#or something like that i haven't seen that vod in a while by something about her specifying that GL Nikki has to HIDE her crying

[how-to-fail-at-ship-jumping-au]

I wish I had Hetch and Nikki interact. I wish I thought to make Hetch interact with everyone in general, but I specifically wish I had a few scenes between him and Nikki. I think it would have done wonders for exploring their characters more.

[x-bee-x]

What's this? A fic from me in the DSMP category because there was canon lore? In 2024?

I was watching or getting ready to watch someone else, I had my follower list open at least, and saw Jack was live and there was something about logging onto the server later in his title and wait what. I knew as soon as I updated some friends about said happenings, I muted the Discord channel I sent it in in case people wanted to talk more about it and maybe sent spoilers later, and I was on here very little because I knew even though I'm not 100% in the fandom anymore and certainly not a fan of all the members, I would like to see it for myself. So I watched the vod the next morning and oh my god.

I did not expect to get literal chills the moment he logged on and the first thing we saw was the bench. And I almost cried when we saw Las Nevadas. And I did cry a bit when we saw Tech's house. Regardless of how much I care about the streamers who were part of that as of late, I did at one point, very much so. This was something I did not expect, it was so nostalgic and emotional and actually warmed my heart a bit seeing so many fans come together during and after it happened. This was a really unexpected and lovely way to tie things up, I thought they kind of were already in all areas for me at least, but I think that this was a good way to finally properly say goodbye.

Epilogue

No warnings

1,438 words

Tommy was. Somewhere.

He wakes up he thinks, he opened his eyes at least, running a hand through his blonde curls.

And.

He didn't think he was alone this time. Or well, he wasn't always, Tubbo was there sometimes, but this was a different sort of person feeling.

"H-hello?"

He typed into his communicator for the heck of it.

"Hey."

Jack?

"Wh-where have you fucking been?"

"Casino.

Been here for years mate.

Made loads."

He was.

He was in Las Nevadas?

This whole time. This whole time?

Tommy stood at the top of the hill at the entrance of the faux desert and sure enough.

Someone with one blue and one red eye, a head of buzzed hair with a headset on top, a blue short sleeved hoodie, and camouflage pants stood at the bottom.

"Let me bless you, my boy, it's been too long."

He threw a couple of diamonds at the feet of younger, who probably looked just as puzzled as he felt.

"Jack. Seriously.

What happened?"

"What do you mean? I've just been here. Playing roulette."

This whole time? This whole time.

"Wanna know where I've been?

Come with me."

"Hold on, can't leave on a loss, gotta get that big win."

Jack came out eventually, and they walked out of Las Nevadas and along the Prime Path together, he has somewhere to show him.

"It's good to see you."

"You too, man."

"I've been here."

"Here? Under the bridge?"

"Out in the distance. That way.

I've got a house. It's nice."

"I haven't seen anyone for a loooooong time.

Well, maybe Tubbo, every now and again."

Tommy and Jack walked, or well, Tommy walked, and all the sudden Jack's voice became quieter and quieter somewhere behind rather than beside him.

"Me either, casino's been empty.

Honestly, I just steal money from the safe's to gamble with. I could take it all if I wanted, but the thrill keeps me in there.

Gambler's addiction, they call it. One day I'll win big. 99% of people quit before then.

But not me. I'll make it. It's been years, but, it's coming."

He turned his head to the boy with heterochromia behind him, blonde waves bouncing lightly.

"You're not very good at catching up, are you?"

"Just telling my story, man."

Jack said while he jogged to be once again beside him.

"Never thought I'd be around these parts again. I moved far from here to get away from it.

It brings back too much. Joy, fun, sadness, pain. Too much of all of it.

But it's nice to see a familiar face."

The path they took to get to their destination was familiar, and this time he knew it was safe as well as convenient, no one with a mask he had to worry about being on the other side, or worse yet, chase him.

A bridge of cobblestone among the dark red brick and close to unbearable heat, from one swirling purple transparent gateway surrounded by obsidian to another, and they were spot out onto a soft cold white blanket.

"I don't live around here."

"Oh. I thought that's where we were going?"

"No, god no. Do you know how long it took for me to get back here?

I come here a lot though"

A house, a cabin to be exact, sat the same as them in the nearby distance.

It was cream colored with chestnut colored accents, a matching wooden roof and front door, and a chimney that stood tall and sat bare, no plumes of smoke emitted which once came from it.

"Cool. It's quaint. I like it.

Maybe I'll bye it when I win big!"

Tommy looked to the older boy with two colored eyes beside him, opened his mouth but decided against saying anything, then opened it again to say something after all.

"This is Technoblade's house."

"Oh. Maybe I won't do that then."

"How long do you usually sit here like this?"

"As long as I need to.

Sometimes minutes. Sometimes hours."

There were areas of fences close by on the surrounding property, the occasional bray or bah or grunt echoed through the air, and sat in the otherwise quiet.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Hit me."

Tommy fidgeted with the fingers on one hand in his lap as he found the right words and considered them being actually spoken.

"Do you ever.

Like, despite all the war, and the fighting, and all the- well, all the mess- how much it sent me a fucking mess.

Do you ever miss it? Those days? The people? Or, well, the way they were. The way it all was."

Jack looked at him, something like softness in his features.

"Sure. It was all a bit much at times, and I'm not sure I'd wanna do it all again.

But I miss it sometimes. It was fun, really."

"Yeah, I don't think I'd do it all again either. But. I don't know, I've tried to move on. My little cottage far away, my humble paradise. But that trails a lot into my mind."

"I think it trails onto all of our minds sometimes, wherever we all are.

But we all have to move on, find our own destiny sometime."

"Okay. Phew. I'm glad it's not just me."

"Chasing the win keeps me happy.

I like who I am now, probably more than I was. But that doesn't mean he was bad."

"You like being a gambler? Over an incompetent fight loser?"

Jack laughed, soft and genuine, and Tommy fidgeted a bit harder.

"I guess they're not great options are they."

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh, I don't see many people."

"One of them means I might win someday, I was never gonna win back then."

His face held that expression again, soft, almost sad maybe.

"I've still got my one life. One canon life.

And I intend to use it the best way I can."

"What do you mean? How do you wanna use it?."

"You know. I've not got a clue.

But I'll figure that out later.

For now, I've got my cottage, and my new pet! Oh she's adorable. Mareep, she's a little sheep I caught.

But you know, things are okay for me.

Tubbo and his fucking bees I see also every now and then. He's doing pretty well for himself. Selling fucking honey."

"Oh, that's good. I thought he exploded when I blew up everything.

I can't actually die I don't think, so I never know whether these things are bad for everyone else or not."

"I guess being the president of L'Manberg teaches you a few logistical things, aye?

Not that either of us would know anything about that."

"Well."

"Well."

"I haven't seen anyone else besides Tubbo."

"Yeah, you two are hard to separate."

"Tell me about it."

"I think I like it that way for now though.

The quiet life."

"Quiet is nice. This is nice."

"It's good to see an old face though. I know I said it before, but it really is."

Tommy pushed himself up and off the snow beneath them, a couple joints popped, Jack did the same, they stayed standing with the cabin behind them.

"Well, I can't stay for long, I've gotta do things like feed Mareep."

"Yeah, I got some places to see, now that I'm out.

Haven't left there in a while, probably should go check on some things."

"Is there anything else you wanna ask me? I have no questions for you."

Jack looked like he might have something to say, but was going through the roster of words in his mind, carefully considering them.

"Are you happy?

I guess that's really all I'd care to know."

Tommy opened his mouth to respond, closed it, gave a whisper of a smile, ran one of his hands along his pant leg in a partial fidget and a partial way to rid himself of the cold, then opened it again.

"Getting there."

They both nodded gently.

"I'm glad."

"It's good to see you, Jack."

"It's good to see you too, Tommy."

"I hope you get that big win someday.

Oh, and hey. Don't let anyone bye this house."

"I won't."

"I might not see you again. But I hope to lhear about it if you win big."

That's okay. You will. I can deal with just knowing that you're happy."

Tommy held out a hand.

"So long J Money."

Jack shook it.

"Bye Big T."

They both looked to the cabin once more, gave a two finger salute, and went their separate ways along the snowy path.

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon Upd8 for July 23, 2024

Alright! We've got a new Upd8, and apparently it's a doozy! As usual, we'll start with the news post first!

Oh! There's a vod of the SAHcon panel. Might have to look that up.

James mentions a "big flash," and wants to give the team a break before either they start work on it or they drop it (wasn't sure here). I'm all for this. I don't want this team to burn out. Apparently there's progress on the plush, but James isn't telling us yet because it might not make it into the final version. Other than that, it's just this upd8. They're planning on more like it, so this won't be the only one of this style.

And what is this style?

It's a freakin' visual novel is what!

Looking at the options we have some basic VN selections, including options for skipping text. We have a History panel, which hopefully will allow us to go back to prior choices. We can also save and load. We don't have an option for full screen, so that's a little frustrating. But otherwise, away we go!

Yay! New talk sprites!

Absolutely love this one!

Oh man! Tavros got sucked into this too? Or is this some sort of construct or projection?

Oh wow. Vriska's trying to reconcile and every time she gets a prompt, she comes up with something else awful she did to him. I'd say we could be here a while, but I'm pretty sure she's going to lose patience soon.

"Hours later, but not many." Or we do that XD

Vriska doesn't get that the patterns that lead her here are the problem. She doesn't understand that being "an expert on this revenge thing," is part of the problem. The problem was that she was always trying to force Tavros to conform to some image of strength she had for him in her head, and used only the methods that she thought made her strong. That is, when she wasn't just losing her patience and doing something out of spite and anger.

Just as she thought she made things square with him before, she's not listening to him now. She's still never gotten that her failure to help Tavros wasn't Tavros's fault. It's always been her fault for not trying to understand who Tavros was and what he needed. By trying to help Tavros get revenge on her, she's just repeating the pattern again.

"Before I screw your life up," wow, I think she might have just had a genuine realization there! That's what she needs, though she still needs to understand why. She needs to understand why she did it, and why it caused Tavros so much suffering.

"Kill me." Oh wow. We've literally been exactly here before. How can she not realize that it didn't work then, and it's not going to work now!

"TAVROS: nO, i LOVE TO RUN AND, i DO NOT PLAN ON STOPPING, aNY TIME SOON,"

Ouch.

"Thief: Do the right thing."

Oh this is so not going to be the right thing.

Wow. She looks way too happy to have gotten Tavros to kill her. She is so not going to be happy when this almost certainly doesn't turn out to have worked.

Yep! That sure looks like we're back where we started! Respawn time!

Yay! Davepetasprite^2 talk sprites!

'Nother Vriska talk sprite. Is this a look from her past we haven't seen yet?

Hah! Groundhogs Day reference.

Sorry Davepeta, you can't help but make that innuendo sexual. It is your nature. Well half your nature.

Oh wow! When they said, Year 2, they weren't depicting a second point in the time frame. Vriska has been at this for over a year! "welcome to hell"

Whatever problems Dave and Nepeta respectively had, they just can't relate to the twisted mindset Vriska adopted to survive on Alternia.

"purrppets and then theres pawppet33rs" That one took me a while.

I think Davepeta just admitted that both Dave and Nepeta prefer to follow and let someone else be in control of things. No wonder Dave put up with so much of Jade's constant desires to form a stable polycule. I think I'll have some more to say about this later. Might even put it in a separate post.

Oh! Well that's that I guess! Might as well talk about this "panel" then.

So let's start with this. I do not believe in "leaders" and "followers". I think that's such a false dichotomy, that it barely deserves commentary. I think at best you can say that a person would be more likely to take charge, follow along, do there own thing, or disengage under sociologically normal circumstances. Already, that's four potential responses verse two, and these only apply under each person's "normal."

But even if we break it down to just "leaders" and "followers", Homestuck has already broken that dichotomy plenty of times. Take our beloved nub horned ball of of anger. Karkat presents at the beginning of Act 5 as a "leader." He was even somewhat good at it by Vriska's own admission. But Karkat was never happy as a "leader." He was doing it because he felt he had to. Being an exceptional bloodthirsty Troll warrior wasn't going to be good enough for him to avoid getting culled. He needed power, fear, and respect. He needed to be a "leader."

But once everything was over and he was given the chance to relax, he abandoned the role and was all the more happier for it. Pre Game Over, he wasn't particularly happy but he seemed less miserable than he did in game. And most of his anxiety revolved around not knowing where he stood with Dave and Terezi. Post Game Over he seems to have practically thrived. Letting Vriska, Rose, and Terezi handle all the planning and organization allowed him to finally enjoy life for once.

But now on Candy Earth C, he's a "leader" again. While he seems to be delegating a lot to Meenah, he's still the one everyone looks to. And while I can't say our beloved Knight of Blood is thriving, he's definitely much more comfortable as a "leader" now.

So all of that being true, has HSBC made any case for any character being a "leader" or "follower"?

But let's assume the premise and say Davepeta is correct. I think Nepeta can be said to be a "follower" in such a dichotomy. Even when it upset her, she still went along with Equius's wishes. But I would still stress she didn't exactly get a lot of screen time. We never got to know how Nepeta might have developed as a character over a full Homestuck run.

But what about Dave? Does Homestuck depict Dave as a "follower"? We definitely have plenty of examples of Dave going along with the plans and wishes of others. But I feel like we have far more examples of him taking initiative, doing his own thing, or even refusing to go along with a plan. Dave didn't want to play SBURB. Dave ignored Jade's advice to let the Crow hatch the egg. While he followed Terezi's plan, he eventually needed a break and basically broke with her after they finished the time loop. When Jade needed help, he acted on his own to get her situated in the game. He didn't like Rose's plan and refused to let her be the one to sacrifice herself when it seemed like that was the only option. He refuses to go along with Karkat's plans to try and setup quadrants with Terezi. In Game Over, he jumps into the fray to try and placate and then fend off Jack and PM. In Collide he takes the lead roll in the Strife at several points, including being the one to land the killing blow. Even Davepeta, as Vriska points out, was the one that secured victory against Lord English.

I think at most, what can be said is that normally Dave prefers to go with the flow. As he puts it, "maybe id rather just be like the dave of guy." This is one of those places where again, I have to ask if Homestuck has ever depicted a "leader/follower" dichotomy. Dave really seems happiest when he's just being Dave doing Dave things. Given a fully informed choice, Dave might have done everything he could have to avoid the SBURB session taking place. He stayed on the sidelines as things went to shit on Earth C, even as Karkat was looking to him for help. I just don't see Dave as a "follower."

That doesn't mean he has any angle to relate to Vriska. But for being an enlightened Sprite^2, I don't think Davepeta's take is a good one.

[arkethamz]

Antonio doodle/info dump since he was around last month :3

left is the most recent doodles before i knew he'd be coming back

right is the first drawings of him (coincidentally exactly a year ago from June 1st)

more uncolored doodles n sketches. i kinda draw Antonio the most, but i rarely post about him (been gatekeepmaxxing)

last drawings that i actually still kinda like.. i have much more, i just don't like how they look anymore lmao

rambling wall of text infodump below the cut cuz i am just so autistic about this character LMAO sorry i'm a yapper-

anyway, contrary to popular belief, Antonio is actually my favorite RP character. just in general. and i've never actually seen him live until the other day. unbeknownst to me, i was waiting for a whole year to be able to actually see him live, i think i was more excited about it than cc!anthony was 💀

which might contribute to my love for him bc i had to piece him together like a puzzle from everyone else's POVs and clips n stuff. so at first i didn't want him to come back bc i was afraid he'd be different from the Antonio i made up in my head... but then. i haven't sat n watched, at mostly full attention, a whole stream for 7 hours in a while LOL

when i watched cc!buddha's rdrp vods a year ago n saw Antonio, i thought to myself "oh no... Tony isn't actually my new muse is he...?". and for a while i didn't draw him bc i didn't have any ideas + i didn't really know how to draw him. but i did know that when i did learn how to draw him, it'd be over for me (i wouldn't want to draw anyone else, and i was right oops 😭)

my idea of Antonio is he's just a dumb, impulsive, silly little theatre kid that got wrapped up in being an outlaw bc of Wu n Dot after his house burned down. they woulda been moving around in old box cars wherever the trains took them. Dot dies before the events of WildRP(headcanon), and Wu to me, is the autistic kid that follows Antonio around bc he talks a lot n has charisma lolol. also, to me, Wu is not as evil as he was intended to be, he just follows in Sonny's footsteps who's calculated n violent. While Antonio chooses Cesare's path to be more diplomatic and focuses more on his reputation. Antonio can't win a fight to save his life, and i love him for it. he thinks he's scary n dangerous, but to me, he couldn't hurt a fly hehe. i mean, one of the first things he did in the crossing was host a talent show at the local theatre. i'm a big fan of pathetic men, what can i say.

speaking of, i love how pathetically in love he is with Renni. and i love how, despite how much they like each other, they never actually get together n still respect each other as friends. they are the embodiment of the saying "if you love something let it go, if it comes back its yours" but without the last part.. they are so tragic to me.

in the last 3.5 years of watching rp, i've never had any character or character dynamic make me cry. like, as much as i love how doomed n toxic Donnie/Lang is, i've teared up a bit, but they've never made me cry just thinking about them. but Antonio, n by extension, his relationship with Renni, has made me cry multiple times just thinking about them 😭 and yeah, i cried the other day when Antonio was thinking about Renni LOL

idk why he's the character that changes my brain chemistry, but uh. he is. i've literally never rambled about a character so much online, sorry for the great wall of text bc of it.. i'm usually masking so hard a lot of the time, but i've been wanting to talk about Antonio for so long with no one to yap to so, yknow.. he gets me to unmask and i also love him for that :']

[floral-moon-light]

Lore update for Philza on the QSMP! If you haven't seen the Friday the 13th of October stream or vod and/or the Monday the 16th stream or god go watch before returning!

Okay, so Friday the 13th did not really have much of anything lore-wise to talk about. So, to explain what happened that day, the start of the stream was mostly Phil, Fit, and Tubbo talking about a previous day's lore since Fit and Tubbo haven't gotten to hear what happened and Phil taking the two to the places he got his pictures of Tallulah and Chayanne. After which, shenanigans mostly happened involving a museum visit, spawning of seven deadly sins mobs, and talk about Tubbo either getting murdered or kidnapped (and other random stuff).

Once the group minus Tubbo gets back to Phil's house they mostly talked about the eggs and did some decoration of the outside of Tallulah's seed bank with Fit hyping Phil up. Eventually Jaiden comes over and joins in watching Phil work while revealing Jaiden has wings now, or that she always had wings but is now feeling confident enough to show them. At one point Cucurucho comes over and presents Jaiden with her reward for the task she did.

At some point the two leave and Phil decided to got exploring for dungeons, but gets distracted trying to capture a sunbird he spotted. At some point during the chase Cucurucho stops by Phil and gives him a task to go concur some dungeons for a reward (forget what, all I know is it wasn't anything important and the only thing I do remember about the reward was duckcoins). After which Phil goes back on the sunbird hunt for 1 and a half hours, eventually capturing a Sunbird (the admins had to give it to him because the one he caught with a lasso glitched off the lasso, but the admins agreed Phil caught it). This lead to Phil going back to his dungeon hunt, completing a few dungeons, and heading home to get Cucurucho to give him his reward, mentioning during this that he would really like his wings back as the reward but he only got laughed at. After which Phil checked his egg connection chest to find nothing new before heading off to sleep at uppies.

This is a bit of a side note, but I want to talk about what could have happened to Phil's wings since this was discussed on the 13th due to Jaiden having her's out. To anyone who understands birds or avians, there are three possibilities of what could have happened. First, Wing binding, where something is used to bind the avian's wings to their body, preventing them from being used. This is the least likely option because Phil mentions wanting his wings fixed and having a balancing issue. So, something has to be wrong with his wings. Option 2, his wings were clipped, where the avian or bird's flight feathers are cut/clipped, preventing the bird or avian from being able to fly. It is a more likely option because it does mean something has happened to his wings themselves to prevent him from flying with them, but it is something fixable. Option 3: Phil's wings were permanently damaged, and he can't fly because of this. This option is the most extreme and would explain the balance issue best. However, the only way this would be true is if the Dream SMP is canon on the QSMP and the damage from Phil saving Wilbur carried over between servers. I suspect this is not the case, though, since generally, it is considered that damage like that does not carry over between servers (otherwise, Big Q would still have his Toothpick scar). Besides a few nods between characters, there is no indication that the Dream SMP is cannon to the QSMP.

Now, on to the 16th.

The day started out simple; everyone was getting on because an event was happening. And that day, Wilbur finally returned to the server after completing his months-long tour. However everyone was doing their best to not release what happened to the eggs to the man, including Phil, to give Will at least a little time of being happy. And so everyone met Wilbur, and there were apologies to Phil about the Hatuna Miku joke. Leading into everyone gathering at the spawn for the event.

Said event was a spy mission on a federation meeting inside the maze. So the server had to go through the poorly lit-up maze, and by the gods, chaos occurred! So many people got lost in the place, and during this time, Phil finally revealed to Wilbur that all the eggs were missing. This led Wil to leave the event because he was frustrated by the seeming lack of worry or work to find the eggs. Phil, though, continued with the event, letting Wilbur have time to understand the extent of how bad things are. And so the group entered the feneration meeting, with Tubbo's laptop completly crashing some time during this so poor man had to be told what happened the next day, where we learned 3 things.

1. The federation has no clue whatsoever happened to the eggs and are investigating the situation themselves to try and find the eggs. (as for why my best guess is to try and return order to the island because the residents without the eggs are... Dangerous.)

2. The federation did send Forever into the nether to investigate the eggs disappearance only for them to lose contact with him. But, they will be continuing their investigation by sending someone else in to continue where Forever left off and figure out what happened.

And last but not least 3. The federation released the minnyme mod, a mod that basically puts level-able Pikmin that look like their controller into the game (yes, that is my best way of describing them).

Side note, these tiny creatures are not meant to be a replacement for the eggs. And it looked like originally these creatures were meant to be given to the federation workers possibly to either help keep them safe or to increase their worker count.

Soon after the server members were found out and worked to escape, in the process they managed to steal the items needed to spawn the minnymes for themselves. After which the group escaped and the federation had to pull a coverup to make it seem like the island members were meant to gain the minnymes.

After this Phil meets up will Wilbur again who had finally realised the full extent of what was going on with the eggs and allowed Phil to fully explain the situation and everything they had discovered so far, as well as Phil explaining how he had gotten in contact with Cheyanne. In addition to this the two had found a water frame playing a specific song that Wilbur had used to find Tallulah after she got separated from him on their first day together. He then went on to copy the song down into a notebook to try and get a message to Tallulah.

Towards the end of this, Slime came and visited, and Phil revealed about the code(?) egg that Smile was hanging with, with Phil and Will following Slime so the man could reveal what happened. During this, I will state I had trouble keeping it together and watching the stream/vod due to the multiple minutes long s*x innuendo between Wilbur and Slime that even Phil was having trouble keeping it together for! This then led into an attempt at a comedy show between Slime, Will and Baghera involving the goldfish joke.

After this Phil and Wilbur went back to Will's house where they were joined by Cellbit for a bit as Will set up his message box to Tallulah before the musician asked for some time alone. After Phil and Celbit left they talked about what has been going on with the eggs and the pair decided to mostly not use the minnymes.

After this the pair met up with the others at the spawn where Phil had an out of character chat with Quackity that led to Phil having to put big Q's minnyme into a glass box because Q's stream or computer seemingly crashed.

After that Phil set off to go to bed for the night.

I hope this catches everyone up for when Phil returns after his vacation with his goddess Wife.

Have fun!

[cdroloisms]

If you're not already burnt out from analysis, do you have any thoughts on the Mexican L'Manberg debates?

hmm i have to rewatch the vod tbh it's been a bit--not many thoughts that haven't been regurgitated a million times though.

something that has always interested me is the whole dethronement debacle/mexican lmanburg debates in relation to how leadership has worked for the greater smp faction, largely because the dsmp was never meant to be a faction and the creation of the official kingship for c!Eret was very much in response to L'manburg at the time. and there is honestly quite a bit of conflict that rises from the fact that the greater dsmp faction was never really meant to have a king in the first place, and the confusion that would arise about what the role of the king even was supposed to be (especially as the idea of c!Dream having any kind of legitimacy was worn away over time.) it'd be an interesting meta to write if i could think of a way to word it all--but it's always fascinated me, in this conflict, how the progression of "he's in charge of the server, i'm in charge of the land" to c!Dream's no-mans-land position of leadership in the dsmp faction progresses as the server goes on is utilized in c!Quackity's favor to effectively block c!Dream out of the conversation (even with so much of this being quite directly an attack on dream in the first place.) something something being king of the dsmp comes with a level of restriction, yes, but also a level of protection--and while c!dream, viewed nebulously as a leader, was also subject to a certain level of restriction to a certain extent (see: his asserting that he couldn't publicly stand against schlatt because of the peace treaty between their two nations), the fact that his leadership was more de facto early on (because the dsmp faction wasn't yet a faction) as compared to the kingship, this conflict is a clear demonstration of how he doesn't have the same political sway as the dsmp king to be able to ask for quite the same level of protection (and hence, how his request for an apology in the peace treaty goes unheeded and how he ends up as a trading piece in the negotiations.)

otherwise, mexican lmanburg definitely has a lot in terms of echoes of c!wilbur and the lmanburg narrative, particularly regarding c!dream's view on factions, which is interesting--c!dream has never actually been "anti-people doing what they want in a group," but of course that's how things ended up being popularly seen because. gestures. and of course, there's the whole idea that every single conflict on the server ever was initiated by c!dream which...again, lmao. along those lines:

[thinks abt lmanburg. a lot] yeah.

and lastly...this isn't really just a mexican lmanburg thing, but c!dream around this time was kinda known to reacting to threats by basically doing the thing where he would make like, a laundry list of threats, right, just really over-the-top stuff that would freak people out like hell, right? we see it in exile negotiations, we see it in mexican lmanburg debates--

and you know, they've regularly been pointed to as you know, look how crazy evil he is an how he overreacts to shit and etc, whatever. and it does interest me how these speeches are quite similar in pattern to moments post-prison as well:

specifically being quite consistent with moments where he's feeling, well, a bit unstable. it's an intimidation tactic that c!dream has long used, of course (white flags speech is a well-known example) but it's interesting to see it often in context of c!dream being to some degree, scared (or paranoid)--even in white flags, that was obviously a conflict that c!dream treated seriously that was quite a bit different in character from conflicts that preceded it on the server and therefore demanded a greater level of wariness and caution from him. always interesting, to me, the ways that certain actions for c!Dream are so deeply related to fear, feeling attacked (compared to, say, c!sam who would do the whole I Am The Warden power play against anyone that he felt challenged his authority)

very very scattered thoughts, but um--yeah! i really should rewatch this stream especially bc the transcript is incomplete, but alas

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Sorry, Wrong Comms! : Hunter x Medic!Reader [Chapter 5]

Warnings and Information: Intended audience is 13+ (18 if you squint). We cry like men in this house because we’ve learned (slightly) better coping mechanisms almost a year after Order 66 in this AU!! Mentions of medical stitches and paraphernalia. Writing love letters is tricky business. Fluff. Angst. Pining/Hunter having a slight panic attack if you squint. Mostly Star Wars swearing. Use of Mando'a. Occasionally jumping character-focus with no show of Medic!Reader since she’s gone home for the night, so it’s “Oops! All Batchers” Hours with passing mentions of Medic!Reader. 

As this bantha has been beaten to death by now, “RIFE with my headcanons” really applies here in this chapter: Lots of my headcanons about unofficial “Clone Culture” on Kamino are gonna show up briefly (one line is suggestive of masturbation and another is suggestive of toxic masculinity standards). Tryin’ real hard to avoid certain fanon characterizations of the Batchers. Intentional and unintentional trickery; only 50% of these siblings are getting any decent sleep tonight.  Maybe grab some tissues?

Word-count: 5,022

Echo's told me that Wrecker's told you that I-

No, this was just going to get messy and long-winded if he dragged his vode into it on how he found out into his fifth draft... Erase.

Guess I should cut the chatter: I've been made aware that you now have an idea of how I feel about you when I was under medical observa-

On second thought, that wasn't necessary to bring up, the medic would know the "when". Erase.

-of how I feel about you. Echo encouraged me to tell you the full truth myself. So that's what this letter is meant to do, [____]. It'll be easier to lay down a foundation for a later conversation in a letter first… if that's what you want.

He gingerly eased his back up higher along the headboard of the bed with a tray of salted crackers in his lap and tried thinking back to the results from the Holonet while everyone else had dinner at the time, earlier in the evening. Something about removing the pressure being asked to have a verbal conversation with someone by proposing the option to find an alternative method of communication if desired… Tech had been pretty thorough in finding several wordy, but helpful articles. Pretty quick to find them as well, come to think of it.

If not, then maybe we can communicate this way for the time being. I'll leave that up to you. But it's important that-

Crosshair or Tech had interrupted his train of thought as he deliberately typed out each word. "Hunter; I don't hear you eating." 

"Not hungry, vod."

"You're going to remain in a state of nausea even with the anti-emetic tablets if you do not eat anything while you are taking the medicine that was prescribed to you as per the warnings on the label." Crosshair didn't talk like that. Only one brother it could possibly be. 

"Just come in, Tech…" The goggled Clone entered the room quickly, an assortment of items in a crate under one arm. Things [____] left with them from her medbag to pad out the Batch's medical arsenal until the shops opened in the morning. Snap-activated cold packs. A new temp reader. Gauze and bacta. "I brought a few nutrient paste tubes with me to leave them by your bedside in case you woke up in the middle of the night; no mess and nothing to chew. Well come to think of it, perhaps the reason you haven't and don't feel like eating is a sore jaw after all the… No matter. Here." 

Tech offered Hunter one of the more palatable flavors of nutrient paste, and he quickly realized that as Tech held this one out to him (the way he'd seen several Regs pass back General Skywalker's lightsaber to him after another of his infamous shenanigans), all of the tubes were the most palatable flavors to Hunter. 

Hunter's exclusive line of nutrient products! Omega joked once. Tech had been teaching her what he knew of the various manufacturers that produced these types of rations while they were deep in hyperspace to keep her occupied. Crosshair, who had been a royal grouch after lying in the mud banks for hours in wait for their quarry to acquire some credits, could be heard chuckling in his rack at Omega's joke (and didn't deny doing so when Echo dared to tease him). That'd been the mission that made the Marauder's exterior hull muddy and the eventual reason they'd hosed it down with [____]'s help after being splashed with the hose when Wrecker had become distracted by the rare bird. 

"Thanks, Tech…" 

"You're welcome. I'll put these away." Tech swept up the tray with untouched crackers after Hunter moved it to his bedside, and was ready to slip out of the room before he was stopped. "Uh, wait. I'd like your help with something because I trust you won't tell anyone." 

"Except, if it was your stitching, I would tell [____]. That was a promise earlier, if you recall; not a threat." Tech reminded him, careful to keep his cadence neutral and gentle. Hunter reluctantly, hesitantly gave his word that he would reach out to the good doctor, or Tech so he could, if anything happened to his stitches before she stepped out into the street and went home for the night, one of Crosshair's many pistols tucked into her waistband as a compromise when she insisted she'd get home just fine without an escort. (She'd first have to stop by her clinic and finally close down the building, anyways; she didn't think it would take long enough to warrant the company and insisted that everyone stay home.) "And since you do not appear to have torn any, I would hypothesize it has to do with more research." Tech concluded, eyes darting over every un-inked inch of the gauze on Hunter's shoulder longest. 

Together, before the grown woman went home, Omega and [____] had added one doodle each to the medical wrap with the fabric marker. Omega's was a big butterfly to sit on top of an exotic flower from Kashyyyk drawn by the medic. A perfect, complementing addition, even if the species wasn't native to the homeworld of the Wookies; a fact his sister realized too late, but decided that she'd ignore the matter of accuracy in the end. It mattered far more than Hunter had sat still as stone with his eyes closed so sister and friend could surprise him with the collaboration, and had warned both they'd have to wave off the nearest art exhibits soon enough with a teasing tone but sincere smile. That he was honored to wear the artwork. 

Tech had already taken several pictures of the joint-effort "doodle" for the days to come that someone inevitably dreamed of the day's dreadful "what if we lost Hunter?" experience as a happier reminder.

We didn't lose him, and here's the proof.

Hunter sighed after the long silence between them, rousing from his thoughts at last. "Partly. Do you have your datapad?" Of course Tech would, they both knew that. Hunter gestured to his own equipment, sighing. "It would make this go a lot faster if I had some help figuring out how to write this karking thing. I've tried writing about five different versions and I swear each one sucks more than the last. I don't know what to say."

Tech blinked, quietly puzzling out some thoughts before speaking. "You're writing a romantic confession." 

Got it in one, as usual. It was hardly surprising to Hunter anymore, just a comfort to know that Tech often had him figured out so well in times like these. "Yes… But," he paused, considering, "I may want a proof-reader, secondary to the company and help." Maybe if Tech was simply just there with him for the most part, Hunter could stall less if he had someone to find the right answers for the best possible outcome. He would tell [____] the truth about how he felt, and how he could be rather avoidant at times when he was uncomfortable, and just hope for the best. There was a chance she may not return the same feelings or the desire to remain friends should she not after such a serious declaration was laid bare to her. 

Hunter didn't believe she would cut their friendship over that, but it was a real possibility he had to keep in mind. Something like that wouldn't be enough to stop her just because she got along with all of the Batch fairly equally. She was personable and nurturing, she had found the perfect profession for her out in the galaxy. She would always have some place to help, someone who needed her, somewhere to go and do the grisly work that came with the occupation… 

She… would always make new friends if a confession was not reciprocated and he made her so uncomfortable she... She…

"Stars, Hunter… you're in quite deep for her, aren't you." The half-question hung heavy on his shoulders, feeling the weight of it around his neck, and the warmth of his brother's hand as it carefully clasped his upper arm once he'd joined Hunter on the bed. His eyes burned with the threat of tears in the anxious silence before Tech's tender gesture of comfort. "K'uur… take a deep breath, now. I'll just take the nutrient paste and set it here for the time being so it doesn't burst open. You're going to be alright, brother."

A promise, a reassurance, a mantra. The "analytical babbling" would be inappropriate to offer Hunter right now when he just needed the silence, but not the solace, to take as long as he needed to cry for perhaps the first in a very long time since they were… cadets. Tech just silently sucked in his teeth and surmised his brother was still so overwhelmed and out of sorts after the ordeal of raiding a prisoner transport ship with Captain Rex went terribly wrong. The bomb that had gone off when Hunter got in-range was not one of their own, and the injuries… Tech didn't want to make mental comparisons to the gory detonation injuries he witnessed in other soldiers of the GAR, when there had been such a thing. Now it was the Imperial-something. 

Stop. Run a mental checklist.

Modified Omicron-class attack shuttle. The Havoc Marauder. He needs to pay for the docking fee in the morning. More urgent than that, make sure that Hunter gets sleep tonight using one and a half of the sleep inducers at minimum. More urgent than that still, by the time Hunter was settled, help him with the fifth draft to give him some peace of mind. Just a few minutes would probably suffice as Hunter would have been thoroughly spent… using energy he didn't have. Oh he'd be an exhausted shell in the morning, strictly prohibited from using adrenaline stims by [_____]. Smart woman. It would force him to rest.  

Let's have a peek at his datapad.

The first draft had strong undercurrents of typical Clone psychobabble that standard, nat-born citizens of the galaxy found… concerning. But there was a good snippet in there about a quarter of the way in about explaining his enhancements (and Tech paused to memorize his brother's words regarding him) before copying this selection into the bottom of the fifth draft that would probably prove helpful to their friend. The second and third were almost nothing but poetry and half-formed thoughts. With some careful sentence surgery, Tech could tell Hunter was now watching as he forged his brother's style of wordsmithy impeccably. 

"I've been practicing." Tech admitted softly, mindful of how close the shell of Hunter's ear was to his face. "It's a long story for another time. Here," He reached out beside him to the bedside furniture and plucked the tube of nutrient paste off the immaculate surface before carefully tearing away the perforated edge with his teeth to open it for his brother. 

Hunter was tiring fast, curling in on himself, into Tech's side, with the fatigue, but he should have at least half of the tube before he succumbed to the inevitable crash. "Just half of this will be enough for now. Stop me if at any time you want me to splice the sentence differently." Hunter's head was now planted under Tech's chin, cheek resting on his chest as he nurses the ration. 

Tech could work through however initially uncomfortable this was for him for however long it took. With obvious exception of Wrecker among their tight knit squad, he didn't typically consider himself or his brothers to be especially strong in the love language of touch like this. Like children. Not anymore. With acceleration in age and growth and the desired obedience for an army of their scale, they don't exactly get the childhood a nat-born has. Growth jars, training, blasterfire. That was their "childhood". He was grateful for his ability to stay calm when faced with these emotions, otherwise a rocketing heartbeat would have tipped off Hunter and interrupted his peace. To soothe himself, Tech habitually resituated his goggles, and for good measure, adjusted the crisp new bandana Hunter had donned since losing the other with a feather-light touch. Hunter bristled, uninjured shoulder curling to his ears. 

"K'uur… easy, Hunter." It sounded like a mumbled apology under Hunter's breath before another stripe of nutri-paste was applied to his tongue and the gradual droop of his good shoulder. "Don't be: I should have warned you. My apologies. Now… let's see what this fourth draft holds." Stars, it was rife with material. Perhaps even some of his best, in the sense of great emotional appeal. Why Hunter loved [____]. The trust, the respect, and… the guilt. Shame. Guilty of fearing the clinic and the shattered cross that indicated healers. Feeling shameful for not being explicit in his words and using those 'I trust you, burc'ya' or 'I have a great amount of respect for you despite my discomfort with the profession' phrases; or the other ways he'd thought of thanking her for helping him and his family at every odd hour they came to her and never did and felt guilty for it phrases. 

He'd read it over later, realizing that when he had used the hand previously around Hunter's shoulder to adjust his goggles and brother's bandana, he'd never removed that hand from the top of Hunter's head and had mindlessly been stroking the first two fingers through richly textured hair. (If he drifted his middle finger just a bit lower than it was now, he'd find the soft ridge of the scar from the process of removing their inhibitor chips.) He'd sent Hunter to sleep without the drugs, feeling the start of the sleeping 14-breath cycle typical to him against Tech's own body. 

Tech supposed he'd be kept in place with a sleep-adhered brother for some time now, and picked up his own datapad once Hunter's tube of nutrient paste (seventy-five percent consumed, he noted) was plucked from sleeping fingers and his drafts backed up and individually saved. He wanted to look over the schematics of the transport ship he'd nabbed in the meantime until he felt it was the right time to wiggle out of this arrangement and leave his brother to sleep. Might as well. Leave too early, before he reached deep sleep, and he may inadvertently wake Hunter.

Tell Hunter now while he was largely undistracted and turning on the amber-toned screen setting so he could study those schematics. "Sleep well, ner vod."

May he stay asleep…

Tech had gone to check on Hunter nearly two hours ago. Crosshair had no illusions that after fifteen minutes, Tech was not likely coming back to finish their game of Sabacc, so he'd grabbed his weapons kit and taken to tending to his 773 Firepuncher. There wasn't much to clean, as usual, but it killed some time just in the event Tech might be coming back and excused himself for being a while and rejoined him. 

Maybe he'd just forgotten and gone to bed after he'd tended to Hunter, off in his own galaxy. It was known to happen, no matter. Crosshair would say something in the morning once he was back from paying the docking fees and making a run for more blue milk, once Crosshair scribbled down a note on Tech's notice board. 

'Easy to keep track of our necessary supplies and goods as they deplete if we have a centralized location in our housing for writing these things down. It can also serve as our chore rota.' Tech religiously checked it every morning and every night, even when no one had added anything of importance beyond a silly doodle or removal of an item from the running list.

Nerd: Two blue milk along with the med supplies, don't forget. Credits: counter under my helmet. Took care of laundry. - C

That would do it. He'd go check on Hunter, then turn in for the night. Echo turned in earliest of the Batch with his strict early-fall-early-rise sleep regimen, and Omega and Wrecker were bunking together in Omega's room so she could hopefully get distracted enough with Wrecker's help to make falling asleep far easier… so she wouldn't dream about hearing that explosive going off around the corner of the ship and-

Taking care to soften his footsteps down the hall, he gingerly eased the door to Hunter's room open and peered in. Well, looks like he found Tech. And just under the crook of his arm, curled tight like a sick child in a parent's bed, was Hunter, his head planted on Tech's chest. Fast asleep. He'd probably had Tech trapped long enough that he'd fallen asleep upright in Hunter's bed while keeping him company. 

Two 'odd-vod' just… cuddling, dare he say.

It was an endearing sight, honestly, if he had to give it a word. Two of his brothers huddled together like groups of worn out cadets in the halls of Kamino after hours spent in the training centers, too tired to make it back to their pod rooms or the mess halls or wherever they had to be yet. Vod looked out for vod. Youngest cadets were always afforded a little more time to do things and older batches of Clones stalled the long-necks as necessary. Creative, believable excuses for the cadet team's tardiness by their "Den Brothers". Encouragement during battle sims. Mock espionage or stealth missions to distract from especially violent surges in the perpetual storm outside the cloning facility. Secret rounds of group trivia during lights-out. Older brothers finding ways to show the mischievous youngsters how to be more subtle, more sneaky, if they were going to view prohibited material for natural urges. A series of rota across the whole of the cloning facility for who would be 'Feeling a little blaster-happy, boys… Think I'll log another hour or two at the artillery range to get it out of my system. Someone buff up my helmet for me, yeah?' and not easily missed or suspect in order to help the cadets refine their skills. Captains and Commanders holding unofficial lessons on the down-low. 

Manage your credits smartly. 

Listen to me, little brothers… The reason the medics keep taking down your fitness posters in the training centers is because they're trying to look out for you. Those models are dehydrated and on crash diets. Unhealthy. Don't aspire to be like them. They're not taking them down to be cruel, your brothers are just trying to make sure you're healthy. A bit of fat on those bones is good; you shouldn't look a vac-sealed ration.

Yes, the Force really does work in mysterious ways, but sometimes General Skywalker is full of bantha fodder. "A disturbance in the Force" my left ass cheek… sometimes the place just has a bad vibe that has nothing to do with the Force!

Here's what I think we should have done differently to capture the Seppy's outpost in the xxxx system. … Yes I admit I complained about this to General xxxx already but what's done is done. 

Vod looked out for vod. Deactivating the bedside lamp bathed the room in total darkness, and with his sharpened sense of sight, the jarring lighting shift was quickly adjusted to with a couple of measured blinks. Crosshair scooped the light blanket Hunter had flung across the room from his bed in an episode of overheating (it had hit the wall he shared with Crosshair) just last week, and draped it over slumbering siblings with a feather-light movement. He picked up Tech's personal datapad and captured an image of the two of them using night vision, being sure to hear that muted klic! of a successful capture before carefully navigating it back to the main HUD and laying it beside Hunter's on the bedside. 

Vod looked out for vod. Crosshair, careful to hold his breath as he hinged at the waist, bent forward and loosened the strap of the goggles to lessen the friction of removing them from around Tech's eyes. Setting those neatly on the proper datapad, Cross next straightened up the bandana and tucked away more unruly sections of hair before he would feel the first tugging, instinctual urges to breathe from his lungs. 

These two were typically light sleepers after the really bad missions; today was certainly one of 'em. It didn't look like Hunter had needed to take the short-term prescription to induce a night's sleep, so perhaps he was truly that exhausted, and that unwell, still. When [____] would come to return his DC-17 in the morning before she opened her clinic for the day, Cross would decide if he'd tell her not to be surprised about the 'extra' capsule in the canisters when it came time to return them then, or later. 

Smart thinking to sign them up to use the clinic's durasteel use-and-return canisters, Tech. No canisters to be found by those snooping around trash collection units in this dodgy spaceport that might use them to make the Imperial Army aware of their location for a large sum of credits.

Vod looked after vod, after all… a mantra he'd eventually come to be grateful for since Kaller. The ordeal of nearly losing Hunter today put a lot into perspective for Crosshair suddenly. Things he'd buried away and compartmentalized for a very vague idea of "another time" that more meant "never. ever."... 

No time like the present, he supposed. Cross bid his brothers a whispered goodnight and ducked from Hunter's room, stepping into his own for a moment with the intention to shed half the mock-civvies, change into his nightshirt and plant himself at the foot of his bed to begin contemplating, but he was struck with another thought as his eyes skimmed the calendar tacked to the wall above his tidy desk. 

Uh oh. The end of the week may not be the best time in case Hunter's little assignment went sour…

"Echo… Echo!" The ARC was slow to turn over in his bed, trying to figure out what had woken him. Maybe he was just imagining the monolithic, but paradoxically gentle aquatic beast with a gaping maw calling his name as some falsely-concocted feeling it was one of his brothers waking him for… something from his subconscious. "Echo!!" Nope. Not the water creature he was just swimming with in the undertow of an ocean planet. It was Crosshair. 

"Oh, stars. What is it now…?" he moaned. He was in the middle of a damn good dream for once in a long time, and all of the Domino Squad had been there, swimming alongside him and this giant of the deep seas. Feeling so fluid and free and… Fives. He'd been dreaming of Fives. Fives wanted to tail this creature with oar-like fins and bioluminescent spots and Echo had yearned to follow Fives. Follow his brother. The other half of the Domino Twins since they lost Droidbait, Cutup and Hevy at the Rishi Moon station when they were all just Shinies. 

And the white-hot fury flared and burned in those pale eyes beneath squeezed brows for a moment, a sharp look the sharp-eyed brother wouldn't have missed even in the dim light of the room. Clone Force 99 had long ago learned that they did not wake Echo without good reason when they had downtime and shore leave. Before Crosshair made a carefully calculated statement he was waved to stand down, and against all his impulses, Echo swallowed down that venom and the weary sigh took its place. 

"What's wrong with Hunter?" Something had to be wrong. The others had probably tasked Crosshair with waking him so he could get up and either stay with Hunter or go retrieve help. A torn stitch? Was he refusing to take the medicine again? Was he even supposed to take any at this time? "Wh-what time is it?"

Whatever time Crosshair gave him didn't completely register with Echo, but what did was the reassurance that Hunter was fine. "Tech's got Hunter handled; fell asleep on the bed with him- real cute and all, but listen: I'm sorry to wake you, but I need your help with something. About what you said earlier to Hunter."

Echo bit back a yawn and propped himself up on his good elbow just slightly. "What about it…?" 

"Why does he need to tell [____] by the end of the week?" 

That did nothing to abate the worry or answer his question. What was the marksman getting at? "Look, if I didn't give him a hard deadline, he'll stall-"

Cross balked, interrupting him. "You don't know?" 

"Know what?" Echo snapped, sitting up now and carefully peeling back the weighted blanket [____] had gifted him several months ago. (Every bad night he looked at it, he would recall the way Wrecker boomed "It's like a permanent hug?! Tha's awesome!! That'll help Echo so much!" as she explained why she thought the way-too-kind gift would benefit Echo's insomnia and myriad of other nocturnal troubles after a week of bruise-like dark circles under his eyes. He'd been dreaming of Domino Squad: horrible, dark dreams that time that led him to be afraid to sleep, something his immune system could not afford like it once did…)

"That's her birth-day!" came out in a whispered hiss, "So I'm not sure giving him until the end of the week is a good idea!" 

[____]'s birth- Oh, no. Kriff kriff kriff! He'd forgotten that! 

Seeing that Echo now had the same violent realization he did, Cross gave a jerky, nodding gesture in a silent 'see?!' to his brother. "I think we need to consider another time. Or, you need to help me find a way to scope out how she feels about him before then. If she doesn't feel the same way he painfully does if he's putting what I think he's putting in that little letter of his I saw him writing while he sat out on the game after dinner… it would make for a very uncomfortable rest of the day. We can't do that to the kid on her birth-day, Echo." 

They needed to come up with a plan. "No… no we shouldn't, that wouldn't be right." Echo agreed. "Just… give me a minute to collect myself before we start talking, please." 

"... Right. Right of course." The younger man with tight gray curls of hair looked so guilty; often interrupted eye contact, curling and uncurling fingers, the tight, shallow inhales. 

"I know you're sorry, it's o-"

What was interpreted as an excuse was cut down with a clipped voice. "Don't give me that shit, Echo. You're right to be angry at me. Allowed." 

Well, he certainly still was, but the reasoning was different now. "Don't worry, I don't need your permission to be angry, Crosshair. But as I was going to say it's okay, you don't need to let your guilt get the best of you and treat me like kriffing glass." He was a damn ARC, made of sterner stuff that made the little brothers on Kamino look like they met a celebrity from their favorite pieces of holo-media they'd managed to get their hands on. That starstruck glimmer in a cadet's eyes seeing older brothers, decorated and painted war heroes, coming back for a taste of home before their next assignments and campaigns. 

Did Crosshair ever look at an older brother, a seasoned soldier, like that when he was a cadet? Or did he regard those men with envy because he didn't think the likes of him would ever get to be like them? Like him, Echo?

A regular Clone cut from the largest damn bolt of cloth the galaxy had ever seen; up until the Citadel, at least.

He knew Crosshair was still looking at him with a lot of guilt as Echo mentally braced himself to get up out of his bed he wasn't terribly fond of, and he wanted to do something about it. Maybe, if he could be convincing enough… he could find a believable excuse to give Crosshair the embrace he felt the brother needed. "Awh! Kriffing hells…" when he was "ready" to get up, he faked the seizing grind in one of the bolts of his right hip. A bolt he knew needed lubricant soon. He grumbled darkly for good measure, playing up the unsteady hobble as he pretended to fail at finding his feet flat underneath him. "Dammit not now!" 

Steady hands and strong fingers caught Echo as he anticipated, an arm of the marksman flung around his chest to keep the cybernetic soldier from falling forward and a firm grip on the residual limb of his right arm came around from behind so his scomplink wouldn't smack into anything in the panicked flail. "I've got you, brother." Crosshair was allowed to believe he helped Echo find his footing before Echo slung his good arm around his younger brother and held him close, feigning the pause to gather his nerves. If he was too bold, too impatient, Crosshair would catch on and Echo would lose the opportunity. "Th-thanks." 

"Don't mention it." There was no dismissal or downplaying undercurrents to the coolly given reply. It was just Crosshair for of course I'd help, you're welcome that the Bad Batch came to know and understand and move on from without a second thought.

But not after today, and not before they would set a plan in motion together in the dead of night, like old times in the Clone Wars. So the trap was sprung; with both flesh and cybernetic arm, Echo carefully fit his limbs against the warmth of the brother of another squad and only rumbled in a fond and careful voice the words similar to ones he had once spoken to the brother he had been closest to so many times it was forever etched into the fleshy tables of his heart and tongue. 

"Heh. Don't think I will. Just doing what any good brother does, Crosshair. Vod looks after vod."

Taglist: @dragonrider9905 @ladytano420​

Note from Frost: If you would like to be added to the taglist that is currently just specific for Sorry, Wrong Comms!, (I may start a taglist for all Star Wars related fanfiction projects that will be marked accordingly with #frostfics in the near future if there is interest) don’t hesitate to shoot me an ask or a comment loves. 🩷

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[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 22/01/2024

Mother, Father, TechnoMan

Season 4 Episode 2 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume D

Ripped by vvsvlogs

Requested by @cathode-glacier!

There's something very funny about receiving a request to cover a rip I've never heard of, literally ONE DAY before it gets played live at SiIvaGunner team's MAGFest Chipspace show. But, to both the submitter, and to vvsvlogs herself for playing the rip at her set - thank you SO much to introducing me to Mother, Father, TechnoMan. I am always, ALWAYS down to cover more Anamanaguchi music on here.

I haven't made my love for the aforementioned band much of a secret on here: while I am still pretty poorly versed in the music world as a whole, I have listened to the entire discography of Anamanaguchi, most known nowadauentire discography. after initially discovering them through Scott Pilgrim, and immediately fell in love with their sound. With Give Me the Fantasy, I was a bit more self-indulgent than usual and covered a mashup between their hit song Endless Fantasy and Pitbull, and more recently with 88811 I covered a rip I now call one of my all-time, most-underrated favorites. Now with a mashup, and a melody swap, it's time to shift into overdrive - Mother, Father, TechnoMan is a full-on mashup medley, with so many pieces that elevate an already incredible track into all-new levels of sheer hype. Hype that vvsvlog's set at Chipspace, MAGFest, only heightens.

Because even though I was merely watching the set streamed through Twitch, it was incredible clear to me just how much sheer energy and fun exuded from the entirety of vvsvlog's show at MAGFest. And really, it's Mother, Father, TechnoMan's part of it that best illustrates it, as seen at around 01:28:40 in the Twitch VOD. Right after she'd poured her heart out performing The Paragoomba and the Wiggler with live sing-along, the music fades, the visuals turn black, and she takes a few steps away from the mic, as if to end the set, met with claps from everyone in the crowd... And then, it plays: "MOTHER - FATHER - GENTLEMEN !!" - and immediately, vvsvlogs springs back to the microphone with absolutely infectious silly-mode energy. From absolutely HITTING a Fortnite dance in time with the opening Space Jam mashup that revs up the rip, to miming along with the lyrics to Last Resort, to the neverending bounce and energy present in general, it becomes just, abundantly clear to me how much vvsvlogs LOVES doing what she does.

It's not that I'm trying to review the Chipspace performance itself here - rather, I simply think it illustrates the magic of rips like Mother, Father, TechnoMan so perfectly. There's just a feeling of joy, a feeling of pure fun to be found in these rips, the ones that are just covered in so many layers of noise, the meme mashups like Memey Hell or Everybody's Special Course, or so many others. And Mother, Father, TechnoMan just channels that energy so expertly though its pingponging of lyrically-driven sources, all tweaked to fit the high-pitched emotion that defines Anamanaguchi's sound. Space Jam, Last Resort, a chorus introduced by Initial D Eurobeat before being overtaken by Linkin Park, which fucking HITS those high notes to a level I never thought would be possible...through it all, it feels as if these sources are all tied together through the power of raw excitement. Excitement that I feel every time I listen to it, and excitement that vvsvlogs is evidently well equipped to handle.

In closing, I love Mother, Father, TechnoMan, I love Anamanaguchi, I loved MAGFest 2024, and I do love SiIvaGunner...But, as a sleep-deprived yet adrenaline-fueled me wrote at 01:17:23 in the aforementioned Twitch stream's chat:

"@ siivacord i demand rips of [USA] expeditiously"

Orz (this is me begging)

[bee-dot-exe]

I really wish I wasn't writing this. I just can't believe it. Put on your seatbelts I guess. Kinda long and kinda heavy post ahead. Take care of yourselves.

I follow Shelby, but I don't really watch her. When I saw her go live and I saw that it would be a more serious stream, I got kinda worried, but I didn't think a whole lot of it I guess. And slowly but surely, as I scrolled on here, I saw the occasional post not only saying they were proud of her, but saying negative things about Wil. My heart sunk, and to be honest, from what I'd seen, she didn't name any names, why were people blaming and saying these things about him, he didn't do anything?

So while I absolutely supported Shelby regardless, at the time I hadn't look further into anything, and avoided posts with either of their names for my own well being.

I came here this morning and there was a screenshot of his Tweet. And I felt like I was gonna throw up.

First of all, what was that. That was a response, sure, but that's about it. It was not anything genuine. It was not an apology.

Wilbur, this hurts me, like I genuinely feel like the air was punched out of me as I write this, Not only that what Shelby said was true, not only that you admitted it, but that this is the response you can't up with?

I remember finding you one day three or four years ago, and not to be parasocial, but I immediately felt connected. Wrapped around my brain. I was hyperfixated, felt understood in a way few others has made me feel before, maybe something similar to attraction grew.

And now I don't know what to do. I don't know if I can watch some of my comfort videos or vods. Listen to one of my favorite bands. Keep talking about/infodumping/introducing one of my comfort creators.

I can't stop thinking about people you were friends with not wanting to interact anymore. Of even though you weren't really on QSMP you probably definitely won't be anymore. Of Lovejoy maybe probably slowly stopping. Of the fact that I haven't really watched Tommy in a while but your friendship was once very dear to me and I don't know anything behind the scenes and I hope he will be okay. Of this really happening.

And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for fans past present and future. I'm sorry for Shelby and any other had been or possible future victim. I'm sorry for you because you did this, you dug this hole further and further, you are watching this happen.

I'm going to update my pinned post and change my blog layout. I'm not going to write about him or post about him anymore, but I'm not going to delete what I have written or posted, because I was at one point and still am proud of it, and a part of me will continue to hold these things near my chest. I'm gonna go now cause I have a headache.

[tereox]

Warmup #15

Rating: G

Summary: It's raining on Coruscant. The Coruscant Guard gets a visit from a Jedi youngling who is very enthusiastic about the change in weather.

Notes: You'd think there's only so many things I can write that have the Corries and rain in them. Well, apparently I haven't run out of ideas yet.

~~~

Fox heaved a sigh as the knocking on his door did not cease. He'd already told them to come in, did he have to open the door for them? Really?

He closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment of rest, then pushed himself up and walked to the door panel, pressing the button in a way that would have him writing a requisitioning request for a new one in no time.

A child was standing in the door. They beamed up at him. "Oh good. I don't know your door code."

Which was exactly how Fox liked it. "What are you doing here, Ciph?" He knelt down in front of the small Rodian jetii cadet.

"Thorn asked me to come get you." Their voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "It's raining outside."

Well, that would explain why the Corrie base was deserted. "Alright, I'll just finish-"

Ciph grabbed his arm and tugged on it. "The rain won't be there forever, the datawork can wait. That's what the Force is telling me and you can trust the Force." They nodded very seriously.

Fox rolled his eyes. "Of course. I am very glad the Force could make time to check over my datawork deadlines for me."

Ciph beamed. "Great, come on!"

Seeing as there was no getting out of Ciph's grip when they were this sure of themselves, Fox pressed the door panel to close his office and reluctantly trudged after them. He did like rain, most of the vode did. They'd grown up with it and it just settled something in them to hear it or to have the rain drum onto their armour while they patrolled.

They could move through the rain without any issue. It was a good ally of theirs while the natborns had to slide around and felt generally miserable because of it.

Well, except Ciph, apparently.

"Is your armour waterproof?" Ciph asked curiously as they made their way to one of the side entrances.

Fox hummed. "Occasionally."

Ciph peered up at him suspiciously. "That's not a proper answer."

Fox allowed a grin to spread over his face. "Are your clothes waterproof?"

"Yes." Ciph pointed at their jacket proudly. "I asked the quartermaster for one and they still had raincoats! And rain boots! Have you ever jumped into puddles?"

Fox had. "I think you'll have to show me that."

Ciph gasped. "I will."

~~~

"Thorn." Fox sighed.

Thorn beamed at him, entirely dressed in civvies with a bright red raincoat draped over him. "Fox! I managed to get some for you as well, you have to try this, it's comfortable and it holds off all the rain!"

Apparently it had, and now Thorn's coat was dripping it everywhere.

"Put up a wet floor sign."

Thorn looked down at the puddle. "Ah."

"He's right though!" Ciph jumped in while Thorn made his way to a storage closet. "The coat is warm too!"

"And it's needed for jumping into puddles, I'd assume?"

Ciph beamed. "Absolutely."

Fox was aware that if he'd put up more of a fight, they would have happily let him keep his armour on. The fact was though, that most of Coruscant went into hiding when it started raining properly. They had no idea what to do with the torrents of water when the weather machine failed.

Fox and his vode though, they were experts.

~~~

"You look awesome!" Ciph cheered.

Fox had to admit that the coat really was warm. And it was the same colour as Thorn's, quite close to the Corrie red they wore every day. It was a nice bonus.

"Alright!" Thorn beamed. "We're ready for anything!"

It had been.. a while since Fox had seen Thorn so excited. He just nodded along and followed them outside. It would be good to catch a break.

~~~

Mando'a vod - sibling (plural: vode)

[gauntletqueen]

I haven't watched your KH streams (I caught part of one live but watching VODs really stresses my attention span, plus I didn't find you until you were already near the end of II) but I was wondering if you had any experience with any of the related Square-Enix and Nomura library like Final Fantasy, The World Ends With You, Super Mario RPG, Bravely Default, Theatrhythm, Dragon Quest, etc?

Nice question :> I'm not as big a Squenix fan as a lot of others, but I've played a fair bit of their games! Time to make a stupid long post about it :)

When it comes to Final Fantasy, the usual turn-based combat is hard for me to stick with, usually, but: - I've watched playthroughs of FF7, I hate Cloud for realsies and Sephi as a joke. The game has a lot of great visual designs and its length was very impressive for the time. I am against the "remake". - I have played through FF15 (more than once). I recognise its flaws but appreciate the characters and interesting story even if it's not told that well safhghaf - I've played ~200 hours of Acclaimed MMO FF14, including the entire base game story, and I recognise it does what it does very well, which is master the classic MMO formula, which is not for me sfahghaf - Also FF Explorers on the 3DS, that one's pretty fun :> - I know a bit about other Final Fantasy games through osmosis and watching other playthroughs like I did with 7, but the info didn't stick as well sfahhgaf

I reeeaally wanna play TWEWY sometime!! I actually have the DS game cartridge, but I just. Haven't found the time and focus for it hsgafghjaf. It seems super cool though, both in stylization and gameplay.

I've played through Super Mario RPG when I was little! I love its graphics style and the funny quirky tone of it, plus the sound effects are so fun!! Wish they'd acknowledge it beyond a Geno Mii costume :/

Also Nier, I've only played Automata but I've seen the entirety of Gestalt (that's the western Dad-ified version of the original Replicant that got a remake a while ago) and love them for their wild world building, extremely tragic stories and how Fucking Obtuse they dare to be, I think that's cool and fun :>

I've never played Theatrhythm, Bravely Default or Drakengard (Except Nier I guess)

I've only played One Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime on the DS! As I understand, it's part of a series in Japan, but this one's the only one that got localized in the west. It's one of my favorite DS games, it's sooo fun and unique!! The mainline turn-based games don't grab me at all so I never bothered playing any of them safhghgasf

I have played the demo of the original Octopath Traveler, which has a cool aesthetic but bored me to no end asdfhgfagshj

I think that's it? I can't think of other major Squenix JRPGs. I like the settings and kinds of JRPG stories a lot of their games tell, but their gameplay often doesn't grab me ghasfhgaf. Hope that was informative or fun or something, thanks for the question!!

[loreweaver-universe]

And that's the episode split.

Well that was a cryptic last line! Did they stop worrying because they decided the other travelers were wrong, or because they've seen something I haven't picked up on? Do people just find themselves wanting to stay and have a hard time rejecting that so they dislike the place? I wonder. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and I just hope Lily doesn't get hurt by it.

That’s it for today’s liveblog, so tomorrow we’re going to be starting episode 11 of Amphibia! Tune in at noon EST for that. You can also tune in to my Twitch channel today at 1 PM EST where I’ll be playing Silent Hill for a patron!

Before I go, I’d like to plug both my blog’s Patreon and my Twitch/Youtube Patreon. Patreon is my only source of income, and while I make enough to cover rent and bills (I make $800-1000 a month) I don’t make a ton of money from it and haven’t been able to save anything up for emergencies (medical or otherwise) in the last decade or so.  Every dollar helps, so if you’re willing, please consider pledging a dollar or two.

Thank you all for tuning in, and thank you to my 42 blog patrons, who make it so I can do this for a living!  I’ll see you next time!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I recently completed my first playthrough of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here!

I recently completed my first playthrough of Finding Paradise!  You can see the full playlist of those streams by clicking here! You can also find the full playlist of the To the Moon series by clicking here!

I have an ongoing first playthrough of Final Fantasy XIV that I’ve been streaming on Twitch! If you’d like to tune in when I’m live, I stream it every Saturday at 1 PM EST, and I upload my stream VODs to my Youtube channel!  If you’d like to see that playlist, click here!

If you’d like to help me pay my rent, buy me some food, or help with my bills and medicine, please use my direct donation link!  If you’d like to support me per liveblog completed every month, please pledge to my Patreon!  If you’d like to support my streams or pick a game for me to stream, you can pledge to my stream Patreon too!

You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon, or his Sponsus–our Discord server maintenance tech and creator of Rubybot deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.

If you’d like more of me and my content:

My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!

My Discord server, where you can come hang out with me and other fans, check out member liveblogs, and join community gaming guilds!

My Twitch channel, where I stream variety games every so often!

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My merch store, where you can get shirts, mugs, stickers, and more!

It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for.  Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!

[archivalofsins]

sooooo a little birdie told me that you like long-form videos what are some of your favorites I am in desperate need for things to listen to as I draw

I love longform videos of all kind! Mostly because I need something playing in the background to slightly focus on while doing anything. If it's not videos it's music.

Now it comes down to what you like I tend to circle through

Commentary/Political Essayist YouTubers

D'Angelo Wallace Kat Black (not that long but I tend to listen to multiple in a row) Khadija Mbowe (videos of decent length ranging from 10-50) FD Signifier (most videos over an hour) Alexander Avila (most videos also over an hour) Foreign Man in a Foreign Land Elliot Sang (Has started doing readings of books on his other channel reading with elliot) Saji Sharma (On the shorter side but good to binge) sixteenleo Kennie JD HasanAbi (Literally there are long as hell videos. Piles on piles of vods all over YouTube not just posted by him but by fans that is just an endless amount of content that I haven't seen all of yet myself.)

Let's Players

Won (I've been watching his Class of '09 let's play which is good!) ManlyBadassHero (Haven't been that many long ones lately but has a pretty long backlog) MistaGG Vods (His regular channel is good as well Mista GG) Markiplier (Because of course like of course. Play In Space it's good.) Kubz Scouts (He's that dude. Content varies in length but his 60 Seconds let's plays tend to be long and there's a backlog.) 8-BitRyan (He has some long fucking videos.) RDCWorldGaming and RDC Live

Media Commentators/Reactors

La'Ron Readus (If you like dissections of media then this guy has a good few videos on it.) KhunShawn (Looking for a Milgram reactor well there's this guy!) Roartherapper (And this guy has Milgram reactions as well! If anyone want's more people to react to Milgram or make fan content engage with what we do have! That's a good place to start.) Quinton Reviews (Sadness that he focuses on Nickelodeon so I will never see a long in depth Fusion Fall video pain suffering sadness) Mike's Mic ( That unhinged recap of Pretty Little Liars that was on it ridiculous Scooby-Doo 2 yes please doing Lost now oh my god.) CJ The X (Has a decent backlog)

Long Shows to just have on in the background

Yellowjackets (A really good show but you can just not look at times and do something else) X-Men '97 while I'm talking about disney WandaVision half the time you do not have to be looking at that to know what's going on. Ridiculously long and also gets really stupid How To Get Away With Murder you'll stop paying attention eventually you'll feel yourself stop paying attention. There's also this show calledd Cleaning Up that Star and I were watching that literally takes very little attention to follow. I was dissociating at a points and was like mm hm yeah I still know what's going on. To really age myself there's Grimm which is like it also gets very convoluted.

Things I'm checking out today! One watcing Roar's reavtion to the end of trial notice- Two watching Teaching 9th Grade in a 93% Mormon Town (I'm really interested in teaching in general I was going to college to be a school psychologist so education is really important to me) and Hawk Tuah: From Harmless Meme to Right Wing Symbol because I just wanna know.

And while the dramatization of it may not be to everyone's tastes Rotten Mango covers some rather interesting events and the MissMangoButt channel has some good videos too!

Favorites of mine are hard to choose because I watch a lot. I really like the Readus Candyman video, the unhinged recap of Pretty Little Liars but I actually need to catch up on a lot off videos right now. Oh I also really liked the TikTok Gave Me Autism: The Politics of Self Diagnosis video too.

[dreamingofthedteam]

Hello hello :D

I just realized that I haven't watched a lot of Dream streams. Something I intend to change in August when I have a whole week off :D

So:

What is your favorite Dream stream? Or if you don't watch streams, your favorite moment or clip you have seen floating around? :)

Thank you to everyone for always being so nice about my messages! 

I hope you have a wonderful start to your week 🌻

- 🌵

hi cactiii sorry i didnt answer for the longest time but i wasnt really on my laptop on tumblr for a while and i wanted to answer the ask properly :))

i havent really watched too many solo dream streams myself either, but i really love the streams he did last november, just running around in minecraft and chatting to us and stuff (even tho it was sometimes..heavy talk :|). i quite love all of the dnf and dteam streams too tho. the it takes two streams are like bdcsugdgudshcudc and then i remember the crazy rituals they had in the dteam the forest stream. the christmas streams oh my god and also the dransion munchy mc streams. just like, go on the dt vods channel and kinda just watch all the vods ft. dream team i recommend all of them tbh. from the old times i really love the community house renvation stream but its prob coz its pretty recent for me. but i have to say that my all time absolute favourite stream has to be the sapnaps first stream with milo and naomi (sorry dream) its just pure cuteness aggression and like ive probs watched it like 20 times already or something i love it so much

[ghost-shipping]

@perdrixforelle people do this? I will put on essays I haven't seen before in the background while doing something else but I am still listening to them actively. I never put one on just for background noise or to sleep to unless I've heard it multiple times before.

I do not understand being a fan of an essayist like this only to put their content on in the background and not actually pay attention to what is being said at all. And it feels especially bizarre to me to choose what was supposed to originally be a more high effort and thoughtful subgenre of video for this instead of a podcast that's just people talking about nothing or a stream vod or an old lets play. I can only think that people are choosing video essays for this instead of the other options I listed because the essays are trendy and are supposed to be intellectual, and they see themselves as trendy intellectuals.

Full offense but now that I've also finished the todd in the shadows video I am convinced the only reason Sommerton had any notable platform at all is because there are a depressingly high number of tumblrinas who think they're smart and analytical but are actually the most passive media consumers who will smile and nod at anything that has the aesthetic of being progressive slapped on it. I understand not catching the plagiarism as an average viewer, but how the everloving fuck do you see him claim that modern gym culture is because americans were just so horny and jealous for the NAZIS, but that this did not count for the soviets because the soviets wore coats sometimes, and not stop and think if this was correct in any capacity.

Video essays are supposed to be educational. They are supposed to make you learn about something new, or think about something you maybe already knew about in a different way. If you are such a passive consumer of media that you did not think anything Sommerton has said in any of these videos was a sexist red flag at best and absolute batshit falsehood at worst on the FIRST VIEWING then you need to re examine why you are actually watching video essays in the first place.

[shubblelive]

DEBUT ₊˚✧ ﾟ.

₊˚ʚ summary | after ranboo watches one of your musicals on stream, wilbur becomes fascinated with you. when you're actually performing in front of him, he can't take his eyes off you.

₊˚ʚ genre | pure fluff

₊˚ʚ warnings | swearing, typos

₊˚ʚ pairing | cc!wilbur soot x fem!actress!reader

₊˚ʚ featuring | cc!wilbur soot, cc!tommyinnit, cc!tubbo, cc!ranboo

₊˚ʚ pronouns | she/her

₊˚ʚ word count | 0.7k

₊˚ʚ note | this is my first mcyt imagine on tumblr, so please be tender with me lol. the musical they go and watch is called black friday, and it's connected to tgwdlm (the musical that ranboo and tubbo watched on stream a while ago). you don't need to have seen black friday OR the musical VOD to understand it though, don't worry. also the timeline is wrong, since ranboo and toby didn't even know each other when black friday came out but shhh

wilbur pretends to be too cool for the rest of them, literally vibrating from excitement. they're all jumping on the spot slightly, waiting for the doors to open. he acts like tubbo and ranboo dragged him along, but he probably would have gone anyway. just to see you. 

when ranboo and tubbo watched your last musical on stream, he'd tuned in. of course he did, he tried to watch as many of his friend's streams as possible, even just as background noise. background noise turned into making the window full screen, turned into watching all your other stuff, turned into subscribing to your twitch. 

the doors open and they start ushering people inside letting them take their seats. tommys tugging on his sleeve, dragging him to the front row where their tickets say, sitting right in the aisle seat. 

as the musical starts, you and a few of your costars make your say down through the audience to make your entrance and right before you step up onstage, your fingers brush his shoulder. you don't pause your singing though, to give him an in-character wink. tommy jabs him in the wrist as you continue to sing, glancing over your shoulder as you exit discreetly, ready to make your first quick change. some of the cast stays on, singing vibrantly about.... something fucking creepy. he wasn't paying attention, if he was honest. but not for lack of trying, he swears! 

the next characters are two he recognises from the last musical, and he cheers along with the audience, not even knowing the two were connected. he's eventually swept up in the show. 

he bops his head to the songs - they're catchy as fuck - and when tommy laughs uncomfortably loud at a dick joke, he's not even looking to see if it made you break character.  you change the dialogue once, and it's so subtle - such a small change - that no one notices. no one would have if they hadn't seen the show before.

you're supposed to make a fortnite joke, but you know your directors won't care if you change just the one word. 

"they're all into minecraft, dude!" you say, eyes flicking ever so slightly to his little group. the crowd laughs, the joke still lands, and tommy lets out an inappropriately loud cheer. wilbur tells him to shut up, but he does so with a smile on his face. 

the last song of the show gives him chills, and they're not the only ones who stand up to give their applause. tubbo and ranboo are chattering excitedly ("no, i swear it was her! she had the same jumper and everything!"), while tommy raves about the main character, also coincidentally named tom. 

wilbur just nods as they stand out in the foyer of the theatre, waiting for the cast to make their appearances. the other three go up to everyone they can, tommy making an absolute idiot of himself in front of tom's actor, who is 100% into it. he lays back, waiting. you're the last one out, and he practically attacks you. you beam at him. 

"wilby!" no one around you hears, and you launch yourself into his arms. he chuckles, eyeing his friends. they haven't noticed. "did you enjoy the show?" 

"i did, love," he said earnestly. "you were incredible. except for that bit where you had to kiss that guy. twice. it's like they don't know you have a boyfriend," he teased you, bumping you with his elbow.

 "to be fair, i didn't have a boyfriend when they cast me," you pointed out. he smiled at you and leant down to press a kiss to your temple. "can i meet your friends now?" he nods down at you, and you race off, stealing their attention from your costar. 

you introduce yourself, and they follow, if not somewhat confused. their faces all brighten simultaneously when you tack on "wil's girlfriend." 

tommy fake gags, and he knows what his little brother is thinking, exactly what tommy's thinking. "she's not out of my league, tom," he says.

 tommy looks scandalised. "yes she is,"

 he looks over at you talking animatedly with tubbo and ranboo. "yes she is," he agrees.