#mywriting ntwyw

[notthestarwar]

Snippet

No children

He thinks that Shmi probably knows. She is far too perceptive, though she’s well used to hiding it. Cody imagines its one of those things that kept her alive all these years.

He slips occasionally, mentions something that’s yet to happen, and she gets this look in her eye. He sees it again, when something pops up on the news, that he’s already spoken about. He can see her stringing together the bits and pieces that he doesn’t intend to drop.

He doesn’t bring it up.

How do you raise such a thing?

I think you might know that I shouldn’t exist.

I think you might know that I am a time traveller.

I think you might know that I came here, meaning you harm and I think you invited me in to your house anyway, because that’s what kind of person you are. I accepted your hospitality in spite of my intentions and I’m afraid what kind of person that makes me.

-- break--

“Jango stop. I don’t want this.”

“Sometimes parents make decisions for their kids. This is what’s right.”

“It isn’t. you know it isn’t. Look at yourself.”

“I don’t need to.”

--break--

Jango wouldn’t stop. This man was not yet the man that Cody knew, before, but he was well on his way to becoming him.

Might Cody have a chance of helping him be someone better? Maybe.

But he could likely say the same of Anakin.

He could try and save Jango, at the cost of Anakins life, or, he could try and save Anakin at the cost of Jango’s own.

Jango’s life wasn’t his own. Without Jango, Cody had no brothers.

Would a good man agree to partner with the Kamineese?

If he saved Jango from himself they’d be gone all the same.

An impossible decision.

-- break--

And that's when he saw it:

A woman who’d die for her son.

A man, who’d kill for his own.

A boy, angry and alone.

Cody looked at Anakin, cowering in the doorway, and laid out in front of him, the bad path, he saw it.

And the path was a circle, around and around.

So he changed it.

He raises the blaster and aims for Jango. As Shmi screams and Anakin cries, he pulls the trigger and in doing so, puts a blaster bolt between the eyes of every brother he might have ever known.

Jango falls and to Cody’s surprise, he himself stays standing.

He holds a hand out in front of him, flipping it back and forth, expecting to see himself fade.

It doesn't happen.

“Oh.” He takes a breath, before mumbling. “I’m still here.”

Shmi looks down at Jango’s body; malnourished and thin, a hole burnt through his forehead, but undoubtedly the image of Cody all the same.

“Who was he?” She says quietly.

Cody looks in to Jango’s face. “My Father.” He admits, crouching down to close his eyes.

Shmi doesn’t question this, she only tilts her head. “Have you been born yet?” She asks, looking up. “In this timeline?”

He holds her gaze. “No, and nor have any of my brothers.” He says, swallowing. “I suppose now, they never will be.”

She takes this in, but she doesn’t thank him, for saving her family at the cost of his own. Cody thinks she probably knows that it wouldn’t be appreciated.

“What now?” She asks.

Cody looks back, towards Anakin, hiding in the shadow of the door.

“He became something terrible, in the life I lived.” Cody says, before adding; “I intend to make sure he never has reason to be that person.”

Shmi looks at him eyes wide.

Cody looks at his blaster, checking he has sufficient ammo. “Tell me, do you know where Watto keeps the remotes for your chips?” He says turning back to her.

She nods, slowly.

“Good, you can tell me on the way. If a good childhood can’t save your boy, nothing can.”

Snippet from my looper au wip no children

[notthestarwar]

does ‘the island’ also contain rats by any chance??? Will you talk about any wips you have that may feature rats? 🥺👉👈

You know all about rat island lol that's OUR baby

OK. For the uninitiated. Where to even begin lol.

So it all starts with a gremlins fueled haze. We'd watched the scooby doo movie earlier that day and au thoughts had been lit. Add codywan, my need for begrudging Anakin and cody buddy team ups, and the servers pet rat: it was a recipe for a fever dream. The gremlins music at 1am really just stoked the fire.

So the premise is: no order 66. It's post war, they're not quite at that happy ending yet. There's a feeling that they've all dodged a huge bullet. Cody is learning to live. Obi Wan has taken a sabbatical to figure things out post war. Anakin has been divorced, lost custody, and rejected the Jedi's help. He's a hot mess. He's trying to figure out who he is, in the most messy 'I'm 23 and didn't do any of this when I was 19' kind of way. He's partying. He's become a student. He's messing up in all the mundane ways that you can think of.

Then, he gets a mysterious invite to a all expenses paid resort. It's suspicious as hell, he pays that no notice. He's spiralling.

Now. The resort. Is rat themed. Don't think about that too hard. It's like Disney but it's rat themed and it's adults only so there's lots of rat bars ect and it's on an island. It's like the resort in the scoobydoo movie but it's more disneyfied and capitalist and also all of the rats are terrifying. Like. We have a storyboard of the worst rat costumes I could find (including our fav pet rat obviously) and that's the inspo we're working from here

Now if you're new to rat island you probably think that's the end. Oh no. That's just Chapter 1.

This is based on the scooby doo movie afterall. There's a sith conspiracy on the island. There's bodyswapping. AND. There's a dog.

i'm going to share 2 snippets of it. cause i love it too much to decide.

"Cody had always prided himself on his propensity for research. He was not one to walk in to a situation unprepared. As soon as they’d heard of Anakin’s trip, he’d done some digging.

Rat island was a combination of theme-park and party island, located on the beach planet: Muridae. The resort was, in its entirety, dedicated to a small mammalian creature native to the planet Eukaryota--which is not even in the same system.

Supposedly, the park was based around an ageing cartoon show that had only grown in popularity with civilians during the war, the war had brought many things, a wave of rat based nostalgia was maybe less expected than others.

Despite all his research, nothing could prepare him for the reality of it. As they leave the lander Cody finds himself in a corner of the galaxy he’s rarely had reason to imagine, let alone see. A place of over indulgence, excess and noise.

It isn’t one of the strangest places he’s found himself, Cody had seen weirder things during the war. Not many, but still, some. On one of the strangest planets. But this was maybe one of the least familiar. Kamino had never prepared him for this.

When they stepped out onto the landing platform, Obi Wan looked far too pleased. Cody only scowled.

He wished he’d listened when he was told to bring sunglasses but was utterly unwilling to admit it. Once, when he wore armour wherever he went he had a built in visor, he had tints! He squinted in the sun. Civilian life really was grim sometimes.

“Isn’t this nice.” Obi wan said, looking down at the nearby beach.

“We aren’t staying.” Cody told him shortly.

“Of course not dear, we are just here to collect Anakin.” Obi Wan agreed.

Cody gave him a suspicious side eye.

“Is the sun getting in your eyes, dear?” Obi Wan asked, tilting his head and looking at Cody through his own sunglasses, ridiculous bug eyed things.

“No. Not at all.” Cody lied.

Obi -Wan gave him a long look. Cody ignored it.

Eventually, Obi-Wan he spotted a map. “Ah look. Over here Cody. Look! There's a gift shop.”

“No.” Cody told him, flat, No gift shop.”

Obi Wan gave him a sad look.

“No.” Cody said again. He squinted at the map. “Where is the security office.”

Obi Wan sighed. “To the west.”

“Right lets go.”

Obi wan gave a pitiful sigh. Cody ignored that too.

Cody knew very well they’d be visiting one of the islands many gift shops before they left this forsaken place, there was no need for him to give in so early; Obi wan would only take advantage of such a weakness.

As they round the corner, a person dressed in a loose fitting grey costume, their whole head obscured by that of a rat, seems to pop-up out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of Cody.

“Have a Rat-tastic day!”

Cody will not be having a Rat-tastic day. He finds himself uncertain of what exactly a Rat-tastic day is, but he does know that he will most definitely not be having one."

Next, in this snippet, they finally visit the gift shop:

"Dear. Just pick a pair."

Cody continued to look at the sunglass stand in affront.

"I don't need any."

"Yes." Obi Wan gave him a stern look. "You do."

Cody gave the stand another spin, increasingly offended. "Does every pair have a rat?"

"Well…" Obi-Wan was looking towards the counter, where a sign declared that they where standing in an establishment of 'Rat-tastic Gifts'

Cody just scowled. "Why does the sun have to be so bright?" He made an irritated noise. "This place!" He huffed. "Couldn't Anakin have picked anywhere else?"

"Well, he was invited…"

"He had to accept! Who would accept an invite to Rat karking Island? Only Skywalker. Who would invite Skywalker to a Rat Island in the first place? The whole place seems like some demented way to torture people." He grumbled a few choice words under his breath.  

"Dear…" 

"Fine!" Cody picked out a pair with the least obstructive rat he could find, only a small metal rat shaped medallion on the end of each arm and a rat print that was, thankfully, reserved for the inside of the arms only.

As they made their way to the counter he caught Obi-Wan looking towards a display showing one of the worst rat costumes Cody had ever seen. It was made out of a kind of plush velveteen fabric that was quite frankly, monstrous. The thing was made of far too much material, giving it the appearance of wrinkly skin. And to add insult to the injury of having to see this thing (and see it he had, the staff in this place roamed the paths dressed in a collection of eclectic rodent outfits) the face was… The eyes. They boggled. The whiskers, were wonky. It was barely recognisable as a rat. 

"NO."  Cody managed, as he marched them to the counter. 

"Feeling ratty?" The twilek at the counter greeted with a bright smile. 

Cody swallowed a small amount of bile. "We are not." He grunted. 

The shop assistant seemed slightly caught for words, his lack of enthusiasm halting her usual script.  She looked to the sunglasses down on the counter. "Ah. Soon!" She threatened, with a smile. 

When they left the shop,  Obi Wan burst in to laughter.

"Soon!" Cody repeated. "I karking hope not. This place is like a cult."

Obi-Wan took one look at his face and burst in to renewed wheezes.

rat island is...ongoing. in the meantime, @felixeis003 has created an amazing piece of art of it here:

[notthestarwar]

Snippet from: People rarely get what they deserve

"My life was violent; my life was cruel." Cody says, getting to the heart of what Jango, presumably, has been skirting around. "I didn't deserve that."

Jango looks back at him, apparently less than peturbed.  "People rarely do."

His dismissal is as neutral as ever. It scrapes at Cody. It's not karking true! And yet, there's no telling. Not even for Cody, who knows Jango's face as well as his own, as well as every one of his brothers.

He shakes his head. "You don't believe that." He can feel his lip curling. "Of all people, Jango Fett, you don't believe that it's rare for people to deserve violent cruelty."

Jango stiffens. That's not what he meant to say. The boy knows him too well, better than he knows himself maybe. He hates it.

Cody catches it, of course he does. Even galaxies apart, Jango's body language serves as an open book to him.

Jango reigns himself in. "I've met a lot of people that do." He says simply.

Cody watches his projected form silently. Jango doesn't finish the sentence but he hears it all the same; people that deserve it. Those who deserve my cruelty, my pain.

Jango carries on, still blandly neutral. "But most people out there in the galaxy?" He shakes his head, the projection fizzing slightly as the sensor recalibrates. "They're just living their lives."

He may not be in the same room, but Cody can feel Jango's gaze, as it bores in to his own.

"They don't deserve that."  Jango tells him calmly.

He isn't wrong. Not that he sounds particularly apologetic about it.

And of course, it's Jango so he doesn't stop there. He never could help grinding his boot in that bit further.

"They don't always deserve to be spared, at the expense of another, but they don't deserve the act of cruelty itself."

Cody has had enough.

"I'm not one of those people." It's half bite half snarl. He doesn't need to stand here and participate in... whatever this is.

"You might have been." Jango says quietly.

Systems away, it still feels like he's looking in to the core of him. Cody hates it.

"That is the crime, Cody." Jango continues. "Don't forget that."

What exactly is the point of this? Like Cody doesn't know that his very creation, had been a betrayal of the person that he'd one day be.

He doesn't need Jango to tell him. He knows, and he knows that Jango knows it too.

How could he not? Jango was responsible.

"Most people don't deserve cruelty, it's the truth, and no-one is born owing it, that's for sure." Jango tells him. "You might have been different, had you been born anywhere else."

"But you were born here, and this is the life that was waiting for you. A cruelty you hadn't had a chance to earn."

"It was no accident, someone put you here, don't forget that."

"You." Cody bites. "You put me here, you put us here."

He'll grind his boot in to the wound, but he'll try and avoid ownership at this point? Cody doesn't think so. They are far past talking around Jango's betrayal, the choice he made to make them what they were when they were only children. Jango did this.

"No." Jango says and Cody thinks he might just see red. He's stunned, wordless and in his silence, Jango continues, as he always intended to do. "No I didn't. I didn't care enough to stop it, I helped it along the way."

"I didn't think saving you was worth the effort, Cody, that's not the same as believing you deserved it."

It shouldn't feel like a reprive. To know that the man he was made from, the man who in another life might have been a father to him, didn't actively betray him. To hear that it wasn't intentional on his part.

Jango didn't want this, Cody has lived a life of cruelty only because, he didn't care enough about Cody, about any of them, to bother trying to stop it. It shouldn't be a comfort.

Cody swallows. It doesn't feel like a lie, but this is Jango, Cody never could tell. "You said..."

"I said shit to make it easier." Jango spits. "I tried to kid myself."

He's looking away from the projector now. "It didn't fucking work." He admits. Looking back to the camera, to where, Cody's own projection must stand. "I tried but it never would have worked. It couldn't have. This was too wrong. I went too far. I know that and I'll have to bear that till the end."

Cody looks at Jango's image, at the lines etched in to his face, and it registers that he looks tired.

He may well be lying, he probably is. Put he's putting on a good show. This is what it would look like, were it real. Were Jango a man with regrets.

"I'm not a good man Cody. I don't need to tell you that." Jango says. "I thought it was worth it, and it wasn't."

He narrows his eyes at Cody's projection. "That shouldn't make you feel better, that should make you fucking furious."

Like Cody needs Fucking Jango Fett of all people to tell him how he should feel.

"I sacrificed your life Cody. Yours and everyone of your brothers." Jango tells him, like Cody doesn't Fucking know. "I could have tried to lessen your load but I didn't even consider it."

"Most people in the Galaxy don't deserve cruelty, they don't deserve violence, but some do. I've met more than my share. I'm one of them." Jango continues. "But listen: I was not always. No-one deserves cruelty just for being born, Cody."

"It takes a rare kid to do something bad enough to deserve that by 8. That's when it started for me. My family were killed for no damned reason and I was thrust in to war. Five years later, I'd be the leader of my people and they all died for that."

Why the Fuck was he telling Cody this? Was Cody expected to feel sympathetic? That Jango got an extra 8 years than Cody himself, before this shit came raining down on him?

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" Cody asks feeling hollow. "You were 8 standard years before violence came knocking?" He swallows. "How old was I, Jango?" He starts quiet but he can feel it building in to a roar by the time he asks; "How old were my brothers?"

Jango, to his credit doesn't try to argue. That's something Cody supposes.

He doesn't apologise though, he doesn't call it a misunderstanding, claim he misspoke. If anything he just looks confused.

"What." 

Jango shakes his head slightly. "No of course you aren't supposed to feel sorry for me. The point isn't...it's not to make you feel sorry for me."

"It's for you to see what made me the person that let this happen. Violence and cruelty that I didn't deserve, when I was far too young to ever have earnt it. That's what made me the man that didn't help you, Cody. That's what made me the man that helped make your childhood what it was."

Jango shook his head, properly this time. "I don't expect forgiveness Cody. Nobody can absolve me. Not from this, never from this. It's too late for that. I did this and I'll die guilty."

He doesn't expect it? Fucking good. He isn't getting it, not from Cody not from any of his brothers. Why was Cody listening to this, why hadn't he ended the call? Why did he even pick up?

What could Jango Fett possibly have to say to him that Cody might want to hear?

[...]

[notthestarwar]

one more and then i have to get on with things lol

but this is my favourite. we've had dentist obi wan, we've had tired coffee shop worker obi wan, get ready for: aerobics teacher obi wan

Kenobi was wearing a headband.

“What the fuck is this”

“I'm sorry?” Obi Wan said in surprise, looking up from his gym bag.

“What are you wearing?” Jango said in disbelief.

The Jedi looked down at himself, taking in the vest and fluorescent shorts and looking back to Jango with a raised eyebrow. 

“I believe it's what you'd call active wear...quite usual for a gym I assure you.” He gave a smile that was only slightly strained. “Now will you be joining the class?”

“The what?” Jango asked. 

“The exercise class.” Obi Wan replied calmly. “This is, afterall,” he gestured to the door to their left, “the hall in which I teach the 11am aerobics class.”

“Is that why you are here?” He asked. 

“No of course not!” Jango spluttered. “Why would I be here for... for that?”

“What the hell is going on here.” He asked angrily. 

Obi Wan gave him a patient smile. “As I mentioned, I'm here to lead an aerobics class.” He looked Jango up and down. “You on the other hand…”

“What.” Jango said, deadpan.

Then, he jolted slightly. “What is on your head?” He asked, baffled. 

“My head?” Obi Wan asked, slightly confused by the change in direction.

“Yes, your head.” Jango confirmed, staring at the monstrosity. In fact, it wasn’t only the headgear, he took another look at the Jedi’s outfit, garish and luminescent. There was no excuse for any of it, even in a place of exercise. The man looked like a doll.  

“Why are you dressed like that?” Jango asked him, half pleading. He just wanted to understand. 

“I thought we'd already covered that.” Obi Wan retorted. “This is a sweat band. It's part of the outfit.” He said, primly. “Now then, it's 11.02 so if you won't be joining us…”

[notthestarwar]

Snippet from: the sun will rise on us again

Against his better nature, Fox had run.

He'd run and it hadn't been enough. No matter how fast, no matter how clever, always one step ahead. His brothers are gone.

In the first days, he hadn't considered what that actually meant. He hadn't considered what losing control, what being forced to act against everything that you were, everything you always had been, would do to a person.

The war had taken Ponds from them before anything else could. That was a kindness, Fox knows that now.

He's been running and running and he's starting to think, that he's been carrying a torch in the hope of passing it on to people already dead and buried. She'd told him there would be nothing left if he didn't run. Well Fox had run, and anything that they ever had is long gone all the same.

In the first weeks of the empire, his brothers had fallen like dominoes. One by one, the empire burnt through them in a way that made the war, made Kamino, look like nothing. A week in and 3 of the guards men had survived. Thorn later fell at vaders hand. Friendly fire, nothing but a karking temper tantrum.

As the years passed and his brothers wretched back more control, a new foe plagued their ranks. Bly was the first he heard of, first chance he got; he put his blaster to his head just like he'd once done to his general.

From what he'd heard, Wolffe went the way of his jedi too, a ship exploding during a mission. It was a kindness Fox supposed, a quick death. Better than this leaden burden, this throne of nothing.

Fox had run because running might have saved them, it hadn't though, it wasn't enough. He hasn't stopped running but still, his brothers are lost to him, they lost to each other.

There is nothing left to go towards, he's just running on the spot, without them. Now there is just him. Now there is just the chase.

He finds himself sometimes, thinking of the prime. In his old age, Fox has begun to develop a strange affinity with the the shabuir, an understanding of what it means to be the heir to a dead legacy. How that feels, knowing that you can't quite put it down but you can't quite look at it all the same, how that pulls at you.

He still has no particular hunger to clone himself. To sell himself again and again, giving away any freedom he might have found to a master that would undoubtedly fuck him over. Selling himself in to a kind of slavery that would persevere long after his death.

Fox has never known freedom well enough to want to give it up for anything. Always just out of his reach. You can't give what you don't have.

Any claim the republic once had on him had died the day it burnt. But Fox now finds himself chained by his duty. By debts owed to members of a family long dead.

Fox can not rest while the empire lives. He'll burn it all down long before he lays his head to rest in whatever shallow grave his shitty attitude had more than earnt him by now.

That's the root of the problem. It's not the task itself weighing him down, it's that Fox has never been the person who should be carrying it.

Born to a galaxy that had already had enough of him, Fox has never been able to bring anything new to the table.

He's clever, but never as fast, as Cody. He's fierce, but without Wolffe's loyalty to balance it out, it serves as a disturbance rather than a asset. Bly saw the good in people, he made the most of what he had, lived each day to the fullest, but Fox has only ever been able to see the bad. It's why they stuck him on Coruscant in the first place. He's never struggled to recognise someone who's given in to their worst urges because Fox has more in common with those people than he does his brothers.

He's always known that there's something within him that's bad. Whatever was in Jango, that allowed him to be manipulated in to allowing something so terrible, that lives within Fox and he's always known it. It's deep inside him, festering as it bides its time, waiting for him to give in to it. To let it take over.

Fox isn't a good person, he came to terms with that long ago. Isn't good, but his brothers are. His brothers were good people who were made to do things they never could have done. That's why he can't stop. That's why he can't rest. He owes them this.

Even if nothing had shown him what kind of person he was before now, Fox would know it today. This is the kind of situation that can only be a punishment.

Bad things happen to good people every day, but this? This isn't just a bad thing. This is the kind of thing that only happens if you deserve it. He's sure of it.

Were Fox better, this wouldn't have happened. But Fox is bad, he's always known it, and so, rather than an every-day kind of tragic event, he's earnt himself this.

The empire are hunting him. The empire are always hunting him. But today, they have sent someone new.

Right now, Fox is being tracked by his brother, by Cody. They've primed him and pointed him in Fox's direction. He's close. He can smell Fox's blood, he can smell his fear.

Fox isn't scared of dying. He never has been. He regrets that he can't complete his mission, can't do this one thing for his brothers after everything that he's taken, but well, is it that surprising that he wasn't up to the job?

With every day that passes, when he looks in the mirror, he sees less of the vode in his face. What is left in front of him, staring back at him, calls to memory only one person. Fox looks like Jango more and more every day and he hates it.

He looks in the mirror and he sees someone cold. The kind of person that would sell children. That would let his genetic material be made in to people, people with hopes and dreams, people given no choice but to betray those hopes and dreams. People whose bodies would one day, be puppeted around like droids. Forced to watch as their hands betray them and all that they've ever loved again and again.

Fox wouldn't do that. But now, he knows how he might.

Maybe it's good that he dies here and now, at his brothers hand, before he can become the kind of person who would.

And that's the ultimate betrayal of his brothers really isn't it. The one person spared the chips control, the one person who gets to dance just outside of the empires reach, who gets to still be the person he always has been; never actually needed to be controlled to do awful things.

Here Fox is, outside of the empires reach and yet, he'll still do terrible things if he's allowed to carry on. Fox already understands why Jango did what he did. He doesn't want to know what he himself will do if he carries on living.

He'll never be at peace but maybe it's time to close his eyes all the same. To say goodnight.

He's scared but not of dying, not of pain, but of what this will do to Cody. Anything that's left of Cody anyway.

[notthestarwar]

Today is testing me so i've decided to take a minute to return to this WIP, purely because I think it's funny and know it'll make me laugh (and hopefully improve my shitty mood lol)

Background: Obi Wan and Jango find themselves locked in a kind of dreamstate? Taken out of canon and locked in a force related trap where they find themselves in one highly specific au after the other. Obi Wan has no idea, and has no memory from one world to the other, and definitely does not remember the real world. Jango does, and he is not happy. He pretty much thinks that Obi Wan is just playing games to fuck with him.

Obi Wan walked in to his office that Tuesday with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step.

“Morning Sheila!” He nodded toward the receptionist. “What've we got today?”

She blinked a little at his enthusiasm but soon moved past it. “Mostly checkups.” She told him. “Though, oh yes, you've got a root canal at 3pm and at 10, a new patient in for a check up and a scale and polish if possible.”

“Brilliant!” He smiled. 

There was a beat of silence.

“Everything OK sir?” She asked him.

“More than OK I should expect.” He told her cheerfully, shooting her another winning smile before continuing on his way to his treatment room.

-

The door opened and Obi Wan scooted around on his stool, rolling to he's face his newest patient

“Ah. Hello there!” He said cheerfully “You must be Mr Fett.”

“I'm Obi Wan and I'll be your dentist today.”

The man was frozen in the doorway. 

Oh dear, dental phobia!

Well, he certainly wasn't the first.

Obi Wan offered a kind smile. “Nothing to worry about Mr Fett, may I call you Jango?”

“If you'd be so kind to pop yourself down on this chair here that would be wonderful.”

“Kenobi. ”Mr Fett said, in a deadly serious voice. “What the Fuck is going on here.”

At this, Obi Wan does jolt a little, somewhat taken aback. “I'm sorry?”

Mr Fett was looking round the room, a look of alarm on his face. “What even is this place?” He asked. 

Obi Wan steeled himself.  “This is my consultation room Mr Fett.” He said, not unkindly. “Now if you'd just sit down in that chair there, I'll have a look at your teeth.” He smiled. “It's completely natural to be nervous but It's really nothing to worry about, I'm not even going to use any of my tools. Just my hands!”

“You're what.” Mr Fett asked, sounding alarmed. “Why do you want to look at my teeth?”

Obi Wan blinked. “ Well, I am a dentist Mr Fett. People who come here usually want their teeth looking at. Now-”

“You aren't a dentist.” Mr Fett interrupted.

Obi Wan smiled. “I can assure you I am!”

“No. You aren’t.”

“Yes.” He countered, voice beginning to betray his frustration. “ I am.”

“We aren't even here.” Mr Fett looked around the room. “Is this you? Are you doing this? Making everything look like some clinic?”

“It's a dentist office Mr Fett.” Obi Wan ground out.

part 2 (coffee shop) part 3 (aerobics teacher)

[notthestarwar]

Excerpt from the sun will rise on us again, the second in my 'Fox escapes order 66' series

Even like this. Lives diametrically different, with a empire between them. Fox knows Cody like he knows no other. The first person that he had ever laid eyes on. They'd been decanted within seconds of each other and Fox had seen once, in his medical notes, a cold and clinical account of his first moments.

The kamineese had noted, that after decantation, unlike some subjects, CC1010 had not opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling, nor had he looked around the room, as the clones enhanced sight might have allowed. Instead, some base instinct within him, had driven him to reach out to the nearest being and rather than looking up to the scientist assisting with the decantation, he'd tossed his head to the side before blinking open brand new eyes.

It was the kind of knowledge that once known, could never quite be forgotten. The tubie that would grow to be Fox, had opened his eyes while facing the subject to his left and, the scientist had noted with interest, for reasons they could maybe speculate on, but, without further study not determine for sure, he had reached out a hand towards CC2224's own, grasping it with 'a grip seemigly superior to previous batches'. They'd made note of it as 'something which would certainly need to be tested further', certainly not out of any kind of sentimentality but still, Fox got something from it that the Kamineese might never have thought him capable of. Cody had been the first person Fox had ever seen and their first instinct in life, had been to reach for each other.

Fox loved every one of his brothers. He loved them in the only kind of way that you can love the only people you'll ever be allowed to. The kamineese had installed in them a sense of duty, of service, to the Jedi, to the republic, but it could never match what they felt for each other. Something instinctual and quite accidental on the part of their cloners, but something quite unavoidable all the same. The kind of love that can never burn out. The kind that persists no matter what that person might do to you, no matter who they might become. A lasting kind of love, not put out by something as insignificant as death. It was a love that might make you run when all you want to do is fight. A love that might make you survive when all you want to do is die. One that might force you to live.

[notthestarwar]

next part of: Jango and Obi Wan stuck in AU hell

Coffee shop

“Good afternoon! Welcome to coffee2go! What can I get you today?”

His name tag may give his name as ‘Ben’ but Jango would know him anywhere. 

The polo shirt and hat may be new, but Kenobi was not. 

“Is this some kind of joke?” Jango bit. “Do you think this is funny?”

Kenobi’s smile doesn’t falter. “Tea perhaps…”

The man only glared in reply.

“Coffee then?” Obi Wan offered. 

If anything, this only seemed to make him more angry.

“Or we have a range of chilled drinks?” He suggested. “Maybe you'd like a smoothie?”

“I don't want a drink.” The customer grit out. 

“I see... “ Obi Wan said, though he most definitely did not. Customers! “Would you like to see our food menu? We sell cakes and biscuits.”

The man continued to glare.

“...Or I could make you a toasted sandwich?”

Finally, he spoke. “I'm not here to buy anything.” He said, apparently seething. 

Obi Wan found that he was beginning to lose patience.  “Sir.” He said, in a voice that was firm, whilst still calm. “This is a coffee shop.”

He met the mans eyes. They stood there for a while, locked in silent combat across the counter. While he waited for the man to break. 

Obi Wan could do this all day. 

A woman behind the man cleared her throat. Obi Wan held back a sigh. While he could wait all day, undoubtedly she could not.

He pushed down his pride, offering the man another smile.

“If you don't want to purchase food or drink I'm not sure how I can help you.” He said genially.

next part: Aerobics teacher Obi Wan

[notthestarwar]

I've come to realise the only way I'll get out of this block is by writing my way out of it, so I've just gotta keep writing things even if I'm not entirely happy with them.

Wanted to share this snippet from one of my wips that i am kinda happy with (parts of it anyway lol)

It's from this. Purge trooper Cody time travels and finds himself on the spice ship Jango is enslaved on.

On the fifth night, Cody finds his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Were you always a slave, Jango?" He asks. Tone as light as he can manage.

After he left Kamino, Cody had heard whispers of who Jango Fett had been before Cody and his brothers had the misfortune of knowing him.

They'd said that he was Mandalorian, that he'd once been a leader, before he lost his people to some tragedy, before he'd learnt to hate the very people he was building an army for. They said that he'd had a run in with the Jedi, and thanks to that, he'd lost them all.

They hadn't said that he'd been a slave.

It hadn't made sense at the time, that Jango might hate the Jedi, and still, go to efforts to train their army, donate his very genetic material to the cause, but then came Cody's life after the Republic.

In the aftermath of that, he'd soon come to realise that Jango never intended to do the Jedi a favour. The army he built was simply a trap, wrapped up with a neat bow.

Cody and his brothers were meant for the Jedi, but not to serve them, not as they'd been told, the clones were meant to secure their end.

For Jango Fett, the clones he'd leant life to, were only a means to an end. He'd let them borrow his body only so they might secure revenge in his absense. The people they'd grown to be, independent of him? Simply collateral damage.

Cody had thought he'd understood, for those years, under Vaders thumb.

When he finally knew that the clones had been no gift to the Jedi, it was as if a puzzle piece had slotted in to place.

The conflict in what he knew of Jango's motivations, was resolved. He was one step closer to knowing an unknowable man. If anyone was capable of understanding Jango Fett, surely it would be his clone. The mystery of Cody's life, was finally concluded. Just in time, as all that he'd ever known, came crashing down around him.

Jango hadn't been a mystery to him for many years.

Even without a part of himself, Cody had been able to figure out the sum of him.

Even when that part was returned to him, he'd been sure he still understood. Falling through that void, finally Cody again, he'd thought he understood the circumstances of his birth.

He had thought he'd known the measure of the man who had been both the beginning and the end, of all that Cody had ever had.

Then he'd landed here, and with only a glimpse, a snapshot of who Jango had once been, he was left in the dark once again.

This Jango was a person Cody had never met, and yet, he was more familiar than ever.

Cody had never seen Jango when he looked at his brothers. Jango was something else.

None of his brothers would ever become what Jango was. They hadn't had the chance to.

Since Geonosis, the only place Cody had ever saw a glimpse of his maker was in the mirror.

And yet, here he was.

Reunited with the only person sharing this face that Cody had never missed.

What would happen to this boy?

What was yet to come that would turn him in to the man that Cody had known, that Cody had feared?

If this was his start, how did he ever get to Kamino?

This boy was no leader. He was a slave, and he was alone.

Was he fated to find a people, and lose them all, in the years that came after his life on this ship?

Where did the Jedi come in to things?

Cody is beginning to think Jango hadn't heard him, but then, finally, he shakes his head.

"No."

Cody felt his brow furrow.

He wondered what might bring a free man here, to this ship, in this room.

How does one that's always been free become a slave?

Cody wouldn't know. He's never known freedom. Not yet.

"I'm a Mandalorian." Jango told him. "I'm from a planet called Concord Dawn. It's a farming world, on the outskirts of the system."

Cody doesn't know it.

"My parents were killed when I was a boy by a terrorist group, operating on the fringes of society." Jango continues. "I joined a group of mercenaries, trying to live traditionally, honorably, while opposing them."

"We were betrayed, multiple times actually."

"First, our leaders second killed him, my mentor, on enemy orders and then, after I took lead, a corrupt governor plotted with them to trap us. He hired us for a job and then, set us up. He called for Republic assistance, th jedi came and without checking the facts, they attacked my people. I killed 6 of them, but it wasn't enough. They killed my people and then handed me over to the governor. He told me what he'd done, stripped me of my armour, and sold me to a slaver. I've been here ever since."

What would it take for a man to sell himself, a few million times over, in search of revenge?

Cody thought about that story. About what Jango had lost to get here.

He thought about living on this ship, cold and alone; he thought about what that might do to a man, after a few years; he thought about the man he'd known: cold and cruel.

"What would you give? For revenge against the Jedi?" He asks finally.

Jango gives him a long look. "Not that." He says shortly. "Not what you say I did eventually give. Not what I maybe one day will."

"I don't know why I did that Cody. I can't give you that, I can't tell you why. I wouldn't sell my children. I wouldn't do it. Not for credits nor glory. I wouldn't stand by as they took your childhood, I wouldn't help anyone do that. And I wouldn't let them put chips in you."

"I have a slave chip." Jango tells him. "If I leave this ship, they kill me. Don't even have to think about it. It's an automated process. I get too far from the detonator? Boom." He shakes his head. "I wouldn't do that to another person. Let alone someone made from me, but you're sitting here, proof that I did.”

“I know you aren't lying, because if you were, I'd see it. You're wearing my face. I'd know."

Would he?

"So either, I've imagined you, most likely, I've invented all of this." Jango turned wide eyes on him. "Or, you're real. You're real and you've really been sharing my dinner and my water and I'm not going without a blanket for no reason."

"And for some banthashit reason, the fates dumped you here, so you could tell me about it."

"What does that mean?" Jango asks.

"Are you supposed to convince me not to? Because you don't need to. I'm convinced. I would be even if you werent here. I wouldn't do that, but apparently I did."

"Which only leaves me with one answer"

"This ship is changing me, will change me, in all the ways I've been afraid it might."

"It will turn me in to someone I never wanted to be and then, I will turn on you, all that was once turned on me."

"I don't want this. I don't want to be that person. I don't want anyone to share my fate."

They sit in silence for a while.

[notthestarwar]

Have another snippet of my writing that I like. This one prob requires a bit of set up so,

This is a modern au. Jaster raises 10 of Jango's kids in his absence, before Cody runs away at 16. Years later, Jango is murdered and it turns out that he's been living in the same city as Cody all along, and so have Wolffe and Fox, each living completely different lives.

Excerpt from: the Last Days of Jango Fett

Cody’s gaze sweeps over the exterior of the gym and he wonders if he's making a mistake. He spent a lot of his time, growing up, in gyms like this. The faded lettering of the sign declares the gym’s official name to be ‘Koon’s training gym’ but scrawled over that, in grey lettering, is its true name ‘Plo’s bro’s’ he bites his cheek, wondering at the identity of Plo. If he’ll find him inside, or if the sign serves as only a fond memorial. He crosses the threshold and he may as well have stepped back in time.

He can hear a familiar voice, barking orders, corrections. But his gaze skips straight over the set of strong shoulders, the back of a head so much like his own, and instead he only has eyes for the ring, because inside, there is a boy who for all appearances could be Cody’s own; who could even be Cody himself, had you a loose grip on temporal structure.

Boba is good, better than a boy of his age should be, clearly Jango’s been training him. He still wouldn’t have stood a minute in the ring with Cody at the same age, not that that’s any fair comparison; Cody could have beaten them all. They said he was born with a golden ticket in his mouth. A right hook to end all right hooks and with it, a way out. For them all.

Cody had spent all his teen years training in a gym like this, just down the road from Jaster’s, born ability or not, he wasn’t given an easy ride. Jaster’s old buddies rallied together for one last go and they gave it their all. Within the walls of that gym, they lived again, they gave it all they had to train Cody like it were 30 years previous and they still had a chance in hell of winning. For a moment, it seemed like they would.

Cody in the ring had been a sight to behold. He and he only, could retrieve their last chance, lost to anyone else because no-one knew where it fell. But Cody and Cody only, he would rise to the top and he would reach and he would hold it in his hands. Glory. Lost and abandoned, left to gather dust from the day it had fallen from Jango’s hands. Theirs, once again. Cody could have saved them all.

But. Cody couldn’t be that for them. He had the talent, sure. He had the drive to make it to the top, for certain. More than all of that, he had that magic, that thing you can’t quite put a word to, that made him a sight to behold in the ring. Like pure gold. But there was one thing Cody didn’t have, the wherewithal to be his Fathers keeper. Cody did not have it in him, to live his life for a man that did not want him. Glory in the ring; that was Jango’s dream, not his.

Born on a cool November, against the odds, Cody entered the world a healthy 9'5 with a healthy set of lungs to match. Jango did not know of this, Jango was not there.

Cody, healthy and round, had been placed in to the arms of a woman who had looked down upon her son and immediately known that she could never, quite, be what he needed and so she hadn’t tried to be.

Once when he was young, Cody had overheard Jaster speak of her. Only the once and not of the woman herself but of her, as Jaster put it, ‘sentimental bullshit’. Jaster was a strong believer in facing up to your problems and the woman who had given birth to Cody, did quite the opposite.

That woman had looked in to her babies eyes, and had delivered that baby, quite promptly, to Jaster’s doorstep. An undetermined amount of time later, Jaster had answered the door to find two bottles of milk and Cody, laying on the doormat.

Cody had been left quite alone, with nothing but a blanket, and a note; explaining that his mother, having looked in to her son’s eyes’, had immediately known that she could never contain quite the amount of love that her son would need and was therefore, leaving him to his Father, a man she was sure was more than capable. Jaster, who at this point was already responsible for two of Jango’s progeny, suspected otherwise; as he had told the milkman that day after he had kindly knocked and asked if Jaster was quite aware there was a baby sleeping on his doorstep.

That day, standing there speaking to Jaster as a baby laid between them, the milkman, in a moment of startling honesty, had looked down to the babe and told Jaster that upon the birth of his first son, he had worried that he wouldn’t be suited to fatherhood, but had since realised that all the little ones really needed; was loving. Jaster, not having slept through the night in about 2 years by that point, had bluntly retorted that love would not feed yet another mouth and so, he would be needing another bottle of milk, before sweeping down to gather the child to his chest, the note laying unneeded on the doorstep.

Cody had heard Jaster reason, through that crack in the kitchen door, that the last thing any child needed was a bit of paper telling them their parent didn’t have it in them to love them enough. Jaster had known, from that first glance at Cody, as all parents do, that upon finding that Cody needed more love, he might only ever meet such a thing with carving out just a bit more space in his heart or wherever else love is kept, to hold it.

To Jaster, parenthood was not about biology, it was simply about being needed and being the kind of person, that would change themselves however necessary, to meet that need.

That day in the kitchen, Jaster’s friend had shortly weighed him up to be a ‘soft fool’ who ‘only had it coming’ ‘what with all these doorstep babies’, but Jaster hadn’t seemed to mind. In the following years, Cody had rarely heard him talk like that again, but the sentiment lived on with him all the same, carried with him until he was old enough to understand what such a thing really meant.

Not that Jango ever stopped by to see it for himself, but everyone who met Cody declared him to be the spit of him. Cody was Jango’s second coming for sure, it didn’t matter that Jango was still walking the earth. Everyone who saw Cody in the ring was sure that he’d been delivered upon them to finish what Jango could not.

Cody often worried, that he wouldn’t quite weigh up in the eyes of Jaster, who had afterall, known Jango the best. Cody rather worried, that he instead, might take after his maternal side. The type to run from problems rather than face them. Because of this fear, Cody spent his whole life rising to each and every problem until one day, he did quite the opposite.

In the early hours of the day Cody’s big match was to be held; the one that was sure to shoot him right to the top, so high that his eyebrows would brush the stars and the rest of them, they’d all be able to fall on clouds; the big match that wasn’t just Cody’s ticket to a kinder life but everyone’s, his showstopper, Cody had found himself with a bag over his shoulder walking the track out of town.

When he reached the end of that track, where the old road met the big one, he’d found Jaster sat waiting for him.

Jaster had offered Cody a small smile and, told him he was beginning to worry that he wouldn’t come. Then, he had met his eyes and wished him luck. Jaster had said that he was proud of Cody, for having reached the same conclusion that Jaster himself had; Jaster knew that Cody was not put on this earth to right Jango’s wrongs, Cody was here, only to be Cody , and besides, he never had to worry about turning out to be the kind of person that Jaster might not like, because the thing about raising someone, is you keep loving them no matter who they might turn out to be.

Later that day, as one by one the fields passed him by, Cody had looked out the window of the coach and known with a surety that sometimes, the only way you can face your problems, is by leaving.

That day, Cody left the memory of Jango Fett behind, in search of a life where there was a bit of room to be Cody Mereel, and he had never once looked back.

Cody had left the memory of Jango behind, in the pursuit of himself, but now, here was Boba.

Boba had not left Jango behind as he hadn’t been given time to, Jango was only a ghost in Cody’s childhood but he was something more real to Boba. That is at least, until one day, when he was just gone.

For the first time, Cody looks behind himself and there, following, as he always has been, is the boy he left behind. Cody had to leave that boy in order to become the man he is today. he doesn’t regret it, he likes who he is, who he allowed himself to become, by leaving. But now he can see that in order to help Boba, he needs to be both the man who’s risen above the ghost of his father and also, the boy who could never quite live up to the memories his father left behind.

For the first time in his adult life, Cody remembers what it was to be the son of Jango Fett and then, against better reason, he holds on tight to that memory. When he looks back over his shoulder once again, there isn’t anyone there. That boy is looking forward as Cody looks forward and when he takes his next step, they take it as one. Cody is whole and he is his self, he is as he always has been, wholly and completely.

In the gym that is in every way, both the same and nothing like those of his childhood, Cody takes another step and then another, until his toes are almost touching the side of the ring.

Boba sees him first, just a glance and then, Cody sees the moment that his face registers. Boba just stops in space, he blinks wide eyes at the sight of him before tilting his head, letting those same eyes trace over Cody.

Now that he’s seen Jango Fett, Cody knows precisely why he might garner such a reaction, Cody didn’t have a dad so he has no idea what it is like to lose one. He can’t quite imagine what this must be like for Boba, it’s just you and your dad and then, he is murdered. Your dad dies and you are 10, and then, almost identical men start spilling out of the cracks of the city.

Boba has been distracted for long enough now that Wolffe has given up on trying to call his attention back, he turns to see what has the boy’s attention caught and soon comes up short himself.

Cody looks up at his big brother for the first time in 20 years and swallows.

“Hi Wolffe.” He says quietly.

Wolffe is frozen, even more so than Boba, not even his eyes move and now Cody looks at him, he isn’t sure if they can. One side of his brothers face is heavily scarred, like something long ago scraped across the surface, even from here Cody can see that the eye on that side is clouded.

His brother takes in a loud breath, “Cody?”

And then before Cody can even think to answer, Wolffe is moving, rolling out of the ring until he can engulf Cody in his arms.

Cody is the same size as Wolffe now but somehow it doesn’t feel like it, he feels dwarfed, finally back in his brothers arms and why did Cody ever think he could live without this? Wolffe’s arm is cradling his head and the other is bracing Cody’s back and he can feel his head tucked against Cody’s own and Cody has been alone for 20 years and he didn’t have to be, he knows this now, as well as he knows anything.

Cody doesn’t know what he expected. He doesn’t know what he expected from any of this. The past week has been a storm. An uncontrollable thing that you can only watch happen.

Had he thought maybe that upon seeing him, Wolffe might hit him?

Maybe that he would berate him for leaving?

Cody didn’t know who the adult his brother had grown in to really was. Maybe he had expected him to be cold, distant in the face of the brother that left them all? Cody had showed them all that it was possible to leave, that such a thing wasn’t only the purview of Jango and from what Rex had said that had left their family fractured. It had never been the same again after Cody left and showed everyone that they could leave. One by one, they had each followed him in to the unknown, lost to each other thanks to him.

Had he thought any of that, he would have been wrong. The man holding him isn’t any of that, he is just Wolffe, he is just Cody’s brother.

They are together, once again.

[notthestarwar]

Snippet

"The governor sold me in to slavery. It was. It was bad. Torture really. Spice ship. Took me years to escape. The person who left that ship, he wasnt the one that got put on it"

It’s the truth. There's a part of Jango that never really left that ship. When he walked out that door he had to tear a part of him loose. Something that got caught during his time there and was, and would always be, lost thanks to his time in slavery. Sometimes Jango closes his eyes and thinks he's still there. And that's ridiculous really because he's never been further from slavery than now, you can't chain a ghost.

Slavery is like that though, It seeps in to your bones, you can never leave it behind. Afterall, didn't he go ahead and enslave the clones? That's what the Jedi had said he'd done anyway, that he'd learnt the violence of slavery firsthand and when he'd finally gotten away, he'd just gone and turned it on another, on a million others.

[notthestarwar]

Keep thinking about Fox!!! Here's a snippet from one of my stories about him.

Snippet from: slow at first then all at once

In one story, maybe after a decade of empire, there might not be any real number of clones left. A few littering the empires ranks maybe. A few individuals and small groups of two or three scattered across the galaxy, hidden within the everyday drag of life. A small group of them working for the rebellion perhaps. Not any significant number though. Not enough to rebuild whatever they might once have had.

In this one, Fox ran. He was fast and he was clever, and from day one, he was always one step ahead of the empire. In this galaxy, the story of the clone who ran; was shared across the galaxy in hushed whispers.

On a barren world, made harsh by a cold wind, an enslaved mother whispers to her child, a story of a Fox who was just swift enough, just clever enough, to outsmart the man who wished to chain him.

In the pouring rain, on a planet made in to a sprawling city, neon light trickles through the grates of a maintenance tunnel and a small cluster listen to a story, told to them by a Jedi.

A story of a people, betrayed. Men whose minds were stolen from them, without any warning; their lights shuttered and their choices taken. He tells them how those soldiers were forced to turn on those they loved, no less than puppets, and then, he tells them of the one that slipped away.

A man who'd wanted to fight, but had run instead. Who still ran to this day.

A brother, running for his family, so that he could keep what was taken from them alive and burning. Keeping one step ahead of the empire, always, so that a part of his people lived on, so that one day he might ignite that flame in his brothers, once again, returning to them what they had lost.

The Jedi tells them of a brother that loved his family too much to let them be forgotten. Who was clever and was fast, and who still to this day, dances just out of the emperors reach; waiting for the day that his people might return to him.

A man that hops and skips, sly and brave, but who never looks back, never stops running; because he knows that one day, his people will be free once again, and he'll be able to share with them, the flame he's been carrying all these years. For as long as he runs, his people have a chance, and so he'll never stop.

The Jedi tells those children, that while that brother remembers for them, while he carries the memory of who they were, his brothers will never truly be lost. Its only a matter of time, until they find him again. He tells them that an empire, is dependent on fear, and that when a person remembers, that there is hope, always. When they remember that the love of a brother, the light of a people, can live on in the darkest of times, well in that case no empire can truly chain them.

One day, the empire will fall and that brother, will return to his people. Until that day, he keeps a part of his people safe and a part of his people free, for as long as he runs. The Jedi tells them, that for as long as they remember that, that man will never run alone, and his people will never be lost.

In a scorching desert, buffeted by punishing winds, a boy watches the sky and wonders; just where the clone they call Fox, is running today.

In a leafy forest, under the cover of towering trees, a rebellion gathers. Intent on helping. Fighting for those that can't.

In the humid climes of a swamp, a girl watches a frog jump from branch to branch, and asks herself what it might take, to outrun a monster.

And in the barracks of the imperial military, a cold draught whips through the vents, carrying with it, the whisper of a song. The showers hiss and the walls creak, and if you listen carefully, very carefully, they say you can hear the voices of those that didn't live to see the night. The empire has seen many casualties, so there are no shortage of voices, echoing behind walls and hissing from the pipes.

As the soldiers sleep, the dead whisper a story of a Clone that ran. A soldier that gave up his life, so he might become an animal of the kind that could slip free. Fast and sly, he gave up his fight, so that there might one day be something else for the rest of them.

As he runs, he carries something that they once had, but which is now lost to them. One day, he'll hand it back. He isn't a man anymore. He's a Fox. A creature of the night, swift and fast.

The empire can't reach him. He is free, and one day, they will be too.

They need only follow his lead, to run and never look back. Maybe if they do so, they might stand a chance of catching him. Maybe he'll lead them somewhere better. He's a ghost of what once was and he's seen, he remembers, an alternative to this life. A vast reaching next, laying just ahead.

If they catch up to him, he might show them.

That fox runs and he never stops, but he might, when the time is right. He has something for them, he's been carrying something, for all this time. It's safe in his hands, waiting for them. He'll never stop for the empire, they'll never catch him, but they say, he might just stop for a brother.

The Empire tries to pull out the stories at their roots. But stories; they are intangible. Stories don't need doors or windows, they slide in the smallest gaps. They are carried on the lightest of winds. Stories aren't alive so they can't be killed, they can only be forgotten about.

But this, isn't the kind of story easily forgotten.

The Empire don't let it be forgotten, they try to fight it, that is all they know. But a story can not be fought, it does not bleed, it can not die.

They try to block the gaps through which it slides, they can't. A story is not a living thing, it can not be starved of air. It is not solid, if you block its exit, it'll find another, smaller exit. The harder you try to contain in, the stronger it grows. If it can't find an exit, it'll make one, bursting free with renewed pressure.

In this galaxy, brothers who might have died for the Empire, hear this story and it awakens something in them. Against reason, they run, sometimes just in time. Under the empire, swathes of Clones will die, whatever galaxy they find themselves in.

But in a galaxy with this story, more than ever won't. The story is a haunting, it follows them as they live their lives. Sometimes a moment of doubt is all it takes.

They tuck themselves away, overpowering the empires hold just long enough, to get away. That's all it takes. A story always pointing towards something. A loss you can't remember. It itches. Constantly.

Curiosity can not be bred out of a person. It can not be forgotten. It will always be there, ready to emerge, when under the right conditions.

The more clones that run, the further the haunting spreads. The story is tied to them, they carry it wherever they go.

You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. The clones come and go with the seasons, all of them running, all of them waiting. Waiting for a sign.

The more clones that run, the harder it is to track the first. The source of the story lives on, hidden by those that try to follow him. The Empire are facing a battle on all fronts. The bearers of the story lives on and so the story does too.

It starts with one. A man, running from a harsh future, running for his past, he saves his brother. A man, saves his brothers child from slavers and then, he himself is saved by the someones brother.

The thing about being rescued, is once its been done, you're aware of the existence of the thing, the possibility. If you've been saved then to save another is a simple thing and this, is what topples the empire.

Do it for him, the stories whisper. You need only save one. For a billion drops, they make an ocean.

The clones were born to the ocean and the ocean, feeds its own.

One by one, those who survive sweep across the galaxy. One by one, they free each other, they free the whole galaxy.

At the end of it, most of them are dead. But some of them, lived. That's what really matters, in the doing of a thing. Not what'll happen anyway, what you can't stop. But what won't happen, because of you? If you do this, then what might be saved?

Fox ran, he didn't want to but he did it all the same. He ran for his brothers. So they might have something to come home to. Most of them, died, as they always would have. More of them died with hope in their hearts than didn't though. That's important.

Sometimes when you look in to the sky, if you get the time right, you can see whole galaxies. Each small light close enough together to look like one whole. A great swathe of light.

Most of Fox's brothers, march on, far away. Pinpricks of light. But some of them, are here to remember the rest. That's what matters, at the end of things. That when you are gone, there might be someone to remember your name, your favourite colour.

The Vode are a nomadic people. Most people in this galaxy have met at least one brother, in their lifetime. Foxes brothers and those that came after, travel the galaxy and as they do so, they carry the stories that without them might not be carried much longer.

They leave their mark on the galaxy with huge stone monuments, and, one such monument stands tall in the basin of the valley Fox calls home.

His days of travel are long behind him. He's come to learn that with freedom, comes the chance to decide that If the boot doesn't fit, you can try another. To choose, to kick off your boots entirely and to warm your feet by the fire.

Fox's home sits not in the shadow of the towering plane of stone, but just past it. He can't see the words carved in to it from here but he doesn't need to. There was a time when that monolith had been Fox's to carry, alone. Now though, his burden is shared by his brothers across the galaxy, by the children they've given a home to, by the force users so often found at their sides.

Each letter is still carved in to his heart, they always will be. But there is no weight tied to them for him any longer. Fox has shared their weight a thousand times. Even when he and his brothers are gone, they will be remembered.

A compilation of names, reunited in death and at their feet, an old adage. I remember you, and so; you are eternal.

[notthestarwar]

Wip

(modern au. there is a whole global war conspiracy thing. Cody has been a soldier since he was a child. theres a lot of backstory to this one lol. but all you really need to know is that Cody has aquired a baby and Obi Wan has had little to say about it.)

When Obi Wan enters the kitchen that morning, Cody is sat with his chair pulled out in front of Boba. There is a high chair. He's trying to feed the child something mashed and orange. The sight of it throws Obi Wan for a moment.

"Dear."

"Morning!" Cody replies brightly.

Obi Wan eyes the highchair, the plastic bowl and spoon that they did not have yesterday. The baby. 

His eyes settle on the mashed…something. "Is he old enough for that? Shouldn't he be having milk?"

Cody pulls a face. "Jango had already started him on food and apparently you can't un-introduce food. It's OK though.” He makes another attempt to move the spoon towards Boba’s mouth. “They've just got to be able to sit up and be interested in eating it and its fine, I checked."

Obi Wan looks between Boba and the orange mush. He does not look interested in eating it.

Cody notices his gaze. "Ah yeah. They just have to be interested in any food. That's how you know they are ready. He's fine. He just... doesn't like my cooking I guess?"

Obi Wan notices the used pan on the stove.  "Cody Dear," He tries again. "You know I'd follow you anywhere."

Cody continues to try and steer the spoon of mush into the baby's mouth.

"I love you" He tries, Cody remains distracted.

"Cody, you know that nothing is too much when it comes to you. I'll help you with anything, we will get through anything."

Cody is finally turning to look at him.

"Dear I just need to know... will your bro-"

Cody's face twitches minutely.

"Boba." Obi Wan tries. "Will Boba be staying with us?"

Cody looks conflicted. "We didn't set a time window exactly"

Oh for the love of. 

"Darling. I'm just going to say it.” Obi Wan says.  “Do you want us to keep Boba? Because if you do, we will make this work. It will be hard work but I'll help you raise him happily.”

“But if you don't...Cody, this is Jango.” He says gently. “Please tell me you are not just expecting him to collect his child.” Obi Wan asks. “I'm sorry to say it but I really don't need to tell you! The man has a terrible track record." He meets Cody’s eyes. "What is the plan here? Please tell me there is a plan."

Cody looks uncomfortable. There is clearly no plan. 

There is a beat of silence before Cody begins talking. "Obi Wan he was investigating a War conspiracy with a baby strapped to his chest!” He argues. “There was a gun holstered next to Boba's foot!" Cody points to said foot. "I'll admit i wasn't really thinking, OK, and no I haven't really thought ahead on this one but I couldn't leave a baby, not with Jango."

"And that is completely fair. " Obi Wan placates. "But what now? I just want to be on a level understanding with you, what conversation did you and  Jango have? Let's figure out what we are going to do next."

Cody avoids his gaze. "It wasn't really a conversation as such. I found them in a hotel room. When I walked in,  Jango asked me to hold him while he did something and I… never really gave him back"

"What." Obi Wan asks, dumbstruck.

"I know it sounds ridiculous but this is Jango! We talked for a while about why he was here, I asked about boba and he told me he found him a few months ago and that his mum was dead. He said that they’ve been together since then.”

“He told me he likes banana and told me the war is a farce. Then he told me there's one person at the top pulling the strings. One person behind the Army, all of the wars, hiring Jango, all of it. Then he told me Boba is not a fan of custard."

"Right,” Obi Wan exhales, “that's a lot."

"Yeah isn't it,” Cody agrees.

Obi Wan looks at Boba for a moment. "Cody I absolutely think he may have given you the baby."

Cody looks to Boba, as if considering this for the first time."Oh. Yeah.  I thought the food thing was..."

"And when he didn't ask for him back." Obi Wan prompts.

"Yeah well he might still ask? Later? I wasn't volunteering exactly,” Cody says, “he's switched sides and is embroiled in a conspiracy I mean... this investigation, he's going to get himself killed!”

“Boba shouldn't be involved in that, he's a baby." He protests.

"Yes, that is true I suppose.” Obi Wan relents. “Though I also suppose, what you need to know is,  if Jango does survive and does return,  will you give Boba back?"

"Obi Wan, I really don't think he knows what he's doing. There was a gun-"

"Holstered next to the baby,” Obi Wan finishes, “you said."

Cody waves the spoon, mush still uneaten, in his hand. "And I'm pretty sure the reason he won't eat this is because Jango has only been feeding him fruit and these little jars of baby pudding."

Obi Wan considers this. "That's probably fine.  The fruit I mean. Not... whatever baby pudding is."

"It's not,” Cody tells him. “I checked."

"Right.” Obi Wan nods. Considering for a moment, that he doesn’t really know anything about babies. “Yes, well. Anakin was…bigger." He explains.

"Yeah"

There's a pause

"Dear,  if you want us to make this work we will, but we really don't know anything about babies. Are you sure we'll really do a better job than Jango?"

"Obi Wan. It's Jango. " Cody says blankly. 

"Yes, that is… Cody, do you want us to do better than Jango? Do you want us to raise,  I'm going to say it,” he warns, “Cody, do you want us to raise your brother?” He asks.“Because I am willing if you are. If this is what you want. But  need to know that this is what you want and this isn’t just not some misplaced sense of duty."

"Its not misplaced." Cody frowns. "He's. He's my. He's. He's a baby. "

Obi Wan looks back at the boy. "That he is."

"He deserves better than Jango." Cody says weakly.

"Of that I have no doubt." Obi Wan agrees. "It doesn't have to be you though.”

“We'll find him a good home whatever, adoption, parenting classes for Jango, whatever. He will be safe and he will be loved. Cody, what do you want?"

"I want to be in his life. Whatever. I didn't get to know Ponds, I hardly knew Fives, I don't know what happened to that other woman's baby. I just. I want him to know what family he's got."

"That we can do." Obi Wan pinches the bridge of his nose. "How does this sound? We'll care for him till Jango has finished investigating.”

He sighs. “The war...I think that I've been avoiding this war too long. I think… Something tells me that things are all about to come to a head. Let’s…Wait and see, OK."

"In the meantime, if Jango turns up and wants to take him with him, we will tell him to come back when there isn't a price on his head. We will agree to look after Boba until this all comes to a head.”

“After that, well, we'll have to see what Jango wants. He is his father-" He reminds him, wincing at the look on Cody's face "I know dear but that is the legal standing and frankly if he's finally decided to step up, Boba deserves to have him in his life.  Even if he does want custody, we'll see if he can't settle near here or even, we can move.”

He meets his gaze, strong and sure and Cody is reminded just why he fell for him. 

“Cody, we will make this work." Obi Wan tells him. 

Cody is hit with an overwhelming wave of emotion. He wants to jump up and embrace him, but well… thanks to Boba he is still covered in mashed vegetables, and he isn't sure that Obi Wan would appreciate sharing this with them.

"I love you. Thank you, just. Thank you." He tells him instead. 

"You don't have to thank me. You know if Anakin one day returns you'll have to put up with him, dear. That's what love is. That's what family is. You're my family." Obi Wan reminds him. 

"I know I don't have to. I want to though. You're more than I deserve"

"Rubbish! I'm everything you deserve as you are to me, you know if we didn't know we have Jango to thank for your existence, I might say you were made for me. Everything I need and nothing less."

"Aren't you a charmer"

"Well dear..."

And that's when Boba starts screaming to be let out of the chair

"Ah the realities of children. Are you sure?" Obi Wan asks him, with a slight smile. 

Cody smiles back, "fostering till Jango sorts himself out," he confirms with a nod.

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Now then, we probably need things? What exactly did Jango give you?" Obi Wan asks.

"The baby." Cody says dully. 

"Wait" Obi Wan says, looking around. 

"The baby and a small bag," Cody amends, “I've been shopping."

"Of course you have, Obi Wan says with a resigned smile. “You know at times you are a little too competent. It almost seems like showing off.”

“Right then, tell me what's on the list you've inevitably already made of things you haven't already bought. when did you even..."

"24-hour supermarket" Cody admits. "Luckily for us it's their seasonal baby event, I got all sorts" He lifts Boba into his arms.

"Convenient."

"Quite." Cody agrees. "We do still need quite a bit"

"Of course we do. Give me the rundown then,  what we have, what we don't,  anything else you've come across in your reading in the last..." Obi Wan checks the clock, "11 hours.” He shakes his head. “How have you already done so much?" He asks. 

Cody frowns. "Coming in to a baby was a bit nerve inducing, actually. He's pretty fragile. Had to make a plan to deal with it."

"Of course.” Obi Wan says fondly. “Well it's a shared load now and I'm willing to learn.”

“I might need a little time till I'm on your level so until then just point and shoot, I'll do anything you need.”

“Actually,  I think I'll call in to the office and take a few weeks off? It'll be no problem,  they've got it covered and I think maybe we shouldn't take on any new cases till we know more about this whole war situation.”

“I can't believe Quin has been moonlighting!” He harumphs. “Unbelievable."

[notthestarwar]

Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Darth Vader, CC-2224 | Cody & Jango Fett, CC-2224 | Cody & Shmi Skywalker, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi (past) Characters: Cody, Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader, Jango Fett, Shmi Skywalker Additional Tags: Rated For Violence, Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Death Star (Star Wars), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Slavery, star crossed lovers, maybe in another universe, Hopeful Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Accidental Use of the Force (Star Wars), The accidental force use is a bit messy, Force Weirdness, Jango during spice ship slavery, Ex-Purge Trooper CC-2224| Cody, CC-2224|Cody is very traumatised, He is not thinking rationally, Jango Fett has Issues, Young Jango thinks he's Cody's dad, Everyone Needs Therapy, Cody gets better Jango gets worse, self improvement, Sacrifice, This is not a love story but there's love in it, Platonic Love, Killing Someones Parents Before They are Born, Violence Towards Children mentioned, the kids are okay, Character Death, Planet Tatooine (Star Wars), Tragedy, Fix-It of Sorts, (Though the ending is left open and the story ends before the events of the ROTS), Character Study, Exploration of How Trauma can Change people Summary:

Inspired by Looper (2012)

 And that's when he saw it: A woman who’d die for her son. A man, who’d kill for his own. A boy, angry and alone. Cody looked at Anakin, cowering in the doorway, and laid out in front of him: the bad path, he saw it. And the path was a circle, around and around. So he changed it.

 I’ve updated the tags and summary to be more reflective of the story. There is discussion of murdering a child but no children are actually murdered (as per looper)

I won't lie and say it's not a tough journey but I really do think it's worth it. It deals with some really interesting ideas about the line between parent and not parent. About how trauma can change us but we don't have to let it get the better of us.  And how sometimes you have to leave behind romantic love in favour of something else, when you can't have it all.  It is a tragedy but the ending is hopeful tho bittersweet.

[notthestarwar]

Snippet from: what the living do

Obi Wan speaks to ghost Jango about loss, fatherhood, and what the hell lies between him and Cody.

Obi Wan feels his brow wrinkle as he tilts his head again. He is so very close.

Curiosity distracts from his anger for a moment as he has a realisation.

"Did you name any of the other clones?" He asks.

Jango's spine is ramrod straight. He is as still as prey caught in the gaze of a hunter. He swallows. "Only Boba. "

Which Obi Wan had known, so why did he ask?

He is so close, he can feel the displacement of air. He can see the blurred shape of it just outside his line of sight.

He waits.

Jango frowns down at his hands. "The thing about babies is they don't really do a lot. There's a whole lot of waiting."

The look on his face is almost earnest. He is giving Obi Wan this look like he wants to convince the both of them of something.

"The clones though, they'd made them so they grew twice as fast. I wanted to be good, for Boba. I'd messed up so many times before, this I wanted to do right."

Obi Wan frowns slightly trying to understand the link...

Jango's eyes have faded in to something distant.

"I wanted to be the kind of Buir Jaster was. I don't remember my first Buire, they died before I was old enough to make any kind of judgement, so I don't know if they were something I'd want to be or not. But I knew Jaster and Jaster was the kind of parent any parent wants to be."

"I imagine my first Buire were good parents, cause I was broken up when they died, I missed them like it was something tangible. Even now, I feel it. The day I lost them, the part of my heart that had always loved them turned to stone, frozen in time and I've carried that ever since. They must have been good, to have had that impact. But I won't ever really know."

"It's a funny thing. Standing there holding your kid, a little person that's completely dependent on you."

"I looked in to his face, that first day and I just realised that I had no idea how to do it. I was a grown man, older than my Buire ever got to be, but he grabbed my finger and he held on so tight and in that moment I just knew I wanted better for him than the man I was in that moment, I wanted to be better for him and I had no clue where to start."

"I hadn't had a parent since I was 15. But stood there, in that room, I suddenly felt like I needed one. I needed someone to tell me how they did it. I wanted to be able to ask them, any of them, Jaster, my Buire on Concord Dawn; but I couldn't because they weren't there. I spent more years living without a parent than I ever did with even one, what kind of parent would that make me."

The corner of his mouth twitched. "That isn't very Mandalorian of me you know."

"We have this saying 'Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la.' No-one cares who your father was, only what kind of father you'll be."

"My whole life, i'd had this idea that you don't need a parent to be a parent. That once you have a kid, you just have to love them and you'll be what they need, you'd be a good parent just from that love. But suddenly, it seemed like a lie."

"It shouldn't have mattered to me, but it did, it mattered more than I ever wanted it to. I just felt lost. Even though I knew I shouldn't."

"I stood with him in my arms and I just had this foggy image of who Jaster had been for me. This indistinct feeling of who my first Buire had been to me. I wanted to give him everything."

Jango fell quiet.

He swallowed. "I knew that if i wanted to be a good Buir, I would need to learn and I wanted to do it fast, before Boba started forming memories."

Continuing with a frown."I didn't want Boba to know that I hadn't been ready. It wasn’t like he was a surprise, I should have been ready, I should have prepared better, but here he was and I hadn't. His first day in the Galaxy and i'd already failed him."

"If you want to learn something well, the best way is to have a good teacher. Jaster was like that, he taught me so much; to fight, to politik, to lead. He taught me histories, he loved history, and he taught me Maths and languages; anything he knew, he taught me and he did it well."

"But Jaster was gone, and there weren't any parents left in my life to teach me, so I needed to teach myself. That wasn't a problem in itself. I've been alone a long time, if I want to know something, I need to work on it myself."

" I've always been good at teaching myself. If I decide to learn something? Then I'll learn to do it well. There is no alternative. I don't go in with half my shebs. I commit."

"It is difficult to get good at something without practice. Especially if you are self taught. Practice, that is the cornerstone of competence."

No.

"They'd said the clones wouldn't think like people but once they got to about 2 you could tell that they were close enough. It was pretty strange, them all looking like me and it wasn't just that, i'd been told they didn't think like people but you wouldn't know it to see them, they were all so much like me. Some of them, even more so than the rest."

Were Jango a better man, were this a different story, this might have been a turning point.

He saw himself in those children and maybe in another life, to another Jango, that might have been the start of something. He might have realised that the Clones were people, he might have realised that like all people, they deserved compassion. They deserved anything else. He might have done anything, to improve things for them.

This isn't that story.

"There was this one little clone, in the CC class, and he really reminded me of myself. I know they're all clones but this one in particular, just had something about him. So I took over some of his training. "

No

Obi Wan knows the end of this story, he has always known the end of this story. That doesn't make it easier to hear. It makes it harder. There is no hope hearing this story in reverse.

There is no redemption for Jango Fett. Not in this story. Any chance for that had passed long before Obi Wan ever met him.

"It's difficult seeing someone day in day out, talking to them, having that kind of closeness, without having a name to call them by. It feels weird, using a number. A code. it's strange but, it turned my gut a little bit, to call him by a code. So I picked a name for him. "

He wants to put his hand over Jango's mouth. Like if he can stop him saying it, it won't be real.

He is beginning to see this thing between Cody and Jango for what it is. He wants to undo it. Make it unreal. He can see it like a shot put, dropped from a height and cold in his gut. He can't stop it. It's already happened.

"You named him." He said numbly.

Jango gave a slight nod. "Kote."

[notthestarwar]

Rating: Teen

Gen

Jaster Mereel & Jango Fett

17/17

Summary:

A Force sensitive Jaster, raising Jango after he loses his parents, struggles to reconcile the love he feels for his son with glimpses of the future gifted from the Ka'ra.

In which:

ghosts don't see time as linear.

Jaster can see the ghosts of everyone haunting Jango,

and where he tries to change canon with the help of Mace Windu, love for his son and a iron willed determination to do right by him.

It's sad, Jaster has to confront his own limitations while loving Jango and hating to see him hurting but the ending is hopeful!

Jaster's love for Jango is enormous and that never goes away but a large part of the story arc is him coming to terms with the fact that he can't fix everything. Meanwhile, while the focus is centred on Jaster and Jango, Mace has to come to terms with the reality he is facing and we see multiple clone characters begin to work through the part Jango has played in their lives.

'There's a ghost haunting his buir. [...] When Jaster sleeps, she lounges on the bunk opposite him, her ghostly hue bouncing off the ceiling. When they venture out of the ship, she trails behind him; and when he does his exercise routine she follows along, just outside of his line of sight. He wonders how his buir knew her, if he loved her, what he'd say if he saw her.'

'If he's learnt anything of his charge these last few months, it is that he's a maelstrom. At no point had an easy path laid ahead of Jango. His ward was destined for bigger things and those around him were destined to get caught in his storm; the Ka'ra knows it and so Jaster knows it.'

'Maybe the love of a parent is the kind of thing that can transcend time, just like a ghost. Jaster didn't know from where it came and it didn't really matter to him; all that did matter was the fact that now he had it, he would never again picture himself without it. What he felt for the boy in his care could only ever grow, it would never diminish, no matter what Jango became.'