Post-O66 Mace going into hiding as a pirate with a crew like Hondo's, is that anything?
I got a bunch of input on discord. Calling this one:
A bunch of pirates, a Jedi Master on the run, and a traumatized twelve-year-old.
Kicking off with a key part of it all is @atagotiak (Tia):
He’s annoying because he’s such a stick in the mud (by which I mean it’s rather inconvenient for a pirate crew when the new recruit has morals and stuff)
But he’s too valuable to get rid of, due to having all that experience with administration
I am enamored with the idea of Mace's main job being just. Pirate Admin.
Mace: So this is what I am reduced to. Aiding and abetting… in tax evasion.
Hondo: And piracy.
Mace: The tax evasion is a bigger hit to my pride.
Tia:
The pirates are annoyed that despite him stopping them from going through with the more immoral (and lucrative) plans they’re still making more money than before
Pirates: How are we making more money now--
Mace: Have you heard of a budget.
@jebiknights (knights):
okay but traditionally pirate ships have a quarter master who is high ranking, in charge of the bounty of every prize and therefore in charge of dividing everything up fairly
like that could work really well lmaooo
The crew runs into Obi-Wan during the Leia incident and it's just time for "I can explain" on both ends.
Tia:
Hey, d’you think the pirates go after force sensitives? Mace managed to talk them into recruitment and/or relocation instead of selling to the empire. (And that’s another thing that could possibly have worked out better for them than the immoral option (not least because the empire doesn’t really treat its allies well))
Obi-Wan: and how are you dealing with Hondo’s… nonsense?
Mace: eh, it’s not like he’s any worse than you or Yoda.
(Mace is probably just messing with Obi-Wan. Probably)
Also I'm thinking that one of those initiates that Hondo let go(?) that one time finds them because a pirate might be likely to sell them out but they're demonstrably competent at evading arrest, so maybe-
And that's how Mace ends up with another padawan. Maybe Katooni.
@dracothulhu:
Hondo would put him in so many stupid costumes
knights:
i also just realized that mace loses both of his hands in rots..... hondo tries to convince him at least one of said hands should be a hook
or a lightsaber
Tia:
Probably deliberately playing straight man about it. He doesn’t care about dignity that much, but there’s benefits to exaggerate how humiliating he finds it
Hey, y’know what’s piratical? Eyepatches
[vibrates in response to baiting for Nick Fury jokes]
Love it
Tia:
I do think as much as jokes about Samuel L Jackson’s other roles are fun, pirate Mace shouldn’t swear much, even after becoming acclimated to pirate life.
knights:
also i agree i think pirate mace shouldnt swear much, he should get to use his classically trained acting chops and give dramatic speeches like hes the love interest in a pirate romance novel
hondo is swooning in the background
.... nixy im about ready to start crack shipping them bc of this
dammit this is going to pick at my brain isnt it dhgisrjgser (pirate mace not the hondo/mace part)
honestly the funniest thing is that mace would probably really enjoy being a pirate after all of the beauracracy he had to deal with in the senate during the war. things are much more simple even if everyone drives him nuts lol
listen mace didn't intend to get directly involved in the actual like heists probably, he is there to lay low and also to keep the ship organized and make sure hondo doesnt blow all their money on booze and "investments", but then hondo's dumbass probably gets in over his head along with his first mate and some other crew members and mace is starting to like the life hes living esp bc he is still able to help people on the Path in between thievery and tax evasion, so he goes to rescue them and is like... what am i supposed to do i am too recognizable i am supposed to be dead and puts on a disguise and just goes for it
Another thing Mace is good at is contracts
He is. Painfully good at it. He doesn't enjoy it, but watching Hondo draft up a contract is almost painful.
(Hondo is smart at this. He's clever. He's experienced. But he didn't take multiple classes on contract law.)
Tia:
Hondo never seemed especially book smart, and he never made a promise he hadn’t at least considered breaking so contracts would be a weak point for him
Hi, thank you for your interest in this WIP! And also glad you like the title! I was rather happy with it myself, hehe. I actually haven’t looked at it in forever, so it was fun to re-read what I’d started.
But I digress.
The premise: it’s 6 months after he and Ahsoka escaped the venator crash. They’re on the run. At this point they’ve parted ways, and Rex is having a minor crisis as he’s come to the decision that it’s time to get rid of his armor - it’s to too conspicuous for a clone on the run. So he’s reflecting on his life as he piles his armor around himself and decides which pieces he absolutely cannot get rid of, and which he’s ok to part with.
(Also sorry it’s really rough and unedited)
+++
Rex flexes his fingers feeling the silky smoothness of his blacks top. The undersuit was a bit looser than it once was, the fabric bunching a bit under his fingers. He’d been on the run long enough he shouldn’t be too surprised - He couldn’t remember the last time he had a good meal. He relaxed his fingers letting the fabric drop back against his skin. He reached for his helmet. One of the most important pieces of armor to a clone.
His helmet.
Parts of it had been with him since Geonosis. He’d refused to accept phase 2 as it was shipped, something about it seemed…off. Just as parts of phase 1 had also been ill-fitted for the job. So Rex had stayed up all night all those years ago fashioning his own helmet, welding bits of both together from both versions. When he was done it was perfect. One of a kind.
It was still perfect, he mused, as he turned it around in his hands picking at dirt and carbon scoring, tapping on the plastoid of the visor, and running his fingers over the weld marks that had smoothed over time.
“Bucket,” he mumbled to no one in particular. He wondered which brother had started calling them that and how long it had taken before it was the default term - fusing into their language like he’d fused pieces of his armor.
How many times over the last week - month really - had he turned that over in his head. It was so mundane, but some deep part of him wanted an answer, reasoning that knowing the answer would allow him to file it away and move on.
[Image Description: It’s a drawing of Ahsoka Tano and Rex post Order 66. Both are wearing ponchos and facing slightly to their right. Rex’s hair is longer, showing visible curls, and he is glancing off to his right. Ahsoka is wearing the leather headpiece from Season 7 and is looking directly at the viewer with a tired expression. Shadow is halfway cast over both of them. /End ID]
AHHHHHHHH! I’m so excited to share this! A commission by the incredible @mandoposting of Commanders Bly, Fox and Cody post-Order 66 and after joining Echo’s rebellion in In The Shadow Of His Brothers. The amount of detail they’ve incorporated is fantastic and I can’t wait to explore their stories more in the sequel!
Note: This is not complete or ready for prime time, and its a premise I said I'd never write. But ... *shrugs* I'm writing on the fly to make the cut off. So here have a tumblr snippet anyway. Hopefully more to come as the week goes on.
Prodigal (part i)
“Come away with me,” Padme says and for a moment the fog clears.
“Yes.” Anakin agrees and for a moment everything seems possible.
They find Obi-Wan waiting for them in the pilot’s seat of Padme’s star skiff. Face solemn, eyes tired, lightsaber unlit but in hand and for a moment they all just stare at each other.
“So,” Obi-Wan finally says, “What now?”
—
“Where do you propose to go?” Obi-Wan inquires with quiet contempt when they find themselves alone in the cockpit after Anakin has passed out in the bunk.
Padme bristles a little. But only a little. Honestly, she’s too tired to fight. Too tired to pretend she doesn’t doubt her decision with every breath. But it is hers and she has made it. No turning back now.
“I don’t know,” she admits and something in Obi-Wan’s face softens.
“We’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t have to come.”
Obi-Wan just closes his eyes. “Where else would I go?”
She doesn’t have an answer for that.
—
They make it less than a week before, without warning or preamble, Anakin finally gives voice to the thing that’s been hanging over them since the moment they walked back up the gangplank. “You came to kill me, didn’t you?”
Across the canteen, Padme stiffens.
Obi-Wan sets down his tea, runs a thoughtful finger along the rim before answering.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes. I came to kill you.”
Padme sucks in a sharp shocked breath and presses her hand to her mouth.
Anakin barely flinches. Just studies him with dead eyes. He’s obviously worked this all out days ago.
“Do you still want to?”
“I never wanted to.”
“But you would have.” It’s not actually a question.
“I don’t know.” Obi-Wan admits and he can’t tell whether the acid guilt he feels eating away from inside is because he thinks he would have or because he didn’t.
—
“I don’t want him here.” Anakin says that evening when they’re alone in the bunk room.
Padme doesn’t look up from the star map she’s been studying. “That’s not your choice to make.”
“We don’t need him.”
“I need him.”
“For what?” he retorts, not bothering to hide the suspicion and jealousy that have been eating him alive since he found his master on his wife’s ship.
That gets her to look at him, and he immediately wishes she hadn’t. He doesn’t recognize the woman across from him. Can’t find his angel anywhere in the broken, jagged pieces that are that remain of his wife. He did that, he knows. He broke her. Smashed her. This is his fault. So why does he resent it? The way it hurts to have her look at him. How her eyes cut him open, show him the worst parts of himself reflected back at him in the fragments of her gaze, until he has to look away.
Padme says nothing and goes back to the star map and the seemingly ever present question of “where next?” that plagues their lives now. Each of them hunted for entirely different reasons. What would be shelter for one, a death sentence for another.
He tries again.
“I’d never let anything happen to you. You know that right?” Gently he reaches out to put a hand on her belly, spreading his fingers over the swell of life inside, feeling a small flicker of hope when her hand moves instinctively to his. “Padme, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
There’s a surge of revulsion in the Force so powerful it makes Anakin almost physically ill, and Padme shifts his hand away.
OH! I have something for both but I really want to go with shadow! So have some Tatooine Husbands:
"Well," he said finally remembering what this was about, their discussion, "the Tusken call me your shadow. I can be that for a while then until I know what I want to make of the pieces I have left of me."
And that at least was an option. That was something to hold onto.
"You see," Ben started with a soft smile lightening his expression, "In Tusken culture, shadows are powerful and very positive. They provide shelter and offer a degree of safety. So I am honoured to have you as my shadow, Cody, and you should be honoured to have this title bestowed upon you."
I finally finished this piece, and right on time for @maulrexweek! This is for the alternative prompt Make your enemies feel cooperative and this is part of the Margarita!Rex verse, where Maul got his bottom half back thanks to creepy Nightsister magic.
