#lane is a trooper though!!

[carewyncromwell]

“I won't cry, for you see, When you're gone, I'll still be Bloody Mary.”

x~x~x~x

HPHM Cardverse developed by @ariparri​​​​​ // featuring Cato Reese @catohphm and referencing Veruca McQuaid @ariparri

x~x~x~x

Nearly everyone in the Country of Spades openly mourned the loss of their beloved “Counselor,” the Jack of Spades, Duncan Ashe. He had been very well-liked by most of its people, so even those who hadn’t agreed with him politically or liked him as a person put on a good show of empathy and compassion in the face of it. Even Patricia Rakepick -- who everyone knew was Duncan Ashe’s main rival for power -- spoke very grimly and soberly about the assassination, though there were plenty of people who didn’t believe her act.

One of those people who believed it the least was Jacob Cromwell, a courtier who had been considered Duncan Ashe’s key advisor. The day before Duncan’s death, his mother Lane’s work visa to Hearts had been abruptly rescinded by Rakepick, who claimed that Lane leaving the country posed a threat to national security. Jacob had been so furious that he’d gone straight to Duncan about it, and he wasn’t pleased either.

“Your mother’s not the only one,” Duncan had told him, his jaw clenched with anger. “All visas and permissions that had been previously given have suddenly been revoked, all supposedly because of ‘security concerns.’ Some people have already been arrested on trumped-up charges, to try to prevent them from leaving.”

“Because she’s afraid folks’ll gab about the rotten state of things here, if they’re allowed to leave?” Jacob presumed, his voice pure venom at the thought.

“Pretty much. Rakepick knows the world wouldn’t be on her side in a lot of her positions. She wants to keep this whole thing contained here, in Spades -- even if public opinion isn’t really on her side, she can manipulate that more, if she asserts control here. The less objective sources people can turn to from the outside, the more they’ll have to rely on her and her supporters’ take on things.”

Jacob’s brow furrowed. “But this is overstepping her boundaries, isn’t it? She’s only in charge of the military -- it’s your job to deal with state affairs, Ashe, not hers.”

“Of course it is, and she knows it,” Duncan spat. “She’s gotten really bold, to challenge me like this.”

The Counselor got up from his desk.

“She’s asked me to meet her later tonight,” he said solemnly. “Jacob...I think if your mother has any hope of getting back to Carewyn, she’ll have to find her own way out.”

He paused. His eyes lingered on Jacob’s hand on the desk, but he resisted the urge to take it.

“...And so should you,” he said more quietly.

Jacob’s blue eyes flared. “I’m not leaving you, Ashe.”

“You made this plan for you to leave home because you saw how bad things were getting,” Duncan reminded him. “Don’t play the hero now.”

“Ashe, Rakepick sees you as a threat! If she -- ”

“Your sister needs you,” Duncan told him very sharply. “Your mother needs you.”

It was a pointed blow. Duncan knew Jacob well enough to know how selflessly and unconditionally he adored his family. Jacob quieted immediately.

Duncan swallowed and, clenching his fist as he resisted the urge to take Jacob’s shoulder and squeeze it, he took a step forward, his dark eyes boring into Jacob’s even as his voice grew lower in his throat.

“...Rakepick knows you’re aligned with me, Jacob. You know she and her allies will want to have some sort of leverage over you, to get what they want. Carewyn’s safe from Rakepick for now, but your mother isn’t. And if she has you...well, she has leverage over your mother and Carewyn. ...Over me.”

Jacob looked up at Duncan, startled. Duncan’s face was flushed darkly, but he kept his shoulders very straight.

“Over...?” started Jacob, but Duncan cut him off defensively.

“They love you, Jacob,” he said, his voice growing a little louder as he tried to force Jacob’s train of thought to a halt and redirect it. “You and I both know that if you were in trouble, Carewyn would want to run right back here to save you, and if she did -- well, then she’d be walking right back into Rakepick’s claws, wouldn’t she?”

His dark eyes hardened.

“You Cromwells always put each other over yourselves: it’s what you do. But if you want to protect your family, you’ll have to use that brilliant brain of yours for once and get out yourself. If you don’t, then Rakepick will have the means to catch all three of you. And once she has you, she’ll make you serve her ends -- just to make sure you can never break free again.”

Jacob stared at Duncan for a long moment. Then, setting his jaw, he nodded.

“I’ll write to Mum,” he said lowly. “Tell her to get out now, while she still can.”

“Then you’ll go after?” Duncan pressed him.

Jacob hesitated. Duncan held his gaze,

“...Yes,” Jacob said very quietly after a long moment.

Duncan’s eyes softened. His dark eyes lingered on Jacob’s face, becoming vaguer as they dipped into the creases of his lips -- he even found himself taking a step forward, just to better take in the tiny, charming creases around the other man’s eyes -- the softness of the curl beside his cheek...

“Jacob...” he said lowly.

“Yeah?”

But it was as though the sound of his own voice had startled Duncan back to life. Pride shot back up through his posture like an electric charge, and he immediately stiffened up again, walls coming up around his heart like an armadillo rolling up in a ball.

“...It’s nothing. Just...be careful.”

Jacob watched Duncan head for the door. Duncan could feel Jacob’s blue eyes running along his shoulder and the back of his head, trying and failing to read his expression, but stubbornly pushed back the urge to turn around. He was afraid if he did, he’d have trouble letting go of that curly-haired idiot ever again.

Because Duncan had meant what he’d said -- Jacob being within Rakepick’s reach was dangerous for all those who loved him and longed to protect him. And with the country falling apart from the inside and Veruca’s safety still in active danger after what happened to Coby, Duncan had more than enough to worry about as it was.

He couldn’t afford to worry about Jacob. He couldn’t be paralyzed with fear thinking of what might happen to Jacob, if things got much worse -- not when he had the whole Country of Spades to consider.

x~x~x~x

That very night, following his meeting with Duncan, Jacob sent an urgent note to his mother via a courier. The following morning, the whole Country of Spades learned the horrible news of Duncan Ashe’s assassination.

When Jacob received the news of Duncan’s death, he was absolutely beside himself with grief. His reaction to the news, coupled with the message from Rakepick demanding an audience with him, was so out of control that Jacob ended up violently taking his feelings out on all of the guards who had been assigned to guard the Ace of Spades when he went to confront her. After taking down a good thirty men with nothing but his own two fists and the blunt side of a shot gun, Jacob was finally overcome by Rakepick’s chief stooge, a dark-haired man named Kazuhiro Shiratori, and about ten other soldiers providing back-up. As it’d turned out, Jacob hadn’t had any additional shot or powder besides the one currently in the gun, hence why he’d only used the blunt side of it like a club. Many of Rakepick’s supporters insisted the lone shot in the gun was clearly intended for the Ace of Spades. If it weren’t for Rakepick herself intervening and ordering his imprisonment, Jacob Cromwell likely would’ve died that day.

It was nearly two weeks later that Rakepick followed up with Jacob in his cell. When she arrived, she found the prison quiet and still, except for a low, melancholy song echoing down the empty stone halls.

“Our duty first -- love must not lead... What might have been, had fate decreed? ‘Twere better far, had we not met -- I loved you then...I love you yet... Say ‘au Revoir,’ but not ‘Goodbye’ -- The past is dead: love cannot die. ‘Twere better far, had we not met -- I loved you then...I love you yet...”

Rakepick had heard Jacob Cromwell sing before -- she’d heard both him and his younger sister Carewyn sing in passing, so she had no trouble picking out that familiarly handsome Tenor tone, even despite its slight tear-soaked rasp.

He was grieving. However handsome his voice sounded, it echoed with bottomless pain -- the aching and longing of a man who’d lost the love of his life.

It made Rakepick’s eyes narrow that bit more as the prison guard escorted her down the hall toward Jacob’s cell.

“Jacob Cromwell, your Majesty,” the guard said dutifully.

Rakepick looked into the cell. Jacob had been bound with four different chains, each restraining his limbs to keep him tightly locked to the wall. His left sleeve was completely ripped off his shirt, he was nursing several bruises on his face, and his lip was bleeding.

Jacob looked up through the bars at the sound of the guard’s voice. The sight of Rakepick made him violently shoot to his feet, only to be held back like an attack dog on a leash by the chains binding him.

“You!” he snarled.

Rakepick’s expression became a little stonier.

“Hello, Jacob,” she said lowly.

Her eyes flitted to the guard. “Leave us.”

The guard gave a little bow, before marching back up the hall.

“What do you want, you murderous snake?” Jacob spat.

Rakepick waited for him to be fully out of sight before addressing Jacob. Her dark blue eyes were very cool upon him.

“Is that how you refer to the woman who spared your life?” she asked dryly.

“I know what you did to Coby -- to Ashe!” snarled Jacob. “Ashe was supposed to meet with you that very night, when he died -- ”

“A fact that gives me no solace, in the face of his assassination,” Rakepick cut him off in a very crisp, rehearsed sort of voice. “Believe me, had I not been waiting to meet with the Jack at the location agreed upon, I may have prevented his suffering...and yours, by extension.”

“You lying -- !”

“I do lament that things had to turn out this way, Jacob,” Rakepick said a bit more quietly. “Whether you believe me or not, I sincerely do.”

She folded her arms behind her back, pacing absently to the left as she considered Jacob out the side of her eye. Then, after a moment, she spoke again.

“...When was the last time you spoke to your mother?”

Jacob twitched. He glared up at her, but didn’t reply.

“Jacob,” said Rakepick very sharply. “I asked you a question.”

“And I didn’t answer it,” Jacob shot back very coldly.

“Jacob, your mother has gone missing,” said Rakepick. “No one’s seen her in the last two weeks -- the museum has heard nothing from her, and your flat has been abandoned.”

Jacob didn’t react with any kind of surprise. This seemed to be the answer Rakepick had been looking for -- her eyes narrowed, flaring with more fire than ever.

“Where is she?” she said very quietly.

Jacob didn’t respond -- instead he just turned his head away. Rakepick took hold of the bars, her eyes searing at Jacob through them.

“Your mother avoided an official summons from the Court of Spades,” she said sharply. “As you know, that in itself is a criminal offense. And with her visa already having been revoked out of a concern for national security, that now makes your mother a wanted woman, in the eyes of both the military of Spades and the country overall. When they find her, our officers will show no mercy -- unless you give me some information I can use to find her first.”

Again, Jacob didn’t answer. Rakepick’s eyes narrowed that bit more.

“That same information could also earn you your freedom, as well, if you merely cooperate,” she murmured. “I’ve already sent a letter to your sister’s university, telling her as much.”

The mention of Carewyn made Jacob shift slightly on the floor. Rakepick tried to latch onto this.

“Carewyn would be more than capable of advocating for you at your trial -- she more than knows the law well enough to argue a plea deal before the court. Then you can go back to living just the way you did before, here in Spades. Maybe even better than before. The army could use a mind like yours...as well as your sister’s.”

Jacob bowed his head. Rakepick tilted her head a bit, trying to gauge Jacob’s expression. Then, after a long moment, without moving off the floor, Jacob very slowly raised his head again to look back up at Rakepick.

His almond-shaped blue eyes were glinting with spite, and his lips curled up in a very large and cold smirk.

“‘And once she has you...she’ll make you serve her ends, just so you can never break free again,’” said Jacob. “Looks like Ashe really had you pegged.”

The curly-haired young man sharply rose to his feet, the chains rattling loudly in the movement as he got as close to the bars he could.

“Sorry, Rakepick -- but Lane Cromwell is long gone, and well out of your reach. And Wyn is more than wise enough to see through your little game -- no matter what you might tell her, or what you might threaten me with, she will never come back to Spades...and she will never serve you.”

Jacob’s eyes blazed with hatred despite the satisfaction in his expression.

“And once I break out of here myself,” he whispered venomously, “you’ll have no more leverage over my family. And I swear, I will not rest until you meet an end even more painful than the one you thrust upon Ashe.”

By the time Jacob was finished, Rakepick’s expression had hardened, losing all possible trace of compassion.

“...Very well.”

She stared Jacob down for a long moment, her dark blue eyes just as fiery and resentful as his. Then, turning on her heel, she called down the hall.

“Guard!”

The dutiful guard from before scrambled down the hall so as to meet Rakepick.

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“Double the watch on the prisoner,” Rakepick said very coldly, “and cut three links off his restraints. I don’t want him going anywhere.”

The guard saluted, before dashing off down the hall. Rakepick shot a look over her shoulder at Jacob.

“If you will not recant your past crimes and help us locate your mother, then your execution date will be set,” she said callously. “I sincerely hope for your sister’s sake, you have a change of heart on the matter -- it would pain me deeply, to have to inform her of her brother’s passing -- ”

“You contact my sister again, and I’ll show you the meaning of pain, you heartless witch,” Jacob spat.

Rakepick sighed tiredly. “You know, Jacob, your brain could earn you the honor and esteem of the world...but your temper really does make you impossible to work with.”

With this, she strode out of the prison.

x~x~x~x

That spring, across the border in the Land of Clubs, the Ace of Clubs, Cato Reese, was startled by a message he received from a town up near their northern border. An emaciated and exhausted-looking woman had been found collapsed in a heap on the railroad tracks just north of the capitol and had been brought to the local hospital to recover. When she’d awoken and someone had told her she was in the Clubs, she’d asked if anyone could help her find someone named Orion Amari.

“Someone named Orion Amari” -- it was a phrase that could make just about anyone in the Land of Clubs laugh, considering who Orion Amari was. But Cato instead found it very concerning, and he was sure to tell Orion so, when he escorted the King of Clubs on Abraxan-back up north toward the hospital where the strange woman was recovering.

“Madam Sprout’s letter noted that her manner of dress was distinctly foreign,” Cato said thoughtfully. “A worn wool skirt, a pinstriped waistcoat and white gloves...even the pocketwatch found on her was emblazoned with a crest of Spades.”

“That would explain her not knowing my position,” said Orion serenely.

“Maybe,” Cato granted as he adjusted his grip on the reins of his Abraxan steed, “but...well, I’ve seen those sorts of pocketwatches before. The Jack of Spades had one when he came to visit, remember? That has to indicate she’s got to be at least a little familiar with the Court of Spades, wouldn’t it? But if she’s encountered you through the Court of Spades, then she would have to know you’re the King of Clubs...”

“And yet she doesn’t,” finished Orion.

“Exactly.”

Orion’s steed Tralee gave a light murr. The King of Clubs brought a gentle hand through her silvery white mane to soothe her.

“It seems this stranger has some knowledge of me outside of my position as King,” Orion said, and he too looked intrigued now. “Let us get to the bottom of that swiftly.”

x~x~x~x

When the King and Ace arrived at the hospital, Madam Sprout led them under seemingly endless ceilings and past beautiful wooden pillars carved to resemble the trees that framed the building’s exterior. They migrated all the way to the far end of the ward, which held the bed belonging to the woman in question.

She was an older woman, likely the age to be both Cato and Orion’s mother, with long blond hair around a heart-shaped face and shadows under her eyes, which shone a bright, almond-shaped blue.

A very familiar blue...

When Orion and Cato approached, the woman looked up. Despite the frailness of her features, her eyes were very bright and alert.

“You have visitors, Lane,” Madam Sprout said kindly.

The name made a strange light of recognition spark to life in Orion’s eyes. Cato glanced at him, but his face was a mask he couldn’t quite read as he walked up to the woman’s bedside.

The woman called Lane smiled at Orion.

“Are you Orion?” she said. Her voice was very soft and oddly fragile, and yet echoed with warmth and hope.

“Yes,” said Orion.

Lane’s expression bloomed like a flower, her lips spreading into a full, relieved smile. She reached out to gently take Orion’s hand in both of hers, even if the kind gesture made Orion stiffen like a lightly startled cat.

“It’s so wonderful to finally meet you,” she said earnestly. “Even if it is like this. Winnie’s spoken so highly of you...”

“‘Winnie?’” repeated Cato, confused.

He looked to Orion for an explanation, but Orion was instead solely focused on Lane.

“Would your name...be Lane Cromwell?” the King asked, his voice very soft.

“Yes,” said Lane. “I’m Carewyn’s mother.”

That strange glint from before took over Orion’s eyes at that name, shining much brighter than before and yet also looking more tense.

“You were supposed to join Carewyn in the Kingdom of Hearts this last winter,” murmured Orion. “And yet you are here. I feel that I should be very concerned, about that.”

Lane’s eyes welled up with pain.

“The army blocked my work visa at the last moment,” she explained.

“Rakepick’s officially shut down all transport in and out of the Country of Spades,” supplied Cato, and Orion glanced at him. “She just shut down the railroad three days ago.”

“I thought she would,” said Lane. “I knew I’d need to show identification to use the train anyway...that’s why I just decided to follow the tracks on foot. I knew they’d take me to the Land of Clubs...even the Kingdom of Hearts eventually, if I just kept going...”

“You went on foot?” said Cato, alarmed. “To do that -- it must’ve taken you weeks to get here...”

“What of your son, Jacob?” Orion asked. His hands were clasped tightly in front of him as he regarded Lane. “He worked for your Jack of Spades, didn’t he?”

Another pained shudder rippled over Lane’s expression.

“...When my visa was blocked, Jay promised to follow up with the Jack of Spades. When I returned home that night, a courier brought me this -- ”

She leaned over to pick up a water-stained, crumpled-up letter, which Cato unfolded and read aloud:

“‘Mum -- your fears were right. Rakepick doesn’t want you leaving the country. Ashe has said there are already others who’ve been rounded up and put in jail after trying and failing to leave.’”

Cato shot a quick glance at Orion. His King’s black eyes had narrowed slightly.

“‘I’ll have to stay in the capitol tonight, to finish up some work for Ashe,’” Cato pressed on. “‘In the meantime, pack your things and leave the Country of Spades, now. It doesn’t matter where -- just run. I know you’ll want to wait for me so we can leave together, but I won’t be home for at least a whole day, and the Ace might get to you before I do. The longer you wait, the harder it’ll be for us all to get out. Don’t worry -- I’ve already promised Ashe I’ll be right behind you, and now I’m promising you. I’ll find Wyn, and then I’ll find you. I love you. Jacob.’”

“Then it’s as we feared,” Orion murmured.

Orion looked from Lane, who had bowed her head to try to obscure the grief in her expression, to Cato.

“I must make contact with Veruca,” he said solemnly. “She’ll want to know at least one of the new Queen of Spades’ targets successfully escaped.”

Lane looked up, very startled.

“Queen?” she repeated, her soft voice incredibly tense and urgent.

Cato nodded grimly. “Patricia Rakepick recently took on the mantle of Queen, in the advent of Duncan Ashe’s death. She claimed it was out of a desire to ‘better centralize noble authority.’”

Despite the stability of his voice, the Ace of Clubs’s disapproval was apparent. Orion, whose face was a bit more stoic, clasped his hands in front of him as he looked out the window, his eyes absently resting on Tralee, who was tied up securely outside the hospital.

“We’ll use the regular channels, to reach Veruca,” he told Cato solemnly. “For Carewyn, however, I may need to be more direct...”

“Are you planning on going to the Kingdom of Hearts yourself to see her?” said Cato, surprised.

“I have sent letters to the university of Hearts, and they have reached her there,” said Orion. “Perhaps if I request an audience with the King and Queen of Hearts, I can use that as an excuse to likewise seek out a direct audience with Carewyn.”

[bemygunstomyroses]

The Lost Boys riding in your the car with you would include:

Summery: This is just unhinged.

Warnings: GN reader! cussing, Paul and Marko being idiots. David being David. That’s it I think :D

If you manage to not get in a car crash with these idiots then you’re lucky.

If the boys want you to drive them somewhere like places where their bikes can’t reach or they just wanna spend some quality time with you, then great! The only problem is that these boys are fucking maniacs.

Say you all are just driving at night going nowhere in particular, just going where the wind takes you, ya know?

First and foremost, sitting placement. Who’s gonna sit where? Well David of course with be sitting in the passenger seat next you, probably placing a hand on your upper thigh.

Marko is sitting in the back on the left side, him being on the smaller side helping him have more room but not by much because Paul is in the middle of the back seat taking up all the room with his legs and big body.

Let’s not forget about poor Dwayne, poor dude is on the right side in the back shoved in the door with no space because of Paul but he’s a trooper and he’s just happy to be near you. <3

David is probably telling you which lane to go in and probably telling you to different directions just because.

You are driving on a backroad with no cars in sight, just having a good old late night drive with the boys, who are most definitely are causing trouble.

David keeps yelling at Paul and Marko to stop fighting over what music to listen to on the radio.

Dwayne slapping Paul upside the head.

Paul screaming like a girl and being dramatic because his brother slapped him.

David putting his hand up higher on your thigh and the boys getting jealous because they don’t have that luxury.

You will sometimes put your hand out for which boy with take it. Probably all of them, then them fighting for which one can hold your hand.

Probably you have to set like a five minute timer for each boy so they have a turn.

I can see Dwayne getting car sick and nauseousin the car.

Paul most definitely will be crawling through the armrest of the car between you and David to change the channel of the radio then Marko dragging Paul by the hair to stop him.

Dwayne trying to calm everyone down so he tries to play “eye-spy”

“I spy with my little eye something that won’t keep his fucking mouth shut”. David said whenever it’s his turn.

“Dwayne, I think he’s talking about you pal”. Paul said to him and Dwayne puts down the window and jerks Paul’s head out the window as Paul screams and Marko laughing in the background.

Marko would definitely tell you to go faster and tell you to put all the windows down.

Rock music will 100% be playing very loudly for everyone to hear.

Car karaoke for sure.

Paul probably sings “Guns N Roses” and try’s to hit every high note but his voice cracks every time causing you and the others to laugh.

Dwayne singing a slow love song to you in your ear and being a romantic boi.

Marko cheering the boys up when they sing.

You know David’s ass is not singing a single note.

If you sing then the whole car will actually get quiet for the first time since they have been in the car.

Whatever song you sang or if you are off key the whole time, they don’t care. They will be hyping you up the whole time and them all trying to seal a kiss on your cheek.

David most likely smoking a cigarette and Paul smoking a joint.

Marko waves at everything he sees out the window especially if there’s any animals.

if you decide to go though a drive through then good luck to you babe!

You pull up to the speaker and you order yours first, then you ask what everyone else wants.

David and Dwayne are fine about giving you their orders but Paul and Marko? Nah.

Paul with jump over poor Dwayne and put the window down and he’ll yell out what he wants and probably orders too much food and gets mad if the ice cream machine isn’t working!

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT ISN’T WORKING?! THE FUCKING THING NEVER WORKS YOU ASSHOLE!”

Dwayne has to jerk him out from the window and apologized to the worker.

Marko will probably get out of the damn car and just talk to the speaker like he’s having a normal conversation with a person.

The total is probably like 50$ bucks and you low key get nervous about the bill til Dwayne hands you a crisp 50$ dollar bill that he mostly stole.

You all eat your meals while sitting in the car in an empty parking lot while talking about different topics and things.

It’s calm and peaceful, the night sky is beautiful with stars and your car is full of all your mates.

Even though it’s chaotic in every way you wouldn’t change it for the world. You don’t drive them in your car often but when you do it’s always an adventure.

[mandos-mind-trick]

Jaig Eyes

Summary: Soulmates are forbidden among the clones. Yours just happens to be a certain Captain. Thankfully, he's not above breaking the rules sometimes.

Pairing: Captain Rex x medic!reader

Warnings: NSFW, smut, P in V sex, no foreplay, unprotected sex, some description of battles, wounds, slight blood mention, drinking, partying, Soulmate AU

A/N: Rex my baby, my boy, one of my OG faves. It's about time I wrote something for him. I'm a little delirious from the heat, but I'm still alive. This was supposed to be the first one of the series but Tech and Crosshair demanded more attention.

MASTERLIST

The explosions are loud, even with the tanks as far ahead as they are. Your adrenaline is pumping, but you keep breathing, keeping it under control. That’s why you were chosen for this position, after all. Your ability to keep control even under the most overwhelming, stressful situations. 

Your home planet got hit hard early in the war. Due to its location near four major hyperspace lanes, both sides of the war needed to control it, and that came at the expense of its inhabitants. Many people lost their lives in the brutal battle, both civilians and clones. There wasn’t much left of your home afterwards, most inhabitants of the city displaced. 

So you decided to leave and join the GAR as a medic. You already had the experience, and after doing everything you could to help during the invasion, you had decided to put your life plans on hold and join the army. 

Your ability to keep calm under extreme duress had impressed your instructors during your training, and so they had given you the title of combat medic, and sent you off with the 501st Legion. You had practically been thrown right into the field, not that you had expected much less. 

Kix, the clone medic you served under, had given you a brief tour and rundown on the way to provide reinforcements to the 104th. He had warned you that the area they were landing in was going to be hot, and to expect to jump in right away. 

You had expected nothing less, having already seen just how ugly the front lines can be. 

That’s where you are now, treating troopers practically as they fall. 

“The Captain’s down!” 

The words ring loud and clear through your comm, the energy of the entire battalion shifting. You have yet to meet any of the clone commanders, much less the Captain of the 501st. You had been thrown into this rather rapidly. There would be a time for introductions later. 

Your name is called through the comms, Kix appearing with another trooper, dragging who you assumed was the Captain between them. They lay him on the ground, the other trooper running back into the heat of the battle. 

“We need to stabilize him before we can move him.” Kix says, kneeling next to the Captain. 

You kneel on his other side, taking a look at him. His entire right shoulder piece is missing, an ugly wound oozing blood. It’s a nasty shot, but he’s lucky it’s not on the left. 

“Bacta.” Kix says and you hand off an injector from your belt. 

You move to take off his helmet, your breath catching in your throat. Your eyes are drawn to his helmet, above his visor. The marking on it. You knew most of the clones used some sort of marking to distinguish themselves. Whether it be on their armor, or tattoos, or hairstyles, they all had unique aspects about them to give them individuality. 

This one, though. This one is startling to you. 

Most species in the galaxy experience the phenomenon of soulmates. There are a number that don’t, but they are vastly outnumbered by those that do. 

How one is linked to their soulmate can vary. Yours just happens to be the identifying mark. A symbol or even a phrase that means something to your other half. Or, for the lucky few, an entire name. Most got them at birth, or some shortly after. Rarely were there huge gaps in age between soulmates. Given the vast dichotomy of species in the galaxy, fate wasn’t that unkind. 

Well, most liked to think it wasn’t. 

Your mark showed up eleven years ago. You had already been well into your childhood when you woke up one morning to find a symbol on your chest. You’d never seen anything like it before. After some extensive research, you came to learn they’re called  jaig eyes, a symbol used by Mandalorians for distinguished warriors. A symbol of bravery, tattooed over your heart in blue.

You had thought your soulmate might be Mandalorian, and so you had spent years planning and working towards a trip to Mandalore. 

Then the war started, and your planet was invaded.

The entire situation had left such an impact on you, you decided to push your dreams of Mandalore, and your soulmate, aside for the time being. If fate had paired you together, you would meet eventually. 

You hadn’t expected this though. 

Your hands are shaking just a bit as you grab his helmet, pulling it off. You support his neck, easing his head to lie in the dirt. His face is pinched as Kix ties a tourniquet around his shoulder. 

“I’m fine.” He grunts out, nose scrunching in pain. 

“The gaping hole in your shoulder says otherwise.” Kix says, injecting the shot of bacta into the wound. 

You grimace a bit, knowing how much that hurts. Your own fingers pull down his blacks, exposing enough of his neck to administer a stim shot. You can see as it begins to kick in, numbing the pain and giving him a boost of energy. His face begins to soften, body relaxing a bit. 

Kix calls for an evac, two troopers easing the Captain onto a stretcher before removing him from the heat of the battle. You clear your head, moving on to the next injured trooper. The battle isn’t over. You have a lot more work to do before you can think about this new development. 

****

You wipe your brow, body starting to drag as the adrenaline crashes. The battle had ended, but your job was only getting started. There was still a field of injured troopers that needed care, as well as a full med bay. 

“I’m impressed.” Kix says, finishing applying the bacta patch on the final trooper that needed care. “Not many nat-borns can keep going that long after being in the field.” 

You shrug. “It’s not my first time on the battlefield. My home planet was one of the first invaded by the Separatists. Most of it was wiped out by the battles. I learned very quickly to stay busy. If you’re not doing anything, you remember you’re human and you crack.” 

Kix puts a hand on your shoulder. “Go get some rest. We’ll be fine here.” 

“Thank you, sir.” You nod, heading off to the bunks. 

You hop in the refresher, wishing it was real water, but the sonic shower will do. You don’t let it hit you until you crawl into your bunk, letting the day wash over you finally. You’re shaking, silent tears rolling down your cheeks. You’d mastered the quiet cry a long time ago, not wanting to disturb your fellow medics getting some much needed rest.

You’re exhausted, but you’ve seen far too much today to let yourself rest just yet. 

You need to work through it. If you bottle it up, you’ll only explode later. 

You close your eyes, the image of the jaig eyes coming to the front of your brain. There was no mistaking it. It wasn’t the confusion of battle, or the stress making you see things. The Captain of the 501st has jaig eyes on his helmet, in the same shade of blue as the ones printed on your chest, right over your heart. 

This is going to complicate things. 

It was one of the first things you were taught in your training. Under no circumstances were clones allowed to initiate their soulmate links. If, by chance, one of them happened to be your soulmate, the link had to be rejected. If a clone was found to have iniated the link, they would be decommisioned immediately. 

It’s cruel, but you can understand why. 

The soulmate link is a powerful motivator. The clones were designed to be loyal, focused, and dedicated to fighting and winning the war. Many of the first generation of clones had deserted upon learning of their soulmate marks. It seemed even the most potent conditioning couldn’t overcome the yearning of ones soul to find its other half. 

Even the most loyal clone would turn their back upon meeting the soulmate. 

The thought of being rejected is terrifying. It’s a painful process for both involved. Some who have experienced it claim it feels like your body is being turned inside out, every cell on fire as your soul destroys the link. You remember every second of it, the horrible pain and the grief that settles in as you realize you’ll never be able to feel the same again. 

You’ll never be the same again. 

You can’t tell the Captain. He can never know. You can’t stand the thought of being rejected. Though the pain would ease with time, you’ll never forget it. You’d rather suffer through the pain of being so close but never initiating than feel the rejection of someone who may never have wanted to reject you. 

****

Time flies quickly now that you’ve established yourself amongst the 501st. The Legion is constantly on the move, burning through battle after battle with little rest in between. According to Kix this is very common, with the Legion going sometimes weeks without a break. You know it can’t be good for them, recognizing the exhaustion on many of the trooper’s faces and in their body language. 

You’re beginning to feel it too, tension knotting in your shoulders and the quality of your sleep has been declining. You know it’s not just the stress of constant adrenaline and work, though. Constantly being within close proximity of your soulmate and doing absolutely nothing about it has been wearing on you as well. You’ve spoken maybe ten words to each other when Kix had introduced you to the Captain after the first battle when you’d helped care for him. 

Since then, you’d only seen him in passing. 

It’s slowly driving you insane. 

You’ve grown close to some of the troopers, especially those that frequented the med bay for “unjustified reasons” as Kix liked to call it. It was his code for “they did something stupid and now we have to fix them.” 

You can’t really blame them for being a bit reckless sometimes. They deserved to have some fun every once in a while. 

“There’s my favorite medic!” A heavy arm slings around your shoulder, nearly making your knees buckle. You’d been in one of the storage areas, cataloging everything the med bay needed to stock up on once you landed on Coruscant. “Excited about shore leave?” Fives asks. 

“Actually I am.” You say, honestly. You had planned to book a hotel room and sleep off the stress. You hope the distance from your soulmate will help ease the tension that’s been building. 

“A bunch of us are gonna hit 79s. You should come with us.” Echo says, popping up on the other side of you. You had been wondering where he was, as the two were rarely far from each other. 

It’s a tempting offer. Losing yourself in a bar for a night might help ease the stress. Unless Captain Rex planned on being there too. 

“I don’t know...” You say, chewing your lip. “I was planning on just relaxing.” 

“Come on,” Fives squeezes you against his side. “It’s your first shore leave. Let us show you how we celebrate.” 

You almost say no, but perhaps spending time around others will help you feel better. Even if Captain Rex is there, alcohol can help you forget. Perhaps you could even find someone else, someone to help you forget. 

“Fine.” You sigh, but a smile tugs at your lips. “I’ll come with you.” 

They both cheer, giving you breath-stealing pats on the back. Sometimes they forget they have to be gentler with non-clones. 

“Meet you on the landing platform at 19:00 hours.” Five says. 

You salute him jokingly, making your way to the med bay with a smile on your face. 

***

You’re glad you thought to pack a dress for occasions like this. You’re also glad you packed a dress that covers your chest. The last thing you need is any of them seeing it. Would they report you? Would they tell the Captain? You’d like to think they wouldn’t. It’s not like you’d even been trying to talk to the Captain. 

You check yourself in the mirror, making sure your mark is covered before you make your way out of the venator. As promised, a small group of guys is waiting on the landing pad, some of them having dressed down while others are still in their armor. 

Fives whistles lowly as you approach, your cheeks warming a bit. “Looking good, civvy.” 

“I mean, I know you’re a looker but kriff, you clean up well.” Jesse says, nonchalantly giving you a once over. 

Your face feels hot with their attention and compliments, not used to being on the receiving end. “Thanks, guys.” 

“Come on,” Fives tosses an arm across your shoulders. “Let’s get going!” 

***

You feel warm, slightly buzzed as you make your way back towards the bunks. It’s late...or early depending on how you look at it. You’d had a good time with the guys. You’d danced and drank and laughed a lot. It was a good distraction, and it helped you decompress a bit. You’re exhausted, though, still ready to sleep the rest of shore leave away before you inevitably get thrown into another battle. 

It’s the alcohol that’s dulled your senses a bit, not even noticing the person rapidly approaching behind you until they’ve spun you around, pressing you back into the wall. 

“Fives!” You blink in shock up at Fives, his brow furrowed as he stares down at you. “W-What are you doing?” 

Your heart is racing as his hand lifts towards your dress, all the worst possible things flashing through your head. He’s a flirt, but you’d never thought he’d go this far. Your buzzed brain has just got it in you to call out for help when his hand tugs the neck of your dress to the side, revealing the mark on your chest. 

“I knew it.” He says, letting your dress fall back into place. 

“How did you-” 

“I glimpsed it while we were dancing.” He says simply. “I had to be sure.” 

You step away from the wall, adjusting your dress. “Well you could have just asked instead of giving me a heart attack.” 

“Sorry.” He says, actually managing to look guilty. “Why haven’t you said anything?” 

“I don’t want to get rejected.” You say. “I’d rather live with the pain of him being close than live with the pain of rejection.” 

Fives snorts. “He won’t reject you.” 

You blink up at him. “What?” 

A grin tugs at Fives’ lips. “He won’t reject you. Most of us don’t agree with the rule against soulmates, and we don’t plan on following it. Rex may be a Captain, but he’s not going to reject you just because he’s supposed to. If we followed the rules as rigidly as we’re supposed to, most of us would be dead already.” He puts a hand on your shoulder. “Talk to him. You never know when it might be too late.” 

***

Despite Fives’ admission to their willingness to bend the rules, you haven’t approached the Captain. Partly because you’re still afraid, and also partly because you haven’t had time. After the brief shore-leave, the Legion had been thrown into a long campaign that had been taking its toll. Many, many troopers were injured, and you barely got time to sleep, let alone do anything else. 

Like approaching the Captain about your soulmate mark.  

After two long weeks of grueling battles, it’s finally over. Well, at least the fighting. You still have an overflowing med bay to get through. 

Hours later, most of the troopers have been stabilized and on their way to healing. Kix sends you away, practically ordering you to bed. You don’t argue, your feet already dragging as you leave the med bay. You need a long cry and a nap, ready to crash. 

You hadn’t meant it literally, but it seemed fate was getting tired of your avoidance. 

You walk straight into a hard chest, nearly falling backwards. Hands steady you, and you look up right into the eyes of Captain Rex. 

“S-Sorry Captain.” You stutter, taking a step back. “I-I wasn’t paying attention.” 

“It’s alright.” He says, still holding your gaze. “I know you’ve been overwhelmed in the med bay recently. You’re all working hard.” 

You nod. “Yeah.” You continue to stare at him, the words bubbling out of you before you can stop them. “I need to speak with you. Alone.” 

He blinks in surprise. “Oh. Is there...something wrong? Is it one of the troopers?” 

You shake your head. “No, no. It’s...” You almost backtrack. You almost change your mind, but those soft brown eyes draw you in. “It’s personal.” 

He hesitantly leads you into one of the many storage rooms, making sure it’s empty. You hope no one walks in. You’re already nervous about bringing this up to the Captain. You’d rather not have to try and explain this to someone else. 

You turn to face him as the door slides shut, looking up into his eyes again. His face is drawn and focused, and you almost feel bad for throwing this on him. 

“I think you’re my soulmate.” You blurt out, wanting to get it all out in the open. 

His eyes widen in surprise. “What?” 

You bite your lip, stripping off your gear enough that you can lower the neckline of your shirt a bit. You draw it down, revealing the mark on your skin. “It appeared almost eleven years ago.” 

He steps closer, staring hard at the mark. His hand lifts, his gloved fingers tracing over the lines of the jaig eyes. “The medic’s symbol.” He says, eyes still staring at the mark on your chest. “My mark, it’s the medic’s symbol.” 

You let out a long breath. Fate really does plan out everything perfectly. 

His hand leaves your chest, lifting to cup your chin. You step closer to him, your chests almost touching. How desperately you want to kiss him, to initiate the bond. You’re not even sure that’s what he wants. 

“I think I’ve known since Kix introduced us.” He says, his hand still holding your chin.

“I knew the moment I saw you on the battlefield, when you got shot.” You say. 

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” He asks. 

“I didn’t want to get rejected.” You admit. “I-I thought...but then Fives said-” 

“Fives knows?” He asks. 

You nod. “He saw the mark when we went out to 79s last shore leave.” 

His grip tightens just a bit on your chin, jealousy flashing in his eyes. 

“Nothing happened.” You quickly add, realizing your words left a little too much unsaid. “We just danced, and he confronted me after about it. He said you clones aren’t quite as uptight when it comes to rules as everyone thinks.” 

The side of his mouth lifts in a smirk. “Not in this Legion at least. I do wish you’d said something sooner, but I understand if you didn’t know...I’m not going to reject you.” He holds you still for a moment before dropping his hand. “The General is being called back to Coruscant, so we’ll get a short leave once we return. Two hours after we land, come to the barracks. I’ll make sure they’re empty.” 

Your stomach squirms with excitement. Even if you do nothing but sit and talk, the prospect of being close to your soulmate has your body coming alive. You nod, hardly able to contain yourself. 

You don’t feel quite so tired anymore as you make your way to your own barracks. 

***

The two hours after landing seems to take a lifetime. Your eyes flash to the chronometer constantly. The first half hour hadn’t been so dreadful, as you had spent most of that helping move still recovering troopers, and loading up carts to pick up supplies. 

Then you’d found yourself with nothing to do but wait, so you had returned to your barracks to wait out the hour and a half before you’d make your way to the clone barracks. You’d considered dressing up, but you thought that might draw too much attention. Wearing light gear could at least give you an excuse for being there, should anyone ask. 

You head out ten minutes before, knowing it will take you that long to get across the ship. The trooper’s bunked on the opposite side of the ship from the medics, who were close to the med bay. 

Your stomach flutters with nerves and excitement the entire way. You’d thought about this moment for a long time, though it’s not quite playing out like you had expected. You’re not complaining, though. You’re lucky to have someone as loyal and caring as the Captain for your soulmate. 

You make it to the barracks, Captain Rex waiting outside the door. He’s removed his armor, wearing only the blacks underneath. You greet him with a smile, and he returns it. You like it, you realize, seeing him smile. 

He leads you inside, this set of barracks smaller than the others. It’s specially set up, he tells you, for the more higher ranking clones. The Captain, the ARC troopers, and those on his specialized squad. 

He leads you to the bed closest to the fresher, rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t really plan anything. I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing something you don’t want.” 

You put a hand on his arm. “I figured we’d just let things happen naturally. Even if all we do is sit and talk, that’s fine with me.” 

He smiles down at you. “Then let’s talk.” 

And so you do. 

You tell him everything. From your earliest memories to getting your mark, to the devastation of your planet during the start of the war. You tell him about how you’d planned to visit Mandalore in hopes of finding your soulmate, and how you’d given up that dream to join the GAR. 

He tells you everything about himself too. Growing up too fast on Kamino, the endless training, being called to the front when the war started, how he was there on your home planet when it was attacked, all the men he’s lost, the stress of the war. They’d been designed to be more resilient to high stress situations, but the grief of loss and the exhaustion still weighs on him. 

You wrap your arms around him before you even think about it. You feel for him, you really do. As much as they’re supposed to be just numbers in an army fighting a war they didn’t even volunteer to be a part of, you know they’re more than that.

“That’s why most of us don’t follow the rule about soulmates.” He says, his arms wrapped around you. “We have to believe there’s something beyond war and loss.” 

“I’m glad you don’t agree with it.” You say, resting your head on his shoulder. “I don’t think I could have given you up.” 

His hand slides up your back, moving to rest between your shoulder blades. “I...don’t have a clue what I’m doing.” 

“I don’t think anyone does.” You say, and you mean it. “I think most of it is just supposed to...be natural. It’s supposed to feel right.” 

He pulls away from you, looking down at you. Your faces are inches apart, breath mingling. This close you can see the lines on his face, the light scattering of freckles on his nose and cheeks. 

“You’re kinda beautiful.” You say, staring at him. 

“I think I’m the one that’s supposed to say that.” He says, leaning in closer. “You’re the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen.” 

Your cheeks heat up, a goofy smile tugging at your lips. “Stop. I am not.” 

He cups your face, his gloved thumb tracing your cheek. “Of course you are. You were made for me, after all.” 

Your lips meet, a spark shooting through you. You feel warm and light, pure energy racing through your nerves. His grip tightens on you, pulling you closer against him. He's warm and solid, like a cabin during an ice storm. 

He groans quietly against your lips, pulling you into his lap. You settle against him, tilting your head as the kiss deepens. You hadn't really planned on going this far, but you now understand why people say once you meet your soulmate, it's uncontrollable. 

He pulls away, pressing his forehead to yours. "I don't want to feel like I'm rushing you."

You smile. "I want this too. I don't think I could stop."

He wraps his arms around your waist, flipping you easily onto your back. "Good. I don't think I can either." 

He presses his lips back against yours, slotting his body against you. He's all lean muscle, fitting perfectly against you. He presses even closer, something hard poking against your thigh. 

You smile into the kiss, shifting your hips slightly to create some friction. You're already damp, your body well prepared for this moment. It had been building up for weeks. You can tell now, how much you'd been yearning for him, even if you hadn't noticed before. 

His lips trail down your jaw, charting a path down your throat. You arch into him, fingers digging into his broad shoulders. You tug at his blacks, one of his hands reaching back to pull the top off over his head. 

You run your fingers down his chest, feeling over every bump and scar. 

“I’ll tell you about them later.” He says, tucking his face back into your neck. You have a few too he’ll want to know about. “Right now, I want to see you.” 

You smirk up at him. “Then you best get to work, Captain.” 

He matches your smirk, sitting up on his heels. “That’s brave, issuing orders to your commanding officer.” 

“Well, in certain situations, I outrank you.” You reply. 

He unbuckles your med kit, setting it on the floor. “Don’t tell me Kix has been putting ideas in your head.” His hands slip under your shirt, trailing along your skin. “I’ll make a pass, though. This is one situation where I don't mind being told what to do.” 

You gape up at him for a moment. “Do you...like being told what to do, Captain?” 

He pulls your shirt over your head, tossing it onto the floor. Your breastband quickly follows, heat blossoming across your neck and chest as he stares at you. You feel a bit self-conscious under the intensity of his gaze. “Only if it’s you.” He says. “You’re so beautiful.” 

You smile shyly, reaching out for him. “Not quite as beautiful as you.” 

“Definitely more beautiful than me.” He says, leaning into your touch. 

“I’ve been waiting so long for you.” You say, caressing his face. 

“Then I won’t make you wait any longer.” He presses a kiss to your lips before sitting back up, undoing his belt. He slips his pants off, tugging yours off as well. 

You should feel self conscious being bare in front of him, especially only knowing him for a short time, but it feels natural. You know it’s natural. You were meant to be together. 

He slots his body against yours once more, his hard length pressing up against your core. You’re already wet in anticipation, more than ready to seal your bond completely. It’s a bit strange after having thought you might get rejected if you ever revealed it to him, but you’re glad he’s at least willing to break the rules about this. 

His hips grind against yours, dragging his length against your folds. You moan, spreading your legs further for him. You want him as close as possible. You need to have him as close as possible. 

“You’re so wet for me.” He groans, dragging his hips against yours. 

“I need you.” You whimper, arms wrapping around him. “Kriff, please Rex.” 

“Yes ma’am.” He says, kissing your throat before he reaches down, lining himself up. 

Hearing him say it stirs something in you, heat rushing straight between your legs. You slot that away for later, focusing instead on him as he slowly presses into you. The stretch burns a bit, but he goes slow, moving inch by inch until he’s seated inside you. You shiver at the close contact, your body coming alive from how connected you are. 

“Kriff, you’re so tight.” He groans, dropping to his elbows over you. “Fit me so perfectly.” 

“Well, I was made for you.” You say, wrapping your arms back around him. 

“So perfect for me.” He says, pressing a kiss to your lips. 

He begins moving, small thrusts as he drags his hips against yours. You cling to him, wanting him as close as you can get him. The sensations and the thought of having him so close set every nerve ending alight in your body, energy thrumming through you. You know it's the connection, the link you share coming alive. 

You love the feeling of it. 

It’s a bit sloppy and awkward, as neither of you are experts. You don’t care though, the pleasure still building as picks up speed. He’s close too, you can tell by the desperation of his movements. You slip a hand down between you, circling your clit as you near the edge. 

He stills as he cums, your own orgasm washing over you at the same time. You cling to him, holding him as close as possible as you ride out your highs together. 

“How much time do you think we have?” You say, holding him on top of you. 

“More than enough.” He says, letting himself sink closer to you. “I told Fives to keep them out as long as possible. 

***

You hadn’t meant to fall asleep. You had been so comfortable and comforted by Rex’s presence, you had just drifted off without trying. 

It’s the arrival of the other troopers that has drawn you from your slumber. Rex’s arm tightens around your waist, obviously having heard their return as well. So much for keeping this a secret. 

You hope maybe they’ll all stumble to bed tiredly and not even look in your direction. You’re hidden from the door by Rex’s body, his arm pulling the sheet up higher inconspicuously. 

“I see the Captain’s been busy while we were away.” A smug voice says. 

“Ha! I called it! You owe me 20 credits!” Another voice calls out. 

“Fives,” Rex growls, going to turn around, but you sit up, clutching the sheet to your chest. You’re still very much naked. 

“Wait, did you bet on us?” You ask in disbelief. 

“You owe me another 20!” Hardcase exclaims, slapping Jesse’s shoulder.

Rex wraps an arm around you, pulling you back down. “Let them have their fun. I’ll make them all do extra rounds in the training room tomorrow.” 

There’s a simultaneous groan from all of them as they shuffle to their bunks to get ready. 

“Don’t worry, cyar’ika. Your secret is safe with us.” Hardcase says. 

“Just as long as I don’t feel the bunk shaking.” Jesse says, climbing up to the top bunk. 

“No promises.” Rex smirks, wrapping his arms back around you.  

Taglist:

@stressed-cherry

[corrieguards]

Hiya! I loved your Toast fic, that was so cute! I love your writing and I was wondering if I could ask for a fic based on the fluff prompt #7 “You did all this… for me?” with Rex? Maybe reader does something nice for Rex because he deserves it 💙 I don’t want to be a bother, though!

A/N: Hey beautiful!! Thank you sm for this request, it's never a bother to write for my bby Rex💙

I am so sorry for the delay, this fic has consumed me and I've been nit-picking at it for weeks. I'm still not entirely happy with the result, but I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer!

P.S: Here's a link to Toast my echo x reader fic mentioned above, in case you wanna check it out <3

Cold Nights and Pretty Lights

Captain Rex x reader Summary: Finally back on Coruscant, Rex makes his way to your place, intent on spending the night there with you. Little does he know, you have other better plans for him. Word Count: 2k C/W: fluff, fluff and more fluff Prompt: "You did all this... for me?" prompt list my masterlist

The jolt of the LA-AT landing on solid ground almost brings tears of relief to Rex’s eyes.

Kriffing finally.

He was supposed to have been back on Coruscant weeks ago, but this particular mission had dragged on and on endlessly. When he found out they were finally coming home, the very first thing he did was send you a hurried comm to let you know. And now that he was planet-side, all he wanted to do was hold you in his arms and never let go again.

He stumbled out of the ship, his boot catching on the ledge in his haste to get out. A muffled chuckle behind him made him straighten up, sending a glare over his shoulder.

"In a hurry, Captain?" Jesse teased, stepping out of the gunship pointedly gracefully. Rex raised an eyebrow in warning, turning to face him fully and getting ready to defend himself, but Jesse beats him to it, holding a hand up to stop him.

"Just tell her I said hi, will you?"

Rex flushes, opening his mouth to reply but deciding it's not worth it, settling on just shaking his head fondly instead, a look of mock annoyance on his face to cover up the blush.

"Keep yourself out of trouble, trooper," he says over his shoulder as a cab pulls up on the curb, "and try not to get picked up by the Corries again"

Jesse puts on a shit-eating grin, sending him a salute and a cheeky wink. "No promises, Captain."

---

When the cab pulls up next to your house, Rex is surprised to see you already waiting outside, leaning against the wall with a soft smile.

The sight of you automatically brings a smile to his own face. He tosses a couple credits to the driver, eyes still glued on you as he scrambles out the cab.

Your smile widens as he jogs over, pushing off the wall as soon as he’s close enough and laughter bubbling as he wraps his arms around you.

You return the hug, squealing in surprise when he picks you up, twirling you around a couple times before finally setting your feet back down on the floor.

"Maker, you have no idea how much I missed you," he whispers, his hands falling to rest on your hips.

You giggle in response, balancing on the tips of your toes and reaching up to peck his lips, pulling back far too quickly for his liking.

“Missed you more, Captain."

You give him a cheeky smile before wriggling out of his hold. He frowns, going to reach for you again, but you're already walking over towards your speeder.

"Are you… going somewhere?"

"Yep," you chirp happily, clambering into the seat. "And so are you."

He raises his eyebrows at you, smiling slowly. "Oh really?"

You turn the speeder on, and a low hum fills the air. "Yeah, really," you wink, jerkin' your head back to the seat behind you. "Hop on trooper."

He chuckles, shaking his head at you but climbs on behind you anyway.

His arms loop around your waist when you pull away from the curb, gripping tightly as you weave in and out of the Coruscant lanes with practised ease. You feel his breath on your neck as he rests his chin on your shoulder, smiling when you feel him press a kiss to your cheek.

---

The traffic is a distant hum in the background when you pull up next to the roof of one of the construction buildings on the outskirts of the bustling city.

Here, the neon lights are dimmer but still bright enough to be able to see each other clearly, the light of the moon mixing with the bright colours to bathe you both in soft light.

You clamber off onto the roof, offering a hand to Rex with a cheeky smile. He lifts a brow at you.

"Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?"

You merely shrug, moving your hand closer and he chuckles in response, grasping your hand anyway and stepping down beside you. He makes a quick glance around the building, taking it in.

It’s not entirely finished, with scaffolding still standing in a couple of places and railing missing from the edges of the roof.

"Is this legal?"

"Probably not," you shrug, tilting your head and smiling teasingly. "Why? You're going to back out on me, Captain?"

"And miss out on being here with you?" He grins, pulling you in by the waist and nuzzling his nose to yours. "Not a chance, meshla."

Giggling, you let him hold you a few seconds more before pulling back again, leaning over to grab your bag for the speeder. You go to sling it over your shoulder, but he stops you, grabbing the strap and swinging it over his shoulder instead.

You send him a grateful smile, followed by a peck on the cheek, before grabbing his hand and leading him around the corner.

He stumbles behind you, trying to keep from stepping on your heels as you drag him behind you excitedly. He collides softly with your back when you stop abruptly, his free hand moving to your shoulder to steady himself.

You move to the side, still holding his hand and eagerly watching his face as he takes in the view in front of him. His mouth parts in surprise, his hand loosening its hold on yours.

You’ve chosen a small corner of the roof with a ledge that overlooks the city, far enough away from everything that it’s private and secluded. There’s a small blanket set up on the floor, a couple cushions sitting on it with a big fluffy blanket folded up beside them.

He watches as you walk over to the scaffolding behind, hands disappearing as you reach around it, a quiet click echoing before a handful of tiny lights you’ve strung on the frame come to life, bathing the little corner in a soft warm glow.

"So, what’d you think?"

You turn to look at him expectantly, and it’s in that moment - your eyes shinning and skin bathed in the soft twinkle of the fairy lights - that he’s struck with the sudden realisation of just how stunningly beautiful you are.

He stares at you, faintly aware of you waiting for him to answer but not quite managing to formulate a response, his thoughts too busy with just how utterly smitten he is for you.

His lack of reaction makes you doubt yourself, with your feet shifting nervously.

"We can just go back home if you prefer. That’s fine too.

He blinks a couple times, quickly coming to his senses and shaking his head "No, of course not. I- It just surprised me, that’s all."

"Oh. Are you sure? I mean I know it's not much but-"

He chuckles, his hands coming up to cup your cheeks, stopping your nervous ramblings.

"It’s perfect meshla. I love it."

You smile shyly, avoiding his gaze as a blush spreads on your cheeks. "I just... well, I know you’ve been working really hard lately, and the last mission was a real kicker, and l- I just thought you would like this..."

You trail off, glancing up at him through your eyelashes. He’s looking down at you like you’re the most amazing thing in the whole kriffing galaxy.

"You did all this... for me?"

"Of course," you reply immediately, like it was an obvious fact. "Why wouldn’t I?"

He’s still staring at you with the same look on his face, his head shaking slightly in disbelief and a smile slowly spreading on his face. You’re about to ask him what's wrong when he loops his fingers in your belt, yanking you closer and leaning down until your foreheads bonk together gently.

"I love you so damn much, y’know that?" He whispers against your lips, his hands galling to your waist and squeezing. You giggle, arms coming up to loop around his neck before muttering a smug reply.

"Yeah, I know."

He rolls his eyes playfully, pinching your waist in retaliation and making you jump.

"Wow, I confess my undying love for you, and that’s all you’ve got? 'Yeah I know.'" He pitches his voice higher on the last couple words in an attempt to imitate your voice.

You scoff in mock offense, slapping his chest. "That is not what I sound like. Besides, you already know I love you, Rex."

He hums, smiling cheekily and winking.

"Yeah, but it's still nice to hear you say it."

You return the smile, rolling your eyes playfully before stepping up on your toes and bracing your hands on his chest to keep balance. Leaning up to kiss his cheek, you start to speak between kisses

"I" you move to the other cheek, pressing a kiss there too.

"am utterly" a kiss to his forehead.

"and completely" a gentle peck his nose, before you're moving to his lips, whispering the last words against them

"In love with you."

You close the gap, pressing your lips to his in a soft kiss. You feel him smiling against your lips as he kisses you back, his fingers threading through your hair and cradling the nape of your neck.

When he pulls back, you’re met with his eyes fixed on yours, crinkled at the edges and so full of undeniable love that it almost makes you blush.

"Now that was more like it."

You groan, rolling your eyes fondly, and push a hand to his chest. He chuckles, catching your wrist and pulling you in for a tight hug.

You soak up the closeness for a little longer, your face pressed up against his chest so tight that you can feel his heart beat on your cheek. He presses a kiss to the crown of your head, playfully tapping his fingers against your butt to get your attention.

"C'mon, let's sit down before it gets too cold."

Reluctantly, you pull away, keeping your hand in his as he drags you over to the blanket. He sits on the edge, feet dangling off and thighs spread wide. He looks up at you, patting the space between his legs and pulling you toward him.

Smiling fondly, you let him pull you down, settling between his thighs and resting your back on his chest. He loops his arms around your stomach, pulling you in closer and pressing a kiss to your temple.

You twist slightly, making grabby-hands for your bag that's been left discarded to the side. Rex chuckles, leaning over and stretching his hand far enough to curl them around the strap and pull it closer

As soon as it's within your reach, you stick your hand inside it, the sound of glass clinking echoing as you pull out a bottle of booze. You push it into his chest, smile bright enough to rival the neon lights.

“For you”

He holds it up so the lights you strung up behind shine on it, illuminating the writing as he squints his eyes, reading the label. A grin spreads on his face when he realises what it is.

“Correllian Whiskey?”

You nod enthusiastically, winking at him “Your favourite”

His chest rumbles against your hand, a hearty chuckle bubbling out of him. He places a tender kiss on your forehead whispering a thank you against your skin.

Cracking the bottle open, he takes a generous swig of the amber liquid before silently handing it to you. You accept it gratefully, sipping and cringing at the burn as it goes down your throat.

Setting the bottle down with a soft clang you snuggle back into his strong chest, sighing contentedly and tangling your fingers with his, squeezing tightly.

You shiver slighly and before you know it, he's unfolding the blanket, throwing it over his shoulders and bring it around to wrap around you too.

"Better?"

"Much better" you smile, pecking his lips "thank you"

Toothy grin spreading on his face, he tucks the blanket around you tighter, pressing a wet kiss to the side of your neck and making you giggle.

A comfortable silence fills the night air, just the hum of traffic and the sound of sound of your synchronized breathing.

You nod towards the view of the city, eyes following the colourful light of the endless stream of speeders zooming by. Even this time of night, the city was full of life, ever bustling with activity.

"It’s pretty, isn’t it?"

Rex hums distracted, pressing a kiss to your cheek and you smile, rolling your eyes.

"You’re not even looking, are you?”

You feel him shrug against your back, his thumb brushing softly over your knuckles and smile evident in his voice as he whispers into your neck

"Something far prettier s’got all my attention right now."

---

tag-list: @techs-feral-wife @nekotaetae @rain-on-kamino @dalu-grantkylo @sleepingsun501 @softsunburstlove @lucyysthings @plotlessvoid @clonesimp @dangraccoon @ct-9902 @sinfulsalutations @hellhound5925

join my tag-list

[cometcrystal]

summary of accident under cut in case anyone is bothered by hearing about these

i was at a 4 way intersection and it had the blinking lights above it. i thought that meant it was a 4 way stop, i did not realize one lane was a caution lane and one lane was a stop lane. i stopped, and only saw a truck across from me turning right (their right, not mine). so i thought it was ok to go. i went across.

i hear tires screeching, and look to my right, and see a car trying to brake. they end up hitting the very back of my fender. we both pull into the gas station to our right

both cars have minor cosmetic damage, nothing internal was damaged. the glass on their headlight was broken and my fender was cracked. but both cars are 100% drivable they just need diff replacement parts now

the couple in the car were both very nice about it so im grateful for that. it took the fucking state troopers 50 damn minutes to arrive for an incident report though.

[tarisilmarwen]

Ahsoka "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord" Liveblog

Woo boy, there were certainly some Choices in this.

Yeah yeah, I'm late and spoilered to hell I know, look, I have been Going Through It out in realspace and my priority has been finishing Whumptober fics, cut me some slack.

Anyway.

Lars Mikkelson continuing to crush it as Thrawn.

"Even I fell victim to the... heroics of a single Jedi." Looooooool another bit for my collection of Pissy!Thrawn moments.

We're not going to get an explanation for why the Nightsisters and Thrawn are so tight, are we?

Morgan looks a little bit trepidacious about all of this ha ha.

All right, a point in this show's favor, this look at Nightsister rituals and culture is interesting.

And the flaming sword is cool, I'll admit.

Ngl, the editing really needs to be tightened up in this scene, we really only needed the one or two establishing shots before cutting into the interior.

Eman continues to be the perfect Ezra. I love him. 10/10 no complaints.

Ngl, this is sweet on the surface that Ezra's new saber has pieces of Kanan's buuuuuuuut *waves Green Saber Ezra Supremacy flag*.

Sabine, let him borrow y'all's lightsaber and YOU build a new one.

Ah goody, an Exposition Reveal.

-_-

This... doesn't actually explain Baylan's "Your family is dead because your Master didn't trust you." line btw. JUST SAYING.

I don't even know what the narrative wants anymore re. Sabine's choice to gamble Thrawn's return for Ezra.

Aaaand please not to be reminding me of the Wrong Jedi arc kthnx.

Oh good an action scene.

Ezra and Ahsoka being cool Jedi together, nice. Could be more emphasized and staged even more coolly tho.

Well poop, I guess that's the reason why we had to risk stowing away on Thrawn's ship.

Oh good! This holomap thing is exactly the kind of plot device I actually needed for one of my Sabezra Week fills.

Lol Thrawn be taking NO chances lololol.

Oh hello finally some of Thrawn's theme in the score here. Thrawn using the men's loyalty and fanaticism towards him personally to achieve his goals, fits the culty vibes, sure.

I am liiiiiviiiiiiiiiiiing for the subtle nervousness in Ezra's voice when talking about Thrawn finding the Dathomir castle and waking the witches. PLEASE CAN I HAVE A THOUSAND WHUMP AND ANGST FICS ABOUT THE IN-BETWEEN BEFORE EZRA'S ESCAPE FROM THE CHIMAERA?

His arms are so comfortably around Sabine awwwwww.

Thrawn be all srs bznss and I'm loving it.

Yeah no, Jedi!Sabine is REJECTED, she did not have any kind of necessary mental or emotional breakthrough, she wasn't shown calming her mind properly, sorry Dave THE LEGWORK AIN'T THERE, Imma fix this to be Ahsoka in the inevitable rewrite/fixfic that I've apparently decided I'm doing.

Oh Ahsoka is helping too, well I'm still not having Sabine be able to do it.

HAAAAAAAAAA THAT PISSED LOOK OF THRAWN'S OH MAN THE SNARLING LIP CURL, THE RAGE, YES PLEASE MORE.

The struggle to recompose himself OH MAN.

This is peak Mirrorverse!Thrawn and I'm here for it. I love seeing my headcanons playing out onscreen.

Aaaaaand this would have been the perfect scene to have Ezra and Sabine sharing the Our Lightsaber, meanwhile Sabine should be fully kitted out Mando style.

*simmers*

STAGE THIS DIFFERENTLY SO THAT SABINE'S BESKAR IS NOT CONSTANTLY LITERAL PLOT ARMOR PLEASE.

Aahhhhhhh Ezra my love! <3

Should have either let him use the Our Lightsaber or continued with the Force martial arts though, pick a lane. Or have a conversation about why they need to actually get him another saber.

Eman is... waaaaaaay better at this than Rosario, sad to say, lol.

Look at him GO THERE'S MY BOY.

I love him.

Oh what are we doing now?

Ohhhhh the zombie!troopers!

Lol Ezra must have left before the Nightsisters could show Thrawn their zombie techniques.

Eman makes this look flawless, I am in love.

Battle Couple Sabezra moment, awww.

"I missed you."

FAKSJHFAKJFHHKKHHHFHFH OKAY DEAD.

DEAD AND DECEASED.

LIKE THE ZOMBIES LOL.

Aaaaaaaaand I'm gonna adjust this in the fixfic, because right now it looks like they were waiting to actually dock.

And my typing is being slowed down hang on a second.

Still dumb.

Okay back.

Thrawn basically telling Morgan, "Right, so you're going to have to go fight the Rebels and stall die for me, mmkay?"

She's looking like she might regret all of this now lolol.

I do like how the finale is making it very very easy for me to fix later lol.

Like here. Morgan should have attempted to stop Ezra and Sabine. Just a small attempt, and then blocked by Ahsoka, and Ezra and Sabine run around and outmaneuver them.

BATTLE COUPLE SABEZRA. :D

Aaaaand final trailer shot accounted for.

Okay, can there be a little more effort on the choreography there please?

Oh no Sabine, EZRA SAVE HER.

Or we could retcon Sabine into actually legitimately being Force Sensitive and have her pull the Our Lightsaber.

SIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHH.

*grumbles, takes down notes about how to fix this in my rewrite*

Oh come on Ezra, you can jump that.

Catch me melting at the sheer and utter trust Ezra has in Sabine's abilities.

(But also, screw this, she's getting a jetpack in the rewrite.)

Aaaaaaaaaand I do hate that they got separated again, screwing alllllll of that.

Nice of the troopers to just politely stop shooting.

Yeah so, this is basically gonna be a 1 v 100 for Ahsoka when I rewrite it, let my girl have a hard fought climactic battle, she can take it.

"Your friends are dead." Uhhhh nah they ain't what does this bit of dialogue even connect to?

Lol Ezra gets to put on the big boy stormtrooper armor.

The vaaaaaaaaaguely panicky twitches that Thrawn has here. A+, excellent, no notes.

No kill like overkill LOLOLOL.

Thrawn, internally: Shitshitshitshitshitshitshiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Ah Thrawn is going to try Break Them By Talking. Ezra tanked this let's see if Ahsoka can do the same.

Nope, she's Affected.

Aaaaaand he out.

Bye Thrawn!

Hmmmmgh, yeah no, because in my rewrite I'm axing the entirety of Sabine actually becoming a Jedi it's going to be better that she goes with Ezra on the Eye of Sion instead of stays with Ahsoka, if she stayed a Jedi then yes that's what the conclusion should have been that makes narrative sense now that I see it.

But also again, I Do Not Like That Plot Point so--*grumblegrumble mumble*

Hi Morai!

Bandit queen Shin? I could dig it.

Baylan chilling with Mortis god statues.

I STILL DO NOT SEE ANY SOLID EVIDENCE THEY'RE GONNA DO ABELOTH GUYS, SORRY.

And Thrawn is setting up base on Dathomir. Lol wait til he finds out that there's basically nothing there anymore lololol.

Those uh... those be a lotta dead troopers. Probably most of the Chimaera crew.

...Cripes did they die naturally, did Ezra kill them, or did Thrawn pull some kind of Jonestown thing in order to enact his eventual revenge?

Oh maaaaan what if it's that last one, that would fit with the cult-like chanting in his intro omgghghhhggkajsfkjh.

Frick man, Thrawn fixing to unleash an undead army on the GFFA that can really only be taken out by lightsabers.

Oh come on, you're telling me Ezra was on the Eye and didn't pull some last minute shenanigans before he left?

Didn't screw Thrawn over one last time for nostalgia's sake?

(He and Sabine are blowing up some engines before they skedaddle, in the fixfic.)

HERA AND EZRA SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED A HUG, FILONI.

The attempt at bookends here is cute but no. LET HERA HUG HER SON.

THIS DOESN'T EVEN REALLY WORK AS A BOOKEND.

YES THE PART WHERE CHOPPER RECOGNIZES HIM IS CUTE BUT THIS IS WASTED DRAMA. THERE'S NO REASON FOR THIS.

LET HERA HUG HER SOOOOOOONNNN.

This whole scene just doesn't work because we're trying to shoehorn it into being a bookend for the opening, it doesn't wooooooooooorrrrrk.

THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

*furiously taking down notes on how to rewrite this scene*

*grumbling*

Blah blah Sabine can feel Anakin there but Ahsoka can't? blah blah blah.

Aaaaaaand closing us out with "As The Sun Sails And The Moon Walks"

Well.

Where do I begin?

Okay so... final verdict... I DO actually like this show.

THAT BEING SAID.

There was soooooooo much about the execution and so many of the narrative choices that I just NEEDED to be better and it frustrates me. Because this show by all rights should have been a spectacular emotional thrill ride like Kenobi and it just wasn't.

A lot of the problems and nitpicks I had with Kenobi are exacerbated here, especially under Filoni's brand of, "I didn't care for what Lucas did with the Prequels, here let me fix it." NO FILONI IT DIDN'T NEED FIXING IT WAS FINE! HOW THE FORCE WORKED WAS FINE! THE JEDI WERE FINE!

But there's such GOOD STUFF in here that I can't discount it all fully like I can with the Sequel Trilogy. (Which, believe me, I have attempted to workshop and fixfic but ultimately gave up on.) The purrgil lore! The Ancient Dathomiri! Another galaxy! Whatever Baylan was up to! Sabezra being adorable! Thrawn!

Soooooo yeah, basically join me sometime in the future for when I inevitably create a fixfic AU for this show like I did for Aldnoah.Zero because unfortunately I can't give up on this show I need to fix it, just hand me the characters and story and I can fix it.

Can't do much for the camerawork, choreography, and occasional stiff acting (Not you Eman, Natasha, Ray, Evan, and Lars, you're all great.) but I can at least salvage that part lol.

Ultimately... mid. Excellent premise and cool concepts brought down by subpar execution and some frankly baffling narrative decisions. But gimme like a week and I will workshop a Fanon AU that I can be completely happy with.

Hopefully we get a Season Two? Maybe? Or resolve everything in the Mandoverse movie?

Peace out, y'all.

[good--merits-accumulated]

More Dead Poets headcanons: historical (Belle Époque) edition

Is this just fully self-indulgence now? Yes. (Insert Starship Troopers gif: "I'M DOING MY PART!")

- Todd is the second son of a couturier who prefers writing fairytales about the dresses instead of doing business with them. He often slips away to go play in string quarters in little riverside bistros and sit in on writers' salons. Strictly speaking he doesn't need to sneak as nobody outside his family really knows who he is, but he does it anyway

- Neil is the contrastingly very high-profile son of a government minister who has seen Todd looking uncomfortable at various balls and recognises him one evening playing violin in the corner of a dingy little cafe, because HE'S also been sneaking out

- Charlie is a dilettante and hangs about with artists (to the dismay of his parents) and keeps the gossip rags well stocked. Neil became friends with him at fourteen out of spite for his parents then discovered that they got on extremely well and that was, as they say, that

- Meeks is a student at the newly-formed University of Paris, unfortunately dating these headcanons exactly to 1896. He spends his time working feverishly on investigating radio waves + using them in communication, a discovery he is unfortunately eventually beaten to by Guglielmo Marconi (yeah, the real guy). Meeks keeps up a significant correspondence both with scientific luminaries (on a first name basis with Max Planck somehow???) and the large amount of siblings he's left behind in a village near Dr��me, spending all his allowance on ink and foolscap. (Yes, he speaks fluent Provençal!) Pitts is an American classmate (courtesy of his father working in the embassy), and does mysterious things with aniline dyes after classes in the shed at the bottom of his garden. They prudently don't ask

- Chris is one of Todd's father's clients who befriends him after he very succinctly tells her exactly what's wrong with the fabric and colour and silhouette of the dress her fiance ordered for her. Said fiance is Knox, who Chris is marrying not particularly out of anything more than a very lukewarm platonic affection, but more out of a desire to get out, now, and to decide on something, Now. Knox knows this but he's still convinced it will work out (?????). Ginny is Chris' best friend very explicitly disapproving about it the whole time, and half in love with her as well

- Cameron meanwhile is a pencil-pusher at the American embassy (he's French, though, not American) and befriends Knox and then Charlie and then everyone else through strange twists of fate. Secretly reads a lot of dime novels on the sly. Insists he doesn't

- For at least one glorious summer they all get out and go free. Meeks takes them all down to see his family and Neil goes careening down country back lanes on his (new, very handsome) bicycle, with Todd sitting precariously on the handlebars and laughing the whole way. Knox gets a barge ("Where from?" "Well, I came across it tethered, abandoned, just... over there." "Over THERE?" "Yes. What's the problem?" [DISTANT, EXTREMELY HEATED SHOUTING] "Ah, Christ.") and they all end up in the river one way or another. When they get back to Paris the quiet of the countryside has sharpened everything to even harsher brilliance and Charlie pulls them all to visit his artist acquaintances and they go to the bars out of the way where men can be seen with men and the air is thick with smoke enough that nobody can really see each other's faces, and Neil pulls Todd into a clumsy waltz and thinks, this is how it should always have been from the moment that I was born.

[spokewar]

ghost company post because they are so important to me

After being assigned to the 212th Attack Battalion, Obi-Wan tasked his second-in-command, Cody, with recruiting people for an elite strike team to help with dangerous and sensitive missions. Though GAR rankings still apply to Ghost Company, the team has their own distinct chain of command. Partly because each Ghost has their own unique set of skills which makes them suitable to lead specific assignments, and partly because Obi-Wan despises being a General and delegates power where he can. The roster is as follows:

Marshal Commander Cody:

Specialties: literally everything and very handsome

Unless specified otherwise, is usually in charge because he recruited everyone

Weapons and combat expert, diplomat when needs be, Jedi whisperer, and battle strategist

Has lightsaber training from Obi-Wan, will bodily tackle anything, goes from being the most professional soldier you will ever meet to a living nightmare in 2 seconds flat

Won't stop fighting Sith

High Jedi General Obi-Wan:

Specialties: being a Jedi

constantly insists Ghost Company is at Cody's full disposal

Diplomat, human shield (via lightsabers), fall guy (because Jedi can get away with a lot), and battle strategist

Makes very good distractions, keeps having enemies from his past appear out of no where, and will fight with a metal pipe before a blaster

Keeps saying he is the only one allowed to fight Sith

Captain Gregor:

Specialties: walking armory/war incarnate

Unofficially Cody's second (Obi-Wan approved)

Long range weapons expert (can fight close combat, but would rather not due to the 15 rifles on his back), sniper, and can build a bomb out of anything

Also keeps having enemies from his past appear out of no where, voted most likely to solve weapons with violence, and comes up with new slurs for droids everyday

Fairly unkillable

Boil:

Specialties: infiltration

Handles reconnaissance, breaking and entering expert, definitely not 1/2 of an assassin duo

Everybody's uncle, voted most likely to bring back a feral animal, will sometimes disappear for several days (don't worry about it), really good at gambling, and collects shady contacts as a hobby

Started learning Twi'leki/Ryl after mission to Ryloth

Likely Quinlan's favorite

Co-dependent on Waxer

Lieutenant Waxer:

Specialties: navigation and tracking

Definitely not 1/2 of an assassin duo, wildlife enthusiast (is Bear Grills), can point out and name every constellation, sometimes guesses where hyperspace lanes are and is usually correct

Usually the mediator when internal fights break out, misses his not-daughter Numa, and voted most likely to actually talk about his feelings

co-dependent on Boil (and stole 1/5 of his goatee)

Trapper:

Specialties: field medic, and search and rescue

Does not take his helmet off and don't ask him to

Most violent medic the 212th has to offer, resets your bones without warning, will sedate you without hesitation, and can fireman carry 3 people

Isn't actually part of the medical division because he wants to fight, but will do it for the Ghosts

Occasional third wheel to the co-dependent brothers Waxer and Boil

Wooley:

Specialties: piloting and slowly becoming a mini-Cody

Carries about 12 hidden weapons, will continue fighting even if his legs are broken, and might be the most like the Jango

Has the beginnings of ARC Trooper training

Most resourceful, youngest and most chaotic, wormed his way into Ghost Company and won't go away, and is deeply traumatized by his time spent in enemy captivity

Obi-Wan's baby

Also likely to solve problems with violence

Crys:

Specialties: all things technology

Beautiful blonde hacker trope

Droids hate him, can hotwire anything, designated (against his will) repairman, and is usually the most panicked when things go wrong (which is often)

Sometimes is Trapper's medical assistant because "organs aren't that different from droid wiring" which he cannot emphasize enough is incorrect

Obi-Wan keeps insisting Crys is slightly Force sensitive to which the usual response is, "fuck off, sir"

[guardian-andi]

Chapter 4. Meeting

Andi needed to get off planet fast. Those troopers weren’t dead, and there was no way they wouldn’t report their encounter to whatever superiors had sent them to take the child. What could the empire want with force sensitive children? The thought was nauseating. But he couldn’t focus on that now, he’d have plenty of time to contemplate in transit, but that was the hard part. He didn’t have a chain code so there was no way for him to get an official ride off world and even though the force allowed him to sense things without his sight, he still couldn’t read displays or screens, so flying himself out was completely out of the question. Empress Teta, the city covered planet he had been tentatively calling home for the last few years, was known for its overly complex sky lanes, making leaving or entering the planet a complete chore, so he needed to make sure he could find a secure ship to stow away on.

He did his best to blend in with the crowd, tapping his cane along even though he no longer needed it. He had spent enough time here to figure out where the space port is, the constant roaring of engines and loud crowds emanating from the buildings gave it away easy enough. He moved along with the throngs of people, sensing every possible emotion, happiness, sadness, joy, anger. He missed being able to see this, feel their unique stories. As dangerous as it was, he was glad to be back.

Passing a side road, he felt something pulling him there, like a string pulling him down the path. He followed, knowing that the force would not betray him, it would guide him where he needed to go. Breaking off from the stream of people, he moved down the surprisingly empty pathway. He walked through, coming to a bend when he heard incoming footsteps. Andi ducked into a nearby alcove, pulling his staff close as he sensed exactly who were passing by. As they drew closer their forms revealed the outline of two stormtroopers, the chatter from their helmets echoing between the walls. Letting them pass by Andi moved on, slower this time as to not be surprised or heard. He quickly found himself in a small open hangar, a decently sized ship sat in the middle of it, some kind of shuttle he guessed. Shipping containers still dotted the surrounding area, giving Andi plenty of places to hide behind and scope out the area. Crouching behind one of them, Andi reached out with the force, opening all his senses to the surrounding hangar. Not a soul was close by, but he still got the feeling this was where he needed to be. So, he made a break for the ship, running up the boarding ramp he felt a sudden pit in his stomach that made him stop in his tracks. 

Andi hadn’t felt this sensation since the night the temple fell. It was like his soul was being smothered by smoke and darkness, like his connection to the force was being choked out. Before he could turn around, he was pulled away from the ship and slammed against one of the cargo containers.

“You’re bold I’ll give you that” came a lightly muffled voice. “A blind man trying to steal an imperial ship.”

In front of him stepped a helmeted woman, her outline displaying a dark silhouette, with smooth armored lines and a shaped helmet. Andi jumped to his feet, brandishing his cane towards her. She cocked her head in curiosity. 

“A well-trained blind man, it seems.”  

He jumped at her with a fast jab followed by a hard swing. She dodged each attack perfectly, seeing his attacks coming a mile away. He continued to attack, desperate to land a strike and hopefully escape, but she continued to constantly evade any hit. He stopped, panting as she simply chuckled to herself.

“Maybe not as well trained as I thought”

He decided to try a new tactic, quickly grabbing a nearby toolbox with the force and sending it at her head. She batted away the spray of tools, but Andi had followed up by rushing in close, jabbing the butt of his cane into her helmet. He heard a loud crack as plastoid met metal. She stumbled back letting out a shout and touching her cracked visor. With a growl she rushed forward with immense speed, letting the force enhance her movements as she kicked him directly in the chest, followed by a backhand across the face. Andi tumbled to the ground, his staff flying from his hands and landing with a clatter. He tried to get up only to hear the tell-tale hiss of a lightsaber activating and seeing the outline of the blade hovering just in front of him, pointing at his throat. 

“Tenacious too. A survivor”

As he sat there, he took note of her. The woman’s presence was clouded in a swirling black shroud emanating off her very soul. And yet there was something else, something that wasn’t there the only other time he had encountered someone with a similar presence. Deep inside, masked behind all the hatred and anger, he felt a glimpse of sadness and fear.

“Hopefully you’ll be strong enough to live.” She said, a slight tone of sincerity in her voice, before delivering a kick to his jaw, knocking Andi out cold.

[eddysocs]

Heartfelt Heartburn — Ted Lasso x OC

Summary: Looking for a taste of home, Ted and Tildy head out to a restaurant with American cuisine that only leads them both to overdoing it, and feeling sick afterwards, but at least they’re not suffering alone.

Word Count: 663

Warnings: Mentions of mild nausea

Matilda cast a wary glance at Ted as they entered the American themed restaurant he’d been able to find online. The aroma of fried foods and sizzling meats filled the air, making her stomach growl in anticipation.

Ted clapped his hands and rubbed them together in preparation. "Well, Miss Tildy, this is gonna be a trip down memory lane!"

They were quickly seated and soon found themselves staring at a menu filled with greasy delights, including burgers, fries, fried chicken, and onion rings. They ordered a little bit of everything, eager to indulge in the flavors of home. It had been ages since Matilda had a taste of home and the call of the midwest was just too good to resist.

The two of them dug in the moment the food arrived and got lost in story after story, only taking breaths to laugh between bites of deep fried goodness. A couple of hours later, as they stumbled out of the restaurant, Matilda groaned, clutching her stomach. "Ted, I think we overdid it."

Ted nodded, his own face slightly pale from the over abundance of good, old American comfort food. "Yeah, maybe we went a bit overboard with the whole deep fried extravaganza." His attempt at levity usually would have made her laugh, but that’s the last thing she wanted to do right now. "How are you holding up?"

Matilda tried to smile but instead winced as another wave of discomfort hit her. "Not great, if I’m being honest."

Ted put a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Come on, let’s get you home. You need to lie down."

The walk back to Tildy’s flat felt longer than usual. Every step seemed to jostle her aching stomach. Ted, despite his own queasiness, stayed close, offering support and gentle reassurances, as well as stopping whenever she needed him too.

Once they’d made it safely inside Matilda's flat, Ted helped her to the couch and fetched a glass of water. "Here, drink this. It might help."

"Ugh, I don’t think anything else will fit in my stomach," she groaned. "But I know you’re right," she ultimately admitted. She sipped the water gratefully. "Thanks, Ted. I’m really sorry about this."

Ted shook his head. "No need to apologize. We’re in this greasy ship together. Just try to rest."

As the night went on, Matilda's discomfort worsened, despite the aid of the water. She lay curled up on the couch, pale and sweating. Ted, battling his own nausea, stayed by her side, holding her hand and rubbing her back soothingly.

"You’re a real trooper, Tildy," he said softly. "We’ll get you through this."

She managed a weak smile. "I’m glad you’re here, Ted."

Ted managed a chuckle, though it quickly turned into a stomach cramp that doubled him over for a moment and put an end to his good humor. "Yeah, me too," he finally managed. "Next time, let’s stick to something a little less…gut ruining, okay?"

"Deal," Matilda moaned in agreement. She may have missed home, but she sure wasn’t going to miss the cuisine for quite a while after this.

The night wore on, and Ted stayed vigilant, tending to Matilda's needs despite his own occasional bursts of discomfort. As dawn approached, Matilda finally fell into a restless sleep with Ted dozing off beside her.

It was late that morning when Matilda finally woke to find Ted still by her side on the couch, looking as exhausted as she felt, but still smiling.

"How are you feeling," he asked, almost scared of the answer.

"Better," she replied, squeezing his hand. "Thanks for taking care of me, Ted."

"Anytime, Tildy," Ted said with a warm smile. "That’s what friends are for."

As they shared a quiet moment, Matilda found herself smiling. Yeah, maybe that’s what friends were for, but Ted had gone above and beyond while feeling awful himself, and that said a lot more than anything even her closest friends had ever done for her.

For @sicktember

Forever Tag: @baubeautyandthegeek, @kmc1989, @curious-kittens-ocs, @fanficanatic-tw, @gcthvile, @kenjioharashotspot

[daydream-the-demon]

What kind of music do you like ?

Electro-swing! Pretty much all of it! Swing is good to and I enjoy almost all jazz.

Tape Five, Caravan Palace, 11 Acorn Lane, Swingrowers, PiSk, all my jams!

Tape Five is my obsession though.

I also like When the Sun Sets Down South by Sidney Bechet.

I also like fan-made music for fandoms and video game music, I was obsessed with Death by Glamour, Hard Drive, and DEALMAKER for some while.

Silly music is pretty good, like Vending Machine of Love.

Suggestive music is also good when it's done right, like Lady Moustache, Ballroom Troopers... (All by the one and only Tape Five of course!)

[tiredassmage]

It's that time again - update rambles time kdfnalsdfnsd. The short version is, overall, I'm really pleased with this update, but there's... at least one thing missing that did sort of derail me in the end and I'll still need to go back and play it pubside on my Trooper, which I think I might enjoy slightly more for... cohesion of a story's sake, but that's. a) getting a bit into the actual ramble and b) getting my personal blorbo feelings involved which is absolutely what I do here but, let me do it in the right place, lmao.

Mechanically, this was. a really sweet update to me. There's lots of doing in progressing through the story part. The fights are engaging, the action is selling. It doesn't play like a bunch of run to checkpoint x, do y, hand in z, which is very nice. There's. actually a few things to consider. Comparing to 7.2 in Showdown, the action isn't just in the cutscenes this time - it's definitely there, too, I have plenty of nice action shots to add to the blasters out collection, lol - but it's also in the gameplay, at least from my take, so! I've really no complaints from a gameplay perspective thus far.

I haven't worked on any of the dailies or done the little follow up with Lane or whatnot yet because I sort of had my fill with the story for the day and I wanted to check out some of the lighting changes in other parts of the game, hehe! So, might run into other things later, but we'll see.

I also love seeing locations from earlier in the game making a comeback. The little hints here and there are enough to be exciting for me - though I see some people saying missed opportunity to do things with Jorgan and Corso and I will more than likely agree with that. I'd always be a sucker for more references.

Petra's really cool. I love her. Loved meeting her and working with her. As a local Imperial Agent enjoyer, I think it's only natural to say I do love the sneak and spy elements of this update, lol.

I got a lot of what I could've ever hoped to ask for out of this update. I'm just... missing the saboteur options? Which... really threw me at the end. There's at least a place or two that it felt exactly where those sort of options should've come up, but there's at least no directly labeled sight of them around, which is... jarring given Tyr's extensive history as a double agent for the Republic.

It's... a really tricky situation to deal with on Ord though, so that's. how I'm choosing to sort of interpret that one. There are some areas that felt a little too tight on strictly Imperial loyalty for how I typically play him, so it's. It's jarring, in short. One of my disappointment areas, I have to admit. I haven't done any of the dailies, but it looks like it'll end up being interpreted as Imperial support either way - which, fair, I'm playing an impside character, I know, but the lines were very clear on Ossus for where that saboteur option was involved and they even appeared on Manaan. I'm still hoping to see that storyline go somewhere even though there feels like there's a lot of moving parts on the board at the moment.

SO. With that said, onto my giggles and other miscellaneous references because it seems the last several story updates have thematically been reflective and reference-pockmarked for me, lol.

I cannot tell you the way I squealed with excitement to see these two in frame and actually doing something like cooperating.

And also the way I am, once again, haunted by being an Imperial Agent girlie. Because all I can think of in this is Double agent. Triple agent. Do you even know whose lies you're telling anymore?

Primarily, of course, my own feelings about blorbo who's been in the spy business for literally about half his lifetime and a double agent for maybe half of that - now he's going to balance being a double for the Republic with working with Sa'har? Ough. Tyr, babe. I hope you know what you're doing.

He wants to help her. He's wanted to from the start. Sa'har's I'm not sure I -want- to leave, speaking to that I'm not sure I can leave a job unfinished that Tyr is so, so painfully familiar with experiencing. Maybe he's got fleece over his eyes because of his own complicated feelings about working in unseen ways, but he does believe her.

ALSO THIS GIRL. NEARLY GIVIN ME A HEART ATTACK. GIRL I LIKED YOU DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT. Anyway. I love her. I love. Again, one of the most hilarious dialogue wheels you could give this man is I'm no traitor (lie, you've been once since you were in your late twenties, and you're like, what 46ish? It's been a long time since Hutta, agent) / I don't work with traitors (another lie, you're still kissing Theron Shan [Tyr. argues that doesn't count which is the only reason this is the option I went with] / and [Attack]

And then I won't be normal about him taking option 2 and dropping "I'd like to believe I've always been fighting for something greater."

I'm fine. I'm sure I'm fine. [Girl who is constantly plagued by the emotional agonies of maining a double agent.]

ANYWAY. Or perhaps also on that note. Krovos getting a little sharp about his misplaced priorities. Nothing comes of it. Yet. But it's enough to keep my brain stew going and bubbling about the weight of it all.

And it's just. so very Tyr to throw himself in the line of fire trying to keep people he meant to keep out of overcomplicating situations safe.

And I am, overall, just a sucker for the way this update brings it back to... I guess grass roots, you could say. Grounding the story in what's actually happening to places like Ord Mantell, brushing with some of the consequences on people in general - the Hidden Chain stealing supplies, possibly moving people, even, or at least their allies might be - sells the big story in the end, I think. Otherwise, the big, vague prophetic 'the fate of the galaxy sets on your shoulder' doesn't really settle as much. This might be what you're fighting for, or it might be what you're costing along the way. And I just like having that connective tissue that is 'they're here for supplies;' they're rebuilding and moving forward with plans after Ruhnuk, and Malgus's threat that all things will still unfold according to a plan is still lingering around.

[Also, Rass people. The flirts. wtf I love it. They're adorable.]

And I really am just. Such a hopeless sucker for scenes like this. A little slice of just being people in between all the galactic turmoil and heroics.

So, I've still got a fair amount of things to be chewing on! Once I'm through this last week of finals stuff, I'll expect I'll hop on TrooperTyr and go. redamage my emotions further and play it pubside and have a whole other whirlwind of emotions about how he handles it too dlfknsadlkf;sld. For now, time to pop some screenshots into the queue! ^.^

OH. ALSO. Kessing's Landing is fucking beautiful.

[littlesoka7567]

Who Taught Omega That?!

Summary: I love all the head canons about Omega learning bad words from her brothers, so here's a short little Drabble!

Notes: I'm attempting to do homework and it is literally so boring I hate it so much so here's this instead. Idk what this is.

WC: 2653

Omega has learned a lot in her time in squad 99. Her brothers have taught her almost everything she knows. 

Tech taught her all about the Muarder and how to fly her. Wrecker taught her how to fight for herself and her brothers.  Hunter taught her what it means to be a soldier, and how to follow orders-and when not to. Echo taught her how to explain her strategic abilities, and how to turn them into plans. She’s learned how to shoot her bow, and Crosshair taught her how to aim it better. 

She’s learned what it means to have a family.

One thing her brothers hadn’t meant to teach her, however, was one thing she gleefully holds onto and holds close to her chest. Until the moment she can innocently look at one of them and repeat her secret knowledge to cause the most amount of chaos. 

~

Echo was the first one to teach her a bad word. 

The oldest clone used to be an ARC trooper, after all. Every other word out of an ARC trooper's mouth was foul, foul enough to turn a jedi’s ears red with embarrassment. Ah, how Echo and Fives used to love torturing their own jedi, general Skywalker, with their back-and-forth conversations. 

However, after joining his new squad–squad 99–he tamed it down. Although his new squad are commandos, they don’t seem to have the same affinity to cursing as the ARC troopers do. They’ll let one slip every once in a while, usually without meaning to and followed by an embarrassed apology to Echo; it doesn’t happen very often, though. 

He had even more reason to not cuss when they got a child on board. Echo had, surprisingly, taken to her immediately. He simply was overwhelmed with the need to protect her, keep her innocence at least somewhat intact in a way he and his brothers never got. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s good at it. 

To be fair to Echo, he had been under the assumption that Omega was sound asleep in her makeshift room. 

But Omega was sneaky when she wanted to be, and knew how to be quiet. 

Echo had been piloting the ship while Tech took his turn to sleep, and he thought the rest of the ship was asleep as well. 

He had hardly been paying attention to the ship at all, actually; he was reading a reg manual for the umpteenth time. It was one of the only things left that brought Echo a sense of calm, and feel normal again. He’s been reading these manuals since…well, since even before he graduated. 

However, it’s never a good idea to pilot distractedly. 

A loud beeping startles Echo (and Omega, but Echo doesn’t know she’s there). He gasps, looking at what’s making the noise. “Shh!” he aims at it, flipping off the noise. He reads which alert was going off, and his eyes widen. “Oh, fuck,” he whispers, turning on manual piloting and carefully taking them out of hyperspace. He lets it go smooth enough the ship doesn’t jostle; he doesn’t want to wake anyone up. 

He groans to himself as the ship almost collides with an asteroid due to his need to go slow. He quickly swerves out of its way, and expertly manuevers around the rest of them without jerking the ship too much, “Fuck, fuck!” he gasps, having to turn the ship almost on its side to avoid a particularly large one. 

He sighs in relief as the ship clears the asteroid field, and he settles back into the hyperspace lane. He rubs at his eyebrows with shaky hands, putting them back in hyperspace and reengaging autopilot. “Oh, thank the force,” he mumbles to himself. 

He turns around so he can check he didn’t wake anyone, and freezes when Omega is staring at him with wide eyes. “Oh… H-hi Omega,” he says. “Did I wake you?”

“What does fuck mean?” she asks, big round eyes staring directly into his soul. Her head is cocked slightly to the side, and she’s holding Lula to her chest. 

Echo winces, looking over her shoulder as if Hunter will be standing there demonically with red eyes and a snarl. He doesn’t, thankfully. “Uh…”

Omega blinks slowly, holding Lula tighter. “Does it have to do with flying?” she encourages. 

Echo internally groans. “N-no. It’s a…well, it’s a bad word. I shouldn’t have said it, and neither should you.” He knows how smart she is; if he lets her know he’s scared of Hunter finding out, Hunter will find out within the rotation. 

“Bad…word? There are bad words?” She loosens her grip on Lula, curiosity taking over. 

Echo nods, standing up and walking over to her. He kneels down so he’s face to face with her. “Yeah. Bad words are just words you aren’t really supposed to say, because they’re rude.”

Omega nods, seeming to understand. “But what does it mean? The bad word you said?”

Echo winces, opening his mouth to answer and closing it several times as he thinks of an answer. “Well, what I was saying was that…I was…well…” Echo clears his throat, scratching the back of his head with his scomp hand. “Well, I was um…something undesirable happened, so I was expressing that I didn’t want that to happen.”

“Oh,” Omega says, nodding. She rubs at her eye with a sleepy hand, and her face breaks out into a yawn. “That makes sense.”

Echo nods, sighing in relief. He kisses her forehead and stands up, gently pushing her so she’d walk back towards her room. “Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

~

The next time she learned a bad word was, unsurprisingly, from Tech. 

Tech tends to get lost in his own head, not paying too much attention to his surroundings when he isn’t on a mission. 

It’s one of those times when Tech is walking around the ship with his face buried in his datapad. 

“Tech?” Omega asks, kicking her feet as she sits in one of the chairs in the cockpit. 

“Hmm?” Tech asks, not looking up. 

“When are you going to teach me how to fly?” she asks, pout on her lips. 

“When you finish your memorizations,” Tech answers, voice monotone. He turns back around to start walking towards her again.

Omega whines. “But Tech, Hera said flying is more than just knowing what the buttons do! She says it’s about a feeling.”

Tech rolls his eyes, getting his screen closer to his face as he walks towards her. “Hera is not a real pilot. On the other hand, I have passed every single flying exam I have taken.” He passes the threshold into the cockpit, heading towards the control panels. 

Omega whines again. “Tech!” she complains. 

Tech turns around again, starting to pace back towards the hull of the ship. “The faster you memorize everything I have instructed you to memorize, the faster you will be allowed to fly.”

Omega huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, watching him with a scowl on her face. “But it’s so boring!”

Tech shakes his head fondly, turning back around and pacing towards her again. “It is very important to-shit!” Tech gasps in pain as his toe stubs the entryway to the cockpit. 

Omega’s eyes go wide, and she curls her knees to her chest. “What does shit mean?”

Tech sighs in annoyance, rubbing at his toe. “It literally means a waste product created by most animals; however, within the context I said the word, it is an exclamation which indicates annoyance or, in my case, pain.”

“Oh,” Omega says. “Is it rude to say that word? Like a bad word?” 

Tech hesitates, and then he mentally says shit once more. “Yes, actually. It is rude. Don’t say it in front of the others, they will not approve.”

Omega grins sneakily at him as he buries his face in his datapad again. “Maybe you should…let me fly. Just a little bit. So I forget about the word shit.”

Tech scrunches his nose, taking in a deep, annoyed breath. “I’m more concerned with who taught you about blackmail than I am about the rude word.”

Omega pouts again, resting her chin on her knees. “Hunter!” She calls, eyes twinkling. 

Tech narrows his eyes, glaring at her. “Fine,” he says quickly, placing his datapad down. “Do not tell Hunter.”

“Don’t tell Hunter what?” Hunter asks, entering the cockpit. 

Tech sighs again, rubbing at his forehead above his goggles. “I’m going to let Omega fly for a few minutes. I’ll take off and land, and it will only be a brief time, but…I think she’s ready.”

Hunter raises a brow. “Oh. That wasn’t difficult to convince you,” he says, with a small chuckle. “Have fun,” he says, winking at Omega. “I’ll take Echo and Wrecker to Cid’s.”

~

Wrecker and Crosshair were the next ones to teach her a bad word, and it was just after they got Crosshair back. 

She really shouldn’t have been listening. She knew it was a private conversation between Crosshair and Wrecker. But everything has been so tense since the sniper came back to her little family, and all she wants to do is help. 

“Wrecker, just leave me alone,” Crosshair groans, and there’s shifting behind the door. 

“No!” Wrecker yells, and Omega can practically see the way he crosses his arms. “You have to talk to me, you can’t keep pushing me away.”

“Why not?” Crosshair drawls, and there’s a few steps as one of them paces. 

“Because you’re my brother, and I missed you!” Wrecker says loudly. His voice breaks just a bit, and Omega just wants to run in and hug him. 

Crosshair scoffs, and she hears something rattling in a container. “No you didn’t. I shot you, Wrecker, how could you-”

“Stop being a dick for no reason!” Wrecker says, and there’s a shove. “I don’t care that you shot me, it wasn’t you and it only hurt a little bit.”

Omega almost opens the door, but Crosshair snarls angrily. “Bitch!” he yells back, and there’s more shoving. 

Wrecker laughs, and Omega is almost certain the larger clone shoves Crosshair into a wall. “You missed me too! Admit it!” Wrecker yells. 

There’s more shuffling, and then Crosshair huffs in what can almost be called a laugh. “Get off me, Wrecker, you’re gonna squish me.”

Omega stifles her own giggle and opens the door, looking in. Just as he thought, Wrecker is holding Crosshair hostage in a bear hug. “Can I have a hug too?”

Wrecker looks over and laughs, accidentally swinging Crosshair with him. “Sure! Always room for you, kid!”

Crosshair looks uncomfortable for a beat, but then Wrecker is opening one of his arms and Omega jumps into the hug, one arm around Wrecker’s shoulder and the other around Crosshair’s. “I thought you were fighting,” she admits.

“We were,” Crosshair huffs, but slowly his arm comes up to help support her back. It’s as close to a hug as she’s gotten from him yet. “This is fighting.”

Wrecker’s booming laugh shakes Omega, but she can’t help but giggle back to him. “No, Crosshair, this is making up.”

Crosshair doesn’t argue any further, which is really a win in Wrecker’s opinion. They stay there, silence comfortable, for several long moments. Then Crosshair starts to squirm, so Omega leans back and smiles innocently at them. “Wrecker, what’s a dick?”

Crosshair chokes on his spit, and Wrecker lets the man go before gently putting Omega down. “Um…why are you…I uh…”

“You told Crosshair not to be a dick. Is it a bad thing?” 

Crosshair makes another choking sound, and this time Omega is almost certain he’s hiding a laugh. Omega widens her eyes and tries to make herself look more innocent, so she doesn’t give her plan away. 

“Well…uh…you see,” Wrecker starts, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a bad word, so you aren’t s’poussa say it.”

“Then…why did you say it?” Omega cocks her head to the side. 

“Uh…because I was frustrated, and I wanted Crosshair to stop being so stubborn,” Wrecker says. He stutters over his words, and Omega nods along. “It means…when someone is being mean, they’re being that word.”

“Oh, okay,” Omega says. She waits for Crosshair to be lulled into a false sense of security, before turning her wide eyes on him. “What’s a bitch?”

Crosshair’s smirk is wiped off his face, and it’s Wrecker’s turn to watch his brother flounder. “Don’t say that word either,” he quickly gets out, looking over her shoulder at the open door. “It’s also a bad word.”

“What does it mean?” Omega stares at him, blinking slowly.

Crosshair shifts uncomfortably, and Wrecker starts to giggle behind his hands. “It means…a not nice person. Someone who did something rude. Wrecker shoved me, so I called him that. I shouldn’t have, though,” Crosshair adds the last part quickly. 

Omega nods, pretending to ponder it. “Okay,” she says. “Can we hug again?” She fights back a smile as her distraction works, and Crosshair is just too eager to get her to move on from the conversation. 

~

They almost thought they had gotten away with it. It had been several weeks, and Omega hadn’t said any bad words in front of Hunter even once. 

They should have known it was too good to be true. 

Hunter was arguing with Omega about staying behind for this mission; it wasn’t a complicated mission, but Hunter just wanted to get it over with quickly. “No, Omega, you’re staying here with Echo, Cross, and Wrecker. Me and Tech won’t take even an entire rotation, you won’t even notice we’re gone. That’s final,” his voice is gentle but firm, something he’s gotten good at in the last few months. 

Omega stamps her foot, fists clenched at her side. “Stop being a dick!” she yells. 

Hunter freezes, his eyes going wide. “Where did you- I- what did you-you-don’t say that w-” He doesn’t look over his shoulder, but he can feel Wrecker tensing up and start to fidget nervously. 

“You’re being a bitch!” Omega cuts him off, and her arms cross over her chest. Crosshair, who was standing behind Omega winces, and Hunter swears he heard the toothpick crack in his mouth. 

Hunter stutters, kneeling down to her level and looking into her eyes. “Those are bad words, Omega, you can’t say them. Okay?”

“Shit,” Omega snarls, her nose scrunching up. 

Tech sticks his nose more firmly into the datapad, which he had lowered after hearing her first outbursts. 

“Stop-Omega, stop!” Hunter stands up again, glaring at his brothers. “Who taught Omega that?!” he asks, voice deep with anger and a conscious effort to keep himself from yelling.

All four of his brothers are refusing to look at him, in one way or another. Echo is staring at Omega in horror, Wrecker is whistling and twiddling his thumbs and looking straight up at the ceiling, Crosshair is staring straight at the ground as he tries to fight back laughter, and Tech’s flaming face is buried in his datapad. 

“Well?” Hunter hisses, looking between each of them. “Who kriffing taught Omega bad words?” he asks.

It’s silent for several long seconds, his brothers slowly looking up at him in unison and staring with wide eyes. Crosshair wasn’t even aware Hunter knew that word. 

Hunter pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. “This isn’t over,” he promises them. “Let’s go, Tech. Omega-go to the room upstairs.”

Omega groans in defiance but stomps up the stairs, making Cid yell out at them to cool it. “Fuck!” She yells over her shoulder and slams the door. 

Hunter turns on his brothers so fast they almost miss it, nostrils flared and eyes wide with anger. “Which one of you taught Omega that word?!”

“You just taught her kriffing!” Wrecker says loudly, trying to deflect the blame. 

Hunter’s eye twitches, and Wrecker gulps.

[tbnrpotato]

Our Own Choices

Chapter 5

Captured! Returning from a perilous assignment in the Outer Rim, Jedi Master Even Piell's cruiser has fallen under attack and been boarded. Seeking vital information he carries about secret hyperspace lanes called the Nexus Route, Separatist forces have taken him alive. Now, the Jedi are preparing a stealth mission into the heart of Separatist space in an effort to rescue Master Piell from the deadly prison known as the Citadel.

I wait for Fives and Echo to come back to the barracks from their briefing of breaking into that maximum security prison which I am so hyped up to break into. I can't sneak into the venting system, because I remember someone trying that before and it didn't really go too well for them. I've grown like 10cm, so I've had to adjust my armor to fit my new height.

I receive a holo-transmission from Rex. He's somewhere on a jedi cruiser or probably on another mission, but I'm stuck here on Coruscant. 

I open the transmission and open the hologram on the floor. Rex's image appears in front of me, he's like half a head taller than me. 

"Hey kid," Rex takes off his helmet.

"Hey dad, please don't tell me this is something about the bad batch minifigures that I've been building."

"What bad batch minifigures?"

"Nevermind. I'm guessing this is something about the Citadel mission?"

Rex nods. "Look kid, I know you wanna go, but this isn't the place to get experience. There's a high chance that you'll get killed, and I can't be responsible for that. So-"

I groan, putting a hand to my forehead. "You said I was good enough to be an ARC trooper, why can't I go?"

"Kid, it's too dangerous, and I can't have you getting killed. You're not going. That's an order."

"Dad please-"

"You're not going, and that's final. Fives and Echo will make sure you stay here." 

The hologram turns off, and I lean against the wall, sighing.

Fives and Echo walk into the barracks.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Sorry kid, but you can't-"

I roll my eyes and put on my helmet. "Yea, I know, I know, I can't go on that prison break in that I've been wanting to go on for days now."

"Yea, sorry kid," Fives says. "Rex told us to make sure you wouldn't come."

I glare at him from under my helmet. "And you're gonna defy the bro code just because Rex said so?"

Fives and Echo look at each other. "Sorry kid, you ain't coming with us. On the bright side, Commander Tano isn't going either, so you can hangout with her while we're out."

I sigh and head to the hangar with them, and go up to Commander Tano, who's talking with another Jedi. My anxiety's rising, I hate talking to Jedi so much. So I just stand at the side and wait for my chance to speak up.

"Master Plo? May I speak with you?" Commander Tano asks the other Jedi.

"What is it, little 'Soka?" the older Jedi replies.

"It's about the mission. Master Skywalker doesn't want me to go."

"Rex doesn't want me to go either," I speak up.

"That is their choice," the Jedi says.

Commander Tano sits down on the wing of the ship that the other Jedi is fixing up and I sit down next to her.

"I know, but I think he's being overly protective. He's picking and choosing which assignments I can be a part of," Commander Tano says.

"I know right, Rex literally does the same thing to me, even though he says I'm good enough to be an ARC trooper along with Echo and Fives," I complain.

"He is your master," the other Jedi says.

"Yes...but it's not for him to decide when and how I should put my life in danger. That should be my choice." 

"So after the others get carbon-frozen, they won't know if we go with them, and we could just sneak onboard," I suggest, and the other Jedi nods at us.

After the others get carbon-frozen, we get in and get carbon-frozen ourselves. It is definitely not a pleasant experience.

Soon enough, we get unfrozen by the droids. I see Rex getting unfrozen next to me as well.

"Hey kid..." Rex groans as he gets unfrozen.

"Hey dad," I reply, cracking my neck slightly.

"What are you doing here?!" Rex folds his arms.

"Fives, do I have carbon sickness or is that Aris," Echo asks as he cracks his neck. I walk up to him and slap him in the face. "Does that seem like carbon sickness to you?"

Echo rubs the place where I slapped him, chuckling. "Good to see ya, kid."

Rex grabs my arm and turns me to face him. "I gave you a direct order not to come!"

"I got orders from General Plo Koon and Commander Tano to come anyways," I fold my arms, smirking, putting my helmet on before any other troopers can see me. Rex rolls his eyes.

"Welcome aboard, kid," Fives and Echo clap me on the back and I smile slightly.

We walk to a ledge which overlooks the lava. Definitely don't wanna fall into that. General Skywalker takes out some binoculars and scans the building.

"I see the entry point," he reports.

"You were right," Cody says. "The wind conditions are too strong for jetpacks."

"Yes, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. With ascension cables and a steel grip," General Kenobi says.

I already don't like this idea. Burning in lava seems like a painful way to go down, and I already had a problem with climbing that ledge back on the Rishi outpost, I'm starting to regret my decision of coming along.

"I don't think so," General Skywalker says.

"What do you mean?"

He looks through his binoculars again. "Electro-mines. There's nowhere to put a grappling hook at that height. And we hit one of those, the mission's over. They'll know we're here."

"I suppose that means we free-climb it," Rex says, and I look at him.

Echo puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, kid, if you fall, I'll catch you."

We continue walking along the ledge and manage to make our way to the bottom of whatever shit we need to climb.

I'm climbing behind Rex, and Echo and Fives are below me. Rex constantly looks down to check if I'm still alive. 

I really hope Echo actually meant what he said because my arms are burning and I'm losing my grip on the rocks.

The electro-mines are sparking with electricity, and I really hope that doesn't hit me or I'm definitely gonna die. My speed of climbing starts to slow down, and Echo and Fives are almost overtaking me, Rex is really far ahead.

"Cmon kid, we're right behind you, don't worry," Echo says below me. I'm breathing heavily inside my helmet, my hair's wet with sweat, it's so warm in there. The wind isn't helping either.

And then I lose my grip and I slip off the rock, and I'm thinking "Oh shit" until Echo catches me and helps me up.

"Thanks..." I'm breathing heavily, I think my heart rate just spiked up after that. I'm shaking from the adrenaline rush, and it takes me a few moments to get back to climbing.

I see everyone stop, and I stop as well. I look up and see a few droids on the platform above me, and I cling to the rock as close as I can, holding my breath, hoping that they won't hear any of us.

And then everyone starts climbing again, and I finally take a breath, pushing myself up to the next grip I can find, I'm below Commander Tano now, don't worry I'm not looking up her skirt, although I would really like to, I heard General Skywalker and General Kenobi say they told her that space underwear wasn't a thing so every time you looked up her skirt you could see her orange-

Anyways.

I hear General Kenobi saying they locked the door, and that it's ray shielded, and General Skywalker's kinda freaking about how it wasn't part of the plan.

Commander Tano climbs up and sees an opening up there and reports it to us.

"We know, they're ventilation ducts, but they're far too small for us to gain access," General Skywalker says.

"Too small for you maybe, but I think I can squeeze through," Commander Tano says.

"I could as well," I speak up.

Rex nudges me in the side and gives me the "don't you dare do it or I'll kill you" head tilt. 

"He can come along as well," Commander Tano points to me. 

General Skywalker nods at us and we climb to the ventilation duct. Commander Tano reaches up there in no time, opening the cover to the vent duct, while I'm struggling to climb up there.

When I reach the platform where the vent duct is, she helps me up. 

"Thanks," I'm panting, breathing heavily. Then Ahsoka slips inside the vent duct and I follow behind her. She looks down from the cramped space to check if there are any droids, before jumping down. I follow her, keeping my pistols drawn to cover her if there are any droids as she opens the ray shield.

I see the others climb up and I help Fives and Echo up. 

"Good job kid," Echo's breathing heavily as well.

"See Rex? I can handle myself," I fold my arms and look at him. I don't call him "dad" here for obvious reasons.

I see the last trooper reaching the platform, but then he slips, and starts to fall. I extend my grappling hook out to him, hoping that he can grab it in time, but he can't, and gets absolutely destroyed by an electro-mine.

The alarm starts to sound.

"They know we're here," General Kenobi says.

So we start running along the hallways, checking the corners to see if there are any droids.

"Take out their surveillance," General Skywalker says, and I shoot one of the security cameras with my pistol. And then some stuff from the ceiling start shooting down at us, but the boys and I take them out quite quickly.

And then, as I stand behind Rex, I hear someone shouting that the walls are electrified, and we run towards cover. I see one clone left behind, and I extend out my hand to grab him, but the wall gets him first and I get an electric shock in my hand. I shake it away, it feels like it's burning but I don't care, and I run towards the trooper who got caught in the electric wall and check for a pulse. There's nothing.

"We must keep moving," General Kenobi says, and I reluctantly leave the trooper behind and follow the others.

Soon, we reach the room where the dude we're supposed to rescue is kept, and we start blasting the droids inside the moment we open the door.

Some of us stand around the room while the others guard the door, and I hear the Jedi dude that we just saved talk shit with the Generals about how we gotta rescue his captain for some reason.

So we continue running through the hallways, checking to see if there are any droids. Suddenly, 3 commando droids appear at one end of the hallway, and a few more at the other end. I stay close to Rex, Fives and Echo as the Jedi draw their lightsabers. I draw my sword and hold my pistol in my other hand.

The droids start firing at us, the Jedi are blocking the blaster bolts with their lightsabers as the droids start jumping off the walls, they're getting closer, and one of them gets close enough and pins a trooper to the wall, and before I can reach him he's getting stabbed. 

I throw my knife at the commando droid who's still stabbing the trooper, and it hits the droid in the head, and I slice it in half with my sword to make sure it's dead. I see another commando droid behind Echo, so I shoot it with my pistol.

The Jedi slice the remaining droids with their lightsabers and Fives gently punches me in the shoulder. "You stole my kill."

I chuckle a bit. "Too slow?"

"We need to keep moving," General Kenobi says, and we start walking through the hallway again.

Suddenly, I hear some high-pitched noise, it's hurting my ears, so I cover them, even through the helmet I can still hear the sound, and all our weapons get attracted up to the ceiling, including the sword on my back and my hidden knife, carrying me up to the ceiling as well. Anakin's up there with me as well, attracted to the ceiling by his hand.

And then some electricity goes through the ceiling, going to both me and General Skywalker, it feels like my body is burning, it's shaking so much, and then it stops, and I'm trying my best not to black out, everything's spinning, everything sounds muffled...

I reach for my knife and General Skywalker reaches for his lightsaber, and I'm about to throw it at the place where the electricity comes out of, and then electricity comes out of it again. The burning feeling comes back, I'm losing the feeling in my legs, and my body...

I throw the knife at the electricity generator as General Skywalker cuts it with his lightsaber, and we fall to the ground, I'm trying so hard not to black out right now, everything's blurry...

The rest of the action happens in a blur until Echo and Rex help me up. "You good kid?" I can hear the concern in their voices. The feeling in my legs starts to come back and I nod.

"Yea I'm fine."

And then we start running through the hallways again, reaching the place where the other prisoners are kept. The Jedi handle the droids and General Kenobi suggests we split up.

Fives, Echo, Rex, some others and I follow General Skywalker and Commander Tano.

General Skywalker's looking at the holo-map, and then suddenly plunges his lightsaber into a wall, cutting a circle through it.

"Everybody in," he says.

Echo, Fives and I push through the circle that General Skywalker cut through the wall, and we find ourselves in one of the old fortress tunnels.

Commander Tano goes off to check the tunnels.

"The tunnel's clear," she reports.

"Looks like Obi-Wan's distraction worked," General Skywalker says. "Things seem to be going as planned."

"Don't jinx it," I tell him.

"It's when things do not go as planned that concerns me," the captain dude says. "What then?"

I go over to Echo and Fives and stand around with them for a bit. There's still a slight tingling feeling in my arm from the electricity just now. I can still hear my heart pounding in my chest, I gotta calm down.

Echo seems to notice this, and he puts a hand on my shoulder. I flinch slightly, but relax after a moment. "Thanks," I tell him.

Then we put the piece of metal that we pushed through just now back into the wall and head off.

We walk along the narrow sides of the tunnel which overlook the lava, making sure to be careful not to fall in. General Skywalker goes to guard the flank while I walk in between Fives and Echo.

"So uh, what are yall gonna do when we get back?" I ask them, to break the silence a bit.

"I'm probably gonna go get a drink at the cantina," Fives says. "And maybe Echo would come along as well."

"Can I come?" I ask.

"Nah kid, you're too young to be drinking alcoholic stuff, you're not 18 yet," Echo says.

"Aw cmon," I protest. "Please???? I'm like 16 years old biologically, I can handle it."

"Sorry kid, can't go till you're 18," Fives says. "I heard you're working on writing that story of yours about our missions and stuff, maybe you could do that after the mission."

"But I wanna hangout with yall," I protest again.

Echo chuckles. "Maybe we could go to the arcade or something after we go to the cantina, how does that sound?"

My eyes light up. "I'll definitely have to carry yall in battle royale today, maybe we could play some hardpoint, but we can't play ranked cause I'm legendary rank and yall are like pro rank-"

"Yea kid, we get it, you're a lot more pro than us," Echo sounds slightly annoyed.

"What's wrong?" I nudge him playfully in the side. "Jealous?"

"...No..."

Fives and I laugh, clapping him on the back. "Don't worry, you'll get better in about 30 years."

Our laughter's cut short when I hear Rex say we hit a dead end.

Fives, Echo and I stay at the back to defend the flank, and I hear the faint sound of footsteps behind us. Fives turns around the corner, checking to see what's there, and almost gets headshotted by a droid.

Fives and I manage to get some shots on the droid, knocking it off the tunnel and into the lava, and General Skywalker slices the other 2 in half.

Then some commando droids jump in from the walls with shields, and start shooting at us again. I see Commander Tano put grenades to the wall and roll some at the commando droids as Fives and I try to blast them, and the grenades on both sides explode, clearing out the commando droids and causing a whole lotta dust. At least the dead end's not a dead end anymore, and we continue walking through the tunnel.

We reach the pipe.

"This pipe leads to the top of the ridge," General Skywalker says. "Where R2 will pick us up and get us out of here. There's the hatch."

He goes to open it, and the rest of us walk towards it.

"Let's go, everyone in," General Skywalker says. "Don't use your lights, and make sure your weapons are locked. The slightest electronic pulse could ignite this whole tube." Rex and the rest of us nod, checking that our weapons are locked and our lights are turned off. Echo and I are the last ones to climb into the pipe.

We climb up the ladder in the pipe, it's kinda dark in here, and it smells terrible. Smells worse than Fives's socks, and that's saying something. Commander Tano's flexing by climbing on the outside of the ladder, swinging herself up to the high ground.

"How much longer are we going to wander through this tunnel in the dark?" Captain Tarkin asks.

"Stop complaining," I say from the back. Tarkin and General Skywalker start discussing stuff I can't quite hear, until Commander Tano says, "I think I found a way out." She points at a hatch above us, and goes to check if the area's clear.

"What do you see, Snips?" General Skywalker asks.

"The coast is clear," she reports.

"Any sign of Obi-Wan and the shuttle?"

"No, I don't see him or R2 anywhere," Commander Tano says as she opens the hatch and starts to climb out, but stops. I can hear the sound of the droids from down here, but a severed metal hand falls into the pipe and I assume that she's taken care of things.

"We've gotta go," she shouts into the pipe, I can hear the sound of blaster fire now. We all start climbing up the pipe, hoping that no blaster bolts hit us in the head and kill us. We slide down the pipe and take cover behind a rock.

General Skywalker throws a charge into the pipe and we all take cover behind the rock, bracing ourselves for the explosion. The ground shakes, and a droid lands in front of us. We get up from our positions on the floor and General Skywalker says we're gonna do plan b: meet R2 at General Kenobi's position. We start walking over the droid and head off.

We reach their position in a short while where the blaster fight has already started. I shoot one of the droids manning a turret, and we run over to where General Kenobi and the others are, taking cover behind some containers.

"We gotta take out those turrets," I say to Fives and Echo. 

"I think we have a bigger problem," Echo says, as some droids on flying thingies fly over, shooting at us. One of the turrets shoot at our position, hitting the containers and sending some of us to the floor. I instantly get up, trying to clear my vision, holding my head with one hand and my pistol in the other.

The Jedi and taking care of the flying droids, there are some 4-legged ones advancing to where Fives and Echo are hiding, and I run over to them.

I really regret not stocking up on grenades before I came, because I only have one grenade left, and I through it at the 4-legged droid, where it explodes and kills it.

"How do we take out those turrets?! If we try anything, they'll blow up our ship," I shout.

And then a bunch of commando droids with shields come out, shooting at us. I hide behind the boxes, breathing heavily, the odds aren't good, we might not survive this, and I'm telling my brain to shut up right now because Fives just threw a grenade which knocks some of them back.

"General Skywalker, a droid is manning one of those turrets. They're going to blow up the shuttle, sir," Echo says into his comlink, and I check to see which turret it is, almost taking a blaster shot to the face. 

I see the turret shooting at the incoming General Skywalker and that other short dude that kinda looks like Yoda but with human skin tones, and they crash-land near the turret.

"This is our only chance, we've gotta stop him," Echo says, before running out and grabbing a shield, running towards the shuttle. Fives shoots from behind, keeping his distance from the turret. I see the turret firing at him, and I run to pull him away from the shuttle which the turret is going to fire at...

I see flames. I'm knocked backwards, I land on my back, I can't move, pieces of shrapnel are digging into my skin, I can feel myself burning, my gloves are on fire, and I can't do anything...

Where's Echo?

I can't see his body anywhere, only his helmet at the side. I see the Jedi running back to the shuttle, and I want to shout at them, to tell them that I'm still alive, but I can't.

And then Rex looks back at the explosion site and see me lying there, my vision gets blurry as he runs over and picks me up and carries me. His voice is muffled.

"You're gonna be okay ad'ika...you're gonna be okay..."

And everything fades into black.

[ice-6caydesqueen]

played on sula skirata first only fair as i usually play venus or laina

this update was 50/50 for me felt like it was more for the trooper smuggler and agent players but it was interesting

rass and lane were my highlights worried for shae though

but i really hope we get something from torian

[pirunika]

7.4 is uh interesting I’m 50/50 the few Mando bits are good but it feels like it’s for more trooper agent smuggler kind of deal

Kravos and the new Cathar lady annoy me so much though

Waiting to see if I get any torian mail

But ! You can flirt with lane twice so far ;)

I can’t cause I love torian but she’s so pretty

Shae is missing which is worrying

I’ll update you on other stuff if it’s important

honestly, we got some good mandalorian content so I can't complain........they deserve content too ;D