Nemie

Renew AU

I finally figured out how to bring this dork back from the dead for this AU, so here's the dirty details.

Obi-Wan, as a Force ghost, has been secretly following Vader and Luke since this whole fiasco started. He's been looking for an opportunity to talk to Luke, but the boy is always shadowed by his father, and Obi-Wan really doesn't want to reveal himself to Vader considering the emotional fallout that would ensue, for the both of them.

So Obi-Wan watches, watches as Vader's heart is healed by Luke's kindness, watches as Vader protects, dotes, and adores his son, and Obi-wan begins to realize what Luke had been trying to tell him this whole time. Anakin never died, he's been trapped in a living hell for over a decade, screaming and begging for help, and Luke answered.

It makes Obi-Wan's heart ache. For so many years he's been trying to discard all his regrets, but seeing Luke's and Vader's adventures bring them bubbling right back to the surface. If only he had done things differently...

Then one day Vader and Luke come across another one of Sideous's secret labs. The old Sith lord has been trying to find a way to keep himself alive by any means possible. The machine that de-aged Luke and Vader was one of those plans, and he had used Luke as a guinea pig to see if it would worked, which is did, but the machine blew up.

So this faculty Luke and Vader are currently in is actually filled with brain dead clones of various Jedi, tests subjects to see if Sideous could implant his spirit into another body. One of them is even an adult clone of Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan is relived to see that even Vader is disgusted by these things and watches wearily as Vader goes to kill the brain dead clones, only to get attacked by two Anakins.

The Anakin clones are simply being puppeted by Sideous and have no will of their own, so they're not as skilled as Vader in terms of fighting prowess, but that doesn't mean that they are easy to kill either. After a fevered fight, Vader manages to kill one them, but the other clone is then able to hit Vader with Force lighting, which is Vader's biggest weakness. Mechanical limbs and electricity aren't a good combo.

Seeing Vader in agony and Luke crying in desperation prompts Obi-Wan to try something really stupid. He shoves his spirit into the body of his brain dead clone and wills the damn thing to move.

It works and Obi-Wan is essentially alive again. He fights back the Anakin clone, allowing Vader enough time to recover and join the fight again. When it's over, Obi-Wan cannot bring himself to kill the clone, so Vader does it, brutally, and without hesitation.

The owner of the drone was so impressed by the brilliant attack that he suggested organizing a competition for bringing down “dragons” with short spears next year.

On the seventh day of May in the year of 2016 on hither spot the mighty warrior Ulf hath slain a dragon with his spear.

501st Day!

AEUGGGGGH I CANT FIND A GIF TO ARTICULATE HOW COOL THIS IS

Wait wait I wanna put the fic here so others can find it to read

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

Some of these are in response to questions that I keep getting asked over and over. Others are in response to frequently-occurring replies/reblogs/tags (sorry if I've missed your question; with tens of thousands of notes coming in, I literally can't see everyone's post responses on my Activity tab):

In the case of my story (and others that I know were reported), Amazon took down the plagiarized book within 24 hours of my reporting it.

No one but the actual author can file a removal request on Amazon, sorry. If you know of a fic that has been plagiarized and the author hasn't shared contact info/social media, the best way to let them know is probably to leave a comment on the story.

AMAZON IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PIRACY. Amazon is an automated marketplace where users can list things to sell, just like eBay or Etsy, and there is no live person on the other end tasked with vetting every single one of the hundreds of millions of items to make sure they're legit. There is no "plagiarism filter" or "book researcher" or whatever that should have caught this when it was uploaded. You're allowed to dislike Amazon for their business practices, labor policies, or many other legitimate reasons, but in this specific case they aren't the ones at fault.

Setting your fics to "registered users only" on AO3 will not prevent people from stealing them. Thieves can make a free AO3 account just like anyone else. Someone capable of programming a bot to crawl a fanfiction archive can probably also figure out how to register for the site so their bot can hide behind a registered user browser cookie.

Leaving your fics eternally unfinished will not prevent people from stealing them. There were multiple stories on the Plush Books page that were unfinished (I checked their status on AO3 when I was contacting other affected authors). Thieves don't care if the story is actually done; they're in this racket to grab a quick buck and then disappear before anyone can complain.

As it turns out, some of the stolen works were harvested from other fanfiction archives, such as Fanfiction.net, in addition to AO3. Anyone who has ever posted a story online should keep an eye out.

As it also turns out, there is no consistent profile determining which works were pirated. Some stories are long; others are short. Some had many kudos; others had just a few. Some were marked as complete; others were still unfinished. As near as anyone can tell, the selection process is random.

Yes, I'm aware that the cover art to the example I posted is also stolen. As several people have recognized, it's the DMC5 game menu background (my fic that was pirated is a DMC story). Many of the other books on the Plush Books page also used stolen game/movie/etc. art.

No, it is not legal to sell fanfiction, stolen or otherwise. No, it is not legal to use commercial game art as cover art without a paid license. BUT ALSO NO, the IP owners aren't going to bother prosecuting anyone over this. Lawyers are expensive, and even if the court awarded the plaintiff damages based on the number of infringing books sold, that would probably add up to about 1/4 hour of billed legal time -- it's just not worth it for them. Legally, an IP owner has to protect their copyright in order to maintain it, but that can be a simple matter of a C&D or takedown notice. Nobody's going to bother going to court over this -- which is exactly what the thieves are banking on; it's a relatively low-risk enterprise. (Related: Please stop messaging me to get in touch with Capcom and jointly sue the publisher. So many legal issues there, starting with requiring Capcom to make a legal statement on fanfiction. Do not open the Pandora's Box of defining "transformative" in court.)

AO3/OTW have been aware of this situation since it started, so there's no need to tag them in future reblogs.

anticipation - bouncing legs - darting eyes - breathing deeply - useless / mindless tasks - eyes on the clock - checking and re-checking

frustration - grumbling - heavy footsteps - hot flush - narrowed eyes - pointing fingers - pacing / stomping

sadness - eyes filling up with tears - blinking quickly - hiccuped breaths - face turned away - red / burning cheeks - short sentences with gulps

happiness - smiling / cheeks hurting - animated - chest hurts from laughing - rapid movements - eye contact - quick speaking

boredom - complaining - sighing - grumbling - pacing - leg bouncing - picking at nails

fear - quick heartbeat - shaking / clammy hands - pinching self - tuck away - closing eyes - clenched hands

disappointment - no eye contact - hard swallow - clenched hands - tears, occasionally - mhm-hmm

tiredness - spacing out - eyes closing - nodding head absently - long sighs - no eye contact - grim smile

accept: to receive except: with the exclusion of

advice: recommendation (noun) advise: to recommend (verb)

adverse: unfavorable averse: opposed to

affect: to influence (verb); emotional response (noun) effect: result (noun); to cause (verb)

aisle: space between rows isle: island

allude: to make indirect reference to elude: to avoid

allusion: indirect reference illusion: false idea, misleading appearance

already: by this time all ready: fully prepared

altar: sacred platform or place alter: to change

altogether: thoroughly all together: everyone/everything in one place

a lot: a quantity; many of something allot: to divide or portion out

angel: supernatural being, good person angle: shape made by joining two straight lines

are: plural form of "to be" our: plural form of "my"

accent: pronunciation common to a region ascent: the act of rising or climbing assent: consent, agreement

assistance: help assistants: helpers

bare: nude, unadorned bear: to carry; an animal

beside: close to; next to besides: except for; in addition

boar: a wild male pig bore: to drill a hole through

board: piece of wood bored: uninterested

born: brought into life borne: past participle of "to bear" (carry)

breath: air taken in (noun) breathe: to take in air (verb)

brake: device for stopping break: destroy; make into pieces

buy: to purchase by: next to; through the agency of

canvas: heavy cloth canvass: to take a survey; a survey

capital: major city capitol: government building

choose: to pick chose: past tense of "to choose"

clothes: garments close: to shut; near cloths: pieces of fabric

coarse: rough course: path; series of lectures

complement: something that completes compliment: praise, flattery

conscience: sense of morality conscious: awake, aware

corps: regulated group corpse: dead body

council: governing body counsel: advice; to give advice

dairy: place where milk products are processed diary: personal journal

descent: downward movement dissent: disagreement

dessert: final, sweet course in a meal desert: to abandon; dry, sandy area

device: a plan; a tool or utensil devise: to create

discreet: modest, prudent behavior discrete: a separate thing, distinct

do: a verb indicating performance or execution of a task dew: water droplets condensed from air due: as a result of

dominant: commanding, controlling dominate: to control

die: to lose life; one of a pair of dice dye: to change or add color

dyeing: changing or adding color dying: losing life

elicit: to draw out illicit: illegal, forbidden

eminent: prominent imminent: about to happen

envelop: to surround (verb) envelope: container for a letter (noun)

everyday: routine, commonplace, ordinary (adj.) every day: each day, succession (adj. + noun)

fair: just, honest; a carnival; light skinned fare: money for transportation; food

farther: at a greater (measurable) distance further: in greater (non-measurable) depth

formally: conventionally, with ceremony formerly: previously

forth: forward fourth: number four in a list

gorilla: animal in ape family guerrilla: soldier specializing in surprise attacks

hear: to sense sound by ear here: in this place

heard: past tense of "to hear" herd: group of animals

hoard: a hidden fund or supply, a cache horde: a large group or crowd, swarm

hole: opening whole: complete; an entire thing

human: relating to the species homo sapiens humane: compassionate

its: possessive form of "it" it's: contraction for "it is"

knew: past tense of "know" new: fresh, not yet old

know: to comprehend no: negative

later: after a time latter: second one of two things

lead: heavy metal substance; to guide led: past tense of "to lead"

lessen: to decrease lesson: something learned and/or taught

lightning: storm-related electricity lightening: making lighter

loose: unbound, not tightly fastened lose: to misplace

maybe: perhaps (adv.) may be: might be (verb)

meat: animal flesh meet: to encounter mete: to measure; to distribute

medal: a flat disk stamped with a design meddle: to interfere, intrude metal: a hard organic substance mettle: courage, spirit, energy

miner: a worker in a mine minor: underage person (noun); less important (adj.)

moral: distinguishing right from wrong; lesson of a fable or story morale: attitude or outlook usually of a group

passed: past tense of "to pass" past: at a previous time

patience: putting up with annoyances patients: people under medical care

peace: absence of war piece: part of a whole; musical arrangement

peak: point, pinnacle, maximum peek: to peer through or look furtively pique: fit of resentment, feeling of wounded vanity

pedal: the foot lever of a bicycle or car petal: a flower segment peddle: to sell

personal: intimate; owned by a person personnel: employees

plain: simple, unadorned plane: to shave wood; aircraft (noun)

precede: to come before proceed: to continue

presence: attendance; being at hand presents: gifts

principal: foremost (adj.); administrator of a school (noun) principle: moral conviction, basic truth

quiet: silent, calm quite: very

rain: water drops falling; to fall like rain reign: to rule rein: strap to control an animal (noun); to guide or control (verb)

raise: to lift up raze: to tear down

rational: having reason or understanding rationale: principles of opinion, beliefs

respectfully: with respect respectively: in that order

reverend: title given to clergy; deserving respect reverent: worshipful

right: correct; opposite of left rite: ritual or ceremony write: to put words on paper

road: path rode: past tense of "to ride"

scene: place of an action; segment of a play seen: viewed; past participle of "to see"

sense: perception, understanding since: measurement of past time; because

sight: scene, view, picture site: place, location cite: to document or quote (verb)

stationary: standing still stationery: writing paper

straight: unbending strait: narrow or confining; a waterway

taught: past tense of "to teach" taut: tight

than: used to introduce second element; compared to then: at that time; next

their: possessive form of "they" there: in that place they’re: contraction for "they are"

through: finished; into and out of threw: past tense of "to throw" thorough: complete

to: toward too: also; very (used to show emphasis) two: number following one

track: course, road tract: pamphlet; plot of ground

waist: midsection of the body waste: discarded material; to squander

waive: forgo, renounce wave: flutter, move back and forth

weak: not strong week: seven days

weather: climatic condition whether: if wether: a neutered male sheep

where: in which place were: past tense of "to be"

which: one of a group witch: female sorcerer

whose: possessive for "of who" who’s: contraction for "who is"

your: possessive for "of you" you’re: contraction for "you are" yore: time long past

Kal'buir Part 1

His boys sounded an alarm. Kal heard them mustering weapons and shouting from the back of the house. He ran to the front door. His helmet on and blaster ready before he slammed open the door. 

A downed ship had dug nose first into the ground. The sense that the past had interrupted his life again overwhelmed Kal. He took several hesitant steps closer. The hatch opened and his boys readied their weapons. The first glimpse of tan and white made Kal holster his blaster.

“Stand down.” When none of the Null Clones obeyed, Kal took off his helmet. “He is not an enemy. Stand down.” Slowly they lowered their weapons. Even as old as they were, his boys did not like obeying orders. 

Kal pushed his helmet into Mereel’s hands and walked closer to the ship. The Jedi stumbled out of the cockpit and Kal was there to keep him from falling face first into the dirt. The Jedi smelled like smoke and death. The visors over the eyes were black. Gently Kal placed his fingers under the lip of the mask. He felt the Jedi tighten his grip on Kal’s shoulders. “They’re….. I … there’s nothing….”

“I know.” Kal whispered. “I was on Coruscant when it happened.”

“You….” The Jedi sobbed. Kal removed the mask and hugged the Temple Guard close. 

“You never showed up after that. It’s been decades. Thought you had finally stopped time traveling.” Kal let the Jedi nearly strangle him with how tight he clung to Kal’s chest. “Ordo, take the others and prepare a room.” He listened to the trudge of boots as his boys, more white hair than his own, returned to the house. Kal just waited, sinking down to lean against the ship. The Jedi came with him.

“You were always there… Every time….” The Jedi mumbled once he finally calmed down. The tears still dampened Kal’s shoulder

“I wouldn’t know.” Kal shrugged. “Come on, you need to change.” The Jedi did not let go. “Did you witness? Or did you find it?” Kal asked carefully. 

“Found it….”

“Then it might still change.” Kal shifted. His legs were not happy with the weight distribution. “Jedi, I need to get up.” That got the Temple Guard to shift away, looked away with a too young face. The same face that had captivated Jaster. Kal handed the Jedi the mask. The Jedi only stared blankly at it. “You don’t have to. Not here.” Kal grunted as he pulled himself to stand. “Right now, you should get cleaned up and get some rest.”

The Jedi did stand, holding the mask in his hands. “The Clones?”

“Those are my sons. Lost three these past couple of years.” Kal shoved down the grief. He had never found a solution to the rapid aging. “They’re almost forty. And the life of a soldier is hard. They’re strong as ever until their Kaminoan-made kill switch activates.”

“I am sorry.” The Jedi meant it. 

Kal felt his heart break. “Don’t be.” He said sharply. Kal didn’t need the additional grief for men who were not yet dead. “I only hoped that I’d die before them. Life just doesn’t work that way.” Kal began walking to the house. “You don’t have to stay long. I’ll have A’den make sure your ship will still fly. We’ll get the smoke out of your robes. And I’ll take you to the hot spring.”

The Jedi was a step behind and paused to repeat, “Hot spring?”

“You got to go there so you can have been there.”

“What?”

“Time traveling idiot.” Kal muttered.

@worm-strung-string. not sure if this one will stick the way it is. but that's what came to mind when Obi says he's been to the hot springs before. Kal seems the type to get a little soft spot in his old age.

And its such a whimsical, and sad and interesting thing to follow and read Kal through so many stages, Its like, the idea he has more understanding of Obi-wan's journey and the path hes walked then even Obi-wan knows at any given time. Its Kal witnessing the efforts hes gone through, the peak of skill and adaptivity of the guard to the bleakness and lowest. Kal has struggled, and lived, and has thrived and has died inside so many times just as he's glimpsed and caught those moments in Obi-wan.

They devastate me as they captivate me

The sillies