This one started as a discussion about Tarkin knowing or not about Palpatine's duplicity in the Clone Wars, with me writing a scene in which he found out-and actually getting more and more ideas about this crazy universe. So here they are. I'll post the existing ones at a rhytm of one per day until they're all here, and then continue with the new ones. They're not in chronological order. So, without further ado, our favorite sociopath being a better substitute parent than he was in Legends.
by lord Martiya
Year 15 of the Empire: Rivoche Tarkin learns how lucky she is
Rivoche had not been feeling well lately. Not ever since her father had died. Her uncle Wilhuff had taken her in, but she had been angry, feeling horrible, the most unlucky in the galaxy. Then her uncle dragged her to Tatooine, to the farm of some people he knew there. And while merely being there had shocked her, the nephew of the owners had just said something even more world-shaking.
"Wait, you are well-off?!" she exclaimed.
"Well, yes. We have enough water for actual showers-not that we'd waste any that way, especially after the Great Drought five years ago-" Luke Skywalker replied, ready to continue explaining why, for Tatooine standards, they were fairly well-off and on the way of being rich, before being cut off.
"DROUGHT?!"
"Don't you think it was excessive?" Owen Lars said to his guest-someone few others in the entire galaxy would dare to talk with such familiarity. Then again, Lars knew the high functioning sociopath in front of him tried to be a good man and, differently from many other high-ranking Imperials, could appreciate the sheer difficulty of running a moisture farm.
"To the contrary, I feared I had been too soft. The Force knows I have been, by the Tarkins' standards." Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin replied as he observed from afar his niece trying to make sense of how a world like Tatooine could have a drought. By Core World (or even Eriadu) standards, Tatooine was in a drought all the time, after all... "Rivoche is a sweet girl, and my brother did a good job keeping her from our family's less sane practices, but living in the Core Worlds' high society spoiled her, took away her perspective. But now... Now she can flourish, and our relatives will cease demanding she's brought to the Carrion Plateau. They'll still want her to demonstrate she can handle herself in difficult situations, but I know for a fact dear Gideon taught her to incapacitate a man twice her size with only her hands and no attacks on the universal weakness, and she can handle blasters, slugthrowers, and knives to a Mandalorian Supercommando's satisfaction."
Lars was about to point out it was oddly specific-then he remembered who he was dealing with, if someone could track down a Mandalorian Supercommando and have them test a teenager girl on her weapon handling skills that was the Grand Moff or his brother.
notes
For the record, Tarkin first encountered Owen Lars during the Great Drought-he organized and led the relief expedition and visited the Lars farm to keep character, as they're the only remaining family of the man who saved his life on Lola Sayu, and discovered Luke. That he made damn sure to not report to anyone while encouraging him to listen to his uncle. And of course making some plans on how to use him for the future.