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Fortune's Rule - Blog Posts
Now playing: III-XVI. Desperate Measures
In which Padmé makes her desperate call, Luke and Leia are having a grand old time, and circumstance forces Vader to return to Tatooine.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33008734/chapters/163911436
Happy New year!! Hope you made it through grad school applications! Looking forward to that crazy call in FR! Cheers!
Happy very belated new year! I did make it through applications, with a couple acceptances, and am now just hoping the funding holds! And I am pleased to announce that the new chapter in Fortune's Rule is finally posted!
Now playing: III-XV. Desperate Times and Desperate Measures, pt. 1
In which Padmé makes a difficult decision, and Vader spends some time with his apprentice.
Just checking in and seeing how Fortunes Rule is going ❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽🥹😅
It's going. Slowly, but surely! 😅 Nobody is having a good time in this chapter (except the twins, of course), and it's proving rather challenging to write for some reason.
Thanks for checking in! 💛
And here's a little snippet from the chapter :)
The second morning, Beru’s call came while Padmé was pacing her room and rehearsing the finer details of her cover story in preparation for the day’s meetings. “Have you found them?” Padmé blurted, the moment she answered her comm. “No.” Beru’s voice was subdued. “There’s still no sign. No one’s even seen the speeder. Of course, if they left it somewhere, it’s probably been picked up by Jawas, or some lowlife looking for a ride.” Unless, of course, speeder and twins been collectively taken possession of first. Frankly, that seemed just as likely. Padmé continued to pace. “Owen checked the slave markets in Espa,” Beru added. “He didn’t see them there.” “That’s…” Padmé started, but she couldn’t finish the sentence. That’s good. It was good, wasn’t it? Owen hadn’t seen the twins in the Mos Espa slave markets. That was good. Unless it just meant they had already been— A wave of blank terror threatened to overwhelm her at the thought of her children being sold as slaves. They couldn’t have been. They just couldn’t. But if they had… I might never see them again. They might grow up as slaves. Unless someone discovers what they are, and Palpatine finds out, and—
Now playing: III-XIV. A Scathingly Brilliant Idea
In which Ahsoka and Rex head to Christophsis; Luke and Leia begin putting their plan into action and run into an old, uh, family friend; and Padmé has no idea what's coming.
hey so fun question, Vibe wise, Palpatine is dealing with a rebellion that is actually Wildly more competent/coherent out of the gate in a way? Ignoring just Anakin/Vader Power aand skill as a warrior, the fact that in sheer military experience Vader blew literally everyone else left out of the water did so much heavy lifting at first when folks are scrambling for years. reason why I enjoyed such things as them stealing Venerators and Super Charging them up because they KNOW their needs.
Yeah, I'd say he is! In this AU, we've got Padmé alive and working behind the scenes during the first couple of years of the rebellion, which was probably a major contributor in and of itself. She has a political motivation to take back the galaxy from an autocratic Emperor, but she also has a very personal motivation to take down Palpatine. So, she would have really pushed for things to get done, for alliances to be made and intelligence networks to developed. Add to that, then, the fact that she and Obi-Wan were both staying with the Larses, so she was able to pull him into the rebellion effort; there was probably a whole bunch of strategic input that came out of that collaboration, e.g. things like the Venator retrofitting program, and a more organized approach to the whole rebellion thing in general, especially with regard to the military angle. Meanwhile, Rex and Ahsoka's work regarding finding/dechipping/helping/recruiting clones post-Order 66 would have helped with strategy and organization as well, taking advantage of the clones' years of military training and wartime experience.
The Empire still has far more resources, in terms of money, ships, weapons, and recruits/conscripts, but the Rebellion in this AU does have a pretty solid foundation when it comes to experience and tactics, and they're able to use their personnel's experience and ingenuity to adapt and make the most out of their limited resources. They still have to be careful—they can't just take on the Empire in all-out war at this point—but they're in a much better position overall, with a unified movement already underway, instead of a scattering of independent rebel cells.
hey! great to see a new chapter. Poor Admiral, at least he knows the lay of the Land now!
Hi! :)
Piett's been having quite a time of it! But yeah, hopefully at least he feels a little better with a teeny degree of job security, and not flying totally blind as Vader's absurdly young admiral anymore.
Now playing: III-XIII. Conspiracy
In which Piett continues to deal with his minor crisis, Ahsoka receives an interesting transmission over the Fulcrum channel, and a certain pair of bored twins begin to hatch a plot.
Hope you are taking care! Eagerly awaiting your next chapter!! 🙏🏽🙌🏽❤️
Hi! Sorry! Work/life in general have been keeping me busy lately, but the next chapter is almost done (hoping to have it out tonight or tomorrow) :)
Thanks for your message; it's helped to motivate me to keep chipping away when the chapter is being stubborn! 💛💛💛
Made a 1920s-style fashion plate for Ahsoka's new cloak and sash from her mom, to accompany the latest chapter of Fortune's Rule!
I liked Ahsoka's grey look in Ahsoka, but wanted something a little warmer and a little more colorful, hence the grey-and-brown-and-blue. Picking colors for her is always tricky, because with her blue-and-orange coloring, there's a limited array that will actually look good on her, and not make a drawing look too busy!
I started off by sketching out a copy of a '20s fashion plate I found online, then did a rough sketch of Ahsoka's attire, and finally did the proper thing on nice paper, outlined with pen, and filled in with watercolor. The angle of the raised arm actually turned out better in the rough sketch, but oh well. At least there was actually space to draw her feet (mostly) in the finished plate! (Also, I'm pretty sure her left lek shouldn't be tossed back over her shoulder like that, but uh, artistic license?)
Now playing: III-XII. Rude Awakenings
In which Ahsoka bids farewell to Shili, Vader proceeds with his plan to dechip the clones, and Piett puts one and one and one and one together and makes four.
Now playing: III-XI. All Tangled Up in This Mortal Coil, pt 2
In which Obi-Wan and Ventress have a tete-a-tete or two, Obi-Wan gives Ventress a lot of sympathy for Commander Cody, and Vader is Having a Day.
Now playing: III-X. All Tangled Up in This Mortal Coil, pt 1
In which Ahsoka meets the fam, and Obi-Wan and Ventress do a bit of reconnaissance.
A scrap of dialogue from a discarded chapter idea for Fortune's Rule---it doesn't actually work in the story for numerous reasons, but I had too much fun writing it to just discard it entirely, so here it is!
Ventress: I thought you said your contact was trustworthy! Obi-Wan: There's always a slight risk with Hondo; it's simply a matter of making the risk pay off. Ventress: This is this your idea of paying off?! Obi-Wan: Well, the Alliance has the goods. That was our objective, after all. Ventress: And WE have a Mandalorian with beskar and a flamethrower on our shebs! Obi-Wan: It's nice to break up the monotony, don't you think? Ventress: Haven't you had enough monotony-breaking lately?
The original idea was for an Obi-Wan and Ventress adventure, where they and some other Alliance forces are in the middle of a raid on a cargo transport carrying bacta from Thyferra, when they're interrupted by the arrival of Boba Fett---hired by Vader to bring in Kenobi, for personal revenge reasons and also because he has information about Padmé.
I think I oopsed, though... originally intended to have Vader contact Boba Fett in an earlier chapter, then forgot about it, didn't include it, and thus screwed up the setup for the Thyferra mission.
I'm still planning on having an Obi-Wan and Ventress adventure coming up very soon, though! A bit different from the OG idea, but the new idea also ties in better with another plot element that the OG didn't touch on.
Excited to finally post this! I made it a while ago, for last week's chapter of Fortune's Rule.
This one was done with alcohol markers (going off of a pose reference I found on Pinterest, see below), black ink, and watercolor for the background.
I really do like you capturing that the galaxy is big and that Palpatine is of course wanting to pick every single fight that he can just cause blood suffering pain and death, spread it all around? kill jedi cant leave them to build roots anywhere but still. the not giving you the option to surrender to occupation, forcing a fight on you cause WANT the fight blood and death some of that being less capability to fight later and clean sweeps? but still galaxy is a huge place and Palps wants it all
Thank you! :)
He absolutely wants it all, and he's not going to think twice about a little violence (or a lot of violence, as the case may be) to get it! Plus, with the economic factors at play, that's just all the more reason to go full-on systemwide occupation instead of settling for diplomacy or surrender of the Jedi in the Sevret system.
And, after all, what's the point of having thousands of Star Destroyers at one's disposal if one doesn't intend to use them for a little bit of conquest every now and again? :P
On a more serious note, though, part of the reason that I made up a system outside of the Republic was that, apparently, a great many of the worlds in the GFFA were not part of the Republic, and I wanted to show how Palpatine is a threat, not only to the worlds that were formerly Republic and immediately became Empire, but also to any world with valuable resources or any world that harbors someone who could possibly be a threat to his power and his security.
And although the Jedi on Errece didn't pose much of a threat in and of themselves---allowing that ideology to survive, allowing them to exist anywhere in the galaxy and possibly go on to spread that ideology to future generations who could build up the Jedi? Who could perhaps continue the Jedi in secret, in the manner of the post-Bane Sith? He absolutely cannot allow that to happen.
(Also, just wanted to add that from a writing point of view, this chapter was pretty entertaining to scheme up because of how Palpatine thinks he's getting it all with the Sevret system. Destroy some Jedi? Check. Gain access to valuable raw materials for the Empire? Check. Humiliate his foolish apprentice? Check.)
Now playing: III-IX. Questions, pt 2
In which Vader persists in being a Sith, Ahsoka and Padmé make some surprising discoveries, and Piett and Veers have a dubious celebration.
Why Vader calls the 501st clones in Fortune's Rule by their CC/CT numbers
One of the trickier things I've had to decide for Fortune's Rule is how Vader should address the clones who are still in the Imperial 501st. Although I was tempted to have him use their names, I ended up having him call them by their CC/CT numbers. It still feels weird and clunky, but it seemed like maybe he would actually do that because Anakin would of course refer to the clones by name. So, in distancing himself from his life as Anakin Skywalker, Vader might deliberately choose to do the un-Anakin-like thing and call the clones by their numbers.
Now playing: III-VIII. Questions, pt 1
In which Piett is overwhelmed and Starkiller isn't helping, and Numa and Ahsoka have very different interactions with a raxshir on Shili.
Excited to see what happens me f w Vader, Padme and Starkiller… wondering how those 3 will end up on the same space 😇😅😅😅
Ah, I'm looking forward to getting to that point too! Suffice it to say, for now, that shenanigannery will be involved at some point, as it should (yes, thank you, Luke and Leia), and some of them will spend some time together sooner than others.
Hoping to get the next chapter out this weekend, by the way... we'll see... between words not wanting to word for the past month or more, and the chapter turning out to be something of a behemoth, it's been slow going, but I think I'm finally on the downhill!
Now playing: III-VII. Small Mercies
In which Ahsoka's faith is shaken, the Rebels head to Shili to do Rebel-y things, and Vader returns to the Executor to train Starkiller.
Sending this your way .. about Nur and how horrific it is… tie in to your reference about Nur in Fortunes Rule and how Vader has a lot to explain and atone for when it comes to the whole torturing and entombing
Jedi esp younglings 🤯
Hey, thanks! That little bit about the entry point and the security will definitely come in handy, as I am planning to have a Nur chapter at some point down the line.
Honestly, I may have gotten myself in a bit over my head with the whole Nur thing. I didn't realise just how nasty it is when I mentioned it back in Part II, so, uh... yeah, that's going to be fun to figure out. Fortunately, it will be a while before that arc, so there's some time to figure out how to approach it.
Now playing: III-VI, The New Way of Things
In which Obi-Wan and Padmé contemplate, Shili seeks to join the Rebellion, Piett decides to befriend a homicidal child, and Vader faces his Master after the disaster that was Wrea.
Hope you get to post next chapter of fortune Rules soon after your move!
Me too! This chapter is taking so much longer than I expected! It's a bit of double whammy, because this one wasn't at all planned out in advance. After last chapter, I realised I needed to include a few things as transitions/setup for later events, so I'm having to write this one out of nowhere, while dealing with all the moving stuff. Can't wait to be done with all the chaos, can't wait to hopefully get back to writing and posting on a more regular schedule, especially as we're on the cusp of more interesting things starting to happen.
I've been trying to wrestle out some more of the current chapter this evening, actually, and your comments have been a nice bit of encouragement, so thank you! 💛😊
Characters keep getting ideas and running with them.
So, uh, Piett and Starkiller... yeah, this was definitely not the plan when I first decided to include those characters in Fortune's Rule. (Heck, they weren't originally supposed to be in the fic at all, but then neither was at least half of the story that's happened thus far, so....)
They were supposed to have pretty separate parts in the story, and they were both going to be much more minor than they're turning out. Until Piett apparently decided Starkiller needs a friend. And he's definitely not wrong, so who am I to say no?
The unfortunate thing here is that now I'm going to have to figure out how the heck Vader is going to deal with the news that his admiral and his apprentice are in cahoots behind his back.
*looks sternly at characters*
Do you see how much extra work you are making for me? Now, behave!
(This seems to have become a recurring theme in the writing of this story. Ahsoka and Padmé weren't originally going to have as close a relationship as they do, but then they decided to take the reins for just one chapter, and look how that turned out.)
Now playing: III-V. In the Wake of Fate
In which our heroes (and not-so-heroic individual) deal with the fallout of the Wrea mission.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a Senator survived. A Jedi did not forsake society. Two siblings were never separated. Nor were two Commanders. And a Rogue found comrades.
The Empire has risen, but the embers of the Republic yet glow in the hearts of the just. The stage is set for rebellion, and both within the Rebel Alliance and outside of it, many fates shall interweave, for the luck of the Disaster Lineage and its associates has ever flowed in a peculiar current. And if that current is stirred, from time to time, by the enterprising Pirate… well, not for nothing has it been said that Fortune rules life.
Aka, Padmé lives. The fractured Chaos Clan begins to reunite. Tarkin suffers a raging case of Hondo-induced identity theft. Vader dials the wrong number and ends up connecting to the commlink of a Rebel agent called Revenant. Add in some youngling hijinks, and all of this is slowly building to a massive headache for one Sheev Palpatine.
So, I wasn't going to do a second illustration for the most recent chapter of Fortune's Rule, but it demanded to be done, and consequently I ended up doing it anyway.
Used the same technique as last time with an even base layer and then colored pencil over it, but this time the base layer was watercolor, instead of marker. Wasn't sure I had enough ink left in my grey marker for Vader. The background was also done in watercolor this time, and then I added pencil to enhance. No pen lines in the background this time, because I realised that the background pen lines are one of the things I don't like so much about the Ahsoka drawing; they make it look too busy and choppy, or something, the horizon line in particular.
I originally used a reference pic of Obi-Wan fighting Dooku, substituting Vader for Dooku, but ditched that because the stance didn't look aggressive enough for Vader. The perspective/angles aren't perfect; arms seem a little wonky, still not sure I got Obi-Wan's legs right, and his head looks a little too big?
The pencil worked really nicely for the flames, which just looked extremely blobby when I only used paint. Pencil also gave the smoke a nice opacity that I wasn't sure how to achieve with watercolor.
And my favorite thing about the whole process.... After finishing up and taking a pic, I realised that behind Obi-Wan, there's a shielded fortress, while behind Vader, there's a flaming wreck; kind of some fun parallelism going on there. And the way the building is on elevated ground, while the wreck is at the bottom of an embankment, also makes for a nice little "Mustafar-reference-if-you-squint." All the symbolism works out super nicely. It was also super unintentional. 😂
Now playing: III-IV: Masters and Apprentices
In which the Alliance comes to the aid of the besieged Partisans, and masters and apprentices meet again.
Now playing: III-IV: Masters and Apprentices
In which the Alliance comes to the aid of the besieged Partisans, and masters and apprentices meet again.
Now playing: III-III. Nothing Ever so Broken
In which Padmé struggles to deal with the fallout, Obi-Wan has a bad feeling, and Asajj is an unlikely source of moral support.