Characters: Ben Skywalker, Allana Djo Solo, Tahiri Veila, Darth Festus (OC), Darth Ferrus (OC), Roan Solo (OC), Davin Solo (OC), Dolan Solo (OC), Demetrius Ulin (OC), R2-D2, Myri Antilles, Syal Antilles, and other characters from Enter the Foreign
Timeframe: 51 ABY & beyond, in my Enter!verse
Genre: AU and everything else, probably
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This collection is my response to the 2023 Kessel Run challenge over on the Jedi Council Forums, featuring stories that take place after Enter the Foreign. For this challenge, I wrote one story per week for twelve weeks for a variety of prompts, which were only revealed at the beginning of each week. Familiarity with my Enter!verse is helpful but not, I hope, necessary. The title for this collection comes from Starset's "Starlight", because I love the song and I liked how the phrase sounded. ;)
I hope you enjoy!
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Futures and Dreams
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Index
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Week 1: (below) Telescope | 52 ABY, 6 months post-EtF | Ben Skywalker & Roan Solo (OC), Davin Solo (OC), Dolan Solo (OC)
Week 2: Force Bond | 51 ABY, post-EtF | Darth Ferrus & Darth Festus (OCs)
Week 3: Home | 52 ABY, about a year post-EtF | Tahiri Veila/Demetrius Ulin (OC), Cyril (OC)
Week 4: Firefight | 57 ABY | Darth Ferrus & Darth Festus
Week 5: Light Years Between You and Me | 52-59 ABY | Allana Djo Solo, Ben Skywalker, Darth Festus, Darth Ferrus, Tahiri Veila, Davin Solo, Roan Solo, Dolan Solo
Week 6: While There Is Breath in Your Lungs | 51 ABY, in an AU of EtF | Darth Festus & Allana Djo Solo & Darth Ferrus
Week 7: Old Friends | 56 ABY | R2-D2 & Davin Solo & Assorted Characters
Week 8: Where the Black Sand Meets the Raging Seas | 59 ABY | Allana Djo Solo/Darth Festus
Week 9: "The Knight" | the Force & one (or many) of its knights
Week 10: Corellian Gambit | Late 55 ABY | Myri Antilles, Tahiri Veila, Syal Antilles, Demetrius Ulin, Davin Solo, Dolan Solo, Valin Horn
Week 12: Words We Never Say | 51-61 ABY | Darth Ferrus & Darth Festus
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Kessel Run, Week 1: Write a story between 100 and 1,000 words that starts with the sentence, "But he's a pirate." and uses a photo of sunlight viewed through a tunnel as inspiration. (I don't have the proper link for the photo, but if you want to see it, you can find it through the AO3 version of this fic.)
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Telescope
52 ABY, six months after EtF
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"But he's a pirate."
Ben Skywalker surveyed the scene again, slowly. Davin was standing in front of a makeshift fort built from durasteel scraps, and at his feet, bound with a tow cable and sitting quietly cross-legged – and looking thoroughly unruffled – was Roan.
"I captured him and now he's my prisoner," Davin continued, puffing his chest up as he folded his arms across it. "Those are the rules."
Ben looked down at Roan again. His little cousin stared back at him with those serious brown eyes, his placid expression disturbed only by a tiny ripple of curious amusement. It was an expression he better recognized on Allana's face, but he was quickly growing used to seeing it on her brother's.
"Roan." Ben addressed himself to the younger boy, ignoring the way Davin defiantly adjusted his stance to plant his feet even more firmly in place. "Are you okay?"
Roan's calm gaze never wavered. "Yes, I'm fine." Another ripple of amusement. "I'm a pirate."
Ben sighed and ran a hand across the back of his neck, looking from one boy to the other. "Did Aunt Tahiri say you guys could play with all this stuff?"
Davin's face puckered a little at that. "Yes."
"Did she?"
"Yes. She said to have fun."
Ben seriously considered whether to explain to Davin that "have fun" was still not the same thing as "yes, by all means, please play with garbage and try not to contract some sort of infection" but decided it probably wasn't worth it. And anyway, his ruminations were interrupted by a loud whoop as several more children – Dolan among them – came running and jumping down the steps, brushing past Ben like he wasn't even there. With a sigh, Ben took a few steps back to sit on the steps the other kids had descended.
"All right, you got him!" Savl Horn shouted. He slapped palms with Davin and grinned wide. "We caught Dolan sneaking around the back."
Davin's puckered expression changed instantly, and he looked past Savl at his twin, eyes glittering triumphantly. Dolan had gone from exuberant playmate to sullen captive in a heartbeat. "Yeah, you got me," the dark-haired boy said evenly, arching one eyebrow.
Throughout all of this, Roan sat completely still. The cable drooped slightly around his torso, but he didn't attempt to move. Ben frowned a little, and he raised his voice to be heard above the din.
"Hey, why don't you guys take a break? It's after lunch time anyway."
A chorus of complaints and refusals was shouted back at him; but to his credit, Davin merely groaned dramatically and began to unwrap the cable from around Roan's torso. Then he flashed a grin at his twin and the others and waved a hand wildly in the air. "Last one to the dining hall is a nerfherder!"
Ben held out a hand to catch his youngest cousin's attention. "Hey, Roan. Come here a minute."
Roan waved to the others as they ran past, and he walked over to join Ben on the steps, twisting a length of metal piping between his fingers. Ben nodded at the pipe, noting that it was about the same length as the lightsaber he usually wore at his hip; and he wondered if that was what this object was supposed to be, a play lightsaber. "What's that you've got there?"
Roan sat down next to Ben, not as close to him as Davin or Dolan would have done, but not so far away either. He turned the metal cylinder over in his hands. "A telescope."
Well, he hadn't expected that. He probably should have, though, considering that "pirates" had been his cousins' favorite game for going on a week now.
"Oh yeah?" Ben said with a smile. "Can I see?"
Roan handed over his prop without a word; Ben saw him watching intently as he examined the "telescope". The spiraling grooves along the inside of the cylinder suggested something had been screwed into it at one point, though Ben couldn't say for sure what it had been. He held the toy up to his eye, careful not to let the rough edges scrape his skin. The rays cast by the midday sun narrowed to a disc of light smaller than the palm of his hand, and he pretended to study something in the distance.
"Huh," he said after a few seconds.
"What?" Roan's voice was quiet, but curious.
"It looks like the fortress is deserted." Ben lowered the telescope and tilted his head conspiratorially toward his cousin. "No better time to escape."
A very faint smile crossed Roan's lips before he reined it in. "I can't escape while the game is paused."
Ben nodded slowly. "I suppose that's true." He watched Roan's face as the boy looked over at the makeshift fort, and he sensed something elusive about his emotions in that moment, something he couldn't quite place. Maybe now was a good time to mention what he'd considered bringing up earlier.
"You know… you don't have to play the way Davin tells you, if you don't want." Ben hesitated; he didn't want to paint Davin as some kind of bully. Force, this wasn't coming out at all like he'd intended. "What I mean is, it's okay to say no, or to speak up if you want to play the game differently."
Roan tore his gaze from the fort to stare up at him. "That's okay," he said simply.
Ben tried not to frown. So did that mean he understood? "It's okay because you like playing Davin's game?"
"Yes."
"You like playing all of Davin's games, or just this one?"
"I like all of them." Roan stood and picked up his telescope, and he started to take a step forward before appearing to think better of it. He looked up at Ben. "Can I go play now?"
"Sure, kiddo." Ben watched him run off, the telescope clutched tight in one hand, and he shook his head and smiled. "Have fun."
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