#ALSO A POOR CLONE GOT CUT IN HALF BY A DOOR | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

neon-junkie · 1 year ago

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Fractured

Summary: Tech's recent injury has led him to your Medical Bay, and despite you being excellent at your job, Tech needs additional assistance with easing the pain. You have something fun in mind.

Pairing: Tech x gn!Reader

Tags: Medical assistance, Fractured bones, Medic Reader, Friends to lovers, Oral (giving,) Handjobs, Size kink, Cock worship, Large cocks, Flirting, Pain relief.

Word count: 5.1k

Notes: This is set after Episode 1&2 of Season 2. I actually started writing this back when those episodes aired, but then… depression… lol I have never broken/fractured a bone before (alpha genes,) so I have no idea what actually goes on when you break one lol. I did my research, but… IDK, this is probs off, but you're not here for the medical side of things, are you? Also, I like the idea of nerds with big dicks. I don't really care about size IRL, but Tech with an absolute unit of a cock? Yeah, sign me the fuck up!!!

"You got squished like a bug."

"I did not-" Tech cuts himself off. "Like a bug? Please, restrain yourself from making such comedic remarks about my pain and suffering."

With that, Tech lets out a grunt, and you're unsure if it's at your remark, or an outlet from the pain that he's currently in.

Tech was squished like a bug during the last mission. Splat! As you so put it, after Tech explained what exactly happened in that war chest. The force of a thousand suns flattened his poor leg, and his thigh soaked up most of the damage.

That's what he gets for not wearing thigh armour.

That comment didn't go down well, either. However, Tech should know by now that your wit and sarcasm will never fail you. You have, after all, been running with the Batch long before the Clone Wars fizzled out into… whatever this is, The Galactic Empire, and those who opposite it.

If only Hunter would allow you and the others to join the fight…

Back onto the topic. Tech was carried into the Marauder's medical wing, with Echo's assistance, and left on the medical bed for you to check him over. He was hissing and wincing as he pushed himself up onto the table, his hands flexing whilst he gripped onto his thigh, and pleading eyes met yours as he began going over the series of events.

You were stationed with Hunter and Wrecker, seeing as Wrecker is your loyalist customer when it comes to injuries, only Tech has taken you by surprise!

"It's definitely fractured," you state as you dig through your medical kit, finding something exciting to dial down the pain. Tech has stated that he'd prefer to remain awake, which is understandable, seeing as you won't be stitching him up, or worse, cutting him open.

"I assume I'll have to lounge around with a cast on for the next six weeks?" Tech questions, his eyes watching you as you read over a few labels, deciding which drugs to supply.

"Minimum," you say with a soft nod, half-focused on his words. "These will do," you decide, holding the pill bottle in one hand, whilst the other shuts your medical box.

You turn to face Tech, and with a nonchalant expression, you order, "take off your pants."

Tech's eyes blink wide beneath his goggles, and he lets out a sheepish cough before asking, "pardon?"

"I can't do an X-ray with your pants still on, and do you really want your cast applied over those jeans?" you point to his new pants - casual, straight jeans, which surely can't be comfortable to work in?

Forgive him. It's his first time out in the Galaxy, and a newly freed man is bound to make poor decisions. Live and learn, Tech…

"Oh," Tech mutters. "Understood."

You hand him the pill bottle first, along with a glass of water, and give Tech a strict order to take his drugs before stripping off. "I'll give you some privacy, call for me when you're ready," you inform, and leave the medical wing, the door swishing shut behind you.

Sure, you've seen Tech in all sorts of states, almost naked that one time, back when you were new. Wrecker had found it hilarious to fiddle with the refresher's water supply as Tech went to take a shower, and poor Tech, who was rather reserved when first meeting you, had to leave the refresher with only a towel around his waist. He had barked at Wrecker to, "leave the hot water supply alone! Are you attempting to impress our newest member? Or perhaps, make a fool of me? Both? Do you find this amusing?!" blah blah blah…

Minutes have passed, and you overhear Tech calling out, "you may come in."

The door swishes open, and you're greeted by Tech in the same position on the medical bed, relaxing back against the headboard. An untidy pile of armour and clothing has appeared on the floor, not that he has the ability to neatly organise them.

Tech remains in just his turtleneck under armour, his fingertips currently running along the neckline, picking at its tightness. He's wearing a standard pair of briefs, nothing enticing, and the hemline thankfully stops above the X-ray zone. Great! You don't fancy having to order Tech to remove those as they're in the way…

As for the last item of clothing, they're-

"Tech," you speak with firmness. "Are those my socks?"

Tech stops picking at his neckline to gawk down at his feet. His wiggles his toes mindlessly as he sheepishly mumbles, "it appears they are."

"Is that so?" you repeat with a raised brow.

Tech's pleading eyes come out again as he meets your gaze. "I could not find a pair of my own this morning, and seeing as we were in a rush, I opted for the next best thing."

Your eyes trail from his to look at your socks once more, the little tookas on them smiling at you. They're fuzzy, warm and snuggly, and not the sort of item that you ever thought you'd see on Tech.

Omega? Perhaps.

Wrecker? Definitely.

But Tech?

"The next best thing," you repeat his words again. "I'm surprised that you picked the tookas over the voorpaks."

Tech scoffs. "Tookas are the obvious choice. Whilst voorpaks may be pleasing to the eye, they're needy, with no consideration for personal space. Tookas, on the other hand, are far more independent animals, with a…" Tech shuts his mouth, and nervously licks his lips before asking, "I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"A sign that the drugs have kicked in," you say with a shrug. "Time to X-ray!"

Tech lets out a defeated sigh, and watches as you set up the X-ray machine. It's a numbing and dull task, but needed, seeing as such a smart man has managed to get himself injured.

The X-ray is taken, and you leave Tech to his own devices as you begin processing the scan at your desk. Whilst you wait for the image to form, you check on a few other things, and in the corner of your eye, you notice how Tech fails to sit still.

His fingertips are running along his neckline again, attempting to find fresh air, even though his under armour has never seemed restricting before. A light glisten of sweat is sitting above his brow, and whenever Tech's hands stray from his neckline, they rest directly on his lap. His fingertips begin fidgeting with the hem of his briefs, only for his eyes to meet yours, and his hands to fall motionless.

"Are you alright?" you question.

"F-fine," Tech mutters. "Just awaiting the results."

With that, the scan is processed, and you hum to yourself as you study it. Tech doesn't look away from you; he studies your reaction, and his shoulders drop with relief as yours do. "It's not as bad as I thought," you state as you rise from your desk. "I'll apply a cast, and unfortunately for you, you'll be bound to the Marauder for the next few weeks."

"Charming," Tech huffs.

You put together a bowl of warm soapy water, and hand it over to Tech, along with a towel. "Give your thigh a good scrub. It'll be the last time it's cleaned until the cast can come off."

Tech follows your orders, and leaves you to begin putting the cast supplies together. He's letting out soft grumbles as he scrubs himself down, not applying much pressure, seeing as bruises have already begun forming.

Within minutes, you're ready, and Tech is attempting to dry his thigh. The bowl of water is discarded, and you softly mutter, "here," as you take the towel from him. "Let me help."

With your order, Tech slowly bends his leg, raising his knee high enough so that you can gently dry the underside of his thigh - a task that he was struggling to do alone. He's still wincing as you dab over the area, but nowhere near as much as he was when tending to himself. It seems you're light on your touch, and Tech is silently thankful for it.

"Keep your leg bent like that," you instruct as you dispose of the towel, and bring your cast supplies over to the workbench.

You gently run your palm over Tech's thigh, questioning if his skin is dry enough to begin the application, and only now do you realise the predicament that you're in.

You're no stranger to Tech's good looks - impeccable cheekbones, a toned chest, nimble fingers, adorable doe eyes, and a hairline so sharp that it can slice through beskar - but the issue is purely that, his good looks. You're attempting to work, and the sensation of your fingertips dancing through the light hair on his tanned thighs is causing quite the distraction.

You scoot your stool over to the medical bed, and adjust the height. Once seated, you let out a deep sigh before beginning your work, attempting to keep your eyes on his forming bruises, rather than allowing it to wander… higher…

Tech looks down at you, quite literally, watching through his tinted goggles as you begin binding his leg, paying special attention to any signs of discomfort - not that he shows any. His fingertips are subconsciously entwining with each other, fidgeting, and attempting to cover up his briefs out of politeness. It's not that you've never seen Tech, or any of the boys in their undies before, but your face is less than half a meter from his crotch, and you're both well aware.

A huff flows from your lips as you fix the soft material in place, the easy part over and done with. Now, it's time to wet the plaster, and apply it one strip at a time - a lengthy process, seeing as you have to wait for each layer to dry before continuing.

As time goes on, you both seem to relax, becoming accustomed to your new-found closeness. Tech even strikes up a light conversation, filling you in on his side of the mission, and speaking highly about the civilian that he met on the way.

"He called me Ace," Tech informs you, "not that I had any issue with it. I found the nickname rather appealing."

Your eyes trail up to meet his, and a soft laugh slips from your lips as you repeat, "Ace?"

"I think it suits me," Tech says with a shrug. "Besides…"

His words continue, shifting into comforting background noise as you do your job. At least Tech is comfortable with you; when you first met, he'd only ever correct you, or information dump on you. Now, you can hold a conversation, seeing as you managed to win him over after correcting him on a minor detail a few weeks into being stationed with the Batch.

The more Tech mutters, the more his form relaxes. His hands move from his lap to adjust his goggles, not that they probably need it, and you can't help but notice something in the corner of your eye.

In hindsight, this was your fault. You shouldn't have looked. You should have kept your focus on your work, and prevented your eyes from prying at Tech's crotch. He is, after all, a grown man sitting in his underwear, with a pretty Medic rubbing their hands along his bare thigh. Tech is a soldier, and it's a known fact that soldiers don't have much leisure time, let alone spare time to do… stuff.

Your lips fall apart, and every circuit in your brain fries within an instant. Your hands, wet and covered in plaster, come to a halt in the middle of a wrap, and all you can focus on is… that.

Tech, after adjusting his goggles, instantly falls silent as he notices that you've come to a halt. He calls out your name, and despite his exceptional mind, it takes him a few moments to realise what's caused you to stop like a deer in the headlights.

"Oh," Tech sheepishly sighs as he puts two and two together. "I…" he stutters, but words fail him. So, thinking on his feet (and fractured leg) he returns his hands to his lap, covering up the issue.

Only now do you realise that you're a karking idiot. Seriously, why did you have to stare?! Why couldn't you have turned away, blushed, and continued working?

You go to apologise, but Tech beats you to it. "I apologise… It's… It's not intentional-" he sputters.

You let out a soft sigh, and shake your head in an attempt to slap some sense into your dense brain. "Tech," you mumble his name, and after blinking heavily, you look up at him.

Tech, with cheeks so bright that they outshine the suns, fails to make eye contact. He's breathing deeply, and mentally questioning if it's possible for him to run away from his problems, even with a half-finished, wet cast around his thigh.

Instead, Tech defends himself even more, seeing as the first option isn't doable. "I have been attempting to control myself this entire time, but it seems my-"

"-Tech," you call out to him again.

Tech finally meets your gaze, but only for a moment. He can't maintain eye contact, he simply can't, that is, until you state something that has his mind spinning in confusion.

"You're huge."

"P-pardon?" Tech sputters, followed by coughing into the back of his hand. That is not what he was expecting to fall from your lips.

You wave your hands defensively, droplets of plaster falling onto the medical bed. "I mean, it's alright, you can't help it," you sputter. Now, you're the one struggling to maintain eye contact, your mind fogging up, clouded with one simple thought.

"Can't help what?" Tech questions. "My erection? Or my size?"

A timid laugh flows from your lips, "I meant your erection, but both, I guess…"

Tech laughs with you, although it's clear that he's nervous. Whatever this is - intimacy, of some form - is new. You're no stranger to light flirting with your boys, and often receiving it in return, but holy Maker. Tech is rock solid, and there is no denying that you're the cause of it; the evidence is right there!

"Well…" Tech's words fall flat, and after adjusting his goggles, he gears up again. Rather than sit in silence, mutually starstruck over the unit sitting in Tech's pants, Tech decides to ramble as much as humanly possible. "…I have chalked my size up as a side effect from my enhancements. There are multiple documented cases that the standard clones all share the same erection size. I am, however, beyond those standards."

"Wait-" you cut him short with a soft laugh. "-There are documented cases of what?"

Tech lets out a chuckle, and shakes his head in awe that he's having to bring this information to light. "It's no secret that we clones have had intimate relationships, and some partners like to… how should I say it? Discuss their experiences with others on the holonet."

You repeat Tech's motions, softly laughing and shaking your head, amazed over this new information. "You mean, people like to jump on the holonet and discuss which Troopers kriff the best?"

"That is one way of putting it, yes."

"Dank farrik," you laugh. You mean, the information that you've been curious about this entire time, has been on the holonet at your disposal? Idiot! Why didn't you simply search for it?

There's no denying that you're attracted to both your squad, and their regular brothers, and as always, curiosity wanders… At least some beings were smart enough to post their findings on the net, along with… whatever else might be on there. You make a mental note to check it out later!

"What were you doing on those sites?" you question, and decide to start working again, seeing as the plaster is slowly drying on your fingertips.

To your surprise, Tech's emotions remain calm as he mindlessly replies, "I was researching my… ahem, abnormality."

"I see…" you conclude. Curious for more, you take a gamble, and up your flirting game. "Has anybody started a thread for Clone Force 99?" you say with a soft purr, causing Tech's ears to perk up as blush begins to form across his cheeks.

"I…" Tech stutters. "Not that I am aware of, no," he says with a nervous chuckle.

Still with wet plaster on your hands, you put on a cheeky grin as you ask, "we could fill in the blank."

Your name comes stumbling out of Tech's mouth as all the heat in his body rises to his cheeks. "You cannot be serious!" He sweats, refusing to maintain eye contact. Nervous hands fiddle with the hemline of his shirt, wringing the fabric tightly in his bare palms, all whilst still attempting to cover up the topic in the room.

"I am," you say with a shrug. "I mean, I've just about seen yours," you gesture to his erection, hidden behind a thin layer of fabric, yet bold enough to make your imagination dance.

"M-Maker," Tech stutters once more. "Where are those pills?"

You laugh as Tech fumbles about with the pill bottle at his side, sliding another one out into the palm of his hand. He doesn't even bother swigging it down with water, dry swallowing the pill like an absolute mad man. "You do know those pills are to ease your pain, right?" you state whilst wrapping another layer around his leg.

"I am certainly in some form of pain. Although I am unsure of the exact type," he sighs, and finally takes a sip of water, correcting his prior mistake.

Biting back a laugh, you suggest, "painfully hard?"

Tech lets out a long and frustrated sigh, meeting your gaze as his shoulders drop in disappointment. "Hilarious," he sarcastically replies, pinching his brow in annoyance.

With a smirk on your lips, you boldly look down at his erection. "It sure seems like you are," you comment, then continue your focus on applying his cast, nearing the end. "You know, sexual pleasure can help ease the pain, and act as a good distraction," you hint, bringing the fact to light. If Tech wants more, then this is his opportunity to take it.

"As delightful as that sounds, penetration would be near impossible in my current state," he gestures to his leg, as if it couldn't be any more obvious.

"There are things that you can do besides penetration, Tech."

Whilst watching you apply the final layer, Tech moves a hand up, fingertips meeting his chin. His brows are furrowed, a sign that he's in deep thought. "You are correct," he hums, before crossing his arms across his chest. "Although I have to question if partaking in such an act will adjust our friendship, and our status within this squad."

"Only if you want it to," you respond, and begin cleaning up, allowing Tech's new cast to dry. "The way I see it, I'm just helping a friend out."

"Well, when you put it like that…" Tech ponders, shifting into deep thought.

Silence fills the air, and yet, you can practically hear Tech's brain ticking away. He's panning everything together, questioning every minor detail, move, motive. Sure, you are helping him out, but wouldn't this lead to other things? Would either of you catch feelings? Have you already caught feelings?

Tech's eyes flick between the pill bottle, and you. He studies you, letting out a soft hum as you tidy up, putting all your equipment away after washing your hands. "I can feel your gaze on me, Tech," you comment, not bothering to look up from your current task.

"Sorry," Tech exhales. "You do have a valid point. This… sexual favour would indeed assist in relieving my pain, yet I cannot accept such a gesture without reciprocating it."

"Let's say that you owe me one, and I can redeem it whenever I see fit," you suggest. You perch yourself on the edge of the medical bed, your form resting against Tech's undamaged thigh. Gently, you tap your fingertips on his cast, testing to see if the material has dried through. "You're all set. So, what do you say?" you offer with a raised brow.

Tech firmly shakes his head in agreement, "I accept your assistance."

"Great," you purr. Your hand comes to rest on his chest, instantly making the man beneath your palm nervous, and he doesn't bother to hide it. "But what do you want me to do, Tech?" you ask, drumming your fingertips against him.

Licking his lips, Tech's eyes wander down to where your hand is resting, before coming up to meet your alluring gaze. "Perhaps you… could possibly…"

"Spit it out," you tut.

"Just… touch me," Tech finally manages to spit his demands out, all whilst looking like he's about to faint. "Your hand alone will be more than suffice," he adds in an apologetic tone, as if he's embarrassed about what has just slipped from his lips.

Eager to see him burst, you ask, "do you want my mouth too?"

"Oh stars."

Tech, the most calm, calculated, and captivating man that you've ever met, is currently turning into putty beneath your fingertips. You've not even touched him, well, at least not in that way, and he looks like he's about to ejaculate at any moment! Maybe it's the pain relief pills that he's taken, or maybe it's because he has a secret crush on you. The answer, you'll never know. All you can do is work with what you've got - a whimpering mess of a man.

"You don't have to answer that yet. Let's just start with my hand," you answer for him. Tech watches through his thick lenses as the hand on his chest begins to trail south, over his lower ribs, across his soft stomach, and now meeting his hips.

Gently, you rest your hand atop of his erection, and Tech just about moans at the minor contact. "I apologise," he sputters, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth.

"Don't apologise, I want you to be vocal," you coo. "Well, maybe keep it down a bit, unless you want the others over-hearing?"

Tech shakes his head, then returns his eyes to watching the action. Your strokes are gentle, yet firm, the complete opposite of Tech's rising chest. Is he a virgin? Or has it been a while? Either way, you begin matching his pathetic state once his briefs are adjusted, and Tech's cock is finally free.

"Kriff," you whimper, eyeing up Tech in all his glory. Maker, you weren't expecting such a slender man to be packing so much heat! Sure, it looked rather large when hidden behind his briefs, but now it's here, throbbing in your hand.

You begin pumping his length, slow at first, until finding your rhythm. All the while, Tech is a panting mess, his gaze flicking between your expression, and what's happening between his legs. He all about caves when you slowly trail a blob of spit down onto his tip, lubricating his cock as you continue jerking it.

"This is going to be the death of me," Tech pants. His head rolls back to rest on the headboard, whilst his hands come up to hide his face. He groans into his palms, the odd muscle in his body twitching as pleasure washes through him. When Tech finally does remove his hands from his face, his goggles are on a slight tilt, and surprisingly, he doesn't bother fixing them.

"Oh?" you say with a quirked brow. "I can make things much worse."

"Do enlighten me," Tech suggests, gazing at you through half-lidded eyes.

"How about I show you instead?"

All Tech can do is nod eagerly, yet he fails to prepare himself for what's about to come. (Or who's about to come.)

It's an awkward position, but after readjusting yourself to lie on your side, you manage to make do. Tech's eyes widen as you move your mouth closer to his cock, soon introducing your tongue to the tip. He moans your name, followed by a painful wince.

"Stop putting pressure on your thigh," you look up at him, cock in hand. "That defeats the purpose of my assistance."

In hindsight, you should have propped a pillow beneath his ankle, but something was preventing you from thinking rationally!

Tech mumbles a, "sorry," whilst looking at you with pleading eyes. You know what he wants, and who are you to deny it? You continue introducing your tongue to his tip, his shoulders instantly relaxing at the minor contact.

You soon find yourself sucking the tip, your hand working magic on the rest of his shaft. Already, there's an ache in your jaw, and you silently question how you're going to make this fit… No matter, you'll do what you can, and all efforts seem to be highly appreciated by Tech, who is reaching the state of debauchery as every second passes.

Through the chaos of spit and slobber, a tender hand comes out to rest on the back of your head. The other one finds your free hand, and Tech makes an effort to entwining his fingers with yours. You vocalise your appreciation to his gentle gesture by humming, only that causes Tech to stir. The sensation of vibrations running along his cock earns you another series of pathetic whimpers, and you, being the mischievous devil that you are, decide to only make things harder for him.

Slipping his cock from your lips, you continue pumping the shaft whilst your mouth wanders south. You slip one of his balls in your mouth, gently sucking on it. Tech's mind quite literally explodes! The hand on the back of your head grabs a fistful of your hair, although he is careful as to not hurt you. His other hand, however, removes itself from your palm to grip on the edge of the bed, a desperate attempt at steadying himself.

"Easy boy," you coo, before focusing on his other testicle.

"I c-can't…" Tech sputters. "I cannot hold on any longer, please," he whimpers, begging for what?

"Tell me what you need," you instruct.

"T-To finish… inside your mouth, if you'd be s-so kind," Tech blurts out, his thigh muscles twitching with want. So much for helping ease his pain, hm?

Removing your mouth from him, you peer up to meet his gaze. Tech's hair is askew, loose strands hanging forwards against his flushed face. Desperation is clear in his eyes, although it's laced with warmth and admiration. Tech was right, you two aren't just going to be friends after this, and quite honestly, you're fine with that.

"How can I ever deny you?" you flirt, earning a sigh from Tech. That sigh shifts into a moan as you slip your lips over his tip, and work your mouth to its limit.

Your name is on repeat, drifting from Tech's lips like a prayer. In the back of his mind, he's thanking this strange turn of events. If he wasn't in that war chest, then none of this would have happened, and the pain is most definitely worth it.

A few pumps of Tech's shaft, and he loses himself in the warmth of your mouth. Tech has to remove his hand from your hair to bite his knuckles, a poor attempt of silencing his final moans. The Marauder does not have soundproof walls, so you two will need to come up with a story for when you finally decide to enter the medical wing, and regroup with the Batch.

"Thank you," Tech repeats, over and over, panting as if he's just run a marathon. He looks exhausted, yet you're the one doing all the hard work!

After removing your mouth from his tip, you swallow his load, which only causes Tech to fall even deeper into admiration. "How do you feel?" you ask whilst grabbing the glass of water, left forgotten on the workbench besides the medical bed.

"Euphoric," Tech responds without missing a beat. "The pain was worth it," he adds.

"Are you still in pain?" you ask, offering him what's left of the water.

He swiftly responds, "no," before downing the rest. "You seemed to have worked wonders on me," Tech comments.

You let out a soft chuckle, and rise to your feet, eager to get out of the awkward position. After wiping your mouth dry with a towel, you assist in cleaning Tech up, not that he needs it. It's his leg that's fractured, not his cock, but you're too sweet on the poor man. "You need rest," you comment as you tuck his cock away, putting his unit to bed within the confinement of his briefs.

Tech ponders, and only now does he straighten out his wonky goggles. "I have already asked so much of you, but I have one last request."

"Let's hear it?"

"I… require some assistance with getting to my bunk," Tech sheepishly asks, earning a laugh from you.

"Of course I'll help you with that!"

It's quite the task, seeing as Tech has the upper hand when it comes to height, but you manage to help him to his feet, swinging an arm across your neck for extra stability. You turn to leave the medical wing, until something crosses your mind. Gesturing to the pain relief pills, you state, "you'll probably be needing these."

A smug grin creeps over Tech's lips. "Oh, I don't think I will," he flirts. This time, you're the one blushing, yet you agree with his statement.

Hobbling down the Marauder, Tech's cabin soon comes to your reach, and before you know it, you're helping him into bed. Thank the Maker that the others have retired for the night, hopefully none of them heard that!

After removing Tech's shirt, a pillow is placed under his ankle, providing extra comfort throughout the night. You retrieve him a glass of water, re-entering his cabin to see that he's tucked himself under the covers, his goggles lying on the bedside table.

"Do you need anything else?" you offer, soon expecting to be in your own bunk. It has been a long day, and you're oh-so-eager for your own rest.

"Actually, I was thinking…" Tech trails off, which causes you to raise your brow. "Surely you should spend the night here with me? You know, in case I require support throughout the night-"

"-I know what you're hinting at, Tech," you say with a light laugh, shaking your head at him. "You don't need an excuse, but sure, we can use that when the others ask why I'm leaving your cabin tomorrow morning."

Tech chuckles, watching eagerly as you strip down into your underwear, soon joining him in bed. You're greeted by his stretched out arm, offering you a cuddle, which you gladly accept, all whilst keeping his injury in mind.

"Goodnight, Tech," you exhale, resting your hand on his chest as your head finds its place within the curve of his neck.

"Goodnight," Tech repeats, holding you tightly.

"And remember, I owe you…"

#tbbwriting #the bad batch #tbb #tbb tech #tbb tech x reader #smut #tbb tech x you #tech x reader #clone trooper tech x reader #gn!reader #gender neutral reader #bad batch #tbb fanfic #the bad batch fanfic

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remimibanana · 3 months ago

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A bit about Scales that Burn Flame!

I wrote a story about Sol Badguy!

It takes place during Revelator, around the time when That Man and his servants come to talk to Sol, Ky, Leo and Dr Paradigm. It focuses on what might have happened after Ky threw Sol out the door.

Mostly, it’s just Sol going through it and Ky trying to help alongside Jack-O’ but it’s kind of questionable if they actually did help at all in all honesty.

If you’d like to read it, please click here!

I wanted to talk about my thoughts in more detail, thinking that maybe you’d be interested to hear my thoughts as well! It's just me blabbing about how much I love Guilty Gear, mind you.

All under the cut!

Conception

It all started when I watched all of Sign, Revelator, REV 2 and Strive’s story and arcade modes after reading the digest mangas because I wanted to learn about Guilty Gear lore.

Is it a little crazy? Maybe.

I love Guilty Gear so much, you have no damn idea how it tickles my brain in the good way. All the characters have such depth to them, I have no clue how Daisuke does it but I bow down to his power.

The music is AMAZING as well. You don’t even have to be into the games to enjoy the sheer bangers that come from them. My favourite song is Freesia, the amount of emotion in it always takes me aback when I listen to it.

FREESIAAAAAAAAA HERE I AMMMMMMM—

My favourite story is the one that whole Xrd line of games tells! I think it’s one of the better ones in terms of how it’s told over the course of (technically) three games.

I also like Overture’s story for Valentine and the ending where Sol has to kill her but then learns that she was a clone of Aria…I think it has a great one. The game isn’t that bad to play either, I’ve done about half of the missions!

And Strive’s one too because it ends off Sol’s story and he gets to actually be with Jack-O’ by the end! Axl and Megumi too!

Fun fact, I’ve cried at the end of Sign, Revelator and Strive after watching their stories. They were all so good in many ways!

One of my gripes with the story in general is that we don’t get to see much of the in-between before major events, which is really apparent in Strive. Sometimes characters just appear out of nowhere and it’s a little jarring.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I wished we got to see more of certain characters and how they got to the major events happening. I wanted to learn more about their thoughts and feelings that would give everyone so much more than they already had and make the overall story even better!

This is especially the case with Sol and Jack-O. I really think that they should have had more interaction during Revelator and Strive since their relationship is so important to both their characters.

For example, we get nothing from when Sol was thrown out the door to when they’re on Johnny’s ship on the way to where Elphelt is. You’re telling me that they did not interact once in between all that and that Sol was somehow okay with the whole idea of who Jack-O’ was just like that?

They deserve better and so I decided to take it all into my own two hands. I would write it out myself since I realised that I can cook my own meals and so I cooked (hopefully well)!

Why Sol’s point of view?

I chose to write in Sol’s point of view since he’s one of my favourite characters. I didn’t think I would like him so much when I first got into Guilty Gear, but once I learnt about his backstory….

THIS POOR GUY.

YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT HE KILLED ARIA MULTIPLE TIMES AND IS A SCIENTIST WHO IS SMART AS HELL????

MAN, I LOVE HIM. HE IS PERFECT TO ME.

I’ve never written someone like him before, so it was a fun challenge. I don’t know how well I managed to portray him in all honesty, I wanted a good mix between his whole asshole personality and the humanity that’s underneath it all.

I tried my best!

There’s a whole bunch of swearing everywhere as you can tell, I think Sol’s one of those people who swears more internally than he does externally. It was fun dropping a bunch of bullshits and fucks all around, but I hope I didn’t overdo it.

I’m sorry to whoever clicks on it without reading the tags and is just bombarded by swears. Sol swears and there’s nothing I can do about it. It wouldn’t sound like him otherwise.

The story was originally was going to have a different plot where I alternated between Jack-O’ and Sol’s point of views while focusing on their pasts but I scrapped it since couldn’t work out how to bring Jack-O’ and Frederick into it without making the flow of the story weird.

It also wasn’t meant to be this long but my stories always tend to be long as hell. I think this one is borderline close to my magnum opus, Paradox which is impressive!

I remember at around the 15k point, I thought I would be done and then subsequently kept on writing and writing….

I hope you all still enjoyed it none of the less!

Beginning

We see that the story starts off with a bit about Sol himself for the readers. We learn right away about his stances on various things and how he hates Asuka and how much he loved Aria.

It was the perfect place to start the story, providing the right amount of information I could work with for the rest of it! I thought it would also work for someone who didn't know too much Guilty Gear and wanted to still read it.

I liked writing the whole section where Sol just calls the whole thing bullshit. I think it’s a fun word, bullshit. Ah, bullshit.

The most important thing to this part is that it builds up to one of the main major scenes that features a wonderful person named Ky Kiske and his long wonderful hair who tries to help.

Why did you cut it in Strive????

Sol and Ky

This part here could be read as Sol/Ky in my opinion, because you can’t tell me that there isn’t something between the two of them. I didn’t really intend it to be but you really can’t miss the possibility of such things in the way I wrote it.

Anyway!

As we know, Ky threw Sol out the door and Sol let out his huge scream we see in the main story.

I think it’s strange that no one ever mentions it happening at all. There’s no way in hell that they didn’t hear from behind the door and yet it’s as if it never happened.

Once again, since we never got to see the in between…we wouldn’t ever know. I had a lot of creative control over here, but I tried to make it realistic so it could sound like something you’d see in the actual story if we got it!

Sol breaks down, consumed by his own damming thoughts that only told him how it was all his fault at the end for killing her. It’s the only logical conclusion after learning what he learnt from the person he hates the most and the girl who was technically Aria.

You can tell that Ky is pretty worried about Sol, because he’s never seen him like this. Sol’s not one to show much emotion aside from grumpy and royally pissed off.

Unfortunately for Sol, he keeps telling him to breathe over and over. I think that Ky’s trying his best to comfort his rival but it’s not working out since Sol’s not even listening.

Sol hears the words from Jack-O’ and Asuka behind the door, and well…all hell breaks loose. I don’t know how accurate his reaction would be, but I tried my best based on how he acts!

In After Story A, we find out that Sol was actually scared of Ky back in the days of the Crusades. I had to bring that into the story here, using that gaze as a way to snap Sol out of his state at times.

My favourite part I wrote was when Sol yelled at Ky that he killed Aria. I think it’s something that takes even you aback, because you don’t expect him to say it to anyone, let alone Ky.

I think I cooked here.

You can tell that I keep bringing up the concept of the headaches. We see them mostly in Overture when Sol is near Valentine (and when he sees Jack-O’ for the first time in Revelator and it’s mentioned in his win quote for Ram in Sign). I feel like we never see them again after that and I think it’s important!

I imagine his head hurts because of the fact that it is Aria in a way and he’s reacting to it (amplified thanks to the Flame of Corruption + the probable instincts that came with becoming a Gear).

How could I not use it?

Sol’s intermission by the fountain—

He breaks. Again. I’m sorry Sol, I swear I do love you, it’s just that it’s for the plot.

This is probably the most emotional part of the story, one where Sol is quite literally going through it.

You can tell that the style of writing is different here. It's more faster, more messy, almost chaotic. That's what I wanted, to reflect how Sol was feeling throughout all this.

I chose the Royal Court for this! I was thinking about where Sol could go after storming off from everyone, and all I could think about was a fountain. I had some ideas of using his reflection, but I wasn’t sure if there was a place in Illyria Castle that had it.

I searched it up and boom! I even played Xrd and checked out the stage, and there was definitely a fountain and a walkway that lead to it, so I went straight to writing!

During the part with Ky, I mentioned how Sol’s hand started to smoke twice. That was foreshadowing for him losing control of his powers. I think his power is linked with his emotions, flaring up when he’s more angry as an example.

I think he would simply transform into his Dragon Install if he’s overwhelmed, as you can see that happening at the end of this part.

I used quotes from the original game, Overture and Sign for the flashback scenes. I remember I was searching up for the script for Sign, but found this website instead where it had some of the messed up things that happen in the series.

I never played the original game, but seeing “Sol, the Guilty Gear, stared at his bloodstained hands and prayed. Prayed for the soul of the grotesque sacrifice laying before his feet.” made my heart drop in a good way.

IT’S SO GOOD.

I had to use it. I thought it would be painful if I mentioned every single time he killed Aria or she’s mentioned explicitly in the story, just to hammer it all in ehe

You can see that Sol punches himself at the end to knock himself out before he can fully transform. I think he ultimately does care about his actions and how he can affect everyone, and he didn’t want to become that monster he kept calling himself.

Poor guy….

Sol and Jack-O!

I wanted the two of them to interact one to one. We only got that at the end before Jack-O’ merged with Justice and that was only for like 30 seconds tops, which is so unfair!

I needed an excuse for her to come back to see him after she left.

I feel like Asuka would be monitoring Sol from the shadows like some creepy person. He probably has something that can tell him about Sol and the state of the Flame of Corruption inside of him.

The whole breakdown surely would have raised some alarm bells and so, he sends his remaining two servants out to see if Sol was okay. Asuka had an inkling that it was related to what Jack-O’ probably told him before she came back.

He’s probably like that.

This whole section jumps from one thing to another, which suits Jack-O’ perfectly. Poor Sol’s emotions are going from one end to another thanks to her antics and wonderful words.

I really like Jack-O’ Valentine, if you can’t tell. I wanted to show that more philosophical side we see in Jam’s story mode that we barely get to see otherwise in Revelator. Strive gives us a lot more of it, at least.

“Don’t be pushed around by fate, don’t be swept along by the time, don’t be fearful by parting, don’t run away from death, and go towards the future you believe in…Frederick.”

“As long as you remember me, my story will never vanish.”

These lines here are from Honkai Impact 3rd! It’s a game I absolutely love and I was playing through some more of Part 1 and these lines that Mei says when she talks about the Elysian Realm were perfect and I stole them.

I always keep stealing things from the game, don’t look at me lol

It sounded like something Aria would say. She would tell Frederick this if she had the chance to, giving him the hope he needs to continue on.

Sol (kinda) cries! I don't think we ever see him crying in any of the games but I thought that hearing such words would make him cry in some way. I made it up that it was the Flame of Corruption's fault that he can't have actual tears, since it would make sense!

High temperature + Tears = Evaporation after all!

You can see that Sol was thinking about kissing Jack-O’, just for a second. Look, you can’t tell me that he doesn’t see his lover (technically) and he doesn’t want to kiss her again as he used to?

Of course he doesn’t, he would never do anything to her without her permission. I think Sol would be a stickler about that, as seen when he asked her about if she wanted to go on a vacation or do work in Strive at the beginning.

I don't know how in character this is, but it's there.

The end makes me laugh because of how quickly Sol shifts from being (somewhat) happy to pissed off in a split second (LOL).

Candy, Candy!!!

We have Sol and Jack-O’ looking for the kitchen for candy, how fun!

This part wasn’t meant to be as long as I made it, but I got heavily invested into the plot I made up and it kept flowing out of me….

I think I overdid it, so much crazy shit happens in this part but I think it’s funny so…it’s okay? I hope you all liked it!

I like how Ky and Jack-O' have a little fun friendship here. I think they would good friends at the end if they had the chance to communicate, like so!

I think Sol would be jealous of them. I mean, they act like goodie goodie friends out of nowhere? I like how they mostly gang up on him and he gets all mad.

We have Alyssa in the story! You know, that one girl from After Story C that made that giant pudding. I just wanted to make Sol have beef for no reason and she sounded like the person for the job. He absolutely hates her for no reason.

We have a chocolate fight too. Uh...this idea just came up in my brain and I had to write it. I thought it was so damn funny that Jack-O' is attacking him a whole block of chocolate for no reason. The worst part was that Sol would actually get into it.

I think it was at this point that it started getting a little crazy but I think you could plausibly see this in game. I mean, after all the crazy stuff that happens in After Story C, anything is possible lol

Raven here is a little shit of course. I think he would shoot Sol with one of his needles for fun, and of course no one cares. Ky is sort of just there but he gets his parts too!

I had fun writing this part!

Leo.

I mentioned how Sol was going to get a mouthful from him since he kept destroying public property and I couldn’t help myself from writing it out.

I just wanted to make Leo freak out and faint. I hope it made you laugh!

That’s a wrap!

Thank you for reading all this if you do!

I had a lot of fun writing this story while being very Guilty Gear brainrotted about literally everything and anything with this series.

These characters make me very happy. I could go on day about Sol and Jack-O', and it's not funny.

-Miku

#guilty gear #guilty gear fanfiction #sol badguy #ky kiske #jack o valentine #sol x jack o #I finished the fic!!!

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soulmate-game · 3 years ago

Note

OH MY GOSH YOU ARE SO GOOD AT WRITING! I NEED A PART 3 WITH KON AND JON PLEASE!!! 🥺🥺❤️ (Only if u wanna write it tho)

Lol. Sure, why not?

—*—*—*—*—*

“You know,” Tim drawled as he sipped his drink, smirking at his boyfriend across from him. “I think this is the best date you’ve taken me on so fa—“

At that, the door to the restaurant was kicked open. Instantly, Tim and Kon tensed and got ready to jump into action, only for them to both just gape at who, exactly, had just barged in. Said barger almost instantly zeroed in on them, marching over with hands on his hips.

“And how many dates has my traitorous brother taken you out on, Huh?” Jon asked petulantly. Kon didn’t know whether to cry, laugh, or run away while he had the chance.

“Uh,” Kon floundered, absolutely caught off guard. Not that that seemed to be a problem, because Jon just started up talking again, the whole restaurant looking at them;

“When were you gonna tell me that you’re GAY?!”

“Uh. Look, Jon, buddy,” Kon tried to save himself, but couldn’t quite come up with the words fast enough. Jon places a hand over his heart, looking for all the world as if he was truly heartbroken. Dramatic asshole.

“I thought we were FAMILY! How could you do this to me? The horror! The injustice of it all! My brother is GAY—“

“Jon, seriously, can we at least not do this in public?” Poor Kon was starting to look pale and twitchy, so Jon sped his act up.

“—and he doesn’t even tell his gay brother that he’s gay!” Everyone else in the restaurant, who had been filming this on their phones and nervously chattering about homophobia and if someone was gonna step in, suddenly went pin-drop silent.

“What.” Kon forgot about the beginnings of his terror, now completely dumbfounded. “Wait, you’re gay too?”

“Yeah! Which is why I’m angry!” Kon put his hands on his hips again. “Damian’s mom had to tell me that our dad is Bi, because I thought he was straight and was agonizing about how to come out to him! And she also told me the huge dramatic tale of an apparently ten-year-long love triangle between her, Damian’s dad, and our dad. It was nuts.”

Kon wrinkled his nose, Tim copying the expression. “Wait, our dads? Ewww.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jon nodded before continuing. “So I was mad at Dad, because he never told me he wasn’t straight! And I spent weeks agonizing over nothing because of it! And then Dad tells me that YOU’RE gay too?! The treachery! The mutiny! You copycat! You didn’t even have the DECENCY to tell your brother that you were GAY so that he didn’t have to worry about being the only non-straight in the family!”

“I didn’t know you were gay too! And I never even told Dad, how does he know?!”

“Apparently he knows everything!” Jon threw his hands up. “He’s the one who told me to crash your date today after the prank I pulled on him yesterday for not telling me he was bi!”

“HOW DID HE KNOW ABOUT OUR DATE?!”

“HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE THAT I’M GAY?!” Jon yelled right back. “I TOLD YOU I HAD A CRUSH ON DAMIAN YEARS AGO!”

“I THOUGHT YOU MEANT AS A FRIEND?!”

“OH MY GOD MY BROTHER IS DUMB!” Jon turned his attention to Tim. “YOU’RE SMART! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO RUB OFF ON HIM!”

Tim, who was half-sunk into his chair and only still watching this fiasco out of morbid fascination, just deadpanned at Jon and said; “There’s no cure for Stupid, your honor. He only has one braincell and it forgot how to multiply.”

“Hey!” Kon protested, slamming his hands on the table. “You’re my boyfriend! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“I can’t help that I’m dating a punk himbo, Conner.”

“Graaaah!”

“And I’m dating Damian!”

Tim looked over, horrified. “I fully expected this, but also— is it voluntary? Do you need a way out?”

Jon rolled his eyes. “He’s sweet, shut up.”

“Oh my god he’s brainwashed you!” Tim was obviously just being dramatic (he loved his brother, regardless of how they didn’t often get along) so Jon ignored him and turned back to his own brother.

“Anyway, you must suck at this whole dating thing. I heard Tim say this was the best date you’ve taken him on and, full offense intended but,” he swept his arm around to indicate the restaurant. “This is a Wendy’s.”

“At least we’re not getting mugged this time though,” Kon said with a shrug.

“This is also only the third date in four years that he’s taken me on. I started all the others.”

“YOU’VE BEEN GAY FOR FOUR YEARS AND DIDN’T TELL ME?!”

—*—*—*—*—*

Later, Tim was at the Batcomputer and Marinette was handing him his first cup of coffee for the long night ahead. He looked down at his phone when it beeped, and let loose a tortured groan. Marinette just raised an eyebrow at her adopted son.

“Uh? Problems in paradise?” She asked when she saw that the sender was Kon’s contact in Tim’s phone. Tim groaned again.

“Not exactlyyyyy,” he hedged. “You told Jon that Clark is bi.”

Marinette blinked, having actually forgotten about that after Damian had showed her the video Jon had gotten of Clark. Then again, the video ended abruptly ... as if Jon had intentionally cut something out at the end.

“Jon was catastrophizing at the dinner table— oh yeah you weren’t there because you dragged Kon out for a date that night— anyway, he was having a crisis and I needed to get revenge on Clark for something. So yeah, I told him the whole story.”

“Well,” Tim growled. “Clark told Jon about Kon being gay. And somehow he knew exactly where and when we were having our date.”

Marinette caught on, unable to hide her large grin. “Oh nooooo,” she breathed. “What did he do?”

Tim grumbled and brought up the YouTube video of the whole interaction. Marinette damn near laughed herself into a coma over it, and it had already gotten over a million hits too.

“Oh my god,” Marinette had to catch her breath. “I didn’t realize Kon was just as much of a himbo as the other two of them! I thought he had to have more sense, I always thought that being a punk requires more than just the bare minimum level of intelligence.”

“Apparently not.”

“Wait,” Marinette seemed to realize something, putting her hand on her chin in sudden thought. “Wasn’t... didn’t Luthor make Kon the same year Jon was born? They’re technically the same age even though Kon is physically older, right?”

Tim’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god,” he breathed. “Luthor must have accidentally cloned Jon’s only braincell into Kon’s body,” he jokingly “realized”. “They are twin dumbasses!” He blinked, and held his phone up. “Oh shit, Jon covered Kon’s apartment completely in pride flags!”

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #dc x miraculous #brucinette #they are both dumb your honor #the same braincell #just cloned #damijon #timkon #even more chaos #part 3 #so much more chaotic this time

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cafeacademic · 3 years ago

Note

omg congrats on your milestone!!!! here’s to many more *clink clink*,,, anyways i loVED YOUR ‘off the record’ with fox, and i’m a s1ut for him sOOO maybe prompt 31? f/gn!reader is cool!!

Fox sluts unite I love that man so much. here is some pure smut for our man because he deserves some time off and a bunch of smooches. hope you enjoy my lovely thank you for all your support <33

also i saw that you were working on a new fox thing as well very excited for that👀👀

On Background

click above for AO3 link

Pairing: Fox x Reader

Rating: Explicit (You know the drill)

Warnings: PiV sex, oral sex (m receiving), orgasm denial, teasing, semi-public sex, some objectification of reader (but it's pretty tame)

Word Count: 2.2k

When Fox stumbled into your apartment one night, the first thing he saw was you slamming the door to your closet closed.

“You alright, princess?” he asked warily. He rolled his neck as he removed his bucket, trying to ease some of the tension of the day.

“Yep!” you said a little too eagerly. Fox closed the gap between the two of you, lifting your chin with his forefinger. You looked up at him innocently.

“What are you hiding?” he teased. Leaning into his touch, you smirked.

“Oh, just work stuff. Wouldn’t want to bore you,” you said. Fox narrowed his eyes but didn’t press you further. “Are you working the Chancellor’s speech tomorrow?”

“Don’t remind me,” Fox groaned. The Chancellor’s annual speech was never a fun night for the Guard; they often had to arrive early to help set up, listening to Palpatine fuss for several hours before the actual main event. If that wasn’t already draining, they often had to hear faux praise from the various elites that attended the event, though they knew that most considered them less than human. Sensing that Fox was getting lost in his thoughts, you reached up to plant a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“I’ll make sure to stop by then,” you said, snuggling into his hold. Fox rested his chin on the top of your head, enjoying the feeling of being held.

~~~

The next day, Fox was running around, trying to ensure that everything was set up for the Chancellor’s speech, at least security-wise. In between pretending to listen to the demands of Palpatine and downing cups of caf from the break room, he would respond to the silly comms you would send him. On typical days, you would complain about your coworkers or send him pictures of cute lothcats you saw on the holonet. Today, however, your messages were suspiciously short.

“Miss you xoxo,” your last message read. That had been nearly two hours ago, and Fox hadn’t heard from you since. It was probably for the best, considering how much work he had to do, but it still hurt a bit.

“Are you stopping by?” he tapped out a message to you. A few minutes later, his commlink buzzed.

“Something came up. Have to take the time to get ready for a work thing tonight,” you replied. Normally, Fox would have sulked at the fact that you couldn’t visit, but he was instead intrigued by the fact that you had followed up your message with a photo attachment.

He nearly dropped the comm when he opened the picture. You were laid out on your bed, crisp white blouse unbuttoned and falling off your shoulder. A thin, lacy bra covered your chest, the material a perfect Corrie Guard red. At the very bottom of the photo, Fox could see that your skirt was hiked up over your hips, allowing just a glimpse of the matching panties.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he typed back. He could imagine you smirking down at your comm as you tapped out a response, the image only making his half-hard cock press even tighter against his codpiece. A soft buzz alerted him to your response.

“Is it a good look? I’ve been told that we’re supposed to dress nicely for the Chancellor’s speech. Wouldn’t want to make a poor impression on my first time covering the event,”

Fox nearly groaned out loud; there would be no way he could concentrate if you were going to be at the speech tonight. All he would be able to think about would be how badly he needed to see you in the pretty lingerie you were wearing.

“You better behave tonight,” Fox responded. It was only a few seconds before your reply came.

“But where’s the fun in that, Commander?”

This time, Fox did groan out loud.

By two minutes into the Chancellor’s speech, Fox was already bored out of his mind. Instead of being on alert for attempted assassinations as Palpatine had requested, his eyes were scanning the crowd for you. The general comm chatter from his brothers had become a background hum as he searched for your telltale white blouse.

When he finally found you, he was almost embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed you sooner. You were sitting in the press box near the front, near enough that you could pick up all the details of the speech but out of the way enough that the Chancellor couldn’t see you. As if you could feel his gaze, your eyes immediately snapped to Fox’s visor. You bit your lip teasingly as you toyed with the top button of your blouse. Fox straightened his posture, hoping to convey as much warning as he could with just his body language. You either didn’t notice or didn’t care; likely the latter, seeing as you popped the button with ease and pulled your neckline open slightly, revealing just the top of the lace covering your breasts.

“Hey Fox, you see that girl in the press pit?” Thire’s voice cut through the comm chatter that Fox had blocked out. Thire’s comment, however, snapped him right back to his senses.

“What about her?” Fox snapped back a little too defensively.

“She’s cute, isn’t she? Keeps toying with the hem of her skirt,” Thire commented. Fox bit his tongue to keep from snapping at his brother.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind tearing that skirt off of her!” Hound added with a snort. Thire hummed in agreement. Before Fox could start yelling at his brothers, Thorn cut into the conversation.

“Hey, vod? I think that’s the Commander’s girl,” he said warily. Thorn was the only one Fox had confided in about his newfound relationship, and that was mostly because he had heard the two of you going at it in Fox’s office. A number of curses poured over the comm, and Fox smirked at the panicked apologies his brothers gave.

Turning his attention back to you, Fox noted that the second button on your blouse had also come undone. The crimson lace was now peeking prominently through your neckline, and you had a smirk plastered on your face. With a wink, you spread your legs in your chair slightly, allowing Fox a glimpse of your panties.

Faking an important message, Fox pulled out his comm and quickly tapped out a warning: “Keep that up and you’re not going to like your punishment,”

You checked your comm and responded quickly, still smirking. “Aww, can’t handle a little teasing?”

Fox growled quietly under his helmet. Just as he was about to type out a message back, he was roused from his thoughts by thunderous applause, signaling that the Chancellor had finished speaking. Mentally, Fox made a note to thank Palpatine for keeping it short this year. As soon as he was off the stage, he sent you a quick message. “My office. Now.”

You were already sitting on his desk when Fox entered his office, swinging your legs innocently.

“Fucking finally! I’ve been trying to get you alone all night!” you said, hopping off the desk and reaching for your lover. Before you could get to him, however, Fox scooped you up in his arms and pressed your back against the wall.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” he growled, voice still modulated by his helmet. You smirked up at him.

“What, you didn’t like my little show? I got all dressed up for you and everything!” you pouted, reaching to take off Fox’s helmet. His hand shot out and gripped your wrist before you could touch him.

“No way, sweetheart,” he said, grinding against you. “You’re not getting away with teasing me that easily,”

Holding you steady against the wall with his hips, he ripped your shirt in two, the remaining buttons flying around the room. He could still feel the heat of your breasts, even through his gloves. You squealed as he pinched your nipple through your bra, admiring how the bud peaked through the red lace. In the back of his mind, Fox worried that he was being too rough with you, that you might not like how he was touching you. His worries were calmed, however, when he saw the absolutely delighted look on your face as you squirmed out of his grasp and sank to your knees.

“Can I please suck your cock, Commander?” you batted your eyelashes. Fox nodded and you launched for his codpiece, getting the armor off in record time. You grinned devilishly at him as you pulled his cock out of his blacks, the tip already flushed a rosy brown and a bead of precum leaking from the tip. When you licked teasingly up the throbbing vein on the underside of his cock, Fox reached out to roughly tangle his fingers in your hair.

“Don’t tease. You’re in enough trouble as it is,” he warned. You obliged, taking him all the way down your throat in one motion. Fox swore loudly, trying to keep from bucking into your mouth. You worked what you couldn’t reach with your hand, twisting your wrist to spread the saliva that was slicking his cock. When Fox’s grip on your hair tightened, you pulled off of him with a pop.

“Was that what you wanted, sir?” you teased. Before Fox could scold you, his words caught in his chest as you began pumping him again, this time slowly working down him with your mouth. The modulated groans of the clone above you made you rub your thighs together for some sort of relief. When you thought he was distracted enough by your tongue, you slid a hand down between your legs.

“Oh, sweetheart. You just keep testing me, don’t you?” Fox growled, tugging you off of his cock by the hair. You looked down sheepishly, not having expected to get caught. Fox quickly discarded his helmet before yanking you back to your feet.

“‘M sorry, sir,” you said. Fox looked like he was going to fall victim to your puppy dog eyes, but he shook his head and adjusted you so he could have access to your clothed cunt. With two fingers, he slid the scrap of fabric to the side, inhaling sharply when he noticed how wet you were.

“Does putting on a show like that get you this wet?” Fox said, lining himself up with your entrance. “You know all my brothers could see you?”

“Really-- fuck!” your words were interrupted by the stretch of Fox sliding into you with one movement. Normally, you would’ve been upset that he didn’t touch you first, but you were so turned on that he slid in with little resistance.

“They were all drooling over you, sweetheart,” Fox said through gritted teeth as he fucked you. The slight jealousy he felt was obvious not just in his voice, but in the rough way he was fucking you, almost as if he was worried you’d disappear out from under him. You grabbed his chin and kissed him passionately.

“Mhmm, but you’re the only one who gets to fuck me, Commander,” you said when you pulled away from the kiss. “I’m all yours, Fox,”

That seemed to unlock something in Fox’s head, because he began fucking you with even more force, trying to get as deep inside you as he could with every thrust. He began to mouth at your collarbone, teeth grazing over the sensitive skin.

“Fuck, that’s right. Mine,” he repeated into your neck. You scrambled for purchase on the plastoid armor he was still wearing as he ruined you, moans pouring out of you too loudly for the only semi-private office. Neither of you seemed to care, though.

“Fuck, Fox, I wanna come,” you whined, shivering from when his groin rubbed against your clit with a well-angled thrust. Fox seemed to contemplate for a moment before grinning into your collarbone.

“No,”

“What do you mean no? Shit, Fox!” you cried out. Fox’s thrusts were getting sloppy, and you knew he was close.

“I mean no. I’m gonna fill up this pussy, and then we’re going to go home, and if you’re good, maybe I’ll let you come then,” Fox said, voice shaking slightly.

“Shit, you can’t be serious. Come on, I’m so close,” you said breathlessly as Fox’s hips snapped into yours with such force that you slid up the wall you were pressed against.

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before teasing me all night,” Fox growled, breathing heavily. You whined in protest, but he had made up his mind. “Fuck, you’re all mine. I’m the only one who should get to see you like this,”

“All yours, Fox. Only yours,” you moaned, and that sent Fox over the edge. He bit down harshly on your shoulder to muffle his loud groan as he emptied himself inside you. Fox slumped against the wall, leaning into your body, and you pressed gentle kisses to his temple as he recovered.

“You know, I love you and everything, but I need you to get me home so you can fuck me properly,” you said, the serene smile on your face in sharp contrast to how needy you felt. Fox pulled back, leaving one last kiss on the tip of your nose.

“Are you ever going to learn to behave?” he said with mock exasperation.

“No, you like me better this way,” you teased back, making yourself presentable before pulling a lovestruck Fox out of his office, the two of you too enamored with each other to register the catcalls from the other guardsmen.

#commander fox x reader #commander fox fanfiction #commander fox smut #tcw fanfic #the clone wars smut #the clone wars fanfiction #commander fox #cc 1010 #cafeacademics 104 celebration

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gwaean · 3 years ago

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The Rescuers

Part One: “Old acquaintances meet again"

Summary: You are a mandalorian rebel friends with Captain Rex so you are well aware of the entire "clone situation" going on. And of course you want to help as much as you can. You then go to Ryloth trying to help the Syndulla's and maybe find your old friend Cody.

Pairing: None. Yet. But will be a Crosshair x Reader.

Gender: There'll be no mentions of gender or pronouns on this part yet. Though further in the story it might have she/they pronouns used.

Word count: 1.6k

Tags: Injury recover, post-clone wars story, rescuing clones/friends, a bit of melancholy?

Warning: Brief description of injury.

Notes: So, I literally dreamed most parts of this story (I know, crazy Star Wars obsession here). I filled up some parts as I was writing of course. And it turned out a bit like a beautiful sad tragic. I might even do a playlist for this fanfic actually. Hope u enjoy it :)

The war, the republic, the jedi all have ended. Literally on the same day. And what it seemed like a fresh start, finally a moment of peace in the chaos turned into nightmares. You weren’t there when it happened, you just heard the news of Obi-Wan saying the jedi order and the republic had fallen and you also heard the now Emperor Palpatine telling everyone that the clone wars has ended and the jedi were traitor, they’ve tried to assassinate him according to well… himself. And now he’s forming this new galactic empire, giving people numbers like the ones clones used to have and killing off any resistance against this new order. Everyone seemed to believe him, you gotta give him that he was a pretty damn’ good liar indeed. But you knew better than that. You are mandalorian after all and were friends with no one less than Duchess Satine and Senator Padmé. You helped them countless times in their diplomatics and you even fought with the jedi and the clones at times. They were good people, yes, the order might have messed up at lot but traitors? Murders? They sure didn’t deserve to die like that and I guess… No one does.

You quickly then joined the rebellion. There you found many of former politics like Senator Organa and even a clone… Captain Rex (or is it Commander now?). You’ve met him once before and he seemed like a good person and looks like he’s really a great man just like you thought. You soon became friends. But sadly, the other clones you knew before like Cody were still with the empire. Though both you and Rex were very determinate to help others like him. And also, obviously, protect your allies against the empire.

Well, as expected trouble begins. There’s been rumors about what’s going in Ryloth with the Syndulla’s and the empire occupation. Worried about them and their people, you go there to help as you can. And if there’s need, you’d call more rebels to help too though you didn’t want to envolve more people yet because you’re afraid of the reaction it could cause ( and what that would cost for ryloth and its people). You also have a tiny tiny hope that maybe just maybe Cody could be there.

Arriving in Ryloth, you discover the Syndulla family have indeed oppose agains the empire occupation and they’ve went into a lot of trouble because of that but apparently a group of mercenaries (?) have already rescued them from the prison they were sent to. One less problem for you to fix I guess. You were glad for them but you still want to spy a little on the empire and see what you could find out after all, the trip couldn’t be for nothing.

You find your way and get to a particular high hill with a great view of one imperial base. You pick up your binoculars and the only person you see in a sort of balcony is a very depressive-looking Crosshair. You remember him from that one time clone force 99 saved your butt from the mess you’ve yourself in. He was… quite unfriendly, let’s say. But he did get the job done and made sure you were okay so you just ignored his behavior. Looking at him now it was looking at a shadow of him.

It made you remember what Rex told you once:

“We clones were all created with this chip thing in our my minds. We were made for the war and the war only but apparently someone thought it would be great if they let us think we've got free will. That we could be anything we wanted to be after the war. So we made friends, some of us found a family with our jedi. They let we hope. Just so we have all of that taken away from us with order 66. The war had ended for everyone except for us. We had our will taken from us, our minds controlled by this chip and we had to follow orders. While we're still there conscious of what we were doing we had to kill the people we fought together the entire war. I remember her face... I'm so glad she didn't see my face. I couldn't bare.”

Thinking about what all the clones been through, you can’t just leave him like this. He did save you once and this was your chance to repay that. Rex keeps saying we can’t save everyone (more to himself than to you) but one person is better than nobody, right? At the time you improvise a plan: neither the empire nor Cross can’t know yet that you’re a rebel. You haven’t done anything yet incriminating (at least not that they were aware of). So you can just jump in there where he was standing and talk to him. Worst case scenario he ignores you. However you sure knew how to annoy him enough that at least he would call you out and when that happens you act. Ok, that you still have to figure out exactly how you would act. Well, half of a plan is better than no plan.

You just jump in behind his back and of course he points his gun at you as expected. But he apparently recognizes who it’s standing in front of him and put his riffle down.

“ Hello there.” You say.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He replies.

“Oh, please, don’t act like you aren’t happy to see me.”

He gives you a faint of a smile. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

You smiled back. “But seriously, what you’re doing here all alone? And why- You finally noticed the burn mark on his now bald head. - are you like this? Doesn’t the empire takes care of its soldiers? Nor your squad? The bad batch, right? That’s what you called yourselves?”

His face closes again. “You have nothing to do with that. I’m-”

“By yourself?” You pause for a moment. “Alright, I get it. You’ve probably been through a lot. We all have. Not sure why you’re like this but it doesn’t matter right now. I just wonder… Don’t you want to get out of all of this?”

Cross pauses for a moment. It seems like he's considering the possibility. “I… I can’t.”

“But…” You then think. You remind yourself of how protective he was that one time you were saved by them. Maybe this instinct was still there, you had to try. You saw a pointed rock close to where you were standing and decided that you would accidentally cut yourself. “Ouch!”

“What’s up?”

“Oh! Nothing! Just might have cut myself here.” You show your hand now with a bit bigger than you expected cut and some blood.

He almost laughs at it. “What a little clumsy one you are, eh?”

His mocking at you, that’s something, right? “Yeah, I guess….”

“Well, let’s go?” He points to the door.

“Go where?”

“Don’t you wanna take care of that, sweetheart?”

“Right, medical bay then?”

“Obviously.” Perfect. He would be right where you needed him to be.

The both of you enter the facility and walk directly to the medical bay. The empire base is pretty much a bland dark and boring military base with some troopers walking around, some commanders (you think) yelling at the soldiers and some droids doing whatever they have to do. You knew only that they were “r - unities” but droids weren’t exactly your area of expertise. However you do notice that the troopers walking around still wear the same clone armor from back the war. And you feel guilty. Because as much as you’d like you won’t be able to help them all. They’ll stay there with their chips on being controlled by the empire…. By the force, that was a hole guilty trip you knew you shouldn’t take. It wasn’t your fault. No, no. They did this. Palpatine and his men were the monsters. Not you. And certainly not these poor clones. One day, yes, one day maybe you could come back and save them?

“Hmmm…. You wanna me to do this?” Cross says. You were so distracted in your thoughts you don’t even realized you were already in the medical bay.

“Oh. You don’t have to.”

“It's fine. I’m used to do this anyway.”

“Ok. Be my guest then?”

“Wow, you’re so funny.” He jokes.

“Whatever. Just do your thing.”

“Give me your hand.”

You give him your hand and he takes it. And to your surprise he’s very gentle while taking care of your wound. He applies some alcohol pads to clean the wound. And as he presses the wound to stop the bleeding you reach for your gun and keep looking at his face. His very concentrated. It’s almost like the rest of the galaxy doesn’t matter. He’s only there at the moment focused on helping you. And you’re trying to plan how you’re gonna knock him out to take his chip off.

“Now I’m gonna get some stuff to make a bandage for ya, ok?” He says and turns his back. Now is you chance. You turn your blaster to stun only and shoots. He falls.

“I’m sorry. But there’s no other way.” You whisper as if he’s actually listening.

It takes some effort (seriously, Crosshair's heavier than he looks) but you manage to put him on one these surgical stretchers. You also have to learn super quick how to use the pad control to see where the chip’s in and take it off. But it’s done. And you wait and wait… For what it seemed like hours though it was only like 15 minutes.

And he wakes up very confused.

#swwriting #tbbwriting #the bad batch #tbb spoilers #the bad bad spoilers #the bad batch fanfiction #crosshair #crosshair x reader #ct 9904 #crosshair x y/n #crosshair x oc #female reader #gn!reader #clone wars #star wars #clone troopers #writers on tumblr

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gospelofme · 3 years ago

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57 Thoughts I Had While Watching Part 2 of The Bad Batch Season Finale (Spoilers ahead!!)

I do like how Part 2 picks right up where Part 1 left off. I prefer that method since it makes it feel like one connected piece. Like how Rogue One ended where A New Hope kicks off.

Ya know, I wouldn’t mind the thunderstorms.

Okay the explosions are beautifully animated. The blues, the sparks, the orange flames. And I like how they’re realistically placed. So many shows with explosions don’t have them right close to the characters, even if they’re supposed to be all around them.

This episode is kinda darkly lit. Not like Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones.

Okay yeah, that clone reporting the destruction…thats some sadness there.

That inner alarm has me thinking “oh shit my flight has changed gates again hasn’t it!!”

Damn, imagine being unconscious and wake up in a flooding compartment with a droid and that one kid who took your place.

Okay how strong is that knife. I kinda expect it to break in half. Wrecker would

probably try to trade with Hunter after that.

The shot of the burning buildings on the water is so beautiful too. The reflections were well done.

About AZ being like “oh hey homie, you survived being blown up but now you’re drowning. And I’m watching while this literal child tries to move metal debris off of you.”

Okay Omega using her bow like that is genius. But please wee baby don’t hit Crosshair by accident. And the way the bolts underwater were animated. 🤌🏻🤌🏻

And Crosshair being all “wtf?!”

Dang Omega is so take charge here.

Okay the sprays of water from the door is so well done. And omg they just pop outta there lmao!!!! About how Omega is caught and they just let Crosshair slide on the floor.

Haha Crosshair being like “Hunter, you fucker did you break something?!”

I really wish it wasn’t so darkly lit, but it does bring a sense of realism. The power is out, so what we’re able to see is what the characters are able to see with flashlights. Plus I’m sure this would look different on my TV than iPad.

The music is so pretty, so emotional. Oh damn poor AZ.

Oh never mind. He’s good.

Crosshair quit being a poop and follow them please.

Echo and that smell lmao.

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad.”

Huh. Interesting. But isn’t blind allegiance what the clones had in the Republic? Isn’t that what Clone Force 99 had in the Republic? At least mostly. Some clones didn’t have that obviously, like Cut.

Ooohh Crosshair’s expression when Hunter knocked his shoulder. That seemed like surprise. There is something to that.

Hmmmmmm I’m with Crosshair on that. Going through a glass tunnel with cracks in it hundreds of feet below the surface would be a no from me. Also, what about water pressure? Is that not a thing there? Like wouldn’t you get a massive headache traveling through that? Or maybe not….idk.

Oh fuck Wrecker letting Crosshair know what’s what. I do like that he’s finally expressing how he feels. I’ve always thought there was more of a brotherly relationship between Wrecker and Crosshair than Crosshair had with the others. And Wrecker has a point, Crosshair didn’t even try to come back to them. Of course that really isn’t a fair statement either I guess. Wrecker should remember how he couldn’t control what he did when his chip kicked on.

And Tech jumping in and saying that Crosshair has always been “severe and unyielding” is a good way to let us know a bit more of what’s normal behavior for Crosshair. I like how he’s reminded Wrecker that some things Crosshair can’t help due to just how he is (likely a byproduct of the enhancement experiments).

“Understanding you does not mean I agree with you.” Ugh if only more people had this mindset. Also, the whole “why are you defending me?” sounds like Tech doesn’t usually leap to Crosshair’s defense (even though that’s not what he’s doing here). Which further makes me think that the brotherly relationship that usually exists between team members (like Domino squad eventually, Rex/Echo/Fives/Kix/Jesse/Hardcase/Tup) doesn’t exist here between all the guys. It’s more sporadic. Crosshair seems to get along better with Wrecker (in their own way, teasing and their droid death counts) than he does with Tech.

Also perhaps they should not stop so often…ya know, just in case the tunnel implodes.

Oh nope nope nope. No underwater tubes and sea monsters for Bethany.

AZ is so peppy. Like he sounds so positive when relaying bad news. He sounds like the kinda droid that would be like “good news is you have great cholesterol, bad news is you have cancer. But yay no diabetes!”

Oh yeah I kinda forgot Hunter wasn’t with them they first got to the private lab. And oh damn, Omega is technically older than them. The whole accelerated aging thing is just so unfair.

Well we really couldn’t expect a glass tunnel to fully survive aerial bombardment. Better start swimming fuckers!!

Damn, someone find AZ a charger! I bet Tech has one for his datapad that boy is attached too. He seems like the type to never be without a phone charger. He also seems like the type to not want to share it because no one else in the squad treats their charge cords with respect.

Dad gum Crosshair, I didn’t hear you spouting off any bright ideas. Geez, who peed in your wheaties?!

Hunter takes things too personally?! Weren’t you being all Salty McSourpus over Hunter leaving your ass on Kamino for shooting at him and the others? Were you not taking that too personally? But kudos to Hunter for reminding him the Empire peaced the fuck out and left him to die on Kamino. Although…Crosshair does sound like he’s trying not to care about that. Like it does bother him but he’s acting like he don’t give a fuck.

“The Empire will control the entire Galaxy. And I’m going to be a part of it.” Uhm, sir…you’re currently in a secret lab at the bottom of the ocean with no means of escape right now. How do you plan to be a part of the Empire from down here? Like, are you going to establish the underwater branch of the Empire and assert the Emperor’s control over the sea critters?

Ugh Omega trying so hard to bond with Crosshair. Like the parallel between this scene and the holding cell scene. And her thinking she was wrong about the chip making him behave like a dick. Oh sweet baby, you’re not wrong. He still has that thing. But he has always been a dick per Tech’s words earlier. But she’s trying so hard to show him the similarities between them.

I’ve noticed Crosshair does a lot of pushing people away. Like he’s been doing that with Hunter and Omega this whole season. Speaking harshly to them both (although I think some of the things he says to Hunter, he’s always wanted to say). But I think it’s more that he wants to avoid disappointing them, so he shoves them away to prevent that feeling. Like perhaps he thinks he isn’t worthy to be around them, that they’ll be better off without him around.

Oh fuck, look at you contributing now Mr. I Am Going To Complain About Other People’s Ideas.

Did they have to draw straws to see who got their own pod and who had to team up with who? Like,

Hunter: “Someone has to go with Tech.”

Crosshair, Wrecker: “Not it!”

Echo: “not it, fuck I wasn’t fast enough.”

Oh the wee child is getting her own pod. Okay then.

Of course Hunter and Crosshair get doubled up. I bet they argue the whole time.

Crosshair: “stop breathing all the air!!”

Hunter: “stop standing on my foot!!”

Crosshair: “well it’s not my fault you have Sasquatch feet!”

Oh damn. Well bye Omega. It was nice knowing you. Crosshair probably has your eulogy already written.

Hm, so Tech never shared his datapad charge cord with AZ. Bummer.

Awww poor AZ. He was a good droid. We’ll remember how he OMG OMEGA WHAT THE FUCK?!!???

Again is water pressure not a thing in Star Wars?

Sweetie. He’s metal. You won’t be strong enough to pull him along with you.

Oh fuck Crosshair! Oh damn the look on his face is like “Hunter, get you ugly ass face out of my shot.” Oh damn, boy has got some good eyesight, I want a piece of that.

Bruh, that’s gotta hurt. You just saved the kid they all love and they got you at blaster point. Buuuuuut at the same time you haven’t expressed the most positive attitude towards said kid either. So maybe they have a good reason to think you’d shoot her? Still. Damn. That’s gotta hurt, since if it had been the good ol’ days they’d be like “nice shot buddy!”

Hunter looks more wary than upset honestly. Like he isn’t sure why Crosshair did that, but he’s not sure if Crosshair would want him expressing gratitude either. Hunter doesn’t seem to know how to treat him any more. Crosshair belittles him and speaks harshly to him, but then saves Omega. It’s almost like old Crosshair is still in there, knowing how attached the team is to Omega. Even if he does think she’s not in the safest environment with them.

Oh…omg what is this?! I just noticed, no rain on Kamino….AND SUNSHINE?! Like is that a fucking sunrise??!!?? Oh shit you guys there is symbolism here!!! Like a new start or something impossible has happened. Like there has never been sunshine on Kamino, it’s always stormed. Always. Always and forever it has done that. But after the destruction of Tipoca City, the rains cease and the sunshine comes out. Like….omg guys. It’s pretty!!

Interesting. Omega seems sad that a place she didn’t want to ever return to is gone. But I guess that’s probably the notion that she’s essentially homeless setting in. That the only home she’s had (before Clone Force 99) is gone.

Also, I have this theory that Ghost Fives probably travels with Echo, and he’d likely be like “good! Fuck that place. Killing Tup there and all. Bitches.”

Echo: “stfu Fives, she’s sad okay.”

Honestly I’m not surprised Crosshair refused their offer to come with them. He has his pride and I feel like he doesn’t want to admit aligning with the Empire was a mistake. That he was wrong and Hunter was right. Especially after being all Pro-Empire and talking about how they’re going to be what the Galaxy needs.

“Consider us even.” GIRL he admits it! He was saving YOU!! YOU! Not the dumb droid, YOU!!!!

His face says it all when they pull away. Like he regrets not going with them, but he can’t bring himself to stay with them. He’s really conflicted right now. He has programming in his head telling him one thing and another portion of his mind reminding him that Tech, Wrecker, Hunter, and even Echo care about him. That they’re a team. He even wanted them to join the Empire so they could all get back together. He does want to be with them, but it’s going to take time to get passed the war in his head.

Oh damn, Nala Se and some Commando buddies. Yeah there’s something up with her. She seems to have gained a lot out of this. Making herself more important than Lama Su and likely more important than the other scientists from Kamino. I wonder if this was her plan all along. It’s so hard to tell what Kaminoans are thinking because they don’t express emotions facially or even vocally.

I read a post somewhere about Nala Se doing childish science experiments. Like the baking soda/vinegar volcano. And now I can’t get the image out of my head of her teaching like a high school chemistry class where you get to do those classic science fair experiments. Things exploding, clones accidentally gassing each other at a table. Someone betting someone else 5 credits to drink a solution.

@leias-left-hair-bun @halzore @escapedthesarlacc @eyecandyeoz

#star wars #the clone wars #star wars the clone wars #the mandalorian #the bad batch spoiler #the bad batch spoilers #crosshair tbb #commander crosshair #sargent hunter #tbb hunter #tbb tech #tbb echo #arc trooper echo #tbb wrecker #tbb omega

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shimmershae · 3 years ago

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My thoughts on Episode 6--On the Inside

Very appropriate title by the way. Works in a multitude of ways.

As always, my randomness is going beneath a cut again to spare the eyeballs of those of you that don’t want to see it at all and also? Help those of you that have somehow stayed spoiler-free in this brand-new age of early release episodes. It is still so wild to me that I’m a full episode ahead of half the fandom. I don’t know what I’m going to do when we get to the final episode and they decide to make us all suffer together--because somehow I do feel they will do exactly that after spoiling us for the first 23 episodes. It is going to be agonizing.

Anyway. Without further ado, Shae’s stream of consciousness review (of sorts).

Not fair, Angela. Opening the episode with that shot of that big ass spider. I hate those suckers. So naturally, they’re an easy sell for setting the horror scene to me, lol.

Okay. Who the hell’s chasing Virgil and Connie? Walker No-See-Ums?

Barely a minute in and the atmosphere for this episode is moody AF.

What is this? Tara Jr. The Walking Dead? LOL. Where’s the Scarlett for this mini plantation house? Anyway. First three minutes of this episode? Just as attention grabbing as the first five episode openings this season. I don’t think people out there are giving our writers enough love for that. Every episode so far has opened like a mini movie.

With the way the Walking Dead logo keeps crumbling away with each successive episode, somehow it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Carol and Daryl spinoff was eventually titled The Living and had flowers growing out of each letter, lol. I mean, there would be a certain sort of life-affirming symmetry in a show that’s been promised to be much lighter in tone doing just that.

More Carol and Aaron? Yes, please. I don’t necessarily like Carol staying at home and sitting the sidelines like a figurative happy little homemaker in the B story while the rest of the mains are trying like hell to sell the A story, but if she’s going to be totally prohibited from the main storyline until it’s time to blow shit up? I’m going to continue enjoy getting to see her do what she should have been doing for seasons--interacting with others in the community, especially Aaron and the ladies.

Truly. I really am loving my girl getting some quality Aaron and Rosita time. It’s so long overdue.

Bless sweet Kelly. Riding off to her sister’s rescue.

Why isn’t Lydia shown as part of these plans? For someone that could barely read last season, I doubt that big ass map was a piece of cake for her and it’s all just guesswork anyway without her guidance. I mean, why does it feel like they are cutting some of this stuff that might not seem like much plot-wise but would go a long way toward establishing different character beats? Personally, I would have loved to see her involved in the search and sharing scenes again with Carol and bonding with Kelly.

Virgil be having that “I always feel like somebody’s watching me” feeling. Don’t you hate that, lol?

“You haven’t slept in days.” But how many days, Virgil? I’m going to need a number because I’m confused AF about this timeline at this point. What we’re seeing and what different pieces of dialogue is telling us is not exactly lining up. I’m going to find it awful hilarious if it hasn’t even been two weeks since the cave in. For reasons.

Connie’s spidey senses are clearly tingling.

Alrighty, then. She’s clearly got PTSD. Understandable. They’ve all had it. Some have been treated more sympathetically than others, though.

I mean, it never seems to cross anybody’s mind how Carol probably sees Henry’s head on that pike, Mika’s pale and bloody body, Lizzie crumpled face down in a bed of yellow flowers, Sophia with a smoking bullet hole through her undead head whenever she closes her eyes but whatever.

Okay though. But what if Connie had really shitty, impossible to read handwriting? AKA doctor’s handwriting. What then?

Leah’s face honestly twists my insides whenever I see it, lol. It’s quiet a visceral thing. No, that does not make me a horrible person. Not everybody wants or has to drink the awesome, great, redeemable villainess Kool-Aid. IMHO, she’s got a face meant for a Walker. Perfect makeover idea. Eh. Mostly it’s her expression and the deadness of her eyes.

Anyway. Why is it always the fingers? Eff that.

Listen. If ya’ll can’t tell Daryl’s conflicted AF with the situation he’s landed in, you don’t know how to read NR’s face and eyes. He’s not a masterclass like MMB but he’s pretty darn good when he wants to be.

I honestly feel sorry for Redshirt Frost.

“You do what you gotta do.” Frost knows what’s what and he’s willing to walk the walk for Maggie. Impressive loyalty. I’m left wondering how the current, colder incarnation of Maggie inspired it because I’m still struggling to see it. Anywho. My point is the dude knows the score and just gave Daryl the okay.

Daryl taking off his angel vest before stepping into the role of torturer/interrogator=him shedding the persona/the man Judith and RJ and Lydia and Carol know him to be. Pushing away his man of honor status so he can just survive somehow.

Pope never quits chewing whatever the hell he’s got in his mouth. It’s kind of distracting.

Ohhh. We’re back to the Haunted Mansion. I mean house. Where are the Hitchhiking Ghosts?

All the eyes scratched out of those creepy pictures=spooky.

The good old fogged up bathroom mirror shot. Somebody’s been watching and studying their horror movies, lol. Not gonna lie though. I’m legit bracing myself for the jump scares I know have to be coming.

I’m loving the music/score in these scenes.

Truthfully, I could care less about these Reapers. But they are hella attractive, lol. Listen. Angela knows what she’s doing.

Kelly’s horse is so pretty. Prayer chain for that baby.

More dead horses? Why?

Connie’s slingshot? Sorry. I maintain, no matter how much I like these two, that they have the lamest weapons ever. Endless supply of Virginia rocks or not.

So. Did Virgil and Connie enjoy a little equine for dinner? Did they kill it before the Walkers fed? What monsters! Yeah, no. Not if they were starving even if I personally could not have. The more probable story is they fled the camp in a panic and left the horse behind and then it went down. Sorry. I didn’t exactly study the wounds on the poor animal because it is so traumatizing to me to continue to see them meet such dastardly ends on this show. I don’t know who the hell has such a score to settle with horses but stop it.

Days. It’s only been days. Not weeks. So many times with all that Daryl and Company have had to contend with since the cave in? Those do not exist, lol. They’re just a convenient, appeasing piece of dialogue thrown at a fanbase primed and ready to read everything into not much of anything. There’s just not been enough time for it to happen unless Daryl has literally been up 24/7 for all of them. You know, strategizing how to attack the remainders of Alpha’s horde, figuring out how to defend Hilltop before it fell, healing from the wound he sustained at Alpha’s hand, sitting on that log all damn night with Negan waiting on Carol to come home, having a lover’s quarrel with his best damn everything, taking care of the Grimes babies and Lydia, being the reluctant leader. Kang, why you playing them like that? Daryl’s a super guy but he’s not a superhuman with clones. So many times my ass.

Seriously. Who been watching Connie and Virgil? The MIA Oceansiders? Beta’s Fee Fi Fo Fum Ghost?

Nice. A Michonne mention. Maybe the truth will start to trickle out.

LMAO at Connie’s “I’m not staying here.” Me neither, girl. I would be outta that house so fast.

They really “Quiet Placing” this episode. Honestly? I’m kinda loving it.

WTF was that? I know she can’t hear but you telling me all the little hairs on her arms, legs, and neck didn’t stand the fuck up and say fuck this shit, I’m gone? Pardon my language, lovelies, but that moment had my heart kicking up several beats.

Okay, okay. To be fair to Connie, every hair on her body been doing that since the front door closed. Maybe they’re desensitized.

Gollum’s chasing Connie!!! He/She wants their Precious!!!

The knee jerk reactions about this episode sight unseen are OTT, honestly. And I mean no disrespect by saying that. I can understand completely where they’re coming from because we’ve been burned so long in this fandom. But it’s obvious the spoiler source has their particular biases and reads into things in such a way that don’t line up with what’s actually being shown onscreen. Daryl’s loyalty in this episode and all along quite clearly lies with his family and his community. He’s been playing Leah since the start and is truly just trying to survive somehow.

Awful thought. The Reaper that’s so suspish of Daryl--haven’t quite caught his name or really cared to. I feel like he might try to get to Daryl somehow. When he realizes that Daryl cares no more for Leah than any human would care for somebody (they thought) they used to know? He’s going after Dog. Or Carol should she finally join this story.

I refuse to believe Carol isn’t going to be a part of this story. Because they messing with her mans, lol.

“You’re ever with us or you’re not.” Now where have I heard those words before? I wish I could find that Daryl gif because that had to be one of the funniest things ever, lol.

Unrealistic suggestion to Daryl, Leah? Breathing oxygen seems to piss off Carver. Oh look. He finally has a name for me, lol.

I love how all three of the ladies--Carol, Magna, and Rosita--look at Kelly with such indulgent, adoring “little sis, you alright?” eyes.

They are seriously the most beautiful quartet of characters. I mean all of them are lovely but Carol and Rosita this season? Ugh. The unfairness of the pretty.

Human bones. Terminus callback, lovelies. How it all would have eventually gone down if Gareth and Co. hadn’t met the business end of Rick’s red machete.

So many horror movie homages in this one.

Virgil’s like “let’s leave this Texas Chainsaw Massacre behind.”

Connie and Virgil have obviously bonded, ya’ll. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying their scenes together when the character mostly got on my nerves with Michonne. He’s a good actor and the core of his character is sympathetic, but I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t super enthused when he was the one that rescued Connie because I didn’t know how their scenes would play out. But there’s a nice synergy there.

Okay. Does Carver want Leah for himself? Because I’m sure Daryl at this point would love to scream “take her, I know where I fucking belong!”

Daryl’s digging in deep because Carver has shown him Leah’s potential weak spot. Nuance is truly lost on some people, LMAO. He cares about Leah as a human being probably. He’s Daryl, after all. The sweet one. But he sees her as his way outta this and he’s going to exploit it.

It’s nice to have a silent Negan for once, lol. I can pretend he didn’t take my baby Glenn away from me and enjoy JDM’s pretty.

So. These cannibal people were the watchers? Hmm.

I’m really digging Virgil 2.0. Yeah. Nobody’s surprised more than me.

Sweet, sweet scene between Virgil and Connie. His determination to reunite her with her family brings back the sympathy I felt for him when he told Michonne “I promised her flowers. Every day.”

Damn. How many of those creepy crawly cannibals are there?

How brave of Connie to confront her fears to save someone she’s obviously grown to care about.

The Kelly/Connie reunion gave me chills and made me cry. Thank fuck Angela didn’t cheapen that moment by having it focus on literally anybody else. Kelly is the most important person in the whole world to Connie and vice versa. Just like Carol is the most important person in the whole world to Daryl and vice versa. Angela fucking knows. Everybody does. Except the people busy building castles out of sand while the waves of Carol’s and Daryl’s converging stories keep crashing closer and closer to shore.

Such a beautiful moment given to us by Angel Theory and Lauren Ridloff. So authentic and sweet. Kelly and Connie are home to each other.

Poor Frost. That’s all I gotta say about that.

WTF, though. Was Mel just not available or what? I want to see more of the ASZ characters that I care about, not the Reapers. Like I’d be fine with the story if all the characters not named Maggie, Negan, or Daryl weren’t surviving on crumbs during it. Especially the 2nd billed actress on the entire show. Angela. Please. Fix this.

One last WTF. Seriously. WTF has Maggie done to inspire Pope’s obsession? It better be juicy after all this shit.

Overall impression of the episode--

One of my favorites of the season so far. The horror aspects were fantastic, IMHO. I truly didn’t expect to like Connie and Virgil’s scenes as much together so that was a nice surprise. She got the reunion that felt most true and earned for the character and her story and I thank Angela from the bottom of my heart for that.

I would have loved more Carol but I always want more Carol. I’m okay with her taking a backseat because ultimately? This was Kelly’s moment with her sister. Carol and Connie will eventually have their time to sit down and talk. And pick back up their blossoming friendship because I truly do not feel Connie blames Carol at all.

I do wish Lydia had been included with the girl group. Last episode felt like it was leading up to that.

The Reaper storyline continues to be the weakest link because every time we see them the dialogue and interactions feel totally recycled from the time previous. I feel like it would have totally been helped by a tighter focus and less stretching out because 8 episodes of this is really diluting what I feel like Angela and Co. are going for. I’m not here for Leah being redeemed or being a bigger focus in any of the episodes because she does nothing of interest for me. I’m just peeking in on that story for the Daryl of it all.

Speaking of the Daryl? You lovelies out there gotta stop taking that spoiler source’s recaps at face value because it’s obvious to me at least that there’ some bias at work. Every action and word coming from Daryl is coming from a place of loyalty to his family and wanting to protect them, no matter how he has to dirty his hands. Leah is just a means to his ultimate end. She’s not his future. She never was. His future’s already spoken for and 2023 can’t get here soon enough. But like Daryl, we have to just survive somehow.

Oh goodie. More Maggie and Negan next episode and looks like no real follow up on Connie and the ASZ reunions. Hopefully, this is yet another instance of the previews being deceiving but I’m not holding my breath.

Until later, lovelies.

Hope my word vomit didn’t bore you too much.

#The Walking Dead #Season 11 #TWD spoilers #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons #ignore all the typos #with something this longwinded?#LOL #there's bound to be plenty

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fangirlandiknowit101 · 3 years ago

Note

12, 14 and 18☺️

Thanks for asking <333

12. Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

There's lots to be honest, but something I still can't believe I haven't written is a horse riding au. Like, that's half a lie bc I have a few thousand words written for a Simon/Baz horse rider au that I might never finish, but I'd really like to write one for Naruto. But I always decide not to because I don't know all the words and I hate googling stuff while I write. But one day! Surely!

14. If you were stuck on a desert island with only two characters, which would you pick?

Honestly? Kirk and Spock. They'd find a way to get us out of there. And if not, it would at least be cool to meet them.

18. What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene.

You really had to pick such a difficult question... I can never decide on any particular line/scene. So I opened up The sun within me and looked at the chapters and thought I'd pick something that could be interesting to comment on. And in this case, it's a bit about how Naruto, Sasuke, and Charasuke have changed and their different relationships with each other. So! Here's a bit of commentary for a scene in chapter 40 (under the cut bc it's fairly long lol):

[For clarification, this is right after Naruto and Sasuke come back home from Sasuke's mission where he fought Menma and Menma then disappeared. I'm skipping ahead to the part where they arrive at the orphanage and Charasuke is waiting in their room (Naruto's POV). My comments will be written in bold text.]

The clone’s memories dropped into his head like a puff of smoke, and he groaned out loud, making a face. Sasuke gave him a concerned look, but Naruto sighed and shook his head.

“Let’s go,” he said, feeling very reluctant as he grabbed Sasuke’s arm.

He supposed he could have teleported them somewhere else, but Charasuke had seemed prepared to wait until they returned. Maybe Sasuke could deal with him while Naruto sort of… drifted away and hid in the kitchen.

Naruto is acting very childishly in this scene, mostly because he's still wary of Charasuke, and also because he's just spent two days in Sasuke's company but pretending to be Menma, which means no cuddles/kisses or anything. He's kind of clingy, isn't he? Haha. And also, he doesn't really want to admit to himself that Menma disappearing for Charasuke is the parallel to his worst fear, that Sasuke will disappear.

“Where is he?” Charasuke demanded the second they arrived in the bedroom.

“Ah, Sasuke, maybe you can explain?” he suggested, inching towards the door, but Sasuke nailed him to the floor with a single glare.

“He could be anywhere,” Sasuke said, continuing to glare until he was sure that Naruto wouldn’t escape. “I didn’t manage to get a good look through the portal.”

“The portal?” Charasuke seemed to waver, arms wrapped around himself as he looked between them. “Tell me what happened.”

You can tell that Sasuke has really started to care about Charasuke here. He's not entirely open with him yet, but he recognizes a lot of himself in Charasuke and he puts himself in Menma's position, thinking about when he left the village and Naruto was left behind. He doesn't want Charasuke to hurt the way he knows Naruto was hurting back then.

While Sasuke described the mission, including what he called ‘Naruto’s dumb interference’, Naruto dug through his closet for the shirt he would make Sasuke wear. He was absolutely sure that Sasuke would argue about it – especially since he’d sent a clone to Akatsuki and not himself – but if he talked fast enough and relented that it would be enough if Sasuke slept in it for one night…

“He really is gone, then,” Charasuke said, his voice toneless. “I’ll never see him again.”

“I’m sure you’ll see him again,” Naruto said, contemplating the pros and cons of a t-shirt versus long sleeves. “Whoever grabbed him and hauled him off probably just wanted to keep him out of Sasuke’s reach. He gets awfully strong when he’s irritated.”

Naruto is definitely acting a bit heartless here, again, because he doesn't want to think about his own feelings or feel forced to recognize that Charasuke is a person Sasuke cares about, that he should also care about. I think he can get a bit closed off when there's too much going on in his own life, and that makes it hard to focus on other people, especially since he still wants to leave the other dimension and doesn't want to think about Sasuke caring about his family here - meaning Sasuke might want to stay.

When he turned back from the closet, he found Sasuke giving him a disappointed look.

“What?”

“You’re taking this lightly,” he said, glancing at the shirt in Naruto’s hand and apparently deciding to ignore it.

“Well, unless we figure out how to dimension-hop after him, I don’t think there’s a lot we can do.”

Now that he was back to being himself, all Naruto really wanted was to curl up in bed with Sasuke and not think about the outside world at all. Charasuke, on the other hand, seemed on the verge of tears.

“And what would you have done if I was the one who disappeared?” Sasuke asked, an icy note to the question.

“How would I know? It hasn’t happened yet.”

A bit of foreshadowing lol. Except Sasuke is the one left reacting when Naruto leaves, but Naruto really is trying to keep a tight grip in his emotions here and absolutely not think about the fact that Sasuke could have disappeared with Menma, and he wouldn't have known what happened to him.

“You could have let me follow after him and we’d know where he went.”

Naruto straightened up, face hardening.

“No, you might have known where he went, but the rest of us wouldn’t. Besides, he was trying to kill you. I went through too much trouble to keep you alive to just let you jump into some unknown enemy territory.”

As you can see, putting a lot of emphasis on Naruto's fear of losing Sasuke again.

Silent tears now streaming down his cheeks, Charasuke sat down on the bed and clenched his fists over his lap. It was obvious that he didn’t like what they were saying, but Naruto pushed his feelings of sympathy aside. Sasuke was his top priority, and that hadn’t changed simply because there was another one of him now.

“I told him I never want to see him again,” Charasuke sniffled, and it was really disturbing to watch someone with Sasuke’s face – well, a version of Sasuke, really – crying out in heartache.

Meanwhile poor Charasuke is having a background breakdown. To Naruto, it's hard to see a version of Sasuke like this. Charasuke is coming face to face with the realization that he's A: definitely not over Menma, B: he really handled things badly and never even stopped to think about why Menma was doing things.

“If he survives, you can apologize,” Naruto told him, trying to sound comforting. “Hell knows Sasuke said a lot worse stuff to me.”

To his great surprise, Sasuke went over to sit beside Charasuke, frowning as his hand twitched to reach out to him.

“This isn’t about you and me, Naruto,” he said, settling for an awkward hand on Charasuke’s shoulder. “And it could be our fault, anyway.”

“You know, Sasuke,” Naruto said as the initial shock wore off, “that sounds scarily like you’ve started caring about other people.”

Naruto and Sasuke having a small fight about Charasuke... Naruto knew Sasuke cared about Charasuke, but this is when he realizes that Charasuke is becoming a person that Sasuke wants to protect. And for Sasuke it's a small step towards opening his heart for more people than just Naruto. Sasuke is honestly mad at Naruto for taking things so lightly, for treating this other dimension as something that doesn't affect them. Besides, I really wanted Charasuke to be comforted by Sasuke haha.

Charasuke kept crying, and the look Sasuke directed at him clearly said what he thought of Naruto right then.

“Moron. I care about other people, just not anyone in our own dimension.”

Naruto knew that to be a lie, but decided not to say anything. Having Sasuke admitting to something like having feelings was a huge enough step on its own. Instead he sighed, grabbed something to sleep in, and headed for the door.

“I’ll just sleep on a couch,” he mumbled.

Does Sasuke care about anyone back in their own dimension? Maybe, but you wouldn't really see him act like this with canon Sakura, not before they left for the RTN dimension at least. It's a big thing that Sasuke is starting to voice his feelings out loud, and acknowledge them more. Naruto is feeling jealous actually, because he wanted to finally have Sasuke to himself, and also he feels guilty for being jealous, and also he's hoping that if he pouts enough Sasuke will comfort him instead of Charasuke lol. Not always the most mature person, but who is?

Coward, Kurama accused as he headed towards the living room, but Naruto was too tired to argue with him. Something about Charasuke always rubbed him wrong, and maybe it had to do with how he displayed his emotions openly and so obviously thought of himself as weak. If Sasuke wanted to handle it, fine. Naruto didn’t have the patience for people who sat around crying, and a small part of him didn’t like that he had such problems with caring about Menma, either. Menma had everything, a loving family, a Sasuke who cared about him, but he was still feared and treated differently. Even in this world people treated the bijuu as something dangerous, and he wondered how much of the whole story of them losing consciousness and turning into beasts was true, and how much was justification to treat them badly.

It's a bit of 'my problems are worse than yours so you shouldn't be so upset'. In the movie, we really got to see how much it hurt Naruto to see this other world where he had everything he wanted, and then acknowledge that it wasn't real. Even if he can recognize that the bijuu were still treated badly here, he can't quite make peace with the way Charasuke and Menma can't appreciate what they have. It makes it really hard for him to sympathize with them.

Am I supposed to feel touched? Kurama snorted as Naruto rearranged pillows into an acceptable bed on one couch. You didn’t care much for us either before you figured out the truth.

No, but everything was supposed to be the opposite here, right? Well, this part isn’t the opposite, it’s the same.

Between one heartbeat and the next, Naruto blinked his eyes open in front of Kurama’s open cage. There was water sloshing around his ankles, and everything was clouded in some sort of yellowish haze.

“Oh, come on,” he complained, but Kurama tsk’ed at him with his head supported by one giant paw.

“I hate to admit it, but you might be onto something, kid.”

“Uh-huh, well I don’t know about you but I want to sleep.”

Kurama reached out and poked him in the stomach with a sharp claw, eyes narrowing to slits. Even if they were friends, Naruto didn’t feel like testing the limits of that friendship with those claws so close to him.

“Sometimes you say things in such a stupid voice that I miss how important it might be. Now shut up and listen,” Kurama growled, three of his tails swishing angrily behind him. “This world is supposed to be opposite, right?”

“I don’t know, but everything seems opposite.”

“Let’s pretend we know it’s true. So, everything and everybody is the opposite more or less. But, the prejudice against the bijuu is still there. And we were told that it was only recently that they became unable to control. So, where does that leave us?”

Naruto pouted, not bothering to answer. Obviously Kurama already knew what he wanted to say.

“I think it means that anything that is the same, is something that somebody has tampered with.”

I was going to do more with this, but it was also a bit of 'what sort of theories would they have for what was really going on?' and this one is accurate in a way, because Hagoromo did tamper with the bijuu which in turn made them become feared and badly treated. So it's definitely hinting at there being someone behind the scenes manipulating the bijuu.

“Huh?”

Kurama rolled his eyes, sighing so deeply that Naruto felt the wind from it tear at his clothes.

“Think, boy! If this is a mirror-world or whatever, people shouldn’t be afraid of me and my siblings. But they are, and it only started a while ago. Obviously someone made us go crazy. And Menma has me inside him, but a crazy version of me, so wouldn’t it be logical that whoever did something to the me inside Menma, could also do something to Menma?”

He thought about it, hard enough that his head started hurting. Sasuke would probably know, but he was busy with Charasuke.

“I guess,” he said eventually, huffing a little. “But even if you’re right, it doesn’t help us figuring out who’s behind it all.”

“Does it matter?” Kurama scoffed, and then his lips spread in a terribly evil grin. “We’re going to kill them anyway, aren’t we?”

“This is why you have such a bad reputation,” Naruto sighed.

Kurama only laughed.

I really love Kurama... His and Naruto's weird friendship gives me life. His solutions to problems are always very straightforward heh.

Well, that's that :3

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basura2319 · 4 years ago

Text

Take A Break

(Gif credit)

Pairing: Jango Fett x reader

Requested by: anonymous

Anonymous said:

“Hi! Can I request Jango x reader fluff? Your writing is really good!”

WC: 1.9k

Warnings: slight angst but fluff overall

A/N: I’m sorry for the lack of uploads guys. I hope whoever requested this likes it!

The annoying blare of the chronometer was what had awoken you and Jango from your peaceful slumber.

You buried yourself further into the covers as if that would block out the noise.

“Jango, turn it off!” you whined.

You heard a grunt, then the blaring stopped.

You sighed contently and closed your eyes.

“Seriously?” Jango’s voiced, the sleep still imminent in his voice. He gently pulled the covers off of you to reveal you, glaring at his disruption. “What? Is this the ‘good morning’ I get from you?”

You closed your eyes and smirked at him. “Yes, because you woke me up.”

He placed both hands on your hip to pull you in forward, making you jolt. “It’s my turn to retrieve the bounty, remember?” he said stated.

It’s true. You both had to take turns leaving Kamino for your bounty hunting endeavors, while one of you stayed behind with little Boba. You didn’t understand why you both had to do this. Jango received a huge sum of fortune for being the clone-template for the Kaminoans; enough credits so he would never have to work for the rest of his days. All those years partnering with him just goes to show how Jango was a man who always needed something to do. A man always on the move. You, on the other hand, were the same, but you also believed in taking breaks from this profession too.

Your lips formed into a pout. “I know.” Your gaze traveled to the fine lines on his face from all his years of fighting.

“I sometimes wish you could take a break from all this,” you said solemnly, tracing patterns over his face.

He said nothing, just took your hand that was touching his face and began to kiss along the pads of your fingers.

“I need to get ready,” was all he said before getting out of your shared bedroom.

You stayed on your bed for a few seconds before getting up to use the refresher. After checking up on Boba, who was still sound asleep (lucky him) you ventured into your kitchen to make breakfast.

You gathered your ingredients and commenced your cooking. Pancakes seemed like something to brighten up your disheartened mood. Not to mention, your little Boba would appreciate them too.

Taking the already prepped batter, you poured a good, almost even amounts onto the griddle.

“Pancakes?” you heard Jango say behind you.

“Pancakes,” you nodded, taking note that he was already in his armor. You looked away wistfully and flipped the pancakes with your spatula.

He saw your clear disappointment at his departure and his chest crept with guilt. Of course he felt bad that he had to leave you and his son behind while he made some credits, but it was grained in him since the beginning of his bounty hunting career to work non-stop. You were a notorious bounty hunter too, but he knew that there would come a day when you would be ready to cast it all aside and live a quiet life. With him of all people. Jango was aware that he had to set his bounty hunting ways aside someday. It was the question of when that day would come.

He stood behind you, setting both hands on your hips and brushed his lips over the nape of your neck.

“You’re mad at me,” he pressed a kiss below your ear.

You shivered slightly at the feeling but continued to flip the pancakes. “No.”

He could tell you were lying by the tone of your response.

You moved away from his grasp to fetch a plate for him, then handed him his breakfast.

“Thank you cyar’ika,” he said, giving you a peck on the lips before taking the plate from you.

You gave him a small smile before serving yourself.

You both sat there, making small talk about the bounty he was going to after.

“How long will you be gone,” you said while adding more syrup to your pancakes.

Jango reached over to touch your hand in a feather-light motion.

“If everything goes right, I should be back in a week,” he stated, watching your reaction.

You nodded, expressionless. “Okay.”

After a few minutes of silence, he spoke up again.

“I’m going to say good-bye to Boba,” he let go of your hand to move.

You took yours and his empty plate and placed it into the sink to wash later.

Moments later, Jango came into the kitchen carrying his four-year-old son, who was half awake.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” you swept your hand over his curls, kissing his forehead.

“G’morning,” he said dreamily, rubbing the sleep of his eyes.

Jango smiled softly at his little family, regretting having to leave behind moments like these.

“Buir has to go to work ad’ika,” Jango said, giving him to you to carry.

“Why?” his small voice quavered, and his brown eyes gleaned with unshed tears.

“I’ll be back,” he hugged you both. “Behave towards (Y/N), okay?”

Boba replied with an “mhm.”

“I made you pancakes, sweetie,” you said to him to which you saw his the corners of his lips lift into a grin at the mention of pancakes.

“I have to go,” he kissed you both on the cheek. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Be careful out there,” you wavered. “Come back to us.”

He kissed you again, but this time on your lips. “I will.”

“Bye, daddy!” Boba waved at him, and you sat him on a chair to give him his pancakes.

“Good-bye ad’ika,” you heard him say before the sound of the door opened and shut, leaving you and Boba on your own.

Cutting the pancakes into smaller bits, you gave your little one his food and watched how he devoured it all with a delighted look on his face.

Noticing your far-off look, he slides off his chair to climb onto your lap.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in concern, hugging you with his small arms.

You stared at him, the spitting image of Jango, of course, because he was an exact replica of him and smiled softly at him.

“I just miss your father, little Boba,” you said, soothing his unkempt hair back.

“Me too,” sighed Boba afterward.

The following days were spent trying to entertain Boba, but since it always rained on Kamino, there was nothing the both of you could do except stay inside. However, you did what you could. You made a blanket fort with him, watched holo-movies, read to him, and you even managed to get him to help you with cooking. The Kaminoans would occasionally come knocking on your door to see if everything was alright, or more likely to see if you and Boba weren’t stirring any trouble. Four years living on Kamino, and you got the sense that they didn’t trust you or Jango. The feeling was mutual.

Also, Jango would send you messages over how things were going. He was in the mid rim according to his messages. A long distance from Kamino.

Overall, you and Boba were having fun despite the lingering feeling that you two were missing someone important who should be with you right now.

Entering the living-room, you laughed to yourself as you spotted an exhausted Boba asleep on the couch, clutching his stuffed animal. Poor thing. He was spent from all that running around the house playing a game of tag with you. You picked him up and bought him to his room, changing him into his pajamas before leaving him to sleep undisturbed.

You cleaned up the mess around the apartment, then headed for your room. Yeah, you were also tired from chasing that little maniac around. Kriff, you were getting old, you thought as you stretched out your arms.

A shower later, you hit the covers and your mind, too tired to wonder about anything else, fell into a spiral of dreams.

Not long after Jango returned, entering into a silent home. He put his helmet, weapons, and armor away in his closet before heading to your shared bedroom.

Jango did not want to wake you, so he tried his best to maneuver in the dark. But the lights turned on, revealing you on the bed, aiming your blaster at him.

“Oh,” you mumbled disoriented while setting the weapon at your bedside. “It’s just you.”

Jango looked sheepishly at you. “I was trying not to wake you.”

“I heard rummaging outside, plus I thought you had a few more days until you came home.”

“No,” he shook his head. “I managed to capture the bounty quickly and in good time.”

“Of course you did,” you said, smiling tiredly. You patted the empty side of the bed. “Come to bed, Jango.”

He raised a brow at you. “But I stink.”

“So?” you scoffed. “I want to cuddle with my lover, regardless of how he smells.”

He chuckled softly. “Nah, cyare, I don’t think so.”

“Okay,” you huffed, watching him enter the refresher.

“It’ll be quick,” he said, closing the door.

You flopped back onto the bed, your droopy eyes staring up at the ceiling and ears listening to the running water for a time. You heard Jango opening the refresher door, and you sat up, staring at his bronzed chest glistening with droplets of water and his stark black hair tousled in yearning.

“What,” he said, meeting your eyes as he removed his towel to change.

You rested your palm under your cheek. “I missed you.”

He hung his towel to dry and slipped underneath the covers.

You turned off the lights and faced him.

“Come here,” he said, and you sidled into his strong his arms wrapping you close to him. He nuzzled your neck and kissed his way up to meet up with your lips. His lips devoured yours languidly, and you sighed happily.

“I have something to tell you,” he said in-between kisses.

You brushed over his lips one last time before drawing back. “Nothing bad, I hope.”

He cradled the back of your head with his one hand, bringing you in closer to for a keldable kiss.

“Not at all,” his breath fanned over your face.

You raked your hand through his damp hair in the dark. “Okay, so what is it?”

He went silent for a minute. “I was thinking about what you said the other day,” his thumb brushed your cheek. “About taking a break from hunting for a while, and I agree.”

“What?” You echoed.

The thumb brushing your cheek stilled. “I think we don’t have to take turns leaving Kamino to hunt all the time,” he continued. “I thinking taking a break will be good for us, for Boba.”

He couldn’t see your expression in the dark, but he didn’t have to see you for him to know you were looking at him as if he grew a second head.

“Jango? Taking a break from bounty hunting?” You gasped dramatically, clutching his shirt. “What have you done with my lover?”

He pinched your side, and you yelped.

“Ow!” you whined, rubbing where he pinched you. “But seriously though, what brought this on? You’ve never taken breaks.”

“I just want to spend more time with you and Boba,” he replied nonchalantly. “I believe it would do us good.”

You giggled. “I can’t believe I’m hearing you say you want a vacation.”

He tickled your sides, causing you to double over in laughter.

“Stop! You’ll wake up Boba,” you whispered harshly at him as you tried pathetically to push his hands away.

You both held each other in comfortable silence.

“Mon Cala.”

“Hmm?”

He held your hand and kissed your inner wrist. “Let’s go to Mon Cala.”

You rolled on top of him in a flurry of excitement, causing him to grunt at the sudden movement. “Hell yeah!”

Permanent Taglist: (Lmk if you want to be added or removed): @chaotic-noceur @kaminobiwan

#requests #jango fett #jango fett x reader

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stormcrawler75 · 5 years ago

Note

For the prompt thingy, Reluctant Caretaker With Janus and Infant!Patton? (Aka sunshine pure baby and unqualified papa)

Characters: Janus, Patton, Virgil, mentions of Logan, Remus, and Roman

Warnings: Coma, drunk driving, bruises, stitches

“Unnnnnnnnn’caaaaaaaaa, ‘Anu!”

Janus groaned, cracking his eyes open and rubbing at his eyes sleepily. He glanced at his alarm clock and after blinking a few times, he groaned again when he saw just how early it was. “Fucking- ugh,” he muttered, rubbing his hand down his face. He sighed and got up, slowly walking out of the room.

“Unnnnnnnnn’caaaaaaaaa, ‘Anu!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Janus muttered, yawning so hard that his jaw clicked. He walked into the room that had been nothing but a guest room a few days ago - when things had still been normal and Janus didn’t have to worry about raising a baby - and to the old crib that he had gotten three splinters setting up.

His nephew was standing up in the crib and looking up at Janus with wide eyes and a bright grin. He bounced up and down and made grabby hands at Janus. “Un’ca ‘Anu’, up! Up!”

Janus yawned and picked Patton up, bracing him against his hip. “Yes, Uncle Janus is up now. Though, the fact that either of us is up at four fifteen is a crime,” he told the one-year-old seriously.

And in return for the great wisdom that he had given his nephew, Patton reached up and grabbed Janus’ nose. Well... Janus supposed that he had gotten worse feedback from people who he had given advice to.

“Alright now, no playing games now,” Janus hummed sleepily, gently moving Patton’s hand away and walking out of the used-to-be-a-guest-room. He glanced out the window and sighed. The stupid sun could already be seen peeking up over the horizon. “Are you hungry? Is that why you woke me up?”

“’anna ‘ee Daddy,”

Janus froze right at the top of the stairs, feeling like he had just been slapped. He had been so good pushing back and ignoring the heart-crushing grief, confusion, and helplessness that the last few days had brought. And with three words, his one-year-old nephew had almost completely toppled all the walls that Janus had put up to try and cope. Janus took a shaky breath, eyes burning with unshed tears. “I’m afraid that you can’t see your Daddy right now,” he said softly, walking down the stairs. “You’re living with me for now, Patton. I... will explain in the morning, okay?”

Patton gave him a look with so much of Virgil’s stubbornness that Janus almost let out a sob. Virgil had barely had Patton for a year and his son was already so much like him.

“For now, let’s think of better things,” Janus said with forced chipper in his voice. He walked into the kitchen grabbed a small box of cheerios from his cupboard. “Even though it’s far too early to be up and awake, five o’clock is also the time when the old cartoons come on. I used to watch these shows with your daddy when I was just a toddler and he was your age.” He managed a weak smile as he walked into the living room. “Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Yes,” Patton chirped, grinning at Janus widely that wrinkled the stark white bandaid that he had gotten at the hospital. “Yes!”

Janus chuckled, sitting down in his favourite old armchair, shifting Patton so he was in one arm so he could open up the box of cheerios. “Did you watch these shows with your daddy? Or did Mr. Lawyer show his son more serious shows? Educational programs?” He got a blank stare in response and decided that it was far too early in the morning to use big words with his nephew. So instead he just switched the channel until he found old reruns of ‘The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show”.

Besides, Patton’s excited cry of, “T’eety!” made Janus think that maybe this wasn’t the first time he had watched these shows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janus’ shoes clicked against the hospital tiles, the only sound in the eerily quiet hallway. He could hear distant coughs and the quiet sound of people talking but here, in the long term care section of the hospital at eight o’clock in the morning, there wasn’t much noise. And it made Janus so sad. His poor baby brother didn’t belong in a place like this.

He stopped outside the last door in the hallway, knocking gently at the half-open door. “Good morning,” he said softly, walking in and draping his coat over one of the chairs. He sat down with a sigh. “I’m sorry that I’m here so early but your son woke me up at four AM. I left him with my friends so I can come to see you. Please don’t worry about your son, Virgil. Logan and Remus are good people and they already love Patton." He took off his bowler hat and put it in his lap, tapping his finger against it gently. “Do you have anything to say about that?”

Of course Virgil didn’t. Though, Janus supposed that he couldn’t be too upset with his brother. It was rather hard to speak with tubes down your throat. And the fact that Virgil was in a coma made it even harder, Janus was sure.

Virgil was lying completely still on his hospital bed, looking strangely peaceful. He didn’t seem bothered at the dark purple bruises on his cheeks or the stitched-up cut on his forehead. And then Janus remembered how he had looked a few days ago when he had first been brought to the hospital and had to look away.

“Your friend Roman came to my house the other day,” Janus said, forcing himself to continue. He had to speak talking. He feared what would come out of his mouth if he didn’t. “I must say, Roman may not be as interesting as his brother but he is a good lawyer. He’s pushing me to press charges and he is assuring me that I would have a very good case.” He snorted and shook his head. “Though, I suppose that you don’t have to be a good lawyer to know that driving while is against the law.”

When there was no response to his words, Janus sighed and reached forward, gently putting a hand over Virgil’s bruised one. “Do you remember how happy I was when you made me Patton’s Godfather,” he whispered softly and with a slight tremble to his words. “Well, I change my mind. Virgil... I have no idea how to care for a baby. You have to wake up so you can raise your son. Please.” He laughed and blinked, vision turning a little blurry. “I am begging, Virgil. You have to wake up. I can’t do this. I don’t know how to do this.”

The only response Janus received was the steady beeping of Virgil’s heart monitor. It looked like Janus was on his own for now.

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#storm writes #Bad Things Happen Bingo #tw coman #tw drunk driving #tw bruises #tw stitches #Janus Sanders #Patton Sanders #Virgil Sanders #Anonymous

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tonksie-writes · 4 years ago

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A Mark and A Soul||CH 3

Summary: The next morning Cara tries to figure out how to avoid any sort of incriminating conversations when things get more complicated.

A/N: Hi! So Here there is mentioned a background WLW Ship. It’s not going to be a huge part but it’s there and IDK if anyone but me in this world ships it but ya know.... it’s small. Also look more chapters. Let’s keep going right?

Prologue, Ch 1 , Ch2, AO3

It wasn’t much of a surprise to Cara when she woke up alone. She hadn’t expected to have him there wrapped around her when she woke up, though a small traitorous voice in her mind said she’d have liked that. Other than the bottles on the floor and a foggy dream of Din kissing her, there was no hint of the Mandalorian in the room. Her body, however, had a keen reminder of everything that had happened the night before. She sat up clutching a thin sheet over her chest -- a sheet she knew she hadn’t pulled up herself.

Images of the night before played in her head. She wasn’t some school girl still fumbling with boys behind trees on Alderaan. She’d had plenty of one night stands before and even a few instances of more drawn out but equally casual interactions. It was rare on Alderaan for people to ‘betray’ their soulmates by being with someone else; it happened here and there. None of those interactions had her replaying scenes from the night before quite like what she’d had with Din. She still felt his lips on hers in a bruising passion, still felt his hands roaming over her seeking places that would make the most impact on her. She could still hear his voice in her ear as his hot breath tickled her skin. Those memories alone would have her hitting the fresher if she wasn’t careful.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the thick metal door. “Yeah?” she called out in a rasping voice. Somehow it was no surprise when the door opened, and he was standing there in his full armor.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment at the sight of her, but walked in and closed the door behind him. “I brought you some caf and breakfast,” he said, holding out a plate of indiscernible food matter and a steaming cup. She knew it was impossible but somehow she could have sworn she could feel his eyes roaming over her form under the thin sheet. Call her crazy, but she was pretty sure he was blushing too.

“Thanks.”

She reached out, taking the cup with one hand still holding the sheet over her chest. He set the plate aside and looked like he was about to sit on the bed for a second before he changed his mind.

“About--” he started, but she instantly cut him off. No way he was finishing that sentence.

“So what’s the plan?�� she asked instead. That wasn’t a conversation she was willing to have right now. There were too many ways it could go, and she wasn’t ready for any of them.

“That--I?” His confusion was clear in his voice. Somewhere under that helmet was a wrinkled brow and a slight frown, along with an agape jawline surrounded by a scruff she still felt the marks of on some of the more sensitive places on her body. His dark eyes were probably searching her face for a clue of what she meant.

She tried not to laugh at the images she now had in her mind to match a face with the expressions she always read in his voice. “Bib Fortuna,” she supplied, and he seemed to register as she took a slow sip of her caf praying for the magical substance to work its marvels with her sleep deprived mind.

“Right. Fortuna. Fett and Shand wanted to go in the front door. Fett wanted to use the ship to give coverfire while you and Shand go in and take out the guards inside.”

Cara let out a scoff as she arched her brow. “Seriously? He wants to take out one of the worst crime lords in the galaxy with a loud frontal assault? Like he doesn’t have escape tunnels?”

Din let out a chuckle under his helmet and shrugged, “That’s what I said.”

She smiled a bit at him, holding back a laugh. He moved to sit on the foot of the rack giving them plenty of space between them, but still closer.

“Really?” she asked, not really believing him.

“I was a little less blunt, but the meaning was there.” he admitted, and she laughed.

“Sure,” she said, leaning back, allowing the sheet to slip down her chest a little as she placed both hands around her caf mug, “but it could still work with a smaller distraction. If it’s quiet or if we can scout how many guards he has, then you and I can go in first and Shand can snipe from farther back?”

As she took a long sip of her caf, she waited for his response. Din’s helmet didn’t move in the least, but she could somehow tell his eyes flicked from her face to the place where the sheet was barely keeping her modest. Was he even listening?

“We can talk about that upstairs.” he offered, but he sounded distracted. She knew she was attractive, and after last night, he was clearly attracted to her. Soulmate facts aside, he had made it very clear that he was physically attracted to her. Feeling his eyes and hearing his voice was still a boost to the ego, though. She casually picked up a piece of fruit from the breakfast plate and popped it into her mouth, licking her fingers and lips, but continued on like she wasn’t trying to all but torture him with her current movements. She’d always been a big fan of playing with fire.

“You’ve already been up there, right? What’s going on? Still fighting?” she asked, sucking the last of the fruit’s juice off her fingers. It was very good if a little sweet but she wasn’t in this for the fruit. She could nearly see the gears turning in his head. Was it mean to do this to the poor armored man in front of her? Absolutely yes. Was she also enjoying that cruelty immensely? Also very much yes.

After a pause, he finally cleared his throat and spoke, rasping, “They haven’t come out yet. It’s still early.”

“Did I steal your caf?” she asked, pointing to the now half-empty mug that had joined the plate on the rackside table.

He shook his head just slightly “No I umm… I locked them out of the kitchenette.” He admitted a bit sheepishly.

She tilted her head and arched an eyebrow at him. “You barricaded the door instead of just coming in here to eat?” she asked, a bit pointedly. If he was going to feel awkward about everything or if he was going to put himself or others into uncomfortable situations, then she’d have to talk to him. She’d still avoid the feelings thing, she didn’t do those, but other parts.

“They didn’t mind,” he assured her awkwardly, “I mentioned you were still sleeping.”

“And they just gave you free reign?” she asked, not believing him for a second. There had to be more to it.

“Well, Shand was going through fighting forms, and I think Fett is afraid of you,” he explained, making her laugh. “He said I could take my time.”

“You punch one wall,” she said, rolling her eyes jokingly at the memory of when she’d gotten a little too pissed off at how long everything was taking and needed to let out some steam.

“You dented his ship,” Din pointed out, and she could hear the laugh in his voice.

“Barely! It wasn’t even that hard of a punch,” she scoffed, but the smile on her face was unmistakable. They laughed and sat in silence for a moment as she ate more of her meal a little less sexually this time. She could sense him fighting with himself about what to say next, what to do. She knew she wouldn’t be able to face that conversation quite yet, so she diverted it. “You might wanna get upstairs. If I don’t get dressed, they might think I killed you and get a whole damn show.”

“Right,” he said, nodding “I’ll see you upstairs then.” As he turned, he paused at the door as though he wanted to say something, but stopped himself and walked out. She sighed into her knees and realized this was going to be so much harder now.

Cara managed her way upstairs leaving the plate to deal with later but taking the cup of caf with her. She walked into the main hull and took up her post, leaning comfortably on a wall watching Fett and Din chart a course. It didn’t take long before Bo-Katan and Koska walked in as well. “After talking it over, we’ve elected to stay and assist you with your mission.” Kryze announced to the room.

It certainly pulled everyone’s attention. Fett looked ready to start another fight, and Cara stood up straighter as Din walked closer to the two women. “What brought on the change of heart?” he asked, sounding more curious than anything. Something in Cara’s mind said he was suspicious though, and so was she if she was being honest.

“You have the dark saber. It’s our duty to protect you.” Koska said bluntly. Cara arched a brow at the woman and tried not to laugh as she walked up behind Din.

“He doesn’t need protecting. And even if he did, he has back-up,” she challenged, staring her down.

Koska looked ready to speak up, but Bo-Katan was the one who actually got the words out first. “The position of the Mand’alor is important to reclaiming our planet and people. As you’ve decided to work with Fett and his goals, it is in the best interest for our people to ensure that you have the best support in that endeavor.” Cara hated politicians. She found the people in charge of governments to be generally despicable people, and while she had no issues with Bo-Katan and actually respected the woman as a fighter, sometimes, when she opened her mouth, Cara wanted to punch her. It didn’t help that Kryze still looked like she was tempted to challenge Din for the saber, and Cara wasn’t entirely convinced the woman wouldn’t try and take it by force at an inopportune time.

“So you’re going to help without throwing a fit?” Fett shot back in a mocking tone, and Cara could see the anger flash in the two women’s eyes in front of her and had no doubt that it was matched in the eyes of the clone behind her.

“They would be helpful,” Din suggested, deflecting the rising tension in the room, “It couldn’t hurt to have more hands. They’ve already proved they can work well with Cara and Shand. The four of us could easily take out any forces on the ground, and you and Shand could use the distraction to get Fortuna.” Cara did not have enough caf for this. She just stood over his shoulder, letting the others make the decision. She was here for Din. She’d never pretended she had an ulterior motive. Sure, getting Gideon was great, she loved that little bit of revenge, but Din and the kid had been her first priorities, and now that the kid was gone, Din remained her reason for staying.

“We did make a good team and six heads are better than four.” Fennec spoke up for the first time from her corner of the room. “They’re talented fighters,” she added, sounding more like she was reminding Boba than anything else.

“It never hurts to have a few more Mandalorians around,” Boba relented, eventually nodding at them, though something in the tone felt sarcastic. “It’ll be quite the asset to have you both.”

“Great, we have a whole team. I’m getting more caf.” Cara deadpanned, walking past Din as he made eye contact with her. She could feel the question in his eyes, but she smirked and held up the mug as her only answer. No amount of military training could stop the fact that she was not a morning person.

Cara walked down towards the kitchen area and was nearly to the door when she heard the armor behind her. She turned expecting to see Din and was instead met with Koska and Bo-Katan. “Marshal Dune.” Bo-Katan greeted with that appeasing look that reminded her of one too many political missions.

“Yes?” she asked, glancing between the two. It was strange being face-to-face and alone with them. That wasn’t something she’d experienced yet and somewhere in her gut, she braced for a fight.

“What are your intentions with the Mandalorian?” Bo asked, to Cara’s annoyance.

“Which one?” she asked, trying to evade the question because that was a whole can of worms she didn’t want to deal with.

“Funny.” Koska scoffed sarcastically, but both kept a calm facade.

“Look, I don’t see why it’s any of your business, but he and I are friends, and I’ve got his back,” she said flatly, staring the two of them down, threatening them to say something about it.

Bo Katan nodded, “Very admirable to be certain, but he is the Mand’alor now whether he likes it or not. That Saber comes with power and responsibility. As such we, as Mandalorians, serve at the pleasure of the Mand’alor.”

Cara scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Right. Ok. I’m sure he’ll love hearing that,” she said as she bit back a laugh.

“It's our job to keep him safe. That includes keeping him away from enemies in friends' clothing,” Bo explained smoothly, leading Cara to straighten at the implications. She felt the overwhelming urge to punch the woman in front of her for even thinking that she would ever hurt Din. Even so, she refused to acknowledge the small voice whispering, ‘Aren’t you hurting him by not saying you’re his soulmate?’

“And you came to talk to me?” she challenged.

“You are the one closest to him, are you not?” Koska pointed out. Cara raised her jaw and lifted her eyebrows looking for the reason that would matter. She supposed it would be a threat, someone close to Din could be the one to hurt him. She wasn’t going to do that, and she wasn’t going to let someone else do it either.

“Interesting you have such strong loyalty to him.” Bo probed lightly.

“What can I say, I’m a sucker for a man in armor,” she quipped, trying to steer them away from digging deeper. Without thinking, she swept some of her hair out of her face, tucking it to the side, before realizing her slip. Koska was close enough to get a flash of her mark, which wouldn’t have been a problem before last night.

“You’re his soulmate.” Koska said simply, making Bo Katan’s eyes light up.

Cara approached Bo with just this side of threatening, even as Koska stood between them. She couldn’t help but notice the two seemed to have black marks just poking out over their armor in the same place. “Does he know?” Bo asked, pulling Cara's attention, “Surely even a Child of the Watch would find it impossible to hold their vows fighting beside their soulmate.”

“No, he doesn’t. What vows?”

Bo Katan sighed, looking at her with a mix of pity and sympathy that made Cara want to lash out.

“He is a member of a … specific group of Mandalorians. They call themselves the Children of the Watch. They are a group of religious zealots who broke off from Mandalore just after the Purge. They believe in an ancient Way and wish to bring it back to all Mandalorians. They believe a warrior is the tribe and the tribe the warrior. As such they renounce their face, their names, and their soulmates.”

Cara wasn’t entirely sure why she felt like she’d just been punched in the gut.

Had Din renounced her? Had he sworn her away the same way he had his name or face? Was what they did last night the same as taking off his helmet? Why had he let her then? Did he know?

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters,” Bo insisted, aiming for gentleness and missing horribly.

“No, it doesn’t!” she hotly reiterated, as her insides raged against the news of Din’s vows to reject his soulmate.

“You’re a liability to him,” Koska observed. Cara was about ready to fight her when she saw the look in both Koska and Bo’s eyes.

“Whether he knows or not, he is connected to you. The bond that connects soulmates starts far before skin-to-skin contact. He is already connected to you even if neither of you knows it, and the possibility of losing you is a vulnerability in him. He is a leader and a warrior, you know this. As such you have a responsibility to him and to everyone he leads to protect him.”

This time, it wasn’t the flowery language of a politician Cara had thought earlier of Bo. It was from the heart. Once again, Cara’s eyes flicked between the women as Bo seemed to forget herself and put a hand on Koska’s arm.

In that moment, Cara felt a connection to Koska, recognizing a kinship built on two people in the same position. She nodded shortly. “You two?” Koska nodded, pulling down her shirt enough to see the small black marks entangling in a way only Bo and Koska would understand, nearly reminiscent of the owl painted on Bo’s helmet.

“What are you suggesting?”

“We want to help you keep him safe and ensure he makes the best decisions for himself and Mandalore,” Bo explained, “His connection with Boba Fett is fine for now, but finding other Mandalorians and reclaiming our home needs to be a priority.”

Cara had to fight the urge to roll her eyes.

“And you think I’m going to help him go along with whatever you want? If you want the saber so badly, you can take it. He offered it. You can go reclaim your planet on your own.”

“It’s a fight to the death,” Koska grit out, “to regain the honor of the saber after losing it to an enemy would mean proving beyond a doubt that the other is unworthy of the might of Mand’alore. It would either end in banishment or death.”

If the missive had come from Bo-Katan, Cara would have heard it as a threat. Coming from Koska, she understood what it really was. This was a warning for her and a sign of respect that Cara deserved the whole story of what she was getting into. If Din and Bo were to fight, Koska and Cara would be in the same position where having a dead soulmate was the best case scenario.

Cara nodded her understanding. “I’m not going to push him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. He’s his own person; he can make his own decisions.”

“Of course!” Bo Katan said in an airy tone that made Cara want to hit her again. “We would never suggest you push him into anything. He clearly already has a heart for people and Mandalore. Marshal Dune, I am certain you only wish to protect him, but part of protecting him is making sure he does what’s right. Keeping him from doing what he’ll regret. I just hope your Republic ties don’t end up causing friction between the two of you. You clearly care for him very much.”

Cara scoffed. “Great. Can I get my caf now?”

“Of course. Please, enjoy.” Bo said airily, but Cara could tell she'd gotten just a bit under the woman's skin. She felt a small rush of pride as Bo started towards the ladder.

Koska took an extra second, just looking at the woman. The two met eyes in a solid look that felt oddly even. If Koska’s soulmate weren’t so tough to handle, Cara was pretty sure she and Koska would have a blast together.

“You should tell him,” Koska said, “before it’s too late. It’s better to have a little bit in the hard times than to stand there waiting to have everything in the easy ones.”

Cara didn’t respond as the woman walked away and up the stairs. She swallowed, turning away, suddenly wanting something a hell of a lot stronger than caf. Not even a few seconds passed as she heard the sound of lightly grazing armor behind her before a tingling sensation hit her back. She felt more than heard him settle as he waited.

“How much did you hear?” she asked.

#Caradin #Cara Dune #Din Djarin #The Mandalorian #bo katan x koska

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lynelovespopculture · 4 years ago

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CHAPTER 12-FRIENDS AND FOES-PLEASE COMMENT AND REBLOG

WITH PROBLEMS UPON PROBLEMS TO FIX, THE SPELLMANS MUST HURRY TO DISCOVER WHO IS AN ALLY AND WHO IS NOT.

There was a rather large mud puddle just inside the mine’s main entrance. Large enough to cause ripples when it came into contact with Zelda Spellman’s high heeled shoe. Zelda herself paid no mind to the puddle, nor to the dampness that set in just above her ankle. All she could focus on was finding lot 13. For hidden deep within lot 13 was, (what else?) the gates of hell. Not even an hour before, the Spellmans seemed on the verge of getting rid of 2 enemies with 1 stone. The trouble all started 2 days ago, when Zelda had foolishly agreed to smuggle Lilith and her newborn child out of hell. It was foolish because when Lucifer showed up looking for his servant and their child, Lilith had flown the coop leaving the Spellmens to deal with Lucifer on their own. Due to a miracle, courtesy of baby Cordelia, they managed to get the upper hand on Lucifer. Getting him safely chained up and down to the academy’s dungeon. However, everyone knew that the dark lord could only be held by a prison of flesh and blood. Using Blackwood, Faustus’s curse was Ambrose’s idea but it was Letitia who knew where to find him. All seemed to be going well when the family performed the soul transfer and sent both Blackwood and Lucifer to hell. Until Zelda found a letter from Faustus in the baby’s crib. He confessed that he couldn’t find Blackwood, so he switched places using a cloning spell, meaning that Zelda’s beloved husband was not only Lucifer’s jailer but was in hell as well! The letter explained that he was doing this to protect their family, not only Zelda and his children, but also Sabrina, Ambrose, Hilda, and Dr. C, all the people Faustus considered his family. Plus, they never spoke about it anymore, but Zelda knew that Faustus still felt immense guilt for the curse’s actions. Once the shock of the letter wore off, nothing could stop Zelda from reaching the gates of hell. Not even when Elizabeth Tudor, their old ally showed up on their doorstep and literally fainted into Zelda’s arms. She just passed her to Hilda and continued on her way. Now, she had arrived at the gates of hell. Zelda immediately went to work, twisting and turning the symbols in the correct order. As Lilith’s midwife, she was given the combination months ago. Only…now it wasn’t working. She tried again, once, twice, 3 times. Still, it didn’t budge.

“Oh no,” Even with no warning, it appeared that Lucifer still had the foresight to change the locks. “Lilith!” Zelda screamed, hoping against hope that the witch was on the other side. “Lucifer?! Faustus?! Minion?”

It soon became clear that no one on the other side of the gate was going to help her or Zelda didn’t know if anyone was even there.

“Faustus, darling? If you can hear me, I love you and I will get you out of there!” Zelda sighed, wondering what her next move should be.

“Let’s put her on the bed, Prudence, love,” Hilda suggested as she turned down the bed in 1 of the academy’s private bedrooms. Tonight had been a very odd night indeed. First, there was the whole Blackwood/Faustus switch thing, (Hilda was certainly not looking forward to telling her husband that his best friend was in hell,) then Zelda insisted on going to the gates without backup or a plan. On top of all that, Elizabeth had shown up at the door, just to collapse. Elizabeth Tudor had been a useful ally to the family and proved very helpful in aiding Sabrina with her identity problem. But that whole thing had been months ago, Hilda never expected to see her again.

“What do you suppose happened to her?” Asked Prudence.

Hilda sighed. “I don’t know,” she said truthfully. All she did know was the proud, regally dressed, half-mortal, half-witch immortal 16th-century queen the family met months ago looked next to nothing to the poor, half-dead wretch they were looking at on the bed. Her once bright, curly red hair was now limp and dirty. Her once thin yet healthy fame was now nothing but skin and bones. Elizabeth was always sharply dressed in modern outfits now all she wore was a dirty one-piece prison garb of her own time that was barely better than an old potato sack. Also, the E necklace that could always be found at her throat, was nowhere to be found. Hilda couldn’t help but notice that there were many, many, cuts and wounds on Elizabeth’s bare legs. However, that was nothing compared to what Prudence and Hilda saw once they removed the dress.

“Oh, dear!” Hilda gasped as she placed her hand over her mouth. Elizabeth’s bareback was bruised, covered in welts, and both dried and fresh blood. It was quite clear that she had been whipped several times over.

“What on earth happened here?” Hilda wondered out loud. Not only was Elizabeth a queen of a kingdom of millions of loyal subjects, but she herself was also a known warrior. Who would dare attack her?

“Looks like someone tried to burn off her mark of Cain.” Prudence lifted up Elizabeth’s wrist so the other witch could see the burn marks.

Hilda shook her head and told herself to focus. There was a jar of healing cream on the side table. Hilda gently dipped a tip of each finger into the cream and approached Elizabeth, whose Prudence held to ensure that Elizabeth remained on her side. As soon as Hilda touched her skin, Elizabeth, who had been unconscious ever since she fell into Zelda’s arms, awoke and began to scream bloody murder. When Hilda tried to touch her again, Elizabeth only screamed louder. Hilda spoke some words in Latin and Elizabeth was once again silent and sleeping.

“What happened? Is she dead?” Prudence asked.

Hilda smiled. “No. Just a little trick from my midwife days. Whenever a mother would be in too much pain, I would put her to sleep with a quick spell, and then we would continue our work. Now, let’s tend to her wounds and then maybe a quick sponge bath. Ambrose is downstairs in the library and I promised him I would help him find a spell to get your father out of hell.”

“I’m meeting Sabrina later for the same reason.”

Very, very late that night, a frustrated Zelda let herself into the house. She vowed not to come home without her husband, but what else could she do? It was 3 AM and she was still no closer to opening the gates. Zelda could swear that today she said every spell that ever mentioned the gates of hell. She even recited some spells she only knew by overhearing Sabrina practicing in her room when Nicholas was in hell. Zelda grew still so desperate that she returned to the school, right to the very same dungeon cell they kept Lucifer in, drew a pentagram on the ground, and tried to summon the devil that way. All to no avail. When Zelda entered the house this late, she expected it to be pitch dark and as silent as the grave. While it was quiet, Zelda noticed that there was a light on in the parlor. When she went in there to check it out, no one was in the room, but Zelda noticed that most of the family’s spellbooks were all over the room. I’ll clean this up tomorrow. Zelda thought as she yawned and switched off the light. Zelda went upstairs and was surprised to see that the only light on was coming from her own bedroom. Zelda walked in and her heart melted. Among the mess of books that were everywhere, some were Ambrose’s from the attic, and others that were Faustus’s were on the nearby bookshelf and the 4 girls that Zelda loved the most in the world were all on her bed. Her niece, Sabrina, who was farthest from the door, was lying on her stomach and her head was lying on an open book. Her youngest stepdaughter, Letitia, better known these days as LJ, was next to Sabrina, lying on her side. An open book resting against her hip. Her older sister, Prudence, was on her back, Cordelia on her chest. At first glance, Zelda thought everyone was asleep but when she came closer, she saw Cordelia gurgling, lifting her head, and was about to move. Luckily, Zelda was there in time to catch her daughter.

“Got you, my little wiggle worm!” Zelda smiled and kissed the baby’s cheek but then Zelda smelled something foul. Zelda brought her daughter to the makeshift changing table across the room and got her a fresh diaper. Zelda couldn’t help but stare down at Cordelia. If she hadn’t seen it with her own 2 eyes, Zelda would have never believed that yesterday that her 5 and a half-month-old baby had literally thrown the actual devil out on his ear with just her cry. True, it had been some time since Zelda learned about the mark of the divine and how it meant that Cordelia was destined to be the most powerful witch ever born. Yet reading about a prophecy and seeing it happening right before you are 2 different things. Besides her crescent moon birthmark, before today, they had no proof, it was more like…hearsay. Besides, both as a midwife and Cordelia’s mother, Zelda had been keeping an extra close eye on her daughter ever since learning about the mark of the divine, and Zelda could swear that Cordelia was developing at the same rate at any other normal 5 months old. Cordelia had just recently learned to sit up by herself, her crib mirror could provide hours of entertainment and why, it was only last week, that Zelda had come home to find Faustus, rolling around on the floor like a fool. Cordelia, who laid on her stomach nearby, had no intention of rolling over, but laughed and slapped the floor with glee over her father’s antics. How could someone so small be so powerful? Zelda wondered as she carried her baby back to the bed. In order to make room for them both, Zelda made sure that she herself laid on her side, her back to Prudence, and laid Cordelia down on the mattress, holding by a hand on her babe’s belly. Yet, the baby was still fussy.

“Hush child,” Zelda kissed Cordelia’s brow, “Dream of Hecate. Pray for your daddy’s safe return.”

Despite the fact that she had gone to bed past 3, Zelda was up by 6 AM. She grabbed an apple as she rushed out of the door. Zelda was headed to the academy’s library. Hoping to do more research about opening the gates of hell before morning assembly. Zelda was surprised but happy when within an hour, most of the rest of the family had shown up as well. Apparently, no one wanted to see Faustus in hell. Sabrina, who was the last to arrive, told the others that last night she sent Salem to keep an eye on Blackwood’s hideout all night long. The familiar had reported back this morning, saying that there was no sign of Blackwood or Judas.

The hours flew by and the study succession didn’t really uncover any new or useful information. Before Zelda knew it, it was time for morning assembly. Somehow, she got through it and after dismissing the students, Zelda headed down toward her office. She walked in and saw LJ settling a now sleeping Cordelia into what was her old cradle. It warmed Zelda’s heart until she noticed that LJ was frowning.

“Letitia, err, I mean, LJ, is anything wrong?” Zelda asked.

LJ sighed and flopped down on 1 of the seats before the desk. “I just feel so guilty.”

Zelda sat down next to her. “Oh? Whatever for?”

“I’m the one who told Ambrose and Sabrina I knew where the hideout was. I helped Father with the map.” LJ sighed and hung her head. “It’s my fault that Father is in hell.”

Zelda gave a gentle half-smile, leaned forward and cupped her fingers under LJ’s chin, forcing her stepdaughter to look her in the eye. “No, it’s not. You were just doing what you thought, what we all thought, was the right thing to do and that’s never wrong. I also want you to know that your father and I made a vow. We vowed, both of us, that we would never rest until we reunited all our children, and that includes you and your brother.”

LJ made a face. “That’s another thing I’ve been worrying about. I’m truly sorry about all the things I did to you, I can almost promise you, Judas would have been worse. You see, growing up I was the unimportant one. I was just the girl. Judas, however, was the hell sent boy, the beloved male heir who could do very little wrong. As a result, my twin brother grew up to be rather arrogant.”

Zelda nodded understandingly. “Being raised by the curse, I was afraid of that. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, we have to get you ready before my 2nd-period class. Did you bring your assignment from home?”

LJ nodded and Zelda helped her stepdaughter to settle behind her desk. “You know, I keep on forgetting to tell you how impressed I am with your schoolwork. Not only do I think you’ll be able to attend the academy next term, but I believe we might bump you up a year.”

“Thank you. I’ve always loved reading and learning new things. Of course, I had to hide it most of my life because well, Judas never liked school and hell forbid that I should get ahead of him.”

Zelda placed a hand on LJ’s shoulder. “You’ll never have to play dumb or go at anyone’s speed but your own ever again, I promise you.”

Zelda was rewarded with a smile that lit up the room. Zelda patted the girl’s shoulder affectionately before she went to collect her things for her next class. She kissed Cordelia goodbye and headed out. She hadn’t gone far down the hallway when everything around her changed. Zelda was no longer at the academy, she was now on the balcony at Grey’s bar. Confused, Zelda looked down to see that she was no longer wearing the business suit she put on this morning and in its place was a black ball gown with a full skirt, a tight corset, and off the shoulder shelves.

“Praise Hecate, it worked! It actually worked!”

Zelda’s eyes widened. She would know that voice anywhere but it couldn’t be, could it? Zelda turned around and looked down. There he was, on the main floor and in black tie. “Faustus, darling!” Quick as lighting, Zelda ran downstairs and threw herself into her husband’s arms and covered his face with kisses. Then she asked him some of the millions of questions going through her mind. “How did you get away from Lucifer? How did you ever manage to escape hell?”

“I didn’t exactly escape hell, dearest, and Lucifer and I still share 1 body, sort of,” Faustus answered.

“Faustus, are- are you astral projecting from hell?”

Her husband made a face. “Not exactly. You see, I researched some spells just in case this happened-“

“Researched some spells just in case this happened? Who could have foreseen this?” Asked a confused Zelda.

Faustus couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “It dawned on me that I should do my homework right around the time Lilith entered her last trimester. Even if you wouldn’t help Lilith, I knew you could never refuse an innocent newborn so I figured it was better safe than sorry.”

Zelda frowned. “When it comes to Lilith, I am very, very sorry. I helped her and she put the entire family in jeopardy and indirectly put you in hell. I haven’t seen hind or hair of that ungrateful witch since I sent her upstairs to the nursery to better protect her son and watch over our daughter. Have you seen her? In hell, I mean.”

Faustus shook his head. “No.”

“If Lucifer still wants Lilith dead, he just may have to stand in line,” Zelda mumbled.

Faustus felt his wife’s anger so he quickly changed the subject. “So, anyway, this is the 2nd spell I’ve tried since yesterday and I’m pleased to report that they both worked.”

Zelda raised an eyebrow. “What sort of spells?” She wanted to know.

“Well, the first spell was called the 50/50.”

“The 50/50 spell? I’ve never even heard of that.”

“It's a very, very obscure spell. I had to dig for weeks to find it. Anyway, what happens is that I have full control of the body 50% of the time and when Lucifer is in control, I’m actually asleep, which brings me to the 2nd spell, a dream spell.”

“A dream spell? But darling, I’m not even asleep, I’m at work. So how could I’ve pulled you into my dream?”

Faustus laughed. “Oh no, my dearest. You didn’t pull me into your dream. I pulled you into mine. I do confess I don’t know how long this spell hold. But this is not a surprise. Most of my dreams involve us dancing and dressed to the nines.”

Zelda looked down at her dress. “Well, I understand being dressed to the nines, but how are we to dance without music?”

Then the music started.

“A slight delay,” Faustus smiled and took his wife in his arms. “For my next trick, I’m going to need your help.”

Zelda cuddled closer to her husband. “I would die for you.”

“Thankfully, I won’t need anything that dire. Now, all I need you to do is put a pen and a pad of paper on the kitchen table before you go to bed tonight and I’ll do the rest. Now, how are the children?” He asked as they danced.

“They miss you, we all do,” Zelda answered. “Fear not, beloved, we’ll have you out of there before you know it. As soon as we find a way to open the gates of hell and track down Blackwood.”

“Blackwood wouldn’t help you.”

Zelda shrugged. “Not willing, of course, but no matter, I wasn’t thinking of asking permission.”

Despite himself, Faustus laughed. “No, dearest, what I meant was it’s all in the name. Blackwood can’t do a soul transfer because he doesn’t have a soul because”

“He’s a curse” Zelda finished for him. “Damn, you’re right!”

Faustus nodded. “And since there is no one else who deserves this fate, I think it’s best for everyone if I stayed with Lucifer.”

Zelda was shocked. “What? Faustus no! You already promised me that we would raise our family together.”

“Yes, but if we let Lucifer run loose we might not have a family.”

“We won’t let Lucifer run loose, but you can’t give up the rest of your life for him, I won’t let you. We find another way.”

“But what if there is none?”

“There must be!” Zelda stressed and got on her tiptoes to hug Faustus. She gave him an extra squeeze before she saw it, a painting, hanging on a wall behind Faustus’s shoulder. Zelda had no idea why but it felt like the painting was calling her. Zelda slowly smiled as she remembered something Sabrina told her long ago. “That’s it! I know how we’re going to get you out of hell.” Zelda turned her head but both Faustus and Grey’s bar were gone. She was back at the academy.

“Are you alright, Sister Zelda?” A confused Prudence was at the other end of the hallway.

“Come, child. We must tell the others at once!”

Sabrina couldn’t believe it! How could she be so stupid? How could she have forgotten about Dorian’s painting into hell over at Grey’s? True, it had been a while since she and her friends had rescued Nick from hell, but still! Sabrina felt so guilty that she accompanied Ambrose and Prudence to Grey’s bar, only to find it closed. Meanwhile, Zelda was home at that very moment neatly putting a pad of paper and pen on the kitchen table before going upstairs to check on Cordelia. The next morning, the family found notes, all in Faustus’s handwriting, to all the members of the family. Some were short and friendly but 1 was a long, steamy love letter to Zelda. All of the notes said that Faustus was alright but Zelda wasn’t so sure. Grey’s bar remained closed for 3 days and things got even worse on day 4.

Zelda stood up sharply from behind her desk. “Sold it? What do you mean he sold it?”

Ambrose shrugged. “I’m sorry, Auntie, but Dorian told me himself he sold it to the highest bidder.”

“That Dorian Grey always was a vain fool!”

“Now we have no painting and no way to open the gates of hell. So, we’re back to where we started. We are not giving up, are we?” Prudence wanted to know. “I know he writes every night that he’s alright, but still”

“Prudence, we will find a way to get your father out of hell, I swear,” Zelda promised her stepdaughter. Zelda sighed as she got up after kneeling to comfort Prudence. As Zelda got up, she spotted her sister standing in the doorway. 1 look at her sister’s face told her that she heard everything.

“Yes, Hilda? What is it?”

Hilda took a step forward. “I hate to be the bearer of even more bad news but I don’t know what to do with her anymore.”

Zelda was confused. “Her? Her who?”

“Why, Elizabeth, of course.”

“Oh.” Zelda was so worried about Faustus and how to get him out of hell, that she had completely forgotten about their guest.

“It’s been 4 days and not only has Elizabeth not come out of her room, she won’t eat, she won’t do anything but lay in bed and cry. I think she’s depressed.” Hilda told Zelda as the sisters walked down the hallway toward Elizabeth’s room.

Zelda was shocked. “Depressed? Why on earth would Elizabeth Tudor, of all people, have to be depressed about?”

Hilda shrugged. “I don’t know, Zelds, but in the 4 days I’ve been treating her wounds, she hasn’t said a word to me.”

They reached the door to Elizabeth’s room. The room was pitch black inside, despite the fact that it was almost noon. Zelda went straight to the window and drew back the drapes. Bright sunlight flooded in and the figure in the bed groaned and put an arm over her eyes.

“I know I’m immortal but can’t you at least, leave me to pretend I’m dead?”

“What do you want that, my love?” Hilda asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Indeed! You think that a queen would have better things to do than stay in bed all day.” Zelda’s tone was firm.

“But I’m not a queen anymore!” Elizabeth snapped with tears in her eyes.

“No longer queen? But that’s impossible! The Elizabethans-“

“Have chosen a new leader!” Elizabeth finished for Zelda. Giving up on sleep altogether, Elizabeth got up and went to the fireplace, her arms wrapped around herself. “And because I love my people more than my own life, I had to step aside.”

Hilda shook her head. “That makes no sense. You’re a great queen.”

“If I was such a great queen, how could I allow myself to be defeated by nothing but a stupid curse?!” Elizabeth half asked, half sneered.

The Spellman sisters exchanged a glance, surely she couldn’t mean? Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who was now openly sobbing, collapsed on a nearby stool by the fire. “Do you have any idea what it means to believe to the depths of your soul that you’re meant for something, only to find out, 500 years later, that you were wrong all along?”

Zelda stepped forward. “It’s Blackwood, isn’t it? That’s why you’re here, Blackwood made himself king of your people.”

“King? No,” Elizabeth laughed shortly. “King wasn’t good enough for him. So, he made himself emperor, Emperor Blackwood. 1 day he showed up out of nowhere, I still have no idea how he found my dimension, he snapped his finger and all my people rallied around him.”

Zelda made a face. “Elizabeth, this can’t be true. Blackwood must have tricked or spelled them.”

“You don’t think I’ve thought of that?” Elizabeth asked. “The whole reason I allowed myself to be captured and tortured by my own men for over 5 months, looking for any sign, any clue, any crack of a spell that I could break and there was nothing! Just an insanity curse who declared himself emperor of the empire that I built!”

“5 months?” Zelda whispered more to herself than to anyone else. “No wonder we can’t find him. The bastard must have moved right after Cordelia was born, right after he killed me.” In a louder voice, Zelda asked Elizabeth. “What about Judas? Is he still with Blackwood?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, I didn’t get to speak with him, of course, but the boy looked fine.”

Hilda stepped forward and knelt before Elizabeth. “There must be more to the story. We’ll help you.”

“Once we find a way to free Faustus,” Zelda muttered.

For the first time in months, Elizabeth thought of someone other than herself. “What happening with Faustus?”

“Long story short, Faustus allowed a soul transfer with Lucifer in order to save us all and now, he’s stuck in hell and we can’t go get him until we figure out how to open the gates,” Zelda explained.

Elizabeth looked confused. “What about Sabrina? Surely, she would help.”

“What does any of this have to with Sabrina?” Zelda wanted to know.

“You know that the spell I did with her proves Sabrina is a Spellman to her very core, but, and forgive me for even saying so ladies, but Sabrina has the blood of a Morningstar and since hell belongs to the Morningstars, all it would take would be her blood to open the gates.”

“How much blood?” Zelda, ever the overprotective aunt, asked with care.

Elizabeth shrugged. “Just 1 drop. No more, no less.”

“Cool!”

All 3 women looked up to see the teen witch in the doorway.

“Sabrina-“

Sabrina held up her hand. “Now, Aunties, I know you’re probably going to say you’re worried but this is the answer! I can feel it in my bones! Now, come on!”

Zelda and Hilda had no choice but to follow their niece out the door and down the hall. Along their way, the 3 found Prudence and Ambrose, so the Spellmans were all together when they entered the mines. Sabrina marched in first, pausing only long enough to whisper Latin words that allowed her to pluck a needle out of thin air. She pricked her finger with the needle and she saw a small but decent pool of blood on her finger, she placed it on the gate. Sure enough, as soon as it came into contract with Morningstar blood, the huge stone doors began to open.

“Whoa,” Sabrina jumped back. “It actually worked!”

Ambrose was amazed. “After all our research, this is a little anticlimactic Aunties, not going to lie.”

Zelda didn’t care what it was, all she cared about was that the gates of hell were open and she could finally get her husband back. The family went into hell and found Faustus/Lucifer exactly where the previous spell had sent him. Faustus must have been asleep because it was Lucifer’s smirk that greeted them.

“Oh, not here, again,” Lucifer sneered as the witches teleported with him to the dungeon under the school. “I didn’t know you cared so much about Daddy, Sabrina.”

“I don’t,” Sabrina retorted “but my uncle has more than proven that he deserves more out of life than simply being your jailer.”

“And now that we know where Blackwood is, we can free Uncle Faustus all that faster.” Said Ambrose, finishing his cousin’s thoughts.

Lucifer gave the children a gleeful smile before turning to Zelda. “Do you wish to tell them, Lady Blackwood, or should I?”

Zelda sighed deeply and crossed her arms. “Blackwood can’t do a soul transfer because as a curse, he has no soul.”

“Now,” Lucifer continued firmly. “You people have 2 choices here; either accept that you beloved Faustus Spellman is gone for good or separate us and allow me to walk away free.”

Zelda frowned. “Neither of those things are going to happen.”

“Come now, Lady Blackwood, we both know you have no choice. Now that Blackwood is not an option, your husband is lost to you forever unless you let me go.”

“I do it. I’ll be his next prison.” Came a voice in the back. Everyone turned to see Elizabeth.

Zelda went to her. “What are you doing? You’re just as innocent as Faustus. I can’t let you do this.”

“I’m an immortal who lost her kingdom. Though I still don’t know why the spirit of England abandoned me. I’m the only 1 who can do this.”

“No one thinks Blackwood has your people’s loyalty rightly. We find another way.” Zelda announced to the room.

Zelda, in fact, already had an idea. “I’m going to send word to the council to come help,” Zelda announced to the others as they walked in the hallway.

“Do you really think they will come?”

“They have to. As an ordained high priestess, it is my right to call on the council if I feel my coven is in danger, even if it’s from their dark lord.” Zelda said in a tone that was much more certain than she felt.

As soon as classes were done for the day, Zelda went straight to her office and began to compose a letter to the witches’ council. Only Zelda wasn’t happy with her 1st draft, so she rewrote, again and again, and again. Time flew by, and before she knew it, it was very late and Zelda had rewritten the letter 5 times. Zelda had to step away from her desk and she went upstairs to collect LJ who was catching up with Elizabeth. Once they were home, as LJ headed up to bed, Zelda casually walked into the kitchen. Going near the kitchen table, Zelda saw the pen and the pad of paper. Zelda bit her lip. She hadn’t seen Faustus in days, she missed him, and boy, did she have news for him! Zelda had read about how to write him but had no way of knowing if it would work. Zelda sat down, took the page that Faustus wrote his notes on last night, flipped it over, and wrote her own message backward.

Faustus, darling, I need to see you. Please come into my dream tonight- if you can. I love you. Zelda

It had been a long day so after saying her goodnights, Zelda went right to bed. Zelda was jolted out of a deep sleep when someone pulled on her blanket. Yet she didn’t mind, not when she saw who was smiling down at her.

“Faustus! Faustus, darling! You’re here! You must have gotten my note.” She reached up and hugged him.

“Of course, I got the note and when the woman of your dreams asks you to join her in bed, you don’t 2nd guess it.” He said and kissed her.

“Faustus, I have so much to tell you,” Zelda told her husband as they settled back in bed.

“If you want to tell me that you went to hell, I realized that as soon as I woke.”

“Yes, darling, but there’s more. We finally found Blackwood and Judas is still with him.” Zelda went on to explain in greater detail about Elizabeth and how Blackwood took Elizabeth’s kingdom and her men.

“And what’s even sadder is that no one but Elizabeth herself believes that Blackwood won that kingdom honestly.”

“Nor do I. But sweetheart, I told you before the curse can’t take my place because it doesn’t have a soul.”

Zelda nodded. “I know that. That’s why I’ve written to the council for their aid in this matter.”

Faustus made a face. “The council?! Do you really think they’ll help you?”

Zelda both sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know but I have to try. If worse comes to worst, I suppose we could always swap.”

“Swap?”

“Yes. Maybe I’ll take a week or so in Lucifer’s body and then switch back or something.”

“No way, Zelda! I refuse to put you in danger like that!”

“I wasn’t asking permission and I refuse to let you condemn yourself for all time because you still feel guilty over Edward’s damn curse!”

Her dead-on analysis stopped him cold. “How did you know?”

Zelda smiled. “Because I know you.”

“I know me too,” Faustus returned her smile, “But in my few days away, I learned a few things about myself. For example, I’ve always known I loved you and my own children of course, but I’ve also realized that I love Hilda and Dr. C and Ambrose and Hecate, even Sabrina.”

“And they love you, I know it. That’s why we Spellmans do, we love each other.”

“I also want a boring life.” Faustus continued. “Ever since I got free from the curse, all we’ve been doing is dealing with problems after problems. I want the biggest problems with the twins being that they won’t share the remote or that Sabrina needs help with her homework. Not help with being the queen of hell.”

Zelda blinked back tears. “I want that too, darling. More than anything.” She held on tight to Faustus as he kissed her. Zelda was pleased that dream sex was as passionate, pleasurable, and romantic as real lovemaking. Afterward, Zelda tried hard to cover up her yawn, but Faustus saw it regardless.

“Dearest, why don’t you just go to sleep if you’re tired?” Faustus wanted to know.

“I am tired,” Zelda confirmed. “But you told me yourself that you can’t control how long these dreams spells last and I want to spend every moment I can with you.” Poor Zelda really did put up a good fight, but all too soon, her eyelids began to droop against her will. Next thing she knew, Zelda opened her eyes to a bright morning and an empty bed. She ran her hand along Faustus’s side of the bed. “I miss you.”

Zelda could swear that she heard his voice on the wind. “I miss you too.”

The next few days were rough ones. Zelda’s letter to the council got no answer so she sent a 2nd one. When that one got no response as well, she called Rome, only to be put on hold most of the time. The good news was Zelda wasn’t the only Spellman working for the greater good.

It was Friday when Ambrose walked into Prudence’s classroom.

“Hey, sexy!”

Prudence looked up and smiled at her boyfriend.

“You know what I was just thinking?” Ambrose wanted to know. “I was thinking that it has been a while since you and I had been on a proper adventure.”

“I agree, but with all that’s going on here, I don’t think we should leave right now.”

“But what if it was for the greater good?” Ambrose tossed Prudence the spellbook he held in his hand.

Prudence’s eyes lit up as she looked over the dog eared page. “Ambrose, you’re a genius!”

“If this doesn’t cheer Elizabeth up, nothing will. Now let’s go, the sooner we leave, the sooner we’ll get back.” They left that very day.

The next day, Zelda received a telegram. It said the council would be there by Monday, and Zelda knew she could trust the note because it was written by Maxine. Sure enough, on Monday, Zelda found herself welcoming ‘Bother Maxwell’ and 3 other council members. However, getting the council there was only half the battle. Trying to discuss Faustus or Lucifer was like pulling teeth. On Tuesday, Ambrose and Prudence returned from their trip and went straight to Elizabeth.

“Where have you 2 been these past few days?” Asked the queen.

The kids exchanged a look before Ambrose answered. “We went to England.”

“We went to find England’s oldest tree,” Prudence added.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. She knew exactly what that meant. “You performed that spell that allowed you to speak to the spirit of England, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Elizabeth moaned and threw up her hands.

“The spirit of England didn’t abandon you,” Ambrose stressed. “When we first got there, he refused to even talk to us because he thought we were working for Blackwood. When we explained that we were there on your behalf, he said he knew that something had disturbed England, but he didn’t know which monarch was robbed. Then he gave us these to give to you.” Ambrose gave Elizabeth a stack of letters. For almost 10 minutes, Elizabeth quickly skimmed all the letters. Her face ranged from surprise to shock to pure rage.

Then she looked up. “Where is your aunt Zelda?”

“In her office,” Ambrose answered.

“But she’s with the council, I think.” Added Prudence.

“Perfect,” Elizabeth muttered.

“Shall we discuss the school’s budget next?”

Zelda felt like screaming. “Gentlemen, as I said before, I didn’t call you to speak of the running of this academy. As I already told you, there is a situation involving my husband and Lucifer.”

“And as we’ve already told you, we cannot go against the dark lord’s will.”

“Isn’t it the council’s duty to help all covens regardless of what church they belong to?”

“You presume to tell us what the council’s duties are?” The council members were laughing at Zelda 1 second and were floating up in the air the next. “Mother Spellman! Put us down this moment!”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“She’s right,” Came Elizabeth’s voice. “I did!” She let her hand fall and the group also fell in a huff.

Zelda couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Elizabeth? What on earth?”

“Pardon the interruption, Your Excellency, but it appears that we were both betrayed by this so-called witch’s council!” Elizabeth tossed the stack of letters on Zelda’s desk. “This is a series of letters between Blackwood and the council. They have been helping him all along! When he asked to be hidden in April, the council gave him step by step directions on how to get to my dimension and they also gave him a very strong spell to steal my people’s loyalty.”

Maxwell wore a look of confusion. “My lords, no one told me any of this,”

Another council member shrugged. “You simply weren’t around when the first few letters came in and later, well, we all know what a fan of Elizabeth Tudor you are.”

“At least 1 of you has some taste,” Elizabeth crossed her arms. “But why involve me or my kingdom at all?”

“Because he wrote requesting a hideout and power and we thought why not give him the kingdom run by the half-breed woman?”

“This half-breed woman has commanded the armies of men, both mortals, and witch, centuries before you were born! I, who won and kept the goodwill of my people, without any spells, for over 500 years!”

“ENOUGH!” Zelda cried, furious. “These letters go back to February! How can this be? My husband wrote to you about this whole situation in May and we met face to face at the Summit in June. Why the heaven didn’t you say anything?!”

“He asked us not to and we have to protect a powerful, skillful warlock.”

“My husband is a powerful, skillful warlock! All you did was aid a dangerous insanity curse, who still has my stepson! You have 5 minutes to get out of this office and this school!”

Elizabeth looked at Zelda. “High Priestess, I suggest you keep 1 here for…personal reasons.”

Faustus looked up as he heard the dungeon door unlock and open. A man was pushed in before Zelda and Elizabeth came into view. Before Faustus could ask what was going on, Zelda kissed him and explained all about how the council helped Blackwood and Elizabeth’s idea about performing a soul transfer into this council member.

“But won’t the council miss him?” Faustus wanted to know.

Zelda shook her head. “No, Maxine assured us that she could easily make up an excuse to leave him here, and once back in Rome, someone from the Sisterhood will use a glam spell to look like him.”

Once again, the soul transfer was performed and the council member/Lucifer went sent back to hell.

“I can’t believe I have to leave you again so soon.”

It was 3 days later, and Zelda and a newly freed Faustus were saying a quiet goodbye in the woods.

Zelda placed a hand on her husband’s cheek. “It’s time to reclaim your son, once and for all.”

“And figure out how to destroy Blackwood. Then can we have an ordinary, boring life?”

Zelda smiled. “That’s the dream.”

They kissed as Ambrose came out of the bush. “We’re ready.”

After saying a final goodbye to Zelda, Faustus and Ambrose joined Prudence and Elizabeth next to a hole in the air. They went through the hole, from the woods at night to a village at midday.

“Are we here? Elizabeth, is this your world?” Faustus asked.

Elizabeth nodded. “Everything looks familiar. Expect for that” Elizabeth pointed to a tree that had a poster on it praising Emperor Blackwood.

Meanwhile, Ambrose noticed something. “Um, guys, this tavern says it’s close for the royal wedding. What wedding?”

Having lived in castles her entire life, it was quite easy for Elizabeth to sneak the others into the palace. They were already in the balcony when Blackwood and his bride arrived. From where they were standing, they couldn’t see the bride’s face.

“I have a gift for my bride,” Blackwood announced.

“It better not be a damn music box,” Faustus growled.

“No,” Elizabeth answered. “It’s my stolen E necklace.”

The new empress moved and for the 1st time, the gang saw her face, and they were shocked.

It was Lilith.

#chilling adventures of sabrina #save caos #renew caos #caoz #part 4 my way!#fanfic #chapter 12 #spellwood #zelda spellman #faustus blackwood #hilda spellman #sabrina spellman #ambrose spellman #prudence night #LJ spellman #cordelia spellman #elizabeth tudor #please comment #reblog

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maximumsnow · 4 years ago

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Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware, HLVRAI - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta, Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Bubby (Half-Life), Benrey (Half-Life) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical swearing, Basically an au exploring what if HLVRAI followed Half Life a little more closely, Au where there isn't a betrayal in that one spot, Mainly was wondering what would happen to the others if they hadn't been in on it., Some things change some don't, Oh also this is sort of intended as a not a game au

Summary: Anyone who knows original Half-Life knows that the ambush happens in that spot no matter what. What would have happened if the ambush was as rough for the others?

It felt like time itself froze when Gordon walked in, arm raised in greeting. Seeing Coomer try to kill a clone was… honestly still unsettling even if he had a vague reason for it. However, something about this image was wrong.

Coomer looked directly at him and cheerfully said, “Oh, hello there!”

And that’s when his heart dropped.

This couldn’t be his Dr. Coomer.

His eyes dropped to the limbless Coomer lying on the table, but before he could look any closer, the presumed clone started speaking again. “My clone!” The exclamation was a perfect copy of Coomer’s usual speaking pattern, and the unnerving similarity sent a shudder down Gordon’s spine.

In lieu of any explanation, the clone tensed his arms in preparation to swing, and Gordon found himself quickly moving towards him. He tripped over his words as he tried to distract the man with the sledgehammer. “Hey, uh, wait. Isn’t this a bit much?”

The previously still Coomer on the table jerked at the sound of Gordon’s voice, and the head turned towards him. Whatever was said became a muffled grunt due to the cloth.

Confusion overtook the other Coomer’s face as he tried to figure out what Gordon meant, and it allowed Gordon enough time to get next to him. “No, this is the perfect amount of force to take out a clone!” He exclaimed as he prepared to swing again.

The clone found the sledgehammer unmoving when he tried to move it. Gordon gripped the handle halfway down the weapon with both hands. The grip was difficult to maintain since he had kept the crowbar in hand, but he refused to let it budge even as the clone tried to pull it over his head.

Gordon could never beat Dr. Coomer in a strength contest.

The clone struggled against him, but the awkward angle and the added weight made it a losing battle. “It’s just a clone. Let me finish-”

Cutting through the bullshit, Gordon argued, “You’re not Dr. Coomer.”

That snapped the clone out of the persona he had been putting on. He let go of the sledgehammer to properly face Gordon. “… Yes I am. We’re all Dr. Coomer.” The flat tone dared Gordon to keep arguing.

Suddenly losing the tension of the impromptu tug-of-war on the sledgehammer nearly caused Gordon to tip over, but he caught himself in time to glance at the clone. The expressionless look on the clone’s face made Gordon drop the heavy sledgehammer and clutch the crowbar in front of him.

He didn’t even get to swing it before the clone charged into him. Despite Gordon’s height advantage and this clone’s apparent lack of cybernetics, it didn’t take much for Gordon to lose his balance as he struggled against the Coomer clone’s assault.

He saw stars as the back of his head connected with the hard floor, and it was a miracle he didn’t pass out again immediately.

It hurt.

He screamed in pain. “FUCK!”

The clone tried to cover Gordon’s mouth to stifle the sound, and in the ensuing scuffle, Gordon’s glasses got knocked askew. Even as he fought for his life, he could hear the clone mutter, “You won’t get in my way. As long as 13 doesn’t suspect me-”

The blurry figure of his assailant suddenly sat stock still as they heard the automatic door open.

Gordon could only see the white of a scientist’s uniform, and while that could be one of his friends, he didn’t know for sure.

Until the intruder spoke. “What the hell are you...” The snappy tone trailed off as Bubby presumably took in the scene.

“Get off.” The sharp order was emphasized by the pump of a shotgun, and Gordon felt the weight of the clone lift. Without someone trying to suffocate him, Gordon was able to readjust his glasses so he could see what was going on, but when he tried moving too much, his head started pounding.

Bubby had the shotgun trained on the clone, and with the look Bubby was giving him, Gordon was surprised that the clone hadn’t caught on fire yet. Once the clone was no longer too close to Gordon or the Coomer on the table, Bubby pulled the trigger.

Click.

No gunshot. Bubby looked down at the useless weapon.

“What? I just loaded-” Bubby was cut off as the clone lunged at him. The shotgun was dropped as Bubby was caught off guard in the sudden hand to hand struggle. Despite the surprise, Bubby was able to grab the hands reaching for his neck and held them away. At first, Bubby looked like he would overpower the clone. He was stronger than he looked, and it was easy to forget that fact.

Until the clone stomped on his bad foot, causing Bubby to let go and stagger backwards. The clone was quick to pounce on the opening and managed to shove the unbalanced scientist to the ground.

At this point, Gordon struggled to sit up as he fought his aching head and body, but the sudden action made the room spin. Shutting his eyes so that he could get his bearings, he patted the floor frantically as he tried to relocate the crowbar. His hand finally landed on something, and when he pulled it close, a familiar metallic grating sound as he it dragged across the floor told him that he managed to find it.

After a few seconds, the smell of smoke assaulted his nose, and it caused his eyes to snap open again. The clone had apparently tried to run back towards Gordon and the sledgehammer, but Bubby had managed to latch onto his leg with his hands. Fire was licking Bubby’s sleeves as it climbed down his arms and onto the clone’s leg.

The clone furiously tried to pull his leg away, but Bubby’s grip did not falter even as he was jerked around the floor. Fire climbed as he did up the clone’s body. More flames joined the existing ones even where Bubby wasn’t touching him, and soon the clone’s entire body was aflame.

That was when Gordon finally noticed the screaming over the ringing in his ears. It was so similar to Coomer’s screams of pain that it made it watching the scene unbearable. Despite knowing this wasn’t his friend, it still made a quiet voice in the back of his head question whether this was actually a clone or not.

Even though the clone himself admitted the deception, he couldn’t ignore the almost instinctive fear for his friends that kicked in. He managed to stagger to a standing position, and despite the obvious distraction in the room, he finally got a good look at the Dr. Coomer on the table.

Despite the head being turned towards the fight, Gordon could see the eyes were wide with terror, and there was a large red mark on the side of his head that was partially hidden by the curly white hair. A slashed hospital gown had been the only thing he had been deemed worthy to wear.

He was also trying his damnedest to move his limbless body towards the fight, even if he couldn’t really help.

This had to be his Dr. Coomer.

With a shaking hand, Gordon reached for the cloth that was covering the poor scientist’s mouth, and when he made contact with the back of Coomer’s head, he suddenly twitched and fixed Gordon with a fearful look.

It quickly melted to relief.

Until burning hands snatched him off the table.

“NO!”

Gordon wasn’t sure who yelled that. Or if it had been his and Bubby’s voices melding together.

The clone desperately held onto Coomer’s torso like a koala, clearly determined to either use him as a living shield or to take him down with him.

The fire was quickly spreading to Coomer’s clothing.

Gordon was so fixated on that sight that he missed seeing what Bubby was doing. Until he saw the bald scientist lunge towards the clone in a way that brought back a primal fear in Gordon. It reminded him way too much of how the feral prototypes had tried to bite his face off.

Well, Gordon could at least say Bubby didn’t aim for the face.

He sure bit the hell out of the clone’s shoulder as he tried to yank Coomer away, though.

With the clone distracted, Gordon quickly stumbled his way over to the fight and took the easy opportunity Bubby had provided. All he knew next was that he was swinging his crowbar at the clone’s head in fury.

A loud THUD sounded as the blow connected.

As the clone dropped to the ground like a burning rock, Bubby was finally able to yank Coomer away from his embrace and immediately worked on putting out the few flames that had managed to take hold.

Gordon just stood there in shock. He hadn’t expected him to go down so easily, but the clone wasn’t breathing or reacting to the fire still engulfing him.

Maybe he should put that out before they started smelling it...

The automatic doors opened again.

Gordon already had his crowbar up for another swing, and Bubby pulled Coomer closer to him.

“Mr.-Mr. Freeman? Dr. Bubby? What-What happened?”

Tommy was standing in the door carrying a much bigger gun than a pistol, and it was easy to see the extra ammunition poking out of his pockets.

The tension immediately eased, and Bubby took the opportunity to finally get the cloth removed from Coomer’s mouth.

“Oh thank God, it’s you, Tommy.” Gordon sighed in relief. “We uh-”

“Hello, Gordon!” Coomer’s voice still possessed its usual volume, startling the hell out of everyone in the room. In the silence that followed, he simply said, “My clone!”

“Yeah, uh, the Dr. Coomer we found wasn’t our Coomer,” Gordon tried to explain. “I found him trying to kill Coomer and things went south.”

“That’s vague as hell.”

“He was trying to collapse my head in like a rotten watermelon! And then tried to strangle Gordon!”

Gordon rolled his eyes, but there wasn’t much bite in the action. “… Yeah, and then Bubby came in-” He stopped as a question hit him, “Wait, how did you get here so quickly? I wasn’t gone for that long.”

“… I have my reasons.” Bubby was pointedly looking away from him. With Coomer no longer in danger of burning and able to speak, Bubby didn’t have an easy distraction for his hands, so he wandered over to the observation area to snoop around.

“Did you suspect something already?”

Bubby didn’t have a chance to deny the answer when Coomer spoke up, “Probably! The project was supposed to make a hive mind between me and my clones, but, well, things didn’t quite work out. In other words, no clone can perfectly impersonate me. Even if they try.” Despite starting in his typical chipper voice, the last few words were spoken softly.

Gordon didn’t like the realization that it had taken him so long to figure out something was wrong. There had been a few things that seemed off, but with how things had gone ever since the Resonance Cascade, it had faded into the background.

“Damn, you must know each other pretty well, if Bubby caught on so quickly.” The observation posed a question if they wanted to answer it, but it also left them an out if they chose not to elaborate.

Which they didn’t. Bubby was digging into a box he found, and Coomer had seemingly turned his attention back to Tommy.

Tommy hadn’t moved since the conversation started.

“Tommy?” Gordon went in his direction, and with the adrenaline wearing off, his body started its loud protesting of the treatment he had just given it. A few more bruises to join the already existing ones. He staggered, and that seemed to snap Tommy out of the daze he was in.

“Mr. Freeman?” The response came out so quietly that Gordon almost didn’t hear it. Tommy closed the gap between them and offered an arm to help Gordon stabilize before gently guiding him to the ground to sit. “Take-Take it easy.”

While appreciative of the concern directed towards himself, he was worried about Tommy. The guy had only gotten quieter as the day had progressed, and it seemed like he wasn’t entirely there. Before he could ask, Tommy had already left his side and went over to the very dead clone.

And fired a full clip into the corpse. Which was suddenly no longer burning.

Once again, everyone jumped at the loud, sudden noise, and Gordon called out, “Hey, he’s dead! He can’t hurt us anymore! Don’t waste the ammo.”

Tommy didn’t respond until the gun clicked to signify that the clip was empty. “Had to-had to make sure. They always say to uh, double-double tap, right?”

“That’s- That’s a bit more than just a double tap, man.” Despite the words, his voice didn’t have any reproach. He ended up patting the ground next to him, “Why don’t you rest a minute? You’ve been going non-stop for a while now.”

“I’m fine, Mr. Freeman. I gotta-I gotta make sure Dr. Coomer is okay.” Tommy temporarily dropped the gun to his side for a moment as he went to get a better look at Dr. Coomer.

Gordon thought about joining them, but his eyes started to flutter shut as their voices blurred into a background hum. Maybe just a few minutes…

“Are you alright?” The sudden question and the identity of the person asking surprised Gordon so much that he forgot to answer. Eyes snapping back open, he looked up at Bubby, who was cradling the shotgun from earlier again.

Instead of answering the question, he asked, “Isn’t that broken?”

“No, it’s just jammed, but I’m getting the shells out of it to use in a different one.” Bubby pointed the gun away from him as he started pulling out the ammo. “You probably shouldn’t throw guns like that anymore.” Once he finished, he nudged a green army supply box towards him. “Anyway, you shouldn’t be sleeping, so help me look through this.”

Despite the phrasing, as soon as Gordon opened the lid, Bubby walked away. Oh well. There wasn’t much else he could do, so he started to dig through the various supplies to see if there was anything they could take.

Which got boring really quickly when most of it was junk. To help keep his mind moving, he asked Coomer the first thing that came to mind, “Hey your, uh, clone mentioned something earlier and we overheard some soldiers talking about it. Did you see a monster alien thing running through?”

“Why of course, Gordon! You can clearly see the blood on the ceiling and walls from the soldiers it killed and from damage it took!”

Now that Gordon wasn’t preoccupied with saving Coomer, he finally took in the rest of the room. And Coomer wasn’t lying.

There was a blackened blood spray dried onto the ceiling which looked like it came from the monster, and there were a few splotches on the wall intermixed with a dark red from at least one injured or dead human.

Interestingly, the smear on the floor went around the table. Given some of the damage earlier, he didn’t think it would have cared about slamming into another piece of furniture, but apparently it had cared about this one. Or it was chasing someone who decided to go around.

He shuddered.

“It didn’t bother you at all?”

“Nope! When I heard the soldiers radio in that it was coming this way, I laid very still and kept very quiet!”

“And it just. Ignored you? And did you see what it looked like?”

“I had to keep my eyes closed, Gordon. Otherwise it might have guessed I was still alive thanks to my sparkling eyes!” The unexpected moment of pure self confidence drew a short laugh from Gordon, and Coomer continued. “I heard it stop and sniff, but given my current state, it must have assumed I was already dead!”

Current state.

Wait.

“Shit! Where the fuck are your arms and legs?!” Sure he noticed that they were missing when he first walked in, but given what he walked into, figuring out the hows and whys of the situation had fallen to the wayside.

“Are you fucking blind?” Bubby shouted from the observation room. “He’s been missing them this whole time!”

“I NOTICED THAT, MAN, BUT WHERE DID THEY GO?”

“Oh the military took them! They’re top of the line cybernetics, and I would be too difficult to contain if they didn’t remove them.” If this had been anyone else, Gordon would have interpreted this as overconfident bragging, but he knew Coomer well enough that he was stating a fact. “And it would increase the chances of at least something from me getting out.”

“Oh hell yes!” Bubby’s triumphant voice echoed through the chamber, drawing all present to look towards him. After a minute, he exited the observation room with some clothes and something metal.

“Good job, Bubby, you found my Power Legs! And clothes! I can’t wait to wear something other than this cold hospital gown.” The genuine warmth that seeped into Coomer’s voice eased something in Gordon’s chest. Sure Coomer had kept his chipper attitude throughout the conversation, but it had been teetering the line of being forced.

Not that Gordon could blame him.

Bubby thankfully seemed to know what he was doing when it came to helping Coomer get his legs reattached, so Gordon went back to focusing on Tommy. At some point during the conversation, Tommy had reloaded his gun and was standing near the far exit. Gordon called out, “What’s going on, man? We’ve taken out most of the soldiers by now, right?”

“There-there has to be at least one soldier ahead of us, Mr. Freeman. Whoever took out the mon-The monster. And the aliens have been just- They keep teleporting around.”

Yeah, Gordon felt dumb after that. Tommy was right, and he should have connected those dots on his own. “Sorry. Gordon’s head kinda hurts still.” He gingerly leaned his head forward and closed his eyes in hopes that the ache would stop.

He would have stayed like that if Tommy hadn’t crossed the room at record speed and knelt by him. “You-You okay? Don’t-You-You can’t fall asleep.”

Gordon opened his eyes to see Tommy’s frightened visage hovering nearby, and the closeness made a faint trembling in the other man’s frame much more obvious.

“I’m-I’m fine, Tommy, I wasn’t dozing off.” Right then, anyway. “I’m just...” He quickly debated lying, but he didn’t think he could make it believable. “It hurts a lot. The clone slammed me against the floor.” He raised an arm as if to rub the back of his head, but caught himself halfway and lowered it. “Just. Don’t worry about me, right now. You can keep guarding the door.”

After a moment of almost uncomfortable staring, Tommy nodded before retaking his spot.

They’d be so fucked without him.

Before anymore musing could happen, Gordon was distracted by watching Bubby help Coomer sit upright. He still had the hospital gown on covering his torso, and it was left on while Bubby buttoned up the shirt he threw on him. It wasn’t until there were a few buttons left that Bubby pulled the gown out through the hole.

Gordon had no idea why they went through such a complicated method of taking the gown off, but it felt like it was ringing a bell. Unfortunately, said bell made his head ache more, so he mentally shook that line of thinking for now.

Bubby must have somehow figured out the pants while getting the legs on, because once they had settled the shirt on, Coomer twisted himself around so that his lower legs hung off the table. The position allowed Bubby to shove on some socks and shoes with ease, and with that, Coomer scooted off the table.

Bubby was close enough for Coomer to lean against as he tested the legs, and soon he was standing upright with few troubles. His balance seemed to be off, but that could easily be attributed to his lack of arms and readjusting to having legs.

As an afterthought, Bubby tied the labcoat around Coomer’s waist. “Alright, that should do it.”

“Thank you, Professor!” Coomer was beaming at Bubby with a mischievous glint.

“Doctor.”

“Professor!”

Gordon couldn’t help but laugh as they continued the old argument. It was such a ridiculous thing, and he had heard it several times by this point, but it was familiar. He was laughing so much that he didn’t notice when Coomer had come over.

“Hello, Gordon! We should get moving! We still have to find a scientist who can let us out of this building.” The announcement was enough to jolt him out of his laughing fit, and he wiped his eyes before standing up and giving Coomer a wide, genuine smile.

The now familiar aches of his body were still there, but it was easier to ignore them with a lighter heart.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

#My Writing #Hlvrai #Half Life VR but the AI is Self Aware #Gordon Hlvrai #Tommy Coolatta #Bubby #Dr. Coomer

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dew-itowo · 4 years ago

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As The World Caves In part 4

Cody; It’s been and honor... Sir...

The alcohol stung the back of Cody's raw throat. From screaming his pain away. Screaming at you because you didn't understand how much Rex had meant to him. He sat there, drinking, smoking, doing anything other than thinking about his dead batcher, and failing. Smoke rolled off his lips like the thunder that threatened rain off in the distance of his office. Of course, he was destroyed over Rex's death. He and Rex had practically adopted you when they met you. Not taking your hurt into account he selfishly, drunkenly, took his out on you like some abusive father. But never laying a hand on you. He fumbled with the medallion you'd gifted him after his promotion to Commander.

"What's that Ad'ika?" The commander said, scooping you up from where you stood. Only a little girl at the time. Maybe Ahsoka's age. Maybe younger. Giggling and squirming in his arms you tried to hide the present.

"Nothing Kote. Just uuuh, a thing." You lied wonderfully. Cody smiled brightly as Rex jogged up the hill to where they stood. His riduur looking like he'd just run the mile four times.

"Force you're a fast little shit, you know that right?" Rex panted as you buried your face into Cody's chest plate, smiling like the it was Life day and you just got the best present. "FYI they'll leave you in their dust Codes." Cody laughed, throaty, deep, and beautiful. It always made you feel better hearing that man's laugh. Rex moved forward resting his hand on your shoulder as he kissed Cody's cheek. "How's my Marshal Commander?" The captain cooed lightly. Cody smiled brightly.

"I'm better than I'll ever be with you two." Gods wasn't that the truth~

The height wasn't too far up from where he stood. Maybe 50 meters up. The whiskey burned sliding down his throat again. Thinking of you. Thinking of everything you gave him and Rex. It hurt to do this to you, but he couldn't take living with his husband. Afterall the war was ending and now clones would be needed after the fact. It was entirely selfish to believe that he might save you from more hurt by jumping now, when Obi-wan his best friend and your master was to be coming around tomorrow morning with reports. He'd most likely have you with him. Another chug of the whiskey made his groan. If it wasn't jumping that'd kill him, it'd be the alcohol poisoning.

"Cody? Do you like being a clone?" You asked one evening while nestled between an exhausted Rex and Cody. The latter being fast asleep while he held you close to him. Cody looked away from his datapad with a thoughtful look.

"What do you mean by that Ad?" He asked, combing his hand through your hair. You leaned into his touch looking down slightly, away from his eyes. "Do I like being a clone, as in do I enjoy being a soldier?" You nod slowly. "Well of course I like being a clone. Hell if I wasn't I would have you or Rex or Obi-wan. Yes I hate watching my Vod leave me, but it's a natural thing, and we we're all born to die. Clone or not." He admitted, leaning his cheek on your head. "How could I not love being a clone when I have everything and more right now."

You smile feeling him kiss your forehead. Your eyes growing heavy with each passing second. "I love you dad." You slurred already half asleep, unaware of what you just said to him. Cody blinked for a moment before answering.

"I love you more than anything Ad'ika."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

His com chirped with another message from you. Surely you were petrified thinking this was all your fault. It hurt Cody to think about it. But you are a strong kid, you'll move on. Eventually at least. He was afraid of hurting you any further. He was afraid of you hating him for what he was deciding to pull. Rex would kick his ass into next week if he caught him doing this. Even as a kriffing ghost he might shove his foot up his ass. The thought drew out a small laugh from Cody thinking about how funny Rex was.

They were pinned down by droids. All sides as you sat there trying to come up with a plan. Anakin sitting with you spewing out idea with Ahsoka. When Rex spoke up. "Hey, Let's do get help." He grinned at Cody.

"What?"

"Get help." Rex repeated smiling more. Cody frowned.

"No~" Cody breathed, thinking about what happened when they did it last time.

"Come on you love it." Rex chuckled. Cody looked at the ground trying not to meet anyone's gaze. Because Get help was not something you did in front of your general's.

"I hate it."

"It's great, It works every time."

"it's humiliating."

"Do you have a better idea?" Rex asked, knowing fully that he'd won. Cody sighed in defeat.

"No." He admitted. Rex smiles.

"We're doing it." The captain smiled.

"We are not doing Get help." Cody affirmed one last time. At least trying to sound like he wasn't going to anyway.

The doors hiss open as Cody hung onto Rex's shoulder. Rex acting panicked he held onto Cody's arm. "GET HELP! PLEASE! MY BROTHER IS DYING!" Cody rolled his eyes internally as he played dead. Stumbling along with Rex's steps. The battle droids all confused by what was going on. "Get Help! Help Him!!" Rex yelled as he threw Cody at the line of droids. Bowling them over as Rex pulling out his twin DCS add mowed down the rest around Cody who laid on top of the pile of droids he was just thrown at. You and the rest of the men enter the room. You ran over to Cody asking if he was okay frantically. Rex chuckles putting his blasters away. "Oh he's just pouting because I threw him like a bowling bowl." Cody grumbles a death threat as he gets up. Rex laughs. "Oh hush, you could never kill me. I'll kill you first Cyar'ika."

Cody choked on a broken sob as the last of the memory echoed in his mind, "I'll kill you first Cyar'ika." the whiskey tasted like veno on his tongue. his com chirping with panicked messages from you now. Maybe others. He could hear Obi-wan's ring playing along with yours. He must be worried now. All he wanted was to lay down and die in peace, but he couldn't do that with you panicking and worrying about him. It sounded horrible, but what world is there to live in when he's lost what he loves must. Along with hurting you.

"Go Away!" He yelled throwing his empty whiskey bottle at the com. Instead of shutting it up, it hit the call button. Great, just what he needs right now. Human interaction.

"Commander?" A familiar voice said over the com. They sounded half asleep whoever they were. "Commander are you alright?" He said sounding an awful lot like Kix. Oh not good. Kix was a kriffing bloodhound when sniffing out hurt vod. Especially emotionally hurt one. "Cody, you there vod? Are you ok?" Sounding fully awake now the clone could be heard moving around, with another asking what was going on in the background, possibly being woken up by the movement and talking. "Cody?" Cody wasn't there, physically maybe but not mentally or emotionally. He didn't want to ask for help, though he knew he deeply needed it. He wasn't that kind of person to ask another for comfort. He'd always had Rex to just give it to him when he noticed the signs. He could tell Kix was getting worried now. "Cody are you there, is everything okay? Are you hurt?" Hurt is metaphorical. Pain is rhetorical. and self loathing is literal. So which was it?

"Can you tell them I'm sorry... I didn't mean to take it out on them. They never deserved my anger. Please tell them I'm sorry." Kix knew what was going on now. Quickly he could be heard jumped out of his bunk and his feet hitting the floor hard.

"Cody stay on the line. Just keep talking to me." Kix spoke in his medic voice, sweet like sugar followed with a great sabbac face. He knew Kix was panicking now. He didn't have far to run, they were all in the same barracks. But the offices where high over them. "Cody you there Vod?"

"Kix, it's okay I'm fine." He lied, looking over the railing of the small balcony that every office had. Officers offices also had a living quarters if they hose to stay there, which Cody had since he and Rex wanted a private place for themselves.

"Where are you right now." Kix breathed hard, he must be running. "Cody keep talking to me, tell me whats going on."

"I miss him... So much..."

"I know, I know you miss him. But It's going to be okay listen to me. I promise it's going to be okay." Kix was in the lift now, he could hear the doors closing. But the pocket knife was already in his hand. He didn't want to be saved. But he also didn't want to hurt anymore.

"Kix tell them that they mean the world to me. And that I'm sorry." Cody choked out at the blade touched his underarm. The thin layer of skin protecting his veins and artery being pressed in. He could feel Kix's panic now. He knew he was scaring the poor medic, but this needed to be said. "I don't want them to know what I did so I want you to tell them I went in my sleep." The blood started to bead up now, pressing harder the blade cut deeper into his wrist. It didn't hurt much since he wasn't sober or in his right mind at all.

"Cody listen to yourself vod, do you hear what your saying?" But Cody didn't care what he heard. He knew Kix well, and also knew he wouldn't stop trying to save a goner until they died in his embrace. A small whimper escaped Cody. "Cody I'm in your corridor. You better be there when I bust down your door."

"Or what." He dare challenge the medic now. Blood dripping continuously from his wrist, deep slices bleeding heavily. he'd felt the pinch when he cut to deep, he knew he wasn't going to survive this. "Are you going to decommission me?"

"I sure your trying to decommission yourself as we speak, but no, I'm going to help you." The lock on his door unlocked as Kix keyed in his code. "It's going to be alright Cody."

"Nothing's going to anything sooner or later Kix."

"Don't give up on me."

"I give up a long time ago, I just had my husband to keep me from offing myself." He growled through welling tears, he hated crying. It pissed him off. But only when he was one doing it.

"Is that it, was that all Rex was to you?" Kix yelled now as the door hissed open. He then saw the mess the office was, holes in the walls from punching them, empty bottles of liquor everywhere, and Cody sitting on the balcony stabbing his arms as his mask cracked entirely. Kix ran towards him, realising his med kit wouldn't help this at all. "Cody no, stop, now!" He shouted grabbed the Commander by his untouched wrist and twisting in sharply to make him drop the pocket knife. A broken sob exited the commander's mouth as the knife fell to the ground. Landing in the messy pool of Cody's blood. "No, You di'kut!" Cody felt very light headed. Dizzy too.

"I told you I'm sorry. Please don't be mad with me." He sobbed, Kix cupped his cheeks holding him up when his legs gave out.

"No vod, no I'm not mad at you. You okay, your going to be okay." He chanted as he dead gifted Cody off the ground. He'd never seen Cody this broken before. It hurt him.

All of Cody's words became gibberish soon after that, just holding onto Kix as he carried him to the med bay. He felt so pathetic as brothers from his battalion and the 501st stared in shock. Watching the as his blood left a trail on the white permacrete. They knew a goner when they saw one.

Cody watched the brothers as he passed by, his eyes becoming very heavy suddenly as Kix chanted stay with me closer to his ear. He could only imagine it being Rex's voice. Maybe that'd help to stay. Why did he want to say though? Why was he listening again?

He could see the white walls of the medbay now. Sick brothers watching as the commander is carried by their medic, his blood staining the white tile as they passed by. Kix's talking became hard to hear the closer they got to where ever they were going. All Cody thought about was You and Rex.

Rex laid with you in his arms, you slept peacefully as both of them watched the night shift in morning. Dreaming about the stars and what they meant.

Cody was laying on a cot now, and you were next to him. Why were you there? When did you get there? Words seemed to jumble up inside his head. Breathing became harder as he heard you say his name.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. The save a wretch like me." They sang as the shots fired for him. He watched as they folded his flag. The Coruscant emblem with the GAR emblem in the right corner. Cody held you close as you sang. Rex had always loved it when you sang. He must love it now, Cody thought as a sneaky tear rolled sown his cheek. Gods he must be laughing right now, watching grown men cry over him. Hell he must be having a blast. It made Cody smile thinking about it.

He smiled as a tear dripped down his cheek. Holding your hand in his good one the words suddenly starting to make sense. "I'm so sorry for what I did, I didn't meant to make you mad. Please Cody don't you leave me too. I'm afraid of being alone." You sobbed holding his hand.

"But you're not alone, yeah I may be leaving you. But my caring will always stay for you, as will so many others. I should yelled at you. It wasn't your fault, never had been. I was just so mad. I'm sure you could understand." He whispers to you. "Be to honest, I'm scared to be alone too."

"Then why leave me?" You sob.

“When someone leaves your life, those exits are not made equal. Some are beautiful and poetic and satisfying. Others are abrupt and unfair. But most are just unremarkable, unintentional, clumsy.” He breathes out, feeling his eyes grow heavy. "But as long as you remember them, you'll never be alone." His smile was bright as he cupped your cheek softly. You leaned into his touch. "I was an honor... Sir..." He slurred as he finally let go.

#cody x rex #sad #sw

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capricornus-rex · 5 years ago

Text

Playing Pretend (4)

Requested by: @calkesttiss | Prompt:

Hi! I just watched isi & ossi (rich girl and poor boxer boy AH) on netflix and now i cant stop thinking about cal and fake dating. Do with that what you will 😂

Cal Kestis x Reader

1 | 2 | 3 | Next: Part 5 | Masterlist

4 of ?

Cal found a way down the building and walked his way back to the Mobara Palace, one of the few cantinas in the Capital that have docking bays. The Mobara Palace was one of the biggest in the city too; occupying a whole block to cover the bar itself as well as the elaborate network of paths that connect the bays to one another, with the cantina at the starting point of it all.

The Mantis’s entrance ramp hissed and lowered, opening the door before him. An aromatic waft was the first to welcome him upon his entry.

“Looks like Greez is cooking something good,” he comments to BD-1.

As he entered the ship, Greez’s dual pairs of arms were all over the pantry and yet each arm was carefully distributed to a certain task in cooking.

“Smells good, Greez!” Cal beamed.

“Oh good, you’re just in time for dinner—with all that wandering around you’re doing, you’re probably hungry,”

He joined the others at the table as soon as Greez lifted the pot from the stove and served everyone their own plates. The meal was solemn and yet there was a warm aura emanating around them. Cal decided to up the mood by striking a conversation.

“How long do you guys still think we’re gonna stay here until this blows over?”

A silence at the dinner table. Cere’s eyes shifted, she searched Greez’s face and studied his reaction toward Cal’s question. There was only one possible and realistic answer, but the boy doesn’t seem to concur with it.

“Cal,” she clears her throat. “You do understand why…”

Before she could even reiterate her question, Cal already knew this mere dinner table conversation was going to be another lecture.

“I know. We’re hiding from the loan shark that Greez borrowed the money from to get this ship,”

It was an embarrassing truth, but a truth nonetheless. Greez felt like the situation required him to say a piece.

“Look, kid, we can scrape by with what we have. I mean, I still got coin on me—but not that enough to cover the loan plus with its interest!”

“Odd jobs, honest jobs, aren’t gonna cut it in a short time, Greez. At least you would know that, of all people,” Cal argued.

Cal had been wandering around the city looking for a quick way to earn some coin in the quickest way possible. The downtown and underground areas of the planet had some questionable methods of earning money—but they were easy money. Although Cal had grown up with street smarts, part of that knowledge is when and where a solution is either a real solution or another problem later on.

“You know the Sabacc, don’t ya?” Greez whispered with the left corner of his mouth directed to Cal.

“Greez, we are not going with gambling!” Cere sternly exclaimed. The impact of her fork dropping against the plate was just as scary as a fist landing on the table like a gavel.

There was another silence amongst them again. Cere continued on with her own piece.

“We cannot endanger anyone in our crew with something that won’t be worth our while. I don’t mind pretending to be some stranger in a different name just so we can have someplace to stay safe together. But I will not allow anybody in this ship to get into something that would jeopardize themselves or the crew altogether, understand?”

Cere’s outburst hardened the silence. Everybody understands that she hasn’t outgrown her military discipline from her days of participating in the Clone Wars—and she’s utilizing them in predicaments such as these amongst the Mantis crew members.

These episodes of hers were occasional, therefore it made her unpredictable, intimidating, but somehow her aggressive delivery doesn’t outweigh her rationale or true motive. Everybody—Cal, Greez, Merrin, and ultimately BD-1—knew that she means well and that she always will.

Cere processed what just had happened with her. She attempted to recompose herself in the midst of the awkwardness. She cleared her throat.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to yell.”

“It’s fine, Cere,” Greez consoles.

The dinner proceeds. Cal wondered if the girl he met yesterday and bumped into just now would be a better subject to talk about.

“I met someone last night. Bumped into her again,”

All heads turn to Cal.

“She frequents a pub not too far from here. I always see her near or inside that place. Maybe if I bump into her again, I’ll ask her where I can find a place to get some cash—and a clean one at that,”

“Are you sure she is to be trusted?” Cere maintained her stern tone even after recomposing herself.

Cal was so sure of his judgment about you. He recalled the moments where you two were together. He felt your kindness and compassion—he knew of your good intentions, you meant no harm—but he also sensed some sort of sadness in you.

“You probably have heard of Senator Bail Organa?” Cere takes the conversation reins.

Cal shrugs, “Yeah sure, I know him. I saw him sometimes in the Senate Building in Coruscant.”

“Well, he knows of our presence here—don’t worry, he doesn’t know about the loan shark at our tail—and he’s invited us to a social function,”

“Social function?” Cal raised his eyebrow at Cere’s unusual choice of word.

“Apparently, this party was being held by a colleague of his. Perhaps they needed to fill the guestlist,”

“Proxies,”

“Exactly.”

“How bad can a few no-show guests be? It’s not like it’s gonna dent their bank account when the catering bill comes!” Greez dryly joked and it was the received likewise.

In light of this new announcement, Cal began to wonder how long does he have to stay in the party before he could sneak back out in the streets and find the unusual girl who had to drag him up a rooftop from the Tipsy Taun-Taun just to ask for some self-defense moves.

The following days passed until the day of the banquet has come. That morning, your mother personally made sure that you don’t sleep in and get yourself ready as quickly as possible. She also announced that the stylists are coming in half an hour.

“Mom, I’m perfectly capable of doing my own makeup!” You detest despite still being groggy from being woken up without your consent.

You force yourself out of bed so that you could take a shower. Unfortunately, you didn’t have the luxury of staying too long in the bath—however, you sorely wished you did. You slid deeper into the cold, ivory and gold-trimmed bathtub until only your eyes are on the surface.

A pounding on the door disturbed your watery peace.

“[y/n], hurry up!” your mother growled from the other side.

“Almost done!” you cried back.

You were actually done minutes ago, you only chose to soak yourself for a bit longer with the wishful thinking that they’ll never realize that you’ve locked yourself in your own bathroom. You’d love that though.

“No one could ever go wrong with black,” you muttered as you pulled out an off-shouldered black cocktail dress with stars and planets embroidered with golden thread.

You made quick work of yourself. You did your hair and makeup: applying minimal makeup as possible, you wore your hair down and clipped a silver headband on both ends with four tiers of golden cords hanging over on top of the other. Staring back at yourself in the mirror, a brush in your hand slides down to the length of your hair; with every stroke, you ponder if all this your parents are doing is ever worth it either for themselves or for the family.

You sigh for an answer, or lack thereof. Afterwards, you donned the dress and the shoes—both pieces were in black. The finishing touch—a personal one at that—was a pair of leather fingerless gloves.

“Here goes nothing,” a mantra you tell yourself before exiting your room in attendance to any social gathering you were obliged to attend.

The party started without you. No surprise in that, you thought. Nevertheless, you made your way to ballroom where the chatter of the guests became more and more audible yet incoherent as their voices meddled.

Immediately, you searched for Tazha in the room. She wasn’t easy to miss. Her glittering dress outshines everyone else’s, literally making her a beacon for you to easily see her. You walk up to her.

“Oh you look great!” she compliments.

“Thanks, you too,”

Suddenly, one of the Ithrel sons, Logan who was the third son and was the same age as you, appears ot be walking toward you with what you thought is the stupidest grin you’ve ever seen on a face. He comes in strong by grabbing you by the waist, reel you in for a kiss except you successfully dodged it with your gloved hand.

“Logan? What the hell are you doing?!”

“Well, your mom paid me to flirt with you until you end up falling in love with me, I’ll have a chance in the Junior Legislator’s Program! Plus, we get to support your family until your dad becomes Senator or whatever, I mean, we don’t have a choice on that, we just gotta roll with it,” he beamed with an imbecile’s optimism. “Big bonus if we ever get married though. I mean, she wanted that to happen. So, marry me?”

“Hold up. She did what now?”

Logan repeated your own mother’s plan, he reiterated that this part wasn’t even in the original agreement. Your mother had to negotiate her way through the Ithrels in promising a much stronger bond of support to your family—therefore, you became a sacrificial lamb.

You and Tazha exchanged glances. Both of you communicated clearly through the furrows of your brows and the hard rolling of your eyes. A gradual burst of rage was flowing in your bloodstreams.

“Oh my God, this is just sad and pathetic of you, Logan,” Tazha condescendingly comments.

“I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind tonight,” you growled, your knuckles were white from gripping the bannister too hard.

You searched for your mother in the ballroom. When you spotted her and your father speaking with some guests, you marched through the sea of people until you reached her.

“Mother, may I speak with you?”

Yasina excused herself from her guest and she was in for a surprise with what is about to go down.

“You paid one of the Ithrel sons to date me?! Because you thought that would strengthen your connection with them just so Dad can secure his win in the election? You did this without me knowing? Whatever the hell happened to consent, Mom!?”

“[y/n] Elvas Torvel, I do not allow you to speak to me with a tone like that in an important event like this!” Yasina hissed, struggling to maintain her composure—both mentally and physically—after just being bombarded with questions by her daughter.

“Did you even ever stop to think how I’d feel if you paired me with a complete imbecile?!”

“[y/n], honey, please listen,” your father intervenes but the argument was heating up between you and your mother.

“The Ithrels are a good family. They uphold a clear reputation. We Torvels and Ithrels would be a great collaborative enterprise,”

“You don’t see the problem here, Mom? I don’t want to get married!”

Yasina was silent. Her face was completely aghast: her eyes wide open, her lip was trembling as if wanting to say something but couldn’t because of so much nerves thrashing underneath her skin.

“You will not ruin this event for your own selfish, adolescent needs, young lady. We are not finished with this discussion.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on ending it soon.”

You walked out from your parents. Turning your back on them to wipe away the tears that was welling up in your eyes.

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