#I didn't make any for this current batch | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mrs-bucky-barnes106 · 1 year ago

Text

☆｡.:*･ﾟ Sweet Nothings ｡.:*･ﾟ☆

pairing: tfatws!bucky x baker!reader

warning: fluff, multiple mentions of cake, mentions of Bucky with children

a/n: Ahhh I had this idea before going to bed and literally stayed up two hours working on it. I finished it this morning, and I've gotta stay I'm proud of my commitment because I usually take at least a month to finish a fanfiction. Hopefully, there's more where this came from. P.S. I'm not a baker, so I'm sorry if I fudged any details. Feedback is always appreciated but please be kind. Likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated but no reposting without credit <3

word count: 1.6k

summary: Reader is a baker and Bucky gets a cake from her to take to Sam's picnic party on the docks (scene from tfatws).

☆｡.:*･ﾟ

The bell jingled as Bucky entered Sweet Nothings, the bakery you had started from the ground up. He was instantly enveloped by the sweet scent of baked goods from the array of desserts neatly displayed in the glass case by the counter. Underneath the sugar, he smelled the new chai latte you had just added to the menu. It had been an instant hit, totally trumping the one at Starbucks that everyone raved about. Chai had been a nostalgic drink for you and a completely new one for Bucky. He now had an affinity for it, however, and asked for it every time he entered the shop after you made him the first honorary taste tester of the drink. Now, the shop was bustling since it was happy hour.

Soft music played in the background. Bucky recognized the voice of Taylor Swift, one of your favorite artists. She was one of Bucky's favorites now too. You had impeccable taste, and any song you loved became his favorite. The album that was currently playing was Midnights, the one you had told Bucky he was most like. He loved that about you, how you would associate things like albums and songs with him. It made his heart swell, knowing you thought about him in relation to music, which had a special place in your heart.

You were nowhere in sight, so he assumed you were in the back checking on your bread dough. Bucky approached the barrier that led to the backroom for employees and pushed the door open, hoping to surprise you while you were working. Once he entered, he found you bent over your proving drawer, checking on a fluffy batch of bread dough. He tiptoed up to you and grabbed your waist, lifting you off your feet and causing you to let out a yelp of surprise. Bucky spun you around, chuckling at your reaction (what did he expect when he literally attacked you with a bear hug from behind?).

Finally, he set you down on your feet and spun you around to face him. His eyes were crinkled with laugh lines as he took in your disheveled form. Your hair was in a low messy bun with a few strands astray in the front. You donned a cream-colored beret and a blue long-sleeve over which you had on your cheeky apron that read "Kiss the Cook." It was, of course, gifted to you by none other than your doting boyfriend. A light dusting of flour over your entire being gave you an angelic glow. In Bucky's eyes, you looked more heavenly than all of the desserts in your shop combined.

You blew your hair out of your eyes and crossed your arms over your chest before attempting to glare at Bucky. You didn't last long, however, as his sheepish grin caused you to look down, so he wouldn’t catch you smiling.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on me,” you admonished him half-heartedly. “Bakers can be dangerous when startled, you know.”

“Sure, doll,” Bucky still had on that cheeky grin. “I don’t know about dangerous, though. Former assassin here, remember?” He pointed at himself with his index fingers as if you didn't already know. "I think I can handle a blow from a rolling pin." He picked up the nearest tool his hand landed on, which, unfortunately for him, was a basting brush, making his joke fall flat. He sheepishly put the brush away as you tried not to laugh.

You gave him a warning look before turning your back to him and smiling wide. You may pretend to be annoyed by his antics, but they truly brought joy to your heart and brightened up your bland days. You loved your job, but you loved your man most of all.

“I’ve got the cake ready for Sam’s. Just gotta put the finishing touches on it. Did you bring the Oreos, baby boy?”

You turned around to find his face in yours. Had it been anyone else, you would’ve found it incredibly infuriating. But with Bucky, it left you blushing to your core.

He wrapped his arms around you and held up the blue plastic box. “Right here, sweetheart.”

It was a generic nickname that every single boyfriend in the history of the world had called his girlfriend at some point. But somehow, it was almost erotic coming from his plush pink lips with that deep timbre. You sometimes wondered if Bucky knew the effect he had on you.

“Thank you,” was all you trusted yourself to say as you took the box of cookies from him and started peeling off the plastic cover. You moved away from him and carefully placed six cookies on the cake, one on each of the iced rosettes on the border.

“Alright, Buck, I think it’s ready for the party. Lemme just get a box for it, and we’ll be on our way.”

Bucky smiled as he watched you tenderly place the plastic casing on the cake as if it was your baby. In a way, it was, along with all of your other creations.

“Alrighty then, doll,” Bucky grabbed the cake in his gloved flesh hand, then put his metal arm around your shoulders, pulling you in to plant a kiss on your temple. “Thank you so much for making this, baby cakes.”

You turned pink hearing him use your favorite nickname of all time. “Oh, it’s nothing,” you mumbled bashfully, suddenly shy again in the crook of his arm.

“It’s a Sweet Nothing, which means it’s the opposite of nothing. Doll, this cake is quite literally everything to me.”

“Buckyyy,” you playfully swatted him away. Sure, you were proud of your work, but you still got flustered when people complimented you, especially your boyfriend, who took every chance to make you feel like you were the biggest star in his world.

You eased yourself out of his embrace momentarily to hunt down your assistant. “Lemme just tell Nico to take over the closing shift tonight.”

Bucky nodded and waited patiently by the door for you to rejoin him. You returned and looped your arm around his waist to steer him out of your shop.

☆｡.:*･ﾟ

Bucky drove the both of you from the bakery to the docks in his pickup. You held the cake securely in your lap with your right hand and entwined your left with Bucky's. When you arrived, you let go of his hand and moved to open the door, but Bucky reached over you to close it again. Then he climbed out of the truck and rushed to open your door.

"M'lady," you rolled your eyes at him but couldn't help smiling as he took the cake from you so you could climb out of the car. He shut your door behind you, then took off with the cake balanced precariously in his flesh hand.

"Bucky! Be careful!" Your cries were drowned out by Sam's nephews, who were happily trailing Bucky at the sight of the cake. They tried play-fighting with him, pretending to punch him in the face, to which Bucky pretended to stagger backward from the force of impact.

You sighed and let the corners of your mouth lift as you watched your lover boy, totally enamored by his way with children.

Bucky ran to the nearest picnic table and finally placed the cake down safely. You let out a breath of relief you didn't realize you had been holding in and walked over to him.

☆｡.:*･ﾟ

Bucky returned to entertaining the kids a little while after everyone had eaten. He stood atop a picnic table, talking to you and Sarah with his metal arm extended out. Sam's nephew and his friend hung off of Bucky's arm. You were trying your hardest to concentrate on what he told you about his days in the Navy, but you couldn't help giggling softly at the sight of him effortlessly holding up two children using only one of his arms.

When you could finally steal a moment alone with him, you handed him a beer and tugged his arm to lead him to the pier's edge. You plopped down and let your feet dangle, the bottoms of your boots grazing the water's surface. After a moment, Bucky crouched down to join you. He scooted closer so his thigh was pressed up against yours. He put his arm around you, and you sighed softly, leaning into his shoulder and staring at the setting sun. Nose pressed against Bucky's shoulder, you inhaled, reveling in the warm scent of freshly-cut pine and the sweet undertones of amber and musky vanilla.

You leaned up to wrap your arms around his shoulder, suddenly needing to be closer to him than you already were. He seemed to understand and gently twisted to the side, snaking one arm around your lower back and using the other to bring your legs into his lap. You moved in to kiss him tenderly. Your hands were in his hair, his hands were on your hips, and everything felt perfect at that moment. You could still taste the Oreo cake on his breath, and you broke away from the kiss slowly, smiling all the while. Bucky returned your smile warmly as you turned to look at the sunset.

Bucky watched it paint your face the most gorgeous shade of pink and thanked his lucky stars at that moment. Somehow, life had brought you to him. He had never thought of himself as fortunate, but he was ecstatic now that you were in his arms, and he damn sure was never going to let go of this beautiful thing he had with you. He pressed his lips to your forehead and tightened his hold on you, whispering sweet nothings into your ear.

☆｡.:*･ﾟ

874 notes · View notes

eriexplosion · 9 months ago

Text

Tech Lives: An Ungodly Long Essay

(AKA: Turns out that my Tech Lives compilation post comment was actually a threat.)

There have been hundreds if not thousands of posts since Plan 99 aired wondering if Tech might have made it after his fall - it's probably been brought up more than any other hanging plot point, even after season 2 scooped up Omega and left us on a massive cliffhanger. Now that season 3 has started, though, Omega and Crosshair are home (for now) but we have received an almost aggressive lack of Tech info. So, I've gathered up some of the stronger Evidence for why Tech might be fashionably late but still on his way back from The Void!

THE LEAD UP

So to start, let's go back to what came before the whole Incident. This will focus mostly on season 2, seeing as that was definitely Tech's season to shine, but with bits about plotlines in season 1. Which brings us to our first bit, that's not really evidence so much as some gentle push-back on a common argument.

Doomed By Character Development?

We've all seen this particular situation before - a character is slated for a tragic death, so just before it happens the writers gives them a little extra relevance to the plot to make sure the audience really feels it when the time comes. The Clone Wars was especially good at this, giving characters like Fives an arc of his own that ended in his tragic death. Season 7 gave us a better look at Jesse, first in the Bad Batch's intro arc and then again through the Siege of Mandalore, all to bring us to the chip activation that led to his ultimate death.

When season 2 started off with one of the two intro episodes spotlighting Tech and our first breather episode of the season also spotlighting him, people started to get worried. So is it fair to say that his spotlight in season 2 was setting him up for a permadeath?

Looking at it, I don't think so, for multiple reasons. For one, Tech didn't just get a spotlight episode, his development dominated a good chunk of the whole damned season, often taking priority over the other characters that wouldn't be dropped into the mists. While giving a little bit of character development to a doomed character can be a good move, giving ALL your development to a doomed character ends up feeling like a good portion of your season was actively pointless.

The Bad Batch is not an open ended show. It seems to have been planned for the three seasons it got, and they would have gone into it knowing they had a set amount of time to work with. Dedicating so much time to developing Tech in preparation for a character death takes away all of their opportunity to develop, well, anything else.

But, along with the amount of time that was dedicated to Tech as a character through season 2, they also didn't develop him in the ways that most often get used for a doomed character. Namely...

That Sure Is A Lot Of Open Plot Lines

And not one of them got tied up. Currently, Tech has two open plot lines to himself, both started in season 2, as well as a key place in the overall show narrative arc. As the overall show narrative arc takes precedence, we'll start with that.

The Bad Batch sets up a few different narrative arcs very early. One is if clones can be more than soldiers - this is the central thing that we see them struggling against from the start, they've been created to be soldiers and don't know much else about how to function in the world. Theoretically this arc can be fulfilled with one or two of them still dying as soldiers, as long as a few of them make it to find a new life for themselves.

The arc that can't be fulfilled without everyone though is the ongoing thread of reuniting the batch. Much of the show is geared towards making the viewer want this specific end result, as soon as they talk about Crosshair, Omega says they'll just have to get him back and complete their family. The end of season 1 teases us with this only to pull it away at the last moment, then season 2 teases us with it again only to yet again pull it away, this time seemingly permanently.

Ending one of your key narrative threads you've been using to draw audiences in only 2/3rds of the way into the show and without ever resolving it... well it would be a choice. If Tech is gone for good then the last time we saw everyone together would be the end of season 1. Rewatches would lack impact because something that was made to seem so vital ended up going nowhere, and the series finale would never quite reach the height that hearing the full batch theme kick in over the team fighting droids together did. It absolutely destroys the central narrative to leave him gone without ever having reunited the family.

And then there's his personal plots.

Let's start with the obvious one. Tech got a whole potential love interest this season and they absolutely did not resolve a damn thing about it.

Again, this takes a trope that we all know - the young army man that's going to go home and finally marry his girl, who has his whole life ahead of him, but dies tragically in his final mission - and seemingly intentionally subverts the beats. Because what makes the trope work is that the plot line is resolved as soon as that young man decides how he's going to move forward. He can't die uncertain of if he's going to marry his girl, he has to make a decision, and the longer we spend on the relationship to his girl the stronger the decision has to be to consider the narrative line resolved and free him up for some tragedy.

Tech/Phee is a tentative little 'will they or won't they' romance. They're flirting, they're feeling each other out, they're seeing if they're compatible. To tie up this narrative line we would have to find out if they are or not, get a yes or a no on the question. Will they or won't they? We simply don't know because the writers didn't put a resolution in.

We do get the traditional pre-mission scene with them, which would normally be when we get the first kiss or perhaps the promise of a date, either of which would have had me digging Tech's grave for him to fall into from the second it happened. Or even a 'we can't do this right now, but maybe some day it will be the right time' which would have been a kind of lukewarm resolution but would have at least represented a decision.

Instead we get a scene that almost aggressively refuses to resolve anything. They have an awkward interaction, but not one that says they won't get together, no promises are made for the future, no decision point is reached, and the plot line is still dangling wide open when Tech falls to his supposed death. If we truly leave it off here, well, what was the Tech/Phee subplot for? Why did we spend precious time on it when it could have been spent on something else, if it was meant to make Tech's death hit harder why did it not go further?

A second subplot with Tech is that he certainly made the most progress on seeing options outside of the Empire - it starts early on in Ruins of War when he meets Romar and gets his eyes opened to the idea of cultures that existed unconnected to the war. Serenno existed before the war and before the separatists, and Romar introduces Tech to that idea of an ongoing culture. He gets a taste of racing in front of a cheering crowd, leans further into his teaching of Omega and gets new insights from her regarding their lives as soldiers, his relationship with Phee picks up right when he finds out that she is interested in the preservation of cultures. It's a quiet little subplot, but Tech was seeing the full scope of what the galaxy contained beyond being a soldier in a war.

But, like the Tech/Phee, it never resolves. He never decides to settle down, he never chooses to stop being a soldier or even openly discusses the idea of what life will look like after. Rescuing Crosshair isn't positioned as a final mission that they have to complete in order to give up their lives as soldiers. Without that decision point being reached, the plot stays open, we never find out what he Would Have Done so we don't get a sense of the future that he would lose by dying, which is what the purpose of these types of plots is for a planned permadeath.

The Kaminoans don't create without purpose and writers working on a three season timeline don't typically write without it either. So if we spent the time on Tech/Phee but Tech is dead before it ever went anywhere, if we spent time on Tech's relationship with being something other than a soldier but he never really pursues it, what is the payoff?

Too Much of a Survivor To Die?

There's also the matter of how they chose to build Tech's character this season. Namely they beefed that man's skills up incredibly high making it intensely unbelievable that he's dead without seeing some sort of concrete proof. Things we know about Tech as of the end of season 2 include:

Incredible pain tolerance - Tech fractures his femur in Ruins of War and seems shockingly unbothered by it. The femur is frequently listed as one of the most painful bones to break. This is not a broken toe the man is hobbling around on, he fractured the strongest bone in the body and kept going through the woods. He physically fought and killed a man with that busted femur.

Lightning fast mental processing - this is of course on display nowhere so much as Faster where he's put up against droids and wins by taking calculated risks that no one else is willing to try.

A cool head in stressful circumstances - this one is hilarious because he outright says it, but Tech does demonstrate time and time again that when it comes down to it, he's able to keep calm no matter the circumstances.

Essentially, we spend the entirety of season 2 setting up why Tech is the perfect person to drop out of the sky and have him survive. He has the ability to keep calm and come up with a plan in seconds and he has the grit to keep moving even if he's grievously injured once he hits the ground. When you set a character up like this, you can still kill them, but you have to work harder to do it convincingly. Leaving Tech not at the moment of death but with probably at least a minute to act in and then not showing us the body is the exact opposite.

We have a moment in The Crossing showing us Tech's precise aim, and it comes up again to brutal effect when he shoots out the connection on the rail car. If moments through the season were used to set up that particular instant of the finale, then we can't discount the numerous scenes demonstrating his survival skills as being irrelevant to his chances.

Plus, looking back at Ruins of War - one of the big moments in the episode is towards the end, where Romar tells Tech, "I'm a survivor. Remember?" The camera then lingers on Tech for a long moment. It's not the kind of action that demonstrates his capabilities as above, but it works to associate the words with Tech in the viewers mind. Romar is a survivor, and Tech is a survivor too. And when you intend to kill someone off, it's kind of an odd choice to spend that whole season setting them up as a survivor.

THE FALL

Which brings us to the scene itself. Plan 99, implied to be one of the last ditch plans that they have. It's absolutely a heartbreaking scene, and one that can be tough to analyze when it's so well done, because it's rough to watch repeatedly. But, it's worth doing, because the scene itself is FULL of questions, some structural others more based in the visual presentation.

What is Plan 99?

Well, that's just it, we don't actually know.

We know what it's implied to be, a self sacrifice plan where one of the batch gives their life for the others to get away. But in show it's never actually defined, leaving the full meaning of Plan 99 up to interpretation. It could be as simple as what it's implied to be, but that brings up questions like 'why not provide any lead up or foreshadowing for it?' and 'does killing yourself actually count as a plan?'

Removing the assumptions from it gives us room to speculate. Is the plan actually that they leave him behind, dead or alive? Hunter ordered them to do so without a plan number in season 1, but he is the sergeant, so plan 99 could easily be something that bypasses his authority - if a batcher calls a plan 99, you go and you don't question his decision. It's certainly closer to a plan if there's something they are supposed to be doing from their end rather than just an announcement of intent.

It's not strictly evidence one way or another, but it is something of note when Tech's entire sacrifice is based around a plan that we're not privy to the details of. TBB has hidden its twists in ambiguity before, so it would not be the first time that it let us assume something only to pull the rug out later. But ambiguity is not the only thing that makes this scene stand out in the raising questions department.

Pacing Goes Out The Window

Generally speaking, a self sacrifice is the climax of an episode. Think Kanan, Hardcase, Gregor, Hevy, etc - Even a minor character sacrificing their life tends to make up the most climactic portion of any given episode, let alone one of the characters from the title squad. It gets to be the big central moment, the big rush of music and feeling, the pinnacle of the viewers attention.

Tech's sacrifice is not. It happens around 5 minutes into the episode, is rapidly moved past with barely a moment to think, and then the actual climax is Omega's capture on Ord Mantell. They even repeat the music when Omega is captured, except much stronger this time, making it clear that this is the emotional crux of the episode, this is the scene that is supposed to stick with you.

The opportunity to make it the climax of an episode was certainly there. The storyline could have been adjusted to put Tech's fall at the end of The Summit, allowing more time in Plan 99 for processing his loss and making it feel final. The pacing choice is one that doesn't allow the viewer to process the loss, only giving us maybe a couple minutes of time with actual emotional reactions before we're barreling off to the next plot point. Why was Tech's death de-emphasized within the episode if it is indeed our last moment with this central character?

Tarkin, Eriadu, & Saw Gerrera

A lot goes into the set-up for Plan 99. We have Tarkin's base on Eriadu as the setting they're working within, going up against Tarkin for the first time since early season 1. This is the big leagues, and something that's come up in multiple interviews is that when going into the den of one of the franchise's big bads we have to have consequences, something to demonstrate that Tarkin is not to be trifled with.

Sounds reasonable enough. Except Tarkin doesn't actually do anything in either of these episodes. The thing that actually threw them off was Saw's planning mixing in with their own.

All Tarkin does upon finding out that the batch is stuck on the rail is order an air strike and ignore that this would kill many of his own men. This is certainly evil, but it's standard Imperial evil. Rampart would have given that order. Hemlock would have given that order. The guy in Tipping Point that we know for 5 minutes before he fried himself would have given that order.

So if the point of this finale was to demonstrate Tarkin's power, then bringing Saw in both complicates the plot and devalues what they're claiming they are trying to show. So is the point to get them to Tantiss? No, because they fail in that. They don't plant the tracker, they're no closer to finding Crosshair than they were before.

By all accounts the point of the whole endeavor is in fact just to drop Tech off a sky rail for reasons unknown and injure Omega to force them to go back to Ord Mantell. These two things could have happened anywhere in any way of course, so why choose Eriadu and why choose to complicate the plot by introducing Saw rather than letting Tarkin handle the job?

They're questions we don't have answers to yet, but they're very hard to get answers to if Tech is dead and completely out of the picture. Having a dead body on Eriadu is fairly useless to the plot, having a living Tech on Eriadu though? That has potential to move them huge leaps forward in a very short amount of time once we bring him back in. Especially given his conversation with Saw prior to everything going downhill - Tech was in favor of gathering intel from the facility rather than destroying it.

And what about Saw, anyway? If he was genuinely there to cause problems and fly away, again, that's a plot wrinkle that isn't needed and took time away from everything else. If he's there because they needed someone to pick Tech up though? There's potential there.

Did Tech's Sacrifice Mean Anything?

In universe, Tech's sacrifice means everything, of course. It's a decision made in the moment to risk everything to save his family. It's a noble deed and one he does without hesitation. But pulling away from that narrow scope of an in universe perspective, what did we accomplish narratively with his fall?

Well... not much actually! They got over the bump in the road that they encountered all of five seconds ago and promptly crashed headfirst into another, different bump in the road. Tech's dramatic sacrifice didn't allow them to escape unharmed, it didn't allow them to find Crosshair, it just allowed them to move a few steps forward, after which Omega is almost killed and then captured, which is a fairly weak reason to sacrifice a whole major character.

But not every character death is exclusively about narrative, sometimes it's about the character arc itself. So does this close out anything for Tech's character development? Again, not really. Tech has always been completely loyal to the squad and would have risked anything for his family. He never had a choice not to fall, it was either just him or the whole team, and he is an endlessly logical actor. The action would have played out the same had it happened in the series premier or the season 1 finale, or any other time in the show. If anything it's a backtrack on his character by putting him solidly back into the soldier box that the show is trying to let the clones grow out of.

Maybe it's not about Tech's character though, maybe it's about everyone else's! Does his death change anyone's trajectory? Again... no, not really. We'll get into season 3's lack of mentioning Tech later, but in the immediate aftermath of his fall, no one's course or actions is majorly changed because of his loss. Hunter wants to go back to Pabu where it's safe, the same thing he wanted to do before they ever left for this mission. Omega puts herself in danger to save her brothers, which has been one of her defining traits since season one. Wrecker is following Hunter's lead, same as he always did. (We get very little of what Echo hopes to do, but the opening of season 3 reveals that they went back to work with Rex, exactly like they were doing before.)

So narratively nothing required him to die, the character's arc isn't completed, and the other characters aren't motivated to change. If Tech dies here, it's the picture of a shock value death. It doesn't complete or inform his character, it doesn't need to narratively happen in order to put Omega on the path to being captured, and thematically it exists just to give the viewer an unnecessary gut-punch when just the failure to rescue Crosshair and the loss of Omega would have been enough.

Framing is Everything

In a death scene there's nothing more powerful than our final shot of a character. The very last we'll ever see of them, the image that will linger in our minds when we think of that character from then on. This is especially important in animation where everything has to go through several iterations before deciding on what that final look will be. You want it to be impactful, you want the audience to have one final connection to the character before they're gone for good.

So why does Tech die with his helmet on?

If there's one thing TBB is good at, it's their expression work, and a death scene is a perfect place to show off their full range, which is why most deaths meant to have a heavy impact occur with faces unobscured. Crosshair loses his helmet and takes Mayday's off so we can see both of their faces as Mayday dies, Slip, Cade, even Clone X and Wilco, all die helmetless. Looking into older series you have Kanan dying without his mask, Fives, Hardcase, Waxer all dying helmetless with one last good look at their faces and expressions.

And while Tech's helmet gives us a good look at his eyes, the rest of his face goes unseen, and Wrecker's face as he watches this happen is completely obscured. We're denied a look at a lot of their expressions as the decision is made and Plan 99 is executed, rendering it less personal than it otherwise could have been. Tech could have lost his helmet in the blast that knocked him from the rail, Wrecker could have had his helmet knocked off at some point to give us a good look at his expression. TBB isn't known for pulling its punches, so why leave our final look at Tech's face back in The Summit and not here?

Then there's the framing choices. We get some absolutely amazing shots of Tech during the fall, from taking the shot to falling backwards towards the cloudy cover - but here's where some interesting choices are made. Rather than letting our last shot of him be a face up shot that keeps eye contact with the camera as he falls, they make the choice to have him flip over, and we hold the shot as the rail car goes down after him, partially obscuring him.

Which means instead of our last glimpse of Tech being something like this.

We end up with something closer to this.

Which, while we all love those Tech crotch shots is somewhat less impactful emotionally. These frames go through multiple departments and get multiple eyes on them before going through final animation, and no one thought that leaving him face up and unobscured until he disappears into the fog would stick more firmly in the viewer's memory?

The Flip Might be Intentional

And I don't just mean out of universe, as every detail of animation is often intentional, but in universe as well. If you look closely at Tech as he falls, he seems to roll his shoulders back in order to begin flipping over. It was a specific enough detail to send me searching for a reason and I found it in instructions on how to survive a long fall - the first thing that you're supposed to do? Get into the arch position like a skydiver to slow and control your fall.

The flip was important enough to not only include but to include the small detail of Tech intentionally flipping himself over into said position. It's not a confirmation but it's an interesting detail, and one that has very few other reasons to exist.

THE AFTERMATH

Image chosen because even thinking he's alive I didn't want to pull from Omega reacting to the fall on Ord Mantell. Looking at her makes me Sad. So the fall has happened, the rail car has rushed forward and crashed, and Omega fades in and out of consciousness until finally waking up on Ord Mantell to the bad news.

"What if he's hurt?"

Omega is our POV character for the show. We may sometimes see things she doesn't, but emotionally she remains the center of the narrative, the character that the target audience will see themselves in. Her ultimate thoughts on a situation are the closest we have to a clear indicator of our intended takeaway.

So it's interesting that the first thing we hear out of her, having heard that Tech 'didn't make it,' is a firm denial. He can't be gone, he might be hurt, he needs them and they need to go back for him. And, despite Hunter continuing to talk with her about it for a bit, we never actually hear Omega explicitly take it back or verbally acknowledge Tech as dead. The closest we get is 'lost' which she also uses for Echo in The Crossing.

Now, here's where the interpretation between the adult and child audience will likely differ. From an adult perspective, this is a reasonable reaction for a child her age. It comes off as very natural that she doesn't want to accept it and that she doesn't have time to really process that it's true before the scene moves on. It makes sense from an in universe perspective.

However, the main audience is still children who actually are Omega's age and who are being presented with her as their window into this world. And their takeaway, seeing that same scene, is likely to be that Omega is correct. They don't know that Tech's dead, just because an adult says it doesn't make it true and just because Hemlock says it DEFINITELY doesn't mean it's true, they have to go back and check.

If they wanted the main audience to think that Tech is dead for sure, they could have had Omega be the one to say that he's gone, with Hunter simply confirming it for her. Alternatively, Omega accepting it when Hunter tells her would also function in the same way - ultimately, as the POV character, if Omega doesn't accept it there's a strong possibility much of the audience won't accept it either, especially without other evidence.

No Body?

And, as we all know, we simply don't have other concrete evidence. Not only are the batch given no time to look for Tech's body or any confirmation that he died, but we get a whole scene with Hemlock and the goggles where he also confirms verbally that he doesn't have a body either. There's very little reason to have him say this outside of putting a bug in the viewer's ear that he might not be gone for good.

Not only do we have that verbal confirmation, but we have multiple places where a body could have been included or implied without adding much to the runtime.

Easiest place would probably be when Omega passes out - there's a trooper's corpse right there in front of her, and it would have been very easy to make that identifiable as Tech. Have one of the boys check his pulse like Crosshair did with Mayday and then be forced to leave after confirming he's dead. Would it require a little bit of fudging the details of how he landed so close to them, sure, but it would have been narratively streamlined and easy.

Have Hemlock bring his helmet rather than his goggles (and damage it in a way clearly incompatible with survival) or confirm that he did find a body but has no use for the goggles.

Put the body in Hemlock's lab when Omega is brought there at the end of the episode. Have a sheet covering him even if you want and just one of his hands hanging out, especially the one with the distinctive light on the back of it. Give us her reaction to that.

These are just the ones that don't involve adding scenes or making major changes - instead, in a franchise known for bringing back everyone and their grandmother especially if there's no body, they chose to leave it extremely vague.

Reused Score

The soundtrack for Tech's sacrifice is fantastic, I don't think anyone can argue that. In fact it's so good that it's used occasionally used as a reason for why he's dead for real. If it's a fakeout, why go so hard on the music?

It almost sounds like a reasonable argument, except that the music isn't even unique to Tech's fall. We get the same motif later in the episode with Omega's capture, and it actually comes in even harder and more impactful there than it did with Tech falling.

Reusing bits of the music has two results. It lessens the impact of hearing it with Tech if it is in fact his Death music, because it makes it clear that he is not the central feeling of the episode but rather, Omega's capture is. As mentioned before, deaths are usually the climax of their own episodes partially to avoid them being upstaged by any other plot points, but here Omega's capture is fully prioritized over the loss of one of our central characters.

The second result is that it changes the meaning of the music. It's no longer meant specifically to underscore a tragic death, but rather a more general one of loss and separation. And if it's simply about that separation, then it no longer requires Tech to be dead to have that same impact. They're apart from each other, and that's painful enough.

SEASON 3 SO FAR

Which of course finally brings us to season 3! We're five episodes in as of the posting of this, so a full 1/3rd of the season down, which gives us a good idea of how they're handling the whole grief aspect of this scenario.

They Aren't!

That's right, we simply have not directly acknowledged or dealt with the whole 'watching your squadmate fall to a presumed horrible death' thing even once in five episodes. Tech has been mentioned by name twice, we've seen his goggles once, and Wrecker makes one sideways reference to him having not made it back.

In universe, there is a several month timeskip and it seems to be implied that the majority of the grief milestones happened in that gap. For example, we don't see Crosshair finding out from Omega, we don't see Omega grieving her brother, we don't see Phee finding out (more on her in a bit) despite her fledgling romance. Months of grieving and processing skipped over and what comes out the other side is single line mentions that go by in seconds.

This is especially apparent after episode 5, where we got something to compare it to. Crosshair has a long, painful moment of grieving with Mayday's helmet when they return to Barton IV. It's deep, personal, and intimate and we take a minute with him gathering up the helmets of Mayday and his men to set them up on the crates the same way that Mayday had honored them.

Mayday is a one episode character that was important to only a single character, Crosshair - Tech is a core member of the team present through two full seasons and shown as close to every member of the squad. Yet the single scene grieving Mayday is longer and more emotionally gripping than every short mention of Tech so far in season 3.

Narrative Grief

Seeing characters grieve their loved ones onscreen is about more than just the characters themselves. It's also part of the viewer experience - through the characters' grief, we're able to process our own grief at the loss. It makes it feel real, it makes it feel personal, and the amount of grieving needs to be proportionate to the character's importance in the story.

This is especially true in a show written for children like The Bad Batch. Kids don't typically have the same experience with death as adults, and a well written main character death within a children's show will need more time and energy spent towards making the loss feel real. We see this with deaths like Kanan's; it wasn't Jedi Night that told the viewer that Kanan was really, truly dead, it was Dume, where the characters mourned him and dealt with the aftermath.

Currently, with Tech, we do see holes in the team that make us miss Tech but they remain completely unaddressed by the characters. We see Tech's goggles, but Hunter isn't looking at them, he's looking at Lula. Omega mentions Tech having taught her all the plans, but without any real sadness on her or Crosshair's part. The closest we get to actually bringing it up are Wrecker saying 'not everyone came back' and Echo mentioning the datapad would be difficult without Tech, and both of those are only seconds long before moving on. They don't serve as any kind of catharsis for the viewer, relying more on gut punch impact and keeping the wound open rather than allowing it to heal. The difference between the treatment of Tech's death and Mayday's just makes it more stark.

How Do You Like Yearning?

Interestingly, though, it strongly resembles the writing team's handling of another situation: Crosshair's departure from the team in season 1 vs Echo's in season 2. The show even drew a lot of flack for the lack of discussion on Crosshair's betrayal, as outside of a couple conversations the matter often went unremarked on. Echo leaving, on the other hand, got a whole episode dedicated to processing the loss immediately after it happened.

So what was the difference? Crosshair's departure is part of a long term plot point. We're supposed to want him back, we're supposed to want the team to talk about him, anything that would ease the tension. The writers on the other hand want that tension to remain until it's time to actually resolve the plot. So we get those slow drips in between bigger encounters, we get opportunities for Crosshair to come home that he doesn't take, and we don't get the catharsis of the team actually talking about any of it. We're left to want and imagine it, using the yearning to keep it on people's minds more than anything.

If Crosshair had been discussed on screen long enough for the characters to actually come to terms with his absence, though, that would have made the plot feel more settled and resolved early on. It might be conversations we want to see, but it doesn't keep the viewer on edge and craving a resolution. Best case scenario we're just not as desperate for Crosshair to come home - worst case scenario we accept that he won't be returning and find the fact that he eventually does to be unrealistic.

Echo on the other hand gets their absence processed immediately, because their absence from the team is not meant to be a huge plot point. It's something the team has to deal with, yes, and the viewer wants to see them again just like Omega does, but Echo returning isn't meant to be a maybe, and it's not supposed to keep the viewer wondering and worrying. It's a when, not an if.

Similarly to Crosshair, Tech has never felt like a resolved plot point. We don't get confirmation on his death, we don't get any long term grieving, and we get drip fed acknowledgements that pry the wound back open. If we actually see the team discuss and come to terms with their grief and loss, the plot point closes, the wound closes and we begin to fully accept a team without Tech in it, which makes it harder to reinsert him into the storyline if he is in fact alive.

If he's truly gone for good, what is the point of denying closure to the audience? We know that they are capable of writing an intense mourning moment that feels completely in character for otherwise emotionally repressed men such as Crosshair, so why not give us that with the team mourning for Tech? A memorial, an intimate moment with the goggles, a short scene of Crosshair finding out about the loss, or anything at all really? Once again it's something that makes sense if he's alive and we're simply not being shown yet, but makes very little sense to not capitalize on if he's dead.

What's to Come

We have ten episodes of season 3 to go, and a lot to cover. Reviews have indicated that Tech is not explicitly brought up in the first eight, so the earliest we could possibly have a survival reveal is in episode 9. Will it actually happen? Maybe, maybe not. Though interestingly episode 9, The Harbinger, is almost exactly one year after Plan 99, just like The Return aired almost one year after The Outpost. Could mean nothing, but they do enjoy their anniversary dates.

One thing we do know for sure is coming up is Phee's inclusion - she's seen in the official trailer, as well as briefly in a recent twitter spot. This is interesting as Phee is, of course, Tech's teased love interest, and her connection to Tech has been emphasized multiple times, including on her Databank entry and the official 'what you need to know about season 3' guide. When she comes onto the scene, it's very likely that more information about Tech will too.

MARKETING, INTERVIEWS, & SOCIAL MEDIA

I wanted to keep this mostly focused on what can be seen within the show itself, but it's impossible to talk about whether or not Tech is alive without pointing to the absolutely bizarre messaging from the cast and crew, as well as the marketing choices surrounding his sacrifice. (Example: the Instagram Mourning Filter they layered over him in the official trailer, as seen above) I won't get quite as detailed here as in the above, but it does have to be mentioned.

Constant Focus

In between the end of season 2 and the posting of the season 3 trailer in late January, there were several posts on various official Star Wars media. The majority of them were about Tech and Plan 99. In fact, I don't think I ever saw anything mentioning the giant 'Omega's been captured' cliffhanger, just Tech. Over and over again.

Once a character is dead, marketing generally stops caring about them. They're forward focused after all, they want you coming back for what's to come not lingering on what won't be relevant again. So why the constant focus on Tech?

And it wasn't just the social media either - a huge portion of the trailers and reels included old footage of him too. For the most part this was from Plan 99 and bringing up his fall again to rip open those old wounds, but in one case they included action footage from The Summit. This was an interesting case, because the majority of people watching wouldn't have recognized it immediately. Fittingly, the entire comment section was full of nothing but 'Was that Tech?' style comments, which they would have known was going to be the case to start with.

So why are we so focused on a man that's supposedly dead? If he's genuinely never going to show up again why keep putting him in? Everything? While not even bringing him up all that often in the show? If he's dead, this is a truly bizarre marketing decision.

Never Say Die

In interviews or in official material. For several months the word 'dead' was never used for Tech anywhere, not in interviews, not in official material, nowhere. It took until January 23rd for all of the databank entries to be updated, and among all of the main cast he's only referred to as 'killed' once, and it's on Hunter's page not even his own. Then, the Friday before the premier, an interview came out referring to him as dead - on the part of the interviewer, not the creators themselves.

Everything else seems to use a variety of euphemisms. His sacrifice, his absence, his loss, he 'plummeted out of sight', he 'fell from a tram car', he did absolutely anything it's possible to do except outright die apparently.

It's an odd choice when there's known controversy over if he's dead or not. The standard operating protocol of course, in a planned comeback, is to refer to them as dead anyway and allow fandom to fuel its own speculation, but with a fandom as devastated as TBB's was, it's quite possible that the odd behavior had to be introduced just to keep speculation going. The only interviews that sound remotely final came out right before the episodes started coming out - if they had done that from the beginning, the chances of people outright refusing to come back to the show likely would have been higher.

Much like the marketing, this is not necessarily proof of anything - but in combination with the multiple odd things in the show itself, it's certainly suspicious. Speaking of suspicious...

What an Odd Thing to Say

The cast and crew themselves have not been skimping on making strange comments when it comes to the Tech situation.

There is of course the well known Joel Aron (lighting director for the series) tweet that came out the day of the Celebrations panel (AKA when the Tech trauma was at an all time high) and in direct reply to a fan that was having a hard time with Tech's death. It's hard to take it as anything but a reference to Tech given the timing, and it was certainly taken as being about Tech in the quote tweets. If it's not about Tech, why tease the fandom with it? And the specification for it being a mid s3 episode as well...

Also from the day of Celebrations, and from the panel itself, we have Michelle Ang saying in front of God and everybody, that Tech "doesn't come back... in this episode, at least." At the time there was a possibility she didn't know and was just leaving it open, but with that only being ten months ago and the extremely long timeframe of animation, it's almost certain that she would have been done with all primary recording by that point. If you know he's not coming back, how do you accidentally imply that he is with no one correcting it?

Dee Bradley Baker, when asked for a farewell message from Tech at a con, came out with "the life of a soldier is fulfilled by fulfilling his mission and supporting his brothers. And this was the end of mine. And that's a good thing." Which was a perfectly serviceable goodbye right up until he said that the end of Tech's (life? soldier's life? mission?) was a good thing.

During an instagram interview we have Deana Kiner, one of the composers, in response to the interviewer talking about the final episode containing a major loss, saying, "It's kind of a loss... It's complicated." The claim on twitter was that this was about Omega, because everyone knows that when someone mentions the major loss in Plan 99 they're definitely talking about Omega.

So is Tech alive? Is Tech dead? We still don't know. But while one or two of the above might be a coincidence, having all of them at once coalesce around this single character death is a lot to chew over. The Bad Batch team has shown willingness to address grief and loss prior, as well as a willingness to show us death onscreen and front and center. So why, with such an important character, sidestep it all in order to keep it vague? Why keep it from sounding final for so long, if the intent the entire time was for him to be dead for good?

We won't know until he either shows back up or the show ends. If Tech's alive, all of the above starts to make sense. If he's dead... well a lot of things will just never quite add up. I feel that this team has shown enough willingness to follow up on their trailing plotlines that they've earned my trust. Fingers crossed for a satisfying resolution for all of us, and for our boy Tech, whatever that resolution may be.

#the bad batch #tbb #tbb tech #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch speculation #this thing is some 7500 words i might have an obsession problem

285 notes · View notes

4lovehearts · 2 months ago

Text

PRIZED POSSESSION ‹𝟹

ᯓᡣ𐭩 ; bridget hearts x gn reader.

summary ‎⸝⸝⸝ bridget freaks out after hook breaks the bracelet you made her.

warnings ‎⸝⸝⸝ hurt/comfort, capt. hook being a bully (as per usual), brief mentions of a scratch.

note ‎⸝⸝⸝ this is heavily inspired by this fic,, i highly recommend reading it, it's incredible !!!

bridget smiled to herself, skipping happily through the merlin academy hallway. with a small pink tupperware in hand, she was currently on her way to visit you! she'd come up with a new cupcake recipe and wanted you to be the first to taste it. the new batch was made with you in mind, so she was over-ecstatic for you to try them.

she exited the hallway, now happily skipping through the courtyard. she'd only made it about halfway before the feeling of cold metal grazing her wrist startled her. she let out a yelp as she stumbled back, dropping her tupperware on the ground when she flinched.

“whoops!” the voice made bridget take her eyes off the scratch running across her wrist — she looked up, noticing james waving his hook around teasingly. her bracelet —the bracelet you'd gave her on your first date— was dangling off the edge of said hook.

she immediately froze and held her hand out, her palm facing upwards, “please– please give it back.”

it wasn't until james denied her request and began taunting her, that she finally noticed how worried she actually was. she felt so, absolutely sick to her stomach, and it only made her want her bracelet back even more. putting on the bracelet had become a staple of her morning routine, to the point that how her day went all depended on if she was wearing it or not. she had a really deep emotional attachment to it, and it was only occurring to her now how much she truly cared for the bracelet. it was already torture for her when she'd misplaced the bracelet once before, so the thought of losing it for good was agonizing.

tears pooled in bridget's eyes from all the negative thoughts circulating in her head — and she started getting angry. she didn't know why james decided to mess with her bracelet so suddenly, you two had always been pretty public, but someone noticing the importance of her bracelet was extremely obscure. whatever the reason, she was sure that uliana was behind this.

“give it back!–” she lunged forward, trying to get the bracelet back from james. he stepped back, trying to dodge her, but at the same time she'd managed to just barely grasp it, causing the distance to make it to stretch far more than it could handle.

bridget flinched when the beads flew everywhere — she stood eerily still, as if moving would make the moment more real. james' laugh pulled her out of her thoughts, and she immediately dropped to her knees, trying to pick up all the beads through tears. james uttered a couple more sentences before walking off, probably more taunting, bridget was too focused on finding all the beads to listen to him.

she spent a couple of minutes on the ground, combing through the grass looking for every single little bead through silent sobs. she hadn't found another one for a little while now, but the feeling she was still missing a couple plagued her deeply. though, she couldn't handle being away from you any longer, and the feeling of people staring at her as they passed by was making her feel so humiliated — she hesitantly stood up, cupping the beads she'd collected tightly in her right hand, then quickly grabbing the tupperware she'd dropped earlier with her other hand before hastily running off to your room, letting out a few sniffles as she did so.

── 𖹭 ──

you jumped at the sound of your door suddenly swinging open, but your panic immediately washed away at the sight of bridget with tears streaming down her cheeks.

you rushed over to her, “bri? what's wrong?”

“hook, he– i– m'sorry.” she opened her right hand, showing you all the scattered beads. you frowned at the sight, quickly putting the pieces together of what had probably happened.

“it's okay, we can fix it. it's alright.” you took the tupperware out of her other hand, swiftly moving to place it on your desk, “put the beads here.” you grabbed a small empty container, and she hesitantly dropped the beads into it.

she wiped her tears away, watching you place the container on your desk. you turned back around to her, your arms open wide to offer her a hug — she immediately accepted the offer, rushing into your arms and quietly sobbing into your chest. you hugged her tightly, murmuring sweet nothings about how you could easily remake the bracelet for her.

── 𖹭 ──

after a little while of comforting, bridget had recollected herself, and the two of you were now sitting at your desk, beginning to remake her bracelet.

bridget had her head rested on your shoulder, along with her arms wrapped firmly around your torso — she remained mostly silent while you rebuilt the bracelet, only occasionally perking up to tell you if a certain bead was in the wrong spot. she'd spent so many minutes of her life just staring at the bracelet, absolutely enamored that you'd taken the time to make such a lovely gift for her. so of course the pattern was engraved into her memory, it was nearly impossible for her to forget it.

you placed the last needed bead on the string, before holding it up to show bridget, “it's finished!”

her eyes lit up and she squealed, letting go of you and holding out her hand, so that you could tie the bracelet around her wrist. she smiled eagerly as she watched you adjust the bracelet accordingly, her heart swelling with joy as you tied the string ends.

when you finished tying it she stood up and happily twirled around, before hugging you tightly whilst uttering a bunch of "thank you"s over and over.

she let go of you after a moment and then spun around once again, beginning to ramble about how she thought the bracelet was ‘broken forever’ while cheerfully pacing around your room — she suddenly paused mid-sentence, her eyes drifting to the pink tupperware on your desk that was discarded earlier.

you tilted your head at the sudden silence, before tracing her line of sight back to the tupperware. you pointed at it, turning your head to face her before tilting your head again. “uhm, i... made those for you!”

she sheepishly walked over, picking up the tupperware and opening it. she frowned, noticing that the two cupcakes had fallen upside-down when she dropped the tupperware earlier. she picked up one, bashfully handing it over to you.

“they.. were prettier before... but it's a new recipe! you were.... kind of the inspiration for them.” she rocked back and forth on her heels, watching anxiously as you took a bite out of the cupcake.

she let out a sigh of relief when your eyes widened with —what she correctly assumed was— delight. “bridget, this is amazing!” she immediately blushed, joyfully beginning to ramble on about the recipe.

before she got too into the recipe, you interjected, “why don't you tell me about the recipe while we make matching bracelets?”

bridget's face lit up straight away, and she skipped back over to the desk, happily agreeing over and over. she sat back down next to you, excitedly rambling on about what colors you two should pick for the bracelets.

after deciding on colors, she turned her rambles to focus on the recipe, like you'd suggested — in all honesty, all of her baking lingo made zero sense to you, but you were just glad that she was back to her usual cheery self.

#₊˚⊹☆ – 1.2k words #₊˚⊹☆ – divider creds; cafekitsune #bridget hearts #bridget hearts x reader #descendants: the rise of red #descendants the rise of red #descendants rise of red #descendants ror #descendants #gn reader #gender neutral reader

83 notes · View notes

fiabex · 3 months ago

Text

FIAB: Sign-ups open!

Sign-ups are now open for Fic In A Box, a 10k fandom gift exchange, and it's time to officially join the event!

What Is FIAB?

A gift exchange is an fandom event where participants create fanworks to gift to each other. Fic In A Box is a fanwork exchange with a large minimum gifting requirement and several unique features. Participants have 6 weeks to create their gifts, and gifts can include fic, art, audio, video— and much much more— aiming for a minimum of 10k of fic or equivalent to give to their assigned recipient.

This sounds enticing but you have questions? More under the cut!

Signups? What's that?

To officially join the event and be matched— so that you are assigned someone to make a gift for, and someone is assigned to you— you have to sign up on Ao3. It is the "sign up" button in the sidebar on the left-hand side of the Ao3 page. You have until signups close on September 7th (10pm EST), to get your signup filled out. You can edit your signup after you submit it, so feel free to get a minimum signup done and then tinker with it during signups.

To sign up you fill out your Requests (what you are saying you'd be okay for people to give you as a gift), and your Offers (what you are saying you'd be able to make to give someone else as a gift), and submit it. You use tags from a special event tag set to fill out your offers and requests, and you'll only be able to use the tags in the tag set for the event. The tag set contains fandoms, ships, characters, worldbuilding tags, and gift types ("mediums"), all of which you use to refine your requests and offers to make sure you are signing up with exactly the type of gift you want to get or make in mind (with a bit of mystery still, part of the fun of the exchange is the challenge and surprise of it all).

Tag set?

Hopefully you heard about FIAB early enough that you were part of the nomination process where we built the tag set, where anyone could nominate their ships or worldbuilding ideas or fandoms. But maybe you just heard about it and you didn't nominate any tags— can you still participate? Yes! There are two options! First one: check out the tag set here, and if there are any ships that you like, smack those into a signup and you're good to go!

Second option: FIAB accepts late nominations if they are tags that you imminently intend to use in your signup. You need to format them in such a way that we can batch load them into the tag set, and you need to submit them through a comment on the designated Dreamwidth Blog Post— check out this post for more information and an example in the comments of what a submission would look like. You do not need a dreamwidth account to comment on the post, you can comment anonymously! Late nominations closes 6 days before signups close.

What if I only like one ship in the tag set, or at all? What if I like several ships, but only one fandom?

If you only like one tag in the tag set you still have a minimum viable signup, and you can sign up with just the one fandom, one ship! However, there are two points of order for that.

The first point is about your offers. You must be matchable to at least one person to get an assignment and stay in the exchange. If we can't give you an assignment, we'll contact you to ask about adding more offers, and if it ends up we cannot match you to anyone, your sign up will be deleted. So you need to be offering something that at least one person is requesting when the exchange closes and locks. You can look at all current signups here to see if there's anyone you can add an offer to, to make yourself matchable! It's best practice to offer at least three different fandoms to make yourself matchable— but if you have only one fandom you main you can still sign up, as long as you're matchable! (And pro tip, even if it comes down to the last few hours and you're not matchable, don't delete your signup! There's always a flurry of signups in the last few hours of the exchange, and someone from your fandom might still sign up.)

The second point is about your requests. If your original gifter drops out (life happens! People's lives blow up, computers break, people leave fandoms, etc.), the mods will put your assignment up for a Pinch Hit on the blog. That way people who want to take on an extra assignment can claim it and still write you a gift! If you have three or more unique fandoms in your requests, the mods will hold the entire exchange until someone has turned in a gift for you— nobody gets their gift until everybody gets a gift. However, if you have less than three requests you are still welcome to sign up, and you will still be posted as a pinch hit if something happens to your original gifter, but the mods won't hold the exchange for you if you only have one or two fandoms, so you might not get a gift. There is a dedicated group of pinch hitters who will do their best to make sure that everyone gets a gift, but you do run the risk of no gift if you sign up with a restricted list of offers.

I can't write 10k of fic, but I could do 10k's worth of art— what do I do?

The standard assumption is that everyone gets 10k of fic by default, and everyone signs up to make 10k of fic by default. But this is a special unique exchange, and we love to have people participating who are not fic writers. How does that work? You do not specify that you are a non-fic-writer in your signup, because that would break Ao3's matching. The mods match you manually— as long as they know that they have to do that. So you have to let them know that you want to give a non-fic gift.

If you want to work in a medium that is not fic, contact the mods by email ([email protected]), and tell them

The username you are signing up with.

A list of usernames of participants who are requesting something you can make, and what relationship/character/WB: tag and medium tag(s) you are aiming for.

It will look something like:

Hi mods, My username is RanbooLive, and I'm a podficcer who just signed up. I would like to be matched to either CarthagoDelendaEst (for the tags Chara & Flowey & Toriel (Undertale), and Medium Opt-In: Audio - Podfic of any of my fics that match this request's fandom/relationships), or Clif_Bar (for the tags Padme Amidala & Royal Handmaidens (SWPT) or WB: Prequels-Era Jedi Culture (SWPT) and Medium Opt-In: Audio - Podfic), or ThingsForgotten (for the tags Billy Brennan/Alan Grant (Jurassic Park OT) or WB: Effect of Dinosaur Reveal on Careers of Academics (Jurassic Park OT), and Medium Opt-In: Audio - Podfic). Thanks, let me know if there are any issues!

We need the info about relationship-field tags and medium tags not because you will be obligated to create that exact thing, but because we will double check during matching that the recipient we’re matching you to hasn’t, for example, removed the medium you said you can create from their request. We do not want to give you an assignment you cannot actually complete.

You do not need to have multiple options on the list you send the mods— as long as there's one person you're matchable to, you're matchable and we can assign you! It is a somewhat safer idea to have multiple options so you know you're still matchable even if someone changes their signup at the last minute, but technically one option is all you need.

And how do you get the information to put in the letter about who you're matchable to? That would be searching through the automagic app, which is a searchable database of everyone who's signed up, which lets you sort by medium tags and fandoms! Check there to find people requesting podfic/poetry/art/spreadsheets/fibercraft/cocktail instructions/video/whatever your art form is!

Honestly I'm still baffled/I'm staring at this Ao3 box and it is swimming in front of my eyes/What on Earth is a medium tag and how many do I need:

The system for signing up is pretty complex, especially if you haven't done it before. That's why we set up a discord server with a bunch of experienced people who are happy to answer questions! If you join the server, look for the #event-questions channel and we would be happy to explain anything you need, from "how do I sign up for an Ao3 account" to "why is my signup yelling at me when I save it" to "what's the difference between these two medium tags and do I need them both"? We are all standing ready to answer questions, hit us up!

If you do not want to talk to people, there is extensive documentation on the dreamwidth blog, and there might be an answer to your question there!

Or if all else fails— shoot us an ask here or email the mods!

Note: FIAB is not an all-ages exchange. You must be 18 or older to join FIAB.

Links

Email: [email protected]

Ao3 Collection

Automatic Ao3 App (contains the signups for everyone who's signed up so far, sortable by fandom or by tag, allowing you to see who you're matchable to)

Tag Set

Dreamwidth Blog

Discord (includes question channel)

#fic in a box #fiab #fandom exchange #fandom #fandom gift exchange

112 notes · View notes

deiaiko · 2 months ago

Text

Hello again <3 I'm back with good news to everyone who missed their chance to order the KhunBam charm last time. Because I'm planning to print another batch, with a better quality too ✨

The Khun and Bam are 5cm tall (like little fairies 💖 they're such a mood booster frfr, I can Imagine Bam saying "you can do it, Khun", then I look at Khun trying his best to get to Bam and I go 🥹🥹🥹🤲).

*cough* Anyway, the charm itself is around 13cm. They will be printed on two sides, on 3mm acrylic, and one side will be covered with glittery resin. The image is sharp and nicely saturated, personally I'm really satisfied with the quality. I will also include two pendants that look like a thorn and a lighthouse 👍 The clasp will be moon-shaped only. And I will also pack extra jump rings for spare, since it can rust if you're going to take them everywhere (esp under the rain, like I did with mine 😅😂)

I will sell them for $13 each (didn't include shipment fees). And I will only receive payment via kofi donation (and local bank).

Here's what you have to do if you're interested:

1. Message me. You can find me on Discord, Tumblr and Instagram. All with the username Deiaiko. (Pick one you use most, so you don't miss my message.)

2. Check with me for the shipment fee. You can decide if you still want it or not afterward.

3. If you're still interested:

I will put you into my wait-list to be notified later,

or you can pay early for pre-order, so that your purchase is guaranteed.

PS: I'm only going to make 10 charms total. I will consider it sold when it's paid. So first come, first served.

4. When the charms are ready, I will message everyone in the wait-list. Get back to me as soon as you can, because I will post the open-order notification to the public some days after, so those outside the wait-list can also order if there are any charms left.

5. I will update you when I process the packaging and shipping. Estimated to be around November-December if all goes well.

Current status: sold out 🙏 thankyou

#tower of god #tog #my art #koon #khun aguero agnis #khun #khun a.a #bam #25th bam #khunbam

101 notes · View notes

emeritusemeritus · 9 months ago

Note

Rough sex with reader with both Weasley twins? Just after a hard day at Weasley Wizard Wheezes, both men are pent up with the amount of problems that had in just literally one day. This could range from a customer to you possibly trying to tease the shit out of them before fleeing away. 🤭 I hope this isn’t too big of an idea and I’ll leave the rest up to by you. 🫶

Hi Anon! Please accept this offering as a token of my appreciation 🖤 I set it at Christmas time for reasons unknown to me, mostly because I thought it would be super busy?

Warnings: SMUT. Piv, blowjobs, oral (f&m receiving) use of Angel/baby/sweetheart/princess. Slightly Dom/sub behaviours. Rough sex. Cumplay. Polyamory, kind of?

Word count: 3k (of pure smut)

Yuletide stress relief.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was bursting with shoppers since the moment the doors had opened that morning, a sea of people already lined up right down the street stretching all the way down past Ollivanders. Since the moment the doors had opened, it had been non-stop work with customers who were packed in like sardines across all five floors of the shop, desperately searching for Christmas presents for their loved ones.

Although he was always thankful for the success of their business, Fred was completely exhausted and a little worn down by the relentlessness of the day.

He'd been up early, having to leave the two warm bodies in the comfy bed, and had dressed quickly, not even stopping to get a cup of tea or any breakfast and had gone straight to the office to sort out a cash discrepancy he'd noticed upon closing last night. After recounting all the gold from yesterday and revising all the paperwork, he had eventually found the accounting issue and then had to redo all the paperwork.

George turned up to help with opening the store and they'd quickly discovered that they were running low of the Peruvian instant darkness powder crystals which would be a devastating loss to their business this close to Christmas with it being one of their best sellers and the top money spinner.

Fred had once again climbed the multiple stairs to the office and had checked in the books, seeing that a shipment was actually due to arrive this week but when he looked at the number ordered, he realised the grave mistake he'd made. Instead of ordering it in individual batches like usual, he'd confused the numbers and had ordered 60 crates instead which would be a massive overbuy and therefore a massive overspend. It was imported from Peru and the cost of shipping was astronomical, so he had really made a grave mistake. Not only that but the darkness powder had a relatively short shelf life compared to some of their other products and so it could be a complete financial loss.

Running his hands over his face and through his hair, he made his way down the stairs to begrudgingly tell his twin of his error, only to realise that the store was already open and the shop was already packed with customers needing help left, right and center. He'd not taken a single break that day nor stopped for any lunch, working right through as the heavy flow of customers never dwindled. A kid had knocked over a display of wonderwitch products requiring a massive cleanup, even though the child's mother had cast a spell to prevent the rest from falling and it had fallen to Fred to clean up the mess, seeing that his twin was currently helping a large family, Verity was stuck with a line of customers at the till and their temporary Christmas staff were all dotted about busy with other tasks.

He'd thought multiple times during the day to send you an owl to ask you to help out, but he'd never actually got the chance to slip away for long enough. He knew you'd come if he asked but he also didn't want to bother you on your day off, knowing that you were spending it at the Burrow with his mum, busy making preparations for Christmas next week.

When the doors to the shop closed around 7pm and the last of the customers trailed out of the store around 10 minutes past, Fred let out a sigh of relief as he flicked his wand and cast the closing spells, locking the doors.

He couldn't even bring himself to make conversation with his twin, who in striking contact to himself was buzzing from the successful day. He trudged up the stairs, not trusting himself to apparate into the office in his exhaustion; the last thing he needed today was to get splinched because he wasn't paying enough attention.

He was nearly finished with the nightly paperwork when the door to the office creaked open and you walked through with a wide smile on your face, seeing him for the first time that day. Usually he loved to see your smile, even more so when he knew it was because of him, but after the day he'd had and the foul mood that had settled within him, the smile on your face only exasperated how he was feeling, resenting the fact that you'd had a much easier day than him.

"Hey Freddie," you said with a smile, walking over to him and hopping up on the desk. He looked dishevelled to say the least, his jacket thrown off, shirt sleeves rolled up his forearms and tie hanging loosely around his neck, clearly having been loosed hastily. He looked unbelievably hot, like his hand had been repeatedly running through his hair making that ultra sexy dishevelled look.

He hardly looked up, which you thought was strange, simply nodding his head as if to tell you that he'd heard you and acknowledging your presence. Realising he was busy, you move to hop off the desk ready to walk away, immediately feeling like you were intruding and bothering him.

"Princess wait,” he says, stopping you from walking away, casting his arm out to grab at you. He pauses when he feels your bare skin under his hand, your dress having ridden up when you climbed onto the desk. For the first time, his eyes flick up to you, specifically your bare thigh that his hand is wrapped around.

The sudden change in atmosphere seems to affect you almost instantly. His eyes are piercing, dark as they look at your skin under his hand and you don’t need to be a skilled occlumens to know exactly what is going through his mind. When his hand squeezes down on your flesh, you know exactly what he’s thinking and you can’t help but feel a little flushed with the influx of arousal that spreads through your body.

For the first time, his gaze travels across your body and up towards your face until he’s looking in your eyes. It’s tense for a moment when nothing happens until he suddenly stands from the chair, right in front of you and nudging your legs apart until they’re pulled taught either side of his hips. His tongue pokes out and wets his lips as he gazes at you hungrily and you can almost see your chest rising and falling with the sudden need to take deep breaths to calm yourself.

“Wanna be my good girl?” He says, leaning down slightly, towering over you as his hands dance along the hemline of your dress, thumbs teasing the skin of your thighs as your legs part even wider automatically. He smirks to himself, not missing the way your body always submits to him so willingly as he takes a step back. You nod, staring up at him with wide, imploring eyes awaiting your instruction.

Your gaze follows his hands as they pull away from your thighs and go straight to his belt, unlooping it, opening up his belt buckle and pulling open the buttons until he can free himself. He reaches into his underwear and pulls out his hardening cock as you watch on desperately, mouth watering at the sight.

“Suck it baby,” he says with a slight coo, “want your beautiful lips around me.”

You do as your told almost immediately, maintaining eye contact with him as you slip down off the desk so that you’re eye level with his perfect clock. Ensuring that he’s watching your every move, you timidly stick out your tongue and lock all around the head of his cock, watching closely as his eyes close on their own accord, a heavy breath falling from his lips. You take his rapidly hardening cock into your mouth seconds later, as much as you can and give one long, drawn out suck that causes him to let out a low, breathy moan. You bob up and down on his cock, running your tongue against the prominent veins underneath and try to take more and more in your mouth just like you know he likes. His hand rests in your hair but he does it to feel, not to control as gorgeous intimate moans fall from his lips, his eyes flicking between watching you and closing in pleasure.

“Well this is a sight,” you hear from behind you, making you moan against Fred’s cock. You pull off Fred’s cock, a string of spit trailing between you and his swollen member as you turn your head towards George who looks at you with a lustful gaze. You’re buzzing with arousal, being caught with a mouth full of cock, feeling so dirty by the thought.

“Princess,” Fred says, pulling your attention back to him as you slowly lick all up the sensitive underside before taking him back into your mouth.

George appears by your side in moments and begins unbuckling his own suit trousers, freeing himself and reaching down for your hand as he moves to stand beside Fred. Your hand wraps around his length and you stroke it just how he likes, feeling him harden in your hand.

Both of them moan out at the same time when you switch sides, taking George in your mouth and wrapping your hand around Fred, feasting on them both. You alternate between the twins, your hands never leaving their cocks as you give them pleasure, enjoying the glorious sounds they are unashamedly making.

As soon as you take Fred into your mouth, George slips out of your grasp and reaches for your dress, tearing at it and pulling it open until your breasts spill out, having taken off your bra the moment you got in. You gasp, feeling your nipples harden under the cold air and the feeling of being exposed and it’s mere seconds before George’s hands greedily grab at them.

Fred pulls you off his cock, his hand gently cupping your jaw as he looks at you with lust blown eyes for a second before turning to his twin who seems to have the same idea.

In a manoeuvre so slick it surprised you, Fred picks you up and exits the office with a slight slam of the door, carrying you bridal style all the way through the apartment until he places you on the bed. You watch as George steps through the doors, looking at them both eyeing you hungrily with their cocks still out and you have to bite your lip, so overwhelmingly aroused and untouched that it’s near painful.

George steps forward first, crawling up your body on the bed until he leads you into a surprisingly passionate kiss. Whilst you’re kissing George, you feel Fred reach up your dress and pull down your underwear, the wet gusset feeling heavy, drenched in your arousal. Your hips flail trying to make contact as you spread your legs, hearing Fred curse at the sight in front of him.

George pulls away and gives you a little smirk before he begins to kiss down your body, stopping to feast on your heaving chest before he carries on further and further downwards until his lips ghost over your mound.

The second his tongue laps as your heated, wet flesh you cry out, back arching in pleasure. You look down and see his eyes watching you as he feasts on your cunt, lips and tongue already working you perfectly as he sucks and slurps at your clit.

Fred appears next to you and holds out his cock for you to take back into your mouth, the angle a little awkward but your make do. It’s so sinfully dirty having one twin feasting on your cunt whilst you suck off the other one and you can’t help but feel your climax building already, so worked up.

“I don’t think so Angel,” George says, pulling away from your weeping cunt, hips undulating desperately as your climax fades. “When you cum it’s going to be on our cocks.”

Both twins pull away from you as they quickly throw off the rest of their clothes and you sit up on the bed, tits exposed in your ripped dressed waiting for them.

George gets to you first, pulling you in for a scorching kiss as his hands wander, gathering the material of your dress in his fists. It’s quick and oh so arousing when he suddenly reaches out and manhandles you, flipping you over until you’re on your front, hips high in the air for him. He pushes up the material of your dress, completely exposing you to their gaze and you bite your lip once again when you hear their breathy moans, curses and playful banter, talking about your pretty little wet cunt.

George’s cock slips between your wet lips with ease, your gasps only fuelling his desire to get inside you. The second he slips inside you cry out in ecstasy, finally feeling full just like you needed. He’s rough and sets a brutal pace almost instantly, both of you keyed up enough to take it.

“You like that Angel? You like when I’m rough with you?” His deep voice says from behind you, making your clench around him. “Mmm yeah you do, dirty girl.”

Fred slips beside you on the bed and captures your lips into a blistering kiss, his big hands squeezing at your bouncing tits, thumbs stroking over your hard nipples. You cry out about into Fred’s mouth as George shifts and gets even deeper.

“Fuuuuck that’s it baby, use me just like that, fuck yourself on me,” he cries out when you begin to meet his hard thrusts, arching your back further.

It’s dirty and messy, the feel of their hands on you, Fred’s on your tits and George’s gripping your hips tight as he controls your movements. You can feel him start to lose his tempo, thrusts getting sloppy and harder until he’s fucking you with force, no doubt watching as your ass jiggles for him.

“Fuck gonna make me cum Angel, oh fuck!” He cries out as you clench him again, making your pussy even tighter around his sensitive cock.

You reach out for Fred’s spare hand as George starts to cum, hips slamming into yours as your moans mix with George’s and echo through the bedroom. You feel like you can feel every single shot of cum filling you as George roars, his load shooting deep inside you as he continues sloppily thrusting in and out of you.

Fred gives you almost no time to recover when George pulls away breathless. He pulls you up, pulls you into a dangerously arousing kiss as he peels the useless fabric away from your frame, leaving you completely nude for him. He turns you around and lays you on the bed before slipping inside your open legs, grabbing them and throwing them over his shoulders.

You’re already oversensitive pussy burns in the most delicious way as you feel the weight of his impossibly hard cock hitting your clit. You cry out, reaching for your breasts as he devilishly taps his cock on your clit, rubbing and giving you the most delicious friction just like you need. He slips his cock inside you and you scream out, feeling him deep inside you, deeper than George had been, your body so sensitive and needy for an orgasm. He leans forward and puts his hands either side of your head, contorting you exactly as he wants you, leans down to give you a single kiss and a smirk before he draws his hips back and slams back inside you. Your whole body rocks with the movement, his pace already fast and brutal as he fucks into you for all he’s worth. It’s nasty and dirty, the mix of his brutal thrusts and teasing smirk and you claw at his back as you cry out. He curses and groans with each thrust as your pussy grips him, climax building deep in your belly.

“Fred, fuck!” You cry out, his cock staying deep inside you as he gives you short, hard thrusts, your clit rubbing deliciously on his pubic bone.

“That’s it sweetheart, fuck you’re so tight, cum for me baby, cum on me.”

Your orgasm hits you out of nowhere, his voice so arousing, his words so demanding that your body submits to him instantly. You can’t stop moaning as he continues to fuck you through your orgasm, his own rapidly approaching. His arms bulge under his own weight, a delicious sight as you canter your hips to meet his thrusts, watching as his eyes close, his face scrunching up.

“Freddie cum for me, cum Freddie!”

It’s a shock when his blistering hot cum suddenly shoots out and hits your chest, your tits covered right across to your neck and your chin. He pants, slipping back into his knees as he looks at you, so perfectly defiled and covered in his cum.

“You’re bloody perfect,” he says breathlessly with a slight laugh, the sensations overwhelming him as he looks at you. When you take a single finger and trace it across your breast, scooping up a little bit of his cum before bringing it up to your lips to suck on he looks at you in amazement, mouth contorting into a little ‘o’ shape.

“Dirty girl,” George says, making you turn in his direction, so consumed by Fred that you’d not even considered where he’d gone. He runs a warm washcloth over you, cleaning up his and his twins mess as you smile at him tiredly. “You did so well for us.”

You laze in between completely naked and free between the two equally naked bodies for a little while, your legs feeling like jelly as George strokes your hair and Fred holds you tightly.

“So did you steal us any Christmas cookies?”

“On the counter,” you say tiredly with a knowing smile.

It takes less than three seconds before both twins race out of bed and run straight towards the kitchen as you laugh at them, their very naked arses jiggling in the gentle lamp light.

#emeritusemeritus #emeritusemerituswrites #harry potter #fred weasley #fred weasley x you #fred weasley x reader #george weasley x you #fred weasley imagine #george weasley #fred weasley masterlist #george weasley x reader x fred weasley #weasley twins smut #Weasley twins x reader #smut #requests #anon answered

224 notes · View notes

kolyasangel · 5 months ago

Text

a taste of love

a/n: what was originally around 300 words ended up with over 1k erm

synopsis: you cook a nostalgic dish for nikolai and he is completely overwhelmed by your love for him...

content: fem!reader, fluffy n sweet

Nikolai watched in amusement with his arms crossed and a mischievous smile, enjoying the sight of you climbing onto the counter, which you had resorted to after struggling to reach an ingredient in a high cabinet.

"Can you help me?" You asked.

"No way, I love this view." He teased.

You let out an exasperated sigh and persisted in your endeavors.

"Kidding! What do you need, baby? I'll get it for you," he offered with a chuckle. You pointed to the ingredient, which he grabbed for you effortlessly without any trouble.

"Why did you even put these up here where you know I can't reach?" You grumbled though a smile tugged at the corner of your lips. He was so insufferable sometimes, but you loved him anyway.

"So that your knight in shining armor can come to your rescue, of course." He joked, giggling.

"Curse your tallness," you said as he handed you the bottle before his arms wrapped around your waist to help you down from the counter, setting you on the floor. "Thanks.."

"No problem, darling." He said in a softer tone with a grin.

You returned to the stove, where you were preparing borscht with Nikolai's occasional guidance. Well, at least he said he would assist you, but it seemed like he was more in the mood to mess with you instead. Nikolai was always fond of spending time and cooking with you in the kitchen, the place where many batches of piroshkis have been made. The dish you were currently making though never seemed to come out like he wanted it to whenever he made it, which is why you were attempting to today, determined to get it perfect for him. While stirring the pot, you recalled a conversation with Nikolai, where he shared cherished memories of his mom and the dishes he loved as a child. He didn't talk about his mother often, but whenever he did, those rare moments exuded warmth and nostalgia.

He stood beside you, admiring your focused and pretty face while you worked your culinary magic.

"It smells amazing." He smiled, breathing in the delicious aroma.

"Doesn't it? I was a bit worried about how it would turn out, but it seems to be coming along nicely." You replied, monitoring the dish as it cooked.

"Add a bit of this too, it'll make it more flavorful." He suggested, adding an ingredient to the mix as he moved behind you, enveloping you in a warm hug.

"Nikolai, can you teach me a Ukrainian word?"

Your unexpected question took him by surprise. "Oh? I would love to, sweetheart! But what word would you like me to teach you?" He replied with a smile, eagerly awaiting your choice.

"Hmm, how about something that reminds you of me?"

Nikolai took some time to ponder before responding– it seemed he was taking this seriously.

"квітка."

You repeated after him slowly, making sure you got it right.

"Your pronunciation was perfect, so cute!" He clapped his hands. His reaction was so pure, his eyes sparkling, his voice filled with joy. There was something so magical about hearing the word come out of your mouth. It made him happy that you were interested in learning about and understanding his culture and language. "Do you want to know what it means?"

You nodded, thrilled to learn more.

"It means flower. I chose that word because I find you as pretty as one."

You playfully rolled your eyes but your reddened cheeks gave away your true reaction to his compliment, his flirty words never failing to leave you flustered. "Teach me more later?"

"Of course, dove!" He said enthusiastically.

It wasn't long before the food was ready, and Nikolai offered to be the taste tester. You carefully offered him a spoonful of the dish, blowing gently to cool it off and placing a hand beneath his chin before feeding him. His expression changed into one of astonishment, his eyes widening in amazement as he savored the flavor. Nikolai's mind was transported to cold evenings of his childhood in Ukraine, reminding him of his mother's borscht, which had a special place in his heart and left an indelible mark on him. He vividly remembered how he used to help his mother cook as a child, even if sometimes his idea of 'help' meant running around the kitchen and babbling nonstop or tugging on her apron to get her attention. Those cherished memories brought a smile to Nikolai's face as he reminisced about those precious moments.

"Does it taste good, love?" You asked, observing his expression, searching for any sign of delight.

"It's.. it's wonderful, I just need a moment." He murmured, his voice faltering. Nikolai turned away, trying to compose himself. Concerned, you placed a gentle hand on his back.

"Hey, what's wrong? If it doesn't taste right, you can tell me."

"It's not that." He confessed, turning back to face you with glossy eyes. Many things were going on in his mind, and he didn't know where to start, for you had stirred up deep emotions within him.

You pulled him into a comforting embrace that he melted into, assuring him that his vulnerability was nothing to be ashamed of. He drew back for a moment to look you in your eyes. "'m sorry," he whispered, feeling somewhat embarrassed about being so emotional like this over something seemingly small.

"I'm being dramatic."

You couldn't help but giggle a bit, finding his genuine and heartwarming reaction cute.

"No you're not Kolya, you just have a heart." You assured him as you poked his chest, making him smile. "Please don't be afraid to show your feelings, I would hate if you felt like you had to bottle them up all the time."

Your words seeped into his skin, easing his mind from any worries. You knew Nikolai missed his mother– his face when he spoke of her and the longing in his eyes revealed as much. But it seemed that, through your cooking, you were able to bring back pleasant memories for him. It was sweet to see him so open with you in such a way.

"How about I make dessert next, dove? Does nalysnyky with strawberries sound good?" Nikolai asked, his hand touching your cheek.

"With powdered sugar on the top?"

"With powdered sugar on the top." He grinned. He knew you always liked it that way whenever he made it.

"I would love that!" You hugged him excitedly.

He gave you a kiss on the lips before you served the borscht into two bowls, its vibrant red color visually appealing, topped with sour cream, and adorned with dill garnish. Nikolai felt so cared for as he watched you prepare the meal with such care and attention to detail. Although he didn't want to dampen this precious moment with his emotions, his gratitude for you and the warmth you brought into his life was undeniable.

borscht - beet soup consisting of choice of meat and a variety of vegetables

nalysnyky - ukrainian crepes; can be enjoyed as either savory or sweet

p.s.! if you're ukrainian and want to correct me on anything, please feel free to do so.

#fari's catalog 𝜗𝜚 #nikolai gogol x reader #nikolai x reader #nikolai imagines #nikolai fluff #bungou stray dogs x reader #bungo stray dogs x reader #bsd x reader #bsd fluff #bsd imagines #bsd x female reader #bsd x you #bsd x y/n

95 notes · View notes

enter-the-rickyverse · 2 months ago

Text

Hey Space Babies

On my drive home from work today I decided I wanted to make this blog for Ricky fans to send in their Ricky-related drawing requests. Put a Ricky in my ask box and I'll give you a nice lil Ricky sketch

Why? Because Ricky's a fan favorite, my personal blorbo, I enjoy drawing him, and I'm trying to practice drawing and capturing likenesses and stuff like that on a character I have fun drawing so that practicing isn't a chore. Also a major bonus is, I'd get to draw all the Rickies!!

Here's the dealio:

Ask for any Ricky you want and specify any particular details. You can request a specific portrayal, a feature you want the drawing to have, or a combination of both (ie. Scott Redmond Ricky; Ricky with heterochromia; Connor Russell Ricky wearing cat ears) If you want a lesser known Ricky, please include a good reference picture or feel free to include one regardless. I can also make Ricky into Savannah if you'd like, or I can even draw your personal Ricky/Savannah design

When requests pile too high I'll be closing the ask box until I can get the current batch out

This is just a fun hobby kinda thing, mod works full time and is involved in a lot of projects and doesn't always have wifi so you may not receive your Ricky right away, but don't worry I didn't forget about you

Let's all conduct ourselves in accordance with the one commandment in the bachelor man bible: don't be a dick

(Editing to add: due to Ricky's long-standing history as a disabled character I reserve the right to draw him with mobility aids and such even if a production was newer and he didn't have them in it, that's just my personal preference for drawing him)

#ride the cyclone #rtc #ricky potts #ricky rtc #rtc ricky #rtc musical #ride the cyclone musical #savannah potts #savannah rtc #rtc savannah

58 notes · View notes

petermorwood · 2 months ago

Text

This is - or more correctly these are - Garlic-Stuffed Chicken(s) for a Darthene "autumn table" as mentioned in "The Door Into Sunset". There's more in-world info, and an our-world recipe, at the link.

*****

What happened was this:

We'd taken some okay photos for the first iteration of this recipe, but since then we've got actual photography base- & back-boards, more props in the form of dishes, glasses, cutlery etc. and, TBH, better photography skills as well. :->

So when @dduane decided we should take a second run at the pictures, she went for the smaller roast chickenS (plural) as mentioned In The Text, rather than the single large one of last time. This was not only more accurate, but allowed for photos showing One Carved, One Untouched As Yet.

What with one thing and another, they were prepared and cooked quite late in the day. Neither of us felt like eating a roast chicken dinner just then, despite a scent, and judicious not-seen-by-the-camera samplings which indicated that These Were GOOD.

In any case the daylight of an overcast mid-September evening was already beginning to fail. We've got a pair of small, cheap photo LEDs, but haven't yet started to make proper use of them. TBH it's time to haul them out, plug them in and do a batch of practice shots. That way we don't have to rely on the natural light of which we'll be getting less and less between now and Spring.

*****

So the chickens were popped into the fridge until morning, then hauled out and left to come back up to room temp. They've have been great hot from the oven, but eaten cold didn't matter since that's how they'd have been presented In The Text.

(The Middle Kingdoms may have some way to keep foods hot - the Romans certainly did - but since that's not mentioned, we didn't worry.)

There was an additional benefit from their very long post-cooking rest: everything including the stuffing had stablised, so the chicken we carved sliced like bread and gave us this wonderful image.

The tracklement to the left is (are?) Sweet & Hot Pickled Orange Slices, as mentioned in the 90,000-word novella "The Librarian", currently in its final stages of completion, while the country-style bread is the same as was used for the stuffing, there to either chase gravy and juices, or be the base of an open-faced chicken sandwich.

*****

Idle thought. Is it really a sandwich if there's no top slice of bread and, since the Earldom of Sandwich is in England not the Middle Kingdoms, who cares? Far better to have another, this time with more garlic stuffing. You have to keep the vampires who are moving west on Ventura Boulevard at bay somehow...

This chicken is indeed excellent as part of a cold collation, but to confirm my notion of the night before I made a gravy from the pan juices, then reheated a generous slice of meat and stuffing by invocation of a small Wreaking through the mystic powers of our Molecular Agitation Cabinet.

In other words, I gave it about two minutes in the microwave.

It is, frankly, even better hot, because the scent of garlic is that much more pronounced. However, the stuffing fell apart. One minute a picturesque slab of variegated marble, the next a random disassembly of tasty chunks.

Carving one of these chickens hot from the oven might have a similar result, but no matter. IMO the multiplicity of absorbent surfaces are perfect for catching more gravy so, as usual, what's not a bug is a feature.

Or however they'd say it in Darthen.

#food and drink #food in fiction #food in fantasy #food and cooking of the Middle Kingdoms #roast chicken #garlic stuffing

58 notes · View notes

questforgalas · 2 years ago

Text

The Bad Batch and Rex Reuniting with Their Jedi Partner After Order 66

I go absolutely insane for Jedi x Clone relationships, and thinking about a Jedi reuniting with their clone after Order 66 gives me the ultimate rollercoaster of emotions so here ya go (wow it feels good to get the writing juices going again)

G/N reader. I made myself cry with all of these, you're welcome

You were a Jedi shadow who occasionally accompanied the Bad Batch on missions. You were with them on Kaller when Order 66 happened but you got away with Caleb. Once Caleb is safely away from the Empire, you make your next move to get any information you can, and the only contact you trust at the moment is located on Ord Mantell. Cid offers you asylum and a place to lay low while you figure our your next move

One day while you're trying your best to reverse the many health code violations in Cid's bar, you feel a presence in the force that hits you like a punch in the chest as 4 clones in black and red armor enter the parlor

Hunter calling your name as you leapt over the river haunted you since Kaller

Seeing him standing in front of your made you unable to breathe

He sensed you the moment he walked in, whether it was your scent or your heartbeat you weren't sure, but he turned his head to you slower than you've ever seen him move before

The small blonde girl next to him noticed him stare, and she followed his eyesight, spotting you across the bar. "Is that a friend?" she asked

He didn't answer, just took a step forward like in a trance, but stopped immediately when he saw your hand instinctively hover where you hid your lightsaber

Slowly he raised his hands like placating a cornered animal, "They didn't activate, sweetheart. You're safe with us. You're safe with me."

You sensed it in the force, the truth in his words

He resumed his slow walk to you, the Batch holding their breath behind him

When he was an arms length away, you jumped into his arms, wrapping yourself around him and nuzzling your face into his neck. You felt him squeeze his arms around your waist, finding the crook of your neck, taking all of you in

No tears were shed. Just relief - slow, long breaths you've held since Kaller leaving you both

You stayed that way, wrapped in each other's arms, nuzzling as close as you can get

"Alright, you four, follow me. Clearly, these two need a minute," you hear Cid say from the safety of Hunter's shoulder

Four pairs of feet shuffle past you, a soft pat on your shoulder gives a warm, brief greeting, Echo most likely, before you're both left basking in each other's warmth

"I've got you, sweetheart. We'll figure this out together," he whispers in your ear. You snuggle closer in response

Wrecker wasted no time shoving through the group as soon as he saw you standing on the other side of the bar, eyes wide with shock

"Maker, what're you do..."

He immediately halts when he sees your hand reach for your hip

Of course, the last time you saw him was Kaller, he should've known you'd be suspicious

"It's ok meshla, ours didn't activate. Our chips are defective. Tell them Tech, tell them they're defective." You watch as he looks back at Tech with pleading eyes, body practically vibrating with his need to hold you

Without moving your hand, you move your eyes to Tech's who gives you an affirming nod "He's telling the truth. Our inhibitor chips failed to activate, and we are currently deserters of the Empire"

You didn't hear that last part though as you rushed to Wrecker who met with you equal enthusiasm halfway across the parlor

You were only crushed into his chest for a second or two before he was peppering your face with kisses

You felt yourself freely laugh for the first time since Kaller, playfully shoving him back so you could take in his face

He cupped your cheeks with his big hands, bringing your eyes to meet his

"Maker, I thought I'd never see you again, meshla. I'm so glad you're home"

Home. He was home, and you had no plans to leave ever again

He didn't notice you at first, too caught up in trying to figure out who Cid is

He continued on with his brothers, convinced this was the place for the Jedi contact

While he continued bantering with Hunter and Wrecker, you caught the eyes of Tech which widened when he saw you, but he remained quiet for Echo to discover for himself. His reassuring nod though told you all you needed to feel safe

You waited for the group to stop arguing, but when you saw things hadn't changed and no end was in sight, you couldn't help but laugh

Your laugh, as brief as it was, stopped him short

His back was to you, frozen, and he didn't turn around at first

The rest of his brothers turned in your direction, and Hunter's eyes darted between the two of you, warm smile on his face

What you didn't see was Echo close his eyes, telling his mind to stop playing these cruel tricks on him like it had been since Kaller - hearing your laugh, your soft singing on the marauder while they traveled around

When he finally turned around towards the source of the sound, he dropped his helmet

You gradually make your way to him as he remained frozen on the spot

The rest of the Batch shuffle to make room so you can get to him

As you get closer, your smile slowly grows with each step, tears welling

His eyes never leave yours, remaining wide and unblinking as if you're a mirage that's going to disappear

Finally, you're a hands length away from him, and you slowly raise your hand to rest on his cheek

As soon as skin meets skin, he releases the breath he'd been holding, and leans into the touch, closing his eyes and relishing in it

You let out a happy sob at the sight, your Echo back with you

Faster than hyperspeed, he snakes his arms around you, crushing you into his chest

His hand holds you in place while his scomp rubs soothingly up and down your back

You're full crying now, burying your face in his neck, thanking the Maker for not making you lose him a second time

"Shhh meshla, I've got you. I'm here. I'll always be right here. I'm not losing you again"

You can thank his observation skills and need to take in every detail of a new environment in order to study it for him spotting you right away

You were a bright spot compared to the many health code violations hiding within the bar

You waited on the other side, making your own observations, ready to reach for your lightsaber if needed

"No need for that, darling. Our inhibitor chips did not activate. They appear to be defective, possibly due to our mutations, and we were able to escape the Empire. Hence, why we are here"

You ease at the information, walking to meet Tech in the middle of the parlor

When you're close enough, you see something gleaming in his eyes. Happiness? Pride?

"You don't seem surprised to see me" you say to him, reaching for his hand

"Statistically, once you made your escape from Hunter on Kaller, and knowing your capabilities, I knew it was improbable that you would fall victim to Order 66. Although, finding you in a less than reputable bar in the Outer Rim is certainly a surprise"

Oh Tech, your Tech. So matter of fact and to the point

His explanation makes you laugh and shake your head

Not able to wait any longer, you grab him and pull him towards you

He softly smiles down at you as he cups your chin, bringing your lips to his

"What's the probability of us being separated again?" you ask him without pulling apart

"Very low. 0% in fact" he says before softly kissing you again

You reunited with the boys on Ord Mantell and stuck around with them as they figured out the new galaxy. Once you all sprang Crosshair free of the Empire, you removed his chip, and you stayed by his side the whole time as you waited for him to wake up

Every form of meditation in the galaxy could not calm your nerves

Crosshair's chip was removed 2 days ago and he'd been unconscious ever since

You never left his bedside, only eating and drinking when Echo or Omega brought you food and water

You'd laid your head down to rest some time ago when you felt his hand stir, yours laying on top of it

You shot up, holding yourself still as you watched him wake - groaning as his eyes adjusted and he took in the room

Slowly, they made their way to you, and you both froze

Every cell in your body wanted to throw your arms around him, but you gave him time to take in his new reality

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes"

The laugh that came out turned into a sob as you squeezed his hand

You're patient, spending the next few hours working through his guilt, helping him voice his insecurities, his doubts, his self-hatred, ready to combat each negative notion that dares make itself known

Hours later, you're both sitting in his med bed, leaning against the wall with your head on his shoulder

He has his arm around you, rubbing circles along your arm

After months of explosive run ins and uncertain truths, you bask in the quiet between you both

Whenever the tears escape, he quietly wipes them away, shushing them with soft kisses in your hair

In the night, a quiet confession

"I fought it. Every time I raised my rifle or pistol at you, I fought it. I could feel myself hesitating, yelling at myself in my own head"

You squeeze him tighter to you, nothing to say but letting him know that no matter what he reveals, you only want him closer

He brings you into his lap, legs curled over his, tucking you into his neck

"Thank you for never giving up. Thank you for fighting for me, even when I wouldn't fight for myself"

He places a gentle kiss in your hair before he tucks you further into him, resting his head on yours, letting the peaceful night settle around you both

You were a Jedi shadow in love with a certain captain and who occasionally accompanied the Bad Batch on missions. You were with them on Kaller when Order 66 happened but you got away with Caleb. Once Caleb is safely away from the Empire, you make your next move to get as far away from the Empire as possible

the blaster hole in his pauldron makes me so emotional ok anyway

it would take awhile, weeks even months before the reunion would happen with both of you trying to lay low as long as possible

Rex had the advantage of the Empire thinking him dead, you weren't so lucky

You only used the force once after the events, after you found yourself safely heading towards the outer rim, to reach out and search for Rex's signature

Once you felt it and felt it hadn't changed, unlike the other clones you knew, you immediately cut yourself off from the force going into hiding

It broke your heart cutting yourself off from him, but you knew it wasn't safe for him to be near you - and you still had a lot of questions

Later, settled on a backwater planet far from the Empire's reach and with the galaxy continuing on, you risk a short connection with the force with one thing in mind

You feel him, faintly, but he's still there and he's still your Rex

Months later, one day when you check on him, his signature is the strongest it's been since the war

You're too curious and too lonely, you hold onto it, knowing what you're risking, but follow it through the forest and to the clearing a few kliks from where you've established home

A small, abandoned farm greets you. A ship waits not far from the homestead, and two figures stand just by the porch. He shares the face with millions and is all the way across the clearing, but you'd recognize him anywhere

He's with another clone, and softly you reach out with the force to check their signatures - both unchanged, both not filled with hate and confusion like so many of the other soldiers after the war

It only took two steps into the clearing before you saw him stiffen and whip his head in your direction.

Of course he could sense you without you even opening yourself up to him.

You keep walking. He doesn't take his eyes off of you

Suddenly, like his brain needed a minute to catch up, he breaks into a sprint to you, the clone left behind laughing as he watches the stoic captain appear to finally lose it

You don't see him approach you since tears blocked your vision as soon as you saw him start running

Half attempts to wipe the waterfalls from your cheeks are halted when your feet leave the ground and you're crushed into a hard chest, arms wrapping around you tighter than a force choke

Pulling back, you're both crying and laughing, not fully believing this is actually happening

You try to wipe the tears from his cheeks, he pushes the hair that's fallen in your face away

Words are being whispered, whatever can be kissed is kissed

Eventually, you both manage a deep breath, and Rex brings his forehead to yours

For the first time since the war ended, you feel a calm in the force you never thought possible again

#tay writes #star wars #the bad batch #order 66 #hunter #wrecker #echo #tech #crosshair #the bad batch hunter #the bad batch echo #the bad batch tech #the bad batch wrecker #the bad batch crosshair #captain rex #the bad batch headcanons #captain rex headcanons #clones x Jedi!reader #jedi!reader

709 notes · View notes