Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Blood and Thunder In the Stars

Started off the day with my first of two early work shifts in a row. It was no problem. We were dead all morning, and it barely picked up around the noon rush hour. I did get stuck going in for a cashier right before I was done. Otherwise, I mostly did returns, vacuumed the leaks, and rounded up the few carts that were around.

When I got home, I watched more Star Wars: Rebels while having lunch. After Ezra convinces Kanan and Zeb to help Rex get rid of the Imperials, Rex finally agrees to join them. He tells them about an Old Republic base that may have medical supplies. The base also turns out to be the hiding spot of one of the new Grand Inquisitors, a woman and her droids. Ezra and Sabine are in an even bigger pickle when her equally nasty brother appears. Good thing Zeb and Chopper are on their trail.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on an idea I got at work. Now, on one hand, I'm 95 percent sure Han Solo's dead for good. I know a lot of fans don't want to believe it. Han's one of the franchise's most beloved characters, and there's a lot of fussing about him not giving Leia or Luke or the kids a proper good-bye. On the other hand, I'm 100 percent certain that none of us have the Force, and we don't know what will happen in the future or the next movie. So...

This started off as a straightforward rescue story set in the actual Star Wars universe. As I continued it, I realized how much it has in common with the blood and thunder, damsel-tied-to-the-tracks melodramas of the late 19th/early 20th century. It only needed a few tweaks to set it between 1910 and 1924.

Ex-Navy hero Captain Henry Solo was kidnapped and almost killed by his son, the masked villain known as Kylo Ren, or "The Equalizer." He and intrepid early pilot Poe Dameron are being held hostage, chained to a log that's about to be sliced in half by a sharp mechanical saw blade. Ren's second Armitage Hux (and his big orange cat) try to question them about the location of lost Jedi master Professor Walker, but they refuse to answer.

Hux starts up the machine, which is about to slice them through...when it's revealed that their crew has replaced many of Hux's thugs. Professor Luke Walker and street kid Rey take on Hux. Walker's assistant Artie manages to stop the jammed conveyor belt. Detective Leia Walker Solo rescues her beloved husband, while ex-First Order Company hood-turned-cop Finn Finnegan and Poe's adorable little sister Beatrice "BeaBea" Dameron free him. Hux escapes, but Luke's happy they did get the Jedi artifacts he was trying to smuggle out of the city.

This came out surprisingly well for an idea I came up with while gathering carts and took several sharp turns on its way to the final product. It's currently available at Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.Net, and my writing blog.

The Rescue of Captain Solo at Archive of Our Own
The Rescue of Captain Solo at Writer's Desk at the Riverside Rest
The Rescue of Captain Solo at Fanfiction.Net

Finished the night with scrambled eggs with Ratatouille, then made Double Chocolate Raspberry Cookies (Double Chocolate Cookies from The Cake Mix Doctor with raspberry extract) while continuing Rebels. Ezra, tired of constant chores and practicing, goes off on an adventure with Chopper while the others are on a mission. He receives a distress call from his old acquaintance Vizago, whom he owes a favor to. The two go off to answer it, only to find his ship's been taken over by another bounty hunger, Hondo Ohnaka. Hondo has power converters that the Rebels could use...if Ezra can figure out first how to get them past the buyer Hondo has set up, then find Vizago.

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