Assorted musings

Title: To Be Free Once More (That’s Worth Fighting For) Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Era Author: Batsutousai Rating: Mature Warnings: Alternate Universe, Qui-Gon survives, Jedi Shadow!Obi-Wan, Jedi culture positive, Coruscant Guard deserve better, clone trooper dehumanisation, institutional abuse, discrimination, learning to trust, Jedi and clone trooper relationships, strangers to friends to lovers, idiots in love, trans/nonbinary/agender clone troopers, Summary: As a Jedi Shadow, Obi-Wan hadn’t expected to have much to do with the clone troopers. Until, suddenly, he does.

Notes: This fic will be 15 chapters long, with the final chapter going up at some point on the 17th of May, for those who prefer to binge.

CHAPTER ONE

“Aayla gets on well with her troopers,” Obi-Wan commented, having heard about her friendship with her commander from Quinlan, who seemed torn between being overprotective of her presumed virtue, and delighted that she’d been paired with a commander that she got on with. “Anakin, too.”

“Anakin has never been particularly comfortable with authority figures,” Qui-Gon commented drily. “His refusal to act like one was wholly expected.”

“Yes, I wonder where he got that particular mindset from,” Obi-Wan muttered loud enough for Qui-Gon to hear, and studiously ignored his former master’s chuckle. “When are we dropping from hyperspace next?” He wasn’t certain about comming Anakin for advice, but Aayla might have some actionable suggestions, and it had been far too long since he’d last spoken to her.

Qui-Gon hummed, then used the Force to call his comm to him, typed something on it, then set it down and went back to his trimming.

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at the complete lack of answer, then left the bed, which he’d been lying on, since the only chair was serving as a plant holder, to kneel in front of Qui-Gon’s footlocker, delighted when it opened at his first guess for the code.

“What, exactly, are you doing?” Qui-Gon asked, tone dry, but presence in the Force warm and amused.

“Disregarding your presumed boundaries,” Obi-Wan returned cheerfully, even as he pawed through his former master’s belongings.

Qui-Gon huffed, then called, “Come in, Commander!” when the quiet doorbell chime sounded.

“You asked to see me, General?” Commander Cody asked, once they’d stepped into the room far enough for the door to close again behind them, curiosity curling through the Force around them.

“Yes,” Qui-Gon agreed, setting down his sheers and turning to face the clone. “Obi-Wan was asking whether there was any way to make the troopers more comfortable with him mingling with them.”

Obi-Wan groaned into the footlocker; he should have guessed that his former master’s solution would be to simply ask one of the clones. “If the answer is there isn’t one,” he said, before the commander could open their mouth to respond, “please just tell me so; I’m perfectly capable suffering the next week dealing with Master Jinn.”

Read the whole chapter at Archive of Our Own!

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

Obi Wan force pushing Grevious in Clone Wars

Dolly Parton runs in from off screen and full body tackles Grevious like 30 feet into the wall.

Jedi mind tricks:

Ben Kenobi: "These aren't the droids you're looking for"

Dolly: "Y'all better let us move along cuz you don't want none of this"

It had been one week, two days, and six hours since Padme’s secret illicit marriage to her hottie Jedi lover (as the tabloids had enthusiastically termed the situation) had been revealed to the galaxy. The fallout had been enormous. Florid headlines had swung through the news; the Naboo Queen had recalled Padme to discuss her future in the Senate; and the Jedi Council, although busy with the war, had implied that there was a meeting on the near horizon about Anakin’s place in the Order.

Which is why when Padme, sat in her office to frantically cover what she could in the possibly limited time she had left, got a message that there was a Jedi to see her—two Jedi—neither of which were her husband or Obi-Wan or Ahsoka—she inwardly groaned. Just the littlest bit. As Padme had taken fire on the Senate front, Anakin (and Obi-Wan, really) had handled the Jedi. She wasn’t sure as to their purpose in seeking her out, given that their connection to the situation was to her husband, but steeled her shoulders in preparation. The Jedi would be polite, no doubt—but there was also no doubt that she and Anakin had landed themselves in boiling hot water and had yet to swim their way out of it.

She stood up as the two entered the room. Ah. Council members. Higher-up Council members. A nerve-wracking clue as the tenor of the conversation about to occur.

“Master Windu, Master Yoda,” Padme nodded. “I understand you wanted to speak to me?”

“Yes,” Mace said grimly. He crossed her arms and gave her a heavy stare. Below, Yoda remained silent, but also peered up at her as if to see straight through her.

“Would you like me to comm Anakin?” Padme offered politely. “In case—”

“No.” Mace interrupted. He was still studying her, eyes narrowed.

Bewilderment shot through Padme. So, they didn’t want to discuss anything with her and Anakin, but that begged the question of why they were there. She straightened and met their gaze, waiting for them to speak.

“Senator Amidala, I will get straight to the point,” Mace began, arms still crossed as he stared her down. Then, he asked the absolute last thing Padme expected.

Sternly, “What are your intentions with young Skywalker?”

Padme didn’t know what to say.

“My…intentions?”

“Yes.”

To stay married to him? Have babies with him? Live a long and happy life with him?

“I would think that my secret marriage to your ward already indicates the answer to that question,” Padme said a tad sharply, thrown off by the question.

“Precisely—a ‘secret’ marriage,” Mace said, even more sternly if possible. “An elopement.” His grim tone suggested that few horrors in the galaxy compared.

“Meet Ruwee and Jobal, we would like,” Yoda added kindly.

Padme blinked. “You’d like…” Why would Mace and Yoda care…?

All of a sudden, a chilling realization seized her brain. Her parents. They wanted to meet her parents—Anakin’s in-laws.

Which meant that Padme’s in-laws were—

Oh, no.

“You’re older than Skywalker, correct?” Mace was asking disapprovingly, as Padme’s mind distantly tried to come to terms with what was happening. “Significantly older.”

Padme was more than a little offended. “I’m in my late twenties, and Anakin—”

“Anakin was nineteen when you married,” Mace finished with a statement that had not been what Padme was about to say. “Yes. I’m aware.”

“Meeting this week, perhaps would be nice,” Yoda muttered with an absent tone. “Meet Ruwee, Obi-Wan can.”

“Master Yoda,” Padme bravely tried to begin, “I’m sure—”

“Old, I am!” Yoda said with a thump of his cane. “Wait, I will not.”

Padme’s mouth opened, shut, opened again, but before she could say anything, Mace flatly spoke again.

“Anakin Skywalker is the Chosen One, and one of the most promising knights of our Order. The peak of your career was when you were a child, I understand.”

‘Master Windu hates me’ indeed, Ani, Padme was inwardly cursing with a foul irritation. She plastered on a smile. “Yes. If you recall, that was when Ani and I first met.”

“You were fourteen and Anakin was nine, yes.”

Damn it—

“And then we didn’t meet again until we were adults,” Padme said meaningfully, noting how Mace had pointedly said Anakin instead of Ani.

“Which resulted in marriage nearly immediately.”

“After we had spent time together.”

“Time being three days.”

“Three days under duress, if you recall.”

“I recall Skywalker being under duress.” The word vulnerable was unsaid but loudly implied.

“Well!” Yoda sighed, peacefully shuffling up to Padme as if she weren’t currently fighting the battle of her life for her dignity. “Make him happy, you do.”

“Hm.” Mace didn’t say anything else.

“Thank you, Master Yoda,” Padme said, relief flooding through her. “We’ll have to share a meal sometime.”

“A promise, that is,” Yoda stared up—oh no, was he being stern now? And where was Anakin, shouldn’t he sense Padme’s distress—“All of us, together will.”

“Of course,” Padme said smoothly, although she knew the two beings in front of her could easily sense her turmoil, damn it. “Just set the date.”

“We will,” Mace said heavily.

The interview appeared to be over with that. Both exited as quietly as they had come. Padme stared after them as the door shut, and then walked back over to her desk, fell into her chair, put her head in her hands…and started laughing. She had tears streaming down her cheeks when Sabe came in worriedly.

“I heard the Jedi were here, what did they--what’s so funny?”

“Oh, Sabe,” Padme gasped. “I have a new and entirely unexpected appointment next week.”

“…what unexpected appointment?”

Padme composed herself, drew herself up, and said with a grin:

Because let's be real, he would be insanely good at it. This leads to several patents running under his name by the time he is 18, including but not limited to

A very easy and cheap to build scanner that *can* be used for detecting slave chips (the Hutts are Not Amused by the skyrocketing number of freedom trail escapees. There is a bounty on his head because he is silently donating a lot of his money to the people organizing said freedom trails. Anakin is aware of this but doesn't let it show. It is a badge of honor, but not one everyone knows how to read. The people who do know know either way.)

a little addition to hyperspace antennae bc he wanted!! to talk to!! his mother!! more often!! that coincidentally completely revolutionized military communication (Anakin is unaware of this)

some type of hyperspace engine modification just because ships and space travel are cool. This also starts to revolutionise research in that area; "The Force told me I could" may not be a valid basis for a scientific project, but "How the kriff does that mechanic DO THAT" sure is

Probably some lightsaber modifications bc come. On. There's no way he wouldn't find a way to improve those. (In the ensuing legal battle, it is noted that the construction and possession of lightsabers is no longer prohibited to the general public. Some Jedi Shadows slip away and do some investigating into when exactly that was changed. And by whom.)

He can’t buy his mother back because even though he has the money now, Watto won't sell her in the hopes of extorting him with her welfare. Anakin is this close to hiring a bounty hunter to deal with this and rescue his mum by himself. Only is Shmi happily busy directing her fellow slaves to operation centers and has no intention of stopping by leaving the planet ("Mum, don't you always say the true tragedy in the galaxy is that nobody helps each other?" Yeah, that woman is SO organizing the resistance against the Hutts.)

While the Jedi aren't really allowed to help because of politics, a good deal of them (the chaotic good alignment faction, i.e. Quinlan Vos & Company) help whenever they can, brokering peace with the original natives (Tuskens and Jawas) to facilitate escape through the desert and prepare an interim government for the inevitable slave/native revolt against the hutts. The council turns a blind eye to this, because a) they know it's the right thing to do and b) the lightsaber permit headache.

It's up to you which faction Obi-Wan belongs to.

The Techno Union is extremely unhappy about their monopoly on, well, technology being broken. This leads to some more legal battles that ... idk, I didn’t think this through, but they lose. Badly, and this proceeds to drag the Banking Clan and Trade Federation down with them as further investigations are opened.

Padmé delightedly pounces on the opportunity to drag all of them down and get revenge on Nute Gunray; she and Anakin make a magnificent team by combining political/legal and technical/market expertise into hell of a headache for the people who would otherwise fund the Separatists. There may or may not be a passionate kiss over some legal evidence and spare parts.

Sidious, who had so far been trying to push all the pieces into position he will need for the Clone Wars while keeping Anakin friendly to him and slowly building public support, now has his hands full juggling a) the lightsaber construction legislature investigation from the Jedi, of which they keep him duly informed (stressful), b) Anakin hyperfixating on mechanics so badly he hardly has time to spiral, never mind build up resentment against the Jedi, c) the Techno Union, the Banking Clans and the Trade Federation slowly crumbling under the combined weight of Skywalker being stubborn, Amidala campaigning and R2 slicing some pretty damning evidence, taking the financial backing for the droid army with them; d) what do you mean, the attempt on Shmi Skywalker's life was thwarted by a random Jedi "passing through" and several hundred newly freed slaves?? Since when did the Outer Rim start getting democratic??, e) with the slow, but steady dismantling of the three most powerful enterprises in the Republic, the main reasons for secession (Republic inefficiency, corruption, and corporate greed using monopolies to choke smaller planets into financial ruin and dependency) slowly falling away, the reasons for a war also fade into nothingness and the Republic returns to functionality.

By that time, the Jedi Shadows, led by Mace Windu (who traced the lightsaber construction thing) and the Jedi Slave Freeers (who traced the attempt on Shmi's life) meet up in front of the chancellor's office like the spidermen meme, down to kill a chancellor for completely different but both very valid reasons.

Upon opening the door, they find Padmé Amidala with a Ysalamiri lizard and a blaster. The unexploded (because Force-blocked) body of the Chancellor is lying in front of her, three smoking holes in his chest (he tried to blackmail her into leaving the Techno Union alone by way of her affair with Anakin (that she, as a Nubian Senator, is not allowed to have). She brought the lizard without knowing it blocked the Force, but she got it as a gift from Anakin, who told her it would keep her safe if ...).

Dooku, having already sided with Sidious, but seeing the reasons for his fall being dismantled entirely within the system, retires to Serrano and becomes a distant advocate for the limiting of Republic influence on worlds that desire independence (Half out of lingering distrust of the Republic and half out of the need to save his own skin), and finds a stalwart ally in that fight in the form of Padme.

It takes many years, but Dooku finds redemption in fighting for these people, though due to his inability to forgive himself for Yaddle's sacrifice and fear of the full consequences of that crime, he never reconciles with the Jedi Council, though he (re)kindles and maintains a strong relationship with a few key members, including Yoda and Obi-Wan, and when Padme subtly directs him to what's going on with Tattooine and the former slave nation developing there, Dooku slightly shifts his political verbage to advocate for independent nations and peoples, even within the same systems. He even becomes an active agent in his own right with dismantling the Hutt's chokehold on the Galaxy.

I heard “It’s Padme Amidala with an Ysalamir lizard” in the voice of a WWE announcer.

It's about the gentleness

Lightning Bait

HERMES: DA FUNNY ONE

ZEUS: DA LIGHTNING (NOTE: THOUGHT HE WAS NORDIC, FATHER OF THOR)

POSEIDON: DA SEA ONE

HEPHAESTUS: DA FIRE/FORGING/STEEL ONE

APHRODITE: DA HOT ONE

KRATOS: GOD OF WAR

HADES: DA HELL ONE. ROGUE LIKE

“When he died the ravens sat in the trees outside for a week, watching. Taking turns. A horde of raccoons tried to break into the house every night, tearing at the siding. Eventually they gave up, but it was unsettling.”

Part 2 by GGW

If it had learned one thing during its long life, it is that Noisies are creatures of habit. Of patterns. Of repetition dictated by the coming and going of the light, or of the cold. When the light began to fade, the Noisies gathered in Carry-Me’s den and were even noisier than usual. They fed and drank and made much of themselves. When the dark began to fade, they made their way off to their own dens, and home grew quiet. Carry-Me always seemed relieved at the quiet, even as he welcomed all his fellow Noisies and took their shinies and gave them food and drink. Carry-Me’s mate, Move-Quiet seemed no less relieved, and no less tired. Those quiet moments were also the only time when Smoky-Growling came out of the den where the food came from, and made happy noises with the other two. They would all gather the drinking containers, and scrape away the dry rushes from the floor, put down new rushes, straighten up the furnishings, set the place to rights.

Anyway I was bitching about how hard it is to come up with feasible planets in Star Wars because sometimes you need a new planet from scratch and sometimes you need to know more about a planet than the 'has jungles, is probably a moon technically' than Wookieepedia will give you, and they're like 'oh yeah I can do something about that'.

So they've written (in Matlab but they swear it will run as a .exe as well and I may be conscripted to embed it as a web tool at some point) a star system generator.

You input what you know about the planet (ecosystem, population, sun colour, does it have liquid water, does it have a moon or moons, is it a moon or moons, temperature averages, atmosphere, you get me) and it will give you the... everything else about the star system, in obedience to real-universe physics. And if you input nothing you get a randomly generated star system.

And I’m like oh I know people who will be into this with a vengeance, and they're not on Tumblr, so this is me seeing who exactly would be keen on, and I cannot stress this enough, a real-physics comprehensive star system generator.