Beyond - Legends Saga Enter the Drabble (UDC X, AU, Sky/Solos, OCs, and more)

I mean, what else could any of us expect

I love what this says about Veeran: he puts on a show of being matter of fact and untouched by the reactions of others, but he's not. He's not at all. There are depths to this boy that he'd rather keep hidden, and maybe even keep from acknowledging himself.

The bond between these two is fascinating. They're devoted to each other and always have been, but that's despite a lot of factors, not because of them. In a happier reality ( ) they might have been emotionally healthy enough on an individual level to have more authentic self-awareness and open communication, but in the Enter!verse they've been dealing with trauma since early childhood, well before the Sith took them, and I don't think either of them could explain their connection if they were asked. I don't think either of them could say that they loved the other, or articulate anything they really had in common. It's more just an unspoken bond - you can't stop being siblings, and Force-sensitive siblings, especially twins, have a Force bond that ties them together. In the Enter!verse, each of them is almost an unhealthy habit for the other, as much as anything else in their lives. They annoy the heck out of each other, and they often goad each other into even worse thought patterns and behavior, but who else do either of them have?

Dorian lies to everyone else; Veeran lies to himself

I mean, honestly, fair. Yes, there are plenty of dangerous people who hide it well, but it's hard to believe that Veeran could give off an entirely convincing vibe along those lines.

He's...not entirely wrong? His coping mechanisms are entirely wrong, but not the motivation behind them. You can't exactly blame a brutalized child for doing what they had to do to survive. But these words give away Veeran's big secret: he could torture himself over it. He doesn't, because it would be too much, so he's shut off that part of his brain. Dorian, in true opposite twin fashion, tortures himself over it all the time and kind of feeds off it. Veeran can't face up to it.

Uh-huh

Look, Dorian's not right either in his constant reiteration of his own monstrous status. (Everyone in this galaxy needs such extensive therapy...) But Dorian's expectation of being viewed as a monster at least means he's not cut off at the knees when it happens.

Realistically, what it means is that this girl will never again trust her own instincts

 

Aw, shucks

Whew, god tier timing and usage of Hamilton quotes, I might have to pace now myself

I knew it

Except that I have mixed emotions because you're encouraging her to write more about Mara's death, and we all know how I feel about that one

 

@earlybird-obi-wan

Thank you so much!




@vader_incarnate

Okay, you have to write this now.

Lol that would nest very nicely in the happy AU!

I was gonna say, there's always the Gothic quote roulette, but then you wrote such a brilliant response already. Then again, there's still plenty of time until October, and I look forward to seeing what rollercoasters your muse takes you on.

Heh, you're actually probably not all that out of the loop! This is a storyline that is going to be explored more in Beneath the Gods of the Bright Sky, if I can ever get the rest of it finished. I actually realized after posting this that I've never introduced Talia anywhere else, and the character Yaanis is a very minor blink-and-you'll-miss-him one from EtF. But to sum up? This is basically the Sith high school from hell.

Aw, thanks!

It's been really fascinating writing both Ferrus and Festus and their very opposite reactions to all their trauma and the various coping mechanisms they develop to deal with it all, while still writing them as twisted and dangerous villains. It's usually very obvious what a mess Festus is, so I've enjoyed showing that, in his own way, Ferrus is possibly just as screwed up.

Oh man, Elli, this scenario comes from the story I lovingly refer to as "Sith Lord bar night", and I can't wait for you to get to it. 7,500 words of snark and drinking and murder and weird-yet-not sibling dynamics and unexpected emotional stuff that left me literally in tears as I wrote it and yeah... good times.

I have so many feelings about this, and I love that something I wrote could spur this sort of discussion. I think you're right about the choice aspect when it comes to Ferrus, in both respects. On the one hand, it's really hard to overcome trauma and break unhealthy behavior patterns and override ingrained neurological pathways. There's no getting around what a monumental thing that is, to break free of that. But at the same time, all it can take sometimes is one seemingly small choice to interrupt the pattern, alter the course, take a breath long enough to see where all the other terrible choices are taking you and decide that you don't want to go that way anymore. And that doesn't mean that everything is automatically fixed either, but if you can make one good choice, it helps pave the way for more good choices. I do tend to think of the dark side - in some respects at least - as an addiction, which helps explain the fear of falling into it and having it dominate your destiny and why it's so hard to claw your way out of it, and also why so many willingly choose to succumb to their darker natures even when it does nothing to improve their lives. It's not a complete explanation, and in terms of narrative I wouldn't want to give the dark side power to override free will and choice, because I think that's an essential part of SW, that ultimately we each have to make our own choices, whether to do what is right or wrong or good or bad or whatever. So I guess what it boils down to is that I take sort of a middle ground between "the dark side made me do it!" and "the Force has no sides, the only dark side is the one in your own heart"... probably leaning more toward the latter.

Thank you so much for your awesome feedback, Elli! I loved reading it and getting all meta about the dark side and choice and stuff.




@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

Yeah, Sith high school is kinda the worst, but I imagine there still has to be some snark and levity at times.

Probably half-genuine, half-attempted detachment, if that makes any sense. Ferrus is very much the type to compartmentalize and rationalize his actions so that he doesn't have to deal with the messy emotions those actions might stir up in him, but at the same time, he's not completely blind to his own hypocrisy.

It really is an escape for him, in more ways than one.

Thank you! I think there are a lot of complicating factors when it comes to making that choice, especially for Ferrus, who has been groomed by the Sith since he was a young child. After so many years of burying trauma and doing what he had to in order to survive, I think his current path probably is the easier and more natural one, because those are the patterns he's established. I think it would actually be immensely more difficult for him to make better choices, because it would mean confronting a part of himself that he denies is even there. And yet, like I mentioned above to vader_incarnate, that doesn't mean he can't suddenly make the right choice. I think that's what makes both twins so fascinating and tragic to write, that you can still see the people they might have been if they could only break free of the dark... but their choices continue to drive them further and further into it.




@Gabri_Jade

*takes a bow*

Hee, I just love reading your analysis of these characters; it's always so good and so spot-on. Veeran naturally gravitates toward positions of leadership among his peers, and he gives off that confident, untouched air, but he's nearly always seeking the approval of others, whether he realizes it or not, and he often takes his cues from those around him. And at this point in his life, he's obviously been forced to tamp down emotions and reactions that the Sith would view as a weakness, so there's that.

It iiiissss, I love it and them so much, Gabri. Once again, spot-on perfect analysis is spot-on and perfect! I really can't put it any better than that. "Each of them is almost an unhealthy habit for the other"... wow, YEP.

I will never not love this perfect observation.

lolol, yeah, even though he didn't really take on a new persona when he became a Sith Lord and he doesn't come across anywhere near as unhinged as Dorian does, I suppose Veeran doesn't exactly give off a safe and gentle vibe. I think the only time he ever truly came close to seeming normal was when he was with Iselle, and even then, it was a very brief time, and when the blinders came off, boy did they come off.

This. All of this. I wish I had more or better comments to add to this, but you've really said it all. (And I do love exploring all those opposite twin aspects with them.)

Exactly this. Exactly.

Poor Iselle, she didn't even really want to go out that night, she mainly did it because her friends wanted her to go.

(Also, thank you for all your amazing commentary, you're the absolute best!! )

Oh, Gabri... but it was so artistically done.




@Mira_Jade

Hee, thanks! I meant to do more with the box in this set of drabbles, but the prompts took me in a different direction. I'll have to swing back around to this at some point!

Aww, I'm so glad you enjoyed the Padmé and Allana interaction! I definitely have a soft spot for the two of them together. It really is fun to mix and match all the generations in fanfic, and maybe especially in our happier AUs where so many of the characters are still alive.

I love Han and Anakin's dynamic so much, it's ridiculous. Also, think about this, Mira: this is EtF Anakin, which means he already knew about Han before Leia even met him, and in this world he's been actively trying to ensure that all of his family still ends up existing, so I'm just saying... Anakin Skywalker, matchmaker.

Of course, that doesn't mean Anakin is going to go easy on Han either...

When I saw the prompt "outrun", the first thing I thought of was Luke in ANH, giving Han a hard time, and I couldn't resist a nod to that here.

I've been waiting so long to write happy AU Jacen, and it's so satisfying after everything canon put him through. (And me too, although I probably never would have done it if canon hadn't done it first, and done it so awfully.) I think he still would have been an amazing Jedi Knight if canon hadn't taken him down the Sith/dark side route, but I also think it's entirely plausible that being a Jedi first and foremost wasn't the best role for him and that he would have been happier doing something else, so that's where I'm going with this.

I really needed these happy brother-sister vibes for Jacen and Jaina... especially after what I did to them in that vig I'm writing for the main 'verse...

Hapes is a completely ridiculous murder world, but if anyone can help Tenel Ka deal with it, I think Jacen can.

It's always about the smallest reactions with Mara. She's not over-the-top and is hardly ever going to express herself in that way. I'm glad this scene was so vivid for you despite the brevity!

HE'S DOING SO GOOD IN THIS WORLD, MIRA!

Aw, I'm so glad you think so! I definitely have a hard time picturing Mara's family any other way now.

I couldn't resist a little angst, I'm sorry, I had to do it!

Yay, I'm really glad to hear this! Padmé is one of those characters that I don't write all that often - or at the very least, it's been a while - so it's always great to know that I'm getting her voice right.

I really have enjoyed writing them at this stage, brief though it has been so far.

The galaxy is not ready.

Aww, this means a lot to me, truly.

I will definitely have to write that moment at some point.

Believe me, I really do want to get around to posting all of this stuff, but especially the happy AU princess/knight version of Allana and Dorian...

Heh, more like he's stubborn and defiant and in Sith high school that results in a lot of injuries.

(Pfft, like the doctor would ever send Dorian to medical. After all, isolation is a great way to break someone... )

(Also, this incident will show up in BtGotBS, and no, despite what Yaanis says, Veeran did not get his arm broken on purpose.)

(Okay, technically not on purpose.)

(I should just finish the chapter already, shouldn't I?)

You know how much I enjoy giving depth to the bad guys. And Veeran is still Veeran, no matter where he is.

Eep.

This is another perfect summation of their relationship, and I always love reading your take on them, because you get it. I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of writing about these two, Mira. In any 'verse.

I don't even know where this one came from exactly, but I loved finding ways to twist this and all the other seemingly peaceful prompts. I couldn't resist that reference to FoG either. In some way, I think the use of a blaster instead of his lightsaber is Ferrus's way of distancing himself from his Sith past... but obviously he never really gives it or the lightsaber up, and he never gives up being a killer either.

And I was looking most specifically at the term as used to describe a romantic interlude, which... yeah, technically Ferrus has had a lot of those. Well, maybe not terribly romantic in many cases, but that's what makes it such a jarring twist on the prompt word.

I imagine he's not consorting with the most reputable sorts of people here, so of course it's not like any of them are going to expect that he's some normal, upstanding person either. And a good portion of them are probably at least aware of the fact that he's a not-quite-former Sith Lord, so yeah, I'm sure they'd want to compartmentalize and pretend he's not that bad, because at the barest surface level, he doesn't appear to be. (I might be rambling a bit incoherently here )

(And then there's a different reason behind Ferrus's desire to pretend that I can't fully get into here, since I haven't gotten that far in BtGotBS, but I think you already know what it is, and it just makes this all a hundred times sadder. )

Absolutely.

That really was one of those moments where the veils just fell from his eyes and he couldn't hide behind the lies he'd constructed for himself, and it broke my heart to write it in End of the Line, as well as here.

*curtsies* Why thank you. I so love writing their opposites (but sometimes not) dynamic.

Right?? I can't tell you how much writing those parts of End of the Line hurt. I was totally unprepared for the feelings, Mira. Iselle should absolutely run far, far away and possibly change her name and move to a different city or planet but also gaaaah, my emotions!

(And to think there was a time when I worried that Ferrus wasn't as complex or interesting a character as Festus. )

Are you suuuure you want the context, Mira??

Okay, to be honest, my thoughts on when this occurs are pretty vague, because I think there are multiple times in Veeran's life when this would make sense, so I'll probably just leave it at that.

(But if you're wondering if I had an emotionally devastating event in mind while writing this, then yes, yes I did. )

Thank you so much as always for your lovely feedback. You might not thank me for the next set... or maybe you will...

 

Notes: Welp, I had several false starts with this set of prompts, trying to use some better known ECs, until I finally decided to fall back on an OC who comes pretty easily to me. (Or as @Gabri_Jade put it, I decided to lean into my strengths ). So here are my week 5 drabbles, featuring my other beloved trash lord OC, Darth Festus... and my not-so-beloved Sith OC, Doctor Mezzon.

---

Week Five
(43-50 ABY, Enter!verse AU)



21. Prolix


Sometimes the speech is unceasing.

At first, he only understands one word in ten; they spill out at a frantic pace, as if the doctor’s brain is firing too rapidly for his mouth to keep up, resulting in long stretches of muttered rambling that Dorian only later realizes are a grotesque simulacrum of conversation.

Over time, he becomes more adept at parsing the doctor’s speech, until he comprehends everything that is said, and understands that much of the formerly incoherent oration is directed at him.

Maybe that isn’t strange, when he’s the only one who’s managed to survive this long.



22. Duress


There are times when he considers saying no. It’s not as if he’s ever been forced onto the table. He climbs up there every day of his own volition, except on days when the doctor deems him too weak, too exhausted—

(too drained)

—to endure the usual procedures. But what would happen if he refused, just once? Could he fight back?

He never breathes a word of those thoughts, but the old man is a canny bastard.

“I do sometimes wonder,” he says one day, “how your brother would have fared in your place?”

Dorian never considers saying no again.



23. Perception


He starts out as Jedi. A reviled creature among the Sith, particularly useful for demonstrating their various forms of brutality. He has it on good authority from Veeran that the label of Jedi exponentially increases the beatings and ridicule.

He’s kept apart from the others, so he doesn’t ever experience their mockery in person. But after his first kill, when he finally joins the initiates, when he has to walk past them with blood still crusting his fingernails, they give him a new name, uttered with disdain and through clenched teeth.

Psycho.

He can’t help thinking they’re right about that.



24. Nuance


One minute, he is observing – the next, there’s a scalpel pressed into his hand.

“I thought you might like to try today,” the doctor says simply, as if they’ve done this a thousand times.

His mentor steps away from the table, leaving Festus alone with the child. Her eyes are wide and frightened and delirious. She doesn’t know where she is, or who she is.

His hand moves without conscious thought. Find the carotid, slide the blade in, one precise stroke.

The doctor returns and sighs, irritated. “One of these days, my boy, you must learn the value of restraint.”



25. Tenebrous


Château Malreaux is a tomb, a monument soaked in the blood of some long-dead noble house. Festus is used to living near tombs; he spent years on Korriban, looking down on a valley of ancient Sith graves – but this is not the same. This is a madness that seeps from the walls, drenching him to the bone. This is a voice that whisper-shouts from every rafter, echoes off every stone, bores into his head where he’ll never dig it out.

—what kind of monster are you—

This is where he belongs. Tomb, haven, cocoon, charnel…

This is his home now.


~~

Spoiler: End Notes

In case that wasn't depressing enough, here are a couple more stories set during the same pre-EtF timeframe:

• The Lands of the Dead (I'm gonna be straight with you: this is the one with the vivisection)
• Here There Be Monsters (Dorian encounters monsters on Korriban)

 

WOW Festus and doctor dead. Creepy

 

*drags over a chair*

Vi. I have this quasi-meta theory that the metaphor for the Dark Side addiction is in fact accidental Jedi propaganda that actually obscures the true purpose and nature of the Sith, which is abuse. Because in the OT we have the verbiage of seduction and it forever dominating your destiny and the idea of falling and slipping and the Light side being technically more difficult to use and to hold onto, right? And the drug addiction metaphor works very well for emotional moments - but that's all coming from the Jedi perspective in the OT.

But then in the PT we see Anakin coming back from the Dark Side after massacring a village of Tuskens, the women and children too - without any seeming to linger on his soul in a way that a Temple full of psychics would notice. So he's seemingly able to let go of it, pretty easily. And Vader even turns back at the last moment when he saves Luke. So that seems to contradict the idea of seduction, the idea of it dominating your destiny - it's actually very forgiving. And you have to want it more than it wants you; the Dark Side is an inherently unnatural way to use the Force, and you have to keep making the decision to use it over and over again.

So I think that the Jedi have this idea that the Dark Side is a certain way - because they don't really know. And the Sith don't mind that they think it's like that, because why would they want the Jedi to know. But I THINK the purpose of the Sith, the nature of the Sith, is to abuse someone and break someone in just the right way that they keep making these terrible choices over and over again, against their instinct and better nature. Because with just a simple choice, they could turn back, as Vader showed. So you have to break them so much that they - don't. That they keep choosing again and again to embrace the Dark.

Been there.

ugly and wonderful

Star Wars is about family and relationships, even in those bleak moments when you don't expect it to be.

Ooo, the image of blood crusting his fingernails is so engrossing and evocative.

oh, Dorian. You poor child killing child.

Lovely, I love the phrasing here.

DO YOU KNOW I went searching through the mainline fic on AO3 with "Ctrl+F" to try to find it, using Gabri's admittedly inexact remembrance of the quote and couldn't find it, and I dismissed it because Gabri said that wasn't the exact wording anyway, and it never even occurred to me that it was in a completely different fic

 

Well, now I feel vaguely guilty for sending you on a wild goose chase But yeah, TLotD is the one with the vivisection and it's dark and gorgeous and heartbreaking and you'll love it, ya angstmonger

 

*timeout high five*

 

*high fives back*

I might actually need an angst breather, believe it or not.

 

And now Mira gets to fully experience what I have known for the better part of twenty years: you two are very troublesome whippersnappers

 

He's so creepy, Vi, whhhyyyyyy

I mean, seriously, timeout corner

Well, that sounds about right

Because it's easier to slap that label on himself than to believe he's an ordinary person trapped in this sort of situation.

TIMEOUT CORNER. NOW.

I'm telling you, emotional oubliette, right here. (Although I do appreciate what is possibly my first ever chance to use this word outside of a spelling list

I request bebeh!Mara with poofy dresses for the next set. Or happy Skywalker family moments. You've used up all your angst allotment this week

 

@earlybird-obi-wan

Heh, thanks! I was definitely going for creepy with these.




@vader_incarnate

I love getting to read your meta. Also, YES, the abuse my gosh. That's really how I see it.

YEP.

*high fives*

Hee

IT IS, I LOVE IT SO MUCH, ELLI.

I tried.

Right? To think that the only way he can hold onto any small piece of his old self is to literally murder a child... like, if that isn't enough to mess you up, idk?

(My glowstick, Elli. )

Yay, I'm glad you liked it! I was pretty happy with how this part turned out.

Lol, yeah, in EtF Festus is a straight-up psychopath stalker with a crush, and for years and years I never had any plans to explore his character beyond that story. TLotD was the first time I ever wrote Festus before he was Festus, and it was also the first time I ever wrote from his POV. I wrote it in less than two weeks and it kinda wrecked me. (And since it took me forever to write these replies, you've already read it, and you know why it wrecked me, you're welcome. )




@Mira_Jade

(But now I can't not think about the possibility of Veeran purposely getting himself sent to medical, maybe when he was a bit younger, before he realized Dorian would never be there... )

I knoooooow. I would really love to finish the entire story by the end of the year, but we'll see what happens. (Also, your BtGotBS review fed my soul, so thanks for that! )

Aw, shucks, Mira.

Dearly loathed is right! I'm not sure what it says about me that I can write him so creepily, but it's been effective, so I'll take it!

As soon as I decided to write these from Dorian's POV, Prolix was a no-brainer; I'm really pleased with how all of these turned out, terrible though they are.

It really is a sick bond, isn't it? Just... yeah.

And the fact that he thinks he chose this...

I just went where the story naturally took me, Mira...

(I shouldn't have laughed at the not-pun, but I did )

I don't think I'll ever get tired of telling it, either. These two, Mira.

Part Two of BtGotBS is called "Jedi Brat", so yeah, we're going to see that part of his identity play a sizable role for Veeran, who definitely takes the brunt of that hate.

Why thank you.

It's like Gabri has said before: if his whole life is going to be insanity anyway, there's more control in embracing that insanity than in fighting against it. And as much as Dorian never backs away from viewing himself as a monster, it's still a form of self-deception, to think of himself this way, because the truth isn't nearly that simple. And then those labels just reinforce that feeling he's had his whole life, of being the other... only now he's going to learn to use those labels to his advantage.

Right? My poor little glowstick.

(Remind me to explain the glowstick thing later. )

It occurs to me that the period from the end of TLotD until the beginning of EtF is one I really haven't explored at all, apart from these last couple drabbles, and omg isn't that just an open wound waiting to have some salt poured into it?

(I had wondered if this drabble would seem to contradict those lines - if they're the same ones you thought of - and I can't say more here without spoiling things, but I'm actually really happy with that apparent contradiction, I think it tells you a lot about his thought process and what he wants others - or one particular person - to believe or know about him... if that makes any sense?)

Festus was just so unhinged and so screwed up in EtF, and particularly on Vjun, and we never see into his head while he's there, so I enjoyed getting the chance to explore that just a tiny bit. That mansion really is the perfect creepy backdrop for everything Festus has gone through and become.

I had time to reflect on my actions, and I have some happy drabbles next... but since it took me a month to finish them, I have also circled back around to all the angst, so don't get too cozy in the happy AU. And thank you, as always, for your most excellent feedback! I loved reading every word of it!

Who, me?




@Gabri_Jade

Awww

He iiiiiisssss.

My poor brave little glowstick.

Exactly.

(In all seriousness, though, your initial reaction to this drabble was a relief, because I wondered if it was too tame or too brief or not clear enough; thank you for silencing all my doubts. )

Once again, your initial reaction to these drabbles really boosted my confidence, so thanks for that. (Even if I did utterly depress you because yeah... no-room-to-move and no-hope-of-escape is exactly the feeling that I wanted to convey here. )

lolol, ask and you shall receive! (sometimes, anyway )

 

Notes: It took me way too long to write these drabbles. Is it because they're happier, and angst comes more naturally to me? Or can I just blame it on all the other WIPs I worked on last month? Yeah, we'll go with that.

This set of drabbles takes place once again in my happy AU, scattered across sixty years. You might notice I've kept to the BBY/ABY dating - this is purely for OOU reasons, because it's easier than the alternative. Also, we're finally getting a teeny tiny glimpse of some Skywalker daughters...

---

Week Six
(9 BBY – 51 ABY, Happy AU)



26. Crackle


Naboo’s moon is little more than a sliver tonight, and most of the light in the seating area comes from the fire burning gently in the cozy villa's fireplace. Anakin looks down at his sleeping children – Luke is draped across his lap, and Leia’s head is on her brother’s shoulder. Each of them is taking up way more space on the sofa than should be possible for a pair of ten-year-olds, but he doesn’t mind it. As he watches the light from the flames flicker across their faces, he is reminded of how grateful he is to be their father.



27. Rumble


“What do you say, Your Jediness? Up for a ride?”

“In that thing?” Leia shifts her weight and tilts her head back, casting a skeptical eye over the haggard old freighter. “What did you say your name was?”

He leans against the ramp’s hydraulics, spanner held loosely in one hand as he offers her a cocky, lopsided grin. “Han Solo,” he drawls. “And this here is the Millennium Falcon.”

“Charmed.”

The engines roar to life without warning, their energy thrumming against her senses.

“And that’s Chewie, my co-pilot. Sounds like he’s eager to get going.” His grin widens. “You coming?”



28. Thump


Mara watches the monitor as the device passes over her abdomen, and listens to it crackle and hiss as it searches for what she has already seen so vividly in the Force. But of course, her senses are much more finely attuned than her daughters’ are, and she wants them to be able to experience this in their own way.

The static issuing from the monitor ceases, replaced by a steadily pulsing rhythm, thumping rapidly. She can’t help smiling at the dawning wonder on Nidia and Eleri’s faces.

“Is that him?” Nidia whispers.

Next to them, Luke grins. “That’s him.”



29. Flutter


The dainty creature alights on his shoulder, its wings slowing to flap once, twice, before going still. He remains motionless, smiling as he watches Tenel Ka out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s beautiful,” she says, leaning in closer to look. “You said the wing flutes allow it to sing?”

“Only at night,” Jacen tells her, slowly lifting a finger to his shoulder. The shadowmoth recognizes him and crawls onto the offered perch. “That is, they’ll only sing at night.”

His heart skips a beat at her rare smile. “Then I suppose I will see you again tonight, Jacen.”



30. Splash


The rainy season on Ossus starts as it always does – not with a stray shower, but with an afternoon of deafening thunderclaps and streaks of blue-violet lightning fracturing the sky and dark clouds that unleash a warm deluge on everyone and everything in sight.

He closes his eyes and leans his head back, listening to the plop plop splash of raindrops as they hit the ground around him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Eyes still closed, Dorian smiles faintly at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Meditating.”

“You mean sleeping.”

A grin this time. “Nah. Just enjoying the weather.”


~~

 

sweet and all alive and happy

 

Crackle: Love Anakin snuggling with his kids on the couch. Rumble -- H/L goodness! Thump! Soon-to-be grandparents Luke and Mara for the win! Totally worth the wait, these were!

 

So much nicer than the other AUs I write, lol.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them! (That was actually Mara pregnant with Ben in that one drabble. )



And what do you know, I have another set of drabbles finished!



Notes: Okay, SO. This next set of drabbles is coming from waaay out in left field. I'd like to blame @vader_incarnate for all of her recent Dark Empire musings and fix-it fic and making Luke Skywalker a truly manipulative and terrifying Big Bad (see Black Pawn and Black Knight, and gird thyself), and @Gabri_Jade for the rapid-fire brainstorming session that resulted after I suggested that her idea for a 'verse where Mara grew increasingly paranoid that Luke hadn't quite given up all those Sith teachings would mesh really well with his canon portrayal in the Dark Nest trilogy and the Legacy of the Force series.

Yep, that's right. It's another LotF AU. (This one is a bit closer to canon than my Enter!verse. )

Enjoy?

---

Week Seven
(Fix-It-But-Not-Really Crack!fic LotF AU)



31. Infuse


It starts as a seed. He can feel it take root in his chest, right where Shimrra’s staff pierced him, and he wonders for a while if the poison is enslaving him somehow, unmaking him the way that Jacen was unmade.

He has been unmade before, though he never speaks of those lessons anymore. And yet… what if he had? Would it have made a difference, the lessons he learned on Byss? How many lives could that Luke Skywalker have saved? Could he have saved Chewie?

Could he have saved Anakin?

It’s only a seed for now, but it grows.



32. Immerse


Jacen knew it was a flawed premise from the start – defeating the darkness from within has a nice ring to it, but he’s always known what a slippery slope that would be. Still, what happened with Nelani was his choice; he’s tried since to believe it was the only way to hold back this encroaching darkness, to prevent the coming of someone far worse. But the dark figure haunting the periphery of his visions only grows stronger, as does the feeling that everything is about to come crashing down around him – and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.



33. Obstruct


He convinces them that it’s Jacen. He doesn’t have much choice; his nephew is clever and capable, and he doesn’t fear the dark. He might have made an excellent apprentice, in another life.

It’s almost scary, how willing his family is to believe it. Ben resists, because Ben loves Jacen wholeheartedly – but Ben loves his mother more, and as soon as Mara is found dead, Ben falls in line with the rest.

Luke shares these observations with the real Mara, locked in her padded cell, surrounded by as many ysalamiri as he could collect.

Despite everything, he still needs her.



34. Dissipate


“Was any of it real?” Mara asks one day. It seems like such a stupid thing to ask, in light of everything – how can it possibly matter anymore when his choices have led them here – but today she can’t help herself. She has to know.

(she isn’t so weak as to hope that he was ever truly hers, or that she was ever truly his)

He looks at her with those clear blue eyes – they’re still blue, what does that mean? – and smiles a melancholy smile. “Of course it was,” he says gently.

She believes him, and wishes she didn’t.



35. Obtain


In the end, Luke Skywalker is the perfect student.

Yes, he may have taken a few detours along the way, but those are to be expected when one plays the long game as he has. And even if he didn’t always intend to end up here, it hardly matters anymore. The last obstacles have fallen away, or been cut down, or removed quietly and with loving, surgical precision. The galaxy is his for the taking; all that’s left for him to do is claim it.

They will love him for it. In the end, they will kneel, and be glad.


~~

Spoiler: End Notes

 

*cackles*

Look, the sad part is that it's true. DN and LotF make a whole lot more sense if it turned out that Luke was going all dark side on us again. Why did such terrible books get approved? Why? And also, so many story possibilities with this AU

Anyway, I'll be back, but I love it, babe

 

Aaaah I'm so gleeful to have spread my DE brain bugs you have no idea, I'll be back

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

Fascinating!!! It's very plausible, a gradual slide masquerading as something /someone different behind it all. Similar to how Sidious 'hid' behind Dooku for the longest.

 

Dark but it's Skywalkers and Solo's

 

I just love the phrase "completely ridiculous murder world," yes, perfect. This is a good setting.

Ugh, gorgeously wrecked tho. That line, Vi. Here, have a crimson flower emoji bouquet.

I was reading something yesterday about "absolution by predestination," the idea that "this is what I am, therefore this is what I do." Or I am a monster, therefore I will be monstrous. And this poor child who is never able to free himself from this, who sees and rationalizes the gradual destruction of himself through this lens, because he's so defined by his trauma that he can't see a way out. Oh you poor glowstick. </3

I have so many thoughts and insecurities about this, personally, where I angstily stare at my own body of work and wonder why it's so much easier to write ugly things than beautiful ones And the answer for me personally is I think a lot of my metaphors for some reason fall naturally into some pretty weird body horror depictions that just don't work well with happiness. Eh, we learn and we grow.

Why are children like this, I don't understand how my very slim child spiders his arms and legs all over everything and takes up the entirety of a surface. Anakin gets it.

Eeee, a world where my favorite hateful murder cyborg ... isn't. I love it, and I wish I were the person who'd write more of it, but I'm not, and you did, so thank you. He gets to be happy with his children, Vi! And not traumatize them. I bet Luke gets to middle age with two organic hands.

Han, you can't just stick "-ness" on the end of a title and make it a nickname. Oh fine, I'll allow it. Just this once that is actually a second time.

Of course you are, Leia, because he's charming. I would love to see more of this developing relationship in this 'verse! Because yeah I want them to be together in every universe (cough ST cough) but also I'm so curious about how their relationship develops without ... a war going on in the background, you know?

Eee Skysisters. I want to see more of them, Vi! Also how dare you with this L/M family moment before that next set of drabbles, how dare you and also I love you

Aaaaa Vi, you kept his shadowmoth motif and made it happy!!

Oh, that was smooth, Jacen, well played.

And you kept their thunder and lightning motif and made that happy!! Also, lovely description.

Of course you still enjoy the rainy weather, little glowstick. <3

Ugh, I am just so happy. And I don't know enough about DN or LotF, but yes give me all the Luke Skywalker as terrifying Big Bad, that is utterly my vibe, I love it

I WILL, I ABSOLUTELY WILL, my mouth is slightly sore from smirking so hard, and how am I possibly going to get through this without quoting the set in its entirety

I have only a passing familiarity of the NJO and I read it a very long time ago and not even all of it at the time, but I appreciate so much your ability to repeat these motifs from both the profic and your own fics. The image of this seed growing, of springing from the Shimmra conflict, that just works so well here.

OH LUKE, NO. And also, I love this as the lure for Luke, the guilt and the thought that he could have done more, because that's just such a Skywalker thing, this need to save everyone. It almost parallels Anakin's failure to save his mother, how that defined so much of his story afterwards, the need to become more powerful so that he could do more.

UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE. I know I sent you and Gabri nearly the entire comic piecemeal, but I don't think I sent this particular panel, and this whole internal rationalization that Jacen has here just parallels so readily the wrong choice that Luke made, challenging the dark with the dark. Ugh, Luke, why. (I know why, bad writing, but still.)

("The moment for which Luke was born" indeed. Sniff.)

Hi, don't mind me, I just returned from the Wook to figure out who Nelani was, and - what? Jacen just kills her? Does it make more sense in the book? I was just trying to figure out if there was another branch in the Legends timeline that led to this kriff it up harder universe, but like. I always get lost in understanding why things happen in LotF.

And that just fits so nicely with the specter of the Dark Man in the books, doesn't it?

Ugh, he calls Jacen clever and capable in his internal monologue, but also he's displaying those traits very efficiently too, and that's what I want to see from him as a villain, honestly. And an excellent apprentice, in another life, that wistful thought. Because like, two hundred words ago you set up his fall by having him wonder if he could have saved Anakin, and to now instead be setting up Leia's other son - the depths to which he's fallen, can he see it?

Falls in line with the rest is just so ... simple. And that calm reflection on manipulating Ben's love, ugh.

And you know, Lumiya was a green-eyed redhead, and if you were a secret Sith with no compunctions against desecrating a corpse, you could probably rip out her cyborg parts and make a reasonable approximation at a corpse body-double for Mara if you had a closed casket funeral, and might even explain why you'd have saved her from falling off a cliff just to kill her afterwards, because if she fell off a cliff it'd be much harder to retrieve the body. [face_shrug]

This is some "split open my heart / with a knife, place you / within" levels of creepy romance, and gah, I'm here for it, that's my flavor, why am I like this.

And then the other direction my brain ran in was just ... picturing secret Sith Luke Skywalker herding ysalamiri like a rodeo cowboy to the tune of "Yakety Sax" and herding them into a box that he then has to transport to wherever his padded cell is, I have logistical questions.

Uggggh, why does this make me so happy. To have all those memories of what they were, but have that mean so little in the face of the current reality, it's so bittersweet, it's so good. And what does it mean that his eyes are still blue?? I need more of this 'verse.

Agh, it's so Sithy, I love it. The long game, and just the calm dismissal of "the detours" that were like. The best and most worthwhile parts of his life. The dark side is a helluva drug. And again with it hardly matters anymore, that same calm acceptance.

Loving, surgical precision is so concise and gets to the heart of this version of this character so well, and ugh I love it.

And that just dovetails so nicely with my headcanon of evil Luke, as just like ... the vision of Galadriel from FotR

Everything is horrible, the galaxy is doomed, the end, I love it.

 

Awww

Some things are the same in every AU

This will be interesting to see how your dynamic for Skysisters and mine wind up differing and being alike, let us write all the stories where Ben gets doted upon and ordered around by big sisters, I love it all

Heh, look at Jacen's smooth moves

Of course Dorian still hangs out in the rain

Ha, and of course Veeran is still Veeran, too

I had to look up Nelani, I totally forgot about her Argh, Jacen, whhhyyyyy

This is so twisted yet so much better than LotF

It still FREAKS ME RIGHT OUT how this theory makes DN and LotF make sense. They're so terrible and so out of character - unless this is what was going on behind the scenes, and then suddenly everything just falls into place

This is just appalling writing, I am so annoyed

I'm dying