#Ahsoka is the one that has to spell it out for anakin that he works for a mafia boss

[gaily-daily-musings]

Accidentally kidnapping a mafia boss 😎 How often I read the opposite as teen, they probably deserve it

I couldn't decide between fluffy or serious and then I thought why not both? Both is good (link to serious version)

-

The man on the curb is dressed far too nicely for an Uber. Anakin hesitantly pulls up, double checking his phone. The man starts to head in his direction and opens the back door.

“O. Kenobi?”

“Yes,” Kenobi says in a crisp British accent.

Well he'll be damned. The man, Kenobi, shuts the door behind him. Anakin pulls away and back onto the street.

“What happened to your regular driver?” He asks. He is of course kidding.

However Kenobi answers. “A bit under the weather I'm afraid.”

Anakin nods politely and looks back at the road. Internally he's screaming. Holy shit, this guy was the real deal! He even had a Rolex on his wrist! If Anakin played his cards right and turned up the charm, maybe he'd get a big tip!

Anakin switches the radio, looking for another station. He finds one playing classical music and turns it up. British guys liked classical, right?

“Could you turn it down please? I'm trying to concentrate.”

Anakin looks back to see Kenobi's head buried behind his phone screen.

“Oh sure! Sorry!” Anakin quickly turns it off. “Want some bottled water?” Anakin reaches over for a bottle of Dasani in the passenger seat and holds it up. “It's complementary!”

Kenobi eyes it with a frown. “No…thank you.”

Too good for Dasani? Well fuck him, not everyone can afford Fiji or whatever the fuck.

They come to a stop at a red light. Anakin drums his fingers on the steering wheel. He thinks about making some friendly small talk, asking Kenobi about what he did for a living. But Kenobi seems really busy with whatever he was doing on his phone. He didn't want to bother him and get a star knocked off for being nosy. Rich types tended to prefer the help not to speak.

Anakin sighs and resigns himself to a subpar tip. Oh well he tried.

His phone rings, interrupting his thoughts. Anakin reaches up, about to hit ignore, when he sees the caller and pauses. It was Ahsoka. He adjusts his wireless earbuds and hopes Kenobi didn't mind. He didn't like ignoring calls from her.

“Hey, I'm working right now, what's up?”

“Anakin! Anakin oh my god you need to–!”

It cuts the rest of her sentence off.

“Ahsoka?” Anakin's heart drops. She sounded breathless. “What's wrong?”

“A–ch–at the–....”

Anakin looks at the top right corner. The last bar disappears and drops the call entirely.

“Shit!” Anakin curses. His hands grip the steering wheel, knuckles going white. What happened? Was she in trouble?

Decision already made, Anakin yanks the wheel and does a u-turn.

Kenobi gasps, holding onto the door side for dear life. “What's going on?” he demands. His voice is hard.

“Sorry sir! My sister's in trouble! That was her on the phone just now!”

He speeds down the road whipping through traffic. Cars honk as he flies by.

“I'm sorry I really don't have time to let you out!”

There goes his fucking tip. Probably his job too.

Anakin races through the streets, heart pounding in his chest. Please be okay. She had to be okay!

He pulls up to her apartment in record time and skids to a full stop. He bursts out of the car, running up the stairs two at a time to the second floor. He pounds on the door yelling her name.

“Ahsoka! Ahsoka!”

Just as he's ready to break it down, the door opens. Ahsoka looks up at him with a confused expression.

“Anakin?”

He grasps her shoulders frantically looking her over. “Are you okay?? What happened?!”

“Nothing? What are you doing here? I thought you were working?”

“I am!” He snaps. “Then you called me sounding upset and then the phone cut off!”

Ahsoka blinks. She opens her mouth then closes it. Then a smile breaks across her face and she starts to laugh. Anakin bristles.

“What?” he growls.

“I was just calling to tell you about the new movie! I just got back from seeing it with Bariss! I was just excited to talk to you about it, is all!”

All the air rushes out of him. Anakin's hands fall to his sides. He should probably jump off this balcony now.

Ahsoka leans to the side, looking over his shoulder. “Who's that?”

Anakin stiffens. He looks back and sees Kenobi having climbed the stairs after him. Fuck.

“Uhh, this is my current customer Mr. Kenobi. I sorta, um, panicked.”

“Hello.” Ahsoka waves awkwardly. Then, quietly so the guy couldn't hear, she whispers, “Dude you totally kidnapped someone.”

“It was an accident!” He hisses back.

Kenobi, to Anakin’s complete surprise, is smiling. He would have thought the man was coming up here to curse him out and hit him.

“Hello there,” Kenobi says.

“Anyway, looks like it was a false alarm! Haha!” Anakin scratches the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Yes, I see that. Glad to see you're unharmed. Ahsoka was it? He was awfully worried about you.”

Ahsoka smiles back, unsure what to do. She looks at Anakin for support but he's just as lost as her.

“Anakin's always jumping to conclusions,” she offers.

They all share a weird, stunted laugh. Anakin clears his throat.

“I can definitely take you where you want to go now, sir. Free of charge of course!”

Kenobi looks between the two of them then. Like he's analyzing them. Anakin suppresses a shiver.

“Yes, if you wouldn't mind.” Kenobi shifts, angling his body towards the stairs and waiting for Anakin.

Anakin says goodbye to Ahsoka and quickly heads back to the car. He cancels the previous request so that Kenobi won't be charged. And more importantly so that he can't give him 1 star in case he changed his mind about being so understanding about all of this.

“You care a lot for your sister don't you?” Kenobi asks from the back. He's watching Anakin in the mirror.

“Yes, sir. She's not related by blood but she's basically part of the family.”

“Hmm, quite loyal,” Kenobi says under his breath.

Not knowing what to say to that, Anakin chooses to ignore it. Weird comment aside, Kenobi was being very forgiving and he didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

After about another minute or two Kenobi speaks up again.

“You drive very well.”

Anakin can't help the swell of pride at the compliment. “Thanks. I kinda thought I'd be a stunt driver one day. It's all I ever wanted when I was little. But that fell off and now here I am.”

Kenobi falls silent again and so does Anakin. They get to the destination about fifteen minutes later. The building is as ominous as any corporate office he's ever seen.

Anakin goes the extra mile and gets out to go around and open the door for him. He wasn't a chauffeur but hey, the guy had been through enough.

“Thank you, Anakin.” Kenobi holds out a hand to shake.

“You're welcome sir!” Anakin takes it. It was warm and engulfing. Kenobi squeezes his palm, almost lingering.

“I'll be in touch.”

He finally let's go and walks up the steps to the building. Anakin blinks after him, confused. Be in touch? The hell did that mean?

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

There's not a TON of "canon" discussion of Anakin's apprenticeship years between TPM and AOTC, at least in terms of what's usually considered Lucas's canon which is the films and first six seasons of TCW.

He claims at the end of the Wrong Jedi arc that he's considered leaving the Order before (and clearly also chosen NOT to leave), but that could be something that's only started happening since AOTC rather than something that's been happening since he joined the Order, Anakin doesn't specify that. He also doesn't specify why he stays precisely, but when he's trying to tell Ahsoka not to leave, he says "the Jedi Order is your life, you can't just throw it away like this" so you could make a solid argument that this is likely something he's said to HIMSELF when facing those moments where he's considered leaving and then chosen not to.

So while it's fully canon that Anakin, at some point during his tenure as a Jedi, HAS considered leaving the Order and ultimately chosen to stay, it's not canon that he stayed because he wanted to be a Jedi too much necessarily. It's a VERY easy assumption to make, that Anakin chose to remain a Jedi because he believes it's the only thing he CAN be and that he enjoys being a Jedi (and the fame and glory he believes it gives him) too much to leave, but it's not spelled out.

There's one comic where Anakin, at the age of like 12 or 13, does tell Obi-Wan he's considering leaving the Order (in part due to some struggles on a particular mission they're having and the limitations they're under as Jedi that keeps them from being able to help in certain ways that Anakin would like to do) and Obi-Wan convinces him to stick it out until the end of the mission and see if he changes his mind. And in the end, Obi-Wan is able to show that while there are things they're unable to do because of the limitations the Jedi live with, there are also a lot MORE things that they CAN do because of the resources available to them as Jedi. You don't get one without the other and the Jedi have decided that the limitations of working with the Senate instead of independently are worth the benefits of the resources and legitimacy they get from that relationship. It's something Anakin figures out by the end of the story and it's why he ultimately chooses to stay, because in many ways, the Jedi have more power as a collective organization than any one of them would have alone.

What Anakin seems to want is to be able to really make a difference, to help people in an obvious demonstrative way. It's a genuinely selfless and compassionate desire, especially when he's young, but it's something that gets twisted as he gets older. By the time you get to AOTC, Anakin is already at the point where he's more invested in his own POWER to help people than he is in actually HELPING PEOPLE. He's upset about killing the Tuskens because it makes him a bad Jedi, not because he's actually feeling remorseful about the loss of life. He recognizes there's problems in their system of government, but he also 1000% believes in dictatorships as a worthwhile solution to the problem.

So he stays with the Jedi not because he wants to BE A JEDI but because he chooses to believe that being a Jedi is what will allow him the power he wants to do the things he wants. And early on, there's a more genuine desire to help people in that, but it very quickly becomes all about just HAVING POWER in general. He sort-of... hides it underneath this veneer of genuinely wanting to help people and maybe some part of him still genuinely does want that, but by AOTC, it's all about the power already. It's about getting recognition for his skills that he believes he is OWED by the Jedi (and specifically by Obi-Wan and the Council) because he believes he is special and just... deserves to do whatever he wants.

So, personally, taking all of these things into account, my interpretation is that Anakin stays with the Jedi because he wants the power to be a hero that he believes being a Jedi will grant him, because he WANTS the recognition of his power and skills he thinks he deserves simply for existing, and he tells himself that it's all about helping people who need help and maybe some small part of that is still true, but by AOTC it's already been a lie for a WHILE. It's no longer truly about helping people in a selfless and compassionate way, but about the power to do what matters TO ANAKIN. And I think Anakin maybe genuinely believes that if he leaves the Jedi, then he's throwing away an opportunity to have what he wants, that he's throwing away the sacrifices he made when he left Tatooine, and it HAS to be worth that, he'll MAKE IT worth that no matter what it takes, even if he's miserable, even if it means he has to live a lie with regards to his marriage. He DESERVES to be a powerful Jedi AND have the woman he wants or none of what he's lost was worth anything. So of course he won't leave, because that means admitting defeat and giving up on getting what he's owed by the galaxy.

As for what would happen if he'd left the Order right after marrying Padme (or, potentially, IN ORDER TO marry Padme), I just... don't think he ever would. I don't think Anakin in AOTC in emotionally stable or healthy or aware enough to actually make that choice. Like I said, Anakin by AOTC is fully in a mindset that he is OWED the things he wants simply for existing as a super special person. He'd never leave the Order to marry Padme of his own volition, without the choice being forced upon him. If the option is there to have a secret marriage and still remain a Jedi, THAT'S the choice he's going to make. He WANTS both, so he'll KEEP both right up until circumstances make it impossible.

In canon, he's faced with the choice of letting Padme die or committing a genocide against the Jedi and he chooses Padme. In an AU of sorts where the marriage came to light earlier in the war, the Council would likely force Anakin to make a choice between being married to Padme or remaining a Jedi. He cannot have both simply because he WANTS both and he's proven over and over again that he cannot actually balance this relationship with his duties as a Jedi, so I don't think the Jedi would make any kind of special exemptions for him just because his circumstances are different and he came in later. At some point, he still has to be an adult and make a fucking choice and this is one of those places I think they'd enforce that. And I do think Anakin would choose Padme here, especially since the Jedi are the ones putting him in a position where he HAS to choose which would make him bitter towards them and he already HAS issues with the Council as an authority. Whether he'd regret that choice later on in his life is debatable, whether he'd end up resenting Padme for being the thing that lost him his position as a Jedi or not is debatable, but canon tells us that when push comes to shove, he'll choose Padme over the Jedi every time.

As for whether this would make it harder to figure out Palpatine's identity if Anakin left the Order, I honestly don't think much would change there. If Anakin left the Order, he might end up GOING to Palpatine for a job or something given how close they are, which places him closer to Palpatine and even more in his debt. We also know the Jedi are suspicious of Palpatine FROM THE JUMP, they don't LIKE Palpatine even in AOTC and it's Anakin who keeps trying to insist on loyalty to Palpatine over anything else during TCW, and of course in ROTS they're already fully prepared to arrest Palpatine on charges of corruption before they even discover he's a Sith lord. So even if we assume Anakin managed to wander off after he left the Order and didn't end up in Palpatine's clutches earlier, the Jedi would continue to investigate the war and see Palpatine's corruption and decide to do something about it. And honestly, without Anakin there to be a selfish greedy turd, they might actually BEAT Palpatine before he can enact Order 66, Mace is well on his way there before Anakin showed up. If Anakin became a Sith lord EARLY, though, that could cause some issues because it might be even easier to turn Anakin against the Jedi and agree to kill them all and may not give the Jedi quite enough time to act against Palpatine, but at this point we're entering into pure speculation.

[sarcastic-sketches]

Kitsune!Anakin Asks

@shining-nebula2000 sent a handful of asks about the Kitsune Anakin AU that I got at work and just never got around to answering so now that my brain is firing again I can go through them:

Has Kitsune Anakin ever done that fox thing where they dive headfirst into snow to try and catch mice to eat

He has and it's on my list of things to draw! He does it occasionally to hunt but the main time he did it was to retrieve some of his men who got burried in an avalanche.

Does kitsune Anakin have the power to suck the life energy out of people by kissing them (I think that’s a power that kitsune and they have but fill free to fact check me)

I don't think I've come across the concept of Kitsune being able to drain life force (though my big encyclopedia for methological creatures is in storage rn orz) but that sure would complicate Anakin's life even further. They can imbue people with elongated lifespans though iirc and that's definitely something this AU works with. Anakin, hundreds of years old, along with his descendants and his entourage of masked guardians. Oddly enough, each mask matches the helmet markings of clones who used to follow him during the Clone Wars...

I have another ask for the kitsune Anakin AU How was the whole Jedi bombing thing go you know when the temperature gets five minutes so get sprayed by Baruss (I don’t think that’s how you spell her name) how would that change or would it stay the same?

You know, this is still one of the arcs I'm not sure how I want to proceed with. It would be easy to argue that Anakin's increased sense of smell would make this whole plot fall apart really easily - also this happens after Umbara so Anakin would remember the scent of a Jedi turning bad and recognise it on Bariss. Yet, again, this arc is important for character development reasons and having Anakin just fix it is a cop out. Maybe Anakin tries to persuade Ahsoka to hand herself in, like he does in canon, pointing out that she's only making herself look worse and when that fails? He decides to accompany her.

Ahsoka: Master, this is treason! Anakin: Nope. I'm supervising you. We both know you didn't do it, so I'm going to follow you as a witness to find evidence to prove you didn't. If I can do that at the same time as keeping on eye on you then all the better Ahsoka: Won't they just think you're in on it too? Anakin: It's my job to make sure my padawan stays out of trouble. As your Master, that's what I'm doing.

Even with support I imagine Ahsoka would still be severely shaken, since the Order has shown that it cannot provide the safety it once did for it's members if the Senate wills it otherwise. But Anakin would be far less reserved about straight up telling Ahsoka to chill out at Padme's for bit before she goes off on her journey of self discovery.

[waywardstoryenthusiast]

Defenders of Peace

'When surrounded by war, one must eventually choose a side.' Excellent point.

Oh, we have a planet name! Meridon. Don't know if they mentioned it last episode and I missed it, but could to know. Meridon, home of the Lurmen.

And, our nice moment between Bly and the villager is interrupted by droids and the rest of the plot.

(Also, very minor pet peeve, why is it Anakin who responds when Bly enters and says 'General,' and not Aayla? I get they're both generals, but it feels like it makes more sense that he's speaking to Aayla. I don't think Anakin outranks her? But, it's a minor pet peeve, and he is a main character.)

Kudos to Anakin for not fighting the Lurmen leader on staying neutral.

Ti Wad Ka is the chief's name. Glad to know, so I can stop referring to him as just chief. (He may have mentioned his name in the last episode. I don't think he did, but it's possible. I like knowing names.)

They do a good job of making you dislike the Separatists. Really hating General Lock do (? I may need to look up some of these names for the spelling.) That line, 'I would like to inspect my new colony.' Really gets under my skin.

'Because, we are such an obvious threat to you.' Well, I don't agree with his choices, but glad to see he still has his snark. Definitely agree more with Wadto.

I get the feeling that Aayla with her more measured approach is going to be the one to stop it.

Called it. Although I suppose it was a group effort, Ahsoka, Rex and Bly chasing it, and her coming out in front. But nice tactic, instead of chasing it, ending up where it will be. I like it.

Okay, I realize that droids can have personalities, but I doubt this general cares about that, so it seems he's just talking to hear himself talk. (Obviously it's so we can get exposition, but it seems in character with what we've seen of this general so far.)

(I do like the old gag of someone asking for volunteers, and everyone but one or two people stepping back. It's a classic.)

I finally got to see Aayla saving Bly outside of gifs! Yay.

'I specifically chose this planet because it is inhabited. The villagers will make excellent test subjects.' Again, doing an excellent job of making these guys hateable.

'There's a difference between pulling innocents into a war, and leaving them to be exterminated.' Dammit Anakin, I might be in danger of liking you.

Damn, seeing the jedi at work when things aren't going wrong is actually pretty cool. Understated, but they all seem competant and good at their jobs. (Something I am a sucker for, after watching Leverage at an impressionable age.) That said, seeing Anakin mess with the droids with a rock leaves me with a suspicion of what inspired Rex's 'Roger, Roger' stunt in the Domino squad episode.

'They did not attack us before.' … Um, what does Tee Watt Kaa (I caved and looked up the names. Also, wtf, George Takei did the voice of Lok Durd, the Separatist general?!?) consider an attack? They ransacked the village and were firing blasters. Just because no one was hurt, that still seems like an attack. That said, I do understand the chief not wanting to compromise their way of life. One thing I have seen in various media is the question of how far can or should one go in fighting a war. If you compromise your beliefs to fight, is that the right choice, even if it's to save lives? And what is too big a compromise? At what point do you look back and realize that even if you are 'winning' battles or even the war, you have also lost yourself? There's one quote, from the crime tv show Numb3rs that really stuck with me: "When you're fighting for a way of life, you use whatever tools you have at your disposal." "And before you know it, you've given up your way of life!"

But, just as I don't think it's right to use war as an excuse to do take extreme measures without trying other ways, I don't think refusing to compromise one's ideals for any reason, even when there are lives at stake, is good either. I don't know if I'm making sense, but there it is.

'That wasn't so hard.' AHSOKA DO NOT JYNX IT!

Way to go Wag Too! Love that little dude. And hey, they're using a similar tactic that he did in the previous episode to take out the critter.

[phoenixyfriend]

I think the problem I have with finding good Anidala fic is that. Like.

They're usually background to something else, as the established canon ship.

A lot of authors add the element that they were doomed to go domestic-violence-y or bitter divorcees and I don't want that.

Or there's the undercurrent of This Will Become A Tragedy, which. Can I have a few instances where it isn't, please?

People really like writing Padme as being The Sane And Sensible Female Character, Because Women Always Have The Brain Cell.

It's always mixed with a callout for either them or the Jedi.

Like. Damn. Can I just get my comedic AU where they can be morons in love?

Fantasy AU where Padme's a princess in a castle that Anakin has to save and they make out while the dragon is almost upon them because they're horny young adults and Obi-Wan Will Take Care Of It, Right?

College AU where Anakin's working in a repair shop and Padme comes in with a broken transmission and he literally trips over himself trying to impress her.

Lovebug AU where they get hit with some spell or chemical that makes them take all their private Romance Novel Dialogue and start spouting it in public and everyone around them is just like 'yes, this ridiculous phrasing is the fault of the interfering element' but no it's just Them Being Them.

Post-war AU where O66 didn't happen and they dump the twins on Uncle Obi for date night but the date night gets crashed by assassins and they spend the rest of the evening shooting things, flying speeders, and arresting people.

Mid-TCW AU where they have to 'pretend' to be married for a mission but they're already secretly married and they awkwardly try to straddle the line of looking like they're not in love to the supervising Jedi but looking like they are in love to the leaders of the planet they're on and they never land on the same page when deciding how much affection to show.

Literally any AU, modern or canon or what, where the two of them find out someone's got a crush and get really, really into matchmaking as a duo like they cannot get enough of this. You mentioned this person twice and they are already planning your wedding.

Them tag-teaming to seduce themselves a third (Rex, it's Rex) but their standards for romance involves things like shooting pirates and blowing up buildings, so it only works if the person they're seducing can be impressed in a good way by exploding starships (I mean he probably can).

Modern AU where Ahsoka needs someone to come in for a parent teacher conference, and the usual adults (Plo, Shaak, Obi-Wan) are all out of town, so Anakin and Padme go to talk to her teacher instead and it's. Uh. Why are there bodyguards here?

Any AU where they roleplay Anakin-the-handyman showing up to fix her pipes, and they're going to make it a sex thing but Threepio and Artoo interrupt because of course they do.

EDIT: OH I FORGOT ONE

Femme fatal Padme showing up at PI Anakin's doorstep looking for help with uncovering the crimes she suspects her fiance, Rush Clovis, of doing for the mob.

[mwolf0epsilon]

It's 7am and I'm thinking about the 501st getting cursed by a witch with a twisted sense of humor. God won't let me sleep and I'm making it everyone else's problem.

Ok so, let's pretend for a moment things aren't such a constant nightmare, and that Echo, Tup, Dogma and Hardcase are still with the 501st well after Umbara and the sort. Ahsoka doesn't leave the Order and Kix doesn't get swiper swiped by Dooku, so they're all headed on some campaign to this tiny little planet that's full of like, really superstitious tales about it. The stuff that borders on "there's no way that's real", or "that's not how the Force works" as the Jedi call it, and that's got a few troopers being a bit disrespectful because they're not here to listen to fairytale nonsense.

Rex is apprehensive, because he's been around Jedi long enough to know the Force can pull some major dick-moves, so he tries to be respectful and focuses mostly on helping Anakin and Ahsoka with the finer details of their mission. The boys are grown and trained soldiers, they better act like it while they mingle among locals. His cautious attitude gives him a free pass to watch the shenanigans unfold. The rest of the 501st on the other hand... Not so much...

To put a long-winded explanation I don't currently have the braincells to elaborate on, Fives pisses off a witch and gets cursed. The others try to fix his mess, and get bound to his curse. Basically, anything Fives says now has major consequences because his words have literal power.

The spells he accidentally casts take a little time to take affect, so Fives doesn't realize his words have any power until he's basically cursed half the battalion. And as soon as he realizes this, he tries to fix it to no avail. He can't take back what he said, even if he really wants to.

Little gripes weight heavily, like when he complained that Tup's hair kept clogging the shower, so now his little brother's growing hair all over and looking like a Wookie on shedding season (Tup is absolutely distressed because he doesn't know why this is happening to him and oh god what if he's sent to Kamino because he's mutating?!). How he noted that Hardcase being a ball of boundless energy kept him awake the other night, so now Hardcase can't sleep and has too much energy and it's driving him crazy because he's running out of distractions (his mind is too active and nothing is making it stop and none of his methods are working and it's overwhelming!!!). Or how he teased Jesse about his tattoo being ridiculous, so now everyone bursts into uncontrollable laughter when they see his face (it stopped being funny the 3rd time it happened, by the 10th Jesse started feeling confused as to why everyone was laughing at him, and by the 25th he took to hiding because he feels humiliated and ashamed of his appearance)

The major arguments tough... Those are the worst ones. Those are the really bad curses...

He calls Kix absolutely frigid when his brother gives him hell for getting unnecessarily hurt. Kix is now constantly freezing, unable to warm up no matter what, and his trembling makes it hard to do his job as a medic without risking harming his vod'ika (it's so cold, his little brothers are piling blankets on him, huddling for warmth, and giving him warm drinks, but there's a blue tint to him and everything hurts).

Dogma calling him out for being overly blunt to the point of insubordination and disrespectfulness, leads to an argument where Fives called him a massive booming headache. So Dogma starts gradually getting bigger and bigger, until he towers over the trees and is unable to safely talk without risking bursting his brother's eardrums from the sheer volume of his voice (he doesn't know what's happening to him, and when his voice starts shattering glass he grows terrified of how he could easily hurt his brothers, so he stays as far away from camp as possible because he'd rather be lonely and afraid than risk ever hurting his vode again) .

The worst one he has is with Echo... At that point they're well aware of the curse but everyone is stressed and afraid of what else Fives might inadvertently cause with his words, so Echo tries to get him to go apologize to the witch. Fives is scared too. This curse is a monstrous affair and he's accidentally hurt his brothers, and now Echo is pushing for him to apologize when the witch was a lot more unreasonable than him and threw out a punishment that basically hurt everyone but the culprit and that's wrong! They end up arguing, and Fives makes the mistake of bringing up Echo's name origins into the argument and that if he doesn't have anything original to say then he shouldn't say anything at all...

And suddenly Echo stops talking.

Not of his own will. He just... Can't talk. And Fives realizes what he's done and covers his own mouth because the look of shock and betrayal on his now mute twin's face (he did this, he hurt Echo, he took his voice, he took his trust and shattered it into a million pieces, he's a terrible vod) is making him ill. He just took his brother's voice from him and he can't give it back...

Yeah... So that's a thought I've had. Fives gets cursed, and it's the 501sts problem because Fives just doesn't know when to shut up when he's stressed. Sometimes people say stupid things they don't mean and unfortunately the damage is done and can't be easily repaired. And that's the lesson the witch is forcing him to learn.

Also Rex just left the boys for 10 minutes and came back to this horror show... He's going to demand a pay then a raise for dealing with all of this.

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

BNHA

see the light of day by achievingelysium

no1allmightfan I got my U.A. acceptance letter yesterday and I haven’t stopped crying… Taking the first steps toward my dream. Plus ultra! #no1 talks 22 notes | Reply Reblog Like

Or, Izuku, social media, and the journey to becoming a hero.

DC

Lugubrious Alarmism by Briarwitched

Magic is always a pain. Superman might temporarily be a toddler, but the League's knows they've gotten off easy this time: everyone's in the proper dimension, there's no annoying entity trying to teach them a lesson, and the de-aging spell should wear off without any weird consequences in less than a fortnight. Babysitting duty gets ten times more adorable with the purchase of a Justice League plushie set. Now Clark can continue his heroic adventures with his friends: fighting crime, spreading justice, and... beheading Batman?

It's gotta be a fluke. Right? Right.

Accidents can happen twice in a row-- no, three, four?-- times. Though probably not by the twenty second. It's definitely intentional by the thirtieth time. Probably.

What the hell, Clark? We thought you were friends.

straight on 'til morning by mindshelter

Kon whistles at his first glimpse into Tim’s living room, grinning with teeth when Tim reflexively rolls his eyes. “Sweet digs, dude,” he singsongs. “Love what you’ve done to the place.”

“I said,” Tim hisses, even as he slides the balcony door open to let Kon inside, “what are you doing here—”

Kon shrugs, peeling his jacket off. If I left it up to you, buddy, he doesn’t say, I’d see you once in a blue moon. “Couldn’t sleep. Gotta say, the empty Gatorade bottles really give this place personality.”

“Like you’re one to talk. I’ve seen your room,” Tim snipes back. “And I actually need the electrolytes. What’s your excuse?”

or; on a whim, kon pays tim's gotham apartment a late night visit. and then he visits again. and again, and again.

The Clone Wars

we hold on together by notquiteaghost

The Republic hasn't had a standing army in over two thousand years. Even before the Reformation, there was no war on a grand enough scale to justify the expense. It feels like a bad joke, when the Chancellor decrees it, when the Senate allows it. The Jedi aren't a military. The Jedi have never been a military.

They give Obi-Wan a battalion. They give him a battlecruiser, a Marshall Commander, they knight his Padawan. He looks over all the clerical minutiae a military runs on and wishes they'd given him a secretary.

cody, obi-wan, and ghost company at the beginning of the war, learning to work together, trust each other, maybe even like each other.

Rescues, Attempted by glimmerglanger

A moment later, the figures leaned over the edge and, without preamble, tossed Obi-Wan in.

Cody jerked, unthinking, to put his body between Obi-Wan’s and the unforgiving stone. It was not that far a fall, but, unconscious, Obi-Wan could not protect his head or neck. Cody caught him as he plummeted, weight catching at his arms and shoulders, but not enough to inconvenience him.

OR, the one where Obi-Wan falls into the wrong hands, and Cody does his best to get him out alive.

J'adoube by hellowkatey

There are only two scenarios that make sense in this moment:

1. The Force has caused a divergence in the flow of time for reasons still unknown. or 2. Obi-Wan has a more active imagination than he thought, and the last twenty-eight years of his life have been one very long, very elaborate dream.

[or, the Force gets fed up with Obi-Wan not taking care of himself and takes matters into its own hands.]

Count My Little Scars I've Got Dozens Inside by nuclearturtle

Ripped from the streets of Melida/Daan by the Force, Obi-Wan finds himself in the middle of a firefight between strange droids and troopers. With no idea of where he is or what is going on but in desperate need for help, so he turns to the only familiar presence nearby, his Grandmaster Dooku.

Unfortunate that luck has never really been on his side.

To Fall, and To Be Alright by Pandora151

Obi-Wan falls, almost at random.

Anakin watches it happen from across the briefing room. He watches Obi-Wan trail off mid-sentence, eyebrows furrowing into a deep frown. He watches Obi-Wan look at Cody and Waxer, at Ahsoka, and then at Anakin. He watches Obi-Wan place a trembling hand on the table in front of him.

And then the moment breaks, and Obi-Wan falls.

Belief by CallToMuster (Note: I enjoyed a bunch of whump fics form this author, but this list would've gotten too long if I'd included them all. So definitely check them out)

“It’s me,” the man tells him for the fourth time. “It’s Anakin. I promise.”

Obi-Wan says nothing. He has heard this before, from others. They too claimed to be Anakin Skywalker and shared his face. This is the eighth such person, in fact. But they were just a product of Ventress’s twisted imagination. Whether this person is the same remains to be seen.

He must be cautious either way.

{Written for Whumptober 2020. Day 11: "Defiance | Struggling". Sequel to my Day 5 Whumptober fic Mine.}

[comeandreadawhile]

I love your Clone Social Media post! Do you think they'd ever film/post responses to the SW equivalent to the reddit advice threads like r/Relationships or r/AmITheAssh0le? Or would any of them (the medics maybe?) develop an Ask Column? I feel like the clones would have a unique world view and their personalities would lend to some hilarious (or amazing) advice going out on the holonet.

Definitely. Kix and the other medics probably start an ask blog crossed with WebMD, drowning in gallows humor

“‘How quickly can you amputate a leg?’ That depends, how close is the nearest Jedi’s lightsaber?”

“‘I can’t stop sneezing and I have a fever’—sounds like Rhinovirus, no known cure. Terrible shame, but you might live.”

Ponds runs an Ask Abby/Miss Manners ask column about clones and Jedi, with Mace as a reference for the Jedi and a popular guest for philosophical debate.

Gree makes sci-show vlogs about alien species and documents his brothers’ antics. Sometimes Bly makes guest appearances to talk science.

As for r/relationships and r/AITA, Wolffe co-admins both, with Bly on the former and Rex on the latter. Pretty much every AITA post is responded to with ‘yes’, either earnestly, or with blatant sarcasm for the ‘no’s followed by why it’s a no. While Bly has the rose-tinted glasses on for the relationship blog, Wolffe is that one perpetual single in every friend group who gives stone-cold logical advice.

Stone is on Space!youtube, explaining laws and their pros and cons, explaining loopholes and weird technicalities and the process of the Senate to pass laws, as well as updates from around Coruscant. It’s basically the SW version of Last Week Tonight.

Fox runs r/JustSenatorThings. He documents the antics and mannerisms of senators. He also answers personal questions.

“How often do I—hey, Thire! What’s this word?”

“How’s it spelled?”

“S-L-E-E-P.”

“FOX.”

“No, I know how to spell that.”

Thorn runs r/JustFoxThings. He documents the on-going war between the caf mug stack vs Fox’s paperwork.

There emerges Space!Insta, where GAR clone art is posted. Dogma posts foodporn, both actual food and GAR rations. “Here we see another beautiful nutrient stick. Full of 100% of a brother’s daily iron requirement and not a hint of flavor to be found.” He sneaks into the temple when the 501st is planetside to document the snack bar in the knights’ quarters. It’s only open odd hours and there is a single hotdog spinning, on and on, that none of the knights will even make eye contact with.

Toast clone runs a blog solely about different types of bread and his attempts at making them in the meager kitchens he has access to.

Wooley and Tup make hair tutorials, taking requests and experimenting on their own time. 212th and 501st meet ups are fun for them.

A space!reddit is made of Cryptid Commanders, made by their men finding said commanders up at force-forsaken hours getting caf, once of Bly hanging from the ceiling with the camera light reflecting off his helmet visor, and of Fox passed out in various ways around his office.

Space!Tiktok is sees a lot of Ahsoka and her men. Unfortunately Rex and Anakin are terrible at tiktok dances, so they’re usually her camera crew while Fives and Tup back her up; it starts a craze. Caleb (and eventually Depa) dance with Gray and their men, which means Mace and Ponds have to do something (classy of course, but it pleases the kids so Mace does it and will never admit to it being fun), Aayla and Bly look well rehearsed but claim they did it by mirroring the video reference they had on, eventually Ahsoka, Shaak, Aayla AND Luminara do one together. Quinlan does them just to annoy his commander; it works. The clones are more than happy to answer questions their followers send in as well, about themselves or the war, about anything. They like giving civilians the chance to see them in a better, individual light than dime a dozen flesh droids.

There begin r/JustCloneThings where brothers post about specifically clone related jokes and issues, and r/JustJediThings, where they post about their Jedi. (When your Jedi says the drop zone failed the vibe check.) (Won’t sleep for more than ten minutes but will meditate for four hours because the Martial Commander smiled.)

(If you suspect your Jedi knows Mando’a, switch to complete gibberish and see if they react at all. Feel free to make up hand signs to mess with them.)

Then come the proud big brother postings about their Jedi commanders, the good ole Mandalorian genes making the men gush over their respective kids when it’s safe to do so. The kids making progress in their training, and some have the honor of seeing their commanders knighted and made generals. They teach the little ones to track and lay low, how to shoot straight and wield vibroblades when they’ve grown some. Sometimes just the kids being cute, like Caleb napping against Depa, or Kal riding his master’s shoulders, and Ahsoka snuggling between Anakin and Rex on a long flight. ‘Doting grandmaster’ is a popular tag thanks to Mace and Obi-wan; Caleb and Ahsoka get away with things Depa and Anakin would’ve been severely grounded for, and the clones love watching them steam in the background while their padawans are protected by said doting grandmasters.

Note: the cursed hot dog is a joke between my roommate and I. Upon learning the knights’ snack bar existed, we determined it was only open for ten minutes at 2 am and that there’s a magical enigmatic hot dog amongst the misfit food (cotton candy jello, broken granola bars). It guards the temple and anyone who takes it and eats it gets super sick, and the hot dog is magically whole back in its case, ever rolling, on and on. It’s not meat, probably. No one’s sure, especially not the ones who attempted to eat it. Respect and fear the hot dog. It is eternal.

[willowcrowned]

Okay but has anyone considered Obi-wan/Cody/Satien (is that how its spelled?) Regardless, hes got two hands for his two mandalorians, the au where this happend is gotta be top notch ridiculous ye?

Okay thank you so much for giving me a reason to think about this, because this AU contains three things I adore: polyamory, ships where everyone is frighteningly competent, and Obi-Wan

In this AU, Ventress is somehow even less well-adjusted (bear with me). What this means is that, instead of taking a gap year and finding herself after her family is brutally murdered, she decides she needs to get revenge even more now. What does this mean? In the short term, she still becomes a bounty hunter, but in the long run? She’s looking for a Sith lord team up so she can punch Dooku (with a lit lighstaber) in his stupid, elitist, backstabbing face.

So when Maul invades Mandalore, what happens? Ventress comes right along, ready to give her ‘I know we hate each other, but consider teaming up to kill someone we both hate even MORE’ space TED talk. And though Maul may be terribly annoying, a closet theater kid, always in a tits out kind of mood, and denying his gay awakening, he’s not stupid. He knows Sidious is coming for him, sooner rather than later, and he knows he needs more people on his side than his (impressively beefy) brother. He and Savage agree to the team-up.

Cue Obi-Wan showing up, ready to save his sort-of girlfriend, and finding Pre Vizsla, who got REAL sus the second ANOTHER lunatic with a red lightsaber showed up, occupied by capturing Maul, Savage, and Ventress. 

Obi-Wan saves Satie, who convinces him to call Cody for a quick evac, and they’re running away, flirting, and arguing over shooting things (as usual), when they spot Ventress, Maul, and Savage, about to be executed.

Oh, they both think, hell no. And then, because they have a stupid moral code that makes them do stupid moral things, they go save them.

A little background on Obi-Wan at this point: He has been fighting in a war for over two years. He is exhausted, close to a breakdown, and seriously questioning his place as a General. Next to him at all times, supporting him, helping him, and saving him, is Cody, who is clever, kinder than he has any right to be, and is, of course, devastatingly handsome when he does his special, unique-to-Cody half-smirk.

Obi-Wan, to put it mildly, is totally gone on him. Obi-Wan also, to put it less mildly, is his commanding officer in an army that Cody can’t leave on pain of death. To do anything— make any advance beyond the flirting that he engages in with most people— would put Cody in a very uncomfortable position, whether or not he returns Obi-Wan’s feelings. So Obi-Wan watches him from afar, hoping against hope that his affections are returned, and that one day, after the end of the war, there will be a future for both of them.

A little more background on Obi-Wan at this point: He has always respected Satine. Their correspondence fell apart just a few months after the end of his mission with Qui-Gon, but he’s been keeping up with her professional accomplishments for years. Over time, the love he bore for her faded, leaving him with good memories and an enduring appreciation for her courage, her cleverness, and her ability to deliver devastating blows to someone’s confidence with a few well-placed words.

Until he sees her again. And yes, alright, he might be angry that she’s choosing to stay out of the war— he knows what good she could do— but he understands her fears, understands the very real possibility that if Mandalore gets embroiled in yet another war, they may never recover. The thing is... well, she’s still very beautiful, especially when he’s yelling at him, and as slowly as his feelings had faded then, they come back in a rush now.

He has very much fallen in love with Cody, and he is very much still in love with Satine.

Cut back to the present— Obi-Wan and Satine rescue the three most annoying Sith in the galaxy and get the heck out of dodge. Cody, because he’s Cody, comes swooping in with a last-minute rescue.

At this point, two things are occurring.

The first: Obi-Wan is stuck in a room with four people he’s periodically flirted with over the past few years, two of whom he’s desperately in love with, one of whom he had a weird encounter with that he can never tell Anakin about when she and him got trapped in a middle school auditorium, and one of whom is definitely wearing no shirt and all that jewelry for a reason. It is Supremely awkward for him.

The second: Every single person in that room, each of which is (barring Savage) deeply attracted to Obi-Wan, is realizing that Obi-Wan is dressed in Mandalorian armor, and while Obi-Wan in three layers of tunics and a cloak is an absolute knockout, Obi-Wan in Mandalorian armor may very well kill them (and he won’t even have to touch his lightsaber to do it).

For one single moment, everything is absolutely still as they all stare at each other.

...And then Maul starts on the ‘I will rend your flesh from your bones, feel my wrath, Kenobarrgh’ spiel, and Satine stuns him. Oh, and Savage. Ventress agrees to watch the two of them if they don’t stun her, and Obi-Wan agrees.

Which then leaves him, Cody, and Satine in a room alone.

A word on Cody at this point: He has been bred from birth to be the perfect soldier— loyal, clever (but not too clever), and rigourously adherent to protocol. Yet, within three months of knowing Obi-Wan, he’s, well, calling him Obi-Wan in his head. Even just that is a gross breach of protocol, but he’s compromised in more ways than one. He talks to Obi-Wan, now, not just as a subordinate, or secondary advisor, but as a friend, as a councilor. Every time Obi-Wan touches him— never for longer than a brief second— his skin lights up under his armor. One time, Obi-Wan fell asleep on him for half an hour, and Cody’s was sure everyone would hear his heartbeat. 

What he’s doing— how he feels— he knows it’s putting Obi-Wan in danger, knows that if the Kaminoans had wanted to the clones to be equals to the Jedi, they would have told them so. And look, he knows what the natborns would call the way he’s feeling, but he can’t feel that way. He’s a clone— he’s expendable by definition. Even if, on some off-chance, he makes it out of this war alive, there’s nothing for him. Obi-Wan couldn’t care for him like that, couldn’t care for a man with the same face as millions of others, born and bred only for war. So it doesn’t matter how he feels.

A word on Satine at this point: Obi-Wan, when he left, was a gawkish, bumbling thing of red hair and freckles and the sweetest smile. Obi-Wan, when he came back, was graceful, eloquent, and very, very handsome. He is also infuriating. (This does not change how attracted she is to him in the least.)

She’s not a romantic, really, but she is a realist, and she knows she’s loved him in some form or another for over twenty years. She knows she can’t ask him to return it— knows that asking him to leave the order for her wouldn’t just be for her, it would be for Mandalore, and while the politician in her cries for her to claim him, the person in her who loves Obi-Wan could not abide tearing him away from his culture for her own purposes. She still loves him, deeply and irrevocably, and she knows he still loves her. (Maybe, she thinks, after the war... But she can’t afford to be sentimental).

What do Cody and Satine have in common? They’re both extremely competent, both instinctively ruthless, and they both love Obi-Wan. Oh, and they’re also both immediately jealous of their counterpart.

They know they shouldn’t be. They know it’s not fair, not when Obi-Wan isn’t theirs anyways, but it doesn’t change the surge of envy and dislike that happens when they see Obi-Wan use the soft voice he only uses for the people he likes best on the person across from them.

Cody knows he can never compare to the Duchess, who is beautiful and well-spoken and has held Obi-Wan’s heart since they were fifteen. Satine knows she can never compare to Cody, who has been at Obi-Wan’s side every second since the war’s beginning, who is so much closer in ideals to Obi-Wan than she is, however it might appear on the surface.

Fortunately, they don’t have to deal with it for long, because Ventress comes in with Maul and Savage and proposes a team up, at which point Maul reveals the identity of the Sith Master.

Obi-Wan swears a string of words that Cody and Satine are both very impressed by, and agrees to the team up. Cody and Satine, who are both going to Coruscant anyways, agree to it too.

What ensues is a good deal of scheming, during which Cody and Satine avoid each other like the plague, Obi-Wan is repeatedly told to get some sleep, and Ventress cuffs Maul to a door on multiple nonconsecutive occasions. When they get to Coruscant, Satine has already told Padmé, who has in turn told her group of anti-war (and anti-Palpatine) senators, Cody has given Rex a heads up, and Ventress, Maul, and Savage have been metaphorically sharpening their lightsabers for ages.

(It occurs to Obi-Wan, at one point, after he’s woken up from his enforced 25-hour nap, that Palpatine must have created the clone army for a reason— must have a failsafe in place— and he asks Ahsoka to pull all the data the Kaminoans have on the clones. They find out about the chips, and Ahsoka immediately immediately holds the Kaminoans at laser sword point until they reprogram every order into a command that dissolves the chip.)

The thing about organizing a coup together is that it makes it very hard to avoid each other. Cody and Satine are forced to work together, and, what do you know, it turns out that even with seething jealousy at work, they end up respecting each other. (Note: Obi-Wan comes into a room at one point to see them both bent over a commlink, heads together and hands nearly touching. He short circuits.)

In any case, coup, Palps dies, Republic fixed, whatever.

What’s important is that Obi-Wan gets really, really injured— so much so that he might die. Cody and Satine have dealt with him being dead before (Deception arc anyone?), but this? Watching him slowly fade, knowing there’s nothing they can do about it? That’s worse.

One night, when Anakin has fallen asleep, they have a long conversation in low voices about Obi-Wan, darting from fond to furious to devastated over and over again. If he wakes up— if, not when— they agree to say something to Obi-Wan, to let him know that they love him. It’s a meager consolation after all they’ve been through, but this is the end, in one way or another, and they deserve to be honest with him.

(Cody thinks, privately, that he will be— well, not tossed aside, because Obi-Wan isn’t the sort of person who does that, but there won’t be a place for him by Obi-Wan’s side anymore. Obi-Wan is a Jedi, a negotiator, a peacekeeper, and Cody is a soldier for a now-ended war. He is already steeling himself to accept Obi-Wan’s polite rejection with equanimity, to not cause more pain to the man. (It will be easy, he knows, to wish him every peace, every happiness. Cody has only ever wanted to see Obi-Wan happy. This does not mean it will not be painful.) Obi-Wan said once that he would have left the Order for Satine if she’d asked— she will ask, now, and Cody knows Obi-Wan will leave, can see the love written in his face, in his spine, in his hands, whenever he is around her. Satine will ask, and Obi-Wan will leave, and Cody will be left to look for a place in this new galaxy.)

(Satine thinks, privately, that Obi-Wan’s feelings for her must be long faded, replaced by his obvious ones for Cody. Obi-Wan is a warrior, a Knight, and Satine is a diplomat who foreswore violence long ago. She is already steeling herself to accept his rejection with grace. (It will be easy, she knows, to wish him well. She has only ever wanted good things for him. This does not mean it will not be painful.) He said once that he would have left the Order for her if she’d asked, and whatever he’d felt then for her pales to what he feels now for Cody. Cody will ask, and Obi-Wan will leave, and Satine will rule as she always has.)

And then Obi-Wan wakes up.

Cody and Satine let him have his long talk with Anakin first, partially because they know how important it is to him, partially because Anakin wouldn’t let them if they wanted to, and partially because they are dreading their own coming conversation. When Anakin has finished, and Obi-Wan is asleep again, they go in, hand-in-hand, and wait for him to wake up.

When he does wake up, he sees them holding hands and immediately comes to several wrong conclusions. Wrong Conclusion A: Cody and Satine are in love. Wrong Conclusion B: Cody and Satine are going to try to break the news that they’re in love to him gently. Wrong Conclusion C: This conversation is about to break his heart.

Then they speak.

At the end of it, Obi-Wan has some Thoughts. Thought One: alkdfjhskhsgjljlbhkgkjbjvnab,gkjvn;qlerghjsv?????!!!!fwbfwlkrehwogwhuwrijvhfdbhkf!!!! Thought Two: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Thought Three: Oh, we’re all idiots. Fantastic. 

He then passes out, because being on the edge of death for days and then having a shock to your system this big tends to do that to you.

When he wakes up, he is mildly more coherent. Then he sees that Satine and Cody are asleep on each other, and the coherence is lost, but he does manage to wake them up and get across three things:

Thing One: He is desperately in love with them both.

Thing Two: He’s leaving the Order for a multitude of reasons, but they are a Significant Bonus.

Thing Three: He would very much like if they both held his hand while he falls back asleep.

Cody takes Obi-Wan’s right hand, Satine takes Obi-Wan’s left hand, and the three of them stay like that, fingers intertwined, for a long, long, while.

[zabrak-show]

In the Absence of Light

Ch 4 I can be your angle or your demon baby

Entire story can be found here

AO3

Final chapter!

Word count: 3k

Summary: The teams must work together to get out of the room. Savage has a tasty treat or two up his sleeve.

Warnings/Tags: Horror themes/elements (pretty tame imo), spiders, demons, spirits, i made up my own lore lol, kissy kissy, not beta read, probably ooc tbh it's quite a silly au

Happy Halloween everyone!! Stay safe and have fun xoxo

"Maybe there's another secret door. How'd you guys find that first one?" Ahsoka asked, feeling the walls for any sign of weakness or discrepancy.

They all followed the Togruta's suggestion to feel around the walls looking for anything, any way out. Feral found a wrinkle in the wallpaper. His thin tan hands followed it to the edge. He pulled at the corner with little effort, and the paper tore with ease. The wallpaper glue had worn down so much through the years, and it near disintegrated at the touch.

Feral continued ripping away the paper until he revealed A grease pen drawing of a door.

"That's gotta be it!" Ahsoka exclaimed. "Do we push on it? Or?" She asked, investigating the drawing.

"It's far more complicated than that." Maul rolled his eyes. Obi-Wan glanced over at him, seeing him in the light for the first time without his sweater at a distance. He wore a thin black shirt with an even deeper V neck than Obi-Wan thought possible. It clung to his sinuous muscles. "There's a summoning spell we need to perform to open the door-"

"A demon summoning spell? Are you mad? Is that how you opened the last door?" Obi-Wan near yelled, his heart racing.

"Well, no, but you can see these sigils up here," he pointed to small symbols penciled in above the top of the door drawing. "and if you could have seen in the basement or wherever we were, you would have recognized them. I'm surprised someone so knowledgeable in the paranormal wouldn't know about these." Maul smirked at the bearded man wearing his charcoal gray sweater. Was this Maul's way of flirting?

"Well, I'm surprised someone so adept at ghost knowledge wouldn't notice these claw marks at the bottom of the door." Obi-Wan retorted with saucy contempt. "There was a great struggle in here with once-living beings. We need only to call out to the ghosts." Obi-Wan pointed where the door met the floor, and there were marks from someone dragging their nails across the floorboards. He lined up his hand with the gouges to further prove his point.

A roaring groan took over the argument from outside their room. The floor shook, and the sound became deafening until it slowed down to a light rumble outside the elevator door. The door slid open with a cheery 'ding,' and a seasick-looking Anakin stumbled out of it.

"Wait!" Ahsoka ran over to the door to try and keep it open. It made no difference; the door slammed shut. She whipped her arm back, looking down at her fingers she near lost in the sinister elevator door.

"Ughhhh, where am I?" Anakin asked, looking around at everyone. Dust and grime-covered his clothes, hair, and body.

"Well, we're still trying to figure that out. We've found this drawn door and are trying to find a way to contact the ghost who made it to open it for us." Obi-Wan walked over to Anakin, brushing off the dust and cobwebs covering him.

"Excuse me! But it's the demon we need to summon. Do you refuse to listen to ANYTHING I say?" Maul walked over to Kenobi, the fire in his eyes ready to shoot lightning.

"I make it my life's goal to never listen to anything you say, Maul, yes." Obi-Wan would not let Maul see him get to him. Not like this. Not after everything that happened so far. He stood firm on his ground, crossing his arms in front of his chest. The feel of soft cashmere on his hands reminded him whose sweater he wore. He hardened his posture avoiding any observable sentiment.

Maul narrowed his eyes on Obi-Wan, "You'll listen to me when it's too late, Kenobi." he threatened with cold, calculated steps towards the man.

Ahsoka put her face in her hands in an exasperated gesture, "You two are the absolute worst." She groaned in exaggerated annoyance, "How about we each do what we believe to be right and see which one works. It can't hurt, can it?" She shrugged her shoulders and arms in a final

"What?! Summoning a demon? Yeah, that can hurt. That can hurt a lot. Are you crazy?" Anakin screeched out. His color was returning to his face.

"Ahsoka's right," Obi-Wan cut in, "it's our only option at this point anyway. We need to get out of this room. We must try everything." He sighed and avoided eye contact with Maul, who he could sense was jeering at him.

He didn't like the idea of summoning a demon. He hated it, in fact, but to argue with Maul was futile. The priority was getting out of this room, whatever that may take. Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan sat near the door in a semi-circle. Ahsoka was in the middle since she was the medium. Anakin and Obi-Wan touched the bottom of the door frame where the scratch marks were most prominent. They all held hands while Ahsoka hummed out a calling in the ancient language of the spirits. Very few knew this sacred language. Anyone not gifted in this skill at a very young age could never attempt it, lest they desire insanity. Obi-Wan and Anakin closed their eyes, meditating on the spirits in silence. They were calling to them in their minds to come forth and open the door.

In another corner of the room, Maul and Feral began summoning the demon of the door's sigil. They spoke their native tongue Paecian as they called forth to the devil. Green mist surrounded the Zabrak brothers as they chanted their spells of summoning. The floors and walls creaked as both groups worked hard to summon help.

Something crawled over Obi-Wan's outstretched hand on the wall, and he swore it felt like the spiders from earlier. His focus was pertinent to the summoning ceremony. He couldn't lose focus. Sweat beaded off his forehead as he used all his might to concentrate on meditation, to not think about the possible spider on his hand.

The shaking of the floor increased; it felt like the floorboards would rip apart beneath them. Maybe that was going to be their way out after all. The foundation would give out to an endless abyss. The raucous noise of the elevator took over the room, stifling out Ahsoka and the Zabrak's voices until it finally shuddered to a stop.

Obi-Wan peaked an eye open at the elevator door. Was this it? Their moment? It was hard to see through the green mist that now filled the room, but he could still see the shiny brass outline of the door. It creaked in a loud high pitched moan as it slid open inch by inch. Everyone's attention now on the door, what was going to come out? Obi-Wan heard that familiar noise from his dream, the crawling, horrific sound of thousands of spiders. His gaze turned down at the floor, and sure enough, a sea of spiders now covered it.

They skittered all over but left a perimeter around the trio holding hands. Thank the gods because he really might have lost it if they started swarming on him. They scaled the walls, near covering the room before the door was even fully open. The elevator shook again, moaning like a forlorn lover at the cliffs of her lover's suicide. A gurgling noise followed by a long ink-black tendril forced the door open further.

Obi-wan's eyes burned from the green smoke and putrid air. His skin bristled though no spiders touched him as he witnessed what horror creeped out the elevator. His first met the torso slick with something tarlike, the room even filled with the scent of tar. A thousand eyes sequined the face, glittering off the dull light. He wasn't sure where the mouth on its head was until a long black tongue exited one of the holes in a disgusting squelching noise. The figure writhed towards them all. Eight long skinny legs twitched in an unsettling manner with slow movement into the room. The air felt cold and hot all at once. Tar oozed from the bulbous body connecting all the legs. Gods above it was a spider demon.

The demon snarled at them, and black drool fell out of its mouth onto its body, adding to the already slick appearance. The multiple eyes moved in all different directions as the long tongue slithered back into the mouth opening. The creature hissed before moaning out some ancient language. Obi-Wan had no idea what they spoke or if the Zabraks could understand. He hoped they could and that whatever it wanted was something of ease to obtain.

Ahsoka gasped, and Obi-Wan turned to look at her. She was staring, mouth agape, up at the ceiling, where two shadows danced around the water stains. Their form changed as they danced, and with the green mist, they looked almost like glowing fireflies, though much more prominent. There was a terrifying beauty to them he couldn't deny. Ahsoka spoke in the spirit language, and they stopped dancing to stare down at her with their glowing lidless eyes.

The shadows twirled down the wall causing the monster to moan, a sorrowful sound, almost a whale sound. The figures finally made it to the giant creature Concern creased Obi-Wan's brow. What was that creature going to do with them? What were they? They danced and swirled around the spider legs, eventually settling on the other side of the demon's torso. Its long top arms or legs, whatever they were, wrapped around the spirits.

The demon and shadows quivered towards the drawn door in static movements like a TV with bad reception. They were moaning and screeching in blood-curdling sounds. The disaster trio near the door scuttled back out of the way. Obi-Wan's jaw felt locked. He was clenching down so hard in abject fear.

The lines of the door and sigils lit up in bright yellow light. The wall opened inwards, pouring the light all over the room. The tiny spiders, once blanketing the entire room, evaporated at light's first touch. The three spirits walked into the opening and, for a moment, took the form of an elderly man with two young adults walking hand in hand into the light. With a soft rumble of the floorboards, it all disappeared.

The blinding light dimmed where the door remained open. The five occupants of the room stood and sat transfixed by the scene they had observed. All were unable to move as the shock coursed through their bloodstreams.

"WOW, how'd you guys do that?" Like a ray of warm sunshine, Savage peeked his horned head through the door. Obi-Wan slid his eyes toward him and tried to understand what he was seeing. Was he wearing a pink apron? And the smell that now filled his nostrils, sweet and warm, and cookies?

Obi-Wan stood, his legs feeling like jelly, as the adrenaline wore down. Anakin and Ahsoka followed suit, rising with him. They walked towards the door, Maul and Feral already poking their heads through it.

"It's the kitchen!" Feral exclaimed.

"Well, obviously! How'd you guys even get over there? Or create that door? I… I have so many questions!" Savage exclaimed with glee. He held a dough-covered spatula and flour coated his apron and some of his face.

"Brother, were you making cookies?" Maul inquired, a scowl on his face.

The timer dinged.

"Yes!!" Savage grabbed an oven mitt and took the sheet of cookies out of the oven. "I didn't know where any of you went, and I got bored looking, so I started making cookies to pass the time. So anyway, what happened to everyone?" He set the sheet of cookies on the counter. After everything, it was comfort beyond measure to smell homemade cookies.

They all reflexively took a deep sigh in remembering the past events of what had happened. Where to even begin?

"Maul was making out with Obi-Wan," Feral blurted out, already doubled over in laughter. Maul and Obi-Wan gave each other a hurried glance before staring down at the floor.

Savage's face dropped, and he set down the spatula to turn towards Maul. "Brother, I am so proud of you." He grabbed Maul's hands, "I know how long you've tormented yourself with your feelings towards-"

Maul ripped his hands away. "I do NOT have feelings for Kenobi. The spirits and the moment overtook us. Listen, I don't have to explain anything to you."

Obi-Wan's face grew hot, and he tried to look away from anyone, settling on looking down at his feet. Only to be reminded he was wearing Maul's sweatshirt. The sound of his heartbeat filled his ears, drowning out the rest of the sound in the kitchen. He could barely make out Anakin asking Ahsoka about this in bewilderment. Wait, did Maul say spirits? So he did believe in them. Although how could one not after what they'd experienced. A smile overtook him, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Everyone turned towards Obi-Wan. He stilled his laughter. Now that there was an awkward silence, he did what he knew best. Obi-Wan filled the tea kettle with water and prepared to make tea. He had the perfect blend to go with chocolate chip cookies. He clattered around in the kitchen getting everything ready while voices overlapped about his interaction with Maul.

"Ok, Ok," Savage's booming voice swallowed up everyone else. "I want to hear everything about what you all experienced in the house that was NOT my brother making out with his boyfriend."

Obi-Wan turned on his heel at this remark.

"I am not his boyf-"

Savage held one of his giant fingers up to Obi-Wan's lips, "Sshh! Tell me about the ghosts and the demons."

The tea kettle screamed, which was another helpful step in getting everyone to calm down and quiet up. Obi-Wan sighed and made everyone a cup of tea as Savage plated all the cookies. There was quite the tale to be told.

They all took turns over tea telling their versions of what happened. How each of them had ended up in the elevator and the strange empty room it took them. The drawn door they found under the wallpaper. Savage listened with excitable attention, his eyes big and gasping at parts of the story. When they got to the part about them each summoning the spirits and the demon, it seemed each group still felt a bit strong about who's was more effective.

"If it hadn't been for us summoning that demon, you never would have escaped that room," Maul drawled out, leaning back in the old kitchen chair.

Savage nodded his head at his brother, a crumb of cookie falling out of his yellow lips.

"Well, if we hadn't brought the spirits forth to reunite with the demon, then you all would have been consumed by the demon," Ahsoka shot back at Maul, her eyes electrified.

"Oh, that's true too," Savage leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of tea.

"We worked together, and that's the point," Obi-Wan stated, silencing everyone who was about to retort that their way was correct. "No one was right or wrong alone. We had to do it together."

The room was silent, save for the stirring of sugar in tea from Anakin and the crunching of cookies. Obi-Wan sighed in relief. The arguing was over.

"To be fair, though, we did have-" Feral broke the silence, which let everyone loose with their theories on why they were the better team.

Obi-Wan shook his head and laughed again. He caught Maul's eye through the sea of excitable voices. He wanted to look away, but the way Maul softened at his gaze, he felt the corners of his mouth turn up into a smile. Maul smiled and looked down at his tea. Obi-Wan supposed he had never seen Maul smile before.

A loud knocking tore through the room, silencing everyone.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Obi-Wan stood to go towards the noise, with Maul shadowing his movements. They walked out towards the noise together, side by side. Their hands brushed against each other, and they both laughed nervously and tried to apologize. Maul's eyes slid over Obi-Wan, and he reached for his hand on purpose.

"I-"

BOOM BOOM BOOM

The booming knocks continued, sending chills down their spines. They walked down the hall, hand in hand, their other fists clenched.

"Helloooo?? Did you all have fun??" The high-pitched voice of the caretaker sang out.

Relief washed over them, letting them relax their posture. The tiny elderly Twi'lek woman walked towards them from the main entrance. A gray cardigan pulled tightly around her frame. She hobbled on her cane, a bright smile lighting up her love-worn face.

"Oh yes, loads of fun," Maul growled out. A big bark for someone still holding tight to Obi-Wan's hand...

"Ohh yes, I am so sorry you weren't made aware of the double booking. I was certain that you both knew and had arranged it this way. At least that's what your team member suggested to me." She craned her neck to look up at Maul and Obi-Wan and then down at their clasped hands.

"Team member?" Maul's brow raised.

"Yes, the big fella. He arranged this," she explained with a sweet smile further creasing up the corners of her eyes.

Maul turned, a flame in his eyes, "Is that so," he started down back towards the kitchen, but Obi-Wan pulled back the arm he held.

"Are you really that upset?" He pulled him into an embrace. Maul's breath hitched, and Obi-Wan held him close, feeling the dual heartbeats of the Zabrak. He looked down at his lips, the bottom one slightly pouting, begging for a kiss. Obi-Wan closed the distance, and their lips met again, this time soft and slow.

The rest of the team had made their way out to the front entrance now. Maul and Obi-Wan were too lost in their own world to notice the ridiculous exclamations the rest of their team members were making in response.

------------------------------------------

thanks for reading!! reblogs and comments are sooo appreciated xoxox

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[antianakin]

In fairness, no one else seems to be doing anything about Mandalore, either. That's often how the Jedi work, that they aren't just actively going out and seeking out problems to fix, they have to wait until someone (usually someone representing the government of a planet/system) goes through the proper channels to officially ask for their help. So Ahsoka not focusing on Mandalore as a problem until Bo-Katan approaches her to ask for help doesn't indicate to me that she didn't CARE about Mandalore any more than I think the Jedi's system of having to wait until someone asks for their help indicates that THEY don't care about the galaxy's problems. It just shows that there are a LOT of problems in the galaxy and only so many Jedi capable of helping at any given time.

What I think Ahsoka is maybe feeling is that SHE will help anybody who asks, even if it's a planet like Mandalore that technically isn't even a part of the Republic and whose problems don't impact the war, but that Obi-Wan and the Council will only prioritize missions to planets that are considered important to the Republic or to the war effort, and Coruscant is the capital of the Republic, home of the Senate and the Chancellor and their own Temple.

What isn't being taken into account is that Coruscant is being actively attacked by an entire armada as they speak while Mandalore has presumably lasted for months at this point under the rule of Maul and his lackeys and with no real indication that anything is going to change much for them which means waiting a little longer for aid probably isn't going to hurt them that much. But abandoning Coruscant could literally spell its fall, which would inevitably mean the fall of the entire Republic due to the loss of its leadership. They'd lose the entire fucking war which would have ripple effects across the whole galaxy. Bo-Katan claims that they have no time to put off helping her people because they're hurt and dying, but from what we can tell, Mandalore can wait. Coruscant cannot. It's pretty simple battlefield triage.

I think Ahsoka WAS "thinking of the common people" in terms of wanting to help everyone on Mandalore, but what I DON'T buy is that Obi-Wan and the Jedi aren't thinking about the common people when their efforts are to help EVERYONE IN THE GALAXY from the consequences of losing the war to the Sith and the Separatists. Ahsoka is thinking little picture, she's not considering the bigger picture of what would actually happen as a result of both Obi-Wan and Anakin abandoning Coruscant to help Mandalore. We actually KNOW what happened to Mandalore when the Jedi lose the war and the Sith take over, too. With hindsight, we know that Mandalore actually suffers MORE when the Jedi are defeated and the Empire rises. Having Bo-Katan installed as a leader and Maul removed from power did literally nothing to protect them from the Empire taking over. If Obi-Wan and Anakin had come with her to Mandalore instead of going to Coruscant and it had fallen and they'd lost the war, you can be damn sure that Mandalore would've felt the impact of that the same way it did in canon.

What it actually reminds me of a little is Obi-Wan's situation on Melida/Daan in the Jedi Apprentice books. Obi-Wan sees an issue on the planet and a people in need of assistance and someone asking him for his help and he gets so caught up in their struggle and his own trauma regarding his place within the Jedi that he misses the bigger picture. Obi-Wan's passion is commendable, but there was a REASON Qui-Gon didn't want to stay and help the Young, and honestly? I think he was right. Staying doesn't help. Obi-Wan's presence allows the Young to succeed, but it doesn't actually ensure peace and the Young turned on him just as easily as the adults turned on Tahl and the Jedi when the winds changed and he went from a helpful friend to a traitorous outsider. Qui-Gon choosing to sacrifice Tahl's life to help them wouldn't have made an ounce of difference.

Similarly, Ahsoka's desire to help the Mandalorians is commendable, but there's REASONS why the Jedi haven't already done so and are reluctant to do so now and they're RIGHT. There's other things at play in the galaxy that they have to take into consideration and consequences to helping Mandalore that they're unwilling to risk. Ahsoka either is too young to see that or just doesn't want to see it. Either way, just because she's right that Mandalore needs help and right to want to help them, doesn't mean she's right that the Jedi should drop everything to provide aid or right that the reason they don't is because they don't care enough.

So I recently rewatched Clone Wars, and season 7 was complex for me (mostly because it felt like too much Ahsoka away from the actual Clone Wars). The "Jedi don't care about the common people idea" coming from the sisters wasn't a bad worldbuilding thing since we know canonically Palpatine was trying to build dislike of the Jedi.

But the Mandalore arc where Ahsoka throws a fit because Obi-Wan and Anakin don't have time to go on a side quest for a planet that's not even part of the Republic when the literal Capital and Head Of State are being attacked? "This is why people don't trust the Jedi you only care about the core worlds." Girl took that to heart in the worst way possible.

Yeah, I think my feelings on the season 7 underlying theme is that it went too far in the direction of "the Jedi have lost their way, but Ahsoka realizes that instead of just abandoning the Jedi ways, she should re-discover the TRUE meaning of being a Jedi, unlike those OTHER Jedi who are being too political."

We all know that Filoni likes to try to promote Ahsoka as "better than the other Jedi," it's a reoccurring theme at this point and one that shows up for the first time in season 7 (chronologically at least, it would've shown up first in Rebels actually but it was slightly more subtle then. Slightly). So when Trace and Rafa bring out their sob story and then seem to blame the Jedi for what happened to their family more than, you know, the CRIMINAL WHO BROKE OUT OF PRISON IN THE FIRST PLACE, and the moral of the story at the end of both this arc and continuing into the Siege of Mandalore seems to be that the Jedi have "lost their way" because they no longer really care about the little people in the face of the war.

I think you're right that there's a germ of a good storyline here about how Palpatine's manipulations are working on the regular citizens, but the issue with this is that in order for that to be the story, the story needs to reinforce that what Trace and Rafa feel about the Jedi is WRONG, that the information they think they have is WRONG. But what we really get by the end of the arc is that they're RIGHT, the Jedi HAVE lost their way, and it's ONLY Ahsoka who realizes that and understands the true meaning of being a Jedi.

This continues into the Siege of Mandalore arc when she accuses Obi-Wan (and the Council and the rest of the Order through him) of being too political when they refuse to supply her with an army on a whim. She claims she's "not being fair" which should be an indictment against her entire argument, but it doesn't really feel like it is. It feels like we're supposed to be cheering her on, like "yeah, that's right, Ahsoka, you don't HAVE to be fair because the Jedi aren't being fair!" The Jedi no longer care about the little people and THAT'S why they won't help Bo-Katan take back Mandalore, they ONLY care about the elite in the Core and THAT'S why they prioritize Coruscant.

The issue with this entire theme is how contradictory it is across all of season 7. They claim that the Jedi only care about the elite of Coruscant when they choose to prioritize it except that the entire last arc was about the little people of Coruscant being abandoned by the Jedi in favor of going out to help other planets affected by the war. And the claim is also made in this episode that the Jedi SPECIFICALLY only care about the Chancellor's life, but then Ahsoka advocates for prioritizing Palpatine later because he's Anakin's friend or something like that. So what are we supposed to understand? That protecting Coruscant is only about helping the little people who live there when it's Ahsoka doing it? That defending and protecting Palpatine is only righteous and not about politics when it's Ahsoka doing it?

And THIS is where we get back to Filoni lifting Ahsoka up as better than all of the other Jedi. Ahsoka gets to get away with shit that no other Jedi is ever allowed to get away with. Ahsoka can be contradictory and hypocritical because she has to be right all the time no matter what the situation is because she's Ahsoka and better than everyone else. Specifically, obviously, better than all those other dumb Jedi in the Prequels Jedi Order.

I've seen people try to give benefit of the doubt to this season and claim that Ahsoka being contradictory and hypocritical is the point, that Ahsoka is still young and struggling with her feelings about the Wrong Jedi arc and figuring out who to trust, how to trust herself, and so she's being unfair on purpose and making mistakes, etc etc. And I understand that theory, but I just can't share it because at no point in either arc does it feel like I'm supposed to understand that Ahsoka is WRONG. I'd love for that to have been the story, because honestly I think there's a lot of merit to finally giving Ahsoka flaws again via the Wrong Jedi arc, showing how it's really impacted her and how much she still struggles with it and how it makes her unfair and unkind and lacking in compassion and understanding sometimes when it comes to the Jedi. That it's not necessarily the JEDI who've lost their way, but AHSOKA. If we stayed with the path that the Wrong Jedi left us on of Ahsoka saying that the person she no longer trusts is actually HERSELF, not the Jedi, that could've been great! But season 7 turns around and says "actually no, she just straight-up no longer trusts the Jedi completely but totally trusts herself just fine."

I don't HATE season 7, there's plenty I like about it, and I honestly do like Trace and Rafa and their arc (which seems to be a minority position), but it's also got a lot of things I dislike about it and it'll NEVER be within my most favorite seasons of TCW, honestly.

[jasontoddiefor]

Title: would you be so kind Ship: obikin Second: Ten years ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi met Anakin Skywalker, a charming young mage from Naboo, but as fate willed, they could not be together. A decade and thousands dead later, Alderaan’s High Court Sorcerer meets a Forger and his excited apprentice. AN: I forgot to post this on tumblr apparently, but here’s the first chapter of my second long WIP I am working on!

Then

The ship was crammed, filled to the brim with people clinging to one another, staring either at the home they’d lost or the home they hoped to be sailing to. Hundreds of ships had left Dromund Kaas already, carrying refugees across the ocean to safer harbors. The tension was high and sharp enough to cut as they sailed away from the doomed country and only relaxed when the pressure of the country’s shields finally left their shoulders.

“An awful sight, isn’t it?”

Anakin startled, instinctually pulled his coat around himself. Were he in a better shape, he would have lashed out immediately, winds, bindings, blood—

But the power flowing through his veins was too constricted, caged like a wild beast. Instead, Anakin just turned to look at the person who’d addressed him. An old woman with snow-white markings and long lekku stared at the dying country just as he had moments before, grief and resignation painting a sorrowful picture. “I never thought I’d leave this place. Did you?”

Wordlessly, Anakin shook his head. No, he certainly hadn’t thought he’d ever leave this place again. He’d been ready to be buried under the ashes of marble altars, not see this new dawn.

“I was born here, married too. All my children were born within the boundaries of this country and perhaps that is the reason they all left,” the woman continued. “I am glad that they weren’t here. If I think about what could have happened to them were they anywhere near the capital… I apologize; I hope you don’t mind my rambling. You looked like you needed company. Are you traveling to Naboo?”

He opened his mouth to reply, to give an affirmation, but stopped. He hadn’t quite thought where he’d go, except as far away from this place as he could. Naboo was certainly an option; Padmé would be glad to see him, he was sure. She’d take him in without asking a single question and defend him against the storms that were sure to come.

But Padmé was his friend and Anakin couldn’t allow her to shoulder his burden.

“No,” Anakin heard himself saying. “I’m not traveling to Naboo.”

“They are quite defenseless right now, yes, you are right. The fact that it’s the first stop of this ship is tempting enough for most to disregard what troubles might find them there.” The woman nodded in understanding. “I’ll be going to Alderaan myself. My eldest lives there, and in a country as strong as that, a tragedy like this can’t strike.”

She turned to look at the remains of Dromund Kaas again. The coastline used to be covered by beautiful large trees; his Master used to tell him how vital they were for its defense.

Now there was nothing but ash and darkness. Even here on the outskirts, where it had taken the longest for the remains of the catastrophe to reach, nobody was safe from it. Dromund Kaas had been in a pitiful state after the last war, which had made it an easy place to hideaway in. Alderaan might be stronger, the blooming center of magical education, but Anakin doubted they’d be able to defend against an attack like this. Nothing could save them from an attack such as this.

But Alderaan’s distance to this cesspit of disease was enough to provide a different kind of security.

Thousands of refugees would search for safety there, and Queen Breha was as cunning as she was kind. No one would be turned away and Anakin could slip in just right with them.

“I’m going to Alderaan as well,” Anakin replied.

The woman looked him over, then she beamed as if she were a young child and not already among the older members of her species.

Her smile was the first Anakin had seen in weeks. “Looks like we’ll be traveling companions then! You must tell me your name, young friend. I’m Raya Tano.”

She held out her hand and Anakin awkwardly shook it with his own left.

“My name is—”

Now

“Anakin Skywalker! Your automaton is ruining my kitchen!”

Sighing, Anakin let the spell sink back into the metal and settle into it. So much for working on his commissions today. A quick glance around the workshop told him that it was not one of his automatons running wild. Artoo was currently charging up and Threepio was keeping himself busy cleaning up. All the other small automatons Anakin crafted when he was bored were either asleep and charging or hurrying around the workshop, washing up the floors and putting away the tools Anakin had been using.

Anakin tugged off his gloves and threw them to a tiny and eager little automaton before picking up his softer everyday gloves. The leather was still quite resistant and had more runes stitched into it than most people dared to weave into one cloth, but they were nowhere near as excellently crafted as his work gloves. The dragonhide gloves were worth a fortune and so they never left his workshop unless Anakin had to. Anakin watched the little automaton put the gloves in their usual compartment until he could hear the click reassuring that the lock was in place. At first, that had only been a measure against thieves as he hadn’t had much to his name, but by now, it was a habit.

And it discouraged Ahsoka from stealing them for her own projects.

Anakin walked out of his workshop and crossed the courtyard to the small cottage he called his home, finding a kitchen in disarray, Raya standing on a chair with a small red automaton attempting to clean the floors.

“Look what a mess it’s making!” Raya said accusingly. “Instead of polishing my floors, it’s dirtying them!”

“I can see that,” Anakin hummed. He waited until the small automaton had reached his feet, then he bent down and pressed his hand flat on its small back, stopping it. Ahsoka’s handiwork was getting better; this little guy had kept moving for a while despite her absence. Anakin had no idea what the formal apprenticeship for forgers entailed, when they ought to hit what milestone, but he was willing to bet that Ahsoka was years ahead of her peers. Her spells were strong, her rune work fantastic, and very few actual weaknesses were left to explore in her automatons.

But Anakin was still a Master and Ahsoka only an Apprentice. Her work was not yet good enough to keep out foreign interference. Without much thought, he deactivated the automaton completely.

“This was your granddaughter’s handiwork,” Anakin commented. “She’s improving in leaps and bounds.”

Raya huffed and stepped from her chair. “I’m glad to hear that, but weren’t you meant to teach her control?”

“I am,” Anakin said, the argument an old and fond one. They returned to it frequently, mostly to annoy the young Apprentice. “And were she still as much of a mess as three years ago, she hardly would be able to craft such a fine automaton. Can’t do anything about her manners.”

Especially since she’d become a teenager. Anakin didn’t remember being as much of a pain as Ahsoka could be.

“And here I was thinking Masters were supposed to teach their Apprentices a medium of decorum.”

Anakin snorted. “Yeah, well, that’s what she has you for, doesn’t she?”

Raya’s expression softened. “That she does.”

Anakin sometimes wondered how Raya managed to stay so kind and calm when the world had taken so much from her. Her husband, country, her children— and yet she still stood straight, caring for the fellow traveler she’d never allowed to leave and the granddaughter that had been dumped on her with just a warning for Ahsoka’s generally explosive tendencies.

“Where is Ahsoka anyway?” Anakin asked, looking around the kitchen as if she would jump out in the open any moment. “I sent her on an errand earlier this morning, but she hasn’t returned yet.”

Unfortunately, Raya couldn’t tell him either. “I have no idea where that girl is running around—”

“Anakin!”

Speak of the dark and it shall appear. The door was thrown open and Ahsoka rushed inside, tracking even more dirt all over the floor, causing Raya to throw up her arms in defeat in a way Anakin knew meant Ahsoka would be left with all her favorite chores for the next week.

“Welcome back, Ahsoka,” Anakin said. “You’re late.”

“Yes, yes,” Ahsoka replied and rolled her eyes, obviously disinterested in what he had to say. “I got all you asked for and ordered the new metals, but look at this!”

Ahsoka raised her hand, revealing a ripped-off poster. It was tasteful in design, fine cursive writing on light blues, gold ornaments in the corners and, of course, the royal crest right in the middle of it.

Her Majesty the Queen of the Kingdom of Alderaan, Breha Organa, invites all Alderaani Practitioners of the Mythic Arts to attend the festivities in the capital of Aldera—

“Absolutely not,” Anakin said before he could even read the rest of the text. “We’re not going to Aldera to some festival.”

“Why not?” Ahsoka shot back. “It’s no summit, but it would at least be something.”

Her bitterness did not go unnoticed. Ahsoka had begged for months to attend this year’s summit. Every five, all magic practitioners gathered on Tython to exchange notes on their craft and pretend they were not also discussing the politics of their respective countries, forging alliances and the like. Anakin hadn’t been to the last summit, it having been just after Dromund Kaas, and the one before were tainted by the memories that followed, no matter how sweet the time had been. Ahsoka, of course, had begged to attend this year’s one, but it would only be foolish and reckless. He couldn’t just walk into the biggest gathering of mages in the whole continent and expect to get out of it without anyone realizing who he was, asking questions, concluding what he’d done.

Anakin had too much to hide, too much to lose, and he wasn’t going to risk his little Apprentice for it.

Not that Ahsoka knew any of that and wasn’t in the least satisfied with Anakin’s reply and immediately made her displeasure known.

“What would you even want to see there?” Anakin asked, trying to downplay how entertaining such an event was. “It’ll just be all the posh court sorcerers showing off with their fancy focusing crystals. It’s utterly boring and uncreative.”

“Like you wouldn’t use a focusing crystal if you had one,” Ahsoka muttered, arms crossed. “It’s just— there’s nobody else around here who can do magic. And all you ever do is work on machines.”

“Which requires a lot of concentration as it’s not just the manipulation of one aspect, but—”

“—but many, yes, yes, I know the speech,” Ahsoka said and dutifully listed all elements that went into their craft. There was a reason why not many forgers existed. Most mages lacked the talent, patience, and education to learn this craft, or were just plain afraid that they’d permanently damage their ability to use magic at all.

And with the speed technology was evolving and magic weaponized to terrifying new heights, not too many people still had use for forgers. Where two-hundred-years ago, you wouldn’t have gone out to hunt a dragon with a simple sword, but only with one crafted by a Master forger, nowadays you didn’t necessarily need one. Battle magic was on the rise again, especially with more and more countries growing uneasy, peace treaties falling apart. Combined with the threats from the northern continents, it was no wonder people cared less and less about expensive forgers when they could mass-produce and enchant simpler items.

“I just hoped you’d allow at least this,” Ahsoka finished. Her shoulders dropped. “Should have known better. I’ll go finish my readings.”

Ahsoka turned around, her shoulders still hanging, her head low.

Damn it.

Anakin knew that she was doing it on purpose. His Apprentice was cunning and had learned how to play into his every weakness. Slowly she marched into the direction of the door, dragging her feet behind her for effect and dramatics.

Raya raised a brow at him. She usually stayed out of Ahsoka’s tutelage, knowing next to nothing about magic herself, but even with his past being little more than a mystery to her, she could read him better than anyone else.

“Urgh, fine,” Anakin heard himself say. “Fine, we can go to the festival.”

Ahsoka turned around quicker than light and jumped up. “Yes!”

“But that means you’re not going to bring up the summit again!”

“Yes! Of course!” A moment later, Anakin had an armful of an apprentice. “Thank you so much, Master, you’re the best!”

Once she let go of him, she went to hug Raya and hug even her dirty automaton to her chest, still radiating happiness. “I need to go pack my bags immediately!”

“The festival is not for another week—”

Ahsoka obviously didn’t care. So caught up in her joy, she rushed upstairs, heading to her room to start packing. It shouldn’t surprise Anakin that she was so motivated. Ahsoka was a person who thrived on interaction, being surrounded by other people. While the people of their village were friendly, none of them were mages or even just sensitive to magic. It was one of the reasons Anakin had decided to stay without too much fight. But growing up so far removed from other mages had made Ahsoka twice as curious to meet others.

The thought made his stomach churn. He’d have to give Ahsoka formal lessons about their trade now, just if somebody asked questions that were too pointed. She’d also need a bit of the know-how on how you usually interacted with other mages and which pretentious bastards to call sorcerers before they threw a hissy fit. All these capital folks were much too sensitive about terminology after all. Anakin had never bothered to tell her the differences before, but Ahsoka would kill him if she accidentally embarrassed herself because he hadn’t seen it fit to instruct her properly. Forget teaching Ahsoka how to improve her automaton, the next week would be full of etiquette lessons. Skies, there’d be people trying to steal their spellwork too. Had he even mentioned that kind of theft before? Anakin honestly couldn’t recall.

“Already regretting it?” Raya asked, her voice just a touch amused.

“Just a bit,” Anakin replied.

“It’ll be good for her,” Raya said, convinced and confident enough for the both of them. “And good for you as well. I’ve known you for years now and you’ve never even brought a friend over. I’m not going to be young forever, you know. I do expect to be introduced to your future spouse at some point.”

“And this is my cue to go packing as well,” Anakin announced and followed Ahsoka up the stairs with Raya’s laughter following him.

He had no intention of being with anyone, ever, unless he could find glamours that held up even when majorly distracted. On his way up the stairs, Anakin caught a look of himself in the window, saw black vines curling around his neck, inviting someone to take a closer look.

It was better this way.

[anna-pixie]

padawan -> obi-wan kenobi {part three}

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

hello!! i have written and rewritten this part a lot, and i still can’t decide whether i am completely happy with it, so honest feedback is encouraged!! ty all so much for your love on the last part, i hope you enjoy <3

summary: you and obi-wan head out on another mission, but something has got him in an awful mood (lmk if you guys figure out what his mood is about before the next part!!)

pairings: obi-wan kenobi x reader

warnings: mentions of sex

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

“Y/N, when you said you were serious about your training I expected I would see you there on time each morning.” The familiar lilt of Obi-Wan’s voice jerks you up from your incredibly deep sleep. You wipe away the drool from the corner of your mouth and gaze around your room with bleary eyes. 

There’s nobody there. 

Then a knock sounds from your door and you realise that your Master is too respectful to just barge into your room without permission. 

“Come in, Master.”

You hear the hiss of your door sliding open and smile sheepishly as your favourite bearded face peers around into the unhomely expanse of your room. Unlike the Jedi Masters, padawans weren’t encouraged to decorate their rooms. That’s a privilege earnt through time and experience. You’re thankful that you went to bed wearing a large jumper last night, though as you stretch the material exposes your stomach ever so slightly. 

“I broke my datapad yesterday…” You trail off, knowing that this is the third one you’ve gone through this year, “I didn’t have anything to set an alarm on.” An innocent smile graces your lips as Obi-Wan sighs, sitting next to you on your unmade sheets as he returns it with his own wry grin. 

“Whatever am I going to do with you, Padawan?” You know your Master well enough by now to be able to tell what he is feeling by the tone of his incredibly expressive voice, and thankfully right now he doesn’t seem too annoyed by your lack of care for your datapad. However, you also know that you’re treading on very thin ice, that you’re going to have to start putting a lot more effort in unless you want him to give up on you like everyone else has. 

It’s been a few weeks since you met Ahsoka which gave you the motivation you needed to get back on track. To say it’s been a hard few weeks would be an understatement. You’re up every morning before the light, fighting and learning and meditating with Obi-Wan. The two of you spend a lot of time together alone in the mornings and evenings when most other people in the temple have already retired to bed, but a lot of your time in the day is shared by Anakin - he thinks it is a great idea to train you and Ahsoka together. 

Now that was a kick in the teeth. 

You like Ahsoka, you really do, but it’s so humiliating to be trained alongside someone so much younger than you. Especially in front of the man you’re head over heels in love with. And, as another cherry on top of the cake of your shit life, the senate has been quiet as of late, which means Padme has plenty of free time to come and oversee your training sessions. Keeping an eye on the Jedi Temple, she says, but everyone sees the smiles exchanged between her and her Jedi. It makes you feel queasy. 

How are you supposed to focus on training when your biggest distraction is hanging in front of you everyday?

You have to give it to Obi-Wan, he tries his best to steer you away from the pain caused by seeing Anakin and Padme together. He stands directly in your eyeline when he knows they are near each other, so that you can’t see anything except his smiling face. When Anakin suggests lunch with Ahsoka and Padme, Obi-Wan regretfully informs him of the non-existent prior engagements the two of you have with a sneaky smile your way. 

With all the hardship of the past few weeks, you’re happy with how close it has brought you and your Master. 

“Can we just leave it for today, Master? Please.” You flop back down onto your bed, your eyes remaining on Obi-Wan as you send him your best pleading, doe-eyed look. 

“Sadly, we’ve been called away to war so I’m afraid that isn’t an option. It seems as though this is going to be a long operation. We’re first needed in Umbara, it seems as though General Krell has been executed by the clones. After that we go straight to Mandalore.”

“The clones executed a Jedi General?” Your voice is high as you stand up, heading over to your small closet and quickly rifling through your clothes to find something that would hold up for a few days. 

“It appears that he was a Separitast sympathiser. He turned two clone units against each other, forced them to kill their own.”

Your eyes are wide as Obi-Wan continues to explain the situation awaiting the two of you on Umbara, and your heart clenches as you think about what the Clones must have been gonig through during their time there. You know attachments are forbidden as a Jedi, but you can’t help the close relationships you have formed with some of the soldiers. Captain Rex is like a brother to you. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

An hour later, you’re holding onto the bar above you as your ship takes off in the direction of Umbara, Obi-Wan looking more jittery than you’ve ever seen him as he paces around next to you. 

“You okay, Master? You seem shaken up.”

“I’m fine, young one.” He dismisses you with a shake of your head, “Come with me, we may as well get some training in whilst we’re enroute.” He doesn’t say anything else, just turns away and heads out of the bridge with not so much as a glance back to make sure you’re following him.

What on Alderaan is going on with him?

His mood doesn’t let up during training, you’ve never seen him come at you so relentlessly. If it wasn’t for the fact that they knew you so well, the passing clones would probably assume that the two of you were fighting to the death in your training room. 

A cry escapes your mouth as he knocks the saber from your hand, as it clatters to the ground and rolls somewhere you don’t bother to look for, you expect him to stop. However his saber remains active, and he seems to be in a trance of sorts as he swings for you once more, only stopped from making contact with a part of your body when you swing your leg out from beneath you, causing the two of you to fall to the ground with a low grunt from him. His saber falls from his grasp in the same way yours did, and you work on figuring out how to calm him down as his body cages yours into the ground. 

The only noise in the room is the sound of you both breathing heavily, and when your eyes finally look up and meet his again you almost feel as though he has used the force to steal your breath away from you. His blue eyes capture yours, not letting up as his gaze seems to only darken the longer the two of you lay there. 

You can’t help but be reminded of a similar situation you found yourself in with Anakin a while ago, the two of you ended up tangled on the ground after a round of playful sparring. It was all heavy breathing and dark looks and you remember that all you could think was how much you had wanted him to kiss you in that moment.

So why, Maker tell, do you have the exact same feeling now? You thought that your crush on Obi-Wan had been a silly, fleeting thing back when you first began training under him. You didn’t think it would return with a vengeance, your mind silently asking him to lean down further as you struggle to pull your eyes away from his own. When you and Anakin has been in this same situation, you had hoped that he was going to kiss you, so it was humiliating when he finally tore his gaze from yours and pulled himself away from you with an awkward cough. 

You think that Obi-Wan will do the same. Of course he will, he’s the most rule abiding Jedi you’ve ever met. 

That’s why, when you feel his lips being placed softly on yours, you think you’re just hallucinating. It takes your mind a moment to catch up to what is actually occurring, your eyes fluttering shut as he pulls away and then presses his lips to yours with more fervour once he realises that you aren’t going to push him away. 

The hand that almost struck you with his saber minutes before reaches up, holding onto your jaw whilst the other keeps him steady on top of you. He breathes heavily as he kisses you, your breath minging as you savour the feeling. This isn’t your first kiss, you had snuck out to the clubs of Coruscant before and kissed random boys before, but this was different. This was your first kiss since you had fallen in love with Anakin. All those nights you had spent dreaming, hoping, praying that he would be the next person you kiss. Yet here you are, your lips moving feverishly against your Master’s as you thread one of your hands into the long hair at the nape of his neck. 

You must stay like that, basking in the feeling of each other for a good few minutes before a loud bang from the corridor snaps you both out of the spell you had fallen under. Obi-Wan quickly gets up, sticking out his hand to locate his saber, unable to look you in the eye as you slowly rise from your position. Your mouth tingles and your eyes are wide as you stare at the side of Obi-Wan’s head. 

He smooths his hand over his beard and mumbles a quick, “That shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry, Padawan.” before leaving the room hastily. You flinch at the way he says the word Padawan, like he is reminding you both that what you just did was not only forbidden but also extremely morally wrong. You’ve never been one to care about such trivialities, but Obi-Wan is definitely a fair bit older than you, to say the least. 

As you catch your breath and find your lightsaber, you think to yourself that it’s good that you were interrupted, because if you weren’t then you might’ve been found by a soldier who would’ve reported what he saw back to the council. You ignore the part of you that wishes you would have continued, that thinks of how well your lips worked together and how at home you felt with his body on top of yours. And most of all, you ignore the part of you that wonders if him kissing you had anything to do with his sudden mood change since departing for the trip.

The rest of the journey is slow and quiet, you take some time to meditate and gather your thoughts, knowing you’re in no state to be dealing with anything important right now. A soldier offers you something to eat but you have to decline, with the way your stomach is turning you know you won’t be able to stomach any food. 

Obi-Wan seems to have retired to somewhere quiet on the ship, you don’t see him until you touch down on Umbara. The capital has been captured now, and that is where you will spend the night before heading to Mandalore, however you must first deal with the execution of General Krell at a nearby facility that was taken by the clones. 

You walk silently alongside your Master, an awkward tension in the air that is an extreme change from your usual playful banter and general good moods. As you approach Captain Rex and his troopers, he shoots you an inquisitive look, which you quickly brush off with a whisper that you’ll talk to him later. 

The situation is resolved quickly, you and your Master both know you can take Rex’s word for the events that transpired, and you make sure Krell’s body is properly taken care of. 

“We’ve only got one spare speeder on us, General, so Y/N will have to ride with one of the boys.” Are Captain Rex’s departing words before his gunship takes off towards the capital, leaving you, Obi-Wan and a few more troopers to travel back via speeder. 

“You can ride with me, Y/N.” A clone who is about to depart shouts over to you, though your attempt to walk in his direction is thwarted by a sudden, harsh grip on your forearm. You turn quickly, shocked to see Obi-Wan shake his head, gesturing over to his own speeder instead. 

“She’ll ride with me.” 

The trooper offers no argument, simply saluting the two of you before speeding off towards the capital with a trail of dust in his wake. 

You notice that Obi-Wan still hasn’t directly addressed you since the incident on the ship, so you stay quiet whilst climbing onto the speeder, waiting for him to say something. A squeak leaves your mouth when you’re pushed forward, Obi-Wan’s large body enveloping you from behind as he reaches past you to grab hold of the handles, and you’re off before you can even think about what is going on.

“We need to talk when we get back.”

Are the first words spoken to you, and the last, because he quickly falls silent. Though, you can’t help the warmth that spreads through you when his chin rests on your shoulder, his beard scratching your cheek oh so slightly. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Dinner in Umbara is a quick affair, you scoff down what you can, not talking as much as usual due to your preoccupied mind. Obi-Wan disappeared after you both briefed Master Windu who is still back at the temple, and you wonder if he is off meditating somewhere, trying to reconcile for the ‘mistake’ that the two of you made. 

You’ve been fighting your own inner turmoil about the situation since it happened earlier that day. Once you finish your food, you retire back to the uncomfortable bed in a tiny room at the top of the large building, assuming that Obi-Wan has decided to forgo the conversation and ignore you altogether. 

As you lie on the hard metal, your mind wanders over the past few months. You wonder how Anakin would react if he knew you and Obi-Wan had kissed. Would he be angry? Jealous? Happy? Deep down you know you would want him to be jealous, you would want him to be angry at the thought of any other man having you in the way that he wants you. 

But he doesn’t want you in that way, you remind yourself. Does Obi-Wan even want you in that way? You know he is a well revered man, and nobody can deny how good looking he is. If he really was looking for a romantic, or even just sexual, connection he could probably find that anywhere - why would he get that from plain old you?

A pang of sadness hits your gut as you think about him regretting the kiss, returning to Coruscant and finding another girl that he would rather betray the Jedi code in order to be with. And with wide eyes and a whisper of ‘oh no’, you realise that this is exactly how you felt when your feelings for Anakin started growing stronger. Just what did that kiss stir within you, surely your years old feelings for your Master haven’t suddenly resurfaced, right?

A knock on your door startles you, that deep in thought you hadn’t heard anyone approaching your rather isolated room. 

“Y/N?” It’s Obi-Wan. 

“You can come in, it’s open.

He slides the door open, his actions sheepish and small and not at all like the overly confident man he usually is. It pains you to see him like this, stumbling and second guessing everything he does. 

“You shouldn’t leave your door unlocked when you’re not on Coruscant, anything could wander in.”

“Sorry, Master.” You’ve shuffled to the edge of the bed now, Obi-Wan sitting beside you, mirroring the exact position you were in when he woke you up this morning. Before everything turned into a mess. 

“I… I’m so sorry, Padawan. I abused my position as your Master and I never should’ve even thought about doing something like that with you. Especially after you confided in me about your feelings for Anakin, I don’t want you to think that I’m taking advantage of your vulnerability.” His voice is so shaky that you barely recognise it, and a wave of sadness hits you when you realise that he must’ve been carrying this burden of guilt around with him all day. 

“Obi-Wan, it’s fine. You didn’t force yourself on me, I was completely on board when it happened, in fact I quite enjoyed it. I know it was wrong, against the code or whatever, but I won’t tell anybody. Please don’t feel guilty.” You make sure he keeps his eyes on you, a delicate touch on his cheek to keep him faced your way. A sigh emits from his mouth and your heart swells in your chest when he leans his head into your hand, seeking your comfort. 

“I’m tired, Y/N. This war, I’m beginning to feel it’s toll.”

“There’s no shame in admitting you need a break, Master, but it’s not just tiredness that is eating at you right now. I know you, there’s something else going on. You can tell me. Is it something to do with Umbara, Mandalore, anything?”

“Thank you for your concern, Padawan, I’m quite alright.”

“Don’t do that, Obi-Wan.” Your voice wavers this time, “Don’t use that title as a way to brush me off. Yes, I’m your Padawan, but I hope that by now I’m also your friend.”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to have friends, Y/N.”

You scoff, removing your hand from his face as you turn away from him, not wanting to look at him as he lies to you. 

“I was always jealous of him, you know.” He speaks again, after a few minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence. 

“Of who?”

“Anakin.”

You turn back, your interest peaked as he looks at you. You swallow, a blush coating your cheeks as you note that his eyes are as dark as they were before. Before he kissed you. 

“What reason could you possibly have had for being jealous of him? Oh, Maker, don’t tell me you’re in love with Senator Amidala.”

He chuckles, “No, little one, I was jealous of him because he always seemed to have your attention when he cared so little for you. I wanted you to look at me the way you looked at him.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

tag list:

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[fanfictasia]

Swoon June Day 15

Secret Identity

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Card of Heart

“What happened?” Anakin inquires, as soon as he, Padme, and Ahsoka are alone together. He can sense Padme’s emotions – a mix of anxiety, hope, and fear. Something major happened, and he needs to know what.  He can guess what it probably has to o with, though, and he immediately tightens his shields just a little, to make sure Sidious won’t pick up on anything.

“I got a message,” Padme explains, and her nervousness skyrockets. She throws a brief glance around as though to make sure no one is around before continuing. “From Obi-Wan.”

Anakin stills. “What?” he asks, faintly. He hasn’t heard any word from him, the past entire year. He misses him like he’d miss rain on Tatooine, a constant ache that never goes away, even if he’s come to accept that… this is how it will be for now. He has no idea if he’s okay or safe or what’s happening, but he knows he would have heard and felt if he died. He’s alive, and that’s other most he can know for now.

But why is Obi-Wan contacting Padme?! Why would he risk something like that?! If anyone realizes what Padme’s involved in, Anakin doesn’t want to think about what will happen. It will be the end of everything he has now. She’ll be executed for treason, Sidious will never trust Anakin again assuming he doesn’t kill him too and Ahsoka… No, he doesn’t even want to think about it. (Not to mention his children. He knows Sidious has noticed how strong Luke and Leia are in the Force, but Anakin is only thankful that for now they’re far too little to be trained. He doesn’t want them to have a like this like – the kind of life he dragged Ahsoka into. He doesn’t want to fail his children again)

Maybe most of the galaxy wouldn’t actually believe in Padme’s guilt, but Sidious would. Anakin and Padme’s marriage went public, along with the fact that Anakin is one of the only Jedi loyal to the Empire who now works as the Emperor’s right hand. Which means that anything Padme says against the Empire is completely discredited, often as nothing more than an attempt by her to drag the rebellion into trouble. It’s what most of the populace believes, even if Lux, Bail, Mothma, and others – the less Anakin knows about their secret identities, the better – know otherwise. Sidious is watching her closely, though. Anakin knows that much.

“It wasn’t direct,” she hastily reassures. That makes him feel a little better, but only a little. He knows Padme has… contacts, but Sidious could still figure out.

“What did he want?” Ahsoka asks.

“They are… working on a plan. They didn’t give me details but they have a way that might work to lure Sidious off Coruscant. He wants to know if you’ll help.”

For a moment, he can hardly breathe, especially not his surge of fear for how this will turn out. For how it could end for Obi-Wan. For how it could end for every single one of them. (For the very thought of Palpatine being dead.)

They’re planning to kill him. Anakin knew that was coming eventually. He also knows that until then, his family won’t be safe.

But this is – this is his mentor that they’re talking about, someone he always looked up. A part of him has… already accepted that he’s not the person Anakin thought he was and he’s considered killing him in the past, but hearing it spelled out, about to happen, is…

Maybe it needs to be done, but that doesn’t mean he wants this.

“We have to,” Ahsoka declares firmly, determination blazing in her eyes. It’s so simple for her. She doesn’t know Palpatine. She only knows Sidious and she rightfully hates him. “Of course, we will.”

She pauses, throwing a questioning glance at Anakin.

He knows what he needs to say in response to this, so why is it so hard? Why does it hurt so much? It feels like he’s betraying him, in a way worse than what Obi-Wan did to him back in the Hardeen incident, even if… maybe he doesn’t owe him that same level of loyalty. 

“I… need to think about it,” he answers finally, hollowly. It feels wrong to consider it with an actual intent to carry through with it, even if he knows they need to. And if Obi-Wan is planning to go after him anyway, it’s almost down to a choice between the two of them. And that very thought fills him with a chilling fear. “They want us to… coordinate our attack?”

“At the very least, they want to make sure you won’t… intervene on his side,” Padme replies.

Anakin wordlessly shakes his head. He has to pick sides in this. There’s no choice, and it’s not really a question of what side he has to choose. There is only one side he can choose, even if he’s not sure the guilt of that will ever go away. (Anymore than it will for all the other things he’s done.) “I… I’ll help,” he answers at last. If Sidious finds out about this, they’re all done for. He doesn’t even want to think about how the Sith would react if he finds out about this. Anakin can only hope he can’t sense his intentions right now, because he… often seems to.

Padme seems relieved. “I knew you would,” she smiles, “I told them as much already. When you need to communicate more, I will… tell my contact.” And this was exactly what Anakin was hoping to avoid all this time, dragging Padme right into the middle of it. If they do this, it will mean she will take the fall for it if they are discovered.

[padawansuggest]

Anyone want a blessed My Little Pony AU??? Imma give it anyways. Unicorns don’t use magic with their horn, unicorns can use the force. Most unicorns go to some sort of ‘magic’/force school, but the majority of unicorns aren’t strong enough to get sent to the temple. Obi-Wan was found a little late at 3, and his midi count is as low as a midi count can be to be accepted, but he was an orphaned alicorn (a winged unicorn) which meant he got instantly taken in. He’s not the only alicorn. Master Yoda is an alicorn. Later on when he’s hatched, Grogu is an alicorn too. They’re a super small breed tho. Qui-Gon is the BIGGEST unicorn ever, and his fighting style would be more suited to alicorns, but he’s learned to make it work and he’s super strong.

The reason you have to have a specific midi count to be a Jedi is because you have yo use the force to hold your lightsaber most of the time. So you have to have major multitasking abilities. Obi-Wan ends up one of the strongest Jedi in the temple, pretty much one of the youngest masters, which shocks people with midi count superiority complexes, but he’s content doing what he does.

When Qui-Gon brings Anakin and Shmi back to the ship with him, Obi-Wan is shocked to see them take off their cloaks later to find Anakin has fairly large wings hidden under there. An alicorn and a mother with a sizable midi count, both end up welcomed into the temple, and after Qui-Gon gets injured, Obi-Wan takes over to train him. They bond pretty instantly, and Obi-Wan tends to spoil Anakin a little. Lots of nuzzles and they tend to sleep together after Anakin moves out of Shmi’s new quarters cause Ani misses her.

The clones still happen, but the war never comes to pass cause Maul tripped over the carpet and ‘accidentally’ cut Palpatine’s head off one day, whoops. Jango takes revenge on Dooku when Dooku tries to start a war, then tells the Jedi to fuck the fuck off and runs off with Boba to live peacefully with his son and some random orphans he met and decided to adopt (it’s Din and Fennec).

The clones themselves are a mix of all pony types. Jango was an earth pony, but there are unicorns (many of which get late acceptance into the temple with special made classes to teach them their abilities) and a few alicorns and earth ponies and Pegasi. Cody is a Pegasus, and he tends to nap on clouds but he’s mission partners with Obi-Wan (some of the clones still wanted to protect Jedi so they form teams or become mission partners with them) sometimes Obi will spell the cloud to trail after him. It’s actually rather cool cause clones need to rest more often so Obi can drag Cody along with him when he needs him.

Rex is an earth pony. He tends to do foolhardy earth pony things, like accidentally blowing things up. Anakin keeps throwing him off buildings and it’s not funny. Ahsoka is just a unicorn, but she’s super strong, and tends to be the one to catch him.

Fives is a unicorn, Echo is a pegasus. They cause equal trouble at all times and combine their talents.

Waxer and Boil are earth ponies, they have an adopted filly Numa. She’s a unicorn and she causes so much trouble. They love her to pieces.

[dettiot]

love and coffee, served hot

She comes in every day. 

She drinks more coffee than anyone he’s ever seen.

She has a name just as unusual as his: Padmé, spelled with an accent mark on the E, she told him after he wrote “Padmay” on her cup.

And she’s the most beautiful woman Anakin Skywalker has ever seen. 

Ever since he took this job at the coffee shop near campus, to go with his job repairing cars and juggling a full load of mechanical engineering classes, Anakin has only felt stressed. Worrying about surviving long enough to get his degree, struggling to honor his mother’s dying wish to make a good life for himself, looking for something to make him feel safe and loved and happy, something that existed outside of himself. 

Not to sound like a mentally unbalanced stalker, but there was something about  Padmé that makes him feel like she’s what he needs. 

But he’s just the guy who makes her coffee, and his mother brought him up to respect all people but especially women. So Anakin doesn’t say anything to  Padmé, beyond what’s necessary. Just meaningless small talk, processing her transaction, and then making her coffee.

Even though he makes sure she has the best coffee he’s capable of making, and puts a little extra warmth into his “Welcome to Starbucks” and “Have a nice day.” 

One day, he switches to the late-night shift as a favor to Ahsoka. Even though he knows it means he won’t see Padmé, he wants to help Ahsoka out. 

It’s quiet in the shop at this hour, and he still has four hours until the morning crew takes over. So he’s standing behind the counter, a sketchbook open as he draws out wiring diagrams for his robotics class, wishing he could just build the damn droid instead of having to make all these blueprints and diagrams first. 

The chime sounds as the door opens and he looks up, preparing for the customer, when he sees that it’s Padmé and feels his heart jump into his throat. 

And . . . she looks equally affected. A smile appears on her face, one that makes her look angelic. “Hi. I didn’t see you this morning,” she said, stepping up to the counter. 

“I . . . I switched shifts,” he says, somehow, amazed that he was able to talk at all. Because she had noticed he wasn’t there this morning!

“Only for today, I hope?” she says, still smiling at him. 

“Yeah--my friend Ahsoka, she needed the morning shift, and she’s great, and I wanted to help her, so . . .” Anakin lets his voice trail off, feeling like his face was on fire. 

If it was possible, Padmé’s smile grows even sweeter. “That was really nice of you, Anakin.” 

He blinks. She knows his name? And then he remembers he was wearing a nametag and feels overwhelmingly embarrassed. But at least he hadn’t said anything out loud. 

Instead, he clears his throat and says, “The usual?” 

She nods, her smile fading a bit and replaced with a glum expression. “I don’t know if I’m going to survive 1L.” 

“1L?” he asks as he begins prepping her order: a venti blonde roast coffee with a shot each of vanilla and hazelnut. 

“First year of law school,” Padmé explains. “It’s designed to be hell, to weed out anyone who doesn’t really want to be a lawyer.” 

“Ahhh,” he says, glancing over at her. “Thus all the coffee?” 

“Thus all the coffee,” she agrees, her smile reappearing. “How about you?” 

Anakin looks at her again and smiles. “Mechanical engineering. I thought I was going to be building cars and robots and things to help people . . . and instead, I have to keep submitting designs without building anything.”

Her nose wrinkles and it’s the cutest thing, Anakin feels like he’s going to die of just how adorable she is. And she’s smart, and beautiful, and . . . 

Well, what was the harm in giving her a little sign of how he felt?

Setting the coffee down in front of her, he waves his hand as she pulls out her wallet. “On the house.” 

“What?” she asks, her eyes going wide. “Oh, no--I couldn’t.” 

“I never use my discount, so it’s my pleasure, really,” Anakin says firmly. “Just enjoy it and pay it forward someday.” 

She looks at him for a long moment, like she’s searching for something, and Anakin does his best to not tense up or throw himself at her feet. 

Finally, Padmé picks up the coffee and gives him a little smile. “Thank you, Anakin.” 

And it’s like he can’t look away from her, so he doesn’t bother trying. He just stands there, looking at her, and she’s looking back at him, and it’s not creepy or weird, like he would have thought, to just stare into her big chocolatey-brown eyes and feel himself falling even deeper. 

When she turns away, it’s like he’s cold all over, but Anakin lets her go. He picks up his sketchbook, all set to get back to work and do his best to not stare at  Padmé like a love-sick fool, when a soft “Ahem!” makes him look up.

“Can today be someday?” she asks, gazing up at him. “Because I’d really like to buy you a drink and get to know you, Anakin.” 

“Oh,” he says, feeling his brain stutter. “Really?” 

Padmé smiles and nods. “Yes, really. So what’ll you have?” 

You, he thinks to himself, but instead, Anakin says, “Grande cold brew with peppermint syrup.” 

Her eyebrows go up. “I wouldn’t have guessed that,” she says with a smile. “Make your drink and come join me.” 

He doesn’t have to be asked twice. 

XXX

After their city hall wedding six weeks later, they go to their Starbucks and order a venti blonde roast with vanilla and hazelnut and a grande cold brew with peppermint, and toast their marriage. Just the two of them.

Forever.