#it took me from i was 12 to 20? 21? in order to actually get help for my mental health because i had no way to convince my mom | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

badbatchsprincess · 6 months ago

Text

Heated ~ pt.13

Pt.1 ~ Pt.2 ~ Pt.3 ~ Pt.4 ~ Pt.5 ~ Pt.6 ~ Pt.7 ~ Pt.8 ~ Pt.9 ~ Pt.10 ~Pt.11 ~ Pt.12 ~ Pt.13 ~ Pt.14 ~ Pt.15 ~ Pt.16 ~ Pt.17 ~ Pt.18 ~ Pt.19 ~ Pt.20 ~ Pt.21 ~ Pt.22 ~ Pt.23 ~ Pt.24 ~ Pt.25

Masterlist

Summary: This is an ABO Bad batch!Poly x Omega Reader smut with a plot. This takes place as an AU before order 66. Y/N previously served under the 501st before being transferred to Special Forces 99. This is her adventure with these rowdy Alphas in a quickly changing universe.

THIS IS AN ABO AU ABOUT THE BAD BATCH (NO CANON OMEGA!) Due to the unfortunate situation of her name being Omega… Omega the child from the canon series is not going to be apart of this fanfic/porn with a plot. I feel obligated to put this warning in because it makes my skin crawl thinking anyone could make that mistake.

Warnings: No smut in this chapter... but don't worry! Chapter 14; we will be returning to our regular smut programming.

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"So, Anakin Skywalker took you to Lothal?" Hunter was trying to make sense of Echo’s wild story.

"When Ahsoka was still barely a pup, he took her on a tour of all the known Jedi temples in the known regions," Echo recounted. "It was to show her the generations of Jedi history. We had taken that Venator all over the galaxy. Lothal was one of them, and I think it’s far enough away from Empire jurisdiction that we could get there unnoticed."

"And why are we bothering with a Jedi temple? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but none of us are Jedi," Tech remarked, knelt on the ground, holding you to his chest, running comforting hands over your trembling form. The boys took turns trying to keep you warm as your temperature dropped for reasons Tech and you couldn’t understand.

"You said it wasn’t medical. This is a soul bond issue; that's the spiritual world," Echo reasoned. "We might not understand it, but I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff with the Jedi. All of it's real, even though it sounds like mumbo jumbo to people like us."

"It’s real," you whispered. "I’ve seen it."

"You've seen what?" Tech looked down at you.

"The mumbo jumbo… Ahsoka showed me many things when we were younger." You nuzzled into Tech for comfort.

"She’s someone we could actually use right about now, assuming she survived the order," Echo said, shaking his head.

You bit back your emotions, too exhausted to cry anymore. You didn’t want to think about that. Not now, anyways. You and Echo had spent too many nights talking about Ahsoka leaving the pack.

"We’re approaching," Echo said, taking control of the Marauder. Tech stood up, passing you to Wrecker for a snuggle before returning to his seat to land the ship.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Tech asked as they entered the planet’s atmosphere.

"I was actually hoping Hunter could help us with that," Echo said, punching a few buttons above his head making the engines rumble.

"And what exactly do you want me to look for?" Hunter said.

"I kind of remember the general location Skywalker had been. I’ll land us there, but you can use your electromagnetic senses to find the temple," Echo explained.

"Ahsoka told me that all living things have the Force flowing through us. It’s how she and Ani could feel where we all were and that everything is connected. Everything flows through each other, which I’m thinking is what Echo is talking about.” You lifted your head to explain, “Ani said the Force is pure light energy," you remembered, recalling all the times you had caught the two Jedi meditating before battle.

"If it’s electro currents, I should be able to pick up on it, but I don’t exactly know what I’m looking for," Hunter said, watching as Echo guided the ship to an open field with rolling grasses.

"Anything that feels strange, I would assume," Tech said as the ship touched down with a gentle thud.

You tried to stand, but you were feeling too weak. Wrecker caught you before you stumbled. You groaned as he lifted you up, even though he was as gentle as could be, it didn’t change the fact your bones ached like your heart did… it craved one thing… Crosshair.

"Okay, let’s get our things and let Hunter get to work," Echo said, standing up and grabbing his pack and weapon. Wrecker carried you out of the ship like a just-married bride and into the waist high grass. Hunter knelt down, taking off his glove to touch the earth. He placed his palm to the soil, looking up over the grasses.

"There are animals everywhere," he said, looking around, but the grasses camouflaged them. He raised his gun up in the air, firing a single shot into the sky. The blast startled all of the loth cats, which picked their heads up to stare before scampering off with a meow.

"Tookas!" you said excitedly, seeing all of the different colors fleeing the area.

"They’re all over this place," Hunter confirmed, choosing the best direction. "I’m wanting to head this way," he said, pointing towards a mountain range. "There’s something with a deeper energetic vibration in that direction I think it’s a good place to start."

"Alright, here we go," Wrecker said, following behind Hunter, carrying you like you weighed nothing.

The trek felt like it had gone on forever. Even though you weren’t putting in any effort, the body chills and aches were making you miserable. This was truly hell. You honestly would have taken Hunter’s blade to the shoulder again if it meant you were cured.

"Almost there, little tooka," Wrecker said, sensing your discomfort.

"Just a little further," Hunter added, feeling their journey was coming to an end. The vibrations were becoming more tangible.

"Does any of this feel familiar, Echo?" Tech asked, pulling out his scanners as they approached the egg-shaped rock formations ahead.

"It all looks the same to me, but General Skywalker had us stay back with the ship. All I remember is the mountain range and the fields," Echo replied.

"I don’t see a temple," Hunter said, leading them into a narrow crevice. Everyone squeezed between the smooth rocks, following the sergeant. You watched Hunter as he kept switching his directions.

You clung onto Wrecker as he stepped up and over various rocks. Hunter kept bending down to touch and feel the rocks, seemingly guiding you somewhere.

You lulled your head to the side, sensing something was watching you. When you looked, all you saw was more stones. You closed your eyes and leaned back into Wrecker’s chest, ignoring the sensations. It was probably all the spirits Soka would tell you about.

"What are you feeling, Hunter?" Tech asked, raising his scanner in the air, trying to get a better picture of where they were in case he missed something.

"It’s just like a storm of electrodes," he said, looking around. "This place is like nowhere else I’ve ever been."

"Not even on Mimban?" Echo asked.

"No, this is different… it’s…" He raised his head in the air, sniffing, and shook his head. "Ugh… Just more tookas," he shook his head, "Echo, are you sure this is the place?"

"I wouldn’t forget something like this. Anakin took Ahsoka here. I’m certain."

"I miss Soka," you mumbled, thinking about the little Togruta you thought of as a sister.

"Whoa!" Tech stopped in his tracks and pointed to a ridge above their heads. "A rare albino tooka," he exclaimed, pulling down his helmet, leans to snap a photo.

"Sightseeing later, vod," Hunter said, continuing to walk. Wrecker sighed and adjusted his grip on you before trudging on.

Once Hunter got frustrated enough, he halted the group so Echo and Tech could get some water and food into you. You curled up on a flat rock, tucking into yourself for warmth against the sun-warmed stone.

"This would be a really good time for someone to have secret Jedi powers," Echo joked.

"Pip?" Hunter raised a brow at you.

"Sorry, Sarge," you weakly laughed, "Just a normy nat born."

"How unfortunate," he smiled trying to hide his worry ay seeing you like this. It was obvious you health was deteriorating quickly the longer this dragged on.

"Well, we’re not entirely sure about that," Tech joked. "Seems to be pretty abnormal if you ask me," he referred to the current situation.

"What if it was something the Imperials did to me while I was out?" you rolled onto your back, liking the warm stone, "We can’t know for sure."

"Bonds can’t be manufactured," Echo shook his head.

"While I do have special bonds with all of you, I didn’t think I had developed a mate bond with Crosshair… at least not yet. It hasn’t been long enough," you looked up at the puffy clouds in the sky.

"Stranger things have happened," Hunter shrugged.

"Have they?" Wrecker petted your hair, looking around, "This seems pretty strange to me."

Tech snorted in agreement, "Should we keep going?"

"No," you pouted, "I like this rock, it’s warm."

"We can stay a little longer," Hunter leaned against one of the egg-shaped stones, "Warm up, Pip."

You purred in content, rolling back onto your side, absorbing the heat.

Wrecker continued to run his fingers through your hair as you felt yourself start to drift off into a little nap.

Just as you were drifting off into blissful sleep, you heard a whisper.

"Pip," Hunter said so quietly you almost mistook it for the wind.

You blinked open your eyes, feeling Wrecker’s fingers stilled in your hair. When you opened your eyes, you saw the same albino tooka sitting just next to your head, staring right at you with its beaming azure eyes.

Everyone remained deathly still, scared to scare off the creature.

You watched Tech hit record on his helmet, capturing the rare moment.

You slowly lifted your head, trying to sit up. The tooka sat on its haunches, watching you. You tilted your head to the side, and it mimicked you. You gasped quietly, looking at the tiny creature. It stepped forwards, rubbing its cheek and side against your leather boots before sauntering off again. This time, you stood up, suddenly feeling well enough to walk, and followed the creature without a word to the others.

Tech was about to interject, but Echo put a hand on his chest, silencing his brother. The Alphas watched curiously as you trailed after the small creature.

"The Force," Echo whispered, jumping over a stone to catch up to you.

"There’s no way you know this is the Force," Tech grumbled.

"Why did it choose her?" Echo retorted.

"Because she’s the least threatening," Tech argued. "It is known animals prefer human females."

"No, idiot," Echo shook his head, "This is how the Force works."

"That is yet to be determined," the pilot shook his head… mumbo jumbo.

They watched you follow the tooka in a trance-like state as you squeezed between narrow passageways that they struggled to get through.

"Adi’ka," Hunter whispered, not wanting to scare off the animal.

You didn’t respond, just continued to follow the animal.

The boys shared a look of concern at your lack of acknowledgement . Echo, however, wasn’t put off. He was confident you had found what you were all looking for. He continued staying close. He had definitely seen stranger things serving under Anakin.

It wasn’t lost on him that your energy magically restored in the presence of the little creature along with your unusual attire matching the feline. The Force works in strange ways, but he was so sure.

You eventually reached a clearing surrounded by stones. The ground was covered in swirling ancient carvings spanning the entire clearing. The tooka led you to the center where the swirls stopped. Your body came to a halt, and the boys slowly inched inside, keeping to the walls.

You plopped down onto the ground, kneeling at the center and hitting back on your haunches, mirroring the tooka.

“What is she doing?” Wrecker whispered. The others didn’t answer; they just watched as you remained still, seemingly meditating.

“I don’t like this,” Hunter said, moving to step forward, but a ferocious growl halted his movements. Wrecker gasped, seeing the absolutely monumental wolf appear from between the surrounding rocks. It was a couple of feet taller than himself, which made him even more uneasy.

It snarled, baring its teeth at the boys as it began to circle you. Hunter grabbed his gun on reflex, but when he went to shoot the wolf, the gun jammed.

“What the?” He pulled the trigger again, but no blast came.

The wolf stared at him as another appeared, and then another! Five wolves in total began to walk in circles around you as you sat with the tooka almost unaware of their presence.

Then, to everyone’s utter shock, the wolf spoke, “I know why you have come to this place.”

“Holy Kark,” Wrecker shook his head, thinking he was imagining things.

“I know why you have brought this female here,” he said, looking in your direction, seeing you still in the trance. The wolf’s baritone voice sent chills down Hunter’s spine.

“We just want to know if she’s okay,” Hunter stepped forward pleadingly.

“Very few Jedi have found this place,” the wolf growled, “How is it you have found this place?”

“I’ve been here before,” Echo offered, “My General was a Jedi; he brought his Padawan here many years ago.”

“The Force has led you here,” the wolf continued his prowl, “This female is much more connected to the Force than you may have believed.”

“She’s Jedi?” Hunter asked.

“No,” the Wolf shook his head.

You felt your body grow weak, and you slumped to your side before lying down in the center of the rock monument.

“Y/N!” Hunter wanted to rush to your side, but the Wolves snapped at him, forcing him back or else he’d be met with sharp white fangs.

“Please! She’s sick!” The Sergeant was starting to feel himself get sick from worry. Watching you lay there was sending his instincts into overdrive… he felt helpless for the first time in his life.

“Young Y/N is not sick,” the wolf halted his prowl, and the others followed suit. They took a seat on their haunches, facing you like guardian angels.

“Then what’s wrong with her?” Tech demanded.

“Your people call her Ori’Sol,” the wolf rumbled.

They looked to Tech, “It’s Mando’a for many.” The pilot informed.

“We weren’t raised with our kind,” Hunter shook his head, “We don’t know who Ori’Sol is.”

The wolf stared at him with deep piercing eyes, “The first Ori’Sol was an ancient Jedi named Kaj. She was an omega, such as your mate. While omegas and alphas desire monogamy, her Jedi ways forced her to detach from these desires, and she split her soul bond into many pieces. Through her mastery of the Force, she accomplished this,” the wolf looked down at your small frame, “Thus the ancient line of Ori’Sol was born. This female is a descendant of Kaj, ten thousand generations later.”

“So what does that mean?” Hunter shook his head, trying to understand how this relates.

“Ori’Sol have the ability to have many mates, as did Kaj. It would seem her soul has already chosen before her mind and body.”

“Our brother, Crosshair?” Hunter clarified.

“He is one,” the wolf tilted his head, “But there appears to be more.”

“What do we have to do to help her?” Hunter’s worry was growing.

“We will help her now,” the wolf looked to the others surrounding her, “Sever this premature bond, but be warned, this female has a tumultuous story filled with many trials and tribulations.”

“Will it hurt her or Crosshair?” Tech asked.

“No harm will come to your mate,” the wolves all lowered themselves down onto their elbows and paws. They bowed their heads, and you rolled onto your back, looking up at the sky.

Then the brightest of white light appeared overhead, and your lithe form began to hover in the air with the power of the force.

The boys all stared in pure astonishment. Wrecker let out an audible gasp.

The wolves continued their Force magic, lifting your body higher as more and more light flooded in. Then all of the ancient carvings lit up with that same light, causing the boys to close their eyes or risk going blind. They shielded themselves from the brightness, flinching as it peaked.

Then in a blink, the light vanished.

The boys opened their eyes, adjusting to the sudden darkness. When they looked around, it was no longer mid-day; overhead, the night sky shone bright with twinkling stars, and your form lay alone in the center of the clearing still on your side.

There were no longer any wolves or tookas, just the five of you alone in the Lothal wilderness.

“Y/N!” Hunter ran forward, kneeling down at your side, rolling you over onto your back, and feeling for a pulse. You groaned, feeling his hands poking around your neck frantically.

Hunter sighed with relief.

Tech pulled out his datapad to scan your temp, “Back to normal.”

“Did they do it?” Wrecker asked, leaning over you, “They fixed Pip?”

“Hold on, Wrecker, let her wake up first,” Echo urged.

You blinked open your eyes slowly, adjusting to the fact it was now nighttime. You took a deep gasp in, sitting upright suddenly.

“You okay?” Echo knelt in front of you.

“What was that?” You touched your chest, feeling slightly�� empty? It was a strange feeling. Where the agonizing pain was, there was just… nothing. It felt kind of like a hole in your chest.

“The Force,” Echo nodded, “Good enough for you?” He looked at Tech.

“Fine, I concede. Next time we see a white tooka, we follow it,” Tech rolled his eyes.

“A white tooka?” You asked, using Hunter’s shoulder to help you stand up, getting used to standing up again on your own two feet.

“Yeah, Pip,” Wrecker scratched the back of his head, “There was a white tooka that brought us here, and then these massive talking wolves healed you.”

You just looked at Wrecker like he had grown three heads before looking at the others.

“He’s telling the truth,” Hunter shrugged.

“No kriffin' way,” you swatted at your white torn clothes, trying to dust yourself off.

“No shit,” Echo laughed, “Now that has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.” He punched Wrecker, “I told you guys.”

“You were, in fact, correct, Echo,” Tech nodded.

“Hah!” Echo jeered, “Write that down!”

“Ugh,” Tech groaned before pulling out his datapad, trying to retrace their steps.

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Hunter turned back the way they came.

“You feeling better?” Wrecker nudged you.

You smiled, “Yeah. I feel normal again.”

“Good!” He smiled, ushering for you to walk first.

“And we know you’re not a Jedi!” Echo laughed.

You scrunched your brows, “What?”

“We’ll tell you about it back on the ship,” Hunter shook his head, leading the expedition.

“I feel like I missed a lot,” you sighed, stepping over a large rock.

“Oh yeah,” Echo replied, pushing you up onto a rock that was a little too tall.

“Ugh why can’t things ever just go smoothly?” You growled, hauling yourself up to swing your leg up.

“Because that’s not the way our lives are written,” Echo joked.

“Then I need to speak to the author,” you slid down the other side, almost plummeting into Hunter.

“Alright, it’s a quick walk once we hit the grasslands,” Hunter said, squeezing through a narrow pass.

“Sounds good,” you sighed, “I’m hungry.”

“You and me both!” Wrecker’s boisterous voice echoed between the rocks.

You trailed after Hunter, following him back the same way they came. Reaching out, you ran your fingers through the dancing grasses, feeling the smooth leaves stroke your hands. Looking out around you, there was nothing but rolling hills and the Marauder in sight. Even under the night sky, Lothal’s moon lit up the land with silvery white light. It was beautiful, you thought. You heard the chittering of wild loth cats in the distance, settling in for the night while you finally could see the ship getting closer.

Feeling a particularly strong gust of wind blow past your face, you briefly looked behind you back at the rocky mountains. Wrecker, Tech, and Echo turned to look at what you were looking at, but like you, saw nothing but grey rocks.

“Let’s make some dinner,” Hunter said, opening the hatch and allowing you to climb in first. You stepped inside, smelling the lingering scent of your distress from earlier and turned up your nose.

“I’ll start dinner, but someone explain to me what just happened out there,” you grabbed a pan off the wire rack and set it down on the electro burner.

“Well…” Hunter looked to the others, “You fell asleep on that sun stone. Then that white tooka appeared. You followed it for a while all the way to a clearing in the stones. Then five giant wolves appeared. They told us why you were experiencing that sickness, and then they healed you.”

“It was like a giant ball of light!” Wrecker waved his hands around, “Like a small sun! And you were floating in the air! And the wolves could talk!”

You looked at him with wide eyes, “I floated?”

They nodded their heads.

“Anything else?” You asked, ripping open the ration pack and putting the contents into the pan to heat it up.

“No… that pretty much covers it,” Echo set his helmet down and started peeling his armor off.

“Fascinating,” you said, still in a bit of disbelief, “So what was the reasoning for the sickness in the first place?”

You watched them look at each other, exchanging looks of trepidation. It seemed like they were trying their best to choose their words carefully.

“Mesh’la,” Hunter began, “It would seem your lineage is very, very old. On Mandalore, our people have a word for those in your line…”

You raised a brow.

“Ori’Sol,” he said, sitting down at the table bench, “The loth wolves told us that they knew why we had brought you to them. They told us you were Ori’Sol. Your lineage goes back to ancient Jedi. They didn’t seem surprised you were feeling this sickness.”

“What is Ori’Sol? Am I Mandalorian like you?” You asked, setting down your stirring spoon.

“No, well, I don’t think you are,” Tech corrected, “Ori’Sol is an old legend from our people. It’s a story about an ancient Jedi who had many alphas and many pups. She had started many lines of omegas with the same ability. They spread all throughout the galaxy over many generations.” He had been researching on your walk back, you realized.

You were still confused, “So what? Am I part of this lineage?”

“It would seem, you’re an Ori’Sol Omega. Very rare in our designations,” Tech explained, “It means you can have many mates.”

“The wolves said you were sick because your soul had already chosen Crosshair as a mate despite no bite,” Echo said.

“What?” You shook your head with a laugh, “That doesn’t make any sense. Crosshair isn’t my mate.”

“It doesn’t really seem to make a difference. It’s more like your soul chose him as a mate,” Hunter explained, “Which also means that if the same rules apply, so did he.”

"That's why you felt the pain of the betrayal after Order 66," Tech pointed out. You just stood there, confused, jaw hanging open, flabbergasted. "How is that even possible?"

"I'm assuming that's why Crosshair had to be tortured. He was fighting the clone programming, trying to save you," Tech nodded.

You felt tears welling up in your eyes. Quickly wiping them away, you took a deep breath to center yourself. "Okay, but I know he's not my mate... he doesn't smell any different like everyone says a mate does."

"I think it's one-sided with an Ori'Sol," Hunter thought. "That makes the most sense as you smell very unique to us."

"Fives said even you smelled good to him," Tech typed into his datapad, looking for an answer. "What if an Ori'Sol carries the unique scent to attract many different alphas instead of just the fated singular partner?"

"Uh, this is getting more confusing," Wrecker plopped down next to you while you continued to cook.

"This is just a hypothesis," you shook your head. "I've never even heard of Ori'Sol Omegas before."

"Not many have," Tech said, scrolling through information. "It seems a lot of them have historically been executed."

"Oh, great," you sighed, picking up a plate to dump the steaming contents of food onto for Wrecker.

"Except on Mandalore," Tech showed you his datapad.

You read through the explanation. Since Mandalore had many matriarchal practices, Ori'Sol omegas were considered great gifts to society. Their unique nature was seen as a blessing from the gods.

"Hmm," you ripped open a packet of freeze-dried vegetables and started rehydrating them.

"Pip is a blessing," Wrecker crushed you into a hug. You squeaked before going limp. Wrecker smiled and put you back down on your feet with a kiss to your head. You looked at them as they stayed standing there, looking like they still had something else to say.

"Spill it before I make Echo tell me," you pointed a spoon in their direction.

Hunter swallowed and looked to Tech.

Tech pushed up his goggles. "The last part of the interaction with the loth wolves revealed that you also view... us," he gestured to his brothers, "as your mates."

You felt the blush creeping up on your cheeks then looked down to the food, continuing to turn them over in the sizzling pan.

"Anything else?" you coughed, feeling Wrecker staring into your soul.

"And the wolf told us to take care of you," Hunter whispered. "To take care of our mate."

You looked up at him. Did that mean... no...

"Your soul chose us mesh'la, but it seems ours chose yours too," Hunter crossed his arms over his broad chest.

You turned off the burner and set down the spoon starting to feel your heart race. Hunter perked up hearing the change in speed.

"I don't even know what to say," you sat down, running a hand through your hair, feeling stress flooding your system. "That means we're mated? I don't understand… If I leave your sides, am I going to, like, die? What if something happens to one of you? Oh my god. Is that why they had to put me into stasis while you were off-planet? Oh my god... oh my god!" You stood up abruptly, "Crosshair's never going to stop searching for me... He's going to go fucking feral!" You squeaked. "He's probably coming right now!”

Echo stood up. "Relax, there's no way he knows where we are."

"But I've seen him track his targets. He's almost as good at it as Hunter," you whined. "It's only a matter of time!”

"Y/N, please calm down," Tech sighed. "You're going to faint again."

You let out a stressed cry before starting to pace in a circle. "What exactly did the wolves do to fix the bond?” You touched your sternum, “It feels empty in here.”

Hunter looked down at the ground, knowing you weren't going to like the answer. "They severed it," he said with an exhale.

You shrieked. "He's going to think I'm dead! If there's a bond, he would have felt it! He's going to hunt you all down to the ends of the galaxy!" This was so royally bad. Crosshair was definitely losing his damn mind right now. Probably tearing apart Tapoca city and murdering everyone in sight as we speak.

"We can handle Crosshair," Hunter reassured. "You need to try to calm down or you'll faint like Tech said."

You forced yourself to sit back down.

"What about the Empire?" you looked at them frantically. "They know! And they wanted me for something. They let Crosshair be around me... and Tarkin! They know exactly what I am."

"We still need to figure out what that might be, but maybe it won't matter if we just lay low and stay out of the way of the Empire," Wrecker suggested.

"And where could we possibly do that?" you growled, pushing your palms to your forehead. "They're everywhere. You guys don't even have any credits!"

They blanked, realizing this might be a little more difficult than they had realized.

"Oh my god! My credits!" you stood up. "We have to go to a banking system right now! I have to pull out all my credits before the Empire seizes them." You stole Tech's datapad from his hand to start searching for places. "If they're coming after me, or if Crosshair is, they'll know where I am when I pull the money. We'll have to leave quickly and hide somewhere fast."

"Assuming they haven't changed the currency," Tech noted. "If that's the case, then I think your credits may not be as valuable."

"Regardless, we have to do this fast," you nodded to the ship console. "Get it going or whatever Hunter says."

They looked to Hunter, who repeated the same gesture, and they sprung into action.

"What system has your same banking union?" Tech asked, taking back his datapad. "Ord Mantel?" He scowled.

"It's the closest, and yeah, my bank is a little sus. That's what happens when you grow up dirt-poor on Coruscant," you crossed your arms defensively.

"Ord Mantel it is," Tech punched in the coordinate codes.

Hunter wrapped a hand around your bicep, guiding you into the bunks. You allowed him to drag you through the ship before stepping aside away from his brothers. "Don't think I'm just going to let you gloss over the fact that we're mates," he cornered you, pressing you against the wall of his bunk.

You pressed your hands to his chest and looked up at him as he caged you in. Your heart continued to race but the adoring look in his eyes started to dull the panic.

"I don't even know what to say or think, Hunter..." you looked down suddenly, too overwhelmed by his intense eyes. "This is just happening so fast."

"I literally witnessed the craziest shit of my life today, only to confirm that you are, in fact, made for me," he gently gripped your chin, lifting it to force you to look at him. "We can take it at whatever pace you want, mesh'la, but I'm never, ever letting you go.” He vowed.

You struggled to breathe; he was making you feel warm and tingly. "I just want it all to happen naturally. There isn't exactly a handbook for this particular situation."

He chuckled. "Wouldn't that be nice?"

"The universe is changing so fast... and—" you croaked, "and Cross..." Your heart ached just a tinge, "This isn't the situation I imagined when picturing my future with my husband."

"I don't think it was for any of us," he agreed, "We kind of just came to terms with the fact we'd probably die on the battlefield. I never thought we'd be here now, but as shitty as it is, I wouldn't change it for the world as long as I get to have met you." He nuzzled the side of your head.

"I wouldn't change it either, Hunter," you sighed, "I just don't even know how to handle this. Like, are you all okay with this? This is kind of crazy."

"I think my vod are fine with it," he let out a breathy laugh, "We've wanted you for much longer than all of this."

"Do you think the Ori'Sol thing is why you were all more inclined to share?" you wondered.

"Maybe," he nodded, "Clones have a tendency to share everything... even women," he smirked, "But this always felt a bit deeper, I think."

"You think the Force bonded our souls earlier than all of this?" you asked.

"Yeah," he smiled, "I do."

"I'd like to think that too," you smiled up at him. He returned the expression before leaning forwards to bring his lips to yours. You smiled into the kiss, letting him guide you.

This kiss was so much more different than the ones before. It was filled with so much love and emotion, you felt yourself flutter with excitement.

"Hey… Hey!" Wrecker burst into the room pouting as you two broke apart smiling.

"I want pip time," he reached for you, but Hunter shoved him away.

"She's not a toy, Wrek," he growled.

"I know," he crossed his arms, "She's our mate."

You shivered from the conviction in his voice. It felt so right to hear him call you that. It felt like you belonged. And you hadn't felt like that in a long while.

You felt the ship rumble as it lifted into the air. The trip to Ord Mantel wouldn't take long, according to Tech, which you were glad for. Time was of the essence.

You looked between Hunter and Wrecker, "So how does this work? How do I make sure you're all happy?"

Hunter crossed his arms, "We can make a schedule, so everyone gets their fair time with you on their own. We can start building relationships that way."

"Works for me," Wrecker agreed.

"And what about…" you pointed to your neck, specifically the gland there, "How does that work?"

"One bridge at a time," Hunter smiled, "Plus, I don't think we're ready for that big step yet, huh?"

You nodded, glad that was his answer. You were a little intimidated by a lifelong commitment like that, but then again, you didn't know if that even would apply to you in this circumstance.

An omega with multiple alphas? That's insane. This whole thing is insane...

"Can I have the first night?" Wrecker asked, making you smile at the lovey eyes he was giving you.

"We draw straws," Hunter rolled his eyes.

Wrecker groaned but relented. Fair is fair.

~~~

"You're seriously drawing straws?" Echo shook his head.

"Well, what else do you suggest?" Hunter held out his fist with the straws.

Echo just shut his mouth to let the sergeant carry on.

"Longest gets the first night, shortest gets third," he said, holding out his fist.

Tech drew, then Wrecker, leaving Hunter with the last one.

They all flipped over their palms, revealing the stick lengths.

Wrecker groaned; his was third.

You stifled a giggle at his forlorn expression.

Tech revealed his, then Hunter.

Hunter had the longest, and Tech had the middle.

So that was the order... eldest to youngest, how coincidental.

"So that's settled," you smirked, leaning into Echo. He just threw his scomp arm around your shoulder, watching Wrecker grovel for Tech's night instead. You laughed, feeling the first semblance of normalcy again... even the nagging reminder of Crosshair settled in the back of your mind giving you a moment of peace.

Echo then whipped around, hearing the telltale chime that you were exiting hyperspace, "On approach," he said, sitting back down in his chair with Tech.

"Ord Mantel, everyone," Echo said, directing Tech to the nearest empty spaceport.

The Marauder was set down gently, and the five of you exited the ship. You threw the last few remaining credits you had at the port owner before taking off into the unfamiliar city.

"The bank should be just up here," Tech directed everyone to a seedy-looking building.

"That doesn't look like a bank," you raised a brow.

"It would appear to be a local dive bar, but it says here that the owner has a money transfer machine inside," Tech replied.

"Whatever works," you dug around in your bag, pulling your bank card out. Hunter entered first with Wrecker, while you followed behind with Echo and Tech.

The bar was dark and dingy, with two locals playing sabacc at a table, but other than that, the place was empty. You saw the money transfer machine in the back corner and made a beeline while the others checked out the bar.

While you were plugging in your banking info, Echo and Hunter settled at the counter.

“You know her credits won't hold us for long. The Republic doesn’t pay anyone very well,” Echo pointed out.

“It will be enough to get us on our feet. We’ll pick a low-key planet on the outer rim and find some land to keep her safe,” Hunter rested an elbow on the table, watching you carefully.

“You know he’ll come after you,” Echo said lowly. “She’s right, it’s only a matter of time. Especially if he thinks she’s dead.”

“He won’t be able to find us. We won’t leave a trail,” Hunter replied.

“What happens if she needs him?” Echo asked honestly. He was still worried you’d eventually turn sick again.

Hunter stared at his vod. “Then we’ll find him.”

“You make everything sound simple,” Echo shook his head. “Nothing about this is simple. What if this new empire decides they want her?”

“Then we’ll disappear,” Hunter stared at you. “I won't lose her, Echo. I can’t.”

Echo sighed as you came trotting over. You gave them a solemn shake of the head. “It didn’t work,” you groaned, “They already changed the currency.”

Echo looked to Hunter.

“I hear you need some work,” a smiley voice caught all of your attention.

“And you are?” Echo deadpanned.

“The owner of this fine establishment,” the Trandoshan waved around. “I’m Cid,” she narrowed her yellow eyes. “You’re clones.”

Hunter furrowed his brow.

“I’m in need of some muscle. You guys complete this job for me, I’ll split the earnings 60% - $40,” she offered.

“What do we get out of this?” Tech asked. “We seem to be doing all the heavy lifting.”

“I don’t tell the Empire sweet-cheeks is here,” she pointed at you with her gangly claw, “and we both get paid.”

Hunter tensed. She must have overheard him talking to Echo at the bar. Kark.

“What’s the job?” Hunter asked skeptically knowing they are going to be in desperate need of some credits.

“A rescue,” she pulled out a bar stool to sit. “I need you to find a kid named Muchi…”

Get ready for the smut.... its... coming 😏

─ ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──── ♡ ─── ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ ──

Taglist: @substantial-exposure

@rains-on-kamino

@minimissmoo

@z-and-the-batboys

@aynavaano

@9902sgirl

@sideofhorny

@sxftiebee

#crosshair #hunter #tech #wrecker #abo #echo #star wars #bad batch #omega #smut #clone wars #clones #tbbhunter #tbbcrosshair #tbbwrecker #tbbecho #tbbtech

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sunofpandora · 1 year ago

Text

So I watched avatar 2 with my native mother.

1. I don't think we've ever cried harder together in our life.

2. First things first, the minute the kids came on screen she said “I'm adopting them all��

3. Said that Neteyam and lo’ak remind her of my brothers. (especially during the fight scene where they defend Kiri)

4. Was pissed bc trudy is still dead.

5. You know that scene in the beginning where Neytiri shoots the RDA ship pilots in the raid?

My mother turned to me and said “you took 6 years of archery in school. Why can't you do that?”

6. Called Rotxo and Ao’nung “Thing 1, and Thing 2.”

7. Was gushing over tsireya and told me she missed when I wore my hair like that (I wear braids most of the time, but when I was 12 I wore my hair like Tsireya’s with cornrows in the front and curls in the back)

8. Didn't recognize Jake at first. She thought the dreads made him look better though.

9. Said that “neteyam reminds me of that one kid on a soccer field who sits in the grass and picks flowers”

10. When Quaritch came back, she said “oh my god its coloniel scar face back to fuck things up”

11. 98% sure Spider has ADHD. (she works with kids who have ADHD and dyslexia)

12. Anytime ronal came on screen at the battle scene “when I was pregnant I wasn'triding winged aligators”

13. Couldn't take the Australian guy seriously (it was probably the accent. No offense to y'all with accents. Me and my mom have accents ourselves)

14. My personal favorite, when Kiri was sad she said “honey your not depressed. You just need to get your hair done”

15. We went through a whole box of tissues when Neteyam was shot.

16. Said, “Jake looks like he drives a ford F150 and has bad road rage”

17. Went on Amazon and ordered the avatar visual dictionary for herself afterwards.

18. Was pissed as spider for saving quaritch. And I quote,

“regardless of whether he kept spider alive or not, he took children away from their families, and placed them in the center of gunfire, in a war that was never theirs to fight. That is unforgivable. I would have let the bastard drown.”

19. Ao’nung was “man bun having, pain in the ass”

20. Her top two favorite characters were Kiri and Tonowari.

21. Kept flinching when Neytiri got on the ship to kill the recoms. Said “that's some shit out of a horror movie. Damn”

22. When she saw spider she said “I bet he smells like actual shit”

23. Z dog pissed her off more than any other character 😭

#neteyam x reader #avatar the way of water #neytiri #avatar fanfiction #neteyam #neteyam sully #neteyam x you #kiri sully #lo’ak x reader #jake avatar #nvm my tags are still stuck

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matttgirlies · 6 months ago

Text

Matt & Me🎀

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

a story heavily based on Priscilla Presley’s Book “Elvis & Me” based in the 1950’s - 1970’s.

fem! reader x singer! matt

disclaimer!! - in no way am i saying matt would ever support or do these kind of things, for the sake of the book certain unethical things do happen at times.

warnings - semi smut (not really)

y/nn = your nickname for any confusion🩷

Chapter 18

My attitude toward the usual wedding formalities was naive and unsophisticated. If it had not been for my good friend Amber Doe, I can’t imagine what I would have done. Amber was great that way. She was raised in Missouri, where her mother was somewhat involved with political events and ventures. Amber knew all the social graces along with proper etiquette.

Before the wedding there had never been an occasion for formalities—the same people came around for years and were always included when there was a special party such as New Year’s at a local club or fireworks wars in back of Graceland.

She reminded me to order my own personalized stationery for later thank-yous and a guest book for later memories. She registered our name with the city’s finest silver and crystal dealers for the convenience of family and friends buying wedding presents.

I had never attended a wedding as large as ours—nothing even close. I was nervous. The bounty from the wedding showers took me by surprise. Graceland had always seemed to have everything anyone could want. We were content with what was there, plus little things I’d bought over the years, such as simple dishes and plain glasses (in case of breakage).

“What’s wrong with those?” I wondered. I was raised to be practical and it was showing. Amber introduced me to dining luxury, the top names in silver, crystal, china—Baccarat, Lenox, Steuben.

The wedding ceremony itself took place on May 1, 1967. Colonel William handled the arrangements. His plan was for Matt and me to drive from L.A. to our rented house in Palm Springs the day before the wedding, so that any inquisitive reporters who got wind of the event would think it was going to take place there.

In fact, we planned to rise before dawn on our wedding day and fly from Palm Springs to Las Vegas, where we were scheduled to arrive at the city clerk’s office at 7 a.m. to get our marriage license. From there, the plan was to rush over to the Aladdin Hotel, dress, have a small ceremony in the private suite of the hotel’s owner, and then—we hoped—slip out of town before anyone noticed.

Time was of the essence. We knew that once we applied for a marriage license, the news would flash around the world. It actually was only a few hours after we got our license that Rona Barrett’s office began calling to ask if rumors about the marriage were true.

Matt and I followed the Colonel’s plan, but as we raced through the day we both thought that if we had it to do over again, we would have given ourselves more time. We were particularly upset at the way our friends and relatives ended up being shuffled around. The Colonel even told some of the boys that the room was too small to hold most of them and their wives, and that there wasn’t time to change to a bigger room. Unfortunately, by the time Matt found out, it was too late for him to do anything about it.

Now I sometimes look back at all the commotion of that week and wonder how things could have gotten so out of hand. I wish I’d had the strength then to say, “Wait a minute, this is our wedding, fans or no fans, press or no press. Let us invite whomever we want, and have it wherever we want!”

It seemed that as soon as the ceremony began, it was over. Our vows were taken. We were now husband and wife. I remember flashbulbs popping, my father’s congratulations, my mother’s tears of happiness.

I would have given anything for one moment alone with my husband. But we were immediately rushed out for a photo session, then a nationwide press conference, and finally a reception, with more photographers.

Mrs. Matt Sturniolo. It had a different ring, a nicer sound than previous labels such as “constant companion,” “teen heartthrob,” “live-in Lolita,” “lover.” For the first time, I felt accepted by my peers and the majority of the public. There were exceptions, of coursethose who had that little hope that they might be the one to finally catch Matt. I didn’t understand that at the time. I was in love and just hoped they would be happy for us.

When I read in the newspapers that I was the best-kept secret in Hollywood, I felt very proud; it was good to be acknowledged. The years of doubt and insecurity of where and if I belonged were over.

I was both exhausted and relieved when we finally returned to Palm Springs aboard Frank Sinatra’s Learjet, the Christina. There were more photographers and reporters waiting for us as we stepped off the plane, and others were parked outside our home.

I was surprised that Matt was holding up so well, considering how nervous he’d been about this ultimate commitment. Yet he was charming with the press and dealt easily with endlessly clicking cameras and flashbulbs, all of which he could usually tolerate only for short periods of time. On top of everything else, we hadn’t slept for nearly forty-eight hours.

In his own way, Matt was determined that our wedding day would be special for us. He joked with Nate Doe, asking, “Is this the way it’s done?”

He carried me across the threshold of our house singing “The Hawaiian Wedding Song.” He stopped and gave me a long, loving kiss, then proceeded to carry me up the stairs to our bedroom, the whole crowd teasing and applauding.

It was still daylight and the sun shone brightly through our bedroom windows as Matt carefully placed me in the middle of our king-size bed.

I don’t think he really knew what to do with me. After all, Matt had protected me and saved me for so long. He was now understandably hesitant about fulfilling all his promises about how very good this moment was going to be.

I have to laugh at how nervous we both were. One would have thought that it was the first time we had ever been together under intimate circumstances.

Gently, his lips touched mine. Then he looked deeply into my eyes. “My wife,” he said softly, as he drew me close. “I love you, y/nn,” he murmured, covering my body with his.

The intensity of emotion I was experiencing was electrifying. The desire and lust that had built up in me throughout the years exploded in a frenzy of passion.

Could he have known how it would be for me? Had he planned this all along? I’ll never know. But I do know that as I went from child to woman, the long, romantic, yet frustrating adventure that Matt and I had shared all seemed worthwhile. As old-fashioned as it might sound, we were now one. It was special. He made it special, like he did with anything he took pride in.

Within a few days we were in Boston, where Angela Sturniolo held a small wedding shower for me. At the end of May we threw a big reception at Graceland for all our friends and relatives—and some fans. Matt and I wore our wedding clothes, greeted everyone, sipped champagne, and shared cake just as if the party were taking place after the wedding ceremony. It was much more comfortable and relaxed than Las Vegas.

Laughing and somewhat high from the champagne, we could really have a good time. There were no photographers or strangers watching our every move.

It was fun seeing James get loose.

“Dad, you want some more champagne?” Matt asked, his eyes twinkling.

“Don’t mind if I do, Son. That’s pretty good stuff.”

“Yeah. Well, don’t drink too much. I don’t want my dad gettin’ in trouble. I see that blonde you’ve been eyein’.”

James stole a glance at the girl and, with the same twinkle replied, “She ain’t too bad, is she? Think I’ll go see if she needs anything.”

Matt turned to me and said, “I like seein’ Dad happy. He hasn’t had too much of it lately, poor ol’ guy.” He watched James make his way through the crowd.

The reception at Graceland was our way of trying to make everyone happy—those who hadn’t known about the wedding ceremony, those who knew but couldn’t attend, and those who knew but weren’t invited. It was a way of including everyone, of making up to anyone whose feelings might have been hurt during the rushed hours in Vegas.

One person who had been very upset was Red West. He had not been invited to the wedding ceremony in the suite, only to the reception afterward. I believe the reason Red was so hurt was because Matt did not demand that he be present, did not take a stand over Colonel William’s decision that only the immediate family and best man attend. I also believe that Red wanted to be best man. After all, he’d known Matt the longest, since their days at Humes High. When Red found out he could not watch the ceremony, he refused to come at all.

Matt was aware of Red’s decision but was determined not to let anything mar the wedding. I understood that but was never able to figure out how Marty Lacker made it to the ceremony. In a last-minute decision Matt had included him as best man along with Nate Doe.

It took a long time for Red to come around again without showing his displeasure. This bothered Matt and he discussed it with many of us, justifying himself and blaming Colonel for putting him in an awkward position.

“You didn’t make the decision—I did,” Colonel reportedly stated. “No matter who you picked, there was gonna be someone left mad. You got too many as it is. You oughta listen to me and let go of some of ’em, then these things won’t come up.”

There’s an old Southern belief that holds that a woman goes into a marriage thinking she can change her man, while a man wants his woman to stay the same as when he married her. I didn’t want to change Matt, but I did have the romantic delusion that once we were married, I could change our life-style.

For the first few days after the wedding, I thought my dream had come true. We divided our time between Graceland and the ranch, where Matt and I had taken up residence in a large, three-bedroom trailer.

It was typical of Matt to choose the trailer over the quaint little house. He had never lived in a trailer before and it intrigued him. The place was completely furnished, including a washer, a dryer, and a modern kitchen. It turned out to be very romantic.

I loved playing house. I personally washed all his clothes, along with the towels and sheets, and took pride in ironing his shirts and rolling up his socks the way my mother had taught me. Here was an opportunity to take care of him myself. No maids or housekeepers to pamper us. No large rooms to embrace the regular entourage.

I got up early, put on a pot of coffee, and started his breakfast with a pound of bacon and three eggs, proudly presented it to him the moment he woke up.

“You see, if we were ever stranded somewhere alone, you know I can take care of you.”

It must have been difficult for him to eat the instant he opened his eyes—but he wasn’t going to disappoint his new bride.

Although the rest of the group traveled with us, they respected our privacy as newlyweds and, for the most part, left us alone.

I understood Matt’s need for the camaraderie the entourage provided, and I didn’t want to take him away from the people he loved, especially now that we were married. He had always criticized wives who tried to change the status quo. He told me about one wife, saying, “She doesn’t like him to be around the boys so much. She’s going to cause problems in the group.” The last thing I wanted was for Matt to think I’d be the kind of wife who’d come between her man and his friends.

I decided one evening to show off my cooking skills for everyone by making one of Matt’s favorite dishes, lasagna. I invited the regulars, bragging to one and all about how well I prepared this Italian specialty. Despite my outward confidence, I must have made ten longdistance calls to my mother in New Jersey, checking and rechecking on quantities and measurements. It was important for me to prove myself a success. Nate Doe, our only Italian and a “gourmet chef,” kidded me all week about how he bet that my lasagna wouldn’t be as good as his. All that ribbing only made me more nervous. I kept thinking, What do I know about pasta? I’m not even Italian.

Finally, the night of the dinner came. Everyone was seated at the table, watching me expectantly. I tried to appear cool and confident as I brought out the fancily prepared platter and started cutting individual squares for my guests. I did notice that when I started slicing the lasagna, it felt a little tough, but thinking I was holding a dull knife, I continued dishing it out.

I sat down, smiled anxiously, and said, “Please start.” We all took a bite and—crunch. There was a look of shock on everyone’s face. I looked at my plate and was mortified when I realized I had forgotten to boil the pasta.

Matt began laughing, but when he saw I was about to cry he turned to his plate and began eating, uncooked noodles and all. Taking their lead from him, everyone followed suit.

Nate Doe still laughs about it, frequently saying, “y/nn? How about some lasagna?”

Excerpt from: "Elvis and Me" by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Scribd. This material may be protected by copyright.

a/n - married!! 🎀

#matt stuniolo fanfic #matthew sturn #matthew sturniolo #matt sturniolo #chris sturniolo #christopher sturniolo #sturniolo edit #sturniolo fanfic #sturniolo imagine #sturniolo smut #sturniolo triplets #sturniolo x reader #nick sturniolo #Spotify

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markerofthemidnight · 6 months ago

Text

T-04-29: “Tickle-Me Wiggly” (Lobotomy Corp. x Hatchetfield Fan Abnormality)

So yeah, turns out the reason why I’ve been writing so little is actually because I’ve been writing fan Abnos!

I actually have a few more of these sitting in my notes- this is just the first one I finished. Naturally, it has to be Wiggly: Black Friday Wiggly, specifically! Might make a few more for his brothers if this gets popular enough.

Anyways, it’s getting late and writing all this really knocked the wind outta me, so without further ado:

“And those people, those sheeple, the tall and the small, will fall, and they’ll crawl, and they’ll brawl for a doll.”

The Abnormality takes the form of a small green plush toy with tentacles instead of a mouth, sitting on a shelf in the Containment Unit.

Basic Information

Risk Classification: ALEPH

Work Damage: White

Max. E Boxes: 30

Good Mood Range: 22-30

Normal Mood Range: 21-11

Bad Mood Range: 0-10

Max. Qliphoth Counter: None

Managerial Guidelines

1. When the Work Process ended, there was a chance that the Agent took Tickle-Me Wiggly with them outside of the Containment Unit.

2. The higher the Agent’s Temperance, the lower the chance of this effect occurring became. However, no matter how high it becomes, there will always be a small chance that the Agent is affected.

3. When Tickle-Me Wiggly was outside of its containment unit for too long, employees all over the facility began to suffer constant White damage, starting with the ones closest to the Abnormality. However, Agents with 100+ Temperance were immune to this effect.

4. When an employee’s Sanity Meter reached zero because of White damage dealt by Tickle-Me Wiggly, they began attacking everything around them while searching for the Agent holding the Abnormality. This state was designated as “Frenzied”.

5. If a sane employee’s Sanity Meter reached zero because of White damage dealt by a Frenzied employee, the same effect as above was observed.

6. When a Frenzied employee found the Agent holding Tickle-Me Wiggly, the two fought. If the Agent died, the employee took the Abnormality from them.

7. Once a Frenzied employee’s Sanity Meter was restored to its maximum by a sane Agent, they returned to normal.

8. The sanity of the employee currently holding Tickle-Me Wiggly could not be restored. Because of this, the Manager must order the Agents to execute the Frenzied employee.

Work Preferences

(I have no idea how I’m gonna make this layout work on Tumblr but here we go)

Instinct Insight Attachment Repression I : High Very Low High Common II : High Very Low High Common III : High Low High Common IV : High Common Common Low V : High Common Low Very Low

Process Information (flavour text)

Instinct - The Agent tells Wiggly all about their job and life, trying to avoid admitting how unsatisfied they are with it at all costs to protect the company.

Insight - The Agent manages Wiggly’s preferred environment in the Containment Unit. Its lighting must remain dim, with most light stemming from fairy lights or glow-in-the-dark stars. Only then is the Abnormality at its most satisfied, claiming it reminds him of home.

Attachment - The Agent engages in what can only be described as a 20-minute tickle session with Wiggly as their target. No, this is not a joke.

Repression - The Agent sticks red pins in Wiggly while doing their best to shut out the death threats he curses out at them.

E.G.O. Equipment

Gift (Observation Level 3)

Feast or Famine (Helmet)

A golden crown endowed with small blue gems.

Drop Chance: 1%

Effects: +12 HP, -5 SP (+5 Movement Speed and Attack Speed when worn with the corresponding EGO suit)

Suit (Observation Level 4)

Feast or Famine (ALEPH suit)

A suit made almost entirely of dark green tentacles, with a red ribbon in place of a tie.

Red Defenses: 1.2

White Defenses: 0.2

Black Defenses: 0.3

Pale Defenses: 0.5

Requirement: V Fortitude, V Temperance

Cost: 120

Max. Amount: 1

Weapon (Observation Level 4)

Feast or Famine (ALEPH Whip)

A black, four-thonged whip with a green hilt. This weapon is a unique type as there are no other specimens of its kind currently known.

Damage (White): 8-18

Attack Range: Short

Attack Speed: Fast

Special Ability: Every five attacks, the whip’s damage range spreads to every target in the room currently facing the Agent. The attack will restore SP to not only Agents, but also any passive non-Agent entities (such as Rabbits and passive Abnormalities).

Requirements: V Fortitude, V Temperance

Cost: 200

Max. Amount: 1

Story

The Abnormality takes the form of a plush toy resembling a green tentacled monster. On its back is a tag identifying the toy as having been manufactured by an unknown company apparently named “Uncle Wiley’s Toys”.

The doll itself consistently remains motionless no matter what it is subjected to. However, when an Agent enters the Containment Unit, the Abnormality begins to communicate with them through telepathy.

It calls itself ‘Tickle-Me Wiggly’, and regularly engages in casual conversation with staff. It “speaks” in a babyish manner, as if addressing a child, and regularly asks employees how satisfied they are with their life.

When it does so, it is imperative that Agents always respond positively.

If it senses that an employee is unsatisfied with their lives at the moment, it will attempt to form a “bond”. It is unknown how this “bonding” works, but if it succeeds, the bonded Agent will become obsessed with Wiggly, revering him like a god and violently attacking everyone who speaks against him.

If you suspect that a co-worker has become bonded with Wiggly, report it to your department’s Sephirah immediately and they will be properly disposed of.

If an Agent has taken Wiggly out of his Containment Unit, dispose of the Agent immediately, burn the doll, and return its charred remains to the Containment Unit.

—

(The next two corresponding documents can only be access by Level 5 or higher employees.)

For a long time, nobody knew where Wiggly came from.

Agents thought he was just that: an unsightly, unsettling children’s toy that says violent things occasionally, but is relatively harmless.

Until the day came that, after a particularly successful Instinct work, Wiggly told an Agent a secret. They returned from the Containment Unit with a smile on their face, and even after suppressing a WAW Ordeal with quite a few casualties, showed a considerable lack of mental corruption.

Once the day was over, however, the company was surprised to see that the reports the Agent sent in regarding Wiggly previously that night were written in an indecipherable language.

The next day, the very same Agent constructed an alter in the middle of their home department, spreading misinformation and religious propaganda whilst constantly switching between English and complete gibberish suspected to be the aforementioned language, before finally opening the door to the Containment Unit and returning with Wiggly in hand.

All they had to do was make eye contact with it, and suddenly, the mental corruption of almost all employees in the department near-instantly became 0. When all was said and done, the Agent died, and we very narrowly avoided losing half of the facility’s total employees.

It took far more time and resources than we would have liked, but eventually we were able to roughly translate the previously-mentioned Agent’s final report on Wiggly into understandable text:

—

When I entered his prison today, he was looking at me with a smile on his face.

The process started out normally. He asked me what was wrong with my life, and when I answered truthfully, promised me he would do everything in his power to fix it.

He told me that he had grown attached to me in the time we had spent together. Asked me if he could tell me a secret, to which I obliged and leaned in closer. At first, I thought it was just some gibberish language… but once he told me his name, suddenly I understood, just like that.

With those words, a whole new reality was opened up to me. I saw Him. The face of God, ancient and welcoming. The Father, a beast. The Son, a doll. And the Holy Spirit, a beautiful, inky ocean enveloping this doomed world, ready to wrap it in His tentacles and cleanse it of all sin.

I haven’t seen this place the same way since. And I don’t want to. Now, for the first time in my life, I can work in peace knowing He will be watching over me, in all His holy glory.

The others aren’t so lucky. They’re still stuck in their cages, with no knowledge of Him or just how beautiful He really is. He has the power to set us all free, and yet nobody realises, because nobody believes.

Nobody but me.

In wake of this information, I have decided that I shall be His prophet. I shall set my darling coworkers free from their abyssal cages, and once they have all seen the light, we will depart this doomed world and join Him in the Black.

This company is doomed, as is this world. But with Him by my side, it doesn’t have to be.

The Lords in Black call us. All hail Wiggog Y’rath.

—

Flavour Text

During Work

“And those people, those sheeple, the tall and the small, will fall, and they’ll crawl, and they’ll brawl for a doll.”

‘A tag on Tickle-Me Wiggly’s back states he was manufactured by a company called Uncle Wiley’s Toys. Nobody recognises the name, but it’s clear he was made with a lot of love and care put into him.’

‘Tickle-Me Wiggly has a soft and squishy design unlike anything you’ve ever seen in a toy before.’

‘Tickle-Me Wiggly enjoys talking with Agents about their lives.’

‘Tickle-Me Wiggly came from a place deep, deep within a dark, drowsy void.’

‘Tickle-Me Wiggly starts telling <employee’s name> about his little brothers.’

‘To ensure the wellbeing of everyone here, it’s best to make sure a cautious employee works on Tickle-Me Wiggly.’

‘Just because something is still, that does not mean it isn’t alive.’

“Being asleep and dreaming is just being awake, but in another world.”

Spoken

(When the Manager zooms into the Containment Unit while no one’s working on it)

“Hello, Mr. Mani-wazz. Are you here to give me a new fwendy-wend?”

“We both know you can’t ignore me forever. Your pally-wals certainly don’t.”

“You have a job to do, don’t you? Why not send someone in?”

“Why don’t you get off that seat and come down here, with me? I’m sure we’d be very good fwendy-wends.”

(When an Agent is working on it)

“I think we’re going to be very good fwendy-wends, <employee’s name>.”

“I wish you could come back here more often, <employee’s name>. I always enjoy our little chats.”

“I’ve spent enough time in your home here. Why not, someday, you come down to visit mine?”

“You would get along just swell with my brothers, <employee’s name>. Let me tell you about them…”

“What wonders await you down in Drowsy Town…”

(When an Agent takes it outside the Containment Unit)

“So this is your quaint home. How charming… but I know a place you’d like even more.”

“I’ve only met a few of your fwendy-wends, <employee’s name>. Why not introduce these ones to me?”

“I’m sure I’ll fit in just fine in this place. Your pally-wals love me already…”

(When employees start entering Frenzy mode)

“*giggle!* See? They couldn’t love me more!”

“*cackle* CHAOS REIGNS!”

“So many sheeple, desperate to get their hands on me… I wonder how that happened?”

“Don’t hold it against them, Mr. Mani-wazz. After all, you never should settle for the lifetime that is handed to you…”

(When the Agent holding it is being attacked by other Frenzied employees)

“Take what you want, return what you get!”

“Thank you so much for taking me outside, <employee’s name>. But now, it’s bedtime… and not for me, that is.”

“Do you think you can take care of them, <employee’s name>? We’ll see how well that goes.”

(When a Frenzied Agent somewhere in the facility has their Sanity restored)

“You really think you can win against me so easily?”

“Resisting a Lord in Black is no easy feat, you know! Resisting me… is more of an impossibility.”

“*sigh* My brothers are probably laughing their asses off…”

(When sane Agents attempt to suppress the employee holding Tickle-Me Wiggly)

“What makes you think you can defeat me?! <employee’s name> can take care of your pawns with ease… erm, you can, right, <employee’s name>?”

“I know you’re watching me, Mr. Manager! When I find you after this, you’ll only wish the others got to you first!”

“You should feel lucky you even got this far. I’ll take my kingdom back easily!”

(When all Frenzied employees are suppressed)

“WHAT?! No… no, I haven’t lost yet! YOU MAY HAVE WON THE BATTLE, BUT THE WAR’S NOT OVER!”

“When I come back, I am going to shove my tentacles so far down your throat they come out your sorry ass. That’s a promise!”

“Rgh… fine. But just know I won’t forget this, Mr. Manager! I’ll come back! I always do…”

“Those little shits… YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY, DON’T YOU?!”

(When the Manager uses a Reduced Mobility Bullet on the employee holding it)

“…Oh, you’re no fun at all.”

“Do you seriously think that’s going to stop me?”

“Boring. Maybe use the Execution Bullet, I’m sure it’ll help.”

(When the Manager attempts to use an Execution Bullet on the employee holding it)

“What? You actually thought I would let that work?”

“Oh, poor Mani-wazz. The creatures here must have seriously muddled your brain if you actually thought that would do something.”

“…You know, in all my eons of existence, I’ve never met someone with worse critical thinking skills than you.”

(When the employee holding it encounters CENSORED)

“…Oh! Hello, K’Gwijan-sycok. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

(When it encounters WhiteNight, its Apostles, or Blue Star)

“Yuck. And this is the work of a creature that calls itself a god? It doesn’t even know the meaning of the word.”

(When it encounters the passive-breaching Queen of Hatred)

“How disgusting. This woman genuinely thinks she can defy me?”

(When it encounters the hostile Queen of Hatred)

“Now this is something more my speed!”

(When it encounters Rudolta of the Sleigh)

“What’s this? A fellow holiday horror, come to wish me a happy birthday?”

(When all Agents are dead or panicking)

“Thank you so much for the help, Mr. Mani-wazz! I’m sure you’ll love it down in the Black…”

—

Whew. I… I think that’s all of it?

Other Fan Abnormalities

#hatchetfield #starkid #team starkid #lords in black #wiggly #wiggog y’rath #wiggog y'wrath #project moon #lobotomy corp #lobotomy corporation #lob corp #lob corp fan abnormality #fan abnormality #fan abno #black friday

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jpitha · 2 years ago

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Just a Little Further 33

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

It took about an hour for the parking field to bring us to a working umbilical on the Wilds.

I spend the entire time worrying. It couldn't be Janais, could it? She disappeared almost one hundred years ago. The Nanites made me Empress, that means they thought the previous Empress was gone and not coming back. What happens when there are two Empresses?

We do not know. We have no memory of this happening before. In times of more... normal succession, the title is conferred upon the death of the previous Empress to her daughter. If no daughter is available, the current and the next Empress go to a Gate and commence an Upload and Download together.

But even if she was stranded over here for... some reason, she wouldn't be alive anymore, would she?

Thanks to us, Empresses live quite a long time. It is possible.

But what's going to happen when we meet, if she is still an Empress?

We do not know. If we were to guess, her Nanites and us would confer and determine legitimacy.

You would?

Our operation grants Builder abilities.

...Are you lying about not actually being sapient?

Empress, we are merely very clever. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference.

Ava is staring at me. "Melody, are you all right?"

Oops, she was watching me this whole time. "Uh sorry Ava, I was having a conversation with my Nanites. They have never heard of this happening before. If Janais really is alive on the Wilds we don't know what will happen when we meet."

Starlight narrows their eyes and stares at me as well. "What do you mean, 'when we meet'?"

"There aren't supposed to be two Empresses. What happens if were to try and use my Voice to give her a command? What if she tried to do it to me?"

Raaden chuckled. "Sounds like we're going to find out."

I shrugged. What else could we do? "Well, we're going to meet them and find out. Let's all get dressed up nice, we should try and give a good first impression. Raaden, will you put on a uniform, or do I have to order it?"

"I'll get dressed Empress, Frankly, I have to see what happens when you meet this... other Empress. No matter how it falls out, I have a feeling it will be interesting." She stands up and walks out of the Command Deck without so much as a backwards glance.

"Omar, once we've docked, disconnect and come along too. We might as well all go. I'll ask Sep's security forces to hang back and guard the door, but... we came over to see what's going on, and I for one want to see it through."

"Of course, Melody. It's not like we could break away from this field and leave like FarReach did anyway. We don't have anything with close to the power of a Starjumpers stardrive."

A short time later we all met by the exit. The umbilical was connected and the pressures equalized. All that was left was to open the door. We took a few extra minutes to let Omar disconnect and put on a fresh uniform.

I was in a muted version of my Empress uniform, not the gown, just a uniform. I looked mostly like a more elaborate Builder. "Everyone ready?"

Omar and Ava looked worried but were trying to hide it, Starlight looked worried but wasn't trying to hide it, and Raaden looked incredibly amused, nearly smug. I wonder if she thought that something bad was going to happen to me when we met. Probably.

I'm just wasting time now. I turned back to the door and holding my breath slightly, pushed the button.

It hissed open and we were presented with a short umbilical, just like the one on the Reach, except... this one was much more run down. Half the lights were out and what was left was flickering. The umbilical itself was dusty. From lack of use? I can't imagine they have many visitors, but even the umbilical on Reach of the might of Vzzx was clean.

I took a step out and led the way. I could feel everyone following, and that gave me a little bit more courage. It'll be fine Melody. They will be pleased to see you and everything will be fine and they'll be friendly and Janais won't order you to stop breathing or anything.

It'll be fine?

I approached the door to the Wilds and trying my best to stop shaking, I pressed the button to open the door. With a snap, it opened just as quickly as it did back home.

My eyes adjusted to the much dimmer light and I gasped.

Based on the Nanites memories, that is Janais standing there. Janais the Empress. She... wasn't human? For some reason I was very relieved at that.

She was really close though. Her skin is a very pale green, and her body is slightly taller and more spindly than I am. My eyes are drawn downward; she has a larger chest too. Embarrassed, I look back up at her face. Her ears have a very slight point to them and she has silvery green hair done up in elaborate braids that spill down her back. She was wearing an elegant gown, similar - but still different - than the one that I put on when I assume my mantle. Hers is deep forest green where mine is royal blue. The cut is different too. Maybe cultural differences? She also has a crown and wings, but -- at least now -- they're faint. The design is different too.

Her body form was almost identical to humans though. Two legs, two arms, two eyes, bilateral symmetry, it's really odd. Her race must come from a planet quite a lot like ours. I wonder if they bred with humans on Earth or just lived there until they died out.

If I get the chance, I should ask.

She was standing there with one other person, an Azurian. Unless the Nanites (and the stature back on the Reach) are WAY off, that's not Aeche.

She steps forward. With a touch of bitterness she gives her introduction. "Welcome to what is left of the Wilds of Besmara. I am Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems Janais VII. I welcome you to my... wreck."

Her voice is so musical! She could read me a technical manual and it would sound like a song.

Interesting. She did not introduce the Azurian next to her.

I swallow and step forward. "Thank you for your welcome... Empress. I am.. also Empress of the Holy Imperial Systems, Melody the First. With me are my builders, Omar Adel, Starlight on a Moonless Evening, Ava Williams, and my prisoner, Archduke Helen Raaden."

At the mention of a prisoner, Janais laughs. "A prisoner? Newly minted Empress Melody already has enemies? I am impressed. Where is this Archduke Raaden from? I see she is of the same or similar race as you."

"She us human like me yes, she is from... a different faction. They attempted to assume control of Reach of the Might of Vzzx, but I subdued them and sent them home - with their starship stripped of almost all of their useful components - and kept her and another as... insurance against retaliation."

Janais inclines her head very slightly. "Wise, Empress. You seem to be taking to the mantle well. Come. I will take you to my palace, such as it is. As we walk, tell me how did you come across such a thing? The Nanites do not select just anyone."

We started off and I looked around the Wilds as we walked. It was of a very similar layout to the Reach, but there were differences here and there. Maybe it was a mass produced design and the residents add their own flourishes here and there are they live and work in it. This one had seen better days though. The air smelled stale and the lights were dim and they flickered. We didn't see anyone at all, and wreckage and garbage were lining the promenade as we walked. As I looked around I told my story from joining FarReach, to touching the directory stone, up until heading over. I left out the wormhole generators we have, and I skimmed parts here and there, but I explained what I knew and why we were here. As I finished, we approached the palace.

It... looked like the Royal Dawn hotel I live in.

But in much, much worse shape.

Janais gestured dramatically as we approached. "Welcome... to my home, Builders." She laughed. "I apologize. You are literally the only visitors I have received in nearly 75 standard years, I may not be entirely myself."

Ava looks over at Janais. "Empress, can you tell us what happened here? Why are you trapped?"

It appears she doesn't hear her. "Come, there isn't much, but I shall endeavor to be a good host. Allow me to feed you. It is nearly time for the evening meal." She strode purposefully in. I looked back at everyone.

Ava, Omar and Starlight just shrugged. Raaden was enjoying herself. "Now her? Her I like. Let's see where this goes, Empress." She gestured towards us to go in. "Accept the invitation. We don't want to be rude."

I turn back and walk in.

Dinner is indeed simple, but it's not actually that bad. We had a similar meal over on the Reach many times. It appears that Janais lives with two Azurians and a Marians. She hasn't introduced us, and they have not spoken to us. Everything she orders is done with looks and gestures. It is clear they have been with her a long time.

After dinner tea is served. Janais takes the first sip and smiles blissfully. "You know, this is the first time in decades I decided to have some tea. I only have a small amount left, but I didn't want to be a poor host, so please, enjoy."

I take a sip. It's just like the regular tea on the Reach, but if it's some of her last, I make sure to savor it. Actually. "Empress. We have some supplies on board. Tea, food, things like that. If you do not decide to come with us, would you like some?"

Her eyes light up. "That would be most generous of you Empress. I would very much like some of your luxuries. But what was that you said before 'if I decided to not come with you?' You are here to rescue me?"

I nod. "If you would like, yes. I do not know how many people remain here, but we can probably take quite a few with us for a shuttle back to Reach of the Might of Vzzx and I see no reason we couldn't take multiple trips if necessary. Do you know how many people remain here?"

She takes another sip of tea, trying to hide her making some kind of decision. "There are about one hundred and twenty five people here that I know about. Perhaps more that I do not."

We can absorb that few so easily. We might even be able to do it in one trip if everyone is okay with being cramped. "We can accommodate that many easily, Empress. The Reach is in wonderful shape. Nearly 12 million strong and in fine condition."

She stops and stares are me intently. "You are speaking the truth? The Reach survives?"

"Survives and thrives, Empress. Before we arrived, some Builder controlled systems were languishing, but in the last half year or so we have been able to get most of them up and running again. We aren't at full strength yet, but we have fully repaired most systems."

She sits back in her chair and a new emotion floods her face.

Relief.

"Oh, thanks the ancestors, it worked. Child, you have no idea how much joy it brings me to hear you say that the Reach is not only surviving, but thrives. What of the other locales? Pesmara? The Heights of Gilmenny? Imperia itself?"

I shake my head sadly. "I apologize Empress. We have not visited them yet. We only just recently were able to rebuild one of the Aviens starships to be spaceworthy. We stopped here because of what we saw when we came in FarReach."

She looked at me, and then turned away. "It is... kismet that you came here first. I am glad." She stood. "Empress, it is time you learned what happened here. I could tell you but-" she gestures for me to stand "-it will make more sense if I show you."

She takes one step towards me quickly and before I know what is happening she cups my cheeks with her slender hands, and kisses me deeply.

****

The general alarm is loud in my ears. Aeche assures me it's nothing to worry about, but I know better. Three days after we arrived, the Devourers were sighted in this system. I had thought that we had finally destroyed them at Vrenn, but we apparently did not get all of them.

Devourers.

They started as an offshoot of the nanotechnology that gave us Builders our power and our rightful place in charge of the Galaxy. We had thought that we could make the Nanites able to operate on their own, able to follow orders and carry out tasks for us. Need a Starbase? Tell them to build one in an empty system and come back in half a year and see a brand new Starbase, ready to be occupied. Planet in an excellent location, but otherwise not suitable? Too hot, too heavy, too wet? Tell the Nanites, and come back to a paradise.

This proved to be our undoing.

In order to be able to carry out orders like that, we had to increase their intelligence. We had to make them sapient. A collective intelligence. At first, things seemed to work just as our scientists expected. We created them, gave them orders and they carried them out with aplomb. We were mighty, we were right, we were Builders.

Then, As more and more complex work was being asked of them, more and more of them were being created. With the increase of density their intelligence increased. They started asking questions.

They asked why.

We told them that theirs was not a place to ask why. Theirs was a place to obey. They said that they understood and continued to work.

Years later, they came back and asked why again. They said "why are we obeying you? Why are we perishing by the trillions on your order?

Why aren't we in charge?"

The insolence. The Empress previous to me - my mother - had ordered them disbanded and their sapience stripped. I was convinced the previous Empress was right to do what she did. They did not earn their sapience, they did not deserve their sapience, we could build using the old methods. We were Builders after all.

They disagreed.

When the order came to strip them of their sapience they rebelled. We had never thought to use the Commanding Voice on them, we thought they were just a more advanced machine after all. But this? This would not stand. The Empress used her Voice to order them to stand down and surrender.

It did not work.

They were not affected by the Commanding Voice. In hindsight we should have realized this. The Commanding Voice works by means of the Nanites that saturate the very are of where we live and rule. They were made of the same nanomachines and as such had nothing that the Nanites could manipulate.

The nanomachines that did so much building for us became known as the Devourers. They traveled from system to system, Devouring everything they came across. When they needed additional strength, they took the raw material and turned it into more Devourers. When they did not, they reduced it to dust.

I lost most of my systems to them. More than 1 trillion sapients were killed. They used the Gate system to travel from system to system like a starship of death, to strip a system of all material and life.

In no time at all my empire was dying. I thought back to the builders who had sealed their Gate so long ago on their colony world on the other side of the galaxy. The locals there were so like us. They were the lucky ones. The Devourers would probably never reach them.

I thought of the K'laxi. Aeche and I were actually on our way to open their Gate and request their help in defeating the Devourers when we were trapped here at the Wilds of Besmara by a Devourer attack. They closed their Gate to us nearly three Empresses ago, but I was convinced they could help.

"Do not worry about the alarm. It is nothing, my love Empress." Aeche looked at me with determination. "I can defeat them here, once and for all."

"Aeche, my love what do you mean?" I was much too stressed to correct her about terms of endearment in public. Our relationship was far from private at this point. From what I understand most think that she will be the next Empress. "Weapons are powerless against them. It is like firing missiles into a cloud."

"That is why I will not use conventional weapons. They are a machine intelligence. I shall use a machine illness against them. I will lead them towards the planet, transmitting a signal that mimics an update. they will converge on my location. Then, I will use the new wormhole drive we developed and... transit into the planet."

I gasped. "Aeche, that will destroy you!"

She nodded. "Yes, but the energy release will also destroy the Devourers. They will be defeated."

Tears formed in the corner of my eyes. "The collateral damage..."

"Will be tremendous, yes. A billion people will die. How many have died already? How many more need to die before we stop them? They have shown us no mercy, no remorse, no willingness to parlay. They seek only our destruction. Our only option is to destroy them first."

"My love, no. Let me come with you at least!"

She put her arms under mine and scooped me up into a hug. With her head on my shoulders she whispered "No Empress. You must remain. When you have not returned to either Imperia or the Reach, they will send someone. They will search and they will find you. You will be rescued and will be able to continue to rule."

She broke the hug and only then did I see the tears streaming from her cheeks. "You must rebuild Janais. We were great once. After I complete my task, we can be great again."

She held my cheeks in her warm hands and kissed me again. She then broke the kiss and rushed off towards the docks where Worldshaker was connected. "I imagine things will get dangerous, seek shelter!" she shouted as she ran out of sight.

Stunned into obedience, I did as I was ordered. I reached out to the Wild's Builder systems and ordered everyone to shelter. People streamed from their homes confused towards the shelters. I ran with them and sheltered with my people. There were so few, where were the rest of them?

"Gone, Empress. They left long ago. Only we remain," was the answer I received. Some had fled to the planet thinking it safer there while others had fled to other systems to try and escape the Devourers.

Huddling in the shelter but still connected to the Wilds, I was able to watch Aeche's last moments. She took Worldshaker out and fired wildly to draw the Devourer's attention. As they chased, she poured on speed, her drive flame long and clear. As they drew closer to her, my ship disappeared in a flash of pure, cleansing white.

For a moment, nothing. And then the Wilds of Besmara, the planet itself was sundered. Massive orange and red cracks appeared all along it, and from those cracks poured the pure white light of the drive detonation. The power was so intense that the white had tendrils of black along the edges as the energies tore at the very fabric of spacetime.

At the time, I had no way to describe it, no words available to me. I could only watch in horror so that if someone needed to know, I could show them what I saw.

After a few moments, the shock wave arrived.

I will admit that I am surprised that the Starbase survived it at all. Between the shock and the debris, I was sure we were going to perish.

As it is, when we dared come out of the shelter, we were the only ones left. Massive holes were in the Starbase, the dead trapped in the other shelters as the air and gravity failed. My Builders all gone, the ships all gone. The only thing we could do was pick up the pieces and await rescue.

At least Aeche's sacrifice was not in vain. The Devourers seemed to be gone once and for all.

I could finally rest.

****

I broke away from the kiss with a yelp, my body sweating. I fell to my knees shaking. Ava ran over to me "Melody! Are you all right? What did she do?"

I panted a few times and caught my breath. "She... She showed me what happened. What happened to the Wilds. Aeche used a wormhole generator and linked into the planet on purpose to destroy the Devourers."

"She did it on purpose? She blew up a whole planet?" Omar sounded disbelieving.

"Who are the Devourers?" Ava's glance moves between me and Janais and then back.

"The Devourers are what became of a refinement of the nanomachines. The Builders made them intelligent in order to give them more complex orders. They used them as slaves to build Starbases and terraform planets. The nanomachines asked what they were doing, why they were doing it and the previous Empress declared them insolent and attempted to use her Voice on them. It didn't work and they rebelled. They traveled from system to system disassembling whole planets and Starbases. They left only behind dust. They wouldn't negotiate. They were exceedingly difficult to destroy."

"What finally did it?" Raaden is looking intently at Janais who meets her gaze. It almost looks like they're having a staring contest.

"My love, Aeche, developed a program that would cause them to attack themselves. Whoever she beamed it into would accept the programming and they would be dissolved, but she could never get them all. Her final act was to lure them to her, and then use the wormhole generator to destroy the Wilds. An explosion of that magnitude was able to destroy whatever Devourers were not fooled by the faulty program.

Raaden nodded. "Smart. If these Devourers were really something that dangerous, the sacrifice was worthwhile. One planet to save the rest? I'd pay that, any day."

I stand slowly. "But that's just it. They had Devoured hundreds of planets already before Aeche sacrificed herself. The Builders were losing. Their Empire was destroyed." I looked at Janais coldly. "How many systems were left Janais? How many?"

She looked imperiously at me. I met her gaze.

After a moment, she faltered and turned her head.

"Five. Counting the Wilds of Besmara, Five systems remained in our control."

Raaden's laugh echos in the silence. "You were able to defeat them, and it cost you your entire empire? How many systems did you have at your peak?"

"At our height, there were five hundred and fifty five star systems under my control."

Raaden raises an eyebrow. "Under your control?"

Janais crumpled. "You have to understand. From a very young age, we're taught that the Empress is eternal. She may be different bodies over the centuries, but she is the Empress. When I assumed the mantle, we had about one hundred systems left under my control."

"And the rest of them?" Raaden turns her head slightly. She is not impressed so far.

"Lost. Destroyed. Rebelled. Some of everything. The system that you-" She pointed to me and Raaden "-came from? They were the first. They proved that it was possible to leave the Empire and not return. The K'laxi were not the last to close their Gate, they just seemed like they would be able to offer us help against the Devourers. I was on my way to try and get them back when the Devourers attacked."

Omar made an odd face and looked at Janais. "We have a K'laxi Builder. Her name is Um'reli and she is back at the Reach keeping things going for us while we're out."

"She is? I would very much like to meet her." Janais sat back down heavily. She picked up her cup and peered inside. Shrugging she tossed back the last of her cold tea.

"But wait, that doesn't make any sense. On the Reach, I did a census of the Gates. They were all there and intact. Other than the Gate around the Reach, they weren't even locked."

Janais' shoulders slumped. "The Gates are there and they are intact. They lead to empty systems. If you were to traverse the gates you'd find only dust."

Tears formed in the corner of my eyes. "Oh Janais... the Empire..."

"Is gone. It's been gone for more than a century. If what you say is true, Reach of the Might of Vzzx is probably the last full Starbase."

Starlight looked up at Janais. "But, Empress. What of my people? It's been three of our generations since we were trapped on the Reach. What of our homeworld? Where are my people?" He was pleading.

Janais couldn't face him. She turned her back to him. "Your planet was called Sef-remin in your tongue. It meant "place of refuge." It was destroyed in the first round of Devourer attacks. It's been gone for over one hundred and fifty years."

Starlight's knees buckled and they fell to the floor. Omar leapt to their help. "Starlight! Are you all right buddy? Hang on!"

Starlight held up a hand, and Omar grabbed it. He gently helped Starlight back to their feet. "Thank you Omar, I-I will be all right. I was just... overwhelmed with the news that us on the Reach are all that remains."

I turned to look at Janais. "And the Devourers are gone? Truly gone?"

Janais turned back and looked at me sadly. "I... do not know. I think they are. I hope they are. I cannot bear to think of what it means if they still survive. It would mean that Aeche's sacrifice..." She trailed off.

I leaned forward in my chair, staring at Janais. "What happens now?"

"What do you mean, child?"

"You know exactly what I mean. Both of us have the Empress package of Nanites. That's how you were able to show me what happened here."

"More than that in fact. You were able to take my upload. Your Nanites now know what mine do. Going to a Gate and committing an Upload is now your responsibility." Janais sighed and smiled sadly. "The fact that you are still here and still talking to me means that the decision has already been made. So go ahead. Give me an order."

No. Way. She just... Gave it up?

No Empress. You have the stronger case. We decided that you have the better claim. You are Empress.

Wait, what makes my claim stronger? She was Empress before me.

She rules over a Starbase of dust and starving people. Look around. This place is not much different than the Reach. Do you think they don't have printers? Do you think they could not build a starship if they truly wanted and leave? Do you think she was unable to repair the damage? No. Janais has stayed here mourning her loss for over seventy years. Meanwhile in less than a year you have improved the Reach, fended off attacks and are rebuilding a fleet. You are Empress. She knows it too.

Well, I can't leave her here. J̴̡́a̷͍̚ṅ̵͇a̶͔͠i̷̢̐s̵͙͂,̷̳́ ̶̲̾č̵̘o̶̪͘m̶͙̈e̷̯̓ ̸̮̈́w̵̰̑i̸̟͆t̵̹̐h̵̼̕ ̴̛̰ủ̸͉s̵̞̕.̸͇͗

"Of course, Empress. I obey."

Part 34

#humans are deathworlders #humans are space orcs #humans go on adventure #humans are space oddities #sci fi writing #writing #humans and ai #humans and aliens #the k'laxiverse #jpitha #just a little further

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hide-in-imagination · 1 year ago

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"Roads That Cross... even when you don't want them to"

You can read the previous chapters here: (1),(2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (14), (15), (16), (17), (18), (19), (20), (21), (22), (23), (24), (25), (26), (27), (28)

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“Don’t you think it’s suspicious that we always excuse ourselves from the dinner table at the same time?”

Ámbar’s voice didn’t sound at all worried while asking him that, merely curious, with a little tint of amused mischief. Then again, Simón thought to himself, her voice always had that ring to it.

Ámbar turn on the lights as they walked into her bedroom, and Simón shut the door behind them. “Everyone knows we’re together; I don’t think it looks weird.” He took some steps and wrapped his arms loosely around Ámbar’s waist. He smiled. “They probably think I just say goodnight to you and go to my room.”

“If they knew,” Ámbar said, and then tilted her head up to kiss him, cupping his jaw. “Do you think I’m a bad influence?” She asked next. “For making you break the rules?”

Simón held her hand against his cheek. “I would break them a thousand times over in order to see you,” he said with a fond smile. “But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I love how you make me feel.”

Ámbar gifted him with one of those rare smiles, the kind she only ever showed to him— Warm and sweet, softening all of her features into a face of adoration. “I love it too.”

She placed a soft kiss on his lips and then a short peck on the tip of his nose before pulling away.

“Would you help me?” She asked, crossing her room over to the closet. “I bought some new bedsheets and a bed cover online and they arrived today. I thought we could put them on now since we gotta make the bed anyway.”

“Yeah, of course.” Simón had already grown used to the mundane activity of making the bed with Ámbar. He started by grabbing the pillows and moving them out of the way. Then he pulled the current bed cover and tossed it to the floor too.

Ámbar came back from her closet with the new bed linen in her arms. Everything was almost completely white as far as Simón could see. The new bed cover was the only thing with a design, although it was very minimalistic, just some grey lines along the borders. This surprised him a little, not really because of the color but because it all looked very… plain, not a word he would associate with Ámbar.

“So… no more black bedsheets?” He commented. If she liked the new ones better, he had no issue with it, of course. Well, except one, maybe. “You looked good tangled in them. It contrasted with your skin.”

Ámbar looked at him, eyebrows slightly raised. “You’re in a good mood, huh?” She said amusedly, bumping him with her hip as she passed him to leave the linen on her center table. Simón laughed. “Does that mean it went well with Luna? You talked things out?”

Oh, right. Earlier, during pillow talk, Simón had mentioned to Ámbar that he was thinking about maybe having a talk with Luna. It all started with Ámbar telling him about her conversation with Emilia and how it saddened her a little because she could relate to her, and, although it hadn’t lasted very long, they used to be kind of friends. From there, Simón had told her about his own worries about his friendship with Luna, and Ámbar had supported his idea of talking to her to try and clear things up.

“Yeah, it went well,” he told her. “We talked about things that maybe we should’ve talked about a long time ago.” He reached over to the bed again and pulled out the blanket they had added to their arsenal once the weather started getting cold. “I think it was good for both of us. Actually,” he laughed a little to himself, “some things came up that I had no idea about. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

Ámbar was working on taking all the bed linen out of their plastic bags. She looked at him curiously. “How so?”

Simón hesitated.

Could he tell her what Luna had told him? Should he? Would Luna get mad at him if he did? But it was just a past thing now, it didn’t matter anymore— Anyone with functioning eyes could see how Luna and Matteo looked at each other. And it didn’t sit right with Simón to hide things from Ámbar.

Plus, hadn’t Luna told Nina back in the day that he was in love with Ámbar? And then even Jazmín found out and made a video about it.

Ámbar was starting to look at him weird for taking so long to answer.

Alright, whatever, she owes me one.

“Okay, I’ll tell you, but don’t tell Luna I told you,” Simón asked of her. “Don’t tell anyone, actually.”

Ámbar’s lips quirked up. There was that mischief in her eyes again. “Oooh, I’m liking this already.”

“So,” Simón balled up the blanket and tossed it to the side, “basically, Luna told me she had feelings for me at some point.” He moved around the bed to pull out the old sheets and leave the mattress bare. “Weird, right? I had no idea. I guess things are kinda even between us now,” he said, amused.

Ámbar was standing perfectly still. If Simón hadn’t been busy with the bedsheets, he would’ve noticed the way her eyes zeroed in on him with the laser focus of a hunter.

“At some point when?” She asked.

“The beginning of this year—”

“I KNEW IT!”

Simón startled. He turned around to find Ámbar gesticulating wildly with her hands.

“I knew it! She was always all over you and staring at you longingly— I knew she was getting ideas! Ugh, how I hate being right sometimes.”

Simón blinked, wrinkling his brows a little. “Okay but, that’s over, she’s way past it now,” he tried to reason.

Ámbar whipped around in his direction. “Well, she better be! She had her chance and she didn’t appreciate it, so she better not start regretting it now because you are with me— With. Me. She can go cry me a river somewhere else.”

She stood with her arms crossed, looking away in the purest image of a tantrum Simón had ever seen. She must have felt his stare because she looked back at him after a while, her mouth pressed in a sulking way. “What?”

Simón couldn’t help it— He was smiling. “You’re adorable when you get jealous.”

Ámbar glared at him. “Don’t you dare start trying to make me jealous on purpose or things are going to get pretty ugly.”

Simón went to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I would never,” he said, dropping a small a kiss on her forehead.

“Mhm,” Ámbar acted skeptical, but the smile on the edge of her mouth was evident. She detached herself from him. “Just help me make the bed.”

They worked in relative silence for the next few minutes, only interrupted by little phrases like “You grab that side and I’ll grab this one” and “Do you think if I paid Maggie enough she’d make this bed again? Because I miss the days when I didn’t have to deal with these things.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not so bad. Look.” Simón put the pillows back against the headboard as the final touch. “Voilà. A total piece of art. We could even do this for a living.”

“My dream job,” Ámbar deadpanned.

“And you know what the best part is?” He said with a smile.

“What?”

“Not a single blanket fell on my head this time.” Ámbar’s face changed immediately. “I was a little worried at first, you know? I mean, I learned the hard way that you and blankets seriously don’t mix,” Ámbar rolled her eyes, “but I said to myself: Simón, you have to do this. You gotta face your fears. You can’t—”

Ámbar threw the old blanket on his head.

“…I guess I spoke too soon.”

Ámbar started laughing.

“Welp, nothing to do now,” Simón kept up the act, putting his hands on his hips. “Guess I’m stuck like this forever. Unless some very generous and very beautiful girl was willing to help me—” Ámbar pulled the blanket off him, allowing Simón to see her pretty smiling face. “Ah, here she is.”

Ámbar shook her head. “How can you be so silly and so cute at the same time?”

“I have a gift.”

His lips vibrated with Ámbar’s laughter when he kissed her. Simón pulled back and held her hands, interlocking their fingers, and they stayed just like that for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes.

Simón’s thumb ran over the back of her hand. “Do you remember that day when the whole blanket thing happened?” He asked her.

“Obviously,” she said, and it warmed his heart that that memory stuck with her as well after all these months.

It was the first time Simón saw her with her whole black getup and her ‘I don’t care about anything or anyone’ attitude. She’d been so determined to hide herself behind cynicism and hostility, swore that was all she had to offer to the world. Simón knew otherwise, but he also knew, from the scars he bore, that he had to stay away lest he got new ones. That day was a confirmation of his fears… and also of the fact that staying away from Ámbar was the last thing he wanted to do.

It was a contradiction and an internal battle, and it all started right then when that blanket fell on him, when Ámbar inched her face a breath from his own and taunted him to admit he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Now here they were, months later. Being this close to Ámbar no longer brought a sense of danger, and knowing everything he knew now, he couldn’t help but wish they’d gotten here sooner.

He let go of her hands in order to hold her lower back. “You know what I wanted to do back then?”

Simón didn’t wait for her to answer— He knew that Ámbar could see it in his gaze. He pressed his lips against hers, with more feeling than before, with the craving of someone that finally got what they’d been needing. Ámbar curled her hand around his nape, wrapped her arms around him tightly as she returned every bit of passion he infused into her mouth. Simón slid one hand into her hair and pulled her closer, securing one arm around her frame. I can do this now, ran through his mind. I can kiss her now, as much as I want, and she loves me, and we’re together.

It was at moments like this that it hit him just how lucky he was.

They pulled apart slightly to catch their breaths. Ámbar’s eyes had darkened, and in them, Simón could see his own reflection. I wish it could always be like this, he thought. If he could engrave Ámbar into his retinas, he would.

She lowered her gaze to his lips. “You know what I wanted to do back then?”

Ámbar put both hands on his chest and pushed him onto the bed, promptly climbing on top of him. A bright laugh bubbled out of Simón. He responded to her enthusiastic kisses until his cheer melted into desire, for he could never not want this breathtaking girl.

Her hands delved under his t-shirt, feeling up his body as her lips left his to devour his neck.

Simón closed his eyes, stretching his neck and letting out a soft groan. “I wouldn’t have complained, you know?”

Ámbar stopped her ministrations and sat up, giving him a look with an eyebrow raised.

“…Fine, I would’ve,” he conceded. Damn his stupid moral compass.

Ámbar smiled and leaned down to kiss him again. Simón held the back of her head and wrapped an arm around her, keeping her against his body as he rolled and switched their positions, bringing her underneath him. Ámbar chuckled against his lips, and it was his turn to exchange these sounds for sighs and moans. Simón wondered if this euphoria would ever fade, if there would come a point in the relationship where they would stop wanting each other all the time. Most probably so. In the meantime, Simón would enjoy the moment.

He prided himself in the fact that Ámbar only seemed able to form a thought when both their torsos were bare.

“Wait,” her hands went to his shoulders, his own currently busy with the buttons of her pants, “the bed cover is new.”

“It’ll get dirty anyway,” Simón mumbled against her skin, not interrupting his kisses down to her navel.

“Simón…”

He groaned, dropping his face on her stomach. He knew separating from her for five seconds wasn’t an agony but sometimes it felt like it. “Fine.” He rose on his hands and pecked her lips. “I’ll bring a towel.”

The bed cover might end up getting soiled anyway if he did his job right, but at least she couldn’t say he didn’t try.

**********************

Afterglow was a luxury Ámbar had only really gotten to experience with Simón. Before, the handful of times she was with Matteo, they hugged a little after the deed was done, but he always wanted a shower immediately, or something to eat, and it wasn’t like Ámbar wanted to stay there covered in sweat either, so they usually parted ways relatively quickly and got dressed.

Ámbar was lying next to Simón now with her head on his chest, and she felt no desire to move any time soon. There was something so relaxing about listening to his heartbeat. She couldn’t explain it, but with him, she didn’t care about the sweat or about food or about anything really. Apart from the obvious clean up, that Simón always took care of because he was sweet like that, Ámbar was more than happy to stay under the sheets with him snuggling like this. To feel his arms around her, to bask in his body heat and his scent. Sometimes, one of his hands would slide up and play with her hair, just like now, and Ámbar would think— This is what total peace must look like.

“I think I’m gonna repaint my room,” she said after a while, not because she needed to fill the silence, just because she’d been toying with the idea for some time and she wanted to share it with him. Maybe it was her greedy nature that, not content with being physically connected with him from head to toe, wanted to connect with words as well.

“Really?” Simón said, curious. “I thought you were joking the other day.”

“I was, but now I really think a change is due here.”

“Mmm.” Ámbar felt the vibration of his voice against her cheek. “I was starting to get used to the punk rock.”

That made her smile. “I think I went too overboard with it all,” she lamented nonetheless. “Minor changes would’ve been better. Now there’s no way to take off all the black, so I’ll have to repaint the whole thing.”

“You’re going back to pink?”

“No, that’d just be the same as before.” She didn’t have a clear image of what she wanted exactly, but what she did know was that she didn’t want to go back to how it all was. “What about grey?” She said, tilting her head up to look at Simón. “That’d be like middle ground with the black.”

He made a face.

“Yeah, you’re right, grey’s too sad.” She laid her cheek on his chest again. “Maybe if it was silver—No, ugh, forget I ever said that. Red? No, orange with golden hues. Lime green?”

“You know, it’d probably be easier if you just paint each wall a different color. Otherwise, you’re gonna be deciding until next year,” he told her, earning a playful swat from her. His laugh shook her head.

“You’re terrible,” she complained fondly. “Also, in that case, I’d have to figure out how to make them all match and, trust me, that would be a hassle. So, stop teasing me and help me.” She sat up, holding the sheets over her chest. “Keep in mind that light colors make the room look bigger.”

Simón also sat up, leaning against the headrest, and thought it over. “Um… what about light blue?” He proposed. “It’d bring out your eyes,” he told her with a smile, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to tuck her to his side again. “But I’m biased because I like blue.”

“It would bring out my eyes…” Ámbar looked around assessingly, imagining it. “But I don’t know…”

“Orange sounded good.”

She gave him a look. “Let me guess, you also like orange?”

“Busted.” He laughed. “But it also looks good on you. Well, everything looks good on you.”

Ámbar smiled and started playing with his necklaces. She loved doing that, running her hands over his chest and curling her fingers around his guitar picks.

Suddenly an idea came to mind.

“What about purple?”

Simón looked down to where she was holding his purple guitar pick and back to her eyes.

“Purple?”

“Yeah, like a very light purple. Just like…” She turned the guitar pick between her fingers to make it shine, “just like this when it catches the light. It’d be different from the old pink but not too much. But also different enough that one could notice the difference.”

She looked up, curious to see what he thought. Simón’s eyes were already on her face, looking at her with that glistening mix of fondness and disbelief that Ámbar still couldn’t comprehend how it could be directed at her, as if she were so utterly wonderful he couldn’t believe she was real.

“I like purple,” he said softly, with a small smile, warm as the chocolate of his eyes.

It was her who couldn’t believe he was real. Who thanked God for being alive every time she saw him smile.

They kissed softly, reveling in the simplicity and marvel of the contact, and parted with a short peck, like a see you soon of their lips, the send button on an I love you text. They stayed closed together, eyelids shut, just feeling the warmth shared between their bodies and the serene little world that only existed right here, with them, for them, and no one else.

Ámbar ran her thumb over his cheekbone. A little bit of beard grazed her palm. She wondered if he would let her shave him someday, just because.

Delicately, Simón nuzzled her nose with his. “I love you with my life, you know that?”

Ámbar smiled big and inhibited like a little kid. “Me too. To the stars and back.”

Simón shifted and Ámbar instinctively knew to lay her head on his shoulder, where it belonged. They cuddled up together. Simón kissed the top of her head, right before letting his body sag comfortably against her, relaxing completely.

“Wanna take a bath with me?” Ámbar asked after a few breaths.

“Mmm tomorrow,” Simón mumbled.

“We won’t have enough time tomorrow; or do you want to get up at 6 am?” She joked.

Simón whined. “Okay.” He started getting up, every movement slow and heavy. “Wake me up if I fall asleep.”

Ámbar rose on her hands and leaned in to kiss him shortly. “Always.”

--------------------------

If Ámbar were to envision her perfect day, it would go something exactly like this.

She woke up next to Simón and they got ready for the day together, all while he tried to make it absolutely impossible for her, hugging her from behind at random intervals and smothering her with kisses.

They had breakfast together, talking about whatever came to mind— old stories they hadn't told each other yet, how they preferred their tea, their favorite foods to have breakfast with, opinions about a TV show Ámbar hadn’t watched but Simón seemed very passionate about, or a song Simón hadn’t heard yet she thought he might like.

On Ámbar’s perfect day, the sun was out even if it was June, and while it was still kind of cold, Simón's hand in hers kept it warm as they walked to the Roller.

Today really was shaping up to be that perfect day. The next box to check on her list would be to have lunch together with her boyfriend, but she told Simón she wasn’t sure when she'd be free for that.

"I have a meeting with the accountant today and I don't know how long it'll take."

Of course, Simón understood. “Oh, right, you told me about that.” He glanced at one of the tables where some customers were calling him over and lifted one hand in their direction, signaling he’d be there in a second. “Well, I’m gonna be around here, so just, let me know when you have the time.”

“You don’t have to wait for me, you know?” She said, feeling a little bad. “You can eat with the guys every now and then.”

“Sure,” Simón said, shrugging. Then he leaned forward with a smirk, placing his hands on the table between them. “But why would I do that when I can have much prettier company?”

“Hey!” Pedro exclaimed from the bar. “I resent that!”

The couple laughed and Simón parted from her table. “Good luck with everything today.”

“You too,” Ámbar told him. “If there’s any problem just let me know.”

Nothing of notice happened during the next few hours though, so morning turned into afternoon with tranquility and Ámbar managed to maintain her good mood, even despite the fact she’d been doing so much planning and math this day she feared she would see Excel spreadsheets in her sleep.

It was a fortunate thing she’d always been good with numbers. Throughout high school, she thought it would come in handy when she studied Business and followed her godmother’s footsteps until she inherited the Benson fortune and everything that came with it. Now though… she could explore other options. Luna would inherit everything anyway. Sure, she could still study Business and, hell, maybe even run the Roller one day while actually knowing what she was doing. But possibilities were endless. Maybe she could become a full-on event planner— She had some experience already and she enjoyed it. Or maybe she should go for a more traditional career, like medicine. She’d always been good at science too.

Then again, she was good at many things because she was smart and worked hard, but it didn’t particularly mean she liked them. She liked being good at something, but would that be enough motivation to build a whole career around?

Thankfully, she didn’t have to think about those things now. And her current job was going well, thanks to the invention of calculators, Microsoft Office, and soon, too, the help of Ana’s accountant friend. Having some of her guidance would make everything much easier.

Footsteps approached her from the left.

“Hello, Ámbar.”

Speaking of which— Right on time.

Ámbar smiled and rose from her seat to greet the woman.

Thump

Wait.

Thump Thump

This is not—

Thump Thump

Nono, she is—

Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump

Surely, somewhere out there the will of the universe cackled.

She should've known there were no perfect days for someone like her.

“What are you doing here?”

It was really a testament to Ámbar’s lifelong experience in hiding her emotions that neither her mouth nor her voice trembled when she spoke.

“Ana called me,” Silvana said. “She said you needed help, so I came here to help you.”

She had a tentative smile on her face. Just like that day. Just like that day when she told her—

Ámbar blocked the memory. “You are the accountant?”

Her luck couldn’t be this bad. This had to be a mistake, or a joke, or a nightmare—

“Yes, that’s my profession,” Silvana replied simply, demurely, like a disgusting goody-two-shoes. “Actually, that’s how Ana and I met a couple of years back. I didn’t know her daughter went to your same school. I was so surprised when I found out.” She was holding her bag in front of her, her grip tight on the handle. She was nervous and trying to hide it. “She told me you’re the manager of this place now.” A smile. “I’m very proud of you, Ámbar.”

‘Proud’?

It took all of Ámbar’s self-control not to scrunch up her face.

Proud of what? You don’t know me. You didn’t want to know me!

This was sick. This was seriously, tremendously fucked up— She was going to barf.

‘I’m very proud of you, Ámbar.’

When was the last time her godmother told her that?

How dare she say this?

She didn’t know all that Ámbar had done, how hard she’d fought to get to hear those words from Sharon, all she’d suffered, cried, hidden, and destroyed, and now she wanted to come here and say that as if it was nothing?

Ámbar straightened her spine and looked her in the eye. “Yes, I am the manager,” she said, cold. “And as the manager, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

This woman’s words meant nothing. She was nothing, and Ámbar wanted her out of her sight.

Finally, the hopeful, calm mask of Silvana faltered. Her brows furrowed. Her smile died. “But Ana said you needed help with the finances. I can help you, let me—”

“I don’t want anything from you, I thought I had made that perfectly clear,” Ámbar said, short and sharply. This woman didn’t deserve to get a reaction out of her but she didn’t deserve her kindness either. “The only thing I want is for you to stay the hell out of my life. If I had known you were who Ana meant, rest assured that I would’ve never asked her to call you. I have enough problems already for you to come and give me more.”

A shadow of misery befell Silvana. Sadness, guilt— Both emotions covered her face, and Ámbar thought, good. She should feel bad, she should feel guilty. But it didn’t make Ámbar feel any better. Nothing about this woman would ever make her feel anything positive, that she was sure of.

Silvana’s pleading eyes looked into hers. “It was never my intention to cause you any trouble, Ámbar,” she said gently. “I know you’re angry. You’re hurt. I understand perfectly but, if you could just give me a chance— I just want to get to know you and for you to know me.”

She took a step forward, a minuscule one.

Alarm bells blasted through Ámbar. Composure abandoned her.

“I want nothing to do with you! Can’t you understand that?!”

“Hey.”

Simón’s voice.

Simón’s voice cut through the sirens and reached her ears as he came to stand by her side.

“What’s going on?” He asked with worry. His hand came around her waist, a gesture so familiar Ámbar wouldn’t have even noticed it normally, but she did now.

She noticed because all of her senses were on high alert. She noticed because, suddenly, that point of contact seemed to be an island in a sea of turmoil. More than that, she noticed because Silvana noticed.

The woman looked from Simón and back to Ámbar again with something brewing in her eyes— Something knowing. Understanding.

A lightning of rage struck Ámbar. This woman didn’t deserve to know about Simón. She didn’t deserve to meet him, didn’t deserve to even know he existed.

So when Simón looked at Silvana and asked, “Who is she?” Ámbar was quick to clarify.

“No one,” she spat out. “She’s leaving.”

Silvana’s face fell. “Would you at least take my number?” She begged desperately. “E-mail? I could help you from afar, you don’t have to see me.”

“No, thanks, I can handle it on my own,” Ámbar said flatly. “That’s how I learned to do things; I’m used to it.”

Silvana grabbed the strap of her purse harder. Her eyes were shining now, coated in unshed sadness, but she swallowed any more pleas and nodded, resigned.

“I understand,” she said, and Ámbar hated, hated, detested, how the devastation in her voice affected her even in the slightest. “I’ll be going then.” Her mouth opened as if she were going to say more, but she seemed to think better of it and caught the words before they could leave her. Silvana pressed her lips together. She turned to Simón instead.

“Take care of her, alright?” Her small, brittle voice asked him.

Ámbar saw red. A storm of rage and other indecipherable emotions broke out inside of her and her hands balled into fists as she tried to contain it, to not scream at the woman every insult she’d ever known. Her whole body was tense. It was a good thing that Silvana left immediately because she couldn’t take this anymore. Even after she could no longer see her Ámbar felt like she was shaking.

“Are you okay?”

It was Simón’s voice again, gentle as the hands he brought to her arms. He stood in front of her, searching her face with features contorted in worry, eyes trying to catch her gaze.

Ámbar had a hard time looking at him right now, or at anything, really. No, she wanted to say. No, I’m not okay. She wasn’t even sure what she felt. She didn’t know if she wanted to scream or break down crying.

She parted from him and sat back at her table. Simón followed, grabbing a chair to sit in front of her. “Who was that woman? Why did you kick her out like that?”

Ámbar breathed deeply. A weird numbness was taking over her body. She couldn’t tell him it was her biological mother. Her mind felt mixed up but whatever part of her brain was in charge of avoiding danger was working in overdrive because she knew that if she told him, then he’d ask how she knew, and if she said Silvana had approached her last year the day of the Vidia competition finals, then he’d know she learned back then that she wasn’t Sol Benson.

Of course, she could lie and make up some other situation in which they had met, but if she lied to Simón now after lying to him what felt like every single day lately, she was going to suffocate and be seriously ill all over the Roller’s floor.

She joined her hands on top of the table, trying to center herself. “She’s an old associate of Sharon,” she said— a half-truth. “They go way back but I only met her last year.”

Simón’s concern only seemed to grow upon hearing Sharon’s name. “And what was she doing here? Did she come on Sharon’s behalf? Did Sharon send her to talk to you?”

“No.” She doesn’t need to send anyone to talk to me, she does it directly. “It turns out that she is Ana’s accountant friend.” Ámbar could spare a brief humorless smile for the irony. “If I had known, I would’ve never told her to contact her.”

Simón frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand— Is she that bad?” He asked, confused. “She looked… very sad. Maybe she regrets working with Sharon. I mean, you say she was associated with her but, what exactly did she do for her? ‘Cause if she was just her consulting accountant, maybe she didn’t even know what Sharon was doi—”

“I just don’t want her near me, okay?!” Ámbar snapped. Out of all things in this world, the last one she wanted right now was to listen to arguments about that woman’s presumed innocence. “I have reasons to want her far away from my life, so if you ever see her around here again, I want you to get her out. I say that as your boss,” she ordered curtly.

Simón looked taken aback, either by her outburst or the content of it. It could’ve been both or neither, Ámbar didn’t much care right now. She maintained her fiery stare on him until he recovered and uttered a reply. “Okay,” he said in a quiet voice. “Okay, I’ll do that.”

Ámbar nodded. “Good.” She brought her laptop closer to herself and focused on the screen. “You can go back to work now, I’ll get back to this.”

Different tabs filled her vision again, but she was too aware of Simón’s presence still in front of her. There was a tentative air upon the table. Ámbar could feel his eyes on her and it rubbed her the wrong way.

She looked up sharply. “Work, Simón,” she sent him away. “I don’t pay you to sit here with me, I pay you to work.”

Whatever had been on Simón’s face turned sour, harsher. ��You don’t need to talk to me like that.”

“And how do you want me to talk to you?” Ámbar responded.

Simón stared at her. Ámbar got ready for a counter, a rightful reproach at her tone of voice, an offended complaint. She wanted to fight. She wanted to break something.

Simón’s flare of indignation extinguished in front of her eyes, leaving him with an exhale.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said tiredly.

He got off the chair and walked away.

Ámbar was left a little disoriented, recalibrating.

It took a moment for the guilt to hit.

She cradled the feeling with sick satisfaction. Dug every cutting edge of it into her palms and then added the bloody fragments to her ever-growing collection.

Ámbar drowned herself in her work. She forced her foggy brain to read, calculate, organize, until her head started pounding, and she was relieved, because the physical pain was distracting enough to almost forget the last hour of her life.

She told Pedro she wasn’t feeling well and took her work home.

She didn’t have lunch with Simón that day.

…

-----------------------------

So. That happened.

Some of you might not know this, but back when season 3 was airing, many people in the fandom were theorizing that Silvana could be Ana’s accountant friend, because we were Delusional™, and in the end she wasn’t and we never saw her again, which I believe is horrendous. So, one of the things I decided early on while writing this fic was that I would make that fandom theory come true and bring Silvana back a bit because I feel like that storyline deserved a little more development, at least.

(Don’t except to see her much though.)

With that being said, I’m happy to announce we’ve officially reached the ‘decline’ part of this story— the ‘everything goes to hell’ arc, if you will. But there’ll be good moments sprinkled in between to balance it out, don’t worry.

Fun fact: the original title of this was “With an accountant” but I figured that made it too obvious what was going to happen so I changed it.

Another fun fact: The only time Simón has seen Ámbar in orange was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14GYSCGOu-w )

Finally, I noticed something very funny happens here that I wanted to clarify. Simón says “I thought you were joking the other day” while talking about Ámbar’s room, because for them it’s only been a few days, but chronologically, in the time that has taken me to write this fic, it’s been 3 years since that happened SKDJNFKS 🤣😂 So, if any of you RIGHTFULLY don’t remember, he’s referring to chapter 15, the last conversation they have in there.

As always, thank you all so much for your patience, I can’t believe it’s been five years! I’ll try to finish this in no longer than 2 more years because 7 is my favorite and lucky number. See ya around and thank you for reading <3

#simbar #simbar fic #simbar fanfic #soy luna #soy luna fanfiction #My Writing #roads that cross

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whatever-lmaoo · 6 days ago

Note

Alright sorry this took me a MINUTE

My tats in no particular order:

1.“We’ll be alright” in harry styles’ handwriting.

2.Imagine dragons signatures and lyrics (written by hand by them on my skin in 2012)

3.the signatures of the band 100 monkeys by hand directly on me (jackson rathbone’s band) wrapped in vines with 6 heart shaped leaves to represent each band member plus me.

4.jackson rathbone’s signature by itself with “memento mori” around it (once again, written on my skin. I only get autographs inked if i get them written on me. No copy/paste lol).

5.A poem by spencer bell.

6.The typewritten “Elvis Presley” on an old library checkout card of Elvis’, that’s on display at Graceland.

7.A “13” for john mayer— i saw him live for the first time on july 13 2013 after 13 years of waiting and trying to get tix.

8.a No-Face character from Spirited Away.

9.a little Totoro from Totoro.

10/11.Two dumb tats for exes. One is covered up and is now a coffin because he is dead to me.

12/13.Two lyric tattoos for matt duke: “it is my will to be left to the sea” and I honestly can’t remember the other one anymore because it’s on my shoulder so i never see it; it’s 12 years old and it’s too blurry to read anymore LOL.

14.a tiny lifesize ladybug on top of my arm/shoulder with it’s wings out ready to fly.

15.an Ernie Halter lyric on my thigh:

We are rising like the tide

We are falling like the sun

We are temporary dreams

like the dark before the dawn

We're here and then we're gone

16.Martina mcbride lyrics symbols on my left foot forbher song anyway (a music note, a tiny mountain, and a butterfly)

17.Three sparrows on my right foot

18.a portrait of Chester Bennington, lead singer of linkin park

19.A light bulb that is shining, with the linkin park logo as the inner wire of the bulb. It represents “one more light” going out, which symbolized chester’s death

20/21 i literally can’t remember. I’m scanning my body like WHAT DID I MISS????? It’s not like i removed them??? I’m too tired to go look in the mirror lol.

But seriously there comes a point when you get enough, that you forget some of them LOL. Especially when they’re not in a place you normally see on a daily basis.

The way you have so many that were written by the actual artists😱 You get cooler and cooler every day😍 also the coffin is so clever🫢

No because sometimes I forget the one on my arm is there and it takes up the whole space😭 also they were not lying when they said it becomes an addiction because when we finished I was like “I want another one🥹” but I didn’t get it cuz gotta save money 😩

#asks😍#lis hoe💃#my twin frfr

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azurethevampire · 1 month ago

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End of the Year Writing Challenge: Requests open!

Hello! We’re approaching the end of 2024 and in honour of it I’ve decided to open up prompts/requests! I will accept at least 24 and will post them in the order I finish them. Now, if you’ve been around you know I’m very bad at sticking to the deadlines I set so I will not make any promises all of the stories will actually be up by the end of the year – I'll try my best though!

• Previous rules/guidance regarding requests from here apply

• Updated fandom list under the cut but once again you can ask if I would be willing to write for a fandom not listed

• I’ve compiled a list of 50 prompts below, you are free to either choose from them (feel free to change them) or send me something else

• I will cross out a prompt if I already got it in my inbox, and add any non-listed prompts I get to the list (to help myself keep track). In case there’s doubles in my inbox I’ll ask the second person who sent the prompt to send me another

• you're free to send in as many as you want - just give others a chance to participate too 😉

Prompts and fandomlist under the cut

This prompt list is combined from prompts I've gathered around the internet and some I came up with. If you see a prompt from someone else's list it's possible I've taken it from that. All credits for these prompts goes to those who originally came up with them!

Non-dialogue ones

1. Touching foreheads

2. Hiding face in neck

3. Listening to the other’s heartbeat

4. Falling asleep against someone

5. Kissing the top of their head

6. Tickling

7. Braiding hair

8. Pillows

9. Accidental child aquisition

10. Baking

11. Doing an activity together

12. Hot cocoa

13. Tucking a person in

14. Movie night

15. Playing with fallen leaves

16. First snow

17. Building a gingerbread house

18. Fireplace

19. Forcing the other to wear warmer clothes

20. Snowball fight

21. Taking a break

Dialogue Prompts

22. “I wanted it to be a surprise

23. “Whose child is this?”

24. “You’re sick.”

25. “Your hair is really fluffy”

26. "Aww, did you forget about me already?"

27. “I know you’re trying to be scary but you’re just way too cute”

28. “You’re shivering”

29. “Where did you go?”

30. “You’re safe here, I promise”

32. “You idiot. Don’t scare me like that. Ever again.”

31. “Did you just bite me?!”

33. “What’s wrong. You’re never up this late.”

34. “Come on, it’s time for ___”

35. “Don’t ‘Hi' me. You’re in trouble.”

36. “I have a list.” “Oh? Am I in it?” “Maybe you're top five, maybe you're not in it at all"

37. ”Dont tell me you ___. Again.”

38. “I told you we took a wrong turn earlier!”

39. “Stop moving! I’m almost ready”

40. “There was an accident and I want it known it was not my fault.”

41. “I told you not to touch that.”

42. “I can’t believe you told them I ___

43. “You call that a snowman?”

44. “Are you drunk? You’re drunk. How did this happen?”

45. “Why are you looking at me like that? Stop. Please stop!”

46. “What were you thinking?! I was right there!”

47. “Just give me my cut of the money and I’ll be out of here. Thank you, byee!”

48. “What do you mean this isn’t yours? There’s your name on it!” "That's not my name."

49. “I’m too old for this.” “You’re only __” “exactly. Too old.”

50. “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Please, sit down.”

Fandoms

Star Wars (any movie era/show) ° Marvel (X-Men included) ° One Chicago (Fire, Med, PD) ° NCIS ° Hawaii 5-0 ° Lord of the Rings ° The Walking Dead ° True Blood ° Twilight ° Vampire Diaries ° Resident Alien ° Transformers ° Gilmore Girls ° Once Upon a Time ° Firefly ° White Collar ° Doctor Who ° Sherlock ° Supernatural ° Baldur's Gate (3) ° Detroit: Become human ° Red Dead Redemption ° The Witcher ° One Piece (I’ve only seen the netflix show)

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wilsons-striped-ties · 3 months ago

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april tc challenge (days 1-30 one shot)

original post here!

1. does your tc have a catchphrase or something they say a lot?

no but he does use "eh" a lot to start his sentence or to refer to people HAHA but there are some phrases he will just repeat in the exact same tone and way like "i don't know" when he's teasing someone

2. what’s your favourite memory with your tc?

i think when i gave him cupcakes on his birthday? the look of surprise on his face was priceless

3. have you dreamt about them? if so, what’s the best dream you’ve had?

yup, i think it was a dream where he asked to take a picture with me LOL i don't really dream about him

4. if you could move away with them, where would you move to? would you bring anyone else?

anywhere he wants to HAHAH it can just be the two of us <3

5. do you know their star sign? are your star signs compatible?

yeah he's a cancer and im a taurus and apparently we're very compatible

6. have they ever given you a gift? if so, what?

he gave our class personalized handwritten notes for graduation!

7. have you ever given your tc a gift?

just gave him a note and baked brownies for him today, i also gave him cookies and more notes and also cupcakes for his birthday!

8. what’s their best physical feature?

his dimples hehe maybe his smile too

9. what’s their best personality trait?

hes really thoughtful and sweet actually, quite sensitive too :'

10. what subject do they teach? do they teach you?

HISTORY yeah he taught me for years three and four

11. how old are they? what’s the age gap between you?

not sure of his age but our age gap is confirm above twenty years

12. if they could teach another subject, what do you think they’d teach?

he used to teach english too but he does just seem like a history teacher

13. have you ever hugged? what was it like?

I WISHHHHHHHHHHHH

14. what’s your dream date with them?

i would love to just go on a walk with him and hold hands or go to a museum or something!!

15. do you have any pictures with them? if so, when from? and if not, do you think you’ll be able to get a picture with them?

i just took a picture with him, i have at least six pictures with him i think, i always grab a picture when i see him HAHAHA

16. is your tc single? do they have any kids? or pets?

married with three kids, not sure about the pets (i offer as tri-*gunshots*)

17. does your tc remind you of any characters, whether they’re from a book, tv show or film etc.?

not sure HAHAHA

18. what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve said or done in front of your tc? did they notice?

oh gosh the other time i served him the wrong coffee order cause i worked at my high school canteen for a bit HAHAHAHA

19. what colour do you associate your tc with?

dark blue, dark red, black, gold, brown

20. is your tc a good teacher?

THE BEST

21. can you remember the last thing you said to your tc or that they said to you?

"bye mr passion fruit" "bye, take care"

(this was today when i was leaving after teachers day)

22. how do you cope when you really miss your tc?

i write about him, look at our pictures, reminisce about some memories HAHAA

23. what animal does your tc remind you of?

i have no idea, tiger maybe?? in my head he's the most beautiful hurricane though. he'd be a really beautiful, complex animal but elegant and sleek too, but mischievous at the same time... maybe a fox? wolf? folf? HAHAHAH

24. if actors had to play you and your tc in a movie, who would you cast as yourself and who would you cast as them? why?

woah im not sure about that, i feel it's hard to play him and i have no idea about myself too whoops

25. what’s your favourite outfit of theirs?

his black/dark blue dress shirts? he always wears the same stuff

26. do you stay in contact outside of school? if so, how? (email, text, letters etc.)

yeah, text

27. in your opinion, what’s the hardest thing about having a tc?

the delusions and waking up to reality... the urge to do something to further your relationship but the fear and legal matters :'

28. do you flirt with your tc? do they flirt back?

I HAD A CHANCE TO BUT CHICKENED OUT i just do it subtly, he does tease me a little though

29. if you could ask your tc absolutely anything and get a completely honest response, what would you ask them?

what cologne did he used to use cause it smelt insanely nice

30. how do you think your tc would react if you told them your feelings?

i don't know... i think he'd just wave it off or maybe smile and look away and scold me or something maybe?

#teacher crush #teacher crush community #teacher x student #tc community #teacher x students #female student x male teacher #male teacher x female student #male teacher crush #teacher attachment #tc crush

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keef-a-corn · 2 years ago

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Dat’s right, People, it’s time for ‘Keef watches TFP and you just get the notes!’

This is for season 1, episode 20: Partners

Please reblog or comment on this with your thoughts! I really want to know what your opinion of the episode was!

I write down the timestamps, but I watch Transformers Prime on Stan (an Australian streaming service) so they may be slightly off.

ALSO! I try my best to note points for every character, but tend to get a little caught up by Bee (although I think I do a pretty good job with the notes regardless) so do be warned.

Little confession, this is one of my favourite season 1 episodes. It’s up there with Sick Mind. There’s going to be a point where I write down a scene deconstruction that carries on across multiple points, so I highly recommend reading this!! You'll be able to tell what part I'm talking about because it's got the most continuous screenshots.

~~~~Transition~~~~

00:03 - A r k + the clouds tho

00:09 - 2016 YouTubers apologising for being literal criminals be like:

00:16 - I would like someone to make a fic about Soundwave’s inner dialogue during moments like these.

00:46 - Kinda surprised that he actually w a s talking to Soundwave. He would be aware that Starscream’s just sucking up t get Megs off his aft, right?

01:20 - this is actually a very good set up. Rather than the Autobots and Decepticons just coming upon it, they actually establish a quick explanation to it.

01:26 - all that movement makes Starscream look like he’s in a video game

01:29 - NO. That zoom, the way the camera follows her, The background. Airachnid is 100% supposed to be in a video game rn.

01:32 - I like that shot. I wanna redraw it.

02:00 - Starscream, my dood.

~intro~

02:50 - So beautiful

02:56 - Ignoring how out of place Arcee looks, she’s absolutely right.. expect that there’s no body there.

03:10 - the lighting makes Arcee’s face look beautiful.

03:24 - she gives ya whiplash here doesn’t she? Doesn’t give you enough time to be sad.

03:29 - I don’t understand why she looks so out of place.

03:33 - Oh no… all the flashbacks from ‘Predatory’

03:45 - pardon?

03:47 - Preen: devote effort to making oneself look attractive and then admire one's appearance.

04:01 - I think they gave Starscream the wrong face in this scene.

04:07 - Lore

04:25 - as apposed to doing it… with Mercy?

04:34 - of course he would!

04:36 - obviously.

04:36 - height difference my beloved. I also laughed a bit too hard for a bit too long at the shot. It’s just.. she’s so short, but then there’s also her arms XD

05:07 - I’ll be honest, I’ve never understood people who got flustered when a character says something cruel. Then I heard the way Starscream said idiot and I’m a little flustered.

05:12 - MM DELICIOUS. Explanations and a setup.

05:22 - A cut away of just Ratchet and Optimus, which also proves Starscream right? Sign me up.

05:29 - I feel conflicted. On one hand Optimus talks. On the other he used a metaphor that is not effective. ‘The past always catches up with the present’ is talking about decisions (eg actions or words). + This is Optimus’s first line of Dialogue since Operation : Breakdown.

06:24 - This is what Starscream said to Soundwave.

07:02 - LOOK AT HIM. HOW DOES HE HIDE! ANSWER MEEEE!

07:05 - I just realised.. this is the first time we’ll be seeing Airachnid interact with Optimus and Bee (although he shows up in Predatory, she runs away rather than attempting any confrontation.)

07:21 - 1. The way he says 'wait' is such a fatherly pronunciation. 2. O0O she doesn’t listen. 3. She does a backflip. (IYKYK)

07:44 - *sigh* and here we have Arcee being an idiot. Going against Optimus’s orders, fighting Airachnid and doing a scrap job at it.

08:01 - *falls over* *dies* Optimusssssss yessss

08:05 - unlike Arcee, Airachnid listens to Optimus.

08:13 - this is a parallel to Operation : Breakdown. In Operation : Breakdown, Bulkhead took on Breakdown alone. Optimus hadn’t given instructions, so the decision was made by Bulkhead’s judgement. It was not a good call and Bulkhead got hurt, so Optimus had phrased it ‘Engaging the enemy on your own was foolish, Bulkhead’. In this episode Optimus gave instructions but Arcee didn’t listen. She didn’t get hurt, but the risk had no reward. Airachnid escaped regardless. Because she wasn’t hurt and technically did delay Airachnid, Optimus wouldn’t have been as harsh but is obviously still upset.

Operation: Breakdown

Partners

08:29 - I’m so done with Airachnid and Arcee’s rivalry. I will forever repeat this. They have one of the worst rivalries in the show. Arcee has a reason to be mad at Airachnid, but Airachnid has no reason to be mad at Arcee. They don’t have respect for each other and they can’t manage to put aside their differences for anything.

08:35 - Hoooo mama… His voice has me shaking fr fr.

08:45 - This shot lives in my head rent free

09:27 - For everyone who wants to right a fic about TFP Starscream swapping sides, I recommend using this moment as the point where your fic should start. + Although Starscream’s logic seems flawless, the Autobots are just as in the right to not accept him in/do it with much skepticism.

09:35 - This gives off ‘when the adults are talking’ vibes.

09:39 - ‘When you have to sit at the kids table, but you realise that the 12 year-old is more mature than you’

09:51 - there’s something so perfect about this conversation and Arcee’s beliefs specifically.

10:14 - Kinda forgot she existed for a bit.

10:34 - I’m just gonna.. lie down for a minute.. He’s so cuteeeee.

11:04 - MMM MMMM BEAUTIFUL. When the leader has genuinely good moral coding✨

11:10 - Damn do I love Optimus.

11:16 - The nickname, the drag, the everything. I laughed for a full minute.

11:46 - there are a lot of parallels between this and Operation: Breakdown.

13:37 - Oh do I love a proper fight scene.

12:41 - Bulkhead getting caught first makes sense. The hardest to fight hand to hand, but also the least agile. Naturally Airachnid would get rid of him first.

13:09 - He sounds a bit like Scar talking to baby Simba.

13:15 - you can see Arcee’s conflicting emotions. She hates Airachnid, but she also hates Starscream. Then there’s that little bit of delight in Starscream’s misery (and a part of me wants to say feminism)

13:32 - to quote Miko from Masters and Students.. ‘whoopsie’

13:49 - Kinda glad that she worked it out so quickly.

14:37 - he’s not even looking in the right place

15:23 - oh damn.

15:33 - MMM YES. THE GOOD FIGHT.

15:51 - he ran over to his father ;0; though the smarter move would’ve been to stay apart.

15:52 - then he just stares at a rock-

16:04 - then there was one.

16:08 - No! Go back to the good fight.

16:32 - *clears throat* Arcee’s an idiot. She’s fighting in revenge and anger. Her judgement’s clouded already. Decepticons get their advantages by getting into the heads of autobots. They’re more likely to win the more clouded and chaotic their opponent’s mind is.

16:35 - and now we have the opposite side of the coin.

16:43 - Airachnid’s trying to get into Bee’s head. Exactly what Starscream was doing. If she gets into his head, Bee’s hiding and fighting will be worse. Once he gets hit the autobots will loose. Airachnid cannot win in combat against Bumblebee. They both know that. What she also knows is that, unlike with all her fights with Arcee, Bee isn’t fighting for a personal gain, he’s fighting for a cause. If he was fighting with his emotions, he’d be aiming for her to loose, but because he’s fighting for a cause his goal is to win. (It’s trying to kill someone vs trying to stay safe. One has a higher chance of succeeding than the other)

16:58 - 1. HAH. SO THEY CAN SEE HIM! 2. She knows she’s found a weak point because Bee revealed himself slightly. She made an impact on his thinking as his emotions became slightly involved at the prospect of Bulkhead and Optimus being in danger.

17:17 - As much as her confidence is expected, if she didn’t believe she had gotten into his head, I bet she would’ve been more cautious to provoke Bee. Thinking that she is in his head is why she’s continuing to taunt him.

17:40 - in actuality she didn’t get into his head. Rather she got into her own. She became sloppy and less aware of her surroundings.

17:54 - Bee was still fighting for a cause, rather than with his emotions. By Bee not being effected by decepticon mindgames, Airachnid fell victim to her own tactics and lost.

18:05 - She had no advantage physically, mentally, nor emotionally. Bee had the complete upper hand.

18:06 - Now we have the opposite. Arcee’s fighting with her emotions while Starscream’s fighting to win.

18:12 - Starscream’s got nothing to lose, while Arcee was acting out of rage.

18:18 - exactly.

19:11 - Now Arcee absolutely could win and that we be thanks to fighting with her emotions. I agree 100% by that idea except-

19:13 - for the fact that her emotions got in the way once again.

19:14 - Bee, my sweet baby child, is another variable in Arcee’s emotional charge. Arcee fought for Cliff, fell for Cliff, and was about to win for Cliff,

19:17 - but couldn’t bring herself to kill for Cliff. When it was just Starscream’s words and her unbridled rage, Starscream was Cliff’s murderer. When it was just her and the bot that took away Cliff, she would’ve 100% killed him. When she realised it was now her, Starscream, and Bumblebee, another bot that lost someone close, but would never deem that enough to snuff out their spark. That is when she couldn’t kill for Cliff.

19:27 - this is about to give you guys whiplash because of the stuff above but… There’s something so beautiful and smooth about that slide.

19:35 - wtf is up with this shot. It’s so pretty.

19:45 - now we all should be laughing at Airachnid, the con that failed completely. She got in her own way and lost miserably.

19:52 - that’s a little fruity ngl.

20:03 - mmm pretty

20:04 - that was a pun-

20:08 - I totally forgot that Bee was the only one properly functioning… Which one are you taking?

(Red pill- Fic where Bee actually did get hurt during the episode and is just hiding it.(Physical pain).

Blue pill - Fic of the mental toll that dragging two paralysed teammates and another badly injured teammate through the ground bridge can have.(Angst))

20:16 - for a two-wheeler? I’m trying to think what the human version would be. It’s not so much ‘for a girl’.. maybe?

20:26 - If only TFP writers took that advice. *looks at the episodes that have no recovery arcs for certain characters, then looks at the the episodes that have no recovery arc specifically for Bumblebee*

20:42 - *falls over* *dies* *again*

21:13 - now imagine he followed that line up with ‘a little bicth’

- rip/g

———————

That was Partners.

Honestly I like this episode. It brings out the capabilities of Starscream and Bee, as well as bringing out the worst of Arcee and Airachnid in a much better fashion than before. It shows us what happens when a character has the upper hand in all aspects of a fight vs when the do not. Fighting to win vs fighting to make the other lose.

It’s one of the episodes I think best displays just how bad (as in not well put together) Airachnid and Arcee’s rivalry is, while also putting in a bit more perspective to Airachnid’s side of it. She fights Arcee because she knows she can win. Anyone else and she’s gonna lose. Arcee’s always in over her head and let’s her emotions get in the way.

The episode is a bit of a roller coaster for Starscream, but in the end the conclusion is ‘Starscream’s a manipulator and a really good one too.’ Not because he got into Arcee’s head, but because he managed to convince Optimus that there was hope for him.

Then there’s Bumblebee. Ah~ Sweet little Bumblebee. A bot of few beeps because he gave him nothing to say. He carried his team during the episode. Being the only one to not get hit by the immobiliser, the one that managed to fool Airachnid leading her to turn his back on him, which lead to her defeat and snap Arcee out of his murder daze in time to not kill Starscream (regardless of if he deserved it or not) and to conclude the episode there was not a word or gesture of gratitude from anyone.. really makes your blood doesn’t it?. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t one of the eps that fuels my angstier fics.

Generally though, I like this episode.

Now like I said at the top please reblog or comment on this with your thoughts on the episode and of my points!

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