#massive space wren

[forwhump]

a/n; this one’s pretty fucked up :-; more rape & more murder but it’s a story about a sex slave & a weapon so that’s just kinda what you get ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my bad !

tw/cw: rape, noncon, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, murder, grievous bodily harm, misgendering, transphobia, psychological torture, urine, gore, bodily fluids

living weapon whumpee, multiple whumpers, revenge, military

There has not been a time, since his creation, that Silas has been above ground.

Everything that’s been done to him, everything that he’s done, it’s happened hundreds of feet below the ground in the concrete labyrinth of the district. Every surgery, every slaughter, every field test.

Even the fuckin’ field tests. The field tests are training exercises, combat training, but they don’t trust Silas above ground to participate in them. They’re probably right not to. They’re smarter, sometimes, than Silas will ever give them credit for.

Within the labyrinth there are these arenas, these massive, open spaces made up to look like a world Silas has never seen. There’s a number of them, made to look like different practical terrain; forests and deserts and small villages and mountains and cities. It would be impossible for Silas to fathom if he ever had the time or the means to sit and try and fathom it. He’d almost think he left the district were it not for the concrete sky, hundreds of feet above his head.

He didn’t always mind the field tests. It was a chance to stretch his legs. The enemy was always played by military recruits, young and green. Silas isn’t sure if they know what they’re getting into when they enter the arena, if they are briefed on exactly what Silas is, but none of them ever walk out again. Their grieving families will bury a flag and a handful of teeth on Silas’ most generous day.

Barbarity is encouraged. Bloodshed is lauded. It’s always a slaughter, but it’s expected of him. It’s always been a good way to blow off some steam, even if he never walks away unscathed. He gets to use his hands.

But the rules had changed since they’d taken Wren from him.

The rules have been the same for every field test so far — kill or be killed. The recruits get weapons and machinery and supplies and dogs; Silas doesn’t even get a shirt. He gets a pair of prison grey joggers and his own two hands. Kill or be killed.

They didn’t tell him they’d added civilians.

He doesn’t realize that anything’s wrong for an entire three days. He soldiers through the rainforest arena and kills recruits with tooth and talon. When the lights get shut down for the third night, nighttime in the wilderness, Silas has become that thing the field tests always stoke to life in him; Silas isn’t human anymore. It slides under his skin, that feral, rabid thing, and it rips limbs from screaming bodies, it peels skin back with his teeth. When the lights get shut down for the third night, Silas’ hair is glued to his back and his throat with the thick layer of blood that crusts his skin. None of it is his own. Not a single recruit had gotten a single shot in yet. It was going exceptionally well. Silas should have been suspicious.

He should’ve fuckin’ known. He should’ve done better. He should’ve been faster. When he finally sees Wren again, his Wren, bathed in the flickering firelight of the enemy camp, all the human parts of him are reignited with a screaming rage and a sort of guilt that makes Silas feel heavy. He should’ve known something was wrong. He should’ve been here three days ago.

The surviving soldiers are set up around the fire, cocky and comfortable. Wren’s in the dirt at their feet.

Fuck, Silas had missed him. Silas had missed him in a big, impossible way, and he can’t even be happy to see him because Silas wishes more than anything that Wren was not here. Wren would be safer almost anywhere but here.

He’s dressed like a child and his hair is down, grimy and matted, pooling in the dirt around him. He’s face down, limp, and Silas has to blink red mist from his vision. Before he’s close enough to stop it, one of the soldiers stands, pulls his belt, and pisses in Wren’s hair.

Wren doesn’t move or moan or otherwise react in any way. He’s still limp — he’s so still, actually, almost unnaturally still, and Silas is — he can’t be too late, Wren can’t be —

Another soldier stands, some blond puke, and he turns Wren onto his side with his foot before he boots him in the stomach.

Weakly, Wren groans. Weakly, softly, but he groans. He isn’t dead.

Silas is gonna cause a fuckin’ bloodbath.

“Stop passing out on us,” the blond groans. “You got a long night ahead of you, girl.”

Wren doesn’t make another sound and the recruit kicks him again, so hard he’s forced onto his back. He groans softly.

A soldier with a shock of red hair spits in the dirt next to him as he stands. “I know how to wake her up.” His grin glints in the firelight and the blond laughs. He spits again as he takes a handful of Wren’s hair, coiling it around his fist, hauling him across the dirt and a safe distance away from the bonfire. He whistles back over his shoulder at the other recruits, watching him with varying degrees of obvious humour. “C’mere. Hold her open for me. Hold her down when she starts fighting and I’ll let you have a turn when I’m done.”

No.

How can this keep happening? How can this be somebody’s life?

There’s something casual, something genuinely amused in the way the recruits laugh between themselves as they splay their hands over Wren’s skin, as they hold his limp body into the dirt and he whimpers. The redhead tugs his belt free before he kneels between Wren’s legs, shoving the frilly hem of his little dress up and around his ribcage. He settles over him, his knuckles white against the purpling bruise of Wren’s skin. His answering groan is loud and low and satisfied.

Silas can hear when Wren regains consciousness because of how horribly and primally he screams.

All of the recruits laugh, but it’s the blond that coos, pleased, “there she is.”

When Silas breaks the tree line it’s his shadow that gives him away. One of the soldiers, holding one of Wren’s thighs, looks up, distracted, and the double take he does would be comical if Silas weren’t out for blood. He jumps to his feet, fumbles for his gun, green and unprepared. He cries, “what the fuck is that?”

Silas grins, but it isn’t nice.

The rest of the recruits look up in militant unison but react quickly with varying degrees of unrestrained horror. Almost every one of them scrambles to their feet and for their weapons. Except, of course, the redheaded puke knelt between Wren’s thighs. He stills, a picture of cruelty.

Silas cracks his knuckles.

Wren’s head lolls against the dirt and he finds Silas through the idiot cavalry. This’ll be easy; the recruits are always just as evil as the soldiers — a requirement of them, apparently — but they aren’t nearly as dangerous. They aren’t trained, polished, quick in the way the soldiers are, they aren’t used to Silas the same. This will be embarrassing for them.

Wren looks up at Silas with huge, wet eyes and the way the relief crests across his face would probably make Silas cry if he were capable of it.

“What the hell is that thing?” The recruits are shouting. “Who are you? Back up! Back the fuck up!”

Silas barely hears them. To Wren, he says, “I’m sorry I’m late.”

Wren tips his head back as he sobs.

The redhead looks down at him quickly as he hisses, “what the fuck is that?”

He folds an arm over his face and his chest hitches as he cries into the grime.

The recruit tries to grab him, to pry his arm from his face, hisses something else like “look at me when I’m talking to you. What the fuck is going on?”, but Silas is across the camp in a second and he takes his ginger head in both hands. The recruit flails, pulls away from Wren, and as soon as he does Silas turns, trying to shield his Wren from the splatter with his bulk. He crushes the redhead’s skull between his hands.

The noise it makes is like a crack of lightning.

The sort of silence that’s close behind unrecoverable trauma settles over the camp and Silas grins so widely something clicks in his jaw. He’s merciful — the recruits won’t have to live with this for long.

“What are you?” The blond asks, and his voice is thin.

Silas cracks his neck. “Does it matter?”

A different recruit swallows so thickly that Silas can hear it. But he’s trying to be brave, so he says, “back up, freak.”

Silas does not, in fact, back up. The blond is standing close and he doesn’t react quick enough when Silas grabs him by the collar — he panics, flailing as Silas lifts him clean off the ground. It kind of wakes up the recruits, who lift guns and take aim, but what’s the worst they can do to him? Really?

It’s one of the worst things about these men, about this place. It’s one of the reasons Silas hates them so viscerally it’s become interwoven into his DNA. Silas, in a way, gets off easy — Silas just gets shot, and he can take a fuckin’ bullet. It’s the least he can do. Wren isn’t so lucky. They aren’t afraid of Wren. He’s small and he can’t fight back the way Silas can. What’s the worst thing they can do to a fuckin’ machine? They’ll shut him down, and he’ll begin again. Wren is vulnerable.

He pries a handgun from the blond’s flailing grip hands and forces the barrel down the back of his throat. He grabs at Silas’ wrist, frantic, and Silas grins at him as he pulls the trigger.

He bursts into blood and viscera and the other recruits explode into shouting and panic. “Get back!” The brave one shouts, and he makes the grievous mistake of getting too close. Not within reaching distance, but still too close. “Get the fuck back!”

“What are you gonna do?” Silas asks, raising his eyebrows. “Shoot me?” The recruit lifts his gun, a threat, and Silas grins at him. “Tell you what. Let me do you one better,” and he points the gun down, firing a round into his own foot. It crackles with a pain that the simmering rage quickly dissolves.

The soldier gapes, hesitating, and he only hesitates for half a moment but it’s a full moment too long. Silas raises the gun again. “Now it’s your turn,” he says, and unloads three rounds between his eyes.

He drops to the dirt and another recruit steps over him quickly, into Silas’ personal space.

Silas doesn’t take kindly to that.

He takes him by the jaw and wrenches his mouth open. As he tries to scream around Silas’ hands, Silas hooks his fingers behind each row of his teeth and rips his face in half through the middle. His throat is still working as Silas pushes his body out of the way with the side of his foot.

“What the fuck?” A recruit cries, standing too close, splattered with blood that isn’t his own. Silas reaches out to him with his free hand and tears out his windpipe with bloody fingers. As he chokes, Silas breaks his nose back into his brain with the base of his gun. His eyes are rolled back into his head when he dies.

There are four surviving recruits, and they try to scatter. Silas lets them try, because he enjoys the panic, but he doesn’t let them get very far. Eight rounds, one for each knee. There are cries of pain and noises of impact and Silas laughs loudly.

He weaves his way across the camp slowly, tauntingly, and he kills them one at a time. He crushes both hands and the throat of the first recruit; he removes both hands and the throat from the second. The third is decapitated, and not quickly or cleanly; Silas removes his head with force, and the way his skin splits is like wet paper.

The last recruit had pissed in Wren’s hair.

Silas approaches him with the unhurried stalk of a predator. The recruit trembles, trying to scramble away from Silas, but he’d been shot in both knees and he’d fallen hard, the bones of his calf poking out from his flesh in opposite directions.

“That’s gotta hurt,” Silas says.

“Please,” he’s begging, and his voice is trembling, “please, please, don’t — don’t —“

Silas brings his foot down on his fractured leg as hard as he can. Puts all of his brawn and bulk into it.

The recruit tips his head back against the dirt and screams at the concrete sky.

Silas lets him scream. Who gives a fuck? He crouches next to him and takes his left arm by the elbow. The soldier screams again, tries to pull out of his grip, and Silas rips his arm out from the socket of his shoulder.

He shrieks at a pitch that Silas finds kind of irritating and he reaches across the recruit to grab his other arm and pull him over onto his stomach, face down in the dirt. He breaks his right arm off at the elbow.

He screams again and he’s screaming still when Silas stands to toe him back onto his back. As the recruit screams, Silas shoves down the waistband of his joggers, pulls out his dick, and pisses in his mouth. It’s only fair.

He flails with what’s left of his right arm and chokes in panic. It makes Silas grin. When he snaps his waistband back into place the recruit stares up at him with a look that Silas has come to recognize as resigned hatred. It never gets old. Weak and wet, he drawls, “they told us we didn’t have to worry about her dog.”

Silas raises his eyebrows. “They lied.”

The recruit chokes out a sound that would probably be a laugh if all the blood in his body weren’t seeping into the earth beneath him. “C’mon, man,” he tries. “Don’t — don’t. Please. Come on.”

Silas lifts the gun.

The recruit inhales quickly. “Please. Come on. Please.”

“Eat shit,” Silas tells him sincerely, and he empties the gun into his face.

[lemon-russ]

More smutless (for now) Leman Russ fic. Whats important is that I'm having fun and subjecting you all to it lol.

(Thanks @squishyowl for the dividers. Idk if getting tagged every fic bothers you, lmk :,) )

Wolf Mother (Ch. 2)

<Prev. | Next>

Ao3

Leman Russ x Fem OC

CW (not necessarily this chapter but overall): Trauma, anxiety, PTSD, General WH40k violence, Sex, probably breeding kink stuff eventually, if there's something I miss and you want labeled let me know!!

Summary: Wren and Guilliman arrive at The Fang and meet The Wolf King.

Word count: 1,637

Wren Vaille walks down the corridors of the Macragge's Honour to the door of Guilliman's office. He smiles a greeting to her when she opens the door, and walks beisdes her down the hall.

“Thank you for giving this a chance, Captain.” He says with a smile.

She gives a small smile back, walking around him so he walked on her right side where she could see him. “Of course, sir. It would not be very honorable of me to not even attempt to help you.”

Guilliman raises a brow, then glances at her blinded left eye, scar running through it, and has a small look of understanding, moving aside to give her room. “Still it is a huge favor. But I wouldn't send you somewhere you're in danger. My brother may be rowdy, but I think he will like you.” He smiles at her. “You have the same indomitable spirit.”

She scrunches her brows together. “Uh-huh. Sometimes I fear you have a very inflated idea of me, my Lord.” She says with a small chuckle.

Guilliman chuckles back. “I think you have a very under-inflated view of yourself, Captain. You'll handle the space wolves well, I think.” He says with a pat on her shoulder.

She stumbles a little under the sudden weight of his ceramite gauntlet, bionic leg whirring a groaning noise as she tripped and caught herself before falling.”um- thank you, sir, I suppose.”

They reach the bay doors to the hangar, peppered with blue armored forms and uniforms scurrying around gunning ships and thunderhawks.

A thunderhawk near them was being loaded with what few material possesions she had, a few boxes and a large bag. She swallows hard, her mouth dry.

Guilliman waved to a serf, who brought over a folded coat. “Here, I had this brought for you.” He says, holding up a warm looking, fur lined coat in ultramarine blue. “Fenris is bitterly cold, especially for baseline humans. I worried you wouldn't have sufficent layers.” He smiles.

“Oh, thank you my Lord.” She says, taking the warm, insulated coat. She swallows back some emotion. This may be the last Ultramarine thing she'll own. The rest of her uniform would be packed away with her old Auxillia fatigues.

She gives him a tight smile, trying to not get sentimental. “I really appreciate this, it was very thoughtful.” She says as she pulls on the thick coat.

He smiles and pats her shoulder again. “It's ok to feel emotional, Captain. It is the human thing to feel sad at goodbyes.” He says in a softer tone.

She bites her lower lip. “This is probably only temporary, anyways, my Lord.” She says, walking with him toward the thunderhawk. “I doubt I'll be able to actually keep up with space wolves.” She says with a forced smile.

He smiles and offers her a hand to help her up the ramp of the ship. “Of course, Captain Vaille. It's hardly permanent.”

He helps her settle and buckle in, then tells the pilot to head off.

“I'll see you off to my Brother. It's been too long since I visited, anyway.” The primarch says, sitting next to her as much as the small seats allow.

The ride to the surface of Fenris is short enough, and soon they are landing on the landing bays of The Fang, the massive mountain fortress that serves as the seat of the Space Wolves.

An icy blast has Wren clutching her new coat tight around her shoulders and shivering as the doors to the ship open. Guilliman chuckles, patting her back.

“That's why I got you a coat. Come, Leman should be around and he is terrible at sitting still, so we should be quick so he doesn't run off on us.” He says as he helps her down the ramp.

Her bionic leg, junky as ever, immediately tries to seize as the cold air plays havoc on the metal gears and hydraulic pistons. She gives it a couple whacks with the side of her fist and hobbles off after Guilliman.

They enter the Valgard, the uppermost structure of the fortress and the only place with ship bays. The rest of the fortress is in underground tunnels through the mountain. Thankfully the interior of the mountain is a bit more hospitable.

They walk through corridors of metal, wood and cave tunnels, with busy lifts moving Space Wolves and serfs around. Guilliman leads her through a massive, ornate room of pure granite, down a concerning lift, and through more halls until he stops at a door and knocks.

“Skítja, Who knocks in the Aett?” Someone curses in a rough voice, stomping to the door and flinging it open.

“What- Oh!” The Primarch goes from annoyance to joy in a flash. “Ah, Roboute, I was wondering who would be so formal, I forgot you were coming today.” He laughs.

Leman Russ is a couple feet taller than his brother, and grins down at him with a fanged smile. “Come, come- I was just rehashing defense nonsense.” He says, waving Guilliman in to the defense overlook. Wren, seemingly forgotten, scurries after their long strides into a smaller room of cluttered papers, books, scrolls, and maps laying across a table.

Russ flops onto a large wooden high back chair, leg over the arm, grinning and motioning for Guilliman to sit in a similar one. “So, you sent word of some sort of paperwork thrall?” He asks.

Guilliman chuckled under his breath as he sat, and Wren awkwardly stood beside his chair. They call Serfs thralls? That isn’t very reassuring, she thought to herself.

“Not quite, but yes. This is my assistant, Wren Vaille.” Guilliman introduces, and she gives a polite salute. “I want to offer her to you to do what she does for me- Paperwork, scheduling, some logistics, communicating on my behalf with other Primarchs…” he says, patting her back. “Clerical type work that you seem to need.” He adds, eyeing the piles of strewn papers with a tight frown.

Leman looks at her for the first time, eyeing her up and down, then quirks his head to the side in a way that can only be compared to a curious dog. “Where’d the other half of you go, girl?” He asks curiously.

Guilliman’s eyes go wide, “Leman, have some tackt-” he snaps softly, but Wren chuckles a bit. No one every even acknowledges her differences, let alone so boldly. It is always your condition and because of, well, you know.

"Long gone, I’m afraid.” She says with a small smile. “But I assure you I can work just fine with one eye and a bionic leg.”

Guilliman looks embarrassed, but Leman grins his sharp toothed smile at her. “Hah, well I’ll get a story out of you yet girl. No one loses and eye and a leg and walks away without a tale to tell.”

He hops up from his chair and walks over to her, standing close enough it forces her to crane her neck up. He looks her over, walking in circles around her and making her purse her lips nervously at the inspection.

“Any more of you missing?” He asks, bending down to look at her closer.

She raises her brow. “Uh- a kidney? On the left side, but otherwise no just the eye and leg…” she replies, stepping back a step as he gets close to her face.

He hmphs, then sniffs her, making her blush a bit.

Guilliman sighs. “Leman, she’s only here on a trial, please pretend to be civil for 5 minutes…?” He says, gently pulling Wren back toward himself by her shoulders.

Russ huffed through his nose. “What? I can’t smell her? You can tell a lot by someone’s smell.” He grumbled. “My sons will sniff her too, she may as well get used to it…”

Guilliman and Wren made a mirrored uncomfortable look, and Russ rolled his eyes. ”Fine fine. Tell me, thrall, can you fight still?” He asks, quirking his head to the side again.

Guilliman frowns. “She is here to help you file paperwork and make meetings, Leman.” He says sternly.

Russ frowns, furrowing his brow. “Well she obviously fought at some point- it is important to me that this secretary thing can follow me in dangerous places.”

Wren purses her lips. “I can fight, if needed. Not so well with shooting anymore, what with the eye, but, I can defend myself with melee and I can flee.” She says nervously.

He seems satisfied with that, smiling and giving a nod. “Good. We will get you back up in proper fighting shape so you do not get killed the second something looks at you.”

Guilliman sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Remember, this is a trial, Leman. If you scare her off I’ll take her home.”

Russ scoffs, “If she is scared off, she would make a poor assistant to me.” He grins and claps her on the shoulder, making her leg whine mechanically as she stumbled a little from it. “You look sturdy, though, even for a female so small. Humans do not get that amount of scars from twiddling their thumbs.” He turns on his heel, heading for the door. “Come, paper-thrall, I have duties to attend.”

Guilliman lets out a tired sigh, then pats her back gently. “Thank you again, Wren. I’m always a messenger away, if anything happens and you want to return early, you need only ask.” He says gently. She smiles nervously, giving him a nod, before Leman calls again.

“Thrall! Come! I shall not wait for your tiny legs!”

She stiffens and scrambles out the door.

[incongruence-osaf]

EXCITING NEWS, SECRETS SHARED

Hello!! It is time for me to officially post the first two chapters of my first ever multi-chapter fanfiction story, The Incongruence of Stars and Flowers!!!

So far the word count has reached over 8,000 words, roughly 21 pages at 1.15 spacing (including the current WIP of Chapter Three). This was a huge challenge for me that I am so glad to have started. I'd been keeping this (mostly) a secret for many months during a collaborative creative process.

It started when I saw an application for Sonic Big Bang 2024 zine on Tumblr. Around 300 participants of fellow writers, artists and readers were sorted into secret groups of 2-4ish for developing writing and artwork surrounding story submissions! I had the pleasure of being paired with wonderful artists who made beautiful sketches, concept art, and illustrations based on my writing, linked here: @major-wren (ART) (ART) and @pastelspindash (ART)

Go check out their awesome art (and writing) as well as all the other amazing creatives featured in the zine on the official blog page @sthbigbang! My awesome and very helpful beta readers were/are @starredfishing (Tumblr) and @zaffretension (Instagram) who gave me excellent advice about dialogue, pacing, and plot. THANK YOU!!!

And also a big THANK YOU to the moderators of this expansive event for keeping it running so smoothly, for organizing everything, and for encouraging all of us in one of the most supportive and energizing creative environments I've ever been apart of!!! I have talked to many cool and talented people and I love the community that we have all been growing as a massive group.

I am excited to continue the adventure of learning, reading, and writing to see where this adventure goes with familiar characters. If you are too, I hope you enjoy <3

Without further ado, below is the summary for The Incongruence of Stars and Flowers.

This alternate universe combines the vibrant world and history of Sonic the Hedgehog with our very own, resulting in a version of Planet Mobius that’s both familiar and distant. Yet, this altered reality is neither idealized nor greater than the sum of its parts. 

Anthropomorphic beings, humans, and animals of Mobius are struggling to rebuild their cityscapes, ecosystems, communities, and personal lives in the wake of the cumulative devastation of the Perfect Chaos Flood and the Black Arms Invasion. Shadow the Hedgehog takes a leave of absence from G.U.N. to temporarily settle down in Station Square, laying low after the world-shattering encounter with his alien DNA donor Black Doom. While the cityfolk around him undergo the growing pains of instability, nonconformity, sociological upheaval, and corruption, so too does the alien hybrid. With the support of unyielding friendship in aloof activist Sonic the Hedgehog and cultured confidante Rouge the Bat, Shadow coasts in this new life chapter while feeling profound pulls to unravel memories surrounding his loving creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik and solve mysteries within his environment, mind, and body.

Past and present perspectives interweave to show slices of unordinary lives, drawing from early-to-mid 2000s culture shifts/natural disasters/political tensions, U.S. and European history, and various fields of science as inspiration for this multi-chapter science-fiction drama mystery.

PROMINENT CHARACTERS: 

Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Professor Gerald Robotnik, Maria Robotnik, Black Doom(?), Commander Abraham Tower, Helen (from Sonic X)?, and new original character(s)

Body dysmorphia and dysphoria, racism/speciesism, internalized xenophobia, mentions and possible depictions of police violence, generational trauma, trauma and imagery from medicalized settings, processing grief

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

CHAPTER ONE HERE

[jessepinwheel]

it's been a long time since I've said anything about parasitic extraction on this blog and I've gotten a lot of followers since and I am currently being haunted by how much I want it to be real and the preposterous amount of work it would take to make it real so I'm gonna talk about it again

parasitic extraction is a role reversal star wars au (reversing the clones and obi-wan) taking place in an alternate universe mandalorian empire (a different one than most mandalorian empire aus take place in).

basically: three hundred years ago, mandalorians were like "hey the jedi are the only things stopping us from taking over the galaxy" so they attacked coruscant and obliterated the jedi temple, then killed or assimilated the survivors, then carved bloody conquest across the rest of the galaxy

now: jango is emperor, with his clone sons cody and rex (older twins) and boba (younger). the mandalorian empire conscripts jedi within the empire to be trained as superior warriors within their military, while the remnants of the old jedi order are in hiding and working to protect young force sensitives from being taken by the empire as well as working with rebellion forces.

jango hates the jedi to a frankly unhealthy degree and so he has a plan to destroy them all: he decides to make 2000 clones of the only jedi they've ever captured alive (obi-wan) in order to create an elite force of psychic agents who can help capture and subdue the jedi and force them to give up the location of their home planet so that he can send a giant space laser over there and wipe them out of existence

these obi-clones are distributed as special agents all across the galaxy--jango has his own personal obi-clone, cody gets one, rex gets one, satine (with bo-katan and friends) get one, pre visla gets one, ursa wren (with padme and ahsoka) get one, etc. but what jango doesn't know is that all these obi-clones have a sort of psychic hive mind thing going on and they are all plotting to take down the mandalorian empire so they can save obi-wan and the jedi

there's a lot more going on (like plots from death watch who want jango dead yesterday and every single mandalorian character's Massive Issues including how Intensely Abnormal jango is about obi-wan in particular) but that's the overall gist of the story

anyways, ask me questions about parasitic extraction I wanna talk about it more

[pridepages]

Something Gently Healing

I had a plan for November books that I have suddenly had to hard pivot away from due to recent events.

If you're curious, I'll tell you more about it under the cut.

Here's the part that matters: we are all about cozy books, healing love stories, and fun in this space through the end of December. I will come back to some of the heavier stories to do them justice later in 2025.

Stay safe, stay strong, keep sharing our stories 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

So after a long break due to professional demands (I have written so much for such unworthy audiences it makes me want to lose my mind), I had a whole plan for November.

The theme was supposed to be: "Dark Deeds, Dark Reads."

Think mysteries, political thrillers, psychological horror, etc. I had three novels prepared to post about.

And then November 5, 2024 happened.

In case you missed it (or are reading it in the distant future, in which case: if you can reply and give us some hope, please do), hatred, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and toxic patriarchy had a massive political victory in the United States. As someone who lives in a deep red state, I am struggling profoundly not just with the broad brushstrokes of who won, but with how they won and what the data trends are saying. In sum: my countrymen have unmasked, and most of them hold deep evil in their hearts in the form of greed, cruelty, selfishness, vengefulness, or apathy.

I wish I had the strength to give a message of hope, but I'm struggling just to feel anything at the moment.

And that's where this blog comes in.

I started this blog a couple of years ago as a place to talk about what I was legally forbidden to say. As an English teacher, "Don't Say Gay" gagged me and ground me down like a boot between my shoulders pushing my mouth into the dirt.

I needed a place to hold up the mirrors and open the windows to everything bright and beautiful about the queer experience: loving others and loving ourselves.

For a brief moment, things started to get better in the real world. There was a shining, shimmering mirage of hope.

But that's the thing about mirages. Get too close, and they vanish.

So now I need to kindle the spark of rainbow joy in my heart. It's 'banked, but not doused,' and I need to coax it into a bright strong flame.

So I'll be putting aside the books I had planned to write about for "Dark Deeds, Dark Reads" November. Instead, I will be making the hard shift to the gentle, soft love stories I had planned for December.

Please do not think this is because I don't take what is happening in the world seriously. I do. All too much. That's why I need this. And I want to share it with anyone who needs a little sweetness to cut the bitterness, too.

For the curious, these are the "Dark Deeds, Dark Reads" that I will be returning to at some point in 2025:

Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie Mclemore

Earthflown by Frances Wren

Rough Pages by Lev AC Rosen

For now, I wish you strength and safety where you can find it. Remember, we will still be here tomorrow.

XO

EJ

[inourselveswetrust]

How would the ROs celebrate Valentine's Day with MC?

Happy Valentine's, Author! ❤️

Happy Valentine's Day! Today's a great day to say I love all of you wonderful people ❤️

August is boring a wine and dine type of Valentine's date, especially if your relationship is somewhat new. They'll want the entire town to know they're the one you're spending Valentine's Day with. They'll take you to your favourite restaurant, and chances are it's a sentimental choice because they, at one time, ate there with you as friends. The cooks always thought you guys were going to get together. They'll give you a necklace or bracelet, and they definitely want you to wear it all the time.

Blair would make you breakfast in bed, and wake you with a kiss. They're such a romantic simp, so expect a massive flower bouquet too. They're a bit traditional, so they'll take you out for dinner that night to a nice restaurant too. Afterwards, they'll suggest taking their dog, Seger, for a leisurely walk and they'll insist on holding your hand. Also, fun fact, Blair gets Seger a Valentine's Day gift too 🥺

Wren will take you on an unhinged, semi-unplanned date. They'll set up a picnic with your favourite foods, and it'll most definitely end with them very loudly proclaiming their love in an over-the-top Shakespearean-like monologue in a public space, totally interrupting other couples' dates. Something like "Oh, my dearest of loves, for never was a story of such true love like ours. You hold my beating heart in the palm of your hand." They'll do this even if you've only been together for two weeks 💀

Neve would cook your favourite meal, and they'd plan to spend the night cuddling on the sofa and watching movies. They're completely fine with you picking all of the movies, they just want to spend time with you. They'll be prepared with the best snacks too, like popcorn and chocolate.

[akiwitch]

Secret Santa Gift!

This is for the @writeblrcafe secret santa event! I hope everyone likes it, I had a lot of fun with it.

Keeper

Summary: Wren is the keeper of the Dragon's Nest Bay light, and one calm night she heeds the call of the alarms to a very different visitor.

Word Count: 1352

The sea chimes woke Wren up from a lovely dream in the dead of night.

She pulled herself out of bed, nearly hitting her head on the rafters that sloped over her bedroom, panic driving her forward. She activated the lights in her room with a tendril of magic and grabbed her robe, throwing it over her shoulders. She yanked her hair into a messy bun and shoved her feet into her boots.

The sea chime rang clear and loud over the water.

She glanced out the window and frowned. The sea was calm and flat, the heavily round moon glittering on the surface. 

Still, the chimes ringing meant she had a duty. She grabbed her goggles and stepped into the lighthouse.

Wren took the stairs two at a time, hanging onto the railing. It was a long way up, but she was three months into her internship and only a little out of breath when she reached the top.

The top of the lighthouse was carved to resemble a massive, curled sea shell, the light nestled within it like a pearl. It glowed softly, having absorbed sunlight for several days without needing to be activated. Wren put on her goggles, making sure that there were no spots the light could leak in before she stepped beneath it.

The sphere rotated slowly above her, bigger than she was tall, and she was not a short person. She placed her hand on the bottom.

The swirling design of her magic blazed across the surface, blue and green before blazing into the same silver light as the moon. Lines of magic raced from its surface, filling in the entrance to the cove with a net made of thick strands of light.

A small village sat near the lighthouse, sprung up due to the safety it provided.

But the lighthouse was only there to keep monsters out for their own safety.

The cove was too small for a kraken or a sea serpent. If they swam in at high tide they would quickly be trapped, hurting themselves in the process.

So the lighthouse had been erected at the top of rocks at the cove’s entrance. The magic was too much of a strain to keep up permanently, so it was only erected when something large enough entered the bay, usually during a storm.

It wasn’t completely unheard of for something to want to rest in the shallow and calm waters of Dragon’s Nest Bay during a clear night, or for one of the massive bottom feeders that swam down the coast to become curious about the cove on its journey.

Better safe than sorry.

The magic would last for a few hours, but she needed to keep watch, to be safe and offer any aid. She’d already helped a young lost kraken and bandaged up a siren brought to her by a massive turtle.

Besides, the Sea Witch might not care if the town was destroyed, but she needed to get snacks and tea from somewhere, and sometimes she was even brave enough to hazard a conversation with the woman who ran the gift shop, even as she reminded herself that her time there was limited.

She could sit in the chair she’d placed up there in her second week, maybe get her kettle and a tin of cookies out of the cupboard that shared space with the one in the kitchen. It would be a long and probably boring wait.

But for the moment she leaned against the railing. It was cold, with the damp wind coming off of the ocean. Even this far up in the worst storms she sometimes got hit by spray, but it was completely calm, not a cloud in the sky, just a myriad of stars embracing a full moon. She breathed in the salt of the air and watched the silver light of her magic and the moon play on the calm, flat water.

A ripple cracked the moon’s reflection.

Wren gripped the railing, leaning out as far as she dared. 

Something moved through the bay, straight for her. Fast, like an arrow fired under the water. She could just see something glowing beneath the surface, heading straight for the cove. She glanced at the net, it looked strong and uniform, and the light glowed brightly like a secondary moon.

She braced herself for an impact, ready to push back against whatever was so determined to come into the cove.

It swam directly to the base of the rocks and crashed through the surface, sending a wave that hit her, clear up at the top of the lighthouse, soaking her straight through even with her robe.

She shoved her sopping hair out of her face and saw a dragon.

It was a sea dragon, glowing a pale green, body smooth and glistening like a whale. Its head was slightly domed like a beluga, its fin-like wings spread out on either side of it. It clung to the rock face so its face was even with hers, turning its head to regard her with one shining blue eye.

‘Wren Ackerly?’

Wren winced back, the voice was loud, and layered with the dragon’s true language underneath it, making the words confusing to her ear. “Yes?”

‘I am Ceta, a messenger of The Sea Witch, and I come bearing fantastic news!’

Wren dropped into a bow, her wet robe pooling around her. “I am ready to receive it.”

It wasn’t a holiday, as far as she remembered. Just a normal night before the sea chimes started. Now she knew exactly what had set them off. 

Still, there were rules and propriety when it came to greeting a messenger of the great Sea Witch, and any dragon demanded a certain amount of decorum, though she was still dripping wet, shivering, and in her nightgown and robe.

‘She has declared that you, Wren Ackerly, are now a full sea witch in your own right!’ The dragon proclaimed. Magic formed fireworks around her, dazzling and bright blue, glittering all around the lighthouse.

Wren was confused, but didn’t voice it out loud. She hadn’t completed her internship, she hadn’t even started on her thesis, let alone her master project. Maybe it had been a mistake.

‘Congratulations, as the new Keeper of the Dragon’s Nest Cove Light!’

“Wait, what?” Wren lost all sense of politeness. “I’m…assigned here? For how long?”

‘For as long as the Sea Witch sees fit! You have performed the duty excellently, and the Sea Witch has assigned you as the permanent Keeper! Congratulations again, Wren Ackerly, on your status as a full witch. Here is your familiar!’

A bundle of wet seaweed fell onto the roof next to her.

‘Farewell, Wren Ackerly, until we meet again!’

“Hey, wait a second.” Wren started forward. “This is an internship, unpaid even, I can’t just stay here, what about-”

But the dragon launched itself off of the rocks and back into the bay, showering her with salty water once again. She stood, frozen, for a moment, trying to process everything.

The bundle of seaweed moved.

For the second time that night she shoved her hair out of her eyes.

A little face stared up at her. It wasn’t a bundle of seaweed at all, but a very large leaf sheep, magical enough to live above the waves. It crawled up her leg and latched onto her arm, nuzzling against her shoulder, the green tendrils on its back shaking.

“I didn’t agree to this.” She pointed at it. 

It didn’t seem to care, a soft purring noise vibrating its tiny body.

She sighed. Since the dragon had set off the sea chimes, she could go back to bed. Maybe in the morning she would discover this was all a strange dream.

More likely, she’d have to come to terms with being the keeper for a very, very long time.

She thought about the gift shop owner and sighed. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“C’mon, Wooly,” she said, naming her familiar the first thing she could think of. “Let me show you around the tower.”

[dutyworn]

                                          @alootus    /    cont. from ↷

Not one to make massive social blunders often, it’s  fairly clear  her casual humour is not... well-received. To be fair to Padmé, it’s a tired, niche joke someone who doesn’t know her history couldn’t understand.

❝ Sorry, ❞    Wren says, with a full body sigh,    ❝ you’re not wrong. I feel like I haven’t slept in years. ❞    Her situation would be hysterical if it weren’t so desperate. She doesn’t know where she is, and she has an inkling this is rapidly becoming clear for her host as well. Wren doesn’t even know how she’s supposed to address someone who calls her my lady. Shit, what is this, medieval space colonies? What the fuck are her duties, when she doesn’t even know if she’s in her own galaxy, anymore? Certainly not any part of it Citadel Space has mapped.

❝ I’ll take you up on that tea. ❞    She wants coffee, or a beer, but. Neither really promote good sleep, nor is she going to nitpick what’s offered to her.    ❝ Should I... sorry, should I address you some specific way? I’m really... very. Not from around here. I’m not trying to be... ❞    She is so out of her comfort zone. She tries to embody something friendlier than her exhausted sarcasm; she manages a wan smile.    ❝ I’m really very  far from home.  I’ll get out of your hair as soon as... ❞    She has no idea, to be honest.

[amethystaurawriting]

The Best Books for Dystopia Lovers Coming in 2024

Are you a science fiction and dystopia fan looking for your newest read? Well, the new year is approaching, and it promises a stack load of books for your library!

As another year comes to an end and we move into 2024, our obsession with dystopian universes and stories is still very prevalent. The whole world is still reeling in the aftermath of our own apocalyptic pandemic, and yet, the genre of dystopian fiction is still massive and making waves in the reading world, impacting young and old alike.

So, here are the top 5 dystopian fiction books coming out in 2024 that you should definitely read!

Iron Crow by Kim Petersen

In a post-apocalyptic Seattle, the city has split into two factions, the ruling class of Crows who flourish in the Space Needle, now known as the Nest, and the Hydrans who exist on the city floor, diving to scavenge Lake Union for scrap metal to survive. Amongst the wreckage of old ships and structures sitting underneath the water, the protagonist of this novel, Rayna, dives to make money for her share of food.

She leads the same life as every other Hydran, until she sees something she’s not meant to in the Crows Nest, and suddenly secrets are revealed that have profound consequences.

For everyone…

Release Date: 9 January 2024

Perfect for fans of series like the Hunger Games and Divergent. And for those who love to binge read their book series, fear not, as the sequel will be right around the corner a month later!

Earthflown by Frances Wren

With England’s water supply controlled by a massive pharmaceutical company, this novel brings together three quite different people with lives containing different fates and different dreams, but as Ethan saves the life of Corinna Arden, the heiress of the company controlling England’s water, he ties himself further with her twin brother.

Javier Arden has been sending him flowers at work, and he’s a beautiful man, so what if he’s been stalking Ethan? A little harmless romance wouldn’t hurt him, unless his roommate Oliver has something to say about the rich guy on his couch.

Until he finds himself caught up in a murder conspiracy and a dangerous plot for a lucrative reconstruction tender that will change England’s landscape and control of the water supply forever.

Release Date: March 2024

This is one for the graphic novel lovers, fully illustrated and beautifully designed to bring you the best reading experience in SFF this year.

Scorpio by Marko Kloos

From the author of the bestselling Frontlines and Palladium Wars series comes a new novel, depicting the story of a woman working as a dog handler amidst an alien invasion. In one of the few human colonies left, buried underground in a shelter that only survives with the toil and effort of the dregs of humanity to keep it standing.

The entire human species hides from the Lankies, the monstrous species that chose to invade Earth, and after a salvage mission goes wrong for Alex Archer and her band of last humans, whatever was hiding their existence stops working, and Alex is plunged into a new battle for survival as the Lankies come to kill her off.

With the help of her black shepherd dog, Ash, trained to sense threats, can Alex work with her fellow humans to fight their invading species and save what remains of the planet?

Release date: 1 January 2024

This one is for those who enjoy a good, traditional invasion story with the protagonist being one of the last humans alive. Dangerous aliens, a species on the brink of total destruction, and a cute dog. What more could you ask for?

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

From the mind that created the Expanse, now a major science fiction television series, comes a brand-new space opera with high stakes and what appears to be an unbeatable enemy.

Dafyd Alkhor is the assistant to one of the most intelligent scientists on Anjiin, planet of the human race, and he loves his job, as simple as it is. Right up until he doesn’t.

The Carryx, a race hellbent on committing genocide throughout the galaxy and becoming the one true rulers of the universe, descend upon Anjiin one day. They destroy most of the human population and capture the ones life behind, throwing them into a game of survival against another race.

Simply for the fun of watching two species fight to survive extinction.

Now Dayfd, along with the other captives of his race, must work to understand and manipulate the Carryx if they want to get out of the game alive.

Release date: 6 August 2024

Perfect for fans of space operas like Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, this new novel will have your mind reeling with excitement and thrilling adventures as Dafyd fights to survive the game of death and genocide…

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars Ahsoka: "Time to Fly" - Review

Ahsoka and Sabine begin their mission and the series starts to find its footing in an improved, if not great, third chapter.

As Hera Syndulla reaches out to New Republic leadership for help, Ahsoka and Sabine set out for the mysterious world of Seatos. However, they find much more than they expected upon arrival.

Finally, things are starting to come into shape. "Time to Fly" doesn't exactly solve the many issues that plagued Ahsoka's two part premiere, but it takes some decent strides towards getting back on course. Despite it's remarkably short runtime, Dave Filoni manages to accomplish a decent amount in "Time to Fly" delivering some much needed exposition and character study and an entertainingly unique action sequence.

While it may be a strange thing to be thankful for, I'm very glad that such a large portion of this chapter is spent simply letting Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang interact with one another. Sure, Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka is still too detached and mysterious to make much of, but we are finally starting to understand the ins and outs of her mentoring of Sabine Wren. Unlike the premiere where both women were defined mostly by quiet frustration, we begin to see a more fruitful, fluid, and dynamic relationship between both characters here. Ahsoka wonders aloud if she's a quitter and too eager to abandon her callings. Sabine struggles to live up to the steep expectations that come with being a Jedi. We are still missing the origins of this dynamic and Ahsoka's rationale for wanting to change a non-Force Sensitive in the Jedi arts to begin with, but "Time to Fly" at least lets us understand a bit more why this is a dynamic worth following. And even if Dawson's performance is still failing to land, Bordizzo seems to be settling into Sabine while creating her own spin on the character.

There's also some welcome clarification on the state of the larger galaxy in "Time to Fly" as Hera Syndulla approaches members of the New Republic with concerns about Grand Admiral Thrawn's return. Intentionally or not, Ahsoka seems to put the audience in the position of the skeptic here. While Hera is one of the show's heroines and a beloved character to franchise fans, viewers who are new to all of this have no context as to why they should care about Thrawn's return or about Hera's desire to rescue Ezra Bridger. We may understand that Hera wants this, but viewers haven't exactly been given reason to stand by her side during her debate with Mon Mothma and Kazuda Xiono's asshole dad. It's a bizarre moment of narrative dissonance and if intentional, could be an interesting move in the long run. I'm not inclined to give that level of credit, but it still makes for an interesting sequence

Also Jacen is here. He still has green hair. He looks a little less like a horrific mash up of a Rugrats character and a head of broccoli.

The highlight of "Time to Fly" is undoubtedly the extended dogfight that takes place above and in the skies of Seatos. The initial reveal of an ornate and massive hyperspace ring is a fun spin on Star Wars' forever fascination with big secret space objects and I like that for a change it isn't a superweapon. And the dogfight that follows is fun Star Wars spectacle. It may be lacking in any form of true narrative tension, but the execution by director Steph Green and the production team is pretty damn fun. I mean, Ahsoka gets in a space suit and slices at any enemy ships in zero gravity. It's the kind of Star Wars set piece that many fans have dreamed about for years and the results are filled with all of the whirring laserswords and sliced up starfighters that you'd hope for.

And then, "Time to Fly" just kind of stops. Given the episode's short runtime it doesn't really make sense why Dave Filoni didn't write more of a coherent third act to this chapter. It speaks to the clunky serialization of Mandoverse shows that want to be episodic without the actual storytelling chops to do so.

All in all, "Time to Fly" feels remarkably more competent than its predecessors. Sure, this is faint praise, but I do want to see this show succeed. There's some genuine joy and creativity bubbling beneath the surface in Ahsoka and I want to see it break free. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

Score: B

[daemonsfordays]

We have daemons for days

Welcome to the side blog of @korya-elana! This space is specifically to talk about our varied experiences with daemonism!

Note: Not demons in any form. Think His Dark Materials.

As a DID System of 30+, our experiences with daemonism are highly varied and because it's such a massively important part of our existence and daily life, we wanted to provide resources, personal experiences and general awareness.

List of relevant alters and their daemons below the links!

Alters and their daemons! Note, not every alter has a daemon in our System and not every alter/daemon is very well known. Em (They/Them): -Prothomalion (Thom, He/Him): Settled yellow-throated marten. Eudaimon. Snarky and outgoing. -Elethanye (Ani, She/Her): Unsettled, usually a silken windhound. Sweet as honey. Mental construct. Kay (He/Him): -Kekani (Kiki, She/Her): Settled European Hare. Practical, no-nonsense. We used to see her pop up and check on us occasionally when Kay was the Gatekeeper.

Allison (She/Her): -Zephyrus (Z, He/Him). Settled luna moth. He's very quiet and introspective. -Azekia (Ziki, She/Her): Settled ball python. Ziki primarily takes her snake form, but has also learned to love the giant anteater. She's sweet and practical

"Auntie" (She/Her): -Xxyss (pronounced Chiss maybe? He/Him): I don't know "Auntie" very well. It's hard to really write down or pronounce her golden eagle daemon's name, so this is more guesswork than anything else tbh.

Jasper (They/Them): -???: Red-ruffed lemur. Don't know much about her, she sticks pretty close to Jasper and he keeps her name to himself.

Kell (He/Him): -Isadora (She/Her): Jaguarundi. Kell took awhile to name her and start interacting with her but it's been beautiful to see their relationship grow as he figures out life in the System.

Eris (She/Her): -???: Purple-toned leopard gecko. I think it's a he?

Sparrow & Wren (She/Her for both): -Damian: Some kind of male griffin the size of a large housecat

System Daemon: -Demippos (He/Him, referred to by our kids as Meepo): Melanistic leopard. Demippos is sort of an introject, he entered our System through a mental health app focused on daemons and he was what we got after the quiz. He usually shows up if one of us is needing extra support or serves as daemon to those who don't have one. He likes to sleep with the youngest two.

[the-obiwan-for-me]

Crash

Bo-Katan Week 2023

Day 5, alternate prompt: Ursa and Bo Being Besties (but with a different spin)

AO3 link here.

There was a short time where Bo-Katan thought there might be another path, without Pre Vizsla.

Their first kiss was quick. Almost shy. Very much a bit awkward.

The next one was a bit like the first, but lingered more.

By their fifth kiss, they had learned each other’s lips. There was a familiarity in it that lended a sense of comfort to what were stolen, brief moments.

It was during the tenth kiss, this one longer and more searching, fingers twined through hair or grazing the other’s skin, that made Bo-Katan wonder if she could have a life with Ursa Wren. 

And it was the twentieth kiss that it all came crashing down.

The heat of Ursa’s body, pressed close to Bo’s, chased the cool of sunset in the dim forest away. The weight of Ursa’s hands on her hips grounded her as Bo laced her arms around Ursa’s neck, wanting to hold on to her forever. Wanting to run away, far from Concordia, far from the stubborn refusal to accept the outcome of the war that had ended everywhere else in Mandalorian space five years earlier. Bo wanted to be free of it all. To be free from Pre Vizsla. And Ursa Wren, who was only here out of obligation to her House, was the first time Bo thought maybe she could actually get free. 

And then it was all ripped away. A familiar vice grip clamped down hard on her bicep and yanked her back, severing her connection to Ursa. She was thrown to the ground, tossed aside like a forgotten child’s toy, the air knocked from her lungs at the force of it. Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked up at her attacker, knowing who it would be.

“Pre,” she whispered. His face was twisted into a furious sneer as he stared down at her. 

“You lying bitch,” he growled, his voice low with rage and hurt.

Movement caught Bo’s eye, and she glanced behind him to a stunned Ursa, her hand falling to the grip of her blaster, Ursa’s eyes pinned on Pre’s back. Bo shook her head, silently pleading with Ursa not to follow through with her thought.

Pre followed Bo’s eyes, turning toward Ursa, his massive framing dwarfing the smaller woman. “You. I knew it would be you.”

“Pre, no,” Bo shouted, scrambling to her knees, grabbing onto Pre’s belt. “Please don’t hurt her, Pre.”

Ursa stilled, but her hand still rested on the blaster. Her spine straightened, she tilted her chin up, defiant, looking exactly as one would expect the daughter of the leaders of Clan Wren to look. “He wouldn’t dare. He knows if he so much as hurts a hair on my head, my fathers will bring the wrath of Krownest down on this camp.”

Her confidence was intoxicating and beautiful. Bo wished she had a sliver of it. It reminded her of her own mother, long dead. And, though she’d never admit it out loud, her sister. Ursa was brave in ways Bo could only ever dream of, and it made her love her more.

The moment ended. Pre chuckled. It was a menacing sound.

“I’m not going to hurt her, Bo.”

Pre whirled, twisting quickly to grab Bo’s wrists, wrenching her arms up and back as he moved behind her, pushing his knee into her spine, bending her backward, her body screaming in protest as joints were flexed in the wrong direction, muscles and tendons stretching to their limits. Ursa went to move, jump to Bo’s rescue.

“Don’t!” Pre shouted, pulling back on Bo’s wrists more. Bo, despite having trained herself not to react to Pre’s physical outbursts, let a cry of pain slip from her lips. Ursa froze.

Pre dragged Bo to her feet, letting go of her wrists to wrap a sinewy forearm around her throat. She could feel his hot breath, smelling like cassius tea and death sticks, on her face and neck. “I won’t hurt Ursa. I’m not a foolish man.” The arm tightened and he lifted Bo until only her toes scraped the ground. “I can’t hurt Ursa because I do need the Wrens to stay on my side. But you, Bo?” He nipped at her ear, then brushed his lips to her cheek, in some sick pantomime of a kiss. “The only one who would miss you is Ursa. So, you I can and will hurt if I ever catch wind of you running around together behind my back.” 

He tossed her back to the ground, and she landed hard on her hands and knees, the rough forest floor biting into her palms. She looked up at Ursa, her gold-brown eyes round with horror. “Got it, Wren?” Pre asked. Ursa nodded. “Good. Find yourself another plaything. I don’t share.”

With that, Pre turned and disappeared back into the woods in the direction of camp, leaving Bo and Ursa staring at each other, Bo’s breaths ragged.

“Ursa-” she started, but Ursa shook her head, her eyes closing for a beat as she took a deep breath. Then, she turned and walked off into the forest, deeper, further from camp, leaving Bo alone.

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

Pre’s head hit the floor with a sickening thud, his face rolling to face her, steel blue eyes dead and as resigned as his last words.

Bo-Katan felt her heart hit the floor beside Pre’s lifeless body. She could not process what was happening. It was too much. It was all too much. It was everything she had been afraid of, and yet it was still incomprehensible. 

“I claim this sword, and my rightful place as leader of Death Watch!” the monster growled. Bo dragged her eyes away from Pre’s face to see Maul holding the dark saber aloft, Death Watch commandos moving to take a knee at his feet.

She shook her head, working some sense back into her grief stricken brain. “Never!” she shouted. “No outsider will ever rule Mandalore!” Behind her, she sensed other commandos gathering behind her. She heard weapons priming.

“If you will not join me, you will all die,” Maul said, his voice deep and full of self assurance. The kneeling commandos stood, turning toward her and the tight bunch of commandos behind her, moving slowly, but with menace.

Bo shook her head again. This could not be happening. How could this be happening?

“You’re all traitors!”

“Unfortunately for you, history will not see it that way,” he said, sounding for a brief moment, apologetic. Then even the very air in the room seemed to shift. He swung the saber toward her. “Execute them!”

With a fleeting glance back to Pre’s face, Bo slammed her helmet on, and fired, immediately taking out a charging commando. And then, she fled, not totally comprehending, until much later, how many people had fled with her.

They had found refuge deep in the underbelly of Sundari, far from the city center. She wasn’t sure if night was falling or if this particular place was just dark, but she pulled her helmet off and sat down on a low wall, deep in the shadows of a boarded up building, feeling exhausted, terrified, and confused. She looked around, counting the heads of those with her. A dozen, maybe. Some had removed their helmets like her, and she was relieved to see many familiar faces.

Someone sat beside her, pulling off their helmet. Bo turned absently to see who it was, and gasped in relief. “Ursa!”

“What next, alor?” Ursa asked, her face looking as shell shocked as Bo felt. 

Bo ignored the question and instead threw her arms around Ursa. “You’re here.”

Ursa tensed for a long moment, her arms still at her side. Then she softened, and pulled Bo into a tight embrace. “Of course I’m here, Bo-Katan. Where else would I be?”

Bo let go, pulling back to look at Ursa. She shrugged. “I just thought…well, I guess because we haven’t been close….” She trailed off, not sure how to put her complicated feelings into words. She and Ursa had once been very close. But that had changed.

Ursa smiled sadly. “I was protecting you from me,” Ursa said simply. “But while things may be different now, I still care for you. So, what next, alor?”

Bo stared at Ursa for a long moment, fighting the urge to get lost in old memories. Lost in old dreams that were never meant to be. Then she sighed, looked up and around and realized the rest of the group were waiting for her reply. 

Now was not the time to wallow in old memories of girlish romances or to mourn the death of a complicated man murdered by a monster.

Mandalore came first.

“Right,” she said, standing up. “We get the duchess out.”

[stopthatmyhandsaredirty]

Star Ware Rebels Bechdel Test Rewatch- 2x15 ‘The Call’

Plot

Low on fuel and power in deep space, the Ghost crew encounters massive, mysterious creatures whose lives are threatened by a mining operation.

Female Characters: 2

Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren

Male Characters: 4

Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Zeb Orrelios, Boss Yushyn

Droid Characters: 1

Chopper

Does it pass?

Yes, this episode passes several times! Hera and Sabine exchange plenty of dialogue throughout the episode. It’s fun to watch the whole crew tease Hera about her disdain for the purrgil. I gotta say, this episode is the epitome of what seems like a filler episode becoming essential.

I made an ‘essential episodes’ watchlist for the people in my life who want to get familiar with Rebels before Ahsoka premieres but don’t have time to binge the whole series. I know a lot of them will be frustrated by this one, but clearly it pays off way later! Would I put this episode on any ‘essential list’ otherwise? Probably not. It has some fun moments with the crew, and I like seeing Ezra’s connection to non-sentient beings growing stronger and stronger...but overall not one of my favorites of the series. 

[andfangs]

wait what parts of star wars do you like? why don’t you like the others? just curious! <3

anon, i am about to try to be sooooo normal but please note this is me when i talk about the parts of star wars i like:

so in essence, my favorite star wars media is as follows (in order of exposure):

The Prequels

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Knights of the Old Republic

The Force Unleashed

Rogue One

Star Wars: Rebels

The Mandalorian

i have not yet gotten to The Book of Boba Fett or Andor or The Bad Batch, but they are on my list most DEFINITELY.

when i was a kid, i had a vhs tape of Return of the Jedi. i watched it so many times the tape wore out. i did not care about the story or the characters that much, but the concepts were riveting. the overarching world lore had me in a total chokehold. i consumed every side story book i could get my hands on and watched the prequels in an all night movie marathon at a drive in.

anakin skywalker became my favorite character ever in a piece of media. he was sooooo compelling to me. and knowing he turns dark and ends up the guy in the mask at the end of RotJ??? absolutely fascinated me. fast forward to The Clone Wars tv series coming out. i was TRANSFIXED. i was 16 and it made me feel like a kid again. i loved ahsoka tano with my whole entire heart. i played KotOR and later TFU. if someone says 'galen marek' in my earshot, i am immediately asking if they want to be best friends.

my husband took me to each of the new star wars trilogy and again, nothing about the main story did ANYTHING for me, but the new worlds, the tech, the concepts! then i watched rogue one and for the first time since the prequels i was in love with a star wars movie.

i know probably Too Much about the history of the mandalorians because sabine wren was one of my favorite characters in Rebels and, being a massive TCW fan, the fetts are SOOOO interesting to me! this obviously made me lose my entire mind when a series about A MANDALORIAN was announced, right? wrong. i had zero interest because i was worried it would just be some offshoot of the new series. but i decided to give it a chance because my husband wanted to watch it to talk to his dad about it (the man is very weird and the only thing we have found that the old grump likes is baby yoda, so we get him every piece of grogu merch we can find). i was hooked nearly immediately. it had all the things i wanted: adjacency to the mainline star wars series without being about the main plot, characters i was familiar with and cared deeply about, new characters i came to adore with my entire soul, new planets and armor and tech, and lore.

so you ask why i don't like most star wars things and i guess it boils down to the lack of lore. it doesn't feel like most mainline star wars media explores the nooks and crannies of lore that i am most interested in or expounds upon much outside of the current necessary information and overarching Good Versus Evil plot. at its core, to me, star wars is a space fantasy (not sci-fi like a lot of people would say) and i like it best when its leaning into the world building of that fantasy.

thanks for coming to my TED talk!

[tearsasmascara]

I posted 1,406 times in 2022

That's 1,406 more posts than 2021!

398 posts created (28%)

1,008 posts reblogged (72%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@xingqiusleftearring

@anotherteenageroninternet

@w4yf1nder

@ataraxyystories

@echo-at-the-pond

I tagged 889 of my posts in 2022

Only 37% of my posts had no tags

#[pages rustling] - 346 posts

#[bulletin board] - 190 posts

#[librarians rambles] - 97 posts

#[zee &lt;;3] - 62 posts

#genshin impact x reader - 58 posts

#genshin impact - 51 posts

#[quinns favs &lt;33] - 47 posts

#genshin x reader - 44 posts

#kazuha x reader - 29 posts

#[wren &lt;;3] - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 88 characters

#also dw your works are hilarious i was in the process of rbing one when i saw this notif

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

slightly massive hallway crush—

genre: romantic fluff

relationships: heizou x shy!reader

synopsis: you have a small hallway crush on this attractive boy you see around the hallways, and you screw up the first opportunity you get to talk to him

cw: reader says a curse word

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135 notes - Posted September 4, 2022

#4

for your mutual requests !!!!! could you do like those military homecomings but its kazuha coming back after the vision hunt decree ? thank you so much for tagging me and for the request <3

ZEE !! hey oh my GOSH i’m so sorry this took forever. i was burnt out for a long time after i wrote my last fic, considering it lowkey flopped 😭😭 (this isn’t self advertisement SHKSH) also UGH WORK- but yeah you said you really liked this idea so i tried making it nice. i hope there’s no mistakes omg. IM SO SORRY IF THERE IS. again sorry for how long it took :((. i really hope you like it !! i might expand on this idea later too hehe. anyway love you so much dear. take care of yourself <33 enjoy!!

the vision hunt decree. the disease that plagued inzuma, hidden under the guise of law and order. it overtook all of inazuma, taking peoples treasures away from them.

for you, it took away your love.

ever since the decree started, kazuha fled from inazuma, from you, from the home and space you both ever so carefully constructed with love. in the process only leaving a small note on your bedside drawer.

the note carried with it small star shaped tear stains and heavy deep folds that signified the opening and refolding of the note countless times. that’s all you had of him. as you read about your lover going on the run to save his life, something pulled at your heart, pride for your lover and what he was doing but a deep grief for all you both had lost. each other. and more.

for a year, you would sneak out of the city to catch a glimpse of your lover, a soft touch on the cheek, a glimmer in your eyes as they met. but nothing more. you forgot how it felt to hear his voice and to melt into it, or to feel his lips pressing into your skin in the softest degree of affection. and you never knew if the day would come where you would once again feel his touch.

everyday without him made the yawning hole in your heart so much deeper, as if each day that passed, the grief that followed burrowed itself into that hole.

but the day did come. the vision hunt decree was lifted. kazuha never explicitly told you he’d be coming home, but you knew. you knew your kazuha would come to you as soon as he could, bringing the smell of sweet maple leaves and home.

he was your home.

a note appeared the next day. your eyes darted over neat elegant lettering, a soft smile coming to your lips.

“i’ll be home tomorrow. 8 am.”

at 7:50 am, you stepped out of your house, your heart bursting with excitement.

at 7:55 am, anxiety filled you as the clock slowly ticked forward, inching closer to the moment you were eagerly awaiting.

at 8:00, you looked around, a smile coming unbidden to your face, your heart feeling like it was going to burst.

at 8:05, a slight uneasiness filled you, as you shifted from one foot to another, shifting your weight as if you could shift your sorrow around.

at 8:30, you blinked away the tears in your eyes, willing your the hole in your heart not to grow larger.

at 10:00 am, you turned around, taking the first step back to your home, the first step back to a definite future without kazuha. soft tears slipped down your cheeks, leaving thin streams of sorrow down your face.

at 10:02 am, two warm arms wrapped around your torso, an out of breath voice hovering above your ear.

“i am so so sorry my dove. i was trying to get home but the ship hit a really rocky patch of sea and it was so horrible you cannot imagine-”

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148 notes - Posted October 26, 2022

#3

three am apologies—

genre ⤍ hurt/ comfort

relationships ⤍ heizou x gn!reader

warnings ⤍ neglect, crying, arguments

a/n ⤍ hi hi everyone!! okay first off the header T^T i couldn’t find a better one that fit. anyway this was a fic request from yuki (@seveninchesfrominsanity hii!!) that can be found here. its not completely what you asked so i’m so sorry but i still hope you like it. :((. anyway hope you enjoy!!

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360 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

#2

BESTIE??? ILYSM pls do xiao and scaramouche cafe au plsplspls idek why CUTE CAFE BARISTA??? GETTING STUCK NEXT TO THEM IN RUSH HOUR COS ALL OTHER SEATS ARE TAKEN??? YES!!!

BESTIE??? ILYT

so okay half your ask confused me so here’s what i did, i made it two parts. scaramouche is getting stuck next to him in rush hour and xiao xiao is cute cafe barista. is that okay hekdjdj?? also i did hcs and small drabble so :D i hope you like yes yes also shout out to hori cause i has no idea what a barista was. i’m not too proud of this so pls pls tell me if you like it :(( take care!!

scaramouche; getting stuck next to him in rush hour

- will stare at you in like discontent if you sit next to him

- but he’ll deal with it

- kind of,,,

- LOWKEY PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE LIKE

- “you couldn’t find any other seat?”

- LOUD. SIGHS.

- but you don’t give up talking to him cause you find him interesting

- he kind of is offhandish at first but gives in cause you say something interesting and he’s invested now

-ˋˏ———

a loud sigh interrupted the clacking of your keys, and your fingers stilled as you looked back up at the perpetrator.

“listen i don’t want to be stuck with you either okay?” you mumbled under your breath, half hoping he heard you.

he did.

“nobody asked you to sit here.” his words sliced through the thin air of tension between you two.

you merely scoffed, not willing to put up with his antics and were about to go back to your work when your name was called for your order.

giddy, you got up and retrieved your favorite item from the menu, carefully balancing it in your hands so you didn’t topple and spill it everywhere. it was too precious. you tried to ignore the curious glances your table mate sent you as you settled back into your seat, letting out a decisive hum when everything was set.

“is that,, is that what i think it is?” your eyes flicked to his, a wave of surprise hitting you as you saw the absence of malice in his eyes. before you could answer his question, he continued,

“yeah it is. huh.”

“what’s that supposed to mean?” you asked, a frown slowly starting on your face.

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377 notes - Posted October 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

hello quinn :)))

i saw your little ask game and i wanted to join in!! may i request a fic where scara accidentally admits that reader is pretty? and like he gets super flustered? :]

also i know you're doing this because you're worried about your moots' mental health, but make sure you take care of yourself when you're doing all these requests as well! i don't want you to feel pressured so take as long as you need :))

thank you! <3

short a/n;

evie!! hihi!! i’m so happy to see you requesting &lt;33.

unfortunately, this was a prompt i couldn’t expand a ton upon because it’s super simple so i made a drabble kind of thing about it, i hope that’s totally okay!! i hope this makes you happy!! feel free to request sm else if this is too short :p but flustered scara!! shodhdjd he was fun to write i hope it’s in character :3 and thank you so much!! doing this for y’all means so much to me!! your request was simple and so fun to write shkshd THANK YOU!! have fun reading &lt;3

a soft sigh left your chest as your boyfriends arms pulled you closer. gentle warmth blossomed inside you, manifesting in the form of a lazy smile as you looked up at your lover.

a hand came up to your cheek, tucking a short strand of hair behind your ear.

“you’re so pretty.”

you blinked vapidly, convinced your ears weren’t working correctly. then, you questioned if your eyes were working correctly when you saw a bright red blush bloomed on your lovers cheek, putting even the reddest rose to shame.

“huh?” a teasing lilt colored your voice and you drank in your boyfriends reaction, opening a small piece of your heart for it.

he stammered, words tripping each other and cutting each other off. his stream of words was abruptly cut off when he closed his mouth, slowly blinking. his eyes ran from you, looking at everything except for back into your eyes. you watched as his dark blue eyes flicked to the wall as of the beige coloring was now the most fascinating thing he’d ever laid eyes upon.

still not taking his eyes off the wall, he softly mumbled to you, the words slotting themselves into that part of your heart you had opened for this moment.

“i- i don’t take it back. you’re, uh. um. you’re really pretty. beautiful even.”

there’s so many words that could have come out of your mouth at that moment, that could have made the unbearably sweet moment even sweeter, tinging the air with the love that surrounded you two.

instead-

“i think this is the first time you’ve ever said um. or stammered. this is so funn-”

“GET OFF OF ME.”

See the full post

819 notes - Posted September 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[assortedbirds]

18/01/24: Log 4- Static Pulse

This is going to just be a quick (or quicker) update but I had to share some progress because I am absolutely geeking out right now! I have been very arduously chipping away at various rooms in the house plan and I feel like I have finally finished (most of) Wren's room! The renders look awesome so I feel compelled to share them:

This is Wren's bedroom! Despite it's deceptively simple appearance, I have tried to include a lot of little pieces of character here (notice all the teacups and books laying about...)

Wren's desk space is one of the areas of the house that clash with Dalia's more minimalist aesthetic (or earthy aesthetic in terms of her study, which I will discuss in a later update). The shelves are filled with knick-knacks he acquired growing up, either ones he asked his mum to buy for him (mostly the bunny ones) or ones he was gifted. The top shelf might have filled up too if not for his stasis....

His mother gave him the painting as she thought it would match the rest of his furniture (they started with a couple of brown furniture items and eventually the colour overtook the room a little).

This is Wren's en suite bathroom! You can really tell that his mother styled it and he didn't really feel the need to change it. I couldn't resist adding the duckie bath mat though, I found it too adorable and I'm sure Wren would as well! The shower stool is another important addition, which I had to jump through hoops a little to make happen. It was an absolute necessity back when Wren's health was really bad, and he could neither climb into the bath nor stand up in the shower, and he still uses it from time to time.

(Also, please pretend that I had the ability to edit the window pane and that there is privacy/frosted glass there. Even if he lives in a secluded estate I doubt Wren would feel comfortable taking a bath out in the open like this lmao.)

As a final bonus, take some renders of the kitchen!

It took a lot of effort for me to refrain from adding cool appliances, spices and such, as Dalia's aesthetics call for any appliances that aren't there for guests to gawk at to be cleanly stored in the cupboards. (That front counter was also a massive pain as it's actually two counters and two countertops, but I won't get into that story...)

That's it for today! I have made a lot of progress on this house but still have a looooong way to go, so wish me luck!💪✨

-Billie