#and dan and i kept trying to 'walk it off' (which is to say we gave ourselves long term lung damage from overexertion) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

photogirl894 · 10 months ago

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"Sun and Rain Part 2: Age of the Empire"

Chapter 31

"The Koriena Way"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

A/N: Here we go again with another chapter! We're taking a break from a lot of the angst I've dealt out recently and having a bit more fun with this one 😊 And I say that sincerely! Love you all and I hope you enjoy!

Also, thanks to @l-lend for her help with some ideas in the beginning of this chapter as well as a little credit to my hubby, as well 😉😊

Lastly, if you play Baldur's Gate 3, there is a minor BG3 reference in here...if you're familiar with Minthara at all 😜

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @intrepidmare , @cole-kenxbi , @tech-aficionado , @ladykatakuri , @d1n0-dan , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22 , @scarlettrose9901 , @thebadbatchscyare , @chxpsi , @ilikemymendarkandfictional , @4pplecider , @locitapurplepink , @l-lend , @nekotaetae , @eternalwaffle , @merkitty49 , @avathebestx , @idoubleswearimawriter , @techs-stitches , @fantasyproductions , @sverdgeir , @totallyunidentified

《 Chapter 30

》 Chapter 32

All chapters (Part 2) (Part 1)

Explanation: The Bad Batch are off to Raxus for a mission while Omega and Kimber stay behind on Ord Mantell and end up spending a day with the Koriena Force.

“How's the Mantell Mix, kid?” Wrecker asked Omega, whom he was carrying on his shoulder.

“Better than ever,” she declared, dropping a piece of the sweet treat into his open mouth.

“Yeah, it is!” he agreed after chewing it up.

The Bad Batch had returned to Ord Mantell after a few days and were making their way back to Cid's parlor. Hunter's chest wound had fully healed, luckily, but Kimber's leg wasn't quite at a hundred percent. The damage done to her muscles as well as part of her bones were more severe than they’d realized. She was walking better, but still had a limp and needed support. She wasn't using her rifle as a crutch and instead had her arm looped through Hunter's and was using him to lean on as they maneuvered through the streets. They had also seen the Aurora still docked in the hangar, which meant the Koriena Force were still planetside. If the girls weren't at the parlor, then the Bad Batch would go back and see them at their ship after giving their report to Cid.

“So when's our next mission?” Omega asked the others eagerly.

Tech answered, “With two bounty hunters after you, it'd be wise to keep a low profile.”

Just as they reached the entrance to Cid's, Hunter added, “Tech's right. There's too much heat on us right now.”

He turned back and helped Omega down from Wrecker's shoulder to the ground. As he did so, Kimber sidestepped out of the way and Tech quickly moved forward to catch her arm just before using his other hand to steady Omega.

While Hunter quietly made some comments to Wrecker, who claimed having too much heat on them never stopped them before, Omega asked the other three, holding up her box of Mantell Mix, “You guys wanna try some?”

Tech simply held up a hand and shook his head, Kimber said “no, thank you” and Echo took a handful and started sniffing it cautiously, but then he ultimately declined, putting it back.

Afterwards, they saw Hunter walking past them towards the stairway leading to Cid's and knew it was time to follow. Tech kept his arm strong and steady for Kimber as they descended the stairs.

“You all right?” he asked her.

“I am. It twinges a little still going up and down stairs, but it's nothing too bad,” she told him.

“Hopefully another day with some bacta treatment and your leg will be back to normal,” commented Echo.

The doors to the parlor opened and they walked inside, hearing the familiar music of the jukebox overpowering the silence of the bar.

Or at least…it was silent until they heard an angry woman's voice yell out, “Sarge!”

All eyes looked in the direction the voice had come from and they saw Rina practically on top of one of the back tables with Kida, Irys and Lex sitting there with her, all of them with drinks on the table. Rina, for some reason, looked less than pleased to see them, to say the least. Namely Hunter.

Then she called out to him, “You. Me. Out back. Right now!”

“Rina, calm down,” said Lex.

The Clones and Kimber all exchanged bewildered glances, mostly directed at Hunter. What in the world was going on?

Rina climbed over the table to the other side and dropped to the ground. “I mean it. Let's go,” she challenged.

Still confused, Hunter finally asked, “What are you talking about?”

As she started moving forward, she said back, “You know what you did.”

The other three girls were scrambling out from behind their table and both Irys and Lex put their hands on Rina's shoulders to help keep her back, looks of almost worry on their faces.

“I really don't. Are you okay?” Hunter asked, genuinely concerned.

“Oh that's it!” Rina snapped and suddenly became enraged, shoving Lex and Irys away and charging full speed at Hunter, angry blades in her eyes.

Everyone instinctively took a step back in astonishment. With how quickly she was moving, it was almost as if she hadn't gotten badly injured just a few days prior.

“Whoa, there, Rina!”

Though, just as she was about to reach Hunter, Wrecker jumped between them and proceeded to grab her by the arms and lifted her up in front of him like a small child. She growled in frustration for a split second, but once he planted a big kiss on her lips and she found herself looking into the face of her favorite guy, all of her anger just dissipated almost immediately.

“Oh…h--hi, Wrecker,” she stammered, words suddenly failing her.

“Boy, you've definitely got your fire back,” he observed, impressed.

Kida groaned and put a hand to her forehead. “I swear, she's been like a ticking bomb waiting to explode,” she grumbled.

Wrecker chuckled in amusement and stated in reply, “Well, good thing I'm a demolitions expert.” Then he unceremoniously tucked Rina under his arm, who still looked dumbstruck, and announced, “Time to diffuse my favorite explosive. I saved your hide this time, boss.”

“I owe you one,” Hunter replied quietly.

“Be right back!” Without waiting for a response, Wrecker turned on his heel and just walked right out the door.

As the door shut, Echo looked at Hunter, still perplexed, and asked him, “What did you do?”

“What makes you think I know?” Hunter asked back.

Still flabbergasted at what they just witnessed, Omega commented aloud, “That was…bizarre.”

“What in the blazes is going on with her?” Kimber demanded, turning to the girls.

With a loud sigh, Lex explained, “A few days ago, she went off about feeling a disturbance in the Force and then suddenly, she just got irate and said, ‘I'm gonna kill him. He made her cry’.”

Then Irys came forward and inquired, “Did uh…something else happen on Bracca?”

Hunter and Kimber turned to each other and their expressions shifted to awkwardness. They began to realize that Rina must've somehow sensed the harsh disagreement they'd all had on Bracca. Then they recalled that she had warned Hunter that if ever he made Kimber cry or he broke her heart that he would answer to Rina. Now, her unexpected outburst made sense somewhat.

“Well…yes,” Kimber answered Irys. “We had some setbacks on Bracca that led to some contention between us. Things were said and done on both sides that were hurtful, but we all managed to work through it. I can give you all more details later, but I promise everything’s fine.”

“I just hope Wrecker explains things well enough to calm her down,” said Lex, who had moved over beside Echo and was holding his hand.

“I’m sure he will. Wrecker knows how to handle her pretty well by now,” Echo replied to her before kissing her temple.

Kida went on to tell them, “We had no idea Rina would be able to sense any of that through the Force. It was so unexpected.”

“Just goes to show how much we really don’t understand about the Force,” said Kimber.

“There are many aspects about the Force that are certainly even beyond my own comprehension,” stated Tech. “Any science behind any of it seems to defy all logical and pragmatic thought.”

“On that, we can agree,” said Irys. “To be able to feel something clear on another side of the galaxy and know what is happening…it shouldn’t be possible…and yet, we just witnessed it for ourselves and I have no sensible explanation for it.”

“Needless to say…she’s been ready to put you in the ground for days, Hunter,” said Kida, flashing him a look that said “you got lucky this time”.

With a timid half-grin, he replied, “I could tell.”

“But we’re glad you’re all back,” said Lex, hugging Echo’s arm while looking at everyone else.

“It’s good to be back…though I get the feeling it won’t be for long if Cid has another job for us,” Kimber supposed.

Right then, they heard a familiar, nasally female voice call out from the back, “I’ve got another mission for you guys!”

As everyone rolled their eyes, Echo remarked to Kimber, “You had to say something, Kim.”

As Cid came into the room, she waved her arms at the girls and cried, “Get outta here, broads! Don’t you have somewhere better to be?”

“You know, a little politeness and the word ‘please’ can go a long way, Cid,” Lex retorted.

Rolling her eyes, Cid fired back, “Yeah, yeah, tell it to someone who cares, Spike. Now, get a move on and take Goldie and Bluey with you.”

Kimber took a threatening step forward, but Hunter placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She already couldn’t stand hearing Cid back-talk her boys, but she drew the line when it came to the girls. They didn’t deserve to be treated like that. That and it annoyed her hearing the new condescending nicknames Cid now had for Lex and Irys. She’d heard Kida’s before and it was still no less irritating to hear it again now.

However, the girls seemingly just brushed Cid off and started walking out of the parlor. “Stop by the Aurora before you all head out,” Kida told the Bad Batch as they walked out.

After the ladies left, Cid went on to explain the Bad Batch’s next mission to them: an extraction mission on Raxus, which Tech explained was the former center of the Separatist government...which meant the mission meant helping a Separatist. It seemed both Hunter and Kimber were on the same page when Cid tried giving them the datadisk with all the details.

“Help a Separatist? Not gonna happen,” Hunter refused, giving the datadisk back.

“You seem to have forgotten who we are and what we did during the Clone Wars,” added Kimber. “We fought the Separatists and we’re certainly not going to start helping them now.”

“I don’t care what you did before, Dollface,” Cid snidely remarked. “You’re working for me and that’s what you’re doing now.”

Kimber’s fists clenched at her sides as she glared at the Trandoshan. “One shot…one shot is all it would take…,” she thought to herself.

Then Cid stated to Hunter, “Your debt’s still not paid, remember? A job’s a job.”

Hunter then pulled Cid over to the other side of the parlor to speak privately, leaving everyone else by the bar.

After the two of them moved away, Kimber turned to Echo and grumbled quietly, “Just say the word and I’ll put an end to that miserable lizard. We’d be praised as heroes.”

“Easy, Kim,” Echo urged her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

“She may not be amiable, but eliminating her would make us no different from the Separatists we once fought against,” added Tech.

She groaned through gritted teeth. “I hate when you’re right. I’m just tired of all the abuse she throws at us and the girls and yet she still expects us to do her bidding. She doesn’t deserve our help.”

“I know, but this is what we’re going to have to do for now,” said Echo, albeit begrudgingly.

Just then, they heard Cid exclaim to Hunter as she walked away from him, “Yeah, yeah, Bandana. Just get outta here, will ya?” With that, she just sauntered by the rest of the group towards the back in the direction of her office, ignoring the less-than-pleased glances the rest of the Batch cast her way.

Omega was strapping on her belt with her bow as Hunter came over to her. “Ready when you are, Sergeant,” she said, saluting him.

He knelt down to her level and said back, looking a bit down, “Not this time, Omega. You’re staying with Cid.”

Kimber’s eyebrows shot up, astonished.

“But th--the mission! I’m part of the squad, too,” Omega tried to argue.

Resting his hand on her shoulder like he always did, Hunter said back, “Then following orders shouldn't be a problem. Stay close to Cid and don't leave this parlor. Got it, soldier?”

She still wasn’t happy with that decision, but Omega just rolled her eyes, groaned and answered, “Yes, sir.” Afterwards, she walked back to the bar and sulked on one of the barstools.

Kimber didn’t like Hunter’s choice anymore than Omega did and she quickly stepped in, saying quietly to Hunter, “Are you crazy? We can’t leave Omega with Cid. I wouldn’t trust that dragon alone with her for even a minute.”

“I don’t trust Cid either, but I’m not taking Omega to a Separatist planet. She’d be safer here,” Hunter replied.

“Then leave her with the Koriena Force, not Cid. They’re still here and even if they’re given another mission, Omega can assist them,” she implored. “She’s fully capable of doing so.”

“They’ve already got one child to look after,” he said.

With a scoff, she replied back, “Oh come on, Rina will be just fine.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m talking about the baby.”

“Yeah…and like I said, Rina will be fine.”

“I meant Kori, Kimber,” said Hunter, shaking his head.

She snickered, highly amused at her joke even though he didn't seem to be. Then she became sincere again by saying, “Seriously, though, leave her with the girls…and if it'll help ease your concerns any more, then I'll stay behind with her, too.”

He reared back slightly at that suggestion. “Why would you stay? We need you.”

She mustered up a small smile. “I appreciate you saying that, my love,” she said back, “but let's face it: my leg still isn't fully healed and I’m still limping. I can’t move around properly for a mission and would only hold you guys back. Besides…after what I did on Bracca, I don't feel like I've earned back my place fighting at your side.”

“Sweetheart, we talked about this,” he said. “I forgave you and so did the rest of the lads.”

“I know…but I haven't forgiven myself,” she replied. “I just…need a little time. Even still, my first point still stands: I can't actively help in the mission when my leg isn't back to a hundred percent. I would only cause problems for you. It's better if I stay anyway.”

Hunter sighed heavily. “I guess you're right. If that's your choice, then I'll respect it.”

She gave him a grateful nod in return. “Good luck and be safe, okay?”

“Of course. I have to come back to you, don't I?” he asked, touching her cheek lightly.

He kissed her cheek and turned away, signaling for the others to follow him out the door. Hunter walked out, but Echo and Tech hung back by the door for a moment, unbeknownst to Kimber and Omega.

As Kimber went over to talk to Omega, Cid cried out, “Hey, tiny, I got a mission for you. Now get scrubbing.” Then she threw a cleaning brush at the kid.

Kimber reached out and caught the brush one-handed in midair before it reached Omega. “Change of plans, Cid. She's coming with me,” she told the Trandoshan, a smug smirk on her face at not letting Cid have her way.

“Seriously?” Cid questioned.

“You got a problem with that?” Kimber challenged back with a raise of her eyebrows as she carelessly tossed the brush over her shoulder and behind the bar.

Frowning, Cid snapped, “Yeah, you're taking away my free labor.”

That one short sentence made Kimber's blood boil. If Omega hadn't been next to her, she would've screamed and ripped Cid a new one for sure, but decided to be more calm about it for Omega’s sake.

Instead, with a no less icy tone, she spat in Huttese, “E chu ta!”

Cid frowned even more. “What did you say to me?” she demanded.

Then Kimber heard Tech answer behind her, “You don't want to know.”

She grinned to herself. Only Tech would've known what she'd really said and it amused her even more that he was going to leave Cid in the dark just as much as she was. It's what the old lizard deserved.

Then she gave Omega a light pat on the arm and said, “Come on, dear. I'm taking you somewhere else.”

The kid gave no objections, slipped off her barstool and started heading for the door where Echo and Tech were waiting. Kimber cast one last distasteful glance at Cid before whipping around and following Omega, still limping slightly.

As they went through the door and it shut behind them, Echo inquired, “What did you say to her?”

“Words I shouldn't repeat in Basic with a child present,” Kimber answered. “And that was me being calm.”

That made Echo chuckle as he offered her an arm to help her up the steps.

“Will you be all right without us?” Tech asked her.

She scoffed and replied, “Don't you worry about us. We'll stay with the girls until you get back.” As they reached the top of the steps in the alleyway, she looked down at Omega and stated with a smile, hoping to lift the girl’s spirits a little about being left behind, “We’ll have some fun on our own, won’t we, Omega?”

The blonde girl looked up at her and couldn’t help but grin at seeing Kimber’s encouraging smile. “Yeah, we will,” she agreed.

“Well, we’ll head to the Aurora before we leave since Kida told us to stop by first,” said Echo.

“I would also assume Wrecker is still there with Rina,” added Tech.

“Don’t let me hold you back. I’ll be a bit behind you because of my leg,” said Kimber, giving them a dismissive way. “You lads get going. Be safe on Raxus.”

They both gave her and Omega affirming nods before jogging off in the direction of the hangar.

“You can go with them, Omega. I’ll catch up,” Kimber urged the young Clone.

However, Omega shook her head and replied, “I’m not gonna leave you alone. I’ll walk with you.”

Kimber certainly wasn’t going to say “no” to that.

“What did I tell you, Kimber?” Irys chastised her.

Now on the Aurora, after the Bad Batch had left for Raxus, Kimber had just relayed to the Koriena Force the details of everything that had gone down on Bracca after Kida and Rina had departed and Omega had also informed them of what had happened to her during her brief capture.

Irys kept going, “Did I not warn you of what could happen if you continued to keep in contact with Crosshair?”

“You did,” Kimber admitted.

“Yet you didn’t heed that warning and brought him to you and your squad anyway,” said Irys.

Then Kida spoke up, “Oh, lay off, Irys. It wasn't her fault. Crosshair took advantage of her feelings. That was his choice, not hers. She thought there was hope and took a chance. I’m sure anyone would’ve done the same.”

“Not when the other person still has a chip in their head that’s keeping them under the Empire’s control,” Irys rebuttled.

“Okay, unnecessary,” commented Lex, who was lounging on the couch and flourishing her vibroblade. “She's already gotten enough from the boys and they've forgiven her. No need to throw it back at her.”

Irys simply groaned, irritated.

Then Kida looked over at Omega and declared, “And you, Omega: what a brave young girl you are to have escaped from a bounty hunter all on your own!”

“Yeah, you definitely got brains as well as guts, kid,” Rina added.

“Thanks,” said Omega, looking pleased with their approval.

“I’ve definitely heard things about Cad Bane. He’s a nasty one. You’re real smart if you managed to outwit him,” stated Lex.

“As well as the gal we dealt with on Pantora,” said Rina. “She does not play around.”

“We're all just glad you're safe,” said Irys.

Omega nodded. “Me too. Though, I don't like being left behind now because I got taken.”

Kimber came up beside her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “The boys just want to protect you. I'm sure it'll only be this one time. I'll make sure of it.”

Then Rina spoke up, “In the meantime, us ladies have a quick job to run for Old Dragon Lady. You two wanna come with?”

Omega's eyes lit up at the prospect of another mission. “Yes! Where are we going?”

“Don't get too excited,” Irys warned her as she took out a datapad and started typing on it. “It's only here in the city. We're not going off-planet.”

Then the girl groaned in disappointment and her smile faded.

Lex, however, added, “Well, only if the target chooses not to run and escape on a ship…which is highly unlikely because people always run.”

“I know, why is that?” Kida asked, putting a hand on her hip.

Irys answered, not even looking up from the datapad, “Guilt, fear, basic human instinct, fight or flight response.”

“That was rhetorical, Goldie,” Kida responded, rolling her eyes.

That made Irys’s head snap up, her bright pink eyes flashing with contempt as she threatened, “Call me by Cid's ridiculous nickname again and I'm shoving this datapad down your throat.”

Kida lifted her eyebrows up and down as she replied, “Mmm, don't threaten me with a good time.”

As Irys huffed in annoyance, Kimber commented, smirking, “You know, you walked right into that one.” Then she turned to Omega. “You still wanna go?”

With a shrug, she said back, “Well, it's better than sitting around doing nothing. Besides, I'd like to see how the Koriena Force does things.”

Giving a final twirl of her vibroblade, Lex responded with an amused grin, “Now, you're talking, kid. We're gonna show you how we do things the Koriena Way.”

A burly man with dark skin and covered in tattoos, now winded from running so much, found himself cuffed and shoved into a chair in a small, empty warehouse in another part of Ord Mantell with several blasters, a vibroblade and an energy bow all pointed at him.

“It’s just like I said: they always run,” Lex commented, giving a spin of her blade.

“I’m not scared of a bunch of girls and a kid!” the man snarled at them with a deep voice.

Cracking her knuckles in front of him, Rina responded, “Maybe not now…but you will be.”

Kida stepped up in the middle of them, a devious expression on her face as she faced their target. “You’re Jido Berym, are you not?” she asked him.

“Yeah…what about it?” he questioned, trying to appear stoic.

“You owe our employer, Cid, a hefty sum of credits…and have failed multiple times to deliver. Which is why we have come to collect it on her behalf,” Kida informed him.

Then Kimber chimed in, “I’m guessing he still doesn’t have the money, seeing how he ran from us.”

“Either that or he’s hoarding all the money for himself and just playing dumb, acting like he don’t got it to get out of paying,” Rina put in.

“Start talking,” Omega ordered the man, stepping closer with her bow.

Jido’s eyes darted back and forth frantically and the ladies could all tell they were on to him. He was still trying to appear like he didn’t care or know anything, but his poker face was terrible.

“Look, I told Cid I’d give her the money when I have it,” he tried to argue.

However, Irys spoke up and refuted, “Oh, you have the money.” She held up her datapad, which was showing a list of transactions on it. “You’ve made quite the killing selling weapons on the black market. I even see people listed on here, too, so you’re dealing in slavery and human trafficking, as well.”

At hearing those words mentioned, Kimber’s grip on her two blasters tightened and her teeth clenched so tightly, she thought her jaw would crack.

“That’s a lie!” Jido cried out.

“It isn’t. I have all your financial records right here,” Irys said back.

Rina had sensed Kimber’s anger immediately and tried to divert the conversation by saying, “You’ve got some dark marks in your ledger, Berym, and refusing to pay your debts will only add another against you. How about you save us the headache and yourself a great deal of pain by just paying up? I’d really hate to mess up your face over something that could be solved pretty easily.”

There was an audible gulp that sounded from his throat, but he still held firm to his act and responded, “I don’t have the money. Tell Cid she’s still gotta wait.”

Kida bent over in front of him and said in a calm tone that still had some bite to it, “Listen, Jido…I’ve got a sleeping baby to get back to whose due to wake up anytime now, so if you could just speed things up already and give us the money, that would be much appreciated, okay?”

He scoffed, unamused. “What makes you think I’d care?”

“Well, it’s one parent appealing to another, seeing as how you have a son, too,” said Irys, who now had an image of Jido and a young brown-haired boy on her datapad.

Jido’s eyes widened in horror.

“Though, since you don’t seem to care or have the money for Cid and you’re involved in human trafficking, perhaps you could simply sell your boy to get the money you need,” Irys suggested nonchalantly.

“Irys…! Read the room, for Force sake!” Rina chided her through gritted teeth.

When Irys turned her head, all of the ladies except for Kimber were giving her looks that said “Are you serious?” Then Lex motioned subtly with her head to Kimber, whose eyes were tightly closed and hands were briefly shaking, her face writ with intense discomfort. Irys realized her faux pas in the moment and regret overcame her.

However, before she could say anything, Jido exclaimed, “Don't you lay a finger on my son! I don't have the money, I swear!”

“He's really holding onto that act, isn't he?” Lex asked.

“So what do we do?” Omega asked, looking up at the other ladies while still holding her bow at the ready.

“Boss Lady…you good?” Rina questioned Kimber, concerned.

Kimber inhaled deeply and released her breath, remembering to breathe to avoid having a panic attack at the mention of slavery. Just like she and Echo had always done. It took a few seconds for her heart rate to slow down and for her to feel herself again. Once she did, her eyes opened and her usual look of determination returned.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” she answered.

Just then, a device on Kida's wrist beeped and they then heard the sound of a child's cries coming from it…Kori's cries.

She sighed, irritated, as she silenced the device. “All right, time's up for you,” she stated, looking at Jido. “I've got a baby to feed, so we need to wrap this up. Lex, you know what to do.”

Needing no further instructions, Lex proceeded to pull an explosive from her belt, toss it onto Jido's lap, activate it with a remote and state, “Ten seconds.”

Jido yelped in a panic at the now beeping explosive.

Kimber and Omega exchanged astounded looks. Were they really just going to blow this guy up?

Quickly, Rina said, “Give us the money.”

“I can't!” he cried.

“You're running out of time,” she warned him.

“Five seconds,” said Lex.

“Now, Jido!” yelled Kida.

He let out a frightened cry as the beeping sped up rapidly and then shouted hastily, “Six-one-five-two-one! That's my account code! Take the money! Please don't kill me!”

The beeping got faster before the bomb went off…releasing a cloud of smoke right up into his face and making him momentarily choke on it.

“See? That wasn't so hard, was it?” Kida asked mockingly with a pleased grin as she knocked the smoke bomb off his leg and onto the floor.

“We smoked you out, scumbag…literally,” Rina added.

Once again, Kimber and Omega shared surprised yet impressed glances. That had been a clever plan that they didn't anticipate.

Then Irys stated, “For the record, I figured out the code to your account two and a half minutes ago just after I accessed your financial records and already transferred the credits.”

Flabbergasted, Jido yelled, “Then what was the point of the bomb?”

Lex flashed a cocky grin and replied, “We wanted to hear the information from you directly…and just to see you squirm.” Then she went over and sliced off the cuffs on his wrist with her knife.

“Thanks for that, Jido. I'm sure you'll be hearing from Cid very soon,” Kimber spoke up as Jido stood up from the chair, rubbing his wrists. “It would be wise for you to not get on her bad side again.”

“Y--yes, ma'am. Thanks for not killing me,” he replied.

“You won't be so lucky if we get sent after you again,” said Rina, crossing her arms and glaring at him threateningly. “Now, scram.”

Without any more encouragement, Jido took off running out of the warehouse, still whimpering in fear.

“And that's how you handle a job the Koriena Way: quickly and efficiently,” Kida declared with pride.

“Wow! That was amazing,” Omega replied in awe.

“Glad you're impressed, dear,” Kida told her, ruffling the girl's hair.

Holstering her blasters, Kimber commented, “You know, I forget sometimes how scary you girls can be.”

Giving her a light shove in the shoulder, Lex responded, “Then you need to hang around with us more, princess.”

“Would if I could, Lex. You know that,” Kimber said back. “Though, if you're with Echo now and Rina’s with Wrecker, we'll be seeing you plenty, I'm sure.”

“You better believe it, boss lady,” agreed Rina.

They then heard Kida, who had gone over to the door of the warehouse without them really noticing, call out, “Hey, I wasn't kidding when I said I have a baby to feed! Move it or lose it, ladies!”

“Well, you heard Mom. Let's go,” said Rina, already running with the rest moving after her.

They decided they would report to Cid after things with Kori were taken care of first. The baby's needs came before the grouchy Trando's needs, according to Kida, which everyone else agreed with. While she was in her room on the Aurora feeding the baby, Rina had gone into the kitchen to make a quick bite to eat for everyone and Omega had gone with her to help. Lex was lounging on the couch with a datapad along with Kimber and Irys had gone into the cockpit where she liked to be.

A few minutes later, though, Kimber heard Irys's voice say over the ship's speakers, “Kimber, can you come to the cockpit for a moment?”

She figured she'd oblige, got up from the couch and made her way to the cockpit of the ship, where she found Irys working on the main computers.

“What is it?” Kimber asked her as she walked in.

Irys turned in her chair, looking uneasy. “Listen…I wanted to apologize,” she said.

Taking a seat in the chair next to her, Kimber questioned, “Apologize for what?”

“For my comments earlier to Jido…about selling his son for money,” Irys admitted, wringing her hands together nervously, which was very unlike her.

Then Kimber remembered what she was referring to and gave a small nod in understanding.

The gold Togruta went on, “It was insensitive of me to say such a thing around you. I was caught up in the moment and temporarily forgot your past as a slave, which I know is no excuse. I nearly caused you to have a panic attack back there. I was in the wrong and I'm sorry.”

“You're forgiven, Irys. I know you didn't mean anything by it towards me,” Kimber told her calmly. “I pulled through and I'm getting better at handling those things.”

Irys seemed a bit surprised that Kimber had forgiven her so quickly, but she smiled gratefully nonetheless.

“It's a pity Tech isn't here. He'd be shocked to hear you actually apologize for something,” Kimber then teased her.

That made Irys snicker. “Well…thank you for not thinking badly of me.”

Kimber smiled back. “I could never.”

Just then, Omega came running in and informed them, “Rina says the food's ready.”

Both Kimber and Irys stood up, gave each other one last friendly grin and then Irys went ahead and left the cockpit. Kimber stayed behind for a moment, looking down at Omega.

“Did you have fun with the ladies today?” she asked.

Omega nodded gladly. “I did! They're great. They definitely do things differently than we do, but that's what makes them a lot of fun.”

“You know, I was their leader at one point in time,” Kimber told her. “I could still be leading them now, if I wanted to.”

“Why aren't you? What changed?” Omega asked.

Kimber knelt down to her level. “Your brothers,” she said with a bright smile. “These girls helped me get them out of a tight situation once. Rina convinced me to lead the Koriena Force since it was my squad we were going after, as well as some other Clones that were involved, too. They all wanted me to stay with them, but…I couldn't leave the boys.”

“Especially Hunter,” Omega commented with a smirk.

With a chuckle, Kimber remarked, “You're not wrong there. The girls understood my position…but I know I always have a place with them, too. They're my family just as much as you and the boys are.”

“I really like them, Kimber, and I'm glad they came here for us,” said Omega. “I'm glad they're your friends because now they're all our friends.”

Kimber chuckled again. “Well…some are definitely more than friends with our squad.”

Omega giggled, putting a hand over her mouth. “I know. They're all so cute. Rina and Wrecker, Echo and Lex, Rex and Kida…even Tech and Irys, even though they're not a couple, but their bickering is entertaining.”

“Trust me, we all feel the same way,” said Kimber.

“The girls make our squad happy…and that makes me happy. That's what matters to me,” Omega said sweetly.

Smoothing Omega’s hair a little, Kimber replied, “You and me both, dear. Now, come on. Let's get some food. I'm starving.”

“I can't wait for you to try what Rina and I made!” Omega responded eagerly as they walked.

Kimber grinned and stated, “I'm looking forward to it.”

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch hunter #sergeant hunter #bad batch fanfic #hunter x oc fic #sun and rain fanfic

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yuukei-yikes · 1 year ago

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beach day episode mekakushi dan. which ones dont know how to swim??? (obligatory seto and momo joke) AND/OR who is afraid of the water?

HMMMM well of course seto and momo are afraid of it. i think they try to shrug it off and do a lot of Sand Activities ignoring that they're afraid. momo takes a bazillion selfies at the shore and screams when she gets splashed. i think guys like takane and kano would be a threat to them bc they have the Water Guns and now The Water Is On Ground and it freaks them out❤️

i think hibiya&hiyori are great swimmers idk why. i think theyre the kinda kids to spend every single summer at the beach, so they give WATER DOMINATING lessons to seto and momo, to get over their fear and also teach them to swim.

ayano kido and kano are fine in the water i think the tateyamas for sure had summer vacations at the beach ❤️ its not seto's first time in the beach, he probably used to stay on ground back then too.

oh u asked who would be afraid. ERMMM other than seto and momo i dont think anyone's scared. as for who doesn't know how to swim, mary. mary definitely never went to the beach or even a pool like Man i get so emotional with mary bc she never ever went anywhere in her life, and then when she moved in with the mekatrio she is also described as a shut in. but despite that she isn't unwilling to go out and was super excited about the amusement park, and there she was SUPER serious about visiting every single attraction... so personally i think that despite she's described as a shut in (kido and kano probably didnt go out a whole bunch either) i like to think the 4 of them went places together. not like the beach or even a restaurant but they probably have gone to a park and stuff idk

anyways that said, mary is suddenly seeing in real life things she's only seen in pictures/tv and read of!!! imagine her first time seeing the OCEAN!!!! thats gotta be so exciting!!! considering her attitude she'd be totally over the moon and would wanna learn how to swim IMMEDIATELY. tbh she'd be clumsy but probably has a pool float yknow the ones that are like a donut and ur inside chilling and playing from there. i think thats what she'd do!!! shes disappointed seto can't join in and that rly motivates him to try to get in the water. if he doesn't manage she definitely comes out the water to build sand castles with him and take a walk to pick up seashells :3

others who can't swim are a classic. shintaro and haruka. I'd also say takane but while i do think she was mostly kept away from sports and stuff i THINK takane Can swim, i don't think she skipped swimming lessons during elementary/middle school. so she's like. Ok at it. she's also rly excited about water guns and chasing YOU CHASING YOU CHASING YOU CHASING YOU CHASING Y

shintaro on the other hand can't swim, iirc this is canon cuz momo wanted to go on her trip with her dad to learn to swim Super good and then teach shintaro. ofc this didnt happen Lol and we know shintaro is the opposite of a sporty person so yea he also can't swim. in fact i think he just stays off the water and inside the tent with his phone. he hates it here its hot and he has sand in his ass he wants to go home. ayano keeps trying to drag him in the water 💔💔💔 i imagine ayano getting out the water like soaking wet with her hair all sticky and her eyelashes dripping with water like. VERY LITTLE KID ASKING YOU TO PLAY MERMAIDS WITH THEM ENERGY and goes to get shintaro and he's like AUGGHHH AYANO GET OUT YOURE GETTING WATER INSIDE THE TENT and ayano's breathing heavily like COME PLAY

i think shintaro ends up falling on the water on his stomach and face at least once and he's all icky about tasting the salty water. also takane definitely shoots him and he's DEFINITELY wearing a shirt so his shirt gets all soaked and he's so mad about it. on a more wholesome note i think he'd probably start a huge sand castle cuz hes bored and it gets RIDICULOUSLY huge and it looks amazing. people keep gathering to take pics of it. he probably wins some sand castle contest he didn't even know they were holding and makes a bunch of 10 year olds building castles with their dads rly upset

as for haruka. he DEFINITELY never swam😭 but i think haruka is just the kind to dip his feet in the water and sit there like Ah...effervescent..... while wearing a huge fucking hat to protect his paper white skin from the sun. ratio + takane shoots him with water gun + ayano splashes water on him begging him to get in the water. im describing ayano and takane as such menaces to poor haruka and shintaro but i think that's how it'd be. haruka is out of his comfort zone and excited but wants to take it easy, shintaro doesnt wanna be here AT ALL while takane and ayano are like OK WE ARE PLAYING THOUGH :3 SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH

kido can swim but i think they share this sentiment with haruka. they both kinda wanna chill at the shore with their big ass hats is that too much to ask (it is) (everyone attacks them) i think haruka also gets excited abt the water guns eventually. i think he and takane go a little crazy on each other with those. in my vision kano and takane are annoying everyone with the water guns and when kano gets bored and goes do something else haruka takes his place but instead of attacking anyone else he attacks takane. fatal mistake. they both end up like my ayano description from earlier. little kids dripping water after swimming for 2 hours energy. when kido loses their chilling by the shore buddy to takane they probably go see what's up with momo and seto cuz thats their gf and brother they wanna help..

UMMM i kinda talked about everyone even if they could or couldnt swim lol. ayano and kano are left ermmm ayano like i said A fucking menace it is her goal to get everyone in the water at once (except seto and momo cuz she gets it) and she probably wants to do beach volleyball or some shit everyone sucks at later. she's the Game Organizer. probably her idea to go to the beach. and she's playing mermaids with mary so much. SO MUCH

and kano is kinda everywhere i think. he's in the tent bothering shintaro. he's with hibiya and hiyori trying to get momo and seto in the water. he's with takane terrorizing haruka and kido with water guns. he's with mary and ayano playing in the water pretending to be a shark to freak out mary (he cant use deceiving cuz ayano wont let him since anyone else at the beach could get freaked out but he DOES keep going underwater and pinches mary's legs to scare her)

mekakushi dan beach episode❤️

#ask tag #kagepro #headcanons #mekadan

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lyon-amore · 2 years ago

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What if...? Duskwood Chapter 33

Chapter 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Macie POV*

As I already said once, I love horror movies. Because everything is false and nothing can hurt you. You are safely looking at a screen watching how the protagonists try to survive. In some movies they succeed and defeat the monster. In others, the monster wins. Well today I never thought I would star in a real horror movie.

"What's all this?" Jessy asks, shocking. On the wall was a corkboard with several photos of us, with the word 'Revenge' on a large banner. It was all illuminated by candlelight. Candles that made me think that the madman who had done this must not be very far away. On the table were several black feathers. Probably raven feathers. "I don't know…" Thomas whispers, scared. I go ahead of them without taking my eyes off everything that was hanging. I even saw a crow drawn. "Don't touch anything." i warned, so they wouldn't leave any traces. "Guys, there are pictures of us." I don't pay attention to Jessy's words, I'm too busy looking through everything in case there's an important clue. "No…" Thomas replies fearfully. "Of all of us... Macie." Hearing Jessy, I turned to see her. She has a paper in her hands. I walk over to her and look at him. Like Dan's image, which I had noticed was a social media screenshot, so was mine. i would come out smiling with Henry in my hands. He was wearing his little blue tie that he wore on important days. That day gave me the opportunity to celebrate our two months together. It was stupid, but before long, Henry had become something of a big thing in my life. He was like my son. And seeing him on this wall made me afraid. It was like it wasn't just threatening me, like they could hurt Henry to hurt me too. “Shit.” Thomas blurts out. “Richy.” Jessy walks away from me and looks at Richy's photos. I approach her also looking at her photos. Near it were the names of 'Hannah Donfort' and 'Amy Bell Lewis', marking a particular place on the map with a red thread. Below them, three papers with the word 'Guilty'. But it was strange... There are only two names, not three... Has the kidnapper put it out of obsession or because he wants to indicate a third person? I look at the picture of Richy next to the girls' names. Has he done it because he feels guilty but he's hiding it out of fear? "Shit…" Thomas says again, "Shit, shit, shit." He kept focusing with his phone. Was he transmitting this to the group? "And now what do we do?" Jessy asks, looking at the two of us. "I don't know." Thomas replies. I just looked and looked, looking to see if Jake was in the cork. I was worried that there might be something of him here. But not. I have to think about why Dan and mine's photos are snapshots and everyone else's are street photos. “Macie.” Jessy moves me a little. I think I've been too mesmerized by this mural. I had never been in a scene like this before, they just passed me the photos to analyze. I was too excited, I couldn't deny it "What do we do?" I can tell them that we have to get out of here as soon as possible, but leaving this unchecked would be a waste. But I know we can't stay here because of the candles. "Jessy, take pictures of all this," I say, as she quickly pulls out her phone "Thomas? Is there another site to look at?" "There's a basement." He tells me quickly. “Photos taken.” Jessy announces. "Okay…" I tried to think a bit, "The candles are lit, which means our suspect can come back at any time, he wouldn't risk leaving this alone." "Fuck…" Thomas puts his hands to his head "And what will you do?" "I'll stay here watching a little longer." "Hurry up then!" Jessy runs off, as does Thomas. I read the chat and I read Lilly's messages. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lilly In the legend of the man without a face... It was the father too, wasn’t it? But if Michael Hanson is the culprit And if he used his house as a hideout Then it seems likely that Hannah and Richy might actually be there, right? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was it really Michael? I look at the mural again, analyzing every detail. Would it be that easy? Is he already? Is the victim's father? And why take ten years to put all this together?

I froze when I heard the door. I lean against the wall and cover my mouth. I could see the light coming through the door. I hold my breath and go very still. The kidnapper passes by my side. I have it so close that I even think my heart stops beating. Turning around to want to leave, he manages to see me. I tried to run but he managed to grab me, trying to suffocate me to kill me? To knock me unconscious? What I know is that I having trouble breathing and that he hurts me a lot. "LET ME GO!" I scream as best I can, trying to get out of his grip "HELP!" "I don't want to hurt you." he murmurs under the mask. It helps him cover the tone of his voice. << You’re hurting me!>> My stomach turns when I hear him say that, where is Thomas?! We hear a noise, like something falling and I can hear through my teeth how the kidnapper complains. I start to cough and Jessy moves closer to me, careful not to make a sound, trying to help me up. “I'm sorry Macie, I didn't hear the door from upstairs” she whispers, helping me up, “. It wasn't until you yelled that I came down." I shake my head, as if to say it's okay. "Jessy! Macie!" we heard Thomas yell at us. "Come on!" Jessy grabs my hand, starting to run. Thomas hands Jessy the phone and we head out to the barn. Thomas takes the lead to get closer to the door. "Open the gate!" Jessie yells at him. I put a hand to my throat, hurt. I can't talk and I can't stop shaking. I have fear and pain in the body. We look back and see the man without a face walking towards us... Walking... It was almost as if he was taunting us to intimidate us 'Look, I'm here. Fear me.' Thomas makes an effort to open the door and we both go out first.

We get in the car and I sit in the back. My legs are shaking. "Are you two alright?!" Thomas asks us, starting to drive. I look in the rearview mirror. The kidnapper stays watching us as we walks away. "I do, but he suffocated Macie! He Almost Killed Her, Thomas!” Jessy yells, as she examines me “Can you talk?! I shake my head. It is not only because of the pain, but also because of the fear. She still has the phone in her hand on the video call. Shit… This is not good… I get a text from Jake. No. I have a lot of messages. From when the guy entered the house, but I had my phone silent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jake Macie! Get out of there! Find something to defend yourself with at least! MACIE! What do she mean he has suffocated you?! Let them take you to the motel! NOW! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I receive a call from such a stranger. I answer avoiding putting the speaker to avoid scaring them. I can hear his heavy breathing. Angry. "It wasn't enough for you that I kill the mechanic…." I squeeze my hand furiously upon hearing those words "No... You should have gotten into this, Macie... You should have come... It's over now. I'm going to kill them all. Cleo. Thomas. Lilly. Jessy. And Dan… Every single one of them. And you will watch.” He pauses and I can hear a kind of chuckle "And in the end... I'll coming for you." He hangs up and I'm frozen. "Macie?" Jessy calls me, looking at me scared "What happened?" "He said…" I swallow and that makes my throat hurt, I try to speak as best I can, but I'm unable to. I decide to write it then in the chat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Macie Someone just called me It was the attacker

Cleo What did he say?

Macie He said t he wants to kill you All of you And he wants me to watch And in the end, he would come for me ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"By the way, girls" Thomas calls out to us and pulls out a phone from his pocket. "I have it I have Hannah's cell phone." I throw my head back, lips moving with a 'Thank God'. We had achieved something at least of all this. *Jake POV*

I walk around the room, waiting for Macie to return. I have told Thomas and Jessy to stay together and Lilly has been given permission to call the police. But Macie... "Fuck!" I bang on the table, angry with myself for not being there with her. I'm too angry I saw the video call Thomas was slow to react! I get it, humans tend to be cowards and not risk it for our own safety, but not me! And what he's done makes me furious! He could have left his cell phone and gone help her! I have also heard the kidnapper! I can't… I can't now let her go through this!

I hear the car and I stay at the door, waiting like a dog for her to come in. "Are you sure you don't want us to take you to my house?" I hear Jessy tell her, concerned. "No… I'm fine here…" I hear Macie say, slowly and almost inaudibly. I'm getting nervous.

She opens the door and I stride toward her, holding onto her shoulders. The surprised look on her face is nothing compared to mine, surely from being scared and worried about her. "Are you alright?!" I ask quickly, not even giving her time to remove her jacket. I then place my hands on her face, examining if she has any injuries "What has he done?!" “I'm fine…Jake.” she says, though I can see that she's shaking. "No! You are not okay!" I head for the door and Macie stops me. "Let me go! I am going to tell Thomas a thing or two!" "NO JAKE!" She makes the effort to scream and begins to cough. I stop and again approach her. Looking at her as if at some point she was going to break. "I'm fine." She caresses my face, trying to calm me down "I'm here…" I sucked in a breath, clenching my hands tightly. In the end, I end up hugging her afraid that maybe she wasn't even here and she was… Macie buries her face into my body, trembling all the time. "You are safe now" I say, kissing her hair ", you are with me now..."

After calming down, I let her go to the bathroom to get comfortable. I see that it takes long and I worry. "Macie?" I knock on the door, worried "Can I come in?" "Yeah." It seems like at least she has the better voice. I open the door and see her looking at her neck in the mirror. A wave of anger runs through my body seeing him red. "How are you?" I ask, holding out on hacking into Thomas's stupid phone for this. "Well…" She begins to say without taking her eyes off the mirror "At least he hasn't broken it for me." I sigh, shaking my head. I know she wants me to be calm by making jokes, but it doesn't help me. “Let me see.” I walk over to her and she turns around, raising her head "I think I have something to ease the pain." "From your doctor?" "Yes, wait here." I leave the bathroom and look in one of the pockets for the anti-inflammatory. I return to her and she pulls her hair back into a ponytail to avoid getting it on her. I helped her sit on the sink. "Hold on tight." I warned, as I tilted her chin up. I place the cream in my hands and begin to massage her neck with it. Macie closes her eyes, groaning a little. "Sorry" I apologize, stopping to apply, “Do I hurt you?" "No, not you" she says and tries to nod ". Go ahead, I can handle it." "Alright..." I try to do the massage much more carefully. She lets out a strange sigh, is it pain or… "Dan was quite angry with you" she speaks slowly and she looks at me ", he think it's your fault that he did this to me…" "Don't talk" I ordered, controlling my anger. Dan was upset that he hadn't named me. He was worried about his friends "Waits at least for me to finish." "I'm sorry." I suck in a breath, thinking about the pain she must be in right now. I just hope this eases her up a bit. I see that then she breaks out into a smile. How can she smile at this moment? "What are you thinking?" Curious question "Aren't you even a bit worried? You have been threatened." “I'm thinking how well you massage.” She replies, letting out a chuckle. I do the same, shaking my head. "Really? Is that what you're thinking about?" "It's better than thinking about what happened..." Right… Now she should relax a bit before our next clue. I also try to calm down a bit now that I can, not to think for a moment that she is in danger and that she is safe here. With me. I don't remember having this kind of skin contact with her like this and her smile makes me partly relieved to know that she's okay. "Jake?" "Hmm? What?" "My neck is a little higher..." I realize that by looking at her face and in contact with her, I had slowly lowered my hand. "Sorry." I move my hand away nervously. Macie laughs and looks at me, stroking my face lovingly. “Sorry for worrying you so much” she says with a sigh ". I didn't know this was going to happen." "Nobody knew..." “But we did get Hannah's phone at least." I lean against the sink, resting my head on her shoulder. Macie strokes my hair as she eases me up a bit. Look for the positive side after all the bad. The problem is that I didn't want bad things to happen to her. "This shouldn't have happened to you." I nuzzle her neck gently and hear her make a noise of agreement "Sorry Macie." "At least I’m relieved a little thanks to you" she whispers, playing with my hair ", you're pretty good with your hands, what else can you do?" Ah… I see… Try to make me nervous so that I forget. I smile sitting up, to look into her eyes. If this helps her to forget about the bad thing she's been through, then I'll help her. "Can I…" I began to say, whispering close to her lips. "You can..?" I see how she starts to get nervous, she breathes very fast. "Type very fast." I whisper in her ear. Macie laughs and pushes me away a bit. I see that she is blushing. "Can we talk about what happened now?" Question "I'm much better and Jessy was also going to pass me the photos that she has taken." "If you're sure of it" I clap my hands and look at her decisively ". To work."

Macie sits on the bed and I sit on the chair. As usual. I see that she seems to be focused and ready to talk. "We are appear to be close to reaching our goal" I commented, also focused on our investigation ". And yet, I have been plagued by an odd feeling of late, which I cannot seem to let go of." "Because we still haven't found them her." she answers, hugging herself. "Perhaps you are correct." I can't deny it, I thought I was hopeful when they went to Michael's house. A modicum of hope to believe that Hannah and Richy were there. "I feel the same way. We won’t be able to rest until we’ve finally found her." "Yes. I suppose you are right.” I leaned back in the chair, thinking about the new find "Michael Hanson… What do you think Macie?" She looks up at me "Is he the culprit we have been looking for?" "No" she answers quickly ", Michael Hanson isn’t who we’re looking for” She stares at the ground, thinking ". He just doesn't fit in the picture." I start thinking about her words and everything we've seen. I trust her, although it's strange that she says that, because it could fit perfectly with him being our author. "Perhaps this is merely a delusion" I begin to give my point of view "as we never considered him as potential suspect until now” she nods slowly, putting a hand to her neck ". However, I can understand your doubts come from. For our continued investigations, I would like to assume that Michael Hanson is indeed our culprit" her look of doubt on him makes me think I'm wrong, but he's the closest we have to a big clue to everything we've investigated "We will check every piece of evidence under this assumption. That way, sooner or later, this theory will either prove to be fact or will turn out to be an error." "Alright." she answers without further ado. I can understand that she might not like the idea of a broken parent wanting to hurt someone, but that's how it is a lot of the time. They are blinded by the fear that they will harm or have already harmed their children. "Did you say that Jessica has send you the photos?" She nods "I would like for us both to look at them together." "Okay, then I'll take my phone and-" "No… You need to pick up your cell phone…" my face warms up a bit as I gesture for her to sit on my lap. "You can sit with me." I have to stop getting nervous when I invite her to do it, I think she shows quite a bit.

Macie gets up and sits on top of me. I turn on the screen and lets her see what I have. I know it's nothing special to impress her like anyone else. It is very simple and with hack programs. I'm sure she doesn't care too much. “So this is what you were keeping from me” she says, as she leans across the table, resting her hand under her chin “, a hacker's computer wanted by the government, and I'm looking at it." "I had more stuff on the other computers" I sighed almost sadly "At least here I have what we need. And that I trust you." She turns a little and smiles at me "Good. I will open the pictures now. Afterwards, we can analyze them together." I access her shared gallery with Jessica. Luckily she doesn't get upset, she understands that this is important. The first photo shows Michael's large house, along with the barn. It's... It's strange... This sounds familiar. "This house is increadibly run-down." I commented, stroking Macie's hair. "It looks like nobody’s taken care of it for a long time." I'm sure she could have observed it better than me. "The house on the edge of Duskwood." I look at the location on the map, where I looked for it to find out where it was located "There are no neighbors or other buildings close by." "A perfect place to hide." I nod. I can't get it out of my head. It's like I know this place. "This area…" I begin to comment "It seems familiar." "Have you been there before?" Macie looks at me, seriously. It almost seems like she's interrogating me. "No, it's not that…" I scratch my chin, trying to figure out where it's from, "I simply cannot remember." I move on to the next photo. The barn. “You three were able to enter the house’s interior this barn." "And we got out that way, too." I feel a tremor through her body and take her hand, caressing it carefully. She entwines our fingers, making me unable to let go. Good thing I have another hand.

We move on to the next photo. The house outside. Nothing to see there. Then the bunker. I really had hopes. “Too bad this bunker was empty.” Macie says "I really thought Hannah would be inside…" "I also believed that. If Hannah and Richy are not inside the kidnapper’s house, then where are they?" She squeezes my hand harder and I move on to the next photo.

The barn inside gave a cold and lonely feeling. Seeing this I remember when they ran to get out of the barn, how scared she was. The damage. Then came that threat on the cell phone. "You did not tell Jessica that he told you that he killed Richy." I remember from the group chat how Macie had avoided talking about it, so I guess she didn't tell her to her face either. "I couldn't…" she replies, squeezing my hand again. "I understand." I let my mind navigate my memories "For some, bad news is easier to take in if it is conveyed by a person they trust." "You’re talking from experience, aren’t you?" I think Macie means when I told the group about Hannah's kidnapping, but it's not just about that. “Yes” I nod, avoiding saying much more ". Of course, in the end it is entirely your decision." "Then I prefer not to tell her..." I hear her sigh and move on to the next photo, trying not to continue forcing the conversation. It must have hurt to hear that Richy really is dead.

In the following photo, two barrels are shown with a warning symbol. “The symbols on the barrels indicate a dangerous substance.” I comment. "Poisonous, I'd say." “As far I can tell, these barrels appear to be made of steel." "And they also look pretty new." I continued to watch them closely. True, they are new, so it means that the kidnapper has bought them for some reason. “I would estimate that they have a capacity of at least two hundred liters.” Macie looks at me surprised. "Do you know that just by looking at them?" She asks me. "You know with the size." I smiled at her. "You talk to someone who likes more letters than numbers." I let out a laugh and go back to the photo. "The writing is indistinguishable" I tried to look carefully, almost straining my eyes "It could tell us where they were bought or who manufacture." "Can't you make it readable?" "I could do it, but it would take a lot of time" I let go of the mouse for a moment, to ruffle my hair, a lot of work and I already had a hard time getting the memorial stone to show right "If we reach dead end in our investigations, I will start working on it." I move on to the next photo. The barn from another point of view. "Jake...?" She turns when to see me, with a curious look "Have you ever shown your computer to someone?" "I'm usually quite discreet with my work area, really" I replied, trying to remember that all the computers I used to work were not allowed to be looked at by anyone ". It was like a no-go zone for everyone." "So all this time you've let me look at the screens…. Have I been the first person?" "Yes," he answered, caressing her face, "you're the first person to see it. Even right now, I haven't shown anyone the programs I use to hack. " She smiles and I watch as she fixes a lock that had come loose from her ponytail. "I like that… I feel special." "You have always been..." She bites her lips and returns to the screen. I clear my throat and move on to the next photo. The mural.

Instinctively, Macie jerks back, away from the screen. I run my arm through her body and stroke her arm slowly. “Like in a horror movie…” she murmurs, a little more to herself "It must have taken a long time to get all of this stuff." I hear anger in her voice. I can understand her, because in the next photo, there are photos of Lilly. My little sister. Thinking that the kidnapper has photographed her makes me worry. "Lilly." I pronounce her name, terrified of the situation. "Notice how she’s looking around?" Macie raises her hand to indicate the photo "As if she knew she was being followed." “Survival instinct” I say, trying to be calm “, maybe she must have felt something like you say." "That’s the map of Duskwood." now she points to a part of a map, "Yes, well spotted." "But it’s cut off in the picture." We look at the next photo that is in Jessica's photograph. Macie tenses up seeing him. "Richy..." "How do you know that this person is Richy?" "His… His whole appearance I guess." I kissed her forehead and sighed.

We continue with the next photo. Seeing him makes me angry. "Thomas." I can't hide my anger, it shows too much in my voice. "I just realized, I didn’t know his last name until now. Somehow it is strange to know this detail by means of our author." So not only does the kidnapper know their names and have taken photos of them, but very possibly he knows who they are personally for some strange reason. “Jessica.” I say, seeing the photo of her. "She’d kill you if you keep calling her that." Macie giggles. "If she can catch me." I smile proudly. She laughs again and she leaves me a kiss on the neck. Shit... Shit... Now I have to concentrate. I'll focus on Jessica's picture, that'll calm me down. I analyze the photo, it seems that she is looking directly at the camera. “It’s as if she could see her follower." "That is what I initially thought, too" I replied, trying to better position myself in the chair without disturbing her ". But then I notice the details to the right and the left of the picture.” I point my hand to it "I am sure that he was well hidden when he took this picture." She makes a nodding sound. Behind Jessica's photo, there is a piece of paper with numbers on it. "A bill. All relevant information has been blacked out and made illegible." “The strange thing here is that he hung up on It.” she comments, her voice doubtful. I move on to the next photo. “A picture of Dan." “I know that picture” I look at Macie, who is now pointing at it “It’s from social media." "That means the culprit did not take it."

I look at the next person in the photo. "Cleo." I notice something strange "This photo enclosed with the threatening letter the culprit had sent to Cleo’s mother” I look at Macie who seems to be studying the mural. She's been there, she probably noticed something ". Have you notice anything, Macie?" "He has a picture of everyone in the group but compare Dan's with the rest, it's taken from the internet." she points to the top and bottom sides. "Yes," I pay attention to her words and I dare to ask "Do you think Dan has planned it?" "No, maybe the kidnapper didn't have time" Macie looks at me and starts to think "What if he couldn't take the photo because by the time he was doing the group, he was already in the hospital?" It's a very good deduction, no doubt. It is most likely that he did not have time to get a photo of Dan, so we could say that he did the mural in a short time. "He was watching all of them." I say, accepting her deduction. “I suppose he." "Why did he do that?" Macie shrugs and I look at the next clue. "A calendar sheet." I try to take a better look at it, a lot of things are missing "However, both month and year are missing." "Month and year of Jennifer's death?" Comments Macie "Everything revolves around her." “That only makes the father theory grow." "We don't know that yet..." I nod and look at the word on the banner. "'Reven'?" “Revenge.” Macie corrects me, tense. "I see... I'd like to see it from another better angle."

We move on to the next photo, in it is a photo of Amy Bell Lewis and the news. “This is from the news clip in which Amy Bell Lewis’ identity was revealed." "Christian wanted to include me in her report about her death." I hear her make an annoyed sound and I kiss her on the shoulder to relax her. She puts her arm behind me and starts stroking the ends of my hair "So he actively watches the news." "Yes, he does. Either he wants to see what police is sharing with the public.” She looks at me and I look at her, continuing my theory "Or it makes him happy to see that he is being talked about in the media." "He wants more insight" Macie looks back at the photo "If this gives him happiness… he is sick." I nod and move on to the next photo.

Revenge. In large and below it, all the clues of the kidnapper. "If we assume that this was really Michael Hanson, then he probably wanted to find his daughter’s killer." I try to explain to Macie so she'll understand. She can't keep denying it. “And that way everyone got targeted." "Yes" I continue caressing her arm slowly, I can see that she is nervous because of how she trembles again "Jennifer Hanson's killer has never been found. And that's why he only started ten years later" I try to fit all the pieces, I think this is what makes the most sense so far. "He had to find out first who was responsible for Jennifer’s death." "That’s what Cleo suspected too…" It was like we all just assumed is Michael Hanson except her. She denied it. Perhaps with this I could help her see that not all parents mourn her children. Some prefer the thirst for revenge.

I move on to the next photo and I'm furious. Like Dan, it was a social media post of Macie with Henry. I clench my fist and she makes me look at her. "Jake, calm down." Her soft her voice tries to calm me down "Don’t worry." I swallow, caressing her hand. Powerless to see it. "I am sorry." “Eh, it's not as bad as all those threatening phone calls” she jokes, trying not to care. But I know that she cares too because she isn’t alone but with Henry and I know how much he means to her. I keep looking at the photo. Her joke doesn't calm me down, on the contrary. I know she's hiding it that she doesn't mind and it's what makes me want to do something for her. "What’s up?" she asks me, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Seeing this photo on this wall getting to me." I look directly into her eyes, controlling my anger. But it wasn't directed against her "It makes me angry and I feel helpless” Macie sighs, looking at me sympathetically "I should have gone there with you and protected you." "And risk someone seeing you?" "It would have been better than doing nothing." "No" she shakes her head, bringing her forehead to mine "I wouldn't have left you, do you hear me? Besides… It helps me knowing you care about me." She smiles at me and I try to return her smile, even though I had a hard time. I won't let her go through something like this again. "I've realized something" I say, looking at the photo, not responding to her words. I couldn't accept it “You only joined the group after Hannah had disappeared, so as you say, he hasn't been able to find out anything about you." "In social networks I don't have a position where I live or my personal information, most of them are Henry's and the ones I have are more private, I share them with my friends" she answers, looking at the photo now ", he hasn't been able to find out anything specifically and until now, he didn't know I was here." “And this new clip was only aired recently, too… So his investigation are not finished yet." "It’s not over for him…" I watch as she nuzzles her neck, remember when he suffocated her. I make her look at me and I see that her eyes are shining, affected by what happened. As she had done before, I dare to place a small kiss on her neck, but as relief for the pain she felt. I can't stand it being like this. She smiles at me when I look back at her. “We’ve almost solved the case, Jake” she says with a sigh, wrapping her arms around my neck “I can feel it." “Yes, we have, Macie” I admit, placing my hands on her hips "However, we should not feel too sure of ourselves to avoid making any mistakes" I remember the finding, with doubt ". It is a very happy coincidence that Thomas managed to come into possession of Hannah's phone." "I completely agree." I start thinking about our next step. We have something quite valuable on our hands. “I should take precautionary steps so that we can access Hannah’s phone later on." “Well then.” Macie stands up and I feel empty without her. It is not like it bother me much, either "hurry up and good luck with." We hear the door and look at each other. We don't wait for anyone. Well. She doesn't wait for anyone.

Who could it be?

Chapter 34

#duskwood #duskwood jake #duskwood mc #duskwood jake x mc #duskwood fanfic #duskwood everbyte #everbyte #everbyte studio

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remimibanana · 7 months ago

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OZ Comic Con Adelaide 2024 Report!

I had the wonderful opportunity of attending OZ Comic Con in Adelaide for the whole weekend with my good friend Pie (@piedivide!)!

It was a very fun weekend filled with so many things across both days that I have to write down before I forget!

I cosplayed Herta and Pie cosplayed Welt Yang, both from Honkai: Star Rail! These are our first cosplays for the year and we put in a lot of work into our wig styling, makeup and more!

All under the cut!

Day 1: Saturday

I woke up at 7am, ready to start preparing for the convention! I wanted to get there by 11am!

Admittedly, I struggled a lot more than I should have while doing so, which caused me to come around 12pm instead...

I was really busy throughout the whole week prior to the con trying to finish my assignments since it’s the end of the semester and uh…I didn’t have a chance to practice putting on the cosplay or my makeup before Day 1.

Not good, I know.

To make matters worse, a safety pin holding up the chain decided to break randomly behind the lock. I had to fix that somehow while trying to get everything to look right…

I managed at the end!

My mum helped me out with my makeup and putting on things! I couldn't have done it all without her.

Herta’s shoes were not comfortable at all to walk in since they have heels, but I decided to wear them until I arrived at the convention since it was a part of the cosplay! I wanted to show off the whole look to all!

(I paid a lot of money for them as well aha)

I slightly regretted that decision, since I wore the sneakers I brought with me for the whole entire con and the fact that my feet were hurting after walking for less than ten minutes. I think shoes are great for photos but some aren't practical to wear around all day....

Anyway!

I got to the station first and waited around for Pie to arrive once I gave them the signal...after I fixed my hat that fell off randomly that may or may not have taken 15 minutes….

Don’t ask. I’m sorry ;;

We decided that I would wait for him to come to the station since last time, they arrived at the same time as me. We also decided to wait until the con to see each other’s cosplays for the first time!

I remember seeing from afar the outline of Welt Yang on top of the escalators coming down towards me and immediately, I was filled with a sense of excitement! They kept coming closer and closer to me and I kept smiling like an absolute idiot.

Pie’s cosplay was so good, as I proceeded to say multiple times to his face! I especially loved the wig, they put a lot of effort into making it look amazing!

He totally blew my mind, in a good way! They were slaying Welt Yang and I hope he knows that!

To my surprise, Pie had not one but TWO things for me which made me very happy! I didn’t expect anything from them!

A Dan Heng headband and a Herta pin?! Thank you once again, Pie!!!

We headed to the convention via a train that takes us to the Adelaide Showgrounds directly! We didn’t see any cosplayers on the train, but we did see some as soon as we arrived!

In fact, a car stopped in the middle of driving as we were walking to the entrance and the people inside complimented our cosplays! It was the first time that sort of situation ever happened to us!

It felt so cool.

There were these Goddess Madoka and Demon Homura cosplayers that made me freak out so much upon seeing them in the distance since I'm a huge fan of PMMM.

Pie and I originally bought only Saturday passes since we initially were going to only attend Day 1 and then use Sunday as the day we took pictures and videos together. This changed when we saw that there was a Star Rail cosplay meetup at 11am on Day 2.

Of course, it was on the Sunday that we weren’t going to at an early time…I informed Pie of this as soon as I mentioned that the schedule was out for the convention.

If we knew beforehand, we would have bought a weekend pass in the first place. Unfortunately, the schedule came out with about a week until the con.

We were also worried we wouldn’t be able to buy tickets at the early bird prices if we waited. Perhaps, buying early isn’t a good idea at times...

After some quick deliberation on our parts, we decided to upgrade to Weekend passes! We couldn’t miss this chance to meet other cosplayers who also like HSR! We read online that we could do so at the front desk upon arriving at the convention on the FAQ.

That was our plan upon getting there, but it didn’t go as smoothly as we thought. The Help Desk was where we were directed to when we asked about upgrading them, but none of the people at the desk were able to help us.

We had to wait until another person came from their lunch break who knew how to do it. We wandered around for a little bit, coming back a few times to see the same people still at the desk. The person we needed came eventually and helped us both out without any trouble!

With our Weekend passes and the bands on us nice and secure, we could finally start our Day 1…once I went to the bathroom.

I had to take off my large black coat my mum kindly gave me and pack things away. I wanted a mirror so I could see how my wig was fairing and remove those Herta shoes.

It was a lovely thought from my mum, but I shouldn’t have brought it with me. It was so thick that it took all the space in my Fuwamoco tote bag I had with me despite how warm it was.

I also regretted bringing my backpack, especially with Herta’s long hair. It was such a hassle pulling it off and putting it on….I didn't even start the day and I already had so many regrets slowly piling up behind me.

We could NOW start our day!

We walked around mostly for Day 1, seeing what the convention had and admiring cosplays!

There were a lot of people everywhere!

There were scribble walls you could draw on freely and people truly did draw some amazing things….Dio Brando face Peppa wasn’t what I expected at all.

People complemented our cosplays and asked for photos! It made me so happy, it meant we were doing something right with them! We were going to buy prints for each other and take professional photos, but we decided to leave that for Day 2.

I saw this Void Drifter Kiana Kaslana figure and immediately freaked out since it was the first Honkai Impact 3rd related thing I ever saw!

It cost like $300 bucks, which I so would have bought if I didn't have to buy my next cosplay. The first photos I took of it were so shaky because I was too excited lol

I just was happy to see anything HI3.

Time to showcase all the amazing cosplayers I got photos with for Day 1! Thank you for taking a photo with me!

Wriothesley (@cypher_cosplay on Instagram) and Neuvillette (@edenzcosplay on Instagram)!!!!

Me looking like some kind of NPC because I didn’t know what pose to do 🧍‍♂️

Both of their cosplays look amazing! I was the first to notice Neuvillette, and then Pie noticed Wriothesley! Pie sort of walked straight up to them wanting a photo and I just followed along like a lost puppy haha

They were both very kind!

Kafka (@s.jn_jack on Instagram)!!!

It was them who came up to us first, saying how he liked our cosplay! Pie and I saw their cosplay while walking around and I remember being really happy seeing a Kafka cosplayer!

This was his first cosplay as they told us and they did amazing for their first time!!

Sparkle (@_.emmet._t on Instagram)!!!

I remember seeing her while walking and being happy that there was a Sparkle cosplayer here! There were many HSR cosplayers on Day 1 including us, much to my surprise!

Such a pretty cosplay, I absolutely love it! I feel like they captured the personality and idea of Sparkle so well!

Madoka and Homura (@sonickyx on Instagram)!!!!

These are the ones I saw when I got to the convention!

I wanted to take a photo with them but I was such a sissy that it took me forever to do so. I’ve never been good at asking for any photos since I'm a little shy, but I wanted to try!

Every time I attempted to, they seemed busy and I’d hate to interrupt anyone if they're doing something. It took way longer than it should have, but I did it at the end!

Their cosplays are so pretty!

...

If you can tell throughout these pictures…my wig was slowly falling off throughout the day. I didn’t even notice until I realised when we took some of the photos together with the cosplayers and I uh...couldn't really do anything about it then.

I was stupid and didn’t properly secure the wig cap or my wig, even though I was going to with bobby pins in the first place. Don’t be like me.

I thought it was going to stay in place ;;

It was one of the reasons why we left certain things like the photography to Day 2, although I felt bad because Pie seemed to really want to take photos, despite them reassuring me that it was okay.

Another was that I was a little unsatisfied with my makeup because I was too afraid of using my eyeliner I bought. I’ve never used it before that point and didn’t want to poke my eyes out before the convention. I wanted to take nice professional photos I could be proud of, you know?

Don't worry, I learnt my lesson for Day 2. Day 1 was like a trial day for me, which I wished wasn't the case but you live and learn! I was still happy with my cosplay overall!

After some more walking around, we felt like we did everything we could do and see for Day 1! We left at around 3:30pm and headed back to the city since we planned to do Karaoke at 6pm for two hours!

There was this little place I mentioned to Pie that I saw on Friday where they sold Katsudon that we could go to for food if they were open! It was in the station, in the underground pass that I always have walked through since I was a kid.

Pie and I went to check it out, but it was closed…Google said it would open at 5pm, so we wandered around Rundle Mall to pass the time in our wonderful cosplays. Walking around in cosplay while not at a convention is a scary experience.

People always stare at you no matter what and are probably silently judging you from afar. It wasn’t as daunting as I thought it would be though, but that’s because I had the Welt Yang by my side. It's always better when you have a friend!

On the way to Rundle Mall, we got stopped by these two people who complemented our cosplays! It was sort of out of the blue, but it was very welcomed! Pie was the one who mostly talked to the both of them, I was sort of just there smiling and nodding.

We came back at 5pm….only to realise that Google is a liar and the restaurant is only open late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We missed one of the signs literally in front of us that told us this fact….

At this point, everything was pretty much closed or about to close as well since it was the weekend. Why didn't they update Google with this vital piece of information?!

I blame Google for this mishap.

We headed back to Rundle Mall in defeat, and decided upon a place that sold sushi and various other foods! It was one of the places that were still open. I got Takoyaki, a Karrage Chicken Skewer and a Prawn Katsu Skewer! It was pretty good, although I wish there was more of it.

Pie got the same, but instead of the prawn he got a salt and pepper skewer. The person who served us was very kind and complemented our cosplays in fact!

So many complements, and it was only Day 1!

Once we ate, we had to wait around until the Karaoke place was open in the cold for a while. I was freezing since I didn’t put on my coat and Herta's outfit isn't that warm. I know I should have, but it would have been such a pain taking it out of the tote bag.

The Karaoke place opened earlier than expected actually once we started heading down there, so we went right in! We sang many songs, and it was loads of fun!

I had a whole list of songs that I prepared for this day, but I still struggled to choose what to sing....

If you ever sing karaoke with me, it will always take me forever to actually choose something as a warning. I feel like I don't know too many songs fully that well, so I always mess up aha

I think my favourite song I sang was Cyberangel! I love Bronya a lot and the song is an absolute banger!

I took off my wig and my wig cap in the middle of it all because it was about to fall off completely and I couldn’t handle it anymore. Once 8pm hit, that was it!

The whole time, I was holding a wig in my hands as I headed back home on the train. I took everything immediately off without even batting an eye as soon as I came home, brushing out my wig that became super messy.

I didn’t go to sleep until after midnight.

Day 2: Sunday

I woke up at 5:30am because of the meetup….the things we do for cosplay.

This time around, I knew what I was doing and was able to be ready by 9am!

Unlike Day 1, I did my makeup all by myself!

I managed to put on the eyeliner without getting any into my eye somehow and look decent! For someone who’s never done it before…it’s kind of incredible.

The whole time I was doing it, I called myself a tensai (genius) for being able to do this lmao

My mum told me how she managed to get eyeliner in her eye when she first started but it really wasn’t that hard…I think she tried to scare me off from doing this my whole life. Actually….my right eye is thicker than my left eye, but you can’t tell with my glasses for the most part.

For my wig, I pinned the absolute crap out of the wig cap and the wig itself. It may have been a bit overkill using every single bobby pin I had, but it’s better to be safe than sorry! It worked pretty well, if I do say so myself. It didn’t move at all, not once during the entire day even while I was outside.

Instead of packing my backpack like Day 1, I just packed everything into my tote bag! It was much easier to manage! I also wore a thinner jacket and put on my sneakers first! This whole setup worked way better for me.

This time around, Pie came to the station right away since we had to take a train that was about 10 minutes after when I would arrive in order to get to the convention by the time the meetup started. For the whole time, I was convinced that the train was coming at 10:27am and I wasn’t going to make it, but I was looking at the wrong schedule….

And then we were at the wrong platform too once I got there…

Point is, we found where we were meant to go and got onto the train when it came!

The train had some cosplayers this time around, so we felt right at home! It seemed like Sunday was the more popular day for the convention, which makes sense with more people being potentially free on this day.

Getting into the convention was easy since we had our weekend passes, one simple flash of our bands and we could waltz right in without any trouble!

We headed straight for the meetup area! It was at the very back of the convention area, near the bathrooms and food area filled with loads of tables and chairs.

To our surprise and confusion, there was no one really there for what was meant to be the HSR meetup. It was oddly empty, spare for a few random cosplayers. I saw a Silver Wolf cosplayer nearby, but that was the only other HSR cosplayer around. We definitely didn’t go to the wrong place since there was a whole sign there with the schedule…

We took a seat at a table, deciding to wait for more people to show up hopefully. I took off my jacket and Pie kindly put it in their tote bag since I had no space in mine…thank you again, Pie!

The Silver Wolf cosplayer ran straight up to us and asked for a photo right after we finished with all that!

I was so surprised, I didn’t expect for them to come to us so quickly wanting a photo!

They were so nice and kind! Their wig was amazing, it looked so accurate from the back!

And then an Aventurine cosplayer (@myki.cosplay on Instagram) came up to us as well, and we all took photos together! He looked amazing as well!

Me again with my NPC pose 🧍‍♂️

One of the staff members informed us that there was no meetup in fact, there were some others here earlier but they left for some reason. It was a bit disappointing to hear.

They then asked if they could take a photo of all of us for the convention, and we obliged of course! I think I stood like an NPC again because I had no pose ideas…I have no clue how it came out.

I suppose we shall find out!

Pie and I waited for a bit longer after that, to see if anyone else would appear. It sucked because we were excited for the meetup and the idea of meeting new people!

Alas…there was no more HSR cosplayers.

People kept coming and going, but we knew that it was all done. It felt like we got up early and came all this way for nothing. It was the only reason we came on Day 2…but we didn’t let that dampen anything!

After a while, we decided to continue our journey around the convention. Our main agenda was getting some food since we both skipped breakfast in favor of getting ready.

We passed by the Just Dance area, and I literally stopped in place at the sight in front of me. It took me less than a second to see them.

THERE WAS BRONYA AND SEELE COSPLAYERS RIGHT THERE. HONKAI IMPACT 3RD COSPLAYERS AT MY CONVENTION HUH??????????

ESPECIALLY TWO OF MY FAVOURITE OUTFITS FOR THEM????????

BRONSEELE?????

I didn’t expect to see any HI3 cosplayers since it isn’t as popular as Genshin or HSR unfortunately, so I freaked the heck out!

Pie freaked out too, more so for the Johnny and Gyro cosplayers from JoJo Part 7! They looked very cool, even though I only recognize them vaguely since I’ve seen them before online. They were waiting in line to do Just Dance, while the two of us just stared in awe while trying to process these sheer facts.

We decided to wait for them to finish, and then ask for a photo!

I know I’m not good at asking for them, but there was no way I could miss this chance. It was very fun watching Seele dance! Bronya was recording it all!

Seele (@vinfartsanji on Instagram) and Bronya (@s7kun4 on Instagram)!!!!

Johnny and Gyro (@sonickyx on Instagram) were the same cosplayers who did Madoka and Homura on Day 1!!!!

Pie was the one who asked for a photo of them all together first, then I asked for a picture with Bronya and Seele while Pie asked for Johnny and Gyro! I never felt so confident in my life, although I did stutter a bit.

I mentioned how I loved their Bronya and Seele cosplays and they were happy that I was a HI3 fan and that we needed more HI3 recognition and cosplays at conventions!

I absolutely agree with them! I’m going to cosplay HI3 at some point in the near future! If you can’t tell, I’m a bit of a HI3 fanatic who likes the game a little too much.

They were all very lovely and kind! I’m so glad they were here, and that we were able to see them!

I was over the moon, completely all because of their presence! Day 2 became my favourite day. And it kept only getting better!

We continued our walk around the convention, until we looped back around to the back where the meetup area was once more. There was a scribble wall nearby, where there were many people drawing whatever they wanted.

I saw a very familiar behind at the wall drawing, and I literally blurted out of nowhere:

“Is that…Elysia????”

She turned towards us a bit and I freaked out so much, it really was a Elysia cosplayer in her Flamechaser outfit! I already was so happy with Bronya and Seele, so I could have died there and then for real. I was winning so hard!!!

ELYSIA COSPLAYER AS WELL????? WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS TREAT???????

ELYSIA AT MY ANIME CONVENTION RIGHT HERE????

My freaking out was cut a little short when a staff member, a lovely older lady, came up to us informing that we can take a marker and draw something as well. I took a purple one since I was Herta and purple is sort of her colour.

I continued my freaking out after she left, still in utter disbelief that there were THREE HI3 cosplayers here in this convention on this one day. I had to get a photo. It’s Elysia after all! One of my absolute favourites!

We waited until she finished her drawing, trying not to stare directly at her too weirdly. There was a short moment when we were just staring at each other after she finished, and I went up to her bravely since I had her attention.

I asked for a photo, and I told them her how much I Ioved her Elysia cosplay. That’s when she ran to her friend in utter happiness, so glad that someone recognized her!

I found it very adorable. I think it must feel amazing for someone to recognize who you are, especially if you're cosplaying from a fandom that isn't as popular (but it should be!!!).

Elysia (@_lumistar.cos on Instagram)!!!

I got a photo with her, copying the classic Elysia pose because I had no ideas for myself. Pie also got a photo as well! After that, I was so giddy that I couldn't stop thinking about it all! I felt like my life was complete, you know?

We went up to the scribble wall since we had those markers still in hand, and left a little doodle! I didn’t take any pictures of it, but I drew a small Herta!

Pie then found the lovely older lady who gave us the markers to return them, and we had a lovely conversation about how her daughter loves HSR and how even she was interested in playing the game!

She even asked for photos of us for her daughter when we told her who we were cosplaying! I remember she wanted just Pie at first since he was talking mostly with her but when I told her who I was cosplaying, she wanted a photo of me too!

Such a nice person, I hope her daughter likes the picture! I love kind people like this, it's always so nice to talk to them!

Finally, we went to get some food after a few little detours that were very welcomed.

We bought Chips on a Stick!

I’ve never actually had it before, someone let me try a little one time back in 2016 I think…?

It was very tasty, but very filling and it took a while to eat on my part because I'm a slow eater. Pie and I sat down in a little corner and talked while we ate about many things. We had a wonderful discussion about Welt Yang himself and how Pie was the reason I like Welt so much!

I think the way they liked Welt made me starting liking him too, especially since I had him in HSR from the Departure Warp back when I first played!

I think I liked him even more once I started diving into his HI3 lore while playing the game and the fact that he's the Herrscher of Reason! The Second Eruption and Alien Space manga are my favourite ones that HI3 has made because Welt is such a focus in both of them!

Welt is just...so cool.

We were near one of the entrances in fact, which gave us the chance to admire all the cosplayers that came by! Everyone looked amazing, it's impressive how much effort everyone goes to!

(Photography: @steamkittens)

Pie and I went for our professional photoshoot when I finished eating! There was a very long wait as there were many before us who were all in groups and all had to have individual shoots as well…

The cosplayers who did Wriothesley and Neuvillette on Day 1 came up to us during our time waiting and talked to us! I was so happy to see them again!

I put on my Herta shoes for this immediately, but my feet hurt by the time I finally got my photos after 30+ minutes of waiting…

Pain.

One of the main issues I had was that I simply had no clue about the poses or expressions I would do for the shoot. We had to do three of them as I learnt rather quickly, and I couldn’t even think of one real pose!

I’ve never been very good when other people take my photos I’ve noticed, I feel like I look so stupid sometimes aha…

NPC style….🧍‍♂️

It was a cool experience regardless! I’m glad I did try it out! It’s so cool how instant the photos are, they give you a QR code to scan to see all your photos!

I only liked two of the photographs at the end once I scanned the code after. I’ll definitely practice my poses and expressions for my next cosplay so I don’t run into this issue again!

(Photography: @steamkittens)

Pie’s photos came out amazing though! Their poses and expressions are so good, I don’t know how he does it.

Teach me, please.

We then went to buy prints for each other at the Artist Alley! It’s a tradition we always do for every convention! Pie went to the very back, while I started from the front of the alley. I walked through it all and stared at all the pretty art in an attempt to see which print I would buy them.

I knew I wanted something either from the Legend of Zelda, Persona or Welt Yang himself since he likes all of those! Fun fact, I literally was right next to Pie at one point, I saw them and immediately tried to lean in and blend in with the crowd lmao

I actually ran into the Aventurine cosplayer from earlier at one of the stands! I thought they were selling, but in fact they were helping out and there was a lot of cool art there! We had a little chat before I awkwardly walked away like I always do in these situations, I'm no good at these sorts of things aha

I saw a perfect Welt Yang print, but it didn’t come in A3 unfortunately……..I was even waiting around for the artist to come back from their break…….

We usually get A3 prints for one another, so I didn’t know if Pie would be okay with it or not. I probably should have asked but I didn’t think I’d run into such a situation….

But I did find a really pretty Link print! That's what I bought for them at the end! Pie really liked it, so I’m really happy!!!

They bought me a Pearlina print with their Final Fest outfits and I absolutely love it, you have no idea! Thank you again, Pie!!!!

I already put it up on my wall, hehe.

The only issue with all this was that none of us had a bag for our posters, the stands we went to ran out of them.

Pie was able to roll it up and put it in his tote bag, but I didn’t have that luxury without bending the print. I was going to carry it around and hope for the best, but they said we should try asking for a bag from another stand.

We waited around at one, but I decided to buy myself a print so I could get a bag. It was easier than waiting around, and there was always the possibility that any artist wouldn’t want to give one away since it was theirs.

I got a Gawr Gura print! It’s so cute!!

I was going to do Just Dance, but I didn’t feel like doing it by the end, nor was I as thrilled about the fact that there would be so many people watching you dance and that they don’t even give you a Joy-Con so you can actually play the game properly.

How will anyone see the 5 stars I can get easily because I’ve played too much Just Dance in my lifetime?

I decided that I’d dance next time!

With that, we decided that it was time to leave. We did everything we wanted at the convention for Day 2, but it wasn’t over just yet! As we were about to leave through the gate, a cosplayer rushed after us wanting a photo. We could hear footsteps behind us, and we turned back to see them!

Pie managed to convince this old guy to go to the convention actually as we were walking back to the station lol

Heading back to the city, we went to Rundle Mall once again! This time around, we didn't even care that we were in cosplay. We became totally desensitized to it all.

We entered the Adelaide Arcade since we were looking for some food to eat, but we actually took some photos from one of the bridges on the second floor! It was Pie’s idea, and it was pretty fun! I don’t usually go up there so it’s a fun excuse to.

We also went to the Million-Life Arcade and took some pictures there!

Once again, curtesy of Pie. I like their picture because it looks like Welt is really going through it for this one plushie lol

At the end, we decided to have some Hungry Jacks (Burger King as others may know it as) to eat since we wanted something on the cheaper side. We wrote our character names for the order since we were in cosplay, but I forgot to take a photo of mine...

Seeing Joachim and Herta on the order screen was such an amazing sight, although no one probably knew who were were. They actually called out Herta's name, which was so cool. I wonder if any of the employees knew who we were.

I got a Whopper, it was so worth the $11 in my opinion (although it is a lot).

We headed to the Botanic Gardens to take some photos and videos!

It’s a huge garden that has so many places you can walk to and get lost in all the nature! Pie thought it would be the best place since we couldn't bother anyone there with our pictures. I don't get to go there very often, so I was happy we were!

That was the issue, however.

We wanted to find a secluded place with some solid ground where we could set up my tripod and record some short videos, which was way easier said than done aha

There were always people or something that ruined perfect spots for us, which only caused us to waste precious time since the Botanic Gardens were closing in about an hour and a half-ish....?

We actually entered a building that was apparently closed but we were able to enter regardless because someone else entered before us and we assumed we could go in as well...there was this lady who told us something in regards to leaving as we walked but we didn’t really hear her aha

We're breaking the rules in cosplay. Hell yeah.

Eventually, we settled on a place right in front of this greenhouse and we recorded some fun videos! We had a whole list, but we weren't able to get through them all unfortunately. I got to hit Pie with the Star of Eden actually, that was pretty fun! I was afraid of hitting him too hard but they said it was fine.

I also kept messing up this one sound that it was unfunny, I think we did it about four times before we got a decent one aha

Next time, we are taking way more videos! I guarantee we will for our next cosplays!

Pie and I packed up the tripod once we were told the Botanic Gardens were about to close by one of the workers and headed back to where the karaoke place was, since we were going to do karaoke again! We were debating if we should or not, but ultimately decided to!

There was a photo studio we were thinking of going to before karaoke, but it was closed when we got there…they weren't open on Sundays...

Once again, we didn’t read the sign in front of us. How did we manage to do this twice?!

Straight to Karaoke it was! It was harder this time around to choose a song since we did all the songs we wanted on Day 1. We even had to settle on doing anime openings at one point which was fun!

Especially for my case. It took me an embarrassingly long time to decide my final song…Sorry, Pie!

We wore the Dan Heng headbands and I set up my tripod once again to record some of the songs we sang for the memories! Pie told me that they didn't want to see the videos after, but one day in the far future I shall show them for fun muhahaha.

I think my favourite song that I did was Moon Halo for this day! I accidently spoilt an animation for Pie though in doing so...the video I used showed the full Everlasting Flames animation aha

I need to learn some more Japanese songs fully. I vow to learn at least two songs before the next convention! I want to impress Pie with my awesome Japanese hehe

Once 8pm hit...that was it! Our two hours were up and the wonderful weekend was over.

I headed back home, recording some TikTok’s for myself before ripping off my wig with adequate pain from all those bobby pins and taking off my cosplay.

I had so much fun this weekend! I won’t ever forget the experiences I had!

I saw so many amazing cosplayers! I was able to take photos with them and even talk to them! It makes me very happy that I was confident enough do this!

Thank you for coming with me, Pie! Once again, you slayed Welt Yang! I can’t wait until AVCon!

- Miku

#oz comic con #oz comic con adelaide #oz comic con adelaide 2024 #personal #it was a lot of fun!

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mysteriouslover1516 · 2 years ago

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Hill that I'll Die On (Richy x MC) 2

Based on Jonah Kagen's song Hill that I'll Die On. Read part one first if not already read.

You think I don’t notice

Those eyes becoming hopeless

“Hannah? Richy? Please…..say something.” MC spoke inside the dark mine, the fear coursing through her veins. Her heart raced as she heard the gravel crunch underneath her feet, the howling of the wind sounding eerily similar to ghostly warnings.

All the things you’d never told me

The side that people seldom see

The glow of the flashlight was doing little to provide sufficient illumination in the tunnel, MC’s left hand grazing against the mine wall as she slowly kept walking.

It’s scary, the burdens that you’ve buried

And I would love to share with you

Her thoughts were slowly spiraling into a whirlwind of emotions. She couldn’t help but remember what Jake had asked her before she had ventured into the Grimstone.

“MC, I need you to consider something. I want you to be prepared……..the culprit may not be the one who we had originally suspected.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Just call and I’ll be there for you

“MC, please, just listen to me. I think the culprit might be someone very close to you and the others….someone you would least suspect. I can’t brush the feelings aside anymore.”

“What?”

“MC……I have reason to believe the perpetrator is actually your friend, Richy.”

‘Cause darling when it hurts

I won’t let you burn

It’s not that kind of fire

Just give me the lighter

Jake had suspected Richy, a thought that had never even crossed MC’s mind before. Richy was supposably behind everything, behind Hannah’s disappearance and Amy’s death? No, impossible.

Even at your worst

You’re the hill that I’ll die on

So just leave a light on

For me

“MC, I know this is a hard topic for you to wrap your mind around, and you might not even be willing to do so. Listen to me. I first suspected the mechanic when Hannah’s call log led to Roger’s Garage. At the moment I believed either Jessica or Richy were involved, until we discovered that Jessica was off the day the call had occurred. Of course there was no evidence to prove that Richy was lying, so my suspicions remained minimal. Until his shop was vandalized with the mark of the raven……..which happened during the time he was in the forest at the dare house. And how do we know he was at the dare house? Because he took the time to video call you, to show you his surroundings, he used you as an alibi.”

Honey please believe me

I’ve danced with this feeling

“You’re crazy, Jake. How could you say something like this?! He was literally attacked before my eyes, the same as Jessy! You saw him in the live stream that Michael sent me, both him and your sister tied up and unconscious! Why would you say something like this?!”

I know what the best parts of the world look like

Through blurry eyes, you’re colorblind

“Who knew about Jessica’s whereabouts the night she was attacked? There were two people she mentioned who had known her plans, her route. Richy and Phil, right? But it can’t have been Phil, because he was arrested before Richy’s disappearance, correct?”

“Yes, but-”

“You saw the MWAF when he attacked Jessica. Did you see him when he attacked Richy? Why wouldn’t he show himself to you once more when he attacked the blonde?”

It’s messy, it leads to second-guessing

And when you feel you’re finally giving up

The last thing you should doubt is us

“Jake, you frickin saw the Hanson place! You saw all the evidence there, all the workings of a mad man! You saw his room littered with files on all of them; files of Lilly, Cleo, Dan, Thomas, Jessy, Richy. You saw his note saying ‘Hannah Donfort, Amy Bell Lewis, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty.’ It’s Michael, Jake, there is no other explanation!”

‘Cause darling when it hurts

I won’t let you burn

“You saw him when he entered the cabin, MC. Did he look like some elderly person with aching bones? Did he move at least with some sort of hint referencing his age? No, he looked very fit and able, he stood up tall, no visibly bent back. You’ve seen pictures of Richy, his figure and form, don’t you think both men’s physiques seemed suspiciously similar?”

It’s not that kind of fire

Just give me the lighter

MC’s thoughts came to a stand still as her phone started to explode with notifications. With shaky hands she unlocked her phone and quickly clicked on the group chat.

Thomas: MC. Alan saved Hannah.

MC: What?

Thomas: Yes, he sent me a video call of him escorting Hannah out of the mines. She is safe! I am so happy, I can barely believe it myself even though I saw it with my own eyes.

MC: And Richy?

Thomas: He was not with her.

Richy was still in the mine……she needed to find him, before it was too late….before Michael took his anger out on the young mechanic…..

Even at your worst

You’re the hill that I’ll die on

As MC tried to reply, the connection suddenly died, causing her to almost curse. Pocketing her phone, she picked up her pace through the tunnel. The faint sound of footsteps ahead caught her attention, heart racing as her flashlight unexpectedly died.

So just leave a light on

For me

Using the wall as a guide, she carefully followed the faint scuffling of feet and as the sounds grew louder, she could make out the faint glow of a lantern. Someone was here…..Michael?

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succubusphan · 1 year ago

Text

Two Man Team - Chapter 9

Summary: This is the story of two struggling friends who after many trials and tribulations find their way back to each other and build the life they've always dreamed of.

Or how Phil changed his life by talking to random strangers on the internet.

Rating: E

Tags/warnings: Friends to lovers, Friends with benefits, mental health issues (mainly anxiety), Slow burn, Dan is a psych student. Canon divergence (the timeline is altered and some things never happened), Slutty Phil, Angst with a happy ending. The fic spans many years.

Author's Note: Written for the OSPBB 2023 @oldschoolpbb. Thank you @effingmeteors for being my life saviour and beta as usual and to my artist Lin @anironsidh.

Edits and the art will be added at some point, we are busy bees.

POSTING EVERY DAY UNTIL IT'S COMPLETED.

Total Word Count: 75k ish

Read on Ao3

CHAPTER 9: Dear Love

The anxiety-induced stomach pain was so strong that Phil thought he would start crawling up the walls of his flat. On one hand, he didn’t want to cry, on the other, he felt that it would probably provide some sort of release to all the emotions he’d been bottling up for the past five years. He finally had answers, stupid answers, shitty answers even, but maybe this would help him move on. He walked into his flat and started stripping, leaving a trail of clothes all the way down to the bathroom where he looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head at his heartbroken expression. He hopped into a scalding shower, washing himself before deciding to sit there and let the water melt his pain away.

“I never got over you, Phil. I still feel exactly the same,” he heard Dan’s voice saying over and over.

He huffed.

Phil was still mad because he had been the one trying to remain friends but his attempts had been met with rejection. It was not up to him to keep trying forever and it was very hurtful that Dan had taken it that way. Even if he couldn’t handle the fact that Phil had feelings for him, they could have stayed friends, there was no need for Dan to leave him behind like a piece of trash.

His phone started ringing somewhere, his bedroom perhaps. It didn’t matter, he could ignore it and whoever it was would give up soon enough - or that’s what Phil had thought. It rang, and rang, and rang for a long time, until Phil got so annoyed that he towelled himself off and went in search of it.

It was laying on his bed, ringing, mocking him as he read the name displayed on the screen. It was Dan.

The fact that Dan had kept his phone number all this time and not texted him added salt to injury. This time he rejected the call and sent Dan to voicemail, smiling as he pictured Dan's dejected face on the other side of the line. It was out of sheer pettiness but he couldn't help himself; it was a small victory but a victory at last.

But it didn’t last long. It seemed that Dan had chosen not to leave a voicemail and opted for calling back again. Phil raised one eyebrow as he shot daggers at his phone screen. He felt the pain inside him turn into ice, hot ice. “What do you want?” he spat as soon as he picked up the phone.

“Please, Phil. Please, please let’s keep talking. I am willing to keep apologising to you.”

“Oh, you can keep apologising as many times as you want and however you want. I heard your apology, which is more than what you did for me, that doesn’t mean that you deserve to be forgiven.”

“I know that,” Dan said, his voice shaky, as if he was holding back tears. “I just - I’m so sorry. And I’m sorry that I was angry today. I had no right to be angry when I was the one to mess up everything,” he continued.

Hearing Dan so upset made Phil’s eyes well up, but he refused to let the tears fall. He wouldn’t give Dan that power over him. He took a deep breath and said his peace: “Let me ask you something: Have you considered that maybe I was never actually projecting and that by assuming that you not only treated me like an idiot but it was also clearly fueled by your unresolved low self-esteem? You just couldn’t believe that someone you were attracted to and was your match in literally everything could be attracted to you because you hated yourself and didn’t think that anyone else would truly love you so you made this theory up in your mind to justify running away?”

Dan sniffled but stayed silent for a little while, so much so that Phil would’ve thought the call was dropped if he didn’t hear Dan trying to calm himself through breathing techniques.

“Sorry,” Dan said shakily.

“Stop apologising!” Phil snapped.

“Ok,” Dan mumbled. “I - I never thought about it like that.”

Phil wanted to question Dan on whether he truly got his degree because he felt that it was a fairly obvious analysis of the situation, but he decided that despite how hurt he felt, he was not going to insult Dan’s intelligence so harshly. “So you always doubted yourself, but in this particular matter, you decided to doubt me and my feelings and intentions, thinking that you were better at understanding me than myself. It couldn’t have possibly been that someone actually cared about you. It had to be some sort of mistake or something that you manipulated me into,” he said, his tone as even as he could make it while still being upset.

“I can’t- “ Dan said. “I want us to keep talking about this, if you are up for it, but this changes everything. I think I need to take a few days to think about everything again and speak to my therapist. I am… freaking out again, to be honest.”

Phil thought about it for a moment. When he left the bar, he was sure that he didn’t want to speak to Dan ever again but now he wasn’t so sure anymore. Now he felt like he needed to see this through, wherever the discussion would take them. “Alright,” he said simply.

Dan let out a choked sob. “Thank you, thank you,” he whispered. “I promise, I will call back soon, I just need to - yeah.”

Swallowing the urge to stay on the line and comfort Dan in spite of everything, Phil cleared his throat and spoke softly. “Take care.”

“You too,” Dan said and Phil immediately disconnected the call.

Phil let his arm fall and stared at his phone screen. It was just after 7 and he was ready for the day to be over already but he hadn’t eaten anything all day. He felt nauseous both because of his empty stomach and because of everything that happened.

He got into bed and pulled the covers over his head, feeling the tears prickling in his eyes, his breath becoming more laboured with every passing second as he hesitated to make the call. It rang twice before the call connected. “Mark?” He said, trying to sound normal but failing.

“Babe, what happened?” he asked.

“Love? Oh, is it Phil?” asked Noah in the background.

“Yeah,” Mark whispered. “Sounds like he’s crying.” Then he addressed Phil. “You’re on speaker now.”

“Sorry,” Phil said. “I didn’t know what else to do. I met up with Dan.”

“Oh my god!” said Mark and Noah on the other side. “Babe, we’re coming,” added Noah.

Phil smiled, thankful that Noah had become such a good friend as well instead of being jealous of Phil and Mark’s past. “Thank you, guys.”

“Ask him if he needs food!” Noah yelled, now sounding further away from the call.

“Have you eaten?” Mark asked.

“No, can you bring some bread, maybe?”

“Oh, darling we’re bringing more than just bread,” Mark said.

“We’re sleeping over!” Noah announced.

Phil nodded even though they couldn’t see him. “Alright. Still have the key?”

“You know I do,” Mark said. “Try to sleep a little if you can. We’ll be right over.”

“Kay.”

For some reason, the call made his urge to cry ease away and replaced it with a pounding headache and dizziness. Phil shut his eyes and by the time he opened them Noah and Mark were in his bedroom with worried faces.

“Babe?” Mark tried, but Phil couldn’t utter a word, instead, the dam finally broke and he began to sob like he hadn’t sobbed in years, so much so that he could barely breathe. Mark pulled him into a tight hug and Noah sat at his side shushing him and rubbing circles on his back.

Eventually, Noah went to reheat the food for Phil and let them talk privately if they wanted to, loudly announcing when he was coming back into the room. “Do you want me to wait on the sofa?”

Phil reached a shaky hand out to him. “No, don’t leave.”

Noah nodded and sat at their side, his fingers still laced with Phil’s.

“What happened?” Mark asked. “Did you just run into him again?”

“Again?” Noah asked, raising one eyebrow.

Mark shot him a disapproving look which made Noah raise his hands. “Sorry.”

“I ran into him a few days ago, he acted a bit odd, like he was surprised to see me. He was with his partner, a guy called Sebastian that kept shooting daggers at me, especially when Dan spent a few minutes talking to me as if we were completely alone, ignoring him until I just said hi.”

“No!” said Noah, bewildered.

“Yeah,” Phil said. “It was weird. Then he wrote his phone number down on the palm of my hand and I left because that’s when Mark was waiting for me at the cinema, and when I grabbed a soda it had condensation on the outside and it erased the number, so that was that.”

“Right,” said Mark, trying to make Phil cut to the present. “So?”

Phil unlocked his phone and showed them the Facebook Messenger exchange.

“I thought you didn’t have him as a friend,” Mark said as he skimmed through the messages.

“I didn’t. He sent me the request after we ran into each other.”

“What happened today?” Noah pressed.

“We argued a lot,” Phil admitted, pressing his hand to his forehead, attempting to keep the impending headache away. “It was very messy. There were moments in which it was so easy to fall back into our old dynamic and I didn’t even feel angry at him, but then I kept remembering how much he hurt me. His reasoning for cutting me off was very… complex.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “He felt overwhelmed by a lot of things and he wanted to be with me, but he wasn’t sure if I wanted to be serious about him and he was jealous of Mark too. Sometimes his explanation was conflicting in itself, he was going a bit in circles, particularly about why he never reached out.”

Mark frowned. “What did he say?”

“That he needed to stop being Dan from Dan and Phil to grow and accept himself, and he felt judged by people, so he stopped talking to me and he would do it again if he could go back in time, but he also said that he had hoped I would text him eventually. It didn’t make a lot of sense.” Phil shrugged. “Oh! And the best part was that he thought I was projecting because he was acting as my therapist at some point and it’s easy to fall for your safe person when you are unstable or something.” He tried not to get mad again, but just thinking about it all was not helping matters.

“I don’t think that supporting someone as a friend qualifies as being their therapist. Otherwise, I am going to need a few thousand pounds from you,” said Mark, trying to soothe Phil with humour.

Phil gave him a small smile. “Exactly. Then at one point we discussed him posting a video speaking about his entire issue with being online and his sexuality crisis and he wanted to mention that we were more than friends so he asked me if I was ok with it and if I would read the script.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t agree or disagree, but for a second there I was fully on board for reading his script. Then I started questioning his whole… reasoning behind how he acted and he brought Mark and me up, and how Mark would be rude and compete with him, and he still sounded jealous. He managed to slut shame me for having sex with my friends but also said that he was not over me, even now and that he still had feelings for me.”

Mark raised his hand. “I have a question. I don’t want to think the worst of him, which is hard, because - well, you know how I feel about him.”

Phil nodded.

“But I feel like this could be a ploy because he wants to post this comeback video and bring up the ship and say it was real. Like, you have 4 million subscribers now and he only keeps losing ever since he stopped posting,” Mark said.

“If it was anyone else,” Phil said, shaking his head, “I think I would be suspicious of that, but I don’t think that’s it.” He still couldn’t bring himself to think the worst of Dan.

“But you said he has a boyfriend, right?” Noah asked.

“He does,” Phil said, biting his lip and pausing for a moment. “But after we agreed to meet, his relationship status changed to it’s complicated and the guy was no longer tagged in there.”

“I need your phone, like right now,” Noah said.

Phil gave him the phone and Noah gasped, covering his lips with his hand, his eyes full of glee. “He’s single!”

“No!” said Mark, trying to lean closer to see what his boyfriend was looking at. “Did he break up with his boyfriend for you?”

Phil shrugged. “I would have broken up with my boyfriend if they wanted to meet up with their former friend they used to fuck.”

Noah looked between them and shrugged. “It depends on how things play out, I guess.”

“I swear you are the most mature person I’ve ever met,” Phil said, feeling a bit better with his friends at his side.

“When he wants to,” Mark added. “We should eat before it gets cold.”

Noah rolled his eyes at the comment. “I’m fairly certain that it’s cold already but let’s move to the sofa and I’ll serve. If you guys want to put it in the microwave you can.”

“What’s for dinner?” Phil asked, feeling like a child. He got up and walked down the hallway with the guys in tow.

“Pasta bolognese and roasted pears for dessert,” Noah said, as he walked into the kitchen.

“Thank you!” Phil said, watching Noah begin to assemble the plates until he felt Mark pulling him away.

“We’ll be in the living room, love,” Mark said, dragging Phil to the living room and sitting him down on the sofa before taking the place next to him. He observed Phil in silence for a moment, seemingly trying to read his face “Why were you so upset? Your timeline in this whole mess hasn’t been very straightforward.”

Phil let out a frustrated huff; he always got distracted while telling stories. “The conversation was confusing for me as well. We had nice moments, honest moments and we snapped at each other. So, we went out for a coffee and then he apologised and eventually said that he still had feelings for me and tried to grab my hand and I freaked out and left.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Mark said.

Noah walked in with their plates. “I was listening from the kitchen, I need my plate and I’ll be back.”

“Alright,” Phil said with a smile, speaking a bit louder so that Noah could hear better. “So, I came home, hopped in the shower and tried to cry but I couldn’t, and Dan was blowing up my phone. By the way, I never gave him my number back so he had it all this time and he didn’t call.”

“What?” Noah screamed from the kitchen. He rushed back, nearly falling over with his meal.

Mark rolled his eyes and got up to help Noah settle with them.

“Yeah, so I rejected his calls because I got angry about that, but he wouldn’t stop calling so I picked up and by then I’d had time to go over some of the things he said and the fact that his arguments were bullshit,” Phil said.

“Like what?” Asked Noah.

“Dan has always thought that he didn’t deserve love and that nobody liked him because he was bullied a lot growing up, it was a whole thing. So I told him that he made up this narrative in which I didn’t even know what my feelings for him were, or that he manipulated me into having feelings for him through therapy, instead of just thinking that the person that he was attracted to liked him back. And that took him by surprise. He started crying and asked that we speak in a few days and he sounded so broken that I said yes.”

“This is good, right?” Noah asked, looking into Phil’s eyes. “Because he said he still has feelings for you and you obviously still love him too!”

If looks could kill, Mark would have gone to jail for murdering his boyfriend right then and there. “Love, some things, you don’t say out loud.”

Noah winced. “I’m sorry!” he said.

Phil was frozen in shock, blinking repeatedly, unable to breathe. Was it so obvious to Noah? He didn’t love Dan, did he? He was just - trying to… get over the past.

“Phil?” Noah asked. “I’m so sorry,” he pleaded.

“I -” Phil mumbled.

“Breathe!” Mark said, “and for fuck’s sake, eat your pasta, it must be freezing cold now.”

Phil took a bite of his tepid pasta and chewed, lost in thought. It was good pasta at least. How could it be so obvious to everyone around him? He didn’t even know how he felt about Dan, he had simply avoided thinking about it because it was just too painful and… “Fuck,” he said.

“What are you going to do now?” Mark asked.

“I’m going to lose my shit until he calls me back and tells me what he discussed in therapy. Then I’m going to freak out about whatever he says and if he still wants a second chance with me I am probably going to lose my mind and not know what to say,” Phil said, realising he was blowing on his cold pasta and just taking the bite.

“You are so dramatic,” said Noah. “Just ask him over and see where it goes.”

Phil shrugged and held his finger up as he swallowed. “I just had to repress my feelings for him for so long that I thought I was over it.”

“Sounds like you both wanted to believe that,” Noah pointed out.

“If he hurts you again I’m going to break his fucking legs,” Mark said, surprising Phil into a laugh.

“He’s no longer a scrawny kid,” Phil said, putting his fork down and opening Dan’s Facebook profile on his phone and giving it to Mark. “Make sure you don’t like any pictures.”

“Who do you take me for? I know how to stalk people quietly,” Mark said.

Noah leaned over to look at Dan’s pictures as well. “Oh my god! Phil… I understand you completely. He is gorgeous!”

“Damn,” Mark said, not even arguing with Noah. “He’s hot now.”

“He has always been hot,” Phil said in a mix of defensiveness and jealousy. “But yeah, I noticed too. I have eyes.”

Mark gave him a look. “Is that why you agreed to meet up with him?”

“No, I noticed after,” Phil said defensively. “What do you take me for?”

“A horny fuck, especially when it comes to him,” Mark replied.

“I-” Phil sputtered. “Hey!”

“I thought that some things you shouldn’t say out loud,” said Noah, giggling.

“Depends,” said Mark. “Phil doesn’t mind being called a slut, but never accuse him of having feelings.”

Phil nodded with a satisfied smile.

“...Even if he does,” Mark added.

Noah snickered and Phil hit Mark with a cushion.

After having debated things with his friends, Phil felt a lot better, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. That was probably also related to the emotional release that crying brought him. When Dan left him, Phil had cried himself silly, but after a while, he became numb to the topic. He’d avoided thinking of Dan like the plague and just tried to carry on. Their chance encounter broke those walls down and everything was crumbling around him once again.

To end the night on a higher note, Mark made some drinks and put on some Buffy episodes which they all watched while cuddling on the sofa until they fell asleep.

#phanfic #phanfiction #phan #succubusphan fics #phan au #dan and phil #ospbb 2023

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the-firebird69 · 14 days ago

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Halloween - Official Trailer | 1978

youtube

He recognizes the house but doesn't see which one it is it says it doesn't look the same it was blue and it's true and he says this house is coming up too to Ben Franklin Junior and he said I know I said you're kidding it's not Halloween anymore I didn't know he did not know he knows how do you know I said it's not really obvious Jason comes up they go to back to Virginia and she pops up because he knows because he does takes the face of Tommy f and the screwed so he says do not do this thing he's huge and she's saying I have to it's weird it's rude he's honest all the time and nobody does anything and our son says you just die but before that you become massively annoying and it's already starting and she says oh it's not what you can do so he says I wonder who's hockey mask that is and it was when you have but not really it's like for a day but it came from Bobby Orr that is actually it's not Mac and it's not been it is a famous hockey player and it's not Tommy f no it's Tommy f and they don't like him I was trying to say it's him and it's not and I'm moving a little like him and her son says boy that is strange cuz he walks around like a pharaoh and if that's how he moves and it's true he's kind of creepy.. we know the story our son is saying he probably was entombed with them and somehow escapes and escaped and says they were eaten later when they're probably still there and he knows where they are and you can't get there he can't get there and he thinks they're still there so this is huge but really this is going to happen and it's very huge it's really about where it is and what's there shortly

Thor Freya

That must be Lily is the one that shoots Dave Dan in the face or head his brain escapes as it's liquefied mostly by chemicals such as locust makes a lot of sense so he gets away but really that's so damn gross more importantly they're going to have a problem and this contract amendment makes it easier for us just like you said it would and I know he's saying it would and does now I get it we get no support and now we are. And it's Bobby Orr's mask yeah that's still Tommy f and he's David Boyer people think someone else was in there but no. And he's a dick he's being an a****** to her and she would ignore him and tell him to go pay someone else and he kept saying what is she saying and her friend doesn't save it really this is awful and I sort of get something she cuts his face off and leaves him there saying where to take over that would be a cute trick but I think we do in school over other cities that are supertest cities separatists and yeah it's not good we'll probably get beat up. And she's going to say that and I'm saying try to get us into the hockey match not a war she's going the other way it's where she is the thing

Jason

Olympus

#Youtube

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onedayatatime-please · 4 months ago

Text

Saturday, Aug. 17th, 2024. 6:05 pm.

The day has been beautiful so far. I woke up before everyone else, aside from my mom and aunt who had left the house to go shopping. I took my cup of coffee and walked down the pond where folks were out clamming in the sand. I brought out one of the kayaks and boated over to the sandbar that you can cross over to get to the ocean. The waves were huge and the tide was strong so I just stayed in the surf and let the waves tug me back and forth for a few minutes. I found a beautiful stone that fits perfectly in the palm of my hand and I put it in my kayak and went home. When I got back my mom and aunt were home and my cousins were making breakfast. We had pancakes and eggs and bacon and fresh berries and it was all delicious. Afterwards we all went back out kayaking to the ocean for a few hours and I had fun riding the waves made by some folks on their motorboats. I came back earlier then the rest and showered and made myself a quick lunch. My cousins and I set up a makeshift ping pong table with two saw horses and some plywood and have been playing each other for a few hours. My eldest cousin and his wife and baby got here only a little while ago and we had some bread, cheese, prosciutto, and sliced apple as they had just come off a flight and were hungry.

My skin and hair feels all smooth from the salt and the sand and my stomach is full of good things. My body is calm and my mind is sleepy but not fatigued. I feel genuinely relaxed for the first time in I can’t remember when. I’m laying on my bed now listening to Dan Reeder in my underwear. The window is open and I can hear people moving throughout the house and the crickets in the yard and the people playing ping pong. I am so happy. If no one was here I feel like I would wanna just lay naked in the grass outside and lazily jerk off while drinking a beer and listening to music. That sounds so nice.

Definitely feeling hornier then usual and I feel bad for thinking about this when he’s having such a rough time but I really miss having sex with 🪶 specifically eating him out. I really didn’t think eating pussy was something I would like but it’s turned out being my favorite sexual thing to do. I guess it makes sense, I really don’t enjoy receiving sexual stimulation from someone else so having something to do that gives a partner pleasure without me being directly stimulated is great. Giving him head turns me on way more then when he jerks me off tbh. I think I just really don’t like people touching me like that, which is okay, it just took a lot of explaining in the beginning of our relationship. Cause he kept saying he felt bad for not reciprocating anything, and he has such a high libido that he like literally just couldn’t understand the fact that I didn’t want reciprocation. Not to mention my libido is more or less non existent. I have like one day a month, maybe, where I’m slightly horny and that’s it. I jerk off on my own just if I’m bored though, and it helps me fall asleep sometimes. I don’t feel bad that I’m ace but I def wish it didn’t make dating more difficult.

Anyways, I’m happy. It’s been a good day so far. I’m writing this earlier in the day just cause it’s so nice I had to write about it.

I’m not Dead yet, I will do my best to keep it that way.

10:27 pm edit:

Ate a nice dinner and sat on the lawn playing a drinking game with my cousins after. Usually beer is a bit of a self harm for me, because I feel guilty when drinking and I hate the taste of it so I have to kinda choke it down. today I’ve drank a fair amount but all of it has felt lovely, a part of community and bonding with my family. Playing a fun game together that also happened to involve beer. I’m not tipsy but I’ve had a few beers and glass of wine so I’ve gotten a little tired. Gonna sleep good and hard tonight. Tomorrow I want to try and kayak the length of the pond, which is a few miles. Maybe I’ll do that early in the morning before most people wake up.

Also met my eldest cousin’s wife and baby for the first time. It’s really weird. I haven’t seen him since he was a kid and he looks the same but now he’s like running out of the room every five minutes to check on the baby. He married younger then most nowadays, so it’s kinda jarring to see him as a father. It genuinely feels like yesterday we were mucking about in the little canyons out west, chasing rattle snakes and hitting each other with sticks. I’m about as tall as him now too, but in all my memories I’m looking up at him from way down low. My memory is so fucked, like so much of my life is just a blur and I only get little snippets that I have to piece together. And almost daily i loose time, I’ll just be doing something and then suddenly I’m in another place doing something else with no memory of how I got there. So, considering time never really feels linear for me, it’s weird to watch other people move through time consistently. And now there’s this baby that I’m gonna watch grow older in weird segments cause I doubt I’m gonna see them very much. And one day he’s gonna be 13 and at a family gathering and he’s gonna have no clue who I am but I’m gonna say some dumb shit like “I knew you when you were This tall!”

I made a suicide joke during the drinking game, and everyone laughed except my sister and I immediately felt bad about it. All she said was “Please don’t.” I won’t, I promise.

I’m not dead yet, I will do my best to keep it that way.

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vamptigergal · 1 year ago

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Chapter 3 Extras

Gwen:

I was shocked when DP actually ordered a drink as we got to the café, sighing my question to her to see what it was she feeling since normally she never gets anything. DP answering “more human in Gotham then anything”

“Well thats good, seeing as you dont normally feel anything around the most of us. It’s going to be nice to just sit and enjoy this day, so we sitting outside or in here?” I asked, linking arms with both DP and Kate as Riri joined us after she ordered.

Looking at the sky, Kate hummed “Well honestly I think outside. It’s not like it would be the first time we’ve eaten outside in the rain if it does, which you did check right DP?”

“Eh, the app said its not supposed to. So its about a 40% chance I actually agree with this Wayne Weather App.” DP answered as we all took seats outside around a table. Riri rolling her eyes at that which I had to agree, that didnt seem very reliable even Tony’s weather app used the top research for predicting the weather so hopefully this worlds billionaires took after him if just a bit.

As we wait, Kate pulls out her phone to put on some music. Riri snatching it to change the soft melody before I could which of course she stuck her tongue out at me. Letting her pick the first song while leaning into DP’s space to see who she was messaging, only to see it was a picture from one of the people she meet here. Kate kicked me before I could tease my sort of sister about the soft smile on her face from the guy’s pic as the song started. Dancing along to Shots with my friends while we waited for our buzzer to go off.

As the song hit the mid point two guys came over and to say the fact they knew DP was shocking till I reconized the guy from the picture. Nudging Kate to help me tease my sister as we spoke to their group since it seemed DP knew some of them already with how close her and one of the guys (Jason was it?) kept sitting.

Tim:

All because Dick had to invite these four girls to join us, we now get to try to not only avoid paparazzi but had to play normal civialians too. Just because Duke and Jason made a friend, I could leave either and why because of course these girls seem to not get that a guy might just want coffee. Grumbling till we all stopped at a local coffee shop not to far from the mall Dick wanted to show off to the girls, I quickly got in line ignoring the rest of the group. Or at least I would except Damian got in right behind me with the woman that Jason willingly let into his space, and no I wasnt going to think more about that because I wasnt jealous.

“This place has a great selection of teas.” Damian spoke, clearly trying to impress her.

She laughed at it sounded so familiar for a second I almost forgot my order as I got to the counter before mutter “One Death Wish Coffee, extra six shots with carmal please”

Stepping to the side so Damian and the other could order, since it didnt pay for each of us to pay separate and would hold up the line, I tried not to listen to everyone else’s order but knowing what my brother’s get it wasnt that hard to figure out the girls were a strange mix. One order of Pumpkin Hot Chocolate, Two Black Coffees, and One London Fog extra foam, that didnt seem like a mix would make a good friend group. But thinking about it two of them did claim to be sisters, so that could explain it since nothing else did.

Once we all got our drinks, DP walked next to me even though Duke was walking close by. Jason took up her other side much to Damian’s huffing since Dick seemed to take his side with someone else talking their ears off, I didnt care as I took a sip of my beloved drink. DP giggled at me before I could growl at her, she spoke “Sorry it’s just the only other person I know that drinks that much expresso is Dan, and he hates caramel so it’s strange to see anyone drink them together. I was trying to picture Dan with that drink and nope definitely can not. Danny maybe would try it, Dani might enjoy it. But you Tim are a coffee adicit after my own heart with that strange love of the drink”

“Yet you got an earl gray” I muttered, the snark taken out of my sail with her expression being so soft and open even Jason was smiling. It felt like maybe just once hanging out with him as if he was my older brother and not the guy that tried to kill me.

Jason rolling his eyes as he grumbled “Come on Timmers, London Fog isnt just an early gray. I’ve got an Earl Gray, you really should know this by now.”

“Well excuse me for not knowing all the different types of tea drinks. I’m know for drinking my Death Wish and not much else thank you very much.” I teased back, happy to spend this little time on the walk with my favorite brother even if it was only because of someone else being there. Maybe one day it could happen, maybe?

Dick:

It was supposed to be a nice day out with the family, but of course I knew as soon as B backed out the day fell on to me to make it good. Sometimes I hated being the oldest, which is why when Duke said we were meeting up with some friends of his and Jason actually let DP into his space, that maybe the day had turned around. Hack we stopped at the coffee shop Tim loved and Damian and him didnt fight, everyone got drinks and no one got stabbed. I was really thinking it was going well for a Wayne outting, so of course some villain had to show up. Only this huge guy wasnt someone Any of us knew, or at least that I thought we knew till Riri and Kate started yelling at each other.

Kate screamed “No Heart we cant just leave Pin to the local guys! Why because clearly they wouldnt know how to take him down! Heck we wont even be able to take him down without Spider-Man and you want to leave him for people who wont even have our knowledge of him. Why the heck would you ever be a leader!”

“I’m not saying we leave him here Kate! All im saying is if we arent supposed to be avengers here then maybe we shouldnt even step in and let these local heroes handle this. Since it seems Death feels so strongly about it!” Riri screamed back.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to figure out how to get my brother and self away from the girls so that we could change to handle Two-Face and this new villain but of course the girls just have to keep screaming. Before I could figure out a solution, I hear Tim yelp whipping around to make sure Two-Face had grabbed him or something else happened only to see DP dropping her jacket onto Tim’s head with a dark smile blooming on her face that honestly looked so sexy. If only she was a red-head then I would totally go for her but the black hair just couldnt be that sexy, didnt see why Jace kept blushing as she and Gwen both grabbed their friends.

Gwen with a similar wicked smile on her face, speaking “Heart, Hawkeye we are going to handle Pin and the other guy till the local guys get here. So Heart you better have grabbed your suit because your our eyes in the sky”

“Kate, you are going to be running interference and making sure civialians get to safety with Riri’s help.” DP said as she and Gwen both stalked towards the fighting. Before I could yell for them to stop, the two sister were holding guns that they did not have before and I decided that I didnt want to deal with that. Keeping my mouth shut and making sure everyone else was safe as we got to safety as we watched the fight from a distance as the four girls moved in perfect movement without comms.

DP seemed to move in time with arrows shot from Kate as they took down Two-Face and tied him up, I couldnt believe it when I looked to see that they took him down in under 3 minutes since not even we could do that. Gwen, DP, and Kate all turned to take out the last guy they called Pin, I turned to look at Tim who put on the jacket and had out his phone to see if he could get any information on him. Cursing since it seemed he couldnt, but no one said anything about the langue, I looked at his phone as it came up with nothing I asked “Could they be from another universe?”

“Well they did kind of hint to that. And that would explain at lot of things, but why wouldnt there be something. Theres always traces of people in other universes, but nothing for any of them!” Tim muttered.

Duke and Jason exchanged a quick glance as Damian huffed as we all watched Gwen seem to tie up this Pin guy as Kate and DP walk over with Riri land in a strange suit next to Gwen. Kate cursing up a storm as she gets closer “No really DP, why do you carry that, and dont say just because!”

“Because you never know why a spider is going to lose their web-shooters and you never know when they are going to come in handy. You have to admit it’s a good thing I do, learned it from Peter here, always carry extra web-shooters and fluid cardiges.” DP laughs “Oh thanks Tim for taking care of the jacket, I’ll take it back since we’ve got to take Kingpin to jail. I swear I’m always doing more paperwork then I want to”

“Ah, well, it was nice of you all to come. Hopefully the next time you are in Gotham it wont be so exciting as this time and you can see more” I say as Tim hands over the jacket as the girls all get ready to leave. I knew i was going to be interrogating Duke later.

#Spoilers #DeadDeaderandDeath

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starryandpied · 20 days ago

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Hey Jude! It's perfectly fine, I don't mind :)) My day was kinda busy too. I went to Korean barbeque! It was amaaazing 🤤🤤 Bulgogi is the best. Hehe, I was also looking forward to talking to you though, I kept checking my phone all day ( ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠) Wishing you luck and joy for tomorrow! 🍀✨

Man, I love your Tyler gifs haha 🧡 How do you always have the perfect ones??

I absolutely will show off your drawings! This new year has good vibes already :)) Cheers to hoping it continues! Haha, yeah, I get the procrastination. Definitely not doing that with my fic right now 👀 It's percolating, I'm letting it simmer! But yeah, I'd love to watch your video! Hmmm, I'll find a place to watch that movie :)) Aah, I'd love to nerd out about One Piece with you! Let me know if you want me to tag spoilery stuff for you kay? Especially on my reblog account!

Eh, I can talk at my roomies about my special interests. Just not really with them, you know? They're both neurodivergent as well, but we share basically zero special interests in common, and the two of them share basically all of theirs. They'll listen to me, and I really appreciate that, but they don't really get it, so it's not as fun as it could be.

Oh, yeah, my parents sucked, so I really needed to get away from them. I pretty much had a years long breakdown afterward, and I'm just now learning to be ok again. Or more like what it really even means for me to be ok. It's like learning to walk on land after a lifetime at sea.

I'm rooting for you to find a place of your own! 😄😄

Oh man, yeah, it sucks when shows get cut short these days :// I'll find a place to watch that too! Heehee, I'm building a list!

Death Note is sad! But it's such a masterpiece! I really gotta finish it one of these days (⁠.◔⁠‿⁠◔⁠.)

Oh my god, Free!! I love that show! I gotta binge watch it all again, it's been years. Have you ever watched 50% Off? 😄😄 Also, my cousin (one of my roommates) cosplayed Iwatobi-chan once! It's one of the best cosplays she ever did. It was iconic! Haha, dan and phil would love them 🩵🩵 Never forget dan's haru body pillow.

Inuyasha is great! Although, I am biased. I watched it when I was like 12 I think. But it's also very worth it. Inuyasha was one of my first big character crushes 🩵 And it has such a good love story and world building.

I also loved my second ever anime, Rurouni Kenshin. It has such good vibes! It's also a really interesting period peace for the Meiji era of Japan, which is a very interesting era in general. I really related to the main character, Kenshin, as a kid. I kinda kinned him a little. I used to say he was like the male version of me. And now I am male, lol!

Yeah, I don't really know much about the indie web either. But I watched a video essay on it recently, and it seems really cool! As far as I understand it, it's like a little corner of the web that's like the old internet. Neocities has personal customizable little websites that people have coded, and someone even made a myspace clone I think! I might try it someday if I learn to code (⁠◍◔⁠‿⁠◔◍⁠)

Oh man, I'd love to watch your youtube channel! Consider me an immediate subscriber!

Heheh, yeah, pen pals!

Your pen pal,

Starry

Howdy, Jude! What's good? :)

(this is a modified version of the game "what doin'", in which you ask your friends "what doin'?" and it facilitates a conversation. I never know what to ask about in asks, so I'm playing what doin'. But I figure asking "what doin'?" would probably provide a boring answer like eating food, so I modified it to "what's good?" which pretty much opens up the floor for you to talk about what ever is good in your life right now :)). Sorry if this seems very autistic, I'm probably very autistic, and I decided to embrace it today.)

Omg hiiii Starry! (Idk if thats cool i love all your names lmk) :3

Im so glad u sent this im also very autistic so i have a hard time initiating conversation. 😆 As for whats good in my life right now hehe um🤔 my cat 🐈‍⬛ (as always). OH and dans mullet lmaoo. Got my lisence recently besides that just basking in the winter depression currently drawing and playing totk🙂. How about you?🥴 How are you doing whats good in your life right now? Id love to know🫶

#haha same here!#we can share stuff back and forth :)))#talks with jude

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paddockbunny · 2 years ago

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She Suits You

Summary: You show up with bruises. Daniel shows up with hickies. Natalie finally realises what’s been right in front of her all along. Rating: 16+ (adult themes hinted at) Pairing : Daniel Ricciardo x Reader Word Count : 569 Trigger Warnings : Fluffy but adult themes including choking & hickies 💞 Authors Note : I will add the “Read More” thing later as it doesn’t work for me on the app

You almost felt embarrassed. The marks he had made the night before were right there, deep and purple on the side of your neck. The Sky team make-up artist looked at you with a smirk and there was a moment where it passed through your mind to shush her and tell her to dare not ask, but that would just prompt her to ask more. “Shall we cover these?” You had grown fond of Fiona but she relished in being the only one who knew of your sordid tryst with Daniel and wasn’t adversed to making you squirm in the make-up chair while trying to draw details from you. She set about picking out concealers when the door opened and of all people it was Nat that walked through the door. Fiona would make it even more awkward now. Asking you to turn you’re head out you in Natalies direct eye-line. “What are you….uh!” She stopped immediately upon seeing the small reddish purple bruises. “So you do have a man!” She shouted it loud enough that the whole paddock could have heard - well, not really but certainly the rest of the sky guys next door and maybe Ziggo across the way. “Who is he?” And so while Natalie proceeded to go on and on about who it was that had left finger print bruises around your neck (from clearly quite the rough session), Fiona kept looking at you as if Daniel’s name teetered on the tip of her tongue.

“Alright Dan, thanks a lot hun!” Nat finished her sit down pre race weekend interview. And when he reached down and picked up his water bottle off the floor she noticed something. The collar of his Renault branded polo pulled back too much and exposed a lot of his neck. A neck where right under his ear was a deep reddish purple bruise. It was small, about the size of a penny. And then when he snapped back up she saw another one. Right beside his Adam’s apple, again the size of a penny but more of a funny shape. And he caught her eyes widen. And then he smirked and suddenly it all clicked into place. Every single thing from that day clicked in her mind and her mouth fell open. “You ok?” Daniel laughed and she felt like she had just made some huge discovery. Like NASA discovering life on other planets. “You’re y/n’s mystery guy?” She couldn’t believe she had been so blind. It was so obvious. Daniel paused, his cockiness disappearing, and she watched him swallow nervously. “I don’t know what your talking about.” He feigned confusion. She grabbed the collar of his team polo and pulled it back to which he tried moving away from her grip. “Your finger prints are all over her neck.” She stated with a scoff. “They are?” She knew it! He basically confirmed it with that statement that he never actually meant to say but couldn’t stop himself. And suddenly he turned into a shy school boy right in front of her. It dawned on Natalie she had never seen Daniel like this about a girl before. “Nat, please don’t…” Daniel was silently urging her not to tell anyone and her heart swelled in her chest. “Of course not. You should have told me!” She hit Daniel playfully in the chest “She suits you.”

#Daniel Ricciardo #daniel ricciardo x reader #daniel ricciardo fic #daniel ricciardo preference #daniel ricciardo fanfic #daniel ricciardo x you #f1 imagine #f1 fanfic #f1 one shot #f1 smut #f1 #dr3 #daniel ricciardo imagine #daniel ricciardo blurb #f1 blurb #f1 driver x you #f1 driver x reader #daniel ricciardo fluff

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milexa2000 · 3 years ago

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4⭐️Town when they are jealous

A/n: This is a request soooo.. It might suck😅😅 And also thank you @shigekoaoi7 for the request🖤

WARNINGS: maybe harrasment idk..AND FLUFFF

_________________________

Robaire🎤

He knows you live him from the bottom of your heart, buttt he doesnt like when seeing other guys talking to you

He would watch both of you if anything bad is happening

When the guy trys to hold your hand. Robaire had ENOUGH

he would walk up to both of you and holding you back

I feel like he would cuss the guy out in French and the guy is just there like "🤨😰"

"What do you think your doing?!" or "shes already taken man, sorry." and would walk away with his arms around you

You would thank him cause the guy made u uncomfy

"No problem Mon amour, im always here for you."

he can trust you cause he knows when you feel uncomfortable with other guys you dont know

So he will always have your back🥰

_______________________________________________

Tae Young🕊

sometimes he doesnt mind of you talk with other guys if only they are your friend

But when he sees that guy try touching you, oh mannn hes pissed

He would walk up to them and yell in their face

You look at him and Awe, hes like a superhero saving your day

When the guy rolls his eyes and walks off, tae turns to look at you. THEN GRABS YOUR CHEEKS AND CHECK IF HE KISSED U OR SUM

"Dove, are you okay?, "did he kiss you?"," what did he tell you? ". He just keeps asking you questions

You giggle and hold his face, telling him that your fine and thanking him for saving you.

He starts blushing when you said you saved his life "ohhh stop it y/n." he says making SUCH A CUTE POUTY FACE

you cant help but kiss all over his face which makes him chuckle

_________________________

Aaron T🧢

UH UHH HE IS NOT GONNA LET ANYBODY TOUCH HIS GIRL

Hes a spy, hes really good at hiding

he watches the both of you just talking about god knows what

He walks up to you both, very chill yk

You dont get suprised when you feel arms around your waist cause you know its him

He kisses you on the cheek which males the guy so mad💀

"Sorry man, she's already mine" he says with a smirk on his face

While the guy was finally gone, you immediatly give him a tight hug which he returns

You cant stop thinking him because of how scared and uncomfy ehen the guy was talking to you

He looks at you and says "dont worry baby, its my job." with this face "😌"

__________________________________

Aaron Z🏀

Z dan be very shy sometimes, but when he sees you with another guy that he doesnt know, oh boy hes about to get madddd

He thought yoy we're cheating on him but he realized the look on your face

U look... Nervous and uncomfortable when the guy is trying to talk to you

You see him walking up to you both which excites you cause ur bby boy is coming to the rescueeee

You go behind him and hold him tight when helds you behind him protectively

He trys to be calm but he can't

He tells the guy?, "don't touch my girl or else we gonna have a problem." and the guy immedietly nods his head and runs off

He starts to feel bad, then he feels someone tap his shoulder which he turns to look at you.

you hold his face.... AND KISS HIS ALL OVER. HIS CHEEKS, HIS LIPS, HIS FOREHEAD

you kept telling him how proud you Were of him for saving you

He makes a suprises face and blushes. He loves when you cheer him

__________________________________

Jesse🎨

Like Aaron T, he would be a spy watching you and the random guy

He makes this face "😧" when he sees the guy touching you, thats when hes ready to confront the guy

When you see him coming your day, you run up to him and hug him tightly

He looks at the guy, pissed off. "Don't you DARE put your Hands on her, shes mine! and they guy freaks out and runs off which you cant help but goggle

While the dude is gone, Jesse looks at you with a worried face.

"Are you okay baby?" , "thank goodness your okay." he holds you so tight like a big bear

You tell hin that your fine and kiss him which makes him smile☺️

You thank him for saving you and tell him that there is nothing to worry about

Which makes him smile even more and you both tried to forget what just happened💀

_________________________

A/n: I HOPE U GUYS LIKE ITT. Plz send me some request of 4Town. Thanks🥰

-Milexa

#turning red #4 town #4townie #encanto fluff #disney fanfiction #taeyoung #aaron t x reader #robaire turning red #4town jesse #turning red x reader #aaron z #disney movies #4town x reader

1K notes · View notes

photogirl894 · 2 years ago

Text

"Sun and Rain"

Chapter 51

"Eradication"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

A/N: I LIIIIIIIIIIVE!!

Gosh, so sorry for the incredibly long wait! My inspiration has been sorely lacking and would come in small spurts here and there, which was maddening! Here is a nice long chapter to make up for it that I think you all will like 😊 I apologize if the action seems rushed, I was just trying my best to get through it and just get the chapter done lol

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @intrepidmare , @tmnt-leo-simp , @tech-aficionado , @ladykatakuri , @d1n0-dan , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22 , @scarlettroseog , @tech-deck , @thebadbatchscyare , @chxpsi , @ilikemymendarkandfictional , @4pplecider , @locitapurplepink , @l-lend , @nekotaetae , @eternalwaffle , @merkitty49

《 Chapter 50

》 Chapter 52

All chapters

Explanation: Now inside the Eradicators hideout, the Koriena Force's plan to rescue the Bad Batch and all the Clones is underway. Will it be successful or will they too end up as prisoners themselves?

The Koriena Force was led through a series of corridors to a large lift that they all got in and went downwards towards the Eradicators’ detention level. Jax kept looking at Kimber and trying to make small talk with her. She was hating every moment, but knew it was imperative to the plan that she go along with it. Mostly, she just wanted to tell him to throw himself in a Sarlacc pit and end his miserable existence. Sadly, she couldn’t say that…yet.

He kept going on, “As you may have seen, our establishment here and our entire enterprise is well-hidden from the eyes of the Republic. Their precious Clones disappear and they have no idea where they go.”

“And yet Irys was able to find out everything about this place in a matter of minutes on the holonet,” Kimber thought to herself. “Shows how arrogant you are.”

“Do not be so sure of that sir,” Kimber spoke aloud, using her deep Alpha voice. “The moment you let arrogance rule your words and actions is when your enemy will rise up and strike against you. The Republic is resourceful. While yes, you have the upper hand, it would be unwise to underestimate them.”

He chuckled. “Already so concerned for me and my work, I see. You flatter me, Lady Alpha,” he replied.

“You wish,” she thought, annoyed.

Very soon, the doors to the lift opened and they proceeded down another hallway to a door that Jax put in a code for on a keypad. Kimber kept a close eye on his hand movements so she could memorize the code, but even if she didn’t, she knew Irys would be able to override the code anyway. The door swished open and they came into the detention level, which was an open area at first with a main computer console and then had a long corridor with several doors on either side.

Jax then said, “This is where we keep the assortment of Clones we’ve captured thus far. I think you will find our selection most satisfactory.”

Then behind her, Rina spoke up, elbowing Rex in the side, “Though, first, we need somewhere to put this nuisance.”

Rex glared at her, keeping up the act.

“Oh yes,” said Jax. “I will find a place for him…but we will get to that momentarily. I want him to see all of the so-called brothers of his that we’ve captured.” Then he turned and began walking ahead of them.

Kimber’s hand curled up into a fist at her side, but Kida subtly reached over and placed her hand over hers. She gave Kimber a very light shake of the head, signaling her to keep her calm as they followed after him.

He went up to the first door on the left, pressed a button off to the side and the door slid open. Inside was a group of about six Clones that Kimber had yet to meet, but her heart still wrenched at seeing them in the cell, each bound at the wrists and looking either angry or hopeless. They were dressed in simple white armor with no color to them.

Now that he was presenting the Clones to her, Kimber gave a tiny nod to Irys, giving her the signal to begin hacking into the main console while Jax was occupied with showing off the Clones. Rina, Lex and Kida also casually assembled themselves behind Kimber so as to block Jax’s view of the computers and he couldn’t see Irys.

“What do you think of these ones?” Jax asked Kimber, making her remember that she had to act interested in buying them, which was making her sick to her stomach.

She took a moment, pretending to be analyzing the Clones in the cell before her. “A very good collection of specimens here…but I wish to look further.”

They walked down to the next cell and he opened up the door. Inside, there was another group of Clones, this time four of them. Their reactions were the same, glancing up at them with hate in their faces. She just acted uninterested and moved on to the next one.

However, it took every ounce of strength she possessed to not react to the next group of Clones she was shown; a group she was not expecting to see.

In the third cell, she saw the Wolf Pack.

Comet and Sinker were on the floor to the left, Boost was close to the door and then Commander Wolffe was standing towards the back, leaning up against the wall, looking more stoic than usual.

Kimber was surprised to see them. It was no wonder neither Rex nor Cody had heard anything from the Wolf Pack recently. Who knew how long they’d been imprisoned? She had to somehow let them know that they were going to be rescued. She’d already thought of a way to get a message to her squad, but this, she hadn’t anticipated.

To try and get in and get a message to them that she was there, she spoke up, feigning interest, “Oh…what do we have here?” She stepped down into the cell and the Clones all watched her come in. “These ones certainly might fit the part.” Her eyes found Wolffe and she walked forward, leaving everyone else behind her. “You look like a strong, able-bodied specimen.”

Wolffe just glared at her.

“Though, your eye is curious,” she commented. Then she said, hoping to get the signal across, “You remind me of someone I came across on a job on Falleen. We ended up in a scuffle with some Droids in the middle of it and the Vulture Droids gave us the most trouble.” She then asked over her shoulder, hoping to further sell the bit, “Do you remember that, ladies?”

With a scoff of disgust, Kida played along and responded, “Don’t remind me. Those Droids cost us a lot of credits on that job.”

Kimber grinned under her mask, grateful that Kida was going along with her.

Keeping her eyes trained on Wolffe, Kimber then said, “I recall that day having to attach a cable to a Vulture Droid in order to reach an outpost on the side of a mountain. That was quite the ride.”

His eyes narrowed at her curiously. It seemed that her bringing up what she did during her outing with the Wolf Pack on Falleen was jogging his memory. Just as she could tell the realization was hitting him, she then asked, “Would you say that is an impressive feat, Clone?” Then she gave him an affirming wink.

There was definitely some confusion in his expression, but there was the smallest hint of understanding in it, as well, as if realizing who she was, but wondering what in the world she was doing. However, he simply stated in answer, “Impressive indeed, ma’am.”

She gave an amused hum before looking back to Jax and declaring, “I like this one. I definitely have my eyes on him.”

“Do you wish to trade the Captain for this one?” Jax inquired.

“Possibly,” she answered contentedly as she made her way back to the open doorway. “That Clone with the cybernetic eye and maybe the rest of his crew, I’m highly considering, but I wish to view the other Clones you have on hand first before making a final decision.”

Jax bowed his head. “But of course,” he said, stepping aside so she could walk through, hitting the button to the cell door behind him as they moved away.

Once they were gone, Wolffe spoke to his squad, “Well, boys…I get the feeling we’re not going to be in this cell much longer.”

Confused, Comet asked, “What makes you say that?”

“And what was that whole thing about?” then asked Sinker, gesturing to the door.

“Remember that woman we picked up on Mon Gazza?” questioned Wolffe.

Boost answered, asking, “You mean the one that was in a Clone squad?”

“The one you said was a pain in your neck?” added Comet.

Wolffe reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah…I don’t know how, but she’s here…and somehow, she’s going to get us out.”

Back out in the hallway, Kimber, the Koriena Force and Rex continued along with Jax, observing other Clone prisoners in their cells. So far, there was no sign of the Bad Batch and luckily, Kimber didn’t see any other Clones that she recognized, which was a good sign at least. That didn’t stop the pain and the hate she was feeling with every cell they went to and every squad or group of Clones she pretended to survey. She wished she could just shoot Jax and free all the Clones right then and there, but she knew they’d never make it out with all the other Eradicators and bounty hunters waiting elsewhere in the fortress. She had to bide her time and keep her act up as much as possible.

After about six more cells--and what felt like an eternity--Jax opened up a cell near the end of the hall and Kimber’s breath hitched.

There they were: her boys, all spread throughout the cell. Hunter and Crosshair were standing near a back corner, Wrecker was sitting on the floor to the left while Tech and Echo were on the floor near the right side of the room. Their eyes drifted up to them and they gave them looks of indifference.

“Finally!” she thought. “Now’s the time to really sell all this.”

“Rex!” cried Echo upon seeing the Captain in their possession.

“Oh my…!” Kimber exclaimed, acting immensely intrigued upon seeing the Bad Batch as she walked into the cell. “Now, these Clones are incredibly unique. I have never seen ones like them before.”

They were watching her suspiciously and with caution and she didn’t like it. How she wanted desperately to rip her mask off and tell them she was there!

Then Jax said behind her, coming into the cell himself, “This is Clone Force 99. They are enhanced Clones, which makes them different from the rest.”

“Different, indeed,” she said back, eyeing the Clones closely and pretending to be fascinated by them, hoping in the back of her mind that they would forgive her later for how she was looking at them.

Her gaze went from Tech to Echo over to Wrecker and then lastly to Crosshair and Hunter. From what she could tell, they seemed okay and still in good health, surprisingly. She had been afraid she would find them beaten and bruised, showing possible signs of torture, given the Eradicators’ hatred of Clones. She felt fortunate that this was not the case and overwhelmed with relief.

Then she locked eyes with Hunter. He was faintly scowling at her and she couldn’t blame him. There was no way he would recognize her, not with the tattoos, the mask and the eye color changing discs she wore. There was no way he would know…but she had an idea of how to get a subtle signal to him that she was there, just like she had done with Wolffe, only this one she had actually prepared for.

“Are these not the Clones that are due to be eradicated?” inquired Kida.

“They are, indeed,” replied Jax, a tone of distaste in his voice,

Seemingly ignoring their conversation, Kimber stepped up to Hunter and could see Crosshair tense up out of the corner of her eye at her approach and she stole a look at him, as well. “These two have certainly piqued my interest. Though, in truth, all of them are just what I’m looking for. Strong physiques, built for endurance, special abilities…wouldn’t you agree, ladies?” she asked, turning over her shoulder.

“Oh yeah, I completely agree,” answered Rina and it was then Kimber noticed that she was making eyes at Wrecker as she voiced her agreement, who looked a bit put off by it. Kimber never would’ve imagined Rina would have a thing for bigger guys, but then again…she was a smaller woman, so she guessed that sort of thing made sense.

Then Lex said in addition, “I think these Clones would serve us well, my lady.”

Kimber put her hands behind her back underneath her cape, directed her attention to Jax and raised the question, hoping she would be able to convince him, “Why send these Clones to their death as punishment for what they have done? Would it not be more satisfying to see them as servants at someone else’s beck and call, performing hard labors as recompense for their crimes? I would be willing to pay an exceptionally handsome price for these Clones and take them off of your hands where they will certainly be punished for the wrongs they inflicted upon you.”

“We’ve done nothing wrong,” Hunter spat behind her.

This was her chance to send the signal.

“Forgive me, Hunter,” she prayed in her mind.

She pulled something out of a pouch on the back of her belt where Jax couldn’t see and hid it in her clenched fist as she then whirled around and struck a hard blow straight to Hunter’s side. As he cried out in pain and moved to clutch at the side of his abdomen with his bound hands, she ever so carefully put her fist into one of his open hands and slipped the item into it before forcing his hand closed with her own, pretending as though she were grabbing him defensively. She saw the other Clones all flinch and look like they wanted to move to Hunter’s aide, but knew they couldn’t, so their expressions were full of rage.

“I will not be spoken to in such a way, Clone!” she bellowed in his face. As his eyes, filled with disdain, lifted to meet hers, she then added in a more stern tone, “As the twin suns of Tatooine blaze in the desert, you will learn to be obedient like the massiff mutts you are.”

At any time, Kimber would’ve never believed that would ever say such words to Hunter and it killed her to speak to him this way, but as usual, it was necessary to preserve her cover in order for their plan to work. If her subtle hint about the twin suns wasn’t enough to let Hunter know it was her, then the object she’d slipped into his hand would be.

As she turned back around, Jax came up to her, an impressed smirk on his face at her display. “While your offer is indeed tempting, my lady,” he said, “I am afraid myself and the masses demand an example be made of these Clones. There are too many who have come here for the Eradication for it to be withdrawn. I am sorry, but I’m afraid these Clones will still be terminated.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t budging and Kimber didn’t like that. She tried again, this time batting her eyelashes a bit at him and saying in a smooth, sultry tone, “Surely, sir, we can come to some sort of…arrangement about this.”

“Forgive me, but these Clones are not for sale,” he said in conclusion.

Just as she was going to try and argue some more, she saw Irys casually step up behind Rina, which gave Kimber the indication that she had successfully finished hacking into the computer system and the override was in place. The next big step of their plan was now in motion.

With that in mind, Kimber decided to reluctantly relent and replied with a heavy sigh, “Oh well, what a pity. I had so thought these Clones would serve us well.”

“Shall we finish surveying the rest of my collection and find a new place for our newest addition?” asked Jax, motioning to Rex.

Keeping up appearances, Rex cast an apologetic glance to the members of the Bad Batch.

“I say we shall,” replied Kimber, once again looping her arm through his and resisting the strong urge she had to break it as she exited the cell. She wished that she could look one last time at her boys, but Jax was quick to whisk her out of the room that she didn’t get the chance to.

“Who the heck was that?” questioned Wrecker, annoyed.

Hunter, still on one knee and doubled over from the hit he took to the abdomen, brought out his hand and looked at the object that he had felt get slipped into it. His fingers unfurled and his eyes went wide with shock.

It was his credit necklace!

How was that possible? He had thought it had been lost or the Eradicators had taken it when he realized it wasn’t with him upon waking up in the cell they were in. Yet that woman had it…who was she and how did she have it? Something wasn’t right.

Then the last thing she had said to him came to mind:

“As the twin suns of Tatooine blaze in the desert….”

Tatooine…the necklace…

“Kimber!” he gasped.

“What?” asked Crosshair, looking down at him.

“What are you talking about, Hunter?” then questioned Echo.

Hunter held out his hand so his brothers could see the necklace he now held as he said, “I don't know how, but I think that woman was Kimber.”

“That’s your necklace,” Crosshair pointed out.

With a nod, Hunter explained, “She snuck it into my hand after she punched me.”

“Which, wow, she hits pretty hard!” he then thought to himself as he acknowledged the twinging in his side.

Then Tech seemed to catch on as he pointed out, “She also mentioned the twin suns of Tatooine.”

“That’s got to be her, then!” cried Wrecker.

Unable to hold back the pleased grin on his face, Hunter stated, “I knew she would find us. I knew it.”

“Though, I’m curious as to how she managed to locate us,” commented Tech.

“Does that really matter?” Echo asked in return. “Kimber still found us and she also got inside this hideout.”

“Do you think the squad she brought is on her side?” inquired Crosshair.

“Given the way she spoke to those ladies, it would appear she holds a form of leadership over them,” Tech stated in answer, “so my theory is yes, she is in league with those women and they are all undercover as bounty hunters in order to infiltrate the Eradicators’ secret base.”

Wrecker got kind of a cheeky grin on his face as he added with a tiny shrug, “That tiny girl with the gray hair was kind of cute.”

“Duly noted, but now’s not the time for that,” said Hunter. “Kimber’s here and she’s brought help. Looks like we’re going to survive this after all, boys.”

A wave of relief crashed over him. For the past couple days, he had been secretly wallowing in doubt and misery, fearing that Kimber would never find them…and he’d never see her again, but just as he had hoped deep down, she had proven to be as capable and innovative as he always believed and found them against all odds. Even then, she still managed to surprise him.

Now that she was there at the hideout, he knew without a doubt that Kimber was going to make Jax Orocco pay dearly for everything he had done.

The moment Jax left the Koriena Force in their guest room for the night, Kimber ran straight for the refresher and vomited violently, now that the adrenaline of being undercover was wearing off and she could drop the bounty hunter act. The pressure of it all and having to act as the exact opposite kind of person that she was had built up so much within her that she finally couldn’t hold it back and the contents of her stomach unleashed themselves rather quickly.

Rina had gone in with her and was rubbing her back soothingly. “There you go, boss lady. Just let it all out. You did great,” she said.

With a gasp, Kimber replied, "The sooner we get this all over with, the better. I don't think I can take doing much more of this. I hate acting and speaking so abhorrently to the Clones! It sickens me!"

"Yeah, I can see that," replied Rina.

"Well, hopefully you won't have to do it much longer," Kida piped in outside the open door as the two ladies came out of the refresher. "We'll enact our plan tonight, free the Clones and put an end to the Eradicators, Jax Orroco along with them."

After taking a few deep breaths, Kimber stood back up and asked, "Irys, you got that override ready?"

"I assume that's a rhetorical question," Irys stated back.

"Good," Kimber replied.

Lex then posed the question, "Now that we've gotten a look at your Bad Batch boys...which one was your Sergeant?"

Kimber snickered timidly and told them, "The one I punched."

Right then, Rina let out a laugh and declared. "I knew it! That's five credits, Lex."

To Kimber's slight astonishment, she watched Lex pull out some credits from a pouch on her belt and begrudgingly put them into Rina's hands, who accepted them with a triumphant grin.

"Excuse me?" Kimber questioned.

Pocketing the credits, Rina explained, "While you were throwing punches and schmoozing up to the enemy, Lex and I took bets on who we thought your Sergeant Hunter was. I totally had you pegged going for the tall, dark, handsome and broody type."

It was amazing how easily Rina seemed to figure her out. Kimber then turned to Lex and asked, "Who did you think it was?"

"I thought it was the silver-haired one. He seemed to have an air of authority about him," Lex answered.

"That was Crosshair. He's the one who saved Kimber on Kuat and killed the Rodian, remember?" clarified Irys.

"Oh right," said Lex.

"Yes, I love him very much like a brother and nothing more," explained Kimber.

With a small shrug, Irys added, "Though, he was pretty handsome."

"So was the big lug in the corner. I definitely like a guy that can lift me...out of my depression," said Rina, quickly changing her tune once she realized where her mind was going.

"They were all handsome," put in Kida, smirking.

With a small roll of the eyes, Kimber said back, "You would say that."

"Yes, though I still have eyes for the blonde Clone Captain," said Kida.

“Anyway…,” said Irys, trying to move the conversation along. “I’ve got access to the security cameras, so once night comes, I can guide all of you as you make your way back to the detention level, make sure no one gets in your way.”

Kimber’s expression then turned somber as she asked, “Where is Jax Orocco’s room?”

“Naturally where you would suspect it might be: on the top level of the base above everyone else,” Irys informed her. “Most of the uppermost level is his living quarters.”

“Good. Once the Clones are freed, I’m going up there,” Kimber stated.

“Alone?” questioned Rina.

Without hesitating, Kimber told her, “Yes. Jax, I need to deal with alone. I’m the reason all of this is happening and I’m going to make sure that, before all of this is over, that I cut the head off the snake. I need you ladies to ensure that all of the Clones get away safely while I take care of that. Can I count on you?”

“Oh please, would we have come with you on this mission if you couldn’t?” Kida asked in return.

With a grin, Kimber responded, “Fair point.”

Nightfall came quickly, much to Kimber’s relief. Once they were certain all parties within the fortress were in their respective rooms and should be asleep, the Koriena Force put their plan into motion.

Once Irys scanned the corridors on the cameras and gave the all-clear, the rest of the ladies stealthily snuck through the halls, being sure to stop at each corner until Irys told them to go over their comm units. As they went along, Lex placed several explosive charges along the walls for when it was time to blow the base. They moved as quickly and quietly as they could and so far, everything was going well.

Kimber couldn’t help but feel a bubble of nervousness growing in her stomach. What if all of this went wrong? What if they got caught and she would almost certainly ensure the extermination of all the Clones? What if she was leading these ladies under her command to their deaths? They didn’t deserve to die, not there on Nar Shadaa and not for something that was her fault to begin with. Even though they were willing to follow her, she still felt that if something were to happen to them as a result of this mission, she would be directly responsible. Would she even be able to live with that guilt?

Was this how Hunter felt all the time leading his squad; his brothers and her on missions every day? Did he feel this kind of guilt constantly? Was he always worrying like this wherever they went? This sort of pressure was almost unbearable…and most likely, the man she loved experienced this every moment of every day of his life. Being in this leadership position herself now made her realize that Hunter was truly stronger than she ever imagined. To deal with this sort of pressure and expectations all the time and still come across as calm, collected and level-headed as he was, was exceptional. She only hoped she was even a fraction of the leader he was.

Soon, they made it back to the detention level and crowded outside the door. Kimber keyed in the code she'd seen Jax put in on the keypad and the console flashed green. With that, the doors swished open.

"We're in. Irys, start looping the security feed. Also, what cell is Rex in?" Kimber inquired over her comm as they quietly walked in.

"Got it. He's in the closest cell to you on the right," said Irys. "Unlocking the door now."

There was a beep and the closest cell door to the right came open. Kimber stepped into the doorway and found Rex standing near the back.

"Ready to get your brothers?" she asked him, pulling her mask down.

"I've been ready since we got here," he said back, moving to the door.

Once he was out of the cell, Kimber ordered, "Lex, get your final charges set."

Lex nodded and got her explosives set on the main computer console.

Then Kimber said over the comm, "We've got Rex and the charges are in place. Activate the override."

"On it," Irys responded.

They then saw all the locks activating on all the cells and the doors opening up as well as the weapons closet off to the side. Rina and Lex went over and started getting some of the weapons out and ready for the Clones. A few seconds later, some of the Clones started peeking warily out of their cells.

Kimber spoke up, "Everyone, listen up. This is a rescue operation. We're here to free all of you. The Eradicators and bounty hunters are currently asleep, so we need to do this as quietly and stealthily as possible. Move quickly and my team will supply you with weapons. They'll lead you to safety along with Captain Rex here. We're stealing some ships or boarding gunships nearby which will take us to a Republic cruiser that's on standby. You're all getting out of here."

"Our freedom is just within reach, soldiers. Let's move!" then commanded Rex to rally the troops.

Right after that, the hallway was suddenly crowded with Clone soldiers and Kimber was scanning as hard as she could through the mass of people, looking for Wolffe as well as her boys. She spotted Wolffe first and called out his name as he came by.

His eyes found her and he couldn't hold back a small smirk. "Well, well...it is you," he commented.

"Surprised?" she asked.

"Quite, actually. I didn't think we'd run into you here, of all places," he told her.

She snickered and replied, "Trust me, I didn't either. I'm glad you guys are okay. Hurry and get moving. I'll see you on the other side."

Wolffe simply nodded and sped off with the rest of the Clones.

Kimber kept watching for her boys in the midst of the fray and before long, she could spot their armor towards the back. She started making her way through the Clones to get to them.

"Bad Batch!" she called out to get their attention.

Sure enough, they all looked her direction and their eyes all lit up at seeing her.

"Kimber!" cried Echo.

The person closest to the front of the group was Crosshair and Kimber jumped up and hugged him, not even caring that he wasn't a fan of hugs. However, she still felt him gently embrace her back.

"We knew it was you! We knew you'd come for us!" exclaimed Wrecker, clapping her on the arm.

"Was there ever any doubt?" she asked back, grinning.

Hunter then stepped up from the back and answered with a pleased grin of his own, "Never."

She smiled at him, overwhelmed with joy at seeing him and seeing all of her boys were okay. "I'm so happy I found you all. I'm glad to see you," she told them.

"The feeling is mutual," replied Tech with an adjustment of his goggles.

"Now, let's hurry and get out of here before the Eradicators figure out we're escaping," Crosshair stated.

The others all ran off, but Hunter lingered behind for a brief moment with Kimber. He was searching her face, as if trying to understand how it was really her standing in front of him. The disguise she had probably wasn't helping matters much, but his mouth also wavered up and down as if he was wanting to say something, but didn't know quite what to say.

She took the initiative and told him, "I'll explain everything once we're off world, I promise."

His hand came up to her shoulder. "I'm just glad you're safe," he finally said.

"Same to you," she said. "Let's go."

Just as they got up to the weapons room, Crosshair came out with his helmet donned and rifle on his back, said Hunter's name and tossed him his helmet and vibroblade. Hunter caught them both, put the helmet on and sheathed the blade just as the rest of the boys came out with their weapons. Echo then handed Hunter his blasters.

"First group has made it out of the base and I've directed them to the junkyard to get to the gunships. I'm on my way to your position, Kimber," reported Rex over the commlink.

Then Lex chimed in, "Second group has reached the hangar and they're boarding a couple ships. I'm heading back now. It probably won't be long before the Eradicators hear the hangar doors opening or the ships powering up."

"Don't worry, I've got the doors to all the bedrooms on lockdown," replied Irys. "It won't hold them back permanently, but it'll at least buy you all some time."

Rina came out of the weapons room with Kida and, upon seeing them, Kimber replied over the comm, "Looks like the rest of the Clones are out of the detention level. We're headed to the hangar."

"Lead the way, boss lady," invited Rina with a sweep of her hand.

With a nod, Kimber gestured with her head to the two ladies as well as the Bad Batch to follow her and they moved quickly into the lift, which took them back up to the main level. However, just as the doors opened, they heard a blaster shot not too far away. Everyone pulled out their weapons and ran off towards the sound. They rounded a corner to see Lex in a fistfight with a bounty hunter, his blaster on the ground.

"Karabast!" Lex cried out as she fought off the man.

Before anyone could react, Rina suddenly leapt forward, withdrew a rope dart with a rounded object at the end from around her waist and flung it towards the bounty hunter, hitting him square in the side of the head and knocking him out. She might’ve been shorter than everyone, but she showed the Clones that she was certainly not to be underestimated.

"How'd he get out?" questioned Kimber.

"He somehow disabled the door," answered Lex.

Then Tech spoke up, "We'd better get moving. There's a high probability that the blaster shot woke some of the other Eradicators or bounty hunters and we'll soon be overrun."

Just then, one of the doors behind them exploded and the door itself crashed to the ground.

"You spoke too soon, Tech," said Echo.

A group of three people came out of the room, spotted them and one of them cried, "The Clones are escaping!" Then all three of them pulled out blasters and darted towards them.

Lex pulled an orb from her belt, activated it and threw it towards their attackers. Two seconds later, the detonator went off and a big cloud of smoke erupted from it. While they were distracted, Kimber and Rina jumped in and started throwing punches, trying to incapacitate them.

Hunter watched in awe as Kimber fought the people who tried to come at them. She was fighting in a way he hadn't seen from her before. Her combat form had improved and she seemed stronger now. He could definitely tell she was holding her own better than normal and he almost felt he could watch her do that all day. This was a new and improved Kimber...and he liked what he saw.

Once she took down the last one, she caught his eyes and flashed him a sly, almost cocky grin.

Just then, Irys's voice came over the comms, "Guys, we've got a problem: that blaster shot caused a ruckus and there's a lot of Eradicators and bounty hunters getting out of their rooms in the corridors ahead."

"Which means our only exit is blocked off," Kida concluded.

Right then, Rex came running around the corner in front of them, calling out, "She's right. I could hear shouts and shots behind me as I was running. They'll soon be headed this way. Looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out of this one."

"Not necessarily," spoke Irys. "There's a ventilation shaft above you that leads throughout the lower level and can get you closer to the front entrance of the base. If you can get up in there and crawl through, you should be able to bypass the incoming mob, get outside and make your way to the junkyard where our ship is waiting. Get in the shaft and once you're clear, I'll lock down all the corridors and seal everyone in."

Kimber looked up and could see a panel high up in the ceiling that most likely led to the ventilation shaft. She said, "Well, everyone pretty much knows we're here already so...." Then she withdrew a small explosive and threw it up at the panel. It stuck to the ceiling and in seconds blew the panel of its hinges.

"Let's go. There's not a moment to lose," she said.

Tech stepped up and said, "Wrecker, give me a boost."

Wrecker got down on one knee and braced his hands up as Tech stepped onto them. Then with a small throw, Wrecker pushed Tech up into the air where he grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled himself into the shaft.

"All right, Wrecker will help everyone up and I'll pull them in," Tech stated loudly for them to hear.

Suddenly, a blaster shot whizzed right by the group and they saw more Eradicators and bounty hunters coming their way with blasters at the ready. They all began to fire back at them, causing the attackers to duck behind the corners ahead.

"Wrecker, get the boys to safety! We'll cover you!" Kimber cried out. Not giving any of her boys a chance to refute, she then cried, "Koriena Force, with me!"

All the ladies let out a yell of conviction and charged towards the Eradicators, shooting their blasters at them or using other weapons to fight them.

Once again, Hunter found himself stunned at what he witnessed before him from Kimber. There she was, fearlessly leading a team of women he didn't know into combat and they were fighting together as one unit, as if they'd been together for years. Whoever these ladies were, they were skilled fighters. Not only that, but it was clear to him that the entire rescue operation had been led and probably orchestrated by her. He was impressed and deep down, he was proud to see the incredible leader she had become in their time apart.

"That's my girl," he thought, a smirk creeping up on his lips before Wrecker interrupted his thoughts by telling him it was his turn to go up into the vents.

At the front, the Koriena Force was holding the Eradicators back as best they could. They managed to wound a few of them, but they weren't aiming to kill; mainly just incapacitate. One Eradicator managed to get a shot on Kida, wounding her in the shoulder and sending her to the ground.

"Kida!" Rex cried out in alarm. He whipped his blaster in front of him and shot the one who shot her square in the chest before rushing over to her side.

While taking cover behind a corner, Kimber called to him, "Rex, get Kida out of here!"

Without a word, Rex swept Kida into his arms to get her out of harm's way.

"My hero," said Kida through a groan as they ran off.

After knocking another Eradicator off their feet with her rope dart, Rina looked to Kimber and stated, "Well, this is certainly going well."

"Rina, it's your turn. Get to the shaft. Lex and I will follow," called Kimber.

"Got it!" Rina replied. She ran back to Wrecker, craned her neck to look at him as he towered over her and said, "Hey, big guy! Mind giving a small girl a lift?"

With a hearty chuckle, he responded, "Oh, you bet!" He then proceeded to grab her underneath her arms and launched her up into the hole in the ceiling like she literally weighed nothing.

There was a cheer up in the shaft followed by Rina calling down, "Okay, that was amazing!"

"Lex, go!" called Kimber.

Lex obeyed and, after taking a couple more shots, ran to Wrecker, who threw her up in turn.

Right then, Kimber got on her comm and said, "Rina, get Wrecker into the shaft and get out of here."

"Wait, what about you?" Rina questioned.

"I've got to end this. I'm going after Jax. Now go!" Then she resumed blasting back at the Eradicators.

Up in the shaft, Rina knew what she had to do, even though she wasn't necessarily pleased about having to do it. She reached out a hand and, calling to the Force around her, used it to pull Wrecker upwards to the hole.

"Whoa, what's happening? Oh, not again!" shouted Wrecker as he was suddenly floating in the air up into the vent.

As he came up and landed in the shaft, Lex turned to Rina and asked, her eyes wide, "Did you just--?"

"Yeah, we're not talking about it. Let's go," Rina stated abruptly.

"What about Kimber?" asked Wrecker.

Rina informed him as they began crawling through the shaft, "She'll catch up and meet us at the junkyard. The boss lady has got one more thing to take care of."

The doors to the lift opened on the top floor of the Eradicator base and Kimber released a heavy sigh before pulling her mask back over the lower half of her face. The time had come to face her demon and to bring about the end of the Eradicators beginning with the one at the head of it all.

She walked down the single empty corridor that led to a large door. Her heart was beating rapidly with every step she took towards Orocco’s office. Her hands were trembling at her sides. She knew what she was going to do and she prayed that she would have the strength to do it. This had to happen. This had to end and this was the only way it would.

Before long, she reached the door and spoke quietly over her comm, “Irys, I need you to override the lock on Jax’s door.”

A few seconds later, the locking mechanism beeped, flashed green and Kimber heard Irys’s voice say, “Override complete.”

“Good. Now get yourself out and meet up with the others at the junkyard. I'll meet you all there back at our ship when I can,” Kimber ordered.

“Understood. Good luck, Kimber.”

With that, Kimber put her comm back in her pocket and steeled herself. This was it. She pressed the button to open the door and it opened right up for her. She stepped into a vast office room lit up by lits on the walls and where the back wall furthest from her was one big viewport where she could see out into the city below. There was a huge holotable in the middle of the room and then a desk near the viewport, where Jax Orocco was looking at holographic security footage.

“How is this possible? I hear blasterfire and yet nothing is on the security feed!” he complained aloud.

Going back into her Alpha voice, Kimber spoke up as she sauntered into the room, “What seems to be the trouble, sir?”

Jax flinched at hearing her voice in the shadows, but then relaxed slightly when he saw it was her. “Lady Alpha,” he greeted her. “I don’t know what is going on. I hear blasters being fired, but I’m seeing nothing on my security cameras. It would seem someone has hacked into the system.”

“That certainly won’t do,” she replied, feigning concern.

“Certainly not,” he agreed, turning the hologram off. “Have you any idea what might be going on?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” she replied. Then she took out her blaster and pointed it straight at him.

His expression changed from apprehension to displeasure. “You disappoint me, Lady Alpha.”

She then decided to switch back to her normal voice and responded to him, her tone now cold and determined, “You see, I’m not here to buy or trade Clones. I’m here to free them. Also, it’s not Lady Alpha. It’s Kimber Sallaros.” Then she reached up and tapped the button in her bandana to deactivate the color discs in her eyes, revealing her normal amber eyes and then she pulled down her mask, showing him her face.

There was a brief moment of confusion on his face before it suddenly dawned on him and he exclaimed, “You’re the Clone lover woman I fought at 79’s on Coruscant!”

“And incidentally, the same woman who had a run-in with Carson D’gall on Kuat,” she added.

“That was you?” he growled.

With a defiant smirk, she said back, “Yes...and I have no regrets over anything I’ve done.” She walked a couple steps closer. “It’s over for you, Jax. You and your Eradicators will be put to an end tonight. Before I leave this office, you will be dead on the floor.”

He eyed her both with anger and slight curiosity, his eyes darting between her and the blaster in her hand. “How did you find my base? We are well-hidden from the eyes of the Republic,” he stated.

Now, she could react the way she wanted to and she let out a laugh of disbelief. “Oh please! You think you’re so clever? One of my ladies found out everything about you, your location and your endeavors on the holonet in just minutes. You’re not as covert as you think.”

He just simply glared at her, unamused at her comments.

Holding her blaster just a little higher, she declared, “I am a friend to the Clones and I will protect all of them from the likes of you or anyone like you. You will never capture or harm any of the Clones ever again, including my squad, Clone Force 99.”

Hearing that, Jax’s eyes narrowed at her. “Now it all makes sense…,” he mused.

She gestured to the floor with her blaster and commanded, “Down on the ground. Now.”

Jax continued to just stare at her with a frigid look in his eyes. “You won’t succeed, Clone lover,” he said with a sneer. “Your precious lab experiments will be recaptured and all the rest of them throughout the galaxy will be permanently silenced. I’ll see to that myself.”

Growing frustrated, Kimber took her free hand and struck Jax across the face with a yell. He didn’t seem too bothered by her actions.

“On the ground…now!” she cried out, returning her blaster to pointing at him.

With a begrudging scowl, he slowly got down onto his knees in front of her. Her hands started trembling again, now that the moment was finally upon her. This was the time to finally put an end to Jax Orocco, but now she was having doubts. Echo had once told her that she was no killer and had stopped her from taking out Wat Tambor, who was just as bad as Jax. Even though she believed that, too, about herself, if she didn’t take out Jax now, she ran the risk of him escaping and their problems wouldn’t be solved. She had to do this!

“Your hands are trembling…you can’t kill me, can you?” Jax taunted her.

“Shut up!” she yelled at him.

All of a sudden, while she was distracted, Jax threw his arm up and knocked her blaster out of her hands, climbed back to his feet and tackled her back into the edge of the holotable. In response, she brought her arms up and drove her elbows down straight into his spine. When he cried out in pain and his hold on her slackened, she threw a couple punches into his stomach and then shoved him away, going back for her blaster on the ground. However, he reached back and grabbed a hold of her cape to stop her. The cape caught against her throat and he pulled her back towards him. He whipped her around and closed a hand around her throat tightly.

Bringing her close, he growled in her face, “Tomorrow, your Clone Force 99 will be executed at the Eradication…and so will your lady friends. I’ll kill all of them and I’ll make you watch as they die!”

“Never!” she choked out.

Kimber brought up her leg, reached down and pulled one of the vibroblades hidden in her boot. Once it was in her hand, she brought it up and sliced the arm of the hand that held her by the throat. Jax let out a pained yell, released her and clutched at his injured arm. Unfortunately, he was quicker as he then grasped her wrist, pulled the vibroblade from her with his other hand and then thrust the blade into her side. She screamed in agony from the pain of both the knife and the electricity from the blade running through her. As he withdrew the blade, she felt her strength beginning to fail and she collapsed to the ground. He now towered over her and she tried to inch away from him while holding her wound and her blaster was still just out of her reach. Now like this, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to defeat him. He now held the advantage over her.

There was only one thing left to do.

She pressed a button on her commlink and hoped her friends would follow through.

Back in the ship they came in, the Koriena Force, Captain Rex and the Bad Batch were waiting for Kimber's return when a green light started flashing and beeping on the main console.

"That's Kimber's signal!" cried Lex, looking to Irys beside her.

"Signal for what?" inquired Crosshair.

The sad look on Lex's face, however, did not inspire much confidence. She then answered, "To blow up the base."

The Bad Batch's eyes all went wide in shock.

"But we can't! She's still inside!" Echo refuted.

"She'll blow up, too!" cried Wrecker.

"I think she's aware of that," Rex, who was bandaging Kida's wound, said solemnly.

Kida straightened up and declared, "No! Kimber didn't come this far to die on this Forceforsaken planet with those barbaric people!"

"We have to go back for her!" urged Hunter.

Rina waved a dismissive hand and replied, "Relax, lover boy. Do you really think we'd leave your girl and our leader behind? Not a chance. Of course, we're going back for her."

Hunter seemed unsure how to react at hearing the small woman call him "lover boy" and saying "your girl".

"Tech, get us up to the top of the base!" ordered Rex.

With a nod, Tech replied, "On it, Cap!" Then he jumped into the pilot's seat and got the ship ready to take off.

Inside Jax's office, Jax was walking towards Kimber, who was trying to crawl backwards away from him, but was having difficulty due to her wound.

"Poor Kimber," he taunted, tossing the vibroblade to the floor. "Such a disappointment. Your feeble attempt at bringing down my establishment has failed."

Through a grunt, Kimber spat back, "That's what you think."

"Why would you risk so much for a race of beings who aren't even real people?" he inquired.

Angrily gritting her teeth through the pain in her side, she said back loudly, "If they're not real people, then why are you wasting your time trying to get rid of them?"

"When one suffers a plague of pests, you exterminate them," he said back.

"Which is exactly what my team and I are going to do with you and your Eradicators," she told him, glaring up at him.

He chuckled menacingly before withdrawing a blaster of his own and pointing it down at her.

"I won't kill you, but I will make good work of you before I make you watch the Eradication that will take place tomorrow," he said.

"I'd like to see you try and make me, sleemo," she antagonized him.

His eyes flashed with anger and he raised his blaster higher, getting ready to shoot, and Kimber prepared herself for more pain.

Boom!

The viewport wall by them was suddenly blown into pieces by big laser shots and, after ducking away from the debris, Kimber looked and realized it was the ship she had come in. Her friends had still come for her, despite what she wanted them to do. Taking the opportunity while Jax was distracted by the explosion, she mustered up what strength she had to get to her feet, stagger over to her blaster and pick it up. Then she swiftly turned around, caught his eye and pulled the trigger.

The blaster fired...and there was a smoking hole in Jax's chest.

His eyes wide and his mouth agape, Jax Orroco dropped his own blaster and slumped to the floor, dead.

Kimber gasped in astonishment. She'd actually done it.

Right then, she heard a whirring sound and saw the docking bay of the ship opening up just outside the blown wall. Hunter stood at the edge of the platform, waving to her.

"Kimber! Come on!" he called to her.

She stole one last look at the lifeless form of Jax on the ground. It took a moment for it to hit her that he was actually dead and she had killed him...and the Clones were now truly free.

With that, she clutched at her side and started running as best she could towards the broken viewport.

"Jump!" cried Hunter, holding out a hand to her.

Placing her full trust in him, she got to the edge and leapt through the viewport, reaching out to him as she jumped. Hunter caught Kimber by the hand and pulled her up against him as she landed on the docking platform.

"Thank you, Hunter," she gasped out.

He gave her a sincere nod.

Then she shouted into the ship as it started flying away, "Lex...blow it to hell!"

"With pleasure!" Lex cried back.

Kimber looked back at the Eradicators hideout below and a few seconds later, watched as several small explosives going off at once created one big explosion and absolutely destroying the fortress. With a sigh of relief, Kimber let herself fall into Hunter as he led her back into the ship.

All of the Clones, including hers, had been rescued and the Eradicators had been, as they would say, eradicated.

Kimber and the Koriena Force had succeeded.

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch hunter #bad batch fanfic #hunter x oc fic #sun and rain fanfic

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edie-baby · 3 years ago

Text

mr & mrs | liam lawson x reader

Summary: You and Liam were teammates at Hitech for 2021. You had the biggest crush on him, but you were sure he didn't see you as anything more than a little sister. But oh, how a few basic questions could uncover the truth between you.

Warnings: swearing, and I think that's it?

When you walked into work in the Hitech Grand Prix building this morning, you didn’t expect to be playing the fucking newlywed game with your crush. And if you’re being honest with yourself, crush is a light way to put it. You were head over heels for your F2 teammate and best friend, Liam Lawson. There was just something about the New Zealander that always had your heart racing, your legs buckling, and your stomach dropping.

So when you were directed into the garage for a ‘different background’ from other videos you had done with Liam, your stomach lurched. Here this gorgeous man was, in all his Kiwi glory, hair waxed back but falling out of place, jeans hugging the toned curves of his legs and ass and giving you a glorious view of his bulge, and the fucking blue sweater. The same blue sweater he had worn the last time the two of you did a video that had reduced you to a stuttering mess when you first saw him.

But now it is worse. So, so much worse. He was standing in a garage. Around cars, and tyres, and grease, and all of the inanimate objects you found so sinfully appealing, and he was just right in the middle of it looking like that. You just about turned around and walked right back out.

“Mighty Mouse! There you are. I was starting to think I’d have to be the brains and beauty of the operation.” Liam called once he spotted you, and suddenly you remembered why you had never tried making a move on him. He treated you like a little sister. Nicknames like ‘kiddo’ and ‘mighty mouse’ were a regular occurrence, and they never failed to make you squirm.

“Well, you struggle to be anything but the brawn, and I think I’m even starting to overtake you there.” You teased, pushing yourself to stay casual, platonic, familial. There was so much opportunity to flirt with him, but the few times you had tried were brushed off, so you had given up many moons ago.

“Ouch Princess, that hurts.” Liam mocked, his hand cradling his chest and you couldn’t help but wonder how it would be to fall asleep against his chest, curled up after a rough night of-

“Who’re you calling princess, princess?” You shot back, cutting your thoughts off before they continued developing and became an issue. Liam laughed, his arm slung around your shoulder while the two of you walked over to the team that were in charge of running your activity for the afternoon.

“Ok, I don’t know if you guys have heard of it, but this game is called Mr and Mrs, one of you will have a whiteboard and wear headphones while the other tries to guess what the answers to the questions you’re writing down are. Make sense? Ok, great, let’s do an intro and go from there.” One of the guys explained quickly, and you began having flashbacks to an awful 80s game show called The Newlywed Game, and blushed profusely. Having you and Liam in a video titled ‘Mr & Mrs’ was sure to get the fans going, and you couldn’t blame Hitech’s PR plan.

You and Liam settled into the wheely chairs from the office next door, Liam positioning himself in frame of the camera and fixing his stupidly perfect hair when you came barreling toward him with your chair, legs tucked up high so you didn’t cop a chair arm to the knee. Liam screeched when you finally hit him, almost toppling off the chair in surprise while you spun slowly, laughing freely as you did so.

Liam looked over at you, your head thrown back in carefree laughter, the yellow sundress that covered your body made you look radiant, and he was sure he had never seen a sight so beautiful before. Your laughter calmed down, and as you looked over at him, he couldn’t help but send you a lovestruck smile, his eyes dopey with admiration. You blushed slightly, laughing as the team asked if you could do the intro again, but actually introduce what you were doing.

Liam slid out of the frame, and you followed his movements as you could tell a fierce battle was about to commence. Kicking off the ground with force, you tucked your legs up onto the chair again, spinning into Liam so fast, you couldn’t actually see his face before you crashed into him. The two of you exploded in laughter again, laughter and smiles were common between you, and Hitech’s Instagram was full of photos and videos of you and Liam smiling at each other, or doubled over in laughter, clutching onto each other.

“Hi, I’m Liam Lawson, and this is Y/N, we drive for Hitech in Formula 2.” Liam began once you had slowed down your laughter. He kept a firm grip on the arm of your chair, holding you close and still, as your chair really liked spinning around.

“And we’re here to play Mr & Mrs, another game in our long series championship to see who the better teammate is.” You finished, gesturing to yourself subtly, but Liam caught it and pushed your chair away jokingly. As much as you loved the man and wished you could be more, you wouldn’t give up this relationship you have with him for something that might work.

MR & MRS | EDIE-BABY

“Liam, what is Y/N’s favourite colour?” The same guy from before asked, one who Liam still didn’t recognise due to the facemask and hat he was wearing. Nevertheless, he held up a whiteboard where the question was scribbled in messy writing, three multiple choice answers written waiting for not only Liam’s, but also your answer. You had airpods in your ears, connected to the blaring music playing from one of the Hitech employees’ laptops, a whiteboard in your hand that you quickly scribbled out an answer to.

Liam looked over at you, holding the whiteboard to your chest protectively so he wouldn’t cheat, but there was really no way that he could.

“It’s not an answer listed here, but her favourite colour is a light brown. She always says it calms her down because it reminds her of a cafe she went to once back home.” Liam spoke, watching you as he answered. You didn’t hear a word he was saying, bopping your head along to the 2000s hits pumping through the earphones. Liam pulled one of them out, his head nodding over to the camera while you proudly turned the board around, thinking you had gotten one over on Liam.

“My favourite colour is light brown, because it reminds me of the Brew Cafe in my hometown, and it brings a really nostalgic and calm feeling.” You stated, watching the faces of the employees morph from business to shock. You looked over at Liam, who had a smug smile on his face while he listened to your answer.

“There’s no way you could have known that!” You protested, glaring accusingly at the dirty blonde. He laughed in response, and you couldn’t have felt happier in any given moment. Not even the top step of the podium could compare to the warmth spreading in your chest. Little did you know, Liam was feeling the exact same way.

“Y/N earphones back in, Liam your next question. What is Y/N’s favourite song at the moment?” The same guy asked, yet this time there were no multiple choice answers. Liam’s eyes widened, turning to look at you to think of any songs he had heard blasting from your speakers or earphones recently, or something that you had ranted excitedly to him about. He spoke to himself, mumbling about artists and songs he could remember falling from your lips. You twirled a piece of hair around your finger, thinking about the answer to the question, when suddenly it hit him.

He had to wait a few moments as you were slowly writing down your answer, still not 100% sure of yourself. It was only after you had taken an earphone out that you jumped, furiously rubbing out the answer on the whiteboard and writing a new one, looking much more satisfied with the new answer. The team counted down, and as Liam spoke, you almost dropped the whiteboard.

“Feeling Something Bad by Ellise. She’ll start singing it randomly when she concentrates, which is usually a giveaway to what songs she's been listening to recently.” Liam said his answer so confidently that it made you feel as though you were inferior because he knew your favourite song and it took you a decent minute to think of it. Liam got another point as he had gotten two of your answers right, and you were starting to feel competitive.

“Alright Liam, who does Y/N get along with best in the F2 paddock? Oscar Piastri, Dan Ticktum, or you?”

“Oh, oh. Well, she hangs out with Oscar a lot, but I don’t know if she would say they get along better than we do? Like, she’s closer with Oscar but we get along best, if that makes sense? I don’t think it does. I’m gonna say Oscar because I don’t want to be rejected, but I really hope I’m wrong and that she says me.” Liam rambled, finally deciding on Oscar, and when you were told to turn your board around, Liam’s heart sank a little. You had written Oscar, and as you began trying to defend yourself, Liam waved it off and laughed to hide the disappointment in his eyes, but you could see it clear as day. You tried to move on like he did, to keep playing the game like you didn’t hurt her best friend and crush.

You began trying to cheer the Kiwi up, dancing along to the songs playing, and occasionally belting out the chorus. He was laughing along, finally joining you to sing when you were screaming the lyrics to Promiscuous, dancing all around the garage and trying to pull him up around with you. While you were dancing with some of the employees off camera, being recorded for Instagram, Liam was still in frame of the main camera, a fond smile on his face, and anyone who had looked at him could see that he was completely and utterly whipped for you, but you were too caught up in Nelly Furtado to see it yourself.

It was your turn to answer questions now, passing Liam the whiteboard that had a little love note written on it.

I’m going to crush you.

You wrote, and Liam thought it was adorable how competitive you got in trivial games like this, but it always made him try even harder just to give you some semblance of a battle.

“Y/N! How old was Liam when he started karting?” The guy you had begun to think was not an actual Hitech employee asked. The three ages to choose from scribbled on the whiteboard. You studied them for a moment, and could see Liam in the corner of your eye writing out his own answer.

“He was seven, because I remember him telling me that there’s regulations in New Zealand that you can’t race go-karts competitively until you’re seven and then won the race.” You explained, remembering the story he had told you easily, it was one of your favourites, purely because of the joy on Liam’s face when he recounted it.

He turned the board around, showing the exact answer you had given, and he gave you a cheeky smile in response to your silent gloating about getting a point. There was nothing cuter in his eyes than you getting so worked up about a game.

“What is Liam’s pre-race superstition?” Before the board with the question and possible answers came up, your mouth blurted out the answer you already knew all too well.

“He gets in the car from the left.” You practically yelled, and Liam looked at you with wide eyes, not hearing your words but seeing the excitement at knowing the answer.

“How did you know that?” One of the Hitech PR asked as her main priority was to stir up more rumours about the two of you, as it was always good for the team’s press.

“Because I’m just as superstitious about getting in from the right side, so when he found out, he asked the team if we could switch around how our cars are placed in the garage so that we could meet in the middle, do our little ritual, and then get in the car from there.” You explained, watching as Liam wrote down his answer with no idea of the words you were saying.

When Liam turned the board around, he explained the exact same story you had, and you giggled when he finished, showing off a proud smile before putting the pieces together that you had already run the same spiel.

“It’s quite cute that the two of you explain things using basically the same words.” That same PR lady stated. And you almost rolled your eyes, almost. But you caught Liam blushing slightly, and a small, stupid part of you began jumping up and down, because not only did someone think your relationship with Liam was cute, but he blushed at that.

“It happens when you spend so much time with someone. I’ve started picking up Kiwi slang, and he’s learning some of my slang. You don’t realise it until you say something to someone when he’s not there and they’ve got no idea what I mean. It’s so normal for Liam to always be by my side, and me by his that when I’m with other people it feels weird.” You started on a ramble, something you were known for. And then just would… not… fucking… stop. The press officer looked satisfied, but as you had finally gotten your mouth to stop moving, you were scared to look over at Liam.

“Whenever she’s not within arm’s reach, I feel like I’m missing something.” Liam spoke quietly, and you gulped as you heard his words. The man was going to kill you, surely. This little production crew didn’t give a shit about your blossoming romance though, as they hurried you through to the next questions. You and Liam barely looked at eachother, your answers shorter and much more vague than they were before. You just wanted to get out of this chair and go freak out in an empty office somewhere.

“Well, the winner of this round is Liam, which means he has officially overtaken Y/N in the Hitech championship. How do you guys feel about this one?” The producers asked. You would usually have felt a bit of a blow to your chest finding out you had been beaten in two ways, but you truly couldn’t think of anything except your proximity to Liam.

“I think we found out a lot, and I’m glad to finally be ahead in the championship. I think it’s the only time I’ll ever be able to beat Mighty Mouse in anything.” Liam chuckled, reverting back to your ‘little sister’ nickname because he felt like the distance would help him process his emotions.

“Hey, you already beat me in height, age, and supercar experience, you gotta let me have something.” You whined, you looked over at Liam with a pout and puppy eyes, unintentionally making his heart pound out of his chest.

“Well you’re the cuter one of the team, and you’re a hell of a lot smarter than me, so I’d say you’re winning enough. Plus you’re higher up in the drivers standings than me.” Liam replied, leaning closer to stare into your eyes, barely two inches between your faces, you blinked slowly, afraid that any sudden movements would scare him away.

His large hand reached up, tucking a stray piece of hair behind your ear, then coming to rest at the side of your neck, his thumb resting on your jaw.

“I don’t think you realise what you do to me.” You mumbled, leaning forward very slightly to nudge your nose against Liam’s. His breath hitched, eyes boring into your soul in a way that made you freeze.

“It can’t be any worse than what you do to me. Looking as beautiful as you do, all I want to do is hold you, keep you close, show you off to the world, and I want to call you mine. I want to take you home and show you around my hometown, I want to introduce you to my parents, to take you to parties with my friends, I want to curl up in your apartment watching Harry Potter movies, and I want to dance around the kitchen with you at 2 in the morning making pancakes. I want to live my life with you.” Liam confessed, and for a few moments, you felt as though you couldn’t breathe.

You lurched forward, balling your fists up in that stupid blue sweater and pulling him closer. Liam’s eyes closed instinctively as your lips met, the coconut lip balm you applied before you came into the office was shared on your tongues, Liam’s exploring your mouth with vigor. You had never imagined him to be this passionate, this intense. But you had no complaints, his hands tugging you forward until you fell onto his lap, legs slotting in beside his own to straddle him on the wheely chair.

You broke away for a moment to catch your breath, eyes surveying every square inch of Liam’s face to commit it to memory. He truly was a gorgeous man, and you hoped you would get to see him like this many more times to come. He caught the look in your eyes and dove back into your lips, his teeth capturing your bottom lip in a bruising grip, a whimper escaping your lips before someone clearing their throat interrupted you.

“I guess we have everything we need for the video. Thanks you two.”

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