#i worked on this instead of my swbb and it's still not done

[littleladymab]

"read I, Jedi," they* said.

"it'll be fun," they said**.

well tell that to me and my several "AND ANOTHER THING" rants in the chat and also the 2k words i've written because if you need to know one thing about me it's that I will always commit to the bit***

(* = @starwarsbookclub)

(** = no one actually said that)

(*** = writing a 'jedi summer training camp' fic in which Ezra meets Corran)

+++

"What's your real name?" Ezra asks that evening, grinning. 

"Kieran Halcyon," Corran answers. And then, because it is a joke that he doesn't quite know the scope of, he asks, "What's yours?" 

Jabba the Hutt was the first answer, given when they met. They were never properly introduced because Luke allowed himself to be distracted by Ezra's teasing. 

This time Ezra answers, "Hondo Ohnaka, pirate." He keeps smiling like he knows a secret, like he is revealing his real name to someone worthy of it. “Would you like to join my crew? We’re always hiring.” 

It becomes a bit of a game after that.

Any time they cross paths Ezra will give him a studious look before asking, “What’s your real name?” 

And Corran will always reply, “Kieran Halcyon,” because that’s what he’s going by. That’s the Corellian Jedi with a legacy of Corellian Jedi behind him that has been making friends with the others. “What’s yours?” 

Ezra strikes a pose and lifts a hand to his beard. “Lando Calrissian,” he answers in a passable attempt at Lando’s accent. 

Corran wonders if Ezra knows that he knows Lando. He wonders how Ezra knows Lando, because he doesn’t recognize the Jedi from the war despite Luke’s familiarity with him. 

(“An original member of the rebellion,” Leia says when Corran asks her one day. She also has a degree of familiarity with Ezra, though he doesn’t ask for their history and she doesn’t provide it.) 

 “Hey!” Ezra calls two days later when he finds Corran just parting from a training session with Kam and Streen. “What’s your real name?” 

Corran feels something clench in his chest and he looks around to check that no one heard. The last thing he needs is this game of Ezra’s to start sowing seeds of doubt. “Kieran Halcyon. What’s yours?” 

This time, Ezra’s grin vanishes and he lifts one skeptical eyebrow as he looks down his nose at Corran — using the full height difference to his advantage. “I,” he intones in what he must think is a decent Core World accent, “am Commander Brom Titus.” 

Corran waits a beat, then asks, “Who?” 

Ezra huffs out a breath and the illusion is gone. “No, you’re supposed to say, what, but, I’m Brom Titus. It’s a whole thing.” 

“I don’t even know who that is.” 

He waves a hand to dismiss it. “Never mind, it was only really funny to me.” 

Then, the next day as they cross paths in front of the dining hall: “What’s your real name?” 

Corran is ready for the question this time. “Kieran Halcyon. What’s yours?” 

“Sssseevor,” Ezra says in a strained, scratchy voice that catches Corran completely off-guard. “Captain of Crawler 413-24.” He emphasizes random syllables and punctuates them with too-long pauses to produce an altogether unsettling effect. “Want to work for the Mining Guild?” 

Then, when Corran finds Ezra with Leia and the Syndulla kid: “What’s your real name?” 

Leia passes a confused look between the two of them but Corran ignores it and answers, “Kieran Halcyon. What’s yours?” 

Ezra has a hard time controlling his smile but straightens his posture and says, “I am Lieutenant Lyste.” 

There’s a peel of laughter from Leia that she fails to smother behind her hands. 

So it’s another Imperial that Ezra knows and this time Leia is in on the joke. This frustrates Corran more than it should, honestly, because he knows that Ezra sees this as nothing more than a game. “No full name this time?” 

Ezra grins, still preening from making Leia laugh. “It’s Lieutenant.” 

“I think it was Yogar,” Leia corrects. 

“No, I’m pretty sure it was Lieutenant.”

[glimmerglanger]

Oof!au prompt!!! Listen, someone had to ask for this: Cody and Obi-Wan's REAL first time! :O

Anonymous said:

Early spicy Sunday request for some Cody/Obi Wan from the ooof!AU <3 I just want them to be happy :,))

Anonymous said:

can I request a spicy codywan oof!au snippet of their first time? I just want them to be happy so bad

Anonymous said:

I hope this is ok to ask, what’s the plan for the oof au prompt of their first time? I totally understand if you’re not working on old stuff right now because of work, swbb, prompts and whatnot! Im only curious if you plan on finishing it one day. Please don’t take this as me pressuring or demanding from you! I just want to know if I should shelve my excitement for a little while and bring it out later or drop it if you don’t feel like revisiting it. Thanks!

GUESS WHAT I FINALLY FINISHED. I’ve been picking away at this for a while (obviously) but I have wrapped it up! 

As a reminder, since it’s been a while, there was a lot of torture in the oof!au. They’re well on the road to recovery in this fic (it’s far after Obi-Wan made his new lightsaber and got his prosthetic arm, for example) but there are still mentions of past torture and the fallout of both mind control and non-con.

ALSO this is spicy! VERY spicy! Not safe for wizards! 

~~~~~~~

Obi-Wan slept better with someone beside him. He wondered, sometimes, if that had always been true and he’d just never had the opportunity to find out, before… Everything that happened. There was no way to go back in time to find out, so he left the consideration go, released it from his mind.

He focused on enjoying, instead, the safety of the present. He woke, most days, with Cody pressed close to him. He’d mentioned, only once, that Cody did not always have to sleep between him and the door - if their sleeping area happened to have a door - and Cody had just looked at him, expression hard and flat.

Obi-Wan let that go, too.

The mind healers had helped them so much, but there were some things they could not change, some reassurances that they held onto.

Cody slept better with Obi-Wan against a wall, or tucked into a corner. Defensible. Obi-Wan slept better with Cody’s warm presence close. That was just...how it was.

Obi-Wan blinked his eyes open on the Recompense because he was not sleeping well at all, his dreams troubled. And so, perhaps, it was not much of a surprise to find that Cody was not all warm and relaxed against him. Instead, Cody was tense, half-drawn away from him.

“Mm?” Obi-Wan mumbled, not fully awake. He rolled, moving to press back into Cody’s warmth even as Cody put a hand on his hip, squeezing, perhaps trying to catch him back. It did not work. There wasn’t enough room in their little bunk for it to work and their bodies so naturally gravitated towards one another.

Obi-Wan settled against him, and Cody made a ragged little sound, and then rasped out, “Sorry.”

Obi-Wan blinked, but even through the haze of exhaustion it was not difficult to determine what he was talking about. Cody was hard against his hip, which was… a surprise not as rare as it had once been.

It had taken time - and lengthy discussions with the mind healers - to reach that point. Cody still seemed startled when he hardened and, sometimes, apologized, though Obi-Wan had thought they were past that. He shook his head, squirming closer, and said, “You don’t need to be sorry. I like it.”

Cody exhaled, ragged. Obi-Wan felt it against his neck, the back of his head. Cody said, voice still tense, though, at least, he had not climbed from the bed, “But you were asleep.”

“So were you,” Obi-Wan pointed out, reaching up and covering Cody’s hand with his. 

Cody relaxed, just a little. He asked, “You really don’t...mind?”

“I don’t mind,” Obi-Wan confirmed, briefly regretful that the conversation was waking him up fully. He squeezed Cody’s fingers and pushed back a little more, with full intent to press against the hardness still brushing the curve of his ass. He repeated, because Cody always eased when he heard it, “I like it. I like when you touch me.”

Cody’s grip tightened again, but he did not feel worried, not through the Force. His emotions slid over into something else as he shifted, responding to the pressure and then going still again, pressing his face against Obi-Wan’s shoulder.

Obi-Wan shifted, just a little, and said, “I’d like to help you with that.”

Cody groaned, faintly, against his skin, and then said, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Which...meant he was almost certainly thinking about intercourse. About fucking Obi-Wan. These days, he only worried about hurting Obi-Wan in that context. They’d never even attempted it, because the idea worried him so.

They’d made so much progress. Cody did not worry about it every time they were intimate, not when they touched one another, not even when Obi-Wan went to his knees and slid his mouth down Cody’s cock.

Obi-Wan had thought they’d gotten past the last of the worries about doing harm during intercourse, after Cody had broached the idea of them fucking, after Obi-Wan had worked him open slowly and carefully slid into him, letting them both find their pleasure.

But, afterwards, Cody had been agitated, had risen from the bed and said, almost gutted, “There wasn’t any blood,” and seemed guilty about it, and--

They’d spent a lot of time at the mind healers over that, dealing with Cody’s reaction to the fact that Obi-Wan had not hurt him at all, that it did not have to hurt--

Sometimes, it was easy to forget that not everyone had...past experience with torture. It was hardly the first time someone had tried to break Obi-Wan apart, using whatever means necessary. But it was not the same for his men. For Cody.

“I know you won’t,” Obi-Wan said, quietly, setting aside the past. He added, when Cody said nothing, “I know you’d make me feel good, Cody.” And, when Cody pulled him around, making a rough sound, Obi-Wan kissed his mouth and curled an arm around him. And they did nothing but rock against each other, Cody eventually sliding a hand into his sleeping pants, but the conversation hung at the back of Obi-Wan’s mind in the days that followed.

#

The conversation was still there, lingering in his thoughts, days later, when they returned to their quarters, showered off, and Cody said, in the process of drying off, “Would you like me to - to do that?”

Obi-Wan blinked over at him, water chilling his skin, and asked, “Do what?”

Cody clenched his jaw and then blew out a breath through his nose. “Be inside you. The way--you’ve done it. For me.” He looked up, before Obi-Wan could reply, eyes dark and wide, intent. “I wouldn’t--I’d make sure it didn’t hurt. I promise. I wouldn’t--”

“I know,” Obi-Wan said, soft, touching his hand. Cody’s shoulders had tensed up, a muscle in his jaw jumping, over and over again. Cody kept eye contact, and Obi-Wan shifted just a little closer, continuing. “And yes. I’d like that. Whenever you’re ready.” 

Cody rocked his jaw, side to side, and asked, “Are you...ready?”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “I trust you,” he said, and watched Cody tense even further.

He tugged, just a little, on Cody’s shoulder, and Cody shifted into his space, curled an arm around him, just….held him, tension eventually easing from him, touching with more intention, until Obi-Wan was pressed against the wall, gasping up to the ceiling as Cody slid down, mouth hot and wet and good, already more than Obi-Wan had ever thought they’d get to have.

#

When Cody finally decided he was ready, Obi-Wan thought it was not so much motivated solely by desire. There was far too much determination in Cody’s expression, when he pulled away from a kiss, both of them laying on their sides, curled towards one another, Cody’s hand still around Obi-Wan’s recently spent cock.

He’d pushed aside Obi-Wan’s hand, every time Obi-Wan tried to touch him in return, which made more sense when he rasped, ragged, “Can I--can we--could I be inside you?” 

Obi-Wan nodded, gut tightening at the thought, and managed to answer; the mind healers had reminded him, often, that he needed to speak his feelings more, “Yes, Cody. Please.”

“I won’t hurt you,” Cody said, and there was a promise and a certainty there, that Obi-Wan had thought they’d never get to again. There’d been a time Cody had seemed convinced that he would be unable to avoid causing hurt and pain. 

Now he spoke the words like a vow, sealing them with a kiss that left Obi-Wan groaning, holding onto him. 

They’d done this often enough the other way around that Cody seemed confident about the steps that ought to come next. Obi-Wan shifted onto his back, unsurprised when Cody settled beside him, leaning over to kiss him once more.

Cody still shied away from being over him, most of the time. 

Obi-Wan shifted, gasping when Cody ran a hand down his stomach, hesitating for only a moment before sliding his touch further down. “That’s nice,” Obi-Wan managed to pant out, at the first brush of pressure, and--

--and he’d wanted, for longer than he cared to think about, to erase away the memories of what Anakin had done. He’d wanted to replace them with something else, to push them back and away, as he’d done--

But it hadn’t been up only to him. And the thought of rushing Cody into something he wasn’t ready to do would have been beyond consideration. Cody pushed up onto his elbow, eyes impossibly focused on Obi-Wan’s expression as he slid slick fingers over skin, carefully, cautiously, sliding the tip of one finger inside, and--

Obi-Wan groaned, tilting his hips up and into the touch, Cody rasping, “It’s--?”

“Good,” Obi-Wan reassured him, and fought the urge to close his eyes or look away. He could feel, pouring out of Cody’s head, how much he needed...this. Needed to look and see, to watch Obi-Wan’s eyes while he moved his hand, going so slow that it became a tease, that it had Obi-Wan squirming on the bed, skin growing over-hot, his cock - impossibly - hardening again.

Cody made a low sound when he glanced down Obi-Wan’s body and noticed, and Obi-Wan panted, “See? I told you it was good.”

“Force,” Cody swore, and bent to kiss him, moving his hand a little faster, still only two fingers in and--and Obi-Wan wondered if he planned to stretch preparation until morning, and groaned at the thought, shifting to meet each movement of Cody’s touch, tangling fingers into his hair, breathing unsteadily as Cody shifted to get his other hand on Obi-Wan’s cock, stroking--

In the end, they did not make it until morning. Obi-Wan could take no more, eventually, heels sliding across the blankets as his body thrummed and he panted out, “Cody, oh--”

Cody paused, hand just going still, fingers sunk in deep, pressed against the spot that made Obi-Wan ache, that had his back bowing up without his instruction at the prolonged pressure, spots going off behind his eyes and--

He’d been on edge for so long. Falling over it felt like a relief, even if there was guilt, too, that Cody had not come once. Cody did not seem offended, when Obi-Wan shook himself, blinking aside the pleasure, the dizzy warmth moving through his veins.

Cody looked...surprised, but satisfied, the way he’d ever looked after a victory hard fought. And seeing that expression on his face in their bed made Obi-Wan groan, unexpectedly, shivering all down his back.

“That felt good for you,” Cody said, not like a question, and Obi-Wan nodded anyway. 

“Yes,” he rasped, “very much so.”

Cody stared at him, for a beat, breathing raggedly, and then said, “Should--can I….?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan muffled the sound that rose in his throat when Cody slid his fingers free - almost too fast - and then Cody was hesitating, for the first time, looking over him with a little furrow forming on his brow and--

“Roll over,” Obi-Wan advised, because he felt loose and half-dizzy and he wanted.

He noted the relief on Cody’s expression, even as Cody rolled onto his back, the blankets tangled all around him, muscles shifting in his chest as he reached for Obi-Wan, his breath punching out when Obi-Wan threw a leg over his hips.

Obi-Wan braced a hand on Cody’s chest and reached his other hand down, curling his fingers around Cody’s cock, and asking, meeting his eyes, “You want this?”

For a moment, Cody only stared up at him, mouth open but speechless. And then he nodded, his hands curled into the blankets, clenching so hard his knuckles stood up against his skin. Obi-Wan waited, a beat, until he ground out, “I want you, Obi-Wan, please.”

Obi-Wan nodded, shifted, and sank back. 

And there was a flash, unavoidable, of the memory of metal under his cheek, hands gripping at him, hard and cruel, a dry shove in and pain and--

And Obi-Wan exhaled, grounding himself in the present, in Cody’s warm skin under his palm, the dazed expression on Cody’s face, the warmth of their room, their bed, their love. He grounded himself in all the memories they’d built, the other times they’d touched, the steady, blinding affection he felt from Cody, every day. The knowledge, sure as the Force itself, that Cody wouldn’t hurt him.

“Oh,” Cody gasped, hands rising jerkily off of the sheets, fingers flexing at nothing, before finally settling, feather soft, on Obi-Wan’s hips as he sank down and down and down, until there was nothing between them. “Oh, oh, Force.”

Obi-Wan felt his mouth quirk up, Cody’s stunned pleasure vibrating around them, adding to his own, still thrumming inside his veins. 

“You feel good,” Obi-Wan told him, rising slowly and sinking back, seeing no reason to rush and, anyway, he felt thoroughly wrung out, already. Cody made a thick sound, meeting his eyes again, holding his gaze as Obi-Wan added, “So good inside me, Cody.”

The sound Cody made was inarticulate. Obi-Wan could feel the tension in his hands, in his fingers, but he did not squeeze or grip, just kept his touch resting against Obi-Wan’s skin, kept staring, expression hungry, the muscle under Obi-Wan’s hand tensing a bit more with each slow movement Obi-Wan made, until Cody’s hips shifted, finally, up to meet him.

Cody froze, all over, at the little sound Obi-Wan made, eyes getting wider, mouth opening, and Obi-Wan blurted, before there could be a misunderstanding, “That’s--that’s good. Feels good, you could--do that again.”

“Yeah?” Cody asked, expression so intent, and Obi-Wan managed to nod, groaning again when Cody repeated the thrust upwards. He picked up the rhythm quickly, must have gotten his feet flat on the bed to get the leverage for it, making shocked, pleasure-dazed sounds that grew rapidly more ragged.

And it was not much of a surprise when Cody rocked up into him one last time and came with a sound that was almost startled. Obi-Wan shivered at the feeling - it had been… a long time since he’d experienced it - and expected Cody to collapse fully against the mattress.

Instead, Cody made a shivery sound and sat up, all at once, arm curling around Obi-Wan’s back, keeping him close as Cody pressed a kiss to his cheek and then his mouth, breath unsteady and hitching. “Did that--are you--”

“It was so good,” Obi-Wan told him, curling a hand around the back of his neck, skin hot, the tips of his hair damp with sweat. “So good, darling.”

“I didn’t hurt you?” Cody asked, against his mouth, and the change in position had slid him free, already. Obi-Wan was aware of the mess he was making all over Cody’s thighs, but Cody seemed not to mind, and--

“Not at all,” Obi-Wan reassured, and Cody made a choking sound, dropping his head to Obi-Wan’s shoulder, and - and Obi-Wan crooned to him, nonsense words, when his shoulders started to shake, as he made wet, gasping sounds. “I knew you wouldn’t,” Obi-Wan said, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. “You never would.”

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

I usually do these on the first Monday of the month, but that would be the seventh and that feels Weird to me XD So here I am, a few days early.

As always, come check out my writing discord if you’re so inclined--it’s pretty quiet, but theoretically a more interactive extension of this blog.

Also, open question night! For anyone who’s new, while my askbox is always open, tonight I’ll be actually keeping an eye on it to respond to stuff, which I don’t always do. Anything I talk about here on this blog or have posted to AO3 is fair game. Right now, I’m actively writing in Castlevania (which I haven’t posted yet); Star Wars; and BSG (which I’ve recently fallen back into hard XD). I do take prompts, but make no promises for how quickly I will fill them.

Okay! Housekeeping done, on to the actual updates!

Star Wars:

Precipice!Verse:

I swear I am not giving up or formally hiatus’ing this project ^^;; It’s just been slow going lately. I’m not sure I’ll get anything out this month? I think if I haven’t gotten anything by the time SWBB is over (which should time out nicely with the end of the Super Busy Season at work), I’ll do a full reread of everything I have, and hopefully that’ll get things flowing.

But even more hopefully that won’t be necessary and I’ll have the next chapter or the next Prelude out soonish, haha...

SWBB

I am behind where I want to be at this point but lol what else is new XD Artist claims are happening soon, though, so I have some Motive to get shit done. I also need to sit down and rewatch ROTS before I can write the first chunk (everything I have comes later in the story).

It doesn’t help that my brain is already feeding me ideas for next year, and it’s like, no, we’re not going to work on that yet even if it would be pretty cool, we can do that Later. (it might be a crossover if i can actually ride this thread to a storyline, we’ll see how it goes...but yeah that is a problem for Future Me; Present Me needs to work on this year’s fic which I am Committed to XD)

Castlevania:

See, the annoying thing here is, I have the second, third, and most of the fifth chapters/scenes of Incinctus largely finished (along with a bunch of later stuff). But not the first! So I can’t start posting it XD

My actual writing on this project has slowed down lately, but I think once I get that first chapter finished and start posting I’ll get some momentum and it’ll go through smoothly.

And then I do still have at least one other idea noodling around in my head, but Incinctus is my focus right now.

BSG:

I posted the other day about actually putting some work into making The Other Battlestar AU happen. XD This is a concept I came up with like ten years ago and now that I’m falling back into the fandom I wanna make it happen.

Essentially, this is What Happens If Professional Human Disaster Gaius Baltar Is On Pegasus Instead Of Galactica: Discuss. With appropriate TWs because this is a Pegasus storyline.

Right now, I’m prooooobably planning on ending it with the Resurrection Ship two-parter? I do have some vague idea of what would come after that, but some of it depends on how the holes in the Galactica storyline get patched. That side of things is an In Spite Of A Nail AU up until the two ships reconnect, with Baltar’s canon role being split across at least two OCs, one of whom I still need to design, lol.

Apart from that (and rewatching the parts of the show I need to before I can make this happen), I have a couple of logistical issues, lol.

First, how much of the pre-Fall stuff I want to cover. I do need to establish the relevant OCs (one of whom is Baltar’s teenage daughter; she fills his Science role (and changes nothing about his gloriously terrible decision-making because that does have to happen and...I am not going to go on a tangent about how Atia both does and does not change him lol that is a topic for another day); the other is going to do the politics stuff and I still need to figure out exactly how I want to approach that); plus how/why Helo stays behind in this context; some of the details on how exactly Baltar gets off Caprica and in position to be picked up by Cain instead of Roslin. But how much of that do I want to do right off the bat, do I want to do some of it with flashbacks, how much time should be devoted to introducing Atia and This Other Dude and how they relate to the people around them before we actually get going with the stuff we came here for...

also the more of that I write the more likely it is I have to make up an alias for Caprica-Six because Natasi was dumb even before Natalie existed to make it confusing lol

Second, figuring out enough Stuff to happen on Pegasus so the two storylines will have about the same weight/etc. leading up to the point of connection. Some of that will probably be fixed when I rewatch Razor, but right now I basically have...One Very Intense Storyline and a scattering of things relating to Head!Six and a couple OCs I already have built to flesh things out and fill a couple plotty roles in said Very Intense Storyline. Meanwhile, Galactica has...uh...a season and a half + the miniseries of Plot, quite a bit of which has to be reworked around the two+ new players, plus some sidestory stuff with Felix essentially adopting Atia as the little sister he never knew he needed, and the two of them and Billy and Dee hanging out on the fringes of all the Really Important Shit Going Down.

[Billy/his eventual fate is another Question I potentially need to resolve, especially if my scope does grow beyond the Pegasus arc but that’s not as serious a plotting question. Because I love him.]

Third, there are three key character/plot points that are a little Complicated to rework. Exposing Doral; whatever the fuck I’m gonna do with Shelly; killing Crashdown/the rest of what happens with the first Kobol landing party. Still working on those. XD Shelly is the hardest, I think--I can handwave Atia (because it probably has to be Atia to establish her in the role she’ll fill later) pinging Doral some way; having Chief pull the trigger probably works; but Shelly...is Complicated, lol.

Fourth, because [spoiler] is not in play at the time, someone else has to [spoiler] [spoiler] (like I said, I have One Very Intense Storyline already mostly plotted lol take a guess). I have a couple of options and am just figuring out which would be best.

I do have some other stories I’d like to work out At Some Point (rewriting For Sorrow Sung; a few other closer-to-canon AUs; getting back to Serenissima...) but right now I think this one has the most Potential.

...also totally unrelated but yeah BSG is the crossover I’m toying with for next year’s BB; there are some Interesting Things that can be done here; at least six or seven BSG characters I would pinpoint as Force-sensitive; plus the messengers/Head!People, not to mention the hilarity that will ensue when introducing Starbuck and ::gestures at all the hotshot pilots I can choose from depending on era/setting::...

So I think that about covers it! I do in theory want to get some original stuff down, too, but that’s more in the background and I don’t have anything specific to say. Plus other semi-hiatused SW projects, etc., lol. Anyway, let me know if y’all have any thoughts, or what you’re working on, and again open question night!

[shadowsong26fic]

Sooooo as you may have noticed, I have. Not. done any NaNo check-in posts this year, when in previous years I’ve done...like...one every five days ^^;;

The reason for that is that I’ve basically not gotten anything done. I think I had...one solid day, but then my computer rebooted and I lost about half of what I’d written (opening for the next Preludes short; see, I really am working on it!) and that just kinda killed my mojo, lol.

((This is why I do most of my drafting in GoogleDocs and then download/back things up on my local drive later. In the event of a program or computer crash, I don’t lose nearly as much work...but I was working in a word processor on my laptop instead.))

But that being said, one of the things I really do need to do (besides buckle down and resurrect/finish that Prelude; get the next Protectors chapter done; more text on the still-untitled Avatar Zuko fic...) is figure out what I’m going to do for SWBB.

I’ve decided over the last couple weeks that OFLAM is going to have. Major Scope Issues. Right now, I have about 12.5k written, of which maybe 1-2k is actual Plot and the rest is worldbuilding and/or introspection, etc. I don’t think that I can get a full story I’m satisfied with between now and when drafts are due--I’ll keep noodling on it, and hopefully have a more solid foundation to do it next year, or at some other point in the future.

Which leaves my other two primary ideas (since nothing else feasible has really popped into my head). Those ideas being:

Battlestar Galactica crossover Of Some Kind (I’m not 100% sure when/where I’d want to cross over or what I’d do with this, is the big problem, lol...)

Taking that ‘there were rumors you’d been killed’ line from Padme in ROTS and running with it; i.e., Anakin is missing/presumed dead and therefore Not Present during the events of ROTS. (The main issue here is how to make it Distinct from, say, woven thread; plus I might run into some Scope issues; plus how much do I actually want to put into the rewrite of the actual Events of ROTS...and so on.)

Of course, there’s a third option which is Coming Up With Something New, and there are...a few things noodling around in my brain? But I think these two are the strongest contenders...

Anyway, I’m putting it out to you guys--do either of those seem Intriguing?

Let me know your thoughts!

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Yes, I know it’s Friday, not Monday. <.< ANYWAY.

Before we get started, plugging my Discord server (which is p. quiet lately but it’s there if you want to talk somewhere other than here!); and also we’ll do another Open Question Night because Why Not!

As I said last month, while my askbox is always open, tonight I’ll be actively around to answer questions--about writing in general, anything I’ve posted about here on tumblr; anything on my AO3...let me know what’s on your mind!

Star Wars:

SWBB:

Take a Bond of Fate is officially up! (Previously referred to as just SWBB 2021 or the Dragonshifters AU because I literally titled it less than twelve hours before posting <.<) Well, the first 20k are up, anyway. I will be updating throughout the month and the fic will be complete by the end of the month, per the event rules. (I originally planned to do updates on Tuesdays and Fridays; tonight’s update will be delayed and who knows how well I’ll actually stick to it after tonight but it Will be posted in full by the end of May, I can say that much for sure XD)

As always, I think there are a few things I could’ve handled better/that feel a little rushed, but I think it turned out pretty good! There are some upcoming scenes I’m particularly fond of, but we’ll see if everyone else agrees. The core of this actually ended up being Bo and Padme? Which I was not expecting--I was expecting it to lean hard on the Bo and Anakin parallels, but here we are.

Anyway, there’s some fun bits to come!

Precipice:

No solid update ATM. Uh. Various Life things got bonkers over the past month or two, so TaBoF took pretty much all of my fic brain. However, since that project is essentially finished other than finalizing/polishing each update chunk as I post, I should be able to turn my attention here this month. Which means, fingers crossed, we’ll have a start date sometime in June for Protectors. I’ll post the first Preludes segment at the same time; it will involve Kallus, Lavinia, and Mara Jade, set just before Kallus is reassigned to Lothal.

(Others that I have planned will involve: 1) some combination of Kanan, Ezra, Hondo, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Anakin; 2) Hera and whoever her contact is in this AU, as Ahsoka is otherwise occupied; 3) Whatever Maul is up to in this timeline; 4) Something to do with Palpatine’s fifth apprentice; and two more I haven’t decided on. I am taking suggestions! The purpose of Preludes is to patch some holes now that I’ve decided to write Rebels into the canon, which was not part of my original plan as I hadn’t yet seen it when I started planning/posting this AU. So these are more plot-relevant than the things that turn up in Bonus Content, which is why they’re in a separate fic, but not really enough to make a full arc between Milestones and Escalation, so, there it is.)

our faces like a mirror:

I’m now leaning towards sitting on this and using it for next year’s Big Bang? Because then maybe I’ll finally finish it, lol...anyway, I’m also going to see how people respond to stuff in TaBoF, because that will either Boost my enthusiasm for the project or, uh, the opposite, depending on how people respond to how I write Bo-Katan. So that may change, and I may finally get it out this year instead of next. We’ll see how that goes XD

Other SW Projects:

One of the SW discords I’m on has revived a prompt game we did last summer. I pulled my first prompt but haven’t actually, uh, done anything with it yet. <.< I’ll do that at some point.

As for various outlines or extant AUs I haven’t updated in forever...well, like I said, what little fic brain hasn’t been on BB the past month or two has been drifting back towards Precipice or occasionally co-opted by OFLAM so...yeah, nothing serious to report on that front, lol.

AtLA Projects:

I’m semi-planning/hoping to start posting At Least one of the two longfics I’ve been poking at sometime this summer. I’ve mentioned them here before, but one is long and tragic and focuses on Lu Ten; the other is an Avatar Zuko AU. Not sure which will draw my focus and get up first, but I do plan to write both of them! And possibly more. Because this fandom just Does That to me, lol.

Also, as I’ve mentioned in various times and places--I am pathologically incapable of not creating a bunch of OCs when I seriously fall into a fandom, and my AtLA work, in particular, will probably reflect that. I don’t super plan to write anything really centered on any OCs (I mean, apart from characters who Exist but have very little Canon Characterization (i.e., Lu Ten himself for that one fic, lol); and Lu Ten’s love interest because that’s an important part of the story), but they will be There and Prominent Characters. This is mostly mentioned because I know OCs aren’t for everyone, so that might put you off of my AtLA fic and I figured it was fair to give you a head’s up.

(...although actually I think none of my old fic that I crossposted to AO3 had significant OC involvement except for Glory...but then again that’s all oneshots and a little different.)

Other Fandoms:

BSG/SG-1 (BSG1?) crossover AU is still coming; I keep getting sidetracked from actually finishing it <.< I haven’t even finished the New Caprica and Haven section, I still have to get to the algae planet and then the Resurrection ship and...maybe I’ll end up posting this in chunks...

Uh, nothing else super planned, but as I mentioned last month, this outline might draw me back into BSG fandom a little more actively because it’s another forever fandom of mine.

Original Fiction:

I’m actually really proud of the Regency AU I wrote for a challenge last month, based on my Apocalypse In SPACE ‘verse Lux.

I need to update the Lux and Farglass Cycle archives still, and will hopefully be posting at least one other thing to RF this month, but we’ll see how that goes. I also might or might not be diving into Arthuriana in all its weirdness and glory this summer to prep for actually writing that Lady Mordred idea I had. And there are always other projects on the back burner, but that’s where things stand here.

...I think that pretty much covers it! Not all that much of an update, but as I said, Life got all...Lifey at me, plus BB had a hard deadline, so that’s where the most detail is.

But what about you guys? What are you working on/what do you have in the pipeline? Like I said, it’s an Open Question Night, and I’d love to hear what’s on your mind!

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

I know I usually do this on the first Monday of the month, but given that this month starts on a Tuesday, I don’t feel like waiting that long.

As always, feel free to comment/let me know what y’all are up to, what you did last month, what you plan on doing this month, we can do an Open Question Night, etc.

Also, plugging my Discord server, as I have done in the past--again, this is basically just a (theoretically) more interactive extension of this blog. It’s pretty chill/quiet for the most part, but I’m happy to talk there if you want.

All right, here we go!

So, you may have noticed that my NaNo posts...didn’t happen. That’s because I basically did not meet any of my goals last month--I got a pretty strong start, and then between some IRL/personal life things that happened, plus missing a couple days and not getting back on the horse, so to speak...yeah.

I did get one piece done--a Zuko-centric Avatar: the Last Airbender AU Outline, with the point of divergence being the stampede during the Ba Sing Se arc. Check it out, let me know your thoughts!

Anyway, that was last month, and now it is a new month, and I have Plans and High Hopes for actually Accomplishing things!

Precipice:

I absolutely genuinely for real this time plan to get the last chapter (or two) out in the next week or two. There’s a fairly long section with Bail and Ahsoka and Moonshot (Rex and Leia joining them towards the end); and then a scene with Palpatine and Lavinia; and then a final wrap-up scene from Padme’s POV.

After that, as I’ve mentioned before, things will work a little differently. I’m going to start posting Arc Eight: Escalation alongside Arc Seven Point Five: Preludes. Preludes will be in a separate fic, and will be seven stand-alone short stories taking place during the six-year timeskip between arcs Seven and Eight. They may or may not be presented in chronological order, and they’re a bit more plot-relevant than the stuff that turns up in Bonus Content. A lot of them deal with integrating Rebels content (the first one I have planned takes place two years after Arc Seven and will focus on Kallus); and I’ll probably deal with Maul and Infernalis’ successor. I’m still finalizing all the details for what I have planned here (especially since it can’t mirror Rebels entirely, partly because season 2 alone will be...wildly AU; but also because I have Plans for Thrawn that involve him not being kidnapped by space whales, lol). If there are any specific things you think I should touch on in one of these seven stories, let me know! But bear in mind that it will be limited to seven stories, so I may not do it or I may make a simpler/condensed version for Bonus Content instead.

Anyway, if you’ve been counting the years, you might be able to guess what the titular Escalation in arc eight is :D

That being said, I don’t expect to get any of this out until sometime in January at the very earliest.. I’d like to get a bit of a backlog worked up (so I stop having, multi-month hiatuses between chapters <.< ), and given other things I have planned (see below) it may take a bit of time until I’m ready to post. I’ll put out an update post with a planned schedule/etc. somewhat closer to when things are actually going to get going.

SWBB:

I have picked the story I’m going to do for this, hurray! ...I’m still kind of. Like. Searching for the actual Plot involved, but I know what I’m writing about, so we’ll see where it goes :D It is not OFLAM, which I do intend to keep working on/get out there at some point (which I know I’ve been promising for literal years now but shhhhh).

Anyway, for the story in question, I might already have the minimum wordcount for the first checkin on January 10, (I haven’t counted, but I’m probably close, if I count all the fulltext I have; I doubt all of it will make it into the final story, but we shall see), but I’m hoping to be a bit more solid than I am right now by then.

AtLA:

Apart from the outline I mentioned above, I have a couple projects in the pipeline, now that I’m back in this fandom. I’m hoping to have some significant text done on at least one of them to start posting next year.

My primary focus is probably going to be an Avatar Zuko storyline I’ve been poking at for a few months, but I also have a long epic tragic romance starring Lu Ten that will hopefully materialize at some point.

Additional AU outlines are also a possibility! They’re a lot of fun, whatever the fandom I’m doing them in XD

Original:

Hoping to get some done this month, as always; I didn’t get anything put together last month, but--again, life intervened.

Also, would you guys be interested in seeing some of my original stuff here? I know I’ve linked The Phoenix before, which is a crossover between Star Wars and one of my two primary origfic worlds (and also...pretty much the only time I’ve actively written Vader as Vader, lol...), but I have A Lot more. There should be links in my index post to the archives (which...I need to update...), but I’m always happy to share more!

And...I think that pretty much wraps it up! Focus this month is probably going to be on SWBB and the AtLA stuff, once I finish Precipice, but I’ll probably bounce into the upcoming arcs in Precipice!verse as well, and some original things. Maybe fill some long-overdue prompts/asks...

But, as I mentioned at the top of the post, I also like to hear about what you guys are doing! What have y’all been up to? And/or Open Question Night?

[shadowsong26fic]

Some Stuff

Not a proper Coming Attractions post, that’ll come out on the first Monday of the month as always, but...a more general update on some projects (and also possibly looking for input?)

Basically, I’ve accepted the inevitable, that I’ve fallen back into ATLA in a big way. I haven’t actually rewatched the series yet, because my roommate was doing so and I kept popping in and out and I didn’t want to confuse myself by trying to do a straight rewatch while she was doing hers, but I have reread a bunch of old fanfic/RP logs, and have some plots I kind of want to work with again? Either as fulltext or as an AU Outline. Behind the cut are some more details, as well as seeking Opinions on which, if any, I should actually work on.

I am also Determined to not fall out of SW as this is going on, lol. More details about that behind the cut, as well.

(Also, I’ve talked about some of the stuff listed here on my writing discord, which feel free to come stop by and hang out! It’s basically an extension of this tumblr, only a little more interactive. Find us here!)

Star Wars Stuff:

I plan to take next weekend to bang out at minimum the next Precipice chapter, and possibly the next two (though I’ll stagger posting if I do manage to get both done). And then try and give myself a more active schedule to get the next parts of the series out.

I’m also working on a dragonshifters AU, which I’m enjoying a lot. I think OFLAM may be relegated to the back burner for a while, though I’ll probably kick it up again if I end up doing it for SWBB next year (unless I tease out enough of a Plot for dragonshifters to do that instead, lol). I’ve talked about some of the worldbuilding on my writing discord, too.

I also still owe some meme responses from way back, which I do intend to get to at some point I promise <.<

And I haven’t forgotten some other extant projects--Devoted!verse, the Ventress outline, Bail Unfucks the Timeline, Distaff, etc.--but they’re pretty back-burnered for the time being. If something Sparks in any of those, I’ll probably dive into it, but for now I’m not actively working on them in the way I am on dragonshifters and Precipice.

AtLA Stuff:

So, there’s sort of...four or five projects spinning around in my head right now, lol. One of which, if I do it, would not work as an outline so it would be fulltext. It’s canon-compliant, for the most part.

...well, I should interrupt myself here to say the following: I haven’t read a lot of the comics or tie-in novels, and my familiarity with more recent Word of God is limited. I’m basically operating out of canon defined as “it’s in the original show or WoG I’m specifically aware of, drawing in stuff from other sources as it appeals to me but otherwise ignoring it.” Where WoG contradicts itself (i.e., the timeline for Lu Ten’s death),I go with whatever answer I prefer.

In terms of worldbuilding details added in Korra--ehhhhh, it’s sort of held a little higher than the comics, etc. (in that, if I remember it, unless it Josses something I really, really liked/was foundational to something I’m doing, I’ll probably include it); but most likely whatever I’m doing will go AU enough during the first series for a lot of the other detail work/character-specific stuff to not matter.

Anyway! Back to the fun stuff.

There’s one story I’m playing with that’s not going to work as an AU outline. Depending on exactly what I focus on, there’s a couple different fulltext fics buried in it, and I’m not sure which I’d work on (or if I’d braid the two of them together). Basically, it deals with the siege of Ba Sing Se and Lu Ten’s death, and some of the fallout from that, focusing on an OC of mine and her daughter. I found a short fic I wrote for a challenge back in the day that ties into this concept, which is at the very end of this post. If I work on this, I’d probably change the names of the two relevant OCs and possibly how she gets her memory back (it was written specifically for a “what happened in the rest of the world when Zhao captured Tui” challenge; guess how many of them were Hama-related), but. Anyway, building on either the Siege portion of the story (which has a lot of West Side Story on its soundtrack in my head lol), or focusing on what she does after she remembers him. Or both! Both is also good.

The rest of the options are mostly Zuko-centric canon-divergence fics.

First option, Airbender!Zuko. This occurs because The Spirits Said So; he’s gotten very good at fake firebending using airbending. Probably to the point where he’s so deep in denial that he can’t even see the pyramids anymore, to stretch that analogy to the breaking point, lol. Basically, not much changes until the north pole, but there’s some ways for it to go from there...

Second option, Avatar Zuko. This one has been floating around in my head more lately. Reading old RP logs, my partner and I played through a bunch of different variants on how this all worked, but the one in my head right now is basically--a few months before he’s banished, they’re at Ember Island or something and he’s out on the ocean/fishing or something. Sudden storm, he stops the boat from capsizing through panicked waterbending. No other witnesses, for whatever reason. He initially decides he imagined it, something else must have happened. Except then, when he’s in the palace infirmary after getting his face melted, he does it again. At that point, he basically decides that his options here are “get turned into a weapon and kill A Lot of people, or get disappeared into some dark hole somewhere where I can’t cause any problems.” Neither of those is particularly attractive, so he decides to run away. He doesn’t know what his long-term plan is at this moment--if he’ll use the comet to regain favor/save his nation based on the context he’s operating under right now, or do something else. But he has about three and a half years before then. He figures he’ll spend a year at the Western Air Temple, looking for texts/mosaics/something to get him at least vaguely airbending; then go to the North Pole to learn waterbending for a year, then spend a year in the Earth Kingdom to learn earthbending. Planning, for the last two, to present himself as mixed and while he has a lot of his Fire Nation father’s features, he inherited bending from his other parent (or grandparent, when he goes to the North Pole). For those of you familiar with my original fic, this will also include the first iteration of a prominent secondary character from Feredar/The Farglass Cycle. Mostly so Zuko has someone to talk to at the WAT XD. 

Third and fourth options are a bit more nebulous, and both break off during the Ba Sing Se arc. First option, Zuko gets injured during the stampede when Aang moves the zoo (this will probably draw in at least one of my BSS OCs because I am pathologically incapable of not creating OCs, lol). Second option, Zuko leaves his mask behind in Lake Laogai, which means Aang will know he’s in the city. Not sure where either of those would go from that point but there’s some Significant Differences there, lol.

...anyway, that’s where things stand now. Which, if any, are y’all interested in seeing?

As promised, the clip from the Lu Ten story, originally written for a challenge back in...yeesh 2010 XD. Again, this is canon-compliant at least up until Iroh and Zuko arrive in BSS, and I’d possibly change the names and/or how she gets her memories back.

An Wei sat by the window, holding her little girl and watching the sky. Today had been one of Huai's bad days, so An Wei had her hand resting lightly on her daughter's neck, counting her heartbeats. The doctors had told her, back when Huai was a baby and they'd figured out what was wrong with her, to hope for seven years--but only to hope, not to count on them. So An Wei took special care to always, always watch. She never regretted her child, no. Occasionally, she wished she had never met Huai's father, but...well, she couldn't remember much about him, other than the kind golden eyes (false kindness?) that had taken her in so completely during the Siege. She didn't think about him very much. It was too painful--and dangerous. Above and beyond the dangers in thinking about the War That Was No War, her own father had... Well, he hadn't been pleased. She didn't remember the argument, but her uncle wouldn't have brought her to the Lower Ring midwife who had cared for her during her pregnancy if she hadn't needed to hide. Despite all of her vigilance, it was her own heart that skipped a beat when the moonlight filtering in through her window turned an eerie, dull red. She gasped and clutched her daughter a little tighter, praying that Huai would sleep until this went away, so it wouldn't frighten her. That is, assuming it would go away. She shivered and shifted Huai so the little girl was facing away from the window and watched in horror as the bloody moon failed to return to normal. "Please..." she whispered. "Please be normal when she wakes..." As if in response to her desperate pleading, the moon flared silver again after a half hour. But she barely had a moment to relax before it winked out completely. An Wei jumped and stifled a scream. "Don't be afraid of the dark, this'll light your way home." She jumped again. There was no one here in the room with her and Huai, but she could have sworn... The moon blinked back into existence and a pretty girl with long white hair rode in on one of its beams. An Wei stared up at her, still frightened, pulling her daughter away from the girl as best she could. The moon-girl bent down and kissed An Wei's forehead. "Remember now," she murmured, then faded out of sight. ** "Don't be afraid of the dark." He smiles and makes a little light in his palm, carefully transferring it to a bundle of sticks. "This will light your way home." ** She studies the hairpiece he wears in his topknot, turning it over and over in her hands. "There's something you should know about me, too. About my family." ** "We can make this work, Itsu." He's determined, hopeful, his golden eyes shining. "We'll talk to my father. He'll understand. We'll make it work. Meet me here, at the usual time." "I trust you." ** She waits and waits and waits, until long past dark, but he doesn't come. ** She hates speaking with her guardian, but she's scared and has nowhere else to go. "Please, help me," she finishes quietly. He nods. "I'll keep you safe, Highness. You and your child. I promise." ** The light spins around and around and around, and she forgets her name, forgets her lover, and in her place is An Wei, a young woman trained as a scribe, seduced by a nameless Fire soldier, rather than... ** Itsu let out a little sobbing breath. Huai shifted in her arms. "Mommy?" she whispered, still half-asleep. "It's okay, baby, everything's okay. Go back to sleep." "'Kay." Huai closed her golden eyes again and her breathing evened out as much as it ever did. Itsu held her daughter close. Twice over a princess, at the worst possible time, born with a broken heart. No wonder Long Feng hid us so deep.

[to clarify--Itsu is Kuei’s sister. I forget how I set the relative ages, but assuming, as seems to be the case in flashbacks, that Lu Ten is about 10 years older than Zuko, he’d be somewhere between twenty and twenty-two when he died, depending on which date you believe; Kuei is around the same age (possibly a year or two younger?) and Itsu within two years of them.]

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions

It has. It has been a while since I actually did one of these, hasn’t it…

(As a note, I try not to discuss too much…everything IRL right now here (or on my personal blog, though to a lesser extent), mostly because I want this tumblr to be a relatively happy place? …or, at least, the unhappy stuff should be Purely Fictional. So that’s…pretty much the extent of what I’ll say about Stuff here.)

But…yeah, real life has definitely been an Everything Is Happening So Much sort of deal for the past couple months, but stuff has actually been Happening, writing-wise, and a Coming Attractions post seemed in order! As usual, behind the cut is stuff I’ve been working on recently and/or plan to work on over the next month.

Also, I have set up a Discord server (https://discord.gg/puYnXDE) for my writing--basically intended to be an extension/more interactive version of this blog. Feel free to stop by and say hi!

Precipice:

I’m waaaaaaay behind where I want to be, lol. Uh, but I’m hoping to get the last couple chapters of Arc 7 out this month? And then we’ll see what I want to do about Arc 7.5 and Arc 8. Basically, 7.5 is going to be more episodic/self-contained, with a chapter or two for certain Relevant Events that take place between Arc 7 and Arc 8. Mostly to do with Rebels characters (the one I have mostly planned out, if not quite Written yet, involves Kallus and Lavinia meeting just before he’s assigned to Lothal; but then I need to figure out some stuff for Kanan and Ezra, and how to make sure Zeb’s still in position to give Alex the wakeup call he needs…) plus there’s a Sith Apprentice whose entire tenure is covered by this timeskip, lol…

Anyway, I’m still going back and forth on whether to post Arc 7.5 stuff first or post it alongside Arc 8 and/or 9, but we’ll see what gets written.

Other SW Stuff:

I posted a handful of oneshots over the last couple weeks! Written in connection with a prompt game on the SWBB Discord server. The prompts were “Character A kills Character B”, for which I wrote Hera and Thrawn and Zeb and Kallus; and “Character A saves Character B”, for which I wrote Boba Fett and Luke, Han and Hera, and Rex and Ventress. There will probably be more of these in the future, tagged with #discord prompt ficlets. This week’s prompt is poetry, and it has been a million years since I’ve written any so Who Knows if I’ll actually do it, but hey, it’s possible!

Also, my SWBB project for this year, for we are a woven thread; find the strand is up on AO3. ObiAniDala, AU from ROTS; the three of them are separated in the aftermath of Order 66; Obi-Wan runs into Ahsoka, Padme has Sabe and the twins, Anakin meets Caleb Dume; angst with a happy ending.

In other news, I have some work I need/want to get done on our faces like a mirror, and I’m doing a Summer Fic Exchange that I need to actually…figure out what I’m doing and write XD Plus, I’m considering participating in VarykiNovember/Anidala big bang, but haven’t fully committed to signing up yet. In part because time commitments/other stuff I want to work on, in part because I don’t generally do a lot of pairing-focused stuff? My SWBB project mentioned above aside, lol. But even that’s at least as much about the three focal platonic relationships as it is about the OT3? Anyway. Uh, also half the plots I’m coming up with I either don’t think I could finish, don’t think could make for a long enough fic, or would turn into Obianidala instead which is Not The Point, lol. Anyway, we’ll see.

(some Discussions in the past couple days on the SWBB server have made me start wondering if I should maybe start poking at/figuring out what I’ll do for next year now, lol…even though I think I picked the plot for this year’s project later than either of the other two and yet it ended up being the longest by like 20k???? who knows who knows…I might use OFLAM for this?? But I’m not sure.)

Other Stuff:

I did write one original fiction thing this past month! And am hoping/planning to write At Least one more in June!

I also want to finish All Outstanding Prompts from a couple memes I did--one on tumblr like…in January…and one on Dreamwidth back in April. I have…one prompt from the tumblr one, and seven from DW, so We’ll See.

I also really should get back on track with updating my origfic archives, shouldn’t I…

…I think that about sums it up right now? I mean, there’s some noodly bits in my brain because the ATLA fandom has risen from the ashes thanks to Netflix, plus BSG is waking up a little bit so possibly something more will come in one of those universes? But nothing concrete planned as of right now.

What about you guys, what are you working on?

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

New month! I’m a couple days late but things have been Busy…

Usual updates behind the cut (along with a Prompt Call because why not!)

So, I didn’t get as much done as I would’ve liked over the past month--mostly because I really ended up in crunch time with my SWBB over the first week or so, and then needed a break, and then work got slammed. (Which I knew was coming, technically, I just didn’t know it was going to be this bad, since it wasn’t last year…)

Anyway. So I didn’t get any origfic done last month, like I hoped I would, or much of anything on Precipice. But I did finish my BB project! I’ll be editing it/etc. over the next few weeks and posting on May the Fourth. Should be fun! (It, uh, still needs a title, but I have like a month to come up with one, lol…)

Other things I hope to get out this month:

Next Precipice chapter at last--I do have it about half-written, I just need to sit down and finish it (and also probably map out a little better what some of the others are going to be up to for the first section of this arc).

(Hopefully two or three chapters over the course of the month, but at the very least this next one.)

(I have been doing some Plotting/planning/etc., but most of that has been related to some things that happen towards the end of this arc, or even later. Like, uh, arc nine or ten.)

(…yeah, uh, occasionally I talk about this fic as if I have Everything Planned Out and while it is true that I’ve done a lot more in the way of outlining/plotting than I usually do, there are still some pretty big gaps. There’s a couple arcs that are like “plot points A, B, C, and F happen here” but I’m less sure of what characters who are not directly involved in said plot points might or might not be up to…which is the situation with Arc Seven at the moment, lol.)

AU outline. Probably the next installment of Ventress, but maybe something New. Or Let’s Go Steal a Crossover.

Get some origfic writing done.

I’m also hoping to get out some other fanfic content of some kind, whether that’s as a bonus fic or additional content for one of my established AUs, as a new project (i.e., our faces like a mirror; which I’ve done teasers/draft bits before but not gotten to a Proper Postable State) or as a standalone piece of some kind, but we’ll see.

…on that note, impromptu/informal prompt call? Anything in particular you’d like to see me write? Request as many things as you want, for any fandom I’ve talked about on this blog or referenced in my index post. I will do my best to fill at least one prompt per person.

…and, since this is really short…here’s a couple teasers for upcoming content! As with all teasers, these are not in final form and are subject to change/editing before they get posted.

Precipice:

“We’re not going to liberate it. We’re going to keep our heads down as much as possible.”

“Right,” she said. “So, we’re Maia and Joren Retak again?”

“Nope,” he said. “Obi-Wan and I set up some new IDs, just for this trip. Ones that, if we get caught, can’t possibly trace back to your mom and Luke.”

Leia nodded. “So, are we meeting a contact there, or something?”

“Not exactly,” he said. “We’re going to land, make our way into the center of the city, and break into the Temple there.”

She blinked. “The Temple? …wait--”

“I have something for you,” he said, opening one of the false panels under his seat and pulling out a little box and passing it over to her.

She opened it, very carefully, clearly trying to demonstrate her self-control and patience even as she was all but vibrating with excitement.

Inside was some metal tubing, a power cell, assorted wires…everything she needed, except for the one key component that was hardest to source, for her to...

She looked up at him. “I’m going to build a lightsaber,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “And for that, you need a crystal. So we’re going to Jedha.”

our faces like a mirror

“Take me with you?”

I wanted to. Stars above, I needed to. Korkie was my son, he had been from the moment he was born and my sister had placed him in my arms. There were times when he felt like the only good thing in my life, especially as things between Satine and I got more and more tense.

But I couldn’t.

Korkie was only eight, and while he might make a fine warrior someday…

I didn’t bring children to war. I wouldn’t. Not for such a selfish reason, at least.

I shook my head.

“Mom--”

“Where I’m going, ad’ika, is no place for children,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment, then asked, in a very small voice, “Will you be safe?”

“I…” Have I ever been?

But that was not something I could say to my eight-year-old child. He deserved some measure of innocence. I had always believed that.

“I will fight to make myself safe,” I said instead. “To make all of us safe.”

“Where will you go?” he asked. “I can find you, later, when I’m grown—”

I squeezed his hands. “Someday, maybe,” I said. “I don’t know exactly where I’ll be, but…if you think it’s right, you’ll find me.” If that’s what you think is right, let it be a test. If you want to walk my road, ad’ika, you’ll need to prove yourself.

And maybe he would for Satine’s, too. A different kind of fight, a different kind of test.

Jedi of Valdemar:

He turned to see a man leaning in the doorway, wearing worn and weathered Whites, watching him with a closed expression. The stranger was a few years older than Kallus himself, perhaps forty, clean-shaven, with light brown hair, almost blond, just long enough to tie back.

He was also missing his right arm, which had been amputated just above the elbow.

Kallus felt his spine stiffen almost on instinct. Despite Zeb’s assurances, he felt like he’d been caught out of bounds somehow. He steeled himself for trouble, preparing the best way to explain himself without getting his partner or anyone else in trouble, when--

“You know,” the stranger said, pushing himself away from the doorway and padding into the center of the room with easy grace. “In my experience, practice tends to go better if you have someone to bout with. I have some time, if you’re interested.”

He considered him for a moment, more concerned about why he was being extended this offer than anything else.

A lesser operative might have taken in this stranger, his age, his injury, and underestimated him. It was possible that he assumed Kallus would do the same, and planned to put him in his place accordingly.

But Kallus was very, very good at what he did. And he didn’t get the impression that that was the stranger’s goal. To test him, yes, absolutely, but...not for that.

And he did have a point, that Kallus could use someone new to bout with.

He inclined his head. “Sir,” he said--as good as his command of Valdemaran was, he preferred to speak as little as possible, mindful of the attention his accent and occasional pauses to search for the correct word or grammar drew.

The stranger grinned at him, then selected a hand-and-a-half longsword from the weapons rack, settling into a guard stance as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Then let’s have some fun.”

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions

Yes, I know it’s technically not the first Monday of the month, but the first Monday is the seventh and that just feels weirdly late to do this, haha.

So, a few more general announcements, if you don’t want to go through my rambly notes beneath the cut!

First, as always, my writing discord is open--it’s a pretty quiet place, and more or less designed to be a slightly-more-interactive extension of this blog.

Second, I’ll be around for another Open Question Night tonight because why not! Anything I’ve posted about here or on AO3 is open for questioning--fic projects, original fiction, general writing, whatever’s on your mind!

Third, I’ve been promising a Precipice announcement for a while, and here it is!

The current plan is to post one Preludes segment (i.e., seven short stories that will take place during the timeskip between Precipice and Protectors) every month for the remainder of the year. So, the first one, featuring Kallus, Lavinia, and Mara Jade and set just before Kallus gets reassigned to the Lothal system, will be out sometime this month!

As for the main body of Protectors, my plan is to get at least the first chapter out this month as well, ideally before or around the same time as the first Preludes story, and then post between one and three chapters a month. I haven’t yet finalized an official posting date or schedule, but I will make an Official Announcement post in the next couple of weeks.

Okay! That all out of the way, keep on reading behind the cut if you’re interested in a more detailed ramble/updates on other projects!

SWBB

I was right down to the wire but I did manage to finish posting by the deadline, go me! Even if the update schedule Did Not Happen. Part of that was because the first chapter that was due to go up was Bo-Katan III, aka her duel with Viszla, which I think I rewrote a bunch of times, even through the weeks when I was delaying posting it. It was. Difficult.

It’s not quite what I wanted to be--I think the last section feels a little bit rushed, and there was more detail about the different backstories/etc. For example, what went down with Shmi. I wanted to get out, but I think it turned out pretty good in the end. I might return to this AU at some point to flesh some of those bits out.

One thing that surprised me, though, was that it ended up being mostly about Padme and Bo-Katan, and how they relate to one another? I was expecting Anakin to be a bit more of a focus, in part because he has the most interesting and complicated relationship to being a dragon, and in part because by the time I figured out what the Actual Story was going to be, I knew it was going to end with the confrontation with Palpatine. Instead, Anakin was basically there to push the plot forward and uncover the necessary information, and the real meat of the story was Bo and Padme learning about each other and coming to an understanding/becoming friends; and Bo in particular softening a little bit. Which was kind of cool, if not what I expected.

(Also, the last Padme POV chapter before the Coda was subtitled ‘But Brutus Is An Honorable Man’ XD Which may or may not mean much to anyone, but I amuse myself.)

Anyway, I’ve already started thinking through what I might want to do for next year--hopefully, if I start early enough, I won’t end up in quite as much Crunch Time and will actually be able to keep to some kind of update schedule once I start. One option is to use our faces like a mirror; there are a couple miscellaneous AU prompts I have floating around in my head, such as a Bail time-travel AU, a couple of crossovers, one where ROTS happens with Anakin presumed dead (though I haven’t quite ironed out where that one would go, and it’s kind of similar to my project from last year...) We’ll see. I’ve got some time to sort through it, but that’s in the back of my head already lol.

AtLA Fics:

Later this summer (though I don’t have a specific date yet), I’ll start posting the still-untitled Avatar Zuko AU fic. I’m still working on how I want to structure it, and exactly how much of the first two years of the altered timeline I want to show directly (the first year is basically him and my OC Kirana hanging out at the Western Air Temple while he tries to figure out how the hell airbending works from. Like. Mosaics and stuff. And on the one hand, that’s important world- and character-building stuff, and while he starts that year sort of intending to come back with the comet and Prove Himself to his father/etc., he’s definitely less sure of that after spending a year in the temple. And then the second year, the two of them go up to the North Pole and he starts on waterbending, which also involves a lot of OCs since he doesn’t learn directly from Pakku. But, on the other hand, more worldbuilding/character stuff, so...who knows. ...the third year, they’re hanging out with Toph).

I’m also sort of...poking in my brain how to handle the endgame in terms of the Fire Nation throne. Zuko can’t be both Avatar and Fire Lord, obviously; Iroh might work, but there are some other issues with that; Azula taking it immediately post-war has its own set of problems, depending on exactly where she ends up going over the course of the story. So, I need to turn elsewhere.

I’ve got a couple options I’m thinking through? The first few involve resurrecting/rebuilding some old OCs of mine--one of Azulon’s bastards or if Ozai had a bastard child; the third one involves completely ignoring The Search, and giving Zuko and Azula a full sister (Ursa was pregnant when she left but not yet aware. ...funnily enough, this OC was named Izumi XD).

The other option would be for Iroh to step in as regent for Zuko or Azula’s future children, or Azula herself, or some kind of weird setup like that. Most other alternate heirs I have floating around in the back of my head involve much more significant changes to the timeline, and/or are the subject of another unrelated fic.

...anyway, the point is, once I figure out some of those questionable bits, that story should debut sometime this summer! I’ll make an official announcement when I have more details.

(The other main fic I have planned is...may more back-burnered, lol. Lu Ten and an Earth Kingdom Princess who snuck out of the palace; canon-compliant; fun times with Long Feng and figuring out what kind of man he is; Iroh has an unknown granddaughter; etc. I do plan to write it at some point, but who knows when that’ll actually happen XD)

Other Fanfic Projects:

I do have a BSG/SG-1 crossover outline in the works. I’ve written...all of the BSG backstory and the first chunk of the first connection between the two worlds/cultures. But I have a lot more to go before I can post it. I might actually end up doing it in two or three chunks, since there’s a couple natural arcs (the initial connection and dealing with the ~2k people left behind on New Caprica when the Fleet and the Cylons leave; reconnecting on the algae planet and figuring out how the Fleet and Earth and the Haven settlement are going to relate to one another; and then sneaking onto a Resurrection ship because the Cylons have encountered at least one goa’uld and it. Did Not Go Well. side note i really should figure out if i’m supposed to capitalize that or not XD

Anyway, goals is to post at least the first chunk of that this month, and maybe more.

I don’t have anything else specific planned at the moment, but I might drift into more BSG content, because that’s one of my forever fandoms (a couple possible crossovers with SW are in fact among my potential plots for next year’s SWBB...but we’ll see how it goes.)

Original Projects:

I didn’t get anything done last month/in May, but I’m hoping to write at least one short story this month. Maybe return to my Regency/Bridgerton AU, because that was a lot of fun. But we’ll see.

I also want/plan to do some work on non-RF stuff. Even if it’s just plunging into the bonkersness that is Arthuriana so I can start actively working on the Lady Mordred story that wants to be written?

Also a couple of old stories I’d like to return to, and a culture I’ve done most of the worldbuilding for that has yet to find a storyline to exist in it. Anyway, I’m hoping/planning to get at least a little bit of non-fanfic writing done this month. And/or research/pre-writing/etc.

...I think that about covers it, for the next month! We’ll see how much I actually accomplish. But I’m looking forward to trying!