Star Wars AU work in progress: Becoming Love: I, In You: The Rise of the Clone Wars
I'm not even going to say anything because it'll just be a repeat of things before and I'm getting tired of saying the same things over and over again. Though I will warn folks that this may or may not quite hang together right on account of the fact that apparently my brain gets weird when I try to function too long on next to nil sleep. Sorry. Blame Dad's cancer. There's very little I can do about it at this point.
Assorted notes for STAR WARS AU work in progress: Becoming Love: I, In You: The Rise of the Clone Wars
Standard Disclaimer:
Act 1, Scene 1:
The stage is dark. Cue spotlight to the center of the stage. Cue Sola Naberrie of Naboo (her thin form practically swimming in voluminous black hooded robes) to walk to the center of the stage, past Palpatine of Naboo (almost lost within his own voluminous black robes, similar to but much more ornate than those of Sola Naberrie).
“Ahem. The author would like you to note that George Lucas owns all rights to these characters.”
Cue Dormé Tammesin of Naboo, dressed in a green fairy costume, giggling most provocatively as she swings by on a trapeze, performing several acrobatic flips as she launches herself into space, to eventually be effortlessly caught by Anakin Skywalker, dressed in full Jedi robes and riding on a chandelier, à la Errol Flynn.
Cue Piano Drop while Sola Naberrie of Naboo’s attention is otherwise occupied.
“AHHHHHHH!!!!!”
Cue spotlight on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala Naberrie, and Sabé Kandala Dahn, arms around each other, blinking innocently and studiously standing with their cloaks draped mostly over the knife, while Dormé (now laughing heartily) blows them kisses and soars off into the darkness to be caught by a wildly grinning Anakin, the empty trapeze swinging back out to trail down above the broken piano (above the even more broken Sola Naberrie of Naboo), thumping quite squarely into an obviously flabbergasted and horrified Palpatine of Naboo, knocking him violently sideways and rumpling his richly tailored robes badly and apparently angering him enough to make him charge off after them blindly, waving his arms about wildly, rather like a windmill trying to invite a jousting match.
STORY NOTES:
Series Title: Becoming Love: I, In You
*Story Title: The Rise of the Clone Wars
*Tentative/working title only - subject to change, as I'm not sure I like it!
Pairing: Mainly Dormékin with some background Sobidala (Sabé/Obi-Wan/Padmé Amidala).
*Rating: Uhm, probably a borderline PG-13/R-ish, overall, maybe (?)
*This may be subject to change, in a few very specific later parts.
Disclaimer: I do not own the lovely boys and girls from Star Wars, more's the pity! What I do have is an extremely contrary muse that refuses to shut up and leave me alone (or to make up its bloody mind about certain things) . . .
Summary: What if Senator Padmé Amidala had refused to go into hiding on Naboo, during the events of AotC and a scheme were instead hatched that involved sending Dormé Tammesin (the Senator's only surviving handmaiden on Coruscant who'd been trained as a decoy) into hiding as Amidala, with Anakin Skywalker to accompany and protect her, while Obi-Wan Kenobi went searching for the individual(s) responsible for the attempts on the Senator's life and the first of the Senator's decoys (now one of the primary trainers of her new handmaidens), Sabé Dahn, brought her newest students to Coruscant to help Jedi Knights Siri Tachi and Garen Muln in their new assignment to hide and protect Padmé, while she remained on Coruscant to covertly continue the fight against the passing of the Military Creation Act? What, then, might have followed . . . and how would events have turned out differently than in the film saga? Dormékin (and Sobidala) AU of AotC!
Author’s Warnings: 1.) This is an AU not only of AotC but of my SW AU series in progress, You Became to Me. This is conceivably what could have happened in that 'verse, if Padmé had refused to allow herself to be bullied into agreeing to go into hiding on Naboo, during the time line of events for AotC. This story therefore is not fully consistent with the events of You Became to Me as it has been written so far (as should be fairly evident, considering that AU series centers about an Obi-Wan/Anakin pairing!) and, though it is essentially consistent with materials written and/or planned for that AU series prior to the time line for AotC, should not be taken as a part of that series!
2.) This story is pretty much cariel's fault, for encouraging me to try my hand at Dormékin. (But cariel's fault in a good way! If you enjoy the story at all, thank cariel! And if you don’t like it, well . . . then blame me for still being new to the idea of both Dormékin and Sobiwan enough to seem to be unable to do either one quite straight out - especially, apparently, Sobiwan - and not cariel for making me aware of the ships pretty much in the first place!) I doubt this is what cariel was expecting, but . . . I have at least attempted to make it plain that the Dormé Tammesin of this AU is essentially an AU version of cariel and bloodraven77's Dormé Jaffa. Similarly, readers should assume that Sabé Dahn is an AU version of cariel and bloodraven77's Sabé Nabish, though I doubt that this will be made quite as clear, given that Dormé is the main female protagonist of the story. Though she isn't really an AU version of the Padmé Amidala Naberrie Kenobi of so-out-of-ideas and aruna7's wonderful ongoing AU series One Path (which is essentially an AU rewrite of the timeframe covered by the six-film saga and a combination of fanfic, vids, and icons/manips that can be found, for interested parties, at shipper_asylum), readers should please keep in mind that, as in my AU series You Became to Me, my concept of Padmé Amidala as a character and of her relationship with Obi-Wan has been enormously influenced by so-out-of-ideas and aruna7's Padmé (though they might very well shoot me, for combining their Obidala with cariel and bloodraven77's Sobiwan, even though I've arrived at that combination from a beginning initially uninfluenced by either so-out-of-ideas and aruna7 or cariel and bloodraven77, which involved envisioning an intimate relationship between Padmé and Sabé while they were growing up. My Sobidala started with Sabmé/Padbé/Sabédala [whatever you want to call it! I’m not aware that this ship - Padmé Amidala and Sabé, I mean - has a specific fanon name] and grew to incorporate Obi-Wan after I had become aware of the Sobiwan and the Obidala ships).
3.) Originally, when I first began this story back in 2008, I hadn’t foreseen this AU rewrite of AotC taking all that much time to write - like a naively optimistic idiot, I thought that being off of work would give me all kinds of time to work on my writing, and assumed that searching for online photos and scans and things to use as “illustrations” would take the longest time of anything to do - however, as anyone who’s tried to follow the story is surely aware, my writing has been interrupted and delayed and slowed down by a whole plethora of occurrences in real life. It has probably been about two and a half years, roughly, since the last time I seriously attempted to work on this particular story, and, in that time, my dad has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a really nasty cancer of the plasma cells that tends to dissolve a person’s bones) and I’ve been so completely unable to focus properly that, in the past year or so, I’ve started and abandoned or tried to work on and at least temporarily had to put aside about half a dozen other stories (only four of which were entirely in the SW fandom). I honestly do intend to finish this story at some point, folks, and I do apologise most profusely for taking so darn long to produce a finished draft. If readers would please refrain from either rioting over the interminable delays between chapter postings or simply giving up on the story entirely, I would dearly appreciate it, since this plot bunny has basically taken up permanent residence in a certain portion of my brain and I’m therefore pretty darn positive that it won’t leave again until I actually finish this story!
4.) This being what I consider a canon-based (and canon-tight, insofar as the basic natures of the characters are presented) AU, it is entirely possible that several scenes from this story will bear a striking resemblance to certain scenes in TPM and AotC, especially the novelization of AotC by R. A. Salvatore. For readers wondering about the logic of having so many scenes in an AU that are essentially very like those in canon, well, for the SW fandom especially, I tend to write using what I like to think of as a ripple effect (which I base on my understanding of chaos theory and the butterfly effect as well as the more literary notion of possible points of divergence, as embraced by writers of alternative history). Obviously, I believe that altering the outcome of events surrounding a possible point of divergence in order to change a story is possible, or else I wouldn’t be writing this AU. However, I’m of the opinion that real (and not just superficial) changes to a given timeline occur not because just one thing has altered and therefore changed all that follows it, but because small changes following a different route taken at a possible point of divergence gradually but inexorably bend unfolding events away from the pathway taken during the canon timeline and allow for an eventual culmination of events in which all of those small changes have gained momentum enough to swing a drastically different outcome, in which the course of history will be forever changed. So. While it may seem odd for this AU story to shadow the canon so closely in places (especially in the first half of the story), please, believe me when I say that there is a reason why things aren’t already more different than they already are, and try not to be too surprised at the way some of the scenes will echo what happens in the canon.
5.) Lorn Pavan, Jax Pavan, and Darsha Assant are EU characters largely from the EU book Darth Maul: Shadow Hunters (and, in Jax’s case, the EU trilogy Coruscant Nights, though that doesn’t matter nearly so much for this story). For those familiar with the characters, let’s just say that the events recounted in that particular Darth Maul story turn out a mite bit differently in all of my SW AUs than they do in that particular book.
6.) The epigraphs in this story are inspired by the epigraphs used in the seminal sci-fi series Dune and are oftentimes based/modelled on famous real world quotations and sayings, so if they sound familiar to folks, odds are that people are thinking of their real world counterparts!
7.) I’ve got this insane idea in my head that the SW GFFA is plenty big enough to incorporate the ’verses of Firefly/Serenity (and, thus, Dollhouse) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica, and it’s a notion that I’ve had (in one form or another, considering how relatively new Capricaand Dollhouse are) ever since I found out that the 03-K64 Firefly-class mid-bulk transport with standard radion accelerator core of Firefly/Serenity can be found in three seemingly quite distinctly different ’verses - Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity; the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series (and, thus, the ’verse of Caprica/Battlestar Galactica); and Star Wars (in the EU). It’s not a notion that a lot of other people seem to share, but it’s also not an idea that I’m going to be giving up any time soon, as I’ve invested a lot of time and effort in working out the logistics of the overlaps and have had several years to get quite used to thinking of specific characters from these nominally different franchises interacting in the GFFA.
For the record, I do not consider the whole GFFA and Firefly/Serenity (and also Dollhouse), as I believe it’s perfectly obvious, given certain shared technologies, that Joss Whedon meant for the Earth of Dollhouse to be taken one and the same as the Earth-That-Was of Firefly/Serenity) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica arrangement to fall into the category of crossover. I have not and will not be randomly plucking up characters from one ’verse and plunking them down in the literal space of another ’verse, when it comes to these three (well, three and a half, maybe) franchises. Instead (although this may not become overtly apparent during the course of this specific story), I have combined the spaces and histories of ’verses that, at first glance, seem to be distinctly separate, which, in my opinion, is a far different sort of thing, especially given the fact that the authors/creators of the ’verses in question have supplied within each of the ’verses in question certain tangible details that support the notion that, somehow, these seemingly disparate ’verses are indeed meant to be thought of as a part of one much larger overall ’verse.
There are certain small details that discerning readers might notice, in the course of reading this story, that support my view of a combined GFFA and Firefly/Serenity (and, thus, Dollhouse) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica ’verse. Honestly, though, aside from something of a running joke (well, I think it is, anyway) involving the patterned call and answer of an Active (or Doll) to his/her handler and/or the person responsible for wiping the Active of a specific programmed personality, after a completed job (i.e., “Did I fall asleep?” and “For a little while.”), odds are that most people won’t notice the overlap at all, in this story. I mention it here more in the interest of full disclosure (and to explain the Dollhouse joke) than anything else, okay? For folks who’re interested, story notes on other works I’ve done for my AU series You Became to Me will have more info on this notion.
8.) This story does not have a beta - I’ve proof-read and checked the grammar, but I won’t swear that there aren’t any typos, especially when it comes to Uriashian (which I’m borrowing from someone else and may not be accenting correctly, due to my lack of familiarity with the real world language it is based on. Speaking of which, if there are any really glaring typos in that language, cariel, please, please let me know, and I will go back and correct things)! This is also one of the few longer pieces I’ve written without serious input from the person I think of as my idea beta (fancyspinner), since I originally started it on something of a whim, as sort of a gift to cariel and bloodraven77 for introducing me to the Sobiwan and Dormékin ships, and, as I didn’t think that it would take a lot of time to complete, assumed that it would be a fairly brief work-in-progress and I wouldn’t have enough time to really get a lot of input from said idea beta. Approximately two years later (and still not even half done with the story), I know that was a ridiculous sort of thing to presume, but since this counts as a handmaiden sort of piece and my idea beta has this not entirely incorrect notion that writing about handmaidens is bad for my mental/emotional health (since I usually end up having to kill of multiple characters), odds are that I’m going to end up writing this one mostly on my own, without a lot of input from her.
Author’s Note: 1.) There are two different non-Basic languages that occasionally come into play in this story, especially in the speech and thoughts of my Nabooian characters. One is the Gaelic-based Nabooian originally from my You Became to Me series (which is, by the way, closely related to the Gaelic-based languages also spoken on Alderaan, Chandrila, and Grizmallt, in that SW AU series, and so also spoken on these planets in all of my other SW AU works) and the other is the Akkadian-based Uriashian of cariel and bloodraven77's various different Dormékin and Dormé/Vader AUs. If the meaning of anything is unclear by context, please ask me what a specific word/phrase means (with example from the text), and I promise I will clarify, though I may occasionally have to ask cariel for help (as most of my Uriashian has come directly from her)!
2.) Italics are generally used in this story for one of the following reasons: to denote a voice over a comm or other recording of some sort; to convey special (emotional) emphasis on some words; to set off words in another language; to denote a character’s thoughts or shared/telepathically overheard thoughts; and/or to signify the words of a Force ghost or spirit or other entity of the Force.
3.) The cast of EU/original characters for this story is essentially the same as for my series You Became to Me (though there will be some eventual unique additions). Please see the most recent updated version of the running post I keep on the progress of that series for links to my lists of cast characters, handmaidens, Nabooians, etc., on my LJ account, for specifics on these casting choices! I’m going to try to keep the entries in question - or at least the running post, with links to those entries - near the top of my LJ, while I’m working on this story!
4.) I am keeping a couple of updated journal entries with a running list of costumes/images that work as “illustrations” and such for much of the story, for folks who are interested in what some of the characters look like in certain scenes of the story! Again, I’m going to try very hard to keep these LJ entries near the top of my account, for as long as I’m working on this story, for people trying to follow the story! Or you can just go to the following entries: http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/171964.html for the sketches/paintings/etc. and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/172157.html and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/173336.html and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/176640.html for the links to images
5.) I worked out a handmaiden training class list for Queen Jamillia that’s in the LJ post on handmaiden trianing classes circa AotC, which can be found at http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/129244.html for anyone interested!
For those who are interested, this story (such as it is. Please keep in mind that I've only recently started to work on it again and my writing time is limited because of the job from hades and real life crap!) can currently be found on ff.net at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4328583/1/Becoming_Love_I_In_You_Rise_of_the_Clone_Wars
Erhm, for anyone who remembers this story from a few years back, there's a brand new scene in chapter 9, but I think most of the new material is from chapter 11 on . . . And the twenty-second chapter of the Dormékin/Sobidala AU of AotC is up on ff.net as of Sunday evening.
The rating of the work has gone up on ff.net because I suspect this latest chapter requires it, though personally I would barely rate it an "R" by modern American movie classifications. Uhm. Possibly there might be some ever so slightly odd (disturbing?) imagery in here . . .
Assorted notes for STAR WARS AU work in progress: Becoming Love: I, In You: The Rise of the Clone Wars
Standard Disclaimer:
Act 1, Scene 1:
The stage is dark. Cue spotlight to the center of the stage. Cue Sola Naberrie of Naboo (her thin form practically swimming in voluminous black hooded robes) to walk to the center of the stage, past Palpatine of Naboo (almost lost within his own voluminous black robes, similar to but much more ornate than those of Sola Naberrie).
“Ahem. The author would like you to note that George Lucas owns all rights to these characters.”
Cue Dormé Tammesin of Naboo, dressed in a green fairy costume, giggling most provocatively as she swings by on a trapeze, performing several acrobatic flips as she launches herself into space, to eventually be effortlessly caught by Anakin Skywalker, dressed in full Jedi robes and riding on a chandelier, à la Errol Flynn.
Cue Piano Drop while Sola Naberrie of Naboo’s attention is otherwise occupied.
“AHHHHHHH!!!!!”
Cue spotlight on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala Naberrie, and Sabé Kandala Dahn, arms around each other, blinking innocently and studiously standing with their cloaks draped mostly over the knife, while Dormé (now laughing heartily) blows them kisses and soars off into the darkness to be caught by a wildly grinning Anakin, the empty trapeze swinging back out to trail down above the broken piano (above the even more broken Sola Naberrie of Naboo), thumping quite squarely into an obviously flabbergasted and horrified Palpatine of Naboo, knocking him violently sideways and rumpling his richly tailored robes badly and apparently angering him enough to make him charge off after them blindly, waving his arms about wildly, rather like a windmill trying to invite a jousting match.
STORY NOTES:
Series Title: Becoming Love: I, In You
*Story Title: The Rise of the Clone Wars
*Tentative/working title only - subject to change, as I'm not sure I like it!
Pairing: Mainly Dormékin with some background Sobidala (Sabé/Obi-Wan/Padmé Amidala).
*Rating: Uhm, probably a borderline PG-13/R-ish, overall, maybe (?)
*This may be subject to change, in a few very specific later parts.
Disclaimer: I do not own the lovely boys and girls from Star Wars, more's the pity! What I do have is an extremely contrary muse that refuses to shut up and leave me alone (or to make up its bloody mind about certain things) . . .
Summary: What if Senator Padmé Amidala had refused to go into hiding on Naboo, during the events of AotC and a scheme were instead hatched that involved sending Dormé Tammesin (the Senator's only surviving handmaiden on Coruscant who'd been trained as a decoy) into hiding as Amidala, with Anakin Skywalker to accompany and protect her, while Obi-Wan Kenobi went searching for the individual(s) responsible for the attempts on the Senator's life and the first of the Senator's decoys (now one of the primary trainers of her new handmaidens), Sabé Dahn, brought her newest students to Coruscant to help Jedi Knights Siri Tachi and Garen Muln in their new assignment to hide and protect Padmé, while she remained on Coruscant to covertly continue the fight against the passing of the Military Creation Act? What, then, might have followed . . . and how would events have turned out differently than in the film saga? Dormékin (and Sobidala) AU of AotC!
Author’s Warnings: 1.) This is an AU not only of AotC but of my SW AU series in progress, You Became to Me. This is conceivably what could have happened in that 'verse, if Padmé had refused to allow herself to be bullied into agreeing to go into hiding on Naboo, during the time line of events for AotC. This story therefore is not fully consistent with the events of You Became to Me as it has been written so far (as should be fairly evident, considering that AU series centers about an Obi-Wan/Anakin pairing!) and, though it is essentially consistent with materials written and/or planned for that AU series prior to the time line for AotC, should not be taken as a part of that series!
2.) This story is pretty much cariel's fault, for encouraging me to try my hand at Dormékin. (But cariel's fault in a good way! If you enjoy the story at all, thank cariel! And if you don’t like it, well . . . then blame me for still being new to the idea of both Dormékin and Sobiwan enough to seem to be unable to do either one quite straight out - especially, apparently, Sobiwan - and not cariel for making me aware of the ships pretty much in the first place!) I doubt this is what cariel was expecting, but . . . I have at least attempted to make it plain that the Dormé Tammesin of this AU is essentially an AU version of cariel and bloodraven77's Dormé Jaffa. Similarly, readers should assume that Sabé Dahn is an AU version of cariel and bloodraven77's Sabé Nabish, though I doubt that this will be made quite as clear, given that Dormé is the main female protagonist of the story. Though she isn't really an AU version of the Padmé Amidala Naberrie Kenobi of so-out-of-ideas and aruna7's wonderful ongoing AU series One Path (which is essentially an AU rewrite of the timeframe covered by the six-film saga and a combination of fanfic, vids, and icons/manips that can be found, for interested parties, at shipper_asylum), readers should please keep in mind that, as in my AU series You Became to Me, my concept of Padmé Amidala as a character and of her relationship with Obi-Wan has been enormously influenced by so-out-of-ideas and aruna7's Padmé (though they might very well shoot me, for combining their Obidala with cariel and bloodraven77's Sobiwan, even though I've arrived at that combination from a beginning initially uninfluenced by either so-out-of-ideas and aruna7 or cariel and bloodraven77, which involved envisioning an intimate relationship between Padmé and Sabé while they were growing up. My Sobidala started with Sabmé/Padbé/Sabédala [whatever you want to call it! I’m not aware that this ship - Padmé Amidala and Sabé, I mean - has a specific fanon name] and grew to incorporate Obi-Wan after I had become aware of the Sobiwan and the Obidala ships).
3.) Originally, when I first began this story back in 2008, I hadn’t foreseen this AU rewrite of AotC taking all that much time to write - like a naively optimistic idiot, I thought that being off of work would give me all kinds of time to work on my writing, and assumed that searching for online photos and scans and things to use as “illustrations” would take the longest time of anything to do - however, as anyone who’s tried to follow the story is surely aware, my writing has been interrupted and delayed and slowed down by a whole plethora of occurrences in real life. It has probably been about two and a half years, roughly, since the last time I seriously attempted to work on this particular story, and, in that time, my dad has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a really nasty cancer of the plasma cells that tends to dissolve a person’s bones) and I’ve been so completely unable to focus properly that, in the past year or so, I’ve started and abandoned or tried to work on and at least temporarily had to put aside about half a dozen other stories (only four of which were entirely in the SW fandom). I honestly do intend to finish this story at some point, folks, and I do apologise most profusely for taking so darn long to produce a finished draft. If readers would please refrain from either rioting over the interminable delays between chapter postings or simply giving up on the story entirely, I would dearly appreciate it, since this plot bunny has basically taken up permanent residence in a certain portion of my brain and I’m therefore pretty darn positive that it won’t leave again until I actually finish this story!
4.) This being what I consider a canon-based (and canon-tight, insofar as the basic natures of the characters are presented) AU, it is entirely possible that several scenes from this story will bear a striking resemblance to certain scenes in TPM and AotC, especially the novelization of AotC by R. A. Salvatore. For readers wondering about the logic of having so many scenes in an AU that are essentially very like those in canon, well, for the SW fandom especially, I tend to write using what I like to think of as a ripple effect (which I base on my understanding of chaos theory and the butterfly effect as well as the more literary notion of possible points of divergence, as embraced by writers of alternative history). Obviously, I believe that altering the outcome of events surrounding a possible point of divergence in order to change a story is possible, or else I wouldn’t be writing this AU. However, I’m of the opinion that real (and not just superficial) changes to a given timeline occur not because just one thing has altered and therefore changed all that follows it, but because small changes following a different route taken at a possible point of divergence gradually but inexorably bend unfolding events away from the pathway taken during the canon timeline and allow for an eventual culmination of events in which all of those small changes have gained momentum enough to swing a drastically different outcome, in which the course of history will be forever changed. So. While it may seem odd for this AU story to shadow the canon so closely in places (especially in the first half of the story), please, believe me when I say that there is a reason why things aren’t already more different than they already are, and try not to be too surprised at the way some of the scenes will echo what happens in the canon.
5.) Lorn Pavan, Jax Pavan, and Darsha Assant are EU characters largely from the EU book Darth Maul: Shadow Hunters (and, in Jax’s case, the EU trilogy Coruscant Nights, though that doesn’t matter nearly so much for this story). For those familiar with the characters, let’s just say that the events recounted in that particular Darth Maul story turn out a mite bit differently in all of my SW AUs than they do in that particular book.
6.) The epigraphs in this story are inspired by the epigraphs used in the seminal sci-fi series Dune and are oftentimes based/modelled on famous real world quotations and sayings, so if they sound familiar to folks, odds are that people are thinking of their real world counterparts!
7.) I’ve got this insane idea in my head that the SW GFFA is plenty big enough to incorporate the ’verses of Firefly/Serenity (and, thus, Dollhouse) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica, and it’s a notion that I’ve had (in one form or another, considering how relatively new Capricaand Dollhouse are) ever since I found out that the 03-K64 Firefly-class mid-bulk transport with standard radion accelerator core of Firefly/Serenity can be found in three seemingly quite distinctly different ’verses - Joss Whedon’s Firefly/Serenity; the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series (and, thus, the ’verse of Caprica/Battlestar Galactica); and Star Wars (in the EU). It’s not a notion that a lot of other people seem to share, but it’s also not an idea that I’m going to be giving up any time soon, as I’ve invested a lot of time and effort in working out the logistics of the overlaps and have had several years to get quite used to thinking of specific characters from these nominally different franchises interacting in the GFFA.
For the record, I do not consider the whole GFFA and Firefly/Serenity (and also Dollhouse), as I believe it’s perfectly obvious, given certain shared technologies, that Joss Whedon meant for the Earth of Dollhouse to be taken one and the same as the Earth-That-Was of Firefly/Serenity) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica arrangement to fall into the category of crossover. I have not and will not be randomly plucking up characters from one ’verse and plunking them down in the literal space of another ’verse, when it comes to these three (well, three and a half, maybe) franchises. Instead (although this may not become overtly apparent during the course of this specific story), I have combined the spaces and histories of ’verses that, at first glance, seem to be distinctly separate, which, in my opinion, is a far different sort of thing, especially given the fact that the authors/creators of the ’verses in question have supplied within each of the ’verses in question certain tangible details that support the notion that, somehow, these seemingly disparate ’verses are indeed meant to be thought of as a part of one much larger overall ’verse.
There are certain small details that discerning readers might notice, in the course of reading this story, that support my view of a combined GFFA and Firefly/Serenity (and, thus, Dollhouse) and Caprica/Battlestar Galactica ’verse. Honestly, though, aside from something of a running joke (well, I think it is, anyway) involving the patterned call and answer of an Active (or Doll) to his/her handler and/or the person responsible for wiping the Active of a specific programmed personality, after a completed job (i.e., “Did I fall asleep?” and “For a little while.”), odds are that most people won’t notice the overlap at all, in this story. I mention it here more in the interest of full disclosure (and to explain the Dollhouse joke) than anything else, okay? For folks who’re interested, story notes on other works I’ve done for my AU series You Became to Me will have more info on this notion.
8.) This story does not have a beta - I’ve proof-read and checked the grammar, but I won’t swear that there aren’t any typos, especially when it comes to Uriashian (which I’m borrowing from someone else and may not be accenting correctly, due to my lack of familiarity with the real world language it is based on. Speaking of which, if there are any really glaring typos in that language, cariel, please, please let me know, and I will go back and correct things)! This is also one of the few longer pieces I’ve written without serious input from the person I think of as my idea beta (fancyspinner), since I originally started it on something of a whim, as sort of a gift to cariel and bloodraven77 for introducing me to the Sobiwan and Dormékin ships, and, as I didn’t think that it would take a lot of time to complete, assumed that it would be a fairly brief work-in-progress and I wouldn’t have enough time to really get a lot of input from said idea beta. Approximately two years later (and still not even half done with the story), I know that was a ridiculous sort of thing to presume, but since this counts as a handmaiden sort of piece and my idea beta has this not entirely incorrect notion that writing about handmaidens is bad for my mental/emotional health (since I usually end up having to kill of multiple characters), odds are that I’m going to end up writing this one mostly on my own, without a lot of input from her.
Author’s Note: 1.) There are two different non-Basic languages that occasionally come into play in this story, especially in the speech and thoughts of my Nabooian characters. One is the Gaelic-based Nabooian originally from my You Became to Me series (which is, by the way, closely related to the Gaelic-based languages also spoken on Alderaan, Chandrila, and Grizmallt, in that SW AU series, and so also spoken on these planets in all of my other SW AU works) and the other is the Akkadian-based Uriashian of cariel and bloodraven77's various different Dormékin and Dormé/Vader AUs. If the meaning of anything is unclear by context, please ask me what a specific word/phrase means (with example from the text), and I promise I will clarify, though I may occasionally have to ask cariel for help (as most of my Uriashian has come directly from her)!
2.) Italics are generally used in this story for one of the following reasons: to denote a voice over a comm or other recording of some sort; to convey special (emotional) emphasis on some words; to set off words in another language; to denote a character’s thoughts or shared/telepathically overheard thoughts; and/or to signify the words of a Force ghost or spirit or other entity of the Force.
3.) The cast of EU/original characters for this story is essentially the same as for my series You Became to Me (though there will be some eventual unique additions). Please see the most recent updated version of the running post I keep on the progress of that series for links to my lists of cast characters, handmaidens, Nabooians, etc., on my LJ account, for specifics on these casting choices! I’m going to try to keep the entries in question - or at least the running post, with links to those entries - near the top of my LJ, while I’m working on this story!
4.) I am keeping a couple of updated journal entries with a running list of costumes/images that work as “illustrations” and such for much of the story, for folks who are interested in what some of the characters look like in certain scenes of the story! Again, I’m going to try very hard to keep these LJ entries near the top of my account, for as long as I’m working on this story, for people trying to follow the story! Or you can just go to the following entries: http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/171964.html for the sketches/paintings/etc. and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/172157.html and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/173336.html and http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/176640.html for the links to images
5.) I worked out a handmaiden training class list for Queen Jamillia that’s in the LJ post on handmaiden trianing classes circa AotC, which can be found at http://polgarawolf.livejournal.com/129244.html for anyone interested!
For those who are interested, this story (such as it is. Please keep in mind that I've only recently started to work on it again and my writing time is limited because of the job from hades and real life crap!) can currently be found on ff.net at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4328583/1/Becoming_Love_I_In_You_Rise_of_the_Clone_Wars
Erhm, for anyone who remembers this story from a few years back, there's a brand new scene in chapter 9, but I think most of the new material is from chapter 11 on . . . And the twenty-second chapter of the Dormékin/Sobidala AU of AotC is up on ff.net as of Sunday evening.
The rating of the work has gone up on ff.net because I suspect this latest chapter requires it, though personally I would barely rate it an "R" by modern American movie classifications. Uhm. Possibly there might be some ever so slightly odd (disturbing?) imagery in here . . .