#a natural history of tatooine

[classicanalyzer]

LEGO Star Wars Rebuild The Galaxy Thoughts

"Nothing makes sense, and everything's mixed up, and that's okay. Things fall apart, but maybe they can come back together better than before." Sig Greebling

Rebuild The Galaxy is my favorite out of all the D+ LEGO SW specials. I really love the connections to LEGO and SW, including the previous LEGO SW shows, especially Freemaker Adventures. Michael Kramer did an amazing job with the soundtrack, Sig's and Yesi's themes were well-composed.

Part I

"For someone who spends all his time telling stories about heroes, you have no idea how to be one. Maybe that's why you like history so much. It's over and done, but your life isn't. There's so much ahead of you if you'd just try, but you're afraid." Dev Greebling

Sig Greebling is such a cool name. I really love how he's a literal in-universe SW fan, yet someone who actually wants to be normal despite his Force sensitivity. I find it funny he's a literal Nerf herder. I do emphasize of how he wanted to avoid all the expectations if people know he's Force-sensitive.

I love the reference to Wookiees originally being a part of RotJ before being replaced with Ewoks.

Fennesa is a cool-looking world. Yesi Scala is another cool name (I get reminded of Scala Ad Caleum from KH haha). It's too bad Sig's indecisiveness and inability to step out of his comfort zone translates to his social life, even his crush. The background painting showing the sunset is so beautiful.

I really like how the Ackbar Troopers are the Clones in this universe. They must have chosen Ackbar as the main host due to his skills since he was a skilled warrior and leader, but definitely also for the memes out of universe. I also love how Phase I was used because the Kaminionans designed the Phase I suit based on aquatic species like themselves and would fit the Mon Calamari Clones.

The fighting animation and choreography for Yesi's fight against the Ackbar Troopers are so well animated. I laughed seeing that one Ackbar Trooper shooting with two blasters. I can see why Sig likes Yesi. Also ooff, Yesi lost her father in this timeline to the Empire. You can feel the bleak state of this galaxy under this Empire. At least, Yesi's desire to fly among the stars and not live in a backwater world is still there. I like how Sig also mentioned how Rancors are actually misunderstood intelligent creatures.

Double ooff, Sig's brother is now Darth Devastator "Dev". At least we finally get our first on-screen appearance of Jedi Bob!

Part II

"Being a hero is easier when you don't know the cost...Sig, the Force doesn't work that way. The dark side is loud and obvious like a big, mean Gamorrean kicking you in the head over and over. But the light side, the light side of the Force is just a whisper in the back of your mind." Bobolian Afol "Jedi Bob"

Darth Rey as Dev's apprentice feels so wrong about the intentional nature of aspects of this new universe. Jedi Bob!...or rather Bobolian Afol lmao (I also love how the markings seem a bit faded which signals his age). I love this cynical Jedi who sucks at fighting but is amazing at the Force...which is what a true Jedi should specialize in.

FREEMAKER LORE! THE FORCE BUILDERS ARE BACK! I love seeing them once again and hearing Bob recap them feels cathartic.

Ewok Bounty Hunters is one thing but bounty hunter C-3PO channeling his Triple 0 and HK-47 vibes in a Naboo Royal Cruiser with gold plating feels so right yet so wrong in the best ways possible. Yesi really has a lot of baggage with her wanting to prove herself and redeem herself for accidentally getting a rebel base captured.

Mos Eisley Marina made me die on the inside lmao. Tatooine isn't boring anymore lmao. I do love how this is a nod to how the BoBF and Legends mention Tatooine being once covered with oceans before becoming a desert world.

Like father like son indeed, however, even Anakin wouldn't go that far to cheat. I do love how Luke and Anakin use the same Podracer. Poor Max Rebo.

I love how Maul in this galaxy is much more relaxed and happy. At least, in this galaxy, Maul gets to live his life without the tragedies in his main galaxy life.

I love the implication that Nubs is well-known in the main galaxy that Sig knows about him. I'm incredibly confident that Darth Hammerhead is Rusty. Even in another universe, nobody remembers his name lmao.

That brief Duel of the Fates theme playing when Darth Jar Jar appeared was so hype and chilling. His line goes unironically hard.

Part III

"I know you can't restore a galaxy once it's gone because I tried to restore my own, and I failed. In the galaxy I'm from, things were simpler. I was a Padawan on Alistan Nor, learning the secrets of Force Building. I'd heard rumors about the Cornerstone. The more I read, the more obsessed I became. Was it possible to remake an entire galaxy? I needed to know the truth. My Masters forbid me from searching for the Cornerstone, but I wasn't exactly good at following orders. There were so many rules. I just wanted to do things my own way. I thought I could control the Cornerstone. I never thought -- When I left that temple, everything was different. My galaxy was gone, Sig. And yours had just been born." Bobolian Afol "Jedi Bob"

We truly reached the pinnacle of miniaturized Death Star tech with the Dark Falcon lmao.

Darth Jar Jar definitely isn't dead and I love what little time we had with him.

I love the lights looking like the Binary Sun and the music playing as Luke looks towards them.

I love how Palpatine in this universe is a cynic who gave up on fighting. I like that fascinating take on this alternate Palpatine. The new Jedi Council (I like the faded and scratched markings similar to Jedi Bob signals their age and tiredness of a seemingly hopeless war) is insane with Jedi Vader (I love that this is a SW Infinities comic reference, it felt cathartic to see it realized in visual media), Dooku, Cad Bane, Jannah, Lobot, IG-88(?), and even Jabba. I really love that Jannah has more to do here including her actress returning to voice her.

Greedo being the Han of this universe was so funny. He even has the Rodian ears for his Slave I Firespray ship lmao.

I love how Yesi recreates the energy in TFA when she does smth incredibly insane with Greedo's ship. Sig saying I do feels like his and Yesi's "I know" moment. And a Star Trous mention. I also feel like Yesi's point of how you fix the mistake got to Jedi Bob and got to him into revealing the truth. I love how Grevious is one of the rebels in this universe.

Alistan Nor!!! THAT'S THE FORCE BUILDER WORLD AND IT WAS MENTIONED IN FREEMAKER ADVENTURES.

Damn, this Han really became just like his mentor in the old universe. A true scoundrel.

God that twist of the old universe never coming back is gut-wrenching...especially since Jedi Bob is the only survivor of his old universe. The story of Jedi Bob is beyond tragic. One simple curiosity into the cornerstone left him the only survivor. Spending all that time alone in the Temple to make sure it doesn't happen again...only for it to happen again. I also really love how the simple galaxy is represented by 4:3 aspect ratio and all LEGO figures are the classic yellow designs.

WHEN SERVO WAS DESTROYED, I FELT MY HEART BREAKING APART. God that was heartbreaking to see, just like many heroes before him in his stories, to save his friends Sig gave himself up.

Part IV

"The tales of my galaxy. The tales of people like Dev. My Dev. I don't wanna forget them. They matter." Sig Greebling

God the intro with the sad music and Servo shutting down just hurts me in ways I cannot comprehend. The collapsing logo really showcases we're in the endgame.

I love how Yoda is voiced by his Young Jedi Adventure VA in this show. It is heartbreaking to see Ian Han hate Yoda given the very first major LEGO SW special (The Padawan Menace was one of my first non-SW movie experiences in my childhood).

Even if Dev is mentally messed up, I really like how he came around to having a brother and want to be brothers. I like how Sig realizes this is all a fantasy of a galaxy he can never restore. He fights to save this galaxy now.

I'm happy Tico got to a substantial role in this show alongside Rey. Reusing the Nobody line toward Darth Rey was pretty cruel.

The space battle was shot very well and I love the designs of the Calamari Destroyers.

Dev's breakdown was pretty disturbing to see and how he took the rage and lack of happiness in his life to put his idea of "order" and to take control of his life. Especially how he sees himself as beyond redemption and the point of no return.

The quote I used for the introduction quote is beautifully anti-nihilist.

The fight is so well choreographed and so peak, especially when the brief moment the windows were destroyed and the energy shield was activated. The fact the Nerf herder stick came back to be a major turning point in the fight against Dev is great. It was heartbreaking and I got a bit misty-eyed to see Dev ultimately decide to remain evil.

My heart repaired itself as Servo was reconstructed. The old galaxy is gone but the stories will live on. And leave it for Servo to interrupt Sig and Yesi's tender moment haha.

The ending shot with the new crew really felt like the passing of the torch between the Freemaker Adventures to Rebuild the Galaxy. I hope we get to see the Freemaker cast, especially the Freemaker family on Alistan Nor.

Also, The Landolorian and Evil Grogu has been so hyped as the sequel hook alongside Darth Rey and Tico being in charge of the Empire.

This is such a great show and I can't wait to see more LEGO SW stories set in this universe.

I love the score by Kramer who is also responsible for Ninjago’s score (alongside Jay Vincent):

[sethnakht]

there's an au in my head where vader shows up at jabba's palace before luke but after leia's capture on a tip call from boba fett. leia, captive on jabba's throne, senses his arrival well before she sees him; watching his descent into the throne room, she regrets conjuring the spectre of "powerful friends" to scare jabba. vader has strangled several guards by this point; jabba doesn't care; he receives vader as though they were old business partners, without a translator. vader interrupts jabba in the middle of a self-congratulatory overture - jabba is harboring the leader of the rebel alliance, he says, pointing at leia, and must surrender her immediately. this escalates; jabba offers han instead, vader counters that jabba will relinquish the princess or die, jabba reaches for the controls to his rancor pit, leia averts her eyes, unwilling to key vader into the trapdoor beneath his feet, and suddenly vader is gone and she and the whole throne retinue are sliding, lurching, falling; they're the ones in the pit, and when she looks up, she sees vader staring down at them with an ignited lightsaber, surrounded by poorly aimed blaster fire. she looks away just as he begins to deflect it.

vader has decided to pay boba and lure luke and punish jabba all at once; he leapt over the throne and pushed its occupants with the force, pickled frogs and leia included, into the rancor pit. he still fully intends that leia be made his prisoner - he doesn't want to kill his best line to luke - he simply assumes that since she's survived him, she can survive anything. as it happens, leia does escape the rancor because it feasts on the stunned jabba first, breaking the chain that connected her to him; dodging the panicking attendants, who also end up eaten or mauled, she finds the pit entrance and secures herself by bringing down the threshold gate. if vader's right about leia, though, he's wrong here about luke, who isn't provoked into appearing. becoming impatient - having slaughtered every guard who hasn't fled - vader deprives artoo of luke's hidden saber and decides to draw luke to him where he cannot fail to appear. stuck between gates in the dungeon, leia shrieks and missteps, slicing open her boot and her foot on a misplaced axe; vader has materialized silently, like a shadow that shouldn't be in the desert. he's in a foul mood; ignoring her limp, he pulls her out by the chain still attached to her neck (because he's petty and hasn't forgotten her comment about his 'leash') all the way to his private ship (the nubian j-type that symbolizes and effected his removal from tatooine, the ship he has in the comics). with usual bumbling luck (let's say his restraining bolt no longer works because jabba is dead), threepio trails them and ends up boarding too, commenting blithely about the ship's royal trappings.

well aware luke is on tatooine, vader doesn't leave the planet; flying in a way that leia first thinks is just intended to keep her off-balance, he heads for the lars homestead. lashed to the co-pilot's seat and without a sense of their direction, leia looks at featureless sand and can't help but call up the map in her mind to where obi-wan would have lived. it's popular fanon that vader can't read leia's mind owing to natural mental shields; I could see exploring an alternative where he can sense her strong emotions, where he does swoop in and catch the fish swimming right at the surface - only that what he catches is what she's chosen to sacrifice, or what she sees no reason to hide. what to him is a prize is to her an acceptable loss. so maybe in this au, there's this history between them: on the death star, she'd given up that obi-wan was part of her mission, anticipating that he'd be on alderaan and out of reach, while protecting the location of the rebel base; maybe that's why she survived her interrogation, because vader had gone so distracted with the bait that he'd lost interest in the fish. point being, vader is well aware that she's thinking about obi-wan right at this moment, and leia is chilled to realize, just from the quality of his silence, that she knows that he knows.

but this soon doesn't matter, because she realizes they're being pursued by what's left of jabba's guard and the millenium falcon. vader is possibly an even crazier pilot in atmosphere than in space, performing stomach-turning stunts like killing the ship's engines and going into a freefall dive to get each attacker but the more distant falcon to destroy itself; the falcon he shakes off by heading straight into a massive sandstorm. droid-like as he is, leia realizes he doesn't rely on the ship's instruments when the storm causes half to fail and they still make it past flying debris. after landing, vader orders leia to put on a flightsuit and helmet before they exit into the storm, lest she take unnecessary further damage. freeing herself of the mask the moment they're in an enclosed part of the homestead - which required passing through a courtyard open to the hostile elements - leia is first surprised by vader's choice of an abandoned hovel, then concerned when threepio reveals where they are. the more details threepio spills (the more the limits of his memory banks are revealed to vader), the more uneasy leia becomes. luke's family died because of the empire. but they'd still be alive, she can't help but think, had she not sent the death star plans to this planet. perhaps enjoying this dark turn to her thoughts, vader doesn't interrupt the flow of commentary. evidently unfazed by his own role in murdering luke's family, he prowls through their home as though it were his own castle. leia can imagine he's designing a trap for luke. silently, she implores him to stay away.

luke doesn't come. a massive piece of farming equipment, left unmaintained for too long and violently unmoored by the storm, smashes into vader's ship, taking out an engine. bounty hunters hired by angry hutts try to finish the job; vader kills them, but not before they've set his ship on fire. and vader starts to go slightly more mad than usual; the tatooine sand in his suit and smoke preventing use of his ship's hyperbaric chamber and luke's refusal to acknowledge his psychic pleading/threats and threepio's obviously mindwiped chatter and leia's scorching presence, her immense grief and scorn, her way of judging without having to speak a word - it all warps, and blurs, as he paces like the suit is cooking him from inside, and touches the wall disjointedly, and makes sudden disappearances to repair his ship with cheap moisturizer parts. for her part, leia is judging. she knows why vader wants her alive, and she's angry to be used again as bait, to say the least. and she's also judging her own chances: she's not eaten, not had access to water, she's lost a good deal of blood, her foot is bandaged with dirty cloth, and luke's lightsaber is hanging from vader's belt, tantalizingly near.

she tries to goad vader, to distract him from his ship repairs and the trap he's creating and the second lightsaber on his belt. he's become predictable, and luke won't come. she has no reason to hide her love for luke, so when vader lashes out mentally - jealously pilfering surface impressions of luke from her mind - he can remain blind to her intentions. only vader is paying real attention to her now that he's gotten to taste those memories, she's fed a hunger she hadn't known could devour, and she understands that he's draining her, taking from her, that she's shriveling up from thirst and regret and this connection. he's seeing her value as for the first time and isn't seeing her at all - and when threepio begins crying for help, drawing vader's attention away, leia is certain she is going to die.

vader wants to know when threepio entered her service. threepio is only too glad to answer exactly. leia is too depleted to care about what he shares - better that he spill the secrets of the dead captain antilles than having vader back in her head - she drifts into unconsciousness, and dreams. she's back at the palace in aldera, in the oval garden, where a stone statue of queen amidala had stood watch over beds of white asters. leia had liked to look into the child-queen's solemn face - her mother had often brought her here to tell her stories of amidala's adventures - but in her dream she is facing the statue's back, a meaningless circumstance that somehow chills her. she circles closer and yet can't get around to the front, and the harder she tries the more the details slip from her, until she can't even remember amidala's face. this too, she has lost.

anyway, that's the setup. it escalates from there. vader is paying enough attention to entertain new suspicions about luke's strong feelings for leia; amongst the many other threatening things he does, he finds desert cacti and makes leia drink the nectar. (for all she knows, it's poison, and the spikes on the surface cut her fingers and press against her face like needles.) leia, still certain she is dying, commits to saving luke as her final act, which she believes means killing vader. vader repairs his ship; leia ensures the self-destruct goes off while they're both on it. vader absorbs the blast, keeping leia alive at the cost of compromising his own life support; suddenly faced with the chance to fulfil her wish, luke's lightsaber in her hands, leia finds herself unable to follow through - because vader tells her to do it.

at last, a figure on the horizon. luke is come.

[shadowmaat]

Old Friends, part 2

(part 1)

Finding Obi-Wan Kenobi alive and (relatively) well on Tatooine was a surprise, to say the least, but Cody adapted to it well enough.

Not much changed, on the surface of things. He still reported in to Senator Organa, he still helped the local populace when and where he could, and he still moved his quarters every few weeks to make it difficult for anyone- local or Empire- to find him.

It was just that now, Obi-Wan became part of his regular patrol. Most often that meant trekking out to the dusty hut in the Jundland Wastes that Obi-Wan now called home, checking to make sure he was still alive and testing his security measures. Security measures Cody himself had installed, since Obi-Wan seemed content to rely on the Force to protect him. Tsk. Some things never changed.

Occasionally it was Obi-Wan who did the trekking, most often because he needed supplies. Or so he said. That might make sense for Bestine, which was the nearest city to him, but didn't explain his occasional forays into Mos Eisley or even Anchorhead. Cody didn't ask and Obi-Wan offered no explanation, but it made for a nice break in routine. They'd hole up in a cantina or caf shop and have coded conversations of their past.

Obi-Wan was, naturally, curious about why Cody had turned on him; why all the clones had turned on the Jedi. Cody gave him what answers he could, much the same as he had when Organa had asked, but with more regret. "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time" was a weak answer. Even Cody himself had questions about it, but it wasn't like he could go back and change things. He was here, now, and he wouldn't be going back to the Empire. Not that they'd take him; there was a "kill on sight" order in place.

There were times, of course, when Cody was called offworld to deal with some disaster or another of the Rebellion. Sometimes they wanted to pick his brain over military strategy and how troopers fought. Other times it was to participate in raids on supply depots or even the occasional prisoner rescue. Those missions always made the back of his neck itch because he could tell the people with him didn't trust him. Organa's word could only go so far when Cody's own history as an Imperial stormtrooper spoke for itself.

For the most part, Cody bore their suspicions and hostility with understanding. He regretted some of the things he'd done, of course, but he'd also been a soldier, and soldiers were there to follow orders. Until they started asking questions, anyway.

There were only a couple of times where he had to get aggressive; when someone was so ready to fight that no amount of deescalation would work. He put them down fast and made sure they'd be able to get back up again.

Returning to Tatooine was always a strange bit of relief. As a clone trooper, Cody was of the belief that "home" was an idea you carried with you; built into your armor, maybe. But there was something about stepping foot on that arid world and breathing its parched air that gave him a feeling of... belonging.

Obi-Wan was usually nearby when he landed. Cody was reasonably certain it was because Organa told him rather than "the Force," but it still eased his heart to see proof that his ex-General was still alive and hadn't managed to get himself killed in Cody's absence.

"Not dead yet, huh?"

"I'm afraid not." Obi-Wan smiled at him. "How was your trip?"

"A clusterfuck, as usual." Cody headed for a nearby cantina, Obi-Wan keeping pace beside him. "What about you? What krayt's nest did you kick over this time?"

"Whatever makes you think I'd do something like that?"

The innocence in his tone was polished to a shine. Cody snorted.

"Because I know you."

Obi-Wan sniffed as Cody ordered their drinks, heading for a dark table in the back.

"I'll have you know I was on my best behavior while you were gone. Nothing happened."

The fading bruise at his temple and the scrapes on his knuckle told a different story, but Cody let it slide. He knew Obi-Wan was keeping something important from him, but it wasn't his place to question it. Either he'd be told when the time was right or he'd never find out at all; Cody was fine with it either way.

For now he was content to simply enjoy his drink and continue to sass his old friend. Storms, it was good to be home.

[burnwater13]

Boba Fett facing Cad Bane on the streets of Mos Espa. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 7, In the Name of Honor. Calendar by DateWorks.

NOTE: 

In lieu of writing a story all about the long running history of Boba Fett and Cad Bane and how it had resolved itself, first with name calling and then with something a little more permanent, Grogu elected to write a story that the people of Earth could appreciate given the nature of their celebration of Halloween. No reason to talk about really scary stuff, when you could talk about more mild scary stuff. Cheers!

Trick or Treat

It was a beautiful day on Nevarro. The few trees and scrub bushes that framed the cabin Grogu shared with the Mandalorian had begun to show signs that the air had been cooling and the weather was getting a little wetter. There leaves were changing colors and they had bloomed. Everything smelled a little nicer and looked a lot prettier. 

The harvest was going to be collected that night according to IG-11. Not your traditional harvest of veggies, fruits, nuts, berries, and other things people on the strange planet ate. Nope. That happened all year long. No. Now it was time to harvest the moonstones. 

At least that’s what Grogu had heard people call the crystals that folks all over Nevarro collected one night a year when the lava flats burped them up. He suspected that was why the Imps had even recorded Nevarro on a star chart. Unfortunately for them (the Imps that is) it only happened one night a year and once the scouts had reported that, after spending an extremely dull year there, the Imps had left the place alone, until they realized the true utility of a planet no one cared about.

Right now he was just working with his dad to make sure that the protective clothing he had to wear was ready for the big event. His dad had originally suggested that they go to a planet than actually held a harvest festival, like Sorgan, but Grogu had refused. They had a home on Nevarro and while the cabin was small, kind of drafty, and often covered with fine black powder from the lava flats, it was their home now and it was about time they participated in some of Nevarro’s traditions.

Yes, he knew he was giving up the opportunity to spend all night collecting sweets and eating them before his dad worked out that no one on Sorgan really handed everyone in a costume a couple of krill for all that hard work of dressing up and wondering around. He was also giving up a trip to Tatooine where he would hang out with Peli and the pit droids and win something no one wanted when he beat her at sabacc. Again. It was okay. He really did want to see what the whole moonstone thing was about.

He’d been talking to the High Magistrate’s protocol droid about the plan it had been developing for the collection, measurement, and evaluation of lava flat moonstones, because he’d never heard of them and didn’t know why anyone would want to collect chunks of rock that came from the small body that orbited Nevarro. That’s when he learned so many things. 

First, Nevarro didn’t have a moon. That’s right. It didn’t even have a small satellite that people might mistake for an Imperial battle station. Then he’d learned that due to some weird aspect of the heating and cooling cycles of Nevarro’s liquid core, the magma and lava flows produced two strange things. 

The lava produced fine crystals that, if you happened upon them, you’d noticed that they glowed softly, day or night. Many of the children on Nevarro sprinkled them on paths to fun places to play, favorite vendor’s stalls and shops, as well as in their rooms to provide a soft light in the evenings. 

Grogu had managed to acquire a few of them from IG-11-M and had them in his bedroom until the Mandalorian complained about them being too bright. Until then, Grogu had no idea that sometimes his dad took his helmet off at night when he puttered around the cabin, thinking Grogu was asleep. Of course, Grogu had been asleep, dank farrik!

The magma produced large amorphic crystals that would eventually make their way into the lava flows and then cast up on the banks. They could be polished, but they didn’t glow at all and they were a kind of deep brown. Not very pretty and not very useful, unless you wanted to create an outline for a landing pad. 

However, there was another that could happen. The tiny lava crystals could get swallowed back up in the magna when it returned to it’s underground channels and pools. Then, the amorphic crystals would collide with it and suddenly you’d have a very large, very pretty, very bright moonstone. But only if you happened to be out on the banks of the lava flats on the right night of the year when the flow would start burping the things up. 

No one knew how they became known at moonstones, but Grogu liked to think that someone saw them and was reminded of the moon from their home planet or something like that. He still didn’t think any one thought they came from an actual Imperial battle station. 

But, and this was important, you couldn’t just pick up a moonstone like it was a stone or pebble or credit you found on the streets of Nevarro City. Those things had just been burped up from deep underground and were still amazingly hot. If you caught one without proper protective equipment you would never have to worry about catching another one. You went almost instantly to way too warm and just as suddenly to permanently cold. It was bad. Don’t do it. 

Instead, the fine people of Nevarro had worked out that they could wear special safety gear that would allow them to handle the stones long enough to move them out of their way as they spent the night collecting them. The protective gear itself was kind of funny. It was silver in color, was shaped like a hooded poncho, but it went all the way to the ground and it only had small holes to look out of and some slashes for your hands to fit through. Of course you had to wear thermal protective gloves made out of the same stuff to protect your hands. 

The Mandalorian had said everyone looked like a mech with a thermal blanket covering it. Grogu didn’t argue. His dad wasn’t wrong. They were just a lot taller or wider or longer than most of the mechs Grogu had ever met. And, if you sent your mech to do the work, you still needed the protective equipment to make sure that they didn’t melt from the heat of the stones. 

“You know you can’t eat these things, right?”

Grogu nodded his head, although the motion was barely perceptible under the thick silver blanket. 

“Good. Remember, we are just moving them so they can be collected and measured and all that. Karga’s got big plans for them.”

Grogu nodded his head again. 

He knew all about the High Magistrate’s plan. Once the moonstones were collected, measured, evaluated, tested, recorded, and all that, they were going to be used to create a series of markers that would indicate the way to all the major sites on Nevarro. He didn’t want tourists getting lost at night because they all complained that IG-11-M scared them when it appeared out of the gloom. 

Grogu just hoped his dad didn’t mind the fact that the protocol droid’s plan now included outlining all the major landowners’ property boundaries with the things. Based on what Grogu had suggested, the Mandalorian was never going to find any place on Nevarro dark enough to take his helmet off again. But if Grogu couldn’t see his face, there was no good reason anyone else should either. He has spoken.

Happy Halloween. 

[mandos-mind-trick]

Instinct - Part 9

Summary: Omegas were rare. Some even thought them extinct. So when Boba contacts Din saying he has a gift Din can’t refuse, the last thing he expects to find is an omega in need of an alpha. Din has to make the hard decision, but what else was he really doing anyways? But naturally, there’s more to this omega than meets the eye.

Pairing: Din Djarin x female!reader

Warnings: Some violence, PTSD, Boba being Boba.

A/N: Wow, two in one week. I’m super inspired so maybe more?

< Previous | Next > | MASTERLIST | OC Version

You grunt as you hit the ground once more. You're covered in dirt and grass stains, your muscles aching with every impact. Training with Fennec on Tatooine had been hard, even with her pulling her punches. 

Din doesn’t hold back. 

“No one’s going to go easy on you just because you’re a woman.” He says, circling you as you push herself back to your feet. You're tired and sore, the sun close to setting. You’ve been at this all day. “If they want to hurt you, they will. That’s why you need to learn to defend yourself. Why you need to learn to tap into those omega instincts.” 

“I told you I don’t know how.” You say, pushing yourself up to stand, brushing grass off your pants. 

“If you feel threatened, your omega will defend you.” He stills, facing you, your back to the ship. 

“Well, maybe I just don’t feel threatened by you.” You huff, getting tired of his constant warnings, his constant reminders that your omega should protect you.

You can practically see the change in him with your words. His shoulders tense, squaring up, hands clenched into fists at his sides. He looks ready to spring at any moment. This must be what his quarries see when he’s hunting. A prime alpha ready to catch its prey. Your omega shifts inside you, telling you to turn tail and run. 

You make it around the side of the ship, heading for the treeline when he reaches you. His arms slip around you, lifting you feet off the ground. You let out a yelp, your back hitting the grass once more. 

He drops over you, caging you in with his arms. “Running’s good, but it only helps if you can get away.” 

You make a face. “I told you, I don’t know how to do this.” 

He leans down, pressing his helmet against your forehead. “You need to know. What if I’m not there to protect you?” 

You give him a grin. “Then you’ll just have to make sure you are.” 

You squeal as he wraps his arms around you, lifting you off the ground with ease. 

****

His fingers brush your side again, running over the blaster tucked under your shirt. There’s a vibroblade tucked into your boot, and another up your sleeve. He’s a bit apprehensive about bringing you along, but he knows he can’t keep you shut in the ship all the time. Plus, this should be an easy hunt. It’s a decently sized city with plenty of eyes. It’s not a place where things like this happen often, so he’s less worried about something happening to you. 

“Don’t engage unless you have to.” He says, eyes sweeping over the busy street. “He likely won’t be alone.” 

“I don’t even remember what this guy looks like.” You say, warily looking at every passing face. 

“Hopefully he doesn’t remember you.” Din says, making his way towards the cantina where his quarry is said to frequent. 

He stops in an alley facing the cantina doors, leaning against the wall. You lean next to him with a sigh. You’re a bit nervous. You’ve never been on a hunt before, much less one that’s for someone that has a history with you. It’s exciting, but it’s also terrifying. 

“How long do you think?” You ask, looking up at Din. His gaze is turned towards the cantina. 

“Don’t know.” He answers. “He’s either inside already, or he’ll be arriving soon.” 

“And so we wait.” You say. It’s not much of a question. You know going inside would be too much of a giveaway. The man would likely bolt as soon as he saw you two. You have to be sneaky about this. The less of a scene you could cause, the better. 

You sigh again as you lean against the wall, fiddling with the hem of your shirt. It was going to be a long wait. If he was already inside, he’d likely be there for a while. Din is practically unmoving next to you, like a predator stalking prey. He could stand for hours doing nothing. You were not used to that. You feel antsy, like you need to do something. 

Din tenses next to you, a subtle movement, but you pick it up. You stand up a little straighter, peeking around him. “There.” He says, nodding towards a group that’s entering the cantina. 

“That’s a lot of them.” You say, counting six total. “What do we do?” 

“Wait.” He says. “Give them time to settle in.” 

You let out a sigh, leaning against the wall once more. “Is every hunt like this?” You ask. 

“No.” He says, still facing the cantina. “Not all of them are this easy to find, either.” 

You look up, studying the blue sky. It’s nice to be outside, breathing fresh air. You take in a deep breath, letting the exhale extend as you close your eyes. 

“Everything okay?” Din asks, glancing over his shoulder at you. 

“Yeah.” You say, opening your eyes once more. “Just nice to be outside. I do miss Tatooine sometimes, but I don’t miss the heat.” 

“We could go back.” He says, facing the cantina once more. “Just say the word, and we’ll leave this and go back.” 

You stare at his back for a long time. Part of you wants to say it. Part of you wants to go back, be with Boba and Fennec where it’s safe. You know, though, you can’t give up yet. These men did horrible things to you and you can’t be the only one. You won’t be the only one if they don’t stop them. 

Din tenses again, hand falling to his waist. You peek around him again, five of the men that had entered the cantina with their target have exited, blasters in hand as they look around. 

“Someone must have tipped him off.” Din says, gripping your arm. “Get back to the Crest. Comm me when you get there.” 

You want to argue, but you know you’ll only be a liability in this fight. You can’t fight. You’re a decent shot, but that won’t do much good here. 

“Go.” Din almost commands, his alpha creeping into the edges of his voice. 

You have no choice but to turn, making your way down the alley. You keep your pace quick, but you don't run, not wanting to draw attention to yourself. The last thing you needed to do was draw attention, causing more trouble than Din probably was. 

The sound of blaster fire has your pace stuttering a bit. Those still on the street look around, looking for the source. 

Things like this don’t happen here. 

Din had told you that when he’d said you could come with him. This was a decent place, where fights didn’t break out constantly on the street. Perfect cover for someone looking to hide something dark. 

You pick up your pace even more, trying to calm your breathing. The quicker you could get back to the ship, the sooner you could relax. You could comm Din, hear his voice, make sure he’s alright. You trust him and his abilities, but five against one...those weren’t exactly favorable odds. He’d been in worse situations, though. He’d told you a bit about his adventures before he’d met you. He’d made it with worse odds. 

Maybe they should go back to Tatooine. Maybe this was a bad idea. 

You turn a street corner, picking up your pace even more as you see the spaceport in front of you. You’ve given up calming your breathing, feeling something tickling in the back of your mind. There had only been five that came out of the cantina. Where was the other one? 

You stop dead in your tracks as you approach the Crest. Leaning against the side of the ship is a light-haired man. He’s leaning casually, like he was waiting for someone to arrive. Your stomach clenches, your breath catching in your throat. Your hand slowly lifts, reaching for your blaster. 

“This isn’t what I was expecting.” He says, tilting his head at you. “When the bartender tipped us off that a Mandalorian was looking for us, I didn’t expect it to be because of this.” He looks you over, making your skin crawl. “You probably don’t remember much. You were drugged out of your mind, but I remember you. You’ve grown up since then.” 

He pushes himself away from the Crest, taking a couple steps towards you. Your hand is on your blaster, ready to draw it, but you can’t seem to. 

“Still a scared little omega.” He says, the title coming from him making you shudder in disgust. It feels wrong, hearing someone like him say it. 

Run. 

Your brain is screaming it. You can’t fight, you can’t even get your hand to draw your blaster. Running was what omegas did. It was their first defense. You’re in an open space. You can get back to the exit quickly. There’s people on the streets, crowds you could hide in. Wait until Din found you or found the man. 

You turn, ready to run. He’s faster than you are, your back slamming against the side of the ship as he grips your chin in his hand. He leans into you, his breath washing over your face. You’re starting to panic a bit. You feel trapped, stuck. 

Your hands close around his wrist, fingers trying to dig into his skin. “Let go.” You’re panicking, feeling closed in as his other hand rests on the ship beside your head. “Let go!” You yell, struggling against him, but he doesn’t let up. 

Suddenly you're not in the spaceport anymore. You're not staring at a stranger. You know him. You remember him. You can see him, you can see all of them. The faces of every man who had hurt you, every one of them that had taken advantage of you. You can remember every single one of them, all of them flashing through your mind. 

A sudden, strange calm feeling begins to wash over you, your panic abating. You feel warm and light, almost like you're watching everything unfold from outside your body. It feels good. You feel safe. 

It surprises both of them when you rear back, driving both of your feet into his chest. It’s a strong enough hit to have him stumbling back. You drop on your side on the hard ground, but it doesn’t seem to phase you. You're on your feet almost instantly, rushing at him. He doesn't have time to block you or move, your shoulder driving right into his stomach. He grunts, hitting the ground hard. 

He barely has time to roll away from your elbow as it drops, aimed for his neck. You grab a handful of his hair, yanking him back onto his back. He yells out, hands scrambling for his blaster, but you're faster. You're on top of him, a blaster pointed right at his face. He doesn't have time to react, can’t even get a word out before you fire. 

Your name draws your attention away from the man. You lift the blaster at the approaching figure, firing. It takes him by surprise, bouncing off his helmet. 

“Stop!” He calls out, but you fire again. He’s ready this time, dodging it. 

He rushes you, doing the only thing he can think of. He tackles you to the ground, your back hitting the ground hard, but he doesn’t have time to think about that. He wraps his arms around you, trying to keep you still. 

“Stop.” He says, putting as much of his alpha in his voice as he can. “Enough.” 

Your fighting stills, your body shuddering before going lax in his arms. Your head falls back, baring your throat to him in submission. He hates himself as he watches you, removing his hand from the back of your neck. 

Boba had been right. Your omega is strong. Strong and out of control. 

He gently strokes the back of your head as you whimper quietly, nuzzling against him, trying to reach his neck. “It’s alright.” He soothes you, trying to push as much of his scent forward as he can. He hates doing it, but he had seen the intensity of your gaze when you’d looked at him. There was no one there but your omega. Nothing but pure instinct driving you forward. 

He wishes he knew more about omegas. More about how to help you. 

There still are some who could help. 

He pushes the thought from his head. It would be a risk. He knows he’ll have to face it eventually, but he doesn’t want to do that to you. Not right now, when you were in such a delicate space. 

He stands, holding you in his arms. The sun is setting, painting the sky above them a bright orange. You're limp, riding the wave of calm he had forced into you. He ignores the body behind him, carrying you into the ship, closing the ramp behind him. 

He lays you in the makeshift nest, wrapping you in his cloak. You reach for him as he pulls away, mumbling incoherently. “I’ll be right back.” He says, squeezing your shoulder gently. He climbs up to the cockpit, not letting his shoulders relax until they’re in hyperspace. 

He climbs back down to the hull, stripping off his armor. He tries not to think about all the things that had gone through his head when you didn’t comm him. He had been terrified, thinking maybe you had been taken again, or worse. He feels sick to his stomach at the thought. He strips out of his flight suit, crawling into the nest beside you, wrapping his arms around you. 

****

“I saw them. I saw all of them.” 

Din wakes abruptly, disoriented. He didn’t remember falling asleep. He hadn’t meant to. The spot next to him is vacant, but still warm. The blanket is still tossed over him, but his cloak is missing. 

“I remember their faces.” 

His gaze is drawn down towards his feet, towards the end of the nest. You're sitting there, wrapped in his cloak. The faint blue of a holoprojector is lighting the hull of the crest. 

“How many have you found?” Boba’s gruff voice reaches his ears. 

“Just the two.” You say, sniffling. “I killed him.” 

“He would have killed you just as quickly. Or worse.” 

You sniffle again. “I shot him.” 

“You did what you had to. You’ve saved a lot of lives by doing it. People always get what they deserve eventually. Sometimes it’s a blaster bolt to the head. You did good, ad’ika. Let me know when you get where you’re going next.”

You nod. “Okay.” 

Your shoulders slump a bit as the blue glow of the holoprojector disappears. You set it down with a clank on the metal floor, letting out a shaky breath. 

“It’s quite a feat, you know,” He says quietly. 

You turn to face him, red rimmed eyes meeting his. “What?” 

“When I started bounty hunting, I heard stories about the famed hunter Boba Fett. How ruthless and bloodthirsty he was. How sometimes his quarries would turn themselves in to avoid having a run in with him. Yet here you are, just a little omega, turning him soft.” 

You scoff. “I don’t think he’s going soft. I think he’s just getting old.” 

Din wraps an arm around your waist, tugging you back so you're lying next to him. “We’re close in age, you know.” 

You poke his cheek. “Then that means you’re old too.” 

He playfully grumbles, wrapping his arms around you. You settle into his hold, nuzzling your face into his neck. He rubs your back gently, tilting his head back a bit to allow you to scent him. 

“Are you okay?” He asks, not wanting to bring up anything that you might not be ready to talk about yet, but he needs to ask. 

Your body stills, a shaky breath fanning across the skin of his throat. “I saw them. I saw all of them. Somehow...somehow I remember...” 

He tightens his hold around you. “I’m sorry you had to do that. I didn’t think...somehow he found out.” 

“The bartender at the cantina tipped him off.” You say. “Found out somehow.” You press closer to him. “What if they all know? What if someone’s told them?” 

“That’s a risk we have to take.” He says. “They do have connections, or at least they all did at one point. Eventually they’re going to start taking notice.” 

You are quiet for a moment, so quiet he thinks you’ve fallen asleep. Your breaths are steady against his skin, your own skin warm where it’s pressed against him. “Would you really go back?” 

He hums, pressing his face against your hair. 

“To Tatooine?” 

“All you have to do is ask.” He murmurs against the top of your head. 

You should ask. You know it. You should stop this now, before it really gets dangerous. Still, there's something in the back of your mind, something telling you to keep going. Something telling you to wipe them all out, once and for all.

Taglist:

@donttamethebeasts​, @unicorntrooper​, @spacecluster​, @hugmedin​, @hungrhay​, @fic-for-readers

[marvelstars]

"I had a dream, I was a Jedi, I came back here and freed all of the slaves"

The Kairos and The Kronos in Star Wars

Art by means1974

Kairos: (Ancient Greek: καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning 'the right, critical, or opportune moment'.

Kronos: Kronos may be derived from ancient Greek “kroúō/κρούω” meaning “to strike” or “to smite”. Besides, Kronos could mean “time”

"Fully defeated by just anyone, the dark side cannot be, but only by the Chosen One. And who might be this Jedi? Know I do not, but not yet born is he or she. This much, sense I can. A vessel of pure Force the Chosen One will be, more powerful than any Jedi in history." ―Yoda, from the Great Holocron

Anakin´s so called "attachment" problem would not have become an issue if he had been raised with his family, becoming a Jedi meant for Anakin abandoning his mother in a state of slavery, not knowing what was happening to her and then dreaming of her being tortured until she died in his arms. This trauma made him fearful of losing his loved ones to an extreme degree, which later lead to his extreme fear of losing Padme.

Before becoming a Jedi he was a sweet/sneaky and resourceful kid, who worried about others, made everything he could to help, not expecting a reward, he had great dreams and initiatives to make life better for his friends and family on Tatooine but becoming a Jedi meant he had to give up all of it in favor of following the Council and the Senate dictates which wasnt bad on principle but it often messed with his mental stability, especially when it came to the slavery issue when he had to help the outerim slavers like Jabba or ignore the Senate links to that system

For Anakin in particular the Jedi life was inherently traumatic, not so much for the content of their teachings, at least not all of them but because he had to give up parts of himself that made him emotionally stable, happy and helped develop his personality as a leader focused in helping to make the galaxy a better place, all qualities he still developed in the clone wars but not to their full potential and sadly later were used for the Dark side as Vader.

On the Jedi temple thinking about his mother made him attached, on Tatooine his mother was an example to follow and an upstanding woman making the best of what they could given the circunstances.

On the Jedi temple Anakin was teased over his past as a slave and expected to just forget about it, on Tatooine it was a harsh reality but the company of the other slaves gave him estrenght to overcome those difficulties and inspired him to try to free all of them.

This is why I personally think that of all of Anakin´s prohecies,the one who was meant to bring the better end for him personally and for the galaxy, was the first one, because it would have lead to him growing up in an envoirment in which he didn´t need to feel afraid of losing loved ones, he would have naturally grow to know it could and did happen but it would not have been a source of trauma for him and sooner or later, his initiatives to free his fellow slaves, would have clashed with Palpatine´s Empire but this time he would not have the emotional bond to him that keep him from truly doing all he could to stop him.

Palpatine´s empire would have raised up anyway, sometimes fans blame Anakin for it and the jedi massacre but they forget the fact the Republic end was brought by the Senate own inner corruption helped along by Palpatine and that without Anakin there to serve as a distraction to the Emperor, he would just have made Dooku his second in command, never would have made himself vulnerable to the Jedi Council trying to turn Anakin and just would have sent the Clone Army to the Jedi Temple once it was secure to do so with the support of the Senate.

The Empire would have raised up anyway but I believe it would have lasted less time, especially with an Anakin focused on stopping it, a lot of Jedi left alive after the fall of the Temple and many people who followed the separatists and part of the clone army feeling betrayed for being used as pawns in the clone wars and being changed from one bad goverment to another.

So Anakin´s complying with his first prophecy would have brought a Kairos time to the galaxy to end the empire sooner while what happened in the actual saga was Kronos. That´s my take.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Anakin's fall to the Dark Side

Anakin was born Sith. This is a term bestowed upon him by Qui-gon when he noted that he's "Probably the chosen one" and the reason why the Jedi Council wouldn't train him.

But still; that doesn't quite explain his fall to the "Dark Side" does it?

That statement holds a lot of different pieces of Star wars lore, about the "Sith'ari". A lot I don't want to extrapolate here because many content creators already have.

Because of this the term "Sith" doesn't have any dark side connotations. And the only one who identified himself as "Sith" was the Emperor Palpatine.

So there's a lot of unexplored territory as to what "Sith" actually means during this era of the Star Wars franchise. And while KotoR designated the name for a race of evil beings... I'm not quite certain that's the whole truth either.

What happened to Anakin; Force Balancer?

Seemingly trapped in a lifetime of slavery he momentarily gained his freedom to be trained as Jedi; only to lose it again when his mother died.

At this point in time; Anakin was a Jedi Warrior. Not a good person. The Jedi were not good. They fought and they killed people. By the time he took his wrath out on the people he thought murdered his mother; he had already [lifed] whole peoples under Jedi order.

Most of the media portrays this as just him fighting robots. But to him; C-3P0 was more than a robot..a person. And also; he was tasked as a General in war against *real people*. The things they don't tell you in Jedi history. To make them seem more benevolent.

This was already second nature to Anakin thanks to the Jedi teachings and the Orders given to him by "The Light Side of the Force".

There's no telling if the People of Tatooine actually tortured his mother, or if they were directed to by another source or if they actually tried to nurse his mother back to health *but* their medicine was poison to human.

I don't think Anakin even knows. The Force Guided his actions because he wasn't fully conscious of them. That's what Blind Rage can do, and why the Jedi teach you to be cognizant of them.

Even Obi-Wan was not immune to this, but the only two people alive that he might've cared about were Qui-gon and Anakin. He didn't have to face the same pain Anakin had.

This is the point Anakin was chained to the dark side. He was being controlled by Palpatine through the dark side of the force.

It's likely he either couldn't articulate the problem to the council; or that they wouldn't listen. The Sith don't exist anymore afterall, and *those* teachings were buried by Councils past.

We do know that the Jedi stood in the way of Profit margins, but we don't know what impact that had on the people they were blocking.

We may never know.

What we do know is that Anakin was molded by the people who sworn to serve the light and peace into a perfect weapon. And then disallowed to voice any dissent.

This opened him up to the dark side, to be wielded by somebody who would use him for evil.

Anakin isn't dumb, Obi-Wan had the high ground.

"You don't know what's going on with me" he pleaded and cried. And launched himself at Obi. Not in hopes of victory, or this hardheaded arrogance that he was painted as.

He was [ritual of lifing] he wished for obi to save him by releasing him from his bondage. The only way he could think to do it.

It wasn't Anakin that defeated Dooku, he did not want to pull the trigger at the end. He hesitated. But in the back of his mind Sidious words echoed "Do it."

Unfortunately, it was Obi's own reluctance that sealed Darth Vaders fate. Anakin was sealed off from the force, and thus the only connection he had to life; Padmè Amadala.

And the Emperor's victory was complete. The pawn became his Queen.

[tiredassmage]

This isn't really a question, just something to give you an excuse to talk about Leo and Heleda. I miss them.

Literally, anything you want.

klfnadlsk;f I guess I could've used this last night, but I'll finally use it as a jumping-off point. I've had this one sitting for a while because aforementioned business with life and the other interests taking over most of the free brain territory, but since the man, the myth, the goblin is back, let's go!

Heleda's a bit of a quicker one, unfortunately, because she hasn't quite stuck. Which is kind of an ironic theme for me personally; Sith Warrior is still one of my favorite of the class stories, but I think Savosta's the only Warrior I've made that's really stuck with me, and even him I don't talk nearly enough about, though he's also been a bit more on my mind intermittently lately.

I think some of the concepts I intended to put in her were cool. She was my second intention to create more of a "beast master" in the Warrior's role, possibly partially because I do like how it'd theoretically fit with the Tatooine arc in the Warrior's story, and it'd create interesting parallels for someone (me) who likes the hound on a leash motifs you can go with given the Warrior's later role as the Emperor's Wrath.

Since I know this'll be a ramble, I'll put a cut here just to get that out of the way.

So, I don't remember if I ever brought it the blog, but one of Heleda's backstory points was a younger brother that didn't end up being Force-sensitive, but did end up serving in the Reclamation Service, and in that way sought to serve the Sith and still bring honor to his family. Heleda was quite proud of him for this and I imagined they were still fairly close. Heleda always intended to keep a respectfully distant enough, but still protective eye on him. One of her unspoken private goals of rising to what station she may was to be able to guard her brother and make sure he and others like him still had a place in Imperial society.

She's also of the small class of characters I'm slightly mad at (lighthearted and kinda affectionate) for being very cool to me conceptually, but not occupying a lot of my brain, but also having some of the coolest lightsaber assignments out of my characters.

I still haven't really reused this particular saber or color crystal for anyone else because it's still 'Heleda's' trademark in my mind. A neutral color, a gray-toned crystal that was meant to represent her valuing of honor - honoring the pacts made, the services rendered, the power inherent in nature, in the Force, and in each of them - over a dogmatic loyalty to a code. Heleda's probably not someone who would ever leave the Sith for the Jedi, nor would she probably consider leaving for some order in between - short of something born out of necessity like the Eternal Alliance of the KOTXX era, but her and her brother's studies of history and their family's interest in the cultures of the galaxy developed a sense in her that bootcrushing domination was not absolute power in the way many Sith tended to present it.

That all never meant Heleda was any less willing to settle matters with her martial skills, but she needed a better reason to cut a good officer down than 'I am annoyed.' In the long-run, Baras's "ideal" apprentice was probably someone that was somewhere between brute enforcer and cunning enough to be semi-mindful of tactics, but, ideally, wouldn't have been someone that gets ahead of him at his game as the Warrior might. In Heleda's particular case, I don't think she'd anticipate the exact way Baras eventually betrays her and tries to eliminate her, but hearing fairly early on that Baras was likely to only use her as far as she was useful to him was not heretical or unforeseeable - nor did she particularly plan to overtake him in that exact moment. For now, she has her duty and, Force-willing, she'd be able to serve the Empire in the way it needed, when that time would come. But overworrying about it in paranoia would not be productive to her, either. I think of her as a pragmatist.

So, that all said... I have a... fair idea of her in my head, but there's... something kinda missing from the formula that I haven't quite put my finger on. I haven't found quite something to hook me into her motivations and drive me up a wall for them. Further exploration could probably do it, could probably more clearly define her 'why' in a way that'd make it more enjoyable for me, but for now I don't know if I have particular plans to return to her and dig any further with it because I don't think I ever figured out where I wanted her to fit story-wise. She's also... probably generally suffering from my seeming preference for my tech class characters, lol. I think the repeated tracks in how Jedi and Sith characters tend to run sort of wears me out of them a little faster - ground that's already well-paved and well-traveled and all that, which might sound ironic because Star Wars is maybe about the laser sword people for... maybe most Star Wars fans, but... I digress, I think. xD

So! Anyway! Leo! Speaking of my tech classes, lol! Leo, Leo, Leo... I do love Leo... Now, I know there's some common giggles for the smuggler's methodology being kinda fucking around and finding out without finding a single goddamn thing out, but I think... I do really enjoy Leo because he's not... exactly in all of the smuggling business by choice. Leo is both... terribly devoid of confidence in his life, and the kind of character that tends to at least act like things are... alright, at least. He's not at all a plans man. He's not good at plans. Sometimes he'd feel as if he's barely got the week figured out, let alone five or ten years out from now.

And I think maybe especially with given how this year has panned out so far for me, there's maybe something a little comforting in that as well. Like I do love to say he's my disaster, don't get me wrong. It's a lot of his charm to me that I can't emphasize enough that he's... wildly imperfect. And he struggles a lot.

But Leo's like 27 at the beginning of the class stories, if I remember correctly, and life hasn't worked out... really at all how he may have ever planned - not that he was ever a plans man to begin with, again. And... there's something comforting in the potential narrative that it still works out for him in the end, anyway. Because I'm... changing a lot right now, to be brief, lol. I'm looking at changing my entire focus path in life and finally facing the prospect of moving away, of eventually moving out of a job and a job field I've been at for almost five years. Not to be too deep on main, but that can be pretty terrifying sometimes.

And I'm not sure Leo even knows how afraid he is. Of... a lot of things, frankly. In the same briefly aforementioned from an answer or two ago conversation with a friend on Discord, I poked a little at how Leo's... actually kind of afraid of how he got into smuggling in the first place. It wasn't a good deal for him. He fucked around and found out, in the simplest terms. Leo's likely piloting smuggling operations now because he owes the Black Sun. Big. For not knowing how to keep his mouth shut, essentially, on Coruscant. When Leo was first trying to find his feet after Dash helped him defect after Begeren, he picked up sort of whatever odd jobs he could once he sort of found his feet again just so he had any kind of income that might justify him living in Dash's apartment. And that... sorta kinda accidentally-but-not led Leo into picking a few fights sometimes with thugs and gangs in the Lower Levels because Leo, at least, knew which end of a blaster was the barrel a plasma bolt came out of after surviving a couple years of service in the Imperial Army. And the kind of people he tended to be doing odd jobs for were people who didn't have a lot - a lot like himself. People who didn't always know where their next credits were going to come from. People that got caught in the crossfire of a rock and a hard place between a Republic that was maybe a bit too busy to solve their problems without a lot of red tape, and criminal groups like the Black Sun and the Justicars that robbed what little they had left and would call it "security."

The problem is that Leo proved pretty good at getting into shit he didn't belong in and getting into places he didn't belong in - and... arguably, that saved his life. Because rather than kill him for the claimed "losses" and "defamation," he was "offered" the job of smuggling for them. Arm twisted behind his back, really, lest he either get himself killed, or have to fess up to Dash he'd gotten himself in bigger trouble than he could handle himself, or both, or worse. The other problem for Leo is that Dash was rightfully getting called a hero for what happened on Begeren. Dash's got his whole life ahead of him. Leo, on the other hand, has always been particularly skilled at shooting fairly decent chances in both toes like a bad line dance in a backwater cantina.

Which is why Leo is still historically horrendously bad at asking for help. And he'll try every which way to deflect the fact that he probably should - except he's... kinda shit at actually deflecting because it's not that he's exactly a liar, or a decent one, at any rate - not to someone that actually matters to him. Not someone like Dash, whose only ever been good to him, even when Leo can't see the reason why he'd do such a damned thing.

Leo's afraid of his past catching up to him, of the kind of... boogeymanification he's made of word getting back to his father that he's still alive and that he fled to Republic space instead of dying as would've been convenient for a family disgrace like himself. And I'm not sure he's ever been really straight enough with anyone about just how deep he is in how he started smuggling to realize he's scared of that getting him killed sometimes, too.

He's kinda... still gotta figure out that he can get himself out of that kind of cycle. That it is okay, ultimately - that he doesn't need to be so hard on himself. That he both needs to realize he is holding himself to the same standards that hurt him and that he loathes having been set for him by how he grew up, and that he doesn't owe anything to those standards either way. Part of that journey is letting himself love Dash and be true to that, to actually pursue that. But I think he's got a lot left to unpack yet and I think... probably by the end of it, he'll feel he owes an apology to people like Dash and Liv for keeping 'em waiting so long on him to figure it out, and how atrociously stubborn he could be about not getting helped along the way there.

But he's capable of getting there. There's a happy ending in there somewhere for him. And I'm glad to be able to see the journey there.

[charlieirons]

A Long Time Ago in a Theatre Far, Far Away....

Like so many I am a big lover of Star Wars. Unlike so many, though, I'm an original 77er; having seen the film first run. In point of fact I've see all three movies first run.

Naturally I soaked up everything Star Wars as a boy. EVERYTHING. Which included From Star Wars to Jedi: The making of a Saga; included in the then 25th anniversary VHS box set. (Which, like many early interviews with Lucas, revealed that there was no actual plan for all the films, as later claimed.)

In this clip, narrated by a very young Mark Hamill, we get a glimpse into the making of the various creatures that inhabit the palace of Jabba the Hut; nefarious gangster of Tatooine; with a very interesting reveal about Jabba's development history...

One of the more fascinating things for me is the development Sy Snootles and The Rebo Band. I have always enjoyed their hit song, that appeared in Return of the Jedi "Lapti Nek".

The clip above also features one of the two music tracks I still don't own from the original series; Lapti Nek (English version) whose lyrics where penned by Joseph Williams, son of John Williams, and translated into Hutteese. It's available on the original soundtrack, as well as various out of print side projects, and - obviously - Mecco's huge disco hits album. But my favorite cover is by Rue Mevlana; who adds a much appreciated modern 21st century flair to the whole of the thing.

[avoid-avoidance]

Maybe the Boonta Eve Classic’s official racing archives are pay-to-view, with the fees going to the Hutts. Naturally Luke wouldn’t want to pay anything more to the Hutts than survival on Tatooine absolutely demands, especially when word-of-mouth can teach him about the history of podracing just as well.

Except so many Hutts and other powerful figures lost big on their wagers thanks to Skywalker Sr.’s surprise win back then, that that particular season’s Classic results are kind of taboo to discuss - because you never know who might be listening and be pissed-off at the reminder of all that lost money due to a kid who by conventional wisdom should NOT have even finished the race, let alone won it.

(This post also gives me the hilarious idea of Luke running into Sebulba or a descendant of Sebulba’s, who is still bitter over the loss.

Sebulba or Sebulba Jr: I hated your dad and I hate you too.

Luke: (Has heard this many times before because Vader) Understandable, Darth Vader hurt and killed many—

Sebulba or Sebulba Jr: no not like that—)

It’s so crazy that Luke Skywalker thought his dad was just some freighter pilot and yet also claimed to be a podracing fan how did he not think to look at the records and see his dad was the only human to ever win the Boonta Eve Classic the legend who defeated the great Sebulba #FakeFan

[dorkydegeneracy]

Oh, no! How dare the show give significant characterization to somebody other than the one main character! I mean, so what if this is an original character who needs to be developed, right?

First of all, I don't mind them building on the characterization of other characters.

For example: We built on the Obi-Wan and Leia relationship. Now it makes much more sense why Leia sent R2 to Tatooine to ask Obi-Wan for help. Some parts of the Leia reconnaissance mission were stupidly goofy (trench coat, chasing her through the woods) but the relationship that her and Obi-Wan built throughout the show is touching and valuable to the Star Wars story.

Another character we built on was Vader. We got to see his brute strength, and his attachment to Obi-Wan. Palpatine hit it right on at the end when he called Vader out for being unsettled about Obi-Wan. He's still pissed, and his emotions about Obi-Wan compromise his position in the Empire.

Even the stuff we learn about Owen Lars and his hesitancy to let Obi-Wan have a relationship with Luke. Great stuff!

All are good characterization of what amount to side characters in a show called Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I don't even necessarily have a problem with Reva's backstory as a former Padawan turned inquisitor who is pissed at Vader/Anakin or even Obi-Wan. Not my preferred story, but sure, I'll buy it.

But her surviving Vader's lashing on Jabim really marks the beginning of an irresponsible handling of the canon.

It is stupid for her to know about Luke's parentage. Not only does it diminish the sacred nature of the greatest secret in the whole entire story, but it makes THE Obi-Wan Kenobi look like a dumbass. He's not forgetting that comlink. It's too important, and even a weaker version of Obi-Wan would not be so callous.

And then she proceeds to hike it to Tatooine where she attempts to kill Luke. But why? As Obi-Wan points out at the end, it is entirely hypocritical for her to do that considering what Vader did to her. She's doing it presumably to get back at Anakin, but that assuming (a) he knows that Luke and Leia are alive and (b) that Vader gives a duck about his kids, seeing as he is supposed to be corrupted by the Dark side of the force.

Is she doing it to piss Obi-Wan off? They sort of patched their relationship up last week, which was rushed, and diminishes the believability of her motivations because I thought that she was pissed at Anakin for trying to kill her and Obi-Wan for enabling his ultimate fall. But then she sets aside her hatred for Obi-Wan so she can have a shot at Vader.

And he's Obi-Wan fucking Kenobi. He's as faithful to the light side as they come, so what makes you think that Kenobi will not be able to overcome yet another tragedy if you kill Luke?

And even after all of that, Obi-Wan gives her a pep talk and lets it slide? I understand that Kenobi is The Negotiator and is well known for his dislike of violence, but come on Obi-Wan. This lady, if anything, has proven herself to be a loose canon. She knows the greatest secret in Star Wars history. She's gotta be handled outta his love for the mad that Anakin Skywalker was and his duty as a Jedi.

Everything to do with Reva in the last two episodes was just really bad decision making. People who have even a holistic understanding for the franchise and the story that Star Wars continues to create should be disappointed about how her story devolved.

You can like the character, or the actress and still valid complaints about how her story was handled.

[svgoceandesigns1]

Star Wars Visit Tatooine SVG - Droid Sale Every Week SVG PNG, Cricut File

Star Wars Visit Tatooine SVG, Droid Sale Every Week SVG PNG EPS DXF PDF, Cricut File, Instant Download File, Cricut File Silhouette Art, Logo Design, Designs For Shirts. ♥ Welcome to SVG OCEAN DESIGNS Store! ♥ ► PLEASE NOTE: – Since this item is digital, no physical product will be sent to you. – Your files will be ready to download immediately after your purchase. Once payment has been completed, SVG Ocean Designs will send you an email letting you know your File is ready for Download. You may also check your Order/Purchase History on SVG Ocean Designs website and it should be available for download there as well. – Please make sure you have the right software required and knowledge to use this graphic before making your purchase. – Due to monitor differences and your printer settings, the actual colors of your printed product may vary slightly. – Due to the digital nature of this listing, there are “no refunds or exchanges”. – If you have a specific Design you would like made, just message me! I will be more than glad to create a Custom Oder for you. ► YOU RECEIVE: This listing includes a zip file with the following formats: – SVG File (check your software to confirm it is compatible with your machine): Includes wording in both white and black (SVG only). Other files are black wording. – PNG File: PNG High Resolution 300 dpi Clipart (transparent background – resize smaller and slightly larger without loss of quality). – DXF: high resolution, perfect for print and many more. – EPS: high resolution, perfect for print, Design and many more. ► USAGE: – Can be used with Cricut Design Space, Silhouette Cameo, Silhouette Studio, Adobe Illustrator, ...and any other software or machines that work with SVG/PNG files. Please make sure your machine and software are compatible before purchasing. – You can edit, resize and change colors in any vector or cutting software like Inkscape, Adobe illustrator, Cricut design space, etc. SVG cut files are perfect for all your DIY projects or handmade business Product. You can use them for T-shirts, scrapbooks, wall vinyls, stickers, invitations cards, web and more!!! Perfect for T-shirts, iron-ons, mugs, printables, card making, scrapbooking, etc. ►TERMS OF USE: – NO refunds on digital products. Please contact me if you experience any problems with the purchase. – Watermark and wood background won’t be shown in the downloaded files. – Please DO NOT resell, distribute, share, copy, or reproduce my designs. – Customer service and satisfaction is our top priority. If you have any questions before placing orders, please contact with us via email "support@svgoceandesigns.com". – New products and latest trends =>> Click Here . Thank you so much for visiting our store! SVG OCEAN DESIGNS Read the full article

[starstwinkleplanetsshine]

The Call of Resistance Chapter 9

I know it's been a long time, but I still love this story and will keep adding to it whenever I have time! So here's the next chapter!

Read on AO3

Chapter 9: The Stardestroyer

It took everything in me to keep walking towards the Millennium Falcon, my head was screaming at me to turn around. But my heart was steady, set, determined. It had waited for this moment my entire life, and I could hear it pounding in my ears as I took each step. The suns were already beginning to scorch the sands, reminding me with every moment beneath their wrathful gaze why I was leaving this planet behind. The suns represented everything Tatooine was–unforgiving, relentless, unbearable, barren, vengeful–and everything I wanted to escape. I let the sweat on my brow fuel me and remind me why I was leaving. Just a few more steps…

“Good morning!” Poe’s voice called me out of my head and made me look up at the ship I was walking towards. 

“I was beginning to worry you got lost.” 

“Me getting lost? You’ll learn that never happens.” The extreme bravado and swagger in his voice made me wonder if he was covering for something, and this suspicion was only strengthened as Chewie said something to him that seemed to be a chastisement. I shared a knowing look with the Wookiee after Poe quickly shushed him. 

“And why don’t I believe you?” Poe glared at Chewbacca once more. 

“You should always believe me, Sweetheart.” I raised my eyebrows at the pilot as I took my first steps onto the platform. 

“For some reason, that doesn't reassure me.” Poe just shook his head, but I could see a glimmer in his eye. 

“You’ll see.” Was all he said until I was standing in front of him. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come on in.” The pilot and the Wookiee turned around, not before Chewie gave me a welcoming greeting, and walked into the Falcon. It seemed so natural for them, so mundane. As common as walking into a cantina. How could they not see that this was not the same as walking into any old ship, this was walking into history. This was walking into my future. 

I took a shaky breath, stole a glance at the sands behind me and the suns above me, said a silent goodbye, and followed their lead into the ship. 

It was just as I remembered it, if not a little messier. 

“Been doing a lot of repairs?” I called into the empty open space just inside the doors. I couldn’t see where the two of them went. 

“We’re always doing repairs on this ship.” I heard Poe’s voice call from one of the hallways, followed by a disgruntled phrase in Shyriiwook. “I know, I know. Sorry Chewie, but you gotta admit this bucket of bolts has seen better days.” This time Poe’s voice was gentler, clearly trying to right any offense that had just taken place. Chewie seemed to agree with this, and I found the two just as he was replying. I cleared my throat as I entered the hallway. “Ah, there you are.” Poe turned to me and I was struck all over again by his deep eyes. 

“Sorry, I was…” how could I explain that I was taking a moment to say goodbye to everything I had ever known? That I was bidding farewell to the suns that had raised me, the sands that had shaped me? The only being in the galaxy who truly knew me? “Lost.” 

“Ya, the Falcon can be a bit confusing. Sorry about that, we should’ve waited for you.” 

An interjection by the Wookiee. 

“Actually, I thought I asked you to wait for her, so who's fault is it really?” 

“Oh it's okay, I didn’t mind.” I could tell the two were about to argue, and I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of it. This didn’t stop Chewbacca from grumbling out one last defense, to which Poe just sighed deeply and quickly shook his head. 

“Well, regardless, welcome back. We should be ready to take off pretty soon, are you good to go?” 

No. 

“I was ready twenty three years ago.” the pilot broke into a smile. 

“That’s what I like to hear. Follow us.” The two led the way to the cockpit and settled into the pilots chairs. I felt odd as I sat in the empty seat behind Chewbacca, I had never been in a ship without being the one in control, even when I was little I sat on my mother’s lap and put my hands over hers as she steered. Poe and the Wookiee began making the preparations to take off, the two falling into their routine like it was second nature to them. It was fascinating to watch both of them work. Chewbacca had the nonchalance and confidence of someone who had been in this position a thousand times, it was so routine to him that he flipped every switch and checked every screen almost as if it were an old habit. Poe, on the other hand, had the ease of someone who was a complete natural. It wasn’t the assured confidence that comes with time, but the innate instinct that comes from deep inside someone. Watching him settle into his position as a pilot was mesmerizing, and I almost forgot I was about to leave the only place I had ever known. It was the pilot's voice that brought me back to reality. 

“Flight prep complete, hyperspace calculations running, ready for launch on your go.” 

A confident reply from Chewbacca. 

“Great, let's leave these sands behind us.” 

Suddenly my stomach was doing flips and everything inside of me was telling me to run off the falcon and bury myself in the sands and stay there forever. But despite the fear and uncertainty, despite my churning stomach, I felt a still, small pull inside like a magnet drawing me up, to the stars. A still, small voice whispering so faint I almost missed it, “finally”. 

“Say your final goodbyes, Nova, because we’re about to go.” As soon as he finished those words I felt the Falcon roar with energy, with life. With a jerk, we were off the ground and I could see it get farther and farther as the sky became closer and closer. I pushed down the knot in my stomach and breathed out one final goodbye, and to my surprise the faintest “thank you” escaped my lips. The two in front of me pretended not to hear, although I could see Poe’s face morph into the slightest smile. I didn’t know who I was thanking, the earth I grew up on? The suns that baked me into who I am? The sand that was a part of my very being? The desert that flowed through me? Lux for being my best friend? Maybe all of it. I was so overwhelmed as we lifted higher and the sky around us became darker. A part of me wished I could’ve seen my home as we ascended, but another part was glad I couldn’t so that I was only focused on my next steps, my future. Before long we were making the unmistakable transition from atmosphere to space, my favorite thing about flying, and I was hit all at once with the reality and finality of my actions. I couldn’t do anything but stare at the stars ahead. 

After a while, Poe spoke again. 

“Hyperspace calculations complete. Course set for the base.” He then turned to look at me, “have you ever been in hyperspace before?” I could only shake my head, hoping he couldn’t tell that I was exploding inside. “Oh, you’ll love it. Some people get a little sick, but I think you’ll be fine. Hold on!” He looked to Chewbacca who nodded before letting out an excited exclamation and activating the lever that sent us into hyperspace. I couldn’t do anything but gasp as the stars stretched around me, forming the most beautiful tunnel of blue streaking light I had ever seen. It was like a million shooting stars all at once were frozen yet in constant motion around me. For what seemed like the embarrassing millionth time today, I felt a tear roll down my cheek that I quickly wiped away. I told myself it was because of the beauty, but I knew it was really because this marked the end of my life on Tatooine and the beginning of my new one. In a moment, we were already thousands of lightyears away, in an instant we were an incomprehensible distance from the only home I had ever known.

Suddenly it was all very, very real. And I knew there was no going back. 

We sat in silence for a while, my eyes fixed on the swirling blue around me, occasionally watching the two pilots as they worked. Before long, Poe took his headset off and turned his head to Chewbacca, 

“We should be good to put it on autopilot for a while, our path is pretty clear.” The Wookiee responded in agreement before pushing some buttons and then taking his own headset off. Poe swirled around in his chair to look at me.

“How are you feeling? Still good?” It took all my willpower to pull my eyes away from the hyperspace swirling outside the cockpit window. 

“More than good, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” A wide smile crept onto Poe’s face. 

“I knew you’d love it.” He stood up and then extended his hand towards me. “Wanna tour?” I took his offer before even realizing it, ignoring the fireworks in my fingers as my hand touched his and he helped me out of the seat. 

“Of course!” I didn’t try to mask my giddiness, just being in this ship made me feel like all of my childhood dreams were becoming real and it was as if I was a little kid again, listening as my mothers stories came alive. 

He showed me around the Falcon for a while, I didn’t try to keep track of time as we wandered through the winding hallways and cluttered rooms. He told me stories from his adventures on the ship, and I asked question after question. I kept having to pinch myself to remind myself I was really there, standing on the same floor that countless heroes of the rebellion have stood on before me. I was beaming the whole time. 

  After a while Poe led me to an open room with a Dejarik table, a bench, and mismatched equipment strewn about. I gladly sat down on the bench behind the holochess board, I had been on my feet for quite some time.

“Do you play?” Poe sat on the other side of the bench and put his hands on the table. 

“I never have, no. They have these at a few of the cantinas but they’re not exactly friendly spaces to learn.” He let out a small chuckle. 

“You don't have to tell me that. Do you want to play? I can teach you.” 

“Oh I know how, I’ve watched a lot of matches. I’ve just never gotten the chance to practice.” 

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” He gave me a wicked smile as he flipped a switch and holographic monstrous creatures appeared on the board. “Pick four.” Was all he said. 

“Bring it on.” 

It was a close game, but Poe won on the last move and was not at all a humble victor. I swore that I would beat him next time and reminded him that it was only my first time playing and I had already almost beaten him. 

“Well, we’ll see about that, sweetheart.” I instinctively crinkled my nose at the nickname, as it was one of my least favorite things in the galaxy to be called. “What?” The pilot asked with genuine concern. 

“It’s just that…” I hesitated for a moment, not sure how to say what I was feeling. “I hate being called that. “Sweetheart”. Just some bad memories, I guess.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Poe’s eyes softened as he looked at me. “I’ll think of something else to call you, then.” The playful gleam in his eye had returned, but the softness was still there. 

“Or you could just call me Nova, you know like, my name?” He scoffed as he stood up. 

“But where’s the fun in that?” I rolled my eyes at him but let out a small laugh. “I’m gonna go work on some minor repairs, they shouldn’t take long. Feel free to wander around, just don’t get lost. And don't break anything.” 

“Are you sure you don’t need help with the repairs?” Poe smiled kindly, if not a little arrogantly. 

“I’ll be fine. See you in a bit, Tatooine.” I cocked my head at him and narrowed my eyes. 

“I’m not sure if I like that one either.”

“Too bad, because I love it.” And without looking back, he walked out of the room and down a hallway. 

I sat there for a few minutes just processing all that had happened today before getting up and walking down a hallway that I thought would lead me back to the cockpit. At the moment that was the only spot I knew on the ship where I could see out into space, so I wanted to go back there and watch the stars. I took a couple of wrong turns and had to backtrack quite a bit, but eventually I found my way back. It was empty when I walked in, so I sat in the right pilot's seat, where Poe had sat during take off. My preferred seat. We were still in hyperspace so there wasn’t much to look at besides the tempestuous blue and white tunnel all around me, but I was still mesmerized by it. I sat there for a long while, letting the beauty and enormity of it wash over me, thinking about how every step I had ever taken had led me to this very moment. If I was quiet enough, and I listened hard enough, it was almost as if I could hear my mothers voice, faint but undeniable, whisper that she was proud of me. It was almost as if–

Suddenly lights were flashing and beeping erupted in the cockpit. There was an error message blinking on one of the screens in a strange dialect of binary I had never seen before, but I could still read. I had just figured out that it said we were making an emergency jump out of hyperspace when the streams of blue around me shortened, froze, and then suddenly vanished. Seemingly out of nowhere I was surrounded by darkness, stars, and the largest starship I had ever seen in my entire life. 

I knew what it was the moment I saw it. 

A star destroyer.

[burnwater13]

Three members of the tribe of Sand People who captured and trained Boba Fett (out of frame) in their ways, on Tatooine. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Episode 2, The Tribes of Tatooine. Calendar by DataWorks.

Grogu was confused. Why did people call the Sand People, Tuskens? The fort they attacked was Fort Tusken. Not the people. And why call their language Tusken? Again, the Sand People didn’t call themselves Tusken, why would they all their language Tusken? It didn’t make sense. 

Of course calling them Sand People wasn’t great either. They lived on a planet that was mostly sand, but as far as he could understand, after speaking with Daimyo Fett and his dad, Din Djarin, they didn’t refer to themselves as Sand People any more than they called themselves Tuskens. 

Grogu understood how people wanted to call them something. You couldn’t just call them ‘Hey, you!’, or ‘Buddy’, although people often called Grogu those names. Most folks didn’t know the name of his species or where they were from or what they called their language. But they didn’t just make up a bunch of names for all that. So what was the difference? 

He went to the Daimyo and asked him. After all, Boba Fett had been welcomed into a tribe of Sand People after saving one of their children and defending them against spice runners. If anyone would know it would be him, right?

“Sorry little one. I didn’t spend that much time with them and I was an adult who was very focused on surviving. I know many of their customs now and some of their language, but I never learned their history, other than to say, that they are native to Tatooine. While I have not been on every planet of the galaxy, I can say, I’ve never met Sand People anywhere but here.”

Womp rats!

“Perhaps you should ask Fennec. She travelled even more widely than I have and may have insights that I lack, despite the time I spent with my tribe.”

Grogu considered that for a moment and decided to follow the Daimyo’s advice. He trotted out of the throne room and went to find Fennec. Given all the things she did to support palace operations, she could be almost anywhere. 

He tried her suite of rooms first. Nope. Then the kitchens. Nope. Then the garage. Nope. The detainment cells. Nope. Grogu was running out of places to go and energy to go there, when he decided to go down and talk to the rancor trainer. Maybe he’d seen the wily administrator? It was a long shot but Grogu was willing to give it chance because he just liked visiting the rancor and his trainer. 

When he reached the rancor’s enclosure neither Fennec, nor Ranky’s trainer were anywhere to be seen. Grogu sat down and grumbled. Technically he wasn’t supposed to go into the enclosure and just hang out with the rancor unless another person was present. So this was extra disappointing. 

“Young Jedi… what troubles you?”

Grogu looked around and didn’t notice anyone and then he looked up. Yup. It was one of the monk’s of B’omarr, being carried by one of the mechanical ‘spiders’. 

Grogu tried to explain his question to the monk. They had lived on Tatooine for a long time and communed with nature and the Force through a process he did not fully understand. Their way was not the way of the Jedi; he knew that much.

“Ahhh… They were here before us. They were here before many. It is /believed that the ocean’s of Tatooine were their home for millennia. But there was a disruption in the Force and the oceans slowly left Tatooine, causing these people to change as dramatically as their planet. Many did not survive the changes. Such is the way for all who take action but do not understand what their actions will lead to. They did the best they could. We find them to be a marvel and try not to affect them. When we arrived we gave them many gifts as they gave us the gift of the land, upon which our monastery still exists. That is why Jabba let us remain. If we had been pushed out there would be no agreement with the People and this dwelling would be gone. Does that satisfy?”

Grogu nodded his head. He still didn’t know what they called themselves, but that didn’t seem to matter as much now. He supposed he could always ask his dad to ask them the next time they met, whenever that was.

“They call call themselves ‘The People’ and call everyone else ‘The Visitors’. They have at times yearned for a time when there are no ‘Visitors’ but that has slowly changed. Now many of the People call the ‘Visitors’ the ‘Younglings’. Like children they are… excitable, confident, and impatient. Some, like your friend the Daimyo and your guardian, are given names to show that they have grown from younglings to something like your Jedi term padawan.”

Grogu smiled at that. He was glad that his dad and the Daimyo were honored like that, but then he had one more question.

“You. They call you ‘The Jedi’. Make of that what you will. I must go now.”

‘The Jedi’? Well, that made sense. He was a Jedi. How the Sand People knew that was just another question he wanted answered. But then, Jedi were taught that every question did not need to be answered at once and that many might never be answered at all. He could hear Master Yoda telling all the younglings, that their questions would be answered in due time, if the Force willed it to be so, or words to that affect. He just hoped the Force might want it to be so sooner rather than later. He hated being kept in suspense. It always messed with meal time.

[mandos-mind-trick]

Instinct - Part 9

Summary: Omegas were rare. Some even thought them extinct. So when Boba contacts Din saying he has a gift Din can’t refuse, the last thing he expects to find is an omega in need of an alpha. Din has to make the hard decision, but what else was he really doing anyways? But naturally, there’s more to this omega than meets the eye.

Pairing: Din Djarin x OC

Warnings: Some violence, PTSD, Boba being Boba. 

A/N: Wow, two in one week. I’m super inspired so maybe more?

< Previous | Next > | MASTERLIST | Reader Version

She grunts as she hits the ground once more. She’s covered in dirt and grass stains, her muscles aching with every impact. Training with Fennec on Tatooine had been hard, even with her pulling her punches. 

Din doesn’t hold back. 

“No one’s going to go easy on you just because you’re a woman.” He says, circling her as she pushes herself back to her feet. She’s tired and sore, the sun close to setting. They’d been at this all day. “If they want to hurt you, they will. That’s why you need to learn to defend yourself. Why you need to learn to tap into those omega instincts.” 

“I told you I don’t know how.” She says, pushing herself up to stand, brushing grass off her pants. 

“If you feel threatened, your omega will defend you.” He stills facing her, her back to the ship. 

“Well, maybe I just don’t feel threatened by you.” She huffs, getting tired of his constant warnings, his constant reminders that her omega should protect her. 

She can practically see the change in him with her words. His shoulders tense, squaring up, hands clenched into fists at his sides. He looks ready to spring at any moment. This must be what his quarries see when he’s hunting. A prime alpha ready to catch its prey. Her omega shifts inside her, telling her to turn tail and run. 

She makes it around the side of the ship, heading for the treeline when he reaches her. His arms slip around her, lifting her feet off the ground. She lets out a yelp, her back hitting the grass once more. 

He drops over her, caging her in with his arms. “Running’s good, but it only helps if you can get away.” 

She makes a face. “I told you, I don’t know how to do this.” 

He leans down, pressing his helmet against her forehead. “You need to know. What if I’m not there to protect you?” 

She gives him a grin. “Then you’ll just have to make sure you are.” 

She squeals as he wraps his arms around her, lifting her off the ground with ease. 

****

His fingers brush her side again, running over the blaster tucked under her shirt. There’s a vibroblade tucked into her boot, and another up her sleeve. He’s a bit apprehensive about bringing her along, but he knows he can’t keep her shut in the ship all the time. Plus, this should be an easy hunt. It’s a decently sized city with plenty of eyes. It’s not a place where things like this happen often, so he’s less worried about something happening to her. 

“Don’t engage unless you have to.” He says, eyes sweeping over the busy street. “He likely won’t be alone.” 

“I don’t even remember what this guy looks like.” Kai says, warily looking at every passing face. 

“Hopefully he doesn’t remember you.” Din says, making his way towards the cantina where his quarry is said to frequent. 

He stops in an alley facing the cantina doors, leaning against the wall. Kai leans next to him with a sigh. She’s a bit nervous. She’s never been on a hunt before, much less one that’s for someone that has a history with her. It’s exciting, but it’s also terrifying. 

“How long do you think?” She asks, looking up at Din. His gaze is turned towards the cantina. 

“Don’t know.” He answers. “He’s either inside already, or he’ll be arriving soon.” 

“And so we wait.” She says. It’s not much of a question. She knows going inside would be too much of a giveaway. The man would likely bolt as soon as he saw them. They had to be sneaky about this. The less of a scene they could cause, the better. 

She sighs again as she leans against the wall, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. It was going to be a long wait. If he was already inside, he’d likely be there for a while. Din is practically unmoving next to her, like a predator stalking prey. He could stand for hours doing nothing. She was not used to that. She feels antsy, like she needs to do something. 

Din tenses next to her, a subtle movement, but she picks it up. She stands up a little straighter, peeking around him. “There.” He says, nodding towards a group that’s entering the cantina. 

“That’s a lot of them.” She says, counting six total. “What do we do?” 

“Wait.” He says. “Give them time to settle in.” 

Kai lets out a sigh, leaning against the wall once more. “Is every hunt like this?” She asks. 

“No.” He says, still facing the cantina. “Not all of them are this easy to find, either.” 

Kai looks up, studying the blue sky. It’s nice to be outside, breathing fresh air. She takes in a deep breath, letting the exhale extend as she closes her eyes. 

“Everything okay?” Din asks, glancing over his shoulder at her. 

“Yeah.” She says, opening her eyes once more. “Just nice to be outside. I do miss Tatooine sometimes, but I don’t miss the heat.” 

“We could go back.” He says, facing the cantina once more. “Just say the word, and we’ll leave this and go back.” 

Kai stares at his back for a long time. Part of her wants to say it. Part of her wants to go back, be with Boba and Fennec where it’s safe. She knows, though, they can’t give up yet. These men did horrible things to her and she can’t be the only one. She won’t be the only one if they don’t stop them. 

Din tenses again, hand falling to his waist. Kai peeks around him again, five of the men that had entered the cantina with their target have exited, blasters in hand as they look around. 

“Someone must have tipped him off.” Din says, gripping her arm. “Get back to the Crest. Comm me when you get there.” 

Kai wants to argue, but she knows she’ll only be a liability in this fight. She can’t fight. She’s a decent shot, but that won’t do much good here. 

“Go.” Din almost commands, his alpha creeping into the edges of his voice. 

Kai has no choice but to turn, making her way down the alley. She keeps her pace quick, but she doesn’t run, not wanting to draw attention to herself. The last thing she needed to do was draw attention, causing more trouble than Din probably was. 

The sound of blaster fire has her pace stuttering a bit. Those still on the street look around, looking for the source. 

Things like this don’t happen here. 

Din had told her that when he’d said she could come with him. This was a decent place, where fights didn’t break out constantly on the street. Perfect cover for someone looking to hide something dark. 

Kai picks up her pace even more, trying to calm her breathing. The quicker she could get back to the ship, the sooner she could relax. She could comm Din, hear his voice, make sure he’s alright. She trusts him and his abilities, but five against one...those weren’t exactly favorable odds. He’d been in worse situations, though. He’d told her a bit about his adventures before he’d met her. He’d made it with worse odds. 

Maybe they should go back to Tatooine. Maybe this was a bad idea. 

Kai turns a street corner, picking up her pace even more as she sees the spaceport in front of her. She’s given up calming her breathing, feeling something tickling in the back of her mind. There had only been five that came out of the cantina. Where was the other one? 

Kai stops dead in her tracks as she approaches the Crest. Leaning against the side of the ship is a light-haired man. He’s leaning casually, like he was waiting for someone to arrive. Her stomach clenches, her breath catching in her throat. Her hand slowly lifts, reaching for her blaster. 

“This isn’t what I was expecting.” He says, tilting his head at her. “When the bartender tipped us off that a Mandalorian was looking for us, I didn’t expect it to be because of this.” He looks her over, making her skin crawl. “You probably don’t remember much. You were drugged out of your mind, but I remember you. You’ve grown up since then.” 

He pushes himself away from the Crest, taking a couple steps towards her. Kai’s hand is on her blaster, ready to draw it, but she can’t seem to. 

“Still a scared little omega.” He says, the title coming from him making her shudder in disgust. It feels wrong, hearing someone like him say it. 

Run. 

Her brain is screaming it. She can’t fight, she can’t even get her hand to draw her blaster. Running was what omegas did. It was their first defense. She’s in an open space. She can get back to the exit quickly. There’s people on the streets, crowds she could hide in. Wait until Din found her or found the man. 

She turns, ready to run. He’s faster than she is, her back slamming against the side of the ship as he grips her chin in his hand. He leans into her, his breath washing over her face. She’s starting to panic a bit. She feels trapped, stuck. 

Her hands close around his wrist, fingers trying to dig into his skin. “Let go.” She’s panicking, feeling closed in as his other hand rests on the ship beside her head. “Let go!” She yells, struggling against him, but he doesn’t let up. 

Suddenly she’s not in the spaceport anymore. She’s not staring at a stranger. She knows him. She remembers him. She can see him, she can see all of them. The faces of every man who had hurt her, every one of them that had taken advantage of her. She can remember every single one of them, all of them flashing through her mind. 

A sudden, strange calm feeling begins to wash over her, her panic abating. She feels warm and light, almost like she’s watching everything unfold from outside her body. It feels good. She feels safe. 

It surprises both of them when she rears back, driving both of her feet into his chest. It’s a strong enough hit to have him stumbling back. She drops on her side on the hard ground, but it doesn’t seem to phase her. She’s on her feet almost instantly, rushing at him. He doesn't have time to block her or move, her shoulder driving right into his stomach. He grunts, hitting the ground hard. 

He barely has time to roll away from her elbow as it drops, aimed for his neck. She grabs a handful of his hair, yanking him back onto his back. He yells out, hands scrambling for his blaster, but she’s faster. She’s on top of him, a blaster pointed right at his face. He doesn't have time to react, can’t even get a word out before she fires. 

“Kai-” 

She lifts the blaster at the approaching figure, firing. It takes him by surprise, bouncing off his helmet. 

“Kai, stop!” He calls out, but she fires again. He’s ready this time, dodging it. 

He rushes her, doing the only thing he can think of. He tackles her to the ground, her back hitting the ground hard, but he doesn’t have time to think about that. He wraps his arms around her, trying to keep her still. 

“Stop.” He says, putting as much of his alpha in his voice as he can. “Enough.” 

Her fighting stills, her body shuddering before going lax in his arms. Her head falls back, baring her throat to him in submission. He hates himself as he watches her, removing his hand from the back of her neck. 

Boba had been right. Her omega is strong. Strong and out of control. 

He gently strokes the back of her head as she whimpers quietly, nuzzling against him, trying to reach his neck. “It’s alright.” He soothes her, trying to push as much of his scent forward as he can. He hates doing it, but he had seen the intensity of her gaze when she’d looked at him. There was no one there but her omega. Nothing but pure instinct driving her forward. 

He wishes he knew more about omegas. More about how to help her. 

There still are some who could help. 

He pushes the thought from his head. It would be a risk. He knows he’ll have to face it eventually, but he doesn’t want to do that to her. Not right now, when she was in such a delicate space. 

He stands, holding her in his arms. The sun is setting, painting the sky above them a bright orange. She’s limp, riding the wave of calm he had forced into her. He ignores the body behind him, carrying her into the ship, closing the ramp behind him. 

He lays her in the makeshift nest, wrapping her in his cloak. She reaches for him as he pulls away, mumbling incoherently. “I’ll be right back.” He says, squeezing her shoulder gently. He climbs up to the cockpit, not letting his shoulders relax until they’re in hyperspace. 

He climbs back down to the hull, stripping off his armor. He tries not to think about all the things that had gone through his head when she didn’t comm him. He had been terrified, thinking maybe she had been taken again, or worse. He feels sick to his stomach at the thought. He strips out of his flight suit, crawling into the nest beside her, wrapping his arms around her. 

****

“I saw them. I saw all of them.” 

Din wakes abruptly, disoriented. He didn’t remember falling asleep. He hadn’t meant to. The spot next to him is vacant, but still warm. The blanket is still tossed over him, but his cloak is missing. 

“I remember their faces.” 

His gaze is drawn down towards his feet, towards the end of the nest. Kai is sitting there, wrapped in his cloak. The faint blue of a holoprojector is lighting the hull of the crest. 

“How many have you found?” Boba’s gruff voice reaches his ears. 

“Just the two.” She says, sniffling. “I killed him.” 

“He would have killed you just as quickly. Or worse.” 

Kai sniffles again. “I shot him.” 

“You did what you had to. You’ve saved a lot of lives by doing it. People always get what they deserve eventually. Sometimes it’s a blaster bolt to the head. You did good, ad’ika. Let me know when you get where you’re going next.”

Kai nods. “Okay.” 

Her shoulders slump a bit as the blue glow of the holoprojector disappears. She sets it down with a clank on the metal floor, letting out a shaky breath. 

“It’s quite a feat, you know,” He says quietly. 

She turns to face him, red rimmed eyes meeting his. “What?” 

“When I started bounty hunting, I heard stories about the famed hunter Boba Fett. How ruthless and bloodthirsty he was. How sometimes his quarries would turn themselves in to avoid having a run in with him. Yet here you are, just a little omega, turning him soft.” 

Kai scoffs. “I don’t think he’s going soft. I think he’s just getting old.” 

Din wraps an arm around her waist, tugging her back so she’s laying next to him. “We’re close in age, you know.” 

She pokes his cheek. “Then that means you’re old too.” 

He playfully grumbles, wrapping his arms around her. She settles into his hold, nuzzling her face into his neck. He rubs her back gently, tilting his head back a bit to allow her to scent him. 

“Are you okay?” He asks, not wanting to bring up anything that she might not be ready to talk about yet, but he needs to ask. 

Her body stills, a shaky breath fanning across the skin of his throat. “I saw them. I saw all of them. Somehow...somehow I remember...” 

He tightens his hold around her. “I’m sorry you had to do that. I didn’t think...somehow he found out.” 

“The bartender at the cantina tipped him off.” She says. “Found out somehow.” She presses closer to him. “What if they all know? What if someone’s told them?” 

“That’s a risk we have to take.” He says. “They do have connections, or at least they all did at one point. Eventually they’re going to start taking notice.” 

Kai is quiet for a moment, so quiet he thinks she’s fallen asleep. Her breaths are steady against his skin, her own skin warm where it’s pressed against him. “Would you really go back?” 

He hums, pressing his face against her hair. 

“To Tatooine?” 

“All you have to do is ask.” He murmurs against the top of her head. 

She should ask. She knows it. She should stop this now, before it really gets dangerous. Still, there’s something in the back of her mind, something telling her to keep going. Something telling her to wipe them all out, once and for all.

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO EXO COSMIA, ANAKIN SKYWALKER. 🌑

ꕥ — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: sonica! age: 23! pronouns: she/her ooc contact: kagemiyas on twt other characters in xc: N/A

ꕥ — IC INFORMATION;

name: anakin skywalker age: 23 pronouns: he/him series: star wars ( including the clone wars animated show ) canon point: mid revenge of the sith, following anakin’s vision of the future and denial to rank of jedi master app triggers: child soldiers, child death, genocide, murder, enslavement, war

personality:

emboldened by his natural talents and ironically dubbed the hero with no fear, anakin skywalker is best known for his cocky, reckless, restless, willful, and cavalier behaviors. confident and bold, he has no need for subtlety, and often disobeyed orders in favor of his own ways of dealing with problems. his relentless determination was rivaled by none — except perhaps by that of his padawan!

despite the fratboy disease, anakin is equally selfless as he is selfish, evident in his willingness to lay down his life for others and the commitment he shows to things greater than himself, like the jedi, the republic, his friends, the 501st legion, and most importantly, his wife! however, it’s his big bleeding heart that leads him down the path towards the dark side; anakin has an incredible inability to let go of his past, heightened by his fear of losing loved ones, and his devotion can border on possessive, overprotective, and jealous tendencies. easy to anger, quick to trust, and able to justify all of his actions, his fall from grace is a trainwreck you can’t look away from.

something your muse struggles with: attachment your muse’s greatest strength: loyalty

history / background:

born on tatooine to shmi skywalker, anakin spends his early childhood building droids in a mechanic shop, podracing, and caring for his mother until he’s discovered as ‘the chosen one’ by jedi knight qui-gon jinn. ( slavery mention ) anakin goes on to win enough credits as the victor of a major podracing match to free himself to become a jedi under qui-gon’s wing; however, he’s extremely distressed to leave his mother enslaved, in spite of her wishes for anakin to seek a better life. at age 9, he vows to one day return as a jedi and free his mother.

upon qui-gon’s death at the hands of darth maul, obiwan kenobi fulfills his master’s wishes and takes on anakin as his apprentice. anakin’s exceptional skills grew into unwavering sense of confidence under obiwan, as did his attachment to his master — living a life apart from his mother and freshly losing qui-gon, anakin spent his first year as a padawan one step behind obiwan at all times, going as far as sleeping on the floor besides him to ensure his master would never leave.

ten years later, anakin and padme are reunited on coruscant after an assassination attempt was made on the monarch-turned-senator of naboo, prompting the jedi counccil to dispatch anakin and obiwan as her protectors for the time being. it’s on his very first solo mission of safeguarding padme on naboo where anakin begins to chafe against his duties as a jedi and who he is; though he and padme swiftly fall in love, padme refuses him in the name of their career paths. at the same time, anakin is troubled by visions of his mother suffering, which leads the two to back to tatooine where it’s revealed shmi has been abducted and likely dead. when anakin finally finds her in a tusken camp, she dies shortly after their reunion, and his grief and rage causes him to slaughter the entire village. he never reveals this to anyone.

the death of shmi skywalker sows the very first seeds of anakin’s decline — in vowing to become so powerful in the force to prevent his loved ones from dying, anakin begins his path towards the dark side.

the next step in his fall is definitely his secret marriage to padme amidala on naboo in between the events of attack of the clones and the clone wars!

during the early days of the clone wars, anakin serves as a jedi general in the grand army of the republic, commanding the clone troopers of the elite 501st Legion against the confederacy of independent systems. after receiving his knighthood, anakin is given his own padawan, ahsoka tano!!! he’s very resistant to the idea of an apprentice at first, but predictably, he forms another deep attachment to his padawan by the end of the clone wars.

there is so much more i can write about but his deteriorating faith in the jedi council, as well as himself as a jedi knight, leads anakin to retreat from all his allies and into the folds of chancellor palpatine (aka darth sidious). anakin becomes increasingly torn upon receiving orders in direct opposition to jedi code on top of suffering nightmares of losing his loved ones. we’re one step away from the edge baby!

powers / abilities:

force powers

telekinesis — to move or otherwise manipulate objects using only an application of the force.

mind tricks — to influence the thoughts and actions of another individual, often to the user's advantage. notably only works on weak or weakened minds. includes mind probing, which is the ability to search through weak minds.

force choke — read the tin. includes twisting, crushing, and snapping.

inherent abilities:

force sensitivity — force sensitive people can consciously sense the force (defined as an energy field created by all life that connected everything in the universe) in all organic lifeforms. it can be used to feel another being's feelings, the future, ripples in the Force caused by momentous or traumatic events, impending danger and the presence of the dark side.

most notably, the force augments anakin’s natural athleticism, allowing for speed, coordination, resistance to harm, and acrobatic maneuvers beyond natural limits, and minor acts of precognition, often taking form in the ability to determine what lay ahead in the immediate future.

items / weapons:

R2D2 — anakin’s sidekick droid that could take over the galaxy if it wanted

lightsaber — an elegant weapon for a more civilized age (laser sword)

replacement robotic arm

starting ability: telekinesis starting item: NOTHING

extra:

great aptitude for piloting, mechanics, and engineering

midi-chlorians are not real

do not approach me about the sequel trilogy for our collective sanity

discord: SKYGUY8016