#sky needle

[lowdowndandy]

she's like a girlfriend to me

[zetexkindasucks]

got the Sky Needle IL world record, pretty proud of it :3

[chicorystart]

a house creature and their house

(i'm STILL doing Peachtober prompts. This is Day 4: Sky)

[shootingstarpilot]

okay listen. listen. i'm sorry, i had to get this out of my head, it's been haunting me and i want to get back to working on the next proper chapter-

the mimic lives au.

mimic is brought into the fold without question, of course. and needle- oh, needle's borne witness to the nightmares that force helix awake, shaking-not-screaming, and he knows enough-

so he makes mimic a voice.

it takes him just over a week to record the entire gbs dictionary. he breaks it down, keeps it alphabetical so it's easier to find the words. dictionaries of other languages are on the list. needle thinks maybe mimic can pick and choose which ones to prioritize later. they'll have time.

(they'll have time, isn't that a novel thought-)

but the dictionary is only part of it. there are plenty of manufactured voices out there already, after all.

the datapad becomes needle's newest conversational partner. he sets it up when he's on his own and lets his train of thought derail. spinning out stories both real and fantastical. drawing out threads until they reach the boiling point of absurdity and send him into a fit of giggles. he repeats the stories he'd told mimic just that afternoon, tells him about the jedi, about the temple, about making their own home. then he remembers what helix had said about mimic wanting to be a pilot, and goes and bullies comet into educating him on starfighters. he recites his lessons to the camera each evening in the moments of stolen solitude he can squirrel away before one of the others comes looking for him.

"it's like learning another language," he says, and wags a finger at the camera. "you're welcome."

needle gifts it to mimic a week after they arrive at the temple with a wireless earpiece to match. no pressure, of course, he says, grinning, just thought it could be a good resource to have, words to borrow at your fingertips, but i know i'm only tolerable in small doses, so-

he squawks when mimic's hug lifts him clear off the ground.

anyway. so. you see my vision.

helix jumps a mile when he first hears needle's laugh in mimic's mouth. stitch yells at needle for a bit about talking so much, needle, is this why your voice was so hoarse- and then restricts him to tea for four days until he's sure his throat has healed. sometimes it's too much, and mimic will stick his earpiece to the fridge and borrow words spoken right in front of him until his brain stops buzzing-

but it works. they work.

and then.

it's a few months in. they're comfortable. they're setting down roots.

then one night needle doesn't come home.

helix doesn't wait to raise the alarm. needle doesn't spend every night home, but he's good about comming when he'll be staying elsewhere. he knows helix is struggling with letting them leave his line of sight.

and now he's gone. and he didn't comm.

the first three days stretch into a week.

then a second week.

then a month.

and now, the vision that has been HAUNTING ME-

helix, clutching mimic's datapad, sitting on the edge of his bed.

the lights are low. his eyes are red.

he hits play.

"-ah, i love them," needle says, laughing. the laugh stretches into a yawn-

(that holds for one, two, three seconds, helix knows it now by heart-)

a knock at the door sounds in the video. needle hunches his shoulders, grimacing- his eyes are dancing, he's not annoyed, not really-

"be right out!" he calls, and then- helix's voice on the other side-

"get your beauty routine under control!"

needle waits until his footsteps have vanished before turning back to the camera-

(six footsteps before they fade enough to become inaudible- helix has counted them so many times-)

"i don't need one," he says, and winks at the camera- his eyes are shining, bright and happy- "he's just jealous all of this is effortless. night, mimic. talk to you in the morning."

the video ends.

helix sits in the dark.

after a moment, he taps at the datapad again.

"ah, i love them," needle says. his laugh- snorting, open, happy-

(one-two-three for the yawn-)

helix hits pause. rewinds.

"i love them," needle says.

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

pause. rewind.

"i love them."

"i love them."

"i love them."

[toyastales]

Seattle, Washington

[whitefireprincess]

Seattle, Washington | Craig Mcnary

[bonefall]

Feel free to ignore you've probably got a lot going on right now, but considering you know a lot about DOTC and Clear sky, I had a question...

We know that he's a terrible, misogynistic, woman beating and war mongering lunatic who was excused of all his actions because his equally misogynistic brother said " But-But he's nice! Deep down! This isn't the real him! "

But! In a world where the Hunters could write such a character, what do you think Clear Sky would look like as an actual sympathetic villain?

Idk if that makes sense, but what I've thought of doing is taking purely cannon Clear Sky and attempting to change him enough that he's still an antagonist, but not too far where only Reddit defends him.

I don't think he works as a sympathetic villain, on any level, ever. I think you're making a huge mistake to even try, and I have never seen an AU where it was done well nor am I interested in entertaining the thought.

Characters. Are. Tools. They exist to tell a story. The story that people tell me, by obsessing over some alternate universe where he was "ACTUALLY sympathetic and had a REAL redemption arc," is that they're not fucking interested in his dozens of victims. Nor do they actually care about the abusive impact he had on the minds and feelings of his family. They're JUST interested in Clear Sky himself.

Just like the Erins. Everything that happens in DOTC revolves around him. Everything. All his wives die so he can be sad about it. His brother defends all of his actions and BEGS you to sympathize with his pain so he can be 'redeemable.' One Eye comes out of nowhere so that there can be an example of "real" evil to contrast Clear Sky so he's less bad in hindsight.

The first three books of DOTC are bad, but the last three are fucking insufferable because SUDDENLY all that Gray Wing apologia pays off, and they take their main villain and throw him out a window. You CAN'T have "redeemable" Clear Sky and the plot of DOTC without dragging in someone else to drive the conflict, to BE the bigger threat to "unite" against. Slash and One Eye have to be conjured up out of thin air so Clear Sky can WHINE about how people only suck his toes instead of deepthroat them after he killed all their friends.

And yet, in spite of this absolute failure of an attempt, we continue to see this bullshit "redemption" be a mistake because Clear Sky is a fantastic villain, with major antagonist roles in nearly EVERY bit of follow-up material for DOTC that came after.

He's the most consistent monster in all of Warriors.

He's a fragile, egotistical, self-absorbed megalomaniac who ALWAYS sees himself as the victim, REFUSING to self-reflect and blaming everything else for all of his terrible choices. He will USE your love of him against you like it's a chain through your nose, step out of line and he will yank you into place with guilt trips, manipulation, public shaming, and violence.

He's a child abuser. He's a tyrant. He abandons the sick and disabled as soon as they're of no use to him, with grand speeches about "illness" and "weakness." He's a murderer who stands above the shredded corpse of his victim and bellows, "I'M NOT GREEDY! I'M JUST STRONG!"

And you'd write a "good" redemption arc for this, why?

Why are people so chronically unable to accept that there are LOTS of people like him, and you can't save your abuser? Why don't you ask yourselves why you're not interested in exploring Thunder, or Petal, or Gray Wing, and how his toxic influence impacts them? Why does the sympathy fall on Clear Sky? What about the DOZENS of victims who are dead by Book 3, and how THEY could have been saved?

Why ruin a perfectly good villain?

What's behind this trend where a billion people say to me, "Yes Clear Sky is a walking cavalcade of fucked up abuse apologia, and an incredibly realistic depiction of an abuser, but how would you change this while keeping it all the same?"

I wouldn't. You can't. It wouldn't be the same story, or it wouldn't be the same character. Never seen it done well, and I have seen it a lot. So I don't entertain this deeply frustrating "Well What If Clear Sky But Nice" impulse.

[themonopolyhat]

shoulder the sky: the star (a halloween giftfic)

a few weeks ago a creepy-ass phrase popped into my head, and it turned into this: almost 1500 words of holiday horror for my friend @shootingstarpilot. a trick or a treat? you decide!

warnings for body horror, disturbing imagery, and very little actual plot or explanation. featuring @swmoddy's helix the clone medic and pilot's own needle and stitch, aka the chokehold trio <333

the star:

By the time they realize what's happened, the star has already taken Obi-Wan whole and seared its speech into Helix's mouth.

They fail to stop Needle. He casually breaks his bones and ducks into the observation lounge, laughing gaily all the while.

They stop Stitch ten feet from the door. He burns and bleeds and speaks something else's words, all the same.

They let him go.

oOoOo

Cody declares the area off-limits. The men on watch are drawn back to touchpoints along the corridors.

When they begin to bleed, he evacuates the entire section.

Then the sections fore and aft. The decks above and below.

By the time the star has finished, it's carved the Negotiator into thirds—an untouched aft wedge, a safe-enough forward wedge, and a giant gaping maw of madness in the middle.

None of them know why the ship hasn't depressurized and blown them all into the void.

No one wants to ask out loud, in case the star hasn't noticed the oversight.

oOoOo

“We don't think it's really a star,” says Particle after a consult with navigation, astrometrics, astrophysics, and stellar cartography. “It's not on any of the maps, and it's not behaving like a star.”

Waxer snorts. “No shit.”

Particle has the good grace to grimace. “I meant the sensor readings are wrong. It's not reading like a normal star on the sensors.”

“What is it, then?” Cody asks.

Particle glances at Wave, who tugs at her braids anxiously where they hang over her softshell grey shoulder. “Best guess is it's either a creature that looks like a star, or it's a creature that's hijacked a star.”

oOoOo

They keep callling it the star.

That's what it looks like, hanging massive and brilliant and too close off the port bow.

oOoOo

Cody comes to the edge of the star's influence, where the terrible warping of the bulkheads and deck plates tapers.

Eight days have passed since they were yanked out of their hyperlane, all screaming alarms and whining intertial dampeners.

Seven days have passed since anyone sane last saw the general.

“What are you?” Cody asks again, a cold sweat prickling at his brow and down his back. He refuses to glance away. “Is Needle still alive?”

“It has to eat,” the thing that isn't Needle slurs cheerfully with his torn-open grin, crowded with too many teeth that are not his own. His tongue is blackened, swollen, dragging dry over blistered lips. “Has to eat.”

(He comes most often to the boundary. Sometimes it's Stitch, who is calmer and bleeds more.

They haven't seen Helix since he went in after Obi-Wan.)

“What has to eat?” Cody asks him.

“To eat,” Needle bubbles. “It has to eat.”

Cody looks at their second most senior medic. Tries not to inhale the reek of burning metal, burning flesh. Something is sizzling faintly. “You don't need us,” he persists. “Let this ship go. Let my men and our general go.”

Needle's head tilts. Uncomprehending. His left clavicle juts from his skin. The pieces are tugged outward like twisted red saplings sprouting from his torn blacks. “Eat, eat,” he insists, chuckling. “It needs to eat.”

oOoOo

They all say the same things, when questioned. Needle laughs and his breath plucks the strings of his cheeks where they slide over the teeth. Stitch quietly bleeds in place.

They don't seem to understand most of what Cody asks (demands, shouts, pleads).

Eat, they say. Eat.

It needs to eat.

All things must eat.

Helix comes only once. He carries his convulsing heart in a clear specimen bag. Pulls his charred, blood-cracked lips apart and rattles the words loose like bones tumbling down a well—

We must eat.

oOoOo

They're all nearly blinded when the light floods across the bridge. Shouts of pain and surprise ripple through the pits, adding to the chaos.

“Close the shutters!” Cody barks out. He nearly loses his footing when the ship gives another nauseating heave. His eyes are screwed shut, fragile lids helpless against the onslaught. “Ops, status?”

“Stand by, sir!” Teeter chokes out.

Obi-Wan sounds as pained as everyone else, somewhere off to Cody's left. “Dartboard, tell me we're not flying directly into a star—?”

“Sensors are recalibrating and I can barely see the readout,” Dartboard replies, sniffling, “but... I don't think so. It's off to port. Close.”

The shutters drop. The bridge crew as a whole blinks tears out of their eyes, coughing through smoke. Negotiator rolls and shakes and protests all through her beams.

Ops reports some level of damage on every deck, but nothing they can't repair within twelve hours. The engines are down. The shields and thrusters are operable.

They won't fall into the star, at least.

oOoOo

Stitch's new eyes are swollen and discolored, pushing out through delicate neck skin like tumors with scabbed, lashless lids. Cody counts four of them this time.

“To eat,” Stitch murmurs, almost apologetically. “All things must eat. It has to eat.”

“Where is Obi-Wan?” Cody asks.

“It has to eat,” Stitch answers.

“I want to see him.”

“It has to eat.”

“Let me see Obi-Wan.”

Stitch blinks with all six eyes out of sync. The new ones roll about, uncoordinated. “To eat,” he repeats.

He turns to go, leaving dark blood pattering in his wake. His scrubs and blacks are ripped halfway down his back, and he's split open neatly along his spine. Bone and meat glisten in the strange light.

(We must eat, Helix said.

So far the star hasn't eaten anyone except the medics. And maybe Obi-Wan, somewhere in the dark tangle amidships. Every effort to get sensors or cams working through the star's influence has ended in failure.)

oOoOo

Cody goes to the boundary twice a day. A medic comes to meet him every time.

Needle gains more and more teeth, peels his burned face open ever more deeply, giggle-drools pink streaks and charcoal flakes.

Stitch leaves faint blood-steps behind him and speaks through a mouth seared raw, just like the rest. On the fifth day his spine is open to the air. His new eyes come in the day after.

Helix visits the morning of the ninth day. He does not blink; his eyelids have been neatly sliced away. His heart thuds dutifully in its bag at his side. Grotesque veins slither from the pulp of it up into Helix's sleeve.

“We must eat,” he says. His blackened lips weep sorely for the disturbance.

Cody tries everything he can think of to get through to their senior medic. Helix loves Obi-Wan. He loves Stitch and Needle. Surely if he's in there somewhere, he will help Cody save them.

Helix just looks at him, listing vaguely to one side. The smell of burned, rotting flesh is stronger than ever. His heart twitches in its bag.

He leaves only a few flecks of mouth-char when he finally shuffles away.

oOoOo

On the tenth day, Cody opens his eyes to Waxer's voice, frantic and hushed at his bedside.

It's gone, he's saying, it's gone, the star's gone, the ship's back to normal, we've got to—

They run.

oOoOo

The lounge door is just as it should be, lighting and deck plates and bulkheads pristine and normal.

Cody breathes steadily through his nose. He thinks he's imagining the scent of roasted meat at this point—it's permeated him somehow, gotten into his skin and brain a little deeper every time he met one of their mangled medics at the boundary. No one else seems to smell anything unusual.

They key the door open. Step inside, weapons ready. The junior medics hover just behind with their kits just as ready.

oOoOo

They're huddled in the center of the lounge. A pile of sprawled limbs that rips Cody's heart into his throat for a split second of cold, numbing horror.

(Nothing but bloodied, mangled flesh, melted together into one horrific mass—

What if it moves, what if they're alive like that—)

He blinks and the vision fades.

There's nothing burned. Nothing broken or twisted.

Obi-Wan looks like he fell asleep the way he does sometimes after a difficult meditation, curled up loosely on the deck with his head pillowed on his arm. His boots are tumbled a little ways away, like he kicked them off at some point.

The medics are curled up with him, clutching his cloak and each other tightly. No scorched flesh, no jutting bones or bagged hearts.

Obi-Wan's hand rests on Helix's chest. Needle drools a little against Helix's shoulder, with cheeks and lips now soft and clean and whole. Stitch is flopped over them, his back and throat visibly mended, unmarked.

They're asleep, the junior medics will confirm within moments. All vitals are normal. No sign of trauma.

oOoOo

“It had to eat,” Obi-Wan murmurs, frowning in thought, and Cody shudders before he can stop himself.

“Please,” he manages. “Please—don't say that.”

[sitting-on-me-bum]

The Needle, Isle of Sky, Scotland

Photographer: Julien Delaval

UK Landscape Photographer of the Year

[hope-of-enterprise]

Not star trek, but it could be as well; I'm thinking of felting something on it some day, but much later I guess. Just wanted to post it somewhere🕯️💫

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

Do Sky and Payu ever hang out? Is there any of Payu POV when they save Sky? I know Rain and Prapai have a bitchy friendship, I wonder about Payu and Sky?

The 2 people working hardest to raise Rain 😂

There isn't a ton of Payu and Sky that isn't also in the show. More them exchanging glances when they needle Rain.

Payu does have a protective side towards Sky that comes out every now and then. It's framed as a mix of "Who wouldn't care in this situation" as well as being protective of Sky because he is Rain's best friend.

During the assault sequence, Payu leaves it to Prapai and Rain to go into the bedroom and save Sky while Payu calls Chai and makes sure Petch can't escape. There were other men coming to move Sky to another location, and Payu doesn't intend to let them get away. He also gives his car to Prapai to take Sky away, and kind of looks Sky over as Prapai brings him out, then focuses his attention on comforting Rain.

But it's clear that Payu would have stood back and let Prapai kill anyone in that room he wanted to.

When Rain is attacked by Graff's stalker, Payu is absolutely livid at Graff, and forbids Rain from ever going near him again (Rain fights back, he understands that Payu is scared, but he both won't stop being friends with Graff and won't let Payu dictate his social circle).

However, even amongst all that, Payu keeps an eye on Sky and does a quick once-over to make sure Sky is alright too. Sky offers a nod back.

There are also little mentions sprinkled throughout of them helping each other. Payu will happily tutor Sky if he needs it, and Sky takes advantage of that. And Sky has Payu come to the university to guest lecture his students when he becomes a professor.

[altitudeofalcatraz]

Did a reference for the sluggies, now time for the iterators! Along with references for all my current rainworld ocs that I’ve made, hehe ☆ I care for them lots <3

[shootingstarpilot]

In Which Helix Loses His Godsdamned Temper

A gift for my dear friend @themonopolyhat, who wanted to know how the swivel chair race briefly mentioned in Chapter 11 of like lightning changing hands went down <3

Helix and sleep are passing acquaintances at best.

Not enemies, no- he's not a fool. He's a good medic. He knows sleep is important. Even for the clones, who were conditioned to function on half as much sleep as a human nat-born- toxic byproducts need to be processed. New neural pathways need to be formed. Memories need to be filed away. So of course he makes time for it. He most certainly doesn't need Needle coaxing him away from his desk or switching out his stims or shoving him down onto a cot and sitting on him until he passes out- no matter how much the younger medic might protest otherwise-

But. His point.

He makes room for it. Their moments of true downtime are few and far between, but Helix always makes sure to squeeze in a treasured nap or two when he gets the chance.

Which is why, when he's rudely awoken by shouting outside the medbay door that is not immediately followed by the reveal of some horrific injury, Helix decides he's well overdue to rain hellfire down on whatever hapless idiots decided to work out their post-campaign jitters right outside his fucking medbay.

He pulls the pillow off his head, rolls to his feet, and stalks towards the door, carefully selecting his most threatening expression and arranging it appropriately.

When the door slides open, he inhales-

And then lets the air out again in a slightly anticlimactic whoosh when he comes face to face with an empty hallway.

Feeling immensely irritated, he steps out of the doorway and glances to the left and right.

Where-?

The noise is barely a ripple at the back of his mind, at first. Almost indistinguishable from the ever-present rumbling of the engines.

Then it very quickly overtakes it.

Helix, operating solely on well-honed instinct, flattens himself against the wall just in time for a blur of motion to careen around the corner. They slow as they hit the curve, just enough for him to make out-

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Auks, on the swivel chair, gripping both edges with white-knuckled hands- Wooley, hands on the back of the chair, moving at a dead sprint-

Auks' gaze flickers up just enough to catch Helix's eyes, wild glee melting into a pants-pissing terror. They disappear around the next corner, and Helix indulges in a mental pat on the back when he hears Auks' distant shriek of-

"Go faster!"

Right.

He lets them go. He'll catch up with them later.

After a moment's consideration, he steps into the middle of the hallway, studying the water stain on the ceiling with all the appearance of sincere diligence.

The distant rumbling grows louder.

Hm. He should think about filing a work order with Maintenance.

Underneath, now, the sound of footsteps-

They don't want to let that pipe burst, after all.

"OhshitohfuckCOVER-"

He doesn't move.

A screeching noise, an even louder scream-

A tangle of limbs tumbles past his left, slamming into the corner with a force that Helix deliberately doesn't wince at.

Longshot is the first to sit up, carefully disentangling himself from the pathetic remains of the chair. He doesn't look at all frightened when he looks up at Helix.

Just resigned.

"In my defense," he says, rolling his shoulder assessingly, "I told them this location was a bad idea."

"It was," Helix agrees, poisonously sweet.

Gearshift is the next to emerge, clutching at his face. Longshot pats him on the back. "All good?"

Faintly muffled, slightly more stuffy-

"You broke my nose!"

"I broke your nose?"

"You!" Gearshift amends, pointing at Helix, the effect of his glare somewhat lessened by the blood pouring between his fingers. "What were you thinking?"

"Standing in the hallway?"

"Y-"

Gearshift falters.

Helix smiles at him.

"Do you know how big this ship is, Gearshift?" he says mildly.

"Pretty big, sir," Gearshift mutters.

"Do you know how often I have time to nap?"

"Probably not very often, sir."

"Do you know how loud you idiots were?"

"No, sir."

"This was the third round, though," Longshot adds blithely. "Can't have been too bad if you slept through the other two-"

"Shut your mouth," Helix says pleasantly. "Where are the others?"

Longshot points.

"Right," Helix says, already running through his death-be-upon-you-if-you-try-this-banthashit-again speech in the back of his mind. He jabs a finger at Gearshift. "Stay here. I want to take a look at your nose when I get- stop tilting your head back, do you want to asphyxiate on your own blood? I'll be right back."

He stalks off without waiting for an answer.

The others aren't far off. Two hallways down and Helix can already make out the cheerful chatter, rising alongside his blood pressure.

"-and Auks clocked in at three minutes on the dot, fastest lap yet," Waxer says cheerfully. Helix picks up his pace. "Right, Trapper, you're up- who's your partner?"

Trapper is, however, doomed to a life of loneliness, because it's at that precise moment that Helix rounds the corner and launches into a lecture that will be whispered about among the shinies for years to come.

"-swivel chairs! Fucking swivel chairs, I thought you were all supposed to be soldiers, not tubies running along the godsdamned catwalks-"

Trapper shrinks backwards, ducks his head, and his patient resignation drives Helix's ire to new heights-

"-had the entire ship to be suicidal in, but no, you had to plot out your fucking racecourse directly outside my fucking medbay when I was getting the first sleep I'd had in three days-"

Waxer scuffs his foot against the floor, looking like he's considering taking a step backward, and then thinks better of it-

"-slammed his head into the wall and broke his fucking nose, if he'd hit half an inch higher his brains would've spilled out like soup because you couldn't even think to use your fucking helmets-"

Boil seizes the opportunity when Helix is forced to stop for breath.

"We did have supervision," he points out. "Medical. So, you know- we got cleared-"

"Who," Helix grits out, "the fuck-"

The crowd pulls back like the tide, and Helix stares.

Stitch stares up at him from where he's perched on the edge of yet another swivel chair, white-faced.

Needle, holding onto the back, offers him a wave.

"Integrated supervision," he says cheerfully. "New management principle I heard about, thought we could give it a try-"

A muscle in Helix's jaw jumps.

"You two," he grits out, "with me. And the rest of you-" he snaps, at the rustle of a collective relieved sigh- "pull this banthashit again, and I'll deliver you to Grievous hog-tied on a platter- now, am I understood?"

At the affirmative murmurs, he turns on his heel and strides off, followed hurriedly by his two renegade medics.

The strained silence is broken only by two sets of footsteps for some time.

"Stitch," Helix says, after a moment, "get off the chair."

A pause. Then three sets of footsteps.

Then, so quiet Helix has to strain to hear it-

"Is Gearshift okay?"

Helix closes his eyes and forces a slow exhale out through his nose.

(His head is pounding.)

"Yeah," he says, making a conscious effort to gentle his voice. "Just a broken nose. No other trauma that I could tell. You deal with that when we get back, okay? Run him through the gauntlet. Use your best judgement."

"Okay, Helix."

The silence gains a certain obnoxious quality to it.

"And you," Helix says, considering-

Then it hits him.

"You can put that nutritional learning module to use," he decides. "Kitchens. Run through the new requisition forms with Terror. Help him rebuild a sustainable menu; the routine shipments got changed last week."

Needle does not appear half as peeved as Helix would like him to.

He catches Helix's glare and grins, irrepressibly sunny. "Will do, boss. Terror and I are friends, I like his company."

"Terror doesn't do friends."

"Mm, fair. We're nemeses, then. I think that's the closest thing he has."

Helix's glower darkens.

The rest of the walk back is silent.

They split when they reach the medbay. Stitch heads for Gearshift immediately- and Longshot, who, Helix notes with mild surprise, had stayed with him. Needle peels off for the kitchens, humming under his breath with a nonchalance that makes Helix want to deck him.

And Helix-

Helix heads for his office.

All inclination towards sleep has vanished. He grits his teeth, settles into his chair, rubs at his forehead-

He's sure there's some flimsiwork he can get ahead on.

Later:

After he realizes exactly why Stitch is skittering away from him at every turn-

After he sits him down and patiently explains that the absolute worst punishment he will ever receive- the punishment for the Fuck-Up Of All Fuck-Ups, the punishment if he is found to be unfit for medical work- will be being reassigned to a different unit-

After he sees their youngest primary off to bed, guilt still pulling his shoulders low and dragging at his steps-

Needle comes back.

The first Helix knows of this is when a knock at his office door rouses him from staring at the same page on his datapad that he has been for the past forty minutes.

"Come in," he mutters, and Needle pokes his head through the door.

"Hey, boss," he says, and steps in fully, carefully shutting the door behind him. "New menu's been filed. Double- and triple-checked."

"Mhm."

Needle settles into the chair and sets a cup Helix hadn't noticed him carrying onto his desk.

"Tea," he says quietly, in answer to Helix's questioning look. "Thought you might need it."

Helix grumbles something incoherent, but picks up the drink anyway.

The warmth seeps all the way up his arms, into his shoulders, and he relaxes quite against his will.

They sit in silence for a long moment.

"Things were getting tense in the training rooms," Needle says at last. "They were at each other's throats. Kamei had already dislocated Trigger's shoulder, and he didn't even seem sorry- you know how those two are."

Helix blinks. He does- and- that's right, they hadn't been there, had they?

"This was the first thing I could come up with. I should've thought of the helmets, you were right about that- I'm sorry I didn't. I just wanted to get them moving."

"And of course this was the first thing you thought of," Helix mutters. He sees Needle's expression twist briefly, and guiltily musters up a quirk of his lips. "Sounds like you."

Needle returns the smile, and then his gaze drops to his knees.

"I didn't know you were sleeping, either," he says eventually. "You- you don't usually. I should've checked, I know, I just figured- keeping the medbay on the route would make for easier access if someone did get injured."

Helix takes a sip of the tea.

It's not caf.

But it's-

Good.

"Sorry about that," Needle finishes lamely. His fingers twitch and flicker and jump before he stuffs his hands into the pockets of his scrubs.

Helix takes another sip- longer than he'd meant to, this time, and when he looks down he realizes he's nearly drained the cup.

His headache is easing.

"Longshot said that was the third round," he says at last. "How'd you two do on the others?"

Needle stares at him, uncomprehending, for one long moment-

Then a smile like the sun splits his face.

"Oh, knocked them out of orbit, boss."

"Good," Helix mutters. He stands, places the empty mug on the table, and stretches until he feels his back crack. "Right. I'm going to get some sleep, then. You got the shift?"

"Course I do," Needle says easily, and Helix squeezes his shoulder on his way out.

Stitch is sitting up when he emerges, ruffled hair and sleep-fogged eyes sending a pang through Helix's chest.

"Hey, kiddo," he says quietly. "Mind if I join you?"

Stitch squints at him. "Helix?" he says at last. "Needle said you needed to lie down."

"Oh, he did, did he?" Helix mutters, glancing back at the office door. He doesn't even bother to try mustering a glare.

"Uh-huh," Stitch hums, already slipping back into sleep. He curls onto his side and pats the empty space next to him. "Come on."

Helix kicks off his boots and obligingly settles under the blanket, and Stitch shuffles a bit closer and wraps an arm around his chest.

"Needle told me you two won," Helix murmurs.

"Yeah," Stitch says sleepily. A slow smile blooms across his face. "He can go pretty fast."

"Well," Helix sighs. "I guess that's okay, then."

As it turns out, sleep can come easily after all.

[l3ominor]

Febuwump day 3: "bite down on this"

TW: Blood, Injury, Stitches, Visible Needle

[mightyraptor]

"Pokemon Rock Bros - A Fairy Witch Scheme"

Little Late to the Halloween Party.... But I wanted to smash this before end of this Weekend. Hope You all had a Good Halloween or Thursday.

But time for another Pokemon "Rock Bros" theme piece and I do have a whole Overdue of "Rock Bros" stuff coming if you guy are interested, again a concept project I really want to push if things go into a direction which I will do what I can, hopefully but I want this to be fun something that could bring back some fun in the world of Pokemon too but it does help if you comment, like and share, still got a long way though and still early into this and sadly due to last few years we've had to step back.

Cathy the a Sylveon who's trainer is Rich girl who is popular in their block in town but also spoiled and also not as nice as you think to half of the town. Cathy up something not good, but do those doll Pokemon look familiar?! 0.0 !

Hollaaaaaa Halloween folks, Trick or Treat?

https://www.deviantart.com/mightyraptor/art/A-Fairy-Witch-Scheme-1118071446

(DO NOT USE, EDIT OR REPOST THIS ARTWORK) ⚠

(And Do NOT use for AI purposes either) ⚠

Artwork and characters and concept MightyRaptor © Pokemon/Nintendo Gamefreak ©

[bonefall]

Tbh I never read that far in DOTC but I heard so much about star flower from fandom that now hearing about it directly from you I feel so cheated. I was promised a femme fatale.. tho in hindsight considering how much these writers hate women I probably shouldn't have gotten my hopes up

I WISH we got a femme fatale. It would have been incredibly cathartic for her to make herself alluring to Clear Sky, turning his worst traits against him and getting both power and revenge. For Thunder to bond to her over it, reaching the conclusion in the end that they both had terrible parents that they need to reject.

but, knowing the Erins, they would have just had Clear Sky kill her violently and gratuitously for ever tricking him. Like how he gouged Willow Tail's eyes out. So... I guess we were doomed either way.

Anyway im cooking