#what happened on the death star

[cantsayidont]

October 1978. The first appearance of the bounty hunter Valance, who has recently made a comeback in the modern STAR WARS comics. Created by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson, Valance is a cyborg, a former Stormtrooper officer who had been grievously wounded by a Rebel air raid and who now expresses his self-loathing through a pathological hatred of Droids and automata. (His secretiveness seems merited in these stories, which indicate that cyborgs experience a high level of mistrust and social stigma. I assume this is something Goodwin extrapolated from the "We don't serve their kind" stuff in the first movie, although the degree of prejudice and outright loathing Valance faces when people know he's a cyborg isn't really borne out by later SW media.)

The next issue box is a bit misleading; THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK wasn't released until a year or so after this issue appeared. Also, the story to which the box refers (which is indeed called "The Empire Strikes!") didn't actually appear until issue #18. The issue following this one ended up being a fill-in story about Luke and Biggs prior to the events of the first movie, with art by Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom rather than regular penciller Carmine Infantino. The delay probably had something to do with the juggling act required to produce the U.S. and UK versions of the comic — the stories that ran in the U.S. monthly color series were published more or less contemporaneously in eight-page B&W installments in the British STAR WARS WEEKLY, a logistical nightmare that necessitated the use of two distinctly different inkers and a number of fill-ins to make the math work.

[syn0vial]

boba fett's childhood is such an untapped goldmine of uncanny existential horror, even before he loses his father.

like, imagine growing up never seeing another child except those that are identical to you—carbon copies in every way, except their heads are shaved, they're plugged into machines all day, and they never stay children for very long. the ones that survive turn into men who look like your father, but your father calls them cattle, cannon fodder.

you're a clone, too. you should be cattle like them, but your father doesn't call you those things. he says you're his real son and that he loves you.

your father loves you. this is what distinguishes you from the cattle and the canon fodder. your father loves you and that's what makes you a person.

and :) then :) he :) fucking :) dies :)

[bloodybellycomb]

I cannot fix him and he will make me worse, sorry

[cogentranting]

Strange New Worlds answered the continuity issue of "if Spock and Uhura served alongside Sam Kirk for years, why didn't either of them react in TOS season 1 when Sam dies?" by saying "because neither of them could stand Sam. Next question."

[yuesya]

There is music, echoing elegantly into the silent darkness. Solemn and magnificent, countless notes rising and falling to blend into an ethereal melody.

It has been quite a long time, since the Choir’s song of Order last resounded through the stars.

Penacony, the Land of Dreams, no longer remains beneath the jurisdiction of the Harmony. For Order has been established, and from it, an intergalactic Paradise will arise. Is already on the rise, weaving together the blissful dreams of its inhabitants under the iron grip of a watchful conductor who is determined to see their ideals become reality.

“This is just the worst.” Three words, grumbled lowly in an unhappy voice, discontented. Silver Wolf grits her teeth mulishly, hands curling into fists. “Penacony’s gone. Firefly… didn’t make it out this time.”

A slow blink of eldritch blue eyes. The white-haired girl standing beside the youngest Stellaron Hunter remains unmoving. There is no change in her outward expression at all.

“… Firefly?”

“She’s gone,” Silver Wolf’s voice is louder this time. A little more fierce, too. Gloved hands come up to wipe roughly at her eyes. “Firefly is dead now, Shiki. That –that was her third death!”

“Third death. Penacony.” Shiki is silent for another moment. “… It’s Order that killed her.”

“We need to go.” Silver Wolf sucks in a deep breath, and sets her shoulders. “Any longer, and we won’t be safe here, either; Order is actively subsuming everything around it into its Choir. If this is part of Elio’s script, then–”

“‘You will draw your blade.’”

“… What?”

“My script from Elio,” Shiki’s voice is infinitely soft. “… He told me, ‘You will draw your blade.’”

Then, she proceeds to do so.

One hand grips at the sheath of the sword at her side, while the other closes around the hilt. Shiki draws out the entire length of the thin blade in a single smooth motion. Careless, almost, and unhurried. There is no particular strength behind it. It can’t even be considered a proper swing, but–

But beneath the tip of her blade, there is a distortion in space. Something –something that parts beneath the edge, a thin line that swiftly stretches into a yawning chasm that blooms into the world around her, tearing through the space and stars and Order Itself like an unstoppable tidal wave–

That just keeps going and going–

Red. No, black. Looking into the emptiness left behind in the path of the tear in reality is something that hurts, is actively painful, but blissfully calm at the same time. There’s something that’s almost alluring about it. No, repulsive. Radiant sunlight, and the darkest shadow.

… It doesn’t make sense. But it doesn’t need to. For the stars themselves are meaningless, and in the end there is noThINg thAt matTeRs in wAke of HeR SILENCE–

…

…

…

… Elio stares blankly up at the familiar blank panels of the ceiling. It has already been several long seconds since he’d roughly pulled himself out of his last simulation, but the harsh thud-thud-thud pounding of his heart has yet to begin calming. The sharp, distressingly poignant headache in his skull shows no signs of easing anytime soon, either.

What he’d seen just now… was not a desirable scenario. Not at all. Something definitely needed to be done, especially in regards to Firefly’s ‘third death’ in the Land of Dreams.

“Elio?” Kafka’s face appears in his field of vision as she leans over him, waving a hand in front of his eyes. “Everything alright?”

… Hopefully, they will be. As long as Elio can work things out and direct them on a better course of action.

“I’m fine, Kafka.”

“Hmm.” The woman stares at him for a moment. Then, smiles teasingly, “Maybe you should take a break. Wouldn’t want you to start stress-shedding now, would we?”

Elio sniffs, even though the vertigo of the sudden motion makes the room spin dizzyingly. “If I lose all my hair, then you and the other Hunters are most definitely to blame for it.”

[chimerahyperfix]

This loop has to be the one. Nevermind that you said it last loop, and the one before, and the one before that, and most of the ones before that. THIS was the one you'd stop the King in his tracks. You push a few of your many potions to the side to make room on your desk. None of them worked to stop him, so they were useless. He's still about twelve, fourteen? hours away, so you have enough time to make the bomb, eat and take a fat nap before you go pick a fight. Maybe this time, it'll work! It has to!

You've gotten better at making the Craft Bomb. It hasn't blown up on you before you intended to use it in... a long time. You can make it fast enough, now, for it to still be light outside! You've become silent while you work, which Mirabelle has told you is ''worrying'', but you don't see why it is. Are you really that loud? (Yes. You are.)

It's hard work. Soft light bathes your desk, your work, you. You reach out, past your potions, and grab your water bottle. Take a big swig, and

Hmm. That's not water.

How. HOW do you keep making this mistake. You look at the bottle in your hand, and sure enough, it’s one of the potions; your water bottle is shoved in the back of the collection of other containers. The taste is caustic, your throat begins to burn. You shouldn’t be this calm for having just drank something that’ll kill you in a handful of minutes, but it’s happened before. Despite the pain you don't bother trying anything. Just push the finished bomb to the side and lay your face against the wood of the table. Feel the blood start to pool in your mouth and dribbling out, staining the wood. Mirabelle, or Euphie or whoever comes in next, they can use it this loop. It's not the first time you've drank one of the many, many dangerous potions on your desk, and it's probably not the last. Maybe you'll actually clean the crabbing thing off before you work.

Whatever. You have next time. You have all the time.

Perhaps a bit too much, actually.

[steakout-05]

apologies to my followers who don't watch Star Trek but i still cannot get over the way Data enters the bridge in episode 2 of TNG after having just boinked Tasha. look at him. the style. the lean. the confidence.

this is the fruitiest android i have ever seen!

[scarlettjskipper]

HSR: Spoilers for Penacony's Trailblazer Mission 2.1!

God, the WAY Sunday yelled at Gallagher at end, demanding to know why he killed Robin broke my heart. I wanted to pat his back and hold his hand, dear Lord.

I can't imagine the agony he must be going through. He's reunited with his sister after literal years, only for her to be murdered, then the people who adopted them both force him to pretend that she's alive, try to stop him from looking into her death and who caused it.

AND THAT LIGHTCONE OH MY GOD THAT LIGHTCONE The fact that he kept it securely... After all this time... He looked so young and happy, too. Oh, my heart.

There's a lot of questionable things going on with him (just like everyone else in Penacony) but my heart really goes out to him. He's one of the people who has, arguably, been having the worst times.

[wantonlywindswept]

arla escapes DW ficbit

bit of a slower story than i've been writing of late; will see how far it goes. i don't think of arla as a super popular character in SW? tho that might just be bc her character is so obscure.

but she's basically free real estate imo and i am RUNNING with it

--

Arla spends two weeks in a shitty flophouse on an even shittier planet in the Outer Rim, jumping at every sound outside her door and pulling her blaster on shadows, before she realizes that she might actually have gotten away.

She gouged all three tracking chips from beneath her skin before her escape attempt. The ship she was given for her last assignment will have reached its final destination by now, set on a collision course with a star halfway across the galaxy. The droid that removed the explosive implant at the back of her neck auto-wiped its records, and she scoured her armor clean of bugs and paint in a single-minded frenzy that left her hands caked in blue and black.

It was the first job she was allowed in the Core, after years of faking loyalty and swallowing her pride and fury in order to rise in Death Watch's ranks. They previously hadn't trusted her not to disappear into the massive populaces found on Core worlds, where anonymity was the norm and people had enough that they could afford to be kind to strangers, instead of scrabbling desperately for their own survival. Tracking implants, on-board ship cameras, regular comm check-ins: they held tight to her leash with their grubby little fingers even as they finally allowed her to stray.

They were smart not to trust her--but not smart enough to keep her from disappearing. 

If they haven't found her yet, it's likely they won't find her at all.

When that fact finally sets in, Arla curls up in a corner of the room and wastes a couple hours on a hysterical, weeping breakdown, because why the fuck not?

She's free.

[orithereticent]

Am I funny yet?

[yoichichi]

SOBBING IN MY FUCKING STOREROOM BC I JUSR ACCIDENTALLY KILLED A MOUSE

[deckofflora]

Does anyone else think of the differences in the way their wizard’s magic manifests?

Like does your wizard use some other type of magic via combining multiple types? Do their spells look different from the norm? Do they use a spell in a different way than the norm?

[faraskyee]

undefined

[shiversdownyourspleen]

Everywhere I go, I see his face

[chocolate-cake-enthusiast]

Oh my god I just had a thought

what if after the Life games are over, all the Hermits that are involved just schedule a server meeting and have cuddles and shit (this also depends on if you headcanon them as losing their memories of the games or whatever). And if you do hc that then they just have a sad vibe or sm and do that. Idk. Secret Life is making me sad. Thoughts. Depression. All of it. I’m currently drinking a scalding cup of hot chocolate while stuffing my face with chocolate and staring at the kitchen counter. No thoughts other than SL related. Hepl.