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happy may the fourth with tears in my eyes

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good evening to you all! beginning this new season of rey, LIKE FOR A STARTER USING SEQUELS NOVEL DIALOGUE. could be said by rey, rose, leia, either hux, yendor, snap, who knows. if you’re a multi (welcome!), please just reply your preference if you have one. 💛

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if i didn't trust kitty so damn much with jaina and i didn't know i could hardly do jaina justice, i'd pick her up immediately for the single excuse that i found the craziest and most bang on fc for the yun harla herself I'm SCREAMING

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as i look back through my legends stockpile and take note of how many times a female perspective starts the story, how many times leia's perspective begins the story, it does make me squint at the way leia is the foundation for so many of the women that surround her and come after her in legends vs sequels. the stage is set for leia to become rey's rock and guiding light even as rey decides her new path in life; hell, leia is the leading pov in the tfa novel. even though the two don't meet until the end of the film, the setup is clear. han was the ignition while leia was the goal. i'm talking strictly familial influence here. then tlj immediately removes them from each other's orbit to cast rey into a man's influence. some kind of "at least now you know what you don't want to do" arrangement with luke. once again, rey only gets back to leia at the very end. their chief growing period together takes place entirely in novel form (very good nonetheless), offscreen until their l i t e r a l last moments together. and after those moments they part forever. leia's influence is reduced to her ghost and her saber while rey appears to learn all the wrong things from the whole journey.

if i had my druthers, the setup would not have been swept to the side for the sake of a woman learning a lesson by way of a man. rose actually suffered the same fate in tlj. (i love finn. my issue lies not with him. it's just....the arrangement of it all.) if so much of the second film had not relied on separation, if leia's examples of influential inspiration had not been displayed by shoehorning a moc to make crazy mistakes and fellow female resistance leader communicating plans in a way that actively splintered and slowed down the resistance's survival efforts (justice for amilyn holdo, i loved you in princess of alderaan), if there was even a MODICUM OF COHESION between the three films wrt what actually mattered to rey and what the resistance truly meant both as a concept and an ideal..........PERHAPS THEN there could be a little less to fix but here we are.

characters don't need to be perfect to be effective, of course. but i don't think this is a conversation about perfection of character anymore. it's about respect for effective storytelling as well as following through on established themes without being boring or repetitive.

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Fyodor Dostoevsky, from The Idiot

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                ❝  i have FINALLY  —  ❞  rey warbled from the unseen depths of an aal-1971, half mired in oppressive mud but salvageable. or it will be. that's what she'd sworn several hours ago while corellia's single sun was still at its apex in the sky. currently, the golden knot of light mellowly drifted down its path beyond the horizon and rey felt rather like a champion, despite at least ten delays thanks to rusted hinges, half of her tools gone to who knew where, and mud caked everything.  ❝ — managed to splice all the wires across the control panel back together. even without stripping pliers. i still know exactly what i'm doing. ❞ 

clanging echoes preceded rey all the back way up the harshly listing assault craft, as if announcing her steps before she took them. one of her easier climbs, all told. nevertheless she felt herself blinking against the warmth of sunset once she’d arrived to the lip of the transport. just like old times, if softer and profoundly less rushed. 

a sudden wave of nostalgia submerged rey — half-bittered awareness of how familiar her stance felt while recognizing all that separated her from her old life. the world of cadaverous ship husks had once been her metal oyster on jakku, yet the reward of expertise had never outpaced hunger pangs or the unforgiving struggle of jakku's environment.

the life rey lived now… it could never hope to compare. freedom was all around. in the air she breathed. in the words she spoke. in parsecs flown and hands shaken. planet by planet, stormtroopers were breaking chains cruelly soldered around their hearts and minds. common people were no longer beholden to sacrifice themselves to the whims of galactic despotism. the first order would not only end but become a memory so loathed that the sith eternal would be forced to cannibalize itself. no mercy for tyranny, yet mercy to spare for those who desperately needed it. that was the essence of the resistance.

the essence of finn.

not far away, the silhouette of said friend lingered. rey paused, for no purpose other than smiling fondly down at him. to watch as the vibrant young man became the deep breath of air the galaxy so desperately needed felt sacred. as did time spent together when their individual goals collided in happy chaos. the least rey could do was make the most of it, and she always did.

  ❝  now that this thing is more likely to actually start when we ask it to, it's worth digging out. all systems seem perfectly operational after a bit of encouragement. whether it's for people or supplies is up to you. their waste is our gain regardless. except... ❞

rey jumped down, padding her landing with a touch of the force just to feel it after spending so long focused on exclusively tech. striding to a stop at finn's side, she threw another glance toward her handiwork. critical eyes roved over the dull metallic expanse of the assault lander, a grin growing steadily with every inch examined.  ❝  it looks awful. boring and cold. we could do something about that, yeah? ❞

the war is over and the work begins — for @liberaetor

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@liberaetor #the sequels rpc will not be intimidated by you (the prequel n ot blogs)

YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER

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what is belonging? is it a feeling, a location, a family? is it digging a hole in the ground and calling it yours? is it all of the people you know and love in one place where you can reach them at any moment? or is it a chosen declaration of your worth - an assurance that wherever you go there is a place for you, as you open your heart to the point that you will never be denied what you truly crave? 

and what is significance? is it your name recognized by thousands, syllables tripping off the tongues of throngs or simply the ones you call beloved? is it fame that stretches eons in both directions, a legend of historical proportions? or is it that indestructible hope which nests in the heart, perhaps even the knowledge of what is right and wisdom's power to commit it to action?

belonging is your rebirth. trust that whatever you must be has already begun in you.

significance grows with you. strength has claimed you to do for others what they cannot, and what you always dreamed of doing for yourself. this is your salvation.

REY OF JAKKU, IT IS NOT BEHIND YOU — IT IS AHEAD.

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STAR WARS ROLEPLAY MASTERLIST.

[edited for clarity] reblog this post with 1. your muse name, 2. whether they are a canon sw character, a sw oc, or a non-sw muse with a dedicated star wars au, 3. whether or not they are legends-based and/or canon-divergent [if it doesn't matter you can just skip that bit], and 4. whether or not you're a multimuse,,, aaaaand you'll be added to a very simple masterlist carrd that aims to be updated at least once a month. yippie!

EXAMPLES.

anakin skywalker / canon / single-muse

wedge antilles / legends & canon-divergent / multimuse

james tiberus kirk / crossover / single-muse

additional edit: blogs that are not active after a 6 month period will be removed from the listing. if you want to be re-added, feel free to reblog this post again or reach out directly!

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“She’s something odd and uncertain, half of her was made of stars, full of death and filled with light; her other half was made of scars, full of life and filled with darkness.”

— VàZaki Nada (via wnq-writers)

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*cries into hands* rey the grey force user who fights for justice in the galaxy even if it’s ugly because the light and dark “sides” are too cut and dry and she takes what she pleases from both but is neither fully. she is so angry but does not let her anger carry her, she carries it. rey, who is still sunshine to her friends but is forever restless now because her work is never done. rey who doesn’t call herself a jedi anymore because she can’t say it’s the path she wants to walk.

rey, the bloodhound of the force. 

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the dash is alive again and i'm feeling things

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"I think I am Princess Leia and Princess Leia is me. It's like a Mobius Striptease." - Carrie Fisher (October 21, 1956 - December 27, 2016)

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it's been a bit since i did munday in this neck of the woods, so here's a little something. if you get to know me in any capacity you know i collect three things: 1) star wars stuff, 2) star wars books, specifically og legends printings and first editions, and 3) previously loved stuff of any kind. a convergence of all three occurred today.

i've been trying to track down one of these for AGES. not only is it first ed and used, it's from a fellow star wars book loving friend (who i met at a bookstore no less and instantly bonded with because she spotted my ahsoka purse and screeched). it's even got her ex libris stamp inside too and i just 🥹 I'M SO HAPPY. she moved away two weeks ago so this was huge mood lifter.

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𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧

the year is 34 aby, and the resistance has a new political star.

two, actually. 

the first, a young woman who streaked from galactic oblivion to not only survive capture by kylo ren and torture by the first order, but count a significant victory against ren atop starkiller’s ashes to her name. the second, a young man who'd rejected the first order's stormtrooper programming, proved that starkiller base wasn't as defensible as the first order would like to think, and just narrowly survived what should have been a debilitating lightsaber injury.

about that….

rey is, frankly, more than upset to have missed the bulk of finn's recovery. chiefly, his waking up. instead, she'd run off to the other end of the precious map bb-8 and r2-d2 had put together, components practically shaking with hope and glee. leia's blessing and pleas had gone with her, an enormous privilege, but when all was said and done finn was far more preferable to cantankerous luke skywalker. not even the stunning setting of ach-to with water as far as the eye could see helped sooth her irritation. 

but the island did give her one happy gift: in the end, luke agreed to return to his sister's side - and by extension, the resistance. either rey convinced him or he convinced himself; it almost didn't matter. the journey back to d'qar very nearly reduced rey to exclaiming in luke's face that she didn't understand how luke managed to achieve what he apparently had over the course of the galactic civil war, but she held her tongue and they did in fact arrive in one piece. the reunion of a long-parted sister and brother did manage to soften her heart. as did being able to throw her arms around a mostly recovered but very awake finn. 

eventually it was decided that luke would begin training rey in the ways of  the jedi arts while leia would contribute as she had the opportunity. suddenly, rey's life was busier than it had ever been before. hours spent in hyperspace became days spent in focused mediation or exhausting rounds of dueling and saber forms. it all escalated too quickly. her time on d'qar was limited, and therefore time with her friends was as well. rey began to hoard opportunities to join resistance fighters in the black, defending planets in need or forming up to rain fiery hell down upon the first order. training was important, but the whole reason she was training was the resistance. it made no sense not to divide precious time between both. 

everything spiraled further into drastic change when, after eight standard months of tutelage under luke, the skywalker twins sent rey out alone on a mission to stalsinek iv with nothing save her recently completed yellow bladed saber and a short holo from leia referencing some prior agreement of safe passage "should anything go wrong."

her mission: find the site of a fabled great fountain supposedly spewing water that granted healing and a longer lifespan. the drinking of the water wasn't the point, luke emphasized, but to soak in the fountain's presence, sense the strength of the force around it, and meditate in the wash of heightened power. he'd called it a "nexus", much like the caves of dagobah from his youth or the jedi temple on ach-to and by extension the cave below from rey's recent experience. it was there she was intended to find some semblance of balance and peace. 

during rey's most arduous journey yet to the mysterious hapes consortium, she began to wonder if balance or peace were even possible. 

once she'd manually threaded her way through the heavily ionized minefield of the transitory mists, locking the consortium away from the rest of the inner rim and indeed the rest of the galaxy itself, past the tangled knot holes that threatened to yank her into a plethora of unknown hyperspace lanes and setting her progress maker knew how far back, rey arrived in the hapes cluster that contained stalsinek iv. with great care rey crept her way through consortium space, clinging to the barest threads of the force to show her the way. and show her the way they did. 

from space, stalsinek iv was a jewel-toned planet that conjured thoughts of rich forests and the constant presence of burbling rivers and streams. rey had only moments to feel the intensity of gleeful relief before the falcon's sensors blared, warning her of a speedily approaching craft. there were no seconds to spare between flicking on all the falcon’s shields and a barrage of cannon fire slamming against the falcon’s hull.

kylo ren had followed her through the transitory mists and waited until she'd slowed her search to a crawl before attacking. the absolute sleemo. he was not at all interested in keeping to a low profile and continued to unload his munitions onto her, cornering rey into firing back. 

what followed was a concentrated dogfight that left rey's head pounding as she grit down on her teeth in painful ferocity, the entire span of the falcon groaning from sharp turns and dives. the two ships crawled closer and closer to the surface of the rainforest planet the harder their pilots pushed every avenue of firepower to their limits. 

in a sudden, inspired move that rey could barely telegraph, she fired precisely toward one of kylo's sublight engines and hit dead on. she lost all sight of his ship in the resulting explosion and, taking the opportunity presented, reflexively dove for the planet's surface below. 

not long later, the smoking falcon landed in an almost too-small clearing. planetside, rey found it both difficult yet instinctive to command her rush of adrenaline into a more aware sense of calm. the force was almost breathable it was so strong here, and rey could trick herself into believing she saw the force itself filtering through sunbeams like fog. putting kylo ren from her mind and the oddly bittersweet possibility that she may have crippled him and left him to whatever hapans may come across the debris of his tie, the young woman pressed forward. 

whispers from the force led her step by step, leap by leap, to a quietly glimmering fountain. the surrounding clearing was dotted with a circular arrangement of glittering stone pillars covered in carvings that read long past ancient. such confounding and unearthly beauty left rey speechless, awestruck to the point of utter serenity. how long she stood there, she couldn't quantify. she only knew her time of mute reflection had come to an end with the crack of a saber igniting behind her.

stang. kylo didn’t simply survive her blast. he’d limped his craft down to the surface and followed her through a barely habitable jungle to the fountain luke warned her was partly myth, but worth protecting with her life if discovered to be real. 

the following fight was merciless. 

minutes or hours couldn’t keep pace with the two adversaries. rey and kylo clashed again and again and again, losing their sabers only to find them again, diving between columns and dodging falling debris. all the while, the force nexus roared, imbuing each force user with an intensity of power they'd never before felt capable of. not even on starkiller base when the voices of jedi past had whispered in rey’s ear, encouraging her with every strike and even mutely suggesting multiple offensive moves she'd never before considered with a saber or her quarterstaff. again and again red mingled with yellow as rey valiantly attempted to drive kylo away. yet they were evenly matched with every swing, the force answering each of their calls to it with bellowing might. 

and then the force quieted and was gone. 

completely. 

such an anomaly was enough to cause kylo to cease his barrage and rey hers, though their sabers were still locked together. rey stared into the obsidian blockade that was kylo's mask, unwilling to pull back. strangely, his helm left her view as kylo's head whipped to the side, apparently detecting something rey could not.

the unmistakable thudding of footsteps reached her ears too late.

upon hearing them, the sound of blasters being set to what she hoped was stun overrode all other questions. if her and kylo's dogfight had not alerted hapes' defenses enough, their fight and subsequent destruction of the fountain certainly had. 

rey was momentarily confused by the sight of armed soldiers wearing what looked to be night vision paraphernalia. but there was no time to think more on it once the command came to put their hands in the air. characteristically, rey had no intention of doing so. kylo, apparently, felt the same. almost as if they were linked, kylo and rey began to take down as many soldiers down as they could, enough to form a path of escape. they were nearly there when a strange thought to “stop the attack” squirmed its way into her head. very unlike rey to think such a thing, but the thought was persistent and rey eventually wore down and listened. as soon as she stilled, a cry of “set to stun!” broke through the air and rey went down like the ruins behind her. 

the scavenger woke in darkness and not alone. she and kylo had been brought to an unfamiliar cell and thrown in together to wait on whatever fate the hapans felt was deserved. in typical fashion they argued until more soldiers materialized to remove rey from the cell and haul her somewhere private for questioning. she quickly found that whatever strange technology had been used to fool her into thinking strange thoughts, that made her obey commands, was once more being employed. every question she was asked she had to answer in full truth, leaving no details out. 

but the strangest one was the question of whether or not the names isolder or tenenial djo meant anything to her. her open response in the negative seemed to confuse her interrogator. 

she was sent back to her cell after all inquiries had been exhausted, but quickly removed one more time before she could begin explaining to kylo what had transpired. soldiers murmured that prince isolder had arrived. it clearly meant something very important that he was here, although rey couldn’t fathom why.

many halls and doorways were passed in haste, but one door at last swung open to reveal a standing, clearly regal, older man. he ushered for them both to sit down, then began speaking. slowly, strangely, but clearly. and as he spoke, rey soon began to realize that her life was changing in a far more immediate way than ever before: she and this prince were related. 

not only that, rey was the royal heir of hapes and granddaughter to ta’chume herself. quite possibly strangest of all, her name was kira. her true name, after all those years. 

isolder continued for long minutes, answering all of rey's poorly pieced together and sometimes silent questions. the air was filled with more and more and more practically unbelievable stories that rey nearly refused to accept outright – if it hadn’t been for all the proof isolder was willing to provide. apparently, fourteen years prior, civil war had been tearing the hapes consortium apart at the seams and the royal family were scrambling to keep the throne and stay alive. the crown prince and chume’da’s six year old daughter was under heavy protection, but apparently not enough. to rey’s shock, she was informed that she had not been left behind out of necessity or abandoned with prejudice, but smuggled far, far away from her home to the relative safety of coruscant. only, during a refueling stop on jakku, a bounty hunter tailing them at the behest of isolder's rebelling brother kalen pulled rey and her nursemaid from their ship, sold the little girl to unkar plutt, and flew away with the nursemaid never to be seen again.

a simple story resulting in disaster that left a family in pieces. almost worse was the revelation that rey no longer had a mother. tenenial had died shortly after kira's birth under suspicious circumstances. rey couldn’t pick which was worse: discovering that her apparent mother was dead, or realizing that even if she'd been able to grow up in hapes she would never have known her at all.

an alarm suddenly split the air calling for the prince and his "guest" to be evacuated. kylo had escaped his – their – cell and was now nowhere to be found. and he was armed. rey sprang into action, determined to follow kylo and stop him before he made it off planet. a path of destruction was laid out in front of her as rey discovered that he'd taken her saber, too.

for the second time that day she plunged into the jungles of stalsinek iv in search of her quarry. once she breached the walls of what she now knew to be the mist patrol's outpost, the force returned to her with a vengeance and rey bounded to catch up with her rival, only to reach him just as he boarded his tie. with his and her sabers clipped to his belt. miraculously, the falcon was not far off. rey jumped in and threw all systems into overdrive in order to catch up. but for once, the force was on kylo's side – that or his mind was far clearer. he managed to evade her completely, diving into the transitory mists and out of her reach.

this battle of their was over and she was weaponless. yet on the ground things did not get better. a previously unnoticed transmission from leia had been beeping away, waiting for rey's attention. the first order had sprung upon the resistance's d'qar base, forcing them to abandon it completely. the entire population of the base was now in hyperspace on their way to what they hoped was a viable new location, still to be determined. luke stood by leia’s side, offering advice and support, but they both urged her to abandon the consortium at once and meet them at a soon to follow rendezvous point. that had been five standard hours ago, and there was no second message.

rey turned the falcon toward the mists and began her journey back anyway.

it was only when rey on a strange whim stopped above jakku for no other reason than to stare at it that the second message arrived to meet on batuu. black spire, specifically.

upon arrival, poe and finn met her in a rush and practically carried her back to luke and leia. rey's entire story burst forth without preamble. both the twins' reactions to the name isolder were peculiar, but none more so than leia's. come to find out, leia had previously met isolder under almost equally strange circumstances. but as rey came to the end of her story, silence reigned. continued to reign until rey was half inclined to demand the full details of what happened on d'qar. luke broke the silence first, however, by suggesting the two of them go in search of another crystal with which to build her a second saber. then he turned to his sister. what leia said should not have shocked rey, and yet it did anyway. she suggested returning to hapes and speaking more with isolder – maybe even stepping into the place his daughter should always have had at his side.

true power came not only from the force, leia said, but in other, more surprising places. this could be one of them.

so rey did the only thing she could do: listen.

after a standard month of searching and not-so-patient crafting, a second (still yellow-hued) saber fit perfectly into rey's hands, singing the same song as the first crystal had. soon after she reluctantly boarded an x-wing nursing feelings of dread despite all of the kindest goodbyes she'd been offered. batuu shrunk to a pinpoint behind her, along with the warm force signatures of everyone rey had come to love during her time with the resistance. there was no guarantee she'd ever see them again.

her arrival at the transitory mists was as unwelcome as the first go round, but she made it through the second time with far more skill. unsure what else to do, rey returned to the site of the force fountain and from there picked her way to the hapan military outpost. once again the force left her in a cascading of numbed silence, but enough soldiers remembered rey that her quiet request to speak to the prince was heeded unusually quickly. prince isolder was indeed called and arrived in record time. rey greeted him in embarrassed silence, unwillingly willing to do whatever he asked.

rey didn't remember much after that besides climbing aboard isolder's transport, touching down in a place called ta'a chume'dan and being told she would need to undergo a dna test before anything further. all this in order to be presented with confidence to ta'chume, the prime ruler of the hapes consortium. in a fog, rey went where she was led but barely slept in the room set aside for her, so consumed was she with this new place, new life, and new purpose. 

the next morning, she was informed that the test results had finished calibrating. isolder at last had his answer.

rey really was kira ka djo.

what came after that, only ta'chume would be able to tell her.

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE: this verse is based off of the legendary fic "landscape with a blur of conquerors". while loosely following the beginning story beats of the fic, i've changed many details in order to make the story more my own, although all credit belongs our eternal reylo goddess thea for both the base idea and the inspiration with which to create a verse. this one goes out to you, kylorenvevo. may the force always be with you.

[graysistance]

Hapan Battle Dragon by Mark Tedin