Was Supposed To Be Writing, But Oops, I Got Distracted. (Am I Procrastinating Working Out Vader's Reaction

BBWHY

Random two o'clock a.m. thought of the day:

Just why. Why is the BBY system still such a thing in SW. Why is there apparently no standard calendar system that does not reference a date far in the future of the prequels? And how the heck has this remained the state of things for over 20 years now?

Just saying, it's particularly heinous when you're writing a fic where the Battle of Yavin will never even happen.

One major disadvantage of entering the Jedi Order at the ripe old age of nine:

You miss the intro classes where they teach Stop, Drop, and Roll.

That knowledge would have come in handy on Mustafar, you know? To be fair, Anakin was also freshly down a bunch of limbs, but still. He had already dropped. All he had to do was roll.

Now playing: Part II, Chapter XIV. Midnight Oil

In which Ahsoka and Padmé have an impromptu Girls' Night (of a sort), important decisions are discussed, and Padmé and Vader hold another verbal sparring match via commlink.

20 Questions For Writers

Thank you, @sinvulkt! I saw someone else post one of these a while ago, and it looked fun, so thanks so much for the tag! 💛💛💛

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Seven. Technically eight, but one of them is part of another and just separated for logistical reasons, so it doesn't really count.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

190,105 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Fortune's Rule, 536 kudos

Missing Pieces No More, 142

Whispers From Tomorrow, 126

Petrichor, 42

Threadbare, 30

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most of the time! Sometimes it takes a while because busy + tired, but I enjoy it when other authors respond to my comments, so I want to respond other people's comments. :)

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Threadbare. Wouldn't say it's a full-on angsty ending, because I tend to go for angsty beginnings/middles and happy endings, but it's the closest I've got.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Whispers From Tomorrow, by virtue of it being a pre-Order-66 fix-it.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

I've gotten a little. You know how FFN can be. There was this one kinda funny one instance where somebody was silent for like 20 chapters, and then absolutely flipped their lid in a comment after I killed off a character. Not even a main character! Oops....

9. Do you write smut?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not as a rule, but I did start scribbling down this weird idea for Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables, ending up in the GFFA during the Clone Wars via some witchery in the Haunted Wood. What gets me is how I told my brother about it, and he promptly started nagging me to write it because he wants to read it XD

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but feel free to do so if you're interested!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Meh, not really a big shipper.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

WIP I will never finish? What are you talking about?

There are no unfinished WIPS in Ba Sing Se.

Seriously, though, probably my Padmé ROTS time loop fic. I had this idea for Padmé to keep looping back to some point in ROTS after she dies. I love the idea, it's roughly outlined and I've written some snippets, and there's this one scene that I'd really like to include, but I'm just not sure how to make the time loop AU work in this scenario.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Grammar, usage, and mechanics. And maybe angst, oddly enough. Never figured myself for an angst writer, but then I started writing Fortune's Rule, and here we are.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Speed. I write slowly. I also tend to end up going down research rabbit holes that suck up my time and energy. And I have a really hard time saying no to adding more characters, which adds to the whole writing-takes-a-long-time thing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Sure! I've enjoyed putting little bits of Mando'a and Huttese into Fortune's Rule.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Calico Captive, by Elizabeth George Speare, when I was in my early teens. Never managed to get a whole fic out of it, and what fragments I did write were terribly underdeveloped, sentimental, and shallow. But we all have to start somewhere!

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Fortune's Rule, all the way! I know it's not finished yet, but it is my precious and my problem child, and I love it to bits!

In a way, it's a very self-indulgent story, because it's got all the tropes I most adore, and it's like a puzzle, trying to figure out how to put all these different elements together in a way that's believable, and how to have characters develop to where I want them to be.

Plus, it's also given me some fun surprises, like Padmé and Ahsoka being besties, Ventress becoming Obi-Wan's confidant for a certain matter, and Piett becoming a friend/confidant/emotional support admiral for Starkiller.

And there's so much more fun stuff planned, especially as we're getting close the start of an arc I've been planning since before I started posting the fic in 2021! (There will be child hijinks. There will be pirates. There will be sand, and angst and fluff galore. And I am so kriffing excited.)

Tagging (If you're interested! I'm doing like sinvulkt and tagging some authors I've interacted with a bit on AO3; hope this isn't a nuisance to anyone! :) ) @musewrangler, @clawedandcute, @xxiamnotokay666xx

Awakening | AO3

Once, he had a blazing furnace heart. It has lain cold for many years, filled only with a burning frost. Once, a dead-star dragon dwelt within the furnace. It has slept these many years, and he has existed in its still, inky shadow.

No longer. The dragon stirs, awakened by the cries of the two apprentices. All things must die, but these are his apprentices, and they must live. A spark floats up from somewhere deep within. The dragon coils and hisses. The spark catches. The furnace ignites.

This is how the Emperor falls.

Aka, the one where Ahsoka and Starkiller stage an intervention.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65300671

Now playing: III-XIV. A Scathingly Brilliant Idea

In which Ahsoka and Rex head to Christophsis; Luke and Leia begin putting their plan into action and run into an old, uh, family friend; and Padmé has no idea what's coming.

Now playing: III-XV. Desperate Times and Desperate Measures, pt. 1

In which Padmé makes a difficult decision, and Vader spends some time with his apprentice.

Lately, I've been procrastinating writing a tricky bit of Fortunate's Rule wanting to draw a scene where Ahsoka has been knighted, and Anakin has taken on Starkiller as his second padawan.

This drawing began as a pencil sketch on a light day at work. (On printer paper. With a crappy eraser. It was painful.) And then I photographed the sketch, loaded the pic in Krita, and colored over it. Then found a Varykino pic to go off of for the background, since the trio seemed to require one.

I'm fairly happy with it! Really pleased with the shading on the clothes, and with Ahsoka's lekku in general. Shading Anakin's face was incredibly trying for some reason, however, and I'm not at all sure that he looks ~10 years older than in TCW.

Oh, and Krita has this cool impasto brush that made filling in the gravel on the patio so easy! There's also a nice sponge brush that made the water similarly simple.

(See below for OG sketch and pose reference credit.)

The OG sketch:

Based off of this pose reference that I found on Pinterest, by mellon_soup.

Now playing: III-II. Division

In which Padmé sends the twins to Tatooine, Starkiller makes progress, Piett begins to get in over his head, and a conversation is had which has been a long time coming.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a Senator survived. A Jedi did not forsake society. Two siblings were never separated. Nor were two Commanders. And a Rogue found comrades.

The Empire has risen, but the embers of the Republic yet glow in the hearts of the just. The stage is set for rebellion, and both within the Rebel Alliance and outside of it, many fates shall interweave, for the luck of the Disaster Lineage and its associates has ever flowed in a peculiar current. And if that current is stirred, from time to time, by the enterprising Pirate… well, not for nothing has it been said that Fortune rules life.

Aka, Padmé lives. The fractured Chaos Clan begins to reunite. Tarkin suffers a raging case of Hondo-induced identity theft. Vader dials the wrong number and ends up connecting to the commlink of a Rebel agent called Revenant. Add in some youngling hijinks, and all of this is slowly building to a massive headache for one Sheev Palpatine.

Petrichor, Chapter 4

It's not abandoned! There's just been a severe idea drought for... oof, the past few months? (This is my other SW fic, a time travel fix-it focusing on Obi-Wan and Anakin.) I guess the upside of struggling with the last chapter of Fortune's Rule Part II is that it led to the productive procrastination that resulted in this chapter?

Chapter 4. In which first thing in the morning is a bad time for delicate discussions.

I fell asleep last night to the comforting sounds of Anakin working away at repairing my appliances.  It was the most restful sleep I have enjoyed since the commencement of the old war, and now I feel unusually refreshed—fortunately so, for today I shall be required to soothe my fractious padawan’s anxieties anent returning to his own era.

Anakin slumbers still.  I rise and set about breakfast preparations; when they are complete, I take a moment to study him.  In sleep, he is peaceful, and despite the deep shadows under his eyes, his youthful features pretend an innocence to match that of the boy who lives across the wastes.  A smear of grease adorns his cheek, and I obey an irresistible impulse to wipe it away.  My hand lingers to brush a few stray hairs out of his face. As he shifts like a sleeping tooka under the touch, tension melts away which I had not realised he was holding.  Even now, I cannot read him as well as I ought, and so I withdraw to the table with a sigh.  His presence in this time, beneath this roof, is no mere chance.  The Force has placed him under my auspices.