#its kind of funny but he did already clone soldier | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sarcastic-sketches · 2 years ago

Text

More Kitsune Thots

This AU was originally going to be Anakin being a bit of a slut throughout the galaxy but then Captain Rex happened. Ah. Anakin committed hard with the whole ‘I’ll wait for you/the war to be over’ once they both clocked how they felt for each other and couldn’t do anything about it.

So, instead I have more thots on how Anakin's handling the Kitsune transformation and some world building. tl:dr Anakin gets transformed by a Force Temple to reflect the strength of his force connection right before the events of AotC and this has a lot of run on consequences.

To the Jedi, Kitsune are considered beings of myth but there's a basis for them having actually existed once upon a time as extensions of the Force. Beings whose existence were so tightly woven within it that they were deemed embodiments or spirits of the Force itself, with Lightside and Darkside variants. So to have the highly debated Chosen One turned into this Fox Spirit? Yeah, it raises several eyebrows and quite a few Masters begin to panic because oh shit. This lends some credible weight to the argument of the Prophecy. While others are like, maybe the ‘missing father’ was actually just a Kitsune that’s been hiding in human form that the mother didn’t want to talk about.

They do not mention this to Anakin.

His genetics/biology no longer make the Healers want to cry because he’s not half-human and half-midichlorians anymore. The identification system just straight up returns with ??? on his species markers because it hasn’t got a clue. Kitsune markers were not in the system before. They are now.

They do mention this to Anakin. Along with what they suspect might be new food intolerances.

One of the first things Anakin notices about his new form is his enhanced sense of smell and hearing. Initially, very distracting as he tries to focus in the Force but he gets used to tuning it out like he did with his regular senses before. But, Ahsoka notices. Ahsoka who is a predator species and fully coming to terms with the fact that her new Master is also, basically, a predator species. Even if he’s the only one of his kind that they know of.

It takes a little bit of encouragement for Anakin to get the memo that his new Padawan wants to go hunting with him but once he realises he’s all for it. His full fox form with three tails is about the size of a Great Dane so he isn’t massive yet and doesn’t overshadow her during their hunt. It’s a nice little bonding experience for them. It comes at the cost of freaking out some shinies when they return with prey but free meat is free meat.

The next thing Snips and Skyguy work on is how Anakin can still wield his lightsaber while in full fox form. He doesn’t have opposable thumbs so he can’t hold it with his paws and his tails are not prehensile enough to swing it around either. The solution these two geniuses come up with?

Hold it in his mouth. Like this but with a lightsaber:

(Ninetails from Okami)

As you can imagine this causes some amount of concern from the other Jedi. Captain Rex also takes some convincing.

I've already talked about Anakin's issues with excess force energy but a funny mental image in this AU is to just have him run an obstacle course. Over and over like training drills to wear himself out. It's much easier with four legs. I feel like there must be species-specific enrichment rooms in the Jedi Temple, kind of like there is in Beastars, in order to settle oneself in their body. It’s not healthy to ignore what the body needs even if the Jedi are trained to not let it control them.

Once Anakin grows more tails he gets bigger (Shire Horse size at four, twice as tall as a clone at five) and realises that his full fox form is quite strong. This is both a blessing and a curse for him because he finds it cumbersome but also bigger is more intimidating. Then he starts working out its utility purposes, like hauling cargo, or carrying wounded/exhausted soldiers. Big crates can be moved using the Force but he can move more in one go with less focus just by physically shunting them around. Carrying people is basically like letting them lean on him in humanoid form or giving someone a piggyback so it doesn’t bother him as much as people expected.

Rex may or may not often situate himself on Anakin’s back when charging into battle because they’re both insane and it looks cool af. Bigger target to hit but he’s willing to take that risk because it means his men get hit less.

He gets annoyed with himself for being so self absorbed all this time, thinking his larger form was a hindrance rather than seeing how it could be useful, until Rex points out that he’s worked it out now so the self pity doesn’t really do anything for anyone. He’s good like that.

Rex: [grabs Anakin’s fox face in his hands] What are you? Anakin: [pouting] An idiot sandwich

Next thing he notices is that his tails fan out instinctively during his fights with Asajj, which completely blocks her view. Usually, he’s having to fight against his tails, trying to keep them from getting in the way rather than making them work for him. I’m thinking of that Kung Fu Panda fight with Shen the Peacock who uses his tail fan as a distraction/block during fights. Obviously it takes some time for Anakin to be that fluid with it and they discover in the process that singed fur smells awful.

Which brings us onto the downsides of the transformation. Namely, he’s now susceptible to ticks and mites that just love to latch onto furry tails if he goes through tall grasses or jungles during a campaign. He's already had to deal with flea jokes (mostly from Ahsoka) and now he actually has parasites on him.

Anakin: It would be a misuse of the Force to just kill them all at once wouldn’t it? Obi-Wan: Extremely. Anakin: [whinges] But doing it by hand is such a pain. Obi-Wan: Consider this a trial of patience then Anakin: You are so not my favourite person right now.

Standing in the rain is a lovely experience for him even after all these years but now that he has fur it comes with the caveat of smelling like a wet dog afterwards. The troopers do not thank him for that. Even less when he shakes to get all the water off, spraying the hangar.

A bit of world building I’m adding to this is that the Kitsune’s powers are expressed through their tails. The more tails a Kistune has the greater their connection to the Force/the more power they control, etc (same in Japanese Mythology, the more tails a fox spirit had the more powerful they were). Except, people worked out that the tails themselves hold power and if removed from a Kitsune that power can be harnessed to influence the Force for whatever purpose. Like elongating one’s life... (Gee I wonder who could do with that who is very close to Anakin -eyes emoji-). The tail disintegrates once all the power it once possessed has been used. A kitsune that has a tail cut off will never be able to regrow it as each tail is its own connection to the Force, which has now been severed. It is why the Kitsune disappeared from the known Galaxy.

I’m thinking Obi-Wan eventually discovers this because as soon as Anakin turned into one he immediately dove for the Archives with whatever spare time he had to learn whatever he could about what Anakin might have to face now. He does not like the implication that they were hunted into extinction, or at least hunted to the point of exile. Already he’s picturing his padawan getting hunted for sport. He does however make a TL:DR version for Anakin to skim through, looking like he hasn’t slept in five days and Anakin is very touched by this display of care.

Obi-Wan is just not a words of affection kind of guy.

#Anakin Skywalker #ahsoka tano #captain rex #obi-wan kenobi #star wars writing #rexwalker #star wars #star wars au #Kitsune!Anakin #sw au #sw #The Clone Wars

300 notes · View notes

newswcanonprompts · 4 years ago

Text

Slave Chips + Anakin Angst time

(who tf had this convo? whoever it was, all your body parts are going on the wall. kneecaps = TAKEN for making me fuckin cry)

The conversation started w/ a Anakin has chronic pain because of a very Loud force presence + all the fun stuff that comes from a childhood in slavery and formative years spent as a general in a war, and then talking about high vs low pain perception

And then Yui hops in with this:

what if Slave masters have technology in the slave chips where they can control their slaves pain perception--Low perception for when they work and high for when they get punished.

The jedi didn't know about it, Qui-gon forgot to mention the chip to the Council

and Watto " forgot " to turn it the high pain perception off as a way of getting back at the Jedi for “stealing” his investment

Oh my God what if anakin thinks they know and choose not to turn it off

WHAT IF HE THINKS THAT THEY'RE PUNISHING HIM FOR QUI-GON BEING QUI GON AND FOR THEM BEING FORCED TO TAKE HIM IN SO OLD

AND THAT FEEDS HIS BITTERNESS OF THEM

AND ALSO STOMPS HIS SELF ESTEEM

Because the pain NEVER stops.

So Anakin never says anything

It makes him think that he definitely cannot tell them about any injuries he has unless they make him unfit to work

And Obi-Wan constantly lectures him too and like he's already being punished he doesn't need to be verbally beaten down too

(note that it’s from Anakin perspective, the unreliable narrator of the year--Obi-wan actually has no idea about the chip)

And when he lashes out because it just HURTS and he can't contain it anymore, he’s berated AGAIN

Also, if the pain perception is controlled, that means the slave chip is still there, which makes the thought process he has about being punished for being taken so old even worse

And then, what if Kix one day finds a chip in Anakin's nervous system, he removes it, and Anakin begins crying with relief

And Kix goes "Sir Why WAS THIS TORTURE DEVICE IN YOU?"

He gets injured enough for emergency surgery and Kix finds the chip that way, meanwhile, Anakin can't have anesthesia for medical reasons, so he's dealing with the surgery awake and feels the moment the chip is detached.

WHAT IF ANAKIN IS FAKE NONCHALANT ABOUT IT BECAUSE ANGST

"Ah? Oh they didn't tell you? I thought it'd be in the brief. That's my slave chip. It's supposed to be there. It means they own me." And kix...kix is aghast.

the Jedi are all crying in a corner at the fact they let a CHILD be tortured for YEARS

Because Anakin admitted to a slave chip. Of being owned. And he calls obi-wan Master

Obi-Wan is absolutely devastated because he tortured the child who he was responsible for and he never wanted to do that and oh force, he's a monster (it’s obi wan so like. infinite sadness to the max)

The clones basically become Anakin's mother hens

WHAT IF THIS IS HOW THEY FIND THE CLONE CHIPS TOO

BC KIX GOES "IF THEIR JETII HAS A CHIP...ONE OF THEIR OWN... WHAT ABOUT US CLONES?"

Also the fact so if this is during the Clone Wars: they've sent Anakin in as a soldier without him even knowing he had a right to not fight

The Council decides immediately to take Anakin off the front and get to seeing a mind healer, before collectively drinking an entire bar under the table

Oh God did anyone ever explain to anakin. In depth. That just because they are called "Master" does not mean they own him?

AS A SLAVE, HE WAS ALLOWED HIS THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS. HIS MASTERS BEFORE DID NOT OWN HIS MIND. BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE WITH THE JEDI, IN HIS PERSPECTIVE

(again, Anakin’s perspective, the Jedi didn’t actually know. This somehow becomes an eventual fix it lol.)

Like LOGICALLY Anakin knows that Master to them means teacher but he thinks it doesn't apply to him because they won him and he is still a slave

What if that's the reason he kept his marriage to Padme a secret, not because he was afraid of being kicked out of the Order, but because he would be punished for loving a free person?

YEAH BC SLAVES DON'T GET MARRIED AND PADME WAS NOT ONLY A FREEBORN, BUT SHE IS ALSO, IN HIS EYES, SO FAR ABOVE HIS STATION ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY

Oh, with the removal of the chip and the pain, Anakin gets high from the huge levels of pain-relieving chemicals his body has been producing for years to compensate.

Anakin living in constant fear of punishments, and that's why he always seems so high strung and on a hair trigger

Like!! This whole thing is a web of miscommunication and assumptions

Anakin assumes that the Jedi and whatever know about the chip and chose to keep it in.

He assumes he is still a slave if not in name, then in status

He assumes the council is constantly punishing him for Qui-Gon essentially forcing them to take him in and for his failure to adhere to their code.

He assumes Obi-Wan feels the same, or perhaps he cannot risk going against the council bc they're his elders and he still loves Obi-Wan, bc he sees that Obi-Wan does care for him

(but not enough to free you, a voice whispers in his head that grows louder every day)

Him talking about things with Palpy, thinking the man would be nice enough to free him...

the entire temple is just full of people drinking and crying over Anakin and Anakin himself is currently the most functional person around, trying to convince everyone it wasn't that bad

He doesn't realize that that makes it so much worse. He's all "Really, compared to my other masters. And to masters I could have gone to... you all were kind. I was lucky."

And they despair.

Because how could they still be given that earnest smile, of beautiful blue eyes, shining still with trust and love, when they tormented him, albeit unknowingly, for over a decade?

Anakin is just very relieved to be pain free, and that they didn't know so it wasn't on purpose.

Anakin: You all treated me so well! I had food and water every day, shelter and good quality clothing. You never beat me and my punishments, while sometimes painful, were done with no tricks without cruelty.

“You’re the best masters I’ve had.”

Mace, upon being told this by a very earnest and 100% honest Anakin, knowing full well how he made life difficult for Anakin and didn't like him much, cleared a whole bar of alcohol on his own

While the Jedi are crying, the 501st is willing to go on a murder spree. The Hutts are DEAD.

Everyone say bye bye Gardulla and Jabba

Anakin is just happy and relieved.

Yes there will be talking. He will have to establish boundaries, the order will need to regain its footing.

But Anakin is free, and he has so much love to give.

And now he knows that they never meant for him to suffer.

And maybe he's still high on being free of pain, but now he knows they genuinely cared for him and none of their kindness was because they wanted him to perform well. They were genuine.

Obi-Wan at one point just breaking down and holding Anakin to his chest and sobbing because how did he fail him so badly

meanwhile Anakin's just like "Master, it's fine, I'm fine. Hey crying wastes water, if you're going to cry over something it's gotta be something more major than this. I mean everything's fine, everything's better than fine now, I'm free."

Anakin not quite processing why everything he says makes Obi-Wan cry harder.

Quinlan must be very glad that he never tried to touch Anakin directly.

Anakin's self-flagellation issues are through the ROOF

1K notes · View notes

jessiebanethedragon · 3 years ago

Text

White Sands Warm the Cold Sea (pt 10)

Summary: the reader, betrothed to a disgusting Coruscanti Lord flees her home world and lands herself in a plethora of trouble, a ship of clones, and one pirate captain whose cold exterior needs much more than the tropical seaside sun.

Chapter one

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Warnings: Swearing, takes place in time periods where women have dowery's and suchlike. The readers' dad and betrothed are asses.

Chapter Ten: The Echo

Greeting your companions the next morning was just as awkward as bidding them goodnight after the debacle last night. You’re stiff, bruised, and the dirtiest you’ve ever been in your whole life. Lightly retying the corset to support yourself, you collect Gonk from where she’s curled in the Hammock and brace yourself before heading out onto the deck of the ship. It’s already very bright out, and the crew is as rambunctious as ever. With the Captain throwing orders around here and there, Tech and Wrecker working the sails, and Crosshair shouting back down to Hunter. It’s marvellous how they work together when they're not disagreeing about something.

You feel Gonk leap off your shoulder with a curious noise before bounding away, her speckled wings bouncing behind her. She looks clumsy for a lizard, but then again, how many lizards did you know that have feathers?

“Good Morning!” Wrecker shouts to you when he notices your figure. You give him a smile and a small wave. Tech returns your smile and watches you as you glance around. Appreciating the sea and the vessel you’ve found yourself on.

The water of the Corillian run is a rich blue with just enough green to look magical. And the waves the churn underneath you look more powerful than any carriage or speeder you’ve seen before. Just as you’re wondering how deep it is, there's a commotion behind you. Hunter is glaring deadly at Gonk, who’s held by her neck feathers in front of his face. And from the way her wings are flapping and her front claws grab at him, it's no mystery where she was, or where she’s trying to go.

“I’m sorry!” You say, gathering your skirts and rushing over. The Captain glares at you as he shoves her into your arms, her grey feathers bunching up as he does so. His tunic is rolled up again, and in the morning light you can see the symbols on his forearm more clearly. Traitor.

When the wooden ruler collided with your desk you yelped in fear and surprise. Was it the first time this had happened? Absolutely not, and if these lessons continued this way, it certainly wouldn't be the last.

“Pay. Attention.” The Pantoran woman growled at you, she was very smart. You could just tell, and the fact she was instructed to dumb down your education infruiated the both of you. “As I was saying…” She eyed you - a dare to look out the window and start daydreaming again.

“Teach me about the war.” You blurted out the statue of the emperor they were erecting, catching your eye again.

“This is a language class.” She said with a sigh, before placing the ruler down. “I’m guessing you want to know about the Clones.”

“How did you kn-”

“It’s all anyone ever talks about.” She interrupted you, which was shocking in itself, but not unwelcome. Perching herself on the birch coloured desk, you found her staring out the window as well.“It’s well known that there was scarcely a better soldier than a Kaminoan Clone. And so when the war came to its end, and the Jedi went rouge, well they hardly stood a chance. Those who sided with them were caught and killed or branded traitors. Why they let any of them survive is beyond me, but those clones were so fiercely loyal. Some of them just couldn't shake that. No matter how hard the Kaminoans or the Emperor tried, there were millions of them, and some…” She paused for a moment, glancing back at the door as if someone was watching you through it.

“Well even if an inhibitor chip is 99.99% effective, out of one million, there will still be one hundred defects.”

You try to stop staring, you really do. But by then Hunter has caught your eye, and is glaring even harder than he was before. Cautiously you take a step back, finding yourself in the company of clones is one thing, those willing to defy Nython, another. But enemies of the Galactic Empire was a different kind of dangerous.

“Courtesy of your betrothed.” The Captain grits out, and whatever softness was there from the night before is gone. Scared, you clutch Gonk to your chest like a child would a blanket. “What did you do?” You ask, looking him up and down. Even with the scars on his knuckles of cuts and burns, He didn't look like the horror stories you’d been told as a kid, in fact, he didn't look dangerous at all. But the symbols were there, scared into his skin some time ago. Something flashes in his brown sugar eyes, like the ping of a blaster bounces off of his iries in the heat of battle. Like he relives combat right in front of you.

“What we did was rescue a prisoner of war.” He spits, walking towards you and backing you into the banister that overlooks the pain part of the deck. “That hammock you’re sleeping in belongs to someone.”

“I’m sorry.” You say trembling. Looking to the side to see Wrecker place a firm hand on his sergeant's shoulder and pull him firmly away from you.

“Echo’s was in the hands of the Techno Union for some time.” Wrecker explains defusing the situation. “He’s waiting for us on Alderaan, after some much needed rest.” Hunter, who’s now swatting Tech - and whatever device he’s trying to scan him with - away, seems to be ignoring you.

“I-I didn’- I didn’t mean…” You tell Wrecker shakily.

“I know, and it’s okay.” He says with a smile, but Hunter's words resonate with you. Haunting you of acts you have had nothing to do with.

In his cabin Hunter throws his hat as hard as he can against the wall. He hates you, he hates the Empire and most of all he hates Nython. And what’s even more infuriating is how innocent you are, how your morales are driving you away from your betrothed, and how you saved the shit disturbing reptile that seems to like himself and yourself too much. And no matter how much Hunter wants to despise the empire, if it’s still filled with people like you, it means there’s still something to fight for. But if he’s being honest with himself, he doesn’t know how much fight he's got left.

☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠

“What did he mean, courtesy of my betrothed?” You have to walk quickly behind Crosshair in an effort to keep up, his long legs easily outpace you and even though you’re both still injured he moves quickly. You follow him into the storage area that you’re all too familiar with, nearly bumping into him when he stops to look for a specific crate.

“Why don’t you bother Tech with your questions?” Crosshair says pushing boxes around.

“Because you’ll tell me the truth, no sugar coating.” You tell him, nudging him aside with your boot as you lean over to grab what he couldn’t reach. Perhaps being smaller wasn’t a disadvantage after all. Proudly you hand him the strange looking fruit.

“I need the whole crate.” Crosshair tells you unimpressed, before giving you the singular Meiloorun fruit and leaning over the stack of crates again. “And to answer your question, he was talking about the scars on his hand.” You lean against the tower so you can try to read his face as he yanks the crate forward.

“The burns or the wounds?” You ask, mulling over the fruit in your hands.

“Same thing.” Crosshair explains. “From a mission on Kashyyyk, Nython had the whole forest alight, and Hunter got trapped behind a blast door.” He watches as you cover your mouth with one hand as you remember the boasts, the gloat, the pride Nython had when he recounted the battle.

“You should’ve seen it,” There’s awe in Crosshair's voice now. “The Regs wanted to label him MIA, but that's not Hunter, not the Sergeant of ‘Force 99. When the squad hoisted him into that medical bay, he was barely alive.”

“No wonder he hates me.” You breathe, looking at the clone in front of you who shrugs.

“Don’t take it personally, he hates mostly everyone. We all do, it’s…” Crosshair stops and composes himself, like being honest or genuine with you is a weakness. “Nython decimated everything in his path. There’s what? A handful of Wookies left, half of those are thanks to him and all he can think about is how many he didn’t save.” You gently place your fruit on the box Crosshair is standing before you with. “It’s all a bit narcissistic if you ask me.” You smile at Crosshairs sass.

“You’d know.” You counter, trying to ease the tension in the room. “Thank you, for being honest.” You tell him, catching a smirk as he starts up the stairs.

“It’s one of my many endearing qualities.” He says, before shouting to his brothers about something that you don't even bother trying to understand.

With a look back at the hiding spot that you had chosen when you boarded the ship, you start up the stars and get back into the daylight. The captain is still gone, but Tech, Crosshair and Wrecker are each peeling a Meilroon fruit. You smile at them, they look so picturesque right now. The sea in the background and the three of them scraping the tough skin off of the fruits with knives. You’re reminded of children's picture books of pirates mulling over gold.

“Hey! What’s so funny?” Wrecker calls when he sees your big smile. Walking over, You plant yourself on the floor leaning against the banister.

“I half expected you all to break out into a sea shanty.” You tease reaching up to pick up a fruit.

“Ha ha.” Crosshair said dryly, giving you the handle of the knife to take from him to peel your own fruit. “Try not to chuck it at Tech again will ya?” you nod and very carefully start running the blade along the fruit.

“So no sea shanties then?” You ask, popping a piece into your mouth.

“We don’t sing.” Tech states.

“Yeah we do!” Wrecker argues, jamming his knife into the lid of the crate, “we know that one from-”

“Ferrik if you start singing that again.” Crosshair grumbles.

“THERE ONCE WAS A SHIP THAT PUT TO SEA” You all cringe when Wrecker starts shouting rather than singing, both of his brothers shout back simultaneously for him to stop, while you giggle from your spot on the floor. You could almost get used to their company, that and the fresh salty sea air, you are already beginning to enjoy the life of sailing. On the second floor, emerging from the captain's quarters, Hunter generally steps. Even someone without enhanced senses would have heard Wreckers incessant shouting and he has every intent on giving the three of them a lecture when he hears something else entirely.

“There was once a soldier who carried a mighty sword, and he had saved the village, oh lei, oh lai, oh lord.” Your voice accompanies soft taps to the wooden boards to create some kind of beat. The sound stops as soon as it starts.

“Don’t stop on our account.” He hears Tech's voice, and a stealthy Hunter moves to try and get a better view, he wants to know what you’re up to, and if you’re still trying to manipulate his crew.

“I’ve been told I have an atrocious singing voice.”

“It’s better than Wreckers.” Both Crosshair and Tech comment simultaneously. And Hunter hears you let out a half laugh. Some kind of reserved dainty thing that has him rolling his eyes.

“There was once a sailor, he had travelled the globe, his love he was chasing. oh lei, oh lai, oh lord.” You continue tapping again, “And there will come a captain who’s heart is completely pure, he will find those who are lost, oh lei,...” He hears you stop. As something catches your attention. And Hunter takes the opportunity to make an appearance.

You hear the captain’s footsteps before you turn your gaze away from the birds flying alongside the ship. “Who let the Aaray get a’ hold of a knife again?” He says looking down at you, the fruit and the blade. Hesitantly, and with only half of the Meilroon fruit peeled you give the knife back to Crosshair the same way he had originally given it to you. Pointing the handle towards him whilst gently holding the blade.

“I wasn’t going to…” You start.

“Going to what? Try and kill one of my crew again?” Hunter raises an eyebrow as if he’s daring you to disagree. You take a deep breath in, and hoist yourself onto shaky feet. Wrecker gives you a hand when your legs shake still in pain. Letting out your breath you lock eyes with the captain.

“I understand your hatred for that man,” You begin softly.

“No.” He snaps, “you don’t” You plead with his unforgiving eyes, and the way his half tattooed face scrunches in annoyance.

“You can’t be reasoned with.” You say hopelessly, knowing that whatever you say, it won't be enough.

“I should not have to reason with the likes of you.” Hunter bites. And at this point even Wrecker has given up trying to reason with him. Behind you, Tech’s Holopad beeps.

“I am not my Fiance!” You exclaim. “And yet you attribute all of his crimes to me, even the crime of trying to rid myself of Ny-”

Before you can react, Hunter moves fast as lightning, a hand on your throat, his own vibroblade dangerously close to you, bending you against the banister that stops you falling into the abyss alone. The three others brace themselves and when they move to help you, stop at the growl of anger from their sergeant.

“You do not. Say that name. On. My. Ship.” He tells the trembling woman beneath him.

“What happened to you Sergeant?” You breathe out, searching for the man that his brothers seem to think he is. Everything they tell you about him, every ‘he’s not like this.’ All of his actions point to the fact that he is like this. Something changes in his face, like he remembers where and who he is. And like Hunter is on fire, he steps away from you. The second there's room, Wrecker forces you behind him protectively.

“Sarge.” Tech says, his voice echoing like blaster fire in the mountains. “I think you should come with me.”

Tags: @the-mandalorian-clone-lover @peacefulwizardfox @rex-meshla @s1st37 @and-claudia @kamino-mermaid @thelambandthewolffe @starwarsmeninhelmets

@bronvin @myeternalsin @sweetsunflowerkisses @loverofclones @beizm @gunsmoke-blu

@logina6 @wondergal2001 @lafy-taffy @lafy-taffy @m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s

@starskenobiwan @lordellbell @kaetavlos @violetjedisylveon @vergol @Lackofhonor

#tbb echo #tbb tech #tbb hunter x reader #tbb hunter #tbb sergeant hunter #sergreant hunter x you #sergeant hunter x reader #the bad batch series #sergeant hunter #hunter x reader #hunter clone #hunter x you #tbb wrecker #tbb crosshair #jessiebanethedragon #white sands warm the cold sea

59 notes · View notes

hellothere-generalangsty · 3 years ago

Note

hey hey hey 📝

Hey you 🥰 Let me tell you straight away there's more than one because I'm a sucker for your fics and I will absolutely read all the one I haven't read yet because I just know they're good. I just know it. Same, my absolute favorite is in blue! 💙

@murdertoothpick

________

young volcanoes

Of course I love this one, Fives' fic AND Fall Out Boy?? I knew you would come up with something awesome but this... This is absolutely wonderful.

I just love the delight, the comfort in knowing that the war is over, and there will be no more fight to the death for the clones. For these men who will finally do something else than die; they will finally live.

It's not until Echo nudged him that Fives sees you approach the ramp with quick feet, colliding into him with a force so strong that he stumbles back a little, and yet, it's the most grounded he's felt in a long time.

Again, I screamed a very real scream when I read that. It's sad; but also beautiful, to be the one person that grounds him and offers him enough comfort and care and that feeling of safety-

'Don't ever let me go,' you press into him, and the way he squeezes you just a little tighter makes you melt.

It does make me melt. I am a puddle. This quote alone cured my anxiety. No but; for real; I just love these silent moments. I am very vocal about my emotions and feelings for the people I care about; but sometimes words aren't enough, or argent quite right so we turn to these silent exchanges - a look, a pression, a touch - something to let you know it's okay. I love that.

Fives meets Jesse with a proud grin, his hold on you relenting except for the one arm he keeps around your waist. 'Not tonight vod,' he breathes, meeting your eyes as you turn to face his brother, 'I'm going home.'

And Fives' words repeat softly in your head. He's going home. […]

That home is wherever the other is. It is the one thing that perseveres beyond the war. It is the one constant Fives' has ever had the choice to have, the one thing you'd never give up for anything.

This. This is it.

Being someone's home is so personal and meaningful. The trust, the care, the feeling of safety- everything that comes with the fact that you are someone's home.

And for it to be a constant in a life and a galaxy where everything keeps changing?? It's the same energy as Ari's fic It's been a long, long time.

It's comforting, and it gives me hope. This is the essence of Star Wars - hope - and you depicted it so perfectly.

I am honestly amazed and in love with this fic. (And Fives.)

at least, percentage wise

This one was a bit painful but also tender; let me explain.

'Hunter sold me as a droid today.'

He continues, 'I know he doesn't think of me like that but...it was hard enough being treated as a clone and now...I don't know what I even am.'

This. Is very painful.

I absutely love Echo, right. I adore him, he's awesome and handsome and kind and funny and he's Echo.

Yet he doesn't know that. He doesn't know who he is anymore- "what" he is.

What. That's so painfully sad. Like I said clones are already caught in this sort of identity crisis because what are they? Clones? Soldiers? Men? Brothers? Humans?

And now. Now Echo isn't even sure he fits the last category anymore. And it honestly pains me when people call him "android" or "droid man" because he already feels so self-conscious about this. And yes- he has prosthetics and robotics implants- but never should he be considered less of a human because of them. He's still Echo. He's still human.

He changed, but he's still Echo.

His next words are whispered, afraid of receiving an answer. 'Tell me you'd love me more if I weren't...' the words catch in his throat, 'this.'

And this is the moment where I tear up because.

This.

I can hear it. I can hear the pain and the fear in his voice and it honestly breaks. My heart.

How deeply rooted is his self-consciousness? How deep does the self-hatred run for him to think so little of himself??

I hate it here it just makes me so angry and sad for him.

My handsome boy deserves BETTER.

'You handsome man,' you jest, blessing him with a short kiss on the lips. 'You ready to sleep now?.'

I love this because I always call Echo "my handsome boy" or "handsome boy" and that's 1. Because he IS handsome like have you seen the man?? And 2. Because I believe if he hears it all the time he will slowly but surely believe it. He will accept that he's handsome and maybe feel less self- conscious about his body and himself...

I just need him to feel loved and beautiful because he is.

And I mean... Soft. Domestic. "You ready to sleep now?" is something you tell to someone in such a casual yet caring way and I am absolutely here for it.

This fic is just- I would react the same way reader did. It's so obvious to me he's absolutely trustworthy and nice and smart and handsome- he's filled with qualities and so many reasons to love him and care for him.

I mean- Echo. He alone is a valid argument.

Anyway, this fic just has me feeling much love for Echo and you made me fall for him again;;

push and pull

'Tsk, why won't you do what I say?'

I read that in his voice every. Single. Time. That's just- so him. 100% pure Crosshair content here.

And "the little umbrella" thing? Tech's remark on the food?

These little funny moments are so soft and a nice contrast to the sometimes sad undertone of the fic! I love that!

'I...like being close to you.'

'It's hard enough letting you in. I don't want my brothers thinking I've gone...soft.'

This. This is also very Crosshair. He's not very vocal, and to see him struggle a bit to confess what's really going on and feel awkward and embarrassed about it is just-

Great. In a sweet way. And the way you write him so well, so accurately-

Yes. 100% yes.

somewhere only we know

Alright. This fic right here is, I believe, the first one I read from you. At least it marked me enough for me to remember it as the first one.

Anna. This fic right here is. You made me cry. You had me crying while reading it because it's just.

The song alone is already- you know, very bittersweet and nostalgic in a way; and you managed to write something so perfect it's- it's not the fic matching the song. It's the song matching the fic.

I read it again to write this review - with the song on loop obviously - and I got tears again. It's just that powerful.

But your anxiety melts away as he gives you a slight smile, offering his hand to you, 'You'll have to lead the way.' […] He would always trust you, he has never felt otherwise.

I can't even explain how meaningful that it. It means so much to him, and he knows; and you do too. There's a level of trust and intimacy here.

'Just...hold me.'

Don't ask me why, but reader saying this is low-key making me emotional.

'Do you want this?', he murmurs, […].

You take an agonisingly long time to reply, your eyes flit between his, searching for any sign of hesitation, or regret. But you don't find any, as much as Crosshair is good at hiding his emotions behind an impassive and collected facade, you see the silent plea in his eyes, a longing for more.

Tears. Very real tears. The care and respect and trust and love this question alone holds. It's just. So delicate and soft, I just-

And then-

'Are you sure?' he whispers, so close to you, basking in this intimacy.

Girl if you wanted to make me cry you just had to say it, right? Like, don't mind me I'm a sucker for this; being so intimate and respectful of your partner that's like- everything.

Honestly that's what everyone deserves.

He lets out a light laugh, it's beautiful, reverberating deep in your heart, a sound so rare that you try hard to commit it—and the way he looks—to memory.

I promise you...

The candlelight surrounds your face in a halo-like glow like you were sent from heaven. It's a blessing.

...you hold my heart. This is poetry. This is art. This is comforting and lovely. And I am tearing up once again.

Your next words are meek, whispered, hidden away from the outside world, but you bare your soul to him anyways.

You almost don't hear it, but the way the words vibrate against your skin as he spills himself inside you makes it impossible for them not to be heard.

You wrote the words; but honestly I didn't even needed to read them to cry. It's just so vulnerable. They are both in a situation were they are literally and metaphorically naked, and there's nothing else but them - everything else fades away without them noticing and it's just.

Them.

And they allow themselves to be so vulnerable, finally, after all the build-up and the obstacles of the war and the downfall of the galaxy and the chip. After loosing each other and finding their way back to each other.

And finally allowing themselves to be so vulerable, so exposed to each other-

Brb gotta cry some more.

He takes one of your hands in his, pressing a featherlight kiss to your knuckles. 'Just getting you a cloth Cya'rika.'

Your mouth opens in an Oh, and you gingerly nod at him. 'Okay, sorry,' you give him the most beautiful smiles he's ever seen, and there's a part of him that has changed its mind about leaving you even for a second.

I can't even. Explain. How sweet this is. No words can express what I'm feeling as I read this. The comfort. The reassuring tone. The f**king Mando'a nickname.

Your arms open pathetically when he lets go of you, an invite for him to join you under the covers. But he looks at you in pure adoration, a sight that's so peaceful, so domestic, that he finds himself letting his mind wander, imagining that this temporary room was a home, a place where he could spend the rest of his days with you, away from war and the empire.

My heart is aching. A lot. It's so peaceful yet so tragic in a way, but they don't see that. Again, it's just them; this moment of intimacy, of domestic life where nothing else matter but what they are sharing right now.

Somewhere only we know.

alone together

This fic is awesome. I love the dynamic between reader and Crosshair, there's this very obvious alchemy between them and you manage to write about it with limited dialogue and amazing descriptions. I am absolutely in awe.

Also- Confident Reader? Love that! Especially in a Crosshair fic! And it's great because we also see a glimpse of Crosshair having self-esteem issues, so there's a sort of shift where for once Crosshair doesn't have the "upper hand" and reader isn't all shy and flustered you know (though I absolutely love these kind of fics too!)

But yeah- their dynamic was really interesting!

heartbeat

Another Crosshair fic because I love him and you really write him so well and in-character.

'I like...hearing your heartbeat.'

This little hesitation is everything. And it's so... So personal and delicate.

Someone's heartbeat. That's life pulsing through their body. That's very symbolic too; we usually link strong feelings like love and care to the heart, and to lay there with someone and enjoy listening to that life pulsing-

Yeah I'm getting soft again

'I'm not moving,' he grumbles, pressing himself further into you and sighing in relief.

This is so lovely; him holding on tighter because he doesn't want to move, because he feels good here and that's the best way he found to let you know...

I just love your takes on Soft!Crosshair, you really know what you're writing about.

hands meet

I tried to draw Hunter. With the sunglasses and the shirt and him trying to be cool.

I shall do that drawing again because it's absolutely HILARIOUS and I just adore this fic because it's so light-hearted and sweet and funny!

It's a feel-good fic, the one you read when you need to clear your head a bit; and I promise you the laugh I had reading it!

And I just love the dynamic between Hunter and reader; it's awkward yet there's a lot of alchemy and you just know they do like each other a lot and are just struggling to express it directly.

That's very sweet and I love that.

Love it.

________

So yeah! Again, it was longer than expected but I am not sorry because you deserve to know how much I love these fics and how you also hold my heart in your hands with these.

You're an amazing - incredible - writer and I love how you bring these very human and realistic elements to your stories. It just makes them even more relatable and enjoyable, even if sometimes it's painful, and that's what I love so much about your writing.

Also I absolutely love how you incorporate lyrics between in your writings

Anyway- love u Anna, love your writing, you're amazing!!

#anna 💗#you really came here for real business #making my knees weak half of the time #and my heart bleed the other half #and I will come back for more because you're just SO TALENTED AND SKILLED #I'm so happy I follow you and got into your stories like-#so happy it's so worth it #ur awesome I promise you #mesa answers #sw fic rec #fic recs #star wars fic #sw fics #star wars

13 notes · View notes

cl-01-kestis · 4 years ago

Text

My Little Rebel - Inquisitor!Cal Kestis x Female Rebel!Reader | Part 11

Summary: You dig deep into your mind and search for answers about your past as a Jedi, unlocking memories you never thought you’d have.

Warnings: this is a filler chapter

“You’re gonna need all the energy you can get, I’ll see you in the morning” Cere hugged you like a mother as she wished you farewell for the night, squeezing you tighter than usual and making you feel safe as you pulled away and smiled.

“Night, Cere” You nodded, earning the ghost of a smile from the woman who turned around and walked away without another word. You closed your door quickly, closing your eyes and leaning your head against the door as darkness flooded your room, only light pooling in vaguely in the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

You opened your eyes, realising now just how exhausted you were. You weren’t sleeping as much as you used to, so of course you’d be tired. In fact, tired was a pure understatement. You practically dropped down almost unconscious on your bed as you got down the small set of stairs that connected the two platforms of your room.

The covers felt warm as you wrapped yourself in them, you turned to the large circular window that revealed all the stars and planets the Mantis was passing by. You sat cross legged on your bed as your eyes gleamed up at the pitch black surrounding you, feeling as though you could fall asleep right there and then but something was keeping you awake.

The faint sound of humming could be heard next to you, a mechanic buzz.

Your tired gaze shifted from space to your lightsaber which was placed next to you on your bed, it flowed a faint purple and only then did you realise the force wanted to show you something. Yawning, you picked up the lightsaber and held it in your lap, closing your eyes and memorising your meditation routine due to how religiously you had been doing it since you arrived on the Mantis.

It took a while for you to get that connection with the force, the saber was glowing but it was almost as if it was denying your presence. Still, you kept your calm and didn’t get angry, you knew better than to get angry over such a small thing.

You inhaled deeply, the air filling your chest till it couldn’t anymore which was followed by a slow and outdrawn exhale. The force finally let you slip inside and brought you into the same familiar white space that you appeared in the first time you meditated.

Multiple orbs of purple hue floated in the air, surrounding you and all waiting for you to pick one. You took your time in deciding which one to go for, instead of silence there was now many different voices calling out to you from each orb. You recognised Shaak’s, there was also Wolffe and the Wolfpack, but another voice caught your attention over the others. One you didn’t recognise but were sure you had heard it from somewhere.

It was a young boy, you were guessing at about 11 or 12 years old, his voice was squeaky and he sounded nervous as he called out your name. The voice was coming from one of the orbs furthest away, highlighting itself to you because of its brighter colour and bigger shape.

Curious, you creeped through the other orbs, careful not to touch any as you walked past and eventually stood in front of the bright glowing purple hue. The voice got louder, sounding as though the boy was now yelling out to you as you slipped your hand into the hue, everything immediately going white and the only thing present was the boy’s fading voice.

Your sight returned shortly after, followed by your hearing and then the sensation in your body. You breathed out a sigh of relief, feeling tense at the way it felt to flash back into memories you had forgotten all about. This whole experience was way out of your imagination, you couldn’t make this stuff up even if you tried.

You opened your eyes and found yourself standing in the middle of a cantina hall full of clone troopers, including your own Wolfpack. In your hands you held a tray, you didn’t even know how it got there, but you acted along and looked around for some kind of answer, wanting to know why the force wanted to show you this.

“Padawan, you seem lost?” You jumped slightly and turned around, only to look up and crane your neck at an almost 90 degree angle when a large Lasat male approached you with a kind yet firm face.

“Master Tapal,” You greeted, surprised you even knew his name considering you didn’t recognise who he was, maybe you had more memories you were supposed to cover before this one.

“I-I was just trying to find a seat, it’s pretty busy today” You said whilst looking around, your voice much more squeaky and anxious. Master Tapal let out a brief, short lived chuckle, staring down at you with a smile before looking around and trying to find somewhere to sit.

“I’m sure there’s a seat somewhere, come with me Padawan” He instructed, his massive body turning around to walk in the opposite direction where the booths were located. Reluctantly, you followed him whilst keeping a firm grip on your tray, shy around the clones you passed and trying your best to smile as they greeted you.

You were starting to remember more in your conscious state, getting used to being back in your smaller body and adjusting to the fact you had no control over what you done and said. This was a memory after all, everything you were seeing had already happened, you had no control over it.

“Ah, see! Over there by the corner” Jaro stopped and pointed his long arm over to the corner of the cantina, you almost crashed into him at his sudden abruptness but stayed quiet and looked over to where his finger was directed.

In the distance, inside a booth sat a young boy.

You clutched your tray just a little tighter when you studied him, noticing his fiery red hair and hauntingly familiar face. Next to him was a clone troop, white and yellow armour followed by helmets on the tables so the soldiers could eat their food. Your heart slammed violently in your chest and you felt like you were going to throw up.

“Over there, I’m sure my Padawan won’t mind some company, especially from someone who’s his senior” Tapal nudged you with an amused expression on his face. You gulped down the lump in your throat and nodded, looking back up to the large man and smiling.

“How old is he?” You asked curiously, looking back down to the booth and seeing the boy laugh, you weren’t sure why but it seemed the clones were sharing funny stories and jokes.

“11, 3 years younger than you” He answered with a kind tone, obviously not bothered at the fact you were curious. Nodding your head, you thanked Tapal and bid him farewell before making a hesitant approach to the booth full of clones and the one Padawan boy.

“Um, e-excuse me, can I join you?” You asked with a stutter followed by a blush. The nearest clone to you smiled and chuckled to himself softly, shuffling over and patting the spot next to him at the booth which made your heart feel a little easier.

“Of course! Get yourself comfy kid, you’re just in time for the 13th Batallions stories!” The clone nudged you after you sat next to him and let out a giggle, grabbing your cutlery from your tray and tucking into your food.

A lot of chatter and chuckles were exchanged across the tables, including your own. You shared stories of your own and talked about the adventures you went on with Shaak Ti, the clones were in awe of how brave you were considering your age, but nothing caught your attention more than the small, younger Padawan sitting across from you. He was quiet, letting out the occasional chuckle and waving off whoever asked if he was alright. You stared at the boy in curiosity, quickly looking away if he ever looked over and caught your gaze. He looked familiar.

“I’m (Y/N)” You said, your voice barely audible over the clones laughter. Your eyes connecting to the boys light blue ones and made him smile slightly, he was awkward about his approach though.

“I-I’m Cal, Cal Kestis” He stuttered shyly, reaching his arm across the table and shaking your hand in a soft, delicate grip. Your smile widened and you shook his hand in return, careful not to scare him and watching how hard you shook it until the two of you let go and looked to the clones.

“Are they always this loud?” You asked with a giggle, making the small Padawan in front of you roll his eyes and nod his head, as if he’d been asked the question a million times.

“You wouldn’t believe” Cal laughed, exchanging another glance from you which seemed to bring a blush to his freckled face.

“So what Jedi do you want to be when you grow up?” You asked curiously, turning your attention back to Cal who coughed lightly on his drink when he realised you were speaking to him once again. Gaining his composure, the red haired boy set down his cup back on his empty tray and let out a sigh.

“I like the idea of becoming a Jedi Master or Knight, like Obi-Wan Kenobi” Cal answered with a breezy tone, shrugging his shoulders and scratching his neck before clearing his throat.

“What about you?” Cal looked at you curiously, tilting his head to the side and waiting for your answer as you finished off the last of your meal.

“A Jedi Shadow, Master Shaak tells me I’m fit to be one and I’ve always looked up to the shadows within the temple, their jobs are to destroy the Sith and traces of them within the order” You seemed to boast about what you wanted to be, but to put it bluntly it was a dangerous job. To destroy the Sith and all thats to do with them seems a pretty hefty job, but your determination said otherwise.

“That’s cool” Cal’s eyes gleamed as he looked up at you, as if you were already made a role model just by the statement you just made. You smiled at his amazement and nodded your head, a blush spreading on your face.

“It’s... nothing really, I’ve got 10 more years till I’m at the stage of deciding my future as a Jedi,” You sighed, looking out to the cantina and spotting your Master speaking with Wolffe, their eyes directing over to you. This could only mean another mission had come up.

“Enjoy your training whilst you can, Cal, with skills like ours you’ll be able to conquer anything and stand up against everything,” You picked up your tray, standing up from your seat and bidding the clones a loud and humorous farewell.

“May the force be with you, Cal Kestis” You vowed your head, earning one from Cal who looked disappointed that you were leaving so soon.

“You too” He responded, watching you walk away and up to your master who reached an arm around your shoulders, guiding you away and out of the mess hall whilst Wolffe took your tray and took care of it. Cal didn’t take his eyes off you until you were fully out of sight and out of the Mess hall, feeling a strange ache in his heart before hearing the clones tease him about the way he was acting towards you.

The 11 year old huffed silently, turning around and crossing his arms over his chest and shutting off from the conversations surrounding him.

With a violent jolt, you woke up. Panting, sweating and catching your breath like you had just been underwater for minutes. Your body was covered in wet, fresh sweat and you felt your heart slamming harshly against your rib cage. Tears filled your eyes and you felt as though you were suffocating, trying to stop your crying as you shifted in your bed and let your legs dangle off the edge.

You hid your face in your hands, your body trembling aggressively as a cold sweat slowly lurked around you. You felt as though you were going to be sick, your stomach churned with the dinner Greez had made you early on and there was a sensation of impending doom that was heading straight your way.

Acting quick, you got up from your bed and ran up the small set of stairs in your room. You didn’t care what time it was, you had to get to the bathroom. Stumbling out of your room, you dashed for the bathroom beside you and fell to the floor when you reached the toilet. Your body was in a whole mix of sensations, from freezing cold, to boiling hot, to completely in between, you were all over the place.

You kicked the door shut behind you, not wanting to wake anyone up with the commotion as you coughed up your guts and tried not to choke. It was a few minutes until you stopped vomiting and only then did you manage to collect yourself and gather all your thoughts. You flushed the toilet before collapsing on your backside, leaning against the wall beside the toilet and grabbing some tissue and wiping your mouth, spitting out the remains of the horrid sick that remained in your mouth. You closed your eyes, checking that you weren’t going to be sick again before leaning back and letting out an exhausted sigh.

You let the images of the memory flash in your mind, your pulse was beating as fast as it possibly could at the shock you were in. You couldn’t believe it, you wanted to refuse to believe it, but these were your past memories. The memories you had before Shaak wiped your brain and you started from scratch.

Still in a state of shock, you carefully wobbled to your feet and opened the door, staggering back through to your bedroom and closing the door behind you. You didn’t bother walking down the set of stairs leading to your bed, instead you sat down on the floor and held your head in your hands. Your mind was a commotion, swirling with so many thoughts and opinions about the memory you just saw. Tears fell down your face and landed on the ground, followed by a swarm of stiffled sobs and sniffs.

Your body was shaking, at this point you felt like it was shutting down due to how much emotional torment you’d already gone through. First, you’re a Jedi, and now, you knew Cal before... before you ‘met’ Cal? Nothing made sense anymore.

You wanted to talk to him about it, at least say something even if he said nothing in reply, you just needed closure with this. The love of your life was once a Jedi Padawan along side you, you knew him long before he was an Inquisitor and he was even considered a friend.

Why did Shaak wipe your memory? How could she? Your mind held so many secrets that even you had to discover. If you still had the same memory you had as a Padawan, you’d be in a very different place. Cal would most likely be your enemy, he would most likely try and kill you and there would be a war between the both of you. You wish Shaak was still alive so you could ask her why she done what she did. You doubt any other Master wiped their Padawans memory after escaping the purge.

Coming back to reality, you rubbed your eyes and realised the ship had gone into hyperspace due to the stripes of blue and white outside of your large oval window. You stood up clumsily, walking through a light head and managing to get to your bed without collapsing. You needed sleep, you’d seen enough for the night and all you wanted to do now was to rest, only then would you be able to get a break from all the thoughts in your head. Only then would you find a bit of sanity.

#x reader #star wars #cal kestis #jedi fallen order #jedi reader #inquisitor

34 notes · View notes

norcumii · 5 years ago

Note

I'm gonna be predictable and put in a really basic prompt: more Domino!Bad Batch. I don't have an exact prompt other than this, just a bunch of possibilities to choose from? Finding Fives, meeting up with Rex after getting Echo, Rex actually being told Domino is ALIVE??? There's so many ideas.

...this hit 1.6k, I think I can (SHOULD) declare this done. >_>

THANK YOU, THIS WAS AWESOME! For this set of prompts, based upon this plunnie. Armor designs are based on @mercysewerpyro’s gorgeous speculations!

******

“I hate being back here.” Droidbait glared around the hallways, his body language obvious to Hevy. He didn’t respond beyond a click of acknowledgement over the comms, because they all did. Kamino might be home to a lot of brothers, but it just held a lot of hurt and memories for him.

It ached, every time he thought about how they hadn’t been here, hadn’t been able to save their brothers when the Seppies attacked. He couldn’t stop himself from brushing the underside of his left bracer, where 99’s number rested on the inside against his wrist. Cutup saw the gesture, and leaned in to bump shoulders. Hevy rocked with the motion, nudging back with an elbow, and tried not to sigh.

They were specialists, a commando squad that went everywhere and did everything. The past was past, and back then....

He hated to admit it, but their presence might well have done nothing but add to the body count.

Yeah, he hated being back here too. At least this was just another routine checkup, and then they could go.

It still felt so weird, walking through Kamino’s halls in their armor. It was ARC style, bulkier than standard with better protection, pauldrons and kamas, all in their dark gray with subdued – but extensive – dark blue markings. It was better for stealth than the typical white, but it made them stand out like highlighted targets in the endless stark white of Tipoca City. It meant the local brothers – young, you could tell from the body language and the tight way they clutched at their weapons and watched them too overtly – were staring at the squad in a mix of awe and concern.

“There seem to be an awful lot of armed brothers here?” Cutup asked, way too casual.

“Someone’s nervous about something,” Hevy muttered back.

A loud scuffle and a yell behind them had the squad whirling around, hands on blasters but not drawing yet. There was some kind of escort squad there, longneck in the lead – at least, they had been. Some brother in reds had shoved the Kaminoan down, was wrestling weapons from the guard squad in a way that was damned impressive. Sure, garri-troopers were...not the top of the line soldiers, but this guy was good. ARC quality, probably, to get three down that fast without a single shot fired. The restraint was one of the reasons Hevy and the others didn’t draw – the other was something...familiar? Some weird sensation crawling up Hevy’s neck.

The rambunctious brother was arguing with a medical droid, then the Kaminoan slammed an alert button. The hallway lights went red, the brother grabbed the droid and ran, and Cutup cried out.

Droidbait managed words, which was more than Hevy could do upon seeing the fleeing brother’s goatee and temple tattoo.

“Fives! That’s Fives!”

-----

By the time they figured out what was going on, Fives was already en route to Coruscant. Droidbait didn’t bother asking permission; he just sauntered into their ship with a droid in tow, and poor AZI-3 was claimed as part of the team.

On the plus side, he and Reesh seemed to be okay with each other, and by the time they arrived at Coruscant, it was obvious they were keeping him. The intel he carried, though – that was...concerning.

Fives was crazy, but not the kind of crazy that would make up some kind of wild conspiracy theory.

They had a plan, they had a helpful med-droid, and all they had to do was stop being at least one step behind the action.

-----

Fives woke up. He hadn’t expected that. He distinctly remembered getting shot, and it hurt, and then it was just darkness grasping up and pulling him down.

But here he was, waking up. He opened his eyes, and that worked too. The ceiling looked like any other in a transport ship, which meant he could be anywhere. Limbs felt all accounted for, and he was far clearer headed than he’d been when–

When things went bad.

Noise to the side drew his attention: three troopers were there, in dark armor that probably indicated some kind of specialists. Well, they probably had answers.

“I’m dead?” he asked, not sure how death was actually supposed to work.

“No!” a cheerful, familiar voice declared, and AZI-3 floated into view far too close to his face. “You are still alive and now back to almost normal levels of functioning!”

“AZI! You’re–” He bit back a relieved sigh, because he was terrified the poor tinny was going to be recycled. “You’re ok?” He sat up, wincing at that feel of deep pain in his chest, a low ache that meant bacta had been applied and done its work, but it was recent and his body sure as hell remembered what had just happened to it.

“Okay, and part of the squad!” The little droid did a happy twirl, showing off a new paint job that was in the same subdued blue as the troopers.

Fives looked over at the one standing in front of the other two, jaig eyes on his dark bucket and a ‘1’ on both vambraces. “Congratulations. The squad?”

The leader nodded. “Experimental unit Clone Force 99. The Bad Batch.”

Oh-kay. “That’s a rousing endorsement.” He didn’t mean to be disparaging, but he was still getting over being dead.

The brother on the right shrugged – his bucket had an impressive set of fangs detailed on it, as if some large creature were trying to swallow it from behind. “S’what we get for bein’ weird,” he said, funny lilt to his voice and apparently not caring about Fives’ tone at all.

The third trooper sighed, giving the second one a look. “Unconventional, the word you’re looking for is unconventional!”

Trooper Two’s bucket waggled mockingly at Trooper Three, as if the brother there were making rude faces. Fives couldn’t hear anything, but he was willing to wager a few credits he didn’t have that there was something being taunted over a private channel.

The leader ignored the byplay. “Fives....” He hesitated, then shrugged. “I’m sorry, I just have to ask: you do realize that you might as well be dead to the Republic? The GAR?”

He’d been trying pretty hard to ignore that. Fives allowed himself a moment to close his eyes and just breathe. “I was raving, wasn’t I.” His voice was quiet, and he’d meant it as a question, though it didn’t come out that way. “At General Skywalker and Captain Rex. I didn’t give them anything coherent, did I.”

The silence went on too long. “I’m sorry,” the leader said.

Fives opened his eyes, and he thought he saw sympathy in the brothers’ body language. “What happened?”

AZI puffed up, the droid ready to infodump in the way that he did, but the third trooper raised a hand in a polite, minimalist gesture to stop – and miracle of the Force, AZI did.

“AZI made up a cocktail to slow down your body’s functions, to let us fake your death” the leader said, crossing his arms. “We’d hoped to snipe you before things went to shit, but – that didn’t go so well. The Guard–” His hands balled into fists, and while it was nice to see this guy had emotions. “No one can figure out why the fuck they weren’t shooting to stun, which is basic fucking protocol, but – they got you. We tagged you at about the same time, swapped bodies en route to the morgue, and now we’re about mid-rim.”

Fives’ hand went up to his chest, to where that ache still lingered. “How close was it?”

“Very.” AZI sounded subdued, which both was, and really really wasn’t an improvement. “Someone drugged you before we did, and the chemical combination was bad. But we worked through that and now you’re back!”

He couldn’t stop himself, frustration boiling over till he slammed a fist against the examination table he was on. “Nala Se,” he growled, because he could at least keep from shouting. “It must’ve been on the transport to Coruscant!”

The Bad Batch was patient enough to let him calm down, then the leader took a step forward. “You’re certain there’s a conspiracy. That the Chancellor is....”

“Bad news,” he growled, brain shying away from that unfortunate memory.

He nodded. “Then I’ve got an offer for you. Fives is dead. We’ll need time; none of us are great slicers but we make do – and we could use a new member to the squad.”

“And you’ll help me stop this?”

“Yes.”

Fives held out his hand. “Then you’ve got a deal.”

The leader grasped his wrist and they shook. “I gotta say.” His voice sounded...off; too thick and almost shaking. “I’m glad. Welcome back to the Bad Batch, Fives.”

“Back?”

The two troopers removed their buckets. The smartass had a neatly trimmed, minimalist beard and mustache, and a wry grin. He was crying, like his brother. That one was cleanshaven, with closecut hair and some kind of snaky tattoo coiling up from the neck of his blacks.

Then the leader took back his hand, and pulled his helmet. He had some impressive old burn scars along the face, but that didn’t obscure the matching designs that wrapped around his neck and up onto his cheeks.

Fives stared at those familiar Z-6 blaster cannons, and on some level through the shock he realized he was crying too. “Hevy?” he finally managed, looking over and registering that it was Cutup and Droidbait, then looking back because this could not be happening. “I thought you said I wasn’t dead.”

He was swamped in a sudden group hug, and through the laughter and tears he could hear his brother. “You’re not,” Hevy promised. “You’re not, and we’re not, and we’ll explain everything, but most of all we are going to solve this. Together.”

~end

#mercysewerpyro #star wars #domino squad #clone prompts #domino bad batch #sass and murder show #plunnie for adoption #ALL THE FEELS #long post is long

118 notes · View notes

nimsajlove · 4 years ago

Text

Brothers (I)

So, english is not my first language and i am working with google a lot to translate the most. So please be forgiving, because this takes forever to do for me...

I started a little fan-fic-series in german and now I want to translate it. These are all AUs around Ahsoka and the Clones (most of the time). This little piece is about a AU, where Ahsokas connection to the Clones is much deeper. I shall be called my Brothers-AU I think. Enjoy.

AO3

Part II , Part III , Part VI , Part V , Part VI

*~*

With great reluctance she looked at the food on her plate, if it could be identified as such. She had already learned a lot, but this was her first long trip on one of the Jedi cruisers and now she knew what everyone meant, that the rations there were nutritious. Not more. "Do you spurn your food?", asked a clone calmly, he was sitting next to her and had already finished his ration. She was about to answer when a hand shot past her and grabbed her plate. "More for me.", exulted another soldier and just as Ahsoka was about to get her plate back, the captain laughed softly on her other side and pushed his empty plate away. "Little one, you will have to be faster if you want to see some of your rations."

She got faster. "Jesse, give it back!", she growled and circled the clone who was holding her dessert, consisting of a sweet bar, and was looking at it with curiosity. He was just beginning to open the packaging with a superior expression on his face, when the padawan lunged at him without warning and knocked him to the ground in the motion. And although she was so small, she grabbed the last part of her ration with surprisingly great strength and sat contentedly on the chest of the clone, who rubbed his head. He could have done without the acquaintance with the ground. "I warned you.", Kix mumbled, walking past them and just as he had turned the corner, Captain Rex came from this direction. He stopped with his helmet tucked under his arm and one eyebrow raised. "What happened here?" He asked and Ahsoka grinned broadly and immediately cut Jesse off. "I won.", she beamed and crumpled up the blank paper of the bar, without even thinking about getting up. Jesse could have pushed her down with ease, but somehow he too was enjoying these taunts too much to fight back much.

Rex looked confused for a moment, then began to laugh out loud and held out his hand to the little Togruta. "Wonderful kid!"

*~*

She had learned some mando’a during her studies. Not much, but enough to understand the most important things and recognize an offense. She hadn't been able to do much with the knowledge until the evening when she passed a group of clones on the way to her quarters. She had just returned from training with Master Skywalker, because since they hardly spent any time in the jedi temple, they had to do the training in the breaks between the missions on the cruiser. She was almost past the group, had greeted politely and was already looking forward to a shower. Then she heard the men laugh and one of them said a few words out loud. She didn't understand everything, but it included her name and an insult. Maybe it was because of her mindless behavior on the last mission, or it was about her behavior in general.

She paused for a moment and looked back at the men, who watched her slightly annoyed and when no one moved, she lowered her gaze and quickly went to her quarters. She considered going back to Master Skywalker. But at the same time, she didn't wanted to force him to split the men. She knew his opinion, the clones' strength were their relationships with one another. They formed a unit... She was still deep in her thoughts, when she was grabbed by the shoulders and stopped. "Careful, little one. Where are you going so quickly?” She looked up into Rex's calm face, and faint amusement played around his eyes. But that disappeared, when she began to babble a brief answer. Something about being tired and going to bed, she saw that he wasn't buying it.

They had already fought a few missions together and slowly, she got the feeling that the captain had decided to take her under his wing. Because even if she shouted orders on the battlefield and, since that incident, tried to get all the men out of it alive, he still stayed by her side for a while after the fighting. Until he couldn't stand her jokes and attitude anymore and left his brothers to her mercy. He had never seen her so distracted, actually he had expected a snippy, quick answer. His hand was still on her shoulder and he gently shook it. "If you show who is in charge, no complaint will get beyond my desk."

Said and done. This little assurance, that she was allowed to earn her respect, reignited the fire in her and it only lasted an hour before she had defeated the men in a sparring in the small training room and balanced the helmet of one of them on one hand, it was surprisingly heavy.

*~*

"Hey, Rexter!", she called and luckily, the clone stopped and waited until she caught up. Jesse was with him. "I’ll bet my dessert for the next week, that Hardcase will show up at least twice more at the medbay. Today.", she grinned and looked almost too confident for the taste of the clones. They had learned, that she liked to make smaller bets. The problem was, that she won most of them. Rex wondered, if there was any way he could tame Hardcase for today? He called Cody, Ahsoka's grin widened. Master Kenobi and his commander were on board and Rex felt it advisable, to ask his best friend before doing anything. "Hey Cody, do you know where Hardcase is?", he asked and earned a loud laugh, Ahsoka could see some restlessness on his face and had to laugh herself. It wasn't like Hardcase had been part of the team for a long time. With a second swing, he had only been incorporated into the 501st with a bit delay and Hardcase had quickly made a name for himself. And Ahsoka happend to be absolutely thrilled by his company, much to Rex's chagrin. He had complained to Cody a few times, but had received no real pity. “I just saw him, seemed to be in a hurry. I didn't wanted to stop him.” Ahsoka heard the broad grin in the commander's voice, as did Rex. "Oh, I hate you all.", he growled and cut the connection, then tried to reach Hardcase. Of course, there was no reaction. He looked down at Ahsoka, who was still grinning widely. “You are welcome to bet with Jesse, midget-commander. But I'll keep my dessert.", he grumbled and set off to track down Hardcase.

*~*

The nickname stuck for a while, Ahsoka didn't knew whether it bothered her or not. It was kind of funny, but sometimes the clones took it to extremes and with some of them, she had no hesitation to take up the chase while snarling at them. But Jesse and Hardcase had to learn, that Ahsoka also had limits. One was reached when they tried to challenge the girl to a little sparring, but she just sat sadly in the corner and waited. What for was not difficult to guess at, General Skywalker had become very loud during the last conversation with his padawan and none of the clones dared to speak about it. But apparently, Ahsoka couldn't just go back to business as usual until her Master had calmed down.

A few of them sat together in the canteen by the end of the day and complained about their suffering. It was strangely quiet, when Ahsoka Tano wasn't cracking jokes or squabbling with one of the clones. She wasn't with them now either, she'd retired to a table in a corner and poked at her food. The sight reminded Rex of her first day, only this time no one would dare to steal her plate. Hardcase, who usually planned all the pranks with the jung jedi, wrung his hands. “We can't just let her sit there like that. We wouldn't leave our brothers alone either.” He was quietly approved and there was silence for a few seconds. Then Rex took his dessert, a thing its name they had once again forgotten, and picked it up. ��Kid, come here! You won it, didn't you?”, he called and the girl actually lifted her head and came over with a tiny smile. As she plopped down between the men, one patted her back, another pushed a glass of water over to her and Rex let his dessert wander to where she was seated. “And now quickly, vod. Otherwise someone else will take it.", he teased and Ahsoka looked up with huge eyes. For a long time, no one had called her family and all the clones at the table laughed softly, when they saw her face.

#ahsoka tano #clone wars #au #brothers-au #star wars #clones #i tried okay?#lets see where this goes

15 notes · View notes

thisbluespirit · 4 years ago

Text

James Maxwell TV/Film List

More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability. It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier. However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only).

I’ve divided things into categories and @jurijurijurious (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for. (Also @jurijurijurious I have NO idea what old telly you’ve already seen, so forgive me if I’m telling you things you already know.)

Where to find it: Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad! Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures. I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.

***

Film serials (ITC mainly)

British TV made on film in the US mode with transatlantic cash, so generally pretty light, episodic (continuity is almost unheard of) etc. Some turn up on ITV3 & 4 on a regular basis (colour eps).

*** Dangerman “A Date With Doris” (ITC 1964) James Maxwell is a British spy friend of Drake’s (Patrick MacGoohan) called Peter who gets framed for murder. Drake goes to Fake Cuba to rescue him by which time JM is dying from an infected wound and faints off every available surface, including the roof. It’s great. On YT. (The boxset is v pricey if you just want 2 eps.)

“Fair Exchange” (ITC 1964) JM is a German spy friend of Drake’s called Pieter who helps him out on a case. Not as gloriously hurt/comfort-y as the other, but it does have some excellent undercover dusting. (Why Patrick MacGoohan has JM clones all called variations on Peter dotted around the globeis a mystery.) On YT.

The Saint “The Inescapable Word” (ITC 1965) This is pretty terrible, but entertaining and James Maxwell plays the world’s most hopeless former-cop-turned-security guard. With bonus collapsing. On YT.

“The Art Collectors” (1967). JM is the villain of the week. It does include a v funny bit, though, where the Saint (Roger Moore) goes for JM’s fake hair (and who can blame him? How often I have felt the same!) This one’s in colour so should pop up on ITV3 or 4.

The Champions “The Silent Enemy” (ITC 1968). Surprisingly good JM content as the villain of the week who drugs sailors and steals their clothes before realising that maybe he should have worked out if he could operate a sub before he stole it.

The Protectors “The Bridge” (ITC 1974, 30 mins.) Not worth seeking out on its own, but ITV4 seems fond of it and James Maxwell gets to do some angsting and wears purple, so it’s worth snagging if you can, but too slight otherwise.

*** Thriller “Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin” (ITC 1975; 1hr 10mins, I think). James Maxwell moves in with Julian Glover and runs an overcomplicated murdery spy ring where they bicker a lot in between killing girls by advertisement and burying them in the back garden. What could possibly go wrong?? Anyway, it’s solid gold cheese, has bonus Julian Glover and a lot of natty knitwear. What more does an old telly fan want? (tw: Keith Barron being inexplicably the very meanest Thriller boyfriend.) On YT but tends to get taken down fast.

***

Films

Design for Loving (1962; comedy). Can be rented from the BFI online for £3.50. Isn’t that great or that bad (or that funny either), but does have JM as a dim layabout beatnik, which is atypical.

***The Traitors (1962). This is a low-key little 1hr long spy B-movie, but it’s also thoughtful and ambiguous with a nice 60s soundtrack and location work (it’s a bit New Wave-ish) and the central duo of JM and Patrick Allen are sweet and it all winds up with James Maxwell going in the swimming pool. One of the things where JM is actually American. (Talking Pictures show this occasionally & it is out on DVD as an extra on The Wind of Change.) The quality of the surviving film is not great, though.

***Girl on Approval (1962). A Rachel Roberts kitchen sink drama about a couple fostering a difficult teenager. It’s dated, but it’s also really interesting for a 1950s/60s slice of life (and very female-centric) & probably the only time on this list JM played an ordinary person.

***Otley (1969). Comedy that’s generally dated surprisingly well & is good fun, starring Tom Courtenay +cameos from what seems like the whole of British TV. JM is an incompetent red herring & there are more cardies and glasses as well as a random barometer.

Old Vic/Royal Exchange group productions

(Surviving works made by the group that JM was involved in from drama school to his death, made by Michael Elliott or Casper Wrede. I like them a lot mostly, but they are all slow and weird and earnest & not everybody’s cup of tea.)

Brand (BBC 1959). The BBC recording of the 59 Company’s (the name they were then using) landmark production, starring Patrick MacGoohan. This was a big deal in British theatre & launched the careers of everybody involved. It’s very relentless and weird but interesting & I’m glad they decided it was important enough to save. First fake beard alert of this post. It won’t be the last. On YT & there is a DVD, which is sometimes affordable and sometimes £500, depending on the time of day.

***Private Potter (1962). The original TV play is lost and this film has an extraneous storyline, but otherwise has most of the TV cast & gives a pretty good idea of why as a claustrophobic talky TV piece it made such an impact. Tom Courtenay is Private Potter, a soldier who claims to have had a vision of God during a mission & James Maxwell his CO who needs to decide what to do about this strange excuse for disobeying orders. Tw: fake eyebrows (!) and moustaches. Only available on YT.

[???]One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (1970). Again, no DVD release (no idea why), but it is on YT. I haven’t seen this yet, but it’s another Casper Wrede effort starring Tom Courtenay and apparently JM is especially good in it. (I’m just not good at watching long things on YT and keep hoping for a DVD or TV showing.)

Ransom (1974). A more commercial effort starring Sean Connery & Ian McShane; it gets slated as not being a good action movie, but is clearly meant to be more thinky and political with the edge of a thriller. JM’s part isn’t large but Casper Wrede shoots his friend beautifully, & it’s a pretty decent film with nice cinematography, shot in Norway, as was One Day. I liked it.

[I think this post might be the longest in the world, whoops. Sorry!]

Cardboard TV (the best bit, obv)

One-off plays etc./mini-series

Out of the Unknown “The Dead Planet” Adaptation of an Asimov short story; this is very good for JM, but hard to get hold of unless you want the boxset. I think someone has some of the eps on Daily Motion. (His other OotU ep is sadly burninated.)

The Portrait of a Lady (BBC 1968). Adaptation of the novel; JM is Gilbert Osmond, so it is great for JM in quantity and his performance, but depends how you feel about him being skeevy in truly appalling facial hair. Do the bow ties and hand-holding make up for it? but he’s in 5 whole episodes, and Suzanne Neve, faced with Richard Chamberlain, Edward Fox, and Ed Bishop as suitors, chooses instead to marry the worst possible James Maxwell. Relatable. XD

***Dracula (ITV 1968, part of Mystery & Imagination). JM is Dr Seward, fainty snowflake of vampire hunters, who falls over, sobs and can’t cope for most of the 1 hr 20 mins. More facial hair, but not as offensive as last time. Suzanne Neve is back again, although now JM is nice, she’s married Corin Redgrave, who’s more into Denholm Elliott. Anyway, I love this so much because it turned out that I love Dracula as well as shaky old TV with people I like in getting to fight vampires and all be shippy. Good news - TP keep showing M&I, the DVD is out, and there are two versions of it up on YT.

The Prison (Armchair Cinema 1974). This is the one with Lincoln in it, but it’s not that great & JM isn’t in it that much, so depends how curious you are for the modern AU! (But my Euston films allergy is worse than my ITC allergy, and I watched this when very unwell, so I may have been unfair.)

Crown Court “Fitton vs. Pusey” (1973) - part of the Crown Court series, set in a town full of clones who all keep returning to court. JM is on trial for his behaviour in (the Korean war? I forget?) although he ought to be on trial for his terrible moustache. It’s not that great, but it is nice JM content. He probably did it, but for reasons, and he wibbles & panics whenever his wife leaves the courtroom. Also on YT.

*** Raffles “The Amateur Cracksman” (ITV 1975) - He is Inspector Mckenzie in the Raffles pilot & is a lot of fun. At one point when there was a Raffles fandom someone in it claimed he was too gay for Raffles, which I’m still laughing about, because Raffles. Anyway, watch out if you try to get the DVD because it is NOT included in S1, whatever lies Amazon tells. It is up somewhere online, though, I think.

Bognor “Unbecoming Habits” (1981). Some down marks for possibly the worst 80s theme & incidiental music ever, but fun & has been shown on Talking Pictures lately. JM is an Abbot running a honey-making friary that is actually a hotbed of spies, murder, gay sex and squash playing. This is the point at which he chooses to strip off on screen for the first time, because strong squash-playing abbots do that kind of thing apparently.

Guest of the week in ongoing series/serials

Since even series with a lot of continuity tended to write episodes as self-contained plays (like SotT), these are usually accessible on their own.

Manhunt “Death Wish” (1970). This is one of the most serialised shows here, but this episode is still fairly contained. WWII drama about three Resistance agents on the run across France. JM is... a Nazi agent & former academic trying to break an old friend (one of the series’ three leads, Peter Barkworth) with kindness, possibly?? (Manhunt is very angry and psychological & dark and obv. comes with major WWII warnings (& more if you want to try the whole thing), but it’s also v good.) Up on YT, I think.

Doomwatch “The Iron Doctor” (BBC S2 1971). “Doomwatch” is the nickname of a gov’t dept led by Dr Spencer Quist that investigates new scientific projects for abuse/corruption/things that might cause fish to make men infertile etc. etc. JM is a surgeon who comes to their attention because he’s a bit too in love with his computer for the comfort of one of his more junior colleagues. (I think it’s perfectly comprehensible & a nice guest turn, but it is hard to get hold of outside of the series DVD. Which, being a cult TV person, I loved a lot anyway, but YMMV!)

***Hadleigh “The Caper” (S3 1973). Hadleigh is a very middle of the road show, but watchable enough (lead is Gerald Harper, who’s always entertaining) and this is pretty self-contained as it centres around an old con-man friend (JM) of Hadleigh’s manservant causing trouble by pretending to be Gerald Harper, for reasons. JM seems to be having a ball.

Justice 2 episodes, S3 1974. He guests twice as an opposing barrister & gets to be part of some nice showdown court scenes. Again, a middle of the road drama, but stars Margaret Lockwood, who was still just as awesome in the 1970s as she was in the 1930s & 40s. On YT.

Father Brown “The Curse of the Golden Cross” (1974). JM is an American archaeologist getting death threats; stars Kenneth More as Father Brown. Just a note, though, that 1970s TV adaptations tended to be really really faithful and this is one of the stories where Chesterton comes out with an anti-semitic moment... (JM was unconscious for that bit and, frankly, I envied him.) But otherwise lots of angsting in yet another fake moustache about someone trying to kill him.

The Hanged Man “The Bridge Maker” (1975). Confession time, I have v little idea what this one was about apart from Ray Smith being an unlikely Eastern European dictator, as this whole series went over my head and was not really my thing. (Ask @mariocki they’re cleverer than me and liked it & can probably explain the plot!) I don’t know if it’s available anywhere off the DVD but on a JM scale it was v good/different as he was a coldly villainous head of security & it wouldn’t be too bad to watch alone, but there was an overarching plot going on somewhere.

Doctor Who “Underworld” (1978). This is famously one of the worst serials in the whole of classic Who, but largely because of behind-the-scenes circumstances, not the guest cast. There is some nice stuff, though, esp in Ep1 (JM is a near-immortal alien who’d like to lay down and die but still the Quest is the Quest as they say... a lot) & it’s bound to pop up on YT or Daily Motion. The DVD has extras that include v v brief bits of JM speaking in his actual real accent (which he otherwise does in NONE of these) & making jokes in character. Honestly, though, this is the only DW where the behind-the-scenes doc is genuinely the most exciting bit as they desperately invented whole new technologies & methods of working to bring us this serial, and then everybody wished they hadn’t.

*** Enemy at the Door “Treason” (LWT 1978). This is a weird episode but I love it lots - from a (v v good) series about the occupation of the Channel Islands. (So obv warnings for WWII & Nazis.) JM is a visiting German Generalmajor, but he’s come for a very unusual reason - to ask for help from his brother-in-law, a blackballed British army officer (Joss Ackland). It’s all weird and low key and JM is doomed and nevertheless probably my favourite thing of his that isn’t SotT.

* The Racing Game 2 eps (1979). Adaptation of Dick Francis’s first Sid Halley novel Odds Against (ep1) + 5 original stories for the series. This is an interesting one - JM plays Sid’s father-in-law & they have a lovely relationship that’s central to the book BUT Dick Francis loved this adaptation and Mike Gwilym who played Sid and was inspired to write a sequel Whip Hand, which he tied in with TV canon - and adopted at least three of the cast, including JM. Which means that all the Sid & Charles fanfic is also JM fic by default and it’s quite impressive. (There’s not much but it’s GOOD.) On YT.

Bergerac “Treasure Hunt” (1981). Not a major role, but pretty nice & it’s one a Christmas ep of the detective show (also set on the Channel Islands) that involved Liza Goddard’s cat burglar, which was always the best bit of Bergerac.

His guest spots in Rumpole of the Bailey (1991) “Rumpole a la Carte” and Dr Finlay (1994) are both really just cameos, but both series come round on Freeview; the Rumpole one is funny and the Dr Finlay one his last screen appearance before his death the following year.

Not worth getting just for JM: Subway in the Sky; Bill Brand and Oppenheimer.

These films only have cameos but some quite fun ones and they come around on terrestrial TV: The Damned (1962), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) & (more briefly) Far From the Madding Crowd (1967). (I think his cameo in Connecting Doors must be at least recognisable as someone spotted him in it just based off my gifs, but it’s not come my way yet.) I’ve never been able to get hold of any of his radio performances, not even the 1990s one.

ETA: I forgot The Power Game! This is the one surviving series where he occurs as a semi-regular (at least until halfway through S1 when he went off to the BBC to be in the now-burninated Hunchback of Notre Dame). This isn’t standalone, but it’s a good series and it is on YT. See how you go with crackly old TV before you brave it but it’s the snarkiest thing ever made about people making concrete and stabbing each other in the back. JM is a civil servant who tries to run the National Export Board and is plagued by Patrick Wymark and Clifford Evans as warring businessmen.

***

[... Well, now I just feel scary. 0_o In my defence, I have been stuck home bored & ill for years, and often unable to watch modern TV while trying to cheer myself up with James Maxwell, so I didn’t watch all of this at once. It just... happened eventually after SotT. /waves hand

But if anyone feels the need to unfriend my quietly at this point, I understand. /o\]

#james maxwell #masterlist #rec list #well sort of #1950s #1960s #1970s #1980s #there are some things i haven't seen #and some things i know to be extant but unreleased #everything else is burninated or status unknown

8 notes · View notes

capricornus-rex · 5 years ago

Text

Old Friend, New Family (8 - End)

Not a Witcher fic lol the gif just fits the mood

Requested by Anon | Prompt:

Hey I was wondering if you’d take a prompt where the reader is an ex-padawan who’s master died pretty early on in order 66, and was instead saved by a clone that removed his inhibitor chip. Then maybe they get separated, and years later when the reader is a crew member on the Mantis, they come across the clone again? How would the crew, especially Cal and Cere, react to meeting a friendly ex-soldier clone who’s close with the reader? Could you make it full of angst then fluff? Love your writing!

Tags:

Defected! Clone Trooper, Jedi Survivor! Reader, Order 66 Survivor

Also posted in AO3

Chapters: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 | Previous: Part 7 | Masterlist

8 of 8

The next morning, you decided to introduce Strig to Cere. Cal helped out in prepping Cere into a calm mood, although the outcome usually ends up in the exact opposite of what he intended to do, and you stepped in with Strig in tow.

After introducing Strig as your guardian, Cere had the exact reaction as Cal, except that she handled herself with more calmness and curiosity in the guise of skepticism. When her lips parted, ready to say something, you immediately beat her to it.

“It’s kind of a long story, but I’ll tell you in the Mantis,”

Things calmed down between Cere and the three of you. Greez greeted the clone with his usual stinginess, it comes to show that he has never seen a clone without its helmet. The Lateron captain, hospitable as they are, decided to go whip up some snacks for the guest; while the four of you settle down on the lounge couch just below the dining area.

Strig answered all of Cere’s questions, many of which were the same as you and Cal’s, but she had more of her own that neither of you asked last night.

“What legion were you from?”

“The 167th Legion, ma’am,”

Cere asked about the inhibitor chip, suddenly the cogs of her curiosity were spinning again—more or less, she’s becoming quite like her inquisitive master—and Strig was more than happy to oblige in answering her queries. Perhaps the most chilling bit of his narrative was the fact that it was the Supreme Chancellor—later, the Emperor—who called the shots.

“Truth be told, to this day, I still don’t understand why,” Strig confessed.

“It’s all past us now, soldier. What matters is you’re doing good things here now,” Cere reassured.

Later that day, everyone was in their duties. Cere kept herself busy in the Mantis, trying to splice the Imperials’ signals in case she can fish for some intel; meanwhile, you and Cal needed to find Tarfful.

“Tarfful?”

“The Wookiee chieftain. Do you know where he could be, Strig?”

“I’ve only heard from the Wookiees that he’s taken refuge in the deeper parts of the forest,”

You sense the hint of concern in his voice, and there probably seems to be a good reason as to why.

“What’s wrong, Strig?”

“Well, you’re not probably used to carnivorous plants in dense jungles?”

“Believe me, each planet has their own freakshow, and Cal and I just have own fair share of it.”

“Then you’ll be fine,” Strig chuckled.

Cal gently tapped your arm, “Come on, let’s go check the other spots before we head out.”

“Okay,” you flash a small smile to Cal and then turn to Strig. “I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time, kids,”

The clone watches the two of you run off through the elevator and head to God-knows-where. He smiled to himself with his arms crossed together until you disappeared from the landing pad and through the AT-AT. Cere approached Strig, noticed the way he looked at you and Cal.

“Something on your mind, Strig?”

“I was just thinking how she had fared when I was gone. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t think of her—if she was eating well, sleeping in a place with a roof over her head, or if she’s cleaning up after herself. That is until she found Cal. Was he your Padawan, ma’am?”

Cere’s eyes wandered, “No, I had a different one. It was a girl.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, I—”

“Please, Strig, no need to be so formal. Just call me Cere.”

“Cere,” Strig repeated then composed himself again. “Has she… Has [y/n] been taking care of herself ever since she was with you?”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about your little girl, she’s been doing quite well ever since she’s joined the crew,”

“She was in Corellia when you found her,” Strig recalled.

Cere nodded, “Yes, she was somewhat lost—but in the way you’re thinking of. I don’t think she planned on staying in Corellia for long. That is until Cal found her and the next thing I saw—she appeared to be healing. Maybe because she and Cal pretty much have the same experience.”

Strig sighed, having nothing else to say back to that. However, he wholeheartedly agreed with Cere and sensed the sincerity in her words; but the fact that you’re healing with Cal—the same way he was with you—highlighted in his mind.

Meanwhile, you and Cal find yourselves at the same area as last night. You take the lead and he followed you to one of the supply bays. You find that the ropes in the pulleys weren’t undone and still hung below.

“Strig said there’d be ship supplies that we can use here,” you blurted.

“I’m surprised that you still trust him, even though it’s been a long time,”

“In a situation like this, with the Empire and all that, do we really have the luxury to harbor hate?”

Apparently, your words caught Cal off-guard while the two of you walked together, heading to one of the supply bays beyond the one where you reunited with Strig.

“Wow, that’s… that’s actually a mature thing for you to say,”

You chuckle in reaction, “I can be mature too, you know.”

After a few minutes’ worth of trekking, the two of you finally found the supply bay storing machine and ship components. You only took what you needed but stuck around when you got a view of the river without Imperial ships trashing the landscape.

Cal can sense something troubling your mind, seeing as to why you’re suddenly quiet as you stared at the landscape. He joined you by the bannister, overlooking the river, and propped himself on his arms next to you.

“Something on your mind?”

“Is it bad if I ask if we can bring Strig along?”

“I don’t think I’m in that place to say so, sweetie,”

“I understand. It’s been so long and I feel like I haven’t caught up with him enough,”

“I envy you, you know,”

You jerk your head to Cal, shooting him a puzzled look.

“You already had someone else you knew before the Purge, before meeting me and the crew. Even if you and Strig got separated, and only met again just now, at least it must’ve crossed your minds that you had someone; unlike myself, I only had… well, myself.”

You nudged closer to him, slipping your arm around his and leaning against his bicep.

“Well, neither of us have to be alone now, right?”

He smiled and planted a kiss on your forehead, “Never.”

Hours have passed and the two of you continued strolling around until you came across the shoreline of the great Origin River. To you, it didn’t exactly look like a river, it was more of an ocean. As you walked by the shore, colorful rocks beached and dotted the sand, your eyes caught one or two. Cal watched you take off your boots and roll up the hem of your pants, he did the same and both of you dipped your toes into the water—it was nice and cool.

“Don’t tackle me or anything!” you squealed.

“Not if you tackle me first!”

The two of you gleefully frolicked, kicking and splashing at one another, dipping your arms up to your elbows into the water to cool yourselves off. Cal put up an act saying that he felt something slip past his leg.

“Very funny, Cal,”

“No, really!” he picked up a thick strand of freshwater kelp that’s blackened with age. “Oh God, [y/n], it’s a river snake!”

“Cal, you psycho! Get that away from me!”

He chased you with it, you were too freaked out to realize that it was only a piece of plant that looked the part. As retaliation, you scooped up a handful of water and threw it over his head; water dribbled at the tips of his hair. His revenge was the same as yours; now the two of you are drenched. He dropped the kelp, he ran his fingers through his wet hair—little strands strayed off from his hairline even after he smoothed out his hair—and caught you staring.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” you cooed as you briskly shook your head. You had to look away to bite your lip, fighting off a private smile.

The playtime became mellower. A breeze picks up conveniently enough to dry yourselves. The scent of petrichor was rich in the air as it drifted into your direction. You were growing tired of the stale air of the machinery in Zeffo, only the windswept ruins had its flora intact—no metal, just grass and flowers.

Cere radioed the two of you, she wasn’t able to hide the urgency in her voice when she spoke.

“I think we have a lead about the tomb at Zeffo. Mari said it’ll take a while before she can disclose Tarfful’s whereabouts.”

“Alright, we’ll head back there now,” Cal replied.

You and Cal rushed back to land, sat on the shore to dust off the sand on your feet before putting your boots back on.

“Race you there?” Cal started.

“No fair, you have a headstart! You’re close to finishing on your boots!”

“Well, gain on me when you can, slowpoke!” he teased, stealing a quick kiss on your cheek while you’re still struggling to buckle the strap of your boot.

“I hate it when you do that!”

“You’re falling behind!” he chortled.

The two of you raced across the shore, back to the forest, and finally reaching the landing pad. Whoever sets foot onto the metal floor wins—Cal came up with that seconds before he could plant the balls of his feet on the floor. Both of you arrived desperate for air, hunched over with your hands on your knees as you breathe in and out.

“Well, that’s a weird warm-up for you,” Strig commented.

“We do this all the time!” you beamed.

“You two are soaking wet,” Cere pointed out.

You pointed your thumb at Cal, “His idea. No, his fault!”

When your energy subsided to the needed level, Cere briefed the two of you into further detail about the lead she picked up about Zeffo. It’s possible that the Inquisitors are on the way to the planet to try and crack the tomb to get the artifact there.

“That is if they know what they’re looking for,” you commented.

“Inquisitors have a lot of researchers and scholars at their disposal, let’s hope they haven’t found the tomb yet,”

“Let’s hope they haven’t cracked the code yet,” Cal added.

“We leave when you’re ready,”

The two young Jedi make yourselves busy in doing last-minute tweaks and inventory checks. Strig walked up to you, apparently he’s overheard that you’re about to leave Kashyyyk any minute now.

“So, out on the road again, Spinner?”

You dropped everything and spoke to him. Your tone was somber and pleading, like a child begging to go with their parent.

“Don’t you want to come with us, Strig?”

Strig’s eyes wandered over your shoulder, glancing at Cal and then to Cere and Greez. He took the deepest sigh his lungs could muster and gingerly took your hands into his.

“Spinner, my place is here; the same way your place is with them. Even for just a short time of meeting everyone, I can tell that you belong with them—especially with Cal. You’re so happy with him. Maybe the happiest I’ve ever seen. This kind of setting is no different from back in the Clone Wars,”

“But I can fight,”

“I never doubted that for a split second, [y/n]. But eventually, you’ll find your own battle that you’re sure to win. Do you understand that?”

You nodded sincerely.

“You know what? Whatever happens, I got your back… always.”

You threw yourself into his arms, in a burst of tears, this time it was you who was pooling tears on the shoulder of his shirt.

“You were never a great motivational speaker,” you dryly joked while choking back on your tears.

He chuckled, “Yeah, never was, eh?”

You planted a goodbye kiss on his cheek before pulling away, even though you hesitated to let go. Strig turned to Cal as the boy approached the two of you.

“Take care of her, will ya?”

“I will. She’s in good hands,”

“I know she is,” he turned to you again, bracing your arms and giving you a quick shake. “I’ll see you soon okay? I won’t go anywhere anytime soon.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Now run along, Spinner.”

With one last hug, you whisper in his ear, “I love you so much… Dad.”

Strig released a sigh, tightening his embrace around you one last time.

“Aww, you’re gonna make a mess outta me, Spinner,” he awkwardly chuckled, trying to conceal his crying but is failing epically. “Run along, now, kiddo.”

As you withdrew from his embrace, you felt his grip still tight around your arm but it was gentle. You take one step, a little secret tug to prompt him to let go—even though he’s finding it greatly difficult to do so—and allowed his fingers to loosen up a bit until your fingers have unhooked from one another.

Your other hand takes Cal’s, but you take one last look behind you.

All of a sudden, the memory of you as a child flashed before his eyes—it was the exact moment when you looked over your shoulder when he asked if you were okay. He saw the face of the scared little girl he picked up from the wake of destruction; he blinked once and now he’s looking at the grown girl smiling back at him.

It may not be him who helped you heal wholly, but he’s glad that he was a part of it—and that was more than enough—for he knows perfectly well that no one can take that away.

A single tear rolls down his cheek as he watched the Mantis take off, with you standing by the partially-open entry ramp and waving goodbye at him.

47 notes · View notes

csolarstorm · 4 years ago

Text

Review of Rick and Morty 4x10 - “Star Mort: Return of the Jerri”

That was pretty good.

It came close to the quality of "The Rickshank Rickdemption", but didn't quite reach it in my opinion. I think it's in third place this season under The Vat of Acid Episode and Promortyus, just because both were really good self-contained episodes with interesting twists.

It's kind of funny that this episode would make a great closer for Season 3, but it doesn't really tie into Season 4 much at all. If they made the Clone Beth saga a midseason plot, this would make a perfect Season 3 finale. My favorite part of the episode was watching Clone Beth fight Rick. She sure settled back in with her family quickly, didn't she? There was no animosity there for willingly leaving her family. And whoever was the clone in the end, the one that left chose to leave, clone or not. But she's a really fun character! I like the idea that any member of the family who leaves to explore the universe on their own seems to turn into a badass. I thought it was pretty clever that Rick did make a clone for Beth, but we don't necessarily know which Beth that is. It's a Schrodinger's Beth. I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but the initial twist did kind of prevent me from getting invested in the question of which Beth is actually the clone. Once "Clone Beth" shows up, we already think of her as the clone. Adult Swim even identifies her as the clone in the Pocket Morty advertising. So by the time the episode tells us we should question that, it kind of feels like it doesn't matter. So I wasn't really that curious. And it was actually pretty easy to guess that Rick just randomized the bodies. So the only twist there came at the beginning of the episode, not the end. It did resonate with me that Rick was too cowardly to make a real decision for Beth. I don't know that I could do that either. Rick's battle with Phoenix Person was a ton better than anything that Story Lord came up with. Was anyone else suspicious when the camera just cut away from Rick when he was dying with his cyborg organs detached, especially when the Beths talked about killing him, and then all of a sudden at home he was okay? Oh, and Tammy deserved a bigger role. It's good that Summer is the one to kill her, just like the lightsaber battle in the Story Train, but we didn't get anything as fun as a lightsaber battle and now we can't, aww. They probably didn't think he character could go much farther. And her body got the grossest scene in the season. One of the writers really wanted to piss on her grave for killing Bird Person, didn't they? Here's hoping that Bird Person comes back with some kind of Winter Soldier-like shtick next season/someday!

I’m a little disappointed Dr. Wong was essentially used as a fake-out for the episode teaser, when people were actually really looking forward to another episode with her.

The meta product placement shout outs were fun, or maybe we were all just waiting for the episodes to directly reference the Wendy’s commercials, and that’s how well they worked. The product placement still hasn’t reached the level of "Zeo Crystal under the Krispy Crème" product placement gags yet, but they're getting there. (Go watch Power Rangers from 2016 if you haven't. It was better than the money it made.) You can argue the Wrangler Jeans thing sort of got there though, but that seemed very briefs. Overall it feels like the premise for this episode was just for the writers to deliver on our expectations, period. It was what I wanted, so that's good. Great, thanks. But there's no real element of "something you didn't know you wanted" which is pretty much all this season has been doing until now, so that's…ironic. It would be nice if we could get more episodes like "The ABC's of Beth" which are self-contained episodes that set up ongoing plots like the clone Beth arc. Shows where the plot develops in the background and drops hints during every self-contained plot during each episodes are pretty popular right now. This didn't work like that. This was very much its own pitch to bring back Clone Beth. And they did great.

In an alternate universe, the show was setting up the Greek pantheon as the villains of the season, and Zeus was the season finale villain rather than a one-off.

The after-credits scene was one of Jerry's best individual adventures. I wanna see the full potential of the invisible garbage truck.

#Rick and Morty #Star Mort: Return of the Jerri #Rick and Morty spoilers #long post

25 notes · View notes

theangrypokemaniac · 5 years ago

Text

Since no one cares about Alola I can therefore say what I want.

Team Rocket's Pokémon are all worthless toss. That's such a surprise from this oafish writing team.

Remember when Jessie and James had two each, to offer variety? Permitting them even that is too much focus nowadays.

We don't what anything interesting going on, thank you. Repetition is what we and they deserve.

Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung and Victreebel are spinning in their graves.

Stufful was missing for three years and she displayed not the slightest pang of concern until its belated invention. Given her temper she ought to have torn the island apart searching for her baby, but no.

Not bothered about Bewear. It shouldn't really be in this list as it didn't belong to them, although catching has no value anymore.

A bit thick are we? Or conforming to the usual parental standards?

Well, she's sufficiently neglectful that she let it out of her sight long enough for it to be crushed under a tree, then was too idle to come to the rescue. In consequence he was obliged to wait days until one of Lusamine's lackeys arrived.

She's 'Mama Bear' though, isn't she?

It's based on a red panda, is partly the colour of a black bear and as strong as a grizzly, but all that is a mere cover for its true nature as a Bear-Face Ham.

The modern pretence is that everyone's a vegetarian (are they balls), and Ursa Major lives on fruit, not, you know, flesh.

Just because it there's no hibernating in the tropics doesn't mean it can get by without a salmon now and again.

The name is stupid, since a red panda is not a bear. A play on words isn't clever if based on what it isn't.

They should've called her 'Pandamonia', or 'Pandour', which is a brutal soldier.

It is at least redeemed by battering the klepto cockroach into the next dimension. Good on 'er.

Mind you, this is Alola, a cesspit of incest, so it's probably some sick arrangement, like Bewear being slipped the length by that previously unmentioned Oakie-Dokie clone.

He's the spit of Jimmy Savile, thus every depravity is on the table.

Where's Stufful's dad? He buggered off too?

What kind of name is 'Stufful'? What's it made from, 'stifle' and 'suffocation'? 'Stuffed'?

Thanks for that. Whenever I see its ovine face I'm reminded of taxidermy.

Were Ursa Minor and Bewear described as mother and son, or were they 'friends'?

A series of games involving breeding and the 'anime' is too squeamish to even imply animals live in families.

I don't care either way for Stufful, but I'd like it better if its mouth wasn't a camel toe.

I understand it's a sea creature, and the contents of the oceans are their own brand of peculiarity, but looks like a limbless, undead spaniel plagued with extra teats. Its 'ears' resemble distended mammeries.

Hey, remember that interesting, original Pokémon James had called Victreebel? Let's do it again! And again! AND AGAIN!

Victreebel is a venus fly trap: an anomaly in nature as a carnivorous plant. It makes sense that the Pokémon version would be a bit more full-on in catching a meal.

New law: Team Rocket are required to collect monsters as ugly as themselves.

Hurting James was its personality quirk, particularly to it, fitting its nature, its 'thing'. It was never meant as a template for most of what he caught in the future.

Something is funny if it happens once, and can be now and again if done with a least a little flair.

Nothing repeated as a constant leaden thud is remotely amusing, but this is an unknown fact to Nintendo bone heads. They think certain events are utterly hilarious in themselves and require no finesse in application.

They have a checklist of moments obligatory to each episode, which explains the plodding lifelessness. Tick 'em off to keep the fans from being ticked off. All we supposedly care about is each gong struck, not how we got there.

At least Victreebel used to vary its behaviour:

Occasionally it even did as told without any chomping preamble.

It didn't do the exact same action every single time it was involved!

Mostly it swallowed James.

How long was it once Victreebel was chucked out on its leafy arse before Cacnea arrived?

Oh look, it's a Grass Pokémon and attacks James!

Sometimes it ate Jessie.

Carnivine got in on the action before Cacnea's run was even up: kick 'em when they're down why don't yer?

Oh look, it's a Grass Pokémon and attacks James!

Now we have Mareanie. Wasn't there a few in between? No, shush, they don't exist anymore.

Every bloody time it came out, it turned round and punctured him.

Every bloody time.

Ah, it's not a Grass Pokémon. That makes it totally new!

Oh yes, it's the complete opposite of Victreebel. It's Poison instead. Not like it at all.

Every bloody time it came out, it'd gnaw his head off.

Every bloody time.

That's endearing.

Oh but it is! It's just showing him love!

As that makes it alright!

If a muscular man squeezed his girlfriend so tightly he cracked her ribs, is that 'sweet' because he 'meant well' but his feelings overwhelmed him? Or is it A.B.H.?

Every bloody time it comes out, it injects James's head with toxin until it swells up into purple pustule of disease.

Every bloody time.

I never took Victreebel's assault as affection. To me they were real attempts to devour James, especially with the accompanying frenzied screech. Interpreting that as a positive emotion is bizarre to me.

At soon as James found it wedged in a Breeding Centre cage and opened the door it grabbed him, which appeared to be Victreebel lashing out in anger for what'd happened in the intervening period.

What Mareanie does is worse than the other three put together. At least they delivered mere bite marks or pinpricks, but it infects James!

Whole episodes of this programme have involved a Pokémon falling foul of Poison Powder and being on the verge of death, with all done to preserve it until Ash hunted down the cure, but now it's a big laugh, apparently.

Not one character ever has the wits about them to carry an Antidote, otherwise the writers wouldn't be able to fall back on the tired old race-against-time scenario, which is no such thing as we know they won't die.

Is it likely that James is always going to end up picking a violent Pokémon, of all the individuals of a race, of all the lifeforms in the universe?

Aren't his allowed to come with their own personality, or is there a set pattern they must follow, and when caught they absorb it, for fear they might be memorable?

Mind you, it's interesting the reactions these abuses provoke:

Victreebel eats James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Cacnea impales James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Carnivine chews James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Mareanie poisons James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Meowth claws James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Jessie beats James: Aw, it's so kyewt!

Jessibelle whips James: EEVUL BITCH!!!

Mimikyu should be opposed for breaking it's own world.

To us, Pikachu is the most famous Pokémon, belonging to Ash, the protagonist, and the franchise's mascot.

To them, Pikachu is just another middling Pokémon hundreds of young Trainers catch, and holds no greater value.

It's blatantly a reference to Pikachu's real-life status, acknowledging itself as fiction. No Pokémon would hold the same significance for this design to work but him.

Otherwise why would Mimikyu, when it has the choice of every Pokémon that exists, and, if meant to be a believable world, every Pokémon we don't know exists, choose Pikachu to ape? Why wouldn't it pick a Legendary?

Alola Pikachu is looking off colour.

It's not even this specific Mimikyu, it's the entire species!

What, they work to a hive mind, incapable of individual tastes and opinions?

Do they all hate Pikachu too, even though the entire mouse population of Alola has been rounded up by that loon and trapped in a valley, or were we lumbered with the lone demented obsessive with a severe complex?

Is it well jel that Pikachu's a real one, whereas it can only manage to knock up a bog-standard costume with a face daubed by a chimp paralytic from scrumpy?

Well stop imitating it then! Invent your own design!

Oh come on. The animators can't even do that, hence its creation. You can hardly expect it to display inspiration if born from its absence.

I wonder if it hates Raichu. And Pichu. And Plusle and Minun. And the rest of the Pikachu derivatives, although it is one.

(As an aside, I don't know why Raichu, Marowak and Exeggutor were redrawn for this era, but not Pikachu, Cubone and Exeggcute. Why does the sweaty climate affect only evolutions?)

Here's an idea: make Shiny Mimikyu have a different get up, not colour.

You can have that free, Game Freak. I'm too lenient with yer.

Presumably, Mimikyu hatches (already dead?) in all its eye-bleeding nastiness, and instinctively reaches for the discarded yellow bedsheet and pack of crayons that just so happens to be nearby, and the scissors to make the peep holes.

Them inbreds know how to litter.

Flippers?

Nah, it's probably hooks.

How is it born aware of a Pikachu's face, and why is it compelled to copy them?

Knowledge of his own ugliness is innate, thus he must cover his nakedness before it lays waste to the forest inhabitants.

Yet if you breed 'em, it emerges wearing it, like the cloth formed from left-over albumen and stained with yolk!

What's it reaching with? Paws?

Mittens?

Oh, and there was a deceased specimen in the series, so it's either a ghost, and nothing but bedsheet, or a zombie, and it's repulsive carcass has upped the ante by putrifying.

Even its name doesn't fit. Apart from the unsightly spelling, what's 'Mimikyu' about? It's not mimicking me.

Mimikyu? It should be Mimikchu!

And you know what? Even Nintendo agree their own inventions aren't good enough, because they made return almost impossible.

They hate these more than they do even the pre-Unova Pokémon, most of whom were condemned to a dark existence within the iron corridors of H.Q. and haven't been seen since.

• Growlie is such a beloved figure in James's life he's been involved all of twice.

• Dustox got pensioned off.

• James was practically bullied into gifting Cacnea to that cloying bitch Gardenia.

• Whilst he still tecnically owns Chimecho, it's as lost to him as any of them.

Remember Seviper, Yanmega, Carnivine and Mime Junior?

Hell, remember Woobat, Yamask, Frillish and Amoonguss?

Or Gourgeist and Inkay?

Of course, since the makers appear to have the Reverse-Midas Touch, Team Rocket still took that useless, wincing lump Wobbuffet to Galar instead of dumping it over the sea. Apparently we're stuck with it forever.

Arbok, Lickitung, Weezing and Victreebel got shafted, but THAT survives?

Yes? That's more the writers do. In current canon these Pokémon never lived at all. Dead memories in the haze.

#Team Rocket #Bewear #Stufful #Mareanie #Mimikyu #Wobbuffet #Alola

14 notes · View notes

simonjadis · 5 years ago

Photo

Anon I’m ASSUMING that these are from the same person; apologies if they are not

I would say that my feelings are similar to yours, but not quite identical ...

Disney’s handling has been imperfect, and some of the mistakes have been made the highest level (I know that people give Kathleen Kennedy a hard time, but if rumor is to be believed, some of the interference that made IX kind of weird came from higher than that)

for example, Kennedy said in an interview that she tries to find people who just make big, successful movies to make sure that these are also big, successful movies. I can understand that as being a safe bet from a business stand point, but that’s not the same thing as finding someone passionate about very specifically telling good, new Star Wars stories, which we did not really get in the Sequel Trilogy

(one of the most common theories that I saw from TLJ apologists was that people didn’t like that it was new/different than what they were expecting, which was really not the issue for me or my friends. Also it was just a speedrun of parts of Episodes V and VI)

I think that I’m “too close” to Star Wars to see it as a financial asset rather than a beloved universe full of characters and stories that I adore, but I don’t think that “literally just rehash the Original Trilogy for two movies and barely acknowledge any other part of Star Wars until IX” was a good idea

Rey deserved her own story. and Luke deserved to not be retroactively robbed of his

as for George Lucas, I do think that years of backlash over the Prequels sucked the fun out of it for him. Also, who doesn’t want four billion dollars? it was a sweetheart deal for Disney, of course

the sad thing is that this meant the end of Clone Wars, because Disney took one look at Lucasfilm’s budget and was like “OH NO YOU CANNOT SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY ON A CARTOON” which is why Season 6 was paid for by Netflix and why Maul: Son of Dathomir was a comic

I love Star Wars Rebels and I’m not trying to knock the show at all, but the budgetary difference was palpable. Clone Wars did have it a little easier because of the Clone Troopers (all having the same face), but on Rebels, you notice that 90% of the Imperials are the same guy wearing a hat with his visor obscuring most of his face. market scenes show just a few people (but plenty of Storm Troopers)

the designs of the main characters -- Ezra, Hera, Sabine, Zeb, Kallus, Thrawn, Kanan, etc -- are great and loving and detailed and most of those change a little over time, but there’s a reason that we only see so many planets on Rebels. look at the huge armies and crowds in Rebels. my friend @drunkkenobi is the first who pointed out to me that in Clone Wars, you sometimes see lines of ships (Space Traffic) and each ship in line will be unique, distinct from the others

it’s not Rebels’ fault that they didn’t have that kind of budget. that’s also why their space battles (and space ships) never quite look right. meanwhile, for Clone Wars, if they wanted a particular scene or ship that went over their planned budget, all that they had to do was ask Uncle George

eccentric billionaires funding expensive media isn’t necessarily the most sustainable model for storytelling, but it sure worked out well for Clone Wars and for The Expanse

(Jeff Bezos personally called up the head of Amazon Prime programming, who had already been considering acquiring the extremely good but expensive show, and was like “hey the cast from this show is at a thing where I am, I’d love to just tell them that their show is saved, give me it?” and we saw as many new locations in Season 4 as we did in the first three seasons)

but streaming -- where you actually get money directly from customers who then, through their activity on your platform, show you exactly what they want to see aka what is keeping them on your platform -- offers a new opportunity for high quality genre media. remember, scifi and fantasy were EVERYWHERE in the ‘90s and the early aughts, and then because too expensive for regular TV unless they had huge audiences. only through streaming do we have these new Star Treks, The Witcher, and the real possibility of a new Stargate series

why do I bring up streaming? because

The Mandalorian goes to show that Disney can 100% do good Star Wars. Rebels was good, despite its budget, but can you imagine how much better it would have been if it had aired on Disney+

as with the DC movies (three of which are good and I’m also excited for Birds of Prey), the solution to the our-movies-made-a-lot-of-money-but-aren’t-strictly-speaking-good is literally just “let the people who do the cartoons make the movies”

and now we’re getting a final, seventh (half) season of Clone Wars! twelve episodes looking better than the show has ever looked!!

if you’re like me, you probably thought to yourself “gee, only 12?” and, cynically, you figured that it’s a trick -- announced at ComicCon in 2018 to build up the first wave of hype for Disney+

and it is ... but it 100% worked on me, I signed up for Disney+ and will pay anything for Clone War

my HOPE is that this is a test run to see if people really like high-quality animated Star Wars stories enough to continue with it. there’s only so much clone wars that one can cover (my suspicion is that we will see Ahsoka fake her death during Order 66 in these eps, so yep, that’s the end of the Clone Wars right there)

imagine a well-written series with everything that Clone Wars had in terms of content and visual quality, but it’s set after Episode IX. to my frustration, IX ends with effectively the same worldstate as VI which essentially means that nothing much happened in the Sequel Trilogy. but imagine a series set after IX. we could see a new set of (Force-wielding) characters. we could see Rey, Finn, Poe, and Rose during some episodes. Rose could finally get to do something that’s not an insulting fool’s errand (she deserves so much better!!!!!)

we don’t need a new Big Scary Empire/First Order thing, just organized crime and pirates and Hutts and bounty hunters and individual planet systems going to war as the characters try to assemble a NEW New Republic (gods I hate the unchanged worldstate)

now, I know that Star Wars Resistance is not ... reassuring. this is the only screencap that I have from it because I couldn’t get into it. it’s not the animation (I enjoyed Tron Uprising and Iron Man: Armored Adventures and this is the same kind of deal), but three things:

-I watch Star Wars for the Force primarily; other stuff can be cool but I need the Force

-I will never care about ships racing and really I don’t care about an individual ship flying; I’m a Command Ship kind of space nerd

-apparently the writing doesn’t improve much during the first season. people tell the main character to not do something, then he does it, and disaster ensues. that’s ... it’s fine, it’s fine to exist as a show, it’s just not for me

obviously, not all Star Wars media is for me, but when something -- like TLJ or the Sequel Series as a whole (even though VII and IX are enjoyable) or Resistance -- disappoints me, I would never accuse it of “ruining Star Wars”

Star Wars is a whole franchise. the breadth of canon isn’t all wiped away by some disappointments. was the MCU ruined by Age of Ultron? no. it was a bad movie but from the same franchise that gave us The Winter Soldier and Thor Ragnarok. hell, Dawn of Justice doesn’t “ruin” Wonder Woman or Aquaman or Shazam. bad movies aren’t contagious

for the past several years, the Entitled Dude crowd has felt empowered. they were radicalized in the altright/redpill/MGTOW/meninist/nazi/gamergate/comicsgate/etc spheres of the internet and now they just have a reflex where they see any sort of representation and decry it as “SJW,” which they also seem to think is a bad thing

in the same way that well-meaning people on tumblr can get radicalized into being antis/puriteens, people with certain vulnerabilities on reddit or youtube can get sucked into a world that tells them that they are the default and that other people existing is “political” in media and in real life, and that people being upset by outright cruelty towards them is both funny and means that the cruel person is the victor. they need therapy and studios need to not listen to them

unfortunately, sometimes there are movies that are bad despite having things like solid representation. Ghostbusters 2016 was a delight, but my friends and I with whom I saw TLJ (all of us queer feminists) left the theater angry. we’ve bitten our tongues a lot (even if it seems otherwise) because publicly criticizing the film too often leads some incel monster to chime in with agreement, and we’re just like

the redpillgate crowed et all is a natural ally of conservative white evangelicals, even though the former group is generally made up of New Atheists (the short version is atheists who hold socially conservative views because racism/misogyny/transphobia benefit them without using christianity as an excuse). it’s kind of like how terfs will side with conservative hate groups because, though they’re natural enemies, they both despite trans people just for existing

unfortunately, when you’re looking at who went to see a movie or who hated it, not everyone posts with an ID card saying exactly their demographic. which is only going to make studios like Disney even more nervous about including queer content in Star Wars and in the MCU (I mean real queer content with characters whose names don’t have to be searched on a wiki)

that was a bit of a tangent, but yeah. sorry if I missed anything

#star wars #clone wars #anon #ask #anon ask

14 notes · View notes

ryder-s-block · 6 years ago

Text

Jaig Eyes (Ch 7)

Jaig Eyes

Chapter 7/?

Always available here

Chapter Seven: Child of Mandalore

“Sure,” he laughed, pressing the panel to open the door. “But I lied when I said we were drinking caf.” The door stopped moving with a final hiss, a mass of gazes lifting to see me beside their brother. Those that wore armor sported the same blue that I had come to recognize on Rex’s armor. In their hands were cups, half empty bottle of amber liquid cluttering the counters.

After a long moment of staring at each other, one clone stood, his perfectly sculpted hair and the red cross on his shoulder letting me identify him. He grinned widely, his eyes bright and a little distant from the booze. “Hey Kida!”

“Oh boy,” I muttered, seeing the mass of clones that had already been dipping into an apparently secret stash of booze. Still, I couldn’t help but smile genuinely as Kix made his way to me, reaching out his hand happily. I grabbed his forearm, returning his lopsided grin with a small laugh. “Having fun there, soldier?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows.

“Hey,” Jesse chuckled. “Every man needs some relaxation once in a while.” The two gestured me forward, the 501st peering at me curiously. “Everyone,” he called. “This is Kida, the bounty hunter who’s been watching over Senator Amidala.”

The initial disdain at my title melted at the mention of the senator, their interests peaking in a wave of the force.

“Kida?”

“The one who was working with Rex?”

“Yeah, the Captain mentioned her.”

“She helped General Skywalker.”

“She knew Jango.”

“I saw her once during a training run.”

“She was on Geonosis.”

The onslaught of comments pierced through the rippling force, making me flinch. I unconsciously took a small step backwards, both Jesse and Kix noticing.

“Alright, alright,” Kix called, waving his hand. “Enough of that.” He turned to me. “Care for a drink?”

I smiled at him, giving a nod, before following the medic further into the barracks. He led me to the group he had been sitting with, Jesse on our heels. A cup was pushed into my hand and filled with the amber liquid before Jesse spoke.

“Well Kida,” he started, waving his hand at the group. “These are some of the 501st’s best. That there is Denal.” I glanced over at the man with brown eyes and short dark hair and gave him a nod. “Those two are Echo and Fives.” I glanced over to see a trooper with perfectly cropped hair and a stern face. The one beside him was significantly less composed, a shadow of a beard coming in on his chin and an Aurebesh five tattooed on his right temple. The both cast me smiles, lifting their drinks in greeting.

“And I,” the last clone in the circle cut in as he leaned closer to me from his seat. He had He had blue lines crossing over his right eye and wrapping over his skull and more on his chin. “Go by Hardcase.” He cast me a cheeky grin that I could tell her was trying to make charming. But, since he had clearly consumed more alcohol than most of the clones present, his smile seemed more of a wider-than-normal grimace.

“Oi!” Jesse scolded, shoving Hardcase backwards by pushing his face. “Back off. No one wants to get with you.”

“We share the same face, vod.”

“He’s right,” I cut in, slicing through the tension with my words. All eyes turned to me as I took a sip of the bitter liquid, surprised at its sweet aftertaste. “You all share the same face. Of course, from what I can see,” I added as I glanced around at the clones near me. “You two are the only ones who really messed yours up.”

It was silent for a moment as the clones comprehended what I’d said. In a flash, the room filled with mirth as the clones burst out laughing, throwing jokes at their two brothers. Both gave me looks of amusement, Hardcase’s even bordering on lustful.

Ugh. Men.

“Funny and dangerous,” the clone named Fives chuckled, leaning back where he sat. “Oh yeah,” he glanced at his brother, Echo. “I like her.”

“Why do you think I’m dangerous?” I asked innocently, taking another sip of the sweet alcohol.

The clones chuckled at me. “We’re clones, miss,” Denal finally spoke. “We know danger when we see it.”

“Besides,” Kix jumped in. “They all saw how you kicked Jesse’s ass.”

“She did not-” Jesse moved to wrap his arm around Kix’s neck, the two going at it for a moment.

I lifted my eyebrow. “How long have you all been drinking?”

“Long enough,” Echo chuckled, taking another sip.

“Why didn’t you all go to 79’s?”

The clones shrugged almost collectively while Fives answered. “Sometimes staying in with our brothers is more fun than facing the Coruscant crowd.”

“Not everyone likes the Grand Army of the Republic,” Denal added bitterly.

I hummed, staring at my drink. “Yeah, I know. But this is nice,” I said as I glanced around the room, trying to change the subject. “Fun.”

They nodded in agreement, but I could feel the growing tension. They were all curious but didn’t want to be rude, despite the excuse of alcohol.

I sighed. “Alright. What do you want to know?”

Their eyes brightened like children as they all leaned forward, Kix and Jesse ceasing their play fighting to sit down. I was gestured to join them, finding a seat beside Hardcase.

“I think my biggest question is about the rumor about you having Jaig eyes on your back,” Fives said immediately, leaning on his knees as he stared at me.

“I told you about that,” Kix grumbled. “It’s not a rumor.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Kix is right. I have a Jaig eye tattoo on my back.”

“Where on your back?” Hardcase asked with wiggling eyebrows.

“Oi!” a few clones tried to quiet him, but I just laughed.

“My shoulders, Hardcase. My shoulders.” He seemed to deflate a little, but grinned at my acceptance of his antics nonetheless.

“Do you know that only three clones were given Jaig eyes? Jango awarded them himself.” I hummed in response to Kix, realizing he’d answered the question I’d thought upon our first meeting--Rex had met Jango in person.

“And your captain is one of them,” I responded smoothly. “I’m sure you’re all proud.”

“Sure sure,” Fives laughed, waving his hand dismissively. “But we want to know how you got yours.”

Despite their genuine curiosity, I could feel the small swell of jealousy. I coughed slightly as I took another sip of the liquor. “You want to know why I got it, despite being an aruetii.”

They all looked sheepish, and as I spoke, I became aware of another presence quietly entering the room. The force signature was strong, but gentle. Honorable and fierce, but kind. And curious.

Rex.

I didn’t look up, choosing not to alert the others, or him, that I knew the captain had entered. Instead, I forced a smile, glancing around at their awkward expressions. “It’s okay. I didn’t understand it for a while either.” I leaned back where I sat, trying to feign a casual stance. Still, I’d never shared the instance of my getting the tattoos on my shoulders.

“Me’bana?” Echo asked, his tongue smooth over the Mando’a words. It relaxed me.

“Sometimes, when Boba was young, Jango would take him on missions to teach him. To train him to be a good soldier.” The clones openly flinched at my mention of Jango and his son. Still, I pressed on. “I’d been under Jango’s tutelage for a few years. In fact, it wasn’t far from the start of the war, not far from when he took the assassination contract to kill Senator Amidala.” I sighed, rubbing my temple slowly. “I’d already taken some jobs on my own by that point and didn’t live with them on Kamino. I’d purchased my own ship that I lived off of, using various fueling points like Mustafar, Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant to keep moving. I’d even started taking jobs from my past slave master, Jabba the Hutt.” They seemed shocked, not all of them knowing about my past. I chuckled to myself. “He was shocked to see me alive, but didn’t try to enslave me again. He’d said that a good hunter that can get a job done at a good price is better than a translating slave any day. Though, he said a human was always a better conversationalist than a droid.” I surprised the clones again with a laugh and a shrug.

“You were a slave.” Fives’ words weren’t a question, but I nodded anyways. The sorrow in his voice wasn’t something I was used to. I was used to pity, but he didn’t pity me. He was sad. Angry.

“Once,” I replied, gently nudging in the force for his mood to calm. “But Jango saved me. Set me free.” His anger dissipated, being replaced with a group sense of pride. “Anyways,” I steered the story back to its original purpose. “Boba was relatively familiar with some of the famous bounty hunters. Aurra Sing, Cad Bane...the likes. But Jango didn’t really work with them often. He believed in teaching Boba to adapt quickly. This meant that Jango and I didn’t really run jobs together if Boba was coming along.”

I sighed, rubbing my temple again as I regarded the group. My eyes flicked over quickly to where Rex stood beside the bunks, his arm in a sling and his golden gaze trained on me. “But this one was different. Jango was running a job for a high profile figure--one who chose a team that Jango wasn’t overly fond of. He had intended to take Boba, but he was forced to team up with Cad Bane.”

“I didn’t know they ever ran together,” Denal voiced beside me, his eyebrow raised.

I laughed. “Yeah, they really didn’t. But I’m getting to that. Jango called me when he found out who was on the team and asked me to meet him and take Boba. He didn’t trust having Boba on a mission with Bane.”

Fives and Echo laughed, nudging each other. “I get that,” Echo voiced.

“So I met them at their rendezvous point…”

I dropped out of hyperspace as my ship approached Kohlma. My fingers curled tightly around the joysticks, the force rippling from the sizable moon. There was so much history on Kohlma...dark history of death and war. Not to mention the dark presence that I felt billowing from somewhere on its surface.

Ignoring the tension and pushing my senses away, I dipped my ship towards the moon’s atmosphere, following the coordinates Jango had sent me. Mountains and forests sped by beneath the belly of my starship, a single mountain peak rising before me, tall spires standing tall upon it. A gray landing platform, decorated with various ships, laid below, and as I dipped to land, I spotted Slave I.

My engine cooled as I exited my ship, Magnaguards appearing, their staffs sparking with electricity. I raised my hands cooly, keeping my fingers as far from my blasters as possible. They seemed shocked by my Mandalorian-based armor, but their automated voices were stern nonetheless.

“You were not permitted landing,” one droned.

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry to crash the party. I wasn’t invited, but I’m just picking up a package.” They twirled their staffs, pointing the sparking ends at me as they neared. “Alright guys, come on,” I growled, my hands drifting down to my pistols, my knees bending to a ready stance. “I really don’t feel like scrapping a potential employer’s guards.”

They continued to approach, my blasters only just leaving their holsters before I heard Jango’s voice.

“Stand down!” he called, his voice automated through his helmet. “She’s with me.”

“Count Dooku did not permit her involvement in this mission,” one responded, though they did back away.

I lifted my eyebrow as I put my blasters away. “Count Dooku? That’s who you’re working for?”

“Don’t ask questions,” Jango responded curtly. I could feel the tension in his voice, so silenced myself.

“Kida!” I looked past my mentor to see the young boy emerging from the massive doorway of the castle. His hair had gotten longer since I last saw him, his face beginning to lose some of his baby fat. He was nine now. In Mandalorian culture, nearly old enough to be a warrior. Though while Jango lived by tradition, I doubted he would let Boba run any jobs alone for a while.

Boba came up to me and gave me a hug--something I loved. I knew he was trying to act masculine as he pulled away quickly, puffing up his chest and clearing his throat. I chuckled, but squeezed his shoulder reassuringly as we turned back to his father.

“Thank you for coming,” Jango spoke, stepping between the cautious Magnaguards.

“Of course, Cabur,” I responded easily, feeling his mood lighten slightly at my term for him. It darkened quickly as more bodies joined us on the landing platform.

“Fett, what is this?” The voice was one I recognized, the slightly rusting and warbling sound sending chills up my spine. I immediately found myself shifting in front of Boba as Cad Bane emerged from the castle, two other bounty hunters flanking him, neither of whom I knew well, but recognized from slum bars.

“Kida is just here to pick up Boba,” Jango responded smoothly.

“Don’t want him to learn from the best, then?” Bane was trying to get a rise out of my friend, my own hackles raising. I’d seen Bane before. Even done a job or two with him. He was just never overly kind, especially since he knew I trained under Jango. “Nice to see you again, little lady,” Bane added, tipping his wide-brimmed hat at me.

I gave him a nod, but said nothing. “Kida, you should go,” Jango said lowly. “Thank you again. I’ll be in contact.”

My eyes flicked between Jango and Bane nervously. “You better,” I replied. “Especially if this is for the Count.” I knew what happened to people that failed Dooku.

“I wasn’t aware your apprentice would be making an appearance, Fett.” The deep voice sent chills down my spine, along with the darkness that crawled towards me through the force. I’d never met Dooku before, but I’d heard his voice from Jango’s room when he would take transmissions from him. My eyes lifted as even Boba curled in on himself a bit, the tall, cloaked man stepping through the bounty hunters easily.

“As I said, she’s taking Boba,” Jango responded, but even I could feel his uneasiness.

Dooku’s eyes pierced into me and I could feel his mind scratching at mine. I recoiled instinctively, not realizing that he would feel it. His eyes widened in mild curiosity.

“She must be quite the woman for you to trust her with your son,” Dooku dared, his eyes hard-trained on me. I didn’t allow him to enter my mind--something he found incredibly frustrating.

“I trained her myself,” Jango said slowly. “I trust her with my life.” My eyes darted to my mentor, my own pride blossoming at his words. He was an encouraging man, but was often sparse with professions of admiration or love.

“If she’s so good, why haven’t you suggested her service to me?” Jango and I both knew that Dooku was prodding out of curiosity. That and a need to establish dominance.

“She does just fine on her own.”

“Does she speak?” Dooku’s words were chuckled out sarcastically now, to which I crunched my nose.

“Boba and I have to go,” I announced, casting a final glance at Jango before ushering Boba away.

“She’s not bad at what she does,” I heard Bane say to Dooku as I pushed Boba onto up the ramp of my ship. “She may even surpass you one day, Fett.”

It was quiet for a moment as I went to press the pad to bring up my ramp. “You’re right,” Jango said lowly. “She just might.”

Boba was asleep in my bed while I sat in the cockpit, waiting impatiently for Jango to reach out. It had been nearly 24 hours without a check-in...something Jango never did when out on a mission. Especially if he was without Boba.

I tried to keep calm, steadying my breathing. Still, I’d be lying if I said the confrontation with Dooku hadn’t rattled me. The entire set-up made me feel uneasy. Just as my nerves started to get the better of me, the comms beeped.

“Jango,” I sighed in greeting as it buzzed to life.

“The mission was a success. Meet me at these coordinates, dala.” I blinked, but kept my composure, nodding at his hologram.

“I’ll be there soon.”

He nodded curtly and signed off, my nerves now supercharged. Something was wrong. It wasn’t in how curt he was, nor how brief our conversation. It was how he called me dala. Woman. He never called me that.

It was his way of telling me to be cautious. Something had gone wrong. He needed help.

I started the engines, propelling the ship towards the rendezvous point Jango had transmitted. In addition, I flicked a switch, blocking all signals to and from my ship. Maybe it would make me miss communications, but they couldn’t track me either.

The hyperspace engines kicked in, propelling me swiftly through space, towards Nal Hutta.

“We’re going to meet Dad?” Boba’s voice sounded as he entered the cockpit, easily taking the seat next to me.

“Yeah,” I responded, thinking as I guided my ship through the wasteland of Nal Hutta.

“Why are you flying so low?”

“I think your dad’s in trouble.” His interest sparked at my words, worry rippling through the force. “Don’t worry,” I said quickly. “We’re going to help him.”

“You have a plan.” It wasn’t a question.

“Of course.” I set the ship down on an outcropped ledge, looking at Boba solemnly. “Your dad didn’t want you involved in this.” Boba went to argue, but I held up my hand, shushing him. “But I’m in charge now, and I need your help. Alright?” He nodded eagerly. “Here.” I handed him my sniper. “You’re going to need this.”

I slowly moved my ship towards the rendezvous point, quickly seeing the issue. Jango was with the other bounty hunters...all of whom had turned on him. I flicked off my signal jammer, immediately receiving a transmission.

“Hello, little lady.”

“Bane,” I growled at the hologram. “Is there a reason you have Jango hostage?”

“Why split an easy job four ways? Seems like overkill to me.”

“But why Jango? Mandalorian memory is long, Bane.”

“Not if they’re dead,” he laughed. “And you’re not Mandalorian.”

I pursed my lips at him, strafing my ship violently to the side, engaging its weapons mode. “Maybe not, but I’ve been around them enough to act like one.”

Bane only smiled. “You wouldn’t shoot while I have him here.”

I returned the grin, cutting off our communications before pulling the trigger. As I’d known, Jango shoved one of his captors aside and dove out of the way of my firing. I wreaked havoc on their camp, blasting apart one of the bounty hunter’s ships. They started to return fire, some of them rising in the air in their own fighters.

“Here we go, Boba,” I said into our secured line. “Get ready.”

“In position,” came his warbled voice.

I turned the ship’s nose away, blasting my engines to lead the rising ships from Jango and his captors. I focused on the force, letting it guide me through the fog-filled swamps. One ship crashed on its own, unable to avoid the fast-approaching structures that would rise suddenly out of the swamp water. The second stayed on my tail, letting out a spray of shots.

“My shields are taking a hit,” I called into the comms. “Get ready. I’m almost there!”

“Just a little further,” Boba responded calmly. He was a lot like his father. I darted around a corner, my ship rattling with the sheer force. As I came about, I saw the small shimmer of my sniper rifle on an outcropping.

“Get him, Boba!” I called, just as my ship shook violently, a blaster shot taking out my wing.

Three shots from the sniper went past my cockpit, followed by the sounds of an explosion and crash. I grinned, pulling at the joysticks of my shaking ship, trying to navigate her down as gently as possible.

“Kida,” Boba’s voice cut in and out on the failing comms as my ship began to shut down. “What do I-- Kida? Are---there?”

“Boba!” I yelled into the comms, hoping he could hear me better than I could hear him. “The ship is going down. If you can, make your way back to your father. I’ll meet you there!”

He responded, but I couldn’t understand it as my engines cut out, my ability to steer completely dependent on the flaps. I had no visual on where he was anymore, my ship dipping into the thick fog of Nal Hutta. The force guided me as my cockpit rattled violently, when I suddenly felt a surge to turn suddenly. Of course, I couldn’t considering my ship had no working thrusters. The giant pillar rose before me suddenly, my nose directed right at it.

“Kriff,” I cursed, releasing the joysticks and lunging from my seat. I scooped up my travel pack and darted from the cockpit as my ship began to tip, my autopilot not working and the damaged wing dragging it sideways. I fell hard into the wall as my ship tipped, my hands scrambling for something to pull me to the ladder in the center of the room. I climbed along it sideways as the room continued to flip, my fingers wrenching open the access hatch. I poked my head out into the foul air, seeing the pillar far too close.

I pushed out of my ship, deciding to mourn its loss at a later time. I fell through open air, my left arm extending as I aimed at another over-arching pillar of rock, the grappling line shooting out of my vambrace. A pained yell shot from my mouth as the line went taught, pulling my shoulder from its socket and swinging me sideways. I hung limply in the air, blocking my face at my ship connected with the massive pillar, exploding on impact.

My breath came hard through my nose, the pain in my shoulder blurring my vision. “Okay,” I whispered to myself, closing my eyes briefly to focus myself. Reaching up, I pressed a button on the vambrace, the grappling line beginning to retract and pull me upwards. At the right height, I swung myself, my arm pulling painfully, before disconnecting and falling towards the ledge I’d swung over.

I hit the ground hard, cradling my injured shoulder and scrunching my eyes closed. Feeling my shoulder, it was clear that it had dislocated and I wouldn’t be able to put it back myself. I pulled more grappling line from my vambrace, wrapping it around my neck and shoulder to form a makeshift sling, slipping my arm into it.

It took a moment for me to collect myself and get up, but I knew I had to get back to Jango.

“He gave you Jaig Eyes for jumping from your ship?” Denal asked, his eyebrows lifting.

I shot him a look. “Of course not. He gave them to me for saving Boba.” The clones looked at me with curious gazes, a small smile gracing my lips. “By the time I got back to where Jango was being held, Boba had made it back and was in a stand-off with Bane and Jango was injured.”

“Don’t you dare shoot my son,” Jango growled, struggling to stand behind Bane. His face was bleeding heavily, his leg severely injured.

I peered around the rock structure, seeing Boba pointing my rifle at Bane, but there were too many. Bane had one of the other bounty hunters behind him--a droid. An IG-88 assassin droid. Wonderful. Bane was standing casually, his blaster in his hand, but relaxed at his side. The droid was already aiming at Boba and I knew it would win the fight, should the boy start it.

A flash of light caught my eye, my gaze lifting to see a second IG-88 up in the cliffs with a sniper of its own. My heart stopped, knowing that Jango was next to useless with his injuries and with his son in danger.

I drew my own blaster slowly, emerging from the rocks to aim it at Bane. “That’s enough, Bane,” I said loudly, drawing their attention.

“Ah, so you survived your crash,” Bane thought aloud, looking over my injured self. “Not without some bruises, it would seem.”

“Bruises won’t slow me down.” I glanced at Boba from where I stood before casting a one to Jango. “Ram’ser,” I spoke in hushed Mando’a. “Abesh.”

They both knew better than to look, but nodded slightly.

“What are you saying to them,” Bane growled harshly, finally lifting his blaster to aim at me.

I smirked. “Maybe you should learn Mandalorian. Then you’d know better than to mess with them.”

Everyone knew what to do as if we’d practiced it. And in a way, I suppose we had, though never in a real life situation. I immediately turned my aim up to the rising rock formations, firing rapidly. Boba rolled sideways as the other droid fired before writing himself and taking him out in turn. My shots hit the sniper in the mountains, Jango having trained me to aim as well with a pistol as I did a rifle. Bane pulled the trigger on his own blaster, but Jango swept out his legs, the bolt going high above my head.

“Boba, the ship,” I yelled, rushing forward as Jango and Bane fought. Boba ran to Slave I, looking back in a panic as Bane got the upper hand, pressing his blaster to Jango’s neck as he sat on top of the injured Mandalorian.

“Enough,” he yelled roughly, staring me down. “Drop your gun.”

I hesitated for a moment, Jango shaking his head at me. He wanted me to take the shot, but I wasn’t about to let him die on a foolish gamble. Not with his life, anyway. I lowered my blaster and let it fall to the dirt.

“Hut’uun,” I heard Jango mutter, my heart clenching at his insult. I pushed it away, scowling at him as I stood with my hands up.

“Don’t be a jare,” I responded evenly, my eyes finally lifting to meet Bane’s. “What is it you want? To prove you’re the best? To get away with all the money? What?”

Bane regarded me for a moment, his blaster still pressed to Jango’s neck. “What did he call you?”

My eyebrow lifted as I glanced to see Boba frozen on the ramp of Slave I. “He called me a coward.”

“Perhaps you are,” Bane hummed.

“Or maybe you’re just gullible.” The Duros looked confused for a moment before turning to anger. His blaster lifted to point at me, Jango freeing his arm and swiping his fist across his enemy’s face.

I lunged forward, slamming into Bane’s side and sending us both tumbling to the dirt. Pain blossomed in my upper abdomen, but I ignored it as we wrestled for dominance. I finally pinned Bane, my fist repeatedly connecting with his cheek. He was tiring, the blows to his face disorienting him. As I let out an angry yell, hitting him again, he pressed his wrist control, his boots erupting in propulsion and knocking me sideways. He was shot backwards, but it was enough space for him to escape.

I stood to pursue, but stopped at the searing pain in my abdomen and the knowledge of Jango needing help behind me. I watched him go, Boba letting off a few shots after him, but none hit its mark.

I breathed slowly for a moment before calling to the young boy. “You alright?”

“Fine. You?”

I nodded, ignoring the pain for the moment. “Get her started. I’ll get your father.” Boba nodded at me before heading into Slave I. I turned to Jango, seeing him breathing heavily on the ground. “You alright?” I asked again, this time to Jango.

He cast me a glance. “I heard a shot go off. You hit?”

“I’m fine,” I responded, leaning down to help him get up. He stopped at sitting up, his gloved hand gently grazing my Mandalorian armor. I held back my wince as he followed the blaster burns to where Bane had slipped his blaster between the plates before letting off a shot.

“You’re wounded.”

“So are you,” I responded, pushing away his hand and pulling him up. He leaned heavily on me, his knee injured severely. I put his arm over my good shoulder and guided us both back to Slave I. Letting him lay in a cot, I went back outside to retrieve our dropped weapons and then the money from the job.

“Is Dad okay?” Boba asked as I came back with the case of unmarked credits. I nodded through the cockpit door.

“Let’s get out of here. Can you pilot? I’ll take care of your dad.”

“Of course.”

The engines roared to life as Slave I lifted from the ground, my arms bracing me as the ship turned upright. After leaving the atmosphere, I went into Jango’s room to find him removing his armor slowly in order to inspect the damage.

“Here,” I offered, moving to help, but he batted me away. “You helped me more than a few times,” I responded smoothly. “It’s my turn.”

Slowly, he settled back and let me remove his chest plate. Soon, I had him in his blacks and inspected his knee.

“What happened?” I asked, placing a cold bacta-pack over the inflamed joint before beginning to wipe off his face to find the wounds there.

“They jumped me. I should’ve seen it happen.”

“To your knee,” I clarified gently, giving him a small smile.

“Blown out, I think,” he groaned as I wiped away the blood over a deep cut above his temple. “That’s how they took me down.”

“Wonderful.”

I placed bacta-patches on his wounds before returning to his knee and gently wrapping it in a bacta-wrap. “It’s not great,” I said as I wrapped it. “But it will help until we get back to Kamino.”

I stood when I finished, but my vision blurred, my hand shooting out to catch myself on the wall. “Head rush,” I pretended, moving to leave the room.

“Stay.”

“Jango, I need to go check on Boba.”

“Boba’s fine,” he argued, his voice stern. “Because of you. Stay. I know you have wounds to patch up. I want to see how you treat yourself when I’m not around.”

I snorted a short laugh at his attempt at a joke and sat down at the end of the bed. “I might need help getting the shoulder,” I muttered.

He sat up slowly, reaching out to gently hold my shoulder and pull it from the sling. One hand pressed to my back, the other gripping my bicep, I closed my eyes as his breath brushed over my cheek.

“Ready?”

“No.”

“One. Two.” On two, he pulled my shoulder back into place, making me yelp. Despite the searing pain, it lessened the moment I felt the joint pop.

“Ouch,” I growled, casting him a look as he gently ran his fingers over the sore muscles and tendons. “I thought you were doing on three.”

“You would’ve tensed up,” he said with a shrug, leaning back against the pillows again.

I rolled my eyes and went about removing my upper armor, leaving me in my sports bra. I placed rags soaked in bacta over my blaster shot to try and stop the bleeding before wrapping my injured shoulder in bacta wraps.

“That looks bad,” Jango commented. Despite his relaxed tone, I could see the concern in his eyes.

“Feels worse,” I said curtly, placing bacta-bandages over my abdomen. I was feeling the pain more heavily, so I allowed myself a shot of pain reliever.

“Wimp,” he teased.

“If you want to see how long you’d last with a shot to the belly, I’d be more than happy to test it.”

Jango chuckled as I washed off my hands, gently wrapping the knuckles I’d torn from hitting Bane. He quieted as he watched me finish and lean back on the wall. My eyes closed from exhaustion, feeling the ship rumble slightly in hyperspace. He let me rest for a while, the man quietly sitting up and turning allow my head to rest on his shoulder. His fingers brushed over my short-cropped hair, the force rippling with his thoughts.

The close proximity made it easy, feelings of uncertainty and pride surging from him. And maybe something else. Something I was used to sensing between him and Boba.

“Kida?” he said gently. I hummed, not opening my eyes. “What you did today… was incredible.”

I smiled slightly, but shook my head. “Boba took down a while ship today with three sniper shots. You should be proud of him.”

“I am.” he hesitated for a moment. “But you planned it. It knew his abilities and guided him as well as any teacher. You took the risks. Lost your ship. Got shot for me.” I opened my eyes to glance at him for a moment. “You saved us both today.”

“I owe you everything,” I responded slowly before closing my eyes again. “You saved me from haran itself.”

Jango hummed, thinking, his hand still brushing my hair. I felt him calm, his head leaning back against the wall. It was silent for a moment before he breathed slowly.

“Ni kyr’tayl gai sa’ad,” he whispered to the quiet room, his hand brushing over the curve of my head.

My eyes shot open at his words as I turned to look at him. My jaw dropped open in shock when I met his hazel irises, his gaze sincere and steady. “What are you doing?” I whispered back, my heart in my throat.

His hand gently pushed me so that I was fully facing him. “You’ve been free for almost four years now,” he expressed softly. “I’ve watched you grow. Taught you what I know. Watched you achieve. I’ve also watched you doubt your worth every day since I first saw you.”

I blinked at him, emotion rising in my chest at his words, but I said nothing.

“Now I’ve had enough of that. That doubt? It’s over. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“No more of that. Ni kyr’tayl gai sa’ad,” he repeated the phrase again, this time my shock exchanged for warm emotion. “I know this isn’t very formal, but I mean it. You’re Mando’ade now. This is your cin vhetin, understand?”

I swallowed thickly, tears in my eyes. I nodded.

“I want to hear it.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“No more doubting yourself. No more doubting who you are. You’re Kida Fett. My daughter and a daughter of Mandalore. Yes?”

I smiled, letting the tears slip down my cheeks. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

I hesitated for a moment, thinking he wanted me to call him sir, as I did when I was in training. But I saw the warmth in his eyes, amongst the tiny shimmer of water he held back. I felt the warmth in the force with his pride in me.

“Yes… Buir.”

“After we were both treated on Kamino, Jango took me with him to a remote moon of Mandalore. That was where he gave me the Jaig eyes. He elected to tattoo them on me...he said it wanted to do it permanent instead of paint on armor so that I remembered who I was now. So that I would remember I was worthy...and so that I would never fall from that worthy path.”

I swallowed thickly at the memory, the clones silent around me. The room had palpable tension in it. No one needed the force to feel the confusion.

“I...never knew that Jango adopted anyone but Boba,” Echo said finally, his face solemn.

I shrugged slightly, leaning back on my seat to feign a nonchalance. “We kept it a secret to keep everyone safe. Especially him and Boba.” I breathed slowly. “It was enough for me to know that I had a father. A family.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kix said finally, meeting my eyes sadly. “Geonosis must have been…”

“It was,” I replied after his voice trailed off. “It was even harder when you guys arrived to Coruscant. I saw his face everywhere. But, I won’t lie...I don’t see him much anymore.”

They looked at each other, confused.

“But we all share the same face,” Jesse said finally.

I grinned, shaking my head. “No. You really don’t. You might look like Jango did, but each of you are so different, I don’t see him anymore. There will never be another person like Jango. But there will also never be another person like you,” I said to Fives, before turning to Echo. “Or you.” I turned my head to where Rex stood beside the bunks, still concealed in shadow. “Or you.”

Rex emerged, the clones smiling at him.

“How long have you been lurking there?” Fives chuckled. The group laughed, the joke easing some of the tension. I took a long drink from the ale, my eyes watching Rex over the brim of the cup.

“Long enough,” Rex said finally, his golden gaze intense. “I’m sorry for your loss, Miss Fett.”

I recoiled slightly, coughing on the ale. “No. It’s Kida. And he’s nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’eechaaj’la.”

The group nodded solemnly at my words, Rex regarded me with uncertainty. I swallowed thickly. Sensing my unease, Fives let out a ‘here here’ and lifted his cup. The group drank.

“Well, child of Mandalore,” Hardcase said with a grin, leaning on Fives’ shoulder. “Care to join us in a night of drinking?”

The corner of my mouth pulled up into a smirk, glancing around at the group. I nodded, making them cheer and pass out more ale and bring forth what I assumed would become a drinking game.

Still, as we prepared to start, I could feel the captain’s eyes on me, his confusing mix of emotions rippling through the force. I did my best to ignore them, but throughout the night, they surged off of him more and more intensely until it was all I could feel amongst the buzz of alcohol.

MANDO’A

Aruetii - outsider

Me’bana? - What happened?

Cabur - guardian, protector

Dala - woman

Ram’ser - sniper

Abesh - east

Hut’uun - coward

Jare - kamikaze; someone taking a fatal, foolish risk

Haran - hell

Ni kyr’tayl gai sa’ad - I know your name as my child; adoption vow

Mando’ade - sons and daughters of Mandalore

cin vhetin - fresh start, clean slate; term indicating the erasure of someone’s past when they become Mandalorian

Buir - Father

Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’eechaaj’la - Not gone, merely marching away (tribute to dead comrade)

#fanfiction #clone wars #star wars the clone wars #Captain Rex #captain rex X OC #Fanfic #OC star wars

10 notes · View notes

swinfinities · 6 years ago

Text

Long Live the Queen: Part Ten

The first thing Luke noticed when he stepped off the ship was the smell. The next thing he noticed was the mud, which swallowed his boots whole with a sickening squelch.

“I think… I think I’m stuck,” Luke said, struggling in vain to pull his feet free.

Old Ben just chuckled, wading his way through the slime towards Luke. The old Jedi’s robes were already caked with a fresh layer of mud. Luke could have sworn that actual moss had started growing in a few places in the man’s grey beard and wondered to himself if the planet truly wasn’t trying to eat them.

“Up you go,” Ben said, grabbing Luke under the arms and plucking him out of the mud and dropping him on his shoulders.

“We’ve got a little bit of a hike ahead of us,” said Ben, starting to walk forward through the overgrown swamp. “Are you up to it?”

“Sure,” Luke replied. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to see a man named Yoda.”

Luke snickered.

“What’s so funny up there?” Ben asked.

“Yoda,” Luke replied. “That’s a funny name.”

Ben laughed with him this time.

“Yes… I suppose it is.”

“Is he a Jedi, too?”

“Yes, he is,” Ben replied. “One of the greatest who ever lived. And the wisest being I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is going to teach you the ways of the Force, and train you to be a Jedi, just like he trained me, many years ago.”

“Okay. So I get to learn how to lift rocks with my mind and stuff?”

“Being a Jedi is much more than lifting rocks, Luke. It requires commitment of the highest order. You will need to have a strong mind and an even stronger will. You must learn to listen to the Force, learn to interpret its instructions. Only then will you find balance within yourself.”

“Okay… so when do I learn to use the lightsaber?”

Ben laughed and rolled his eyes.

“I can already tell that Yoda and I will certainly have our work cut out for us.”

*****

The little hut, made out little more than mud and sticks, wasn’t exactly the sort of dwelling Luke would have pictured a Jedi Master to be living in. When his mother used to tell him bedtime stories about the Jedi, they always included a description of the grand Jedi Temple of Coruscant, with its gleaming halls and towers. None of the stories included nearly this much mud and certainly didn’t involve any wrinkly, green goblins that hobbled about on canes.

“Young Skywalker…” the short, green-skinned creature said as he stepped out of his home. His long, pointed ears perked up as the thing made what Luke assumed was his species’ version of a smile.

“A long time for this moment, have I waited. But first, young Skywalker, I am wondering, why are you here?”

“Because Ben brought me here, I guess—”

Luke started to say, but the green Jedi knocked him on the forehead with the end of his cane before he could finish.

“Wrong!” Yoda exclaimed. “Wrong! Heh heh!”

The old alien tapped his cane on the ground as he chuckled to himself.

“Brought you here, Obi-wan did not,” Yoda continued. “Again, I ask: why are you here?”

Luke sighed and rubbed the sore spot on his head.

“I am here because I want to be a Jedi,” he replied.

“Hmm…” Yoda said, stroking his chin with three stubby fingers. He stared at Luke, squinting slightly as if he weren’t looking directly at him, but past him, or somehow through him. “Nearly correct, you are. In time, the truth we will uncover. But first, we must eat! Come, eat!”

Yoda laughed again and then hobbled back toward the entrance to his hut, stopping for a moment to smile and wave for Luke and Ben to follow, and then disappeared through the round, muddy door.

Luke looked back at Ben, giving him a confused glance.

“It’s alright, Luke. Even a Jedi master must eat his supper. Come. I am sure you are hungry from our long journey.”

As it was, Luke was indeed very hungry. Just not for… whatever it was that Yoda poured into his bowl. Still, trying to be polite, Luke sat down next to the slab of stone that served as a table and took a bite. The soup was thick and oily and tasted like no meat or vegetable he had ever eaten. But at least it was warm, and his empty stomach was so desperate for food that he didn’t care so much how it tasted. He even went back for a second helping.

“Mmm, good food, good food,” Yoda would occasionally squawk as they ate. Obi-wan, however, sat still and silent, crouched under the low ceiling in a dark corner of the hut, buried in his own thoughts.

When Yoda had finished eating, he sat back and let out a long, contented sigh, rubbing his full belly.

“Master Yoda, I must tell you why we are here,” said Obi-wan, breaking his silence at last. “It would appear that—”

Yoda lifted a hand to stop him.

“From the boy, I wish to hear it,” he said, turning back to Luke. “Again I ask, why are you here?”

“I… I already told you, master,” said Luke, confused as to why the question was being asked, but perhaps even more confused as to why he didn’t know the answer. Why was he here? To become a Jedi? Because his mother had sent him? Or was it something deeper? Luke suddenly remembered something his mother had told him, only a few years ago. They had taken a short trip to Anchorhead to buy some supplies. Luke noticed a building draped in bright, crimson flags and surrounded by soldiers in white armor. At first, Luke was excited. They looked like the same soldiers he and his friends would watch in the holo-dramas. But Padmé had pulled him aside and said: “Those flags and the Empire they represent are a symbol of evil, Luke. A very wicked man is in charge of the Empire. He wants nothing more than to hurt others.”

“Why doesn’t somebody stop him?” Luke had asked.

“Without the Jedi, it is hard to fight against someone so powerful. But even though the Jedi are gone, Luke, hope is not gone from the galaxy. That is something the Emperor can never destroy. That is what your father believed, and I believe it, too. If your father were still here, he would never stop fighting against evil. I know that because he never stopped fighting it during the Clone War. Someday, when you are old enough to join the fight, I hope you will remember him. I could never be happier if you grew up to be just like your father.”

Luke pulled his mind back from Tatooine and to the small, cozy hut where he sat.

“I’m here… because of my father, I guess,” Luke told Yoda.

“Guided you here, the Force has,” said Yoda, finally nodding in approval at the boy’s answer. “And trust in the Force, we shall. What know you of your father, young Skywalker?”

“Not much…” Luke said, trying to remember all he could. “I know he was a Jedi. One of the best Jedi that ever was. Or at least that’s what mom always said.”

Luke noticed Ben’s eyes shift down toward the floor. An even more sunken mood settled over his face.

“Always noble, and never cowardly,” Luke continued. “That’s what mom always used to say about him. And even in the middle of a war, he never forgot to be kind. My mom always said I will grow up to be just like him.”

“Mmm… powerful Jedi was he,” said Yoda. “Powerful Jedi.”

“You knew him?” asked Luke.

Yoda nodded. “For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. Watched them rise, I did. Watched them fall, also.”

“Master Yoda,” Obi-wan chimed in. “Do you believe it is time? Is it time to make our move against the Empire? Is Luke to be trained?”

Yoda closed his eyes. For a moment, he seemed to leave his body, his mind drifting to some higher plane while his physical form was left nothing but an empty shell. As silently he had left, his mind drifted back and he opened his eyes.

“Impossible to see,” said Yoda. “Always in motion, the future is.”

“If we are going to act, we must act quickly,” Ben said. “Master Yoda, I’ve learned a terrible truth. Darth Vader survived.”

It was Yoda’s turn now to look downcast.

“Know this, I do,” he replied.

“You mean you knew?” Obi-wan asked.

“Sensed him, have I. A wound in the Force, has your old apprentice become.”

“I don’t understand,” said Luke. “Who is Darth Vader?”

Ben and Yoda shared a knowing look, but Luke couldn’t guess at what it was about. Yoda shook his head softly.

“Darth Vader was a Jedi knight, once,” Ben explained. “And a pupil of mine before he turned to evil. He helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.”

#Star Wars #Fanficion #fanfic #writing #short story #Padme Amidala #Luke Skywalker #Alternate history #alternate universe #Star Wars Infinities #Rebellion #Jedi #Yoda #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Dagobah

15 notes · View notes