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she makes her own dystopia as she goes

@bedlamsbard / bedlamsbard.tumblr.com

For the Fourth of July I wrote you some fanfic.  <3

This is a bit of faux-historical writing I did for Of Home Near, with the expectation that it wouldn’t actually be used in that story.  (Though as always, there’s always the chance that it will be used.)  You can take it as canon or not canon to that story as desired, but it does definitely take place in that ‘verse.

2.2K below the break.

One of the enduring mysteries about Captain America remains the date of his disappearance.  The War Department announced that Steve Rogers had been declared missing in action on March 5, 1945, after two weeks of searching; SSR files later confirmed his date of disappearance as February 14, 1945 – Saint Valentine’s Day.  These dates have remained consistent since 1975, when a small number of SSR files were declassified as part of the Church Committee investigations into American intelligence abuses.

Hi there!

I just finished reading Queen’s Gambit, for the first time, and first off, I wanna extend my personal compliments. It’s probably some of the best Star Wars anything I’ve ever read, let alone one of the best fics I’ve ever read. Excellent job.

My actual question is this: was the plotline with “our” Anakin/Obi-Wan/Padmé (aka the versions from the Wake the Storm-verse) ever officially continued anywhere? I found the posts outlining what the sequels to Queen’s Gambit would have been, but I can’t seem to find anything for the other versions if the characters. I’m not necessarily asking for fic or demanding anything, I’m just genuinely curious if there’s anything out there about potential plans.

Thank you so much and I hope you have a lovely day/evening/whatever time of day!

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Thank you for reading, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the story!

To the best of my memory, I don't have any posts up about what would have happened in All Along the Watchtower, the third Ouroboros story -- there's some concept writing posted well far back in my cut scenes and concept writing tag that dates from when Gambit was in progress, I believe. At a later point in time I planned to use the Watchtower 'verse, the 'verse that the Wake trio ends up in at the end of Gambit, as the same universe that Ezra ends up in during The Starry Crown, though I left the fandom and stopped working on that story before that was revealed; there's some concept writing that shows a later incarnation of that universe from Ezra's POV.

The three alternate universes in the Ouroboros trilogy -- the OT canon universe (as of 2013) in Wake, the Gambitverse in Gambit, and the Watchtower 'verse in Watchtower -- were designed to be mirrorverses for each of the three trio members, so the outcome of each character's worst case scenario. Canon for Anakin (he was responsible for the death and destruction of everything he loved), Gambitverse for Padme (she was the tyrant responsible for corrupting a Jedi and launching the galaxy into civil war), and Watchtower for Obi-Wan (he lost control, fell to the Dark Side, and was unable to help when the Jedi were slaughtered because of circumstances outside his control). I don't remember exactly the precipitating factors now, but Obi-Wan had ended up on Dooku's side here (I think he was captured by Maul? and tortured and later rescued by Dooku? it's been a long time now), and Dooku was able to manipulate him into turning on Palpatine, killing him early and allowing Dooku to become emperor. There was an Order 66, but it wasn't as successful as the canon one; a large portion of the Jedi Order was able to escape and regroup under the grandmastership of Mace Windu. (Yoda having been killed.) Anakin was one of them. Padme and a number of other Jedi allies remained in the now-Imperial Senate; Padme specifically was spying for the Jedi. She had had Luke and Leia, but gave them both up (Luke to Anakin and the Jedi, Leia to the Organas) so that they wouldn't be vulnerable to Dooku. Dooku started -- I can't remember what I was going to call it, an Order of Sith Knights, maybe, sort of like the One Sith from the comics, which Obi-Wan headed up. He and Padme were having a sexual relationship, which Anakin was aware of; uncertain if he and Anakin were also involved but they might have been. The galaxy had fragmented pretty significantly; Maul was still running around, Dooku didn't have as good a grip on recalcitrant systems as Palpatine had, so there were various independence movements.

The Wake trio had all gotten dropped into different locations in the galaxy about, uh, ten years or so onwards from the divergence point? Padme we see at the end of Gambit; Anakin ended up on Coruscant and goes to contact that universe's Padme, who is understandably a little freaked out but does help him. I can't remember where exactly Obi-Wan was, but ultimately he ends up on Tatooine with that universe's Ahsoka, who is at this point a Jedi Knight representing the Order during an auction facilitated by the Hutts for major weaponry, at which a bunch of other political groups in the galaxy are also present, so we meet various Mandalorian groups (Sabine is a junior Protector), rebels/terrorists (Hera is there representing Free Ryloth), and Maul's apprentice (Kanan/Caleb, who had gotten kidnapped from the Order years earlier and has been believed dead for years). This is also where the Ezra of The Starry Crown ends up (as seen in the concept writing linked up above); when I was writing Crown I was still leaving it up in the air if I would use that to crabwalk sideways into actually using the Wake trio there too.

As early as 2016 or 2017 (Gambit wrapped in 2015, I immediately started working on Backbone that summer with the intention to go back to Ouroboros after I finished, I thought it would be a quick project ha ha ha Backbone didn't wrap until 2018), I had been planning to integrate Rebels plot points into Watchtower; I don't remember all the details now, but it involved a plan to use the Malachor temple/superweapon (which I have postulated elsewhere was actually a massive starship) and a counterpart on Coruscant to do Bad Things. The Malachor end got shut down by Hera, Kanan, Crown!Ezra, and that universe's Ezra (masterless Jedi padawan nicknamed Rat, the Jedi had to change up some of their Process because so many of them had died in Order 66); this is also where the Malachor holocron is destroyed and absorbed by Crown!Ezra, which is seen in Crown. That universe's Anakin went to deal with the Coruscant end, fought and killed that universe's Obi-Wan, and was fatally injured destroying the Coruscant superweapon, dying there.

This obviously doesn't leave a lot of room for the Wake trio to do anything but observe, which isn't that different from what they do in Gambit (and which gets a lot of criticism). But that is, as I remember it, the plot. Because it never got written and finalized, it's changed a lot over the years, but many of the fundamental details of the universe remained the same; like I said, I at one point planned to use it for Crown after I'd decided not to write Watchtower itself, but it was always the same plot, just with a larger cast of characters.

I say this pretty regularly because Wake/Gambit are always picking up new readers, but there aren't any current plans to pick up Ouroboros again -- I have gotten a regular amount of vitriolic comments on both fics for the better part of a decade now and it's completely killed any desire of mine to work on them. Also left some permanent scars and fundamentally changed the way I write, plot, and interact with fandom, which I complain about regularly in my talking about feedback in public tag. (Wake went up in 2013, so we really are coming up on the ten year anniversary. Watchtower got hate mail EVEN BEFORE it ever went up.)

For the Fourth of July I wrote you some fanfic.  <3

This is a bit of faux-historical writing I did for Of Home Near, with the expectation that it wouldn’t actually be used in that story.  (Though as always, there’s always the chance that it will be used.)  You can take it as canon or not canon to that story as desired, but it does definitely take place in that ‘verse.

2.2K below the break.

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One of the enduring mysteries about Captain America remains the date of his disappearance.  The War Department announced that Steve Rogers had been declared missing in action on March 5, 1945, after two weeks of searching; SSR files later confirmed his date of disappearance as February 14, 1945 – Saint Valentine’s Day.  These dates have remained consistent since 1975, when a small number of SSR files were declassified as part of the Church Committee investigations into American intelligence abuses.

there's faves that you literally take personal offense for if anyone insults them and faves that you love to bully. and then there's the faves that are like if u saw two guys mugging them you'd make it three

Can we talk about how in zombie shows/movies/books they always find a veterinarian and not a surgeon? Are veterinarians deemed more likely to survive the apocalypse?

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Yup.

  • One of our professional skills is ‘not being bitten by patients’
  • We actually have a good broad knowledge base for both surgical, medical, and GP things
  • We’re used to improvising equipment because a lot of stuff is just not made for animals
  • Meat safety is part of our training
  • Our cars are often full of equipment, especially in mixed practice
  • We probably weren’t in the human hospital at the initial outbreak

big same @ stress from eating at new places. for me it is allergies but by god same hat

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I've got the normal anxiety problem of not liking doing things if I don't know ~the ritual of the process (though at least a big conference or convention no one else does either), and the further problem of having a bunch of food aversions to really common foods (sandwiches, eggs, cheese are the big ones). At least unlike allergies (or gluten intolerance, lactose, etc.) I'm not going to be in serious trouble if I eat them, but like...I'm still not going to eat them. THE WORST. sympathies. :(

78 words written today -- conference day, so I was, you know, busy at that.  The problem with this kind of event is that I am cripplingly shy IRL -- and online, for that matter -- so it’s, uh...not ideal.  (I am pretty sure the fact my advisor knows this is why she keeps apologizing for not being here and being able to gently shepherd me around to meet people.)  I was supposed to do back to back international conferences and my panel pulled out of the first one, and if I had done back to back I would be DEAD right now, now I know to never do that!  I also had my paper in the morning on the first day, so that’s done now. I also barely ate all day, which I’m sure wasn’t helping anything.  (High anxiety means I also hate trying to get food at places I don’t know, which is...everywhere...especially bad when I have a bunch of food aversions which encompasses the most common lunch food; I cannot eat sandwiches. at all. it is my longest-running food aversion and is extremely inconvenient.)  My lipstick hasn’t fucking moved though.  (Besame Forever Red.)

174 words written today, because I know how to prioritize (I don’t) and did that instead of taking a shower or going to bed early. Though tbh by my standards this is still early, but my entire body is confused by the combination of redeye flight, 22 hours in transit, and six hour time change, so if I could avoid accidentally resetting myself to my NORMAL schedule that would be great.

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fanfiction is like. here's a piece of my soul! here's the parts of me i didn't know what else to do with! i wrapped them up in something i love in an attempt to understand my own feelings and morals and maybe the whole world. hope you like it.

someone: hey I noticed this thing you did in your writing!

me, kicking my feet up flirtatiously: oh??? do you want to hear my thoughts on why I did that? do you want a play-by-play of the language choices in every related sentence? do you want an exhaustive breakdown of The Themes???