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learntoearn07 · 9 months ago

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E-Commerce

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These e-commerce transactions typically fall within four types: business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business.

The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. The term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to the transactional processes that make up online retail shopping.

In the last two decades, e-commerce platforms -- such as Amazon and eBay -- have contributed to substantial growth in online retail. In 2011, e-commerce accounted for 5% of total retail sales according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By Q2 2020, after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce accounted for 16.5% of retail sales. Since then, it has fallen slightly to about 15% as physical stores reopened.

How does E-commerce work?

E-commerce is powered by the internet. Customers use their own devices to access online stores. They can browse products and services those stores offer and place orders.

As an order is placed, the customer's web browser communicates back and forth with the server hosting the e-commerce website. Data pertaining to the order is relayed to a central computer known as the order manager. The data is then forwarded to databases that manage inventory levels; a merchant system that manages payment information using payment processing applications, such as PayPal; and a bank computer. Finally, it circles back to the order manager. This ensures store inventory and customer funds are sufficient for the order to be processed.

After the order is validated, the order manager notifies the store's web server. It displays a message notifying the customer that their order has been processed. The order manager then sends order data to the warehouse or fulfillment department, letting it know the product or service can be dispatched to the customer. At this point, tangible and digital products are sent to the customer, or access to a service is granted.

Platforms that host e-commerce transactions include online marketplaces that sellers sign up for, such as Amazon; software as a service (SaaS) tools that let customers rent online store infrastructures; and open source tools that companies manage using their in-house developers.

Comparison of six common types of e-commerce

The different types of e-commerce are classified by the parties participating in online transactions.

Types of e-commerce

The main types of e-commerce business models include the following:

B2B. This refers to the electronic exchange of products, services or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. Examples include online directories and exchange websites that let businesses search for products, services or information and initiate online transactions through e-procurement interfaces.

B2C. These transactions are when businesses sell products, services or information to consumers. There are typically intermediaries or middlemen that handle shipping, delivery and customer service, however. The term was popular during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when online retailers and sellers of goods were a novelty.

Today, there are innumerable virtual stores and malls on the internet selling all types of consumer goods. Amazon is the most recognized among these sites, dominating the B2C market.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C)

. This is where a business that manufactures or produces goods and services sells directly to consumers online without any middlemen or distributors involved, in contrast to B2C e-commerce.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C).

This is a type of e-commerce in which consumers trade products, services and information with each other online. These transactions are generally conducted through a third party that provides an online platform in which the transactions are carried out.

Online auctions and classified advertisements are two examples of C2C platforms. EBay and Craigslist are two well-known examples of these platforms. Because eBay is a business, this form of e-commerce could also be called consumer-to-business-to-consumer. Platforms like Facebook marketplace and Depop -- a fashion reselling platform -- also enable C2C transactions.

Consumer-to-business (C2B).

This is a type of e-commerce in which consumers make their products and services available online for companies to bid on and purchase. This is the opposite of the traditional commerce model of B2C.

A popular example of a C2B platform is a market that sells royalty-free photographs, images, media and design elements, such as iStock. Another example would be a job board.

Business-to-administration (B2A).

This refers to transactions conducted online between companies and public administration or government bodies. Many branches of government are dependent on various types of e-services or products. These products and services often pertain to legal documents, registers, Social Security, fiscal data and employment. Businesses can supply these electronically. B2A services have grown considerably in recent years as investments have been made in e-government capabilities.

Consumer-to-administration (C2A)

This refers to transactions conducted online between consumers and public administration or government bodies. The government rarely buys products or services from individuals, but individuals frequently use electronic means in the following areas:

Social Security. Distributing information and making payments.

Taxes. Filing tax returns and making payments.

Health. Making appointments, providing test results or information about health conditions and making health services payments.

Mobile commerce. Also known as m-commerce, mobile commerce refers to online sales transactions using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. It includes mobile shopping, banking and payments. Mobile chatbots facilitate m-commerce, letting consumers complete transactions using voice or text conversations.

Advantages of e-commerce

The benefits of e-commerce include its availability, accessibility, speed of access, selection of goods and services and international reach.

Around-the-clock availability. Aside from outages and scheduled maintenance, e-commerce sites are available 24/7, enabling visitors to browse and shop at any time. Brick-and-mortar businesses tend to open for a fixed number of hours and even close entirely on certain days.

Speed of access. While shoppers in a physical store can be slowed by crowds, e-commerce sites run quickly, depending on compute and bandwidth considerations of both the consumer device and the e-commerce site. Product, shopping cart and checkout pages load in a few seconds or less. A typical e-commerce transaction requires a few clicks and takes less than five minutes.

Wide selection. Amazon's first slogan was "Earth's Biggest Bookstore." It could make this claim because it was an e-commerce site and not a physical store that had to stock each book on its shelves. E-commerce enables brands to make an array of products available, which are then shipped from a warehouse or various warehouses after a purchase is made. Customers are likely to have more success finding what they want.

Easy accessibility. Customers shopping in a physical store might have difficulty locating a particular product. Website visitors can browse product category pages in real time and use the site's search feature to find the product quickly.

International reach. Brick-and-mortar businesses sell to customers who physically visit their stores. With e-commerce, businesses can sell to anyone who can access the web. E-commerce has the potential to extend a business's customer base.

Lower cost. Pure play e-commerce businesses avoid the costs of running physical stores, such as rent, inventory and cashiers. They might incur shipping and warehouse costs, however.

Personalization and product recommendations. E-commerce sites can track a visitor's browsing, search and purchase histories. They can use this data to present personalized product recommendations and obtain insights about target markets. Examples of how such insights are used include the sections of Amazon product pages labeled "Frequently bought together" and "Customers who viewed this item also viewed."

Disadvantages of e-commerce

The perceived disadvantages of e-commerce include sometimes limited customer service, consumers not being able to see or touch a product prior to purchase and the wait time for product shipping. Security issues can also be a problem.

Limited customer service. If customers have a question or issue in a physical store, they talk to a clerk, cashier or store manager for help. In an e-commerce store, customer service can be limited. The site might only provide support during certain hours and its online service options might be difficult to navigate or not able to answer specific questions.

Limited product experience. Viewing images on a webpage can provide a good sense of a product, but it's different from experiencing the product directly, such as playing a guitar, assessing the picture quality of a television or trying on a shirt or dress. E-commerce consumers can end up buying products that differ from their expectations and have to be returned. In some cases, the customer must pay to ship a returned item back to the retailer. Augmented reality is expected to improve customers' ability to examine and test e-commerce products.

Wait time. In a store, customers pay for a product and go home with it. With e-commerce, customers must wait for the product to be shipped to them. Although shipping windows are decreasing as next-day and even same-day delivery becomes common, it's not instantaneous.

Security. Skilled hackers can create authentic-looking websites that claim to sell well-known products. Instead, the site sends customers fake or imitation versions of those products -- or simply steals credit card information. Legitimate e-commerce sites also carry risk, especially when customers store their credit card information with the retailer to make future purchases easier. If the retailer's site is hacked, threat actors may steal that credit card information. A data breach can damage a retailer's reputation.

E-commerce applications

Many e-commerce apps use online marketing strategies to improve the customer experience and get customers to use the platform. These include email, online catalogs, shopping carts, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), file transfer protocol, web services and mobile applications.

These approaches are used in B2C and B2B e-commerce activities, as well as other types of outreach. They include emailing targeted ads and e-newsletters to subscribers and sending text messages to mobile devices. Sending unsolicited emails and texts is generally considered spam, so more companies now try to entice consumers online, using tools such as digital coupons, social media marketing and targeted advertisements.

Another area of focus for e-commerce companies is security. Developers and admins should consider customer data privacy and security, data governance-related regulatory compliance mandates, personally identifiable information privacy rules and information protection protocols when developing e-commerce applications. Some security features are added during the design of an application, while others must be continually updated to address evolving threats and new vulnerabilities.

E-commerce platforms and vendors

An e-commerce platform is a tool that's used to manage an e-commerce business. E-commerce platform options range in size from ones for small businesses to large enterprises. They include online marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay, that simply require signing up for user accounts and little to no IT implementation.

SaaS is another e-commerce platform model. Business owners subscribe to a service where they essentially rent space in a cloud-hosted service. This approach doesn't require in-house development or on-premises infrastructure. Other e-commerce trends include open source platforms that require a cloud or on-premises hosting environment or complete manual implementation and maintenance.

Examples of e-commerce marketplace platforms include the following: Alibaba, Amazon, Chewy, eBay, Etsy, Newegg, Rakuten, Walmart Marketplace and Wayfair. Vendors offering e-commerce platform services for clients hosting their own online store sites include the following: Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Ecwid, NetSuite Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify, Squarespace and WooCommerce.

Government regulations for e-commerce

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council are among the primary agencies that regulate e-commerce activities. The FTC monitors activities such as online advertising, content marketing and customer privacy. The PCI Security Standards Council develops standards and rules, including PCI Data Security Standard compliance, which outlines procedures for the proper handling and storage of consumers' financial data.

To ensure the security, privacy and effectiveness of e-commerce, businesses should authenticate business transactions, control access to resources such as webpages for registered or selected users, encrypt communications and implement security technologies, such as secure sockets layer and two-factor authentication.

History of e-commerce

E-commerce began in the 1960s, when businesses started using EDI to share business documents with other companies. In 1979, the American National Standards Institute developed ASC X12 as a universal standard for businesses to share documents through electronic networks.

Statistics showing how e-commerce grew early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

E-commerce grew significantly in 2020 as the pandemic took hold.

As the number of individual users sharing electronic documents with each other grew in the 1980s, the rise of eBay and Amazon in the 1990s revolutionized the e-commerce industry. Consumers can now buy many items online, from e-commerce-only vendors -- also called e-tailers -- and brick-and-mortar stores that have e-commerce capabilities. Almost all retail companies have integrated online business practices into their business models and sell online.

The

COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant spike in e-commerce transactions. With shoppers confined to their homes for an extended period, e-commerce jumped to a record high of 16.4% of total U.S. retail sales in the second quarter of 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It has since leveled off at around 15%. The Census Bureau keeps a record of quarterly e-commerce data dating back to 1999. In Q3 2023, total U.S. retail e-commerce sales were estimated to be $284.1 billion.

#ecommerce #digitalmarketing #digitalindia

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b2bppcadvertisingagency1 · 1 year ago

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Effective B2B PPC Advertising Agency

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In most companies, there's a standardized step-by-step course of to get from level A to level B. As a business grows in reputation, SEO helps enhance customer engagement while increasing the vary of Google searches, finally growing customer loyalty.

Web Optimization Q&a

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Understanding how search engines work is essential to successfully implement organic web optimization methods. Following greatest practices and creating high-quality content can improve your website’s visibility and appeal to extra qualified site visitors. Organic search engine optimization is a multifaceted strategy that involves optimizing your web site for search engines to drive more qualified traffic to your site.

Finding one of the best SEO firm for your business (website) is crucial to ensure a good return on investment. Though it includes evaluating numerous metrics, such as turnover records, ROMI, CTR, organic site visitors, exterior hyperlinks, and a construction, the rewards may be exceptional. When you join forces with the proper SEO firm, your website will seem higher in Google SERP, driving more organic site visitors and potentially increasing gross sales (or leads). Therefore, exploring your options and entering into an approval process is important to determine the company’s price. While preliminary costs may be concerned, the long-term advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Forty Seven Ppc Stats To Empower Your Advertising Technique In 2023

When you companion with our pay-per-click firm, we offer strategic bid management. Based on your business, in addition to your services, your dedicated account manager makes data-backed choices in phrases of managing and determining your bid, per your month-to-month ad spend. Once you choose the keywords relevant to your services or products, it's best to separate them by funnel stage. Then, of these relevant keywords, it is essential to evaluate which has the highest purchase intent. This will make positive that your ads are being seen by people who have shopping for power. Once you've narrowed down your keywords, check out search quantity and the typical value per click on.

This helps to put the inspiration for the sort of companies you'll be concentrating on together with your marketing campaign.

When a PPC marketing campaign exists within the prime 3 outcomes, customers usually tend to be engaged.

By offering tailored search engine optimization optimization companies, they ensure that their purchasers' adverts are targeted to the suitable audience, resulting in elevated click-through rates and larger conversions.

If your present agency isn’t bringing sufficient technical PPC expertise to the table, you could be spending too much cash reaching irrelevant audiences or lacking out on potential clients. As an enterprise enterprise, you've a long record of product or service offerings that you have to promote successfully. This can create complicated marketing campaign constructions which are difficult to manage and unimaginable to grow. Many B2B companies have longer gross sales cycles, which implies prospects require the next level of nurturing and attention. We know tips on how to meet certified consumers where they’re at within the shopping for journey with B2B PPC techniques designed particularly for their exact stage in the sales funnel so you'll have the ability to keep your leads engaged.

It Helps Promote Advertisements In Sure Geographies

That’s good, because you don’t need to try making a PPC campaign with out some tools that can assist you. For one factor, there are more individuals working in your campaigns directly, so they’re capable of accomplish greater than when you solely had one or two in-house entrepreneurs. When it involves PPC, the principle place you run your adverts is through Google Ads. That’s why it’s essential to partner with an agency that knows precisely how Google Ads works. At WebFX, we have a history of constructing our purchasers proud of our client-first strategy to advertising.

Social media adverts provide enhanced concentrating on features that assist ship your content material to a related viewers.

It lays out what was achieved, areas of improvement and what advantages the corporate acquired.

Linkedin Marketing Solutions is, for my part, the star platform to do B2B advertising, with an unparalleled capability nowadays to achieve our audience of execs.

This is helpful for attracting new clients who otherwise might not have discovered your website by way of organic search efforts. By focusing on these “in-market” audiences, your ad spend is used extra efficiently and generates higher-quality leads. Additionally, big teams sometimes embrace many various specialists, each of whom brings their very personal perspective to your advertising and will assist you to optimize your method efficiently. Another important benefit of partnering with an company is that it presents you entry to a sizeable staff of marketers. If you do your PPC in-house, you'll be able to solely afford to hire so many people to handle your advertising — however at an firm, everyone there's a advertising specialist. Partnering with a B2B paid advertising firm is an excellent approach to amass entry to skilled info.

How Much Do You Need To Spend To Get Outcomes With Ppc?

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In addition to PPC management, as properly as they offer a wide range of ROI-driven digital advertising providers that embody social media management, e-mail advertising, and influencer promoting. As PPC commercials convey in extra top quality leads, it has the potential to extend conversion charges. Many B2B enterprise house owners perceive the frustration of getting to cope with the effort and time it takes for search engine marketing to produce outcomes.

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Enhance Your Total Advert Roi With Paid Media

ID steps in and guides corporations to marketing-sales alignment, a complete tech stack, and information aggregation for profitable ABM. We concentrate on work on B2B PPC & paid search campaigns concentrating on area of interest markets that don’t always have the best search volumes, or the place key accounts are being focused as a part of a ABM strategy. They do, nevertheless, typically return greater deal values, typically reaching into the £millions. It is knowledgeable rent a fervent agency that has to have specialization in operating PPC campaigns for B2B corporations like Ping Call.

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Users should arrive and find the required data for starting a trial, like by offering their contact information.

Undoubtedly, your business aims function the guiding compass for your B2B PPC company.

As competition in the on-line landscape continues to warmth up, extra firms are beginning to spend money on company help.

They’re one of many oldest Shopify Plus licensed businesses and may help with UX design, PPC, and search engine optimization to say only some services.

With such glowing critiques, it is no wonder 310 Creative is among the many finest SaaS PPC firms in the SaaS, fintech, skilled providers and manufacturing industries.

The process normally entails multiple stakeholders and in plenty of cases, further down the buying funnel, it’s solely reliant on enterprise sales consultants to push by way of the ultimate conversion. Read on and we’ll define a couple of of the methods we use when implementing paid methods for enterprise B2B corporations. To be succesful of have your PPC campaigns operating within the background while you work on web optimization you want have a dependable and efficient PPC marketing campaign that you know will drive a certain number of leads every month. What we imply by that's spending the right amount for the leads generated and never having the more cash more leads method - that comes later. One of the main points folks have with that is that in a world based mostly on information, you're reliant on a technique that has no ensures and can take a while to take effect.

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Once your campaign launches, nonetheless, your group wants to watch its performance. For assessing your competitor’s B2B Google Ads strategy, you presumably can search high-value phrases. For example, when you provide software-as-a-service (SaaS), you could search, “cloud computing software for smbs,” to see if they seem in search results.

Search focusing on is certainly one of the hottest types of focusing on as a outcome of it will increase engagement with audiences actively looking for businesses like yours but might not have discovered your website in any other case.

Case research assist you to decide if an company would make investments your advert price range well based mostly on how they’ve helped different firms (preferably in your industry) grow.

One characteristic that deserves a special mention is that if you work with them you’ll get entry to MarketingCloudFX, their top advertising software program platform.

When you rent a PPC administration firm, your marketing budget is successfully managed by a staff of PPC specialists to amplify the capacity of your advertising capital.

They let you better target audiences, broaden your reach, write extra partaking advert copy, and reveal your company’s expertise.

This will allow you to see ends in real-time and can give you a competitive edge. These reports will measure the return on funding (ROI), and we will undergo these with you that will help you understand the results. Our deep data of the LinkedIn Ads platform and demographic focusing on allows us to deliver ROI for our shoppers.

Ppc Agency

A strong PPC marketing campaign will persistently collect quality leads for your corporation which your staff can nurture into conversions and gross sales. Directive is a performance advertising company that works solely with SaaS companies. Their objective is to drive actual development, and they’ve included a list of all purchasers who have acquired funding, gone public, and even been acquired. 310 Creative is a B2B sales and advertising agency that also focuses totally on B2B SaaS corporations. Niching down like they’ve accomplished helps their team to specialize and know precisely tips on how to drive outcomes for his or her shoppers. This agency has been around for over 18 years and has generated more than 50,000 gross sales qualified leads for his or her clients.

Get Personalized Ppc Advertising Options

Furthermore, they can conceive advert copy that strikes a chord along with your viewers, thereby boosting click-through charges. In-house teams, juggling varied duties, would possibly require extra time to determine and handle campaigns. On the opposite hand, a B2B PPC company dedicates its full attention to your campaigns, ensuring swift setup and extra responsive management. At a cursory glance, managing campaigns in-house might seem more cost-efficient.

Founded greater than 10 years ago, Rocket Clicks is an search engine optimization and PPC agency that’s based mostly in Milwaukee. With regards to PPC particularly, their providers embody display advertising, social media promoting, cell advertising, video promoting, and retargeting. Bird Marketing is an award-winning digital agency that’s based mostly within the UK. Their small, but powerful, staff of experts can help you with web design, web site internet hosting, eCommerce, web optimization, and PPC. With regards to PPC particularly, their providers embrace keyword analysis, budgeting, and Google campaigns.

It’s true, remarketing advertisements (often called retargeting ads) are those annoying adverts that observe you across the internet. As annoying as they are, they do work and they are normally charged primarily based on impressions quite than clicks which makes them comparatively low cost in advertising terms, so it’s a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ as they say. Running the intent based mostly PPC marketing campaign structure we talked about earlier implies that you put most of your finances into these excessive intent keywords further down the funnel. This is as a result of it’s much harder to rank for these terms organically as they're essentially the most aggressive. They are additionally the most costly when it comes all the method down to cost per click on.

Razor Sharp Concentrating On

No matter how nicely your campaigns are performing, there's always room for improvement in your advertising efforts. The advert campaigns we manage are never “finished” and we proceed to optimize your PPC accounts and search for any and every alternative to be proactive as an alternative of reactive along the means in which. If your final agency set up a successful ad campaign and responded with nothing however a pat on their own backs, we’re here to tell you that you just deserve better. You need your advertisements to show up in your perfect audience within the particular context where they're more than likely to transform. We launch the advertisements right on schedule when you prepare for all of the results in start rolling in.

Does Your Ppc Advertising Company Require A Long-term Contract?

Alongside administration of the LinkedIn Campaign Manager, our LinkedIn Ads Agency purchasers all have their very own custom dashboard where we are able to pull metrics from across the digital panorama to show ROI. The LinkedIn Ads platform allows us to dive deep into focusing on, making use of demographics like location, firm measurement, business, job operate, seniority and lots of others. You’d probably be better off hiring an in-house person to run your campaigns till they plateau and it’s clear that you just want additional assist getting to the next stage. Most notably, will probably be tougher to confirm immediate returns from your PPC advertisements and may doubtlessly skew your ROI estimates when you haven’t planned accordingly. But don’t be tricked into pondering that because you haven’t seen a boost in gross sales after operating a PPC advert for a couple of months that your efforts aren’t working.

Right at this point, one of the best PPC advertising businesses in Canada that know all the methods and have plenty of expertise may help your business thrive. They allow you to handle your PPC campaigns by taking the annoying, nitty-gritty duties of trawling through all that knowledge out of your arms, extracting what counts, and presenting it again to you in a coherent method. You’ll have direct access to Pixated’s senior team of PPC specialists who will work with you to improve and upscale your paid search performance. Here, we present you with the most effective PPC advertising agencies in the UK that will help you generate extra leads out of your online ads. However, trust only a dependable PPC company specializing in B2B advertising to improve your reach and promote your model using the best PPC campaigns online.

#B2B PPC Advertising Agency #Youtube

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estateagentseouk · 3 years ago

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With Rent On Time™, you can focus on growing your business with a value-added service whilst building stronger relationships with your landlords

#Agents support radical overhaul rental sector NI #Trade directory Back to Main Trade Directory #Rents show another modest rise across UK #with London an exception

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tapejob · 2 years ago

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help im from twitter and idk what im doing. how does hockey tumblr work

so you just fled hockeytwt - what now?

hey anon, welcome to hockeyblr! we're imo one of the best communities on tumblr and we're so glad to have you. hopefully you'll enjoy your stay :)

some general tumblr things to note:

as you probably know, tumblr doesn't run on an algorithm

any content depends primarily on what blogs you follow + occasionally what tags you follow (less reliable. your main source will be by blogs)

tags serve mainly as an organizational/content marker, as well as for filtering purposes. tagging #fyp to get your content out there does nothing

to send an ask, click on the button beside the follow/following button on the user's blog - some people rename the 'ask' to some other things, which may make it hard to find

we are the faceless app. pls customize your blog a little so it doesn't look like you're a bot but do not feel pressured to reveal names/face/age/pronouns whatever

once again, the only way content is found is through reblogs. reblog things that u think are neat, no additions required :)

re filtering: you can block terms/tags/content you don't want to see on your dash (e.g. 'tw sexual assault'). here's a better post to explain trigger warning/tagging etiquette

ok onto general hockeyblr:

to follow tags, go into the search bar and type out #[tag] and click the blue follow button on the right. your basic starter pack of tags to follow in hockeyblr: #hockey, #nhl, etc.

but that's lame. and you're probably not gonna get any of the juicy stuff

following your team/the teams you are tangentially interested in and their popular player tags are often a good way to start breaking into the community (e.g. #pittsburgh penguins, #sidney crosby)

follow cool hockeyblr ppl! u can find ppl in your team spheres through the tags i mentioned above. there was also a hockeyblr directory made a while back (og masterlist is down but shoot me a message and i can get you some specific team lists. don't be afraid to ask ppl for recs too)

reblog, like, etc. esp with content creators/gifsets/etc. engagement does the heart good

wtf is liveblogging:

lots of users liveblog and post commentary during games!

you can find these posts in the lb tags, which vary by team and are sort of collectively known (e.g. #pens lb for pittsburgh)

some tags are a little less intuitive: #nyr lb or #rangers lb are both used for the rangers iirc, #bolts lb or #tbl lb have both been used for tampa - feel free to shoot me an ask/msg if you have trouble lol

big events, such as the playoffs, worlds, the all star game, etc may have their own special tags (e.g. #scp lb, #worlds lb, #asg lb, #team germany lb, etc). you'll figure it out as you go! and don't be afraid to ask for clarification

tagging your liveblogs are pretty important since:

it's fun to liveblog with a bunch of people on your silly little gang of guys! helps u find friends to follow, and

people who follow the opposing team might want to filter out your commentary (more info below)

ouch, yikes. i don't want to see that (aka, filtering/blocking)

coming back to filtering, the nice thing abt tumblr is that u can filter out whatever tags/blogs/keywords you don't want to see on your dash

go to your blog settings to live peacefully and with prosperity

you can filter out team tags/liveblogs/players, anything you want. in fact, u are encouraged bc not feeling extreme rage over some picture on the dash of the team that knocked your team out of the scp does the body good

filtered posts don't disappear entirely from the dash (in case u have fomo), but when a blog u follow posts about something in that tag, you will see a blurred post with the tags you filtered, as well as an option to view the post

(looks like this)

some users also have specific tags that they may have created for organizational purposes and to help you block specific content (e.g. #nhl trade rumors are my personal tag for, you guessed it, trade rumors. some ppl don't wanna hear that, so easy tagging for filter)

on that note: filter and move on. don't go into opposing team tags/liveblogs and talk shit or stir up shit. you will be blocked by. a significant amount of people. play nice y'all, it's hockey

rpf/fic

not really my area of expertise on tumblr, but there's a pretty big rpf/fic community on hockeyblr. follow or block as you need!

player relationship tags are a good place to look for content (e.g. #sidgeno, #8771)

use the :readmore: function on tumblr liberally if you're posting fics - full player fics in the player tags can suck to scroll through for an outside user

once again, don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help. best of luck navigating hockeyblr, you're sure to have a blast!

#housekeeping #anonymous #primer

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steveharrington · 2 years ago

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your neopets posting has inspired me to get back into it but i haven't played in like. 15 years lmao. do you have any tips on getting back into it and ways to rack up NP (easy games with good payout, tips for completing quests, etc.)? i looked at the subreddit but there's just. so much info it's a bit overwhelming :(

YES thank god a reason to talk about neopets <3 i agree the subreddit can be very confusing! i know things like food club and the stock market can rack up a lot of NP fast but tbh i’ve always found them so complicated (esp food club) and unpredictable and i’m not a fan of risking my money SO i’ve mostly been making money with restocking and dailies.

for dailies i highly recommend using jellyneo because they have them all compiled in one place and if you make an account you can have a customized list. the dailies i do are anchor management, apple bobbing, bank interest, coltzan’s shrine, daily puzzle, deserted tomb, forgotten shore (you need a map for this one but you can find them on the trading post or in stores for like $2k total), fruit machine, grave danger (petpet needed), healing springs, meteor, rich slorg, TDMBGPP, tombola, both kings, and trudy’s surprise. trudy’s surprise is very important to do every day without skipping because over time as your streak gets longer, you can start raking in $19k a day guaranteed and $100k by the end of the month!

game-wise the tragic aspect is that flash wiped out like 80% of the games :( fashion fever is still there and you can send score on it 3 times a day for 300 NP each time, which is pretty good considering all you have to do is drag clothes on the little kougra. other than that i really only play hasee bounce because i find it enjoyable and you can get 500 np pretty easily!

restocking is my main way of making money and it’s really not as confusing as some people make it sound. as a beginner, you probably wanna start at neopian fresh foods in neopia central or kayla’s potion shop in meridell castle. these shops stock very lucrative items for relatively low prices in bulk. in fresh foods esp you can get neggs (worth about 16k and stocking in bulk with about 20-30 at a time, so you don’t even have to be lighting fast) or even purple neggs (worth like $110k). in kayla’s the items i have the most luck with are jar of forest earth, mano root elixir, cooling balm of the warrior, and energising elixirs. i realize this probably sounds hard to remember BUT luckily jellyneo has a shop directory, so you can find specific shops and sort their inventory based on price to see what’s lucrative and what isnt. there’s more info on restocking in some guides like this one!

being part of the discord has been absolutely game changing for me because you can 1. see when shops clear and 2. learn from other people which items are lucrative just by watching them. plus it’s just fun to talk to other people about neo <3 if you wanna neofriend me my username is maggiemay726 (childhood UN everyone look away)! i hope this helps!!

#answered #anon #neopets

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heaven-s-black-box · 1 year ago

Text

Second Chance- Godot & Maya

Return to File

Recovery date: August 23nd, 2020

Description: It starts with a rigged trial, and ends with someone hearing her out.

Notes: Recovered in conjunction with an anonymous researcher from research lab Ao3, we thank them for their contributions.

Word count: 630

Back to directory

He’s not even trying, Maya thinks solemnly. After being assigned to her, Mr. Grossberg had turned her down, her attorney never even bothered to talk to her. Even the detective who arrested her seemed to believe she was guilty, no matter how much she protested. It almost felt rigged, like the trial was just a formality.

She couldn’t help but wonder what her sister had meant to give her. Maybe it was the reason this trial felt so off? She’d seen it all the time in crime shows. The killer was some evil rich dude that the victim was closing in on, and the killer paid everyone off. Then the super good main character cop takes them down and the scapegoat is freed… But reality never was like the movies, was it?

I’m not an adult though, so I should be going to juvie. Not that it’s any better.

“The court finds the defendant Maya Fey guilty. Her sentence will be life in prison,” the judge said, slamming down the gavel. Her eyes widened as the bailiffs helped her up.

“What?! No. How is that fair? I’m still technically a minor!” She yelled, struggling against the bailiffs. “This isn’t fair!”

For the first little bit, she’d begged for a retrial. She told them about her phone, and the recorded call, but it was never found. With no new evidence, a retrial was impossible. Still, she clung to a thread of futile hope.

Despite the fact she had to wear a jumpsuit, she kept her magatama around her neck and her hair in her bun. Everyday, she tried to channel Mia. Everyday for a year, she came up empty, and her hope slowly began to fade. Six months into her sentence, she traded her high-platform shoes for prison slippers. A year in, she let her hair down and got rid of the beads. The magatama broke when she threw it against a wall a year and a half into her sentence.

“Ms. Fey, you have a visitor,” Maggie Byrd said, opening up her cell. Maya tilted her head to the side.

“Who is it?”

“A man named Godot, he says he knew your sister.”

For the first time in a while, Maya felt hopeful. Even if the name didn’t sound familiar, maybe he’d hear her out.

“So, you’re Maya?”

“Uh… yes sir? Who are you?”

“My name is Godot, I was your sister’s boyfriend.” Maya couldn’t remember Mia ever mentioning a boyfriend. “You know… She talked a lot about you. So let me ask you this, why? Why did you kill her?”

If this confrontation had been a year ago, she may have burst into tears. She may have sobbed and pleaded for him to believe she didn’t do it. Now, she just scowled.

“I didn’t.” Her voice was level. “But no one will believe me. Not to mention I’m almost positive my trial was rigged.”

“And what makes you say that?” He was mocking her, humoring the girl he believed killed his love.

“My sister… she wanted to give me some evidence to hold on to. She never told me what it was, but she said it was important. I recorded our phone call but… they never found it.”

She expected him to laugh, but instead he leaned forwards.

“Where did you have it last?”

“I- I had it with me when I went to see her. It must’ve fallen out while I was there… But it’s been years, the office has changed ownership. There’s no way to find it.”

Godot looked down. “If, and I mean if, I look into this and find out you’re lying, I will kill you myself,” he growled, as he stood up to leave.

“Where are you doing?”

“To get your old phone records!”

#researcher s's recovery #ace attorney #maya fey #diego armando #ace attorney godot #rating unavailable #oneshot #AA oneshot

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csventbutfaster · 2 years ago

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(meta) a theory and some thoughts

Csmeaner was the only one who kinda let anons freely rant/say things with few limits, the blogs made while meaner was up were normal versions and even specific species blogs , but from what I saw no alternative mean blogs were made . When you left nobody really knew if youd come back (at least I didnt) , plus the whole mushy thing (csmean) either happened shortly before , after , or top of you leaving (dont remember for sure when) , leaving meaner to be the main blog for awhile . Now that theres no big blog to show and advertise all the alternatives and the directory is gone

Nobody knows where to go atm, and they just moved on .

I do hope if anything ppl still vent or call out stuff, since its good to call things out if somthings unfair and to warn people before they get into a cs or interact with someone..

That might be one of the reasons. I still think a lot of it has to do with the fact nothing big is happening with species. A lot of stuff getting posted to the mean blogs were about specific people, not even the owners half the time. I allow people specific posts but only if they’re warranted or justified. Someone making an ugly design or trading something you wanted doesn’t warrant the kind of insults people were using lool.

I think venting and gossiping are two different things and gossiping is better done with someone you’re close with, not a vent blog. If you hate someone so much you just need to insult them behind their back, tell a friend, not me. Otherwise vent away to your heart’s content!

I don’t get where people got this image you’re not allowed to say mean things at all ever on my blog because that’s not the case at all. I just don’t want you guys calling people things they’re not because you’re mad or anything.

#meta

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dykemind · 3 years ago

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Hi there! I don't know if this is something you know much about, but I've never interacted with an active landdyke before, so I thought you might be able to help me out.

My aunts own a farm together in upstate New York, and it's the most peaceful place in the world. 10 beautiful acres of Catskill mountain land, a large main house, a guest house, coops and barns. Surrounded by undeveloped property that could definitely be bought and expanded upon. My aunts took me for years when my mother couldn't afford to keep me while also working 3 jobs. This land is my home, my heart and soul, and the first place I go back to in my mind when current situations seem hopeless.

They are selling it after my cousins finish college (in about 5 years) and all I want in my life is to own it when they do. I want to start a women's land. The problem is I have no dang idea how to do that. I have a lot of the skills necessary. I know how to farm (thanks to growing up there), I know how to build things, fix broken machinery, etc. But I know nothing about the legalities or logistics of such a thing. There's also the issue that women's land is not nearly as popular as it once was. How do I attract residents and visitors?

Sorry if this is something you don't really have an answer for, I just thought maybe you could be a good place to start. Thanks for all the work you do, wishing you well sister♀️💞

Wow, what an amazing situation!! I'm so glad you were able to experience that growing up, and that you're in such an awesome position to take it over and keep growing. To attract residents and visitors, I would list your land in Maize and in Lesbian Connection. Jae Haggard has an online forum where you can get in contact and chat with lots of landdykes and get to know the community. Then you can also do what I'm doing, which is use social media to attract younger demographics of women. (also check out @mistmoonandheart) There's been a resurgence of women interested in separatism, but unfortunately many of them think it's just a daydream. Can you offer travel stipends or residencies to teach other women skills? Can you trade room and board for free labor? These kinds of things make it more possible for women to visit. Don't forget to think about accessibility issues either- many women who travel around to different lands have sensitivities to scents and chemicals (google MCS and EFS), they may want to bring their dog or they may have pet allergies, they may have bad knees or a bad back, or chronic illness. Can you offer wifi for women who need to work remotely? You'll have to think about who you're able to accommodate and who you'd have to advise to stay elsewhere. There's only one other land I know of in New York state, so I would get in contact with them and see what their situation is like as far as attracting people. I know a lot of lesbians who live around NYC who might like a place they could go for a weekend to get a retreat from the city, meet other likeminded women, and host get-togethers in a safe place, so you might be able to host events or festivals or get retreat income from that kind of setup. As for legality, there's a few ways you can go. You can privately own the land and invite other women to come live with you, you can create a land trust, or you can run the land as a nonprofit with a board of directors. Avoiding lawsuits for being a female-only space seems to boil down to keeping your head down and being known mostly by word of mouth, but personally I'd like to get together with other women and start brainstorming better tactics for defending against misogyny from within the legal system. Another thing to think about in terms of what kind of community model you're interested in is whether you're dreaming of fostering an active, close-knit community of women, or whether you'd be happy having women living on the land who mostly mind their own business and live private lives. Or some mix? If you haven't already, get the Maize directory and take a look at all the different lands out there and the different ways they're run. Look into the history of women's land and see what's worked and what's failed, and go visit some lands yourself and get a sense of the vibes. And meet people! Old dykes have the WILDEST stories, and they love to tell them. You're already off to a great start if you understand the finances of your aunt's land and what it takes to keep it running. Best of luck!

#Thanks for the ask!#LL #.#and feel free to dm me to chat about it too #I'd love to hear more

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ying-doodles · 5 months ago

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hey, I'm ying! (*^▽^*)┛

welcome to my little corner of the internet where I draw whatever I feel like~ I also ramble and liveblog TGED/CPSM. speaking of which:

if you're new to my blog, feel free to read the guide below to get to know me a bit better! ^^

about me!

birthday- october 3, 2001 pronouns- they/them ethnicity- chinese

interests- tged/cpsm, pokemon, pikmin, cookie run, minecraft, paper mario, etc.

post directory

art: #ying's art- general art tag (divided into #fanart and #original art) #ying's ocs #ying's sonas

talking: #ying rambles- yapping about anything #ying speaks- blog updates and this post #ying replies- answers for asks #ying talks about tged #ying talks about cpsm

other posts: #ying reblogs- general reblog tag (mostly #other's art aka art others did for me ^^) #pick a piece- polls for you guys to choose an upcoming art piece! :D #100+ note club- posts that did well! #your tumblr year in review- remember when tumblr did these? I miss them,, #yearly art summary- a look back at some of the art I did each year-

common q's

what do you use to draw? these days, I mainly use ibispaint on my ipad pro (1st gen)! sometimes I also use ibispaint on my phone- older art (before/during 2023) is usually done on medibang paint on my laptop with my wacom intuos s tablet tho.

when did you start drawing? I started taking art classes around 7 and just never stopped drawing so here I am.

can I repost / use your art? • using my art for layouts / bgs / etc: okay but please credit me!! • reposting / stealing / selling / tracing: NOT OKAY!! I will come for you- >=(

do you do requests / art trades / collabs? I'm open to requests but please note I will be slow doing them!! I don't have time for art trades or collabs right now though; sorry!!

my socials!

side blogs @ying-dawdles: reblogs, WIPs, and more personal rambling. @thetunaclub: I play games and chat with my friends! (a running youtube playlist and me rambling while I work on future videos.)

instagram accounts @/ying_doodles: main base but less active. @/ying_scribbles: OCs and sona art.

shop / commissions redbubble: old animal crossing merch. ko-fi: future shop and commissions?

other platforms twitter: same art; different platform. art tiktok: speedpaints and shxtposts. alt tiktok: plushie videos and tuna club clips. youtube: tuna club (I play games and chat with my friends!)

liveblog masterposts

here's all my liveblogging for TGED/CPSM, including both the novel and the webtoon/manhwa! It should go without saying but warning for spoilers ahead!!

TGED Novel (chapters 55 - 408)

TGED Webtoon (episodes 126+)

CPSM Novel (chapters 567 - 614)

CPSM Manhwa (episodes 1+)

#ying speaks

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reavenedges-lies · 3 years ago

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Rea's Taglist Masterlist

Please feel free to blacklist or follow any tags in this list. These are my commonly used tags from the last year or so (I'm still new to the tagging game) including but not limited to my hockey tags. If you'd like me to start using tags for certain things please let me know via ask or dm!

I won't be posting every tag as there are a lot of individual NHLers (and their respective teams) i've posted about (and tagged) due to suspensions, fines and the like, however I will be posting players who have custom tags along with their normal tag.

I will not be posting all of my "_____ opinion piece" tags separately as there is/or will be one for every team as needed, instead they will be posted as "opinion piece: list of team name/nicknames used".

Ask games have their own tags but also an overarching one, as such they won't all be listed either.

Items in lists are relevant to each other but are distinct as shown by commas.

These Are In No Particular Order

”(insert team name here) opinion piece” : habs , nhl draft , isles , yotes , caps , bruins , kraken , avs , tampa , pens

pens lb

pittsburgh penguins

pens stats

penguins tape

penguins goal

rens gdrive stuff

sidney crosby , making fun of sidney crosby hours? , elite goaltender sidney crosby

pens hockey injuries

nhl

my favorite fuckboi , zach aston reese , sweatypits__

back on the pk

infographic

yotes lb

arizona coyotes

starting lineup

nhl dops

2021 offseason

jared mccann , let the canner simping begin lol

1st intermission , 2nd intermission , 3rd intermission , 4th intermission , ect.

judgmental bird noises

bryan rust , rusty is hot leave me alone

i want change

tom wilson , tom wilson discourse

to the power play!

pens lb crew

penguins roundup

generic hockey thought

sad lad hours

teddy blueger , Teodors Bļugers

nhl dops stuff 2021 22, nhl dops stuff 2022 23

nhl rulebook 2021 22, nhl rulebook 2022 23

like pens jerseys make men out of tissue paper sometimes

jason zucker , zuckerpunched

conor sheary , conor shear the hockey love of my life

hockey injuries

nathan mackinnon , yunggnate29

nhl covid 19 protocol

nhl 2021 rulebook,

bad call ref

yotes tape

yotes goals

hockey

round up tapes

philadelphia flyers , im such a terrible pens fan for these boys

nhl draft (insert year here)

nhl awards (insert year here)

NHL Trade Deadline (insert year here)

hockeyblr

tristan jarry , elite goaltender tristan jarry

NHL 2013 CBA and 2020 MOU

wb/s penguins

nhl misc goals

hockey boy livestream

pens roster

leon draisaitl , german wonder bread

home opener 2021 22 , home opener 2022 23

pens cleanout day

kappy/tans aka the new bromance

4 on 4 hockey

nhl hockey injuries

hockeyblr rpf discourse

hockeyblr directory

penguins helm

mic'd up

bonus hockey

bonus bonus hockey

hockey smooches

1d to hockey pipeline

yotes hockey injuries

love your tendys tenderly!!

5 on 3 hockey

nhl suspension

post game interview

starting goaltender

I want change

NHL News

NHLPA

the bois are fighting

hockey is for everyone

nhl player safety

1st NHL goal

nhl free agency 2021, nhl free agency 2022

nhl discourse

Two Headed Monster

nhl related

pens dad duty updates

nhl cheatsheets

nwsl , national womens soccer league

rookie lap

goalie interference

hockey soulmates , and i dub thee hockey husbands

coyotes roundup

hockey birthdays!

🍆 trick , 🎩 trick

hockey rules/gen questions

'introducing me' by ren

chit chat is right

rea answers , thanks for rhe ask lovely!

ren rants

anon ask

ask game

ren is friend shaped

nhl ask game!

look its me!

fuck you guys ill be horny on main if i want

rea is a gamer , kanarenee on ps4 , kanarenee on twitch.tv

vic and rens 2am talks

rens tinfoil hat

rens pets!

queer as fuck , queer as in fuck you

massive blog changes?? , icon change again?

ren watches tennis

rens 3am hot takes

tag games

reas questionable taste in fashion and men

ren has no impulse control

ren rants no reblogs

rens blog got deleted

ren maybe rea on twitter

rea's taglist masterlist

ren gets political

my emotional support mutuals

ren is a petty bitch

delete later maybe?

genuinely angry rea

rea draws

ren jokes as a coping mechanism , for my own records , my edit , my memes

ren_maybe_rea on twitter

theatre nerd stuff

not quite theatre

tape recording

the athletic , athletic article requests

for reference

'pinned' post

kanarene 4328 9852 3365 , < thats my pokemon go username and trainer code

critrole watching

tiktok

tagging this for filtering purposes:

pic crew

my spotify

lgbtqia+

palaeontology

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

players tribune

queer history

carl the iggy , the better aston reese , carl aston reese

shout out to @firefly-graphics for the page breaks/dividers

#'pinned' post #rea's taglist masterlist #rens 3am hot takes

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writewithurheart · 3 years ago

Text

Hearts of Kyber: Part II

a/n: Hello lovely readers!! We’re back for Part 2 of 3! I’m so happy to be able to share this with all of you. And once again check out the work the rest of Crow Squadron has done because it is absolutely FABULOUS.

Corporalki: @kazandthecrows

Materialki: @anubem (art link) @generalstarkov (art link) @pijoshi (art link) @mitdemadlerimherzen (art link | art link 2) @erandraws (art link) @nannadoodles (art link)

Summary: When an Imperial pilot defects, the Rebellion sends its best spies to find out what he knows. They discover the existence of a planet-destroying weapon known as the Death Star and a scientist who holds the secrets to its only weaknesses. Guided by the pilot, Wylan, and a former storm trooper, Matthias, Kaz Brekker leads a team to uncover the secret that can save the Rebellion before it’s crushed for good.

A Grishaverse Rogue One AU for the Grishaverse Big Bang 2021

Read on AO3 or below the cut:

Part II

Inej wraps her scarf around her head as the shuttle enters the atmosphere to a downpour of rain. She checks her gear. There’s a couple scorch marks from the earlier fight, but everything else is in good repair. It should keep her relatively dry.

Satisfied with her equipment, she turns back to Nina and Matthias. Nina’s fallen asleep on Matthias’s shoulder, exhibiting that her ability to sleep anywhere remains intact.

He looks uncomfortable with everything that’s happening around him. Despite all he’s already shared with them, Matthias still looks unsettled. His hand grips Nina’s, thumb moving in circles against the back of her hand. Inej isn’t even sure he knows he’s doing it. It’s clear that he and Nina have gotten close over the last two years. Inej is happy for her friend.

Matthias clearly didn’t sign up for this. He leaned on Nina for support through their entire conversation. She’s seen that confusion in contacts they’re trying to turn before. Normally Jesper was the one to help put them at ease. Kaz and Inej had their own modes of gathering information.

It can be hard to be thrown into a new situation, and Kaz doesn’t exactly ask your opinion before he turns around and questions your entire belief system. Matthias doesn’t seem to regret what he’s shared. He had only floundered when Kaz had asked about the anti-military defenses. He’d moved past it quickly and all the information fits with what they already know about Imperial procedures.

She moves through the shuttle back to Kaz’s side, leaving Nina and Matthias in their bubble. He’s on the radio to Rebel Command, sequestered in a little corner. She lets him speak as her eyes drift over Jesper in the pilot seat. The Imperial Pilot - Wylan - is pointing out something as the shuttle weaves around rocky pillars.

It has something to do with radars and detection. Jesper’s the natural choice to fly, better with the quick maneuvers than anyone else on their crew. Inej leans against the wall and watches the rain through the windshield.

Kaz finishes his report and turns back to her. He looks tired, his face tight and drawn. They’ve worked together long enough that she can recognize his expressions. He’s shutting down his emotions right now. Whatever they’ve said isn’t something he’s pleased with.

She tilts her head. “What did they say?”

His hand curls into a fist. “They want to send a strike team.”

Inej’s gut clenches at the thought. In the last three years, they’ve, collectively, done terrible things for the Rebellion. They’re the team that gets their hands dirty and keeps the Rebellion well-informed. This weapon - the Death Star - is greater than any other threat they’ve ever faced. She honestly doesn’t know how they’ll face it without more information, which can only be found on Eadu according to Wylan.

“What’s the play?” she asks.

He taps his fingers on the head of this cane. He doesn’t look at her as he works through his problem. “They think it’s too risky to leave the scientists alive. We only have a couple hours before they arrive. If there is information, we have to get it before they get here.”

Inej runs her hand over one of her blades as she considers the change to the plans. “That’s cutting it rather close.”

He finally looks at her. He doesn’t say anything but he can tell by the look in his eyes that he knows it’s going to be difficult, but that she can do it.

Inej pulls out her knife and starts to spin it as she thinks about how this changes their plans. “We can’t fight our way in. It would take too much time.”

Kaz nods.

“Me, Jes and Matthais,” Inej says firmly, nodding at her own thoughts. Kaz’s brain has to be on the outside if something goes wrong. Wylan is a liability: someone might recognize him. Nina would be an asset but they need Matthias’s understanding of base layout and protocol more.

“Get the information and get out.” Kaz rubs a gloved hand across his jaw. “If the scientist slows you down…”

Inej stops the spin of her knife and looks at Kaz. His meaning hits her. He wants her to kill the scientist if necessary. It needles her. He’s never asked her to kill before. It’s always been a matter of survival: fighting because there was no other way out of the situation. He and Jesper are always the ones who carry out of assassination assignments.

She swallows thickly.

“I can tell Jesper,” he offers. If he was a soft man, the words might even be tender, but Kaz Brekker has never been soft.

“He might be the only one with the information,” Inej counters. Her hand lifts to the necklace around her neck. “Force knows we need to find a way to destroy that weapon.”

He gives her a look. She knows he doesn’t believe in the Force even a little. He prefers to put his faith in his own mind. He also puts an extraordinary amount of faith in her, to the point of being dangerous, bewildering and exasperating. He believes in her and that’s heady, but it’s also exhausting because it’s not like he would ever admit it.

He watches her for a moment, eyes boring into her soul.

“We’ve got this, Kaz.” She assures him. She takes a deep breath to breathe in the will of the Force, like her mother once taught her. She doesn’t want to hear his reservations or doubts, because she knows he won’t say them and she doesn’t want this to drag on.

“Keep your comms open,” he instructs. “We’ll be your eyes on the outside. We won’t be able to call off the airstrike.”

She takes a deep breath and grips her necklace. She can do this. She’s choosing to do this.

“It’s now or never,” Jesper announces, jumping out of the pilot seat. He checks his weapons and glances at Kaz and Inej. With his raised eyebrow, Inej realizes just how close they’ve gotten in the little alcove and takes a small step back. “You get in touch with Herr Peskal?”

Kaz nods.

“And?”

“We have ninety minutes.”

Jesper nods. His brows furrowed. “Any leeway in that?”

“Should be more than enough time,” Kaz says instead, walking away towards the back.

Jesper looks back at her, consternation written into his features.

Inej releases her necklace. “We have to get the information and get out. There’s a strike team on it’s way.” She tightens the band on her braid and tucks it into her hood.

He pulls on his own poncho. “Kill protocols?” Jesper checks his pistols as he asks the question. When it takes too long for her to answer, he looks up at her.

“We get the information. If the scientist slows us down…,” she can’t finish the statement. Jesper’s eyes are soft as he nods, understanding what she can’t say. It’s silly that she still has these hang-ups.

“Got it,” Jesper says. He slides his pistols back into their holsters and covers them with his poncho.

Inej nods and moves to the hatch. Kaz stands beside the door and looks out. She stands beside him as they look out into the dark rain. He leans toward her, as close as he can be without touching. She meets his eyes. His eyes are heavy with determination about what needs to happen. In the years since she’s known Kaz, she’s seen him trade his soul for the Rebellion over and over again. He shut down his feelings under a layer of armor too thick for anything to penetrate. It’s a rare moment when she can read the depth of his emotions in his eyes. It’s only when he’s concerned about her or Jesper, not that he’d ever admit that.

At times like this, she wishes she was the kind of person who was more comfortable with touch. She reaches out slowly and clasps his fingers. His eyes drop to her fingers and squeeze hers briefly. His eyes meet hers with the silent order to take care of herself. Inej nods in understanding and then steps back to flip her hood over her head.

“We’re out.”

She hears Matthias and Jesper follow her out into the rain. Their longer legs overtake her quickly and she falls into step with them easily enough.

It turns out the infiltration itself is easy enough. According to Matthais, this base isn’t a military target and is isolated enough that they’re about to sneak in through an air vent. Or Inej is able to. The boys are reluctant to fit themselves into the vents.

She crawls along to a control panel and allows Matthias to talk her through rerouting the cameras so they loop the current footage. It’s a crude set up but that’s all they have time and prep for. She uses the same panel to open the door for Jesper and Matthias. She sticks to the vents and drops into an empty lab based on directions she pulled from the system.

“Kaz, who is it we’re looking for?” She asks the comm.

“Bo Yul-Bayur.” His voice scratches over the open comm. “At least that’s what it sounds like. The pilot’s brain is still scrambled from Bor Gullet.”

She pulls up the scientist directory on a nearby screen and scrolls through the information. “He’s not in the main labs. They look empty. Jes, Matthias, got anything?”

“It looks like there’s some sort of meeting on the main landing pad,” Matthias answers.

“Got all the big brass and everything,” Jesper mutters. “They’re still gathering. This is the time to grab the scientist.”

Inej starts opening cabinets in the room to see if she can find a spare uniform or a lab coat, anything that will help her blend in as she searches the halls for this Yul-Bayur she needs to locate. She’s about to despair when she notices a cubby on the far side of the room with something hanging on it.

The white coat is a pretty good fit, if a little large on her slight frame. She only takes a moment to note that difference before her eyes land on a small picture that was hidden behind the hanging coat. It’s a holodisc, cleverly hidden that wouldn’t be visible in another light, but that’s not what stops the breath in Inej’s chest. She recognizes the photo and her own eyes staring up at her from the center, wrapped in her mother’s arms with her brother perched on her back.

She hasn’t seen her family since she was stolen away. This means…

The name tag on the jacket confirms her suspicion: Ghafa.

A memory returns of a cold steel building where she used to play with a ship and where her father met with important men. She’s too young to care what’s going on, but she remembers the frigidity of it all. Nothing like the caravan and the acrobats which had always felt like home. She remembers that well. But not the before, not the time when her dad…

Whoosh

The door opens and Inej throws herself toward the nearest workspace in the hopes that she can look busy, knowing the jacket should be enough camouflage that she doesn’t need to hide in the limited shadows.

“Hey! You there! What are you doing at my desk?”

The voice is a chill that runs up her spine. She’d been so sure that he was dead. That her father was lost that day when the troopers came to the caravan. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined he was alive, that he had been taken.

Inej slowly turns around. There’s a suspicious burning in the back of her eyes as she finally lays on her father. He stiffens with a soft gasp when he finally gets a look at her face. They stand there in silence for a drawn out minute, staring at each other with open wonder.

“I-I-Inej?”

Her words are lost as tears start to fall so all she can manage is a jerky nod before she flings herself into his open arms and gives herself over to the joy of her father coming back to life.

<hr>

Kaz doesn’t do well when he can’t plan for all the variables on a mission. He scowls and glares out the windshield of the ship at the rain that thuds down on the clear screen. There’s nothing but darkness and rain outside. The comms have gone quiet as Jesper, Matthias, and Inej infiltrate the base. He’s not happy with hastily thrown together plans, even when it’s their only chance to snatch up invaluable information. He’d prefer this to have more finesse.

Wylan Van Eck beside him still twitches nervously in his seat. His eyes are wide in perpetual shock, as if he can’t believe what his life is or how he got there. He’s going to have to get over that quickly. Kaz doesn’t have time to hold his hand. Whether he knows it or not, the pilot likely has valuable information given his relation to a relatively well-known commander of the Empire. Although whatever the Shu did to him seems to be taking its toll.

It’s unfortunate.

Nina finally moves from the back of the ship. In the screen, Kaz watches her stretch to wake up from her nap, as if this was just a normal turn of events. They’re going to have to talk about the last two years and her stay on Jedha, but again, that’s not the priority, not right now. Obviously, she did her thing and convinced a Druskelle to change ranks. It still makes her motivations now unknown.

Kaz looks over the radar even though he knows the strike team is still a while out. He doesn’t like having nothing to do while his team does the difficult work. His mind is on Plan Q of this improvised operation. He dislikes the amount of variables and his role as back up. It would be irresponsible to leave anyone else with the ship. No one else would be able to make the call to leave if it came to that.

“What’s got your panties in a twist, Brekker?” Nina asks from behind him. She’s managed to find some supply of sweets on this ship that he didn’t even realize was there.

Her question prompts Wylan to observe him, snapping him from whatever reverie he found himself in.

“There wasn’t much time to plan. It’s too sloppy.” It’s too risky. Kaz isn’t convinced that it’s worth the amount being risked. He doesn’t trust hearsay and rumors and fickle scientists. This could easily be a trap.

“It’s more than that. The Force moves differently around those who are preparing to kill.”

The pilot jerks in alarm. “What?”

Kaz looks at Nina, projecting his own blank face. He’d forgotten how annoying her perceptiveness could be. Blasted Force-users.

“Jesper was prepared to kill. Even Inej-”

“We’ve got a problem.”

Kaz sits up and leans into the console at Jesper’s voice. “Talk to me.”

“The scientist we were sent to get. He’s gone.”

Kaz frowns. “What do you mean he’s gone?”

“As in, dragged away screaming in front of a cadre of his own scientists and his son,” Jesper reports. There’s a voice too far away for the comm to pick up, which tells him the son is right there. “Kuwei says he knows how to destroy the device. But he won’t tell us until we’re off planet.”

Kaz glances at the clock. They have time. “Wraith, report.” Each moment of silence screams that something is terribly wrong. “Wraith.”

“She was in the labs,” Jesper reports.

“They should be mostly clear by now,” Matthias adds. “We can pick her up on the way out. They don’t have much in the way of holding cells if she was captured.”

“Because they’re more likely to shoot first than stop and ask questions,” Kaz surmises, an observation that isn’t immediately countered which does nothing to assuage his worry. Not that there’s any reason to be concerned about the Wraith. Inej is too good to be captured.

“There would have been an alarm raised.” Matthias’s voice is hard. “They’re already on high alert. Jesper should take Kuwei back to the ship. I can blend in better on my own.”

Kaz grits his teeth. It’s not ideal. Ideally his people need to be out of there but they need to know how to destroy the Death Star. “Do it.”

Nina reaches past him to slam her hand against the control. “Alright, Brekker. Out with it.”

She leans against the console and stares him down. Kaz looks blankly back at her. He didn’t miss dealing with Nina on a regular basis. She always struggled with the grey areas of their jobs, the ones where you had to make the tough calls. She liked to rely on the Force, on a higher power. Kaz prefers to rely on his own intelligence.

“Who are you planning to kill, Kaz,” she enunciates, getting into his face.

“No one.” Technically true now. The plan to kill the scientist is moot if they need him. The Rebel strike team is the more pressing concern at this time.

“Don’t bullshit me. If anything happens to Matthias...”

“You know that any infiltration has some amount of risk.” At this point, the risk is with Inej. If she can, she’ll get out of there.

“There’s something more at play here.”

Kaz glances at the time. “We need to know how to destroy the Death Star. That takes priority.”

“Priority over what, Brekker?”

He looks at her. “We also need to know they can never create another one.”

Nina pales.

“There’s a strike called in for the base.”

“Well, then call it off. They can blow it up from the inside or something.”

He bats her hand away as she reaches for the comms. “We don’t have the explosives for that. Nor the time.”

“The alarm’s been raised. We’re coming out hot.”

Kaz’s blood freezes in his veins. That’s Jesper, not Matthias or Inej. That means they’ll have to take off quickly without hope of waiting it out for any stragglers. Nina meets his gaze in a challenge. He flips a button and the engines start up. He turns to Wylan in the copilot seat. “Can you fly us out of here?”

He nods jerkily and reaches forward to start checks. Kaz bodily inserts himself between Nina and the cockpit. He has to lean heavily on his cane as he pushes back to the loading bay and opens the door.

“Matthias-” Nina forces her way past him to jam on the button. Kaz smacks it off with his cane.

“Inej will get them out if she can. We need to prepare.”

“You bastard! I will never forgive you for this, Brekker.”

His jaw clenches. Inej would never forgive him if he faltered on his path.

“I’m going after them.” Nina rushes out the open door. Jesper arrives with an unknown entity in view.

He can’t afford to wait for her. “Prepare for take off,” he shouts to Wylan as Jesper drags the scientist onto the space ship.

The scientist collapses onto the bench, breathing heavily. Jesper looks back, pointing over his shoulder where Nina disappeared into the rain. “Where’s she going?”

Kaz scowls. “She refused to leave her partner behind.”

“Inej?”

“Plan J,” Kaz responds. It’s his standard response when things go wrong. It’s their shorthand for ‘she’s going to find her own way out’.

“We’ve got incoming,” Wylan shouts from the front. Jesper slams the door and dashes to the cockpit. The ship is his baby.

“It’s the alliance,” Jesper calls.

Kaz breathes out. He turns away from the door. “Get us out of here.”

<hr>

The alarm blares through the compound. Matthias listens to the sirens. Unless they’ve changed the signals, it’s the intruder alarm. Either Inej or Jesper has been found. He sighs and adjusts his suit, tugging at his borrowed uniform so it sits straight. It’s been two years and the outfit that once felt like a second skin now feels stiff and constraining.

A platoon of troopers races past Matthias, down the hallway in the opposite direction. He overhears their leader shout about an unknown man with Lab Assistant Al Bul. Not that he has any idea where Inej might be.

He heads towards the labs, nodding to officers as he marches along. He sticks his head into the various rooms. He lifts his hand to the silent comm.

“Inej? Report?”

He sees two scientists pulled from a lab in front of them. Only one is dressed in standard Imperial research regalia, the other just has a white overcoat. He vaguely recognizes the slight figure of Inej as she lurks slightly behind the scientist.

“You’re supposed to be in the main hangar, Ghafa.”

Matthias freezes. He knows that voice. It’s the same voice who trained him, the one that took him under his wing and trained him to take his place. Jarl Brum was the man who was a father figure since he was an adolescent. He’s the one he spent the last two years considering trying to contact.

“Of course, Commander Brum. My assistant and I just had to finish one last computation. The captain didn’t communicate the urgency of the situation when he came by earlier.” The man sounds as polite and rational as any might be.

“You know better than that, Ghafa. My second says he saw you on your way to the hangar when the announcement went up. You stopped. And who is your assistant? I don’t recall seeing this one around before.”

Matthias curses. Inej isn’t sneaking under the radar. She’s not getting out of here clean, not when they’re already on high alert about a trespasser. The display in the hangar would imply that they know they have a leak, and Jarl Brum is the type to shoot first and then brutally interrogate. Leaving her is not an option.

He drops his hand to the gun at his side and sighs. Two years ago, this wouldn’t be a consideration. He would turn himself over to Brum and gladly share everything he knew, use that knowledge to ingratiate himself to his pseudo-father. But that was before Jedha, before he witnessed what survival on the street looked like, before he learned what citizens of the Empire would consent to live under rather than suffer Imperial rule.

He glances down the hallway and sees only one man at Brum’s side. The rest of the hallway is clear, but there’s no guarantee it will stay that way for long. Matthias looks down and sets his blaster to stun. He carefully doesn’t allow himself to think for too long. The first shot goes wide as Matthias readjusts to the Imperial blaster. He readjusts instinctually and the second shot hits the soldier in the middle of his forehead.

Brum, with typical arrogance, doesn’t even reach for his blaster as he turns to look down the hallway. He blinks in shock as he recognizes Matthias. It couldn’t be too difficult now that he’s finally back in the Imperial uniform.

“Matthias Helvar? My son, you’ve returned.” He turns away from the scientist.

Inej has pushed the scientist behind her. She looks nervous as she glances between Matthais and Brum.

“I’m not your son.” He might be a little defensive on that point seeing as he barely has the trust of this heist team. “We’re going.”

Inej moves, keeping herself between the scientist and Brum as she pushes him further down the wall. Matthias doesn’t remove his eyes from Brum.

Brum turns to face Matthias fully. “It’s good to see you. We thought you were lost when you landed on Jedha. You look well.” He takes a deep breath as Matthias starts to back away down the hallway. “You know you won’t get away. The entire base is looking for you.”

He doesn’t dignify the statement with a response. He could shoot Brum right now, slide the gun from stun to kill. It would cement his change of allegiance. His finger hovers over the trigger for a moment. The hesitation costs him. Troopers round the corner. They waste no time in firing once they see Matthias pointing his weapon at Brum. He ducks and rounds the corner, firing back as he glances over at Inej.

“We need to go. Where’s Jesper?” Inej says from where she crouches beside him.

“He went ahead with the scientist,” Matthias replies. “They’re the ones who set off the alarm.”

She scowls and glances around. “Where’s the hangar?”

He pauses in firing. “The opposite direction from where the transport is. We need to go back the other way.”

“No,” Inej counters. “Jesper and the scientist are back at the shuttle. That means they’re gone. We need alternate transport. Dad?”

“What do you mean?” Matthias frowns. “They wouldn’t leave…” He’s cut off as the man gestures down the hall. Inej starts to move. Matthias hits his head against the wall. Of course they’re going to do something not in the plan. It’s what he should expect from an undisciplined bunch.

“They had no choice,” Inej whispers. She pulls a blaster on approaching troopers, causing them to drop back to avoid blasters.

Matthias fires off a couple more shots as they race through the hallways. He curses in Fjerdan as they run. Stupid demon spies with unorthodox plans and no communication skills. “What are you talking about?”

“There’s a strike team coming. They’re going to blow this base with us in it if we don’t get off planet now.” Inej’s voice is calm.

When they get out of here, Matthias is going to have some strong words with Kaz Brekker about his asinine plans and the danger he puts his people in. “We’re going to the private hangar. The main one will be too crowded. It’s where they gathered the scientists earlier. Brum’s transport should be on his level.”

He smashes open the door to an elevator. He lets Inej and the scientist in before him and then slams on the button to the correct floor as he remembers it. Finally he glances at the scientist and then to Inej. “I thought we wanted Yul-Bayur?”

Inej shifts. It would almost be nervous except she looks completely unapologetic.

“Why do you want him?”

Matthias doesn’t speak. He has no idea who this scientist is and isn’t about to divulge secret information.

“The Death Star,” Inej says, turning to face the man.

He pales. “They finished it?”

“How do you know about it?” Matthias crosses his arms, but his eyes follow the indicator on the elevator as they close in on their target. The door opens directly to the flight platform which is blessedly empty of guards. He stands with one foot out so the door won’t close and face the scientist.

“I worked on it.”

“We got word from a pilot that there was a way to destroy it.”

Inej is too trusting. Matthias is ready to leave.

“Yes, but how do you know this?” The man asks. “I was unable to pass that information along.”

“You?” Inej laughs, throwing her head back and then throws her arms around the man. “Of course you did, Papa.”

That finally connects the dots for Matthias. He can’t let himself get distracted. If this is the scientist which has the information they need, then they need to get out of here even more now. He turns toward Brum’s personal shuttle. There are two other ships in close proximity - his guard ships. But they only need one.

“Come on,” Matthias interrupts as he starts toward the main shuttle.

Inej turns around and stabs one of her knives into the control panel, effectively destroying it in a single motion. It’s clever. He should have thought of it, should have realized. But the more important goal is to get out of here.

Halfway across the tarmac, Matthias hears the shot.

Inej’s scream pierces the air and the world stops as he spins around to see her father collapse to the ground.

<hr>

Nina regrets her choice as soon as she steps out into the cold, lashing rain. The wind rips at her braided hair. It slaps against her face and lands askew. Her boots are filled with water through the little leaks she never bothered to patch while living on Jedha. It was unnecessary on a desert planet, after all.

Her robes whip around her and the darkness blinds her to her surroundings. Nina shuts her eyes and lets the Maker guide her steps on the uneven terrain. She knows Inej and Matthias are likely fine on their own. Something calls her forward. It demands she walk into the abyss. It’s a call she’s used to answering.

She’s helpless to fight it.

Nina learned it’s best to trust these moments of intuition, even as it annoys Zoya, Kaz, Matthias, and everyone she’s ever served with. It’s part of her unique times.

The door to the base is ajar, likely propped open for breaks for onsite personnel, the kind that balks protocol and that is largely unknown save by those who frequent it. The site is abandoned in favor of responding to the intruder alarm. The door opens inward to soldier barracks and Nina quickly sheds her robes to change into the standard armor of a foot soldier, unnoticeable in the best of times. It’s the perfect disguise.

The helmet is almost suffocating as she drops it over her head. The visor allows her startlingly little light to see by, probably as troopers are to be feared rather than effective. Nina lifts her bladder and proceeds into the hallway, falling into step with troopers moving rapidly in one direction.

“Intruders at the West Entrance. Assistance has been requested.”

“Belay that order. Platoon B divert to General Brum.”

Nina follows the example of the troopers around her and salutes to the man who orders their change in objective. She’s part of the Rebellion. She knows the name Brum. Apprehension sends a shiver down her spine at the name of the man famous for rooting out and murdering Rebel spies. That Matthias served directly under him only adds to her anxiety.

Brum himself meets her new platoon at the elevator with a scowl. It’s the first time Nina has ever seen the man in person but the frosty expression is reminiscent of her first days in Jedha with Matthias in his Druskelle idiocy. He stands stiff and tall, frosty in a way that Nina thinks he never learned to smile.

“Intruders are headed to my private shuttle. Detaining them alive is preferable. Dead is acceptable. One former Druskelle, one girl, and Scientist Ghafa. THey must not be allowed to escape.”

Again they salute with terrifying synchronicity.

“Two of you, with me,” he orders as he steps into the lift. “The rest of you, take the stairs.”

Thank the Force, Nina finds herself nearest the elevator doors and she steps in alongside another faceless trooper. One the ride, she focuses on her breath instead of her proximity to the man known to have murdered her comrades. Idly she wonders if her breath could fog up the inside of her helmet, if her breath was labored enough.

She exits the lift alongside the other trooper, finger carefully on the trigger. She calls on the Force to protect Matthias and Inej. Briefly, she considers turning on Brum but the Force screams at her to follow this course of action. She doesn’t understand but she trusts it to guide her in her actions.

There are already troopers on the platform, firing on Matthias, Inej and the scientist. She swore Jesper was the one with the scientist, not Inej. She watches as the scientist falls to a well-placed shot. Her resolve to listen to the Force almost breaks when she realizes that Inej and Matthias aren’t going to reach the shuttle without further casualties. A moment later, the Rebel spy ship emerges from the darkness of Eadu and rains down shots to cover their retreat.

The troopers move for cover as Matthais and Inej carry the scientist over their shoulders and race for the ship. It looks almost comical - a man strung between the tall Matthias and the tiny Inej. Nina herself isn’t pleased at the arrival of the ship she swears she just saw fly off with the intent to leave them behind.

It would appear Kaz and Inej are still doing the same circular dance of flirtation without addressing their own issues and feelings.

“Bring that ship down!” Brum screams, as if the troopers’ meagre blasters could somehow penetrate the ship’s shield.

“If I may, sir,” NIna says tentatively enough while still playing the obedient trooper. One with a brain. “Perhaps pursuit would be more successful.”

Brum stares a moment before he once again starts barking orders. It looks like she’s getting off this rock anyway. The Force still has some use for her after all.

<hr>

They were out. They were minutes from freedom.

The words are on repeat in her head as Inej drops to the ground beside her father. Rain soaks through her clothes as she pulls her father into her lap. His hand wraps around hers with surprising strength. In the background, she can hear Matthias shouting, the pew pew pew of blaster fire, and then something that sounds like Kaz’s rasp which makes no sense. They should have taken off by now, maybe even be out of the atmosphere.

“Stardust,” her father whispers. His hand reaches up to brush dripping wet hair from where it hangs in her face. “Scarif...you must go to Scarif…”

“You’re coming with us,” she whispers. Tears blur her eyes as she tries a watery smile. A hand grips her shoulder and abruptly the rest of the world comes back into sharp relief. She feels each drop of rain from the sky, the sizzle of hot laser blasts hitting water, and Jesper’s plea for her to move. “I’m not leaving him!”

Matthias grumbles in a different language as he fires off another couple of shots. Jesper circles Inej to throw her father’s arm over his shoulders. Inej rushes to help her. Her father grunts as they shift him. He’s too injured to help them as they half carry, half drag him towards the shuttle.

Kaz would have her head if he knew they were risking everything to bring her father with them. Her orders were to get the scientist out of there. If Jesper already got one, then they could have left her father behind. It’s her sentimentality. That’s what he would blame it on.

Inej’s free hand wraps around the necklace tied around her throat. For so long it was the only memento she had of her family. She prays to the Force, to the long forgotten religion of her people as she staggers under her father’s weight. They can do this.

Her feet land on a metal incline and Inej pushes herself to get to the flat of the ship. Matthias slams on the button to close the doors and Jesper slips out from his position holding Inej’s father up to race to the cockpit.

Only Inej’s superior sense of balance and upper body strength allow her to keep her father from dropping to the floor. Kaz slides over to take Jesper’s place as the shuttle leaves the tarmac. It rocks dangerously as they get her father to a bench. He groans as he lands hard on the unforgiving surface.

“Matthias, I need you on the guns!”

Inej blocks it all out as she focuses on her father, drinking in the lines on his face. “I’m here, Dad. We’re gonna help you.” Her eyes land on a med kit Kaz drops beside her. She throws it open to gaze at the contents they haven’t replenished in far too long. She rips his jacket open to find where the blaster shot landed. Her father’s hands fumble to help her only to still her hands. She frowns and looks up at him.

“Papa-”

“Listen, Stardust. The Death Star. There’s a way to stop it. A weakness…exhaust port...plans are on Scarif...your mother…”

“You need to save your strength,” Inej whispers. His hands fall from hers, suddenly weightless. With one hand Inej claws through the med kit, her hands landing on bacta patches. She pulls his shirt back and desperately presses the medication to the wound.

“You can’t leave me like this, Papa. I just got you back. I can’t lose you again. Not like this. I need you. You’ve got to meet Jesper...and Kaz. Jesper will make you laugh like you’ve never laughed before. Kaz is a bit harder but I think you’ll like how much he cares. He’s been looking for you, you know. You’re going to be okay.”

She scrambles for the serum that will put him in stasis until they make it back to base. If there’s a chance to save him, it will happen there. Tears are hot on her cheeks. Inej presses her lips to his hands. They don’t grip hers back as he succumbs to the serum. His whole body goes slack under her hands, his eyes shut. The fight slips away from him. Inej loses her own battle and sobs in earnest. One hand finds her father’s pulse. Tension weeps from her body as she feels the faint flutter under her fingers. He’s still alive for now.

The motion of the shuttle smoothes out as the shuttle goes into lightspeed.

“Inej-”

Kaz’s voice is cut off as she looks back up at him. She stares at him, finally processing what his presence here means. “You came back.”

Inej forces a deep breath and pulls back from her father. She swipes at the tears on her face. Air won’t come easily. She wrestles with it as Kaz kneels beside her. Matthias returns from where he was manning the weapons. With surprising gentleness, he arranges Inej’s father on the bench, and checks his pulse again. He checks the bacta pack and nods. Inej rises to her feet and takes deep breaths. She tries to reboot her mind, to get it to focus on what the next step is. There’s something she need to be doing but all she can think about is what she just found that was then almost ripped unceremoniously from her grasp.

They must have done it: gotten away from Eadu in one piece. Her eyes drift from her friends, her heart swelling with warmth only for her gaze to land on the newcomer. She feels ugly emotion rise in her chest as her eyes take in this scientist who was allowed to just walk away while her father is…

Inej can’t finish the thought. She shakes her head, and turns back to Kaz. There’s so much she wants to say, to ask about. The ship should have been gone and they came back. Kaz’s gloved hand slips into hers and he squeezes it. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t do anything else, but it feels like the world has shifted with that one singular motion.

Her father is dead, but that will not be where this story ends.

<hr>

Wylan’s hands are steady on the controls as he steers the ship into the landing field of the Rebel base. His breath is uneven in his chest and his heart feels like a jackhammer as he fears what this group will do to his already fractured psyche. He’s gotten better in the last few days - miles better than whatever it is Bor Gullet did to his brain on Jedha. It’s like his brain and body had to relearn how to communicate.

He hasn’t told anyone that the symbols on the controls and all his displays are illegible to his mind. Struggling with reading isn’t new to him. It was one of those things his father despaired of before he shipped Wylan off to the flight academy, enraged that his son would never be an Imperial officer. Now the screens hurt his eyes.

It doesn’t matter. He’s trained himself to fly without the assistance. It just gets in the way of good pilots most of the time. Jesper leans forward and looks over the screens, then glances at Wylan. He raises an eyebrow and falls backwards into his chair with an impressed whistle.

“You’re not even reading the specs, are you? Are you some kind of super pilot?”

Wylan glances sideways as he lowers the landing gear. He shrugs vaguely. The way Jesper is looking at him sends a shiver down his spine. It’s a loaded glance. He doesn’t want to look too deeply at what it means, doesn’t want to jump to conclusions about what he’s thinking. Any flirting is in his own head.

“That’s hot.”

Or not. Wylan frowns at him as he powers down the plane. “Are you serious, right now?”

Jesper winks, and throws him a devilish smirk. “What can I say? Competence is a turn on.”

“Stop flirting.” Kaz’s voice breaks through the fog in Wylan’s brain as he briefly forgets how to think. “We need to report.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Jesper throws back as he jumps to his feet.

“You’re ridiculous,” Wylan informs him.

“Welcome to the Rebellion, Sunshine. Let’s go!” With more enthusiasm than he thinks is warranted, Jesper propels Wylan in front of him and out onto the dry base. He receives some interested looks, but not so many as the floating stretcher escorted by Inej and Matthias as it races into the base.

“Will Pavel Ghafa be okay?” He asks, staring at the stretcher as it disappears.

Jesper and Kaz both turn to look at him. Wylan wants to shrink away from their gaze.

“How do you know Inej’s father?” Kaz demands.

Wylan tilts his head. So that’s what he missed while flying the plane. “He was nice to me. None of the other scientists would speak to me. They…” They thought he was stupid. His first day on base, his father had made a point of shoving his face in everything he couldn’t understand by bringing him to the science labs. The joke was on him because Wylan could understand parts of it, even if he couldn’t read anything. Scientist Ghafa was the only one who noticed. Afterwards, he was the only one who continued to talk to him. “He taught me how to blow things up.”

Jesper grins. “Damn. I like him already.”

“Is he going to make it?” Wylan asks.

“Did he ever tell you about his work? Anything about the Death Star?”

Wylan pauses and tries to think about their past interactions. The memories stall. He sighs and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. He always told me to be careful, to keep my head down. I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

Kaz nods and turns away. He makes a bee-line for a man and a woman, both waiting by the entrance to the base. The two of them are standing still while the rest of the base moves around them. It takes a special sort of power.

Wylan looks over at Jesper and then past him to Al Bul. Kuwei had never been particularly kind to him, or mean, really. He doesn’t know much about him at all. He wasn’t happy with the way he was coerced into helping them get rescued, largely because he ended up being interrogated by Bor Gullet. Turns out the Shu weren’t too happy with the potential ability to get back two of their own citizens. Wylan would have appreciated that knowledge before he landed in Jedha to a hostile situation.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get this solved.” Jesper nods at something Kaz conveys with a quick hand signal. His hand moves from Wylan’s shoulder with a quick squeeze. It lands heavily on Kuwei’s shoulder and pushes him forward. “Come on, Kiwi. We got you out, so now it’s your turn to cough up what you know.”

<hr>

The universe is a perpetual joke.

Jesper plays with the settings on his blasters as he sits in the dark corner of HQ while voices rise and fall in impassioned debate. Kuwei, for all his supposed knowledge, can only tell them that there’s a critical weakness in the Death Star’s defenses. It’s in the plans, which he thinks he can create from memory. The leaders of the Resistance are far less trusting of this information. Spymaster Per Haskell is angry that he’s devoted so many resources on a dead end. Inej is pushing for an expedition to Scarif, where she can recover the plans. According to her, her father knows the plans are there. Genya seems interested in the plan, but the majority of the people present are convinced of the futility of the prospect.

They’d rather continue along their familiar routes of information gathering. Even from across the room, Jesper can tell Kaz is going to follow Inej on this. That boy will move worlds to get her what she wants.

Jesper gets to his feet and walks away from the noise of the room. He’d better get their ride ready. Wylan Van Sunshine is the only one to recognize his exit and he falls into step with Jesper.

“What are you planning?”

Jesper shrugs. “What makes you think I’m planning anything?”

“The demjin would not give in so easily.”

His head whips around to his other side where Matthias is now standing, face set in a scowl. “I’m going to put a bell on you.” They both continue to stare at him. “Stop that. There’s no plan.”

“There’s a plan,” Wylan says, looking at Matthias.

“Of course, there’s a plan.” Matthias agrees. “Nina’s on Scarif.”

Jesper laughs. “That’s quite a leap.”

“She’s on Scarif,” Matthias repeats.

Jesper shakes his head. There’s no possible way he can know that. There’s a whole galaxy out there where she could be, and that’s if she got off the planet. The poor guy is delusional. “Look, I know it sucks that we left her behind. The odds of her surviving the strike are not great.”

“Brum’s shuttle left after us. It survived the strike. She was on that ship.” Matthias says tightly.

“I want Nina to be alive just as much as you do, but there’s no way you can know that.” Jesper squints at Matthias, trying to determine what Matthias actually knows and what is just him trying to will into being.

Matthias gets a pained look on his normally stoic face. He looks up at the sky, as if he can’t believe what he’s about to say. “I would feel it if she were dead.”

Jesper looks at Wylan, glad to see that he’s just as lost as Jesper is. Jesper runs a hand over the back of his neck with a sigh. As much as he would love to continue his unbelieving attitude, Jesper knows the truth resonates in Matthias’s words. Nina’s alive and somehow is going to be exactly where she needs to be, but Matthias isn’t in contact with her. He’s just got faith. “I hope you’re right, soldier boy.”

“Please tell me there is actually a plan,” Matthias answers. His face is all scowly.

“Plans are a turn on for you, aren’t they?” Jesper speculates as he looks the soldier over. “How does that work out with you and Nina?” She’s the least rule-following person he knows. She likes to improvise too much when the Force speaks to her.

Matthias doesn’t answer. He just narrows his eyes at Jesper’s tone. Jesper bites back a smirk. He’d bet good money that the reason it works is because they’re both soldiers, who are loyal and stubborn as hell. Helvar doesn’t seem like a complete dick, and exactly Nina’s type. He really does hope he’s right about Nina.

Jesper pushes past them both and walks towards the mess hall, where he knows the intelligence agents who are on base spend their down time. Unlike many operatives who find ways to work the Rebel insignia into their uniforms, the intelligence agents are a paranoid bunch who value their identity too much to risk their allegiance being revealed, even a Rebel base.

Generally, the intelligence agents are known as spies or The Dregs. Kaz calls them the Crows because they go out in the galaxy and collect shiny bits of information which they hoard and return in the hopes that it might turn out to be valuable. They don’t often work in large groups but they can recognize each other. Wylan and Matthias trail behind him as he walks across the way to Rotty, who’s sitting alone and staring into his mug.

He looks up as Jesper drops into the seat across from him. His eyes take in the three of them, assessing even as he looks half asleep. That’s part of his charm. People underestimate him. He takes them in, looks around the room and then leans forward. “This about the meeting happening right now?”

Rotty’s good at connecting dots.

Jesper shrugs as if to say “what can you do”.

Rotty throws the rest of his drink back and drops his mug on the table. “Is the intelligence worth it?”

Jesper runs a hand along this jaw and the stubble that’s starting to grow as he looks around, glancing at Wylan and Matthias. “We have confirmation the information’s on Scarif. Nina’s on the inside.”

Rotty blinks in surprise. “Nina? Zenik? I thought…” He looks at Matthias. “So the rumors about Jedha?”

“All true. We need to move before things get worse.” Jesper glances around the room. “It looks like the vote will go the other way.”

The Dregs have the best blank stares. Jesper watches his eyes and the calculations going on behind them. “Kaz?”

Jesper knows he’s got him. Rotty will help them. “Sent me to spread the word. No orders. This isn’t mandated. It has to be your choice.”

“Who do you have so far?”

“Kanej and these two.”

Rotty snorts. “You’re still hoping that catches on.”

“It’s so much easier to say than Kaz and Inej every time. When we have time, remind me to tell you about the repressed pining from this last stunt. It’s a good one.” Jesper taps the table and stands. “Spread the word. We’re leaving as soon as the meeting lets out.”

Rotty nods.

Jesper is two tables away when Rotty calls after him. “How do you know Zenik is on Scarif?”

Matthias tenses. It’s comical how easy he is to read.

“She sent an encrypted message.” Jesper reveals with a grin. Then, because he doesn’t trust the druskelle yet, he throws in a little lie. “In the ship’s lights as Brum’s shuttle left Eadu. Kuwei confirmed Brum would fall back to Mustafar and then likely Scarif to check the Death Star plans. We’re watching the old channels for updates.”

Rotty nods.

Matthias shakes his head as they walk out of the cafeteria. “You could have just told me that.”

Jesper laughs. “And missed the look on your face? Never! Now, come on, Helvar, Sunshine. We’ve got a ship to prepare. Stealthily.”

<hr>

“We can’t take no for an answer. You know this is wrong! We have to go. There’s no guarantee Kuwei has any idea what he’s talking about. It’s all guesswork. My father nearly died getting us this information.”

Kaz leans heavily on his cane as they leave HQ as Inej rants in his ear. It’s been awhile since he’s been the recipient of one of her rants. They’ve long accepted their own philosophical differences. He knows her well enough to understand that this is different. This is the first tangible connection she has to her family. Defeating the Death Star is now a part of his legacy and she’ll do anything to protect that. “I know, Inej.”

“So why didn’t you say anything?! You stood silently by. You didn’t even argue for a plan that could work.”

He rubs at his leg like that will alleviate the pain. It’s not great that it’s worse today but Kaz has worked through the pain before. It shouldn’t cause any hiccups assuming that they can get out of here before someone tries to stop them. Based on Genya’s nod as they left, he’s willing to bet that she’ll run interference.

“They were never going to agree. Scarif is a stronghold. We haven’t been able to infiltrate before. Whoever goes in, even if they succeed in getting the plans, they would likely die.” The words are harsh. They have to be. He can’t have anyone doubting the risks involved.

“It would be worth it.” Inej’s eyes are fire, pure passion. It does funny things to his heart beat. She’s a woman meant to live life to the fullest. She’s never more beautiful than when her whole heart is devoted to something she cares about.

Kaz holds her gaze for a minute and then nods. “I agree. That’s why Jesper’s collecting the Crows.”

He struggles with a smile at the shock and warmth in Inej’s gaze, the way her lips part in surprise. The him of several years ago wouldn’t have made this choice. He turns away from her and continues to walk. His smile would come out if he continued to look at her. A few years ago, he wouldn’t have let this melt the ice around his heart, but he’s started to let people in again. It’s a strength as much as a weakness.

“We’re going?” She speeds up to walk in front of him, turning so she can face him as she walks backwards. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“If you didn’t fight for your father, Haskell would have been suspicious. He would have grounded us.”

Her eyes sparkle and another little bit of ice melts. Her hand reaches out like she’s going to reach for her hand. Kaz’s chest is tight - both with desire for her closeness and in fear of contact. Slowly telegraphing her movements, Inej’s hand lands on his forearm. He stops in the middle of the hallway. The bile he expects doesn’t overwhelm him. Instead, it feels almost nice. He relaxes into it as he drinks in her gaze. She smiles at him.

“Thank you.”

He shrugs. He only did what had to be done. Kaz slowly turns his hand over and pulls it back so that their hands meet, fingers intertwining. He stares at the contact and wonders briefly what it would feel like without the gloves between their skin. He wants to be brave enough to push himself to that point but he’s not ready for that yet.

He loosens his grip and lets their hands slip apart before he starts walking, glancing around the hallway. Per Haskell has his eyes on them despite being engaged in conversation with Genya in the entrance to the conference room.

“We need to get out of here before we get locked down.”

Inej nods. “Right.” She pulls away and they start to walk down the hall again.

Kaz’s tensions relax when they reach the hangar and see the Crows all milling around the shuttle, looking inconspicuous for the moment in the bustle of people, but he knows it’s not long before they start attracting attention. His eyes flit to each familiar face. They acknowledge the silent signal and all head toward the shuttle.

It’s a tight squeeze, done nearly silently. It isn’t until he’s moving toward the cockpit when he hears the agitated back and forth of two dissenting voices.

“You’re doing it wrong. We’re never going to get out of here with that clearance code.”

There’s an annoyed huff. “Well then, you’re in charge of the code. I can handle the flying.”

“It’s my ship. I’m the pilot, Sunshine.”

Kaz reaches the entrance to see both Wylan and Jesper at the controls.

“You don’t fly like an Imperial pilot. They’re going to notice.” Wylan glares at Jesper and bats his hand away from the control he’s reaching for. “Just focus on the codes.”

Jesper leans forward. “You know, it’s kind of hot how you take charge.”

Kaz clears his throat. He ignores the way Wylan’s skin flushes and Jesper’s predatory grin. “Time to fly.”

Engines hum to life, shortly followed by a radio static call. “Imperial Ship, you have not been cleared for take off. Please state your call sign.”

Wylan and Jesper look at each other in alarm. It’s almost comical. Jesper, only slightly less useless in this situation grabs the radio. “Oh, right. Tower, this is Rogue...One.”

Kaz closes his eyes at the stupidity. Even Wylan looks pained. Jesper however forges ahead.

“Rogue One, taking off.”

He closes the radio connection as Wylan maneuvers the shuttle into the air and they head off into uncertain danger. Kaz glances back at Inej. She meets his gaze with the same stoic determination. At least they’re in this together.

...

Keep an eye out for Part III coming out next week!

#gvbb21 #gvbbfic21 #six of crows #rogue one au #grishaverse

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