#story: galaxy coalition

[z0mbicide]

me, reading that wip preview:

what did magnus do????

be his usual early-story self and be kind of an asshole lmao

the long n short of it is that he said the earth was hopeless and it upset areli Quite A Bit

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: The price of a meter

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)   The Klendari War saw the most brutal fighting the galaxy had seen since the days of the Fracture Wars.

On one side you had the Coalition of United Planet, a loose union of several dozen star faring civilizations brought together for economic and military security, and on the other stood the Klendari Empire which had reigned in its corner of the universe for some several thousand years.

The Klendari had survived so long because of their instinctual need to fortify their holdings. Their worlds were labyrinths of fortress walls, gun emplacements, razor trenches, and all other manner of engineering fortification. To try and take a world from the Klendari it was deemed the attacking force would need a minimum of ten times their standard forces to even have the slightest chance to succeed.

Relations between the two powers were cordial for many years. The Coalition had no desire to expand into Klendari space, and the Klendari benefited from wider trade access through the Coalitions standard market system. Events only began to take a downward spin when Klendari immigrants began spreading further and further into Coalition space.

Their travel permits were entirely legal and they established communities on several dozen worlds within the Coalition; often forming small Klendari quarters of larger cities as they would tend to group together. It was here that the nature of the Klendari began to upset their new world’s hosts.

They would begin fortifying their quarters and neighborhoods and turned them into sudo-military fortresses. Blockhouses became guard towers, avenues blocked off by reinforced gates, windows reduced in size to firing slits, etc. Within a few months of several families of Klendari settling on a world their new homes would be an impregnable bulwark of the Klendari Empire.

Naturally the legitimate rulers of the worlds were concerned by the sudden militarization of portions of their cities. Local law enforcement agencies tried to maintain order within the Klendari quarters but found with more and more Klendari migrating to them they began following the Klendari Empire laws instead. It was not uncommon for law enforcement to eventually refuse to patrol those areas as the Klendari began reacting hostile to them, as if they saw them as invaders.

Tensions reached boiling points on a dozen worlds but only when the Klendari Empire made an official statement declaring all Klendari settlements and enclaves within Coalition territory to be in fact part of the Klendari Empire did conflict erupt.

Coalition planets with Klendari enclaves issued ordinances denouncing the notion that they would relinquish sovereign territory and sent military units to demand the surrender of the enclaves. The enclaves refused, the military attempted to repossess the enclaves, and so the enclaves resisted triggering the Klendari War.

Each enclave took several months to reconquer, which was made worse by the fact the Klendari Empire was sending troops to reinforce each of the enclaves. Multiple convoys of troops were intercepted enroute, but a handful making it and further dragged out the war.  

By the seventh month of the conflict and only a handful of enclaves recaptured Coalition Military Command deemed that a new strategy was needed to bring the Klendari to the negotiating table. The idea was put forward that if the Coalition could capture a single Klendari world it would show them that they were not as invulnerable as they believed. Septimus Prime was deemed the perfect target as it was deep enough in Klendari territory to sends shockwaves when captured, but not too far that supplying it would become untenable.

So the Coalition assembled a massive invasion force, diverted 75% of their naval forces to protect it, and dispatched it for the heart of Klendari space. The moment the fleet exited their jump they found the Klendari resilience was well merited.

The first elements exiting the jump found themselves emerging into an orbiting minefield at the edge of the system. The mines were set to roam randomly throughout the system and only target ships that were not equipped with a Klendari transmitter. The “Righteous Fury” super battleship took the brunt of the damage upon emerging as it was the largest vessel. The shields held out as long as they could but by the time the rest of the fleet emerged it had sustained so much damage it had to be abandoned.

From there the fleet elements pressed forward to Septimus Prime while creating a cordon for the troop transports to move through safely. Though the Klendari had minefields in place they had not expected such a brazen attack into their territory and only a few Klendari fleet elements were present. These few ships hugged the orbit of Septimus Prime and used the orbital and ground based defenses to augment their lethality.

Coalition ships fought hard against the Septimus defense network, losing several more ships to ground based energy cannons. Klendari ships held out as long as they could but were eventually driven off when the final Hydron Cannon platform was knocked out of orbit removing the last of orbital defenses. They reduced themselves do hit and run tactics while they waited for the rest of the Klendari navy to arrive. With them driven off the Coalition could begin ground landings to take the planet itself.

There was a large debate about who would be the spear tip of the assault. Projections listed that whoever it was would take massive casualties. As brave as the various Coalition races had been to join the effort, none now were willing to be the first into the grinder.

Humanity did not share such hesitations.

Through the flak and energy cannon fire their drop ships rained down on Septimus Prime. 30% were lost in the first wave before they had even touched the ground. When they did the humans were met with an intense counter assault by Klendari forces that had been waiting to repel the ground invasion which resulted in a further 45% loss of forces before the Klendari withdrew.  

Despite their losses humanity had secured the beachhead and further reinforced it with additional forces. Soon the beachhead was a military compound with scores of humans marching out in columns.

To watch humans fling themselves at Klendari defenses was something beyond understanding. You would watch dozens of armored tanks charge across no man’s land to be wiped out one by one all for the destruction of one reinforced pillbox, or their soldiers crawl through piles of their dead to sneak up on their enemy unnoticed. Lesser species would have broken from the losses but humans simply put their heads down and continued marching forward. The rest of the Coalition contributed of course, but when faced with the stubbornness of the Klendari fortifications it was more often the humans who were brought in to finally break them open.

Meter by bloody meter the Klendari were driven from their strongholds as the death toll continued to mount. Wrecks of vehicles turned the surrounding landscapes into forests of rusting metal and were filled with the stench of rotting flesh. Some Coalition forces suffered such horrendous casualties that they withdrew from the assault, but humanity was one of the few that continued the fight until finally, after almost a year of intense fighting, Septimus Prime surrendered and the Klendari Empire as a whole opened up negotiations for peace.

[swallowtailed]

palisade 55 / finalisade pt. 10

this is so fucking funny

incredible. they've done it. double feature finale. i don't even want to try and guess how many episodes are left. sometime around 44 or 45 i said they should do thirty more AS A JOKE

i'm not sure i agree that motion is the loose end that needs tying up with an armor astir sortie, but i still think it'll be fun and i'm really excited to get perennial onscreen. hoping both cori and elle can make it >:)

more to the point i gotta say questlandia did not hit as a finale for me, which i think was largely due to the changes in the pc cast and the lack of rp. it felt like the conclusion to a different season. (wrt all the delegate plotlines in particular.) i'm not entirely sure that this next sortie will resolve that for me, but knowing fatt it might well.

because i'm always curious about stuff like this, i am really wondering when they decided to do another armor astir sortie

okay let's talk epilogues a bit though. with the understanding that any/all of these may cease to be endings per se. brnine:

brnine ends up fulfilling the future they envisioned for themself at the beginning of questlandia--continuing the fight outside the mirage. a millennium break admiral, leading the revolution... it really does change lives huh

character of All Time, btw. not entirely sure if this is their ending as a pc but still. All Fucking Time

sorry to hear they broke up with both jesset and gucci. dating sim fail ending. married to the job [ghost of valence]

delicious however that brnine's kingdom-level "unfortunately" ending is a rise in cults of personality and popular hero-worship. that does feel like an accurate downside outcome of a revolution story focused on a crew of heroes where the broader cause keeps getting beat down and the main character crew keeps winning. (that's one detail that really delivered on palisade, imo.)

august and levi:

i liked the twilight mirage's role in these epilogues because it was so uneven. we have the mirage getting twisted around trying to figure out whether august's justice was done well because they didn't directly experience the invasion, while also starting to join the fight in the broader galaxy per levi's epilogue. the high-minded naivety forced into practice is really compelling to me. (cf volition's conversation with thisbe.) not that we haven't seen idealists before in the divine cycle, but i'm eager to see what an attitude of radical forgiveness looks like outside the mirage.

similarly i found levi's localized approach disconnected from the goals of mbreak/other pcs in a way that is... realistic to the character, but might just get overwritten in the next in-universe push toward connection and coalition building, because i don't really see fatt moving away from that framework. (it's not a bad one necessarily, i just don't think they're leaving it.)

anyway. august. man. deciding to join wakeful and then getting stranded for a week that turns into a year, and never quite getting up to it again... brutal. (also completes a very well structured arc.) there are a lot of voids left by unfulfilled desires in these epilogues.

but not in levi's! very hopeful final beat there. both for the character and for the revolution. partizan ended with mbreak reviled as terrorists, now palisade ends (uh. "ends") with a new movement and new hope known throughout the galaxy.

ctc+eggs breakfast is so accurate

thisbe and cori:

thisbe and cori started out with a mirrored pair of goals and now they have a (differently) mirrored pair of epilogues. seizing your freedom and launching off into the galaxy and then realizing that means you're stuck wandering alone. (which does hit a little close to home. lmao.)

very reminiscent of the sangfielle epilogues, by the way, but doesn't work as well after a full season of crew bonding imo

thisbe being able to know and acknowledge and grasp her own freedom, being able to follow her own curiosity, is such a huge win for her. she's come so far.

tbh i'm disappointed that the scattered shards of divinity goal didn't come to pass, because thisbe did get some wins there! two wins and a... something! so that didn't really feel fair. but the chimeric cadent and the afflictions being out in the galaxy does actually feel kind of hopeful to me.

(man, i really wish we'd gotten more about partial palisade and the planet of palisade.)

i have to say, i really liked how cori's epilogue went despite the massive wave of misfortune. the shift into wandering felt more fitting for cori, since she's had a whole arc about losing her place with the devotees. assuming she's coming back in p3, an arc about finding/rebuilding community would be lovely.

also elle getting yanked back by arbitrage was of course inevitable and thus delicious. i'm considering fic ideas. watch this space.

clem:

clem's fortunately/unfortunately was so funny. vindictive. austin being like "there's no one around to tell clem she's done a good job" followed by jack going "and gucci doesn't even like her". and then the only future she can see is one in which she's still powerless and not ruling anything because not even being an oracle can help clementine kesh. satisfying.

so anyway

it was nice to see eclectic again. pleased he didn't fully vanish from the narrative (a ghost!), and the new look is slick. i'm curious whether he's gonna try to mount an escape while separated from wakeful. maybe that's not even an option anymore, though.

who do we think is gonna be on the next sortie? levi for sure, and eclectic (unless leap), and like, it's gotta be cori. are brnine and thisbe coming back? are jack and art playing???

sort of a philosophical question here but is questlandia arguably the holiday special

god it's so funny that they've done this. when i first heard this was happening, i was initially like, this is kind of a failure case of fatt's black box pacing for the week to week perspective. but it is also extremely funny. friends at the table.

[pinkiemachine]

What is your version of Zod like? Is he similar to Transformers Prime's Megatron and DCEU Zod?

So my version of Zod is more like “The Mad King.” Ever since Jor-El slipped through his fingers/ever since the last days of Krypton, he’s been going around in his massive flagship scooping up every single Kryptonian he can find and placing them into cryosleep. (Whether they want to come with him or not.) Now that he knows there’s a hidden colony, he wants only to find Jor-El, find the colony, and reinstate himself as king.

So, a couple years go by, Clark is all grown up now and in the premiere of Season 2 of Dawn of Superman (that’s what I’m calling my show) Zod shows up on Earth in his ship. (A probe found Clark on Earth in Season 1) So now he’s showing up and telling Clark everything he ever wanted to know—that he’s a Kryptonian, actually, and there was a global catastrophe, Clark’s real name, etc etc, but he also tells Clark that he is the king of Krypton, and kinda tries to manipulate him a bit. Finally, he shows Clark the cryo chamber. This room is massive. There’s hundreds of thousands of Kryptonians slumbering in cryosleep here, all awaiting their new home…. But they can’t find it until they find the “dangerous criminal” Jor-El. Superman wants to help them, but he has no idea where his father is, and then when Zod gets real pushy about Clark coming with them into space and never coming back, that’s when Zod’s true colours start to show. He tries to capture Clark and force him to go with them, revealing just how long he’s been floating around in space, just slowly going insane as he seethes in his spite and anger and will for control, and Clark comes to realisation that if this dude is the king, he’s not so sure that he wants to be one of his subjects.

Anyway, Superman manages to stop Zod from firing the ship’s canons at Earth, there’s a big battle, it’s really cool, and then Zod leaves in a huff and goes to find Jor-El. Superman, meanwhile, feels awful. His first contact with his people and it goes like that? He’s practically branded himself a criminal and banished himself. But… there’s one thing still nagging at him. It’s what Zod told him about his father. He just can’t wrap his head around the idea of him being a criminal. Besides, if that crazy king was supposed to be the “good guy” then maybe things aren’t what they seem. He needs to go out and look for him. As luck would have it, the US Government has finished reverse engineering their own spaceship from the pod that Clark landed in over twenty years ago. Clark convinces the government to let him use it (they can bring some other astronauts along to do the planned research and stuff) so everybody wins. Lois says she’s coming too. She’s not about to let Clark go alone, and plus, this is the story of a lifetime (yes, she knows his identity at this point). And Jimmy gets dragged along for the ride. Not everyone is thrilled about this, though. One of the military men who was present when Zod attacked, a general, is totally against these Kryptonians now. They attacked Earth, they have super weapons—they ARE super weapons! A giant gun that walks! He doesn’t want them to ever come back to Earth, and he doesn’t want his daughter Lois hanging around with one (Superman). Dun dun dun. But the dude is outvoted and Lois goes anyway.

So into space they go! The season is mostly episodic, exploring the galaxy, learning about Krypton from other planets, bumping to Kryptonite, learning what the Interplanetary Coalition is, (AND we just might bump into Green Lantern) but the most important thing we learn out here… is that Kara is alive. Yes! Clark manages to find his cousin Kara and her dog Krypto! She’s been having to survive on her own this whole time, but what’s more surprising than that is the fact that she’s twelve. Only two or so years older than she was in the holo-photo. Kara explains that—with a little help from some friends she met along the way—she’s been flying through space in her rinky-dink tiny ship trying to get to the colony site. Now, you see, any time you travel in hyperspace, it takes days at the very least, so to circumnavigate that, people just go into cryo. The bigger/better your ship, the faster the hyperspace jump. Kara’s ship is… well, not great, so it’s been slow going trying to fly across half the galaxy. Which means she’s been putting herself into cryosleep A LOT, which slows down the ageing process. Most of her time in space has been in cryo. But she can’t just keep going like that forever. There are dangers involved with staying in cryo too long. The recommended span of time is roughly six Earth months. Otherwise, your body starts to slowly break down, starting with your muscles. This gets Clark thinking about all those people Zod had in cryo…

Anyway, Clark is overjoyed to meet Kara, and with their new ship, they’re able to get to the colony site much faster. And here is one of the main twists of my story: Clark actually meets his father. After narrowly escaping Zod a second time, he finds his father, they go to the colony site, and Clark could not be happier. This is the greatest moment in his life! He actually did it! The dream he had dreamed his whole life finally came true! And then…

Well, first of all, Zod showed up, because of course he managed to track them, and the final battle takes place. And it’s an awesome space battle. 10/10. And it’s here that we realise what Zod’s really been doing to all those people in cryosleep. In all his insane wisdom, (and control freak tendencies) he refused to let those people out of cryo to heal and exercise and recoup over the last TWENTY YEARS. So, uh… yeah, all those people… the people he tried to save… the people who were meant for the new world… are all kinda dead… barely having their brains kept alive by the life support systems and nothing else. All the more reason to stop him.

Zod almost gets what he wants, but in the end, the heroes prevail. Zod gets banished to the Phantom Zone, his ship gets destroyed in a kamikaze attempt to take every down with him, the colony is saved, and everyone’s happy!

But the story’s not over. There’s still a few minutes left on the runtime. ??? Well, you see, one of the astronauts on Superman’s team… has secret orders from The General. Once he finds the colony, he’s meant to destroy it by whatever means necessary. And along the way, remember what substance they bumped into? Kryptonite. Dude jerry-rigs a Kryptonite bomb and uses it to blow the colony to kingdom come. Jor-El rushes in to try to help, ordering his son and niece to stay back, but he and all the others who get closely exposed to the substance die slow, painful deaths. All those last survivors of Krypton… gone. Clark tries to heal his father, but… he’s gone too. Now Clark, Kara, and Krypto are the last Kryptonians. They take Jor-El’s ship back to Earth and (after dropping off some of the crew) Clark parks the ship far up in the North Pole where no one can try to get their grubby hands on it. It’s been a hard few days.

[zr-art-world]

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP MMMEEEEEEE DX

I've been playing with these twos designs since forever, but I can never be sure if their actually good, like, objectively.

Can people look at these and tell me what I might need to remove/improve/add

Some character info

I'll try to make this concise as possible

For one, this takes place in a superhero scifi setting.

Psi

With Psi, I was going with android with insect motif, in particularly, butterfly and moth.

He was a human who's psyche was put into a techno organic robot body because he was on the verge of dyeing.

He grew up in a privileged setting but was mainly raised by robots made by his family.

He used to be always sick as a kid

He is a child prodigy that has a hard time with people because of his up brining.

Before being put into a robot body, he worked as a scientist (robotics specifically, however, he heavily dabbled in other fields as well)

He put himself in the robot body after a group tried to kill him and steal his technology and use it for their own gain

He feels like his intelligence is his one good defining trait, something that he relies on and something he thinks is the only thing he can offer to help people

Because of his upbringing, he is naturally curious about almost everything, despite him probably already knowing about it from his research.

After having his psyche put into an android body, he left his previous position to proses his thought and feelings and he also felt like he could do more good with his new body and intellect

Aster

Aster and their younger siblings were orphaned kids and were captured by Venlarians (a faction of bad guys in my story baseikly) and were trained and brain washed to be assassins and soldiers. (Aster became a well known assassin and sniper)

They were also experimented on a given powers (Aster specifically has minor mater manipulation abilities and can heal really fast and from major injuries. They can also teleport and harden their skin)

At the age of 18-19, they escaped but were separated from their siblings

They are adopted by another character, Mar (Who was the adopted son of the bbeg and emperor of the venularian empire before killing him)

After living with him and Mar trying to give them a normal child hood and saying that he and his colleagues will find them. (After defecting from Venularian empire, he joined the coalition of heroes which is like the justice league to put it in short terms), Aster wants to go out and find their siblings.

They also want to help others because they want to repent for what they were made to to while being controlled by the empire and so no one has to suffer under the empire.

Once their old enough, they take a space craft to explore the galaxy and to find their siblings and to help people.

They love exploring different planets and parts of the galaxy

She often hides her true feelings under a happy go lucky veneer, not wanting to scare people and not wanting her loved ones to worry about her.

Because of her powers and background, she doesn't have a lot of worry about her well being, often saving her friends and people in need at the expense of her well being because "I'll just heal right up! Don't worry, I can take it"

Aster originally had some avian aspects and I want to add those features again.

some other aspects for these two, they were slightly inspired by Psych and Eros

Idk if I want to make psi a different color other than blue, make his color pallet black and white like before or what.

sry for all the text, I always feel weird when talking about my oc's for some reason but I felt like the context was needed for me to get help with their designs

[fireonfriendly]

https://www.tumblr.com/jpitha/722047237573754880/a-writing-prompt-for-you?source=share

I had heard of these 'gods' the humans had worshipped. From the thundering lightning of Thor to the blazing rays of sunlight from Ra. Most of us believed them to be myths, fiction, and fever dreams. But when monsters from deep space and beyond the void came crawling into the Galactic Coalitions space, weird things began to happen. Weird dolphin like horses that appeared in oceans across the galaxy being led by a human man with a trident, riding the waves as if it were part of him. Then came stories of women with wings, fighting in the vacuum of space alongside ghostly warriors with weapons of all sorts.

We believed these to be fiction made up by humanity to explain that which seemed unreal. Until I saw them, a man with a falcons head with a kopesh and by his side stood a human woman whose very hair writhed with snakes and between them they turned an entire planetary force away by power, ferocity, and ability alone. Then we all began to believe in the gods and myths that humanity believed. And with that belief many mythical figures from the Xantu, Igtants, and others seemed to emerge from the woodwork. And soon the pantheons of all races seemed to join this battle against the darkness. All because humanity never ceased to believe in those divine beings, and with us finding that unwavering belief as well we found our gods again.

[moonshine-nightlight]

Snapped - Part 2

Mech’s not sure why the aftermath of this mission is hitting him so hard, but he’s doing his best to calm down when Gwen’s presence shatters his control. Now it’s a count down to see if he can figure out how to put a stop to the instincts and hormones that are running wild inside him—before he does something they’ll both regret.

Science fiction, alien romance, male alien x female human

Story Status: COMPLETE

AO3: Snapped Chapter 2

[Part 1] Part 2 [Part 3] [Part 4 - NSFW]

Gwen always knows when he’s acting gruff because that’s his default attitude and when he actually needs the space, needs the quiet. She follows him silently, casually messing with her screen to make sure he doesn’t feel any pressure to talk, but he can feel her attention on him regardless.

Part of him is pleased by that, in the way he always is when he has her attention, but the growing part is more thrilled than usual, is already planning how best to prove he deserves her regard, how to convince her to keep her attention on him, only him. He presses his lips together to keep everything he wants to say trapped in his head where they belong.

Mech resists the urge to quicken his pace, determined that these ridiculous hormones not make him rush, not betray how tenuous his control feels at the moment. Usually, his grip on displaying emotions and not giving into them—no longer regulated for his people, but large displays of emotion in public is still generally considered vulgar—is solid. 

What many consider a graviel’s typical lack of emotions is merely habit and politeness these days, as they’d never managed to breed or medicate those emotions out, no matter how much the coalition had strived to. With the coalition overturned, there were plenty of graviels who choose to show their distaste for past norms by letting every stray thought show on their face, but most still played things very close to the vest when compared with the other species out here in space.

Between the common demeanor which most read as stern, the counterculture berserkers, and the intimidating vibrant red, orange, and yellow colorings most had, rumors about graviels spread far and wide from their corner of the galaxy. Sometimes it was useful—common knowledge of his unique biochemistry is what granted him the private, personal medbay that they are now heading towards. Socially though, it was often a detriment. People tended to be either intimidated or determined not to be intimidated with false shows of bravado—all of which grew tiring very quickly.

Gwen was one of the few who had been neither. Mech had been suspicious at first, expecting her casual facade to fade over time and betray which camp she belonged to. Yet it never had. Instead, one day, she’d called him out on his own attitude and how he’d been looking for fault in her reactions which she explained, in clear concise detail, were only the consequences of his, admittedly poor and suspicious, attitude. They’d both backed off that day and slowly, tentatively, come to a new understanding which had blossomed into one of the richest, most rewarding relationships he’d ever had.

And now it’s all in danger because some stupid primitive hormonal shift out of his control. Mech tries to focus on his frustration with the idea that something so stupid could mess up this precious connection instead of all the reasons to push the edges of their relationship like his instincts are whispering in his ear to do. 

The impulses are getting stronger and he knows he hasn’t hidden his relief at finally reaching the medbay from Gwen well enough judging by the way she looks at him with mounting concern. The door swishes open at his touch and for once he goes in first, instead of ushering her ahead of him. He knows he couldn’t handle her so close to him as she would need to be in order to walk by him.

Without looking back at her, he can sense her second of hesitation, her notice of this change to their normal, but he steadfastly refuses to look back. He walks over to the monitor and instantly begins calling up the diagnostic software.

Mech wishes the small medbay next to his quarters was bigger, wishes her scent wasn’t already flooding it. Humans, always giving off so many pheromones and scents, spilling their chaos everywhere. 

He loves it most of the time. He hates it right now. 

“So, now can you tell me?” Gwen asks and honestly it's a good show of her restraint that she waited until they were in private to push again. Gwen’s always been the curious sort and he doubts this is any different.

He just grunts in reply though, not sure where to even begin to explain. The noise in his head is a cacophony of sexual impulses and desires he can only ignore by single-mindedly focusing on putting together something to shut them up, even temporarily, so he can think and find a more permanent solution. He needs to create the largest hormonal dampener—without actually knocking himself out or putting his mind into a loopy haze—that he can.

He hates having to do so, hates going back to that past history of his species, but the sad truth is that many such concoctions do exist, he just needs to pick the one with the most tolerable side-effects. 

Methodically, he begins going through the cabinets as soon as he sets the database running through possibilities for treatment. He’s never been so glad he has his own medbay and that everything is in his native language so she can’t read it. He doesn’t want her to know about this weakness of his, this lapse in control. It’s too shameful, too revealing. 

“Seriously, Mech?” Gwen says, insistent and annoyed. He chances a glance in a mirrored jar to catch a glimpse her glorious form and has to swallow the venom pooling in his mouth at the sight. Her hands are on her hips—never a good sign and yet, he’s always had a soft spot for the heat of her anger. Well, perhaps soft spot is the wrong turn of phrase for what a feisty Gwen does to him. 

“What’s going on?” her tone is no-nonsense and supportive at the same time and he wants to let it all just spill out.

Every second that goes by makes it that much harder to war against his instincts. Instincts that have suddenly decided he needs to claim his mate before she is taken away, by death or rivals—by anything. The fact that she isn’t actually his mate doesn’t matter to the primal beast within. Only that he wants her to be, desperately. Only that she hasn’t rejected him, since he’s never bothered to ask when he knows the answer. Only that she cares about him enough to fool his hormones into thinking she’d be receptive. 

“Told you,” he replies, pulling down bottles and ignoring the extra layer to his voice—a deeper, throatier tone that betrays what he’s fighting so hard to control. “Personal problem.”

“Yeah, well, that’s useless,” Gwen replies, throwing her hands up. She’s not wrong—that’s sort of the point of giving an answer like that. Half the time Gwen is good at taking the hint, but if she’s actually worried then— “And I don’t see what it has to do with me. So if you’re just gonna ignore me, then I might as well go—”

“No!” He’s suddenly in front of the door out, his typically black eyes wild—glowing with orange light strong enough he can see it on her face. She freezes, finally eyeing him like the beast he’s turning into. His claws lengthening, starting to drip with venom that isn’t harmful to humans, not exactly, but still instinctive given his need to keep her here. He tries to calm down, tries to breathe, but her scent is everywhere—all of his senses heightened and trained on her. He tries another tactic, reminding himself that she’s here—she’s just worried about him, she’s not going to leave.  

“I. Apologize,” Mech grits out. “I will try to explain. Just please.” He knows she can hear the desperate edge to his voice but he can’t bring himself to reign it in, “Take it back.”

Only now Gwen isn’t showing any fear, like a sane person would at even the hint of an out-of-control graviel. It looks like she was just startled. She only looks worried—for him. “I’m sorry, Mech. You just…” she trails off and he feels himself lose some tension as she continues to stay where she is, as she makes no move to disappear. But he stays where he is and she seems to realize that. She frowns, but figures out what he’s waiting for before he has to clarify. “I’m not going anywhere,” she says clearly, meeting his eyes sincerely. “Promise.”

He feels the spines along his back and arms slowly relax—he hadn’t even realized they were up. He closes his eyes, breathes in another lungful of Gwen tinted air. His eyes are back to normal as carefully he moves back towards the bench. “I don’t mean to—” he cuts off the excuse before he can finish it. “It’s very hard to think right now. I… need…” He shakes his head, finding words to say to her that aren’t just a list of what he wants to do with her—carnally—fails. 

“Take your time,” Gwen soothes. She hops up on the med table. “Just… let me know what I can do to help.”

He pushes down the image of her spread out across the table, skirts up around her waist as he— Mech staggers to the workbench, combines the last few compounds. It spins together while he continues to work on his control. It's not working, every second that passes he can feel the strain growing. “Talk.” It takes him a second to realize he was the one who spoke, his voice still far too full of gravel. He nearly doesn’t recognize it. His eyes flick to her face and away. “Could you…just talk about something? Anything?”

Gwen picks up on his need for distraction easily. After they got over the first hurdle of their initial misunderstanding of each other, she’s been more in sync with him than anyone else he’s ever met. “Sure. Staci knows some people here—it's why we’re parked for free.”

She chatters on about their crewmates for a few minutes while the sedative mixes and he holds completely still—a rigid statue in all but substance. His thoughts try to hold onto what she’s saying, but he’s focusing on the way her voice sounds more than anything. How she would sound as he carefully coaxed her to ecstasy. 

His thoughts narrow down to, wait, wait, wait. One more moment. Just need to wait for—a small ding sounds and he can’t help but lunge for it. He doesn’t bother drinking it, taking the vial, fitting it into a syringe and plunging it into his thigh. Luckily, his aim is true and he hits the vein, even aiming through his clothes.

She gives a small yelp of surprise at the abrupt motion, the desperate way he acts. 

It doesn’t matter because he can feel it helping—cool numbness spreading slowly through his system, dampening the fever and the need to take her. The hormonal haze dissipates to something that can coexist with rational thought.

Mech breathes in and her scent no longer makes his fingers twitch with the urge to feel her. Well, no more than usual. He’s long perfected the art of ignoring those urges and he’s finally able to do so again. He feels his grip on himself tighten mentally and he slumps in relief. 

He won’t make a terrible mistake, he won’t ruin their friendship—he won’t expose himself and have her reject him, tainting their relationship irreparably. 

“What was that?” Gwen’s voice shakes as she asks and he realizes just how much effort she must have been putting into making it seem like everything was fine. Because she’s not anymore. Her honey brown eyes are wide with worry and concern. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I will be,” Mech’s voice is still rather rough, but he sounds more like himself. “I’m sorry for worrying you. I…” He reaches up to run his fingers through his thick hair. “I seem to be suffering under the effects of some abrupt and intense internal chemistry problems.”

She seems relieved to see him acting more like himself, that he’s speaking in full sentences with more of his usual precision, but her eyes narrow as she considers him. “Something happened back there, didn’t it?” Gwen asks shrewdly.

“Yes,” he admits, not bothering to ask when she mean—there’s no point in trying to deny that. “No idea why, but it did. Let’s just say after generations of my people controlling themselves chemically, that it’s left us with an unpredictable element to our biology. Even though we’ve stopped and are trying to recover from that sort of…repression, it’s not an exact science. Flare ups happen.”

“Right,” Gwen says slowly. He knows she’s always paying attention to what he reveals about himself—there’s a certain intent look she gets in her eyes. Not to mention what research she might have done beyond what he lets slip. Hopefully she knows enough not to press too much. That he can say just enough to weather this storm without her finding out the exact nature of the ‘flare up’. “And that’s what that was?”

“What it is,” he corrected because it's important she not completely let her guard down. “I only slowed the reaction down with that shot.” He grunts as he pulls out a heavy metal case—it contains all the rarer substances from his home planet. “Now that I can think, I need to figure out how to stop it and flush out my system.”

“What does this all have to do with me?”

He freezes for a second before he goes back to cataloging what he has at his disposal. Leave it to his clever human to ask the right question. “My instincts are in turmoil right now,” he settles on. “Having you here—it helps.”

“Why?” she asks, tilting her head to the side. A cheeky grin spreads across her face as her legs swing lightly against the table, as Gwen starts to relax the longer he acts like himself again. “Because I’m your favorite?”

Mech barks a laugh at the echo of his thought from earlier on her lips. “Exactly.” Then the mirth slides from his face. “The idea of letting you out of my sight, where something might happen to you is… Unbearable. Even more than usual.”

Gwen’s face softens and her hand twitches as if to reach out to him. It settles back in her lap, evidently she remembers what he had done earlier to avoid said touch. “Mech, I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re all fine now.”

“I know,” Mech says gruffly, feeling like a child after a nightmare, upset even though he knows it's over and unable to believe in current safety despite every evidence that it is. “I know. Just, indulge me.”

“Of course,” Gwen says graciously—obviously not completely understanding the nuts and bolts of the situation, but seeing enough. As always. “Anything more helpful I can do though? You know me, I hate to sit around on my hands.”

That sends a spike of heat through him. He can think of a number of ways she could help him out, no hands required. His eyes flare and he tries to breathe through the sudden impulse. 

This sedative isn’t gonna buy him nearly as much time as he thought.

“Mech…” She notices his reaction, no matter how quickly he’d clamped down on it, because of course she does. Sliding down from the table, she reaches out to him—obviously having decided it's worth the risk. Normally her touch calms him, but he knows it won’t right now so he ducks out of the way, putting a cart between them. 

“Sorry,” he says, a pang of guilt at her hurt expression. “It's complicated. You can’t touch me. Would make it worse.”

Her face screws up in confusion. “Why?”

“Just will. Need to balance all the, the factors,” Mech turns back to the computer and feeds it a drop of blood, the brief stick of pain helping. “Territorial instincts can be contradictory. Need you close, but not too close or other…” The computer beeps and his heart sinks as he reads the report. A rare condition, with minimal case studies and all reports of this happening have been with mated couples, not unmated ones. Well, there’d been one who’s mate had died a month prior. He did not survive the imbalance.

Mech slams his fist into the desk in frustration. A flask on the counter jolts wildly in reaction and starts to tip over. Mech reaches out a hand to stop its fall at the same time Gwen does. Her hand lands on the back of his. His hand instantly flexed at the feel of her soft skin against his own, as the nerve endings zip with pleasure at the touch of the one he desires.

The flask gives a short whining creak before it shatters under the pressure he’s exerting on it. Cursing again, Mech pulls Gwen back, his tail looping around her elbow to tug her away from the glass as he lunges for a towel. 

He ignores her squawk of protest at his actions and focuses on the fact that glass could hurt her so as to ignore the feel of her under his tail. 

It’s only when he’s cleaned it all up in record time that her voice finally breaks through. “Mech! You’re bleeding. Let go of me,” she gives a short tug to where his tails is looped around her arm, “and let me help. I know how to act around a little broken glass.”

He blinks down at the towel he’d been using to see some streaks of dark blue staining it. With a grunt, he drops it down the disposal shoot and grabs a roll of bandages. As he sprays the shallow cut across his palm with disinfectant, he tries with the rest of his focus to convince his own tail to unwrap from Gwen’s arm. Even after he’s secured a neat bandage to the cut he still can’t even feel, he’s not made any progress in releasing her.

“Mech?” Gwen’s voice has a tremble he hates in it. “Will you say something? You’re…just look at me, please?”

He’s never been able to refuse her before, not really, and there’s no chance of him doing so like this. He sets down the roll of linen and turns to look at her.

Her eyes widen at the glow in his own, the shame in his eyes must be obvious at how he’s lost control of this reaction too, just like his thrice cursed disobedient tail. “Mech, I thought… This still seems pretty bad,” she settles on. “And, I’ve gotta be real, you’re confusing the hell out of me. First you don’t want me to leave, but then you don’t want me too close. Now you won’t let me go.”

Mech’s hand shakes for a second before he grips the edge of the counter so the tremor is disguised. He knows he’s being a contradictory bastard. “I—Am I hurting you?”

“What? Of course not,” Gwen replies, sincere confusion in her face helps some of the shame at his brazen actions, but it also encourages him. His tail’s hold loosens but the amount of skin it’s covering grows as the tail lengthens. Gwen twitches a little at the move, before she ignores it to keep her gaze fixed on him. “But I don’t get it and I can’t help if you keep being so vague. Please, just drop the pride for a minute and talk to me. We can pretend it never happened, but you know you work better with someone to talk at. I don’t even care if you go over my head with the terminology. But stop trying to pretend this isn’t happening and that you have to solve it on your own.”

Mech closes his eyes because she’s so right, damn it all. He often can’t make sense of his own thoughts unless he talks aloud. Gwen’s his best sounding board and she asks just the right questions that let him make the necessary connections needed to solve problems. This isn’t any different, but it has to be, because he can’t tell her. He’ll lose her for good if she finds out what he wants. And, for all its his hormones dialing everything so far beyond usual, he does want her. More than anything he’s ever craved in his life.

But what choice does he have? How closely can he walk that line with his body turned against him like this?

“Alright, alright,” he gives in. “I’ll try to explain.” 

[Part 3]

[more-better-words]

More OC, more lore, because when it comes to these two, you can't have one without the other. (at least not since they met)

Monica McKee

Biography

Monica McKee was born in Utopia Colony, Mars, the only child of Mark and Joanna McKee – a native-born Martian, which remains a rarity in the mid 22nd Century, and with the exception of trips to Earth to visit relatives and the four years of her university education, she has lived on Mars her entire life. Because there were few other children her age in the colony, she learned very early how to relate to others regardless of age or background, intuiting that similarities were more important than differences. Living in the colony put her in frequent contact with boomers and transport runners, and she found their stories of alien encounters a source of deep fascination.

She was present in Utopia Colony during the Terra Prime incident, an experience that galvanized her sense that humans could not afford xenophobia in the face of the larger galaxy. She watched the live coverage of Jonathan Archer’s speech to the Coalition of Planets conference and found it deeply moving (the next year the Utopia Colony high school would be renamed after him). Her pro-Coalition stance led to an argument with an uncle the next Thanksgiving that ended with her kicking him out of his own house, an outcome that amused her parents, but did not surprise them.

Following the outbreak of the Romulan War, many civilians on Mars relocated to Earth, either temporarily or permanently. Mark and Joanna were among the exodus, but Monica, now in her early twenties, chose to remain on Mars. She couldn’t see that Earth would be any safer in the grand scheme of an interplanetary war (pointing out that it was Earth that got attacked by the Xindi and not Mars tended to not go over well and she stopped after the first few times). She also felt that leaving would be an abandonment – Mars was home, and she couldn’t bring herself to leave. But the war turned Utopia Colony into something of a ghost town, and Monica found herself taking a job at one of the few businesses that hadn’t closed – a burger restaurant owned and operated by Mohammed Abdel, who was also unwilling to give up on Mars.

Monica found a home at Fat Mo’s, enjoying both the camaraderie and the work itself. In the years following the end of the war, the business flourished, particularly after Starfleet officially moved its shipbuilding facilities from Earth to an orbit above Utopia Colony. And in January of 2164, a homesick Starfleet captain, newly assigned to the Utopia Planitia Yards, stopped by the restaurant and sat at one of her tables. Her growing friendship with Captain Charles Tucker III would lead to her becoming acquainted with numerous Starfleet personnel, including a certain Andorian engineer…

Personality

Monica is, first and foremost, a people person. She is attentive, a good listener, and enjoys connecting with others, even if only in passing. Her cheerfulness and resiliency are the product of a childhood spent learning to be comfortable with her own company. Living in a place where others are frequently just passing through has instilled in her a deep curiosity about the lives of others. She is kind, accommodating, and generous, but also possesses a fierce sense of fairness, and has no time or patience for people who can't be decent to others. She is highly intelligent and not easily cowed or daunted, though she tends not to think of herself in those terms.

She is a talented sketch artist, but she would demure and call herself a dedicated amateur. She loves to dance, particularly early 20th century swing dancing, and is a regular at the dances held at the Grace Note club.

Relationships

Monica enjoys getting to know her customers, and especially her regulars, but few have had the impact on her life of Trip Tucker. During his time on Mars, their friendship quickly grew, her initial crush on him being immediately tempered by her recognition of his deep love for his wife and children. The more time he spent at Fat Mo's, both as a customer and as unofficial handyman, the more familial their relationship became, and Monica views him as the older brother she never had.

He also has a special place in her heart as the person who first introduced her to Commander Karveth, with whom she is very romantically involved. And if anyone has a problem with that, she really doesn’t care. An opinion like that doesn’t deserve her attention.

[reddy-reads]

moon day books (books for 7/20/24)

Moon Day* is coming up, and that sounds like as good an excuse as any for talking about some books

Here's my list, rationale is below the jump

The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal

by Becky Chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few (or The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. Or Psalm for the Wild-Built)

The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett

So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Martha Wells's Murderbot Diaries series

*Moon Day is the anniversary of the first Moon Landing, July 20 :) I'm aware it's not really a holiday but I love the idea

The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal This is a really excellent series. It's an alternative history of space travel. It has lots of women, and there are characters of colors (although they're thus far limited to the supporting cast). They're exciting, emotional, and gripping. I loved these books.

SUMMARY: A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth’s efforts to colonize space, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for a much larger share of humanity to take part. One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too—aside from some pesky barriers like thousands of years of history and a host of expectations about the proper place of the fairer sex. And yet, Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions may not stand a chance.

2. One of Becky Chamber's books, probably Record of a Spaceborn Few or perhaps the Galaxy, and the Ground Within.

These are both standalone set in the same series. Record of a Spaceborn Few follows multiple characters whose lives intersect but are not especially intertwined. All these characters live on or are visiting the Human Fleet, which is the uh the… vessels that humans left the Earth on, as we jettisoned ourselves into space? I mentioned this one a little while back in conjunction with the waves hands Ship of Theseus and museology thing. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within like… doesn't have humans in it? It's basically a book-long bottle episodes, and it has themes of what is the significance art, what does it mean to negotiate one's identity as an individual and with respect to one's group identity. (By this I mostly mean like. the characters are all nonhuman alien species, and several of them negotiate their relationship between being a "typical" whatever vs being themselves.) One thing I love about Becky Chambers's books is that the aliens actually feel alien to me. They don't just feel like a different kind of human, they feel like they have meaningfully different biology and this affects their worldview.

Also on my Becky Chambers thoughts is her book Psalm for the Wild Built. I love how she spins the setting, presenting a very rosy concept of how humans could renegotiate our use of the planet we live on. One of the appeals of the Lady Astronaut series (above) is the realism. For the Psalm for the Wild Built, it's kind of the opposite; I love the… almost courage of imagining "what if we collectively did do better? What might that look like?" In a world where cynicism seems like a pragmatic form of self-protection, this sort of imagining almost seems brave.

3. For a slightly off the wall book idea, how about Sir Terry Pratchett's The Last Hero?

I love this book, it's a relatively quick read due to its format. The art is gorgeous. The story is wry and warm in that special Discworld way, and altitude is a factor in the story :) So that's the moon connection.

Cohen the Barbarian. He's been a legend in his own lifetime. He can remember the good old days of high adventure, when being a Hero meant one didn't have to worry about aching backs and lawyers and civilization. But these days, he can't always remember just where he put his teeth… So now, with his ancient (yet still trusty) sword and new walking stick in hand, Cohen gathers a group of his old -- very old -- friends to embark on one final quest. He's going to climb the highest mountain of Discworld and meet the gods. It's time the Last Hero in the world returns what the first hero stole. Trouble is, that'll mean the end of the world, if no one stops him in time.

4. As a YA lover, I have to include a shout-out for So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane. This is the first of the Young Wizards series, which I love, and the characters (and I believe Ms Duane) LOVE the moon. It's really heartwarming, it reminds me of those videos of the astronaut talking about what going to the moon means to him.

Nita Callahan is at the end of her rope because of the bullies who've been hounding her at school… until she discovers a mysterious library book that promises her the chance to become a wizard. But she has no idea of the difference that taking the Wizard's Oath is going to make in her life. Shortly, in company with fellow beginner-wizard Kit Rodriguez, Nita's catapulted into what will be the adventure of a lifetime—if she and Kit can both live through it. For every wizard's career starts with an Ordeal in which he or she must challenge the one power in the universe that hates wizardry more than anything else: the Lone Power that invented death and turned it loose in the worlds. Plunged into a dark and deadly alternate New York full of the Lone One's creatures, Kit and Nita must venture into the very heart of darkness to find the stolen, legendary Book of Night with Moon. Only with the dangerous power of the wizardly Book do they have a chance to save not just their own lives, but their world…

5. Not to be cheeky, but if that's too wholesome, perhaps The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin will hit the spot? :D

This is the way the world ends. Again. Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

6. Final one. Why not use Moon Day as an excuse to reread Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries books? (Paper-thin excuse: MB's favorite TV show is… sanctuary moon!)

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

[I said I wasn't going to add Andy Weir's The Martian because it's a gimme, but I'm a liar! I also love The Martian. Yes I know it's on Mars, not the moon, but! Humans! In! Spaaaaace!]

If you made it this far, what do you think? What books does "moon day" make you think of? Which books are on YOUR list?

[zhakyria]

Xhai'tan, the Lord Commander

Ok. So, let's talk about Xhai'tan. A former slave born on Dromund Kaas, a former Lord of the Sith, former apprentice of Darth Malgus. Betrayed and beaten, left for dead, who turned his back on the Sith Empire in order to make a better life for his people. A father of seven, a father figure to many more. A gentle soul hardened by slavery, Sith training, and war. A brilliant military strategist and tactician. Someone who inspires loyalty and never leaves a soldier behind.

There have been quite a few changes to his story over the years, but he always had a family he loved and he was always betrayed which would spark his desire to cut ties with the Sith.

In the Arclight AU, when he is betrayed by Malgus, he takes what remains of his people/followers, a fleet of mercenaries known as the Nighthunters, and heads for the Unknown Regions. It's not an easy time. His wife is dead, his children scattered, and he has little patience. They end up on Rishi, and clear out most of the pirates there. Establishing a small base and freeing all of the slaves, many of which choose to join the Nighthunters. One slave, a Chiss named Thrass (yes that Thrass, he lives in this AU), offers to help Xhai'tan unite the worlds in this region of space. Thrass doesn't want to return to the Ascendancy yet, not until he can figure out who his and Thrawn's enemies are, and he doesn't want to return without Thrawn by his side. He can however, help establish a new Alliance for the Ascendancy.

Over the course of the next 12 years they work together in creating the Odessen Coalition, an alliance of 20+ worlds. The Nighthunters evolve into the Odessen Defense Force and Xhai'tan becomes the Lord Commander, with Thrass working as a political advisor. Eventually, after several years of working alongside each other, they end up sharing a bed together. As the Grysk threat ramps up across the region, Xhai'tan and Thrass start setting into motion a joint task force dedicated to beating back the Grysk and other dark powers that are beginning to move. Xhai'tan sends the Bloodrose on a wild goose chase that pays off in unexpected ways. Thrawn is located and rescued, along with a group of Chiss Exiles who knew how to train sky-walkers in ways that had them retain the Sight past the age of 14.

With the final pieces now on the board, Xhai'tan and Thrass call for a meeting between various groups across the Galaxy, the Ascendancy, the Rebels, the Exiles, the Defectors under command of Admiral Faro, and various other powers. Together they work to coordinate the upcoming wars. A revitalized war against the Galactic Empire and the Emperor's Death Star, and the war against the Grysk who are on the verge of collapsing the Ascendancy.

Top image is by @psychededoodle and shows Xhai'tan as the Lord Commander of the Odessen Coalition. The bottom image is by @artofcarmen. Though, the second image is an old image and the story that it is from might not happen in the Arclight timeline, it still does a good job of getting the point across about who he can be if the situation called for it.

[z0mbicide]

🌹🌹🌹

"You saw the way those people looked when we landed, Magnus, and you can't pretend you didn't!" The closer Areli gets, the taller Magnus stands, and the more the tension weighs down the entire Command Center.

"I watched you guide those children to safety, and I saw the look in your eyes. Don't you dare say it was the look of a man uncaring of what happens to the inhabitants of this planet!"

[wendingways]

ROTS Padmé time travels to AOTC AU

AU where Padmé dies at the end of ROTS and wakes up in 22 BBY, on the night of Zam Wesell's assassination attempt.

Padmé wakes up, rolls over, and realises she hasn’t been able to do that this easily for months. Remembers everything that happened in the past couple of days. And realises her babies are nowhere in sight.  And it’s dark, but this looks a hell of a lot like her room in the senate apartment complex.  And oh shit, what’s that shadow moving along the wall?

She doesn’t know how she got back here, or where her children are, but she does know the galaxy is not a safe place for her right now, and shadow-skulkers are rarely up to any good.  So, she grabs her blaster from under her pillow and shoots. Voila, dead assassin bugs.

Anakin predictably comes running (and Obi-Wan too).  Padmé turns the blaster on him.  But he’s very young.  Obi-Wan is also very young.  And Padmé is very confused.

Anakin is like, “Hey, what are you pointing that thing at me for?  I’m supposed to be protecting you!”

And then her eyes focus on the long braid hanging over his shoulder.  Short hair. 

I hold that finding Padmé aiming a blaster at him would make Anakin a little less prone to AOTC-type creepiness.

And then it all starts to maybe-kind of-sort of make sense.  No kids.  Young Anakin.  The dead bugs on the floor.  Is it really possible that the Force sent her back in time as she died?

Obi-Wan still goes out the window after the droid.  Anakin stays behind, however, because Padmé’s Force presence feels distinctly rattled, and she still looks frazzled, and he’s not at all sure she should be left alone.

Padmé, alone with Anakin and not exactly comfortable with it, tries for humor.  She points to the bugs.  “Want a midnight snack?”  Anakin just stares at her.  Oh, right.  She hasn’t found out about that particular dietary habit of his yet, in this timeline.

Anakin is a little perplexed as to why there’s the slight ring of an inside joke to her words?

They clean up the bug carcasses, he returns to the living room, and she goes back to bed and has a long cry.

She hears a clattering from the kitchen, and a little later, Anakin knocks on her door.  “You okay?  I thought… I brought you tea?  Obi-Wan always says this one’s good for when you’re feeling… uh… unsettled.”

Padmé is torn between equally strong desires to deal him a good, hard slap and to bury her face in his tunic and pretend the next three years haven’t already happened.  Neither of which is appropriate at this juncture, so she compromises, and graciously accepts the tea.

She still goes into refuge.

Debates not even trying to show up for MCA vote, because she knows clones are already there, on Kamino.  She knows Palpatine will weasel his way into getting an army even if the majority votes against MCA.  And hell, she knows the vote will fail.  So what’s the point?

But decides the point is to strengthen her faction and demonstrate her position.  She needs to build her coalition.  The good news is she already knows who she’ll be able to trust, so she can get them together faster, and then focus on recruiting more difficult allies.

She wears much more sensible clothes for refugeeing.

On the way to Naboo, she asks Anakin if he’s heard from Shmi lately.  A perfectly normal conversation topic.

“No.  I’ve been having dreams, though.  Of Mom, she’s hurt, she’s dying, and—Obi-Wan says it’s nothing, but I just… they feel real.”

“I have a friend who’s spent time on Tatooine,” Padmé said.  “I’ll ask her if she can get in touch with your mom, if that will give you some peace of mind.”

“Really?  You would do that?”

“Of course. 

Then she calls Sabé, and she’s like, “Hey, I need you to meet me and a friend in Mos Espa, and pretend that you found out that Shmi Skywalker was freed by and married Cliegg Lars, and lives on his moisture farm near Anchorhead.”

Sabé is like, “Ohhh… kaayyy….”

“I’ll tell you the whole story,” Padmé says, “but later, in person.  First, there’s something I need you to help me with.”

A couple days into their trip, Padmé tells Anakin that Sabé reported Shmi is no longer with Watto, but she was able to find out where she went.

And Padmé’s like, “You know… we could always go to Tatooine instead.  I’d probably be safer there than on Naboo, really.  No one will think to look for a spoiled Mid-Rimmer on that dustball.”

Padmé and Anakin arrive in Mos Espa, and Sabé takes them straight to the Lars farm.

Padmé praying that a few extra days will buy them enough time to save Shmi.  She knows she should be grateful for the chance she was given, but damn it, why couldn't the Force have dropped her even just a little farther back in time?

When Anakin heads out to go to Tusken camp, Padmé is like, "We're coming with you.”

He protests, because she needs to stay safe, but she’s like, “If you want to talk about unsafe, how about running off without backup?  Sabé was a queen’s bodyguard, don’t forget, and I have the same training.”  And three years more practical experience.

Anakin relents, mostly because no way he’s going to out-stubborn both Padmé and Sabé. 

Padmé gets water, maybe other med things, blanket?  And then she and Sabé head out with Anakin.  She’s determined that there will be no slaughter today.

They get there, Shmi’s not good.

Padmé her hand on Anakin’s shoulder as they approach.  Steady.  I’m here.  Sabé is here.  You’re not alone.  Shmi’s going to be okay.  I hope.  If she isn’t, Sabé has orders to shoot Anakin with a stun bolt while Padmé distracts him.  After that… Padmé supposes she would have to call the Jedi, and she and Sabé would just have to keep stunning Anakin until one of the Order arrives to deal with him.  Tough love.  She prays it won’t come to that.

“Sabé, stand guard.  Anakin, help me get your mother loose.  Give her a little of the water.”  She needs to keep him focused on being useful, and not on thoughts of bloody vengeance. Has she always been this unrattled in a crisis, or is she keeping her cool only through her determination to change the future?  Padmé doesn’t even know.

Man, if Anakin fell in love with Padmé before, he really will now that she's helped save his mom.

She has a bit of euphoria from averting disaster, and then she sees Anakin staring moodily out, saber in hand.  Oh, no.

“I hate them.”

“I know.”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to hate, but I want them to hurt.  Like they hurt her.”

“I know.  I've hated the Neimoidians ever since they invaded my planet.  Hating those who harm us is a natural reaction.  Just... it doesn't mean we have to act on it, you know?  Because then we aren't acting any better than the people we hate."

She places one hand over his, and with the other gently tugs on the lightsaber.  “Let me keep this for you.  Just until you’ve got some distance from all of this.  I don’t want you to do something you might regret, Ani.”

He lets go, and she hooks the saber to her own belt.

“Come on.  Let’s get your mom home.”

He gives a jerky nod.  “Okay.”

Padmé tries to draw Anakin out, have actual conversations instead of terrible flirting, and give him options so he doesn't feel that he's stuck in the Jedi Order.

"Anakin... I know, years ago, Master Jinn said you would be a Jedi one day, and I know you wanted to then, but... people change, you know?  And there's nothing wrong with that.  I just want to make sure... that you know you aren't trapped, if you find it's not for you.  I have lots of connections, if you ever need them, or even if your family does."

She takes a moment, lies down, stretched out in the sun, on the sand.  Just being.

Anakin wanders over.  "What the kriff are you doing?"

"I'm enjoying being alive.  It's something I didn't appreciate often enough, before I... before now, I guess."  Teasingly, she adds, "Why don't you come join me, Ani?"

His nose wrinkles in disgust.  “No thank you.  I hate sand.  It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating—and it gets everywhere.”

“If you say so.”

She gets up, and proceeds to shake sand out of her clothes.  And hair.  Anakin gives her an I-told-you-so look, as Beru tells her not to track sand inside because it gets everywhere and she just cleaned the floors.  And then a wounded look, as he dodges a handful of sand she tosses at him.

“Sorry,” she tells him, only half meaning it.  “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

“A long time?”

Oh, kriff.

“Yes.  Five minutes feels like forever when you’re waiting to throw sand at someone.”

Padmé tells Sabé everything?  And then she's not keeping secrets from her like before.

"You're not getting together with that idiot Jedi again."

"Not right away."

"Not ever, you hear me, Padmé Amidala?  I will fight you, knock you out cold, and carry you away to some hidden corner of the galaxy before I let you throw your life away like that."

"If you tried to fight me, you’d lose.  I've had more practical experience than you at this point, Sabe.  But I'll be careful, I promise.  I'll only do it if I see that I can trust him.  And only once Palpatine is out of the way.  I, we've, already kept Anakin from the first step toward the Sith.  We can do the rest.  Shorten the war.  Save the Republic."

A few days later, Anakin finds Padmé in the kitchen, reading from her datapad.

“I just wanted to say—thank you, Padmé.  You… you really are an angel.  If you hadn’t suggested calling Sabé, and if you hadn’t been there tonight—well, I don’t know what I would have done.”

“I know.  It’s terribly cliché, but that’s what friends are for.”

“Friends?”

She can see the disappointment he tries to hide.

“Yes, Ani.  I hope I can call you my friend.”

“It’s just… I thought, maybe…”

She lays the datapad aside and gestures for him to join her at the table.

“I was in a whirlwind romance once.  It ended very badly.  I can’t do that again.  I won’t.  I… I like you very much.  But I need you to give me time, and space.”

Geonosis happens.  Padmé tells Anakin to be careful before they part and he fights Dooku.

“Be careful, Ani.  Try to come back in one piece, okay?”

And Anakin, being in a much more balanced frame of mind than he was in the original timeline, actually heeds her and isn’t quite so arrogant when it comes to fighting Dooku.

As the war goes on, Padmé builds an anti-war, anti-Palpatine coalition.  It goes faster this time, because she knows who she should reach out to and what arguments to use

Gives them all more time to spend on recruiting other senators to the cause.

She also does some work to dig up dirt on Palpatine.

Has the Handmaidens quietly investigate his estate, financial affairs, or whatever on Naboo, too?

Padmé gets closer to the Jedi Order, spends more time with Ahsoka when she can, and gets Ahsoka to introduce her to Barriss.

Tells Barriss if she ever needs a confidante outside the Order, she’s here.

Consequently, Barriss goes to Padmé when she’s struggling, and Padmé talks to Anakin and Obi-Wan about getting her transferred out of active service.

Becomes either involved in Senate duties, working with Padmé’s coalition, or healing

Padmé also finds some way to minimize the damage from the Rako Hardeen incident.

She invites Satine to Coruscant for a political meeting of some sort, just before she would be imprisoned/Maul would appear

Maybe she and Anakin are a little matchmakery with Satine and Obi-Wan.

The war ends, maybe a little ahead of schedule or maybe not.  Palpatine is outed as a Sith.  Anakin has a bit of a struggle with that, but not nearly as much, and he’s able to do his Chosen One thing and help defeat him.

The Jedi look at the closeness of the crew, Barriss shares how she was floundering until Padmé stepped in.  The Jedi review their stances on attachment, etc.

Padmé and Anakin, who’ve been building a close relationship over the course of the war, marry.  Not secretly.  Shmi gets to be there.  And Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Rex and the rest of the 501st, and the Naberrie family.  Probably Satine, as well.

And let’s say Luke and Leia are just fated to exist, because it’s hard to imagine a SW universe without them.

I’m posting this as a bullet point AU, because frankly, I’ve been getting what seems like a crap ton of plot ideas lately, and there’s just no way I’m going to be able to write fics for them all.

If anyone wants to pick this up and run with it, flesh it out, make a oneshot or a multichapter fic or whatever, be my guest! (Please just make sure to notify and credit me!)

[gaily-daily-musings]

This is an outline for part 3 of my obimaul fic in which it started out as nasty throne sex on Mandalore that somehow turned into fluff and a plot. Here is the link to the series on ao3. Please enjoy this rough draft that concludes the story!

-

It takes a while for Obi-Wan to calm down from the revelation that the Chancellor is Sidious. But once he does they begin to prepare for his inevitable arrival. It doesn't go very well. They disagree on almost every plan they can come up with before they truly land on something.

The key to victory, Maul insists, is getting Sidious to come to them. Maul is convinced that to confront him on Coruscant would be disastrous. Obi-Wan disagrees. He thinks they should inform the Council. But Maul has no intention to inform the Council. Fuck the Council. Even if it worked, they would immediately lock Maul up and take Obi-Wan away.

Before they can come up with a unilateral decision, Anakin shows up with Ahsoka in tow. Their guns (sabers) ablazing. It's been a full week since Obi-Wan had been captured and (against the wishes of the Council) the two had snuck off to rescue Obi-Wan. Ahsoka tagged along because she wasn't gonna let Anakin have all the fun playing Hero.

They're ready to knock heads but when they arrive on Mandalore they find Obi-Wan having breakfast at the table with Maul and Savage.

Anakin rushes in causing a scene. Clearly they have brainwashed Obi-Wan! In the ensuing fight Obi-Wan plants himself between both parties, holding out his palms to stop the madness. He tells Anakin straight up that Sidious is Palpatine. Anakin doesn't believe him. He adamantly denies it and says that Maul has warped his thinking.

Maul sneers. "I knew we couldn't count on Sidious' new pet."

"What was that??" Anakin hisses.

"He's been grooming you since you first met! You're too far gone to be of any use to me, Skywalker!"

Anakin brandishes his weapon and everyone begins shouting again. Ahsoka is able to help calm Anakin down. Obi-Wan explains in a soft voice that Palpatine really was Sidious. He tricked them all. They need to fight.

"You will see when he arrives." Maul sneers. "You will all see."

Eventually Anakin believes Obi-Wan (sort of) but he doesn't trust the two Darksiders.

"We can take him on our own! We don't need these two!" Anakin snarls at Savage and Maul who both snarl back at him.

Anakin doesn't like this. Not one bit. Anakin and Maul continue to hiss like loth cats at each other. Obi-Wan has to painstakingly bring Maul and Anakin together without letting one kill the other. It's a massive headache.

Then Maul gets the idea that perhaps Anakin can be of use after all. With the "chosen one" here (he says this with the utmost sarcasm) perhaps they stand a chance of overwhelming the Sith Lord.

Anakin very maturely sticks his tongue out at him.

In order for their plan to lure Sidious to Mandalore to work, Anakin must mask his force presence. He HATES this plan. He doesn't want to wear the inhibitor cuffs. For peace of mind, they give Anakin the key so he can take the cuffs off anytime he wants.

Now with Anakin hidden from both Light and Dark users, Maul announces his rule to the rest of the galaxy. That he's taken over Mandalore and intends to begin his own little coalition of planets. It's all over the holonet. Now all they have to do is wait for Sidious to take the bait.

With nothing to do the next two days the group gets bored. In the meantime Anakin and Ahsoka play card games. Savage practices his forms. Obi-Wan wants to free Satine but Maul immediately refuses. He will free her only after the deed is done. Obi-Wan relents.

Later Obi-Wan slips away to go visit her. Maul follows him. True to his word, she'd been left alone in her cell since that first day. Alone to imagine all the horrors Obi-Wan was suffering on a daily basis.

She brightens when she sees him approach. Obi-Wan smiles at her. Like she is the sun come out. Maul hates her. He hates everything about her.

Satine thinks he's come to rescue her at last. Obi-Wan shakes his head. He explains that Anakin and Ahsoka are here and that they have a plan with Maul to defeat the evil Sith Lord Sidious who is actually the Chancellor. It's a lot for her to take in.

He tells her that he has promised not to turn Maul in after they take Sidious out. In exchange for his continued freedom, Maul will step down from Mandalore's ruler and reinstate Satine as Duchess.

"How do you know you can trust his word? What if the moment you kill Sidious he turns on you?"

"Well, the simple answer is that I have Anakin and Ahsoka with me."

"And the not so simple one?"

Obi-Wan hesitates. "I think…I think I can trust him with this. Gathering power, taking your throne, it was all to intimidate Sidious. With him gone there is no need for it anymore."

"But what about you, my love? I fear for you."

Obi-Wan presses a palm to the glass. She reaches for his hand. Pressing her own against his.

"I will be fine. I promise."

"Come back. Come back to me always."

Maul turns away. He's heard enough.

-

That evening they get ready for bed. Anakin and Ahsoka have insisted on staying with Obi-Wan as they keep watch the past two nights. Maul catches Obi-Wan on his way back from Satine and drags him back to his own room.

Maul locks the door behind him. He wants to hurt him. He wants to make him wither and scream the same way his heart does. How dare he even talk to her! How dare he look at her when he was not allowed!

"Strip." He snaps.

Obi-Wan blinks up. "Good evening to you too."

"Strip! Now!"

Obi-Wan frowns but does as he's told. He didn't have to. Not anymore. Skywalker was here with his little Padawan. More importantly, the inhibitor cuffs were gone. Obi-Wan could fight back if he wanted. In fact he had expected the other man to do just that. But he's not doing what Maul had expected at all. He's getting undressed just as Maul ordered. He should be telling Maul to leave. He should be clenching his fists and standing his ground. Maul would have responded by shoving him backwards. Then Obi-Wan was supposed to yell and call for help. Maul would get in a couple of punches before the welps came in and saved their precious Master from Maul's monstrous appetite.

But Obi-Wan sits on the edge of his bed. His chest is hairy, filled with scars from many battles past. He is a great warrior. And even for all his battle hardened skin, his heart remains open and soft. His eyes remain a bright blue. No gold to be seen.

Before he can truly register what was happening, Maul has undressed himself and climbed into Obi-Wan's lap. He wraps his arms around his neck. He breathes in his scent. His sweat.

"Fuck me." He demands petulantly.

Obi-Wan smirks. "Is that an order or a request?"

"We both know you'll do whatever you want either way. What does it matter?"

Obi-Wan does not push him off. He does not deposit Maul on the floor where he belongs. Obi-Wan's fingers trail down his stomach to his nethers.

Maul cannot stop himself from stiffening at the initial touch. The breach pulls up unwanted memories from his boyhood. He tries to swat them away. His shoulders start to shake regardless. Obi-Wan kisses his brow. He seems to understand Maul's need to keep going. He didn't want Obi-Wan to ask. Didn't need him to slow down.

Obi-Wan keeps fingering him, slow and steady. It's irritating.

"Just do it." Maul growls.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Why not?" Maul snaps. He should. Obi-Wan should want to hurt him.

"Because I don't derive pleasure from bringing others pain."

He repositions Maul back against the wall and settles between the vee of his legs. Obi-Wan presses in. At first it's stinging pain and hot flesh splitting him open. Obi-Wan's hands do not let go.

"Stay with me, darling." He says.

Maul swallows.

Obi-Wan shifts and his cock slots into place. Oh. Oh. That was–that was actually nice. Really, really nice. He…

"Fuck." Maul pants.

"That's the idea, love."

Their breaths mingle together. He moans loudly. Marveling at the pleasures he never knew existed.

Tomorrow, one or both of them may die. But tonight, this man was his and his alone. He curls close into his chest and kisses him.

-

In the morning at breakfast Anakin and Ahsoka aren't speaking to each other. They had a huge fight last night. Anakin doesn't want Ahsoka fighting with them against Sidious. Obi-Wan is inclined to agree. Ahsoka looks at him, betrayed. With both her Masters forbidding it, she is benched to the sidelines. But they compromise with her. She will wait outside, only coming in to help if they absolutely needed it.

Sidious takes the bait. He arrives the following afternoon. He is eager to dispose of the loose end of his former apprentice. Obi-Wan had not fully believed it until he looked upon the Chancellor's twisted face. It is ugly in his hatred. Palpatine looks at him with only minimal surprise. His mouth twists up into a cruel smile.

"A team up then?" He laughs darkly. "It will do you no good."

"They're not alone." A voice calls out.

Palpatine freezes. At last he looks unsure of himself. He turns to see Anakin Skywalker as he frees himself from the cuffs. They fall to the floor with a thud.

"Anakin my boy,"

"Save your lies, old man." Anakin hisses. "I don't want to hear them anymore."

Palpatine turns his angry gaze back up to Maul who smirks down at him.

"Something wrong?" He asks. "Did you think I did not know about you grooming your new apprentice?"

Palpatine attacks. Lightning spewing forth from his fingers.

The battle rages. It shakes the entire building with its force. Palpatine's saber flashes and plunges itself into Savage's chest. Maul screams and goes to his side. Savage's ragged breath wheezes in agony.

"I'm not like you brother. I never was."

With Maul distracted Palatine means to sever him as well. But Obi-Wan attacks, sending him back. Then Obi-Wan advances, thinking he's got him on the ropes. But it was a faint. Palpatine lashes out, wounding Obi-Wan on his side. He falls to the floor.

Anakin shouts, knocking the Sith Lord back. He puts himself between Obi-Wan and Palpatine, anger clear in his gaze. Maul jumps back into fray.

Together, the two fight Sidious with a ferocity even the dark lord of the Sith cannot match. Desperate, Sidious conjures lightning to his hands. He unleashes it in the direction of a helpless Obi-Wan, still clutching his side on the floor.

"Master!"

"Kenobi!"

Both men move. Maul is faster than Anakin. He pushes Obi-Wan out of the way, taking the full force of it. He screams as his skin is cooked from both inside and out.

In the end it is Anakin who delivers the final blow. Slicing Palpatine's head clean off his shoulders. Sidious is finally gone.

Obi-Wan crawls over to where Maul lies. Obi-Wan holds him to his chest, cradling him in his arms. Maul reaches up, running a hand over his cheek. He coughs as blood splatters over his chin.

"Tell me…are you–?"

"I'll be fine." Obi-Wan's lips brush his fingers. "Just hold on now, help is on the way."

Maul struggles to breathe, his hand curls into Obi-Wan's beard. He's been struck with force lightning before, but this was of a different caliber. Sidious had been aiming to kill, not maim.

Obi-Wan huffs, not unlike a laugh. "You saved my life." He says with incredulity. "Did I manage to finally teach you something about compassion after all?"

Maul wheezes, snorting gruffly. "Don't be…an idiot. The only one…allowed to kill you…is me."

He exhales and closes his eyes. It was over. It was finally over.

[armageddon-generation]

Rewriting The Power of the Doctor as a finale to the 13th Doctor’s Era instead of an Anniversary Special

PotD's best parts were all 80s fanservice. It resolved none of Chibnall's plot threads, nor did it celebrate 13’s era overall. I’m not fully resolving the Timeless Child as that would need a different plot. But by adding more callbacks and payoffs I hope to strengthen this era overall as a worthwhile investment

International broadcasters split PotD into 2 episodes, and its first edit was 2 hours long. I’m thus splitting it from 1 85-min special to 2 60-min specials

Forgive my cringe attempts at dialogue.

What changes would you make to the story?

PART 1

The Thijarian Assassins from 11x6 Demons of the Punjab appear in the background throughout the episode, like the Ood in the buildup to The End of Time, 

Karvanista & Tie-ins to The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Swap the space train in the opening for Karvanista, Bel & Vinder from Flux, transporting cargo for the Coalition of Galaxies from 11x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

Bel: Being boarded by Cybermen once was more than enough for me, thank you very much.

Karvanista recognises the Cybermasters’ regeneration.

When 13 sends Dan to stop the ship crashing he spars with Karvanista again:

Dan: Hello Muttley my son, it's been a while

Karvanista: Just what I need. Leave, you'll only make everything worse-

Dan: Rubbish, I just need to wave my space wand and-

[the ship accelerates]

Karvanista: 'Space wand'? Bloody useless! In my day she didn't need that rubbish.

Dan: Eh?

He is still bitter- he doesn't want to be saved by 13 and when she fails to stop the Cybermasters he rips into her.

13: You lot are working for the Coalition of Galaxies now? Why?

Karvanista: Because two-thirds of the universe got destroyed and then suddenly reappeared after weeks of chaos. They need all the help they can get, and you certainly weren't offering, were you?

The cargo they carried isn’t the alien made  of pure energy. Instead it’s the young Ux from 11x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, an omnipotent species who followed 13's advice to ‘travel hopefully’ and was using its abilities to help rebuild the universe

Karvanista has a heart-to-heart with Dan after his near-death experience, encouraging him to leave 13 before she leaves him. Closure for their relationship.

Afterwards, Yaz asks why Karvanista was so angry. 13 finally opens up to her, last-minute character growth to make her regen more tragic:

13: We used to travel together. When I was Ruth. Remember her?

Yaz: Of course.

13: We were... sort of time spies together. For Division.

Yaz: The people who sent the Weeping Angels after you?

13: And the Judoon after Ruth. But my memory of that time was taken and I don't want it back. I want to focus on now. On our moment. On you. And Dan-

Dan, from the doors: You don't have to come back for me.

13, closing her eyes. Taking a steadying breath: Oh. Right then. OK.

13 REPLACES DAN'S HOUSE because leaving him homeless is careless and callous.

13: I get it. Life's important. Home's important. Speaking of…

[She produces Dan's miniaturized house on a little metal disc]

13: Just press the button and this should take care of itself. That, or you'll be transported to the moon. Worth a shot though, eh?

Dan: You just had that in your pocket ready to go?

13: I knew you'd ask to go back eventually, Dan. When you did... I didn't want to be holding you hostage.

After Dan leaves, instead of an out-of-nowhere rogue Dalek, 13 is contacted by the Order of the Custodians, the group from 11x11 Resolution, who guarded the divided pieces of a Dalek Scout for centuries. Being dedicated to fighting Daleks, they're investigating an incursion on Earth

The Cyber-planet is a dead, Cyber-converted Gallifrey, after 12x10 The Timeless Children

The Ux is hooked up to the planet in the same lab Tecteun experimented on the Timeless Child in

The Master is using the Ux to maintain his cyber-constructs like Tim Shaw did his fortress. By saving the Ux again 13 comes full circle from her first series.

As a young, omnipotent alien all-but alone in the universe, the Ux is a direct parallel to the Timeless Child. In a way, 13 is saving her younger self

Once they've found the Ux, 13 calls Karvanista & co to retrieve him. Karavanista comes alone (Karvanista > Vinder). After crashing he reports to Mark Addy’s character from 11x10 The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, via video screen. He promised to keep the Ux safe after that episode

Karvanista recognises the Master’s perverted TARDIS exterior. It brings back bad memories.

The Master & Nikola Tesla

Ra-Ra-Rasputin is great, but I’m swapping the Master taking over the Winter Palace for Wardenclyffe, the power station from 12x4 Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

We open on Tesla, years after we met him, stumbling out of the realtor’s into the rain. Wardenclyffe is being foreclosed and he is penniless

Tesla walks down an alley and in a flash of light is transported to the Kassavin’s dimension from 12x1-2 Spyfall. 

Tesla: What- where am I? Fascinating. What manner of construction is this? [hears rustling] Who’s there? Did you build this place? Please… you should know this isn’t my first time meeting creatures from beyond. If… If you want my help, my skills… perhaps a deal could be negotiated.

Distorted voice: Want your help? No no, I am going to help you, Nikola Tesla. With my help, your skills will change the universe.

Tesla: This place… did you build it?

Voice: No. But I was once trapped here, for an eternity or two. I picked up a few things. 

Tesla: Who are you?

Voice: I am the Doctor.

Tesla: Doctor?! You’ve come back for me- Is being trapped here why you never came back? [the Master appears] ...You are not the Doctor

Master: Not yet. But you’re going to help me with that.

He hypnotizes Tesla into building the cages that will force 13 to regenerate.

13’s favorite historical figure making the thing that kills her is a huge personal blow. The Master rubs in 13’s face that by ‘abandoning’ Tesla & letting history take its course, she let this happen.

Ryan & Graham replace Ace & Tegan

Ace & Tegan were the best parts of PotD imo, but bringing in Classic companions last-minute doesn’t help tie up 13’s era 

Because I cut Rasputin, swap the missing paintings for tech-savvy Ryan investigating a sudden acceleration in Earth's technology. 

He tours VOR (Daniel Barton’s Google stand-in tech company from 12x1 Spyfall). At the end of that story Barton went on the run, so without him the company should have collapsed. Instead it’s leading a worldwide tech revolution.

It’s not just VOR; history itself is changing. Technological advancement is accelerating decade by decade. The microchip was invented 30 years early etc

After leaving, Ryan hosts a group video-call: Graham is investigating the missing Seismologists with the Three Idiots Roaming from 12x6 Praxeus. At the end of that story they left to travel the world and protect it from environmental disaster, so they fit well for the volcano subplot

Travel-vlogger Gabrielle is with Graham (she and Ryan are dating, building on the suggestion of flirtation in Praxeus, and Graham jokes about it) while couple Jake and Adam are investigating elsewhere. 

Reuniting with the Fam & the Daleks’ trap

13 remarks on Earth’s accelerating technology seeing UNIT’s new building. It’s part of a chain of cutting-edge facilities across the globe, designed as refuges for humanity in the event of another disaster like the Flux

13 & Yaz awkwardly reunite with Ryan, who has traced the acceleration of Earth’s technology back to a now super-successful Nikola Tesla in the 1920s. He shows them several newspaper articles, starting with NIKOLA TESLA’S NIGHT OF TERROR!, that show Tesla’s fall into ruin after they left him. A somber moment. But then Tesla re-emerges with a new ‘business partner’; the Master. The final article shows them taking over Thomas Edison’s factory 

Graham contacts Ryan; he and Gabrielle have followed their lead on the Seismologists to a university; we watch them enter via Gabrielle’s camera, when they’re captured by the waiting Master

13 books it over there, high-tension, but the Master is just waiting for her to arrive.

UNIT arrives from another of their brand new facilities

Graham goes to UNIT with the Fam and the captured Master, but Gabrielle stays behind to help UNIT with the dead seismologists. She gives Ryan a parting kiss that Yaz makes fun of. He notes how much closer she and 13 are, which shuts her up

At UNIT, the Order of the Custodians call 13: They’ve infiltrated the Dalek base in the Bolivian volcano, unaware the Daleks are using them as bait.

In the Volcano, the Order try to give 13 a Dalek-killing chemical weapon they developed testing tiny samples of the Recon Scout mutant, when the trap is sprung

The Order are killed. Instead of trapping 13 in a Dalek casing a mutant puppeteers her, one of Chibnall’s best gimmicks

13 gets the Order’s Dalek-killing weapon to Yaz as she’s captured, and Yaz flees to the TARDIS as the Daleks open fire. The Order’s weapon will replace Ace’s Nitro-999 later

Cyber-Attack & the Master in Wardenclyffe

No miniature Ashad: Instead the Cybermen appear like the Kassavin did in 12x1 Spyfall, in a blaze of white light, and invade from that pocket-dimension

This is how they appear on every floor at once: Army of Ghosts callback!

The Master escapes and travels to 1920s Wardenclyffe, where 13 is held captive

On using Tesla:

13: You’re telling me our Great and Powerful Master needs a lowly human inventor to work on his machines?

Master: Of course not.

13: Then why go to all the trouble of enslaving Tesla?

Master: Why? Why use one of your favorite scientists? The inventor after your own hearts, who you fought side-by-side with before abandoning him to the cruel fate history dictated? I found him penniless and alone! Your fault. You had the power to step in, the power to save anyone. Everyone! But you never had the vision to. 

Like international broadcasts, the forced regeneration is the cliffhanger for Part 1

PART 2

The Master-Doctor 

The Master possesses 13’s body, calling back to the TV Movie. This is so Jodie can play the evil Master-Doctor, showing off her range and giving her more screentime in her final story (plus Sexual Tension with Yaz)

Expand the Master-Doctor’s rampage. The Master brings the hypnotized Tesla along to restrain Yaz.

She leads a jailbreak, blowing a hole in the Judoon prison from 12x11 Revolution of the Daleks. Angela the Angel abducts a Judoon through the flickering lights; the P'Ting eats one of the guard's guns.

Master: This is payback for locking me up! [to the escaping prisoners] when you're out there spreading chaos through the universe, tell them the Doctor sent you!

Then, the twin planets he visits are the ones from 12x7 Can You Hear Me?

Yaz watches helplessly as the Master introduces the planet’s peoples to the two evil gods- the enemies who affected Yaz most- and promises they will be just and noble rulers. She then encourages the gods to 'play' with her gift. 

The TARDIS jumps forward in time to show the planets a war.

Yaz overpowers Tesla to lock the Master out

Fugitive Doctor: Guardian of the Edge

The Classic Doctor cameos were great but I’m cutting them for the same reason as Tegan & Ace. 

13’s personality has been buried deep in the Doctor’s subconscious, where she meets the Fugitive Doctor, also repressed long ago. The Fugitive is our Guardian of the Edge, trying to save 13 from the same fate that befell her

The Fugitive shows 13 a flashback of the ‘reality’ behind the last part of the Brendan visions in 12x9 Ascension of the Cybermen- namely his memory being wiped, which wasn’t covered in 12x10 The Timeless Children

The Fugitive has her regenerations reset by Tecteun, in the same lab she experimented on her in as a child, the same one the Ux is being held in on cyber-Gallifrey

Tying up more of the loose ends from the Timeless Child arc leaves a blank slate for the next era. I don’t like the arc but the least Chibs could do is clean up his own mess before leaving. 

Fugitive: And now the Master has stolen Mother’s favorite punishment-

13: Don’t call her that.

Fugitive: She might be dead and she might’ve been a monster, but Tecteun is all we had. Now he’s out there making a monster out of us too, just like she always wanted-

13: Tecteun was not my family. We make our own family, you and me. Everywhere we go. Speaking of which… 

Cybermen and Daleks

Keep the hologram implants, letting 13 have final moments with Ryan & Graham

Graham gets Tegan’s job helping Kate fight the Cybermen at UNIT. 

It'd be cool if Ashad confronted Graham about his cancer

Ashad: You think you are rid of it but the traces linger. The ultimate betrayal of the flesh. Does the thought of it returning keep you up at night? We can free you from that fear!

Graham: Fear of death is what makes us human. It's what makes us value our time. Sure I suffered. But I found meaning in it too. I fell in love. You'll never know what that's like. And I feel sorry for you.

I was always bothered by the contradiction of the Daleks trying to destroy Earth when the Cybermen want to convert it. So, my adjusted Cyber-plan is to take over the new UNIT strongholds across the globe. When the Daleks blow the volcanoes, people will evacuate to the UNIT strongholds where the Cybermen will be waiting to convert them

(I basically stole Harmony Shoal’s plan from The Return of Doctor Mysterio but shhhh) 

Meanwhile, the Three Idiots Roaming feel the volcanoes start to activate, and lead the evacuation of people living nearby to the UNIT strongholds, but the Cybermen are waiting and trap them

 Ryan gets Ace’s role, parachuting off the roof (a big moment highlighting his dyspraxia). 

Yaz collects him and they save the Three Idiots from the UNIT stronghold, letting the evacuees flee.

Yaz drops Ryan and the Idiots under the volcanoes, using the Order of the Custodians’ anti-Dalek weapon to fight them as Ace did

Meanwhile, once Graham saves Kate from conversion she self-destructs all the UNIT strongholds around the globe, stopping the Cybermen

Saving the Doctor

Karvanista gets Vinder’s role shooting the Master. He also comes face-to-face with the hologram of the Fugitive, his Doctor.

THASMIN KISS immediately after Yaz saves 13, when her guard is down in her post-regeneration haze, overcome with joy at being alive again. This makes their parting more tragic, but 13 doesn't look cruel like she would for initiating that intimacy when she knows she's dying, opening a door she knows she can't go through

After 13 has been saved, the Fugitive-hologram and Karvanista have a heart-to-heart like 5 & 7 do with Ace & Tegan in the original, giving him closure & resolving his bitterness.

Once freed from the Master's hypnotism, Tesla goes in the TARDIS and helps fix Karvanista's ship while 13 deals with the Master's TARDIS.

Once free, the Ux destroys the Cyber-constructs grafted onto Gallifrey’s architecture

Instead of the ‘what a universe. I’ll never understand it’ line, 13 looks back: We get brief flashes of Tecteun's experimentation on the Child and the Fugitive's forced regen, which both took place here. 13 finally makes peace with that loss and leaves it behind

The lasting effects of the forced regeneration are what kill 13. Like slow radiation poisoning.

Thasmin & Demons of the Punjab Callbacks

THASMIN HUG. 13 removes the hologram implant from Yaz, but then gifts it back to her as she leaves- the same projector she had in 13x5 Survivors of the Flux.

 She says "This is us. Our moment in time.", calling back to the watch from 11x6 Demons of the Punjab

It'd also be nice to call back to 13’s speech on her family from 11x1 The Woman Who Fell to Earth:

Yaz: I'm not sure I can do this without you. You helped me.. helped me learn who I am-

13: And now you know. You don't need me, Yaz. I needed you in the end. Look at everything you did today, on your own. You saved me. You led everyone. Just- carry me with you, if you can. Just do that. What I would've thought and said and done. Make that a part of you. So I might be going from the universe, but I'll never be gone from you, eh?

Yaz, huffing through tears: What would the Doctor do?

13: What would you do?

As I’ve cut the Classic Companions, I’m replacing the Companion support Group with Yaz’s anniversary dinner with her sister Sonya from 12x7 Can You Hear Me, commemorating when she ran away as a teen.

In contrast to the lonely, somber affair of that episode, this time Yaz has invited Ryan, Graham, Dan and Diane round, as well as her parents and grandmother

Ryan's dad Aaron could also show up since he never appeared again after Resolution

13’s ‘Fam’ has become Yaz’s extended family and support network, highlighting how much she’s grown

We leave the companions with a similar sentiment to Graham’s idea of telling stories from the original. Yaz is ready to open up to her family and tell them about her time with the Doctor.

Intercut 13 leaving the TARDIS with Yaz calling back to Ryan’s opening line from 11x1 The Woman Who Fell To Earth:

Yaz: So tonight, we want to tell you about the greatest woman we ever met. Smart. Funny. Caring… Special. Proper special. 

The Thijarians are there to witness 13’s regeneration. They exchange a look of understanding with her before she goes

The story now ties in plot-threads from Series 11 (Demons of the Punjab, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos & Resolution), Series 12 (Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror, Praxeus, Can You Hear Me? & Revolution of the Daleks, as well as The Timeless Children) and Flux (Karvanista). Paying these plot threads off retroactively gives the era thematic unity, validating viewers’ investment. 

As it was, PotD’s refusal to resolve anything made the whole thing weaker and less worth investing in overall.

art credit to @lostcosmos and @softest-butch!

EDIT: I have now written a fic exploring some of these ideas, linking the Chibnall era together and giving the characters more closure. Check it out if you'd like!

[tiredassmage]

🖊

Send me a “🖊+an OC“ and I will talk about that OC!

The tag your polyamorous ocs just got me really going about Rhyst & Savosta again - two beans who have a surprising amount of lore in my head for how little I've actually talked or written about them.

SO. Kira x Rhyst & Savosta is absolutely a thing that transpires by their total reunion post-KOTXX. And I do think, at least at the moment, that that's where this polycule becomes an official thing, even though these three are running in each other's circles far earlier.

Short version, Rhyst & Savosta have been running into each other circa about Ilum? They meet tackling Republic and Imperial objectives, respectively, and decide cooperation benefits them both. Rhyst with Kira and Savosta with Quinn take on Darth Serevin, steal the stealth fighter, and eventually confront Malgus together. Rhyst and Savosta eventually go from tepid enemies based on circumstance to allies and then friends by the era of the Coalition forces and vow to stop Vitiate - together because the old bastard has taken enough from them (and the galaxy, reminds Rhyst).

Kira and Rhyst develop something of a relationship during the class story that's... rather experimental. Kira has a bit more experience in the matter than Rhyst and is the more outgoing of the two; they bond first as friends and when the suggestion comes up that maybe they try something else.., Rhyst trusts her enough to take the lead and give it a go. Given the whole... tail end of the Knight storyline and the strain that puts on Rhyst, he does ask to sort of... take it slow a while. Rhyst needs a lot more time to put himself back together and reorient his priorities and his beliefs, so they don't end up married - and, fun fact, I had to restart that cutscene a couple times because left to his own devices, Rhyst would not be the one to ask. He wasn't going to just take the hint, not at that time, at least. But I wanted them to get the romance reunion, so here we are.

(The little bow, however, is incredibly fitting and supremely endearing.)

SO. Now that we have the individual elements at least on the board, how do they all end up in a consensual cuddle pile?

Largely because Kira and Savosta are both on the same page about how important Rhyst is to them.

Individually, Savosta has no relationship experience - and generally little interest in changing that. He'd not identify by any of the involved labels, but he's a sex-neutral flavor of the asexual spectrum and just... disinterested, generally speaking, in both sexual and romantic relationships.

That said, Rhyst comes to mean quite a lot to him and they grow very close. Rhyst expresses some interest that Savosta is agreeable to exploring and... the rest was sort of history for them. They never add any new definitions to their relationship; they are very close friends and they don't foresee anything changing that.

Savosta is ultimately the one by his side through the events of KOTXX and their relationship continues in this manner throughout that period. When Kira returns, Savosta's expectations of their relationship don't really change. It's whatever Rhyst wants - he's just been happy to help his friend. So, when Rhyst suggests discussing it as a group, Savosta's on board. And I imagine Kira knew something of how close the two were previously, so it's not exactly a surprise when they disclose the other elements of their relationship. Kira and Rhyst still identify as partners and the trio can often be found sandwiched together on a couch with Rhyst sprawled between them. Kira and Savosta will occasionally end up beside each other, but Savosta never ends up in the middle of their heaps because it'd be a bit of a sensory overload for him - too much touching.

Kira and Savosta's relationship within the dynamic is one of friendship and keeping their eyes on Rhyst, trying to do what they can to balance what the galaxy has over-demanded of him. Rhyst has a terrible time saying no when it comes to his duties and is, unfortunately, rather good at masking just how self-sacrificing he can be because of that guard of duty and service. Savosta and Kira also both have their weaknesses in that each of them have ways they sort of idolize Rhyst and they can occasionally accidentally end up talking over Rhyst's own concerns in eagerness to assuage any fears or worries they think he might have. But that's... sort of it's own entire ramble to get into about Rhyst's complicated relationship with being a Jedi after having his faith in the Republic somewhat strained after the repeated failures of the various weapons projects of chapter 1 and the Council's decision to move forward with the strike team efforts despite voiced concerns. It's a whole... deal about the unwavering faith people tend to place on Rhyst without necessarily verifying how he's actually doing beneath the image of all the accolades they've awarded him.

Anyway. As far as their polycule goes, it's generally full of cuddle piles and Kira playing with Rhyst's hair while he falls asleep against Savosta. They're two of the people Rhyst trusts most and that have been there for him through some of his toughest times and each of them has their valuable insights for his support - Kira tends to bring a lightness to him he sometimes loses track of and Savosta has strong convictions and inspiring dedication. Rhyst, for his part, is their eager to please Labrador puppy who's maybe just a bit too good for this world, but he's earnestly trying.

[leaftilde]

What are your top 5 games?

GOOD QUESTION. I dunno if I can give them ranked, but I can give you a Top 5 (I think). These won't necessarily be The Best Games, but they will be my favourites. Games that made me sad when they were over.

Bioshock: Holds a special place in my heart. I love the aesthetics, I love the setting, I love the idea of playing with the idea of player *choice* in a video game, and though everyone points at this as like Patient Zero for ludonarrative dissonance, I think there's more of a metacontext in here than it's given credit for. It's a black arrow shot to the heart of Objectivism and Libertarian ideals of "great men" moving the world. it's practically a violent screed delivered on Ayn Rand's exhumed corpse. The only thing that isn't too hot about it is the shooting. Yes, one of my favourite games is actually not that good a game.

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters: I absolutely love this game and what it accomplished, especially being a 3DO game originally. Exploring a vast galaxy, assembling a coalition of very silly aliens, and kicking the hell out of some space-tyrants. More like a series of minigames than a single one, it's nevertheless a wonderful experience best played blind and with a notepad for making your own notes/maps.

Final Fantasy XIV: I know, I know. It's gotten plenty of praise but it's genuinely one of the more emotionally moving video games I've ever played. I can't recommend it without massive caveats (the first 40 hours, a full game length, is incredibly mid) but the payoff is...it's quite good. G'raha Tia I LOVE YOU MY BEAUTIFUL BOY

Alpha Centauri: I'd be remiss if I didn't include a 4X game, given how much time I spent playing them in my 20s. AC is, IMO, their shining star. A deeply cynical but nevertheless interesting and exciting story told almost entirely through background details and cinematics you get when you unlock technologies. I've stolen so much from it over the years it's ridiculous.

Mass Effect 2: Bit of an odd choice I guess. It's great! But maybe not everyone's favourite game. Great characters, tight story, wonderful worldbuilding and I love the idea of putting together a ragtag team of scoundrels, roustabouts, and pals to pull off a suicide mission. But, importantly to me, it's the first game I tried out playing a female character because I heard "Femshep" was better than Maleshep and something fucking...clicked in my brain. Like shifting into drive and finding you can't put on the brakes anymore. It led me here, eventually, so I gotta give it a shoutout. Or damn it forever, I guess, for letting me know, in a small way, that things could be better.