#I actually got done with the crosshair one and started posting it

[heyclickadee]

For the expression challenge I'd love to see Crosshair in 1 or Omega in 6!

Hi! And okay! Ssooooooo Crosshair in 1:

Not gonna lie, for some reason the angle on this one kind of kicked my butt, and I think the anatomy is still off, but it was fun. Crosshair’s all craggy and angled and made of a lot of interesting shapes, which honestly kind of makes him fun to draw.

Aaand then since I did one that was Omega in 6, here’s Omega in 8:

She’ll be fine. It’s just the Mantell Mix cart. It’s fine.

[cozage]

Hello!! I love your writing and would love to see a follow up of the captured by marines ask where they go and rescue the reader :)))

A/N: This is the last of the Captured by Marines/Rescued by Pirates short fics! Luffy’s and Law’s were posted earlier today, check them out :)

Characters: female reader x Ace

Cw:  angst, torture, reader in peril

Total word count: 3k

Part 1

Rescued by Pirates - Ace

It wasn’t long before he saw the Navy ships, and he smirked to himself. How easy it had been to get to them. He wondered if the Marines even knew who they had, if they knew what kind of death sentence that had placed upon themselves by taking Whitebeard’s crew. By taking you. 

He heard cannon balls splash around him and knew he had been spotted, but he wasn’t concerned. His Striker was too fast and too small to be caught by a stray firearm.

Watching the Navy scramble around like that on the ships made him laugh. Actually laugh out loud. So loud that he knew his crewmates could hear it. That you could hear it. 

The navymen on the ships took aim and fired to no avail. He wondered if they knew it was a lost cause. Not that it mattered. They should’ve known he would come after them. They really should’ve prepared better. 

He lept off his Striker and jumped up to the deck, smirking at all the wide-eyed marines. Everyone just stood there unmoving for a second, shocked by his sudden appearance. 

“Hey there fellas, you wouldn’t happen to know where my crew mates are, wouldya?”

His question nudged them into action, and they all began firing. The bullets went right through him, and he stood there, letting them empty their rounds of ammo. Once they were done, he shrugged and ran past them down the stairs. 

His division had taken a few ships like this hostage, and he was familiar with the layout. He didn’t worry himself with the Marines staring at him. They’d all be at the bottom of the ocean soon enough, but he couldn’t sink a ship with his crew on it. 

“Ace!!” He heard a small group of about five men cry out, finding them locked behind a cell of sea prism stone. He cursed the substance, but smiled at the men regardless.

“Hey guys, howya been?” He looked around, but you weren’t there, and his heart sank a little bit. This would be a lot easier if he knew you were here fighting with him. “Any idea where the key is?”

“The vice admiral!” One of them shouted.

“Be back soon!” He tipped his hat and ran back up the ship to find the keys. 

He found the Vice Admiral holding the keys out over the edge of the ship. The man looked very nervous, and Ace knew he was a coward without even speaking to him. 

“Give me the keys, and I’ll spare your life. How’s that?”

“No way,” the man’s voice trembled as he spoke. “I don’t make deals with pirates. 

Ace didn’t argue. He just held out his fingers to create crosshairs aimed at the man.

“Listen here,” Ace said, his voice deadly serious. “I don’t have time to play around. Either you give me those keys and I let you and your men go, or I send everyone on this ship to a watery grave. Your choice.”

It turned out that Ace had picked the right ship, because the vice admiral was nice enough to give him the keys for every jail cell on every ship. Ace ran back down the stairs with the keys in his hand, and the feeling of success on his shoulders. 

He unlocked the cell and his crewmates rushed to hug him, but he waved them off. “Tie up all the marines and hold them hostage. Once we have everyone, we’ll put them on one ship and let them go.”

The pirates look at him like hes crazy, but he shrugs. “I got the keys without a fight. That was the trade off. I’m a man of my word.”

The second ship was as easy to take as the first, but you weren’t on that ship either, and Ace was starting to feel nervous. Three ships with Marines this weak shouldn’t have crushed the third division of the Whitebeard Pirates so badly. 

The third ship was quickly taken over as well, and you were still nowhere to be found. His crew mates must have sensed his panic, because finally someone spoke up. 

“They took her separately since she had devil fruit powers,” a crew mate said. “They said she was too dangerous to keep on these ships. She’d be..” the man trailed off, scared to finish. 

“What? What’d they say?” Ace said, trying to rush him. 

“They said she’d be good bait.”

“Bait…” Ace could feel his skin catch fire at the words, and his crewmates backed away from him. He wanted to destroy the small fleet of ships they had just captured, and he struggled to keep his cool in the moment.

“Get on the other ship. Now. Sail back to Whitebeard.” He handed Whitebeard’s Vivre card to a man and stood as they all scrambled away. 

He weighed heavily what to do next, and forced himself to clear his head before he decided what to do. Once the Navy ship with Whitebeard’s pirates were out of sight, he stripped two of the Navy officers of their clothes and put one outfit on, saving the other for later. He burned their main sail, and made sure all of the men were tied up tight on one ship. He took the small transponder snail with him, and then as he left, he set the second, abandoned ship ablaze without looking back. 

He moved fast, following your vivre card again. He hadn’t even thought to look at it while he was freeing the others on the ship, but it wouldn’t have mattered. He couldn’t have left his family there, in the hands of the marines and sentenced to Impel Down. Unlike with you, he would’ve had no way to find them again, and they’d be gone forever. He knew he had made the right choice, but it still hurt to know you had been moving further away from him rather than getting closer. 

He sailed through the day and into the night before he saw lights of other ships. He quickly extinguished his own boat light and watched the ship closely. He wanted to go in as wild as the fire he created, but he was certain the members of this crew would be significantly stronger than the last ones he encountered, and he needed to get you out alive. 

As his Striker crept up to the side of the ship, he was surprised by the lack of watchmen. He was expecting infiltration to be harder than this. And then his Striker tapped the side of the boat. 

“Did you hear that?” Ace heard a voice from above, and he silently cursed himself. 

“Hear what?” An older voice huffed.

“I dunno. Sounded like something hit the boat, I think.”

“I think you’re hearing things, Cadet.”

“We should probably check it out.” The voice moved closer, and Ace readied himself for a battle.

“I told you kid,” the older voice spoke. “The Captain said that the Whitebeard Pirates wouldn’t come until a public execution was set. They’re going to take this time to rally their forces, and they’ll attack when it’s a public event. It’s much less impressive to kidnap some girl from a Marine boat, but to fight the entire Navy while the world is watching? That's the spectacle the pirates will want.”

“How do you know?” the kid asked.

“I was around when Roger was executed-” Ace flinched at the name. “-and it was the same thing. Pirates everywhere, waiting for someone else to make the move. But nobody ever did, and he was executed because of it. That won’t happen again though. They’ll take a stand. They’ll make a show of it.”

“You were there for Roger’s execution?” Fascination filled the young man’s voice, and Ace rolled his eyes. “What was it like?”

“Ha! Let’s go grab a drink and I’ll tell you all about it.” The older man’s voice was paired with footsteps leading away from the railing, and Ace tied his Striker to the ladder and climbed up it.

He peeked his eyes over the railing and only saw two other men on deck, other officers who were probably on watch. They were facing away from him, and he silently jumped over the railing and landed on the deck. 

He smoothed out his Marine uniform and straightened his cap, trying his best to blend in. 

This ship was similar to the last three he had taken over, and he had to resist running downstairs to find you. Instead, he walked around, trying to figure out where the keys were. He found a board with a schedule for watch duty on deck and watch duty for the prisoner. 

As he was staring at the board, another man came up to him. He looked to be about his age. 

“You wouldn’t want to take my shift watching the bitch, would you?”

Ace’s anger flared up, but he smothered it quickly to keep up the appearance. 

“I don’t know, man. When do you have to watch her?” He said, eyeing the man next to him. 

The man was about as tall as Ace, but extremely skinny. It looked like he was too tall for his own body, like he hadn’t filled out his own skin yet. He had bright orange hair and a crooked smile, and just looking at him made Ace want to punch him in the face. Though Ace wasn’t sure if that was because of the man’s comment about you or his appearance. 

The man chuckled. “In thirty minutes, and I'd love to go back to bed. Had a bit too much to drink, if you know what I mean,” the man chuckled, and Ace joined along halfheartedly until the man continued. “Last thing I want to deal with in the middle of the night is that chick.”

Ace raised his eyebrow. Of course you were giving them hell. “She that bad, huh? Have you seen her?”

“Just when she got on the ship. She was kicking and screaming until they put a gag in her and knocked her around a few times.”

Ace gritted his teeth. “Sounds feisty.”

The man snorted. “You can go find out for yourself just how feisty she is in about thirty minutes if you want.”

“You’ve intrigued me,” Ace said, pretending to be casual. “I’ll take it if you switch for my shift tomorrow.”

“Deal.” The man held out his hand, and Ace took it. “I’m Rogan.”

Ace nodded. “Nice to meet you. Chance.”

“Well, you’re really doing me a solid, Chance. I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, the orange-haired marine walked off to bed. 

Thirty minutes. Ace had thirty minutes to keep a low profile and find the key to your cell, and then you would be free. He grabbed some coffee from the cafeteria to rejuvenate him, and got a small snack as well. He had been fighting and sailing for over a day, and the exhaustion was starting to catch up with him. 

He must’ve dozed off at some point, because a loud speaker jolted him awake to alert a shift change. He cursed himself, now he wouldn’t have time to find the keys to your cell. 

He walked down the stairs to the jail cell, and found another man waiting for him. 

“Here,” he said, shoving a rod at Ace. The man’s eyes flicked nervously back to the cell behind him. “If she acts up any more just stick her with that.”

The man started up the staircase and then turned back to Ace. “Just some advice: Don’t taunt her. She’s…” he paused, and his eyes shifted back to the cell where Ace guessed you were. “Just don’t acknowledge her. The other guy should be here soon, and I know we’re supposed to only guard in doubles, but I can’t take it anymore.”

The guy disappeared from sight, and Ace heard your voice chirp up from behind him. 

“If you think you can subdue me, you’re wrong.” He could hear the animalistic growl in your voice, and he shuddered to think about what you had been through while you were parted. 

“Oh,” Ace laughed, turning to face you. “I think I can handle you just fine.”

He could see your eyes shift when you caught sight of his freckled face, hatred instantly turning into relief. 

Your eyes flicked to the doorway to make sure nobody was there, and then you looked back at him and smiled. “That Marine outfit suits you,” you said, your voice returning to the sweet sound he was used to. “I get why Garp wanted you to live this life.”

Ace laughed loudly, and then clamped a hand over his mouth as you both looked towards the doorway. 

“I don’t have the key to get you out,” he said disappointingly. 

“The next guy who comes will,” you said. “He should be back in about 10 minutes I think.”

Ace raised an eyebrow at you, and you smiled wickedly in return. 

“They think I’m weak because I’m a girl,” you scoffed, and you saw his lips tug upwards at the corners. 

“It’s a dangerous thing to do, underestimate a pirate.” He winked at you, which made you erupt into a fit of giggles. 

“Quiet down now, spitfire,” Ace chided back to you, and you rolled your eyes. 

“I’m going to sleep,” you said, leaning your head back against the wall. “Wake me up when it’s time to move.” 

Ace turned away from you, watching the door. He waited for someone to come, and finally the door opened a bit. 

“She’s finally asleep, huh?” a hushed whisper came from the door. 

Ace nodded, glancing back at you slumped against the wall. 

The man smiled sinisterly, and Ace’s entire body tense watching  his expression. 

“Good,” the marine hissed. “Hand me that electro-rod. I need to teach her a lesson.” He grabbed the keyring around his belt loop and unhooked it as he walked towards your prison cell. 

So that’s what Ace had in his hands. An electrified rod. He had seen them used before, but he had never been hit by one. 

Ace frowned at the man. “I thought we weren’t supposed to-”

“Shut up, boy,” the man snapped. “She mocked my honor. I’ll be damned if I let a pirate laugh at me, and a female one at that.”

He unlocked the door, and held his hand out for the rod. “Give it here, and get over here if you want to see a show.”

“No,” Ace said, pressing the button to activate the rod. “I don’t think I will.”

The man looked at Ace with a baffled expression, and Ace jabbed at him with the rod quickly. It was such a swift and sudden movement, the man didn’t have time to react, and he fell backwards. 

Your eyes snap open and your throw your hand around the man, using the chain on your cuffs to act as a clothesline around the man’s neck.

Ace stands over the both of you with a dark look in his eye. “You made a mistake, and it’ll cost you now.”

He jammed the prod into the man again, and you covered his mouth to muffle his screams. 

“You underestimated her.” He prodded the man. “You underestimated me.” Another prod. “And you underestimated the Whitebeard Pirates.” This time, he smacked the man with the blunt rod, and you felt the marine go slack in your arms, unconscious. 

He grabbed the key ring and unlocked your shackles quickly, his eyes watching the door.

“Ace!” You cry out, wrapping your arms around him and pulling him into a hug. “You’re so scary!” He can hear the smile on your lips, your voice full of pride. 

You both wrap the Marine in the shackles and relock the door to the cell. Ace looked back at you, watching the man with hatred. 

“What did you do to him?”

You smiled slightly. “He’s just sensitive about some things, that’s all.”

Ace gave an impressed whistle, but didn’t ask anymore questions. “You ready to do this?”

You look at him and raise an eyebrow. “You think this is gonna be hard?”

“Not with you by my side.” He gave you a quick kiss on the lips. “The hard part is over.”

He was right. The few marines that you encountered were quick to take down. It made you nervous. You kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it never did. You all dropped onto his Striker without anyone being alerted of your absence. 

“The Marines I heard earlier said they weren’t expecting Whitebeard to make an appearance until an execution was set,” he explains, reading your thoughts. “Makes sense why this was so easy.”

“They only took me separately because I was a devil fruit user.”

“They had no idea who they captured,” he said, and he roared his Striker to life. “Stupid mistake on their part.”

You hum in agreement at that. “Still seemed too easy,” you said, frowning. 

His arms wrapped around you, and he kissed your cheek. “You’re so used to fighting powerful foes, you don’t know what to do when we catch a break.”

He started to take his Marine outfit off, but you stop him. “Keep it on,” you say with a wink. “It suits you.”

He smirks, looking down at himself and then at you. “I’ve got an extra one if you want it.”

You scrunch your face. “No thanks.”

“Fine, but I’m taking off the hat.” 

He took his Navy cap off and placed it on your head, and then he unbuttoned his shirt, but kept it on for you. For now.  Ace opened a side compartment of his Striker and found his hat, placing it back on his head, feeling a lot more comfortable. 

“Perfect!” You said, pulling him in again for another sweet, long kiss.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

A quick and short fanfic (for funsies!)

@saturn-sends-hugs @inkstainedhandswithrings because I know you guys like to read this stuff when I actually post it

"No-one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away... The span of someone's life is only the core of their existence." - Terry Pratchett

Omega looked at Rex, puzzled, when he came back with a dish of what appeared to be white paint and the rest of the Batch seemed equally confused by the tray in the captain's hands. It wasn't what they had expected when he told them he would return in a short moment.

Without saying a word, Rex knelt down in the dirt, placed his right hand into the tray and pressed it to the wood in front of him. Omega stared at the print left behind as Rex peeled his hand back, stood, turned and held the dish out to her.

"Want to give it a go?" He asked, eyes soft. Omega hesitated. "It's okay. You can't do anything wrong. Just do as I did."

Cautiously, Omega placed her hand in the tray, glanced at the white spread across her palm and fingers, and then pressed her hand beside the print Rex had left. She pulled back. Her hand looked so much smaller in comparison. She glanced back at Rex and he gave her a gentle smile and nod, before presenting the tray to Hunter.

One by one the Batch made their mark on the wood, still unsure of what the captain had in mind. No-one said a word. Omega carefully looked over the marks once everything was done, slowly taking in what was before her.

Hunter had left his just underneath hers. Crosshair's slender fingers could be found on the opposite side. Tech's was as clean and precise as one would expect from the data expert, while Wrecker's much larger hand was slightly smudged and barely fit in the space. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"What are they for?" Omega asked quietly, closing her fist. The drying paint felt tacky under her fingers.

Rex glanced at her and then back at the wood in front of him. "Back when I first met Echo, I left a handprint just like it on his armour. It was in eel blood mind you, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, every time he got a new set of armour, or the paint had started to chip, he would find me, hand me the paint, and ask me to press a new one." A small chuckle. "We literally have the same hands. He could've done it himself. But no, each time he wanted me to do the honours. It became our little tradition."

Omega could feel the tears welling in her eyes again and pressed herself into Hunter's side for support.

Rex's voice cracked slightly. "I just felt like I needed to do it one last time."

Silently, they all looked at the decorated wood in front of them. The slightly chaotic collection of hands stained into the board almost seemed to glow under the light of the setting sun.

Fist still held closed, and pressing more into her brother's side, Omega slowly drew her eyes away from the marks to the scrawl in Aurebesh above the hands.

ECHO

Beloved brother, batchmate and friend

March on, Soldier

[eriexplosion]

I never let myself really believe they'd bring Tech back (because Occam's razor, or whatever). And I'm so used to weird/bad writing choices from other works that I'm mostly able to shrug my shoulders and go "aw rats, disappointment again :\" about TBB's ending.

... But I still feel kinda hollowed-out, post-finale. I'm not autistic (I think), but my sibling is, so it meant something to my old withered heart that a Star Wars show about family would have a confirmedly-ND character among their cast (though, somewhat tangentially, I agree with your post about all of the Bad Batch being arguably ND-coded). I was delighted that he was well-written, and that he'd eclipsed the stock "smart guy" trope he'd started out as in TCW.

And, I dunno. I feel like a sucker, having hoped for a brief moment that the writers wouldn't throw all that away. And for what? People on reddit were saying for months on end that "his sacrifice is meaningful and shouldn't be wasted", but I can't agree. I think it would've been more meaningful had he lived.

I feel disappointed with the trajectory the back half of S3 took, and I don't think that's unreasonable. Even beyond the disappointment of "dang, they really did that?", S3 after the first handful of eps (imo) felt kind of... rushed? Underexplored? Like there should've been a season 4 (for pacing/development's sake) and various changes to the plot, but there weren't.

Told myself several years ago that I'd reserve judgment for the writing until the series was over and done with. And now that it's all just wrapped up, I suppose I'm stewing with my thoughts, a little. The character arcs all feel like they fell short of their potential payoff, to me -- and maybe I'll change my mind in a few months, but right now? Eh.

Crosshair's got PTSD/trauma that makes his hand shake? Cut off the hand. Omega's got potential force sensitivity/a decision to make concerning what to do going forward? Who cares about that. Tech's getting a decent (and suspicious, in hindsight) amount of character development? Better kill him off so the audience really feels the sting. Cid, Phee, CX-2, Echo, Scorch? Who cares about them; they can show up when their skills are needed and fuck off without halfway-decent closure when they aren't. The familial/sibling themes that were open to being explored? Eh; let's focus predominantly on this one father-child bond. Omega doesn't even need to say goodbye to Crosshair and Wrecker, lol. Foreshadowing and setup? What foreshadowing and setup.

... I'm realizing that I'm actually Quite disappointed lmao. In a lackluster "I don't know what I expected" kind of way. Time to read so many fix-its

There's just a lot that was set up that never came to fruition and it's frustrating when the show has been so good up until that point. And the thing is that Tech being CX-2 would have resolved at least some of it! The CX-2 plot obviously but also, Crosshair's guilt and trauma being helped by being able to fix at least one of his mistakes? Omega's guilt over putting her family in danger being relieved because she finally has them all back?

It didn't even need to be fleshed out, I wouldn't have cared. The only thing I wanted this whole show was the family to be together and complete. And not only did we not get Tech back but yeah Echo was basically just not counted as part of that and Phee was ignored in the end.

This season feels like it needed another editing pass to work as a whole, even though I'd liked everything up to the finale it didn't really end up coming together for me. I'd even have accepted Tech being gone if they had put actual mourning in the first half, instead of stringing it along with little mentions and the CX-2 stuff. I'd be frustrated and mad, but at least it would have felt like they respected him as a character.

Really the only good things I have to say is I think Nala Se blowing up the databanks was a fantastic end to her character that didn't really redeem everything she's done but did bring her to an interesting stopping point. And I am glad everyone else made it out alive. I'm glad that Crosshair especially did after everything he's been through, he's still my boy after all this time even if the Tech stuff has overshadowed a lot of his growth in my head.

[morethansky]

As promised, my thoughts on Tech's fate.

If you think they changed their minds about revealing Tech to be alive, you might not want to read this. I'm not trying to debate or dissuade anyone; this is just my personal take.

Also, please be forewarned that this is quite Hunter critical. I love to write the man, but god, he’s so bad for my blood pressure.

This is still such a hard thing for me to talk about. To be honest, I ducked out of the TBB fandom between the time when i finished “i keep what i can of you” and S3 started because it felt like I couldn’t say what I thought without either hurting the people who thought Tech was dead and were traumatized or inciting the wrath of those believed he was alive, some of whom got so haughty and/or oddly hostile whenever any other possibilities were stated in their vicinity. It seems that after I left, the opposite started happening too? The hellish fandom ouroboros.

Anyway, so here are my unfiltered thoughts, because I might explode if I don't write them down. After I watched “Plan 99,” I thought Tech was dead, and I was extremely traumatized and hysterical about it. I remember that night I couldn’t sleep, and I stayed up till morning trying to process the sense of betrayal I felt and figure out what to do with the sweet little WIP I had been working on, which was about Tech and Wrecker facing the concept of death for the first time. (I have now rewritten it to be much darker but for Tech to live, and as CX-2, so I hope that proves I mean well with this post.)

Because it’s me and it’s media, I was not only traumatized but also furious. To be frank, I’m not usually this deeply affected by character deaths. I have written a lot of major character death fics and grief/mourning is a component of like 60 percent of my writing. In fact, when character deaths are done well, I think they’re fantastic. The worthy, well-done ones can make the characters shine even more brightly.

That is not the case here. Tech dies for literally nothing. The protagonists don’t achieve anything at all from it besides returning to square one, less a member. They don’t find the coordinates to Tantiss. They don’t find anything about who Hemlock is or what the Advanced Science Division does. They don’t overhear any vital intel from the meeting with all the Imperial bigwigs. They don’t gain any insight from Saw. They don’t even find out whether Crosshair was actually in captivity and whether his saying Plan 88 was him laying a trap for them or not.

And that is some of the worst messaging I’ve ever seen in a Y-7 American action cartoon. And believe me, I’ve watched a lot of them.

Allow me to beat the dead horse one last time. Finally, after two entire seasons of the show, a member of the main cast is like, “Hey, remember how Crosshair used to be one of us? Even if he kind of sucks, shouldn’t we help him? He did just try to warn us.” And I was ECSTATIC. Didn’t expect the autistic character to be the one to be like, no, fuck you, we should do the right thing no matter the risk (autistic characters are so often morally gray and it’s so frustrating), but I loved it so much! That’s me!!

…And then he literally dies because he wanted to do the right thing. Hunter, the character who does not want to help people, who rejects the idea of going to Eriadu and has to be convinced otherwise, IS PROVEN CORRECT. What the ever-loving fuck is that messaging? That’s right, kids—if you selflessly try to help other people, you’ll be killed. So maybe don’t bother, actually. And this show just underlines that message over and over again! The only people who matter are those you consider family. Everyone else can rot. In fact, people who are willing to risk their lives to help people are foolish and idealistic. The things Hunter says to Echo are repeatedly so fucked up ("When will it be enough?" Dude wtf???), and it's nuts that the show doesn't offer Hunter's narrow-minded perspective as a contrast to Echo's determination to do the right thing—it offers Echo as a contrast to Hunter's motivations to retire (which we understand because when the two of them split up, we follow Hunter instead of Echo—and not even in addition to Echo! He only shows up again because he's visiting Hunter's story!).

That’s straight-up American conservative ideology. I will never not be pissed at them for making the fucking deuteragonist—and a clone character at that—like that. And in Star Wars! The franchise that is overwhelmingly and consistently about fighting fascists! Made by the company founded and based in the Bay Area, the most progressive region of the country!!!

To be frank, I almost turned the TV off right then. But I thought, okay…a horrible way to get to it, but…maybe now is the moment? Maybe now they’ll finally join Echo and Rex, and be super determined to find Tantiss and Crosshair and the many other clones whose designations were on the roster—to complete the mission that Tech so passionately insisted on before he sacrificed himself.

BUT NO! Hunter immediately pressures Omega into going to Pabu. And why wouldn’t he? The narrative proved him right! By trying to do the right thing, Tech died. So we’ll just go back to ignoring the suffering of countless beings across the galaxy, including our own kind. Millions of straight-up metaphorical versions of us. Cool.

And then Omega gets captured. So because Tech wants to do the right thing, he dies, and because Omega agrees with him, she gets taken away. And then suddenly Hunter puts away Pabu entirely and becomes super gung-ho about finding her. Which is just…why did they write him like this. Why did they even have the conversation about Pabu?? Leaving it out would have made Hunter's motivations flow so much better. Because by introducing that, they invite the crucial question: Why was that what it took for him to stop running but losing Crosshair and Tech didn’t??? Because he only cares about this one child's well-being and it's his single motivation as a character???

A contingent of Crosshair fans have seemed to vocally dislike Hunter from the start because he left Crosshair, and I’m like no, you don’t understand. It’s not about the character, it’s about the writing. In some cases, it does end up being the character rather than the writing, and you can usually tell because the writing condemns that in the character. Not here though! Hunter's decisions throughout the show are celebrated by it. And Hunter gets his way, as we see now with them retiring on Pabu and ignoring the fight even as "the Rebellion needs pilots now more than ever." Thank god the finale at least posited that Echo was also right, which is kind of like the bare minimum they could've done in that regard.

So Tech’s death hit me particularly hard because it felt like just a waste of two entire episodes, a waste of an enjoyable character they had just given some really poignant depth, and a waste of the chance to give Hunter the character development I was desperate for—and also like a betrayal, a slap in the face, because it was like the show was saying that heroes are stupid, that Tech was foolish for wanting to do the right thing. Which is nuts given the rest of the SW animated oeuvre. And is fucking hurtful. And bad for kids.

So when the theories about Tech’s survival started floating around that night, I thought, okay, yeah, maybe this was such a stupid death and waste of screen time because it’s to set up something really cool. I could get behind that, even if the entire setup would still be faulty and honestly kind of repulsive to me.

I engulfed everyone’s theories in those weeks I spent mourning, desperate to be convinced—but as much as I wanted to believe there was a plan at work, I just couldn’t buy it 100 percent because…would the people who wrote this awful arc, and who made all the oddest choices possible at any given time throughout both seasons thus far, really intend to set up and execute something so well thought out and complex?

Of course not. People kept being like, “We have to trust the writers. They have a grand plan. They wouldn’t just throw away Tech. It would be ableist, and that’s why he’s not dead.” Like??? The show was already ableist! One of the main characters is disabled and his being disabled is specifically relevant to why he’s even in this squad and in this show—and it’s never remotely discussed! The closest is the most oblique reference ever to how Echo doesn't like to be alone. That's it. Just because they actually managed to write this wonderful moment about Tech being autistic doesn’t mean their track record was suddenly irrelevant! Killing off their neurodivergent character is exactly the kind of ableist shit they would do! And see now: Crosshair's hand. Also Echo suddenly having a hand after not having one for so long and it being completely untouched upon. It's par for the course!

So the Tech Lives theories all hinged on the writing being really clever, but I just. Already hated so much of the writing, and it felt way more likely that they were just continuing to be bad writers and continuing to go with the poorer plot choice option every single time they had the opportunity to go a direction that would be thought provoking and emotionally affecting.

I felt very much and very sadly proven right when the season started, and we got no mention of Tech being dead until the FIFTH episode. The Batch never talked about Crosshair and why he tried to kill them, so I guess why would they talk about Tech dying, sigh. And it was so bizarre how people were arguing that Omega and Crosshair's little exchange about Tech was super touching and gave us everything we needed. It absolutely did not! The fact that we couldn't agree on whether Crosshair even knew tells you everything you need to know about the wacky writing choices! Why was it so vague?? They literally could have added one word:

Crosshair: Did they teach you plan 72? Omega: Mm-hmm. Tech had me memorize all the plans, before... Crosshair: Of course he did.

On that note, I began to feel uneasy about the fandom again, because it started feeling like an echo chamber, and I was worried everyone was getting too hyped about something that might not happen, and even if it did, might end up being some kind of poorly done fanservice. I started seeing a lot of defensive posts being like, “Well, the reason they’re not mentioning Tech is because he’s not dead, and you’re an idiot, unlike me, if you’re falling for their sneaky tricks.”

Like??? The prevalence of ride-or-die sentiments like that started making me feel like I was losing my grip on reality and watching a completely different show from everyone else. Wouldn’t the dramatic effect of Tech being alive be strengthened by the characters all mourning him, thus making us mourn him, thus making the plot twist that he’s alive even more effective?? Wouldn't the characters being shown to be affected by his death instead of just ignoring it be the most promising sign of his impending return?

To me, the characters not mourning Tech meant that the writers had put him aside and moved on (which is, again, terrible writing because it doesn’t give the viewers the space to grieve and then move on, and it makes the characters feel terribly heartless, which, well. At least they were consistent). And that blasé moving on made the possibility of him being dead WAY more likely to me. Of course they would kill their neurodivergent character and then just all but pretend it didn't happen. Of course they would act as if he had just been a convenient plot device! Of course they would only bring him up and act like they missed him when he wasn't there to miraculously do the characters' work for them and the writers' work for them! Fuck that so hard.

So then “Infiltration” and “Extraction” were a big surprise! I was like, oh, huh, guess I was totally wrong and they’re really doing it, wow. Okay, let’s see if they can actually pull it off. I liked the writing a lot better this season, so it felt more plausible that they were finally getting down to business. The fact that the clues felt so heavy handed was kind of weird to me, and I complained a lot about there not being red herrings, but I love a good Came Back Wrong story, so I was willing to believe I had been too pessimistic and cynical, as I often am.

After “Bad Territory” and “The Harbinger,” however, I started doubting it again. Fitting both this M-count mystery that had already taken up so much screen time plus a Tech Lives mystery just felt like a lot of ground to cover, and this was the show that couldn’t even seem to fit more than five seconds of the main characters being sad about the death of their squad mate. Did they really have what it would take to pace it?

Of course not!!!

After “Point of No Return,” I started to feel like if they did bring Tech back, it would be at the cost of it being done poorly. And to me, for his purported death AND his resurrection to be badly written would be way worse than just the former. And the draw of the whole Winter Soldier deal is the fallout; the guilt and doubt the characters harbor; the way they have to reckon with the fact that even if their loved one is back, they will never be the same again, because they did die in a way—and the less time allotted after a reveal like that, the fewer of those key things there would be, which would just make it feel so tacked on for cheap shock value and social media chatter. Especially because there had been so little buildup to such a thing at the beginning of the season. These writers' abilities are just not remotely close to Ed Brubaker's, y'all.

Then Rampart being introduced afterward felt like the death knell (oop) because it was a new plot thread they would need to wrap up by the end. But the Clone X thread was still dangling, so I felt like it wasn’t out of the question. But I guess after my complaints about the Tech connections being too obvious and there needing to be more red herrings, it turned out that the Tech connections themselves were the red herrings.

Although I feel like that's probably even giving the writers too much credit. I don't know if I really believe they were trying to mislead us. I feel like they just clumsily ended up doing things that coincided with the Tech Lives theories. Like I honestly wouldn't be surprised if when they used "domicile" it was completely without realizing they had previously had Tech say it and that this would lead to the viewers drawing an erroneous conclusion. They probably just wanted CX-2 to say something fancy and mysterious tbh, and the same words tend to float in writers' minds. Rip us.

I guess now I understand what I could never work out—if CX-2 was Tech, then why did he so specifically use rifles like Crosshair does and so proficiently, i.e. specifically better than Crosshair did? Why wouldn't he dual wield hand blasters?

Also, although I was in some ways relieved that at least they didn't write a bad resurrection for Tech, and there's absolutely no way it wouldn't have been shit if it'd just been shoved anywhere in the last three episodes, all this is not to say the Clone X concept didn't end up being super hamfisted as well. Just the fact that there are other Clone X types with different weapons and uniforms makes the concept even more confusing. Clearly these guys were meant to mirror the Batch, but then why did all the ones we encountered before CX-2 wear the same uniform as him?? Did they sort the clones into categories of which Clone X they would be? It would actually be cool if the point was to sow fear in the galaxy because it would seem like the person in the CX-2 suit was undefeatable, especially because they were completely covered and their build would be the same every time. But that would be too cool and coherent for this show, sigh.

Also, was Hemlock project managing them, or was Scorch? Neither really makes sense, but who was sending them after Rex's rebel cell? Was there a military higher-up giving the Advanced Science Division that directive? Why did CX-2 and the one that Rex's cell captured hate Crosshair so much? Why the fuck did CX-2 cut off his hand???

Anyway. I could go on forever, but I think at the end of the day, we all read too much into it because we are just collectively better writers than the writers are tbh. Sadly, a classic fandom experience. I guess what ultimately saved me the most from heartbreak and allowed me to earnestly enjoy the finale was that I had already spent a year believing Tech had died and suffered through my grief (by, you guessed it, writing a grief/mourning fic), and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was no way these writers could pull off something so emotional and complex. I swear I didn’t actually want to be right!

I think if nothing else, one thing we can all agree on is that Tech surviving could’ve been one kickass story, and it was a hell of a missed opportunity.

[stars-n-spice]

A Piece of Cake - Ch. 2

"Step Two: Prepare"

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Summary: The Bad Batch & Co. attempt to throw a surprise party for Omega. It should be a piece of cake, right? Only, they realize in order to have a party, you must have a cake, and in order to have a cake, you have to actually have the ingredients for it. Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair struggle in the kitchen. Omega suspects something is up. Jax and Stak get attacked by a crab. Echo and Viram have a lovely walk and conversation through the Pabu marketplace. Word Count: 6.8k Tags: Fix-It, Tech Lives, Post "Canon," Domestic Fluff

Apparently baking a cake was the most difficult thing they’d ever done. 

“Who keeps pots and pans in the oven?!”

Hunter hissed as he held his hands underneath the cold water, doing his best to ignore the sting caused by the mild, red burns on his fingertips and palms.

“Who the kark grabs hot pans out of an oven without an oven mitt?!” Wrecker retorted, pulling said pots and pans out of the pre-heated oven with oven mitts on before placing them up on the counter.

“I wasn’t thinking!”

“Obviously!” 

Crosshair snorted, rolling his eyes in fond amusement as he watched the exchange between his two older brothers. Apparently Hunter has started to pre-heat the hypersonic oven before checking if anything was actually in there and apparently the oven was storage space in the Nultez household, but by the time they smelled burning it was too late.

Hunter had yanked open the pre-heated oven to find a pile of pots and pans stuffed into the oven, with a few plastic containers (some with leftovers in them), and in the mix of panic and confusion, he reached in to grab and pull the items out–barehanded.

“Kriffin’ hell-” Hunter muttered through gritted teeth as he looked down at his hands. It wasn’t anything too bad, definitely something that just needed a bit of ointment of some kind and a bandage, but their resident medic was out trying to get ingredients for the cake. 

Nothing Hunter couldn’t deal with, though his pride was hurt more than anything. 

“Something wrong? We heard screaming-”

Khea poked her head into the kitchen with a small frown, looking between the three clones with mild concern. She then made a face after sniffing the air; “Did you guys burn something already?”

“No!” - “Yes.”

Khea raised an eyebrow and looked to Crosshair who shrugged.

“What can I say, they’re miracle workers,” he chuckled, shaking his head as he tossed his toothpick into the trash bin.

“Everything’s fine,” Wrecker assured, giving his girlfriend a less-than convincing smile as he glanced at the dripping melted plastic in the oven.

"Just, uh, technical difficulties," he laughed nervously as he quickly shut the oven with his hip. 

"Right…" Khea nodded slowly, clearly not convinced, "Do I need to get Tech or-"

"It's fine!" Hunter reassured, shaking his head as he shut off the water and quickly wrapped his hands up in a hand towel, “We’ve got it covered on this end, don’t worry about us-”

“It’s a little late for that, ruus'alor,” Khea chuckled, shaking her head, “but alright…just…save the whole ‘burning a cake before actually making a cake’ for the island talent show.”

“Hilarious,” Hunter grumbled, rolling his eyes as Khea snickered as she grabbed some wipes before heading back out the door again.

“There’s an island talent show?” Wrecker asked, his eyes widening in surprise and interest. 

“She was joking,” Hunter sighed, shaking his head. 

“Too bad,” Crosshair frowned with a shrug, “you two would take the cake.” 

Crosshair smirked as he watched Hunter put his head in his hands before hissing out as he touched the still slightly raw skin while Wrecker burst out laughing at Crosshair’s little joke, quickly recovering from his initial disappointment about there not actually being an island talent show.

“Good one Cross!” Wrecker exclaimed, beaming as he slapped Crosshair on the back, causing him to stumble slightly. 

“Can we just focus on making the cake?” Hunter groaned, furrowing his brow slightly at his two younger brothers.

“Sure, let’s start on that-” Crosshair nodded, his tone playfully sarcastic as he rolled up his sleeve with his one hand, “-since we have all the ingredients ready to go to actually make the cake.”

Hunter rolled his eyes; “Not helping.”

Crosshair just grinned, his smile reading, ‘Not trying to help.’

“Ah, well, even if we had the ingredients we now have to clean out the oven,” Wrecker pointed out with a small frown, rubbing the back of his neck as he opened up the oven and took a peek inside at the melting plastic on the metal grates.

“Wonderful,” Hunter huffed.

Wrecker shut the oven door and shuffled around his kitchen, rummaging around a few drawers before he pulled out a first aid kit and opened it up to grab Hunter some medicine and bandages.

“Eh, ‘bout time we’ve cleaned it,” Wrecker chuckled, trying to make light of the conversation as he held out his hand to Hunter, motioning for him to show him the burns.

Hunter stared down at Wrecker’s hands for a second before sighing softly and placing his hands on top of Wreckers, muttering a small ‘thanks’ as he let Wrecker take care of the burns for him.

“Alright, we’ll clean it, but at least we should get started on some of the dinner items, right?” Hunter suggested as he looked between his brothers. 

“Oh right, dinner,” Crosshair nodded slowly, running his one hand through his hair.

Hunter snorted and smiled a bit; “What? You think we were going to just eat cake for dinner?”

“At this rate, I’ll be surprised if we even have batter made by dinner time,” Crosshair joked, rolling his eyes, as a faint grin tugged at his lips. 

With a kiss to the top of Hunter’s bandages and a quick murmur of “jahaala, jahaala”, Wrecker wrapped up his medical aid and saved the kit while Hunter once again thanked him and flexed his fingers. Already the ointment Wrecker had used seemed to be working its magic and Hunter’s hands felt cool and tingly from the minty feeling the medicine gave him.

“Any updates from Phee or Echo?” Hunter asked, looking up from his bandages over to Crosshair who was scrolling through the datapad now.

Crosshair shook his head, “Not yet. We still planning on making those cold noodles?” 

“Yeah, we have all the ingredients for that, I know that much,” Wrecker confirmed, opening up the cooling chamber to pull out the ingredients for them to at least start on dinner.

With no update from Phee or Echo, Hunter frowned a little, the nerves creeping back in, but as soon as it showed on his face, Crosshair patted Hunter’s shoulder reassingingly.

“Relax, Echo’s on it,” he reminded, “besides, it’ll be worth it in the end. Omega’s going to love it.”

“You think so?” Hunter asked, his voice strained as he glanced up and over at Crosshair.

Crosshair hummed and gave a curt nod, “Yeah. She’ll be surprised for sure. I don’t think she suspects anything, anyways.” 

READ THE REST ON AO3!

[valkeakuulas]

The Bad Batch episode 15: The Cavalry Has Arrived/Finale

I've not done reaction posts like these since the days of MTMTE (and now I feel old) but since it was the season 3 finale, I thought I could just do that.

Mostly, I'm inspired by @come-chaos who has done these throughout the whole season

Let's start with saying that I'm actually positively happy about the finale!

I mean, I would've liked certain things to be a bit different (the whole tangling of the CX clones in front of our noses but cutting them that short for example as well as have at least 4 more episodes for this season to clear things up) but no one died? Only one limb was lost?

The fact that they are still alive by the time Rebellion rolls in (minus Echo because we don't know about him 😭) was a LOT more than I was hoping for.

51 minutes??? Can they fit everything in less than an hour???

Oh. Oh, the title! It’s black, just like their armor!!

Bitch fight, bitch fight

Echo hits with consciousness. It’s super effective!

The music for the baby rebellion! That sling! It’s been only so short into the episode and everything’s moving so fast!

FUCKING DARKNESS, THE LIGHT COMES FROM THE SAME PLACE AS THE MUSIC, PEOPLE!

Buttons, buttons, buttons

It’s Zillo, bitch! Chomp chomp chomp!

Echo knows his sister

adkljalgfjagh Bayrn is definitely proto-Grogu; he loves destruction

“Echo’s handiwork or Omega’s?” “Omega” x2

IT’S THE CX CHAMBER! … Hey. Their bodytypes? Are they – are they copies of the Batch? Like clones of clones? Because I see one big, one sniper and so on

HOLY SHIT HIS HAND, THEY TOOK HIS HAND … Y’know, it wouldn’t be a proper SW cartoon/movie if someone didn’t lose a limb, so why I’m so shocked?

Ohhhh, the music when the clone rebellion starts!

Rampart, you bitch! Uh oh, that bomb’s gonna go off

IT'S A TRAP! ECHO!

NO ONE’S DEAD YET! THIS IS EITHER A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING?!?

The rain and the lightning, a storm on an otherwise calm planet. Comparison to Kamino maybe? Because in there, everything important happens during the storms

Bye, Scorch

Ohhh, the way Hunter and Crosshair are kneeling side-by-side, steadying each other! How Hunter tells Cross to thrust Omega

DIE BITCHLOCK 😡

… Everyone’s still alive??? How? Is this - is something bad going to happen at the very last minute?

Project Stardust gets mentioned

Pabu! Sun! Happy clones enjoying space-sushi and ice cream! Emerie has no glasses!

Echo leaves, oh nooooooooo

“Whatever we want.” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NO ONE DIED

… Wait, what’s this?? Is that Ventress? … HOLY SHIT THAT’S AN ADULT OMEGA, ISN’T IT??

Gonky!

omg Hunter got old! But how come he’s still dark-haired? And the beard! And a ponytail?! He was a DILF before but daaaaaaamn, now he’s a mega-DILF 😘

awwwww, Hunter being all Dad! And Crosshair and Wrecker are still alive?! But no mention of Echo??!! Why's that???

Tech’s goggles, Tech’s goggles!! And Lula was on the chair where Omega threw her bag!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[queen-of-many-fandoms]

GN!Reader & Omega — Chaotic Bff Shenanigans (Headcanons)

@violetjedisylveon

Requests: Open

Masterlist

Apologies for any typos or low quality (I'm a little rusty at headcanons), I don't have a beta reader and I started writing this really late at night. Or should i say early morning? (A.n. Cont. at end of post.)

Also, Happy (late) Life Day!

Chaotic Besties doesn't even begin to describe the two of you. More like Twin Terrors, Double Devils, Cohorts of Chaos . . . you get the idea. It was almost like you'd both made it your mission to singlehandedly give the Batchers grey hair.

On one of their trips they stopped on a planet that was in the middle of it's rainy season. When the Batch wasn't looking you and Omega got into a mud fight. By the time you're done, you both were covered head to toe in mud. Echo shook his head, muttering "Now I know what Rex felt like", and shooed you both into the fresher to clean the mud off.

Crosshair found some toy blasters that fired foam darts when the Batch was getting more supplies. He bought them for Omega and you to practice your aim. Totally not just because he thought you'd have fun playing with them. You both used them to sneak attack the Batchers.

An your pranks! Oh, Ka'ra help the poor Batcher that was on the receiving end of one of your pranks. They learned that lesson the hard way. Put simply, don't keep the two of you cooped up, without entertainment, in the Marauder for longer than 3 days. It was three weeks of haraan. Never again.

Sometimes though, you could wrangle one of her brothers into helping you with pranks. Wrecker was always on board with pranks, no matter which of the Batchers was the target. Surprisingly, Crosshair would help you with pranks. Not directly, but he would be the look out, distract the target, or give you ideas. (And if Hunter's the target, you can bet your bottom credit Cross will help you with the prank.) Echo, however, is The Master when it comes to pranks. If you wanted to pull off a really good prank, he's your man. (Rex didn't exaggerate when he said he was a menace.)

Whenever you were able, you and Omega would have a sleep over in her "room." You'd almost always end up staying awake long after everyone else had gone to bed, just talking and giggling over dumb stuff. (Until Tech catches you and lectures you on the importance of a good night's sleep. Oh the irony.)

One night you both had a ✨️brilliant✨️ idea. 'Why not create our own secret code just for the two of us?' (Once you created it) You used your code, hand signals you had come up with, to plot pranks right under the the Batchers noses. (Anytime one of her vode (usually Tech) started to catch on to the signals meanings you'd change to new signals.)

One day while being lazy outside on whatever planet they'd stopped on, you'd both realized that out of all of her vode, somehow, you'd never pranked Crosshair. And that needed to be remedied. (👈 it was that thought right there that should've made you realize you probably needed your heads examined.)

Regardless of what the prank was, the repercussions would be swift. To say that your life flashed before your eyes would be an understatement. You both thought you were as good as dead. Luckily, he seemed to be in a slightly merciful mood (shocking, amiright?) and settled on chasing you up a tree and waiting at the bottom. You were treed like a pair of tookas being chased by a massiff. He eventually lets you climb down. . .

Only to ambush you a little later. He gave you both a good dunking in a cold lake. You and Omega then decided that it was better pranking with him rather than against him. (That was probably a smart decision if you wanted to actually live to old age.)

Tech makes Omega a data pad. Big mistake. Especially with the camera mode. Because, like her brother Tech, Omega records (pretty much) everything. One of your favorite past times is trying to jump scare Omega's vode. It's always hard to jump scare Hunter. (Which makes it all the more satisfying when you do.) The two of you also now have plenty of blackmail material. 😌

Another thing that was a common reoccurance, was you and Omega bringing any injured or lost animals you found back to the Marauder. This time it was a tooka.

Omega: "Can we keep it?"

Y/n: "It's hurt and it can't take care of itself."

Y/n & Omega: *puppy eyes* "Please?!"

Hunter: "I'll think about it. But no promises."

(There's now a one eyed tooka that runs around Cids bar. He's become a favorite with the regulars.)

One planet they visited was covered in snow. Apparently Omega had never seen nor played in the snow. So, obviously, you taught her all the tricks you knew for building snowmen, snow forts, and making snowballs. And, obviously, you just had to put that knowledge to use by ambushing her vode. You got your shebs handed to you. Her brothers have good aim and a wicked throw.

Some bonus ones I had nowhere to put:

Hunter mixing up your names 'cause he's a Tired Dad™. "Omega– Haar'chak!– I meant Y/n!"

Hunter swears having you two around has sped up his aging.

You both are also very curious and love to experiment. Sometimes with not the best results: “What if we…” (literally a minute later) *something explodes*

(A.n. cont.)

I'm terribly sorry that it's not quite what you asked for. I really struggled with the original request and ended up scrapping what I wrote multiple times. Also life and the holidays kicked me in the shebs. It always happens the minute I say I have free time. Every time.

I really do like your idea though, so maybe (big maybe there) I can eventually write it as a oneshot. I'm so so sorry I couldn't get it done quicker.

[hunnythebee]

Author Promo Tag Chain!!

Rule: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to Ao3. If you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics. Tag credit: @dangraccoon, @mandos-mind-trick (I got two tags 🥹)

Stow Away Din Djarin x OFC

She had been on this maker-forsaken planet for far too long. Her previous, let’s call them “partner”, had brought her here for a job… that was nearly a year ago. They abandoned her, left her here with a blaster and 50 credits to her name. Luckily, she was resourceful and cunning. She made her credits last long enough to find short-term work in a local ship scrapyard. That’s how she met Peli. Peli came by and saw her about to tear open an antique N-1 Starfighter, just about ripped her a new one over it and offered to buy it off her. She didn’t refuse, in fact she admired her for taking on the project. They became fast friends. Peli let her stay at her ship dock while she looked for proper lodgings, but they grew on each other. Her whole world was shifted when an opportunity presented itself. A man and a child landed in Peli’s hangar. It was a Mandalorian, sporting the shiniest beskar armor she had ever seen, and the kid was a species she did not recognize. The child was small, nearly infant sized, and green with large pointed ears.

Touches Wrecker x Reader

Being on Pabu was like living in a dream. Even after the devastation left in the wake of the tidal wave, it was pure serenity after being on the run for so long. When Hunter had announced that we were staying, even if for a short time, I felt a weight fall from my shoulders. The next day we all started to help with cleaning up around the village. Hunter was working with the Mayor to find people places to shelter while rebuilding. Tech and Phee were helping to assess what materials would be needed to rebuild. Omega was somewhere on the island with Shep’s daughter, which made me feel so happy that she had a friend her own age. As for me, I was on clean up with my favorite person and best friend. Wrecker. He could make any situation fun. In this case, we were competing for largest pile of seaweed. The houses were covered in it, and filling cart after cart had gone from tedious to exhilarating. Announcing over the comms what number we each were at every hour, kept us going all the way till sunset. After the day was done, we were invited to utilize the bathhouses that were located in upper Pabu. Actually it was more like we were begged to use the bathhouses because in truth we stank so bad after handling seaweed and sweating all day.

Trapped Hunter x Reader

The tunnel was so dark I couldn’t see too far past the lamp that I was holding up in front of me. It was cold and damp, and I could hear the faint rumbling of the storm above. Hunter was slightly ahead of me, holding his lamp in his left hand and running his right along the tunnel wall. He was understandably on edge, given the cave-in that had just separated us from the others. Tech had reassured us that there were multiple entrances to this particular tunnel system before we lost contact via comms. This knowledge, coupled with Hunter's keen senses, put my mind at ease.

Questions & Answers Crosshair x Reader

It had been an exhausting mission. The boys came back to me more beaten than usual. Wrecker collapsed the minute he got to one of the med-bay beds, followed closely by Hunter. Tech and Echo had some scrapes from debris but nothing major. Crosshair however, was untouched. A perk of being in the sniper’s position. I tended to those who were afflicted, moving methodically from bedside to bedside. The whole time I worked I could feel Cross’ eyes on me, following my every movement. I did my best to ignore him, but his stare was causing butterflies in my stomach and making my hands shake. I had been harboring a crush for him for the longest time, and him watching me like this wasn’t helping. I finished with Tech’s bandages and discharged him and Echo. I explained that Hunter and Wrecker were fine, aside from some cuts and bruises. The pair were just exhausted. Once they woke up they were free to leave as well. Finally I allowed myself to focus my attention on the brooding white haired man in the corner of the room who, despite his lack of injury, was still here.

Vulnerable Hunter x Reader

Ever since landing in Pabu I’ve had conflicting thoughts and feelings. On one hand, Pabu was paradise. Everyone else seemed so at ease and peaceful. It was small and tranquil with limited resources, definitely not the kind of place the Empire would care about. But then why… Why was I shaking so much? Why was my adrenaline pumping as though I needed to be ready for an attack? It made no sense. Even Hunter looked relaxed. I had excused myself from dinner, needing a quiet moment to collect myself. But that quiet moment had deviated from its intended purpose. Now I was sitting on the floor of the Maurauder, knees tucked to my chest, whilst shaking violently. Tears threatened my eyes but never fell, instead just stinging them as my heart rate rose violently and my chest heaved. I clutched at my sides, feeling as though if I didn’t that I would rip in half. My heart was hammering so loudly in my ears that I didn’t hear the hatch open or hear him come in, but there he was. Knelt in front of me was Hunter, care and concern flooded his beautiful golden eyes as he examined mine.

Jealousy Tech x Reader

I had been cordial, friendly even with Phee. She was decent… for a pirate. Not that we had been much better in recent times, so who was I to judge? But what had me sucking at my teeth while I glared from my seat behind Tech was the way she was touching him . So familiar. And this nickname she had for him always made my stomach twist. ‘ Brown eyes.’ How creative of her. I shouldn’t be so mad at her. She was going to help us afterall. Stars I just… I can’t figure out why she rubs the wrong way so hard. I was silent as the dead the whole trip to wherever she was taking us. I hadn’t realized I was clenching my jaw until it unclenched. My whole mouth fell slack at the sight of this small island civilization. Beautiful blue waters surrounded a mountain dotted with small white huts. It looked so peaceful, so serene. Tech landed the Maurauder at the peak of the mountain, where there stood a tall tree and an even taller temple-like structure. As I stepped out of the ship the warm sun hit my skin and I sighed in relief. My seething anger melted away from me almost instantly.

Forgiveness Crosshair & Howzer

Crosshair woke up back on Tantiss, but he wasn’t in his room. Instead he was in one of the cells in the detention sector of the base. He sat up on the hard bed and hissed at the pounding sensation in his skull.  “Was wondering when you’d wake up,” came a voice from the opposite side. Crosshair pressed a palm to his temple and turned towards the voice. His vision was still blurry from sleep but he knew it was definitely another clone sitting across from him.

Bare Hands Din Djarin x Reader

You were staring at him, and tonight you didn’t look away when he noticed. You held your gaze for as long as you were able, studying every feature. You were mesmerized. He wasn’t in his usual attire. He had purchased formal attire, seeing as they would not let you in otherwise. He wore a yellow deep v-neck tunic and an overcoat of brocade embroidered with a golden floral pattern. His Mythosaur pendant lay prominently on his tan skin. He wore no gloves, just a few golden rings. The ensemble that had been designed for you was in complete contrast. You wore a deep blue backless silk dress with a choker halter neckline and silver chains dangling around your shoulders. The fabric shown like stars in the sky.

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@neon-junkie @stankferrik @syndxlla @amiedala @laters-gators @too-many-sabers @echoleo @tecker @sirveltic @somedaylazysomeday

[casual-violinist-fangirl]

You Loved me so Loud: 5,163 Words

. Crosshair and Omega Modern AU where Omega was adopted and has been living with her brothers for two years.

. Angst and Fluff

. TW: Homophobia is a theme throughout, but there is not physical violence and no slurs are actually written.

. I’ve attached the link to the AO3 page that this is posted on, but it’s also below! The link is in the comments, I hope you enjoy 😊

The first sign that there was something going on was when Omega shuffled over to Crosshair one evening after school. He had been getting ready to head to work when she scuttled over to him, glancing around to make sure that none of her other brothers were around. She then stuck her hand into her school bag, desperately trying to find something.

‘I swear if you’ve brought another kitten home, Omega…’ Crosshair sighed as he tied his black work boots, not even bothering to look up. ‘Hunter said that you can’t have one, besides they’re the spawn of the devil.’

He was cut off when a piece of neatly folded paper was thrust in front of his face, making him blink as he was still crouched to tie his shoes.

Taking the piece of paper off of his little sister, he noticed the way that she chewed her bottom lip anxiously. This was clearly a letter from her school; it’s logo was printed in the top right corner. ‘Shouldn’t you be giving this to Hunter?’ he asked, trying not to sound irritated as he kissed his pre-work cigarette away. So much for getting to work early.

Omega had clearly handed this to him on purpose… but why? A quick scan of the letter answered his question, and Crosshair almost found himself laughing out loud at the situation he was now in.

‘You’ve got a detention?’ he raised an eyebrow at the child, noting the way that her cheeks flushed. Omega had a pristine school record and always had done. She was at the top of most of her classes and got along with nearly all of her teachers, so the fact that she was now handing over a detention slip was surprising to say the least.

The girl fiddled with the hem of her school jumper anxiously. ‘I… had an argument with someone,’ she started. ‘A teacher overheard me saying some things, and when she asked me to apologise I refused…’ Her blush increased, but a look of sheer determination spread across her face. ‘I don’t take back what I said though, I just got in trouble for it.’

Crosshair was actually quite proud of the fact that Omega was beginning to learn to stand up for herself. She had been awful at it in primary school, constantly coming home in tears because of the names people had called her for not having “proper parents.” The school had done their best to deal with the situation, but their response had been orientated around the fact that Omega’s upbringing was in fact “not normal” and that maybe she needed to adjust to the fact that people were going to ask questions.

‘Has this got something to do with last year at school?’ he asked, looking down at the letter again, realising that she needed someone to sign it. ‘Because if it is, one of us can go to the school…’ he trailed off when he saw the look of panic in her eyes as she shook her head frantically.

‘It wasn’t that!’ she gushed. ‘Please, I just didn’t want to give it to buir because I knew he’d make comments and ask me loads about what happened.’ Ah, so that’s why she had gone to him, not Hunter.

Crosshair sighed, knowing that really he should let Hunter know what was going on in Omega’s school life. ‘It’s not that big of a deal!’ she continued, telling him that it was anything but. ‘Please, Cross…’ despite nearly being a teenager, her big brown eyes still worked their magic and he found himself grabbing a pen from his work belt and scribbling his signature on the permission slip. ‘You promise you’re not in big trouble?’ he asked with a sincere tone to his voice. ‘Because I’m only signing this and not telling Hunter because you’ve told me it’s not a big deal.’

‘I promise!’ Omega flung her arms around him and gave him a quick squeeze before taking the permission slip back off of him. ‘It won’t happen again, I swear. It was just a stupid argument at school taken out of context.’

Crosshair didn’t say anything else about the matter, though he wasn’t entirely convinced by what Omega was telling him. He vowed to himself that if anything else happened, he would go straight to Hunter.

————

The second sign that Omega wasn’t okay was when she stormed through the front door two weeks later, running straight upstairs and slamming the door before greeting anyone. For once, Crosshair had the day off, and he hadn’t long woken up (there was no point in breaking his sleep cycle, so he still found himself sleeping through the day) and was sipping a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

Immediately Hunter had tried going up to talk to the girl, picking up her school blazer that had been thrown unceremoniously to one side. ‘Omega?’ he had called gently through her bedroom door, only to be told that she was fine and didn’t want to see anyone. He hadn’t pressed her, knowing that she would want to talk at some point, she just needed to have some time to herself.

Three hours had passed… Omega still hadn’t come downstairs, and it was clear that everyone in the house was starting to get a little more worried. Wrecker was pacing the floor, whilst Hunter sat staring into the void. Even Tech, who seldom let on when he was concerned, was bouncing a nervous leg as he stared down at his tablet. Echo, still at work, had been informed that Omega was upset and had been dropping occasional messages to the group chat for updates.

Crosshair couldn’t help but worry a little bit about his sister. She very rarely stayed in her room for that length of time, even if she was truly upset. Something tugged at him, his mind going back to a couple of weeks ago when Omega had thrust that detention letter into his hands… had she been given another detention? Surely not, she would have just come to him as she had done before. Something else must have happened; it was in that moment that Crosshair wished that he hadn’t promised not to tell anyone what had happened the other week, or that he had pushed her a little more to tell him what was going on.

An idea coming into his mind, he took his phone out and tapped out a quick message. He doubted he would receive a reply at all, but he figured that reaching out wouldn’t hurt, especially if his suspicions were correct. He was shocked when three dots appeared on his screen before he could even put his phone away, indicating that Omega was tying out a response. His phone vibrated seconds later, and he scanned the message before nodding.

He grabbed his car keys off of the side, making the others look up at him in surprise. ‘Do you think now’s the time to take a drive?’ Hunter asked, the worry clear in his voice. Crosshair rolled his eyes at his brother, but kept his tone sincere. ‘I’m taking the kid for a drive, don’t worry,’ he responded as he headed out into the hall. Sure enough, moments later Omega’s door creaked open and she appeared at the top of the stairs. She was still in her school uniform, her shirt creased from where she’d clearly been lying on her bed for a while, and her tie loosened.

Nothing else was said as the pair left the house and got into the car. As Crosshair started the ignition, he considered when he should ask her if she’s okay. Deciding to leave it until she was happy to talk, the pair drove in silence, Omega fiddling with the radio stations until she found something that she wanted to listen to. Driving was something that the pair had done a couple of times in the past when Omega was upset; she never did this with any of the others, Crosshair found himself thinking in an almost proud way. If it was Hunter she wanted, she’d simply go to him and curl up in his lap; if it was Tech, she’d go and ask him a question about whatever he was doing and let him ramble on at her, finding his mini speeches soothing. With Wrecker, she would ask him to play a game with her, and if it was Echo she was looking for she would ask him to bake something with her.

No, driving quietly with the radio on was Omega and Crosshair’s thing, and whilst it didn’t stop him being concerned for the little girl, it warmed his heart to know that she trusted him and felt as though she could go to him when she needed help.

Eventually they pulled into a parking space and Omega, who hadn’t been paying much attention to her surroundings, looked up and frowned.

‘We’re at the beach?’ she asked, looking to her brother as he took off his seatbelt. ‘I thought you hated the beach.’

This was true. Crosshair couldn’t stand the beach; everything about it from the sand to the cries of the seagulls. He huffed as he reached over to the glovebox and pulled out a box of cigarettes.

‘I do,’ he responded as he pocketed the box. ‘But I know you like it, God knows why.’ He didn’t give her any more time to respond, getting out of the car and heading towards the shorefront. Omega paused for a moment, baffled, before scrambling out of the car to follow him.

They reached the pier and took a seat, perched on the wall that created a barrier between the pavement and the sand. The waves lapped in and out gently, and Omega couldn’t help but smile as she breathed in the sea air. She had never been to the beach before Hunter and his brothers had adopted her, and since then i had become one of her favourite places to be. She looked over at Crosshair, who was staring out at the sea with his now lit cigarette between his lips. ‘Don’t tell you buir,’ he commented, and Omega snorted with laughter. She could see the look on Hunter’s face now if he found out that Crosshair was still smoking.

A more relaxed atmosphere settled over the pair, and for a moment they both forgot why they were here in the first place. Sighing, Omega reached into her pocket (her school skirt had pockets courtesy of Tech) and pulled out a piece of paper. Crosshair glanced over at it without moving his head, not wanting to intrude, but whatever was written on the piece of paper was obscured from him.

Eventually the girl handed the piece of paper to him, not looking at him when she did. Crosshair scanned it, and his stomach dropped.

‘Did someone write this about you?’ he snarled before reminding himself to stay calm. Omega didn’t look at him, but he could see her shaking slightly. ‘Omega,’ he took her shoulders in his hands and made her face him. ‘If someone is writing this sort of thing about you then you need to tell a teacher at school.’

Omega’s eyes widened and filled with tears simultaneously as she shook her head. ‘It’s not that simple,’ she cried, going to take the piece of paper back. ‘If I tell a teacher, this just gets worse… I don’t even know who’s doing it.’ Her shoulders fell and she looked down at her hands. Her brother sighed, looking back at the note. ‘Is this… the first one you’ve received?’ he asked tentatively. She had chosen to go to him, not the others, and the last thing he wanted was to push her away by making her panic.

A shake of her head confirmed that this wasn’t the first message she’d received. He nodded and took a breath, wracking his brain for a way to respond. ‘And…’ he trailed off for a second. ‘Do they all say the same thing?’ Another nod. ‘Omega, you really should talk to someone at the school about this, or let one of us go in…’

He didn’t get to finish is sentence because Omega’s head snapped up, her eyes angry. ‘And have the whole school find out that it’s true?’ she scowled. ‘Hera’s my best friend, I can’t have the whole school finding out h-how… how I,’ she stopped herself, pulling out of Crosshair’s grip. ‘Then they’d call her names too, and then she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. You just don’t get it!’ She stood and stalked off down the beach, leaving her brother with a slight look of shock on his face. Not at her confession, no, but at how angrily she’d reacted. He wasn’t used to Omega snapping in his face.

By the time Crosshair caught up with her, she’d kicked her shoes and socks off and was stood in the sea, letting the waves lap around her shins. Groaning internally, he did the same, rolling his jeans up and praying that they wouldn’t get too wet. He waded out to where she was and for a moment they stood quietly together; he could hear her snivels next to him and resisted the urge to reach out a hand of comfort. Instead he lit another cigarette.

‘You know,’ he started after a while. ‘I was bullied a lot in school for… being different,’ Omega twitched, a sign that she was listening. ‘Turns out being gay in an all-boy school is not a great way to spend your teenage years,’ he drawled on. ‘I got called every name under the sun it felt like, including but not limited to some of the names on that piece of paper you’re still holding.’

A sniff from Omega told him that she was still crying and he turned to her properly. ‘I can’t stop the bullies, ‘Mega,’ he went on. ‘If I could I would,’ a tearful nod from the girl. ‘I can, however, be there for you. So can the others, if you wanted to tell them.’

‘Not yet,’ came a shaky reply. ‘I don’t know how they’ll react, and I don’t think I would cope with losing any of you.’ Crosshair took the information in, knowing that he had felt exactly the same when he was her age. ‘You won’t lose us Omega,’ he soothed. ‘I won’t make you tell anyone anything you’re not comfortable with, just know that dealing with shit like this is so much easier with a support system in place…’ Omega looked up at him, her face blotchy with tears. ‘Whatever you need, whenever you need it, I’m here.’ Before he knew it she was launching herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

It would have been a lovely moment, had Crosshair not lost his balance and sent them both tumbling into the sea. For a moment all the pair of them could do was sit and splutter; luckily it was a warm day so it wouldn’t take long for them to dry off… and Crosshair’s phone had accidentally been left in the car. ‘You’re lucky my cigarettes are wrapped in cellophane,’ he joked as he got to his feet, making sure to splash the girl, making her shriek and laugh. He offered her his hand, which she accepted and before long the pair of them were trudging back to the wall to dry off.

An hour or so later, a far drier Crosshair and Omega sat on the same wall as before, a cone of chips each held in their hands as they stared out at the waves once more.

‘Thank you,’ came a quiet voice to his left, and he looked at her with a small smile. Shuffling closer, he reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his lighter.

‘Still got that note?’ he asked, offering the lighter to the girl, who raised her eyebrow. She nodded, pulling the now slightly blurry note from her skirt pocket. ‘Quite often when I got given notes like that at school, Wrecker and me would make a bonfire in the garden and burn them…’ he trailed off, remembering those times with almost a hint of fondness, despite the circumstances. ‘We don’t have the wood for a bonfire, but this would do the trick.’

And that’s what they did. Omega sourced a couple of small sticks and set the note on them. Crosshair handed her his lighter and the pair of them watched as the note slowly burnt away to nothing. Omega wrapped her arms around Crosshair’s middle, giving him a small squeeze that he returned, and rested his chin on her head. He couldn’t solve all of her problems, as much as he wanted to storm into the school and demand they find out who this bully was, but he could be there for her throughout it all. That’s exactly what he planned on doing.

That night, when Omega went into her room having just brushed her teeth, she spotted something small on her pillow that definitely hadn’t been there before. A pin badge that she had quite often seen on Crosshair’s denim jacket. A pride flag. Knowing exactly where the badge had come from, she smiled to herself and slipped it into her blazer pocket. She would put it on at some point, when she was ready, but until then it would serve as a reminder that she was loved and supported by her big brother.

————

Crosshair’s head snapped up when he heard his mobile ringing. It was the middle of the day, and he was sleeping off the night shift so he knew that it wouldn’t be any of his family calling him. They knew better than to deprive him of sleep.

Picking up the phone groggily, he didn’t even bother to check the caller ID before answering.

‘Hello?’

‘Good afternoon, am I speaking to…’ there was a brief pause as the voice at the other end of the phone checked something. ‘Crosshair Fett?’ The man in question nodded before realising that obviously the woman couldn’t see him. ‘Speaking,’ he mumbled as he sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

‘Ah good,’ the voice responded. ‘I’m the receptionist at Ord Mantell Secondary School. The headteacher has requested that a guardian come in following an incident that happened between Omega and another girl in school.’

Crosshair snapped out of his sleepy state and was suddenly wide awake. ‘Omega?’ he asked. ‘What happened, is she okay?’

There was a brief pause down the line and Crosshair resisted the urge to ask the question again. ‘It seems as though Omega started a fight today at break time.’ That didn’t sound right. Omega didn’t start fights, not unless it was a play fight with Wrecker. ‘This isn’t the first time Omega’s behaviour has been brought up as a concern recently, and the headteacher would very much like to discuss it with one of her guardians.’

Crosshair had forgotten that according to the school they were all down as being Omega’s guardians, despite Hunter’s name being the one on the legal papers. That explained why they were calling him, and not his eldest brother. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes,’ he replied before saying his goodbyes and scrambling around to find a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

The drive to the school was a short one, but for some reason it felt like it went on forever as Crosshair contemplated what could possibly be going on for Omega to have started a fight. He approached the school building and was quickly signed in before being walked through the corridors towards the headteacher’s office. This wasn’t the first time he’d been to Omega’s school; her netball tournaments brought him and his brothers here most weekends during term time, and this was where they’d brought her to learn to swim.

When he reached the office, he saw his little sister and had to stop his mouth from falling open in shock. There sat Omega, scowling and tear stained outside the office in a plastic chair, her arms crossed as she waited for whichever brother had been summoned to come and get her. Looking her up and down, he quickly noticed that she had a split lip and what looked like a bruise forming on her cheekbone. Forcing himself to stay calm, he crouched in front of the girl, making her look up at him. The office worker turned and left, knowing that the headteacher would call them into the office soon.

‘Cross…’ she stammered, her resolve crumbling as she went to hug him. He returned the hug, but pulled away quickly, a serious look on his face.

‘Omega,’ he started. ‘What happened? I got a call saying that you started a fight with another girl…’ the distraught look on his face told him that there was at least some truth to that version of events. ‘Are you okay?’ He tried another, slightly gentler approach.

For a moment it seemed as though she wasn’t going to reply to him, her bottom lip kept trembling as she tried to compose herself. Then, as though a dam had burst, she started talking.

‘I found out who was sending those notes,’ she practically whispered as tears started trickling down her cheeks. ‘I caught her writing all over my locker in sharpie… and I confronted her.’ Crosshair nodded, taking in the information. ‘She told me that I was disgusting, so I told her that I knew I wasn’t. T-then she asked me where I got my pin from and I told her that m-my brother gave it to me and she…’ Crosshair spotted the small pin attached to her blazer. ‘She called you names…’ she trailed off, snivelling. ‘So I k-kinda lost it and hit her.’

Crosshair took everything she had to say in, a small swell of pride for his little sister sticking up for herself. It was replaced by irritation when the headteacher opened the door to the office and beckoned them both inside. Straightening, he put a hand on Omega’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Reassuring, he hoped as they walked into the office.

‘Mr Fett,’ Ben Kenobi started as he looked over his glasses at Crosshair. ‘I assume you’ve been informed as to why you’re here.’ A nod and a scowl told the headteacher what he needed to know. ‘And I gather that it is you who signed Omega’s detention slip a while ago.’ Another nod, and Ben sighed. This was going to be long meeting if neither adult nor child were willing to work with him. He sat further forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his desk. ‘Would you like a coffee and a biscuit?’

Crosshair, who had been determined to remain steely throughout the meeting, blinked in confusion. He had been expecting to be told about Omega’s behaviour, not be offered a hot drink and a biscuit. Mr Kenobi was already across the room with the kettle on before he could respond. ‘And a hot chocolate?’ he looked to Omega, who looked equally startled, but nodded anxiously. Before long, the three of them were sat back at the desk, hot drinks in hand and few biscuits on a small plate.

‘Let’s start again,’ Ben prayed that a slightly gentler approach would persuade the pair to talk to him. ‘I have read through Omega’s student file, and even taught her for some lessons. She’s a pleasure to have in the classroom.’ He regarded the pair, Omega looking a little flustered at being praised by a teacher. ‘So you can understand my confusion when I read through all of her recent reports only to find that her behaviour has gone through the floor… but not all the time.’

A blush of embarrassment was starting to spread across Omega’s cheeks, and she looked down at the mug in her hands. Crosshair glanced at her, not wanting to overstep any boundaries, but wanting to defend his little sister. It was the least she deserved.

‘It would lead me to believe,’ Mr Kenobi continued. ‘That perhaps there is something going on either in school or at home that is provoking this sort of behaviour.’

There was an almost sickening silence, and Crosshair was trying not to think about how similar this was to his own school experience (although his teachers had been far less understanding). He was about to open his mouth to respond to the head teacher, not wanting to draw the process out for Omega any longer than necessary when the child spoke up.

‘I know what I did was wrong,’ she started, putting the mug down and fiddling with a loose thread on her blazer. ‘But Maisie was calling me names, and leaving notes in my bag and my blazer…’ she trailed off, looking upset. ‘And then I saw her drawing on my locker and she started calling my brother names and I kinda lost it.’

Ben took in the information; the teacher on duty had mentioned Maisie drawing on Omega’s locker but he did not know the nature of those drawings. ‘I know this must be difficult for you, Omega,’ he responded. ‘But if you could tell me what sort of things Maisie has been calling you and your brother then I would find that most helpful.’

Omega fidgeted in her seat, looking uncomfortable and embarrassed. Crosshair put an arm around her shoulders, and it was as she turned to her brother for support that Ben spotted the small, yet brightly coloured pin badge on the collar of her blazer. Following his instinct, he turned a photo around on his desk. Once again, Omega and Crosshair looked slightly confused at his behaviour.

‘This is Cody,’ he started, pointing to one of the adults in the photo. There were three in total: Ben, Cody and a small child sat between them at what appeared to be a wedding. ‘We’ve been married for three years now, and our daughter is starting primary school in September…’ he trailed off, looking over his glasses at the pair sat in front of him. ‘I know what it is to be called names and have dirty looks thrown at me when people think I’m not looking.’ Omega’s shoulders sagged and her eyes filled with tears. He’d hit the nail on the head then.

‘Omega,’ the little girl looked up at him, trying not to cry. ‘If Maisie has been saying what I think she’s been saying, then you can tell me and I will see to it that her parents are called in. She will receive a detention and I will try my best to make sure that you’re not in the same classes anymore.’ A small nod from the child reassured him a little and he moved a tissue box a little closer. Crosshair took a tissue and handed it to his sister, who hid her face in her hands.

‘No one else needs to know, though?’ she asked eventually, and Crosshair looked up at the headteacher. He shook his head.

‘No one else needs to know,’ he reassured. ‘I will see to it that I meet with Maisie’s parents personally and that I’m the one who supervises and detentions she receives.’ The look of relief that washed over the child almost made him smile.

‘I’m afraid that you’ll still have to take a few days off for the fight,’ he continued. ‘Maisie will receive the same treatment, don’t you worry, but now that you know you have an ally in school maybe you could come to me before defending your brother and yourself so valiantly next time?’

This brought a small smile to Omega’s face and she nodded sheepishly. Crosshair, realising that he’d been sat pretty much silently throughout this meeting, cleared his throat. ‘Thank you,’ he said with sincerity in his voice. Ben simply nodded, a silent understanding, and thanked him for coming in before dismissing the pair.

Once outside the school building, Omega looked to her brother, trying to read his face. ‘I’m sorry I got into the fight,’ she started, knowing that this time it wasn’t something they could keep between the pair of them. It was one thing for Crosshair to pretend that a detention had never happened, but a fight was a completely different matter. This would put both of them in an awkward position at home and she knew it.

Crosshair didn’t respond for a moment, and the little girl could feel more tears forming in her eyes. She’d finally done it, she’d well and truly pissed him off. She turned and stated to head back to the car when she was pulled into a hug.

For a moment she was in shock. Crosshair never initiated hugs. Never. Omega thought at one point he didn’t like being touched, but he always seemed to be open to receiving hugs… this was new. She didn’t realise that her big brother was getting emotional until she heard a sniff coming from above her head. Looking up, her eyes widened, but his grip didn’t loosen.

‘Cross?’ she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt.

‘I’m proud of you, ‘Mega,’ he rasped out, eventually letting her go. Both of them were sniffling now and they let out watery laughs. ‘I’m so proud…’ he trailed off as they continued heading towards the car. ‘But Hunter’s gonna lose his shit when he sees that you’ve been in a fight.’

Omega groaned and pressed her head against the dashboard. She had come out to her buir not long ago, and of course he’d been the same loving father figure he always had been. Crosshair was right though, he would loose his mind when he saw her split lip and bruised cheek. Out of concern of course, and he would undoubtedly understand once she explained, but it didn’t make her look forward to the conversation any more.

‘Stay with me when I talk to him?’ she asked, looking a little concerned. A small smile appeared on Crosshairs face and he nodded. ‘Of course, vod’ika,’ he replied, ruffling her hair gently. There was a comfortable pause between the pair of them as he started the car. ‘At least tell me she looks worse than you do,’ he said after a few minutes.

His sister looked at him, the hint of a sly grin on her face. ‘Two black eyes,’ she responded and Crosshair snorted. ‘Good,’ he stated as they left the school car park and turned onto the main road. The pair drove home, knowing that the others would be back soon and that the house would no doubt descend into chaos upon seeing the state that Omega was in. She would have been more panicked, but knowing that she had her big brother there to support her was one of the biggest reassurances. She would be okay, she knew that now.

His sister looked at him, the hint of a sly grin on her face. ‘Two black eyes,’ she responded and Crosshair snorted. ‘Good,’ he stated as they left the school car park and turned onto the main road. The pair drove home, knowing that the others would be back soon and that the house would no doubt descend into chaos upon seeing the state that Omega was in. She would have been more panicked, but knowing that she had her big brother there to support her was one of the biggest reassurances. She would be okay, she knew that now.

[heyclickadee]

Tech’s Alive, Part 7: Potential Visual Symbolism (cw warning for more discussions of character death)

Okay, so, several things before I start off. One, this isn’t really anything new. This is just about the blaster hole in the train car window and the “wings” that seem to appear in the clouds as Tech falls. Pretty much everyone’s pointed out the second of those things already (including me, in a post I wrote a couple of days after “Plan 99″ aired, when I really was still in denial and grasping at anything I could to prove to myself that Tech was alive), and I’m pretty sure I saw someone post about the first one, too, but I haven’t been able to find it. But these two things do a kind of neat thing if you take them together, so I figured I may as well write another one of these.

Second, I actually really want to write a post about foreshadowing and all the times Tech was connected to survival or got into a deadly situation and inexplicably got out of it alive this season, but I sort of want to do a full season two watch-through before writing it. Unfortunately, I’m kind of a filthy completionist and can’t just start with season two, and I just barely restarted season one, so it’s going to be a hot minute before I get to it.

And three, I guess--this is kind of me going back to standing in front of a conspiracy board and gesturing at it with a tin foil hat in hand. 

But! Anyway! 

In the moment where Tech falls, we get not one, but two little pieces of potential visual symbolism which may indicate Tech’s survival. The first of these is, of course, the part in the clouds on either side of Tech, which resembles nothing so much as a pair of black wings jutting out from his shoulders. 

Now, this is a visual motif connected to making life out of death, survival, and freedom that was introduced back in “The Outpost” with the ice vulture and Crosshair, but I’m not sure it doesn’t apply to Tech, too. Tech, like Crosshair, is repeatedly connected to the idea of survival over the course of the season. I’ve been mulling over a whole post about this, but this season sees the two of them undergo parallel (still ongoing) arcs in which they have to reevaluate their own self-image as soldiers, and both of them, in the moments they’re each linked to the ice vulture imagery, ends up making a definitive, sacrificial choice very likely to get them killed, for the sake of someone else. For Crosshair, that’s the choice to refuse to go along with the Empire and kill Nolan as vengeance for Mayday; for Tech, that’s shooting the connection on the rail car and allowing himself to fall so that the others could get away. Neither of them completely expects to walk away from those choices. The difference in the end result (so far) is that we’ve already seen that Crosshair survived, even if surviving is brutal at the moment. We’re sort of just waiting to see that with Tech. 

Furthermore, even though Crosshair is definitely THE ice vulture--I’m not going to argue that point--I’m going to come back to Mayday’s use of the plural when he talks about them: “Vicious creatures, but you have to admire ‘em. They find a way to survive.”  

Mayday’s use of the plural here is actually kind of striking, because I think we only ever see one ice vulture over the course of that entire episode. It’s a large, solitary creature, covering a wide territory, and it could be the same one Mayday’s seen the entire time he was stationed at Barton-5. But the use of the plural (and the way that things work) means that there are others elsewhere, so that even though Crosshair is the character most clearly connected to them and especially to the one we actually see on screen, Tech could potentially be another one. 

Because here’s the other thing; Crosshair and Tech don’t just have parallel arcs. They’re actually a lot alike, in a lot of ways. They’re both brilliant, calculating, ruthless in the sense that they can both see the most direct way to get something done, whether it’s moral (usually Crosshair) or safe (usually Tech); they can both come across to people who don’t know them well as standoffish or even cold, but they both love very deeply and affectionately, in their own ways, and would give anything for the people they love, whatever the cost to themselves; they’re both incredibly sarcastic and refuse to sugarcoat things; and they both deal with everything very privately. They’re not exactly the same, of course. Tech is a chatterbox (a lot of the time) while Crosshair hardly ever speaks, and Crosshair spends every second on screen EMOTING EVERYWHERE ALL the TIME, while Tech’s facial expressions are much subtler. Everything Crosshair knows has made him cynical and bitter, while everything Tech knows has made him curious and kind. And, of course, Crosshair is incredibly pragmatic and usually not thinking about the morality of any given situation; Tech is pragmatic as well, but usually refuses to set morality aside. (And that’s all honestly way oversimplifying it BUT this is getting a little long.) But they are enough alike that I think the ice vulture connection can apply to Tech, too(1), and that the apparent visual connection in this moment in “Plan 99″ isn’t totally off base. Meaning that the, “They find a way to survive,” bit could and probably does apply to him(2). 

The second bit of visual symbolism in this scene is actually the blaster hole that Tech himself put through the window of the train car when he shot the connection hinge. If, say, the S&P department told the Bad Batch production team that they absolutely couldn’t show Tech’s body on screen or use any equivalents, like a crushed helmet or a body bag, or if the production team really did just want to use the goggles instead of anything more definitive, a really clean visual way they could have solidified Tech’s death would have been to have that blaster hole pass over Tech, either over his head or his chest, and then stay centered on him as he fell. It would be a sort of visual shorthand saying that Tech’s shot--the shot that cut the connection hinge--would also ultimately be the shot that killed him, or lead to his death at the very least. And we do actually see the blaster hole in the shot where Tech falls. It comes fairly close to him, but 

it just barely grazes his left hand. Not over his head, not centered over his chest as he’s falling, just momentarily passing the end of a limb(3).  (Aaaaaand the tin foil hat really starts to come out).

Now, not every single thing we see on screen is deliberate. Sometimes there are animation mistakes, and there are certainly concessions to budget. But the animation mistakes we tend to see are usually of a certain kind. Take, for example, Echo’s kama randomly appearing and disappearing from shot to shot in “Cornered,” or Hunter’s scarf doing the same during either “Pabu” or “Tipping Point.” Usually what’s happened there is either someone keying or turning the visibility of that piece of geometry off while they’re animating the character, and then forgetting to turn it back on again, and no one catching it until after the shot gets back from render. And there are rendering and compositing errors; I think there’s one shot from season one where you can actually see Tech’s goggles through his head, which was probably either a problem with render layers in maya or later on in compositing. And errors like that are usually not enough of a reason to re-render a scene. Rendering is expensive in terms of computer power and takes a good long while, especially if you’re rendering using arnold (which I think Lucasfilm Animation does--they don’t use redshift, as far as I know, but I could be totally wrong). 

Stuff like this, however--where Tech is in this shot in relation to everything else--is usually more about staging and layout, something that’s usually decided back in the storyboard phase and solidified during animatics. And given just how much happens in the background of this show, the staging on The Bad Batch is usually pretty deliberate. It doesn’t mean that the blaster hole missing Tech is 100% on purpose, but it does make it far more likely that it is. Same goes for the black wings in the clouds. 

Now, of course, even if the staging is deliberate, which I think it is, that doesn’t necessarily mean that either of these visual cues are meant to symbolize anything. I’m mostly just saying that they could and that that’s a possible way to read the scene. Taken together, these two visual cues could potentially be signaling that Tech will ultimately find a way to survive (like the ice vulture), so even though he might come very close to death, and may even brush it for a moment, it's going to pass him by (like the blaster hole).

1: Okay, you know what? It’s all of them. Crosshair’s THE ice vulture, but the “Vicious creatures, but you have to admire ‘em,” is all of them. After seeing what they can do when they’re not holding back in “The Summit,” “vicious creatures” absolutely applies to all of them, as far as I’m concerned.  

2: Also, I’m sorry, but the silhouette of the ice vulture looks like the Marauder and when I think of the Marauder, I think of the whole batch, sure, but I especially think of Tech.  

3: More fodder for the “Tech comes back, but definitely not unscathed” theories? Maybe. 

[heyclickadee]

I’m so sorry, @apocalyp-tech-a—I meant to thank you for the tag and and then didn’t type it out. This was fun!

1. Your favorite member of the bad batch is: All of them. I’m sorry.

2. Because: They’re all fantastic and I can’t choose.

3. You identify the most with: Tech, Hunter, and Gonky.

4. Because: Tech, because I recognize a lot of his traits and behaviors in myself, especially the version of myself that existed before I started masking heavily. I’ve had the conversation that Tech has with Omega in the cave scene in “The Crossing” before, though I’ve never handled it half as well as Tech did. Hunter, because I’m a chronically exhausted oldest sibling who has no idea how to handle failure, and I get overloaded just hearing the air conditioner and the electricity in the walls, so I feel for a guy who’s got his senses cranked up to fifteen AND can sense electromagnetic fields. Like. That’s got to be so overwhelming all the time. And Gonky, because I, too, am a rectangle who makes funny noises.

5. Your favorite minor character from the show: Aaaahhhhhh I don’t know. Most of them, but let’s go with Phee and Mayday in a solid tie.

6. Because: Phee’s a pirate, repatriator of cultural artifacts, adventurer, treasure hunter, has oodles of confidence, intelligence, and fantastic taste in men. Mayday’s just…he’s Mayday. He’s so fun and snarky and SAD I just. *cries in “The Outpost”*

7. A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you’re most proud of: Probably my “Omega deserves to be angry,” painting.

8. Because: I wasn’t super happy with how it looked, but I was still proud of it because it was the first piece of art of any kind that wasn’t either for work or for school that I took farther than a sketch and actually finished in years. Long story, but I had to switch careers and go back to school in my late twenties, got a job at a call center to pay for rent and food at least, and by halfway through my junior year of school round 2: career switch boogaloo, I was so desperate to get away from the call center that I found a full time (technically freelance) gig at a small local game studio at the same time I was going to school full time and working on my senior film. Between the call center, which was…a bad fit, let’s say, working full time at the studio, and full time school + capstone project, I got a little burned out. A lot burned out. So, so burned out, and I haven’t recovered. After graduation I didn’t draw or model anything that wasn’t strictly for work for about a year and a half, and even doing it for work was a stretch a lot of the time. I’m only just now starting to get back into it and, honestly, I’m super rusty at anything that’s not the kind of stuff I do at work (mostly models of teeth and bones). So it was really nice to actually finish something that was just for me.

9. Link: https://www.tumblr.com/heyclickadee/723760359202258944/omega-deserves-to-be-angry

10. A TBB piece of fanart that slaps so hard you enjoy and why: That one piece of fanart of Crosshair strapped down on that torture slab and crying by @beetlecrest because holy shit. The colors? The emotion? The textures? It’s GUT-WRENCHING but it’s so, so well done.

11. Link: GO LOOK AT IT https://www.tumblr.com/beetlecrest/724401897544597504/it-was-heartbreaking-to-see-crosshair-get-strapped

12. A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy and why?: I really like @niobiumao3’s Obliquity, partly because it’s a Tech Lives fic, partly because it’s Techphee, but especially because they’ve got a really interesting take on Phee’s backstory. Also, Jedi Phee!! And I have to put @eclec-tech’s A Crosshair Carol in here, too. The end of the first chapter punched me in the gut.

13: Links: Obliquity: https://www.tumblr.com/niobiumao3/715766610818973696/obliquity-niobium-star-wars-the-bad-batch

A Crosshair Carol: https://www.tumblr.com/eclec-tech/704074527449219072/a-crosshair-carol-chapter-1-amberowl24-star

14. A TBB headcanon or trope that is basically canon to you: The Bad Batch trained as commandos their entire lives, but the Kaminoans never intended to let them out into the field. It’s not that they weren’t capable, but they were an experiment, and depending on your point of view sort of a failed experiment; they’re fantastic at what they do, but all that conditioning the Kaminoans put the clones through didn’t really take with them. But then Cody stepped in directly after the battle of Kamino and vouched for them, thinking their skills would be useful despite (or because) of their differences, and then the Kaminoans decided, well, okay, let’s see how this experiment does in a field test.

15. Color(s) you think would suit Crosshair if he were given “mercenary” armor: A blue that isn’t quite gray with red and orange highlights here and there.

16. One thing you NEED to see happen in season three: Tech being alive, first of all, though that’s less of a need and more of an expectation. When I said that I was going to talk about Tech’s survival as a matter-of-fact after the Joel Aron tweet, I meant it. He’s alive, and the onus is on the show to prove him otherwise.

What I really need, though? I need this little family to be okay. I neeeeeed the clone force 99 family to be okay. A worrying percentage of my mental health is hinging on this family being okay in the end.

NPT (also sorry if you already did this): @im-no-jedi @lightwise @littlefeatherr @eriexplosion @eclec-tech

Fellow Zealots of The Bad Batch, Unite!

Please share your answers to these questions and pass them on to some of your Bad Batch-loving buds!

Your favorite member of TBB is:

Because:

You identify the most with:

Because:

Your favorite minor character from the show:

Because:

A TBB-centric piece or post of yours that you are most proud of:

Because:

Link so that we can appreciate it:

A TBB-centric piece of art that slaps so hard you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB-centric fanfic that gives you life you enjoy (and why):

Link:

A TBB headcanon or trope that is 100% canon to you:

Color(s) you think would suit if Crosshair gets "Mercenary" armor:

One thing you NEED to see happen in Season 3:

@wwheeljack @wrenkenstein @floundrickthewayfarer @raevulsix @enigmatist17 @slenderboo @echojedis @nika6q @zaana @wiseowl18 @toastyrobos @eclec-tech @jigget @destril @niobiumao3

[eriexplosion]

Starting the journey to the final few episodes with the last nice time anyone has in this season. Pabu!

Genuinely do not understand why people consider this filler, it supports the season long theme of people trying to survive after their homes are destroyed (both with Pabu as a whole as a city of refugees and after the tsunami) AND we desperately need this come down after The Outpost because Good God.

Also this is just the most attractive opening ever. The lighting! Phee negotiating! Hunter picking up the bad vibes of both the guy trying to steal his credits and the DEVIL MURDER BUG. Wrecker beating the shit out of some guys! I could watch this all day!

Still obsessed with the fact that Omega kills. This child has taken life.

I love that Tech is playing against himself but I love more that Gonky is apparently being accusatory about it.

"WHAT other skills?" Tech does not understand the problem here. Of course she only has friends that are other clones, that is all the friends you need. Clearly!

Cid's message is still weird with the voice glitches, obviously she does turn them in but like what's with that? I have no idea if it means anything but would be interesting to see it pop back up in season 3.

"Our mutually beneficial arrangement wasn't so beneficial... mutually..." Hunter is so so beautiful and his head is sometimes so full of fluff.

God the way that Tech only slightly reacts to Phee's hand on his shoulder but REALLY reacts to "Brown Eyes" like oh he felt that one didn't he

Pabu is still so unbelievably prettyyyyyyy just look at it

Yeah ever since @niobiumao3 posted about the Archium looking like a Jedi Temple I can't get it out of my head or see anything else.

Your Artifact is Cheap

SHEP SHEP SHEP SHEP SHEP SHEP SHEP

GENUINELY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH HE IS SO GENTLE AND SOFT LOOKING, ROUND OF BELLY AND BIG OF HEART.

He has such kind eyes and I could watch him greet them over and over, I just adore seeing the batch receive kindness actually.

"You've got some competition" Wrecker knows what's up

Tech pausing to look back at Phee when she walks away is a great moment, the way that his interest really did escalate finding out that the artifact wasn't about money, it was about culture and preserving it. I just love that this is what makes him actually start to respond more obviously to her.

I just love the slow build between them, that they don't really Have a Thing yet but there's clearly mutual interest. We rarely get actual lead up or developing of attraction (also it just fits with Tech that he's more interested in her when he finds out more ABOUT her like this)

God Shep is all but inviting the Empire with the 'why would they come here?' thing.

This episode is so fantastically vital I think to the batch's story though and it's so often overlooked. They needed the option to stay behind somewhere to make their decision to go after Crosshair have weight, but they also needed somewhere that showed them what a community even looks like. The Batch has always been on their own, always been separate, they aren't used to experiencing community. I'm still not sure if they'll actually end up on Pabu permanently - it feels like part of the bittersweetness that the ending apparently has might be that they'll never really be safe from the Empire - but they still need to EXPERIENCE IT.

Also WRECKER BEING FULL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE (and Tech marking the occasion lol)

PHEE SHOWING TECH THE LIGHTS <3 <3 <3 And then Hunter walking immediately between them looking vaguely ill. Is something coming or is he going to throw up, we just don't know.

I love Shep like 'if we were at risk the early warning siren would have activated' followed IMMEDIATELY by sirens. Also the water receding is really well done and honestly pretty eerie to watch.

I feel like the entire tsunami portion is often forgotten in the face of 'batch experiences 5 seconds of peace' but it's just as vital, because the community action in the face of the oncoming disaster is what makes the evacuation of Lower Pabu a success, it doesn't work unless everyone works together. Community keeps them alive!

The animation on the wave hitting is a real FLEX. That water spray.

"Property was destroyed. But my people are resilient. We'll band together and rebuild." He just lays it out, the Themes, they're right there.

[kamino-blues]

Peaceful Mornings With the Bad Batch

Rating: Pg and sfw!!

Warnings: Super fluffy!! Kissing and just overall soft!Bad Batch

Note: Honestly imagining how the different Bad Batch members would interact with their s/o in the morning after waking up made me feel so warm and fuzzy 💕At the time of posting this I have not seen the new episode, but I have a feeling that it is potentially going to be angsty! So here is something to hopefully comfort you <3

Wrecker

Wrecker absolutely loves to sleep in, usually sleeping past when he’s supposed to get up

So when you wake up, you are engulfed in warmth, his arms holding you tightly to his body

It takes a lot to wake him normally, but a few kisses against his neck will cause him to slowly open his eyes

He is incredibly soft spoken (by Wrecker standards) when he first wakes up, burying his face in your hair with a small “g’morning”

You couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, moving your arms to trace shapes on his back as your eyes close

Both of you never want to leave the comfort of your bed, but sadly being on the run means early mornings

Wrecker wouldn’t get up first, content in holding you, so you would slowly have to pull away (with a lot of light complaining by Wrecker)

You would help pull him up to sitting position, before he would grab you and pull you into his lap, catching you in a lazy kiss

It would take a lot to actually start getting ready, you again having to pull away to stand up

After you both got ready for the day, you two would spend a moment before going out to the rest of the crew

He would pull you into a hug, mumbling a small ‘I love you’ (and you of course returning it)

You both never knew what the day would bring, so having this time to be in each others presence grounded both of you

Echo

Echo was used to waking up early from his time in the 501st, so you would usually feel shifting in yours and Echos shared bed way before you would usually get up

With your eyes half open, you would reach over to where Echo should be, realizing that he got out of bed. You would usually let out a small whine at this, slowly sitting up

More then once you have sleepily made eye contact with a shirtless Echo, in the process of changing the top of his blacks to get ready for the day

He would always be flustered when he realized you were awake, but could never resist you when you made grabby hands at him. All you wanted was for him to come back to bed

After a few moments Echo would make his way back to bed, laying down next to you

You would automatically hold onto him, laying your head on his bare chest as you got comfortable

You mumbled a small 'I love you', which he quickly returned, pressing a small kiss to the top of your head

Echo would run his hand through your hair, slowly luring you back into a comfortable sleep

He would be there when you have to wake up, him lightly shaking your shoulder to lure you to consciousness

At first you would grumble, but as you move your head you make eye contact with Echo

His eyes are so light, looking at you with the most loving gaze you have ever seen

You couldn’t help but push yourself up on the mattress, sitting up so that you could press a kiss to his lips

He would melt into it, wrapping his arms around your neck

You wish it could last forever, but sadly you both had to get ready for the day ahead

So begrudgingly you both pulled away, getting up to start the day (not before stealing a few small kisses as you both got ready)

Tech

It was rare for Tech to go to bed and stay in bed, preferring to work on projects instead of sleeping

So often in the early morning you would feel the bed dip, arms pulling you close as you shift in bed

You usually ended up mumbling something incoherent, causing Tech to let out a soft laugh before giving you a kiss to the forehead

This was followed by him telling you to go back to bed, which you would follow almost instantly

As soon as morning hits, you feel shifting in your arms, trying to get out of your grasp without waking you

You would just tighten your arms at this, letting out a small noise as your eyes open

Tech would ask you kindly to let him get up, but you would distract him by moving your hand up to his face. You would trace the side of his face where his glasses normally rested

You would quietly tell him how cute he looked without his glasses, causing him to instantly flush

Catch him stuttering, still not very good at responding to your compliments

Silence him with a kiss, honestly he would be grateful for it since it gave him something to focus on

Tech would be the one to pull away, standing up while offering you a hand to pull you up

You would take it, and as soon as you were standing you would pull him into a hug, grabbing onto the back of his blacks

You both would exchange ‘I love you's’ before starting to get ready for the day

Tech would finish before you, sitting on the bed with his datapad while he waited for you

When you were done, you would crawl onto the bed behind him, wrapping your arms around his torso while leaning your chin on his right shoulder

No words would be spoken, you both staying there until Tech was ready to go or until you were called to the cockpit of the Marauder

Hunter

Hunter was very regimented, so he slept around the same time every night and woke up at the same time every morning

That was until you came along. Now he was used to staying up a little later to spend time with you, but he would still wake up relatively early

He would always wake up first, waking you up with small kisses here and there

Hunter loved it when you stretched against him, your arms wrapping around him and your legs intertwining with his

You would bury your face in his shoulder while mumbling a small 'morning' to him

He was content with laying there with you, his eyes closing as he basked in your presence

Sadly as he was seen as the leader of Clone Force 99, he would have to be on time to start doing his duties

So he would sit up, pulling you with him. If you wanted Hunter to, he would carry you to the refresher so that you could be near him longer

Hunter let you use the refresher first, mostly because he wanted you to help him with his hair

It calmed him when you ran your fingers through his hair, his eyes closing as he leaned into your touch

After you were done, you would help him tie his headband, him pulling you into a kiss once you were done

You two would stay there for a few moments, not wanting to pull away

Hunter would pull you into a keldabe kiss, where you both would whisper ‘I love you’s’ to each other. Then it was time to start the day <3

Crosshair

It wasn’t often that you would feel Crosshair's arms around you, pulling your back against his chest

When you first started dating Crosshair, he was barely one to pull you into cuddles, but it started to slowly happen as you got much MUCH farther into your relationship

Crosshair is able to fall asleep very easily, but any movement usually wakes him. Thats was one of the reasons that it took so long for him to share a bed with you

So when you started to wake up with arms wrapped around you and Crosshair's chin on your head, you were the happiest in the world

As you woke up this morning, shifting slightly in his arms, you felt his grip tighten around you

He usually will tiredly mutter something along the lines of “good morning doll”, causing you to smile

At this point you would turn in his arms, laying your head against your pillow as you stared at Cross’s face

He would jokingly raise an eyebrow, no words being said before he pulled you against him. Lightly placing your forehead against his, you would stay in that position for a while, both of you comfortable in the silence

As much as Crosshair would never admit it to anyone else, he honestly loved to hold you. It brought a smile to his face

Seeing him smile was the highlight of your day, you couldn’t help but kiss him

You two would stay there much longer then you probably should, but you both didn’t give a damn

Crosshair would be the one to pull away after a while though, helping you up so that you both could get ready

Before you both left, he would pull you into one more kiss, before walking out of the room with his hand on your lower back

I'm thinking about doing a tag list! If you want to be tagged on my writing posts please let me know! 💖Thank you for reading!!

[rishi-eel]

thinking (yet again!) about the differences between the bad batch story reels and the season seven arc and like... some changes just blow my mind because all it did, really, was make the bad batch less likable.  

lets star with the whole “reg” thing. if i remember correctly, in the originals “regs” is said twice. the first instance is by crosshair when taunting jesse in the LAAT. the second is said by hunter: he tells tech (who’s hacking into the cyber center) that he and wrecker are going to “go get the regs” (i.e. rex and jesse). that is, hunter only used it among his squad when the others were not present (much like how cody informs that the bad batch are defective clones out of earshot. these words are descriptors, but there’s also an offense associated to being referred to by them). the idea that hunter has restraint referring to regular clones this way in their faces connects, i think, to how hunter was a tad more apologetic to jesse in the original script. “he means regular clones. don’t take it personal. it’s just that we don’t always follow protocol” carried an actual sense of hunter trying to convince jesse that it’s nothing to do with him.   

it’s interesting, i think, that in a context where you have clones and defective clones, that the bad batch (as defective clones) would find a way to talk about other clones in reference to themselves in a way that normalizes their own existence. it also introduces the idea that the bad batch experience a level of disconnect, and even animosity, in regards to other clones. all that can be conveyed by only using the word twice. the season seven episodes added three more instances, and in all of them the bad batch members comfortably throw the word around the clones who “are regs.” the sense of separateness (which, again, was already established/achieved by using it just two times) is only made stronger (thus more needs to be done to portray a sense of reconciliation or coming together. the reels succeed this to an extent because that barrier wasn’t built up as high). 

so yeah in the original... wrecker didn’t say “we always get shot down when we travel with regs,” he kept quiet as he helped people out of the wrecked gunship (in fact, wrecker lost a lot of subtlety going from the reels to the final eps, which i’ll get back to). hunter didn’t fake-compliment rex with a “not bad, for a reg”! and oh boy crosshair’s comment implying that echo is worthless and expendable because he’s a “reg”... yeah that was not in the reels either. in fact, not only does crosshair not call echo a reg, the meaning of his original dialogue was completely different.

in the original, after hunter voices his suspicions echo might be dead, crosshair suggests that if alive echo could be cooperating with the enemy, making him a traitor. rex takes this as an attack on echo’s character and crosshair explains that no, he’s not intending to insult echo, by saying: “oh i don’t blame him, if i were left for dead, i wouldn’t be so loyal.” and like!!!!! that’s such a radically different line of dialogue because crosshair seems to blame rex for having left echo behind, actually. if you betrayed the republic to survive, or even out of spite, i don’t blame you even if you now present a threat to myself and my family, is such an interesting, empathetic sentiment. and that contrasts with the lack of regard given to rex, making it read like he’s condemning rex for leaving someone behind. crosshair doesn’t seem to understand, as an experimental commando clone, the pressures rex as a legion captain is under, because he’s seen a less expandable (they’re a specially trained four man team, if one dies that’s 25% of the unit gone. is there a replacement for that member? you get the idea). so you’ve got a clash between different povs, but also crosshair being shown as having a set of morals, chief among them being that you do not leave anyone behind. so remember when rex says to move out and crosshair goes “commander cody is in no position to move” yeah i’d say that’s crosshair making sure cody isn’t being left behind. when crosshair saves anakin? that’s because he saw anakin go off on his own and followed him. because you don’t leave people behind. and like... the idea that yeah crosshair is an asshole. he’s unpleasant and that’s deliberate. he doesn’t care if people like him and he’s not trying to be liked. but that he values the lives of other people and looks out for them? that makes an interesting, flawed and multifaceted character. that got lost in the dialogue change because its no longer suggested that crosshair holds these values.

as for what i said earlier about wrecker: he lost subtle, nonverbal moments through the addition of lines that are either anticlimactic or only serve to make him seem loud or ditzy in an exaggerated fashion. he didn’t laugh when the LAAT came down. he was quiet as he helped people out of the downed gunship (no comment about regs!). he didn’t say “boom” when the ship exploded in the background after he flipped it over (the difference? a character moment that’s actually cool and impressive vs something that’s corny). when wrecker comes to crosshair’s aid by picking rex off of him, there was no quippy one liner. there was no need for anything to be said for it to be understood that wrecker is acting as a barrier and it trying to intimidate rex. when he’s afraid to get onto the elevator? that’s conveyed visually through camera angles and through hunter picking up on the fact that he’s scared. he doesn’t scream (if you can call a comical “aah what is that thing oh no its going to get me” a scream) when the organic decimator almost gets him. when they walk across the pipe? wrecker doesn’t whimper or talk to himself for comfort. he is scared of heights, that’s already been established, but he’s also a grown man and a soldier like he’s keeping that to himself? like we see wrecker hesitating to walk on the ledge but doing it anyway because he has to. in a piece of dialogue that was cut, tech said “does anyone want to know the odds of us making it across alive?” to which wrecker (who’s you know already having a bad time) interrupts with “don’t even think about it, tech” (if ur curious, this exchange was replaced with: wrecker: “keep walking tech!” tech: “that’s fine, but if you fall don’t take me with you” which???? uuh weird exchange). also, the fact that wrecker was mostly dealing with his fear silently means that when hunter tells wrecker to hold on because they’re almost there... that’s because hunter knows he’s scared and is checking up on him. basically... any kind of serious moment was cheapened by having wrecker talk in them. now i don’t want to say that DBB is a bad voice actor, but his expertise is making animal noises. he’s not able to do a realistic, deep voice, meaning that whenever wrecker talks he kind of sounds like a joke. it’s fine when wrecker is actual being lighthearted and jokey, but otherwise? the emotion just does not come across as genuine, which breaks the stakes or weakens credibility.  

and god the whole plot point about the bad batch being suspicious of echo was nonexistent in the reels. the “don’t worry, echo says he’s got a plan”/”that makes me feel so much better” exchange between rex and tech is in the original, but tech’s sarcasm isn’t from doubting echo’s allegiance, it’s because they’re planning to land on admiral trench’s ship and echo having a plan (that he himself doesn’t know) doesn’t exactly soothe his anxieties. rex acts like tech’s being a big joker and playfully shoves him, telling him to get on board. which is an interesting interaction because these characters are kind of starting to bond?? as for tech and echo, they kinda become nerdy friends really quick. like when tech warns echo not to send the signal right away because he first needs to make it look like it’s coming from skako minor, echo’s like “oh yeah good thinking tech.” and when echo figures out a way to shut down all the droids at once tech is impressed and lightly shoves his shoulder. again there is none of that “oooh maybe echo’s a traitor maybe he’s with the techno union” shit. like i understand that the writers wanted to up the stakes but it falls flat because the idea of echo being a traitor isn’t credible. it does not seem like an actual risk or possibility. so all it did was make the bad batch seem like assholes, cutting away at some very nice character moments.   

ok this is a long post and you might ask yourself “but tumblr user rishi-eel, why do you care so much about the story reels, this stuff isn’t canon now” and there are a couple reasons, first, i think it managed to tell a better story overall. so the question is: why is that? because you would expect that writers reworking the plot would add improvements and not downgrades. and to be fair, the s7 episodes had a bunch of upgrades, but not when it came to the characterization of the bad batch. another thing to consider is that changes were made in the context of setting the bad batch up as future protagonists of their own spinoff series (something the original arc was not intended to do because there were no plans for a bad batch series). were the characters made flatter and more archetypal to add to marketability? was the reg/defective clone rivalry (and dichotomy, even) amplified because this separateness serves a narrative in which the bad batch are heroes and the other clones villains?  

[melymigo]

I totally agree with this!...This is going to be a long post: 

I want to start with the whole thing of the trope of the "man adopting a child" and want to clarify that this is accepting that the series went down all that trope but c’mon if the writers went that way they should do it better...

The father-daughter thing going on between Hunter and Omega To be honest, it’s super weird to me. Since the whole first season, they’ve been trying to shove down our throats their father-daughter relationship, but somehow it hasn’t worked for me. I mean, it took three seasons of The Mandalorian and a half season of The Book of Boba Fett to see the relationship between Din and Grogu evolve into a "dad-son" type of relationship. In The Bad Batch, we saw Hunter develop from nowhere, the craziest, most epic father-daughter bond of all time with a stranger. (And I know about the paternal thing going on with the Clones because of Jango, but I think this is not enough to explain this bond between them.) Don’t get me wrong, but I think they rushed things. I can understand Hunter's stance on protecting Omega because it is the right thing to do. She is a child, she is innocent, and she needs to be protected. I got it. But what I cannot process is this strange bond that the writers have been trying to force. I think they took the wrong direction with their relationship; they could have done something with their bond as clones from the same batch (they tried at first when Hunter said she was one of them) or even with their relationship as a younger-older brother-sister relationship. But no, she must be his daughter. And for me, it kind of puts Hunter in a bad light, like, he is capable of doing whatever it takes to protect this child (because according to what Hunter said, she is one of them), but he cannot even help that one brother that he has known since always and happens to be one of them too and who is currently in danger or in a place where he could be vulnerable and needs help (Crosshair).

Or at least to show the same amount of concern for any other of his brothers.

Tech broke his leg, and he almost died repeatedly the whole season. Then he actually died 🫠. Echo was gone on a suicidal mission to save his brothers from the empire, and Wrecker is just existing there, and it looks like he is just concerned about Omega. I know she is a child, and she is not an adult like the others who can take care of themselves. I get it. I also know that everyone is responsible for their own decisions and the consequences of them.

I like Hunter and Omega, but I don’t like how the writers address their relationship or how they include the others in said relationship. It looks like it doesn’t matter what happens to the others while Omega is fine. They are brothers, and they act like coworkers, and his coworker's daughter. 

A friend told me that I was a hypocrite because I loved Din Djarin and wasn’t in love with Hunter, since they were the same because of the relationship between Din and Grogu. I think this doesn’t work as well as it does with Din and Grogu because The Mandalorian is a series about them, just the two of them, a clan of two. The Bad Batch is a team; all of them are the Bad Batch, and that’s why I just cannot accept that they just focus on the Omega and Hunter relationship.

My friend asked me too why I liked Tech more than Hunter if I loved Din so much. Considering the little amount of time, the writers gave him in the first season and TCW, And I am not talking about the "character development" the writers gave him in season two with the sole purpose of making Omega’s relationship with Hunter more meaningful or Omega’s development for the season finale. But I find Tech a hundred times more interesting than Hunter. First, I felt represented. I’m autistic, and believe it or not, his character has helped others understand me better. Ok, but going back to the questioning of my friend, I told him they might be in a similar situation in their stories (Mando and Hunter), but they are not the same. While Din is dark and broody like Hunter, the writers of the Mandalorian have shown more about the bounty hunter life of Din than Hunter’s soldier’s life before the Bad Batch series; the writers didn’t even exploit the enhancements of Hunter; of all the characters in the batch, I think he has the most interesting set of skills, and they just have been wasting that. Hunter went from being an elite rogue clone to the least interesting guy in his squad in order to be the dad of the squad. I also think this whole trope about the dad adopting a child makes another kind of relationship not valid or important. I mean, if they really want to go with this flag of "family and love mean everything", then the writers and producers should know that "love" and "family" come in different shapes. There is something significant in a clan of two, in being loyal to your brothers, in the relationship between a master and their apprentice, in finding your place in the galaxy, or even in believing in or fighting for a cause. 

I saw your notes on this post https://www.tumblr.com/moosethren/717347673558155264?source=share you reblogged and I fully agree with what you said in the notes. Firstly, I am very tired of the Star Wars trope of "man adopts child" (we see this in TCW with Ahsoka, Rebels with Ezra, Mando with Grogu, TBB with Omega, Kenobi with Leia, etc) and seeing how the TBB series' narrative is specifically made for the man adopt child trope hurts the series overall, in my opinion.

As you mentioned in your tags, Hunter has practically no personality aside from, literally, "Omega". People will say that his personality has changed due to the changing times and stress, but how he's shown and displayed in the show canon directly is having a personality designed for the main child character and nothing else. He had zero development and has changed absolutely none at all since TBB season one. His decisions are still made solely for the narrative (going back to Cid's for AZI solely because the writers needed to find a way to have them captured, even though they could have contacted Rex or found a medic literally anywhere else) and for Omega. I am doubtful we will see much development for Hunter that isn't revolving constantly around Omega in season three, let alone with the other men. All of the men are developed for her, rather than for themselves or for the sake of them being expanded upon, which completely shortens their purpose to just existing for the narrative and Omega - which none of them deserve.

I want more from the show than we will ever get, and seeing the TCW Bad Batch turning into "men who adopt children" and losing the joking, brotherly love they displayed in TCW. But that's just my thoughts on it, since I saw your tags and became intrigued to see someone else feeling a similar way as myself.

Oh, man, I couldn't agree more.

I still don't even know why AZI is with Cid in the first place, when they could have handed him over to Rex where he'd be useful. They went through all that trouble to save him in S1 (Omega nearly died, Crosshair had a huge thing of saving him and her) and then he ends up a frigging waiter droid at Cid's...

There's so many weird decisions/mistakes that TBB does just because of the honestly poor writing at this rate, cause they seem determined to yeah, have the narrative involve purely her. I don't know why the show isn't just called "Omega". And I get it, she's the person the audience/kids sees stuff through but come on... I expected to watch stuff about the Bad Batch and their relationships with each other, in a show called The Bad Batch. Now it's just a few men following this kid around and letting her decide everything and get them into trouble with no consequences.

(spoilers but I guess you've seen it all) Also because this is getting LONG.

Ever since the end of S2 my interest has plummeted because my fave character was offed after having had a 'full character arc with OMEGA' (since that's clearly all that matters), Hunter's only personality trait is being a 'dad' and I'm not interested in that either. Poor Wrecker has so much potential but it's squandered per usual and Echo's just kinda there, when he seems much happier being with Rex. Crosshair is my second fave but he's gonna be trapped with Omega which means his writing is going to go from really good to well, not that great.

What's worse, there's yet another media that is going towards the same trope atm and I'm frankly losing it. It seems like it's just me and one other who really dislike the trope (and you, which, yay, we're not alone 😂) I could go on about this for ages but I know it's a very unpopular opinion. But it's honestly ruining the show for me. And the trope, which I used to kinda like.

Imagine a show based on an adult sibling dynamic, which we're sorely lacking.

But again I'm the wrong audience for this and shouldn't have expected anything else, and at the moment I don't trust these writers anymore. (plus them killing off the autism rep sits really wrong with me.)

I want to like Omega (even if I'm not a big fan of child characters in the first place) but her writing and the show's direction makes it very difficult.

At the moment I'm re-writing the entire show without her in it and I'm honestly having much more fun making the Batch work together through this ordeal. Sure, I have a few OCs involved but they're not removing the Batch's claws as it were. But since the canon show is kinda just eh to me atm, that's my solution to it, so if anyone's upset about that well... they have a whole show out there to enjoy.

I'm glad for those who do like where the show is going and who love the trope 'cause they're being fed well, but the rest of us, well, some of us are getting salty and that's okay too.