Beyond - Legends Saga Before - Legends Before the Saga Beyond the Saga A Hundred Drabbles (UDC IX-Multi Era, Ensemble Cast)

@amidalachick As always, thank you so much for your kind comment! Being able to write about a culture in some depth through a set of five drabbles was one of my favorite parts of Week 10's drabbles, and I really enjoyed describing the festivities in some detail, so I'm so happy you appreciated that element. I really wanted to capture both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's characters and their relationship with one another since they are two of my favorite Star Wars characters and I love the relationship that they have, so I always want to do them justice when I write about them.

I'm so glad that you enjoyed Week 11's set. Skull was definitely the most chilling of that set for me, and I did get goosebumps as I was writing it. Spine did feel very poignant to me as I was writing it because it seemed to foreshadow so much of the rift that eventually develops between Obi-Wan and Anakin in ROTS. I had great fun writing a younger Anakin in Toothless and Fibula, but I can understand why Bone was your favorite from that set. I can absolutely understand why you'd relate to Anakin in Bone, though I admit that I tend to be more like Obi-Wan in that I'm typically the person who is hot while a family member or friend is cold. But it warmed my heart when Obi-Wan gave Anakin his cloak, and I liked being able to end the set with a positive depiction of their relationship.

Week 12 was a very painful, intense, and emotional set to write that never really provided any chance to ease the tension. It just felt like gut punch after gut punch after gut punch as I was writing it, but there was just so much I had to try to say in such a short space that was the result. I'm so glad that you found the history of Mustafar in Seismic interesting and those lines you quoted were some of the most powerful for me to write so it's nice to know that they also had an impact on you. And, yes, eventually, Luke will remind Vader of that bit of Anakin still inside him, and Anakin will be able to find redemption and peace at last.

Once again, thank you so much for commenting, and I hope you enjoy the next set!

@Kit' Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so flattered that you found these amazing and powerful, and that the last one in particular resonated with you, because it was one of the most moving for me as well.

 

Title: Polluted Waters

Characters: Qui-Gon Jinn; Dooku.

Genre: General; Angst.

Era: Before the Saga.

Summary: Qui-Gon and Dooku gaze out over polluted waters.

Polluted Waters

Famed Forges

The industrial world of Chingtai was famed for its factories and forges that churned out valuable metal and goods made from that metal. Day and night, the factories belched black smoke into the sky. The smoke stained the walls of the world’s skytowers.

Residents relied on filters installed into the viewports of their conapts to remove the toxins from the air before they could breathe it. In the streets, people walked through the thick, oppressive smog in masks meant to shield wearers from the harmful health effects of pollution that could chop ten or twenty years of a life expectancy.

River Wraiths

Qui-Gon felt tears form in his eyes. He stared at the rivers that wound through the sprawling cities of Chingtai. The once blue waters now ran black and slick as an oil spill. In the hazy smog perpetually hanging over the polluted rivers, Qui-Gon thought he saw wraiths dancing. Wraiths from a long gone era lost to memory. Wraiths from a time when children could wade in the water without worry of contamination. Wraiths of fish swimming before the banks were lined with their rotting corpses. Wraiths that haunted Qui-Gon as ghosts of everything Chingtai had lost.

Monument to Sentient Greed

“Do you know why this happened?” Dooku asked from beneath his mask, words and expression muffled by the fabric. Qui-Gon reflected that was another thing Chingtai had lost in its blind pursuit of profits: voice and expression.

Qui-Gon stared out at a river choked by industrial sludge, standing on an arched bridge in what purported to be a city park. Qui-Gon wasn’t certain what purpose a city park had on a planet that had destroyed all its natural beauty unless it was to be a monument to the sentient greed that had ruined this once beautiful world.

Bitter Undoing

“Greed, Master.” Qui-Gon’s answer was choked as the river below him. “The putting of profits and productivity above all life that has unquantifiable value.”

The Force wept for this place and everything that had undone its pristine nature. Qui-Gon could feel its grief in his own spirit, connecting his sorrow to its own.

“Ambition did this,” his Master corrected, and gazing out at the pitiful city park surrounding him, Qui-Gon wondered if there was any difference between greed and ambition. Both seemed to cause bitter undoings like the pollution of Chingtai. “The desire to make Chingtai prosper.”

Precious Profits

Chingtai had prospered. Every year, to the tune of trillions of credits, it exchanged the valuable metals and products it created with a greedy galaxy that could never consume enough of its exports. The people of Chingtai weren’t hungry, but they couldn’t eat fish from the rivers. Nor could they watch their children swim and wade in clean waters.

They had their precious profits—or at least the wealthy industrialists who had built the factories and the forges—did. The blue rivers and the clear, crisp air had not been precious on Chingtai, and so they had not been preserved.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for commenting! I'm so flattered that you found this to be wonderfully rich in detail because I wanted to convey both the ugliness of the pollution on Chingtai and the natural beauty it had once had and had lost. I do think the heavy price that we pay for ambition and greed are timeless lessons that we must learn in order to hopefully leave future generations with a better planet, so it felt meaningful for me to explore a world that hadn't heeded such a lesson and was left with so many consequences of pollution, greed, and ambition.

@amidalachick Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! This set really did hit and haunt me as I was writing it as well. The polluted atmosphere, the descriptions of all that the world had lost, and how Qui-Gon was so saddened by the devastation really broke my heart and struck a chord with me. Focusing on the same story through linked drabbles really did help me say what I felt I needed to say in this piece.

I agree that we've all seen examples of what happened when profits are prioritized above everything else and it can be so heartbreaking and tragic. I'm so flattered that you found this a powerful and thought-provoking set. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the next set as well.

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Title: Changes in Fashion

Characters: Han Solo; Qi'ra; Chewbacca; Leia; Luke; Lando.

Genre: General; Humor; Friendship; Drama; Angst.

Era: Saga-PT and Saga-OT.

Summary: Han and the fashion accessories that define him and his friends.

Veda Fedora

At night Han and Qi’ra escaped Lady Proxima’s sewers and climbed out of the grates into the well-lit streets where wives and daughters of high-ranking Imperials shopped for clothes costing more than Han could pilfer in a decade.

They’d disable the alarms to these stores that’d been deserted by proprietor and customers until daylight and sneak in to try on the fashionable wares they didn’t dare steal. In a veda fedora, Qi’ra would pose in the mirror a thousand different ways but always with thick lips pouted and eyes wide as she said fedoras were her favorite hat.

Like a Beast in a Circus

“I hate them,” Chewie growled, the rage echoing deep in his throat. Han knew he was talking about the Imperials who had enslaved him. Chewie was so mad at the memory of Imperial enslavement that he was shedding great tufts of Wookie fur all over the Falcon’s lounge—redecorating in inimitable Wookie style. Chewie’s memories of slavery wouldn’t die any more than his fury at the shame and suffering inflicted on his people would. They’d last forever: a testament to Imperial brutality. “When I didn’t work fast enough as a slave, they’d whip me like a beast in a circus.”

Satchel for a Swift Getaway

After he helped Luke survive to shoot down the Death Star, Han found himself an acclaimed hero by the Rebel Alliance. He was given a shiny medal by that pretty princess who’d finally looked on him with a sweet smile rather than bitter disgust. He tucked the medal into the satchel he always kept packed with essentials in case he needed to make a swift getaway.

Yet he never did make that swift getaway from the Rebel Alliance. The kid Luke needed him too much, and the princess would look on him with contempt again if he made his getaway.

Pleather Pants

“I’d like to buy some leather pants,” Han remarked to Chewie as they entered a cutting-edge clothes shop on Smuggler’s Moon with credits burning a hole in Han’s pocket after a successful spice run.

“You can’t afford real leather.” Chewie glanced at the price tags on the real leather pants and gave a moan that caused several browsing customers to stare at him in alarm. Casual conversation sounds for Wookies were seldom so commonplace for other species. “You might have to settle for fake leather.”

“Pleather.” Han snorted his disdain. “I’ll walk around naked before I wear pleather pants.”

Teasing Tweed

“If you win, you get the Falcon back.” Han slurred his syllables as he stared at his sabaac hand. He must’ve had a few too many Coruscant Coolers if he was offering Lando an opportunity to regain the ship they both loved so much, but he couldn’t stop gambling or drinking. It was an addiction to chance and thrill that drove and defined him. “If I win, you have to wear tweed for a month.”

“Tweed for a month?” sputtered Lando, nearly spitting out his Bespin Freeze. “I’ll look like a mad professor teaching astrophics at the University of Coruscant.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for commenting! I found this a fun set to write, especially the Tweed and Pleather Pants one, where I felt free to kind of go crazy and just embrace humor without restraint. I definitely agree that it is almost impossible to imagine Lando in Tweed. I actually came up with the idea for that drabble first since I was thinking about which Star Wars character would be least likely to wear tweed, and I came up with Lando. Then I got to wondering what could possibly make Lando wear tweed and deciding losing a bet could do it. Then the idea for these drabbles was born...

@earlybird-obi-wan Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so glad you found this to be a great set!

@amidalachick Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so happy that you thought this was another great set and that you found "Whip" and "Fedora" poignant. "Whip" was especially painful for me to write because of what Chewie suffered at the hands of the Imperials. But fortunately I had a chance to balance some of that pain with humor in the "Leather" and "Tweed" drabbles. You're definitely right that tweed isn't Landu's style at all and makes a hilarious mental image And I really loved being able to write about Han sort of finding his place in the Rebel Alliance with Luke and Leia and not going anywhere at all so I'm so happy you highlighted that line in particular!

 

@Kit' Thank you so much for commenting! I'm so flattered that you found these great and that you loved the humor of the mental image of Lando in tweed. Poor Lando did indeed lose his bet, not winning back the Falcon, and was forced to wear a tweed that didn't flatter him at all...Bad luck on his part, for sure!And Han definitely has a point that Pleather is just a nasty something that shouldn't exist...

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Title: Meditations in Darkness

Characters: Sidious/Palpatine

Genre: General

Era: Saga-PT

Summary: Sidious reflects on and revels in the Dark Side.

Meditations in Darkness

Scarlet Walls

Sidious had the walls in his Senate office painted scarlet. Scarlet as passion between forbidden, star-crossed lovers. Scarlet as the blood that would be spilled in the war he had long plotted. Scarlet as the promised revenge of the Sith for which he tirelessly labored. Scarlet as the eternal hatred and rage that pounded through his veins.

Scarlet as the blade he had forged in the Sith tradition. Scarlet as the blade he had been taught to wield in savage form by his Master, Plagueis—the blade he never used because it was too unrefined for a cultured man.

Peaceful Mirage

Sidious stared out over the gray haze that girded all of Coruscant like a mirage.

Peace was like that haze. It clouded the gaze of his politicians whose minds were bug-small compared to his, of common citizens who could always be made to see what Sidious wanted them to see and nothing else, and the Jedi, the most sanctimonious fools of all, whose blind pursuit of peace would cause them to bumble into the war Sidious had devised to destroy them.

Peace was the weakness and the mirage of the Jedi, but war was the Sith’s truth and strength.

No Armor but the Dark Side

The clones whose creation he’d carefully manipulated would wear clunky armor into battle but Sidious never needed to don anything so heavy that might impede his silky smooth, stealthy movements. Wherever he went, he was protected by the far less clumsy armor of the Dark Side.

The Dark Side cloaked his maneuvers so his opponents would only see them after the fatal blow had been dealt. Its unwavering hatred and endless fury hardened him so no foe could break his guard. The Dark Side was a Sith’s true armor, and no Sith should need any armor but the Dark Side.

Galaxy on a Warpath

It was surprisingly simple for a mind as subtle—as attuned to shifting nuances that could shape the forever fluctuating future, as his to set the galaxy on a whirling warpath.

Count Dooku could be coaxed into appearing as the principled figurehead of the Separatist movement yearning to secede from a corrupt Republic. Heads of the Trade Federation, the Banking Clan, and other corporations could be convinced that greater financial benefit could be found outside the stifling confines of the Republic than within them. On the other side, fearful Senators could be persuaded only building an army could guarantee peace.

Mirror Mastermind

When he looked at himself in the mirror every morning, Sidious saw himself as a leader, an architect, and a mastermind. He was the leader of not merely a Republic in a dying golden age but also of a brightly burning galaxy. He was the architect of a rise that would take him from Senator to Chancellor and finally to the pinnacle of unchallenged glory that was Emperor of a Galactic Empire to be announced. He was the mastermind of a civil war that would usher in the reign of the Sith that would dominate the galaxy for a millennium.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for your kind comments! It felt weird to slip into the mind of someone as evil as Sidious, but I wanted to impart a sort of dark poetry to his thoughts if that makes sense, so I'm so happy you felt these drabbles were both lyrical and insightful especially since I did want to capture that cunning, eternally scheming side of Sidious when I entered his twisted mind and explored how much pride he took in being hidden in plain sight throughout the PT until his moment of triumphant revelation as it were.

@Kit' Thank you so much for commenting! I'm super flattered that you found this last set to be full of amazing and beautiful descriptions, and you highlighted one of my favorite lines so that makes me doubly happy

@amidalachick Thank you so much for commenting! I haven't written anything from Sidious's point of view before, so this was a first for me, and I have to admit that I felt a bit unclean after writing it just because there is really nothing redeemable in Sidious unlike a character even like Vader where there is still that connection to his past ability to love no matter how much he tries to bury and deny it. Sidious is like a void in comparison to that so writing his perspective was definitely very interesting. I admit that when I saw the word "scarlet" for the prompts, my mind somehow went to Sidious, and this set of drabbles was the result...I definitely got a vibe of extreme narcissism and contempt for others from Sidious in the PT so I couldn't resist making that a defining element of how he sees the galaxy in this set of drabbles, and I'm glad that aspect of his character rang so true for you. I'm also so happy that you felt there was a sense of lyricism throughout.

Author's Note: I think you all earned a palette cleanser after being in the mind of Darth Sidious, so have some young Yoda instead

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Title: Deep, Dark Roots

Characters: Yoda; OC.

Genre: General.

Era: Before the Saga.

Summary: Yoda's Master introduces him to the Dark Side cave on Dagobah.

Deep, Dark Roots

Ancient Planet

Dagobah was a world of contradictions. It was old but constantly remaking itself. It was green and dappled with patches of light and dark. The cave beneath the gnarl-tree where Yoda’s Master led him through the tangles of vines and slurping swamps was ancient and deeply rooted in the Dark Side.

It was a cave of evil, Yoda thought, sweat making his beige robes stick to his forest-green skin. Bugs flitted around his fluted ears, and he batted them away, not wanting his hot blood to become a drink for the butcherbugs and bogwings.

Lasting Darkness

Nothing lasted but the Dark Side, Yoda felt as he stared at the cave, a shiver slithering up his spine like a vine snake. Buried beneath brambles, crumbling stone steps descended into the cave’s eternal darkness. A hollow at the heart of the tree made a second, natural entrance into the void.

“A Dark Side vergence, is it?” Yoda’s ears folded on themselves.

“It mirrors our fears, reflecting them in apparitions and illusions.” Yoda’s Master brushed his shoulder.

“Made it, what did?” Yoda’s orb eyes fixed unblinking on the cave.

“We do with our fears.” His Master’s words weren’t reassuring.

Timeless Epoch

Yoda’s Master ordered him to enter the cave, and, knees trembling, he obeyed. It seemed to take him an eternity to be swallowed by the cave, but eventually he disappeared into the void, consumed by the Dark Side that encircled and entrapped him like a cold tomb.

The cave made him stand alone, frozen in his fears, for a timeless epoch, before it drowned him in deceptively real images of death and despair. In the blackness, each heartbeat seemed to last a century, each breath an eon. Yoda sensed that disorienting timelessness was the atmosphere the cave strove to maintain.

Death without Descendants

The cave’s malice and menace could endure for a thousand years. Most Jedi wouldn’t live to be a thousand because most weren’t members of a species blessed—or perhaps cursed—with the longevity of Yoda’s. They would die like the Jedi who had nurtured and nourished him in the creche.

He had taken fifty years to reach the human equivalent of two so he had lost so many teachers and knew with bone-aching certainty that the loss of more awaited him.

Visions of death danced around him until he came face to face with his own death without descendants.

Ephemeral Flesh

Struck by how ephemeral—how like a butterfly wing—life was, Yoda fled from the cave that felt like his own tomb.

Watching a silver-nape beetle crawl across a leaf, Yoda asked the question that had haunted him in the cave as he gazed into the void, “Think do you ever that have a million descendants a common silver-nape beetle will, but no descendants will a Jedi have?”

“You’ll leave a long life and teach many students,” his Master murmured. “Your students will be your descendants, not of the ephemeral, limited flesh, but of the eternal, boundless spirit.”

 

@earlybird-obi-wan Thank you so much for commenting! I always wonder how PT Jedi think and feel about not being allowed to have children in the traditional, biological descent so my exploration on the Jedi idea of descendants was a product of that. I'm so happy you found it insightful and felt this was a great set!

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for commenting! The eerie cave definitely gave me some shivers as I wrote, but I love how Yoda endured the challenge so bravely and came to a true realization about what his legacy would be. Yoda went through the darkness to find the light in a sense, a very Jedi journey of growth and discovery.

@amidalachick Thank you so much for your detailed comment! I'm so happy that you found this to be a wonderful set and that you felt this was a great use of the prompts. I really wanted to focus on the sensory descriptions in this set to really emphasize the challenge and darkness Yoda was confronting, so it makes me glad that element of the story worked so well for you. With Baby Yoda on Mandalorian being fifty and like a toddler in his development, it occurred to me that early on Yoda would be dealing with a lot of loss as beings with a shorter lifespan who had cared for him passed away, and it was poignant for me to have a young Yoda face that truth and come to terms with that. One of my favorite parts in this set was how Yoda's master pointed out the lasting legacy he would have among the Jedi, so I'm so pleased that was a highlight for you as well. Once again, thank you so much for commenting, and I hope you enjoy this next set!

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Title: Jumbled Tales of a Reforming Scoundrel

Characters: Han Solo; Lando; Chewbacca; Leia Organa-Solo; Luke Skywalker.

Genre: General; Romance; Friendship.

Era: Saga-OT and Beyond the Saga.

Summary: Han and the friendships and loves that shape his reforming story.

Jumbled Tales of a Reforming Scoundrel

One Long Adventure

“Marrying me, a reformed scoundrel,” Han began only to be interrupted by Leia as they lay beside each other late at night.

“A not-so-reformed scoundrel,” she corrected more severely than necessary in the opinion of Han’s wounded ego.

Ignoring this, Han persisted as if she had never spoken,“That must be one long adventure for you, princess.”

“One long misadventure is more like it.” Leia laughed, and somehow the gentle sound at odds with her abrasive words was a balm to his bruised pride. “Everything with you is a misadventure, but I signed up for that marrying you.”

A Soft Word That Never Is

“Booby-trap,” Han mused to Lando in a slightly slurred tone after too many pints of Corellian spiced ale at a cantina meant for smugglers and those on the wrong side of the Imperial law (an increasing number as the Emperor’s grip on the galaxy tightened).

He was recounting a thrilling tale made all the more exciting by its barely exaggerated veracity of narrowly dodging disaster and capture to his old drinking buddy but had sadly lost the thread of his story at the climax, coming to the lamentable conclusion:“It sounds like a soft word but it never is.”

Wookie Sidekick

“Do you ever get tired of being a Wookie sidekick to a handsome guy like me?” Han asked Chewie, admiring his dashing reflection in one of the many mirrors Lando had installed in the Falcon’s master suite. The Corellian bloodstripes were stunning.

Chewie’s rumbled response translated to: “Among the Wookies, I’m not a sidekick, and you aren’t handsome.”

This reply would’ve been devastating enough without Chewie punctuating it by mussing a massive paw through Han’s hair, completely ruining its style in the process.

Indignant at this assault, Han twisted out of Chewie’s reach. “Especially not after you’ve wrecked my hair.”

A Potential Love-Interest

“Do you think a beautiful girl like Princess Leia could ever see a scoundrel like me as a potential love-interest?” Han asked Chewie in a rare moment of vulnerability often brought on by a bout of drinking after the medal ceremony on Yavin IV.

“You aren’t a scoundrel any more.” Chewie pointed at the medal Han wore around his neck. “You’re a hero. That medal marks you as a hero.”

“A hero.” Han tugged at his earlobe, considering what this status elevation meant for his romantic prospects with the princess. “A hero is a perfect match for a princess.”

Hero of His Own Story

“They say everyone is the hero of his own story.” Luke was too meditative for Han’s current conversational preferences.

“They’re wrong,” scoffed Han. “I’m the proud scoundrel of my own story.”

“Vader was once a Jedi like me.” Luke’s growing obsession with understanding Vader was a mystery to Han. “What if he used to think of himself as a hero like I do now? What if he still thinks of himself as one?”

“Then he was or still is crazy as you.” Han rolled his eyes. “Only a crazy person ever imagines he’s a hero especially when he’s a tyrant.”

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha As always, thank you so much for commenting! I'm so glad that you found this set to have wonderful snark and affection. With Han, the snark just seems to come naturally, and then with his friendships to Chewie and to Luke as well as his romance with Leia, I like to think that the relationships despite the snark are filled with genuine affection. So I hoped to be able to show both in these drabbles, and I'm so happy you felt I succeeded with that!

@earlybird-obi-wan Thank you so much for commenting! I definitely pictured Han and his friends as being the emotional heart of these drabbles, so I'm so happy that you found these to offer great insights into Han and his friends

@amidalachick Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! I really enjoyed writing this set and being able to show both the snide and more reflective sides of Han, so I'm so happy to hear that you had fun with this set as well. Adventure warmed my heart as a Han/Leia moment, and I'm so flattered that you found it to be perfect that way. And I couldn't resist letting Leia get in on the snark action

I may have been smirking as I wrote Booby-trap so I'm so glad you found it so amusing, and Chewie's line in Sidekick was probably the humor highlight of this set for me, so it makes me so pleased to see you highlight it in particular and to know that it made you laugh out loud!

With "Love Interest" and "Hero," I did enjoy making Han a bit more reflective but I wanted to prevent Han and the tone from becoming too serious so I still tried to inject some of that witty, sarcastic Han.

I think Han is both a scoundrel and a hero, which is what makes him a perfect match for his Princess Leia