#Her finding out about Darth Vader is another story

[lachesismoonmist]

I've Been Watching You - Chp 7

On the Bucket List

Rating: Mature. Minors dni

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook / Reader

Words: Total: 73k

Status: Complete. 7 out of 26

Story Summary: There's a hot new guy in the gym. You can't keep your eyes off him, and it seems he can't keep his off you either. What starts out as Friends-with-Benefits turns into something a lot more complicated as your past comes back to haunt you and you find out your best friend's long-kept secret.

Originally posted on AO3

MY MASTERLIST

Chapter 7: On the Bucket List

Chapter Summary: JK and the MC continue to spend time together, and conversations start to creep towards dangerous territory, which the MC wants to avoid. The MC gets to strike one item off her bucket list. Sexy times ahead!

Author's Note: I'm back! This chapter took a while, because it was one of those where a lot had to be covered, and was before another peak in the story. Longest chapter so far. Also, there's smut! The smut is a different kind again - not sure if you guys noticed, but every smutty scene is slightly different. I hope it doesn't disappoint! JK and the MC spend some quality time together. Paintball might seem a little clichéd (think '10 Things I Hate About You' starring Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger), but I've always wanted to try it but never got around to it. There's also a Star Wars reference (I'm a total fan). Darth Vader was the ultimate badass in Episodes IV, V and VI. Tall, dark and ... Well he was wearing a mask most of the time, but he was quite handsome in a Episodes I, II and III. Are you still with me? Heh heh heh. Also, a shout out to @azurefangirl. She's one of my inspirations - I've been reading all her stories, enough times that I could convince myself that maybe I could write one too.

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It was shoulders and back day. After doing lat pull-downs, I was at the far end of the gym doing the landmine press. Jimin came strolling over. “What did you do over your long weekend? Jiho left yesterday right?"

“Yup. After the club that night, Jiho only came back after breakfast. He said he needed to crash, and had overdosed on chocolate. We went out for a late lunch, then I sent him to the train station around 5pm. I came to the gym in the morning, but didn’t see you. Soo….. what happened to your booty call?”

“When I got to his apartment, he’d just showered. He came to the door looking like sex on legs. He got all protective too when I told him about Hajoon.” I added rolling my eyes. “Then he spent the rest of the night making sure I didn’t have any bruises anywhere. Hmm, actually, he made it his mission to give me bruises.” I pulled aside the neck of my tee shirt to show Jimin the enormous hickey.

“Oh my god! That must be the biggest hickey I’ve ever seen!” “I know right? And I’ve a matching one on my boob!” I complained. Jimin burst out laughing. “No way, he gave you one on your boob?” he cackled. “He’s a biter, huh? Is he good with his tongue?”

“Well, he did eat me out on his kitchen counter before bringing me to the bedroom. And last evening we christened my couch”.

“At last!” Jimin hooted. “I thought that couch was going to die a virgin. Wait, you went over to his place after the club, then last evening you christened your couch? Did you spend all day yesterday together?”

“No, not exactly. We fell asleep at his place after the club, but I left around 4am.”

Jimin sighed “Y/N, it’s been four years. Don’t you think you need to move past this?”

“I don’t know, Jiminie. I mean, Jungkook makes me feel safe, like he wouldn't hurt me. That’s how I managed to fall asleep at his place after the club. He was so sweet. He cleaned me up again, then just held me. But I’m scared, Jiminie. I don’t think I’ll survive getting my heart ripped out of my chest again”.

“Y/N, anyone with eyes can see the attraction and the chemistry between you two! You look like you fit together, even more so than with Nam….”

“Don’t, Jiminie”, I put my hand on Jimin’s chest “Don’t say his name”. Jimin grabs my hand with his, cradling it to his chest as he says gently “Y/N, you have so much love to give. You’re smart and funny, you deserve to be happy. You deserve more than just casual hook-ups, even if the sex is mind-blowing.” Jimin sighed again. “Speaking of mind-blowing sex, where is Loverboy this morning?”

“Oh, he had a wedding shoot. At the beach, no less. He said it would run well into the afternoon. I’m going over to Artemis anyway. Have to look in on Nuri. Oh, and guess what, yesterday Ginger came out to the front of the clinic and rubbed herself all over Jungkook!”

“That slut! She only ever hisses at me or runs away…. waaaaiiit….. did you say Jungkook?”

“Yup”, I replied, picking up my towel and water bottle.

“You brought Loverboy to the clinic?!? You’ve never brought anyone to the clinic! Well, except me of course.”

“Yeah, I felt bad about leaving in the middle of the night, and he’s obviously an animal-person. Besides, he brought his dog Bam there for the yearly check-up two weeks ago, so it’s not like it was his first time there.”

Jimin held up his hand up, “You don’t have to explain, Honey. I get it. I told you right, this time it’s different.”

Just then, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

[Hot Gym JK] Hey Sweetness, the photo shoot got cut short. What are you doing later after lunch?

[Sexy Vet] Oh! What happened to the shoot? I'll be at the clinic, but I'm free after 3pm.

[Hot Gym JK] Awesome. I’ll swing by the clinic to pick you up then. Tell you the story about the shoot later.

[Sexy Vet] Where are we going?

[Hot Gym JK] It’s a surprise. Wear comfortable shoes and slacks or berms.

[Sexy Vet] Ok, now you’ve got me intrigued. Give me a hint!’

[Hot Gym JK] And spoil the surprise? Nope. You’ll just have to wait to find out. See you at 3pm, Sweetness.

[Sexy Vet] Ok. C u.

Jimin was watching my face closely. “That HAD to be Loverboy. You should see the way you’re smiling right now”.

“Nonsense! This is my normal look.”

“And I’m the queen of England. Face it Y/N, there’s something between you and Jungkook. You can deny it all you want.”

I smiled, thinking about him.

“See! You didn’t even try to deny it!”

“Whatever,” I huffed.

“So you seeing him today I take it?”

“Yeah, he said he’d pick me up from the clinic. Told me to wear comfortable shoes and said it was a surprise.”

“Well, I guess that means you’re not going to do ballroom dancing.“

"Probably not," I laughed. "Gotta go Jiminie. Catch you later k”.

“Go, go, go. Say 'Hi' to Loverboy for me”.

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

Right on the dot at 3pm, Jungkook turned into the carpark in front of the clinic. I was already sitting on the bench outside the clinic, nursing a peppermint mocha, watching two kids playing with the Golden Retriever that had just been discharged today. Jungkook pulled up beside me and opened the passenger side door “Hop in, Sweetness”. I got in and showed him the second cup I was holding.

“I wasn’t sure how you like your coffee, so I just got you a Flat White, no sugar. I’ve got some sugar packets in my bag if you want some.”

“Actually I’m more a tea drinker, but a Flat White no sugar is fine”. He reached over to squeeze my knee.

“So what happened with the photo shoot?”

“The bride-to-be didn’t really want a photo session on the beach saying she hates the sand, but the groom-to-be had pressurized her into it. Today she just couldn’t bring herself to do it and broke down in tears. I think it’s the wedding stress.”

“Yikes! Was it a deal-breaker?”

“Naah. The groom-to-be panicked and told his fiancé he’d shoot the photos anywhere she wanted. She said she’d wanted to do it in the flower gardens on the other side of town, and but they are closed today. She’s a florist, so having flowers in the shoot was actually quite a big deal to her. In the end we went to her shop and took some nice but tight shots there. We picked another day for the gardens shoot, but they felt bad about the whole thing, so they paid us for half-a-day’s work and bought us lunch”.

“Ok, so everything’s fine then. Can you imagine what they’d tell their grandkids? ‘Your grandma almost didn’t marry me because I wanted our wedding photos taken at the beach.”

“Yup, everything’s fine, and thanks to them I get to spend my afternoon with my favorite vet”. He grinned at me as we pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a refurbished warehouse. ‘Got You in My Sights’ was spray painted on the front wall, along with a impressive mural running the length of the long building. I saw in smaller print ‘Paintball. Lasertag. Air Rifle Shooting’.

“You brought me here to shoot me?!?” I asked disbelievingly.

“Shoot AT you. Paintballs, that is. I was told we have the whole place to ourselves today.”

Two white jumpsuits, goggles, helmets and paint guns loaded later, I found myself hiding behind a bale of hay, hoping to catch Jungkook unawares. He hadn’t seen me duck down into this small trench so this was my best shot. I saw him creeping behind some trees, unaware that I was behind him. I lined up my sights, then pulled the trigger. A big yellow blob appeared on his jumpsuit, right in the middle of his back. He spun around, eyes wide open in shock. “You drew first blood! I’m coming for you!” he shouted and started sprinting towards me.

Now, the sight of a 1.78m tall man, all geared up, carrying a loaded weapon running towards you is downright terrifying. I yelped and sprung up, legs pumping to put as much distance as I could between me and Jungkook. I found a waist-high wall made of sandbags, leapt over it and turned towards my pursuer. He was running across open ground, so I had the upper hand. I fired at least 5 shots at him, but only had the satisfaction of seeing one hit him on the shoulder. That didn’t stop him though, he just kept coming. I jumped up away from the wall and continued running. This time, I felt the paint hit. Two on the back, one near my knee and one hit my helmet. I went sprawling, falling into a dip behind a slight rise. I drew my knees in and just sat there, trying to catch my breath. Trying to listen out for foot falls. The plan was to wait till Jungkook was almost upon me, fire one to the chest then run.

Of course that didn’t happen. I felt a shadow fall over me, and looked up to see Jungkook standing over me, smiling smugly. He held his hand out to me.

He made deep breathing sounds. “Join me, and together, we will rule the galaxy” he said in fake boomy voice.

“You did not just quote Darth Vader!” I burst out laughing.

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

I couldn’t take it. I sat down on the ground laughing at Jungkook’s Darth Vader impressions. “Stop! Stop!”

He grinned and looked at my jumpsuit, then back at his jumpsuit. Mine was covered in green, whilst his had just one yellow spot on his shoulder, and the other one on his back. “How did you only manage to hit me only once when I ran towards you? I was completely in the open on purpose! ”

“I told you first person shooter games aren’t my thing, right?” I cried as I got to my feet. “I can’t shoot while moving, and it looks like I can’t even shoot while staying still! That first shot I got on you was a pure fluke.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t put my life in your hands if we were in a gun fight.”

“Rude!” I shouted, then shot him in the chest at point blank and ran away cackling.

“OW! Come here you!” Jungkook shouted, running after me. After what felt like an eternity of running and hiding, Jungkook finally called time. I got shot at least half a dozen more times, while I didn’t land a single shot.

When we removed all our gear, our hair was plastered to our heads with sweat. I looked down, and realized my white cotton blouse was stuck to my skin, and a bit see-through. Thankfully I was wearing my nice, lacy white set. Jungkook’s eyes widened, and he suddenly leaned over and kissed me hard on the lips. I kissed him back, our tongues dancing.

I put my hand on his chest but he hissed and pulled back. “You know, shooting someone at point blank will cause bruising right?” he complained as he slowly lifted his tee shirt. There, right in the center of his chest was a big bruise.

I didn’t say anything. I was so transfixed by his abs, I just stood there, blinking slowly.

“Helloooo, earth to Y/N?” He waved a hand in front of my face.

I blinked twice. “You were saying?”

“You gave me a big bruise by shooting me at point blank range.”

“Ah, now we’re even. Two for two. Told you I’d claim the other half of my payment”.

“How can you even equate a hickey to paintball injury?!? One is given in pleasure, the other is an injury!“

“Tomay-toes, tomar-toes. Now we really both match – one on the neck, one on the chest”. I gave him a double thumbs-up and a wink. He rolled his eyes.

“You hungry? Wanna go grab some food and head back to my place?”

“Sure,” I said, fanning my blouse in an attempt to unstick it and dry out a little. “Any craving?”

“How about Thai food? ‘Buy My Thai’ is on the way.”

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

“Mmm…. This Pad Thai is soooo good!” I closed my eyes after slurping my noodles and chewed happily.

“Right? The place is co-owned by a couple. The wife is Thai. I did a photo shoot for them about 4 months ago for their new menu. Now I get extra shrimp in my Tom Yam Goong.”

I smiled and nodded, too busy chewing to reply. “So you don’t have a pet now?” Jungkook asked.

“No, no time for one. I don’t go to the clinic everyday, but when I do I spend long hours there. Besides, all the patients are like my surrogate fur kids. Where’s Bam? You mentioned him but he doesn’t live here with you.”

“Bam is at my parent’s. I just moved back to the city about 10 months ago after spending a few years abroad. Bam stayed with my parents while I was away. Been thinking of bringing Bam over to my place. What do you think? I’d love to have your professional opinion on it.”

“Well, you do have nice grounds here, good for walks. Your apartment is large enough for a Doberman. Is he potty-trained? I mean trained to use a tray?” Jungkook nodded. “That’s good, so he can relieve himself even when you’re not at home. I’d suggest getting some rugs for the floors that are slippery. Sliding on slippery floors may lead to increased risk of hip or elbow dysplasia.” Jungkook nodded in understanding, looking around at his floors. “Another thing is, are you going to be away a lot? If he gets more attention and company at your parent’s, you may want to think about leaving him there. But you can bring him over if you’re going to be home for a stretch.”

Jungkook started collecting the empty cartons and bowls. “I will have to travel a little on and off, but for the most part I’ll be around. Thanks for the advice though. I’ll just bring Bam over here if I’m going to be around for him.” Jungkook smiled, took my hand and squeezed it.

“Come, I wanna show you something”. He led me to his bedroom, and pushed open the double glass doors I’d seen the last time I was here. The balcony outside had a set of comfy-looking outdoor furniture – a small low table and two chairs that were large enough to sit two. A little tealight holder on the small table had a lit tealight in it, giving off the smell of geraniums. I walked over to the railing and looked out over city.

“This is such a gorgeous view.”

“Yes, it is” Jungkook said, looking at me, stroking my arm. He pulled me against him, my back to his front and whispered in my ear “Look up.” I gasped when I did. The night sky looked like a deep velvet canvas, with stars scattered all over.

“Wow”, I said quietly. “You can’t see the stars from the city. I’d forgotten how beautiful the night sky can be”.

“This is one of the reasons I fell in love with this place. I often come and sit out here when I’ve had a rough day. The night sky reminds me that I’m just a little speck in the big scheme of things. Wait here”, he squeezed me, then walked back into his bedroom. I continued gazing up when he came back with a huge grey woolen blanket and wrapped me in it.

“Come have a seat, I'll go make us some tea.” I settled into the large chair at the end of the balcony. I looked around. Because of the shape of the apartment building, I couldn’t see any of the neighbor's homes. It was just a clear view of the surrounding area and the city skyline. Breathtaking.

Jungkook came back not long later with a small pot and two tea cups on a tray. The tea smelled heavenly. “This is jasmine tea with natural rose oil” he explained as sat down next to me and proceeded to pour tea into both cups. “It’s great after you've had oily food.” I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and savoring the fragrance. I took a tentative sip.

“Wow!" I closed my eyes and took an extra deep breath.  A few more sips later, I opened my eyes to see Jungkook staring at me over the rim of his teacup. "This might be the best tea I’ve ever smelled or tasted! Makes me wanna bathe in it”.

“Well, I do have good taste” he smiled, then leaned closer to me “speaking of good taste….” He took my cup from me and put it down on the table. His warm lips found mine. His hand wound into my hair, holding my head in place, angling it to kiss me deeper. He kissed me slowly, but no less hungrily as he explored my mouth. His hand travelled down, squeezing my breasts before moving his hands to my waist, shifting me so that I was facing him, straddling his lap. He kissed his way down my neck and pressed gentle kisses to the hickey he gave me. His hands reached for the bottom of my white blouse and he pulled it up and over my head.

“I saw the white lace earlier after paintball. I’ve been dying to see it up close” He ran his finger down the shoulder strap, over the tops of the cups, making me shiver. Then he suddenly pulled down the cup, freeing my breast. He closed his lips over my hardening nipple, sucking so hard I let out a whine. He reached up and freed the other breast, shifting his attention to it. “Your breasts look so sexy like this, held up by your bra.”

“We’re out in the open, Jungkook. Someone might see.” I said worriedly, looking around.

“No one can see us while we’re here. But if it makes you feel better..." he reached past me to pull up the large grey blanket and draped it on my shoulders. He reached back then and pulled his t-shirt off in one smooth move. As always, I was mesmerized by his bulging arm muscles, the swell of his pectoral muscles, the ridges of his abs and Adonis belt. I ran my hands over his stomach and chest, then leaned forward to kiss him, as I pawed at the buttons of his cargo shorts. Then I reached into his boxers and freed his hard cock, giving it a few pumps. Jungkook moaned, then pushed his shorts and boxers off his hips so that they rested near his knees. I reached down and pushed them the rest of the way off his legs.

His hands went to the button of my slacks, pulled down the zip slowly. He brushed his fingers against my white lacy panties, then growled. "I wanna see”.

He lifted me off his lap and made me stand between his legs. He spun me around to face away from him and slid my slacks past my hips. They fell to the floor. “Your ass looks terrific in white lace” he purred, rubbing both ass cheeks with his hands. He slipped his fingers in and pulled the lace down, then helped me step out of it. I pulled me towards him to face him again. He looked divine – bare chest heaving, muscles all on display, cock standing erect. The ache between my legs grew stronger. I sat on his lap, shuffling forward till I could rub my core on his cock.

“So wet for me” he groaned, as he massaged my breasts, thumbs rubbing over my nipples. I lifted myself up slightly, then impaled myself on his cock. He moaned loudly, burying his face between my breasts. “Move please,” he choked out, his arms crushing me to him like a vise. My breasts rubbed up and down on his chest as I put my knees on the seat of the chair for leverage to take him in again and again. He held my hips in a crushing grip as he helped move me up and down. By now the large grey blanket had fallen onto the ground but neither of us cared. It was just him in his naked glory, me with my ass bare and my breasts trussed up in my bra. He pressed his thumb onto my clit, moving it in time to when our bodies closed the gap, watching how my pussy sucked him in.

“Harder, Jungkook, harder” I panted.

He applied more pressure with his thumb and my world exploded. I squirted onto his lap as he came, moaning my name.

We sat like that for a while, our arms around each other, coming down from our highs, till our breathing evened out. I lifted myself slowly off him, feeling him slide out. I rested on his lap, not wanted to separate just yet. He stroked my back lazily while nuzzling my neck with his lips.

“You know, having sex under the stars, out in the open has always been on my bucket list.”

“And you’ve never found anyone to do it with?” Jungkook asked curiously. I shook my head, as he stood up, carrying me with him.  I buried my face in his chest to avoid answering his question.  I inhaled deeply.  He smelled of his cologne, but underneath that was a very manly smell, of sweat and sex.  

“Let’s get you cleaned up” as he walked to the bathroom. He set my down gently on his marble counter, took a wash cloth and wiped our mess from the insides of my thighs and his crotch. He also wiped my breasts slowly, then pulled the cups back up. He kissed me, then went to wash the towel in the sink.

“I wanted to tell you, I have to leave tomorrow morning for a magazine photo shoot for a week. In Paris. The following week there will be a photo exhibition cum charity ball here in the Grand Ballroom at Four Seasons. I’m one of three photographers who have been invited to take photos for the exhibition. It’ll be great exposure, and it seems the guests move in high circles, so it’ll be a great chance to network. “

“That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you. It sure sounds like a great opportunity for you.”

“Come to the ball with me? As my plus one?” he asked earnestly, holding both my hands as he looked at me with puppy dog eyes.

“Don’t do the puppy dog eyes thing! I cannot resist it!” I cried, covering my face with my hands.

“But it’s my greatest weapon in getting what I want,” he said smugly. “Seriously though, say you’ll come with me? I’ll even get you a dress from Paris.”

“Oooh… high fashion from Paris, huh? You sure you know my size?”

“Oh, I know your size,” he said in a low voice as he claimed my lips with his again. My knees turned to jelly, along with my will.

“Ok,” I breathed when we finally separated, our foreheads resting together. "What time is your flight tomorrow?"

"It's at 6am. I’ll call you when I land. I'll be pretty busy during the day, we can talk at night, although you’ll be a few hours ahead of me," Jungkook said

“Ok, Big Boy, sounds good. I need to to go too anyways, I have a surgery early tomorrow morning.”

“Come on, I’ll drive you back to the clinic to get your car.”

We drove in a companionable silence, once again with his hand resting on my leg, this time, on my thigh. He insisted on driving back with me to my apartment building after that, and walking me up to my door. Outside my door, he kissed me till I was dizzy, and wouldn’t have stopped if not for my neighbor who had to walk past us. We both laughed after my neighbor croaked out a very awkward “Hi…” and slinked into his apartment. Jungkook held my face in his hands and kissed me on the nose, then on the lips. “Good night, Sweetness. Dream of me k?” and blew me a kiss as he walked down the stairs.

Previous (Chp6)

Tags: @bhonbhon, @azurefangirl

[corellianhounds]

I know part of Leia’s character in the original trilogy is rooted in her stoicism in the face of overwhelming odds but her maturity, capability, and levelheadedness on the Death Star and beyond makes her a largely stagnant character over the course of the original trilogy. Her arc in Empire and Return of the Jedi is being able to swallow her pride and start opening up to Han. Han and Luke both go through drastic and notable character arcs over the course of each movie and the trilogy as a whole which makes them dynamic and interesting to watch

Leia doesn’t have to mature or learn anything because she’s already mature. Though it makes sense for her to need and have that as a young senator being thrust into the role of a war general at a young age, we don’t really get a whole lot else from her (which is why I think we’ve had girlboss!Leia as a cultural sticking point and merchandise opportunity for almost fifty years).

For the most part I’m kind of… indifferent to Leia on her own because we don’t really get Leia on her own. In the original movies the biggest part of her character comes from her interactions with Luke and Han, and then she’s responsible for running the Rebellion after that. Personally, I think the most unique and interesting actions we get to see from her come from the Jabba’s palace sequence, starting with her entrance as Boushh and ending with her strangling Jabba the Hutt. The rest of the time we’re seeing her in the context of the war and/or her romance with Han, but not dealing with the larger implications of some of the things specific to her. She and Luke aren’t together much on Endor especially after the sibling/Darth Vader reveal, and her relationship with Han is still one where the two of them are on largely equal ground with each other. She’s allowed to be angry and irritated with and take out her frustrations on him (which to be fair is a kind of vulnerability in itself) because he has the ability to get under her skin and (largely) has the wherewithal to take what she dishes back, and she doesn’t HAVE to play nice with him the way she does the rest of the people under her command. After that, Leia doesn’t get much outside of what she’s doing for other people.

And I get it! There’s only so much story you can tell in two hours! And I know it’s a fairytale, I know these are still stock character tropes within the context of a space opera, and that’s fine! I don’t dislike the movies or Leia because of that, and I would have been fine with her arc being one of a strong-willed, independent, and capable, mature young woman having to learn to rely on the people around her and learn to ask for help and humble herself to the point of vulnerability with the people who care about her IF…

If they had applied those aspects of her character to more than just her romance with Han. We really only get one genuine moment of vulnerability from Leia in the sibling reveal on Endor where she’s distraught and Han finds her. The rest of her emotional moments are still played with the mask of aloofness and control, and while it DOES make sense for that to be necessary of her because of the position she fills within the story and the Rebellion, it does still make her a little bland in terms of character development because we have nothing to contrast that control with.

Stoicism and regality and capability are more impressive when we’ve seen the other side of that spectrum in the character. Leia’s resilience would have been more poignant and impressive and heartbreaking if we’d gotten to see her grapple with things that are beyond her ability to remain stoic about; the two big ones are the destruction of Alderaan, and finding out who her real father is.

I know Luke is the main character of the trilogy. I know there wouldn’t have been time to explore the gravity of those moments with Leia in a meaningful way without the movies being much longer and running the risk of diverting focus from the story Luke was driving, and the movies are, at the end of the day, supposed to be fun. They’re not meant to be hard dramas.

But can you imagine. Can you imagine.

If we’d gotten to see Leia truly devastated by the destruction of Alderaan happening in front of her very eyes. Can you imagine seeing her break free from the guards to run to a massive viewport that makes her look small and powerless against the black void of space, Vader and Tarkin allowing it because they finally have something that’s getting a reaction out of the unflappable princess who has apparently endured hours of torture without giving up the location of the Rebel base. Leia struggling and failing to keep down the rising panic as Tarkin threatens to destroy an entire planet, her home world, family and friends and people she’s known her entire life in imminent danger as the Empire closes in with a battle station the size of a moon.

Her mother and father are down there.

The Sith lord is silent behind her as Imperials around the bridge work with complete indifference to this woman whose home and people they are planning to destroy, Tarkin’s boredom and feigned polite tone of voice asking her again where the rebels are located. Leia hesitates at the window, not looking at any of them, and the smile Tarkin had before dissipates as he orders the men to ready the shot. Leia turns back from the viewport to come halfway back across the bridge, struggling to keep up the front of diplomacy as she lies and tells them the rebel base is on Dantooine, desperately pleading with them to spare Alderaan and praying against all hope that she’s bought them some time.

Tarkin finally looks satisfied. And then he gives the order anyway.

Leia finally breaks as the men around them fire up the laser, her pleading with Tarkin not to do it, to spare her people, she’s given them what they want, she gave up the Rebel Alliance, please, there are billions of people there with nothing to do with the Rebellion, please you can’t do this, please—

The sound of a massive energy surge accompanies a flash of brilliant green light behind her. Leia screams “No!” as she turns and runs back to collide with the viewport, her face stricken in horror as she slams her fist against it in a futile effort to stop them, to do something, to do anything—

But there never was anything she could have done that would have stopped Tarkin’s order. Alderaan is annihilated, an entire planet and people blasted into oblivion by an uncaring Empire.

Leia sinks to the floor in horror, one hand against the window and the other covering her mouth as complete and utter heartbreak plays out across her face. Tarkin motions for two guards to drag her to her feet and they begin to take her away. The Sith Lord and Imperial Moff watch impassively as the princess without clan or kin weeps into her hands for the homeworld she would never have been able to save, no matter what she tried to bargain with.

For the rest of the movie we see Leia seemingly untouchable, calm and in control. Nobody thinks to ask if she’s okay because she never gives them a reason to think otherwise. It’s only when those closest to her find her alone that they see how vulnerable she really is, and it won’t be until she nearly loses them too that the façade starts to break.

[lesservillain]

strange lights masterlist

summary: all the answers give you is more questions

cw: reader is almost assaulted (but the day is saved)

wc: 6.2k

Snarling. Teeth. Screaming.

“Get out of here!”

“Why is she here?” 

“They’ll eat her alive!”

Wild gusts of wind hit you from every direction, disorienting you as you try to steady yourself against the push and pull. When you finally open your eyes, you find yourself at the edge of a cliff where water crashes harshly against the rocks at the bottom. Every time you try to take a step away, a force pushes you closer to the drop. 

Just as you feel your foot teetering over the edge, a voice calls out your name. The wind ceases its push and you’re able to regain your footing. When you look up to see who called your name, your eyes lock onto a figure emerging from the woods. It looks familiar, long brown curls and snow white skin, but the face is unfamiliar. 

It’s that of a monster. Sharp fangs and bright, glowing red eyes that are locked on you. You’re no longer being pushed towards the edge, rather you’re locking in place as the creature gets closer to you, stalking you slowly as it prepares to pounce. 

Only when another voice calls out does the monster break its trance. 

It happens in a flash. You see Steve running out of the woods towards the monster, and then his body contorts, shifting and changing into a wolf before your eyes. You watch intently as he charges at the monster. They’re so close that they almost--

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Shooting straight up, your chest heaves as you are suddenly woken up from your sleep. You wipe the cold sweat that covers your neck and forehead with your shirt as you let yourself adjust to being awake, recounting the recurring dream that you’ve been having since that night at Loch Nora over a month ago.

It was probably your subconscious trying to tell you that you need to talk to the two men that keep appearing in the visions. Or maybe it was a warning, them turning into monsters being your mind telling you that both of them were no good.

You hadn’t talked to either man since your last encounters with them. Not that Eddie had been trying to get a hold of you, but Steve was a different story.

Texts and calls from him started late that night, apologies for what happened and how rude Tommy was to you. You’d sent him a single text back telling him that it was fine and have left him on read ever since. On one hand you felt bad for ignoring him and his obvious attempts to try and fix whatever potential the two of you may have had. On the other hand, you didn’t think you could stomach the idea of showing your face around his friends ever again. You’d even been avoiding Jonathan and his friends when they’ve come in to the store, retreating like a coward to the back room to let the new part timer take over.

Today was a boring day though. Nothing of interest going on as you were the only person there besides Heather and Barb. They were still busy taking orders when the front door rang for the millionth time. Expecting it to be another Starbucks customer, you don’t even bother saying anything to them as they come in.

“Excuse me.”

A familiar voice caught your attention, making you turn on your heels. It was Dustin and Lucas again, both of them looking quite excited to see you.

“Oh, hey guys, whats up?” You say, setting a box of games down.

“Yes, we’re looking for the new special edition Darth Vader figure,” Lucas says with a glimmer in his eyes. This time you knew what they were talking about.

“Sorry boys, can’t put it out until Friday,” you said with a smirk. They deflated in front of you and you honestly started to feel bad for them.

“Please,” Dustin begs, about to get on his knees to plead with you. “We need to get some before they sell out while we’re at school.”

“You really think they’ll sell out in this town?” You ask with a “get real” tone.

“You don’t understand,” Lucas says with frustration, “These are limited quantity and people will be coming from all over to get it.”

You give them both an unserious look. You’re about to tell them no when an idea sparks in your mind.

“Okay, fine,” you start, and both the boys jump for joy. “But--”

“But?” Dustin says with a groan.

“But, you have to give me some info.”

“Whatever you want to know, just ask,” Lucas says, shaking his head.

“Alright, I want the scoop on your friend Eddie. You guys seem to know him pretty well and I want to know what his deal is.”

“Eddie? That’s easy. What do you want to know?” Dustin says.

You ponder for a moment. You didn’t really think this far, and you had a million questions that you wanted answers to, but you weren’t sure how much these kids would know.

“I guess…what are his hobbies?”

“Well, he’s a total nerd. Knows everything about every edition of D&D,” Lucas starts.

“Yeah, but he’s totally inept with technology, so he’s more like a geek,” Dustin adds with a tilt of his head.

“He’s into nerdy stuff though, like Star Wars and Tolkien.”

“Yeah, he carried around a copy of The Hobbit that looks like it’s a hundred years old.”

“He really needs a new copy of that, doesn’t he?” Lucas asks Dustin, who nods in return.

“Okay, what does he do in his spare time besides nerd stuff?” You ask, trying to refocus them.

“He writes music,” Lucas says.

“Yeah, with his guitar,” Dustin says, wiggling his eyebrows.

That makes total sense. Eddie looked like the type of guy who would play a guitar.

“I’m guessing it’s like rock music then?”

“Metal mostly,” Dustin says with a nod.

“Yeah, he’s super into 80’s metal music,” Lucas says, “ Like Dio and Black Sabbath. Which we only know because of him. That’s like stuff our dad’s listen to, but Eddie’s really into it.”

“So he looks like he came from the 80’s and listens to the music? Really into the revival that’s going on right now, I guess. What about…I don’t know, food? What does he like to eat?”

Lucas and Dustin look at each other for a moment. They seem like they’re trying to wrack their brains for an answer but come up blank.

“Honestly…I’ve never seen him eat.”

“Yeah, me either.”

That sparks your interest.

“You’ve never seen him eat?” You ask, prying for more details.

“Yeah, we don’t usually eat at our games so we’ve never really seen him eat.”

“But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t eat,” you say.

“Yeah, but even when we go places with him he doesn’t eat. He never talks about food either. Kinda weird now that I think about it,” Dustin says with a finger to his chin.

“Is it really that weird?” You ask with a laugh.

“I mean, considering how many times we’ve gone places to eat and he’s never gotten anything other than black coffee…Maybe he just doesn’t like fast food?”

“I guess I never really thought about it,” Lucas says, “But Eddie is kinda weird.”

“Weirdest guy I know,” Dustin says with a nod of pride.

“How else is he weird?”

“Well, his skin is, like, super cold all the time.”

“Probably from his lack of nutrition if he doesn’t eat a lot,” Lucas says as if he made a valid point, to which Dustin nods. “But he’s like crazy strong.”

“Oh, yeah. I swear he lifted a heavy ass table with one hand one time.”

“So basically he’s a crazy strong, technologically inept 80’s nerd with a dislike for fast food?”

Both boys look at each other and nod.

“Yep.” They say in unison.

“And you don’t find any of that weird?”

“Nah, it’s just Eddie.”

With all this new information, you began to wonder about the man in question more. Even after the boys left with their Vader figure, you still pondered all the things that they had told you.

You certainly could vouch that his skin was cold. You’d felt it with their own touch. And he really was like a living time capsule of the 80’s, hair and all. But there was a million guys online doing the same look so you can’t really base anything off of that. 

There was the weird thing about eating, but maybe it was just that; a weird thing. Maybe he’s not the type to eat in front of others. You did see him get a black coffee before, so it’s not like he could be drinking…something else.

But it all still seemed odd to you. There were even more questions than there were answers at this point, and you didn’t know if you’d ever have the chance to ask them yourself.

“Hellooooo?”

Heather’s voice pulled you from your thoughts. She was standing in front of your counter for god knows how long while you were just staring into the empty store.

“Sorry, what’s up?” You finally say.

“Everything good?” Heather asks.

“Yeah, just bored out of my mind.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Heather laughs, leaning over the counter. “ But we finally have a break in customers so I wanted to come ask you something.”

“Lay it on me.”

“Well,” Heather starts, “You remember Tammy from the party, right?”

“Yeah, your southern friend?”

“Yes! So her and Barb and I are going out tonight to this club, right, and we thought it would be totally cool if you came along?” Heather gives you a hopeful look.

“To a club? I don’t know…”

“Please?!” Barb shouts from across the store. You laugh at the desperation in her voice and take a minute to ponder on it. It might be fun to go out and have a little adventure after the rough start you’d had so far in this town.

“I guess if you don’t mind me and my cast cramping up your style,” you say waving your arm back and forth.

“Yay! It’s going to be so much fun!”

The club was indeed fun. It was girls night so you got in for free, and guys were buying you and your friends drinks left and right. It didn’t take long for you to start feeling pretty tipsy, but you swore it made your dancing better. You were even surprised to see Barb getting down with a guy that she met, not taking her for a social girlie.

As the night progressed you felt yourself needing to take a little break from the group and their high energy. Your ribs were still store and the ache in your hand was starting to bother you, so you decided to go outside to the smoking area. Maybe you could find one to bum off of someone.

The cool air felt great on your skin, instantly chilling you after being in the stuffy nightclub. You noticed there was quite a few people outside enjoying the fresh air this evening while they smoked. A group of guys that seemed to be looking your way caught your attention.

“Hey,” you say, approaching the group, “Can I bum a smoke off of one of you?”

The guys all look at each other. “Sure,” one of them finally says, handing you over a cigarette. He offers his lighter and you light the end.

“Thanks,” you say, blowing out the smoke. “You guys having fun out here?”

“What was that?” The same guy asks, leaning in.

“I said are you guys having fun out here!”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over the music,” the guy says, which was weird because you could hear him just fine. “Can we move over there?”

He gestures to the other side of the smoking area where there’s an alley way and you nod, following the group.

But, as soon as you rounded the corner, you felt something on your sore arm.

“Hey!” You yelped, trying to pull away from the hand that had grabbed you.

The men started chuckling, closing in on you. It felt like everything was going dark as you couldn’t fight back hard enough against them. You braced yourself for whatever was about to happen to you.

But then, the light started to shine again. You opened your eyes and saw the guys flying one by one over the gate and into the alley way. Trying to refocus your vision, you see one person standing with one of the guys held up in the air. You watch as the person punches them so hard they are sent straight into the wall of the other building, out cold when they hit the pavement.

After all the guys are cleared, the figure approaches you. In the light, you’re able to make out the face of…Eddie?

“Are you okay?” He asks in an angry tone.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. How did you--”

“Come on.”

You’re cut off when you’re being hoisted off the ground bridal style. Eddie unlatches the gate behind you, and you notice the iron lock is broken off and laying on the ground.

“Where are we going?” You ask, looking up at him

“Somewhere safe,” is all he says as he carries you through the alley. 

“But my friends--”

“You were almost just attacked and you’re worried about your friends?” He says with a hysterical laugh. “You are a glutton for punishment, you know that.”

“I just don’t want them to think anything happened to me. They might call my dad.”

Eddie stops in his tracks. He lets out a hard sigh and promptly turns around, stepping over one of the guys he tossed in the alley. He opens the gate again and steps inside, placing you down on the ground where you stand on your feet. He stays directly next to you, his eyes still locked on the bodies that lay limo.

“Tell me it’s okay,” he says suddenly.

“What?” You ask, unsure of what he’s trying to say.

He looks at you, grabbing your shoulders and shaking you slightly. His eyes are filled with rage and his hands are trembleing. 

“Tell. Me. You’re. Okay.” He punctuates every word.

“Yes, yeah, I’m fine,” you stutter out, hardly able to stand his harsh gaze. “Once again, you’re my hero.”

Eddie pauses for a moment, looking at you with an unreadable expression. Then, he starts to push you backwards, gently until you’re back is up against the side of the wall.

“No,” he says lowly, barely loud enough for you to hear. “I’m not the hero. I’m never going to be the hero.”

He looks at you, eyes red with hunger.

“Maybe I’m the bad guy.”

“No, you’re not the bad guy,” you say looking at him. Your eyes bounce between his eyes and his lips. He’s just close enough that you could just…

You lean forward, and your lips meet. You gasp, finding them to be cold as ice when they touch. But they don’t stay that way long, warming up as he starts to kiss you back.

Your tongues dance with one another, lips smacking as you try to pull him in closer. He’s hard to move, but he eventually gives in, his hands dropping to land on your hips, roughly pinning you against the wall.

“There you are!”

Tammy’s southern drawl calls out your name and you turn your head for a moment to see her. But, when you look back to Eddie, you find that he’s gone.

“Are you going into work? I thought you weren’t due until later?”

Your father comes out of his bedroom fully dressed in his work uniform, grabbing his hat and placing it on top of his head.

“There was an incident.”

“What happened?” You clicked the remote until the volume of the TV was low enough you could hear better. Your dad grabbed his coat and threw it on before snatching his keys from the bowl next to the door.

“Two hikers were found dead out on the Loch Nora side of the woods. I don’t want you going out with Steve again for a while until we figure out what happened. Understand?” He wagged a finger at you. You normally would joke with him to ease his nerves, but he seemed more serious than usual so you just gave him a nod.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good,” he says before opening the front door. “I don’t know when I’ll be home, so don’t wait up for me for dinner.”

And with that, he left, hastily closing the door behind him. You heard his cruiser peel out of the dirt covered drive way, leaving you alone with your thoughts. Remembering what almost happened to you the other night at the club, it made you wonder what could have happened to you that night if Eddie hadn’t come to save you. 

But, he didn’t want to be called the hero. What did he mean when he said he might be the bad guy? He surely didn’t stick around long enough for you to find out. You’d been thinking about how quickly he was able to get away from you when the girls showed up. How cold his skin was. How hard his body was to move. It seemed like every interaction with him left you with even more questions about him that you needed to get to the bottom of. But how?

The endless thoughts about Eddie ended up being too much for you to handle, so you decided for a change in scenery to get your mind off of him. You found yourself not an hour later in the familiar confines of your work, only this time enjoying the peace that came with the overhead jazz music and subtle workings of Heather and Barb at the Starbucks counter. It’s where you chose to sit, the overwhelming coffee smell comforting to you while you read.

Besides Bob asking you if you could pick up some extra hours, you were totally in your own world. That is until the sudden commotion outside caught your attention. The scene before you made your stomach sink.

It was a whole group of familiar faces looking like they were trying to hold Steve back from entering the establishment. You didn’t like the look in his eyes. It was crazed, like he was pissed about something. Butterflies invaded your stomach at the thought that he was here to look for you and you could have avoided him if you had just decided to stay home on your day off. But even with their group effort, Steve was able to break away from them, pushing the doors open and rushing inside.

You braced yourself as he scanned the store, wishing that you could turn invisible. But, as much as you willed against it, Steve’s eyes still landed on yours. You expected him to start yelling, come storming your way and making a whole scene. But instead the crazed expression left him. You watched as he visibly relaxed, a hand coming to his chest. He did, however, make a beeline toward you.

“You’re okay,” he says, relief in his voice as he stopped just in front of where you sat. 

You look at him confused. “Yeah, of course I’m fine. Are you okay? You looked pretty upset out there.”

“Oh yeah, that,” he said pointing over his shoulder, moving around erratically. “I just…I heard about what happened in the woods and was worried about you.”

“Me? Why?”

“Just, well, ya know, you…you seem like the nature type. Thought maybe you had gone out in the woods and ran into something or…someone.”

You look at Steve as if he had two heads. He was seriously that worked up over you? 

“I do like nature, but I wouldn’t call myself a hiker,” you say with a shrug.

“Noted,” Steve says with a nod. There’s an awkward moment between you where you don’t know what to say. You hadn’t talked to him much since that night when you punched Tommy, and it made for a sour air between you.

“So, you’re not working today?” He finally asks, nodding to your book.

“Nope, I’m off today.”

“So I almost missed you.”

“Almost,” you say, lips tight with a forced smile.

“Why are you here on your day off?”

You placed a bookmark in your book and closed it. “My dad told me about the hikers, too, and it just got me thinking. Didn’t want to be alone out there by myself.

Steve pulls out the chair opposite of you and sits down. 

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t let that happen.” You’re taken aback by his declaration. How the hell would he keep you safe from the monsters in the woods?

“Thanks,” you say, shifting in your seat. You didn’t notice it before, but his scent was slowly wafting into your nostrils, filling you with a sense of calming. 

“Don’t mention it. So why did you pick here to go to? You could have texted me and I would have gladly come and picked you up.” His mention of texting made you flinch.

“I wanted to read,” you said picking up the book and shaking it for effect.

“Oh, sorry, am I bothering you?”

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s just--it made sense to come to a book store to read, you know? Plus, I haven’t paid for this yet so I can’t leave with it.”

Steve nods, his head, suddenly very curious by the book. He grabs it and flips it around, looking at the cover.

“A Court of Thorns and Roses, huh? What’s it about?”

You blush, “It’s a romance, not something you’d be interested in, Harrington.”

“Hey, I’m not one to knock it before I try it.”

“You say that but you won’t give Eddie a chance?”

You knew you got him there with the way his head dropped dramatically. He let out a deep sigh before looking back up at you. He had a grin plastered on his face that made you feel a certain type of way.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” He says, placing the book back down on the table and sliding it your way.

“I just don’t understand it. Between the two of you being so vague, it feels like I’m being left out of something.”

Steve takes your hand in his, the sudden warmth of his touch sending electricity through you. You almost jerk your hand away, but Steve’s grip keeps you in place. “You’ll know soon enough.” His tone has you wanting to question him, but you’re at the point where you know he won’t divulge anything else, so you just keep it at that to keep the peace.

“If you say so,” you say with a sigh, admitting defeat. He chuckles, letting his thumb rub circles into the back of your hand.

“Hey, um, I know you probably have work or whatever, but I was wondering if maybe you had some free time this week? There’s a really nice place in town that I think you would like and--”

“Steve,” you cut him off, pulling your hand away from his. “I don’t know.”

“Come on, it doesn’t have to be anything serious. At least give me a chance to make up the other night to you. It’ll just be you and me, nobody else.”

You ponder on it for a moment. Maybe you’d been unfair after what happened the other night at Loch Nora. It was your own fault that you decided to punch Tommy in the face, so why would you take that out of Steve. He’s a nice guy who obviously has some care for you or else he wouldn’t have taken the time out of his day to check on you.

“Okay, I’ll go,” you finally say. Steve’s face lights up.

“Really, that’s great,” he says with a chuckle. He stands up from his seat and puts his hands on his hips. “Does Friday at 7 work for you then?”

“Yep, I’m off at 4 so that should be enough time for me to get ready.”

“Perfect, I’ll pick you up at 7.”

Another day, another dollar. The store has been unusually quiet all day, besides the ever constant line at the Starbucks that keeps Heather and Barb on their toes. The doors chimes weren’t even on your radar at this point, most of the customers heading straight for the coffee shop. But your lack of customers had you doing mostly mundane tasks for the majority of the day. It’s almost like the universe wanted you to be bored out of your mind today.

“Hi.”

The sudden voice had you dropping the books you were arranging on the table for the new best sellers list for the month. You quickly turn to see two people, a guy and a girl, standing behind you.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl says, bending over to pick up the books you dropped.

“Oh, no you’re fine,” you say as you also bend over.

Quickly, you grab the books and pile them in your arm. As you reach out for one, your hand accidentally lands on top of the girl’s hand. The feeling of cold almost shocks you, and you retract your hand quickly. The girl looks at you for a moment, looking as if she was a deer caught in headlights. 

“Sorry,” you say, holding your hand where it touched.

“I-It’s okay,” she stutters out, handing you the book. You take it from her and add it to your pile.

Clearing your throat, you put on your best customer service face and ask her if she needed help finding anything.

“Yes!” She said clapping her hands together. “I’m looking for books on the occult. Can you help me?

“Sure,” you say, giving her a look over. She couldn’t be more than 16 or 17, with a childish air about her, but here she was asking you about books on the occult.

“They’re this way, in the religious section.” You motion for the two to follow you as you lead them to the back corner section of the store. They follow you, the girl practically skipping all the way across the store. The guy with her seems uninterested in anything going on, sauntering behind her.

“Here they are,” you gesture to the many books on the occult that sit on the shelves. “Looking for anything in particular?”

“Just for something I haven’t read before,” she states simply, eyes scanning the spines of the books in front of her. She goes through them quickly, and you’re astounded that she seems to have supposedly read every book she’s looked over. Standing on her tip toes, she looks over the top shelf, stopping with and “aha” at one of them. You watch as her hand reaches for the book. But for a split moment, it almost looks like the book moved itself, gliding from its spot and into her hand.

“This is one I haven’t seen before.”

“Is it one you want?” The boy asks with a monotone lit.

She looks over the back of the book, eyes quickly moving as she reads the excerpt. After a beat, she nods and brings the book to her chest. The boy sighs, motioning towards the front of the store.

“Do you want to look at the dice?” The girl asks, her head tilting with the question.

“Do you have dice here?” He asks you, almost sounding annoyed.

“We do, over in the board games section. That’s up by the front of the store. Would you like me to show you?”

“No, we’ll find them,” he says, turning to walk away.

“Thank you,” the girl says before following behind her companion.

While the two of them inspect the dice, you walk across the store to get behind the counter when they’re ready. You’re almost there when a frantic wave of the hands catches your attention.

“What’s up?” You say as you approach the coffee counter. Heather and Barb are looking at you with eyes as big as saucers.

“Do you know who that is?” Heather whisper yells, nodding to the other two people in the store. You look back at them for a moment, not really recognizing their faces.

“No. Should I?”

“That’s El and Mike.” The tone of Heather’s voice makes you feel like you should know who they are, but you haven’t got the foggiest idea.

“Okay?” 

“Okay?! That’s your man Eddie’s siblings.”

Now your interest is piqued. You know they’re not blood related from what Heather and Barb have said before, but you can’t help but think about the girl’s icy touch and how much it reminded you of Eddie’s. What’s the likelihood of the both of them having such cold skin?

As you turn to look at them again, you notice that they’re making their way towards the counter. You make a motion to Heather and Barb, putting a pin in the conversation for later.

“Find what you were looking for?” You ask, rounding the counter.

“Yes,” the El says, placing her book on the counter. Mike sets a thing of dice down on the counter wordlessly.

“Great, glad I could help,” you say scanning their items.

There’s a bit of back and forth in your mind about bringing Eddie up to them. He’s probably never talked about you so what if they think it’s weird for you to bring him up? But you could possibly get more information about him from them since they live with him. But why do you need to know so bad? Is it because you haven’t been able to get that kiss out of your head since that night at the club? Were you that desperate to talk to him that you’d be willing to bother his own family?

“So, you guys are Eddie’s siblings, right?”

The two of them a bit taken aback by your question. Mike eventually rolls his eyes, but El seems to light up, nodding her head with delight.

“Yes, we are. You know him?” She asks giddily.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times. Seems like a good guy. Haven’t seen him for a while and was just wondering how he was doing.” You say as nonchalant as possible.

“He is well! We took a trip out of town to see family so that is why he has not been around much. We actually just got back in town this morning.”

“Oh, nice. Where did you go if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Alaska,” she says after a beat, which made you slightly suspicious.

“Wow, that’s really far, the plane ride must take forever,” you say, placing their items in a bag. “That’ll be $14.56.”

Mike reaches into his back pocket and grabs his wallet, pulling out a $20 bill and handing it to you. “It’s really not that bad.” El says, bouncing on her tippy toes as she watches you get the change out. “Should I tell Eddie that you asked about him? Maybe he’ll stop by and see you.” She leans in and gives you a look that you can’t quite read.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to. Don’t want him to think I was worried about him or something.” You laugh, trying to make it seem like not a big deal.

“If you say so,” she says with a shrug.

You hand mike the change and present the bag to them, which El takes with a giggle. She tells you bye, saying your name as she does. It almost throws you off until you remember you have a name tag on. You tell her a quick bye and the two of them on on their way. 

As the door shuts behind them, you can’t help but indulge the two pairs of eyes that you know have been boring holes into you since the beginning of your interaction. Walking over to them, you see Heather and Barb’s looks of anticipation.

“Well, were they weird or what?” Heather asks, leaning over the counter.

“Heather!” Barb says, smacking her side with the towel.

“What! I told you their whole family has a screw loose!”

“They were definitely…odd, for lack of a better term.”

“What did they come in for?” Heather asks, hungry for details.

“Well,” you start, “El wanted a book on the occult and Mike bought a set of dice. I wouldn’t say it’s too weird other than she seems awfully young to want a book like that. “

“Oh, maybe she’s into witchcraft,” Heather says, wiggling her fingers theatrically. 

“Maybe she reads cards,” Barb says, tapping Heather with her hand, “You’ve always wanted to go to a fortune teller.”

“Oh my god, you are so right. Maybe I’ll ask next time they come in.” Heather laughs and Barb joins her.

“You guys are so funny,” you say, rolling your eyes at their antics.

“Did they say anything else?”

“Not really,” you say, not wanting to tell them about the family in Alaska in case that was too personal. “I asked about Eddie, but they said they were out of town which is why he hasn’t been in.”

“I hear they do that a lot,” Barb says.

“Do what? Leave?”

She nods, “Yeah they’re always going out of town for trips or to go hiking or something.”

Your mind immediately went back to those hikers who died and you got a sinking feeling in your stomach. What if they had decided to go for a hike with whatever is out there and had gotten hurt?

“Especially if there’s a break in the weather. Apparently even Dr.Brenner will even take time off and go.”

“Well, I guess that squashes my idea that they’re vampires,” Heather says with a huff. 

The lowly sound of the TV left a staticy feeling throughout the small cabin. You were zoning out on the couch as reruns played in the background of your endless thoughts. It had been hard to think of anything else besides Eddie and his siblings since your interaction with them that morning, your mind swirling trying to come up with a rational conclusion to the weird behavior.

Grabbing your phone, you open up the search engine and start to look things up. “Cold touch” as you thought about your interactions with Eddie and El. “Super human strength” wen you thought about the way Eddie tossed you at skull rock, or the way he was able to throw those guys around at the club. “Red eyes,” when you thought about how Eddie’s eyes were almost completely red under the street lights that night. 

None of your searches brought up much of anything on their own. You sighed, bringing your phone to your forehead as if it would be able to tell you the answer. But, after a moment, you decided to try searching all the things at once instead of separate. You typed in everything you could think of and hit search, waiting for the results to generate.

And what came up made your skin crawl.

“Real Life Vampires.”

“The Time I Met A Real Life Vampire.”

“Vampires: Do They Walk Amongst Us?”

The results were endless, filled with people’s experiences with what they thought were vampires. None of the sites seemed legit, but you still read through a few of them just to see if what the people said was close to what you had experienced.

And they were.

Your mind was reeling at the revelation. It was all starting to make sense. The lack of eating, the fashion sense, the cold touches, the way he seemed to just appear and disappear. It was all coming together. There was no other explanation that you read that made more sense than this.

A text appearing at the top of your screen took you out of your head for a moment. It was from a number you didn’t recognize. You opened it up immediately and read it.

Unknown: We need to talk.

You: who is this?

A few minutes pass before you get a response back. The name on the screen has your heart skipping a beat.

Unknown: Eddie.

Unknown: Meet me tomorrow so we can talk.

Your hands shook as you texted him back.

You: Ok I’m off at 4. Where should we meet?

A minute passes by. You take the time to add his name in your phone, fighting off the temptation to put a bat emoji next to it.

Eddie: I’ll pick you up.

What should you say? With everything you’d just uncovered, do you really think it’s safe to be alone with him in his car? He wouldn’t be so bold to pick you up at work just to kill you…would he?

You: Ok.

You: See you then.

thank you for reading!

[cienie-isengardu]

I don’t remember who wrote this short story originally and sorry if I misremembered some details, but it was about a man who found a little boy in an egg and decided to raise the child as his own son. Despite the unusual event, years have passed and they were a happy normal family. But then one day strange men showed up for the boy and he went with them. Before he left, the boy said to his father something alongside it wasn’t supposed to be like that but because you loved me, everything has changed.

After the boy left, the man sought solace by talking to the priest who told him the boy was Antichrist and he sinned by raising him, but the man did not care for that. The story ends with the man arrested when he was checking out every egg at the shop in hope to find and save another boy hidden in the egg.

And this story always makes me think about Shmi Skywalker who loved Anakin despite the unusual circumstances he was born in (“there was no father”). She could not imagine what Anakin's true purpose was, even if she felt he was a special child meant for something bigger than being just a slave. And as we know he was the Chosen One whose purpose was to bring balance to the Force (and most likely being the Force’s answer for Darth Plagueis’ ability to manipulate the midi-chlorians). In Tatooine Ghost, Han Solo argued that “ If [Anakin]’d have been a nice guy, do you think he’d have ever gotten that close to Palpatine?” to eliminate the Emperor as Vader did. Which is a legit theory, but ultimately it was love that pushed Anakin to save Luke from Darth Sidious’ torture. So maybe, because Shmi loved her son unconditionally, it did - if not outright change then at least influenced what Force’s put in motion.

And you know what? I'm here for the potential cosmic horror that Anakin could be as the Chosen One and how much a mother's love changed it.

[stitchesplus]

Despite loving to draw, I've never really been one to make OCs myself. I love drawing other people's OCs (though technically any character made by anyone is an OC haha) but didn't really care that much about coming up with my own ones. However, with a franchise like Yo-kai Watch having both a lot of characters and variants, and the community having a lot of Fan-kai, it was inevitable that soon enough I'd end up giving it a shot myself.

I'm sure that at least some of you know about the fanmade Yo-kai "4Reel" made by JoJo/SquishyBlooper, a (very cute) interpretation of what Hailey Anne would look like as a Yo-kai. And one day she jokingly said that it'd be funny if she had a Boss form (think like Rubeous J) where she's a buff alien woman.

I present you: Sailor Rollecnahc IV

Now before saying anything, this drawing is kinda old and I will redraw it at some point, so I apologise for the weird/incorrect anatomy.

First, the obvious question: what the hell is that name? Well, you can probably tell already she's inspired from Captain Thunder and Pink Emperor, to mirror the relationship Usapyon and Hailey have. The "Sailor" part of her name is a reference to how 4Reel's design is based off Hailey's Sailor Psycho outfit, while also following the theme of Blasters Bosses having an adjective in their name (Shogun King, Whisper Cream, Dark Master) and the "IV" is both an obvious reference to "4Reel" and also acting as a regnal number to tie her with Pink Emperor.

As for her actual name "Rollecnahc", it has a really funny story. When thinking about her name, I wanted to follow the Star Wars theme that Usapyon has (Vader Mode and Emperor Mode) and tried to think about a character that's "close" to Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Then I remembered Mas Amedda, who had the title of vice-chancellor, and got probably the biggest big brain moment. What if, I reversed the word "chancellor" and used the number 4 in Roman numbers? And thus, when reading her name backwards, it says "Vi-chancellor" and her name being "unusual" fits since she IS an alien!

Ok, that was a really long wall of text for her name, now for her design.

This is one of the drawings JoJo made of 4Reel (I didn't put it earlier in case people mistake her for my OC instead of Rollecnahc). So what I did is take her, give her a similar body structure to C. Thunder, and make her hair shaped like a "IV" (funny fact, 4Reel's hair looks like a "4" no matter where she's facing, JoJo said they act like Mickey Mouse's ears).

As for the Bazooka, I mixed the one 4Reel has with the Captain Launcher. And since 4Reel's one has a keychain of that one in-universe mascot that resembles Usapyon (I forgot its name, please don't hurt me) I gave Rollecnahc 2 keychains of characters from the in-universe parody of Star Wars called Space Wars, along with a character from Y Academy called Dober Vader (since JoJo is also a big fan of Y Academy hehe)

And I think that's all I have to say! I find it kinda funny how the first Fan-kai I ever made was based on another Fan-kai heh. I really liked how she turned out, so I'll try drawing her more in the future. Lastly, here's a very adorable drawing JoJo made about both alien girls, I love it so much 🥺🥺🥺

[kittenfangirl20]

Anakin haters have some pretty disturbing opinions that really make me want to facepalm. One referred to nine year old Anakin as Baby Vader when at that point in his life he wasn’t displaying any traits that could hint towards his dark fate, you only know about this because the Original Trilogy where he was already Darth Vader came out first, not because he was showing signs that he would become Darth Vader at nine years old. In fact Yoda even stated that at nine years old Anakin’s fate was unclear. Then to make it even worse, I saw another one say that Anakin doesn’t know what love is and he never loved Padmé. So are we saying that a character who at nine years old said that it was sad that not enough people in the galaxy helped each other out has no concept of love? Also weird how they think that Anakin has no concept of love and never loved his wife, yet what made him really start to waver when he was Vader was finding out that his son that represented the love he shared with Padmé didn’t die along with her. These people want to ignore the story that Star Wars is telling in order to make it look like Anakin was always evil.

[gffa]

I think it's meant to be a little bit of both--Lucas says of them: “Anakin and Padmé are getting married in what will be a doomed relationship, which they have already stated earlier on is not gonna work. But they do love each other. They’re truly in love with each other. It’s the issue of true love over duty. It’s really the 'Romeo and Juliet' aspect of it, of a doomed relationship, in more ways than one really. She married the wrong guy.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary “Anakin wants to have a family. He wants to be married to Padmé and have children. […] But at the same time he knows he can’t have one. Now the greed has taken over and the fear of losing his wife and baby. The whole point is you can’t possess somebody because they are their own person. You can’t dominate and make them do everything you want them to do.” --George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives1999-2005 "The core issue, ultimately, is greed, possessiveness - the inability to let go. Not only to hold on to material things, which is greed, but to hold on to life, to the people you love - to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go. Everything changes. Anakin becomes emotionally attached to things, his mother, his wife. That’s why he falls - because he does not have the ability to let go." --George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary “But he become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate."--George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives 1999-2005 “[Anakin] turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.” --George Lucas, Time magazine There's also another quote where he basically says they're really in love but it becomes kinda dysfunctional by the end, but I can't find the direct quote again, so take it with a grain of salt. The point behind the above collection of quotes is that Anidala is both, that it's genuine love--it has to be genuine love for the story to work--and it's toxic--it has to be toxic for the story to work.  The whole story is that Anakin fell into attachment (the fear of being without someone, so much that you would do terrible things or rip yourself to pieces over it, that's the Buddhist-aligned definition and the one Star Wars is working with) because he became so greedy and possessive of her that he was willing to murder children just to keep the fear of her death at bay. But in order to be a tragic story, in order for us to care about the relationship and the characters in it, it also has to be genuine and true, there has to be real love there. Ultimately, yes, it was a destructive relationship because that's the basic premise of the story--Anakin's love turned to attachment, it turned to greed, it turned to possessiveness, it turned to horror--that there are signs all along the way, but that the sweet moments are genuine, too, that their laughter in the grass on Naboo is real, that their ache for each other as the war kept them apart was real, that Padme's excitement about having their baby was real, because none of them were monsters when they started out, not even Anakin, for all that he forged himself into one. Our hearts wouldn't break for monsters if there was no love in them to start with. (Whether someone thinks this was well done or not, that's a different argument to be had!  But I think fundamentally the thing the story was going for is that they started out sweet, but Anakin's fears and Padme's desire to look the other way over his terrible acts, took them to a very unhealthy, awful place in the end.)

[feruslands]

Daddy Feri, part 12

My fanfic for @reconstructwriter who inspired me to continue this long story, and for everyone who loves "Vader/Ferus" (later Anakin/Ferus)

Many fateful events, after which a person's life irrevocably turns to another path, happened suddenly and quickly in Ferus Olin's life. 

That's what happened when Darra died. That's what happened when the Jedi Order fell, and Olin became a wanted criminal for the Empire.

The same thing happened when Bail Organa handed him Leia and arranged for them to escape from Alderaan. And it also happened when Ferus was captured by Darth Vader, and became his victim for long rapes, because of the sudden sadistic whim of the ruthless bastard.

Right now, he didn't even have time to figure out what had happened. A moment ago, the Emperor was happily roasting him alive with lightning bolts. Ferus felt that Leia was in danger of death. He sent a protective wave of Force to shield her. But that obviously wasn't enough against the Emperor's might.

Suddenly, the Dark Side filled the space, and the Jedi saw Leia being thrown back. Just one swift stroke of the red lightsaber, and the entire hangar was illuminated by bright blue lightning. The Star Destroyer shook from the powerful impact. For a moment, the Jedi went deaf and stopped perceiving reality. But then the Darkness dissolved as quickly as it appeared, leaving behind serious destruction.

And Ferus opened his eyes.

"Leia... where are you?"

There was no response. Olin got to his feet in a daze. He staggered as if shell-shocked and stunned. The floor was littered with Imperial corpses. The ship's life support systems were severely damaged, but that, as well as the imminent destruction of the ship, didn't matter to the Jedi right now. He began searching through the resulting chaos and destruction.

"Leia!" he shouted. His scream was drowned out by a heart-rending alarm.

The Jedi was moving forward and stumbled over something. Ferus looked down and shuddered. The creepy yellow eyes in the old, wrinkled, almost inhuman face stared at him as if alive. Out of sheer fear, he kicked Palpatine's head, and it rolled away under a pile of damaged transportation equipment.

So it wasn't his imagination. In fact, the event occurred that will go down in the history of the galaxy. Ferus couldn't believe that an era of terror had ended right before his eyes.

But right now, he was much more worried about his daughter.

He made his way further, stepping over the piles of stormtrooper bodies, and finally he saw tiny child's body on the floor at the far wall of the hangar.

"Stars and Moons!"

He approached Leia with fear and was relieved to find that she was alive. The little girl opened her eyes after he picked her up in his arms. She just looked at him.

"Dad..." said Leia.

"I'm here," Ferus replied to her.

Ferus hugged Leia to him with one hand, very gently and firmly. Now they're finally back together, no matter what happens!

They need to get out of this hell and now. They need a ship!

Among the broken transportation equipment and piles of scrap metal, the Jedi noticed the glossy smooth surface of the shuttle, littered with layers of metal debris. The ship seemed to be intact, as if it had been preserved by a super-powerful shield.

But then his gaze caught something else. Someone. A large dark figure sprawled on the floor without moving.

Darth Vader lay wounded like a pile of useless metal. Light smoke rose from his damaged armor and suit-mounted electronics. It seemed to him that Vader was dying. Ferus didn't feel satisfied looking at it. He looked down at Leia.

"No, dear, this nightmare is not over yet," he wanted to tell her, but the girl was already unconscious.

He has to finish Vader off now so that he can never hurt anyone again.

Something small and metallic flashed at the edge of his field of vision. Acting on instinct rather than thinking, the Jedi reached out with his free hand and touched the Force. The lightsaber flew into his hand, and he caught it with a deft movement. Olin was surprised to find that Vader's lightsaber sat very comfortably in his hand, as if it suited him perfectly too.

Questions and assumptions about the difficult solution were rapidly spinning in his head. Should he do what the Jedi taught him? Neutralize, but not harm, a helpless enemy. Or is it better to do what his cruel and unfair life has taught him? Finish off a dangerous enemy while there is such a good opportunity. Just cut this bastard into several pieces. Then he would get rid of Vader forever, and the galaxy would breathe more freely if such a deadly and merciless predator was dead.

Ferus's arm was painfully pulled down by Leia's weight. Vader broke his arm once, then broke it again after the broken bone had healed incorrectly. Since then, his wrist still hurt. But he had a lightsaber in his other hand, and he could easily take Vader's life right now. He could have done justice!

But there was one more caveat, Vader is the biological father of his daughter.

And the Jedi banished that strange, wrong feeling of killing intent. No, it's all an illusion. If he commits murder now, his wounds won't heal. The evil committed is not so easy to fix, as well as to heal all wounds. 

The ship trembled more violently. Internal explosions and depressurization were already taking place somewhere nearby.

"The Force is within you, Padawan..."

And he trusted the Force. Ferus was guided by the Force, and he rushed towards the shuttle, cutting his way with his lightsaber.  To feel the lightsaber in action again was incredibly satisfying. He cut through the large rebar that was blocking his path. Quickly reaching the shuttle, he stuck his sword into the landing ramp lock panel and manually turned on the emergency opening of the loading hatch.

**

After dreaming for a long time, he finally managed to do it. He surpassed his Master. He killed Darth Sidious. And Vader would undoubtedly have felt triumphant if it weren't for the monstrous pain that filled his body.

In the beginning, the Force really helped him. He did what he could to make Palpatine greedy. He talked about Ferus's strong parental affection for Leia. He also played on Leia's feelings for her foster father to convince Sidious of how much her dad loves her.

Maybe Palpatine didn't fully believe that Leia meant absolutely nothing to Vader. But Leia is incredibly important to Ferus, that's the undeniable truth. And Vader successfully played this truth as a trump card.

And here she stood in front of them, so small and clean.

"Execute her!"

"…maybe it would be better if Ferus Olin obeyed your order?"

He had only taken the bait. And the fire of greed and lust for power broke out. Darth Sidious was consumed by the desire to cast another moral Jedi into the darkness. The Emperor no longer had a chance to resist his amazing offer.

And even though Leia was in mortal danger, but in the end his deception worked. Sidious fell for it and Vader won.

At the last moment, Vader threw Leia away, but in doing so he exposed himself to a crushing blow. A lightning attack of this power should have killed him on the spot, but by some ridiculous whim of the Force, he was still alive. It was as if the Force itself had turned away from its Chosen One at the last moment, so that he would die long and painfully.

Vader discovered too late that his victory over the Master would also be his defeat. And he realized how stupidly he had miscalculated. Out of revenge, Palpatine decided to destroy all the Sith with his parting gesture.

And now he was lying on the floor like a pile of industrial waste. He couldn't even move, his prosthetics were completely out of order, as was his entire armor. His thoughts moved extremely slowly, as if a dense fog had spread in his head. He couldn't see anything in front of him.

The Star Destroyer shook from blaster shots, and Vader realized that soon his flagship would become the grave for everyone who was here. Are these Palpatine's instructions? If the Emperor is suddenly killed, then it is necessary to eliminate not only the murderer, but also all those who witnessed his death... There was something important in this thought, but it floated past his consciousness.

He began to sink into the darkness.

Darth Vader thought that he was dying, having already become a Sith Master, but this thought was not comforting, but only ironically sad. Was there much point in that? The Sith's training path ends when the apprentice manages to kill his Master and take his place. And then the line of inheritance for the transfer of mastery will continue. It's natural. But Darth Sidious wasn't worried about the Sith legacy, only his revenge for his unexpected death.

And Vader was gradually sinking into oblivion.

But then, suddenly, a harsh light hit his eyes, and he saw Olin bending over him. The son of a bitch definitely decided to kill him, because he tore off his helmet, tearing the insulation of the artificial respiratory system.

The Sith saw the Jedi raise a lightsaber over him. And he closed his eyes, falling into a blissful unconsciousness so as not to feel even worse pain.

**

Ferus left Leia inside the shuttle and turned on the control computer, then jumped back into the hangar. The Jedi activated his lightsaber and cautiously approached the Sith. He bent over Vader. Ferus saw that the artificial respiration system had been broken by the lightning attack, and he tore off his damaged helmet.

Holding his lightsaber at the ready, he slapped Vader's cheeks several times.

"Access codes for the pilot! Tell me the access codes to your personal Lambda! Right now!" Ferus barked when Vader opened his eyes.

Awareness appeared in Vader's eyes for a moment, but immediately his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness. Ferus slapped his cheek again, but it didn't work. The Sith was unconscious and barely breathing.

Ferus cursed under his breath and rushed back to the pilot's cabin, he opened the first-aid kit, found something that looked like a stimulant and injected it into the back of Vader's head.

"The codes to access your Lambda! Immediately!" Olin barked again

Vader's gaze only focused on Ferus for a moment, but before he lost consciousness again, he called out twelve numbers. Ferus immediately rushed into the cockpit and dialed the code. Access to the controls was confirmed, and the Jedi gave the command to launch an emergency takeoff of the ship at his command.

When the engine started up, Ferus had the very tempting idea of leaving Vader in the hangar to die along with his beloved Master and precious Star Destroyer.

The Jedi knew that in this state, he was not capable of loading Vader onto the shuttle on his own. The Sith was excessively heavy. Ferus had fully experienced this a long time ago, when Vader had put all his weight on top of him to rape him in the ass.

Ferus shuddered at the disgusting memory. Vader is capable of anything. And how is he guaranteed to protect himself from someone like him?

Vader's prosthetics were severely damaged, but the Jedi wanted to get rid of the fatal surprises. With a precise movement of his lightsaber, he cut off all four prosthetics at the joints with the body. There was a smell of burnt electronics, and Vader was left lying on the floor without prosthetics, like several separate parts.

Standing on the ramp, Olin noticed the scattered smart-boxes on the lower tier under the ship. It was something like sterile smart-containers capable of executing simple commands. Medicines were usually transported in such isolated boxes. Less often, something heavier, for example, bio-garbage.

Ferus went down. He turned on the control panel on one of the smart-dumps and gave commands to load the "garbage" and unload it on the floor inside the shuttle. The smart-dumpster pulled out the wheels and cheerfully rolled to complete the task, and the Jedi rushed to the ship to make an emergency takeoff.

As soon as Ferus took the shuttle out of the Star Destroyer's hangar, he rushed back to the general compartment of the Lambda. There, a smart-dumpster has already unloaded the "garbage" directly onto the floor of the shuttle. The bastard was still unconscious on the floor. Olin wondered what to do with it. Did Vader once threaten to cut off his arms and legs and hang him by the stumps? Well, now let's see how Vader likes it. 

The Jedi picked up what was left of the cyborg and tied it firmly to the back wall in the pilot's cabin. Ferus had done all this with great difficulty. Not because he was injured, but because any actions that required getting close to Vader made him very sick.

Vader was in a state where any other person would already be dead. Without prosthetics, it's just a human stump, with burnt microchips embedded right into the mutilated body.  Still, Ferus was very afraid of him. He looked away from the motionless Vader, trying to control his trembling.

The Jedi jumped into the pilot's seat. He took control of the autopilot and steered the ship away from the Star Destroyer. Amazingly, his "Lambda" has not yet been discovered. The Imperial Navy was too busy for that. The Jedi noticed that they were firing with all their might at Vader's flagship.

Does this mean that if he jumps into hyperspace now, then all his torments will come to an end?

The Jedi's hands were trembling with anticipation. He couldn't believe his luck.  But at the same time, he could feel the tension in the Force. And it bothered him that he hadn't recognized the source of that feeling. He didn't feel the Dark Side. But still, he felt that things had turned out too favorably for him and Leia.

A rapid chain of events had brought him here. The death of Palpatine. Leia, the survivor of the impact. The surviving shuttle. And Darth Vader is now rendered harmless and helpless.

But what's bothering him so much?

Or is he being so paranoid for nothing? Maybe he should be more optimistic, as he's always been advised to be.

Ferus reflected that after Palpatine's unexpected but very pleasant death, civil war was likely to break out within the Empire. And it seems that he has already witnessed the very beginning of such a war. Soon, all the jackals and hangers-on will be fighting for power, and tearing the Empire apart. In the meantime, a new government will be formed and the Republic will be restored. But it's none of his business anymore. He and his daughter will settle on a cozy, peaceful planet, far from any military conflicts. And it would be the most wonderful thing that had happened to him in the last thirteen years.

Olin was so caught up in amazing thoughts about a happy future that he missed how a couple of information windows on the touchpad went out. Then, the indicator lights went out one by one. The fuel engine stopped working and the shuttle slowly stopped.

No control commands worked. He tried to reboot the system, hoping for a temporary glitch in the imperial software. But the computer system was no longer responding to the user's actions. Nothing had changed, only the dim red light from the central control panel was on.

So he was in space with the engine out of action, and he hadn't even flown far enough away to avoid being hit by the blast wave from the Star Destroyer.  Well, now that was bad enough to be a plausible case scenario.

"Damn it!" Olin hit the touchpad in frustration when he made sure that the shuttle's controls were completely locked again.

"What happened?"

At that moment, he felt a sudden awakening of Darkness. Behind his back, in the place where he hung Vader.

Ferus's insides froze with fear.

"You won't be able to escape." the Sith's hoarse and vindictive voice rang out.

[dnd-shenanigans-ensue]

The Story So Far...Echoes of Rebellion: Session 0

I thought it would be fun to write out the goings on of a Star Wars 5e campaign I'm a part of. I'll do my best to update every session. There are a few backed up so hopefully I'll get them all out before our next session. Let me know if you'd like me to keep going with this!

Opening Crawl:

It is a dark time in the galaxy. The iron fist of the Galatic Empire has tightened its grip, spreading fear and oppression across countless star systems. In the aftermath of ORDER 66, Darth Vader's sinsiter Inquisitors scour the stars, tracking down the last remnants of the Jedi Order. Survivors cling to secretcy, their light dimmed but not extinguised. Amid this tyrany, whispers of rebellion have begun to grow. A small yet detemed alliance of freedom fights has risen to challenge the Empire's domainance. Though vastly outnumbered, they fight for the justice, believing that a spark of hope can ignight the flames of freedom. Now, a myserious distress call has reached the rebels' hidden network, claiming to be from an imperial defector with critical information. Sensing a chance to strike a blow against the Empire, the Rebellion dispatches a small craft to uncover the truth. Will this lead to the advantage the Rebellion desperately needs--or a trap that cold spell their doom? The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance...

Characters:

Kat: Human, Rebel and believer in the cause (character sheet)

J3: Pilot droid, droid right's advocate trying to get by in the galaxy

L-30 (Leo): B-1 Battle droid, bounty hunter who is under the impression he's not, in fact, a droid

Nix: Half Devaronian/Half Zabrak, former inquisitor and current defector from the empire

Lexar: Mandalorian, bounty hunter looking for the next score

Khalid: Human, force sensative fourteen year old just starting to figure out what that means in this much more dangerous world

Session Summary:

The story starts with Kat, a rebel operative, embarking on a crucial mission to Tatooine to meet an Imperial defector using the codename Pheonix. Upon reaching Ab Dalis, Kat sought J3-47, a piolit droid, for transport. However, their meeting was cut short by an ambush resulting in a fierce shoot out. J3 was shot in the crossfire, but she and Kat were able to escape on her ship, The Cosmic Clover. With the help of J3's Jawa compaion Gicks, the three were able to escape.

Meanwhile, a young boy named Khalid found himself trapped in a crashed ship, sinking in the dunes of Tatooine. Their mentor, Malik, a former Jedi used his dying moments to bestow upon them a lightsaber and a message; find Kat. Khalid barely escaped the wreckage before the ship was consumed by the Sarlaac.

A screen wipe transitioned to Mos Eisley where Nix was searching for information about incoming ships.

Khalid eventually made his way back through the desert to Mos Eisley, but found no safety there either.

L-30, also known as Leo, quickly caught sight of him and attempted to apprehend Khalid for the bounty. Unfortunately for Leo another bounty hunter was seeking the reward.

Lexar disabled L-30 with a well-aimed ion rifle shot, but before he could take his quarry, Nix pulled Khalid to safety.

Taking solice in at least sucessfully obtaining a new droid, Lexar went to examine L-30 only for the droid to have one more trick up his sleeve. Before being disable, L-30 manged to prime a stun grenande, taking Lexar by surpise as it went off.

Lexar now taken out, Nix force pulled L-30 to her with plans to repair and interrogate him.

The adventure concluded with the Cosmic Clover touching down in Mos Eisley just as Nix, Khalid and an incapacitated L-30 entered Wu-D's Jizz Den to await Nix's rebel contact.

[weedrow]

The importance of logic in writing

Not enough people realize the fundamental issue of logical consistency within storytelling. With any story that is incredible that even you yourself love, there is a line of logic that connects the elements that you like. That connect that which is excellent. Even the most iconic lines in anything have logic connected to it that makes it so.

In Star Wars, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." Is not potent because of vibes or vacuous ideas of truth or soul, it has a logic. Luke Skywalker is a heroic figure who has to wrestle with his inner darkness that pulls him towards quick effective ways to get what he wants, but they are down the path of darkness. Of evil. And his father had been faced with this precise issue and had fallen to it. Despite this, Luke has faith in his fathers goodness. In his ability to return to the light. So this line is referencing the great hero his father once was before he fell to the darkness. And it also reveals his ability to falter, yet his firmness in his choice to the light.

In Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." An iconic line of all literature, that again has a logic that flows throughout the entire book. The conflict consists primarily of Elizabeth and Darcy struggling with their preconceptions of one another and their own pride. WOAH PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (I don't give a single fuck what people think about Pride and Prejudice. It is a masterpiece.) And this conflict is seemingly contradictory to this line, except it is to accentuate the perspective of Elizabeth. She could easily have simply gotten married to Darcy and lived with wealth comfortably for the rest of her days. But instead she stood behind her beliefs and principles, because Darcy had shown himself to be contemptable. However her standing true to herself and holding Darcy accountable brings the entire story together, as Darcy then swallows his pride and goes out of his way to fix the harm he had done to a dear friend and an innocent woman. A classic piece of feminist literature, showing the power women have and must use to advocate for themselves so they may have a good life. That a woman should not be beholden to the approval of men simply because a wealthy man would be in want of a wife. The line outlining this universally acknowledged truth regarding gender dynamics is thus directly confronted and challenged, for us to find at the end a story of truth, pride and prejudice.

Then even in stories that suck, the best lines will have a line of logic that people love it for. Let's go with a horrific show for many reasons, a prime one being logical consistency (That's a bit of a sly move as any flaw in a movie can be formatted into logic). In Obi-Wan Kenobi the show, the final confrontation with Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, Vader says "I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did." A line that has numerous flaws. One being that this is not the character of Vader nor Anakin, rather speaking from a perspective of some fan who does not understand the characters, using vague terminology of killing Anakin, without establishing his separation from that identity beyond 'ohh he's evil now so he's not anakin good guy he's vader bad guyyyy' which is weak as hell. Then it has no source for this dialogue, "I am not your failure" speaking as though he knows Obi-Wan's thoughts rather than speaking on his own perspective. Do you remember their last fight on Mustafar? Do you remember all the things they talked about, about democracy, the empire, the dark side and the light. Their relationship of brothers being reduced to one of enemies. With "I loved you" hitting hard. That is also with a slough of issues throughout the movie.

Yet this line of dialogue still maintains some relevance that stands as the reason people love it. It refers to an understanding of guilt and responsibility that Obi-Wan has, that of course he would have. He was his mentor and family, and he was not there to recognize the signs of Palpatine seducing him to the dark side. He was not there to pull him back when he was on the brink. So then for Vader to specifically go for the jugular, trying to taunt Obi-Wan into making a mistake by saying he himself murdered the man Obi-Wan cared so dearly for, it follows. The tragedy of Anakin turning into Vader being accentuated and put in the face of an audience, with cinematic lighting, and the mask cracked, acting as a bridge between the humanity of Anakin and the evil of Darth. There still is A line of reasoning and logic there, even if you have to ignore some of the most horrendous writing known to man to see it.

This leads to the conclusion of the entire affair. Logic is essential in storytelling. Without it, you can just as easily say "Sad man was really sad and killed himself" and that would be meaningful, yet it isn't because there is not the logic lying within to make it so. The tissue to connect it to something that resonates with an audience.

Then comes the difficult part. How to make a story that is logically consistent. Well that simply comes down to drafting, redrafting and redrafting again, with a keen sight for ensuring all you are attempting to do is founded and earned. Premise to conclusion, set up to pay off. Same ideas, different words.

It is worthwhile holding a logical standard that can be verbalized as such. The logical through-line of a story is immensely simple to understand and explain to people to make better stories and better standards, but you must care about it and you must practice. But it will all be worth it once we arrive into a golden age of storytelling, where society only gives validation and monetization to stories which have merit worthy of us as a human civilization. The civilization built on the shoulders of giants. We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors and generations to come. Have a high standard in storytelling.

[nerdtamin]

Why Rey's Story Should Have Been Similar to Anakin's (WITH A TWIST 😉 )

Ok! Bear with me, I know this can be a touchy subject but I promise you it's not the path you think this will go.

Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one who was destined to bring balance to the force. I'm not sure why he had to become Darth Vader to achieve this, but that may be a topic for another time. However, there is no doubt that he was destined to fall into darkness, as this was confirmed back in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, episode Ghost of Mortis (3x17), where Anakin was shown a vision from The Son about his future. However, Anakin has his memories wiped out by his father so the events would play out. Why do I bring this Up?

Picture Rey's story going this route: PALPATINE IS DEAD. However, he was working on a clone son that would surpass his apprentice Darth Vader. The Clone is a failure and is set free after the events of Return of the Jedi. At some point, the clone meets a woman and they have a daughter named Rey. However, her parents abandoned her on a desert planet because they were terrified of her powers and the darkness that resides within her. However, she survives, joins the resistance, and fights the evil in the galaxy. However, her greatest adversary finds out her true lineage, hoping she will join his side. However, there's a twist: REY KNEW.

She knew her parents left her behind because they feared her. She knew the true origin of her lineage because she overheard her parents talking about it (or another source). She knew what would happen if she allowed her negative emotions to get to her while surviving on Jakku. She knew but she fought against it anyway.

I believe this would have been a compelling story for the sequel trilogy to adopt. The protagonist fights against the destiny that everyone around her expects her to become. She's pulled in so many directions: Her friends fear her, her enemies push her, and the entire galaxy wants her dead. Yet, she chooses hope. JJ Abrams could have also sneaked in a few hints about Rey's dark potential until the big twist. Some examples could be:

Losing control (maybe like a sonic scream)

Physical deformation (like The Son)

or classic Sith eyes (maybe she keeps them hidden under her own mask)

I know this felt more like a rewrite than an analysis but I'm sure we've all come up with thousands of ways a story could have gone.

[btwxsixesandsevens]

Ahsoka's Last Episode

Let me rant about Ahsoka for a minute. This wasn't a show. This was a series of references to other shows, tropes, books, and cultural touchpoints. Ahsoka is a placeholder for a show.

This feeling is exemplified by the title "The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord" -- a reference to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I assuming. But why? what about it, other than the clever word play, is related to the other book? A friend of mine suggests that it implies a portal to another world…but there isn't one in this episode. And didn't they already go thru a portal? the portal is in a future episode? what kind of "the princess is in another castle" bullshit is this?

spoilers below the cut.

Not one of the initial premises of the story is paid off, at least not in a satisfying way.

Ahsoka's arc, i think, is supposed to be about her getting over her Anakin problem (which isn't really a problem, as he is Darth Vader and one should be angry about that). I say i'm guessing here, as what is making her sad in the beginning of the show then suddenly not sad in the end of the show isn't explained or explored. I can only extrapolate that Anakin must be the problem as it is only after her brush with him that her behavior shifts to being more capable and self satisfied…you know, how she was at the end of Rebels and then suddenly wasn't again at the beginning of this show. she just poof changes. ok.

Sabine's arc…from failed Mandalorian (b/c Mandalore has fallen), failed Jedi apprentice (??), failed friend (b/c Ezra is trapped in a trap of his own making), to again something more like her character from the end of Rebels is triggered by…finding Ezra? realizing that Ahsoka supports her? and the resolution one of these mystery things makes her able to tap into the Force. The literal lynchpin of her depression -- that Ahsoka dropped her as an apprentice out of fear that she would seek revenge for the Great Purge -- is explained with neither she nor Ahsoka being present -- it is infodumped by Huyang, Mr. Walking Plot Exposition.

Morgan has an arc. A predictable one that we all saw coming from the moment Thrawn looked at her and said: "I'm getting the fuck outta here, and I don't care who has to die/be left behind to make that happen."

Shin, I think, has an arc. She goes from not-a-Jedi-attack-wolf to leader of a bandit band. ok, that's a thing. not an interesting thing, but sure. and congrats to my Wolfwren mutuals as your girlies are now stranded on the same planet for who-knows-how-long. Your fanfic has a beautiful setting for them to go fully enemies to lovers on. Have fun.

Who else… Why do any of them do the things they do? Baylan? The Macbeth Witches? Hera, Ezra, or Thrawn don't have arcs, they just have magical successes. They don't change.

I'm just. I've written about this before. I love Ahsoka. I wanted a show about her, her struggles, her interior life…I wanted her to go on an adventure, save some people, be great. I didn't get any of that. I got this pile of images, one liners, and footnotes -- some of which are quite good, some of which aren't anywhere near as clever as they want me to think they are.

That's what I'll say about this overall. It was clever. But how's that work out? being clever? when it could have been…you know…about something.

[rainbowsaber]

So, I’m very excited for the new Kylo Ren/Ben Solo comic and to see what he was up to between TLJ and TROS. There’s a lot of room to explore his mindset during this year; seeing how we felt about Rey, Luke's death, and his place in the galaxy/First Order.

It’s come out that Kylo will be hunting down a survivor of Order-66 in this comic *Just 1 not a whole group* and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and guess which Jedi that It will be and rank the likelihood of them appearing.

As a Prelude: I’m okay with there still being a few Jedi around during this era. In Legends there were Jedi that survived from the prequels well past Luke and George Lucas himself had plans of incorporating them into a potential sequel trilogy.

Also- who knows if it’ll be an actual Jedi that we’ve met. It could be a brand new jedi or a force sensitive who survived the galactic purge. With that said, let's get started!

Coleman Kcaj- One of the last surviving members of the Jedi High Council, we know that Kcaj had survived Order-66 and went into hiding. He was a high priority target for the Inquisitor but to our knowledge was never found. He’s only been a background character at this point so it would be nice to give him some spotlight. 6/10

Oppo Rancisis- Another member of the High Council that’s served on the council since the High Republic, it would be nice to find out what happened to him. My only hesitation is that he's been mentioned in Jedi: Survivor and it may be more likely that we see him appear in the 3rd game instead. 4/10

Lyn Rackish (4th Sister)- At the end of TOTE Lyn left the Empire behind, rejoining Barriss in the light and attempting to save her life. I assume she may have joined the Hidden Path and aided in saving other force sedatives. Seeing a former darksider who;s joined the light could offer some good story beats for Kylo. 7/10

Quinlan Vos- A powerful and popular Jedi master, fans have been clambering to see Quinlan make his grand return to Canon. As much as i would love to see him again I find it more likely that we see him appear in a hidden path show or comic will Ventress. 2/10

Tsui Choi- a Aleen Jedi who appeared in multiple Legends comics, he survived Order-66 and aided a group of Jedi to assassinate Darth Vader. He hasn’t appeared in Canon yet and it could be a nice spotlight for him. 6/10

Gungi- A Jedi youngling who we saw grow as a jedi in the Clone Wars, he befriended the Bad Batch after Order-66 and went to live on his home planet. Gungi (or any other of the young;ings) would be nice to see again but this doesn’t feel like the right medium for that. 1/10

Reva Sevander (3rd Sister)- My top pick to appear and meet Ben tbh. She’d be quite old at this point but there are so many lessons I think Kylo could learn from her. They both have a direct link to Vader and learn to grow past their darkness. Give her a white lightsaber PLEASE! 7/10

Sha Koon- A keldor Jedi Knight & the niece of Plo Koon, Sha managed to survive Vader’s attack on the Temple and went into hiding. Later trying to assassinate Vader in an attempt to cripple the new regime. It would be a nice way to introduce her into canon and there could be potential for future stories down the line. 5/10

Bultar Swan- We haven’t seen much of Bultar Swan in canon. She briefly appears in AOTC and we know Plo Koon finished her training after her master's death. In legends she’s another survivor of Order-66 that goes on to face Vader and it would be nice to see her make a full return to canon storytelling. 6/10

[cerusee]

deciding between watching tmopb vs gmp, how would you say the treatment of the female characters by the narrative is in each?

Surprisingly tough question! I would argue that, overall, in each show, the female characters are largely treated, by the narrative, on par with the male characters. This is not to say they’re not having a shitty time—the women in Goodbye My Princess are on average having it worse than most of the men, because they live in a sexist, patriarchal society (at at a certain point in the story, a lot of the female characters on screen are also in the imperial harem, with all of its internal politics and constraints)—but EVERYONE is having a shitty time of it, at one point or another. I think I noted in the tags of a GMP reblog that very often, female characters come into their fullest agency on this show when they’re choosing whether and how to die. But this is very much based in the sexist constraints of the historically informed setting, as well as the overall arching theme of power as a kind of trap, and the pursuit of power as a path of moral corruption. Does the world of GMP respect women? No. Does the narrative? Oh yes.

Most of the female leads on Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms suffer from terminal love brain, but this is the resting state of the show; the male leads are all equally dumb due to chronic love disease. The whole show just vibes on that particular frequency and therefore there is a pleasing consistency to the bad decision-making among women and men alike. (Also I should rush to clarify that some of these characters are very intelligent in general? It’s fun to watch Ye Hua make plans! Just uh. Not about romance.) Su Jin is….arguably a misogynistic trope. It’s just like, such a bonkers effective execution of the jealous, scheming female foil that I cannot bring myself to want her to be anything other than what she is. She is the Darth Vader of jealous exes. She is ICONIC. They should have retired the type after Su Jin. They should have named the type after Su Jin, and then put it up on a shelf where no one can reach it. Some people will probably have issues with her, and I understand this! However I love her in the sense that I want to roll her in a felt carpet and have a herd of horses trample over it, in the ancient Mongolian style of execution of a worthy enemy. The protagonist Bai Qin is interesting because she herself is a fairly atypical xianxia female lead—she’s a seventy thousand year old alcoholic war veteran who grew up in a frat house, and her two favorite hobbies are lying about her identity and dumping people. She has a kind of self-assurance and rooted authority I find pretty noteworthy in a female character (admittedly she is also the queen of a politically significant country, this is not coming out of nowhere) and maybe even more worthy of note is that the show is very comfortable with this and there’s no narrative push to soften her edges or take her down a peg.

Anyway I’m genuinely hesitant to push you in one direction or the other because while I think, for instance, that GMP is a better show, the death rate of major female characters is VERY high, and even the ones who make it out alive don’t have what I’d call happy endings. (Even Mi Luo! Although she comes the closest.) After all, it IS the tragedy show. Whereas TMOPB…well, uh, it does have some bummer outcomes in there, but it is a very happy ending for the main pairing, and I think narratively speaking it’s a very satisfying experience for Bai Qin overall.

[emisaaaa]

Star Wars: What if?

Summary:

What if Anakin knew that twins are alive, and he had a chance to save Luke? Anakin now as Darth Vader „Dark Lord of the Sith” is raising Luke, training him to rule galaxy as son and father, but of course Luke doesn’t want any of this politcial thrash, Luke wants to become a pilot and fall in love… Like a normal teenager. One day Luke finds secret data about his twin sister that was brutally abducted, Luke decides to find his sister and bring her home.

Chapter 1: Every tragedy has it’s own start

I didn’t sleep for two days, like always when my dad wasn’t "home", just thinking that one day he wouldn’t come back was so stressful that I didn’t eat or sleep, Knowing that rebels wants to kill him and destroy everything that he did for galaxy just in nineteen years was terrible, my father bring peace and balance into galaxy, he always says that everything he does is for my mom and me. I never met my mom I wish I did. She was a beatiful and intelligent woman , she was the only woman my father ever loved I know he is still regretting that he didn’t do anything to help her survive my birth, I know it because it was so easy to feel, like his grieve was changing to words that wanted to be scream for hours, sometimes I think he sees her in me he always treated me like a little bird that could get killed just by looking at him. Darth Vader never let anyone to talk to me except for Darth Sidious he was my Master, the one that helped my father to become who he is now and me as his son I will continue his legacy of the most powerful Sith Lords in the entire galaxy. Like I ever wanted that, since i was a kid I loved space and flying but my dad never let me do anything related to becoming a pilot, even he was a great pilot before becoming a Sith Lord and he knew that I got that passion from him but just like always he never let me try. I waited a three more hours to get ready I always liked getting ready, washing myself, brushing my hair, changing my clothes to something that doesn’t look like shit and getting out of room to eat some breakfest, even when I didn’ had any strenght taking care of myself would always light my mood for a little. When I was done I waited a little while for my guards to walk me out of my room, my father always think that there’s someone out there trying to kill me, probably some rebels or mythical Jedi Knights but stories for little kids and vandals couldn’t get me in the most guarded star ship ever, it’s not mathematically possible. I never liked eating alone , cause I always ate alone, even when my dad was around he would sit on another side of the table, breathing like crappy trash can and looking at me like I was a criminal that could kill everyone in the room just in one second. While drinking cup of tea door opend,my father and his soldiers rushed into the dining room.

- Good morning son, it’s time for your lightstaber practice.-

[ragdollgaming]

I've been thinking about Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and wanted to ramble some of my thoughts about Bode, specifically toward the end of the story. I'll put my thoughts below the cut. Don't read if you don't want spoilers from the last third of the game.

Bode's betrayal is completely undermined by the fact that he's force-sensitive. I get it, characters behaving irrationally isn't inherently bad writing. But I really do think the concept could have been handled way better.

Bode's entire motivation, throughout the whole game, is to protect his daughter from the Empire. He is understandably interested in Tanalor for that exact purpose, as theoretically, he and his new friends can live there and stay safe from the threat of the Empire. When Cal reveals that he intends to give the compass to the Hidden Path, Bode gets upset at the change of plans and betrays everyone, going so far as to call in Darth Vader himself.

Except he seems to forget that the current purpose of the Hidden Path, under Cere's leadership, is to protect and hide force sensitives, which is why Cal wanted them to have first access to Tanalor, to protect and hide those force sensitives. Force sensitives like Bode and, presumably, his daughter Kata.

All Bode would need to do is lift a nearby rock with his mind and go "I would like my daughter and I to be on the first ship there," and he'd 100% get his wish. After some reassuring he won't backstab him like at the start, Cal would happily help him storm the base where Kata is being held (maybe recreating the plan from the opening of the game, but gone right?), take her back to Jedha, and send the two off to live in safety with the Hidden Path.

But that's a lot of change to the ending. We still want that betrayal, the ending of a man who can't help but turn traitor. So take away his being a jedi. Suddenly, his betrayal is much more "reasonable," for lack of a better word. Now, if Cal is handing the compass off to the Hidden Path, and he and Kata AREN'T force sensitive, suddenly his greatest hope of escaping the Empire is gone. Who knows how long it would take to make a second compass? Would that one go to force sensitives too? He can only keep Kata safe aboard that Empire station for so long, and he can't trust Cal to find a new way in time or not find out he was working for the Empire all along. So he calls in Vader, steals the compass, and flees with his daughter alone to Tanalor.

I don't hate the idea of Bode being a twist villain, and I don't hate the idea of Bode being a secret Jedi trapped into working with the Empire to protect his daughter. But these two concepts are in direct conflict with each other when considering what motivated him to betray Cal in the first place. His role in the story's ending would be better served by either removing his history as a jedi, removing his betrayal, or finding another reason for him to be unable to get to Tanalor that doesn't conflict with his being force-sensitive.