#so Tech could start putting himself back together and live again

[heyclickadee]

The obnoxious thing is that because Star Wars has a very open canon, because there are undisclosed animated projects probably in works and will probably be more in the future, and because things can be picked up at any time there are ways to salvage that finale and pay things off that are very satisfying and very Star Wars, so I’m sitting here like…pspspspspsps Lucasfilm…you can still save this….

[mvrkieboo]

The Original Ending for Old Bloodhounds

lmao this is totally because of this ask right here.

so, lemme tell y'all how the original ending of old bloodhounds would've been like before i scraped it because it was too much even for me lmao

once yoonsu's had his fun of isolating her from the people she loves, he's going to kill her and commit suicide in an isolated spot, just to really drive the nail that she's always going to be alone with him, even when all that's left of them is their rotting corpse.

he kills her and kills himself, and y/n's friends and family are going to report her as a missing person because she's missing her classes and not seen anywhere else anymore. then, a few weeks* after, some poor hiker and his dog stumble upon y/n's and yoonsu's corpse. mind you, yoonsu executes this during the winter, so in that thick layer of snow, y/n's and yoonsu's bodies are perfectly preserved.

only then are they going to find out that junyoung wasn't junyoung, but actually cha yoonsu. especially because authorities in gangnam already uncovered the original junyoung's body. dna testing proved that the corpse beside y/n's was yoonsu. then as the authorities investigate this fucked up case, they'd find the messages y/n and yoonsu shared and the blackmail material yoonsu had over her. detective do kyungsoo who had helped you in gangnam gets involved in this case.

as detective do explains to y/n's loved ones what really happened to y/n, it would dawn on them that they had a hand in making y/n's worst nightmare come true—for the people she loved to abandon her once again when she needed them most.

jaehyun has a breakdown that would result in his debut as a soloist singer be put on hold. him and his dad were inconsolable, but he eventually realises he can't throw away his career as a singer because y/n had only ever hoped for him to become one and achieve his lifelong dream. didn't she die for this? the public notes that he's not as easygoing anymore, but rather closed off.

mark takes a break from studying, his world is put on hold now that he knows just how much y/n suffered up until her murder. jaehyun drags him in to get therapy, and mark only lets him because jae's his best friend. he always has y/n on his mind. once he actually graduates, all of the songs he helps produce and write with jae are about her. jae knows this. all of the sad songs jae created with mark couldn't be sang live he'd just choke up on those lyrics anyway

geonwoo and woojin were shut off from the world for a while. once they do get back on their feet and continue their work in helping loanshark victims evade their debt collectors, they'd always see her ghost in the backseat of their vehicles. they swore off in personally fostering any loanshark victims after y/n's death. they couldn't bear thinking that they could be replacing her with someone else.

yangyang, xiaojun, and aeri...yangyang—afraid of losing anyone else after just how brutally y/n was ripped away from his life—hired xiaojun and aeri into his start-up tech company. their ai assistant for their app is named after y/n, and even the model suspiciously resembles her. as if that's not enough, the three of them immortalise y/n by creating a foundation named after her that aims to help troubled teens all around the nation.

y/n's and junyoung's ashes are kept within the main jeong household, deciding that their resting space should be among y/n's family and kept together, and papa jeong keeps them both safe and clean daily. geonwoo and woojin comes and visits the jeong household when they can to visit y/n, yuno had left a framed childhood photo of him and y/n together near her ashes, mark always gifts her new phone charms when he can. yangyang, xiaojun, and aeri had gifted her a plush version of their app's ai assistant.

y/n's mom always visits the spot where y/n was murdered, leaving flowers there every month.

everyone eats ice cream during the first day of the fall season in y/n's memory.

they'll never stop mourning over her. each and every step of their life moving forward is haunted by how it could've been if she was still alive.

[xannador]

Would you ever write out what the alternate ending for Mostly (H)armless was, even if it’s too much to fully comic? I felt like my heart was torn out by the ending, even if the alternate ending is never realized I’d feel better knowing what else might have happened 😭

I have gotten this question a couple times now and wasn't sure if I should answer this. Because doing so would forever close the door on any alternate ending. But sadly I don't see myself drawing more HFR fancomics... so...

Up until page 41 the story more or less follows a set path. Or at least all roads would lead to page 41. After that I had a couple different scenarios and scenes that I could go for. The version that ended up being made was a mismatch of... basically all of the most horrific ones.

And here are the others:

Scenario 1: Almost got away

There was a version of the story in which Chai and 808 got separated again and Chai would end up on the ground floor rather than way up on the hanging platforms. And he'd lure V1-RS underneat one of those platforms and 808 would drop it right on top of the psycho robot, crushing it. This doesn't kill it but it would be stuck (and furious). And Chai and 808 had the freedom to just... walk away from it, while it's screaming bloody murder at them. However, one of its taunts would make Chai turn back; the one about him being nothing without Vandelay tech and he's lucky his traitor drone (808) saved his skin all this time. This would have pissed Chai off to the point of actually turning back to face V1-RS, wasting enough time that V1-RS frees itself. And this scenario would end tragically similar to the one we got: Chai beating V1-RS without any kind of technology but at the cost of his own life.

I didn't go with it because I didn't want to separate Chai and 808 twice in the span of a handful of pages.

Scenario 2: Only one has to die

In this scenario, V1-RS cutting the platform wires on page 46 actually results in the entire platform crashing to the ground. Chai managed to grab onto one of those Vandelay banners and although it rips it actually slows down his fall enough that he and 808 survive. But in this version the museum is also set ablaze.

Chai and 808 would use the smoke and debris (from Chai's fight at the start of the story) to hide from V1-RS while slowly trying to sneak away. A falling plaform would break a window and that would give them an escape route.

But just as they reach fresh air and can see the night sky, V1-RS would once again manipulate Chai into turning back. This time by saying it's going after the gang instead. Just like in the final story Chai realizes that if he wants to save his friends he isn't going to make it out himself. But this time 808 is still alive so he shoves her into a trash can against her will, apologises and disappears back into the fire.

Chai and 808 are into this adventure together so I felt that either both should live or neither. It became neither in the end.

Scenario 3: Xan cannot resist putting kaiju into everything

A different version of scenario 1. After getting crushed by a platform, V1-RS would have crawled out of its host body like one of those parasitic worms that brainwash insects (don't google that) and forced itself into one of the huge display robots. Then it would have ripped other giant robots apart and taken bits of them to enhance itself into something gigantic and monstrous. Chai and 808 would have taken that time to nope the hell out of the museum. They'd scare a few random civilians still out on the street with their unfortunate appearance and meet up with the gang who'd be glad, and horrified, to see them. The reunion would be cut short as an absolutely gigantic, multiheaded, many-legged robot chimera bigger than ZP-1500 bursts out of the museum.

A high octance chase scene (potentially inspired by godzilla 1998) between Roxanne's poor car and Chimera V1-RS and a climb to the top of Vandelay tower could have been next. And the only right way to end a monster like that would be to somehow skewer it on the old spectra tower.

This scenario would've been cool as shit and a spectacle of (literal) epic proportions.

It also doesn't fit the rest of the story at all. Maybe something like this could have worked had it been a robot kaiju story from the start, rather than a horror comic. Also beating the monster with team work was not the right way to end Mostly (h)Armless. Chai always had to beat V1-RS on his own. That is the point of this story.

Scenario 4: If only 808 hadn't broken

There was a way Chai could have beaten V1-RS without getting hurt (or at least not hurt as badly) if he had only been able to communicate with the rest of the gang. That way Peppermind could have figured out V1-RS obvious weakness... it's an AI. And an AI is only as scary as its database. if Chai had found a way to connect 808 to the old V1-RS computer, Peppermint would have been able to poison its database with random nonsense. She could really upload anything; useless trivia about dolphins, the entire anime bath scene wikia, SCR-UB poems, and all Chai would have to do is keep V1-RS busy and distracted until it was so poisoned it wouldn't be able to function anymore. Then it would be easy to finish off.

Although Chai would get help from Peppermint in this scenario rather than do it all on his own, I think this version of the story could still have worked better than the one I drew. Because Chai defeats V1-RS without his robot powers and while being technically on his own.

Perhaps had I taken more time to think the story over I may have gone with this last version. Although If I had been given time to reflect I would probably not have made a fan comic at all. The only reason Mostly (h)Armless exists is because I turned my brain on autopilot for 10 months.

It was a very weird time and the meme of it feeling like waking up from a year long dream-state wasn't entirely a joke.

So yeah, these are the scenarios I can remember. There were a couple of shorter scenes that got removed but story wise they don't add much.

[ronearoundblindly]

I’m feeling angsty 😈

For F.R.I Steve can I get

6. How do they make up/apologize after an argument?

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick

And 40. Do they have any regrets in their relationship

Question are from this ask game and for the Fools Rush In series with Steve Rogers x lab tech!Reader.

Angst? You want angst, you say? I shall endeavor to deliver...

*This series deals with mature and/or sexual themes not suitable for all-ages, and these drabble-answers are no exception! Also, sorry this took forever.

6

Well, there was that time when you called Steve a 'himbo,' or when Steve was repelled by the smell of a lab accident, or when you finally snap at too many classified secrets stacked between you and Steve. You have arguments, but not all of them are knock-down drag-outs.

It's important that you two do talk in order to come to an understanding of what is truly wrong or upsetting because, as we all know, sometimes neither of you starts off by saying exactly that.

Time together alone is critical. You two are not public in almost any sense of the word, so you are skilled is setting whatever feelings there are aside until you can openly speak. Being alone sometimes still means being physically separate. Touching can be distracting and avoids the crux of the issue (usually, except the first like half a year you dated, whoops), so sorting through your feelings and putting them into words may take a while but ends up best.

There have been arguments that even take alone-alone time, where you two have some space before coming together again. It's rare, but when frustrations run really high, Steve is not a fan of that energy bleeding into physical touch or everyday tasks. He hates associating any negativity with you. (You're human. He knows that. So is he. Just...no more than absolutely necessary.)

After all that--and only after all that is worked out--Steve and you are very tender to each other. You ease back into each other. Proximity is intimacy. Steve favorite small gesture is to put his arm over you while you two read on the couch. Yours is to tuck him to your chest as you fall asleep.

It's devastating to you that Steve censors his own future.

We all like to imagine the good in our lives lasting forever, and Steve does that, too. He simply...doesn't imagine ever getting any more of you than he does now. He doesn't think to expect that part of you two together ever evolves because that would be somehow demanding...anything. He feels ungrateful for how far you've come, and that is so much more than he ever hoped to have.

Thus, he censors what he could want and expect from you. Happy homecomings, enthusiastic reunions, intense and escalating sexual relations (yes, I know that sounds clinical, but that's how his brain thinks of these things) are, each time, welcome events. He refuses to explore his desires. Steve guilts himself into being grateful and that's it.

I mention this in conjunction with arguments and making up because it's not something you can be angry at other than it's a shame he cannot incorporate his physical satisfaction with general life.

(That gets explored in 'Not A Perfect Soldier But A Good Man,' a sex pollen exposure that breaks down Steve's defenses around that.)

18

Ack, ok, wounds are...yikes. Steve fusses an unbelievable amount, even if only internally. He will plan out like six levels of 'how much to help' as you recover from something. If he is the one who got hurt (because he doesn't get sick, nope, never), then just ignore it; he'll be fine in no time. The serum is the serum is the serum. He has no business needing to be taken care of.

Bullocks.

Obviously, Steve is completely full of shit on this subject.

Once you get past his guarded dismissal, he needs tender, loving care. Steve needs reminding that not only is he still human but that being human is enough, even if he heals quickly.

In all honestly, his worst wounds are psychological. Those take patience and encouragement to speak openly.

Though unrealistic about his own health needs, Steve is (usually) thorough in his focus on your healing. At first, in the very early days, he had to be subtle, like when you hurt your hand...twice, and he's been fine accessing your mental health needs since the beginning. Seriously that's...pretty much the whole setup to this series...

There are times--adjacent to the heat of battle, let's say--when Steve does default to trusting your own strength while he continues to handle something urgent. You're an adult; he doesn't baby you. He's just gentle and as doting as possible when you two have time to be alone.

There are ongoing snippy-convos, not arguments, about taking medications for various things. He isn't fond of you dismissing your own pain--ex: you have a headache but won't take a pill--but respects your choice to treat your body how you wish. (Healthy, though, because ((and he will use this language)) he won't fucking stand for disordered eating to control your appearance. Media can fuck off in this regard.)

40

No deep-seated regrets, no. There's little things, things you both wish you'd gotten over faster or learned earlier, but all-in-all, everything that happens to you and in your relationship happens for a reason and exactly when it's supposed to happen. Lord knows, the excitement and the sorrow of the life of an Avenger leaves very little desire to spice up your world much more.

Thank you for asking!

[Main Masterlist; Light Masterlist; Ko-Fi]

[itzpris15634]

Some Swap 7 AU stuff! But only involving 4 out of the 7 of them. These are written with a Human AU in mind. I'll be making use of the names I gave them, if applicable.

This was mostly all supposed to be silly goofs and gaffs about their hobbies, but oops, I accidentally added a bit too much tragedy to the mix-

Shoudl I put a warning? I'll put one here, to be safe.

If you click to read more, you'll be greeted to mentions of neglect, amputation, abuse, and generally unsafe living situations. It doesn't go into extreme extreme detail, but I figure it's still worth a warning.

Scarletta - Scarletta's relationship with her parents was almost non-existent. They were too busy in their own fighting to even notice they had a daughter.

Scarletta found comfort in a friend. They'd do everything together. She found herself staying way more often at her friend's house than her own. She was even allowed to borrow their musical instruments, which is how her passion for music started.

They've been friends for years. They decided to make a promise- to be there for each other, no matter what.

...Until that friend reveals they'll be moving away.

Scarletta is heartbroken. She's come to depend on them too much. What is she going to do now? She begs and pleads with them to stay somehow, but it's been settled. Their parents have already done all the paperwork, purchasing, and preparing for the move.

Scarletta isn't quite the same after that. No one has ever been able to fill that emptiness in her heart. She'll snap and get agitated at anyone who tries.

Charlie/Cheep-Cheep - Charlie is bright and smart, full of many great ideas to share with his friends. His love for technology and science stems from his father. The two shared a passion for working with tech and machinery, constantly working on new ideas together. All was going well... until, one day, Charlie was involved in an accident involving one of their machines. He survived, but lost his left arm. His father, regretful that he couldn't save his son, lost the spark he had for iventing. Charlie, on the other hand, never gave up. He continued working on his passion- even building himself a new arm- and he hoped to reignite his father's spark so they could bond again, just like they used to.

It never happened. Charlie's father later died, that spark forever lost .

Charliw vowed that he'd make use of his talents to help other people with their passions and ideas, hoping that it will make up for what he's lost.

Mitzi - Mitzi feels like she's constantly been walking on eggshells her whole life. It started with her parents, who'd beat and berate her if she didn't follow what they said. So, she started doing everything at home, hoping to please them. She'd exhaust herself with cleaning work, she'd go out in the middle of the night just because they were craving something despitr the possible threats, she'd keep quiet about everything. The parents never quite seemed to appreciate Mitzi's efforts- they seemed annoyed that she was still there, actually- but at least she'd be keeping her new scars to a minimum.

That was years ago, long back in her childhood. One parent has died, the other she found the courage to cut off. But no doubt they left an impact on her. So here she is now. A people pleaser, she'll do anything and everything to keep you happy, even if at her own detriment.

Simon/Shivers - At first, things seemes okay for Simon Winters. Sure, his parents fought quite often- stuff about his mom being way too spendthrifty- but he was too young to understand. When his dad- the only income of their family- decides to leave, it gets worse. Mrs. Winters spent the money he left them on drinks and bets, not leaving much for her son. He couldn't even find an extra blanket to keep him from shivering in the cold. Simon started working odd jobs and gigs for some sort of cashflow, but balancing work and school wasn't too easy.

He resorted to shoplifting and theft. Did it make him feel a bit guilty? A little, but did he have much of a choice?

Unfortunately for him, old habits die hard, and he continues his theft to his adulthood. Even on things he doesn't quite need.

-

In a nutshell: parental issues. Except for cheep cheep, kinda, but still.

I'm yet to solidify my ideas about Shahrukh, Felina, and Esteban, but I'll make another one of this if ever I do :')) I probably should come up with something for Josh... but that'll be a future me thing to deal with lmao

...

Why do I have more backstory for side characters than I do the main 7?

[tired-night-owl]

Blood Runs Cold

Fandom : Star Wars The Bad Batch

One shot ?

I tried to write a small fic about Crosshair and Omega in the new promo that’s been released because I can’t wait to see them together in the new season even if I know my heart is gonna get crushed by Dave Filony again… Hopefully I am the opposite of last season and I am soooo wrong and they will all be reunited as a big family where no one dies or sacrifice themselves for the others ! Anyway I hope you enjoy :) 

Word count : 866

Summary : Crosshair has much to think about in his new conditions, what doesn’t help is when a far too bubbly and optimistic teenager comes and ruins his peaceful self pity moment.

Notes : brief mention of torture I guess, small but graphic description of tech’s death, Siblings!crosshair x omega, Spoilers for the new promo clip !

He noticed it a while ago, when they first started their wicked experiments on him. He tried to keep it under control mostly for his pride because seeing as with such a condition, his (now rendered useless) talent would be even more so wasn’t helping his morale. Crosshair didn’t mind it too much for now because not one clone in this cursed facility was in any shape or form to judge him in his misery. That is until the girl showed up. 

That child has been the sole cause for any misfortune he had to live though in the last couple of months he thought, but scolded himself to at least not make it show. She has enough to deal with too at the moment without having to suffer his endless wrath and sorrows. Still she cost him everything. His family, in more ways than one, his station, attempting to save her branded him a traitor and a VIP ticket to Hemlock’s test table and —

His mind went silent 

His brother Tech…. He had to give his life for hers. Skull smashed to pieces because they didn’t heed his warning. There's no way the batch can survive without its brain now. 

His mind whirled with thoughts like these locked in his dark cell all day. Some would say they were enough to drive a man insane but Crosshair already knew insane, and it wasn’t by his choice. Now he sees it, the effect that damn chip has had on him. How it made him turn on the only people who ever cared for him. He couldn’t turn on this one now. 

« Crosshair… »

« Crosshair ! I tried to come earlier, but there are too many guards watching me…»

He tried to calm his usually snappy tone for the sake of the girl who must be as terrified if not more than he is at the moment.

« You shouldn’t be down here at all » he tried to make her realize a little harsher than he wished.

It was foolish of her to put a target on her back by snooping around, on THEIR backs. In a situation like this where there is no hope, it’s best to comply and hope you die as painlessly as possible. Though that seemed unlikely for him at the hands of that sick scientist. But there might be hope for her yet if she stopped escaping her quarters.

The girl continued with her misplaced energy and optimism.

« How else are we gonna plan an escape ? »

An escape ?! Had she gone insane? Did she not realize they were in the middle of no where, in an unknown imperial playground, surrounded by guards with no moral compass except loyalty to the credits they earn at the end of each shift filled with screams of tortured people. Better to kill that idea in the egg before she gets too altruistic. 

The sniper resumed his usual cold and unapproachable attitude, hoping the girl would realize that planning an escape in a place such as this with only 1 ally was foolish already but with no one, it was simply stretching your neck to help the executioner do his job. 

« There is no WE, and there is no escape… I’ve already tried. » 

The young clone didn’t budge.

« Every stronghold has a weak point ! Maybe I could convince Emerie to help, she’s one of us. »

His brothers has taught her well he could tell, and by that he meant by filling her head with useless idiotic tactics and informations for a obviously changing galaxy. Besides if they shouldn’t trust one person in this Sarlac pit, it was HER. That double crossing scientist woman. Testing on people was bad enough but on her own « brothers » that was being a plain sociopathic hypocrite. 

« Not every clone is your ally ! » The sharpshooter reminded her.

« You trust too easily… »

He expected a reply and one sounding similar to that one too, so he doesn’t know why her words struck him so. 

« Maybe you don’t trust enough. » Omega replied with that same misguided hope as earlier.

An uncomfortable silence surrounded the two and then it started again : the shaking.

The stupid shaking he couldn’t stop. The best sniper in the whole GAR with quivering hands, how ironic. He felt uneasy having her see him like this. It was as if his own brothers could see how low he had fallen and for a prideful man like Crosshair, it was not an easy feat to overcome. 

« Crosshair ? »  The young girl asked after her gaze fell upon her brother hiding his hands from her. 

Not so long ago he would’ve snapped at her for simply seeing him in a state like this, desperately trying to steady his once reliable hands but now, he just didn’t have the heart or the energy to do so…

« Just… Go. » he simply said. 

« Before you make things worst for both of us… »

In this moment he came to the conclusion that yes, he didn’t want to be punished for the girl’s misbehaviour but he also mostly didn’t want her to suffer because of him. 

Knowing Hemlock, he wouldn’t even do it to punish Omega… but he would do unexplainable things to the girl to make HIM suffer. 

[bearsinpotatosacks]

I've got a lot of random snippets I may never use so here's a new series of me sharing random scenes in my google drive. This one is from a Mission Impossible idea, written before Dead Reckoning, where Ethan's kidnapped, his death is faked, he's tortured into submission and slowly brainwashed into being the bad guy's strong man. Here is Ethan seeing his friend's for the last time.

---------

Ethan watched from afar, hidden in the slight shadow of the alleyway but not too dark so he couldn't see. The world was busy, as it tended to be. The streets of London were full. Full of businessmen, tourists, a cyclist throwing their arms up in the air in annoyance and a woman laughing on the phone.

Busy, busy, busy. But not missing him. There was no Ethan shaped gap here as he wasn't sure why he expected one. 

For there to be a gap in society one had to participate in it. And although Ethan sacrificed more than his share to save it, he should know by now that he was not part of society. And was never destined to be.

He was happy. Benji was laughing, outside a coffee shop. Ilsa sat to his right, Brandt next to her, Luthor opposite. Someone else was to Benji's left. He supposed, if there was to be am Ethan shaped hole somewhere in the world, it would be there, by his side. 

But there wasn't one. Someone else was. Someone so wonderfully ordinarily handsome, in the most brilliant way. Not 'international spy who needs to seduce for a living' attractive, the kind of attractive that screamed that this person had a life, had a job, passions and hobbies, a family, one of blood or choice. 

He had dark hair, 60's style thick rimmed glasses on. He looked tired yet sophisticated, the kind of guy who could listen to Chopin one minute and belt along to ABBA the next. Someone who fit Benji. Someone who could take him to the opera when it wasn't to find a nefarious terrorist.

Someone who could love him like he deserved.

Benji laughed. And all of this was worth it if Benji laughed, if he was at peace. If he was happy, then Ethan could survive.

It didn't matter if he couldn't be there to see it and wouldn't be the cause of them. Because yes, seeing Benji's fingers interlaced with the man to his left made him feel like he didn't have a heart anymore and he had to restrain himself from blowing his cover by storming over there and kissing him silly. But if he was happy, he could keep his distance. 

"There you go, I've kept my part of the deal," Bad Guy said. 

Ethan almost scoffed, but the fear that had been instilled into his bones stopped him. He knew that over time he wouldn't even know to scoff. They were going to remove all doubt from his mind, make him believe he was free and happy, maybe even forget that he used to be on the law's side. 

He shuddered and looked back at his friends. Well, the people who used to be his friends. A sense of ease almost came over him. Almost because a bittersweet taste hit the back of his throat when he realised he'd never see them again. He hoped he never saw them again, it would break his heart if he did.

"At least tell me what they're doing?" He said.

Bad Guy huffed and Ethan heard the flick of a lighter, the crackle of a cigarette and the smell of smoke. 

"Ilsa is running self defence classes in London, she's doing well, seems happy, has a cat." He said. "Brandt is the Secretary of the IMF, he's putting more care into each agent, treating them a bit more like people. Luthor is still outshining everyone with his tech skills,"

Ethan gulped, "And Benji?"

"He's left the IMF, started his own tech company, that man to his left is Carl Oswald, owns a bookshop, they've been together almost a year now," he said. "Benji's attending therapy, but he's doing better, he's happy."

Ethan nodded. There was that, at least

"They won't matter, in time." He had to ruin it. "They'll forget you, you'll forget them, everything will be better."

He stubbed out the cigarette and pulled Ethan along as the bittersweet feeling turned to a sick anger. 

Better in time? He didn't want to forge them, they were his lifeblood and forgetting them would be worse than death. 

"Come along, Mr Hunt."

And they were gone. Lost behind the crowds of people and soon to be gone from his memory.

Perhaps he couldn't stop the inevitable. This would be his life whether he wanted it or not, god knows he'd tried to escape. Perhaps it was better they forget him because it would make it a whole lot easier to fit into his knew life if he never had to fight them.

[yellowhollyhock]

okay fine I'll tell you. I fall asleep at night thinking about future Donny and Angel, enjoying a quiet evening at home, chatting about the weather, planning for their niece Cassandra's eleventh birthday party, eating burnt dinner because they've both become better cooks but mostly they've become desensitized to each other's cooking. Looking for a show to watch together. and then

There's a knock at the door.

And there stands Cody Jones. He's gotten a little taller, starting to get some whiskers, but he's still a young teenager.

And he's still spending his life in the past.

His clothes are dirty. His hair's a mess. He's clearly exhausted and needs help. First priority is feed this insane teenager and get him a warm place to sleep.

Donny's second priority, though, is to get some answers. 'What are you doing here? Where is Serling? Do you have any idea how risky this is? Your grandmother is coming over tomorrow for help with her math homework.'

'Uncle Donny, O'Neil Tech is in trouble. I didn't know who else to come to.'

Listen. Of course O'Neil Tech is in trouble. Darius has had his hands in it selling weapons to criminals for years before Cody found out and the turtles intervened. And now? This unsocialized kid is trying to keep the company running by himself, his only financial advice from Serling, who's been programmed as a caretaker, not a business manager. Of course they're in trouble.

Now the big question is, how are they supposed to help? Do they risk going to the future with him so they can het their hands on the problem? Then do they leave him alone again once it's resolved? Are they sure they can get back? For now they're pouring over legal documents from 2107, trying to teach Cody how to read people and helping him with finances and keeping him a secret from April and Casey. Do they tell the other turtles? I'm not sure yet, they probably should, but is more people knowing he's there a bigger strain on the timestream?

Donny is stressed out of his mind. Angel and Cody are having the time of their lives. She shows him the sights, supposedly as part of his Very Important Social Training, just to help him get some real-world character-building experience. (They are going to trampoline parks, hole in the wall restaurants, all kinds of museums because Cody is a history nerd and she definitely notices how he treats every place they go like a museum). And the more she's getting to know Cody, and the more he's reminding her of Donny, the less she's on board with ever sending him back to the future, where he has no one.

Of course the others are going to find out eventually. The turtles and Splinter at least, haven't decided about April and Casey. I definitely think even if Cassandra meets Cody they're going to avoid revealing that he's her grandson. At any rate having to avoid Cassandra while Cody is living with them is definitely going to put some strain on everyone involved.

Leo and Mikey want to go to the future and find the Dark Turtles. Maybe they could have Cody's back. To which Raph and Don reply aren't they also teenagers? And severely traumatized? And have tried to kill us and Cody before? Leo tentatively suggests maybe Cody could appeal to Bishop for help. Now Raph is furious. 'Don't you guys care about the kid? Wasn't one egocentric deceitful backstabbing guardian enough? Even if it's in Bishop's best interests to take care of Cody, he'll never really care for him. Doesn't he deserve at least that much?"

Donny speaks up on Serling's behalf. 'He has a guardian. He just needs legal advice.'

Angel is not pleased with this read on the situation. 'You've been so obsessed with solving his problems for him you haven't even been spending time with him. You don't understand the situation at all. Who cares if he loses the company? He came here because he needed you. Don't you guys remember what it was like to be sixteen and alone?'

Raph and Angel are both all for him staying in the past with them. Leo and Donny are worried about what that means for the timestream--when Cody is born, will it be his inevitable fate to be adopted into his ancestors' family outside of his proper time? Or are they creating a new branch where the future they've been working to secure for Cody isn't certain, maybe Darius kills him, maybe there is no interplanetary peace. And what about Serling? Cody is his whole world, they can't just keep him here.

I don't know where Mikey and Splinter fall in this debate. Probably both sort of accidentally egging on both sides. Mikey is a father of three (I've thought a lot about this but haven't decided on his soulmate or whom he has adopted but he gots three kiddos okay) and this does make it hard for him to think clearly about the issue at all. Splinter wants to solve the whole thing with meditation, and he's got a point. The rat knows how to reach across time and space when needed, and if Cody can learn, they can be there for him. But that's still going to be difficult to keep secret from April, Donny points out, and at that point why wouldn't they just keep him here in the flesh where they can give him a proper hug when he needs it, Raph grumps.

I lied I don't fall asleep thinking about it. There is no sleep. I stare towards the ceiling in the dark trying to decide how the dark turtles are going to fit in the story because I want them, what Bishop's going to do to solidify not trusting him in spite of everything, whether Karai and Chapman's descendants get mixed up in O'Neil Tech's legal troubles. And I need to watch Fast Forward again because I barely remember any plots. I just want Angel and Cody to meet and for the turtles to struggle with the concept of time travel and how much it complicates possible consequences to their actions. Especially Leo, because of the position he took in the City at War arc, and Donny, who usually seems to enjoy time travel and expressed in the journal episode how he 'already knows he did one good thing.' What if that one good thing were compromised? What if they (feel like they) have to choose between the wellbeing of those dearest to them and the possibility of interplanetary peace?

Also I want middle-aged Dongel

And also what if Professor Honeycutt goes to the future with Cody and adopts him. What if Serling hates him at first and then falls in love with him. Okay that was a two am thought but listen. It could be very funny and possibly even cute.

[eriexplosion]

I've been thinking a lot about Plan 99. Most of the fandom has, whether we want to or not, because how do you stop thinking about it honestly? Now I've been riding the Tech's Alive train from the start, for a lot of reasons - I won't list them all out, because there's been some absolutely amazing meta on the topic. Shout out to @heyclickadee especially who's done some in depth posts about Tech's probable survival that I cannot recommend enough.

But the thing that I can't stop coming back to and turning over in my hands like a shiny object is the thought of physically disabled Tech. It's a storyline that I think is underrepresented in media, as well as a choice that preserves the narrative stakes while being reason enough for the cast and writers to get as emotional as they did discussing it during the panel. And, frankly, it's a realistic outcome. There's this tendency to hold up character death as the ultimate demonstration of realism in a narrative based around war, but for every soldier that never came home there's a soldier that made it back with permanent injuries that changed their life forever.

But what I'm especially focused on is how it all ties together with the narrative themes that we've seen through the show, and that have been especially prominent in season two. Tech coming back with a permanent disability, especially one that removes him from the field in some way, fits in perfectly with several things.

The first one is of course survival as a whole - we get a lot of focus on this, and the most notable moment is with Crosshair and the ice vulture. "They find a way to survive" and all. But while it's most prominent in Crosshair's storyline, it's not absent from the rest of the batch's narrative. We see their determination to survive, Tech most especially. Episode two is basically an ongoing demonstration of how hard he's able to go even when he can barely move, and we get that long focus on him when the line "I'm a survivor" comes in. Then we get episode four, which is entirely focused on his quick thinking, his unique processing, and how it helps him survive where literally any other human would have been killed.

Tech is a calculated risk taker, but he's a survivor. If anyone could make it through that fall he could, tying his plot in rather firmly with Crosshair's journey through that shared narrative of finding a way to survive.

Which brings us to our next major theme - choices, respecting them and, especially, living with the consequences of your own. Tech made a choice, he looked at the odds and chose to risk himself to protect his family. If he dies here, that's it, that's as far as he has to go and it's up to everyone else to live with his choice and his loss. The consequences of that decision become theirs to bear.

But, if he lives, if he's permanently affected by his choice, then not only are they dealing with the consequences but so is he. Dying is a single choice, living with permanent changes is a series of them. Coming to the conclusion that despite everything he doesn't regret any of it, that he'd do it all again to protect them is a choice too. All of which leads directly into a theme that was most notably laid down by Tech himself in The Crossing - the ability and need to adapt.

If Tech becomes injured enough that he can't go into the field, that's a major shakeup in the fabric of the team as well as his own self image. From the start, Tech has always been elbow deep in the missions. He's in thick of the fight, right there dual wielding to take down enemies, smacking droids with datapads, hacking, and he gets several points where he physically saves Omega. He's not a sidelines kind of nerd.

So what happens if he can't do that? Maybe he's hurt enough that he has to actually stay behind on Pabu permanently, maybe he can go with them and pilot but he can't leave the Marauder, either way how does he handle being put in a situation where he can't be what he was before on the team and they have to go into danger without him there to protect them or help? The team has to adjust to his absence, and he has to adjust to not being able to do Everything and fill every gap. He has to adjust to watching them leave, not knowing if they'll come back.

But they have to adapt. He has to adapt. That's what soldiers do.

Except he's not even a soldier anymore, not in the same way, he might still be a mechanic and a pilot, but he's not the soldier he used to be, and that's another narrative theme hit. Who are the clones when they can't be soldiers? What else can they do, what are their lives without war and fighting? If Tech can't do what he did before, what can he do, how can he help his family, who even is he outside of the role that was given to him?

The final theme that I think ties into this - the second season has put a real emphasis on culture and community, we see communities coming together to support each other in multiple episodes such as with the wookiees, the rescued miner kids, Pabu as a whole. And Tech dealing with the changes that new disability brings provides ample opportunity to see that community support in action.

Pabu is a village of refugees, people who have likely gone through exactly what he's going through. His living would give the opportunity to explore that further and provide yet another link between the Batch and Pabu, another example of their belonging. He can't be as self sustaining as he was before. He doesn't have to be. None of them do, they have a community now and it's okay to lean on them.

I keep coming back to Tribe, too, specifically that quote that got us all right in the heart. When a young one leaves, the trees weep. But when they return the trees sing. As this child has found his new home, perhaps, one day we all will find a new path.

At the time a lot of us thought about Crosshair. Now we can connect it very directly to Omega's kidnapping. Two lost young ones that the trees will sing for when they return. Hopefully we get to see that with Tech too. We've definitely had our weeping, so fingers crossed for some singing to come.

[ashes-2-ashes57cba]

The Bad Batch: Specter

Episode 8: Reunion

edited by @ryleeeeeenn *ibac dinii: Mando'a "that lunatic" warnings: canonical violence, Hunter almost dies (again)

“How do you think they’re doing?” Echo asked Specter as the two made their way toward Omega and Wrecker. 

“Believe it or not, he’s not a bad teacher. He and Tech are like this-” Specter held up crossed fingers “when it comes to engineering explosives. So he knows what he’s doing.”

“But is it safe?” Specter hesitated to answer his question.

“Technically, yes. But this is Wrecker with an explosive we’re talking about. I mean, he also launched me across the room on our first day of training together, but I think Omega will be fine,” she said with a shrug, walking on and leaving Echo to pause worriedly. “Come on, Echo, keep up.”

The two crested over the fallen piece of debris, coming towards the clearing where Wrecker and Omega worked. Before they could grab the pair’s attention, Specter watched as the two quickly ducked for cover as a poorly dismantled bomb ticked faster and faster. Specter braced for the worst but sighed with relief when the bomb released nothing more than a puff of smoke. Omega peeked out from her spot as Wrecker ran past, laughing. 

“Why didn’t it explode?” the girl asked, scoffing.

“Because it’s a smoke bomb,” Wrecker explained with a cheeky grin. “You think I’d let you train with a live explosive? I’m not crazy.” 

“Really, Wrecker? That old trick?” Specter shouted from the top of the ruins. The two looked up at her and Echo. Wrecker only laughed some more.

“Pack it in, you two. Hunter wants us back at the Jedi cruiser,” Echo announced, jumping down to the ground along with Specter, removing their helmets. “How’d the test go?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Omega pouted, kicking at the dirt. 

“Cheer up, hun. He failed his first disarming test, too. Ended up putting that quadrant of the facility on lockdown,” said Specter.

“With my help, you’ll be a pro in no time,” Wrecker encouraged, handing the girl her energy-bow. The four started to make their way back to Hunter and Tech at the Jedi cruiser, but each of them noted the figures in their peripheral vision.

“We’ve got eyes on us,” Echo muttered. 

“Yeah, I see ‘em,” Wrecker replied. Omega drifted towards Specter, who put a hand on her shoulder.

“How many?” the girl whispered. 

“At least three. I saw their transport platform just ahead. Stay casual,” Specter advised. They walked a few more feet, noting that the figures were starting to move from their positions.

“You two ready?” Echo asked. 

“Waiting on you,” Wrecker said.

“Copy that,” replied Specter. Echo nodded, and the three put on their helmets, running towards the scrappers as they escaped to their transport. They were able to stun all but one and had already made it to the platform's controls. 

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Wrecker grunted, grabbing onto the transport to keep it from flying away. He was unsuccessful, however, and was dragged off. “I’ve got this under control,” he assured, flying off. 

“Hunter, Tech. We’ve been by scrappers,” Echo said into the comm. 

“Wrecker’s in pursuit. He says he has it under control,” Omega added. Specter knew that at least Tech wouldn’t find much comfort in that fact. 

“Specter, get a visual,” Hunter ordered.

“I’m on it,” she affirmed. She ran full speed ahead, climbing up a spiring piece of debris; from that vantage point, she could see the scrapper trying to shake off Wrecker. He held on tightly, grabbing onto whatever he could to try and hoist himself up, but the scrapper was able to get him off, flying up against debris until Wrecker lost his grip and tumbled to the ground. Specter tracked through the scope of her rifle, firing a stun bolt that perfectly hit the scrapper. The platform crashed as he slumped over the controls. Omega and Echo caught up to Wrecker, who got up on uneasy legs.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked, worried.

“I… I was just waiting to make my move,” Wrecker gave a feeble explanation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specter sat by Tech, watching as Wrecker brought the last unconscious scrapper to the small pile they had amassed. 

“Rex warned us about the scrapper patrols on Bracca. We should leave,” Echo advised.

“In our present situation, we need money. And we have a chance to make a lot of it right here,” Hunter insisted.

“Ha! In this dump? How?” Wrecker sarcastically questioned. Hunter turned his attention.

“Tech, what’s the potential haul inside this cruiser?” he asked.

“My scans indicate the armory and artillery bay have not been fully offloaded. The dianoga must have kept the scrappers away,” Tech reported, Specter peering over to look at his scanner.

“Just a few of those weapons should clear our debt with Cid,” she added.

“We’re soldiers, not arms smugglers,” Echo said incredulously, agitatedly crossing his arms.

“There’s no Republic for us to rely on anymore. We’re presented with an opportunity here. We have to take it,” Hunter insisted, turning to grab his helmet and putting it on.

“I would also add that the intel from the bridge’s central system has the potential to be worth far more than any weapon,” Tech pointed out.

“Not to me,” Wrecker scoffed.

“Tech, get to the bridge. Get the power online and whatever intel you can gather,” Hunter ordered as Tech and Specter stood up, putting on their helmets.

“Uh, what do we do about them?” Omega asked, nodding towards the unconscious scrappers. Specter bit her tongue, refraining from making a gruesome suggestion.

“We’ll grab what we need and be gone before they even wake up,” Hunter assured before leading the group inside the ruined cruiser. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specter bounced from foot to foot in anticipation, eager to see what weapons were holed away in the forgotten cruiser as Wrecker grunted, pushing the door open. She dashed passed all of them, running through her mind to try and remember the cataloging system implemented on Jedi cruisers to try and find—

“Aha! Found one!” she cheered, holding up a blaster pistol, replacing the one she lost on Corellia. Echo stood nearby, shaking his head at her. “Oh don’t give me that. This one’s for me,” Specter explained, holstering the weapon and continuing to look around for other valuables; she saw Hunter carrying a box towards a platform and heard Omega show Wrecker something—most likely explosives. She browsed the aisle tilting her head in curiosity until the room suddenly lit up. Specter flinched at the sudden brightness.

“The power’s back on,” Tech reported from the comm. 

“Yeah, we can see that,” Wrecker replied.

“Thank you, Technician,” Specter teased. She heard him grumble while the others laughed at the nickname. Specter found a box filled with a few rotary cannons, disassembled, of course. Maneuvering the crate to carry it on her head, she regrouped with Hunter and Echo.

“With a haul like this, Cid will owe us for a change,” Hunter mused.

“If we’d left with Rex, we wouldn’t have to owe Cid at all,” Echo muttered. Specter wordlessly placed the crate on the platform, waiting to hear what her Sergeant would say.

“He’s on a different path than us,” he sighed. 

“Hunter, we’re soldiers. What other path is there?” Echo took the platform and walked away before anyone else could reply. Specter stood by Hunter and watched him go. 

“I sometimes forget he used to be a reg,” she admitted. “He wasn’t trained like we were to adapt to our surroundings.” Hunter glanced at her, and she shrugged. He seemed to mull over her words. 

“And what about you? How are you adapting?” he asked quietly. 

Specter sighed. Her fists balled at her sides before she forced herself to relax and flex her hand. He didn’t need to say it for Specter to know he was thinking about yesterday’s revelation. 

She could admit not having an inhibitor chip was its own relief. Relief, yes, but with that relief came the question that lingered in the back of her mind, 

If she wasn’t programmed like the others, then what was her purpose? 

“I just… trying to understand and figure out what the Kaminoans had planned for me,” Specter explained. Hunter gently took her hand, offering a squeeze.

“Hey,” he said softly, “What the Kaminoans had planned for you doesn't matter anymore. The future is yours to decide now, you can be whatever you want. No matter what, we’ll figure it out together.”

Specter couldn’t help but smile, she went to respond but was interrupted by Tech’s voice on the comm.

“Hunter, we’ve got company.”

“Is it more scrappers?” Hunter asked, running a hand through his hair, exasperated.

“No, it’s the Empire.” Tech sounded worried. Specter nodded at Hunter, allowing her hand to slip out of his so he could run up to the bridge and meet Tech and Omega to assess the situation. She watched him go, steeling herself to prepare for the imminent fight to come before turning around back to Echo and Wrecker.

“Alright, boys, let’s wrap it up. The Empire just joined the party.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crosshair walked out of the shuttle, helmet under his arm, followed by the three troopers under his command. The other soldiers in white stood at attention in their precise formations, creating a pathway just for him. He gnawed on his toothpick in both anger and anxiety.

“That cruiser’s where the power surge was detected,” one of his subordinates said. 

“Any life signs on board?” another asked the one trailing behind with the scanner.

“Can’t tell. The scanner’s not working. There’s too much atmospheric interference,” he reported. Crosshair stopped, immediately knowing Tech was behind it.

“No, you’re being jammed,” he corrected before flicking the toothpick away. “They’re still on board.” Putting his helmet on, he knew he only had a few seconds to collect himself; his sister—Specter—was in there. The fact that she’d stepped away, that she’d turned against him, still stung. Part of him hoped she’d be smart enough not to put up a fight, maybe she would go quietly. But he knew his sister, and he knew nothing short of a miracle would make this any easier. He couldn’t afford to hope for her escape; orders were orders, and his were clear. Have them all terminated. Yet even so, one question echoed through his mind: could he do it? Had he truly fallen so far that he would take that shot and kill his sister?  

“Take a shuttle and find their ship,” he forced himself to say.

“Yes, Commander,” a trooper answered, turning to order a squad back into the shuttle. Satisfied with the command, he nodded to his own squad, signaling an advance toward the Jedi cruiser. He steeled himself, looking onward into the wasteland before him, bracing himself for what he was sure would be an interesting reunion.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wrecker, Specter, and Echo made their way through the ruined corridors, hauling what they could carry. Wrecker and Echo maintained an uninteresting conversation as Specter trailed slightly behind them, lost in her own thoughts. Her mind kept drifting to Crosshair. She was worried for her brother and what the Empire had done to him. Hunter, Tech, and Omega appeared in the oncoming junction before she could spiral any deeper.

“How many troopers we talking about?” Echo asked.

“Three attack shuttles’ worth,” Tech replied. 

“All of those troops just for us? How sweet,” Specter sneered, masking her anxiety.

“We already got what we came for. Let’s get to the Marauder,” Wrecker urged.

“They’re already on board the cruiser. We need a covert way out,” said Hunter.

“They’ll do a forward-to-aft sweep. We can alternate corridors. Come on,” Echo strategized before leading the group.

They quietly made their way through the dark corridors with their haul toward the hangar. Specter nibbled at her lip, nearly drawing blood. She was scared, not just at the inevitability of facing the Empire, but at the chance of seeing her brother again. If Crosshair were to end up on the other end of her rifle, she wasn’t confident she could rely on herself to pull the trigger. She didn’t want to fight him again. 

“Talk to me, Tech,” Hunter said after a while.

“I’m trying to tap into the regs’ comms so we can monitor their movements,” he reported. A banging sounded in the distance, Hunter held up his fist to signal a halt.

“Someone’s coming,” he muttered before shooing them into the darkness. Specter watched as a quad of soldiers marched past, missing them entirely. They passed out of sight into the next hall, and ever so cautiously, the Batch stood up, Tech already back on his scanner.

“I’m in,” he affirmed, completing his goal and tuning in to the regs’ comm frequency.

“All squads,” Crosshair’s voice came in. Specter’s hand clenched into a fist. “Push the targets towards the hangar. We’ll pin them down,” he ordered.

“Roger that,” a reply came.

“Aren’t we headed to the hangar?” Omega questioned.

“Not anymore. We’ll cut through the artillery deck,” Hunter instructed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specter was the first to emerge through the door, rifle armed and ready to defend against any intruders. She pressed ahead and swept the room while the others followed, finding no sign of the troopers’ presence. Turning back toward her group, she saw Tech, Echo, and Wrecker peering out and over the edge.

“Okay, I’m not going that way,” said Wrecker, stepping back. Suddenly, the doors to the room opened, and soldiers filed in with their blasters raised.

“Stand down,” the leader of a group ordered as the Batch went for cover and trained their blasters on them. Hunter and Omega were still out in the open.

“Tapping our comms to track our movements?” Crosshair scolded, appearing with his own squad. Tech’s eyes widened, knowing he had been caught. “So predictable.” Specter pressed herself against the cannon, hiding from her brother’s view; her hands trembled as she weakly clutched her rifle, trying to calm her racing heart.

“Nice to see you too, Crosshair,” Wrecker sneered, peeking out from his cover. Specter took a breath, looking around the rusted room as an idea clicked; she waved to get Tech’s attention, signing out her plan with her hands. He nodded and nudged Echo.

“Echo, scomp in and reroute reserve power to the cannons.”

“If these cannons fire, this whole deck will collapse,” he hissed.

“Exactly,” Tech nodded. Specter tuned back into whatever Crosshair was saying.

“Look at you all, scavenging like rats,” he seethed. “How pathetic.”

“Why come after us?” Hunter asked, keeping his hand on Omega’s shoulder.

“You’re traitors,” he said simply, motioning with his arm as troopers followed his silent command.

“Crosshair, wake up. You’re being controlled by an inhibitor chip,” Hunter urged.

“He’s telling the truth,” Omega spoke up, “the Kaminoans put chips in all the clones. Remember what I told you in the brig? You can’t help it.” A moment passed, Specter lived on the thin sliver of hope that the girl would somehow be able to get through to him. 

“Aim for the kid,” he said. The shred of hope quickly disintegrated. 

“You’re issue’s with me, not her,” Hunter growled, stepping in front of her and raising his pistol. Specter signaled Omega to prepare to get down.

“Hurry up,” Wrecker urged Tech, who still worked at his datapad. Specter readied her rifle.

“Systems online in three, two, one,” Echo counted down. 

“I suggest you drop your weapon,” Crosshair said—suddenly, the cannons came to life, firing empty shells and rumbling the artillery room. 

Specter emerged from her cover, trading places with Omega. She stood back to back with Hunter, firing at the troops amidst the chaos. The room began to fall apart; structural beams crashed on top of several troops, even knocking Crosshair over.

“Go!” Hunter ordered the rest of the squad. They emerged and laid down their fire in the chaos. Crosshair and his troops scrambled for their weapons. As the room shook, Hunter noticed a part of the roof about to collapse. “Look out!” he shouted, grabbing Specter and covering her as the roof came crashing down on top of them. She slipped out and pulled Hunter free.

“Thanks for the cover. Now let’s go,” she said, meeting with Tech, Echo, and Omega as they made their way toward the exit.  

A trooper stood in their path, shooting a line of flames at them. Hunter turned to cover Omega. As they ducked, Wrecker appeared, armed with a photon torpedo. He instantly chucked it over the top of his head, knocking the trooper back and out of sight.

“Direct hit!” he cheered before following the others out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Specter followed Hunter into a vast chamber, taking only a brief moment to marvel at the size before shuffling along the ledge. 

“Hey,” Echo said quietly behind her, “you okay?”

“I’m fine. Probably a few bruises, but I’ve had worse,” she replied. 

“That’s not what I mean,” he clarified. Her pace slowed, but only a little. The truth was, she was terrified and angry and upset; she hated that Crosshair didn’t seem to show any remorse or empathy but knew that his drive to complete his goal—whether it be to capture or kill them—would be as strong as ever because of that. She also knew that their current situation was not the time to disclose such thoughts.

“I’m fine. I’ve had worse,” she reiterated. 

Both were lies.

They continued further down, walking until their path stopped, and the only other way was down. Hunter was the first to slide down the curve of the engine, shining his light on Specter, Echo, and Tech as they followed suit. 

“We’re almost there. A little further,” he encouraged, turning his light up to Omega and Wrecker. Specter watched as the girl jumped and slid down, guiding and stopping her descent. 

“I didn’t think you meant we’d be escaping through the engine,” Echo commented, walking off with Tech.

“I could not have been clearer,” Tech replied. Wrecker slid down with a thud, still holding the gear they lifted. The girls chuckled and followed the others, looking around the vast room.

“I’ve never been inside an ion engine before,” Omega marveled.

“It’d be weirder if you had,” Wrecker grumbled. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t exactly call it a cozy environment to want to be in,” Specter mumbled, hoisting herself up over one of the rims beside Tech.

“These chambers are quite the engineering marvel,” he commented. “This blast primer coating is capable of withstand-”

“No one cares! Keep movin’,” Wrecker interrupted, shoving him off and hopping over whilst Omega ducked underneath. Hunter made it to the edge of the engine, assuring it was safe so Tech could step ahead and formulate a strategy.

“How is it looking?” Specter asked. Tech took another step before a shot hit the wall, barely missing him. He stumbled back in surprise until Hunter was able to pull him back to safety. “Obviously not good,” she hissed, ducking down and keeping a hand on Omega’s shoulder.

“Try again, Hunter. I told you before, you’re surrounded,” Crosshair was shouting, taunting them. 

“Double back,” Hunter quietly commanded. The group turned back the way they came but made it only a few feet before a thud and rumbling was heard, causing them to stop.

“What is that?” Omega asked, apprehensively. Specter had the feeling she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Sounds like the engine’s coming online. But that’s not possible, right?” Hunter observed before turning to ask Tech, who already got out his scanner. 

“Technically, it is. I restored the ship’s main power core when I accessed the central system, which means the engines can be activated,” he responded.

“Crosshair wouldn’t do that, would he?” Omega still held out faith for him. But Specter knew otherwise that Crosshair’s methods could be ruthless.

“Ibac dinii,” she muttered, fear rising within her. Echo knelt down, feeling the rumbling metal under his fingertips.

“How much time do we have?”

“I estimate less than two minutes,” Tech answered.

“What do we do?” Omega grew increasingly worried as the engine started sparking and producing light.

“Uh, what about Plan 7?” Wrecker offered. Specter shook her head, running a hand over the face of her helmet.

“Plan 7 has nothing to do with this situation whatsoever,” Echo said incredulously. 

“Well, you think of something!” Wrecker argued, placing his crate down. 

“Can we use the explosives from the armory to disable the engine?” Hunter suggested, eyeing the box. Specter scoffed.

“That’s not going to be a big enough reaction to affect the thermal chamber,” she argued, recalling Tech’s fun fact about the blast primer coating.

“But if we place a series of charges around this cone, we may be able to break away from the cylinder while destabilizing the core,” Tech countered.

“Break away? You mean fall? All the way down?” Omega clarified.

“It’s that or be incinerated,” said Echo.

“Everyone, take an explosive. Tech, Omega, up top with me. Spec, we’ll give you a boost,” Hunter ordered. Wrecker opened the crate and they each took an explosive, going off to place it on the rim of the engine. As soon as they were ready, the Batch gathered around to place the final explosive. Wrecker hoisted Specter up by her feet, bouncing her up and down before launching her in the air with all his might; she flew, reaching the top of the chamber and placing the explosive before twisting her body, crossing her arms over her chest, and falling into the arms of the other four. 

“Just in time,” she said, slightly winded. The engine roared to life, blasting a bright blue column of flame above them. 

“Everybody, get down!” Wrecker shouted, holding up the detonator. Hunter laid down on top of Omega, Specter crouched down beside Tech and Echo, and Wrecker knelt down before hitting the button. Explosions circled the chamber, Specter yelped at the sudden jolt. 

“Hold on!” Tech shouted as they started to fall. They braced for cover and held on for support as the chamber turned on its end, but when it landed with a jolt, all but Wrecker and Echo lost their grip; Tech and Specter landed on a ledge next to each other, as did Hunter until he fell over from catching Omega, dangling off the edge.

“I’ve got you,” he assured her. Specter shuffled towards them, ready to help them up. She grabbed Hunter’s hand, but as the chamber finally landed on its side, it split in two.

“Hunter!” Specter screamed as he and Omega slipped out of her grasp, and she was tossed back. She fell and tumbled in the chamber with Wrecker, Echo, and Tech as it settled in the sand. She groaned and winced when everything finally stopped, slowly standing up and taking off her helmet to take in the air. “Is everyone okay?” she asked the group. They all gave their positive responses. “Echo, get a report from Hunter. Tech, scan the area,” she said, taking charge.

“Hunter, we landed on the port side. What’s your status?” Echo asked through the comm.

“We’re by the engine, and we’ve got company,” Hunter reported just before blaster fire was heard in the background. “Meet back at the Marauder.” Specter squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to center herself, her head still spinning from the force of the fall. She had to trust that her Sergeant would make it out and protect Omega, trust that they would all find each other again, and trust herself to stay focused and do her duty. 

Specter shook her head, trying once again to center herself. She’d survived the entire Clone War. She’d faced horrors beyond comprehension and rose to every challenge with her blaster drawn. 

This was different. Everything was different now. She’d once felt certain she could face anything, but now, divided against her brother, being hunted by a brutal empire, and separated from Hunter in this imminent danger, it all felt like too much. For the first time in a long time, she truly felt in over her head. 

And now they all looked to her for the next command. 

“Alright, boys, let’s move out. Double time,” she ordered, shoving her helmet back on. They nodded and made their way back to the Marauder.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We are out of their range,” Tech said as they crested over another piece of wreckage. “But they are on our trail.” Wrecker helped Specter over a piece and continued to follow her.

“Their scouts should have found it by now,” Echo said to her. 

“So why haven’t we heard any activity?” she wondered aloud. Their ship was at the top of the platform just ahead. A sour feeling settled in her stomach. “Wrecker, get me up there, now.” He didn’t hesitate to launch her up to the platform. She gasped, almost choking, seeing Hunter’s body lying on the ground with Omega nowhere in sight. “Boys, get up here now! Sergeant down!” she shouted, running to check if he was still alive. The others scrambled, soon surrounding him.

“He’s still breathing,” Tech reported. 

“They’re closing in,” Echo urged, seeing the soldiers approaching. Wrecker looked around at the other downed soldiers. They were dead, and there was no sign of Omega. Specter steeled herself again; she was terrified, but she had a job to do. Hunter needed her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dark. Floating in the dark expanse of space among stars. No war, no fear, no pain, simply living in the peaceful nothingness. 

Gravity accelerated, shocking him awake from his trance; he groaned as feeling returned, almost overwhelmingly so. Something lifted up his head and touched the side of his helmet. 

“Hunter.” 

His name. It came like a song. He groaned again, eyes fluttering open.

“Wake up.” 

A song. A caress. Flashes of white in the barren darkness.

Specter? No, it couldn’t be. Specter would never–

“Wake up, Hunter… Please”

And he did. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he started and gasped for air.  Specter was knelt in front of him, looking him over, her brow furrowed with worry. He could hear his own breath, but everything in the outside world was muffled. 

“What happened? Where’s Omega?” Wrecker shouted distantly, looking at something behind them. 

“He was shot in the chest plate,” Echo muttered from somewhere. 

“We have to get him on board,” Tech urged, coming in close. 

“Incoming!” Wrecker announced as blaster fire erupted.

“Run inside and get the hypo and the other med supplies ready, I’ll need to work fast,” Specter ordered, gently but firmly. Tech nodded and ran ahead, powering up the ship as well. Through all the chaos and shouts of his brethren, Specter’s voice came through the clearest and calmest. “Stay awake for me, Hunt.” She ran a hand along the side of his helmet again. 

He wanted to obey. Everything in him fought to stay awake, fought to put Specter into focus as she donned her helmet. It was a losing battle as gravity seemed to disappear again. He felt both too light and too heavy as Specter and Echo slung his arms over their shoulders. Somehow, he moved one foot in front of the other. Somehow, they made it to the Marauder. The ground swayed, and he swore he was falling, but a squeeze from Specter’s hand centered him again. 

“Got him. Tech, fly us out of here!” Echo shouted.

“Go, go, go!” ordered Wrecker, retreating into the ship with them. They placed him on the chair by the terminal; he watched as the door closed, and Specter stepped away to grab the rest of the medical supplies. Wrecker reached over and took off Hunter’s helmet.

His mouth seemed to be full of gravel, his tongue too heavy. Still, he forced the air out of his lungs and forced himself to move, to say anything.

“He… he took Omega,” he said almost immediately, still trying to catch his breath. Specter came around, taking off Hunter’s pack and forcing him to sit back in the chair. 

“Who? Crosshair?” Wrecker asked.

“Couldn’t have. The clones we saw were already dead, and the rest hadn’t retreated yet,” Specter countered calmly, injecting bacta into his system by his neck.

“No, it wasn’t the Empire… it– it was a bounty hunter,” he explained, putting his hand over Specter’s, which was on his shoulder. “We have to find her.”

[soft-bellied-tannies]

Chubtober Day 29!

Listen, you don’t have to tell me that today is absolutely a stretch for the prompt, but I love this idea and I’m willing to make the reach. 😂

So, hear me out. Today’s prompt from fatguarddog’s list is Android. Are there any actual androids in this story? No. But! JK uses his phone which is likely a Samsung so android…right?

—-

Jungkook and Jimin started their dynamic a little over a year ago after graduating college.

Jimin had gained his “freshman 15” throughout college and their relationship which awakened something in both of them.

Ending college at 150, but having active lifestyles and busy schedules meant that Jimin’s gain was slower yet just as enjoyable.

Jungkook was an excellent feeder. They both loved looking through forums and coming up with plans together.

Jungkook buys one of the electronic scales that connects to his phone with an app when Jimin is around 170.

Since he is a big tech guy, Jungkook figures out how to change the function on the scale to always display a number less than what Jimin actually weighed, but he could also see the actual results on his phone.

Jimin had been trying for his current goal of 200 for months and always pushes more with dinner or a stuffing when he weighs beforehand.

No matter what he does, Jimin is still under 200 every time he steps on the scale.

He’s already catching on to something being up with the scale situation, but Jimin doesn’t say anything, thinking Jungkook will admit that he’s doing something soon.

When Jungkook tries to push it farther by making the scale show that he had lost weight, Jimin finally feels that he has confirmation his partner is doing something with the scale.

Jimin’s not a tech guy at all so he doesn’t know how Jungkook is doing it, but he’s certain that has he rigged it up somehow.

Jimin obviously wants to gain so he doesn’t care that it obviously has encouraged his gain.

However, Jimin did have a surprise for Jungkook at his 200 goal that involved special lingerie he bought and he’s going to be pissed if it doesn’t fit because of his extra unknown gaining.

Jungkook is away the next weekend for a bachelor party so Jimin buys his own scale to see just how far over his 200 goal he is, certain that he hadn’t lost weight with the way he had picked up his eating lately.

Jimin tests the scale they’ve been using and gets 193, unsurprising as he’s been fluctuating between 185-195 for at least two months according to that scale when he feels like his weight is steadily going up.

Then Jimin gets out the new traditional scale he bought, assuming the number will be higher.

He is in absolute shock when it says 223 meaning Jungkook has managed to ‘hide’ over 30 pounds from him.

Jimin thought he was just going to be a few pounds over 200, maybe 205-210 at the most.

He isn’t mad in the slightest because he’s feeling both proud and turned on by 223.

However, he also thinks that Jungkook most know his actual weight since he’s the one messing with the scale.

Jimin decides he needs to get back at him.

When Jungkook gets home, Jimin decides to ask for a big dinner to absolutely stuff himself as a welcome back - ordering a massive takeout order with his favorite dessert.

He also asks to weigh in before the meal as they occasionally liked to see how much Jimin ate by weighing before and after.

Jimin uses their normal scale and it again says 193, putting on his normal pouting act that he will never hit 200 at this point.

Jungkook comforts him and takes them back to the living room to have a massive meal.

Jimin does push himself to make his point even better and eats more than he ever has, needing help up to go weigh himself after the meal.

Jungkook gets their scale out, but Jimin stops him.

“Wait, let’s try my new one.”

Jungkook panics internally as Jimin pulls out a scale he has never seen and proceeds to step on it, seeing 227.5 light up the screen.

Jimin thinks to himself that 4-5 pounds of food is impressive since he knows his real starting weight before dinner and uses that energy as he puts on another act with Jungkook.

“Oh my god, that’s impossible. I’ve never eaten that much in my life, but there’s no way I ate 30 pounds of food…unless…”

JK immediately knows his little game is up and is ready to grovel.

“Baby, listen, I can explain.”

“Oh, you better. You are in trouble.”

Jimin’s ‘punishment’ for Jungkook is that Jimin is still going to wear his fancy lingerie and eat a huge tray of desserts like he planned.

However, instead of letting Jungkook hand feed him or even tie Jimin up like he planned for 200, Jungkook is now the one who has to sit across from Jimin with his hands tied up, unable to touch or feed Jimin throughout the entire night.

Jungkook learns to never tamper with anything in their house again, quickly learning of the mean streak in his typically soft and sweet Jimin.

Also, when Jimin hits 250, the reward of being the one to feed and pamper his beautiful baby in celebration is much better than any punishment could ever be.

[deadtiredghost]

so i turned a oneshot into a series. and that exploded into a whole thang in my brain but I'm probs not gonna write it any time soon so i am deciding to post some stuff here.

rottmnt Leo centric cause this is all based on a few fics I wrote.

This is just a fun what could happen after the movie outline but darker than I think rottmnt will ever go.

the kraang left Leo with a badly cracked shell and some lasting issues in his left leg - Mikey painted his cane blue

Leo started doing independent research into mystic medic shit after the kraang attack. the team medic headcanon fr and I think CJ would deffo also know medical mystics which spurs Leo on

Leo spends a lot of time with CJ, coparenting fine with Casey after they figure each other out - makeup is the main thing they share in common because Casey has beautiful red eyeliner and Leo has his own beautiful red stripes.

Casey and Raph bff propaganda! they finish off the foot together or smming.

Triceraton arc:

the triceratons are fucking huge in rottmnt, like Leo doesnt come up to their ankle huge, and I see Raph using his hologram things to get bigger to fight, Donnie supporting him like in the kraang fight, Mikey using his super-strength to do damage and Leo initially being all flashy like he usually does but eventually realising that the only way they are going to have any chance is to use his portals to straight up chop the heads off of the triceratons - a CJ and Draxum approved plan.

cue angst and guilt - theyre like, 19, 18 & 17 respectively. they have encountered death before but never actively and intentionally killed anyone.

but like Leo would absolutely live in pain if that meant his family would be safe. and we have seen this time and time again.

#just super soldier problems:

and then the transition from these two alien invasions back to shutting down the run-of-the-mill villain of the week is jarring, and all the bros have a bit of trouble adjusting to non-leathal levels of strength

its good when they're just up against meatsweats or smming cause he got a similar mutation and can take their full force punches while even some yokai just need a gentler touch.

i'm thinking a teenage baxter stockboy is particularly difficult for this chaotic team to deal with because they're loud and violent by nature, while they need to shut off his tech without significantly hurting him

none of them are good at steath apart from Leo and none of them are good at tech apart from Don so to avoid raph eating more metal Leo decides to split the team up, which is met with resitence of course, but Leo is the logical planning guy and Raph and Mikey let emotion cloud their logic more than half the time.

I want Leo to get frustrated at how his family dont quite understand what he is trying to get at - #just ADHD things.

He needs to learn to be better at communicating, but his family also need to understand that he's not trying to procrastinate or goof off, it's kinda hard to explain something, even if its simple, when your brain is going a mile a minute and its so clear in Leo's brain what he wants that he forgets it isn't clear in other's (does that make sense? taking from personal experience here)

I also want Leo to learn in this conflict to stop relying on himself to avoid his siblings being in danger, because while he had told Dr Feelings over and over he got it and he wouldn't - he totally would and still hasnt stopped putting himself down to keep his family afloat.

Don gets an arc! its about being in an unhealthy relationship!

Don dates Kendra for a time. I think canonically Don would have a crush on Kendra, but it's not a healthy relationship and no one in the family likes her, which just allows her to isolate Donnie from their family etc. Kendra doesnt return as a 'villain' just an antagonist for Donnie personally, because the Purple Dragons cant just vanish from the story entirely.

imma give Donnie a Timothy as a friend because I feel bad for hurting them.

Rat King Arc:

like every villain in rottmnt, the Rat King is a significant issue they have to deal with. He is a human who wanted to discover the mysteries of Yokai and went crazy with empyrean use.

Unfortunately he can mind control rats... cue splinter angst as the family need to fight their father who is trying to kill them.

Big Mama makes a deal with the Rat King for Splinter becuase he is profit. Leo has to deal with her one way or another, so he makes a bet.

Unfortunately for Big Mama Splinter has a really bad back and Raph is very aware of his constant complaining, so he takes advantage of that to restrain him in battle, and then Splinter manages to snap out of the mind control because Raph smacks some sense into him (and some magic) - after Raph got mind controlled they all did some mind-protecting-techniques with Draxum for a while.

This whole Rat King arc is particularly hard on Raph :[

they go home happily ever after with some fun new trauma of their dad trying to kill them.

BISHOP!

next there is bishop, because Baxter is just a kid, he is barely a threat, and Donnie would just wipe any evidence of them off his tech of course? HAHA, nope. because bishop gets involved.

it takes a hot sec before they take Bishop seriously tbh. it was always a fear but as they had gotten more integrated into the Yokai city they had gotten too relaxed, relied too much on Donnie's tech and gotten too focused on their social/academic lives. so the government snuck up on them.

theyre about 22, 21, 20 at this point in time - they have already met Yuichi Usagi, Jennika and Leatherhead, and Donnie and Mikey are currently attending Yokai Uni.

So theyre all settled and "retired" from ninja stuff when disaster strikes and Leo and Raph get kidnapped by Bishop. Time for the pb&j duo to get them back!

Tigerclaw Arc:

I have more ideas involving tigerclaw but those ideas hindge on the ending of the Bishop idea, cause I have conflicting ideas for how it could end.

japanese assassin sent to kill the last few members of the Usagi clan so Leo gets involved and gets a new villain all to himself. (either Leo looses a leg to tigerclaw or Leo had already lost a leg to Bishop and is adjusting to his prosthetic still while fighting tigerclaw) Mikey, Raph and Don meet Kitsune, Alopex and Venus respectively during their trip to Japan and figuring out who has sent tigerclaw to attack their friend.

Haha. I threw Kitsune in there because she is another interesting villain and I would love to see rottmnt Mikey interact with her and slowly realise she isnt one of the 'good guys' and challenge his worlview that 'everyone who helps him must be nice and a good person' - tho i'm conflicted as to whether or not have her as a villain or just a criminal that fucks off to never be seen again

after all this they go get therapy.

Hope u enjoyed, just my brain has been circling these various scenes in my brain since 2024 started and I'll probs never get them onto paper, digital or otherwise.

if anyone felt inspired to write anything with one of these plot ideas in mind, feel free to! Would absolutely love that!

[elvenbeard]

2076

"I'm tellin' ya, mano, this is only the beginning! A few months down the line we're gonna be Night City legends!"

"I think before I wanna be a legend I'd just like to start feelin' like myself again..."

The day Vince was sacked in November of 2076 was the newest low point of his life. He'd lost everything, from a job he was good at, financial security, to what he'd assumed had been friends. Over the course of the year his health had been on a steady decline, mentally and physically. His first so harmonious, almost too-perfect relationship with an older coworker had found an abrupt and bitter ending filled with betrayal. Jenkins' paranoia and revenge fantasies reached new heights, and several particularly precarious operations went wrong in a row. To cope with the stress, silence his depression and anxieties, and be able to keep up with his coworkers-turned-competitors' performance, Vince turned to substance abuse over the course of his last 6 months at Arasaka.

In Jackie's eyes, the termination of Vince's contract couldn't come soon enough, seeing his friend spiral and lose himself in the corporate mud more and more with each passing day.

Like many times before - even though this one had been Vince's highest fall so far - Jackie helped him back to his feet. He and his mother took Vince in and kept him company through his withdrawal from both self- and corporate-administered drugs. Slowly but surely he got better.

From the first day they'd known, Jackie had always urged Vince to consider teaming up as mercs. Together they'd be one hell of a duo, muscle and tech, street-smarts and corporate education, guns and hacking. They'd make it far in Night City's underground world in no time, or so he thought.

By 2076, Jackie was a respected Solo, particularly in Heywood, but still far from achieving his dreams of becoming a legend - and really, those had always been Jackie's dreams alone. Sure, Vince wanted to leave an impact and be remembered, not just fade away into the shadows, but who didn't? Dying in a blaze of glory though, never reaching age 30, just for the money and fame, for doing other people's dirty work? He never saw the appeal... but also, so far he'd failed to find a satisfying middleground.

By mid-December 2076 Vince had somewhat recovered, had been clean for a little over a month, but his cash started to run dry. The next time Jackie asked him to accompany him on a job - just a small one, a little favor for a choomba, nothin' dangerous or dramatic - Vince gave in and tagged along. "Just this once," he told himself, simultaneously looking for other job opportunities. He even considered going back into the corporate world, a smaller company, something less exhausting than Counterintel, maybe media, or a lowly techie position like Jenkins had intended for him originally.

But the small job went well, was fun, even. Jackie's enthusiasm had always been infectuous. After everything he'd done for Vince, he didn't think it fair to continue saying no to him and to something that indeed worked out better than he could have ever imagined... He still had no intentions of dying young, or a legend, but as Jackie put it: would be a shame to let all that Arasaka training go to waste, so why not use it to do some good with it, help themselves and others in their lives?

Vince through the years (6/9)

The set above is basically the followup to this VP comic I did a while ago, the evening after V's and Jackie's first job together.

As mentioned, Vince was never eager to be a merc, and by early 2077 he simply treats it as one of his many previous part-time jobs: a way to keep a roof above his head, food on the table, and make use of his skills somehow. Maybe do some good, or at least leave a positive impact on a single person's life after 4 years of corporate scheming.

He is sort of picky with the gigs he takes, always weighs pros and cons. Sometimes he takes a gig he usually wouldn't out of sheer curiosity. But thievery and sabotage, even rescue missions, are really his favourite things to do because they come closest to what he did for Arasaka predominantly.

It really is easy money with his skills and knowledge, and also usually non-violent. I think that would be the main reason why he decides to go on with the Konpeki Plaza Heist with Jackie in the end, despite having a bad gut feeling. With the information they have it seems like something just down his alley, and he's very confident that he did his best in setting everything up. His biggest mistake is really putting so much trust in Dex doing his part for the preparation of the heist.

Vince is really used to his superiors just supplying him with all necessary info, no questions asked - both back at Arasaka and with the fixers he's worked with at that point, mainly Regina and Wakako. Both are thorough and reliable, do their work, hold nothing back that could be useful. He is also used to his team-members speaking up if they think something feels off. But I think T-Bug is in a similar boat as him, confident that all will go as planned, in her mind already in Cyprus. And Jackie, who just really really wants this to happen so badly, does not speak up despite potentially having a bad feeling.

So, even though Vince feels like all of it sounds too good to be true, everyone else involved being so confident and presenting themselves so competent, in combination with Jackie's aforementioned enthusiasm, convinces him that his own worries may be unjustified. He's overthinking, this can't go wrong, they were all really thorough, they can count on each other... right?

He'll learn the hardest way possible that on the street the saying "every man for himself" is even more prevalent than in the corporate world in the end.

(CW below for drug abuse talk!)

Little sidenote re: Vince's substance abuse. I often put great emphasis on the fact that he neither smokes nor drinks, one of the many reasons why Johnny pisses him off so much by doing both regardless and repeatedly whenever he's in control of his body later. Not smoking is really just Vince's personal preference here, but he actually wouldn't mind drinking now and then - his body is really just against him on this. He can't process alcohol well and just gets drunk and nauseous really quickly, even from "just a beer" or "just a glass of wine". So he avoids it, not for moral high ground reasons but more "I dont wanna puke my guts out and have a headache for three days" reasons.

Since drinking and smoking are off the table when it comes to numbing himself through his worst time at Arasaka, drugs are the next best thing. Initally it was just downers and sleeping pills, but when those started affecting his performance during daytime, he picked up neuroboosters and other performance enhacing stuff. It was a constant struggle to balance this drug-cocktail out, in combination with the canonical stress-blockers Corpo!V is on during the start of the game.

In short, by the time Vince is kicked out, he's a walking pharmacy and needs some time to readjust to a life without being constantly on something. He's doing his best to remain clean once he gets there... and he hates that taking pills is the one thing he can do to silence Johnny, cause it brings back a lot of bad memories and associations. It's probably one of the main reasons why he ends up talking to him more instead of just blocking him out like he used to block out everything else for a while. And even though he never fully trusts him, this way he at least gets to understand him better and gains his trust and understanding in return.

[chyirly]

The Market Within Universes Pt.1

The Market was a place in between universes where turtles, and others, of all kind were able to interact. It was a place of wonder, of the unknown, of change.

That was easily seen as Mikey walked through The Market, buildings of all sizes looming over him as their occupants searched around for anything of interest.

The streets were filled to the brim with a flood of people looking around and mingling with each other. They were crowded together, some even on the shoulders of their much taller brothers and counterparts as they tried to head toward the next thing that caught their eyes.

Mikey could see a few versions of him and his brothers, others from Dimension 12, but none were his actual brothers. They were most likely waiting for him at the opening to their world.

After a bit of struggle, Mikey finally reached the entrance of a dark alleyway. He released a sigh.

As he continued onwards, humming to himself, a faint glow at the end of the alley caught his attention. Beckoning him to find out what lay past the darkness.

In front of Mikey was a small building, the neon sign on top reading ‘Mystic Haves’. Spilling from its windows and onto the grass and gravel road was an orange light. Mikey walked closer.

From the window, he could see an assortment of items, pottery, weapons, and tech. Each with a colorful shine coating them like a second skin.

He was unable to see a single living soul within the shop.

Further back he could see a desk, the source of the strange, orange, glow that had initially brought him here.

Entering the shop, despite its comfy design, felt claustrophobic at best. All available space was covered in items, some were put in display cases and hung on the wall and ceiling, the dolls looked as if their eyes were following his every move.

The turtle in front of him, although Mikey knew that they were a Michelangelo as well, looked like no other turtle he had seen before. With chin-length curly black hair pulled into a half-up ponytail, the rest framing his face. He wore a mute orange cloak held together at the chest by a gray clasp with a combined M and H engraved on it. The only thing visible from beneath the cloak was his arms, wrapped in black bandages, except for the tips of his fingers, revealing only faint cracks. One rested on his cheek. His skin was a dark green sprinkled with orange spots on his face that emitted a faint glow.

The other's eyes glowed orange, hypnotizing Mikey the longer he stared. Promising anything he wanted as long as he asked. Starting into the deepest part of his soul, as if it knew him better than he knew himself.

This would be the first meeting between Dimension 18 and the rest of the Market. But Mikey would be unaware till he once again caught up to his brothers, clutching a comic book titled, ‘Jupiter Jim And His Adventure Between Universes Alongside Captain Ryan’.

----------

So... new AU anyone? As you can probably tell this post takes place in The Market, whichis located between universes, where those that come can sell and buy items from other universes.

Universes can be described as the different ‘series’ that have come from the franchise, mirage, 87, 03, 07, 12, 14, 18, and others. In these universes are worlds, different versions based on its main universe, which are basically AU’s.

So if any creator wants to insert their own AU’s into The Market, there won't be a problem because literally any character they add will be considered from their own AU. So maybe expect some crossovers.

I might post this on AO3 as well, as a full text, no images, but considering that I chose this half comic half short story format for a reason, that probably won't happen. Future posts however will most likely be a full comic, because why not.

The two characters are both Mikey from Universes 12 and 18, which I might go into more detail on their worlds as I flush out what I have.

The design aren't finalized yet, so expect things to change in the next post.

I probably will continue to work on this along with another idea of mine, although there probably won’t be much content as I do stand-alone fanwork.

In other news, I will soon be posting an idea I have, in text format, for the DC universe, although I probably won't get too into the fanbase for a while.

[koolkat9]

"overwhelmed" by Royal & the Serpent

Send me a Song and Hetalia Ship to my Ask Box.

Royal & the Serpent 

Since you didn't put a ship, I'll choose one I think fits the song (if you want a specific ship, feel free to send me another ask). The song definitely gives me Matthew vibes, and I am in a CuCan mood so let's make it Cucan.

Never heard this song before now so I'm going off first impressions. One of the first things that came to my mind was Sci-Fi, so Sci-Fi Au. Matthew being a robot/android made to be a weapon of war. But during shipment he gets taken by the enemy. He would have been completely destroyed if the enemies base wasn't eventually raided, but instead he's abandoned, severely damaged.

Almost a decade later, the abandon hideout is being demolished to make way for a new, useful space. When Matt is found, he's brought to Carlos, a mechanic who specializes in dealing with older models of tech and friend of the leading contractor on the hideout project.

Carlos is surprised by the find. The bot isn't like anything anyone has seen yet also baring a striking resemblance to the latest model of war bots (Alfred). Though that means this bot is potentially dangerous, Carlos's curiosity wins over and he decides to rebuild the bot and get to the bottom of what it is.

When Matthew is finally booted up again. He has know memory of his directive, what he is, where he is, what happened. So he's quite panicked. But luckily Carlos is able to get him to calm down. Unfortunately he doesn't know much about Matt either and tells Matt as much but together they'll figure things out, but he needs to remain calm.

They settle into a quite domestic life. Matthew doesn't like to just sit around and do nothing. So he starts taking care of the house while Carlos is at work. He becomes rather human in the process. Nothing like the machine of destruction he was built to be. He's actually rather shy, even gentle. He particularly takes an interest in nurturing animals.

But he still started out as a machine of destruction. And somewhere deep down he knows something is off. There is a disconnect somewhere within him because of it and it makes him anxious (heavily inspired by the lyrics: "Feels like I'm somebody else" "this mind isn't mine").

One day, Matthew sees a news report about the new war androids, who looks almost exactly like him (again, Alfred's face). Matthew is horrified. Everything seems to make sense now. He's meant to destroy. To kill. He's a danger. To everyone. Especially Carlos. Matthew makes a run for it, he can't risk hurting Carlos, even if it's just an accident. He is broken after all. One malfunction and it could be all over.

But obviously, Carlos, being attached too to Matt, isn't going to abandon him. So he sets off searching for him.

I think Matthew finally comes to his senses when he ends up meeting one of those war bots. The bot introduces himself as Alfred and is intrigued by their similar face. He eventually figures that Matt must have been a prototype. Matthew hangs out with him for the evening. Similar to Matthew, Alfred seems to have settled into a human life too. He was basically stolen by a lead engineer named Tolys after he realized that they were making something really dangerous for a war that had been over for five years. In the end he got fired. But before leaving he refused to leave behind a bot he had bonded with, who had showcase his potential humanity. That bot was Alfred and now he was living happily in a relationship with Tolys.

Matthew confides in him about he worries he'll be a danger to the human he's fallen in love with or to the people around him in general. How he feels a disconnect, like he's not fully himself. Alfred assures him it's normal. They just need to find an outlet. Alfred explains sports/exercise is great for that.

Eventually Carlos finds Matt hanging out with Al. He gets defensive at first, scared Alfred is going to take Matt back to the company that built the both of them (at this point Carlos has also connected that Matt must be a prototype for these war bots). But Tolys luckily gets there just in and explains everything and assures Carlos they won't do that. That they are in a similar predicament.

Matthew agrees to go home with Carlos. Alfred gives Matt his info so Matt can contact him if he needs.

Matthew finds his outlet in hockey. And though he still gets anxious and feels weird about himself every now and then. But he's getting better and settles into a new life with Carlos where he can be who he wants to be.

(Okay, after listening on repeat I realized I missed the news reports shared in the beginning which gives me zombie apocalypse vibes. But I have a stronger plot with the robot au so I'm sticking with this. Plus, I have a...rocky relationship with zombie apocalypses since I've always been absolutely terrified of zombies, though I think they can be used to tell some interesting stories)

[himebushou]

For @redlenai! Please take this as a token of my gratitude for pyromaniac!Miri, lol. ❤

Vitality

Perhaps purchasing the console had been a deliberate ploy on Kurusu’s part – something to make Rei sluggish and sloth-like.

The first time Rei had picked up a controller, he’d died within five minutes of starting Zombies Attack.  That was annoying.  So he’d tried again.  And again.  And soon, he found himself spending more and more time in the living room, killing targets on the enormous television screen when he wasn’t killing targets for work. 

Kurusu seemed to think this was a good thing.  He kept cooking, but wouldn’t allow Rei to eat if seated anywhere but at the table.  Yanking Rei into a chair when he’d tried to take his rice bowl back to the sofa, Kurusu had chided, “Give your eyes a break!  Besides, you can’t hold a controller and chopsticks at the same time!”

Just who did this guy think he was?

Two weeks had passed since the console had made its way into their – Rei’s! – home.  Things were quiet, mostly, and since Kurusu did all the shopping, there hadn’t been any need to leave the apartment for a glorious twelve days.  Rei was becoming something of a shut-in, apparently.

Then, one morning, cruel reality struck Rei.  He stood up, stretched – and heard several bones click all at once.  He hadn’t exercised in forever.

Hmm.

It was time to go to the gym.

It took Rei a few moments to remember that he didn’t know where the gym was and a few more moments to remember that the phone in his pocket could provide that information.  Thankfully, it turned out that there was a gym a short walk away.  Rei could get in a decent workout, come home, eat whatever lunch Kurusu put together and get some sleep all before noon.

He was a short distance from the front door when it opened.  In staggered Kurusu, yawning, stinking.  “Morning,” he said, blinking blearily.  “You’re going out?  That makes a change.”

“Yeah,” said Rei.  Then, deciding that it would be ‘polite’ to keep talking, he added, “I’m hitting the gym.”

Suddenly, Kurusu snapped to attention – fully alert.  Rei started; why couldn’t this guy be that attentive in other situations?  Kurusu said, “You’re not serious, right?  You can’t.”

Rei scowled.  “Why not?”

“Hmm, let me think.  That,” Kurusu pointed at Rei’s shoulder, “might be one reason?”

Rei glanced at his shirt sleeve, mystified.  Kurusu said an awful lot that didn’t make any sense.  He gave Kurusu a quizzical look and the other slapped a palm against his forehead, grunting, “Push it up, moron.”

Still scowling, Rei followed Kurusu’s command.

Oh.

That thing?

“What’s the problem?”

Within a second, Kurusu had crossed over to Rei; a few more heartbeats and he was gripping Rei’s shoulders, shaking him viciously.  It was odd: Kurusu was surprisingly strong for someone who could be such a deadweight.  He hissed, “Idiot!  What kind of people have gunshot wounds?  You think the other guys at the gym aren’t going to ask questions?  Report you to the police?”

“I wouldn’t say anything,” Rei sulked.

“Good news!” Kurusu loosened his grip and whipped out his phone.  He spun it in one hand.  “I’m going to teach you about the miracles of modern tech.  I’m ordering you a treadmill, Rich Boy.  That way, you can work out right here.  At home.  Where it’s safe.”

Huh.  That sounded… convenient.

A few swipes later, Kurusu announced, “Done!  It’s being delivered tomorrow.  It’ll be here any time after seven am, so you can wait up for it.  Don’t bother,” he added, noticing that Rei was about to protest the horrific hour, “it’s your treadmill so it’s your responsibility.”

“Freeloader,” grumbled Rei.

“Skeleton,” Kurusu sang.  He took Rei’s shoulders again and turned him around.  “C’mon – let’s get some breakfast in you.”