Saga - ST A Rough Trade (Luke, Ben Solo, OCs, R2... | 21 ABY | Pre-Kylo) - Author thanks + NEW: March 28th

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Thank you so much for voting for A Rough Trade and getting it to its two (joint) wins - best post-premiere story and best character for Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy/Anthology era at the 2016 Awards. I did not expect any of these, especially not the latter and yeah, given that I was scared to actually start posting on the board, with so many experienced Luke writers around...audaces fortuna iuvat?!

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You may or may not know her...

And Luke communicates through thoughts as he's pretty much detached at the point in time he's recalling this and everything is vague; plus it's a collection of past thoughts. Unlike him, Kami's thoughts at the time were written down immediately...if this makes sense.

Yousa spake!

The bold was meant to be seen as one of these, yes. And nope, "bittersweet" would be...too simplified. There's a whole spectrum here.

Endor because...yes, Endor. For so many reasons!

Not sure if anybody expects anything when it comes to Endor. It's still protected, or so I think.

As said to Raissa Baiard in the previous comment session, they ARE weird and it depends on the reader how they look at the said weirdness.

I actually typed DJ instead of Jedi for no apparent reason a couple of times while writing, and, while I spotted it immediately each time, I thought it would be funny to use it in-universe.

And Ben and little girls...it had to begin somewhere.

The overly complicated gadgets were inspired by...well, yeah, you saw those pictures.

We have to remember that there is a more convenient Force user on Endor who may or may not fill the blanks as well, or figure some things out.

You have a GOOD feeling about this.

A love/hate kind of a thing with him and his not-yet-to-be-idol. When your relationship to an idol is unhealthy, you love to see them "fail", even more that you like to see them "win". And even when you enjoy the occasions where they "failed", you won't practice what you preach.

*sigh* Yes, I deal with many people who have an unhealthy thing with their idols and "idols".

And the irony was meant to be spotted...he-he.

I'm not the only one good with details, but thanks.

As for the other thing: maybe...maybe.

Yes - QUITE a backstory. And yes, it's her mother.

Twig...has been predicting things since he was still in diapers. Sort of.

...it depends on the context. If Twig told poor Luke off once upon a time, that would imply he used to be a big deal...at something.

You will tell me more about that person.

It's all a single universe, but don't tell anybody!

HAHAHAHAHA "apparent urban hipsters". LOVE THAT. In my universe, those are called "grannos".

As far as the rest goes, you'll see. Twig is...a complicated character and I've been writing him at various stages of his life. This is the instance where he's most normal, ironically!

That one actually did inspire me, to a certain extent.

I imply that they don't. Lando does, with an apparent spouse, but even Luke had not been there for a long time, as he says himself.

Also, Twig and Kami haven't always lived on Endor.

Hope that makes more sense.

She's got a bit of creepy from her dad's side, yup-yup-yup!

Your drawing in a whole different thread sort of inspired it, so...IT'S ACTUALLY YOUR FAULT.

That's one of the things that I hope will come through later. Spot-on, even when you're brief.

I think I may have said this before, but I am not that fond of those, either! This was my first attempt at first person writing in fanfic and it came naturally. Can't quite remember how, as December was all foggy-foggy in my mind - or the other way round - but it made sense to start out that way.

And commenting - you're doing it right, so don't worry.

Knew you'd stick around after the previous comment and I'm glad you like it so far.

Now, what if I tell you that, when I'm done with The Other Moon and The Black Star, I plan a story that starts off right after ROTJ and concerns how displaced and confused about every single normal individual is? That will be in 2017, hopefully early that year, but I'm psyched about it, as that period interests me a lot as well.

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New chapter coming soon! Been busy with work, argh!

 

Hello again! I read chapter 2. Different style of execution again, and very realistic. I like how you are flexing your literary muscles here! Interesting to see Ben being so sullen so young. I wonder if it's easy for an outsider to spot this, while his own parents (and even Luke) failed to heed the warning signs for being so close to the woods. I'll find out soon when you bring in Han & Leia..

 

Re-read the bit before Chapter One. I must have been here before, and been too out-of-sorts to comment right then, as from the "You are reckless, you are reckless" rants on, I felt I had been here before.

Great expression of regret and hurt in a stream of consciousness style, liberally interspersed with Artoo's presence. With so much of Luke and Mara on these boards, we sometimes forget that it was that little R2 unit that was almost an extension of the last jedi's soul.

This was flawless. Most envocative. Partially feels like a shared experience with those of us who have envisioned that massacre.

Well done. 10/10

 

More is coming soon - I kind of totally forgot this one existed, because I was so focused on my DDC. BLAME THE WINNING DDC OF 2016 FOR EVERYTHING.







Just kidding, it's ADHD.

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I was not flexing them on purpose, I take metformin.

No, seriously, the concept of the story was for each chapter be so different.

And yes, that's the idea. Ben is not OK in general, he's probably idealised by his uncle and devalued by his parents. And an outsider who lives with two flippin' eccentric individuals - her child and the child's father - notices this immediately.

I am not saying that she was herself a sullen teen and that it's good that she was never Force-sensitive, buuut....

10/10 for this comment, too.

The last bit was precisely the feeling I wanted to evoke, even in non-feelers. It needed to be striking. And Luke had to be less of a demigod and more of a human being. I'm glad that it worked.

 

LOL EP did you just reply to my comment from May 2016? You really need to work on just one project at a time - but I am in awe of how much you are juggling.

 

What is that elusive "doing one thing at time" thing everybody talks about?

 

Chapter 03

What happened next was the strangest conversation I had ever had with anybody. And mind you, I spoke to the former Emperor. I spoke to a senile Master Yoda. I spoke to the most notorious of the Tatooine drunks. But they all made sense compared to Twig, the alleged Prophet of Endor. There was a moment where he romanticised the Sith and when I asked him about it, he went on and on about how he could see an alternate reality where “somebody like him” beats the Sith ruler one hundred years in the future from now, and all of that…guided by my spirit. I am not sure where that came from, but I believed him. After all, there are many space times and many possible futures, and it looks like he had an entire vision of it written down, in a barely-legible high Galactic (“because it’s prettier!”) handwriting. And he had to share some of it with my nephew.

“Ben,” he said. “You don’t exist in that fascinating future. But there is somebody else, who manages to be killed by a relative or a friend. A woman. His name, in my vision, is Jadayn Kroll and hers…I can’t quite decipher my own stream of thoughts because…you know. I am worried about you, either way. And I am glad that you visited me.”

Ben was flabbergasted. “Is that what made you the Crazy Man of Endor.”

“Y-yes!” Twig blushed. He seemed to be proud of that nickname.

“But what is your actual name?”

"I have a first and last name that became somehow irrelevant after a couple of years on here." Twig put his glove-clad hands on his hips. “So, I took one that was…you know…inspired by this beautiful planet. I had lived on Naboo, Corellia and I had visited most of the Galaxy…”

“But there are only twigs on Endor?” Ben interjected again. He managed to confuse the man.

“Ummm, no. But the twigs here are the twigs that broke the Galactic Empire and things like that! Twigs of the Ewok warriors. They did not need the lasers! They didn’t even need the metal.”

“Ewoks are smelly.” Ben said again.

“No, they’re not. They are our friends.” The woman, who did tell me her actual name after I made the unfortunate comparison with an old flame of mine, brought a dessert to the table. “Latara of the nearby tribe taught me to make this. Latara, also known as the winner of four Gallys as the best composer. And her mate, Teebo, is the twig that brought us together, in a way – my mate and myself. He performed a cleansing ritual for Twiggy.”

I became intrigued. “What kind of a cleansing ritual? And Teebo, do I know him?"

"He knows you, he credits you for having spared his life and he speaks very highly of you." Kami said. “Twig, tell him about you-know-who.”

“I was visited by so many darkside users in my past.” Twig stroke his seventeen-o-clock shadow beard. “And Teebo had me bathe in the lake he connects to love, which is near the larger lake that he connects to death, because one cannot exist without the other.”

“I like that idea!” Ben looked to the stars and sighed.

“Teebo gave the last name to our daughter, too. She goes by Soluna Tana. Tana, like that thing over there!” Twig pointed to the girl who was now bending her fork and then to the pinkish object visible through the transparisteel ceiling. “We thought that using my last name would get her too much attention from the outside world. And…and I don-don’t want her to face it before I am ready to face it myself.” He almost dropped his satchel containing what I assumed were those famous Ewok storytelling rocks. “And it’s not my err, how do you say it, powers. It’s my fear. And I do not want to be swept by the dark side again. Ever. I love it, it fascinates me, reading about Darth Revan makes me happy…”

“You kind of look like him, too.” Kami gently judged her partner and gave him a quick peck near the left ear. “That joke will never get old. Never.”

“…he-he, thank you. But I would not want to be a Sith.”

Ben shook his head. “The Sith have been destroyed once my grandfather was murdered in the orbit of this very Forest Moon.”

“Yes, and that’s precisely why I am hiding here. The dark does not go inside, it remains on the outside. You pass through it and then you’re free down here. The darkness is protecting the world that is now almost entirely composed of light!” At this point, Twig was manically flapping his long arms from side to side, almost hitting me at some point. “All that ever is will be the light from Ibleam! Any questions?” He stopped to catch a breath. He did have the air of a teacher, but certainly not the attitude.

“Yes. Have you ever heard of BarbaShave?” My nephew was close to snickering. “And anything even remotely resembling…style?”

“Ben!” The woman lost her patience. “Are you always like this?”

“Sometimes.” I smiled and managed to put out the fire. “But Twig, how do you know all this? I have heard that you have read everything about the Force that you could find, but…I am confused. Lor said that you were adherents of the Church, but…not quite.”

“We cannot really banish all the traces of modern life here on Endor, like they can on, say, Jakku. Huge creatures live here and if we were not using shields at night and some basic ultrasound weapons to chase them away, we would have been long gone.”

“But you don’t really live in the Bright Tree Village.”

“No. Running this little excuse of a spaceport helps me stay in touch with my roots…and reality in general. I am otherwise not interested in reality as we know it. Same for Soluna. What did you ask me again?”

“How do you know all you’re claiming?” I reminded him.

“Oh, yes! I got it from my Mistress. She’s from the Core Worlds and she was pivotal to the darkest times of my life, when I was in my twenties. I almost died and she saved me. After this was over, I almost died again, but then the Galactic Civil war was over. Then I met Kami on Naboo! At the same place where your parents got married!”

“Are you Naboo?” Ben seemed to be fascinated.

“Twig is, but I am from the Core Worlds. You probably never heard of the planet, it’s an agriworld. And at this point, it’s an endless power struggle that I was happy to leave behind.”

“Us, the Jedi…we leave so many things behind, too.” I stroked my beard and looked at the pinkish gas giant again. “Sometimes, it’s tragic. I saw the corpses of my caretakers, the bones…and barely any flesh.” Just as I said this, I could feel a ripple in the Force.

“My father died long ago, Twig never met him either. My mother is alive and prefers not to spend much time with us, because Soluna ‘stresses her out’ and so on. I also have some relatives on my father’s side, but not many. I have not witnessed a violent death like that, though I did witness some horrible things.”

Ben cocked his head. “What horrible things?”

This was going to be a long night, or so I thought. Once Ben had a definite proof that this woman had no powers of her own, he asked to go to bed. Then he complained about the bed. Then the whole thing turned into an absolute mess because of him.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s me, if it’s Leia and Han, or if it’s him. He reminds me of what people told me of my father, a bit too much. But my father was more awkward than callow and he never had fits of rage, as far as I know. Then again, I am only patching my own family holoalbum, after all…

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Teenagers tend to put their feet in their mouth and run on the rude side.

They are saying some strange things and live a drastically different life than what either Luke or Ben is familiar with and they might be a little uncomfortable with it.

 

This is not a reply to comments or an update - I only wanted to thank you all for having nominated this story for an award, for the second year in a row. This time, ART was nominated for the Best Continuity-Compilant story and I'm grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. <3

 

Congratulations on your nomination!

This is an interesting intersection between your universe and the official canon. I can see why Luke is confused by Twig! Even knowing something of his former life, I'm still a bit confused by him. He jumps around from subject to subject, from timeline to timeline (am I right that his alternate future is from the "Legacy" comics?) without any regard for whether his listeners understand.

Ben seems to be his usual, charming, emo self, complaining, insulting his hosts:

*snerk* Love the appearance of BarbaShave here!

Two things that make me go "hmm": the ripple in the Force when Luke remembers Owen and Beru's deaths. Could this be connected to another charred corpse that that was burned on a pyre here on Endor? And Luke saying:

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Oh Luke, if only you knew... maybe if he had known, he could have seen the path Ben was headed down before it was too late.

Once again, congrats! Another great chapter!