Chapter 924 - 71

WOW does PR get me a LOT of points, I figured meeting hero would be a few, but geez-louise, even a decently sized roll just got me down to "a lot."

Flawless Magic – Magonomia

Base Cost: -350cp

Lore:

A spark once flared, uncertain, rare, yet lingered in your hand,

Now every spell you touch obeys, as if by fate's command.

No effort strains, no struggle stays, the hardest feat feels true,

For once you've shaped a magic's form, it ever bends to you.

Details:

Any magical thing you do (spell, enchantment, curse, etc), you can always replicate your best effort even when barely trying. So even if you've only ever managed a spell once, you can now cast it easily, if you've got the mana, that is.

Addons: -50cp Applies retroactively.

Final Cost: 400cp

Bank:1700cp

I guess I'm glad I held off, if I've got the chance for the really crazy rolls now.

Best to do another to see if it's going to change what I'm doing or not:

The King's Ear - A Song of Ice and Fire

Base Cost: -250cp

Lore:

Upon the throne or office high, their gaze falls calm on you,

A trust unearned, yet solid, strong, as if your worth they knew.

From team to house, from guild to crown, their faith is freely cast,

In every head of every sphere, your counsel holds steadfast.

Details:

The head of your nation now trusts you and your judgment. They'll see you as a person of good judgment and character and will be willing to talk to you on friendly terms, even if you've never met previously.

Addons: -150cp applies to multiple levels at once, anyone said to be head of something your in, from a team or house, to a company or nation trusts you.

Final Cost: 400cp

Bank: 1300cp

Alright, no changes, just boosts to magic and PR. I'm sure both are helpful, but for now, I've got more important things to get to, namely, actually doing a patrol for once.

…

Somehow, I expected this to be more interesting than the random flying around I was doing before, looking for intel for the PRT.

I mean, it's not bad, it's just that Aegis and I are following a set path that was semi-randomly generated by some algorithm of Armsmaster's this morning.

Somewhere off in the distance, Dauntless and Glory Girl are doing the same.

Yay, flying patrols…

…

At least Aegis is super thankful for his new powers.

I guess it really helps him to have a bit of ranged options now, even if he's meant to stick to the cheap spells outside of major fights.

…

Oh Action!

We found Rune sitting on a rooftop, chucking rocks at anyone of a darker persuasion on the boardwalk.

Aegis led, since I'm usually with Firewatch, and they always know what to do, so I assumed he was the same.

Instead, he tried to act like a hero from a cartoon and get her to "Halt! In the name of the Law!"

I mean, he didn't say that exactly, but even Rune looked at him funny.

Anyway, the chase was fun, even if both of us are pretty slow as flyers since I'm stuck to the speed of my wings and air currents, and he can only fly at running speeds, even if it's Olympic athlete running.

We were both getting about 30-40mph most of the time, except in bursts, while Rune has been pretty consistently clocked in at just under 60.

So the math should've been clear once she started flying, except that I can teleport to a bunch of places in the city, and Glory Girl is faster than Rune, so we just needed to keep the chase up for 8 minutes.

We did it… But I guess Rune had a backup too, because just as GG was getting to us, the Giant twins started making a mess nearby, and Rune dodged into a building in the resulting scuffle.

Worse, is that Dauntless told the three of us to pull back and swap out for Assault and Battery's patrol route, while the three of them fought the twins.

It didn't even work!

The twins managed to disengage before Assault and Battery even showed up!

…

Whatever, I guess it's best to stick to getting stuff done with Firewatch, or possibly following up on some of those leads the Ninja have been giving me about Villains who've got basically no opposition in small Canadian towns.

…

Also, apparently, I missed a checkup during that whole princess thing last weekend, so Tsunade barged in and did it right in the living room with Emily, and somehow this ended up in her becoming my tutor for Science.

It's a thing, I guess.

I mean, I was getting to the end of the unit anyway, so I guess she can do 9th-grade Science as well as anyone else.

Oh, and she did one for Emily, too, when I asked, so I guess Emily had an old injury that can't really be healed, so she never went to Panacea for it.

But Tsunade is really good about the space between healed and crippled.

So she did something and made it so Emily wouldn't feel pain in that specific part of her body anymore, which helped a lot, even if it's too risky for anyone who's still getting in fights. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 62: Friday, April 22nd Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#66Today was a "team building exercise" with Firewatch, Aspirant, Addison, and Dauntless.

I guess the Deputy Director was all proud of that one raid where we managed to stop Uber and Leet's minions, so he's going to have Addison train up with Firewatch, then go out with one of the PRT squads like I do with Firewatch.

Dauntless is here because he's the Protectorate liaison for the PRT-Wards. I guess nobody was before, but the position exists, and nobody was against his taking it to have more father-son time.

Aspirant was here because it was a bunch of PRT training with Dauntless giving pointers. He seemed kind of awestruck but mostly just wanted to learn.

…

But in more important news, Addison brought Buddy.

Buddy is like Fox, he's an animal with powers.

I guess he's got super tracking skills.

He's a Bloodhound, but with tracking skills orders of magnitude better than most.

But they were worried about him going out without protection, which led to me realizing I've been an idiot.

I offered dog armor and then realized that's 100% a thing I should have been making for the pack.

…

It calmed Addison to know that Buddy would be 100% immortal so long as the armor lasted, and I'd be able to make 6x durable armor too.

Now we just need for the truckload of armadillos to be sent up.

…

I thought getting them might be the bottleneck, but I guess in some places, not too far away, they are actually pests.

Like, there are more armadillos than squirrels.

Weird…

Either way, whenever that comes, Buddy has first claim on some 6x durability dog armor, then I'll start giving it to the pack.

…

Oh, and the 3x Damage, 3x Speed, AoE Explosion Organics Damage Only Crossbow just got approved by the testing authority.

Even if the damage output's pretty insane, so it's more of an Anti-Brute weapon, the Bay's still got like 6 possible targets for it.

So I'm now making a few for Firewatch, the Protectorate, and the PRT.

…

Oh, and the roll I got is pretty sweet too, even if it doesn't do much for me.

Patryn Whistle - The Death Gate Cycle

Base Cost: 50cp

Lore:

A single note, so sharp, so clear,

It shields the heart from doubt and fear.

No voice can sway, no thought can bind,

When Whistle guards the steadfast mind.

Details:

A whistle whose sound operates under the normal physical laws of sound propagation. Anyone who hears the sound directly (not recordings or amplifications) is freed from all mental influences save those placed by the whistle holder. This does not grant immunity or revert changes, but ongoing effects are halted unless intentionally reapplied, and automatic effects that linger will not be reapplied automatically even after the sound ends

Addons: -50cp to turn into a spell that can be overpowered rather than a whistle bound by mere physical laws.

Final Cost: 100cp

Bank: 1000cp

It's not my craziest role, but I have started getting back at the PRT for the whole M/S thing by playing it for them in the form of earworms, and the best part is their bureaucrats, so they can't even complain about it.

They know what this spell is supposed to do, so they know complaining just makes them look sus.

I wasn't going to bug Emily, but she requested I use it on her every morning and night just to be sure, so that works for me.

…

Emily has actually requested that I go around to all the cape groups and use it on them, just in case.

So I guess I'll be doing that as I see them over the next bit.

I'm just glad there was the spell, not whistle, option because it lets me play it as music I know, rather than needing to learn an instrument on top of everything else.

Spoiler: A/N Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 63: Saturday, April 23rd Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#67I guess we're back to the awkward dinners at Battery's place, but I laid down the ground rules right from the start this time and pinned a message at the top of the Awkward Dinner Conversations channel of the IRC to remind them that I'm a teleporter and immune to their bullshit.

Assault found the name of the IRC channel funny, even if Battery and Sis didn't, and promised to just tell me where we were going next time. He also said that trying to box in a mover was a bad idea from the start.

It was at this point that a wolf plopped into his lap, so I guess there's no hiding my approval of that.

Assault, meanwhile, managed to convey "this is my life now" through body language alone.

…

Later, we somehow got into a versus debate about powers and what kind of Brute was best. That's apparently been an ongoing thing in the Cape Section of the IRC, so I ended up throwing gasoline on the fire by giving Assault 10 minutes of the 3x potency Bigger Potion—the one that makes someone 9x larger with proportional strength. Then I gave Battery the 3x duration version that makes you only 3x bigger but lasts for 30 minutes.

I have apparently fueled a future bit of domestic violence… and gambling. I bet $100 in the Tinker Budget on Assault, which Armsmaster accepted as a valid bet (because of course he's the bookie—why am I even surprised?).

Oh, and I gave Missy 60 minutes of Invisibility (two of the 3x duration ones) on the condition that she only tell people it was 30 minutes and save the rest for fun stuff.

She agreed instantly, which is how I know that was a terrible idea.

I'm glad the IRC exists, because typing all this out in person would've spoiled the good vibes, I think.

…

I guess the other debates were less interesting, though Assault and Battery apparently found it offensive when I agreed with Sis that one-to-one Shakers beat Brutes.

As in: if all you know about a cape is their rating, and the numbers are the same, you should always assume the Shaker will be the bigger threat.

My reasoning is slightly different from Sis's, who mostly just seemed to have pride in her category, though.

Like I messaged/said at the time:

When a Brute gets clever with their powers, a wall explodes or bones break.

When a Shaker gets clever, it's physics that breaks, and there's no way to prep for that before you've seen it happen.

I kinda stumped them with that, so Missy glomped me… it was nice. And mildly terrifying, because Missy doesn't "half-glomp" anything.

…

Oh, and for some reason, one of the puppy wolves started chewing on Battery and wouldn't stop until I left, which was apparently hilarious to Sis and Assault for some reason.

Battery, less so.

…

The only other thing of note is that Emmy, who's apparently my PR person as well as my English tutor, asked me to spend at least a few minutes of any flying time near that mural someone made.

It's an easy enough request, since it was already a great mural even before people kept adding to it.

Phoenixes are already a mythical figure found in lots of different cultures, so I guess we happened across a piece of art people aren't willing to graffiti over.

Both the Empire and ABB capes have apparently claimed it for their sides and told their people to leave it alone, unless they were adding to it.

The result is that the mural gets a bit bigger and more interesting every day. I once spent an hour just looking at all the details, and I guess the PR of pictures of Phoenix next to the Phoenix mural ending up on PHO was good, so she asked me to keep doing it.

The only weird part is the people showing up in my merch.

I mean, I get people my age or high schoolers, but it's always a bit odd seeing old people wearing those feather pendants they sell.

But Sis said it's just something you get used to, so I guess I'll just ignore it.

Or die quietly inside.

Hard to tell the difference. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 64: Sunday, April 24th Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#68I ran into Taylor today.

She was Aura farming near the Boat-Graveyard, just standing on one of the piers, hair flowing cinematically in the breeze, looking like Edmond Dantès out of that book Emmy's been making me read lately, The Count of Monte Cristo.

I guess she noticed me hovering nearby because she turned and looked straight at me.

She waved me down, so I switched into smaller bird form (easier to teleport from) and perched on the edge of the pier near her, ready to bolt if I had to.

She started whispering at me, so I turned human and used a finite on her.

I mean, I don't actually have proof she's a villain yet, so leaving her semi-soundless just felt rude.

But I didn't want to give the wrong impression either, so I pulled out my tablet and had it say:

"I'm still going to take you down next time, Queen Administrator."

She just kind of brooded at me for a while, then asked if that was why I was against the Dockworkers.

I told her it wasn't about them, it was about their protecting Uber and Leet, and that a gang shielding supervillains from law enforcement is pretty much the definition of a valid target.

She moved toward me, so I shifted into bird form and started to leave, but she called for me to "Wait!"

I circled back and landed further away, keeping my distance.

She insisted the Dockworkers who dealt with Uber and Leet were being "handled internally" (shudder) and asked how I was so sure they were a gang.

It seemed obvious, but I explained how they already matched nearly every definition of one before she started defending them.

Now, they've even got a cape in their ranks.

She pushed back, saying she's "A Hero, not some Gang Villain," so I brought up Nuwa, "that tinker with the Neighborhood Watch that just happens to be full of suspected ABB members, who all like wearing red and green."

She brooded at me again, so I tried to soften it by saying the Dockworkers were:

"Probably the Bay's Least Bad Gang" and pointed out her PRT file still had her listed as "Gang-Affiliated-Vigilante, not villain."

She brooded some more, then asked: "Does this make you my rival then?"

I had to suppress the instinctive urge to flee in terror, and instead, I just wrote out:

"I'm pretty sure mine is Leet."

"But I don't think Aspirant has a rival. I'd be careful, though, he knows Kung-Fu!"

Someone laughed from uncomfortably close behind me, so I went bird again and started to leave, but Taylor called out:

"Wait!

"Thanks for the name…"

"It's kind of pretentious, but something about it just… feels right."

Hah. I'll bet it does.

I nodded in bird form and left before the guy in the truck could call for backup.

I'll need to do something nice for Aspirant…

Since he's basically on death row now.

Still, a bullet dodged is a bullet dodged. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 65: Wednesday, April 27th Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#69Rune baited and almost trapped Aegis and Glory Girl a few days ago by seeming to repeat her "throwing rocks at minorities" thing before flying directly to where Menja and Fenja were waiting.

So when I saw Rune fly off in an extremely obvious way today, I sent a DM over to Carlos and Vicky on IRC and went over to where she left from.

It seems like I was right, because I found the giant twins in costume but still normal-sized.

So I hit them both with Harry Potter stunners, then dropped my one containment foam grenade on one of them and swooped down to teleport the other to Canada.

Then I sent an alert through IRC to call for pickup on both the one I had foamed and the one I had stunned on Prince Edward Island.

In the end, Rune ended up having a really dramatic and public chase scene with Aegis and Glory Girl, where she was frantically throwing things at the public, forcing the two of them to break off to save people.

Still, they'd apparently almost gotten her when the twin that turned out to be Fenja burst out of the foam and went on a brief but very flashy rampage.

But the unconscious Menja and I just sorta hung out for a while until a PRT van showed up with some special brute restraints in a truck, then had me fill out the paperwork before I went home and got the lowdown on the other side of things.

I felt a bit guilty about it after, but Emily told me that Othala and probably Victor were involved. Since the reason her rampage was more dramatic than usual was that she was making use of the two minutes of granted invulnerability.

So what I did was keep the rampage to one twin rather than both. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:noka133, S1m0nWr1t3, Phili and 3 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 66: Thursday, April 28th Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#70I guess there was some kind of fight over forcing me into the Protectorate-Wards, since I apparently "don't trust the Protectorate to safeguard the villain."

I was confused, but I guess they took offense at my teleporting her to Canada, meaning the PR win got split between me, personally, and the Moncton, New Brunswick Protectorate, not the local branch.

I got really offended that they would try to fuck up my situation just to punish me for capturing a villain (like we're supposed to) in such a way that they'd stay caught rather than serve as a PR boost for the week Armsmaster managed to hold on to her.

It's the funny thing about that skill at paperwork I got a while ago.

It makes me GREAT at reading between the lines on their "requests" to "normalize the ward situation."

I was trying to make them realize that if they did force me out of my decent setup as some kind of bully-esque spite move, that I'd return the spite 7-fold.

So I sent a "request" to Armsmaster for an interview to "address the allegations of incompetence of the Local Protectorate."

I 100% did not need to send him that, but nothing says I can't, even if that'd be Dr. Renoch's call in my case, and the PR people don't want me doing interviews in the first place.

…

That said, I don't think I was blunt enough, since he just rejected it for the above reasons and then forwarded another "request."

So I pinned a message for an hour in the BB Protectorate section of the IRC:

"Armsmaster, that wasn't a request. That was me warning your whole Protectorate team."

"You're mad because I handed a villain off to New Brunswick instead of trusting your leaky lock-up. Yeah, it stings. Makes it look like I don't trust you. Maybe because no one should. And now what? You're gonna play tough guy and try to yank me out of the PRT just to teach me 'respect'? That's pathetic."

"Sure, you can crush me if you all lean on me hard enough. But I've got one thing none of you do, superhuman skill with paperwork. So go ahead, shove. I'll bury you in forms and red tape so deep you'll choke on your own system. If I go down, I'm taking your whole Team down into the mud with me."

…

Emily ended up reprimanding me and giving me a lecture on not threatening teammates. Then she made me remove the message even though it'd only been up for an hour.

But I could tell she thought it was hilarious, and at least somewhat deserved, given she waited till after the lecture to make me take it down.

…

I'm starting to realize this with Emily.

That you can tell more about what she thinks from how she says things than from the specifics of her words.

Either in the order, like with the lecture first, then removal after, or with intentionally not including obvious things, like with my teleportation practice, while I was still getting the hang of that. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 67: Friday, April 29th & Small Wards IRC Interlude Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#71Unicorn - Warhammer Fantasy: Bretonnia

Base Cost: -50cp

Lore:

Horned steeds of myth with gleaming might,

In forests deep, they blaze with light.

Pure as dawn, with fury untamed,

Warhammer legends, proud and famed.

Details:

The ability to make any animal you ride into its mythical equivalent. Limit, one at a time.

+200% to CHA stat or intimidate skill , also a (+25%) buff to Endurance, Speed, & All Resistances.

(Classic example is Horse to Unicorn, Pig to Erymanthian Boar or Dog to Cŵn Annwn/Okuri-Inu)

Addons: -100cp increase the limit to 10 at once. Moar Unicorns!

Final Cost: -150cp

Bank: 1350cp

Padfoot!

Their 10 padfoots now!

Or, well, supposedly it's based on the Black Shuck myth according to Dragon, but the point is that 10 of the wolves at a time get bigger, fluffier, and have a weird shadow-stalker-like power.

It's really specific, like their Awoo's, but in testing, they charged a trooper straight through a wall after he hit me on the neck with an airsoft bullet.

I guess it's like how the Awoo's are only magically boosting if I'm protecting an ally, they can only ignore walls if they're pursuing an enemy. (The awwos are magical either way, but I've only been boosted by them once so far.)

Mostly, though, I'm just focused on how fluffy this makes them.

Hint: Very!

Oh, and I guess I could use it on a horse at some point, but I don't see why.

Though using it on Buddy did have interesting results since his ears turned red.

I guess he became a "Cŵn Annwn" and was able to take commands better, but mostly just from me. Addison and Shaun didn't have any better luck at giving him commands than usual, so outside of a fight where at least 3 of us are there, and we have time for me to relay orders through my tablet, I can't see the use.

Still, he got WAY faster like that, and if the mythology follows, he might have become an even better hunter, so I guess they might have me tag along next time they use Buddy for PRT investigation-type work.

…

Oh, and there was a bit of a debate in the Wards IRC about yesterday.

I admit, I could have been gentler about things, but I wasn't expecting my own allies to try backstabbing me like that.

Just another lesson, I guess.

I need to keep on my toes with the Protectorate from now on, or I'll blink and be back in a box, like at home with the ball and chain.

…

[19:41] Parallax >> so are we just not gonna talk about saga nuking the Protectorate with paperwork threats?

[19:43] Ferrum [Hand] >> she didn't nuke them. she just… showed she *could*. big difference.

[19:43] Lumina >> honestly? kind of iconic. "put me on your roster and I'll make your life a binder convention."

[19:44] AegisPatch >> iconic until you remember she's basically telling the people who back us to shove it. not exactly team spirit.

[19:45] PulseCheck [Mod] >> or maybe she's reminding them not to mess with something that's already working. that's how I heard it.

[19:47] Parallax >> Addison that's the most "both sides" thing I've ever read.

[19:48] PulseCheck [Mod] >> some of us live complicated lives, okay?

[19:53] Lumina >> the thing is, Piggot's not even mad. no PR statement, no punishment. it's just… awkward silence.

[19:55] Ferrum [Hand] >> that silence says she's backing Saga. otherwise there'd be fire and brimstone already.

[19:56] Parallax >> exactly. so why can't she just join properly? be part of the Protectorate, like the rest of us. if she did, we'd live together again. like we should.

[19:57] Ferrum [Hand] >> because she actually likes where she's at. sometimes standing your ground means saying no, even if family doesn't like it.

[19:58] AegisPatch >> Weld's right. she has the right to stay independent. but maybe don't aim a rocket launcher at your own bosses while doing it.

[19:59] Lumina >> lol "rocket launcher." more like "endless DMV line."

[20:41] Firebird [Queen] >> exactly. the adults weren't mad I beat Menja, they were mad they looked weak. so I told them if they try to shove me into their box, I'll make that box a coffin of forms.

[20:46] Parallax >> and what about *me*? I'm the one left out. you could be home with me again. with people who care.

[20:51] Firebird [Queen] >> you'll always have me, Missy. but I'm not you. I won't fold myself small just to fit their neat little chart.

[20:52] Ferrum [Hand] >> she's got a point about pettiness. but Saga… you could've said it softer.

[20:54] Firebird [Queen] >> maybe. I'll admit that. but better sharp edges than being whittled down. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 68: Sunday, May 1st Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#72My leather boots are starting to get sold.

$80, and it took a while since the fitting to the first wearer thing they do meant they needed to go through pretty extensive testing before they could get sold to the general public.

But Emmy and Glenn Chambers have been pushing pretty hard for this, especially after that one scientist with the German name and Brazilian accent offered the loophole with turning rabbits into leather with my crafting.

So I made them, and then some poor grunt got to press a hot brand with the PRT and "My" logo on each one before boxing them up.

The main thing for me (or really for the clone) is needing to coordinate colors, since we've figured out that they can all get dyed in such a way that the leather wears out before it loses the color, but we can't actually test every color since there are 16,777,216 of them.

But I still needed to send off 256 boots of all the basic combos for testing, then make another hundred of each basic combo to sell.

I guess they're saving the more complex combinations for if they run out.

I was also able to figure out that I don't need to go all the way to 2x or 3x resources if I don't want to.

So I made boots with a 1.25x durability enchantment using 5 leather, which was gotten from 20 rabbit skins and an average of 3 dyes.

Either way, the result is that the boots suddenly appeared on shelves across America today.

I can kind of see why it's a big deal, but only kinda.

I mean, the version of this I made for the Local PRT is 6x durability and 6x maneuverability and supposedly feels like wearing a cloud that kicks like it's made of titanium.

So the PR version that are basically just $200 boots sold for $80 just seems kind of underwhelming for what Tinkertech is supposed to be.

But like I said, Emmy was really pumped about it, and she's been open and honest with me so far, so I figure I'll go with it (and will have the clone keep pumping out the boots when they ask.)

…

We kept trying to make other clothing and it wasn't working but just today I ended up rolling something that.. Kinda fixes that issue.

Garmenter - Dr. Stone

Base Cost: -50cp

Lore:

Flax trembles in calloused hands, spun and twined, threads hum and unwind,

Looms creak and whirl, fibers curl, warp meets weft in shadowed swirl,

Hides stretched, smoked, and softened by fire's flick, edges kissed and nicked,

Needles flash, fabrics clash, seams whisper, hems fold, edges lash,

Dyes bleed, waters weave, pigments shimmer, soak, and heave,

Garments rise, worn hands sigh, rough cloth yielding to form, to life, to sky.

Details:

You can now shape the raw materials at hand into approximations of modern fashions, crafted with surprising speed and precision, given your tools. The finished pieces convincingly echo the designs you aim to replicate, yet they always retain a rugged, improvised quality, sturdy and functional, but unmistakably handmade. Using finer materials can make your creations exceptionally durable, perhaps even outlasting the originals, though their rough-hewn, adventurous aesthetic will remain immediately apparent.

Addons: -50cp integration with other perks (continues with new ones).

Final Cost: 100cp

Bank: 1300cp

I mean, it's still what Glenn called "Barbarian-Sheik" rather than the simple but decent quality of the leather boots.

But it works, and once I've made one, I can start pumping it out of the crafting table perk using the materials.

So I'm now sending a couple of hundred Frontier hats and crude leather jackets off for testing.

I'm not sure anyone would be willing to spend the nearly $200 we'd need to sell these for, but Glenn told me not to worry about it, that this was the kind of problem the National PR office prefers to have.

Plus, the extra 50cp for integrating it means I can do the same thing with dyes, so I figure worst case, the southern PR offices just start getting a cheaper version of the clothing for local heroes.

It can't be too much trouble to order a bunch in a local hero's color and have someone Brand each one with that hero's logo.

I figure it's what they were already doing, but doing it through me will probably mean the process happens quicker and with a more consistent quality from the dyework, even if the quality of the individual hats and jackets is lower.

Emmy says it'll make things much easier for PR, both mine, since they're making up some kind of "Made By Phoenix" to put on anything I make.

Along with the national program, because of how I can make a ton of these really quickly if I'm given the materials and proper instructions on what order to add the dyes.

That's why there are nearly 17 million combos.

Because dies need to be added in the exact same order each time to get the same result.

…

So I guess I'm really banking on having the PR department like me, even if the Protectorate doesn't, the Wards are Mixed, and the PRT views me as just useful enough to put up with the headaches.

Spoiler: A/N Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 3 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 69: Interlude: Addison POV - 4th Date (5/2/2011) Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#73Fourth date.

Four.

That was a big enough number that it felt like it should mean something, but small enough that I had no idea what it meant.

I was walking a thin line between holding Missy's hand like it was casual and clinging like I'd never let go.

The movie hadn't given me any ideas for how to act.

It was fine.

Safe.

We'd laughed, we'd eaten too much popcorn, and then we'd stepped outside into the cool air where the evening felt too wide open.

And then... thank god, Glory Girl had shown up with her ridiculous scarf disguise.

Missy leaned against my shoulder as we walked, whispering:

"I can't believe she thinks that works."

"She's counting on us not looking too close."

I replied

"Gallant's makeup skills are scary good. I bet he did hers, too."

"That would explain why she doesn't look like an alien in that trench coat.

We both snickered, and the weight on my chest loosened.

It felt good, easy.

The kind of thing where we were in sync without having to try.

But then the pier stretched out ahead of us, water shining with sunset light, and I realized I was back to square one.

No idea what to do with a date except sit on a rail and pretend this was a movie.

Missy didn't complain.

She hopped up beside me, legs kicking, eyes on the water.

"You know they're going to follow us till we go home."

"Let them."

I shrugged.

"We'll give them a show."

The words made her laugh again, soft but bright.

Then the quiet settled.

The waves, the gulls, the smell of fried food drifting from somewhere behind us.

And suddenly it wasn't about a movie anymore.

"It's weird, right?"

I said, before I could think better of it.

"We're the only ones not playing junior Protectorate.

Just dropped into the squads like… extra gear. Because of Saga."

Missy glanced at me, sharp, like I'd touched a bruise.

"She doesn't listen, yeah. But she's not wrong."

"I know."

I picked at the peeling paint on the rail.

"It's not that she's wrong. It's that she doesn't care if she sounds disrespectful about it. Adults give an order, and she just—"

I made a vague gesture.

"Throws it back if it doesn't add up."

Missy's jaw set.

"That's not a bad thing."

"I didn't say it was."

My chest felt tight. "It's just…"

"I've known her a long time. She didn't used to be like that."

Missy blinked, surprised.

"She used to be quiet. Shy. You know that."

"Exactly."

I met her eyes.

"She was different before she triggered."

The words landed harder than I thought they would.

Missy flinched like I'd hit her.

Crap.

"I didn't mean—"

Her voice cracked before I could backpedal.

"Don't. Just… don't. You're right."

Her hands clenched in her lap, knuckles white.

"I keep trying to get her to be that girl again. The one who listened, who followed along. And that's—god—"

She pressed a hand to her eyes.

"That's what Mom and Dad did to me. Pushed me and pushed me until something broke."

The sound of her breath shaking broke something in me, too.

I wanted to fix it.

To say the right thing.

But I didn't know the right thing.

All I had was:

"That's not the same. You care about her. That matters."

Missy let out a wet laugh, bitter.

"Caring doesn't change the fact I've been a hypocrite. Telling myself I'm better than them while trying to force her into something she's not."

I swallowed hard.

"Maybe. But I think there's more going on than either of us know. If you want answers… maybe the only way is a heart-to-heart. Her terms, not yours."

Her shoulders slumped.

"I keep trying. She shuts me out every time."

"Then it's not all on you. You can't fix her alone."

Missy's head whipped around, eyes fierce even through the tears.

"I'm her older sister. It's my job."

I almost argued... almost.

But then I thought of Saga, disappearing from people, ducking out of rooms when conversations got too close.

Running away instead of facing things.

"You're not wrong,"

I said quietly.

"But running doesn't work either. If it's going to happen, it has to be her choosing. Not because anyone pushed her into it."

Missy stared at me for a long moment.

Then, suddenly, she leaned forward and kissed me.

It was quick, clumsy, a brush of lips that shocked me so badly I forgot how to breathe.

We froze.

The sunset burned on the water.

Her eyes darted to mine, wide and scared and stubborn all at once.

Then space folded around her, and she was gone, leaving the air warped and humming.

I sat there, pulse hammering in my ears, lips tingling, trying to understand what had just happened.

Saga's problems weren't solved.

Missy's weren't either.

Mine… sure as hell weren't.

But for once, even being overwhelmed felt kind of okay.

Spoiler: A/NLast edited: Dec 5, 2025 Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 3 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 70: Friday, May 6th Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#74… Ah, so Coil's dead… and Brandish.

I…

Well, this all feels really sudden, but hearing it from Dean, it's actually been brewing for months.

…

So, I guess New Wave got enough intel to do a lightning raid on the underground bunker Coil just… had??

They also somehow knew he and Hijack would be there.

The talk is that this was probably Tattletale's doing, since there was a secure room that locked from the outside. They think it was hers, but she's nowhere to be seen.

I guess it's easy to forget the sheer amount of experience and force New Wave represents when they want to.

They even called LightStar back just for this.

Somehow, it ended up with Coil fighting Brandish, with neither of them sure whose reinforcements would come around the corner next. They were both fighting desperately.

And, it turns out Coil was a combat Thinker… My memories disagree with that, but my memories are unreliable, so I'm ignoring them.

I guess Coil managed to beat the cape whose whole thing is CQC in CQC… for about half a second. Then she cut him in half.

So… all that, plus the huge bunker full of mercs, would have been crazy enough. But it turns out Triumph's cousin, Dyna Loughton, had been kidnapped nearly a month back and nobody bothered to tell me.

What's worse is that she's a super scary cape, and Hijack had apparently developed perfect control over her.

Her power, I guess, is seeing a bunch of immediate futures and "borrowing" details from them.

The whole reason the raid went how it did was because Hijack wasn't paying attention to her. (He was sitting right next to her but focused on his video game.) So she borrowed Brandish all the way to where Coil was, before he could escape.

But then Hijack took control, along with two mercs picked specifically to make him ultra dangerous in combat.

That combo, plus the way everyone he fights tends to trip at just the wrong time, makes him extremely dangerous… until Dyna used a loophole against him.

Apparently, her Thinker headaches hit him if he's controlling her when they develop, and they stick to him even if he stops.

So she used her power just enough for Brandish to make sure she had no headache, but would after one or two more uses.

I guess the fight looked REALLY BAD for like five minutes. Then Hijack and Dyna started grimacing, and he let go of her…

Then she did something honestly kind of evil.

She used her power one last time to make it so the shield Eric used, instead of knocking Hijack back, snapped his neck.

They knew it was her because right after, she screamed and passed out.

But in the meantime, Eric has now killed a guy, and Brandish is dead—all just so Dyna could get her revenge.

And it's not even done. I guess she still intends to go after Tattletale, wherever she is.

…

So… Dyna is a Ward, but basically all of us Wards put up some kind of "Please send her to another city" request.

So, I guess Triumph is going with her, and they're gonna end up transferring someone else over here.

I requested a Case 53.

…

Oh, and I guess Coil had a contingency plan, because there's a list that keeps getting put up by different accounts in different places with all the villain identities Coil apparently knew.

Supposedly, it includes most of the Empire and a bunch of their contacts across the country and in Europe.

But like I said, that one's dubious and keeps getting taken down fast.

The other one is more interesting, because it was made in such a way that it's not technically illegal.

I guess Coil wrote up his "Fuck You, New Wave" last-will-and-testament as a "fanfic," with a whole bunch of "hypothetical" blackmail he had on New Wave—including evidence and speculation.

It's like 60 chapters of dirt on New Wave, but all framed as speculation and structured so it can't legally be taken down.

Plus, he posted it on a few of those sites that won't remove anything without a court order, and even then only after warning people so they can copy and re-upload it first.

…

The whole thing is a mess, but I guess it's functionally killed New Wave.

Supposedly, none of them want to talk to Manpower now, and Amy took Brandish's car and left the state, going who knows where.

I guess Flashbang and Manpower left to find her, while Vicky just refuses to talk about any of it.

Oh, but that's the other thing: Vicky's now a Ward… or she will be as soon as the paperwork is done.

Same with Shielder too… the PRT-Wards.

Yeah, there's more drama there.

Armsmaster was going to make Eric give up certain things or become a "probationary" Ward, since he technically killed a guy.

(Even though another cape made him do it, and the dead one was a known human Master who'd been semi-controlling him in the fight.)

But Dr. Renoch jumped in and offered him full status with a better-than-average contract… as a PRT-Ward.

Too bad, Addison. Your month of leadership is now done, and all hail glorious leader Eric!

It works out, since Eric did the correct thing and started acting like a proper dictator when I sent that in the IRC.

Also, I guess Photon Mom was going to join the Protectorate once her son's paperwork was signed, but Armsmaster's BS made her pull back.

Eric says she'll probably still join, but she's looking into joining another city instead, since she really doesn't want to take orders from the guy who tried to get "murderer" written on her son's record just so he could funnel toy-sale profits into the tinker budget.

I mentioned how Portland, Maine, has a kind of underpowered Protectorate department, given how huge their jurisdiction is, and offered to teleport him there to see her sometimes if he wanted.

He seemed interested, and I know this would make Emily's life a bit easier, so I started a sub-channel in the IRC with Emily and Photon Mom and explained it.

I wasn't exactly following everything, and it's not like the paperwork was signed yet, but it seems like Newport just gained, at the least, a part-timer who can fly and shoot lasers. So that's got to be nice. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Threadmarks 71: IRC: Vicky Interlude - Exploring Saga's Islands (5/8/11) Threadmarks OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#75Stepstones Fief - House of the Dragon

Base Cost: 350cp

Lore:

Two kingdoms bicker, yet both will defend,

My tax-free rocks till the bitterest end.

A harbor, some caves, and a loophole or two,

Who knew conquest would net me beachfront view?

Details:

You were important during the conquest of the Stepstones... but not too important.

So here are two rocky islands, all to yourself.

Whichever government you are the closest to considers them part of its territory and will defend them with as much vigor or its lack as they would any of their other, less important island holdings.

Still, they consider it owned by you, and thanks to some interesting tax loopholes, they won't expect any taxes from here so long as the population (they know about) stays under 1000.

Not that this will be difficult, as the largest population these particular rocks have ever had, historically, is 80, and that was more than a century ago.

Still, they form a tiny but well-sheltered natural harbor, and past residents have carved a series of homes out of the caves near the harbor. So if you can find around 200 people willing to bring their own boats, this could become a small fishing village quite easily.

Addons: 100cp These will be mirrored in the warehouse, so you can make changes to an empty version of the islands and apply it to the real islands at will.

Final Cost: 450cp

Bank: 1550cp

[09:00] *Firebird [Queen] and CrownOfSpite [Ward] join channel*

They fly north along the coast, thirty minutes of silence. Vicky keeps gesturing as though she's narrating a show to herself. Saga just flies, quiet and steady. The IRC stays blank until they land.

[09:31] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> So this is the grand prize? The fabled phoenix islands? I was expecting glowing runes or at least some dramatic music.

[09:32] Firebird [Queen] >> They are mine.

[09:33] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Yours, yeah, but you can't just claim them like a dragon. You're literally on the tax rolls. Eleven-year-old queen with a mortgage.

[09:34] Firebird [Queen] >> Queen Saga sounds better than taxpayer Saga.

[09:35] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Queen Saga, Monarch of Rocks and Seagulls. Long may she reign.

They step into the first carved chamber, stone bare, every footstep echoing.

[09:40] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Well this is anticlimactic. It's just… a room. A very echoey room.

[09:41] Firebird [Queen] >> They are all empty.

[09:42] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> It's like a video game dungeon that hasn't spawned loot yet. You could jam three hundred people in here if you wanted to test hygiene limits.

[09:43] Firebird [Queen] >> Spartan living. It would work.

[09:44] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> That's one way to say "unsanitary."

They leave the chamber, gulls wheeling overhead.

[09:50] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> So Missy and Addison. I heard the rest of the team whispering about it like it was some reality TV subplot.

[09:51] Firebird [Queen] >> She asked him. He kept winding himself up. She got tired of it.

[09:52] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> That's perfect. Addison talks like he's trying to psych himself up for the Olympics every day. She probably had to shut him down before he exploded.

[09:53] Firebird [Queen] >> He is better for her than Dean was.

[09:54] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> …Missy liked Dean?

[09:55] Firebird [Queen] >> Yes. It was a crush. She never said it out loud.

[09:56] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> And Dean just… never mentioned it?

[09:56] Firebird [Queen] >> Dean does not share things like that.

[09:57] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> He does give off the whole "baby politician" vibe. Always smiling, always polished.

[09:58] Firebird [Queen] >> That is how he feels to me.

[09:59] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> But he's more than that. He notices people. He doesn't just put on a show. He actually feels things.

[10:00] Firebird [Queen] >> Maybe. But the politician part is still there.

They pause in the second chamber, water dripping steadily from the ceiling.

[10:05] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> I always thought Missy just plain didn't like me. The glares, the silence. I figured she was the "serious little girl" and I was the walking disaster.

[10:06] Firebird [Queen] >> She did not like you. Then she did. Now she is fine with you.

[10:07] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Brutal. But… okay. I'll take "fine with me" as progress.

[10:08] Firebird [Queen] >> It is progress.

They move on, sunlight streaming into the hall from a crack above.

[10:12] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Eric would love this place. He'd already be drawing blueprints for bunkhouses and comms towers.

[10:13] Firebird [Queen] >> He already started. He wants this as a base.

[10:14] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> That's so him. The boy dreams in shield formations now.

[10:15] Firebird [Queen] >> I think he does.

They climb down toward the waterline, waves slapping against stone.

[10:20] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Ah, behold: the puddle chamber. Truly the jewel of the crown.

[10:21] Firebird [Queen] >> Tickets will cost ten dollars.

[10:22] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Ten bucks a toe. People will line up.

[10:23] Firebird [Queen] >> The queen gets her share.

[10:24] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Naturally. Puddle royalty demands tribute.

They linger by the shallow pool, spray drifting through the doorway.

[10:30] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> You know… Amy would hate this place. Too quiet. Too far from everything.

[10:31] Firebird [Queen] >> You pulled back from saying more.

[10:32] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Yeah. Because the only things I can say now are… different. She's not the sister I thought she was.

[10:33] Firebird [Queen] >> It still hurts.

[10:34] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> It does.

The channel falls silent. Gulls shriek in the background.

[10:40] Firebird [Queen] >> Your mother's death was not quiet. It was epic. She went out fighting.

[10:41] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> …Yeah. Not cancer at eighty. Not forgotten in a bed. She went down swinging.

[10:42] Firebird [Queen] >> That is better than most people get.

[10:43] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Weirdly enough, that helps. Thanks.

They stand together at the cliff edge, the horizon stretched endless in front of them.

[10:50] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> You know what's strange? I actually like this. Empty caves, dumb jokes, just… being here.

[10:51] Firebird [Queen] >> It is better. No crowds. No one watching.

[10:52] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Yeah. No pity stares. No interrogations. No one poking at me like I'm some science experiment.

[10:53] Firebird [Queen] >> Just us. Just snark.

[10:54] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Exactly. You're good at it.

[10:55] Firebird [Queen] >> Thank you.

They walk slowly along the ridge, gulls scattering as they pass.

[11:00] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> So official verdict: no monsters, no traps, no probability-girl ambushes.

[11:01] Firebird [Queen] >> It is safe enough.

[11:02] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> Safe enough might be the highest compliment I can give right now.

They start heading back outside.

[11:03] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> We should head back. Detention is calling.

[11:04] Firebird [Queen] >> Algebra is worse.

[11:05] CrownOfSpite [Ward] >> True. Nobody comes out of Algebra the same.

[11:06] Firebird [Queen] >> Status change.

[11:07] system >> CrownOfSpite status changed from [Ward] to [Mod]

[11:07] CrownOfSpite [Mod] >> …Wow. You're serious?

[11:08] Firebird [Queen] >> Yes. Addison is a Mod. Weld is a Mod. Now you are too.

[11:09] CrownOfSpite [Mod] >> Guess I'm in good company then. Thanks.

[11:10] Firebird [Queen] >> Guard the channel. Guard each other.

They leap into the air together, Saga's wings beating as the islands shrink behind them. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Reading fiction, noka133, S1m0nWr1t3 and 4 othersOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Threadmarks Extras Celestial Saga: Star Wars on Earth-Bet - Episode VII - Rebirth of Hope Extras OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#76Spoiler: A/N

Production and Context

When Star Wars premiered in May 1977, it opened not with clarity but with confusion. The crawl did not label it a standalone feature, but Episode VII. Audiences blinked, had they missed six previous films? Was Lucas presenting a sequel without a prequel, or was the numbering a declaration that the story was already ancient, pulled from the middle of some galactic chronicle? For weeks, newspapers, fan clubs, and radio hosts argued the point. Later, as the series snowballed into a cultural event, the film would earn the retrospective subtitle Rebirth of Hope. But in that first summer, it was simply Star Wars, strange in name and stranger still in execution.

The strangeness began behind the camera. Lucas secured an unprecedented $11 million budget, a staggering sum in Earth-Bet's era of decentralized, regional filmmaking. But the windfall came tied to a noose: the twenty-three-month rule. By cultural custom, any film not finished within that time had to be released in whatever state it existed. No extensions, no excuses. Lucas didn't win investors because they believed in his space opera, he won them by promising to prove the model itself. His film would be the showcase that proved a "real" blockbuster could be produced nomadically, outside Hollywood's studio system, and still reach theaters in under two years. Failure meant not just his ruin, but a blow to the entire accelerated production movement.

Lucas's independence was both blessing and curse. Free of a major studio, he had no board of executives trimming his stranger instincts. But without their safety nets, no soundstage empire, no reshoot budget, no global distribution pipeline, he had to operate like the rebels in his script: scavenging, adapting, improvising. His crew became nomads. The sands of Tatooine were filmed in a gutted Arizona quarry, dotted with rust-rotted car husks redressed as wreckage. Rebel command was shot in the cavernous concrete of decommissioned grain elevators outside Winnipeg, their silos refitted into bunkers. Dogfight cockpits rattled on scaffolds inside a Detroit warehouse. Wherever they set up, it was temporary. The crew built, shot, packed, and moved on.

The most radical gamble was his use of parahumans. Earlier films that attempted to feature them had ended in disaster. Parahuman stars walked off set, demanded entire rewrites to spotlight their abilities, or simply vanished mid-shoot. Lucas turned that chaos into a feature. Instead of treating them as actors, he treated them as effects. He invented what became known as "power days": short, concentrated shoots where a parahuman would lend their abilities to one or two set-piece shots, then vanish before their volatility could sink the schedule.

It worked. A telekinetic was brought in for three days, making the Vader–Kenobi duel feel uncannily real, sabers tugged and twisted by unseen force. A pyrokinetic was hired for two frantic sessions to unleash genuine fireballs during the Death Star battle, lighting miniatures with terrifying authenticity. Neither stayed long, but their impact lingers in every frame. In 1977, it was a revelation. Powers weren't gimmicks on parade. They became effects, folded seamlessly into cinema.

Even the characters reflected Lucas's instinct to reframe pulp archetypes. Chewbacca, subtitled for this version, was not a mascot but a weary straight man, sighing at Han's bravado and Luke's earnestness. Adults laughed at his dry timing, children adored his presence, and toy marketers scrambled to keep up. Leia absorbed C-3PO's narrative role, transforming from figurehead into warrior-scholar. Carrie Fisher carried exposition on her shoulders, quoting galactic law, invoking ancient precedent, making the rebellion feel like an institution with legitimacy rather than a gang of rogues. Han swaggered with charm and recklessness, the rogue with a buried conscience. And Luke, curiously, was introduced not as the wide-eyed farmboy but as something subtler, understated, even underwhelming, until chaos revealed his gravitas.

Lucas himself misread his most enduring creation. Lightsabers were filmed cautiously, relegated to two moments: a heart-to-heart aboard the Falcon and Obi-Wan's final duel. The props were crude, painted rods filmed in shadow and sparked for effect. Lucas thought they would be forgotten, a pulp cliché dressed in chrome. Instead, the toys outsold everything else, even the Millennium Falcon playset. Within months, playgrounds across America rang with the hum of imaginary sabers. The audience had chosen differently than the director.

By the time Star Wars reached theaters, the film had been edited just under the wire: twenty-three and a half months. Few expected more than a pulpy diversion. Yet by fusing nomadic ingenuity, parahuman spectacle, and archetypal myth, Lucas had created something no one anticipated: a foundation stone of modern Bet media.

Act I – Shadows of Authority

The Crawl and Its World

The opening crawl itself set the stage for ambiguity. It declared the galaxy gripped by civil war. The Emperor was mentioned not as a tyrant but as a once-noble figure, now aged and infirm, whose intentions had been corrupted by the greed of his Moffs. The Rebellion's first victory, the slaying of Grand Moff Thrawn, was recounted, establishing that the rebels were not idealists alone but victors in real war. And the Death Star, the Moffs' new weapon, was unveiled not as the Emperor's will but as a perversion of his order.

For 1977 audiences, this was a striking departure from pulp norms. The Empire wasn't yet a faceless evil. It was an institution, still carrying the shadow of legitimacy, twisted by corruption. Leia fought not against government itself but for its restoration. Vader strode not as a thug but as the monk of death, ideologue of inevitability. That ambiguity gave the story its mythic heft. The war wasn't yet simple. It was a battle for meaning.

A Princess in Peril

The screen fades from crawl to starfield, the, suddenly, a tiny corvette streaking through space, blasted from behind by a looming Star Destroyer. Audiences, expecting sleek futurism, instead saw a battered craft rattling under fire, its sets cobbled from mismatched panels scrounged from scrapyards. The practical effect of laser fire ripping the hull was crude by later standards, but in 1977 it was electrifying.

Inside, Princess Leia makes her entrance, not a trembling aristocrat, but a teenager radiating composure. Her first act is not to cower, but to record a precise message into R2-D2, her language sharp with legal authority and tactical clarity:

General Kenobi. The Moffs twist the Emperor's will into chains. They build a weapon to enslave worlds. You served my father. Now I beg you do so once more. Not as rebel but a restoration.

The line, carefully written, framed the Rebellion not as insurgents, but as loyalists defending the Emperor's original promise.

Stormtroopers breach. Blaster fire turns the corridors into carnage. And then, silence, broken only by the rhythmic hiss of mechanical breath. Darth Vader enters.

Unlike the local films, this Vader is not rage embodied. He is calm, deliberate, and terrifyingly methodical. The lighting does the work of special effects, shadows stretching his silhouette like a living grave marker. His first kill is almost casual: a trooper raises his blaster, and Vader answers with a single backhand slash of his crimson blade, no wasted motion.

Leia, when dragged before him, does not waver. Fisher's performance, already seasoned at by twenty, was pointedly intellectual. She stares him down as if cross-examining him in a senate chamber.

Vader: "The Moffs are order. Order is survival."

Leia: "The Moffs are rot. And rot is death, Lord Vader."

Here the philosophical split is etched in stark terms. Vader is the embodiment of martial ideology, a monk of death who sees the galaxy's fate in absolutes. Leia, by contrast, wields intellect and history as her weapons, citing the law and refusing to bow even as a prisoner.

Lucas later said this contrast was deliberate. The opening was designed almost as a prequel stitched to the front of the film, an ideological duel between Death and Defiance, meant to set the stakes before the "true" protagonist appeared.

With Leia taken, the scene cuts away, leaving Vader's heavy breath echoing as the screen fades to dawn on Tatooine, where Luke Skywalker begins his training.

Act II – The Apprentice of the Mesa

After a quarter of an hour of Leia's defiance and Vader's inevitability, the film makes its boldest move. It shifts gears into quiet. Twin suns rise over Tatooine, bathing mesas in red-gold light. And there sits Luke, not a farmboy dreaming of more, but a youth in meditation. He moves through flowing forms, a wooden training stick cutting arcs as deliberate as breath. John Williams underscored it with a theme that would later become legendary: the Force Theme, here played slowly, wistfully, almost fragile.

Audiences in 1977 had never seen a hero introduced this way. The serial template promised bravado. Instead, Lucas gave them serenity. Luke opened his eyes, breathed, and stepped off the mesa. He drifted down, landing gently in the sand below. No flash, no thunderclap. Just discipline, patience, control.

The contrast was deliberate. Where Anakin Skywalker had been hurled into danger, rushed into knighthood, Luke had been held back. Ben Kenobi raised him in seclusion, not to fight but to learn balance. At seventeen, Luke was no soldier, but his grasp of the Force's basics surpassed what most Jedi achieved only after years in battle. That was Ben's great regret and his gift: to raise the boy in calm where his father had been raised in fire.

The serenity broke with comedy. R2 screamed across the frame, a chorus of Jawas chittering in pursuit. They accused him of stealing.

Jawa (subtitled): "This bucket of bolts stole from us, and caused a mess besides!"

Luke: "What did he steal?"

Jawa: "Himself."

Luke studied them, then waved his hand.

Luke: "This is not the droid you're looking for. Your quarry lies elsewhere. Go in peace."

The Jawas blinked, muttered, and turned away. The audience sat stunned. The Force wasn't a weapon. It was persuasion, inevitability, calm bending chaos.

Luke guided R2 to Ben's hidden home, built into the cliffside. The dwelling was striking in 1977: modern fixtures humming faintly, but Spartan in design. Inside, R2 chirped

R2-D2 (subtitled): "General Kenobi!"

The room froze. Luke's head snapped to Ben. Suddenly the puzzle snapped together. Ben, the distant cousin who spoke of Shmi. Ben, the quiet guardian. Ben was the General Kenobi of myth.

Luke's voice shook.

Luke: "You told me you knew my grandmother. That my father flew beside General Kenobi. That both died in the war. You never said… you were him."

Ben sighed. Alec Guinness's performance walked the line between honesty and omission.

Ben: "I never lied to you, Luke. I told you I knew your grandmother. That I fought in the wars. That your father was my brother in arms. All true. What I did not tell you was that I was General Kenobi. That the stories you grew up on were mine."

Luke reeled. The legends he revered weren't distant, they'd been living in his home.

Luke: "You made me believe you were only a remnant. But you're the story itself. Why keep that from me?"

Ben (sadly): "Because stories burn hotter than truth. You weren't ready to carry the whole fire."

The exchange framed Ben as both mentor and keeper of half-truths. When Luke mentioned that Leia's hologram seemed familiar, Guinness let his face betray a flicker, a grimace, a glance away. Sharp-eyed viewers caught it, but no explanation came. Secrets still lay buried.

As the scene closed, Ben gave Luke what might be the saga's most poignant gift.

Ben: "You are capable of becoming a knight, as your father and I once were. But I gave you what he was denied: the foundation to choose. His path was forced. Yours is yours."

The camera lingered on Luke's stunned face. The boy who began the story in calm now learned that every myth he cherished was his own bloodline.

Act III – "Gathering of Misfits"

The Cantina Circuit

After the quiet revelations of the mesa arc, the film pivots into grit. The trio, Luke, Ben, and R2, enter Mos Eisley. In contrast to the austere desert shots before, this sequence is dense with noise and bodies. The sets were stitched together from recycled warehouse scraps, but the editing gives them a pulse: alien musicians hammering away, shouting patrons, smoke curling in the air.

Lucas stages the sequence as a string of rejections. Luke and Ben approach one potential pilot after another, only to be waved off. Their money is too light, their mission too dangerous. The camera lingers on the subtle frustration in Luke's face, he's eager to prove himself, but is still bound to Ben's quiet patience.

The turning point comes as a bar fight erupts: two drunks overturn a table, fists fly, a blaster discharges into the ceiling. In the chaos, Luke, Ben, and R2 slip out, nearly colliding with two figures doing the same, Han Solo, laughing at his own escape, and Chewbacca, dragging him by the collar like a weary parent pulling a child out of traffic.

Chewbacca (subtitled, dry): "You're going to get us killed before we take a job worth dying for."

The juxtaposition is sharp: Luke's contemplative gravitas against Han's rakish grin, Ben's quiet sadness against Chewbacca's sardonic grumbling. In one shot, the quartet's dynamic crystallizes.

The Falcon as Home

The act then shifted from desert to starship. The Millennium Falcon's reveal was a revelation. This was no sterile command deck, no polished rocketship. Its corridors bent awkwardly around exposed wiring. Panels blinked with mismatched lights. The common room was cluttered with cushions, tools, and the hum of a dejarik table.

Critics compared it to a "college apartment with engines." It felt lived-in. Han sprawled across benches, Chewbacca muttered while making repairs, R2 and Luke hovered near Ben, and Leia's hologram flickered faintly in the corner. It was less a ship than a home, and would become the home of the saga.

Then came hyperspace.

Hyperspace Spectacle

When the Falcon jumped, audiences gasped. The screen bent into streaks, stars smearing into luminous tunnels, then exploding into a kaleidoscope swirl. It wasn't just motion, it was transcendence. In 1977, the effect was unlike anything in cinema.

Children clutched their seats. Adults muttered in awe. Critics compared it to "falling through stained glass." Many left theaters saying that was the moment they "believed in space travel."

Inside the storm of light, Han leaned back with his smirk.

Han: "Say the codes even get us in. Tarkin's fortress is crawling with troopers. How do you plan on walking out with a princess? Smile, wave, and hope no one looks close?"

Guinness delivered his dry rejoinder with weary wit.

Ben: "I do have some experience with combat."

Then his tone softened. He unwrapped a cloth bundle, revealing a hilt of dull chrome. He laid it before Luke.

Ben: "This was your father's before he was knighted. If you choose to take it, it may serve you as it served him. A saber is no destiny. It is a tool. But if you wield it, you will walk a path few can imagine."

Luke's hand hovered above it, hyperspace light painting his face. He didn't seize it. Not yet. The saber was offered not as inevitability, but as choice.

Chewbacca grumbled a subtitled aside: "Glowsticks and destinies. Always more trouble than they seem."

The line drew laughs, grounding the moment in sarcasm.

What audiences saw was a ship that was more than transport, a spectacle that felt like wonder itself, and a weapon offered not as fate but as option.

Reflection

This sequence did double work. For one, it cemented the Falcon as the series' rolling home: cramped, messy, but beloved. Children would recreate its dejarik table out of cardboard in playgrounds, and model kits of its odd silhouette became best-sellers. Secondly, the hyperspace jump redefined cinematic spectacle in 1977. While later films would polish and expand the effect, nothing quite matched the first time theatergoers were pulled into that storm of light.

And beneath it all, the saber's introduction was carefully restrained. Not a battle cry, not a destiny fulfilled, but a sad offering from mentor to pupil, "Here is the first step on your father's path. Take it only if you choose."

Act IV – "The Fortress of the Moff"

Interrogation

The act opens not with the Falcon's arrival, but with Grand Moff Tarkin looming over Leia in an interrogation chamber. The setting is stark, walls humming with cold light. Tarkin's questions are half-curiosity, half-mockery:

Tarkin: "Tell me, Princess. What trinket was so precious that the Alliance sent a child of Alderaan scurrying through Imperial checkpoints? Smuggler's contraband? Or some whisper of treason?"

Leia meets him with a sly half-smile, every bit her father's daughter in rhetoric.

Leia: "Wouldn't you like to know, Governor? Or are you afraid the great Empire's hands are too small to hold it?"

Tarkin's smirk falters. He signals the torture droid, a machine bristling with injectors, restraints, and humming prods. His voice drips with malice.

Tarkin: "If you won't talk, Princess… perhaps persuasion is in order."

The camera lingers on Leia's steady gaze as the droid approaches, fade to black.

Upturned Expectations

When the screen fades in again, the Princess is slumped at the console of her cell. Bloodied bandages peek from beneath her collar. She breathes heavily, but her eyes are alive with defiance. Improvised tools lie scattered across the control panel, wires sparking where she has overridden her restraints.

The door hisses open. Leia stands, shoulders squared. A stormtrooper slumps asleep over his desk just outside, helmet tilted back. Leia strips his rifle without hesitation and steps into the corridor. Even broken, she's in motion, taking her own freedom.

This was revolutionary for 1977: a prisoner who rescues herself, refusing to wait for salvation. Critics later praised it as "a myth reconfigured," Leia framed as both captive and liberator in the same breath.

The Rescue Crosses Paths

Cut to Luke and Han, stormtrooper armor hanging awkwardly on their frames, Chewbacca cuffed between them as their "prisoner." Their plan works only by sheer momentum, a bubbling mess of half-formed improvisation. They whisper about being lost when they round a corner, a blaster snaps up, and suddenly they're staring at Leia, rifle trained on them.

Leia: "Step away from the Wookiee. Now."

Chewbacca grumbles in irritation.

Chewbacca (subtitled): "They're not troopers. They're here for you, Princess. You'd have shot your rescue party."

Leia doesn't lower her rifle. She studies them, eyes hard. For a long beat, the tension holds."

Then Luke pulls off his helmet, smiling with boyish earnestness.

Luke: "We're with Ben Kenobi. We came for you."

Leia exhales, rifle lowering slightly. The scene ends on her stare, untrusting, but calculating. The audience knows she isn't swept away by romance or awe. She's weighing allies, deciding if they're worth her time.

Kenobi's Diversion

Cut to Ben, slipping through the Death Star's corridors. Every so often, a stormtrooper collapses like a puppet with its strings cut, no blood, no sound. By the time the camera lingers, a small pile of white-armored bodies lies at his feet. Ben's face is solemn. It is not murder he performs, it is inevitability.

The Duel

The scene cuts to the hangar. Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca are racing toward the Falcon when the blast doors open. Out steps Vader.

The duel begins at once, blue against red. Sparks dance. But more than choreography, the power is in the philosophy. Each strike is measured, deliberate. Vader is inevitability, his movements cold, inexorable. Kenobi is restraint, each blow precise but carrying sadness.

Their dialogue is remembered as some of the most quoted of the era:

Vader: "Once you were my master. Now you are only my delay."

Ben: "If delay gives hope, it is enough."

Vader: "You speak of hope, but you cort weakness. Weakness invites death. And here I am."

Ben: "There is more than one path to strength, Darth. Cut me down, and you'll see a strength beyond your reckoning."

As the others board the Falcon, Luke pauses at the ramp, shouting for Ben. The duel freezes. Kenobi looks to Luke, smiles, weary but proud, and then lifts a hand. The Force surges. Luke is hurled back into the Falcon as the ramp begins to close.

Vader's blade strikes. Ben's robe crumples empty to the floor. The hangar falls silent but for Vader's breathing. The Falcon roars away into space.

Reflection

This sequence cemented Leia as a protagonist with her own agency, not merely a prize to be won. She resisted, endured torture, and freed herself before her rescuers even arrived. Luke and Han's rescue attempt, played with comedic fumbling, only emphasized her competence. The duel between Vader and Kenobi, meanwhile, was staged as a clash of ideologies: inevitability versus restraint, death versus endurance.

Act V – "The Battle of Yavin"

Leia's Strategy

The film cuts to a ragtag war room. The set was famously built inside a decommissioned grain silo in Winnipeg, bare concrete curved into echoing chambers, dressed with mismatched consoles scavenged from scrapyards. It looked nothing like the polished command centers of 1970s sci-fi. It looked real.

Leia stands before pilots and commanders, her voice carrying with boldness. She wraps up th strategy meeting, explaining the situation.

Leia: "The weapon will be invulnerable once its shield lattice is complete. For now, a vent opens to its reactor. Strike true, and the station dies. Fail, and so will every world within its reach. We cannot wait. This is our only chance."

The camera lingers not on generals, but on faces in the crowd, young, old, scarred, frightened. Leia is not offering inspiration. She is offering clarity. She doesn't lead with fire, but with logic sharpened to a blade.

The Battle Unfolds

Dogfights erupt in the black of space. The miniatures, kitbashed from model airplanes and filmed against velvet backdrops, swoop and shatter across the screen. Pyrokinetic fireballs (the only parahuman work in this act) gave real bursts of flame as ships tore apart.

For most pilots, the battle is terror. Radio chatter crackles with panic: men screaming, women calling targets and then vanishing into static. The audience never sees their cockpits, but the panic is palpable. Tie fighters, filmed with sudden jerks of camera and sharp cuts, seem more desperate than predatory, imperial discipline collapsing under the Rebellion's sheer audacity.

Luke in the Fire

Then there is Luke.

Where others flinch, he breathes. Where others choke in panic, his voice is calm. His hands move with the same precision as on the mesa at dawn. Every shot is measured, deliberate.

The film makes the contrast sharp. While the comms scream with chaos, Luke speaks evenly to his squadmates:

Luke: "Stay with me. Breathe with me. We'll make it through."

It isn't bravado. It's presence. His calm centers those around him, and even in the editing rhythm, rapid cuts interspersed with his steady breathing, the audience feels the shift. Luke radiates the aura Ben cultivated: a knight in a storm, calm while the world burns.

The Trench Run

The climax builds. Fighters fall around him. The Death Star looms. Luke flies into the trench, and the camera holds on his profile, calm, illuminated by the green light of blaster fire.

Then, for the first time since his death, Kenobi's voice echoes:

Kenobi (voiceover): "Trust the Force, Luke."

Luke closes his eyes. He flicks off his targeting computer, and the beeping cuts to silence. Han's incredulous voice crackles over comms:

Han: "Kid, are you crazy?"

Luke exhales.

Luke: "I'm ready."

He fires. The torpedoes strike home. The screen erupts with pyrokinetic fire, miniature debris scattering like a dying star. The Death Star is gone.

The Ceremony

The final scene brings us back to the rebels' base. The hall is makeshift, pilots and fighters in patched uniforms, but the mood is triumph. Leia places medals on Han, Luke, and Chewbacca, each framed differently. Han smirks, Luke bows his head with quiet pride, and Chewbacca mutters his immortal line as the hall erupts in applause:

Chewbacca (subtitled): "Shiny jewelry for near-death. Tradition never changes."

The camera lingers on Leia's smile, not romantic, but familial, proud, almost maternal. Luke stands radiant, the boy who seemed quiet and underwhelming now revealed as the calm center of the storm.

Reflection

This act redefined Luke's role in the saga. Until this point, Leia had carried the film with her intellect and defiance, Han with his charisma, Chewbacca with his wit. Luke seemed understated, almost overshadowed. But in the cockpit, he revealed the foundation Ben had spent seventeen years building: serenity under fire.

Critics of 1977 compared him not to pulp space heroes but to Arthurian knights, calm amid chaos, a figure who did not conquer with swagger but with discipline. The juxtaposition of Leia's strategic genius and Luke's meditative ferocity gave the finale its mythic weight: mind and spirit, intellect and presence, standing together against tyranny.

Immediate Audience Reaction

When Star Wars premiered regionally in May 1977, the first audiences didn't know what to make of it. On posters, it was billed as "Episode VII," which baffled many: were there six films they'd missed? Was this a parody? The confusion only added to the aura of mystery.

In its opening week, what struck audiences most was the variety of its heroes. Leia wasn't a damsel but a strategist with her own arc, defiant in the face of Vader, sharp in council chambers, and capable of freeing herself before her rescuers arrived. Critics marveled at her duality: "a Shakespearean mind dressed in pulp adventure," as the Chicago Tribune put it.

Luke, by contrast, read understated. Some early reviewers even called him "flat" compared to Leia's fire and Han's swagger. But the tone shifted after the trench run. Children and teens latched onto Luke as their avatar, the calm knight who could walk through chaos unfazed. The moment he shut off his targeting computer, trusting the Force and his own serenity, became the week's most quoted line: "I'm ready."

Chewbacca emerged as the unexpected breakout. His subtitled sarcasm gave adults as many quotable lines as children. "Shiny jewelry for near-death. Tradition never changes" became an office joke, muttered in break rooms alongside sitcom catchphrases. Plush Chewbaccas sold out in days, outselling even the R2 units that toy companies had banked on.

And then there was the lightsaber. Though it appeared in only two brief sequences, toy knockoffs flooded playgrounds within weeks. The prop's hiss and glow etched into the cultural imagination instantly. Kids weren't playing blasters vs. blasters, they were staging duels. What Lucas had treated as a secondary gimmick became, overnight, the emblem of the Jedi.

Speculation filled fan magazines and late-night radio shows. Who really was Luke's father? Why did Ben grimace when Luke said Leia seemed familiar? Was the Emperor a benevolent old man, or a shadowy puppet master? With Episode VIII already announced for 1979, fans built their own theories of what Star Wars was supposed to be, an Arthurian myth, a political allegory, a cosmic western. The mystery was part of the draw.

Long-Term Reception

Over the next two years, Star Wars metastasized from a regional hit to a cultural phenomenon. Its unusual release pattern, trickling from Midwest and Canadian theaters outward, kept it alive far longer than typical films. By 1979, it was still playing in small towns, a word-of-mouth wildfire that never seemed to burn out.

Leia's role only grew in stature. At first, some critics dismissed her as "too intellectual" or "too domineering." But by the end of the decade, scholars hailed her as groundbreaking: a heroine who thought as sharply as she acted. She became the model for the "scholar-warrior" archetype in 1980s fantasy fiction, a direct ancestor to characters like Danaerys Targaryen or Hermione Granger.

Luke's trench run redefined him in the eyes of audiences. Initially overshadowed, he came to embody a mythic archetype: not the hotshot pilot or the everyman farmboy, but the calm knight, carrying serenity into the storm. Critics began comparing him to Arthurian figures, Percival, Galahad, a boy tempered by discipline, not fire. That aura, born in the dogfight, became the cornerstone of his character across the sequels.

Chewbacca, meanwhile, became a cultural constant. His sardonic subtitled one-liners, half grumbles, half truths, made him one of the first sci-fi sidekicks quoted as readily by adults as children. His plush toys dominated playgrounds. The choice to subtitle him, controversial at the time, is now hailed as genius: it gave him a voice without making him cartoonish.

But nothing shaped the franchise more than the lightsaber. Initially conceived by Lucas as a pulp "sword-with-a-battery-pack," its popularity shocked the filmmakers. By 1978, toy sales had eclipsed even Millennium Falcon models. In fan drawings, comic adaptations, and playground games, the Jedi weren't defined by robes or wisdom, they were defined by their glowing blades. This forced Lucas and his collaborators to reframe the sequels. What had been a symbol became an identity. The Jedi would not simply carry lightsabers, they would be inseparable from them.

By the time Episode VIII entered production, the aura of mystery surrounding Star Wars was palpable. Fans debated endlessly: Was the Emperor truly benevolent, corrupted only by the Moffs, or something darker? Was Leia connected to Luke in ways unspoken? What would Luke's saber mean for his destiny? In the absence of answers, audiences built their own mythology, and the filmmakers, keenly aware of what resonated, would shape the sequels in turn. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:anirocksOblationDec 5, 2025Reader modeAdd bookmark Extras Extras Celestial Saga: Star Wars on Earth-Bet - Episode VIII: Legacy of Hope Extras OblationProfessional Wet-Paint ObserverDec 5, 2025Add bookmark#77Spoiler: A/N

Section I: Author's Preface – Why Write About Episode 8 ?

When I wrote my first essay on Episode 7 (or Rebirth of Hope , as it was later subtitled), I didn't imagine it would get any kind of audience. It was written quickly, out of the raw enthusiasm of someone who had stumbled into a strange discovery: that the Star Wars I knew, the one I grew up with, had a sibling in another history. The names were similar, the faces often identical, but the characters themselves were not. Leia wasn't simply a rebel commander who became a general, she was a princess in truth, fencing words with Moffs on her own homeworld. Luke wasn't a restless farm boy stumbling into destiny, but a near-monk raised in seclusion, already tempered before he ever held a lightsaber. Vader wasn't a man barely containing his fury, but an ideologue, calm as death itself, more the reflection of Luke than his opposite.