Saga Saga - ST Saga - Legends On the Creation of Monsters [UDC X Response]

I met Kari once!

Today's young Star Wars fan have the ST 'ship wars (team anything but Reylo!), but we'll always remember Luke's many many EU assignations fondly

Honestly just really fun bit of monologue to write, too, I guess I conceive my version of Lumiya to be a teasing femme fatale like Catwoman to Batman or Black Cat to Spider-Man? I haven't read enough of LotF to see how that characterization bears out, I just grabbed the Kindle version of this book to read this fight scene (and almost immediately messaged you to ask wtf they were thinking) and then refreshed my memory of her history from Wookiepedia

Omg Gabri IN THE BOOK she's about to fall but he saves her and says, "I'd never let you fall," and pulls her up - AND THEN decapitates her. I'm using the bones of the scene that Traviss provided but putting my own spin on them

"I'd never let you fall" is a very Luke thing to say! And I'm all for edgy moral grayness, and I'll absolutely write angsty Luke-touches-Darkness stories until the cows come home. But you have to be able to justify it?

This is the first major storyline after RotS, the parallels are right there and if they're trying to make Lumiya into a Palpatine-like political manipulator, I will lean into it.

Not to mention how you have incorruptible Jedi dueling his friend turned Sith with whom he has a complicated past relationship just after a MASSIVE betrayal and how can you not see Obi-Wan and Anakin in this, Karen, take a few pages to dig into this before we get back to Boba Fett and -

Why did they hire people to write Star Wars books who didn't like Star Wars?

I know I said I'm never revisiting LotF again after this, but I might have to rewrite this whole book because Karen Traviss did it wrong and I didn't even cover Mara's death scene or Jaina's complete mishandling yet (why is she written like a sulky teenager, she is nearly 30), which will be difficult because I'm already rewriting Dark Empire which offended me in all sorts of different ways -

It's really a lot of work to be a Star Wars fan, isn't it? I love these characters in spite of what's been done to them

Vi I think I understand how the Enter!verse was born

I have a soft spot for cyborg Sith with a complicated relationship with Luke Skywalker If I had a nickel for each time that happened, I'd have two nickels.

Master Skywalker has gone through a lot and I'm willing to see him face difficult choices and moral ambiguity but Luke Skywalker doesn't straight up murder people, Karen -

Weirdly, the first time in a long while I've written actual uncorrupt Luke and maybe the first time outside a crack fic? But I do know how, unlike some people. Funny how dad jokes and impotent rage at a 20 year old piece of media can inspire someone like that

I love brie! Maybe I'll have some with breakfast, I just happen to have some in the fridge.

I am nothing if not committed to the bit

 

Excellent duel of sabers and words! Fascinating tie back to their days as Luke and Shira.

 

If I had a nickel for every Sith cyborg with a complicated past relationship with Luke Skywalker, I'd have two nickels Thank you!



So BASICALLY Tom Veitch made Luke into Palpatine's apprentice in Dark Empire way back in 1991. And then I decided his version sucked and instead of fixing it, I broke Luke harder in "Black Pawn" and "Black Knight." (I'm going to fix him in "Black King" - somehow. I'm committed. It's a process. It was going to be a vig and now it might be a multi-chapter endeavor.)

And then @Gabri_Jade locked him up on Myrkr in "Broken." Go read it and wreck yourself on gorgeous prose, just do it now.

And after that very long backstory, I had A TON OF THOUGHTS about Luke-in-jail-on-Myrkr, and I had to share some of them with you, so have some drabbles about that.

But honestly, I have even more thoughts; having lots of multidisciplinary Star Wars adjacent thoughts is why I'm here in this forum writing these things out in the first place.


36. Squall

His first seedlings die in an unexpected late spring squall, and he can only laugh ruefully at that - he's never actually grown anything before, why would he expect to have a green thumb?

But the next are trampled, and his guard growls, "My brother died on Mon Cal, bastard."

It's jarring, not to have felt that emotion from him.

He wants to say, I tried to save everyone, I sabotaged his World Devastators, but I couldn't do more without arousing suspicion. I'm sorry.

But there is no try: only do, or do not.

And he did.

He doesn't plant again.


37. Doldrums

"You've got the doldrums," Leia teases lightly at her next visit - and what can he say to that? Of course he does?

It's reflexive to try to run through the Jedi calming techniques, and it's still a slap in the face when they do nothing, and he's just so frustrated with himself that he even made the attempt, and he snaps at her, "No shavit, what did you expect?"

Her eyes widen for just the barest moment, and then a mask slips into place and - he can't feel her, he can't feel his sister, and that will never stop hurting.


38. Depth

In more lucid moments he knows he's losing his mind.

Leia is a touchstone, but as the years pass by he remains unable to act help try and fix it, it breaks him further, and he knows he can't handle this alone he's out of his depth.

No appeals will be heard.

And yet he can't stop appealing submitting pleading begging his case to Leia because who else will listen until one day it's just Han who comes.

"She needed a break, Kid," he says.

From then on, Luke refuses to see either of them. It's a private, self-destructive rebellion.


39. Tide

the ebb and flow and tides and ripples of the living Force are absent here and he didn't know how much he needed them

it's like he's dead but there is no death there is the Force there is no death there is no Force

I will not turn I will not turn did I turn already why does it matter

now he's blind and deaf and senseless stars above and hells below Force within a thousand golden eyes staring back from the dark

who is he now he doesn't know he knows only through victory my chains are broken


40. Celerity

The realization when it hits is so obvious that he can only laugh, and he springs upon it with an eager, all encompassing celerity.

It's this: the secrets pervading his blood and written on his bones are still there, even in the absence of the Force, and he doesn't need the cold place to see the clear path.

He practices the old smile in the mirror a few times, to see if he's still got it; he does.

Leia is so overjoyed to see that smile again that she doesn't bother to look behind it.

She can't feel him either.

 

I promised someone at some point that I was going to write a drabble set about a bunch of Padawans messing around with cheese, and I finally did it. It doesn't really fit the overall thread theme of "drabbles mostly about the Sith" but it's the disaster lineage, and two of them become Sith so it's at least adjacent, right?


41. Per Se

Dooku was sulking, and it took Sifo Dyas a few attempts to figure out why. None of the masters had seemed upset with them after all, and if anything Master Yoda had seemed - amused?

The prevailing attitude hadn't been so much how dare they as not this again. It was apparently a time honored Padawan tradition.

And then Sifo realized: it wasn't the mess, or the failure, per se. It was the waste.

"That was a very rare cheese," Dooku sniffed.

That snotty priss.

"It was," Sifo agreed in exasperation. "Emphasis on the past tense. Stop pouting and help scrub."


42. Ad Hoc

Dooku pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "And why do you have a dozen jars of half ripened cheeses?"

Qui-Gon's eyes couldn't have been wider in their pantomime of innocence, and he tripped over his tongue as he tried to explain, "You see, Master, I found a wounded - "

Another pathetic lifeform. Of course.

" - and I didn't know if its mother would come back, so I started collecting milk to nurse it back to health - "

Ad hoc nursemaid. What had he expected.

" - but then its mother did come back and then the milk just maybe curdled? A bit? But - "


43. Vice Versa

The trouble with Obi-Wan and Siri, Qui-Gon reflected, was that you never really knew which one of them had originated and which had followed, or vice versa. But Qui-Gon couldn’t help but smile. It was a time-honored tradition, after all.

“So,” he prodded eventually. “What did you conclude?”

The boy didn’t look up, just answered while staring down forlornly at his hands. “Lightsabers don’t make good grilled cheese.”

“And why is that?”

“Because the cheese explodes, Master.”

Qui-Gon waited a beat, and then asked, “And you’re sure that’s an indictment of the method? Or ... simply the specific type of cheese?”


44. De Facto

Anakin had somehow become the de facto cook for the group, and Obi-Wan appreciated that. Really, he did. But Anakin’s late entry into the Temple had robbed him of certain ... knowledge and experience that the other Jedi Padawans had enjoyed far earlier in their careers.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was an exemplary Jedi, skilled in the Force and wise beyond his years. And it was still very difficult not to laugh at his very tall, very confused ex-Padawan covered in what could only be described as a near volcanic eruption of bright orange cheese.

“Lightsaber shortcut?” he asked, as neutrally as possible.


45. Et Cetera

Luke Skywalker had his father’s eyes, and even after all these long years, seeing Anakin’s eyes the color they used to be brought a pang. But Ahsoka shook it off, as she always managed to do, and sent him an encouraging smile.

He looked hesitant. “You’re sure this is one of the most important Jedi traditions?”

She nodded solemnly and managed to keep an absolutely straight face. “Perhaps even the most important. Passed down from master to apprentice through eons, et cetera.”

“Honestly, this seems like an elaborate hazing ritual.”

“It’s that,” she admitted. “But it’s more than that, too.”

 

love the fun in these with the cheese involved in every one

 

Week Nine: heartbreaking. Week Ten: ... Fun and lighthearted!

 

Thank you! The new canon Brotherhood novel makes an offhand mention of lightsaber cheese experiments, and that just seemed so fun. Like, yes the Jedi are a caste of warrior monks, but also they have generations of telekinetic children who probably got into all sorts of mischief doing slightly outside the bounds of normal kid stuff.

Honestly I feel like "500 words of Luke going insane" IMMEDIATELY followed by "heartwarming cheese shenanigans" is the best possible summary of my broader body of work.

---

Week 10. Obi-Wan and Yoda, OT.


46. Tetchy

The smallest things unexpectedly remind him of Anakin, and like the sandstorms of the Dune Sea, the grief comes not in oceanic waves, predictable and rhythmic and expected, but in sudden and violent storms.

Obi-Wan feels it build behind his eyes like an upcoming migraine, like muscles that don't even exist are suddenly clenched tight. The sorrow is too big for his heart to contain.

If he notices the warning signs - headache, inexplicable irritation - he can get to safety. Shelter from the storm, take a second or two to think of hapier things and try to shunt the grief away.


47. Mischievous

Despite all his years, Yoda has never been good at telling humans apart. Though Obi-Wan warned him, to both Yoda's eyes and his Force sense, this golden haired, blue eyed human boy who glows so brightly with strength and unrealized potential -

- is this how Sidious had seen Anakin? The perfect puzzle piece to bring his decades of plans to fruition?

Yoda masks his misgivings in riddles and mischief, and he tries to dismiss the reflexive comparisons - too old, too fearful - to evaluate the son on his own merits, rather than continuing to be haunted by the ghost of the father.


48. Daring

Obi-Wan remembers the screaming matches aboard the Negotiator and the Resolute, when Anakin refused to entertain the idea of loss, would rather risk his own life than those of his men no matter the wisdom or strategic advantage.

Vader is not like Anakin in this. Obi-Wan has studied his battle tactics, and the Dark Lord easily throws away armies to quell resistance.

And yet the experience echoes again, trying to gainsay this daring young commander from rushing in to save his friends.

What does this mean, that he's telling Luke to be less like Anakin, to make sacrifices like Vader?


49. Prudent

Yoda is sorely tempted to take the choice out of his hands. The old Grand Master has never been a mechanic, but it’s far easier to break a starfighter than to fix one, and he knows he could manage to forestall the boy - this impatient, imprudent, impudent Skywalker boy - until his training is ... if not complete, then at least more complete.

But twenty years of exile have hammered home a lesson he has been learning for nearly nine hundred years, and in this Yoda is determined to listen to the will of the living Force, and he will not intervene.


50. Ornery

"Too like his father he is," Yoda observes waspishly, and Obi-Wan can only agree. He sees it, can't stop seeing it: the brash overconfidence, the impatience, the recklessness.

But death has tempered the storms of his grief into something calmer, and he can see Anakin's strengths as well.

He remembers the way Anakin looked at Ahsoka, the quiet pride and quiet love, and Obi-Wan thinks that perhaps - if Luke is right, if there's anything left ... he fervently hopes it can be that, and that Vader might see the boy and remember, too. It's a faint hope but refuses to die.

 

Week 11. Leia and Vader, ANH AU


51. Heretofore

As the reality of Alderaan's destruction burst through her awareness, ripped through her mind with a pain that she vaguely recognized wasn't actually her own but was so similar to it that she felt herself being washed away, drowning in its tide - Leia realized that she was cold. Colder than she had ever been in her life.

It wasn't a conscious decision but a reflex: she wanted to hurt him, strangle him, imagined her hands eagerly stretching out and gripping crushing breaking -

Tarkin's own hands flew defensively to his throat to ward off an unseen attacker -

And then he died.


52. Unbeknownst

There was a scramble amongst the survivors and it took Leia a moment to realize that they weren't retreating from her, but from Vader.

He stood impassively staring at her, and she felt from him a sharp tingle of ... curiosity, as if a previously unnoticed insect had been revealed to possess the unbeknownst power of speech.

"Leave us," he rumbled, and the room was quickly evacuated.

Leia was terrified but she didn't drop her gaze, kept her blazing eyes affixed to his optical plates, tried to ignore and dismiss the rising panic that threatened to overwhelm even the crushing despair.


53. Nevermore

"Your hatred gives you strength," Vader said at last. "It is a powerful weapon. But you must train it, hone it - only then will you be able to use it to defeat the Emperor."

What -

No, this was impossible. Her parents - her dead parents she'd never see them again - had whispered stories about the Jedi and those who during the war had fallen to the Dark side.

But it hurt so much. And something about the cold: it wasn't soothing, but it was numbing, and the thought of using this to destroy the Empire -

"I will do whatever you ask."


54. Notwithstanding

It didn't escape her, the irony of training under the Emperor's executioner to defeat the Emperor.

He was a merciless and unsparing teacher, but once when he was evaluating her blaster skills, she'd felt a pang from him, a painful recognition.

"Who was your mother?" he demanded, the sudden non sequitur sending her blaster bolt dangerously askew.

"Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan," she snapped back.

"You were adopted." It was not a question.

"She was my mother. And you did nothing to save her."

Vader flinched, and Leia had the feeling that he'd read a different meaning than she'd intended.


55. Forevermore

Vader died shortly after the Emperor, a far easier death than he deserved, and Leia didn't like that she'd become the kind of person who would idly muse about what kind of death a person deserved.

His last word was, "Padmé," an oddly soft word that clashed jarringly on the basso rumble of his vocoder. And like many other things with Vader, Leia didn't know what to make of that.

She had hoped, vainly, that afterwards, she might feel warm, that the satisfaction of vengeance might spark a flame. But Leia knew now that she would only be cold, forevermore.

 

Superb seeing Obi-Wan and Yoda and then Leia and Vader.

 

Obi-Wan and Yoda so true with their musings.
week 11. So totally AU with Leia falling to the dark side

 

Aw, shucks Wouldn't have written it at all if you hadn't gotten DE stuck in my brain

You and me both, girl

Everything about this is heartbreaking, excellent job Also, this is yet another flaw with DE: why would you give Luke something else of this immensity to feel guilty over? Does anyone really think that once the youthful exhilaration wore off, Luke wouldn't be sick over the fatalities on the Death Star? There were over a million people assigned to that thing when it blew. Imagine knowing that you, personally, killed more than a million people. That right there is almost certainly too much for Luke to be able to realistically get over and still lead a normal life. Then DE (and numerous other EU works that cared more about a passably cool plot in the moment than a realistic character arc within a shared universe) piles yet another inhumanly massive cause of guilt on him. And we're supposed to believe this guy recovered and founded a healthy Jedi Order, personally teaching most of its students?

Anyway, in the fictional world in which this happened and must be dealt with, this drabble shows a very in-character way in which Luke would react to that guilt

As we've discussed, losing contact with the Force for a prolonged period of time has got to be a form of sensory deprivation for a trained Force-sensitive, and therefore essentially torture. Hard to see what else the NR would do if they thought he was still a potential threat, but it still hurts to think of Luke undergoing that

Yup, that sounds about right

Maybe I'll just use for all the rest of my feedback, it's totally applicable

This is an excellently crafted descent into madness, and then oh dang, Sith code

Well, that's foreboding

It's kind of wild to think of Dooku being Qui-Gon's master; they seem exceedingly (catastrophically) different

Regardless of whether Obi-Wan and Siri are written as a couple (or potential couple) or just as friends, I just love them together

Heh, that's about what I'd expect from Qui-Gon

LOL, I love it

Yes, this is accurate

I like this description very much, extremely evocative

What a great detail, I love it

Oh yikes, look at that parallel I'd never noticed before

And here! I never saw these contrasts/parallels before either! Man, you'd think after decades of watching these movies I'd have caught all this, but nope

That's a Skywalker for you: impatient, imprudent, impudent, yup, all checks out

Uh-oh

Look at that effective thump of a conclusion

That's not good

I mean, to some extent this is a laudable presence of mind, but it's also a pretty creepy outlook, to see sentient beings only as tools for your own ambition. Very Sith, though, I'll give him that

I love that it's her style of shooting that would spark recognition in Vader, and Leia's instantly seizing on this opportunity to twist the knife instead of answering the question she knows he's asking is perfectly in character, and look at that little extra layer of meaning in there

Yes, that is not a great thing

If Mourning was an angst bomb, are these drabbles angst firecrackers?

 

Aww

It's been a while since I've actually cracked open the RotJ novelization, but I know exactly which part you're talking about and aaaah, I love that you made that connection! (I will always have a soft spot for the book's portrayal of Vader's death; before AotC came out, quite a bit of my understanding of who Anakin had once been was drawn from reading that scene, and I can remember going back to it many times. ) Anyway, yes, I love these thoughts.

(And then after writing this I had to go grab my copy of the novelization and read Vader's death again, and now I'm tearing up, dangit SW)

(But also how dare you, with what's coming...)

Dang, we didn't even make it out of the first drabble...

This was just all kinds of horrible and horror-film creepy, nicely done, Elli.

Ooh, excellent descriptions, very visceral.

This is awful. This is absolutely the worst.

How very dare you, Elli.

I love this description, especially the sickening aura and sparks.

WELP

lolol, I know we've talked about this before, but my gosh, angsty fics are so much easier to write.

I mean, that's a legitimate trigger right there.

I can hardly remember what Lumiya was like in LotF, but this seems so much more likely? Also, dang Lumiya, way to hit the man where it hurts.

This is an excellent detail, nicely done!

Yep, this seems right for Lumiya.

Oh ho, here we go, this is the quality dark side seduction attempt I am here for... (I mean, if anything was going to tempt Luke in this moment, I would think it would be this, so I love that you have Lumiya try.)

This was weirdly... bittersweet? And I think I forget that Lumiya exists in LotF half the time, so that really shows how skillful you are in your use of her and her past relationship with Luke in this moment, that I even cared.

That's our Luke.

Perfect, yep, this is how it would have gone, fight me Karen. Bravo, Elli.

lmao, YEP.

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE KARENS IN THE BACK.

Lol, this reminds me of last year when I wrote that happy AU L/M romance fluff fic and I had a mini existential crisis because I realized that was the first time I'd ever completed a fic that was both happy and romantic.

Ouch. But fair.

Uuuugh, Luuuuuke.

I love that this is almost a normal sibling moment, but because of the history between them and the weight of everything he's done, it can't just be this moment of reasonable sibling frustration. And then I love that Luke still tries to run through the Jedi calming techniques, and his pain at seeing the moment Leia puts up her mask but not being able to feel it.

I can completely see this happening.

And then they stop coming altogether

Amazing. Such an incredibly well-written spiral. I love how the Jedi code is replaced by the Sith one at the end, so very effective.

Eeeee, RotS reference!! And this is so good, and terrifying at the same time.

I love it.

omg I love Dooku's little asides to himself, this is perfect.

PERFECT.

lol, yes it is.

Obi-Wan... Also this description is beautiful even though it's heartbreaking.

I feel like I'm running out of unique and insightful comments, but I really like this passage, it feels completely right.

That is such an interesting comparison, and not one I'd thought of before.

This is perfect, but also imagine if Yoda just went "nope" and put that X-wing right back in the swamp and then hobbled away humming to himself.

(I also love "if not complete, then at least more complete" lol)

Aww, I love this reflection from an older Obi-Wan; excellent contrast with the earlier drabble. And then of course Luke is still very much Anakin's son. I always enjoy seeing those connections commented upon.

Well damn, Leia.

I love this, and of course Vader's reaction is perfect.

I love that Vader immediately latches on to her as a means to defeat the Emperor.

Eeeeee, he suspects, I love it, Elli, I want moooore.

Gaaah, it's all so good and terrible and I want more of this AU.

So ominous, I love it.

 

You're breaking my heart and making me crave a grilled cheese.

 

Thank you!

I had a lot of fun with Obi-Wan and Yoda; they're not characters I visit often. And I almost feel like if they'd decided at that point in ANH that Leia was Force-sensitive, a little murder there would have been absolutely justifiable.

Stover did such a great job covering Luke's guilt over unnecessary death in Shadows of Mindor that I can't help but see the lack EVERYWHERE ELSE when it comes up, but it's ESPECIALLY GLARING as so many things are in the aftermath of Dark Empire. AND HEY yeah a large number of the deaths caused by Luke and Leia and Our Heroes are largely justifiable, but just the sheer quantity boggles the mind. It's one of those unfathomable scale of the GFFA things, but it's still ... too much.

My boy.

Feels weird to say "this one was the most fun to write," considering it's a spiral into madness, but it absolutely was.

Bwahaha.

CHEESEY SHENANIGANS for everyone.

I am absolutely enchanted by the idea of proud and dignified Dooku trailed by this weird kid who loves adopting pathetic lifeforms, and I kinda headcanon that particular phrase coming from Dooku because it seems a little mean to have originated from Obi-Wan.

I was so stoked when Siri was recanonized. Also, apropos of nothing - it's weirdly difficult to find copies of the Jedi Apprentice books because they're not digitized for whatever reason, but Jedi Quest is totally findable.

And this one was the most fun to write from this set.

I have all sorts of thoughts about the culture of the Jedi and how the small things were lost along with the big ones, and it being absolutely tragic because no one even knows what the small things are, culture is complex and cultural genocide is terrible, and you know what? We're going to make this dumb cheese tradition something that can be passed on.

I only have two modes, and I feel like the humor better be top notch to make up for the unrelenting bouts of angst.

Also have complex thoughts about Yoda's relationship with time and other species since he's so long-lived.

I absolutely didn't really think about them until they came spilling out onto my keyboard for this drabble set either.

Vader's awful, I love him.

I headcanon him as essentially colorblind because of the red optical scanners, so the obvious "she looks like Padme" didn't work for me here and I had to find something else.

This is absolutely an authorial self-recrimination of "Elli, why are you like this."

Absolutely.

Vi, I love writing kid banter, children are phenomenal. But also, yeah, with what's coming ...

I was stuck on this drabble set and then thought, "oh hey. A rattle is a baby toy. OH NO."

Yes, why is it like that?

This dialogue was honestly so fun. And I have no idea when else I would write a scenario of "Luke's evil ex-girlfriend taunting him about his wife's death," but it was way more fun than I anticipated.

I absolutely took my characterization of Lumiya from her Wikipedia page and from the fact that I headcanon Sith as terrible people, so her characterization probably doesn't match anything of what was portrayed in canon because I absolutely have never encountered her in canon.

Every once in a while I start something that's meant to be happy and romantic, and then it veers sharply towards angst or humor. Maybe one day.

My poor boy. Or ... Lucas' poor boy who I'm borrowing because I love him and also do terrible things with him and occasionally feel bad about it.

Thank you! This one was so fun.

You spotted my Stover! And also the clear path that I reference very often in my descriptions of ruthlessness comes from Animorphs. Which feels like a weird place to pull a quote that honestly goes so hard, but:

“People don't understand the word ruthless. They think it means "mean." It's not about being mean. It's about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end.​

"It's about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.”​

GOES SO HARD, right?

This poor man, he doesn't know how to parent, how'd he end up with this disaster child. <- every member of the disaster lineage, basically

But honestly if you're gonna experiment with cheese meltiness, you've got to be thorough. Qui-Gon knows.

Exactly what I was imagining and have imagined on a multitude of occasions watching that movie and had to write my way into explaining why he didn't just do that.

Aaah, it was so fun, if anyone is ever justified in accidentally Force-choking someone, this would be Leia's absolutely justifiable murder moment.

Mission accomplished x2.

 

Week 12: Yoda (and Dooku) PT

56. Pebble

Dooku is young, and Dooku is proud - and Yoda loves his Padawan fiercely, ferociously, with a love that would have shamed him to admit aloud.

But the Grandmaster has lived for centuries, and human lifespans are tragically short. Yoda tries to meter his love, so as to not overwhelm the child.

The proud boy grows and becomes a proud man, and so much changes - but Yoda does not, and neither does his love. He imagines it as a precious pebble to keep secret within his heart, a private glow and private comfort.

Until one day, Darth Tyranus rips it out.


57. Lodestone

Even when Dooku left the Order, Yoda had harbored a hope that he would return. There would always be a home for him in the Temple.

Until Geonosis. Until Jedi began to die within the ring, and Yoda confronted his boy -

(gray-bearded now, and wizened himself, but always a boy to Yoda's eye)

- and in doing so confronted the Sith Order, reborn.

The pebble he had treasured had grown without his notice into a lodestone hanging heavily upon his spirit, and the Grandmaster abruptly felt the weight of all his years and more. He knew the Council noticed, and whispered.


58. Loam

Blind seeds in loamy soil will grow towards the sun, and so it is with every being - that is what Yoda tells himself, to keep his hopes alive. Should his Padawan be less capable than the humble rose?

But time passes, the Dark side clouds, and Yoda's hopes wither in dry and barren soil as the Clone Wars drag on.

Yoda tends them nevertheless, nurtures the reluctant seedlings with an old promise he had given the boy decades ago: that when the boy fell, Yoda would catch him.

But Dooku's pride blinds him even to the call of the Light.


59. Gravel

"Mourn them do not. Miss them do not."

In the decades of solitude on Dagobah, Yoda thinks on that, and thinks it might have been one of his gravest mistakes.

How much could have been avoided if he'd told Anakin that he, too, was in the process of grieving - that even the Grandmaster was not immune to loss. The boy must have thought his heart to be made of stone, but Yoda had reflexively taken cover behind truism rather than giving him truth.

Would Anakin have run to Sidious, had he known that Yoda's heart had been shattered to gravel?


60. Detritus

There is a certain poetry in this, that the detritus of the Order, the detritus of the Council, the only two remaining - that they are also the only two to have lost their Padawans to Sidious.

Yoda can appreciate the poetry of it, even through the pain.

But he knows through the weight of intimate experience the agony in Obi-Wan's eyes - the grief of a bereaved Master, the hole rent deep through heart and soul that cannot be mended.

They mourn in parallel in the rush to get the children to safety, through pain too vicious for words to hold.

 

Weeks 13 & 14: Luke and Vader AU

this is completely terrible. I'm sorry, I have no excuse.

Light SPOILERS for Andor S1e9.
TW for psychological torture via canon typical child murder.


61. Anything

The boy couldn't scream anymore, but the Force did. In his torment, Luke's shields had shattered, and with his nascent and untrained Force power he didn't simply project the sounds causing his pain, didn’t echo them unaltered - but amplified them: tenfold, a hundredfold, a deafening maelstrom that howled across Vader’s mind and battered his shielding like a sandstorm from his childhood.

Everyone in a ten kilometer radius was similarly affected, the severity of their injuries increasing with proximity. At the outskirts, families hid behind anything they could find.

Closer to the epicenter - that would have to be dealt with later.


62. Several

The indigenous younglings of Dizon Fray emitted hypersonic choral tones in their dying songs that activated cortical and adrenal regions in a human brain, affecting cognitive control. They triggered an overwhelming release of stress hormones, leading eventually to heart failure - and madness.

Vader had torn off the helmet as soon as he could sense it, as soon as he entered the room and the boy entered his line of sight - but Vader had been off planet, and the journey had taken precious time.

Fifteen minutes was the maximum recommendation, and the boy had been wearing the helmet for several hours.


63. Someone

Luke was still sitting in the chair he'd been strapped to, the flesh where the binders rubbed at his wrists not just raw but torn and actively bleeding, crimson rivulets dripping slowly to the floor.

Vader did not trust his fingers to do the task and reached to the Force to undo the boy's binders. Luke immediately collapsed, and the lingering storm in the Force quieted; it didn't retreat completely, but muted itself to an almost subsonic hum that nonetheless writhed and squirmed through Vader’s shields, slipping through the infinitesimal cracks.

He looked so much like - someone.

(Like his mother.)


64. Neither

Vader’s hands had not been designed to catch this broken shell of a boy; they were too blunt, too strong, too soaked in unfathomable quantities of blood - they were adequate to grab and crush and squeeze but they had never been intended to hold, to comfort, to caress. Anakin had possessed clever fingers long ago, but Vader's fingers had in the Emperor's casual disregard or deliberate malice been badly designed; they could not feel in any true sense, and they lacked the discrete sensors necessary to translate pressure into tactile sensation - neither for anything gentle nor for fine motor tasks.


65. Another

The boy couldn't scream anymore; his vocal chords were bloody and shredded and useless, but Vader could see his lips moving. When will they stop when will they stop please please make them stop when do the children stop

And even now, even now, cradling his son’s trembling body, trying his best to carefully run comforting but clumsy fingers through the boy's sweat-soaked hair, haunting echoes still thrumming insistently through his memory - even now, Vader heard the echo of another child, the Padawan: Master Skywalker, there are too many of them.

"Never," Vader rumbled, as gently as the vocoder allowed.


66. Syzygy

Had Vader considered the options more closely, he might have chosen Mustafar, but in his haste, he spirited the boy to Bast Castle. Mustafar was haunted by the ghosts of Vader’s past - but Vjun held madness of its own.

Vader taught the boy Ataru not to train his body but to quiet his mind. Sometimes it worked.

But when the screams subsided into quiescence, Luke heard the whispers.

They learned his name, insidiously snaking through cracks in his psyche to harmonize with the insistent screams and to offer a chilling but tempting promise: Fear tastes different in the Dark, Luke.


67. Nadir

One day, when exhaustion alone was no longer enough to silence the screams, he made the request. "Father. Will you train me to use the Dark side?"

"You are asking for this," Vader answered after a long pause, his menacing voice oddly neutral, oddly - resigned. "There is no beauty in Darkness," he warned, almost gently. "It will not be pleasant. It will break you."

Luke smiled grimly. It was the first time he had done so in a long time, and the expression felt foreign on his face, like it no longer fit. "And what if I've already been broken?"


68. Axis

Sidious took the boy when Vader was off-planet and spun Vader’s world off its axis.

The boy was fantastically powerful - and when his shields slipped even slightly, the sheer strength of his anguish was enough to level cities, would send the insistent and amplified screams of the Dizonite massacre still careening through his mind into the minds of every being in a ten kilometer radius - with fatal results.

And why should the Emperor need a Death Star, when he could simply drop this superweapon onto a planet’s major city or a Rebellion base, without enduring a permanent loss of resources?


69. Zenith

Vader had planned to make his erstwhile Master suffer, but by the time he landed the boarding party on the battlestation over Endor, expecting resistance but meeting none - he arrived in the throne room to find the boy already standing over the Emperor's corpse, Sidious' own lightsaber in his hand and tears streaming freely down his ruined face.

The boy's voice was gone again, but Vader saw his lips move, heard the inflection carried through the Force - I can hear yours, too, Luke whispered, and raised the blade to point at his father’s face. There are too many of them.


70. Contour

The kyber crown sat upon his brow as if it had been destined to be there all along.

It would not have fit upon Luke Skywalker, but the new contours of the boy’s face - the second Emperor was not that boy any longer. His lightning scarred skin had seemingly been drawn tighter, his cheeks gaunt as if the Darkness had stripped him bare: scourging away everything that remained soft about him and leaving only that which was harder, colder, more enduring.

They said the crown screamed. But it wasn’t the crown; it was the children, still leaking through his shields.

Spoiler: Additional Notes

FAQ

- Q: Elli. How VERY DARE YOU.
- A: Listen: I just love Luke and Vader parallels so much and then Andor introduced me to the idea that you can just have the sounds of murdered children (and not just murdered children but genocided children with alien physiology such that their screams break human brains) ON TAP to drive the listener insane - and how could I not?

- Q: You made this a backdoor prequel to "Inheritance," wtf, that world actively sucks.
- A: I know!! But the whole thing started with the question: but beyond being extra, why would someone wear a crown of screaming kyber? And the answer that was staring me unflinchingly in the face was: of course - it's to drown out the sounds of something worse.

- Q: At this rate you are never leaving the timeout corner.
- A: That's absolutely fair, I am banning myself from plot bunnies that spin off from canon typical child murder for the foreseeable future. But look how well this story plays with the title of the thread.

 

The worst part is that it's all totally amazing YOU HAVE NO RIGHT

 

Phenomenal gif choice, I didn't even know that was an option

Gabri, I'm sorry, it was just - I just love the idea of those two being haunted by their very own sets of murdered children, together. Father-son bonding. And the screaming kyber vs. screaming children thing. I had to. I mean, I didn't have to, but I definitely wanted to.

 

The drabbles about Dooku and Yoda; perfect for the two.
And the AU with Luke and Vader. A great set

 

Thank you! I had an inordinate amount of fun with both of them.

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Week 15: Skywalker Twins Parent Trap AU

Y'all get some cracky modern AU fluff after putting up with all my angsty bantha shavit. Write the fluff chasers you wish to see in the world.


71. Hoity-toity

Leia Amidala was from one of those old money families whose ancestors had first arrived on the Mayflower, whose foremothers joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, who described themselves self consciously as comfortable rather than rich - but with enough generational wealth to buy up the state of Rhode Island with plenty left over.

Luke Skywalker in contrast was distinctly new money - California tech money, specifically, and the son of a rags-to-riches billionaire who'd pulled himself up by his bootstraps and revolutionized the car industry with clean energy.

Naturally, the two of them got along like a house on fire.


72. Hush-hush

The two pieces of the photo fit together perfectly - two halves, Luke realized in amazement, of a wedding photo.

He'd never imagined his father had ever been so young. Or so happy.

Leia was evidently entertaining similar thoughts and drew a careful finger along her - along their mother's cheek. "She always looks so sad. I didn't realize - " She cut herself off with a sigh. "What do you think happened to them? Why didn't they ever say anything about each other?"

Luke hesitated. "I think ... I think it had something to do with Father's mentor. Senator Palpatine."

"I have an idea."


73. Topsy-turvy

"I am not your father," Anakin growled, leaning forwards menacingly with his hands braced against the desk - a posture that in his experience had been more than sufficient to intimidate industry rivals and insubordinate subordinates alike.

The child standing in the doorway was neither, and met his stare unflinchingly with her hands on her hips. "You are," Leia said simply. "And you're afraid. I can tell."

Anakin deflated, sighing, and thinking irritably but fondly of the last time he'd seen the girl's mother. "I sent my son off to camp. Where did you come from? And where did Luke go?"


74. Fuddy-duddy

Luke thought that convincing Leia's old fussy butler to go along with their admittedly poorly conceived plan was going to be far harder than convincing his own chaperone Arturito.

But he was pleasantly surprised when - though he complained and worried incessantly in his poshly proper British accent for the entire ten hour drive - Theodore went along with it anyway.

So that was how Luke found himself standing before the biggest, fanciest colonial mansion he'd ever seen, his hand raised hesitantly to knock on the massive double doors.

Unobservant Theodore elbowed past him into the foyer, luggage in hand. "Mistress Padmé!"


75. Dilly-dally

Senator Amidala had ten thousand things to do that day - legislation to draft, a budget to approve, a minority coalition to build - but she temporarily dropped them all so she could welcome her daughter home from summer camp.

Padmé had her phone to her ear as she swept into the entryway, her mind still occupied by the tasks she had yet to accomplish before Sabé left for her well deserved vacation, but she when caught sight of - blonde? How odd, surely the sun couldn't have been so strong to have bleached Leia's hair so thoroughly after -

She dropped the phone.

---

1000 words of Luke going insane this time, before the heartwarming shenanigans.

 

Now imagining Luke and Leia singing "Let's Get Together" I'm OLD, I grew up on the Hayley Mills version, don't @ me

 

That's legit, though; that's like one of the canonical dividing lines between Gen X and millennial. I read it somewhere once, clearly it must be true

 

This is such great hilarious fun. Will Han join the show?

 

Very likely! Though I have no idea if or when I'm going to continue this. In the meantime, though, I found two stories on AO3 that follow the same broad strokes! Here (modern AU version) and here (still in the GFFA version).

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Week 16: Vader

Look, it’s the happiest moment in Vader’s life; isn’t it sweet? It's also the week when I wrestled my perfectionism into submission and decided that these could be a little too short or a little too long.


76. Incendiary

On the black glass banks of Mustafar, you were remade.

And this rebirth is like that last - but this time when you burn, it is from the inside out.

Anakin Skywalker died on Mustafar, but here, suddenly, was a piece of him that had not been set ablaze. Living proof that Anakin and Padmé had lived - and loved. A piece of her that passed through instead of on.

Your pacemaker doesn't allow your heart to race, but the revelation is incendiary: it sends sparks cascading down synaptic pathways that have lain dormant for decades, sets nerves aflame with forgotten sensation.


77. Careen

Nothing has lived underneath your skin for decades now; no light, no life. Bone-white skin like the Imperial cog, red blood like the Imperial royal flag, black carapace like the Imperial public flag. Your Master’s Empire beats in time with your heart and drills itself directly into your bones: you have expanded its borders, secured its resources, rattled through tortured screams and careening blasterfire until there is nothing in you that lives for any reason but the Empire and the Empire alone. One and whole with your Master’s will, your Master’s all-seeing eye.

But something lives now.


78. Infest

You had always mourned a girl - and in your most vulnerable moments floating in bacta or strapped to a surgery table with edged metal instruments waiting to cut into your flesh, you had dreamt her into being, allowed the thought to infest your weak and pathetic mind: a dark-haired little girl who looked so precisely like her mother, with a slender frame and expressive eyes.

In your fantasies you ran your fingers through her hair and could feel it.

It felt so real and you had in your wildest imaginings dared to hope that - was this a hint from the Force? Could Padme’s child have survived?

But it was a boy that lived. The Force did not err in such details, and your dreams had been your own.


79. Emphasis

Your world contains a new, distant, bright center - but does not simply contain, cannot simply contain. The knowledge burns through you, and there is the strongest urge to call your Master and stand before his bleating face and snarl, Do you want to know who destroyed your pet project? This knowledge will destroy you. It was my son.

My son.

The effort to beat down the impulse leaves you breathless, your blood soaked with adrenaline. Just the idea itself is addictive - you cannot stop thinking about it, just like you cannot stop mouthing the word - Luke.


80. Corner

Your hands have been reinforced with so much durasteel that an errant swing will turn concrete to dust. You shift on legs that twist with agony and infection, shift on prosthetics that are drilled directly into your femurs, shift on a spinal cord that is patchwork metal-and-calcium-and-silicone. Movement is a complicated articulation of pain, purpose, and power.

Your hands shiver with that power, and for a frenzied moment you think that you could crush a sun like fruit between your fingers - and in the next instant you are certain that you can.

That you will.

That you will bleed suns dry to get your boy, your Luke.

Nothing will stand in your way.

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Likely preview for the next few sets, though my ideas are still in flux: week 17 will be something dark, week 18 is going to be the Luke and Vader RotJ duel, week 19 is probably going to be cracky, week 20 is Vader in RotJ again. I'm so close y’all! Almost there!

 

WOW a great set to see how Vader feels all that pain and suffering