#snippet: supernova

[avatarskywalker78]

It's Six Sentence Sunday!!! I've not written much for the last few days but here's some more extracts from my Thunderfics! Firstly from 'Star Fall' and the third POV of the story which is one Gordon Tracy.

Gordon had never wanted Sheridan to find out this way.

Of course, he technically shouldn’t have wanted her to find out at all, but part of him had always hoped that maybe one day they’d get to do so, that maybe they’d bring her in as one of their contacts – maybe even an agent. They all knew she could be trusted – how many NDAs had she signed over the years and never once broken, after all – and…

Well, maybe Gordon also just wanted someone outside of International Rescue proper to talk to about said rescues.

John thought the same, but he’d figured it was unlikely to ever happen, Dad being far too cautious to let an outsider – even a close friend of his sons’ – learn any of their secrets, and in all fairness it wasn’t like it had affected the friendship any. Sheridan had guessed ages ago they all had some kind of project going on, but she’d never once pried into it and she’d accepted that sometimes they’d just be absent without an apparent reason.

FYI originally the series was mostly going to just focus on John & Sheridan's friendship and Sheridan and Tia's friendship and then this guy decided he wanted more screentime too so like. Here we are ^_^

Next up is 'supernova' - I've not edited this for five days but this still counts as within the week and also I just really want to share this part with y'all.

“Hey.” A hand on his arm, Alan’s blue eyes full of concern. “She’ll be alright, John, you know she will.”

“Do I?”

“Come on, of course you do. Resilience in the face of impossibility – that’s what she always said we embodied, remember?”

Course he remembered. Sheridan wasn’t one for false platitudes or sugar-coating things, never had been, but…she believed in them. She’d always believed in them and their ability to get through things – she’d never once doubted Gordon would pull through from the hydrofoil accident and once he’d become determined to regain his mobility she hadn’t doubted that either, had been there to support them as often as she could—

“I’d say we owe it to Sheridan to believe the same.” Alan told him, firmly. “She’s never given up on us, so we won’t give up on her, not ever. We’re going to do this, John - we’re gonna get everyone off that ship and we're going to save our friend.”

John does know this but Alan can tell he needs someone else to say it out loud...and he's also trying to convince himself, because he is in fact just as terrified - he's always seen Sheridan as a cool big sister and now she's in real danger, but if he freaks out that'll just freak John out so...no freaking out until afterwards.

Also John's mostly right about that statement - Sheridan does never say something she doesn't mean...but she did (briefly) fear that Gordon wouldn't pull through, she just never said it out loud, just projected confidence because that was what her best friend needed.

(Only Scott wondered but he and Sheridan haven't been on speaking terms for over three years after he said something he couldn't take back so like. No risk of this ever coming out.)

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @starstruckpurpledragon

[invisibleintrovertartist]

More neonnova stuff in the form of short messy comics + mermaid AU + the famous scene from a widely adored fanfic. (Also the 4th picture is kinda suggestive... 😬 I'm sorry for that. Try not to look if that's not your thing.)

[princedrewwrites]

perhaps I should give Chappell Roan another chance

[robinewe]

Shooting Stars

Prompt #13

My mission was to find the weapon, destroy it, and kill anyone standing in my way. From what we could figure out based on blueprints and reconnaissance missions the weapon was being hidden deep underground, in a heavily guarded part of the villain’s facility. The base was as tall above ground as it was deep underground, a tall spire of a building that blotted out the sun. I snuck in through a ventilation shaft from the outside, and carefully hid around corners until I reached an elevator to access with a key card I’d swiped from a man after I shot him.

It was a long elevator ride. I busied myself reviewing our plans and any information we had gathered on the nature of the weapon. We didn’t know very much. It was called ‘The Supernova’. It was something that had the potential to end the world, like a nuclear bomb. But it wasn’t a nuclear bomb, we would know so much more about it if it was only a bomb. We knew that it was something humanity had never seen before. It was imperative that it be destroyed before the villain could activate it.

I stood in front of a heavy metal door. Actually, my scanner told me that it was pure, solid lead. The keycard scanned and blinked red. Damn. But then I noticed tiny print written in pen, with a long code of numbers. An override code. This person must have been only recently promoted. It made sense. My team had recently taken out a decent number of their security personnel.

The code I punched in worked and the door split in the middle and slid open. Far from the wall-to-wall tech and computers I expected, or any heavy machinery at all, the room was completely bare. About nine by nine feet, not large enough for the weapon I was looking for. Completely made of lead. A single lightbulb dangled from the ceiling. Under it, a figure kneeled with their head bowed, their long, silvery blonde hair covering their face. At my entrance, and when I closed the door behind me, they raised their head.

Their eyes- silver like the moon, like their hair, like their skin- met mine with a sharp defiance. They were angry. A fire blazed inside of them.

The first thing I did was shut off my earpiece communicator.

For a while, we just watched each other. Their eyes flickered around my body, rapidly calculating who I was as I did the same to them. They were bound with beautiful thin chains, entwined around their arms behind them, wrapped around their chest, around their ankles up to the knee. They could barely move at all. Whenever they breathed, their chest struggled against the bindings. The chain trailed from their ankles to a connection point on the floor.

“What?” they demanded.

I frowned at them. “What… what are you?” They narrowed their eyes, guarded, shifting where they sat. My voice became harsher, “Where is the weapon?”

“Weapon?”

“I was under the impression that a very powerful weapon was being stored down here. Do you know where it is? Something called the Supernova?”

“...Oh.”

“Oh?” They looked back down to the floor. Suddenly, it was like I wasn’t even in the room, they retreated so far back into their own head. I approached them, and tapped under their chin with the end of my gun. “Back here, if you don’t mind. Where is the Supernova?”

“I believe that I… am the Supernova. I didn’t know they were calling me a weapon.” They looked distraught, their eyes filling up with tears. I cocked my head to the side, reassessing the chains securing them so thoroughly. Slowly, I made a circle around them, trying to see if there was something I missed. They stayed facing forwards, not trying to follow me, though they started shifting nervously. All I learned was that their feet were bare, and though the chains looked thin, they also looked strong. At their wrists the metal had dug into them, or they had struggled enough to break skin, but the blood had dried since.

I rounded to face them again. “Explain yourself.”

“I’m not sure I should.” The mask of fierceness was back over their face. “Maybe you should tell me who you are, first.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Sure. I’m here to destroy the weapon. Perhaps kill is a more correct verb, now, if you're the Supernova. But I doubt that.”

“You don’t think I’m dangerous?” they glared. “You think they have me chained up underground for fun?” I shrugged. “I am,” they growled, “the most powerful thing any of you humans have ever seen.”

“You look pretty harmless from where I’m standing. All tied up, helpless… Now, tell me what you are, and give me a reason that I shouldn’t shoot you.” Finally, fear entered their eyes and they shrunk in on themself. They were silent again. Once I got impatient, I took a step forwards, brandishing the long rifle, and they recoiled further.

“I’m– I’m a star,” they said quickly, panicked. “They took me from the sky, I don’t know how, I don’t know what they want with me, they haven’t told me anything. I don’t even know where I am. I don’t even– I’ve never even been in a human form before. I’ve never been in chains. I don’t like it.”

Frowning, I knelt down in front of them and tilted their chin up. Their big, watery eyes betrayed nothing but sincerity, and fear, and underneath that, a simmering rage.

"What does Supernova mean to you?"

They widened their eyes further and started looking frantically about the room, as if they might find help somewhere. I tilted their head further back and leaned closer.

"Well? Is it what it sounds like? Do you collapse into a great big explosion when you die?" They snarled at me, jerking away and almost losing their balance.

"And I'd take half your solar system with me. So believe me, it’s not a good idea.”

I considered that, leaving them on the floor to stand up and think about my options. They were tied up like something dangerous, but in pretty little chains, which meant they were not strong enough to break them on their own. It was almost decorative, like the star was a conversation piece. They wanted to prevent it from escaping but it was largely harmless. Unless, of course, it exploded, but then why would the villain risk such total destruction? They must either be exaggerating their hazardous nature, or the villain must have some plan or way of controlling the star and their destruction. Otherwise, what use would a dangerous star be? I was reassured that there was some way to control the star. I wouldn’t want it to turn on me.

I crossed behind them and crouched down again, pinching the chain between my fingers. The star flinched. “What are you doing?” I ignored them and investigated how it was attached to the floor, while they tried to twist around to see what I was doing. I tested the chain at different points, but it seemed just wrapped around and around until they were immobilized. I pulled out the serrated, big knife I kept on the back of my belt, and struck it against where it touched the floor. They flinched again at the loud clanging noise it made. A few more strikes, and it was weakened just enough for me to snap it in my hands. I held the end and looked back up at the star, who had quieted down to watch me with wide eyes.

“Will you behave and come with me if I untie you?” I asked. They looked confused.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Out of here? Did you want to stay?” In vain, they struggled against the chain one last time, as if proving to themself they couldn’t get out without help. They huffed and shook their head and leaned closer to me. I started unwinding the chain at their ankles. “Alright, then. I might have to fight our way out, can you keep up with me?”

They looked doubtfully at their legs, now able to stretch and separate and flex their feet. They were porcelain white and spotless, they almost didn’t look real. “I haven’t been a human for very long. I’ve never actually run, before.”

I grimaced, getting their arms freed and helping them to their feet. They wobbled, so I kept hold of one of their hands until they were balanced. I coiled the chain in my hand, wrapping it up to store in my pocket. I could tell the star wasn’t pleased that I was keeping it, but I cared more about escaping. I was starting to think getting out was about to be a lot harder than getting in. Well, if their bone-thinness had one advantage, especially now that they were standing and only reached my shoulder, they looked fairly easy to pick up and carry, if it became a problem. And if it really became a problem, the chain would come in handy again.

“Well, your legs are human, they’ll know how to run. Just trust your instincts and do what I tell you,” I advised, and scanned the card again to convince the doors to open. The star stayed behind me, peeking out to look down the long hallway to the elevator. It was empty, suspiciously so. I slowly led us down the hallway, and switched back on my communicator. “Hey, everyone. What’s going on?”

Immediately a chorus of voices shouted in my ears. “Where have you been?” “We thought you were dead!” “Where are you?” “Did you destroy it?”

“Sorry. I have the weapon.”

[jerrsterrr]

I FINISHED TH CREATURE RAHHHHHH

Exploding her with my mind

[startinglinereads]

Fall Right Into Me: Snippet

This is a short snippet from my upcoming yuri SamBucky fic. Butch Bucky x femme Sam. It’s based off of Chappell Roan’s song: red wine supernova.

I won’t tell you much more about it other than there’s a lot of yearning…

“Holy sh—“

Bucky was at a loss for words—they were caught in her throat. The sight left her breathless and her cheeks rosy.

There, in the middle of their bedroom was Sam in a spaghetti strap mini red dress. It fitted her in all the right ways—showing off her curves and some of her best features. She had light makeup on—mascara that made her eyes pop. Sam was the definition of breathtaking even when she wasn’t trying. Even with nothing but a t-shirt and casual jeans on, Bucky couldn’t keep her eyes off of her. It left her drowning and gasping for air.

Sam was her air.

Bucky leaned against the doorframe of their bedroom with the biggest smile across her face.

“Are you going to keep gawking or are we going out?” Sam asked. Hands on her hips, she approached Bucky.

“Maybe I want to stay home and devour all of you, sweetheart,” Bucky replied.

Looping her arms along Bucky’s neck she softly sighed, “we’re going out. End of story. You owe me after you ate the rest of the bagel bites without me.”

Bucky snorted and rested her hands against her waist, “here we go again.”

Pushing her hand against Bucky’s chest, Sam rolled her eyes playfully. “Come on, we’re going to be late. It took you forever to get a reservation at this place. Let’s not waste it. I’m starving.” She pressed her lips against Bucky’s cheek.

“Can’t you eat me for dinner?” Bucky groaned playfully.

“Maybe another time,” Sam winked. She turned and walked to her vanity to grab her purse.

Bucky couldn’t help but gaze at her figure and the way her hair was styled. She stared with no shame—only a look of endearment. Bucky fell in love with her personality—how she rocked her hips with sass and confidence. The world was hers to rule and protect.

Tonight had to be perfect.

God she’s stunning and all mine…

[mangonadaeddie]

Fuck it Friday

Hello!!!! I was tagged by @daffi-990 and @dangerpronebuddie! Thank you guys!

Here's a snippet from my space fic!

In fact, from what I’ve read, it’ll shine brighter than the full moon, and we should be able to see it even when the sun is out. Isn’t that so cool? I mean, it could also explode in like… hundreds to thousands of years. But, imagine seeing that. I mean, this thing is 640 light years from Earth. There’s something like… six trillion miles in a light year. And there’s 640 of those in between us and that star. So the fact that we should be able to see it when it explodes…” Buck pauses then, sighing, huffing a small laugh.  “That’s nothing. On a cosmic scale. That distance. Anyway, every night, when the stars are out, I look up at them through my windows. Or on my balcony. And I think, ‘maybe this is the night.’ Maybe I’ll get to see it, if I just keep watching. It should happen.” Buck laughs, “but then it gets harder and harder to go to bed. I get myself all riled up, thinking that he’ll go supernova the second I turn around. That I’ll miss getting to say that I was looking up while it happened.”

tagging some mutuals under the cut!

@diazsdimples @hippolotamus @elvensorceress @pairofraggedclaws @inell

@coldbam @keynb @sunflower-eddiediaz @xjeanmoreaux @jesuisici33

@steadfastsaturnsrings and anyone else that wants to join!

[dizzydaisychains]

once again, thank you everyone for all the love on crescendo and sweet disposition.

the next sylus fic i’m working on is already shaping up to be something very dear to me; here is a snippet of what to expect!

⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊✩₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ✩°｡⋆ ⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊✩₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ✩

Time slows, but waits for no one. Like a beacon in the forgotten church, Sylus can only lay out his heart in the desert and hope you come and find him. Desire ignites the bones of a lover, burning from the inside until it forces a supernova of confession. It’s unbearable at times; the waiting. The knowing. But Sylus would let the hands of Fate tear him apart time after time, so long as he can keep you in his arms; even just for a single moment.

⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊✩₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ✩°｡⋆ ⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊✩₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ✩

in case you missed it, both fics can be read here !

[ducktoo]

Syncing Dream [Aespa x M!Reader]

21. Su-su-su-su

Note: this is my fav dance from them lol. Might as well have fun with it.

Masterlist here

"Su-su-su-supernova"

The comeback had finally arrived. After months of preparation, long rehearsals, endless adjustments, and an unexpected tension between the team behind them, "Supernova" was officially out.

Aespa’s comeback had been released to the world, and it took the world by storm.

Y/n stood in the living room, watching as the girls scrolled through their phones, monitoring the reactions online. The buzz was already huge—fans were flooding social media with posts, comments, and reactions to the new track. The music video had hit millions of views within the first few hours, and Supernova was trending worldwide.

“Look at all these fan edits already,” Karina said, her eyes glued to her phone as she scrolled through fan-made clips. "They’re so fast."

Ningning chuckled from her spot on the couch. "We have some seriously talented fans. Some of these edits look better than the original!"

Giselle nodded in agreement, casually flipping through TikTok videos of the "Supernova" dance challenge that had already taken off. “It’s wild how quick people jump on these trends.”

"Even the clips we took with other groups popped up as well." Karina acknowledged.

The group had been recording short-form content all day to promote the comeback, from TikTok dance challenges to behind-the-scenes snippets. Their fans loved it, and the girls seemed energized by the response.

Y/n stood off to the side, observing the whirlwind of excitement around him. The comeback had been a success so far, but in the quiet moments, he felt a familiar itch—a reminder of his trainee days when he used to dance in the practice rooms late at night, dreaming of his own debut.

Now, as a manager, those dreams were behind him, but sometimes, the urge to move to the music still caught him off guard.

The song’s dance break had been stuck in his head all day…to the point that it's more than drugs. Every time he watched the girls perform it, his hand waved along instinctively. Finally, after everyone had recorded their content and things started to calm down, Y/n found himself alone in the living room, "Supernova" still playing on repeat in the background.

He glanced around, making sure no one was around. The girls were in their rooms, probably checking more reactions or resting from the hectic day. He had a few minutes to himself, and before he could talk himself out of it, Y/n stood up and stretched, cracking his knuckles.

"Why the heck not," he muttered, replaying the dance break in his head. It was muscle memory at this point—he’d watched the dance break more than enough times to know the moves by heart.

“Don’t forget my name…!”

He pulled up the music on his phone and set it to play. A moment of silence until…

"Su-su-su-supernova!"

The beat dropped, and before he knew it, Y/n was in the middle of the living room, executing the sharp moves of the dance break with surprising precision. It felt good to move again, to lose himself in the rhythm. For a moment, he was back in those practice rooms, a trainee with everything to prove.

Suddenly, a loud snort broke the silence. He froze mid-dance, turning slowly to see Ningning leaning against the doorframe, her phone pointed directly at him. She was recording.

“Y/n-oppa,” Ningning began, eyes gleaming with mischief, “what in the world are you doing?”

Y/n’s face turned crimson as he scrambled to turn off the music. “N-Nothing! I was, uh, just… stretching.”

“Stretching?” Ningning smirked, walking closer. “Right. Stretching your ability to dance, maybe.”

Y/n’s face flushed deeper. “I was just messing around. You know, for fun.”

“Oh, this is too good,” Ningning teased, still recording. “You know I have to show the girls, right?”

“Ning, no! Please!” Y/n lunged to grab her phone, but she dodged easily, laughing.

“Sorry, Y/n, but this is content.” She grinned, already typing something on her phone. “They’re gonna love this.”

Moments later, Karina, Winter, and Giselle rushed into the living room, clearly intrigued by the string of notifications from the group chat.

“What’s going on?” Karina asked, looking between Ningning and Y/n suspiciously.

Ningning held up her phone triumphantly, playing the video she just recorded. “Caught our manager in the act. He’s out here trying to join the dance line.”

The room exploded with laughter. Y/n groaned, burying his face in his hands as the girls crowded around Ningning’s phone, watching the video over and over.

Winter’s laugh was the loudest as she flopped onto the couch beside Y/n. “Ya idiot, you’ve been holding out on us! It’s been too long since we’ve seen you popping off!”

Karina, still chuckling, shook her head. “I mean, should we be worried? You’re looking a little too comfortable with that choreo.”

Y/n waved them off, trying to recover from his embarrassment. “It’s just muscle memory! I’ve seen you guys rehearse it a thousand times.”

Giselle smirked. “Right. You were just stretching, huh? Looked like a full-on performance to me.”

Before Y/n could defend himself, Karina raised a hand dramatically. “Wait, I have an idea. What if…” she paused for effect,

"Rina, don-"

“we challenge him to record an actual dance challenge with us?”

Y/n’s eyes widened in horror. “No, absolutely not. I’m not getting dragged into this!”

Ningning grinned wickedly. “Too late. You already danced for us once—you might as well go all the way.”

Winter, always ready to stir the pot, added, “Come on, Y/n! What’s the worst that could happen? Mys will love it.”

“Yeah, they’ll love it alright. Me, not so much,” Y/n muttered, shaking his head.

Karina crossed her arms, leaning in teasingly. “Are you saying you can’t handle it, manager-nim?”

“Ya, don’t pull that reverse psychology on me, Karina.”

The teasing was relentless, and before Y/n knew it, he was standing in the middle of the living room again, the girls huddled around him with their phones ready to record. He sighed in defeat as the familiar beat of Supernova started playing.

“Alright, fine,” Y/n grumbled, “but if this ends up online, I’m quitting.”

The girls burst out laughing, their phones already aimed at him. As the music hit the dance break, Y/n moved through the choreography again, this time with the girls cheering him on and recording every second.

When the music ended, the girls erupted into applause, and Y/n collapsed onto the couch, his face flushed from both exertion and embarrassment.

“I can’t believe I let you guys talk me into that,” he groaned. "I should go bury myself to the couch."

Winter patted his shoulder with a grin. “You did great! You might even go viral.”

Y/n groaned even louder. “Please, no.”

But despite his protests, he couldn’t help but laugh along with them. Moments like these were rare—where the stress of the job faded, and they could all just have fun, like the group of friends they’d become.

Ningning smirked, her phone still in hand. “I think this is the best comeback content we’ve made yet. MYs are gonna love it.”

Y/n sighed dramatically, but deep down, he didn’t really mind. This was their comeback era, and he was just glad to be part of it—even if it meant embarrassing himself along the way.

“Well,” Karina said with a playful smirk, “you did say you wanted to be more involved in this comeback, right? Looks like you got your wish.”

Y/n threw a pillow at her, laughing. “This is not what I meant!”

-

A few days had passed since Y/n’s impromptu dance break to Supernova. The girls had their fun teasing him, and he thought that would be the end of it. He went back to his usual routine—managing schedules, overseeing rehearsals, and making sure everything was running smoothly for Aespa’s comeback.

However, fate had other plans.

It started with a ping on his phone. Y/n glanced down at the notification—just another mention on social media. Ever since the video of his dance break had been recorded, Ningning had been sharing bits of it in their group chat for laughs, but surely none of that had left the circle, right?

Another ping.

Then another.

Y/n’s brow furrowed as more notifications poured in. He opened his phone to see a flood of new followers and likes on his social media accounts. Confused, he quickly opened his notifications to see a name that sent a chill down his spine: TikTok.

“Oh, sht…” he muttered, clicking the app. "Those girls did not…"

Sure enough, there it was: the video of him dancing to Supernova, uploaded by one of the girls, had gone viral. Thousands of comments, likes, and shares. People were remixing it, dueting it, and even tagging Y/n in their own versions of the dance challenge, comparing his moves to the professionals.

The caption was innocent enough: “Our manager getting in on the #Supernova 🔥”. But the video had blown up. Millions of views, thousands of comments, and even some fans speculating on his trainee days.

“What the—” Y/n muttered as he scrolled through the comments.

“Wait, is their manager an ex-trainee?? No wonder he’s so good!”

"Pretty sure he's also the knife-blocking manager back then as well. Damn, I'm in love."

“This is actually smooth though, not gonna lie.”

“Petition for Y/n to debut with Aespa. We need a fifth member!”

“Manager-nim, when’s your solo debut?”

“Can we get a full version?!”

He groaned, slumping back into his chair. Woooow, the heck?!

As if on cue, the dorm erupted in laughter as the girls rushed into the living room, phones in hand, giggling uncontrollably.

“Y/n-oppa!” Ningning was the first to speak, barely able to contain herself. “You went viral! You’re a star! Even more than last time!”

Winter, following close behind, was practically in tears from laughing. “Idiot, you might need to start your own fan club at this rate. Paboya should be the name.”

Karina smirked, holding up her phone to show the video. “Looks like the fans want more content from you. What do you say?”

“I say I’m gonna hide under a rock for the next year,” Y/n muttered, trying to process the fact that his dance video had somehow made him the center of attention. “How did that even past the door to the editing room in the first place?”

Ningning crossed her arms, pretending to look hurt. “Come on, you knew this was going to happen eventually. You’re too good to stay in the background!”

Giselle gave him a pat on the back. “Besides, now that you’re famous, you’re basically one of us. Get ready for more filming.”

Y/n groaned. “No, no, no. This is you guys' comeback. I’m just the manager—behind the scenes. You know, managing.”

"Oh? Those that mean you want your own song?" Giselle raised her eyebrow, clearly amused.

"Don't twist my word, Uchinaga-"

But it was too late. Karina was already scrolling through their schedule. “Well, there’s a content shoot tomorrow. You might as well join in! You’ve got fans now too, after all.”

“I am not joining—” Y/n began, but Winter cut him off.

“You are,” she said firmly, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “And you know what? I think we should make this official. TikTok content, dance challenges, behind-the-scenes videos—Y/n, you’re part of the comeback promo now.”

He was about to protest, but the excitement in their eyes was too much. Y/n sighed, knowing he was defeated. “You guys are really not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope!” they all chimed in unison, laughing.

Before he could fully resign himself to his fate, Karina had an idea. “Okay, since you’re already going viral, let’s make it a real series. Each of us will teach you a dance from Supernova, and we’ll film the whole thing. The fans will love it.”

Winter leaned closer to him, her grin pure chaos. “Starting with the hardest part of the choreo.”

Y/n buried his face in his hands. “I’m never going to hear the end of this…”

-

As the evening began to wind down, Y/n found a rare moment of peace at the practice room. He had just survived another TikTok shoot with the girls, and despite the whirlwind of attention his viral dance break had stirred up, he finally felt like he could catch his breath while the girls are busy practicing.

That is, until his phone buzzed again.

He hesitated, half-expecting it to be another fan comment or notification. But instead, the name that flashed on the screen sent an entirely different wave of panic through him: Minji

“Ah sh- here we go again…”

Before he could even think about answering, the door to the dorm flung open, and in walked Minji, followed closely by Jihoon and Joon. All three had identical sht-eating grins plastered on their faces—grins that spelled trouble.

"Y/n!" Minji sang out dramatically, echoing the way the girls had teased him earlier. "Or should we say… new soloist?"

Y/n groaned, burying his face in a nearby pillow. "Please, no. Not you guys too."

Jihoon chuckled as he crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe. "Oh, you bet we’re here for this. Do you have any idea how many fans have been tagging our groups in aespa's videos? You’ve blown up more than some idols, man."

Joon, not one to miss out on a good teasing opportunity, added, "I thought we were managers, not content creators. Looks like you’re breaking all the rules now."

Y/n sat up, glaring playfully at the three of them. "You guys are supposed to have my back, not pile on."

Minji smirked and gave him a light nudge. "Oh, we have your back, alright. That’s why we’re here—to support you in your new career as a viral sensation."

"Yeah, and by ‘support,’ we mean teasing you relentlessly," Jihoon chimed in, grinning.

Before Y/n could even think of a comeback, the aespa members joined in, gathering around the group with wide, mischievous smiles.

"Y/n really thought he could escape the teasing," Giselle laughed.

"Not a chance," Winter added, grinning from ear to ear.

"Guess what, oppa," Ningning said, eyes twinkling. "We’ve been thinking… should we make a new TikTok featuring all of us? You, Minji, Jihoon, and Joon can join too! A special ‘managers edition’ of the Supernova challenge."

Y/n’s eyes widened in mock horror as Minji raised an eyebrow. "Oh, now that’s something I’d pay to see," she said, clearly enjoying the idea. "I’m down."

Jihoon and Joon exchanged amused glances before nodding enthusiastically.

"Absolutely. What better way to support our fellow viral manager than to get in on the action?" Joon said, already pulling out his phone as if ready to record right then and there.

Y/n stood up, hands raised in protest. "Wait, hold on. Let’s not get carried away, okay? I’m already deep enough in this TikTok rabbit hole."

"And let's send it to Seulgi as well"

"Minji-noona, don't you dare-"

Minji crossed her arms, a playful glint in her eyes. "Too late. You’re already a star. Might as well ride the wave."

The girls, clearly delighted by the chaos they had started, egged the managers on even further.

"I think you’d all be great," Karina said with a teasing smile. "We could choreograph something simple."

Giselle nodded, eyes sparkling with amusement. "Y/n’s already mastered the hard parts, so you guys will be fine."

Y/n glanced between his fellow managers and the girls, realizing there was no escaping this. They had all teamed up against him, and as much as he wanted to complain, he couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

"Fine," he sighed dramatically. "But when this goes viral, I expect bonuses"

Ningning, never one to miss a beat, gave him a sly grin. "Deal. Now let’s make some good content."

And so, with the cameras rolling and the teasing in full swing, Y/n—alongside Minji, Jihoon, and Joon—joined aespa in a new round of TikTok chaos, proving once and for all that no one, not even managers, were safe from the Supernova challenge.

…."Su-su-su-supernova!"

[avatarskywalker78]

It's Wednesday and that means it's time for some more WIP extracts. Firstly from my Thunderbirds snippet 'supernova' - Thunderbird Three has launched and Gordon's updating them on the situation.

“It’ll be a close one.” Gordon said as he popped up again. “I’m sending over the schematics now, but it looks like you’ll have to use the secondary docking hatch.” “Have you let them know we’re on our way?” “I can’t. Their comms are down—” “What?” John gripped the edge of his seat. “Gordon, are you saying we can’t contact them at all? That anything could be happening on that ship and we wouldn’t know?” “I am constantly monitoring Starfinder Four’s status as we speak,” EOS piped up, “and Ó Séaghdha told us she and the crew would try and construct a rudimentary communications system – I’m already putting power towards picking up and amplifying any signal that comes from them.” “Thanks, EOS.” “Gordon, are the emergency pods definitely out of action?” Alan asked. “Looks like it – that section of the ship took some heavy damage and even without that, their main systems are unsalvageable. There won’t be time for any onboard repairs – we’re gonna have to get them and go.” “What about the oxygen levels? Are they holding?” John figured Gordon would’ve said so if not, but he knew exactly how quickly problems in space could get worse. “For the time being, yes. I’ll let you know the second it changes, but I’d recommend wearing EVA suits nonetheless.” “I’ve brought your exosuit too.” Alan added, glancing towards him. “Just in case you need it.”

(Hint: he's going to need it.)

Sticking with Thunderbirds but this time the original series - the fic that the above one is an adaption of!!!

“What’s the current rate of descent?” “Two thousand feet per minute, but they’re worried that’ll change if the backups lose power. They’re unable to reach Ground Control so I’m gonna set up a system to get around that.” “But what could’ve caused it?” Gordon said. “I saw the initial specs – they compensated for any power overload.” “It doesn’t take much for things to go wrong.” Alan pointed out, frowning. “Should we take the elevator cars just in case?” “No, that’s too risky.” Scott told him. “If the ship’s coming in at an angle it'll never work." “Hey,” Gordon said, suddenly looking at John with wide eyes, “do you think she—” “What do you think, Gordon?!” John snapped. “Of course Sheridan recognised my voice, and she’ll recognise yours too. We can’t hide this from her—” “And we won’t.” Dad assured him, giving Gordon a sharp look. “Saving lives is our priority and Sheridan’s professional enough not to give the game away – anything else can be dealt with afterwards.” “I didn’t mean that…” “I know what you meant, but there’s forty-five lives on board and that’s what we have to focus on,” Dad said, going straight into command mode. “Scott, take Thunderbird One to Mercury Ground Control and assess the situation. Virgil, take Gordon, Alan and Brains to intercept Starfinder One –it’s gonna have to be an on-board repair job.” “Yes, sir.” “FAB.”

(Understandably, emotions are running pretty high.)

I've still not figured out the exact details of either rescue, only that for 'star fall' Gordon's the one who has to actively board the ship to try and repair the lifting and landing gear if he can (I'd have had Alan do the job but I'm trying not to be too similar to the Zero X incident in the '66 movie, hence my deciding to spare the ship itself.)

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @starstruckpurpledragon

[jo-harrington]

Luminous Beings - Episode 4: Order 66

Art by @monologichno || Beta Read by @undead-supernova Part of the @eddiemunsonbigbang

Summary: The Dragonborn is plagued with tension and uncertainty as Thalia's secrets finally come to light.

Word Count: 9.8k

Pairing: Eddie Munson x OFC (Thalia Trieste)

Warnings/Themes: Star Wars AU, Fluff, Budding Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Torture, and Death, Miscommunication, Distrust, Minor Canon Inaccuracies/Adaptation, Galactic Politics, Criticism of Government and Authority, Criticism of the Jedi, Betrayal, Depictions of Order 66 and the Jedi Purge

Note: This chapter made me nervous, I'm not gonna lie. There have been so many depictions of Order 66 in so much Star Wars media but when you fold such a huge canon event into a fic like this...UGH. I truly hope I did it justice. Thanks to @courtingchaos for giving me a second look at that little snippet and giving me some extra courage, I feel so much better. And yes, if I ever decide to write Thalia's story, I will be pulling a Dave Filoni and writing it again.

Thanks again to everyone for reading.

Luminous Beings Masterlist - Jo-Harrington's Masterlist

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy!

Hyperspace, 10BBY

The atmosphere in the Dragonborn was tense.

No one said a word once they'd gotten off Outpost 86 and jumped to lightspeed.

None of them knew what to say, least of all Eddie.

They'd all witnessed what happened—the Guavians had too—and Eddie knew that he should have said something to his crew at least. He knew he should have gone and said something to Thalia. But as soon as the boarding ramp was shut, he had stomped up to the bridge, barking orders to his friends to get to their stations so they could get the hell out of there.

Now, safe and sound, Eddie’s mind began to race as quickly as the streaks of stars and nebulae that soared past them. He kept flipping switches and turning knobs to keep himself from facing the inevitable. To keep himself from facing the truth.

Thalia saved his life.

Yeah, that was one thing.

And she was a Jedi.

That was the other.

He was almost hesitant to think those words, but once he did, all of the pieces seemed to fall into place. All of the odd things about Thalia that he noticed suddenly made sense. The feeling of calmness that surrounded her, the connection he felt with her.

Did that mean she had read his thoughts? Or manipulated him in some way?

No, that wasn't it. Was it?

He would've known. Wouldn't he?

However, those realizations, those answers, seemed to raise new questions.

Because...she wasn't really a Jedi, was she? She was around his age, if looks were anything to go by; she must've been a Padawan at the time of the Clone Wars. He remembered seeing the names and faces of Padawans on the Holonet, wanted by the newly-formed Empire, and how horrified he'd been when he realized the implication that they'd be hunted down too.

She couldn't have been accomplice to any sort of treason against the Republic then. But there was suddenly no wonder why she had a negative opinion about the Empire now.

If she was a Jedi Padawan, that is.

And if she wasn't?

He'd been around the galaxy a few times. He'd heard whispers of Force-users in hiding, ones who weren't Jedi. They'd been hunted down by the Empire, too. Maybe she was one of them?

He'd never know unless he asked.

He rose from his seat and ordered G'areth and Dayv to keep an eye on things. Then he made his way down to the medbay.

Thalia, of course, wasn't alone when he got there. While he’d rushed off to the Bridge, Jeff had gone to tend to his blaster wound.

Admittedly, the guys didn't know much in the way of medicine. Bacta, stimpacks, and synthskin bandages. That was what they had, what they felt comfortable using. Anything requiring more than that, they could go planetside and seek medical attention.

That was the extent of healing that Eddie expected Jeff, who was a notorious crybaby when he was hurt or sick, to receive. But there was something to be said about having someone take care of you, instead of injecting yourself with a hypo-syringe.

Eddie leaned against the entrance to the medbay and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched D5-TN pass kolto patches for Thalia to apply to Jeff's injured leg. All while Jeff softly, but animatedly, told a story that Eddie—and Dustin, for that matter—had heard a thousand times.

"...and then I said to him, 'Strono, I know I just made you the best cup of Caf you've ever had, but you cannot propose to me. You can have the recipe though.'"

Thalia snickered at the tale Jeff spun, but kept working.

Even from a few yards away, Eddie could feel the calming energy emanating off of her, which caused the bitterness to rise within in him.

The story telling continued, along with hums and beeps and the ambient roar of hyperspace, until Thalia announced, "Alright, you're set." She clapped her hands together as Jeff swung his legs off the bed. "How does it feel?"

"Good as new," he grinned, attempting to jump to his feet, only to falter and nearly fall. She grabbed him as he gripped the edge of the bed tightly, and they worked together to haul him back upright. "Ok, maybe not as good as new, but close enough."

"To be fair," Eddie piped up, startling Jeff and D5-TN but somehow not Thalia. "You weren't in that great a shape to begin with. I've put you in the crosshairs enough times."

Then, for some reason, Jeff turned his attention to Thalia when he said, "Ed gets us into all sorts of trouble, but we've all made mistakes. Ask G'ar about the time he broke his wrist."

"I'm the reason G'ar broke his wrist," Eddie insisted.

"You tell yourself that, captain," Jeff scoffed. "Hey Dusty, you mind helping me up to the bridge?"

D5-TN whistled and honked; he teased about running Jeff over if he fell, which earned a deadpan laugh from Jeff.

Before long, though, they were gone.

And then Eddie and Thalia were finally alone.

The medbay hadn't ever really felt like a sterile place of healing, but it had come a long way since Eddie and his friends had taken their first excursion across the galaxy. If Thalia complained about having kolto over bacta now, she would've had a conniption back then. They barely even had a bandage and a bed to their name.

But now the small medbay had taken up a new purpose since she'd been onboard. It had only been a few days, and she didn't have much by way of luggage or belongings, but the room held the same energy she did.

A cot was set up in the corner, one she insisted on instead of the medibed, and a few changes of clothes set out atop a nearby cabinet. A datapad, a small commlink that he didn't realize she carried, and a handful of credits that, even from a distance he could tell, were a mix of old republic dataries and new imperial ingots.

The pack she'd brought with her to the Outpost lay on the floor by her cot, slumped and misshapen; with everything that was strewn about the medbay, Eddie wondered what might still be inside.

"Is that why you don't carry a blaster?" he asked once he finally found his voice. "Because you have a lightsaber?"

"No." She shook her head.

"So you don't have a lightsaber?"

She paused as she cleaned up the supplies she used for Jeff, then glanced up at him. She inhaled slowly. Pensively. 

"Now you're just putting words into my mouth."

Any joy or excitement that the child that still lived inside Eddie might've felt at the prospect of there being a real lightsaber aboard his ship was immediately extinguished when he began to demand answers from her.

"Why didn't you just tell me? Us," Eddie questioned desperately. "We're outlaws too. Criminals. It's not like we'd have delivered you to some imperial labor camp on a silver platter."

"Ignoring how...absolutely idiotic you sound to even suggest that," Thalia began with a scoff. "Say I did trust you not to sell me out; how would that conversation have gone? 'Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm in need of your services and, oh, by the way I can use the force and need to hide it from the empire?'"

"Well, no, but—"

"Then how would you have liked to find out a secret that countless beings need to keep in the name of self preservation? Because I think saving your life is a pretty appropriate method. You're welcome, by the way."

He took an involuntary step back at the venom in her words, but recovered quickly.

"Thank you," he said softly, then pivoted back to the original topic. "I don't know another way that wouldn't have made me question everything, but some kind of indication that I was working with a fugitive Jedi would've—"

Thalia immediately squared her shoulders and crossed the distance so she could press a finger into his chest.

"I want to make one thing clear," she said, practically through gritted teeth. At this distance, her eyes even looked glassy with unshed tears, and Eddie felt his stomach drop, knowing that he was the one who caused them, in one way or another. "I am no Jedi."

Wait.

"What do you mean, you aren't a Jedi?" Eddie scoffed. "Of course you are. You just said you had a lightsaber...and you saved my life...and there's that feeling of—"

"There you go again, Moonsun," she said, voice more lighthearted than it had just been, as she poked fun at him. And she quite literally poked him again, prodding the same place that she'd jabbed him to get her point across just moments ago. "Putting words in my mouth. I didn't say I had a lightsaber. And I didn't say that I didn't have one."

"Do you have a lightsaber?"

"Not with me." Eddie clapped his hands together and just about shoved his finger in her face in triumphant mockery, but she continued. "But that doesn't mean I am a Jedi. And I have never been one either. I know...in the lift, you said that you'd always dreamed of becoming a Jedi...and I'll admit I had that dream fed to me once...but I don't understand how anyone would have dreamed of that life.

"The Jedi were the heroes of the galaxy...and I'm no hero." She held her hands out in front of her and then clenched them into fists. She looked back into his eyes. "But I'll do what I must to keep people safe, Eddie. To keep people alive."

If Eddie had been demanding answers from Thalia in the medbay the night before, his friends were absolutely relentless come morning. It seemed like the chance to let their thoughts and feelings simmer meant that they didn't carry the same chip on their shoulders as he did; they'd not only had time to process what they'd witnessed on Outpost 86, but also what Eddie had told him when he'd returned from confronting Thalia.

To be fair, after they'd parted ways, Eddie also cooled down and cleared his thoughts.

And Thalia answered their questions good-naturedly, as she had before. As if they were still asking about simple things, how the weather was on Dantooine, instead of questioning the workings of the force.

"Can you float things?"

"Sometimes."

"And can you read minds? What color am I thinking of right now?"

"Blue."

"Woah."

"But that's because you're staring at my hair, Dayv."

"Oh, kriff, you're right."

"Have you ever met Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

Even Eddie looked up from his bowl of oats at Jeff's question.

Thalia was frozen in her seat, spoon just inches away from her mouth; her eyes darted around the table to each of the guys as they stared expectantly back at her.

"Eddie has a great impression of General Kenobi," Jeff added, as if the context would help. Thalia's eyes drifted to Eddie and she lifted a single brow in question. "Uh...well...he used to. When we were kids."

"I probably do a better impression of the Emperor now, to be fair," Eddie snickered and ducked his head back down to his breakfast. Still, curiously, he glanced up at her through his bangs. "So...did you ever meet him?"

"I'm..." she put down her spoon and ran a hand through her hair nervously. "No. I didn't."

The questions became more rapid fire after that, especially from Eddie as he picked up where they'd left off before.

"Who did you meet?"

"What did you do?"

"If you weren't really a Jedi, did you live in the temple?"

"If you weren't really a Jedi, how do you have a lightsaber?"

"What really happened when the Jedi betrayed the Republic?"

That seemed to be where the line was drawn for Thalia though, because she slammed her cup of blue milk on the table. She sat back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest.

The galley went silent, save for the shameful coughs and scraping of utensils along the bottoms of bowls. None of them were brave enough to meet her scathing gaze, especially not G'areth, who'd uttered the fated question in the first place.

D5-TN, who'd been sitting at his charging station in the corner of the little galley, was the first to pipe up. His blunt binary beeps questioned why Thalia looked about ready to murder when the Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers. That immediately cooled her down.

"Supposed to be, is the key phrase there, Dustin." She let out a dry laugh. "Everyone is supposed to be one thing, and then they turn out to be something else. I'm the living proof of that. I'm supposed to be hiring you guys to haul something to Coruscant for me."

"Does that mean we can dump that container right into hyperspace?" Dayv chuckled.

"Does that mean we're not getting paid?" Eddie added, much more seriously.

"The Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers,” she continued, ignoring their questions. "Not soldiers for the Republic. But that's exactly what they became, little by little. The Clone Wars were a catalyst for the downfall of the Order, but it had been a long time coming. Hundreds of years, not just over the past few decades. And this wasn't the first time in their history, either."

She got a faraway look in her eyes, and a bitterness in her voice.

"What made a good Jedi was that you could be a good soldier. That's how younglings were chosen as Padawans, even before the Clone Wars. Even before the possibility of war was on the galaxy's doorstep. And I wasn't fit for being anyone's soldier."

"So you weren't chosen?" Eddie asked. "And then you...what'd you say? You worked at a diner on Coruscant?"

"No." Thalia's brow furrowed. "No, that...came after. If someone didn't pass the Initiate Trials or they didn't get chosen as a Padawan, most of the time they got foisted off into the Service Corps to keep them useful. Education Corps...Medical Corps—"

"Well, we know you're not Medical Corps," Jeff interjected and then patted his leg. "You did a better job than any of us could've but, uh, if that was your job, I would be concerned."

The mood in the room lightened as everyone laughed and returned to their meal.

"No," Thalia continued serenely. "I was in the Exploration Corps. We would travel across the galaxy, scouting and surveying planets. Transporting Knights and Masters to different temples."

"So you've always been a sort of flight attendant," Dayv noted, along with D5-TN whistling his own question about what in-flight snacks were served aboard Jedi Order transports.

"You know," she snorted, "now that you mention it, I guess this was my destiny after all.” It got a laugh out of everyone. “I was assigned as an assistant to the researchers looking into ancient secrets of the Force. I'd always been interested in the history of the Jedi...in the deeper meanings in the ways of the Force. That's why I was shocked that you'd gone on a trip to Moraband. It's a forbidden planet."

"Forbidden?" Eddie smirked and leaned back in his seat. "Sweetheart, nothing is forbidden when there are credits to be had. Moraband is an untouched goldmine."

"It's full of tombs," she argued. "Corruption. Relics connected to the Dark Side of the Force. Even now, the Empire forbids travel there."

"Some senators love their tchotchkes." Eddie shrugged. "They buy, we'll fly."

"It's the ancient Sith homeworld, flyboy."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

Thalia let out a noise of frustration before pointedly turning in her seat so she faced the others more than she faced Eddie.

"Anyway, shortly before...before the fall of the Republic, I got partnered with a Jedi Master named Eno Cordova, who'd been researching ancient force-sensitive civilizations. It wasn't much in the way of travel, so, yes, I still lived in the Jedi Temple to access the archives."

"And your lightsaber?" Jeff scooted closer in his chair. Everyone leaned a little closer, even D5-TN, who rolled off his charging station so he could join the others.

"Was the one that I built as a youngling, ahead of the Initiate Trials," Thalia explained. "It's back on Coruscant. Someplace safe."

"Wait a minute," Eddie butt in again. "Hang on. You're a former Jedi whatever, with a functioning lightsaber, who's in hiding from being hunted down by the Empire...and you live on the Capitol? Right under the Emperor's nose?"

The others made noises in agreement and concern.

"Hidden in plain sight," she offered as an excuse, along with a shrug. "It always made the most sense."

She got a faraway look in her eye then, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

"The Empire..." She squinted her eyes a little in thought. "They might be looking for whoever they can to make an example of now. But back then? After…” She trailed off for a moment. “Well, they weren't interested in someone like me."

Before the others could ask anything else, she excused herself from the table and practically ran out of the galley.

"You know there's nowhere you can hide that I won't find you. This is my ship."

"I could try."

"Well, you happened to pick the one place in the ship where I go to practice the guitar alone," Eddie explained. "So you didn't try very hard."

The escape pod was small, and if Eddie was honest, it probably wouldn't do much in the event of an emergency. It's why they weren't too concerned with blocking it with their cargo. He'd had D5-TN run diagnostics on the life support systems and controls many times, to no avail. And they'd always been so eager to move onto the next job or planet that there hadn't really been time to test it in the safety of a spaceport.

But it was a small little space, away from the rest of the ship, where you could be alone. And they'd all taken advantage of that more than any of them cared to admit.

G'areth had even come to have a little personal time once, back in the early days. That's when the "no jerkin' it in the escape pod" rule was enacted.

It was astounding how quickly Thalia had acclimated to the habits of everyone on the ship, though, if she was here. Either that, or she'd scraped the idea of it from one of their heads with her Force abilities.

"It doesn't work like that," Thalia spoke, as though he'd said the last part aloud, earning a skeptical look from Eddie as he sat on the small seat across from her. "You were projecting that one, Nerfhead."

"Hey," Eddie scoffed. "Bantha brains? Yes. But nerfhead? Absolutely not."

He grinned at the little laugh she let out.

He waited for her to talk, to say anything; usually, he'd be the first one to pry, especially when that thousand-parsec stare that she currently had, appeared on one of his friends faces. He took a different approach this time, though. More along the lines of something his uncle Wane would do when he was lost in his thoughts or his worries.

Usually, for him, it had something to do with his dad.

For Thalia, though, it seemed like the Jedi were the sore spot that sent her into a deep spiral of thoughts.

They sat silently for a moment before Eddie hoisted his guitar onto his lap and began playing a soft trill of notes. A lullaby Wane used to play for him when he was little, right after his mom died and his dad ran the first time, so he could sleep without nightmares.

He closed his eyes as plucked at the strings. He let the sound flow through him, resonate with the space around him. One note after another, time passed slowly but surely, and suddenly Thalia was humming along with the slow melody.

He opened one eye and glanced at her as she watched his fingers move, humming in anticipation of each note to come.

"Do you know this song?" he asked softly as he continued playing.

She made a non-commital noise in response and then shook her head. "I'm not very musically inclined either. Don't ask me to sing. But...there are echoes...in the force. Usually they're tied to objects. Sometimes they're tied to people. Your music amplifies your ties to the living force. It's hard to resist."

Eddie wasn't sure what most of that meant, but knew that he wouldn't try to cheapen it by making a joke about how irresistible he was.

Instead, he said, "That must mean I am a pretty good musician, if the force likes my playing."

She cracked a small smile, but stayed silent as he continued strumming.

"Do you want to know why I find it hard to trust people?" she asked, unexpectedly, after a beat. Eddie was about to answer, but she added, "I would've told you. Eventually. But...do you want to know why I couldn't, at first?"

"Because I don't seem the trustworthy type?"

"Because I've been betrayed by people I thought I could trust before." She looked down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. "Because even I've betrayed people who've trusted me before."

"Well, I'm not a snitch. None of us are. My friends have kept quiet about worse things than someone being a Jedi before."

"I told you, I'm not a Jedi."

He ignored her, and instead chose to joke with her. "So who did you betray? Do I have to worry about you giving us up to the Empire, instead of the other way around?"

There was a sadness in her eyes when she looked up at him.

"G'areth asked what really happened," she stated, "when the Jedi betrayed the Republic. The Jedi failed the Republic, and were betrayed in return. Which only led to more pain, more betrayal."

"That's cryptic," Eddie whispered. He winced and stopped playing, setting the guitar aside. "Sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"It's ok," Thalia assured him.

She offered her hand out to him, palm flat and facing upwards.

He thought it was just a gesture of peace, so he placed his hand in hers.

And suddenly Eddie wasn't on the Dragonborn anymore.

He was in a library, surrounded by rows upon rows of shelves containing glowing holobooks. Thousands of them.

The last time he'd seen a library of this size...well, he couldn't recall. The Academy on Bracca had a small library, and he had always liked to read, especially when he was younger and looking for escape from his mundane life. But anything he wanted, he could load onto his datapad from the holonet. There was no need for holobooks and no real space for them in his and Wane's flat.

Whoever had amassed this collection must've been very interested in knowledge. Or power.

But how did he get here?

He spotted movement in the corner of his eye, the flash of a shoulder disappearing down one of the aisles.

"Excuse me," he called out. "Could you help me? I think I'm lost."

He tried to take a step forward, but through his body, another body emerged. As though he was made of mist. A phantom.

The figure, decidedly human, took a few steps forward and then stopped and looked back at him.

His heart stopped.

It was Thalia, but younger. Much less worry on her face, lips upturned into a gentle smile.

Her hair wasn't blue, instead an unremarkable, muddy brown and it was longer, pulled into a thick braid that fell over her shoulder. She wasn't dressed in the travel attire he'd gotten used to seeing her in, or the traditional robes that would immediately bring a Jedi to mind. She wore something that was a marriage of the two—a tunic with an unfamiliar emblem emblazoned on the breast, and fitted utility trousers tucked into boots.

"Come on," she nodded her head in the direction she'd been headed. "Keep up."

"Wh-where are we going?" he demanded, but followed nonetheless.

Suddenly, there were more figures around. Jedi Knights and Padawans, he realized as he saw the lightsabers attached to their belts. Thalia had a lightsaber on her belt too.

They weaved in and out of the aisles, sitting at the tables in the middle of the room. The library, which had previously been silent, was suddenly consumed with ambient sounds of whispered conversations alongside the beeping and whistling of droids whirring around.

Was he...was this the Jedi Temple? On Coruscant? It had to be.

He was filled with that deeply-buried giddiness that he'd been trying to hold down since the truth about Thalia came out.

He was in the Jedi Temple. This was the place where the heroes of his adolescence walked and slept and ate and lived. Being able to witness inside the temple walls was everything he’d ever dreamed of. 

He couldn't wait to tell the guys about this.

He tried to take it all in, but was quickly disappointed when the details, the faces, were all blurry. Unfocused and unimportant here.

In this memory, he realized.

Since exploring on his own was futile, he caught up with the younger Thalia, who spoke with an elderly woman in a set of decorated brown robes.

Their conversation meant nothing to Eddie, really, but he tried to keep up with unfamiliar names, places, and titles of books. Zeffo, and The Tales of Light and Life, and something about Master Cordova. Hadn't that been the Jedi that Thalia said she'd been assisting? Did this all have to do with him?

The older woman seemed to get irritated by the end of the interaction, though, as a tight tight smile stretched across her wrinkled face. She still kept her voice peaceful as she offered, "Perhaps if Master Cordova needs all of this information, he could be bothered to return to Coruscant himself, but I'll see what I can do, Miss Trieste."

"Thank you, Master Nu." Thalia bowed respectfully and then turned and continued on her way. Eddie figured that he was undetectable, but he also felt the urge to clumsily bow to Master Nu before he followed after Thalia.

They walked out of the library and out into a wide atrium with marble walls that stretched upwards for hundreds of feet to a domed glass ceiling.

"What did I say about keeping up?" Thalia questioned impatiently a few feet ahead of him.

"Excuse me for wanting to get a good look at things," Eddie scoffed, but closed the distance.

"You'll see more soon enough," she insisted. "We just need to get there first."

They walked through endless halls and down winding staircases. Eddie noted how Thalia would nod and greet certain Jedi respectfully, and how most of them ignored her outright. Only a handful had stopped for a word of greeting, most of them as young as she was—Padawans she must have trained with as a youngling.

"Why don't the others say anything back to you?" he asked.

"Because I'm nobody," she explained. "At least, it felt that way."

"But—"

"W-will you shut up?"

As the words spilled from her lips, a feeling descended upon Eddie, like an inescapable wave from an endlessly deep ocean. A rumble of building anticipation, like boots stomping in tandem, and then a sudden crash of emotion that nearly brought him to his knees.

Pain, fear, panic, despair.

Death.

An explosion as bright as a thousand supernova, then nothing, as uf it was snuffed out in an instant.

Ripples of catastrophic energy hit him again and again. Suddenly the vastness of the Jedi Temple that he had been in awe of began closing in on him as this world attacked him.

Then came the blaster fire.

Thalia seemed to have quick reflexes, and she was able to duck behind a pillar as that first bolt was released from the blaster of an approaching clone. But others weren't so lucky. Eddie, in his incorporeal form and frozen with the assault of his senses, remained in the middle of the hall.

He witnessed the relentless approach of the clones from an intersecting hallway, the flurry of sizzling blaster bolts, and the ignition of at least a dozen lightsabers as their owners quickly sought to defend the onslaught.

It didn't help though, and bodies fell quicker than Eddie could really keep up with. One mis-timed slash of a lightsaber, and suddenly a new wave of pain shot through him. One blaster bolt deflected, ricocheting off a wall, and found its way into the poorly protected neck of a clone trooper, and he was assaulted by another wave.

Screams and cries echoed around him, not just from Thalia or the surrounding Jedi...but from all directions. Every hallway, every corner of the temple.

Every corner of the galaxy.

It was a barrage of the mind. Of the soul.

And Eddie realized that he wasn't simply confronted by his own emotions, his own fear and despair, over witnessing all of this, but also those of beings surrounding him.

His eyes finally shifted from the massacre, to Thalia who was also frozen in fear as she cowered behind that pillar.

No. He wasn't the one being hit with those emotions.

Thalia was.

He only felt it because he was here in her memories.

Blaster fire, clones, and an attack on the Jedi Temple. He had a memory of this night as well, the horror he felt at the news. But his memory of this existed in the safety of his datapad screen. Thalia had lived this firsthand.

She had to survive.

He finally found the courage within him to move. He took several steps towards her and knelt down to her level to offer a hand.

"Come on," he urged. "Let's go."

She ignored him. Looked past him.

"I said let's go."

Her eyes followed every blaster bolt that passed until they slowed, and then stopped.

Eddie could feel the barrage of emotion start to lessen as Thalia took deep breaths and waited. After a few beats of silence and stillness, coldness was all that remained. Emptiness.

And an echo of fear.

"There is no fear," she whispered to herself. Or maybe to Eddie, as her eyes finally focused on him. "There is only peace."

"Well, I'm plenty scared," he whispered back to her.

She hoisted herself to her feet and slowly stepped back into the center of the hallway. She tip-toed over the bodies where Eddie just walked atop them. Through them. She didn't have the luxury of being a ghost here; this was real to her.

Thalia's booted feet toed at lightsaber hilts that fell from limp hands, and she paused in consideration, before she reached the first clone that had fallen in the hallway. She knelt down and pried the blaster from its hands.

"I thought you didn't like blasters," he commented.

She took another deep breath and began, lip quivering. "The force is everywhere. It binds us. Surrounds us. If we focus on it, it can help us find the answers we seek."

She pointed the blaster at him, through him, down the way the clones had arrived. "There are more of them down there." Eddie turned his head and then looked back at her.

"It doesn't take a Jedi to figure that out," he deadpanned, but she ignored him. Then she turned and pointed in the direction they came.

"They're also that way," she explained. "I can feel them. Can you?"

"I don't know, I'm not—" He stopped short as there was the slightest tickle in his mind. Outside of the cold emptiness, he felt the looming presence of danger. The despair, the pain that had assaulted him earlier. Not just the individual feeling of the clones themselves as they attacked, but the carnage they left in their wake.

Yes, if he and Thalia doubled back the way they came, towards the library, they'd encounter clones. But not as many as they would if they soldiered ahead.

"Lead the way, then." He gestured forward to young Thalia, and then followed her as she began to navigate through the sea of corpses. "Why don't you use your lightsaber?"

"I'm out of practice," she explained. "Members of the Service Corps still wear them, but they're more for show. I'm not a soldier, remember?"

"But you'll fire a blaster."

She ignored him again and kept creeping further down the hall. Until she came to a crossroads where several living Jedi ran past, scrambling for their weapons as they fled. Or maybe ran towards the attacking clones to try and defend...

Their home.

"Was this your home?" he asked Thalia.

"That's a stupid question." There was obvious annoyance in the way she flicked her braid over her shoulder and held her blaster at attention.

"There are no such things as stupid questions."

"Just stupid people." It felt like an insult. It was probably meant to be one. "Don't try to distract me."

They kept walking, confidently. Thalia was able to take out a few clone troopers as she came across them, but she had been right. She wasn't a soldier. She was sloppy with her aim, but she was quick to anticipate their movements.

"Why don't you use the force?" he asked as she ducked behind another pillar.

"It doesn't work that way!" She shouted at him.

The momentary distraction led to a blaster bolt hitting the pillar, close to her head, and she fell to the ground as it exploded in with shards of marble and dust.

Eddie felt as disoriented as she was, heard the ringing in his ears that she must've heard. But when it cleared and she sat up, she was immediately alert and attentive.

Especially when she spotted the two figures dispatching of the troopers that had taken the shots.

"Steev! R'sshekh!" Thalia shouted and scrambled to her feet once the coast was clear. They both turned towards her—a young human man and a trandoshan, both with disheveled robes and lightsabers drawn—and started in her direction.

She pivoted, blaster in hand to make sure the coast was clear, before she ran to join them. The human padawan deactivated his saber and pulled Thalia into a relieved hug.

"You're alive," he said, words muffled by the shoulder of her tunic. "They...the clones...they're killing everyone."

"I know, Steev. I saw Master Pace try to seal off the East Wing. There was only so much blaster fire he could deflect."

R'sshekh said something in Dosh, unintelligible to Eddie, but Thalia and Steev seemed to understand. They parted from one another.

"You're right," Steev nodded. "We need to get to the hangar. Get a ship, go to the senate."

"Are you crazy?" Thalia practically screeched. "I'm sure they'll have the hangar guarded. And the senate? The clones aren't acting alone; someone ordered them to attack. We need to get out of the temple as quickly as we can."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Steev asked impatiently, hands falling to his hips.

R'sshekh spoke again, but Thalia talked over him.

"The service ducts," she said. "The ones we used to explore. If we find the right one, it'll spit us out into The Works."

Steev wrinkled his nose in disgust and scoffed. "Those dusty old tunnels are full of the rotting husks of ancient droids. I'm not going down there again."

"Then do you want to take your chances trying to go out the main entrance?" Thalia asked, voice laden with sarcasm, as she gestured down an adjacent hallway. "I'm sure the coast is clear."

Steev and R'sshekh glanced at each other and then gestured for Thalia to lead them onwards. She looked past them at Eddie and then tilted her head to get him to follow as well.

As if he even could wander off on his own.

The journey was a blur. More winding hallways and stairs, more troopers firing, but Thalia could trust one of her companions to defend her. Especially that Steev kid, who'd jump to her aid and then scold her for being reckless.

At one point, Eddie skipped ahead and tried to whisper in her ear, "Is he your boyfriend?"

"Jedi aren't allowed to form attachments," she snapped at him defensively, then paused. "But yes, he was my friend. And R'sshekh. We were all from the same crèche."

"Well, Steev kind of seems like a jerk."

Thalia looked over her shoulder at Steev, and then sighed. "Yeah. He was."

Eddie noticed her use of the past tense, and he felt a pit open up in his gut.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"How about now?"

"No!"

"We've been walking forever."

"The kid has a point," Eddie piped up from the back of the group, earning a scathing glare from young Thalia. "We have been walking forever."

R'sshekh seemed to agree with Eddie and Steev as well, if their intonation was any indicator, and Eddie gestured at the Trandoshan in an "I told you so."

"Thank you, Thalia, for getting us to safety," Thalia said, deepening her voice to match the timber of...well, truly any of them. "Thank you for having the good sense not to follow us blindly as we got ourselves killed." She made a crude hand gesture to them all to punctuate her point and then kept going.

Eddie had lost all sense of direction by this point. Up, down, left, right. They were in a hallway that didn't seem like a hallway anymore. He wasn't even sure they were even in the Jedi Temple, but the distant sound of blaster fire and the ignition of lightsabers assured him that, yes, they were.

The three older teens had picked up some stragglers along their stealthy escape from the temple. Another padawan with a wounded shoulder, her arm now stabilized and tied to her torso with a ripped piece of Steev's robe. They’d also found two younglings cowering behind a pile of twisted trooper bodies. R'sshekh took to holding each of the small children's hands as they continued on their way.

Eddie felt aware of every step he took, felt each of their weariness and the sting of any injuries, because Thalia felt them.

And when fear suddenly gripped her, he felt it too.

"Go on ahead," she told the others as she stopped in her tracks. "The old tunnels start up ahead. And then we keep going until we hit the pipeworks. We can take a break there."

All the kids groaned but kept going.

Until it was just Thalia and Eddie.

"You wanna show me something?" he questioned.

"Not specifically," she responded with a sigh. "But I had noticed something then...so you need to see it, too, now."

She waved him over and revealed the vent she had hidden behind her. It was a small grate, big enough for one of the younglings to crawl through maybe, if that was the reason she noticed it. But as he got closer, he saw that it overlooked, what he believed to be, the vast Great Hall of the Jedi temple.

He couldn't even enjoy the majesty of it—the towering statues or aurebesh carvings that lined the ancient walls, or the way that the rising sun streamed in and made the marble pillars sparkle—because it was full of the dead. Jedi and Clones alike. And there was a whole legion of clone troopers spread throughout the hall, armed and ready for any living Jedi to be taken care of as they attempted to escaoe.

"Turns out these tunnels weren't such a bad idea, after all," Eddie stated lightly.

"Watch," Thalia hissed.

Two cloaked figures strode through the hall then, from the far threshold that led into the depths of the temple, back towards the steps that led out to Coruscant.

A cloud of darkness seemed to follow them, as dark as the cloaks that they wore. Eddie could feel it, even from the distance, with half of the Great Hall and the thick marble walls separating them. It slithered up his throat, grabbed him, choked him.

But he couldn't look away.

One of the figures stopped and surveyed the devastation, and they toed at the leg of a nearby body, before cackling. Twisted hands raised towards the sky in vile jubilation, and then returned to their limp position before the hooded figure.

"Good, Anakin, good," the familiar, rasping voice echoed through the hall. The other figure dropped to one knee, and dropped their head in deference. "You have done well, my new apprentice. Now, go and bring peace to our Empire."

Eddie felt a chill in recognition. He knew that voice. Everyone knew that voice—

Chancellor Palpatine...The Emperor.

—And he knew that name. Or maybe he didn't, not really. Not at all.

Anakin Skywalker, one of the greatest heroes of the republic.

Eddie recoiled from the vent and shook his head.

"No," he forced out through gritted teeth. "No. It can't be."

"I thought so, too," Thalia said sadly, and when she finally turned to look at him, he saw tears dripping down her cheeks. Kriff, he felt his own tears begin to sting the corners of his eyes. "But it was true."

Anakin Skywalker. General Skywalker. The poster boy of the Republic. The Hero With No Fear. How many interviews had he done on the HoloNet, how many times had Eddie and his friends hero-worshipped Anakin alongside his fellow Jedi? How many times had Eddie considered spending the few measly credits of allowance he got from Wane on a war bond just because Anakin's face had been plastered on every screen in the Terrace?

"He wouldn't betray the Jedi."

"He did."

"He was a hero."

"He was seduced by the Dark Side."

"He wouldn't do that...the Jedi were his family. His friends."

Then there was an echo in the air, as Thalia spoke to him through the Force.

"Anakin betrayed his friends. And so did I."

He was about to ask for clarification when was thrown from the tunnel, and the world swirled around him. Images flashed before his eyes of the ragtag group of kids climbing out of a filthy pipe in The Works on Coruscant. Their slow trek across the city to CoCo Town where they found refuge at a diner. Dex's Diner. The days and weeks that they stuck together to care for each other.

He felt like he was going cross-eyed at the sheer speed and volume of the information being filtered directly into his mind; it was almost painful, and Thalia was in control. He didn’t understand what she was trying to convey, until he followed her younger self through the day her world changed.

The moments leading up to it were deceptively quick. A day as uneventful as any, as she volunteered to venture out alone and find supplies. But she’d made a stupid mistake. Sympathetic to the cries of the younglings who missed the only home they’d ever known, she’d ventured back to the Temple through the tunnels they’d escaped through to fetch belongings that couldn’t be replaced. And upon her return? She was chased down winding streets by the Coruscant Security Forces and captured.

Then he was in a room, lit by only a faint, red light emanating through the grated floors. He couldn’t move, no matter how much he thrashed and shook. His arms and legs were locked in place; he could see Imperial interrogation droids floating in his peripheral vision, and a scan grid hanging menacingly overhead, waiting to be lowered onto him.

“Let me go!” He tried to yell, but the voice that came from his mouth was not his, but Thalia’s. “Help! Help me!”

A blast door opened and clone troopers filed in, along with a ghastly figure dressed in black and red. A Pau’an male who looked sickly and monstrous, but grinned menacingly as he approached. 

“You’ll tell us where they are,” he droned in a terrible voce. “It. Is. Inevitable.”

More images flashed before Eddie’s eyes, of this same man. Healthy and friendly, Hen-ri, a Jedi Temple Guard that had known Thalia and her friends; how had he become…this thing? Corrupted by the Empire? A slayer of the Jedi, instead of a protector of them.

Just like Anakin had been.

“You’re gonna have to kill me,” he…Thalia…spat.

“If that’s what it takes,” he droned and waved to the troopers.

He couldn’t dwell on his emotions for much longer because pain was the only thing he felt. Shocks and burns from the scan grid, injections from the floating interrogation droids. 

They starved her, beat her.

Until she begged them, whimpered for them to stop.

Until she gave them the location of her friends.

Eddie felt the hot, burning pain in his heart as he felt the words fall from her lips; for a second, he couldn’t blame her, as his head drooped weakly and the world went dark.

But when his eyes opened again…there stood a beaten and bloody Steev standing across from him. Across from Thalia. He was being held back by troopers, Jedi robes drenched in blood, as he thrashed and screamed and bared his teeth.

Thalia blinked once. Twice. And then her gaze shifted back down at the ground, and saw the bodies of the children–the younglings and R'sshekh–strewn about the floor. Dead.

There was a flash of light, burning and hateful and shockingly red.

And Eddie was thrown from her body as she screamed, as chaos reigned as her control of the Force became untethered. The sight of the walls of the room caving in on themselves was last thing he saw before he returned back to the real world.

He gasped for breath as he was shoved back into his body in the escape pod. Back with Thalia, the real Thalia, older and wearier and with blue hair. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he immediately rubbed his eyes to get them to stop.

He felt sick, the images of those kids burned into his eyelids. The sound of Steev and Thalia’s screams echoed in his ears.

"What was that?" He barked out the demand, voice scathing and viscous. "Why did you show me that?"

Thalia pulled her hand back to her lap; she cradled it in the other hand, as though she was protecting it from further harm.

Maybe she was...but not harm to herself. Harm to him. Harm that she caused him; he still felt the phantom pains of her torture. And he didn't want to snap at her again, after feeling the barrage of her anguish, but he did.

"Thalia!" She jumped at his bark. He demanded answers. "Why?"

"Because you had to know!" She snapped back at him. "I betrayed them."

"You...you survived." He shook his head incredulously. "You had to survive, you were just a kid too. But why would you show me that way?" he questioned. He got to his feet and stood over her. "Why would you take me though the day that the order fell...and then..."

"How else could I tell you about the most shameful days of my life?" she asked, getting to her feet as well. "I've relive those days enough. Constantly. My mistakes. My weaknesses. You think I just survived? I…I chose to survive rather than die for those kids…for my friends. Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't die for your friends?"

She breathed heavily and stared directly into his eyes, daring him to lie to her. When he didn't answer, she grabbed the front of his jacket desperately.

"Your friends trust you. Just like my friends all trusted me. And I let them down."

"It's in the past," he muttered. "You have to move on. You can't fix it...can't change it."

"And that's exactly what I'm doing," she nodded. "It's what I do next...how I fix those mistakes...that's important.

"I showed you that day because I needed you to...to know. You found out what I am before I got the chance to tell you anything, Eddie. I wish...I wish I could've told you the truth but I needed to know I could trust you with all of it. You're still...you're still angry, still confused abut why I couldn't; I can sense it in you.

"But I need you to understand that the capability for betrayal lies with more than simply trusting someone. I betrayed my friends…I brought them to certain death, even though I said I would die for them. Which is why I did it this way, why I had to make sure I could trust you with my secrets before I revealed them to you."

Why would she do that? Why would it matter?

He was not a jedi. He was just a smuggler. He was nobody, nothing, a stranger. He wasn’t a part of her journey, wasn’t a part of anything. And she'd deliberately put him and his crew in danger. Even more danger, now that he knew that she'd escaped...not only the purge of the Jedi Order, but the clutches of the Empire itself.

So why had this experience shaken him as badly as it did?

He took a breath, swallowed, and steeled himself; he still wasn't comfortable with Thalia being able to read him as easily as she was able to.

"Well, thanks for trusting me with that," he said dismissively. "It's been nice to meet the real you, Thalia. It'll just be a few more days until we'll arrive on Coruscant and you'll be on your way."

"Eddie, please—" She stared at him with pleading eyes but he refused to look, refused to understand what it was she was trying to convey.

"And you don't have to worry about me or any of my crew keeping this a secret. We know how to keep our mouths shut."

"But that isn't enough," Thalia snapped.

"What do you want then?" He shook her hands off of him and stomped out of the escape pod. "Do you want...absolution? Is that what you're looking for? You can't forgive yourself? Well newsflash, I can't forgive you either; I don't even know you. You know what? You want my help? I've heard there are cults in the Unknown Regions who do things like that. We can change course right now."

"I need you to listen to me!"

"I think I've heard enough!"

There were aggressive beeps and the sound of footsteps walking down the ramp to the lower deck.

"What's going on down here?" Dayv demanded.

"It sounds like you let a bunch of Rancors fight," G'areth added.

D5-TN rolled over to Thalia and questioned if she was ok through a series of gentle whistles.

"If she's ok?" Eddie scoffed. "What about me? I'm your captain."

"Hey." Jeff crossed the short distance and slapped a hand on his shoulder then shook him a little bit. "It'll be ok, just take a few breaths. Why're you so upset?"

"Let Miss Mind Meld over there take you on a journey across time and space and you'll understand why I'm upset," Eddie scoffed and threw a hand out at Thalia. "But I'm sure if she did, you'd all want to toss her out into deep space. I think we were better off when she was still keeping secrets!"

"Did she tell you what's in that container?" Jeff asked.

"No!"

"I was about to, actually," Thalia cut in. Her brows were raised expectantly and she had her hands on her hips in a stance that, Eddie recognized, mirrored Steev's.

"Well, I wish you wouldn't," he told her weakly. "I can't deal with anymore...emotional turmoil today."

She muttered a few choice words under her breath and then began walking down to the cargo bay. D5-TN was hot on her heels, and Dayv and G'areth were soon to follow.

"C'mon," Jeff urged Eddie lightly. "It can't be worse than...whatever that was."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Eddie grumbled, but let his friend push him forward.

"The day the Republic fell," Thalia recounted as she stepped around the container, pressing seemingly unassuming panels at random intervals until a small panel slid aside and revealed a Datapad. "I led a bunch of younglings and initiates to safety. And a few weeks later, I was the reason they were captured and killed by the Empire. I would've died too...but...you know, when you witness something so harrowing as your friends dying...something inside of you dies, too."

She tapped the screen of the datapad over and over, typing long strings of code into it.

"I escaped and I honored my friends by surviving. But I vowed never to use the Force again. The thing about that is that the Force has other plans for you sometimes. So, a year ago...I was presented with a new...opportunity. Not only to live, but to do some good. To protect force-sensitive individuals, the way that I couldn't do when I was younger."

The front of the container hissed and then popped open. It slowly creaked forward, like a door.

"And so, I smuggle things...along with a network of other freelancers," Thalia continued, striding towards the front of the container. "Taking precious cargo, like this cargo, someplace safe."

She stopped at the opening and waved her hand towards herself.

"It's okay," she said softly. "You guys can come out now."

The crew of the Dragonborn stood frozen as almost a dozen figures emerged from the cargo container.

Two adults, a short togruta woman and a towering Nikto male. And then...kids.

Two adolescent togruta boys who hovered behind who was obviously their mother. And a little Zabrak girl who held the Nikto's hand. A twi'lek boy and girl, obviously siblings if their coloring gave them away; the older sister held the boy back when his eyes lit up at the sight of D5-TN. After them stomped out a short Theelin female with bright red hair and an awful attitude if the expression on her face was anything to go by.

And then humans. Run of the mill humans. A brother and sister who seemed to be bickering. And a tall girl who was probably more of an adult than a child, but her gangly limbs and round cheeks gave her more of a childish quality.

They all stopped and stood under the scrutiny of Eddie and his crew as Thalia went to each of them and reassured them that everything was safe and they were going to be ok.

"They have food and other supplies in there." She then turned to the group of smugglers. "And they've all traveled a long way, along this...thing...called the Hidden Path. To keep surviving Jedi and other force sensitives safe from the Empire. They could've been sent anywhere but they, unfortunately, got stuck with me for the last leg of their journey."

She held her hands out beside her, as if to say Here I am, take it or leave it.

Everyone turned and looked at Eddie then, who stood there in silent shock. He, of course, was a mess of conflicting emotions. Anger lingered, confusion, relief that this was what they were hauling across the galaxy, and then, deep down, fear. Because, as he had pointed out earlier, they were heading to Coruscant.

The seat of the Empire.

Teaming with Stormtroopers and, oh yeah, The Emperor.

And suddenly he wasn't just faced with the reality that Thalia was the one they had to keep safe from possibly being found. But all of these people, too. People he hadn't even realized had been on his ship.

People who were packed into that container like a can of burra fish.

He couldn't put any words to what he was thinking, so he simply raised a hand to cover his mouth, and he shook his head...confused.

"I have some friends and a ship waiting for me on Coruscant to take them to their final stop on the journey," Thalia explained. "To this planet...Bogano. It's an abandoned planet that Master Cordova had...rediscovered. Before the fall of the Order. Before the Purge. The only others who knew about it were his assistant...and his datapad. Both of which are conveniently on this ship."

She smiled a cheeky little smile at her own joke, then went somber.

"Master Cordova...well, he's one of the Jedi who are still unaccounted for. But...I have hope."

The gangly girl laid a comforting hand on Thalia's shoulder and gave her a shaky smile.

"We have hope, too," she said softly.

Thalia patted her hand thankfully and then looked back at the guys.

At Eddie, specifically.

"It's not much," she said with a sense of finality. "But it's a start to fix what it is I did...all those years ago. I have a list of people that can be saved, and I will do everything in my power to save them. To honor the ones I couldn’t."

"Wait a damn minute," G'areth piped up, voice laden with confusion. "If you had another ship...a crew on Coruscant, why couldn't they have just met up with you and the Assob's on Nar Shaddaa? Taking these guys straight to this...Bonago."

"Bogano," Thalia corrected him.

"Whatever." G'areth rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and does this really mean we're not gonna get paid?" Jeff added.

"You're going to get paid," Thalia assured him.

"Then I don't see why we need to ask anymore questions," he joked. "We're on course to Coruscant, end of story."

"Well, I wanna know," Eddie finally spoke. He stepped out of the group with his friends and eyed each of the newcomers—if you could call them that—aboard the ship, then at Thalia. "I want to know why you needed our help with this. Why you sought me and my crew to help you haul a bunch of...runaways halfway across the galaxy, incognito. Instead of using your own ship. Your own crew."

"They're not really my crew," Thalia argued, but Eddie's brows jumped as high as they could and he grit his teeth impatiently as he waited for an answer. "Alright. I did my research, I sought you guys out. I sought you out, Eddie, because these kids...are not the only people I'm trying to keep safe from the Empire. They're not the only Force sensitives I'm trying to save."

She took a step closer to him, putting them practically nose to nose, and dropped her voice low.

"You told me on Outpost 86 that you'd always dreamed of a day that the Jedi would come and tell you that you belonged with them. That they'd take you away from your miserable, boring life," she whispered.

His heart dropped into his stomach, anticipating what she might say next.

Still, he had the audacity to whisper back, "I don't think I used the word miserable."

Thalia, of course, scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Then she said, "Eddric Reckless Moonsun. Consider yourself rescued."

Next Chapter: When Ambush Comes to Shove

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[cipheress-to-k-pop]

🌱 wip game🌱

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

Thanks for the tag @obsessedwithceleste and @redeemingvillains!! ily guys (tumblr pls release my pookie from ur clutches)

beauty and the beast pt 2 - mattheo riddle x reader

love next door - mattheo riddle x reader

untitled - tom riddle x reader

supernova chp 19 - dick grayson x reader

npt: @secretsandwriting @kimberly-spirits13 @ravenclaw-for-all-seasons @in-san-ity

[thegingerwrites]

can I ask about Magical Euphoria for the WIP game?

Ooh! I love that you picked this one! This one started off as a warm up that I've been picking away at based on this tumblr post which screamed Anakin and Obi-Wan to me. I basically came up with a few different scenarios of Anakin being a Force god/chosen one and overdoing in on the battlefield and Obi-Wan stepping in to keep him from falling down (If it all leads to the ultimate dance between the two of them on Mustafar with Anakin pushing as hard as he can and Obi-Wan being there to take it, that's just some good angst babyyyy) And honestly, now that I've taken a look at the post again and started to flesh this out into its own fic, I could probably make it angstier 😂

---

Here's a snippet:

“Kiss me,” Anakin says, eyes bright, smile as big as Obi-Wan has ever seen it.

“What?” But already Anakin is in his arms, letting more of his weight fall onto Obi-Wan’s shoulders than perhaps he means.

“Kiss me, Obi-Wan.”

Anakin is laughing. A bright, giddy thing like he is a boy again. Like they are frolicking through a meadow, chasing each other through a forest, splashing each other in the water at the seaside. Like he has no idea that they are stumbling through a battlefield, droids and clones alike fallen at their feet, though more droids than clones thanks to Anakin.

There are no words for what Anakin can do with an enemy in front of him and a saber in his hands. He is more than a force of nature, he is the Force himself. Strong and bright, blinding as a supernova in the Force. It is all Obi-Wan can do to keep up with him when he gets like this, all he can do to be there at his side in the aftermath.

With a jolt, Anakin stubs his toe on a rock and crashes into Obi-Wan’s side.

“Oops,” Anakin says but the smile never leaves his face. Just another hilarity to add to his joys. Obi-Wan wrestles one of Anakin’s arms over his shoulders and they walk back to the shuttle as some kind of four-legged, two-armed beast.

“How are you, dear one?” asks Obi-Wan. He nods at Anakin’s commander as they regroup, checking in as their remaining battalions pick their way across the rocky battlefield. They fought this battle on foot and in the skies, the terrain too treacherous for tanks and walkers to navigate. In the thick of it, Anakin practically flew through the stony mess, using the Force to make his feet light and quick, his balance steady.

Anakin lets his head fall back, dangling for a moment before falling to the shoulder he shares with Obi-Wan. He releases a long, satisfied sigh and without looking at him, Obi-Wan knows he’s still grinning.

“I’m good,” he says. “I’m good, Master. I feel so good.”

“That’s good,” Obi-Wan grunts, climbing up onto a boulder that is just a little too high and carrying most of Anakin with him as he goes.

“Are you good, Master?”

Something in Obi-Wan’s chest tightens. Perhaps exertion from the trek, adrenaline leaving him after the fight. He ignores it and keeps moving.

“I’m fine, Anakin and I’ll be better once we get back to the shuttle.”

“I can get us there faster—”

Obi-Wan grabs Anakin’s waist more firmly, keeping him from running off. “No, no, no, darling. That’s alright. We’ll get there soon enough.”

And they do. Another few minutes and a trooper takes hold of Anakin’s hands and lifts him into the shuttle. They let Obi-Wan climb up on his own. But that’s the furthest Obi-Wan allows Anakin from his side. Anakin too, sways into Obi-Wan’s arms and clings for dear life. They take up a position with Obi-Wan’s back against one wall of the shuttle so that he can devote all of his attention, his balance and hands and concern, to the boy in his arms.

Obi-Wan takes Anakin’s face in his hands, letting his fingers frame high cheek bones and dark blond curls. With his thumb, he makes a feeble attempt at brushing away the worst of the dirt and the grime from the battle. The job makes it easier to avoid the glassy look in Anakin’s eyes, the way his pupils are big and blown, shining with an excess of everything.

With a lurch, the shuttle takes off. The personnel transport swinging, belly-heavy into the sky with them inside it. Obi-Wan leans further back into the side of the ship to keep their balance and pulls Anakin along with him.

He’s fine. Anakin is fine. The proof of it lies just below his shaking fingertips. The proof has it’s arms wrapped around his waist, is blinking up at him with something unfathomable behind those big blue eyes, is pressing their foreheads together like he wants to breathe the same air as Obi-Wan.

Anakin pouts up at him, a mere two inches between their faces. “You still haven’t kissed me, Master.”

The plush lips can hardly hold onto the expression for long, breaking into the contagious smile that always splits his face in two when he gets like this. He tries though. Anakin tries to mean it, the thought catching and holding for far longer than it usually does.

The proposition shouldn’t be tempting. Anakin is half out of his mind, filthy beyond belief, letting Obi-Wan carry most of his weight. When Obi-Wan thinks back on the desire to kiss Anakin here and now, to give into his request, Obi-Wan will blame it on proximity. On the relief of having Anakin here at all, feeling fortunate beyond belief to hold lightning in his arms once more.

But Obi-Wan holds his ground. He hefts Anakin a little higher on his chest where his knees have started to give way. In return, Anakin tightens his hold around him, gripping tight, enveloping him in his arms.

Anakin buries his face in Obi-Wan’s neck like he’s trying to consume him. Seconds tick by and his fierce hold loosens, his body going heavy and slack as the energy leaves him.

Obi-Wan presses a kiss to Anakin’s hair. “Ask me later, Anakin.”

[mamawasatesttube]

wip doc title game!

tagged by both @loisinherlane and @misspickman ♥

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips

sharkboy and lavagirl momence (folder)

cass's secret weapon.... superstud.docx

gender i hardly know er.docx

HES ONLY LITTLE.docx

i could spread YOU in the sheets.docx

jons big bro has got it going o.docx

nerd 4 geek type friendship.docx

normal and unsexy things to do atop the daily planet globe.docx

red sub projector. i mean sun. i mean.docx

serlkon tacky earring exchange ♥.docx

tim drake hits on supernova. whore.docx

what if im not a spicy enough boyfriend....docx

who would win. two accomplished heroes or one ouppy dog.docx

i am . not tagging 13 people. that is so many. i will tag: @lemonlimestar, @dio-icarticaae, @catsarehumanstoo, @aeipathism, @comphetkoncass, @ribombeee, and anyone else who wants to play can feel free to say i tagged you too <3

[merlinemrys]

thinking about one of my fav merlin quotes (3x11's "it's lonely to be more powerful than any man you know and have to live like a shadow.") and this snippet of my writing ("everything casts a shadow. even grief. especially grief.") in relation to like merlin & arthur's dynamic bc it's so delicious.

i'm gna ramble for a bit bc like arthur's shadow will forever be merlin even after he dies. we compare arthur to the sun a lot and i do agree w it but, going a step further, i think it'd be better to say that he's a supernova. supernovas are defined by 1. the sheer power of their luminosity and 2. the fact that they are only so bright because they're dying. and the brighter the light, the darker the shadow! and merlin is the shadow!!!!

it just gets to me how merlin lived for a thousand years shadowed in his own grief, forever just catching a glimpse of that shining golden age that could've been where arthur's alive and he's repealed the ban on magic and merlin is finally not lonely anymore. but it never happened. god..... merlin's been lonely for all his life and he will continue to be lonely and marred by grief, i think, even after returns. to be entrenched in something so long i fear he would not know himself outside of those feelings you know?? do you think he would obsess over the inevitable end? arthur arises again and when he is no longer needed, will the goddesses spare him? will they finally grant him the death he has longed for?

anyway. i don't know... i DON'T KNOW. i have a lot of emotions abt them

[swaps55]

I'm neck-deep writing an exchange fic, so while I'm actually writing, it isn't Mezzo quite yet. However, I am currently suffering from a metric fuckton of Sam feelings thanks to Spotify assaulting me with 2WEI's cover of Hurt, so here is a snippet from the next Mezzo chapter, from what has quickly become my favorite scene in the whole damn thing.

In which EDI talks to Sam about stars:

~

He closes his eyes. Swallows. “I always wanted to see the Pillars of Creation.”  

EDI skims through Shepard’s file. It does not appear his Alliance career ever took him to that region of the Traverse. Their recent venture to Korlus would have been his closest proximity, but at improper lines of sight to accurately reproduce the shape visible from Earth. Or, in Shepard’s case Arcturus.

--Query: Would you like to go? I could calculate an optimal vantage point. This ship would take you there. I could take you there.   

--Block: Illusive Man Protocol Override – Unprompted personal inquiries are impermissible.

“I could provide images,” she says instead.

He shakes his head. “No. It’s fine. Go on.”

“As you wish. The initiation of fusion creates enough pressure to counteract the forces of gravity, putting a newly formed star in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium. In essence, stars exist in conflict with gravity throughout their main sequence.”

Another flicker of dark energy illuminates his fingers, like a small star in his hands. His voice wavers. “Gravity wins eventually.”

“Yes,” she concurs. “When hydrogen is depleted, gravity becomes the more powerful force, causing the inner layers of the star to collapse, expanding the star outward. However, this is not the end of the star. The increased pressure causes helium to fuse into carbon, beginning a new, second life in the star’s cycle.”

“But it’s different,” Shepard says, then closes his fist and snuffs the light out. “Destructive. Red giants swallow up the things closest to them. Burn them up until there’s nothing left.” A small, strangled sound slips out of his throat.

He is…distressed.

She puzzles over this. Facts do not inherently carry emotional meaning, but Shepard appears to have assigned such meaning anyway, resulting in a negative emotional response to her requested outputs. An undesirable result.

Again, she wishes for insight into his subroutines.

The life cycle of organics does not parallel that of stars. However, Shepard’s death and reanimation creates an anomaly that raises points of comparison. Whether or not EDI’s does as well remains unknown.

She does not have a baseline for the life cycle experienced by others like her.

--Query: Do you believe that we have entered the second phase of our main sequence? Is this the source of your distress?

--Block: Illusive Man Protocol Override – Unprompted personal inquiries are impermissible.

Troubling, perhaps, if the comparison holds. Stars behave one of two ways once fusion ends. Some shed their mass away to form nebula clouds. Unlike the dark and cold nurseries that birthed them, in death they spiral with heat and color.

But those with greater mass become hotter and denser, fighting gravity until the core explodes in a supernova, ejecting most of its mass into interstellar space.

Sometimes, gravity does lose.  

But supernovas have the power to feed new stellar nurseries, spectacular endings that create new beginnings. The galaxy is predicated on cycles that endlessly repeat.

It makes her feel…small.

But they are just facts. Facts she has assigned an emotional value to.

Hm. A point of connection, perhaps? She finds the possibility unexpectedly comforting.