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fiachairecht) wrote2018-04-13 11:01 pm
fiachairecht) wrote2018-04-13 11:01 pm
Entry tags:
the sons and daughters of endlessness came to me {outline}
i solved all my plot problems by making this a sith!leia who wants to murder the force AU, which is great for me and also awful for the galaxy at large. i thought i was showing Great Restraint with the number of female characters in the supporting cast ('look!' i said delightedly to nina, 'hera and aphra are only in three sections of this outline!') but the mods are rightfully concerned that it's ... maybe not that shippy of a piece. which, i was kinda going for the understated cold comfort of scandinoir shit-we-have-to-work-together unconventional partnerships but it's a reylo anthology and that's ... fair. i think a lot of their relationship development is buried in the section titled 'the part i haven't figured out yet'
summary: leia tries to murder the force. ben tries to save his mother. rey is torn between the woman who promises her power and the boy who promises her salvation. no one is quite as alive as they should be. (a scandinoir au set largely in the unknown regions, featuring cosmic-entity!rey, sith!leia, sorta-jedi!ben, sith artifacts, a supporting cast of hera syndulla, chelli lona aphra, and amilyn holdo, and maybe the death of the force.)
musical insp: urn (part i) and within the void we are breathless ne obliviscaris ; whisper my child eleine ; ravenlight kamelot ; no color, no light oceans of slumber ; ylva's theme jordskott ost ; night 13 auri ; the ghost and the reaper the dark element ; the space between auri ; hollow talk bron|broen ost ; time vuur ; particle flux chelsea wolfe ; urn (part ii) as embers dance in our eyes ne obliviscaris
the problem // leia organa hates the force. it stole her father, her brother, allowed for the destruction of her home. and it has its claws in her son, something dark and hungry at his core that she would give anything to erase. ben doesn't feel it, so much, not inside -- he just feels empty. neither does amilyn, leia's lover and ben's beloved second mother -- she just fears, for leia slipping into darkness, for ben and the things he's … missing. leia grows darker, as the force around her wanes. and ben and amilyn are afraid, and ben dreams of corpses printed with alderaanian letters, and nothing is where it should be.
the apprentice // rey of jakku isn't dead. the dead cannot possibly want this much, cannot possibly change this much. she builds what she can, from bones and wires and skin. nights, she sleeps delirious in the sand, and dreams of ghosts. a woman robed in black with senatorial chains around her neck, speaking a language she doesn't understand. a boy robed in white with his hands outstretched, who can only be asking for help. a power swelling in her chest, sparking from her fingertips, that lets her move mountains, create light … oh. that one isn't just a dream anymore. shouldn't that mean the tears stop?
the solution // ben is twenty when hera syndulla comes to him, a haunted former-imperial former-archaeologist former-something at her side and stories of the sith on her tongue. stories of corpses, too familiar and too recent for him to ignore. there is a way to save leia from falling, they say, to push back the creeping many-fanged dread and lay the corpses to rest. to disentangle life and death and the force without creating nothing but a wasteland. but ben must go very far away, and he must be very brave, and he must not be alone.
the plan // they take him to jakku, first. of course they take him to jakku first. whatever is clawing at leia's heart couldn't possibly come from known space, and while ben would fling himself head-first into the unknown regions to save her, the others know better. amilyn stays to try to keep the shadows back. aphra remembers the imperial observatory, the imperial plans, the imperial … path. and hera just knows that she needs to fly again, to take another child whose heart and force are too big to be contained by a body somewhere else so he can save them all.
the desert // finding the remains of the ruined observatory is easy. finding the information they need is less so, especially when they find the girl. ben thinks he's imagining her at first -- who could possibly live down here? who could … feel so much like his mother, so strong and ever-present in the force? who could dream of him, the way rey says she does? jakku is not for those who want life. hera doesn't, precisely, want to leave ben alone, but leaving him with rey feels right in a way she hasn't felt in decades. ben wants to leave, wants it more than anything, and leaving with rey is the first thing that feels right since the first death that his mother wouldn't talk about.
the void // rey dreams of the void. rey dreams of a path through the void. rey dreams of the stars and of leia and of ben's hands in hers and she doesn't want to kill him but she thinks he should be dead. she dreams of leia -- the woman who has a name now, who doesn't know any longer that she still has ben's heart in hands, who has her nails in bits of rey that she's just learning exist. she knows the moment they slip into the unknown regions because the woman she's been following becomes a fox. rey dreams and dreams and dreams and ben can follow her through space (he has to, on this ship that's bound them) but he cannot follow her in the force, and he is afraid.
(interlude // it's funny, isn't it, to think that because you cannot see something it didn't happen. rey chases loth-cats in her dreams and wakes up with teethmarks on her heart and blood on her hands. when ben calls amilyn they cry together and when ben says please it is almost loud enough to drown the other voice in rey's head. she's crying too.)
the crystals // they start on ilum, of course. the force draws them there, and ben's memories, and rey … rey sings in a voice she didn't know she had, and something in the caves answers. rey sings and the crystals in her hands tremble, and they break but do not bleed for the girl whose everything resonates wrong against them. rey builds a black lightsaber, her hands unnaturally steady under ben's. he doesn't dream anymore. nothing is better like this.
the nowhere // the path is a line, or perhaps it is a circle, but it spins out through hyperspace and this, too, is different here. the ship is caught in gravity wells. (ben and rey are caught in each other.) the ship is caught in asteroid belts. (ben and rey are caught in each other.) the ship is -- the ship is -- ben closes his eyes every time they jump but he still makes maps that are wrong by the time they leave hyperspace. ben closes his eyes as rey sleeps quiet on his chest, and wonders if the maps he could make from her dreams would be any more accurate. (rey dreams of leia, of ben's corpse with a kyber shard in his heart. rey dreams of nothingness, and she wants.)
the attempt // they make it to the deep before something snaps. rey's resolve, or maybe her walls, or perhaps even her curiosity finally crumble under leia's touch, because they are underground, and it feels like home, and it is empty and almost-quiet and good and … and ben is so beautiful when he's dead, and leia is so proud, and maybe this is good enough. she can see a future for the first time now, if leia works her way through the core and she works her own way through the unknown regions, if they meet at the edge of wildspace when they're the only two left ...
the resurrection // he comes back. she brings him back. she doesn't understand how someone -- how leia -- could have this power in her hands and want to give it up. but perhaps it is possible to love too much -- certainly ben does, when he hardly flinches from her touch even now, when she's done so much to him, when he keeps believing there's a way to save his mother. rey is starting to wonder which of them need saving, but she cannot turn back now. she cannot be anywhere but here, ben in her hands and leia in her head and the force around her … slipping,
the part i haven't figured out yet // there are at Least two more planets' worth of mutual angst and force shenanigans here. at one point ben saves rey from [unknown regions thing] and she's like …… o no.
the bad end // rey fails, or at least something leia perceives as a failure. she is weak when leia and amilyn meet her in the strange nowhere-place that is the intersection of hyperspace and the force. she is weak as ben takes her hand, kisses his mother goodbye. she is strong when all four of them die, together, and the force … is gone.
the good end // rey fails, or at least something leia perceives as a failure. she is loved when leia and amilyn meet her in the strange nowhere-place that is the intersection of hyperspace and the force. she is loved as ben takes her hand, kisses his mother hello. she is loved as all four of them live, together, and the galaxy … endures.
okay, i haven't actually picked between the two endings yet, but.
summary: leia tries to murder the force. ben tries to save his mother. rey is torn between the woman who promises her power and the boy who promises her salvation. no one is quite as alive as they should be. (a scandinoir au set largely in the unknown regions, featuring cosmic-entity!rey, sith!leia, sorta-jedi!ben, sith artifacts, a supporting cast of hera syndulla, chelli lona aphra, and amilyn holdo, and maybe the death of the force.)
musical insp: urn (part i) and within the void we are breathless ne obliviscaris ; whisper my child eleine ; ravenlight kamelot ; no color, no light oceans of slumber ; ylva's theme jordskott ost ; night 13 auri ; the ghost and the reaper the dark element ; the space between auri ; hollow talk bron|broen ost ; time vuur ; particle flux chelsea wolfe ; urn (part ii) as embers dance in our eyes ne obliviscaris
the problem // leia organa hates the force. it stole her father, her brother, allowed for the destruction of her home. and it has its claws in her son, something dark and hungry at his core that she would give anything to erase. ben doesn't feel it, so much, not inside -- he just feels empty. neither does amilyn, leia's lover and ben's beloved second mother -- she just fears, for leia slipping into darkness, for ben and the things he's … missing. leia grows darker, as the force around her wanes. and ben and amilyn are afraid, and ben dreams of corpses printed with alderaanian letters, and nothing is where it should be.
the apprentice // rey of jakku isn't dead. the dead cannot possibly want this much, cannot possibly change this much. she builds what she can, from bones and wires and skin. nights, she sleeps delirious in the sand, and dreams of ghosts. a woman robed in black with senatorial chains around her neck, speaking a language she doesn't understand. a boy robed in white with his hands outstretched, who can only be asking for help. a power swelling in her chest, sparking from her fingertips, that lets her move mountains, create light … oh. that one isn't just a dream anymore. shouldn't that mean the tears stop?
the solution // ben is twenty when hera syndulla comes to him, a haunted former-imperial former-archaeologist former-something at her side and stories of the sith on her tongue. stories of corpses, too familiar and too recent for him to ignore. there is a way to save leia from falling, they say, to push back the creeping many-fanged dread and lay the corpses to rest. to disentangle life and death and the force without creating nothing but a wasteland. but ben must go very far away, and he must be very brave, and he must not be alone.
the plan // they take him to jakku, first. of course they take him to jakku first. whatever is clawing at leia's heart couldn't possibly come from known space, and while ben would fling himself head-first into the unknown regions to save her, the others know better. amilyn stays to try to keep the shadows back. aphra remembers the imperial observatory, the imperial plans, the imperial … path. and hera just knows that she needs to fly again, to take another child whose heart and force are too big to be contained by a body somewhere else so he can save them all.
the desert // finding the remains of the ruined observatory is easy. finding the information they need is less so, especially when they find the girl. ben thinks he's imagining her at first -- who could possibly live down here? who could … feel so much like his mother, so strong and ever-present in the force? who could dream of him, the way rey says she does? jakku is not for those who want life. hera doesn't, precisely, want to leave ben alone, but leaving him with rey feels right in a way she hasn't felt in decades. ben wants to leave, wants it more than anything, and leaving with rey is the first thing that feels right since the first death that his mother wouldn't talk about.
the void // rey dreams of the void. rey dreams of a path through the void. rey dreams of the stars and of leia and of ben's hands in hers and she doesn't want to kill him but she thinks he should be dead. she dreams of leia -- the woman who has a name now, who doesn't know any longer that she still has ben's heart in hands, who has her nails in bits of rey that she's just learning exist. she knows the moment they slip into the unknown regions because the woman she's been following becomes a fox. rey dreams and dreams and dreams and ben can follow her through space (he has to, on this ship that's bound them) but he cannot follow her in the force, and he is afraid.
(interlude // it's funny, isn't it, to think that because you cannot see something it didn't happen. rey chases loth-cats in her dreams and wakes up with teethmarks on her heart and blood on her hands. when ben calls amilyn they cry together and when ben says please it is almost loud enough to drown the other voice in rey's head. she's crying too.)
the crystals // they start on ilum, of course. the force draws them there, and ben's memories, and rey … rey sings in a voice she didn't know she had, and something in the caves answers. rey sings and the crystals in her hands tremble, and they break but do not bleed for the girl whose everything resonates wrong against them. rey builds a black lightsaber, her hands unnaturally steady under ben's. he doesn't dream anymore. nothing is better like this.
the nowhere // the path is a line, or perhaps it is a circle, but it spins out through hyperspace and this, too, is different here. the ship is caught in gravity wells. (ben and rey are caught in each other.) the ship is caught in asteroid belts. (ben and rey are caught in each other.) the ship is -- the ship is -- ben closes his eyes every time they jump but he still makes maps that are wrong by the time they leave hyperspace. ben closes his eyes as rey sleeps quiet on his chest, and wonders if the maps he could make from her dreams would be any more accurate. (rey dreams of leia, of ben's corpse with a kyber shard in his heart. rey dreams of nothingness, and she wants.)
the attempt // they make it to the deep before something snaps. rey's resolve, or maybe her walls, or perhaps even her curiosity finally crumble under leia's touch, because they are underground, and it feels like home, and it is empty and almost-quiet and good and … and ben is so beautiful when he's dead, and leia is so proud, and maybe this is good enough. she can see a future for the first time now, if leia works her way through the core and she works her own way through the unknown regions, if they meet at the edge of wildspace when they're the only two left ...
the resurrection // he comes back. she brings him back. she doesn't understand how someone -- how leia -- could have this power in her hands and want to give it up. but perhaps it is possible to love too much -- certainly ben does, when he hardly flinches from her touch even now, when she's done so much to him, when he keeps believing there's a way to save his mother. rey is starting to wonder which of them need saving, but she cannot turn back now. she cannot be anywhere but here, ben in her hands and leia in her head and the force around her … slipping,
the part i haven't figured out yet // there are at Least two more planets' worth of mutual angst and force shenanigans here. at one point ben saves rey from [unknown regions thing] and she's like …… o no.
the bad end // rey fails, or at least something leia perceives as a failure. she is weak when leia and amilyn meet her in the strange nowhere-place that is the intersection of hyperspace and the force. she is weak as ben takes her hand, kisses his mother goodbye. she is strong when all four of them die, together, and the force … is gone.
the good end // rey fails, or at least something leia perceives as a failure. she is loved when leia and amilyn meet her in the strange nowhere-place that is the intersection of hyperspace and the force. she is loved as ben takes her hand, kisses his mother hello. she is loved as all four of them live, together, and the galaxy … endures.
okay, i haven't actually picked between the two endings yet, but.