fic fragments
I'm fairly terrified about uni (I get my grades tomorrow and I literally have no idea what I'm going to get - "no idea" in the sense of "probably not failing...I hope..." even while it's equally possible that I could get good grades), so I'm distracting myself with fic.
First. Okay, it's starting to seem that any time I write a genderswap, there are really two stories. There's the retelling, which is close to canon and dialogues with it, and the pure AU, which tries to chart the probable consequences of the premise, but diverges so much from canon that there's no real dialogue. I always go for the retelling. I did it with First Impressions and I did it with Lucy, and though I'm fond of the stories I did write, the ones I didn't are avenging themselves by taking over my brain. I've already poked at not-FI with girl!Darcy and girl!Elizabeth, and now there's this.
It's the Lucyverse as it "should" have been, had I not railroaded the plot so...you know, it had something to do with "A New Hope." I thought (and I still think) that, realistically, Lucy as written would have run off to the Academy well before the point where we meet her. Around 15 or 16, say. And Vader would have promptly discovered her and tried to find a way to make "OMG MY BABY LIVED!!11! <3" sound badass. And then everything would be different and it seemed that I might as well just write it with Luke and idk but I didn't. But anyway, I did plan it all out ~just in case~ and this is where I figured it'd end up:
title: chosen
fanverse: Lucy (Imperial!Lucy AU)
Palpatine had never worn a crown. His only robes had been plain and black - raiment for a Sith Lord, rather than an Emperor.
She would be different. In every way.
“Hail the Empress!” proclaimed General Zeilac, and a roar of applause echoed in her ears.
She rose to her full, insignificant height, her scarlet skirts still trailing over the floor, and seated herself on Palpatine’s throne. No. Her throne.
Her fingers curled around the throne’s arms, and her heartbeat seemed to drum, slow and steady, against her skull. The breaths she drew ached, almost as much as her father’s must have, before.
She’d thought the crown would be heavy. It was only a circlet, though, as she had commanded, and rested more lightly on her head than her elaborate curls did. She was almost disappointed.
Not that she needed any reminder of the responsibility she now bore. No longer could she confine herself to the concerns of one planet, even of one rebellion. She was answerable to the galaxy she’d fought to liberate, the Empire she’d fought to destroy.
If the Leia Organa of two years ago had known what would become of her, she would have driven a vibroblade into her chest rather than see this future come to pass. But she had not seen it, and that Leia had not long survived Alderaan. Leia Skywalker didn’t have the luxury of acting freely. No good choices presented themselves to her, just lesser evils. She could only consider the good of all, and how best to achieve it.
Palpatine’s court couldn’t offer their allegiance quickly enough - and she didn’t fool herself into thinking it was anything other than Palpatine’s court. Moffs, admirals, generals, lords and ladies, they all grovelled before her, already plotting her defeat.
They would fail.
If she had lacked any certainty in her own abilities, it certainly wouldn’t have extended to Vader and Lucy. They would stand at her left and right hands for as long as she reigned: but right now, they knelt at her feet.
This was for the best. It was.
Her father and sister looked up at her with unquestioning devotion, and their eyes were blue.
------------------------------
Second, in the spirit of cautiously poking at Austen, I wrote the first tiny fragment of the P&P WITH LIGHTSABERS 'verse that I am emphatically not writing, though someone should. It took me approximately thirty seconds to become ridiculously attached to alt!Caroline. idek.
------------------------------
Caravir and Caravina were twins-fraternal, of course, but until puberty they'd often been mistaken for identical boys. These days, nobody could think Caravina a man, but the resemblance remained striking. Otherwise they had only a smattering of personal quirks and a career in common.
They were not Jedi, or indeed Force-sensitive in the slightest, but they were nevertheless respected ambassadors. They often worked together, as their greatest successes were achieved in concert. Their colleagues generally spoke of them, for all their differences, as a single entity. Not “the twins,” of course-on Coruscant, that always meant the Grandmaster and her brother, referred to with a mixture of reverence and superstitious fear, and never by name. Caravir and Caravina were simply Ambassadors Bei Ling.
“Preparing to enter planetary gravity field,” droned the computer.
The Bei Lings considered the planet on the viewscreen.
“Small, watery, and underpopulated.” Caravina switched off her datapad. “Well, this should be delightful.”
“I think it looks charming,” said Caravir. “And Merytano, at any rate, is above water, and nearly what it was before the Empire.”
“Thank the Force for small blessings. Nynex!”
Their protocol droid stalked into the room. “Yes, ma'am?”
“Is Sky awake yet?”
The metal face managed to look disapproving. “Master Fel is meditating on our mission, ma'am.”
“Then wake him up and tell him we're here.”
First. Okay, it's starting to seem that any time I write a genderswap, there are really two stories. There's the retelling, which is close to canon and dialogues with it, and the pure AU, which tries to chart the probable consequences of the premise, but diverges so much from canon that there's no real dialogue. I always go for the retelling. I did it with First Impressions and I did it with Lucy, and though I'm fond of the stories I did write, the ones I didn't are avenging themselves by taking over my brain. I've already poked at not-FI with girl!Darcy and girl!Elizabeth, and now there's this.
It's the Lucyverse as it "should" have been, had I not railroaded the plot so...you know, it had something to do with "A New Hope." I thought (and I still think) that, realistically, Lucy as written would have run off to the Academy well before the point where we meet her. Around 15 or 16, say. And Vader would have promptly discovered her and tried to find a way to make "OMG MY BABY LIVED!!11! <3" sound badass. And then everything would be different and it seemed that I might as well just write it with Luke and idk but I didn't. But anyway, I did plan it all out ~just in case~ and this is where I figured it'd end up:
title: chosen
fanverse: Lucy (Imperial!Lucy AU)
Palpatine had never worn a crown. His only robes had been plain and black - raiment for a Sith Lord, rather than an Emperor.
She would be different. In every way.
“Hail the Empress!” proclaimed General Zeilac, and a roar of applause echoed in her ears.
She rose to her full, insignificant height, her scarlet skirts still trailing over the floor, and seated herself on Palpatine’s throne. No. Her throne.
Her fingers curled around the throne’s arms, and her heartbeat seemed to drum, slow and steady, against her skull. The breaths she drew ached, almost as much as her father’s must have, before.
She’d thought the crown would be heavy. It was only a circlet, though, as she had commanded, and rested more lightly on her head than her elaborate curls did. She was almost disappointed.
Not that she needed any reminder of the responsibility she now bore. No longer could she confine herself to the concerns of one planet, even of one rebellion. She was answerable to the galaxy she’d fought to liberate, the Empire she’d fought to destroy.
If the Leia Organa of two years ago had known what would become of her, she would have driven a vibroblade into her chest rather than see this future come to pass. But she had not seen it, and that Leia had not long survived Alderaan. Leia Skywalker didn’t have the luxury of acting freely. No good choices presented themselves to her, just lesser evils. She could only consider the good of all, and how best to achieve it.
Palpatine’s court couldn’t offer their allegiance quickly enough - and she didn’t fool herself into thinking it was anything other than Palpatine’s court. Moffs, admirals, generals, lords and ladies, they all grovelled before her, already plotting her defeat.
They would fail.
If she had lacked any certainty in her own abilities, it certainly wouldn’t have extended to Vader and Lucy. They would stand at her left and right hands for as long as she reigned: but right now, they knelt at her feet.
This was for the best. It was.
Her father and sister looked up at her with unquestioning devotion, and their eyes were blue.
------------------------------
Second, in the spirit of cautiously poking at Austen, I wrote the first tiny fragment of the P&P WITH LIGHTSABERS 'verse that I am emphatically not writing, though someone should. It took me approximately thirty seconds to become ridiculously attached to alt!Caroline. idek.
------------------------------
Caravir and Caravina were twins-fraternal, of course, but until puberty they'd often been mistaken for identical boys. These days, nobody could think Caravina a man, but the resemblance remained striking. Otherwise they had only a smattering of personal quirks and a career in common.
They were not Jedi, or indeed Force-sensitive in the slightest, but they were nevertheless respected ambassadors. They often worked together, as their greatest successes were achieved in concert. Their colleagues generally spoke of them, for all their differences, as a single entity. Not “the twins,” of course-on Coruscant, that always meant the Grandmaster and her brother, referred to with a mixture of reverence and superstitious fear, and never by name. Caravir and Caravina were simply Ambassadors Bei Ling.
“Preparing to enter planetary gravity field,” droned the computer.
The Bei Lings considered the planet on the viewscreen.
“Small, watery, and underpopulated.” Caravina switched off her datapad. “Well, this should be delightful.”
“I think it looks charming,” said Caravir. “And Merytano, at any rate, is above water, and nearly what it was before the Empire.”
“Thank the Force for small blessings. Nynex!”
Their protocol droid stalked into the room. “Yes, ma'am?”
“Is Sky awake yet?”
The metal face managed to look disapproving. “Master Fel is meditating on our mission, ma'am.”
“Then wake him up and tell him we're here.”