Unless otherwise stated as an AO3 exclusive, the links will lead to its Tumblr post. Some current AO3 exclusives may eventually be posted to Tumblr. The main narrators are listed in italics, other main characters before the semicolon; other characters with at least a speaking role (or more than one mention) after. All fics are short-stories under 7k words unless stated otherwise. Everything is SFW; suitable for all audiences unless indicated otherwise.
💖 means a romance story.
💜 means friendship that could be seen as romantic.
💚 means platonic and/or familial relationship.
💙 means other themes are the main focus.
🧡 means a mature rating due to potentially triggering topics (only one of these in all my works).
Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
Short Sweet Stand Alones
Until The Bitter End: 💖💙 Byleth, Dimitri
Dearest Companion: 💖 Ingrid, Sylvain
Four Seasons: 💖 Ferdinand, Dorothea; Ludwig, Manuela
Longer Stories and their Flashback Excerpts
Clear Sky (AO3 only, 16.7k words): 💚 Jeralt, Byleth; Sothis, Edelgard, Claude, Dimitri, Alois, Kostas, Rhea, Seteth, Manuela, Hanneman, all named class members of each of the three houses
Rusalka (AO3 only, 124k+ words, work in progress two chapters from completion): 💖💖🧡 Dorothea, Manuela, OC: Camellia, Ferdinand; Seteth, Flayn, Yuri, Constance, Lorenz, Caspar, Bernadetta, Ingrid, Linhardt, Petra
The White Heron Cup (Rusalka excerpt): 💜 Dorothea, Ferdinand; Alois, Manuela, Hilda, Lorenz
A Brush With Death (Rusalka excerpt): 💜 Manuela; Seteth, Flayn
The Tales of Garreg Mach Collection (all AO3 only, 14.8k words total):
The Tale of Ingrid & Mercedes: 💚 Mercedes, Ingrid
The Tale of Rodrigue: 💙 Rodrigue; Alois, Felix
The Tale of Ashe: 💚 Ashe, Dedue; Annette
The Tale of Sylvain: 💙 Sylvain
The Tale of Felix: 💖💚 Felix, Annette, Sylvain; Ingrid, Mercedes, Rodrigue, Gilbert
Haunted, AKA The Tale of Byleth: 💚💙 Byleth, Dimitri; Ashe, Ingrid, Flayn, Rodrigue, Felix, Sylvain, Alois, Annette, Mercedes, Gilbert, Seteth, Catherine, Dedue, Lorenz
Stardew Valley:
That Summer, That Night: 💖 Elliott, OC: Nicole; Leah, Gunther, Penny
Dinner Date: 💖 Alex, OC: Sara; Emily, Gus
Movie Night: 💖 Harvey, OC: Peach (created by mmarydee on AO3); Emily, Shane, Jas, Alex
At Last: 💖 Harvey, OC: Jerusha (created by purpleandgreen13); Maru
As Ships Sailing Past At Night: 💜💖 Harvey, OC: Elle (created by elleasinwoods); Linus, Maru, Evelyn, Emily, Penny, Gus
First Impression: 💜 Leah, Elliott; Emily, Lewis, Harvey
Drops of Prince Rupert: 💜 Emily, Clint; Gus
Nothing Ever Happened: 💜 Haley, Sam, Jodi
I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues: 💜💚 Elliott, Clint; Emily, Gus
Lady of the Sciences and of the Sweet Pea: 💚💜 Maru, Leo, Harvey; Linus, Emily, Jas, Vincent, OC: Kim
There’s Always A Bigger Fish: 💚 Maru, Sebastian; Demetrius, Sam
Rain, Smoke, and Fish: 💚 Willy, Sebastian
Doctor Pringle: 💚 Jodi, Vincent, Harvey; Sam, Maru
Luau Mayhem: 💚💙 Sebastian, Lewis; Sam, Abigail
A New Apprentice: 💚💙 Gil, Abigail; Marlon
Home: 💚💙 Elliott; Willy
Addicts Anonymous: 💙 OC: Kim, Shane, Pam, Sebastian
Our Friend Linus: 💙 Linus
Evelyn: 💙 Evelyn; George, Clara, Alex
I Was Your Man: 💙 Lewis, Marnie; Marlon, Gil
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:
Force Like a Hurricane: 💚💖 Jolee, Carth, Revan; Bastila, Mission, Juhani
Retelling and Excerpts
Book One: A Present Bind (AO3 only, ongoing publishing to be 100k+ words by mid-August, work in progress): 💚💙 Evari, Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, Canderous, Bastila
Last night I sat down with a friend to help her figure out how to play KotOR. The difference between our first playthroughs is so wild in a comedic way.
Exhibit A:
Friend: Struggled so hard getting through the Endar Spire she didn’t realize she managed to escape it until we opened her save file
Me: Didn’t play with a trackpad, and thus had an easier time. Also, I collected a set of armor and the prototype vibroblade before hopping into the escape pod
Exhibit B:
Friend: Actually put a stat into persuasion, so she got herself invited to a party to acquire Sith armor
Me: Could not manage to chat up Yun Genda. I had to save an alien from a Sith interrogation in order to get Sith armor
And now for a few similarities before I get to Exhibit C:
We both started as scouts.
We both initially took to blasters rather than vibroblades.
Neither of us got scammed by the guy who wanted us to pay 20 credits to meet a band.
Brain chemistry changed upon hearing “I’m all ears, beautiful.”
And Exhibit C:
Friend: Immediately swan-dives into flirting with the self-proclaimed “most handsome pilot in the galaxy”.
Me: Looks at dialog options, realizes Carth is attempting to distract player character from her questions, and takes none of it, bypassing a lot of flirting and bantering.
What if I'm the one who killed you every time I caved to guilt?
What if I've been far too kind to foes but a monster to ourselves?
I blame @frecklef0x for finally convincing me to listen to Epic: The Musical. It's been my go-to music while I was doing the last few comics. Anyway here's early Mandalorian Wars Revan as they start to realize just how much winning this war is going to cost them.
Also here's the song and animatic that this draws inspiration from. It's beautifully animated, and the song is on almost all of my Revan playlists now.
Anyway if someone has advice on how to play inquisition/links to a guide without spoilers, it would be much appreciated cause I want to continue it but the map and the combat system and the too many missions make me want to smash my head against the wall
The Before I Play Wiki might be helpful- it’s not really a guide, but a handful of non-spoilery tips. I’d say the main tips for missions are:
If you haven’t done it yet, go to Val Royeux as soon as you can, that’ll unlock the quests to get certain companions
Almost all of the side quests will remain active even as you advance the plot, so don’t worry too much about them expiring if you leave the area or do a main quest
Don’t try to clear any of the maps all in one go, especially Hinterlands. I would recommend clearing the quests around one waypoint/camp location, then go back to Haven/Skyhold to check the war table and talk to people, then go to a different map and do the same thing. (That’s what works best for me at least, this game does have way too many side quests and trying to do them all at once gets really monotonous for me)
The crafting quests from the Requisitions Officer are pointless, don’t waste your time on them
I don’t have much advice for combat, but hopefully that helps!
Panda Reads Star Wars Expanded Universe Novels: A Mini-Series
Introduction:
I grew up on Star Wars. I have an older sister that enjoyed the movies (back when there were only three) and watched them repeatedly as a kid. It took me several rewatches to finally figure out the difference between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi (both movies starting on Tatooine confused lil child me). The prequels are among the first movies I can remember watching in theaters, and I’ve seen a couple seasons of The Clone Wars and the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.
My parents also enjoy Star Wars, and read a handful of Star Wars novels back in the day. Many of them still sit in their bookcases. Despite this, I haven’t read any until a few years ago with the Thrawn Trilogy. (I did not enjoy Disney’s trilogy, and I ended up enjoying Timothy Zahn’s sequels more.)
I've been fanfic writing for almost seven years now. I like to know as much as possible about the world I write for, and write the sort of stories that could possibly be canon. Because of this I didn’t think I’d get into writing for worlds with larger universes like Star Wars, because I knew whether I tried to be compliant with Legends canon, Disney canon, or a blend of both, the research work would be a lot.
I blame a fictional man from a 20+ year old video game who is older than my father was when he first played the game for changing that.
While working on my KotOR novelization, I decided to start reading the Star Wars novels by release order, if they are available in my public libraries. The Legends Wookieepedia can only share so much, and doesn’t share what a source material specifically introduced about a subject. I wanted to better understand the universe terminology (e.g. durasteel) and understand the Force the way George Lucas intended it to be understood.
Even back in the day the rule of Star Wars canon was the Original Trilogy was the base canon, and anything that contradicted it was ignored. I thought I might do a little mini-series of the EU books and take notes on my analysis of what the books introduced, how well it meshes with canon, etc.
If this is something you’re interested in following (or removing from your feed), follow (or block) the tag #panda reads star wars eu
As you may infer from the release date, this book was published before The Empire Strikes Back was put in theaters, and only a year after the movie now called A New Hope. (The book also came out half a year before the first broadcast of the Star Wars Holiday Special.)
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was the intended sequel to Star Wars if the original movie was not successful enough to finance a higher-budget sequel.
The author of this book, Alan Dean Foster, ghostwrote the A New Hope novelization. There and here, the part of his writing that stuck out the most to me was his expansive vocabulary. Every other chapter I’m learning new words like “recalcitrant” and “stentorian”. (I’m the kind of person who can enjoy this, even if it slows my reading pace.)
Book Summary:
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye follows Luke and Leia on a diplomatic mission to persuade the people of Circarpous IV to join the Rebel Alliance. A ship malfunction forces them to crash-land on Circarpous V, also known as Mimban. There they discover a secret Imperial presence, and they need to find a way to sneak off the planet.
(Spoilers Under the Cut)
Unique Characters and Creatures:
Halla, an old woman who had been searching for the kaiburr crystal for seven years
Captain-Supervisor Grammel, a ruthless Sith officer
Hin and Kee, two Yuzzem (a sentient specie similar to Wookiees)
Wandrella, a giant omnivorous worm native to Mimban
Coway, the native species on Mimban
Tech and Items:
Food Stuff: Emergency cube concentrates (small nutrient cubes that come in at least two colors: pink and blue, have an unpleasant taste, and “can keep you alive for only so long without some protein to work with”)
Photoplate, functions like an access panel to open doors (only appearance in all Star Wars media)
Luma, light sources
Dipill, a stress-relief drug that can be a sedative at high doses
Liana, a parasitic plant. (This specific plant is never mentioned again in any other Star Wars media, unless you count other plants of the same name)
Jedi Artifacts and Abilities:
Lightsaber functionality: (1) Adjustable blade, so the blade can function like a small knife, and (2) Waterproof, will still work underwater
Kaiburr crystal, an ancient Force relic that drastically increases a Force-sensitive’s abilities
Force power: kinetite (like Force lightning, but in a projectile energy ball form)
Force power: healing
Details That Appear In Later Movies:
Mimban is a swampy planet (not unlike Dagobah)
Luke finds someone who claims to be a Jedi on said swampy planet (Halla)
Vader being all dramatic and theatrical aura farming when the hero(es) are downed
Vader telling Luke that Obi-Wan taught him well during a lightsaber duel (a straight-up Empire Strikes Back quote and scene)
Character Details Interesting to Consider with Canon:
Halla recognizes Luke as being strong with the Force, but not Leia. (Upon introduction, she claims she is a master of the Force. Later she admits she is a charlatan who can do parlor tricks and little else.)
Leia has unresolved trauma from her interrogation in A New Hope. (Upon encountering Vader, he claims he can use a lightsaber to fulfill a similar purpose.)
Both Luke and Leia are unsettled by crossing large bodies of water. Yet Leia is the one who cannot swim.
Leia is fascinated with other cultures and states one of the reasons she got into politics is because the totalitarian Empire stifles self-expression through art.
Leia’s so ready to fire a blaster shot at Darth Vader. Luke claims she’s better with a blaster.
Threepio fears being in Darth Vader's presence.
Vader knew all the proper code words and commands to get C-3PO and R2-D2 to shut off with no argument.
When Luke is downed, Leia picks up his lightsaber and fights Vader with it. Not well, but she makes a valiant attempt.
Luke tells Halla she reminds him of “a man, a smuggler and a pirate”, presumably Han Solo. Halla is then recruited into the Rebel Alliance’s cause. As the end of the novel does not cover them finally leaving Mimban, at this point, whether she joins the Alliance or not is inconclusive.
Details Possibly Inconsistent with George Lucas’s Canon Lore:
When talking about an unnamed a female doctor, the Empire recruited her after “a particular young man” died in a crash forty years ago, giving her “something useful to do in lieu of dying”. While the Empire could have recruited her twenty years after her loved one’s death, the paragraph made it seem like the Empire had been standing for at least forty years. Depends on how you read it, I guess. But this was also before Lucas established the Empire being only about twenty years old by the time of A New Hope.
When Luke cuts off Vader’s right arm, he notes there was less blood than he expected. (This is the arm Count Dooku cuts off above the elbow in Attack of the Clones, and the mechanical hand Luke cuts off in Return of the Jedi.) In general, lightsabers are supposed to cauterize flesh, but this was ill established in Mos Eisley in A New Hope.
Additional Panda Commentary:
I did not expecting Force healing to appear so early in the Expanded Universe, nor for it to have possibly resurrected Luke from a brief death. Granted, the healing was made possible by the kaiburr crystal.
This book was published before Luke and Leia being siblings was made canon. Their relationship here could be considered ship-teasing. There were some scenes where I wondered if the author intended to write a slow-burn relationship.
Evidence 1: Leia’s kiss for luck in A New Hope was full on the lips in the novelization, which was published under the title Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker half a year before the movie release.
Evidence 2: A poorly aged scene where Luke slaps Leia for the sake of their cover in a tavern.
Evidence 3: When Luke believes he and Leia might die by Darth Vader’s hand, he tells Leia he loved her. Both are under a lot of pain at this point, to the point where Leia reasonably could not have heard this. After they are healed, neither acknowledge Luke's confession.
Then there are other scenes where I’m like “yep, that’s peak sibling behavior right there”.
Evidence A: After the events of Evidence 2, Leia argues about whether it was necessary for Luke to have slapped her, and they begin flinging mud in a fight. This accidentally draws unwanted attention and starts a bigger brawl.
Evidence B: A few instances where Luke and Leia converse and grin like mischievous children.
How much of this story to consider Expanded Universe canon is subjective to each reader, so I hesitate to use a rating. In general, the key events of this story could have reasonably happened between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
Writing from Saul Karath’s POV was an interesting experience. I had to rely on the Wookieepedia to get an idea of what his thought process might be when he defected from the Republic and was given the order to destroy Taris.
Star Wars comic readers, especially ones who have read the KotOR comics, if there is any feedback to give, I am open to it. (My additional materials access is limited to books I could find online and comic book sample pages from Kindle. My local digital libraries did not offer these books.)
Title: Saul
Word Count: 1,166
Saul Karath prided himself on being a survivor. In knowing when it was time to fight and when it was time to surrender. In knowing who was mostly likely to win a conflict, and who would be more merciful towards its conquered peoples.
For all his life his best interests lay with the Republic. Though now branded as a traitor, Saul believed he still served in the Republic’s best interest.
He first fought for the Republic as a young man after his father died fighting in the Great Sith War. Saul stayed signed on in its fleet since, climbing its ranks until he became a rear admiral by the close of the Mandalorian Wars. Though he made his share of mistakes in warfare, even once offering a resignation as penance, no fleet admiral signed it, and instead commended Saul for his triumphs and bravery.
Someday they will see his alliance with the Sith as another act of bravery.
During the Mandalorian Wars, Saul served under the man now known as Darth Malak. But it was observing Lord Revan that persuaded him, as well as other highly ranked Republic officers, to join their Sith cause. With few, if any, exceptions, Revan’s attacks were pointed and precise. Even upon returning to Republic space as a conqueror, the intent was not mere destruction, but preservation. The Sith Lord intended to claim Republic lands and build them up into something better than they once were. No one could be better qualified. Or so Saul believed once.
Lord Revan was gone now. Saul had a hand in that. His flagship, the Leviathan, hosted Lord Malak the day a Jedi strike team ambushed and boarded the Phoenix. Malak commanded Saul to fire on the Phoenix. This was under the guise of sacrificing Lord Revan to ensure the invading Jedi wouldn’t survive the encounter. In truth, Malak too grew disillusioned under Revan’s campaign. Republic territories were not being claimed fast enough. Too many people were being spared in each attack, and the remaining military forces had time sufficient between attacks to regroup.
And now the Jedi who managed to escape the Phoenix was in hiding somewhere on Taris.
Lord Malak considered this Bastila Shan to be the Republic’s last hope. Saul hoped he was right.
They placed men in the Taris district where all of the Endar Spire’s escape pods landed, and limited movement out and through the district as much as they could. More importantly, they limited movement off the planet. As long as no ship outside of their fleet makes it past the orbital blockade, it was certain Bastila was still on the planet, and that they would find her.
Each space pod was located and searched. Surviving Republic soldiers were either interrogated then killed or shot on sight. Yet days passed without a sign of the Jedi.
Finally, Captain Varko informed him of a rumor of a Jedi appearing at the planet’s season opener for their annual swoop races. Minor Sith officers who attended would confirm it; one of the swoop gangs found a woman in one of the escape pods they reached before the Sith could, and had offered her up as the grand prize in the swoop racing championship. The gang’s leader intended to revoke the prize and sell her to the Sith, but the other gangs and the race’s hosts opposed the idea. Amid the scuffle, the woman escaped.
She must be the Jedi they were looking for.
Saul grew grim when Captain Varko informed him there had been a break in at the Sith base early Taris’s morning. Their appointed governor was found dead in the air traffic control tower. There was no doubt the escaped Jedi was behind it, and managed to find allies to help her cause.
Not long after, Darth Malak requested to meet him on the bridge. He would have heard the news as well.
Shoulders squared and hands clasped behind his back, Saul approached the man, meeting him at the viewport at the front of the spacious bridge at the bow of the starship. Outside they could see Taris’s dull surface floating in space.
“You summoned me, Lord Malak?”
The Sith Lord turned to him and nodded. The young man was bald with a blue tattoo resembling stripes over his head, a sign of his time during the Mandalorian Wars. The tattoo was intended to disguise him from the Jedi who considered him a defector, and matched his eye color once. He had hair, too. It was black and curly, the last sign of his youth and naïveté before following his friend Revan into war. He still preferred to wear red, and paraded around now in such a color uniform with a black capelet.
But his most striking feature now was his jaw. Or more accurately, what was left of it. Darth Malak once made the mistake of accusing his former friend of becoming soft, something they couldn’t afford when attempting to subject the Republic to their newly formed Sith Empire. One slash with a lightsaber landed him in a medical bay, and days later he walked out with a cybernetic jaw. Revan’s days were numbered since.
Darth Malak spoke in a gruff, mechanical voice with the aid of a vocabulator, concealed by the prosthetic. “The search for Bastila is taking too long. We cannot risk her escaping Taris. Destroy the entire planet.”
“Th… the entire planet, Lord Malak?” Saul could feel his mouth dry up. “But… there are billions of people on Taris! We’d be slaughtering countless innocent civilians. Not to mention our own men still on the surface.”
“Your predecessor once made the mistake of questioning my orders, Admiral. Surely you are not so foolish as to make the same mistake?”
That man had been suspended in the air and Forced choked to death. Saul narrowly avoided choking on his own words. “Of… of course not my Lord Malak. I will do as you command. But it will take several hours to position our fleet.”
“Then I suggest you begin immediately. You are dismissed, Admiral.”
Saul bowed his head slightly. “Yes, Lord Malak.”
He turned on his heel and approached communications. Saul contacted each of his fleet captains and told them to prepare for the upcoming assault. Then he commanded the shuttle captains to work overtime for the next several hours. They were to discreetly return as many Sith officers to the Leviathan as possible, starting with those of higher seniority.
Saul aligned himself with the Sith to preserve his troops. He intended to continue preserving them the best he could, especially the ones that first followed him to war. It would not do to widely announce the reassignment and throw those of lower seniority into a panic, especially the junior officers who only signed on within the last year.
He never imagined he would have to make this choice in the first place. War is a funny thing. It makes you do things you never thought you’d do.
I mean, a robotic Alexa or Siri voice for Nightblood's "Hello. Would you like to kill someone today?" was amusing enough. Then I had to go and hear Venom's voice as Nightblood's for the rest of Warbreaker.
so embarrassing to watch yourself become obsessed with a character that feels tailor made for you specifically to become obsessed with. feels like i fell into a trap made just for me. like damn they got me. those are all the things i like and go crazy for
My KotOR novelization is now published up to the big swoop race!
If you have been reading along, you’ll know that I write mostly in 3rd person limited point-of-view and often change character perspectives between chapters.
Today I finally published the first chapter from Bastila’s perspective. This chapter can be read independently from the rest of the fic; only one minor detail is explained by the first paragraph of the next chapter (and the last couple paragraphs of the previous chapter), but could be inferred on its own.
Title: Bastila
Word Count: 2,375
This mission was not only the most discouraging, but also the most humiliating, she ever led. Bastila averted her attention from such thoughts as much as she could.
She couldn’t say how much time passed since ejecting from the Endar Spire. The frantic seconds could have been an hour. Bastila found herself dazed upon crashing on Taris, briefly disoriented by the towering skyscrapers that darkened the planet’s surface. The odor of rust and cracked durasteel filled her lungs. She sensed little other life. Her companions, Republic lieutenants and one or two civilian workers, in the escape pod were not so fortunate as to survive the crash. Did any of her Jedi allies make it to the other escape pods? How many Republic soldiers made it off the ship alive? How many would manage not to get captured or killed? She feared she may be the only one left.
No.
There is no emotion, there is peace…
She steadied her breathing to resist giving into despair. Fighting stiff muscles, Bastila loosened the restraints that secured her to the seat. Instinctively she reached for her lightsaber, secured at her hip…
Secured at her hip?
No. It was gone. But she couldn’t have left it behind on the Endar Spire! She had been using it to deflect blaster shots mere seconds before finally the ship’s acting captain closed the blast doors and convinced her to enter the escape pod.
If she hadn’t so thoroughly exhausted her Force powers trying to disrupt the Sith’s assault, maybe she could have summoned her lightsaber to her hand. Instead, she manually searched. And searched. It wasn’t on her seat, and it didn’t fall by her footrests. Where else could it be? She already ran out of places to look. She searched everywhere twice, thrice over, but to no avail. Not even an attempt at summoning the lightsaber without it in sight offered a clue to where it could be.
Her search was disrupted when a group of humans, Nikto, and Rodians, opened the escape hatch from the outside. A live one, they called her. They weren’t Sith, to her relief, but she sensed no good intentions from them either. She grabbed the nearest companion’s hold-out blaster–
Only to be stunned by the invaders’ own blasters. They slapped a neural disruptor collar on her neck before she could recover and make a shot.
Captured! How could she let this happen?
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge…
Bastila was vaguely aware of being carried elsewhere. Footsteps clanked dully against durasteel grated floors. Olfactory senses vaguely recognized sewage, and soon she was deposited in a barred cage. Outside, a human male stood before her. The leader of this band, she presumed.
“A Republic officer…” he mused. Bastila could barely make out his words. “She must be worth a few thousand credits at least! A perfect grand prize for the annual swoop race. It will win the favor of all the gangs. Maybe convince them to unite with us. Then we can finish off Gadon and his Beks once and for all!”
She could barely acknowledge the man’s presence. But it was enough. With time, her consciousness would improve, but only just, as she got used to the disruptor.
One Rodian woman took vigil beside her, guarding the cage. She would be changed out by another female guard every few hours.
A day must have passed since she was presented before their leader. A human woman, a slave, visited to offer a humble meal of cold broth, which Bastila slowly ate without tasting. While Bastila raised the bowl to her mouth, she let one hand quickly brush over the collar at the top of her spine.
Yes. A standard issue neural disruptor. Effective on all sentients whose necks fit the collar’s size specs. Almost completely effective on Jedi as well. If tampered with physically by someone without the control key, it would deliver an electric shock to the wearer, increasing the voltage with each attempt until reset when the collar is properly removed. But given enough time, gradually with use of the Force, Bastila could deactivate the shock mechanism, then loosen the collar and be free of its sensory dampening effects.
Another day passed, and the slave woman returned with another bowl of broth. Bastila consumed it slowly once more. The collar inhibited how quickly Force powers could return to her, but she was still slowly saving up. Saving up to break free.
The pattern repeated a few more times. Finally, Bastila could free herself from the collar’s hold. But for now, she had to permit the itchy thing to remain on her neck to keep her guards from suspecting anything. Though she had enough Force to free herself from the collar, she needed more time still to break out of the cage. She also needed to discover where she could run and hide without drawing attention to herself.
There is no passion, there is serenity…
Finally, the man visited her once more.
“You’re not just any Republic officer.” He stated, then he raised the deactivated hilt of a double-bladed lightsaber. Her lightsaber. “You’re a Jedi. The one those Sith are looking for.”
Bastila feigned a lack of focus so to betray no emotion. The man continued to speak.
“As soon as they find out you’re here, I’ll be forced to withdraw you as the swoop race’s victory prize. At least the reward money will make it worthwhile. Your value as a mere Republic officer is but a small fraction of this reward. I’m sure Redros– I mean, the race’s champion, will find it in his heart to forgive me and accept the credits.”
“Brejik, sir.”
An off-duty guard brought a datapad and a comlink to the man. She and Brejik whispered to each other in the corner of the room about something urgent. His face paled, but not too severely. He commanded the female to go elsewhere and returned to Bastila.
“It’s a good thing you’re here in this safe house, Jedi. I lost contact with my men at the base. The Sith must have tried to storm it to find you last night. Pity. They’ll have to wait for the swoop race. Just like everybody else.”
That swoop race was going to be Bastila’s best chance of escaping this gang. She had to prepare carefully so it wouldn’t be a case of fleeing their clutches only to fall into the clutches of the Sith.
The guard currently standing beside them cleared her throat. “With all due respect, Brejik, I don’t know why you bother to talk with her. She can’t hear you.”
“She’s an honored guest. Might as well show her proper respect. The galaxy knows the Sith will not be so… merciful.”
Brejik then summoned his slave and demanded she bathe Bastila and put her in nicer clothes. Her guard and the slave escorted her to the refresher, and the guard waited out the door. Bastila endured patiently while the slave removed her clothes and scrubbed her hair in the sonic shower. Then she carefully dressed Bastila in clean undergarments, tight black leggings, and a low cut sleeveless shirt better suited for a joygirl.
The slave froze. Bastila sensed the girl gaze upon the loosened neural disruptor collar. Bastila inhaled slowly, preparing to use a mind trick on the girl as soon as she voiced her discovery.
But she didn’t.
Instead, the slave carried on as usual, continuing to brush Bastila’s hair. She tied it back into a single wide braid. Intended to hide the collar’s loosened locking mechanism.
She then led Bastila out of the refresher and back into the cage. The guards used a droid to lift the cage onto a skiff, then transport her to the swoop race track. Bastila dared a final glance at the slave, hoping her blank stare would be enough to communicate her gratitude.
There is no chaos, there is harmony…
Throughout the morning of the big race, she feigned confusion and slow reactions, the key symptom of those under the influence of a neural disruptor. One way or another, today, she would be free.
Her cage was deposited near the announcer’s podium at the edge of a walkway. Two guards flanked her, Nikto men now. One of them was either sleep-deprived or drunk. That improved her odds.
Bastila could hear a few conversations going on at once over the dull drone of a larger spectating crowd. Rumors indicated people from the Sith and even the Exchange were in attendance. Ithorian mechanics made minor adjustments to their ally’s swoop bikes. Gang members scrutinized rookie racers, especially so after one died on the track. A few participants walked up to her cage, curious about their potential prize. One tried to catch her attention with a greeting, but her guard pushed them away. This repeated a few times throughout the races.
<No one’s allowed to talk to the prisoner. Brejik’s orders. She wouldn’t hear you anyway: she’s got a neural disruptor collar on to keep her under control.>
Each racer was permitted five heats. Five attempts to make the fastest run. The winning rider changed several times over the course of the morning. First, some stranger from a gang neither Vulkar nor Bek. They would be the only non-Vulkar and non-Bek to do so well. Then a lot of back and forth between the two main gang’s racers. Phirk, an Aqualish for the Hidden Beks. Doba, a Rodian from the Black Vulkars. Phirk again. Then a break in racing to scrape what was left of a minor gang’s member’s body off the track. Doba took the lead once more. Then Anglu, a Twi’lek Bek. Redros, a Nikto Vulkar. Anglu again. A new human sponsored by the Beks. Redros again. The human again.
Finally, hours after they started, the races ended. Through her bars, Bastila watched the Duros race announcer present the winner: Isano, the human woman with the Hidden Beks. Isano stepped forward and faced the announcer, standing between him and Bastila.
<Through your skill and courage you have proven yourself the premier swoop rider on Taris, and brought great glory to the Hidden Bek gang! Now, here to present the champion's prize: Brejik, leader of the Black Vulkars.>
Finally, a familiar face. Brejik stood behind the race announcer and waited for the cheers to die down before speaking. “People– hear me! Before I present the so-called champion of the Beks with their prize there is something you must know: the winning rider cheated!”
Bastila knew better than to be surprised by this accusation against a rival’s champion. The spectators, however, gasped. The Hidden Bek members cried out in outrage. Above the noise, the woman Isano shouted: “You better not be trying to cheat me, Brejik!”
Brejik was undeterred. “Your swoop bike was using a prototype accelerator– clearly an unfair advantage! Because of this Hidden Bek treachery I’m withdrawing the Vulkar’s share of the victory prize!”
<You can’t do this, Brejik!> The Duros announcer stood up, outraged. <You know the rules: nobody’s allowed to withdraw a victory prize after the race. It goes against all our most sacred traditions!>
Brejik slapped the Duros across his face. “Your traditions are nothing to me, you old fool. I am the wave of the future! If I want to withdraw the prize and sell this woman on the slave market myself, nobody can stop me!”
Onlooking spectators began to chatter loudly once more as they moved from their seats. A few screamed when Sith soldiers began to reveal themselves from among the spectators. Bastila needed to act now before the Sith could intervene.
There is no death, there is the Force.
Bastila channeled her power into blasting open the cage. The force knocked one of her guards unconscious. Then she stepped out and stared down the Black Vulkar leader.
“I might have something to say about that, Brejik.”
Brejek stared at her, mouth agape. “What? Impossible! You were restrained by a neural disruptor! How could you have possibly summoned the will to free yourself?”
She used his lapse in action to rip the collar off her neck, cast it down below the swoop track and summon her fallen guard’s vibro-doubleblade to her hand. It wasn’t her lightsaber, but for now, it would serve her well.
Then Bastila narrowed her eyes at Brejik. “You underestimate the strength of a Jedi’s mind. A mistake you won’t live to regret!”
Brejik unholstered his blaster. “Vulkars– to me!”
Bastila reached into her muscle memory of double-bladed combat forms. With ease surprising to ordinary sentients, but less so to Jedi like herself, she held her own against their fighters. The Beks fought with her as well. For now. But she wasn’t going to let them capture her next.
Finally, she and a temporary Bek ally teamed up to isolate and corner Brejik. He couldn’t hold them back for long. It wasn’t long before they took down Brejik for good. Bastila checked the man’s satchel and found, to her relief, her lightsaber.
Around her, skiffs activated and drew close. The Sith began their invasion of the swoop platform.
“Shan, this way!”
Bastila recognized the champion’s voice in her Bek ally. As Sith began to flood the platform, she had no choice but to follow.
How did she know her surname?
She followed the champion Isano into elevators and down narrow passages, making sudden turns to shake off any followers. Twice they encountered Black Vulkars, the first a lone minion who Isano shot down fast. The second was a duo who caught Isano by surprise. Then the duo were surprised in turn by the glow of Bastila’s lightsaber. A flash of yellow light would be the last thing they saw.
Another series of passages later, it was safe to say no one was following anymore. Bastila sighed as she pressed her back against a wall to catch her breath.
“Well, maybe those bloody Vulkars will think twice next time before trying to keep a Jedi prisoner!” She exclaimed with relief. But there was still one more item to address. “And as for you, if you think you can collect me as a prize…”
The champion turned to Bastila. She knew that face. And her blood ran cold.
today my anthro professor said something kindof really beautiful:
“you all have a little bit of ‘I want to save the world’ in you, that’s why you’re here, in college. I want you to know that it’s okay if you only save one person, and it’s okay if that person is you”
