#pulledtothelight

This year is half over! And I wrote so much this month, I’m so happy with myself. 6 months since we lost our dear Ben, but fanfics keep him alive! Anywho, if you want to stay up to date on what I’ve been writing, or you want to just binge some Reylo, you can find me as BurntKloverfield on AO3, and you can check out my other personal monthly Fanfic Recaps under the tag #fanfic-recap.

I started out this month by going through my notes for some unfinished fic ideas, and I had so many, and I still have a lot, but I wrote through some of them so there are several short fics you can read through pretty quickly.

Saving What We Love is a canon divergent au where right after the throne room in TLJ. When the Supremacy and the Legacy Saber were shattered down the middle, Rey dragged an unconscious Ben back with her. Unfortunately, he wakes up in a cell. 

Padawans of Ren was a little note that had been hanging around my docs since TFA era, but I went and fleshed it out a bit, and it turned out fairly cute and tender. Set in a post TFA au. Luke refused to teach Rey on Ach-to, and so she returned to D'qar to the Resistance, which was still hidden from the First Order, until Kylo Ren shows up with three new faces.

Entangled Stars is a concept that I’ve had forever, where everyone is participating in a dance competition, another little idea that was hanging out in my notes. I’m sad I don’t have the animation talents to make this visual, but my talents lie in words, so you get this cute little description of a dance competition.

Always a Woman to Me is set to the Billy Joel song by the same name. Another note that was waiting for me to do something with. It was always just Finn and Ben talking to each other about Rey, but it throws in a twist post TROS. 

I also write meta, on occasion. Today on I Fricking Love Ben Solo is a meta I’m sure you’ve already read since I originally posted it on tumblr, but I like to throw them on AO3 as well for safe keeping. 

Palpatine is a Liar is something I’ve been trying to write since I first saw TROS. A quick sidequest shows that Palpatine is a manipulative liar, always has been, always will be, and it changes the entire series of events of the movie. 

Written in My Hand, remember my canon divergent soulmate mark au? 2 new chapters this month!!! It’s a little bit angsty, but I really appreciate where it’s going.

The Rose of the Titanic is a bonus fic this month. It’s actually a GingerRose Titanic au. 

It’s all there for you to catch up on. I’ve got a fic coming out on the 4th, so keep an eye out for that. 

April went by so fast! I’ve had a lot of inspiration this month, and I wrote a lot, but it looks like I only got one thing published this month. I’m super proud of it, though! It’s the first chapter for my Tangled/Rapunzel AU with over 5,000 words! 

Down from the Tower: A Rapunzel AU, where Kylo Ren is the lost prince stuck in the tower.

Behind the scenes? I’ve been writing loads, nothing ready to publish, though. Glancing through my drafts? 7 different fics. There were 7 different drafts that I’ve been working on this month, not including that 5,000 word monster of a chapter that I did publish. So hopefully I’ll be able to get some fic out there this next month!

Also, totally missing Caught by Crystals. It was so fricking good. I’m happy it’s finished, but I didn’t realize that I would miss writing it so much! It was such a good au. So if you’re looking for something different, or haven’t read it yet, go jump on it. That one is 70,000 words of supernatural nonsense. Complete!

How long did Ben Solo have Palpatine/Snoke in his head until he broke? It is canon that he was in his mind since before Ben was even born. He was a constant presence. Constant. And when did Ben break? When did everything come to a head? Ben was 23. 23 years, his entire life, where he constantly had unquestionably the darkest presence in the Galaxy trying to manipulate him, pull him to the dark, make him fall. 

I just looked it up and Anakin was 22 or 23 when he became Darth Vader, but he didn’t have the same measure of darkness thrust upon him all the time. He was 10 when Palpatine first met him. He wasn’t always under his influence. He didn’t have him in his mind all the time. 

Ben, though, always had him manipulating him, his emotions and thought processes and perceptions. And everything we’ve gotten about young Ben Solo is miraculously optimistic and bright and happy. We’ve gotten a very young Ben Solo saving butterflies and loving his parents. We’ve gotten an idealistic young Ben idolizing his uncle. Every time we’ve seen him before his fall is him being such a huge force for good. And then it’s revealed that he actually was not the one to destroy Luke’s training temple(Force Lightning from Palpatine most likely), but he believed himself to be. 

Every step and every action after that is a result of him trying to bring himself into alignment with the voices in his head which have created a huge amount of dissonance between who he is, what is expected of him, who he should be, and who he should become. 

This boy was such a huge beacon of light, was such a force of good, was such a power in the Force, that it took 23 years of constant manipulation and influence at a level never before seen in the Star Wars universe to have him turn towards the dark and take those steps that dragged him into Palpatine’s grasps. And even with all of those horrible decisions, he feels torn apart, he has conflict constantly in his soul, and the one act, Killing Han, that was supposed to cement himself in the dark side shows that he isn’t on the dark side, can’t be on the dark side, isn’t meant to be in the dark. It rips his soul apart. 

My inspiration has stayed so I’m running with it! If you missed January and February’s recaps, there’s the links. As for what I wrote in March, in order they were updated:

The Wings We Stole got another chapter. It’s my niche Mormon theology/young single adult ward fic. So pretty much, if you want to see Reylo as premortal beings trying to navigate life as spirits before coming to Earth, or want to see Reylo try to navigate a modern day ysa ward where Ben is the awkward prodigal son and Rey’s the nonmember with member friends, have a crack at it. This is the most niche/self-indulgent fic.

Abilities Deemed Unnatural got 2 new chapters this month. This fic was my “What If I Made TROS Worse?” by having Ben unable to bring Rey back on Exegol. People say “it’s twisty,” but there’s a guaranteed happily ever after. 

Written in My Hand is my soulmates mark au, beginning back in TFA where soulmates have their soulmate’s name written in their handwriting on their arm. It changes everything. It’s mainly Reylo, but the GingerRose bug caught me, and so I’m playing with that, too. It got 3 new chapters in March. 

Broken Hearts and Healing Hands has been finished since 2018, but I reread it and especially after TROS, I needed to add a happier happily ever after to it. So it got an epilogue. Nothing big, but it’s happy. 

Dismantled is my mpreg Reylo au. Ben’s changing everything for his baby. There’s one chapter left, and I’m trying to make sure I wrap everything up.

Putting Down Roots is the third fic in my Scenes From a Sweeter Space series. A bunch of established modern Reylo, This one features the stable children from TLJ. I love that trio so much. 

The Son & Heir of a Shyness is last but certainly not least. It was a fic for a moodboard swap event, and you’ll see the gorgeous moodboard that Semperfidani created for it. It’s a modern high school au, where Rey is the new kid in school and Ben is painfully shy. 

February was chaotic! It started out beautiful with tons of energy to write, then I got hit with the sick, then I got over it, and then I was in a car accident. It was fun. Anywho, if you didn’t see it, check out January’s fic recap. As for what I wrote in February?

Abilities Deemed Unnatural got another chapter. It’s a “What if Rey died on Exegol?” so angst, but it’s got a planned HEA. 

Dismantled, my Reylo mpreg, got another chapter, and another one in my drafts! It’s the fluffiest mpreg, and according to comments, it’s “not cringey”. 

He’s Gotta Go Check On Her is a sequel to my fic Rey Has a Cold, and it’s where Ben crosses the Galaxy to check on a sick Rey. 

I licked it, it’s mine is my Valentine’s fic this year. It’s an au where Rey is a feral sand goblin and Ben is a clean pristine Senator. Rey lays her claim on Ben, because I just wanted 

Written in My Hand is a soulmate mark au, beginning in TFA, where their soulmate mark is their soulmate’s name written in their soulmate’s handwriting on their arm. Them knowing that they’re soulmates from the very beginning changes everything. 

Yes I'm Wearing Your Shirt: You've Been Mostly Dead is a Post-TROS Fix-It fic where Ben lives, just delayed. I just wanted to have a fic where Ben asks Rey if she’s wearing his shirt.