#creche genocide

[liesmyth]

My theory on the ninth house fertility issue is also that, while the neurotoxic *only* killed children it also rendered a portion the house infertile. Since we know the aunts who applied it went blind

Could be that even though it just got pumped in the childrens sections, there was still some leakage into the nearby barracks and caused some lasting internal issues

I LOVE THIS IDEA thank u. tagging @theriverbeyond so they can see me using the phrase "reverend cummies" again. As in, that one moment of reverend cummies made so that the whole House would shoot blanks forever :(

[evilminji]

Been Havin Thoughts™ >.>

About the Tragedy of SI-OC born too late to change anything...

About KNOWING. Exactly what's going to go wrong. Potentially how to fix it. Having a head crammed FULL of hundreds of authors of Fix-Its, Meta discussions, Tumblr posts. Uncertain that it truely WOULD change anything... but? Plans within plans. Possibilities. The options and ability to do SOMETHING. All there.

All useless.

Because... Because, you? You are a child.

Born too late too make a difference. The machinations of monsters are already well underway and it is far too late to stop that trolley, bearing down on you. No. No, now?

Now you get to make a CHOICE.

The needs of the many? The needs of the few? Yourself? Who do you try and save? Who CAN you save? From this sinking ship. This slow, painful, tragedy? No one's going to listen to a child. Not really. Not TRUELY. You are merely... a Witness.

There are SO MANY Scenarios!!!

But! For this? The one that currently haunts me?

Force Nexus~☆ under the Temple~☆! What COULD it do? I wonder?

Imagine it. You are a Youngling. A Temple Child. You KNOW what is coming. Order 66. The suffering. The Death. An empire built on the enslavement of good, loyal men. The genocide of Jedi. Every night you struggle to sleep. Toss and turn. Look at the tiny sleeping faces of children in you Creche... and you KNOW.

You KNOW.

Just as you KNOW... that no one will listen to you. You did try. Carefully. And you are glad you did. Your trust was betrayed. They did not listen. The end barrels closer and closer. The Force WEEPS in your mind, like a wound hidden in smoke. You... you have to decide.

Save yourself? Run? You could. You might survive.

Take the infants? Bundle them away in the night? You'd have to time it just right. Or they'd chase you to the ends of the galaxy.

Or... or do you do... THAT?

The thing that scares you. The one your not sure your brave enough to do. The one that... that would be JEDI of you? You are scared. Just a child. Thought... thought you would have longer...

In your heart... already know. Exactly what you're going to do.

So you sneak out. It's far too easy. With so many minders, away at War. Hang around the Senate. Well away from the Sith. You... you just need the inevitable to happen. Hate yourself, for preying on the Vode. Sure enough? Some asshole orders a good man to be "decommissioned" over imagined offense.

He is escorted away by his brothers.

You follow.

Let them grieve. Before quietly interjecting. You need his help. To save his brothers. Since he is to die either way... would he mind dying with you? You hate asking. What choice does he HAVE now, really? He is condemned. You feel like a monster.

When he asks if you are CERTAIN it will help his brothers, you think of the records you have read. Yes. Yes it will.

He does not look at you, like you are a monster. There is a grieving understanding between instead. You leave at once. Back to the barracks. Things left behind he will not be coming back for. Everytime you leave the temple, you are much the same.

Now you decend.

Down and down. Level by level. Past where the light no longer reaches, past breathable air. To the old temple. Long forgotten. Desecrated by the Sith. You are a youngling. You can not purify this place. But oh... oh you can try. Any spark of Light in this darkness. Like a trail of breadcrumbs, made of stars.

Down and towards the Nexus.

It rattles your bones. Aches in your teeth. Colors beyond color, time outside of time. Every step becomes a struggle. Until it is too much. You must be carried. Your trooper does not mind. Helps you stay present, attached to your skin. Luminous as you are.

You... You get there.

It Is BEAUTIFUL.

The Force is HERE. And Here flows the Force. Everything One. Your lines, simple matter, begin to break. How... how could you possibly care? It is... no. The hand in your's reminds you. Your reason for all of this. The Vode. Their fate. You look to the man who has become your friend. Would weep for him, if you could. But... but it is too late now.

For both of you.

You are One with the Force. And the Force is One with you.

In the starlight, the fracturing, of what's left of your brain... you PULL. The chip. The advanced aging. The shroud the Sith has pulled around himself. All... all things are possible, in the Force. ALL THINGS. Perhaps not all... with flesh and bone... but? With the Force? The... The Vode will be free.

What is distance, mere matter, to The Force?

We are everywhere and nowhere. Everything and nothing. Our power is infinte and killing us. And... and that is okay. It does not hurt. The Light... the Light is BEAUTIFUL. We did this on our own two feet.

We are one with the Force.

And that is okay.

[lime-bloods]

Intrusive thought for you: could the limeblood genocide have been Alternia's "Butlerian Jihad", riffing on Dune's anti-computer cults? as a means of explaining the green goo inside Alternian computers and general adherence to biotech/psychics for automation. Equius building robots only to ritually destroy them feels in line with this, in a loose sense

as in, a reimagining of the sopor theory wherein blood of the lime caste didn't just become bed slime, but also the data pus alternian computers run on? i bandied the idea around last time i was thinking about limebloods - somewhat jeeringly, but as far as limeblood conspiracies go it's probably among those i find the most believable. "lord english paints his conquests with his sister's green blood" is pretty solid ground and "there's patriarchal significance to the ooze that fills alternia's machines" is a pet tenet of mine, so there's certainly merit.

to my mind, i guess that would be more of a reverse butlerian jihad? where the mentats are done away with so that they can be replaced with far more ruly machines. the reversal speaks to my assessment that the extermination of the limebloods should be in some way linked to the extinction of humanity on earth, where the condesce consistently had to replace unreliable old biological machines with robotics; and the comparison to dune's jihad seems consistent with an ongoing theme we see on alternia where dramatic political change occurs as a reaction to social upheavel. first war with the signless sets the scene for hivebent's arc, and then the summoner's rebellion turns alternia into the creche planet we're familiar with; it makes sense to presume, as many have in the past, that the limebloods were done away with in response to some uprising of the organics that mirrors the rise of the machines on earth?

[fanfic-obsessed]

Fall and Rise

This is another not really a fix-it, though it does fix some things. It is important to know, going in, that the Creche was slowly emptied throughout the war. The children were grouped by species and hidden with creche masters in the most difficult to reach places for each species (deep underwater on worlds non aquatic species had a hard time for the aquatic species, A mountains world for Avian species and so forth), following an indistinct warning in the Force, so there were only a handful of children (the ones that did not need specialized environment) and two crechmasters left in the temple at the time of Order 66. It is also important to know that Anakin/Vader did not kill the remaining children, though he still marched on the temple and killed everyone else. In this universe the children were just a step too far.  

He orders the children not to be harmed and taken off Coruscant. The security tapes cut out before that point so no one knows what happened to the children later.

To set the stage we have an Obi Wan who is on the very edge of falling, vacillating wildly between duty and his attachment (to Anakin, to Cody, to his men). In another world, the death of the children tipped the scales, forcing Obi Wan past his blind spot where Anakin is concerned. Even watching the march on the temple, without the added horror of the children being slaughtered, Obi Wan is left with the feeling that Anakin must have had a good reason for what he did (he is thinking the same of the Clones).

Yoda, who has just as big a blind spot for Obi Wan as Obi Wan has for Anakin, still sends Obi Wan after Anakin.  He doesn’t seem to perceive where Obi Wan is, mentally, just presumes that the younger Jedi would do his duty. 

Padme still ends up confronting Anakin on Mustafar, Obi Wan still ends up stowing away. But before Anakin can lash out at Padme, Obi Wan (still flickering between the light and the dark) makes himself known. And instead of fighting Obi Wan is asking him what’s going on, and if Anakin knows what happened to the Clones. If he knows if there is a way to fix it.

This manages to derail the confrontation as both Padme and Anakin stare at the Jedi Master literally begging Anakin for answers.  Anakin doesn’t know what changed about the Clones and answers thus. 

It should be noted that both Anakin and Obi Wan kind of assume that whatever happened, overwrote the clones for lack of a better term. They do not know, or do not make the connection, to the chips. So they assume that who the Clones were before Order 66 is gone, forever. 

The idea that his men are lost forever, on top of the death and the darkening of his bond to Anakin, drops Obi Wan into the Dark(in another world it took Anakin slaughtering the younglings for Obi Wan to fall on the side of duty and even then he could not strike the final blow). He does not become a Sith, no that takes an additional deliberate atrocity (Which is why Canon Anakin did not become a Sith with his first genocide), but he does fall into darkness. This has the weird effect of drawing Anakin back toward the light, partly because of shock.

It is not difficult for Padme and a Fallen Obi Wan to convince Anakin to come with them. On the way off planet Padme goes into labor. She still dies in childbirth, and through handwaving plot related reasons our fallen duo know that Palpatine is behind her death. 

Now our half fallen duo are left with twins, Padme’s corpse, and the knowledge that Palpatine is very much their enemy. They are also faced with the realization that they are about to be forced into roles they are not comfortable with. 

Because they can agree on two things, they need more information and the new Emperor cannot know about the twins. Anakin is the only one who can go undercover (the undercover part being that he still follows the emperor), find out what is happening and potentially kill Palpatine. Obi Wan is used to being at the center of every fight, the front lines…but he is the only one who Anakin trusts with the twins and there is only one place they can go, one place that they can hide…Tatooine. They reason that if no one knew Anakin, the little powerhouse that he has always been, existed until after he left Tatooine, then something about the planet must hide force sensitives. They also decide to send the younglings with him. 

Knowing that Anakin is still able to order the clones, or whoever they are now, Obi Wan asks that Cody be sent with him. He is just selfish enough to want the man with him, even if he is not the same as he was.

So Anakin goes back under the pretense of being Vader; and he did slaughter everyone in the temple, save those handful of younglings. He brings back Padme’s corpse, looking pregnant, and visibly grieves.  He knows nothing of Yoda’s continued survival, the budding rebellion, or survivors of Order 66 going to ground. His focus is to find out what is going on with the clones and destroy the emperor (Made harder by the fact that Palpatine is not an idiot, he no longer meets in person with Anakin after Padme’s death). While doing this he very carefully tries to undermine the Empire (If he can get away with it, releasing prisoners and blaming it on the officers. Fouling up campaigns, but only in ways that will not see his people punished) and he thinks he is being subtle but he isn’t (Again the Emperor is not an idiot and Anakin is not all that good at being subtle, but it is amusing the Emperor to go along with it).

Obi Wan takes the younglings, the twins, and Cody (mostly personalityless at this point. He has been ordered by Anakin to treat this as a deep cover mission, and that Obi Wan was not a traitor. He has also been ordered to follow Obi Wan’s lead) to Tatooine. They are not quite as good at going under the radar as canon Obi Wan, but quickly establish a small compound in the Jutland wastes and a ‘Don’t fuck with us’ reputation. Once every six months a call is made to Anakin, letting him see his children.  Over time Cody begins to develop a personality again, not quite the same as his Order 66 self, but close enough that he and Obi Wan grow into a romantic relationship. 

Five years in there is an incident with the Hutts that makes staying on Tatooine impossible. Neither Anakin or Obi Wan know about the chips, but Anakin has long realized that he could get the clones acting something like themselves if it is for an ‘undercover mission’. So he sends the 212th to pick up Obi Wan and Co. The ‘mission’ the 212th is given is to pick up their commanding officers and ‘defect’ running around the outer rim and wild space until Obi Wan has finished ‘collecting evidence’. 

Given time and the space all of the clones, like Cody, begin to develop their own personalities again.  Part of the chips has, for lack of a better term, disconnected them from their previous memories and experiences but did not touch the ability to make new memories and develop personalities based on their new experiences (given the opportunity, which most Imperial clones were not, the 501st and the 212th being exceptions). Cody, for the most part, is so similar to earlier self because Obi Wan unconsciously treated him as Cody. 

Another five years pass before the rebellion finally gets someone in to see Vader. This someone is codename: Fulcrum.  They had realized fairly early on that Vader was not as committed to the empire as he seemed (In that he would release prisoners any time he could get away with it. A few Rebels have stories of Vader dropping a datastick, with good intel, looking down at it meaningfully, looking at the hiding rebel, then deliberately directing his troops in the opposite direction) but also that, like any other undercover agent, he will kill Rebels if he needs to maintain his cover.

So Ahsoka finally gets to see Anakin after almost a decade. Anakin is ecstatic because he believed that she and Rex had been killed. They have a frank conversation about the fact that Anakin did actually fall, and what he was still doing with the Empire (He was bound and determined to kill the emperor, but hadn’t had the chance yet).  At some point the talk turns to the clones and Ahsoka asks how many of them have been dechipped.

Anakin asks, very quietly “What?”

A room two corridors away may have exploded as Ahsoka explained about the chips, what they do, how to detect them, and that they can be removed.  Anakin promptly starts with the medics in dechipping the 501st. They found pretty quickly that some clones woke up with no memories at all, some woke up with nothing past half an hour prior to Order 66, some wake up just as they were before the surgery except they no longer felt compelled to follow orders, a handful remained in a vegetative state, and a very few woke up with both sets of memories (and trying to integrate the disparate personalities that went along with having two very different set of memories).

After the process has been tested Anakin packages up the information and sends it to Obi Wan. 

Obi Wan reads through the information and carefully presents it to the 212th (phrased to not set off ‘they are traitors’ and get everyone into a bigger mess). He then gives every clone a choice, to remove the chip or not.  If it had been at the beginning, when they were all so mechanical, then he would have simply had them dechipped, but it had been ten years and these men had become individuals all over again. Obi Wan was selfish enough to want his people with him, he was not selfish enough to force them to have brain surgery on the off chance the personality he remembered would wake up (and really even if there was 100% chance, they deserved to decide). 

Some decide to remain chipped, knowing what it meant (The ones that remained chipped would not be able to use the communications array, for fear of receiving some order that would do them all harm. They would also be watched and sequestered away from nat borns when needed). Boil, in particular, knew he had lost someone in the war and had still been grieving Waxer when the Order had gone out.  He did not want to potentially wake up in the middle of that grieving all over again. 

Cody thinks about it. He thinks about it for a long time. He is not the same person he had been during the war, Obi Wan had admitted that early on. He didn’t know, as there was no one left to tell him, if he had loved Obi Wan during the war. And if he did, if that version would love this version of Obi Wan (Obi Wan was still suspended between the dark and the light, and was not the same man he had been before Order 66) There was no way to tell which version of him, or another blank slate, would wake up. He might lose all the memories of his children (the twins and the younglings, plus a dozen other children they had found over the years who needed a home). Would the morals he had during the war even fit in their family? On the other hand, the chip meant he could be controlled (This version of Cody could not think the Emperor would abuse that power, but could admit that there were those who would).

During this reflection, Obi Wan is waiting patiently to one side.  Even though the length of their relationship would normally give him the right to an opinion in such a large change, even if he didn’t get a vote, in this he felt he could not give an opinion. In part because it would read as an order to the chip. He is Dark enough not to feel guilty about the past 10 years (Realistically, no matter how he felt about Cody or how slow their relationship went, he has almost a decade in a relationship with a man who was not capable of saying no. There was a good chance that the chip caused some or all Cody's feelings, rationalizing Obi Wan’s desires as his own). He is Light enough to ensure that Cody gets to make his choice as free of Obi Wan’s influence as possible. 

Finally, Cody says, “If the chip stays I will always be a danger to our children.”

Obi Wan can’t argue that. If it had been just him, he likely would have been willing to risk it to have Cody for sure, even with the danger. But the children would be in danger.

Cody decides to have the chip taken out, he could not let himself become even a potential danger to his children. 

They spend one last day together, all of them, before the surgery. Both Obi Wan and Cody are careful to explain what was going on (there were a total of 15 children ranging from young adults to 5 years old) and what might happen. That Cody, no matter what, would always love them. Even if he didn’t know it. But he would rather never wake up again rather than being any kind of danger to them.  

Obi Wan and Cody also spent that last night holding each other. Neither are willing or able to offer a reassurance that might prove false. It is the right thing, taking the chip out, choosing freedom. But they both felt like they were sacrificing something, sacrificing happiness, and it hurt. 

The operation is a success and Cody does wake. He is lucky as he wakes up with both sets of memories, and he is unlucky in that he is emotionally disconnected from both.  Like he remembers loving his children but does not feel it at first (Though he very quickly comes to love them again).  And he remembers how deeply he loved his brothers, Pre Order 66 (after they were friends and comrades but not brothers in the same way), but can’t connect that to a feeling. And both versions loved Obi Wan, but the memories do not contain the feelings. 

And he spends a fair amount of time trying to figure out who he is, with all these memories playing like a movie but with no emotional connection. And he is trying to figure out if he loves Obi Wan, or if it was the chip, and even if he did love Obi Wan, could he reconcile who the man was with who he is.  

And Obi Wan is trying, ok. He is trying to be happy that at least their children didn’t lose their Cody. He is trying to not put any pressure on Cody while he is figuring out who he is, but he forgets sometimes that he is not currently allowed to flirt, or touch with intent (Unfortunately Cody’s body remembers Obi Wan very well, so he will reciprocate before either realizes it). So it is awkward and even as they begin to fall in love for the third time there is a constant ‘do they really feel that or is a remnant of before’ from both of them. By the time that all of the 212th that were interested in having their chips removed, had them removed (It takes about three months and is 95% of the 212th), they realize they have been sharing a bed again for a week.  

After the great dechipping, Obi Wan reaches back out to Anakin to get in contact with the Rebellion.  At some point they start talking about the dechipping and Obi Wan says that everyone who chose to have it removed has, and he would be looking into how to shut off the compulsion to obey for the rest, about 25 clones (taking into account potential size of the 212th, less potential losses in the 5 years they were full with the empire). 

Anakin blinks a bit and goes ‘you're letting them choose’. Everyone listening just kind of sighs deeply (Though they have no way to track it yet, actively choosing to have the chip removed increases the chance of having one or both sets of memories, and decreases the full amnesia and vegetative reactions). All of the 501st have been dechipped. About half of the remaining clones have been dechipped and are carefully being coached so that the actions are not being noticed (By this point Anakin has actually learned something that resembles subtlety, so they are fooling everyone, including the emperor). With the help of the Rebellion, they have reached out to some of the clones that were dechipped clone medics who are able to go undercover to speed up the removal. One of the last full groups left is Palpatine’s personal guard, the remnants of the Coruscant Guard, and it is nearly impossible to get someone, even another clone, in there for enough time to dechip anyone. 

Because of the nature of freeing the clones, the 26 clones from the 212th are the only ones who have been given the choice of remaining chipped, but some members of the rebellion have been trying to research a way to shut off the compulsion to obey from all of their still chipped brothers.  This means that those 26, representing the only free clones with chips, were a valuable resource for. The dechipped clones (and Obi Wan) never let anyone forget that the chipped clones were also people. The Rebellion never intentionally forgets that but, for the older members, there is an awful lot of trauma surrounding the rise of the Empire and the trauma wears the face of the chipped clone troopers (Particularly if they were Jedi or Jedi adjacent). For the younger they are used to the Chipped troopers being very robotic (who would shoot anyone without hesitation upon being ordered to), as very few outside of the 501st and the 212th were given the opportunity to develop a personality in the post Order 66 world.  

There is just…so much trauma. On both sides. Outside of the 212th, who all actually get it (because they all thought about what it meant to have the chips removed, and how tempting it was to have everything remain as it was, chips included), everyone looks at those 26 clones in askance at wanting to remain chipped.  Eventually a way to deactivate only the compulsion to obey and the active Order 66 parts of the chips is discovered. It is a specific multilayered frequency, and once it is discovered there is a mission undertaken to to have this frequency broadcasted throughout the galaxy. 

Palpatine’s personal guard, still led by Fox, are alone in the room with Palpatine  when the compulsion shuts off. It is telling that without any memory, with barely any of their old personality and no new ones, the first act of all the clones in the room once the compulsion fades is to shoot Palpatine until the charges run out on their blasters. There was no malice, no anger, and no hesitation. Palpatine was a cunning, powerful Sith. There is no doubt. But even he trusted the obedience of the clones, trusted the chips that have made them his for the last 10 years, that does breed a certain amount of complacency. Without the malice or anger, there is nothing for the Force to pick up on before they start firing. 

There were 50 clones with the Emperor at all times, spread throughout whatever space he was. They always had the most up to date equipment, as their only charge was to protect the Emperor by any means necessary. The newest model of blaster can fire continuously, a rate of 5 bolts per second, for precisely 86 minutes (though the power of those bolts will drop significantly after 60 minutes, then continue at a steady decline of halving the power every ten bolts after that point). 

Palpatine held off the blaster bolts for an impressive 20 minutes and 6 seconds; it took all of his power so he could not go on the offense. In that time he held off a total of 301,500 blaster bolts fired by 50 clones (All accurate without the chips suppressing some of their skills). Even after the Emperor fell to the floor, dead, the clones kept firing (Though no one will ever know, Fox was the one who fired the shot that killed the Emperor). Forty minutes in, someone calls Lord Vader, because there was a noise, there is now a blackened smoking corpse, the clones are still firing (in total silence, which somehow makes it creepier) and no one can find the Emperor (no one actually thinks the smoking corpse is the Emperor and until the clones stop firing, no one can check).

Anakin, with his 501st, arrives at the Imperial Center and into the throne room 84 minutes later.  At 86 minutes all of the blasters stop firing at once and the room seems dimmer for a moment. The only thing Fox says is that he thought that would be more satisfying than it was. 

It takes 6 hours, three inquisitors, 7 different mops, and what had to be a misuse of the force to scrape enough of the corpse up for testing. That testing confirms that the Emperor was now dead (Anakin will have to live forever with the disappointment that he did not get to decapitate the Emperor personally, though they eventually let him take a single swing with his lightsaber at the bucket holding the remains to stop him from pouting). The Emperor did not build his empire to outlast him, there is no succession.  No one is even sure if the imperial senate, the inquisitors, or anyone has the power to take charge.  The closest thing they have is Anakin who, having not been rotting his brain with constant pain and hatred for a decade, decidedly wants nothing to do with ruling.  He doesn’t know what he wants, since his only goal for 10 years was to kill the Emperor, but he does know, not that (He barely remembers he has children at this point, also they are ten years old and have had different parents for those ten years). 

Once they find out that Obi Wan is still alive, some of the Senate try to tag him in to help fix things. His ‘Fuck no’ is mostly polite, at first. The second is a little more emphatic. The third comes accompanied by the severed limb of the asker. When the fourth came complete with one of the heads of the asker (the species had two heads, so survived, but severely maimed) everyone decided to leave him on his own. He, the clones (as many as wanted to, which most did), and the children retreated to a planet in wild space. Over time other survivors of Order 66, including Yoda, found their way toward their planet. Most didn’t stay (I cannot emphasize enough how much trauma there is for all parties, and sometimes even knowing that the clones were not in control of themselves at the time of Order 66 is not enough) but some did.  

Anakin does come around frequently, he eventually goes on to be a mechanic for Hondo Ohnaka’s crew, but can’t stay in one place.  He becomes something of an uncle to all of Obi Wan’s children (including the twins). He never gets romantically involved again, as no one ever measures up to Padme in his mind (Also the few times he tries his partner tells him his actions, behaviors, and beliefs about relationships are really unhealthy, he just takes that as confirmation that Padme was the only one for him).  Ironically he is the one who will eventually introduce Leia to Han, and facilitate their elopement. 

After a number of years of hard work Bail and Breha Organa get enough of a structure in place to try and fix things. Breha ends up Empress for about 8 years before they can transition back to a Republic. Though it is built better in many ways, there always feels like there is something missing, because they built it with a place for the Jedi. And the Jedi are, by and large, gone.  What is left won’t fit in the place made for the Jedi of old.  

Ahsoka stays with the Rebellion as Bail Organa restructures it to take the power of the empire.  She both understands, but also judges Obi Wan and Anakin for leaving the Empire to its own mess.  She is a half trained war padawan, and the closest thing that the galaxy has to a traditional Jedi (even Yoda is so so done, he barely leaves Dagobah and feels that the Jedi died on the day of Order 66, as he had no idea that there was ever hope in the form of Luke Skywalker), most of the wisdom and traditions of her people are gone, and due to her upbringing she missed out on many of them. She does her best to recreate it.  She is moderately successful, gathering force sensitive younglings to teach, finding a temple (Not the one on the newly renamed Coruscant) to teach them at. She is even able to find a few teachers in the wandering Jedi, the immortals that wander the Galaxy following the Force. She has a leg up on Canon Luke, as she actually lived as a Jedi (instead of getting the 4 month crash course and saying it is good).  It will take generations for Jedi to find their footing enough to take part in the Republic fully again. On that day Yoda, still living on Dagobah and coming to the temple every few decades, will feel something in the Force settle. And he will travel to Coruscant for the last time to join the Force in what was once the Coruscant temple. 

Obi Wan and Cody, almost against their will, become leaders on the planet they settle on (after they pass into the Force it is named Kencody after them both).  They both are just a bit too efficient at leading not to be tagged in. It is much more low key than the leadership positions from the past (mostly part time). Much more willingly they start something like an orphanage, providing a safe place for children of all ages, races, and all types of Force abilities. Many parents with force sensitive children, who don’t wish to give them up to Ahsoka’s Jedi, will move to the area around their orphanage, so that their children can still be taught. Cody never quite regains his emotional connection to the memories he made from before his chip was removed but he was able to make many new memories with his surviving brothers.

[crechetale]

Some genocide route Creche!sans concepts, as his tactics are quite different from classic sans (bro using bones as boxing gloves what a goober)

I may have spoiled the whole blasters design but who cares :p

[wellthebardsdead]

Lae’zel: *staring in utter horror as the sun lance obliterates creche y’llek* NO!!!

Shadowheart: Well. That solves the creche coming after us then.

Lae’zel: BY GENOCIDAL MURDER!!! MY KIN!!!

Shadowheart: now you know how the monks must have felt watching your kin slaughter all their brethren.

Lae’zel: Shut your mou- *looks up to see a flying pig soaring from the wreckage*

Falûne: *riding on Hens back with Astarion holding onto his waist* guys! Check out this cool mace we found!

Astarion: *holds up a gith egg* Lae’zel we got a keep sake for you~

Lae’zel: … *walks to her tent and grabs her pillow screaming into it*

[peachdoxie]

Was it ever confirmed that no one was born after the creche genocide? Because it seems strange to be that no one had another child after Harrow was born.

[sequesteredbhaalspawn]

I feel like a lot of people do not understand that the Githaynki really only ever come to the realms (an explore the planes for that matter) for the sake of killing people, enslaving people, and stealing from people.

Yes, Creches exists in the Realms too but, Creches are more a kin to military bases where child soldiers are made. Lae'zel just has a rose-tinted-glasses view of them.

The Githyanki do not interact positively with other beings. They just don't. And that is not the fault of the current Vlaakith, but Gith herself who saw Githyanki freedom in the terms of enslaving every other race in the multiverse, not leaving a single other group free, and genocide of the Mindflayers (and I shouldn't have to say this but genocide is literally always wrong, there is not gray area, there is no "but what if..." scenario where it is justified). The CURRENT Vlaakith just usurped her position as queen to have the Githyanki help make her a god.

[evwritesgames]

The Telenemites appear as large, bulky, “rock women” according to humans. They are really a hyper-dense mineral lattice “core” that accumulates a body over hundreds of years. The core is the life form and they represent one of the most unusual forms of life yet encountered. 

They are as individualistic and subjective as humans but organize into a rigid caste system that has existed for eons. Effectively, this makes Telenemites a “monoculture”. This system divides “high” cores and “low” cores with a range of specific roles, categories, and obligations. This is based on lineage, with all Telenemites tracing their origins across a specific type of core. It also has a secondary social layer based on shape, the most important aesthetic category for their species.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the Telenemites were a spacefaring empire that focused primarily on the cultivation of barren, mineral-rich worlds. They occasionally encountered desirable elements on planets already occupied with life forms, even intelligent ones. In the past, Telenemites had a “manifest destiny” style policy of colonization which ALTO classifies as genocide. A revolution shortly, by their standards, before first contact with ALTO, demolished the old imperial system but their civilization is still finding its footing, a process that may take eons. Many believe that belonging to an interspecies, pan-galactic community will give their people a new purpose and new vision. One of the more contentious issues is the caste system, with many younger Telenemites advocating for its abolition. 

Telenemites can survive the total destruction of their outer bodies so long as their cores survive. Damage to the core manifests as physical and mental disability and is often incurable. Telenemites can regrow new bodies, much faster than the initial accumulation that represents their maturation, and often do so with a greater degree of control over the final outcome. Most come back a little different than before and, depending on circumstances, the renewal of a Telenemite body can be a happy event celebrated similarly to a birthday.

Telenemite do not require two genetic lineages to procreate and any Telenemite can have a child if they want to. The child will always be the same core which has some implications for appearance and personality that are analogous to human genetics but they are not clones, contrary to a common misunderstanding about them. 

Children are created in “mineral pools” in special nursery creches that cut down the time it takes them to grow, though some parents prefer natural growth rates (or are stuck with them) and will forego this part of the process. Telenemites spend many years as little more than a gemstone immersed in sludge. When they emerge, their bodies are tiny and nearly featurless. As they mature, they gain better control over the growth process and begin to shape themselves, usually in keeping with broad norms and aesthetic standards. No two Telenemites, even relatives and even from the same caste, tend to look much alike (though exceptions exist here too). Different types of cores have different mass tolerances and a Telenemite will stop growing when she’s reached hers. 

Telenemites may appear feminine to humans but they have no biological sex or social gender. In languages that have them, however, they typically use feminine pronouns though exceptions exist, especially among Telenemites that learn about gender constructs from other civilizations.

Telenemites are, perhaps surprisingly to some, deeply emotional beings and experience feelings humans would call love, affection, and even a form of sexual desire. These kinds of feelings have a history of repression in their culture as they were long considered an aberration from “purpose”, which is often the single most important value to a Telenemite. A Telenemite without purpose is like a ghost, according to their customs, and cannot truly live until they’ve either regained the loss or found a new purpose. Because of this, exile is one of their most enduring and severe punishments. In exile, a Telenemite has no purpose but their own survival, which is considered base and pitiable. More recently, many Telenemites have come to consider the repression of empathy and emotion to be the result of social engineering, meant to keep individual Telenemites from bucking the caste system or protesting policy decisions about other living things in the universe.

Telenemites harvest and consume minerals, rock, and crystal. They have special rules about this because most mines are also farms and this dual industry, as far as they’re concerned, is the most important one and subject to the most scrutiny and regulation. Telenemite miners are highly sought after as they can save a lot on, for example, prospecting equipment. Telenemites consider asteroids to be fair game in all respects, placing special significance on planets and moons, and Telenemite spaceship technology is primarily based on hollowing out asteroids and sticking engines on them. Their ships and stationary orbitals tend to be huge, weird, and slow but very difficult to destroy.

Fun fact: during planning, we referred to them as "the real crystal gems". They are a direct reference to SU based on the "what if CGs but not so anthropomorphic?"

[liesmyth]

Wait I actually have an answer for the Cohort one! Aren’t they committing genocide on other planets as part of the goal to turn them into necromantic planets? Presumably they’re losing some soldiers to that.

I also remember someone explaining away the “no other kids” as “all the other parents or would-be parents got spooked and left, leaving behind only the most devout diehard desiccated nuns.” But I don’t remember if that was evidenced in the text

They are! I'm just very curious about the logistics of it because it sounds like they are fighting someone, and from what we know so far the only *reliable* way of faster-than-light travel in the TLT 'verse relies on necromancy.

I just can't believe that remains of the FTL fleet (who jumped blind! looking to settle somewhere they didn't know existed! and probably took several lifetimes to build a stable civilisation and millions must have died!) expanded SO far that there is a significant population of non-House descendent of humanity that the Houses must fight against to secure the planets to flip. It's been thousand of years, and it's implied in AYU that the Houses have access to the only reliable form of faster-than-light travel, hence why BOE getting the stele is such a big deal.

So idk. Either there are aliens out there, or "flipping a planet" implies Cohort soldiers killing each other, which IMO is not EJG's mode of war crime.

(Re: the Ninth. That's the most plausible explanation for the demographic! But I struggle to believe that Glaurica would be the first person to reveal to outsiders about the creche death, unless everyone who left got sewn tongue'd—which could be an explanation; Gideon wouldn't think it noteworthy and that's why it never came up)

[notquiteaghost]

help i need someone to stop me i have a problem

The Mando tilts their head to an impressed angle. "Tion gar Mando'ade?"

"I speak shit pidgin Mando'a," Cody says, "And the only Mand'alor I know is marching on. Where in all the oceans did you wash up from?"

The Mando says, "Nevarro," and Cody blinks.

"You're from a covert?" Then he shakes his head, and finally takes a seat beside them, waving Annileen off. "No, that's not my business. What do you want with the Jedi?"

The Mando doesn't answer for long enough Cody's fingers start itching towards his blaster, but then they say, "I have… a foundling. Tano thinks he's a jetiika."

There's the popping feeling of Obi-Wan appearing just at Cody's shoulder. There's a ringing in his ears. He says, "What?"

"He's not human," The Mando says. "Don't know what he is, but Tano said he's been a kid long enough that he–" They swallow. "He was in the Temple. Before."

Obi-Wan makes a choked noise. Cody croaks, "Can I see him?"

The Mando hesitates, but must see something on his face. The raw devastation, probably. They nod. "He's on my ship. It's not far."

Cody and Obi-Wan follow the Mando to their ship. The Mando disappears inside, then quickly comes back out carrying a youngling. A green, familiar youngling.

Cody has to press his fist over his mouth to swallow back his sobs, to pull together enough composure he can say, "Hey, kid. Been a while, huh? You remember me?"

Grogu beams at them, waves both hands, babbles wordless about push feather and the pond in the garden room and riding on shoulders. Cody's knees give out.

The Mando says, "You know him?"

[laciefuyu]

hi i want to hear your thoughts on this: ahsoka trying not to kill the clones when they were attacking her & rex on the star destroyer, vs yoda & obi-wan killing the clones outside the temple when trying to get in. i've seen people argue that bc obi & yoda did that, they never truly cared for the clones & just viewed them as soldiers, not people

[my last ask sent before i was done typing] personally i think ahsoka knew that they weren't themselves, so was trying to save them — meanwhile, obi & yoda just knew the clones turned on them and maybe thought that they willingly betrayed them & so were just acting in self defense? (i'm not entirely sure how the whole mind control & force signature thing works, does it change your force signature or-) 2/2

I heard of that argument before and frankly, that's really nitpicky. Here is the thing, their situations are extreme. Obi-Wan was shot from behind and fell from the cliff by his men then overheard how his men tying to ensure that he really died. Gree was about to shot Yoda if he didn't sense it first and act on it.

It shouldn't be even in question that they are acting in self-defense.

They don't have the luxury to stop and question why their men betray and attack them with how many things are at stake. They have to stop the signal telling Jedi to return so they could prevent more of their family dying lives are literally falling apart, stopping the sith lord that orchestrated their genocide, children live in the temple's creche (which you know when Obi-Wan and Yoda manage to get inside the temple, Obi-Wan's sad remark 'Not even the youngling survives' was they really hoping at least children lives would be spared but no.) and their men who they fought together with were literally won't hesitate shooting them. It was an extreme situation.

and I genuinely don't get why Ahsoka's action somehow means she truly cared. Did people forget before she knows the chip is a thing she literally letting Maul loose as a distraction? Then Maul literally makes a distraction that was literally just, all the same, killing the Clones without regard. That's the consequence of her actions. She put the Clones' lives in his hand. She said she wouldn't be the one who killed them after she found out about the chip but that's just a rationalization of her actions but again it was an extreme situation. Just like Yoda and Obi-wan, I won't hold it to her for making decisions that are not perfect. All of them making the best decision they could come up with the situation on hand.

But this fandom, of course, makes it about moral superiority and invalidating Jedi's care for Clones despite the various evidence. in their blind dislike for Jedi, would do anything to make sure they are always wrong. It doesn't matter for them that there is the context behind the actions if they could use anything to invalidated Jedi, they will. Forget the fact that out of the universe that ROTS was back then in 2005, when the chip is not a thing yet and the clones just mean to kill Jedi.

(Also Force SIgnature is actually a Fanon thing, not canon. They could sense things in the Force and how it feels but the concept of Force Signature itself is Fanon.) Anyway, that take is nothing new and surprising, this fandom never stops finding things to hate on Jedi about anything they could find.

[fanfic-obsessed]

We are all Jedi

Consider this:

It is barely a few months into the war. The Jedi know they have been manuevered into leading a child slave army, of course they know. But knowing and being able to do anything substantial about it are two different things. Then an idea sparks. 

No one is quite sure how or who. Perhaps it started as a way to let the Younglings help with the war effort, they all want to help so badly.  Perhaps it started as a complaint from an exhausted Council member.  Perhaps from the Crechlings who found out that Anakin Skywlaker had never been in the creche and insisted that he sleep there one night when he was on leave from deployment (after all, all Jedi need to sleep in the creche at least once) and he came out of that night so much more settled. Perhaps it grew, organic, the way such madness does.  

The Idea: they would induct the clones as members of the Jedi Order. It could not become official until the war ends, they would have to be honorary members until they were allowed to update their roles, but they could have a ceremony.  It is decided that the Initiates and younglings would design the ceremony, which ended up including a night spent in the creche.  The younglings insisted that this ceremony had to be done in smaller groups, so it could be special, so it took nearly a year to induct all of the clones (the first group being the Coruscant guard). And it is entirely possible that Fox and the CG accidentally, and without realizing it, found a way to shield certain information from Palpatine. After all there is a Rodian younlinging in the Creche who’s first words was ‘Fox’.  Whom he may visit every other tenday, because she loved to cuddle him and all of the creche masters told him that he was her favorite. 

From the point of the first ceremony there were always a few platoons worth of clones in the creche with the younglings.  Clone Cadets were given access to, and encouraged to take, the remote classes setup for the initiates and padawans. Padawan commanders now had study groups of their own troops where they could discuss philosophy and ethics and that one essay (Everyone has that One Essay). 

It should have been such a small thing, such an insignificant thing, at first many of the the Master wept for the fact that they could not even make it official. Could not free the troops, could not push back against the senate. Could not even tell anyone that the Clones are part of the Order, rather than just belonging to it.  But…But, every trooper got experience sleeping under a pile of younglings. Had the pleasure of being fought over, not because they were made for war, but because this one colored the best or that one could do fancy braids. They could wander in and out of the Temple like any other Jedi. And there would always be Pong Krells in the world, but it was so much harder to see someone as disposable or less than when you run into them at 3am in the archives, trying to finish an essay you remember struggling with as a child.

Some things change and others do not. 

Then Order 66…The Jedi are traitors. 

Only…

The Clones are also Jedi, they slept in the creche and everything. And we could go the sad route: Madness and suicide and even more genocide. But we could also go the other way. 

If the Clones are Jedi and the Jedi are traitors then the Clones must be traitors as well. And Good Soldiers follow Orders but they are not Good Soldiers.  They are Traitors. There are a number of clones that have a minor freak out because they ‘don’t know how to be a traitor!!!!’ but then someone goes, ‘we can ask our Generals/ Commanders/ our Creche masters, they’ll tell us’. 

There is still a good couple of hours of utter confusion for everyone involved as the Jedi try to work out why the troopers thought they were all traitors.  In the creche it was universally decided to hand any trooper that comes through the door a youngling to hold as it seemed to calm everyone down. In the Archives, a dozen archivists conspire to give the troopers, many of whom are shaking and confused, something easy and fun to research (the resulting papers would later be cited as the foremost authority in a hundred different topics). Two battalions that had been fighting droids at the time of Order 66 accidentally enter into a cease fire when they inform the droids that they are traitors to the Republic and the droid can’t figure out if they are supposed to keep shooting or not (the clones don’t know either) (the Jedi generals are just glad for the respite). 

And the Coruscant guard has possibly been waiting for this moment their entire lives. Each member of the ‘Guard has a list of senators, aides, and assorted others that they would kill given even a sliver of a chance. Immediately upon the news that they are traitors, Fox has them armed and storming the Rotunda.  Most of them expect to die, and want to take a few of those bastards out before they go. 

Fox himself, feeling more cheerful than he had in some time, meets up with Padme Amidala in a Senate hallway. He nods his head to her respectfully ‘ma’am’, as if she hadn’t just seen him shoot a particularly odious senator's aide. 

Padme is cautious and very pregnant, but she is one of the few people who the troopers are trying not to hit. “Commander Fox? What’s going on?”

“Oh, the Chancellor declared us traitors.”

And Padme, heavily pregnant, looks around at the panicking being rushing through the halls, the troopers stalking through somehow radiating a menacing glee, “So your first action is…this”

Fox nods agreeably, still far too cheerful, “Have to be sentient to be traitors. If we’re sentient, then we’re being abused and assaulted, and all those other words where a sentient is being hurt by other. Can’t blame us for taking a piece out of our abusers.”

And Padme feels like she should be able to argue with this but really can’t find the words. Fox, on the basis that she is one of maybe one hundred non clones in the Senate building who is not on any of the ‘Guards kill list, decides that she should be escorted to the Jedi temple with it’s healers. She is very pregnant, all this stress could not be good for her,  and the Temple has better medical facilities. Fox manages to round up one of his medics and three troopers whose lists were small enough that they have exacted their revenge already. They are to escort Padme to the temple, along with any of the other ‘Not to Kill’ beings that they might come across.  

Anakin starts to storm past, but realizes that Padme is there. He is half fallen to the dark, dazed and looks a bit like corpse. Fox decides that he also needs to be escorted to healers, and makes a joke that Anakin should ‘help’ escort Padme, to make sure this stress isn’t going to hurt her. Anakin, being dazed and more suggestible than is truly healthy (also oblivious about many many things), takes him seriously.  They are sent on their way to the temple, where the healers look at Anakin and Padme, promptly getting both of them into a bed.

A few troopers, chasing a senators aide, find Master Windu in the lower levels and bring him to the temple (they may want revenge but they are Jedi first and Windu is one of theirs).

Sidious, who was on nearly every kill list, is powerful. There is no doubt about that.  He can easily stop up to twenty blaster shots, plus three slugs, at once. However there are 150 Couruscant Guard, including Fox and Stone, who are able to claim the privilege of shooting him. Twenty five of those with slug throwers. 

He died without ever finding out what went wrong with his plan.

[siennahrobek]

Somehow, it was both easier and harder to breathe once they were in hyperspace. There was a feeling that Cin had in the pit of his stomach, one he could not quite identify. Something of both dread and relief. It was an intriguing combination, of course, and something he would have to meditate on later.

He would have to meditate a lot later.

But there would be later. Right now, he had work to do. They all did.

Obi-Wan had gathered his makeshift council from just before the evacuation, with even a few more bodies, both jedi and clone alike, many heads of departments or former counselors themselves. It was a good varying selection that would probably prove beneficial to the rest of their journey.

Now the battle, the evacuation and the escape were over. Or at least, the immediate danger passed, Cin had very little idea of what would happen now. He had been so caught up in the fighting and urgency and danger, to his surprise he hadn’t even thought of the after. Would there be a safe place they could go? The Republic was against them, claiming them traitors and to be killed on sight. The Separatists were apparently virtually defeated and if they hadn’t been, they would have never, in a million years, granted the jedi and the clones sanctuary. Not that Cin really wanted to ally himself and the jedi with the people that would invade and massacre and enslave entire planets.

Perhaps a neutral planet? Mandalore was out of the question, even though Cin believed Obi-Wan may have had some ties to there, but it was in a complete state of chaos, last he had heard. Most of the other neutral planets were generally peaceful planets. It was hard to imagine that the newly formed Empire would let them stay that way. Any planet that dared to host them would be practically begging the Empire to come after them. He doubted any planet would touch them right now; the jedi were toxic. No one had to look at news feed to know that.

They had tried to commit genocide.

They had tried to kill them all.

Perhaps he should think deeper. Would they go further? Wild space, unknown territories, somewhere that was abandoned or not explored? He didn’t think he would mind reinhabiting an ancient and forgotten Temple. Any ancient Temple that wasn’t in the minds of the Republic or Empire or whatever government was running the show would be in need of repairs. That may be interesting, seeing what survived and restoring it. Building more. Or even creating a new one on a different world, far away from the Empire. Something new and big, something that gave both the jedi and the clones space to do what they do. At least, until they could figure out a plan to strike back.

Surely not the entire Republic would just accept this tyrannical rule laying down.

Cin had to believe that some people, some planets would not agree with the Empire.

He hoped they were vehement.

Some of the most experienced masters and heads of different departments stood around a war table, alongside a couple of the clones. Commander Cody and Captain Rex were the top two, alongside a few others Cin couldn’t quite recognize for more representation, he imagined. Or at least, more minds to contribute to the ideas moving forward. Any help would be welcome.

Masters Oppo Rancicis, Coleman Kcaj, Jocasta Nu, and Master Healer Vokara Che were several of the master jedi and jedi researchers that had been asked to attend, along with a few others. They stood in a circle along with Cin Drallig himself and Shaak Ti and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan leaned against the table, his hands curling around the edge as he rolled his shoulders, staring at the map of the galaxy before him. It spread out for as much as the Republic new – or rather – cared for planets. Cin was fairly sure that Madam Nu’s archives probably held even more planets. All the planets were little dots, hyperspace lanes and territory markers spread across the picture. Shaak Ti had a hand on Obi-Wan’s shoulder.

“We are going to need a plan,” he announced, glancing up at those in the room, his eyes sweeping around the table, as if challenging anyone to say otherwise. He was in a bit of a tired and defensive mood, even Cin could tell. He couldn’t blame him, not after what he had to get through. Cin thought he needed a nap after this. A nap sounded good for the young master currently. It sounded good for virtually everyone currently. “Right now, we need to think of immediate needs before anything else.”

“Food,” one of the other masters nodded.

“Yes,” Obi-Wan agreed. “Now, we should have plenty of rations between the ships for everyone for some time, mainly because the siege on Utapau was believed to take more time than it actually did,” Obi-Wan explained, straightening himself and shifting his robes for a better appearance. That boy, always making sure he looked the part. Appearance was always something to look out for when around politicians, it was hard to break that habit, Cin imagined. “Do we have anything for the babies?”

“I already have some assistants working on inventory of what food and supplies we have,” Master Rancicis said, curled fingers moving around his hand, gesturing around. “We were able to bring quite a bit from our own stores from the Temple, almost all nonperishables, of course. We should have at least some things for the babies for the time being.”

“We will need to figure something else out, though. It won’t last long,” another master pointed out, worriedly, wringing her hands out. A bit nervous, Cin could understand that. The future was darker and far more uncertain that it had ever been in their lifetimes. Now, there was not the comfort of the Temple. There wasn’t the comfort of the Council making decisions or a place in the Republic. There wasn’t even the comfort of the ageless and timeless wisdom of their grandmaster. “I have a few ideas, if you would allow me?”

“Of course,” Master Shaak Ti nodded. She didn’t need permission. It had appeared, that she, Obi-Wan, and himself were heading up this journey. It would make sense, a little. Both she and Obi-Wan were Council Members, the only current ones among them. And Cin himself, he had more experience than most when it came to defense, leading and security. They would make a good team. Cin would have to think harder about the future, not just the present. “If you need some help researching or brainstorming anything, take anyone you need to assist. Our first priority is survival.”

“Right now, we have enough food and rations,” Obi-Wan concurred with a swallow. “I know for a fact we don’t have enough beds, how are sleeping and temporary living arrangements coming, if anything?”

Coleman Kjac spoke up, the Ongree master shifting his large fingers out of his robe, eyes calm and undisturbed. “One of your Lieutenant… Waxer, is it?”

The soldier in question nodded; Cin could feel Obi-Wan’s faint relief in the Force. This soldier he trusted, Cin noted and tucked away in his mind.

“He has been assisting me and a couple of others and crechemasters with arrangements once we had left the planet. For anyone who doesn’t have very specific needs, it turns out creche piles will mostly be the answer,” he tried a smile, but it mainly fell flat. It was hard to find anything even vaguely amusing at this time but very few would complain about going back to a time where they would all sleep together in piles. Comfort could be found there. “Blankets and pillows will have to act as beds,” Master Kjac explained, his tone dropping into something more fatigued. “There is much space, even with the other soldiers and ships, but we have had to keep the younglings away from the chipped soldiers, just in case.”

None of the current troopers had looked even the least bit offended, rather nodding in agreement.

“Speaking of which, how is de-chipping going?”

“Quite well,” Master Healer Che replied, calmly, stepping forward with her lekku twitching. “The surgeries are quick and all droids we have brought along are working constantly with volunteers. The troopers are rather…eager to get them out.”

Completely understandable in Cin’s mind. He probably would have been the first in line if that had happened to him.

“Injuries?”

“We have brought as much bacta as we could,” she continued, her frown deepening. It was a resource that didn’t often have much on hand. With the war, the Senate had allowed them a little more in their stores, which was a gift for them at this time but, as there were so many people aboard, he imagined it would go fairly quickly. “There is about one or two bacta tanks on the ship but luckily there is no one injured so much that they are necessary at this time. If we don’t need to submerge, I would say not too, just for the bacta supply.”

“Non chipped troopers have been helping out with the children,” Cin found himself speaking, gruffly. His voice felt like sandpaper, and he imagined it sounded like it too. “The survivors from the siege have been more hesitant; they…blame themselves for the most part.”

Obi-Wan stiffened, his gaze meeting Cin’s. The younger master often had a problem with blame, generally with himself while trying to get others not to be the same way he was. It was an interesting dynamic, although Cin wished it different. “I will speak with them,” Obi-Wan promised, quietly. “If they fear to be near the children, they don’t have to be around them as of currently,” he paused and looked back at the map. “We are unable to keep communications with anyone out in the field as of now, due to the Empire having our codes and us being in, well, hyperspace.”

“Sir,” one of the clones raised his hand, hesitantly. “I…I have a team working on new encryptions. We have been working on them for a while, but it isn’t something the Republic…er Empire would know about yet. Because they aren’t quite finished. But we can get them done pretty quickly, I think.”

Obi-Wan nodded and smiled, eyes nearly wrinkling enough for Cin to actually believe it was a genuine smile. They were all trying so hard. “Thank you, Menace. That is very much appreciated.”

“Is there a way to get at least a coded message across?” Cin asked, glancing at the clone, his eyes sweeping back. “Even if they can’t get back to us, we can give them at least some information?”

Menace nodded. “Sure, we can encrypt a coded message. Since the other generals probably are not in hyperspace and are rather, stationary, we have the equipment to send it out because we know where they are. However, it may take a little time to set up, we can probably get them done tomorrow.”

“You and me, will talk later,” Cin said, gesturing to him. This was good news; they could at least get some information to the other field generals, some instructions, something. He couldn’t imagine what was happening out there right now. “So, we can send those out. Obi-Wan, would you mind helping me?”

The jedi general nodded.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jocasta Nu asked, raising a flawless eyebrow. Somehow, she made that seem so easy and impeccable. Cin had spent years perfecting his own eyebrow raise. He was almost a little jealous.

“Kamino,” Obi-Wan answered shortly.

The roomed turned into a feared uproar, voices calling and arguing over one another in argument. Commander Cody’s eyebrows furrowed as Obi-Wan just sighed, running a hand across his face.

“ENOUGH!” Cin barked over the noises and voices.

Everyone knew better than to argue with that tone and they settled down.

“As I was saying,” Obi-Wan started again, shooting Cin a grateful glimpse. “We are heading to Kamino. I had warned a trooper I know of the impending danger long before we knew what was going on. Not only has he and Commander Colt been studying the chips in the clones, but they have also, on their own, started a mutiny and are defecting from the Empire,” Obi-Wan explained, calmly but Cin could feel the relief and even a bit of elation that he was projecting. No one would have known it unless they were paying attention to him specifically.

That helped the rest of the group as well and they shot apologetic glances at Cody and the other troopers.

“I have offered a place for them amongst us,” he said, abit quickly, trying to get the words out before an uproar would rise again. Cin doubted they would; most of the jedi liked the clones or had some positive opinion on them. Their fear had only been about their younglings and the chips, which was something Cin could understand as well. “I know I don’t have the authority specifically to do it without the Council’s permission but well, we didn’t have time and they are with us. Alpha-17 has made it fairly clear, we are stuck with them. Personally, I am quite alright with that.”

“Not that I mind the clones coming with us, they should know they are always welcome amongst us but that is a lot of chipped clones,” one of the masters noted.

“Alpha and Commander Colt have discovered a pulse that temporarily nullifies the chips,” Obi-Wan explained. “And I’m sure between our droids, Master Healer Che, their medics and their droids, we can get them de-chipped in very little time.”

“We should set up some rotations of guard duty,” Cin suggested.

“Guard duty?” someone asked, skeptically.

“Communications, any coming ships, chipped clones. In case anything goes wrong,” he added. “Any number of things could go wrong, and we cannot depend soley on those awake who take care of the ship during those hours to fix those types of things for us. They have their jobs, and we need to play our part.

“We can set up some rotation schedules,” Shaak Ti agreed.

“Everyone can help,” Obi-Wan murmured.

Cin and Shaak Ti’s gazes caught nearly in mirroring deadpan expressions. Even so, it was easy to see what she was thinking. He was thinking the same thing. Obi-Wan would be sleeping, not driving himself into the ground, if they could help it.

There was a little more discussion about the immediate future and even some a little further out, but they decided to wait to make any more big choices until they at least got to Kamino, hopefully when they could get communications up with other generals. Hopefully some council members, Cin thought.

“It appears you have things fairly well in hand, Master Kenobi,” the new voice had surprised Cin but he just looked towards Obi-Wan’s reaction than the speaker themselves.

Obi-Wan just looked up, calm and plain-faced. Only the bags under his eyes foretold his exhaustion. “I am just trying to get as many as I can to survive, master,” he answered, respectfully.

“You are good at that, surviving.”

It wasn’t quite a question or an accusation; a bit of a statement Cin supposed. Shaak Ti caught his eyes. “I think that is enough for now,” she announced, stepping closer to the table. “Even masters and professionals such as we need some rest,” she pointed out.

“I can start on a schedule,” Obi-Wan shrugged.

“Just for tonight,” Cin replied, a bit flatly. “You’ve been up and active for longer than most of us.”

He didn’t say out loud what everyone knew he was thinking. Obi-Wan hadn’t slept since before Utapau. He hadn’t really rested either. He had helped fight Count Dooku and helped rescued the Chancellor, start an attack on Utapau, fight and defeat General Grievous. Only to come back home, have his commander attack him unwillingly, and his apprentice, leading brainwashed troopers that Obi-Wan knew personally on his home to completely destroy the Temple and kill all the Jedi. And then, of course, fighting said apprentice and helping with the evacuation. It was a wonder he wasn’t dead on his feet.

Obi-Wan’s face didn’t change but he nodded slightly. “Of course. Just tonight.”

He didn’t wait for anyone else, but Lieutenant Waxer led him out of the doorway.

“Should we really let Kenobi be making leading choices?” another new voice Cin could not quite place asked quietly in the silence. “Don’t get me wrong, he is a great Jedi and warrior, but he is not really stable right now,” someone suggested. “And he isthe one who trained and was the closest with Skywalker. There is also the matter of Count Dooku-“

“Enough!” Shaak Ti, her voice booming to a point that surprised everyone. She was not one to raise her voice but when she did, everyone listened “Obi-Wan Kenobi isa leader and quite an excellent one. He has already helped lead us out of extinction. He knows how to survive in this galaxy and is one of our best chances at survival.”

“There is a reason he is the youngest Counselor,” Cin Drallig added crossing his arms over his chest. This would not get out, no one needed Obi-Wan to doubt himself more than he already did. “And needless to remind you, he was in charge of quite the portion of the GAR.”

“My brothers would follow him anywhere,” Cody insisted, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“You cannot blame him for Skywalker’s fall,” Shaak Ti continued and somehow, she seemed to straighten herself even further, continuing to tower over most of the others. “Do we fault Master Yoda for Dooku’s fall?” she questioned, eyes sweeping over every one of those present. Or at least, the jedi. Cin had a feeling the clone troopers were not worried about Obi-Wan’s soundness or leadership skills. “Tholme for Quinlan’s? Mace for Depa’s? Perhaps for those you that remember, did we fault Qui-Gon Jinn for the fall of Xanatos? No, not at all. Many of us spent years convincing him of otherwise. We cannot and should not blame Obi-Wan for Skywalker’s, no matter how far the boy has gone,” she affirmed.

“And as for emotionally stable, he will not fall apart right now,” Cin added, calmly. It was something he had noticed over the years. Obi-Wan never fell apart in the moment, not when there was conflict or danger or even war. It was always after, in the quiet moments when he could meditate, put himself together and calm everything down. Cin had seen it after the first war Obi-Wan had gone through, the months after being full of hyperattention and fear of any number of things that final dwelled into a bit of a breakdown later, when he realized he was not going back, and the danger had completely passed. “He is good at this,” Cin realized out loud. “He needs this to keep going, keep surviving and frankly, we need him too. We cannot toss him out of things because you think he may fall apart. That will just make it worse.”

“He is the only one aside from you, Master Shaak Ti, that is currently a Council member,” Madame Nu pointed out, her gaze piercing. No one could quite tell what she was thinking.

“So, I do not want to hear another word about Obi-Wan’s place among us,” Shaak Ti announced firmly, looking directly at every single jedi in the room. “Not even a whisper.”

No one spoke and had a difficult time keeping Shaak Ti’s intense gaze. It wasn’t that there was that much doubt but there was worry, concern, over everyone involved.

“He does not need to hear this, your doubt in him.”

***

For some reason or another, Commander Cody and Captain Rex stayed with Cin as the meeting adjourned. They didn’t really say anything, but he eventually realized why they had stayed with him. He was intent on finding Obi-Wan and getting him to sleep; they were as well.

True to his word, Obi-Wan was in his office, making a list with a few other officers, Waxer being one of them, to figure out who would all need to be notified for their duties.

“Have you figured things out?” Cin asked after his greeting.

Obi-Wan looked up and nodded. “Yes. Just for tonight, as I promised.”

“You aren’t on that list, are you?” Commander Cody asked.

Obi-Wan just scowled lightly. “No. I figured you would be upset if I did.”

“You have been active for quite some time,” Captain Rex added. “I think it is safe to say, all of us want you to get some sleep.”

The jedi glanced away as a few of the officers filed out. “I am not entirely sure if I can at this point. There is so much to do, so much to plan. So much…so much to think about.”

“There will be a time for thought, planning and meditation,” Cin promised, his voice low. “But right now, what your body and your mind needs is some sleep.”

He hesitated.

“I know your duel with Skywalker is haunting you, Obi-Wan,” Cin added, reluctantly. He didn’t really want to have this conversation with so many around, even if they were people Obi-Wan trusted. “Perhaps one of the medics has a sleeping aid for you.”

“One of the Jedi masters, he mentioned creche piles,” Commander Cody said, almost absentmindedly. Cin glanced at him; the commander seemed to at least know what they were.

Obi-Wan looked at him and nodded. “Yes?”

“Come with us, with some of the 212th. We are putting bunks together with the survivors of the 501st,” Commander Cody suggested. “We may not be Jedi, but we have been travelling with you for quite some time. You…you trust us to keep you safe on the battlefield. Can you trust us to keep you safe asleep?”

“Of course, I trust you,” Obi-Wan said quickly, as if he was offended by any notion that he didn’t. He quickly realized his mistake but by then it was too late. Within moments, Cody, Waxer, and Rex had dragged Obi-Wan out of the room and down the hall.

Cin just chuckled to himself and picked up the list Obi-Wan had curated, going through the ship and talking into his commlink, notifying masters and knights what was happening and what their duties were. It would be hours later, well into the night, that he finally finished and made his way towards a sleeping area. He had half a mind to just confiscate Obi-Wan’s office.

Speaking of…

The battlemaster found himself walking towards some of the barracks, finding where some of the men were sleeping. Sure enough, the survivors of the 501stand some of the de-chipped 212th had shoved bunks and mattresses together on the floor, sleeping haphazardly around and over one another, looking more like a weird lump of grassland rather than a pile. He chuckled. That was certainly how the creche liked to do it.

Within the near middle of it, surrounded by near identical faces was Obi-Wan, leaning against one of the soldiers and completely surrounded by others. There wasn’t a spot to be found within ten feet of him. He could even make out some younglings within the pile as well, although they were generally all older and few in between. He had a feeling that was because of the 501stfears.

“I do miss the days, sometimes,” Master Shaak Ti’s voice appeared next to him. “Where one could sleep wherever, in whatever position, in piles of loved ones.”

“It has been a while, hasn’t it,” Cin agreed and huffed, faintly amused. “But I’m sure we can find somewhere and some others to create an adult crecheling pile. Or, if you are feeling brave, join the actual crechelings.”

Shaak Ti laughed lightly and offered her arm. “Care to join me?”

He almost hesitated. Cin had originally intended on mostly staying up; there was so much to do, and the future was so entirely uncertain. But he curled his arm around hers and shot her smile. He would have plenty of time to stay up in the days and weeks and months to come. He may as well get some sleep while he still could.

“I’d be honored.”

[levitatingbiscuits]

I'm a little scared, but...tell me more about "Padawan child soldier au where there Republic figures out that Mandalorians don’t like to harm children and takes full advantage"?

i have a series of posts about it already under the “child soldier au” tag, but thank you for the opportunity to ramble about my headcanons and justifications! it’s absurdly long so i had to hide it under the cut lol

welllllll, we all know from the clone wars that the republic had no problem sending jedi children to the battlefield to die. in the first battle of the war on geonosis, anakin was the only padawan and youngest jedi present at age 19. 200 jedi (a full 5% of the jedi order) died within a few hours at most. as the war continued and jedi knights died in droves, ages continued to drop until they were sending out 14 year olds like ahsoka just a year later. 

i’m not sure if this was due to mandatory jedi general quotas (older padawans got their own commands before they were even knighted, at least according to the 1st star wars: clone wars cartoon), but considering palpatine manufactured the conflict in order to more easily commit genocide, I think it’s very likely. Ahsoka is shown to be sent back to the temple or sent on peaceful (or at least supposed to be peaceful) missions a lot more than either obi-wan or anakin, and she often spends time with other masters while anakin and obi-wan are busy with the war (or with padme, in anakin’s case :/ he always has time to hang out in her apartment and go to her parties or escort her places and i think palps has a hand in it, considering how we pretty much never see obi-wan or the other jedi have that much free time).  

SO: if the senate and the republic citizenry are so eager to send children to die for them when there’s literally no tactical advantage whatsoever, they’d definitely use child soldiers against a culture that treasures children.

Of course, this might be difficult to notice at first, considering that Mandalorians come of age at 13, which is also the cutoff for initiates to be accepted by a master before they have to leave the Jedi Order. (love me some jedi/mando cultural parallels.) However, considering that their parents literally coach them through their verd’goten (warrior’s trial), and the reward is to be able to forge their own beskar’gam, I think this stage of “adulthood” is equivalent to a jedi apprenticeship: more freedom and responsibilities, but you’re still learning and being closely monitored as you come into your own. they’re also expected to live with their parents until they get married and start their own family, so I see marriage as equivalent to knighthood. Mandalorian youths are NOT encouraged to engage with the enemy directly, as we see with jaster and jango, jango and boba, and din and yodito. they might get peripherally involved, or help from the sidelines, but if you target the child directly the parent whoops your ass in short order. (notice how jango lets his kid near jedi when he won’t even let the kid meet most of his bounty hunter colleagues, because he knows that they don’t hurt kids. notice how obi-wan doesn’t even THINK of going after boba even when he’s firing the ship’s guns at him, and how the jedi don’t touch him even when he’s in the middle of the arena on geonosis and they could probably use him as a hostage.)

but padawans don’t have a marker of adulthood in the way that mandalorians do. you can become a padawan when you’re still in the single digits. at first, the jedi would work very hard to keep their padawans from having to fight directly against the mandalorians, but going off the clone wars, as casualties rise among the jedi the average age of the combatants drops.

going against the jedi is FUN for mandalorians. for a significant portion of their history they hunted jedi for sport. but going against an eerily graceful master is  a lot different than fighting some half-trained shrimp, and without any armor they can see how YOUNG some of these jedi look.

so the mandalorians might start hesitating. just a bit, at first. maybe they let the enemy retreat instead of killing them all or something, because they don’t want to kill a master (parent) in front of such a young “adult.” and the republic war machine notices, and sends more master-padawan teams. younger, this time. and the mandalorians let more people live, fight a little less ferociously. (maybe they think of their own children, far behind the front lines, running easy missions with their other parents and clanmates, so excited to be wearing armor for the first time.)

the republic starts sending padawans on solo missions, like in the clone wars. padawans are in high demand as bodyguards for diplomats and senators, like in TCW, not because of their skills but because the whole entourage is much less likely to be massacred if they have one with them; the more baby-faced, the better. age requirements for combatants drop lower, and lower, and lower, until a mandalorian looks at the padawan brandishing a lightsaber at them and notices that they still have teeth growing in. 

and it works. it works well. force-sensitive toddlers start getting conscripted by the republic instead of willingly surrendered to the temple. maybe the republic finally cracks down on the booming slave trade of force-sensitive children so that they can have more soldiers. instead of aging out, Jedi initiates have to complete a few years of mandatory military service before they’re allowed to leave the order or join the corps. the coruscant guard is required to have at least 5 initiates in the senate building at any time.

and who can stop them? there are fewer and fewer jedi every year, even if the creche is overcrowded to bursting. the code has to be amended to allow masters to teach two or four or six padawans whatever they can to keep them alive just that much longer. after all, the order can’t resist the will of the senate if most of them die before they can even reach knighthood, let alone mastery. the mandalorians go after the adults even more violently now because they blame them for putting their children in danger, which ironically means that the republic can exploit them even more easily as their guardians and advocates die out.

[blackkatmagic]

I don't really get how people think the Jedi 'deserved' what they got? First of all no culture deserves genocide like that? They were slaughtered down to the babies in the creche and then the survivors hunted to near extinction. And like, I get thinking the sith are interesting, but a philosophy that involves murdering your loved ones because attachment is weakness? Hard pass for me.

@jedi-order-apologist has a lot of interesting meta on fandom and bad faith takes twisting the Jedi into the least sympathetic light possible via ignoring parts of canon. If you want a fun evening of reading, i really recommend their blog.