#obi wan is a scared new dad

[memoiich]

Obi wan Headcanons my lord? feed the poor

God, I have a lot of them .I'm going to split this up in a few parts just because it makes sense . Strap in !!!

Part 0: baby obi wan

His parents noticed that he was a surprisingly bright child, and since they were farmers from stewjon, they weren’t well off. When they had their second child (a son) they brought obi wan to a near by testing unit on the neighbour planet Klommet , in hopes of giving both him and his brother a better chance at survival.

Obi wan was tested at the age 1 and a half. He was clearly gifted but nothing special.

He used to cry a lot when he first got to the jedi temple. Most jedi got rather annoyed at the younglings crying, except one ,qui gon jin .

Qui gon voluntured a lot at the creshe , he believed that crying children needed confort not a lecture. Obi wan got attached to qui gon rather quickly as a 2 year old ( qui gon looks a bit like his late dad)

As he grew up , he got along well with the other children and formed close friendships with them ( po ,kit ,quinlan) . Seeing this, qui gon went back to helping the new kids.

Part 1 : padawan years

Obi wan is rather talented at most things, not on a “ WOW YOU’RE THE BEST “ way but more like a “…that shouldn’t go so easily “ . He picks things up quickly, which causes him to be rather inpatient. Not impulsive, he doesn’t rush he simply hates waiting. That's why he hates meditating. He doesn’t understand it.

He doesn’t know it but when discussing who would get which apprentice , his name fell quite a few times . Obi wan likes to learn and so many suspect that he would be a nice well behaved padawan.

He was so happy when they informed him that qui gon would be his master . Qui gon had always stood out as the nicest jedi , not that the others weren’t but he had seemed to understand obi wan a bit more.

The first thing qui gon asked of him was to meditate. Obi wan started stressing immediately, and it went pretty bad in the beginning. Qui gon thought it was hilarious how quickly he was distracted. “ the wall paper does not need your attention right now “ he would quip or “ breathe through your nose and dont rush it” . It took obi Wan's a year to truly be able to meditate properly.

Luckily time wasn’t wasted because his fight skills and knowledge were unmatched.

Piloting took some getting used to. Not only was he scared of heights , but he also wasn’t a fan of rollercoasters. Qui gon always noted how slow he was . “ If you keep flying like this, we won't get there before im 60 “ or “ we can always walk , it might be faster” . But his master did help him, he would go to more desserted planets with obi wan . The planets that even if he would fly faster, he couldn’t hit anything . Obi wan got his red piloting bead 5 months later with the promise to let go a little.

He picks up quickly with missions , like i said he’s a natural . His first mission was a bit stressful but after that hes pretty much set . Also when they get back to their ship , qui gon cooks a home cooked meal because hes not going to let obi wan live on war rashens and blue milk.

He also teaches him how to cook

Obi wan starts feeling a bit quilty because he starts thinking of qui gon as his dad since well he is a little. But the jedi code says no attachments and he will follow that . Until he has a nervous breakdown because if qui gon is a jedi master that follows the jedi code he probably doesn’t care about him , he ends up getting in quite a lot of danger on a mission because of this . When he confesses to qui gon why he did all that he doesn’t respond,he just pulls his padawan into a hug . “ you are my kid obi wan “

When he turns 20 , he starts to really push qui gonn to let him take his trials. He just wants to be a jedi master.

That all changes a bit when he meets the dutches of mandelore Satine . He falls inlove quickly but he’s a real coward about it ( Satine notices) . Satine ends up pulling him into a kiss 2 months later at a gala she had to attend. They had a night together……

Qui gonn knows 100% . He finds it hilarious how his bumbling fool of a padawan got himsel into this mess . He prepares for the inevitable “ im leaving the order “ not that he wants him to . Obi wan is just that kinda kid .

When he sees obi wan the next morning, he looks like he cried acts rather somber and asks when they are leaving . Qui gon figures out what happened but doesn’t say anything. They leave and he gives him some space .

For the next 2 years it all goes smoothly until…

Part 2: early Anakin years

Obi wan isn’t too happy with the orphan. They are on a dangerous mission in the middle of who knows where with the queen of a planet that’s about to die . And now they have Ani , he wasn't going to lie it was a sweet child . But why now.

Obi wan has a quiet panic attack when qui gon says he will take anakin as his apprentice . He doesn’t feel ready to take the trials since his self esteem plummeted a bit after the Satine debacle and no one helped him take care of that ( fuck the jedi council) .

During the flight back to Naboo, padme went to her room and qui gon had a call with the council, leaving obi Wan to babysit ani . The child would yap non stop “ Did you make your own lightsaber?” “Yes” “can i hold it?” “No” “ when do i get mine?” “ When you're ready” “ but i am ready” “ no you’re not “ “yes i am “ “ no you’re not “ “ Did you choose THAT color?” “ Yes, i did” “ It's kinda ugly” “…” . A true test of patience but strangly lovable.

About 2 hours later was when the child fell asleep next to obi Wan . Anakin was still shivering , tattooine was a warm planet, something the ship heaters couldn’t compete with. Obi wan draped his long outer coat over the boy in hopes of giving him some warmth . Seeing the child peacefully asleep, Obi wan realised why his master liked him.

It took 48 hours to get to Naboo . It also took 48 hours for Obi wan to look at Anakin as his little brother.

When he first sees Maul he’s scared . He doesn’t want to be, but he simply is . Back in school him and his friends would joke about the sith and how cool it would be to defeat one . Right now , face to face with the first sith in ages , he’s horrified, and the red zebrak seems to kick on it

All he hears are the red force feels buzzing . He doesn’t hear his own scream or the blood dripping from his master . He feels an immense amount of pain, but the moment those shields lay down, he's up . He only focuses on gett to his master in time .And when he’s hanging in the hole , he snaps back into his jedi mind. The sith shows a new hubris, and he sees his chance. He wins

When qui gonn tells him his final wish , he can only lie to him . He doesn’t feel fit to be a master ,he might be the only jedi who pased the old trials ( to kill a sith ), but he feels like a fraud to weak to safe his master. Qui gon passes in his arms and obi wans let the tears fall.

He sees Anakin after he returns from his “trip” and he almost wants to cry again . Anakin looks so confused “ where’s qui gon ?” “ he passed away , anakin” The tears start to well in the little boys eyes, and all that obi can do is pull him into a hug .

The next weeks are quite hard , anakin becomes his padawan, and he becomes a jedi master. They attend qui gons' funeral, and anakins enters the academy since he needs to do both his padawan ship and the basic training. He is a bit pissy about it , but obi Wan cheers him up with home cooked meals .

They are not allowed to go on mission yet together just obi wan alone, and its extremely hard breaking to leave anakin alone .

When they are home together, obi wan pampers the little guy rotten. He brushes and braids anakins hair he buys him miniatuur planes in hopes of getting a better piolet than he is . He helps him with his homework, and he is just a total single dad .

When about a year has passed obi wan realised that he didn't know his birthday so he asked ani and he didn’t know either . They chose marche 5th because its a week from then and obi Wan can plan his birthday.Ani loved it.

Anakin doesn't make a lot of friends in school or anywhere. Which bothers obi Wan greatly , he thinks anakin is a great kid who can do no wrong. It all escalated when a child calls Anakin a slave ( obi wan does not know how they got here )

Obi wan threatens to destroy him to the boys face . He ends up crying, and Anakin isn’t bothered ever again. ( the jedi council was not happy )

And so it pretty much continues for a few years

Part 3: late anakin years

Anakin is now 20 years old, which is double the age he was when obi Wan met him .

Many people think that obi Wan is past his prime, but this man is absolutely ribbed. He has perfect physique, he’s just covered in robes and coats and stuff

He keeps extra kyber crystals around because Anakin keeps losing/breaking his lightsaber

Anakin requested black robes, and the council wouldn’t let him because of the association with the sith, and obi wan was like “ No , let my padawan express himself . Plus, I killed the last sith years ago “ so they let him because nothing is scarier than getting on obi wans' bad side

When they meet padmé again, obi Wan is almost laughing at how bad anakin is hiding his feelings for her . He also realises that he will have to talk to his padawn about it .

Obi wan gets a little stricter over the last year since anakin definitely doesn't think before he does anything

When the council decided to let Anakin go with Padme , he couldn't help but warn anakin once again. He reminds him of the problems that might occur or the heartbreak ( he's definitely not projecting)

When shmi dies, he tries his best to support anakin best he can . He doesn’t remember his parents, but he assumes it's like losing Qui gon, so he does everything he needed back then . Home cooked meals ,hugs ,pep talks, pulling him out of mission….

He noticed from the moment they set foot into the arena that they were together. On the one hand, he was extremely nervous about it, and on the other, he was a bit proud of his boy.

ALSO, he gets that shiver down his spine because he realises that qui gon knew about him and Satine, and he's a bit embarrassed about it .

He doesn't tell it to anakin because just like his master he thinks that it might be better to give them space .

He gets really offended that he wasn't invited to the wedding. He knows it was supposed to be undercover, but please

Padme and anakin will sometimes invite him for dinner as if they aren't dating, and he truly enjoys those evenings together.

He likes padme immensely . She helps to calm anakin down, and she's all around a great person .

She's also the first out of her and anakin to realise that obi Wan knows . Sadly, this happens after the wedding, so now it's like a shared secret.

Now that anakin left the nest , he gets to enjoy hobbies. He starts experimenting with cooking until Kit , Quinlan and Po are so done with it that they start ordering out . Then he gets a pet a feathered veractyle he names boga , when the planet he’s visiting allows it she will be his transport . He also keeps a variety of plants ( they remind him of qui gon) and books .he collects golden trinkets. Anakin jokes that it all goes against the jedi code, but he likes it .

HE ALSO LOVES TO GOSSIP with his clones anakin padme kit po anyone that wants to listen.

Talking about his clones , he loves them dearly not as much as anakin but like coby is one of his closest friends.

212 has tried to give him nicknames before, but it never sticks , they do like saying the negotiator in funny voices .

Obi wan thinks that his clones are the best clones, but it seems that every jedi thinks that.

He is now a jedi council member, and he still has that off feeling that he doesn’t deserve it . His ideas dont link with the others, and he feels that he doesn't have a lot of influence on it . Qui gon was never part of it, and he understands why more and more. He loves being a jedi master but kinda hates the council.

That also makes it really hard for him to help Anakin with his dissatisfaction with his position rn . Being on the council but not a master feels like the worst-case scenario, but he has to help anakin not be pissy, so he does . It is a great honor to be on the council.

He didn't know about padmé being pregnant. So he just thought anakin was so stressed out about his career and the jedi order . After everything happened as it did , he felt that he didn’t support anakin correctly.

Obi wan objected when they wanted anakin to spy on Palpetine . He doesn’t want his boy near any danger and definitely not in the front line . He yells and fights for it until it goes to a vote, just as his seat on the council, obi Wan would leave the council immediately if it meant that Anakin was 100% safe . In the end , the vote goes for the spying and obi wans demands to tell anakin himself. It doesn’t go well, obi Wan feels like he's betraying his brother.

In the coming weeks, he will see the loveable orphan of tatooine change to a traumatized war veteran, and he's not happy about it. He tries to calm him down and speak to him just like he did when shmi died . Sadly, this time, it doesn’t seem to work.

When his clones betray him , he feels fear for the first time since the deul of the faiths . Not only is he in danger, but they are in danger , anakin might be in danger . He feels his life falling from betw his fingers . Boga and some of his dear clones die when he gets back to his ship . He calls to anakin, but he doesn’t pick up . He flies to the temple.

When yoda and him visit the temple, dread fills his mind. He still didn’t receive anything from anakin and was really worried about it . They see the temple lithered with death children, and all he sees are small Anakin's death on the floor . Then they see the footage of the night before, and the world falls beneath him . Anakin is a murderer, a sith, and still his brother . Obi wan chooses to go alone to face him ….

{that one deleted scene }

The deul with anakin is the worst moment of his life. Nothing compares to it . He tries to enter with an open mind and the little voice in the back of his mind telling him to redeem anakin . Sadly hes to far gone. The deul ends with his dying friend near the fire , obi wans whole life in pieces and a almost death padme.

The birth of Luke and leia is a small piece of hope, but padmé passes away . Obi wan has no one anymore.

He's extremely happy with the organas asking to adopt leia, and he himself asks to adopt Luke, but that did not happen because of the circumstances. If the sith starts hunting jedi , Obi wan will be at the top of the list

In the end, he lives near Luke until he grows to be a jedi .

He tries to meditate, but his bond to the force is pretty much broken .

Part 4: obi wan alone

Since moving to Tatooine, he has got some new dreams . He gets flashbacks to his childhood before being a jedi, but the worst once are the anakin once . They all start the same , meeting ani quick flashes through their years together and then Mustafar .

He believes that he killed anakin and that he burnt to death .

He has mixed feelings towards his actions. On the one hand, he as a jedi had to kill him, but as his brother, he is simply broken.

He doesn’t think of himself as a jedi anymore. Over the years, he has come to question the jedi order . For how they treated anakin and ahsoka even padme . He promised to himself that he wouldn’t teach Luke to throw away his emotions.

When darth maul shows up on tattooin, he's in some strange way. Sorry for him . They were both just children raised for war , he wished partly that they could have got Maul out before Naboo or that he wouldn’t hold the anger he had towards him for the death of his father . He took a deep breath and let it go . In the end, Maul died in his arms , the same way he had hoped he would have pulled anakin up after their duel.

He tries to meditate again in hopes of connecting to qui gons' spirit or anakins . He hopes to apologise to anakin to pet his hair and tell him it's alright to get one last evening diner with padmé and Anakin . From qui gon, he just wants comfort a long hug or a smile that shows him he’s proud of his padawan, even a home cooked meal .

He starts working as a butcher for sand whales . In the beginning, he used to walk there, but then lars pointed out that that was really suspicious for the other people in town . So he went shopping for a transport that was nice and easy to maintain . That's how he ends up with his eopie Akkani .

Akkani is a bit of a lazy animal , she just wants to eat and walk and eat again. He's happy he has a pet, tho because he gets a bit lonely.

He keeps all of his jedi things in a chest in his gave , including his own lightsaber and 2 sets of beads . One set is his own padawan braid beads, and the other are anakins . He also has some other stuff such as qui gon' s old kitchen knife and some pictures of his clones scrabs of r2d2 when he needed repairs a feather of boga some model airplanes anakin used to play with and so on. ( NO BURYING IN THE DESSERT I HATE THAT)

He really wants to train Luke, but Lars won’t let him . Which hurts obi Wan a lot . He wouldn’t push Luke to be a soldier like the once before , he would connect him to the force just like qui gon wanted with Anakin .

That's why he started reading up on the ancient scripts about the jedi . He loves the Yawa sellers just because he can buy his books without the empire noticing.

He will wait forever in hopes of setting the universe back to balance for the mistake he made on Mustafar.

This took so long and its not even all of it .( i left out the kenobi series because i didn’t want to rewrite it and i couldn’t figure out how to add to it without rewriting it srry)

Also i wrote a little obi wan reacting to ahsoka being Anakins padawn not that long ago ( link below )

And i left his later relationship with satine and maul out because it might be a bit long . If you want that you can always ask in my requests ( i do have some thoughts about those)

#this took so long #im fighting demons #writer block #star wars #obi wan kenobi #darth maul #help #writing #headcanon #yippee #qui gon jinn #qui gon and obi wan #anakin skywalker #anakin and obi wan #obi wan x reader #obi wan x you

[phoenixyfriend]

Ghost Vader AU?

send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it

This ask meme is from over a year ago. Please don't send new prompts.

Anon is talking about Ghost Vader Shows Up To Help (with TALK TO YOUR PADAWAN and Sometimes he’s a jackass about it)

Shmi does eventually meet Vader. He's spying on her, in that moment, and awkwardly disappears.

Obi-Wan sticks by the "Vader is Shmi's dad" theory indefinitely.

Yoda manages to see Qui-Gon Jinn's ghost, and thus becomes the first person to know the truth about Vader. He does not actually share this truth, because he decides it's not his business. Nobody needs to know that Vader is future-Anakin.

Vader starts stalking recently-fallen Ventress, for... reasons? He's curious and a little bored and then, after he sees her, he decides to scare her back to the light. This doesn't work for many reasons.

Qui-Gon's ghost haunting Ventress, on the other hand... manages to annoy her to the Light.

#star wars #the clone wars #time travel #darth vader #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #shmi skywalker #qui gon jinn #master yoda #phoenix answers memes

[kcrabb88]

Before illness interfered, we were up in NYC this past weekend and saw this really cool exhibit on queer spaces during the AIDS crisis at the Museum of Sex, and I saw this in one of the cases, which proceeded to put a whole fic idea in my head because it kind of made me teary, if I'm honest.

I started thinking about how well Obi-Wan and Quinlan would fit into a late 80s/early 90s AIDS/Queer activism era, which then spooled out into a whole two-shot fic I'd like to write one day? I picture Obi-Wan getting an HIV diagnosis (picked up from an ex most likely) and Quin, his best friend, moves in to take care of him. They've been best friends for ages, have had little flings but have been scared to properly date, but end up doing so in the midst of all this (kind of a reverse Angels in America when Prior's partner leaves him after his diagnosis). Obi-Wan would live, as some people did back then, but he would be badly ill for quite a while. He and Quin are both professors at NYU (or similar)--Obi-Wan teaches literature, Quin does music and is in a punk band on the weekends. They're both in activist circles. Shmi and Anakin live down the hall, and Shmi kind of adopts them when she runs into a sad Obi-Wan one day. I was thinking an East Village kind of setting. They all become this little family.

Shmi eventually dies, and Obi-Wan and Quin are Anakin's legal guardians (though this is complicated because queer and one of them is HIV positive, so, prob some extra legal things going on). Palpatine would possibly be Anakin's shitty rich grandfather who doesn't like that two queer men have custody of his grandson and Shmi made it her business to try and keep him away as much as possible (Anakin's dad was never really in the picture much). Padme goes to Anakin’s magnet school and her dad is a city council member who supports the queer community in New York.

I dunno! I can't do it right now with book edits, and Kill the Lights (which will be a long fic), and my Obi-Wan whump minibang fic, but I might toodle with it alongside my other projects when I can because I feel very compelled by it? This era of queer history has always impacted me (and I like a lot of media set during it) so I'd be interested to try my hand at a fic set during this time, and I think Obi-Wan and Quin would just? Fit? Anyhow, dumping my thoughts here since I've been thinking of it.

#KCrabb rambles #Star Wars tag #QuinObi

[ahsoka-its-all-of-us]

THE MANDALORIAN SEASON FINALE IS UPON US

I am currently in the train going on a three-day international city trip with my students but if you thought I wouldn't sneak away to watch the episode as soon as it dropped you're dead wrong

Fr I am actually taking a different train so I can watch the episode before joining up with them after an hour

(I should clarify that these are adult students btw lmao, I did not leave a bunch of kids unattended)

Anyway, we know the drill; time for me to scream into the void again

Before we start: Favreau pls I am begging you to make Kalluzeb canon ;-; Or at least show us the hot ex-Imperial and let us fill in the gaps 🥺 I literally don't care how; David Oyelowo's voice acting is so iconic that I would accept his physical differences to animated Kallus in a heartbeat, even if it would ruin all my fic moments in which I have Zeb excessively and in detail simping over Kallus's looks ;-; As long as he has the sideburns though, those are vital ofc

Are they gonna recanonise the original Thrawn books?

MOFF GIDEON WHY DO YOU HAVE SPIKES ON YOUR HELMET??? Are we gonna bring Maul back from the dead yet again? Cause ngl that would be funny as hell

Entering fucking space with a jetpack, that’s badass

HOW IS DIN’S CAPE NOT ON FIRE

GROGU YES

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH WITH YOUR FUCKING DROID SUIT

How did nobody notice Grogu sneaking away btw??? Awful babysitters those Mandalorians

I love how much of a dad Din is. Both too Grogu and to R5

MOUSE DROID MY BELOVED

God fuck I love what they did with the main theme there. Those triplets are everything, and the instrumentation ;-;

I love military action so much, they all shine now

Axe no 😭

I hope they’re actually gonna kill Gideon this time. I’m sick of his face, I don’t wanna sit through another season with him

The ray shields are still fucking rad

Love how Din just collects weapons as he progresses

MOUSE DROID NO

Are we gonna get a Thrawn reveal here? A hologram or whatever?

That cloning room is disturbing

Predictable jump scare and it still got me rippppp

Oh that cave is beautiful ;-; New hope for Mandalore

LIFE WILL FIND A WAY *Jurassic Park theme starts playing*

Yes Armourer you go girllll!!! Now smooch Bo while you’re at it pls

Armour is hot yes yes

ANGRY GROGU MY BELOVED

*Obi-Wan voice* Use the Force, Grogu

Kallus is not gonna show up, is he? 🥺

That energy whip thing is supercool and I want one

AXE YES

Bo girl that scream was FERAL and I am living for it

NO DARKSABER

Huh, that’s an outcome I had not seen coming, but I support it wholeheartedly. Even though the darksaber was cool and Sabine should have gotten it

Bo shielding Grogu I am weeping

The parallel with Kanan no ;-;

YES MANDALORIANS BACK ON MANDALORE

Now please have Sabine return there too

YES YES YES YES YES ADOPT THAT POTATO SACK BABY 😭😭😭😭

Grogu tames the mythosaur ofc ofc

NOW SMOOCH GOD DAMN IT

NEW REPUBLIC BASE!!!

GIMME THE SPACE HUSBANDS

Din sitting on his porch watching Grogu play I love it 😂

God okay this was a good season finale damn

Not me desperately scouring the end credits for Kalluzeb

#the mandalorian season 3 #the mandalorian #Grogu #din djarin #moff gideon #Darth Maul #alexsandr kallus #Kalluzeb #garazeb orrelios #axe woves #mitth'raw'nuruodo #the armourer #bo-katan kryze

[katierosefun]

I posted 7,992 times in 2022

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I tagged 7,986 of my posts in 2022

#queue could stay - 3,445 posts

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Longest Tag: 138 characters

#but yeah idk i feel like i’m never anyone’s first choice. i’m never going to be anyone’s best friend never someone who’s joined at the hip

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i love how beyond evil really said “okay, so like, han joo won. you see him? handsome face, nice build, deep voice for days. he looks cool, right?” and then immediately tossed that out the window and said instead, “now he’s a fucking pathetic bullyable baby who would eat out of the palm of the local dilf’s hand he screams cries throws up breaks down breaks up with people he’s never even dated” 

401 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

#4

beyond evil is great on many levels because on one level you have an insanely poetic story about how a tragedy can break a family and then on another level you have another insanely poetic story about how justice properly works and how emotions are so important when it comes to bringing that same justice into reality and then on another level you have a beautiful love story about two men who learn that the other is not a monster but is in fact someone who’s just very sad and struggling with the weight of their families and then on another level you have han joo won’s self-discovery that he’s a kinky slut

617 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

#3

sometimes i feel sad about anakin skywalker because imagine being 23 years old and feeling simultaneously like a god and yet feeling so miserably tired and angry because you’ve already lost too many people and you are 23 years old and people say things about how they can’t wait to see what you do next and you are 23 years old and you are simultaneously a scared kid who might lose another person and an arrogant fool who thinks they could keep themselves from losing another person and you are 23 years old and you are smiling at the kid who might turn out to be better than you’ve ever been and you are 23 years old and you feel numb when your best friend in the whole world tells them they’re proud of you and you are 23 years old and you are supposed to be only going up and you are 23 years old and instead you crash quite miserably, terribly and you are 23 years old and instead of looking up at the stars, you swallow ash and dirt 

952 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#2

the way the obi-wan kenobi series is quite honestly a fever dream for obi-wan kenobi fans in the best way you’ve got depressed ptsd obi-wan you’ve got obi-wan being an awkward depressed uncle/dad figure you’ve got obi-wan having vague memories of his birth family but ultimately calling the jedi his new family you’ve got obi-wan being a socially awkward bc see: trauma you’ve got obi-wan being cute with his lil’ eopie friend you’ve got obi-wan having nightmares you’ve got obi-wan hallucinating anakin in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere and we’re only halfway through besties 

1,477 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

being a fic writer can be hard because sometimes you’ll get a random scene in your head and be like “oh this is neat! can i get some context?” and the characters go “lol no, figure it out” and so you need to shake your own brain like it’s a piggy bank like come on, there’s gotta be some more quarters in here . . .

17,070 notes - Posted August 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

i don't know how to tag but!!! have fun, everyone!!

#caroline talks #JESUS christ about my longest tag okay don't look at me lmao

[madaboutmunson]

Ouija Geebies

Summary: How Eddie discovers Heavy Metal. A 13-year-old Eddie Munson at the beginning of his stay with his Uncle Wayne. Struggling to fit in with the new locals, he takes solace in one of the things he smuggled from home, his parent's Ouija board.

Warnings: references but not the detail of abuse, swearing, ouija board, spirits, bullying references, being the new kid, separation from a loved one.

Author notes: This is a complete work of fiction. There are no facts here ☺️ Just in case anyone was wondering, I love music, and I don't believe any of it is satanic. I just thought it would be a fun idea to write about if maybe it was, but then as I was writing, the story took a completely different turn. Something I started before Halloween but didn't finish in time.

Word Count: 10.5K

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The rhythm of the rain against the trailer window made a familiar beat that Eddie's freshly shaven head nodded along to as he worked the needle in and out of the material in front of him.

The Jedi robe of Obi-Wan Kenobi from last year was being repurposed into a cloak for Radagast the Brown. It just needed a bit of roughing up and a few random patches of other textures here and there, some feathers and vines. He had picked out the lining of the original to wrap around the cardboard wizard's hat he had made.

Eddie loved Halloween, and after everything else that had been taken away from him this year, he wasn't about to let his favourite time of year join that list.

He takes a moment and looks around his mostly bare room, save a few things he refused to part with. His acoustic guitar last used to play "Do you believe in magic" to his Mama down the phone earlier today as they sang together. A few LP Records he would listen to with his Mama that his Dad wasn't precious over. His small bundle of favourite books, which had allowed him to escape the obstacle course that was living in a new town these last few months. His almost destroyed comfort blanket he'd had since he was a baby. A few of his personalised button-down shirts, though he was rapidly growing out of them physically. Lastly was smuggled under some bedding to get it here, his parent's Ouija Board game.

Eddie loved that thing. Every year on Halloween night, he'd scare his friends with it. Either pushing the planchette himself or using fishing wire to make things around the room fall down, whilst all that was illuminated by candles in the room was the board itself.

But this year, he had neither the friends, the fishing wire, or enthusiasm. He missed home. He missed his Mama, no matter what anyone said about her. He missed his friends and how everything there worked as expected, and people were not as stuck up. It didn't matter if you didn't like sports, read books and had longer curly hair there.

Eddie knots his thread and bites it off. Then, standing up, he slips on the cloak in an effortless, spinning, fluid motion and twirls around in it before putting on his hat and looking in the mirror. He smiles happily at himself in the mirror for a few seconds until the backfiring of a car makes him hit the deck in a trembling, curled-up ball.

Shaking, he crawls up to the bottom edge of his bedroom window and looks into the twilight with wide fear-filled eyes as the culprit car chugs past and backfires again. "Jesus Christ", he gasps in a whisper clutching his chest over his rapidly thundering heart.

He scrambles to his feet, takes off his costume and hangs it up in his minimalist wardrobe. As he does so, he looks up at the box hidden under the blanket. There was no one to play it with this year, Wayne sure wouldn't go for it, and so far this year, Eddie had successfully made a grand total of zero friends.

Everyone was just so tough in this town. Tough personalities, tough to get along with, tough to read, tough luck, Eddie thought.

'Ah, screw it', he thinks and grabs the box and pulls it down to the floor next to his bed, ready to push underneath should he be disturbed.

He turns out the main light and uses his bedside table lamp so only the board is illuminated. The rest of the room slowly slipping into dim light and finally into inky black in its deepest recesses.

Feeling slightly uneasy in the silence, he turns the radio on low for company.

Eddie sits on the rug, the board in front of him. He reverently places his fingers on the planchette. He moves it around in circles, increasing and decreasing in size and velocity. He begins with his usual performance piece, but this time in a whisper, "I welcome all that mean well and none that wish me harm".

He sits in the low light accompanied by a late-night radio DJ, his fingers lightly touching the planchette while waiting on the board. The plastic felt warm now after warming it up by rushing it around the board.

Eddie feels disappointed in the lack of movement. He'd obviously only ever used it to scare his friends before. He had no idea if something like this would ever actually work. Then he remembers he hasn't even asked a question yet. He speaks quietly into the corner of his room. "Is there anyone here that wants to speak?"

Eddie waits a few minutes for a response, but the mysterious message indicator does not budge. Finally, he sighs deeply and thinks, "Shit, I can't even make a friend when they have nothing better to do, floating around in the afterlife."

He feels his finger slip on the planchette, or at least that's what he thinks at first until it keeps moving. Not a sudden jolt like he used to do to scare his friends, an almost weak pull, moving his hands with it.

S-A-D.

It spells out gracelessly.

Eddie's eyes were wide again, he'd scream if he had any voice to do so, but it had left him alone with the board and his thoughts.

'You're sad?' He thinks.

His hands are pulled to point at 'NO' and then Y-O-U.

At first, he feels fear. He wants to throw the whole set-up back in the box, hide under his comforter with his blanket, and wait it out until the sun comes up.

The more curious part of Eddie focuses on something else. Someone was talking to him. Responding. Even though it only seemed to want to let Eddie know he was sad. Like he wasn't already acutely aware of it.

Eddie feels shame creep over him. That sadness constantly lurked over him like a rain cloud, but just a constant drizzle of rain, not enough power for a full-blown storm to get it to leave him be. For it to rain itself out, for it to be over. Just the constant steady reminders of everything he'd lost.

He tries to pull the indicator towards Good Bye on the board, but this time it pulls back hard.

'E-D-D-I-E'

The sight of his own name being spelt out with power and, this time, speed was enough for him to dump everything back in the box, wrap it back tightly in the blanket, chuck it in the wardrobe, and slam it shut in here.

"Everything ok in there, Eddie?" The deep voice of Wayne rings out in the darkness.

Eddie grabs his blankie and sits against the wall on the bed, with his knees curled up to his chest, terrified but managing to croak out, finally, "No. I had a nightmare. Can I sit with you or call Mama?"

"Tell you what, how about I read you one of your stories, huh?"

Wayne sits on the edge of Eddie's bed. He reads to him until he's so immersed in middle earth that he's quite forgotten his scare and slips into a restful slumber.

That night Eddie dreams of his usual hero's journey. Again, being forced away from his home by an evil tyrant. To live in exile. To battle the terrors of a new land. But this time, something changes. His weapons and armour are gone, and he has no staff to even cast a spell. In their place, all he has is his guitar.

The mighty tiger-headed ancient suea peek, its usual half tiger, half peacock form, was changed to a colossal half tiger half dragon.

He grips the neck and body of the acoustic against his slight frame like it could possibly do anything to save him from his fate.

Then he hears a sound. No. A voice. He can't make out what it's saying. It seems to be speaking in some ancient tongue until he hears something he recognises.

"Eidde! Nosnum Drawde!" It was speaking backwards.

He thinks fast, "em pleh". He shouts against the roars of the gigantic beast.

"YALP!!" The voice booms in a low multi-layered voice.

Eddie does precisely that. He strums his guitar, and a deep cackle sounds out in stereo around him. Then a swirling grey mist begins to spiral around him. Within it, he sees demonic faces, faces pleading for help, sobbing faces and screaming faces. Until, like a reverse bolt of lightning, it shoots into the sky. Then appears to crash back down into his mouth and into his guitar.

He feels the mist consume him from the inside out, and he lets out an ear-splitting yet tuneful scream like he's singing. It reminds him of something, a Led Zeppelin song. Then his arm strums at his guitar without his command, but the clean, beautiful strum is gone. In its place, a distorted gravelly howl of an electric guitar forced the air before him to ripple.

The chugging rhythm he plays quietens the beast, shrinking it until Eddie's left hand is dragged forcefully to the higher, smaller frets. His fingers dance rapidly over the strings, hammering on and off them, his picking hand a blur, causing the guitar to squeal out its solo beautifully. He bends the strings aggressively, and it feels good. He felt powerful. He looks back up at the beast, glaring at it now and takes a step forward, then another and another until he runs towards it.

The beast recoils in fear away from him. Eddie raises his hand, and with a final hard strum of the strings, a boom emits from him, stripping the beast of everything but its bones which clatter to the ground. The dust they stir up clouds and completely obstructs Eddie's vision until his eyes open to a new morning.

Slowly waking up, he looks back to his closet and wonders. The light streaming through the window removed at least one spooky element.

Eddie hates feeling scared, especially in his own home.

Decision made. He gets out of bed, takes a deep breath and opens the closet.

Lays out the board again in front of him as he sits on the floor.

"I welcome all that mean well and none that wish me harm", he whispers as he warms up the board by circling the planchette around it.

"You scared me last night," he says quietly.

S-O-R-R-Y spells out slowly.

"Did you speak through my dream?" Eddie quietly asks

I-H-E-L-P-U it says, moving faster.

"It was a metaphor, right?"

The planchette pulls to 'Yes.'

Eddie sits still for a minute, trying to think what to ask next, "Can you help me make friends here?"

Eddie's hands get flung around the board by the indicator "Yes" M-A-N-Y.

Eddie likes the sound of that, "What do I need to do?"

H-E-A-V-Y-M-E-T-A-L

Eddie contorts his face. "Like a steel girder?"

"No" M-U-S-I-C

Eddie tries to ask a question, but the board has other ideas.

B-L-A-C-K-S-A-B-B-A-T-H is spelt out as his arms are pulled around the board.

Eddie wracks his brain. That sounded familiar.

"Are they like a band?"

"Yes" L-I-S-T-E-N-P-L-A-Y

The planchette moves around the board at a feverish pace, and Eddie can barely keep up.

"Hey! Whoa! Whoa!" Eddie says a little loudly, as his fingers feel stuck to the indicator and yanks his tiny frame around, pulling him from letter to letter frantically.

Eddie screws up his face and feels the anger build up in him. He was sick of being pushed around but everyone, and now this.

He lets out a yell of pure anguish.

The plastic beneath his fingers slows.

"Yes" L-E-T I-T O-U-T

"You promise the music will help?" Eddie asks weakly and quietly. He's pretty confident he can hear Wayne listening at the door after he cried out.

"Yes" O-N M-Y S-O-U-L

Eddie hears a gentle tapping on his door and quickly bundles up the board and shoves it under his bed.

"Eddie? You ok in there? Want some pancakes? We can go to the diner?"

Wayne's voice though deep and gruff is gentle and almost sad.

"Yes, please" He grabs his wash bag and opens the door.

Wayne backs up a few steps so Eddie can get to the bathroom. Eddie gives him a silent nod, looks away quickly and hurries into the bathroom.

He looks at himself in the mirror. The dark circles under his eyes and the yellowing bruise near his temple shouldn't be something a thirteen-year-old should probably have. Still, nothing about anything recently had been normal.

When his Dad finally got put away, he thought his problems were over, it would just be him and his Mom, and that was perfect.

And it was... for a few months, Eddie's house had never felt so openly full of laughter. They didn't have to watch the clock or listen out for cars. But then the red-lettered bills started arriving, and his Mom got sad.

She tried to transport some product for one of his Dad's old friends. It would have made them a life-changing amount of money, but she'd been arrested before she'd even stepped onto that plane. Someone had squealed.

Eddie had been pulled out of class and sent to his grandparents. But, unfortunately, no one could afford the bail. Eddie was beside himself, and his grandparents were no better than his Dad. Every time he cried, he got in trouble, so he acted out in other ways. Ways that they didn't like either, but at least they just shouted at him and didn't call him names for it.

Moodiness, slamming doors, general disobedience, which grew into other things stealing cigarettes, stealing beers, slashing tires and stealing the tractor.

Then after learning his Mom would have to stay in prison, despite Eddie pleading that they could run away together. He shut himself in his room and cried like never before. His grandfather raged at him and threatened to smash his guitar, and that was all it had taken for Eddie to go out in the night and set their barn ablaze.

He knew Wayne but hadn't spent much time with him. Eddie was worried he would just be like the other Munsons, so he was wary, but Wayne did seem to care. He let Eddie call his Mom and wasn't overly strict. So Eddie was trying his best to behave here.

Eddie ran his hand over his shaven head. It had been such a mess when in a temper, he'd hacked at it himself in a rage. Luckily one of the people in the trailer park was a hairdresser, and Wayne asked for their help. But learning his beautiful dark waves and curls were no more had made his Mom cry on the phone. He hoped it was worth it.

He showered, brushed his teeth and put on a fresh pair of jeans and one of his checked button-down shirts. He lovingly strokes his fingers over the initial embroidered by his Mom on the pocket.

"You're gonna need your coat, Eddie. Probably a hat, too, on account of your new hair cut" Wayne offers a small half smile and hands Eddie a coat and hat.

He looks up at Wayne, takes the items carefully, and quickly puts them on.

The car ride to the diner is silent. Eddie stares out the passenger side window, and Wayne focuses on the road.

"Hey, how about we go to the toy shop before we get pancakes, huh?" Wayne asks gently.

"Ok", Eddie answers quietly. Even though he wasn't really interested in toys all that much.

"Or we could go someplace else if you wanna?" Wayne tries again.

Eddie looks over at him quickly and then back out the window before asking faintly, "Is there a music store?"

"There sure is. one of the biggest stores we got, funnily enough", Wayne says enthusiastically. "Want me to come with you, or you wanna have a look-see by yourself?"

Eddie doesn't know the correct answer to this question or the reaction either answer might cause, so he stares out the window hoping Wayne will decide for him.

"Either is fine, Eddie. I can come with you, get you a few records, or you know I can give you some pocket money, and you get 'em yourself. I can wait outside, in the car, or at the diner. Whatever you want, buddy," Wayne adds kindly.

Eddie thinks for a moment. He wasn't sure who was gonna be in the store, and he didn't really want any of the kids from his school to see him with Wayne, but he also was afraid he'd run into the kids from his school and get hurt again.

"Hmmm, what if I go into the music store, and you can go in the store next door?" Eddie asks, expecting the worst.

"Absolutely no problem. Well, it might have to be two stores down because...well...the store next door is for...um...ladies," Wayne says awkwardly.

Eddie smiles a little as he looks out the window as they pull into a parking spot.

Wayne hands Eddie a considerable amount of money. Eddie thinks more than Wayne probably has to spare, as his eyes widen, looking at the money in his hand.

"Now you don't gotta spend it all in there, but it's yours, ok? So if you wanna go someplace else, you let me know, yeah?" Wayne says with a gentle smile.

Eddie swallows nervously and nods, shoving the money in his pocket and getting out of the car.

Wayne points out the store to him and then points at the hardware store to let Eddie know where he'll be.

Eddie walks into the store and is hit by a wall of heat. He looks around at the different music genre placards around the store but can't see what he's looking for.

"Well, hello there, young man", a woman's voice chirps, "Can I help you today?". Eddie reads her badge. Claudia.

She seemed nice, with full rosy cheeks, smiling eyes and a gentle demeanour. She raises her eyebrows at Eddie in encouragement.

"D-do you h-have any...um...metal?" Eddie stutters out quietly.

"Metal?" She chuckles heartily, "No honey, this is a music store. The hardware store is down the street, but even there, you're gonna have to be a little bit more specific than metal."

"Oh...um...heavy metal...er...b-b-b-black Sabbath", Eddie manages to force out.

Claudia looks at him, confused and tilts her head.

Eddie doesn't know if it's his embarrassment or the heating in this place, but he's almost sweating, so he undoes his jacket and takes off his hat.

Claudia gasps as she looks at his hair.

"H-h-had a fight with some clippers. They w-w-won," Eddie tries to joke.

Claudia's expression though still concerned, a small smile returns to her face, "A little comedian, I see. Let me ask my friend over here about your, Black Sabbath, was it?"

Eddie nods, smiles at her and follows her to a guy hunched over a box with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair in a low ponytail.

He turns sleepily to Claudia, a thin-lipped but happy smile on his face, his eyes barely open. "What is up, Mrs H?"

"Well, Ricky. This young gentleman was looking for something I hadn't heard of...Heavy Metal? He mentioned Black Sabbath if that helps?" She asks hopefully.

The man slowly looks around Claudia, and one-half of his smile turns upward even more, "This little guy? He's into downer rock?" He looks Eddie up and down and nods at him with a look of approval, "Nice!"

"CLAUDIA!! PHONE FER YA" a voice booms out from the back of the store.

"Oh, that might be Dusty. I'm sorry, sweetie. I'll be right back." As she rushes to the back of the store.

"Not to worry, my young friend Rick is gonna get you where you wanna go" Rick stretches up his arms to the ceiling. Eddie wrinkles his nose. This guy smelt odd. Not bad. Just odd.

"Follow me, little dude" Rick waves him over to some records and starts flicking through them. He turns to Eddie, "That term you're usin' is pretty fresh, you know? You not from round here."

Eddie stares at him wide-eyed and shakes his head in a no.

"You know, if I was a betting man, and I have been known to bet, looking at your hairdo, I woulda guessed you a punk," Rick says in a relaxed tone.

Eddie panics. He can't believe rumours have flown around so quickly here. "A punk? No sir, I'm a good kid."

Rick lets out a big goofy laugh and wiggles Eddie by the shoulder, "No man, the music punk. You know it?"

Eddie shakes his head again.

"What's your name, little guy?"

"Eddie", it almost comes out in a whisper.

"Well, Eddie, are you in for a night of mind-blowing musical exploration courtesy of one Reefer Rick" Rick points his thumbs towards himself.

"First port of call, do you have a stereo with a headphone jack?"

Eddie nods

"Do you have any headphones? Because believe me when I say you are gonna need 'em, your Ma ain't gonna like this."

Eddie looks at the ground a little sadly.

"Oh hey now", Rick puts his hand on Eddie's shoulder, "You ok, little dude?"

"I don't live with m-m-my folks," he says sheepishly.

Rick sleepily smiles at him, "All I meant was a lot of folks would find this music a bit loud or scary. If it ain't pop or country and teens listen to it, it gets a bad rep. It's just music. They used to say The Beatles, The Stones and Elvis were all in league with the Devil at one time, and now you can listen to 'em over Sunday lunch, right?" Rick does a hip-swinging Elvis move.

Eddie giggles, feeling more at ease and excited to be talking about something he loves. His stutter calms. "Right. I've got headphones at home. Is this heavy metal easy to play?"

Rick raises his eyebrows at Eddie, "You're a musician?"

"I play the guitar a little" Eddie smiles up at him.

"Well, al-right! A fucking rockstar already, right? What you got? A strat-type guitar? You look like a strat kinda guy." Rick gives Eddie a vast toothy grin of excitement.

"It's an acoustic", Eddie says with a little too much excitement and then looks around nervously before retreating back behind his quiet mask.

Rick matches his initial energy. "Well, firstly, punk generally might be a little more simple to play than the heavy stuff, but are you gonna love the guitar solos from Sabbath and Priest!!! I'd definitely recommend getting a second-hand electric as soon as you can, my friend. Also, you don't need to be shy around me, little buddy. You're good here."

The bell of the store door rings, and a group of kids from Eddie's school pile in. Eddie quickly puts on his hat and moves out of their eye line.

"So I'll just take these, yeah?" Eddie tries to hurriedly grab the records Rick is holding.

Rick holds them up higher, "These kids givin' you shit?"

Eddie says nothing.

"Wait here, my friend," Rick says, handing him two records. One has a UK import sticker on it, a bright white face with a leather and studded hat, and sunglasses with blasts of red on them. Judas Priest. Killing Machine.

The other has a woman in black clothing near a pond and an old building, but the colours are strange, making the scene quite creepy. Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath.

Rick comes back around the corner, "Hey man., I've set Claudia on them. They'll be outta here in no time", he chuckles.

Eddie looks puzzled, "Is she mean? She was nice to me."

Rick shakes his head, "It's not that, buddy. She's super nice, but kids your age sometimes find her a little...um...much" The bell over the door rings again, and just like Rick said, they'd left. Leaving Claudia shrugging in the middle of the floor.

It's at that moment Eddie is glad he isn't friends with them. Especially if they were mean to someone as kind as Claudia. She'd been so nice to him.

Rick turns to another section and gets two more records. The Stooges Raw Power and Ramones Rocket to Russia and hands them over to Eddie.

"How are you boys getting on?" Claudia asks kindly.

Eddie beams up at her and displays the records. Claudia looks between the records and Rick, her eyes finally landing on Eddie, "Well, now, don't they look nice" she smiles.

Rick, Claudia and Eddie head over to the register.

"Mrs H, seeing as you helped me make a new bud today, how about you take these sales, huh? For you and Dusty" He smiles and hands her over the records.

She looks at them and back at Eddie, "You know, Ricky. I think these ones are priced wrong. I'm pretty sure we've got a one-day-only sale on heavy metal, don't we?"

Rick furrows his brow for a second and then smiles. He hands her the price tag gun. "Oh yeah, totally forgot to put up the sign. I swear I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on. I'm pretty sure it was something like 4 albums for $6.66" his goofy laugh fills the store, and Eddie laughs a little too.

"You know that sounds right" She puts the albums in a bag for Eddie, and he gives her $10.

Eddie looks between the first two kind people he's met in this town that weren't Wayne.

"Keep the change, please. For all your help," Eddie says nervously, looking between them both.

Claudia looks like she just might cry, and Rick gives Eddie a big dopey smile.

"You know what, little man. You're welcome back here anytime. We won't let anyone bother you here, kay? I think you're gonna love those records. If we get any heavy metal in, We'll put a copy in the new Eddie box," Rick adds.

Eddie smiles back, "Thank you," he says before zipping up his jacket, adjusting his hat, taking the bag of records and clinging closely to them, and going to find Wayne.

"Got everything you wanted, Eddie?" Wayne asks.

"Er...yeah...and..." Eddie reaches into his pocket for the extra $10 and gives it back to Wayne, who looks at him surprised and gives him an endearing smile back.

"That was for you, Eddie. Tell you what. I'll keep it safe for ya. Maybe for your next trip to that there record store." Wayne says, tucking the money in his inside jacket pocket as they walk towards the diner.

"I could go back?" Eddie says, then covers his mouth quickly, eyes widened in fear. He didn't mean to let that out. He feels his heart pound in his chest, worrying about Wayne's reaction.

Wayne gently reaches for Eddie's hand, which is covering his mouth, which Eddie initially flinches away from. Wayne looks at the ground, "Easy now, kid" Wayne asks with a soft gruffness and reaches for Eddie's hand again.

Eddie is watching Wayne's hand get closer to his. He can't peel his eyes away. Then, to his surprise, Wayne gently moves Eddie's fingers from his mouth and his hand away from his face.

"Look at me, Eddie." Eddie's wide doe eyes shoot up to Wayne's, possibly still in shock. "I'm not gonna hurt you, ok" Eddie looks around the street and can see people staring at them.

Wayne lets go of Eddie's hand and follows Eddie's eye line, "Tell you what, let's talk about this inside, but answerin' your question. Yes, you can go back." He gives a closed mouth little smile at Eddie and gets a half smile in return.

Wayne finds them a booth tucked away in the corner, and the waitress comes over.

"Afternoon Wayne, and who is this sweet little fella?" She asks. Eddie looks at her and reads her name badge, 'Patty'. She looks a similar age to his Mom.

"This here is my nephew, Eddie. He's gonna be staying with me," Wayne says proudly.

"Well, welcome to Hawkins, handsome. What can I get you?" She asks Eddie with her notepad and pen at the ready.

Eddie blushes furiously and looks down at the table, trying to hide the smile threatening to form on his face.

"Erm...p-p-p", Eddie tries. His smile fades as his nervous stutter gets out of his control.

Patty crouches down, tilts his chin towards her, and looks him in the eyes. "Hey there, sweetheart, take a big deep breath for me, yeah."

Eddie does as asked, and she opens a menu in front of him on the table, "Why don't you have a read of this, and when you're ready, you let me know what you'd like, ok honey?"

Eddie scans the menu, breathing deeply, calming himself and finds what he was trying to say, "Blueberry Pancakes...please...Patty," Eddie manages after a minute or so.

She positively beams back at him, "See, you handle those letters just fine, don't ya. Just need to take your time." Then, she turns to Wayne, "Usual for you?"

He nods, and Patty leaves them to it.

Wayne taps each corner of a little beer mat as it turns between his fingers. He finally blurts out, "I'm sorry you didn't come to me first. I didn't think I was ready to look after a kid. Still don't, but when I heard what happened...where you'd ended up...well..." he sighs deeply, "I lived in that house too, but you don't ever have to go back there, ok? Never"

Eddie nods, looking down at the menu, avoiding Wayne's eyes.

"I know it's not easy, but I hope you can trust me one day. I don't mean you any harm, Eddie. I just want to try my damnedest to make you a home where you're safe, that's all," Wayne says quietly.

Eddie hears his words and wonders. Could he be different? Could Wayne have grown up in that house and not been like his grandparents and Dad? Eddie was so distrustful of him. Any minute he could switch on him, just like they did. On the other hand, he did sound like he was trying his best.

"Thank you, Sir," Eddie says and makes a second of eye contact with Wayne as he does.

"Sir", Wayne pretends to shudder, "I never much liked that, too much like 'The Man', people who demand your respect before earning it, you know? So you can just call me Uncle Wayne or Wayne if you like?"

Eddie glances up again and gives him a small smile, "Ok, Wayne."

Eddie sees a smile appear on Wayne's face that reminds him of his Mom. The kind that made the corner of their eyes crease and their pupils sparkle. A real one, Eddie thought.

Eddie takes off his hat and jacket and places them neatly next to him.

"Now let's see what you've been treating yourself to, huh?" Wayne says, reaching for the record store bag on the table.

Eddie puts his hand on it quickly, nervous energy running through him. Rick said he wouldn't like it, and how could he explain where he heard about it? Eddie could end up locked away somewhere, and no one would believe him.

Wayne raises his hands in submission, "Sorry, didn't mean to pry, was just interested to see what you like."

Eddie tilts his head a little. Interested? Eddie thinks for a minute. Maybe he could show him one or two.

Eddie selects the album with the safest cover, Ramones - Rocket to Russia, pulls out the album and hands it over to Wayne, who accepts it gently and looks at the cover and turns the album in his hands.

He reads for a bit, and then Wayne's eyebrows raise. Eddie braces for the worst. It wasn't even the most offensive looking of the bunch.

"I wonder if these are covers, here look. There are songs with the same title as ones that came out before you were born" Wayne points to Do you wanna dance and Surfin' Bird.

"Does that mean Mama might know 'em too?" Eddie asks excitedly.

"If they're the ones I'm thinking, absolutely. Your Mama loved to dance. She'd know 'em" Wayne smiles warmly at Eddie.

"Will you listen to these songs with me? Make sure they're the ones?" Eddie asks, leaning over the table towards Wayne and looking up at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. We can do that. No problem." Wayne's smile is enormous, and Eddie feels something he hasn't felt for a long time, excitement. He's looking forward to something. Maybe this wasn't gonna be so bad.

Patty returns with a hot chocolate for Eddie, piled twice as high with whipped cream and marshmallows, and a coffee for Wayne, "Here you go, gentlemen."

The peak of whipped cream sways as it makes its way down to the table in front of Eddie. "On the house" she smiles at Eddie and then glances at his head.

He tries to make the same joke again. This time it's easier, "I had a fight with some clippers...They won"

Patty lets out a laugh, wholly packaged in joy, wrapped in a ribbon of surprise, which thoroughly infects Wayne and Eddie into doing the same. Eddie looks at them both and feels a little more comfortable.

"Funny too, huh?" She manages when she composes herself. "This town doesn't stand a chance. It's due something good to be true," she beams at Eddie, "I'm gonna see how you're pancakes are coming along, honey."

Wayne takes a sip out of his coffee, "You know, when I was a kid, I loved music. I remember when I was about your age. I had to go into town, take 'em some produce. I was waiting, and there were these kids there...well, they were older than me at the time...slicked back hair, black leather jackets and dirty blue jeans like the guys on your album there. We called 'em greasers on account of the stuff in their hair. They were just passin' through. Some kinda youth motorcycle cavalcade. Most folks despised 'em, not the diner, though, cus they were making a lotta money offa 'em. Anyway, they're playin' this music I ain't never heard before in my whole life. And this girl with them notices my foot a-tappin', and she asks me for a dance. She didn't wait for an answer, mind. Scooped me up, she did, danced me round that whole place until I was leadin' her. I was redder than strawberry, I don't mind tellin' ya, but that music got under my skin like nothin' else. Anyways I got home, got a hidin' because gossip travels faster than a thirteen-year-old boy apparently, but you can bet your ass I got me some of those records. No surprise to you, I'm sure, but they got smashed up for all different reasons, and none of those reasons made a blind bit a sense. Some folks said it was wicked music, couldn't see it myself. It just had a good beat. I lost my whole doo-wop and rock n roll collection to the trash, except for at the diner. They couldn't smash those."

Eddie listens to the story, totally engrossed, leaning over the table at Wayne. He hadn't detected a small whipped cream peak on the end of his nose yet, as he sipped his hot chocolate, never taking his eyes from Wayne as he detailed the story.

He nervously takes the other three albums out of the bag and hands them to Wayne, "The guy in the store said folks might not like it, so I was worried. But, please, don't break them. I can take 'em back and get your money refunded. The people in there were real nice."

Wayne waves his hand, "No need. I'm not gonna break 'em, boy. It's just music. Maybe I won't like it, understand and ask you to turn it down on occasion, but it doesn't mean you can't have it." Wayne laughs, "Would you believe I've actually heard of these two?" Wayne holds up the Black Sabbath album and the Stooges album, "Heard about 'em after 'nam. One of the guys, Houston, from my platoon, got into them when he got home. I didn't hear the music, just the names."

Eddie notices Wayne look a little sadly out of the window for a few seconds and then quickly turns his attention back to the albums and Eddie. Wayne hands the albums back, "Kids are always gonna have music the older folks won't like because they don't get it, but it wasn't made for them" he gives Eddie a smile.

"You got a little something right there" Wayne points at his own nose, and Eddie quickly runs his fingers over his and finds a blob of whipped cream.

Wayne chuckles, and Eddie joins in quietly.

Soon enough, the pancakes arrive, the blueberries arranged in a smiley face. Eddie looks up at Patty, "Thank you, Ma'am", as he gives her a half smile before tucking into his pancakes.

Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad here, he thought. Perhaps this is what the board meant. The music had helped him gain friends today. Sure not like his peers like he wanted, but people had been kind to him, and he learned a little more about Wayne.

When they get home, Wayne sits with Eddie, and they play some of the albums and listen together before Wayne has to go to work the night shift. The first night shift since Eddie got here, he said it paid better money. Wayne had introduced him to the neighbours in case he got scared, or anything went wrong, he could go see Mrs Roberts or Ms Grant.

It turns out that the music wasn't really to Wayne's taste, maybe in parts a little creepy, but Eddie loved it because it was so immersive. They confirmed that the two songs on the Ramones albums were indeed covers, and when the time came, Eddie played bits of the record down the phone to his Mama.

Her ripple of giggles down the phone line fills Eddie's heart like a hot air balloon. He grips the phone cord like he's frightened he might float away.

"Oh, I sure remember those songs, baby bear" He can hear her beautiful smile as she talks, "You gonna learn 'em for your Mama? Before you run off and be a big-time rock star?"

"Even if I did become a rockstar, I'd always make sure to play them for you, Mama," He says gently.

"Oh, that's nice to hear, bear" She coughs, and it turns into a loud stream of coughs and spluttering.

Eddie grips the handset, "Mama? MAMA??!! Are you ok??" His eyes widen with panic as he shouts into the phone, pleading, "Are you still there, Mama? Can you hear me?" His eyes darted to Wayne for help, but what could he do? He was stuck hundreds of miles away, just like Eddie.

"Sorry, baby bear, I'm right here" her voice sounded weak, and her words were croaky, "Just a nasty cough, that's all. Listen, I gotta go, but we'll talk real soon, ok sweetheart? I love you so much, Eddie. I love you 1, 2, 3...."

"Forever," they say together.

Eddie sighs. The calls always seem to end so quickly. He missed her so much that it physically hurt sometimes.

"Come on, buddy. She'll be ok. Let's get you something to eat." Wayne tries

Eddie feels a stab of anger surge through him. What did Wayne know? His Mom was stuck in prison, not a spa retreat. It was terrible. She didn't belong there. She belonged at home. She belonged with Eddie.

He glares at Wayne, contorting his face into a deep frown, clenching his fists and tensing his body.

Wayne sits back down, nods at Eddie and casts his eyes to the floor.

Eddie storms off to his room, slamming his door behind him and making the whole place shake. He turns on his stereo and turns it up as loud as possible. He picks up a pillow from his bed, slams his face into it and yells before slamming it back down on his bed and punching it repeatedly until his arms are as sore as his eyes are.

Then the tears came, like rivers coursing down his face, as he threw his head forward into his hands. Thankfully, the music was loud enough to hide his guttural sobs.

It wasn't fair.

He couldn't do anything about any of this. He felt so helpless and out of control. He hated feeling this way. No one understood. He just wanted to feel normal. Not afraid, not full of rage, not full of sadness. Eddie flops back down onto his bed and hides under his tear-stained pillow.

Alone in the trailer, Eddie gets his guitar later that night and tries to work out some songs and how to play them. Some sounded weird on an acoustic, but some songs lend themselves to that.

His fingertips had started to ache a little, so he put the Black Sabbath album on again. The beginning scene, setting with the rain and bell tolls, the moodiness of the music draws his eyes back to where the ouija board lies in the darkness. Eddie lies down on the floor on his stomach and reaches into the inky black under his bed until his fingers meet the blanket, and he pulls the board back into the low light of his room.

Eddie sets out the board and, with no one home, asks aloud this time, "Hello, is anyone there?"

Without any warming up this time, the planchette forcefully pulls him towards 'Yes.'

"I got the music. I like it. I'm learning to play it. Like you said"

G-O-O-D

"My Mama-" he starts.

S-I-C-K

"Yeah"

E-D-D-I-E T-H-E H-E-R-O

"I can save my Mama?" Eddie asks hopefully

R-O-C-K-S-T-A-R

Eddie is utterly confused and thinks for a moment, "I need to play her the songs?"

R-U-N-N-E-R

Eddie, still bewildered, tries to ask something, but he's already being pulled around the board again, increasingly fast and forcefully.

L-E-A-D-E-R

F-R-E-A-K

"Ok, that's enough!"

B-A-N-I-S-H-E-D

"No! This is wrong. I'm not...please," Eddie cries out, his fingers feel welded to the planchette as it circles the board. Finally, it stops, but Eddie cannot release it. Instead, it forcefully and purposefully moves to its following letter, and grooves appear in the board as it scrapes between the letters.

K-I-L-L-E-R

"No. That's not true!!" Eddie yells out.

A cold chill creeps up Eddie's back and over his shoulders. Like someone's ice-cold hands. He realised what he forgot to say before he started using the board today.

"You aren't who I was talking to last time, are you?" Eddie whimpers out as it points to no, the clear window in it cracks, and feels his fingers detach from the plastic.

The planchette flies from the board, throwing him backwards and Eddie ducks just in time for it to fly past his head, where it stabs forcefully into the wall.

Eddie starts crawling backwards out of his room, never taking his eyes from the planchette currently vibrating in the wall like it was trying to dislodge itself.

Eddie slams his door shut and runs out of the trailer, desperate to remember whose trailer was who's.

As he runs, he turns back to the trailer and hears an almighty crash, but he keeps going until he's at a door Eddie thinks he recognises.

He wants to hammer on the door for them to let him in, but he's already in so much trouble. He taps a few times. His grateful eyes stare at an old, wizened, shawled Ms Grant.

"Oh, Ms Grant. It's me, Eddie. I live with Wayne. I was wondering if I could wait with you a while?" He says, out of breath, looking back at the trailer a few times.

"Something spooked ya, boy?" She says, looking through her tiny spectacles and down her nose at him.

"You could say that," Eddie says, casting a fearful look back at the trailer.

She purses her wrinkled mouth, "Wait there, don't move, young'un."

Eddie is so desperate to get into a safe place he contemplates barging past her to safety, but he waits, sweating with terror, but he waits all the same.

Ms Grant returns, hobbling back into view on her walking stick, with something burning in her hand. She motions with it, wiggling it around in the space in front of Eddie and around his head. It smelt weird.

"Ok, now you can step inside, boy" she steps awkwardly to the side and lets him in, wafting the smokey stick behind him.

Eddie looks around her trailer. It was a place at odds with itself. One half what you'd expect for a little old lady floral painted crockery and tea set, patchwork blankets, a tub of knitting and yarn balls, a stack of puzzle books, and an old TV blaring out some game show in the corner.

Meanwhile, amongst all these things were plants hanging from the ceiling in bundles, a set of rifles, a set of hunting knives, candles, a rainbow of what looked like rocks or pebbles, some weird-looking books and symbols drawn all around in some sort of powder.

"Thank you, Ms Grant. Would you mind if I stayed until Wayne gets home?" Eddie says with relief and hopefulness.

She was busy hobbling over to the kitchen area. "Oh, yes, of course, young 'un. I've been expecting ya" she smiles a mostly toothless smile and brings over two already-made cups of tea.

Eddie rushes over to help her with the tray.

"Mighty kind of ya, Eddie. Just set it down over there" She loosely gestures to a small table between two armchairs, one of which she settles into, picks up her cup and takes a sip.

"I know you're new here, but you should know this place isn't the quaint small town it seems." She rocks back in her chair and peers at Eddie over the rim of her cup, "Wanna share what spooked ya?" She says, raising her eyebrows which only seem to exponentially multiply the wrinkles on her forehead.

"Erm..." Eddie starts, he couldn't possibly tell her the truth, but he got the feeling she would be able to know if he lied, "I thought something flew past me in my room, and I got scared and ran."

"Like a poltergeist?" She says, leaning forward in her chair, so it ceases its squeaky rocking.

Eddie looks at her blankly. She picks up her stick and gestures to a box on top of the bookshelf, "Get that for me, would ya?"

Eddie puts his teacup down and goes to get the box for her.

As he clambers up on a nearby stool and retrieves the box, he notices some booklets lying down on one of the shelves. The cover shows an armoured hero fighting a faceless armoured villain, presumably.

"Like that game too, do ya?" She croaks out as Eddie descends to the floor and puts the box in front of her. As the box makes contact with the floor, the thick layer of dust on top of it springs up, throwing him into a coughing fit.

Eddie grabs his tea, takes a sip, and peers into the box as he manages, "That book is a game?".

Below the layer of dust Eddie can see candles of all shapes, sizes and colours and more bundles of herbs.

"Well, I'd hardly call it a book, dearie, but yes, my great nephew Paul loves playing it. So if you wanna borrow it, go ahead. I know where you live if you don't return it." She cackles.

"Maybe next time he visits, you can meet him, he's a little younger than you, but he doesn't have many friends either," she says creakily as she pokes through the box with her stick.

"I'd really like that, thank you," Eddie says politely. Slightly concerned, as below the candles, weirder things are emerging from the box, bones, teeth, tiny dolls, little bottles or liquids.

Ms Grant leans down towards the box. Eddie swears he hears twenty different joints pop or creak as she does. She picks things out of the box and starts loading Eddie up with them.

"What's all this for, Ms Grant?" Eddie looks down into his arms at the collections of trinkets, herbs, and candles.

"We're gonna go over to yours and cleanse it," she says matter-of-factly, "You see, it sounds to me like you have an unwelcome visitor."

Eddie nods, the fear that what happened becoming confirmed as real is even more troubling than what he ran away from.

"We'll go over there and sort it all out for you, youngun'."

She reaches up her old wrinkled hand to Eddie, and he gently helps her back to her feet and helps her down her trailer stairs and up into his own.

"Where'd it happen?" She says gently. Eddie points a shaky hand to his bedroom.

Ms Grant starts to plod towards it, her smudge stick of burning herbs still in her hand. Eddie reaches out to stop her, "You aren't seriously thinking about going in there, are you?" he says with alarm.

"We've gotta get rid of it, young'un. Do you want that thing hanging 'round ya forever?"

Eddie shakes his head rapidly, his face etched with absolute fear, his mouth is trying to form words, but he seems unable to get them out. The frustration builds, and he wrinkles his nose and clenches his fist at himself in frustration. Finally, he takes the smoking bundle of herbs from Ms Grant and moves in front of her, quietly and cautiously moving towards the door.

His free shaking hand reaches out in slow motion to the handle. His fingertips make contact, and he glances back over his shoulder at Ms Grant, who, to his alarm, is nowhere to be seen. He frantically looks over his other shoulder.

"Jesus H Christ!!" He shouts when he is almost nose-to-nose with her. He had no idea how she had snuck up on him so silently.

She's staring past him at the bedroom door. "You know, some of these things, they cling to people, to objects, and they can grow more powerful the more negativity they have to feed off".

She reaches out and touches Eddie's arm. "I know you and Wayne haven't had the best run at life so far. But, I think you both, being in the same place, made a feast for this thing, must be how it got through," she muses, but never taking her eyes from the door.

"Well, it also might be because I used my ouija board. I forgot to do the ward first," Eddie says openly, assuming that he couldn't sound crazier than what was actually happening.

"I doubt that was the cause. It was probably already lurking. It was just waiting for you to believe in it. The board usually acts as communication. Sometimes they might try to attach themselves to a seeker using the board." She says, looking over the door.

Eddie shudders, remembering that ice-cold feeling from earlier, and he starts to feel a panic set in. "I th-th-think it m-m-might have t-t-tried...." He takes a deep breath, " that."

Ms Grant's eyes finally turn to Eddie's, "Then you cannot go back in there!" She snatches the smudge stick from Eddie, the bells in her hand jingle, and from inside his room, Eddie hears a whoosh and another thud, "Stay here. Do not open this door. D'ya hear me, boy?!" She says with authority.

Eddie looks worried, but nods, a little ashamed and steps out of her way.

With bated breath, Eddie watches as she opens the door and slips inside the room quickly, the fastest she's moved since Eddie met her.

He can hear her mumbling something, the bells gently chiming, but he can't quite make it out. He moves closer to the door and presses his ear against it.

WHACK, something hits the other side of the door with force.

"Leave that boy be, evil one! " Ms Grant bellows as Eddie falls back from the door onto his backside, finding himself crawling backwards from his bedroom door for the second time today. He can barely catch his breath. The room seems to be slipping away from him. Almost like it's getting gradually smaller in his vision until it is just a pinprick of light, and then there is only darkness.

Eddie lurches forward, taking a deep gasping breath. He feels the ice cold first, then the water, he rubs it out of his eyes, and Ms Grant swims into vision, "Ah, thought I'd lost ya then, boy." She reaches out a leathery hand to him to help him up. Eddie takes it but uses his own body strength to get back up. "Ya ok?" She asks, and for the first time, she seems to have genuine concern in her eyes for him.

"Don't worry about me. What about you?" He says as he moves into the bathroom to grab a towel for the floor and one for himself.

She smiles at him crookedly, "oh yeah, nothin' to it. Everything is gonna be fine now. Now I hope ya don't mind. I took the liberty of destroying that board and planchette and put you up some of Pauly's posters to cover up some of the damage it caused. You know. Until ya get your own posters."

"Wow! how long was I out for?" Eddie forces himself to laugh, trying not to think of one of the few things he has from home has been destroyed.

"Oh, a few hours, not to worry. You're scrawny enough to easily walk around," she lets out a cackle.

Eddie gives her back a tiny smile and grabs his jacket, "I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you enough, Ms Grant. I still can't believe you believed me!!!" He says in astonishment, zipping up his jacket over his still-damp t-shirt, "Want me to walk you home, Ms Grant?" Eddie offers her his arm.

She sighs, "You know what young 'un. You had a big scare here today. So I'll do you another favour, I'll stay here with ya til Wayne gets home."

Eddie feels the panic rise in him. Wayne might lose his mind if he found out what had happened, or what Eddie had been up to. It must show on his face as she moves to reassure him quickly.

"Ya Uncle, he's a quiet man, keeps to hiself mostly, but he's a good 'un." She says as she moves towards the sofa to sit down, and Eddie follows and sits next to her, "I won't be telling him any of what happened, so don't ya worry your perdy little head 'bout it alright?" She settles back into the sofa, "As for thanks, there's a few things ya can do, actually."

Eddie leans towards her, "Yeah, absolutely anything."

She smiles at him, "Well, first of all, next time Pauly visits, you should come meet him, he's a little strange, but I venture you are too. Next, you can cut your Uncle a lil' slack. He ain't perfect, buts compared to most around here, he's a saint. He was so happy when he could finally get you here with him. Wouldnt shut up about it. Lastly, and this might be the most important thing, I need you to heed me well."

She turns to face Eddie and looks him directly in the eyes, her voice low as if she doesn't want someone to overhear, "This town, it's cursed. Now don't go panicking. It don't mean happiness can't be found here. It's just when big bad weird shit happens around these parts, it's usually Hawkins. What happened here is just a speck of its weirdness. Now, I've done all I can to protect your home, Eddie, but you must be vigilant. Do not let strangers in here. Observe people, and make sure you know who you're befriending. After that spirit passed through here, the veil is thin. If someone comes in here and has evil in 'em or stuck on 'em, it will go off like a powder keg here, ya understand?"

Eddie's eyes go wide, and he recoils slightly, "How will I know if they're bad?"

"That's the thing. Not all those with evil in 'em or on 'em are bad or even look or act bad, Eddie. But if ya know 'em. You'd see a change. Usually, for the worse. Like darkness settling on them. So keep your eyes and ears open, always."

Eddie nods. "I promise."

"That's a good lad," She says proudly, "Now can you get my shows on here?" She points her stick at the TV, and Eddie rushes to turn it on for her.

Eddie cautiously enters his room to get changed. He sees the Motorhead and Deep Purple posters on the wall and the back of the door and that his room looks incredibly tidy. He lets out a sigh of relief as he doesn't feel that same weirdness in here anymore, that tension in the air. He puts on his pyjamas and grabs a blanket, heading back into the living room and curling up in Wayne's armchair.

His eyelids grow heavy, and thoughts swim through his head. Maybe it had been a rough start here, but that was the kind of place Hawkins was, tough to crack.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad now with the few kind people he'd encountered already. Perhaps he could make new friends, but he'd been looking for them in the wrong places. He could find more people like him who didn't fit the norm. Yeah, that would be cool, he thinks as he drifts into a peaceful sleep.

Eddie sits bolt upright, and nearly scares Ms Grant to death. Eddie relaxes a little as he looks around. The crunch of gravel under tyres must have woken him up again. As soon as he looks around and realises he is in Wayne's trailer, he forcefully exhales and relaxes back into the armchair. His heart still pounding in his chest as he moved from Wayne's armchair to the sofa next to Ms Grant.

The door to the trailer opens, and Wayne reverses in quietly.

"Wayne", Ms Grant greets him.

Wayne's head shoots around, "Ms Grant" he nods and takes off his hat, then his eyes adjust to the darkness, "Eddie? Everything ok?". Wayne's eyes move between the two of them in a panic.

"Oh sure, sure", Ms Grant reassures Wayne kindly, "He just got a bit scared, thought I'd stay til you got back. Beats sitting on my lonesome" she smiles at Eddie and then over at Wayne.

"Well, that's mighty kind of ya, Ms Grant. Anything I can get ya? For your trouble?" Wayne asks gently.

"No, not at all. I'll just be making my way back now," She says, getting up from her seat, and Eddie rushes to assist, pulling on his coat and shoes.

Wayne beams at Eddie and puts his hand on his shoulder, "I can take it from here, buddy, but you can wait here in the doorway for me. So you'll be able to see me the whole time, kay?"

Eddie smiles at Wayne and nods, watching him escort Ms Grant back home before jogging back and dragging in a tall box from the porch, which he lays down on the floor inside the trailer living room.

"Hey. Sorry I was a bit late today. It won't happen again. I got chatting to one of the guys at work, an...um...I just happened to mention you played guitar. He said his boy was learning but switched to bass and said he had this gatherin' dust, so I...er...was gonna surprise you in the mornin' but...er...you're awake now so...um..."

Wayne gestures at the box awkwardly.

Eddie approaches carefully, kneels down and opens the box lid.

Eddie can barely believe it, but it's an electric guitar. He must sit there staring over it wide-eyed and open-mouthed for at least a whole minute.

"Look, I know it doesn't have an amplifier, cables, an' stuff. But I figure you can still practice on it until we get some and-" Wayne is explaining, trying to fill the silence as he turns his cap in his hands before Eddie speaks.

"Thank you, Wayne, so very much. You didn't have to do this. I already have a guitar. It's beautiful...I...but...Won't it be loud?" he turns and looks up at Wayne, a little worried.

Wayne crouches down next to Eddie but leaves him a safe gap between them. Wayne gives him that big warm smile, "You're supposed to be loud, Eddie. You're a teenager."

"What about the neighbours?" Eddie's brow is still furrowed with worry.

"The way you play, they should count 'emselves lucky to hear it. Besides, most of 'em are either hard o' hearing, or they'll be blastin' their TVs anyway. It's not like you're gonna be playing it at 1am with a wall of Mashall amps, is it?" Wayne chuckles.

"You won't get mad?" Eddie asks, his brow relaxing a little.

"Now, I can't say never, on account of me bein' a mere human bein', but I promise, Eddie...I swear...You're safe here with me, ok?" Wayne goes to reach out to touch Eddie's shoulder but stops himself. "I got no interest in hurtin' you or makin' your life any harder than it already is, ok? I know you ain't had a good representation of family so far, other than your Mama, but Eddie...You're my family. You're my blood. I'm on your side, an' I love you."

Eddie gives Wayne a small, sombre smile.

"I know you're tryin' your best, and things take time, so I'm not rushin' ya. I just wanted to make sure you know, without a shadow of a doubt, how much I care about you and how welcome an' wanted you are here." Wayne adds, standing up, "Anyway, she's all yours."

Eddie reverently takes the Stratocaster copy from its box. He holds it by its neck and starts walking towards his room.

As he opens the door, he turns around and looks at Wayne, "Does this mean I should expect a gift every time you are late home or...." Eddie says as he looks around the trailer ceiling before a playful smile spreads across Eddie's face, creasing the corners of his eyes a little. Finally, his eyes land back on Wayne, and his smile broadens further, causing dimples to imprint in his cheeks.

Wayne runs his hand over his chin, trying to repress a huge grin of his own, nodding as he says, "Good night Eddie."

"Good night, Uncle Wayne," Eddie says softly as he closes the door to his room.

#eddie munson #eddiemunson #eddiemunsonfanfic #eddiemunsonfanfiction #eddie munson fan fic #eddie munson fan fiction #wayne munson #eddie munson wayne munson

[jedibongrip]

I posted 3,495 times in 2022

That's 3,495 more posts than 2021!

341 posts created (10%)

3,154 posts reblogged (90%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bladling

@anakincito

@gffa

@saint-mateusz

@alderaanakins

I tagged 2,648 of my posts in 2022

Only 24% of my posts had no tags

#anakin - 1,027 posts

#obi wan - 948 posts

#m - 245 posts

#ahsoka - 180 posts

#luke - 153 posts

#padme - 77 posts

#leia - 67 posts

#bongrip answers - 67 posts

#maul - 57 posts

#obikin - 38 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#bites him bites him bites him bites him bites him bites him bites him bites himbites him bites him bites him bites him bites him bites him b

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

luke, contacting Force Ghost obi-wan: hey obi-wan do you know where my dad is? i've been trying to talk to him for a few days now and i cant get a hold of him :(

obi-wan: oh you dont know? this is awkward...

luke: what it is? is he okay? where is he?

obi-wan:

luke: O_O WHAT?

obi wan: yes. its all very sad and tragic. sent to space hell

luke, close to tears:...

obi-wan: just kidding, i think he's trying to get corporeal enough that he can knock jars off ahsoka's shelf and annoy her. i'll tell him to talk to you soon

221 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

#4

idk something cute about obikin, when characterized that anakin has loved obi-wan since he was a kid, is just that. anakin gets to fall in love again and again and again. every new phase of life he sees obi-wan differently and he loves him differently. obi-wan treats him differently as they both grow up and anakin finds new things about him to love, new jokes that he understands now, new corners of his personality that were previously hidden, and finds all of them so entrancing. whereas obi-wan's love for anakin shifts and changes over their time together, until romance is all tangled up with i took care of you and will always take care of you and i used to teach you and i always want to be able to teach you and you used to come to me when you were scared, i never want you to be afraid again, anakin just finds new ways to love, always different and exciting, until all his past loves are still obi-wan

245 notes - Posted September 5, 2022

#3

au where obi-wan and anakin are both employees of their respective (state?? planet?? take this au anywhere you want) departments of tourism and part of their jobs is doing the whole social media thing. anakin (who high tailed it out of the desert as soon as he could) is very happy promoting the wonderful lakes, forests, markets, and temperate weather of naboo. obi-wan, after a slight 1/3rd life crisis, is having a blast promoting the beautiful dunes, rock formations, sand boarding, hiking, and tanning opportunities of tatooine.

once anakin finds out that fucking tatooine of all places has a department of tourism, and that theyre trying to make his hometown seem nice, decides that he has enough job security to start ripping this social media account a new one, from the official naboo account. obi-wan, of course, has to retaliate. in between normal, expected posts, about cultural events, true accounts, and cross promotion of different departments, it’s common to see an absolutely scathing review of tatooine canyon or a less than stellar photo of a hot spring from naboo (with the caption you guys really hike 4 hours, spend thousands of credits, just to see a hole with less pressure than my showerhead 🤨🤨 alright then #VisitTatooine #AtLeastOurSunsDontDecideNotToComeOut). onlookers think this is just a funny ‘haha the accounts are trying to personifiy themselves and have a little rivalry’ but no, their coworkers are begging them to stop. please anakin, we know you hate sand, but NABOO cant say that. obi-wan please we cant have people think that everyone on tatooine likes fighting our department is supposed to change that.

they end up meeting at some large conference and they hit it off and when they find out WHERE they work, WHAT department, and WHICH media account they’re in charge of, they’re like the spiderman meme except with more sexual tension.

long story short, they split the difference and end up moving to coruscant when they get married

294 notes - Posted August 26, 2022

#2

should have been a bit more specific padme....

486 notes - Posted October 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

au where anakin is a habitual sugar baby but he doesnt like to do much sexual stuff so he usually dips when his daddies start asking about more than dates. he’s making his way through grad school and doesnt have a lot of time for a ‘normal job’, between TAing and doing research labs, so this works for him, despite his limitations. obi-wan is a hot shot accountant that was conned by his friends into using a sugaring app, since he refused to be endearing on dating apps and hated everyone that his friends tried to set him up with. the goal is just to get him used to ‘putting himself out there’ and no one actually expects him to become a sugar daddy.

anyway he and anakin start chatting, anakin asks obi-wan to take him out to dinner and obi-wan is like “uhh sure” and takes him to a nice, but not overly expensive restaurant, an anakin is like HUH? they start talking and anakin offhandedly mentions some of his spending habits and obi-wan is like “you spend HOW MUCH a month on toys?” (”Gunpla aren’t toys, they’re model kits, and it takes a lot of patience to put them together”) and instead of a normal session, they spend the rest of the evening arguing about anakin’s monthly budget. he almost forgets to ask obi-wan to pay him his usual fee, and when obi-wan hands over the money he’s like, “this better not be going to those ‘gunpla’s when you havent paid your cell phone bill yet”

usually after such a confrontational meeting anakin would NOT be setting up another one. but obi-wan is handsome and funny and he actually had some good advice of how to reshuffle money so he meets with him again and again and soon he has a budget that saves him more money and he can just stay afloat with his pay from TAing and with just one sugar daddy.

and obi-wan, who expected nothing out of this and instead found this sugar baby who he’s kinda obsessed with, certainly isn’t going to argue. and hey, you know, an even better way to save money is by finding a cheaper place to live, anakin, for example, my house, where i don’t charge rent at all. anyway, anakin transitions from a sugar baby to a trophy husband in under a year and obi-wan still side eyes him everytime he buys mecha kits

784 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

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#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #LOVE HOW THATS MY LONGEST TAG LMAOO #also uwu this makes me happy im glad i found such cool n fun ppl to be weird and have fun with #long post

[somethingvicked]

Eddie Munson RP

He chuckled when he heard her scoff from his question, he thought it was cute. He realized why she scoffed though when she answered it, he couldn't help but make a face at the name.

"I see why you're disgusted. You don't strike me as a Jackie, you're definitely a Jodie." he confirmed. "I don't know if my parents had other name ideas for me or not. I live with my uncle." he told her.

"Do you like your middle name?" he wondered. "Have you ever considered going by your middle name?"

His smile fell when she mentioned Billy again. "I may not have known him, but I feel like in a way I can relate. By that I mean he was probably misunderstood right? I definitely understand how that feels." he commented. He chuckled though from her Barry Manilow comment.

She nodded. "Yes, I know you live with your uncle - actually, I live just down the road from you guys at the camp. When ... after Billy died ... well, dear ole dad decided he couldn't cope with it all so he split. Left his new wife, her daughter as well as his own daughter. Susan ... she couldn't afford the house after he left so ... that's why we're living by the trailer. I wanted to take off but Susan wouldn't hear of it, not until I graduate at least. Deep down I also think she wants someone to keep an eye on Max since Susan herself has to work now. So up until graduation I'm staying with her and Max."

She smiled and shook her head when he asked if she wanted to go by her middle name instead of her first one. "No. Don't get me wrong, Alexandra is pretty name, it sounds way more melodious - if that's even a word? - than Jodie. But I've been known as Jodie now for almost 19 years, so I'll stick with it. It's me, for better or worse. Perhaps you can call me Jodi-One," she said, referencing to the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. She guessed Eddie must have seen those, it seemed his type of movies.

She frowned a little as he talked about Billy and that he could relate to him. She could understand that, but it also made her scared in a way, making her grab on to his hand. "Yes, I suppose he was misunderstood in more ways than one. And that it's not entirely his fault for how he turned out like he was, but ... there's the difference between you and him, Eddie. Listen, I don't know you that well, but I know how the jocks and popular kids can be and how they yell 'freaks' after you and your friends. That's disgusting. But you, you've taken what they hurl at you and you've made it your armor. You turn their own weapon against them. Honestly, I find it amazing and ... it shows how strong you are," she told him, lightly rubbing his hand with her thumb. "Because you are. Billy ... I loved my brother, I really did, but ... he took the abuse others hurled at him and in order to stop it, it made him hard. Violent, and with a temper worse than a deadly viper. He turned into one of them, just in a different kind of package," she explained. "His way of dealing with it was to take his rage out on others. You don't. You ... you turned yourself into something better, despite everything."

#submission

[sulevinen]

just a thought that not enough ’no order 66’ aus pay attention to how it affects anakin.

like, most of the time they’ve turned him into a gentle, kind soul who fixes peoples wounds, is a loving husband and a great dad to his twins, as if with palpatine gone and ’telling the truth’ to the jedi council somehow would not result in any repercussions in his part. the jedi wouldn’t just let him walk free, but maybe expel him from the order or at least take away his seat on the council (because it was palpatine’s doing in the first place) and that could further drive anakin’s resentment towards them.

say, fives stopped order 66, and anakin and obi-wan never got to mustafar. still, there are underlying issues that in my opinion just exploded on mustafar, and during the chip arc they are still there. anakin is still bitter, angry, jealous, possessive and controlling, and he fears losing people and is violent.

no order 66 and palpatine’s death doesn’t erase the genocide he committed, the lies he told, the progress he made in descending to the dark side. during the chip arc he is still close to the dark side and to falling. it doesn’t go away with palpatine gone, but more like bubbles under the surface, ready to overflow and take over his actions.

his fear of loss and his attachments are what made him fall to the dark side and commit another genocide. so even with palpatine gone, his fear of losing padme and his newborn twins, his paranoia towards the jedi and his distorted world view are still there, though in smaller scale. and those feelings still have a hold of him, and i think after his twins are born, it can only get worse.

i think when he holds his babies for the first time, all he can think about is what he can lose, in how many ways can they be taken away from him, and what can go wrong. so i think that as padme enjoys her new life as a mom, anakin is just scared. frightened of losing his children. and that’s what is driving him mad. and he’ll do the same as he did in revenge of the sith, do everything in his power to not lose his kids, even if it meant hurting others. call it selfishness or cowardice, that’s what anakin does, that’s what he’s meant to do.

anakin’s whole character was built for the sole purpose to fall, and ’no order 66’ aus won’t change that.

#anyways this is just my perception of his character #i am once again not sure if i’m making sense but #it just bothers me how people think that palpatine was the only thing to make anakin turn #while he did play a huge part in it #anakin still was his own person and those feelings palpatine used against him were very real #and with palpatine gone those feelings aren’t necessarily gone #but rather hiding #and waiting for him to reach his turning point #and he’ll fall again. #whether it’s over the fear of losing his wife or kids or master #he is still scared like always #and i think he was always destined to fall #and so he will. #star wars #sw #anakin skywalker #sunnywrites

[positivityjediprince]

I posted 13,553 times in 2022

That's 6,317 more posts than 2021!

394 posts created (3%)

13,159 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@helloiamstoned

@veradragonjedi

@thewriterowl

@uptown-fuck-up

@mysticmjolnir

I tagged 2,785 of my posts in 2022

#luke skywalker - 238 posts

#dinluke - 185 posts

#din djarin - 168 posts

#kenobi spoilers - 165 posts

#andor spoilers - 91 posts

#grogu - 74 posts

#tbobf spoilers - 70 posts

#bobf spoilers - 69 posts

#eurovision - 66 posts

#cara dune - 64 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#i am greatful that she accepts it at least but i should have known better than to expect her to do anything beyond surface level 🤷‍♂️

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Owen hating all of Luke's previous boyfriends but loving Din because Tired Dad recognises Tired Dad, and the first time they met they both instantly took a Dad Nap TM the moment the TV turned on.

519 notes - Posted March 16, 2022

#4

Anakin: "Absolutely not. No."

Obi-Wan: "Come on Anakin, we've been over this, Luke is carrying the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders, he deserves to have his back blown out by a sexy mandolorian!

Ahsoka, searching for Force dampening cuffs on space-ebay: "I hate it here"

565 notes - Posted February 4, 2022

#3

Owen would always refer to Luke as 'his/our boy'. He wanted to say son, but he couldn't. He didn't know why he'd decided on being Uncle Owen, instead of dad - perhapse he'd been scared.

He was scared now.

He looked up at the blank plasticy visor of the troopers standing above him. Beru was beside him.

At least their son was safe.

819 notes - Posted May 18, 2022

#2

Din: "I'm so jealous you're able to do the magic talking with Grogu. He is the best and smartest boy in the galaxy, I wish I could hear him too."

Luke, whos gotten no sleep for the past two weeks cause Grogu has been non-stop singing/projecting Seagulls Stop It Now: "I understand your feelings, but believe me; you are able to communicate in all the ways that truly matter 😌"

Din: "He uses it to terrorise everyone, doesn't he"

Luke: "I don't even know what day it is anymore 🥲"

836 notes - Posted February 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Leia, peacefully sleeping, snuggled against her himbo husband: 😌

Leia's comm: "LEIA I HAVE LOST THE BABY! I THINK HE AND ARTOO STOLE MY XWING!!!! LEIA WHAT DO I DO!! HOW DO YOU LOSE A WHOLE BABY? YODA STOP LAUGHING AT ME THIS IS SERIOUS! LEIAAAAAAAAAAA! THIS IS A DISASTER THE MANDOLORIAN IS NEVER GOING TO KISS ME WITH HIS MOUSTACHE NOW!!"

Han: "...I want a new brother-in-law"

4,300 notes - Posted February 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#Lmaoooooooo #I love that the Owen and din are tired dad's is up there

[starwarsaddiction]

I posted 4,688 times in 2022

85 posts created (2%)

4,603 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gffa

@short-wooloo

@monjustmon

@hannagoldworthy

@smhalltheurlsaretaken

I tagged 994 of my posts in 2022

#kenobi spoilers - 341 posts

#kenobi series - 340 posts

#obi-wan spoilers - 339 posts

#obi-wan kenobi spoilers - 338 posts

#obi-wan kenobi series - 338 posts

#obi-wan kenobi - 284 posts

#guiding light - 267 posts

#obi-wan - 264 posts

#the master of soresu - 264 posts

#kenobi - 263 posts

Longest Tag: 129 characters

#are you so boring and obvious and incapable of thinking that maybe people can find faimly without fitting into patriarchal roles?

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Oh goodness...

I’m reading people who are sad and gutted because in the Obi-Wan series they  made Darth Vader too evil by snapping that kid neck so mindlessly. 

do those people rember that HE COMMITTED TWO GENOCIDES AND ALREADY KILLED DOZEN OF KIDS, SOME OF THEM EVEN HIS OWN SIBLINGS, considering that they were little Jedi and so his own family? Or just a random kid on a random planet is just too much for them?

Really. 

413 notes - Posted June 4, 2022

#4

Jedi don't steal kids

Jedi don't steal kids

JEDI DON'T STEAL KIDS

JEDI DON'T FUCKING STEAL KIDS STOP SAYING THIS SHIT

I had to say it

500 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

#3

I’ve read SW fans on twitter despair because apparently they scrapped a more bleak and sad Obi-Wan story for the series to write a more hopeful and uplifting one... and I don’t understand. Of course it’s going to be hopeful. 

Obi-Wan comes from the darkest moment of his life, loosing his entire family and best friend, and has to become a real zen master, in peace, quiet and resolved to be the master Luke will need to become the one to help Darth Vader remember who he was, to remember Anakin. He can’t do it if he lingers in despair and guilt, and that’s not Jedi teaching. He knows, and his path is one that will always lead to the light, as a man and as a Jedi Master. So, thank God that they remembered where Obi-Wan was to become, and what’s his story. Old Luke was depressing enough, let us have Obi-Wan as a beacon of hope, as he should rightly be. 

529 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

#2

hey! Jedi Positive blogs! Obi-Wan Lovers!

just reblog this and make it go around, so that we can follow each other! 

611 notes - Posted March 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I had a brother, once

When I was about nine, and he was four, I think, he went away. He was so cute, he had a bunch of shiny copper hair, a nice smile and those big blue eyes. I loved to play with him, he was so little and funny. But one day he started moving things around the house, like small things that ran across the table to his little hands, and once he befriended a bird outside the window, it came so close to him that it accepted the food he gave it. My mother didn't believe me at first when I said that, but then she and dad started watching him closely, and I remember they talked of a thing called the Temple, after a while. Dad looked sad for a bit, but mum was so thrilled. She had an old picture, she always told me the woman in the picture was his grand grand grandmother, from centuries ago, and that she went to the Temple, and one evening they came into our room and talked to us. They told us that my little brother, Ben, had a special gift, like the woman in the picture. That he was touched by the light, and he could do great things, and that new people would come to test him and see if he was touched enough to learn how to use his gift for the Galaxy and the Republic. I was so scared, at first, I didn't want my little brother to go away. I screamed and hugged him, and he was so still in my arms. My parents were emotional too, mum said to me that giving a child to the Temple was a privilege and that he could live better with them than with us. I didn't understand at first, but they told me that the Temple was full of people like him, with his gift, and that their job was so important to the Republic, and he would have the chance to become a good person between them. We were just humble citizens, my dad was an architect, like me, and my mom was an artist and a painter. She told me that Ben could become something that they could never prepare him for, and the people at the Temple could help him with his gift and prepare him to be the best person he could be.

Some days after that, people from the Temple came to see my family. There was a tall black man and a creature with a mask on his face and eyes. They played with Ben and asked him a lot of questions, and then they came to me. They asked me if I loved him, and if I wanted him to be happy. Of course, I wanted that. The black man told me that he understand I was sad and didn't want to lose my brother, and he was right. He told me that Ben was going to live a life in the Temple, that he would learn how to use his gifts, and that he would be happy with them, but I was afraid that he would be alone and sad.

So they brought us all to the Temple, and we had the chance to see where he would live and grow. The school and the creche were so fun, and warm, that I even asked if I could stay with them too. But I was not gifted as him, so I couldn't. We hugged my brother for the last time, but every year, for the anniversary of the day he went to the Temple we received a picture and a few words from his teachers. It went on until he became a Padawan, around fourteen, and it was ten years since he left us.

We never forgot him, and I was still a bit sad, but I grow up being proud that my youngest brother went to become a Jedi. I got married and watched my children closely, in their youth, wondering if there was a hint of the same gift that he had, but apparently, that wasn't the case. It was a relief, surely, I didn't have to say goodbye to one of my children at such a young age, because I remember how conflicted my parents were, when we left him on Coruscant, in the Temple. They cried a lot, and I thought that it was because they didn't want to leave him behind, but then I understand. Sometimes it's hard to choose the best for your children, and you wish you can do everything yourself. But it's not always possible. He had great power in his little hands, and with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes as a parent, your job is to accept that you're not the best fit to teach something important to your children. We knew nothing of the Force, we couldn't help him with it. We wouldn't be able to give him the proper teachings to understand and use his power in the best way, and it could easily hurt him and the people around him. Instead, he went on and became a great Jedi, and now I can read about him, saving the Republic and the galaxy with his power, against the Separatists that want to destroy our way of life.

So, yes, I spent my youth wondering how he was and if he was happy with the Jedi, but now I know he was. And every time someone at work asks me "are you related to that Kenobi?" I always smile.

Yeah... that's my brother.

1,097 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

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#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[dxrthvxdr]

’ abandon all your stupid dreams about the girl i could have been. ’ (from Leia. Maybe Leia ran away from Dad Vader, found Obi-Wan, and joined him?).     @suchbrokenstars​

He had been beyond scared when one of the guards assigned to Leia had informed him that she was missing. He had been beyond enraged when she had disappeared under their watch. That guard no longer breathed, having been choked to death immediately after delivering their news, and thus signing their own death warrant.

He had scoured her room, himself, looking for the littlest clue that would've told him where she had gone, who had DARED to take her from him. But it had been empty of clues: no signs of intrusion, no signs of struggle.

In the end, it had taken the better part of a week before he finally caught up with her, using every tracker and slicer he could find, regardless of what their job would've otherwise been. His daughter was missing and in danger. And that could not stand.

And now he stood before her, lightsaber in hand, but unlit. It wasn't for her that it was in his hand, but for the man behind her. The man that had betrayed him, long ago. What did Obi-Wan want with his daughter? How dare he--!

"Leia, step away from him," he ordered, ignoring her words to him as useless and false. He could never abandon her. Instead, he focuses on the man behind her. "You dare try and steal her away from me, Obi-Wan?"

#suchbrokenstars #𝐯:𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐢 (Kenobi Verse)

[nascar-fanfics]

the mason sisters: nine - throwback edition

summary: a little throwback to celebrate throwback week at darlington! mercy and laurie meet for the first time in school and have ice cream together, and mercy and katelyn race for the first time together on dirt.

word count: 2748

warning: injury, concussion, swearing

next chapter | masterlist

“mercy-kay, you know this is important for you!” claire held her daughter’s hand, who was crying. “i don’t wanna go! this is scary!” “mercy, let’s give it a try. you’re gonna be okay, sweetie. you’re going to make a ton of friends and have so much fun at school!” “but you’re not here… it’s scary without you, mommy!” mercy sniffed, looking at her dad, who was holding her younger sister in her arms. “daddy, do i have to go?” “mercy, honey, this is going to be good for you!” mercy was not interested in going to school. the thought of being without her parents scared her to the point of an anxiety attack. “would you feel more comfortable if you brought pinkie?” claire handed mercy her stuffed pink bear, giving her a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “you’re going to have so much fun, mercy. i promise you. if you can do a whole day at school, i’ll take you out for ice cream. how does that sound?” “okay, mommy! i can do this.” mercy sniffed, holding pinkie in her arms and fixing her backpack. “let’s go inside, okay?”

after getting settled in the classroom, mercy sat with pinkie in her arms, looking around at the other children in her class. she noticed one girl who was sitting in the corner looking scared. mercy decided to approach her and sat next to her. “hi. i’m mercy-kay. are you okay?” “hi, mercy-kay. i’m laurie. i miss my mommy.” the pig-tailed brunette sniffed as mercy sat next to her. “i get it, laurie. my mommy said there’s nothing to be scared of. she told me that ice cream is my reward for finishing a day at school. wanna play with pinkie? she brings me a lot of comfort.” mercy held out her bear to laurie, who had a smile on her face. “she’s pretty.” “thank you! i’ve had her since last week. she’s my favorite bear! do you have any favorite bears?” “i have a sea otter named obi. i named him after obi-wan kenobi from star wars. he’s my favorite character!” laurie pulled her otter out of her backpack and showed mercy. “luke and r2d2 are my favorites in star wars! wow, a girl that likes star wars… this is awesome!” “do you wanna be friends, mercy-kay?” “i would love to, laurie!”

“mommy! mommy! i made a friend today!!” mercy ran to claire, hugging her. “that’s great, mercy! maybe we can schedule a play-date with her parents?” “yes please! laurie!! i’m over here!!” mercy waved to laurie, who dragged her mom over to mercy and claire. “laurie, slow down! you know i can’t run as fast as you!” laurie’s mom chuckled. “why don’t we head over to the playground? it’ll give us a few minutes to schedule a play-date.” “laurie! this is my mommy.” “hi, laurie! i’m claire. mercy says you’re her new friend?” “yes, miss claire! i’m her new friend. this is my mommy! we’re gonna go play now.” laurie grabbed mercy’s hand and ran with her to the playground. “i’m lily, mercy is adorable.” “thank you, lily.” claire giggled. “she’s a spitfire. laurie is adorable as well.” “thank you, i was so worried she was going to be crying by the time school was over. she did not wanna go to school today.” “i know the feeling, lily. i had to persuade mercy with ice cream to even get her inside.” claire chuckled. “we would love for you two to join us, if you’re up for it?” “laurie would love that. it’ll get me out of the house for once!” lilly and claire chuckled as they headed over to the bench on the side of the playground to exchange contact information.

mercy and claire got into their car and headed to their favorite ice cream shop with laurie and lily following them in their car. “how was school today, mercy?” “besides the smelly boys, it was fun! laurie and i are going to be best friends. she’s really cool and likes star wars!” “that’s fantastic, dear! her mom seems like a nice lady, i’m glad you made a friend. i told you that that would happen!” “i was scared, but i made it. i’m proud of myself.” “i’m proud of you, mercy. you’re getting to be a big girl now!”

“so, laurie, how was school?” “i was scared, but mercy made me not scared. she showed me pinkie, her pink bear. i showed her obi and she said she loves star wars. she’s my new best friend!” “i’m glad she’s your friend, laurie! claire seems like a really nice lady, too. we’re gonna try to get a play date scheduled with you two, if you’re okay with that?” “yes, yes, yes!!!” laurie squealed, hugging obi and kicking her feet in her car seat. “i still have to take you to see cars again… maybe we can go see that and then a playdate?” “yes, yes, yes!” lily smiled at her daughter, who was singing to whatever was on the radio.

“okay, how does saturday sound for a playdate? we can go see cars.” “mercy’s been wanting to see that for a few weeks now, actually. she loves anything to do with racing, especially nascar.” “laurie does too! her favorite driver is dale jr.” “mercy’s is jimmie! we’re huge jimmie johnson fans.” “nice, he’s got a great season ahead of him. looks like he might win the championship!” “i hope so. mercy would love to see him win the championship. she’s the biggest jimmie fan i know.” claire looked over at mercy, who was talking to laurie about racing. “i’m a big jimmie johnson fan. i really like him!” “junior is my favorite. we should dress as them for halloween this year!” “yes! i think that would be cool. i wanna be like him when i grow up. he’s so cool!” “he is very cool. i wanna do something in racing when i grow up.” “same here!” mercy giggled, taking a bite of her mint chocolate chip ice cream and kicking her feet.

“remember the day our moms took us for ice cream after our first day at school?” mercy was flipping through the photobook on the coffee table. “look at us in our costumes that year.” laurie gasped. “we should go back to that ice cream shop and recreate the photo mom took of us.” “especially in honor of this throwback weekend.” “i miss those days, mercy. those were simpler times.” “yeah, they really were simpler times… not a care in the world besides ice cream, pinkie, and obi. do you still have obi?” “yep,” laurie smiled. “i sleep with him every night. you still have pinkie?” “absolutely. i still sleep with her every night. she’s not as bright pink as she was before, but she’s still comforting.” “yeah, obi is looking rough these days.” laurie chuckled, resting her head on her best friend’s shoulder. “thanks for bringing me out of my shell that day.” “always. you’re my best friend, i knew we would be best friends on that day.” “all it took was our love of cars and star wars.” laurie looked back at the old pictures of her and mercy with a smile on her face.

trigger warning for the next flashback: see chapter summary

mercy and katelyn had their first dirt race together, the second season of mercy’s dirt career, and the first dirt race of katelyn’s career. mercy qualified second, and katelyn qualified sixth. mercy climbed into her teal and black car, giving her sister a thumbs up just before. she tapped the picture of her holding her sister before starting her engine, hoping to provide her with some good luck.

the first green flag waved and mercy was battling for the lead, dirt flying and her hands quickly moving against the wheel so she didn’t crash out. after a few laps, she noticed her sister coming up behind her. “awesome, kate.” she mumbled to herself, seeing someone come up behind her sister and started to battle for position. she could see her parents as she drove by cheering their daughters on. mercy looked away for one second and noticed her sister’s car flipping and pieces breaking off. the car that bumped into her drove past katelyn, slowing down when the caution flags waved. mercy could feel her anxiety bubble up inside of her, her parents running onto the track. her seatbelt wouldn’t unclasp, she practically ripped them off of her, including her helmet, and bolted to her sister’s car. she screamed for her sister, narrowly missing another car coming to her. mercy had to be held back by security so the paramedics could get to her. “let me go! that’s my sister!” she screamed, tears falling drastically down her face. she saw the car that wrecked her sister and fumed. she wriggled herself out of the security’s arms, running to the driver. “you practically killed my fucking sister. what the hell do you have to say about that?” “that’s racing, girl. she wouldn’t have made it through the race anyways.” the driver, ivan, smirked, flipping his helmet visor down. “i’ll have your fucking career for this. you hear me? you’ll be fucked for life, asshole!” no one has ever heard a twelve-year-old girl swear as much as mercy, her face as red as a lobster. “mercy, you need to calm down, honey. your sister’s in the best hands.” “what if she dies, huh? i’ll get this fucker for manslaughter! murder, even!” mercy yelled at a security officer, who was coming over to her. “they’re taking her to the hospital. are you staying to compete or would you like to go?” “go ahead and see your sister, i’d love to beat two girls to show girls can’t do shit.” ivan chuckled. “i’m not letting that asshole beat both of us. i’m staying. kate’ll understand.” mercy headed back to her car, watching the ambulance drive off. she looked in her mirror to see green flags waving, starting up the cars around mercy. she pulled her helmet on, looking at the picture of her and her sister. “doing this for you.” she mumbled to herself, tapping her baby sister’s head.

there were three laps to go, ivan ahead of mercy and keeping her from passing him. dirt flew everywhere and mercy felt determined to beat ivan. she worked her ass off to pass him. once the white flag came out, she found an opening to pass ivan. she sped as fast as she could, drifting in front of ivan and speeding ahead of him, four car lengths between them. she glanced in her mirror and at the picture of her and her sister, then focusing on the track in front of her. the checkered flag waved, mercy coming in first. “all for you, katelyn.” she muttered to herself, seeing ivan start to speed up. she moved away from his path, letting him pass her.

mercy headed down to victory lane, climbing out and celebrating her win for a few seconds. “i can’t celebrate without my family. please, i need to be with my sister.” mercy shook, her whole body feeling like it was pulsating. “are claire or gregory mason here?!” mercy yelled, her face suddenly flooding with tears. “mercy, i’m here!” claire, mercy and katelyn’s mom, yelled, running to victory lane. “mom, i wanna go to the hospital to be with katelyn. i refuse to do any victory lane stuff right now.” mercy hugged her mom, crying into her shoulder. “i’ll make sure you get there, they should let us go.” “go ahead, masons. go be with her.”

the ride to the hospital felt like forever. mercy couldn’t stop thinking about her sister’s condition. was she going to be okay? does she have any life-threatening injuries? is she going to die? “mercy, she’s going to be okay. your dad told me that she’s sleeping at the moment.” “what happened, mom?” mercy sniffed, a tear falling down her face. claire wiped the tear off her face with her thumb, holding her daughter’s face. “she has a broken arm, collarbone, and a few blood vessels popped in her face. the worst part is the concussion, but she’ll recover from that. she’s going to be okay. it’ll take some time to heal, but the doctors said that because she’s so young, everything will heal properly. darling, she’ll be okay.” mercy held her mom’s hand, looking outside at the lights of the streets.

“she’s right in here.” claire held her daughter’s hand as she ran to her sister. “oh god, katelyn…” she held her sister’s bruised hand, running her thumb over her knuckles. “she’s gonna be okay, merc.” gregory pulled mercy into his chest, hugging her oldest daughter. “how long is her recovery?” “she’ll be able to race again if that’s what you’re asking.” gregory looked at his youngest daughter, who was sleeping. mercy kept her hand holding her sister’s, trying not to cry as she watched her breathe.

an hour into mercy’s visit, laurie and her parents came to visit. they brought some snacks for the family, along with a stuffed owl for katelyn. “she’s gonna be okay?” “she’s just got a broken arm, collarbone, and some bruises. the worst part is the concussion, but with proper recovery, she’ll be okay.” gregory nodded, diane sitting next to mercy. “i know it won’t help much, but congrats on your win tonight. laurie told me you won.” “thanks, diane. it was a hard fight for me. i wanted to come here, but i knew katelyn would want me to race.” mercy rested her head on her best friend’s mom’s shoulder.

laurie and her parents left after an hour's visit. katelyn was still asleep, probably from the medication and surgery. mercy wanted her to wake up so she could tell her that she won, but at the same time, she was so peaceful. gregory went out to get dinner for his girls, and claire stayed with mercy and katelyn. “mom, did you see my flip-out?” “you screaming at that little shit-i mean kid? yeah. he deserved it.” “he’s a punk, mom. he’s always saying that kate and i can’t do anything because we’re girls. i’ve beaten him at multiple races, including today. i can clearly race better than him.” “mercy, honey, don’t get arrogant. you’re only stooping to his level. he’s gonna get his someday.” claire ran her fingers through mercy’s sweaty hair, watching her daughters and feeling so proud that her oldest is so protective of her baby sister. katelyn’s hand twitched in mercy’s hand, a small grunt coming out of her. “kate? sis, are you awake?” “i feel loopy… where am i?” katelyn looked around and saw an iv in her, along with a sling and a cast. “honey, you had a really bad accident tonight. you’re going to be okay, you just have to recover. you might not race for a while while you’re in recovery.” “mom, i just started my career. it’s over already?” “kate, you have to recover. you’re going to be okay!” mercy held her sister’s hand, pushing some hair behind her ear. “i’ll help with your recovery, i promise.” claire held her daughter’s other hand, relief flushing through her. “you’re gonna be okay, katelyn. i promise.” claire smiled as gregory walked into the room with food. “hey dad, she’s awake.” mercy smiled, wiping tears off her face.

as they all ate dinner, claire and mercy described the race to katelyn and gregory and how mercy beat ivan for the win. katelyn wanted to give her sister a hug, but it hurt to move her arm. “i’d hug you, sis, but i hurt a little.” katelyn adjusted as much as she could so she could eat. “congrats, sis. i’m so proud of you.” “kate, i’m more glad that you’re okay. that win doesn’t mean anything right now. by the way, laurie and her parents left you this.” mercy handed her sister the stuffed owl. “it’s so cute! aww, i love it. next time i see them, i’ll have to thank them. i love this little dude!” katelyn hugged the owl, a smile on her face.

mercy didn’t like being home without her sister, so before she fell asleep, her mom facetimed her dad so they could say goodnight to each other. mercy went to sleep that night, thinking about her sister, their futures, and how she never wanted to race dirt again and show the world that girls can race and win.

#nascar

[alright-anakin]

MayWhump 2021 Day 2: Touch Starved

Day Two: Touch Starved

Obi-Wan woke up in the middle of the night to an odd shuffling sound. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It didn’t entirely work. But then he heard the shuffling sound again, followed by a quiet plunk . What was that? He got up and padded to his door quietly. He opened it and Anakin jumped out of his skin and scampered back. Obi-Wan blinked, taking in the scene. Anakin had a blanket and— was he planning to sleep on the floor? Obi-Wan was confused.

read more here

#my fic #my writing #ywbsimte #maywhump2021 #maywhump #whumpay2021 #whumpay #whump #day two #touch starved #star wars #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #anakin is smol #anakin needs cuddles #obi wan is a scared new dad #he's trying he really is #obi wan loves his padawan #fluff #tender touches

[padawansuggest]

I have a fic in planning where Qui-Gon actually was bad (I rarely do those but this is perfect timing for an AU) to both Xanatos and Obi-Wan.

So. Obi-Wan endured Bandomeer and Melida/Daan, with the only change being that when he was taken to the deep sea mines, he was not taken by Xanatos. Xanatos hadn’t had a chance to get a hold of him yet.

Then on M/D, instead of Qui-Gon showing up when Obi-Wan called, he realized he lied to the council and didn’t want to bring Obi back in case he snitched. So. Obi was there over 6 months, and shit went bad.

Finally, Xanatos, in a desperate attempt to get Qui-Gon’s attention (for Revenge Purposes) finds Obi-Wan and takes him off planet. He puts a collar on him to keep him complacent, but he doesn’t count on Obi-Wan’s pure feral rage at this point, and since they’re the only ones on Xanatos’s ship, they crash… on Galidraan.

Jaster, who is alive in this AU cause I just want kiddos to have good dads and I will ignore anything to give Mandalorian’s a happy ending, is on patrol because they are in a vague sense, looking for Death Watch after hearing about them being in the area, comes into a clearing with Jango and a few others because a ship just crashed and they need to check it out, finds Xanatos with a small child on his back pulling his hair and trying to bite him, screaming ‘IF I BLOW UP IM TAKING YOUR BITCH ASS WITH ME’ and they just watch all 👁👄👁

So. That’s fun. They have a half starved feral child and an angry brat who apparently kidnapped them to get back at their… dad???? Okay. Wtf. Okay.

So. Xanatos is screaming back that if Obi-Wan had just told him Qui-Gon had abandoned him they could have ruined him like that instead but Obi-Wan’s lil teeth are clamped around his wrist now and Jaster is finally like ‘okay, let’s separate them, the joys of having a brother obviously never occurred to these two’ (‘idk Mand’alor, my brother and I act like that too.’ ‘I saw you kick your brother in the nads for calling you cute once. Most siblings play a LITTLE nicer???’ ‘Bruh? I chased my little brother with a knife one time??’ ‘Why is everyone so mean here wtf?’)

Anyways. They get them separated. But. The thing is. They realize fast that Xanatos is force sensitive and they manage to get a pair of cuffs on him… which is where things get interesting. Because as soon as Xanatos is cut off from the force, his anger stops being compounded into energy, and he just drops like a sack of rocks.

So. Now they have a crying young adult who’s sobbing that he’s so angry why is he crying he just wants to get back at his master for what he did to him (imagine him having at least as rough of a padawanship as Obi did) and Obi-Wan who’s also crying and got dragged onto a log so a metal worker could work on getting his collar off.

Jaster leaves Jango with Obi-Wan (who’s tiny and clingy and looks starved to death and this obviously isn’t the first bomb collar he’s had on his neck and he’s all shaky and Jango is giving him tiny snacks to try and keep him from panicking) and decides to deal with the big on himself.

Xanatos obviously isn’t doing good, but now that he’s cut off from the force, he can’t feel his range compounded back at him, amplifying it till he can’t do anything but use it for evil, he’s just crying and limp and Jaster has to coax him into sitting up and eating a ration bar and cautiously puts an arm around him for a hug. Xanatos just collapses into him and refuses to move.

Well. Jaster has a new son, he guesses????

He looks over to Jango, who is in a similar process of taming a feral child with little candy pieces and holding him halfway into his lap. Oh. He’s a grandpa now too.

Anyways. Dooku shows up (who both kids recognize and are able to stop any bad will before it starts as he is VERY worried over the boys and was able to get things calmed down) and Xanatos says he refuses to take the cuffs off because this is the first time he didn’t want to kill everyone in years and he’s scared and Jaster just keeps rubbing his back and saying he can keep them on while he’s going through therapy for all this ossik and Obi-Wan keeps clinging to Jango all quiet and sad and reluctantly tells Dooku about Qui-Gon kicking him out of the order and not coming back when Obi begged him to (Jango about to commit a murder fam) and Dooku horrifyingly tells them Qui-Gon claimed he left the order willingly for a girl he met and the war was never even mentioned or that children were fighting-

It’s bad. Real bad. Jaster is able to help the Jedi route out the Death Watch (and the corrupt governor) and Tor probably still gets away but they’re all (Dooku isn’t leaving his grandbabies alone okay) able to go back to Mandalore to figure out what happens next.

Obi-Wan and Xanatos eventually come to an understanding that they have been adopted into the royal family and they are sorta okay with each other (Obi-Wan’s bites are less feral now, more like love bites really, and Xanatos hasn’t tried to kill anyone in a while and claims he’s never taking off the cuffs again) and it’s kinda nice.

Anyways. Xanatos shuts down Offworld’s mining bullshit and straight up gives Telos IV to Jaster like ‘idk what to do with it, you fix it’ and Jaster takes that as a challenge and accepts. He really is a good ruler and will do anything he can to fix this new Telos.

Also after looking at the planets Bandomeer and Telos (obviously they would be close considering Bandomeer is close enough for Offworld to mine on) Telos IV isn’t actually too far from Mandalore. So, putting some verde in a city on the planet to help fix their government, wouldn’t be too much of a stretch there. They’re closer than Mandalore is to Coruscant so they could totally have a Little Keldabe there.

Anyways. That’s my idea. Jaster adopts Xanatos and gets him therapy, and Jango adopts Obi-Wan and feeds him snacks and gives him the love he’s never had. Dooku comes along for the funsies and Qui-Gon goes to Jedi Jail.

Jango: *standing with Obi-Wan sitting on one armored shoulder and bicep* This my baby, and ain’t NO ONE finna touch him.

Jaster: *gently petting Xanatos’s head* He’s so sweet and violent and I don’t even mind that he’s straight. The manda makes us all as we are meant to be, and mistakes happen. He’s a good violent boy.

Xanatos and Obi-Wan: …wtf…

Eventually they find Bruck back on Telos IV and Dooku adopts him so now they’re all getting therapy.

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #galidraan #telos iv #Bandomeer #melida/daan #xanatos du crion #jaster mereel #jango fett #feral Obi wan #master dooku #Mandalorians adopt ferals

[phoenixyfriend]

Fake Sith TCW Trio

I have another fucked up time-travel AU! Who’s surprised? (Nobody.)

So like. Have you guys read that one fic where Luke and his students go back in time and pretend to be Sith Lords and are super hammy about it? (Sith Lord Swell by AMournfulHowlInTheNight)

This AU has contributions by @atagotiak, @the-lunar-system, @purronronner, @gelpenss, @creepingthroughthistidalwave, and @thisarenotarealblog.

I want TCW trio (plus Rex and Cody) to go back to several years pre-TPM and, since the Council DEFINITELY won't believe them about the Sith being back... they'll force the issue.

Anakin is weirdly excited about things and building up their backstory.

Anakin: Okay so I can definitely be a Maul type, with the unhinged ranting and manic laughter, Obi-Wan can be the whole Refined Rich Guy type like Dooku, where you can't even tell he's evil until he starts talking about getting out the eyeball scoops, maybe toss in a bit of mad science stuff? Ahsoka could play up like Ventress OR, oh oh, she can be the Light Side Child we need to PROTECT who's publicly begging us to return to the Light after our big dramatic Falls where we murdered like eighty people to save her, and-- Obi-Wan: Why are you never this enthusiastic about actual undercover missions. Ahsoka: Did you just have all this ready to go, or...? Anakin: WE COULD GET YELLOW CONTACT LENSES FOR ME.

Obi-Wan: How's my evil laugh?

Anakin going “Okay.. so if any of us need to murder someone to sell the bit it should be me, I think I could handle it the best. Why? No reason.”

Obi-Wan: I'm not sure a complete Fall could come from protecting Ahsoka, really-- Anakin: No, no, it could.

Obi-Wan: Surely you’d hold back because you realize neither of us want that for you. Anakin: Uh. Sure. Definitely.

Obi-Wan points out that none of them can channel the dark side to Prove they're Sith and Anakin just goes "Okay, give me like two seconds to stew in my negativity and--right, you can stop staring in horror, please."

Anakin rambles on that they can TOTALLY make the galaxy a better place while playing at being Sith! He's got a whole LIST of slave empires to "take over" and disassemble!

Anakin has a whole excited spiel about how EVIL soldiers and assistants are minions, in this case partly because Cody and Rex are too good at what they do to be mooks. Cody could pull off evil minion very well. Facial scar? Looks good in black? Quietly competent and sarcastic?

He also pushes for Obi-Wan to lounge in a fancy throne with a glass of wine while Anakin stalks the shadows and Ahsoka hangs out on the window ledge. The disaster lineage is dramatic, okay, Anakin’s just leaning into it, he’d appreciate it if everyone stopped looking at him like that.

Qui-Gon, surprisingly, ends up a skeptic about all of this. Everyone is freaking out about the Sith and he’s like “y’know I’m not even sure they’re darksiders.”

Some Jedi, possibly Qui-Gon for his conspiracy board, gets in a real risky situation and one of the Fake Sith saves them, but also panics and kinda drops character for a bit.

Jedi: You saved me! Why’d you do that? Anakin: I uh... just wanted the pleasure of killing you myself?

"You saved me. Why?" "Mmmm. Jedi." [walks away]

Qui-Gon: [trying to figure out what is up with these people semi-competently (from his perspective) pretending to be Sith] Dooku: [trying to protect Qui-Gon from Sith influence]

The gang is the most successful at pretending to be Sith to Dooku. Sure, they’re not gonna punish him for something he hasn’t done, but it’s not hard to act menacing and angry around him.

(They really do have so much fun irritating the heck out of Dooku. He hasn’t Fallen yet, but they want to keep an eye out.)

At some point, future Obi-Wan definitely drops that little tidbit of "What, you didn't think the Banites were the only Sith running around did you? You... didn't even know about the Banites. How... disappointing."

They REGULARLY use Ahsoka as an excuse to be marginally less terrible. They claim that if Ahsoka pouts, they stop. ‘Soka also uses them as an excuse for why she’s a lil feral. (To be fair, that one is accurate. She was already a lil feral before but it’s not like they did anything to stop it.) Ahsoka gets her "breaking into people's offices" jollies by bugging Nute Gunray's office.

The Jedi keep trying to Rescue Ahsoka.

Rex and Cody end up in real beskar, there's a whole Thing with Mandalore and Jango and Satine.

Obi-Wan is CONSISTENTLY worried about Anakin Falling for real, which... hey, at least he knows to be worried about Anakin Falling. Step up from canon, really.

Anakin is WAY too into killing the Hutts but like. It does... technically sell the bit.

Obi-Wan: Sure, I’m not sad that they’re dead, especially because we’re not connected to the Republic, so we don’t need to worry about starting a war and all that. But. Anakin is disturbingly cheerful about this. Rex: Wasn't he a Hutt slave? Obi-Wan: Well yes, but-- Rex: I'd kill Nala Se if I could get away with it.

Cody and Rex are very supportive of Anakin's murderous intentions.

Obi-Wan does understand anger, even killing someone in anger. Like Maul (the first time at least) and D’nar and a few others. All the same, like... y’know. The level of bloodthirst from the others is a little off-putting.

At one point, Anakin accidentally addresses young Obi-Wan by name, despite never having met before, and to cover it up, he... panic-flirts. He panics, and so he flirts, with young Obi-Wan.

(He will later blame this on old Obi-Wan, because he had to pick up the habit of flirting with the enemy from somewhere.)

Anakin vaguely implies that he's a wee bit obsessed with young Obi, and that the padawan should "get used to being the target of a dark-sider's interests," because he’s scrambling for Ominous Shit and, well, future Obi-Wan was pretty frequently a fixation point for darksiders, right?

The second he gets out, he just starts screaming into a bucket while Rex pats him on the back.

For the next however many terrible months, possibly years, he has to keep up the act while having an ongoing meltdown about how That's My Dad As A Twenty-Something.

(It doesn't help that young Obi-Wan reflexively flirted back.)

Old Obi-Wan, meanwhile, is just very "you dug this hole yourself, padawan."

There is an argument at the beginning about Obi-Wan’s outfit. If he’s gonna be a Sith, he can’t just go around in beige, but he’s like “I like this and it’s comfy.” Sure, he’s changed clothes for undercover stuff, but that’s always been temporary, y’know? He likes his beige.

We have a number of options.

My first instinct? Beige linen three piece suit, like a southern lawyer. "Now I may just be a simple Outer Rim force adept--"

And, of course, you can TOTALLY make the beige sinister: he’s impersonating a Jedi! Jedi impersonation would also explain why nobody has a red saber.

“Sure is good that the Jedi don’t seem to realize most of the galaxy doesn’t know red sabers are different and bad.” “Shhhh, stop poking holes in our story where a Jedi might overhear.”

Like.... if you do enough doublethink, it works! How would a Sith hide? In plain sight. Also, it’s a GREAT way (if they were actually assholes) to try to slander the Jedi name.

(Anakin and Ahsoka still think he could stand to put a little more effort in. Add a splash of color, for pity's sake!)

Though tbh part of me is like “What if Old Obi wore, like... a split skirt suit...” Victorian womenswear inspired because he misses his robes, but he has to look Professional, and like he's MOCKING Jedi instead of BEING one, so he wears a vintage-y split skirt thing over his leggings. Ends up looking a lot like what Ventress had for a while, but Beige. I also keep wanting to put him regency menswear.

Anyway. Obi-Wan’s wardrobe aside...

Anakin builds up his Tatoo accent again. It helps him with the (mostly true) "slavery helped me fall" backstory.

Either Cody or Rex offhandedly mentions being made to serve them (the Fake Sith) and now the Jedi are somewhat concerned about brainwashing. Are these Mandos the victims here?

“No like. Literally made for this. In a lab.” This is even more horrifying. So...

On the one hand good! The Jedi should be scared about Sith! On the other hand... it makes the Jedi more determined to stop them, specifically. They keep on getting in the way, just, all the time, and they’re not investigating the actual Sith problem, which is decidedly not great since the Team doesn’t actually know who’s a real Sith right now, except Maul, and who even knows where that guy is.

Obi-Wan, at some point: Do you think we've succeeded at this ruse... a little TOO well? Anakin: I don't follow. Obi-Wan, gesturing at the truly obnoxious amount of wealth they've collected, including "trophies" of their kills: Really? Because I'm a little worried! Anakin, planning out a battle to take on Nar Shadda: ...I'm not.

"How many people do we realistically we need to take over Hutt Space? Apparently... five."

(Mostly because Anakin is ridiculously op.)

ANAKIN AND YOUNG OBI GET KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES TOGETHER. It's tradition.

Anakin: Okay, so, I need to get really angry about something to pass as a Sith... time to think about my WIFE and how I'll NEVER SEE HER AGAIN.

Since Anakin’s life never goes as planned... this does not work. Instead of getting properly angry, he makes himself sad. There are tears. There is wailing. There’s a distraught rant or two. Young Obi ends up awkwardly trying to comfort him.

“Oh no, this… Sith?? Is crying on me. What do I do???”

Later on, when the Council wants intel: "So... one of the Sith cried on me about his wife. I think she's dead? He wasn't very clear about it but it, uh... it sounded like it might have contributed to his Fall. Also the relationship was a little unhealthy? He basically worshiped the ground she walked on and kept ranting about how he would have given her the galaxy on a platinum platter of she'd only asked, but that might be new and inspired by the Dark."

One of the random Jedi is REALLY good at detecting the truth Through The Force, and asks Anakin how he Fell...

Anakin just. Tells the Tuskens story.

They don't get pinged as lying, but oh boy does old Obi have a LOT of questions for Anakin once they're in private.

There are other things happening to help sell the ruse. Some of them are necessary! Some of them are... not.

Obi-Wan: What's the best way to show we're rich and kind of evil, but like... classy about it? Anakin, immediately: I sit on the floor next to the throne, leaning against it, and you call me pet names while stroking my hair, and then when you need something killed I get to do it for you and then I go back to the floor and you thank me for the directed violence, and then you go back to Negotiations with criminals while I’m sitting there covered in blood. Obi-Wan: ...is there something you want to TELL us, or...?

"You're all going to get a glimpse of something normally kept hidden about me." "Anakin, you don't have to do that." "No, I'm gonna."

(Anakin has decided hes going to peel his kink tomato to sell this ruse, and the others are slightly uncomfortable with that.)

Anakin: Okay, I cannot keep flirting with you. Young Obi: Wait, what? But that's the best part of any time we run into you! Anakin: You look WAY too much like my Master did when I met him. Obi: O...kay? If someone looked like my master when HE was young, I'd-- Anakin: My Sith Master half-raised me. He's basically my dad. Obi: ... Anakin: What's that look for? Obi: I mean, you spend a lot of time lounging at his feet, and, like, given how much you hate slavery, I... kind of assumed it was a kink thing? Anakin, brightly: Oh no, I just have a LOT of trauma. And neuroses. Snips says they’re neuroses.

Young Obi is a little upset because he was actually getting REALLY into Flirting With The Enemy and was hoping it would go somewhere. He mopes to Qui-Gon about it. Qui-Gon isn't sure whether to be proud about Obi breaking rules, or worried over Obi-Wan falling for a Fake Sith.

(As Tia put it: "You enjoy making young Obi-Wan have a completely unrequited crush on Anakin, don’t you?")

Fortunately, one of those attractive Young Mando boys very kindly helped him tape up his ribs this one time, and has thus caught his eye...

I feel like having Cody date Young Obi would court an entirely different kind of (internet) drama because clone ages, but whatever.

Also please imagine an element of "so I'm dating the genetic identical of my boss... who's dating the man I'm a genetic identical of..."

(It's probably not actually Jangobi but man would that be funny and also stupid.)

Somehow Young Obi figures out that the "Sith Master" is a future him before he realizes that they're not actually dark. In his defense, Anakin was pretty convincing. Especially with the wife rant. It makes HIM more obsessed with Anakin, in a reversal of the implied earlier dynamic, which is all kinds of weird. Less romantic but like. Still weird.

"Future Me Scares Me" with Extra stupid. "Future Me Annoys Me." "Future Me acts like grandmaster Dooku, but more sass." "Future Me raised a really hot evil guy that refuses to bang Present Me." "Future Me might be a Sith, but I'm getting more and more convinced he's just fucking with us all." "Future Me is really rocking that beard, and I can't BELIEVE we figured out a way around the babyface."

"I’m kinda concerned about the whole evil thing, but I’m also glad that I know I’ll stay hot as I get older."

Quinlan approves of the priorities.

Also a lot of interactions with older Obi are very Anakin: [does/says something deeply unhinged] Obi-Wan: So, do you want to…. Talk about that? Maybe? Anakin: What’s there to talk about?? I’m fine, everything’s fine! Anyways how about those plans for tracking down Maul?

Anakin later, like way after the ruse is lifted, just blankly tells everyone that he did Fall, once, and Older Obi made him get therapy about it after the truth came out between the two of them a few months into the Fake Sith thing.

Where'd they find a therapist? I'm sure there's one SOMEWHERE around. Denon and Herdessa are close enough, and they've done enough "your criminal empire now belongs to me" that they can pay well. They make sure to find one that takes confidentiality real seriously.

It's all very "we need some more time to unpack all that."

Therapy helps get Anakin to figure out Sheev’s whole deal. They don't necessarily figure out he’s a Sith from it, but they figure out he’s sketchy and they need to look into that more. Obi-Wan probably already thought he was sketchy, but the whole active gaslighting campaign was a little surprising. They realize that he kinda benefited a lot from a lot of Sith plots and they still probably don’t think he’s a Sith but Obi-Wan is definitely starting to think he’s working with one.

"Okay, we're already bugging Gunray, should we bug Palpatine just to be safe?"

They get away with a lot of slicing because Anakin is a technical genius from twenty years in the future.

The reasons they're so good at Taking Over Hutt Space: 1. They know parts of the future. 2. They have superpowers and FAR less reason to not use them, now that their actions aren't going to reflect on the Republic. 3. They have Cody and Rex, who are two of the greatest military minds in the galaxy, and know EXACTLY how to wage a war that covers a solid third of the galaxy, starting from a position of relative weakness. 4. Anakin's charisma is scary high, and his knowledge of slave culture means they gain a lot of trust from the people they free, and they just... keep acquiring volunteers for the army they didn't plan to have. Obi-Wan doesn't know what to do. He thinks they might have started a cult?

In his defense, Dooku sort of started a cult, and Komari got kidnapped by a cult, brainwashed into joining it properly, and then took it over as head figure of said cult. It's practically tradition!

Comics Vader is the central figure of like three different cults, it was really just inevitable.

Anakin: Aw, don't worry master, it's not a cult, it's a revolution! Ahsoka: They're worshiping him, though. Anakin: ...it's still a revolution! Just... with some misunderstandings.

Also, if they got wind of people trying to keep people from being able to leave and other culty stuff like that, they’d probably put a stop to it pretty damn quick.

Names! Time for names. As per usual, it's easiest to keep track of Obi-Wan's alternate Older Self by just calling him Ben.

Darth Ben.

Ahsoka: You should be Darth Boring. Obi-Wan: I can still make you run laps, you know.

Anakin: The Force is telling me to call myself Darth Vader. Obi-Wan: ...why? Anakin: I dunno, but it sounds cool, I'll run with it.

Someone: Ben has all the answers; we shouldn’t question him, ever. Ben: One time I lost a planet, and a five-year-old found it for me.

More options: Going with the "evil word with the prefix 'in' chopped off" that we get with Sidious and Vader: Darth Surrectus (as in insurrection) Just random Latin words: Darth Temporus (time) Darth Commenticius (fake)

Anyway, back to Nonsense:

Maul goes after young Obi early, because the Fake Sith are really invested in this one random Padawan (Sidious is saying he might be a cousin of the false Sith Master? They do look similar enough) so someone needs to investigate. Naturally, Anakin shows up with some wild screeching to fight Maul, and when someone questions why he got involved it gets very "Kenobi is MINE!" and like. Okay. So.

Anakin means it in a very Sith "to toy with" and "to torture" way, or the ‘my chosen opponent!’ way, just the same kind of Obsession as Maul had with Obi-Wan in the original timeline. Unfortunately, Anakin’s a weird-ass person who flirts with Young Obi against his own better judgement, so there's some awkward "Like... your boyfriend?" from young Obi. Anakin just screeches in SOME emotion that nobody wants to interpret, and couldn't even if they wanted to, and starts whacking away at Maul again.

(Anakin hasn't explained the "you look exactly like my dad, sorry, it's just too weird" thing yet, and he is HAVING MANY REGRETS.)

There's definitely at least one instance where a person asks Anakin if he's planning on dating That One Jedi Twink, or at least banging out the tension. At that point in time, Anakin doesn't actually know who the fuck they're talking about, because "Obi-Wan + Twink = Does Not Compute" for dear, dense Ani, and instead he just ends up ranting about how he is LOYAL TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LATE WIFE, how DARE anyone so much as INSINUATE that he would TARNISH HER PERFECT MEMORY and UNWAVERING KINDNESS and WHOLESOME BEING, and the person who asked doesn't end up lightsabered but they do end up with a LOT to tell whoever they're reporting to.

Young Obi-Wan definitely hears Anakin mutter the phrase “something to discuss with my therapist later” a few times, and he’s a little bewildered because darksiders definitely don’t seem like the type of people to go to therapy. They’re the type of people to need therapy, sure, but not the type to go to therapy.

I think it would be very fun for Young Obi to continue sighing over Anakin (who's pretending to be fine with it and even flirting back because he's in too deep to stop and hasn't worked up the courage to explain the elephant in the room) while Anakin is covered in grease and infodumping while having a slightly manic hyperfocus on engine repairs while the two of them Somehow got stranded together in the middle of bumfuck nowhere (it's Plagueis's doing, he finds the interactions between THESE two in particular to be the most informative regarding the fake Sith).

Anakin, at some point while stranded with young Obi-Wan, and having actually started unpacking some stuff in therapy, though he’s def still got a ways to go: I’m pretty sure Ben cares about me. He acts like he cares, like he’ll do stuff like put extra blankets in my quarters in the spaceship because I get cold real easily or track down those droid parts I need for a project and he always has my back in a fight but y’know it’d be nice to hear him say he loves me once in a while. Especially because we kinda had a rough start and idk I don’t think he wanted me around at first.

And uh. Obi-Wan definitely relates to that a bit too much, y’know?

I want to say that Young Obi ends up mentioning All That to one of the clones or Ahsoka later, because they seem probably invested in Anakin's well-being, even if Ben is, well, a Sith, so Obi-Wan's a little worried the man's affection really is fake, but at least Ahsoka...

(Ironic, given what Anakin's actual eventual Sith would-be-Master was like.)

Young Obi mentions Anakin’s most recent rant to Ahsoka, and she just goes "Wait, is that why Skyguy likes to sit by the throne and get called pet names?" "Uh... I don't... know... but it sounds like all of you have a LOT to unpack there, Miss Apprentice."

Later on: "Master Kenobi, you need to tell Skyguy you love him 'cause apparently he's been having a lot of emotions about you not telling him you care and he's been talking to mini-you about it whenever they get stuck together and--"

Young Obi-Wan is just constantly the "Now we don't have time to unpack all of that" John Mulaney gif. Anakin in particular is a mess, and young Obi-Wan slowly goes from "I want to date that" to "I want to study that" about him.

Obi-Wan gets stuck somewhere with Ben, tries to small talk, gets on the topic of Vader, and spills the drama. He gets an awkward “Thank you for bringing that to my attention.”

It’s followed by a fairly frustrated “I try, but Anakin refuses to communicate his needs to me, and it feels like I’m always falling short.”

At least one member of the group is in therapy, probably all of them, but they’re still using young Obi as a sounding board for all this stuff. On the bright side, this is probably good for impressing the importance of good communication on Obi-Wan.

Good for Obi-Wan! And... whatever Padawan he eventually has.

As for baby Anakin, who is approximately age four, I want to go with "Anakin decides to be his own uncle, and Shmi just rolls with it because fuck it, she’s not a slave anymore, and a Fake Sith is a solid defense against anyone trying to re-enslave them."

[This is a backstory I've had them use before (see here and here).]

Seeing Big Ani and Little Ani in the same space might be what finally pings the "oh shit, that's future me" thing for Obi-Wan... you know, if he’s ever allowed close enough to see Little Ani in the first place.

Little Ani stays with the fake-Sith and is sorta jointly trained by all of them, and young Obi-Wan teaches little 'Soka at the Temple. Ani and 'Soka still end up friends somehow, but it is fairly different.

Every time little Ani addresses Old Obi as "Dad," it's just like ten kinds of awkward. The one time someone tried to explain that Ben wasn't his new dad, Shmi glared them down. She is of the opinion that, all the gods be damned, Ani deserves to refer to the most mature man in his life, who raised another him in another timeline already, as a father.

Ani doesn't NEED a father, Shmi herself is more than enough, but he does deserve to have this if he wants it.

An alternative conclusion to the time travel is uh. So the Mandalorians are genetically identical (give or take a hair gene) and really resemble Jango Fett, though whether anyone notices that is up in the air. Then the three ‘Sith’ (two fake Sith and their morality chain tag-along) have three younger, identical copies show up….

It could be really weird cloning shenanigans. Now, it makes no sense that they’d make clones, and stagger their production like that, and leave them as babies on various planets for Jedi to find. IDK what reasons Obi-Wan would come up with for that, but it’s a fun little detour before he gets to time travel.

There's a really painful moment (for the audience, who know about canon Vader) where someone tries to convince Ahsoka to leave the Sith and she's just like "no way, they'd never hurt me!” Then she clarifies that “someone has to keep them from doing stupid Sith shit whenever they get bored, you know?"

A bunch of Jedi probably think she’s delusional, but the few that have seen her get into trouble that is legitimately too much for her, which isn't often, have then seen Anakin show up like the devil himself to save her, and it's like. Oh. This is why she isn't scared of them hurting her.

We’ve discussed how Anakin does get concerningly in character with the fake Sith thing. However, Anakin and Ahsoka are, just once in a while, surprised by how Ben gets sometimes when playing the bad guy.

After all, he stabbed a dude with a fork and threatened to eat him during his time as Hardeen…

He has the same dramatic streak as all the rest of the lineage. He can be vindictive and creepy and scary as fuck.

HOWEVER:

Obi-Wan: I know I'm supposed to be playing at evil right now, but how do we feel about me making that evil a little... fruity? Ahsoka: Fruity, master? Anakin, who knows where this is going: [buries face in hands] Obi-Wan: You know, the... [limp wrist] Ahsoka: ... Obi-Wan: I mean, I'm already bisexual and well-groomed, I can play it up.

What’s the point of being evil if you can’t be flamboyant?

Anyway, I had to put in a lot of thought for what to do with Rex and Cody, because there's a solid place for them in terms of strategy, but it doesn't do much to give them independent narrative arcs, and 'young Obi-Wan has a crush' isn't much of an arc, you know?

So, basic info first: Cody, Rex, and Anakin all hold the rank of General in this AU because, like... who else is gonna. Ahsoka remains a commander because everyone declares her Baby, and also to keep up the "I'm a morality chain" ruse.

Cody maintains a very stern and unyielding public persona, but the second they're behind closed doors, he's roughhousing with his little brother.

Rex has some fun pretending to be a sadist whenever he and Anakin have to team up, because hamming it up as an evil bastard in front of Jedi is actually really fun... but usually, he's a competent fucking professional.

Because here's the thing: someone has to be.

They both kind of hate the army they've gotten, because these people don't even have proper trigger discipline, let alone any actual discipline.

This army? Tragic. They hate it. Give them the clones.

They have to be drill sergeants for months before they have anything worth sending onto the field.

I think that might be how/when they end up reaching out to Jango. Like, the first inroad is absolutely "we're your clones from the future and you were a Shit Dad so you owe us," but then they actually talk him around into letting the Fake Sith hire him. He brings along all the Mandalorians he can get to answer his calls, and on suggestion from Those Mando Twins, joins the army Ben doesn't even want.

Darth Boring doesn't want an army! Unfortunately, Cody thinks that's stupid as hell, and is overruling Ben so they can actually work on this 'cleaning up the galaxy of slavery' thing with actual resources.

Cody and Rex are super competent, and it shows in their horrified disdain for the state of their troops.

Rex: Fucking natborns. Anyone who isn't in the know: What's a natborn? Rex: [leaves without answering] People: WHAT'S A NATBORN???

(I'm assuming that the word smush is harder to parse in Basic.)

I think young Obi-Wan's new crush on Cody should also be unrequited. Cody's just like... bemused. Very "Okay, then, that sure is an Affection you've decided on."

Cody and Anakin both: Sorry, it’d just be too weird. Obi-Wan: Why would it be too weird? Cody and Anakin: Reasons.

Rex has to deal with the "whyyyyy" from both his brother and his (former?) General.

Young Obi-Wan just likes cute boys that fight good! Is that so wrong???

Ahsoka: So since we're not officially Jedi anymore-- Obi-Wan: We're still Je-- Ahsoka: Can we date? Can I date now? I want to date someone before we go back to the Code. It's a classic life experience for most teenage girls, and I want to Have That Experience before we're back at the Temple. Obi-Wan: You're not... you can date, Ahsoka, that's not actually banned by the Code. I mean, you'd have to keep it casual, but-- Ahsoka: I CAN DATE!!!

(Great priorities, Ahsoka.)

An idea I'm toying with is that one of the clones ends up Legally Engaged to Satine for political reasons, and young Obi-Wan is just like ???? because not only can he not date the hot boys, but one of said hot boys has become Mr. Steal Yo Girl.

Young Obi-Wan is suffering, and Quinlan is the worst friend ever because Quinlan is laughing at him.

There is obviously the question of

"How would Satine ever end up agreeing to that, given what their public personas are like and all that? She puts duty ahead of personal feelings but all indications are that it’s a terrible decision both ways." (as stated by Tia)

Which, yes, I forgot to actually say that I was imagining Jango had declared "those twins" his heirs after telling people they were his younger* cousins. Because reasons.

* Jango is about 27 when they land in the past, and I’m going to say the accelerated aging ended after hitting physically twenty because no, I don’t want to deal with that. As far as anyone knows, Cody and Rex are about five years younger than Jango. They’re less than year apart, which isn’t very visible, and most people assume they’re identical twins (except Rex’s hair), and that Cody just looks slightly older because of the scar.

Darth Boring had convinced Satine that the way to keeping Mandalore peaceful was to work with Jango (because Darth Boring, which is not his actual title but it is what Ahsoka insists on calling him in private, has a vested interest in keeping Mandalore and all interested parties calm), and he... maybe accidentally set up a political marriage between her and one of the clones.

It wasn't on purpose! Satine never married in his timeline, okay, he didn't expect her to ever get married here, either! He didn't even suggest it! This just happened!

(I want to say that Cody would be more competent at having a political marriage? But IDK.)

Do I do the Satine thing? It has potential, but also it's a bit of a cop-out. Do I have Cody be a diplomatic representative for their pseudo-Sith empire? He could be, but I think he'd hate it. Do I have Rex date one the Chaos Entities (Anakin or Ahsoka), or is that too repetitive with my other works? THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH GOING ON.

Part of me wants Quinlan to get a crush on Cody, and the crush gets bigger specifically in response to the fact that Cody refuses to take him seriously and/or just doesn't give him the time of day.

Based on their one interaction in TCW, they probably let get along ok. Cody maybe likes him back, buuuuuuut internally he's just a little "you were tolerable at almost-forty; early twenties you is obnoxious."

Just imagine the absolutely puppyish attempts at gaining approval and Impressing The Hot Mando General. Quinlan keeps having vague daydreams of seducing someone to the side of the Light. He really leans into the bodice ripper fantasies of saving someone evil with the power of love! (And also the power of really good sex.)

Bant looks at Quin and Obi and wants to throw them both into the nearest pond because they're idiots, but on this topic they are the same flavor of idiot. She considers calling up Reeft and Garen to help her knock some sense into them.

Quinlan: Can I volunteer to go undercover to the Sith? The Council: No. Quinlan: ...what if I-- The Council: No.

Tholme tries to get Qui-Gon to commiserate over their Padawans getting obsessed with Hot Sith Boys, but Qui-Gon just finds the whole thing funny. He knows from the chats he has with Ben that Anakin feels so completely, utterly, incredibly awkward about all of this.

(Ben continues to hold to "Anakin brought this on himself.")

(Ben also “kidnaps” Qui-Gon a lot.)

Also, hey, at least Quinlan isn’t actually into hot Sith boys! He’s into hot Sith minions which is... probably a step up. At least Cody’s not a Sith himself!

It's a step in some direction but Tholme has no idea which one.

(Quinlan sees Cody in dress uniform once and just keeps the mental image for Ages. It’s in his dreams. Sometimes said dreams overflow to Tholme via Force Mind Magic and Quinlan wakes up to someone smacking his face with a pillow.)

Arguably, Quin's also a lot more romantic about his crush than Obi-Wan is, in this case. Quinlan: I want to save him... Obi-Wan: Hey, hey, cute boy. Look at me. Let’s bang.

Cody: There are currently two future Jedi generals having some form of absurd romantic fixation in my direction. I don't know how to feel about this. Rex: Bed them. Cody: ...I'm not saying that's not eventually an option, but one of them is the younger Kenobi, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Rex: Pat him on the head like a tooka and then bed his friend, it'll be funny.

I think the Quinlan thing and also general exasperation of leading an absolutely useless army can function pretty solidly as the basis for Cody, but I have another idea for Rex now.

Komari is currently brainwashed in a cult, yes? So.

I keep bouncing around back and forth on what to do with Rex, but part of me suddenly really likes the idea of, after Team Fake Sith finds and dissolves the cult (as one does), and takes Komari into custody (because she's dangerous and deeply unwell), Rex kind of ends up her touchstone to being a decent person. He’s not a morality chain, and it’s not really a redeemed-through-love thing, just This Is A Solid Dude who doesn't pity her or thinks she's irredeemable (however you choose to define such a thing), but actually relates to the kind of conditions living like that can involve, and just kind of...

I don’t know. I think Rex's arc in this AU could be very heavily grounded in something to the effect of "You're not the worst darksider I've met. You're not the only person who was in a cult. You're not even the only former Jedi I know that's committed awful, horrible crimes. My question is just this: What are you going to do moving forward?"

Later Anakin: Wait, who do we know that was in a cult? Rex: What did you think Kamino was?

(Rex isn't as chill as he'd like her to think, but he's trying, and she's fairly reliant on the Force to understand emotions, and is currently in nullifying cuffs, so he can bluff.)

Komari needs someone solid and dependable to rely on for at least conversation, and I think Rex needs to feel needed.

I’m not sure if it’d be romance or friendship, but I think there's a solid basis to work with, potentially.

Per Tia:

One thing about Rex and shipping is like. If you want to do Rexwalker again that's fine, but if you're worried about repetitiveness but still want to like. Ship him in a non-political-convenience way. Rexsoka here actually would be different than your other stuff.

I'm trying to figure out if I can make it work because Ahsoka thematically fits very much into a little sister shaped hole here? She feels younger than in other works, despite not actually being younger than she is in, say, Commander Buir. In those other fics, she has some time alone to function and prove herself independently of Anakin and Obi-Wan.

I usually pluck Ahsoka out at sixteen if I'm pulling her from TCW, so she's got most of her competence but hasn't gotten quite all the trauma yet. Commander Buir, in particular, also has baby-shaped Anakin for contrast.

That said, I can see a decent source of narrative conflict in her wanting to experiment with romance and all that, and Anakin trying to tell her she's too young.

A year into this whole time-travel mess, she wants to give the dating thing a shot, and it spirals into "You were only two years older than me when you got married!"

I think I could build a plot out of Ahsoka wanting to do these things, and Anakin as an audience insert not quite processing that she's old enough to make these decisions. If she's choosing to date Rex, whose age works out as being close to hers when one takes into account Kamino fuckery, and whom she trusts absolutely, it’s arguably extra weird for Anakin to be upset with it.

"Senator Amidala was five years older than you, and you married her when you were nineteen and had only really known her for a week! I can go on a date with a guy we both know is one of the most trustworthy people alive if I want, Skyguy!"

I can definitely see Ahsoka getting annoyed with Anakin being overbearing and controlling at some point before that unrelated to romance, too. It’s not exactly a new fault of his.

My god, just imagine someone snidely asking Anakin "where's your little shadow?" and Anakin, being Himself and also a Fake Sith, has an emotional breakdown about how Ahsoka yelled at him for micromanaging her and not trusting her to make her own decisions in life and so she got herself a multi-month solo mission from Ben that Anakin isn't allowed to know any details about, and--

It's another one of those "oh, you have PROBLEMS problems with your mental health" incidents for the Jedi to add to the file, because Anakin having emotionally charged rants about his issues at seemingly terrible times is how they get a lot of information.

Some of the rants are planned.

Many of them, actually.

They want the Jedi to know these things.

Just, well. Anakin.

He really is a little Like That.

On that note, I'm low-key imagining that Anakin gets put on mood stabilizers by the therapist in this context, and he's doing good! He's handling his issues! He's--been captured with Obi-Wan the Younger again and his medication was confiscated.

Anakin is... not great. He's a little out of practice managing his unmedicated self, and when adding withdrawal symptoms onto that... poor Anakin.

(Poor Obi-Wan.)

I think it would be best if Anakin makes a bunch of ominous blustery comments at their captors about how they won't like what's coming to them if they take his belongings (AKA the fanny pack that has his backup pills), and then Obi-Wan just gets to watch Anakin get more and more erratic, because like. Yes, Anakin is using the Force to compensate, but unfortunately he's mostly cut off, and the stress of the situation is pushing him away from depression and into the beginnings of a manic episode.

Anakin is aware of his issues to the point where he's mostly managing, and he keeps asking Obi-Wan "would it make sense for me to [slightly deranged, very impulsive action]," and Obi-Wan realizes he's being the morality sounding board for the Hot Sith because ??? reasons?????

Eventually, Anakin does flop back in bed and dramatically throws his arm over his eyes, and says he needs his meds back, he's absolutely going to lose it, and Obi-Wan tentatively asks what kind of medication. There are levels to worry about. Mild allergy medication is one thing, but heart medication that needs to be taken every four hours is another, you know? He wants to know how much panic is appropriate.

Anakin lets him know that it's Psychiatric In Nature. Obi-Wan suddenly realizes that he really, really, really doesn't want to know what a properly erratic, unmedicated Anakin is like.

(An unmedicated Anakin really isn't nearly as bad as Obi-Wan fears. Anakin's been dealing with this for a while, and knows what his issues are and some of how to deal with them. He'd need to be running on no sleep and higher levels of stress, or to have been drugged with something meant to increase his aggression, to really lose his shit and do something worthy of Vader. RotS levels of stress and sleep deprivation is required to pull RotS levels of manic paranoid delusion.)

Tia asked:

How long does it take the Jedi in general to catch on to how like. They have opportunities. But these Sith never seem to harm any Jedi. And it’s not just like, the past timeline parts of the disaster lineage. They probably get opportunities to hurt other Jedi. Ones that are less skilled at saber work. And more importantly ones that they don’t seem weirdly interested in."

I'm not sure, really. The Jedi don't spend as much time in the Outer Rim as they could, and that's where the Team operates, so actually running into them by accident is unlikely for anyone other than Shadows.

Fortunately, it's really easy to toy with Shadows with the excuse of "I want to see how long it takes before you Fall with us."

I do want like... okay. Here’s the mental image:

Qui-Gon calls them out on being Fake Sith pretty quickly, so Ben just sort of eyes him, dramatically, and orders out "Leave us" to all non-team people. The threat of torture is implied but not stated. He gestures with wine to keep in character. He definitely makes sure Young Obi-Wan is ushered out, so it's just five time travelers, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ahsoka's immortal force birb.

"...so, what's the reason for the farce, Obi-Wan?" "How in all the hells did you figure it out so quickly?"

(Qui-Gon cheated a bit. He could feel the broken training bond that was never properly severed due to Traumatic Death Of A Master on Ben's end)

Ben didn't realize he'd feel it! Young Obi-Wan can't feel his older self or a training bond with Anakin or Ahsoka, so why could Qui-Gon?

IDK if there would be anything on the level of crying and hugging it out, but I think it would be very funny if, every time young Obi and Anakin are getting captured by pirates or something, Ben and Qui-Gon are just having a nice afternoon tea and checking their watches to see if their respective walking bundles of neuroses are done with their adventure yet.

The Council is So Done, because Qui-Gon continues to insist that they're Not That Bad, but every time anyone other than Qui-Gon brings up the friendship, Ben laughs and makes a comment about how absolutely gullible Master Jinn is.

Obi-Wan is skeptical of his own experiences with Anakin, at least, if only because he's skeptical about Anakin's everything.

"I don't know if Vader is telling me the truth. I don't know if he's telling himself the truth. I don't think he's a great source of information even when he thinks he's being honest."

Anakin could tell Obi-Wan the full and complete truth, and Obi-Wan would worriedly put a hand to his forehead and start doing tests for hallucinations and paranoid delusions. In his defense, this is a very reasonable assumption to make with an individual like Anakin. It's just also not accurate, this time. I don’t know if Anakin hallucinates in canon without a weird inciting incident like Force Nonsense or getting drugged by the enemy, but paranoid delusion is pretty much all of RotS.

"I’m your time-traveling padawan who’s pretending to be a Sith to catch some other Sith who’re going to start a galactic civil war and those Mandalorians you like are from a clone army based on a template of Jango Fett made to serve the Jedi (because that’s totally something he’d sign up for), and one of the Sith is your grandmaster but he doesn’t seem to have fallen yet, it’s probably fine," is hard to believe.

Honestly, even if he seemed stable before saying that, which he doesn’t, it’s all real far fetched. There's a lot going on and Obi-Wan wouldn't even begin to believe it without evidence.

I've had it in my head that he and Bant and Quinlan have been gossiping about the mess for months if not years about these idiots, and at one point it became common knowledge that Ben was a Kenobi, and Bant convinced them (since the two were among the most likely in the entire Order to encounter the Fake Sith) to get a DNA sample, probably hair or blood since that's easiest so they can figure out HOW these two are related, if they are, and then there's a whole big thing.

Bant: No, no, this must be contaminated, it's coming up as Obi-Wan! Are you sure you didn't accidentally grab some of your own hairs? I know it's a little long for most of your hair, but the braid-- Quinlan: Wait, they keep claiming stuff about cloning, right? Maybe someone's a clone? Check for artificial telomeres! Bant: ...okay, so, there aren't any artificial telomeres, but the ones from apparently-Ben are... a lot shorter... um... I don't know what to do with this. It's like I have two samples from the same person, twenty years apart. Quinlan: Obi-Wan, what's that face? Why are you-- Obi-Wan: Vader told me he was a time-traveler. I thought it was the fever talking, but...

That’s how he finds out that Ben is future-him before finding out about how he’s not evil!

"Master Jinn... I think... I think the Sith controlling the Outer Rim is me from the future." "Oh, you finally figured it out?" "I AM HAVING A CRISIS HERE."

Obi-Wan, after a few hours of dazed realization, runs screaming to Quinlan and Bant like 'GUYS GUYS THIS EXPLAINS WHY VADER KEPT SAYING IT WAS WEIRD AND THAT I LOOK LIKE HIS MASTER AND THAT IT WOULD BE LIKE DATING HIS DAD.'

You know, the important stuff.

I think Qui-Gon tells him that Ben isn't evil because, like, That Sure Is A Crisis Obi-Wan's Having. He could hold off for shits and giggles, sure, but Obi-Wan’s on the edge of something Really Concerning, mentally. Best help calm him down on at least one or two things.

Obi-Wan’s maybe still a little skeptical until he confronts them over it. Because their Sith act was real good and also like. Maybe Qui-Gon just wants to believe the best of his Padawan, y’know?

Quinlan runs into Ben before Obi-Wan does, after this whole mess, and gets to observe as money changes hands and people act like sore winners about bets made for When Does Obi-Wan Figure It Out.

Anakin was saying 'soon' because he really didn't think the fever-fueled rant would be discounted as easily as it was.

Cody was of the opinion that it would take at least a few more years since they're actually pretty damn good at this whole schtick.

Quinlan: Wow, he's... going to be really disappointed that you have such a low opinion of his intelligence. Cody, gesturing at Ben: Experience. Darth Ben: ಠ_ಠ

Cody just rattles off some of the Extremely Stupid Shit that Ben's done in their time working together.

Rex cheerily offers up "You didn't even realize General Skywalker was married, sir! And they weren't subtle!" "I knew they were together, I just didn--" "Everyone knew they were together, sir. Everyone."

(Rex had the lowest opinion of their deductive capabilities. He claims it would have taken until Baby Ahsoka showed up at the Jedi Temple.)

-Once Obi-Wan accepts that they're decent people after all- Obi-Wan: Wow, Anakin, you're real good at acting unhinged! Anakin: Haha. Yeah. Thanks?

#Obi Wan Kenobi #Anakin Skywalker #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Commander Cody #Disaster Lineage #time travel #Qui Gon Jinn #Jango Fett #Quinlan Vos #one sided codywan #one sided obikin #trust me it's very stupid #villain au #CodyQuin #Rexsoka #maybe? #Komari Vosa #Fake Sith AU #Phoenix Posts #kink mention #kinky power dynamics in non-sexual situations #Anakin's got a lot of neuroses and unfortunately he's making it everyone's problem #cult mention #This is 7.5k and only sort of organized #500 notes