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2-forapenny · 5 years

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devil [anakin skywalker]

CAN I GET AN ANAKIN X READER WHERE YOU GUYS WERE BEST FRIENDS AND YOU GUYS SECRETLY HAD FEELINGS FOR EACH OTJER BUT THEN HE SEES YOU DIE FROM SOMEONE KILLING YOU IN HIS DREAMS (which it would be him in the future) so he goes to the dark side to save you and so the scene happens on that fire planet ( i forgot what it was called😂 ) and he gets so mad he killed you with his lightsaber. then you confess your feelings n stuff and its all sad

WARNINGS: death multiple times, abandonment

[x][x][x]

You were right there, right in front of him, just out of reach. A smile graced your lips and you reached out for him, your eyes pleading for something, but what was it that you were asking him for? Your lips were moving, forming unintelligible words, ones that he could not understand to save his life.

It was unusual, you were his best friend and the woman he was in love with, and yet he couldn’t reach you both physically and mentally. What in the hell were trying to tell him? Your arms lowered to your sides and you glanced behind you, your mouth gaping into an ‘o’ and you reached out for him again, more urgently this time.

Tears ran down your face while you were screaming for him, and then it was like the sound clicked on. He could hear you screaming for help, but he was glued to his spot. His eyes widened while he watched you. “I’m trying, Y/N!” He was screaming too, attempting to reach you in time to save you from whatever was going to hurt you, but it was futile.

Anakin knew he wouldn’t get to you, but if he could calm you down, that’s at least something. He took a deep breath and called for you, watching your distraught face turn red with anguish. “Y/N!” He shouted above your cries, and you sniffled a little, your sobs turning into small intakes of uneven breath.

“Anakin, help me. Please.” What could he do to calm you down? Then it came to him.

“I want to help you, but you need to calm down before I can.” You wiped your hands across your face, the tear brushing off to the side, and he smiled comfortingly. “Tell me one thing you can smell.”

You sniffled, your nose twitching with the movement, and then you stopped, your arms folding over your chest uncomfortably. “That won’t help anything, please I need help.” You began sobbing again, but Anakin caught your attention.

“What is one thing you can smell?” He urgently asked you now, trying to keep you quiet so he could hear if someone was approaching.

“I can smell your cologne.” You sniffed again, giggling a bit as well. “You really need to lay off.” He chuckled as well, his heart thumping in his chest, nervous about what to do next.

Anakin thought for a moment. You had told him once that your senses meant everything, and then he though of it. “List two things you hear.”

You listened intently. Breathing, there was breathing. Even though there had been a smile on your ace, it was immediately wiped from your lips. The breathing was not yours. There was someone behind you. “Anakin.” You whispered his name, your eyes closing for a long moment and then snapping open when you heard it again. “They’re here.”

He was confused for a moment, and then he saw it. A black gloved hand reached out from behind you and clamped down on your throat, squeezing just enough to bring you against a black clothed body. The man was wearing a black hood, the cascading cloth covering a heavy brow and dark hair. There was something ominous about the attacker, besides the all black attire, something that stirred inside of Anakin. He felt so familiar, like he was a part of Anakin, and it scared him.

You gulped, the man raising a lightsaber behind you, bright red in color. Anakin gasped and shook his head, his hand reaching out. “Don’t hurt her!” You struggled in the stranger’s grasp, calling for Anakin to help you, and as much as he tried nothing was happening. The man lifted his head, the hood falling down around his shoulders to reveal who it was.

Anakin gasped. The man was a reflection of Anakin, a doppelganger of sorts, but not quite him. The attitude of this man was different, darker and meaner. He shook his head, but a cruel smile came upon the man and he raised the flaming red lightsaber again, ramming it through your body. You gasped and spluttered, blood immediately coating your teeth and your tongue, traveling down your lips and dropping onto your shirt.

“No.” He whispered it, tears coming to his eyes just then. The older man dropped the lightsaber to the ground, keeping you held up to him. “I couldn’t stop myself then, and I won’t be able to stop myself now.” Anakin could hear himself saying it, but they weren’t his words.

You slowly died on the floor, but Anakin could not bring himself to look at you. He was the one that did this to you.”

“Anakin!” You were hovering over him, a concerned look on your face. He sat up in the bed, his eyes roaming your face. That wasn’t real, you were here. Anakin smiled and put a hand on your shoulder, squeezing gently.

“I”m okay.” He sat up and slipped his boots on, moving to his desk and pulling out a black shirt. Once he had it on, you came to him and wrapped your arms around his waist. “What’s wrong?”

You glanced back. “I’m just worried. You were shaking.” He squeezed you lightly and let go. Holding you there, he knew he couldn’t stay. You were too precious for him to lose, and he couldn’t risk it. The two of you had talked about the darkness inside of him, about it taking over, and he knew that he would hurt you if you stayed.

“I’m fine.” He smiled and moved across the room, to his door. Anakin had to get out. You watched him open the door and walked along with him. “I have to go to work, so I’ll see you later.” You nodded.

“Okay.” You smiled, gave him a quick hug, and left. Anakin thought it wold be the last time he saw you.

Anakin left you, turned to the dark side, and now here you were on this fire planet, looking for him. You glanced around. “What is this planet called, anyways?” You kicked a rock and looked over at your partner. “Anakin’s standards really went downhill.”

The man beside you didn’t seem impressed with the commentary, but it didn’t matter. The two of you were splitting up anyways, so you would be on your own. The base where Anakin was was just beyond this horizon, and you had to make it there. You began to run across the wasteland, pulling out your lightsaber when you saw a storm trooper at the door of the compound. You would use him to get in.

He watched, raising his gun while you sped up, gaining enough momentum to jump up and swing your foot around to hit his face, his helmet smashing against the side wall. The man beneath groaned and rubbed the helmet, but you didn’t give him time to adjust, your lightsaber raising to his neck. “Let me tell you how it’s going to be. You’re going to open the door, or I will kill you.”

“You’re a jedi, you won’t kill me.” You smiled casually and stood, watching him cautiously. You had to do something. What was there to do, though?” And then you thought of it, your lightsaber slashing down across his leg, and in a painful shriek, he stumbled to his feet and opened the door.

You placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, and don’t test me again.” He nodded and you creeped into the base, choosing one of the halls to travel down. You followed it until you found someone, and then followed a storm trooper until you branched off into the control room. The door had a sign on it, a plain black one that said ‘control room,’ and you pushed it open.

The door clicked closed quietly, your head resting on the door. With a sigh, you sank down to your knees and closed your eyes. “What the hell am I doing?” Doubt bubbled inside of you. The whole point was to find Anakin, but what would you do when you did find him? Beg him to come back, to be with you? Such an unrealistic idea, an unrealistic proposal really, and unrealistic expectations. He wouldn’t come back with you and you knew that, but you had to try.

“What the hell are you doing here?” The voice was so familiar that it didn’t startle you. Slowly, you lifted your head, eyes roaming up black robes and gloved black hands to a sharp face with curly brown hair. It was him.

You sprang to your feet, watching him from across the room. “Ana-”

“Don’t call me that. Show some respect.” You giggled a bit, taken aback by his demand. When did he get like this? Sure, you knew that the darkness he felt had emerged, but this wasn’t the Anakin you remembered.

You looked down at the ground, your brows crinkling together in anger. “You owe me an apology.” Instead of shying away from him, you stepped up, confident now. Anakin would never hurt you, not intentionally.

“Why should I apologize to you?”

He was so cold, it almost made you regret the mission. “Because you left me without so much as a goodbye. Because you left everyone wondering where the hell you were everyday. Because you didn’t have the guts to tell anyone you wanted to turn to the dark side.” Anakin’s hands moved to the hilt of his lightsaber, his face becoming angry.

“Stop, now, before I hurt you.”

You ignored him. “Because you were too much of a bitch to admit how you were feeling! And because you tore my he-” There was a heavy nyoom sound cutting through the air, red light glowing across your face, and then a sharp pain in your abdomen.

A loud yelp elicited from your lips and your hands went to Anakin’s robes, clutching them tightly in your fist. “Anakin.” His mouth released from the tight line it was in and gaped open, his eyes becoming round with shock, tears welling on his bottom lash line. He retracted the lightsaber, dropping it to the ground beside him to catch you.

His eyes roamed down to the wound. “I’m sorry. I’m so so-” Your hands on his face silenced him, and you shook your head.

“Anakin, I have to tell you something.” His eyes roamed your features and he nodded, cradling you to his chest. “I love you, Anakin. I always have, even when you left. I wish I had said this sooner now.” You giggled lightly, as did Anakin, and he leaned down to kiss your forehead.

“I love you too.” You rested against him, and he kissed your forehead once more. “You should hate me. I’ve killed you, you have to hate me.”

You shook your head weakly, more blood pouring from the wound onto the ground. Against Anakin’s robes, he could see your face growing paler by the moment. “I could never hate my best friend.”

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2-forapenny · 5 years

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I wrote a book!

The idea first came to me in a movie theater. In the winter of 2017, Fathom Events put on a special, two-day production of Disney’s Newsies The Broadway Musical. It seemed like fortuitous timing; I had recently gotten over a cold by binge-watching the 1992 live-action musical film, Newsies, and this was the first I’d heard of any Broadway adaptation. (Little-known to me at the time: It had already attracted a sizable and passionate fanbase and won two Tony Awards in 2012, to boot.)

When the lights came up and the newsies danced their way offstage, I was struck by a fleeting thought: There has to be more to this story, right? The little I knew of the film and, now, the musical, suggested that the story was rooted in historical fact, but I wanted to know more.

At first, I thought I’d do a little research on the backstory of the 1899 strike and turn it into a longform article. For weeks afterward, I sifted through a fraction of the 2.5 million search results for “newsies the musical” in hopes of unearthing the real story behind Jeremy Jordan’s belt and Kara Lindsay’s writer’s block and the newsies’ pirouettes up and down the streets of Manhattan. I watched the Broadway musical again, then the 1992 film again, then Broadway bootlegs, then every fan video and musical cover on YouTube. I discovered David Nasaw’s Children of the City, a 1985 study of American newsboys and newsgirls in the 19th and 20th centuries. I pieced together interviews and anecdotes, watched documentaries and behind-the-scenes compendiums for the film and musical, and sampled some of the more popular fanfiction written about Jack Kelly and his posse of fictional newsies.

About seven months into this research process, it dawned on me that I was never going to be able to condense everything I’d learned into a single article. The idea of writing an entire book was completely intimidating, but I dashed off a query letter to a small independent press anyway. What could it hurt? The worst they could say was ‘no,’ giving me a reason to set aside my obsession and focus on something else.

Except that two days later, I had a response. They wanted to see a book proposal, and suddenly this project I’d only been dreaming about was becoming a reality. I won’t bore you with the story of the entire process—suffice to say, there were many all-nighters pulled, many books highlighted, many McDonald’s no-pickle cheeseburgers and beet chips inhaled, many moments of panic and indecision survived—but nearly two years later, the book I never thought I’d write is finally a real, tangible thing.

Newsies vs. The World: How a War, a Newspaper Rivalry, and a Trolley Strike Sparked the Child Labor Riot That Ended Up on Broadway is my love letter to Newsies. It’s a partial history of the lives of New York City newsboys and newsgirls, the publishers who screwed them over, and the fight they mounted in the summer of 1899 that should have changed everything. It’s also the story of how their remarkable history inspired one of Disney’s most poorly-received films and later turned into a Broadway musical. In the words of Katherine Plumber, it’s the “story behind the story.”

If you count yourself among the devoted ‘Fansies’ or have any kind of casual interest in child labor rights, 19th-century history, and/or a thorough critique of the way Disney’s beloved IP interacts with and manipulates historical events, you can purchase or request review copies of Newsies vs. The World on Amazon, Goodreads, and Theme Park Press.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

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