The Fete of New Year
Main Theme- Sweet Thing by David Bowie
The New Year Fete Week descends upon the Empire once more. For five days, the Empire celebrated the new year with parades, parties, and public executions of traitors. However, the last part has been scuttled this year due to the increase of Rebel activity throughout the Empire. Emissary Pestage isn't annoyed by the lack of death this fete week. He's aggravated that the Emperor ordered him to spend the holiday away from Coruscant. He knows it's because of his latest spat with Emperor Skywalker. He can't even remember what they were arguing about, but he's certain that Skywalker started it. He's never liked Skywalker, especially after the young Jedi at the time decided to woo his Chancellor. Worse, Skywalker succeeded where everyone else failed; he married the man of his dreams shortly after the Empire's birth. Sate witnessed how happy Palpatine was on that day.
Currently, Sate is on his homeworld of Ciutric IV. He's in Daplona, far from his two-hundred-plus relatives, and walks through the city. It's mild for the most part, requiring only a light jacket. Yet, he wears a scarf around his neck; it's made from softest wools that Naboo had to offer. Kinman gifted him the scarf decades ago when they were just assistants to the then Senator Palpatine.
"It's purple like everything that you own, including those hideous throw pillows on your couch. But if you hold it under the light, you'll see the red in there."
Red is Palpatine's favorite color. His favorite rooms are molded around the passionate color, including in the bedroom he shared with his husband. Skywalker even matches his husband on formal occasions. Right now, he imagines the royal pair dancing in the throne room clad in their beloved red.
Loneliness makes him eager for a crowd. He ducks into the nearest tavern and finds himself in the middle of a glittering party. The signs in Aurebesh tell him of some finished film, so he figures that all the people are the cast and crew. Most of them are aliens with only a few humans in their midst, but only one matters. He's a young man in his early twenties. He wears a black, form-fitting suit that highlights his lithe form. His long, white hair is bound by a loose braid. His green eyes look his way yet past him for the chronometer. He puts the champagne flute down and hurries to the back exit. Sate follows him after a minute.
The back alley is poorly lit with plenty of shadows for him to skulk in, except the young man isn't there. He frowns. He knows that it would take far longer for someone to get out of the alley even if they were running. He then looks at the shadows for a silhouette of a body, but then he hears soft laughter. He knows this laugh from when a younger Palpatine would mischievously play tricks on his drunken compatriots. He looks up and sees the young man standing on the roof of the tavern. The moon favors his pale skin and white hair. His green eyes are eerily bright under the moonlight.
"Emissary Pestage, it's a pleasure to meet you again."
"Again?" I'm doing worse with him than I first did with his father.
"I know you remember me. You thought about me so loudly in the bar. Well, you thought about how much I looked like the Emperor." Sate notices the coldness in the final word.
"Where have you been?"
"In places that weren't kind to children, but I eventually wound up here in this moment," the young man said whimsically. "By the way, I'm Rama now, not Triclops."
"Triclops? Who the hells name a child that!?"
"Oh, I really thought he would've told you about the name that the Prophets gave me, which he never bothered to change." Rama makes a fah with a wave of his hand, a very Palpatine-like gesture. "She gave me a better name than those drab monks. So, what do you think of it?"
"Isn't that the name of a Naboo god?"
"Yes!" Rama smiles like a very pleased tusk-cat for a moment before adopting a more somber expression. "He's the God of Protection and Idealism. Unfortunately, I didn't live up to my name when it counted."
Ah, this she must've died, and he blames himself. It's so strange to see unrepressed guilt on that Palpatine face.
"Better to focus on happier times like now. Sate, would you like to meet my source of happiness?"
"Um, sure?"
"I promise you that you will love him as much as the Emperor, but he won't break your heart."
Armitage spent the day with his sire and the Rat people. The Rat people lived in the woodlands that surrounded the city of Daplona and in its sewers. Up until this day, his only playmates were his family and Sir Ludo, the magical skeleton that lives in his nursery. The Rat children, though older than him, were his size and treated him like one of their own. While the adults hunted and foraged, the children played for it was the New Year. His father supervised their play until the afternoon where he had to go into the city.
It's night, and the Rat children sleep in their homes after a long day of play. Armitage is by the river, waiting for his father's return. His eyes are as heavy as his limbs, but he refuses to sleep. He keeps himself awake by singing nursery rhymes that he learned from his new friends.
"One nest is made of food.
One nest is made of gold.
One nest is made of wood.
One nest is made of mold.
Which nest is the best?"
He doesn't have time for answer when he sees the barge carrying his father. It's another agonizing wait for the boy as the boat reaches the rickety docks.
"FATHER!" he shouted as soon as his father set a boot on the dock. He hugs his father tightly around his legs; his father then picks him up, and he sees that his father brought a guest. The guest is an old man who pays the Rat bargemen with more credits than necessary. His face is gaunt with sunken cheekbones like a shambling corpse. He has beady, dark eyes and a long nose that makes him wonder if he's distantly related to the Rat people. He wears burgundy robes and a squarish hat that reminds him of a cake tin. The old man smiles shyly at him.
"I'm Armitage, mister. Who are you?" he inquired politely like his father taught him.
"I'm Sate Pestage, a friend of your grandfather."
"I have a grandfather?"
"Yes, but he'll never meet you," his father added with a terse frown on his face. The look is aimed at his newfound grandfather's friend.
"You never told him?"
"Why would I? He was never there for me." His father's agitated tone reminds Armitage not to ask any more questions about his mysterious grandfather for now. So, he chooses to distract the old man from making that mistake.
"Mister Pestage, have you eaten yet?"
"Not recently, and you can call me Sate."
"Father, he can have the New Year pie with us!"
"New Year pie?"
"Every year, Armitage and I make a pie to commemorate the new year."
"I get to stretch out Shiraya's face!"
"What!?"
"The dough is round and white like Shiraya's moon," his father explained hastily.
"Isn't that sacrilegious to a Naboo like you?"
"She's never answered our family's prayers." Armitage nods along, but he takes note of the sad expression on Sate's face.
"It's a chocolate bourbon pie made with real Corellian bourbon!"
"That would be delightful."
And so, the little family spends the New Year eating pie and being together.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is an image of Sate, or possibly one of his clones because like Palpatine he had a couple of back-ups, in the comics. If he was ever to make a live-action debut, I think Julian Richings could play him, and it be fitting for an assassin to be played by Death: a href=" . /starwars/images/f/f1/Pestage_and_ "Link/a
This is an AU of a href=" /works/22233142"It's All Anakin's Fault/a where Anakin and Palpatine don't raise Rama together. Rama's fate becomes what it usually is in my other stories where he's raised by the Prophets of the Dark Side in hopes that he'll serve Palpatine one day as his Eye. Unfortunately, all that went to hell, and Rama wound up at the Kessel spice mines where horrors only await. Years later, he escaped, met Brendol Hux, worked for him and his wife-on-flimsi as their kitchen worker, pursued a romantic relationship with Bren, and Armitage was the accidental result of their union.
The Rat people originated in Legends/EU and were first (and only) mentioned in Dave Wolverton's The Courtship of Princess Leia. They were from Coruscant and were described as rat-looking humanoids. I decided that Ciutric IV would have Rat people too because the Ciutric Hegemony, a cluster of 25 wealthy worlds located in a dozen star systems in the Outer Rim with the Pestage family heading it, is composed of 44% alien populations with many worlds being dominated by aliens. Unfortunately, Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel, who gave himself that title, takes over once the Emperor dies and slaughters all the Pestages to insure his rule and ushers in a humancentric government.
The New Year pie idea comes from the fact that I love pie and it happens to be moon shaped so I could make that Shiraya joke. Now, what will happen in this AU of an AU after this story? Chances are Rama, Armitage, and Brendol will be in the Unknown Regions after Rama uses the Force to render Sate unconscious so they can get away. Sate will tell the Emperors about this, which would lead to a very heated argument between the husbands, but they'll make up and try to bring the little family back into the Empire. Meanwhile, Padmé is just leading the Rebellion. Anyways, Happy New Year!