eightbitpale

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Ok but I LOVE a modern au that accepts the limitations of the genre and commits to the bit like this, and this concept specifically has been living rent free in my head for ages now. Addiction obviously isn’t a perfect analogue to the dark side — nothing in the real world is, because physic wizard powers aren’t real — but it certainly provides a bunch of really interesting opportunities to examine the characters and their dynamics through the hyperspecific lens of substance abuse and recovery. I mean, dark siders often talk in terms of power, and how it makes them feel, how it keeps them safe and in control. From my experiences with addicts and addiction, I understand that part of the struggle is letting go of the sense of stability/respite that the substance provides. I’m yet to meet someone who got into serious trouble purely for shits and giggles — it always starts with a reason, just like Anakin’s ultimate fall started with the totally legitimate desire to save Padmé. This kind of AU might actually be the perfect place to experiment with a version of Anakin who’s learning to face up to letting go of control (ie. attachment).

Modern AU where the Team's mentorship dynamic takes the form of: Anakin's sobriety sponsor (he was on some kind of hard drug, provided by Palpatine) is Obi-Wan.

Since sponsors are typically former addicts themselves, I'd say Obi-Wan is either a recovered alcoholic (binge drinking during college or something like that) or was put on pain medication after a major injury and had difficulty weaning off it.

Alternately, if we want to go down the "Dark Side is addiction metaphor route," then it could be that Anakin already knew Obi-Wan, who introduced him to a recovered addict, AKA someone who canonically Fell and came back, AKA Quinlan (and through him Asajj), and Quinlan is his sponsor.

Mace was never addicted but does run the rehab center that Anakin went through while detoxing, so Anakin's got weird feelings about him that mix resentment and gratitude. (I'm thinking Andre Braugher's character in House MD and his complicated relationship with House himself.)

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Words from Antigonick (Sophokles) translated by Anne Carson

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when i first heard about the male loneliness epidemic i was like oh yeah close camaraderie and bonding between men is often discouraged in favor of competition or, if not discouraged, at least filtered through a lens of individualism that precludes deep connections. and then i learned what people meant by it (men arent getting laid) to which i say skill issue

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You can teleport one (1) single individual live seagull into any time or place in history. Where would you choose to put it to best fuck with peoples' heads and cause as much confusion as possible?

I'd pick Tutankhamun's tomb, just behind the sealed door, 30 seconds before the seal is broken and the tomb is opened. Imagine throwing that into the curse myth - just as these people are about to crack open the greatest cold one in history, knowing that this is what they'll be known for from hereon, they open the door that must not be opened, and out scatters a frantic, deeply baffled bird, entirely healthy and intact, fluttering away never to be seen again, with no apparent way of how it got in.

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Not a single Dedra Meero/Arihnda Pryce fic. Nobody sees what I see

Just checked the thranto tag on ao3. Only one rule 63 fic. Life is so hard and you people are so unimaginative

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funny thing, the senator danced with a jedi all night during the senate ball.... they must be really good friends.

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its really unfortunate that padme no longer used the body double approach to security after aotc because the concept of the queen of fakeout deaths being married to the guy who loses his shit at the thought of her dying is honestly the wildest fucking thing and i think it's underutilised. let's give anakin a few trial runs before his big breakdown ok. maybe seeing padme getting assassinated live on space tv on a monthly basis will let him microdose on acceptance and inner peace. he can get into a different stage of grief each time and maybe when rots rolls around he will be fine

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codywan on tatooine but they're still kind of doomed about it. obi-wan seeing cody as something that he can fix, that will allow him to earn forgiveness. to the point where cody almost stops being a person to him, but something that he needs to make right. and cody begins to resent him for it. that obi-wan is so caught up in his belief that his past is unforgivable that he doesn't consciously realise what it is cody is beginning to resent him for. whilst simultaneously he is convincing himself that he's trying to help cody, to fix what happened between them.

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Just checked the thranto tag on ao3. Only one rule 63 fic. Life is so hard and you people are so unimaginative

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had to get this out before we collectively move on from coldplay ceo

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dominant things you can say during sex

i didnt hear what you said

hold on i need to blow my nose

wow

i feel kind of nauseous

is this anything

i don't know

this kind of reminds me of that one song

we can probably ignore that noise if you want to

why is my sock wet

it smells bad in here

that was weird

where are my glasses

ow

this is normal

sorry

just 2 chill people chilling

this is cool

can you say that again

are we good

youre actually naked

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I open Tumblr. I post something that should be a diary entry. I close Tumblr. I open Tumblr after having it closed for 1.2 minutes. I reblog 176 posts in a row. I add tags of absolute gibberish to 7 of those. I close Tumblr. I open Tumblr I post yet another should-be diary entry. I close Tumblr. I open tu

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speaking of peeing the bed it's been long enough that i can tell this story publicly. in high school i went to a party at some house with no adults, as you sometimes would, and at the end of the night like 10 people all clonked out together in the same bed. fully clothed, one of those teenage moments where you're like wow heehee how rule-breaking, because sure a lot of our parents wouldn't like us sleeping in a bed with a bunch of other teenagers and no adult supervision blah blah. fond memories. anyway.

i'm an extremely light sleeper, so i barely slept, and sometime around 6 am, i woke up to a girl totally panicking, very quietly, because she peed the bed in her sleep. and listen. this wasn't a group of mean kids by any measure. but there's no level of kindness or understanding in the world that will make peeing the bed when you're 17, surrounded by people you only sort of know, a gentle blow.

so i sat up and she was like "oh my god" and I signaled at her to be absolutely silent and I said I'd be right back. And I crawled over everyone and out of the bed like a stupid cat.

and the thing is, by senior year i wasn't getting bullied much anymore. i was generally pretty well liked by my peers, but, if this makes sense, people still didn't always expect very much from me. i was still figuring out how to mask (autistic) and i still often said or did something that made everyone remember i'm weird and they'd just be like "well. that's story for you. i guess." and for the most part i'd become pretty secure in that.

so what i'm saying is i had nothing to lose and this girl had everything to lose.

so i went downstairs and i made tomato soup. and by "made" i mean i put a whole can of tomato soup in a too-small mug and microwaved it until it was lukewarm so as to be convincingly "made" but not so hot to burn someone.

and then i walked back upstairs, and no longer like a cat, i clumsily "attempted" to crawl back into bed, loudly lost my balance, and spilled tomato soup all over the girl and her lap and several other people's laps and heads and the mattress.

everyone woke up confused and anguished and i was like, "oh my god, I'm so sorry. I just got really hungry and it's all i could find."

and everyone immediately accepted with absolutely no further questions that I would go downstairs, make tomato soup at 6 am,and bring it back to bed. everyone just begrudgingly climbed onto the floor and went back to sleep while I put the bedding right into the laundry.

i don't even know this girl's name. i only remembered this story recently because i'm in my hometown for a few months and recently a high school acquaintance said, "hey. do you remember spilling soup on everyone after prom? why did you do that?" and for a moment i genuinely did not and i stared at them completely dumbfounded while the memory loaded and then i started laughing too hard to answer for 2 minutes.

the best part is i can tell this story, and even if it reaches the people who were there, none of them will know which one of them peed the bed. thanks to tomato soup.