#things shadowsong will never actually write

[shadowsong26fic]

Oh look it’s that time again

Time for another Random AU Outline(tm)!

I thought about doing an addition to the Valdemar Cossover AU this month (because I have mostly worked out wtf is going on with Dooku), buuuuut since Distaff is still super late (friggin Opera House, I swear--I think I’ve fiiiiiiiinally got it working? Fingers crossed, I’m so sorry, I refer you again to the teaser bits with my sincere apologies...), I decided to write up a variant plotline for that fic because yes in fact I do write AUs for my AUs shut up.

So this one is #1a. on my List of Things I’ll Never Actually Write. So, uh, content warnings for discussion of abortion and miscarriage, just as a heads-up.

(See also the Rabbit Hole AU; the Bail Unfucks the Timeline AU)

(Also, these things have an official tag now, #au outlines for the win)

All right, this diverges when, unlike in the actual storyline, Palpatine decides that the best way to deal with this whole...Situation...is to poison Anakin and induce a miscarriage.

He decides against this in the actual fic mostly because he thinks it’d risk more than it gained him. Speeding up his timeline is a more efficient solution.

I figure in this variant, he decides that he can definitely work with her rage at the universe over what happened, since she seems to want this kid, and it nips several potential future problems in the bud. And he discounts the ability of the Temple/Jedi to figure out what’s going on/help her through it/whatever.

This is a mistake.

So, Anakin goes to meet with the Chancellor, as she does.

This may even be that one meeting where he tells her ‘guess what you’re on the Council now’

And she’s like “...well, fuck, WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THIS SIX MONTHS AGO WHEN IT WOULDN’T RUIN EVERYTHING.”

And he’s wearing one of his ridiculous needle ring things, and puts a hand on her shoulder and triggers it.

I feel like he has like twelve of these.

To coordinate with all the ridiculous Opulent Chancellor Robes he has to wear.

Just in case he feels the need to poison someone on short notice.

Having his ring not match would give the game away, you know?

It’s all about the details.

Anakin does get a Warning Tingle or whatever, but she puts it down to EVERYTHING ELSE that happens in that meeting.

Except then she leaves, and she’s flailing. And she still decides to go down to find a race and clear her head, and she’s still ignoring Obi-Wan’s calls (Padme hasn’t called her yet).

And then she starts feeling sick. Like--really, genuinely, awfully sick.

So she pulls over.

And you know it’s bad if she thinks she isn’t really safe to drive.

Obi-Wan calls again and this time she picks up because SOMETHING IS WRONG and she hasn’t yet spiraled to the point where she feels like she can’t talk to him.

She’s just been, you know, working up the courage to tell him.

LOOK PADME I’M GETTING THERE DON’T RUSH ME

And then she notices the blood.

At this point, she’s REALLY freaking out and she starts babbling about ‘something is wrong with the baby’

Obi-Wan, internally: ...baby? What--

Obi-Wan, externally: I’m on my way, try to stay calm.

He gets down to where she is, and of course promptly takes her back to the Temple for medical attention.

And there’s a moment where she resists because “nooooo they’ll take her please don’t let them”

And he would reassure her on the subject because, no, that’s not how it works, you know that, Anakin.

Except she passes out at that point.

They get back to the Temple, and he says he thinks she’s pregnant and something is wrong with the baby.

(He hasn’t quite wrapped his head around this whole “she’s pregnant” part but one thing at a time)

And, of course, Master Che and the others figure out what’s going on.

At least that she’s been poisoned.

Master Che: ...she does realize, she could have come to us? There are safer ways.

Obi-Wan: Given what she was saying before she passed out, I don’t think she did this to herself. She does not want to lose this child.

Master Che: ........

Anakin + babies are stabilized.

(Because the Force is really invested in the twins, guys. Of course mother and babies are okay.)

Babies are also identified as twins.

Ani regains consciousness, and the first thing she asks is is the baby okay.

Because, yeah, the Order is going to take her away, but they can’t do that until the baby’s actually born and Anakin has a few months to figure out how to fix that the important thing right now is IS SHE OKAY DID I LOSE HER.

And she’s told, yes, baby is okay. Babies are okay.

Anakin: O.O

And then she shakes off the “wtf plural” moment and gets all bristly and defensive (as she does) about “i’m keeping them you can’t take them away from me i won’t let you.”

Master Che: uh...well, yes, that is your decision? You would have to leave the Order if you wanted to raise them yourself, of course, but--

Anakin: wait what.

Master Che: ...what exactly did you think would happen if you told us?

Anakin: ...that you’d take her away.

Master Che: ................no. Well, like I said, you wouldn’t be able to retain custody and stay in the Order, but that doesn’t mean we’d take your child without your consent.

Anakin: ....oh.... ::starts crying because OMG RELIEVED::

(There’s a whole other bit that I couldn’t fit in where Anakin mentions that “also the war is the only thing I’m really good at and we’re spread super thin and you’d take me out of the field.”)

(Which, honestly, is about 75% of why she hadn’t told Obi-Wan before the nightmares start. That, and Padme has to know first)

After that comes the super uncomfortable “guess what you were poisoned” conversation.

Especially since the drug Palpatine gave her, while it would make her miserable for a day or two and would terminate the pregnancy, wouldn’t have killed her.

So, then the question becomes--is there something going on that someone specifically wants Anakin sidelined for a few days?

This seems unlikely.

Or did someone specifically want to poison her because pregnancy?

Anakin: But that’s ridiculous. The only person I’ve told is Pa---Senator Amidala. Because. Um. I couldn’t tell anyone in the Order and she’s a woman and my uh friend and...

(Master Che accepts this. Because she hasn’t seen these two dorks interact. No one else would buy it.)

So they start the process of going over everywhere Anakin’s been in the last twenty-four hours, trying to figure out who might have poisoned her.

Anakin: ::develops a Horrible Suspicion::

Anakin: ....no, it’s a coincidence.

Anakin: the Chancellor is my friend.

Anakin: besides how would he know?

Anakin: why am I not finding any of this convincing.

MEANWHILE

Obi-Wan is trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

And, by a logical process similar to the one Palpatine used, in reverse, decides that the Chancellor is the one who got Anakin pregnant.

And he knows that Anakin went to see him just before she collapsed.

He doesn’t really suspect the Actual Truth. He doesn’t have enough of the picture yet.

But he does know that Palpatine is a power-grabby Politician who probably doesn’t want to deal with a sex scandal about how he debauched a celibate war nun.

Especially one who’s like a third his age.

(Side note: there’s another potential variant where Anakin’s pregnancy becomes public and all of Sidious’ schemes unravel because someone starts to question “hey why is the Chancellor spending so much time alone with a young female celibate military official/priest, enough that he’s been credibly accused of siring her child?” And then Some Intrepid Reporter keeps digging deeper and deeper and OH SHIT) 

Anyway, the more Obi-Wan thinks about it, the more sense it makes.

Now, he just needs to prove it, and that will solve several problems at once.

(Also, then he’d be justified in punching Palpatine right in his smug face which seems a REALLY ATTRACTIVE notion right at this moment.)

MEANWHILE MEANWHILE

Anakin is not answering Padme’s calls.

Padme is Very Concerned about this, because Anakin was supposed to be here a while ago for the checkup and it took a hell of a lot of effort to talk her into it.

Finally, out of desperation, she calls Obi-Wan.

Because yes, this might explode their secret and really Ani should be the one to tell him but...

Obi-Wan is pulled out of his ‘how to get away with punching Palpatine right in his smug face’ plotting and answers.

He tells her that Anakin is ill, that she collapsed, and is with the Healers now, but has been stabilized and will be all right.

And then they both sort of dance around the ‘baby’ question for a while.

Because Padme doesn’t want to spill all of Anakin’s secrets, and Obi-Wan isn’t sure that Padme knows, and doesn’t want to complicate/damage this relationship for Anakin, especially since she’s almost certainly going to end up leaving the Order and she’ll need someone to go to and...

(He adds “figure out what I’m going to do at that point” to his to-do list.)

(Look, there’s a decent chance that even the main version of Distaff will turn into Obianidala eventually, depending on a couple different factors. This variant? Almost certainly would.)

Finally, Padme can’t take it anymore and just blurts it out, “what about the baby, is he okay?”

And Obi-Wan has reached a point where he’s going, “you know what? FUCK IT.” And he tells her--yes, the baby is okay, also there are two of them, also Master Che says Anakin was poisoned and that’s why she collapsed and nearly miscarried, also I’m almost entirely certain that Chancellor Palpatine was involved but I have no proof.

And Padme? Padme sees red.

“So,” she says, “let’s find some.”

Because Padme is already starting to see through Palpatine’s mask.

And now he’s coming after her wife and children.

Obi-Wan, as it turns out, responds much better to “meet me at the docks at midnight and bring a gun” than Bail did.

So, back in the Temple, Anakin has managed to extract herself from the conversation with Master Che, mostly by cooperating for once/playing on the fact that she’s sick to be left alone.

AS SOON AS she can, she unhooks all the monitors and her IV and sneaks out.

She manages not to faint or throw up. She’s very proud of herself for that.

She just wants some answers, really. Part of her still can’t accept what Palpatine probably did, but maybe he noticed something strange about her when she visited? She didn’t start to feel sick until leaving his office, but...

She runs into Obi-Wan and Padme, who are also on their way to break into Palps’s office to get some answers.

Padme: Ani! ::goes to hold her close because fuck it she could have died our children could have died and it’s only Obi-Wan here to see and I don’t think he cares anymore::

Anakin: ::clings back, looks from her to Obi-Wan and back:: What are you doing here...?

Obi-Wan: What are you doing out of bed?

And then there is Banter for a moment until Padme says, “uh, guys? Mission? Trying to track down/prove who was behind the whole poison thing?”

Except then they have to argue whether or not Anakin should really be there, which Obi-Wan and Padme win mostly by a) teaming up on her and b) darling you are clearly using the wall to stay upright go wait in my office.

Obi-Wan and Padme break into Palps’s office together.

He’s not there--he’s left for the day, or something. Especially it’s probably very late at night by now.

Now, of course he’s not stupid enough to keep Incriminating Evidence lying around. So they don’t find anything like...a discarded poison vial in the trash, let alone the ring.

They do find--something. I’m not sure what. Possibly the Emperor’s Darth Sidious’ Private Holo Setting(tm).

(Thank you, Timothy Zahn, I love that joke)

And then Palpatine comes back.

Because he sensed someone breaking into his office.

Or he has a mundane alarm system set up and they tripped it.

Obi-Wan gets between Padme and Palpatine and draws his lightsaber.

Off in Padme’s office, Anakin’s Spidey Sense is tingling.

She runs after the others, and walks in on the Confrontation scene.

Now, there are some things that even Anakin can’t ignore. Not at this point in her timeline.

Palpatine might have a split second to realize just how thoroughly He Done Fucked Up before two lightsabers and a half-dozen blaster bolts punch him in the face.

So, Our Heroes are now in the Supreme Chancellor’s office, which they broke into, standing over his Very Dead Body.

They stare at each other for a minute. “...did that really just happen?”

And then Anakin actually does faint again, breaking the moment.

Obi-Wan: ::catches her:: we need to get out of here.

Padme: we can’t run away, we have to deal with the fallout.

Obi-Wan: well yes but we should probably not be caught at the actual scene of the crime?

Padme: ...good point.

From there--IDK, there’d be a long investigation but the proof would probably come through pretty quick once Palps is no longer actively protecting it.

Obi-Wan probably still goes to kill Grievous, since something in Palpatine’s files says he’s on Utapau.

Master Che straight-up ties Anakin to the bed to make sure she doesn’t follow.

Bail gets dragged into this mess to help Padme deal with the political fallout.

He probably ends up Chancellor, or possibly Mon Mothma does--the scandal surrounding Padme and the Jedi and the whole, y’know, Justifiable Regicide bit is a little too much to put her there.

There’s probably a lot of Discussion in the Order about everything that went down. Probably, once the war is Officially over, Anakin and Obi-Wan both leave.

And then there will be More Discussion once the twins are around Padawan age. But that is beyond the scope of this outline.

Basically, everything ends happily because, unlike in canon where Palps is p. much the only one on the ball, He Done Fucked Up.

[sandwyrm]

All righty, then. Opinions: Genn Greymane, Tyrande, Jaina.

Sweet sweet vengeance, eh? I’ll steal your keycard idea.

How I feel about this character

All the people I ship romantically with this character

My non-romantic OTP for this character

My unpopular opinion about this character

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Genn Greymane:

1. I’ve liked him ever since I ran my first worgen through the zone back in Cata. I wouldn’t say he’s in my top favorites but that’s simply because he’s not a type of character I would generally be interested in, no fault of his own. He’s one of the better and more consistently written characters of Warcraft far as I’m concerned.2. His wife, I guess?3. The surrogate father/son relationship he has with Anduin is pretty good BUT but and this is my interpretation, it is not and can never truly be an objective, independent relationship because Genn has never properly grieved or accepted the death of his son (as is evidenced by him still ignoring his daughter), so it feels more like he took Anduin under his wing while being an incomplete person himself - and sometimes the advice he gives Anduin comes from a place of anger or vengeance rather than logic and experience as Anduin hopes. It’s... something, for sure. I have enjoyed following their exchanges. I also love the idea of him and Tyrande bonding over the events in Darkshore.4. He’s an asshole for treating his daughter so indifferently and putting even Anduin over her in his hierarchy of relationships. The only reason I remember he has a daughter at all is because everyone keeps asking where the fuck she is and why he doesn’t speak with/about her. That’s abusive parenting.5. I really hope he will not be written as the bad guy for not trusting the Horde and still wanting vengeance on Sylvanas. That would be a very shitty message to send alongside all your other shitty messages, blizzard :) 

I’m just gonna.... V

Tyrande Whisperwind:

oh boy1. oh boy.[editor’s note: we have redacted around 371 pages out of this, too]I really really loved her and she was probably one of my top favorite characters from WC3 up to recently. Her hypocrisy in Legion left me a bit ??? I do mean both her apparent racism towards the Nightborne for no reason and the fact that while you help her free Malfurion in Val’sharah as a Horde, in front of Suramar she’s like “oh.... you again. I’ll only let you live because you helped me.” which was also a bit ????? As someone who loves elves I do love her but what the fuck is up with the jarring writing for Horde players.Then comes the moment I truly disliked her beyond belief, which is during goddamn War Crimes. She hates orcs and she hates Garrosh, okay, but why the hell is she here.... pinning the crimes of the entire orcish race on him for some reason... Doing her best to try and get witnesses that had NOTHING to do with Garrosh to testify against him and the orcs (which was accepted??) ... She is visibly written as being very very kind towards any Alliance witnesses while ripping so hard into the Horde ones it’s surreal but the most jarring one was Saurfang whom she kept hounding into a full PTSD flashback and lockdown because she didn’t like the fact he had nothing incriminatory to say about Garrosh... Half the narrative describes her as an angel/goddess of justice and that one just gave me “bad preteen fanfic” whiplash.... Honestly it was really really awful. But since then I’ve sort of distanced myself from it and simply decided that was 100% Christie Golden and Chris Metzen and 0% the actual character.Then I restarted loving the fuck out of her during BFA and the... literal goddess of vengeance and justice fanfic tier twist. But at least she’s out here calling things as they are and doing something against Sylvanas while everyone else is twiddling their fucking thumbs going all “golly gee, do y’all think Sylvanas really doesn’t like us?”So... It’s Complicated. I have Feelings over Tyrande, and half the time I’m not even sure what they are.

2. Ironically I think she and Illidan would’ve worked better and this is absolutely because of the thing I mentioned in passing before - Blizzard writers cannot write romance. Malfurion and Tyrande was an end goal all along and like... “a fact” in their mind, so there’s basically no lovey dovey stuff. They kick ass together occasionally and they have each other’s back but there’s no real chemistry? But I would very much rather take this over their usual romance of “let’s argue for the sake of arguments because relationships need arguments”.I know Illidan’s feelings were added in as a bullshit love triangle thing seeing how Malfurion and Tyrande were never a “maybe they won’t be, eh?” thing. Poor Illidan then ends up sounding like a whiny, demanding teenager but at least his FEELINGS are described for her, which is more than we ever get for Malfurion who just .... is. That’s the best I can describe his relationship to her. He is. 

3. Her and Genn killing Sylvanas. But this one almost sounds perverse.

4. I don’t get why she hates orcs this much. No. I really do not. It’s stubbornness, it’s writer bias, it’s something no longer supported by the characterization alone. Yes the orcs chopped down trees. Yes the orcs killed Cenarius (who wasn’t even really dead but let’s not talk about that). But eventually, you gotta forgive and forget. And seeing how she forgives and forgets others for WAY WORSE [editor’s note: a 512 bullet point list including Maiev Shadowsong redacted out], there’s really no basis here other than racism? Which.... again, says bad things about the writers rather than the character.

5. I really wish they’d write her more consistently, that’s about it. I know she’s meant to be the Bad Cop of the Alliance but she’s all over the place. She works with us as Hordies and then tells us to piss off within the same expansion. She hates all orcs but she likes thrall (thanks Metzen.....). Like I said, I can’t even hate the character for this one, this is so obviously the writers being bad it’s just .... sigh. Let’s move on.

Jaina Proudmoore:

1. I love her too. Definitely one of my favorite Warcraft characters, ever since WC3.

2. Arthas. That was an OKAY thing, started really really sweet and we’re gonna ignore the whole rapey vibes of “don’t deny me, Jaina”. Only because I was blessed with seeing the worse version of Kalec’s “why do you have FEELINGS over Theramore still, Jaina? It’s been 3 months why aren’t you OVER seeing ALL your friends die? Don’t you care about MY feelings? SMH, women”. Both romances written by the same writer. Fun, innit?

3. I love what she has with Anduin whenever we’re blessed with them interacting, he always seems to be an anchor point for her even though he’s like half her age. 

4. //takes a deep breath// The high body count at Theramore was because of her, not Garrosh. Supported by Tides of War, not pulled out of my ass. She made the wrong call of not alerting the civilians to evacuate, and of bringing in more people into Theramore, because she was too overconfident in winning that battle. She was the one to tell her apprentice to stay, and so on and so forth. She put up a good fight, but considering the fact that she had a head warning, she could have avoided all that. Garrosh wanted the humans out of immediate Horde land vicinity - it would’ve been the same to him if Jaina took everyone and left Theramore. Although yes, he was hoping Jaina would bring in more Alliance officers so that he could cripple the Alliance army in one blow.I’m not going to cockily blame Jaina that she’s dumb or anything, absolutely not. She made a wrong call. It’s human to make wrong calls. It’s brilliant writing. What further irks me is that this was brushed under the carpet and suddenly the narrative again became a one-sided “Garrosh just came nuke us out of the blue I guess, poor us” as time went on. This is again 110% on the writers and not the characters. But I would’ve loved it to be part of her arc as time went on and she needs to get over the guilt of making a wrong call there too, as she has dealt with the guilt of “allowing” her father to die (it was not her fault that he wanted to fight the orcs, it doesn’t sit right with me when people are blaming her for it, but that’s an entirely different essay and our editors are pointing at the clock).

5. There is.... way too much “blame Jaina” going on in her arc. Which makes me blaming her for the body count at Theramore both a hypocrite and a jackass, but at least that one is supported by the narrative.No, what I mean is, again... blame her for her father’s choice. Blame her for her mother’s choice in the BFA arc (I heard that one too...). Blame her for poor poor Kalec being a manchild and not being able to cope with the concept of ‘woman has feelings and thoughts I disapprove of’. Blame her for Arthas’ descent into insanity.Poor girl has got the lion’s share of bad events in the narrative and I can see how her arc has gone all over the place. The problem is... yeah, I will say it. It’s once again, written badly. Great ideas, written terribly in many places. And in such weird ways, too. She is absolved of blame of things she does do (eg her people invading Southern Barrens and razing the tauren settlements - which is what prompted Garrosh to retaliate and raze Theramore but the writers and the fanbase claim was just a sudden, random thing). And then she is blamed for things she doesn’t do and would never logically be responsible for at all, like the choices of her father or her lovers? It’s just ........ it’s.......it’s Something for fucking sure.....What’s that saying? There’s so much to unpack here, let’s just burn the suitcase and call it a day?

[shadowsong26x]

Author Ask Game

I was tagged by @spell-cleaver​, so here we go!

Author name: shadowsong26, or shadowsong26x. Or just shadowsong, but on my sites/whatever I have some part of the number.

Fandoms you write for: At the moment, primarily Star Wars (as well as some original stuff), but I’m trying to get back into some of my BSG fic. Apart from those two, my prior main fandoms that I did a lot of writing for were Supernatural, ATLA, and HP, but I’ve done bits and pieces for MCU, miscellaneous crossovers with other things, way back when I did some Dragonlance and LOTR and Wheel of Time...

Where you post: At the moment, mostly AO3 for fanfic stuff. And my writing tumblr.

Most popular one shot: Judging purely by hit count on the stuff that’s been crossposted to AO3 (since that’s easiest to track) - for Star Wars, either The Magic of Midwinter or To his family, send him. Which, incidentally, was the first thing I wrote when I came back to this fandom, lol. Uh. Sanctuary also did pretty well, I think. Most of my SPN fic never got that popular, but some of my ATLA one-shots got a fair number of hits, as well.

Most popular multi-chapter: Precipice, by a wide, wide, wide margin, lol. Uh. Leaving that one outlier aside, Distaff is the next most popular, followed by These Three Remain and then Asajj Ventress and Her Tiny Time-Travelling Conscience. For my non-SW stuff, The Promises of Angels did fairly well for a very long genfic about a tertiary character who (at the time I wrote it) had been dead for five seasons...

Favourite story you wrote: GDI. I hate this kind of question, lol. Uh. I’m still fairly proud of Promises, which I mentioned earlier--at the time, it was the longest contiguous story I’d ever written. Precipice has its ups and downs, but I still love it and have no intention of leaving that AU/timeline anytime soon. The Devoted turned out really well, I thought. Looking back at most of the stuff I have out there, there’s bits I would change, to make things more cohesive/coherent/whatever, but I like what I did with a lot of my stuff. ...also, my AU outlines are a blast, I really should update one of them/write another...

Story you were nervous to post: Lord. Uh. Mostly the more niche/self-indulgent things (or...things that I’m concerned will come across as self-indulgent*?) and/or unusual formats--so, crossposting Ventress to AO3; some of the Jedi of Valdemar bits; the portions of Precipice that deal with Lavinia. It’s Like Deja Vu (All Over Again), too. I was waffling about some of the way chapter 2 plays out. Oh, and Sanctuary, mostly because I don’t hang out in the ST corner of the fandom very much so writing Rey was a little weird for me, but I think it turned out okay?

*Because, while I’ve long since decided to stop feeling guilty/ashamed of such things, I like getting good responses when I share my work??? And I don’t like getting bad ones. So putting that kind of stuff up in a place where it’s intended to reach a wider audience can still be a little nervous-making, if that makes sense.

How do you choose your titles: Oh, all kinds of places. Words that sound cool/feel appropriate, various quotations...I think I did a list on some of my title sources at one point...aha, here it is!

Do you outline: Not..really, no, lol. Like, for Precipice, I sort of have a vague idea of the Major Plot Points that happen in most of the arcs, but I don’t really have it written down anywhere. I had a kind of outline for Heaven on Their Minds, I think; and when I’m working on a Big Bang project or something else with a Deadline, sometimes I’ll have placeholder chapter/scene titles in there? (Like, in The Devoted, there was The Heist(tm), and Obi-Wan and Padme Cannot Ethically Seduce Anakin, and Bail is In Trouble, and Dramatic Confession Scene(tm), etc., but nothing like a Formal Outline. ...come to think of it, I do that with Precipice, too. But not usually very far in advance, just when I’m actually sitting down to organize the next two-three chapters/scenes/plot point/whatever. Oh, I do have kind of an outline for Jedi of Valdemar, mostly because it’s an enormous timeline and I wanted to get the order/relative dating/ages straight. But that’s not super detailed.

Complete: Uhm. Well, in SW, mostly my oneshots. These Three Remain is complete. Deja Vu is technically complete, but I might do a sequel at some point? The Devoted, I have more stories to tell in that universe, though the individual fic itself is complete. The Phoenix I actually do plan to write sequels to, and have them vaguely planned out (The Hercinia will be sort of two parallel storylines, one on the planet and one with Luke and Vader; or possibly three, since the two of them will be mostly split up. The Caladrius will bring everything back together, probably, though I haven’t worked all the details out.)

In progress: Precipice, Distaff, Asajj Ventress and Her Tiny Time-Traveling Conscience; in addition to the probably-continued AU worlds mentioned above, Auxiliaries and Jedi of Valdemar universes (Auxiliaries, at the moment, has only been posted to tumblr, not AO3). Some unposted things, such as our faces like a mirror; a few things in other fandoms (Serenissima, for one; I’m considering rewriting For Sorrow Sung and/or actually getting my notes for The Other Battlestar into some kind of postable fic format, but we’ll see.)

Coming soon: Uh. Well, like I said, our faces like a mirror; I’ll do something for next year’s SWBB; more in various established AUs; probably another AU outline at some point...

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: All. Of. Them. <--I’m just gonna leave @spell-cleaver’s answer here because Mood.

Do you accept prompts: Yes! Preferably at my writing tumblr (shadowsong26fic). I do prompt calls every so often (usually for holidays or for Bonus Fics celebrating specific milestones), and I’ll sometimes reblog prompt lists/memes and the like, but I am always open for prompts. It’s just if I haven’t made a specific call or whatever, there’s no promises on when I’ll fill it. I reserve the right to refuse prompts, if it’s something I don’t feel comfortable writing or something I don’t think I can do justice, but you can always feel free to send me an ask if there’s something you’d like to see from me!

Tagging anyone who wants to do it!

[fenixofthedark]

Story Time!

I did write out the hatching, but that is incredibly personal given this nest was hatched on the anniversary pf my step-dad’s death. But you all can have Ishtar’s general thoughts on the nest. :)

Typical warnings apply when it comes to my lore: Basically, exercise caution with it.

Ishtar paced, footfalls heavy and wings tight against her body, even as she held her head high, triumphantly so.

As if she’d ever truly wanted this nest. As if the Voice wasn’t watching her, as unreadable as ever these days, even with Wyndrace pressed against them as if some pleasure-thing. The newest consort wasn’t of course, but they seemed to enjoy giving that impression.

For all Tarn’s magic and connection to the Voice, neither could have forced this nest if she hadn’t wanted it. She hadn’t, in her heart, but while she’d like to think that no was no (and it was), fate was a cruel mistress and it demanded many a sacrifice.

Her choice in the matter was negliable in the grand scheme of things. And, really, while a night with Tarn was one of the least enjoyable things she’s done, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He’d treated her well enough even though she’d hardly felt anything during the mating. Not that he was as tiny as his actual size sans wings suggested, but she was used to Illiad when she allowed it. But, more than the Enforce, Ishtar was used to Flamewar and the rough, ofttimes brutal, way he’d mount her and they’d take their pleasure together. Gods, just the memory of it was enough to arouse pleasure and desire. She’d have to seek him out soon, even if any nest they brought forth was null and void. Dead even before the egg hit the nest.

Tarn, in comparison to her beloved lifemate, was little more than an itch scratched, and everyone knew it. The viable nest itself was both expected and not, but welcome. Easily the most valuable nest outside the one that had spawned Rumble.

But, it wasn’t hers, like Kerrigan’s hadn’t been hers but Nadja’s. It could never be. Not when the Voice hovered as if they’d lain the eggs themselves and the Firedancer flitted in an out of reality. As if neither remembered the volcano they’d created this time last year, or the glassy fields created within the clan’s territory. It was possible they didn’t. Grief did funny things to a dragon after all.

“Do you want me to leave? They’ll be hatching soon.”

Fenyx nodded wordlessly, fire-bright eyes wide and unfocused while the Firedancer perched on their head, fire-red eyes distant and cold. 

Grieving, probably. Ishtar looked away. She’d never understand the Voice or the Cadre; Even this, no matter how much she wanted to look, was alien and otherworldly. Perhaps even beyound the gods themselves.  “As you wish.”

One last circle of the nest netted a glimpse at the eggs with unfettered Sight- and Ishtar left to find the Court and send them Fenyx’s way. What would come would come and Ishtar was no stranger to laying eggs that weren’t hers.

Kerrigan... and now these two.

Ishtar doubted she’d ever lay another viable nest in her life. But that was fine when she'd lain the eggs of twin Dragonlords.

Bob and Bobette of Shadowsong.

[starcrier]

“Last Thing I...” Meme

Thank you to @melt-the-stars for tagging me! Tagging @lady-stormbraver in this and whoever else wants to, I guess 

~color(s) i’m currently wearing: hot pink and black

~last band t-shirt i bought: I haven’t bought a band t-shirt in ages but I’m pretty sure it was Fall Out Boy. 

~last food I ate: Swiss chocolate that my boyfriend gave me for Valentine’s. 

~last band i saw live: I have never in all my born days been to a live concert. You may commence with the booing and throwing of fruit.

~last tv-shows i watched: I just finished Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was so emotionally devastating it got me writing fic again, but before that it was Community. And Trollhunters. 

~last song i listened to: listen I really wish I could put something cool here but it was just Footloose by Kenny Loggins. 

~last book i read/am currently reading: I’m reading three books at once because obviously I hate myself so it’s Shadowsong by S. Jae Jones, The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom and The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. 

~last movie i watched: Ready Player One. It was actually really fun, the world-building was phenomenal. 

~last 3 characters i identified with:

(This is literally the hardest question I’ve ever been asked. Um.)

Nemesis, from The Diabolic series: Despite her (many) flaws, she’s just... so pragmatic and goal-oriented and it’s easy for her to set aside her emotions to get things done. It’s not a trait I’ve seen used very often, particularly in YA fiction but it’s one that I can relate to. 

Olivia Caliban, from Netflix’s ASOUE: literally that moment at the pep rally where she just rolls her eyes and takes out a book sums up my e n t i r e high school experience. Also she spends most of her time reading and is wildly attracted to men wearing leather. So. 

Annie Edison, from Community: this is kind of silly I suppose but her seething need to perform perfectly, like, defining her and then having to redefine herself when that inevitably failed was immensely relatable. 

Thanks for the tag!

[mermaidsirennikita]

February 2018 Book Roundup

I’d that this was a pretty diverse month for me in terms of reading.  Sure, there was plenty of my traditional fantasy in there, but I also went through a biography, some contemporary YA, a historical fiction novel about Eleanor Roosevelt, alt-history, and some very silly (but very enjoyable) contemporary romance.  My favorite book of the month was probably Purple Hearts, the conclusion of Michael Grant’s Front Lines trilogy--but I’d be lying if I said that one of those romance novels didn’t rival it.  Unfortunately, my least favorite book was that aforementioned Eleanor Roosevelt book.  But hey, I tried it.

Purple Hearts by Michael Grant.  4/5.  The final book in Grant’s Front Lines/Soldier Girls trilogy, Purple Hearts sees Silver Star recipients Rio, Rainy, and Frangie return to the European front in World War II.  Rio is battle-hardened and growing increasingly fearful--not of what she faces at war, but how she, a girl very good at soldiering, will adjust to life afterwards.  Rainy is undercover and subjected to horrors that have a deeply personal ring as she deals with the guilt of surviving, killing, and becoming even colder than she already was.  Frangie is struggling with her faith, saving many as a medic but losing more--in ways that she wouldn’t have imagined.  This series--a take on World War II with the premise that girls were allowed to enlist and be drafted in America--really was way better and far more realistic than it had a right to be.  There were clumsy moments, largely because Grant is (I assume) a guy trying to be as inclusive as possible.  But you know--even when certain scenes came off as a bit awkward, I appreciated the diversity.  And the fact is that you have different reasons to bond with each of our leads, and the people they care about.  I’ll always have a soft spot for Rio most of all, because she embodies that “naive innocent turned into a battle-hardened killer” character type I love so much.  But Frangie goes through so fucking much in this book (they all do, but Frangie seemed like such an optimist at first) and even Rainy, the heroine I had the most difficulty connecting with, finally opens up and becomes a fully-realized character.  “Purple Hearts” struck me as the most brutal book in the trilogy, and there are a lot of horrific scenes throughout.  But it was ultimately very satisfying, and a great end to the series.

Empress of the East by Leslie Peirce.  4/5.  Hurrem Sultan, also known as Roxelana, was the first woman in centuries to legally wed an Ottoman sultan, thus becoming an essential empress.  However, like any concubine, she began life as a slave before catching the eye of Suleyman the Magnificent and beginning one of history’s greatest love affairs--that would result in six children and a fundamental change in Ottoman politics.  Peirce has to make a lot of assumptions when writing this book--little is known about Hurrem, referred to by the name Roxelana in this biography.  But she sticks to accuracy whenever possible, and none of her assumptions are all that out there to me.  I’d call this more popular than academic history, but if you’re looking to get into the history of Hurrem and the Ottoman Empire, I think it’s a great start.

Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones.  4/5.  Six months after leaving her husband, the Goblin King, behind in the Underground, Liesl is attempting to make something out of her life.  Yet her brother Josef, a gifted musician, hasn’t responded to any of her letters and she finds herself unable to compose.  After receiving a proposal from a mysterious benefactor, Liesl goes to further her career in Vienna, only to realize that the boundaries between our world and the Goblin King’s are deteriorating at an alarming rate, and something is seriously wrong with her brother.  Liesl must return to the Underground to figure out what’s going on--but can she do so without losing her sanity?  This book... is a lot.  It’s beautifully written, incredibly dark at points, and takes a pretty bold turn.  Liesl’s story in “Wintersong” was really of self-discovery and sexual awakening, whereas here the story revolves--fairy stuff aside--around her mental condition and her relationship with Josef.  Along with a bit of Goblin King backstory for good measure.  And for the most part, I’d say it’s successful.  Yes, there were points where I was like “honestly Liesl should probably do something rather than thinking about how bad shit is” but... “Wintersong” wasn’t a very plot-driven book either, so I can’t say that I felt that plot was meant to be a priority in the sequel.  It’s all sort of delightfully eerie and morally ambiguous, holdovers from “Wintersong”. But it was missing the Goblin King.  Again, I feel that this book was very ambitious and super interesting and enjoyable, but it was missing something that made me absolutely adore “Wintersong”.  And I’m not ashamed to admit that that something was the Goblin King and all the emo sex he had with Liesl.  There were definitely points where I almost felt like Jones was trying to push back against the fact that most of the praise surrounding “Wintersong” was around how hot her male “hero” (................ ish) was, but I’ve got to say that that story did seem a bit more effortless to read.  Basically, I wouldn’t change the plot of “Shadowsong”, I think it’s a really good book and followup, but I would add more Goblin King and I’m not ashamed to admit it.  Still, I really loved it and was overall satisfied with the book.

Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes.  4/5.  I’m not going to bother on a summary for this because it’s the conclusion to a 6 (?) book series that is all very convoluted.  Essentially, Immortal Reign takes all of the characters we’ve followed and concludes their stories in the expected ways, and while I wouldn’t say that the Falling Kingdoms series is good, exactly... it does what it came here to do.  It’s a very trope-y Game of Thrones for teens type thing with a feisty princess and a brooding dark prince at the center taking up the actual plot (which involves some elemental gods or whatever) with their arranged marriage angsty sexual tension shenanigans and honestly?  It’s fun.  All’s well that ends well.

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan.  2/5.  Sophie, a cossetted politician’s wife, is shocked when her husband James revealed that he had an affair with a young employee.  James is charismatic and prominent, and though Sophie can believe that the affair happened, she doesn’t believe what comes next--the reveal that James allegedly raped the woman he was sleeping with.  Kate, an experienced lawyer, is ready to prosecute James, completely convinced of his guilt.  But which woman is right?  I honestly debated doing one or two stars here, and I think I went with two because I get what the author is going for.  But like... here’s the thing.  We know which woman is right.  We know from the start, especially after James’s perspective is introduced (side note: the way the POVs were handled seemed wonky).  I’m all about the issue of rape being handled in fiction, especially when we’re talking about charismatic politicians.  It’s very relevant.  But the thing is that there is room for doubt in some cases; a very, very small amount, sure.  However, there’s a reason why trials happen in rape cases.  (Unfortunately, those trials often don’t end as they should, but that’s another issue.)  There should have been doubt in a book that touted itself as a thriller, but all I got was preachiness and a “twist” that... did not... impress me.  Kate’s perspective was incredibly holier than thou--so even though I agreed with her beliefs, I felt like I was being *told* how to feel rather than convinced through the story or writing.  Like, obviously I should agree with everything Kate says.  Obviously.  Also, the writing just wasn’t great--slow and strange at times.  The descriptions of people were weird.  Like, way to take your novel about a feminist issue and describe the evil defense attorney in a way that is suggestive of her weight--she’s described as a “weighty” woman who “plumps” herself down.  Which... whatever.  Good idea, downright unintelligent and uninspired execution that probably would have been more interesting if we focused solely on Sophie’s point of view.

White Houses by Amy Bloom.  2/5.  Lorena Hickock tells the story of her decades-long love affair with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  Though American history has never been my jam, I was intrigued because the existence of Eleanor’s affair with “Hick” is debated to this day, despite a lot of evidence towards the fact that Eleanor was a) interested in women and b) in love with Hick, and vice versa.  And this should have been so interesting.  Not only is there the inherent interest factor of a first lady having an affair--and with another woman in the early twentieth century, at that--but Eleanor was a multi-dimensional, controversial woman married to a controversial man (who had plenty of affairs of his own).  But Amy Bloom’s writing style and characterization of Hick (who had a horrific childhood that was handled... I don’t know, rather coldly, by the writing style) just sucked the life out of everything.  I won’t say that there weren’t some pretty moments and I feel like the approach to depicting a long relationship was good, but this was too boring.

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann.  3/5.  Alice has recently suffered yet another bad breakup--and the reason why her girlfriend dumped her is especially painful.  Biromantic and asexual, Alice struggles to communicate to her partners how she feels, and how her romantic attraction to them doesn’t mean that she experiences sexual attraction.  Right after proclaiming that she’s done with dating, Alice meets the handsome, kind Takumi, and is immediately head over heels.  But does she dare tell him about her feelings--and her sexuality?  This book was definitely hard for me to rate, because in all honesty...  I didn’t really like it.  I didn’t really hate it, either.  It was fine.  The representation is so important that I feel like I can’t not recommend it--Alice is black, biromantic, and asexual.  That’s huge.  I don’t know if the author is asexual or not--I know she’s black--so I can’t speak to how the book handles asexuality (another reason why I wasn’t sure how to rate it) but I did appreciate that race wasn’t ignored in the book.  The thing is that while Takumi was very cute, much of the book felt more like a Tumblr spiel than a story.  Alice has a right to have her feelings hurt by the fact that her girlfriend doesn’t want to be with her; but I also felt like the girlfriend was a bit demonized for wanting to feel sexually desired, and the fact is that... that’s okay.  Alice’s friends seem to say the right things a bit too often, especially considering how little the average person knows about asexuality.  Alice herself annoyed the shit out of me, for reasons that had nothing to do with her sexuality--she was just so fucking cutesy, and in all honesty I had a hard time believing that a girl her age thought the way she did.  It also felt as if that fed into the perception of ace people as these fairy-like unicorn types who love all things soft and cute, which...  I don’t know.  Maybe an ace person would read this and say otherwise.  I’m not ace, so I have no idea. Basically: good idea, not so sure about the execution, great rep.  Important, but perhaps a little too After School Special for me.

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden.  3/5.  Following the events of The Bear and the Nightingale, Vasya is left with two choices: marry, or join a convent.  Spirited--and still being mentored on some level by the frost demon Morozko--Vasya is quickly gains the esteem of the Prince of Moscow after a battle with bandits.  But that leaves her disguising her gender, an d in more danger than ever before.  I remember liking The Bear and the Nightingale--but I’m not sure that it left a huge impression on me, because I felt like I was going into this book blind.  I remember the characters--it’s a big cast--but I wasn’t excited about anything but Vasya and Morozko.  I don’t know, it all came off as a bit slow to me.  Beautifully written and interesting, but slow.  I plan on giving it another shot at some point.

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata.  4/5.  At twenty-six, Jasmine is past her prime as a figure skater, and her pairs partner’s abrupt departure has caused her to miss a season.  She should be thrilled to be asked to partner last-minute with Ivan Lukov, the current world champion--but Ivan is also her best friend’s older brother, and her arch nemesis since she was a teenager.  He’s arrogant and stuck-up; she’s got a chip on her shoulder.  It’s a romance novel.  We know what’s going to happen.  But this was one of the most fun love/hate romance novels I’ve read in a while.  Honestly, there’s nothing INCREDIBLY deep going on here--the stakes are relatively low, there aren’t any major obstacles or even a last minute shocking reveal~.  Ivan and Jasmine really just need to stop being assholes to each other and fucking skate.  Also, make out.  But it’s such a fun book.  Like, the writing is nothing spectacular--there’s some repetition and awkward descriptions--but the leads’ chemistry keeps it together and I pretty much wolfed the book down.

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata.  3/5.  For two years, Vanessa has been the long-suffering personal, assistant of football star Aiden Graves, who acts as if she doesn’t exist.  Fed up with being taken for granted, Vanessa quits--only to have Aiden show up on her doorstep, asking her to marry him.  A Canadian, Aiden is in danger of having his visa expire, and the easiest way for him to stay in the U.S.--the only way he’ll accept--is through marriage, and Vanessa is the best potential (fake) wife.  After Aiden promises to pay off her student loans and buy her a house, she agrees--but can she keep her real feelings at bay?  Another cheesy but charming romance from Zapata, but this one I found a good bit less compelling.  It was likable, sure, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between Aiden and Vanessa on the same level that I did Ivan and Jasmine’s in the above book.  For that matter, while Aiden wasn’t as nasty to Vanessa as Ivan was to Jasmine--well, Jasmine dished it as well as she took it.  Vanessa, on the other hand, was just a doormat as Aiden had her wash his sheets, cook for him, basically handle everything an adult should handle... while acting like she didn’t exist.  It certainly diminished Aiden’s appeal, though I didn’t hate him.  Again, it was fun, but not nearly as good as From Lukov with Love.

[shadowsong26fic]

Another Random AU Because Why Not

A couple months ago, I outlined a Heralds of Valdemar crossover/fusion/AU (which I’ve done some more Pondering on since then because it’s fun/hilarious). And then I did the Rabbit Hole AU, which was even more hilarious/fun.

Anyway, now that I’ve plugged my previous crack AUs, as you do, I have decided to outline another one! And for Reasons, it’s #10 on my List of Things I’ll Never Actually Write.

::ahem::

Without further ado, I present to you: Bail Organa Unfucks the Timeline

So, point the first (and this is an important one): Bail doesn’t know how he died.

I mean, he kiiiiiiiinda does? Like, the thought occurs (once he has a second to think, which takes a while, as we’ll see shortly). He knows what happened to Jedha, and possibly to Scarrif (which I can’t spell). But at the same time, there’s this sort of denial aspect to it. Like--even Tarkin would never.

(Also, he didn’t actually see the Death Star. He was not near a window/on the wrong side of the planet/something.)

So, he decides he had a stroke or something.

Point the second (also important): That whole ‘inform the Senate that all aboard were killed’ message? Never reached him. Because a) Alderaan had no actual Senator in place on Coruscant/Imperial Center/whatever the cool kids are calling it these days at the time to hear said message, and b) the Senate was dissolved like five minutes later so whichever of his friends drew the short straw on that one got a wee bit distracted.

All clear? Good! On to the fun stuff.

So, one minute, Bail is in his study, going over maps or supply routes or other war-preparation-y things with a trusted aide, and the next, he’s back on Christophsis.

More specifically, he is being tackled to one side by someone yelling “GET DOWN, SIR” just as something explodes over his head.

Which leads to: wait why is a stormtrooper tackling me wait how did a stormtrooper get into my study wait that helmet is twenty years out of date wait how did I get outside wait why is the sky the wrong color WAIT WHY IS THE SKY ON FIRE

Bail needs a minute.

And a drink.

(Why is he even on Christophsis while the sky is on fire? Is there actual canon explaining this? Do I care? ...probably not.)

In the interests of not, y’know, dying, Bail decides to just run with it for a while, until he has some breathing room and can figure out wtf is going on.

Bail is a very smart man.

Eventually, he gets his five minutes and comes to the conclusion that nope, this is not a dream, I am apparently back in the past, the War is in its early days. I can, quite possibly, fix things. Stop Palpatine. Save the Republic/Galaxy.

This seems like an excellent plan.

(NB: He is aware that doing this means losing his daughter--or at least his relationship with her/her as he raised her. And a part of him will always wish that...a part of him will always mourn her, and that world/life he lost. But this is the one thing that is worth that sacrifice. Plus, if he missed this chance, the Leia he raised would never forgive him. So a part of him is doing this for her. Giving her the galaxy she deserves, despite how much it costs him.)

The question then becomes...well, how?

He eventually decides to focus his work on the Senate, and try to limit Palpatine’s expansion/power/ascent as much--and as subtly--as he can.

Subtly because, well, he would very much like to not get caught and killed.

Not getting killed also seems like an excellent plan.

Also, pretty much no one is on to Palps yet. I mean, yeah, there are people side-eyeing him a little bit for holding on to/accumulating power the way he does, but what Chancellor hasn’t been accused of such things? And it’s not...it’s not like it will be two and a half/three years from now. And Bail cannot afford to alienate allies he will need later, depending on how successful he is/how long this takes.

Bail has been doing this for a while. He is not taking his success for granted. He is covering all his bases, just in case.

Fortunately, Bail has twenty years of running an underground resistance under his belt. This? This, he can do.

There are other problems too, of course. Like...the War is an actual thing that still needs to be resolved. But there’s not much Bail can personally do about it, not while Palpatine and Dooku are, between the two of them, derailing any attempts at negotiation. Apart from, of course, careful Senate maneuvering to remove Palps from power.

(He’ll figure out a way to deal with Dooku/Grievous/Etc. later. One problem at a time.)

Next question--who does he read in on all of this?

Breha, of course--she is his wife, and his partner. He needs her beside/behind him. Plus, it’s not exactly fair to her, to keep her in the dark about this. She’ll be expecting the husband she knows to come home to her, not a man made...let’s say incredibly cautious by twenty years of, essentially, espionage. To say nothing of the fact that he raised a child, and they’re still--trying. There’s a lot of emotional baggage there, too. They’ll make it work, somehow, he knows they will--but she needs to know. She deserves the truth from him, no matter how hard it is for him to explain/how hard it is for her to hear.

(Look, I have a lot of FEELINGS about Bail and Breha’s relationship. Even though I kind of ship him and Obi-Wan [for which I mostly blame Reprise, despite the fact that said fic doesn’t actually ship them], if I ever wrote something with the two of them together [as I might in this fic, and sort of am in one other though that one it may never actually come up on page], it would be with Breha’s full knowledge and consent. ...end random tangent, sorry.)

As for everyone else...he decides to wait and see, feeling people out as likely possibilities. Just like he and Mon did for twenty years, building the Alliance. Only this time, the barometer is more “who will believe me” as opposed to “who won’t betray me.”

(He’s aware that Obi-Wan and Padme should be pretty high up on that list but--hell, where does he even start?)

(He decides to shelve that problem for now. He’ll tell them when the time is right. ...hopefully, he’ll know when that time arrives.)

And now, the moment I’m sure you’ve been waiting for--how do we approach the whole Darth Vader issue?

You thought I’d forgotten about it, didn’t you.

(I didn’t.)

(Neither did Bail)

Okay, so, the problem, as he sees it, is that he’s...not exactly in a position to intervene.

He had no real personal connection with Anakin the first time around.

Sure, they worked together on occasion, and their relationship was certainly cordial when they did, and of course they had a mutual friend or two, but all their interactions were fairly distant/professional.

Besides, while he can extrapolate/guess a fair amount of what happened (and, more important, how/why it happened), he has no actual knowledge/frame of reference for how accurate his guesses are. (Because, LBR, even Obi-Wan might not know the full story, though he’s at least guessed almost all of it, and even if he did, he wasn’t exactly talking about it in the five minutes they were working out what to do with the twins, etc.) And if he’s wrong, he might well make things worse.

The second problem is that he has no idea how he’ll feel about/react to meeting Anakin again, given that basically the only real context he has here is the future he lived and is now trying to avert. He figures there’s two ways its likely to go:

Option one, nightmare scenario: He meets General Skywalker, and all he sees is Vader. This is...nooooot exactly very productive/conducive to him getting done what he needs to get done. In this case, Bail will avoid him as much as possible, and try to find a way to tip off Padme and/or Obi-Wan.

Option two, acceptable scenario: He meets General Skywalker, and there is a total disconnect between the person he is now and the monster he could become (did become? might become? time travel is weird). In this case, Bail will keep things more or less as they were last time; and focus on derailing Palpatine and fixing the problems in the Senate, and hope that that makes a difference.

And he’ll try to find a way to tip off Obi-Wan and/or Padme. Bail ain’t stupid.

Of course, there are two major factors here that Bail hasn’t considered.

For starters, he’d forgotten how young Anakin was.

True, some of the other Jedi Generals weren’t all that much older (to say nothing of the Padawan Commanders), and he knows there were too-young soldiers in the Alliance, too, but at the same time...

It hadn’t stuck out to him all that much the first time--maybe because it, unfortunately, wasn’t unusual/was just How Things Worked, and his personal context had been of course different, as he’d been significantly younger himself. But, despite that and the continued youth of the Rebellion... Look, dropping back into the GAR now, and seeing this twenty-year-old kid put in these situations is another thing entirely when one is on the far side of sixty (mentally, at least) and all too recently had a child his age.

ON A RELATED NOTE, major factor the second: Bail hadn’t realized just how much like Leia Anakin was.

So, when they finally do meet, Bail starts noticing all kinds of little details--a certain insouciant little smirk, a particular defiant lift to his chin, a familiar inability (equal parts endearing, alarming, and incredibly frustrating) to keep from mouthing off...

So...all of this basically means that, when Bail encounters Anakin, every instinctive Papa Wolf fiber of his being says, “This is my child now. Fight me.”

(well, not so much “fight me.”)

(Bail isn’t really a “fight me” sort of dude.)

(But you get the point.)

So now, Bail has to add ‘bond with Anakin Skywalker and help keep him sane’ to his increasingly-daunting to-do list.

This actually turns out to be...not as difficult as he expected?

(the first half, anyway)

Because, yeah, there’s a bit of a shaky start because Anakin Does Not Like politicians

(unless they’re from Naboo)

(and their name starts with Pa)

But once he works his way past that, it’s--Anakin likes having friends, he wants to like people, and he wants people to like him. Making Friends not his superpower, like it is with Luke, but it’s actually pretty easy to win his affection and respect, if you just reach out to him a little.

(thinking of that one meta post that was going around a couple days ago, about the bit with Ki-Adi Mundi at the Second Battle of Geonosis, talking about how--you know Another Friend in the Order, and then Obi-Wan says it’s a rare thing and look at how it wasn’t actually that hard for Mundi and--anyway, that sort of thing, y’know?)

So, Bail reaches out, and makes friends.

(Good Lord, he thinks, does this kid need a dad. Obi-Wan was that, and did very well, for a while at least, but he’s too thoroughly made the transition to ‘brother’ since the war started and Anakin was Knighted to fill that need.)

(You know what else he needs? is the next thought, as Anakin runs off into unnecessary danger AGAIN. A goddamn leash.)

So, we’re still pretty early in the War, and things start to shift a little bit.

Only a little bit, and fairly subtle. Bail is, after all, used to playing a long game with limited resources and everything to lose.

He worries, sometimes, that he’s moving too slowly in the Senate, but it’s such a delicate balance, if he upsets it...

But he is making progress. ...glacial, minuscule progress, but the galaxy is on a somewhat better path this time around. Palpatine finds things just a little bit harder this time around. Maybe that’ll be enough, and all the little changes will add up. That’s what Bail’s hoping for.

Unfortunately, this is Palpatine, and he has backup plans for his backup plans, and is course-correcting rather nicely.

Fortunately, that means Bail isn’t quite annoying enough to get offed.

Bail is also gradually working people into his network. Mon and Bel Iblis, to start; a few others. He decides against telling anyone he’s from the future. Compartmentalizing is better. Safer.

He involves Padme, too, of course; while he’s still not quite ready/able to approach telling her the full truth (though he knows he can’t get away with half-measures like he can with the others), her support is invaluable. He’s keeping track of what she notices and when, with regard to Palpatine’s machinations. While she is starting to waver a little, she still mostly trusts her former adviser; and Bail knows that she’ll have to decide not to on her own. All he can do is nudge her in the right direction, when he has the opportunity to do so.

He’s also gathering evidence, so that when he finally makes a bold, public strike, he’ll be able to back it up and the Republic will survive the blow to morale and the power vacuum that will inevitably ensue.

Anakin, actually, becomes a bigger change. Because while Bail has become an expert in slow, subtle progress that you don’t notice until it punches you in the face five years later, Anakin is....not.

Also, this is, like, the best year of his life. Even in the original timeline. He has a job he’s good at, he has his wife, he has his brother, he has his sister, he (at least thinks) he has a father figure in Palpatine...

And this time, he also has Bail.

Which means a confidant outside the Order, who is Not Palptaine. Who is, in fact, a very good counterweight for Palpatine because they’re both playing on the same emotional needs.

But Bail, of course, actually genuinely has Anakin’s best interests at heart.

So, Palpatine is starting to notice that Anakin is...worryingly stable. That will never do.

So, he pushes a little bit harder than he did, this early on, in the other timeline.

Not enough to make Anakin notice, of course.

(Smart as he is, Anakin is also really really dumb about some things)

But enough that when someone finally points out that, hey, Palpatine is sort of sketchy, he won’t be quite as resistant to the notion.

Because he feels--unsettled, more often than not, after meeting with Palpatine. And he tells himself it’s just because of the problems the Chancellor is pointing out to him. He convinces himself that’s all, but each time--it’s maybe just a tiny bit harder to believe.

(Strangely enough, although sometimes he and Senator Organa talk about similar things--his issues with the Council, etc.--he never leaves those conversations feeling like this...)

All of this comes to a head--oh, we’ll say about a year later.

Not much has really changed (at least in the parts of the story we, the audience, see) other than Bail is a little more integrated/involved with Our Heroes than in canon. Basically, it’s not just Padme he follows down to the docks with a sidearm to keep her from getting herself killed.

(Side note: he also would very much like to take Ahsoka home and just keep her. BAIL ORGANA IS ADOPTING ALL OF THESE KIDS AND KEEPING THEM SAFE FROM PALPATINE AND HIS SCHEMES, OKAY.)

Anyway. Bail eventually comes forward and tells Anakin--pretty much everything.

This occurs under suitably melodramatic circumstances--i.e., Anakin was playing security/escort for something Bail was doing, and they crash and are stranded together for a few days, or something. Because while Bail is like the chillest dude ever, Anakin attracts more than enough Drama to make up for that.

He’s like a Melodrama Magnet.

Also, them being stranded means Anakin can’t ragequit the conversation, losing all the ground Bail has gained over the last year.

This covers a lot of ground--even though Bail tries to stick to just what he knows is true.

But this is damning enough.

But Anakin needs to know.

“I’m doing this,” he says, “for our daughter.”

“Our daughter,” Anakin repeats.

And then Bail tells him about her. All the things he’s wanted to say this whole year but couldn’t--because it would hurt Breha too much, and who else could he confide in about the daughter he lost?

BASICALLY ALL OF THE LEIA FEELS BECAUSE HER DADS. JUST. HER DADS.

It is a long, difficult conversation, but Anakin--Anakin is not yet so unstable that he won’t listen. And Bail is his friend, someone he trusts. And he--knows there is darkness in him, he remembers what he did in the wake of his mother’s death, and he knows the truth of what Bail is telling him.

“It’s not you,” Bail says. “Not yet. And it doesn’t have to be. We can fix this, before it goes too far. I can’t solve these problems for you, but I can help. I want to help.”

(And he finds a way to shut down that insecure voice in the back of Anakin’s head that doubts Bail’s friendship for a minute there, because he can see those wheels turning, and he knows Anakin well enough by now to guess at those particular cracks in his psyche.)

(Quick note: I did say that this Bail tells Anakin almost everything--but he does leave Luke out of the conversation. As I mentioned before, he’s too cautious not to hedge his bets.)

Another thing Bail does not do is he does not--specifically implicate Palpatine, because he doesn’t know how far Anakin has drifted away from the Chancellor’s influence and doesn’t want to risk a denial-induced overcompensation reaction, where he falls even deeper under the Sith Lord’s shadow.

(but Anakin, while being kind of dumb, is also a very smart man. And he knows that the list of people who have that level of influence on both him and galactic politics as a whole is a very short one.)

They come out of this with the whole--idea, that Bail genuinely trusts Anakin’s abilities, and trusts him to help and do the right thing, and Anakin can come to him for help/perspective when it all gets to be too much, emotionally speaking, without worrying about disappointing him to the point where Bail will abandon him/not want to be his friend anymore.

(Because Bail has seen the worst he could possibly be. As long as Anakin doesn’t go that far...)

After a day or so, they get picked up from wherever they were stranded. Probably by Obi-Wan, who can tell that Something Important happened. But Anakin is being quiet, and Bail deftly changes the subject.

And then they get back to Coruscant, and a different kind of hell breaks loose.

Because Bail made a very slight, but very important miscalculation--Anakin and Leia are a lot alike, in how they approach problems, in how they view the world, in that they both operate from a fairly black-and-white way of thinking--there’s another meta post I’ve read I’m going to reference, talking about how Anakin and Leia are Justice, while Luke and Padme are Mercy.

But Leia has the advantage of a stable childhood. And a certain amount of common sense. These temper those instincts, and help her rein herself in until the time is right. Anakin...not so much.

So, Anakin, once he’s through with his preliminary debrief at the Temple, goes to confront Palpatine, about everything Bail told him, and everything he figured out from there.

(He manages to protect Bail through this, and everything that will come after--he had a vision, he tells his false friend; so convincingly that even Darth Sidious believes.)

Some time later, Bail gets a call from Obi-Wan.

“Have you heard from Anakin? I can’t reach him. Neither can Ahsoka, and he usually doesn’t duck her calls. You’re his friend, I thought, perhaps...”

Bail has a Bad Feeling(tm) about this.

Because Padme hasn’t heard from him, either.

“He’s probably racing,” Obi-Wan says, but the doubt shines clear in his voice. “He’ll be back soon, I’m sure...”

Bail takes a deep breath, because here’s another incredibly difficult conversation he’s been putting off for a year.

It’s time to read Obi-Wan--and Padme--in. On everything, just like he did with Anakin.

...that’s about as far as I have planned out in detail. But there will be a Rescue Mission, and Palpatine will end up Very Very Dead, and life will be--good. The Republic will stabilize, and Bail and Padme and Mon and their allies will fix the problems that Palpatine found and exacerbated there. And the Order will survive and adapt, becoming a little more flexible as it moves forward into a new golden age.

And while a part of Bail still mourns the good parts of his other life, he and Breha will eventually adopt another little girl, as they discussed; and Anakin will practically be his son anyway; and he will watch Leia grow up again, in a peaceful galaxy, the one she has always deserved, and he will be very pleased with what he accomplished.

[shadowsong26fic]

The Rabbit Hole AU

So, I babbled at my wonderful roommate nightlightflame (who is so much fun to bounce ideas off of omg) and decided I had to write this one up.

This is, essentially, an exercise in the Greek mythological concept of fate/destiny. Some things are Meant To Be.

...but how we get there, and what shape it takes when we arrive, well, that’s a different story.

And so, I present to you: the Rabbit Hole AU, aka Temple-Raised Palpatine.

So, Palpatine is identified as Force-sensitive as a tiny. (Which, how this was avoided in canon, IDK; his explanation in Plagueis makes little sense to me. As nightlightflame pointed out, the Son was probably involved)

Which means this is probably the Father going “hey, you see this kid over there? The kid who is clearly meant to be a Sith Lord? Let’s give him to the other guys and watch what happens.”

Anyway, Palps is identified and his father does the Right and Proper Thing and signs custody over to the Jedi Order.

For the purposes of this fic, I’m adjusting a couple things. Namely, Palpatine is five years older than his probable canon/Legends age, and Qui-Gon is approximately five years younger than his probable age.

They grow up together.

They’re friends.

(or, well, as close as Sheev can get to such things. He is still Palpatine, after all. But more on that later)

I’m going to skip over the next few years for the purposes of this outline, because they mostly deal with Qui-Gon and Palps being friends, and Qui-Gon occasionally functioning as Sheev’s external conscience, and Sheev occasionally poking at Qui-Gon until he at least acknowledges that the bigger picture exists.

And then they’re old enough to be taken as Padawans.

(this is where the fun begins)

How ‘bout some role-reversal? :D

This is the main reason why I fudged the ages.

Because given canon ages, it’s vanishingly unlikely that Dooku would take Palpatine on, particularly since this would have to happen IMMEDIATELY after Qui-Gon’s trials.

So, they’re the same age.

I’m not entirely sure who would train Qui-Gon.

Maybe Yoda?

Probably Yoda.

The only other timeline-appropriate Jedi I can think of is Jocasta Nu maybe? How old is she?

Or, wait, isn’t Plo Koon a long-lived species?

...I don’t think I want Plo Koon though, for reasons that will probably become clear later.

Dooku ably shepherds Palps through what is bound to be a fairly volatile adolescence. Palpatine develops into a shrewd, silver-tongued, and occasionally somewhat ruthless Knight. He takes his Trials at about 20/22, does remarkably well. Dooku is very proud.

Qui-Gon probably graduates around the same time, and they occasionally work together and maintain their friendship.

And then Xanatos happens.

Qui-Gon may, sadly, be backed into a corner where he has to straight-up kill Xanatos right at this point. I haven’t decided yet.

Qui-Gon, I think, straight-up leaves the Order afterwards.

MEANWHILE

Plagueis finds himself lacking in apprentice/partner candidates. He’s working to build up to the Clone Wars, because that was always the plan.

He focuses on the actual broad logistics for the time being, building the armies, etc., all while keeping an eye on several up-and-coming politicians on a variety of worlds, spinning his web.

(This will be important later.)

Some years later, Palpatine is in the Temple between missions, and idly observing a class of senior Initiates.

He sees one boy at the end of a row and deep from the bottom of his ice-cold heart comes a resounding cry of mine.

He is slightly concerned by this. Partly because he’s not overly fond of children and hasn’t ever really liked the idea of raising one (especially after what happened to poor Qui-Gon and Xanatos), but partly because...uh...

Look, Sheev knows he’s not like the others--he’s cold, calculating, finds it extremely difficult to find the empathy and compassion expected of a Jedi.

He can fake it well enough, and he’s built himself a rigid set of rules for his own behavior with Dooku’s help (which mostly but not entirely line up with the official Code), but he knows that there’s something atypical with his approach. Especially among the Jedi.

He goes to his former Master with his concerns.

Dooku’s advice boils down to, “it’s probably a very strong signal from the Force. The way it was phrased/the way you perceived it does cause some concern. Meditate for a while, speak with the boy, speak with his other instructors. Don’t rush this decision, but don’t discount the idea because of your initial reaction.”

This is very wise advice and Palpatine follows it.

Long story short, Palpatine takes Obi-Wan as his apprentice.

They are an incredible team, guys. Seriously, just think of the possibilities.

I don’t want to say much about the actual adventures they have, because that takes work I haven’t yet put into this AU, but I do need to mention Mandalore. And Satine.

Palpatine was going to recommend Obi-Wan for his Trials at that point. Then he decided “....I’ll give him a year or two to restabilize and then recommend him.”

When the time is right, he tells Obi-Wan, “when we get back to the Temple, I’m recommending you for your Trials.”

Obi-Wan: thank you, Master. I won’t fail or let you down.

Palpatine: I know. If I thought you would, I wouldn’t recommend you.

then they smile at each other because this is How They Do.

Obi-Wan, of course, passes with flying colors.

They continue getting teamed up, much like Obi-Wan and Anakin do in canon, because they work so well together.

(Also, Obi-Wan is pretty good at helping Sheev supplement his rules with Actual Decent Humanity)

Side note: Palps butts heads with the Council just as much as Qui-Gon does. But where Qui-Gon hears them out and then goes and does whatever the hell he wants to do anyway, Sheev, on the other hand, tends to hear the Council out, patiently discuss the issue, and then politely accept their judgment and withdraw. Five minutes later, the Council realizes that he just talked them into authorizing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they wanted him to do.

Ten years later, Obi-Wan starts utilizing that same skill.

Yoda has several drinks and deeply, deeply regrets authorizing this partnership.

But doesn’t split them up because, again, super-effective and they make up for each other’s emotional weaknesses.

Qui-Gon, meanwhile, has somehow come in contact with Plagueis.

Exactly how, I’m not sure.

Now, he’s not a good candidate for the political face Plagueis needs, but he would make a decent Sith Lord.

So, he becomes the Apprentice.

He needs a Sith Name.

Any ideas?

We are now up to approximately the point where Episode I happens.

Plaugeis, as mentioned above, has been keeping an eye on several up-and-coming politicians. And his puppet King on Naboo, Veruna, is beginning to try and cut his strings.

We can’t have that.

But there is this bright, charming, idealistic, ambitious young girl.

(If only, Plagueis thinks, she were Force-sensitive)

As it is, he can split those responsibilities--this young lady, in time, can be the public face of things on the Republic side of the coming War, and Qui-Gon can assist him with those parts of his plan that require Force use.

He has another candidate in mind to run the political wing of the Separatist movement--a certain brilliant, passionate, stubborn, idealistic Duchess...

But more on her later. Let us return to Naboo.

Plaguis makes contact with the young Padme Naberrie, and encourages her to put herself forward as an alternative to Veruna’s corruption.

(From here, in time, it will be child’s play to get her into the Senate and persuade her that his way is the best to counteract the corruption in the Republic as a whole).

The planet is blockaded.

Master Palpatine and Knight Kenobi are sent to negotiate.

This first part goes much as in canon, only with Plagueis, rather than Sidious, pulling the strings.

They are still forced to take refuge on Tatooine for repairs.

Palpatine identifies the boy immediately of course. And promptly claims him for the Order. He can work out the logistics later.

Of course, he doesn’t want to lose the child. But he also doesn’t really relish the thought of raising another one.

So, naturally, he goes to Obi-Wan. “This boy is powerful, and this boy is fragile. The Sith are extinct, but the Jedi are not the only power in this universe. We cannot allow him to be manipulated by the wrong people.”

“So, instead, we manipulate him ourselves?”

“Precisely.”

Obi-Wan agrees in principle, but is a little hesitant about taking the child as an apprentice. “Master, I’m still relatively inexperienced. I’m not sure I’m ready to take on any Padawan, let alone one who will need special attention.”

Palpatine gives Obi-Wan the same advice Dooku gave him--sit with the boy, speak with him, don’t make this decision lightly or in haste. And, if Obi-Wan says no, resolves to train the boy himself. Because without one of them advocating for him--insisting--the Council will never admit him into the Order. He’s too old.

Obi-Wan follows his Master’s advice. And deep from the bottom of his warm, kind heart comes a resounding cry of mine.

Maul is probably still involved here, because I don’t think I want to drop the Qui-bomb this early. He probably gets very dead (like, for real, actual, permadead this time) because Palps and Obi-Wan together? Ahahahaha, good luck.

Qui-Gon is keenly distressed by the death of his apprentice. (Especially after Xanatos. Who he has personally killed by now, if not when things first went wrong). And then to learn it was at the hands of his one-time best friend?

Ten years pass.

Anakin trains as a Jedi. Obi-Wan and Palpatine still frequently work together, now with their tiny tagalong.

Padme finishes her term as Queen of Naboo and enters the Senate, still receiving counsel and training from Plagueis.

Finis Valorum’s term ends as scheduled. Bail Antilles is elected to replace him, replaced in his seat by Bail Organa.

And then, under the charismatic leadership of the Duchess of Mandalore, a secessionist movement begins to take shape.

Obi-Wan feels slightly conflicted. They have a reasonable point, and he can’t help but remember Satine--but his loyalty is to the Republic, to his Order, to his Master and to his Padawan. Mostly to those last.

He discusses his concerns with Palpatine, who agrees, but maintains that the chaos of factioning would be worse than the corruption Satine and her Separatists are protesting.

Anakin has no opinion. Anakin, much to his Masters’ despair, has a tin ear for politics, and will simply follow wherever they lead him.

(he’s a little better than in canon, because Palpatine, rather than aggravating his issues, is trying to ameliorate them, but some things can’t be helped.)

And then comes an attempt on Senator Amidala’s life.

(”You may need the sympathy vote to help you become Chancellor after we remove Antilles. Even your unimpeachable reputation as the Steel Flower of Naboo might not outweigh your youth and inexperience.”)

Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to protect her, as in canon.

Padme: ‘oh no he’s hot’

Padme: ‘kriffing hell.’

Padme: ‘my Plans for the Republic do not allow for pretty, dumb, pretty Jedi boys.’

Anakin: ::awkward attempts at flirting::

Padme: ‘WHY IS THAT ENDEARING.’

Padme: ‘kriffing hell.’

Obi-Wan: ::headwalls::

I’m not sure where Palpatine is. Possibly involved with some other investigation--while he and Obi-Wan mostly work together, sometimes only one of them is called for, and if he was on a solo mission he probably wouldn’t have been recalled.

Anyway, a poison dart still leads Obi-Wan to Kamino, and Geonosis.

Padme and Anakin still go to rescue him.

(They still make a detour to Tatooine.)

(Palpatine doesn’t really care about Shmi, sadly, so would make no efforts to free her. Obi-Wan and Anakin would probably handle it about the same as they do in canon, until it’s too late.)

(Palpatine senses what’s going on and extracts himself from his other mission immediately to go see to his flailing child, and guide him back from the brink. Because he knows what that’s like; who better to help?)

(But by the time he arrives, they’ve already left the planet.)

(He reaches Geonosis around the same time Mace’s team does.)

Geonosis is probably where I drop the Qui-bomb, actually. Mostly as muscle backing Satine--an ex-Jedi supports the Separatists!

Obi-Wan is Very Conflicted on seeing his former lover.

Satine has a Moment herself. Not enough to challenge her convictions--nothing short of actually exposing her patrons for what they are will do that--but it gives her pause.

Satine is taken out of the arena to safety.

Qui-Gon leaves as well.

Anakin and Obi-Wan pursue.

Anakin still rushes in. Anakin still loses his arm.

Palpatine is caught up in the thick of the battle, not there for his children when they need him.

(He regrets this intensely later. Not nearly so much as Qui-Gon will, of course. Friends they may have been, once upon a time, but no one harms Sheev Palpatine’s children. No. One.)

Padme requests that Anakin escort her back to Naboo. He is all too eager to agree.

His masters, who are neither stupid nor blind, meet each other’s eyes and sigh.

Palpatine: well, this is probably for the best. They’ll spend a week or so in bed, and he’ll get this infatuation out of his system.

Obi-Wan: I’m...I’m not so sure it’ll work that way, Master.

Palpatine: Five credits says I’m right.

Anakin returns to his Masters some days later and, having a different relationship with them than in canon, immediately confesses all.

(Obi-Wan discreetly holds out a hand for his credits. Palpatine, equally discreet, passes them over.)

Padme returns to the Senate and gives a stirring and passionate speech about what she witnessed at Geonosis.

Another of Plagueis’ patsies follows up by accusing Antilles of underestimating and mishandling the Separatist threat, and proceeds to call for a no-confidence vote.

The newly minted wartime Chancellor Amidala hides her smile and promises to guide them safely and surely through these troubled times.

The War begins, with Plagueis pulling strings behind both Padme and Satine.

Anakin is quickly Knighted.

Obi-Wan, while still recommending him, does see that Anakin still has trouble letting go. Especially after what happened to his mother. He consults with Palpatine, who agrees.

The Battle of Christophsis happens.

A tiny teenaged Togruta turns up, announcing she’s been assigned to Anakin.

(Some time later, deep from the bottom of his wildfire heart comes a resounding cry of mine.)

The War continues. Padme gradually accumulates power.

Palpatine begins investigating some things that don’t quite add up--it starts with tracking his obsession with Qui-Gon (he knows it’s not Jedilike, he knows it violates the Code, it comes perilously close to violating his internal rules, but that was his child.)

Things come to a head...I’m not sure exactly when.

Possible point #1: The Second Battle of Geonosis, where Anakin nearly loses Ahsoka.

Possible point #2: After the children get back from Mortis, and tell Palpatine what happened.

(This would, of course, be slightly different than in canon, but I haven’t quite worked out the details)

Possible point #3: After Umbara.

Possible point #4: After Kadavo.

(This one is less likely, because while Palpatine strenuously objects to the idea of sending his younger son there, he would acknowledge that time is a factor and there was no other team close enough.)

Anyway, at one of those four points, Palpatine is completely Done with the situation. He is taking his children and his clones and they are leaving. They are taking a third option. They are not Sith, but they are not Jedi anymore, either--what they are is a family, with an army, and a singular goal: to see peace restored to the galaxy and protect what is theirs.

Padme: what

Satine: what

Plagueis: WHAT

Palpatine, his children, and their armies form a third faction in the War. Their intent is to basically make both the Separatists and the Republic sit down, shut up, and stabilize.

They go to Padme, and lay out everything they think they know. Mostly at Anakin’s insistance, because he can’t leave his wife.

Padme hears them out, thinks back over everything she’s done with Plagueis, everything he’s asked her to do, every word he’s whispered in her ear, and says, “I’ll help you.”

They try to reach out to Satine, too, but they have no real ties in Separatist space, so it’s taking them longer.

With their generation’s most brilliant tactical mind running their offenses, they quickly make strides and gain ground. Which is nice, because it gives Padme cover to communicate with them--it’s only proper, after all, that the Chancellor should attempt to negotiate, now that the war has grown infinitely more complicated.

(She plays her part with Plagueis perfectly, of course.)

I admit, the ‘how’ of the next part is a liiiiiittle shaky, but it all basically ends with Palpatine murdering Qui-Gon in the face (with extreme prejudice), Anakin (probably with Obi-Wan’s help) killing Plagueis (this may or may not result in Anakin losing another limb or three on Mustafar because why not), and Ahsoka (with help from the clones; she’s their favorite) ending Grievous. Their faction has now won the Clone War.

The Separatists may need some mopping up, I need to work out exactly what would happen with Satine and all.

Padme graciously steps down, and Palpatine is installed as Chancellor for Life.

He does not take the title of Emperor, but that is in effect what he is now.

His sons, his daughter-in-law, and his granddaughter are at his side.

Obi-Wan does most of the day-to-day running of things--he’s very good at it, after all, and Palpatine would rather concentrate on larger problems. Handling any lingering issues with the Separatists, and one never knows what one might find outside the Republic’s borders...

Padme assists--her political acumen and strength of will are a terrible thing to waste, after all.

Anakin is happy and stable; a loving husband and father, and, together with Ahsoka, ensures that justice and stability actually exist in Palpatine’s realm.

So, to make a (very) long story short...remember what I said at the beginning, about Greek concepts of Fate?

The Clone War still ends with Palpatine ruling the Galaxy.

Anakin is still his right hand; his enforcer.

But how we got there...well, that’s the story, isn’t it?

[shadowsong26fic]

A By No Means Exhaustive List...

...of SW fanfic I have semi-plotted/toyed with but will never actually write*. But if you are curious/want to babble at me/listen to me babble about them, feel free to ask :D

*except possibly as my May the Fourth Bonus Fic. Which I’ll be putting up a post asking for feedback/requests on sometime around when my Coming Attractions post for April goes up.

ETA: so I have totally actually written at least one of these, and several have become AU Outlines, and might again in the future...

1. Distaff Spinoff wherein Palpatine attempts to induce a miscarriage.

1a. Temple variant

1b. Ventress variant (shut up the ending to Dark Disciple was dumb)

1c. Ahsoka variant

2. Masks Spinoff wherein Lavinia is captured and defects sometime between ANH and ESB

2a. The Other Masks Spinoff wherein Lavinia is captured and defects sometime between ANH and ESB

3. Masks Espionage Spinoff**

5. The One Where Vader Survives Endor

5a. The Masks Spinoff Where Vader Survives Endor***

6. That One Valdemar Fusion****

7. Post-Kadavo AU

8. That One Really Self-Indulgent Time-Travel AU

9. Vader Unfucks The Timeline

10. Bail Organa Unfucks The Timeline (there is also a nonzero chance this will be fleshed out at some point)

11. Both Anakin And Padme Unfuck The Timeline And Are Bound And Determined Not To Let The Other One Know They’re From The Future****

11a. The Same Thing Only Obi-Wan’s Also Time-Travelling

12. The Rabbit Hole AU aka Temple-Raised Palpatine

Added 9/30/18:

13. Prequels-generation Lavinia

13a. Mace Windu variant

13b. BSG crossover variant

14. Pellaeon AU

15. Handler AU

16. Whatever Happened To Neeyutnee?

17. “Darling, I know how to get blood out of sheets.”

18. Masks!verse BSG crossover***

19. Lavinia Organa AU [technically I’m doing a variant of this in an AU outline for Let’s Go Steal a Crossover but still]

**not really a Masks variant per se, but Lavinia is heavily involved sooooo.

***note that this one contains major spoilers for the last arc of Masks. Which I will get around to writing someday I swear. <.<

****yeah this one has actual Text to at least some degree.

[shadowsong26fic]

Random crossover headcanon/notes

So, I’m reading the latest Heralds of Valdemar book (because I love that series, and I really like Mags (the protagonist of the last several books) and it’s out or has been for a while and my lovely roommate brought it home from the library for me <3)

Anyway. Reading this book. And, as you may know if you’ve been following this blog, I have been trapped in the black hole that is Star Wars for the past year or so. And, as happens when I read a Valdemar book, thaaaaaat means a crossover/fusion!

I am seriously indebted to my roommates for letting me bounce ideas off of them and helping me fill in some of the gaps here.

Obi-Wan, naturally, is a Herald. About sixteen when Our Story begins. Already Too Old For This Shit. Gifts are Mindspeech, Empathy, and Fetching. Some extremely unreliable Foresight as well.

His Companion may or may not be Qui-Gon.

Qui-Gon may or may not be his father. And dead.

Both of these facts may actually be the case. Yay awkward reincarnation?

Alternatively, Yoda is his Companion?

Possibly his second after Qui-Gon died?

IDK, I haven’t figured that part out yet.

The important thing is, he is still very much Obi-Wan.

Padme! Padme is also a Herald, because the plot demands it—she is the Heir/Queen. Fourteen when Our Story begins. Pretty sure her only Gift is Mindspeech, but that remains to be settled.

Sabe is her Companion, of course.

She was Chosen when she was about twelve.

She is the actual trufax Queen now (ish—too young and still a Trainee; more on that later).

·  Poor, poor Bail.

Bail is the son of a Councillor and grew up in Haven/at court

He’s eighteen when Our Story begins.

He’s friends with Padme. She’s like his little sister.

He tried to rein in her enthusiasm

(this doesn’t work very well)

(especially since Sabe only encourages her half the time)

He grew up being more or less groomed to take over his mother’s Council seat.

Six months ago, he became Queen’s Own.

He got rushed through all the training he didn’t have (which wasn’t much, mostly Gift stuff and bonding with Taver/Rolan/whichever) and was just officially put into full Whites.

IDK what his Gift(s) is/are.

He and Obi-Wan are bros.

There may or may not be a pretty young Healer with enchanting dark eyes he’s mooning over.

(there totally is)

Some backstory!

Six months ago, due to some unspecified tragedy (possibly a war) Padme’s parent(s) and the previous Monarch’s Own were killed.

Councilor Sheev Palpatine rose to the occasion, was named the Lord Regent because who else could be more trustworthy, and has kept the Kingdom stable during the uncertain time of the Queen’s minority.

(he will, of course, retreat with grace when the regency is over and Padme is of age/has her Whites)

(he’s just laying groundwork now)

(he plays the long game)

(he’s probably planning to repeat this process with Padme’s child)

(something like that)

That’s where things stand when Anakin turns up on the scene.

First off, Anakin does much better as a Herald than as a Jedi.

For one thing, having a Companion helps.

For another, he doesn’t have to cut all ties to his mom.

Etc., etc.

Ahsoka is his Companion.

She’s just barely old/mature enough to Choose and flounces out of Haven to go track down her Skyguy.

(meaning about ten, if I remember Valdemar canon correctly)

(she and Anakin grow up together)

(it will be adorable)

Anakin is nine, lives on the Border with his mom and Watto.

He’s, like, a tiny gladiator or something.

So ‘Soka turns up and is all ‘Hi!’

And he’s all ‘Hi!’

‘Guess what you’re a Herald now.’

‘Yay!’

‘Come on, we’re going to Haven.’

‘YAY! …wait, Mom?’

‘...uh…screw it, I can carry you both!’

(Shmi has no idea what to do with this but is somewhat alarmed)

(she and her son have been kidnapped by a horse that Ani swears is talking to him)

(Watto might still come after them and kill them)

(It’s okay Shmi everything will work out just hold tight)

Anakin, like Vanyel, has ALL OF THE GIFTS.

(unlike Vanyel, he at least acquired them naturally, not under p. much the worst possible circumstances)

(also his Healing, like, barely works, but it does exist)

He turns up in Haven all earnest and excited and eager and NO IDEA HOW TO HUMAN PROPERLY.

Because, y’know, he was a slave

And a tiny gladiator

Obi-Wan facepalms and takes the poor kid under his wing.

(wait, when did I adopt a small child?)

Anywho, at some point, Anakin gets brought to Alberich for weapons training, as you do.

(shut up timelines means nothing)

And he mentions ‘but I already know how to do this stuff’

And Alberich and Obi-Wan are like ‘what’

And he says ‘oh, yeah, Watto used to make me fight people so he and the other masters could gamble on it.’

And they’re like ‘WHAT’

‘I was really good! I even won my last fight!’

‘…kay let’s go see the Queen and Council because uhhhhhhhhhhh’

And then he meets Padme.

They’re lifebonded, of course.

But! He can grow into it and have a better grasp on how normal people, y’know, date and stuff.

So everything will go much better.

Just in general Heralds are much better at this sort of thing than Jedi are.

Anakin being a Herald solves SO MANY PROBLEMS GUYS

Uhhhhhhh, I don’t really know what happens next. Anakin’s a field Herald for a while (and he’s very good at it) until he and Padme actually get married.

He is not actually crowned King because ahahahahaha even with therapy and a better support system and a Companion and all the things that make him much more successful as a Herald than he ever was as a Jedi…no.

His title is Prince Consort

Leia is their daughter.

Luke is her Companion.

Palpatine attempts to do his Thing at some point

Possibly before Luke shows up

The goal seems to be ‘kill Padme, get named Regent again, only this time don’t leave when the Queen comes of age’

Especially because he’s banking on building the whole relationship with Anakin

And then when Anakin shuts down after Padme’s death, who else will he turn to?

Of course this won’t work in this timeline for several reasons

(most of those reasons are Ahsoka)

(and Mindhealers)

(so Anakin is much less vulnerable to Palpatine than in canon)

(especially since Anakin isn’t cut off from Shmi)

(and Shmi doesn’t die)

(also the Heralds are…better…about issues like Anakin’s than the Jedi are)

(also also Valdemar has much better defenses against this sort of thing than the Galactic Republic does sorry)

Not sure where Han and Lando fit in.

And Chewie

And the droids

Han possibly gets Chosen at some point because lol.

He is not super thrilled by this.

Also not sure about the rest of the Council, Dooku, Maul, Tarkin, Mothma, Ackbar, etc….

Most of this is focused on the prequel folks because I have to figure out how that all resolves before I send Herald Leia out into the world.

…REX HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT REX.

ETA: After discussing with one of my roommates, Rex will fill Alberich’s role as detailed above. May or may not be a Herald, have not yet decided.

Cody is around too; he’s Rex’s twin. Head of the Palace Guard.

Possibly also Fives and Tup?

Dooku is doing Something, and will eventually maim Anakin, which leads to Anakin being reassigned to Haven.

Anakin and Padme are already married at this point.

Only select members of the Heraldic Circle know.

(and Shmi)

(Anakin suggested reading Palpatine in but Padme talked him out of it)

(they wanted to be married Just In Case a) something happened to him, or b) someone tried to shove a treaty marriage down her throat; but they knew that as soon as their marriage was public, he’d be stuck in Haven and he was too useful in the field)

After Anakin recovers, he and Padme marry publicly.

He’s probably the Weaponsmaster’s Second after that.

(this is very confusing for visiting dignitaries)

I’ll probably add more if I come up with more, sooooooo....IDK watch this space?

[shadowsong26fic]

Fanfic ask: 1, 5, 11, 14 for Precipice and any other fic you feel like sharing for, 18, 27, 33, 34, 38, 41, 44, 49 (sorry for asking so many, I just really like these questions!)

Hoo boy! This’ll be fun :D

::cracks knuckles::

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

Ten or eleven, when I first figured out it was a Thing. (Somewhere, buried in my boxes of Old Papers, there is baby!shadowsong’s attempt at writing something involving Padme turning up at Yavin but with the serial numbers very badly filed off, before I learned it was possible to just...write fanfic, lol.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Oh, Lord, why must you do this to me. XD

I mean, I like all of them for different reasons? Writing Precipice is almost like coming home, I’ve been living in that AU for so long; The Devoted was delightfully self-indulgent and a fun exercise in worldbuilding and I do plan to put more in that AU at some point, I swear; These Three Remain also had some super self-indulgent bits and some sweet cuddly fluffy bits and yep; Distaff is so much fun to work with Anakin’s characterization and her (in said fic) relationship with Padme; I have some WIPs that I’m super excited to get out...even going back to old fandoms, HoTM and Cartography!Verse and The Promises of Angels and Serenissima (ish; we were posting it as a series of vignettes rather than one long novel) and For Sorrow Sung and all my AtLA fic, and...

...yeah, I’m bad at picking favorites XD

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

Not really? I’ve added extra notes and when I was a baby in the LOTR fandom I actually took a fic down because I got pounced on by a Canon Purist, but I...don’t usually change what I do have planned out in response to criticism? Sometimes I add in some filler/explanation, or comments inspire me to add thing, but...

I don’t plan things out in a whole lot of detail, but I do usually have a few Major Plot Points worked out, and I tend not to change them because criticism. I usually don’t go back and edit, either.

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.

I think I actually talked about this in detail last time I did a similar meme to this...aha, here we go: https://shadowsong26fic.tumblr.com/post/186756818127/a-and-i-for-fic-ask

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

Yep, a few. Mostly, I abandon WIPs because I drifted away or otherwise left the fandom (i.e., most of my SPN fic), or otherwise got stuck on a plot point (For Sorrow Sung, which I might rewrite, I got stuck on because I wasn’t sure how to write Roslin; Distaff has stalled because I have to do a Monster chapter next because I did some things out of order; etc., though I actually do intend to get back to Distaff at some point, and am considering rewriting For Sorrow Sung or getting back to some of my other BSG fic...). ...on that note, there are several Stalled WIPs that I don’t consider abandoned, I just get sidetracked by other things even if I intend to get back to them At Some Point (Auxiliaries, Masks, a few others.)

Also, a bunch of miscellaneous self-indulgent things that I never really intended to share outside a small circle of friends that I wander away from when my attention gets caught by a similar shiny self-indulgent thing I don’t really intend to share outside a small circle of friends...

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

Moooostly go with the flow. Then again, I don’t formally outline most things, but I generally have an Idea of the Main Plot Points I’m working towards? But those are usually Super Major Things (i.e., with Precipice, when I was going into it, I had most of Arc 1 planned out ahead of time; I knew when and how Lavinia was going to be introduced; I knew most of how Rex got brought in and at least when Ahsoka came in; I knew Ahsoka was going to be Leia’s primary teacher; I knew when and how Specter was going to die; I knew that the reunion (and the attempt to kidnap Lavinia) were going to happen (though actually I was originally planning for Saw to be behind said kidnapping before realizing that didn’t make sense); I knew when Infernalis was going to be introduced and then die; and then some Spoilery Stuff for the next several arcs :)

So, yeah. I usually have a general notion of where things are going (...most of the time; I mentioned Distaff above, and I’m waffling on how I want things to end for that one...) but a loooooot of white space and things are in flux along the way.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Honestly, probably the one I kept in my inbox to reread the most often was on The Promises of Angels--I got a very long comment about the things I’d done with both the focal character and other side characters and the way I’d handled the established lore (and places where canon had fallen short, re: ex-vessels and so on), and then saying they were going to rec it to other people. I’ve gotten other very nice comments since then, (Precipice gets a lot of comments, some of which are lovely, some of which are infuriating), but I think the reason that one sticks with me is because I worked on that fic for so long, and it was a 100k gen epic about a tertiary character who (at the time) had been dead for five seasons. So, a very niche-appeal fic, especially in a fandom that tends to be very shipping-focused, so the fact that it had that much appeal outside of my own brain meant a lot.

(Also, just...the fact that so many people have read and liked Precipice means a whole lot to me????? Was not expecting that for a long wandering genfic epic, lol. ...again, because the fandom I was most active in prior to that is very ship-focused; Star Wars tends to be more gen-friendly, at least that’s been my experience thus far.)

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

Maybe not the harshest overall I’ve ever gotten, but I mentioned earlier that I took down one LOTR fic because a Canon Purist complained about it to me--I mean, it might not have actually been that mean if I were to get it now that I have a thicker skin, but I was Little Shadowsong at that point and it hurt enough for me to take the fic down, and it does kind of linger in the back of my mind as my Worst Comment Experience.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

...to be honest, I don’t do a lot of collaborations overall, and most of the ones I do tend to be with people I’ve been friends with/RP’d with for a Long Time.

That being said, I’m possibly open to trying? Right now I have a lot on my plate, both fic and IRL wise, over the next couple months, but if anyone’s interested, hit me up and we’ll see if we can work together!

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

In Star Wars? Probably Bo-Katan. I really do wanna finish/start posting our faces like a mirror before the Mandalore Arc actually airs (not that I care about jossing so much, but it’d be nice to Officially lock my canon there so I can point to it if anyone does the whole ‘but canon says!’ thing at me, lol). Also, I love writing Beru, at least the way I write her in Precipice.

If we expand to other fandoms...Nick in SPN, at least before canon brought him back wrong; for BSG...well, most of the ‘minor’ characters I like are really secondary and/or Major in one arc or two--i.e., D’Anna, Gaeta, Ellen Tigh is a lot of fun; in AtLA, I personally mostly wrote major characters and OCs (though some of those were...people who had definitely Existed, but were not named or explored in canon--i.e., Lu Ten’s mother), but my primary RP/writing partner and I worked a lot with Haru and Song and Teo and the Dai Li, among others...but said partner mostly handled them.

44) What is the last line you wrote?

((With an additional line for context; also this is subject to change.))

“True,” Sabe said. “...are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“No,” Padme admitted, after a moment’s thought. “But I think if I wait much longer, I’ll...I’ll either start climbing the walls until I run out and do something righteous and half-planned and stupid, or I’ll...or I’ll never be able to figure how to start, and I’ll just...”

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

I cannot, sadly. But it would’ve been 15-20 years ago, and probably either Star Wars or Harry Potter. Maybe Dragonlance or DBZ or Sailor Moon.

Ask me a fanfic writer question!

[shadowsong26fic]

::flails briefly::

Okay, so, I’ve reached a point in Precipice where I have to do something/introduce a plot point (character) who I know is probably going to be fairly divisive/possibly lose me a lot of readers. It’s either that, or completely rewrite the Coruscant plotline moving forward. Which I really, really don’t want to do. And, I mean, I know it’s dumb, because, like, it’s my story I can do/write/include what/who I want. But getting hits/comments/kudos/bookmarks is such an awesome way to end my week. (and let’s not even touch the part of me that now feels weirdly guilty/deceptive like I lured all these people in with what’s been going on so far and WHOOPS SURPRISE HERE’S A RANDOM NOT-OBJECTIVELY-NECESSARY* OC WITH A MAJOR ROLE TO PLAY)

[Side note--am I the only one who gets super excited by bookmarks on Ao3? ‘Cause I’ve seen people talk about kudos and comments, but never bookmarks. But, to me, they’re basically on a level with comments in terms of ego/mood boost. Like, not only does someone like what I wrote, but they like it enough to want to make sure they can find it again later?]

Anyway. Um. Tangent aside, I’ve been sort of...having issues with this chapter as a result (I’ll still get it up tomorrow but yeah) (doesn’t help that it’s the Emperor’s POV which is...fun to write). But I really, really don’t want to not do it--there’s a Thing with parallels that I’m building towards that I really like, plus Luke is going to need an actual, y’know, plot, since he doesn’t have access to training yet and lbr he’s probably gonna suck at being a baby Senator. Besides, the next couple things chronologically are 1) a couple in-story years down the road, or 2) something I want to delay for at least two/three IRL weeks because Reasons (which also might be a couple in-story years down the line anyway but that’s a lesser concern). And the only way I could do a timeskip is if I cut this plot thread, because it has to be introduced now. And I don’t want to just do a bunch of filler while I get over myself, you know?

Blah. Tl;dr: Shadowsong is about to introduce a not-objectively-necessary* OC and is whining about it.

*Like...Specter is objectively necessary because there has to be an apprentice. And Bail and Breha’s daughter, if I’d decided to go that route, would also be objectively necessary because Bail specifically says he and Breha have been planning to adopt a little girl (and their canon one is, of course, not actually up for adoption in this AU so). But Lavinia, while necessary for the story I want to tell/have planned out, doesn’t hit the same mark, you know what I mean? And I haven’t been in SW fandom long and/or deep enough to know how much of an Impact on my audience introducing her will have. Hence, flailing/whining.

On a semi-related note, does anyone know the best sources to read up on Winter? You may have noticed how I’ve been Cleverly Avoiding mentioning the name of Bail and Breha’s daughter? Yeah, I’ve finally made a decision on who she is... <.<