#you don’t just see lightsabers at the goodwill

[ebongawk]

the hardest part about being a hellcheer writer (and in the fandom in general) is that I will sometimes reference or see references to very specific pieces of media that I’ll then, at one point or another, see in the wild

and I automatically associate it with Them™️

so ofc I need to own it. in their honor

[thesoobfiles]

your highness – a. skywalker

Jealous! Anakin x Queen! Reader

Request: anon, could we get a jealous! anakin imagine?

Words: 4k

Summary: Reader is the queen of the alien planet, Roe’ Leor, a planet very rich in natural resources and starship fuel. It was previously a neutral system; however, the Republic has finally roped them in. In celebration and in honor of their alliance, the Queen has thrown a formal party to recognize this new friendship. Invitations extend to the royal family, the royal guard, royal officials as well as the staff, Republic Senators and the Jedi of course. After Ani’s met the Queen and after the dancing begins, Anakin gets jealous when he sees her dancing with another man…

A/N: I’ve been experiencing the BIGGEST writers block and lack of time to write and I’m SO sorry this took so long. I also had trouble trying to think of something that isn’t overplayed like jedi! reader and senator! reader... I’ve had this in my drafts for a week now and I apologize I haven’t published it until now... I hope it was worth the wait though :) A couple things I want to point out: 1) Roe’ Leor is a production of my imagination; it’s not a real planet in the Star War universe, 2) I imagine the handmaiden with a soft British accent, 3) you don’t really get to fill in a lot because you’re an alien and your skin color, eye color, etc. is already pre-determined, 4) the Roe’ Leor culture is like a mix of Indian and Haiwaiian (certain thinks like names and outfits) and 5) this Anakin is kind of like a mix between rots! Anakin and tcw! Anakin. I’m sorry I talk so much and enjoy! ~

-

I look out of my large bedroom window as my handmaiden, Lei, prepares me for the event tonight. I just love the blues and purples that color the sky when the suns set…

“I do as well, my lady.” Lei speaks up. I jump slightly at the sudden sound.

“I hadn’t realized I said that aloud…” I said, distractedly.

“Well, I’m glad you did, your majesty. The sound of your voice is always lovely to hear, no matter the scarcity.” She replies with a small smile on her face. I smile back at her. What a wonderful girl…

The thing about being Queen is I’m not allowed to speak, only under specific circumstances like negotiations. Hearing my voice should be ‘a privilege’. I think it’s nonsense; but until my request goes through Leadership, I must adhere to the rules…

Lei adjusts the pallu part of the sari and places the traditional red flower behind my ear. She spins me around to look in the full-length mirror and I smile. She always does such excellent work making sure I look presentable. I look at Lei in the mirror and whisper a ‘thank you’ in our native tongue.

“You are quite welcome, your highness.” She smiles and bows before leaving my presence.

I look in the mirror once more and really take in my appearance. The amber color of the sari and petticoat really compliments my green eyes and the vermillion of the choli, fine stitching and border look exquisite against my light orange skin. To top the whole look off, my hair is loose, free to fall in waves upon my shoulders. Luckily, it doesn’t take too much away from the golden jewelry that adorns my body; the delicate necklace hanging upon my neck and the simple, yet elegant bangles that slip towards my wrist. If there’s one thing I love about being Queen, it’s the fun I have while dressing up.

When I’m done admiring Lei’s handiwork, I straighten my back and head for the main room of the palace; where the event is being held.

Outside my door, as I expected, are two of my most trusted bodyguards – who double as my governesses – to escort me; however, what I didn’t expect was for a women from Leadership waiting for me as well. I bow politely and she bows back.

“Your grace, I’ve come before you to inform you that your request has been received and approved.” She says with a relaxed expression and a small smile.

“That’s wonderful. Thank you for bringing me this information.” I reply, beyond jovial as a smile breaks out on my face.

“It was my pleasure, your majesty. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” She bows and leaves me with my escorts.

Overjoyed that I can now speak as I please, I hug both of them.

“Alani, Kaila, I never thought I’d see the day.” I express my extreme happiness with the information I just received.

“We’re happy for you, your highness.” Alani replies with a smile on her face.

“We’re glad your request went through successfully.” Kaila says as she pats my back.

I give them another squeeze before I straighten up, dust off my sari and clear my throat.

“C’mon ladies, we have a party to attend.”

As I walk forwards, Alani and Kaila follow suit. We make a beeline for the balcony area of the staircase and wait just behind the doorway for my cue to enter. I can already hear the noise of my guests and the party started but a few minutes ago.

- 15 minutes earlier –

“Halt.” A guard in front of the palace stops us.

“Names.” She demands and she looks at her scroll.

“Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight.” I say in a nonchalant tone and flash her my invitation. She looks at me, at the invitation and at her scroll. She nods and looks at Obi-Wan.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master.” He says politely as he too shows his invitation. The guard nods and I proceed to make my way inside only to walk into her arm. I look up at her.

“Is there a problem?” I ask, eyebrow raised in hopes of getting some answers.

“You must change your attire before entering the Queen’s palace.” She responds. Before I could open my mouth to ask my question, a women that appears to be a handmaiden approaches us with clothing in hand. Then, it dawned on me.

“This would explain why we were measured last week.” Obi-Wan voiced my thoughts as he takes his suit and I take mine.

“You may change your clothing in the rooms to the left.” She states with an authoritative tone and resumes her duties as the guard; checking the next guests invitation.

Obi-Wan and I head over to a small shack.

“Doesn’t look like much.” I comment on the rough exterior of the ‘building’.

Obi-Wan chuckles, “Wait until you see inside.” I furrow my eyebrows in confusion and push the door open. My eyes widened at the sight before me. The outside is an injustice to the interior. It was magnificently structured and much larger on the inside. The small palace was completely empty except for four decently-sized ‘rooms’ in the middle of the structure.

“Never judge a book by its cover, Anakin; Leori technology isn’t anything to bat your eyes at.” He says condescendingly as he goes to change.

“Yes, master.” I reply as I walk over to the changing ‘room’. Can it even be called a room? All of the ‘walls’ are made of curtains.

I walk inside and shed the many layers of my Jedi robes along with my boots, belt and lightsaber.

“What do you know about this party, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asks from his changing ‘room’.

“The Queen of Roe’ Leor has thrown this party has an act of goodwill to celebrate the alliance between the Republic and Roe’ Leor.” I say, repeating the words of the Jedi Council from earlier that week.

I gingerly pull on the blue button-up and thin black jacket that accompanies it.

“Have you ever met her?” He asks.

“The Queen? No. I hear it’s a privilege to even hear her speak much less be in her presence.” I recall from one of the many briefings on Leori culture.

I slide on the black slacks as well as the black pointed shoes and clip my lightsaber to one of the belt loop of the pants. I walk out the same time Obi-Wan does.

I look at him and raise my eyebrow to accompany my smirk, “Don’t you clean up nicely, master.” I say in a joking manner. Obi-Wan is dressed in similar clothing, just with different colors. His button up is a light brown while his suit jacket, pants and shoes are all a darker shade of the same color; like his Jedi robes.

He rolls his eyes at my comment then makes his way out of the shack and over to the entrance. I walk behind him and we walk back over to the guard.

She looks us up and down, “Proceed.” She says after she recognizes us and deems our outfits acceptable.

We walk inside and look around. Music similar to what was playing in Hondo’s bar plays softly in the background as the people make conversation. I notice that some members of the Jedi Council, such as Mace Windu and Plo Koon have already arrived and have switched their usual attire for suits. The majority of the people in attendance are Leori; however I do spot the occasional Senator and Jedi.

“Did you know that Roe’ Leor is predominantly female and that’s why they have a Queen instead of a King?” Obi-Wan pipes up from beside me as he examines the room and takes a bite of food from his plate.

“I did not…” I trail off and instead of looking at their species, I look at their gender and notice he’s right. The majority of the Leori are women. The men only seem to be caterers and the occasional official.

A horn of some sort is blown from the balcony of the staircase. The attendees quiet down and move their attention to a small girl, no more than the age of a youngling.

“Please welcome her royal highness, Queen (L/N).” She says in a high-pitched voice as ‘Queen (L/N)’ emerges from the doorway on the left. She looks…magnificent. She’s younger than I expected her to be.

The yellow and red of her sari compliments her skin well. She strolls over to the balcony and stands between her two bodyguards elegantly. Applause erupts from the crowd. Both guards hold a hand out and the applause ceases.

“Good evening, people of Roe’ Leor and representatives of the Republic. As you all know, I’ve thrown this party to celebrate our newfound friendship with the Republic. I hope you enjoy your evening as well as make friends with our new partners.” She finishes and descends down the stairs. Thunderous applause erupts once more from the people in attendance.

“I thought the Queen wasn’t allowed to speak?” I ask Obi-Wan with confusion, never taking my eyes off of her.

“Must have been a recent change in their rules…” Obi-Wan mused, stroking his beard.

“Oh.” I respond simply as I take notice that the bodyguard’s leave Queen (L/N)’s side as she greets some politicians. She talks with them for a short amount of time before she scans the room and her eyes on land on me.

-

I bow as I finish my conversation with Senator Poli and Representative Jeeloy. I’ve made it my goal to introduce myself to every Republic attendee as to become familiar with one another and explain the new rule put into place by Leadership. I look around the large space and my eyes land on a rather handsome young man who already appears to be staring in my direction. I suppose I’ve found my next conversation.

I walk over to him and his eyes never leave me. A regular man would have already looked away in fear or insecurity; an interesting specimen indeed…

“Good evening gentlemen.” I say as I bow before the young man and his slightly older companion.

Now that I’m within a closer proximity, the young man is quite attractive for a Jedi. He has dirty blonde hair that falls in waves at his shoulders. His eyes are a blue so magnificent, I’ve only ever seen it in the majestic waves of our ocean. His skin is a flawless tan color and his lips look as plush as a pillow.

“My name is Anakin Skywalker, but you can call me Anakin, your highness.” The young man, Anakin, says as he bows. He grabs my hand and places a chaste kiss upon it. I can already feel my heart racing at his actions. He releases my hand, but he never takes his striking blue eyes off of me.

“Your majesty, Obi-Wan Kenobi.” The older man, Obi-Wan, also bows.

“May I say, both of your names are quite unique?” I comment on the names they’ve given me.

“Thank you, my lady. May I ask yours?” Anakin questions me.

“(Y/N) (L/N)…”

“(Y/N)…” He whispers under his breath.

“…but no one every addresses me as such as it is customary to address me as ‘Queen (L/N)’ or other terms of respect including ‘your grace’, ‘your highness’, ‘your majesty’, ‘my lady’ and so forth...” I finish, matter-of-factly.

“Of course, my lady.” Anakin says as the mischievousness of a thousand younglings cross his eyes.

“How are you enjoying the party so far, Mr. Kenobi?” I ask, shifting my attention to his friend as the look he’s giving me makes my heart beat a little too fast for my taste.

“Please, Obi-Wan, your majesty. We are partners, not strangers.” He corrects me.

I nod in return, “Of course, Obi-Wan.” He continues.

“I must say, you’ve thrown a lovely party.” He comments as he scans the crowd.

“Thank you; do you like the food?” I ask, looking at both Anakin and Obi-Wan this time, “I heard many of these foods are popular on Coruscant, the Republic capital...”

“The food is excellent, your grace. Nothing to worry about.” He says reassuringly with a small smile.

“Wonderful.” I reply, returning his smile. “Before I forget, if you’ve been briefed on our culture, you’ll know I’m not normally permitted to speak; however, a change in the rules have been made by both Leadership and myself.” I say, clearing up any confusion if there was any.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me…” I begin.

“Obi-Wan,” I say while nodding in his direction, “Anakin.” I look in his direction.

“I must acquaint myself with the other patrons.” I bow.

“Of course, your highness.” Obi-Wan replies.

“Don’t let us distract you from your royal duties.” Anakin comments with a smile. I smile back and start walking to find the next Jedi or Senator.

- 30 minutes later –

After half an hour of walking and talking, I think I need a break. I pull a chair from one of the many tables in the hall and take a seat. I take a deep breath and exhale.

I’ve already spoken with all of the members of the Jedi Council, 8 Jedi Knights and their padawans and 300 congressmen and women and that’s not even half.

The dancing will begin shortly, so I hope I get to rest my feet for just a few minutes…

Not too long into my relaxing, I hear two chairs being pulled out. I take a deep breath, straighten my posture and put on a smile. I look up to see Kaila and Alani slumped in their chairs. I break out into a real smile and relax my shoulders.

“Hello ladies, you guys look as exhausted as I am and it hasn’t even been an hour.” I joke.

Kaila laughs exhaustedly, “Do you know how many touchy Senators we’ve had to shoo away from the poor female attendees? That Orn Free Taa? Too touchy for my liking…” I laugh.

“The men of the Republic need etiquette.” Alani agrees with closed eyes.

“Perhaps not all of them…” I say quietly. At my addition, both Kaila and Alani open their eyes and straighten up excitedly, forgetting their exhaustion.

“Oh?” Kaila asks with a smirk. I now realize my addition was a mistake; not only are Alani and Kaila my caretakers, but they are also my best friends and unfortunately love gossip.

“Do tell of the well-mannered men you’ve encountered this evening.” Alani urges with her elbows on the table and her hands underneath her chin.

“Well…” I start, going through my evening so far, “Senator Organa and Senator Farr were very polite, unlike the Senators you’ve had to deal with.” I counter with triumph.

“I’ve also met multiple Jedi who were nothing but well-mannered and polite.”

“Like who?” Kaila pushed.

“Like-like Master Mace Windu.” I reply, “Master Yoda and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi…”

“…and Anakin Skywalker.” I finish off quiet, voice uneven. Just saying his name makes my voice waver. I’ve never met a man who’s had this kind of effect on me before…

“Anakin Skywalker…” Alani repeats, “If I remember correctly he came last week with Master Kenobi for his fitting…”

“A rather handsome young man…” Kaila repeats my words from earlier.

Suddenly, I hear the ringing of a single bell signifying the beginning of the first dance. I quickly stand up, “Excuse me!” I say quickly and loudly as I rush to the balcony. I’m not even out of earshot when I hear them giggling.

I take deep breaths to steady my heartrate while I climb the stairs. I reach the top and clear my throat and the audience quiets down.

“The ringing of the first bell indicates the first of two dances. For the first dance, Leori will dance with Leori and this is the same for the people of the Republic. This illustrates our situations before our alliance. For the second dance, it will be mixed. It is mandatory for a Leori to dance with someone of the Republic and vice-versa. This illustrates our situation after our alliance. You have 5 minutes to choose your partner if you wish to dance as the first dance is not mandatory.” I finish and descend the steps for the second time this evening.

I stop at the foot of the stairs and weigh my options. I could a) return to my table and get pestered about Anakin or b) women up and find a partner.

Before I decide what to do, a familiar voice cuts into my thoughts.

“It’s been a while, sis.” A male voice announces. I look to my right and see my older brother, (B/N), with his arms open.

A huge smile replaces my thoughtful look and I rush into his arms, “Brother! What are you doing here?” I ask excitedly and squeeze him.

He wheezes, “I could tell you if I could breathe.” He manages; I immediately release him, “Sometimes you don’t even recognize your own strength, (N/N).” He says using my childhood nickname as he rubs his sides.

“You forget, I married a Senator of the Republic after I refused the throne?” (B/N) reminds me; even though our planet is predominantly female, he is older and would have been next in line.

“Ah, yes. I was so busy with the preparation of the party. It slipped my mind…” I admit, “How have you been? Is the money I sent enough? Do you need more? If you do, I can-“

“(Y/N), calm down. I’m fine and the money you sent is enough; I don’t need anymore, trust me.” He reassures me, “We can catch up later; for now, may I have this dance…” He asks, extending his hand towards me. I raise my eyebrow at him.

“…your highness?” He adds. I smile, glad he hasn’t forgotten the ways of our people.

The horn sounds as the classical music played by the orchestra in the sound room begins to play over the speakers. The first dance has begun.

-

The music has started to play signifying the beginning of the first dance. I’ve decided to sit this one out as the only other person I really know, Padmé, already has a partner. I sit at a table and sip my flute of one of the lighter alcoholic beverages being severed; as a Jedi, I should always be on my toes.

I scan the crowd when my eyes land on the Queen, who appears to be dancing with a man at least half a foot taller then her. The man she’s dancing with is attractive, to say the least. He has elegant features and whatever he’s saying to her makes her laugh; a laugh most likely so scarce only a select group of people ever get to hear it.

What is he saying that’s so funny? I thought when I heard the shattering of my glass. I guess my jealously paired with my prosthesis isn’t necessarily a good mix. Luckily, my beverage only spilled into the plate below with few drops of it on the tablecloth. I disregard my drink and return my attention to the Queen. Her partner spins her and she seems to be having a great time. It’s hard to be jealous when she smiles like that…

My thoughts are cut off when the music stops. The two separate and they bow before the Queen ascends the stairs. She’s most likely announcing the second dance… I suppose that’s my cue; good thing I did my research...

-

“I hope you had a lovely time with your first partner; however, it is now time to choose your second. The second dance will begin shortly. You have 5 minutes to choose your next partner.” I announce and descend the stairs for, hopefully, the last time. I reach the foot of the stairs when a Senator approaches me.

“Would you like to dance, your majesty?” he asks.

“No thank you.” I respond politely. He nods and walks away. Another Senator walks up, one from Ryloth.

“Care to dance, your highness?” He asks with his hand extended in my direction.

“I’ll have to pass, Senator.” I reply. He looks at me and rolls his eyes as he walks away.

“Excuse me, my lady.” A voice intervenes; not a familiar voice, but one I’ve heard before. I turn around to be met with Anakin Skywalker.

“Anakin.” I say, hopefully.

He smiles at me, “May I have this dance…” He extends his hand to me, “…your highness?” I smile and rest my hand in is, “You may.”

The horn sounds again as another song plays over the speakers. Something along the lines of classical and tango; a rather interesting mix to describe the alliance between us.

“If I may, did you really know how to ask me to dance or was it luck?” I ask out of curiousity as he leads me to the dance floor. He grabs my hand with his right and places his left on my waist. He pulls me close and whispers in my ear, “I knew.” At this, my heartrate picks up once more.

He resume our dance at normal distance.

“Your grace, if I may, who were you dancing with earlier?” Anakin asks as we continue to glide across the floor.

“Oh, that was my brother, (B/N). Many think he’s given up his prince status, but he merely rejected king status and still remains crown prince of Roe’ Leor.” I inform him, thinking nothing of the question.

“I see. So, your majesty, are you aware of the dangers that come with being partnered with the Republic?”

“Yes. Since Roe’ Leor is no longer a neutral system, the Separatists will now target us given our change in position.”

“Have you increased your security?” He asks as he dips me.

“Tripled.” I respond as he lifts me back up.

“Has the Republic asked about outposts?

“Yes.”

“And your answer?”

“Anakin Skywalker, did you ask me to dance for business of for pleasure?” I ask, finally feeling more comfortable in his presence.

“Officially, business.” He responds as he spins me similar to how (B/N) spun me earlier.

“Unofficially?” I ask. He smiles at me and whispers in my ear with a sultriness that makes my heart melt, “Pleasure.” Then, as he dips me, the last note of the song is played.

He brings me back to a standing position.

“It was a pleasure dancing with you, Anakin Skywalker.” I say as I bow, still a little disoriented from his answer.

“Please,” he bows and grabs my hand similar to our first meeting, “the pleasure was mine.” and he kisses it.

“We’ll see more of each other in the future, your highness.” He gives me a jaunty salute then walks over to Obi-Wan.

Never in my life have I ever wanted a man so badly.

Little did I know, even though I made my comment internally, Anakin was still close enough to listen in on my thoughts and walked away with a smile on his face...

-

I leave the Queen to return to her queenly duties and walk over to Obi-Wan.

“You looked rather cozy dancing with the Queen.” He noted.

“Really? I didn’t notice…” I replied coyly.

“Let’s just hope that you haven’t ruined our friendship when it’s only just begun.” He states as he makes his way over to Master Yoda.

I smile and look back at the Queen and she’s talking to her bodyguards.

Farewell, your highness. Until our next meeting…

The Queen’s eyes widen and her attention is turned towards me. I smile at her and she smiles back.

Farewell, Anakin Skywalker. Until we meet again.

[creative-frequency]

Inquisitor!Cal Kestis x Reader: Free Time

Word count: 1564 Pairing: Inquisitor!Cal Kestis x Reader Notes: I had a mighty need for inquisitor Cal, asked what kind of scenarios would you guys like to read and here we go.

My Writing Masterlist

He is always training.

Alone.

You don’t know much about this new Inquisitor who some call unofficially the Eleventh Brother. There would be plenty enough numbers available among the first ten. Some even whisper that he is the next Grand Inquisitor. He doesn’t look that special to you, but you don’t want to go close enough to get a better look.

With the way he handles the red lightsaber, it’s clear that he is no stranger to the weapon. After a few sparring matches, the Purge Troopers quickly learned to avoid him in training spaces. Everyone gives him a wide berth.

Former Jedi Cal Kestis is always training because when he isn’t, he can hear his own thoughts, screaming inside his head. There is no one to talk to, no one to drown the thoughts with. The other Inquisitors barely treat him as equal, most often settling for avoidance. The feeling is mutual.

Cal feels the yearning for companionship, but there is none he can trust now. None who would comfort or encourage him. Getting physically exhausted and falling into dreamless sleep makes his new life somewhat more bearable. There is no light in his existence now. Just aimless darkness where he wanders, trying to hold his head above the surface. He is just surviving.

Attending to your duties at the Fortress Inquisitorius, you have no time to stare at the new Inquisitor, as handsome as he may be. He is swinging the double-bladed lightsaber in a speed that makes you dizzy. You don’t like the way the Second Sister looks at him, like a trophy from a hunt. It makes you feel sick but there is nothing you can do, especially show your disgust.

Nur wouldn’t have been your first choice, but one can’t exactly say no to a direct order. So you just focus on the job and hope that a new order will come soon.

It’s been two years.

Working in maintenance isn’t the most exciting career under the rule of the Galactic Empire. At least you don’t have to torture or murder anyone, only look the other way when someone else does. Things like that tend to numb people. You’re not proud of it. You’re just surviving.

Most of your coworkers are droids. Sometimes you hear people joking that you’re leading an army of your own. You tend to avoid the Troopers and especially the Inquisitors. Keeping a low profile is not just the best tactic to stay alive on the planet, it’s a necessity.

With a job that mainly requires only hands, you have too much time to think and wait for the comlink to spark into life.

“Requiring maintenance on residential level. Over.”

An everyday occurrence. You sigh. “What seems to be the problem? Over.”

“Another blasted lock. Apartment 2-5-7-K. Over.”

Gripping the comlink, you bite your lip. Shit. Anything over 250 means it’s an Inquisitor’s door. You’d best hurry.

“I’m on my way. Over.”

A blasted lock. You wonder what the reason is this time. What Trooper was stupid enough to draw a weapon in the hallways? They probably paid for the insolence with their life. Maybe there was a skirmish with one of the prisoners or someone tried to escape. Wouldn’t be the first time. You try to think of something else.

The hallway is fortunately empty so you speed walk to the right door. 257K. After a short inspection it seems that the lock is not actually broken, the door just needs some basic maintenance. The room hasn’t been in use for a long time but apparently someone has moved in recently. You make a mental note to bump it higher up on the priority list and to make sure a droid is taking care of it.

“It just needs adjustment, right?”

A scream almost flees you and you drop the servodriver.

The red-head Inquisitor stands next to you, slightly crouched to see better what you’re doing. You didn’t hear anyone approaching.

“Would’ve fixed it myself if I had the tools,” he continues, ignoring your almost heart attack.

“I’m sorry! This’ll be ready in a minute,” you say hastily and try not to look at the freckles on his face.

The Inquisitor’s brows crease closer together when you don’t look him in the eye.

“Okay,” he simply replies and leans against the wall, arms folding on his chest and looking like he isn’t going anywhere soon. If anything, he seems to enjoy watching you panic. A light smirk on his face and all.

You feel the eyes on your back as you work as fast as you can, checking and testing the connectors. Some of them need to be changed soon and that requires another order of spare parts. You just love paperwork and spending the Empire’s credits.

“Can you take a look at the AC inside? It’s been acting up.”

The servodriver almost falls from your grip again. You turn around to bow your head to the Inquisitor. Your eyes are obstinately drawn to the lightsaber resting against his thigh. “Of course, sir.”

The constant feeling of “I hope he doesn’t kill me” in your gut makes your hands shake but somehow you manage to make sure the lock works again. The Inquisitor still leans on the wall, looking like he has all the time in the world to just hang out. You don’t think you’ve ever seen him outside the dojo.

“There. Is it okay if I go in to check the AC now?” You don’t want to look him in the eye and with your every cell hope that he will leave now and let you work in peace.

Not a chance.

He shows you inside and stays hovering nearby as you try to calm yourself enough to work. He can’t seem to take his eyes off you. Something about you, watching you is… itching him.

“The thermostat seems to be broken, sir.” You dare a peek at the Inquisitor. He doesn’t seem as intimidating as the others and is actually younger than you initially thought. “I’ll need to go fetch some parts but I’ll set a static room temperature for now.”

“Okay.” He runs his hand through his ginger hair and sighs. “Can’t you just make a droid bring the parts?”

You blanch. “Uh, yes. Of course, I just thought it’d be faster if… I go… myself…” Your voice trails off under the cryptically meaningful look in his eyes.

Cal examines you, circling around in a slow, lazy arc. He has noticed you before even though you actively make every effort to not stand out. He felt something spark inside him in the hallway and he needs a moment to realize it’s curiosity that brings life to his dull existence. The feeling has some exhilarating new shades and he wonders is it because you look like a cornered animal, shaking in fear.

It excites him.

“Sir?” you squeak and can’t form the follow up question because Cal takes a step towards you.

“Who are you?” he asks slowly, gaze trained onto your face, eyes boring holes into your mind. His pulse is quickened like in the thick of a combat and he cannot understand why.

“Um, I’m not sure I– I’m just a technician. I’ve got clearance, y-you see… I can show you my ID…” you stutter and fumble a hand into your chest pocket to fish out the ID card. “See?”

Cal doesn’t even spare a glance at it.

“Yeah. I’m not interested in that,” he says coolly. He stands close enough to either strangle or hug you – though you know he wouldn’t need to get close and personal to kill you. You’re starting to panic.

“Sorry…” you peep, “Can I…”

Go?

You can’t finish the sentence because the Inquisitor leans forward and plants a gloved hand against the wall over your shoulder – a predator enjoying one last sniff of his prey before the killing blow.

All of your jittering ends and you completely freeze. The whimper that escapes your lips doesn’t sound like you at all. He has so many freckles and the feeling they enact in you acts as the perfect opposite to what their owner is doing. As good-looking as he may be, getting within a kissing distance to the Inquisitor wasn’t on your bucket list.

However, while you’re waiting perfectly still – in spite of your racing heart – for his next move, Cal hesitates. The excitement that spurred him into taking the initiative is gaining an altogether different tone. He is suddenly nervous and has to ball his hand into a fist to stop it from shaking.

You stare at each other, mere inches away and lightly gasp for breaths. The menacing Inquisitor aura is gone and you curse him for toying with you like that since there’s no way you can forget this ever happened. For a fleeting moment, you think should you just kiss him and be done with it – and gamble your life on his goodwill.

Cal finally loses his nerve and leaves without so much as a word or a glance at your direction.

You wait for a few stunned breaths to hear if he is coming back after the fateful sizzle of the door. Your head is positively spinning by the time you make it out alive from the quarters of Inquisitor Cal Kestis.

You hope nothing breaks in his room again.

//

Part 2

[druidx]

A Bad Start

Context: I’ve finally got around to watching Star Wars: Rebels, about a year and a half after it was recommended viewing for the SW RPG I was playing at the time. And it got me thinking about the character I played, Cookie, and how I’d never really committed anything about her to “paper”. So, as an attempt to cure my writing blockage, I thought I’d write a short fic about the incident that forced her and her definitely-not-a-Jedi Master Darruhl Kain (played by a friend) joined the crew of the Soaring Saladin. If there’s interest, I might write more about her. She was fun to play. Warnings: Threat of fantasy violence, allusions to drug-taking and alcohol imbibing, wanted persons

It started like any other day. Pela slunk through the streets of Eedu, between grand buildings dilapidated by the constant mists, besides those who used the Force to hide their true selves. She took twisting turns through the close-knit streets, sweeping around puddles in the broken road and over rampant vines, her head down and face covered over by the dun headscarf. Tiny, unremarkable Pela, in her scrappy, piecemeal clothes. A pale, pathetic human on a planet of strong and fine-boned Dathomirir. 

Finally out of that ever-present mist, turning to fire in the setting sun, rose her target – a rusting metal dome from which spilt laughter and music. Folk left the place, swaying under the influence of drink or drugs. Some made their way back to the spaceport, hidden behind warnings and fences. Others, often in the company of others, drifted into the main streets of Eedu. Pela watched them all from the shade of a tree, dark eyes flicking over each person, feeling the whorls and eddies of Force that flowed through the area, as her Master had taught. The biggest pull was from inside the rusted cantina, so on she went, moving like a wraith – pale and sickly on light feet. Inside, the cantina was dim. Pela pulled off her gloves, stuffing them into her bag. The pulse of the music was strong, a heavy beat that pushed at her skin. She stilled and centred herself, letting the beat slide past her, like a heartbeat, smelling the incense and the unwashed bodies of a dozen different species and cultures. She walked forward, gliding through the crowds. A touch on an elbow. Ghosting over a neck. The caress of a lekku. Each opened a new world to her, seen through the eyes of those she graced. This one was shipping power cells. She tucked the information away – it might be handy later. That one was meeting a mistress. Less useful, but maybe someone would pay for the information. Still, there was that pull of the Force... Tricky to nail down, it wafted like an exotic spice – muted burgundy against the wash of muddy blue, moss-green and umber – calling, whispering to her. Pela wound her way through the crowds, eager to follow the pull. It led her towards a booth at the centre of the cantina, wherein sat a tall figure, enveloped in coarse black robes. They must have something of great worth, she thought, padding up. The wraith let her hand drop, intending only to trail her fingers over the back of a wrist. The moment she did so, there was the snap of a static discharge. Pela's eyes widened. That wasn't supposed to happen... The figure pulled away, looking up at the terrified girl. Red eyes met hazel. Pela's mind rang with unknown words; a sensation of something new and fully formed existing where it shouldn't, crowding her mind. Before he could shout, Pela was off, barging through the crowd to the cantina's exit. Her breath came in spurts, her heart hammering louder, faster than the music. Her head whirled, trying to make sense of what happened, of the fact she'd stolen a full memory, that she'd stolen from someone important. A call rang out behind her. The wraith whimpered. He was coming for her.

"Master!" Pela cried, slamming the door closed behind her. "Ah, there you are," said a tall Zabrack, walking into the living area from the kitchen, "Ishtar called by to ask how you were getting on with their shield oscillator-" "Master, we have a problem. We have to leave. Now!" She raced past the confused Zabrack, into the kitchen, pulling out packets of dry food and cramming them into her pack. "Pela?" he said. When she didn't respond, he marched over, gripping her shoulders and twisting her around. "Pela! What happened?" "Oh! Master! There's a man. He's coming for me. I stole something, with the Force, I didn't mean to! It just happened, it jumped from his mind, and now he's following me, I know he is and he's going-" "Slow down! Slowly now, what happened?" "Master Darruhl, please. We don't have time-" Pela paled further as a heavy banging sounded on the door to their tiny apartment. Darruhl glanced at the door and back to his student. "Yes, I sense it too," he said to the unspoken question in her eyes. The banging came again. "Quickly now, girl." The Zabrack pushed Pela towards the kitchen's large window. "Get to the roof, and be calm, as I have taught you. Once I've rid us of this person, we'll leave. Now, go! Go!" Pela slipped through the window and out onto the ledge. She crouched a little, then pushed up, using the Force to propel herself to the next ledge and the next, landing with little grace on the roof of the building.

Satisfied his student was safe, Darruhl pulled off his trousers, wrapping the outer robes of grey around himself as though hurriedly pulled on, before answering the door. "Yes, yes," he snapped, looking up at the large black droid on his doorstep. "What is it? I was sleeping, you know." "Apologies for disturbing you sir," said the guard droid. "Are you Darruhl Kain?" "And if I am?" the Master asked. "Do you associate with one 'Cookie' Crom? First name unknown." Darruhl shook his head, wishing the guard hadn't been a droid. People were so much easier to manipulate. "No, I don't know anyone of that name," he told the droid, trying to keep his heart-rate under control. "Then perhaps you have seen this person? She was observed entering this housing block." The droid brought up a holovid of a waif, all narrow gangly limbs, with her head and part of her face obscured by a dark scarf. Again, Darruhl shook his head. "Can't say that I have. Though that picture isn't much to go by. What've they done, anyway?" "This person is accused of stealing something very valuable from one of Dathomir's guests in the spaceport." "Well, I can't help you," Darruhl said. "I suggest you cease lying," came a new voice from behind the droid. The security droid looked over his shoulder. "Sir, I agreed to your accompaniment as a gesture of goodwill," the droid said. "I detect no irregularities with this gentleman's answers. I request you leave the police-work to me." "I have elected to ignore your request," said the new voice. The droid was forced to the side by some unseen hand, it's metal feet squealing on the concrete passageway. It voiced some complaint, but Darruhl had stopped paying it any attention. A figure, swathed in black robes stepped into the doorway, forcing the Zabrack back a few steps. Darruhl sniffed the air. A Sith. Of all the people his student could have tanged with, it had to be a Sith... "I know she's here," said the sith, his voice cold and smooth as ice. "Hand her over. I want back what she stole." "I don't know what you're talking about," Darruhl said, his hand going to the lightsaber at his belt. "It's just me here. I suggest you leave on your own or I will throw you out." The sith had been reaching for his weapon, but now paused, his eyes flicking around the apartment. He looked back at the Zabrack. "Perhaps she has indeed departed, but she was here. Make no mistake, Darruhl Kain: I will find my thief, and will take back what she has stolen, with all the Force at my disposal." With that the sith turned in a dramatic billow of robes, stalking out of the apartment. Darruhl watched him retreat down the corridor before closing the door. A sith. He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. Why, by the Force, did it have to be a Sith? He walked back to the kitchen, activating his comlink. This was no longer a simple case of moving a few cities over... "Pela?" he called through the 'link. "Yes, Master?" came her timid reply. "Get back in here. We need to pack."

~*~*~ "Do you really think this will work, Master?" Pela asked as the two stood near a star freighter, waiting for the ship's captain to appear. Night had truly fallen now, the warm mist leaving dew on Pela's shoulders. It muffled and obscured everything around them, the lights of the spaceport creating pearly spears of light that illuminated nothing and everything. "Yes, my student, I do." The older man stood tall, confidence radiating from him, as Pela tried not to huddle at his side. She cast furtive glances into the night, seeing with more than her eyes, as her Force Master continued, trying to allay her fears. "Once spaceborne, we will be constantly on the move, never spending more than a few days on each planet or station. It is a big galaxy out there, my dear. Only the best bounty hunters would ever hope to catch up with us. I doubt very much that this Sith has skill nor patience to track us down." "Track me, Master," the human said, her tone unhappy. "Perhaps it would be best-" Darruhl turned, gripping his student by her frail shoulders. "Pela, I may be many things, but an apostate is not one of them. I will not abandon you. Not now, not ever. Do not suggest such a thing again!" Pela sunk into herself, averting her gaze. "No, Master. Of course not. I apologise." Darruhl let out a pained sigh. He'd long since given up on trying to convince his student she need not cower or apologise to him. Instead, the Zabrack chucked her chin, then rested his forehead carefully against hers, mindful on his horns. "Trust in the force, my student," he said. "Let it guide you, let it be your strength. Remember who we are." He began chanting, his voice lilting in the cadence of one who has spoken the words many times before. Pela joined in, her voice tremulous at first but swelling with quiet confidence, "I am the dividing line. I am the place where two halves meet. In my left hand, I wield the darkness; in my right hand, I wield the light. The Force is my center, and I am the center of the Force. The sword I wield is grey, the line between the light side and the dark. On its edge, I hang the needs of the Force. For I am the balance, the symmetry, and the harmony. I am the Grey." They drew away from each other then and Pela felt her Master's Force presence surround her, as warm as any hug. "Thank you, Master," she murmured, sending her own back. Beside them came the clanks and hisses of the freighter's ramp lowering. Darruhl flicked his robes free of his sabre handle, as Pela moved behind him, facing into the shimmering spaceport. "Greetings, sir," Darruhl said as a Bothan descended the ramp. "I presume you are Captain Manosh Fay-Laoy?" "Good evening to you," said the Bothan, as a blue Mon Calamari waddled down the ramp behind him and crossed her arms. "Please, call me Manny. I assume you are Darruhl Kain, the one who contacted me about leaving this delightful planet?" he added, derision heavy on the word 'delightful'. "I am, indeed. Have you considered my proposal then?" Darruhl asked. Behind the Mon Calamari appeared a T8 unit and a Trandoshan. Darruhl squinted at the Trandoshan. There was something off about the man, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it... "I have," said Manny, twisting the hair on his chin in thought. "I believe it will be an equitable exchange." He gestured to the Trandoshan, "Visq here could use some back-up, and I know I'd feel safer having another fighter aboard. I'm sure Nindan and T8 wouldn't mind help to keep the Soaring Saladin flying, either." The T8 unit trundled down next to the Mon Calamari and gave a couple of sharp, descending blips. The Mon Calamari, Nindan, nictitated her eyes. "He says he hopes your mechanic is as good as you claim because the Saladin needs a great deal of help staying in the sky." She glanced around. "Where are they?" "There is not a machine out there that she cannot coax into behaving," Darruhl said. "Isn't that right my dear?" The Zabrack stepped aside, and Pela turned. "I, ah," she stammered, flicking worried eyes at her master. He raised an eyebrow. "Now is not the time to be modest." The human ducked her head. "Yes Master," she said, her voice chary. Pela turned to Nindan, the human keeping her eyes downcast, twisting her fingers. "If... if it please you, Mem, my Master is correct. I have not yet met a mechanism that didn't respond to my assistance." Nindan narrowed her eyes and glanced down at the astromech. It gave a short ascending beep, followed by a longer descending one. It chattered a moment longer before Nindan nodded to it. The astromech trundled down the ramp and over to Pela, blooping at her demandingly. Pela took a step backwards, her eyes wide and wild. Darruhl put a hand on her shoulder. "I think our little friend here would like a demonstration," he said. "Oh." Pela crouched down. "My apologies Messer T8. Let me run a diagnostic." From her pack, the girl pulled a tool roll. She took a few deep breaths, her eyes closed, and ran a hand over the droid. T8 blipped and turned, trying to follow her hand, but she clamped her other on his top. "Please don't move." After a long moment, she opened her eyes. "Poor baby," she said, voice filled with pity. "You really need an oil bath. But here," she flipped open his front casing, fiddling with the droid's innards for a moment. "That should help stabilize your AGP array until I can look at it properly, and I think I've mended that loose through-flow – your thrusters should be a little more even in power-output now." Pela closed up the front panel and patted T8. "Feel a bit better now, sweetie?" she asked. The astromech buzzed and whirred a moment, then let out a bleep that sounded a lot like 'Yippee!'. T8 dashed over to Nindan, jabbering at her. The Mon Calamari cocked her head as she listened, then turned to her Captain. Nindan gave a burbling chuckle. "He's asking if we can keep her," she translated to the Bothan. Manny nodded, turning back to Darruhl. The Bothan grinned. "If your mechanic has T8's approval, then she has mine. Welcome aboard, Mr Kaine," Manny said, ushering the Zabrack and his human companion aboard the freighter.

[mantra4ia]

The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Reaction Episode II (spoilers ahead)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I must preface my opinions with the one central point of view that has never wavered: you can be a Star Wars fan and a film critic simultaneously.

Dislikes (big and small)

So in this new trilogy, does everyone know all about the secretive Sith? No one knows where Exogol-Sith-home-world is without a wayfinder. Yet some random spice traders know who the Sith are and that they have a runic language, but nearly the entire Jedi culture disappeared until the tale of Luke Skywalker revived it. This dislike is not isolated to RoS, but it's so odd considering that in the prequels and OT, the Emperor did not put the knowledge of the Sith right out in the open.

Too much telling, not enough doing. I detest plot reveals via exposition, because a majority of the time explain-y dialogue is far inferior to natural conversation. But for two-thirds of the movie, I couldn't settle into the world because I felt like I was being told a Star Wars story instead of being in it. Case point 1: Poe's argument that Rey is training instead of being on the front line to try to verbally push the narrative that she's not just naturally too-gifted. Case point 2: Explaining Force heal to the audience (via droid) after its already been demonstrated as if we can't interpret how it works. AND YET we get no planet captions? Who's advice are you listening to? Disney could spell everything else out in dialogue when it was unnecessary and borderline condescending to audience, but when it mattered you couldn't give us planetary captions so I blinked and missed the fact that we opened with Kylo Ren kicking a** and taking names on freaking Mustafar! That was a great scene. Epic. Kylo’s on a mission, and there ain’t no questing here - it’s as fast and direct as the throat punch. He’s tired of being jerked around, he’s in a position of power to demand answers, and he’s going for the head of the Emperor, all while I was like...was that Mustafar, that was Mustafar, except now we just left Mustafar. DAMMIT.

We see the repair on Kylo's mask but not the repair of Luke's saber, or Rey building her own saber? TLJ broke the most iconic lightsaber and RoS just fixed it off screen (see point above)? I suppose this shouldn't be shocking since they introduced Palpatine IN THE CRAWL, but it was disappointing.

Did like the opening crawl, did not like how it was used as Palpatine’s business card. I think my exact words were: did they really, what kind of movie am I here for?

Leia's death. I don't buy for a second that establishing a Force visitation with Kylo across the galaxy was enough to kill her. TLJ (in my opinion) demonstrated enough to establish her as a powerful force user, which Rise of Skywalker doubled down on using the flashback training scene. So no, I don't think the exertion of it was enough to take her life unless it was inferred that she either wasn't recovered from the events of TLJ or that the Force sensitive impact of Luke's death was taking an extended toll on her, or that she was somehow already overdoing it trying to use other Force abilities behind the scene to protect the resistance/ reach out to Luke. I understand that with Carrie Fisher's (rest in peace) sudden death it would make certain practical sense for Leia to die if fitting, but put all that explanatory dialogue to some good use for once and build up tension so that Leia's death makes sense.

Luke's Force ghost being underutilized. From the beginning I didn't have a problem with Luke's conclusion in Last Jedi (minus a subtle eyeroll at the noble sacrifice trope being easily confused with honor) because it doesn't bother me whether a character is living or not as long as they are still growing. I thought, I hoped, I legitimately put money on the fact the Rise of Skywalker would use Luke in the training of Rey or the haunting of Ben and that he would play an active Force ghost role. He was used for damage control. That was infuriating.

Han Solo. I recognize the irony of this moment being in both my likes and gripes. While I liked seeing Han bestow Ben forgiveness, even if he was just a memory and not a ghost, it quickly became a hollow sort of nostalgia. FULL POST HERE.

Why in the world is there an arbitrary 16-hour frame before the Exogol fleet strike? The Last Jedi gave us a slow space chase and now what, the executive team thinks that the polar opposite is the answer? So you already have to wrap of an entire saga in a 2-3 hour real world runtime, and you've decided to amp up the pace and cram that into 16 hours of Star Wars time just for funsies while the Emperor broadcasts propaganda to kill morale? Rushed, forced, we just spent a chunk of the movie at Fyre Festival in a space desert, don't tell me there wasn't more time to allocate for imminent doom.

So essentially, we had a StarKiller base in TFA, mini-Death Star canon in TLJ, and a thousand Death Star planet killing cannons on Star Destroyers? LET that part of THE PAST DIE!

The execution of Leia training Rey. The idea was wonderful...in practice you can really tell the dialogue was built around her, and the scenes suffer for it. Execution, for the sake of preserving the character Carrie built, may have been accomplished by Tricia or Joely Fisher or her friend Meryl Streep as a way to still honor her.

A case for triple / quadruple convenience. Star Wars has always been a universe of happy coincidences, but Rise of Skywalker takes them to new extremes to the point it smacked me out of the movie. Every movie has it's own unique level of “good faith reserves” after which point plot conveniences elicit “you've got to be kidding” reactions. This happened to me during the setup of Force healing. FULL POST HERE.

Execution of Finn's character. Apart from his force-sensitivity and connection to the trooper defectors, I think Finn's plot regressed in this film each time he had to follow in Rey's wake every time she went solo, (going after Rey in the sciff, yelling Rey in the Death Star battle, Rey I have something to tell you). I thought that we had gotten past this in TLJ when Finn found purpose in the Resistance and something worth fighting for, but old habits die hard. 

Scavenger hunt questing and the damn Sith Dagger. If part of this was in the crawl, that might have been good with me. I get that Rey's a scavenger – it's good to see her in her element like TFA, climbing through the Death Star at the culmination – but it's far too time consuming to do the double header of dagger/wayfinder and coincidental. She could have been standing anywhere on Kef Bir, the oceanic moon of Endor, but she happened to be standing exactly where she needed to be with no reference to force power, and the tides hadn't moved any part of the wreck and the topography hadn't changed at all for the protractor on the dagger to work?! I’m a nerd about mathematical, logical tools, but they don't work well in a Sith alchemy plot! Even when we try for logic, the convenience appears, which could have been passable if I still had good faith. In the words of John Mulaney, “you spent it already?!”

Nostalgia aside, where are the stakes? They're trapped in a sand cave / wait, no they're not. They're being hunted through Fyre Festival and they don't have a get away ship / oh yeah they do, and its fully fueled, parked in the open, not stripped for parts. There are about five different “fake” deaths where the tension releases so fast, and two real deaths of spies that should have been given beats but were skimmed over: Chewie's dead / but no it was the wrong transport, 3PO's peril / never mind we've got backups, Zori wants to turn Rey in for bounty / then they have the quickest fight in Star Wars and are on good terms. Instead of taking big risks and getting reward, this film banked on unraveling the plot by the flip of a two-headed coin and settling for surprise “Oh, they did wot now?” instead of awe.

“Retconning” The Last Jedi / plucking it out of the timeline. Rise of Skywalker, in many ways, feels like a direct sequel to The Force Awakens. Direct slaps to TLJ include but not limited to: Holdo maneuver “one-in-a-million,” and Luke plucking Rey's saber from the fire. “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect (except when its Kylo’s),” and Luke lamenting about going into exile as a mistake. Concepts that could have been accepted, some even verbatim foregone conclusions from TLJ, were it not for terrible execution clearly framed at goodwill appeasement.

So, the Knights of Ren were window dressing? They just follow Kylo around like bouncers and when he turned to the light, they turned on him? A) Like the praetorian guard for Snoke, they are supposed to be loyal to Kylo and if they’re not we should get to see that, B) they just made Ben look boss as he took them out. Epic saber fight, lackluster idea, especially when the Knights were so speculated on and could have had mythos. Take them out of the film and put Luke's ghost in. Problem solved.

Rey as a Palatine / OP (Overpowered) Rey. All the one-ups that ensued between Rey and her grandfather. No thank you. I don't mind that she has power and is very naturally and diversely talented, don't let lineage play a factor. It was vastly more meaningful when she was ‘ordinary.’ I could go into a whole dedicated post on this.

Hux as a spy? No, I can't imagine that's what TFA set him up for. Interesting concept - I don’t want you to win, I want Kylo to lose - terrible setup. The Last Jedi did it better, Benicio del Toro is one of the only things I'll give Canto Byte credit for.

What even is the point of Zori apart from a character used to deliver a plot point of security clearance? She is very much used to prop up Poe's story. I like the idea of the character, I don't dig her role, and even more so I don’t like how the destruction of her planet first was used to fish for emotion. Invest more in Poe's struggles ascending to acting general.

Palpatine overall, from his intro in the crawl to his motives – He's such a cool, larger then life character, it shamefully never feels like we JJ knows what he wants out of the Emperor as his villain. Palpatine's motivation for decades was the dark, unnatural Sith ability to live forever sought by his master Plagueis before him, yet in RoS he's so utterly content to say “kill me so that you can ascend to Empress and I can flow through you (possess you)” – and then the discovery that draining the “Dyad in the Force” can regenerate him changes the plan immediately. Principally its an interesting idea using him as a puppet master to tie *all* the trilogies together, but for me it didn't work as nothing else about his character felt cohesive. And then when his own Force lightning is blasted at him, hasn't he learned to stop using it (throwback: Mace Windu) and pick up a saber and fight. Fool my once, shame on you, fool me twice and I'll cut you down. Wouldn't it be so great if, despite his wizened state, he still had latent combat skills? We were sooo robbed of that opportunity.

“Undermining” Anakin’s arc as the chosen one. I don't think bringing in Palpatine undoes Darth Vader's sacrifice – because Anakin still brought peace and balance to the Force when he sent Papatine back to the shadows. Balance restored by nature is not a permanent state, so it makes sense that the balance Anakin brought would eventually be challenged - but it does take away from the satisfaction of his story, especially considering that we do not see him return in physical form.

I get the "Be with me" use of Force ghost voices from all the Star Wars mediums. It was teed up right in the very beginning of the training montage. But you’re STAR WARS, you are making history. Go big, take a risk, PUT THE FORCE GHOSTS ON SCREEN (or at least a few from the central saga)! Give me Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda, maybe Mace, Luke, and Leia bestowing their energy on Rey, or go home! I mean my goodness, the Emperor had Snoke clones, but they were just sitting around as props in tank. If you wanted to go really big you could get all the clones of his main Sith disciples on screen (Snoke, Maul, Dooku), and have him force drain them to illustrate Sidious matching the power of the Force ghosts. But instead Disney played it safe.

Rey’s return to Tatooine and taking on the name Skywalker. FULL POST HERE with better options than appropriating the name Skywalker, especially considering that the plot does plenty to fulfill the film’s marquee during the Final Order Battle on Exogol when Rey embodies the Force of the Jedi and they will her to RISE. Taking on the name by contrast seems to trivialize via overkill what was delivered on (imperfectly, but powerfully).

The death of Ben Solo / “the redemption”: This depends on largely on what how you define and merit redemption. I can see why some loved it and others hated it – if you define redemption as “Kylo turned good after all that universe wrecking carnage and now he has access to light side force ability?!” then I can see where you didn't like or want his redemption arc, and might be satisfied with his death as a conclusion. If, like me, you didn't see Kylo's redemption not as the act of turning good but rather turning to face his own reflection / the thing he most feared – himself – exactly like Rey – and that's what allowed him access to the light side abilities to heal, that's fascinating as h***.  My gripe is I don't think Ben needed to die for the redemption to work or as a way to finish his arc. (FULL POST HERE) Again, why another Luke-themed noble demise? It could have worked for Luke’s character because Rise of Skywalker follows TLJ and gives you room to breath and play. But there’s nothing after this episode for Kylo in the same way.

So peace was created by defeating Palpatine and his fleet? Nah. First of all, Rey killed Darth Sidious exactly like he “wanted” her to and yet he didn't possess her as promised, while an order of Sith stand around watching– okay, was the Emperor really that attune in his Force Cognizance that he expressed with full confidence to his followers “whatever happens, the ritual will be complete. Don't move, sit back, enjoy the show”? And there's still the fragmented First Order (see the previous point above). Not every First Order officer and ship were loyal to or trusting of the Emperor and his comrade General Pryde, so it would stand to reason they didn't all heed the call to the final order and join the fray. What happens to them now that their Supreme Leader (Kylo) abdicated and then died? Yes, they are far fewer in number and they no longer have the firepower of Exogol behind them so they retreat into that shadows and regroup like opposition always does. I don't believe for a second that they all gave up or were defeated by the groundswell of Resistance. And now we are right back to where Return of the Jedi left us almost beat for beat.

Initial Reaction *** Episode I *** Episode III

[krahka]

The KleskizhAUs and their Poetic Styles

Under read more because lomg

SWTOR Kleskizhae

Ridiculous Sith Juggernaut. Excessively proud of his Sith ancestry but also ridiculously light side and somehow doesn’t see this as a problem. Loves lightsabers, loves the Empire but is a little less clear on whether he likes the Empire as an institution or the Empire as the people, and hint, it’s the people, he’ll pick the people if he had to.

Poetry: ALL CAPS HAIKUS FREE VERSE ASTRONOMY METAPHORS EXTREMELY VIOLENT REFERENCES TO ANCIENT SITH HISTORY BEAUTIFUL WORDS BEATEN STRAIGHT OUT OF HIS HEART OF DARK PASSION

DS!SWTOR Kleskizhae

Ridiculous and awful Sith Juggernaut. Believes himself morally and genetically superior to all others. Delights in toying with his inferiors, especially in breaking their hearts with his charm and facade of kindness. 

Poetry: Flowery and romantic and flattering. More or less copies of ancient Sith poems, but with the words changed a bit. They’re mostly for showing off how cultured he is and how much he loves you babe, so he doesn’t put in much effort. 

ESO Kleskizhae

Altmer Battlemage. A scion of the Direnni but not on great terms with his family due to his allegiance to the Aldmeri Dominion and his marrying a Bosmer because of Spinner shenanigans. Ambassador of the Queen and definitely not one of her Eyes nosir. Got pressganged into the Buoyant Armigers after impressing Vivec by exemplifying all of hir favorite virtues and vices just by accident.

Poetry: Sonnets. Ballads. Sexually explicit but it’s so purple that you can hardly tell just how sexually explicit it really is. Mostly about his own adventures and the people he knows. Melodramatic as fuck. The stuff he wrote when Vivec specifically was taking an interest in him is his best work, since he starts getting more experimental and tones down the silliness without losing that red hot emotional core that really elevates the verse to something that so many people try and fail to replicate in the future that it’s become its own genre. 

DS!ESO Kleskizhae

Altmer Battlemage what dabbles in necromancy. Believes himself the rightful king of all of High Rock with the Bretons as his rebellious subjects. Allied with Mannimarco because he promised him that when Planemeld happened, he could have his ancestral holdings all to himself, with all the people there living only to glorify him. The kinda guy you end up killing in the Daggerfall Covenant quests or in a Balfiera focused dungeon DLC. 

Poetry: Pretty similar to light side ESO!Kleskizhae, but if he thinks you didn’t appreciate his work he’ll torture you until you do. Try and critique it and he’ll just plain murder you and raise your corpse to grovel for his forgiveness and admit that you were wrong. Also his poetry is his annoying boss mechanic somehow. Didn’t read the books in his dungeon? Too bad because that’s how you defeat him. 

GW2 Klejskizae

Norn Herald. Skald, champion of Wolf, Lightbringer of the Order of Whispers. A Delight unto all people of Tyria! Your new best friend who is not using your friendship with him to learn your secrets! Come and listen to him channel the spirits and the Legends next Dragon Bash!

Poetry: Actually more into prose. Veddas. Stories about heroes, exaggerated for effect. Tales that he keeps in his mind that he tells differently each time he’s asked to tell it, depending on what he thinks his audience needs to hear. The poetry tends to be more personal, often taking the form of prayers to the Spirits that are between him and them. Also will write songs, also about heroes, with calls to action for the Pact. 

TES!Specifically Klejskizae

Nord Skaald. Traveling yeller. Delighter of audiences all throughout Tamriel. Follower of the Old Ways. Probably also in the Blades. 

Poetry: SCREAMING TAVERN SONGS. Great heroes, sometimes gets kicked out of taverns in Skyrim because he’s performing songs about non-Nord heroes but how can you not be excited by EVERYONE

SWTOR!Specifically Klejskizae

Mandalorian what will scream battle poems in your ear as he faces you in glorious hand to hand combat. Has some very weird ideas of what being Mandalorian is, but they’re closer to reality than his Sith version’s ideas of being Sith. 

Poetry: You thought Sith Kleskizhae’s poetry was gory and violent? You haven’t heard Mando Klejskizae. They are ridiculous. Everything ends with lovers embracing for the last time as they die in battle and their death is described in excruciating detail.

FFXIV Kleskizhae

Ishgardian adventurer. Dragoony Bard. Got kicked out for being way too scandalous for the theocracy and for talking too much about how he thought that maybe we should just smooch the Dragons? 

Poetry: The poetry isn’t why he’s not liked back in Ishgard, though that poetry was a means to transmit his unpopular and scandalous ideas and activities. The poetry specifically is why he’s distrusted in Gridania after he met an elemental and challenged it to a rap battle and it went very poorly. (Kleskizhae won and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise or that that’s not the point and there is no winning because he definitely won)

West Coast Fallout Klaus K. Zheng

Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel. Sort of into the whole BoS thing of keeping dangerous tech out of people’s hands but also he’s into protecting people in any way he can, since they must protect those who will inherit the past, yes? That is what we’re doing, right? Right?

Poetry: He found a book of poems about Arthurian legends and they changed his life, as did Grognak the Barbarian which he’s sure is in the same canon. He’s also read a bunch of Shakespeare and only sort of understands it. So yeah, sonnets that are Shakespeare ripoffs. Casting modern topics into medieval terms. Sometimes it’ll get weird and his BoS worldview will come in and make them anachronistic but it’s unintentional because he just wants to write like the knights of yore. 

East Coast Fallout Klaus K. Zheng

Enclave soldier, later deserter once he sees that oh shit killing everyone wasn’t supposed to be what they were going to do! He wasn’t listening to the quiet part! Ends up aiding synths because it pisses off the BoS and also saves lives. Still believes in America but it’s one that maybe never existed. 

Poetry: The Enclave did preserve a lot of good American literature in their databanks, though they’re kinda sketchy about distributing it to their soldiers since even before 2077 they realized that a lot of the American canon contains like, anti-war, anti-corporate ideas and they couldn’t have that in their new society. He read Leaves of Grass once and it blew his mind. He might just surrender to the Brotherhood if they let him have access to their books, because he needs those. But also he might not because they would probably kill him and he’s also spending his post-Raven Rock time helping synths out of the Institute and that’s something they’d kill him for. And probably also kill a lot of other people if they realized that the Railroad had ex-Enclave in there. And the Institute doesn’t care for the humanities, which is why they had to create machines to teach them how to be human and then proceed to do such terrible things to the humans they’ve created; because they are less machine than they are and they resent them for it. 

Modern Vlogger Klaus K. Zheng

Relationship advice vlogger, specifically as a counter-voice to all those shitty misogynist PUAs that are targeting lonely straight men. Also here for the lonely women and the lonely queers since he’s a queer man himself. 

Poetry: He’s got a Master’s in Poetry and he feels it was time well spent, even if he didn’t care as much for academia as he did for the writing and the reading. One of the rewards for donating to his Patreon at a higher tier is a short poem written just for you about whatever subject you wish. (Assuming that it’s not extremely objectionable. He’ll gladly write poems about all sorts of sex acts, but he won’t write one about the virtues of white power.)

HZD Kleskizhae

Carja Warrior. Participated in the Red Raids because that was what the will of the Sun was but he couldn’t take the violence and the genocide and ended up joining with Sun-Prince Avad to overthrow the murderous king literally as soon as he could. Has been on a tour of goodwill ever since. 

Poetry: Overuses the words “glinting”, “scintillating”, “resplendent”, “radiant”, “brilliant” and other words that mean A LOT OF LIGHT because he’s really into writing ridiculous songs about the Sun. A lot more personal and emotional than a lot of Carja poetry, since it’s more about love than about praising the Sun or the King. It’s a new dawn, and what the world needs is love’s shining rays to heal her wounds. With the help of some Oseram who wanted to promote the newly invented phonograph, manages to become the first real pop star after the apocalypse.

DA Kleskizhae

Tevinter Battlemage. Was sent off to the front lines against the Qunari to keep from embarrassing his family and his master. Accidentally ended up embarrassing them anyway. 

Poetry: So he’s really into bringing up the Old Gods in his poems. He doesn’t worship them, he’s a good Andrastian, but you know how in the Renaissance everyone was a huge Greeceaboo? Yeah, it’s like that. 

WtA Klaus K. Zheng

Fianna Galliard. He’s a werewolf poet who sings ballads of his pack’s glorious battles and lifts their spirits in the name of Gaia and Stag!

Poetry: He’s got a soft spot for dirty limericks. All of the Kleskizhaes will make improv poems upon request when they’re drunk enough but Fianna!Klaus is the master of the drunken on-the-spot poem. Like they get way better when he’s drunk and they’re improvised, as opposed to the usual thing where they’re charmingly bad.

VtM Klaus K. Zheng

Toreador. Got the vampire bug some time in the Victorian era, I dunno if he was actually British or what.

Poetry: Lord Byron himself once called his poems “a bit maudlin.” His sire was certainly fond of his work, but if he had more time in his peak living creative years he would have probably been a better known figure in the Romantic movement. As it is he’s fairly irrelevant and forgotten by all but a few intense scholars of the period, and even they consider him a minor figure. 

Shadowrun Klaus K. Zheng

Elven Street Samurai. Just wants to make the world a better place through the power of love and also katanas. Probably unfortunately involved with Aztechnology which is gonna end badly for him probably. 

Poetry: Machines and corporations have not yet conquered the metahuman soul, and that is why he writes. Has been banned from a couple of Runner BBSs for constantly posting about his latest runs in the form of epic poem, and that’s not what these boards are for, @GLORIOUSSAMURAI, please turn off your caps lock

Star Trek Kleskizhae

Romulan Tactical Officer. Fought in the Dominion War, joined the Romulan Republic after Romulus asplode, because they wouldn’t let him quietly desert and because he believes in the true Romulan spirit that can never be repressed!

Poetry: He’s trying to revive ancient pre-Awakening Vulcan poetic traditions whilst failing to recognize that lots of it doesn’t work in the modern Romulan language. He’s always been super into poetry but after the destruction of Romulus, he becomes obsessed with writing the perfect series of poems to describe it for the future, so that people will remember what it’s like long after everyone who remembers it is dead. He hasn’t been successful yet and it’s upsetting him but he can’t just not do it. He owes it to the dead. 

Bionicle Kleskizhae

He's a proud Skakdi warlord of Fire who is trying his best to unite his proud and noble people against the wicked deprivations of the Makuta and might also be in the Order of Mata Nui because sometimes Kleskizhae is a spy? But always he is very loud. 

Poetry: Extremely long and elaborate war chants with 40 verses that he’s trying to get his guys to chant into battle but no one else but him can remember it all and he keeps adding more verses. But also he’s written love poetry that’s gone all the way around Greg and made romance canon again! He’s done it! With the chiseling of the tablets he’s made love real!

[anchanted-one]

Eternal War 22 Asylum

Lana walked out of the shower to find that Arro had already fallen asleep. He looked so peaceful! She chuckled softly, taking it in for a second. She walked up to him and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, getting a whiff of the mint-essence soap they had both used. It had only been six days since his rescue, so it still brought a thrill to see him alive, well, happy, and free. Given the circumstances of their relationship they were already geared away from taking each other for granted; but having lost each other for five whole years she suspected that it would be some time before she got used to the sight of him.

She chose a red plaid shirt and loose fitting swamp-green pants for a change, since it had been ages since she had truly felt secure enough to walk around without her armor. Her Lightsaber, of course, was never out of her reach anymore. 

As she made her way to the bridge, Senya emerged from her own cabin down the hall and grinned at her. “Morning Lana. Sleep well? Or at all? I imagine last night was the first time you two had time to properly celebrate your reunion.”

Lana’s answering smile was arranged to convey just how happy she was, since words alone wouldn’t suffice. “I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am right now. Arro’s out of his prison, and he’s safely away from his captors despite the odds being so heavily against us. And when I was with him the past few days, just being in the same room as him, talking to him, laughing with him… it felt so damn good!  Sex has never felt that great before either.”

Senya giggled, elbowing Lana in a comradely fashion. “You’ve earned it little girl! I’m so pleased for the both of you; I can’t believe I actually had a part to play in the most romantic kind of story there is!”

“And now I will keep my word and help you all out against the Eternal Throne. I believe I got the sweetest bargain in history.”

Senya threw her head back and laughed heartily at that, and Lana joined in. “You know, Lana, looking at you one would never guess what a romantic you are. Or how open. You look quite the opposite. Like you’re reserved and secretive. In most ways you are even a staunch pragmatist. But in dealing with allies and interpersonal relationships you are much more open. Especially given how every last one of the other Sith I have encountered are like. It always amazes me.”

Lana smiled sadly. “Well, there is a reason for that. But I can’t bring myself to talk about it in depth. In summary though: In the days leading up to the second outbreak of open hostilities, and during the war itself, I worked with Intelligence. There were so many secrets, lies, betrayals. I tried to leave it all behind, but even as late as Rishi, I was still keeping secrets. Using my allies. But that last time was too much for me. I swore I would always be honest and open with my allies at the very least. I never want to be that woman again.”

“I understand,” Senya patted her back sympathetically. “We all have things we don’t want to talk about.”

They had reached the Bridge. The door opened, revealing Koth and Knight Farya arguing light-heartedly about guns

“C’mon girl, you know the M-96 Mattock has a much higher fire rate!” Koth was laughing “And almost a third as light too. Chugging a Zaber around is tiring work!”

“But the Zaber’s Explosive Heads pack enough of a punch to make your target’s ears ring,” Farya argued. “And that’s when they block it with their shield! When it hits the body... I’ve seen a marksman headshot a Swamp Maworr that was charging at his buddy from three hundred meters away; that thing’s head exploded! Deadly, and so accurate too! The weight actually absorbs some of the recoil! And they’re so powerful they have to be custom-made for their bearers.” 

“Oh, sure, sounds good for a pampered rich kid” Koth responded disparagingly. “But the M-96 is a true veteran’s choice! It’s larger magazine allows us to fire a lot more rounds before running out!”

“I’m glad to see you two getting along,” Lana remarked. 

“Farya’s great!” Koth beamed. “Whoda thought that Knights were such purveyors of fine arms?”

“Vortena kinda knows his weapons too,” Farya grinned. “I am suitably impressed.”

“Did you sleep well?”

Lana gave them her warmest smile in response, making them both blush.

“So when do we reach Asylum? And how’s the ship holding up?”

“Three more hours in Hyperspace,” Koth answered. “Hyperdrive worked well. Once. Omnicannon worked. Once. We can start working on repairs once we’re docked. I reckon we’ll need to requisition a lot of technicians, droids, parts, and heavy machinery. With a standard workforce it should take... Maybe a month to get it fully operational, two tops?”

“That should be fine,” Lana answered. “TeeSeven is interfacing with the ship, acquainting himself with the Droid brains. He should have a good working synergy with the ship’s main computer soon enough.”

“Hell, that droid’s so good he’s done already, getting himself an oil-bath now.” Koth said incredulously. “I still can’t believe he found us in the middle of the Swamp and got onto the ship without any of us noticing!” 

“On the subject of capable Droids, where is HK?”

“He’s offered to help the refugees learn some basic tasks on the ship; and to keep them safe from any lingering infestations.” 

Lana nodded approvingly. “Once we get to Asylum we can take some time, stretch our legs. We can resume our last meeting. We can drop the disguise filters since we’re on Asylum now.”

“What about Arro?” Senya asked.

“He is still recovering, so we can’t expect him to fight Arcann, Vaylin, and Akahte all by himself. Yet. But he can meet the others, start familiarizing himself with the Leadership and the makeup of the Alliance.”

“In other words, if we get to fight on our terms, Arro can beat all three? I find that hard to credit!”

“You’ve yet to see him at his best,” Lana assured them. “His display yesterday was still a fraction of what he can do.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Senya said. “But Arcann and Vaylin are mighty enemies. And this Akahte… by all accounts she held her ground admirably against Vaylin herself. The three of them together…!”

“In the right circumstances there won’t be time for much use of the Force. In Saber combat, he is peerless. He could take down all three before they could react. But Akahte knows this, and she will never face him directly, if she can help it. Which is why we need the Alliance in the first place; so that we can create the most perfect opportunities we can, to face them in and not just point him in the general direction of the enemy and say ‘Get em, boy!’”

“Even Valkorion feared facing him head on,” Senya conceded. “On that subject, I believe Valkorion when he says that he does not plan to take over, and that he sincerely wants to aid Arro. For now.”

“Then why offer his power at all?” Lana asked. “Why not just sit back and watch?”

“Valkorion might see Arro as being worthy of His powers since he beat Him in fair combat.”

“The Immortal Emperor—” Fariya started uncomfortably.

“Don’t, Fariya. You don’t know Him like I did.”

“Try sharing a little less,” Koth laughed.

“That… wasn’t what I meant!” Senya said, face reddening. “What I mean is… He’s not some God. He was a man, and far more cruel than noble. To the rest of the Galaxy, he’s an outright monster.”

The junior Knight shivered. “That will take some getting used to, Lord Commander. For us all.”

“Take all the time you need,” Senya assured her. “It’s not my Husband we’re fighting against, it’s—well. It’s my children.” 

*

“There it is: Asylum!” Koth pointed at the forward Viewport. It was a blue world with a big moon. From the flashes all over the planet, it appeared that the world was prone to lightning storms.  “One of the depressingly few places in Wild Space which is still free of Arcann’s control!”

“That Shadowport isn’t on any map,” Lana said. “It’s a haven for refugees fleeing Arcann’s regime.”

“I can’t wait for you to meet my crew,” Koth grinned. “They’ll be so happy to see you! And one of them claims he’s already met you, so you can finally put an end to the question whether or not he was making it all up!”

“Does he say I owe him money?” Arro asked, much to Lana’s amusement.

“Do you owe money a lot of people?” Knight Khoarad asked, as he entered the bridge leading his comrades Wodar and Jettarn. All of the Knights had discarded their Zakuul armor, at least until they could modify them in some way to reflect their new allegiance. 

“The Jedi aren’t supposed to own anything,” Lana gasped, struggling to breathe from her laughter. “They usually draw funds from a collective treasury when they need to pay. Trouble is, those funds are only good in Republic space, and to a lesser extent, Hutt space. Sometimes though, they’re worthless, and have to rely on goodwill, barter, or—most often—for non-Jedi comrades to pick up the tab. Which means that at any given point of time, they owe money to a half the galaxy!”

“I’ve repaid my debts,” Arro said defensively as the others roared with laughter. “Mostly.”

“And still tens of thousands in debt, no doubt!” Lana chortled. “Oh, don’t worry about it, my Love! I’m sure most of them have forgotten by now!”

Arro gave a pained chuckle. He should never have asked.

*

The ship shuddered as it entered the upper atmosphere of Asylum. The familiar bzzt of the atmospheric shields protecting the ship that Arro normally took for granted were a great relief to hear; given that this had been a derelict ship a week ago, he was afraid of critical systems malfunctioning when used even though he had triple checked each of these. All the more important since they were attempting to enter during a lightning storm; the flashes left deep dark after-images in his eyes and the thunder made his teeth click.

The Landing systems, however, were far from perfect and required a fine handling which Koth didn’t seem to have. The Gravestone all but crashed into the dock.

“That’s it, Koth, as soon as we get a better pilot you’re relegated to cheerleading duty!” Senya admonished.

“My landing in the swamp was better than this,” Arro complained.

“You’re welcome!” Koth glowered. “And welcome to Asylum Kiwiboy!”

“Don’t I get a welcome too?” Farya pouted. 

“Welcome to Asylum Farya.” Koth replied, hastily adding “And all you others too!” before each person called him out for forgetting them.

As they emerged from the ship’s main boarding ramp, a group of rough-looking thugs walked up menacingly to intercept them. Probably not happy with Koth’s landing, Arro thought. “We don’t want any trouble people.”

“That’s a shame, cuz trouble just walked right up to yeh!” The apparent leader, a particularly tall and muscular human male said with a wide grin. Cracking his knuckles, he added “Nice ship you got there. We’ll be coming on board.”

“Please don’t make us fight,” Arro groaned. “It feels like that’s all I’m ever doing! Just for once, can I be welcomed like a friend? Or at least without knuckles and guns, or something?”

“Heh heh heh! Wish granted!” the tall man boomed, slapping him hard on the shoulders. “Welcome to our little haven, half-pint!”

Half-pint? Arro thought indignantly even as he was confused by the sudden shift in demeanor. The man turned his wide grin to Arro’s side and bounded forward, roaring “Captain!”

“Outlander,” Koth said as he returned the man’s bear hug. “Meet my crew, the best Engine Burners in WIld Space?”

“Is that your official name?” Arro asked with interest and Senya said “‘Captain’? Did you promote yourself after deserting?”

“‘Engine Burners!’,” a woman with shoulder-length, electric blue hair barked. “We could work with that!” “This is Len,” Koth said, introducing the giant. “My Second-in-Command. Blue here is Tora, the best engineer you’ll ever meet!” “Wrong!” She declared. “The best Engineer… EVER BORN!” She struck a pose for effect before dropping her arms to her side again. “This is one fugly ship, bossman I can have it scrapped in just a few moments, I don’t think we’ll find anything interesting in that piece of junk.”

“Your best Engineer,” Arro said cheerfully. “Tora, like Koth, you will be kept as far away from important tasks on the Gravestone as we can possibly keep you!”

Tora’s face froze midway into the expression of outrage she was about to assume when she heard Arro’s words. “The Gravestone? This piece of crap?” The others were also stunned into silence. As one, they looked to Koth, who nodded impressively. Like a proud salesman showcasing his prize ware, he indicated the ship behind them. “She may not look like much, but that’s coz we pulled her out of her grave in the Eternal Swamp and only just put some life into her! But even this was enough to take out hundreds of Eternal Warships! Wait until we have her fully operational!”

The silence stretched for almost a minute before the Engine Burners began cheering wildly. They began to talk all at once when they were done applauding. “How did you find it?”, “I wanna take er for a spin NOW!”, “Hundreds of ships?”, “I heard that was from a reactor blowing!”, “The Gravestone!”, “The GRAVESTONE!”, “We’re gonna win this, you hear? We’re gonna win this!”

Arro disengaged from the throng along with Senya and Lana, leaving Koth to talk with his exultant gang. As he did, he recognized a man with an aim-aiding Cybernetic. A soldier—Republic, but who was stationed on Marr’s ship during their fateful expedition.

“Well it’s good to see you alive, soldier!” Arro called. “Corporal... “

“Name’s Rallo!” The Soldier replied, fighting to get to Arro. “You saved my skin that day! Mine, and a bunch of others! I never thought I’d get to say thank you in person!” He grinned as he shook the Jedi’s hand. “Thank you so much, man! I’ve treasured each second of my life that you saved from the past few years more than I did my entire life before! Found my wife, joined a new family—” he indicated the Engine Burners. “And learned to take a moment to be grateful for every day I managed to live through!”

“Well done, Ralo!” Arro laughed. Grinning, Rallo saluted before returning to his new crew.

“There are some more people you should meet now that we’re here,” Senya told Arro. “We can start with the Scions. They were the more mystical of the Orders protecting Zakuul during Valkorion’s reign, but they didn’t fall in line with Arcann, so he had them massacred. The Survivors have an enclave here. They have been greatly looking forward to meeting you.”

*

[sleemo]

New Order

In The Last Jedi, Rey teams up with Luke Skywalker – but he’s not the man we remember. And that’s not the only shock. Total Film talks to the key players about the Star Wars movie that changes everything. 

— Total Film Magazine

“Luke Skywalker has vanished,” announced the opening crawl to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And vanished he remained, for pretty much the entire running time of the seventh instalment in the space saga. 

Sure, his presence hung heavily over that film, the first Star Wars movie in a decade, and the first to follow on from the events of 1983’s Return Of The Jedi. Luke ended that particular film a pretty well-balanced Jedi Knight, having helped destroy the evil Empire while resolving some of his daddy issues with Darth Vader. He was last spotted at a victory celebration on Endor, watched over by the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Vader/Anakin. What could go wrong?

Cut to 30 years later and the events of The Force Awakens, and Luke is nowhere to be seen – save for a brief flashback – until the final moment when he’s handed his trusty lightsaber by Rey (Daisy Ridley), a young scavenger from the desert planet Jakku who has recently discovered Force sensitivities of her own. The long hair and grey beard can’t disguise the tormented scowl of the galaxy’s original golden boy. 

This is not the Luke we remember. As Mark Hamill himself puts it to TF, “It’s shocking to hear Luke say, ‘I know only one truth: it’s time for the Jedi to end’ – the last time we saw him, he was the most optimistic character. He was sort of at the peak of his powers, and you would imagine that he’d then become a Jedi master and train other people and so forth. What has happened to him that has so traumatised him into where he is now?” 

That is the question that drives The Last Jedi, aka Episode VIII. In 2015, J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens was a critical and commercial smash, putting Star Wars back on top (after the plastic prequels squandered fan goodwill), scoring more than $2bn at the global box office and an overwhelmingly positive response. 

Last year’s standalone ‘Story’ Rogue One was also a hit to the tune of $1bn, proving that the world was ready for adventures outside the core episodic structure. But now we’re back to the narrative throughline of Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, Poe... and of course, Leia and Luke. (The journey of the former, who we’ve seen go from orphan to princess to spy to senator to general of the Resistance during the franchise, is apparently unaltered in The Last Jedi, despite Carrie Fisher’s death meaning this will be her last Star Wars movie.) 

“Watching the film, there’s going to be a very emotional reaction to what she does in this movie,” says TLJ director Rian Johnson. The indie auteur behind Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper, he’s something of a Padawan when it comes to blockbuster filmmaking on this scale. 

Johnson’s the only person besides George Lucas to have a solo writer-director credit on a Star Wars movie, and it seems he used that autonomy to make some pretty bold choices, even in a series celebrated for its twists. 

Hamill even famously told Johnson, “‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for [Luke],” before he came round to Johnson’s way of thinking (and he’s now hoping the audience will have the same reaction). Daisy Ridley was similarly surprised when she first read the Episode VIII script. “I had certain [expectations] of what I thought would happen [in the story] and then I was taken aback by what did happen,” she explains.

“I went and talked to Rian about it and then you’re like, ‘Oh, OK.’ Hearing the thing from the person as to what it is that they are picturing made it all seem great instead of nerve-wracking.” 

To speak to Johnson himself, it’s hard to imagine he could ever cause shock or worry in an actor, given his politeness and warmth. And despite the fact he’s taken the characters from The Force Awakens and pulled them out of their comfort zone, he admits to being driven by his own intense Star Wars fandom. 

He also asserts that the film will very much be a continuation of The Force Awakens: narratively, stylistically, tonally. “As much as I could I was trying to [maintain the tone], because it’s a continuous story,” he says. “And in fact, you know, some of the things we do get a little heavier in this movie, but I was very conscious of trying to continue the tone from the last movie... It was delightful. It was a blast. And I didn’t want to lose that. I didn’t want to descend into heaviosity with this movie.” 

All that said, The Last Jedi will be anything but a repeat of TFA. “The second chapter has a much different function than the first chapter, and I knew there were going to be things that were different about it – just the same way that there are things that are different about Empire from A New Hope.”

LUKE WHO’S TALKING

For all the impact of Luke’s appearance at the end of The Force Awakens, something significant was missing. Dialogue. In person, Hamill couldn’t be further from the sombre, taciturn Luke of the current movies. Garrulous and generous to a fault, an innocuous question leads to an anecdote avalanche – littered with spot-on impersonations of George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Alec Guinness – and our allotted time disappears faster than the Millennium Falcon on the Kessel Run.

When we meet in London’s Rosewood Hotel, Hamill launches into a story about his original Star Wars audition process, totally unprompted. “And by the way, it got down to two sets of one Han, Luke and Leia, and another Han, Luke and Leia,” he says. “They never mixed and matched. It was either Carrie, Harrison and me, or the three other people. Marcia Lucas [Star Wars editor and George’s ex-wife] took credit for urging him, because he couldn’t decide. So I always like to give her a shout-out, because it changed my life in so many wonderful ways.”

While Luke Skywalker would become a role that would define his life, Hamill still felt some hesitance about returning to the franchise – something that chimes with Luke’s own withdrawal from the world. “Well, it’s the fear of the unknown,” considers Hamill of his own reluctance. “Because I thought we had a beginning, middle and an end. What if we don’t catch lightning in the bottle again? Fans can be so judgemental. They were hypercritical of some of the prequels. A lot of it, I think, was because it didn’t go the way that they wanted it to go. And they became very possessive of this series.” 

In terms of relating to Luke’s position, Hamill admits, “You always try to make some kind of a connection, even in a fantasy, to something in your own life... and maybe it’s that failure to change the world the way I wanted it to be, that I could relate to as Luke not being able to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish.” 

For Johnson, writing for Luke and pals was something of a childhood dream realised. “You type ‘Luke Skywalker’ into your screenplay program and then start typing dialogue, and you get chills,” laughs Johnson. “Or Leia, you know? But also, I’ll tell you the truth. As much as growing up with Star Wars, and that I was looking forward to working with Mark and Carrie, the thing that really hooked me – and I think hooked so many of the folks that are into these movies – is the new characters from The Force Awakens.” 

Much as audiences and Star Wars devotees were excited to see Han Solo, General Leia and Luke Skywalker return to the fold for another Episode, they were always set to be key supporting characters, rather than the leads. The new trilogy would have run out of steam pretty quickly if there weren’t any new characters worth investing in. 

That’s where Abrams struck gold, particularly with Rey, played by genuine overnight sensation Ridley. An orphaned scavenger, she found a family of sorts with Han Solo, Chewie and liberated stormtrooper turned Resistance fighter Finn. At the end of TFA, a lightsaber duel with Han’s estranged son (and murderer) Kylo Ren began to unlock some of Rey’s Force skills, and she would later head to Ahch-To to hand Luke his trusty ’saber. In a break from tradition, The Last Jedi will be the first Star Wars movie to pick up precisely where the last one finished.

NO JEDI IS AN ISLAND

That direct continuation meant yomping back to Skellig Michael, the Irish island that stood in for Ahch-To. Filming there before principal photography began in earnest, it meant that Johnson had “a couple of ‘first’ days, weirdly.” 

A precarious location, it presented a number of challenges for Ridley. “Going to the toilet at the top of that island, I swear to God, that path was this big,” she gestures, making not the most reassuring indication of its width. “And there was no railing. So you’d be walking, thinking, ‘Why am I going to the toilet on the top of a cliff? And if I take a step to my right, will I fall to my death? And is this worth it?’ So that was really, really surreal. And then it was sort of amazing actually because I think I remember [thinking], ‘This is the most amazing view ever.’” 

What little we know of the plot to TLJ suggests Luke will train up Rey as a Jedi. “Actors want to fall into the characters they’re playing,” is all Hamill offers when we ask him if the mentor/trainee relationship was reflected off-screen. For Ridley, this film brought a shedload of new stunts to tackle that would push her to her limits, including a mysterious underwater sequence. 

“The dive for me was probably the most scary and the most thrilling thing,” she says. “The lightsaber stuff was great because I felt like I got a lot stronger and I could push myself a lot further than I thought I could the first time around... It sort of worked story-wise too, because as I was getting stronger with it, you would think in the story that was happening too. But the dive was my favourite thing. It was frickin’ awesome.” 

Not that this new-found strength necessarily meant Ridley felt more confident going into the sequel after the overwhelmingly positive response to TFA. “I found it much more scary, honestly,” she gasps. “I felt way more neurotic the whole way through. Because with the first one, I was lost in the whole journey of it, and on this one, I was much more aware of what was going on every day. Like, it felt more visceral. The first one felt like a dream the whole time.” And when audiences massively embrace your character, that only heightens the weight of expectations. “There’s a responsibility and a sort of feeling to uphold that people have connected to. So I actually found it a lot more scary, but also very rewarding.”

With Johnson thrusting the characters in unexpected directions, Rey is split from Finn, her fellow stowaway in TFA, as the story demands that she share the screen with Luke. Boyega’s Finn – who was left comatose at the close of the last film – will return to action in a mission that will take him away from Rey and towards the bright lights of obscenely wealthy casino planet Canto Bight. “Finn got a back injury and the Resistance is at its lowest point it’s ever been and they are very, very weak at the moment,” Boyega explains. “And so, for him, he has chosen to do this crazy mission.” 

NEW BLOOD

Finn’s mission allies him with a couple of the galaxy’s fresh arrivals, including Resistance member Rose, played by newcomer Kelly Marie Tran. Pausing to consider what she can actually tell us about Rose, Tran offers, “She works in maintenance, and she is really good at what she does...” She pauses. “I keep saying she is not cool. I don’t want people to misinterpret that. By that, I mean she is not like this muscly superhero that you can never be. She’s this everywoman character. Like, what would you do as a normal human being if you got pulled into this?” 

Finn and Rose end up having to form a cautious alliance with the film’s mysterious ‘DJ’ (Benicio Del Toro), a ‘slicer’ (read: hacker), whose particular set of skills the pair find themselves in need of. A quick Google search will reveal the meaning behind Del Toro’s initialled moniker, but we’ll leave that out for now for the spoiler-averse. Suffice to say, he’s probably not entirely trustworthy. He’s one of a handful of fresh faces introduced in TLJ. 

In terms of the new characters, Tran is particularly stoked for audiences to see DJ and Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (see Q&A, opposite). “I think they bring a lot of cool, different energy into a franchise like this,” she says. 

Also to watch out for in this instalment are new creatures, such as the already beloved porgs (see boxout p61), an insanely cute birdlike species that resides on Ahch-To. We’ll also see close-up glimpses of the First Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), no longer hiding behind a hologram. Captain Phasma will return to clash with Finn. And if the final trailer is anything to go by, the parallels between Rey and Kylo Ren (a former apprentice of Luke’s gone rogue, remember) will become even more apparent. 

“From the script [of The Force Awakens], to seeing the film for the first time, I felt like the dynamic between those two is fascinating and complicated and had a lot of potential,” grins Johnson. “That was one of the things I was really excited to figure out ways to get into, on this one.” The gasp- inducing sign-off to the trailer suggests Rey reaches out to Kylo to “show me my place in all of this”, although Johnson assures us that if you’ve seen the trailer, you shouldn’t think you know it all. “We all love the trailer because we look at it and we say, ‘God, it looks like it sells the cow, but it doesn’t.’ Not because it’s tricky or it’s misleading you, but because there’s just a lot more... It doesn’t give you answers, it gives you questions, which is terrific.”

END GAME

Johnson also jokes that making the middle chapter is “so much easier”. 

“I just found it really fun, having had a great setup with these characters, and to then delve into each of them, and then to leave it in a place similar to what I felt on The Force Awakens... You’re excited for what comes next.” Not that you should expect anything ‘middling’ about The Last Jedi. “I did want the audience to feel like they’ve had a full meal, and they’re excited a few years from now for what comes next.” 

Perhaps the biggest shock relating to the whole production was the fact the film itself was completely finished almost three whole months ahead of its release date, pretty much unheard of in this age of blockbusters being subjected to tweaks and adjustments right up to the 11th hour. 

Johnson’s longtime producing partner Ram Bergman expresses no surprise that Johnson has smashed it. “Rian is very specific,” Bergman says. “It makes preparation so much easier. It’s efficient.” The jury will soon be in on where Johnson’s effort rates in the canon, but for now he has the bittersweet experience of handing back the reins to J.J. Abrams, who is returning to the saga to direct Episode IX after Colin Trevorrow departed due to creative differences with Lucasfilm. 

“J.J.’s seen several cuts of the movie, and he read a few drafts of the script,” says Johnson. “He’s been a great cheerleader through the whole process, and with very helpful notes. But that was all in context of just wanting his opinion as a filmmaker. That was before he was doing IX. We’ve had a couple of very small conversations, but nothing substantive about IX. But the truth is, I’m not really going to be involved at all.” 

With the picture locked, Johnson will effectively step back from the franchise, and resume following it as a fan. “It’s very similar to the handoff between VII and VIII. I kind of took it to a place, and now I’m going to hand the baton off and step back.” 

Johnson calls this “a complicated thing”, but can’t hide his glee when it comes to putting him back in the position of a punter once more, excited for what the future of the franchise holds. “I’m psyched,” he grins. “I can’t wait to sit back and just be an audience member again, and I’m really excited to see how J.J. finishes all this off.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens on 14 December.

— Total Film Magazine

[fictionfromgames]

Insurrection (SWSE)

.“This is Seven-Aurek-Six to city patrols, we need backup at the Ekrine Zoo immediately!” Ayoma shouted into the comm link. Despite not having actually authority, they still gave the rangers a through-line to real law enforcement, along with an official call-sign. The convolutions of their employment were ultimately public sector.

“Seven-Aurek-Six, you are on official channels,” dispatch droned in reply.

“Affirmative, GUF sighted, armed and headed my way now, request backup!” she panicked.

She’d already called the zoo personnel, some of whom had armed themselves with the weapons intended for reek break outs. But not her human co-workers. The realization had made her nauseas. Two of them were rangers too.

“Ayoma, they’re calling back at my desk, civilian lines,” Tharun Ex, the Besalisk zoo director yelled over to her, “Did you already use the LE comm?” “Yes!” she replied in exasperation, “Please tell them it’s for real and I’m not just some idiot playing a joke in a crisis!”

“I have been!”

Ayoma didn’t know the words for the sizes of army detachments, but there were at least a hundred humans outside, half armored and some with gauche pre-packaged propagandist holobanners. Some had been firing wildly into the air already.

“Get everyone inside, active shooter drill-style, but like, this time, do fight back as they come in!” she called down to Tharun, “This is gonna be bad either way but we’re gonna lose harder if we meet them on this!”

She ran towards the employee entrance landing in case the imperialists had been looking for a convenient place to get in, hoping for law enforcement in a what-if-i-won-the-lottery kind of way, when she saw something impossible-- that tall woman from earlier in the day (Ayoma was working doubles because of all this nonsense), back watching the Toorgas, almost exactly where she met her.

“Ma’am?! Uh, *whatwasyourname,* Ilah?!” she called out to her, jogging up.

The Kaminoan woman turned and gave her that same smile, like starlight, the kind that made her stomach feel funny in ways that weren’t related to imminent insurrection, and she just waved.

“Ilah this is the absolute worst time to visit the zoo, we closed, the GUF is outside, uhhh,” Ayoma ran a hand through her own hair, working out the best place to just hide, “I think maybe if we got you to the sublevels, you’d be safe, I’m so sorry.”

“I am not worried, Ayoma,” she said just as warm and calm, sending a wash of relief over the Mirialan that Ayoma knew was out of place given the situation.

“But you need to be, that’s the problem,” Ayoma was so tempted to take Ilah’s three-fingered hands and pull her away from the loping toorgas, “There’s armed and marching GUF outside and they’re staring right at the z--”

An airspeeder crashed into the toorga exhibit, but given the space the animals needed, they managed not to hit anyone, toorgas included. Ayoma drew her blaster and set her stance to aim-- it was not as close as she was used to firing, but she was hesitant to get closer.

Three humans clambered out of the now-wrecked airspeeder, each with blasters of their own, and checked themselves while Ayoma fired.

It was not protocol. Blasters were for the dangerous animals, not people. And she hadn’t given them warning, but they had rifles and GUF armor. They weren’t here to see the baby reek.

Only one was even looking around, the other two were still checking the ship when she fired, but she got them square in the chest plate. He wasn’t down, but he looked hurt, and decidedly shocked. Thank you, she prayed silently. By the time the other two began returning fire, a peculiar thing happened.

Ilah pulled out a blue lightsaber and began parrying away their fire, even when it was aimed at Ayoma specifically.

“We should move in,” she said over the din, manipulating the laser sword with preternatural grace. Ayoma was beginning to swoon, literally.

“We should retreat!” Ayoma managed to answer, her head swimming. How was a Jedi here, in her zoo, saving her life? “There’s more at the entrance level who will get in!”

“All the more reason to take care of the situation here.”

The blaster fire swept around her as Ilah took off-- Ayoma thought the Jedi was flying, but didn’t think too long as she went for cover finally. She peeked up in order to get the shot, but one GUF goon was now without a rifle, and the others were trying to back away from a whole Jedi swinging at them. But there was something conspicuous in the way Ilah wasn’t murdering them. Now that they were distracted, Ayoma snuck around to get into a decent pistol range.

Over the hum of that legendary weapon, the ranger heard Ilah... talking them down? That can’t be right! Ayoma sat confused.

“Your enterprise is doomed to fail,” blaster fire, parry, repeat, ”Rather than be here, taking over the very obviously crucial target of a city zoo, you could be at home with your families,” rifle clatter, “There is a worthier cause in peace than profit,” now, just the sound of the saber.

“You’re right,” one of the humans said through a cheap helmet, “I don’t know why we’re here.”

“Miss Ayoma, is there an emergency exit nearby by which they might egress?” Ilah inquired in those same exact beach-shore tones, soft waves of sense and sensibility in every word.

“Yeah, I gotta unlock it,” Ayoma stood, “It uh... Was secured earlier, for, ya know...”

Ayoma waved her pistol around helplessly at the would-be soldiers. Ilah chuckled, causing Ayoma’s purple skin to deepen. She went over to the emergency lift for their level, manually unlocked it, and let the imperialists... just go. But the clicks of it relocking and a deep breath made her feel better.

“Ilah, why are you here?” she turned back to the seemingly ever peaceful woman.

“I had to.” she shrugged, then folded her arms.

“What does that mean?”

“I sensed something about you.”

“What does that mean?!”

“Come, I fear the next part will be far less pleasant,” Ilah began walking into the zoo while Ayoma stood agape. The ranger had almost forgotten her comm-link.

“Seven-Aurek-Six to zoo broadcast,” she said through a fog of shock, “Reinforcements are here.”

****************

Ilah Pei

A true once-in-an-era occurrence, this Kaminoan Jedi has taken up the path of a Consular, feeling as though the Jedi had many warriors and far fewer diplomats as in ages past. Removed from the center of galactic politics has relegated her to small, informal goodwill missions rather than proper politics. She has shown great aptitude as a peacemaker in more than one instance where even last measure violence would have created intractable situations for generations to come, such as the Arkanian Situation in 119 ABY. Ilah is one of the few extant Jedi who essentially grew up as one. As atypical as it is, she was foreseen by the Jedi who would become her own master, and was subsequently adopted when the question of what to do with a Force-sensitive Kaminoan came up.

She was given as much education on her own people as was feasibly obtained and could be taught by an offworlder. She is thus a bit more personable than your typical Kaminoan, rather less servile and instead driven to the cause of peace.

That did not stop her from mastering Ataru, but that’s another story.

Ilah Pei Kaminoan Jedi 7/ Jedi Knight 7

Str 10 Dex 15 Con 12 Int 14 Wis 16 Cha 18

Feats 1 Weapon Finesse 2b Rapid Strike 3 Force Training 4b Skill Focus UTF 6 Force Training 6b Assured attack 9 Follow Through 12 Force Training

Force Powers 12 Rebuke Hawkbat Swoop Saber Swarm Disarming Slash Sarlacc Sweep Surge Move Object Mind Trick x3 Farseeing Force Thrust

Force Techniques Force Point Recovery Improved Mind Trick Improved Move Light Object

Talents Block Deflect Adept Negotiator Force Persuasion Shii-Cho Ataru Vigilance Sheltering Stance

Skills Trained Use the Force +21 Jump +12 Knowledge: Life Sciences +14 Knowledge: Galactic Lore +14

Pontite Crystal in standard lightsaber

[cacchieressa]

@thatgirlnevershutsup​ tagged me so here we go: Rules: List the first five* lines of your last 20 stories (or however many you have altogether. WIPs count). See if there are any patterns. *or so 1. and gravity, scientists say, is weak (Star Wars, Anakin & Obi-Wan [Obi-Wan/Satine]) Before he heads to Padmé's apartment, Anakin stops off at the quarters he still nominally shares with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to change into clean clothes. Normally, he wouldn't bother, but Padmé doesn't like it when he gets engine grease on her furniture and he's currently covered in the stuff. When he opens the door, he's surprised to find Obi-Wan sitting at the table with a bottle of Tevraki whiskey in front of him and a mostly empty glass in his hand. "I thought you'd be out on the town with your duchess girlfriend," Anakin says, teasing. "She's not my--" Obi-Wan stops and sighs, rubbing his forehead with his free hand. 2. Everything That Rises Must Converge (Star Wars, Obi-Wan, Leia, Luke, Vader) Ben woke from a nightmare, one he hadn't had in years, of Anakin burning on the bank of a river of fire, calling out to him for help. He felt chilled to his bones, cold sweat drying on his skin. It was not yet dawn, but he knew he wouldn't be getting anymore sleep that day. Perhaps not for a few days to come, if he was going to be plagued by old nightmares. The Force was shifting, unsettled, around him, unnerving after his nightmares.

This gets long so the rest goes behind a cut:

3. if you find yourself lost, dig (Star Wars, Rey & Leia) Rey let herself get lulled into a false sense of security. The mission itself had seemed simple enough. "Fly me to these coordinates," the General had said, and so Rey had strapped herself into the pilot's seat of the Millennium Falcon and flown. "Stand there and look intimidating," the General had said. So Rey had stood just behind her with her face set in a blank mask and a hand on the hilt of her lightsaber while the General negotiated for the use of an old Rebellion base on Cardooine with the queen of the planet. 4. No Exit (Star Wars, Darth Vader/Ahsoka Tano) Darth Vader sat in silence as medical droids buzzed around him, repairing his life support system and replacing his damaged helmet. I won't leave you. Not this time. Ahsoka's words rang in his memory, tearing open scars he'd thought long since healed over. She was dead, or she would be soon. It should have been pleasing. 5. If You Wear That Velvet Dress (Push, Nick/Cassie) The shop is packed with uncomfortable-looking furniture and racks of clothing. It smells of steam heat, damp wool coats, and desperation. They fit right in, Nick thinks as he shoves through rack after rack of women's clothes before finding the men's section. "I'm not gonna find a tux at Goodwill," he says.
 Cassie glances over from where she's fondling a leather jacket. "Not at this Goodwill anyway," she agrees, surprising him. 6. The Extraterrestrial Elf Emergency (The Middleman, Wendy & the Middleman) "And there were no signs of any disturbance?" the Middleman asked. "Other than the fact that someone did that to my doghouse?" the witness--a local homeowner named Charles Brown--responded, gesturing towards the garishly decorated and lit doghouse in his backyard. Gold garland glittered in the blink blink blink of hundreds of twinkling red and green lights. A sign wishing everyone a Merry Christmas blinked in counterpoint. "No." 7. belief undoes your disbelief (Star Wars, Baze/Chirrut) It's not a question of belief. Baze knows the Force exists; like gravity, like time, he is subject to its effects on his life whether he believes in it or not. He’s never believed in much-–the accuracy of his aim, his ability to reload on the run, and the accumulation of credits in order to pay for the finer things in life, or at least a bed and a shower and a hot meal when the finer things (and the credits) are in short supply. People disappointed him early–-the family who died or left or failed to keep in touch when he was the one who left. And friends only last as long as the credits and Correllian ale keep flowing. 8. Bait and Switch (DCU, Steph/Jason) Steph's a lot smarter than the dumb blonde most people take her for, so she's clocked the guy tailing her across campus within the first five minutes, on the long walk from Kane Hall to the Burton Auditorium for her Literature and Civilization lecture. She can't get a good look at him, but he's tall and broad-shouldered and wearing a leather jacket, which could mean he's an annoying LAX bro who's seen too many rom-coms and thinks stalking is romantic or a member of a gang who wants to kill her. Some days it's hard to tell the difference. He doesn't follow her into the lecture hall, though, so she spends the next hour taking notes about existentialism and wondering if Sartre had visited Gotham before he formulated the maxim that hell is other people, and what he'd have thought about vigilantism. She doesn't ask the professor though. She tries not to draw attention in her classes. 9. with our way lit only by stars (Earthsea, Ged/Tenar) It was deep winter, a time when the snow came as regularly as the sunrise, and the sunrise finally came earlier each day, when Tenar awoke from dreams of the sea. She had never been one to put too much stock in dreams; life was complicated enough without adding unnecessary prophecy to it. But the dreams returned night after night for a week and then two. She could almost taste the salt on her lips, and feel the swell of the waves even in their bed of sturdy oak. "Divination was never my gift," Ged said when she finally mentioned them to him, after her tossing and turning woke him after yet another week in which the dream bore her across the seas. "But if you feel there's something you must do, you should do it." 10. Celestial Navigation (Star Wars, Finn/Rey, Anakin) "Go, go, go, go," shouts flight control and the next wave of ships launches, the roar of their engines momentarily drowning out the whine and screech of the TIEs and the X-Wings wheeling above and the staccato bursts of blaster and anti-aircraft fire. The Falcon's entry ramp vibrates under the soles of Finn's boots, but they can't take off without Luke and he's not here. Finn reaches out with the Force--Rey's in the cockpit, right where she's supposed to be, but Luke is somewhere else, his brightness accompanied by the banked fire of the General's presence. Finn's comm crackles to life, and through all the static and the noise, he can hear Luke say, "I'm with Leia and Chewie on Command One. Get on the Falcon and get out. I'll catch up with you at the rendezvous point." "Yes, sir," Finn snaps out, and pounds up the gangway. "Rey, let's go!" 11. what spring does with the cherry trees (Star Wars, Anakin/Ahsoka) It's the middle of the night shift on their second day in hyperspace when Anakin realizes he hasn't seen Ahsoka since they boarded the Resolute. It's not unusual for either of them to sleep for a full rotation after a prolonged mission, but they generally check up on each other afterwards--she makes sure he finishes his after action reports and he makes sure she eats and hydrates, and they go over everything that happened and what they could do better next time. He reaches out in the Force but gets nothing back but a vague irritation, like an itch he can't quite scratch in the back of his skull. He finds Rex in the ready room, hunched over a datapad and a mug of caf. They review some intelligence reports that have come in from Coruscant and speculate about their next deployment, and then he asks, "Have you seen Ahsoka?" 12. the dream of flight persists (Star Wars/Firefly; Anakin/Kaylee) It was easier to get work when the twins were babies. In the aftermath of Palpatine's ascension, there was a lot of chaos as the people who understood what was coming fled to the Outer Rim, and many of them needed a pilot or a mechanic (or both) to manage their pre-war freighters or cruisers. People didn't ask as many questions when they saw a grieving young father trying to care for his adorable infants on his own. Now, it's more difficult, because the kids can't just be strapped into the copilot's seat while they nap or carried around on his back when he pushes his way through a cantina or marketplace looking for a berth. They talk too much, ask innocent questions that no one wants to answer, least of all Anakin himself, and while his skills tend to allow a certain type of people to ignore his famous face, he hates having to trust his children's lives to that kind of greed masquerading as kindness. He's tried leaving them with Owen and Beru, but none of them fared well with the separation, though Beru was more than happy to keep them. They've already lost their mother; he's determined they don't lose their father, too. Not after how close they came to losing everything because of his stupidity. 13. I'm crawling on your shore (Six of Crows, Kaz/Inej) The important thing, Kaz thinks after they fish him out of the water, is that no one can tell how irrationally terrified he was. The slight shivers could be attributed to the dunking he'd taken in the harbor, rather than his horror at being submerged and almost drowned. By the time the fight is over and he's on the deck of The Wraith, he has it under control, though the cold night air is colder against wet skin and clothes. The sensation is nauseating, but he swallows it down and grits his teeth until business is handled. It takes more than an unexpected dip in the ocean to throw Kaz Brekker. At least, that's what he needs people to believe. 14. Just a Little Bit of History Repeating (Star Wars, Vader & Leia) Assassination attempts in the Senate decreased sharply after the Emperor came to power, at least the ones that took place in the actual Senate building. As such, over the years, when he was not present while the Senate was in session, security had become lax. Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock to everyone in the massive room the day half a dozen assassin droids spilled out of the vents and began shooting. Darth Vader was, unfortunately, present, and able to make short work of the droids, even though he felt that the Empire would be better off if some of the sybaritic sycophants who served in the Senate were destroyed. He was no politician but he understood that it would look bad if they were murdered on his watch rather than at his command. 15. The Rumor of Rain (Star Wars, Shmi, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Luke, Rey) One of Shmi's earliest memories is of drops of water hitting her face and sliding down her cheeks--not tears, she thinks then--so she doesn't discount the possibility of rain, the way the other slaves do. (It's not until years later that she realizes they were not her tears.) Spacers are full of wild tales, more hyperbole than truth, but the galaxy is vast and Tatooine is one small dusty corner of it. The elders' stories say the desert used to be lush and green before war brought desolation with it, and there's still water out there for those who know how to look, for those the desert takes into its care. Shmi has always found comfort in those stories, in knowing that a thing doesn't need to be seen to be true. 16. There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars, Anakin, Luke, & Leia) Anakin frowns as he brings his starfighter in for a landing next to the circle of standing stones that mark the dead drop. Jakku is not quite as terrible as Tatooine--there's only one sun, thank the Maker--but it's still full of sand and heat. He grumbles about it as he slides down the ladder and his feet hit the ground. He's going to be finding sand in his boots for weeks, and no matter how much he shakes out his clothes, the cockpit of his starfighter will also to be full of sand, and Padmé will scold him for leaving trails of sand in her sheets. He growls low in his throat even though there's no one around to hear him. He's sure this is all Obi-Wan's fault somehow. 17. The Only Way Through (Star Wars, Ahsoka & Obi-Wan) Ahsoka glares at the flashing lights on the steering console and swears loudly when a sharp thump with her fist doesn't fix the problem. The ship reverts to real space and she braces herself, annoyed and rueful. She's survived too much to die like this, in a stolen Imperial ship that is apparently falling apart at the seams, but the Force is with her, because there's nothing nearby--no ships, no moons, no unexpected stars or black holes or gravity wells to swallow her up. She sighs in relief and sinks back into the pilot's seat, letting the tension leach from her shoulders and breathing her fear into the Force. She gives herself a couple of moments to relax and savor the feeling of not being dead yet, and then she gets to work. 18. The Wild Chance of Living (Star Wars, Ahsoka/Aphra, Vader) Whispers have dogged Ahsoka since her unexpected return from Malachor. She's used to it--rumors and gossip have followed her since she was Anakin's padawan, and she learned then not to take it personally. The distrust is also familiar, if more unpleasant. She remembers the taste of it from the war--from civilian populations and unfamiliar clone troopers, and occasionally, from other Jedi who didn't like her master--and from the years after, when she'd had to make her way hidden and alone. It's new among the Rebels, though. 19. The Black Knight (HP, Sirius/Remus) Remus placed the tray on the table with a thump, cutlery and china rattling. Sirius let out a low moan and lifted his head from where it rested against the cool mahogany. "Breakfast, sir," Remus said crisply, and removed the cover to expose runny eggs and bacon congealing in its own grease. "Ugh." "Will that be all, sir?" Sirius turned his head slowly to look at Remus. "Stop looming, Remus. Sit down." Remus's jaw tightened, the only sign of anger on his otherwise blank face, but all he said was, "Is that an order, sir?" "Yes. And dammit, stop calling me sir." 20. The reoccurring kind (MCU, Steve/Bucky) Steve still dreams of this sometimes, the whisper-soft touch of Bucky's lips on his skin, followed by the rough brush of his stubble or the wet velvet of his tongue. He used to wake up hard and aching after those dreams, frustrated and desperate and angry and sad all at once over something he wanted more than anything and knew he would never--could never--have, thanks to society, his health, the war--and once he'd had it, never have again, thanks to the ice, HYDRA, the Accords. He has it now. Bucky is warm and solid in bed with him, acres of bare skin begging for the touch of Steve's hands and mouth. He still has to fight the urge sometimes to break away and pick up a charcoal--has done it occasionally and they've both ended up smudged and gray in places charcoal probably wasn't ever meant to be. Luckily, skin is easy to wash clean, and the serum gave him an eidetic memory, so he can always draw Bucky later.

I don’t really have anything to say about them? Some should have been rewritten and some, no amount of rewriting could help. I feel like I try to shove as much exposition as possible into those first few lines to get it over with so I can get on with the story. But I am not and never have been great at first sentences. I feel lucky people bother to read my stories at all sometimes.

[corellian-smuggler]

Hey, do you remember that moment from ROTJ when hologram of Luke was showed in jabba's palace by R2D2? I had a thought that this was 100% written by super amazing diplomat Leia Organa and Luke just said that, what do you think about it?

Lol lol lol I dunno let’s take a look

“Greetings, Exalted One. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and friend to Captain Solo. I know that you are powerful, mighty Jabba, and that your anger with Solo must be equally powerful. I seek an audience with Your Greatness to bargain for Solo's life. With your wisdom, I'm sure that we can work out an arrangement which will be mutually beneficial and enable us to avoid any unpleasant confrontation. As a token of my goodwill, I present to you a gift: these two droids. Both are hardworking and will serve you well.”

I’m not sure, anon. I think it’s a bit elementary to have been written by Leia. It sort of sounds like a high schooler writing an essay for a college application or something, not a skilled politician and diplomat accustomed to delivering addresses to the galactic senate. I’m gonna say Luke wrote it. Or maybe Leia wrote it and deliberately dumbed it down because she figured Jabba isn’t very intelligent and all that mattered was flattery??? I’m not sure.

To be quite honest though, the entire rescue plan is just baffling to me lol. It sort of seemed like a clusterfuck tbh 

For example, which parts of the plan were a distraction and which parts were actually part of the plan? Why did Leia pretend to have captured Chewbacca? All that accomplished was getting Chewbacca locked up? Surely she could have simply entered the palace in the Boushh disguise without needing the pretense of having captured Chewbacca? Like there were tons of criminals just there seemingly hanging out, so... Could she not just have walked in, maybe under the guise of offering her services to Jabba? Which leads me to my next question: did she actually think that unfreezing Han while people were “sleeping” would work? Because if she did think that, then having Chewie captured was just making things riskier, because not only did they have to rescue Han, but also break Chewie out of his cell. And Lando was already in the palace anyways, so what the heck was he doing while Leia was unfreezing Han? Working on getting Chewie free? Wouldn’t it have been better to have had Lando keeping watch for Leia, and left Chewie out of the equation? Seems like it would’ve been easier???? And then in that case, was Luke’s message even a real message? Did he really mean to go in there and try to negotiate and expect it to work? Because if he did expect it to work, then why did Leia try to spring Han before Luke got there? Did they get caught on purpose???? Is that why they had Chewie waiting in the dungeon, and then they were just gonna have Luke show up to rescue all of them? And if they didn’t expect negotiation to work, then why send the message in the first place? For the sake of getting the droids inside? Now there’s just a ridiculous amount of potential flaw with so many loose cannons in the palace? And if it WAS to get the droids in the palace, then that seems to suggest it was because the plan the whole time was for Artoo to smuggle in the lightsaber and such like what we see happen at the Sarlacc pit, which was clearly coordinated ahead of time. So AGAIN I ask, why all that other nonsense? Why couldn’t Luke have just walked in with the lightsaber in the first place if that was the ultimate plan? Why couldn’t they have all marched in there together, instead of all that nonsense?

I don’t know guys it really seems like there were about twelve different plans and essentially the plan was like: OK so we’ll do this, and just in case that doesn’t work we’ll set this up just in case, and in the event of this we’ll do this, and Chewie will be in the dungeon, or if this happens we’ll do this, SHIT but what if they take us to the Sarlacc pit???? In that event we’ll do this!!! Like just such nonsense lol.

I’m sorry I realize this question wasn’t about their escape plan but you got me going.

[theworldhopper]

The Fall

AN: A NozoEli Star Wars AU that I wrote months back. Caution: You will be hurt...emotionally...but probably in the same magnitude Anakin felt when Obi-wan cut his arm and legs off...-.-

P.S. @sea-birdie, I think you’d like this...lol...:P

Screams.

Pain.

Anger.

Anguish.

Despair.

Death.

That was all Nozomi could hear as she meditated on her ship. She slowly opened her eyes and before standing up and walked towards the window, allowing her to get a good view of the endless expanse of the galaxy as well as a part of the planet of Naboo. When she was meditating, Nozomi could hear those endless cries of grief, suffering and despair. The only problem was she couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from; the people suffering from the iron grip of the Empire or herself. The young sith could think of a lot of reasons why it would come from the people around the galaxy. But…she could also think of so many reasons why it could come from herself. And all of them were related to her past as a Jedi and her former best friend, Ayase Eli…

See, Nozomi was taken from her parents when she was too young to even remember them to be trained by the Jedi Order the moment they realized she was Force-sensitive. It really did not help that they lived in Coruscant, the seat of the Republic Senate and the Jedi Order. So, she grew up with the order as her only family. A few months later, she met a blonde girl with blue eyes, named Eli. And the two quickly became fast friends since they were, after all, in a place filled with strange people teaching them strange things. But it wouldn’t be just the two of them for long. Then, they met Nico and she quickly became a friend of theirs to. A year later they were joined by three more; Honoka, Umi and Kotori, three childhood friends who were taken by the order at the same time. The next year after that; Rin, Hanayo and Maki joined them. After that, Honoka and Eli’s younger sisters joined them. And they all trained together as friends, albeit with some form of distance due to their individual trainings…as well as their masters’ orders. But Eli and Nozomi always did manage to find away to keep close to one another…

Years passed and they grew up. Their skills improved and soon enough, they became Padawans and eventually, Jedi Knights. Out of all of them, Nozomi was the first to become a Jedi Knight, followed shortly by Eli. It was no surprise that Nozomi would be first; her gifts in the Force as well as her midichlorian count could only be rivaled by Master Yoda and, of course, Anakin Skywalker himself. Then, the Clone Wars broke out and thankfully, they saw each other in the field as well, even though they were on their own missions with their own masters. And at some point, she realized that she was in love with the blonde girl. But all the deaths and suffering that they saw made Nozomi question everything; why were the Jedi participating in this war? The war should’ve been the Senate’s problem; not the Jedi’s. They should’ve remained neutral in everything. She saw Jedi masters injured in the war and Padawans dead, either at the hands of the droids or something else entirely. In the brief, fleeting moments they were granted time to themselves in Coruscant, Nozomi confessed her love to Eli and begged her to run away with her; abandon the Order and just leave to live peacefully somewhere. To her relief, Eli reciprocated her feelings and agreed to run away with her after they consummated their love.

But when Nozomi woke up the next morning, Eli wasn’t by her side. She was left with on a cold bed and a simple note of an apology from her. And in that moment, Nozomi felt all the sorrow, all the sadness, all the loneliness, all the pent up anger she’s kept inside for all the years the Order trained her, come rushing into her. She gave most of her life to something that would never give anything back to her. Nozomi hid her feelings so as to not go into conflict with the Order’s teachings. She felt cheated; deprived of life’s simplest pleasures such as love and a family. Just as she was preparing herself, her master arrived at her room and she struck him down before he could even put up a guard. Nozomi kept him alive long enough to tell him everything she felt. Once she was done, she drove her saber to his chest and she watched the light in his eyes go out. And at that moment, she knew…before she even looked at herself in the mirror and saw those sickly yellow eyes of hers…she knew that she had given in…

Toujou Nozomi had fallen to the Dark Side of the Force.

As soon as she could, she fled. It would only be later that she would learn of Order 66. She felt indifferent towards the lives of the Jedi that was lost, yet a tiny bit of her hoped that her friends were able to flee. Her biggest hope was Eli’s escape but not because she felt something for her. No, her reasons were different. Nozomi wanted Eli to flee because she wanted to be the one to strike her down. She wanted Eli to die, knowing and seeing what she had turned Nozomi into. At some point, while she was searching for Eli, she ran into Darth Vader and he offered to turn her into his apprentice; hone her skills in the dark side. Nozomi genuinely contemplated his offer but instead, she informed him that she would seek him out once she’s severed her only connection to the light side; Ayase Eli. As a sign of the Emperor’s goodwill, Vader left her with her own Star Destroyer and a large garrison of clones.

Now, it’s been three years since Order 66 and she could feel that her confrontation with Eli is closer than she expects. Who would leave alive, however, is something for fate to decide.

“Lady Toujou. We’ve found her.” One of her officers informed her. She turned around and gave her an indifferent look.

“Where?” She asked as she summoned her saber towards her, running her gloved fingers through the small reverse crescent moon mark she left there when she made it as a mere youngling, on the cusp of becoming a Padawan learner.

“Naboo, my lady. In the swamps near Lake Paonga.” The officer reported. She merely turned back to the window and continued looking on.

“Thank you. Ready my ship. Should you not hear from me in a week’s time, return to Lord Vader.” Nozomi coldly ordered him.

“Yes, my lady.” He replied before turning around and walking away.

“Can you feel me, Elichi? I’m just nearby.” She whisperedbefore grabbing her robe and walking out of her room, steeling herself for this final confrontation that would decide her fate.

Eli was sitting around the fire near her makeshift home in the swamps of Naboo, trying to formulate how she was going to avoid the Empire in case they ran into her again. This was taking such a toll on her as well as the other Jedi, who were on the run. When Order 66 started, she met up with the others and they decided that splitting up was the best way to ensure the survival of the Jedi. Her own master died saving her from the initial assault. Honoka went with her friend and fellow Jedi, Kira Tsubasa; last she heard, they were in Alderaan. Umi and Kotori had their sights set on Dantooine. Maki and Nico; she had no idea where they were. Rin and Hanayo were in Kashyyyk. Yukiho and Arisa were well on their way to Tatooine. And Nozomi…

She had no idea where Nozomi was at the moment and that caused her a great deal of worry. Eli had no idea what happened to her after she left her alone and snuck out, like a thief in the dead of night. She couldn’t run away with Nozomi like she promised, so like a coward, she wrote a note, gave her one last kiss and left. And every day, Eli regretted her decision. Because once the Order fell because of Order 66, it made Eli realize she had absolutely nothing left. She had left Nozomi for nothing. While she was thinking, she saw an Imperial TIE Fighter fly overhead and even though she should be fleeing, Eli couldn’t find it in herself to run. The TIE fighter landed a few feet away and when it opened, Eli suddenly founder herself pinned to a tree behind her, her airways being blocked off. She closed her eyes as she struggled to fight for breath.

“Hello, Elichi.” A familiar voice greeted her. Eli opened her eyes in shock once she heard the familiar nickname. Eli saw her friend, Nozomi, holding her in a Force choke. Tears sprung from her eyes once she saw Nozomi; instead of their vibrant and playful Emerald green eyes, they were now a sickly yellow with slits. A tell tale sign that she had fallen to the Dark Side.

“Elichi, see me now? This is what you turned me into.” Nozomi said with a bitter smile. Eli activated her lightsaber and threw it at her; not to kill her but to distract her. It worked as Nozomi dodged and she lost her grip on Eli’s throat. Eli used her telekinesis to push her away, just in time for her blue lightsaber to return to her. When Nozomi recovered, she opened her own saber; once green in color, it was now a dark red. Another sign of the Dark Side. Nozomi rushed forward to attack her but she managed to block it just in time.

“What happened to you, Nozomi?” Eli asked as she desperately tried to keep the tears at bay. Nozomi separated and moved to attack again but she dodged before continuing their battle.

“Don’t play dumb, Elichi! You turned me into this! You toyed with me! Used me! Then you left me the next morning after making me believe that we were going to be happy together!” Nozomi angrily yelled as she swiped at Eli, managing to graze her arm. The blonde Jedi retaliated and managed to cut her leg.

“I couldn’t just leave, Nozomi1 I couldn’t abandon the Order and the galaxy!” Eli yelled in her defense as she blocked Nozomi’s blow.

“How admirable of you, Elichi! To give everything to something that would give nothing back in return! You know what I did when you left me? I killed my master the next time I saw him! I drove my saber into his chest as I listed down the things the Jedi took from me! I watched the light leave his eyes! And now I’m going to do the same to you!”

Eli was completely caught off guard by everything Nozomi said. Was she really that consumed by anger? What had she turned the woman she loved the most into? Eli was so caught up in her shock that she reacted a bit too late to Nozomi’s attack that all she could do was throw her hand out to push her opponent back with Telekinesis, something that Nozomi seem to have seen coming as she did the same to her. They both hit trees in the opposite direction and they both struggled to stand but Nozomi got to her feet first and once she saw Eli on the ground, she brought her saber towards her and delivered a barrage of Force lightning towards her. The blonde howled in pain as the electricity coursed towards her entire body. She was only granted a few brief respites before Nozomi resumed her torture. Eventually, the purple haired Sith stood before her, pointing her dark red saber towards her torso.

“Don’t worry, Elichi. I’m going to end you and that will be it. I won’t go after the others. Especially little Arisa.” She said in a false attempt to comfort Eli. At this moment, she was content to accept death if it would free Nozomi of her pain.

“Do it.” She whispered. Nozomi tilted her head in confusion as Eli looked up at her, the tears she’s been holding back finally escaping.

“Do it, Nozomi. If it’ll free you of your pain, then do it. I want to at least do something right for you. I’m sorry I left you but I never once lied when I said I love you.”

Eli shut her eyes and waited for the finishing blow but, instead, all she heard were sniffles from the woman standing over her. She saw that Nozomi was crying as her saber was raised above her head, poised for the killing blow but for some reason, she can’t do it.

“I-I can’t…I can’t do it. Why can’t I do it? I thought I no longer loved you.” Nozomi said, anguish apparent in her voice.

“You don’t have to, Nozomi. There’s still good in you; I can sense it. Please. Please return to the light. Please, Nontan.” Eli begged her. She knew that Nozomi still had some good in her. The fact that she still called her by her childhood nickname and that she won’t go after their old friends proved that much.

“Elichi…I want to but…this will never end unless one of us dies!”

Eli was horrified when she realized what Nozomi meant by her words and before she could rush forward to stop her, the purple haired woman stabbed herself at her side. The blonde Jedi rushed forward to catch her in her arms.

“No. No. Nozomi, stay with me.” She begged as she cradled her in her arms. Eli had no idea why she was begging; she knew how fatal a stab wound from a lightsaber could be. There was no saving Nozomi from her fate.

“E-Elichi…” Nozomi weakly whispered as she put a hand to Eli’s chest, seeing the familiar item there.

“You…you kept it…all…these years…” She said upon seeing the blue Kyber crystal necklace that hanging around the blonde’s neck. It was identical to the green Kyber crystal necklace around Nozomi.

“Of course…it was the first thing you ever gave me.” Eli said as tears fell from her eyes. Before they moved to being Padawan learners, they underwent a ritual called The Gathering to find a Kyber crystal for their lightsabers. Nozomi not only got hers but managed to get two more for Eli and the blonde fashioned them into necklaces for each other with Eli keeping the blue crystal and Nozomi, the green.

“Elichi…can you…do something for…me?” She weakly asked and Eli nodded as she held her hand.

“What is it?”

“T-tell me…you love me…even if it’s a lie. For one last time, I…just want to know what being loved feels like.”

Eli held her close as she cried. She was not ready to let her go just yet; she just found Nozomi and now, she was going to lose her again. It would’ve been better if the Jedi never found them. They could’ve met under different circumstances and lived a peaceful life, even with the threat of the Empire looming above them.

“I love you, Nozomi. I’m not lying. I never lied.” She said before kissing her. When they separated, Eli gasped upon seeing that Nozomi’s eyes had returned to their vibrant green color but simply smiled and continued to hold her.

“Hey, Nozomi…what do you think our lives would’ve been like if I did run away with you? We’d probably be living peacefully here. Maybe in Lake Country. We’d be in hiding but we’d be together. Wouldn’t you like that, Nozomi?” She asked as tears fell from her eyes. A life like that with Nozomi was everything she could ever wish for. It was everything she wanted for them and especially for Nozomi.

“That…would be nice.” The purple haired woman weakly said as she cupped the blonde’s cheek. “Hey, Elichi…”

“Nozomi?”

“I…I love you. Never forget that.”

And her entire form went limp in Eli’s arms. Eli’s eyes widened in shock and horror as she watched Nozomi become one with The Force; her body disappeared, leaving only her robes, her saber and her Kyber crystal necklace. The blonde Jedi cried at her loss until she no longer had the strength to do so. Eli gathered enough strength to stand and burned Nozomi’s robes but keeping her saber and her necklace for herself, wearing the accessory around her neck. The blonde’s eyes landed on Nozomi’s TIE Fighter and immediately, she knew what she had to do. Without any hesitation, she walked towards it and in turn, her destiny.

“Hello, my friends and fellow Jedi. It’s been a while. I don’t know if you felt it through The Force but…Nozomi is dead. I should know because I saw her kill herself. She…turned to the Dark Side and she tried to kill me. But she couldn’t…so she killed herself instead. I will be following her soon. It was my fault why she turned; I told her I loved her and then left her. Which brings me to the last advice I can give all of you; forget what the Jedi taught us. Forget what our masters said about attachment and love and how those things are dangerous. If you fall in love, take the risk but remember to not let it lure you to the Dark Side. It’s a possible thing to do. I know that none of you will fail in ensuring the survival of the Jedi; especially you, Arisa. Goodbye, my friends. May The Force be with all of you…always.

“Admiral! Lady Toujou’s TIE Fighter is returning.” One of the ship’s crew informed the Admiral.

“Excellent. No doubt she’s taken care of the Jedi scum.” He said as he left the bridge to greet Nozomi. The TIE Fighter landed on the landing bay as stormtroopers and officers went about their usual rounds. Just as the hatch to the TIE Fighter opened, something jumped out and started butchering the people on the landing bay. A blonde Jedi with blue and red lightsabers. She relentlessly attacked each and every one of them and just as she thought she could let her guard down for a moment, she felt something hit her from behind. She looked down and saw a burned hole through her chest; she had been shot. She turned and saw a young officer with a blaster pistol pointed at her. He was young, not even out of his twenties and very nervous at the sight of her. She poised herself to attack but before she could even move, he shot her twice. She fell to the floor. As she lay dying on the floor of the Star Destroyer, all she could see was the vibrant night life of Coruscant and a beautiful purple haired Jedi Knight with green eyes.

“Nozomi…”

And with those words, Jedi Knight Ayase Eli finally became one with The Force.

The young officer who shot Eli stood over her body and watched as her physical form faded away and he was surprised by the sudden hand on his shoulder.

“Well done, young man.” The ship’s Admiral praised him. “I will see that you receive a promotion for this.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“So, who is our mysterious attacker?” The Admiral asked.

“A Jedi Knight, sir. She said something before fading. I heard her say ‘Nozomi’.” The young officer answered. The Admiral sighed and shook his head.

“Then, it was the Jedi that Lady Toujou was hunting. And if she’s here, it could only mean that Lady Toujou is dead.” He said with a tone of disapproval. “I always did warn her that her obsession would lead to her end.”

A beat of silence occurred between them before the Admiral spoke up again.

“Very well. Pick up the sabers. We must deliver them to Lord Vader and inform him that his potential apprentice is dead.” He ordered before he walked away. The officer nodded and moved to collect the fallen Jedi’s belongings. Just as he was about to stand up again with the sabers in his hands, two more objects caught his eye and he moved to pick them up as well…

They were two crystals on thick leather strings; one was colored blue and the other, green.