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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Re; Ahsoka and Quinlan being the same age, now I'm picturing Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Rex eventually ending up in a weird sorta thruple where Quinlan comes in and out of the relationship but the door is kinda always open for him? And Rex spends a lot of mornings eyeing the tangle of orange and brown skin on the other side of the bed like he has no idea how he ended up here but he's (mostly) okay with that tbh

Context: Commander Buir in chronological order

YES okay so this is wild to me that people are invested in this but like half the time-travel fics with Ahsoka in the same age-group as Quinlan have me wondering if I should ship them. Let me just. Ho shit.

So, okay, I've explored a lot of possible dynamics but there's something really engaging about how Quinlan, trained as a Shadow before the Sith came back, could react to a War Padawan. Ahsoka isn't really infiltration material yet, she's very much a frontline fighter, but she's got a lot more experience with a kind of consistent dark atmosphere that most Jedi don't. They get exposed to plenty of dark stuff, sure, but not the kind of all-encompassing "this is my life for the last two years" thing that is usually reserved for the long-term field agents like Shadows and Watchmen.

The War Padawans, for all that they were supposed to be just normal Jedi Padawans, were living in the kind of consistently negative environment that's normally experienced by those Knighted Sentinels.

So Ahsoka, while still generally pretty young in these AUs, is a very odd kind of person to be around, because she's spunky and vivacious and snippy and affectionate and snarky and knows how to break every bone in your body from harrowing experience as the only thing standing between death and thousands of brothers.

And Quinlan, I imagine, really likes that about her. She gets it, and she's still an energetic and loving and trying to do her best to be a good person despite everything. He gravitates towards her and she... well, she's not blind. She can tell he's interested. And she's not upset about that.

ANYWAY, ONTO REX

So, Rex is... technically twelve. He hasn't exactly got a whole lot of experience with romance. He is also, up until the point of time-travel, legal property of the Senate and the Jedi Order, which means that Ahsoka, or at least her community, owns him. He was indoctrinated to serve her and that community. She also outranks him, for all that she usually lets him take the lead in the field due to experience. He's older than her physically and maturity-wise, but she's also had a grow-up-faster-than-you-should adolescence, and she has superpowers.

What I'm saying is, the power dynamic is fucked up.

(Unironically I spent hours last night realizing that it balances out a lot more than C*dywan does, which I'm censoring because by god do I not want discourse on this post. I like both ships, and don't want to argue about what's the most problematic. It's Star Wars. The only unproblematic ships are Bail/Breha and Owen/Beru.)

Here's the thing, though, because the main thing people seem to argue here is the age/maturity difference as a problem area:

The age difference in actual time is four years, which is smaller than the two main ships of the franchise (Han/Leia and Padme/Anakin, to be clear). The age difference in maturity is ??? We'll say that the clones started aging normally after they hit twenty, so the age difference in maturity is six years... which is still normal for SW ships.

(This is why I don't have any issues with the ship in a post-O66 context, once they've had a few years to move past the traumas and whatnot. The age stuff all evens out with time, they're a good team, and neither was grooming the other. It's not objectively any more problematic than most SW ships at that point, and I'm okay with that. They deserve to be happy if they want.)

But they get yanked away from all that structure of who owns what, who reports where, who has which rank, who's legally a person in the eyes of the Republic when they end up on Dagobah. Once they've registered when they are, the only remaining complications are:

He grew up in a cultlike environment and was indoctrinated to serve her (but has been replacing that indoctrination with genuine respect and affection for her as a person because they've worked together for two years).

She has superpowers (contextually not a big problem: we see several Force-Sensitive/Non-Sensitive ships that don't consider those powers a complicating element)

He's several years younger than her (canonically less of an issue than it could be: Cut got married and has kids) and has next to no experience with what a normal romance looks like except for hanging out on the edges of whatever the fuck his General has going on with the Senator

She's several years less mature than he is (...something of an issue)

So a lot of this is mostly okay. She feels weird about the fact that she's got more knowledge of romance and all that it entails. He feels weird about the fact that, despite her being older, he looks at her and sees someone that's still a little young, not quite a shiny. Except she is older than him, and he's seen her behead four people in a single move, and they've saved each other's lives more times than either of them can count anymore. He respects her, and the fact that she's babyfaced doesn't change the fact that, in terms of who they are as people and warriors, they're on a level playing field.

She still looks at him and mourns his lost childhood, and he still looks at her and takes a moment to see past the too-big eyes and adolescent proportions.

But they really, really care about each other, and maybe part of them is starting to recognize that there's a bit of a crush before they time-travel, but neither one wants to make a move. There's a lot of baggage on both sides, a lot of "but they're a child" and "but they're (literally vs functionally) below me in the chain of command, I can't take advantage of that" and all that fun stuff. It's the kind of situation where two people circle each other for ages without making a move, because actually making that move is terrifying on account of not knowing whether the other party knows they can say no, on top of the usual "what if it ruins our friendship?" thing.

What happens on Dagobah, though... is very tropey. They're sort of stranded until Ahsoka can fix the ship, and that takes time. The area is also very heavy with the Force, dense and heady with the energy it carries, and it's... actually really not great for Ahsoka. She keeps feeling like she's back on Mortis, and has nightmares from the trigger there, but also keeps hallucinating because she wasn't ready for the thickness of the energy (like Yoda) or still new enough to the Force that she couldn't feel how dense it all was (like Luke). She can't work on the engines as constantly as she'd like to get them out of there, and while Rex is a competent mechanic, he's not as skilled with it as the girl who jumped headfirst into lessons with Anakin.

Rex spends a lot of time holding Ahsoka and wiping her brow with a wet cloth while she's feverish and out of it. Yes we're going full Florence Nightingale romance here, let me have my fun.

They get the communications relay working earlier than the engine, find out the year is wrong, panic a bit. All is well. (It's not, but they're holding it together for now.)

Ahsoka keeps working on the engine when she's lucid. Rex keeps hunting up game and edible plants for them while she does. They cuddle at night, because it's not cold but it is empty of the people they care about, and they kind of want that reassurance of someone they trust and love at their back.

(Morai visits.)

(Daughter shows up in the nightmares, tells Ahsoka that age will not come for her beloved until the time is natural for it. The phrasing is dumb but she does manage to convey that the accelerated aging is no longer an issue, if it even was after they hit adulthood. Ahsoka is relieved.)

And, you know, emotions happen. She takes his hand while they're leaning up against each other. He kisses her forehead while she's having a bad spell. They cook together and tell jokes to keep sane and spar. They hug each other through nightmares and panic attacks. There is much blushing. There is much cuddling.

Once, they kiss.

They break apart, flushing and stammering and being very awkward about the whole thing, and make excuses to leave and panic about the fact that they!! Kissed!!!!!

A couple hours later they find each other again, and have a long and complicated discussion about why they like each other (war makes bedfellows, there's trust and affection and all that fun stuff) and why they're hesitant (age stuff, maturity stuff, prior indoctrination), and make the decision to take it slow. They cuddle, and kiss, and blush a lot because both of them are basically just dumb teens having their first real relationship.

They eventually leave the planet, make it to Coruscant, etc. It takes a bit for anyone except Obi-Wan to realize that something's changed between them. Most people didn't know them before, and Anakin's observation skills are currently at a very low ebb. But they sit together and hold hands, and flirt when they spar, and once or twice people find them kissing (both standard and Keldabe) in a corner while holding hands and then just smiling at each other like loons.

They end up rooming together because nobody has the heart to separate them after hearing about all the war stuff. Like yes attachment's bad, but these two do seem to understand loss of loved ones and recognize that they could lose each other at any time and death is natural and they won't lose their entire shit about it, and if even General Kenobi is anxious as hell about being separated from the people he fought side-by-side with for two years, then maybe it's just... really normal for those two to want each other's company, and everyone can just turn a blind eye to the romance happening.

They share a bed, but they only ever sleep in it. Like, there's some goodnight kisses and cuddles, but everything is very G-rated until they've had time to settle into being true equals instead of just the "well, I guess the power dynamics balance out? Maybe?" of before.

And just... yeah. Rex does not believe that he's in this good of a position whenever he has the time to think about it. He's got a girlfriend! A really pretty, smart, strong, skilled one! Who thinks he's a cool dude! How the fuck did a clone like him manage that? He wasn't even legally a person a year ago, how did he end up in bed with one of the most amazing people he's ever met? He spends multiple nights just staring at her while he tries to fall asleep, asking himself how he got here and just like... marveling at her. She's worth marveling at. He's in love and she's amazing and he has no idea how to handle it at all.

...yeah no I have a lot of feelings now.

#Rexsoka #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Quinlan Vos #time travel #Commander Buir #Phoenix Posts

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deepspacedukat · 2 years

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I figured out how she’s going to do it, because it is within her skill set. The only problem is that getting onto that ship while it’s moving isn’t within her skill set so I have to figure that out. I’ve got two ways so far but it really depends on where she’s at.

Also, watched Covenant tonight. And I have thoughts about that episode because A) Dukat B) So MUCH character development and C) There was a specific line there (that I’m gonna probably end up paraphrasing) and it gave me another idea for her. So did AR-588 but that’s not happening in the brain right now.

Dukat: I’ve been/was touched by the hand of a god.

I forgot what Kira said but my first thought after hearing that was: I’ve been touched by the hands of many gods- some were inside me. Obviously coming from her this is a literal statement of fact but given the situation I’m pretty sure everyone would think it was sarcastic and move on.

Later: You were joking right?

Her to Kira: I’m an atheist. (She is an atheist which is hilarious because she literally knows so many gods and goddesses but she’s just not subscribing to any of that even if she does like them and occasionally gets into an on and off thruple with Santa and Gretchen- that’s Odin and Frigga aka Mrs. Claus, but whatever. It’s on and off because sometimes she does try to have relationships with humans/other human-like earth species/aliens but it just doesn’t work out).

Again, not quite sure how she’d get there because she wasn’t with Kira when she met the Vedek and didn’t have her own glowy transport assister or whatever the heck they call it. A transponder? She’s a doctor not an engineer all she knows is that it works. She could probably piggyback that signal using her own power but it would knock the hell out of her considering there’s no energy signal there that’s like hers to use as a homing beacon. (Maybe Dukat would send her a crystal as well?? I mean she did save him from that trap). But she could also get killed by him for being uninvited. I’m just going to assume she lived.

She’s looking around like Kira and thinking these people are absolutely crackers while wanting to help them and she knows there’s absolutely nothing she can do to help them. And there’s all this struggle with the knowledge that everyone who has the job she wants would figure out a way to save them and have it done before Dukat held their first services. (Yeah there’s some hero worship in her and it’s pretty strong considering these people and what they do for a living were her bedtime stories for years. YEARS. She’s definitely trying to hold up to a legend in order to be found worthy of the position. It’s not fun at all).

But because she’s tired, Kira is the senior officer, and she’s trying to come up with a plan, she’s just following Kira around and absorbing everything. I’m hoping at some point she realizes this wasn’t intended for her, it was for Kira, and that she needs to step back and just watch (unless something goes horribly wrong). Kira still ends up doing all the same things in the episode she just has some familiar backup and someone like-minded about Dukat to vent at.

I’d like to think she knows at the end that things take patience for everyone and sometimes it’s better to not be an active participant in situations because passivity allows for more opportunity (it’s a cult, Kira’s right, the only problem is she’s totally going about it the wrong way until the end because the forcible rejection is only cementing a divide). Sometimes you have to play along as unfortunate as it is.

-Horta-in-Charge

That is a wild ride, and I love all of it! There was absolutely tons of character development in "Covenant," and it sounds as though your plan for your OC is going pretty darn well! It sounds like an amazing way to progress through the episode, tbh!

Horta, I absolutely love this! I always get so excited when I see your url signed at the bottom of an anon or in my reblogs <3 Thank you so much for this and all the other ideas and comments you've tossed my way! (Feeling a bit soft tonight, so sorry if this sounds sappy.) I really do enjoy hearing from people, especially people like you who I'm really familiar with - and who are friend-shaped, like you!!! <3 I hope you're having a great day/night, friend!

#deepspacedukat asks #horta in charge

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weedle-testaburger · 6 years

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Amethyst or Peridot!

I’ll do both! :3

Amethyst:

How I feel about this character: I really like her. I kinda relate to bottling up my emotions a lot and trying to be cool to hide my insecurities, and I love that she’s a plus-sized major character who gets to be badass and not like a punchline for her fatness (much as I love Hunk and love to hate Cartman, it’s kind of a shame they’re often used as fatphobic punchlines even if Cartman deserves it).

All the people I ship romantically with this character: I don’t have any hard and fast ships involving Amethyst but I guess I can see her being with Greg when Steven was little or with Lapis and Peridot as a poly thruple.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Pearlmethyst. I don’t ship em romantically but they have a great dynamic.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Idk if I sympathize as much with her as much as everyone else did in What’s Your Problem. I get her wanting to make Steven feel better about Rose, but she kinda ends up ranting about Rose more than she does actually let Steven talk about things, and the fact she refuses to let him know how she’s feeling for ages comes across as a bit dickish on her part. (Then again maybe it just reminded me of how I’m kinda bottling up everything going on with my dad atm...)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I’d love for her to get some closure on her insecurities the way Pearl and Garnet kinda have.

Peridot:

How I feel about this character: I love my green Dorito dork, she can be one of the funniest parts of the show sometimes (especially in the bit with her explaining her meep morp or in The Kindergarten Kid) and she’s had one of the neatest redemption arcs.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: LAPIS! And maybe Amethyst too so long as they’re with Lapis too lmao

My non-romantic OTP for this character: I guess Steven? Emphasis on ‘non-romantic’ though, I mean I like their dynamic.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I think she was as much at fault as Lapis was in Raising The Barn. She wasn’t being very accomodating of Lapis’s fear and was blatantly trying to hide her intentions, and frankly that contributed just as much to Lapis leaving as her fear of the Diamonds attacking her.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I would die for canon Lapidot tbh

Thanks for asking anon! Sorry this kinda took a while C:

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