#||mail: merrin||

[mayxthexforce]

@mutatiio said:

the jedi's head lulled weightlessly over bode's arm, neck stretched back. the angle looked painful but bode had neither the free hand or the desire to help him. a sore neck was the least of his issues anyway. bode hauls him backward, one arm around his middle and the other pressing a blaster against his pale temple. "back up." he orders merrin, voice calm, dark eyes focused on her. he wouldn't kill cal if he could avoid it. has grown fond of him... but he would do what he had to in order to escape. blaster presses harder, voice raising when the reaction doesn't come fast enough. "NOW!!"

Sometimes, it still baffles Merrin how much trouble Cal could get himself into.

He's unconscious, which is not rare because she's lost time of how many times Cal has ended up unconscious when he shouldn't. The blaster pointed at him isn't new, either. But the fact she's seen guns be pointed at him over a dozen times doesn't make her any less angry about it this time around, especially because the one holding the blaster is a man who they'd trusted, a man who Cal had considered a friend. A former Jedi who'd lied to them, used them, betrayed them.

That story kept repeating itself. Merrin hated it more and more each time.

BD-1 has run to Kata, sticking by the girl in a protective manner. Merrin can hear just how worried the droid is, she can feel Kata's distress; but she doesn't look their way, keeps her eyes on Bode. Her frown deepens when his voice takes a demanding tone. She starts moving, not exactly away, but not closer, either; positioning herself between Kata and Bode, a good distance away from both.

"I understand," Merrin speaks. "Kata is all you have left, you will do anything to protect her. I understand the feeling. If someone threatened my family, I would rearrange every bone in their spine to my liking."

Her voice is low, but it is far from soft. Something lingers in it, something dark and ancient that she'd thought —that she'd HOPED— she had left behind on Dathomir. But, it seems, it was merely buried, unused because there hadn't been a reason to unearth it.

Until now.

"Cal is my family, Cere was my family." and Cere's dead. Merrin tries her best not to let the grief mix with her anger, but she fails. It seeps into her bloodstream like a poison, ignites the fire within her like she hasn't experienced since Malicos' betrayal. "You were family thanks to Cal, so I will give you one chance to let go of him. Nobody else needs to die."

Cal might have hesitated when asked if he could keep Kata safe. But Merrin wouldn't. Sure, Cal wouldn't be happy if she did to Bode what she'd done to Malicos, but he would forgive her eventually. The only thing keeping her from doing so now was that she didn't wish to traumatize the girl.

"Cal might not be certain that he can protect her, but I am. I can," she tells him. "And I will do whatever it takes, if you continue to be a threat to them."

There will not be a hole in this galaxy where you'll be able to hide from me if you don't let Cal go. NOW. She doesn't say that part out loud, but she projects it into the force. An oppressive, migraine inducing wave of darkness that flows from Merrin to Bode, accompanied with the very voices of the dead witches of Dathomir that Merrin believed she'd, too, left behind. But they remain, whispering of terrible curses and punishments that many have fallen subjects to for making the same mistake Bode's already made: enraging a Nightsister.

[merrins-brew]

MUAHAHAHA! You’ve been boop-attacked! >:3

NO YOU

[serena-darrin]

Ok, /deep breath/ I got the e-mail, my copy of Battle Scars came in last night at the local library, and I'm off to pick it up today (along with some other errands). I'm not sure if I'll liveblog my responses (if I do it will be this afternoon/evening!). but either way, I will post up my thoughts once I'm done. I've seen a bunch of reviews (and run into a few spoilers, but it's ok, I kind of expected that when I looked at the reviews), and I'm really Not Sure what I'm getting myself into. Some people love it, some people hate it, and some people are in the middle. There's a few stylistic things that I know I won't be fond of, (I noticed that even in the official excerpts), but I can overlook stylistic things if they're not too jarring and the story is solid enough. I like -some- of what I'm hearing, but how well it's handled will be the question for me. And I -don't like- some of what I'm hearing, but, I still want to read it for myself and form my own opinion.

**Apparently, this book ships Merrin/Cal, as well as Merrin and a new character, which, I'm broadly ok with, but I'm also really picky about romances in fiction in general, so, how that's handled will be a Big Thing for me. Badly handled romance (or romance that is only sex, no character emotions/depth), is one of the few things that can make me abandon a book in frustration, and what I'm getting out of the reviews isn't filling me with confidence. . . . but, I'll still give it a read, see if my worries are justified or not?

[trappergirl]

blue jeans and art deco ! 💘

blue jeans - what is your most cherished article of clothing, accessory, or pair of shoes in your wardrobe? clothing is probably my ugly grinch christmas jumper (it makes me so happy!), pair of shoes is my chunky bratz looking black boots, accessory is my swarovski ring

art deco - what is your all time favorite era? i have a deep 70's obsession that is fueled mostly by abba and my constant rewatching of that 70's show

[mayxthexforce]

Merrin looked back over her shoulder at Cal. A small, playful smile pulled at her lips when he said that he'd rather they don't fight. She, on the other hand, thought that would have been an interesting event- they both had skills that were definitely worth at least a sparring session.

"The same way I knew I could trust you," Merrin pointed out matter of factly. "I don't. But I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and, if it turns out I was wrong... well, you know what happens when someone betrays my trust."

He'd seen exactly what happens when someone betrays her trust, back in Dathomir when Malicos had thought himself the ruler of a planet he didn't even fully understand. But she wasn't going to say 'I will bury him alive' when Maul was close enough to hear them. That would have been really rude.

"Besides, you said he was really dangerous a few years ago," she pointed out. "If he wanted to kill us, he'd have tried by now."

@mayxthexforce is making a risky decision: “ you’ve never had to fight me. ” (from Merrin to Cal)

"yeah, i know." he jogs to keep up with her steady strides. quick glance behind him, in the direction of the sith. or… the ex-sith?? it's still not clear. either way, he's not fond of keeping his back to him. "and i would like to keep it that way."

cere and greez accepted merrin aboard easily enough (bar some general whining). mostly due to their trust in cal. this is different. he doubts any amount of trust will make either of them fold this time around. "how do you know you can really trust him??" sceptical, but trying.

[shewhospeakswiththunder]

Perhaps you’re feeling bored at home or, if considered an “essential” worker like me, you need a little fun and stress relief. Here is my masterpost of fic recs from my two years of reading so far. Maybe you’ll find something new, or reconnect with an old favorite. Either way--

Enjoy! 😷💕

Reylo Fics that Deserve All the Love

Near Kinsman by englishable

Englishable is just one of the best writers I’ve encountered in fandom. This historical western mail order bride AU is top notch quality.

The Masochism of Self-Defence by greyorchids

The Reylo dynamic in this Boston PD AU is steamy, but also heartfelt. 

So Much Thin Glass by walkingsaladshooter

Never knew I loved modern day Gothic AUs until I ran across this one.

Heaven Forbid by DarkKnightDarkSide

I was stunned by the author’s creativity in this Priestlo fic. So smutty. So... inventive 😉🔥

Sonder by deathbyhumidity

Two strangers passing each other by on the train. Soft, dreamlike, somber, poignant. Modern AU.

And Still I Would Remember by Inmyownidiom

A Victorian era AU of two souls that parted and come crashing back together.

So, You've Decided to Glamour a Human Girl. by selunchen

Faeries AU! Ben, a fae, and Rey, a human. Shenanigans ensue.

Live Long, and Prosper by SaintHeretical

For the Reylo Trekkies. Hell, even if you don't do Star Trek, read this. PHENOMENAL.

Mr. Solo & Miss Wellfound by LinearA

“Regency/Victorian AU, Ben sees Rey's stockinged ankle by accident.”

Diyari by Nervoustouch

Modern archeologists AU. Snarky banter with dashes of Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Sahara vibes.

Drawn to the light of your burning sorrows by Kyriadamorte

The Mothlo AU you didn’t know you needed. Both gritty and soft.

Crown Glass by RebelRebel

Fantasy AU, with lots of beautiful imagery and engaging character dynamics.

Kohelet 3:16 (Call Me A Cab) by LinearA

NYC Jewish Leia and Ben. Skillfully layered plot, nuanced characterization. Smut is HOT.

By the Shores of Varykino Lake by hipgrab (merrymegtargaryen)

Unhealthy dynamics, definitely read the tags. “There’s a lot of fucked-up-ness”, in the author’s own words. But it’s good writing. Fair warning.

Let Me Put My Darkness In You by ArdeaJestin

Canonverse. Hux is an insufferable, pompous ass and Kylo Ren writes terrible, melodramatic poetry.

Wintertide by Zabeta

Whimsical and primitive in turn, this lives up to the style of a true fairytale AU.

The Forty Thieves by PoetHrotsvitha

Peaky Blinders/Gangsters AU. Rey starts as Ben’s bartender and ends up as so much more.

I Said to My Soul, Be Still by LinearA

Dark!Rey takes her man. 🥵🔥💕

Hux's Rousing Pep Talks by Riels_shorts

This fic is hysterical. It’s not Reylo, and I don’t care. My list, my rules.

It's All I Can Do To Leave You Alone by TazWren

Office AU. Silly, spunky, with a bashful Ben. 

Sip the Honey Sweet by dietplainlite

Anne of Green Gables-esque/Edwardian era AU, the title really says it all.

The Pull to the Light by HarpiaHarpyja

Entrancingly macabre. This modern/fantasy/monsters AU catches your attention from the get-go, and never lets you off the hook.

lay then the axe to the root by sciosophia

All the Bronte goodness, plus smut.

The Golden Age by TourmalineGreen

Golden Age of Hollywood AU in which Ben is a jaded actor in serious need of an image fix, in the form of fresh-faced actress Rey.

Never Be Your Curse by Kate_Reid 

Kylo Ren is a go-go dancer in this AU. That was enough to get my attention 😘

Gallows God by Killtheselights

Bursting with deliciously grim imagery, an intelligent take on Norse mythology.

Thunderstorms, Clouds, Snow, and a Slight Drizzle by aNerdObsessed

Who doesn’t love an ugly sweater Christmas party? Ben Solo, that’s who. All the nostalgic wintertime feels in this modern AU.

Though My Soul Has Set in Darkness by englishable

It’s not long, but it’s good. A lyrical dive into the mindspace of child Ben Solo. A true gem. Also not technically Reylo. Still don’t care.

I Dare You by tinylittlebrain

Daredevil Kylo has pissed off ER doc Rey Kenobi for the last time. Spicy!

stuck in colder weather by redbelles

Professor Ren stops grad student Rey from biking home in a snow storm. And takes her to his home. You can guess where this goes 😉

Between Sky and Sea by nessalk

Serious Indiana Jones vibes with a Caribbean flair. Painstakingly researched, and moments of true beauty and joy.

But Before Tomorrow by Kate_Reid

Such good writing. Canonverse.

The Sword of Prince Hector by englishable

Exploration of what redemption might feel like for Ben, canonverse. 

if compassion be the breath of life, breathe on me by Victoryindeath2

All the angst and unknowns that we were left with in the wake of TLJ are soothed in this canonverse piece.

build a ladder to the stars by redbelles

An exploration of events post-Crait. Fantastic, beautifully written.

nor are we forgiven (which brings us back) by TolkienGirl

Both Kylo and Rey get to see what life would have been like if they both got exactly what they thought they wanted after TLJ. Fascinating read. 

Forsworn by Erulisse17

This Mando/ST crossover has everything you could want--action, witty banter, space romance! So much fun!

Reylo Favorites & Classics

One Shots

59 Minutes by delia-pavorum (literaryminded)

For Science by KyloTrashForever, ohwise1ne

He Made It Through the Wilderness (somehow he made it through) by LovesBitca8

light carries on endlessly by lachesisgrimm (olga_theodora)

Grey by ocjones

The Idiot's Guide to Flirting by Violetwilson

High School/College AU

I Caught Fire by KyloTrashForever

Mountain Springs High School by animal

Epithumia by pontmercy44

Soul Searching by OptimisticBeth

Office/Workplace AU

Sensual Storytime by andabatae

The Food of Love by LovesBitca8

Historical/Dystopia AU

Hiraeth by Ferasha

a manner of virtue by neonheartbeat

The lamb's thirst by animal

Wanted by Inmyownidiom

She Who Would be Queen by sasstasticmad

go i know not whither and fetch i know not what by voicedimplosives

ABO

Knot My First Time by KyloTrashForever

Canonverse/Canon-divergent

variations on a theme of you by diasterisms (Reydar)

i will be the wolf by diasterisms

Sky Marked Souls by AnonymousMink

The Death of Kylo Ren by nymja

World In My Eyes by sasstasticmad

i'm always in this twilight (in the shadow of your heart) by diasterisms

Catch Me I’m Falling by violethoure666

Sword of the Jedi by diasterisms

You'll Be the One to Turn by postedbygaslight

Dark Crown by Violetwilson

Harry Potter AU

Nocturnal Studies And Other Peculiar Magic by WaterlilyRose

Otherwise Modern AU

Pretense by Celia_and

Insta-heart by slipgoingunder

Serotonin and Dopamine by pontmercy44

The Elusive Mating Dance of the Porgus Adorabilis by andabatae

Hanging by a Moment by crossingwinter

WAR DOGS by fulcrumstardust

miles from where you are by Mooncactus

Charcoal by luvkurai

Stay by jeeno2

coarse and rough and irritating by frak-all (or_ryn)

Blades Crossed by the-reylo-void (Anysia)

Embers by sciosophia

Mitan, Midi by animal

Janus by englishable

Say My Name by Graendoll

Thank You for The Music by hipgrab (merrymegtargaryen)

darling, so it goes by akosmia

This is the Sign You've Been Looking For by RebelRebel

Broken Things by midnightbluefox

One-Night Stand by delia-pavorum (literaryminded)

The Rebel Side of Heaven by jeeno2

On The Bumpy Road (To Love) by violethoure666

we could plant a house, we could build a tree by Like_A_Dove

I’d Like My Obituary to Hint at a Sequel by Violetwilson

Only If You Want To by Violetwilson

Not Reylo, Still Awesome

Gingerflower/Gingerrose, Armitage Hux/Rose Tico 

Between Sand and Sea by Brit Hux-Tico (birchwoods01)

If Ever I Would Leave You by Weddersins

Her Yellow Rainboots by Weddersins

Merrical, Cal Kestis/Merrin (Jedi: Fallen Order)

The Stars Alight by FlyingMachine

Heavy Ice by FlyingMachine

Caltrilla, Cal Kestis/Trilla Suduri (Jedi: Fallen Order)

No One Else by xanderwilde

call it what you want by xanderwilde

tear you to pieces by xanderwilde

Dramione, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter Universe)

Now Is A Gift by SenLinYu

Sex and Occlumency by Graendoll

Zutara, Katara/Zuko (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

oracle bones by an orphaned account

Fics by Me

Virtue Ethics

Reylo College AU (completed)

Dr. Ben Solo, adjunct philosophy professor and part-time martial arts instructor, discovers a young woman in his Intro to Philosophy course whom he thinks may not actually be enrolled at the University.

Chiasmus

Reylo Role-reversal canonverse AU (WIP)

Scourge of the galaxy, Kira Ren, is tasked by the First Order to eliminate the last of the Jedi. When she captures hotshot podracer Ben Solo to extract Luke Skywalker’s location from him, things do not go according to plan. 

This Dance of Light, This Sacred Blessing

Snapshots of a modern Reylo AU. Smutty, prosey one-shot.

Listen Up, Kid

Canonverse Reylo Post TLJ one-shot

The ghosts of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren's past are back to haunt him with a vengeance. A well-meaning, familial kind of vengeance. Or, A Star Wars Carol.

Ben’s Body

Reylo Modern AU (completed)

Rey is an up and coming sculptor specialising in human shape and form. Her new next door neighbour has a body to die for and she's determined to preserve it in marble forever. Now she just has to convince dashing and reclusive Ben to model for her. Preferably naked.

Growin’ Up

Reylo High School AU (completed)

Ben Solo was supposed to only be ruining his own life with his bad decisions. Rey Niima was just trying to pay attention in class. Both get stuck in detention.

Seven Texts, 2 AM

Reylo Modern AU, smutty one-shot

Ben has good reasons not to have sex with his neighbor, Rey. She has other ideas.

Song of the Forest

Reylo Fantasy/BatB/Fairytale AU (completed)

Once upon a time, a girl with an unknown past appeared on the doorsteps of a lord’s manor, and now the forest at the edge of the lord’s property is calling to her.

A Season of Frost & Warmth

Modern Reylo P&P AU (completed)

When Ben shows up to a Halloween party with no costume, it only confirms Rey’s certainty that he is the world’s biggest jerk. Until it comes to light that maybe... he isn’t. 

Follow Me Home

Modern Werewolf Reylo AU (completed)

Rey gets stone drunk and brings home a big cute husky she found in an alley. The next morning, she finds a naked man built like a fridge sleeping on her living room floor, and no dog in sight.

The Gentleness That Comes

Reylo Modern AU one-shot

Underground boxer!Ben is resigned to his life of violence, until he meets a pretty new bartender one night.

Unlikely, Unbidden, Unbound

Gingerflower canonverse AU (WIP)

General Hux is imprisoned by the Resistance when the First Order falls. He had known his death was coming, it was simply a matter of course. He’s disappointed to learn the Resistance has other plans, and an unwavering policy of giving people second chances.

@thereylowritingden @reylofic @nancylovesreylo @grlie-girl @lilia-ula @greyforceuser @tazwren @mhcalamas

[koreanbibliophilegirl]

Year-late confession

Okay, so now that I actually have a tumblr blog, I got something to say to the sh fandom...

I am 99.9% sure I caused the Syrah fic.

I sent Angie three separate pieces of fan mail in 2019, and the last one was sent in December. At the end, I added a p.s. asking after Syrah.

I found the reply in my inbox in January(it was sent a few days earlier, but I didn’t check), but she didn’t say anything about my p.s.

The next day, I came on tumblr(I liked to search sh material, even though I didn’t have a blog then) and found out that Angie posted a Syrah fic on her blog which caused a huge ripple throughout the fandom.

Even if I wasn’t the only one who asked about Syrah, I’m still pretty sure I was the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back.

I’ve been feeling sort of guilty about it for over a year now, but I got a tumblr blog only today, so I decied to come clean immediately.

Oh, and I got from Angie that Jo-Jo is building parachutes. Also Beetle’s birthday is Halloween. Also Merrin was born on July 13th.

[aion-rsa]

How Alias Anticipated Modern Superhero Storytelling

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

J.J. Abrams’ spy drama Alias, which turns 20 this week, was a lot of things: high-octane action-adventure series, twentysomethings relationship drama, occasional National Treasure homage. It was also, surprisingly, a spiritual predecessor to today’s hyper-saturated superhero movie and TV universes: A preternaturally gifted fighter, Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) inhabits comic-book-esque alter egos to infiltrate secret missions related to ancient artifacts and promised immortality, all while ensuring that her nearest and dearest don’t know how many times she’s saved the world—or which side she’s really on.

Like the series’ MacGuffin-generating Nostradamus figure Milo Rambaldi, Alias has proven to be somewhat prophetic itself about what makes for the kinds of superhero stories that land today. With some 20th-anniversary hindsight, let’s look back at what made Sydney’s story so super and what lessons Abrams’ ridiculous(ly fun) series can still impart to the current crop of superhero sagas.

The Secret Identity as Kiss of Death

The highest priority that spies and superheroes share is that they cannot get made—that is, have their identity as a larger-than-life individual linked to their “normal” selves. They must always keep their personal and professional personas separate, lest they risk losing the people who know both sides of them. Alias establishes this difficult lesson in the first half hour of the pilot, when Sydney reveals her true work (she thinks SD-6 is just a covert branch of the CIA) to doctor fiancé Danny, only for him to blab about it later and get bloodily taken out in their bathtub. It’s the first time that SD-6 treats its sweet protégée harshly, making clear the consequences of her actions should she open up to anyone else in her life. And then she defects to the CIA, which will be a death sentence for her if SD-6 ever finds out.

Yet beyond the specter of grisly assassination, what the series really digs into is Syd’s growing ethical dilemma about being a double agent where it concerns the actually good people at SD-6, primarily her longtime partner Dixon (Carl Lumbly) and sweetly awkward Q stand-in Marshall (Kevin Weisman). It would be too easy if the series were only about her getting long-game revenge on SD-6 director Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin); the real conflict comes from Sydney lying to Dixon’s face on every stakeout, knowing that he still thinks he’s working for the good guys and she can’t ruin that fantasy for him without potentially turning him into collateral damage.

Similarly, the moments in which Sydney’s two (or three) lives begin to collide have other heartbreaking consequences: While the scene in which her best friend Will (Bradley Cooper cast as the friendzoned buddy, amazing) gets kidnapped and sees Syd saving him, is one of the decade’s best laugh-out-loud moments, it also leads to Will going into the Witness Protection Program. His life ends, in a sense, because Sydney couldn’t keep everything compartmentalized. And we haven’t even gotten to the awful fate that befalls her best friend Francie (Merrin Dungey)…

What Alias Predicted: The beating heart (or arc reactor) of many a superhero story is this tension between selves—which means that the big reveal of a secret identity has to be carefully timed and deliberately presented. It’s as emotional as Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) mask getting ripped away when he saves the subway car of people in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, as big as Spider-Man: Far From Home doxxing that Peter Parker (Tom Holland) in a commentary on fake news, or as pure and simple as Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) outing himself as Iron Man in the very first installment of the MCU. You cannot unring that bell, so it better be a memorable moment.

What Superhero Stories Can Still Learn: Rev the secret identity stakes back up! Captain America: Civil War ably took on the game-changing Marvel Comics arc of the same name by having heroes collectively unmask, and movies like Spider-Man: Far From Home are still playing out those ramifications. But mostly we see the dangerous ramifications of heroes doxxing themselves, without really digging into the strain for heroes to constantly have to lie about the things that truly matter to them.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Campy Disguises and Clever Aliases

If you’ve watched Alias or were even vaguely aware of it, no doubt the first thing you envision is Sydney in black leather and bright red hair, a.k.a. her iconic look from the pilot. Her non-SD-6-sanctioned, under-the-radar disguise (impersonating Will’s sister) displays her ingenuity and establishes the series’ brand: attention-grabbing hair paired with increasingly ridiculous outfits, from chain mail waitress ensembles to rubber dresses. She’s played punks, rich bimbos, alluring businesswomen, escorts, and all manner of female personas upon which her marks would project their assumptions—all of which belied her true strength and cunning.

Even when future episodes riffed on the color wheel with teal, magenta, purple, and good old-fashioned blonde wigs, it was still within a clear spectrum established on that pivotal mission, when she channels a silly girl who cares more about the color of her hair than her safety, only to pin her torturer with the same chair to which she’s bound.

What Alias Predicted: I would hazard a guess that Natasha Romanoff’s first appearance in 2012’s The Avengers—a seemingly helpless redhead tied to a chair, about to be nastily interrogated—was a nod toward Sydney’s triumphant pilot mission. What’s more, despite the first ten years of the MCU leaning toward sleek costumes, later phases (like WandaVision‘s cheeky Halloween callbacks) have realized that they can embrace the bold colors and campy designs of the comic-book source material.

What Superhero Stories Can Still Learn: Better to lean into the bold colors and campy designs of the comic-book source material than to go for more sleek and cool. WandaVision did this, albeit cheekily and using the excuse of Halloween, but the nod toward Scarlet Witch’s original outfit was well received. Because any superhero can look cool in leather, but only the standouts can rock color.

Rambaldi Artifacts, Immortality, and Clones

While replicating the romantic dramas of Felicity, Abrams was also playing with early iterations of his signature “puzzle box” narrative style: The pilot has Sydney chasing after the mysterious Mueller device, which turns out to be… a floating red ball… which bursts into water the moment she tries to remove it. That head-scratcher of a device is only one of many inventions belonging to Milo Rambaldi, a fictional Renaissance-era philosopher whose sketches and writings all pointed toward the ultimate endgame: immortality. You know, just normal spy thriller things.

The series saw Sydney and co. chasing after all manner of Rambaldi MacGuffins, from a clock to a kaleidoscope to a music box to flowers that either demonstrated proof of eternal life (by never wilting) or amped up human aggression. Through all of this, it becomes clear that Sloane helped found SD-6 in order to collect all of Rambaldi’s artifacts and capture immortality for himself—even and especially at the cost of people like his daughter, Sydney’s half-sister Nadia Santos (Mía Maestro).

Before we get more into Rambaldi’s prophecies about the sisters, we can’t forget the parallel fever dream of the series: clones! Or, rather, secret agents genetically modified to look like anyone—which means everyone is a suspect. This constant paranoia quickly got out of hand on the series, but its first reveal was perfect TV drama: There’s not an Alias fan who doesn’t remember “Francie doesn’t like coffee ice cream” and the complete devastation that followed—the knock-down, drag-out fight that destroyed Sydney’s apartment just as badly as Danny’s death, but also Sydney’s heartbreak upon realizing that her best friend was already long dead.

What Alias Predicted: The Infinity Stones themselves are less interesting than in various superheroes’ personal connections to them: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) tempted by the tesseract in Thor: Ragnarok; Star Lord (Chris Pratt) and the Guardians of the Galaxy channeling their friendship to withstand the effects of the Power Stone; Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) stages of grief as she copes with trying to keep the memory of Vision (Paul Bettany) alive even without the Mind Stone. In short: grounding the most out-there plotlines in the personal ensures they will always land.

What Superhero Stories Can Still Learn: Ground the most bonkers of plotlines in the personal, and they’ll always land.

The Chosen One and the Passenger

This is when the Rambaldi business started getting less National Treasure levels of charming and more outright weird. Turns out the team wasn’t just recovering a treasure trove of artifacts, but also Rambaldi’s prophetic writings—including the mysterious “Page 47,” which featured a drawing of a woman known as the Chosen One… who bears quite the resemblance to Sydney herself. That would be easy enough to dismiss as a strange doppelgänger coincidence, but then comes the reveal of “Project Christmas”: When Syd discovers that she didn’t just stumble into the spy life on her own, but was actually trained as a sleeper agent from childhood, it only amplifies her fears that she has no true agency over her life.

Further Rambaldi writings center Sydney and Nadia into predestined roles as the Chosen One and the Passenger: supposed foes who are fated to clash, with one dying. Nadia getting injected with “Rambaldi fluid” in order to tap directly into the long-dead man’s consciousness (contained within another artifact known as the Sphere of Life) only earns her some nasty apocalyptic visions. But despite their genuine friendship that comes from bonding over their fucked-up childhoods, Sydney and Nadia are forced into that preordained confrontation when the latter is injected with a compound that reduces her to a mindless killing machine… all while a giant red ball is hovering over a city in Russia, because why not. Even after Nadia dies, and is brought back to life, then dies again, with her ghost haunting Sloane as he finally attains immortality, she remains a presence on the series.

There are certainly echoes to Black Widow and how it handles Natasha and adoptive sister Yelena’s (Florence Pugh) strained reconciliation after the older sister got out of the Red Room while the younger was still caught in its web. Their bickering banter about vests and poses, their differing memories of their false childhood, and their respective feelings of abandonment are what elevated Black Widow’s standalone outing—and made it even more tragic, on multiple levels, that this was the only time we would see the two of them in a movie together.

What Alias Predicted: Sister stories are gold! The Rambaldi storylines would mean nothing if they didn’t hinge on a tragically preordained confrontation, just as the MCU’s Red Room depiction seemed overdone until it was presented within the context of multiple generations’ differing experiences with its bloody legacy.

What Superhero Stories Can Still Learn: More stories about sisters! With Nat dead not long after she and Yelena had just started to bond again, it’s vital that Yelena’s future MCU appearances show her still grappling with the little time they got together.

After all, the best superhero stories are the ones that can feel just as fresh now as they did 20 years ago.

Alias is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The post How Alias Anticipated Modern Superhero Storytelling appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ih3u0c

[mayxthexforce]

❓ - bode for merrin

send "❓" to know what's the first word that crosses my muse's head when they think of yours!

Since she found out his full name, the first word to come to mind when she thinks of him is "Akula", a word in her native language, because the pronunciation (akuh-lah) resembles the pronunciation of Akuna, and it means "To bring the little one". After meeting Kata, Merrin thinks it's a pretty fitting word, almost prophetic. But another word is "Iyatakuni" because, again, the pronunciation of the last three syllables (ah-kuh-nee) is very similar to Akuna. It means "to disappear", which —given who Bode is— also seems pretty fitting.

[pointlomadem]

Notes from September Meeting - Ballot Measures & Propositions with Anne Hoiberg & Cody Petterson

Notes from September Meeting – Ballot Measures & Propositions with Anne Hoiberg & Cody Petterson

Conducted via Zoom per social distancing guidelines

Participants: 61 participants at the largest point-in-time count during the main program. (44 members and 17 non-members)

Call to Order: Merrin initiated the convening’s program at 4:01 pm. 

Agenda: An E-mail Agenda was circulated to publicize the convening.

Agenda was approved by unanimous consent

Open Forum for candidates & their…

[mayxthexforce]

This had become a sort of habit of theirs: Boba would come, they'd be busy with each other for a day or two, sometimes a little longer, then he would go back to his ship, back to the dangerous adventures that awaited him all across the galaxy, while she focused on saving her culture from extinction. Merrin asking for him to take her with him, however, was new.

His excuses weren't at all convincing.

"It would still be a single man's job if I went with you," she pointed out. Merrin knew what he meant but she wouldn't miss the opportunity to tease him with the loophole: she wasn't a man. "And I have no need for credits."

She followed his gaze to the helmet, then their eyes met and her expression turned mischievous as she took the helmet, holding it behind her back.

"Or what?" she taunted. If he insisted on calling her a girl even though she was older than him by a year or two, then well, Merrin could behave like a foolish girl. Besides, she enjoyed being able to actually see his face and to hear his voice, without that helmet of his in the way. "What's in it for me, hunter?"

@mayxthexforce​ has sent: “ why can’t i come with you? ”  (from Merrin to Boba)

𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒  [THIS IS LATE]

“Don’t be foolish. This is a single man’s work.” Boba responded coldly and bluntly, while he polished and fixed his arm wrist’s flamethrower. He needed this piece functioning in particular, to its finest for his next mission, from one of his top clients. The person in question’s identity was never revealed, although it was safe to assume it to be important. And the payment was also a fat one.

It was also possible to tell how the bounty hunter was ready to leave, at any given moment. Even though, he still had to finish tending to his own equipment. “I also wouldn’t share the payment.” He added in the same tone of voice, as he attached the flamethrower that he has been tinkering with. “It’s all pointless to you, anyway. Just wait for my return.” His gaze landed on his helmet for a brief moment, before locking eyes with Merrin. “Give me the helmet, girl.”

[invitethemedia]

Invite the Media and They Will Come

San Jose/CA With an October 2015 launch, Invite the Media, a division of Paris-based AD Avenue Group is in the official running for one more of four nominations in the ‘Best Festival PR company”

The latest recognition was extended by Festival Supplier Awards 2017 with a ceremony slated for Thursday, January 26th at the Hurlingham Club in London. In 2016 Invite the Media was on the short list of nominees that included the Las Vegas Imex Awards, Event Technology Awards in London, Eventex in Dublin and now Festival Supplier Awards 2017 also in London.

Event Planners, Brand Managers, Advertising Agents, Publicists and Sole Proprietors rejoiced. Said Mohammad Tinawi – Team Leader at Thomson Reuters, said “Love the idea, one of those things you would wonder how come no one thought of this before!”

For all those planning a product debut, a network gathering, a trade show, a ticketed event or a posh wine tasting are drawn to the world’s first and only dedicated invitation aggregator. The newly minted InvitetheMedia.com proprietary platform provides the ‘host’ immediate up-to-the-minute access to 300k social media subscribers and 1.6 million media contacts from down the street to around the globe.

Media attention is a crucial component in assuring the success of any gathering. Confirms, Cristiane Roget, AD Avenue Group Associate and co-producer of the most recent Daniel Stanford, Art Basel solo exhibit at the Miami Beach Shore Club, “Like many planners of events; we were faced with the bewildering conundrum of how to target our invitation to the reporter, calendar editor, blogger or news evaluator. Those guests that would give anything to attend said event if ‘they only knew’. Invite The Media serves as a fresh and impactful way to engage influencers, bloggers and news gatherers!”

AdAvenueGroup a French media marketing, strategy and press relations company is headquartered in San Jose, the Palm Beaches, and Paris. At the helm is Francois Huynh a former Yahoo Project Manager and CEO of AD Avenue Group.

According to Francois, “Whether a fashion show, concert, movie premiere, product unveiling or grand opening we make sure our subscribers and clients have the direct access to the press that is pre-disposed to promote and/or review their event. With the 4th award nomination in a year AAG is counted among the new league of communication pioneers. As Huynh is fond of saying, “We are competing with the Big League. It is gratifying to be even in the junior league no matter the outcome. We have created a seamless way to seduce media and local press to attend our clients’ gatherings with a platform that is effective and user-friendly.”

“Imagine ‘Mail Chimp’ or a ‘Eventbrite” software on steroids”, says Michael Merrins, AD Avenue Group Photographer. The invitation targets the news evaluator’s specific interest whether an automotive roll-out to Sci-Fi & zombies.

The beta testing phase has already distributed 450 000 personnal invitations. The roll out of Invite The Media began in the United States, and now UK, France, Germany and Spain.

About AdAvenueGroup

AD Avenue is a French company based in Strasbourg and Paris. Specialized in Digital marketing, Advertising, Press Relations and Online Strategy the company creates innovative tools and services.

[mayxthexforce]

Send 🌛to find my muse up late at night

@mutatiio said

It wasn't until she left Dathomir that Merrin grasped the concept of anniversaries.

Before, the Nightsisters had a calendar of their own. Like most —if not all— sentient species, they required a form of telling the passage of time with precision. There are 24 hours in a Dathomirian day, and 491 days in a year. But they didn't keep track of many milestones. Birthdays were only celebrated sporadically, when a Sister reached a truly remarkable amount of years lived. They celebrated the very first birthday and then, there were no other celebrations until that same Sister had reached adulthood, then no other until they reached their middle age.

Merrin had stopped counting the years that passed the day her people were massacred. But the galaxy hadn't.

In fact, the galaxy kept such a close track of what happened around —even before the Empire, which she found disturbing— that there were records of exactly when the monster that Merrin now knew as General Grievous had brought death on her people. Today was the anniversary of her people's deaths.

Greez had taught her how to read a star map, and Cal had shown her how to translate it from the holographic projection on the table or holopad to the sky above her head. Because of this, Merrin knew exactly where to look as she went and sat outside, watching a specific point in the sky. The red star that kept Dathomir warm and alive shone brighter than those around it, so it was easy enough to find that even a child or, in her case, someone who hadn't found out one could tell which sun was which despite being so many light years away until she was well over 20 years old, could do it.

There was a melancholy permanently attached to her stargazing that Merrin wasn't sure if she'd feel or not, had she not found out about the fact she could give importance to an anniversary and that she could just, look up in the middle of the night and see the sun she'd lived under her whole life until the fateful day she met the others. But the Mantis crew knew to give her space on this specific date– the old members, that is.

Her body tensed and she roughly wiped her tears away the moment she heard steps too close for comfort, and her attention snapped to the source.

"Cal is not here," she said, slightly choked up but pushing through the lump of emotions in her throat, when she spotted Bode. "If he knows what's good for him, and for Greez's nerves, he's asleep. You should be resting, too."

[stagofwar]

Aww, did someone get addicted to self-worth as affirmed daily and furiously by the people you know without a hint of doubt you can trust?

Welcome back! It’s been too long without an installment. I’m excited to see someone kill Jabba, though I’ll admit that his vileness beyond looking at Mail like a piece of meat was not super obvious. I am reminded, however, between the Watch, the Opress siblings, the Hutts, the Jedi, the Sith, and the ghosts of a joke post about seven different people betraying each other to each other and sometimes themselves to each other, as they’ve forgotten who’s playing which role. At this point, I’m betting on Merrin coming out on top.

Renegade 11

(Translation note: "Stuka Crispo" means "Death Watch" in Huttese, and I have absolutely no idea what Jabba says in the palace scene in canon, so I tried to paraphrase what it sounded like he meant. Also, Jabba the Hutt truly does deserve the epithet 'vile'; I tried to keep him PG-13, but he's still fairly disgusting. And Maul's having an existential crisis; I think he's doing fairly well with managing it, considering his upbringing, but there's still probably some things that might be disturbing in his inner monologue.)

When the ground beneath their tails shuddered under the impact of laser-cannon fire, Jabba was almost relieved for the interruption. Gorga, his esteemed nephew, was a smart lad, but a dull conversationalist; Jabba had only managed to distract the boy from simpering over his, exuberant, lady-love by asking how Oruba’s conveniently timed death would affect the Council coffers. And that had started a long information dump about inheritance law, the various tax laws they would have to ‘waive’ by striking from the books, and mathematics; Jabba had been close to dissociating completely before the attackers made themselves known.

Gorga, however, looked a bit nervous. “Uncle, we should flee. I have a skiff ready and waiting.”

Jabba scoffed. “If they are genuinely out to kill us, they’re stupider than I thought.”

“They’re Mandalorians, Uncle!”

“Not all Mandalorians are half-wits, my boy. Sit back, relax, and watch a master at work.”

“But-”

Shots rang out in the hallway that led to the throne room, quieting Gorga’s concerns. In a few moments, the three representatives Death Watch had sent to threaten the Council had killed the Gamorrean guards. No great loss there; Gamorreans bred at an exponential rate and Jabba had to dispose of a certain quota of guards per month to prevent them from cannibalizing each other and passing prion diseases in his ranks. Still, the casual disregard for Hutt property shown by the Stuka Crispo leader and his Zabrak bodyguards grated, and Jabba was eagerly anticipating the day when it would be profitable to salt their disrespectful feet. But, for now, it paid to be polite.

“Can I help you with something, gentlemen?”

“Give up, Jabba, you’re the only ones left,” opined the head Mandalorian.

Jabba fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Marlo was the grandparent of Gorga’s beloved Anachro; if he had really died, they’d have had the news via an hour’s worth of pathetic, incomprehensible weeping by now. And Arok was safe on Falleen, helping his unfortunately disfigured son Durga try for one of the vacant spots as Vigo of the Black Sun. This little upstart had absolutely no idea just how small a town the galactic underworld really was, or that Jabba knew every little bit of trouble Stuka Crispo had caused over the course of the past three weeks. But he did know that they had only killed one member of the Hutt Council, and he had the nerve to lie to Jabba’s face, in Basic. Typical Mandalorian idiocy; Jabba would eat him whole for the offense if he wasn’t still carefully monitoring his diet to better nurse Rotta.

Dismissing the human man as a loss, he glanced over to the crimson Zabrak who’d been doing most of the talking before the Council. The lightsaber designated him as a Force-user, which explained quite a few stories that had circulated over the years; Jabba had heard tell, mostly from his associates’ whining, of underworld dispersals, destroyed assassin academies, and imploded fighting rings, all featuring the first red-skinned Zabrak to be seen in two hundred years. There was no question that this was the same person who was the central figure of those tales, though Jabba had thought he would be nearing forty by now, if he was still alive; this young man, this boy, really, didn’t even look to be on the wrong side of thirty, though of course humanoid ages could be difficult to accurately guess. It truly was a pity that he wasn’t as, impressionable, as most escaped Dathomirians tended to be…with his uncommon coloration, Jabba could have put him to very good use amongst the equally rare and equally beautiful humanoid women of his harem…

The Zabrak sneered as if he’d scented something foul. “Submit, or suffer,” he growled.

Fearlessness and invention; those were the qualities that had won Jabba the place he had now, because those were the qualities that made one the most dangerous in the Outer Rim. He would not have kept his position for this long if he never learned to recognize them in lesser beings. And this young Zabrak, who threatened the Head of the Hutt Council and the Heir Apparent of the Desilijic Kajidic to his face and who had engineered the fall of the greater part of the underworld into his lovely hands, was certainly amongst the most dangerous people who had crossed Jabba’s trail in seven centuries. Jabba found himself laughing; he could grow to like working with someone who presented this much of a challenge. And, if he played his cards right, this venture could eliminate a few more of his silent rivals in a way that would leave Jabba essentially blameless in their deaths.

“Very well. I, and by extension the Hutt Families, agree to support your cause.”

***

Always remember, I am filth.

The vow was one of several which Maul had once sworn regularly; if one freely embraced the fact that one was fear, hunter, filth, nothing, it broke the shackles of guilt and of insult, allowing the Sith Lord to operate in the grime and the crime that their role entailed. And obviously, Maul had fallen out of the habit, for his very being had recoiled from the greed and the lust in Jabba the Hutt’s mind. He’d known full well that the phenotype which made his skin red made him prized as a pleasure slave; the idea that Jabba had hoped to make him a stud in his royal harem should not have been a terrible shock. And yet, it was. Somehow, Maul, former son of Dathomir, disgraced and dismembered Sith Apprentice, eldritch horror of the refuse heaps of Lotho Minor, had got it into his head that his body deserved more respect than the highest lord of the Hutts could manage, and he wasn’t sure how…

He lay on his stomach after a long hunt, hovering pleasantly between sleep and wakefulness; gentle fingers trailed idly over his bare skin, their comparative coolness a balm against the growing heat of the mid-morning Maridun sun. “You have a big heart,” a feminine voice murmured tenderly.

“Lies and slander,” he grumbled perfunctorily. “Who told you that? They were mistaken.”

“I’m talking about the pattern on your back, silly,” Barriss chuckled. “Savage, doesn’t it look like a red, stylized heart? Like the shape on my belt?”

“Don’t involve me in this, I’m asleep,” Savage replied from the large spot on the bed he had claimed for a nap.

“The shapes do look a little similar,” Feral put in a second later. “What do you think, Merrin?”

“Aaawww! You match! That’s so cute!”

“Cute?”

“He even has little diamonds like you, right there at the bottom of the, uh, ‘heart’!” Merrin chirped. “Does that mean something on Mirial?”

“What does it mean on Dathomir?”

“I…don’t know. It was a process sacred to the gods; Ily-others, might have been able to tell you.” The girl was silent for a moment, but seemed determined to make the moment pass quickly. “What might it mean on Mirial?”

“Hmmm,” Barriss thoughtfully ran the back of her hand against his shoulder blade, her presence quietly smug when he sighed contentedly at her touch. “It’s a bit abstract for a Mirial pattern, but…the diamonds on the lower back would indicate discipline, and anything on the shoulders, strength. And a large symbol for compassion or romantic love, splayed across the back where no one but his family will see it, is the mark of someone who cares about people a very great deal more than he allows himself to show.”

Maul opened one eye to glare playfully at her. “You’re making that up.”

“Sounds apt to me, Brother.”

“I thought you were asleep?”

“I do my best thinking in my sleep.”

“Well I like it!” Merrin pouted. “We might as well make up meanings for our marks, since no one else is here to tell us about them.”

“True,” Feral replied. “And your marks mean loud, angry, and annoying. There, I’ve declared it.”

“That is a compliment coming from you…”

“Between the Hutts, Black Sun, and the Pykes we’ll have a large reserve of muscle and supplies.”

Maul nearly twitched as he was rudely pulled from his reverie. “Yes.”

“Then Mandalore and Kenobi are still our priorities?”

In a trice, Maul’s musings had gone from the memory of his siblings’ laughter to the cold hatred in a Fallen Jedi’s eyes he’d glimpsed during his defeat on Naboo; a phantom pain sliced across his abdomen, halting the reminiscent comfort of his wife’s palm. “They are vital.” No happiness could remain while Kenobi lived, if even his name triggered this sort of ache.

“I’m curious to hear the rest of your plan,” Viszla continued nonchalantly.

Fighting back the recurrent flashback, Maul took a second to examine his ally’s thoughts. “The vision has expanded,” he said, which was a delaying phrase to keep the conversation alive while he decided what foot to step on with Viszla. Had it not been for the overheard conversation concerning Barriss, Maul might have thought Viszla was warming up to the idea of a true partnership between them, and tested the waters just to be sure of the Mandalorian’s intentions. But, that sort of test was no longer necessary; he knew the betrayal was coming, and had only to pretend he did not in order to deceive Viszla. “You will rule Mandalore, as agreed; my family and I will leave once I have what I want from Kenobi.”

“And what will happen with all of these crime syndicates? I doubt they will disappear into thin air once I am Mand’alor.”

“We will safeguard your interests and supply Mandalore with more efficiency than the Duchess’s trade agreements have managed.”

“I’m reluctant to have black marketeers supply my people.”

Maul raised an eyebrow. “And yet, you have no qualms robbing black marketeers for fresh fruit and luxury items.”

Viszla blinked. “You know about that?”

Good Force this man was naïve. “Stealing from smugglers is a clever tactic, Lord Viszla; the recipients of the goods cannot report the missed deliveries to proper authorities without incurring punishment, and should armed enforcers be sent to investigate, the smugglers sustain the penalty rather than you.” It was one of the oldest tricks on record, and also a sure path to the bad graces of most organizations; Viszla was lucky that the Trade Federation, in this case, had more important people to kill. “This way, however, the robberies can be…arranged, so that there’s more oversight on the quality of goods and no tragic poisonings of children can occur.”

The Mandalorian frowned. “And what do you get out of it?”

Maul smiled. “The return of our ship, and a quiet planet in Mandalorian space where my family can stay without drawing the attention of either the Republic or the Confederacy.”

“…That’s it?”

“Well, the planet needs to have good holo-reception so I can remain in touch with our allies, but other than that…”

“You just want to retire?”

“More than anything in this life.” It was a lie; Maul knew he was meant for much more, and ruling the galactic underworld was only the start of his ambition. And yet…

“I don’t suppose I can blame you for that,” Viszla said with a wistful grin, clapping Maul on the shoulder. “Let’s get this done; then we can both live out our dreams.” He nodded in farewell, and set off to where Kryze was waiting for him.

Maul let him go, and walked toward the nearest Warbird, away from the smothering heap of refuse and vice that was Jabba’s palace. When the air was free and fresh enough that he could breathe without imagining the Hutt’s lascivious eyes over every exposed centimeter of his body, he stopped, and tried to collect the scattered remains of his thoughts.

He wanted more than the life he had been given, more than whatever riches Viszla could promise, and certainly more than the fearful life as Jabba’s decorative pet. And yet, he was fear, filth, nothing, and deserved only what he hunted and caught for himself. This was the creed that had brought him up; these were the words he’d lived by, that paradox of desiring what was above his station and dragging what he wanted down to his level if needs must.

But he was not fear to Merrin, who knew she could tease and annoy him without repercussion. He was not a hunter to Feral, who laughed at Maul’s technique and without judgment taught him Nightbrother formations to use against larger animals. He was not filth to Barriss, who touched him with respect and beheld him with a reverence he could never even begin to fathom. He was not nothing to Savage, who without even knowing him had risked his life, health, and freedom to find Maul in the garbage and painstakingly nurture him back to some semblance of health.

With his family, he was…valuable, for more than just his body or his martial prowess or his skill at handling criminal connections. He was no longer accustomed to being used, so much so that even the idea of being treated like an object was beginning to personally affront him, both with Death Watch and with Jabba.

What was happening to him?

***

“He’s setting up a crime syndicate, and wants us to give him and his family safe harbor so he can administer it from the comfort of home.”

Bo gawped at Pre. “And he just…admitted this to you?”

“Oh yeah. The man is a soft touch. Getting him out of the way should be easy.”

***

Lightsaber deflection practice was going very well, at least by what Feral could tell. The Magpies, Kast’s personal squad of commandoes, had started out going easy on him, telling him where they were going to shoot stun bolts so he could prepare. Barriss had offered him a few discreet pointers at mealtimes, and they’d worked like a charm; by day three, the Magpies had fired at will with the stun bolts, since he was responding and blocking fast enough. On day five, they used the same warning system with live fire as they had with the stun bolts; on day seven, they found him some spare armor and fired at will, and he only got hit twice. He was hoping, today, that they’d start to teach him some of the hand-to-hand combat using the armor…maybe even touch upon flamethrower techniques, since those were impressive as well.

When he got to the practice field, however, Kast was cleaning an odd-looking blaster while the others loitered casually; she glanced up from her work when informed he had arrived, and beckoned for him to come closer. “Take a look at this,” she said, handing him the blaster. “I found it while organizing my foot locker last night, and thought you might make some use of it.”

The weapon truly was strange; the barrel sounded hollow when he gently tapped it, rather than full of many tiny glass refracting lenses of a typical Mandalorian blaster. There was no slot for a charge pack, and no safety buttons to set a laser to stun or kill. “What is it?” he asked after a long moment.

Kast grinned. “It’s a slug-thrower, the predecessor to the modern blaster. It uses small amounts of explosive powder to propel solid ammunition toward a target.”

“Really?” that sounded cool! “And you think I’ll be able to deflect that?” It was heartwarming to be acknowledged as competent.

Kast blanched. “Oh hell no. Not because you aren’t good at this!” she corrected quickly, likely when she saw the disappointment in his face. “But because that ammunition actually moves faster than blaster bolts, too fast for even your reflexes, and it causes a kark-ton of damage when it hits. Even if you do manage to catch it, when it collides with a lightsaber it explodes into shrapnel. No…we’re going to have you shoot this at a target.”

“Why me?”

“Because, due to the explosive powder, there’s a fair amount of recoil when this fires; in flight, a person is blown backwards, and that can be dangerous. But, since you are going to be on the ground for now, and since your stance steadies you, I think that you could use this to far greater effect than one of us can.”

A few small clicks sounded in the stillness as several Magpies went to private comm channels; Rook glared at all of them, muttering a sentence in Mando’a so quietly that Feral only caught the word for ‘gossip.’ “Anyway,” she said, putting out a hand to reclaim the slug-thrower. “Let me show you how to load it, and then we’ll get you on the range.”

A few minutes later, Kast stood next to him as he lifted the old weapon with one hand. “All right, you’ve got fifteen rounds before you need to reload. And I’m not joking about the recoil. You might want to use two…”

BLAM! “WOO!” Feral cried with a grin. “That’s loud! And you’re right about the recoil, but it’s not so bad. I think I can get used to it.” He squinted at the target to see where the bullet landed, and took aim again.

“Isn’t that a little bit high?”

“Yeah, but the rounds are solid, like you said, so they’re affected by gravity, like our spears and arrows back home,” he said. “It’ll move in a shallow arc, so you have to aim a little bit higher than center to hit exactly where you want to hit.”

“Oh…I suppose that makes sense.”

BLAM! Feral squinted at the target again. “That was a little too high; this should bring me pretty close to a rancors-eye.”

“You can see that far? I’m still calibrating my HUD for the darkness.”

He winked mischievously, watching as the light his eyes cast on her blue armor dimmed briefly, and fired again. BLAM!

“What the hell is going on out there?” yelled one of the Falleen guards.

“Target practice, go back to your business!” replied Urraca Tidd, Kast’s lieutenant. “Objective still not sighted, ma’am,” she said in a lower tone, ignoring the litany of protests from the Falleen about the early hour.

“I…think you hit dead-center that last time,” Kast marveled. “Do you think you could hit it again?”

BLAM! “Yeah, I think so.”

“Objective sighted.”

ZZOW! Before he could ask what Tidd was talking about, Feral was kneeling on the ground, staring up at Kast in consternation as she took the slug-thrower, removed the ammunition, and checked to make sure there were no rounds still in the chamber. “Was that a stun bolt?”

“Shh…a low-level one,” she murmured, bringing out a little spray bottle and spritzing a tiny amount of strong, sweet-smelling liquid under each of his ears. “Can I get a medic?” she called. “I think Lord Feral sprained a muscle.”

“What? No I did-”

“Hush. Just go with it.” She slid her shoulders under his right arm, and Tidd did the same with his left; together, they helped him limp toward the medtent, where Barriss and Merle were holding open the entrance.

“What happened?” asked the Mandalorian medic.

“We were trying out an untraditional weapon. It recoiled and he fell pretty hard on his right ankle.” They got him into a bed, and before Merle could take a look at him, Tidd grabbed her shoulder. “Oh, uh, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about what happened on Carlac. Can you spare a moment?”

“…Sure,” Merle said, eying Barriss as she let herself be led out of the tent. “I’ll be right back.”

Kast glanced down at Feral and nodded briefly. “I’m just gonna let the doc examine you, all right? We’ll try this again tomorrow.”

“Wait, where are you-?” Kast hurried out of sight before he could finish his sentence, leaving him alone in the medtent with Barriss. He shook his head at his secret sister-in-law. “It’s a stun bolt, not a sprain. And I have no idea what’s going on.”

Barriss pulled a seat closer to him, inhaled, and went pale. Her hands scrabbled in her pockets, producing a small cloth bag which she pressed to her nose. “You’re wearing the Falleen perfume.”

Feral felt his blood pressure rise and his hands move to the damp spots under his ears. “I swear I had nothing to do with that.”

“I know,” Barriss chuckled, standing to close the curtains. “It looks like you have made a few friends, though; they’re trying to set you up.”

His blood suddenly went cold. “Why would friends want me dead?”

“Not set you up to be killed, set you up with me,” she clarified, still keeping her distance. “They think you are romantically interested with me, and used the perfume to try and help you get my attention.”

“…What?”

She shushed him, still laughing softly. “It’s rather funny, actually; they must have misinterpreted the talks we’ve been having over lunch.”

“You think that now, but when Maul gets a whiff of this on you and me, he is going to start cutting things off, of me.”

“Don’t be silly, we all platonically share a bed. I’m sure there are far more reasonable conclusions for him to jump to.”

Proximity sirens blared throughout the camp, signaling the return of the Warbird fleet. Feral pursed his lips and glared significantly at Barriss. “Would you care to test his ire, or should I?”

[mayxthexforce]

okay well first of all, let it be known that I ship Anakin/Sabe more than any of his other ships because we have developed them so much and they are our babies. I will AU the fuck out of them with you and I don't just AU with anyone.

I'm not a split Anakin and Vader person because as you know, we have Vaderkin ships and Sabe, and those go under Anakin typically.

But, I also ship Vader/Sabe in that exact form. There's a familiarity and a two lost souls in them that I love so damn much, and we need to fix what the comics did to them. Plus, I love what we were talking about with them yesterday about if he survived and how he still gets panic attacks and such.

NOW THAT'S JUST THE GIVEN.

Don't think I have forgotten about Anakin/Merrin and Vader/Merrin. Nothing appeals to either side of him more than the green glowy trick and well, with Vader, the whole desecrating altars.

I also love the idea of Sabe/Obi-Wan. That's just one that we need to get off the ground, same with Anakin/Vader and Trace. I'm sure there are more. You've got 99 characters and I could probably find a character to throw at any of them. Be careful or I'll throw my married at 16, 6'2 NBA player at them.

But no, I ship so much with you. I love writing with you. Also Vader thinks he and Sabe need to punish Fox.

Who do you ship with my muse?

Bonus: Include why you like the ship!

You know how much I love Sabekin. They were the very first ship I roleplayed in this blog. Pioneer ship fr fr, and for the longest time I was only roleplaying regularly with you, so I don't think I'd have stuck around as long as I have if I hadn't brought you down to the dark side with me xD Merrin and Trace also love their disfunctional man, even if they've not been as deeply explored. And Obi-Wan and Sabé are that couple who judges everyone else, I love them! RIP Fox, again

[mayxthexforce]

REASONS TO CUP A FACE. ( A PROMPT LIST. )

@mutatiio said:

[CHECK]: after an unexpectedly violent situation, sender frantically rushes to check if the receiver is okay, cupping their face to look closer. ( bode @ merrin )

For a wonderful moment right before she opened her eyes, Merrin felt as if she was back on Dathomir, many years ago. She could have sworn she heard drums, the sort that were played in the celebrations to honor the birth or the passing of a Nightsister, loud and jovial. Something she'd made the mistake of taking for granted back then, using the loud sound as her chance to sneak away from celebrations and towards the swamps that young Nightsisters were supposed to stay away from.

The moment she opened her eyes, the reality of the situation struck her hard enough to completely kill the wonderful illusion.

Her head was pounding. That's what she'd mistaken for drums. The pain and the pounding both blossomed from the same spot on her left temple. Merrin reached up, fingers pushing wet, warm hair away from where it was sticking to her skin. Now her fingers were wet and warm too, and the pain didn't cease– if anything, touching made it worse. But she got a good feeling of the gash of her temple before holding her hand in front of her face to confirm that what she felt was blood.

She hated speeders. She hated having to jump off speeders even more.

Merrin's eyes went wide and she tensed as large hands cupped her face and moved her head. Her hands instantly moved to grab onto the arms the hands belonged to, ready to burn at whoever dared attack her when she was vulnerable, but before her powers could grow beyond a concerning heat at her hands, she realized it was Bode. The one who'd had the brilliant idea of jumping off the speeder to lose the ones chasing after them.

"You and your plans- You're worse than Cal!" she used her hold on his arms to get herself back on her feet. "You're lucky you're handsome."

Okay, perhaps the adrenaline or the hit to the head were making her a little too loose of tongue. But Merrin couldn't even pretend to care when her head was pounding and so were her hearts.