we began with nothing but a leader and a purpose.

senator vaner shan. " the jedi are guardians and protectors of the galaxy, but these past fifty years we've needed so much more. the republic had to rebuild. we needed leaders to unite us, to help us work together. you saw that need, and you filled it. " info. birthplace: REKKIAD. age: thirty-three standard years. lineage: bastila shan & revan ; clan ordo. occupation: galactic senator. alignment: lawful good. allegiance: the new republic. enemies: the imperial remnant & first order. / / written by vee. they/she. 20. est. for galacticshq. / /

[lawlearned]

LEWIS TAN // have you met VANER SHAN yet? HE/THEY is a THIRTY-THREE year old DEMIMAN HUMAN, originally from REKKIAD CORUSCANT but typically resides on CORUSCANT & ONDERON. after everything they've gone through, they now show loyalty to THE NEW REPUBLIC. they are best known for being a SENATOR OF CORUSCANT, and i hear they’ve grown pretty DRIVEN yet also TRUSTING at times; i hope they survive the galactic civil war.

L O A D I N G : // …  8ABY : MONTH TWO … //

6 aby, until the beginnings of 8 aby ;

( original intro )

after arriving in the new time in 6 aby, vaner quickly established themselves once again politically, first serving as an advisor and then senator of coruscant when an election occurred.

in his first months as senator for the new republic, he helped pass a bill that granted citizenship to all displaced by the rift, including clones - who had not been given such in their time.

in this time, they also reunited with their mother, bastila shan & adoptive uncle, canderous ordo; he also met meetra surik for the first time, after years of hearing stories of her.

in the aftermath of sernpidal, he worked with a group of senators, including padme amidala, to find lodging & resources for refugees of the disaster.

having attended the new years gala on hapes as a representative of the new republic, they escaped with the help of canderous ordo after defending several other senators from the attack.

after hapes and during the comms crisis, they worked with fellow senator tevus danohi to come up with longer-lasting solutions & alliances against the yuuzhan vong & the empire's remnant. during this time, they also discussed the terms of a deal with corporate sector authority representative vantir cessin.

[lawlearned]

   “Far too much. I went longer hours back when I was in the navy, but I was told that now I’m a Senator we get the luxury of working less hours than we spend at fundraisers.” A small chuckle left his lips, and moved to smack Vaner in the stomach, “Speaking of which, I haven’t nearly raised as much as I needed to this cycle, got any credits you could spare?” When the other approved of going out to getting something to eat, the smile on his face only grew. 

“Oh awesome, they have the absolute best Ithorian Garden Loaf. Although I get if you’re feeling a little carnivorous Shan, after spending all night reading over papers, don’t worry they have also have a great Smoked Kaadu Rib dish or are those far too pedestrian in taste for the Senator of the prestigious world of Coruscant, cause you know what they say,  you can take a boy out of the Mid Rim, but you can’t take the Mid Rim out of the boy.” 

“ for some senators , maybe. ” vaner responds with a small smile. “ not for us. ” not for the ones who truly wanted to make change , as it seemed so few did once war & finances were involved , either fearing conflict or the repercussions that had come during age of the empire & the last galactic conflict. 

rolling their eyes , his smile only grows. “ you know i’ll always help you where and when i can. ” accompanying tevus towards the door of their offices , he returns the earlier smack. “ and that includes letting you order. ” as different as core world and mid rim worlds - and cuisines - were , the adjustment in time & cooking had been arguably far more extreme , and the other senator had proved before his quality taste - vaner was more than willing to let the ilohan order for the two of them.  

[lawlearned]

ofiloh​:

   Tevus had been working late into the night with fellow Senator Shan, he was one of the few Senators that Tevus was actually able to tolerate beyond the necessary formalities. They both had similar ideas on what needed to be done to protect the freedoms of the galaxy. The night was starting to wear on, and Tevus was unfortunately starting to lose focus on what his colleague was discussing with him. Letting out a rather loud yawn, and crumpling up a paper he had been doodling on. 

“Vaner, I hate to say it but nothing good is going to come of this meeting if we’re both too exhausted to actually think of anymore possible solutions. Come on, lets call it a night, I know a great place to grab food that’s still open at this time.” 

tevus , as  usual , was  absolutely  right.  a  deep  sigh  emanates  from  vaner ,  running  long  fingers  through  dark  hair  before  pushing  his  chair  back  from  the  desk  they  were  working  from  ,  switching  off  their  datapad  before  standing  with  a  stretch.  in  perhaps  any  other  instance  -  and  with  any  other  colleague  -  he  would  have  protested  ,  but  he  was  far  too  exhausted  (  &  trusting  of   tevus  )  to  disagree. 

“ so , what , ten  hours  of  work  is  too  much  without  a  break  now ? ” he  quips  with  a  small  smile ,  exhaustion  creeping  onto  his  features.  he  was  glad  tevus  had  said  something -  otherwise  he  would  have  worked  far  into  the  night ,  an  unforunate  habit  for  his  own  health (  &  social  life ). “ let’s  go , then. ” 

[lawlearned]

“Exciting is hardly the word I would choose.”

" the deliberations of the senate may not be what you consider exciting , but i assure you , they're as important as nearly anything that goes on in this galaxy. " the comment was one he'd heard many times before , by generals , jedi , republic commandos - in times of war & violence , as they lived in now , minds went to sabers & guns blazing , squadrons soaring in the skies ; when in truth , conflicts could be won or lost before they even begun if the right cards were played & the right options were known.

[lawlearned]

“I’ll take care of this, you stay here.” (from canderous)

" absolutely not . " the words fall quickly & easily from their lips , no doubt or tremor behind them. the path he had chosen was not one of a warrior - not in the traditional sense , at least , the senate another kind of battleground - but that did not mean they were willing to let lives be risked while he watched. " i'm coming with you. " he's already moving , sweeping past the mandalorian. " i know what you''ll say , but you can't stop me. "

[lawlearned]

preservr​:

──   the helm blocks the brunt of the heat,   but he still breathes air saturated with death,  on its precipice to miasma.   there seemed to be no climax arriving to the invasion,  just an onslaught to stack upon the others.   the battle axe,  while brutal,  attracts the attention of an opponent with its weight and shine   ─   the preserver won’t admit it,  but a strain is pulling on him and his fire in the fight.  nearby,  he recognizes another and dashes towards them,  relieved at their survival and concerned for their next move.    vaner is abruptly grabbed by the shoulder as he mumbles   ‘ it’s me,  vodu’ad. ‘  hurriedly,  knowing that there’s little to discern aside from silhouette and voice.   black and viscera coats grey to a severe degree by now,  debris dusting at some sections.   his own blood saturates underneath the armor.   a hand moves to their elbow,  urging them to follow with a slight tug,  to steer them away from the exit and towards another.   ❝  not that way.  ❞   the same fingers pulls away and reach to smear gore from the slim glass of his visor.    kriff.   his stamina is seceding and the pain,  while ignorable,  was still cloying.   ❝  it’s all …  ❞   heavy breaths fill the emptiness.   then the verve returns.   ❝  there’s nothing that way.  ❞   there’s everything out there:   things that writhe and terraform in their wake,  all greenery charred or trampled,  bodies tumbled about.   grandiose violence.

he leads and breaks into a run,  though his stride falls as he looks back to vaner.   it’s unseen,  but concern pulls his brows together,  twisting lines of tension.   ❝  are you hurt ?  ❞  

he  has  no  force  to  warn  them  of  the  mandalorian’s  approach , nor  to  differentiate  from  enemy  &  ally  -  that  relies  on  eyes  &  instinct  alone.  a  vibrostaff  taken  from  the  dead  &  now-disarmed  spins  in  once - familiar  hands ,  practice (  outdated ,  but  enough )  bringing  the  tipped - blade  up  before  the  gleam  of  ancient  beskar  armor  is  recognized ,  hand  landing  on  their  shoulder. canderous.

“ ba’vodu , ”  they  respond , grateful  for  the  sight  &  signal  of  survival.  he  follows ,  implicit  trust  & adrenaline  torching  through  his  veins ,  driving  the  pair  through  the  smoke  &  screams.  the  older  man  may  not  have  the  force  either ,  but  years  of  battle  had  trained  him well  -  and  it  showed.  he  knows  what  canderous  wants  to  say , empty  & lost  & violent  &  brutality  beyond  imagining , but  lets  the  silence  rest. 

“ nothing that won’t heal. ”  scrapes  &  cuts ,  remnants  of  rubble  &  blood  caking  his  hair  &  clothes.  but  he  was  alive ,  so  they  would  not  complain.  “ what  the  hell  happened  in  there ? ”

[lawlearned]

​from vantir cessin : 

senators were fickle creatures, most craved to have their egos stroked along with needing a decent monetary investment. across his line of work vantir had seen many different sides of senators, the just, the injust, those who liked to act just. he had decorated their arms at canto bight, and then he had decorated their beds. now they had to work with them in a professional capacity as an ambassador of the corporate sector authority, which hopefully proved to be just as fun. it would be fun to see how this coruscanti senator would be, especially given how fun the coruscanti could be. capturing him in a lobby of a building, “senator shan, a pleasure. i am vantir cessin, i am with the corporate sector authority if you have a moment, perhaps i could offer you a drink?” 

force , these  lobbyists  were  persistent.  with  the  disaster  -  well , disasters , if  you  counted  practically  anything  in  the  news  these  last  few  months  -  one  would  have  thought  they’d  halt  operations , or  at  least  lessen  their  efforts.  he  almost  doesn’t  stop , but  then  the  second  words  reach  their  ears.  corporate  sector  authority.  they  had  sympathetic  connections  in  the  senate ,  money  in  pockets  of  power already.  what  did  they  want  with  him ?

“ a  moment. ”  he  acquiesces , curiosity  trumping  what  was  likely  logical.  nothing  good  could  come  of  this , could  it  -  the  csa  played  both  sides ,  sold  to  those  the  new  republic  considered  their  enemy  without  a  thought  for  the  consequences  or  lives  lost  due  to  their  interference.   “ i  assume  you’re  here  to  ask  me  for  something ? ”

[historyavatars]

Avatars 400x640

Lewis Tan, in Into the Badlands

[lawlearned]

fearlessenator·:

the topic itself didn’t surprise her, but the content that followed moments later did. there was no denying that the destruction of sernpidal by its own moon –– which, according to every piece of diligent research that had gone into it, was nothing more than a horrific natural disaster. but the survivors compared to the significant loss of life was a small group. thousands had been saved, but millions more were dead. her lashes fluttered for a moment, not feeling obligated to mask her surprise or emotions around vaner as she did many others.

“given how little survived… it shouldn’t be the biggest challenge that we’ve faced.” a sigh parted her lips. good for the survivors, perhaps, but it wasn’t good news. “after the invisec disaster, that section of coruscant has plenty of need for work with the repair and construction that will need to take place. perhaps bespin or wobani.” 

“don’t remind me,” a sigh & small shake of his head follow her mention of invisec, tragedy & loss spelled across his face. millions dead at the heart of the old republic & a bacta supply running dangerously low in near-wartime - if he’d been superstitious, they’d have sworn it was a sign of worse to come. the disaster hadn’t been in his district, but coruscant was still his home, and his duty was to defend those people; reconstruction & promises of more militancy or negotiations ( the stance depending on who in the senate you asked ) would do nothing to bring back the millions of lives lost, only attempt to ensure it never occurred again.

“wobani.” it was a mid-rim world, harsher in landscape than bespin, but with far less ties to the rebellion or the new republic, despite being a member of the latter. if the attack on sernpidal had been the empire, as some whispered, a former mining colony in the mid-rim seemed just about one of the most inconspicuous military targets. “another fantastic idea, senator amidala.” they’d have thought of it eventually, but not as quickly & with as much surety as padme had. 

[lawlearned]

alderaanianxqueen​:

it was later in the evening that breha saw another familiar face, the senator she’d worked with, helping refugees on sernpidal. seeing vaner here made her smile, she was glad to know that there was more potential allies around than she thought. having lost most of her usual entourage, the queen felt lonely, lost too, most of the time. building a new circle was tough. she didn’t think twice about coming to the senator, with no intention in particular except than spending some time to talk.

“how is your evening going, senator?” she asked after a small, neutral greeting. “is everything well for you?”

as practiced as they were with events like these, the coruscanti senator still despised them. small talk was the honey on a politician's tongue, the lightsaber in their arsenal, but they had never taken to it as naturally as the rest of the job ( namely, the immense amounts of caf & patience required ). he was passable, certainly, but no where near as skilled in the art as several of those he’d come to call allies. & enemies, unfortunate as it was that the senate & galaxy still remained so divided. 

but breha’s presence was warm & inviting, and could almost make vaner forget the inevitability of each extremely repetitive conversation he was bound to have the rest of the night. yes, coruscant. yes, it was a tragedy. no, we don’t know. unfortunately, i cannot say - accompanied with a polite & charming smile. 

“your majesty.” he greets, natural smile slipping over his features at her sight. “it’s a great victory for the new republic.” he begins, sincere but practiced. leaning in, as if sharing a secret, they add in a conspiratorial tone: “but frankly, i’m rather exhausted with all these introductions.”

[lawlearned]

the poetry of revan's child that he never got to meet being a mandalorian by blood but shedding that title and dedicating their life to bringing peace . . . very sexy parallels i think

[lawlearned]

mvchinery·:

meetra has no true grasp of their impact on history, jedi or galactic. they had been pulled from their time before they had any chance of returning to heroism — they were the exile only, the killer of malachor, fallen far from grace. bastila has caught them up on what she knows, but she hasn’t seen everything. they say ignorance is bliss, don’t they ? with only ghosts on their shoulders & none of kreia’s machinations, they cannot say if that’s true.

they’re cautiously friendly as the stranger approaches, a small smile forming as they shake his hand. three years down the line, they should be more used to this than they are, being known, building acquaintances again. “i’m sure the pleasure’s mine. are you … of any relation to bastila ? “ she may be their best friend, odd as it is to think with all that could separate them.

there is no flicker of recognition in her eyes - not that he was expecting it, but it stings ever so slightly anyways, the confusion crossing her face. it was odd to think that the person he’d learned so much about had no idea of who he was - despite how well he thought he knew them, they didn’t know him. it made sense, just felt . . . odd, that was all.

“i am.” they smile, recovering from a second’s lapse, shaking it off with a smile & shake of a hand. “the two of us never met in that time, so don’t worry yourself trying to remember me.” it’s a reassurance, both for her and himself. don’t worry, don’t stress. she’ll like you. 

“i’m bastila’s son.” revan's too, but it goes unsaid, unclaimed. the words feel odd to say now, considering how far the bastila of now is from the woman he remembered in childhood memories. hell, he’s older than his own mother. it’s out of place - but he supposes they all are.

[lawlearned]

xrey·:

Rey aimlessly fumbled with a small cylinder in her hands. She had agreed to stay back on the transport, ready to heed any call from her rebel companions over the communicator. Truthfully the idea of attending such a fancy gathering made her feel more uncomfortable than nearly anywhere else in the galaxy. No matter her new friends or status, part of her would always be a scavenger at heart. And scavengers held no place at such a gala. It had been 7 months since she arrived in the past and she felt no closer to reuniting with her friends than when she first arrived, a fact that frustrated her greatly. A small rumbling of the ship and the faint sound of panic was enough to arouse her from the daze. “What’s happening out there?” Her hand smacked the side of the communication, “hello?” Piece of junk. Instead her hands pressed at several buttons on the control panel in the cockpit before holding the last one down, “Rey to rebel base,” before she could get of her full message the lights within the ship suddenly turned off. The illumination of the cockpit resumed, though this time it was not due to lighting. A bright molten substance had landed on the viewport ahead. Her eyes widened at the sight. An ambush? She did not have time to think as the roof above began to glow red hot, a small stream of molten lava sludges it’s way beneath and onto her left shoulder.

A searing pain shot through her shoulder and down to her upper arm as Rey recoiled from the stream of lava slowly growing larger as it ate through the hull. Her teeth gritted and bared stifling a scream as she discarded the outermost layer of her garment and with it the molten substance. The burns did not have a chance to seep deeply beneath the skin, yet her arm clutched to her side as she ran to the ramp of the transport. The attempt on her life had left her scarred and deformed. Well, perhaps that was an exaggeration. However the burn had left a weblike indented scar across her shoulder and upper arm.

Standing at the bottom of the ramp she looked to the wells of lava encasing countless ships around her. With any luck they were all unoccupied, but she knew that was unlikely to be the case. The shipyard was unsafe. You can do this.

Taking several long strides, Rey hurled herself with a giant leap forward towards the edge of the lava. An explosion from a ship gave her the extra boost she needed to clear the wreckage, though it left her reeling on the ground momentarily as she rolled to a stop on her side. New scrapes opened from fragments cutting at her. The injured shoulder rolling across the ground caused a pain to shoot through it, a good albeit painful sign that it still had feeling in it. Her eyes looked up to the large ship overhead, it was unrecognizable to anything she had seen before. Pulling herself to her feet she hurried to a small crowd pouring out of the entrance. Her left arm clutched at her side to provide relief from the pain, and her right outstretched with the ignited saber in hand. She couldn’t sense the threat aside from a general sense of danger, a fact that bothered her far more than anything.

the tolling of midnight had brought carnage inside the palace, grey-skinned figures descending & blasts & shouts ringing out instantaneously, the world fragmenting into chaos as jedi reached for sabers that were not there to light & politicians scrambled for hapes security that had turned against them. 

so it made sense that getting outside of the building provided no reprieve. 

a vibrostaff taken from the still form of a hapan guard caught in the blast had served as little protection - but enough. he’d been raised by a jedi & had mandalorian blood; they may not have touched a weapon in some time, but muscle memory was made for a purpose.

seeing the blue saber ignite bolsters spirits, both their own & the representatives rushing out, most unarmed & untrained. really, considering the history of violence towards the galactic senate, they should probably start requiring some security courses. 

the saber does not mean salvation, however. a heavy-handed blow catches them by surprise, sending the senator reeling as he whirls to face a quadrant of hapan guards who had followed the fleeing crowd. diplomacy wouldn’t be the solution here, it appeared - he knew from ( dangerous ) experience that an explanation would not be likely to sate the anger & fear in the opposing eyes. 

a crackling line of purple energy hummed to life along the short blade as he raised the stolen vibrostaff defensively, dark eyes flitting from the fleeing crowd ( hopefully out of harms way ), to the jedi, to the hapans. 

“a little help?”

[lawlearned]

reply for senator padme amidala: 

padmé already knew precisely who was on the other side of the door before the knock had even been made due to the higher than usual vigilance of her security team, but truthfully, she was pleased to know that it was vaner. she respected him a great deal –– thousands of years displaced, yet he still fit in with his contemporaries smoothly and found a substantial pool of people to represent in unprecedented times. that was not something that everyone could manage so smoothly.

“of course, senator shan,” she stood up from behind her desk to usher them inside. “i’m always happy to make time for you. please, come in, have a seat,” she gestured toward one of the linen chairs in her office space before her hands folded calmly behind the small of her back. “is there something on your mind?” 

he sits across from her, relaxing slightly in padme’s presence. she knew how frustrating, how exhausting this could be - she’d lived & worked in perhaps the most difficult era in the senate, and excelled - he did not need to keep the mirror uncracked, the face still. 

“it’s about sernpidal.” they’d been working nonstop trying to find solutions, house the thousands of refugees pouring out of the system, discover what had caused it. it was almost overwhelming, completely unprecedented. but if anyone could help, it would be padme.

“you’re more familiar with the systems than i am.” so much had changed - planets destroyed, discovered, the map rewritten a hundred times over. “is there anywhere that could take in more?” they’d already stretched systems & senators beyond their limits, but the flood of people arriving wouldn’t stop when the space ran out.

[padmeamidela]

@prequelsnet mission 03: planets ➙ coruscant 

coruscant was a planet located in the core worlds. located at the intersection of numerous major hyperlanes, including the perlemian trade route, the corellian run, the metellos trade route, the koros trunk line, and the leisure corridor, its hyperspace coordinates were (0,0,0) which effectively made it the center of the galaxy. these coordinates also inspired the planet’s military designation, “triple zero” or “zero zero zero,” though the actual galactic center was located in the deep core. as the de jure center of the galaxy, however, coruscant was generally agreed to be the most important planet throughout most of galactic history, as well as being one of the wealthiest due to its advantageous location.

— wookiepedia 

[lawlearned]

the face that stared back at him was one from legend. meetra surik, he’d been taught, in history classrooms & war-stories, the jedi general who had served alongside revan & malak against the mandalorians. who had abandoned the jedi, protected the galaxy, been a great warrior - what they had done seemed to vary by who told the story. 

the truth of it seemed to change, too. some said she had vanished into the unknown regions and never returned, others that she had raised an army of sith, and even more that she had simply died unknown & unmarked ( a quiet end for such an impact ). 

whatever they had done, whatever had happened to them, there was no disputing that the fable was here now. his mother ( it was odd calling her that now, all things considered ) bastila had told him that she had emerged in this reality, but that had not fully  ( or at all ) prepared them for meeting her. 

“meetra.” a warm smile coats his features, genuine & doing the best it can to mask the simmering nerves that lie just beneath. a hand stretches out, greeting, “i’m vaner shan. it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

starter for @mvchinery​​​ with the jedi exile meetra surik. 

[lawlearned]

starter· with alderaanian queen breha organa:

as strange as the thought was, breha liked travelling off-world. naboo didn’t feel like home yet — it probably never would, but she was ready to try — and it was probably because there were too many people missing from her life. her husband. her aides. it was surreal not to have them by her side, after she relied on them for so long her entire life.

so, she kept herself busy. helping refugees was one of her new tasks, and when she wasn’t in the alderaanian district, she travelled to other worlds in need of help. luckily she started to get to know the people she worked with, especially vaner — who had been the most welcoming to her until now. datapad in hand, she walked up to them, a concerned face she didn’t try to hide. they’d all been working since dawn.

“oh, you’re looking tired. do you need rest?”

worn, dark eyes glance up at her, faded smile conjured in reassurance. breha’s presence had been a kind one this past year, and they welcomed the older woman’s approach ( despite her question, to which he already planned to vehemently deny ).

“i’ll be fine.” they respond, painting on a politician’s charm & charisma ( of which he was certain she would see right through, but it was worth trying regardless, to both convince her & himself ). “truly.”

leaning back in their chair, the weary senator gestured to the data in front of him, countless names & numbers scattered across numerous datapad & files, more flooding in every moment. “the survivors of sernpidal need our help far more than i need sleep.” 

relocating the recent refugees was proving to be quite the difficult task, but he firmly believed it was their duty to handle it. he knew firsthand how jarring & heartbreaking it was to lose everything you knew ( thank you, force rift ! ), & they had vowed to do everything in their power to ease that for others. they just hadn’t expected that to happen with someone other than the transplants ( & it was frightening that it had, so unexplained and sudden, claiming so many lives in just one instant of collision ).