#and it went through the whole clone wars timeline

[babygirlcowboy]

Favorite fic got deleted off ao3

[tanglepelt]

Dp x dc idea 40

Quick summary: Danny finds Ellie in the basement strapped to a table. They book it after destroying portal. Fentons think Danny’s possessed and chase. They capture Ellie again with GIW. Danny pretends to be an ambassador to the infinite realm. They don’t need to know he’s the king. Threatens war. Batfam are near. They intervene.

The fentons find out about Ellie. The whole halfa thing not the clone thing. They decide obviously a ghost possessed a dead child and was using their body. That’s why she could transform back and forth.

Que the metal table and straps.

Danny was very concerned when Ellie didn’t show up to there monthly meet up. He tried to text her and call her to no response. Being the good older brother he is he went hunting.

Not able to find her, Danny is ready to beg frostbite for the infamap. He promised not to take it again. But no one said anything about begging.

When he goes to the basement he sees ellie. Thankfully before and vivisection or cutting began. She was just strapped down with a machine taking blood.

Que him freeing her. Destroying the record they had. Injecting her with a ecto-dejecto to get ectoplasma in her system to kick up the healing factor. He breaks the portal.

None of his rouges were out. They had a monthly agreement. No one was to interfere with his Ellie day. The box ghost tried it once. He had to deal with a feral Ellie. The rule is in place for there safety.

He knows he’ll be hearing the complaints for the rest of his afterlife. The fact jack and Maddie strapped what looks like a human down. Who knows what they’d do to his rouges. Those ones actively cause problems.

Danny and Ellie have a lovely road trip. Constantly running. Watching that back. Barley sleeping. One for the scrap book.

The end goal is to get to Gotham. Jazz goes to Gotham u. She’d hide them. She’d meet them if they had there phones. They got left behind in the panic. Getting to Jazz would be safe for them. She has a Fenton creep stick after all.

Upon getting to Gotham. They realize they both have no idea where the university is. So no idea how to get to jazz.

It’s late when they showed up. Like the middle of the night late. So they can’t even ask. Not to mention pay phones don’t really exist anymore. They didn’t have quarters regardless.

That’s when the Giw show up surrounding them. Jack and Maddie show up from nowhere grabbing Danny from behind. Yelling that he’s just possessed. He wouldn’t be helping the ghost girl if he wasn’t. He wouldn’t of destroyed there life’s work.

Danny. Thinking fast starts yelling at them asking if they really want a war. That he’s seen what they can do. It won’t even be a battle. They’d just close off access to the afterlifes. You have to travel through the realms to get to them. Leaving the dimension to suffer. No relief of death. Just pain and suffering.

Screaming how that she was the second in line for the throne. The princess.

Ellie just stares at him the whole time. Like wtf. She’s fought off a lot of the GIW agents. But they have blood bosoms that force her down.

Danny couldn’t get free from jack and Maddie. Going ghost would just force him to the ground as well.

Starts yelling how he hasn’t sided with his parents from the beginning. That he had tried to play ambassador. Freeing those taken. Making sure the realm didn’t fight back.

He lies about how he totally stopped the master of time itself from destroying the timeline. That pandora has not attacked because of him same as the mighty frostbite of the far frozen.

Basically he’s just spouting nonsense. Then threatens to summon frostbite. Frostbite taught him how after an incident where he very much hurt himself.

Just then people with grappling hooks show up. They end up detaining the GIW and jack and Maddie. Which is a good thing.

The bad thing was the bat furry wanted to ask questions.

Good thing the furries got rid of the blood blossoms.

Danny just gets through them. (They let him go to Ellie). The fight left Ellie injured. The blood blossoms had made the injured way word.

We’ll look like he was summoning frostbite.

Not to fight but because Ellie was hurt. The bat people barley reacted to the yeti appearing from a glowing green portal. But they did tense and take up new stances.

It’s quickly seen that frostbite is in fact a medic. Not a mighty warrior (from what they can tell).

They actually think Danny was actually the voice for the infinite realm. That was enough to get him dragged to space.

Who knows how’d they react if they knew he was the king. But hey the GIW got disbanded.

Now has a fic started. Feel free to steal this idea still!!!

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[levi-venn]

Accolades - Part One

Timeline: Pre-Order 66 Era Bad Batch

Summary: Hunter turns official accolades into something more meaningful for his brothers.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three Available on AO3

Clone Force 99 never accepted accolades. It wasn't their thing. After all, they were created specifically for the missions no one else could do. Being rewarded for it seemed pointless.

And Hunter didn’t disagree…

…but when accolades were assigned, he always ended up sneaking out after his brothers had settled in for the night to speak to Commander Cody. 

The conversation was always the same.

“I’m sorry your brothers couldn’t make it…again,” Cody would say, handing the medals over.

“Yeah, well, they’re tired from the mission.” One of many excuses he had given Cody during this war.

“Tell them that, on behalf of myself and the generals, 'Keep up the great work, soldiers.'"

“Will do, Commander.” Hunter always said this with a smile. 

Cody returned that smile. They both knew Hunter wouldn’t relay the message. They both knew these medals weren't for his brothers, they were for Hunter.

Hunter had a painted box full of medals and ribbons for each of his brothers.

There was a digital skull skewered by a lightning bolt on Tech's box.

A bomb with a happy face for Wrecker.

And a skull with a crosshair vector over one eye for his youngest brother.

Recently, he added a box for Echo too. He went with a blue handprint for his newest brother, to honor Echo's old armor before the Separatists took nearly everything from him. 

With the exception of Echo’s box, Hunter had been filling these boxes since they were cadets. Their earliest medals had simple accolades from simpler times:

“Fastest Swimmer” - Tech. 

“Most Bullseyes in 60 Seconds” - Crosshair. 

“Feats of Strength” - Wrecker. 

“Leadership and Valor” - Hunter

The accolades shifted after graduation. They came from dangerous missions that ended in violence. Assigned to a bad batch of clones who were somehow expendable, yet the only ones who could survive these impossible situations.

This last mission had taken their toll on the whole squad. Too many clankers, not enough intel, they won the day, but throwing medals at them felt like an insult, even if Cody's appreciation was genuine.

Hunter wanted to turn those medals into something meaningful.

And so, Hunter sat on his bunk, a small laser tool in his bandaged hand, etching over each medal with his own accolades for his brothers.

Tech was awarded “Shooting the most clankers while slicing an AAT-1 and throwing barbed insults at Echo”.

For Crosshair: “The most WIZARD precision shot through a tank’s barrel while spitting a toothpick in a clanker’s eye”.

Wrecker received: “The loudest laugh while mowing down four dozen clankers and eating a hamburger simultaneously”. Hunter still didn’t know where he got that burger.

And finally for Echo, “The most somersaults during a stealth mission while throwing barbed insults back at Tech”

Hunter hesitated over his own medal, as he always did.

Giving himself accolades never sat right.  He could never think of anything, anyway.

So he wrote what he always wrote: “This medal is awarded to Hunter for being the proudest oldest brother in this Badass Batch. I love you guys.”

He tucked the medal away in his own box, a skull with cross-vibroblades beneath it, and tucked it under his mattress with the other boxes.

One day, this war was going to be over.

And on that day, Hunter planned to give these boxes to his brothers.

He couldn’t wait to see their faces.

[bettsfic]

2023 WIP cleanout

a couple years ago i did a major WIP cleanout and it was very satisfying, and i've been bummed out lately so i'm doing it again to cheer myself up.

i have about 200k worth of unposted/unfinished fic, and i'd like to make a decent dent in that. when i listed out my WIPs i was surprised to find that most of them i'd written past the 50% mark and for whatever reason, the fic went an unanticipated direction. instead of fixing it, i moved on. the problem is that usually the unanticipated direction is something cool and that i want to pursue, but would make the fic longer and more complicated than i want it to be, and more work than i want to put into it. once i get enough distance from a fic, it's a lot easier to see how to get it back on track.

there are many things i set down and never think about again, but if it sticks in my head for longer than a couple months, then i know i need to come back to it eventually.

so this is my accountability thread! and i'm going to lay out the steps i took to triage these fics and get them posted, in case it helps anyone struggling with the same problem.

here are the things on my WIP cleanout list:

(Organic Chemistry isn't on this list because i'm actively working on it, albeit slowly)

Wind of the New World

Annie/Finnick, The Hunger Games (ASE epilogue)

started August 2020

this one is what inspired the cleanout, and as of yesterday it is DONE and POSTED. for the longest time it sat at about 7k when i knew it would be 10k, and i couldn't make myself write the last 3k because somehow it turned into a threesome fic with Gale and it took me a loooong time to let go of that idea. also, it required a lot of canon knowledge, which faded the longer i kept it on the backburner.

to finish it, i:

killed a few darlings (Finnick's crush on Gale)

down drafted the scenes i hadn't yet written

reread ASE while taking notes

rewatched Mockingjay 2 while taking notes

transcribed several scenes of Mockingjay 2

made a punch list of things i wanted to fix/rearrange/expand on

up drafted, dental drafted, and posted

completing it took about 15 hours across 3 days.

Stray

Lumine/Razor, Genshin Impact

started April 2021

this is an alternate beginning to genshin where the traveler finds Razor instead of Paimon. it stalled out at 5k because i wanted it to be rated M and i also wanted the characters to get all the way to Liyue, but both of those things were far more work than i wanted to put into it. so now it'll be rated G and end when they reach Mondstadt. i don't anticipate it will be more than 7k.

Before the Suns Rise

Anakin/Padme/Obi-Wan, Star Wars

started June 2022

this one is nearly 45k and about 95% done. i set it down because 1) i got to the threesome part and writing threesomes is hard, 2) i hadn't watched the Clone Wars or Rebels yet and so i was self-conscious about my knowledge of canon, and 3) i got distracted by Lemon.

another thing that a lot of these WIPs have in common is that they're very closely tied to canon and therefore have Plot and even though i can do Plot, i find it exhausting and a little tedious.

this is a post-Vader, alt-OWK timeline fic. in the 20+ star wars fics i've written, only 5 of them are in any way related to canon, and they're all one-shots. so this one is going to be hard.

i anticipate it'll only take 5k to finish, for a total of 50k and 14 chapters.

Patronage

Seungho/Nakyum, Painter of the Night

started October 2021

this is my Patreon AU that's over 10k already. in it, Seungho is married to Jihwa (and cheating on him with Nakyum) and i wanted to write the whole thing through to their divorce (and Seungho Getting A Real Job), but that is just. a lot. so i'm going to write only to Seungho finally giving in to his feelings for Nakyum, with the knowledge that after season 4 is finished, i may want to continue it as a series and write the latter half as i'd intended.

i'll probably only add 1-2k, for a total of 12k.

In Water Falling

Ahsoka/Rex, Star Wars

started November 2022

this was the first rexsoka fic i started working on when i finished Clone Wars. i got about 10k in, scrapped it, wrote another 15k, scrapped it, and then started focusing on Organic Chemistry. also, i just got very frustrated with it. to fix this one, i think i need to lower my expectations of it, rearrange some plot points, and write the final 2-3 scenes.

maybe 3-4k more? hopefully it'll cap out under 20k.

There & Here

Chishiya/OFC, Alice in Borderland

started February 2023

in my defense, i set this one down, like. a week ago. there's nothing i'm stalled out on; i just have to finish it.

currently 25k, hopefully only 5k more, capping out under 30k. it's 4 chapters.

things i intend to finish later:

Good Bones - this is my Emergency Fic that i'm saving for when i'm too blocked to write anything else

Bomb Time - this is a BOSAS fix-it. i definitely want to finish it, but i'm going to wait until the film comes out in November, so i don't have to reread the book to remember what's going on

[shadowsong26fic]

sup

So it's been a while since I posted anything here (other than reblogging a couple memes/etc.) So, uh, mini catch-up ahead of next month's Coming Attractions, I guess? Since I don't think I've done one of those since like...February...lol.

To be fair, there hasn't been a whole lot going on. I did finish my SWBB project, with podfic from the lovely @kittonafoxgirl! It's a fun little AU; Padme's ship went somewhere Not Tatooine during TPM and therefore Anakin never joined the Jedi Order. Now, about halfway through the Clone Wars, Ahsoka runs into Anakin in a black market hub, and Shenanigans ensue as they immediately Bond and get dragged into foiling a Nefarious Plot.

Possibly some interesting stuff would happen later on in this timeline if I ever get back to it, but we'll see given how many other SW projects I have that I'm (in my own head) overdue on lol...

And I'm signed up to do pod_together again this year (with a much smaller list of fandoms to be partnered on, haha. I mean, keeping my much larger laundry list in mind once I'm matched because who knows where things will go from there, but I think this is a better approach for me for this year, especially since the past couple years have been slower for me on the writing front.

I'm writing for Galactica Big Bang this year as well! Check-in #1 for that is Friday, so I'm noodling on that. of course instead of giving me anything i need for that my brain is feeding me something Entirely unrelated in an Entirely different fandom; there will probably be an au outline just to get it out of my head at some point in the next week or so lol

...and yeah, I guess that's where things stand with me! More details on upcoming projects and a proper Coming Attractions post next month, on the first Monday as usual.

And for now, since I'm around and working on GBB or that other thing that won't leave me alone...let's do an Open Question Night!

Usual rules apply--any fic or fandom I've posted about here is fair game, as are general writing questions, stuff about my original fic is always welcome <3

What's on your mind?

[junebugwriter]

Thoughts on Ahsoka

*Spoilers for the whole show*

The Ahsoka series is all about legacy. My hot take is that it is a second try at making a coherent sequel, grappling with the previous series of Clone Wars and Rebels, and putting it in the post-OT timeline. It has the benefit of being a narrative told from a more singular vision (Dave Filoni's) but is also unburdened by the expectation of being as massive a hit as the numbered films.  

First, let's talk about legacy. Star Wars is often derided because of its Chosen One narrative revolving around the Skywalker family, and how people shoulder or buckle under the expectation of doing Great Things. I think Ahsoka, in the tradition of Rebels, is trying to tell an auxiliary story about the world of science fantasy that Star Wars inhabits. Lucas has gone on record in saying that he was heavily influenced by old Flash Gordon serials, the Campbellian monomyth, Japanese samurai films, and WWII aerial dogfighting footage. These are strands in the DNA of Star Wars, and each series can lean into the various identities at the heart of this milieu. Star Wars can tell many kinds of stories; it’s big enough to encompass many visions, but always needs to remember the roots of which the stories spring from. 

Ahsoka, both the show and the character, is the bearer of a complex legacy. Show-wise, it exists as a continuation of the narrative threads of the Clone Wars and Rebels, orbiting around massive blockbuster films. In the story, Ahsoka is the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, the would-be chosen one who turned and became the perhaps greatest villain of 20th century film, Darth Vader. In the narrative, Ahsoka is burdened by an impossible expectation. Her master is well-known throughout the galaxy as one of the most powerful Jedi in the order, despite not being considered a Jedi Master. In Rebels, it is shown she lost track of Anakin after their falling out. She assumed he had died in the purge of the Jedi Order. She is then proven wrong when she figures out that her mentor was now the right hand of the emperor.  

So, she is burdened by the mixed legacy of a heroic mentor turned terrifying force of evil. She carves her own path, a ronin samurai of a now-forgotten order of mystic knights. It is implied that, after the end of the events of Rebels, she took on an apprentice of her own in Sabine Wren. This, naturally, had a troubled ending. Sabine Wren is a Mandalorian, and that culture is one with an antagonistic relationship to the ways of the Jedi Order. Both Ahsoka and Sabine are hard-headed, stubborn, and have deep-seated trust issues. Each character comes by it honestly, but that makes for a difficult Master/Student relationship. 

That, of course, is mostly prologue. In the events of Ahsoka the show, their dynamic is the central relationship in focus. Sabine is driven by a desire to restore her lost family in finding Ezra, and Ahsoka is driven by a fear of a return of the Empire, the evil from her past she had thought she had grown beyond after the death of her former master. People have called the acting, especially in the first few episodes, wooden and stilted, but knowing the background of these characters and their parallel traumas, it makes sense. It makes sense for Ahsoka to default to being a loner, a ronin. Sabine regresses to her more teenaged rebellious nature, despite being in her late twenties/early thirties. She’s lost both her biological parents and her found family. She’s had to survive on her own, and feels abandoned by Ahsoka. So, when they reconnect, there is tension. Both have a lot riding on their minds, the legacies of their backgrounds overburdening them to the breaking point.  

Midway through the series is a crisis point, and the heroic pair fail. This is expected. Huyang told them to stay together, but they rebelled, went their own way. Ahsoka fell in battle, nearly dying. Sabine was overcome by the desire to see her old friend Ezra, and succumbed to the temptations of the fallen Jedi Baylan Skoll. The duo is scattered; master has failed apprentice, and apprentice has failed mentor.  

Episode 5, the best episode in the series, is an episode-long negotiation of this failure. Ahsoka wrestles with the spirit of her former master, in both metaphysical ways as well as a very real way overcoming her physical trauma. Anakin gives her a final, parting lesson: Fight, or die. Binary. Stark. Real stakes. Searching her history brings to the fore the trauma of being a child soldier, feeling abandoned by the institution that raised her, and grappling with the all-too-human failure of her master. She feared that she too would fall to the temptation of the dark side. She feared that getting close to Sabine would expose her vulnerability, which would leave her open to the darkness. But she instead navigates these very real fears, and chooses to see beyond fighting (the thing her master trained to do) and dying (the fear she grapples with in the absence of fighting). Instead, she breaks the binary, and chooses a secret third option: she chooses to live.  

What this means in practice is a change in demeanor. She was cold, closed off, and in her fear, she was unable to meet Sabine where she desperately needed to be met. “Ahsoka the white,” in direct reference to Gandalf of the Lord of the Rings, is a much more empathetic, trusting, and vulnerable person. She’s still recognizably Ahsoka, but her fears are less stark after facing death and failure. She has learned that failure need not equate death. Rather, that life is filled with failure. How one picks oneself up after that failure is the difference between falling to darkness and embracing light.  

As the series ends, when she is reunited with her apprentice Sabine, there is tension. Sabine knows she failed. But Ahsoka does not hold it against her. Ahsoka is instead understanding, empathetic. They grapple with the realities of the situation, and know that the stakes are high. It is no surprise then that, at the end, the climax is one of mixed success and failure, because that is life. Life is not just one thing. Ahsoka is not just one thing, not just one person. She is many things, because every person encapsulates multitudes, just like her master. She need not be afraid of failure, if there is some measure of success mixed in. Sure, they failed to stop the return of the most dangerous strategist in galactic history... but they also rescued their friend. They may be stranded in a strange land... but now they have another chance to figure out their relationship as master and apprentice. They have a chance at a new life. They did not die. They may have failed, but they still live. Because they live, they have a chance to change their circumstances before the end. 

Legacy weighs on all of us heavily. Life offers us no shortage of burdens. But we need not live in constant conflict, constant fear. We can choose the third option: we can choose to live. Forge a new path, our own path, one that’s honest. One that’s frail, to be sure. But one that is better when shared with a friend. Ahsoka is about legacy in the face of mythic times, but ultimately comes down to interpersonal relationships and healing.  

In the context of Star Wars, Ahsoka is about second chances. The sequel trilogy was a mixed bag at best. The TV shows have shown that you can explore this universe in more nuanced ways than a blockbuster film can afford. Ahsoka proves, then, that you can get a second chance at second chances.  

[jacksgreysays]

Fake Fic Summaries 30/?, the Gotta Complete The Set edition (2023-02-27)

The Theories of Uncertain Presents

Naruto knows that one day he’ll go back home and reunite with his teammates, the only family he’s ever had, but until then he’ll try to find himself.

Literally.

He probably shouldn’t have done shadow clone jutsu so close to an unfamiliar seal.

Okay, I felt like I was dogging on Naruto in the bleak primadonna AU and I’ve been reading a lot of DoS fic which, understandably, focuses more on Shikako and Sasuke doing ANBU shenanigans — more specifically the In a Definite Place at a Definite Time ‘verse and all of it’s spin offs/permutations/inspired by, etc. In which Shikako and Sasuke end up in Warring Clans Era and sort of complicate and encourage peace between the Uchiha and Senju depending on which fics you read, lol.

In particular, I read The Results of Non-Future’s Past by Aryia_Lexi_Sevorus which is where the title of this fake fic comes from, and which resolves the time travel issue with Shikako reverse engineering the memory sharing aspect of the shadow clone jutsu such that there are two version of Sasuke and Shikako, one who stay in the past, and one who receive their memories and don’t set off the seal to begin with. Aryia_Lexi_Sevorus’ fic is about Kakashi joining them. It’s very heartwarming.

But then my brain went… HOW DOES NARUTO JOIN THEM? Because how sad would it be for the Lucky Sevens to only be partially complete T_T

On the one hand, of course it would be LOGICAL if it just occurred when he returns after his training trip and did what Kakashi did to join them, but that’s SO LONG and it’s not like Naruto doesn’t ALSO encounter strange things when he’s on his own, and it WAS an Uzumaki seal plus shadow clones (his specialty) that sends the others’ memories back.

So what if he did it in reverse? (Konoha’s #1 most unpredictable ninja, lol)

As in, Naruto is out training somewhere (maybe Jiraiya’s busy doing spymaster stuff or he’s just being irresponsible, who knows) but he does shadow clone—as per usual when he’s solo training—in a place he shouldn’t ie where there is a similar Uzumaki time travel seal. But instead of making a shadow clone, he makes Schroedinger’s copies of himself one for the present and one for the past. Both of them are the real him because both of them are also the shadow clone. This is basically Everything, Everywhere, All At Once rules: either all of them are real or none of them are real, there’s no “truer” versions of yourself. But we’re dealing with two anyways… although the EEAAT comparison may come back up again.

Anyways, we would follow travelled-to-the-past!Naruto’s POV to the Warring Clans Era where he maybe even encounters the Uzumaki who made the original seal. And, weirdly enough, I almost feel like—in a similar way that his method to get there is opposite to the others—he doesn’t have that many problems integrating with the Uzumaki, and once he figures out what’s happening he just straight up tells the Uzumaki the truth.

And they believe him. Because they’re the Uzumaki. (And, also, if the person making the seal was there then they have an idea of what it could do. In addition, there’s probably a chakra sensor who can absolutely confirm that Naruto is in fact an Uzumaki. And thirdly, even if the Kyuubi chakra freaks them out, I’m assuming the jinchuuriki is Mito’s seal, and I feel like the Uzumaki would recognize her handiwork)

He’s an Uzumaki who gets to discover what the Uzumaki were like! He gets to discover family! He has a clan! All of my Uzushio Feels™!

So it’s more of a “discovering his heritage” fic than a “high stakes undercover don’t mess up the timeline” thing that his teammates are going through, but that’s kind of what the Uzumaki are like. Also, it would be funny if it’s happening at the same time as Sasuke and Shikako’s situation, which would explain where the heck Mito is the whole time considering I think she’s mentioned to already be married to Hashirama but is very rarely in any of the various fic. Like, she went back to Uzushio for a quick errand and then Naruto showed up. They might assume that Naruto is Mito’s descendant anyway considering 1) he doesn’t know his parents’ names, only that he is an Uzumaki from Konoha and 2) the jinchuuriki seal on his belly is probably her style

She’ll go back once she figures out this new Uzumaki situation and lets him enjoy being an Uzumaki in Uzushio.

And at some point Mito is like… I’m going to bring my new little brother to Konoha and Team Seven just does the Spiderman pointing meme before group hugging, absolutely baffling everyone else witnessing. Well, probably not Mito, because she already knows he’s from the future. Although I suppose she’d be baffled by the fact that his teammates are also back in time.

To prevent it from being ENTIRELY fluff, I would probably throw in the fact that, since his situation is extremely different from Sasuke and Shikako, that each time he does shadow clone in either the Warring Clans Era or the Present both versions of him get the memory feedback. So if WCE!Naruto does a shadow clone, both WCE!Naruto AND Present!Naruto will received that shadow clone’s memories—because, again, both are the real Naruto. Which means, eventually, this will be very useful for information passing back and forth once he gets back to Konoha and can confer with his teammates, but for right now if probably very bewildering and alarming. Especially for Present!Naruto who is just getting hit with memories of time traveling and meeting other Uzumaki?

Although, now that I’ve typed it out, obviously that means Present!Naruto can send information back to WCE!Naruto. And obviously Present!Naruto will tell Jiraiya what’s happening, so at some point Jiraiya’s gotta confess that he’s known who Naruto’s parents are the whole time and I guess what I’m saying is—again, in a similarly everything is opposite of his teammates—Naruto’s drama/stress happens in the present not the WCE.

I mostly just wanted Naruto to be included in the time traveling thing and also the Spiderman pointing meme with Team Seven, lol.

[tup-ika-5385]

Summary:

Medical Leave or Leaving Medical? A collection of fics where Kix takes care of his brothers, despite their initial protests. Inspired by a comic by @swdomesticverse of various troopers needing a week of bedrest. Set in canon/near-canon timeline.

Chapter 1: Tup

When Tup joked to Dogma that he was going to sleep for 24 hours straight after they got back from their latest campaign, Dogma didn’t think he actually meant it. But here he was, more than a full day later, watching his batchmate still snoring in his bunk and looking completely dead to the world. 

At this rate, he was going to miss second-meal entirely, and few things were worse than dealing with a sleepy, hangry Tup. So with no small measure of reluctance, Dogma put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a small shake. 

“Tup, wake up.” Still nothing. A look of frustration crossed his face, and he nudged him a little bit harsher. “Tup, you’re going to miss mid-meal if you don’t get up, and I’m not sharing mine.”

Finally, Tup groaned tiredly, shifting under his blankets as his eyes started to open. Squinting blearily at Dogma, he mumbled, “ ‘m trying to sleep…” Even as Dogma continued to stand there, his eyes drifted shut again. Hearing the abject exhaustion in his tone and seeing the bags under his batchmate’s eyes, Dogma was tempted to let him, but Tup had a tendency to complain endlessly when his internal clock didn’t match shipboard time, so letting him sleep any longer would probably be a mistake. 

“Get up. Or I’ll drag you out of your bunk.”

Tup started a little bit at his voice, like he’d already managed to fall back asleep in the two seconds since he closed his eyes. Giving Dogma a rude gesture, Tup heaved a sigh and pushed himself into a sitting position. Even as he started putting his armor on, Dogma could see his head bobbing as he fought the urge to fall back asleep. 

He shook his head, annoyance masking fondness. If Tup had his way, he’d sleep away his whole week. Finally, after a few more jolting head-bobs, Tup was fully dressed, rubbing teary eyes with a yawn. 

“So tired…” He complained to Dogma, as if it was his fault that he’d overslept. Dogma rolled his eyes, pulling Tup up from his bed so they could head to the mess together. Thankfully, they were off-duty for the next 24 hours, so Tup didn’t have to worry about tidying his bed-head. 

Still stumbling sleepily, Tup nearly ran into Dogma when they went to stand in line for food. “Tup,” Dogma huffed in annoyance, but allowed it when Tup leaned forward so his forehead was leaned against his shoulder-pad. It was only when the line moved up that Dogma realized his batcher had fallen asleep standing up.

At this point, a prickle of concern was starting to form in Dogma’s stomach. This was starting to get a little ridiculous. He shook Tup’s shoulder and nudged him in front of him in line to keep a better eye on him. 

For his part, Tup snorted awake before moving forward obediently, grabbing a tray of rations. He rubbed at his face exhaustedly, running a hand through his hair before scratching at his neck, just below the collar of his blacks. Shrugging his shoulders in irritation at some kind of itch, Tup shook his head before moving to join the rest of their squad at a nearby table, Dogma close behind. Fives, Hardcase, Jesse, and Kix were already nearly done with their respective meals.

“Hey Sleeping Beauty! Was worried you’d miss the pudding cups today!” Fives called, giving the duo a teasing grin. Tup responded with a glare and an unintelligible mumble, laying his head on the mess table.

A round of sympathetic chuckling followed as Kix and Jesse looked between them. Dogma sat next to Tup, poking him in the shoulder to make sure he hadn’t fallen asleep yet again, getting another irritated grumble. Dogma rolled his eyes. “You’ve been asleep for the past 30 hours, Tup. You can’t sleep forever.” 

“Watch me.” Tup retorted dramatically, earning a snort of amusement from Hardcase, who was sitting nearby. 

Kix shared a look of fond exasperation with Fives before speaking. “You really should eat something before you go back to sleep, vod’ika. That was a pretty rough campaign, and you’ve still got another half-inch to grow before you catch up with Fives.”

Looking like he wanted to do nothing more than sleep for another 30 hours, Tup gave the medic an irritated look before giving in, grabbing his ration bar with one hand while using the other to scratch at his neck again. A brief look of discomfort crossed his face, catching Dogma’s attention for a second time.

“Why are you so tired anyways? Did you get hurt on Thyferra? You know it’s against protocol to hide an injury.” Dogma asked, giving him a probing look, gaining the attention of Kix.

“Not injured, Dogma.” Tup spoke between bites of his ration bar, pausing to give another jaw-cracking yawn. “We just finished a campaign, vod. Everyone’s tired.” 

Even as Tup spoke, his head wobbled and he had to blink forcefully to keep his eyes open. Gaze unfocused, he barely registered as Kix made his way to their side of the table. He startled slightly as Kix put a steadying hand on his shoulder, looking him over. He tried to shrug the medic off, saying “ –’m fine Kix. Really.”

Kix shook his head in disagreement, bringing one hand up to Tup’s forehead. “You’re a little on the warm side, Tup, and I’ve seen you almost drift off at least three times since you got to the mess.”

“And another four times at the barracks.” Dogma added helpfully. “He’s also been scratching at his neck.”

Tup gave him a betrayed look, muttering a quiet “tattletale” under his breath before reluctantly allowing Kix to pull down the collar of his blacks, revealing a small-but-angry insect bite. 

Kix winced sympathetically. “Sorry, vod’ika. This definitely warrants a trip to medbay. Finish up your ration bar and then we’ll head over. Can you walk there yourself?”

Nodding reluctantly, Tup finished his ration bar with another grumble before moving to get up from the table with unsteady legs. He managed to make it about halfway to medbay before his knees gave a definitive wobble, and his body threatened to topple over. Thankfully, Kix had been following close behind and quickly came alongside him.

“Easy there, buddy, I gotcha.” He said as he wrapped an arm around Tup’s torso, supporting his weight as they walked the rest of the way to medbay. Setting Tup down on the nearest medical bed, Kix was quick to reach for a scanner.

“Just like I expected, you’ve got a low-grade fever, but I’m also seeing that your melatonin levels are higher than standard, which is probably why you’re feeling so tired. I just need to scan your neck to get a better read on that bite.” Kix nodded before helping Tup out of his blacks and into some off-duty reds, both for comfort and to make it easier to treat him. Thankfully, it didn’t look like anything too dangerous.

As he waited for the scanner to cycle through the results, Kix couldn’t help the small smile that came to his face as he watched Tup lean closer and closer to his pillow, eyes drooping sleepily. Finally, the scanner beeped, so Kix took a look at the results.

“Alright; it says here you’ve got all the symptoms of Knitix pox. It’s spread by knytix insects; you must’ve run into a couple of them back on planet. In natborns, it’s pretty contagious, but with us clones it only spreads by direct contact with a vector, so unless you picked up a hitchhiker in your gearbag, we should be alright. I’ll get you started on some antibiotics,” Kix said, looking through a nearby cabinet before coming back with what he needed.

Occupied with setting up an IV and double-checking his findings, he didn’t see that Tup had finally succumbed to sleep. “According to this, I should keep you here in medbay until–” Kix stopped abruptly as his eyes finally settled on Tup again, fast asleep and exhaling in a quiet snore. 

Kix huffed in fond amusement, pulling up the blanket around Tup’s shoulders. Leaning down, he whispered, “Sleep well, vod’ika.”

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

walks into ur inbox and sets up a big conspiracy board. hi mac :3 do u wanna hear about the hs epilogues and hs2??? well i'm gonna learn u a thing about homed stuck post canon!!!! here we fucking go

ok so idk how much of the epilogues u have read, but basically to sum it up: it was made as a way to make the fans of canon hs angry. like that's kinda the whole point. and it worked because honestly!! they are quite terrible!!! and i do like them a lot but there are a lot of things that were done in bad faith with very little care to original canon, such as: raging misogyny in the form of making jane a hashtag girlboss who sexually abused jake, jade who has no concept of sexual boundaries and was literally framed to be the girl who got in between the gay couple, and like. a lot more. so it's. very far from perfect. honestly a lot of the character writing isn't even that good

but something to keep in mind is that while yes, part of the reason a lot of it is written that way is because hussie just wanted to piss people off, there is kind of a canon reason for it??? dirk went kind of off the rails and absorbed the knowledge of all of his splinters and alternate timeline selves (which for a person who hates himself that much!!! not great!!! would drive a guy a little nuts!!!) and he got a little. bro strider-ish. very manipulative and Not Nice. and he also grabbed control over the entire narrative in the meat timeline so!!! he was just messing with people and trying to convince himself he didn't feel bad about it. sad!

and the candy timeline is controlled by alt!calliope who wanted to make the entire timeline nice and perfect and domestic, a war broke out between trolls and humans, shit hit the fan pretty bad, but the narrative only focuses on the romantic and family drama which says sooooooo much about how alt!callie views the world and these characters. she grew up obsessing over them and now can't process that these are real people who are friends with the alpha timeline version of herself and it drives me bonkers and fucking yonkers GIRL YOU ARE MESSING WITH PEOPLE YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN YOUR BROTHER!!!! since ultimate!dirk absorbed the knowledge and memories of lord english through his absorption of arquiussprite he is basically lord fucking english so him and alt!calliope arguing over the timelines is literally just. two siblings who never grew up pulling their toys/friends back and forth and being upset because they can't get their own way IT'S INSANE

also the prose slaps sometimes. meat page 39 is an especially good example, like the way it capture's ult!dirk's character voice is. AAAAAAUGHJGHGH. god. the feelings of that part. the way he's clearly trying so hard not to care..... but he DOES. and you can TELL. honestly it really captures the tragedy of dirkjake so well. also candy page 14 is just. woagh. idk if you read that part but dirk dies in candy and it's just.... holyyyyy shit dude. it's a bit gorey and it is a suicide so maybe not the best part to read if you're in a bad state of mind but GOD. it just. there's something about it that somehow manages to capture dirk so well in a way. like of course his death would be self inflicted while feeling like he's doing something "right." jesus christ. i can give u links to my favourite pages if u wanna read any of em

ummm ANYWAY. hs2 is a continuation of BOTH timelines. john died in the meat timeline (sad) and got incredibly depressed in the candy timeline (also sad) but also he had a son with roxy in candy!!! his name is harry anderson and lemme tell u i love all of the kids in candy. there's harry, there's vrissy (an ecto clone of vriska adopted by rose and kanaya), tavros crocker-english (jane and jake's kid, the most tragic little guy ever tbh) and um. yiffy. yiffany longstocking lalonde-harley who was born when jade wanted a kid. i'm not gonna get into the whole ordeal of yiffy rn it was so balls to the wall insane if i explained everything i would be here all day. but also VRISKA IS THERE 🎉🎉🎉 and she is the highlight of the candy timeline lemme tell u. she's gonna end the troll/human war maybe. or maybe she'll just fuck around. who knows!!! it's vriska!!! i love her silly unpredictable swag :3

the meat timeline is where i go especially crazy because there is soooo much to analyze here in terms of prose and imagery and just. stuff in general. basically dirk and rose blasted off into space to go create a new intelligent species and introduce them to sburb and make their universe "relevant" again because something just feels Off about their current story, and they can't quite tell what it is so they're fixing it any way they can think of. also terezi tagged along because she was there when john died and she still hasn't found vriska and so she is also depressed so hey why not tag along on this death trip to the stars!!! also a bunch of others are trying to chase them down in their own spaceship, including: dave and karkat, jade, callie, and roxy (who is transmasc in the meat timeline!!!) also davekat is canon in the meat timeline and they have some lovely existential discussions about dave's immortality and karkat's mortality

anyway thats all i got for now. i feel insane about these guys and i'm hoping the new writers for hs2 can maybe improve the story a bit AND THEY ALREADY KIND OF HAVE!!! they brought sollux back, they made jake less of a punching bag and more of a character, they have vriska shenanigans, and jane is less of an Evil Girlboss and actually more of a homestuck villain if that makes sense!! AND THE ART STYLE IS BETTER TOO the hs2 style kind of devolved a bit and looked a bit terrible after a while (they might have just had new artists on at the time) but now they've got different artists!! and the guy heading it now worked on some of the original homestuck stuff!! so they're trying to slowly fix some of hussie's bad writing choices and expanding on the cool stuff that was already there!! i love hs2 it is my deeply flawed very fucked up baby :3 sorry this was so long. the demons got me u understand <3

I UNDERSTAND I UNDERSTAND. OMG THANK YOU. i actually did start reading candy/meat when they first came out (<< 17 yr old who was so so so excited for new homestuck content) and ended up. giving up on them REALLY quick. i actually got to the part where dirk died in candy and that was what made me put them down entirely bc i was SO upset . also like u said yes the way jade was characterized was so so so uncomfy for me. so those r like the two main factors that made me totally give up on meat and candy. and i kind of openly was super super mad about the epilogues for a while after that and then i realized. oh no. im a fool. im exactly the kind of person they were written to make angry HHFDBSJS. so i backed down and learned to appreciate them for what they were from a distance <3

i appreciate u SO MUCH for the deep dive bc holy shit. every once in a while i have the internal struggle of "god i miss homestuck. maybe i should go back and read the epilogues" and then i Dont hFBFSJDK . i actually do not know SHIT about hs2 in general !! i know there is. ult dirk who looks like an anime villain and i think thats great for him. aaaaand. the davekat laundry room scene which i have only seen panels for and not dialogue and i love them so much forever. and thats about the extent of my knowledge.

[thechaoticfanartist]

Need, fire and DNA for the OC asks?

more oc asks

(Replying both as myself and as Grim for these because I said I wanted this as Grim however I can write a mini essay on two of these)

need: has your OC ever experienced desperation? how has it affected them? what do they do when something they need is out of their reach?

Grim: I have. It clouds me when I do, it messes me up. If I can't clear my mind I do not think. I have revealed secrets in desperate bids. I don't know what to do when what I need is out of reach. Sometimes I am just a fool.

Yes, Grim has experienced desperation. She panics in this state and makes choices she wouldn't make. She says things she will regret. She does things she regrets. Most notably her fight with Anakin on Mustafar. She had accepted the fact that she had failed. But she had one more thing she could change. She couldn't save the Jedi, and Anakin had fallen. So she went with the intent to kill Anakin in a mix of revenge and a desperate attempt to change something. If she could kill Anakin she could stop his future crimes. And because of her desperation it clouded her, mixed with her anger and it became just the mix to result in Anakin defeating her. If she had listened to Obi-Wan and Yoda she may have changed that fight so Vader would have been killed, but that ending was never known.

fire: what’s one thing they’d destroy if they could, and why? would that destruction bring them any satisfaction or catharsis?

Grim: Easy! The Sith! It would bring great satisfaction, and the Jedi would be safe.

If she could, Grim would destroy the Sith. I mean her whole goal is to defeat them, which in the best timeline destroy the Sith for good.

dna: does your OC believe in fate or destiny? what about soulmates? is this all a coincidence?

Grim: No. Destiny implies things are written. Fate is the same. Soulmates are another way to say that people are tied beyond themselves. There is no such thing as fate or destiny...and yet there is a reason behind it all. We write our own stories and nothing is set, but there is a reason for it. I don't quite know how to explain.

Okay I'm not going to lie I was hoping someone would ask this one because it is answered in tcwganv. I'm going to let Grim speak for herself again but this time through her story.

 “Then is tragedy destined for us?” Anakin asked her.

 “I do not believe in destiny, and I doubt you do as well, for destiny means life is written in stone. If we believe this, then why do we strive to save those we love from a terrible fate?”

-The Clone Wars Gets A New Victim, Part IV: The Storm, Chapter 35: Checkmate

Can you tell this is one of my favorite moments in the whole fic yet? Shippers keep your hands off my platonic sad tragedy moments or I swear-

Anyways as you can see from the above snippet Grim says herself she does not believe in it. However earlier she described the ending as being destined for tragedy, and in the next chapter thinks that to be true, it is not a case of Grim believing in destiny or fate but rather her devoid of any hope. At this point in the story Grim is hopeless. She is fully convinced that nothing can change now. All her chances had been spent. Continuing the conversation and ending it, Grim sets the ending in stone. Not because it was destined, but because she gave up.

Anakin lowered his head, he knew exactly what Grim meant. “Then it can be changed,” he said.

 Grim shook her head, “it is already too late.”

Also fun fact that was the last thing she says to him before Order 66 :)

Anyways long answer short no Grim does not believe in fate or destiny. She spends The Clone Wars fighting against the concept, because the very idea of it implies to her that she would never win and was set to fail from the beginning.

[jedi-lothwolf]

Febuwhump Day 4: Knife to the throat

Fandom: Star wars

Timeline: The Bad Batch

Warning violence

Crosshair perched in the tree. He waited and waited for one of his brothers to arrive, maybe even for his little sister. Today he righted the wrong of letting the rogue clones live in the first place, today he picked them off one by one.

    Hunter walked carefully through the woods. He listened for his family and for any unfriendlies. The clone kept he's eyes peeled, every hair was on its end. Something wasn't right but no matter what he did, he simply couldn't put his finger on it. No matter what he could have done nothing prepared Hunter for what was next.

    Crosshair eyed his target. After fighting alongside Hunter his whole life he knew exactly how his brother would act. The soldier grabbed a puck and threw it to a nearby tree.

    Hunter spotted the shine of the puck. He swiftly moved from his spot out in the open, well as open as the woods could be to a spot behind a tree. Hunter was exactly where Crosshair wanted him. He pulled his gun and tried to find Cross. He wasn't sure how the sniper had managed to get past him. Unless... Crosshair had planned this.

    Crosshair shot the puck . He watched the surprise on the others face as the bullet hit his gun. Slightly angling his rifle differently he proceeded to almost immediately shoot his beloved brother in the left kneecap.

     Hunter cried out as the bullet hit his knee. He leaned against the tree then slid down to sit. Hunter reached for one of his vibro-knifes but quickly remembered they had been left of the ship. He had been cleaning them previously and simply forgot to put them back. Echo had even reminded him. Hunter knew Crosshair hadn't missed, he never misses so what did he want?

    Crosshair climbed down from his hide out and walked towards Hunter.

    Pulling his arm up, Hunter touched his comm.

    "I wouldn't" Crosshair spat.

    Hunter moved his arm to his knee "so, what do you want?"

    "Smart." As soon as Crosshair got close enough Hunter attempted to kick him with his uninjured leg. Crosshair took one step closer and kicked in Hunter's other knee. He screeched with pain, tears welling in his eyes. Hunter  wondering what in the hell Crosshair wanted from him. Could he?  No. Hunter hoped Crosshair wouldn't do that to him. If Crosshair was going to kill him he'd at least let it be quick right?

    Crosshair kneeled down to Hunter's level, pushing his vibro-knife to the others throat. Hunter flinched thinking Crosshair was going in for the kill. "Listen here Hunter" Crossing hissed "I'm here to fix my mistakes. He pushed the knife into Hunter's skin. "I'll start with you."

    "Crosshair please." Hunter's voice was shaky and faint. Crosshair looked his brother in the eyes. He hadn't seen Hunter so scared in quite some time.

    Hunter was shaking. The agony in his legs made him wish he were Echo. If the knife went any further he would die. He grabbed Crosshair's arm and pulled the knife away from his throat. Curling his hand into a fist he hit Crosshair.

    Crosshair pulled his arm out of the others grip and slowly stood. Hunter attempted to stand only to be met with stabbing pain. Unable to do much else to protect himself Hunter defensively set his arms in front of him.

    "Good soldiers follow orders." Snarled Crosshair.

    "Then I'm not a good soldier."

    Crosshair moved his arm back ready to throw the knife to take his brother's life. Hunter drew into himself, preparing himself to meet the Domino squad.

    Suddenly Crosshair fell to the ground. Hunter lifted his head to see Echo. "Are you okay?" Echo walked over to his brother.

    Hunter shook his head yes before once more making the decision to try to stand. He yelped as he put the slightest amount of pressure on his legs

    "Stop Hunter, sit down." Echo spoke calmly. "Let me look."

    Before Echo got the chance Hunter explained what had happened.

    "Let's get you back to the ship okay?"

    "Alright. What are we going to do about Crosshair?" Despite everything Hunter still cared for his brother. He grew up beside him, how could he not.

    "He'll be fine." Echo gently picked Hunter up. Together the two headed to the Marauder where the rest of the batch would meet soon.

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

Particular About Planning

A couple of weeks ago, at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm revealed three feature films to be in development. Films that seem to be the ones that are to actually go forward and actually be shot and finished and theatrically released. After a few years of Disney+ TV shows and many start-and-stops… How many proposed-but-scrapped STAR WARS movies are we at now? From Josh Trank’s Boba Fett movie to Patty Jenkins’ ROGUE SQUADRON to the movie Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was supposed to produce, there’s got to be like… What… 10 of them now?

I have little to say about STAR WARS, honestly. I’m more of a casual fan of the series, though there are things I admire about it. As a kid, I never really got into it, and I was the right age to do so when the Prequel Trilogy rolled around in the late 1990s/early 2000s… No, I was a weird kid, a weird preteen. I was into other, and sometimes more obscure pieces of fantasy/space adventure/sci-fi/what-have-you. I was more into SPYRO THE DRAGON, BIONICLE, FUTURAMA, JAK & DAXTER, MORTAL KOMBAT, just a random smorgasbord of stuff that wasn’t STAR WARS… I hadn’t seen a STAR WARS movie all the way through until 2011, when I blind-bought that old Blu-ray box set that contained both trilogies. I caught all three Sequel Trilogy movies in theaters (and worked through all three as well, I’m a movie theater employee!), along with the two spin-off movies, ROGUE ONE and SOLO… I haven’t seen a single Disney+ show, though I do plan to watch both the STAR WARS: VISIONS seasons. Otherwise, I’m kind of off the train. I wasn’t particularly fond of THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, and from the outside, it just looks like a franchise beholden to whiny fans who want everything to stay the same. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe this Dave Filoni/Jon Favreau side of the galaxy is pretty dang good, maybe it’s just “Star Wars, the way you like it.” Three seasons of THE MANDALORIAN, and all this other stuff in the works, plus all the CLONE WARS animated shows… Yeah, that’s commitment I’d have to set aside time for!

So, one common criticism I have seen of the Sequel Trilogy is that Lucasfilm and all the people involved didn’t have a plan… It seems like they do have a plan for this set of movies going forward, as Lucasfilm has now spent time thinking of options and what to do going forward while maintaining the Mando side of things. It always seemed weird to me that when Disney rolled out the big STAR WARS slate many years back, that the Sequel Trilogy entries were only two years apart as opposed to the traditional three years, and that there’d be a spin-off in-between… And plenty more in development. Plus, THE FORCE AWAKENS opening literally three years after Disney purchased Lucasfilm… It feels like it was a big case of everyone jumping in head-first and a lot of shit happening along the way.

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER came out in December 2019, and it’s unknown when the next STAR WARS feature film will come out. Disney does have Christmas 2025 and 2027 carved out for future STAR WARS features, but it remains to be seen if one of the planned movies - be it Dave Filoni’s MANDALORIAN finale, the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Rey movie, or James Mangold’s ancient times picture - actually makes it to that date. If one somehow does… That means a six year gap between two STAR WARS movies… The last gap was a whopping ten years between REVENGE OF THE SITH and THE FORCE AWAKENS, not counting the CLONE WARS prequel feature film that went to theaters in 2008. Even if we factor in that movie, that’s a 7-year gap! So, maybe they spent all this time formulating a “plan” going forward for new STAR WARS stories? After all, a new timeline was shown during the expo, so it seems like there’s a plan now?

Then again, depending on who you ask, the Original Trilogy didn’t have much of a plan, either, despite whole blueprints and mapped-out storylines from George Lucas. But this is all another story for another day… This franchise, to me, is just one big mess and you take what you like from it, I suppose!

So, why am I talking about STAR WARS anyways? Well, sometimes, I think of what’s going on with me when it comes to the stuff that I do…

Planning…

Sometimes I worry too much about planning, because I start to feel… If everything is all planned out, then I’m just filling in the holes, checking the boxes… And along the way, I lose the spontaneity in what it is I do: Writing stories, making comics, making art, etc.

At the end of December 2021, I launched a webcomic… It was me jumping right into doing something, head-first, without having much of a plan. Part of me also wanted to end such a terrible year with something good, so there was rushing on my part as well… I’m also 30 now, and when I was launching this comic, I had recently turned 29… I had spent a lot of my life writing stories that were meant to be bigger things in the future, so I hid a lot of what I actually do for such a long time, with very little else by way of art/comics/writings being out there online.

I was also art-shy for so many years… A whole era of younger folk posting their art, so spontaneously, on places such as DeviantArt? It all passed me by. 15-year-old me in 2007/08 was too afraid to do that, didn’t have the means to, either. I spent much of my young adult years blogging about animation and what was going on in the industry, barely ever posting art despite making (or trying to make) it… I hadn’t come up with a smaller, more sacrificial story or set of characters meant for this kind of thing… That I could share online, and possibly fail with. I wasn’t going to do that with one of my more personal and ambitious works… Now at the ripe age of 30, I am doing that. Or trying to. (Or wait, on the subject of STAR WARS. “Do or do not, there is no try”?)

I wanted to be spontaneous, I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to finally get something loose and fun out there after years of not doing so…

The result? From December 2021 to September 2022, I had only produced 29 pages of vaguely-connected vignettes that were rather poorly-drawn (like I was learning stuff while making the panels for it), and there was next to no rhythm to any of it. The two leads just weren’t all that well-defined or really jumped off the images. I kept changing art styles, I went from wanting it to be a comic strip-sort of thing to a chapter made up of individual pages. I’ve always loved drawing comics, I’ve drawn pretty much my whole life, but this was disastrous… And it hit me once I got the high-20s… I felt like I was “doing it” to “do it”, rather than for the passion. Instead of going at all the crazy ideas I had, I dreaded putting in the work, as I had felt rushed and had to churn out something good-looking while meeting an imposed deadline. The idea in my head and the scenes I pictured so easily did not, at all, match up with the results. There was some lore and backstory cooked up before a single page was published, but again, didn’t seem to register… This kind of “do it, do it, do it” model clearly did not work, and my best ideas didn’t even come out of it…

So, I took it back… The comic is still up on its site, but it’s now known as the “beta version”. I am slowly undertaking a complete overhaul of this first chapter of the comic. It has been retitled, and a few small pages called “Quickies” have been released along with some various concept art and pieces… Back to square one, it seems… And part of me is like… I still want to make stuff for this comic if the actual chapter takes the rest of the year to make. I have other life obstacles in my way right now, such as my recent move into my apartment, bills, work, finding a new job, other endeavors, etc….

It’s good to have a plan…

But not TOO MUCH of a plan…

Not to the point where every single thing is mapped out, and you’re just checking boxes when you actually get to creating the thing. But a looser plan that allows for the spontaneity and improvisation and great last-minute ideas to flow? I think that’s good for me, given the way I work.

The three “Quickies” that I did from this past September to January were fun ways for me to get the characters back out there, and give a better idea of what the comic is going to be like, and what kind of world these characters inhabit. And who the main character is, first and foremost! I’ll likely revise those segments once more and work them into the main chapter, as a lot is going to be changed in the coming months. The “beta version” is really just all part of that development process at this point, I guess like accidentally releasing scrapped designs and a poorly-made version long before the thing is supposed to be fine-tuned and released.

To reiterate, with planning, I simply have to find the right balance and get stuff out there without forcing it.

[thefireflyreader]

An Anakin Deep Dive

So this is going to be mostly things that are from canon/legends. I will mention headcanons that I have, but I'll admit they are headcanons. Might have spoilers for the Kenobi show. I'll see if after I finish typing this up that still applies. Reason for this post. Well, I feel like people talk very negatively about Anakin, which has only been made a bit worse by the Kenobi show. And I think people forget some things about him. Anakin's timeline:

Birth to 2: He was a slave with an abusive master. Now most people assume he doesn't remember this. However, there is a novel about Vader (I believe it's just called Vader) that actually implies he does remember some of this.

2-9: He was given to Watto. Or well won by Watto. Now Watto was not a horrible master by any means. However, Anakin was still a slave. He was not free. This next part is more speculation than canon/legends, but what are the chances Anakin knew how to read or write? He may have known basic math since Watto was a shop owner and he may have handled customers.

(Also I don't believe him when he says he's not afraid of the chip blowing him up. You're nine.)

9-18/19: He's a Padawan with Obi-wan. We don't know much about this time period. Because even the extend universe novels about him as a padawan happen shortly after he gets to the temple and right before he's knighted during the clone wars. However, expanding on the reading/writing thing mentioned earlier, if he knew to read/write, it was because Shmi taught him, but she was an slave from being a young girl (Age not specified), so there's a good chance she didn't know either. Either way, Anakin would have been miles behind his fellow peers within the Jedi Order. He was immediately accepted as a Padawan, which people may have been jealous of. Although, considering Obi-wan had just been knighted, this may not be as bad as if someone like Master Windu had taken him.

There are three things we know Anakin is good at: flying, mechanics, and sparring. However, sparring is the only one of those things Obi-wan trained him in.

19: He marries Padme and is immediately thrown into the Clone Wars.

19-22/23: Clone Wars, where some events were made to directly affects Anakin's relationship with his friends.

Umbara: Rex was either supposed to die or lose trust in Anakin. Anakin was pulled away by the Chancellor for reasons we don't know and nothing seemed to happen that would warrant him leaving the 501st.

Wrong Jedi: Ahsoka leaves the Order, because they kicked her out because she was accused of something she didn't do. There really wasn't much of an apology from the Jedi in terms of that, so double whammy. Ahsoka leaves, so Anakin loses some of his support and he is mad at the Jedi.

Hardeen: Name one reason it had to be Obi-wan that went undercover. The bounty hunter needed to have esteem by killing someone well known? Okay, and? It's literally Vos's job to do this kind of undercover work. Also, there was no reason Anakin couldn't have been informed after the mission started, because he would need the raw emotions. Also why was he allowed to go after "Hardeen?"

22/23: Anakin fell to the Dark side, partially due to manipulation from Palpatine, the Jedi mishandling him at times, and his own struggles with his emotions.

My main point is that people seem to forget about the trauma Anakin went through and also that he was only 22 maybe 23 when he fell to the dark side. He wasn't an adult who had his life together. He was at war while still a teenage. Yes, 19 while considered an adult is still a teenager. His brain wasn't even fully developed when he fell. My dad likes to tell me all the time that the frontal cortex, where processing consequences happens, doesn't fully develop until you're 26.

He was mishandled a bit by the Jedi. It felt, at times, that the Jedi were treating him as if he had been in the temple his whole life, especially in ROTS, where he speaks to Yoda about his nightmares of losing Padme. He goes to ask for help and is basically told to let it go. Also, in the few novels about Anakin's time as Obi-wan's padawan, he continuously struggles with Obi-wan's teaching style. And to me, it boils down to a difference in love language. Anakin seems to thrive off words of affirmation, and maybe a little bit of touch, while Obi-wan seems to use and react better to acts of service. Obi-wan tends to show Anakin he is proud of him or that he loves him, when Anakin needs him to tell him. (And I can go on another long rant about why Obi-wan is the way he is. Specifically how Qui-Gon screwed him up.)

[ecto-stone]

So I don’t really know that much about that my blood au you created could you tell me a bit about it?

Ha hah I Hope this is Edible

So My Blood Au is just Me dumping all the cool stuff i can think of into a DP what if Vlad is Good ^For Starter MB Vlad or Vladimir Jude Masters is a Paranormal investigater/ hunter/exocist in a sense. He seemingly Perfect in People eye, Not Really on the inside as he have many problem stem from living so long and going though alots of thing that he prefer not to talk about that he hide from People , go so far as to adjust his own emotion to what he find fit to the situration making him really hard to read. (Not Jack and Danielle, those are close enough 2 peel him like an onion if they sense something off). -Vlad And Danny are not same kind of Halfa in this AU, Vlad is Two soul (Half Blue Demon Vampire Ghost, Half Human twisted together and blend into one) and Danny is Soul within soul (Going though the accident give him two identical soul that over lapped each other) -Ghost are nerf and ecto beam and ecto Base attack can harm ghost but they can't harm Physical thing in living world Unless they are infuse with Core element same with Human entering Purgatory. -The world have 5 Realm: LivingWorld, Purgatory (GhostZone), Elsewhereness, Fairy Land and Unworld. +Going with the idea that originaly Vlad is supposed to be a vampire and many ghost in the series feel like they are more supernature creature then Ghost. Living world now have many Human and other Creature living among each other , hidden in plain sight +Purgatory: Where Ghost go and heal before they move onto Elsewhereness (Heaven in this verse) or Rebirth back to the living cycle. There are many area in Purgatory that fit human decription of after life look like , this is due to collective faith and ideal of many Ghost focus with each other to created these Resting stop. Incidentally like the living world these area are also watch over by being call King and Queen of the Death (Caretaker and protector of the Death soul, a being with incredible power capable of bending reality). Most well known one are the King Dark, Prince Argon and Princess Dora of the Dark Age Zone. Queen Desire of the thousand and one night. ect.. newest King of the death is Ghost Writer (library of the forgotten) but he prefer not be refer to as king, just Ghost writer. +Elsewhereness: The final resting Places of enternal Bliss. Once the Soul is ready to let go of all earthly desire, they are send here. Not much is known about this realm or it location. When a Soul reach enlightment it will automatically know where to find it. The realm also House many god. +Fairy Land: Home to care taker of the childhood inocent and many god that work to keep the universe running. Most common creature that live here is Fairy with two side one silly colorful side that appear to children to granted what ever their heart desire. The other is the Blue fortune side that Weaved the fabric of Luck and fate. +Unworld: A Dark realm with one way in no way out. It house many dangerous creature, ancient outer god and unspeakable Evil that have been banish to through age by god and human. >the Origin Story: +Vlad and Jack are Friend from Childhood (Their Bond are really tight kinda like Sworn Brother ) unlike their canon counter part meet in college. They Hunt Ghost but in more of a Release soul from their earthly bound kind of way via the info they get from the Masters Family Grilmore. (There is one major inconvience is that You need to wait for the correct day and time to perform ritual sending ghost back to purgatory so they can Move on to Elsewhereness/heaven of this verse ) +They Meet Maddie in college (Maddie and Vlad almost alway in a total clash with each other with Maddie tech almost Hunter like way in dealing with ghost and Vlad more traditional Way of Handling them) Which end with Three of them forming the Original Ghost Trio. With Maddie accept Vlad and Jack Respect the Death ideal. And Vlad and Jack incorperate More Technology into their Asset. +Maddie point out the inconvinient of having to wait for the correct day for each ghost to send them back to Purgatory (Their room are fill with

Container for ghost), Which lead to them comming up with the idea of Making a Ghost Portal. <Note: MB Vlad is not into Romantic relationship, Platonic one Matter to him more> >The Accident: No diet soda the Accident is purely due to one miscalculation that cost Vlad life (his Head got Blash Clean off infront of Jack and Maddie) In that Split Second of His face getting disintigrating, Vlad get a Glim into UnWorld (the Realm where are Demon and evil of the four realm are banish to) and Got Latched on and Pushed Back to the living world by a Demon Vampire Ghost Both Soul are now inhabited Vlad headless lifeless body, in Which about 3 day after Vlad burial that Vlad Body got completely decontructed inside the coffin and recontructed into a body that is more fitting to host both . Vlad have a hard time remembering Who he is after kinda get rebirth and Wander the world until he Get Suck into a Natural Ghost Portal and got Flunk Back in time. >Journey of an Immortal Being: -Vlad Stuck in the Past, He recovered his memories, Going through existenal crisis, Evil phase, Evil make me feel bad, Not Evil anymore, Found out that he is immortal now, Existenal crisis part2, Acceptance, Travel the World and Start doing the what ever he like, learning old way of magic still helping ghost and other supernatural being. -Caused several Major Change to the past that Mythical Creature got un extinct. (Due to the Law of life and death this does not affect who get born or not, it just that the world got alots more races now and those used to be born human in the original timeline might get born as another races entirely) -Get Mistaken for Messiah.( Look You can't kill Vlad, He would just be gone for like 3 day then comeback) -Caused the legend of Dracula. -Vampire cult have a horrible obession with Vlad as a Whole. Look like vampire act like one, can walk in plain day light and more importantly the ability to Open a Portal to Unworld . ( Vlad don't use this ability much and can only open small one as it is very energy consuming) -Meet his own ancestor Which is the Fentonightingale that Later Splited into Fenton and Nightingale (later change to Masters) leading to revealation that Jack and Him might be very distant Related. -Bickering With Time God (Do not trust the Clock Man that work for the Eyes) -Get Caught in War far too many time. -Meet Phantom (an odd entity that is oddly clingy to him) in the Great War. -Meet Other Some of the DP ghost when they still alive -The Horrible Bar incident that reveal Phantom true nature, an evil being that wish to turn the world back to it original nature of nothiness and try to turn vlad to the his side, Kill, Seal in Rock Case covered with Sigil to prevent Phantom from escape, Chuck it into the ocean. - The Contruction of the Coffin Ghost Portal. (Havent actually went into the Purgatory caused the CCP is one Way Portal. -Forming of many Hidden town that home supernatural being. Amity Park is one of them. - And many more unseen story >Daddy Stolen Ribbone saga (MB Vlad is sterile, he want to have kid but can't.) -The Vampire cult that he have grudge with attemp to Clone or at least created a child that have Vlad Power through ritual and cult like method. Imagine Danny Clone but even more mess up . -Vlad end the life of most of them by his own hand (they are suffering, it is best to let them go) -Birth of Danielle: +Danielle Evelyn Masters or just Dani/Dee for short is the only Stable child come out of this whole odeal. She is Created From Vlad Ribone like a Twisted Eve. And like in the book it caused both of them to be very attached to each other in a Fatherly Daughterly Way. +Dee Have Vlad Ghost power and Demonic Power but No ghost form (Her default funtion as both and whether she is in ghost mode or Human mode is all Up to energy control) and no connection to Unworld there for she can't open portal to Unworld. Dual Soul nature Wind/Fire.

+She like Frog and is interested in Marine biology (which Vlad have full support over, she have a room fill with Vlad hand made frog plusie that she all named. +He raise her teach her everything he know about how to deal with supernatural being and how to Snipe Vampire from a long distant with pin point accuracy.

+An kidnapped incident with the Vampire cult latter resulted in Dee Death at the age of 12 (1999), and Vlad becoming fully Merged into one Being with Plasmius. and wipe out the entire vampire cult in a horrible Vlad the impaler way). +After wiping out the remainder of the cult, vlad go into retirement and work as a wall Painter < he work supper fast on celling painting and no one know why> >The Boy Who Fly (2 year before the start of actual MB story) -Danny Gain his power at the age of 10, his parent know. The event of Portal acivation caused the whole town to have a black out. -They move House alots for 2 year. And Jack try his best to make his family as normal as they can be after accidenly k his friend all those year ago and now half eff his own son. -They finding out amity park their new home is on accident when the RV engine die mid way through the middle of no Where (The town shown it self to those in need) -Danny hide his abiltiy. But after a gym incident. and getting Praise by his peer for it instead of scold like with the adult Danny start getting bolder using Floating power around his new friend when no adult is watching. <Vlad who is Working on the Giant Raven paiting for the School Saw this and know imediately What Danny is> -They offically meet each other on the the roof top, when Danny mom ask him to go down the store and by some bread and he decided to try to Air Frog Swim to it. They become friend and Vlad even teach Danny how to fly properly before having to leave (they visit each other alots after the revealation, and vlad is a good adult friend that Danny can talk to) (Danno forgot about the bread and return home breadless) -Jack may stop with the whole Paranormal hunter/ghost scientist job but not Maddie. She keep doing it behind his back due to danny special need in ecto base consumtion (he havent grow abit since the accident and keep getting smaller and it concerning) -Jack found out and they have a Fight. which lead to Maddie go to his Sister house. -Danny Found out about why his dad was so stressed out about ghost thing now. When looking through his parent old stuff with his new friend tucker. (Dude why does your parent have a Picture of the wall painter in thier old junk). He show the image to Vlad. -Danny Get jack to tell the story about the inccident. Dad what if i tell you that Your friend who die 18 year ago survived and is on our front door right now. Reunion, Jack feeling guilty about making them both like this. Go Get Maddie. Happy reunion of the trio. -Fenton Parent become accepting to Danny condition, Danny have a good mentor that can teach him ho to control his power And they live happy ever after for now

[justanotherfanartist]

Realizing now that 12 year old me wrote some deep and unnecessarily complicated shit, included but not limited to:

-a main cast and storyline of Splatoon 3, mostly with original characters and crossed over with the CoroCoro manga. Including new bands, idols, main enemy story, new weapons, stages, ranked modes etc. I made goddamn character lineups for these, I have a ton of sketches. There were complicated dynamics including the falling out and repair of a drunk fight between an older brother and his bipolar younger sister, realistic friend group reactions to that, how it pushed her on her femme retake yet unstable path. Includes Mutual pining between other characters, relationships. One of them was flamboyantly gay.

-an entire new tf2 class that I balanced out, detailed down to ammunition and health (+ Uber charge) character backstory etc, relationship dynamics with the other classes and specific taunt/dialogue lines. Included character sketches.

-a main villain for agents of shield, included a character design, personality to a tee. Included specific scenarios and character deaths she would cause. Femme fetale but murder energy. Signature weapon, her whole thing was hiding in plain sight. Fancy antagonist.

-wedged a character and storyline into the force awakens when it first came out. Relationships, sibling reveal, followed the canon.

-when Fucking insane for the clone wars. Jedi commander, a shit ton of clones whom I fleshed out to a t, CC numbers, unique armor. Jedi commander whom I loved, nickname backstories for all the clones, a complicated rivals to best friends storyline that ended in a self sacrifice that left the rest of them with trauma and ptsd. Followed them through order 66 and after, all of their deaths planned out, I even wrote the reuinion between the commander and her surviving battalion members. They had a unique name and custom armor designs/symbols. Followed the canon timeline while doing all of this. barely any canon characters however r, when I tell you I went batshit with the originality I mean it.

-AN ENTIRE FUCKING VIDEO GAME.A DETAILED PLOT LINE COMPLETE WITH CONCEPT ART, BOSS FIGHTS, ABILITIES, ENDEARING SIDE CHARACTERS AND SO MUCH SYMBOLISM. I WORKED OUT GAME MECHANICS, I KNEW HOW THE PROGRESSION WOULD FEEL AND HOW THE ANIMATION WOULD LOOK. I HAD EVERYTHING SHORT OF A SCORE. I HAD THE SEQUEL AND THE DLCS PLANNED OUT. I DESIGNED IT TO EMOTIONALLY INVEST THE PLAYER AND INTRODUCED UNIQUE MECHANICS INTO THE GAME TO SET IT APART FROM OTHER TITLES. Main themes included internal conflict, revenge, the morality of deciding whether you’re human or not, so much gore, choosing your own path, destroying capitalism, environmental issues, how to cope with you being the monster, watching The main characters morality deteriorate. Bomb ass character design if I do say so myself. Would have been a pixel art metroidvania with a distinct Pallette and art style I created. that wasnt detailed at all compared to the real thing but when I tell you I literally have an entire video game franchise I made in my head I am not kidding. The one person I’ve detailed the entire thing out to thought it was genuinely cool so I’m happy about that.

-had a really gay webtoon I plotted out. Character dynamics, pining, coming out, will they won’t they, diverse cast. Punching homophobes included. Lovable characters. Emotionally investing. Cute name. Not as detailed as everything else but I still like my idea. A trans big sister figure who I don’t think anyone could hate.

-an entire warrior cats book series, loosely plotted out. I wasn’t alone in making this actually, a friend and I did it together. All original characters, we made all for clans. Drew and developed self inserts. Complicated dynamics. Included outcast trope, kinda creep behavior (to me at least). Naive characters, sibling dynamics, very good art my friend made- Full pallettes and ref sheets to.

BRO I WAS TWELVE HOW DID NO ONE REALIZE I HAD ADHD JFC

the problem is most of the details are in my head. I’ve written and drawn a large chunk of this out but I have so much more to do ugh. I do have some old writing I’ve been going through and a chunk of it holds up so there’s hope yet.

*protective of my own ideas sorry if these are vague lol. I love some of these and I’ve filled sketchbooks and notebooks with them. I’m just paranoid sometimes.

[rose-arwen-padme]

10-18-22 The Prologue

Padmé is here, and she has a story to tell.

At this time, I don't plan on revealing when in the timeline Padmé is speaking to us, but it's safe (and rather obvious) to say it's after Anakin has fallen. As much as I am excited to tell the AOTC courtship story, I wanted to explore it from the perspective of a Padmé who knows the devastating big picture like we do-- someone who sees the moments on Naboo, Tatooine, etc. through the context of what will come. It brings a whole new level of gravity and bittersweetness. This awareness will be subtly used in the majority of chapters, but fully delved into in the prologue and eventual epilogue.

At just four pages, this is the shortest "chapter" in Suppression. But I cannot underscore enough how many times I revisited it before publishing. It needed to sound like Padmé. It needed to have the hook. But while I did not write this story for them, there's also a little gauntlet-throwing to the many, many detractors of Anidala. The Star Wars fandom is notoriously, ahem, how should we say this? Opinionated. And they've been downright cruel to Anidala, especially pre-Clone Wars show. Being an Anidala fan has been hard for the past twenty years. We've all been there-- sometimes, it's awkward just to admit you're a big Star Wars nerd to non-nerds. But to feel hesitant amongst your own SW tribe to voice your support for the characters/couple you like, knowing the judgement is coming? Rough. I don't think I've ever brought Anidala up in person to a fellow SW fan and not been met with eye rolls and arguments. When I say Padmé is my favorite character, at best I'm met with polite but confused nods. For a while, I lied and said another character just to avoid it.

No more.

That said, I want to make a point clear: Padmé is not breaking the fourth wall in the prologue. I find it very plausible that, in-world, Padmé experienced or expected the perspectives she's defending her and Anakin's love against. If she'd lived through Polis Massa, unfortunately, I have no doubt she would've been met with confusion and judgement almost everywhere she went. She had her counter-arguments ready.

Padmé is very much alive in Suppression, and she has a story to tell. For as long as it takes to tell it, she's got the floor.