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kazoosandfannypacks · 11 months ago

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summary: "Though all Mandalorians placed heavy emphasis on the value of their beskar armor, for some it was just armor, a thing only to be taken up in a time of war. Others believed that to remove your helmet or even so much as a glove around another living being was to make yourself an outcast. Most Mandalorians fell somewhere on the spectrum between them, and house Wren and its clan leaned towards the latter, not allowing themselves to remove their helmet. Their custom held one distinct caveat: once a Mandalorian had chosen a partner, a partner for life, their souls bound by a tie no man could sever— then, and only for them, could they remove their helmet, and share their face for the first time with another living soul." or, "the au in which ezra falls for sabine without even seeing her face" word count: 7927 words a/n: I hope you guys are having a great week! the good news is that I'll hopefully be writing more fic over the next couple weeks! the bad news is that that's because I'm on crutches at the moment and avoiding doing fanarts for related reasons… let's just say, I now know firsthand that getting stabbed in the foot REALLY hurts. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this fic, because I had a lot of fun writing it! It's my longest sabezra oneshot, so far, so that's exciting! shoutout to the talented and creative @kanerallels and the lovely and sillygirlcoded @laughingphoenixleader for betaing! taglist: @laughingphoenixleader @accidental-spice @kanerallels @piraterefrigerator @jedi-nurse @dootchster @lucasbridger @redroverrider @light-umbra @commander-tech @jedimandalorian @notanodinarygirl {if you’d like to be added to or removed from my Sabezra taglist, let me know!}

also on ao3!

This is (Kinda) The Way

There were two kinds of people Mandalorians disagreed with— others and themselves. For every disagreement a Mandalorian had with an outsider, they had even more among their own ranks. Customs, traditions, and language were the biggest one, especially when it came to the one thing that united them all— their armor.

Though all Mandalorians placed heavy emphasis on the value of their beskar armor, for some it was just armor, a thing only to be taken up in a time of war. Others believed that to remove your helmet or even so much as a glove around another living being was to make yourself an outcast.

Most Mandalorians fell somewhere on the spectrum between them, and house Wren and its clan leaned towards the latter, not allowing themselves to remove their helmet. Their custom held one distinct caveat: once a Mandalorian had chosen a partner, a partner for life, their souls bound by a tie no man could sever— then, and only for them, could they remove their helmet, and share their face for the first time with another living soul.

🧡•💜•🧡

If this were a normal day, Ezra would be sitting on the familiar outskirts of his home city right now, feasting on whatever he could get his hands on. Instead, he was on a starship in the vacuum of space, with a group of rebels who thought it better to steal for others than for themselves— and somehow, it felt right, not just helping others, but the people he was helping others with.

In the few days he'd been on the Ghost, he'd gotten to know everyone pretty well. Hera was kind and brave, Kanan was cranky but meant well and cared about people almost as much as Hera did, Zeb would flatten him if he got within two feet of himself or his food, and Chopper loved nothing more than making others miserable— overall, it wasn't an awful combination.

The one member of the crew Ezra had a hard time connecting with was Sabine. Maybe it was because of how she'd shrug him off whenever he'd talk to her, or the fact that she didn't eat in the galley with the rest of the Spectres— but more than likely, it was because she was always wearing that helmet, and the armor that (mostly) matched it. He'd never seen her without it, and from what he'd gathered, no one else in the crew had either.

That afternoon, he'd run into her in the galley, as she was grabbing a meal to take back to her room. No one else was around, so he figured now was as good a time as any to risk a social blunder.

"Why do you always wear that armor?" Ezra asked.

Sabine stopped partway through the cup of juice she was pouring herself, just for a moment, then continued.

"I'm a Mandalorian," Sabine said.

"Okay?" Ezra shrugged. Mandalorians had come to Lothal before, and they'd had no problems with taking off their helmets. "I've seen Mandalorians take off their helmets before."

"Well, they must not've been from clan Wren," Sabine said. That was the closest she gave to an explanation before storming off, much faster than normal.

Ezra told himself not to replicate that mistake again.

🧡•💜•🧡

"Can I talk to you?" Ezra asked, taking a seat in the cockpit diagonal from Hera— Sabine's seat, he could tell from the paint job, but she wasn't around anyways at the moment.

"Sure," Hera said.

"I just," Ezra sighed, "I know you're the best person to ask— that is if I don't wanna get laughed at for asking or end up getting my question answered with two more questions I don't know the answer to like Kanan always does."

Hera smiled a little as Ezra said that, which he added to his mental folder of What Exactly Is Going On Between Kanan And Hera, Anyways?

"Why doesn't Sabine take off her helmet?" Ezra asked, "I know lots of Mandalorians who do, well, one or two of them, and I don't really personally know them, but..."

He could tell his question had been a serious one to Hera, because when he asked, she turned away from the ship's controls for the first time since before he came in. Instead, she turned to Ezra, her hands folded in her lap as she leaned toward him.

"Not all Mandalorians are the same," Hera said, "just like not all Twil'eks, humans, or Jedi. Different clans have different customs they adhere to."

Ezra nodded. That kind of made sense.

"What happened to the rest of Sabine's clan?" Ezra asked. It was hard to tell exactly how old she was because of the helmet, but she didn't seem too much older than he was, and he'd never heard mention of her family.

"Mandalorians are a brave people," Hera answered, slowly, "fierce warriors who don't like change in their customs and traditions. Naturally they're not the kind of people the Empire likes having around. I never asked questions when we found Sabine, at least, not after I learned she wouldn't answer them."

Hera shook her head, and Ezra nodded. The Empire had probably done the same thing to Sabine's family that they'd done to his.

"Armor is important to a Mandalorian," Hera said, "handed down from generation to generation. It might be one of the only things she still has."

"I get it," Ezra said, and stood up to leave.

"One more thing," Hera said, and Ezra turned back to her, "she may have a rough exterior, but that doesn't mean she doesn't need a few good friends."

Ezra nodded. If there was anyone who seemed hard to make friends with, it was Sabine— so if there was anyone who needed friends, it must be her.

🧡•💜•🧡

Even in the midst of yet another heated disagreement with Chopper and Zeb, Ezra wasn't gonna abandon Operation Be Sabine's Friend, so when he saw her painting in her room with the door open, he only felt it right to stop and say hi.

"What are you working on?" Ezra asked, leaning his arm against the doorframe.

"A little piece I like to call 'none of your business.'"

"Okay," Ezra shrugged, "well, if you ever get tired of painting 'none of your business' and need inspiration..."

"I'll be sure to look elsewhere," Sabine said, then mumbled something under her breath in some language Ezra didn't understand.

Ezra didn't have time to ask what that meant before Chopper zoomed by, running into Ezra and almost knocking into him, and leaving Ezra to forget about his quest to befriend Sabine.

At least, until that night, when he counted it a victory that Sabine had painted himself and Zeb on the wall of their room, even if it was the most humiliating representation of him he'd ever seen.

🧡•💜•🧡

Ezra knocked on Sabine's door, and was surprised when she actually opened it this time.

"What is it?" Sabine asked, arms crossed.

"She must be in a better mood than normal today," Ezra thought.

"I just," Ezra shrugged, "I know you like doing art and painting and stuff, and you do a really good job at it."

"And?" Sabine asked.

"I," Ezra pulled a stormtrooper helmet out from behind his back, "I wanted to know if you'd paint this for me?"

"Why?"

"I wanted a helmet to wear on missions," Ezra said, "that way no one knows who I am."

"What, using other criminal's names as an alias just isn't cutting it for you?"

"I'm serious," Ezra said.

"Then wouldn't it be better to leave it plain?" Sabine asked, though she took the helmet from him, which was a good sign, and she held it up and surveyed its surfaces.

"Nope," Ezra said, "last time I went in there with a white bucket, Zeb said he couldn't tell the difference between me and the troopers and knocked me out cold. I don't want him to have that excuse anymore."

"I'll see what I can do," Sabine said. She closed the door before Ezra could get another word in, and he didn't see her for the rest of the day.

🧡•💜•🧡

"Look alive, Jedi!"

Ezra looked up just in time to see an unidentified flying object hurtling towards his face, and surprised himself by catching it— this Jedi stuff was really paying off. He looked at the large chunk of plastoid in his hands and quickly recognized it as the helmet he'd given Sabine the previous morning, though now it had a fresh paint job. Ezra didn't know much about art, but he could recognize Sabine's handiwork.

"It's perfect," he said, looking up overtop it to see Sabine, seating herself proudly on the table he was sitting at.

"It's nothing," Sabine said, "the only thing better than painting is defacing Imperial property in the process."

Ezra smiled as he tried the helmet on, suddenly remembering something else he'd taken— or, helped take, anyways— from the Empire.

"This is great," Ezra said, then leaned closer to her, "I just might commission you to work your magic on some other stolen Imperial property, if you're up to it. Something much larger than a helmet."

He could hear the excitement in her voice, despite how hard she tried to hide it.

"What do you have in mind?"

🧡•💜•🧡

"A TIE Fighter?" Sabine asked, standing outside the cave on Lothal not long after, "are you crazy?"

"Come on," Ezra said, wondering if this was a mistake, "you said you wanted to deface government property."

"How did you even get a TIE Fighter here?" Sabine asked.

She walked around the fighter, clearly studying its surfaces as though envisioning what they'd look like when she was done with it.

Ezra smiled. She'd already taken the bait.

"Zeb and I may have 'borrowed' it when we went on a wild meiloorun hunt," he explained.

"Yeah," her helmet peeked out around the wing she was standing behind, "and Kanan and Hera told you to destroy it."

"I know," Ezra fake-sighed, "but our options were blow it up without the best explosives expert on our team— or leave it as a canvas for her next masterpiece. I guess the choice is up to you..."

"Go grab my spraycans."

🧡•💜•🧡

Ezra had never watched Sabine work before, but she'd said he could stay as long as he kept lookout at the mouth of the cave and didn't say anything, and Ezra took that as a step up from the usual.

He bit back his hundreth question in the last few hours, knowing that if he was going to get Sabine mad at him for talking, it would have to be something a lot better than "is orange your favorite color? Mine too."

He held his hand out and sensed as much as he could, every Loth Rat and Loth Cat within a good sized radius of the cave— but not another sentient life for about as far.

The very first orange hues started creeping into the horizon. They'd need to be getting back soon.

He turned back to Sabine, and since he couldn't see her face, he'd learned to read her body language to make up for it, and she seemed to really be enjoying herself and her work.

He'd never seen an artist at work before, and was impressed by how in command of the spraycan she was. Ezra had tried drawing once or twice, and found his Loth Cats looked like angry jogan fruits, and his people looked like a platter of noodles that'd just had a very bad day.

Apparently, reflection on his own inability to draw wasn't the best thing to do on an empty stomach.

But Sabine's art was almost less like a drawing and more like a piece of herself, like maybe if Ezra studied it enough, he'd see all the pieces of her she hid.

And if that was the case, then she must be absolutely beautiful.

"Wow," Ezra whispered, apparently not as quietly as he absentmindedly had thought.

"That doesn't sound like not talking," Sabine was quick to reply.

"Sorry," Ezra shook his head, not even having noticed until now how hard he was staring at her, "I just, how are you so good at that?"

"Practice," Sabine said, "a little hard work and discipline will get you pretty far."

"That's what Kanan's always saying," Ezra rolled his eyes.

"Well maybe you should start listening," Sabine called back, "or, at the very least, stop talking."

"Sorry," Ezra said, then looked back out at the horizon. As much as he enjoyed this secret painting session, he was getting hungry, and knew the rest of the crew would be suspicious if he missed a meal.

"We should get heading back soon," Ezra said, "It's almost dark."

"I'm almost done," Sabine said, adding one last white stripe, "there. Now I'm done."

Ezra got up and walked over to the TIE Fighter, in awe.

"Am I allowed to talk now?" Ezra asked.

"I guess," Sabine said. He could hear the sarcasm in her voice as she packed up her art supplies.

"It's amazing," Ezra said, "way to stick it to the Empire."

"I am pretty good at what I do," Sabine shrugged.

"Oh, more than that," Ezra said, "it's a shame no one else will ever see this."

"It's not about others seeing it," Sabine said, grabbing her case of spraycans, "this one was for me. It's about the process."

Ezra nodded. After seeing how lost in the process Sabine got, he understood why it all meant so much to her.

"Sabine?" he said, as they left the cave.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for sharing it with me."

🧡•💜•🧡

Ezra had always thought Sabine was cool. He met her stealing from the Empire, and she'd jumped off a rooftop onto a moving speederbike— how much cooler could someone get? Combined with the custom armor and quick wit, she was strong contender for coolest person he'd ever met.

And the more he got to know her, the cooler she got. She designed her own armor. She was a weapons expert. She was, apparently, fluent in two different languages, which was probably what made her so quick to come up with insults.

Sabine always knew what to say, good or bad— usually scalding and rude— and Ezra didn't mind hearing it. Somehow she could make an insult feel as special as a compliment. It was almost like the sound of her voice was enough to give him unreasonable joy.

"Ugh," Zeb growled one night as he trudged into their room, "why haven't you gotten rid of that thing Sabine painted on the wall?"

"It's not a thing!" Ezra defended, sitting up on his bunk, "it's art."

"It's a stupid drawing of us from years ago," Zeb said, "and frankly, I'm getting tired of looking at it."

"Yeah," Ezra said, "well, I'm not."

He turned his back to him as he laid back down, but not before noticing a smile on the Lasat's face, and he could hear him chuckle over his shoulder.

"That's what I thought," Zeb said, smugly.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," Zeb laughed, something surprisingly not unpleasant in his voice.

Ezra recognized that tone. It was the same tone the guys on the base used whenever he'd tell them about the latest mission he'd gone on with Sabine, and it usually carried a "wow, Bridger, when are you gonna just ask the tin can out already?" with it. The other young guys in the rebellion were, well, just that, young guys. They could scarcely go more than five minutes without talking about girls and who was going with who and which girls they would be going with if this war ever gave them a night off, so it was only natural that they'd joke about the possibility that Ezra had a crush on Sabine.

But Zeb? Zeb had never talked with Ezra about girls or feelings or anything like that before, never even hinted at it— until now. Something about a mostly-trusted, somewhat-wise, maybe-in-some-ways-experienced crewmate hinting at it made the possibility of Ezra liking Sabine made it feel all the more real.

"There's no way I have a crush on Sabine," Ezra thought, "I've never even seen her face before. I mean, she is amazing, coolest person I know. And sure, I like spending time with her, and anytime I start talking to her I don't want to stop, but that's normal, right? And sure, my heart skipped a beat that time she grabbed my arm to pull me out of the way of Imperial fire, but what if that's just the adrenaline of the fight, right? Just because I can't stop thinking about her and want to keep hanging out with her for the rest of my life and feel all giggly whenever I think about her doesn't mean I have a crush on her, right?"

He looked over at her handiwork graffitied on his wall and smiled rather stupidly.

"Who am I kidding?" Ezra sighed, "I definitely have a crush on her."

🧡•💜•🧡

It wasn't too long before Ezra had realized that not only did he have feelings for Sabine, those feelings were growing. More and more frequently, he caught himself thinking about her when he was supposed to be doing other things like Jedi meditations and recon missions.

A favored distraction of his male curiosity was Sabine and her constantly shrouded face. He respected her privacy, and never attempted to see her face— besides, maybe the mystery was part of the charm— and often when he'd fall asleep at night, he'd try to imagine what her face looked like. At first, the faces ended up looking similar to other people, girls he'd met on the base, a bounty hunter he'd had a run-in with, or even a merchant girl he'd seen in the village. But every time, she seemed Not Quite Right, and he'd try again. Eventually he started coming up with all kinds of versions of her— one night she'd be a redhead, the next he'd imagine her with green skin, then after that she'd have eyes that were just black blobs— it didn't really matter. He'd only ever see her with her helmet on anyway, so what did it matter?

But even with the helmet, anytime she walked in the room, he could feel his heart race like she was the most beautiful girl alive.

🧡•💜•🧡

"Karabast," Ezra muttered, jumping back a bit by instinct from the blue milk that overflowed from the glass he was pouring it into and spilling all over his hand, and now onto the floor.

"I should know better than to pour myself a drink when Sabine enters the galley," Ezra thought, setting his drink down on the counter behind him as he searched for a cloth to clean it up with, "a Jedi has to stay focused."

"Need a hand?"

He heard Sabine's voice behind him and turned around quickly— too quickly, as his forehead rammed into helmet.

"Ow!" Ezra said, wondering what could possibly make an armor that hard.

"Sorry," Sabine said, and her gloved hand touched the now-sore spot on his forehead, "are you alright?'

"I'm fine," Ezra said, ignoring the pain in his forehead for the moment. He'd dropped the towel, and now he swirled it around the floor with his foot to clean up the spill, knowing that as bad as the injury was, it couldn't be nearly as bad as what would happen if Hera caught sight of the mess he'd made. "My forehead isn't dented, is it?"

"I'm no medic," Sabine said, opening the conservator and scrounging around in it, "but it looks like it'll be the opposite. At least you'll be able to make up one of your elaborate stories about the bump it'll leave."

"Oh yeah," Ezra said, "about how I accidentally went head-to-head with a Mandalorian and ended up almost literally crying over spilled milk."

She laughed a little at his attempted joke, then pulled a frozen bag out of the conservator.

"Put this on it," Sabine handed it to him, "that'll numb the pain and slow the bruising, or something like that."

"Thanks," Ezra said, and as he pressed the bag of frozen rations to his forehead, Sabine bent down and finished taking care of his mess on the floor.

"What happened, anyways?" she asked.

"I guess I got distracted," Ezra said, still distracted by her.

"While pouring a glass of milk?" Sabine asked, looking up at him quizzically before turning back to her work of drying up the floor.

"Yeah," Ezra scratched the back of his neck.

"I've noticed you've seemed a little spacey recently," Sabine said, "almost distant. Something on your mind?"

"More like someone," Ezra said, before he could stop himself, and she looked up again before he had a chance to get that stupid love struck smile off his face.

She stopped what she was doing for half a second, then got up off the floor.

"I gotta go," Sabine said.

"Sabine...."

She tossed the towel onto the counter behind him and turned to leave, but Ezra didn't want to see her go, not now or ever. He searched his words for something to say that would make her stay.

"I don't know how to ask you out!"

Ezra could tell without even needing to see her face that, as unexpected as his words were, Sabine still couldn't've been more surprised to hear him say that than he was. Still, she stopped and turned halfway back to him, so whatever he'd just done, had accidentally worked.

"What?"

"Normally if I wanted to ask a girl out," Ezra said, knowing the oncoming ramble was going to sound desperate— which wasn't entirely inaccurate, "which, technically I never have— at least, not with it actually leading to a date— but if I did, I'd ask them if they wanna go get dinner, which you, specifically, don't really do with people. So then I'd ask about getting ice cream instead, but then: same problem. So then I've been trying to think of different activities you like that we could do together, but all I could think of is fighting the Empire and defacing government property— which we already do together, and could do more of, but those don't really sound like date night activities, unless we were holding hands, but...."

Sabine had walked over to him while he was rambling, and now she stood in front of him, arms crossed.

"Are you asking me on a date, Ezra?" Sabine asked.

"I'm trying to," Ezra said, "is it working?"

"Me?" Sabine asked, "you want to go on a date with me?"

"That's the hope," he shrugged, "if you're up for it."

"Why?" Sabine asked, "is this some cheap attempt to try and get my guard down? It's not some ploy to try to see me without my helmet, right? Because...."

"I know," Ezra said, "you don't take your helmet off. It's a clan thing. I wouldn't ask that of you."

Sabine took a heavy breath. "You'd really go out on a date with me, armor and all, just because you like to spend time with me? No ulterior motives?"

"Absolutely."

"And you're okay with the fact that you'd never see my face?"

"Absolutely," Ezra said.

"How about a holofilm at seven tomorrow night?"

"Eat dinner separately first?" Ezra asked.

"Sounds like a date."

He smiled as Sabine walked away, unsure how he'd managed to do that, but very glad that he had.

🧡•💜•🧡

About halfway through the holofilm, Sabine's hand found its way into Ezra's.

"You're okay with the fact that I'm wearing gloves?" Sabine had whispered.

"Of course," Ezra'd whispered back, his emotions a flutter at the mere fact that she was on a date was him, that her hand was in his at all, even with the layer of leather between them.

Sabine Wren had said yes to a date with him, and now their fingers were interlocked as they watched a holofilm together at the base's rec room. Her helmet, hard and heavy though it was, laid against his shoulder. What more could he possibly ask for?

As they walked back to The Ghost together afterwards, their fingers were still entwined.

Ezra noticed the chill in the air— he'd been planning on it, and had worn a jacket over his nicer shirt tonight, because he knew either he'd be cold, or, better yet, she'd be cold, and he'd have the chance to do what the boyfriends in all the old holos did.

Much to Ezra's delight, Sabine shivered as a gust of wind blew across the base.

"Those old Mandalorian traditions don't say anything against wearing a jacket over your armor, do they?" Ezra asked.

"Well, no," Sabine said, and before she could say anything more, he'd let go of her hand, taken his jacket off, and draped both the jacket and his arm over her shoulder.

"How's that?" Ezra asked.

Sabine huddled a little bit closer to him.

"Perfect," she said.

They walked together in silence for a moment, Ezra knowing full well that if he opened his mouth he'd ruin the moment and blow all chances of a second date.

"Ezra?" Sabine asked, her voice a whisper as they neared the Ghost.

"Yeah?"

She stopped in her tracks, and he did too.

"Do you want to do this again sometime?" Sabine looked at him, her head barely tilted up, a glimmer of a reflection of the stars in her visor.

"If it's all the same with you," Ezra said, his tone still hushed, "I'd like to do this again a lot more times."

"Really?" Sabine asked, "you wouldn't have a problem going steady with someone you've never seen face to face?"

"Of course not," Ezra said, and he turned toward her and took both of her cold gloved hands in his, "I could spend the rest of my life with you and still not have a problem with never seeing your face."

Sabine didn't respond, and Ezra was bad enough at reading expressions, but especially when he couldn't even see the other person's expressions. Maybe that was too soon, too fast. On any other first date, that would've seemed too forward, but when you've been fighting side by side with someone for years, living on the same ship and sharing your struggles, a first date hardly felt like the first one. Still, maybe something as big as "I want to spend the rest of my life with you," was a little too much for a first date doorstop conversation, and he'd probably ruined his chances right there.

He loosened his grip on her hands, but she tightened hers, not letting his hands slip away.

"I don't always have to wear my helmet, Ezra," Sabine said.

"What?" Ezra asked, "I mean, I know you take it off to eat, and probably to sleep too, and maybe when you use the sonic, not that I've thought about that, but you always have to wear it around others, right? That's what Hera said."

"Hera doesn't know everything," Sabine said, "I can take off my helmet, but...."

Her voice trailed off, but he desperately wanted to follow it. He nodded and squeezed her hands a little, silently pleading her to continue.

"Our clans customs don't say we can't ever take off our helmets," Sabine said, "but that the only person who can see us without our helmets is our ruusaar riduur, our life partner. It's a huge commitment, one that some spouses don't even make with each other."

Ezra smiled. "So you're saying I have a chance?"

"I'm saying there's almost no chance," Sabine said, "like I said, it's a commitment, and I don't do so well with committing to anything, and, besides, we'll probably fall apart before we reach that point anyway."

"Not on my watch," Ezra said, not about to let anything happen to push Sabine out of his life, "and thank you for telling me."

"This still doesn't change anything."

"Of course not," Ezra said, "I still love you just the way you are."

He was barely an inch or two taller than her, but that didn't stop him from standing on his tiptoes, leaning towards her, and planting a kiss on top of her helmet.

"Same time next week?" Sabine asked.

"It's a date," Ezra said.

🧡•💜•🧡

Several dates and missions and trials and soft-giggles-while-staring-at-each-other-from-a-distance-es later, Sabine found herself with the choice to go back to help her people. Though Ezra strongly encouraged her to go, it wasn't without tears on both of their parts, and if it wasn't for the whispered, "I'll wait for you"s in their goodbye hug before she left, he would've certainly assumed it was over for them.

But instead he held out hope for them, trusted that the same force that brought them together and connected them across the galaxy would bring them back together, and his waiting paid off not long after, when he found her in his arms again, this time in a hug that meant hello instead of goodbye.

"I've missed you," Ezra whispered, holding her tightly and not willing to let her go, ignoring for the moment that Kanan and her entire clan were watching them.

"Me too," Sabine whispered.

He then let her go, knowing he hadn't made a great impression on her family the first time he met them and wanting to rectify that— especially when they began the mission to save her father. Maybe he kriffed up in his first meeting with her mom and her brother, but he determined that her dad's first impression of him would be a good one.

🧡•💜•🧡

"Are you with my daughter?" Alrich asked, as Ezra jumped in to save him as part of their mission.

"If that's okay with you, sir," Ezra said, then realized the question was about the status of her rescue mission, not the status of her relationship, "I mean, uh, yeah, we're, uh, we're here to rescue you."

Though his answer wasn't more rambly than normal, he felt more like an idiot than normal. Sabine always found his stumbling through his words cute and endearing, but the other Mandalorians didn't appreciate his candid words much, preferring instead to see action. So, Ezra made sure to show plenty of it, fighting alongside them later with such reckless boldness that he took a blaster bolt to the left shoulder and still kept going until the battle was over.

As the medical droid tended to his wound, Sabine sat next to him, holding his right hand lovingly as she sent forth a flurry of angry Mando'an words at him that amounted to a more colorful version of "don't you dare do something that dangerous and stupid again."

"Aww, 'Bine," Ezra smiled under his helmet, (he always wore one of his repurposed helmets on Krownest, to respect her people's traditions,) "I didn't know you cared so much."

"Maybe next time that happens I'll just let you bleed out," Sabine teased.

"You wouldn't dare," Ezra said, "besides, what is it you always say? Something about finding my combat skills and selfless bravery attractive?"

"Bravery?" Sabine asked, "more like borderline stupidity."

"And this one was skillful, brave, and borderline stupid," Ezra said, wishing his helmet didn't hide the playful expression on his face, "admit it, you thought it was hot."

"Maybe a little," Sabine said nudging his uninjured shoulder with hers, "just never do something that ho- stupid again, understand?"

"You and I both know I can't avoid that," Ezra said.

"I know," Sabine faked an overdramatic sigh as she rested her head on his shoulder.

🧡•💜•🧡

Apparently his heroics charmed the rest of the clan as well, especially Alrich. Sabine chose to return with Ezra and Kanan to the Rebellion, and as her family gathered to say their farewells, her father bestowed upon Ezra a special gift.

"We want you to have this," he said, and handed Ezra a shoulder pauldron, one that was inlaid with the Wren family crest.

"Thank you," Ezra said, studying the heavy hunk of metal he'd been gifted, then looking up at Sabine's parents with gratitude, "it's a huge honor."

"You were shot protecting our clan," Ursa said, "and Clan Wren honors that. This shoulder guard will protect your arm while it heals. Not even your lightsaber is strong enough to cut it."

"Is this real beskar?" Ezra asked.

"Of course," Ursa said, "it belonged to Sabine's ancestors. Clan Wren has carried it for generations, and counting."

Ezra didn't exactly have time to unpack all the meaning in that sentence, but he was pretty sure those last few words meant something along the lines of Ezra being on his way to becoming part of their clan now, a high honor.

"Thank you," Ezra said.

"Be good to her," was all Alrich said in reply, and as Sabine's hand slipped into Ezra's, he understood what he meant.

"I will," Ezra nodded, "I don't intend to do anything that stupid."

"He made a promise not to do anything stupid," Sabine said.

"The jury's still out on how long Bridger can keep from doing something stupid," her brother interrupted, "but he's earned my respect."

"I'll take care of her," Ezra said, "and if I don't, well, I have full confidence that she can 'take care' of me, and probably knows at least a dozen ways to hide the body."

"Two dozen," Sabine said, and that's when Ezra knew he'd been on Krownest for too long, because there was something almost romantic in the way she'd just threatened him, and he'd been around Mandalorians long enough that he enjoyed it.

🧡•💜•🧡

As soon as they were back on the ship on the way back to the fleet, Ezra took off his helmet. He didn't like how it limited his visibility, its awkward bulk, how heavy it made his head feel. He then took off his gloves so he could fluff his hair up a little— another thing he couldn't stand about his helmet was how sweaty it made his hair, and somehow at the same time staticky, clinging closely to his head in a way that didn't feel natural.

He heard a sigh behind him and saw Sabine sitting on the bench he stood next to, the chin of her helmet resting on her fists, her arms propped up on her knees, apparently watching him with great interest.

"What?" Ezra asked, smiling as he sat down next to her.

"I've missed your stupid face," Sabine sighed, her gloved hand running along his scars as though she thought she'd never see them again. Though they'd seen each other a lot these past few days, Ezra'd never taken his helmet off unless he was by himself— or with just Kanan, who obviously didn't mind that Ezra didn't follow Mandalorian customs around him, and if he had minded, wouldn't've noticed anyways.

But Sabine hadn't seen Ezra's face since before they first went to Krownest together, months ago, and from the tenderness of her leather touch, he knew it'd been too long for her.

"Well," Ezra said, trying to flirt back and failing to find the words, "I'd missed your stupid, uh, helmet?"

She laughed a little. "It's good to be going home."

Ezra slid his hand under and around hers, and whispered, "you have no idea."

🧡•💜•🧡

Not too long after, Sabine and Ezra sat in the only place they'd ever found they could share a quiet moment together on the Ghost, sitting next to each other on the bottom bunk in Sabine's room.

Well, "sitting next to each other" was an understatement. His arm was wrapped around her, and her hand held his, and her helmet rested on his chest, and they were talking and laughing with each other in a way they were sure no one else in the galaxy had ever experienced or could possibly understand.

"I still don't know how I managed this," Ezra said.

"Managed what?" Sabine asked.

"The coolest, smartest, most beautiful girl in the entire Rebellion is my girlfriend," Ezra shook his head, "not bad for a street rat."

Apparently only one word in that sentence mattered to Sabine.

"Beautiful?" Sabine asked, "Ezra, you've never seen my face."

"I don't have to to know that you're beautiful," Ezra said.

"How do you figure that?"

"Well, I've seen your art," Ezra started, "you're always saying that art is a reflection of the artist, and if that's the case, you must be absolutely gorgeous, because you're the most talented artist I've ever seen."

Sabine nestled closer to him and hid herself even further in his embrace, like she often did when she was embarrassed by how much Ezra was complimenting her. The joke was on her though, because he really enjoyed it when she did that, and it only made him want to shower her with even more praise.

"And I've heard your voice," Ezra said, "and anyone who can make an insult sound as pretty as you can must be very pretty herself. You have a really pretty laugh, too...."

"Okay, I get it," Sabine said, barely stifling a really pretty and slightly flustered giggle.

"I'm not done," Ezra said, "I've also seen how you fight, how graceful and smooth in even the most deadly battles. That's beauty. The pride in each and every one of your explosions that goes as planned, that's beauty. That tone of voice that makes me know your face is shining under that helmet: beauty; the heart you have that can't help but help others, no matter how you try to hide it— it's all so beautiful. You're all so beautiful. Everything about you is beautiful to me."

"But you still haven't seen my face," Sabine said.

"And I've told you a hundred thousand times it doesn't matter," Ezra said, "that I'd spend the rest of my life with you, even if I could never see your face."

"And do you mean that?"

"Every time."

"Not just the 'if you'd never see my face' part," Sabine clarified, "the other part. You said it when we were younger, that you'd spend the rest of your life with me if you could. Do you still mean that as much as you did back then?"

Ezra sat up properly, this conversation seeming to have gotten a bit more serious and wanting to show that he recognized that.

"Sabine, I mean it so much more than I did back then," Ezra said, taking both her hands in his, "every time I say it I mean it a little bit more. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"But do you mean that?"

"With all my heart."

Sabine took a deep breath.

"It's not like I'll never take off my helmet," Sabine said, "showing my face would be a sign of commitment. It would show that I'm absolutely sure I want to spend the rest of my life with someone. I'd have to know that I love someone enough, with all my heart and soul, to want to them to be my forever."

"'Ruusaar riduur' is what you called it before," Ezra said.

��"Yeah," Sabine said.

She slipped her hands out of his, and before he had the chance to wonder if it was because he'd done something wrong, he realized it must be because he'd done something right. Her hands gripped the sides of her helmet, then pulled it off her head.

Ezra found himself absolutely speechless as he looked the face that he'd loved for years but only met now. He'd pictured her looking hundreds of thousands of ways, but this face, with the big brown eyes, and the shy smile, and the dark hair that didn't even reach her shoulders and somehow looked flawless despite her having worn her helmet for the last few hours, and this face— her face— was the most beautiful face he'd ever seen.

It took him a moment to understand what it all meant. If she'd taken her helmet off, that meant that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him— the most beautiful girl in the world (and now he could with all the more integrity say that about her appearance) wanted to share her beauty with him, and only him, for the rest of her life? He didn't think he was lucky enough for this moment to ever come, but now, here it was, and she was lovely, and he loved her, and he'd never wanted to kiss her more in his life, and she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and he could spend the rest of all time with her, and now, now he had to find some way to say the words that were swirling around in his mind.

💜•🧡•💜

"You don't have to do this," Sabine thought, as she let go of Ezra's hands, "he likes you, you like him. Why risk vulnerability and commitment?"

But as she looked at Ezra, she found she wanted commitment more than she'd ever imagined. She wanted him to know her face as intimately as she knew his, to see with his own two eyes who she really was, and for herself to look at him without her visor altering her perception.

So, slowly, giving herself enough time to stop herself if she regretted it, she pulled her helmet off her head, for the first time in front of another life form since she'd put it on as a child, what felt like a lifetime ago. It felt vulnerable, and terrifying, but also freeing. She looked up at Ezra and smiled a little, wondering if he loved her face as much as he loved the rest of her— as much as she loved him.

"Maybe this was a mistake," she thought, "maybe I should've just let him keep whatever version of me existed in his mind." She'd seen him flirt with lots of girls, back before they started dating, and none of them ever looked quite like her. What if, even without her armor, she still wasn't enough for him?

But the smile that spread across his face said it all, and if not, enough words tumbled out at a parsec a minute to make up for the verbiage his expression could've lacked.

"Why did you take off your helmet?" Ezra asked, and though anyone else could've left it at that question, the man she loved would never, and he followed it up with seventeen more. "how are you so pretty? I didn't know it was possible for someone to be so beautiful. Does this mean you want to spend forever with me, because I want to spend forever with you too? You're so pretty. I mean, that's not why I want to spend forever with you. I'd spend forever with you if I didn't get to see your face, but I'm so glad I get to see your face. You're literally the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my entire life; I want to kiss you so badly. I mean, not that I'm gonna kiss you, unless you want me to, I just, I've never seen someone so beautiful in my whole entire life. I just, I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you to be so beautiful, I mean, not that I wasn't expecting you to be so beautiful, but I couldn't've expected you to be so beautiful, but, holy kriff…"

Sabine already had a hard enough time with Ezra complimenting her on things she was often praised for, like her abilities and talents, but now that he was complimenting her on her beauty— she didn't know what beauty was, and how was she supposed to know if she was beautiful? Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and no one had beheld her before, especially not like this. As it was, she almost wished that she was still wearing her helmet, because she was blushing so hard it was almost embarrassing.

This had to stop. At the rate Ezra was going, he could go on talking like this for another three hours without sign of slowing down.

Though Ezra was the only boy she'd ever dated, she knew boys well enough to know they came with one handy special feature— there was a pretty easy way to shut them up, one she'd secretly been wanting to try since before they left Krownest. Somewhere in his rambled confessions, she'd heard the words, "I want to kiss you," and lucky for him, the feeling was mutual.

Before his lips could get him into any more trouble, she took over for them, grabbing him by the shirt collar and sending his lips crashing into hers. It still took him a couple seconds to grasp what was happening and shut up— that's about when the whispered "holy kriff" at the end came in— but he quickly understood the assignment, and as his lips touched hers, his hand touched her face, something passionate and gentle and unfamiliar and overwhelming. No one had seen her face before, let alone touched it. And now, here was his hand, his fingers twirling on her cheek, his other hand on her neck, with his thumb stroking a soft spot behind her ear.

She pulled away from him, all of it seeming too good to be true. But when she read the love and excitement in his shining blue eyes, she believed it herself.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he whispered back.

And now, she was absolutely certain that he meant it.

💜•🧡•💜

A few months later, they were back on Krownest— not for war, or for reunion, but for a wedding.

Sabine had told Ezra that he didn't need to adapt to her customs, that if they forged him his own armor, he'd be making the same commitment to it she had, but he insisted on becoming part of her world. She'd painted his armor herself, colors custom chosen by them both, and repainted her own armor to match it. He'd started wearing the helmet right away, partly because it was better than the repurposed trooper helmet he'd been wearing, and partly because he wanted to get used to the weight of it, and partly because he enjoyed looking like he belonged here.

But except for that and the left shoulder guard that he'd scarcely taken off since he got it, Ezra hadn't worn the rest of his armor until today, when they stood side by side in a private wedding ceremony they held on the Ghost. It was a small gathering, Sabine's family and the Spectres as the only guests in attendance, but the happy couple hardly even noticed them. The ceremony passed quickly, even for a Mandalorian one, which was always quick anyways.

If you'd asked her later, Sabine wouldn't be able to tell you much from that day, except for Ezra, and how she could almost feel the look on his face as he said his vows to her, and how deeply they both meant it when they declared themselves one with each other, and how there'd never been a more precious keldabe kiss (or "bonk of endearment" as Ezra would often call it in his silly little way with words) than the one that followed that ceremony.

And the most perfect moment of her life would come that night, when Ezra held her in his arms without a scrap of beskar coming between them, a pure, intimate, human connection, one that spoke of love, a love of their own, beyond either of their wildest dreams.

💜•🧡•💜

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dumbbitchenergy17 · 2 years ago

Text

Clan of Three - Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Sanctuary

Plot: A Mandalorian, an infant with a history of the jedi, and a teenager with similar powers with an undiscovered lineage. An unlikely group to travel the galaxy together.

Word Count: 7.7K

Pairing: Father Figure!Din Djarin x Platonic!Teen!Reader

Warnings: fighting/violence, injuries, almost character death, some wholesome moments

------

You could describe the past couple of days as the most eventful days of your lifetime. You were kidnapped, hunted by bounty hunters, betrayed and taken by the empire, killed your first person, to then be saved by the man who betrayed you, to end it all with a major gunfight getting shot at before escaping. Yeah, you were open to a boring life after all this.

“Jeez, why are you so heavy-handed!” You shout out in pain as he drags the cloth against the wound. The bullet had only grazed your arm but it is the first and hopefully the only time you were shot so it hurt a lot.

“You’re lucky it only grazed you, what were you thinking joining in the fight?” He says scolding you like you were his child, he sprays the bacta spray making you wince in pain before he wraps a bandage around your arm. He moves from your arm putting a salve along your neck for the bruises.

“It’s not like you were winning, we only got off that planet because of the other Mandalorians.” You retort and he ignores you grabbing your leg your boot already off and looking at your ankle. It was swollen a gross red and purple. He slowly rotates it and you grab the chair to focus on something else and the ship shakes slightly making Mando pause. He wraps the bandages around your ankle before standing up.

“Looks sprained, be grateful you didn’t break it.” He says moving back to the main seat and seeing the child touching buttons making the ship shake more. He grabs him moving him to his lap, “Stop touching things.” He pushes buttons pulling the holomap before a planet appears and you read the name of the planet.

“Sorgan?” You question shifting your weight keeping your foot stretched out returned back in the boot. You hope this planet had no bounty hunters ready to kill you. What you needed are a warm meal and a hot shower.

“Looks like there's no starport, no industrial centers, no population density. Real backwater skug hole. Which means it's perfect for us.” Hearing the description of the planet makes you groan. Guess no hot shower on this planet. “You ready to lay low and stretch your legs for a couple of months, you little womp rat?” He says looking down at the child and glancing back at you.

“Who you calling womp rat?!” You say and he looks forward to setting the coordinates on the hyperdrive and traveling to the planet. Soon the planet appeared your eyes widened seeing the lush green of trees and grass and wide ponds of water, something you’d never seen before. Flying over them before Mando finds a clearing landing the ship. Turning off the engine he stands up turning to look at the two of you.

“Nobody's gonna find us here. Now listen. I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna look around. It shouldn't take too long. Now, don't touch anything.” He says aiming at the child before looking at you, “And no tampering with the ship.” You raise your hands frowning. It was literally one time and you made it better. “I'll find us some lodging, then I'll come back for you. Just stay there. Don’t move.”

“Okay go already.” You say and he gives you a look before leaving the cockpit and you hear the ramp opening up. You look over at the child understanding the look he was giving. Mando walks down the ramp pausing looking back seeing you and looking down at his foot seeing the child clutching his boot. He sighs looking up at the sky.

“What the hell? Fine..come on.” He says grabbing the child and the three of you make your way. Your eyes are darting everywhere taking it all in. Your hand traces the tall trees feeling the rough bark and the softness of the tall grass as it flows in the wind. You’ve never seen anything so beautiful before.

“Stop dragging what’s got you like this?” Mando calls out looking back and seeing you trailing back a few feet looking at the most captivating flower. You look over at him with a look of awe in your eyes as you hobble over to him still taking in nature.

“I’ve never seen this much green before.” You say and Mando looks down at you. How could he forget, you came from a desert planet and have never traveled the galaxy, this all was new to you, with the planets, the people, everything. Following the wooden path until you reach a large building the smell of meat and spices filling your nose. Sitting at a table Mando situates the child in a children’s chair and a human worker comes over with a friendly smile on her face.

“Welcome, travelers. Can I interest you in anything?” She says,

“Bone broth, for the little one, and a regular broth for the girl.” He says pointing at the child and yourself.

“Oh, well, you're in luck. I just took down a grinjer, so there's plenty.” She nods writing it down, Can I interest you in a porringer of broth as well?”

Mando shakes his head “Just the two.” The woman nods and you look around the common house seeing in the corner a woman, she had black hair styled on one side wearing green armor. You see around her armor some sort of tattoo and it seems like Mando noticed her as well, “That one over there. When did she arrive?” He nods over to the woman and the waitress looks over.

“I've seen her here for the last week or so.” She says and Mando keeps looking, “What's her business here?”

“Business? Oh, well, there's not much business in Sorgan, so I can't say,” She hesitates to say before Mando pulls out a few extra credits to pay for the food and the information and the woman quickly accepts, “She doesn't strike me as a log runner. I will get that broth to you as soon as possible, and I will throw in a flagon of spotchka just for good measure.” She says stepping back, “I will be right back with that.” She walks away to get your food and you see Mando look back to keep eyeing the woman but she’s long gone. He stands up as the woman comes by with the food and drinks.

“Keep an eye on the kid.” He says to you before disappearing around the corner. You shrug taking a sip of your broth, the warm liquid soothing on your throat settling nicely in your stomach. This was step one in your plan next a nice relaxing shower…or maybe a hot spring. Does this planet do that? A few minutes had passed and you look at where Mando once sat and the other woman. He better not have gotten himself in a fight. Looking at the child you stand up pulling it from its seat still holding its broth.

“Come on let’s go find that idiot.” You say before quickly turning to grab the bottle of spotchka taking a swig of it. You instantly make a face the burn of the liquid making you gag. Maker, how did anyone like this stuff? Following the same way Mando had left you follow the path before you hear the sound of fighting coming from an alley. Turning down you see Mando and this random woman with their blaster pointed at each other both in a stalemate.

“Are you done?” You call out the two adults turning to look at you leaning against the wall and the child beside your feet sipping his broth. Mando sighs looking at the woman, “You want some soup?”

The four of you sat around the table with three bowls of broth in front of you all except Mando and the large bottle of spotchka that makes you shiver remembering the taste. “Saw most of my action mopping up after Endor. Mostly Ex-Imperial Warlords. They wanted it fast and quiet. They'd send us in on the drop ships. No support, just us. Then when the Imps were gone, the politics started. We were peacekeepers, protecting delegates, and suppressing riots. Not what I signed up for.” The woman who said her name was Carasynthia Dune but told you to call here Cara explains. You were surprised she was a part of the rebellion.

“I’ve heard so many stories about the rebellion, did you see the first Death Star blow-up, or was it the second one? Did you fly an X-Wing?! I heard that Luke Skywalker came from Tatooine where I’m from.” You ramble off before Mando gives you a look that has you quieting down and Cara smirks seeing the fascination on your face.

“How'd you end up here?” Mando asks and Cara takes a shot of the spotchka,

“Let's just call it an early retirement. Look, I knew you were Guild.” She says and you freeze hearing the mention of the guild.

“I figured you had a fob on me,” Mando says casually while you were silently panicking expecting this woman to grab you and the child and run off for her reward.

“That's why I came at you so hard.” Cara says and Mando nods “Yeah, that's what I figured.”

Cara finishes her broth before standing up and looking at the three of you, “Well, this has been a real treat, but unless you wanna go another round, one of us is gonna have to move on, and I was here first.” She says leaving through the main door and you look back at Mando to come up with the next plan.

“What do we do now?” You ask as Mando stays silent.

Moths fly over the lamp attracted to the only light source at night. Mando is working on repairing parts of the outside the Razor Crest, you sat beside a fire you created adding sticks every so often to keep the flames alive. The sound of engines grows louder and you look up pausing in your movement as two speeders appear before you. Mando seems to ignore them as two men climb off their bikes giving a nod in your direction as you watch them silently walk toward the bounty hunter.

“Excuse me…excuse me, sir..” One of them calls out to him and he speaks to them with his back to them continuing to fix his ship.

“There something I can help you with?” He asks and one of them nods slowly as Mando turns to face them,

“Uh, yeah. Raiders. We have money.” They say, seeking his service.

“So, you think I’m some kinda mercenary?” He asks and the two men look at him nervous to be around him.

“You are a Mandalorian, right? Or at least wearing Mandalorian armor.” One of them says pointing at his helmet the symbol of his creed, “That is Mandalorian armor, right.” Mando nods and the man turns to the other, “It is. See I told him.”

The other man speaks up, “Sir, I’ve read a lot about your people…tribe. If half of what I read is true…we have money.”

“How much?” He asks and the man looks desperate, “Everything we have, sir. Our whole harvest was stolen. Krill. We're krill farmers. We brew spotchka. Our whole village chipped in.” He holds out a bag filled with whatever credits were inside and it looked like a lot.

“It’s not enough.” He says walking past them and turning towards the fire adding more wood that you collected not liking the look of your fire as you watch the conversation.

“Are you sure? You don't even know what the job is.” The man begs and it seems he’s unwilling shaking his head,

“I know it's not enough. Good luck.” He says waving them off as you look at him surprised he was rejecting the money.

“This is everything we have. We’ll give you more after the next harvest.” They beg but Mando is final in his opinion. They sigh turning away, “Come on. Let's head back.”

The other man sighs getting onto his speeder bike, “Took us the whole day to get here. Now we have to ride back with no protection to the middle of nowhere.” Those words make Mando pause turning to face them.

“Where do you live?” He asks and the two look at him confused and slightly offended.

“On a farm. Weren't you listening? We're farmers.” One of them says

“In the middle of nowhere?”

“Yes.”

“You have lodging?”

“Yeah. Absolutely.”

Mando nods motioning the two men to the crates, “Good. Come up and help,” The two men hop off their speeders starting to aid having gained their help, “I'm gonna need one more thing. Give me those credits.”

Now joined with Cara you traveled with the humans toward their village. The child was in a bag resting on Mando as you four sat on the back of one of the speeders.

“So, we're basically running off a band of raiders for lunch money?” Cara says looking at the two peasants back to Mando.

“They're quartering us in the middle of nowhere.” He responds, “Last I checked, that's a pretty square deal for somebody in your position. Worst case scenario, you tune up your blaster. Best case, we're a deterrent. I can't imagine there's anything living in these trees that an ex-shock trooper couldn't handle.” He says as your travel to this new village begins. It was morning when you arrived at the village. You had quickly fallen asleep on the speeder and you woke up just before you arrived at the village. Looking at the people watching you all as you arrived at the many areas of the town as they get shouted out, “Everyone, they're here!”

The speeder stops and you all board off Mando gives you a hand so you don’t worsen your leg, “Looks like they’re happy to see us.”

“Looks like.” He nods looking at the people who quickly crowd you all, children younger than you run up looking at the child in interest as he makes some noises at them causing laughter from them.

“Hi. He's so cute.” “Aw!” Some of the children say before some of the older ones that look around your age help unpack the speeder. Looking at the kids your age you watch the way they carry themselves and interact with each other talking and joking with one another.

You follow Mando with the child into what looks like a barn, parts of it look cleared out probably prepared, a woman enters followed by a child who is clutching onto her hand, “I am Omera I hope this is comfortable for you. Sorry that all we have is the barn.” She says and Mando nods dropping his pack as the child wanders into the barn looking at the large baskets of what looks like krill.

“This will do fine,” Mando says and Omera points over to a corner that has blankets laid out,

“I stacked some blankets over here.” Poking from behind her legs is the small girl who glances at you all before hiding further behind her legs, “This is my daughter, Winta. We don't get a lot of visitors around here. She's not used to strangers. This nice man is going to help protect us from the bad ones.” She says picking up her daughter who mumbles a quiet thank you from her mother's neck. She smiles looking at you three, “Come on, Winta. Let’s give our guests some room.” The two leave as you situate yourself in the room. Mando had set up a sort of cradle for the child while you sat looking at your ankle, it still hurt to put a lot of pressure on it but you were able to walk around. What you needed was a shower or something to clean the dirt, sweat, and blood off you. You probably looked insane walking around like this. You push yourself up after pulling your boot on.

“I’m gonna go look around,” You say to Mando as you get ready to leave.

“Kid,” Mando calls out and you look back at him and you see he’s holding out his knife. You look at the knife and him in surprise, he was giving you his weapon, “Be careful. Don’t go too far out.” He says and you slowly take the blade tucking it in your belt and nodding. He dismisses you and you leave the barn just to see Omera and Winta coming over.

“Ah, we were just coming by to give some food..” She trails off never catching your name which you give. “Are you not going to eat Y/n?”

“I was actually wondering if you had a place to bathe just wanted to freshen up,” You ask and she nods pointing towards a building.

“My home you can use anything that you need, leave your clothes on the small chair and I’ll be sure to wash your clothes and have them ready for you when you are ready.” She says and you give your thanks before making your way toward her home. Entering her home seeing touches of her personality and thing that shows it was lived in especially with a child. You make your way into the room containing a large tub covered by a privacy stand, leaning over and turning the handle water pours begin to fill the room with steam. Thank the maker this planet had warm water. You strip off your clothes placing them on the chair that she must be talking about wrapping yourself in a towel. Peeling off the bandages around your arm and the ones on your face putting them aside. Dipping your hand in the water feeling it warm enough before setting the towel aside and stepping into the bath. The hot water makes you hiss slightly in pain but once you settle in you feel your muscle relax. Leaning back in the water you feel truly calm for once in the past few days. Though you weren’t dumb the knife Mando gave you rests right on the lip of the tub in case someone tries to pull something. After relaxing you dip your head under the water bringing yourself up and starting to clean yourself up. There were some natural soaps and creams you assume are homemade that you use to wash the dirt and grime off you and clean your hair. You’re extra careful around the wound on your arm it was still closing up due to the bacta spray but it had stopped bleeding which was good. The warm water felt nice on your ankle and soon the water began to chill and changed from clear water to cloudy with dirt and excess blood. Draining the water you step out wrapping the towel the smell of the soap is pleasant smelling like the trees and grass. Leaving the privacy curtain seeing your clothes moved now to the table looking clean and dry as well. How long were you in that bath? Getting dressed find a brush to get rid of the knots from your hair before you pull your boots on, tuck the knife into your belt, and leave Omera’s home. Stepping outside seeing the sun long set it now evening and you head towards the village center. Looking around at the people speaking to one another their children playing out in front of them. You spot Omera and Winta who seems to be playing with the child. She notices you as well waving you over, “I see you enjoyed the bath, you look more awake.” She says and you nod you definitely felt more awake and feeling better. You see her gaze move to your arm her eyes widening slightly.

“Your arm!” You look down seeing it bleeding just a bit, guess you were wrong about it healing well. You see her grab something from her bag beside her pulling out a bottle and some cloth. She pours the liquid on your skin and you wince slightly from the sting but you watch the wound bubble clean itself before she wraps the cloth around your arm making sure it is tight and secure. “There it should be better now, do you have any other injuries?” The cut on your cheek and temple had long healed by now with the bacta spray not as serious but other than your arm it was just your ankle.

“Just my ankle it was sprained but I’m keeping off it. Where’s Mando?” You say pointing at the foot that you were keeping your weight off and Omera nods. You couldn’t see the familiar helmet or even Cara.

“Your Mandalorian and that woman went out to gather information on the raiders. For your ankle, I may have something back at my home.” She says and the two of you stand up to head over when you spot Mando and Cara returning. The villagers all gather around ready to hear the news.

“Bad news. You can't live here anymore.” Mando says bluntly shocking them who all voice their disagreements.

“Nice bedside manner.” Cara elbows Mando who gives her a look, “You think you can do better.” Cara shakes her head stepping forward, “Can't do much worse. I know this is not the news you wanted to hear, but there are no other options.”

One of the villagers the man you met on the speeder shakes his head, “You took the job.”

“Yeah, that was before we knew about the AT-ST,” Cara says and the villagers look confused even you were. You never heard of anything like that.

“What is that?” Someone calls out, “The armored walker with two enormous guns that you knew about and didn't tell us.” Cara's retorts and the help you thought were simple raiders had become something that involved the empire. Their pleas to help seem to go unanswered the enemy seeming too great for Cara and even Mando. “This is a big planet, just most somewhere else. Trust me I’ve seen smaller.” Cara says and some of the older villagers refused angrily at the two.

“My grandfather seeded these ponds,” One of the framers says, “It took us generations.” Another but in.

“I understand. I do. But there are only two of us.” Mando points out that the difference between fighter and farmer was clear, these people were only civilians they probably never needed to fight in a war before.

“Please give us a chance there’s at least 20 here,” One of the farmers begs and Mando shakes his head, “I mean fighters. Be realistic.”

“We can learn. We can.” One of them says and they all make sounds of agreement, the idea that these people were going to learn how to fight to be raiders that had years of combat experience.

“I've seen that thing take out entire companies of soldiers in a matter of minutes,” Cara says the memories of her time in the rebellion trying to be a warning. Omera steps forward looking at Mando,

“We’re not leaving.”

“You cannot fight that thing!” Cara says pointing out into the forest and looking at Mando who was silent.

“Unless we show them how…you got two problems here,” He says out to the people, “You got the bandits, and you got the mech. We'll handle the AT-ST, but you gotta protect us when they come out of the woods. And I don't have to tell you how dangerous they are. Cara Dune here was a veteran. She was a drop soldier for the Rebellion, and she's gonna lay out a plan for you, so listen carefully.”

Cara steps forward speaking to them all. “Now, there's nothing on this planet that can damage the legs on this thing, so we're gonna build a trap. We're gonna need to dig real deep, right here, so that when it steps in, it drops,” She points out to the ground right in front of their village and the large pond, “The two of us will hit their camp. Provoke them. That'll bring the fight out of the woods and down here to us.” The plan is to lure the raiders out and trap the AT Walker forming.

“I'm gonna need you to cut down trees and build barricades along these edges. I need it high enough so that they can't get over, and strong enough so that it can't break through.” Mando calls out pointing to the large trees from the forest that would build their barricade, “Okay. Who knows how to shoot?” You look around at the crowd of people and only see one hand raise seeing it to be Omera.

The sun is bright the next day the village was very active, some are working on chopping wood to build the barricade, others were with Cara who was teaching them basic hand-to-hand combat with sticks, and Mando was teaching the villagers to shoot. With pots and pans as targets many are missing but you see Omera hit her target. Sitting on a large rock viewing all this you were carving the wooden sticks making them sharp at the ends for fighting. Silently watching while carving when you see Mando saying something to all of them before stepping away. He comes over standing beside the rock you are taller than him sitting on the large boulder.

“How’s it coming along?” He says looking at the pile of sharpened sticks that you’ve been working on for the past hour.

“Just working at it…do you think they can do it, fight against the raiders?” You ask looking at him the villagers practicing shooting and fighting but would these quick lessons be enough? Mando is silent probably thinking about the fight that was ahead of them.

“Come on,” He says holding out a gloved hand and gesturing you to come down. Dropping the stick you were working on into the pile tucking the knife in your belt, and taking his hand he helps you off the rock. You put most of your weight off your bad foot almost falling slightly if it weren’t for Mando’s hold on your hand. He starts walking towards the target practice area as the people working on shooting switches with the people training with Cara. Standing in front of one of the practice targets he pulls his blaster from his holster holding it out to you. He nods his head for you to take it and you grab it with two hands moving to stand in front of the target that is feet away.

“You know what you’re doing?” He asks as you stand silently the gun clutched between your hands. You can only picture the target being the stormtrooper in the room. The bolt hit him right in the chest dead instantly, before you followed suit with the others…and that one bounty hunter, and the man at the Razor Crest. You killed all those people. Would you have to keep doing this until you were home?

“I’ve never killed anyone until Nevarro…” You say out loud the blaster feeling like a weight in your hands. Did they have families? People to go home to? Sure they were a part of the empire and the bounty hunter was trying to kill you but they were still people. Living breathing people. His hand rest on your shoulder a grounding feeling.

“It’s not an easy thing to do…but they would have killed you. Think of that when you have to kill.” He says looking down at you, you probably were living a normal life in Tatooine. You probably had to fight to survive but you didn’t seem like a killer and because of him…because of who you are…you now were. “So stand tall, bring one foot out in front, and keep your weight balanced.” He says his hands grabbing your shoulders making you stand straight as you wipe your face getting rid of the lingering tears that clouded your vision. Looking ahead at the target you listen to his words.

“Keep your knees flexed to absorb the recoil, keep this arm straight the other supporting it,” His hand straightens your dominant arm while fixing the other one, “Make sure your main sight is in focus then move to the fine sight…remember to breathe…” His hands rest over yours before the world around you grows quiet and you can hear each breath you take in and exhale. You can feel the blaster in your hands grounding you, the dirt under your feet the vibrations of the earth. The feeling of Mando’s hands leaving yours, but another feeling. A feeling that covers you like a blanket connecting you to everything. The breeze in the air washed over you, the river flowing into the pond, the sun breathing life into the planet all around you. It connected you to it and you to it…the feeling you felt many years ago, and when you first witness the child.

“And shoot.”

The bolt hits the pan dead center it knocking over as the world grows loud again everything returning to focus as you look forward at the target down. Your hands drop down holding the weapon to your side. Your skin felt on fire a sensation you’ve never experienced before.

“You did well.” Mando says and you look up at him before nodding slightly returning the weapon to him, “Keep that up and you’ll be a sharpshooter.” You can’t ignore the warmth that fills your chest hearing the compliment and noticing the pride that was in his voice. The confident feeling didn’t leave you for the rest of the day.

Dusk arrived and the village had prepared the barricade and set up the weapons prepared and it was up to them to protect their village. Those who weren’t equipped with blasters had sharpened sticks. Mando and Cara were preparing themselves to leave while you also prepared for the battle.

“Kid,” Mando calls out as you finish bringing the children and the child inside the barn turning right outside the door.

“The kids have the child so we can focus on the fight.” You say pointing back at the open door, when he shakes his head a look of confusion was only necessary.

“No, you’re not getting involved in this.” He says and you can’t help but feel frustrated.

“But they need us, they need fighters. I can help!” You say trying to plead your case, why else would he teach you how to shoot, why did Mando give you his knife? You were meant to be out there. But he wasn’t backing down on his decision.

“You need to protect the child, that’s what you can do to help,” He says and you see him pull something out from his pack another blaster, “And if something is to go wrong I want you to take the child and get to the Crest and leave.”

“But what about the village? The people here we can’t just abandon them!” You say you weren’t about to run off and hide if the plan fails.

“What matters is getting you two off this planet away from the fight. If this is to fail you’re safer off somewhere in the galaxy than with those raiders who won’t hesitate to kill you both.” His hands are firm on your shoulders making sure you’re looking right at him and understanding his point. “You leave this planet, understand.” You nod silently biting your lip to not spill out any more words. You take the blaster holding it in one hand and he looks at you once last time before you watch him leave with Cara. He better win this fight.

The night was silently the children hidden in the barn, blankets, and baskets surrounding them as you stand by the door the blaster clutched within your hands waiting. It wasn’t until you hear the rumble of what you assume was the AT-ST that you knew that battle had begun. A loud explosion coming from outside made you jump and slight cries come from the children. The sound of gunfire further away filled the night before you felt a sense of panic fill your lungs and you turn just in time as the laser hit the barn.

The AT-ST shot out into the village hitting the homes of some of the villages until one made Omera scream out panic and pain in her voice, “THE BARN!” Mando felt something in him chill as he viciously killed one of the raiders looking back at where the barn is burning only one thought in his head, the kids.

The fire was hot against your skin as the burning planks of wood of the barely held-together barn were floating up in the air. Your hand was shaking slightly as you held the heavy planks and studs as the children ran out of the barn, “Quickly go now!” You yell out sweat dripping down your face. You’ve never experienced this much power before never trying it against something so heavy, seeing the last child out you threw yourself out rolling on the ground as the barn crumbled the flames burning bright. The rain and darkness wet all out of you as you clutched the blaster in your hands. Mando’s voice rings clear in your head, ‘I want you to take the child and get to the Crest and leave.’ but the children crying out in fear quickly took those thoughts away.

“Come on we gotta move!” You shout out holding your hand out and waving the children to follow you, one of them Winta was holding the child in her arms. Leading them through the rain and darkness hearing the battle raging just a few away. Seeing another large barn you rip the door open, “Everyone inside!” You yell as the children run inside right as you were about to enter something snatches your collar ripping you away from the door and throwing you against the mud.

Looking up seeing one of the raiders with a large blade in hand. A crackle of thunder and lightning fills the air as you roll out of the way. Pushing yourself up as the blade swings down where you once laid. The rain and mud made the ground and view hard to see but the glint of silver have you leaning out of the way of the metal. Kicking your leg out hitting him in the chest pushing him back and you look around for your blaster. Seeing it laying on the ground beside him you were at a disadvantage. Pulling the knife from your belt holding it out dodging his swipes trying to strike out being blocked by his blade. His hand pulls on your hair making you fall on the ground you go to swipe out at him but he kicks your knife out of your hand giving you a cut along your arm. You scramble backward in fear as you watch him raise the blade to deliver the killing blow. You quickly raise your hands up to block yourself when you hear him shout and the sound of him crashing on the ground. Looking up seeing him feet away pushing himself up from the mud. You see the blaster scrambling for it as he runs at you, blade raising a yell coming from him. Your hands wrap around the blaster quickly relaxing your arms and pulling the trigger. It hits him dead center and he falls to the ground. Dropping your blaster falling to your back the rain pours down on you as you catch your breath.

Forcing yourself up you wince in pain in your ankle as you grab the muddy blaster and find your knife holstering it. Looking back at the barn and back to where you see flashes of red and the blaster fire from the AT-ST whipping through the village. You clutch the blaster in your hand before racing toward the fight.

The AT-ST walker hadn’t fallen for the trap leading to Mando and Cara rushing into the pond trying to provoke it as well as fight off the raiders, “It’s not falling for it!” Cara yells out using Mando’s pulse rifle to draw its attention. Mando shoots down a raider coming by Cara punching another that was trying to attack him.

“We gotta get that thing to step forward!” Mando yells the rain beating down on all of them, his mind was torn between two places seeing the barn up in flames hoping you all got out safe and stopping this walker.

“I’m thinking!” Cara yells back, the walker looks down at the two of them bright red lights shining down and the whir of the gun preparing to fire down on them. They couldn’t dodge that in time and even beskar can’t take that large of a blast. A crush of metal fills the air and they see the legs of the walker bend in the wrong way, and the turrets of the guns bend forward to face the walker. Mando looks back, his reaction one of shock hidden behind the beskar helmet. The rain pours down on your covered in mud the flashes of lightning highlighting you. Your hand was held out as your close your fist the metal of the walker crushing more before it falls into the pond.

“It’s now or never!” Cara yells out having seen the AT-ST fall into the pond making Mando look back forward only to see you disappear in the rain. Rushing towards the walker charging a thermal detonator plunging it into the walker’s chassis and blowing it up. The explosion of the walker has the few surviving raiders fleeing back into the woods. The village cheers the battle won as Mando tries calming his beat heart the only thought in his head. What are you?

Weeks had passed since the battle, time to heal and to relax. You had expected a yelling from Mando he saw you during the battle when you were meant to be at the barn, but he hadn’t said anything of the sort patting you on the shoulder. You were showered with thanks from the villagers having protected their children and sort. Healing was a bitch though, you felt absolutely exhausted right after the battle sleeping for hours and during that time Omera had tended to you checking on your ankle you strained more, to the cut you obtained. You probably never slept for that long since being taken from Tatooine. But having decent medicine and not leaving to travel allowed you to heal properly. Soon the cut from the battle and the blaster ray during Nervarro had healed nicely scars as a reminder. Your ankle had gotten better after 2 weeks and you were up and at it taking this free time on this planet exploring. Spending your days joining in on hunts with the adults or traveling with some of the few kids around your age to visit large rolling hills of wildflowers or the large waterfalls that covered your howls and laughter. You felt carefree and happy here something you haven’t felt in the seventeen years of your life.

Mando watches the child playing with some of the kids resting against the support of one of the homes, “He’s very happy here..so is the girl.” Cara says as Mando looks further down the road seeing you with a group of teens your age, a wide smile was on your face as you listen in to one of their stories another was braiding your hair in a style he’s seen some of the women and girls in the village wear.

“So, what happens if you take that thing off? They come after you and kill you?” Cara asks and Mando shakes his head,

“No. You just can't ever put it back on again.” Mando says the rule of his creed is strict, the Mandalorian way of never revealing your face has stuck with him since he was saved by them.

“That's it? So you can slip off the helmet, settle down with that beautiful young widow, and raise your kids sitting here, sipping spotchka?” Cara says clearly seeing the connection the Mandalorian had with the woman of this village. Anyone could see it.

“You know, we raised some hell here a few weeks back. It's too much action for a backwater town like this. Word travels fast. We might wanna cycle the charts and move on.” Mando points out, it wouldn’t be long for some bounty hunter or anyone with an eye for a few extra credits to come looking out here.

“Would not wanna be the one who's gotta tell them,” Cara says, the joy on both of your faces enough to warm her heart, just a few weeks of meeting you three to gain an ally and a friend.

“I'm leaving them here. Traveling with me, that's no life for a kid. I did my job, he's safe and she’s better off here than on some desert planet. Better chance at life.” He says, he felt content leaving they were going to be safe here, but the small twinge in his chest was growing tougher to ignore. No, he couldn’t form an attachment it would never end well.

“Come on. Come on,” Cara sighs looking back at the two children and then at Mando who was walking away, “It's gonna break his little heart and she really looks up to you. You compliment her and she’s glowing the rest of the day.” Mando doesn’t look back and keeps walking.

“They’ll get over it. We all do.”

You had trailed off from the group the sounds of nature were calming around as your hands trace the rough bark, the grass brushing along your legs, it felt like a dream. The number of colors was everywhere unlike the sands of beige and tan on Tatooine. The songs the birds sing as they fly to their nest as you come across a clearing where you see a fawn eating the grass while its doe and buck watch over it protectively. You slowly crouch down watching with fascination unaware of the slow footsteps coming from behind a weapon raised to aim.

A blaster bolt rings clear in the air startling the creatures in the forest and the village right beside it. Mando stiffens Omera jumping in his grasp.

“The children!” Omera yells as they rush off to where the children as looking around in fear with some other adults but when he sees them all alright including the child his head whips to the forest.

Mando rushes through the forest his blaster in his hands when he hears Cara’s voice, coming upon a clearing where she is holding standing over a body and his blood chills maker was it yours? He lets out a breath seeing you stand out of his view and looking down at the body your eyes widen still in shock specks of blue blood from the hunter decorate your face. He holsters his gun and comes over to you grabbing you by the shoulders.

“What were you doing out alone!?” He shouts at you shaking you as your gaze is still glued to the body on the floor, he had come to kill you. You almost died. He shakes you again the shock still glued to you, “Are you listening to me?!” He yells and your eyes snap back to his he was sure you were staring right through his helmet, tears were brimming your eyes. He’s pulled off you by Cara as you turn away from the gruesome look trying to calm your breathing.

“Hey calm down,” Cara says to Mando giving him a look before glancing at you who is trying to calm yourself down. He takes a breath his anger for you fading as he steps toward the bounty seeing a blinking fob. He was right..it was going to happen sooner or later. They knew you and the child were here. You were only lucky somewhere was there before anything could have happened.

The sled was beginning to be loaded as the villagers, Cara and Mando load his supplies to be brought back to the Crest. “Are you sure you don't want an escort?” Cara asks willingly to help as they load the final items.

“I appreciate the offer, but we're gonna bypass the town and head right to the Razor Crest.” He says as Cara nods before holding her hand out,

“Well then, until our paths cross.” Mando accepts her hand both holding on shaking,

“Until our paths cross.”

You look at the small group of friends you had made, hugging them each goodbye before stepping away to Omera who smiles holding a small item wrapped in cloth.

“A salve for if you are to gain any more injuries in your travels.” She says cupping your face and trying to wipe off some of the blood that has dried on your face. You accept her gift wrapping your arms around her she quickly accepts the hug,

“Thank you for everything.” You say before you pull away moving to Cara who pats your arm,

“You look after each other alright?” She says and you nod and she rubs your arm.

“Goodbye Cara.” You get a sad smile as you climb onto the sled the child gets a hug from Winta as you watch Omera speak a few words to Mando before hugging him. He pulls away loading his rifle before climbing on as you watch the village grow smaller the villagers waving goodbye as you leave.

The Razor Crest is silent as the child sits in his cradle playing with his small ball while you were sat in your seat, your hands slowly undoing the braids down in your hair. You were happy there and how quickly it was snatched away from you. “Hey kid,” Mando’s voice calls out and you look up seeing him holding a cloth. Unlike the heavy hand, it’s lighter as it cleans the blood from your face. He pulls away putting the cloth to the side as he takes his seat not moving before he looks back at you, “I’m sorry…for yelling.” You’re staring out the window not looking at him, your hair out of the style of the people you grew to know blocking your face from him.

“Let’s just get off this planet.”

#star wars #star wars fanfiction #the mandalorian #clan of three series #din djarin #din djarin fanfiction #din djarin x reader #din djarin x teen!reader #din djarin x jedi!reader #din x reader #din djarin x y/n #mando x reader

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l0thcat · 7 months ago

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I keep thinking about TBB and how it ended. Or the whole season i should say, the ending was pretty good with a few flaws ( in my opinion ).

And you know, I'm not surprised, as much as i LOVE this show, I'm used to cartoons getting shit. Its been going on for far too long.

Its Disney AND Netflix. And here is a list of shows that were doing good, got told mid season its getting canceled, and a rushed ending.

Amphibia

The Owl House

She Ra and The Princesses Of Power ( 2018 )

Centaurworld*

My Little Pony G4* and G5

Steven Universe*

OK KO lets be heroes.*

Star Trek Prodigy*

Kipo and the age of the wonderbeasts.

The Mandalorian ( i know its not a cartoon but it has the same vibes as TBB ).

And probably many more. It sucks, so bad, for animation. And I'm saying this because i fully believe Disney or whoever was going to cancel TBB if it already isn't. They just didn't want to announce that.

Other notes:

*Centaurworld ; Was meant to be an ADULT cartoon and very much has left overs from that, however Netflix decided it was too MLP-esc so they made it for kids instead which ended up just being a bunch of fart and butt jokes. And then got canceled anyways so everything had to rush and wrap up in season 2. Which SUCKS because it is so beautiful when it can be and has beautiful music.

*MLP G4 is not Netflix nor Disney and while it did get multiple seasons and an ending, it had new writers during, i don't know, s6 or s7. And things slowly went backwards. And the end felt rushed imo. It wasn't a bad one but it didn't feel.. satisfying.

*Steven Universe ; i love Steven Universe, it was canceled because the creator got an Sapphic wedding AND kiss scene on screen, on a kids cartoon. But they compromised by after the finale they would get a spin off and a movie. The finale is good. Whats rushed here to me, was the spin off. And again, this is not Disney or Netflix, but Cartoon Network.

OK KO and Star Trek prodigy are also not Disney or Netflix ( which apparently Netflix is trying to save Star Trek Prodigy ) but also kicked the bucket.

All this to say ; there is a huge problem within the animation area and I'm tired of CEOs or whoever forcing creators and writers to cancel or shorten their stories.

The Bad Batch s3 is no better in my opinion. I loved a lot of scenes of it and I'm grateful for a lot of it and I'm not honestly sure if this is Disney or Jennifer or someone else but it really hurts.

Here is why it bothers me:

I'll just get this one out of the way first. Tech. Tech COULD have been sacrificed. He COULD have died. In a way that was actually meaningful. Omega got captured anyway, she was probably going to whether Tech went home with them or not. His death IS sad and i DO see them trying to honor it, i do. But its bad to me because it really does feel like "gotta kill the autistic person". Its really annoying when shows try to have an autistic character and then mistreat them ( She Ra 2018 as well but Entrapta didn't die but she does get mistreated a lot ). Its annoying and hurtful. Especially with the writers and such teasing his fans so strongly. There was no reason to. Its not a spoiler.

The TALKS in between that we missed. Tech talking to Phee about Crosshair. Crosshair learning about Tech's Death from Omega. Omega talking to Emerie about her brothers. Crosshair coming back with Omega, we don't even see them just silently watching him walk into the ship. Its just nothing. I'm sure i am forgetting some because it happened, SO much during this season.

What happened to Cody. Like its fine if he's being saved for another series but then perhaps say that.

Creators do not have to be extremely secretive about everything. Fans who don't want spoilers don't go looking for it. I'm not implying they need to spoil the ENTIRE plot, but saying Tech is dead-dead is not something to be secretive about, An hour long finale is not something to be secretive about, etc.

The other Clone X's, while they are very very cool and supposed to mirror CF99... they weren't overly needed honestly. It felt so rushed. Like I'm not saying they needed to be someome either, they don't need to. But i wasn't fearful or full of impact when i saw them my genuine reaction was "this is too much now". It was like if they DID decide to put Darth Vader in it at last second. Like i fully believe Omega was supposed to be home with Crosshair for a little longer and help Echo and Rex with the clones. And then these new CX clones were supposed to show up in s4 and be the ones to get her again.

The fans.. would have wanted.. season 4?...... i don't know why its so bad to want that. And honestly atp, i don't get why its so bad to have plot filler. Its BAD for series that got canceled or shortened, but its not bad for a series that you want more of, because then you get more time with them or more lore if you're lucky.

It occured to me there was not one flash back. Not one about the past. The most was Omega talking about how she watched CF99 be made and that it implied shes older ( and is ) than them. Could you imagine the emotional impact on us and for Omega, watching her, watch them grow up. I don't think Rebels or TCW really had flash backs either but they usually did it in other ways.

I'm not like.. a good writer, so maybe writers on here will disagree and thats okay, I'm open to that.

TLDR: I'm tired of Cartoons kicking the bucket too soon for far too long. I feel like The Bad Batch s3 also had this treatment and it isn't fair to the fans.

#- host #the bad batch #tbb #tbb spoilers

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jedi-enthusiast · 1 year ago

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My Thoughts on Episode 2

I have now moved into my dorm and gotten more used to college life, so here is the post about Ahsoka episode 2 as promised---keep in mind, though, just like episode one these are just my thoughts upon first watching it. They may change or I may go into further detail on them in the future.

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Once again, the scenes just feel...so utterly hollow and flat.

There's no emotion exchanged when Sabine and Ahsoka talk---neither Ahsoka nor Sabine ever actually seem worried- (whether it's about Sabine or the map) -nor do they ever seem stubborn, defensive, irritated/angry, or anything else that you would expect.

Again, it's all just hollow.

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I'm gonna be honest, the villains are the singular interesting part of this show for me right now.

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LOTH CAT!!!

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So, even though other people have literally died by getting a lightsaber to the gut, Sabine is perfectly fine to be sitting up and working on a droid and moving around like...a day or so afterwards?

The fuck?

Even if her surviving is possible- (since other people have pointed out that it is, when taking other things into account) -she shouldn’t be all fine and dandy and moving around! That shit should hurt!

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Also, I've seen so many people point to Ahsoka telling Sabine- "no, you've done enough." -when Sabine says she can help as this badass line and saying- "yes, let Ahsoka be angry!" -but, ignoring the fact that there was no emotion whatsoever when she said that...

...how is it badass or "sticking it to Sabine" when she literally goes back to Sabine for the help she offered like an hour later?

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Again, Sabine should not be moving like that after getting stabbed with a lightsaber.

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"Yes, let's put this whole hospital full of people in danger because we can't be bothered to relocate, because of a timeline that we have not been very clear about---a timeline that may or may not have consequences, because we also haven't been very clear about why the timeline is the way it is or what will happen if it's not followed."

Wow, this show is just...really trying to make me not like or root for these characters at all.

I'm just...wow.

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I've said it once and I'll say it again, the villains are the only interesting part of this show right now.

Also, I fucking loved Baylan mentioning Jedi younglings and that little snippet of Jedi culture---the fairytales they were taught.

Although I do think it's fucking nuts that the Darksider, the villains, are giving us more insight into Jedi culture than the actual fucking "Jedi" of the show.

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CHOPPER!!!

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Someone else explained it better in another post- (I'll reblog and add it here once I actually find it again) -but the guy that's playing the "businessman who's only loyal to his investors- (aka he does things for greed)" -is an actor, who I think is Jewish if I'm remembering correctly, who is known for playing pretty much only Jewish characters...

...I don't think I need to explain how making his character one who does things only for greed is antisemitic.

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Again with the Sabine as a Jedi thing???

Non-Force-sensitives can't become Jedi---being a Jedi is being apart of a culture that is specifically centered around Force sensitivity!!!

And Sabine already has a culture, she's Mandalorian for fuck's sake!

Just-

I'm sorry, this whole fucking thing pisses me off---she better turn out to be Force-sensitive and Dave is just retconning that, because otherwise I'm going to lose my goddamn mind.

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"I heard your repairs were complete."

Except they shouldn't be because she literally got stabbed with a fucking lightsaber, it should take longer than just about a day to heal---with or without a bacta tank.

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I swear to fucking god-

Not this bullshit again.

Please, please, I'm begging, just retcon Sabine to be a little bit Force-sensitive and don't pull some "non-Force-sensitive Jedi can be a thing" bullshit. Please-

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"I'm a general, nothing's classified to me."

That's not how that works.

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CHOPPER AGAIN!!!

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I love Chopper so much istg, I'm at least glad my favorite homicidal droid is back in action <3

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LOTH CAT AGAIN!!!

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Ok, this scene is reminding me of it specifically, but why hasn't Sabine been wearing her armor? We literally never see her without it in Rebels and being Mandalorian is a huge facet of her identity, why has she not been wearing it?

Once again, I assume this'll be explained later, so I'm trying to hold back my judgement, but if it's not explained later then...honestly it's just confusing.

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Wow, so not only was the Jewish actor cast to play someone whose motivation is greed, but they also made him a bad guy...just...wow.

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*long sigh at Ahsoka calling Sabine "padawan"*

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Oh hey, the big evil bad guy station kinda fucks ngl

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I'm gonna be honest, Baylan---again, the bad guy---honestly shows more emotion at there being "so few Jedi left" than Ahsoka---who's supposed to be the good guy, and who's apparently just decided to take up the Jedi mantle again---does.

Also, isn't this show set before the Sequels?

So how are there "so few Jedi left" if Luke is building a new Order that's apparently successful enough to have Order 66 2.0 in the Sequels?

#star wars #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka tano critical

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absentcaryatid · 11 months ago

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Seonghwa's Shared Passion

An ATEEZ fanfic by AbsentCaryatid

The reader makes a new friend at the mall, one just as interested in LEGO and K-pop as the reader.

2.2K words, Content note: all ages, gender neutral reader, no reader romance, lots of LEGO mentions, Seonghwa gets San as a romantic partner and the reader is very happy for them.

It was the day a life-changing friendship was to be born, but you could not have known that at the time. The lanky man who stood before you bore a staff tag with the name Seonghwa. You had found yourself in his warm presence due to a chance visit to the mall for a quick lunch. With time to spare afterward, you had chosen to stop over at the adjacent LEGO store to see if the 'Dynamite' BTS set was back in stock.

“Still backordered I'm afraid, and no date set for when it might be available again.” As your face fell, the rather stunning clerk nodded sympathetically. “It was a lucky thing I could get mine before the store opened on the day it dropped, a perk of working here, along with the generous staff discount. I'm in the same boat on my Star Wars Razor Crest set though, so I know the production wait can be difficult. Is there anything else I can show you while you are here?”

Picking your jaw up off the floor after recalling the cost of the Mandalorian ship and how much this guy must really like LEGOs, you managed to resume the conversation. “Thank you, no. I devour the online and print catalogs so I'm pretty familiar with all the sets that interest me.” You turned to leave then spun back with a delighted expression. “Actually, I had forgotten I want to work on a new custom build. I like to recreate music video sets from my favorite K-pop groups. Got a little bit behind in ATEEZ releases and I still have to complete last year's final video.”

Seonghwa followed your train of thought with swiftly delivered knowledge on the level of a dedicated fan. “Oh, 'HALAZIA', that one is great.” He even did a little of the hand choreography on the spot. Not particularly smoothly, but Seonghwa was a store employee and not an idol. With a self-effacing little lick of his lips as he seemed to recall what he was supposed to be doing on the clock, he then enthusiastically asked, “You thinking the wet abandoned mall or the stadium for the scene?”

“Eventually I'll build both, but want to start with the stadium because I like the effigy.”

Seonghwa grinned as he made a beeline for the minifigure accessories. “You are going to need this western hat in black then. Wait, forgive me. If you are familiar with recreating scenes for ATEEZ you probably already have the 'HALA HALA' style hat already.”

“I'm not about to raid my 'Say My Name' or 'Answer' builds on display to get those hats so I have been buying them in bulk online every time they show up in a video. Going to need a lot of yellow pennants from the knights range though, and some more drawbridge chains to repurpose.”

With the store otherwise unoccupied, Seonghwa spent the better part of an hour excitedly talking to you as he assisted in finding the best part matches for your planned LEGO build. He impressed you with his knowledge of the full range of specialized parts, an equal to your own expertise from years of play. It felt good to meet a kindred spirit who liked to go beyond the instructions with a hobby of designing free-form creations.

The surprising shared interest in K-pop also had you warming up to the engaging salesperson. You were charmed as Seonghwa felt comfortable enough to disclose his fantasy of being in the popular six-person group ATEEZ. “I like to imagine the idols in a circle dancing to 'HALAZIA' and there I would be in the center right along with them.” The joy left his face. “You probably think I am silly.”

It was the admission that your daydreams ran like that sometimes too which cemented a mutual affection for each other. You became a regular in his store rather than purchasing online, and together would pore over the Pick-a-Brick catalog on his lunch breaks whenever you were nearby. As much as you loved the conversation, you were concerned he needed time off the subject. “Are you sure you are okay with talking LEGO parts over lunch? That means you’re not really getting away from work.”

Touched by your thoughtfulness, Seonghwa beamed and lightly placed a hand on your shoulder. “This is working on a hobby with a friend. We can call each other friends by now, right?” From that day onward you would meet up outside the store for comfortably platonic meals out or visiting each other's homes. Star Wars content and music videos became a typical reason to find yourselves together when not consulting each other on various LEGO projects.

As he again admired the collection of music video dioramas scattered around your apartment, Seonghwa had been the one to suggest sharing photos of the custom builds online. He was convincing and soon you decided to go for it. Immediately popular, the images made the rounds in both LEGO and K-pop circles. Seonghwa was tickled to discover he was credited as a consultant from the 'HALAZIA' model onward, and the next development had him over the moon.

Your latest one-of-a-kind project depicting the 'Bouncy' flaming saloon set got re-tweeted by the ATEEZ account after Yeosang mentioned in a YouTube live that he had seen the impressive photographs. Seonghwa proudly told everyone in sight at work the next day that he had been in charge of procuring all the lights and the little LEGO goat at minifigure Hongjoong's side.

Getting official recognition from KQ and the members themselves felt amazing, but the high was not to last. Seonghwa had some news about rising in his career, and as a dear friend you should have been happy for him.

Holding your hands as he sat across the dining room table at his place, Seonghwa explained the situation. “I'll still be working with LEGOs, but I'm leaving sales work.”

At first you were excited. “With all your building experience, are you going to be a LEGO Certified Professional like you've talked about? Been thinking about doing that myself. It seems like such a cool job getting the budget to dream up massive sculptures for events.”

Seonghwa did that habitual thing licking his lips again, a sign you had learned to recognize as anxiety. “Actually, I have been putting off telling you this, but the job is in LEGO's global headquarters in Denmark. I'm moving to Billund at the end of the month.”

While you tried to be stoic, you were sure he could tell the reaction was mixed as he shared more details of the promotion. This was no mere desk job Seonghwa had qualified for. To become a master builder for the company was an incredible honor and very competitive, but the cost of losing his presence was hard to take.

Wanting to do something special for your friend before he left, you booked Seonghwa a session at the glamour photography studio a few storefronts down from his shop. The few times you had picked him up after work he had often mused about getting one of the K-pop makeover sessions when walking past the studio. Although he played it off as a joke at the time, you had sensed there was a serious longing there.

When you presented him the certificate for the makeover and portrait package he hugged you the longest he ever had. Once pulled back, “Thank you,” was all he could manage, but there were tears of joy in Seonghwa's eyes that said everything.

True friend that he was, Seonghwa convinced you to share the experience because being silly together was far better than alone. So after a significant amount of coaxing on his part, and a promise of dinner out afterward, the two of you agreed anything goes and put your hair and eyebrows in the hands of the artists.

Grinning at each other through the mirrors at the styling stations, you watched Seonghwa transform. He always had been attractive, but in the hands of professionals he looked like a real idol. Gone were the Angry Bird eyebrows he had regularly joked about, now elegantly shaped. Seonghwa's natural hair color had become a white-blond, and between shading and other makeup effects he had become truly stunning.

While you would love to say your transformation had been as dramatic, Seonghwa seemed to be a perfect canvas in a way you did not, but that was okay. It was still a lot of fun, especially together. You were very glad not to have missed this opportunity. It was probably the last day seeing him in person before taking him to the airport within the week.

Hair and makeup got you halfway into character as idols for the day, but trying on various outfits for the photography session completed it. Shared laughter helped reduce your awkwardness when posing, but it was Seonghwa who really took to modeling. He had always seemed poised, but watching him go through a variety of stances and gestures gave you the feeling of watching a pro at work. It was not only you, the photographer herself commented on it in a way that felt genuine and not just part of the service. The resulting portraits alone and as a duo memorialized the fun day.

Far too soon after that Seonghwa was physically gone from your life with his relocation to Denmark. Thanks to technology you could still build together over video calls at least monthly. It took some trial and error but eventually you learned wearing a microphone helped your voices carry over the sound of rustling plastic bricks. As good as the time together was, you were sorely feeling the loss of fully being together in person. Not just his warm hugs, but there was something about Seonghwa's laughter and smiles that were not fully conveyed online.

On one chat you observed a new decoration in his home, hanging behind your friend as he talked. It was a large poster with a mostly familiar image. The six-member team of ATEEZ had surprisingly grown to eight. Seonghwa and another man had been edited into a shot on the 'HALAZIA' stadium set. The spacing was a little wonky after Seonghwa's new neighbor San had used photo editing skills to flip vibrantly red-haired Wooyoung onto the other side of the lineup leaving room to insert the two new fantasy members, but to Seonghwa it was a prized possession. The poster commemorated not just his dreams and time with you getting the K-pop makeover, but also a growing closeness with San who stood alongside him in the revised image.

Meeting San had been such a boon to Seonghwa. The hesitation originally felt over moving to a new country was eased significantly when he had the great fortune to encounter another fellow K-pop and LEGO enthusiast in his apartment building. Even if the Star Wars collection was not San's favorite, no man was perfect. You had listened eagerly to weeks of Seonghwa's developing crush on his neighbor. While some people might have felt replaced, you knew your friendship was as strong as ever, and if anything, it would be great to know yet another person who shared your passions. The way Seonghwa's face lit up every time he spoke of San left you genuinely happy for him.

When Seonghwa hesitated to ask him out, you finally recommended he have San over for dinner as thanks for easing the transition to the new city. Fortunately, San had a similar level of interest and was able to ask Seonghwa out over the course of the successful evening. You cheered as Seonghwa's giddy texts came in afterward, thanking you profusely for helping him along.

It had been over a year since he had left the mall store when Seonghwa suggested you use some of your vacation time to visit Denmark. It took little convincing before you accepted. You missed your best friend, and also there was the matter of wanting to meet the person who had won Seonghwa's heart. The plane ticket would be expensive, but at his partner San's urging the couple decided you had to stay with them while in the country. Going to the LEGOLAND theme park with the lovebirds was a day you would remember forever, but there was one thing even better.

You had thought the LEGO museum would be the trip highlight. Instead, it was getting a tour of the LEGO headquarters where Seonghwa worked. The whimsical environment changed your life. From that point on you changed your career path from LEGO Serious Play facilitator doing corporate training to any role that would lead to your own employment in Denmark. Excited by your plan, Seonghwa had some suggestions for departments best suited to your skills.

It took time, but being reunited with Seonghwa as his newest neighbor after your own move to Denmark was the best feeling ever. Commuting to LEGO headquarters together and working side by side was a dream come true. Things were just as perfect at home. Just as you were not threatened by San's romantic role in Seonghwa's life, kindhearted San was just as warmly understanding of your deep platonic love for his partner. The three of you three of you remained best friends forever, united by shared interests that had brought you and Seonghwa together in the first place.

General Masterlist

Masterlist of Stories with No Reader Romance

#ateez fanfic #gender neutral reader #seonghwa fluff #seonghwa fanfic #diverseinsertknet #no reader romance #platonic relationship #cross posted on ao3 #kpop fanfic #kpop fluff

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rwritingblog · 3 months ago

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Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Rewrite (And My Relationship With Star Wars)

So I'm a fan of Star Wars which if you know me isn't surpising. What is surpising however is the fact that I'm not a lifelong Star Wars fan. Of course I knew of Star Wars, everyone knows Star Wars but for most of my life I hadn't watched a single one of the movies or seen a single episode of The Clone Wars.

I can't tell you what made me decide to watch Force Awakens in 2018 but I did. And then I watched The Last Jedi, got about half way through. Not because I wasn't enjoying the movie but because it made me want to watch the others. That didn't work at as well because I didn't know what order to watch the movies in. The first Star Wars movie is called Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope while the fourth one is called Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

You can see where the confusion came from.

When I did figure it out I'm not going to lie it didn't capture me at first and Star Wars kind of faded out of my life for the next few years.

2020 was an odd year for everyone I'm no different. I was 17 years old who had just moved to an entirely different state in August the year before leaving all of my friends behind. I hadn't made any new ones and lost contact with my old ones. Bad year to be 17 honestly.

Now around this time a show I don't know if you've heard of, It's called The Mandalorian btw, was airing it's second season. Twitter was on fire and I didn't have anything better to do so I watched both seasons.

I fucking loved it.

Went back in watched the Original Trilogy and loved every second with them. My reaction to Darth Vader revealing he was Luke's father was this meme.

I'm not joking ethier I literally gasped and then said this meme out loud to myself.

I also had a blast with the Prequel Trilogy and the Clone Wars series. I even bought a lightsaber with money I had been given for my 18th birthday. (Yes I do in fact know how to do the obiani spin.)

And it's been four years now and I can't say any Star Wars media has captured me like the Prequel and Original Trilogies, the first two season of The Mandalorian, and Clone Wars did. (Andor and Rouge One are exceptions.) And that kind of upsets me because I fucking love this franchise man. I really do. (The cancellation of The Acolyte has not helped the matter honestly.)

There are two reasons this post and any other post I make on my Sequel rewrite.

A simple writing exercise

As an expression of love

I may not like Star Wars as it is today but I'll always look forward to what it'll be tomorrow. Force Awakens and The Last Jedi may not be my favorite part of Star Wars but they were the first Star Wars thing I saw. And for that I will always have a deep love for them and the characters within them.

With all of that out of the way. Let's Rock & Roll.

The Inspo & More!

The thing that inspired me to think about a Sequel Rewrite was the youtube video Star Wars - A Critique Of The Sequels by DX . specifically when he talks about the worldbuilding. He asks questions about where the First Order gets the money and man for their bullshit and my mind went into overdrive. It had already been rewriting Reylo scenes and going on rants about Rey's character. Thinking about the First Order seemed like the next step.

In my version of the sequels the First Order isn't a rebel group but a nation with it's own territory, laws, and govenment. The reason for this was simple; we haven't seen a war between nations in Star Wars yet. The Clone Wars was a civil war and so was the rebellion. This would be new ground.

How did the First Order Form?

Was a question I asked myself and to find the answer all I had to do was think about what would logically happen after the credits rolled on the Original Trilogy. The Outer Rim is kind of always left to the wayside by galactic powers, making it the perfect place for a now former Admiral of the Galactic Empire to hide from New Republic authorities.

It is also the perfect place for a sith to hide.

Say this Admiral, let's call him Val Snoke, meets a young sith woman named Darth Malith while hiding out in the Outer Rim. Together they form a team and take control of the Outer Rim and Hutt Space through cunning and trickery all with the goal of reforming the Empire with themselves at the head.

They also manage to grab hold of old Empire territory the New Republic hadn't gained a stronghold in. Making the First Order one of the most prominent forces in the galaxy. Darth Malith is the diplomat who runs intellgence while Snoke is responsible for the day-to-day military operations of the First Order. The Rule of Two is in full effect here.

By the time the sequel trilogy starts the First Order and the New Republic has been at war for a quite a while.

I had a section about Rey but I deleted because I hve thoughts and none of them make sense. So I'll make a whole other post just for Rey (and Kylo).

See You Soon,

Rebel

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #creative writing #fanfiction #star wars fanfiction

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hellhound5925 · 1 year ago

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Alright so here is something a little different for you all! I hope you like it! Please let me know!

I’m writing a new Fic under the same name as my Captain Rex one but this time it’s a Bad Batch version. If it goes well I will keep writing it. Let me know what you think!

Cyare Verd *Beloved Warrior* Bad Batch edition

Chapter One

Honestly.....this is quite literally the last place I want to be. One time, and I mean one time Cid THOUGHT she was doing me a favor and I owed her. The only thing Cid did for me was get me a job. I happened to be one of the 'lucky' ones - if you can even call it that - when the Empire bombed Mandalore. Needing the money, I guess Cid thought a favor meant throwing my life on the line for her benefit, while paying me enough to put fuel in my ship and replenish SOME rations. Cid was never my favorite, but we do what we have to do. I have a skill set she wanted and she had something I wanted.

Out of the blue she calls saying she's got a job that needs my help. I said no naturally, but then she reminded me I 'owe' her. I know damn well I could storm in there and take her and her mercs out myself...however, she does pay and I wouldn't mind some dirty work. "Fine....I'll be there in 2 rotations", "You'd better be quicker than that, I haven't got all day", the woman makes my blood boil..... "Alright, alright, Udessi (Calm down), I'll be there by morning". I end the link before she can say anything else. I really have no interest in conversations further with her.

I ready my ship (a Kom'rk class fighter also known as the Gaunlet star fighter) or the jump to hyper space. The only reason why I told her 2 days was to get under her skin. We both know I could be there as soon as I want but honestly? I love butting heads with her. I swear if this mission doesn't pay well or pan out, I'll ruin her...

————

Having spent an unfortunate amount of time at CID's before I was used to the ships coming to and from Ord Mantell. However, this time there was one I did not recognize. It looked to be an Omicron-class attack shuttle but it was definitely modified. I land my ship next to it, and head over to admire it.

I take a walk around the hull of the modified Omicron, stopping at the front to use my HUD to scan it. Standing with my hands on my hips I let out an impressed hum. "Not bad. Looks like someone did all the work themselves. Quite impressive" I say flipping my range finder back up.

"That would be because I did it" Says a voice behind me. I spin around, drawing my dual Westar-35 blasters aiming them at the source. I'm met with an individual in black and red plastoid, datapad in hand, "I'm of no harm to you" he says putting up the visor to reveal goggles. His big bright brown eyes give me a once over, "Mandalorian. It's a wonder there are any left after-". I cut him off with a loud sigh and reholster my blasters before storming off toward Cid's. I immediately start to feel bad for the poor guy. My reaction was not really called for, but the loss of my home...of Mandalore, is still raw. The open wound, being pressed by a stranger who likely has no idea what's it's like was rather irritating to me.

————

Cid's Parlor is loud and crowded - as usual. I made my way to the bar where the blue Twi-lek bartender who I haven't seen in ages immediately recognized me. "Long time no see. I was starting to think you wised up" she joked. Poor girl always listened to me complain, but I'm probably the only person here who has ever shown her any sort of kindness. "Unfortunately I'm a little low on rations to be wise" I laugh. A rather large, obnoxious man comes over to me "Wow, that must be real Beskar.......Wonder what kind of price someone would pay for th-th-that...." He slurs a little at the end. I eject my vibro blade from my vambrace and press it to his neck "Try to take it from me and I'll find out how much someone will pay for your head" My words laces with venom. The bar tender laughs and slides a shot across the bar at me. I let go of the man who was rather caught off guard. Some of the other patrons at the bar are starting but I could careless. People usually stare when they see 'one of my kind'. "Don't mess with Mandalorians" someone says across the bar. I glance down and see another group of men in black and red plastoid - must be the poor guy from earlier is with them.

I slide my helmet off, letting my blonde hair fall. Placing my helmet on the bar top, I take the shot. The bartender nods over my shoulder and I sign knowing what's coming. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes" Cid says throwing an arm over me like we are old pals. I roll my eyes "I'm not here because I want to be. Lets get on with it" I grumble. "No 'Hi Cid, how are you?'" She asks. "Nar'sheb (shove it)" I say with a polite smile on my face. She has no idea what I said to her but there's a snicker from someone close by.

————

"You know some day that attitude of yours is going to get you in trouble" Cid scolds me. "I'm not here to discuss my 'attitude'. What's the mission?", Cid stands behind her desk and crosses her arms "Fine, I need you to help out a group of fine gentlemen." She starts to explain. At this point I'm losing my patience "I work alone". "Not this time, look I'm sorry about the last job alright? You needed the credits, I had a job, but this time will be different I swear. These guys could really use someone with your skills. Dooku's private stash is being relocated by the empire and I want you to help them get as much as possible". The fact that she said Empire had my attention and attitude immediately shifts. "I thought you might like getting back at them and I promise I'll give you 20%" she continues noticing my mood lighten. "35 and it's a deal" I counter back. "Hey! I gotta pay those other guys too. I feel I'm being quite generous", "Fine 20%, Now who are these guys?", "They call themselves the Bad Batch. Wait here I'll go get them" and with that she heads out the door.

I set my helmet on her desk and lean against one of the book cases lining the wall. I fiddle with my gloves and my vambrace until the door opens. Cid, followed by 4 men - one of which was the guy from the landing zone - and a kid? Each of the men remove their helmets to reveal their faces. Clones? I stand up straight and rest my hands on my blasters. “Take it easy there Mando these are the good guys” Cid rolls her eyes after seeing my body language. The kid strolls over to me - clearly not intimidated at all - and sticks out her hand “Hi, Im Omega”. I quirk a brow at her before offering my hand, “This is the part you tell me your name” whispers Omega. “Right, Ni ceta (sorry). I’m Raven” I finally tell her. Her boldness takes me by surprise. I like this kid. Omega looks at the others who are standing there in silence. She nods my direction, and the largest one of the 4 pushes past, “I’m Wrecker! I like to blow stuff up!” He says very loudly. I shake his hand which compared to my hand - even with gloves on - looks like it could crush mine. “Wrecker, I feel that last part was not necessary” says the one from earlier - still holding a datapad. “I’m Tech by the way. We met briefly earlier” he continues. “Look I’m sorry about-“ I start before he cuts me off. “No need, it was rather insensitive of me to speak to you that way”. This causes the other two - one with a skull tattoo on half his face and the other with a socket for an arm. “So that modified Omicron is yours then?” I ask causing the one with the tattoo to now look at me. “Actually it’s my ship, the Marauder. I’m their Sargent, well was their Sargent and this is Echo.” Echo waves at me with his socket arm and a soft smile. I nod, “Look, no offense but whatever this mission is I can promise it’s dangerous. I don’t really feel like bringing a kid along with us is going to be a great idea” I say gesturing to Omega. “Hey! I go on plenty missions!” She protests. “Look, Omega. I like your spirit I do, but your a kid. I’m not going to let something happen to a kid” I explain to her. “She goes with us” Hunter says in a gruff voice, putting his foot down. I can see a little of myself in the way Omega is looking at me. She seems like a smart kid but I’ve seen enough damage the Empire has done, I’d hate to see this kid caught in the middle. I choose to say nothing and shake my head. “Let’s get on with it, shall we?” I ask grabbing my buy’ce (helmet) and sliding it over my head. With that, we all head out to the ships.

————

When I start heading towards my ship, I hear someone call out to me “wouldn’t it just be easier if we all rode together?” Omega asks. I stop and turn around “How do I know you won’t leave me behind?” I ask. I don’t really trust these guys. I mean how could I? The clones - even though it was at Palpatines hand - were the reason the Republic fell and we are in this mess. These guys seem different but I don’t have a reason to trust them. Omega, almost like she is reading my thoughts says “you can trust us, we aren’t like the others”. The others. I scoff to myself. Without saying anything I head up the ramp to my ship, gather a few things, and come back out to see Omega standing where I left her. The rest of the group must have gone to their ship. “I knew you’d come around!” She about jumps for joy before leading me onto the Marauder.

Omega shows me to ‘her room’ and tells me I can leave my bag there. I’m a little hesitant at first but I don’t have any other options at the moment. The only things in this bag are a couple changes of regular cloths and some rations. I’ve not got much to lose that isn’t my beskar these days. She then gives me a brief tour of the ship, ending at the cockpit where Hunter and the rest are talking…about me. Well, I didn’t actually hear them say anything specific, but by their body language and the way Hunter stiffens before he even saw me told me everything I needed to know. I decide to speak up, “I know you don’t trust me and that’s fine. We don’t have a reason to trust each other but once this mission is over and I’m paid I’ll be gone. You won’t have to worry after that”. They all glance at one another except Hunter, he’s watching me. “That seems reasonable” Tech says very matter of factly.

Seeing that there are no more available seats, I sit on the floor leaning against the wall. “So what’s the plan?” I ask a sliding my buy’ce (helmet) off. “Get to Serenno and scout the area.” Hunter says without looking over at me. I sigh, “That’s not much of a plan but I can improvise.” I hear a clunk and look over to see a curious Omega with my buy’ce (helmet) - she almost dropped - in her hands. “Sorry” she says when she notices she’s been caught. The rest of the batch turns to see what she had done. Hunter frowns and looks as if he was about to scold her, I give him a look before turning to her. I smile “It’s alright, you can’t hurt it. It’s already got a lot of scratches on it”. This kid makes me soft and I don’t know why. I mean she is just a kid after all. She turns it over in her hands, “where did you get it?”. Before I can answer Tech is already explaining it, “Mandalorian armor is passed down through families. Sometimes it is even reforged for the wearer.” Omega looks to me to confirm the story and I nod. “Not many people know much about my people, how is it you know so much?” I asked Tech. Wrecker lets out a loud sigh “ughhh you had to ask…” Tech gives him a looks “You see, I spend much of my time doing research and as you may know we are clones of Jango Fetts.”, “Yeah but you guys don’t look like the others” I point out. “We are….well….different. Each of us had a unique genetic modification. Wrecker is brute strength, Hunter had enhances senses, I have high intelligence, and Crosshair-“, “He’s with the Empire now” barks Hunter, interrupting Tech. “What about you?” I asked Echo. He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, “I was originally with the 501st under General Skywalker. There was an accident and I was blonde up, capture by the techno union and they made me mostly machine”. Hearing his story pulls at my softer side, “Ni ceta (I’m sorry)” I say to him. He gives me a soft smile.

“Woah” Omega interrupts the mood - thank Maker. She’s got my buy’ce (helmet) over her head, which quite honestly is kinda funny. It’s definitely too big for her. “This tech is outdated. You know, Tech could make some upgrades to this if you wanted” her voice sounds kind of funny through the modulator. I mull it over for a second, “We’ll see kid” I laugh at the image of her tiny frame with the giant buy’ce (helmet) on. I notice Hunter is watching the exchange between her and I out of the corner of my eye. I can tell by her silence she is playing with the HUD. “So how do you know Cid?” Omega asks. “You’re quite the curious one aren’t you?” I point out. She giggles and shrugs - still wearing my buy’ce. I sigh sadly, “After…..Let’s just say I was in a rough patch and needed some credits. Now I prefer to bounty hunt, but I refuse to work for the Empire”. Maker why am I spilling my guts to this girl? She’s a kid. This is probably the most I’ve ever talked about myself to anyone other than Cid. Which I know now was a mistake. Omega - reading the room - slides off my buy’ce and sadly looks at me, “Something bad happened didn’t it?”, I sigh again “I’d rather not get into it”. Hunter turns back around in his seat facing the front window. I glance over his direction this time. “What’s his deal?” I ask Omega. She looks fondly his way, “He’s really protective of me, of us really. He’s my family”. “Hold on to that kid. It’s special” I say to her. She looks at me with a smile.

I decide to lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes for a moment. I feel someone approach and a tiny head lay in my lap. I glance down to see Omega curling up to me, with my helmet still in her arms. She trusts too easily. Some day that might hurt her….like it did me….the only difference is, she’s got them and I had no one. Let’s just hope that’s enough.

Next Chapter

***A/N***

Thanks for reading! This is a little different than my last Fic but I thought I’d throw something else out there. I didn’t find a whole lot of Hunter Fics and definitely not one with a Mandalorian OC or reader so I figured I’d give it a shot. Let me know what you think!

#star wars the clone wars #starwars the bad batch #tbb hunter x reader #tech bad batch #crosshair bad batch #echo bad batch #wrecker bad batch #omega bad batch #the clones #the bad batch #mandalorian reader #hunter x oc

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fangeek-girl · 1 year ago

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My very biased review of the Ahsoka finale

This might thread down the unpopular opinions road. It's all right. That's what opinions are for.

Let me start by saying that I didn't like most of the finale. I had a grand total of 2 scenes I enjoyed: Ezra reuniting with Hera, and the very end scene with Hayden (shocker, I know).

I didn't like most of the show in general, mainly because of the whole clusterfuck with Sabine being trained as a Jedi. I hate it deeply because it undermines Sabine's worth. She was already a great character. She didn't need to be made better or more powerful by becoming Ahsoka's apprentice. She didn't need to suddenly develop Force-sensitivity. The cool thing with Sabine was that she was NORMAL. Yes, she was a Mandalorian and skilled with blasters and explosives, but she was a regular person. She was a non-superpowered human in a galaxy where heroes were known as having superpowers. That's what made her so interesting in Rebels. And this whole season she was at her best when she switched back to what she knew: guns and bombs. Her best scene in the finale (imo) was when she crashed the ship and took 2 TIEs with it. That's who Sabine is.

I'm also mad at how little information we had on Baylann and Shin. They were depicted as the main villains in the beginning, but we never got their back story. By the last two episodes they're discarded to make room for Thrawn, which I understand, but we still don't even know who they are. What's their story? Where did Baylann come from? How does he know Anakin? How did Shin come to be his apprentice? And the worst part is we won't ever get clear answers because Baylann as he was in this season cannot be in the next due to what happened to Ray Stevenson. So this is just a loose thread. And the way it ended doesn't give me hope for Shin either.

Midway through the show it feels like Filoni had a shift and stopped caring about this being the Ahsoka show and just making it a setup for his Thrawn movie. And I hate it. I hate when film and showrunners make what should be a stand-alone (in a previously established universe) into a prequel. It's the crap Marvel did and now Star Wars is trying really hard to copy that. (Yeah I know, it's Disney. Pisses me off all the same.) This show was called "Ahsoka" for fuck sake! And by the end, it was the Thrawn show. We had an entire episode (1x06 Far, Far Away) without Ahsoka in it, except for like one scene in the beginning. Can you imagine a Kenobi episode without Obi-Wan? An Andor episode without Cassian? It makes no sense! It's the same kind of bullshit they pulled with BoBF when it became The Mandalorian s2.5 halfway through. Yes, it progresses the overall story, but in a way to set up something else instead of focusing on your main character.

In the same vein, I hate how Jacen was set up in the beginning, then discarded, how we never even saw Zeb and Agent Kallus, how Hera just became the way to tie Ahsoka back to the New Republic, how Senator Xiono could have been a good antagonist but ended up being an asshole without substance... There were too many things set up for a show this short and most of them ended up fizzling into nothing.

Now, I did like the Anakin parts. Yes, that's because I'm a Hayden stan through and through. Put him anywhere in the GFFA and I'm a goner. The World Between Worlds scenes were absolutely phenomenal, and probably why I'll rewatch this show again. Sorely because of Hayden (although Ariana was incredible too in the TCW scene). His Anakin brought this whole show to another level. No shade to Rosario, I love her. But this show didn't do her justice. Especially not next to Hayden when they had them sparring. The rest of the show I was disappointed in all of her fight scenes because how can I believe the girl who trained under Anakin Skywalker is so slow? They, probably without realizing it, built her up to fail. And it bothers me because we know from the animated series that Ahsoka is amazing in a fight.

I also appreciated the zombie troopers. The rest of the Dathomir storyline is a bit muddy and I'm not sure I love it, but I guess I just have to wait to see how they try to make this fit post-Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor.

I don't even know where I'm going with this by now. I just... I wish this show had been different. The ending is kinda making me cautiously excited for Thrawn. (But only if they bring in the Chiss Ascendancy and Eli. I need my Thranto fix in live action, thank you very much.) There's also all the little easter eggs of Mortis that make me wonder if they didn't pull a Lost and they're all just dead (which I would respect a lot more than whatever else they seem to be building on).

In the end, I am deeply disappointed in what the show ended up being. Apart from a few moments, most of it was "meh" at best for me and I mourn what could be if Filoni stopped trying to make all his female OC the biggest badass that ever was and one-up one another.

#Ahsoka spoilers #unpopular opinion #Star Wars

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lol-jackles · 1 year ago

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Have you seen season 2 of Good Omens? Honestly and season 1 I would hardly call it a masterpiece or perfect. It was just fun, sweet and kind. And the biggest plus is the cast - Michael Sheen and David Tennant. They are both extremely talented and charismatic. And they are the ones who carry season 2. The rest of the characters, although not bad, but they don't catch on. And the biggest problem is the plot. When the story revolves around the main characters the series is interesting to watch, but when the focus shifts the feeling that the series sags. Also glad that for the first time in the series we got canon(?). Of course everything didn't end happily, but the tie-in for season 3 was necessary. And in a way, I'm personally happy with this finale. Otherwise everything would have looked too sugary and unnatural. So a certain drama is maintained and that's a plus. And of course it's funny to watch the anger and frustration of the hellers who still think they've been robbed of canon from a couple who were never originally involved in each other, much less interested. Unlike Aziraphale and Crowley. Though I'll be honest, I never thought or expected them to be a couple. It takes season 3 to become a couple though. And here's my main problem. With all things considered, is all of this enough to get a season 3? I think with everything I wrote above, the series may not be renewed and I would be truly sorry not to get the story of Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship. What are your thoughts and bets?

I enjoyed season 2, though I remember thinking while watching the first four episodes "are they ever going to get to the point?". I was getting impatient and kept thinking how so many of these tv streaming series are better off as 2-hour movies (Kenobi, third season of The Mandalorian, etc).

And then it finally got to the point, it was about love.

The love between Gabriel and Beelzebub reminded me a bit of the love between Sam and Dean: selfish and honest. Gab and Beel only care about themselves and each other, they didn’t want to deal with Apocalypse2.0 and they didn’t want to protect the humans or earth. And yet Gabe and Beel showed that love could be easy if you're honest, so it was easy for them to give up everything for each other.

Aziraphale is not selfish, he is willing to give up everything he loves - his bookshop, his food, even Crowley - just to save the earth. He also wants to make heaven into the good place it should’ve have been, and he thought giving Crowley back his angel status is what he deserves, because Azi have seen over and over again the good Crowley has done and that he's actually good. But Azi doesn't understand that isn't what Crowley wants, who makes it worse by not doing a good job communicating this to Azi. Granted, they both were not truly listening to what the other is saying because they already made up their mind before the conversation started. Crowley believes Azi choosing heaven over him while Azi believes Crowley, by rejecting heaven, is also rejecting him. Despite what Azi believes, he still "forgives" Crowley.

Those two have a lot to unpack, which is all a set up for season 3. With that said, the "sad" "bittersweet" ending kind of saved the whole season for me because otherwise, as you said, it would have been too saccrhine and unnatural-ish and why I was getting impatient for the show to get to their point.

I agree the characters other than Azi and Crowley were ....just there. I was glad that Nina and Maggie didn't end up together just yet since Nina is on a rebound. Crowley thinking all it takes for human to fall in love was getting them wet and looking into each other eyes is never going to be not funny. Crowley, are you sure you didn't know Jane Austen was an author and not just a master spy?

Will Good Omen get a season 3? I read it was the #1 comedy on Amazon so the odds are in their favor. Unlike season 2 which didn't really have a story arc, they set up season 3 to be a callback to season 1's Apocalypse storyline with the Second Coming, so a foundation is already established.

#good omen 2

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direwolfrules · 2 years ago

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Star Wars As Star Trek AU

Exactly what it says on the tin. Specifically, Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Star Trek.

The Various Political Entities

The Federation- The Republic becomes the Federation, and the Jedi and GAR are now Starfleet. The Jedi in this AU are typically high ranking officers on ships. The Council are all Admirals except for Obi-Wan, who pulls a Picard and declines promotion for as long as he can. There is no Force, but I'm going to make them more sensitive to psychic phenomena, or in the case of some Jedi, just straight up psychic if the species fits.

The Senate is now the Federation Council, the Chancellor President of the Federation.

The clones are still clones, but because of the general good vibes/hope for a better tomorrow thing Trek has, they all got citizenship as soon as they were discovered. The Anti-Augment laws are just going to be thrown out the window for the most part. Because they inconvenience me.

I don't know, the Kaminoians are all Soongs now, because if anything Morally Dubious and Unethical happens, it's typically the work of a Soong.

The Hostile Superpower- The Separatists either replace the Cardassians or the Romulans, or maybe a weird mash up of both. There is a Neutral Zone buffer in the Outer Rim between the two major powers, but unfortunately a Federation starship violated the treaty, so now it's war time. The violation was baited by former Starfleet Admiral Dooku, who defected.

The Mandalorian Empire- Mandalorians replace Klingons, for obvious reasons. I can easily mash up events and stuff to make them work. Like, the Khitomer Massacre can easily be mashed together with Galidraan, the most major change I'd have to make is it's not known House Vizsla was behind the Massacre. Also, I kinda have a specific plot point for the Children of the Watch that would work with a canon Klingon storyline (please, please tell me your guesses. I want to see if anyone can figure it out from the clue(s) in this post).

Also, I can make Korkie/Alexander parallels, because I am a Korkie Kenobi Truther.

The Mandalorians are ruled by the Aii'aliit (closest thing to parliment or meeting of the clans, literally means clan of clans). Noble Houses are all represented on the council, and those Houses all have vassal Clans. Adonai Kryze is alive in this AU for plot reasons, and he's the High Chancellor of the Council (I'll look up or make a Mando'a title later). Satine's the Ambassador to the Federation, and Bo's joined the Mandalorian Protectors.

The Mandos have had a complicated legal debate over the status of the clones for years. After the Galidraan Massacre House Mereel lost a lot of status, so suddenly giving a House with a claim on the Mand’alor title several million soldiers seems...less than prudent. And what's to say the Clones aren't a trap from the Federation, meant to destroy them from the inside out. The memory of the Dral'han and the Taung Extinction Virus (I'm co-opting the Augment Virus) run deep in their people.

The Hutts- The Hutts are the Ferengi. I...don't really think I need to explain that one.

Resistance is Futile- And, because I enjoy breaking my own rules, the Yuuzhan Vong are now the Borg. That's right, I'm bringing the EU into this bitch. Listen, the parallels between the two threats make it too tempting not to do.

The Main Cast

Aboard the USS Resolute, a Venerator-class capital ship and flagship of the Federation fleet we have:

Captain Obi-Wan Kenobi- A man who just wants to putter around the galaxy with his found family and get into wacky space hijinks. He keeps turning down promotions to Admiral, partly because he feels like taking a desk job will be absolute torture and partly because he doesn't think anyone else will be able to keep Anakin from blowing up the warp core.

While on the surface Kenobi looks like a Picard style captain, he's actually closer to a Janeway. No, I will not elaborate on this, it's just how I see him.

Commander Cody Fett- Obi-Wan's second in command. Hyper competent, under caffeinated, and wondering what he did in a past life to deserve serving on the same ship as Skywalker. At least his Captain is a decent sort, even if he is a bit too crazy. And too flirty, but Cody's pointedly not thinking about that.

Thanks to the Kaminoians' fuckery (I'm undecided on how willingly involved Jango is in this timeline) Cody has trouble connecting with his Mandalorian heritage. He tries to study the writings of Tarre the Unforgettable and participate in the ceremonies and culture, but it's hard. The Mandalorian Alii'aliit hasn't been able to come to a consensus on whether or not the Clones are actually Mandalorian, and House Mereel's disgrace after Galidraan doesn't help matters.

Lieutenant Commander Anakin Skywalker- Head of Engineering. Captain Kenobi's unoffical/official little brother, who got assigned to the Resolute partly because he's such a brilliant engineer, and partly because there's genuine worry that without Obi-Wan there to serve as a functioning brain-cell, Anakin will blow up the warp core.

He's married to Naboo's Representative on the Federation Council, Padme Amidala. Their marriage isn't a secret here, which just means they're insufferable everywhere. Anakin has more demerits from outlandish PDA than from almost-blew-up-the-warp-core incidents, which is saying a lot, because there have been quite a few incidents.

Lieutenant Commander Rex Fett- Head of Security. This poor man. This poor, foolish man, made the horrible mistake of befriending Anakin Skywalker at the Academy and now he gets dragged into all the man's crazy schemes. Said schemes usually involve Rex eventually getting thrown through the air, because of course they do.

He's the designated Ahsoka and Anakin wrangler. Jokes on Captain Kenobi, if the idea doesn't involve potentially blowing up the warp core Rex just might join in with the chaos.

Ensign Ahsoka Tano- I wanna say she's the helmsman. She graduated from the Academy at a young age, and has kinda latched on to Admiral Plo Koon as a father figure. Plo Koon is thrilled by this, because it's Plo Koon. The man once stopped a civil war through pure dad vibes.

She's everyone's unofficial little sister and somehow always manages to finagle her way onto away missions. Her and Anakin aren't allowed to be alone together because they'll probably blow up the warp core.

She programs the best holodeck simulations; a large portion of them are dedicated to combat and hunting (she needs to fulfill the Togruta instincts somehow and it's very hard to do so in space). Some of them though, are just silly things like a traditional Barolian amusement park or Starfleet Academy but everything is a musical (Say, you know the usual "trapped in the holodeck" episode?).

Also she may or may not have a crush on the cute Mirialan junior Lieutenant in Astrometrics. The one that Lieutenant Commander Unduli has taken to personally mentoring.

C-3PO and R2-D2- Honestly, almost the same as canon, but the Trek "what makes a sentient" episodes focus on them. "The Measure Of A Man" is C-3PO fighting for rights not just for himself but for all droids.

Commander Kix Gilamar- CMO of the Resolute. A lot of clone doctors took Gilamar's name, because the man looked at all these sad, small children and decided to care. The clones with the Gilamar name are still under House Mereel, so it's not an added complication legally. (Listen, the whole reason Gilamar exists is because the initial Kal Skirata toy design looked too young, so I'm giving him Skirata's adoption instincts)

This guy has the dubious pleasure of serving with some self sacrificial weirdos. Like, Kenobi's diligent about going to medical, but in a crisis he won't let Kix treat him until everyone else gets checked and treated and Kix is very annoyed by this, because triage. Kix logs the most hypospray sedative usage out of any CMO in Starfleet.

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gudhoomanbean · 2 years ago

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Stowaway Chapter 2

AN: Hi everybody! Let's goooo next chapter. I'm still busy setting things up, setting the scene, but getting Din and you to interact was definitely fun. I hope I'm able to stay true to who Din is as a character while also cracking that tough shell. Lots of slow burn and tension to come, because thats the BEST part :P. Let me know what you guys think! And should I make longer chapters? It would take longer to write and post, but if you'd prefer that lemme know :)

Warnings: Description of weapons, some tension, some swearing.

Word count: 2074

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The silence is suffocating. You just sit there for hours upon hours, with nothing to look at but a shiny helmet, green ears and the lines of stars streaking by. You don't know how he's able to sit so perfectly still for so long. And the awkwardness you feel is slowly eating away at your self control to stay silent. Eventually you can't stand it anymore.

"Am I a prisoner?" You ask, pretty sure you are, but not able to think of another question to break the silence.

That continues.

You're pretty sure he heard you. Is he ignoring you?

"Mr Mandalorian sir, I need to pee." You try again. This time you see his shoulders slump slightly, but you still don't get a response.

"I'll uh, just go downstairs then." You say, getting up. You slowly sidestep the chair while watching the Mandalorian for hints of movement. He stays stock still. You keep retreating backwards, and startle a bit when you hear the hiss of doors opening behind you. You retreat further into the next cabin and wait until the doors hiss closed in front of you and you lose sight of the Mandalorian.

For the first time in hours you're able to take a deep breath. You climb down the ladder as best you can with bound hands, and then turn to look at what you now have to assume is the urinal. Obviously this ship was not made to cater to anybody that doesn't stand up and pee. You stare at it very hard, wondering how on earth you're going to manage to relieve yourself.

"This is ridiculous." You mutter. You look around, wondering if there is possibly another solution. Your eyes land on a small round bucket type thing, and you shrug to yourself. You're no stranger to having to do things the hard way, or the gross way. Growing up on a small farming planet taught you to get your hands dirty, and your time spent as a combat medic for the Resistance made your stomach strong.

So you grab the bucket, pull your pants down, and crouch. And oh sweet stars it feels good. You hadn't realised just how much you needed to go until now. When you're finished you pick up the bucket and empty it into the useless urinal. Flushing it makes a loud sound that you're sure can be heard all the way up in the cockpit.

But if he's going to ignore you, then you're going to take advantage of it and try to amuse yourself down here. Now that one basic need has been fulfilled, you find yourself noticing another. You're so kriffing hungry. You take in the hull before you.

You didn't notice how cluttered it actually is on your way in, you just noticed wide open space in the middle. But the walls are full of stuff. Parts for the ship, nets, containers filled with who knows what. And to your left is a large locker. You move forward to open it up, your curiosity getting the better of you.

As you open the doors you gasp slightly. Every weapon known to the galaxy has got to be in here. You can't even tell what most of them are for. What on earth does someone need such a variety of weapons for, you wonder to yourself.

Turning slightly you notice a little storage locker. You press the button and it slides open, revealing a cot and a net hanging above it, that looks like a make-shift little bed for the kid. This must be where they sleep. You think about sleep, but shake youself. As tired as you are, your hunt for food is not yet over.

You start to dig through the containers, opening the smaller ones first. You're surprised at just how much of it is scraps of metal and parts for the ship. You're pretty sure you could build half a ship with all this stuff. By the time you're opening your fifth box to only find tools, you're starting to lose hope you're going to find anything edible. You groan and rest your head against the container.

"What are you doing?" A gruff voice asks close by. You jump up almost hit your forehead on his helmet. He was bending over you when he spoke, and you hadn't realised he was so close. You stumble back a bit, heart pounding.

"Are you one of those species that eats metal? The only thing in any of these containers is scraps and parts and tools." You ask him, flustered.

"Do you always answer a question with another question?" He asks lowly, taking a step towards you. You huff and hold your ground, not going to allow him to intimidate you further. You stare at him, almost challenging him.

"Only when I have important questions to ask." You say. He takes another step towards you, and you suddenly realise just how tall he is. He's close enough that if you leaned forward a little, your forehead would rest on his chest. This forces you to look up at him, and you have to actively control your rapid breathing. His proximity is slowly eating away at your resolve to not be intimidated.

"Then ask an important question." He says quietly. You suck in a breath at the implication. Like you haven't asked an important question yet. Anger bubbles up inside you, but you remain calm, knowing he's trying to rile you up. He tilts his face lower, and you can feel him looking at you through the helmet. You stare at the dark T shaped visor where you think his eyes are, willing yourself not to blink.

"Food. Where can I find food." You ask, and it comes out as a mumble. You internally kick yourself for sounding afraid, knowing you just lost whatever this interaction was. Not looking away from you, he points and your eyes follow to a container against the opposite wall. The little one right at the very top. You look back at him, and he still hasn't moved an inch. You stand there for a few more minutes until You realise grumpily you won't win this standoff especially not with your stomach beginning to eat your liver. So you take a step back and walk over to the container.

You open it and see a couple packets of rations, and while it isn't restaurant quality, you're just so glad there is actually something edible on this ship. You pick one up and open it, trying to work with your hands still cuffed and shaking from hunger. You pop a cracker into your mouth and almost forget to chew, practically inhaling the nutrition. You turn around and find the Mandalorian still staring at you.

You realise you didn't ask if you could eat the food. You blush a little in embarassment, scolding yourself for your rudeness. He didn't throw you in Carbonite, so as much as you want to fight back against his intimidating presence, you have to remember to at least be somewhat grateful to him. There was nothing that stopped him from turning the ship around and dropping you back at the transport, but he didn't.

"Am I going to stay cuffed the whole time?" You ask, and the little part of you inside that just scolded you for being rude throws a massive fit and almost walks out on you. You were supposed to say thank you. The Mandalorian doesn't say anything and only walks towards you. He stops again in front of you and you lift your hands up a little. He bends closer to you, and you feel your heart beating against your chest like a war drum.

He doesn't stop moving closer, and you're so shocked you don't remember how to move or breathe. You just stand there and stare at him with big eyes as he leans in, so that there is barely 10cm between the two of you. He continues to look down at you and your heart sits in your throat. He lifts his arm and you watch out of the corner of your eye as he reaches around you and grabs two packets of rations. He then pulls away from you, turns around and walks away, climbing the ladder and disappearing.

You stand there for a while, dumb struck. You're not sure what happened to your body in that moment, but when he was so close to you your mind just started to short circuit. You stare at the ladder where he disappeared and sink to the ground, absent-mindedly munching on your rations while pondering the great mystery of the armoured man.

What were his intentions? Why did he let you stay on the ship? Who was he? Your head was spinning with all these unknowns, and you wondered to yourself exactly who's ship you got on. You finish your rations and feel your eyes start to get heavy. At least now you know you aren't in immediate danger, so maybe some shut eye isn't so bad.

You remember seeing scraps of cloth and blankets in one of the containers, and you get up to go and pull some out. You grab a reasonable bundle and make yourself a little nest on the floor, knowing that you easily get cold. You wrap yourself up and drift off the minute you get settled.

~~~

Din climbed down the stairs with Grogu in his arms. The kid was tired and so was he, but with a stranger on the ship he was not going to be able to sleep. He reached the bottom of the stairs and saw a bundle of blankets on the floor. He walked over and saw your forehead peaking out through a gap in some of them. He contemplated you, this strange person that snuck onto his ship without him knowing.

He had to admit, you were good at being sneaky. If he hadn't gone into that chamber and seen your heat signature through the wall, he would never have known you were there. That also reminded him that he needed to be extra cautious. He couldn't let it happen again.

Grogu suddenly wiggled out of his arms and slid to the floor, waddling over to where you were lying. He pointed at you and looked up at his dad, his eyes full of questions. Din didn't know what to tell him. He knew nothing about you except that you were a stowaway, you worked for the New Republic and you were a doctor.

Were you really only on this ship because the transport was dead in space? Din had seen the state of the ship and was inclined to believe you, but years of experience warned him to be cautious around you, because anyone could lie. You were absolutely going to stay cuffed until they reached Nevarro. Grogu started to climb into the blankets and Din reached forward to stop him.

"Hey, no. That's not your bed." He muttered, trying not to wake you. He picked up Grogu who made an upset sound and reached out to try and get back to the blankets. Din couldn't blame him, you made a little bed that looked comfy as hell, but he didn't trust you, and couldn't let Grogu sleep there. He carried Grogu to the compartment with the cot and opened it up. He placed Grogu in his little hanging bed and patted him, waiting for the kid to fall asleep.

Eventually Grogu's breathing came in long deep breaths, and looking behind him, Din saw that you were also still passed out. He decided to stay here, and lie down on the cot so he could watch Grogu, and leave the door open so he could watch you too. Climbing in he lay down with a soft grunt, the aches from sitting in a chair for hours starting to feel slightly better.

And so Din stayed like that, watching his son, and watching you. Wondering what the next few days would hold, and thinking about how much he secretly had enjoyed making you so flustered when he had gotten too close. He smiled only slightly to himself, knowing that eventually you would learn that if you challenged him, you would lose.

The rhythmic breathing from his son and from you started to lull him slightly, and before he even realised he had sunk into the dreamscape.

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