#hunter tries so hard to protect every member of the squad

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

The last words Crosshair heard from Hunter before he was subjected to his inhibitor chip being intensified were:

"Oh no, no, no. We stay together."

Crosshair may have just been arguing with all his brothers, but Hunter is still trying to protect him.

And the troopers attack Hunter for it.

And then there's Crosshair's reaction (which Hunter doesn't see): his look of shock and anger mirroring his brothers', a look that quickly fades to a resigned shake of the head before he stands to leave.

And while I'm sure there were lots of thoughts going through Crosshair's mind - "see, Hunter, this is why we need to just follow orders, you wouldn't get hurt if you would just comply" likely being among them - I firmly believe at least part of the reason why Crosshair got up and went with the troopers without a word of protest was because it was his way of protecting Hunter in return.

[mandos-mind-trick]

The Other Side

Did I need to write this? No, probably not. But I woke up in my Crosshair feels this morning, so enjoy this absolute filth before we get to the pain. 

VERY NSFW below the cut. 

Directly related to THIS drabble, though either could be read first. 

MASTERLIST

She looks so pretty like this. 

Face down, ass up, hands fisted into the pillow holding on for dear life. His fingers dig into her hips, indenting skin hard enough to leave bruises. She won’t complain. She likes it rough. 

His thrusts are slow and deep, savoring the drag of her walls along his cock. She’s soaked, every thrust forcing fluid to slide down her trembling thighs. She hasn’t cum yet. He hasn’t let her. Twice he had brought her to the brink, once with his fingers, then again with his mouth. Twice he had pulled away, leaving her dangling on the edge of pleasure. 

She’s moaning, quiet little breathy sounds muffled by the pillow. She’s trying to stay quiet, not wanting to wake the others. He knows they wouldn’t care. In all reality, they’d probably enjoy hearing it. More than once he’d been forced to hear the familiar slap of skin when she got too loud in the bunks. He at least had the decency to go to the fresher and relieve himself. 

He snaps his hips into hers, bringing his hand down hard against her skin. She lets out a yelp, quickly burying her face into the pillow. 

“Shhh.” He shushes her, rubbing the tender skin. “You don’t want to wake them, do you?”

She moans quietly into the pillow, squeezing around him. He knows she doesn’t care either, his little voyeur. 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He slows his thrusts a little. “All of them listening in, hearing just how pretty you sound.” She whimpers into the pillow, trying to thrust back into him. “You want them all to know how good you feel, how good I make you feel.” 

“Yes!” She moans, the word just barely audible through the pillow. 

He smirks, picking up his pace again, using his grip on her hips to pull her back to meet his thrusts. She’s shaking now, getting close to the edge once more. She’s squeezing around him, the wet squelch of her loud in his ears. He knows Hunter’s listening. He had volunteered to stay up, to wait for their next orders to come in. He can only imagine the torture this must be for Hunter. 

He knows Hunter has it the worst out of all of them. It wasn’t just his attraction to Midnight. His position as squad leader puts him in a precarious position. He feels responsible for Midnight, not just as a team member, not just as a soldier under his command. He wants to take care of her. 

He’s seen it, the way Hunter’s hand rests on the back of her chair when she pushes it back onto two legs, ready to stop it from teetering backwards. The way he’d watched when she stood on Wrecker’s shoulders to fix wiring in the ceiling for Tech. He’d been ready to jump in and catch her if she’d fallen. Not that Wrecker would have let her fall in the first place. Crosshair always sees how he watches her on missions, sticking close to her when he can. 

He also knows Hunter tries to protect her from him. 

He wouldn’t hurt her. He had in the past, but now he can’t. Maker, he’s so pussy-whipped. 

He knows she likes it rough. He knows how much she can take. He knows she’ll tell him if it's too much, even if she doesn’t say a word. 

He brings a hand down again, smacking her skin once more. She jolts, pussy spasming around him. He slips a hand under her, wrapping his fingers around her throat. He pulls her up, trapping her back against his chest. His hand squeezes just slightly, her breath hitching. 

“You’re just a filthy little whore, aren’t you?” He growls, picking up his pace. 

Her eyes are rolling, mouth parted as she gets closer and closer to the edge. She sobs, hand clutching at his wrist. “Yes!” 

He delivers another smack to her cheek. “Yes, what?” 

“Yes, sir!” She sobs. “I’m your whore! Only for you!” 

His fingers slip around to her clit, rubbing circles against the bundle of nerves. “Good girl.” 

She writhes against him as she cums, chanting his name like a prayer. Two quick thrusts and he’s spilling into her, moaning in her ear. He slows his thrusts to a stop, sinking back onto his heels. He keeps his arms around her, holding her through the aftershocks of her orgasm. His hand is still around her throat, feeling the rapid beating of her pulse against his fingers. 

He leans his head against hers, his nose pressing against her shoulder. 

“Cross?” She says quietly. 

He removes his hand from her throat, wrapping his other arm around her. He won’t let her go, not yet. He’s going soft inside her but he doesn’t care. 

“I love you.” She almost whispers. 

He doesn’t say it back. He doesn’t need to.

[deonaenaeh]

genshin men — seeing them cry for the first time

i love bennett, i am his legal mom i have adopted him ever since the beginning of time. he is my precious child. i am the whole bennett protection squad and anyone who hurts him will have their chargers only working on a certain angle.

• genshin men x fem!reader

✎ currently editing other parts

!! tw : heavy angst, self-esteem issues !!

┌─ ❊ bennett

“One Sweet Madame and one Steak. That would be 650 Mora.” Sara packed your orders while you fished for your wallet and paid.

“Thank you Sara!” You carried the packages.

“Anytime.” She smiled and handed your change.

You left Good Hunter and skipped towards the Adventurer’s Guild.

You sprinted towards his room and slowed down once you realized the door was slightly ajar.

“Bennett!” You called. “Let’s have dinner together!”

There was no reply.

“Bennett?” You knocked. “I’m coming in.”

You slowly swung the door open. The room was empty except for…many scorch marks all over: on his walls, drawer, table… everywhere.

You almost dropped the food.

“Bennett?! Wh-what happened here?!” You frantically placed the food you ordered on the table and ran towards the other guild members in the main hall.

You halted in the hallway only to be greeted by many more scorch marks all over the walls. Even the training arena was covered in dark soot.

Everyone was grumbling and pacing around trying to clean it up.

“What happened in here?! Where’s Bennett?!” You demanded. “Is he okay?! His room was scorched!”

“Ugh curse him!” One of the guild members stomped towards you. “He caused this!”

“What?”

“He literally blew everything up!” Another guild member said. “He’s such a pain to be with.”

“What? Bennett wouldn’t do such a thing…”

“He just blows everything up! Literally a figuratively! Why did the gods even give him a Vision?!” The members started complaining. “He makes everything worse!”

You glared at them. “Are you hearing yourselves? Are you hearing how stupid you all sound? You blame every unfortunate thing that happens to you on Bennett!”

You waved your hands. “Now look at what you’ve fucking done! He’s run away because you all keep treating him like a burden and now he probably thinks he is one. It’s not his fault he was given a Vision in the first place! At least he has a Vision, because he actually works hard unlike you people who complain about training all day!”

You turned and walked away. “I’m gonna look for him and I swear to archons if anything bad happened to him it would be because of all of you.”

Everyone watched you go in silence, guilted by your anger.

You grabbed your food, two sweaters, and a blanket, and dashed out of the gates of Mondstadt.

Thank the archons you had Elemental Sight because it would’ve taken you hours to look for your adventure buddy without it.

You found Bennett in Windrise, sitting on the porch on the Statue of the Seven. You assumed it was because he had to heal from all the burns he caused on himself.

He hadn’t noticed you yet as he continued sobbing with his head down on his knees until you gently draped a warm sweater over his shoulders.

“You might get a cold.” You whispered.

Bennett looked up at you. He quickly wiped his tears and forced a smile.

“Hey ______!” He tried to sound happy.

It broke your heart to see him that way.

“Bennett…” You pulled him into a hug. “I’m so sorry…”

He hugged you back. “No worries! I’m okay!”

“No Bennett it’s not okay. The way they treated you was not okay.” You pulled away to look at him. “What happened? Come on tell me…”

Bennett dropped his joyful facade. His eyes lost their spark as he sniffed.

“I was told to light the campfire. But I accidentally caused an explosion while doing so. I apologized but instead I just got scolded repeatedly. Every time they scolded me, I panicked which caused me to blow up fire everywhere. I tried to hide in my room to calm myself down but…I ended up blowing more than I had expected…I…I can’t control it…”

Bennett buried his face in his hands and started sobbing again.

“I’ m a burden! All I do is cause trouble! I’m no good. I’m bad luck. I’m cursed. I screw everything up! I HATE MYSELF!”

You started tearing up. “Bennett no…”

He started bawling as he took his goggles off. “I’m so tired of everyone telling me how much of a pain in the ass I am! I’m never good enough! Everything I do is wrong! Everything is MY FAULT! It’s always me me me me who’s done something wrong!”

You pulled Bennett into a hug again as he began losing control of himself. He sobbed on your shoulder.

“I hate myself, ______.” His voice was muffled as he continuously talked to himself negatively. “I hate myself…”

“It’s okay Bennett let it out…I’m here for you…” You rubbed his back reassuringly. Bennett hugged you tighter.

“Ever since I got my Vision, I knew the gods had faith in me. But now, it’s just a nuisance…”

“Bennett, don’t mind what people say. You’re not a burden, you’re not a mistake, and you’re definitely not bad luck. People always have something to nitpick about you but that’s not your problem. There’s nothing wrong with you. You are the nicest, kindest, and most passionate person I know and you deserve to be loved and appreciated.” You brushed his hair away from his eyes. “You’re my sunshine.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

After a while, Bennett started to calm down. His breathing gradually became steadier as you caressed his hair.

“You okay?” You whispered.

“Y-yeah I’m feeling better…” He looked up at you. “Thanks for being there for me, ______.”

“Anytime buddy.”

You two realized how close you were and mutually pulled away in embarrassment.

You kinda just sat there beside each other awkwardly for a while. You both knew something was forming between the two of you.

You nervously fiddled with the hem of your sleeve and took a deep breath.

“I like you, Bennett.”

“I like you, ______.”

You turned to each other in shock as you confessed at the same time.

“Wait, for real?” He asked, bewildered.

“Y-yes.”

“Like, like like?”

“Yes…” You hid your face in the hood of your sweater.

Bennett was just in utter shock as his face flared crimson.

Did the girl of my dreams just say that she liked me back?! He stared at you dumbfounded.

“Bennett? Oh my god I broke him.”

“I am the luckiest boy in the world.” He uttered.

You wheezed.

He started hyperventilating both out of euphoria and anxiety.

You quickly held the food you ordered before him. “I got you Steak!”

That snapped him out of his trance and his mouth began to water. “Really?!”

“Yeah come on!”

You both walked up the hill and settled the blanket on the grass, right beside the tree. You sat in your little picnic place and ate and laughed together.

You’d do everything just to make him smile, and Bennett would do just the same for you.

After finishing up, you sat against the tree and looked up at the stars.

“So…i-is this like a date?” He asked.

You chuckled and kissed his cheek. “If you say so, then it is.”

He smiled warmly.

“Bennett, you are my favorite adventure.”

“Well ______,” He leaned on your shoulder and intertwined his fingers with yours. “You feel like home.”

[gospelofme]

Unfortunate Eavesdropping

I’m so sorry guys. But I had to.

Echo picked at the food in front of him. His appetite was slowly returning, but he felt this was more homesickness than lack of interest. More than once he had laid awake wondering if he had made the right decision, leaving the 501st for Clone Force 99. He hadn’t gotten much opportunity to catch up with Captain Rex after he was rescued. There just never was a good time, between evading the Techno Union and processing his freedom. Captain Rex had looked different from when Echo had last seen him. He looked like he had seen things he wished he hadn’t.

“If you don’t eat that food, the Kaminoans will feed you via that tube again.” Tech pointed out, not looking up from his datapad. Echo made a face, he had hated that tube. He took a bite of tasteless food and tried to force himself to like it. He had wanted to access records and files on his comrades, but he feared what he would find. The list of those KIA and MIA grew every day.

Behind him, two clones sat down and were in the midst of chatting about something. Echo tried not to listen in on their conversation, he’d always considered that rude.

“So apparently the 501st has a missing medic, Kix.”

“Why does his name sound familiar?”

“Well, rumor has it, he was seen with that one ARC Trooper who went kriffin’ insane and tried to murder the Chancellor.”

“Yeah! What was his name...”

“Fives I think...yeah, because his number was all fives.”

Echo froze. Tech froze. Crosshair froze. Wrecker froze. Hunter froze. Clone Force 99 looked apprehensively at their new member. They’d researched him when he joined their squad, just to get some background information. It was clearly documented that Echo had partnered up with ARC Trooper Fives on numerous missions. That their relationship went all the way back to being cadets together. They’d known what had happened to Fives, just the surface information though. Tech hadn’t been able to crack the access code for the confidential stuff.

Hunter hadn’t been sure how to bring up the fact his batch brother had lost it. Fives hadn’t been the first trooper to do so, another one killed his General as well.

“Apparently Fox had to put him down when he trapped General Skywalker and Captain Rex in a warehouse. But it’s weird how the medic is now missing.”

Echo turned around on the bench,

“What did you say?” He asked the troopers behind him. One glanced over his shoulder,

“That the 501st has a missing medic?” He repeated himself.

“No, before that. About the ARC Trooper?” Echo clarified, his voice calm and even.

“Oh him, just that he lost his kriffin’ mind and tried to shoot the chancellor.” The trooper next to him giggled a bit, crossing his eyes and circling his finger near his temple in the sign for crazy. Both troopers laughed at that.

Crosshair tried, but wasn’t fast enough with grabbing Echo, who sat across from him. The recovering ARC-Trooper swung a hard left fist that connected with the trooper in front of him. The man fell, knocked out cold, as his buddy leapt to defend him. Echo was thrown backwards onto the table, Hunter shoving the attacking trooper away from him. Crosshair quickly grabbed Echo’s arms and pulled him across to the other side of the table.

“Later Echo, you can’t afford to get disciplined right now!” He whispered to his newest brother.

The team escorted Echo back to their barracks, Echo silently fuming the whole way. They hung back, allowing their new brother to stalk ahead of them.

“How dare he disrespect Fives like that!” He ranted when he got back to their quarters. Silence answered him.

“How can he say those things!?” He asked. Silence answered him.

Echo sat up and looked over at his new team.

“He was wrong to talk like that!” He shouted at them. Tech was the first to speak up, to meet his gaze as the others couldn’t.

“But...he wasn’t wrong...” he began tentatively, Echo standing up to confront him.

“Factually I mean.” Tech hurried on. Echo looked confused.

“He did try to assassinate the Chancellor. They’re saying a virus is what caused him to go crazy. That’s the story anyways.” Tech explained as gently as he could.

“You’re wrong.” Echo stated bluntly. He was three seconds away from walking out on this squad. He would find a shuttle and use it to get back to the 501st and ask General Skywalker himself.

Tech must’ve seen the change in body language from defiance to defeat. He approached his brother carefully, holding out his datapad with the files pulled up.

“That’s all we could get...there is a confidential addition but it’s protected. I couldn’t break the code.” Echo took the datapad and sat down on his bunk. His face remained expressionless as he read through the report. Crosshair busied himself with cleaning his rifle, Wrecker added a couple tallies to the wall. Hunter and Tech sat in silence. The report wasn’t long, but it seemed to take Echo hours to read it. Realistically it was only 10 minutes, but the silence seemed to make it stretch.

The sound of metal clattering to the floor made them jump. They looked to Echo who had his face partially buried in his left hand. His other, with the access key attached, was propped awkwardly against his forehead. He was weeping. His prosthetic slipped and Echo shook his right arm in frustration, as if trying to shake the access key off.

“I can’t even cry properly anymore!” He yelled.

Hunter got up and went to the distressed clone’s side. He wasn’t good at this, none of them were. Comfort wasn’t something they knew how to bestow on others, apart from each other. But Echo was one of them now. He put a hand on Echo’s back apprehensively. He wasn’t sure how much contact his brother wanted.

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Echo asked, wiping tears from his face with his hand.

“Who?”

“Rex! He didn’t say anything about Fives to me! Nothing!! Neither did the General!” Echo said exasperatedly.

“You were in no state, mental or physical, to be told such information.” Crosshair said from across the room. He didn’t look up from polishing a scope lens that was already spotless. He was the least experienced with comforting others, but Hunter was pleased that he at least tried. Echo wanted to debate that point, but couldn’t find any valid comeback.

“There was another trooper who went...” Tech started, a look from Hunter made him search for another word.

“...who lost control, they think it was the same virus. He shot and killed his General. Fives pulled him away from her and that’s when they think he contracted the virus.” Echo gave Tech a look that reinforced how much bullshit he thought that cause was. Tech put his hands up defensively,

“Their words, not mine.” He added.

“And now Kix is missing...” Echo said weakly. Hunter stayed silent.

“Do you think they’re even looking for him? Are they even aware he is gone?” Echo asked, it was almost rhetorical.

“Of course they are. Medics are pretty essential.” Hunter said immediately, unsure if it would help comfort Echo.

Echo shifted away from Hunter, who took the hint and backed off. He got off Echo’s bunk as his brother laid down, his back to them. He needed time to process the loss of the last member of his batch squad. The loss of his best friend. The team knew Echo didn’t sleep at all that night, as they heard him quietly weeping.

Tag List

@jgvfhl @nelba @leias-left-hair-bun

@baby-queen-zen @halzore @escapedthesarlacc

[superhusbands4ever]

The Chain - Chapter 3/15

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Full Work | AO3 Link

Fandom: The Bad Batch (Star Wars)

Characters: Crosshair, Hunter, Howzer, Rex, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Omega, Various Clones

Relationships: Crosshair & Howzer, Crosshair & Rex, Crosshair & The Bad Batch, Crosshair & Omega, Hunter & Rex, Hunter & Omega

Additional Tags: Redemption, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Found Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Violence, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: One year after the events of The Bad Batch, Crosshair struggles to reconcile his choice with the harsh truth of the world around him. He finds enlightenment in the most unlikely of places and realizes he may have made the wrong decision. But is it too late to do something about it?

Two years after the events of The Bad Batch, Rex reluctantly agrees to allow Hunter and his squad to help him rescue a man who's been captured by the Empire, an Imperial double agent who's cover has been blown. What Hunter thought to be a simple extraction ends up having far greater consequences for their squad than he could have ever anticipated.

Chapter Warnings: violence/torture, electrocution, anti-clone prejudice, the Empire being the Empire

Most people are drowning in their delusional ignorance without knowing that their suffering was created by themselves.

Jakusho Kwong Roshi

The disk exploded in the air as the blaster bolt hit it, shattering into tiny pieces that clattered onto the floor to join the fragmented remains of the other disks before it.

Crosshair adjusted his grip on his rifle and signaled to the droid at the end of the range to volley another round of disks. The kickback on his rifle against his shoulder was comforting and familiar, the same as it had been since he was old enough to hold the firepuncher up in his arms for the first time.

Shooting the disks was ridiculously easy, no matter how quickly the training droid launched them, but Crosshair wasn’t looking for a challenge. He came to the range to keep his mind busy, a distraction, a mindless task that would give him time to think away from everyone around him.

It had been three months since the destruction of Tipoca City, and three months since Crosshair had made the choice to leave his brothers and return to the Empire.

Those three months had been… interesting, to say the least.

It took the Imperial scouts two days to find Crosshair on that platform. Of course those two days were the two days Kamino decided not to be the stormy landscape it was infamous for. By the time the scouts picked him up he was half delirious from heat exhaustion, dehydration, and his head was covered in burns from the blistering sun.

He woke up again a few days later as they pulled him out of a bacta tank. He’d barely had time to process what was happening before he was being dragged to an interrogation room by a couple of commandos to be questioned by Rampart.

That hadn’t been pleasant.

It was another month before he was sent on missions on his own, before that ordered only to follow Rampart around like he was his personal bodyguard. He knew it was so Rampart could keep an eye on his every move, so he could make sure Crosshair could still be trusted.

Fair, he supposed. Even he could admit his story was shaky at best.

He’d spun some story or another about the girl setting off the training droids in the training room in Tipoca City, his squad being overrun by the droids before the bombardment started. When explaining how he’d escaped alive, Crosshair figured the best lies were the ones that were buried at least partially in the truth.

He told Rampart that he’d been knocked out by his former squad members in the chaos. That they picked him up and dragged him out of the city as they tried to escape. He wasn’t sure why.  He didn't need to lie about that.

He told Rampart about the girl rescuing him, about his squad’s escape through the tunnels to Nala Se’s old lab. He told him about their plan to use the pods to escape to the surface, using that AZI unit as their guide.

And then. And then.

“You were working with them?”

“No,” Crosshair said, staring up at Rampart from the ground. “I was using them. Pretending to work with them until we reached the surface platform.”

“Yes,” Rampart said slowly, “the platform with no ship. How did they get onto Kamino, then?”

“They had help. Communications were down underwater so they needed to reach the surface to call their extraction. They’d just broken CC-5576 out of Daro base, I assume they were working with him.”

Rampart hummed, blank face giving nothing away.

“When we removed your inhibitor chip, Commander, you assured me that your loyalty to the Empire would not be in question. Was that a lie?”

Crosshair shifted in the trooper’s grip in an attempt to get the pressure off of his undoubtedly broken ribs.

“No, sir,” he gasped, biting back a grunt when the commando tightened his grip, forcing Crosshair to arch his back.

Something snapped. Definitely broken then.

“Good,” Rampart said softly. He gestured to the commando and Crosshair was dropped unceremoniously to the ground. He groaned as the muscles in his shoulders finally relaxed. “I would hate to have to replace such a… valuable asset as yourself.”

“They won’t be a problem anymore.”

“So you’ve said. It is unfortunate they won’t be an asset in the pocket of the Empire, but if they were going to be a thorn in our side then I suppose it’s for the best that they’re dead. And you are… sure they are dead, aren’t you?”

Crosshair turned to spit a mouthful of blood at the ground before turning to look at the vice-admiral. He couldn’t quite bring himself to look the man in the eye, instead looking at a spot just below on his cheekbone.

“Their pods were crushed when the lab flooded,” Crosshair said, swallowing hard. “I saw it. To the best of my knowledge, no one could have survived that.”

Rampart stared dispassionately down at Crosshair for a long moment.

“I certainly hope so, Commander. For your sake.”

There was a small part of Crosshair that wondered why he bothered lying, why he was still protecting those traitors. Maybe part of it was self preservation - if he told Rampart that he let the Bad Batch survive and escape, it would undoubtedly end badly for him. The Vice-Admiral had already made that abundantly clear.

He knew it was deeper than that, though, loath as he was to admit it.

He could have done it. He could have killed them. They’d refused to join him, refused to join the Empire, so it was the logical next step in his orders. It would have been so easy, too, distracted as they were by the kid drowning beneath the water. Hunter had brought his rifle and his pack with him into the tube. No one was paying attention to him. If he’d moved quickly enough, he could have grabbed the rifle, shot Hunter and the others, and left the kid to drown. All that would have been left to do was swim to the platform, steal the ship, and fly back to the Daro base to contact Rampart.

He’d been so close. He’d lifted the rifle and had it pointed between Hunter’s eyes before he’d even realized what he was doing.

But something had stayed his hand.

He’d stared down into Hunter’s tired eyes, finger on the trigger and ready to pull, but no matter how much he tried he couldn’t do it. Instead, he did something he’d never done before.

He froze.

Maybe it was a misplaced sense of loyalty. An old holdout feeling, a remnant from the days they were a team, a family. When Crosshair would have been the first to shoot anyone pointing a blaster in Hunter’s face the way he’d been. Maybe it was him returning the favor, remembering that Hunter had saved him, had still grabbed his body and taken him to safety despite everything the two of them had done to each other that day. Maybe it was him remembering the fervor with which Omega had ordered AZI to help rescue him from under the debris so he wouldn’t drown in the cold ocean water.

Maybe it was the memory of Hunter’s voice breaking with desperation when he asked Crosshair how long he’d been without the inhibitor chip. When he’d realized that all of Crosshair’s decisions that led them to that point were entirely his own.

This is who I am.

Or maybe it was the way those familiar brown eyes, eyes that had once looked at him with love and warmth, had looked at him not with surprise or anger, but with resignation . Hunter hadn’t looked at him and felt betrayed or shocked - instead he’d looked at Crosshair with empty acceptance, like he knew this was what Crosshair was planning to do all along and knew he couldn’t fight it. It was like Hunter had finally given up - given up on him .

I wanted to believe it was the inhibitor chip that made you like this, but I was wrong.

Maybe it was the way those same brown eyes had looked at him with that same tired acceptance in Nala Se’s lab, this time on a smaller feminine frame beneath pale, blonde hair.

Before he could even really process what he was doing he’d pulled the rifle away from Hunter and pointed it into the murky waters below. Hunter couldn’t see into the water, but Crosshair could - he could see through the grime and the darkness and the debris to the slowly sinking blur of the girl clinging to the droid. Looking through the scope he realized he was likely the only one of the group who had the ability to save her and survive while doing it. He’d fired the grapple without second thought.

It was after, when he looked back at the others and saw Tech, Echo, and Wrecker shamelessly pointing their own blasters at him, that he realized his plan was never going to work anyway. There was no way his old squad was going to follow him, to come back and join him in the Empire. Whatever bond had existed between them all those years together had broken and he wasn’t sure there was a way for them to get it back. His brothers didn’t trust him anymore and they likely never would.

Once the girl was safely pulled into the pod it was with that knowledge that he tossed his firepuncher back to Wrecker. He sat down in the pod and avoided eye contact with Hunter, not wanting to see the cold blankness in his eyes again. He’d desperately tried to ignore the gnawing in his chest, the emptiness he felt at the thought of his brothers leaving without him again like he knew they were going to.

He couldn’t even watch as Marauder flew away from him for a fourth time, fearful that they’d see the extra shine lingering on his eyes in Kamino’s rare sunlight.

He still tried to ignore the gnawing in his chest that he felt even now, three months later. His temple throbbed and he shook his head to try and clear it.

His thoughts were interrupted by a chime at the door, a warning to whoever was down range that someone was about to enter. The door slid open with a quiet whoosh and ES-02 walked in.

“Commander,” she said with a nod, standing at attention just inside the doorway.

“What do you want?” He said, shooting down the range again when the droid threw the next disk. The shot hit just as the disk was reaching the peak of it’s arch through the air.

“Admiral Rampart has requested you meet him in interrogation room 4-8C,” she said, and he lowered his rifle with a sigh. “He has asked that I escort you.”

“I don’t need a minder,” he said with a roll of his eyes. Still, he stepped back from the range and disengaged his rifle, pulling the nozzle attachment off and slipping it into his pack.

“Vice Admiral’s orders, sir,” she said with a shrug.

Crosshair nodded, slipping his pack onto his back before reaching down beside him to pick up his helmet. He slipped it on, sliding his firepuncher over his shoulder until he heard and felt the metallic clink of it as the magnetic hold in his pack activated.

“Let’s go, then,” he said, gesturing toward the open door behind her.

ES-02 nodded and turned, gesturing for Crosshair to step out in front of her.

They set off down the hallway, ES-02 following a half step behind him to the right. They made their way quickly through the facility until they got to the lift. Once inside, Crosshair swiped his access card to activate the lift and it started lowering itself to the fourth floor.

After a few moments of ES-02’s shuffling and sneaking glances, Crosshair rolled his eyes.

“What?”

She twitched slightly, looking over at Crosshair with what he could only assume were raised eyebrows under her helmet.

“Sir?”

“You have something to say,” he said slowly, as if talking to a small child. “What is it?”

She said nothing, staring at him for a long moment before shaking her head and turning back to the front.

“Nothing, sir.”

He had to fight to not roll his eyes again. These conscripted soldiers were a real pain, and for once in his life Crosshair actually found himself missing the regs. If for no other reason than for their ability to act like actual soldiers and not just gossipy children who thought they were good at lying.

The lift came to a stop and Crosshair stepped out as the door opened, not pausing to wait and see if ES-02 followed him.

He quickly came upon room 4-8C and turned back to the other trooper before he went inside.

“I think I can handle myself from here,” he said dryly. “You’re dismissed.”

She hesitated and her movements shuttered slightly before she jerked her arm up in a salute, nodding as she turned to walk away. He kept his eyes on her back until she turned the corner out of sight.

With a sigh, Crosshair inserted his code into the pad by the door and stepped cautiously into the interrogation room, still unsure what exactly he was walking into.

“Ah, Commander,” Rampart called out. “Thank you for joining us.”

Rampart was standing in the middle of the room next to a blue containment field. In the field’s ray was a man, a clone based on the blacks and the build, head hung low to his chest.

Crosshair slowly crossed the room, stopping at attention behind Rampart.

“The good captain and I were just about to have a long overdue discussion, Commander, and I thought you might like to assist,” Rampart said with a smirk. “You two have a history after all.”

The clone in the containment field finally lifted his head, and Crosshair’s eyes widened slightly behind his helmet as he took in the scarred face beneath scraggly facial hair.

Crosshair hadn’t seen Captain Howzer since he was arrested on Ryloth. Not long after he was arrested Crosshair had been sent back to Kamino to help oversee the decommissioning of Tipoca City. He never knew what became of Howzer, assumed the man had been decommed or reconditioned - if the Empire still bothered with that sort of thing - and he hadn’t spared the other clone a second thought. A few weeks later and the call informing him of Hunter’s capture came in, completely removing the reg from Crosshair’s sphere of concern.

Now here he was, and he certainly didn’t look like the headstrong Captain he remembered on Ryloth. His face was gaunt, his cheekbones stood out sharper than any clone’s should, and his hair was longer, lanky and flopping over his eyes. His face didn’t look any better, skin mottled with black, green, and yellow bruising. He hadn’t shaved in quite some time, and the black facial hair was growing in patches around the scar tissue on his cheek and chin.

The biggest change was in his eyes - whereas the last time Crosshair had seen him his eyes had burned bright with passionate self-righteousness as he rallied the other regs against the Empire, now his eyes were dull. They lacked the intensity, the heat they’d once held within. Before him now were the eyes of a broken man, tired and so beat down he could barely hide it, leaving him a shell of the man Crosshair briefly knew. Crosshair wasn’t sure what the Empire had done to the clone captain, but whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty.

Something about the image tweaked some long forgotten, deeply buried part of his mind. There was something about seeing another clone, strung up like a puppet and beaten down, that left a sour taste on the back of his tongue, but he pushed it down. This man was a traitor to the Empire. This is what he deserved.

“I just have a few questions to ask you, CT-7569,” Rampart was saying as he walked around the containment field, staring up without feeling at the clone held within. “As long as you answer my questions honestly and without issue, no one has to get hurt.”

Rampart stopped when he reached Crosshair.

“Commander, if you would be so kind as to make sure he answers my questions honestly, and without issue,” Rampart said.

He held something out in his hands and Crosshair looked down to see an electro-baton in his palm.

Reaching forward slowly, he wrapped his hand around the hilt of the baton. Before he could pull it from the Vice Admiral’s palm, the other man closed his hand around the opposite end.

“Consider this a reminder of what happens to those who conspire against the Empire,” Rampart said softly, staring directly into Crosshair’s visor. Crosshair narrowed his eyes at the other man from behind his helmet, cognizant of the fact that the words were said quietly enough there was no way Howzer had heard them.

He wasn’t meant to. They weren’t meant for him .

Crosshair pulled the baton out of the nat-born’s hands and walked to the other side of the containment field. He pressed the button on the end of the baton and the tip crackled with electricity as it powered up.

“CT-7569, I have to say, I am very disappointed,” Rampart said, continuing his stroll around the containment field. Howzer followed him with lazy eyes. “Your service record during the war was quite impressive. The way you were able to maintain hold of the capital even after that Jedi scum was killed was quite the feat.”

Howzer shifted slightly, eyes glowering down at the nat-born, but he said nothing. Crosshair tightened his grip in the baton.

“You could have done great things for the Empire,” Rampart was saying. “But you threw it all away. And for what? A little girl? One man and his wife?”

Howzer growled low in his throat, but didn’t move.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

The reg continued to glare.

“Commander,” Rampart called, not taking his eyes off of the captain. “If you would.”

Crosshair clenched the end of the baton and lifted it, pressing it into the small of Howzer’s back.

Crosshair had to admit, he admired the way the other clone didn’t scream or yell. Howzer arched his back, breathing frantically through his nose as the pain built, his arms and legs trembling where they were held in place by the energy shackles.

Crosshair pulled the baton back and Howzer collapsed as much as he could while in the field's ray, his back and shoulders slumping as his head dropped listlessly to his chest. His shaky breathing cut sharply through the quiet stillness of the room.

“Well?” Rampart said, eyebrows quirked.

Howzer whined low in his throat, lifting his head just enough to look out at Rampart through hooded eyes.

“Howzer,” he croaked, voice hoarse. “Captain. Grand Army of the Republic. Designation CT-7569.”

Rampart said nothing, just continued to stare blankly at the clone captain. Eventually he turned to look at Crosshair and nodded.

Crosshair lifted the baton again, pressing it harder into Howzer’s back. This time Howzer couldn’t quite hold back his scream before he cut himself off, and Crosshair pretended not to notice the way his own hand twitched as the sound cut through the buzz of electricity.

“What can you tell me about the resistance on Ryloth?” Rampart asked once Crosshair pulled the baton back again. Howzer hung panting heavily within the containment field’s ray.

“I know Cham and Eleni were planning something,” Rampart continued as he walked around Howzer’s hanging form. “Those fighters they had at their disposal, the ones who attacked our transport--”

“You kidnapped their daughter ,” Howzer hissed, “what did you expect them to do?”

“Don’t play coy with me, clone ,” Rampart snapped, “you and I both know they were planning something before that. Arresting their brat just moved up the timeline.”

“Go to hell!” Howzer snapped back.

Rampart stepped back. “Commander, if you would.”

Crosshair’s hand twitched around the baton handle.

“9904!”

Crosshair’s hand jerked up, pressing the baton harshly into Howzer’s back once again. This time the clone captain couldn’t hold back the screams as the muscles in his back contorted violently again. Crosshair closed his eyes as the pain in his head rose in pitch with the man’s cries.

Finally, Crosshair pulled the baton back and Howzer slumped inward on himself with a whine, his head lolling forward against his chest. His breathing was shallow but slow, the muscles in his arms and shoulders twitching seemingly involuntarily.

“You tried to recruit other clones in your little insurrection,” Rampart said, leaning forward close to Howzer’s face. “I know how close you were to them. Who else is involved? What were they planning? Where are Cham and Eleni Syndulla?”

Surprisingly, the clone laughed. It was a dark and brittle thing that sounded ugly and wrong coming from the once amiable man.

“Save your breath,” Howzer said, glaring down at Rampart with a smug smile. “I’m not telling you anything. You may as well just go ahead and kill me.”

“No,” Rampart smiled back, and even Crosshair felt a modicum of apprehension at the wolfish look. “I won’t be letting you off that easily.”

Rampart took a step back, pulling a comm out of his pocket and pressing a button to activate it. The door slid open behind him and two TK troopers walked in.

“Commander,” he said, turning to Crosshair who was still standing behind Howzer with the now de-powered baton in his hand. “If you could escort CT-7569 back to his cell. It looks like we’ll just have to try this again later.”

Crosshair nodded and attached the baton to a hook on his utility belt. Rampart quickly left the room and Crosshair walked back around to the front of the containment field as the two TK troopers worked on removing Howzer from the ray.

The ray abruptly turned off and Crosshair watched as Howzer collapsed to the ground in a pile of limbs. He didn’t even try to fight as one TK trooper pulled him upright again by the arms, roughly shoving his arms behind his back and slapping a pair of binders onto his wrists. He groaned quietly as the manhandling no doubt pulled on his abused and aching body, but otherwise made no protest.

Once they were finished the two troopers stood back and looked up at Crosshair for instruction. Crosshair paused, staring down at the other clone.

Finally, Howzer lifted his head and stared up at Crosshair with wide, tired eyes. Somehow he managed to meet Crosshair’s eyes through the visor and Crosshair froze.

For a second Crosshair wasn’t staring down into the eyes of a broken clone captain turned traitor. For a second he looked at Howzer and saw another pale, gaunt, and tortured reg. Only instead of tired defeat he saw bright, beholden eyes, staring up at him with gratitude from the floor of the Marauder as they thanked him for helping to rescue him from Skako Minor.

Swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat he jerked his gaze away and gestured to the two troopers still standing at attention in front of him.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning toward the exit. Howzer grunted behind him as he was yanked to his feet and Crosshair closed his eyes against the pain in his temples that throbbed in time with his racing heart.

~

After he’d left Howzer chained up in his cell, he started the trek back to his quarters. The pain in his head had abated somewhat, but the day had left him exhausted and he was ready to lay down and attempt some sleep for the night.

The headaches had been getting worse lately, but the medics in the infirmary assured him time and time again that there was nothing wrong with him. Stress, maybe, they said. Psychosomatic. Most days were better than others but occasionally when the pain got too bad, when he couldn’t ignore the bright spots in his vision or the way his hands would tremble, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something they weren’t telling him.

The chip was gone, he knew that for a fact. Had seen the thing, fried and burnt looking, when they’d pulled it from his head after it was damaged on Bracca. Why some of the side effects seemed to linger, he didn’t know, and he didn’t have the energy to ask. He didn’t think he’d get an honest answer anyway.

It was just a little pain. He was used to pain, he could handle it.

The lift opened finally and he had to put conscious effort into not groaning out loud when he saw ES-02 standing inside.

They both stared at each other for a second before she stepped to the side so Crosshair could enter.

One he was inside and the lift began moving, 02 shuffled her feet before turning her head toward him.

“What did Rampart want?”

“Questioning that insurrectionist we arrested on Ryloth,” Crosshair said, leaning back against the transparasteel wall with his arms crossed. “See what he knows about the resistance on the planet.”

02 hummed. “Anything?”

“He still won’t talk,” Crosshair said. “But Rampart wants to break him.”

“Do you think he will?”

The lift began to slow to a stop.

“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug as he pushed off the walk. “The Kaminoans trained us to withstand most interrogation and torture techniques. It might end up working against the Empire’s favor, ironically.”

“I don’t know why he’s bothering,” she said with a shake of her head. “It’s been nearly five months since that clone was arrested and he hasn’t said anything yet. If it were up to me I’d just get rid of him and be done with it.”

“I suppose he should be grateful it isn’t up to you, then,” Crosshair said dryly as they stepped off the lift towards his quarters.

“Honestly, he’s just a clone. Rampart should just put him down and move on.”

Crosshair abruptly stopped in the middle of the hallway and ES-02 nearly stumbled into him before she caught herself.

“‘ Just a clone?’ ”

ES-02 shrugged. “Well… yeah. I mean, there’s thousands of them. What’s one less?”

Crosshair hummed as he stared down the other woman, not sure if he should be insulted or impressed by her audacity. Not that it wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard from nat-borns before, even with the Republic. Or, admittedly, nothing he hadn’t thought for himself once or twice in his darker, more embittered moments. But for her to say it to his face, as her superior officer, was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.

He took off down the hallway again, fighting the urge to groan out loud as she continued to follow him. He was nearly to his quarters now, where hopefully he could get some peace and quiet to deal with his headache. If she tried to follow him inside, he might just shoot her and be done with it.

“I’m surprised Rampart is letting you near him, actually,” she was saying as they neared his door. “Considering how royally you screwed up dealing with those clones last time.”

This time when Crosshair stopped suddenly she did run into him. He watched with the smallest ping of satisfaction as she stumbled and had to catch herself on the wall.

“ What did you just say?”

She stared at him for a long moment. Her armor clanked loudly in the hallway as she shifted, apparently internally debating how far she wanted to take this.

“You heard me,” she said finally. “I think the Vice Admiral may be putting a little too much faith in you, is all.”

Crosshair’s eyes narrowed behind his visor and he rested his hand on the holster of the DC-17 on his hip. ES-02’s eyes followed the movement, but she didn’t stand down. In a moment of sudden clarity, every slightly off comment, every insubordinate slip, every “misheard” order and twitchy glance over the last three months flashed to the forefront of his memory.

“If you have something to say to me, then say it,” He growled, stepping forward.

ES-02 shifted slightly, hands fidgeting on their rifle, before stepping forward into Crosshair’s space in a way that was likely meant to be intimidating.

“I don’t trust you,” she said quietly, her visor boring into his. “I don’t know how you got off of Kamino alive, but I know you didn’t do it alone. You may have Rampart fooled, but I was there. I know what I saw.”

Crosshair tilted his head. “And what is it you think you saw?”

“I saw our squads’ bodies on the ground. I saw you fighting side by side with those clones.”

“The girl activated the battle droids,” he reminded her. “The girl you were supposed to capture. Are you really so incompetent you let a child and her droid get the best of you?”

ES-02 had the grace to flinch back a little at that, but she held her ground.

“You really expect me to believe our squad was taken out by simulation droids? ”

“Yes,” he said simply. “Maybe if they all weren’t so inept they would still be alive.”

ES-02 bristled and pushed further into his space until their helmets were nearly touching. He held his ground, arms at rest behind his back and he stared back at her dispassionately.

“Or maybe the droids were just a convenient excuse,” she said. “Maybe that was your plan all along. Get your old squad back to Kamino, overrun and kill us so you could get your little friends back.”

She let out a humorless chuckle, head tilted to the side as she regarded him.

“Though I guess they didn’t want you, either.”

“Careful, trooper,” he hissed, finally pushing back into her space. “I could have you court martialed.”

She shook her head, taking a step back.

“You think you’re so important, don’t you?” Her voice dripped with condescension. “You mean nothing . You’re an obsolete meat droid created to die in a war that doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve outlived your purpose. It’s only a matter of time before Rampart realizes that, and when he does? I’ll make sure they dump your body at the bottom of the Kaminoan ocean where it belongs.”

All you’ll ever be to them is a number.

“Get out of my sight,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Yes, sir,” she said, giving him a sloppy ‘ kark you’ salute, disdain clear in her tone, “ Commander.”

He watched the woman retreat down the hall until she was out of sight before turning and punching in the code to his quarters.

As the door slid shut behind him, he reached up and pulled his helmet off, throwing it across the room with a strangled yell. His head suddenly felt like it was on fire and he reached up to press his fingers to his aching temple.

If it were up to me I’d just get rid of him and be done with it.

I certainly hope so, Commander… for your sake.

We still would've taken you.

You’re my brother, too.

With a groan he collapsed onto his bed, burying his face in his hands as voices played over each other in his mind, desperately trying to ignore the cold that had settled in the pit of his stomach.

[thicctails]

Summer of Whump Day 3 [Drowning/Dehydration]

Omega receives her first swimming lesson in what appears to be a calm, lovely lake. However, something is lurking in the deep, and it’s hungry...

Ω

 “Pillow, stay still!”

 The salamander honked in displeasure, his tail smacking against the metal of the counter. Omega stuck her tongue out as she finished dressing the amphibian in a garment she herself had sewn, with some help from Hunter in the form of sewing lessons. Gripping the brown fabric, she flipped the hood up over Pillow’s head.

 “There!” She exclaimed. “Now you wont get sunburned.”

 She had fashioned Pillow a brown cloak of sorts to protect him from this planet’s bright sun. The material was already a bit worn, but it would serve its purpose. Picking her plump pet up, she held him up to show the other members of the group, who were all getting ready for their trip to the beach.

 “Look, it’s Master Pillow.” She joked, moving one of Pillows arms to make it seem like he was reaching out to the Force.

 Wrecker burst out laughing, leaning against a wall for support. The others smiled at her joke, amused by the outfit. Omega had insisted on bringing Pillow with them, and had also insisted that he needed to have the proper clothes on. They were leaving their armor behind today, being heavy was not a good thing when you planned on swimming, so the Bad Batch was dressed in various forms of apparel. Hunter and Wrecker were wearing swim trunks, Tech and Omega sported swim shirts and swim shorts, and Echo had dressed himself in an airy poncho, not intending to go into the water. He would be relaxing on the beach, soaking up some sun.

 “Ready to go, Omega?” Hunter asked. They were going to be teaching her to swim today, and although he wouldn’t admit it, he was a bit nervous. Every member of his squad had been taught to swim, of course, but that didn’t mean that they did it often. He himself hadn’t swum in years, and he just hoped that his body would remember what to do.

 “Yep! Come on Pillow.” She said, walking out of the ship while still holding Pillow.

 The body of fresh water before them was vast, stretching out far beyond what they could see. Tall, sloping mountains rose up all around them, waterfalls dripping down their rocky faces and spraying out into the miniature ocean below. Omega was in awe at the sight of it all. She was practically vibrating with excitement as she rushed down to the water’s edge under the watchful eyes of Hunter. She set Pillow down, who immediately waddled into the water. Down the beach, Wrecker and Tech also entered the water, swimming out deeper.

 “Hold on kid.” Echo called, coming up beside her. “Here, put this on.”

 He produced a yellow jacket with a couple of buckles on the front. He held it out for her to take, and she stared at it quizzically.

 “What is that?” She asked, reaching out and grasping the jacket.

 “It’s a life jacket. It’ll keep your head above water if you go in too deep.” Echo explained.

 “Good thinking.” Hunter said as Omega slipped on the life jacket. “Alright, come on Omega.”

 “Yes!” She cheered, following Hunter into the water as Echo retreated back to the beach. Advanced prosthetics and water didn’t always mix well.

 The water was cool, but not cold as they waded in. It took a minute of convincing to get Omega to go in once the water started to touch her stomach, but once they had gotten past that point they were ready to begin.

 “Alright, let’s start with the basics. I’m gonna move back a little bit, and you kick your legs to come over to me, okay?” Hunter instructed, swimming backwards in the still water.

 “Okay.” Omega said, nodding her head. Pillow swam beside her, honking in glee as he glided through the blue water before diving down beneath the surface.

 “Good job.” Hunter praised once she reached him. “This time, use your arms to pull yourself forward like this.”

 He demonstrated doing a stroke as he moved back into deeper water. Omega followed behind him, moving her arms as he had. Hunter nodded in approval.

 “Doin’ real good kid. Let’s do that again.” He said, swimming back the way he had came.

 They repeated this activity a few more times until both Hunter and Omega were feeling more confident in Omega’s swimming capabilities. He taught her to tread water, float on her back, and hold her breath underwater. After all was said and done, Hunter told Omega to take off her life jacket. Upon seeing her confused expression, he clarified.

 “In an emergency, you’re not going to be able to rely on a flotation device. You need to know how to swim without one.” He tilted his head downwards slightly. “You can still touch, right?”

 Omega nodded.

 “Alright, I want you to walk out until you can just barely touch. I wont make you swim out farther than that point until you’re ready.” He said, his tone of voice soft and understanding.

 Omega looked nervous for a moment, but she trusted Hunter. Shirking off the life jacket, she took a moment to adjust to the feeling of being in the water without it. She felt heavier, but not so heavy that she would sink. If the others could do it, she would learn to as well.

 She walked forward until she had to strain to keep her head above water. Her feet still touched, but she would have to go on her toes if she wanted to walk any farther.

 “I think this is as far as I can go.” She said, stepping back a smidgen.

 “Then I’ll stand there, and you can go back a bit. I want you to swim to me without the life jacket on.” Hunter said, moving to stand beside Omega.

 The young girl nodded and did as she was told. It took a few tries, but she was soon able to swim to Hunter without having to stop and put her feet down. The enhanced clone smiled and ruffled her hair.

 “You’ve taken to swimming like a fish takes to water. I’m proud of you, kid.” He praised.

 Omega beamed and began swimming around, enjoying her new skills. Hunter allowed himself to float on his back, always keeping an eye on Omega even as he relaxed.

 “Hey Omega, come check out this cool shell!” Wrecker’s voice carried easily across the watery expanse. He was holding a spiraled shell, bright green and orange in colour. Omega’s curiosity reared its head, but she looked to Hunter for approval first.

 Hunter mentally judged the distance before nodding towards the forgotten life jacket.

 “Go, but put that on first. They’re out beyond where you can touch.”

 “Okay!” Omega agreed cheerily, putting the life jacket on.

 She paddled deeper into the water body, the ripples from her movements ebbing out across the water’s surface. Tech and Wrecker floated in the water, enjoying the warm sun as they waited for her to reach them.

 The water was calm.

 Suddenly, Pillow exploded up from beneath the water. He honked wildly, making a mad dash for shore. Omega stopped in her tracts and stared at the amphibian with confusion and a little bit of worry. Pillow no longer had his protective cloak, and he sounded distressed.

 “Pillow, what’s wrong?” She called, knowing she wouldn’t get an answer.

 “He probably swam down towards the bottom of the lake and found a fish that was bigger than him. Small animals frighten easily.” Tech said, raising his voice a bit so that Omega could hear him.

 Hunter eyed the water suspiciously.

 “Maybe we should go in.” He said, not taking his eyes off of the water.

 “Aw come on Hunter, you’re not scarred of a little fishy, are you?” Wrecker teased.

 Hunter frowned and looked towards Omega. She still hadn’t continued moving, and kept looking between Pillow, who was now hiding behind a very confused Echo and still making loud honks, and the ripples that the amphibian had left behind.

 “Kid?” He called, not sure what she was thinking.

 Omega felt something buzz in the back of her mind, a prickly sensation that made her feel very nervous all of a sudden. Pillow was not an easy animal to scare, he had not been afraid of her or Hunter. What was down there that had frightened him so badly.

 “I-I think I wanna go in now too.” She said, moving to start back towards shore.

 She made ripples in the still water.

 Something brushed her foot, and she jerked away in fright.

 “Omega?” Hunter called again, his brow furrowing. She was right in between him and Tech and Wrecker, neither party close enough to reach her right away.

 Her head whipped towards him, panic clear on her face.

 “Hunter,” She gulped, “I think there’s something in the water.”

 Then, without warning, Omega was dragged under.

   Omega’s mouth clamped shut on instinct, but it was already too late. Water rushed down her windpipe and into her lungs, causing her to choke. The life jacket brought her back up to the surface, and she was able to hack up some of the water and take in a small breath of air before the thing dragged her back under. The first time, it hadn’t grabbed her hard, just holding her foot as it pulled her beneath the surface. This time, however, she felt thick, jagged teeth crush her ankle as her foot disappeared into a monstrous maw.

 She screamed in pain, becoming more disoriented and panicked as the creature that held her began to thrash its head about. Blood filled the water as it released her once again, its long, serpent like body surrounding her. It lunged again, this time going for her chest. It bit down on the life jacket and jerked it’s huge head, tearing off the buoyant garment.

 Panicking and unable to tell which way was up, Omega thrashed in the chilling water as she sunk deeper down. Her chest burned as the horrid liquid filled her lungs and stole away her air. Adrenaline kept her from feeling the pain in her mangled ankle, but fairly soon it wouldn’t even matter. She could feel herself slipping away as darkness began to encroach on her vision. Whether it came from her own dying mind or from the depths themselves, she could not tell. As her panic ebbed away, and her eyes slipped shut, she felt a sense of peace wash over her.

 She welcomed the darkness.

    …

      She didn’t hear the roar of the creature as a blaster bolt exploded its eye, nor did she feel the desperate, calloused hands that gripped her limp form and hauled her free of the deep’s unforgiving grasp. She was unaware of the frightened, panic-stricken voices, the distressed honking, or the mad scramble to get her onto the beach. The compression and gusts of air that were blown into her were not registered by her consciousness.

 The sensation of needing to vomit, however, did.

 Omega turned her head and puked up mouthful after mouthful of water. Her lungs burned with the strength of a thousand suns as she emptied both them and her stomach of their contents. Strong, comforting arms were around her instantly, and she could feel small tremors run through the person’s body.

 “Oh thank the Maker.” Hunter’s voice was a bit shaky, like he was recovering from a big scare.

 “Omega, can you breathe?” Tech was suddenly in front of her, and with his glasses off she could see that his pupils had constricted into pinpricks.

 She nodded. She felt like she’d been kicked in the chest and her throat felt raw and stinging, but air did in fact enter and exit her lungs. She’d never been happier for that simple pleasure than right now.

 “Good. We need to get you to a medical centre, but that ankle requires immediate- no don’t look at it! Just, just focus on me or Hunter, okay? Don’t, don’t look down.” Tech’s voice picked up in speed as he directed her attention upwards. She still couldn’t feel her ankle, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t last.

 Leaning against Hunter’s chest, she sucked in as much air as she could. She felt like she was going to cough up a lung. A particularly loud honk came from below her, and soon Echo was handing her Pillow. The salamander settled around her neck, pressing himself against her.

 “Y’tried to warn us, din’ ya? You knew wha’ was comin’.” She rasped in between coughs. “We should lis’n to you more.”

 Pillow honked softly in agreement. Omega smiled weakly at him and leaned against his wrinkly, pudgy body.

 “Stay awake, Omega. We don’t know if all of the water has exited your lungs, and you could experience “second drowning”. Tech said apologetically. The poor girl was exhausted, but they couldn’t let her sleep yet.

 “Second drowning? The hell is that?” It was Wrecker that spoke up this time. He sounded stressed, as did everyone else.

 “It’s a phenomenon that can occur if water remains in the lungs. We need to make sure that her lungs are free of water or she could begin to drown again, even if she’s on dry land.” Tech explained.

 “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Hunter growled. Omega could feel the reverberations in his chest.

 “Then let’s hurry up and get off this hell-planet. I’m sick of looking at that makerforsaken lake.” Echo said, moving into the pilot seat. Omega blinked. When had they made it onto the ship?

 “Hold tight kid, we’re gonna get you help.” Hunter said, and Omega nodded weakly.

 As the ship’s door closed, Omega took one more look at the lake that she had been so excited to be in.

 The water was still once more.

 She tucked her head into Hunter’s chest and tried to will away the image of the monster that lurked just beneath the deceptive surface.

[friendlylocalwhumper]

They’re going to kill the Hunter.

Somehow. Kill him literally with a gun, or with magic, or with a squad of Resistance members who know exactly where and when to strike. Maybe kill him metaphorically, by stealing his resolve, tearing him down psychologically, gutting him of his magic. Maybe they’ll just convince him to stop, offer themself as his only victim for the rest of his life.

Whatever it takes.

They have one week left until their mission starts. It’s self-indulgence, they know, to put it off even that long, and self-indulgence to call it a mission. This wasn’t assigned to them by the Resistance. No one knows they’re going to do it. It’s a secret plan stitched together by someone who’s trying their best to be rational, but who admittedly has been through… something that makes their motivation decidedly emotional.

Nine friends dead. Slaughtered in the span of five minutes, left scattered and bloody on the ground. Javi says they all went quick, barely knew what hit them. Javi’s hands shake worse when he says that, his eyes go all distant and haunted.

Javi is lying.

Quinn thinks of their names. Their ages, too, so they don’t forget the tragedy of them dying so young. Quinn has pictures of them, hundreds, all printed out and kept in a neat pile in a box on their vanity. There are other things in the box: bottlecaps, crumpled post-it notes, a necklace, a chewed-on pencil. The last remnants of a big, goofy friend group that left an imprint of their times together on the world in little pieces. Quinn’s collected as many of them as they could.

Quinn’s talked to all their friends’ surviving family members. Parents, little siblings, partners. To soften the blow of the news, to sit with them while they cried. Nine times they cried, let themself be hugged, let themself be slapped and yelled at and accused of lying for attention.

They couldn’t lie about this much death, this much loss, for anything.

Even though lying is what they do.

Javi came back with a bruised throat. As in, from clear fingerprints peeking out on the underside of his aw, down to the base of his throat at the dip between his collarbones, there was a thick mess of black and purple and yellow and brown. He was more than choked, he was… this throat was crushed, countless times, for a long time. You can still hear it in the way he breathes, when he gets scared. And oh, he gets so scared, just trying to get through each day.

He came back with a gash across his throat. Straight and deep, healing but clearly still bothering him. It was hard for him to resist itching at it, covering it. Covering it as if it’d be sliced into again. And since then, it’s scarred, thick and ropy. Javi acts like it looks badass, like he can make it work. Javi was never the type to act badass, to intimidate others. He can’t even get through a dry joke about it before caving and going quiet.

Javi’s hands, once sure and openly shared with a pat on the back, a high five, offering a soda or a joint or whatever… they shake now. He keeps them to himself. He keeps everything to himself, looks smaller than he did before.

Javi can’t talk about the hunter who killed their friends. He can’t talk about the cellar he was kept in. He tries, because he knows Quinn needs to hear it - but every time, he falls apart. Shakes and loses his voice and needs to leave the room to collect himself.

Quinn let him stop talking, one of those times, and went to hug him. He flinched, apologized, and shoved himself into their arms all in the span of a second. As they rubbed his back, face drawn in concern, they felt his shuddering breaths and knew he was broken.

The Hunter has to go.

So Quinn’s been gathering all the information they could. They asked the Resistance for anything they have, and it’s a lot, but it’s also not much. It’s mostly rumors, whispers. The bodies found out on the street, most of them are from him. Anders Reyan got mindfucked by him. There’s a warlock, friend of Reyan’s, he’s the mindfucker’s favorite.

That’s a great place to start, the thought. Maybe the only lead Quinn would get, out here. So they went to see Reyan’s friend, the Hunter’s favorite.

Lux, his name is. Quinn went to the house, knocked on the door, greeted the man that opened it. Emory, his name was.

Emory heard that Quinn had questions about the mindfucker - it gets more of an emotional reaction, more camaraderie, when they use that word for him, instead of his moniker - and Emory’s expression darkened with mistrust, with anger. Protective. Outraged. Trying to escape the Hunter’s influence. Quinn watched, and waited, and then Lux himself pulled Emory out of the way to open the door all the way.

“Come in,” He’d said, and Quinn had, analyzing everything they could as they stepped past him. Lux was wearing short sleeves, scars on display all down his arms. His hands weren’t shaking. His voice was quiet, unobtrusive. He seemed like a nervous guy, but pulled together.

Quinn asked questions. Too many questions, for Lux and Emory, but not nearly enough for Quinn’s purposes. They asked about the Hunter’s house, about the cellar, about what restraints he used on Lux and when he took them off. About all the ways he hurt Lux - “Not the details, just the general things he tends to do” - and what he seems to like doing the most.

Lux seemed to fall apart, the longer they talked about it. He made Emory leave the room because he kept trying to end the conversation, and Lux wanted to get out his answers no matter what. Quinn learned just as much from their interactions, and Lux breaking down, as he did from Lux’s words.

It sounds like the Hunter likes a lot of things. Breaking bones. Choking. Beatings. Whipping. Humiliation, overwhelming his captive, and - most interesting - comforting them, after shattering them.

Lux was quaking and crying by the time Quinn left, grimly sated by all that they’d learned. They apologized, promising that this would help the Resistance, that Lux is brave for going through this, talking about it to save lives.

It’ll only do any good, really, if Quinn survives. If they don’t get out of the cellar with new intel, and a massively deepened understanding of the Hunter’s strategies and protections, then all that Lux shared only serves to make people sad and angry. It’s all heart-wrenching, chilling stuff, but only useful in attempting to survive the Hunter himself.

Quinn is going to survive. They might break in the process, they suppose. They’ll definitely scream, and cry, and beg. They’ll act like they’re breaking, and maybe he’ll push it even farther until it actually happens.

But they’ll keep a straight head. They’ll recap everything that’s been done to them, each night, and process it. They’ll be in pain, and they’ll be scared, and they’ll want out - but they’ll hold strong. For Lux, who somehow survived a year, there, and has carved out a manageable life for himself. For Javi, who cries, sometimes, when he’s startled into a panic attack and reminded of how scared he is now. For the nine friends, laughing and shoving at each other and lost in banter, who were slaughtered like fun, easy things to hunt.

Quinn doesn’t get angry about it. Like the photos and memories kept in a box in their room, they tuck away all their feelings about it, deep in their chest. They lock it up and save it for after the cellar. There will be an after. They will survive, succeed, and present the key to destroying the Hunter to the Resistance. They’ll stand at the front of a room before Daniel Peyroux, Anders Reyan, Lux Fortier, a dozen leaders of the most clever, hidden, weary survivors and say I did it. I survived the mindfucker, and I got everything we need to take him out. No one else has to suffer.

The next 24 months of their rent is paid for. Everything they own is neatly boxed up and labeled, in case they die, and their things need to be sorted, thrown away, kept as mementos. They’ve hugged Javi a little too long, and kissed his abuelita on the cheek, and laid outside on the grass to let the sun warm their skin and the breeze play with their hair.

They’re ready.

[zepybespectacled]

Cyclops Story Proposal

This was my entry in the Bullet Echo Discord Server’s mini-competition for the origin story of one of their heroes: Cyclops! The One-Eyed Hunter

"Another day... Another task... Another battle... Nature is just a long war for survival..."

Corporal Calum McManus of the 77th Dublin Infantry Battalion was raised alone by a single father in the dense forests of Central Europe. Growing up, he was taught to be resourceful and to make do with whatever nature provided. Crafting, tracking, and hunting were the tools of his trade, and the young boy became intimately familiar with the kick of a buckshot round from his father's shotgun. When his father died, he moved back into Ireland in an attempt to connect with his ancestral roots.

With the country's woodlands all but gone, there wasn't much place for a man of his abilities. Thus, he enlisted with the military where his quick-thinking, resourcefulness, and skill with firearms earned him the role of a close-quarters specialist. Armed with an automatic shotgun, he and his squad cleared dozens of buildings and scores of sectors against terrorists and rebels throughout their service. For a while, Calum thought he had found his place among his people, until the Taoiseach of Ireland began approving various "Peacekeeping Missions" in foreign lands. Thousands of Irish soldiers died overseas, protecting corrupt governments who did not care what happened to them. It was no secret that the Taoiseach was under the power of the growing megacorporations and was undermining Irish power and stability to have the country sold to the highest bidder. Soon it was Calum's turn to be thrown into the meat grinder.

He was deployed in a foreign jungle, among people who did not even speak the same language, and caught in a bloody ambush that almost caused Calum to drown in a river as he fled from the insurgents. Losing much of his supplies in the water, he decided the mission could screw itself. His only goal now was to survive and make it back to their Forward Operating Base. "Civilization...? Power...? Normalcy...?  Empty concepts made by cowards and weaklings so that the strong will die in their stead... "

Other than the rebels, the tropical jungle was crawling with all manner of parasites and predators. Days were spent on long walks, keeping his eyes and ears open and carefully navigating through the trees. Nights were spent in tense paranoia, trying to get minutes of fitful sleep and shielding himself from rain. He had even fashioned himself a makeshift Ghillie Suit from nearby plants. Eventually, his food stores ran low and he was having poor luck in finding animals to hunt. Calum felt lucky when he saw smoke coming from a village, until he saw the armed men that walked within and realized that the rebels owned the place. However, he did not intend to give up after getting so far.

"... Only out here... Only in the roar of battle does nature speak clearly..."

Under the cover of night he creeped in. He killed one guard with his knife and grabbed an isolated man, held them at gunpoint, and asked "Food! Where is the food?!" The scared man did not understand until Calum made eating gestures. When he pointed at a specific house, he knocked him out with the butt of his shotgun and quietly ran for it. Once inside, he quickly stuffed all the water and food items he could carry inside his repaired backpack when he saw a little girl staring at him. they both looked at each other in disbelief for a moment. Then the child started screaming.

Calum dropped the food in his hands and quickly ran for the girl, wrapping her in his arms. He knew they had heard her, and he had to leave now. This girl was his best chance at survival. He held her by the neck and dragged her outside.

"I HAD to survive... And if the girl was smart... She would have lived too..."

Men and women, some of whom were armed, all came running out of their huts, and saw a man covered in leaves and with wild eyes holding a child at gunpoint with a dirty shotgun. "STAY BACK!" Calum shouted. If they did not understand, he shouted louder and shook the girl and his gun. Every time someone tried to approach, he would shout at them, and if one of them tried pointing a weapon at him, he would press the shotgun so hard against the girl's head she would start crying out. He did this the whole time as he walked out of the village. Once he managed to put distance between him and the people there, he shoved the girl away and ran into the shadows of the jungle.

In the safety of darkness, he checked on the supplies he had managed to steal. He was not happy with the amount, but he hoped it would be enough to get him home. That was when he heard the plane engines.

Looking up, he saw the streaks of jet fighters against the stars in the sky. He only had a second to wonder about their mission, when he heard the familiar sound of screaming missiles. The ground shook and the night was lit up in an orange inferno as missiles slammed into the trees. Calum saw the jungle and the village he just came from become engulfed in flames a mere second before he ran for his life.

At first the screaming was in the distance, then it came from his own mouth as fire and smoke began surrounding him. His muscles burned as hard as his skin the whole time he ran until his legs gave out. Then he crawled as long as his arms would listen to him. Smoke filled his lungs and he felt chemicals burning his skin and eyes.

He would have fought death until his last breath, but it was not meant to be his final day. "My superiors thought it'd be better if I were dead... These people promised not only life... But my eyes too... There was no choice"

Calum woke up blind, and being told that while his body was saved, his lungs were damaged and he would never see again. He was found by an assault squad and healed until his superiors decided they couldn't afford a witness to the firebombing. A strange visitor came to his hospital bed and said his organization would have a use for a man of his determination, and let slip that he would be listed as MIA within the week. The man told him they would grant him sight greater than he had known, if he swore an oath to obey the will of their "Great Leader".

Calum knew what his government would do to him if he stayed. The men in power had killed for less. He refused to be part of their body count. He was a survivor, and he would do whatever it took to be the last man standing.

In the night, he was whisked away on a discreet transport, placed on a plane to God knows where, and laid down on a new hospital bed, where many strange voices told him that he would see everything as it truly was. The following days were spent in a blind haze of sedatives and pain as tools invaded his skull. Occasionally, the strange voices would speak in languages unknown to him, chanting the same words, sometimes for hours by his bedside. Calum lost track of how long he was kept there, until the bandages were removed from his face, and a lone voice told him to open his eye. "My sight... My body... My life... None of it was mine anymore. To continue to survive, I had to become a weapon... Their weapon... HIS weapon..."

At first, seeing again was painfully bright, and he could not bear to open it for long, but through medicine and therapy it got easier, and the headaches would fade faster. Soon, the new eye somehow started making use of his old ones if it wanted more sight lines, transferring the odd yellow glow to his dead white eyes. They told him they had given him his life and his sight back. Calum knew none of it was his anymore, but surprisingly he did not mind. These people not only saved him from certain death, but restored his vision and promised him a place of prominence among them. His loyalty, was a fair price.

He was no longer Corporal Calum McManus, and he did not want anyone to recognize him as such. He hid every part that hinted at his old life. Now, he was an ogre of the wilds, an Oni of the woods, a primal force that was neither good nor evil, but a reminder of the natural order, a member of a pack of predators who simply abided by survival of the fittest.

Force and Arms did not just recruit a soldier, they summoned a Cyclops.

[dcvilswork]

 ｡.｡:+* 【 tati gabrielle. cis female, she/her, & 19 / 19 】looks a hell lot like【 célia durand-donati 】, dontcha think? with them being a 【 witch 】, i wouldn’t suspect their favorite 【 movie 】 to be 【 black panther by ryan coogler 】, but i’ve seen them checking it out on the water taxi to【 san polo 】district. they’re a【 university student 】and supposedly known as the【 insurgent 】of the town, so i’m personally keeping an eye out for them. 〔 batel 〕

extra things: her spotify playlist & pinterest. 

affiliations: she is a distant cousin of simone donati.

bio: TW SEXUAL ASSUALT & SACRIFICE !         

 from the moment she was born, always being taught of her nature, of her dark roots and everything, she has major respect for her magic and understands that every magic comes with a price which is why most times they have to sacrifice something — they are paying the price. and there are times she enjoys it, enjoy the rush of power in her body.

céila knows how powerful she is and that is why the female has even more respect and love for her magic. céila will never stop bragging about her power and flaunt it endlessly. she always wants to learn more and more so she could become even better than she already is. she has read all about witch hunts and hopes that nothing like that will ever happen to her coven — not like she will ever let this happen she will slay anyone who tries to destroy them, she will protect her family ( and that includes the entire circle ) even if it is the last thing she will do.

as céila grew up she has seen and experienced plenty of discrimination for being female and a person of color, she always stood up straight and fought hard to be listened to.but one of her high school teacher refused to listen to her, he wanted her to submit and listen to everything he said even if he was offensive to her race and her gender & sexuality. he finally had enough of her saying no to him every single and stepping all over his words and one day after class when she was a sophomore, he caught her in his classroom and touched her, and though she pushed him away she felt numb and froze when her teacher started to assault célia and push her until he was inside of her. it wasn’t until célia’s magic finally awoke in her that he was pushed far away from her. he was killed a few days after that in a ritual.

célia still has ptsd and nightmares of that day �� she went to see a therapist but has not went to him for two years now.

she used to live in new york but when she was 16 her mother brought her to italia for her cousin’s circle, so she could learn more about it.

for events: she twisted her ankle but mostly stayed untouched as she used any spell possible to stop her circle from getting hurt.

inner thoughts: she hates the vampires and the hunters and tolerates everyone else. she thinks witches, mainly dark witches are better than any other person.

relationships: i just can’t wait to see everything – platonic, familial & romantic, all of it. i mostly want to see her with her girl squad.

WANTED CONNECTIONS !

PLATONIC !

ride or die/best friend: the one person she will do anything and everything for, kill or die or live for. she loves them as much as she loves her magic.( 0/1 spots taken )

witchy bitches squad: her girls squad, her gang, her sisters. they are her entire world, they are there for her whenever she needs them, they are the ones in charge – and yeah they may be mean & heartless but with other ? they are so soft and loving. ( 0/4 spots taken ) 

siblings like friends: she treats them like a sibling and protects them from the world, on her phone they are probably named my brother/sister & she is so soft for them. has to be a part of the noctis circle. ( 0/2 spots taken )

roommate: she was unsure if she wants to live in nyu dorms but in the end have decided on doing so, they tend to not speak to much with her roommate but she tolerates them. ( 0/1 spots taken )

someone she is using: they are too good for their own good and so céila tries to use that goodness for themselves. ( 0/1 spots taken )

school friends: people she met in her classes on nyu, they might be in a few of her activist groups as well or they have partied together more than a few times. ( 0/? spots taken )

noctis circle members: they are her family in every way, céila loves them all so much, she will do anything to protect them, she will fight every god standing in their way. ( /? spots taken) 

neighbors: they live next to each other, it’s as simple as that lmao. ( 0/? spots taken )

unlikely friends: give her some vampire and/or hunter friends because you know she hates both, but those people? she likes them.  ( 0/3 spots taken )

general friends: give céila more pals please & thank you !  ( 0/? spots taken )

enemies: there are a lot of people she doesn’t like and is mean towards, she isn’t afraid to say that as well ( 0/? spots taken )

ROMANTIC !

soulmates/polyship: give her the rest of her soul because y’all already know this girl is part of a whole, they are a part of her – a part of who she is and céila will never feel complete without them. ( 0/2 – might become 3 in the future spots taken )

flirtship: you will always catch céila and them bantering and flirting, they are never able to take their hands off of one another, they never take a step further that just flirting though. ( 0/1 spots taken)

fwb: whenever they need a bit of a release you will find them in one another’s bed, kissing and touching and everything in between to ease their minds. ( 0/2 spots taken )

forbbiden love: they shouldn’t feel that way towards one another, they should stay as far away from each other but there’s just this pull and all céila wants is to kiss them. bonus points if it’s a vampire !( 0/1 sppts taken )

exes: they used to be hers, they used to be her whole world, she would have done anything for them – and maybe she still would. ( 0/4 spots taken )

flings/one night stands: they have had one or more nights together in bed and there are times they still think of that (0/? spots taken ) 

FAMILIAL !

cousins: simone durand

parents: undecided yet.

[nycttophilic-a]

Lia Michaelis~

=BASIC INFO= FULL NAME: Jezilia Michaelis NICKNAME(S)/ALIAS(ES): Jez (by her dad), Jezilia (by everyone in the Port Mafia), Lia (by her mom). Lia is NOT her nickname—yet—, but your muse can definitely give her that name. She starts all threads by only going by Jezilia. PRONUNCIATION(S): Jez-ee-lee-a AGE: 23, verse dependent GENDER: Female SPECIES: Human (ability user)  BIRTH DATE: October 31st SEXUALITY: Panromantic demisexual =PERSONALITY= PERSONALITY: Dark, dreary, mysterious, twisted, brilliant, cold EMBODYING QUALITY/IDEA: A really dark and mysterious introverted woman.  LIKES: Being alone, music, reading, writing music, sweets, darkness DISLIKES: People, crowds, bright lights, the outdoors, obnoxious people, the Port Mafia FEARS: Crowds, losing her loved ones WEAKNESSES: She has very little empathy, and expresses little to no emotion. It’s hard for her to show love to the people she cares about. She often struggles to convey her feelings to them, so she just doesn’t do anything about them and suffers in silence. Also has severe anxiety in crowds. STRENGTHS: determined, strong willed, musically talented SPECIAL/SIGNIFICANT BELONGINGS: She has a crystal necklace around her neck that belonged to her mother. She is always wearing it, but it’s not often seen. =PHYSICAL AND HEALTH INFO= HEIGHT: 5′10 WEIGHT: 122 lbs BODY TYPE: Tall and very slender as well as precise over every movement she makes. JEWELRY: Black earrings, a black choker, dark jewelry like that. Her mother’s necklace PIERCINGS/TATTOOS: Normal ear piercings, her left ear has a couple other piercings  SCARS/DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Her hair is raven black but her bangs are white as snow, so that’s an easy way to find her in a crowd. Body has scars from extensive training.  =RELATIONSHIP INFO= RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Verse dependent PARENTS: Kira Black (mother, supposedly deceased); William Michaelis (father, deceased) SIBLING(S): None (ability, Demona, is like a sister to her) – BEST FRIEND(S): Demona FRIENDS: N/A ACQUAINTANCES: N/A ASSISTANTS: her squad, the Shadow Demons GUARDS: N/A ALLIES: The Port Mafia PETS/SPECIAL ANIMALS: – ENEMIES: The ADA, the Guild, the Rats, the DoA (verse dependent) MAIN ENEMY(IES): ADA, Mori, her father MOST HATED: Her father, herself =STORY INFO= STORIES THAT THIS CHARACTER APPEARS IN: Bungou Stray Dogs STATUS: Alive BACKSTORY: Lia’s parents grew up together and lived on the streets together in London. Her father was secretly an executive in the Port Mafia, but her mom didn’t know this. One day, he left for work and never came back. Kira was pregnant with their child, which she didn’t realize before. She was sixteen. When Lia was 3, she and her mother were attacked in their apartment. The details are still unknown, and it’s believed that her mother died (which is what Lia believes as well). Her father, unaware that he had a child before hand, came and collected her. From then on he trained her under him in the Port Mafia. The training was brutal and what no child should go through, but he really did love her and want the best for her. He thought what he was doing was for the best. Lia hated what he did to her but had very mixed feelings about her father. When she was fifteen, she finally snapped and shot him in the chest, killing him. She thought that if she killed him she would be free from the mafia life, but she was sorely mistaken. Mori (who had just became the new boss at this point) allowed her to live despite the fact that she killed an executive, which is treason in the PM. This is because of how strong her ability is. Even though he allowed her to live, she’s still a prisoner without anyone realizing it. She’s more trapped than she ever was now, but her shackles are invisible. No one knows what happened to her father, and it’s said an enemy organization killed him. Mori wants to keep Lia’s little “slip up” a secret because if the PM ever learned that he allowed the murderer of an executive to live, they would want him dethroned. And we can’t have that.  – PLACE OF BIRTH: London, the United Kingdom PAST LIVING QUARTERS: London. CURRENT AND FUTURE HOMES: Yokohama. – NATIVE LANGUAGE(S): English  LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English, Japanese, French, a tiny bit of Russian (only from being exposed to it), some German, Japanese sign language  =TALENTS/OCCUPATION/EDUCATION= OCCUPATION/JOB: Mafioso—squad leader  BOSS: Mori TALENTS: Stealth, experience in combat, her ability.  YEARS OF EDUCATION: No formal education, taught some things by William.  LEVEL OF EDUCATION: N/A =COMBAT= SKILLS/TECHNIQUES: Prefers long range attacks. Has excellent agility and is pretty strong. Relies heavily on her ability, but is good at hand to hand anyway. Just in case. SPECIAL POWERS: Her ability, “Demon’s Embrace”. This allows Lia to manipulate and control shadows. She can use these shadows to do pretty much anything, like attack, hide her, transport her/other things and/or people, sense the area around her, give her night vison, and almost anything else. She can make the shadows solidify so that she can attack people and make tendrils that impale her victims, so in this sense her ability is similar to Akutagawa’s. HOWEVER, one major downfall to her ability is that she cannot make shadows. This means she’s basically ability-less during the day and in any sunlight, so she does most of her work at night. During the day the most she can do is create throwing knives from the shadows of her hood hat disappear in a matter of seconds. Her ability is the strongest at midnight with no moonlight.  WEAPON(S) OF CHOICE: Her ability. If she can’t use her ability, she often will just use a gun that’s hidden under her coat. Will use her own two fists if necessary.  STRENGTHS: Agile, fast, excellent at long range attacks at night, is basically undefeatable when in complete darkness, high pain tolerance  WEAKNESSES: Can’t use her ability in light and also become physically weaker and drained in light, especially daylight.  =VERSES= ~hσld чσur вrєαth αnd cσunt thє dαчѕ; wє‘rє grαduαtíng ѕσσn~ [High School Verse]—Lia, a human now, is quiet and dark and often can be found listening to music and not paying attention to class or those around her. She secretly works every day to provide for her adoptive sister and mother, since Kira is a single mom trying to become a doctor.

~ѕσund σf mч hєαrt; thє вєαt gσєѕ σn αnd σn~ [Band Verse]—Another Verse where Lia is human. In this one, she’s a quiet (erm, silent) electric guitar player who secretly has a few hundredsongs up her leather sleeves.

~í’m α crєαturє whσ‘ѕ up tσ nσ gσσd; í‘ll lσvє чσu líkє α vαmpírє wσuld~ [Vampire Verse]—This verse is very simple and the same for all of the muses that have it: the character is a vampire. This verse is very flexible, so if you have ideas please let me know so we can incorporate it into the thread!! But it’s nothing major, I just love vampires lol

~wє clαím thє lαnd αnd thєn thє hσrízσn; αnd σntσ thє wσrld íf wє ѕσ dєѕírє~ [BSD-Decay of Angels! Verse]—This is a side verse to Lia’s BSD verse. Here, Lia met Osamu Dazai in the Port Mafia and fell in love with him, only to have him leave her. At first, she believes him to be dead because that’s the easiest to believe. But when she learns he’s alive, she’s furious and destroyed to know that he would leave her in darkness after showing her this beautiful light. So, when a certain Russian approaches her and asks her if she wanted an escape from her dark and lonely life, who was she to say no? Thus, she joined the Decay of Angels...

~gσd dαmn ríght; чσu ѕhσuld вє ѕcαrєd σf mє~ [Tokyo Ghoul Verse]—In this verse, Lia is a half ghoul from birth. Kira was a human (died in childbirth) and Sebastian was a ghoul (whereabouts unknown). Lia is an incredibly strong ghoul, since she’s a one eyed ghoul, but no one would be able to tell. She lives her life as a human like Eto does, hiding her ghoulish nature. She’s also a member of the CGG, and an excellent one at that.

~íf í tσld чσu whαt í wαѕ wσuld чσu turn чσur вαck σn mє?~ [Monster! Verse]—An AU where the world is humans/monster hunters vs. monsters. Here, Lia is a wisp. She was created by the demon that protected a certain forest in order to lure humans in for him to devour. She isn’t alive and never was, so she doesn’t understand emotions and being alive. But she’s willing to learn. More information can be found here.

~í cαn вє hαppч wíth чσu; вut í cαn‘t вє hαppч íf í‘m dєαd~ [Simulation Verse]—Do you want to ship your muse with one of my four girls? Then this is the verse for you!! That is, if you’re prepared for some REALLY messed up shit and triggers like suicide, abuse, murder, blood, and many others. This verse is not at all for the faint of heart, and it’s best if you don’t really know what you’re in for. If you want to learn a bit more about this verse, you can find it here.

~tαkє mє thrσugh thє níght; fαll íntσ thє dαrk ѕídє~ [Villain! Verse]—A verse for My Hero Academia. Lia is just a normal human in this verse, and not related to Kira in any way. She works for the government as an investigator and uses her quirk—Hood: if she pulls her hood over her head she goes invisible—to investigate villains. However, she’s actually a villain in secret. She works for Anne and Leic at the Underworld (villain organization) to get info on other villains. She is loyal to them, not the government.

like this post if you have read it and agree to it, please.

[aster-ria]

Heirs of Prythian Profiles

Name: Artemas "Art"

Birthday: 31. December

Age (600 Years after Acowar(a.A.)): 571

Epithets/Nicknames:

Moon's Hunter

Nightbringer

Most Powerful Fae/Being/Future High Lord

Archer of Destruction and Death

Little Moon (by family)

Position/Titles:

Prince of Night

Heir of Night

Future High Lord of the Night Court

Magical Abilities:

Misting

Glamouring

Winnowing

Healing

Daemeti Power

Flight by Wings

Magic of all Courts (Same as Feyre's)

Family:

Rhysand and Feyre (Parents)

Arianna and Asteria (little Sisters)

Nesta, Elain, Leda Morrigan and Amren (Aunts)

Cassian, Lucien, Azriel and Varian (Uncles)

Hemera, Helena, Aurelia, Callista, Felicia, Cadan, Cleon, Echo, Morena, Morpheus, Pluton (Cousins)

Tamlin, Rosary, Primula, Briallen, Rubin, Jaicen (In-Laws)

Sexuality: Demisexual

Romances:

Jemima (ex-girlfriend)

Laverna (Mate/Wife)

Best Friends: Cadan, Hemera, Nikos, Rubin

Squads:

Heirs of Prythian

Night Court's Future Inner Circle

Night-Archeron Cousins

Hem-Cad-Art Trio

Hobbies: Painting, Hunting, Reading

Three characteristics to describe them:

Lazy, Charismatic, Cunning

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Aesthetics: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4

Well I would love to know where to start with him.... But he is in fact the only character who I have developed in so much details in my head so far .... But let's see ... This is going to be a long one ... Ah I know!

On the last day of the year in the early hours of the evening, the High Lady of the Night Court was going into labor, the heir would be born soon, in excitement und anticipation the family of the High Lord and Lady waited in front of the room, the High lady was giving birth in. After hours of waiting, in the middle of night, the heir was born with a mighty scream that shook the whole night court itself. The newborn heir released so much magic that all the other High lords took notice.

And with that Artemas announced his presence, his magic, and his power to Prythian.

Of course the Court of Dreams (and family) were surprised, they did expected strong magic in Art but not on that level nor at that age, since he was not even a minute old. But after the first scream, no other powers were released from Art, but they still could feel the power radiating off him. But this didn't hinder nor squished the joy of the family to welcome their newest member. The High Lord himself was crying while holding his son.

Art was powerful from the very beginning and had strong magic as a baby. His temper tantrums - from when he was young - are very famous in the Night Court, because if he felt something too strongly, his magic acted out.(It still does that sometimes, but only when he gets a panic-attack. And when he does have a panic-attack, don't try to help, just run and wait until the dangers of dying are over. Only then help him. He is probably unconscious by then and save to approach.)

When he once was 6 months old, he started crying so hard and so loud, that he plunged Velaris in complete darkness for half an hour, because than Feyre, Rhys, Nesta, Cadan, Elain, Hemera (the Archeron sisters were meeting for tea and cake with their children and Rhys winnowed later in panic to them after the darkness came) got him to calm down and sleep. This is one of the famous "temper tantrums events" Cadan and Hemera (especially Hemera) will tease him about for eternity. And Art is actually really easy to tease, because he will blush and huff and pout and whine no matter his age.

Rhys doesn't have the ability to really say no to his children or his nieces and nephews. So Art, Ari and Asta are spoiled, none of them will deny it. So therefore Art always gets what he wants one way or another. When he was little, he simply mostly made puppy-eyes and pouted at the adults and he almost always got whatever he wanted. But now he uses mostly loopholes, manipulation and a little blackmailing. He is very cunning and knows exactly how to talk to people to get what he wants.

Art was on both parts a very easily to entertain and a very easily distracted child. It depends on how you try to entertain him. Because if you gave him paper and colourful crayons (or at least the Prythian equivalent of that) or paints, there was a good chance that he will barely move from his spot for hours.

(Fun story: Elain was once babysitting Art when he was 3, but it was good weather outside, so she decided to do some gardening outside. So she put Art on the magical enchanted blanket, like she did with Hemera and Cadan before, under some shadows with some paper, fingerpaint, colorful pencils, his bottle with juice and some snacks. The blanket had spell on it e.g. to warn her if the baby wants/tries to leave the blanket, to keep the baby on it until someone is there to take baby, to warn Elain if something is wrong with the baby, to keep the baby from harming itself accidentally, etc. Everything to keep a baby safe, in one place, alive and protected. And she didn't go that far off, to do some gardening. At first she looked after Art every few minutes, but after three hours straight, she realised she hadn't looked at him once and no spell was activated. So in growing panic she turned around and is stunned. Because Art was lying on his stomach, talking to himself and drawing. His bottle was almost empty and half of the snacks were gone. And Art looked happy that nobody was bothering him. Elain didn't want to disturb him but it was getting late and she had promised Art to decorate his favourite cookies (sugar cookies (he loves to decorate them)). So she gently asked him what he was doing and Art almost jumped out of his skin, turned his head, looked Elain dead in the eye, smiled and said: "Auntie Elain! I forgot about you! Sorry!" He only then looked at his surroundings and than sat up and yelped: "We wanted to decorate cookies!" He stood, took a giggling Elains hand and dragged her inside. And with that everyone found out later how easily you can entertain Art, if you leave him to himself sometimes.)

Or you could read him/let him read a story and if it is either a love story/fairy tale or a spooky/horror story, he will listen/read wide-eyed and curious/awed glimmer in his eyes. Everything else was a gamble, if he would be entertained or would abonden it and do something else.

Art is a logical thinking Fae even as a child, he understood pretty early on how powerful he is or even more going to be. Which makes him on some level practically invincible, so little Art came to the easy conclusions that no real creature/monster could kill him, so his last shards of fear of them fall away on a very young age. But he never really got scared of anything to begin with, nothing is too horrifying or terrifying to him.

He finds Bryaxis cute (when he was five, he begged Rhys and Feyre for months to allow him to make Bryaxis his pet. They only allowed him that as long as he stays in the library when they are in Velaris and that he will never ask them again, if he could have any other creature as a pet. Because he did that a lot.), the Suriels are really interesting and cool (he liked to sit in their laps when he was little and listen to the stories they would tell him), various monsters, that haunt the forest of Prythian, are either pretty, beautiful (on an odd level) or cute and also very easy prey. No Creature or Being scares him. He even finds Hewn City aesthetically pleasing and appealing to the eye (he still doesn't like most of the people there but he likes to chill and party there with friends).

The only thing/being Art is scared of, is the Cauldron itself. At first he wasn't afraid of it, but when he was about 300 years old, they (Night-Archeron Family) visit Drakon and Miryam on their island. And since the Cauldron is hidden there, It wanted to have revenge against the Archerons and Amren. And It wanted it to happen, where it would hurt them the most, so It attacked their children. However the spells and enchantments on the Cauldron, prevented It from killing them directly, so the overgrown bathtub took a more mental and also more painful approach. And so after a few minutes after the Night-Archeron Family touched down on the island, Art, Ari, Asta, Cad, Cleon, Hemy, Hely, Aura, Feli and Pluton (yes, not Calla because the Cauldron loves her) fell to the ground spamming, screaming and holding their heads. The Archeron Sisters and Amren of course had felt the Cauldron and It's doing, tried to counter It. But their Children started bleeding from their eyes, noses, mouths and ears. The Cauldron had released a loud white noise in their heads. Their brains were being fried and they came very close to dying. But Rhys, Mor and Az had all of them winnowed as far as possible and as fast as possible. They barely survived and they needed months to recover from that horrible experience. Since then Art and the Rest are mentally scarred for life. And the Cauldron still sometimes taunts them in the back of their head. Even the mere possiblity of the Cauldron being in near proximity to them, will send all of them running in the opposite direction. (Yes to answer your unasked question, if Art could get close to it, he could destroy it with only a few little problems. But he will never (if the world isn't ending) get close to it.)

Artemas did go to the Illyrian Training Camps, because he mainly needed allies from the Illyrians (and to know how to fight without magic, but that was just an afterthought). Art's Dream for when he is the High lord is to a unifie the Night Court between the Illyrians, Hewn City and Velaris. And with that create a strong, more peaceful and powerful Court. But for that he realised he needed allies in both Velaris and Hewn City. But he also needed close friends and allies from the Illyrians to get most of them on his side. So he went to the camps with the full intend to make as many friends as possible there. That friends making wasn't the problem though, because Art always has been a very charismatic, kind, funny and respectful. Making friends is easy to him. This is also where he met and befriended his best friend/future Commander of the Illyrian Armies Nikos, and his future General Commander Of the Night Court's Armies Marcella (short Marcy).

The only problem he had, was that he didn't like close physical fights, because his first instinct for everything is magic. And since he had a lot it didn't end very well for him and his opponent, when he accidentally used some while sparing. So he needed very early on a lot of restrainers on him, to block his magic but the older he got and the stronger his magic grew, the more restrainers he needed because he kept breaking them a lot. But his magic wasn't the only thing that hindered him but also his sheer dislike of physical confrontation and fights. They made him uncomfortable. (well they still make him uncomfortable and also send him sometimes into panicking) Because of that he developed a fighting style, that mainly is about distance, dodging, hiding and getting the opponent defeated as fast as possible and with as little contact as possible. It worked but none of the camp lords nor most of his opponent were any kind of happy with that. He was always walking on a thin line in the camps when it comes to the rules and traditions. It was also here, where his enjoyment of loopholes and finding the easy way out began. The camp lords were angry and annoyed with this behaviour and he was almost punished every other week (no not leashes (he only got 3 leashes in his entire stay there) just some work here and there, some cleaning up etc.) And through that he learnt a lot of patience and discipline (which he lacked as a child). And this was the only other good thing that come out of his stay and training. He still very lazy though, that didn't change much.

All of this is also the reason why his preferred weapons are bow and arrows. He loves it. The distance, the concentration, the calculation, the easiness to hold a bow, the elegance, the creativity with the arrows. He swears he was born to be an Archer. It is perfect for him. Feyre had taught him when he was around 7, because he saw her using a bow and was immediately interested. But he honed his skill to near perfection in the camps. This was one of the only things the camp lords were never annoyed about with him.

He ended his training barely within the standards and was actually glad to go home and not partake in the bloodrite, but after he was almost done with packing and only a few hours before the bloodrite, the camp lord informed him that he actually would participate in it. Art's Brain shut down after the lord was done explaining and it only restarted when was already thrown out in the forest for the rite. But the rite wasn't actually that hard for him. It still wasn't easy, but not as hard as he feared it would be. Marcy found him by accident and was surprised to see him there. They started to search for Nikos right after. After they found him, they come to the agreement that Art would provide them with the fastest and safest way and how to survive in this wilderness. Marcy and Nikos would fight the others off. So began the literal hide and seek between the other Illyrians (who wanted either revenge for lousy fights or just wanted to get their hands on a quarter-breed and the heir of the night) and Art (who didn't fought once in the entire bloodrite and was glad about it), since he avoided them as much as possible. And within a week the come to the top of the mountain and finished the bloodrite almost as fast as Rhys, Cass and Az did. Art spent his Bloodrite just hiding and running away from fights. And he will proudly announced that to anyone who asks him about it.

Art has absolutely no pride in being a warrior or being from Illyrian blood, he finds the notion of having pride of something like that very stupid for himself. Though he does respect people who has that kind of pride in them, it's just not up his alley. He will admit publicly that he is not good at fighting and that almost anyone with combat training could beat him, well as long as it is purely combat, but if magic is allowed, you will get your ass handed to you in seconds, because even then Art doesn't want to fight anyone any longer than he needs to.

There is also another reason for why he will avoid fights involving any kind of weapons like his life depends on it, but more on that someday later. It has something to do with his PTSD. He has three triggers that will give him panic-attacks. They have various levels of how fast they make him panicking and lose control. The slowest is being surrounded by at least three armed individuals who are trying to kill or fight him. The next one is being hanged by his wrists over his head. It gets worse if he can't touch the ground with his feet or if can't use his magic. And the fastest is having any kind of blade near his throat or neck. If he panics in any of this situation, he will shortly after fall unconscious and his magic will explode out of him and destroy everything in a few miles radius. (he once almost completely halft a Mountain) If you are really close to him when that happens, you are most definitely death, since Art has no control in that moment. But these moments don't happen really that much since Art is avoiding them like they are a plague and with almost childish stubbornness.

So to make one thing clear, Art is a lazy ass. Everyone knows it. Art is lazy. If he finds a way not to do something himself or an easier way to get it done, then he will not hesitate to use that way. He will also never hesitate to ask for help, if he thinks someone will make it easier or do it completely for him, because they can do it better than. Art knows what he can and can't do, therefore he will not waste time and energy to try to do it himself, when he can just ask someone right away to help him. Art never does more than he absolutely needs to do. And these things he will do fast, efficiencently and perfectly. It is an absolute nightmare to get him to train, because you will need literal years to have him agree to training. He almost ever refuses to do everything that is taxing or tiring (except hunting, flying, archery(he loves all that shit)). But also if someone, who he loves (his friends and family), loves that activity that they ask him to join in, than he will probably do it for them with a lot of complaining (in a mostly teasing and humourous way)(well except for fighting even if it is Ari's and Echo's favorite thing in the world). Art loves to make people happy and likes to help them. But he will never go completely out of his way for anyone (except for Laverna), but he will try to help as best as he can manage.

He has a lot of people employed in his office even before he is high lord, because they make his life a lot easier. And yes he has an office building, because his parents are giving him a lot work to do, to prepare him to take over the Night Court. He also has three writers employed just for his paperwork, because him writing something longer than half a page is preposterous. He would either mentally or verbally dictate what they should write down. (They also have a better handwriting than him. Artemas handwriting is messy, rushed and inconsistent, which contradicts his artistic side and makes him mad at himself.)

(Fun Story: The Heirs need to do reports about their findings and solutions in the Biannual "Prythian Court Meeting", since they have their own little meeting. Art tried to get his writers to do it for him, but Rhys (as a little revenge plan) made the law about them so airtight that Art - to his horror and dismay - was forced to handwrite all the reports. But since all the heirs were not that happy with this law, they decided to make their longest report yet. This was their revenge, because their parents need to read them. So they made a 150 paged report, were every possible solution was listed and every solution was explained in excruciating detail and also how effective they would be etc. It was informativ but also very painful to read, because the writing style was awful and overly overcomplicated. And the High Lords and ladies needed to read them. And the heirs even controlled and tested if they read them with some buzzwords that were hidden in the texts. And since neither the HoPs nor the High Lords and Ladies wanted this to ever happen again, so decided that the maximum number of pages is 50. The only really good thing that came out of this, was the combination of two solutions for the problem, of which one the high lords and ladies never thought of.)

Art at this age has already a complete Inner Circle and all of them are monster when it comes to magic, powers and/or combat. His Inner Circle has ten members (if you count the future high lord and high lady in than they have 12 but I don't so just ten). Five males and five females. (Five of them are family to Art) They are going to be the strongest and most efficient Court in whole Prythian and also in history. And also the most independent, since Art is "training" and "designing" them into being able to function without him or with only the minimum input from him.

Since this is already over 3k Words long, I think that this will be enough for now. And I am not done with Art yet, but I don't think I will write for any another of my HoPs even close to that number. I will probably continue Art someday, since I love him so much. He such a Lazy Smartass. He is the best. 😉

If someone has any questions about Art or any of the other Characters, feel free to ask. I'd love to answer them. 😊

Which one of the Heirs should i do next? (please no little siblings except for Ari, because i don’t really want to do younger siblings berfore older ones. Thanks)

Tags: @thelaziestgeek @iamthebonecarver @mindnumbmikey

[pineaberry]

Clan-uary is Pride Month

Aric Jorgan x Sartem Roan (F!Republic Trooper)

It started of as a character bio but I twisted it into a ficlet. 

In which Jorgan unlocks Sartem’s tragic backstory. There will be Angst and Fluff and just GUSH.

She’d been in the cargo hold, searching for the last of the nerf-jerky rations, when Aric walked up to her and shoved a small parcel in her general direction.

“I know you’ve been busy lately, so… ah, here,” Jorgan shifted awkwardly as he always did when he handed her a gift.

It was customary to bring one’s lover gifts and tokens of appreciation. Having grown up with sisters for littermates, he knew all too well how picky and critical Cathar women could be. A potential mate was always judged by the quality of his gifts. Was he a good provider? Was he observant? Was he strong? Was he clever? Was he a good hunter? Were his claws and teeth dull? Was his mane tangled? In a word, was he worthy?

He’d seen more than his share of Cathar men torn to pieces by a single phrase from a woman who found him lacking and refused to tolerate his advances any longer. Then again, the persistent ones ended up with bloody gashes in addition to a wounded pride. Yet, like all the times before, the moment he offered her the clumsily wrapped gift, she gave him a bright smile. She didn’t even know what was in it but there was approval in her eyes... such large blue eyes he’d felt he could drown in them from the moment he first saw her. The knots in his stomach faded away at the sight of them.

“Aric, did you make this?” she asked as she brought out a bracelet of intricately woven leather cords threaded with small tumbled stones. “It’s beautiful.”

It was a simple enough design. He lacked the dexterity for the complex symbol knots that professional jewellers made for festivals. Still he remembered enough of the simpler knots he’d been taught as a kit. Love. Beauty. Friendship. Loyalty.

“I… I wasn’t sure what your colors were, but you seem to like blues so I went with that,” he said apologetically, “there’s a space for your sigil.”

“My what?” she asked giving him a blank look.

“Your sigil. It’s the third month of the year, I figured you’ve been too busy to make anything for the ceremony.”

“Third month ceremony…” she repeated and he was met with another blank stare.

“The ceremony. The Clan Ceremony,” he insisted some annoyance slipping into his tone to mask his own nerves.

“Oh!” she said as though something had finally clicked in place, “yes. Cathar ceremony month. Clan… Clan-uary... I… don’t really know what that is. I don’t have a Clan. Anymore… -ish…”

“Everyone has a clan,” Jorgan said as though she’d declared there was no such thing as breathing, “even foundlings. If you’re a Cathar, you have a clan.”

“Oh. Sorry I just- It never really came up,” she replied looking sheepish.

A sense of wrongness filled him. She really didn’t know who her people were. How could she not know? It was… well it was sacrilege that's what it was! Even orphans knew their clan name. This was a part of their identity; of her identity!

“Your parent’s never told you, sir?” he asked reigning in his outrage, “I’m sure we can find something about Clan Roan in the Republic records.”

“Bit hard for them to do that from a grave,” she mused looking at his gift absently and running her thumb over the polished stones. “Roan is a human name and I doubt you’ll find anything flattering about them in the Republic Database.”

Aric frowned and Sartem could all but feel it on her skin. She sighed and took a seat on a nearby supply crate before she patted the spot next to her.

“I guess I should have told you this before, there’s really no easy way to explain it,” she said as he took a seat next to her. “I don’t know my parent’s names but I know what they did and who they were. Before I was born there was a schism growing between the Cathar and the Republic. There were prominent people in my parents’ clan that were adamant about their loyalty to the Republic. However, my father shared some misgivings about the Republic’s commitment to the Cathar. He believed the Republic had used our people against the Mandalorians resulting in our near-extinction. The resulting tragedy ensured our continued dependence on the Republic.”

“That was over three-hundred years ago,” Aric protested.

“Yes, and he believed the Cathar were finally strong enough to make a choice, whether it be Empire or Republic, he felt we should be able to choose,” she said before growing silent for a moment. Never once did she look up from the stones in his bracelet, “my father was a very influential member of his Clan and my mother very eloquent. They publicly debated the opposition and afterwards members of all the other Clans began to consider his words. There began to be murmurs against taking Cathar loyalty for granted. Eventually, the Republic noticed.”

Aric grimaced. It wasn’t lost on him what ‘being noticed’ implied.

“They sent both my parents to Belsavis and scrubbed their records. They were to be held in stasis fields indefinitely. I think… I think my father knew my mother was pregnant because he gave his life so that she could escape. I was born in an ice-cavern somewhere on Belsavis. My mother and siblings were too weak to survive the cold. I would have died too but I was found by an escaped prisoner. Captain Roan was an Imperial strategist sentenced to life imprisonment. I spent around seven years on Belsavis hunting, playing, and hiding among the ice. Captain Roan was kind to me. He named me after his own deceased daughter. I still remember the stories he told me every night. Sometimes they were about the stars, or Sith Lords, or strange planets. Sometimes he sang to me because he said I made him smile,” she looked sad at the memory, “I think he wanted a better life for me. In the end, I think he knew what it would cost him. One day, he told me to pack my things and walked me into the nearest Republic outpost. When we got there… They kept hitting him… They didn’t know him, he was unarmed, and they just kept hitting him… I wanted to bite and scratch and protect him, but he ordered me to stay put. Eventually they took him away and I never saw him again.”

Her eyes burned with tears, but they didn’t fall.

“Someone brought me to Coruscant… I was placed in a home along with other children with unfortunate parentage. Marsalyn was our keeper. She was an older Twi’lek woman who had been rescued from the slave camps by the Republic. She was very kind and patient, but she was forbidden from teaching us anything that would divert our allegiance to the Republic. I remember she used to tell us terrible stories of what the Empire did to her family and how lucky I was that the Empire hadn’t gotten to me first otherwise I would have been enslaved. ‘Pretty Cathar girl like you would get snapped up in an instant. They like to keep your kind like pets.’ She used to say. I grew up wondering how someone as kind and clever as Captain Roan could do something so terrible as to end up in Belsavis. Did the same man who sang me to sleep and tell me stories about the stars also burn that number into Marsalyn's neck? If the Empire was full of evil selfish people who wanted to enslave me, why did he give his life so I could be free?”

She held his gift in her hands if only to keep her fingers from trembling.

“I was fifteen when Marsalyn fell ill. She tried to hide it from us, always putting on a brave face. A decade spent in an arms factory without protection from poisonous chemicals finally caught up to her in the end. She had no family, no children. We had been her younglings. Without Marsalyn we were orphans again; wards of the Republic. They sent us off to the military academy. One of the foundlings I grew up with was a brilliant slicer. By all accounts she should have been snapped up by the SIS, but she was a Sith pureblood. Defections by pretty faces like Dorne are distrusted but still welcomed for their usefulness. Ailsa had known nothing but the Republic her entire life, yet she was feared and hated for her species. The SIS wanted nothing to do with her. It was Ailsa who began to search for the past our Keepers kept from us. She was the one who found out how my father died and why. She was the one who helped me piece together my past and showed me a report stating how my mother and siblings were found. Prisoner TX-54987 shot to death during a firefight and TX-54988 found dead of hypothermia along with four stillborn kits. Their names are lost but I remember. I know I don't live like them or follow their customs. I know they would be disappointed that their deaths were meaningless, but I haven't forgotten them. Mother, Father, Captain Roan, Marsalyn even Ailsa… they're all gone now, but I remember them.”

Aric kept searching her face as though to find a clue as to what she was feeling. He didn’t know what to say in the face of such knowledge. The Republic had stripped her of everything: her status, her dignity, her family, her Clan. Only to reshape her in their image and dress it up as a second chance at life. The experience would have made anyone else bitter and angry, but from what he had seen, it had only made her kind. His brow furrowed and he wished he had the words to express his own regret and sorrow at her loss.

“I’m... sorry… it must be difficult in our line of work…”

“Empire, Republic, good, evil, or neutral, they were all of them people. We’re all just people in the end, Aric. There’s bad people who do good things, and good people who do bad things. Believing every Imperial is inherently evil only serves the people who profit from this war. It makes us easier to control,” she said with a sigh, “Havoc is not an execution squad. Under my command, it never will be.”

He tentatively placed a hand over hers and she finally looked up to meet his gaze.

“I’m just a soldier. I can’t say I understand everything, or that I agree with everything the Republic does, but it brought me to you,” he whispered, “and as selfish as that is, I’m glad.”

“Yes, well that… is incredibly selfish, Aric,” she smiled at him before kissing his lips softly.

He could sense her affection through some inexplicable combination of scent and touch. She found him worthy. He could not contain the purr that bubbled from his chest at the realization. Later he would curse at the deeply embarrassing show of emotion, but for now, he was too happy to care.

“I’m glad I met you too,” she murmured nuzzling under his chin as he instinctively wrapped his arm around her, “happy Clan-uary, Aric.”

He snorted and gave a rumbling laugh. “For kriffs sake, don’t call it that-”

He then felt fingertips dig past the soft fur under his jawline and scratch against his skin just so. Were it anyone else, just thinking about doing something like that would result in lost fingers if the loss of an entire arm. Yet with her, the rest of his protest melted into a loud rumbling purr. It was childish, it was humiliating, and he didn’t give a damn. He held her tightly and she felt as though she were encased in a warm, pleasantly rumbling cocoon.

“Thank you for the gift Aric,” Sartem said as she nuzzled his neck.

His piercing eyes closed blissfully at the motion.

She had accepted him. Him. Not Jonas Balkar with his stupid smiling face. Not all the leering Senators and soldiers. She’d chosen him, and it made Aric feel invincible.

Was this what finding a life-mate felt like? They weren’t officially mated, not yet, but even now he didn’t think there would ever be another like her.

Sartem had spent her entire life hounded by loss, yet she somehow made it out untarnished. Every Cathar should feel as though they had a place in their Clan where they belonged. He vowed help her find that place. They’d all failed her: their people, her Clan, her government. However, if she allowed it, he would spend his entire life making up for it.

[shima-draws]

OH MY GOD those ocs of yours are so cute! Can you tell us more about them??

AAAAA THANK YOU!! And of course I can omg! Sorry for the late response btw typing this out and drawing stuff for it took longer than I originally thought

There’s actually three separate “phases” to their story arc, and during each of these phases their outfits and other things change.

This got to be extremely, extremely long like really REALLY long I am so so so sorrylol so–drawings and explanations are under the cut! :D 

All of this is actually the very paraphrased version of what goes down lol. I don’t want to give ALL of my plot points away XD But yeah I have the real long version written out on my computer and it’s around 5k words. Wow.

Okay, let’s begin!

Phase one is the one I mentioned already–Gifre works for an underground crime organization known as the Python’s Blood. This organization is dedicated to research and experimentation on elementals. Thanks to his space elemental powers, he can “portal jump” in order to escape from any threatening situations. This ability to open portals and travel through them is a very rare skill among space elementals. This is extremely useful when he’s out on missions! He’s best at running away. This is the only reason he was allowed into the organization in the first place, because his shapeshifting abilities are…um, a bit lacking. Of course, very few space elementals can shapeshift, but those that can can transform their entire bodies, while Gifre can only change his arm.

Anyway! Meanwhile, we have Elias, who was found as a baby and taken into the guild. (Remember, it’s the sister guild to Shima’s.) Elias grew up with his caretaker who is also an inventor, so he was surrounded with machinery and engines all the time. He fell in love with tinkering and experimenting, and now he’s the guild’s official mechanic! Elias aspires to be just like the legendary inventor and sorcerer Elymas (who is another OC of mine). Elymas created hundreds if not thousands of inventions back in the day that are still being used now, by combining his talents of inventing and elemental magic (this is a very very hard thing to accomplish). He’s a freaking genius, and Elias adores his work.

Here’s phase one Elias! Before he loses his arm lol

Gifre is tasked with infiltrating Elias’ guild to basically keep an eye on all of them. The higher ups refuse to tell him why, but they pay him a lot of money to prevent him from asking questions so he just goes along with it. Gifre visits the guild on a daily basis, taking jobs there and chatting it up with all of the members. And then he meets Elias…and is immediately smitten with him. At first he just pesters him and bothers him with harmless flirting, to which Elias brushes him off, but eventually he develops deep feelings for him. Gifre starts avoiding Elias after overhearing him say he’s too overbearing and annoying, but Elias starts to worry about him after several weeks pass without him showing up. Gifre apologizes to Elias for his behavior, and they start acting better to each other. Slowly but surely as Gifre reveals more and more of his true character, Elias starts to fall in love with him as well…Gifre doesn’t notice of course lol, but he is happier about them becoming closer!

Skip ahead a month or two. The leaders of Python’s Blood reveal their true intentions for sending Gifre there…and they want Elias. Gifre of course is absolutely shellshocked and refuses to capture him (because he’s head over heels for the idiot, he’s not gonna give him up like that ya know). They decide they’re not gonna put up with Gifre’s shit and knock him out. When he wakes back up Gifre discovers they’ve kidnapped Elias and are preparing to begin an experiment on him. They reveal to Gifre what their plans are because they’re going to kill him shortly (because he basically betrayed them and he knows too much of their secrets). Turns out that Elias is actually an invention made by Elymas. Crazy, right? Elias isn’t entirely human, but he’s not completely “robot” either. So…it’s an inbetween sort of thing, and a bit hard to explain lol. But he functions just like a human and acts like a human, so nobody was ever able to tell the difference. Python’s Blood wants to take a sample of Elias and use it to create their own artificial humans, so they cut off his arm as the sample ;w; And that’s how Elias looses his arm. RIP. So then after an epic battle and rescue mission by the members of the guild, Elias and Gifre are brought back to the guild. Fast forward a couple weeks–Elias is almost completely recovered and is working on building himself a prosthetic arm. Gifre tells Elias he’s going to go on a journey of self-discovery, some cheesy cliche crap like that lol. Elias begs him not to go and asks him to officially join the guild, and Gifre says he will when he returns. He leaves, and that’s the end of phase one! Phewww!

Now for phase two! It takes place a year or two after phase one. Gifre’s “journey of self-discovery” is actually more of a manhunt. He’s going after members of Python’s Blood, trying to shut their operations down. He calls himself the Python Hunter, and he has a really nifty tattoo and his hair is grown out so he puts it up in a little ponytail. Every now and then he sends letters to Elias to keep him updated.

And here’s what phase two Gifre looks like ;D

On Elias’ end of things, he’s pretty damn lonely without Gifre there. He gets letters of course, but he isn’t allowed to respond to them (safety reasons on both ends). Several of his guildmates come and try to cheer him up by showing him a flier for a robotics competition. Having nothing better to do, Elias decides to enter it and participate. He goes through several ideas that don’t work out, and after getting some advice from his best friend and fellow mechanic, Ava, about creating something inspiring, he decides to make a robotic version of Gifre, since Gifre inspires him the most (and he misses him severely). After a couple months and several tests, Gifre-bot is brought to life! (Gi-bot or Gibo for short hehe.) And I’ve already posted stuff about Gi-bot, so yeah :D

And this is what Ava looks like!

Now, unlike his original inspiration Gi-bot is stubborn, a trickster and absolutely refuses to speak, just to spite Elias lol. Gi-bot can speak but prefers not to, he’s pretty silent, unlike Gifre who enjoys talking. Gi-bot mainly uses tons of robotic noises to communicate–chirps, whirs, clanks, you name it. Gi-bot also extremely protective of Elias, and the only people he’ll let near him are a very few friends from the guild, otherwise anyone else who tries to talk to him gets growled at. He’s not the nicest robot around, he’s a bit of a hostile one. Elias tries to fix this but realizes this is just part of Gi-bot’s personality as a whole. Gi-bot has a lot of problems at first, like his fascination with water always shorting out his systems (he goes out in the rain several times and comes back with oil spurting out of his body, and his body itself starts to short-circuit and release little electric charges, which sometimes shocks Elias), and not listening to Elias’ directions all the time, and destroying any other inventions that may threaten his purpose…but eventually they come to an understanding, and Elias becomes very very fond of Gi-bot and vice versa. Gi-bot is actually revealed to have a very caring side, such as looking out for Elias when he’s not paying attention, and does several things to cheer him up when he’s depressed. One of my favorite scenes between the two of them is when Elias is having a really rough day, so Gi-bot and Ava team up (despite the fact that they kinda hate each other and are always getting into spats with each other lmfao) to cheer him up! Ava borrows an old phonograph and plays a song, which coincidentally is a song Gifre used to sing to Elias sometimes back in phase one. Gi-bot sings along with it, as best as he can without actually speaking lol, and dances with Elias. Elias gets super emotional and starts crying and the two of them flip out, Gi-bot gets angry at Ava since it was her idea and she apologizes, “I didn’t think it would make him sob like a baby! Geez!” Elias tells them how happy he is, and they spend the rest of the day all dancing together~ Lol they’re like my friendship OT3. Elias, Gi-bot and Ava

As for the competition! They enter that, of course. I’m not going to go into too much detail about that, but I can say Elias and Gifre do very well and impress the judges during every round, even though Elias almost fails the first round since Gi-bot decides to be a little shit and doesn’t listen to anything he tells him to do. But when Gi-bot notices people making fun of Elias for making a faulty creation, and Elias being the sweetheart he is is almost in tears, he gets pissed and shows off what he can do, impressing the judges and everyone in the room basically. (Then he gives El a big smooch on the cheek just to embarrass him and get him to stop crying lmfao) While the judges are blown away, some of the other competitors find this to be totally stupid and grow jealous of Elias. After the second round is over (they pass, of course) some of the others manage to get Elias alone while Gi-bot is getting a checkup from the robotics committee or whatever. They all start insulting Elias, accusing him of cheating and bribing the judges. One guy gets super pissed off since Elias denies all that, and tries to sic his own robot on him. Luckily Gi-bot comes to the rescue just in time! But he gets horribly “injured” and is in dire need of repairs. Elias is in tears, Ava is terrifyingly angry and threatens to tear the dude’s head off, and after the whole situation dies down the guy gets disqualified for trying to injure another competitor and for ruining Elias’ robot. Once Gi-bot is completely fine, Elias tells him that he’s dropping out of the competition, afraid that Gi-bot is going to get hurt again. Gi-bot gets upset and insists that they keep going, and eventually with enough persuasion Elias agrees, and then they pass round three and are up for round four! But before Elias and Gi-bot can think of something to do, out of nowhere someone arrives and kidnaps Elias in the middle of the night. Gi-bot comes online after hearing the commotion and manages to follow them to where they’re going just in time…

Back to Gifre! When he hears the news that Elias has been captured (again!) he discovers that it’s not actually Python’s Blood who kidnapped him, but something entirely different. One thing leads to another and Gifre actually ends up meeting and teaming up with Elymas (who is still alive after half a millenia–he’s a brilliant sorcerer, so of course he knows how to prolong his life). They find out that Elias has been taken into the Mirrorplane, an invention created by Elymas. So the second half of phase 2 is basically about Gifre and Elymas’ adventures in the Mirrorplane trying to save Elias! (Technically this should really be phase 3, maybe I’ll change that lol)

And this is what Elymas looks like c: He’s the best cutie sorcerer njgfnjgnfj

On Elias’ side of things, he meets the Mirrorplane version of Gifre, and is tricked into believing that he’s the real Gifre. Gi-bot apparently malfunctioned, so he’s off being fixed somewhere. Elias worries for him. Of course after seeing the other inhabitants of the Mirrorplane and how different they are from the counterparts he knows, Elias eventually realizes that Mirror!Gifre isn’t the one he knows and loves. Elias tries to escape from him, but unfortunately Mirror!Gifre has developed a very unhealthy and possessive obsession of him and absolutely refuses to let him go. He sets up his sentry robot, Mirror!Gi-bot, or going by his nickname, Error. Error was originally created to be a fighting robot, but did not obey any of M!Gifre’s orders and there are tons of flaws and errors in his system (hence the nickname). He’s actually very gentle and not as hostile as the original Gi-bot, and he is tasked with watching over Elias whenever Mirror!Gifre isn’t around. Soon, through some coaxing, Elias comes to discover that Mirror!Elias is dead, and has been for a very long time. Mirror!Gifre didn’t even have the opportunity to meet him, for he died years and years before he was even born (remember, Elias was created by Elymas, so Mirror!Elias was probably also created by Mirror!Elymas but did not survive…) Mirror!Gifre begs him to stay in the Mirrorplane, having been watching him for quite some time from inside that world, and only wanting his happiness. He had seen how upset and depressed Elias became after Gifre left, and promises him he won’t ever leave him and will always stay by his side, sappy crap like that lol. Elias hesitantly agrees to a sort of bet with him to get him to shut up (“If your Gifre doesn’t come to get you by the end of the week, you stay with me forever”). Elias feels really bad for the guy, because he has a very compassionate nature;; At the end of the week, Gifre miraculously shows up with Elymas in tow. Mirror!Gifre sends several of his underlings including Error to prevent them from getting to Elias, who he has locked up in a magical darkness chamber thing. I haven’t really figured out what to call it. Eventually they break through. (Error gets totally destroyed and Elias cries like a baby over that, but he’s repaired later in phase 3, no worries!) Mirror!Gifre throws an enormous hissy fit and his powers go berserkers, destroying half of his palace. Gi-bot manages to escape his prison and eventually reaches the whole gang. Elias tries to reason with Mirror!Gifre and notices that he’s very off; his eyes are bright red and he doesn’t seem to be listening to anything he’s telling him. Elymas tells him that Mirror!Gifre is so attached to him because he’s directly connected to Elymas himself, who discovered the existence of the Mirrorplane and connected it to it’s parallel world. So Elymas is sort of the Mirrorplane’s “god” and basically everyone who exists there all have a connection to him. I hope that makes sense? Then Mirror!Gifre’s powers go out of control and he really isn’t himself anymore because of Elymas’ and Elias’ presence. In one last desperate attempt to get Elias to stay with him, Mirror!Gifre attacks Gifre, trying to kill him. Gifre gets really badly injured, like half of his face gets totally wrecked and his throat too and it’s. Very bad. He almost dies ;m; Mirror!Gifre immediately shuts down after seeing what he’s done, and Elias leaves him with some pretty sweet words of advice before kissing him goodbye. So yeah, Elymas, Elias, Gi-bot and Gifre escape the Mirrorplane and rush to save Gifre’s life ;w; Lol these phases seem to end with somebody getting hurt.

Phase three begins with Gifre’s recovery! Elymas lends a hand with mending his injuries, and makes it so his face doesn’t look as marred. (Bless you Ely.) Unfortunately they weren’t able to salvage everything; Gifre’s right eye was torn out and his ear was ripped to shreds, and the injury on his throat was the worst–his vocal cords got so messed up that he can’t speak anymore. Eventually he wakes up and realizes he can no longer talk. Or see or hear from one side. Poor…poor sweetheart. Luckily after he recovers Elias makes him a mechanical eye and a special earpiece thing, but there’s still the problem of his not being able to talk anymore. And that’s really hard on both Gifre and Elias…eventually they learn to communicate, Gifre normally uses a mini chalkboard where he writes things out, and sometimes they try to use sign language lol. Buuut after some time, Elymas helps Elias invent a device that attaches to Gifre’s throat and allows him to speak again! But not with his mouth, more like his brain sends signals down to the device and his voice comes out that way, so he doesn’t even have to move his mouth at all. (He thinks it’s the coolest shit ever.) And yeah I really like drawing phase three Gifre, he’s smol and soft and injured and I just want to hold him.

Poor, poor son ;m;

Continuing forward, Elias, Gifre and Gi-bot work to upgrade their living quarters and Elias’ workshop. Lots of goofy shenanigans go down between Gifre and Gi-bot, since they’re finally sort of meeting and getting used to each other. Elymas is also staying with them, since he and Elias are sort of like brothers but not exactly? But yeah he sticks around, showing up every now and then, along with Ava. Finally, the upgrades are complete! Things start getting busy for Elias, who has somehow become famous after mysteriously disappearing during the robotics competition (he vanished into the Mirrorplane before round four, don’t forget! And this caused a huge uproar since everyone predicted he would win so they freaked when he disappeared). Gi-bot helps him with repairs and building new things, while Gifre tries to help them in his own way. As a thank you to Gi-bot for all of his help, and also as a way to make things easier on their busy lives, Elias creates a robotic version of himself as a companion, Elias-bot, or Eli-bot (Eliot) for short hehe >wAnd yeah, I’ve already drawn them quite a bit! Here’s their concept sketch:

BABIES

And then we go back…to the Mirrorplane. Le gasp! You thought Mirror!Gifre is done? Nope! After that terrible experience with nearly killing his counterpart and greatly upsetting Elias, M!Gifre feels extremely guilty and lonely. He repairs Error, who starts avoiding him and not answering his orders out of spite for all that he’s done lol. Missing Elias, M!Gifre attempts to copy what Elias has done and make his own Eli-bot, failing several times. After a massive failure with trying to create an Elias-bot, he completely scraps that project and decides to seek out Mirror!Elymas instead. He asks him if there’s any chance of being able to bring Mirror!Elias back to life. M!Elymas tells him it’s impossible, he’s tried. But, M!Elymas is different than the other Elymas in that he specializes more in magic than in inventing, and says he may be able to grant a wish to M!Gifre. M!Gifre wishes to have his own Elias, and M!Elymas warns him that the Elias he gets might not be the one he’s thinking of (since the Mirrorplane counterparts are different in personality from their originals). M!Gifre says he doesn’t give a shit lol, and M!Elymas grants his wish. And so…a new Mirror!Elias is created! Unlike Elias Mirror!Elias is a total asshole, arrogant, and altogether a huge jerk. But he has a softer side as well. Even still, M!Gifre is in love with him anyway, despite all of his faults. M!Elias hates his guts at first but eventually warms up to him. AND MEANWHILE! With the help of Mirror!Ava, who works for M!Gifre, Error somehow finds the discarded Eli-bot M!Gifre had tried to create a while back. Using his robotic knowledge, Error brings M!Eli-bot to life. M!Eli-bot is riddled with more glitches and bugs than Error, and has a very hard time speaking, but Error develops a fondness for him anyway, and with M!Ava, decide to dub M!Eli-bot Glitch. (Get it? M!Gi-bot has an E name, and M!Eli-bot has a G name! Genius~~~) So yes…now we have:

Elias,Gifre,Eli-bot (or Eliot),Gi-bot (or Gibo),Mirror!Gifre,Mirror!Elias,Mirror!Gi-bot (or Error),and Mirror!Eli-bot (or Glitch).

Lmao I know that’s a lot to keep track of. And yes, all of the other ATS characters have mirror counterparts as well, I just haven’t really thought too hard about what they’ll be like yet.

Hmm…idk if I’m going to make anything else happen after this–they all go through enough shit and phase three ends pretty happily, with Gifre being able to speak again and him getting into an official relationship with Elias, and the bots also happy with each other, and the mirror counterparts all set and good, so yeah!!

Alright, that’s all of it!! If you read all the way through you’re really awesome omg. I really hope you enjoyed reading about my boys’ difficult yet inspiring journey~And yeah, please don’t steal this idea? It’s mine, I worked hard on it and this is probably one of my favorite story arcs in ATS now, even though it won’t be a part of the main storyline I definitely want to do something for it in one way or another. :D

Feel free to make fanart! I highly encourage it and it would make my day if someone drew my sons! Just make sure you tag me if you post it on your own blog, or submit it here! There’s nothing an artist loves more than getting art of their own children ;w;

And here’s some extra doodles hehe

Elias gets a nifty labcoat in Phase 3 lol

Also, a bit of extra information:Gi-bot runs on pressurized air, making him a pneumatic robotAnd Eli-bot runs on oil and pressurized liquids, making him a hydraulic robot c: (Yes, I actually went and did research on this lol)

AND DONE! That’s all!

[joiehamby2350256-blog]

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New Release Roundup–12 May 2018: Science Fiction

Space dragons, the King of Space, legions of space marines, caravans of space refugees, and the deadliest unpaid intern in the galaxy feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

Bandwidth (Analog Novel #1) – Eliot Peper

A rising star at a preeminent political lobbying firm, Dag Calhoun represents the world’s most powerful technology and energy executives. But when a close brush with death reveals that the influence he wields makes him a target, impossible cracks appear in his perfect, richly appointed life.

Like everyone else, Dag relies on his digital feed for everything—a feed that is as personal as it is pervasive, and may not be as private as it seems. As he struggles to make sense of the dark forces closing in on him, he discovers that activists are hijacking the feed to manipulate markets and governments. Going public would destroy everything he’s worked so hard to build, but it’s not just Dag’s life on the line—a shadow war is coming, one that will secure humanity’s future or doom the planet to climate catastrophe. Ultimately, Dag must decide the price he’s willing to pay to change the world.

Beyond Atlantis ( Ascendant Chronicles #4) – Brandon Elllis

Jaxx thought the Kelhoon were bad enough – a race of aliens enslaving humans, Atlanteans, and other ET’s, and shipping them off to their factory farms on Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon. But when Jaxx lands back on Callisto to free those bound in chains, he encounters something far worse.

The Agadon has followed him there. A psychotic sentient race of artificial intelligent Beings hellbent on wiping out all life in the Sol system – human, Atlantean and Kelhoon alike.

Now Jaxx must persuade rebel Kelhoon to join him in a battle against an intractable enemy.

With only one chance to succeed, Jaxx might just save everyone, or he might fail and die. When the Atlanteans offer him a deal that fulfills both, he may have no choice.

And he’s running out of time.

Broken Stars (Universe on Fire #1) – Ivan Kal

Sixty-seven years ago the Qash’vo’tar conquered Earth. They had judged humanity as dangerous and unworthy of joining the other races among the stars. Ever since then, the aliens had ruled from above, keeping humanity from even thinking about reaching for the stars. The Qash’vo’tar did not care what humanity did on the ground, as long as they didn’t attempt to build anything that could get them to the stars. Outmatched in every way and not willing to accept the cost of fighting back, the United Earth gave up ever again reaching beyond the boundary of Earth’s sky.

In its isolation, humanity turned its eyes from the sky and pointed them to the ground. Instead of the stars, humanity explored the oceans, burrowed deep underground, and broadened its understanding of laws of physics. Until finally they could take no more. In secret the United Earth’s best scientists attempted to find a way out. They experimented, and in a single moment changed the fate of humanity. Accidentally, they broke through someplace else, created a breach in space-time. Deep underground, they created a portal to another universe.

They made a breach to a universe where there was magic. This new universe changed them, changed their own universe. This one accident gave them a new weapon against the Qash’vo’tar. A weapon that the aliens had no knowledge of. It gave humanity magic. And they studied it, integrated it with their technology, and they waited for the right time to strike back against their alien overlords.

And now, sixty-seven years after they had been conquered, it was time for humanity to show the Qash’vo’tar that they had been right to fear humanity. Now was the time for humanity to reclaim its world and carve a place for Earth among the stars.

Freedom’s Fate (Freedom’s Fire #6) – Bobby Adair

War in the Heavens for Freedom on Earth

The first interstellar war, a generation ago, left humanity enslaved. Now humans fight in the armies of their masters to save themselves from annihilation.

At least, that’s what the propaganda insists is true. What the layers of lies keep hidden, is how badly the new war is going for the people of earth.

Now it’s Dylan Kane’s turn to blast into the heavens and join the battle, but what his masters don’t know, is that by putting a weapon in his hands, they’re giving him the key to unlocking his hopes of freedom.

In this finale of the Freedom’s Fire series, the Free Army tries to salvage victory from what looks like a total loss. They’ve found a weakness in the Gray-Trog alliance they think they can exploit. But they’ll need to ally themselves with the hated MSS, and put their trust in people they’ve sworn to overthrow.

Hunter Killer (Wardogs, Inc. #2) – G. D. Stark

All war is murder for profit. Some corporations are just more open about it.

WARDOGS INCORPORATED is one of the largest and most professional mercenary corporations operating in the Kantillon subsector. If you need a bodyguard, an assassination team, or an armored cavalry regiment complete with air support, WARDOGS Inc. can provide it for you… for a very steep price.

Fresh from the nuclear-scarred battlefields of Ulixis, Tommy Falkland and his squad mates are happy to be assigned to a simple corporate bodyguard contract when the interstellar corporation Datacon Verlag inadvertently offends a seriously strange religious cult with an advertising campaign and turns to Wardogs Incorporated for protection. But the contract proves to be considerably more challenging than expected when the executive they are guarding ends up dead, murdered by a military-grade toxin, and they find themselves ordered to track down his killer. But how do you solve a murder when your two primary skills are breaking things and killing people?

The King of Space Must Die (Space Team #9) – Barry J. Hutchison

It isn’t just war. It’s space war!

Geronimus Krone, the most dangerous man in existence has altered the course of time, appointed himself King of Space, and now rules the galaxy with the help of his four monstrous generals and their armies.

Cal Carver and his crew are the galaxy’s only hope. But, reeling from their recent loss, they can’t stop Krone on their own. Fortunately, they’ve got a whole bunch of friends they can call on for help.

With Krone’s grip tightening around thousands of helpless star systems, a much larger Space Team must find a way to crush his armies, defeat his generals, and finally face off against the King of Space himself.

But first, they’ve got a funeral to attend…

Knights of Saturn (Void Dragon Hunters #5) – Felix R. Savage

Betrayed and undermined, the Dragon Corps is in tatters.

Scarred by losses, the Dragon Corps is placed under ADCON by the Department of Defense. Jay Scattergood returns to Earth with his Void Dragon – and finds himself reluctantly spearheading a plot to break a traitor out of prison. The daring strategy enmeshes Jay and his friends in conflict with their own side, as they struggle to head off a calamity caused by the traitors who sided with the Offense.

Jay and Tancred have one last chance to save humanity. But enemies surround them on all sides. The Void Dragons are exiled from Earth. Their only hope is to flee … into Offense territory.

The final battle is coming. The Void Dragons will face their ultimate test at Saturn.

Last Man Out (Poor Man’s Fight #5) – Elliott Kay

Meet the deadliest unpaid intern in the galaxy.

Some people struggle to get to college. Tanner Malone had to fight through an interstellar war. Far from home, under a cloud of scandal and propaganda, hunted by assassins and haunted by trauma, Tanner is finally enrolled in a top university.

He didn’t plan for an archaeological expedition on the far side of human space. He didn’t want more corporate mercenaries or space pirates in his life, either. Yet ancient alien secrets don’t come without cost.

If his classmates want to survive the summer, their infamous intern is the only chance they’ve got.

The Midnight Sun (The Four Horsemen: Omega War #2) – Tim C. Taylor

War has come to the worlds of Humans. The rich planet of Tau-Rietzke, however, is far from Earth and the Mercenary Guild’s invasion, and its alien-registered mercenary companies are a safe haven for Humans on the run. Organizations like the Midnight Sun Free Company.

Having just completed another successful mission and taken possession of three Raknars, it was party time for Saisho Branco and the personnel of the Midnight Sun, and they were enjoying a little down time…until the war spilled over into their corner of the galaxy and two competing mercenary organizations showed up to steal the Raknars.

But no one takes the company owner’s toys, and Gloriana has given the Midnight Sun a new mission—return the Raknars to her at all cost…or don’t return at all.

This is the hardest mission the Midnight Sun has ever taken, and it will test not only the military prowess of the company, but also its members’ loyalties as well. When everyone is against you, and your race calls you to war, do you heed the call or continue to trust your shadowy employer? Outnumbered and outgunned, the Midnight Sun must decide whether to fight or to give up the Raknars and save their lives. Little do they know, it’s a decision which will impact the war being fought hundreds of light years away!

Odysseus Ascendant (Odyssey One #7) – Evan Currie

The Empire has set its sights on its next target: human Terrans. As effective allies of the Priminae, the denizens of Earth have proven themselves enemies to the Empire, and now the Imperial forces know more about the Terran home world than ever before.

The battle for the planet’s survival will see the Odysseus first into the breach. But more perils loom for Commodore Eric Weston and his comrades. They’re at odds with the political conflicts dividing Earth’s government and challenged by the mysterious presence haunting their vessel—its intentions unclear, and the extent of its powers unknown.

As the Empire brings the battle home, the crew of the Odysseus will need to determine whether this entity will support them in their fight for survival, or prove to be another dangerous foe.

There’s no turning back…and the only way forward may be a pathway to doom.

Rage of Winter (Terran Strike Marines #2) – Richard Fox and Scott Moon

One Shot. One Kill. One sniper to strike fear in the heart of alien invaders.

Hoffman’s Strike Marines pursue enemy agents across a wintry world, desperate to stop an insidious threat festering in the heart of the Terran Union. Their hunt is disrupted when the fanatical Kesaht invade and the team is split across the snow and ice of a harsh planet.

The team’s sniper, Duke, plays a deadly game of hit-and-run to slow the aliens’ advance and earns the ire of the enemy commander.

Hoffman, trapped in the frigid wilds, leads his Marines and their cunning prisoners back to the front, where they must join the fight against the Kesaht before the planet is lost.

Single Shot (Justice of the Covenant #3) – M. R. Forbes

Hayley, Quark, and the Riders are finding it hard to trust anything after a series of betrayals has left them battered and on the run, heading for a safe haven to regroup and reload.

If they want to have any hope of preventing an intergalactic war, they’ll need to break onto one of the most highly secured planets in the galaxy and pull off one of the most unexpected heists ever committed.

When friends reveal themselves as enemies and enemies become accidental friends, there’s only one thing left to do:

Throw caution to the stars, take the leap, and make the single shot.

Storm of Vengeance (Crimson Worlds Refugees #5) – Jay Allan

Earth Two is a world beset by dangers, inside and out. It’s genetic groupings, the cloned “Tanks,” the “Natural Borns” and the hybrid “Mules” exist uneasily, each wary of the others, even as they rally to face the deadly threat of the First Imperium’s robot warriors.

President Max Harmon and his inner circle have played an elaborate game of chess for twelve years, a deadly battle of wits with the genocidal alien Intelligence known as the Regent. They have moved fleets, spread deceptions, built decoy planets…all to hide Earth Two’s location, to protect it from the deadly onslaught of the enemy.

But sitting and waiting is a losing game. The Regent’s resources are just too powerful, its technology too advanced. It will find Earth Two eventually…and when it does, it will consign the planet to the apocalypse of antimatter devastation. Harmon knows his people must do something…and when a scouting fleet sends back word that it has found the enemy’s antimatter production site, it seems almost too good to be true.

Harmon suspects it is all a trap designed to lure his fleet to its destruction. But, more than one side can lay a trap, or turn one around, and the elimination of the Regent’s antimatter production will go a long way to evening the two sides, and setting the stage for a final showdown the humans can win.

The War for Earth (Children of Earthrise #4) – Daniel Arenson

The basilisks. Giant serpents from deep space. Their true name is unknown. Their homeworld is cloaked in shadow. But one thing is certain: They’re killers.

And they vow to kill us all.

We humans have only just returned to Earth. For centuries, we lived as refugees among the stars. Hated. Hunted. After a long war, after devastating losses, we began to resettle our world. Only to find it swarming with monsters.

The basilisks show us no mercy. They constrict our children like boas, shattering their bones. They devour our loved ones, digesting them alive and screaming. Their starships hammer our colonies, destroying all that we’ve built.

They’ll never stop. Not until we’re all dead.

But we did not survive so many hardships to give up now. Our hope still burns bright. We will fight the basilisks. We will defend our planet. We will win the war for Earth!

A Warrior’s Home (Assignment: Darklanding #9) – Craig Martelle and Scott Moon

Thaddeus Fry became a sheriff, but he never stopped being a soldier. TerroCom needs him and he can’t say no.

A frontier world. One sheriff. The Company and all the action one spaceport can’t handle.

A warrior is never far from battle, even if the war is long over. Thad is torn between his new home on Darklanding and the familiarity of combat. His quirky friends or his fellow warriors. Whose call will be the strongest? Maximus deploys with the sheriff as they go off world to find out.

Fans of Firefly, Bonanza, and Tombstone will love this space opera / western and all the characters that make the story great. Join us on the latest journey through Darklanding.

New Release Roundup–12 May 2018: Science Fiction published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[stardust9905]

THIS!! I immediately saw Crosshair getting up without verbal protest as him protecting Hunter and the rest of TBB because he didn't want Hunter to get more hurt or anyone. ❤️‍🩹

The last words Crosshair heard from Hunter before he was subjected to his inhibitor chip being intensified were:

"Oh no, no, no. We stay together."

Crosshair may have just been arguing with all his brothers, but Hunter is still trying to protect him.

And the troopers attack Hunter for it.

And then there's Crosshair's reaction (which Hunter doesn't see): his look of shock and anger mirroring his brothers', a look that quickly fades to a resigned shake of the head before he stands to leave.

And while I'm sure there were lots of thoughts going through Crosshair's mind - "see, Hunter, this is why we need to just follow orders, you wouldn't get hurt if you would just comply" likely being among them - I firmly believe at least part of the reason why Crosshair got up and went with the troopers without a word of protest was because it was his way of protecting Hunter in return.