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lillylvjy · 1 year ago

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Take me back (to the night we met)

a/n: hi! Um- nothing special here. Just a little thing saying I’m posting…… have fun. Also sorry if some things don’t make sense, I wrote half of this like two weeks ago and the other half yesterday so.

warnings: fluff, all of it. Kissing, snow, coldness, I- dead trees??? Idk some people care about that (/lh), um yeah maybe some cuss words but not a ton. WITCH WILMA!!!!

wc: 2.4K

edited: yes

wilma soot x afab!reader, wilma soot x gn!reader

Sobbing- look at her

“So you’re telling me they wouldn’t even take the painting as a small recognition piece?!” You asked the women in front of you as you shelved books back into their rightful place.

“Yeah. It’s fine though! I have next time. I hope.” Wilma said as she started playing with her hands.

“Hey, Hey-“ you quickly grabbed her hands and held them in yours. “Always next time. You show them that they should’ve taken your piece, because you are brilliant. And they’re stupid stuck up assholes.” You said as she laughed at the words that came out of your mouth.

Wilma quickly hide her face from you as she looked at the ground, letting her hair fall around it and make a curtain. The warmth of your hands around hers makes her giddy and warm inside, loving how you rubbed her hands in comfort.

“Thank you. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a muse for my next project!” Wilma lifted her head as she grabbed both of your hands in hers and swung them around in excitement. You smiled up at her as she giggled and her eyes wide in wonderment and ideas of what she could do. She looked precious. Perfect.

“Oh? So I’m not your muse anymore?!” You asked, looking at her with wide eyes and held a hand to your heart to act like you had just been wounded by her words.

“Love, you’re always my muse.” Wilma looked down at you with a small grin and a glint in her eyes that you couldn’t quite read. Her hand came up and placed a stray hair of yours behind your ear and resting her hand on your cheek.

In the moment you both subconsciously leaned in, both wanting more as time went on. Your eyes darting from her brown chocolate eyes that you could get lost in anytime, anywhere, back down to her lips that you wanted to bruise and kiss and bite-

As you both got close enough to bump noises, the sound of the bell on the front counter went off. You both jumped away quickly, you clearing your throat and rubbing your hands on your jeans, and Wilma rubbing the back of her neck out of embarrassment.

“I- uh, I close tonight so I won’t be off until later. I’ll text you when I’m off yeah?” You said as she nodded and waved goodbye as you quickly walked up to the counter.

She watched as you smiled and made small conversation with the old couple, ease dropping in on the conversation.

“Oh really?! How long have you both been married?” You asked, eyes wide in curiosity. Wilma always loved that about you, how much you loved listening to other people, no matter the subject, you would always listen.

“About 46 years now, yeah?” The guys said, asking his partner beside him.

“Yeah, still don’t know how I’ve dealt with you.” The lady jokes as she nudges the man’s shoulder.

“Oh hush, you love me. Ever since college.” He said as he wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her closer into him.

“You got that right.” The woman said as she looked up at him with a smile and kissed his cheek.

Looking back over to you, Wilma saw your eyes. Gleaming in delight and passion as you listened to the couple bicker, smiling and laughing along with them. She loved how your noise crinkled when your smiled that big smile of yours, loved how wide your eyes got when someone said something remotely close to something you had interest in, love how you would ramble on and on about nothing at all yet you made it sound like it was the most brilliant thing ever.

She hated how much she loved you. Well, hated how much she couldn’t find the right moment how to tell you how much she loved you.

Turning your head as the couple left, you caught her eyes again. Smiling, you furrowed your eyebrows to silently ask, “what’s up?”. Wilma waved her hand at you to tell you that she was fine and left.

As she was walking to her cottage, snuggling into her coat even more than she already was, she stopped. Across the way was the park, the park where she met you.

She could recall everything that happened, she’d even argue it was one of the best days of her life, meeting you. The way you smiled at her as you complimented her sketch of the flower beds by the tree. How your eyes glowed as the sun hit them just right.

That’s where she fell in love with you.

Walking over to the tree, leaves now pooling around the trunk, orange and yellow filling her vision as she smiles at the sight of fall all around her.

Swinging her bag around her body, she pulled out a small blanket she brought just in case she got the urge to draw, and her sketch book. Sitting in the blanket, she opened up to a clean page, grabbed her pencil and started sketching.

Meanwhile you were still sitting in the library, staring at the place you and Wilma once stood, recalling everything that happened moments prior.

You almost kissed her.

“Damn bell, wasn’t really saving me idiot.” You murmured under your breathe as you hit the bell. You quickly perked up at the sound of laughter behind you.

“Someone’s upset.” Your coworker laughed as they came to rest beside you on the counter. You guys have been dead all day so there’s nothing to do besides- wait.

“No shit. This stupid thing ruined my chance of kissing her and I want to cry.” You said as you laid yourself on the counter dramatically, pushing the bell on the floor as you did.

Sighing, Ryan went around the front of the counter, picked up the bell and lifted your head up by your forehead. “Come on, you’re done for the night.”

“What? What do you mean, I have to close.” You said as you stood up straight and looked at them with wide eyes and furrowed brows.

“Call it a favor yeah? You owe me one. Now go find this girl and confess your stupid romantic feelings you have for her.” They said as they smiled at you, nodding their head at the door.

Eyes lighting up and gaped mouth turning into a smile, you quickly hugged them and grabbed your things.

“I knew you were sucker for romance, Ryan. At least a little bit!” You said as you rushed to get your coat on while walking to the door.

“Still don’t want to be apart of it though! Have fun and you better tell her! Or I will ditch your ass on a shift.” They said as they settled down in the chair at the front desk while reading.

“Got it! Can’t promise it’ll go well-“ You hushed under your breath as you stepped out in the late fall weather. Walking down the sidewalk towards the coffee shop, you came to the realization that you had no clue where she was. And you didn’t want to text her, feeling that that’d be a bit weird.

“Shit.” You sighed in defeat as you started to walk back to the library and call it quits, until you saw the park, realizing that you haven’t been in a while and how it might be nice to just enjoy the weather while it last.

Walking across the road and onto the path, you let your body take you wherever it wanted. Looking all around you, greens turned into orange, reds and yellows. Tree branches hanging low from the cold weather that started to appear more clearly with each passing second. The clouds, grey and mellow, the weight of rain and snow dragging them down to the earth as it waited for the perfect moment. The grass damp and dead from all of these changes, yet not one of these things seemed to mind it. Not even the people walking past. Certainly not you.

As you admired all of the sights in the park, you quickly realized where you were going. Laughing, you looked up and saw someone sitting a couple yards away from the tree. Walking closer, you saw a lighter brown beanie and the light blue washed jeans you had seen earlier that day and complimented.

Of course she was here.

You smiled to yourself as you slowly walked up behind her, looking over her shoulder to see her drawing the tree and all of its attributes.

“Pretty tree, isn’t it?” You said out in the open as you sat on the ground beside her. You could see her snap her head to the side as you sat down, quickly untensing as she saw you smiling at her. She smiled back at you as she dropped her head back down to her notebook and started shading again.

“Oh yeah! Definitely! With of its dead leaves on the ground, kinda just lying there.” Wilma said sarcastically as she pointed at the tree.

“Oh shush, it’s still just as beautiful as it always has been.” You said as you look at the tree and all of its branches and leaves that still hung on to it for dear life.

“Yeah. Yeah it sure is.” Wilma said as she looked at you, eyes sparkling and wide with love and want. She loves how you admire all the little things in life and appreciate everything even if it’s bad.

She wants to hold you, kiss you, praise you, paint you. She wants you. Wants to love you.

“What? What’s wrong?” You asked, voice full of worry and confusion as you looked at her expression. Wilma quickly shook her head and smiled as she looked back down at her sketch book.

“Nothing nothing. You just look really pretty that’s all.” Wilma smiled at the book in her lap as she quickly placed the tip of the pencil back in the paper and started sketching more.

Laughing quietly at her, you placed your vision back on the multicolored tree. Filled with all sort of browns and greens and reds, all of them blending together into a beautiful mess on the floor. You wish you could just stay here. Watching all the leaves fall as the cold wind nips at your nose and ears, threading to make all of their feeling disappear in an instant. And with her. Stay here with her, drawing and humming every time she thought it was appropriate. You would, could never get tired of her skill and her talent. You could never get tired of her laugh and voice. You could never get tired of her. It seemed impossible to you.

“Wilm-“ Your words were cut off as your head turned towards hers and lips met yours in the middle. Without a second thought, Wilma quickly released the hold she had on your jaw and cleared her throat. You didn’t say anything, eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish, yet nothing came out.

“I- I’m sorry! I- I didn’t mean to do that i promise. I’m so sorry, fuck I- I’ll leave.” Wilma said while stuttering out her reply as she gathered all her stuff in her bag. You quickly realized what she was doing and snapped back to reality as she stood up. “I’m sor-“

“Wilm shut up.” You told her as you took her face in your hands and leant up towards her on your toes, her being a significant amount taller than you, placing your lips on hers again, savoring every second of this moment you had.

You quickly felt hands wrap around your waist as she pulled you in closer to her, deepening the kiss as she did. Smiling into it, your hands gripped the hair of the back of her head tighter in your grasps, trying to ground yourself in this heavenly moment.

As much as you wanted to keep going, you suddenly felt something fall on your face. It was cold and wet, and you almost wanted to frown at the thought of rain, especially after what just happened. Pulling away and resting your forehead on hers, you opened your eyes to see her smiling wide. You smiled back at you but then you see her look up and laugh at whatever it was.

Looking around yourself, you stopped in awe. The cold, wet speck you felt wasn’t rain, but snow. White snow that slowly fell all around you both, coating the ground, making it look like sweet, delicious sugar everywhere. It was beautiful.

“Holy shit.” You said in a whispery tone as your expression changed to a smiley, giggly one. Turning around to face Wil, you held your hands out in the air and jumped up and down. “Holy shit!”

You hear her laugh at you as she comes back over to you and wraps her arms around you again, pulling you towards her. Wrapping your own arms around her neck, you leant up and knocked your nose with hers.

“Hmm do you think we did that?” Wilma asked jokingly as she pointed to the sky. Giggling at her words you shook your head and pecked her lips before speaking.

“Hmm, definitely not me, but maybe you! You are the witch after all, maybe you carded some sort of spell or some shit-“

“Love, as much as i would love to, I can’t control the weather. Even if I tried.” She said as she ran her thumb over the pout you gave her.

“So you can’t make it snow all the time?” You whined up at her as she laughed and shook her head. You placed your forehead on her chest as you whined more.

“No whining. Enjoy it now. Kinda romantic yeah?” Wilma asked you as she looked around at the snow that continuously got worse as time went on. You nodded out as you nuzzles deeper into her sweater. “Ok as much as I love snow and how much I know you do too, you’re freezing. We need to get you inside love. How about you hang out at mine for a bit? We can talk about this?” Wilma asked, anxiety lacing her words as she looked at you with furrowed brows.

“Yeah, yeah I’d love too! As long as you make me tea because fuck I’m cold.” You told her as you gripped her hand in yours and started towards the bus stop.

Laughing, Wilma brought your hand to her lips and kissed it. “Don’t worry, I’ll warm you up. Promise.”

Biting your lip, you smiled up at her and pressed a kiss to her cheek as the bus arrived.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

taglist: I don’t have one for Wilma so if you want to be added, please send me an ask or a message!!

#lilly writes #wilma soot x reader #wilma x reader #wilma soot #wilm x reader #wil x reader #wilbur soot x reader #wilbur x reader #wlw #very gay #very much not for straight people #um!#have fun!!!

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crispyjenkins · 4 months ago

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mandalore the young cont.

original post/discussion here! it was just getting really long and i for one hate scrolling so far, so. here's this. have also added this au to my masterlist in my pinned post!

@malcontent-crow

#i had a whole wall of tags and it didnt save! lets try this again#i am loving this. the potential for world building and the consequences of knowing more than you should (literally)

#i had forgotten that DW wasnt in peoples thoughts as a threat during the Clan Wars#and the idea that Pre was so far underground with the movement is a very good thing to remember as well! #on one hand you have this driven and spirited young verd that is inspiring Clans to start reassessing who they are fighting and why#on the other you have this clanless outsider that knows waaaaay too much about all the potential major players and is saying#that this major threat isnt really as gone as everybody thought and hoped. sith parallels out the wahoo for ppor obi#and hes standing there watching them all argue over his head about this threat that he KNOWS needs to be dealt with#he is seeing himself as pretty on par or above with the Old Guard in terms of mental age or prowess or large scale battles#so he sees them doubt him maybe even to his face and knows he'll need to get things started on his own

#and becauae everything in the galaxay has at least one person watching it from the outside... how quickly does the news of a jedi padawan#going off the rails on this mission get out? whos keeping track and who points fingers at the jedi for attempting to control the outcome#of the war of their historical enemies in their favor? the senate (read sith) want mandalore defanged before their war but what does it look#like the jedi want? how does the council answer for his actions? do they condemn or condone him? do they try to stay out of it?

#the world building potential of the Manda and the Ka'ra is delicious.#what does it mean to be a mando or darmanda? can you walk around and have people look at you and know you have failed in your oaths?

#and ouch! Obi-Wan considering the fact that he has never been allowed to be his own person.#from padawan to knight/master and then a general and councilor and sheesh. hes really never had the chance to see who he is as a person#outside of his responsibilities to everybody around him and right now hes a war worn adult in a war worn teens body#hes always had somebody else there. as a battle companion a teacher a student as somebody to protect and guard and guide#and now he has this entire culture looking at him and waiting for his next move. and im guess it still feels like less than a burden than#the care and raising of an entire child on his own. sure he had the temple resources and other jedi to lean on but anakin always looked to#him first to solve any problem or teach him something new or cuddle him after nightmares as hes trying to hide his own dreams#and grief and flounding to find his footing as an independent adult

#so right now hes looking around at the entire mando population and realizing thats he might need to reshape himself again for somebody else#to make himself what others need and knowing he can and will do it if it means saving somebody else

#and when exactly did he come back from the war? did he have satine die in his arms and see the ruin that is madalore after a pacifist reign?#does he see the potential for that ruin to happen right now if he doesnt succeed? where does he see himself in regards to the jedi?#has he considered the consequences of stepping up to be the Mand'alor to this culture he has never seen as his own?#has he let himself think about the choices he needs to make and how some things you cant always come out the other side the same as before?

(following the trend of each of these getting longer, this has hit just under 5,000 words, so just a heads up lol? so much world building is happening in this one)

sorry you had to rewrite so much! that last exchange was cursed, it seems lmao

it's so easy to write Obi-Wan as prescient, or the route I'm going with in Dha Kar'ta, so i think it's a fun change-up to have him knowledgeable for completely different reasons! I'm actually going to avoid visions almost at all for this Obi, but everyone else certainly won't know the difference, and he doesn't tell them otherwise (though he won't encourage it either. I do actually have a Naruto time travel where Nart pretends to be psychic à la Shawn Spencer, so that isn't the route I wanna go for this Obi). the consequences of knowing too much, indeed

hmmm many of these questions depend on how deep into Jedi and galactic politics I wanna go, and I'm not sure it's very deep at all. or at least, not very dragged out. i'll explain in a mo

SO first: yes, this Obi is from after Satine dies, in 19 BBY, maybe a month or so after, but before the bombing of the Temple so before Ahsoka left the Order. He was back on the front, no time to properly mourn, though he was doing his best, and was meditating on the whole war, but especially the Sith and their hand in everything that happened on Mandalore. It went deeper than Maul, he knew, had been going on longer than Maul and even Dooku, and it occurred to Obi-Wan that the Sith either wanted a Mandalore that will side with them but not be too much a threat, or they wanted them not a threat at all. He realised his hand in that, in helping put the New Mandalorians on the throne that led to the demilitarisation of the entire sector. Obi-Wan had practically teed Mandalore up for Dooku and then Maul's interference, and if the Republic won the war, he could all too easily see them doing another excision. won't get too much into it to save it for the fic, but he is mediating with something beskar, and he gets a lil too deep into the Force, and of course this is post-Mortis so...... 👀

so this Obi-Wan, back in time, is helping Mandalore to prevent any more Sith machinations in the future, to change the future for the whole galaxy, but even before he's Chosen, he realises he's also doing all of this for Mandalore. for his own hand in its destruction, for the Jedi's hand in the Excision, for his personal connection to Satine drawing Maul to it. it's for atonement, for reparation, and also because Mandalore deserves to be saved, and Obi-Wan is in a place he can help do that. it isn't just about the health of the galaxy, anymore.

I usually shy away from having Obi-Wan leave the Order, no matter what AU I'm throwing him in because I believe in the fundamental goodness of the Order and the people in it, and Obi-Wan is fundamentally a Jedi, one of the best, one of the best. however, in this case, I don't think he can have his cake and eat it too. if Dooku had to leave the Order to accept his countship, then Obi-Wan would have to leave to become Mand'alor. Jedi are (supposed to be) politically neutral, and Obi-Wan is all too aware he'd nullified his own neutrality the moment he decided to go for Keldabe to find Jango.

one of my favorite... tropes? in time travel fic is Obi using his future fellow councilmembers' access codes to get into things he shouldn't, and he certainly knows how to work the Order's internal systems in his favor, so he

wait so i was gonna have him go in and tender his resignation from the Order directly into the systems, and backdate it for before the Mandalore mission, so that anything he's done on Mandalore so far cannot be blamed on the Jedi BUT WHAT IF he just. deletes himself. like completely. from admin to the Archives to the crèche's own internal systems to the Shadow's private servers, Obi-Wan Kenobi was never a Jedi, was never a Temple bastard, was never Qui-Gon Jinn's padawan. his mission records are all in Qui-Gon's name now, his medical file simply doesn't exist, his crècheling clan is listed as simply having been a person short compared to other clans that year. he goes so far as to delete comm histories with him or mentioning him, it's like Obi-Wan Kenobi just doesn't exist anymore.

he does this first thing after leaving Jango, he spends the entire week back to Mandalore ensuring he's been completely erased from absolutely anything relating to the Jedi, and then uses his future councilmember knowledge (and lessons from Quinlan) to erase himself from Republic systems, too. any planet he'd helped as a padawan will suddenly have no records of him as having been there with his master, so the senate or Order can't subpoena them for the info, though Obi-Wan knows he can't have gotten everything (such as any planet not in the Republic, or who don't have holonet access to their files, or both, like Melida/Daan), but he figures he's done enough to absolve the Order if anyone comes knocking about what he's doing.

he buries his lightsaber in the deserts of Mandalore, not knowing that in his old future, he'd have done the same on Tatooine.

so as far as the Jedi are aware: Obi-Wan went on a mission with Qui-Gon that (predictably) went to hell, got separated from his master for weeks to months, then suddenly changed, at the same time their Jedi with the highest prescience collapsed due to his visions, which have also changed. Obi-Wan left Qui-Gon behind to hightail it through the Mandalore sector, and Qui-Gon couldn't catch up or find him, and then Obi-Wan disappeared from anyone's radars for two weeks. then Qui-Gon senses him reenter the Mandalore system, right before breaking his training bond with him, and the Order wakes up to Obi-Wan completely erased from their systems like he never existed in the first place. everything is going so so wrong, and yet. and yet.

and yet the Force is telling them all that this is right, that this is the least Dark course of action, that whatever Obi-Wan is doing is indeed the Will of the Force

so the Order mourns one of their own, and tells Qui-Gon to let him go. and then the Order ups their cyber security because what.

i think he leaves an unsigned letter/comm message for a few people. Bant, Quinlan, Mace, Feemor, his old crèchemaster, Yoda, maybe Jocasta Nu. it's short, basically thanking them for their hand in his upbringing (Feemor hasn't even met him before so is very confused by this), apologising for leaving abruptly, but to follow the Will of the Force, he had to leave; the first part of the message is all the same, but ends with little individual notes. he apologises to Madam Nu for fucking with her archives and hopes she can one day forgive him; he asks her to keep her friends close and to mend the tension between her and Dooku, that Obi-Wan should not know about. He tells Yoda that the future is always in motion but they must move with it; he asks Yoda to meditate on his dwindling lineages and learn to accept all that he cannot control. He reminds Quinlan to wear his gloves and asks him to thank Tholme for looking out for him when Qui-Gon wouldn't or didn't; he thanks him for their years together, and asks him to check in on Feemor every now and then. He apologises to Mace for all the shatter-points he likely caused and will continue to cause, and suggests he put a permanent reminder in his comm to remember to refill his migraine prescription that sixteen year-old Obi should not know about. He asks Bant to look out for a young Togruta initiate that will join in seven years, and suggests Bant might like the healer track rather than the knight corps; he thanks her for being his longest and most dearly-held friend. He thanks his crèchemaster for realising his visions were more than dreams (which will inadvertently lend credence to that theory for why Obi-Wan changed so suddenly), for supporting him when Bruck was at his nastiest, and for always being someone he could turn to even after he became a padawan. For Feemor, Obi-Wan apologises that they hadn't had the chance to meet before then, and for the relationship they won't have anymore; Feemor has no idea who this message is from, until he starts hearing the gossip that Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Order again. He too mourns never getting to know his padawan brother.

and Obi-Wan sends Qui-Gon a message, of course, thanking him for his teachings, apologising for "leading him on" as an apprentice, leaving and coming back so many times only to permanently leave this time. he reminds Qui to reach out to his friends and his support system, asks him to at least consider talking to a mind or soul healer about Xanatos (knowing that once it gets out that Obi-Wan is a planetary leader, it will likely badly trigger Qui-Gon), and asks him to at least try and mend his relationship with Dooku, though understands if that's not something Qui-Gon is willing to do. asks him to keep Satine safe, but to deeply think about why the Republic is so intent on helping her faction, and why Qui-Gon had questioned so little of the New Mandalorian ethos.

so by the time Obi-Wan finds the Old Guard, he's broken from the Order completely, has buried his saber, has broken his training bond, has cut his braid. I think he shaves his head entirely to let it grow out at the same rate, because the padawan cut is *Eliot Spencer voice* Very Distinctive. he paints his armour white for, yes, his men, his vod'e, but also for cin vhetin. he can't be the man he was before, nor the teen he was before, neither are who Mandalore needs, and as long as he can stay true to his morals and upbringing, he will be what Mandalore needs him to be.

okay now onto the Manda vs. the Ka'ra vs. the Force. the Force is a scientific concept of an energy connecting absolutely everything in the universe, and the Jedi have a religious view on the scientific concept. for both purposes, the Force just is. I really like the idea of other non-Jedi ideas just being different aspects of the Force, different religions and cultures based on the same scientific concepts. for Mandalorians, their "aspect" of the Force is the Manda, the collective souls of every Mando'ade that's ever marched on. just what it means to be Mando'ade has varied greatly through history, and is varied between different groups even now, but none of that changes what the Manda is, which is an aspect of the Force only Mando'ade can touch. sort of like their beliefs of it being separate from the Force have made it so?

now I haven't really talked about this before, but from the beginning of me writing Mandalorian related things, i've separated Ka'ra from ka'ra, which was a little bit me misremembering there was another term for "stars", and then it became it's own thing. kar, meaning "star", with it's plural kar'e or kare, to me, means physical stars, the way we'd call our sun a star. ka'ra, uncapitalised, is the more poetic and/or spiritual "stars", the way we might say something is "written in the stars", which actually aligns with how jate'kara is spelled; for my writing, i've used this form for Mandalorian Force-sensitives being Star-touched ka'ra-touched. Ka'ra, capitalised, is that "ruling council of fallen kings", the Mandalorian myth and it, the way I've always interpreted it, is a separate part of the Manda made up of specifically the souls of every Mand'alor already marched on. So, Tor Vizsla could have joined the Manda after death, but not the Ka'ra; make sense? all that ka'ra vs Ka'ra worldbuilding was done very early in my writing for star wars, and has since expanded to include the idea of the Manda as something separate, and I would now actually consider Manda-touched over Star-touched to describe Force sensitive Mando'ade, because that's really what I think Mandalorians would consider causes their supernatural powers: ancestors rather than the stars.

so what does that mean for this fic? the Manda is directly influenced by all those that consider themselves Mandalorian, Force-sensitive or not. it is, however, not affected by New Mandalorians, unless they worship the Manda in some facsimile, and I think many, many, many do not, not the way they were raised to. this worship looks different for every clan and every individual, and I've always interpreted it as more of a broad spiritual practice across the whole culture rather than a religion, per se, the way a real-world broader culture might pray at shrines at New Years even if individuals themselves or their family aren't religious. this is what I'm referencing when I say the Will of the People: the alive Mando'ade and their choices and emotions affecting and influencing the Manda, the collective amalgamation of every passed-on Mando'ade, and it's when these two are in tandem that they "pick" a Mand'alor. HOWEVER, such a pick is also up to the Ka'ra, the Mand'alor'e that have all marched on; to one day enter the Ka'ra themselves, a Mand'alor must be "picked" by both the People/the Manda, and the Ka'ra. Tor would be "picked" by a significant part of the People and the Manda, and so would Jaster have been, but (according to me, myself, and i, obviously), only Jaster had been chosen by the Ka'ra. Pre is "Mand'alor" only in name, only in a tenuous loyalty existing in House Vizsla and Death Watch, not even by the Manda; just simple human (et al) loyalty. Jango had a weaker "pick" from the Manda than Jaster did, but was picked by the Ka'ra, meaning if he did not declare himself dar'manda (even just internally; I don't think he's ever said it out loud), he would have joined the Ka'ra after death; if he ever reconnects with himself as a Mandalorian, I like to think he'd have that chance again. Canon Jango, though, who went on to make the clones? Absolutely not.

what does this all mean for Obi-Wan? he'd spent weeks inadvertently drumming up support in the people and therefore the Manda, and maybe most haven't really looked at him and thought "sure I'd follow him as Mand'alor", but they have looked at him and thought "that one has mandokar, that one wants what's best for Mandalore, that one is touched by destiny". I dunno, man, like. Obi-Wan is their hope before he is their leader. That will make all the difference when he does end up uniting them. His searching out Jango had made Jango finally confront that he feels dar'manda, until then he hadn't really lost the Ka'ra's support, but that severs that connection. and now the Ka'ra are without a Mand'alor, but look at that, there's a mandokar'la little idiot right there, already strong in the Manda, already rallying hope and purpose, already so invested in the nurturing and the future of Mandalore, how could the Ka'ra not choose him?

I posed the question previously whether or not Mando'ade can tell who has been chosen to be Mand'alor, and I think I've ironed out what that'll mean for this fic. non-Force sensitive Mando'ade will have this sense when near their Mand'alor, a subconscious and inherent trust in them, and indeed, some will be disturbed by this and fight it. that's alright, that's their right. Some never clock this extra sense, some are aware of it always, some just chalk it up to "gut feelings" and the like. The more spiritual or religious Mandos maybe put a little more stock in this feelings, I think especially goran'e and other spiritual leaders, but the fact that the Manda can technically pick more than one person at a time (like Tor and Jaster, and then Jango), this extra sense isn't a perfect indicator of a properly chosen Manda'lor.

now. what about Force sensitive Mando'ade? Well, the Manda is an aspect of the Force, and is in fact how said Force sensitive Mando'ade connect to the Force, by going through the Manda, first. their relationship with sensitivity is inherently different from others in the galaxy, at least those that connect to it directly. they are the ones that can sense or see if someone is chosen by the Ka'ra, depending on their sensitivity. Some see the ghostly line of previous Mand'alor'e stretched out behind them (like the Avatar cycle lmao), some see a wavering crown of stars around their head, some just sense there is a duplicity (/neutral) to their Force presence that doesn't exist in anyone else. how common is Force sensitivity in Mandalorian space? not fuckin very. Jaster had three in his entire faction of aprox. 2 million (fanon number), at least that were aware they were sensitive. Jango only had a few more, and only because he had gained a couple hundred thousand more followers before Galidraan. so i'll make the nearly-arbitrary number that Force sensitive Mandos are 1 in 1,000,000, across the entire sector. by some calculations, in the whole galaxy at around the time of the Clone Wars the number of Force sensitives is 1 in 5,000,000 but these calculations do not generally include societies and species with a near or 100% chance of Force sensitivity, because we simply don't have the data for it. does this all make Mandos slightly more likely to be Force sensitive than others, by my own numbers? sorta. which i'm making an issue of underreporting, based on Mandalore not being a part of the Republic, and also contention with the Jedi and Sith; they don't consider those Manda-touched to be Force sensitive, and with the way I've built this, they aren't exactly wrong.

for the purposes of this story, there are maybe eight Manda-touched Mando'ade in the Mandalore system at this time, and all but one are goran'e. that single non-armorer is part of the Old Guard. I have the roster for the Old Guard decided, so I'm debating whether the Manda-touched one is Cort Davin (a journeyman protector), or one of the women. Instinct wants Vhonte Tervho, but I have plans for her to be related to the goran Obi-Wan got his armour done by, who I wanted to be one of the seven Force sensitive armorers, soooo. lmao how fucked would it be if Isabet Reau is the Force sensitive one? I like the angst of that, since I definitely do not plan on redeeming her, but I kind of want the only Old Guard that can sense Obi-Wan is Chosen by the Ka'ra to be really quiet and accepting of it, while everyone else is arguing. hmmm I have an unnamed Wren as part of the Guard, that I haven't fleshed anything out for yet; perhaps them?

okay I think I've solidified what it makes a Mandalorian, at least for the function of this fic. it is tied to the Resol'nare, and following it, which does allow those who had Chosen Tor Vizsla as their Mand'alor to technically still be following the Resol'nare, and are therefore not dar'manda. at least not for that. but part of the reason the Resol'nare is even able to determine who has a Mandalorian soul, is because they believe it does. Those alive and those dead influence the functionality and reality of the Manda, which also allows for those pre-Resol'nare to still exist in the Manda. What causes someone to become dar'manda, if they are technically following the Resol'nare?

maybe it's reductive, or over-simplified, or maybe even too broad, but it makes sense to me and allows for many many different types of people to still fail, and this is obviously not the only way to become dar'manda, but one thing that will always strip someone of their Mando soul? treatment of children. caring for children. not harming children. this allows many of Death Watch to still maintain their Mando souls, but still be fucked up awful people in other ways. It allows even True Mandalorians to have lost their souls and not realised it because they otherwise adhered to the Resol'nare, because they'd chosen to interpret "defending oneself and family" and "raising your children as Mandalorians" to not include other peoeple's children. Or maybe they were abusive in the belief they were caring for their children. This would also make every single one of the Cuy'val Dar dar'manda, which I think is a fascinating concept.

to answer your question directly, no, one cannot look at someone and know they're dar'manda, even the Force/Manda sensitive ones. one will only know in death, whether or not they have a place in the Manda.

NOW what does this mean for New Mandalorians?? well, by technicality and the way I've set the Manda up, one can interpret the Resol'nare in ways that could align with New Mandos. Perhaps they interpret "armour" as more than specifically "beskar'gam", maybe they wear armourweave or other protective fabrics. Maybe they interpret "defending one's family" as putting down arms instead of raising them, in order to create a peaceful future for their children. I think there are plenty of New Mandos that technically tick off all the boxes, and believe in themselves and their fellows so much that the Manda is like "yeah sure why not, we'll make that count". I think some tenants are more easily... bent, like swearing to the duchy in place of the Mand'alor, but I think an easy one New Mandos miss, is "speak Mando'a." I think many New Mandos were all too quick to switch to Basic for everything except religious and spiritual ceremonies, and I think those already in the Manda would find that very hard to forgive. I actually get into this a little in Dha Kar'ta very soon, but for this fic, i'll have Satine not outright outlawing Mando'a, but it is socially heavily discouraged. you're not allowed to speak it in the palace unless in aforementioned ceremonies, you cannot fill out paperwork in anything but Basic, you're not allowed to use Mando'a titles (including Mand'alor), you're not allowed to teach it to your children. no outright like. punishments for speaking it in public, but if your kids are caught, there are repercussions, including investigation into how else you're raising your kids, and if you're found to be doing anything else, they can take your kids from you. not every New Mando agrees with this, of course, and go about adhering to the Resol'nare as best they can in secret, but so many do give up the language by convincing themselves it's not as important as the other tenants and, well, the duchy hasn't steered them all wrong yet, has it?

okay so on the subject of what the outside galaxy is seeing. I like the headcanon/trope/idea of like. the one thing all factions of Mandalorians agreeing on is fuck everyone else. oh, the New Mandos will emulate the Core and the Republic, but they aren't the Republic nor want to be, and this animosity extends to keeping as many internal Mandlorian issues just that: internal. no faction can keep news from leaving the system or the sector, obviously, but there also isn't a lot of interest in Mandalorian news? "oh look all the Mandos are fighting again", except that's been the standard for like. actual thousands of years. I like when fic have people outside the sector not evening knowing there are different factions, so I'll be doing that here, too, and I like the idea of non-Republic sectors having their own holonets, separate from the Republic one. so like, if Obi-Wan happens to go a little viral during his mad dash to Keldabe, that would be on the Mandalorian holonet, not the Republic one, so even if Obi-Wan was visibly still a Jedi (and he wasn't), actual news of him wouldn't reach the Mid and Inner Rims until like. possible years after it happens.

could this maybe be expedited by Sith machinations? absolutely, though I'm not sure I want to go that route, since I don't think the Sith are overmuch interested in Mandalore at this point, at least not in any hands-on capacity. I'm unclear on whether them funding Death Watch is fanon or not, but it is a headcanon I subscribe to, and I think they'd have stopped funding DW after Galidraan, to cause worse infighting and prevent DW from gaining enough power to actually restart their imperial conquering days. Palpatine has been senator for about ten years by this point, but has very little political power overall, and Demask would be looking basically anywhere but Mandalore at this point in time, both of them having written it off until they actively need something from the sector. if anyone had clocked Obi-Wan as a Jedi, this all would have gone very differently, news would have spread much further and quicker and I think undoubtedly would have reached Palpatine, but since I have Obi-Wan just... cutting ties to anything Jedi, news of him remains in-sector. is this perhaps unrealistic? maybe, but I kind of want to focus on Mandalore and not worry about galactic-wide politics for once, lmao, actually very much like Obi-Wan is doing. however, he will clock a lack of Sith interference and thinks That's Very Weird.

haven't decided how he finds Palpatine out yet, but I think it'll have to do with his Manda senses being different than his Force ones, maybe the Ka'ra even gives him a few tips or gifts to sense Sith since they've allied and fought with them so much in the past. regardless, that'll be after he's become Mand'alor and united the clans.

now to actual plot progression! Obi-Wan meets up with the Old Guard, they don't know what to make of him other than "he's kriffing weird. and young. and creepy. and probably Manda-touched." whatever other verd is Manda-touched will see him blessed by the Ka'ra, which causes them to look inwards more closely and realise they trust Obi-Wan inexplicably, which means they're blessed by the Manda and the Will of the People, too. they wonder if Obi-Wan has noticed, if any of the other Old Guard have noticed. they are one of a few that notice Obi-Wan sneaking back out while everyone is arguing.

Vhonte Tervho is another. She's at this lil summit to represent clan Tervho, tho isn't the clan head, because her ba'vodu, a Manda-touched goran, had sensed she needed to be at the summit. said ba'vodu is of course the armorer who reforged Obi-Wan's armour (need to find a name for them hmm), who had told their clan they were to cease fighting until their new Mand'alor called on them. Vhonte sees Obi-Wan, realises at the same time as everyone that he's the Kih'Manda, the Mand'ika that the entire system had been gossiping about for weeks, and she thinks of what her ba'vodu said. she looks inwards, like they had taught her to, and finds, yes, she trusts Obi-Wan, just like she used to trust Jango. And, well, her Mand'alor is obviously leaving to go do something, and she isn't going to let him go it alone.

the Manda-touched verd doesn't go with them, wanting to see what comes of this, but they already know Obi-wan is Ka'ra Chosen. they will come when he calls.

#prequel trilogy #time travel au #obi wan kenobi #star wars #crow i love the way you breakdown everyone's characters and expand on what i'm putting down #like in the two blocks of tags that i've italicised #they make me feel all warm and fuzzy that you're getting so much out of what i'm doing and also they're just a DELIGHT to read #and have informed later characterisations and changed how i've thought about stuff i've already written #mandalorans #world building #vhonte tervho #will be pulling many characters from repcom obv #but fuck karen traviss as both a person and an author so there's that heads up #also!! anyone can ask questions or comment or reply #would love to hear y'all's thoughts and ideas and i LOVE answering #this au would not exist without crow asking me all these questions. just straight up wouldn't exist #malcontent crow #still trying to figure out if i can work in luminara in a way that doesn't feel shoe-horned #several people have voted QuinObi which i am very much not against #it would be SO easy to have Quinlan just. book it to Mandalore #at first to convince Obi-Wan to COME BACK but then he sees what Obi is actually doing and realises he can't do that to Obi or to Mandalore #does Quinlan... STAY on Mandalore with him?? 👀 👀 does he accept he needs to let Obi-Wan go?#does he stay as a Jedi Shadow and help out or does he leave the Order too??#many questions many thoughts

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