fitful sleep in his arms.

The next morning after they woke up and got ready, they were having breakfast when the doorbell rang. Dax came to her a few minutes later.

“Miss Kenobi. Maureen Holdo is here,” He informed her.

“Maker. What? Does she have this place bugged?” Blix muttered annoyed, stabbing her eggs.

“As far as we are aware, no,” Dax answered with a hint of a smile.

They heard the clicking of heels coming toward them, and a moment later, an older woman with white hair, and a gaunt face appeared.

“Hello Maureen,” Blix greeted dully, taking a bite of her food.

“Stop taking such large bites and sit up straight. I know I taught you better,” Maureen said in a snobbish tone.

Blix rolled her eyes, “I am an adult. You are not my mother. I can do what I want.”

Maureen pursed her lips.

“What brings you back here, Blix dear?” Maureen asked in a tone that stated she didn’t approve.

She looked over her companions with a twinge of disgust she failed to hide.

“Just needed to look at some of mom’s stuff. That’s it. You can go now, Maureen,” She dismissed getting irritated.

“You’re not even going to tell me about your engagement? I can see the ring from here, not blind yet,” Maureen stated, looking expectantly.

“General Poe Dameron of the Resistance. Formerly Captain of the Navy for the Republic. Now. Get. Out.” She demanded standing up facing her.

Dax stepped forward and began to usher Maureen out of the house.

“Tell me when you start to plan the wedding, I’ll send you samples!” She called out as she was urged out.

“That’s Amilyn’s mother? Really?” Rey asked staring in disbelief.

“We…. Are not letting her anywhere near our wedding plans. She didn’t even greet us. Looked at us like we were something foul. I see why you don’t like her,” Poe remarked with a frown.

“Let’s.. just get the journals and such and get out of here. Lock up everything so she can’t get back in,” She grumbled abandoning her food.

“Dax. Please make sure that woman does not have access to any of the rooms in the house. I don’t trust her,” She requested as Dax re-entered the dining room.

Dax nodded telling her it was already being done.

They grabbed the 3 boxes of journals and photos and took them to the Falcon. Poe insisted that they go see his father on Yavin 4.

They were there within an hour. As the Falcon landed, Blix noticed an older man who looked a great deal like Poe, but with greying hair and prominent laugh lines. She suddenly felt nervous as they stepped off and made their way to him.

“Blix. This is my father Kes Dameron. Dad. This is the love my life. This is also Rey, our kid sister,” Poe introduced proudly.

The first thing Kes seemed to notice was the necklace she wore. He glanced between the two of them, a smile growing on his face.

“So, this is my future daughter-in-law that I’ve heard so much about? I was beginning to wonder if you were real, he talked about you so much before you started dating,” Kes spoke bringing her into a hug.

She wasn’t expecting it, but she slowly returned it with a shy smile.

“He’s told me a lot about you and his mom. I wish I could’ve met her. I feel like we would’ve gotten along really well,” Blix said nervously.

“Oh yeah. She would’ve laughed at the hard time you gave him,” Kes laughed leading them onward.

He led them to a small, quaint home that was somewhat away from the nearby town, hidden by the forest around them.

They spent some time telling stories about battles and such. Rey had many questions and Kes answered them with enthusiasm. Blix who was curled up next to Poe on the couch, realized something that she decided to ask Kes once they were alone.

Rey slowly nodded off in her chair, and Poe quietly walked over to her and picked her. He took her to one of the spare bedrooms.

While he was doing that, Blix asked, “Kes… Did you… did you know my mother? Willow Kenobi?”

“Yes. I did. She was sweet lady. Wiz at technology, though she never liked to brag about it,” Kes answered after thinking for a moment.

“Did… Was… Did you know anyone named Cass?” She finally asked trying to phrase it properly.

“Cassian. Yeah. She was in love with him. Only problem was Cassian was in love with the Rebellion. He lived and breathed it. He did care for your mom a great deal, but… he wasn’t one to talk about feelings,” Kes explained with a half shrug. “Why do you ask?”

“I… I think he might be my father? I’m not… not sure. I was shown…visions… of a great deal of things. None of which made sense. Scarif being one of them. I know it’s highly improbable that anyone could still be alive… but… but I have to check,” She rambled slightly, fiddling with her shirt nervously.

“Mh. Makes sense. She wasn’t really one to sleep around. She only had eyes for him. This is clearly important to you. So, find your answers. Just know they might not be what you’re expecting,” He cautioned, patting her knee comfortingly.

She nodded in response, and followed Poe to their room, when he returned, wishing Kes a good night.

They spent a few days there, getting to know one another, and making some plans for the wedding. Poe was excited and happy to see his father, and she could tell that when they were leaving, it made him sad. He was trying his best to hide it though.

They stood outside the Falcon, and Blix offered, “So… When we finally figure out where we want to live and such, you are perfectly allowed to visit as often as you’d like.”

“Ooh. I may take you up on that and you may regret it slightly,” Kes said in a teasing voice.

Poe looked at her appreciatively and kissed the side of her head.

“Unless we stay at your mom’s home in Naboo. Turn it into a school for Force-sensitive kids,” Poe stated, before mumbling “Have a squadron of our own kids.”

Blix smiled, feeling her cheeks turn red as Kes laughed and Rey snickered at them.

They said their goodbyes and hopped on board the Falcon. It was going to take a few hours to reach what was left of Scarif. She wasn’t sure what they were going to find there. She simply knew… she had to check it out.

#poe dameron x oc #poe dameron #star wars au

[norcumii]

some musings on TCW season 7

One of the things that makes Tumblr difficult is that I really, REALLY don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. I don’t want to be that person who sails in, sneers disdainfully at what people are enjoying, and then ambling out, having sucked as much joy out of the room as possible.

My brother used to do that about ANYTHING I was watching, and I still resent it. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

Meanwhile, I’ve reached my saturation point with Season 7 of clone wars, and in my own tired, perpetually exhausted way, I want to scream. Thus, kvetching under the cut. In all seriousness, if you’re enjoying Season 7, then please, PLEASE skip this rant. I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy and Season 7 continues to entertain.

I haven’t watched it: I’m practicing that much self care, at least. There’s been lots of meta and gifsets running around, so I’ve gotten enough second hand exposure – along with useful meandering through various wikis and such – that I feel able to comment about it.

It is indeed very cinematic, and I guess if you dig the art style, then it is a very good example of said art style. But from a broadstrokes perspective, the writing?

What an absolute screaming dumpsterfire.

The thing that finally pushed me from “meh” to “nope, gotta rant about this” was a fascinating piece of meta here, about how Maul is the prism character – the lens through which the story is told. Now, that’s my phrasing and not the OP’s, and again, I haven’t actually seen this so I’m taking a lot of things at face value.

It’s a fascinating approach, and makes the angst and despair that much sharper – especially if you apply this post about parallels to RotS, and let’s not forget the very impressive mocap for the lightsaber fight.

My question, however, is why the FUCK would you do that in the first place? (Not the mocap. That’s genuinely impressive.)

First off: you’re putting the audience in the same boat with the villain. Your lens character is the one who frames the story, who puts into perspective how one interprets events. In this case, that implies that what Ahsoka, Rex, and the rest of the clones are doing is in the antagonist's position, which might be part of the whole “nothing is true and nothing is false but everything is fucked” atmosphere that they seem to be trying to foster (see: Ahsoka’s arguments with Obi-Wan. GFFA has some good breakdowns as far as I can tell). So Maul is supposed to be the lynchpin of this story, either as the protagonist or the Sancho Panza to the protagonist.

That’s a damn weird take on this particular story. Is it about Mandalore? Is it about Ahsoka’s journey? Is it about Maul’s journey? Or are we trying for something meta about how it’s how Maul and Ahsoka’s journeys parallel each other’s, and how those contrast with Anakin’s?

Have you noticed yet who’s missing from this equation?

For a show that’s called “The Clone Wars,” there’s been astonishingly little clones involved in the broader plot. So let’s take a step back from this one issue and look at the season as a whole.

There’s been ten episodes so far this season, out of twelve total. Six of them have centered around Ahsoka. The other four have been about Rex and the Bad Batch. Now, let’s set aside the whole very valid debate about having so many female centric characters and stories is grand, and we need lots more. That’s a damn good point, and Star Wars as a whole needs better diversity on all fronts. Not the particular lens I’m looking through at the moment.

There’s been four of ten episodes about clones. In the final season of The Clone Wars. Yes, they show up in other episodes, but that’s not the focus.

Why would you do that?? We got five seasons already where the clones are more background noise with the occasional highlight (The Deserter, the Umbara Arc), and the entire freakin’ war has been named after them. Ok, so maybe that’s to some degree social commentary about how the Republic was viewing them – background noise against which the weird mythical Jedi shit really stood out – and the sixth season was more a hodgepodge of “we have THESE episodes nearly in the can, rush to finish them because this is important shit to get out the door to bridge from this series to the movies.”

They didn’t expect to have the chance to make this season. They could’ve done pretty much anything, since they didn’t even default to just using the episodes that WERE 70% done (if not more) and had been released into the wild as animatics.

So why pick these stories to tell? And moreover, why this way? Why not make the last hurrah that the crew could not have expected be something coherent and about the actual people that the damned show is named for?

Let’s play with hypotheticals, since kvetching without reasonable alternatives is considered uncouth these days. Let’s say one wants the Bad Batch “rescuing Echo” arc (and that it’s not agony porn. To be fair, I’m not sure if it IS agony porn, thus the presumption that it’s an arc to be had). Since we already spent SIX ENTIRE SEASONS beating home the point that clones are individuals and to be respected as such, rather than introducing new clones who are “aberrations” just to drive home hey, they’re clone versions of TF2 characters clone versions of terrible action movie heroes individuals, how about this?

Cody calls in the Bad Batch, a squad that gets sent into the worst situations and honestly, isn’t ever really expected to come out alive. They’re bad clones, you see. Their leader is probably a man named Dogma – he’s a Jedi killer, but damn loyal to the Republic. His second in command – not that either of them are happy about that – is Slick, a Brother Killer and all around asshole. The other two members of the squad are two deserters: Cut Lawquane, who was found and brought back to the army, and Boil, who was caught trying to leave after Umbara. They have a civilian support member, Suu Lawquane (a damn good sniper, and she now has armor as well as actual clothes).

Bring so many of Rex’s issues home to roost. Make that poor man question all his life choices. He’s still reeling from the whole chip arc and Fives’ death. Let him see what the Grand Army does with its too loyal soldiers, how Dogma did the right thing against orders and is now leading others into the meat grinder on the daily. Let him see what the Grand Army does to traitors, like Slick whose hands are red with the blood of his brothers – just like Rex’s, after Umbara. Cut, who left after too much death, and built a life. Boil, who lost so much, who had enough and just wanted to go find the one remnant of good things that he’d ever encountered in his short life.

They’ve got slave explosive implants somewhere – three because they’re flight risks, Dogma because – well, no one can say why, but it’s so. Let Slick shove Anakin’s nose into the fact that the Jedi are still leading a slave army, have Anakin have to confront that it’s not hyperbole anymore, not when the clones have chips in their heads and now these have slave implants they literally don’t know where.

Hell, have Anakin blow up at Cody over this, and perhaps Cody has to pull rank – establish on screen that he’s running so much of this damn war. He doesn’t like what’s been done with the Bad Batch either, but he can only put out so many fires, and keeping this from raging out of control is the best he can manage.

Let the audience see consequences. Let there be fallout as they go searching for Echo, and the Bad Batch’s various past issues bounce against the experiences of Rex and whoever’s along with him.

(For that matter, if you still want to tackle Mandalore and all that, have one of the soldiers going along with be Vaughn – get to know the man for a little bit. See how Random!Clone reacts to all this, not just Jesse and Kix. Someone without the history with any of these men. While we’re at it, Dogma had Kix in the firing line against Jesse. GIVE ME THE REACTIONS, DAMMIT! AND! And does Rex ever have to say to Dogma “you did the right thing, that Jedi needed to die”? How much does that blow EITHER of their minds?)

Show us travel time. Show us what it’s like for a bunch of soldiers to be stuck in a tin can flying through space along with an entire penal squad of brothers who spit in the face of what the GAR stands for – for reasons both good and bad. Show us what the years have done to Dogma and Slick, how Cut and Suu have adjusted from a life of growing things to having to murder things. How Boil just is done, and wants to head to Ryloth (hey, maybe Numa is currently living with her new sibs/cousins/friends/arch-rivals Shaeeah and Jek).

Then add poor Echo into that mix. Echo, who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing anymore, who was in the Citadel, then stuck in a nightmare of battle sims, and now in this new nightmare of a war that dragged on even longer – and no Fives.

Let us grieve along with him. Fives got a four episode arc (gee, I wonder why this season wanted to start with a four episode arc dealing with the last Domino >_>) where he fell, let us watch Echo’s rise and how he deals with all this.

Let him decide he wants to leave some of the more painful memories behind, how he can’t stay with Rex because it hurts too much, but at least now he’s got some fellow exiles to watch over.

Let the last we see of him be Echo using his new abilities to dismantle both the insidious little buzzing chip inside his and his team’s heads, along with the explosives they also have to bear. Fives died because of the chip, let Echo help others to live in spite of it.

Then slide the camera focus from Rex to Vaughn. Perhaps he gets assigned to go find the former Commander Tano (did he know her at all? Or had he just heard about her?). We could follow him across Coruscant, meeting various civilians who had Strange Encounters with that nice young Togruta. Maybe we get a fun montage: Vaughn questioning people, their various reactions, possibly as a nice voiceover to What Really Happened – that also gives a grand opportunity to get people’s impressions of the Jedi and their clone lackeys.

Then off to Mandalore, still from Vaughn’s perspective. Let us watch this poor man’s rise, as he has to be the metaphorical third wheel to The Team’s reunion. He’s the poor uncomfortable bastard in the room, but he’s a good man, loyal and skilled.

(Also, why could we not get the clones receiving patches or decals of Ahsoka’s markings, and play with that? Emphasize the clones’ individuality – some have it on their shoulder bells, some did the helmets, some have the design down the arm, along the leg – just...diversify, dammit!)

Have Vaughn keep up with Ashoka all the way through to the fight with Maul. Have him be hit, have him be disarmed for the fight – all he can do is witness it (for that matter, you can echo the Duel of the Fates, with Vaughn being in Qui-Gon’s position of dying on the floor).

Then let us see Order 66 from the clones’ perspectives. Show us the sieges, show us Bly and his squad following Aayla into the woods; show us Wolffe and the pack separating from Plo; show us Fox patrolling the Senate.

We’ve seen the Jedi die already. Show us the other side, if you insist on breaking our hearts, and show us how the clones go from good men to good soldiers.

Let me see Cody, let me see the aftermath on Utapau. Let me see Rex breaking, or refusing to break, or whatever it is that happens.

Let this season be about clones.

#star wars #season 7 #critical commentary #sass and murder show #the clone wars #character analysis #thinky thoughts #inappropriate feels about clones #meta #long post is long #writing #useless screaming #spoilers #SO MANY SPOILERS #just venting

[abdicatedarchive]

Sleepover at Chase’s || Wren, Chase, Jonah, Jesse, Stevie

The boys (Stevie included) have a sleepover at Chase’s. 

@chrysolites @jessekxller

Chase: Chase had pulled out a few air mattresses and put out a bunch of wine and mixed drink stuff plus snacks for the boys. He had facemasks in the bathroom, but he was going to wait until everyone was drunk to bring that up. He heard a knock at the door, "It's open!" he called out.

Jesse: Jesse was nervous for the sleep over, he had never really done one, he had slept over at Liv's, but that was different. Jesse opened the door with a smile. "Hey!" He said talking in. His one goal of the night was to be the one that didn't sleep. The boys couldn't find out about his night terrors. "Melissa sent me with some snacks."

Jonah: Jonah hadn't been feeling too great in general and it seemed like it was starting to become pretty obvious so he was glad to have this sleepover as some kind of distraction. He smiled at Chase as he walked into his friend's place. "Hey." 

Stevie: Stevie also came along shortly after with decorative baggies that her parents made for her friends. What goobers. "So I also got snacks... but my parents made these so like, maybe don't eat them. They might not be great."

Wren: Wren came in and plopped down on the couch and let out a sigh, "sorry boys, I was in the car texting my girlfriend" he said with a cocky smile. Wren was just so happy.

Chase: Chase greeted his friends excitedly, "Thanks for coming everbody, and thanks for all the extra snacks. We're eating good tonight" said the boy with a big smile on his face. "Should we play something?" he asked.

Jesse: Jesse playfully rolled his eyes. "No need to brag. There are singles in the room" He said as he looked over at Chase. "Yes, I'm ready to pig out." He said as he plopped down on the couch

Chase: Chase put his arm around Jonah, "Dude I am so glad you're here" said Chase, making sure to carve out some good time for his buddy. "I was worried you wouldn't make it" he added.

Stevie: Stevie went in to give Wren a high five, "I'm happy for you, man." she said with a big smile. "Right in time for the holidays too. It'll be a fun Chrismukkah for you." she nodded her head, proud that she remembered the lil name. "Here, pig out on this." Stevie smiled sarcastically at Jesse as she handed him the shitty vegan treats. 

Jonah: Jonah smiled at Chase, "Of course I'd make it. If we're playing any kind of video games, I needed to be here to kick your ass in person." he jokingly said. They were both evenly matched when it came to the games.

Chase: "Oh ho ho" said Chase with a laugh, "You're on my terf now. You better bring your A game" he said with a smile, it would be a fair fight no matter what.

Jesse: Jesse caught what Stevie tossed his way. "Oh!... look at that. My IBS is acting up. Can't eat this." He said tossing it over to Wren. "For you, my king."

Wren: "Vegan treats?" said Wren with a smile, "Tell your mom I love her" he said to Stevie as he put them down anyways. He would eat them if it came to it.

Jonah: "I always do, Chasé." Jonah said in the accent, laughing afterwards. "So what are we playing first? Unless you meant games as in truth or dare?" he asked as more of a joke, but knowing Chase, that could definitely be a possibility. 

Stevie: Stevie frowned when the baggies started hopping around. "You guys are gonna take them and you don't have to eat them but I will tell my parents you loved them."

Wren: "What would we even ask in a game of truth or dare" said Wren to the group, "I feel like we already know everything. Unless one of you guys is harboring a secret child" Wren laughed.

Chase was SWEATING.

Jesse: Jesse looked over at Chases alcohol collection. "Why don't we play a drinking game?" He suggested. "Guys, Its me. I fathers a illegitiment child. I've been hiding him from you this whole time." He said playfully.

Chase: "Yeah let's play a drinking game" said Chase, acting as normal as possible. God, this was too much for him.

Jesse: "You got a deck of cards?" Jesse asked moving over to the locked closet with hidden baby stuff. "Do you keep them in here?"

Chase: "That's the Hale's storage. I have no idea what they keep in there" said Chase passing Jesse and grabbing cards from his room. "Got a specialty deck right here, it's dr. who themed" said the boy as he put the cards out on the table, "What should we play?"

Jonah: Jonah laughed, "That's actually where he keeps his secret child." he said, just trying to play along with the joke. A fool, indeed. "I'm up for a drinking game though."

Chase: Chase laughed along with everyone, his heart racing. He did not enjoy this joke at all. Fuck Wren Bishop and his mun. "Kings cup?" he suggested, grabbing a beer for the middle.

Jesse: "Ah, the Hales can't even give you your own complete space." He said with a laugh. "Maybe he does jo," Jesse knocked on the door. "Secret child, are you okay in there?" He smiled. "Kings up sounds great. Love that game.

Stevie: Stevie nodded in agreement, "Sounds good to me." she said with a smile.

- They played Kings Cup - 

Jesse: Jesse put a card under the tab, it was getting pretty full and the can was to bust any second. As he slipped it under, the can busted so had to remove the cards and chug. Luckliy the game was a sucess and they were all pretty drunk now. Jesse finished off the can and looked around now that the game was over. "Brosssss, that was so much fun! I feel amazing." The boy said with a slight slurr to his words

Jonah: Jonah wasn't very used to drinking, but he did every once in a while at the parties. "It was fun. I need to have more often." he said, his words slurring. 

Stevie: Stevie leaned back with a big smile on her face, "Dude I feel fucking great too. This is just what I needed, what we all needed am I right?" she asked looking around at everyone in the room. "Shit has been getting stressful and we deserve a good time."

Jesse: Jesse laid back on the floor before he started laughing for like a minute straight. “Jo jos drunk” he said as he pointed over to his twin. “Steeves we all did need this. I love a good de stresser. And getting to hang with the boys”

Wren: Wren was sitting and texting Chanel like a whipped piece of garbage, "Hm?" he said looking up to process that Jesse had just said Jo Jos drunk. Wren let out a laugh, "I'm just glad we can have a nice drama free night" said the boy drinking a little bit of water.

Chase: Chase went to his room and grabbed two lightsabers and threw one to Jonah in the living room, "You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now . . . until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy" said Chase holding up the saber to fight Jonah.

Jesse: "wrenny boy, you look to sober, drink more." JEsse sid moving closer to the boy. His attention was distracted by the lighsabers. "I am so videoing this" He said with a laugh as he took out his phoneNovember 29, 2020

Jonah: Jonah caught the lightsaber and smiled at Chase. He knew what the fuck was up. "Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new Empire." he got up and walked towards Chase, holding the lightsaber up before they began to duel.

Chase: Chase was smiling such a goofy smile, "Your new Empire?" he said as he waited for the next response. After that he replied, "Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic ... to DEMOCRACY" he said as they were dueling. It was an epic battle, and Chase was laughing so hard from all the alcohol in his body and how much fun he was having. He hadn't had fun like this in so long. The democracy line was also his favorite.

Jesse: Jesse continued to laugh as he watched the boys battle, getting it all on video. Though he was nver a big star wars fan, he had seen one or two of them before, not enough to really understand what they were saying. "Wack him with the glowing stick!"

Wren: Wren smacked the back of Jesse's head, "It's the final battle from Revenge of the Sith" said Wren, "and those are light sabers you fucking nerf herder", ashamed that Jesse was the way he is.

Jesse: Jesse shook his head. "Yall assume I was allowed to watch tv while being trapped in the dungeons of hell, I mean foster care? Funny." Though not every house was bad, there was competition for the tv remote at times and a lot of kids, when there even was a tv

Wren: "Damn debbie downer" said Wren a little drunk, he took another swig from the liquor bottle, "We're planning a movie marathon next" he added.

Jesse: Jesse downed his beer and stood up on the couch. "I'll show you what it was like." He said before letting out a laugh as he leaped onto Wren, tackling him to the floor. "Wrestle!"

Stevie: Stevie picked up Jesse's phone and continued filming all the battles. "Take his top off!" she yelled as a joke, as she started laughing.

Wren: After a few minutes of wrestling, Wren got Jesse into a headlock, "Dude I did wrestling back in Cali" said Wren letting him go.

Jesse: Jesse and wren went fo a few minuted till it seemed that Jesse was at his witts end with a big loss. Jesse tapped on the floor as Wren let him go. "Did you wear the man leotard?" He asked with a laugh.

Jonah: Jonah tried holding in his laugh, "Don't make me kill you." he said with enough passion. And the Oscar goes to... "If you're not with me, you're my enemy." he stated as he continued the light saber fight.

Chase: The scene continued and they played through the whole battle. "It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground" said Chase as he stood on the couch, Jonah on the ground. He pretended to cut his limbs off and yelled, "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."

Wren: Saphira came out of Chase's room and Wren scooped her up immediately, "For your information, yes. But there is no photo evidence sorry" Wren said with a smile as he started petting the cat. He sat back down on the couch and was just petting her, "Saphira, I'm gonna steal you" he whispered to the cat.

Jesse: "What? Not a single photo? What a shame those leotards make you look hung." He said with a laugh. "Awe thats a cute cat." JEsse said but didn't get any closer

Jonah: "Shit, give me one second." Jonah said, breaking character. He sat on the floor and placed the lightsaber beside him before pulling his arms into his shirt so it looked like he had no arms. He moved from side to side as the sleeves on his shirt flapped around, cause no arms. Then he got back into character and acted as if he was screaming.

Chase: Chase was cackling at how funny this all was, they had done this seriously once before. But it was most definitely better drunk. "Somebody got all of that on video right?" he asked the room, finally looking around. "And how are we feeling ... about some shots? ... and maybe some face masks?" Chase joked, well let's be very clear. Chase was not joking about any of it.

#wrenxchase #chasexwren #wrenxjonah #wrenxstevie #wrenxjesse #chasexjonah #chasexstevie #chasexjesse

[saibh29]

Underground (Part 2)

Pairing: Kelly Severide x Reader

Warnings: Possibly a lot… buried, swearing, break up, anger, trauma

AN: Enjoy my angst fest

PART ONE 

*****

The groaning had stopped again and although it wasn’t silence as such the ceiling was at least no longer falling down on top of your heads.

Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended, because your legs were still trapped and now your torso was as well with Kelly’s heavy body pinning you down.

Why wasn’t he moving?

“Kelly” you shook his shoulder “Kelly wake up. Please god wake up”

For what felt like forever he didn’t wake, he didn’t move or answer you in anyway. Finally though, he groaned, rolling off of you and freeing up your lungs to take a decent sized breath.

“Are you ok?” you asked him.

“Never better” he had more blood coming from somewhere on his head and was panting a little.

“Let me look at your head” you said “Your bleeding from somewhere I need to find where” taking the phone off of him and pointing the torch light at the new injury to his skull you gently parted his hair until you found the source of the bleeding. “That’s deep. We need to put something over it, stop more dust and crap getting in. You don’t want an infection”

“Y/N I'm fine. I don’t need…”

“Shut up Severide. Let me help you”

You were wearing the remains of a $3500 dress; it did not have pockets and god knew where your handbag had gone. With a definite lack of other options you ripped the pocket off of a still complaining Kelly’s shirt. Folding it then placing it over the bleed on his head. You ended up using a few bobby pins from your hair to pin it in place. It wasn’t perfect by a long shot but it would do for now.

“Is it going to do that again?” you asked him. “The moving around and trying to crush us? Well, crush us more”

“The foundations, they aren’t stable” Kelly was back to using the torch light to study the stones above you both. “We need to try and support that one”

You followed the torch to the slab he meant. You knew practically nothing about buildings and structural safety, that slab did look like it was a pivot for quite a few of the surrounding debris though.

“Well apart from moral support I don’t think I'm going to be much help”

Kelly bumped your shoulder with his own before carefully making his way to the large slab he’d been talking about.

You laid yourself back, trying to open up your chest and lungs a little.

You were starting to realise that even with Kelly no longer laying across your chest you still weren’t feeling like you could breath properly. You were becoming light headed and everything was starting to spin faintly.

There were 2 obvious options for why this could be: You’d done internal damage to your lungs and ribs meaning you weren’t managing to get enough oxygen or the small chamber you’d been trapped together in was airtight and you were running out of oxygen.

Since you had been breathing just fine before the last rumble you were going to say the second option was much more likely and wasn’t that just a terrifying thought.

“Y/N” Kelly was back, sat by your head, his hand going to your hair and brushing it away from your face. “You doing ok sweetheart?”

“Are you struggling to breath?” you’d never been one to beat around the bush. Neither had Kelly, it was why the two of you were friends in the first place. You didn’t take shit from the other one.

When Kelly didn’t answer you for a moment it gave you the answer without him having to speak. He was, and that meant your 2nd option was now pretty much the only option.

“So, suffocation is looking more likely than being crushed to death. Wonderful”

“We aren’t going to die Y/N, how many times do I have to tell you?”

“Well that may be true, after all I'm too pretty to die down here Kelly Severide, so you better get doing your job and finding us a way out of here”

“You did look fucking sexy in that dress”

“I know” you sighed “$3500 ruined”

“You paid $3500 for a dress?” Kelly sounded outraged “why the fuck would you do that?”

“It looks good”

“You’d look good in a sack and I promise you darling one of those wouldn’t cost 3500 dollars”

“be careful Kelly, that was almost a compliment”

He smiled a little at that, flicking your forehead with his index finger. “stay here, I'm going to see what else is around here”

“funny… stay here. You’re a funny guy Kelly Severide. Funny funny guy”

 You were still fuming over the general inadequacy of men when Kelly got to your apartment, happily letting himself in and going straight to your fridge for a bottle of beer.

“Oh sure, help yourself. Your best friend just got her heart broken but ignore her for the beer by all means”

He leant against the fridge, eyes going from your still bare feet to the top of your head. “You don’t look heartbroken and I highly doubt that fucker Y/B/N had the power to break anything”

“Men fucking suck” you grabbed the beer out of his hand and downed it yourself. “A text message Kelly! How dickless do you have to be to do that to someone?”

“hey” he took the bottle off of you and gripping your chin raised your face up “You crying?”

“No”

“Those are definitely tears”

“Fuck you”

Kelly used the pad of his thumbs to wipe away what were indeed tears trailing down your cheeks. “One thing I know for sure is that the dickless wonder does not deserve your tears”

“I told you, I'm not crying”

He smiled at that and leant down to kiss your forehead. “Where’s my suit. I can’t show up to this thing like this, not when you look like that”

“Be careful Kelly that was almost a compliment” you pointed to the sofa where you’d already dumped the shirt and suit that Kelly had left in your wardrobe.

He went into the bathroom to change leaving you stood in your kitchen, leaning against the counters as you stared at your phone.

It looked so harmless but inside it a text message that had really shaken you more than you would have liked rested.

Kelly was right, maybe he hadn’t broken your heart. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell though.

****

@lifesaclimb-buttheviewisgreat  @lclb13 @moli1497   @clementines-x @the-chosen-one-time-lord @no-other-names-availible-blog @angelaiswriting @selldraug @angryares @thenovarose @georgiagrl1990 @mindofthescattered  @dontstopxx @iamabeautifulperson18 @madelinecraig03 @ka-x-in @mesmericbell  @weirdpotato-14 @putinontheritzz @soulslaststand @fuckthatfeeling  @ember1201 @morganlb23 @tomhopperarms  @fakingintrest @artprincessbree  @dreamer-lover-laughter @artprincessbree @rime-warrior @captainvaneswife @kapolisradomthoughts @thingsandstuffienjoy @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @aya-fay  @itsbubbaog @hp-hogwartsexpress @emmykinzs @thatbadassunicorn @sassywingednightmare @weirdnewbie @goyawriter @shipperfangirling @nathaliabakes @stillreadingfantasy @waywardblueshun @give-jack-a-lightsaber @shipatheart @itsdesiree86 @coffeebooksandfandom​  @smoothdogsgirl​

#chicago fire #one chicago #chicago fire x you #chicago fire x imagine #chicago fire x fanfic #kelly severide #kelly severide x you #kelly severide x reader #kelly severide x imagine #kelly severide x fanfic #severide #severide x you #severide x reader #severide x fanfic #severide x imagine #imagine #fanfic #reader #insert #oc #ocf

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 7)

CW: mass execution

TL;DR Recap: Niner & Omega watch the Separatists murder Hokan’s old militia. Etain and Darman meet and it’s incredibly awkward. Hokan takes time to gloat. The truth finally comes out about Atin.

Beginning Kal Count: 10 Ending Kal Count: 12 (or 12.5)

THIS RECAP IS THE LONGEST YET. Everything seems to happen in this chapter.

So we open with Niner being bored, Fi being Fi, and Atin being cheerful because he’s up to his elbows in electronic guts. The scene starts pretty quiet before a massive tonal change, but it’s honestly the front half that’s my favorite, just for character reasons.

Niner is bored and grumpy, so logically he’s thinking about how to revise the training manual. Plus his little “if one precaution was good, two were better.” Good old Niner.  Fi being amused that Atin is made content by shredding a computer to pieces. I don’t know, it’s just the little things about their dynamic that makes me happy.

Niner is still upset with Atin, but he’s also curious. He doesn’t have long to think about it though, because the Separatist troops assigned to Uthan along with some of the battle droids assigned to the planet start approaching Hokan’s old Weequay militia. The squad watches as the Separatist officer and the droids proceed to murder every single one of Hokan’s old “associates” in visual range with no warning then retreat back to their base, which Niner finds understandably worrying. 

We switch then to Etain, who is frustrated and paranoid and is building herself an emergency exist by loosening the boards in the back wall of the barn where Jinart has been hiding her. She’s yet again frustrated that she can’t do more with her Force powers, and her lack of self-esteem really comes out in full measure.

“She wondered why Jedi blood had bothered to manifest itself in someone who was so fallible.” Sweetheart...

Jinart arrives to take her somewhere and lets Etain finally feel her presence in the Force. But when Etain mistakes Jinart for a Jedi and asks why Jinart didn’t tell her what she was... Jinart tells Etain to shut up.

“And given your competence, I’m the one who’s most at risk. Now, silence.”

Okay, listen, if you could give her even like three seconds of genuine explanation rather than just attacking her for not trusting you after her teacher was literally sold out and then tortured to death, then you wouldn’t need to tell her to STFU. I’m just saying, Jinart.

Anyway, Jinart tells Etain that there’s a soldier waiting up ahead for her, so Etain heads in that direction, despite Jinart still being extremely shady. She’s about to meet Darman, and while I love them both dearly, while this ship is my OTP, it’s... really fucking awkward.

Listen. This is just weird as hell, okay? I’m gonna admit it. I also pretend it ... wasn’t written like this. Because while Darman is naive and inexperienced, he still has enough neurological development (and enough experiences that go beyond the pale of normal adulthood even) that this weird framing of him as “childlike” just comes off creepy. So I ignore it. That’s really all I have to say about it.

Etain feels Darman’s scope or his attention through the scope or whatever, and decides “well, I’m going to fuck someone up before I die, if I can”, which to be fair, is a very Etain thing to do.

Darman sees her lighstaber is like “oh, finally a Jedi”, and tries to greet her politely. Except this is Etain, who really has no idea what the fuck is going on except that she’s been on this planet for three or more months, the only person she trusted was murdered, and there’s an evil Mandalorian somewhere who wants to hurt her badly.

So naturally when her vision clears (Darman blinded her with some kind of light), she see his helmet, assumes Jinart’s shadiness was in fact the prelude to a betrayal and that this is Hokan...

Darman getting worried now:

And Etain being Etain,she launches herself at him.  (ง'̀-'́)ง(ง'̀-'́)ง(ง'̀-'́)ง

It... doesn’t go well. Darman deflects most of her attacks pretty easily and literally dumps her in the river, continuing to try and calm her down to no avail, but she’s reached her breaking point and is pretty much in a blind rage.

“and when she was frightened and desperate and angry that was very hard indeed. She hadn’t know it until now.”

Listen, it’s a very un-Jedi-like but very Etain thing to do, and also who can really blame her given what she thought was happening and the kind of time she’s had on this planet so far. But Darman is exasperated, and I’m pretty Etain was embarrassed looking back at this for the remainder of her very short life.

Anyway, Darman finally manages to calm her down enough to let him talk, and in the process, he tries to smooth things over by taking the blame. He didn’t identify himself, it’s his fault, etc. He introduces himself (with the wrong designation- KT uses CC 1136, which would make him a Commander, rather than RC 1136) but in doing so, he uses terms of ranks, confusing the hell out of her. She asks when they got a Grand Army and-

We get the iconic “handing her back her lightsaber from the river” scene, except the official art for that picture always neglects to depict the fact that as gentlemanly as he’s trying to be, she’s dripping wet with her hair plastered in her face and desperately trying to politely ask her not to either get herself shot or go after him with a lightsaber again.

Instead of “meet cute” it’s more of a “meet extremely awkward”.

Anyway, this is all coming on the heels of several really bad months for Etain and the utter dismissal she just got from Jinart, so her insecurity really comes out in this conversation. It’s not really pretty.

(Side note, for once I do have to give KT some points on effectively carrying a tiny world building thing: Dar was embarrassed when Jusik asked for his name, he’s embarrassed that Etain is doing it now, and he’s going to be embarrassed again when she asks the rest of his squad.)

“talking army gibberish” lmao.

Again, self-esteem issues. But to be honest, as embarrassed as I am for Etain in this scene (she really doesn’t give her best here) it’s probably because I can relate a hell of a lot to her emotions?

Like, imagine. You’ve already got major issues with your self-worth from a lifetime of not being good enough for the people and the system that raised you, you just got dragged by an old woman after months of struggling behind enemy lines, you failed in your mission to protect the one person who gave a shit about you, and some (to your knowledge) regular human just successfully took you down without too much struggle when Jedi are supposed to be more than human, the best of the best. Then he turns to you with wide-eyed confidence and insists you are now his commanding officer, and you almost feel worse because he’s trying to absolve you of any fault. 

I’d be kind of prickly and asshole-ish, too, if I’m honest.

Again, we start with her having trouble with some wounded pride. But... we end on that bomb shell, and I would not blame Etain for short-circuiting at being told a 10 year old had been “bred to serve [her]. It’s a hell of a lot.

Anyway, I’m aware I copied and pasted almost the entire scene, but there’s a lot there, okay? But next comes more Hokan, and he’s basically just gloating that he’s now more powerful than Ankkit.

*long, exasperated sigh*

Listen, I could write a college essay about characterization just focusing on this man’s use of the word decadent, holy fuck. Also, the gloating is “vulgar” but all he does for pretty much his entire appearance in this chapter is gloat.

You know who Hokan would have gotten on with? Vizsla. Wait- no. Even Vizsla kicked him out. Anyway, Hokan finishes gloating and then goes off to murder a farmer for not divulging important information quickly enough/trying to trade it for booze.

This chapter is long and I know I’ve made this post really long, but we cut back to Niner and Fi again. They’ve made their way to one of the rendezvous points, only to find the trees that should be there aren’t. Fi eventually guesses that they’ve been logging and makes a disparaging comment about intel. Niner gives a little bit more exposition on how terrible the Kaminoans were, including a rumor about clones with impaired eyesight who disappeared and a comment about how Jedi giving orders is different from Kaminoans because Kaminoans are the only things he fears.

Fi is sighing, and eventually Niner prods at him:

And we get our biggest Kal Count yet. Technically this is one continuing remembrance, but it’s also long as hell and includes lots of little memories, so I almost want to include it as 1.5 towards our Kal Count, bringing us to a total of 11 (or 11.5). I’m way more interested in their conversation before Kal is brought up than after, honestly. But the reminiscing gets broken up when Omega is suddenly shot at by a few Separatist officers and a bunch of battle droids:

Please, please imagine this moment with the cartoon B1 battle droid voices from The Clone Wars. Please, I’m begging you.

Atin saves Niner’s life, which is honestly the most positive thing that has happened between the two of them so far and marks a turning point for them in general. It’s also the first time we get to see Fi jump in as squad medic, but he’s super efficient about it. Also, he snarks at Atin as he’s actively trying to decide if Atin is dying or not:

Niner offers to carry Atin’s pack for him until he’s doing better, which means he’s probably carrying something like 300 lbs now, even if Atin did save his life. And I know my screenshots for this post have been ridiculously long, but Niner finally, finally reconciles with Atin enough to figure out why Atin has been an asshole about Darman this whole time (minus the Vau thing):

It’s a pretty nice closing line to the scene, honestly. Also, technically speaking our Kal Count just jumped to 12.

I’ll spare you most of the closing scene because it’s just Hokan being pissed and thinking it’s impossible clones could have done this, but:

a) Mandalorian. Honor. Complex. You’d think Mandalore the Ultimate had been in charge for the last few years instead of Jango.

b) seriously. What is it with the word “decadent”??????

But it’s over quickly with Hokan making the wry observation that if he didn’t know better he would think he was being haunted by Jango’s ghost.

#Rev Recaps RepComm #Republic Commando #Hard Contact #Etain Tur-Mukan #Darman Skirata #Niner Skirata #Atin Skirata #Fi Skirata #Ghez Hokan

[kyberphilosopher]

Chapter Three

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

 The reinforcements arrived in multiple ships just big enough to fit one person each. It was pretty clear they were designed for epic battles in the air instead of shooting down one specific target on a rotten sand planet. However, they decided on the latter.

 I recognize the model right away. On Bracca, most of the pieces we took apart went right back into making the Tie-Fighters. I wonder if one of the three that comes my way is a ship that I helped put together. Wouldn’t that be… well, it wouldn’t be funny. Now that I think about it.

 I can’t see them in the night of Jakku, but I can hear them. They fly with sounds of electricity and musical whirs that I actually rather enjoy. The irony.

 So, as I listen to the oncoming ships screaming at me, realize the definite internal bleeding in my stomach, and come to the conclusion that one of the muscles in my leg is on fire, I know I need to run the other way. Perhaps I can lose them in the sand and find a ship port. From there I can steal a ship and go somewhere even deeper in the middle of nowhere.

 I turn on my heel and sprint as fast as I can through the earth, the lightsaber in my hand humming with every movement. There’s no point in turning the green beacon off, I know full well they can see me in the dark with the fancy equipment in their ships. If they’re going to shoot at me- which they’re about to do, of course- I need to have my weapon at the ready.

 Maybe I can hide in the old Republic Ship? No, no I won’t make it. I need the sand dunes for cover.

 I can hear the ships come closer behind me. Craning my head over my shoulder while running, I can see the ships not only look like sideways 8’s, but have formed a sort of arrow- the one in the middle being the closest to me. I can make out three total, one on each side.

 Oh Maker, my stomach is in so much pain. If I make it out of this (don’t worry, I do) I will never hurt my stomach again (promise broken).

 I feel the middle fighter fire shots at me before they even emerge. Instinctively, I duck my head with panic as if that will do something. The whirring whiz of blasters come out in green streaks that hits the sand beside me.

 While the first initial shots may miss me, they continue to come out rapidly and too quickly enough for me to totally evade. They’re getting closer and closer- far too close for my liking. Note to self- the Empire’s ships focus on fast paced shots rather than accuracy. Their weapons must be automatic instead of semi-automatic as well.

 Turning my whole body but still moving slightly backwards, I raise my lightsaber in front of my face. The shots reflect off it and after 3 are bounced off, they catch the ship back and one of the ‘wings’ erupts into flames. It knocks into the sand and rolls along the ground, barely missing crashing against the fighter to the left of it.

 I turn my attention to the continuation of sprinting away from my immediate death. Although I’ve just taken one out, the treat feels so much more real than it did before. Luckily, there’s a steep dip in the waves of sand that I can slide down and lose the remaining Tie-Fighters in for a moment. Indeed, after I slip downhill, they whiz past me about two seconds later. They’ll turn around momentarily I’m sure, and when they do I need to be out of the low ground.

 I bend my knees and spring into the air, flipping until my toes land in the sand above. One of the fighters has circled around in the sky- it shoots at me from above. I raise the saber again, angling it with my shoulders tensed. I manage to block the first shots and they reflect back to the ship, hitting it pretty cleanly. Flames erupt again from the side and a trail of smoke falls behind the decaying flight of the fighter. I’m proud of myself for a moment.

 It seems, however, that the pilot is still very much alive and intends to take me out with him. The ship begins to come down- aimed at me. I swear I can see the pilot inside tear off his oxygen mask and smirk.

 I hold the hand with my lightsaber out, effectively stopping the ship mid-flight. (It feels good to not have to think about my powers to be able to use them.) Inside, the pilot jolts around a little and a spark goes off. Good. Asshole has this coming. I consider throwing it at the other fighter, but instead I realize that maybe I can save that ship and use it to get out of here. Meanwhile, I’ll slam my hand down and the Force will cause the ship I hold to dive straight into the dunes below so I can be done with it.

 It makes the sand beneath it jump up like a volcano eruption that showers the air. Now all I need to do is find the other fighter and try to keep the damage to a minimum.

 It blends in with the black sky, but after a few squints of my eyes I can see two red dots blinking and the covering up of stars in a ship shaped curtain. I turn my hand to it, and I’m met with some resistance. I can feel more beads of sweat growing along my hairline and slipping down my jaw. Why is this fighter so heavy? It must be the fatigue getting to me. Like I’m all “Forced out” or something.

 I decide I need another hand and seal off my lightsaber for full attention. After a few seconds of concentration and near grunting on my part, the ship comes over to me and falls in the in front of me, neither on fire nor destroyed. I can see the pilot throw off his mask and open the hatch above him to get out.

 As he climbs up, I pull him over to me. My head is down, sweat beading my face as my chest heaves and I struggle for one single flat breath. He flies closer, fear in his eyes and his Imperial boots leaving a trail in the golden dunes. I ignite my lightsaber and push it into his chest. He falls off of the end and lies dead on the sand.

 Again, it feels so good. It feels… cathartic, kind of. Like maybe killing is my own form of letting things out. Like I deserve it. But the more I kill, the worse I feel inside. The worse I feel inside, the more neutral I become. And the more neutral I become… the farther I skew to the Dark side.    

 It’s done then.

 I seal off my lightsaber and the buzzing stops, so I am left alone with no other sounds than the wind and a distant cricket. With time to spare, I grip my stomach and double over in pain. Gods- fuck it hurts. I should’ve brought a pack of healing stims or first aid at least in my bag, but I figured we wouldn’t need it. Fuck me.

 Part one of the plan: search the pilots or fighters for medical supplies if they haven’t burned away already.

 Part two: find or stop at a planet that does have medical supplies.

 Part three: avoid all planets and people for the rest of my life. Easy enough.

 I decide to start my search in the ship that’s my ticket out of here. I walk over to it with a bit of a limp and a hand covering my stomach, then climb to the top where I drop in the little circular door. The inside is small and completely gray, with one chair and the whole front as the console, which contains buttons of all kinds. Some are blue that fade to green, others are red and blinking. There’s a small screen slightly to the left that flashes red and says “Warning: System Compromised” and beeps. I press the only button attached and it shuts off and stops making the annoying noise. This thing looks more complicated to fly than I expected. On top of that, there are no signs of medicinal supplies. Of course- why would there be?

 With a sigh, I climb out, standing on the top to gather my surroundings for a moment. I can see the fighter than I brought down a few meters from the one I stand on now. Through the window, I can see the pilot that tried to take me down with him bang on the window and push buttons frantically. I know what I’m thinking may seem like a bad idea, but hear me out.

 I hop down from my last hope and put the lightsaber back on the belt. Walking through the sand, I figure I have time to get over there before the fighter explodes. I think I’ll take my sweet time, in fact. The flames at the side seem to have died down already. All I can do is hope that the pilot inside is more loyal to the offer of life than the Empire.

 He sees me approaching and slows his attempts to open the hatch or bang on the window.

 “Hello there,” I say, waving my left hand a bit. He narrows his eyes at me.

 I can see he wears all black clothing under his seatbelt, with the design of the Empire on his shoulder. On the floor under his seat is an all-black helmet, similar to the Clones, though it seems they made a few modifications since three years ago. The pilot is a human, fairly young but older than me. His skin is a little dirty from the smoke and the crash, but he appears pale with a few freckles. His hair is a sandy shade of blonde that was once slicked back, but since fallen in front of his face and become stringy and messy. Not so unattractive, now that he’s defenseless against me.

 “What do you want?” he says. I think he says, at least. I can’t hear him through the glass, but I can see the way his mouth moves and guess.

 “You want out of there?” I begin. “You certainly look like you do.”

 He narrows his eyes again, opens his mouth to speak- but I cut him off. “I’m going to let you out of there, and I fully expect you to try to kill me.”

 “I aim to please,” I see him say.

 "Alright, just keep your head down for a minute.” I jump up to the front and see that a piece of shrapnel is keeping it from opening. I can’t move it myself, but instead I take the opportunity to remind him of who has the lightsaber here and who doesn’t. Taking the weapon from my belt, I plunge the green beam of light into and around the hatch and drag it in a circle. When it’s about to fall on him, I hold it in its place with the force and make it fly off into the sand somewhere. Now I can see him from above.

 The pilot coughs a bit and I realize his seat belt must be jammed as well. I slip next to him and cut off where the clips on either side of the chair are. Before he can grab his gun-which he clearly will, I am in front of the chair and holding the end of my blade to his neck, the reverse grip allowing me to bring it closer to his skin. He sinks farther into his chair, glaring up at me in a way I rather enjoy.

 I’m glad he hates me.  

 “I’m not going to kill you,” I start, slowly, “If you agree to be of use to me.”

 “And why would I do that?” the pilot says bitterly, not daring to break eye contact. You know, I think I really like him. He’s spiteful. I can see his eyes are such a warm shade of brown they might as well be red, or honey.

 “Because it’ll benefit the both of us,” I finish, noticing the look of interest in his eye. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about manipulating people, always begin with something that’s in their best personal interest.

 “I’m listening.”

 “Your plan, if you get out of here is probably to kill me or head to the nearest cantina right?” I say, making sure my voice is steady and strong. I know how to threaten people, because I’ve seen Mur and Talik do it multiple times. “Well, surely a bright guy like you would understand that the Empire will kill you for either your failure or your desertion.” His jaw tightens a little, and I know I must be right about some part.

 “Help me fly that ship out of there, and we’ll find a planet far away from the Empire. If you want, you can leave after that. I just need someone to get me out of here- all this shit looks too complicated for me to fly.”

 He looks a little amused by that. “In return, I won’t kill you, and I won’t anonymously inform the Empire that I saw a fighter go down and a survivor disappear in the night on Jakku.” His jaw tightens a little more, his eyes meeting mine with both interest in hate. “Do we have a deal?”

 I take his guns and throw them into the sand when we jump from the fighter. After, I’m sure to pat him down and take his knife for my own. So he doesn’t try anything funny while we walk, I make him walk in front of me, and hold my fingers out to choke him a bit. Not enough to impede his walking capability, but just enough to keep him from speaking or doing anything but move forward. He climbs into the pod without a fight, and I tell him to sit in the chair.

 “There’s another chair in here, you know,” he says as if it were obvious.

 “Is it fucking invisible then?” I counter. I don’t mean to lose my cool for the moment, but It’s been a long day and I’m slowly starting to think it’s not even real at this point.

 Scowling at me for a moment, the pilot hits a button on the console and a chair emerges from the floor, back to back with the other. “I thought force users are supposed to be geniuses,” he says, spinning his chair around and knocking into mine a bit. Admittedly, I didn’t know these chairs could spin at all.

 “Right, because the man who was taken down by a teenager and couldn’t figure out how to get out of his seat belt is a genius.”

 Anger flashes in his eyes for the millionth time and he leans back a little. “Look I don’t know why I’m after you and honestly, I don’t care. But you need me to get out of here so don’t act like you’re better than me.”

 “I don’t have to be better than you,” I tell him, not daring to look away from his eyes. “I just have to be better than death.”

 “You’re a fucking Jedi- all you do is think about how you’re better than everyone else,” he says with a quiet loathing, and he turns his chair back to the console and presses a button to close the escape hatch.

 I can’t help the slow spread of upturned lips that washes over my face. Out here, it’s not uncommon to find people who are against the Jedi and the old Republic. I mean, it’s not like public opinion was really on their side towards the end, but it was always at an all-time low for the outer rim planets.  

 This pilot isn’t wrong at all- that’s one of my problems with the Jedi. I hated that they were too good to come and have me as part of their order. I resent it to this very day. I also resent that if they had found out about me on Ilum or Coruscant, they would’ve taken me away from my life there and turned made me change how I survive to fit what they believe.

 They stand for peace, but peace is not always the way. Somehow, they make it work in their brains that because they are doing the right thing, they can trample on whoever they want to. They just ignore that they do and how corrupt they truly were.

 “What’s your name?” I say as I hear the thrusters power on and a green light blink on above us.

 “Garreth,” he says after a minute.

 “That’s not a clone name,” I say, because I was truly under the impression that the Empire continued using the Clones with the new age of troopers.

 “How observant of you,” he quips. “And nobody calls them Clones anymore.”

 I scoff a little, leaning back into the seat. It’s comfortable, supporting the lower end of my back that has oh so many knots in it. “It’s Stormtroopers, right?”

 “Oh yeah,” Garreth says with an equal amount of snark. He chuckles a little. “Stormtroopers.”

 I frown a little and nod. In my head, I’m thinking about how badass the name ‘Stormtrooper’ is. I know I shouldn’t, considering a bunch of them literally just tried to kill me and my friends. But seriously, I like it. Though, I could do without the new armor they’re given. I liked the Clone outfits better.

 Clones.

 “Nice name, right?” Garreth says as he reaches up and flicks a little switch.

 I don’t say anything back, because now I want to talk even less than usual.

 The ship rises into the air smoothly, I shuffle and squirm a bit in my seat. Spinning it around to face the back of his chair and lean a little to my right, the whole chair moves to the side in one fluid motion. It seems the whole cockpit was designed for making the pilot fire more accurately and quickly. I suppose to Empire isn’t all brawns over brains. I can respect that. I can respect that way more than I respected the Jedi.

 But the spinning makes me sick to my stomach, and not because of how fragile my stomach is at the moment. It’s because spinning is a very childish thing to do, and Talik liked to do it to me and then make me do it to her.

          Garreth’s gloved hands wrap around a stick from the console and push it forward, and with a little jump we surge into space and leave Jakku behind. I don’t even bother to watch the flames of my old crew slowly fade away. It’s already burned into my brain forever and ever.

 Garreth has been silent beside me for a while now, continuously pressing buttons and moving the stick forward. He makes no attempt to contact the Empire and alert them of what’s happening, so it seems I was correct about where his loyalties lie. Not with me- but with the possibility of life. I can sense no anguish or internal conflicts within him, and his demeanor remains cool as a reflection of that.

 “What’s your name anyway?”

 I turn to look at him, my face my normal mask of blankness. I’m slightly annoyed that he’s now commanded my attention away from the stars and the pieces of junk we fly past, even though it’s not Garreth’s fault at all and I’m just a bitch.

 On the ship with my crew, I tended to stay out of the cockpit and in my own little workspace, either in my room or beside Talik, who played games with Kip. I guess I never really had much of a chance to take in the stars then. Funny that now that I do, it’s in the worst of circumstances.

 “You asked my name- now I’m asking yours.”

 I hate telling people my name. No, actually, I hate people in general. “It’s Keres,” I say coldly, turning back to the inky blackness of space and the little white freckles we call stars.  

 Garreth gives me a side eye and a little smirk. “Just Keres? Not Keres the Great or Keres the Wise or anything? Not even a last name?”

 “Now that you mention it, some people do like to refer to me as their lord and savior, sometimes Keres the All Mighty,” I say with a little bit of boredom. My right pointer finger traces around a square button lazily. I both love, and hate sitting still. Being in a cramped ship like this one is a bit of a curse in my book.

 Garreth snickers a little at my words, spinning his chair to the right to face mine. “Well Keres the All Mighty, what planet did you have in mind to escape to?”

 Ah shit, I didn’t plan this far.

 “You’re with the Empire. Any planets they haven’t been to yet?” I say, turning back to him. The light catches his irises and they flash a pretty gold color, though only for a moment.

 This makes the pilot stop and think. I can see the gears turning in his head. “Dagobah, Kijimi, maybe.”

 “What’s on Dagobah?” I ask. “I’ve never heard of it.”

 He twiddles his thumbs together and uses his toes to swing the seat back and forth slightly. “Well, for a force user such as yourself, it’s probably the best place to go. Empire doesn’t know about it and the Force is supposed to be strong there. However, I wouldn’t make it. It’s not exactly good for flying and surviving long term. Kijimi is the better option. Tons of illegal work to do, tons of people- better long term… or, longer term, I guess.”

 It’s hard not to tell him that I don’t really care what happens to him. I’m fine with going to Dagobah and immediately leaving him to die. More than fine with it, actually.

 I’ve heard of Kijimi. A few old petty criminals mentioned it on Bracca. Talik was there for a while too. “Kijime will do fine.”

 Garreth turns to the console again and presses more buttons, which whir and bleep and turn blue.

 “So, I have to ask- what’s your deal with the Jedi?”

 I’m taken aback at this. “My deal with the Jedi?”

 He rolls his eyes and smoothly puts us into hyperspace. “Are you actually one of them? We’ve got a few force users at our base who definitely weren’t, and I’ve never come across a Jedi that doesn’t speak in riddles.”

 “Give it time,” I reply, feeling his anger bubble slightly at my lack of cooperation. Maker, making people angry and uncomfortable brings me so much satisfaction.

 A beeping goes off suddenly. A screen that was previously off has now turned red and flashing with danger. I jolt forward and grip onto the edge of the console for balance. “Garreth?” I hiss.

 “Fuck if I know!” Garreth seethes back, pressing a button which raises two sticks and triggers. The screen previously flashing red moves to the front of him and now shows him an image I only get a brief glance of before he pushes my chair away from his. “Stay back there!”

 Garreth squeezes the triggers at something I can only guess at based on the sound it makes as it flies. It sounds like another Tie-Fighter. The ship bumps around violently, and with no seatbelt I resort to gripping my hands underneath the chair.

 “Ah, kriff.”

 BANG- our tiny Tie-Fighter is colliding with another and knocked out of hyperspace. We spin around and around, faster and faster until I lose my grip and fly to the ceiling. My back hits it flatly and sorely, the blades of my shoulders screaming and agony as I grunt.

 Garreth looks over his shoulder at me for a second before turning back to the console, which is beeping with more and more immediate warnings. I hit my head against the metal overhead and my vision goes blurry for a moment, then I am sent back towards the floor. This doesn’t help my stomach much at all, and I hear a sickening crack. Instinctively, my gloved palms fly to my head in any attempt to cover it, as if that will do something.

 Another hit sends sparks flying from above, and the screen flickers off. As our ship barrels in total darkness, Garreth lurches forward and smacks his head against the console. I am left in complete darkness, silence, and with the urge to vomit as I am tossed around.

 All I can do is cover my head and curl up into a ball on the floor, and wait for death again.

#star wars #star wars fanfiction #star wars fandom #story #chapter 3 #jedi #gray jedi #jedi fallen order #zeffo #sith #fanfiction #lightsaber #greenlightsaber

[atamascolily]

The cover of Junior Jedi Knights #5: Vader's Fortress by Rebecca Moesta features Anakin and Artoo dodging blaster fire while Tahiri does a bad-ass leap and Darth Vader looms in the background. So I guess this next field trip is to wherever the hell Vader's fortress is located... and given that this book was published in 1997, I'm pretty sure it isn't Mustafar.

Readers, I squealed with delight when I realized they were actually going to Bast Castle on Vjun.

[cut for length and discussion of Dark Empire]

Vjun's first appearance was in Dark Empire, but it's the main setting for Sean Stewart's Clone War-era novel Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (2004), which happens to be one of the best Legends books ever. Period. Drop everything and go read it now. Stewart's Vjun is a Dark side Gothic horror wonderland full of crumbling castles, crazed nobility, and flesh-eating moss. I love it, and you will, too.

Vjun also appears in various video games, with no less than Kyle Katarn describing it as "a big, dead, important rock". High praise, indeed.

Oh, and if you're curious, Wookiepeedia says Vjun is "pronounced as "VAH-JUHN" in Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, but in Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron, it is pronounced as "VUHN"".... so anything goes, really.

Anyway, so having dealt with his heritage by going to Dagobah in the last book, the logical next step is for Anakin to actually go and visit Vader's castle in person. You know, exposure therapy. Right?

Okay, let's see what the text says.

Anakin, Tahiri and Uldir are hanging out on the landing pad on Yavin IV waiting for Tionne to show up. Tahiri loves Tionne so much, she doesn't mind waiting around, and she wishes she could have gone with Tionne on this latest trip to Borgo Prime and I just... I love their relationship, okay?

Tionne has a new ship - the Lore Seeker! Anakin uses the Force to determine it's in great shape despite its odd appearance. (It has sails to harness solar wind, lol!)

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” the Jedi instructor said with a smile. “I thought so, too. But because the ship was so old, I was able to buy it from a Randoni trader for a song.”

“How much did you really pay?” Uldir asked.

Tionne shrugged.

“Just a song. Really. While I was looking for Jedi legends, I came across an ancient song that told about the very firstRan - doni merchants and the vaults where they hid their wealth. The trader was so interested that she offered me the Lore Seeker in exchange for the song. Now come help me unload my cargo, and I’ll show you some of my other treasures.”

DID I MENTION I LOVE HER???

Also, Tionne got some other stuff, too:

“You may carry this Twi’lek story-chain, Tahiri-each link tells a different part of a story. Please be very careful with it. Uldir, here is a holodisk. It holds a recording of some very old Jedi songs. Anakin, would you please carry this scroll? I’ll take the tapestry.”’

AHHHHHH, I LOVE THIS.

But Tionne found out something else important "in an old fortress on a planet called Vjun" and this is where I started SCREAMING because I know exactly where this is going and this is such a great set-up - especially since none of the kids have a clue.

Of course, they want to go, and Tionne's trying to be diplomatic about it.

“Does anyone live in the fortress?” Anakin asked.

Tionne shook her head.

“Not anymore.”

“Well, if it’s really that important, don’t you think you ought to go find it?” Tahiri said. “And don’t forget that you promised to take me with you this time.”

“I’d like to go along, too,” Anakin added.

“Yeah, it sounds like fun,” Uldir said.

Tionne frowned.

“I’m not sure Master Skywalker will approve. It could be a bit dangerous."

LOLOLOLOL, since when has that ever stopped anybody in this series?? But according to Tionne, the danger isn't Sith ghosts or anything like that - it's other people trying to snag a certain treasure first.

And what is this special object? the kids want to know.

Tionne’s face lit with a wondering smile, and she gave a happy sigh.

“It’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber!”

ITS A MACGUFFIN! Also, given all of Vader’s issues with Obi-wan, the fact that he kept his old master’s lightsaber in his hidden Gothic Drama Castle is... something. But I digress.

Cut to Luke, being Luke.

Luke Skywalker, dressed in a comfortable black flightsuit, sat on the stone floor in the room where he meditated and did his office work. At the moment, though, Luke was not meditating. Before him in the center of the room stood his barrel-shaped blue and white droid, ArtooDetoo. It was time for Artoo’s routine cleaning. Anakin’s older sister Jaina often helped Luke with this chore, but the Jedi Master didn’t mind doing it himself. He actually found it relaxing. With his tools neatly laid out on the floor and fresh packets of lubricant beside him, Master Skywalker opened ArtooDetoo’s front panels and got to work.

After checking the droid’s numerous electrical connections, Luke added a few gadgets and upgrades Jaina had scrounged up for Artoo: a retractable mirror attachment, a power booster for the comm unit, and a new focusing lens for the hologram projector.

I'm sure NONE of these upgrades will come in handy later on in the book. Nope. Nope. Nope. Move along, nothing to see here, just a boy and his bro-bot.

Ikrit is hanging out on top of Artoo's head during all of this, when there's a knock at the door. Luke asks him to open the door and Ikrit DOES and I don't know why I find this so adorable, but I totally do. More of this, please.

Luke looked up from the packet of slippery lubricant he held in his hand, then smiled when he saw who his visitors were.

“Come in,” he said, “all of you.”

His words seemed to open an invisible dam, because people and noises instantly flooded into his quiet room. Luke laughed as everyone tried to talk to him at once.

“Master Skywalker, I have wonderful news,” Tionne said. “You’ll never guess in a million years,” Tahiri added.

“Can I go with them?” Anakin asked.

“Yeah, me too!” Uldir said.

News of Obi-wan's lightsaber makes Luke have all kinds of Feels (and a handy flashback for those who have forgotten the movies). Luke's like, Oh, yeah, Bast Castle, I've been there before back in Dark Empire when things got weird, and Anakin FREAKS OUT. Tionne's like, huh, maybe that's why my contact said only family had a right to claim the lightsaber then.

Tionne wants Luke to come with her, but Luke is meeting with Leia for pressing NR business, so Anakin volunteers to go as the family rep. I love that Luke looks at Ikrit first, and only says okay when Ikrit nods. Of course Uldir wants to come too, and Luke is about to say no, but Tionne's like "he's just going to stow away, so you might as well and the cargo hold on my ship is too small for him plus our stuff" so Luke caves. DID I MENTION HE'S A SOFTIE?? And with Artoo and Ikrit to help, Luke feels good about it, but again, he insists on the parental permission first.

[Oh, no, I just realized that Luke might not want to go back to Vjun after all the traumatic shit that went down in Dark Empire, and that's ALSO horrifying to contemplate. Like, it's not dangerous anymore, so he's okay with sending Anakin there with supervision, but he might not be eager to re-visit it? MY HEART.]

We skip that scene, though, and jump immediately to everyone in the Lore Seeker, and Tionne teaches them about lightsabers. Nomi Sunrider is namedropped (queen!) but overall lightsabers are reified, and I don't know how I feel about that tbh, even though they are admittedly SUPER COOL LASER SWORDS BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ.

Fortunately, Ikrit's there to say "Not All Jedi," since I am not, which catches Tionne off guard, since she didn't know he was a Jedi master. Tionne is apologetic about treating Ikrit like a pet, but Uldir continues to be a jerk, especially when Ikrit starts sharing his own personal trauma. And then Ikrit declaims about Anakin and Tahiri's powers, but graciously includes Uldir once Uldir pokes him about it.

The skies of Vjun are stormy, so it's a bumpy ride down. They land outside the castle instead of on the landing pad at the top because the weather is so awful. Anakin did his homework, and explains the situation (Dark Empire recap!):

“Did Uncle Luke tell you anything about the fortress itself?” Anakin asked.

“I don’t know much about it.”

“Well, I found out as much as I could before we left. Apparently Vader built Bast Castle as one of his private strongholds; he was a powerful man. After both he and Emperor Palpatine died, some of the Emperor’s followers brought a copy of Palpatine’s body here-a clone. This second Emperor was defeated too. Since then, the fortress has been abandoned, as far as we know.”

“I still don’t get it,” Uldir said to Anakin. “Why would your grandfather choose to build in such a desolate place?”

Oh, you sweet summer child.

They spy another shuttle, and Tahiri is forced to wear shoes again so they can climb up in the rain. It's basically the Stairs of Minas Morgul from LOTR, only the rain is turning to sleet. Artoo hates stairs and Ikrit rescues him when he falls off - but he can hack the door open, so that's good. The hall has a giant, larger-than-life statue of Darth Vader toppled over on the floor, because... drama.

Then the laser fire starts, and everybody ducks for cover. Artoo uses his newly-installed reviewed mirror to deflect the laster bolts, so they can disarm the automatic security system. Tionne steps in with her lightsaber when Artoo gets shot, and she and Ikrit start tossing random objects to block them while the kids race for the control panels and it's epic. The statue explodes and Artoo manages to hack the system right before he powers down.

Uldir clapped one hand down on Anakin’s shoulder. “Not half bad for a kid,” he said.

Quiet, you condescending fuck. Yes, I know, he's like 14, but he's still obnoxious as hell here.

Anyway, they repair Artoo, except he can't climb any more stairs (I'm so confused how he did it earlier, but okay), and they debate whether to split the party. The smart answer is always "No," but they eventually do anyway, because plot. Tahiri's just happy not to wear shoes. You'll be happy to know that the bathrooms still work. This whole thing feels like an RPG dungeon crawl and I'm HERE FOR IT.

Tahiri notices the floor's texture shifts and that turns out to be a clue and I LOVE THIS. There's a secret pit trap full of spkes, and then suddenly they're attacked by monsters. But eventually, the others find them and deduce that they're holograms. Anakin IDs himself to a door and it opens into a secret chamber... and then this happens:

At the same moment, a puff of smoke erupted in the doorway, and a dark-haired man with a neat beard, tawny eyes, and a deep purple cloak stood before them. The man threw back his head and laughed, although Anakin couldn’t see what was so funny.

“The powerful Mage of Exis Station thanks you,” he said. “I would never have found the lightsaber without your help.” He snatched the weapon from Tionne’s hand. “But I’ll take it now.”

Tahiri starts pestering this guy with questions and he is startled enough to admit he's the Mighty Orloc. Tahiri realizes he's a stage magician, but even so, he manages to open a trapdoor, sending Tionne and Ikrit elsewhere. The kids rush him, but there's smoke and when it clears, Orloc has vanished.

Ikrit and Tionne are fine, and they start looking to rejoin the kids, who are searching for them and/or Orloc. Artoo and Uldir take a tunnel while Tahiri and Anakin go up stairs. Everyone keeps tossing the stale Imperial ration bars they picked up earlier to test for traps, and the RP gamer  in me approves.

“What’s this?” Tahiri asked, pointing to a raised platform that held a huge tube made of black plasteel. Wires and hoses snaked out from the cylinder in all directions. She ran a hand along its smooth side and found some sort of control panel.

“This looks like the tubes they use to bury dead people in space,” Anakin said.

It's actually Vader's bedroom! They find a little hidden hologram of a young Luke and I just... can't even...

Anakin opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. The little hologram of a young Luke Skywalker turned in a slow circle, so that they could see it from every angle.

...Anakin felt a lump form in his throat. “My mom keeps holograms of me and Jacen and Jaina on her desk at work, and Dad has one of me and the twins in the Millennium Falcon. I think Darth Vader was just doing the same thing.”

“So maybe he wasn’t all bad,” Tahiri said in a soft voice.

Anakin starts to feel better about coming to Bast Castle, which is good, because he has Deep-Seated Issues that need to be resolved.

Meanwhile, Uldir sees the lightsaber as a magical talisman that will help him become a Jedi. He abandons Artoo and confronts Orloc, who draws the blade on him. Orloc offers to teach Uldir his powers if he'll come with him. Orloc's looking for the Holocron in Vader's private quarters, and Uldir is tempted, but ultimately turns him down because he realizes Orloc is a fraud.

Anakin and Tahiri find Orloc and Uldir and Tahiri slides down a pole to confront him. Orloc attacks her with the lightsaber. Tionne and Ikrit show up, and Artoo uses a high-frequency blast to distract Orloc long enough for Ikrit to yank the lightsaber with the Force. Orloc disappears, and Uldir mentions the Holocron in Vader's private quarters. So Anakin and Tahiri take them back there.

Tionne's like, let's GTFO, but Uldir suggests they test it, which is a mistake, but Tionne agrees. OF COURSE Orloc comes back and snags it. They chase Orloc through the castle, and there's a lot of trap door shenanigans, but ultimately Artoo helps save the day and they get the holocron back, even though Orloc conveniently escapes.

(Maybe I've been watching too much Scooby-Doo, but I honestly expected Orloc to say "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids and your talking [lagomorph]!" ...maybe in the next book?)

Ikrit suggests they use the ships in the hangar to fly down to the Lore Seeker instead of walking. Anakin suggests Ikrit keeps the ship, since he seems to enjoy piloting, and I don't know how Ikrit is piloting this thing since he's a lagomorph, but it makes him happy, and they all make it back to Yavin in two ships without incident, which means it's time for the inspirational moral!

“It feels good to be back,” he said with a sigh. Tahiri giggled. “That was certainly more of an adventure than I had bargained for.”

Tionne looked at her two students.

“Are you sorry you came with me?”

Anakin shook his head.

“The trip was worth making. I learned some interesting things about Darth Vader.”

“I learned to trust the Force and not just my eyes and ears,” Tahiri said.

“And we did find a lightsaber and a Holocron,” Anakin said.

“And a new ship for Ikrit,” Tahiri added. “So I think we’re glad we came along, but it may be a while before we go looking for adventures again.”

HAHAHAHA, right, kids. You just keep thinking that.

Ikrit names his ship the Sunrider after Nomi Sunrider, because he, too, stans a legend. Anakin and Tahiri ask if they can take the turbolift up to the Great Temple when Luke starts walking up the outside stairs, and Luke has NO IDEA WHY THEY HATE STAIRS, and... on that note, the book ends, with Luke being VERY confused. [I like that Moesta remembers the Great Temple has outside stairs, but... THE LAYOUT STILL MAKES NO SENSE!!!]

So, I don't know how to feel about this book. PROS: I love the character details with Luke, Ikrit, Tionne and Tahiri, and I like how all of the adults continue to be responsible while still allowing opportunities for the children to be competent and show initiative. It's great to see Bast Castle, and the whole thing has the feel of a classic RPG dungeon crawl. Yay for Artoo saving the day ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS, lol.

CONS: Uldir is annoying, and I wish he'd stop being such a jerk. None of the characters have ever played RPGs and it shows in their lack of genre-savvy. And I guess we'll see Orloc again in the next book, because... it feels like there wasn't much resolution of that particular plot in this book... no resolution to who Orloc actually is, or what or why. I feel like this book is part one of a two-episode plot, and I wasn't expecting that, but okay.

It's unclear if Obi-wan's lightsaber has any further plot significance or if it's just a macguffin. Ditto the holocron. But given the next book is Kenobi's Blade, I suspect Orloc's going to try and snag both, and Uldir is going to have a Not-So-Secret Test of Character about it. (To be fair, he passed the one in this book, so he's not all bad, but he's so obnoxious, it's challenging for me to give him credit where it's due.)

This book also kinda sorta falls into the "Jedi lightsaber fetish" trope, which I hate. Don't get me wrong, I love the laser swords and they are freaking awesome, but I hate how everybody latches onto "Jedi = laser sword" business as a symbol of identity. I know, I know, Star Wars is really ambivalent about whether the Jedi are Space!Samurai or Space!Monks, and I just... lean more towards the latter than the former, I guess?? But like I said, the lightsaber is more of a macguffin here, and Ikrit at least lampshades the issue a little bit, so I feel better about it.  

Also, it just occurred to me it's unclear whether Tahiri hates shoes, sand, or stairs more, lol.

#star wars legends #junior jedi knights #book reviews #darth vader gothic drama castle