may-time mingling (starstruck!)

[mucked]

Who: Starstruck crew + visitors
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Aboard the Starstruck!
When: The merry merry month of May

[ there's been a tiny regime change and doubtless some debriefing after that masquerade! have at it, starstruckers. mingle away! ]

Comments

[resnipstance]

... Oh. [AWKWARD indeed.]

Was it-- did you succeed?

[nostraightlines]

Not exactly. For now, he's okay.

[resnipstance]

[She isn't quite sure what to make of that. She isn't sure she should ask. Still, she can't help it--]

"For now"?

[nostraightlines]

My brother's still trying to rewrite the timeline to erase him. In theory. From what I just remembered, we've got bigger problems right now.

[resnipstance]

Still trying to what? Why?!

[nostraightlines]

....I've never told you any of this, huh? Okay.

Back in 2016, a plague started that wiped out most of the population. Cole was sent back in time to prevent it from happening. But that would reset the timeline that we live in and erase everyone born after the plague.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka's expression gentles in understanding.]

... Oh.

We-- the people here from my universe and I-- are having a similar dilemma. I... sympathise.

[nostraightlines]

A plague?

[resnipstance]

No. Sort of? More of a-- timeline problem.

About six months into my future... something terrible is supposed to happen. Not a plague, but-- something that will wipe out almost everyone I know and care about. Not to mention, an entire way of life.

[nostraightlines]

[ ... okay she's got his attention. This is the first he's heard of anyone having a problem like his world's. ]

And you think there's a way to change it, but it would alter the timeline?

[resnipstance]

Exactly. It wouldn't bother me so much if there weren't already people here from our future-- but then again, if there weren't people here from our future, we never would've learned about Order Sixty-Six until it was too late to stop it.

But they are here, and I've met them. They're good people. I like them. But if Anakin and I prevent that future from happening... well, they'll still be born-- one of them is already alive at the point I come from, and the other two I think are in the womb, but-- their lives will be totally different.

[nostraightlines]

That's really rough. But if they'd still be born and their lives would be better..? I'd try to change things.

[resnipstance]

... That's what I think, too.

[nostraightlines]

What does Anakin think?

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka's expression darkens.]

Anakin doesn't get a say, because Anakin is going to die if we don't change the future. And then his kids are going to grow up not knowing who he is. And that's not something I can accept.

[Nobody's told her about Vader, okay.]

[nostraightlines]

So... changing the future. Got it.

Any idea what you're going to do yet?

[resnipstance]

First of all, we're going to march back into Coruscant and arrest the Supreme Chancellor for treason. That sleemo is going to rot in prison forever, and even that's too good for him.

[nostraightlines]

What's he the supreme chancellor of?

[resnipstance]

The entire Galactic Republic.

... Yeah.

[nostraightlines]

Shit.

[resnipstance]

He's got the entire Republic wrapped around his little finger! Thinking he's their benevolent grandfather. He even had the entire Jedi Order fooled! Me-- Anakin-- everyone! But he's using us all as his puppets, engineering a war that never needed to happen-- I can't believe we were so blind. Well, no more.

[nostraightlines]

How are you going to prove it, then? Back in your time?

[resnipstance]

Prove it?

[The surprise in her voice indicates she hadn't actually thought that far ahead.]

I don't know, we'll-- oh! The clones. We'll prove the existence of the control chips and-- no, even that won't work. He'll just find a way to pin it on someone else... [Ahsoka lets out a long string of expletives under her breath in another language, which the translator doesn't translate. Still, Ramse can probably get the gist.]

[nostraightlines]

Whoa, clones? Control chips..? Like he programs people?

[resnipstance]

The Grand Army of the Republic-- the GAR-- is comprised entirely of genetically modified, lab-born clone soldiers, so that civilians wouldn't have to be drafted to fight.

Only, it turns out, the Chancellor had secret control chips implanted in their brains from birth all along. A failsafe, so that he could never be betrayed by his own military. With the flick of one switch... he can compel them to obey his orders. It's monstrous.