"Drums of War" and "the good man scorns the wicked"
I was so glad to do this challenge again this year - and even gladder to complete all 30 of them! Woo!
Author: patientalien
Title: Drums of War
Challenge: SWMININANO2
Prompt: Walkers
Word Count: 167
Characters: Ahsoka
Rating: PG
Summary: The sounds of the war will never leave her.
-----
Chunk-chunk. The sound is something that Ahsoka is sure will never leave her, the heavy footfalls of the walkers as they make a path for them, mowing down everything in their way. Chunk-chunk. It reverberates down her spine, ringing in her montals. The canons flare, and an explosion echoes through the canyon.
Chunk-chunk. The slow, methodical plodding of the machines, and the blaster fire, and the occassional snap-hiss and hum of her and her Master's lightsabers. The sounds of battle, and Ahsoka knows she is never going to be able to get the sounds out of her head, no matter if the war ends, no matter what happens after. A scream of a clone - those will embed themselves deeply; they already have, and she already wakes up at night sometimes because she can hear the chunk-chunk, the screams, the whirring whine of a larty, the snap-hiss of a lightsaber.
The sounds will never leave her, and she will never be able to leave the war behind.
Author: patientalien
Title: the good man scorns the wicked
Challenge: SWMININANO2
Prompt: Icon Challenge
Word Count: 381
Characters: Anakin, Obi-Wan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Goodness knows, the wicked's lives are lonely.
Author's Notes: An off-shoot, once again, of without granting innocence and break with the ones you've followed. Icon text from "Defying Gravity", title, and cut-text from "No One Mourns the Wicked" from Wicked. Dark, same warnings as the others (though not AS dark)
-----
"Well. Get up. Anakin."
Anakin opens his eyes, groggy, disoriented. Obi-Wan is standing over him; he's on the floor in the 'fresher, and he's not sure why. He looks down, sees new bacta patches on his arm, feels the sticky throbbing ache of hangover combined with blood loss. "Sorry," he says. He can't think of anything else to say, and he is sorry, for everything. He's said it so many times, it has lost all meaning. But he does mean it. He is sorry.
"You're always sorry," Obi-Wan responds. It is not cold, or meant to be hurtful, Anakin thinks, though it is distant. He's felt the distance between them since he broke down on Mustafar and while he can't blame his former Master, he still feels hurt. So long on this planet, in exile, so long proving his guilt, and Obi-Wan can still barely look at him.
"I know," Anakin responds softly. Once, right after Mustafar, right before his trial, Obi-Wan had asked him if he was happy with his decision, with what he'd thrown away for his own selfish ends.
Anakin hadn't known how to respond, and he still doesn't. He still is aching with the knowledge that at the time, he'd done the right thing. For himself, for Padme, for the galaxy. Then, in his usual fashion, he'd overextended, gotten overconfident, gotten arrogant and nearly mad. He still feels like he is mad, the nightmares and the fugue states and the injury and the drink and everything else and he knows he is losing his mind.
"Get up," Obi-Wan prompts again, gently, holding out a hand. Anakin takes it, allows Obi-Wan to pull him to his feet. "Come to town with me," Obi-Wan suggests.
Anakin shakes his head. He hates going into town, hates being stared at, hates knowing that Obi-Wan is only bringing him because he's afraid if he doesn't, he'll come home to a corpse. Anakin's not sure why he even cares; he's made his scorn known, his disappointment, his sense of betrayal. And Anakin knows he deserves all of it and more.
He knows he deserves to feel alone, to live in his own head, full of its demons, to die alone and forgotten, the Hero With No Fear nothing but a story book memory.
Author: patientalien
Title: Drums of War
Challenge: SWMININANO2
Prompt: Walkers
Word Count: 167
Characters: Ahsoka
Rating: PG
Summary: The sounds of the war will never leave her.
-----
Chunk-chunk. The sound is something that Ahsoka is sure will never leave her, the heavy footfalls of the walkers as they make a path for them, mowing down everything in their way. Chunk-chunk. It reverberates down her spine, ringing in her montals. The canons flare, and an explosion echoes through the canyon.
Chunk-chunk. The slow, methodical plodding of the machines, and the blaster fire, and the occassional snap-hiss and hum of her and her Master's lightsabers. The sounds of battle, and Ahsoka knows she is never going to be able to get the sounds out of her head, no matter if the war ends, no matter what happens after. A scream of a clone - those will embed themselves deeply; they already have, and she already wakes up at night sometimes because she can hear the chunk-chunk, the screams, the whirring whine of a larty, the snap-hiss of a lightsaber.
The sounds will never leave her, and she will never be able to leave the war behind.
Author: patientalien
Title: the good man scorns the wicked
Challenge: SWMININANO2
Prompt: Icon Challenge
Word Count: 381
Characters: Anakin, Obi-Wan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Goodness knows, the wicked's lives are lonely.
Author's Notes: An off-shoot, once again, of without granting innocence and break with the ones you've followed. Icon text from "Defying Gravity", title, and cut-text from "No One Mourns the Wicked" from Wicked. Dark, same warnings as the others (though not AS dark)
-----
"Well. Get up. Anakin."
Anakin opens his eyes, groggy, disoriented. Obi-Wan is standing over him; he's on the floor in the 'fresher, and he's not sure why. He looks down, sees new bacta patches on his arm, feels the sticky throbbing ache of hangover combined with blood loss. "Sorry," he says. He can't think of anything else to say, and he is sorry, for everything. He's said it so many times, it has lost all meaning. But he does mean it. He is sorry.
"You're always sorry," Obi-Wan responds. It is not cold, or meant to be hurtful, Anakin thinks, though it is distant. He's felt the distance between them since he broke down on Mustafar and while he can't blame his former Master, he still feels hurt. So long on this planet, in exile, so long proving his guilt, and Obi-Wan can still barely look at him.
"I know," Anakin responds softly. Once, right after Mustafar, right before his trial, Obi-Wan had asked him if he was happy with his decision, with what he'd thrown away for his own selfish ends.
Anakin hadn't known how to respond, and he still doesn't. He still is aching with the knowledge that at the time, he'd done the right thing. For himself, for Padme, for the galaxy. Then, in his usual fashion, he'd overextended, gotten overconfident, gotten arrogant and nearly mad. He still feels like he is mad, the nightmares and the fugue states and the injury and the drink and everything else and he knows he is losing his mind.
"Get up," Obi-Wan prompts again, gently, holding out a hand. Anakin takes it, allows Obi-Wan to pull him to his feet. "Come to town with me," Obi-Wan suggests.
Anakin shakes his head. He hates going into town, hates being stared at, hates knowing that Obi-Wan is only bringing him because he's afraid if he doesn't, he'll come home to a corpse. Anakin's not sure why he even cares; he's made his scorn known, his disappointment, his sense of betrayal. And Anakin knows he deserves all of it and more.
He knows he deserves to feel alone, to live in his own head, full of its demons, to die alone and forgotten, the Hero With No Fear nothing but a story book memory.