#While Ezra is like a proper OC | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

viris-ocs · 29 days ago

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Ezra Van t' Schip (SYOC OC for Thunder Stone on FF.Net))

General Information

Name: Ezra Van t’ Schip

Nicknames: Skippy, Ez

Titles: Thunder Striker

Age: 24

Gender: Male (He/Him)

Sexuality: Gay

Birthday: July 4th

Appearance Information

Hair: Long, mid back length, brown hair parted in the middle with whispy curtain bangs, usually kept down but sometimes is put up.

Eyes: bright orange/amber, narrow in shape with an almost fox like mischievousness to them

Height: 5’8”, a bit on the shorter side

Body Build: he seems slim due to his loose fitting attire, and is quite limber, but also lean and with a good build. He's lived on a ship most of his life, you godda be able to pull weight. You'd be surprised with how strong he really is.

Skin Tone: Fair but tanned over time at sea

Distinguishing Features: He's got a couple of scars over his life in many places, most are small or medium from miscellaneous accidents. Though there's a very large and prominent burn scar covering his right shoulder, going up his neck and a bit onto his jaw, and all down his arm. There are two smaller burn scars on his back and his hip, all from the same event. His ears are pierced twice on each, with dangling gold on both, and has snakebites on his lips. On his non-burned arm is a sleeve tattoo of different coloured Japanese style (or Enca style in this universe lol) Peony patterns in remembrance of the people he's lost, one flower for every person.

Guild Mark: Cerulean blue under his left ear

Main Outfit: Ezra's attire is very true to him, and looks like proper pirate attire. He wears two shirts, the first one is a Carmine red left slightly unbuttoned, the second is off-white and left even more unbuttoned with ¾ sleeves, it's much more loose fitting and is tucked into high waisted wrap pants that are also loose fitting and gather at the calfs, typical pirate pants. The pants are a darker teal-blue colour and are held up by a cloth belt of the same colour, red cord, and many navy blue leather pouches. The pouches are decorated with tassels and miscellaneous golden decorations. He has navy heeled boots with golden heels, and will sometimes be seen wearing a very long navy jacket with golden thread details, and a lighter teal-blue inside. Though he tends to wear it only on his shoulders.

Winter Clothing:

Summer Clothing: He stays the same, but probably won't wear his coat and his white shirt will be around his waist.

Sleepwear: A loose fitting linen shirt and navy pants

Training Outfit: Same as normal outfit, but without the red shirt, leather satchels, and coat

Swimwear: Navy trunks and breezy pirate shirt

Formal Outfit: Pirate style linen shirt with poet sleeves tucked into high waisted navy pants with three buttons. His boots are brown with a bit of red and kinda long, and has a bit of triangular red cloth tied around his waist with a thick brown belt. He wears his coat off his shoulders and has the titular pirate hat that's navy blue and a big white Feather.

Other: (Any extra outfits or styles you would like to add.)

Personality Information

General Personality:

When you meet Ezra, you may have one of two assumptions about him. 1: He's a very helpful, reliable, and easygoing kind of guy. Or 2: He's a Mischievous, Scheming, Witty little liar. These two different assumptions depend on how observant the person is. If two people were lost in an unfamiliar town and Ezra offered to be their guide, the average one would see Ezra's physical and verbal openness and listen to his charming and sympathetic words and think that they're lucky to have run into him. The highly observant one would see Ezra subtly eyeing them as if building a mental profile, keeping a slight distance, and light soundless footsteps and keep their hand close to their weapon. They'd both hold their beliefs while Ezra showed them around town, even showing them some underground hidden gems for their troubles, before heading off to the train station. However when the two go to buy their ticket, they find that they've conveniently spent all their money at the shops. Stranded? Don't worry! Ezra can help with that, he even got you tickets at a discount, you'll just owe him a favor! Oh, you're from a guild? Even better.

As it turns out, both of these assumptions are true at the same time. Ezra is indeed helpful and reliable, if you ask him for help with something then he will help you efficiently and effectively, no laziness or half-assing it over here. But he can also get up to mischief. Not physically, at least not usually, he's not the kind to play pranks or such, but he does know what to say in order to get what he wants. He hides lies within half truths, he can charm, he can haggle, he always knows just the right words and what you need to hear. However don't confuse his manipulativeness with maliciousness, Ezra does not use his silver tongue for evil intentions, sometimes he just needs… favours. Favors can be more valuable than even the richest of riches if you play your cards just right, and Ezra likes to have a cash of favours on him at all times. He takes favours VERY seriously, and not keeping your word on a favour is akin to spitting directly in Ezra's face and disrespecting his entire character.

Ezra is a highly intelligent person, especially when it comes to people. He can look at a person and get an idea of their personality, their values, social status, wealth, and where they're from. He can read people's faces as easily as a children's book, and can tell what people are about to do before they do it. He's highly observant, and is very aware of his surroundings, though he often doesn't act like it. He'll often have a very relaxed and chill demeanor about him, being seen slumping into his seat, always leaning against something, or laying down on the roof (how did he even get up there?). He doesn't feel like he has to guard himself.

Ezra also loves a good adventure, a good challenge. It's his belief that a tough challenge is a part of the road to self improvement, so he always likes to go on missions that are on the tougher side. He doesn't like staying in one place for too long lest he starts to feel restless, so as much as he loves spending time with the guild, he can't stay there for any more than a week at a time. When he's injured there tends to have to be someone assigned to him to keep an eye on him and make sure that Ezra doesn't sneak back out before he's fully healed. A good adventure also needs a good story, and while Ezra can spin a good tale with all the theatrics you would expect, he's preferred method of story is through poetry. Ezra is a creative guy, and he has quite a way with words, so it's of no surprise that he started leaning towards the art form. When going on missions he will write a poem about the events that happen on then, usually accompanied by a sketch of something related. He's quite good at both, but gets very embarrassed if anyone sees them.

Words that I'd use to describe Ezra are - Clever, Intelligent, Playful, Helpful, Reliable, Mischievous, Perceptive, Intuitive, Social, Dependable, Efficient, Adaptable, Creative, Charismatic, Scheming, Morally Ambiguous, Manipulative

Likes:

▪︎ The Ocean

▪︎ Money

▪︎ Bargaining

▪︎ Freedom

▪︎ Antiques and treasures

▪︎ Going on missions

▪︎ Socializing

▪︎ Fancy desserts

▪︎ Seabirds and foxes

▪︎ Being up high

▪︎ Crab with garlic butter

▪︎ Having favours at his disposal

Dislikes:

▪︎ Being followed or otherwise intruded on

▪︎ Swamps

▪︎ Big spending

▪︎ People trying to scam him (seriously guys, it doesn’t even work! Why must you keep trying!?)

▪︎ Unwarranted cruelty

▪︎ Canned foods

▪︎ Drunkards

▪︎ Mice

▪︎ Getting stuck in one place for too long

▪︎ Owing too many favours to others

Hobbies: Chess, Darts, sketching, poetry (he's quite good at the last two, but is too embarrassed to share them)

Fears: Fire, quicksand, having people die for him.

Friends:

Rivals:

Respect:

Enemies/Hate:

Love Interest:

History Information

Where are they from: Ezra actually doesn't know where he's from, he was born to unknown parents in secret on a pirate ship called the Night Peony and then left there for the crew to find. He was then adopted by them, but was never told where exactly he was born. But Ezra doesn't mind, his home is the ship and that's good enough for him.

Why join Thunder Stone?: After his ship was destroyed, the captain, Enodia, told him that it was time to leave the nest and explore the world. For a while Ezra worked as an independent mercenary for money, but missed being with lots of people like his old crew. He didn't want to join a long standing guild and be the “new guy”, not wanting to be singled out, but lucked out when he heard of a new guild opening. He joined just a couple months in, and loves it there. Though he does think about his first home often.

Relevant People:

Barca Odyssey - Father figure - 53 - (Deceased)

Barca was a boisterous and confidant man, but very kind to the crew, and a bit of an enabler for their antics. He's super supportive, even with things that he probably shouldn't be, and always had everyone's back as a reliable guy. He was always impressing people with his slight of hand and ability to pick the pocket of anyone in the world. He was the Quartermaster.

Bright red hair and beard, very burly and 7 feet tall, dark blue eyes, gold tooth, fair skin

He had propulsion magic

Galiot Odyssey - Brother figure - 26 - (Unknown)

A mischievous and daring guy who was always challenging Ezra to friendly competitions. It was always entertaining with Galiot around, his unpredictable nature sure to always end with an adventure. He could always lie and haggle his way out of any situation without fail, and always got the best deals. Ezra was the only one who could see through him. He had no official roll on the ship.

Violet grey curly hair, tall like his parents, quite lean and strong, very light yellow eyes, a ocean wave sleeve tattoo, sienna skin

Enodia Odyssey - Mother figure - 54 - (Alive)

A commanding but altruistic woman who always listened to her crew. She is more Mellow than her husband, but just as confident. Intelligent and brave, her command and leadership over her ship was unquestionable. She was the Captain of the Night Peony.

Silver grey hair that's shaped like clouds, 6’1” and muscular, very light yellow eyes, eyepatch, bronze skin

She has wind magic

Kai - Friend/Shipmate - 30 - (Alive)

The Helmsman of the ship, he is a very friendly and talkative guy, very down to earth and always has a positive attitude. He always tries to take care of people, and will run himself ragged to do so.

Short blonde hair, average height, brown eyes, prosthetic leg above the knee, fair skin

He has no magic.

Moryana - Shipmate - 60 - (Deceased)

Was the master gunner of the ship, she was lazy and antagonistic, but only when she thought it was funny. Always did as told but not without complaining, unless it was about her guns and cannons then she turned very enthusiastic and firey.

Very long messy green hair, above average height, Violet eyes, sharp shark teeth, tan skin

She had no magic.

General History: (Just like with General Personality, I will need more description here. Again, it doesn’t need to be an essay, but it should be more than one paragraph. And again, if you would like to write something longer here, you can do that as well.)

Plot Points:

His current main goal is to gather enough Jewels to buy his adopted mother a new ship, or hire a team to build her a new ship. But in the meantime, I have a couple of ideas as to where his story could lead. I don't expect all of these to be done, and they're more suggestions than anything.

▪︎ Ezra is looking for the people who burned down his ship and are responsible for the deaths of most of his crew and family, but he doesn't want to get in trouble for just murdering someone, so when he does eventually find one he has to try and persuade someone to put a mercenary bounty mission out for them so he can take it. This path involves him finding and killing the people involved one by one, possibly finding out the reason as to why it was burn down, (whether it be due to misguided prejudice, or a legitimate reason)

▪︎ Ezra doesn't believe that Galiot is dead, since they never found his body and he knows that a guy like him was too strong to have been taken down like that. He's been taking lots of missions regarding any strange weather and lightning, organized crime, kidnappings, thugs for hire, anything that may have a connection to Galiot's disappearance. He's trying to put the pieces together

(What are your character’s goals? What would you like to see happen to them? Is there something they need to deal with from their past? This is so I know what sort of things the character will need to deal with or go through throughout the story.)

Magic Information

Magic: Sound Magic

Ezra's magic allows him to manipulate sound in a variety of ways. He can amplify it, making the sound waves more powerful, or subdue it, making them subtle. He can make the frequency higher or lower, he can make the sound louder or quieter, he can even eventually mimic sounds that he hears like a sound board.

Spells:

▪︎ Super Sonic

Ezra manipulates the sound waves to make them more powerful and volatile, something that often ends with an explosion. The power of the sound is dependent on the sound itself, as louder sounds will become more powerful than normal sounds.

▪︎ Subdue

A reverse of Super sonic, Ezra manipulates the sound waves to become more dormant. He tends to use this technique as essentially a cancel button for Super Sonic.

▪︎ Pitch Perfect

Ezra uses his magic to manipulate the frequency of a sound, either making it higher or lower. Higher frequencies are dangerous due to their ability to damage the tissue of your ear by heating it up, it also heats up your body temp and causes damage to your inner ear that can cause headache, tinnitus, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and hearing loss. Low frequency noise on the other hand has the unique effect of causing extreme annoyance and irritation, as well as a lack of concentration, headaches, unusual tiredness, and pressure on the eardrum (like on airplanes).

▪︎ Megaphone

A simple spell, Ezra manipulates sound to make it louder and more effective over a wide area. Good for getting attention or passing on a message to a large group of people from a distance.

▪︎ Mute

Another simple spell that's the opposite of Megaphone, Ezra manipulates the sound to make it quieter. This is a good spell for stealth, or making guild mates stop talking (or possibly for stopping mages from casting spells by stopping their chanting.)

▪︎ Banshee

A spell that combines elements from Super Sonic, Pitch Perfect, and Megaphone. Ezra manipulates the sound of his own scream to be a three in one combo attack. Super Sonic causes his enemies to be blown back, Pitch Perfect changes the frequency to make them stunned, and Megaphone makes it have a louder and wider area of effect. It has the unfortunate side effect of giving him a sore throat, and using it too many times will cause him to lose his voice.

Spells to Learn:

▪︎ Mimic

Ezra combines multiple techniques from multiple spells to mimic sounds that he's heard before. That can be from a monster call, an explosion, or another person's voice. Of course finding the right combinations takes some time, so every time he has to learn a new sound he can't just bust it out right after hearing it.

▪︎ Sonar

Much like how bats use high frequency to make echo-location, Ezra uses the same principle to map out his unseen surroundings by clicking the roof of his mouth. It has the side effect of giving him a headache.

▪︎ Blackout

Similar but inverse to Banshee, Ezra combines elements from Subdue, Pitch Perfect, and Mute to create an area of complete audio sensory deprivation, aside from a very low frequency outside the human spectrum that causes extreme nausea, fatigue, and irritation.

Weapons:

▪︎ A long black leather whip that he attaches to his side. He uses the whip itself to attack enemies, whipping them and grabbing them to either pull them closer or stopping them from getting away. But he also combines it with his sound magic, as the crack of a whip is loud enough to break the sound barrier, which is perfect for his magic. He can enhance the sound to make it even more powerful, making an explosion without heat or flame, or even making the sound travel and turn it from a mid ranged weapon to a long ranged weapon.

▪︎ Flintlock Pistols, two of them to be precise. Though he doesn't use bullets, he uses the sound from the explosion as a sound bullet essentially. When using the pistols they are quite loud, and Ezra can manipulate the sound to create powerful sound bullets. They are far more accurate and compressed than the whip, but are less powerful lest he risk breaking his pistols. One of his pistols he wears on his belt with his whip, but the other is hidden within his pants or jacket in case something happens to the first one. The best truth is one hidden within a lie.

Equipment:

▪︎ Gloves. Ezra has short black gloves that he wears on missions that have small metal plates on the thumb, index, and middle fingers, lower palms, and knuckles. These gloves are in case Ezra has to be in close range combat, as he is much more proficient in Mid ranged combat. They are made so that he can attack by snapping his fingers, causing a small burst of high frequency sound to confuse enemies. If they are wearing anything hard like armor, metal or stone then he can punch them to cause an explosion, or punch a building/ground to force them back. He can also clap to do either or, change the frequency or cause an explosion.

▪︎ boots. The heels of his boots are metal, and he uses them in a similar, though more limited manner to his gloves. They only work if the thing he's kicking against is hard in order to make noise, so they cannot be used in that way in like, a forest or the beach or something. (Unless he like, takes off his boot and just fuckin’ chucks it at them)

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Miscellaneous Information

Housing:

Of course, Ezra takes full advantage of the dorms the guilt has to offer. His room has a bed, a nice one even that's decorated with nice sheets and blankets, pillows, hanging curtains, all nautical themed of course. But 99% of the time he ends up sleeping in the hammock he set up on the other side of the room. It's closer to the window and he likes to look out to the water when he wakes up and falls asleep. He has an authentic navigator’s desk made of cherry and maple wood that he bargained down to a steal of a price at an antique shop, still in tip top condition. There are a couple of maps of different places and water bodies all over, some on the walls and some he's still in the process of making himself. There's a tiny model ship in a bottle that was gifted to him for a birthday (he rolled his eyes and laughed at the hilarity of it, but still took the time to make it and set it up). There's a large banner over his bed, one of his ships flags, or one that survived the fire. It's a violet burgundy colour with the typical pirate cross swords, but instead of a skull it's a Peony. Behind the flower is a black circle with a white ring around it, looking like the moon eclipsing the sun. Under his desk is a magically locked chest filled with all the jewls that he's saving for Enodia.

Other: (Anything else you would like to add about your character? This could be any extra quirks or fun facts or quotes, etc.)

Theme Song(s):

▪︎ Melodrama

Voice Actor: (Optional)

Acknowledgement:

You can do literally anything you want to him, and a-Ok with it all.

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ao3feed-brucewayne · 2 years ago

Text

The Gotham Vultures

by AlexIsOffline

At the moment this is a one-shot collection starring my DC OCs, detailing their lives and how they came to be a team. While nothing is in chronological order, the stories are tied together with a red string, so to speak.

The universe in which these stories take place is a mix of the comics, the animated universe that started with Son of Batman and the Batman Telltale games. Basically, I grabbed what I liked and mixed it in a blender.

Tags and warnings will be added as I write more chapters, and the rating will probably change as well.

Most of these one-shots are first drafts with minimal editing, and are mostly posted for my own entertainment. I'll make a more cohesive story eventually, with a proper description and all, but for now, this is it lol.

Words: 2825, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: DCU, DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Son of Batman (2014), Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: John Doe (Telltale), Joker (DCU), Batman (DCU), Batman, Dr Leeland, Original Characters

Relationships: Catherine/Ivan, Joey Roberts/Rayowa Oni, Ezra Callahan/Avery Lee

Additional Tags: Not Beta Read, Original Character(s), Origin Story

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/46397173

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the cape crusader #gotham #dc universe #ao3 #ao3feed

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swinging-stars-from-satellites · 3 years ago

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*knocks on ur kitchen window* hi do you have ocs :0

I have two main sets of OCs: the Star Wars ones, and the kiddos from The Last, my Inkling Challenge project (that I really need to work on... 😬) so, I shall split this up and give you some introductions!!!

Ember Squadron (Star Wars AU):

ok so first of all, Greer, Joph, and Jacen are all canon characters that I just wanted to play with lol, so: Greer is a former racing pilot turned Leia's head of senatorial staff turned one of the first members of the Resistance. Joph is another pilot and an absolute cinnamon roll who has a crush on Greer (and is also kinda a fanboy of her racing career shsjdndjs) and inserts himself into the Resistance during the same events that spark it — the events of the novel Bloodline by Claudia Gray. Jacen is the son of Hera and Kanan (RIP Kanan) from Rebels and I just wanted to have him around bc he and Joph would be Bros(TM). @fortes-fortuna-iogurtum and I have talked about this a bit lol

now onto the actual OCs!!! there are... not many of them

Tina, who is my imagined kid for if Ezra and Sabine (from Rebels) were to get married — she's the squadron's mechanic and a decent pilot in her own right, with Jedi training and a mild-mannered but spunky personality and is also really good at close combat, like hand-to-hand or lightsaber fights

Ri'an is a somewhat jaded Chiss boy (@ladythespera i have a Chiss OC 👀) who can and will ramble about any of his hyperfixations areas of expertise, which include histories and folklore of various planets as well as a lot of the math necessary for fighter pilots. he takes a while to come out of his shell and is generally pretty prickly, but he bonds with Joph pretty quickly

annnnnd Luca (who may get a name change at some point but also idk) is a Mirialan with a bubbly personality and probably a bit too much energy and need to "win" — she's never met a dare she wouldn't take and can be challenging and combative towards the others (esp. Jacen, who she sees as "the golden boy" of the group because his whole family are Rebellion heroes) but she's also a friendly person

I haven't actually.... *written* anything with these guys, but I do want to someday. I just need to figure out how to give Ri'an a full Chiss name (i don't even know if the apostrophe in his shortened name is technically proper SHDJDJDKSKS I need to check Wookiepedia) now.....

The Last (my original fiction story):

ok fair warning, this is a LARGE ENSEMBLE CAST because it's based on an RP/collaborative writing thing i was a part of at one point

Tara, who is blatantly based on me but WAY cooler shdjdndsj. she's a computer prodigy and the daughter of one of the people who originally found The Last (the like... dubiously magical artifact the story is centered around) — her parents were killed when she was young, though, but they left her (not *just* her, but-) advice, a safe house, and the Last itself.

Topaz is the second in command of their "team" of Last guardians and has known Tara since they were kids. their parents knew each other too, bc Topaz' were also involved with the first generation of people protecting the Last and were killed on the same trip/mission. Topaz is pretty mild-mannered, can be serious, but also does Not take good enough care of himself

Willow is the ACTUAL leader of their team, because she met Tara and Topaz when they were like?? 11 or 12 or something idk, their ages aren't all the same. anyway, she pestered them enough and was trustworthy enough to find out about the Last and she's far more inclined to a leadership, so...yeah. Willow is very petite but bold and can be brash and abrasive, but she really does care about her friends and their mission.

Amberly, the youngest member of the squad; idk how she joined them but she's like a little sister. she's pretty optimistic and is quiet, but not necessarily *shy*, if you get my drift (hehe.... drift 😏)

LARRY MY BELOVED!!!! Larry is an absolute sweetie, a bit of a goofball and very comfortable in his role as the "comic relief" of the group. he's also a mechanic, and is really really good at being a friend to whoever needs one. also, he's a great cook

Zach, who shows up a couple (planned) chapters into the story, is someone Willow met who has a family history with the Last too — most of these kiddos do. his parents were a doctor and an FBI agent, and Zach is following in his dad's footsteps to become a doctor. he's pretty academic and can be uncertain and his loyalties are a bit divided, but because of his history he has a fierce determination to protect the Last.

INTERMISSION BC THERE'S SO MANY KIDS (hopefully I can juggle them all in my writing sjdkdjsksjsk)

Violet is the leader of the OTHER team, who tend to be at odds with Willow's group. she's fairly solemn but can be snarky, and was raised with a very firm direction toward protecting the Last, but from a more... militaristic? I guess? angle than any of the others

Mason, Violet's second in command. he's really just some dude. he's a nice guy and doesn't particularly like being at odds with Willow's team, and is actually fairly friendly toward them tbh. he kinda balances out how hard Violet can be and is the voice of common sense

Promise is Violet's younger sister, but she didn't get the same upbringing before their mom died, and Violet has always tried to protect her from it even when clinging to it herself. Promise is pretty quick and curious but also very sweet and loyal to her sister.

Chance, who's also sorta just some guy??? there's a lot of Guys in this story lol. Chance is a big sweetie, the most recent addition to Vi's team; he and Mason get along pretty well and he also likes the other team. he's loyal enough to Violet that she trusts him, but he's not always totally sure about her attitude lol

and... unless I'm forgetting somebody, that's all of them!!! they're all very very fun characters and dynamics to write — I'm always open for asks talking about any of them (👀 ask me about ships 👀) if you want!!!

I'm working on the next segment of the story and hopefully I can post it soon, so at some point maybe I'll take prompts with my OCs

#Lu rambles #asks #my ocs #the last (my original fiction story)#seriously i love talking about these kiddos #i call them kiddos but with the exception of amberly and promise they're all college aged ish shsjsjsjsksks

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mossworth · 4 years ago

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1, 5, 6, and 10? If you're cool with answering that many at once, if not - surprise me!

Man - two in a night? I'm being spoiled with this ask. Thanks so much! And of course I'll answer all of them at once, you know I will take any invitation to write way too much about my characters and I'm about to make it everyone's problem.

Thanks again!

---

1.) "Go to the fourth (or most recent) chapter of your WIP, and share the first line of dialogue out of context."

I have four documents up at the same time and high-key I can't remember which one I worked on last - so just... take the two I know were the most recent...

“I am here to make sure you do not wrap those chains around your throat or make tatters of your tongue.“

---

“Those of you who cry, chase after your spirits unhindered and unburdened. Walk as if my mountains were flat and paths ever-clear so they may never escape you.”

5.) For any OC, write a description of them from the perspective of someone who adores them, and then a description from the perspective of someone who loathes them.

Candlewit –

“Oh, Candlewit?” They laughed a little, leaning back in their chair. “Strange little thing ain’t she? Not like any one of those ‘war-forged’ I’ve ever seen. And trust me, I was in the war! I’ve seen my fair share… never thought I’d be working with one now that it’s all over, but I couldn’t be more thankful. Four-foot-nothing but packs a punch like a full-grown orc, not without mentioning that saw. With how she moves you’d never guess she were all iron and wood under that little shawl. And the mask! I heard she made it herself. It’s kinda’ cute, I think – fits the eye pretty well. Like a little telescope built into her face. Have you ever seen it glow? The gem, the thing that makes it work, oh it’s like a star! Or flame, kinda’ like all those candles she carries around with her. It just shines with this golden magic that I can't help but gawk at every time she goes and casts one of her little spells. It’s pretty in an odd kinda’ way. I’ve always wondered just how far she can see with that thing… I’m sure it’s far. Like miles kind of far.

…Oh, you wanna' know about that? Yeah, she'll go on the fritz sometimes but don't we all?

I’m not going to lie, it’s scary but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’d only be scared if I were on the business end of that saw – otherwise you shouldn’t have a thing to fuss about. Even when she goes all –“ They puffed out their hands in a mock explosion, making a poof noise under their breath. “She might not be able to control the magic, and she can’t talk when she gets like that but I can tell, I can tell, she’s still looking out for the lot of us. I’d trust her with my life, even then.

Speaking of talking… I’ve always wondered how she does it. Last I saw under that mask, I don’t think she’s got a mouth.”

---

“That thing’s a time-bomb just waiting to take us out.” They set their glass down on the wood table with a violent clack, eyeing the small warforged from the other side of the room. “I wouldn’t go near it if I were you – I only spend as much time around it as I’m paid to. But every mission we go on together I think I’m more afraid of it getting us killed rather than whatever were-hound or kobald pack we have been hired to hunt. You don’t trust something that covers itself head to toe, mask and all, for no good reason. And you really shouldn’t trust something that carries around a weapon the same size as it without breaking a sweat.” They scoffed, gritting their teeth. “Even if it could break a sweat.” They took a strong swig and looked over their companion, their face softening. “I can see your face, you know. You think I’m being harsh, or gods, racist. I don’t have a problem with warforged, they’re fine. But I do have a problem with whatever that thing is because it’s not a warforged. I’ve seen under that mask, the thing doesn’t even have a proper face. It just the eye. I’m just trying to look out for the team… I promise you – it’s either playing us for the fool or it really is just that oblivious. I don't know which makes it more dangerous.

Funny something could be so blind when the only thing it’s good at is looking around and pointing out the obvious.

Look, it exploded. And not in the fire-and-gunpowder kind of way. I could only wish that were the case because then it wouldn't be my problem anymore! If that thing gets too angry, too heated, and it’ll burst with magic at hair’s notice and there’s nothing we can do to prevent or prepare for it. You see this?” They held out their hand, showing off red, half-healed striations spiking up their fingertips, ending off at the wrist. “This happened because it got smacked over the head like we're prone to do in this job and got its gears rattled – the thing exploded with some kind of frost and it wasn’t just the thief we were chasing who got caught in the crossfire." Their eyes flicked to Candlewit again, and they shivered. "Gods... I always feel like it’s staring at me. Just watch yourself around it.”

6.) For any OC, share three songs that make you think of them.

Ooh, the first character that pops in my head for this is Ardolf, but I actually answered a very similar question for him a while back. So instead, I’ll go for… how about one of the Ghoul Parade Guys? Or how about all three because I can’t choose?

James Brotz:

- “Necromancin’ Dancin’” – Bear Ghost

- “Puppet Loosely Strung” – The Correspondents

- “Tommy’s Party” – Peach Pit

Martin Finley:

- 「できれば愛を」- 坂本慎太郎 [Shintaro Sakamoto]

- “Harvey” – Her’s

- “Brave as a Noun” – AJJ

Jo Marie:

- “Call it Fate, Call it Karma.” – The Strokes

- “The Woods” – Sam Fermin

- 「BODY SNATCHERS/ボディー・スナッチャーズ」- 細野晴臣 [Haruomi Hosono]

10.) Poorly summarize the most recent chapter of your WIP.

Oh, oh. This is a good one.

Guy whose family is famous for owning a lot of really big boats goes on an involuntary surprise vacation; his boyfriend guard decides to go on voluntary vacation to find him. Famous boat family kid gets slapped, meets Ezra Miller (but eight feet tall), but still isn’t happy about being slapped and swears at a wall.

They learn they were, in-fact, not on a boat at all. They spent way too long trying to figure this fact out.

Ezra Miller is sort of real, but not enough to prove?

#writing #writblr #writerscommunity #wip #oc #oc tag #oc stuff #original characters #dnd ocs

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artemiseamoon · 5 years ago

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Opia

Part 2: A Detour, An Offer, A Break

Read part 1 here | all chapters

Summary: Despite the feeling in her gut, Daya Zeji joins a fellow Harvester to fulfill a contract dig on an Alien Moon. Once there, the already troubled trip continues to intensify as they meet a man named Ezra in the forest

Words this chapter: 2,152 | Fandom: Prospect (Ezra x OC)

Warnings: Mature content. a wound, shady deals

Cover & banner Credits: by me | Credit to the GIF owners.

En route to the site, Ezras labored breathing worries Daya; it was hard to ignore the state he was in. His balance seemed a bit wobbly as well.

Either, he was dying from the infection or his body was hurting and burning up like hell fighting the infection. The answer was hard to tell through an exo-suit.

Despite his rough state, Ezra would occasionally greet her with a smile when he looked back at her. She stayed behind him, ready incase he tried anything. But the longer they trekked through the rugged terrain, the less like a threat he was starting to feel.

There wasn’t much conversation, not at first.

Daya was silent and avoided eye contact with him; something he noticed and he seemed to pull back a little over a time, much to her surprise. It wasn’t until a while later when he spoke,

Ezra slowed his pace to catch his full breath,“Daya, please accept my sincerest apologies. A proper thank you is owed and payable to you. I cannot express my appreciation enough.”

They make eye contact briefly and she breaks it first, “Well, my efforts might have been fruitless based on how you look. You’re not feeling too good are you?”

“It’s true, I’ve seen finer days and this body has held me through many storms. This particular one is not a genle lover..”

Daya looks around, “we’re already pushing it. I know you need to rest but we need -”

“Little bird,” Ezra says with a gentle rise of the hand, “don’t worry your head over me. We have an appointment we cannot miss, one that is paramount to our futures.”

Nodding her head in agreement, Daya turns on her heels and walks infront of him for the first time. Previously, she made Ezra lead the way.

As she walks, and silence falls again, she realized he called her that little term of endearment again. The truth was, she kind of liked it and at the moment wanted to marinate in it a little; hence deciding not to call him out about it.

What Daya didn’t know was, as Ezra followed behind her he was thinking about it too; speculating the reasons she let him call her that, despite telling him very clearly not too.

…

The pair didn’t make it too much further when a rusting in the trees caught their attention. Ezra seemed immediately to have a better idea of what it was. He directs Daya to lay low and put her weapons down; he does the same withthe blaster.

“Ezra-”

A small figure dressed head to toe in black appears; moving about rather nervously until Ezra expresses that they were coming in peace and not a threat.

Daya remains confused, even when Ezra finally speaks to her again, “This could turn out to be a satisfactory encounter. The Saders may have supplies up for trade. Parts even, if we meet the unfortunate fate of remaining stuck on this moon.”

Unsure, she pushes through the doubt, “I know what parts we need, I examined the pod -” She loses her train of thought when the dark figure runs off.

Ezra stands, “We have to follow him.”

...

It didn’t take long, they quickly arrived at the vast hidden village of the Saders. On the walk, Ezra told her about them. She had vague memories of people who could live on such a moon; the ones her father told her about. Now, she knew the two were one and the same.

They were traders, scavengers, and religious as Ezra emphasized. He said they were a breed of their own, like no other people he’d encountered in his long career as a prospector. He warned her that the Saders were a strange bunch.

Before he could elaborate further, they reached the entry of the village. After a brief exchange, one in which she discovered they had to go in unarmed, they found a spot to hide their weapons before re-entering its gates.

As far as outer appearances go, the leader seemed welcoming. Still, something uncertain floated in the air. The leader was gracious, even offered them juice and entertained them with music.

The leader told them his story, how he was once like them, now he was home in this village. Daya was thankful that Ezra spoke up, stating they were there to make a deal for medical supplies for his arm and possibly parts if they had them.

Ezra offered a very generous portion of his Aurelac, to her surprise. He worked so hard for it, that must have been a difficult offer for him to make.

As Ezra did the talking, Daya read the room, the faces of the men, and the young kid who served the tea and played the music. Most unsettling was the leader, whose eyes glued to her in a way that made her deeply uncomfortable.

Then she notices the worst of it, what seems to be a woman, asleep, sick, or dead, on a cot. Through all of this, Ezra struggled. He was visibly weak and his face covered in sweat; his dark brown hair clinging to his forehead. Still, he kept his lips moving.

As discomfort rises in her, Daya also realizes the unsettling ratio of men to women here. Her eyes drift back to the woman on the cot, something was wrong, terribly wrong.

The leader and his men talk among themselves in their language and he motions for the young boy to retrieve something. He returns with a case of aurillac, filters, and medical supplies.

Confused, Ezra askes for clarification and Daya feels the juice rising in her throat. It was clear as day now, they were making Ezra an offer for her!

Daya’s head was spinning. The leader explained his reasons to Ezra. There was no way in hell she was going to end up stuck on this moon producing babies and breeding a village.

Daya shoots up in a rage and waves her hand in a slicing motion. “No! NO!”

Not waiting for their reply, Daya made a run for it, leaving the men and Ezra behind.

One of the guards chases her, gaining on her and tackling her to the ground. The struggle was short lived as she pulled his oxygen from his helmet and scrambled to her feet; she had to get her blaster.

...

Once she had it, the rage boiled in her body like a fire. She didn’t realize just how far off she ran until the sound of a worn Ezra caught up with her. He was speaking but she didn’t listen, did he know? Was this a trap?

Daya didn’t slow down or acknowledge him until he started to apologize in a whole bunch of words she didn’t understand, mixed with labored breathing. Daya finally slowed down, facing him,

“Did you know?” Her brown eyes wide and full of fear, for the first time he sees this in her eyes.

Ezra exhales, and rest his hands on his knees,

“I confess I was weary to enter the village, but not for the reasons you accuse me of. A settlement such as that tends to have a questionable ideology. Though, I did not yet have confirmation for my uncertainty. The events that have transpired showed me my trepidation was warranted. Regrettably, I took you into that situation with me. In my defense, I was not privy to the fact that an offer would be made for you. Believe me, even in our new-found partnership, you must know, that is something I would never do.”

Daya rested her hands on her hips, taking in a deep breath and searching his eyes. She wanted to believe him, and if his eyes were to be trusted, she could.

“...Ezra…” She exhales and closes her eyes for a moment to think.

His tone is soft, but still tired when he replies, “I would never put you in that situation knowingly, Daya.”

A moment passes between them, one of uncomfortable silence and she decides to give him a chance, again.

“We should be at the site soon and daylight won’t be on our side in about...an hour,” she wets her lips, “only a little longer, Ezra. I’m a good harvester too, I should do the hard work. You assist.”

Ezra started to reply but broke into a coughing fit instead, nearly losing his balance. It was clear they had to stop, he may not make it any longer without a proper break.

Before Ezra caught up with her, she spotted a small abandoned camp, a few tents still standing. “Change of plans, you need a break, to rest.”

“Time is not in a generous mood, Daya. We must proceed with the plan.”

“No, you’re too weak,” she says, wrapping his good arm around her shoulders, “Just a little rest. I promise.”

...

It’s a slow walk, having the extra weight on her side. But they get there. Once inside she helps Ezra down on the cot in the tent and quickly zips it close, both of them taking off their helmets in relief.

Ezra leans back, his Adam's apple jumping as he swallows. He was likely thirsty and didn’t ask. Daya retrieved one of the water packets and he consumed it. It was weird, seeing him like this. Only hours earlier they both held barrels to each other's faces.

“You are kind, Daya. It gives me hope for humanity; that you can keep body and soul together, even in a world such as this.”

“Don’t get carried away, Professor Wordsmith, “she says with a smile, “few see my nice side. You got lucky.”

“Blessed I am indeed, even in a state of great physical malaise.”

“Besides, looks can be deceiving, remember. Who's to say my body and soul are one?”

“I’m of the belief they are,” he comments softly, his voice tired as he forces himself to sit up. “I fear I will drift off to deep slumber if I remain horizontal. We have too much to do for such a thing to occur.”

“...”

Daya was going to reply, but didn’t. Instead, Daya continues to wonder about his arm. If she could get a look at it, she would know if it was the infection killing him, or his body catching fever fighting it.

They needed Kevvas's blessing for it to be the latter. Despite whatever the man had done in the past, he was growing on her and she needed him alive.

“Speak your mind, friend.” His whispers, his eyes already on her when she looks at him again.

“I need to check your arm.”

“I assure you it's unsightly, as much as I hate to admit such a defeat. This may be the end of my friend and I….” he looks down at his arm fondly, “...no job too gritty. No love is too intimidating.”

“Wh-” she started to ask then stopped, deciding to not even ask. “Take your suit off.”

“If a man has to submit to the fate of losing his arm, doing so in your company as you give such orders, is the ideal way to do so.”

Daya smiles and he does too. “Just, the top part.”

“Anything you say, birdie.”

Ezra takes his time pulling the zipper down, eyes glued to hers as he waits for a response. Now, he was just fucking with her, and they were both amused by it.

Once his arm was free she could see his normally olive toned skin was very pale around the wound, but he hadn't lost all his color yet.

A sigh of relief left her lips as she pinched his palm and he flinched.

“Good, you still have feeling...move your fingers.” he does. “It’s not as bad as it feels. That pollen is nasty and your body's working overtime to fight it.” Daya touches his forehead, “the fever is a good thing. But, you have to know it won't make what we have to do any easier.”

“I’ve beaten the odds before, Kevvas-sake, I must have done something right once. Something that counts for moments such as these.”

“Maybe you did. I’m going to clean this, give you more herbs, and we have to hit the road again. Are you up for it?”

“I'm at your service.” He replies with a small cute bow.

After a brief break, some nursing, and more of those awful crackers they continue where they left off. It was night now and the darkness cast a feeling of danger.

When they reach the site, they scope it out first from their vantage point and come up with a plan.

Ezra was still in rough shape, but he braved the storm like a champ. This man had no doubt seen and lived a life many times over. Daya was impressed, his resilience gave her hope they could help each other and get out of this alive.

Revised 7/22/21 ! (Other chapters will be revised soon)

Tag list for this story <3 (old)

@rzrcrst @buckstaposition @holographic-carmen @scarlettvonsass @engineeredfiction @readsalot73@voteforpedropascal

New Ezra list: @charming-merlin @readsalot73 @cinewhore @waywardimpalawriter @phoenixhalliwell @tobealostwanderer @meanperegrine @over300books @silverwolf319 @anaaaispunk

New PP list: @idreamofboobear @anxiousandboujee @evyiione @mummifymecaptain @seasonschange-butpeopledont @agirllovespancakes @justanotherblonde23 @bumblebee-moreno (GN) @salome-c @scarletsoldierrr @mswarriorbabe80 @absurdthirst @dihra-vesa @mrsparknuts

new everything list: @ladylothlorien @castiellawolfkissed @imaginesthatmakemehappy @itsnottilly

#Ezra x oc #Ezra fic #ezra prospect #masterlist #opiabyartemiseamoon #prospect movie #prospect fic #ezra from prospect #pedro pascal #pedro pascal as ezra #prospect (2018)#prospect fiction #ezra fam fiction #opia by artemiseamoon #fc: andrea bordeaux #fc: pedro pascal #fic: Opia

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giygas-bandicoot · 4 years ago

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I have a frickin GAGGLE of pokemon OCs and this is a boy that's been needing a proper design for a while. Zora! First Pokehuman Trainer and Champion along with his Companion, A Galarian Spinda named Ezra! I gave him the Ace Trainer outfit with a style like A mega Scizor

Posted using PostyBirb

#pokemon #pokehuman #pokemorph #anthro #furry #spinda #hoenn #my art #my ocs #fakemon

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minor-mender · 5 years ago

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About the Blog

Welcome to minor-mender, my Quentin Coldwater RP/Ask Blog! This post will be pinned to the top of the blog and will explain the general rules, information about the mun, and information about the muse! This post will update and change according to my whims and at random times so be sure to check back often! That being said, come say hello!

General Rules/Information

There will be NO NSFW! All asks/rps pertaining to it will be declined or deleted. While the muse is over 18 at all times, Mun is still underage by a year. Friendly things/Angsty things only for now.

Due to the nature of the show, there will be some sensitive topics that are bound to come up. These will be tagged accordingly with their proper TWs. If you’d like something tagged, please send an anon ask or pm me and I shall tag it.

I am a semi-literate roleplayer and would prefer if those who choose to roleplay were as well, yet it is not required. I’d prefer to do a one on one (Just my muse and yours) yet I am comfortable with running more than one thread at a time!

minor-mender is both OC friendly and AU friendly!! Open to anyone, anything, and any possibility.

I’ll more than likely create new tags for things often!

I will frequently reblog Ask memes/rp starters and things for you all to ponder in between my normal posts and will all be answered in character. These will be tagged with #ask-meme or #rp-starter. Any important information will be tagged with a simple #important. Any messages OOC will be tagged with #mun-speaks and I’ll more than likely address that I’m the one speaking instead of Q. I will more than likely put your username in the tags if we are Roleplaying or if you ask a question off anon so I can keep better track of things!

Submissions are welcome! For if you have something that you feel would vibe with the account or just want to show some love.

There will be swearing on this blog! Please PM me if you’d like me to tag it!

About The Mun!

My name is Ezra!

I’m 17 (18 April 1st)

I use He/Him pronouns and would prefer not to reveal my assigned gender

I’m pansexual (In a relationship of 3 beautiful years)

My boyfriend dragged me into The Magicians and I fell in love with Quentin Coldwater. We then proceeded to watch almost the entire series together. I’m almost done with the mess that is S5.

I’d been wanting to do a Roleplay/RP Ask blog for a while! Q + my desire = minor-mender

A little bit of a shameless plug but previously mentioned boyfriend also runs a RP/Ask Blog centered around Eliot Waugh! You can find him @king-of-pain

About The Muse!

Quentin Makepeace Coldwater

Male, He/Him pronouns.

Age is situational depending on the nature of the ask or time period of the ask. Highschool memories or AU’s are welcome. Unless otherwise stated, Quentin will be 18+.

Graduate of Columbia University, New York

Bisexual disaster.

Incredible super nerd.

Intelligent, driven, and melancholic. Introverted yet passionate. Friendly but a bit shy and awkward when you first meet him.

History of clinical depression and anxiety.

#important #mun-speaks #rp blog #open rp #the magicians #quentin coldwater #ask blog #the magicians rp

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abstract-apocalypse · 5 years ago

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👶, 🙏, 😳 and 📅 for as many as you like!

I'll do these for a mix, whoever has an interesting answer for each!

👶 Childhood:

Tacita was always quiet, barely even cried as a baby, hence the name, and as a child she kind of absorbed that she wasn't supposed to use her voice for anything important, so she talked less and less until she stopped entirely (and then over the years that calcified into not just a choice to not speak, but a psychological inability). Her mother was sweet, and really believed in the Legion social order, trying to prepare her for her future as property and make it as painless as possible. Her father was stern and distant-- disappointed that his daughter was defective-- and decided not to have any more children in case they would turn out the same. Also the disciplinarian of the house, he gave Tacita her first experiences with pain and fear.

Vivian's parents were raiders living in Nuka-World, but got themselves killed when she was maybe 11 or so, and she was raised communally by the Operators. It was a chaotic childhood, as you'd imagine, engendering a lifelong comfort with chaos and uncertainty. Also, I haven't decided how yet, but she got her axe at a young age from some mentor-figure.

Also Rosie once got disciplined in the Vault for punching a kid in the nose. He was bullying a younger kid tho so no ragrets.

🙏 Religious views:

Honestly, most of my OC's aren't religious, cause I'm not and I project. But Rosie was raised Christian and although she doesn't like... go to church (is that a thing in the wasteland?), she still believes and prays from time to time. Ezra is Jewish, and while I'd imagine it's hard to adhere to a lot of religious and cultural practices in the wasteland, he does what he can to stay connected with his roots. Vitellia believes in the Cult of Mars wholeheartedly. And Kerry's family was loosely Confucianist but didn't teach her much out of fear of discrimination in Pre-War America-- they tried to assimilate as best they could and give her a better life by not making her stand out as super Chinese. She would really love to learn more about it, but information on it is scarce in the wasteland.

😳 Most controversial opinion:

Valentina has some serious doublethink going on wrt being an ambitious woman in the Legion (long story short, it's okay for women to be treated like shit as long as She isn't), and her desire for power and glory is probably pretty controversial. Some see her as defying a woman's proper place in the world, but she gets results that the people in charge can't argue with, and it would be a terrible waste of resources to make her a common broodmare or slave. Maybe there's a fabrication that she's infertile, and then because using her for menial labor would be a waste of her skills, an exception was made, and that's how it gets justified.

Amelia is pretty skeptical of the Minutemen, especially when they first rise to prominence. She doesn't believe people who say they just want to do good and help people out of the kindness of their hearts, and wonders what their real motives are. As they gain power and actually improve the Commonwealth, she starts buying in more-- especially as trade routes get safer and commerce improves.

📅 Future plans:

Ellen is going to bring sustainable, efficient power to the whole Commonwealth using what she learned from the Institute! It's a big goal, but she's sure she can do it with time and support.

Caligula doesn't understand the concept of the future, like a goldfish, or a dog that had a lobotomy.

Tysm for the ask as always!! 💕💕💕

#chaosintheavenue #asks #oc: tacita #oc: vivian blake #oc: rosaline vega #oc: ezra blum #oc: vitellia #oc: kerry long #oc: valentina #oc: amelia carter #oc: ellen reneau #oc: caligula

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glasyasbutch · 5 years ago

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Based on this post.

im gonna do what rebekah did and discuss the potential of oc /oc ships. However i have 10 of them on this blog and i will not be doing this 45 times so im limiting myself to active ocs only, which puts me at 16, which is still a lot but this blog is for me and im a slut for my own characters. (I tried to do it in the tags but tumblr cut me off cause its lesbophobic.) lets get crackin.

gildy/anyone: no. thats grandma. now this isn't to say that i won't ship gildy with anyone; i have before and will again; but it's got to be someone her own age which no other oc is close to (rip to that one npc who made magic ceramics in her first campaign that i was tryna date before the campaign fell apart) Verdict: No Cradle Robbing

craving/tov: oh GOD it would go so bad . they both hate themselves so much and manifest it as a brusque aggressiveness they'd fucking attack each other within hours. even a one night stand might be pushing the limits of their patience. Verdict: Do Not Recommend

craving/ezra: i would LOVE to watch these two sit down and talk about philosophy; because they have genuinely the exact opposite takes on life. they both got dunked on and had someone important taken from them at a young age and craving said FUCK IT im gonna be mean since the world hates me and ezra said FUCK IT im gonna be nice and hope the world loves me back eventually. and it would be so fucking interesting to see them try and convince the other why they're right. however. should not date. Verdict: Bad Romantic Material

craving/nissy: this would go literally the exact same way as nissy and zier. like the ExACT same way. they'd find each other attractive at first; make it a few weeks or something; the sexiness would wear off and they'd find each other insufferable but Not want to break up because they're stubborn and also getting something out of dating the other one. (craving likes that nissy's rich and also his cool shadow guy; nissy likes that craving's all about 'fuck the system' and also maybe a teensy little bit is into the idea of getting a glasya pact too). if they were to meet nakoria in this universe they also would both fuck her and then not tell the other about it. Verdict: Hilarious But Unsustainable.

craving/ebbie: i literally can't even conceptualize this. i c. i can't. i think ebbie would be genuinely terrified of craving. Verdict: No.

craving/roona: Ohhhhhhhh YES baby. mischief squad in the fucking HOUSE. they would get along absolutely fantastically i think. No impulse control, so many crimes! neither of them would really be ones to try and make it work long term but they'd have a fucking AMAZING couple months together and part on good terms. Plus craving has a thing for short girls Verdict: Good Short Term Ship.

tov/ezra: other people would ship them because they have such similar vibes. but i dont think either of them necessarily would want to date for exactly that reason. now you might say but didnt tov fall in love with savra because they have similar backstories? yes BUT they're at very different points in their recovery. ezra and tov are too close. come back to it once both their campaigns are over and they might make a very sweet couple. Verdict: Slow Burn 250k Words

tov/nissy: i feel like tov would take one look at nissy and kind of just. leave. nissy would be into tov tho. he likes the rugged bad boy vibes. he'd think he was mysterious and handsome. and we know he seems to have a thing for sorcerers. Verdict: One Sided Crush

tov/ebbie: they'd get along Really well but it'd be more of a mentor/mentee dynamic. they both like to build things and want to find simple softness in the world but don't trust that they can have it. ebbie has a much more excited and babbly demeanor bc he's a Loud Anxious and tov is much more laid back and calmer because he’s a Quiet Anxious. tov would see him as a kid that’s probably gonna turn out ok, but i dont know if he’d really be able to tell that ebbie’s got some fucked up in there. ebbie would be way better at seeing through tov’s walls, and would follow him around almost like a lost dog bc tov like. Actually Gets Him and he wants to learn as much as he can and you know what if there’s a baby crush there, there’s a baby crush there. Verdict: I Hate To Say It But This One’s A Notice Me Senpai

tov/roona: roona would call tov a narc within 30 seconds of meeting him and any Possible feelings on his end would die instantly. Roona would be far more into teasing him than into him. It’d be a cute dynamic where they act like they can’t stand each other and insist that they’re not even friends but like when it comes down to it, they have a fairly good time together and will defend each other against anyone else trying to fuck with them. Bonus Points for them both being super gullible. Verdict: Only I Get To Be Mean To Them

ezra/nissy: on paper, they’re both like trying to be heroic good guys and struggling a little bit, so they should get along. But like in practice. Oh my god. they couldn’t fucking STAND each other but they’d have to because they’re trying to do the same things more or less and like, Ezra is trying SO HARD to find selflessness in Nissy and Nissy is trying SO HARD to make Ezra care literally At All about himself, and anyone who interacts with them trying to adventure is kinda just like uh ...... you know i’ll just wait while you two work this out. Verdict: Buddy Cop Dynamic

ezra/ebbie: i really don’t have strong feelings about this one like, i think they’d get along fine. they’re both just kinda dudes trying to do good and they’d vibe with each other but they’re not quite as similar as ebbie and tov to have any kind of strong dynamic. it’s like when two bus drivers wave at each other while passing in the street and its like YAHOO for one second and then they’ve passed each other. Verdict: If You’re Into Bland Ships To Self Project On

ezra/roona: very good friendship dynamic here. ezra knows that there’s good in roona and is content to wait with her while it worms its way out, and roona is glad to have someone to check her and occasionally get talked into doing some stupid shit. ezra gets a new baby sister, roona gets a second vinny. Verdict: It’s Familiar But Not Too Familiar

nissy/ebbie: ajskdfjsdjfisdjfsakfdjfdsakljfisaodf sadfkdsajfasdjfasfsdfjsiof hsadfjsdfsahfsdfjsdoifhsdf Verdict: Hhsdfkjasdhiuf

ebbie/roona: so. ebbie has had to deal with an unstable 11 year old before, and keep her out of trouble, and roona has had a vinny to pull her out of bad situations before, so they like. Half understand the dynamic between them. Ebbie’s too much of a pushover though, or Roona’s too little of one, and so instead of like being a voice of reason that actually stops the bad ideas ebbie’s more just getting dragged into situation after situation that he is NOT comfortable and having to smooth everything over when all’s said and done. and like, they still enjoy each other’s company when they’re not in deep shit. they both lean pretty heavily towards same gender rather than not, so like they probably wouldn’t be into each other, but there’s a slight chance. Verdict: Disney Channel Original Movie Protagonist + Scared Best Friend Dynamic

nissy/roona: you’d think it’d go badly, and by all accounts it should, but it doesn’t. nissy loves how spontaneous and wild roona is and loves the freer side of him that it brings out, and roona likes nissy’s careful intelligence that can be equally well applied to proper societal actions and also stupid pranks. low wis gang gets each other’s impulsiveness and doesn’t judge when things go wrong, but they’re always by each other’s sides to help get the other out of a pickle. they both stick out like sore thumbs in a crowd and don’t mind bouncing around from place to place because home isn’t really somewhere they want to head back to, but it’s alright, because they have consistency in each other. god fucking damn it i’m actually into this. Verdict: Bastards In Love

#craving #tov #gildy #ezra #nissy #ebbie #roona #long post

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spacexmagicxandxsheepxbleats · 6 years ago

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If I made a sideblog

//: specifically for writing non-rp stories and lore for Ezra would anyone be interested in reading them? (・・?)

They would be ‘cannon’ to her story and the Destiny timeline however I wouldn’t be including rp events and others OCs in the mix (that’s what threads are for ☆〜（ゝ。∂）).

Some of them would be from Revenant’s prospective, sometimes they would be journal entries of hers, but mostly they would be short stories and such about her life.

I’d make a master list post that would put all of them in proper order (just titles prolly no links until I could code them on the laptop ~_~;).

I just kinda wanna get all her lore/story tangents in one place and have the ability to pen junk while on mobile at work, like I don’t mind threading at work or on mobile but I like to code my posts sometimes you know?

#im just a raccoon #prolly gonna do it any way #(๑╹ω╹๑ )

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itsjustascarecrow · 7 years ago

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i heard it was Lady Friday and that @starwarsladies put out a call for oc’s, so uh. here i am i guess?? w/ a little fic (just over 2.3k words) featuring one of my sw ladies. i shall preface this by saying i’ve not shared anything about any of my oc’s on this site before, so this is kind of a first for me, b/c i know how some people can be about 1) oc x canon, and 2) oc’s related to major characters, both of which this oc falls under.. but! this is not a shipfic, i promise! in fact, i’ll (try to) give a brief intro:

name: Jey-Min Kenobi age: about 23/24 (at the time of this fic; born 19 BBY) appearance: light-skinned, bluish-gray eyes, yellow-orange hair, 5′8″ (so save those last three things my face claim for her is Deborah Ann Woll) affiliation/occupation: the Rebellion/Resistance; a Jedi telekinesis Sage (her lightsaber is orange) other general things: friendly; kind of an oblivious idiot sometimes; can flirt like a champ w/o actually meaning to do so (she just thinks she’s being nice); panromantic/asexual af; hates being cold; loves cute things; was best friends w/ a jawa growing up--as she was raised by her uncle Obi-Wan on Tatooine; can speak a lot of different languages (tho not necessarily fluently) and can swear in even more; enjoys music and knows how to play the space-equivalent of a banjo; never met her parents as they were killed by Separatists when she was only a month old--and thus has underlying issues revolving around motherhood b/c of it; a great baker (tho not at the time of this fic; that comes later); considers Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, etc. to be family; is one version of my first ever star wars oc/concept for an oc and is friends/allies w/ another oc of mine who’s the other half of that original concept

but ye, in terms of plot, a quick note: this fic mentions some things that involve events that my friend @fettjango and i have come up with in our own sort of. au i guess you can call it; it also mentions a couple oc’s of theirs as well. long-story-short, their oc Fareema, who at one point worked for the Empire, has offered Leia and the Resistance information on any remaining Imperialists in the galaxy, such as where to find them, and Jey offered to accompany Ezra Bridger on said missions to take down said Imperialists. this fic takes place after the first of those missions. so w/o further adieu, here goes nothing??

Jey-Min Kenobi stood outside the gray stone dwelling that had served as her home for 19 years, the home her uncle, the great Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, had raised her in. But she was not thinking of the Jedi Knight he had revealed himself to be in his later years. She was thinking of the man named Ben, a simple, kind old man who spent his days caring for his late twin sister's daughter and their herd of bantha, and occasionally helping any other locals out of tricky situations should the need arise. She closed her eyes, picturing the door as she last saw it, when they first welcomed Luke Skywalker and a couple of rebel droids into their home, changing both his and her own lives forever. When she opened her eyes again, gazing upon the sight of a door nearly hidden entirely by the sand that had piled up over the past four years, she'd realized the tears had already begun to fall. She thought back to when she had asked her new friend, Ezra Bridger, to take her here and continued to question if this was a good idea or not. He had been fine with making this quick pit stop but had volunteered to stay behind with their ship. Jey thought to herself that he probably didn't care much for this planet's climate, as not many people did. And while that was one of the many things that made this place home, the memories this home held of times and people now long gone made it difficult for her to see it as anything other than a tomb. Not only was Obi-Wan dead, but so was Old Ben. And with him, Jamie Kenobi--a version of herself that had known nothing of Jedi and their lightsabers and their control over the Force. Of their involvement in the Clone Wars and connections to those who created the Empire, who had been in power since she was an infant. The lies told to keep her safe, the people she had never been told about and the legacy they had left behind--a legacy now carried on by a man her own age whom she had always known to be just like her: a simple child of a desert planet with nothing special about them. Jamie Kenobi had never left this home some five years ago. She had died in this very building and Jey-Min had left in her place. And now she was terrified of the ghost of herself she knew to still haunt this place. One last time she thought of going back to Ezra empty-handed before she raised her hands to clear away the sand and opened the door using the Force her uncle so truly valued. As she stepped over the threshold, the ghost of Jamie took over, and she saw the home she always knew. It wasn't the most elaborate or expensive home, but they never needed it to be. Adequately-sized rooms, square windows, round pillars, arched doorways, all made of the same grayish-white stone as the outside; cool the touch and always a welcome respite in the sometimes near-sweltering Tatooine heat. The way she saw it now, things were in their place as she had last saw them, in their proper places all nice and neat and clean. She and her uncle weren't necessarily the meticulous type, but they understood the value of a tidy home in a dust bowl like this. And what would seem to many as old relics or antiques strewn about the place in some sort of decorative manner were almost like treasures to them. Things collected of a time long passed that, perhaps when she was younger, she didn't quite fully appreciate. But as Jey-Min looked through Jamie's eyes, she began to wonder if she and her uncle were actually a part of that collection as well. She noticed the tears flowing more steadily now, though she did not know if they were Jey-Min's or Jamie's. At this point, she didn't even know what she was looking for. Whatever excuse she had told Ezra had since been forgotten; now she just wandered aimlessly from room to room. But the longer she stayed, the weaker Jamie's grip on her became, and she began to see things as Luke had last described them to her. He had come back to their home planet four years ago in search of something; she couldn't remember exactly what for. But one of the stops he made was back here to the old Kenobi family homestead, and it was here where he had ran into the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett. Luke had described their fight to her in cautious detail, knowing full well she wouldn't have appreciated him unintentionally trashing her childhood home like this. Nor was he prepared for the sudden appearance of sand people, who must've either wanted in on the action or perhaps an easy target for a scavenging run. Either way, as her feet kicked aside bits of rubble and scrap, and as her fingers traced the blaster holes in the walls, she had to fight the growing urge to turn and run. While Jamie's hold on Jey-Min's sight had been released, her presence within the home still remained. Jey-Min would turn at the sound of a young girl giggling and see an afterimage herself being lifted into the air by her uncle, and when she moved into another room, she would see herself again, this time playing with toys that now lay discarded or in pieces on the floor. Eventually it all became too much for her to bear; she raised a hand to cover her mouth and slumped against a wall, slowly sliding down to the floor as she began to openly sob. She wasn't sure how long she had sat there, but eventually she calmed down enough to realize she was in fact alone. No more mirages of small children and dead uncles, of a home still in a functional state. Just a lone Jedi amongst the sand and debris. Her tear-stained face turned slowly as she took everything in one last time, her chest rising then falling with a deep, heavy sigh. 'I shouldn't have come here,' she thought. 'There's nothing left here for me.' Jey-Min finally rose to her feet and made her way back out into the midday Tatooine heat, but as she turned to close the door for the final time, she saw Jamie standing just inside, watching with sad yet angry eyes as her future walk away. But together, the two versions of Obi-Wan's niece raised their hand and wafted it to the side, sealing the entrance for good. Jey half-ran, half-briskly walked back to the ship, eager to get off the planet, as she tried to wipe her face clean with her hands. She knew it was a mess and would certainly give away the emotional ordeal she just went through. And she felt she trusted Ezra (as much as one could after only knowing him for a few days so far), but she wasn't sure if she was ready to explain herself to him just yet. Pausing at the bottom of the loading ramp, she took one last moment to collect herself, but before she could make her way up, she heard the familiar beeping of R8-V2, the Imperial astromech on loan to them by the Chiss woman who started them on these missions to begin with. "Well," Jey sighed, "if everything was alright, I wouldn't look like this, now would I?" She slowly trudged her way up the ramp but still made a point to pat V2 on the head as they beeped a reply, which did make her chuckle. "Yes, I'm sure your 'weird blue mother's stealth tricks' helped out more often than not in these situations, but honestly I'm already such a mess, I'm not sure there's anything that could save me at this point. I'm just too far gone, I'm afraid." Ezra was slouched across the captain's seat when Jey stepped into the bridge. "Oh hey, you're back," he called over a shoulder. "Was starting to worry you'd gotten buried alive in a rogue sand dune or--" He stopped mid-sentence after doing a double-take when he caught sight of her face and scrambled to his feet. "Woah, are you okay? I-Is something wrong; did something happen out there?" The genuine concern in his voice nearly made Jey break down all over again, but she managed to hold most of it back this time. "I'm fine," she lied, raising a hand to stop his advance. "Or, at least I will be. It's just... too many memories.." She shook her head slightly, annoyed with herself as she felt a couple more tears escape. Quickly wiping them away, she tried to laugh it off. "I promise I'm not always like this." "Hey, it's alright," he chuckled a bit awkwardly. "I know it can be.. difficult coming home after a long time being away." "Yeah, it's.. it's cool; I'll be fine, I just.. let's just go; we should report back to Fareema." "Okay, if you're sure." He slid back down into his seat as his co-pilot just nodded, settling down into her own seat, and within moments they had left the surface of the planet, made it up into its atmosphere, and blasted off into hyperspace. They had sat in a somewhat uncomfortable silence for a good while before Ezra felt a pair of eyes seemingly boring into him off to his right. He turned to catch Jey staring at him for what certainly wasn't the first time this mission. "Uh.. you're doing it again," he pointed out when she didn't turn away after being caught. A quiet "Hm?" was the only reply. "Staring at me." "Oh. Sorry." It was almost as if she had been broken out of a trance. "I'm just.. trying to remember your face. Sometimes memories are.. all I have left of some people." "Right... Are you sure you're okay?" Jey took a moment to think about how she wanted to answer, leaning an elbow on one of the arms of her chair and placing a hand on her cheek. "Not even Nara and Dolo were still around," she muttered almost half to herself. "Who?" "A couple of banthas that were part of a small herd my uncle adopted when I was little." She smiled when Ezra laughed in disbelief. "Oh yeah, we had a fair few; those two were the oldest. "There was this one time when I was still quite small and wasn't quite old enough to know not to play with large animals unsupervised, but anyway, that's exactly what I did. I just thought they looked nice and cuddly, like giant, woolly blankets, so one evening I thought to myself 'I'm gonna sleep outside with Dolo and Nara tonight' and I just.. snuggled right up in there with them. And at first, it was pretty great; real cozy, y'know? Until somehow I just sorta. Fell into them. Like I was just lost within the void that was their fur almost instantly. "I didn't panic though, like I had faith that I'd be fine. If anything, I thought it was pretty funny at the time. But then I heard my uncle calling out for me, wondering where I'd run off to. And instead of calling back out to him, I stayed right where I was, all nice and quiet-like. But clearly I wasn't quiet enough; I heard him getting closer to where the herd had settled down for the night, so when I was sure he was standing right next to us, I popped my little hand out and waved at him. And to this very day, I will never forget the sound he made." By this point, Ezra was nearly doubled over with laughter. "That's incredible, holy shit!" "Yeah, we kinda did that a lot to each other; we weren't the most responsible family, got away with a lot of shit. He'd even take me with him when he'd stop by the local cantinas to drink, and at the time I wasn't even in double digits yet age-wise. "Actually, y'know what's funny?" Ezra jumped slightly as Jey continued, and she realized she may've spoken a bit more aggressively than she had intended. "All those times my uncle would stop in to drink? He was a responsible drinker as far as I was aware; either that or he just had a much higher tolerance than most. But I asked him one time why he drank so often and he told me, 'You remember all those stories I told you about your uncle Ani? That's why.'--now it fucking makes sense!" "Uncle Ani; who's that? I didn't know Obi-Wan had a brother." "'Ani' was short for Anakin. As in Anakin Skywalker, his former apprentice. Darth fucking Vader was technically my 'uncle'." Jey took a moment to take in what she just admitted, placing her head into one of her hands. "Gods, I'm really glad I didn't know him growing up; it probably would've made me drink as much as my uncle did." "Yikes, yeah. I had the misfortune of running into him a couple of times, and those certainly weren't.. pleasant experiences..." Another short awkward silence followed, but this time it was V2 who decided to break it. They beeped out a story about a time when their "weird blue mother Fare" climbed up to the top of a stack of crates during a bit of training with her commanding officers when something on the ceiling had caught her attention. Of course V2's punchline to the story was to say she had been "on top of things". This spurred another round of laughter from the two humans, and they then proceeded to swap stories from their youth about momentary lapses of judgement and the like. This lasted all the way until they made it back to their home base, and by the end of their journey, they knew this would be the start of a very interesting partnership.

#sw oc tag #lady friday #okay first off i just want to give a preemptive i'm sorry if the readmore doesn't work and y'all have to deal w/ a massive wall of text..#secondly.. i'm also still very nervous about posting this but. hey given my track record of posting on this site #there's a high change this will get completely ignored so. is it sad that i almost hope for that? i guess it's better than potential hate :)#but. yeah. i guess if people actually like this then. cool. i will have no idea how to deal w/ that but know i will appreciate it l o l #star wars #random bullshit #written by silhouby #jey min kenobi #kenobi

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ao3feed-brucewayne · 2 years ago

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The Gotham Vultures

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/spMdRKG

by AlexIsOffline

Tags and warnings will be added as I write more chapters, and the rating will probably change as well.

Words: 2825, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: DCU, DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Son of Batman (2014), Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: John Doe (Telltale), Joker (DCU), Batman (DCU), Batman, Dr Leeland, Original Characters

Relationships: Catherine/Ivan, Joey Roberts/Rayowa Oni, Ezra Callahan/Avery Lee

Additional Tags: Not Beta Read, Original Character(s), Origin Story

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/spMdRKG

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the cape crusader #gotham #dc universe #ao3 #ao3feed

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shadowsong26fic · 6 years ago

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The Handler AU

As requested by @tigerkat24.

(I do also have fulltext for one scene in here, which will be posted and linked here in the near future, probably tomorrow, after I clean it up some.)

Right. So. A couple of notes before I get started:

1) This AU prominently features Lavinia, and also super self-indulgent. Gonna say that straight-out. This is me and my OC and a bunch of tropes I adore. It is not the most self-indulgent piece I’ve ever put together, but it’s probably up there. I say this because, while I am pretty much past the point as a fan/content creator/whatever where I’m ashamed of my self-indulgent BS, I understand that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially when it’s as obvious as this piece is. And I like people to know at least in general terms what they’re getting into when they open a piece of mine. So, you know, bear that in mind as you move forward.

2) Because of the way I work/develop AUs/OCs/etc., there are certain personality traits/satellite characters/plot points that are common to all/most of Lavinia’s storylines (...yeah, it’s a Thing I do, with OCs yeah but also with OC-free AUs and AUs of AUs and ‘hey what if I changed this plot point here, or put OC B in this situation instead of that one, or stuck Canon D in...look, y’all have seen my Distaff variants, you know the kind of thing I’m talking about; I don’t always stop at a single layer of canon-divergence, but then there has to be a thread connecting everything, or it becomes a totally different story/character, right? ...I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well. ...anyway, back on topic). As a result, despite being an AU of a completely different AU, this outline is therefore somewhat spoilery for a future Precipice arc. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve hinted at where I’m going with her in the fic proper and/or bonus content, or at least I’ve tried to, (plus, I know I’ve mentioned some things here on tumblr about particular narrative/character tropes I like), so it’s probably not too surprising? Or, at least, I hope it’s not. If it is, I need to get better at foreshadowing… Anyway, it is still technically a spoiler. To the point where I considered sitting on this (and a couple related AUs) at least until a particular event from Arc Seven that makes said future storyline about as clear as it can be until it actually happens. But…I decided ehhhhhh, why not (plus this was requested). But, you know, if that is something you want to avoid, might be best not to read this outline until after Arc…nine, I think? Just as a head’s up.

3) This is essentially a Kallus-centric Rebels fic (though, as mentioned above, also prominently featuring one of my OCs). And, other than that one bit in the Valdemar AU I wrote a month or so ago, this is the first time I’ve actually written Rebels content. (…granted, I’ve plotted more things--the closely-related Pellaeon AU features Rebels stuff pretty heavily, as does the middle arc of the Valdemar AU, which started as ‘Anakin would do really well as a Herald actually’ and has now turned into a massive three-part kudzu plot of a niche crossover and I should really redo that outline properly at some point, plus a few other things…) Anyway, the point is, I’m not necessarily super familiar with the conventions/etc. of this part of the fandom, and I apologize for any off-voice bits.

Okay! Now that I have warned for spoilers, inexperience, and self-indulgent BS…welcome to the Handler AU.

Oh, one more thing I want to mention—because this is, as stated above, super self-indulgent, Kanan is still alive because I said so. He got pretty crisped in that explosion and therefore missed the final battle, but didn’t actually die.

(Imperial records may have listed him as dead for a while, because No One Could Have Survived That, but he did survive.)

(How? IDK, maybe Ezra actually was able to do something from the between-place in this version.)

(Point is, we still have Kanan.)

(Ezra and Thrawn are still on a road trip with a bunch of space whales, though.)

ANYWAY. On to the good stuff.

It all kicks off like two months after Yavin.

Some timeline notes:

Because timelining anything in Star Wars is A Project, I am making some executive decisions here.

We’re approximately a year after the Rebels series finale.

(Meaning Jacen is like 3-4 months old, depending on exactly how pregnant Hera was at the time.)

This is also about how long Zeb and Kallus have been explicitly dating.

(There was SO MUCH PINING going on for a while there.)

(But it took that long for either of them to actually do anything about it.)

(Kallus figured out pretty early on that he was interested, but didn’t really think he deserved this/had earned it yet/that Zeb could possibly be interested in him, and therefore decided to bury his feelings Like A Goddamn Professional Okay.)

(Zeb took a while longer to clue in, and then couldn’t figure out if this was just him or what--see above re: burying things; worked a little bit too well--plus he has his own issues to work through.)

(And then there were some frantic Confessions and so-glad-we’re-alive sex and…)

(Yeah, this is a thing now.)

(Exactly zero people who have spent any time with these two dorks at all are surprised.)

(As is so often the case, the last people to clue in that this was A Mutual Thing are the two idiots involved.)

(There may or may not have been a pool or three going.)

(Hera won at least one of them.)

So. Kallus has made himself useful wherever he can since openly defecting, really, but generally works analyzing intelligence reports and training field agents for potential undercover missions. Even if his specific information is getting more and more out of date (few, if any, of the codes, etc. that he knows are still valid at this point), some things aren’t going to change that quickly, and his background is useful here.

Anyway. He gets called in--

“We’ve been approached by a would-be double agent deep in Imperial territory; received three transmissions in the past few weeks. So far, everything we’ve been sent checks out/has been useful, but.”

“But you’re wondering if this agent is an ISB plant.”

“Exactly. She calls herself Vector.”

“She?”

“Yeah. The scrambler she’s using is doing its job, which means we can’t actually use a voice print to ID her, but vocal pattern analysis got us that much. And that she’s likely Coruscanti, Human, and under thirty. That’s about all we know.”

He goes over the data and the recordings from the first three contacts and nothing jumps out as a red flag/any of the tricks he’s familiar with.

On the first call, there’s some dancing around; as if Vector’s trying to make sure of who she’s talking to. What he’d expect from either a plant or a genuine defector, really. Not particularly helpful.

The other two are fairly brief/straightforward, and start the same way each time--This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it. Also not particularly enlightening, given the question he’s been asked to answer.

The data itself, though, is--interesting. Not easy to access, for the most part, and not necessarily all from the same source. Parts of it are the kind of thing ISB would use as bait, but just as much of it is not. Some of it provides useful context for intel the Alliance has received from other sources (some covert, some not), which is not the kind of thing an ISB plant would send.

So, he goes back to his superiors and tentatively reports Vector as probably genuine. He wants to be on hand for her next transmission, though, to be sure.

(He wonders, idly, who they had evaluate his initial transmissions like this, or if using an established codename and protocol was enough…)

(He’s Concerned it might be the second.)

(There are some worrying gaps in Rebel Intelligence’s security that he can only do so much to patch.)

Of course, there’s a slight problem with that. Vector’s transmissions haven’t exactly been regular--the second one came four days after the first, and then it was nearly two weeks to the third.

And when they do come, they’re very brief, so if Kallus is, say, busy with a training exercise on the opposite side of the base…

(Or otherwise occupied in a supply closet.)

(He does have, y’know, a life when off-duty.)

(...which is something that still sends him into weird brainspirals of “how did this happen” and “i don’t deserve this” and “when is it going to blow up in my face” on occasion, but that is a separate problem. One that he buries. Like A Goddamn Professional.)

(no that’s not a habit of his why do you ask.)

IN ANY CASE, this means that it ends up being her sixth message, close to three weeks after Kallus is initially brought in, before he’s able to listen in live.

(Transmissions four and five, after he reviews them, don’t really change his analysis, but still.)

Transmission six comes in while Kallus happens to be in the tiny corner of the current base that Intelligence has claimed.

It starts like the others did--This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

Once the file transfer initiates, he responds.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum.”

(Okay, technically, he probably should be using a different handle now, since it’s really supposed to be for field agents only and he isn’t one anymore. And there are similar shared code names for Intelligence agents primarily on base duty, or he assumes there are, but even after over a year of not using it, it’s still the first one that comes to mind. Reflexive, almost. And now it’s going to stick.)

There’s a beat of silence from the other end, and Kallus is briefly concerned that he misjudged the situation, that she’d going to panic and cut the transmission.

But, “I can’t leave the link open long,” she says.

(Part of him thinks she sounds...almost relieved? Like she’s been waiting to be challenged like this, and the longer things went on without a test, the more nervous she got.)

(He can understand that worry. That sense of just waiting for the other shoe to drop.)

(And, yes, other Rebel Intelligence agents probably could have tested her like this, and if he hadn’t been around as a resource they almost certainly would have, but given that he knows exactly what to look for, the Powers That Be had decided to leave it in his hands.)

“Of course,” he says, and asks her a few questions, rapid-fire.

(He’s less interested in the specific details of her answers--and he’s not really asking her questions about her identity--then how she approaches answering him. Not necessarily something he can explain, which is part of why he didn’t coach any of the other officers and get this taken care of on transmission four or five, but just trying to get a sense of her.)

(One thing he does is privately revise the estimate of her age--he thinks she’s younger than the previous guess, probably twenty or so. Sabine’s age, maybe, at the oldest. Which makes her even less likely to be a plant in his opinion; ISB wouldn’t put this much effort into setting up an agent that inexperienced, not on a mission this sensitive, even if she was inconceivably talented and precocious. As an in-person infiltrator, yes, absolutely; but for this many layers of intrigue...no, they’d want someone Experienced.)

She ends the transmission somewhat abruptly, after about five minutes, but he was more or less expecting that and anyway he has what he needs.

“Well?”

“She’s genuine,” he says. “I’m as sure as I can be of that.”

“Good to hear.” A pause. “...you’ve run undercover agents before, correct?”

Kallus shuts down the knee-jerk paranoid response as fast and hard as he can.

(There are almost certainly people in the Alliance who still don’t trust me but none of them are in this room. I know that. Calm down.)

“Yes, once or twice,” he says, cautiously. “For short-term assignments.”

“Congratulations. You just volunteered to be Vector’s handler.”

(Hence the name of the AU. AKA the one where Kallus adopts a baby spy who JUST HAPPENS to be Palpatine’s daughter.)

(...yeah, he didn’t really see that one coming.)

(...at some point, I should probably go through and outline Lavinia’s politics and her reasons for defecting in detail, but in the interests of focusing on Kallus’s end of things, which is much more interesting, a (hopefully) brief digression on the subject:)

(Lavinia was created and trained to be a spy/manipulator, to perform the kind of tasks and access the kind of information that Palpatine could as the avuncular Chancellor but cannot as Emperor, now that he’s thrown that mask away.)

(...apart from very specific, carefully staged moments, like with Ezra.)

(So, part of manipulating people means understanding them, which means Lavinia does a lot of research to put her targets into context, and in so doing comes across a wide variety of cultures/forms of government, at least in an academic context.)

(And that means that, once she starts thinking beyond “how can I survive until tomorrow” and starts thinking about broader impact/more long-range plans, it doesn’t take her very long to realize that her father’s government is...well, let’s call it deeply flawed.)

(What she does when she comes to that conclusion varies, depending on other circumstances--but she doesn’t necessarily defect right away. Mostly for practical reasons; in Masks!Verse, which this AU is a variant of, she has no Rebel contacts that she’s absolutely sure of.)

(Meaning, in this case, both “absolutely sure is an actual Rebel and not just sympathetic to their aims/politics” and “absolutely sure would be willing to work with me despite my parentage.”)

(And if she approaches anyone she isn’t sure of, it’ll get her or her contact or both of them killed. Defecting from a distance, while she can better protect her identity, has a much bigger risk of interception, which, again, would get her and/or her contacts and possibly a lot of other people killed. Or worse.)

(Basically, she doesn’t think defection is a viable option for her--there are some other reasons for this, but those play a distant second to these concerns.)

(But then Alderaan happens.)

(And these concerns carry a lot less weight.)

(It takes her a couple months to figure out how to make contact with Rebel Intelligence, let alone how to do it safely, but she starts working on it at that point.)

(...I think that’s the salient points here. Like I said, I have a fair bit more about Lavinia’s politics/etc. and the ways/extent to which she’s willing to defy her father in various AUs, but that’s enough for this one, I think.)

So, Kallus can’t really argue with the assignment (even if part of him kind of wants to? Not because he thinks he can’t do it, but because he’s concerned that being another deep-cover informant’s handler is going to dig up a lot of stuff he’d really, really rather keep buried.)

(Look, he feels like he’s finally found his equilibrium. He’s even, somehow, approaching happy with his life for the first time in what feels like forever which, guilt-induced brainspirals aside, he doesn’t want to give up.)

(Besides, handling Vector wouldn’t be his only responsibility, and if he does start losing that equilibrium, he’s not sure how much his other work will be affected.)

(On the other hand...)

(On the other hand, there are very few people who have done what he did and survived long enough to make it back to Rebel lines.)

(Oh, there are other deep-cover informants, sure; but the majority of them are plants inserted by Rebel Intelligence.)

(And while, even leaving aside the technicalities involved with Senator Mothma and others among the leadership who had previously served in the Imperial Senate, there are plenty of defectors--up to and including General Madine and some other persons of very high rank--for the most part, once they make that decision, defectors grab what they can and run.)

(The ones that don’t usually don’t survive as long as he did.)

(Or, alternatively, they don’t identify themselves to the Alliance or even necessarily work directly with them; they perform internal sabotage rather than espionage.)

(Those embedded defectors tend to last longer, but not by much.)

(Which means that he’s probably the only person--certainly the only available person--who has been where Vector is. Who better to help her?)

(As for his own issues...well, he is a Professional, dammit. He can damn well compartmentalize. He’s very good at that.)

(...yeah, this is kind of a running theme for him. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s...very much not.)

(It remains to be seen how much it’ll help or hurt when dealing with Vector.)

So, he accepts the assignment, and goes back to his quarters to tell Zeb and collect a few things--given the irregularity of Vector’s transmissions, until he can talk to her again and set up a better protocol, he’s going to basically have to camp out in Intelligence.

(Which he’s not looking forward to, but it is what it is.)

Zeb is already there when he gets back--their current shifts don’t entirely line up, which is fine; they have at least a few hours overlap most days which is better than some pairs can say.

After several minutes saying hello...

“Did I miss anything interesting?” Kallus asks.

“That Skywalker kid came by a bit ago,” Zeb tells him. “Looking for Kanan.”

Kallus blinks, halfway through fixing caf for the two of them. “...aren’t he and Hera off investigating a potential supply line?”

(Which is, of course, far below Hera’s current paygrade, but she volunteers for that kind of mission on occasion. An excuse to spend private time with her family, while still technically being useful and not taking actual time off.)

“Yep,” Zeb says. “Apparently, this is the third or fourth time something like that has happened. They keep missing each other.”

"Well, I’m sure they’ll link up sooner or later,” he says. “Especially if Skywalker’s actively looking for Kanan.”

(He hasn’t actually met Luke yet at this point, but he’s heard the rumors. He has no real doubt of this fact.)

“Yeah, probably,” Zeb says. “I think Kanan’s been trying to track him down, too. He’ll be sorry he missed him.”

(...yeah, we’re going with Anakin-and-Grievous levels of contrived coincidence to keep those two from actually meeting for a while.)

(Partly because it’s easier than figuring out all the timeline/plot implications that might have (and I’m lazy, and that is the focus of another story), but mostly because I think it’s funny.)

Kallus nods. “...did he and Hera take Jacen with them, or...?”

(He hadn’t seen any evidence the baby had been left with them, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.)

But Zeb shakes his head. “Nah, Sabine has him this time. Why? Something going on?”

“I have an assignment,” Kallus tells him.

“Huh. Extraction?”

(Logical assumption--the bulk of the fieldwork he does now, all-hands-on-deck situations like Lothal aside, is extractions. Occasionally helping sell an insertion, but generally the reverse.)

“No, not this time,” he says. “The agent who reached out, the one I told you about--I’ve been assigned as her handler.”

(He has long since gotten permission to discuss at least surface generalities of his work with Zeb, and they both know where the line is.)

Zeb’s ears flick a little, and Kallus can practically see him weighing the same pros and cons that he himself did earlier--and probably several others he hadn’t thought of.

“So, I guess that means you’re camping out in intelligence for a while?”

“Unfortunately,” he says. “Of course, there is a difference between being on-call and being on duty. And my schedule technically won’t change.”

Zeb perks up at that and grins before kissing him. “Well, I’m sure I an find an excuse to be in the area. Sometimes. Just in case. You know.”

“Mm.”

Fortunately, call number seven comes less than a week later.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum.”

A brief pause. “Yes.”

“I’ve been assigned as your handler.”

(He figures the best way to deal with someone who’s probably twitchy and paranoid and otherwise on high alert is to be as scrupulously honest as he can. That doesn’t mean telling her everything, of course, but it does mean being straightforward, difficult as it is, and not outright lying.)

(If he can. So far, he can.)

Another pause. “I understand.”

(She’s hard to read on this one, whether or not she finds it suspicious. She might even be relieved again, that she’ll have a set contact point, rather than a whoever’s-available sort of situation.)

“There are some protocols I’d like to establish, for further contacts.”

“I can’t call at a set time,” she says immediately. “Or at set intervals.”

"I understand,” he said. “But I’m going to give you a more specific frequency to call.”

“Yes,” she says, and that definitely has a faint note of relief.

“Can you, if nothing else, send an all-clear transmission every two weeks?” he asks. “It doesn’t need to be at a set time, but so we can gauge--” whether or not you’re alive and uncompromised “--how concerned we need to be after a long silence.”

She pauses. “...I think so. Yes. I can do that.”

(Definitely young, he thinks, maybe even younger than Ezra--would be.)

“That’s all for now,” he says. There are others he wants to establish, of course, but those are the most important and her file transfer is nearly complete.

“I’ll be in touch,” she says; hesitates a second; “Vector out.”

(...well, she’s signing off officially now, rather than just abruptly terminating the connection. Progress. I think.)

He goes back to his quarters, and life settles into a new routine.

He keeps up his old duties--analyzing reports, training potential undercover agents, etc.--and also keeps track of Vector and her reports.

That last one proves...well, his early optimism wasn’t entirely misplaced?

Vector is very, very good at what she does. Her files are varied in their content, and sometimes not as useful as she might’ve hoped, due to timing or other resource concerns, but the quality of the work she does never comes into question.

But part of being a double agent’s handler is assessing how they’re holding up under the incredible stress of the position. And she is frustratingly vague when it comes to anything approaching anything personal about herself.

In addition, there are two additional protocols he wants to set up early on--first is a way for him to reach her.

“Just because I have access doesn’t mean I have influence,” she says. “I can’t seed disinformation for you. Not without getting caught.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

(Though, of course, he had considered the possibility--as well-positioned as Vector seems to be, how could he not?--but while he doesn’t completely rule out the idea, he files it away under “only as a last resort.” Better to leave her in place as long as possible.)

“But if there’s something specific we want you to keep an eye out for--or if we need to warn you about something...”

“Right,” she says. “That’s fine, then.”

The second, though...the second is where they run into real problems.

“I also want to establish an emergency signal. If you need extraction, or if you end up captured by Rebel agents.”

(He still wonders, sometimes, if staying behind when Ezra came to extract him was the right decision. It had seemed so at the time, but...)

(He’ll probably never know. And fretting about it doesn’t do any good.)

(knowing that doesn’t make it any easier to stop.)

“No,” she says.

“Vector--”

And she hangs up on him.

Exactly why she’s so reticent to establish something like that, he isn’t sure--he has some theories, but...

It’s frustrating, to be sure. Makes it harder for him to do his job.

(And it makes him worried about her--if she’s working without any kind of exit strategy, that likely means she doesn’t think such a thing will be possible. Which, on the one hand, shows her dedication to the cause, but on the other hand...on the other hand, if she thinks getting caught is inevitable, she might get sloppy with her own security and that might well turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.)

(The other alternative, that she doesn’t trust him, or the Alliance, with her safety if things do go wrong, is...well, probably more distressing, in all honesty.)

(Though not, perhaps, altogether surprising.)

He decides to seek Kanan’s advice on the problem.

(Kanan, after all, knows best what to do with unruly teenagers.)

(...well, so does Hera, but Hera’s advice would probably be less applicable/harder to apply to his specific situation. Also, she has better things to do than help him do his job.)

(Which is the other frustrating thing, that he can’t handle this by himself.)

Kanan’s advice is pretty straightforward--be patient, and don’t push her too hard. You can’t help her if she won’t let you.

(This is part of why I wanted him still around, incidentally.)

(Because there is something utterly hilarious about Kallus going to Kanan for parenting advice.)

(And that’s exactly what he’s doing.)

(Even if he hasn’t quite figured that out yet.)

So, taking this in mind, he backs off. A little bit. Decides to start from square one, and build a rapport, and go from there to get some of the other basics that he wants established.

Standard interrogation technique, technically. Not one favored by ISB, obviously, or really encouraged, but even they knew it had its uses.

Vector is still cagey about personal details, but she does start to soften a little as several weeks go by.

He brings up the idea of an emergency code phrase again, after about two months of this kind of sporadic contact.

This time, she says she’ll think about it.

Things hold in this pattern for about a year, and then Vector makes a call, as usual.

Or, it starts like a normal call, anyway.

“You probably won’t hear from me for a while,” she says, as the file transfer is wrapping up and they’re about to sign off.

“Are you in trouble?”

“No,” she says. “Nothing like that. And nothing related to the work we’ve been doing. But things are going to be...difficult. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get an all-clear message out for a while.”

He doesn’t like this at all. “How long?”

“A month,” she says. “Probably. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I’ll contact you as soon as I can safely.”

It is one of the longer months of his life.

But, as promised, the dedicated comm he has for her lights up eventually.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum,” he says. “Good to hear from you again. Everything all right?”

“Yes,” she says. And she seems fine, and he breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

When he tells Zeb about it later, though, is where it gets...interesting.

“Glad to hear your kid’s okay,” he says.

“My--she’s not my child, Zeb,” Kallus says.

“Really.”

“....”

“Look, you talk about her the same way Kanan talks about Sabine, when she’s off blowing things up on Mandalore.”

“I...wait, really?”

“Yep,” Zeb says, and grins at him. “I mean, it’s not a problem. S’kind of what we do in this family, isn’t it? Take in strays. ‘Bout time you got in on it, really.”

Kallus just stares at him. “I...what.”

Zeb waves a hand in front of his face. “Alex. Babe. You all right in there?”

He shakes himself. “Yes, of course. Sorry."

“Ehh, don’t worry about it. I mean, it’d probably have been nice for the two of us to talk about kids in general before we started adopting our own strays, but--”

Really, sometimes Kallus thinks that Zeb likes the expression he makes when utterly poleaxed like that.

(He does. He thinks it’s adorable.)

(Also, Zeb figures this is a conversation they maybe should have, because they’re clearly both in this for the long haul and he saw this opening and...look, no one ever said Zeb was good at broaching delicate topics gently.)

“...do you?” Kallus asks, when he recovers. “Want children, someday?”

“I mean...yeah,” Zeb says. “If you do. I mean.”

“I hadn’t thought about it,” he confesses.

(Because long-range planning is hard; because they’re at war, because he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop, because he doesn’t deserve any of this and planning for a future he doesn’t deserve is just--a little much for him sometimes.)

“But...yes,” Kallus says. “I think so, yes. I would like to raise children with you. Someday.”

Zeb’s response to that is positive and enthusiastic and leads to things they will definitely not be discussing with their hypothetical children ever.

It’s a month or two after that that Kallus finds out who Vector is.

(…well, for a given value of ‘finds out,’ anyway.)

He and Zeb are babysitting--Sabine is back on Mandalore; Hera is on duty; Kanan was supposed to be finally meeting Luke but there was an issue at the spaceport and he’s stranded for the next few hours.

(Like I said. Anakin-and-Grievous levels of contrived coincidence.)

Zeb has just put the kid to bed, and Kallus is watching the news.

“You’re still watching that?” he asks, nudging Kallus to make room for him on the couch and drawing him to lean on his shoulder.

“I’ve told you before, dear, knowing what the Empire is saying, no matter how different that is from what they’re doing, has its uses.”

“Especially if you know how their propaganda is constructed, I know,” Zeb says, and nuzzles his ear. “Just thought you were almost done.”

Kallus smiles faintly and leans into the caress. “I am, I promise. I’ll shut it off in a minute. I just want to--”

He pauses. Rewinds the feed. Pauses it--pre-recorded coverage of some public event the Emperor’s kid had been at, with the newscaster commenting on the progress of whatever “public works” project it was supposed to kick off.

“…what is it? Something she said?”

(...something to do with whatever this “project” is covering up?)

“Hush,” he says, fiddling with a few buttons and calling up a printed transcript and skims through it before sinking back against Zeb, letting out a breath.

“Babe?”

“I think I know who Vector is,” he says.

Zeb stares at him for a minute, then stares at the paused footage--frozen on the Princess’s face, icy and composed.

“…her?”

“Her,” he confirms.

“Why…?”

“Little things,” he says. “The way she talks, some unique turns of phrase. And she fits the profile--young, Human, Coruscanti, close to someone powerful but essentially a civilian herself…and…when Vector disappeared on me last month, that coincided with a period where the Princess was more visible than usual.”

“Karabast,” he mutters. “When you put it like that…”

“It’s all conjecture,” Kallus points out. “I can’t prove any it. Not without digging deeper--which, if I’m right, risks compromising her cover--or asking her straight-out.”

(Which, of course, would also be a bad idea. It would probably seriously damage the trust he’s spent the past year and more building, and it might not even get him an honest answer anyway.)

“Right,” Zeb says. “…any chance someone else could put this together?”

Kallus makes a face. “Unlikely,” he says, though he doesn’t sound totally sure. “The recordings of our conversations are kept as hard copies only, for security. Not uploaded onto any networked drives. And a very small set of people have access to those copies. I doubt anyone could put it together without that access. Still…”

(Someone dedicated enough, who managed to access one of those recordings, or intercept a transmission along the way, or compromise the lines of communication from the other side…)

“Kriff,” he says. “Anything you can do about it?”

��Not really,” he says. “Other than brief Draven and keep doing what I’ve been doing.”

“Yeah,” he says, and studies the picture again; glances over at the morose look on Kallus’s face; feels his ears twitching. “Huh. Never would’ve figured the Emperor’s kriffing daughter to defect.”

Kallus jumps a little, drawn out of his thoughts, then rolls his eyes and gives Zeb a fond, exasperated smile (which was really the point, honestly; to needle him into a better mood), and rather dryly points out, “There was a time you would’ve said the same about me.”

“True,” Zeb says, and grins at him. “Guess it just goes to show, people surprise you all the time.”

“Indeed,” Kallus says, then reaches over to shut off the feed and changes the subject.

Six weeks after that, Vector goes quiet again. This time without warning.

When her two-week check-in goes by with nothing, he’s immediately concerned. She’s never missed a check-in before, not without warning. He decides to give her a day, and then ping her himself.

(He generally avoids doing that--only when he absolutely needs to speak with her about something time-sensitive that can’t wait for her to reach out.)

There’s no response to his message, either.

He reports the missed check-in, of course. Tries again the next day. And a third.

Still nothing.

(He knows a rescue won’t be authorized--technically, they don’t actually know for sure who or even where Vector is, and if his theory is correct, they cannot make a run on Coruscant for one agent, especially not one as visible as Princess Lavinia.)

(He keeps telling himself that. Over and over again. As he tries a fourth and fifth time to reach her.)

“Zeb,” he says, after a third full week has gone by since the last time he heard from her. “I need you to talk me out of doing something stupid.”

“Uh, sure, babe. What’s going on?”

He explains the situation as briefly as he can. “And I am this close to staging a half-assed unauthorized raid on Coruscant to extract her.”

“...nah, if we’re doing an unauthorized raid on Coruscant, it should be a full-assed thing.”

That...that wasn’t really the answer Kallus was looking for.

(In hindsight, he thinks, as he tries to redraw building plans from memory and plan this stupid, stupid venture, he probably should have gone to Hera if he really wanted someone to talk him down. Or possibly Kanan. ...no, Hera.)

(...it could be worse, though.)

(he could’ve tried asking Sabine.)

Fortunately, before they can actually run off and get themselves killed--

(or court-martialed)

(or in trouble with Hera)

--Kallus’ dedicated comm chimes.

“All clear,” he breathes. “That’s the all-clear. She’s...she’s alive.”

It’s nearly another week before he hears anything else, but finally a real call comes.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum. Are you all right?”

(she doesn’t sound all right; it’s hard to tell through her scrambler, but she seems strained.)

“Everything’s fine,” she says. “I apologize for the delay, but things are settled now. My cover is intact.”

Which is good to know, but not what he asked.

“And what about you?” he says.

She doesn’t answer right away.

“Vector?”

“I’m here,” she says. “And everything is under control. You don’t need to worry about me. Nothing that--it wasn’t anything to do with this, I was caught on the fringes of something unrelated. It won’t interfere with my work going forward.”

Which still isn’t an answer.

(He’s pretty sure the non-answer is his answer, though. Damn it.)

(He knows the risks. Better than most. And he knows she knows them, too. It doesn’t make it any easier to hear, especially knowing that there is kriff-all he can do to help her.)

Into the silence, she says, “I’m your asset, Fulcrum. Not your friend.”

“......”

“I’m just--” She sighs. “I’m your asset. Not your friend. It’s...we should both remember that. It’s probably better, in the long run.”

And part of him is hurt; part of him is annoyed that he is being lectured on professionalism by a damned child; part of him is worried again--he did finally talk her into an emergency code phrase, in case of capture or other disaster, but here she goes again, hinting that she doesn’t have an exit strategy.

(Not like I did, either, he reminds himself. Can’t plan that far ahead. Not when you’re doing this kind of work. And even when Ezra came for me--)

(He buries it. Because he is a goddamn professional, Vector’s reproof aside.)

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she says. “And I’ve had worse.”

“........”

All right, that he likes even less.

“Vector--”

“I have to go,” she says. “I’ll be in touch when I have something else. And I’ll do my best to warn you if I have to disappear again. Vector out.”

And, in the interests of “good Lord this thing is close to 6k already,” we’re going to skip ahead quite a bit, about a year and a half, to just after the evacuation of Echo Base.

For the first time in a while, the whole family (minus Ezra) is back on the Ghost together.

(Kanan, Hera, Chopper, Sabine, Zeb, Kallus, Rex, and Jacen.)

(They’ve all been in touch and met up fairly frequently, but they’re no longer a discrete cell and they all have their own, often separate, duties with the wider Rebellion. So, while the circumstances leading to it are awful, it’s nice to have an opportunity like this.)

Orders are to lay low, and make their way by a prearranged roundabout route to the fleet rendezvous five days later.

The first night, they mostly spend catching up and letting Sabine fleece them all at cards.

(Except Rex. Do Not Play Sabaac With Rex.)

(They had all forgotten that rule.)

Hera is sending occasional messages back and forth to Command, to confirm/make adjustments/etc., but otherwise things are fairly quiet after the frantic rush of the evacuation itself.

(Fortunately, none of them were injured in the escape. It’s happened before, when they’ve had to leave a base in a hurry. That was a week no one wanted to repeat.)

It’s their second night of drifting, and Kallus is just starting to fall asleep (Zeb is snoring beside him; the noise honestly probably should have been annoying but is genuinely comforting at this point, to the point where he has trouble sleeping without it) when his comm beeps.

It’s Vector.

More accurately, it’s her emergency signal.

He extracts himself from the bed and slips out into the hall to talk the call.

“Fulcrum.”

“It’s Vector,” she says, unnecessarily. She’s not using her usual scrambler this time, but a more standard vocoder, probably cannibalized from a stolen helmet. She sounds drained, and slightly breathless. “I’ve been burned. I got...I got away. I had more..." She stops, clears her throat. “I got away. I was able to remove my tracker and I’m as--I’m as sure as I reasonably can be that I’ve lost anyone following me by other means. I-I pulled as much raw data as I could onto a couple of portable drives on my way out, but I’m on a...I’m on a sliced public terminal right now, I don’t want to keep the line open long enough to send them in the usual way and I...I don’t know what the protocol is now. Please advise.”

“Where are you now?” he asks. There are so many other questions he wants to ask, needs to ask, both from a personal and a professional standpoint--is she all right; how did she get caught; how did she escape; how long has she been compromised--but they can wait until she’s been located and brought in safely. He sets them all aside, and focuses.

(Like A Goddamn Professional.)

“Ixaly,” she says. “I’m on...I’m on Ixaly.”

He closes his eyes, mentally traces their route through hyperspace. Ixaly is in this sector, it shouldn’t be far...yes. If he’s counted right--they’ll be doing a navigation stop shortly, and dropping out of hyperspace. From there--a few hours to Ixaly, unless he’s completely turned around.

“There’s a cantina,” he says, “in the Diira district in Central City. The White Shale. Can you be there in six hours?”

A brief pause; he can hear her breathing. “Yes,” she says, at last. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

“That’s the fastest I can arrange a pickup,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

(If he’s right about how close they are, it might not actually take him that long, but there’s a balance between getting to her as quickly as possible and budgeting in time for something to go wrong. He doesn’t want to risk being late and having her move on because she thinks he’s not coming. He may not be able to contact her if something goes wrong; not if she’s relying on sliced public terminals to reach out to him. And he has no idea when she’ll be able to make contact again, or how long whatever data’s on her drives will stay viable...so, six hours. He’ll have to trust her to stay alive that long.)

“I’ll be there,” she promises. “White Shale cantina, Diira district, Central City, six hours.”

“Exactly. You know how to reach me if there are any problems.”

“Yes,” she says.

“It’s almost over,” he says. “You’ve done well, getting yourself this far. Just hold on for a little while longer, all right?”

“I will,” she says; takes a breath. “I’ll see you in six hours. Vector out.”

The line goes dead.

Half a heartbeat later, he feels the familiar rumble of the hyperdrive cutting out, switching over to sublight engines.

He’s in his window now, he doesn’t have time--

As he heads for the Phantom, he runs into Kanan.

“...what’s wrong?”

“Vector,” he says, clipped. “She’s had to run. She’s not far--”

“Go,” he says. “I’ll let Hera know. ...take Zeb with you. In case you need backup.”

(Which he doesn’t really need, and it might well spook his contact if he brings a team--he has run extractions like this before, after all, and Vector is particularly cagey--but he nods.)

“I will. Thank you.”

“How long do we wait before sending our own rescue party?” Kanan asks.

Kallus does some quick mental math--six hours to the meet; going by Vector’s history, she may need some convincing to come along (like I did, until it was too late; but it’s already too late for her, isn’t it?); she might be wrong about having a tail; they might run into unrelated trouble...

“I’ll send word once we leave the system. If you haven’t heard from me in twelve hours, that’s when you worry.”

“Got it,” he says, and starts off towards the cockpit to update Hera, when Kallus realizes--

“Wait,” he says.

Kanan pauses, half-turns back to him.

“I don’t know who Vector is, not for certain,” he says, “but I have considerable circumstantial evidence that she’s Princess Lavinia.”

Kanan takes that in, then nods slowly. “Right. Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll pass that along.”

“Thank you,” Kallus says again, and the two of them separate--Kallus goes to wake Zeb and then get the Phantom prepped and underway; Kanan goes to tell Hera what’s going on.

(...and corral his son.)

(Jacen has developed this habit lately of hiding on the Phantom when he thinks it’s going somewhere Interesting.)

(Which is usually whenever someone other than Mamma is driving.)

(He likes going on Adventures with his various uncles and Auntie ‘Bine, okay.)

(They go on the best Adventures.)

(But retrieving one of Kallus’s deep-cover agents whose cover was blown like a week ago at most is maaaaaaybe not the best Adventure for a three-year-old.)

Fortunately, Zeb isn’t hard to wake and grasps the situation quickly. The two of them head for the Phantom--

And find Sabine sitting there waiting for them, spinning idly in the pilot’s chair.

“...Sabine--” Zeb starts.

“Whatever it is that’s got you two running around frantically when we’re supposed to be lying low,” she says, “I wanna help. You might need backup.”

On the one hand, Kallus is pretty sure they won’t. And his prior concerns about spooking Vector if he comes in with a team still apply.

On the other hand, Sabine is one of the best people to have beside them in a crisis, if things do go all to hell. She’s creative and generally carrying an array of weapons that defies the very laws of physics.

Besides, he doesn’t have time to argue with her.

“Fine,” he says. “But you follow my lead--both of you. Neither of you has been on an extraction like this before, and this is what I do. All right?”

“All right,” Sabine says. “Who is it we’re extracting, exactly?”

“A spy, working under the code name Vector,” he says. “She’s been feeding us intel for close to three years now. Her cover was compromised, and she had to run.”

Sabine nods. “Got it,” she says.

“And, if I’m right,” he says--because if he is, Sabine will have to know before they get there, “she’s the Emperor’s daughter.”

“...all right, then,” Sabine manages, after a moment of stunned silence. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

They detach, and the Ghost disappears behind them back into hyperspace as Kallus sets a course for Ixaly.

And now, since I’m sure y’all are wondering the same thing Kallus is--i.e., how did she get caught/how did she escape--let’s backtrack and leave Kallus’s POV for another brief digression--

It all comes down to a man named Vedric Greer.

Vedric Greer is a Royal Guard. He’s been in that elite unit for over fifteen years at this point, selected more or less straight out of the Academy.

He’s been the head of Lavinia’s detail since she was twelve.

(Before that, he had a variety of assignments; he never got stuck with Vader, for which he is profoundly grateful, but he guarded a few valuable objects/locations, and he was on Tarkin’s detail for a couple of years.)

See, here’s the thing about Royal Guards. They’re put through a lot of conditioning, both physically and mentally, to become living weapons who are absolutely loyal.

And he is. Vedric Greer is an absolutely loyal man.

The thing is, to be a Royal Guard assigned to any living being other than Palpatine himself--Vader, Tarkin, Mas Amedda, Lavinia, a few others--means to be equal parts bodyguard and prison guard. Such a Guard is at least partly there to protect his principal from external threats, of course, but if said principal steps out of line or he’s given certain orders, he becomes their jailer. Or executioner. Or worse.

When he’s assigned to someone like Tarkin, of course, that isn’t much of a problem.

But a lonely, precocious twelve-year-old kid like Lavinia? Who, whatever traits she may have inherited from her father, has them tempered by an actual conscience?

...yeah, it doesn’t take a whole lot for him to bond with her, just a little.

(Throw in the fact that he has a lover, an Imperial Archivist who survived Scarif by being transferred to Coruscant days before Tarkin blew it up...well. Maybe the cracks in his armor aren’t only to do with the little girl he’s been made responsible for.)

So. Vedric Greer is a Royal Guard, and that means he is a living weapon, and absolutely loyal.

But over the past seven years--and especially the last three--maybe, just maybe, that loyalty has started to shift.

(He doesn’t even realize it, at first; and when he does notice the traces of affection, of tangential loyalty in himself...well, he reasons that Lavinia is all but an extension of her father’s will, anyway. Right? And if he conveniently fails to see certain signs...)

(Reynard, his lover, knows way before Vedric does where this is going, of course.)

And then, one morning, his orders change, and all those little things come crashing down.

(It was such a simple thing that screwed her over; Palpatine seeds bait among his minions constantly, little nuggets of information so that, if there is a high-placed leak, he can track it back to its source right away. Standard counter-intelligence, really; and everyone, everyone, is under suspicion. Everyone is tested.)

(Lavinia is normally very good at spotting this sort of thing--she has a natural aptitude for espionage, she was trained by the best, and she puts just as much effort into surviving her father and completing her mission as he did into taking over the galaxy. How else would she have lasted nineteen years as her father’s daughter--let alone three as a deep-cover Rebel spy?)

(But this time--this time she missed it. And now he knows.)

And Vedric Greer has a choice to make.

It’s surprising, in the end, how simple it is.

“My lady,” he informs her, “you are undone.”

He helps her cut out the tracking device implanted inside her ribcage (which is also fitted with a killswitch, of course, in case she ever tried to slip her leash); she asks him to come with her; he refuses.

(He is not a Rebel. He is not disloyal.)

(What he is, is her protector. What he is, is--hers.)

“I’m so sorry,” she says.

“So am I,” he says, and, “Go. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

“Goodbye,” she says, and disappears.

He sends a brief message to Reynard--hoping he’ll know what it means (he will; he always knew this might happen), and prepares himself to meet his death.

(Or, at least, that’s what he believes is going to happen.)

(...look, as I said before, this is Self-Indulgent BS(tm). Like I’m really gonna let Greer die. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have no earthly idea how he survives but he does. Because this is my self-indulgent BS, dammit.)

Okay. Back to Ixaly, and the actual rescue/extraction mission.

(…by which I also mean forward, since it’s like a week later.)

Our Heroes reach Central City about an hour ahead of schedule. After a brief discussion, Sabine disappears into the district to be on-hand for immediate help, if needed; Zeb, who doesn’t blend in as well, will stay with the Phantom; Kallus of course goes to the cantina to find his contact.

He heads there more or less directly, taking in as much detail of the city and the specific neighborhood as he can.

He’s been here before, but it’s been several years; there is a garrison in place, but the occupation seems comparatively light.

Which means there’s a not-unreasonable chance that this will go smoothly.

(Of course, as soon as he thinks that, he starts coming up with all the potential problems that could still happen. For one thing, he or Vector or Sabine might be recognized…)

Security on the cantina itself; mostly local talent, just as it was on his last visit. This is a fairly middle-of-the-road place; just dishonest enough that he and Vector should blend, not so dishonest that they’re likely to get caught in the middle of any…unpleasantness. Part of why he picked this place. That, the fact that it isn’t particularly difficult to find, and is fairly close to his ideal landing site.

(Not the official port, naturally; while Kallus doesn’t doubt that they could bluff their way through, he’d rather not try it on such short notice. They’d landed the Phantom on the city outskirts, about fifteen minutes away by foot.)

In other words, things are about as well-situated as they could be, under the circumstances. He has three separate exit routes at least tentatively mapped out, of varying efficiency and difficulty.

(And, if it came down to it, Sabine or Zeb could create one for him, of course, but he’d prefer to avoid that if at all possible.)

(In any case, best to have backup plans; he’ll pick the best route of the three once he has a better idea of what Vector’s capable of at the moment.)

(He’s almost certain she’s hurt, and he doesn’t know how badly, and she’ll never actually tell him, so that’s the best he can do.)

Inside, the cantina is fairly crowded--which is a mixed blessing; on the one hand, more cover for their activities/conversation, but on the other, more people to see them.

It’s a varied crowd; mostly local shift workers, a few semi-legitimate traders and mid-level bounty hunters. Most importantly, though, there are no troopers that he can identify, even off-duty. Excellent.

He gets a drink (to blend in, primarily) and finds a table in the corner where he can keep an eye on the other patrons and watch the door without being obvious about it.

He’s not kept waiting long.

She blends in pretty well--she’s managed to dress herself in a slightly-outdated local fashion, one that helpfully comes with a cowl that doesn’t quite hide her face, but does enough to keep her mostly anonymous from a distance and make dodging any security cameras easier.

(A few other women in the cantina are dressed similarly; not many, but enough that she doesn’t really stand out.)

She doesn’t head straight for him. She weaves through the crowd for a minute, hesitates by the bar as if she’s considering something, orders a drink. Her attention drifts over the crowd; she doesn’t linger on him, but her hand twitches a little.

(Ah. She spotted him, then. Good.)

(He isn’t really surprised that she figured out which Fulcrum she was working with. And it does make things simpler--there are a few signals he could have tried, but there wasn’t time, when she called, to pick one of them and be sure.)

(An advantage, if a counter-intuitive one, to using the legacy code name with her, he supposes.)

She starts moving again; doing everything right--wandering as if she’s looking for a seat, gradually making her way to a small empty table next to his.

(The whole thing takes probably less than two minutes. It feels longer. Then again, it always does--this isn’t the first time he’s met a contact like this, and that never changes. Doesn’t matter whether he’s the first or second to arrive.)

He taps out a quick signal on his commlink--contact made, everything’s on track so far--and waits.

“I have a data file for you,” she says softly. “Several, in fact.”

He smiles faintly into his drink. “Well done.”

The way the tables are laid out, they’re sitting next to one another, both with their backs against the wall. It’s a simple matter for her to slide the two drives over to him, and just as easy for him to make them disappear.

(Leaving together discreetly will be a little harder, but he’s been doing this for quite a while. They’ll manage.)

“I have transport off-planet,” he tells her. “We should wait a few minutes, not get up right away, but it’s best if we leave sooner rather than later.”

She shakes her head. “I'm not coming with you.”

(He wishes he could say he was surprised.)

He doesn’t turn to look at her, as much as he wants to. “If you’re concerned about reprisals…”

“I’m not,” she says. “Not really. It’s just…not a good idea.”

...and in the interests of “good Lord this thing is probably pushing 10k and it’s not even the full fic it’s an outline,” I’m going to skip the rest of this conversation. Suffice to say, he’s right and she’s wrong, though she takes some convincing, but they leave the cantina together like fifteen minutes later. Also, he confirms that his theory as to her identity was correct somewhere in here.

Anyway, like I said, he talks her down, and she agrees to leave with him.

Once out of the cantina, he can get a better look at her, assess how badly she’s hurt.

(He knows she is for certain now; she’s breathing carefully, shallowly, and a little too fast--but he could only see her hands and the vague shadow of her cowl before.)

“Are you all right?” he asks; even though the answer is obvious; she’s favoring her left side and very pale.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she says.

A characteristic non-answer, but a step above denial. He supposes.

“All right,” he says. “Let me know if you need help.”

(There’s not much else he can do here and now, anyway; they have some supplies back on the Ghost, and she can get proper medical attention once they rendezvous with the fleet.)

“I will,” she says, which is something at least.

They make it two blocks before they run into a squad of stormtroopers.

It’s a routine patrol; and, even with a wounded asset to escort, it wouldn’t have been a problem under most circumstances. He could avoid the confrontation, or talk his way past.

But the squad sergeant stiffens in a particular way, staring at him.

“Karabast,” he mutters.

(You’d think, after all these years, this would stop happening so often. But, no, it’s still even odds that, out in the field, someone will recognize him.)

Lavinia takes half a step back. “I can--”

“They’re not here for you,” he tells her, then drags her behind cover a split second before the troopers start firing.

Then takes a minute to take stock.

This is...not an ideal position for a standoff. And while they might be able to fight their way through...

Best plan is to stay put, hold them off as long as they can, and call in Zeb and Sabine for backup.

Good thing I listened to Kanan, he thinks.

He takes out his sidearm, then pulls his holdout pistol from his boot and offers it to Lavinia.

But she shakes her head. “Father kept my focus narrow. I’d do more harm than good.”

“...right.”

Even less ideal. But it’s all right. He can handle this.

He takes his comm, switches it to the voice setting.

“Specter Four, this is Fulcrum. We’re going to need a slightly more dramatic exit than I planned for.”

“Copy that, Fulcrum,” Zeb says. “Could use an opening, Specter Five.”

“And to think you boys wanted to leave me behind,” Sabine says.

“Yes, yes, can we save the ‘I-told-you-sos’ until after we’re clear?” Kallus says, firing off a handful of shots to keep the squad at bay.

“She does have a point, babe.”

“Not on open comms, dear, how many times...”

(Honestly, the little bit of flirting is at this point half an inside joke, after the one time they legitimately forgot to switch channels, and half a way to quickly gauge how serious the situation actually is.)

(Plus, it’s fun. They like flirting.)

“Thirty seconds,” Sabine cuts in.

“Right,” Zeb says. “I’m headed to your position. ETA two minutes.”

“Copy. Fulcrum out.”

Two minutes, under these conditions, is a long, long time.

But, right on cue, thirty seconds later, there is a magnificent explosion, which gives them some breathing room, and then Sabine slides down the wall to land next to him.

“Not my best work,” she says critically, watching the cloud on the horizon, “but it’ll clear a path. Hi,” she adds, for Lavinia’s benefit.

“Hi,” she says, softly.

“...she doesn’t have a blaster,” Sabine says, turning almost accusingly to Kallus.

“Because I’ve never had one before,” Lavinia answers for him. “And this really doesn’t seem the time or place to learn.”

“Well, we’ll fix that later,” Sabine says.

“All right,” Lavinia says, then ducks down as Sabine positions herself better to start shooting back.

The next ninety seconds go much quicker, and then comes the welcome sound of the Phantom’s engines on approach.

It’ll have to be a quick exit, and for a split second, Kallus wonders about getting Lavinia up the ramp fast enough without Zeb actually landing--

But then he sees that Sabine has her jetpack.

(He has never been so pleased to see it in his life.)

“Take her,” he says, once the shuttle is in sight. “I’ll cover you.”

Sabine catches his drift right away, and nods. “Hold on,” she tells Lavinia, who blinks, but does.

And then they’re off.

Kallus just keeps firing at the troopers until, based on the noise it’s making, he judges that the Phantom is close enough that he can make the jump.

He’s--almost right.

He comes within half an inch of missing, then Lavinia’s hands shoot out and grab one of his wrists; Sabine grabs the other and the girls haul him on board.

“We’re good, Zeb, go!” Sabine shouts, while Lavinia drags Kallus the rest of the way in and slams the hatch shut.

We did it.

He takes a minute to catch his breath--he knows it isn’t really over; there’s still a great deal of work to do once they get back to the Ghost and then to the fleet proper.

But for now--they’re all alive, they’re all safe, they’re all at least as intact as they were when they got to Ixaly; the extraction was successful.

Kallus decides to let the rest of the problems wait, and take the win.

He picks himself up and heads to the cockpit, to give Zeb a quick hug and send word to Kanan and the others.

For all the drama and the worry when it started, today turned out to be a very good day.

And I think that’s a good stopping point, don’t you? There is definitely more, featuring (in no particular order) the worlds most #Awkward Road Trip; Kanan and Lavinia meeting; Kanan and Luke finally meeting; Zeb and Kallus adopting a kid or three; Lando; Jacen being precious; and so much more.

But, uh, see all my notes above about “how long is this thing now?!”

(And, again this isn’t even fulltext.)

(This is just the outline.)

...so, uh, yeah, if you made it this far, thank you and I hope you enjoyed my Self-Indulgent BS(tm). <333333333

#shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes self-indulgent bs #au outlines for the win #tigerkat24

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