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aboardthehavocmarauder · 4 years ago

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Beautiful Mischief [Pt. 3]

Bad Batch x Reader • Angst/Fluff/NSFW (yknow the whole deal) • Mechanic [hidden Jedi] ! Reader • Female reader

Fall on your knees, sweet girl

Sweet girl...

—��

“SHES A FUCKING JEDI”

“And how the fuck would you know that?”

“HER PETITE FUCKING ASS CANT TAKE DOWN A TREE IN A SINGLE PUNCH”

“You think she used the force?”

“She did! Don’t believe me?! Wait till the next incident”

Y/N frowns outside the cockpit hearing Cross talk about what he saw with Hunter and Tech. She straightens up when Echo came into the common area seeing the angered look on her face. He didn’t say a word. They stood in the silence and Y/N felt overwhelmed all of a sudden causing her to leave the room, before he could reach—-

“Don’t touch her Echo. We don’t know what she’s capable of” Tech states witnessing what just happened as Echo gave him a worried look.

——

“You’re taking on a Padawan? You know what Anakin turned out to be. You think you’ll produce a normal one?”

“They are Anakin’s age now. Not a child. I believe I can train them to be the best”

“A little late to find a force sensitive being”

“I didn’t find her, she found me”

“I trust you Obi Wan. But—“

Don’t be surprised by the hardships

——

Wrecker finds himself in the storage compartment looking for extra ration bars in their food supply when he saw Y/N sitting on the ground propped up against her crate staring at the ceiling.

“Hey?” He tilts his head confused seeing the redness in her eyes and swollen cheeks. “Hey Y/N...what’s wrong?” He decided to sit with her waiting for her to respond and if she didn’t, he would’ve stayed as a comfort.

“I’m a monster Wrecker”

“What? I don’t think so”

“Crosshair does, he’s telling everybody what he saw in the forest. Just another monster in this galaxy full of darkness”

“Okay now that’s a lot of talk. I’m going to need context”

“He didn’t tell you? None of your brothers did?”

“Honestly I ignore what most of them say” Wrecker laughs as he handed her a ration bar seeing her take the offer.

“I worked on your ship for a year before you decided to add me on this journey with you all. Then it’s been six months and as much as you’re all close with one another...I don’t think I’ll ever been looked at normally ever again”

“Y/N...from the time with the scar thing. Scars are scars. It was stupid of us to push you to tell us what happened. As for this recent thing. Speaking for myself, I don’t care what you are. You’re Y/N. A badass mechanic that knows a lot more than we expected. And if shit changes. Who gives a fuck? Imma still like you for you. Besides. Half of my face is a scar and I don’t give a fuck” Wrecker smiles hearing her laugh a little, feeling better.

——

“Two lightsabers? Ha! This will work nicely for you young apprentice”

Y/N stares with grey covered eyes standing still like a solider as the dathomirian receives the kyber crystals for the hilts before handing the new and improved sabers to his mindless slave.

“You’ll receive a new look. Keep you hidden away from the so called Jedi you used to call your family. Little do they know your parents died and adoptive sister left. Or you left her. I’ve always wondered why you did so”

“I wanted to become a Jedi, Odious...” Y/N says groggily before freeing when he started to force choke her. “I’m sorry sir...”

“Mmm. Are you truly, sweet girl?” He smirks pushing her against the wall and keeping her there like a wall ornament. “We don’t want you to remember to good old days...we need information and you will kill for it if it deems necessary” Odious laughs squeezing his hold hearing her choke. “You will kill if they won’t expose their secrets. We will take down the Jedi council”

Soon Y/N dropped on her side feeling the cold ground turn into a cold surrounding. Feeling like death was crawling in but she quickly stood to their feet seeing Odious’s accomplices approach her to start the appearance change.

No one said it was pain-free

——

Returning to Coruscant, Y/N thought she was being dropped off but Hunter assured her it was for Echo to receive some simplicity with his brothers in blue.

Even the clones need to go back to their home.

“You coming?”

“No”

“But come on. The mess hall will have more of those ration bars you like” Wrecker adds as Y/N stayed glued to her seat feeling a weight grow in her chest when she sensed him. “Y/N?”

“I can’t Wrecker...I know we’ll be here for three days but I’m safe here”

“Well you know where we’ll be” He smiles being the last stepping off the ramp as it closed behind him.

But it didn’t take until nightfall for Y/N to step out and take a look at something that over came their thoughts.

——

“You’ll be staying”

“No Obi-Wan”

“Y/N you’ve come so far. Why give up training now?”

“Your master was a grey-Jedi because he didn’t believe in the rules the council had held accountable on us all. I can’t live in a cult that doesn’t want me to seek out for more in my life”

“But you can—“

“I’m not becoming a whore of the Jedi council all because I can fuck every man that steps into the facility. I want to fall in love. I want to be free. Free from my personal burdens. Reunite with my sister. Go home. I won’t be corrupted Obi Wan. You can keep your tabs on me if you like. But I cannot be here”

“Y/N. Please”

“Take a look behind you Obi Wan, and what do you see?”

Obi Wan turns around to look at the city of Coruscant erupt in colors and volumes of plenty. He was about to say something but when he turned around.

She was gone

——

And now she’s returned

Y/N stepped into the quarters she stayed in during her time there. The nostalgia started to hit when the familiar feeling returned.

“Leave”

“Y/N—“

“Leave me alone” She frowns clenching her fists. “You shouldn’t have come out of whatever corner you were in”

“Y/N it took courage for you to come back inside this place. Please just let me spe—“

Obi Wan suddenly hit the wall outside of her room as she stepped out quickly leaving.

“General I heard—“ Cody stopped talking seeing Y/N and his General on the floor, triggering him to take out his weapon. “You stay right there”

“Don’t hurt him Y/N”

“I’m not a monster like you Kenobi” Y/N frowns lifting her hands and before Cody could even do anything, she booked it in the other direction.

“What the—“ Cody started chasing after her as Obi Wan quickly gets on his feet following in suit after the two.

Having no obstacle in the way made it easy, until Cody called in reinforcements from Rex and a few more from the 501st.

“This—“

“It’s Y/N. Why would Cody—“

“Cody explain?!”

“Cody stand down for maker’s sake” Obi Wan states. “You can’t just—“

“They—“

“NO” He snaps as the distress in his voice made Cody finally stop thinks but the actions still confused his brothers. “Now leave. All of you. Except Y/N”

As the sun sets on today

We’ll never know about tomorrow

——

“General Kenobi. New information has come up”

“What about this time Cody?”

“About fugitive x. You said to dig up anything on them and we got something”

Obi Wan turns to Cody seeing the information on the datapad and taking it, leaving to process this all.

Fugitive X

Name: Y/F/N Y/L/N

Found in the streets of the black market wielding duel lightsabers. Nothing life threatening. But they were found with a kyber crystal that was floating around in the market.

“This...isn’t giving me anything...” Cody frowns flipping through the pictures and finding the video from one of the street cameras of them taking out a knife and suddenly—-

Fuck

——

“Why didn’t you come back once you escaped?”

“Why would I?”

“What do you mean...”

“Just because you had spies in my life to keep tabs on me. Doesn’t mean they saw everything. You......” Y/N stops talking as she brings her knees to her chest staring out in the scenery as Obi Wan sheds his robe to be comfortable around her just enough. “You...you lost your master. Imagine that pain, but with your humanity, sanity...”

“Y/N, what happened?”

“A lot...”

A lot that nobody knows

Until now

#the bad batch #bad batch #the bad batch x reader #bad batch x reader #wrecker bad batch #tech bad batch #crosshair bad batch #echo bad batch #hunter bad batch #aboardthehavocmarauder

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alexplayssimsnstuff · 5 years ago

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Bella Goth Disappearance FINALLY Solved!

Back in the day, I had originally subscribed to the theory that Bella was abducted by aliens that were set on her by the Caliente’s who then murdered her when she returned, and so I went in the game to do a walkthrough as to how I came to that theory. That’s when I found that I WAS WAYYYY OFF, there is a whole ass rabbit-hole here, and like a total Alice, I fell in it.

And, after 16 years of wondering and imagining different scenarios, I finally found out the truth. Turns out, we were ALL wrong, and the truth has been staring at us in the face the whole time.

Just as a warning, this is VERY dark and bleak and depressing. Bella wasn’t dealt a good hand, guys. What happened to her was all sorts of MESSED up.

Just for clarity, I do base this off of events that happen in the official sims storyline, because while the game is ultimately up to us to live life as we like, go ahead and do whatever with your game, there IS a story being told here, but in a way that doesn’t conflict with our own free will. It’s ingenious, really. This goes with the main Sims games released for PC and Mac. However, the console versions do provide a lot of insight to further details and situations. Specifically the Sims 2 for PSP, and the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS.

So, first off, it has been verified what happened to her: In 2014, Twitter held an AMA for the SimGurus just before the release of the Sims 4. Someone asked the following question, and SimGuru Sarah responded.

It was later confirmed that Bella Goth of Lunar Lakes IS the Bella Goth of Pleasantview. She does look like the rest of the ghosts there with pale skin and yellow hair and eyes, and with that in mind, you can see for yourself…

That’s her, alright.

Okay, if she died on Lunar Lakes, there are still questions that need answers:

1. Did she ever go home?

2. Does her family know what happened to her?

3. How did she die on Lunar Lakes?

Well, she died of old age, that can be found out easily enough, but I found the answers to the other two: Kinda and no.

So, just to recap, I’m gonna review Bella’s life as we know it canonically.

Bella was born to Simis and Jocasta Bachelor of Sunset Valley. She grew up the road from her childhood best friend, and later, husband, Mortimer Goth, with her older brother Michael. She always had a sense of the macabre and dark and was known as “the best dressed girl in town.” Even then she wore a red dress. A more child appropriate red dress, but a red dress. She just came from an average suburban family who had a fascination for the not average. She’s still a child, and not a Goth yet. She still goes by the surname Bachelor.

Twenty-five years later, she shows up in the Sims 1 with her childhood best friend and now husband, Mortimer Goth, and they have moved into their own home, and have a daughter, Cassandra. Her in-laws moved out of their home in Sunset Valley and moved into what would later become the Goth House of the Sims 2 in the beginnings of what would be known as Pleasantview. Unless you got her a job, she was a housewife, and she was known to be athletic, elegant, and friendly towards her neighbors. I remember her often being the first to come and say hello to any new Sims I’d move into the neighborhood. Her brother, Michael, is also in town, however, there is no acknowledgement of them being siblings. A family tree system didn’t really exist in the Sims 1, and I’m sure they didn’t even think to make them siblings back then, but the fact remains that they have no relationship at this point in time. The only reason why it’s known that Cornelia and Gunther Goth are Mortimer’s parents is because it straight up says so in the bio. That and their names are the same, but anyway.

So far, things are simple.

That’s because in the 25 years between the Sims 1 and 2, a series of events occurs that really makes things interesting.

Michael joins the science career track. One can assume the reason why he settled into domestic living years after Bella had done so was because he was at grad school. Because he was graduated from grad school, he gets a jumpstart in the career and climbs the latter a lot faster than Mortimer does.

1. Scientist Sims contribute an invention into the Sims world. Michael’s invention was cloning technology. He cloned himself, and a test subject: Skip Broke.

a. Even though he died before it happened, arrangements were made so Brandi could be the next test subject and the first female subject, and when you start Pleasantview for the first time, she is pregnant with her own clone. The baby is always born a boy.

b. Michael’s clones have a 100% rate of being male, genetic identicals to those they were cloned from (Brandi’s just being a boy rather than a girl) and so far, a 100% rate of dying at the same time as the original. They are genetically identical, but wear different clothes.

2. Michael and Bella don’t really have a relationship in their adult lives because Michael leaves Pleasantview early on while Cassandra is still a child and moves to the city.

3. Mortimer follows after Michael, and invents the age reversal serum. Bella is the first test subject, and, the day of her abduction, she takes the serum until she reverts back to being a brand-new adult. Probably to allow herself to fit in her red dress as strikingly as she does, I don’t think an elderly woman could pull that off.

4. Cassandra enters private school.

5. Around this time, Gunther Goth dies. Bella, Mortimer, and Cassandra move out of their home and in with Cornelia to be with her in her last stages of life.

6. Michael marries Dina Caliente. It is speculated that, because of the age gap, they only marry for Michael’s money. But it is worth noting that Michael was Dina’s first serious relationship and she didn’t begin to cheat on Michael with Don until years later just before Michael died.

7. Alexander is born.

8. Shortly after Alexander’s birth, Cornelia dies at the same time Michael does.

9. Dina inherits Michael’s estate and moves in with Nina. They then move to Pleasantview.

10. Don follows them and moves the next day.

11. Bella goes to introduce herself to her new neighbor, Don. They get along, and Don gets the wrong idea and puts the move on Bella. Bella rejects him. He then runs off to go be with Kaylynn and is not there when Bella is abducted by aliens.

12. Bella is never seen again, but shortly after her abduction, a UFO crashlands in Strangetown, and reports that Bella is in Strangetown start rolling in. But, spoiler alert, that’s not the real Bella.

Then, after Bella’s abduction and before you start Pleasantview for the first time, the following happens:

1. Mortimer and Dina hit it off rather fast, and marriage is definitely in the picture when the game first starts.

2. Cassandra, Mortimer, and Alexander all age up on the same day 2 days after Bella disappears.

3. Cassandra goes to Don’s house to find out what he knows about what happened to Bella (jack squat since he wasn’t there) and that’s where they meet for the first time. Don tries to seduce her, probably not knowing who she is, and Cassandra, as much as you gotta love the girl, is naïve as all hell and thinks she won the jackpot and falls for Don quickly.

4. Alexander goes to private school

5. Mortimer retires

6. Cassandra gets engaged the VERY day the game starts.

That is an important thing to note because people like to speculate that Don had something to do with Bella’s disappearance because he made the moves on her mother and they were engaged and he didn’t want to jeopardize that by Bella opening her yap. This is NOT the case because Cassandra was still a teenager when Bella vanished. Don may be a hoe, but he isn’t a pedo. Chris Hansen doesn’t need to be called for this one.

Another important thing to point out is that it’s not known if Dina and Nina knew Bella. At least, not well, since it can’t be established if Michael and Bella had a relationship at all. Despite the fact that they were friends when they were younger, Mortimer has no memories of Michael, and neither do Cassandra or Alexander. They never met their uncle.

ALSO, yes Dina and Nina do have alien ancestry. Their father was a result of an alien abduction pregnancy. But he was born human, so they’re not part alien. Which means they didn’t order ANY aliens to go and kidnap anybody. Why would they? They don’t know her. Not even normal alien sims do that, y’all are just racist.

It’s also worth noting that Mortimer is COMPLETELY fine with Bella being gone. He’s not heartbroken and he isn’t desperately trying to find her like the game tries to suggest. He’s strangely cool about it.

Why is Mortimer fine with Bella being gone?

Because they are no longer married and haven’t been since around the time Alexander was born.

And THAT, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, is the BIGGEST part that y’all need to just remember. If you can only take one thing away from this part, take away the fact that they’re divorced. It’s S U P E R important.

Now, it is possible to bring Bella back with the Tombstone of Life and Death. She’ll only stick around for a short while because she has a death token that activates when you save the lot, go into Pleasantview, and reload the Goth House. She’ll disappear. Interesting to note that if she’s in the middle of doing something, like talking with a sim or cooking food, she doesn’t disappear completely until she’s done. She does turn see-through and it kinda glitches out…it’s really creepy. Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean. But when she’s done, she’ll disappear, and you’ll get a notification saying she died somewhere else and her spirit has returned to where she was buried.

However, if she dies this way, you cannot resurrect her with the resurrect-o-nomitron. It doesn’t matter who tries it, where they are, or anything. Grim acts like he doesn’t know anything about Bella being dead and even if the Sim COULD resurrect a sim, Bella is not listed.

Since we know Bella is buried in Lunar Lakes, this means she died sometime between the week of her abduction and Cassandra’s wedding where the game starts.

However, while you have Bella in your household, you’ll find she’s brought back with no personality points. She has no memories besides what happened to her children after the first load of Pleasantview. So let’s say that between loading the game and bringing back Bella with the Tombstone, Cassandra gives birth to twin boys. Bella will come back with memories that Cassandra had twins, and she will even know who her grandchildren are. (I use this example because in my most recent Pleasantview playthrough, Cassandra had twin boys named Hendrick and Caspian with Don Lothario.)

Bella will have NO relationship at all whatsoever with Mortimer. You can see before you bring her back on the Goth family tree that they are not married at that point, and Mortimer and Bella start their relationship over as acquaintances. If you let them progress their relationship naturally with no cheats, they actually fight a lot and do not get along at all.

Now, any townie and NPC created before Nightlife will have their turn-on and turn-offs randomized. But it seems to constantly make it so that Bella is never attracted to Mortimer and Mortimer is RARELY attracted to Bella. This is a consistent thing. Interesting to take into consideration.

It’s clear to me, at least, that there were some problems boiling up for some time before Bella vanished.

--they get divorced at around the same time Alexander is born

--they do not get along at all

--Mortimer is completely fine after Bella’s disappearance and isn’t the frantic husband he’s marketed to be at this point in time.

--Mortimer gets into a relationship with Dina Caliente extremely soon after Bella vanishes.

--If Bella does come back and Mortimer is still alive, they naturally do not get along at all.

Which is weird, right? They were always shown to be this desperately in love couple who couldn’t live without eachother. I remember them having a good relationship in the Sims 1.

Also worth noting, Bella is a romance aspiration sim. In the Sims 2, they tend to hoe around a lot. There are a few other adult sims in Pleasantview who are also romance aspiration sims.

1. Don Lothario (the epitome of the romance aspiration)

2. Nina Caliente

3. Daniel Pleasant

4. Skip Broke was also a romance aspiration sim when he was alive.

What is interesting is that while for the most part, romance aspiration sims like to hoe around, there is one exception to this rule so far: Nina Caliente. Nina Caliente’s only romantically involved with Don Lothario. Unless you have another sim start putting the moves on her, then it’s a whole other story. If it were a thing back then, Nina would have been a soulmate romance aspiration while the others would have been serial romantic aspirations.

Bella COULD have been the same way, but that wouldn’t make any sense with the myriad of problems with her relationship with Mortimer.

So, in conclusion, Bella had an affair. Mortimer found out about it, which caused them to, at the least, separate for a while. Then, Bella became pregnant with Alexander, which would have brought up an important question—who is Alexander’s father? Once Alexander was born, and as he got a little older, it becomes clear that he resembles Cornelia, therefore verifying that Mortimer is indeed his father. This would have caused them to try their relationship again, and Bella would have turned down Don in good faith to Mortimer.

Who did Bella have an affair with?

Don wasn’t in town yet, and they hadn’t met. Neither did she meet the Caliente’s yet. Which leaves two possible contenders for Bella’s secret lover: Daniel Pleasant and Skip Broke.

On one hand, Daniel was Bella’s neighbor. She knew the Pleasants, and was friends with Mary-Sue. Daniel had an affair with Kaylynn going on, so he definitely could have some action on the side with Bella, too. My only reservation on that would be that I couldn’t imagine her doing that to her best friend. But then again, she did have an affair on her husband, so who’s to say what her morals are.

Then, there’s Skip Broke. This one makes the most sense to me, personally. While she wasn’t close with Michael, that doesn’t mean she completely avoided him altogether. She would have heard about Michael’s cloning experiments and could have met Skip that way, or she came to say hello and that was how they met. There is a theory going around that Brandi found out Skip was cheating on her, and that’s why she killed him and took his insurance money.

Maybe I’ll do another thing on that because the Skip Broke incident happens to be another rabbit hole altogether.

So, we know that Bella had an affair with Mortimer and things weren’t going so well between them at the time of her disappearance. We know that the Calientes and Don are completely innocent, at least as far as her disappearance goes. (And Nina is innocent altogether, she just loves Don and is completely oblivious to the fact that he’s doing her sister and two other women. She is ALSO a victim here, you guys. Give some love to Nina Caliente, she needs it.)

She dies sometime in the week between her abduction and the first time the Goth household is booted up from old age on Lunar Lakes despite the fact that she was a brand new adult again thanks to Mortimer’s reverse age serum.

Then a UFO crashlands in Strangetown and shortly thereafter reports of Bella Goth being in Strangetown start swarming around.

And yes, this Bella is a clone—there are subtle facial similarities, she is not in the family tree at all for the Goth house, but other than that, she’s structured exactly like the Real Bella goes as far as her outfit, her personality, and her aspiration.

(The Wiki says it’s her despite the fact that it’s been verified she’s not, and it also has MANY discrepencies, saying she’s related to the Curious Family and they appear on her family tree, which is incorrect because Strangetown Bella’s family tree is COMPLETELY EMPTY.)

So, clearly, when Bella was abducted, something went wrong. But what?

Well, why would the aliens even abduct her in the first place?

They tend to go after sims who are wealthy, high-skilled, good-looking, popular, anything like that. Bella was ALL of those things. She was the epitome of the perfect sim to the aliens. They practically worshipped her and their queen took her name and appearance. (This is referenced several times, specifically in the Sims 3.)

So, if something were to go wrong, why would the aliens worship her unless she had been being watched for some time before her abduction?

And what went wrong that caused her to lose her memories, her skills, her personality, her youth, everything?

Aliens also do not abduct children, the elderly, and pregnant sims because their experimentation could go drastically wrong.

She wasn’t a child, and reversed her age so she wouldn’t be an elder for quite some time—

So the only thing that’s left is that she was pregnant when she was abducted and that was why things went wrong.

She wouldn’t have known this, and neither would the aliens—it’s possible that the baby was conceived that day, which helped Bella in the case where Don was hitting on her—she wouldn’t go cheating on Mortimer if she were trying to rekindle their relationship and they had made it to woo-hoo that day.

Also worth noting is that there IS another Goth on Lunar Lakes who happens to look exactly like Bella.

Anyone recognize her?

This is Mathilde Goth.

She is the long-lost third child of Mortimer and Bella Goth.

No, they don’t appear on eachother’s family tree, but they wouldn’t if Bella died shortly after giving birth to her and Mathilde was put in the orphanage.

Mathilde looks almost identical to Bella with the exception of her blue eyes. She also has a preference for blue where Bella preferred red.

Mathilde has no idea where her mother came from and the fact that she has a family on Earth who is just as oblivious to her existence as she is to theirs.

What happens to Cassandra and Alexander after they find out about Bella’s death?

Remember how I said scientist sims end up inventing something?

Cassandra’s invention is time travel. She makes a time machine and the first use is to send Don to the future after her, Dina, Nina, and Kaylynn find out that he was playing all of them. She then goes on to live her life. We don’t know how that looks yet, but she never finds out what happened to her mother and that she has a younger sister.

Alexander is greatly affected by his mother’s death. He has no memories of her being abducted by aliens. Normally toddlers remember things like that so it’s odd that he doesn’t when the rest of his family does. What he does remember is her disappearing, Mortimer being okay with it and getting together with Dina really fast after she vanished, and then finding out that his mother was dead.

Alexander is a child prodigee. He’s a smart kid. So, he would go with any other conclusion someone would go with that limited information: he believed Mortimer killed her.

Well, Cassandra still has her time machine after she uses it to get rid of Don. And as we all know, Alexander’s name shows up in the Sims 3 a few times despite the fact that he doesn’t exist yet. And, according to the Goth family tree, it’s not a family name of an ancestor of his, he is the only Alexander Goth.

Once again, we’re going to reference a console game. This time is the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS. Alexander actually makes an appearance, and this time, he’s not alone: he’s married to a woman named Cecelia. The family bio says that their gloominess is BECAUSE of Mortimer. Alexander dyed his hair orange. Probably he was trying to bleach it and didn’t know what toner was. He doesn’t have that great of a relationship with Cecelia, as a matter of fact, she has a better relationship with Don Alto than she does her own husband.

Back in the realm of the PC games, Alexander wrote two books when he went back in time to the continuity of the Sims 3:

Baron Graff Van Gold, which comes with Supernatural,

And then there’s the one that appears in the base game.

Murder in Pleasantview.

To string it altogether, Alexander remembers her being gone, then learning she died. He suspects Mortimer was the one to do it but he never actually talks to his father about it. He doesn’t know anything about the abduction, if anything thinking it a ridiculous rumor. He grows up, gets married, and decides at some point in time to go back in time to try and prevent his mother’s death. So he and his wife go into the time machine and try to go back to when it happened, but instead get sent back wayyyy too far to when his parents are still children. What happens to the time machine? It breaks. He’s stuck in a period of time where Time travel wasn’t a thing and no one really knows how to help him and he sure as hell doesn’t know himself. Effectively, he’s stuck there.

So, he writes A Murder in Pleasantview to tell the story of what he thinks happens to his mother. He doesn’t know it’s really all for nothing, but at the same time, it is because of what ends up happening as a result. A result he probably didn’t even know would happen.

See, A Murder in Pleasantview is a best-seller. It blows up the world of 50 years before his time. Every bookshelf has a copy of this book, standard-load. Sims would have read this, and would be influenced accordingly. They would have made better decisions, not wanting this tragic thing to happen to them.

And yes, it does literally take the world by storm. Better decisions in the past truly make for a better future.

This is where the Sims 4 comes in. It is a different continuity, but it is different because they are aware of what Alexander believes to have happened to Bella. This would be why their personalities are so completely different, why the age gap between Cassandra and Alexander aren’t so extreme, why the Goths are so much more reclusive.

Alexander did something that inadvertently changed the future, eliminating himself and his circumstances entirely. He vanished suddenly, probably in a series of events identical to Back to the Future, where he is then allowed to live his life as a child with his mother in the picture, having no idea what he believed happened to her, nor knowing the truth. He erases his little sister altogether, but he can’t be blamed for that since he didn’t know she even existed.

What happened to his wife? Did she get erased like Alexander did?

No, actually she died. She tried repairing the time machine, failed, and was electrocuted to death as a result. She died young and is buried in the Goth mansion’s graveyard, confusing future generations because no one knows where she comes from because she has the surname Goth but they can’t find her on their family tree.

Lolita Goth was the wife of Alexander Goth.

Yes, it says she’s single, which means one of two things happened:

Either she tried repairing the time machine one last time after Alexander vanished and died,

Like Alexander’s marriage to Cecelia, they didn’t have the best relationship and they ended up getting a divorce, then, possibly with Alexander still around, did the same and died.

She clearly wanted to go back home to her time and wasn’t happy with Alexander for being stuck there.

And it makes sense that she would have been electrocuted with the time machine because there are no other objects in the Goth Mansion that would result in her electrocution.

Which would ALSO explain why the Goths of the Sims 3 can’t figure out who she is. You can’t list a descendent and their wife on your family tree if they don’t exist yet, can you?

Tragedy is just par for the course in the Goth Family, it matches their dark and dreary macabre air. But Bella’s story is just really extra sad. Imagine trying to repair your failed marriage, going to meet a new neighbor only for him to put the moves on you without invitation, then get abducted by aliens where their experiments go wrong, causing you to lose your memories, your personality, your youth, and then you find out that it went wrong because you’re pregnant, which you didn’t know about that either, and your kidnappers take a tissue sample from you, and then drop you on a strange planet far from home where you have no way to communicate to them that you’re there, but you don’t remember anyone but your children anyway, leaving you to have a baby you didn’t even know existed when you were abducted and live just long enough to name her?

The truth has been staring at us in the face since 2014, but we all missed it. Me included for the longest time. It’s been 16 years since Bella went missing, and we all had theories and ideas, but THIS is the truth, and it’s really. Messed up. Yeah, I found out what happened to Bella, but do I like it? No, not at all. Bella deserved better, and so do her children. Mathilde especially. She grew up in an orphanage never knowing she had a family who would have loved her so very much, only to become a mailcarrier on her home planet. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a mailcarrier, don’t get me wrong.

Dina Caliente is innocent, but seriously? Bye.

Nina Caliente is innocent, and really deserves better.

Don Lothario is innocent, but yet he sucks.

Mortimer Goth used to be my favorite out of the Goth family, yes, even over Bella. But after learning everything about him I have mixed feelings about the guy. I don’t blame him for not trusting Bella, and I don’t blame him for wanting to move on, but jeez, at least show a little genuine emotion, Morty, she was your childhood best friend, and, if nothing else, the mother of your children.

There was no plot to get rid of her and swipe the Goth fortune.

It was just poor timing on the alien’s end, and bad luck altogether.

So, yeah.

That’s what happened to Bella Goth.

4K notes · View notes

messinwitheddie · 3 years ago

Note

In one of your 18 years later au posts you said membranes family stopped talking to them after dib was born.. can I ask why that is?

Also hi I adore your au

First of all, thank you; glad you enjoy my au. ^^

I've been meaning to circle back to that.

I really wish we knew more about the Professor's parents. Too much room for angsty head canons.

Reg "I have all the info on mom's side of the family I need."

Dib "Yeah, the Von Verminstrassers really shove their family history in your face."

Reg "I still have to research your side of the family."

Dib "Would love to help you, but I know next to nothing about the Membrane family. Your great grandparents are from Mexico. They were super scientists--well, by 70's standards. Your granddad hasn't spoken to them in decades and they never speak to him. That's literally all I know about them."

Reg "Why don't they talk anymore?"

Dib "Not really sure. Dad and Professor Sr never really saw eye to eye on anything, from what little dad did tell me about him. They stopped speaking when Dad started college. Abuela stopped speaking to dad when he cloned me. She didn't like the fact he was going to raise a kid without being married."

Reg "Seriously?"

Dib "I'm sure there was more to it but that was a big reason she cut ties with dad. It really messed him up for a while."

Reg "Should I just ask granddad about our family tree or--?"

Dib "I wouldn't recommend it. I had to do a similar project when I was in middle school..."

(16 years ago)

Dib "Dad, we're Mexican right?"

Prof. Membrane "We're from America, son. Your abuelo and abuela are from Mexico."

Dib "We're of Mexican descent?"

Prof. Membrane "Correct."

Dib "I ask because there's this family tree project thing I have to turn in on Friday. What else can you tell me about--?"

Prof "I'm running late. Call me after school."

Dib "OK, but-"

Prof Membrane. Todd, you're in charge. Neither of you give him a hard time."

Dib "But-"

Prof Membrane "Love you, boys, daughter; see you in a few days."

Todd "Dad, I have to work tonight. Do you want me to drop you off and I take the-?"

*front door shuts**engine starts, tires screech*

Todd "Car...? O-ok... I'll walk. Is he alright?"

Dib "I don't know."

Gaz "What just happened? Dib, what did you do?"

Dib "I don't know!"

Reg "Have you ever spoken to either of them?"

Dib "Once; I tracked down abuela's number when dad refused to talk to me. She called me an abomination and dad a sell out. I hung up."

Reg "That's horrible. I'm so sorry, dad."

Dib "Hey, that's her dumbass opinion. Dad, Gaz and Todd are the only family we need. The Membrane family tree is just one thing we never discuss in the Membrane family especially infront of your granddad."

Reg "Got it."

Dib "Don't worry about the report. Do as much of the project as you can and eat the C. If your teacher won't give you at least a C, Ms. Bitters and I will have a conversation."

Reg. "Ok."

Dib "And EAT breakfast. Coffee isn't breakfast!"

#invader zim #18-years-later #au #dib #gaz #professor membrane #squee

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mominousrex · 3 years ago

Text

The Jola Moon (A Rexsoka FanFic) - Chapter 2: HIDDEN

Summary: Ahsoka and Rex have somehow safely landed on Spendor. They each deal with the fallout from Order 66 in their own way before hiking to the Skywalkers' hidden lodge. Rex still has one more secret to keep from Ahsoka...his brother, Cut.

Quick notes: Thanks to @m2d2-mm8 and

@imnewintown00 for being my betas on this one.

This one got emotional.

@lilrexsoka @saint-tries @catsarefurrypeople @m2d2-mm8

Audience: General SFW, Grief, Trauma, Awkward tension (It's Rex And Ahsoka, people)

(Later chapters 18+ NSFW)

Start from the beginning here on AO3 or here on tumblr

Rex stood looking out at the hangar's opening where the cliff formation above had started its natural roof that camouflaged the entrance. He was looking out from a place that he had stood before but under very different circumstances. He was nervous those other times too. At least then he knew exactly why he was nervous. His worries then were consumed with getting in trouble as a ranking officer and what kind of punishment would wait for him. He was convinced by Anakin's assurances that anyone in the GAR could be mind-tricked by him (not likely), and the Jedi council? He'd deal with them (likely). He remembered what Skywalker had said, "Worry when we get caught, not if we get caught, Rex ol' pal."

They never did get caught. The dreaded when never came.

And yet, right now he still couldn't avoid feeling punished. He was alive. He wasn't exactly mad about it. But once again, as with so many other times, Rex was assigned the worst mission for a soldier: be the survivor who is left to remember all of those who were lost.

This time though he was no longer Captain Rex, that's for sure. There was nothing to move on to. Nothing to focus on instead of the grief. He would have to figure out how to just be...Rex. He wasn't lost. He knew exactly where he was in the galaxy. He couldn't believe he was here again. Now though he didn't know where exactly "not Captain" Rex could go or who he could trust beyond Ahsoka. He wasn't sure which of his surviving brothers would be willing to take pity on just "Rex."

Oh damn...Cut! He needed to contact Cut as soon as he could.

Another secret. Rex didn't want to get Ahsoka involved in that whole mess of why he never turned Cut in. Or stayed in touch with him to check on him and his family occasionally. That was a clone thing.

Right now, the less they knew about each other's existence the better. He could figure out what to do later after some rest. Rex now felt the pressure of these small secrets that he had hidden in contained compartments in his life. It felt like they were now colliding with each other. Worry about when, not if. That seemed to work for the great Jedi General Skywalker and even for the deserter clone, Cut Laquane.

He would tell Ahsoka later.

First, he needed to deal with what he was going to find out from contacting Cut. If a clone doesn't interact with a Jedi, could they still be affected? The more he thought about it, the more he realized Cut could be in a lot more danger than he was before. He needed to get the comm up and going, and hopefully, the damn Cloak scrambler still works and will cooperate. He took a deep breath to assure himself this was the right thing to do. He prepared himself mentally; it was time to hide the truth from a Jedi...again.

A lie is never lonely, that's for sure.

He looked back at Ahsoka who was now at the maintenance shelves by the general's old set up. He called back, "You should get some fresh air and rest. There's a spot right by that tree out there. Let me finish up here in the hangar, then we'll get going," he suggested. She didn't respond and now he needed to see what she was doing.

"Don't look so good, kid," as he approached to see what the hell she was doing now.

"You think I'm a kid, Rex?"

He laughs, "No. It's just an old habit…sir"

She didn't even catch the joke. Or maybe it wasn't funny right now.

Ahsoka was rummaging through the general's tool bench and shelving unit, "I thought there would be a full pneumatics kit here. Rex?"

Rex could tell Ahsoka was not herself. She was usually the one on the Resolute organizing the tool benches, for fun. Just to pass the time. She always had an odd idea of fun.

"Didn't you say there was a full kit? I need the bits for R7's…um…," she sighed, "for his…you know..."

Rex walked over and opened the drawer she had just closed, "His panels. You need the point zero five micro attachment for all of R7's interior panels," he easily found the clear case marked, ".05," that was right there with all the other (once organized) bits and attachments in the drawer

Ahsoka was so tired she didn't even react. Rex went to hand the case to her. She reached for it and he quickly pulled it away. She shot him with an exhausted grump face. Rex knew he was in better shape than her and he was miserably exhausted right now.

"You need to rest before we start the hike. It's short but steep. And though I'm sure, Ahsoka, you could backflip your way up there, but it doesn't mean you should right now.

"I just want to make sure we have everything to fix R7," she had manic energy about her, which wasn't like her at all. She seemed fixated on staying in the hangar, the opposite of what Rex needed right now.

Rex needed to put his foot down. The benefits of working with unconventional Jedi force wielders like Ahsoka and Skywalker were sometimes outweighed by their inability to understand that everyone, even Jedis, has limits. That was something he never learned on Kamino. He learned that on battlefields with Skywalker and he had to learn that sometimes, even if his words would go ignored, he still had to voice them. Maybe he learned that from Obi-Wan.

"Ahsoka? Are you nuts? Where and when exactly do you think you can start running around the galaxy picking up spare parts for this "formerly yours" GAR-issued droid? Are you trying to get killed?"

He's right. She hadn't thought of that.

"They'd track you down, hunt you, and —"

"Rex, I know how to erase R7's memory and keep him untraceable."

"You're right. You do, but only with Republic systems from a year ago?"

"Rex let me do this. Please let me try. I don't have anything of my own from back then! And I had to just leave him. R7 was mine!" She put her hands on the lifeless droid. Ahsoka started to well up, her lip quivering to a final barely audible exasperation, "He was mine…," she collapsed in front of the charred and blaster-ridden droid carcass. She inhaled her tears, refusing to let Rex see her cry until she just fell over to hide her face and sobs. Her back lekku tail was the palest blue he had ever seen. She was drained.

Rex's voice shifted to a softer tone to meet her at this moment, "Okay, Ahsoka. It's...it's okay," Rex had no idea what to do here. He crouched down and eventually just sat next to her crisscrossed. Since Ahsoka was in a child's (post temper tantrum) pose, legs tucked under, her knees to her chest, forehead resting in her arms, crying into the floor, he couldn't exactly hug her.

Rubbing her back would be weird since he'd never done that to anyone ever. He had seen Ahsoka and Padme comfort others with that gesture a few times maybe. He was trying to figure out what to do, which hand to use, should he rub her shoulders or just the shoulder blades? Her lower back which was closest to him was definitely not right and so his right hand was just sort of hanging out in an awkward hover, waiting for his command when at last he heard her calm herself down and begin to sit up. He ended up comforting his own left shoulder plate. Thankfully, Ahsoka saw none of that.

She sat up on her bent knees and took a cleansing breath as she wiped her tears which had somehow managed to leave clean streaks when it wiped the grime off her face in splotches. Her markings were bright white again in places. "I'm sorry," she confessed to him. Rex shook his head and told her don't mention it with his face. "Thank you for letting me just cry like that, even though it was awkward," she said as she effortlessly picked up his left hand into both of hers and held it, while giving a comforting squeeze, like nothing. Like absolutely nothing. Rex was so uncomfortable being comforted by his friend right now that he made sure to look at a stain on the floor that caught his eye as he spoke, "Of course, it's no problem."

Ahsoka looked at him and knew. Something is off with Rex. Something deep within Rex is…hiding, "Rex, are you okay?" Now incredibly aware of her tear-soaked hands holding his one hand, he once again did not know what to do here. He gently took it back to rub the spot where he knocked his head on the holodeck table and felt the bump's absence. At least that healed.

"No, honestly. Neither of us is okay, right now, Ahsoka. This is why I want to get the fighter settled and check a few things so we can get going already. But I am worried about you. I'm not shocked you cried. I've just never seen you that upset before. I don't like seeing you like that."

Ahsoka was mostly aware of his primary feelings now. She had scared him a little, "I'm sorry, Rex"

"You don't have to apologize. You must be exhausted from everything, and you pulled off an amazing flight up there," they both lazily laughed with acknowledgment, "but if I'm too tired to even think about it, you must be on the edge of sanity. Please go outside, get some fresh air, and rest. Please."

Ahsoka relented with a nod. She could use the time to rest or meditate. She had let her feelings get the best of her and Rex was the closest person nearby who received the brunt of her breaking point. She was also concerned about him, but she did need to rest. The constant disturbances in the Force had yet to find their own way of relenting.

She sensed the worst was not over.

By now, Rex had stood up and was offering his calloused, helpful hand down to help her up.

She looked up at him and was so grateful to have Rex there with her. She did not have to hide her old life as a Jedi padawan like she unsuccessfully tried with Trace and Rafa, Nor did she worry Rex would judge her for not acting as a Jedi padawan should. She hadn't seen him in over a year, but she felt that she could just be herself around him. This new realization made Rex even more unique to her.

His words from the comm echoed in her mind, "There you go, love." She couldn't shake the way it felt to hear him say that.

She wasn't even sure what the feeling was, but it had gotten them here safe and together.

He was right; she needed some air and some quiet.

When Ahsoka took Rex's hand, he gently pulled her up and she took a deep breath before pulling her chin up, lifting her tired bluest-blue eyes to look up at him.

He looked directly at her with his not quite standard issued eyes, a look of earned relief was on his face. She had never noticed the flecks of bright gold and orange that crowned the iris of his dark amber eyes. Maybe it was the hazy mix of darkness and natural light in the hangar or the light pink of exhaustion that crept into the whites of his eyes.

Rex was politely looking at her putting herself mentally back together. He was just stuck regarding how much he admired her strength. Even after she falls apart, she gets right back up, looks you in the eyes, and keeps going.

He was incredibly relieved that she finally listened to him. It was a small victory for him, but he'd gladly take it as a major one right now.

Before he could enjoy the victory though, an in-coming embrace from her blindsided him. Ahsoka went to wrap her arms around him but stopped awkwardly at his chest plate as she pressed her face against it. Her montrals now just directly at his eye-line. Since his arms were stuck at his sides not knowing what to do, hers sort of stopped at his underarms happily attempting to squeeze. Not quite a full embrace, just more an attempt to show appreciation. With his armor on, he could not feel her at all, just the pressing of his armor closer to his chest. His arm plates, shoulder pauldron, and gauntlets were so bulky he was afraid if he tried to hug back, it wouldn't exactly be as nice for her to feel against her bare arms. Before he could say or do anything to reciprocate, she gave a small double tap on his chest plate, "Thanks, Rexter" she said as she gently pulled back her embrace.

Rexter. He hadn't heard that nickname in a long time. Quietly he thought to himself, no problem, kid. Then the next four words just fell out of his mouth, "Anything for you, Ahsoka," and she responded with a humbled, crooked smile. He watched her walk backward and then turn away from this zone of proximity that had allowed them to be as close as friends can be for the moment.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt like he had somehow said something wrong. He wasn't about to start worrying about whatever he said because she was heading outside to rest. He could keep busy with the fighter's odds and ends until she fell asleep and finally he could try to reach Cut.

As she stepped out to exit the hangar, Ahsoka was greeted by the beauty of the misty forest that was wild and overgrown. The air was incredibly clean and sweet. She could sense the invisible tiny worlds of unseen organisms that thrived on the foliage. There were no visible animals yet to be seen. Rex hadn't mentioned anything, so she figured she would be safe. She looked back and noticed he was just a short distance behind her, "You making sure that I am in fact going to rest?" she turned back to keep walking, not even waiting for his answer.

"Should I?", he called out from the hangar's entrance.

"Nope. I've found my spot in the shade over there where you said, Rex. I'll be resting."

"Okay, I'll try to hurry, but you know how I get with making sure everything is checked and done right"

"Take your time", he heard her voice trail off in the distance.

Rex did plan to take as long as he could without seeming suspicious in hopes she would fall asleep. He could wake up in the morning and come back to the hangar if he wanted to do a proper eval and small repairs. More sneaking around, he was starting to really hate this.

He turned and walked back towards their fighter and the hangar's work area. For a two-person fighter, the Y-wings always took up a lot of space. On this BLT-B model, the engines took up the most space wherever they were. The pair of massive engines were always separated to keep their respective places of power but eventually came together to meet at the fuselage for its signature Y shape. It was a bulky fighter that most clones always said had too much weight and didn't give the rush of other smaller starfighters. But everyone knew they could take the hits, keep going to finish the mission, and usually get their boys home. Wherever home was.

Rex looked at the damaged exterior that had taken its rightful place as part of this fighter's journey. The scars it earned today proved that this fighter, once classified as busted and imperfect, had been blessed and reborn by the landing it just experienced.

"Quite a ride you took there? Well done."

He slid his hand along the smooth undamaged blue and white panels just before he moved to closely examine the dented and crumbled areas. He ventured his upper body so that it was slightly crouched as his two arms stayed up against the side of the fighter. Then he angled his head to check deep under the fuselage. He dropped one arm to check the newest gash in its frame, which was undoubtedly caused by the same collision that threw him in the turret hatch.

"We'll fix you up. But some scars we'll keep, huh? We all have them." He gave the fighter a pat or two on the flat nose that sat beneath two inoperational ion cannons.

Rex head over to climb up the ladder to the pilot's cockpit to start running diagnostics. He figured a good deception is best executed with some truth. Might as well get some readings for them to work with when they start repairing it. They certainly had time to pass. Hopefully, there was some good news from the fighter's eval, but with the way things had been unfolding in the last few days, bad news was probably all he was going to get.

In the cockpit, he spotted Ahsoka's cloak. Realizing she could come back to get it at any moment, he didn't want to risk her coming in when he was talking to Cut on the comm. Grabbing the cloak and throwing it over his shoulder, a brisk familiar breath of fragrance wafted into his senses. The combination of Jedi's heavy woolen fabric and Ahsoka's signature feminine scent stirred some memories for him that made him pause.

Only because he recognized her distinct smoky, sweet scent of blaster fire and floral musk that used to trail the walkways of The Resolute, did he realize he had missed this scent filling his senses. He gave another sniff to make the memories of those days with her, Skywalker, and his closest brothers from the Torrent company all return again. Was it so bad that these memories brought a smile to his face? He shook it off with a shake of his head as he headed out and back down the step ladder.

He made his way out to the spot where Ahsoka said she would be, and he found her asleep on a soft bed of moss that had taken over a boulder underneath a massive ancient willow tree.

She could always fall asleep anywhere. Jedis can stay awake for longer than regular beings, but Togrutan Jedis are especially sensitive to being in cycle with whatever planets' rotation they were on. It was possible to stay awake for days, but her body would register a morose mood that could haunt her feelings. Ahsoka had to train herself to fall asleep whenever she needed to by using a form of meditation and self-hypnosis. She had told him all about that on a long flight after they first met and fought together, after Teth.

At that time, Rex was critically struggling with sleep. Kamino was going to get involved and possibly call him back for an evaluation. Slick's traitorous betrayal during Christophisis had pushed him towards paranoia and he started double-checking on all the clones in the 501st to be sure that type of insurrection never happened in his legion. Cody seemed less affected by the whole experience with Slick. For Rex, the whole ordeal had truly unsettled him.

He remembered her tiny frame casually sitting on the flight bridge, plopped onto one of the officers' chairs like she owned the place. But she sort of did. She taught him and the other officers the breathing exercises and how she quieted her mind. Rex was so desperate for a full sleep cycle, he was willing to listen to anyone, even the snippy little padawan. Looking at her now, more grown-up and sleeping off the nightmare they had just been through… he was shocked about how little he knew back then. He tucked her cloak around her like a blanket.

If Slick could see him now.

When got back in the hangar, Rex sat at the tool bench. He took his helmet and removed a section of padding within his helmet's inner crown.

Skywalker's scrambler device was always on his mind, literally. The small rectangular-shaped disc was about the length of Rex's thumb. It was hidden within a plastisoid box to protect the wiring and tiny conductor units. A switch on the side and a small flat dial allowed the signal of the nearest holocom to broadcast but with a constant change of location coordinates that mimicked generic interference from power supply loss or atmospheric disruption. Of the three Cloaks Skywalker had engineered, Rex had one always hidden right there under the helmet padding.

The hangar's holocom was an old model that Skywalker and Rex got from a junk dealer. The general had fixed hundreds back on Tatooine and knew how to give this one a second life. It could serve the purpose of making contact when needed but the imaging operations never worked right. But for a comm system on Splendor, it was better to not see or be seen, so it was the perfect fit for what they needed back then. Well, what Skywalker needed anyway.

With the comm up and running, Rex was suddenly flooded with how many of his other officer brothers he wanted to call,

Cody, Appo, Wolfe, Fox, Gage, Howzer, Bly, the other half of the 501st that was with the general…Rex started to feel sick to his stomach…Cody…fuck.

He can't contact them. Not now. Maybe not ever again. Would the Batchers be affected? Maker! He needed to get this done before he ended up crying on the floor like Ahsoka. Fuck that. Get your head together, soldier.

When at first there was no response, he entered the comm code again.

"Come in, Contact 1122113E10-S2, this is 11991188E12-S43, Come in."

He waited a few minutes.

"Come in, Contact 1122113E10-S2, this is 11991188E12-S43, Come in."

He waited for a few more.

Nothing. One more try.

"Come in, Contact 1122113E10-S2, this is 11991188E12-S43, Come in."

Blast. This was—

Suu was the one speaking but Rex knew Cut was feeding her what to say. "Dis is 1122113E10-S2, how ya doing, brothah?"

Rex practically fell off the seat and right back into it with joy.

"Haha! Laquane! Brother!"' Rex realized he sounded so happy but was about to give Cut and Suu devastating news, "Uh this isn't a casual call. You got a secure channel?"

A moment passes.

In her thick sultry accent, Suu is Cut's mouthpiece until they can get over to the secure channel, "Sure. Go ovah to deh rrrollout from deh…uh…deh creshant sequence, you know dis one, yers?"

"Wow the crescent sequence, Laquane? That takes me back. No gen1 clone can forget that one."

"Yers…from—," she is bickering with Cut in the background, "ugh…dem old days practicing ourrh dahnce mooves in deh rain,"

Suu sounds a little annoyed to be doing this charade at the moment. Cut grunting in the background sounds like he is struggling to hold back their kids, Jek and Shaeeah from attacking the family comm as they squeal from terrifying delight, "Uncles! Unnnnnnncccccclessssssss! PLEASE, DADDY!”

Their shouting brings a huge welcome smile to Rex's face and he feels himself choking up a little bit with joy. He's not even related to these kids, but it's so good to hear them now.

"Copy that. Switching now, over and out," Rex flicks the comm channel switch and lets the excitement of hearing that the Laquanes sound just like the family they do every time he called to check-in.

Rex looks at the comm without missing a beat he enters the code that he and all other clones recruits had to memorize and then manipulate for the "Crescent Sequence." It was a mock mission that was so difficult most recruits never even made it to the final stage of establishing their emergency signal while under distress. Gen 1 clones had it the worst, the training was altered later when it was deemed too difficult and adjustments were made to ensure that recruits could get to the final phase and attempt to complete the mission.

Now on the secure channel, Rex felt more comfortable but still wasn't sure how much he could say. At least it didn't sound like Cut had been affected, but Cut wasn't around any Jedis at all.

Rex figured he couldn't take Ahsoka with him there. If they could even get to Salucami. He wasn't even sure if he could be safe around Cut himself.

"Come in Golden Boy, this is the Bastard. Hahaha, brother! To what do we owe such a surprise?" Cut's familiar voice was a comfort to Rex right now. Unfortunately, he didn't have time for comfort and catching up.

"Well, it's not good, brother. There's been ah…how do I explain this?"

"Explain what? You alright?"

"No. I mean, I'm fine. But, Cut, listen to me: the clone army has all been ordered to kill the Jedi for treason."

"What? Did you say…kill? Kill the Jedi?"

"Look, I have to be brief and don't have all the intel, it's complicated. So please try to follow."

"Alright…I'm listening."

"All of us clones had behavior implants, inhibitor chips when we were newly made, months old. They can control every clone in the GAR."

"Who?"

"We think it's a Sith Lord and I'm not sure but, the war is over, but something worse is beginning Cut. I understand what Fives was saying now.”

"Rex? Did you hit your head or something? Are you drunk? Sergeant Hunter does this sometimes when he gets wasted and his abilities are all out of whack."

"Really?"

Rex now could hear Jek and Shaeeah screaming again in the background as Suu is barking at them to calm down. The commotion sounds hectic through the comm, it's probably even louder on Cut's end.

"Cut, I'm not drunk. I've never been more clear-headed in my life. I just wanted to let you know and make sure you weren't affected."

"Me?"

"Yes, you, brother. You have this thing in you too. You haven't been feeling weird today or yesterday?"

"Nothing different for me. I didn't even get upset when Jek spilled his juice all over the table this morning," Cut's voice is now yelling off the comm, "Alright that's it, you heard your mother, wash up time. Let Daddy finish up with Uncle Rex," then he returned to the comm, "Sorry about that, they get feral at bedtime."

"It's okay. Cut, you need to get this thing removed."

"Uh… we can't exactly do that out here. Besides how it even gets taken out. You got yours taken out, how?"

Rex was quiet. I can't tell him about Ahsoka yet.

"I had help. But before mine was taken out they gave the order. I felt its effects...it was awful, Cut. It was like living in a waking nightmare where I couldn't help what I was doing and I almost killed someone very close to me."

"Your general?"

"No, unfortunately, I don't know what's happened to him. I'm assuming he's gone too."

"Oh. I'm so sorry, brother. You two were close. Was it the…uh...what was her name? The one who left. Did she help you?"

Shit. That's brothers for you...

Rex had confided in Cut a few times about Ahsoka's whole ordeal with the council and her leaving the order. Maybe he was a little drunk one of those nights. The whole 501st was drunk for a week after she left. They also racked up more droid kills than any other battalion.

Rex didn't want to lie again, so he just avoided the question.

"Look, it's an organic chip. So it can't be easily detected. After we get our droid fixed I can send you the medical report from when mine was taken out.

"We?"

"Huh?"

"You said 'we just then."

"Nah I'm alone. Found a hideout spot for a few days."

"Oh okay, then. I guess I misheard."

Rex was certainly not alone right now. He happened to look up towards the hangar's entrance where Ahsoka's silhouette appeared and was barely taking her steps in. She was moving closer though. Rex needed to wrap this up quickly.

"Look if any of our brothers asks about me, tell them you saw me there, that I came to visit and left."

"Alright. I'd ask where you are but I don't want to know, I guess. Some brothers might be like you though.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, we may not be the only deserters out there, Rex"

"I'm not a deserter," retorted Rex.”

Cut laughs for a moment, "Okay then."

"That's not what this is about."

"If what you are telling me is true then there are some serious changes happening. You know you're always welcome here, but I understand not wanting to be found."

Rex is practically whispering now, "I know you do, look I got to—,"

"Rex, listen. You need to be careful…it's going to get lonely. You'll make it through. I just wish you weren't alone right now brother."

"Right...I have—,"

"Rex? What are you doing?" Ahsoka called out from the other side of the hangar as she walked towards the work area, "Who are you talking to?"

This was exactly what Rex did not want to happen,

"Huh?"

Cut was chuckling, "Well! My wish came true huh, brother?"

"It's nothing like that, Cut. Stop it"

"Sounds like you need to go, I know that tone in a woman's voice. You're in trouble. Just be honest with them. They love that."

"Cut, will you shut up. Honestly. We're just friends. Just make sure you take care of that thing."

Yeah yeah, cut my head open. Right. Hey…you'll be alright, brother. You've got freedom now, enjoy it."

Rex is now down to a whisper, "I gotta go."

Cut is still teasing him, "I bet you do."

"Shut up. I'll contact you in a few days"

"Love you, brother."

"You too."

Ahsoka is now standing there and can see Rex at the comm, with her montrals she probably has been hearing the whole last minute. This is mortifying.

"Who was that?"

"Oh...um, nobody. A smuggler friend of Hondo's, I was trying to get some info about our next possible move." Rex could tell his lie was terrible and seemed to give up halfway through.

Ahsoka was aghast. She took in a deep sigh hoping to remove the severe look of disappointment on her face and knew it did not. Instead, she decided to simply turn around and walk out of the hangar. She couldn't even look at him. She could not handle any more surprises from Rex today. If they were friends at all he would be following her outside.

He was, "Ahsoka…wait!"

She was going to find out what had woken her up from the nap. The same nap he kept insisting she take. So foolish, Ahsoka. When will I learn? What am I doing here?

She was out of the hangar now back in the beauty of the forest that had distracted her. This moon. She was stuck on this moon.

"Please wait, let me explain—," Rex had run out of the hangar but kept his distance from her. There was a world between them that measured barely the length of a speeder bike.

"You asked me, Rex, if I trusted you?!"

"Yes, and you said that you did."

She stood there looking intently at him, disappointed that he was lying to her.

Was this worth questioning her safety here…with him?

For a moment she wondered if she could be wrong. He was hiding something, again. Before today, she would have devotedly trusted anything Rex said. She wanted to be that way again. But that was the old Ahsoka, wide-eyed and hell-bent on always helping others and making a difference. She had learned quite abruptly what can happen when the world around you decides to not see you as you see yourself.

Clearly, Rex could keep a secret, but she wasn't going to let him keep another one from her today. She was going to lose control of her feelings again if she wasn't careful. She rose above her petty fears and sensitivity to meet him in the middle. Rex was better than this. She knew that he was.

"I don't know why you won't tell me who you were talking to, but I hoped you would trust me, Rex. The way I trust you and always have. I think after EVERYTHING that has happened to us, and I mean all of it, I think that I deserve the truth from you."

She made sure not to blink as her eyes stared her expectations into his.

If he was supposed to be intimidated by this, Rex wasn't even close.

He squinted his eyes a bit at the sunlight shining behind her and cocked his head in a way that made him look like he was getting ready to fight back. Then he said the unexpected, "You do. You absolutely deserve better."

She was expecting a fight. He just gave in. Was this some kind of deflection strategy? Because it was working. She was softening up again, but he still needed to tell her the truth. "C'mon, Rex. We can't be keeping secrets from each other. Not here, not anymore. I mean it."

She looked around for some path that headed to the lodge, "I understand why you had to keep this one," she gestured vaguely in some direction because she still had no idea where they were going, but please no more. I just can't handle any more big surprises that—"

"His name is Cut, Cut Laqwane," Rex interrupted when he got the nerve, "Sorry, I didn't mean to"

Ahsoka was glad he did, "No, it's okay." She didn't have any more of her usual fight left in her and wanted to give him the space to get it out. She sensed his feelings shifting like the wind that was blowing the draping branches of leaves that framed the background of where he stood.

Rex continued even though she could sense his nervousness, "He's a deserter that fought in Geonosis, the first. He's part of my generation, Ahsoka. He truly is one of the only direct brothers I can talk to. He was left for dead after the battle, by himself, but he lived. He just got up and made a life for himself however he could."

"Hmmm…okay? And the woman I heard at one point? The noise woke me up. That noise...when she was speaking. It sounded like they were in danger or someone was getting, I don't know, tortured?"

Rex started laughing. "Well, they might be. I've heard natural-born children can be real nightmares. And those two get into their fair bit of trouble." Ahsoka wasn't sure she heard that right, Rex read her face's shocked expression.

"Those were his kids, Ahsoka."

"He has...children?" Ahsoka never thought about the clones having children, "Can you, I mean not you, well, can any of you—"

"No. I can't. We can't. We're all…sterilized. That would be a genetic mess!" Rex chuckled at the thought, "They're his wife's kids. But Cut's the only father they've known, and he's a great one. I mean, he makes it look so easy, that I know it must be difficult."

Ahsoka's face was still frozen in shock.

“Their real father died shortly after the littlest one was born. Suu, his wife, means everything to him, everything. The kids came with her. And for Cut, that was that. He is a great father…and brother."

Hearing Rex speak like this about one of his brothers was new. Rex always praised his fellow clones when it was due, but to be talking about this Cut person as a family man revealed a side of him she hadn't known existed. Maybe the secret wasn't Cut's existence, but that Rex actually admired him.

"Anyway, Ahsoka...I contacted Cut to make sure he knew about Order 66, the chips, and find out if he was affected. Suu isn't a fan of the war, the Republic, or all that, so for them, it could've been dangerous if his chip activated. Especially with the kids and everything."

Rex was pretending to adjust his gauntlets, but there was nothing to adjust. She stayed quiet to let him continue, or struggle to continue, rather. This wasn't easy for Rex to discuss. She certainly knew Rex well enough to know that.

She had asked him to be truthful and now he was giving her that. It was her reactions to his secrets (now truths) that were her responsibility. Their friendship was built on years of trusting each other with their lives in seemingly insurmountable odds again and again.

"Well, was he affected?"

"It doesn't seem like it. Even before this, Cut rejected a clone soldier's loyalty to the Republic. Completely. He's just been a simple farmer on Salucami. He's the only brother I have left, but I didn't want you to know that I chose not to arrest him."

"Why would you not want me to know?"

"Because he's a deserter. It's my hang-up about honor, you know. He broke his code to the Republic."

"So did I, Rex." She was walking a very thin beam between making a point and being just plain argumentative.

"Ahsoka, obviously your situation was very different."

And so was his. Now a deserter himself, Rex was starting to understand how simple it was to think in terms of absolutes. But it was very complicated having to live in them.

Ahsoka continued to press,

"Well, I wouldn't call him a deserter, Rex. He's a loving husband and is raising two children that aren't his? Sounds like a brave and dedicated hero to me."

"When you put it that way—-"

"I do. Don't call him a "deserter" anymore. He's a rescuer."

That word hit Rex in the gut. Once the snippy young padawan, now older, she just had a jaded wit. But she was right. Cut certainly was a rescuer. She probably had more respect for Cut than Rex did, she knew what it was like.

"Takes one to know one, huh, Tano?" Rex smirked, hoping she heard it as a compliment.

"You could say that," She smirked back at him and squinted her eyes.

That was kind of him. The look on his face was almost sweet. He didn't ever falter or get angry in this whole conversation. He still managed to tease her like the soldiers always did, but Rex would always include a compliment to show her respect back then.

"Come on, Tano. Let me get my stuff and we'll start heading out. We'll get to work down here tomorrow, sound good?

"No more secrets, Rex."

"Is that an order, Commander?"

She almost rolled her eyes out of her head, "Ugh! Will you cut it out with that?

His sarcastic teasing was the worst and she had missed it so much, he kept it up, "What? I can't understand why that would bother you?"

She was now laughing, not squabbling with Rex anymore. They had survived getting upset with each other. And she didn't feel so foolish anymore. Now she was just cranky that her nap was interrupted.

If they could finally just get where they need to go...

She suddenly felt her shoulders ache from the effort to not fall on the floor and collapse into pain. Ahsoka felt this next disturbance with a panicked pain different from the others. Her hands went to her head. The feeling was wild, angry, conflicted.

"C-C-C-Caleb?" She didn't feel the snap of him go, instead, she could feel his energy crumbling, crying out in pain. It was as though he was running through a tunnel with no light at the end.

And then he just stopped running.

A complete standstill.

His Force signature intertwined with his fear and grief was a haze. He was just stuck there, alone in some permanent shelter of weary confusion. She gave a sense of hope that he would find his way out…eventually.

"Ahsoka? Who's Caleb?"

"A padawan, like I was. I barely knew him. His master is gone, but he's alive. He's… he's… I…his emotions are too clouded with fear and panic," she was torn, "I can't help him. I— I—"

Rex intervened this time. He could see that Ahsoka was pushing herself too hard, "Alright, let's get going up to the lodge. If you need me to carry you, I can."

"No, it's fine. I'm sorry, by the way, about earlier."

"Forget it, you were right. I'm glad I told you. I actually hate keeping secrets. Look, I really can carry you, if you are too tired. It's a decent climb up through the ruins."

"The ruins?" Ahsoka's sense of the Force was so clouded and fogged she hadn't even noticed. The ancient Jola star system, that is what Rex had said. She was wasting time arguing in the present with her only surviving friend when she could have been making herself useful to sense the wonder and energy of their refuge. She looked up and saw the islands drifting amongst the clouds. She looked down and saw the ground she was standing on. She then looked up at Rex. They were safe.

For now, they were safe.

"I can walk on my own, Rex, but thanks for offering,"

She began to crunch the rocks and dirt with her trudging armored boots. Rex walked the path on her left next to her for a bit until it narrowed at a turn. Then he took the lead and she followed. The pathway was barely noticeable at first glance, but once you saw it, its definition looked as though it had been there the whole time. The air was crisp and mildly humid. A natural perfume from the forest mist was lingering in the slight, soft touch of the wind against her shoulders. The wound on her right arm was throbbing, and she noticed a little too late that her hand had already decided to start nagging at the make-shift bandage rags Rex had put on at the crash site.

"Leave it, Tano." Rex didn't even have to look back. He knew that wincing sound when she scratched at her bandages. She had always hated being injured.

"How's your shoulder, Rex?"

"Bruised. But my pauldron is done for. What can I say? I just can't be killed." Rex looked back at her and snickered morosely as the dense forest revealed the tops of what had possibly been a temple or palace. Now it was barely four meters of weathered stone being strangled by vines and moss and other invisible life. Its majesty was grounded forever in the hidden earth of this moon.

"What was the name of this moon again, Rex?" He stopped and let her catch up to him. Their final ascent was before them, "Splendor," he made sure to look at her when he said it.

Adrenaline and desperation had fueled the difficult experience of their escape. At least Rex and Ahsoka were trained for situations like that. They had been trained their whole lives for that kind of risk and danger.

But looking up at the path, Rex and Ahsoka both knew without saying a word that their last stop, the lodge, was something neither of them was truly prepared for.

NEXT CHAPTER...

CHAPTER 3: 8-1-0-8

btw…ALL UPDATED chapters are pinned to my tumblr

or click here to read on AO3

#thejolamoon #rexsoka #tcw rexsoka4ever #really long post #long reads #captain rex #ahsoka tano #this one got me #a call to Cut #tBB Cut #tcwrebelstbbinonechapter…check!

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

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About crosshair. Again lol

Regardless of his scar not lining up with chip scar or the headaches or “soldiers follow orders” again. Or him without a chip being a liability to the empire. I just don’t buy his personality change in the end. I’m the pilot episode they hammered it over our heads it’s very unlike him to follow orders. He said himself “empire or republic, what’s the difference?” But now in the end he cares about the empire protecting the galaxy? Responds to hunter his choice is “soldiers follow orders”? Wtf, really? So he genuinely believes his only personality is being a soldier now? when it’s been established in both in cw and tbb that cf99, including crosshair only cared about completing the mission. I get that people change but not that abruptly especially if we are to believe techs “unyielding” description of him to be true. Echo is the one true soldier of the group. He keeps repeating to hunter “we are soldiers not smugglers”, “there is no other way than being soldiers” etc. but he is clearly loyal to the republic. And I never saw echo and crosshair to be similar in that

So yeah , I think it’s very out of character for crosshair to just see himself as soldier and being content with following order or being a pawn(which he must realize he is cause he’s not dumb) especially with his mega inflated sense of self importance. Just my two cents

Crosshair is a complicated character! There's a lot to discuss :D

That's a good point though. And yeah, as acknowledged the quick personality change could be chalked up to chip influence if it's still having some kind of impact... but if it's not, then what do we make of that?

Putting aside the "It's just bad writing" possibility, I think there's a key difference between not following orders and not being loyal to the organization giving those orders. They're not necessarily the same thing, though it's easy to lump the two together. Yeah, we see early on that the Bad Batch isn't known for doing things the "right" way. Rex and Jesse are pretty unsure about their methods when the Batch first shows up in TCW. In the pilot Tech has a line about how "We're more deviant than defective" emphasizing that they tend to do things differently. Crosshair's sudden willingness to follow orders to the letter, not just in spirit, is questioned during their time in the cell, etc. So yeah, they don't obey the rules, but I don't think that's because they're not loyal. They're not refusing orders because pff, screw the Republic/Empire, who cares about those guys. They're refusing orders because they recognize that their way of doing things—the unconventional methods that deviate from the standard clone playbook—is more likely to net them, and the Republic, a success. They seem to be against the Republic's rules because they want the Republic to succeed, recognizing that their way is the best way to get that. Wrecker takes great pride in their successful missions, keeping tally marks on their room's wall. Crosshair is constantly pointing out how the higher ups called them in because the Regs couldn't complete a mission, likewise emphasizing his pride in being needed. When Rex and Hunter finally start bonding, it's through Rex's decision to charge the droids head on, precisely like the Batch would, rather than following the "correct" strategy of carefully picking them off from the tree line. They bond over the understanding of, "Yes. This is the best way the Republic wins." Perhaps most significantly, the Batch was still willing to complete missions for the Empire up until they were ordered to kill civilians. Killing Jedi resulted in an acknowledgement of how messed up that was... but no solid intent to leave.

All of the above is important because it establishes the Batch's need to be loyal to something other than themselves. The kind of loyalty that is shown through intense, life-threatening acts of service. Hunter's line about them being loyal to each other rather than some Empire, while true, is a simplification. Their loyalty to the Republic and their loyalty to one another overlap in many, many significant ways, simply because the Batch was created for the Republic. They have literally spent their entire lives living, breathing, fighting, and almost dying for the Republic. Their core identities stem from the Republic's desires: skills they want them to cultivate and even personalities they want to foster, if Tech's theories are to be believed (that conversation with Wrecker in the mess hall). The loyalty the Batch feels, those bonds they formed over the years, stem entirely from completing missions for the Republic. Their love for one another is, at least at the start, a product of the Republic's desire for Good Soldiers. And yeah, they sometimes did things the Republic technically didn't like, but it was always in service of achieving the Republic's end goal, whatever that may have been. They were very good soldiers, just soldiers that understood the value of creative thinking. "You want me to reach this location? Of course! I'll reach it by cutting across the grass, despite you asking me to follow the path already laid out. But our goal and the Regs' goal is exactly the same: fulfill your mission. That's our purpose in this life."

And then the Republic became the Empire.

Every one of these characters has a need to serve some higher purpose, to complete missions for the benefit of another. Overlooking the very literal ways in which they may have been genetically predisposed towards this (like the chip), and the cultural brainwashing that went on the second they were born (this is your duty, this is your purpose, this is all you exist for), this is, simply put, all they've ever known. Though it's possible to walk away from that need, it's by no means easy. So what saves the majority of the Batch from falling into that "Republic, Empire, what's the difference?" thinking out of a need to serve someone?

Omega.

I think it's crucial that the second they abandon one mission—killing civilians for the Empire—there's already new mission waiting for them to focus on instead—rescue and protect Omega, indefinitely. That's Hunter's thinking. We're not going to do A, we're going do B instead. All they did was put that single-minded focus onto a new target, but the focus—the need—still exists. And we see that throughout the first season, where everything the Batch does is in service to Omega. Their life decisions revolve entirely around her, from very small things (here's your own room on the ship) to the much larger (we need to stay on the move to help you avoid bounty hunters, even if we may want to find someplace to stay). The purpose of a soldier has been mapped onto the purpose of a parent, with the new, ongoing goal being "Raise Child" as opposed to "Win War." Putting aside for the moment the fact that this is an action-adventure show and thus exciting plot has to happen, I think it's notable that no one suggests non-soldier-y things to help them make money. Tech isn't offering his intellect as an easy way to make credits, nor Wrecker his strength. No one is seriously thinking of a planet they could hide out on, even from bounty hunters, so as to raise Omega in peace. They are still, fundamentally, the people they were during the time of the Republic, people who need to fight for something. Literally fight. It's just now they're chaotically fulfilling missions for Cid so they can give Omega a halfway decent life, rather than chaotically fulfilling missions for a general so they can give the Republic a chance at winning the war.

Omega is the new focus, the new Republic stand-in, but what happens if she's not an option? (Would have been really interesting to see what the Batch did if she'd actually left with Cut.) Without the chip affecting his thoughts, I fully believe Crosshair would have left with the others. Why wouldn't he? That's his family and, per Hunter's orders, Omega is the new mission. But the chip ensured he missed that chance and by the time he came out of it (if he came out of it), it was too late. His squad was gone, they never came back, and Crosshair needs to find a new place in this galaxy, just like they did. Except his options are far more limited and suck a whole lot more. I can't recall anything that implies Crosshair thinks the Empire will save the galaxy, but he does think it's going to control it and he's looking for his own purpose in this new life. Why not find purpose in the winning side? He can serve the Empire just like they served the Republic. He can serve the Empire just like his squad now serves Omega. The need to belong somewhere, to have that larger goal, outweighs those pesky ethical issues, at least for now. Though to me the "Good soldiers follow orders" really, really still sounds like chip influence, it can also be read as a broader acknowledgment that yes, they are fundamentally soldiers and yes, they do need orders of one kind or another. They need that mission. That goal. That purpose. Someone who helps to guide them in this new, crazy galaxy. Yeah, they've always bent and gotten creative with the orders, but until 4/5ths of them left the Empire, they'd never ignored the orders as a whole. None of the Bad Batch went, "I'm not taking this mission because the Admiral was an asshole to us about it and I don't feel like it :/" They suck up all the hard parts—the awful treatment, the danger, the general difficulty—because they have a goal to fulfill. They live for having a goal, literally in the sense that this is what they were made for. The Bad Batch is still doing that with Cid, putting up with bad treatment, dangerous situations, and general difficulty because they have that larger goal of taking care of Omega. Crosshair missed out on that, so he latched onto the Empire instead. Which circles right back around to previous points that if the Batch had tried to rescue him and/or been more welcoming when offering his return, Crosshair likely would have joined in on the Omega mission too. It's the best new purpose for all of them.

Crosshair sees himself as a soldier because, right now, being a soldier of the Empire is the only way he can find the purpose and belonging that the rest of the Batch maintained with each other and Omega, back when he was left behind. No, he's not dumb, but the logistics of the situation outweigh his knowledge that things are far from perfect. Do we think the Batch doesn't also realize that Cid is continually taking advantage of them with 70/30 splits? Of course not. But they need a way to survive and, right now, this is it. Crosshair likewise recognizes that the Empire is treating him as a pawn—I think he was in denial prior to the bombing, but now he definitely knows—but what other option is there? Not his squad. As discussed, he feels strongly that he's no longer welcome with them, with good reason. The only other option is to go off on his own, something that's incredibly foreign to clones who were bred to serve that higher purpose alongside many, many brothers. Yes, we've seen one or two who manage that—like Cut—but they're the outliers. Rex found his new purpose fighting the Empire with Ahsoka. The Batch found their new purpose taking care of Omega with each other. Crosshair's new purpose is... nothing. Not unless he swallows down his misgivings (and his ego) and keeps serving the Empire until a better purpose comes along.

#TBB #the bad batch #SW #Star Wars #mymetas

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curiousscientistkae · 3 years ago

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oh yeah since I have new peeps here is a rundown of myshe ra kiddos +finally adding some i never talked about. Ages are just to show gaps between kids, they are not "canon". Under the cut stuff. I uh....ramble

Glimmadora:

Harper-20, eldest daughter/child. Born Feb 1st. She/Her, Demi-Bi. Heir to Brightmoon, gets called 'AJ' (Adora Jr) a lot by Glimmer since she looks and acts a lot like Adora. Has shoulder length two toned blonde hair (top half light like She-ra, bottom darker like Adora) with sparkles at the edns, sparkling purple eyes shaped like Adora's, tan skin like Glimmer, glasses, sometimes wears a hearing aid in her right ear. Has cream/purple wing markings on her back that later will turn into feathery cream wings with purple tips.

Sound based powers (cause my brain was like light and sound) but still can create light stuff they just make sounds also. Also can turn invisible. Being unable to control the powers as a toddler, she lost her hearing in her right ear. Everyone in the family knows sign language.

Smart af, witty, as the eldest of all the kids can be protective to a fault, anxious, wants to not fuck up and be a great queen. Will overwork herself and is a perfectionist, though can be forgetful. Is a great shoulder to lean on/be listened to.

Grows to 6' (she got them angella genes (who is alive in this au, not micah) and athletic build like Adora. Named to match the 'er' at Glimmer's name, her sound powers, and the Lyra constellation. Glimmer was the one to have her.

Mira-13, youngest daughter eldest twin. Born July 9th. She/Her, Lesbian, about 5 mins older than Micah. Powerless Princess. Got her great aunt and grandpa's hair color, pale skin (same as Adora), ice blue eyes shaped like Adora's, freckles on face. Usually has hair in ponytail held up by that butterfly pin from princess prom. Also almost always has a red cloak around her. Called 'Mimi'

Born with no magic and not connected to the moonstone (long story short in my au, First Ones cannot use magic without help or it will kill them. Mira got the most FO genes thus she cannot use magic. Whole ass idea i need to explore). Tries to make up for it with fighting skills. While she doesn't show it a lot, she hates the fact she is powerless and will not grow wings either.

Clever, rebellious, loves to explore. Can have a temper to her, wears her heart on her sleeve. Natural born leader. Butts heads with her mothers the most and has run away a few times (once for a very very long time heh). At the end of the day, she doesn't want to be in the shadow of anyone/wants to make her own mark.

Grows to 5'6", chubby build like Glimmer. Named to match the 'ra' in Adora's name and the 'Mi' in Micah's name. OG she was going to have healing powers before I got rid of that so it was also sort for Miracles. 'Mira' is a star, one that is an actual shooting star. Adora was the one to have her

Micah-13, youngest child only son. Born July 9th. He/Him and They/Them. Demi-Boy. Bi, about 5 mins younger than Mira. Has spell powers. Messy, chin length dark purple hair (the same shade as the bottom half of Glimmer's hair), sky blue eyes with sparkles and shaped like Glimmer's, freckles on face. Light tan skin (between his sisters). Has purple wing markings on back and later will get purple feathered wings. Called MJ (Micah Jr) or Mickey

Like his grandfather, great aunt, and Ma before him, he can use spells. Struggles with it but eventually learns he is best at defensive ones. They look up to many of the guards in the castle and wants to be one when he grows up.

Quiet, soft spoken, nervous boy. Def keeps his twin sister from doing something totally stupid. Trusting, sometimes too much, can hold grudges if wronged badly. Tries to see the best in others. Named to honor his grandfather, they want to live up to them and be a great sorcerer

Grows to 5'11, more avg/a bit stocky build. Named to match the 'Mi' with Mira and as Micah is dead in this still (i made them a long time ago) after him. Adora was the one to have them.

Scorpia's Kid

Onca-13, only child of Scorpia. Born May 4th. They/Them. Non-binary Pan. Magicat/Scorpion. OG a scorptra kid but Catra no longer with Scorpia. Has medium length snow white hair, usually in a small pony tail, light brown skin, amber eyes (only iris has the color not the whole eye). Cat fangs and white cat tail. Has those scorpion shouler pads and venom their fangs (not as strong as their mother's) and blue blood. No fur. Called 'Onc' or by Scorpia her 'Lil' Kitling'

Has electrical powers like Scorpia. Venom will only make the part they bite numb, does not fully knock anyone out. Is quick on their feet.

Laid back, quick to adapt, resting bitch face, can be a little lazy, sometimes acts without thinking, and easily distracted. Before growth spurt, they were small and grew a hatred of being seen as always needing help. Just a gentle giant really.

Grows to 6'3, strong build like Scorpia. Named after the latin species name of the Jaguar.

(i so need to work and the following kids more rip)

Bowfuma

Robin-18, eldest son/child of Bow and Perfuma. Born March 20th, He/Him. Gay. Dark brown skin, dark brown, short hair, dark brown eyes. Wears glasses. Has plant powers. Called Robby. Heir to Plumeria.

Plant powers are a WIP kind of, might be like Perfuma or a little dif but is connected to the Runestone. Knows some archery but prefers a crossbow.

Self assured, he knows who he is and what he wants to do, fair-takes both sides of an argument into account. Is the least likely to cause shit. Can be messy and hates when his things are moved. Procrastinator.

Grows to 6', lean build. Named after both Robin Hood, the archer, and the bird

Eliza-16, only daughter. Born Sept 15th, She/Her, Aro/Ace. Dark brown skin, dark brown hair in two braids, dark brown eyes, freckles. Needs glasses but wears contacts. Powers allows her to talk to animals. Called 'Liza'.

Also connected to the runestone, Eliza and talk to animals. She actually started to talk to them before speaking to her parents. When she talks to them, to others it sounds like she is making the animal sounds.

Passionate and loves animals. While her cousin Mira puts her energy into trouble, she puts it into being outside and building things or helping her mom and dad. Hates being stuck inside. Can be whimsical. Loves to be challenged and doesn't back down from stuff, even when maybe she should. Can be a bit dense.

Grows to 5'8", lean build. Named after Eliza Thornberry.

Ash-15, youngest of their siblings. Born Nov 23rd. He/She/They genderfluid. No real label-uses queer. Medium brown skin, medium length, wavy blonde hair, dark brown eyes. Freckles. Has no powers but does not mind it at all.

Unlike his younger cousin, Mira, Ash does not care they do not have powers or are not next in line for the thorn. They are happy to just learn from their father or others. Kind of a jack of all trades.

Has a big heart and a love for all life. Once she is set on something, she sees it through to the end. Very observant of the world and what goes on in it. Can be impatient and doesn’t always take things seriously. Jokes way to often. Free-spirit

Grows to 5'10", thin build like his mom. Named after the type of tree which you could use to make a bow.

Seamista

Newt-18, oldest and only son of Sea Hawk and Mermista. Born Dec 11th, Trans Man He/Him, Pan ace. Dark brown skin, dark brown eyes, short blue hair. Has no runestone powers but can still turn into a merman when in the water.

Newt was next in line for the throne but stepped down, not liking the idea of being a king. He likes to spend time at the beach, swimming, and enjoying being in the sun. Usually keeps his sisters from killing each other.

Hard worker, does not usually slack off, does hate being in the spotlight. Humble. Good at reading emotions. Can lose track of time easily. Has his mother's dry sense of humor. Will faint at the sight of blood

Grows to 5'7", build like Sea Hawk. Named for the salamander that is associate with fire. And with it being an amphibian and transitioning from one stage to another, kind of works there also.

Sandra-15, oldest daughter. Born Mar 7th, She/Her, Pan. Medium brown skin, brown eyes, dark long brown curly hair. Has water based powers (still a WIP whoops). Can turn into a mermaid when in the water.

After her brother stepped down, she is now the heir to her kingdom. Still working a bit on her powers but is connected to the runestone. FIGHTS with her sister all the time.

Very much a girly girl, loves pink, skirts, sparkles, all that jazz. Takes her role as princess seriously. Dutiful and punctual. Hates messes, likes things to be neat. Does not like things randomly being dropped on her.

Grows to 5'8", Mermista's body build. Nickname is Sandy and is called that the most. Named cause yeah....sandy.

Yamuna-12, youngest child/daughter. Born Apr 13th, She/Her, Greyromo/sexual Lesbian. Long blue hair though will dye it many colors, usually orange, light brown skin, brown eyes. Water powers. Cannot fully turn into a mermaid when in the water, just gets webbing and gills.

She can control the temperature of the water around her, freezing it or boiling it at will. Is a great sailor

Pure Sea Hawk child, pretty much his clone. Wild, hyper, will set shit on fire. Takes pride in everything she does. Will blurt out things without thinking and can be pushy. Doesn't like to be told to do things. Zero filter.

Grows to 5'2", small body build. Named after one of the largest rivers in India.

(these guys are VERY WIP so not much to them)

Ada-Entrapta child, on the younger end. Adopted, trans woman, het. Does love robots and what not, helps their mom out a lot. Probably can run on little sleep and still be fine. Name was given to me by my good friend Dorku named after Ada Lovelace, a mathematician and first computer programmer. Very close with Onca

Luka and Felix-Catra's sons, adopted. Both magicats. Catra moves away from everyone and wouldnt really come into focus until much much later when Mira runs off. Luka and Felix idk ages yet but are only a year apart in age. Luka means light (he is one of Catra's lights now) and Felix is a cartoon cat. Would become close friends with Mira later on

(im too lazy to proof lmao and free to ask questions or change stuff up lmao god)

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thatradfailure · 3 years ago

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I’m super interested!!! What’s the lore behind the bioshock mermaids??

There's some more lore for certain species than others, but I can give you an overview that I hope to be somewhat even between them all.

First off, some taxonomy!

....................................|--- [Beau Moqueur] ...............................|---| ...............................| |--- [Red-Spotted Seducer] ..........................|---| ..........................| | |--- [Revolutionary's Serpent] ..........................| |---| .....................|---| |--- [Ocean Prowler] .....................| | .....................| |--- [Shepherd's Shark] Mermadae---| .....................| |--- [Bemähnte Jägerin] .....................|---| ..........................|--- [Alpha Glowfish]

[Edited: Added a ton of dots to make the taxonomy tree easier to read]

True Sirens: [Beau Moqueur; Red-Spotted Seducer] - True Sirens are characterized by their diets consisting of primarily humans, a lack of claws, and their gills on their neck. They tend to be much smaller than False Sirens and Non-Sirens, and found within bodies of fresh water.

False Sirens: [Revolutionary's Serpent; Ocean Prowler] - False Sirens are very similar to True Sirens, but are quite taxonomically and biologically different. Their fish-half bodies appear more like aquatic reptiles from the age of the dinosaurs, which can be attributed to convergent evolution. Much unlike True Sirens, their diets comprise of anything they can get their clawed hands on, be it humans, other mammals, fish, birds, and, in some cases, plants. Their gills are found after their arms, unlike more other mermaids- most commonly on the area that would be equivalent to a human's hips. They vary in size, from medium lengths to small lengths, with few species being smaller than the largest of the True Sirens. They are found both in the ocean, such as Ocean Prowlers, or in bodies of fresh water, like Revolutionary's Serpents.

Non-Sirens: [Shepherd Shark; Bemähnte Jägerin; Alpha Glowfish] - Non-Sirens are the most fish-like of all mermaids, and only found within the vast ocean. They have a variety of shapes and sizes, but are barely human-like, compared to their True- and False-Siren cousins. They often have the longest claws and most diverse hunting methods. Their gills are often found on their necks, but certain species that are closer related to True- and False-Sirens may have their gills appearing after their arms, such as on Shepherd Sharks. Non-Sirens also have the largest species of mermaid- the Alpha Glowfish, which convergently evolved traits that are also found in anglerfish.

Man-made Mermaid: [Jack's Ace] - There is only one species of man-made mermaid, that being the Jack's Ace. There is only one member of this species, being comprised of the DNA from many species of mermaid, including Shepherd Sharks, Beau Moqueurs, Revolutionary's Serpents, and more. And even perhaps some human DNA... He can survive in all types of water, and eats many kinds of food, minus humans. His gills are found on his neck, and he lacks claws, but is rather large compared to True-Sirens.

More Info about each species under the cut because this is getting long lol.

- Alpha Glowfish: + Size: Large [30 feet long, 20,000 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: Possibly hundreds of years. + Intelligence: Being studied. + Location: Deep Ocean, Saltwater. + Based On: Subject Delta. Alpha Glowfish are the largest species of mermaids, and are found deep within the ocean. They exhibit stunning displays of bio-luminescence. Though, instead of using it to catch prey, as they seem to be a filter-feeder species, the males use their beautiful lights to keep offspring nearby. Offspring are rather different to adults, as they are far more social and curious, while the adults become aggressive whenever an animal comes near their child. Often, they are only found with one child, but pairs of twins has been documented.

- Bemähnte Jägerin (Translated from German to Maned Huntress): + Size: Medium [15 feet long, 300 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 75-80 years. + Intelligence: Unclear + Location: Mid to Deep Ocean, Saltwater. + Based On: Brigid Tenenbaum. Bemähnte Jägerin are named for their unique hunting style, and for the first few found specimens being female. For a while, they thought to be sexually dimorphic, but found not to be. Their most stunning trait unique to their species is the vast number of tentacles on their back. When not in use, they curl up to the body, presumable to conserve body heat. When in use, they stretch out to ensnare any fish that may swim by, or through the mane for protection. The fish is then passed to the arms of the Bemähnte Jägerin, where it can be brought to the mouth and eaten.

- Shepherd Shark: + Size: Small [5-6 feet, 190 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: Incredibly varied; 35-90 years. + Intelligence: Moderate. +Location: Tropical climates around Central America, saltwater. + Based On: Booker DeWitt. Shepherd Sharks are named for a rather unique behavior. They are a strictly carnivorous animal, and hunt the predators of schools of a fish that they have taken as their charge. Through this, they often get roughed up, and it is rather rare to see a specimen in the wild with little to no scaring from battles. This also contributes to their vastly varied lifespan. Shepherd Sharks are rather isolated animals, but they mate for life when they do find a mate. Though found in the Non-Siren family of mermaid, they are a link species that have been around for a very long time, and are thought to be the species, or heavily related to the species, that True- and False Sirens evolved from.

- Ocean Prowler: + Size: Medium [10-15 feet, 200-400 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 120-220 years. + Intelligence: High + Location: Artic Circle, Freshwater and Saltwater. + Based On: Lonnie. Ocean Prowlers are closely related to Revolutionary's Serpents. They can be found in various bodies of water, fresh or ocean, near the Artic Circle. Their hair-like tentacle structures are similar to that of human hair, like with all mermaids. However, their uses for this hair-like structure is diverse, from insulating body heat to filtering food from their surrounding waters. This "hair" isn't quite hair, as it's thicker and has blood circulating through it. Along with filter feeding, they will hunt for meat or graze on plants. They have been frequently documented picking up on human languages, with certain specimens eventually conversing in exchange for food. While they do not commonly hunt humans, it's advised against to enter waters where even just on Ocean Prowler is found, as they have been known to take a human down into the depths of the water to feed on, never to be seen again.

- Revolutionary's Serpent: + Size: Large [20 feet long, 5,000 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 100-150 years/ + Intelligence: Moderate-High + Location: Mainly Ireland, Freshwater. + Based On: Atlas. Revolutionary's Serpents used to have another common name, but that was replaced with their current name when Irish revolutionaries would commence large offensive attacks to force the opposing soldiers into waters containing just a few individuals of this species, who would make quick work of the humans. Their diet comprises of many sources of meat, and they often mimic the sounds of their prey to lure them close. Revolutionary Serpents especially pick up greeting words and expressions of distress to lure humans. There was a documented specimen from the 1950's that learned to speak fluent English because of a human that seemed to tame him. This specimen that called himself Atlas gave many insights into the species, and would freely converse with many, though especially the man that taught him to speak.

- Red-Spotted Seducer: + Size: Small [4-5 feet, 200 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 60-70 years + Intelligence: Moderate + Location: Central America, Freshwater. + Based On: Augustus Sinclair. Red-Spotted Seducers are the most common of True-Sirens, though that does mean they're still rather rare. Their voices are said to be suave and charming, instilling a false sense of safety that the animals take advantage of. Like all sirens, they have only been documented in the wild to consume humans, though in captivity, other meats have been imprinted on young. Lacking most ways to hunt, the Red-Spotted Seducers will lure their prey into waters and then drag them down to drown, using their weight to keep the prey pinned down.

- Beau Moqueur (Translated from French to Beautiful Mocker): + Size: Small [3 feet, 80-100 pounds (average adult)] + Lifespan: 35-40 years. + Intelligence: Varied. + Location: Northern North-East United States; France, Freshwater. + Based On: Frank Fontaine. Beau Moqueurs are an invasive species in the US, after someone allowed a few specimens to get loose. They enjoy swimming near ledges that lead into deep water along paths that humans commonly trek, and use their whiskers to detect the vibrations of steps. Like other True- and False-Sirens, they use their voices to lure prey to their doom, but are especially exceptional at copying voices, accents, and languages. They are said to "mock" their previous prey by using their voices, accents, and words to mess with new prey. This, along with having remarkable patterns and vibrant, though dark, colorations that are rather striking, gives them their name.

- Jack's Ace: + Size: Medium [13 feet and 7 inches, 1,697 pounds (one living specimen)] + Lifespan: Unknown. + Intelligence: High + Location: Lab, Freshwater and Saltwater. + Based On: Jack. Jack's Ace, or Jack, was created by a lab team that was given too much freedom to "experiment how [they] please" when commissioned to clone the child of one Andrew Ryan. Instead of making a human, they combined the DNA of various mermaid species. After one look, Ryan refused to take the specimen and commissioned another scientific team, with more rigid rules. Now, the team that has Jack give him intelligence tests to see just what they've created. He is highly intelligent, but cannot speak due to an accident that severely damaged his vocal chords. Jack has never expressed a desire to hunt humans, being well-fed on a primarily fish-based diet. Instead, he seems to express a desire to see the outside world. If you were stuck in one bedroom of a home for your entire life, wouldn't you?

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radley-writes · 4 years ago

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A worldbuilding masterpost for VOLT (as narrated by Vash, allegedly)

Here’s how it went down.

600 years back, the rich and the powerful fucked off to a different solar system after colossally screwing up Earth. Turns out nuclear winter doesn’t cancel out global warming! Who’da thought.

Do we know how the remainder of Earth’s population fare, those we abandoned on our ruined world? No. Do we care? Also no. Nice lot, our ancestors - but I guess we’re no better.

So, what happened next? Well, you’ve read that old-world classic, right? Bunch of posh brats get stuck on an island. What’s it called... Lord of the Flies?

While enough of our ancestors survived to repopulate the human race, it was a bit... Adam-and-Evey, not gonna lie. Most folks avoid tracing their family tree. They don’t want to know how often their roots intersect.

But centuries have passed since the Great Earthen Exodus. Everything’s settled in the Anthelion System - to a degree.

You see, humanity divided itself between hundreds of terrestrial settlements and space stations. We developed new cultures - and with them, new ways to oppress each other; and a hearty dollop of political tension on top.

I guess that brings us to the Cold Wars. The latest resulted in the United Stellar Alliance (USA). That’s what they call themselves, anyway. The rest of us prefer variations on ‘slimy rat bastards’. The Slimy Rat Bastards are a Bloc of the three largest and most powerful planets (or, technically, terraformed moons in orbit around our largest gas giant). They’re trying to implement system-wide peace.

Aww, you might say! How nice! How benevolent.

Except their ‘peace’ looks a lot like control. They’re assuming command of the off-world stations, one after the next. Eradicating cultures, decimating resistance. They send their armed Peacemakers in to stamp out every minor conflict between stations with zero understanding of what fuels the violence. And if we do anything other than smile and thank them... well, that makes us the terrorists, right?

Dig a bit deeper and you find out this isn’t well-meaning ignorance. Political leaders from the USA know exactly what they’re doing. New Enemy + New Conquest = More Votes.

Slimy Rat Bastards. Like I said.

Onto the unique mess of madness that is Anthelion tech. Our System is composed of five gas giants, so metal is scarce. Their moons contain a lot of quartzes, like silica. We can harvest compounds for synthetics like Kevlar, so we have a steady supply of super-strong ceramic blends (handy for making spaceships!) Mostly though, we tap into biological systems for everything from construction to security.

Houses are grown from bone. Information is coded into synthetic DNA. Meat is cloned, illegal brain modifications stop soldiers from feeling pain, and bioweapons are more dangerous (and more prevalent) than ever.

Then you have the Biohackers.

They’re a growing cult, dedicated to venerating and exploring the human body. Their goal: to push ‘evolution’ to its max (I know, I know; I’m not sure they know what ‘evolution’ actually means...)

The most fanatical denominations see this as an excuse for eugenics. But they’re the bad eggs of the bunch. Most biohackers just figure out epic aids for those who want them. Or make funky, fancy dick-upgrades. Or use chromatic implants to turn their hair naturally blue. Or combine bone growth inducers and anti-metastatic drugs to give themselves horns…

You get the idea. Peak humanity. Give us new technology, we’re gonna make some weird-ass shit.

Even our ships and stations use the human body as their template, featuring giant brains and nervous systems instead of AIs. Secure facilities are practically living organisms. Their insides are covered in sensitive skin. They can rapidly grow eyes and ears anywhere (just as creepy and gross as it sounds) and react to all sensory data using their internal musculature.

And if you register as an intruder… the immune system sets to work.

Thankfully, my crew of Vultures are the most virulent little shits around.

#my writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #amwriting #science fiction #scifi #sci-fi #WIP #original fiction #work in progress #worldbuilding #world building #novels #VOLT #radley writes #tag list to follow #when I wake up sldfjghsdfg

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lotusfartstwice · 4 years ago

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Sorry if I'm too late to request but... 8. Easing anxiety reminded me of Metal and Rock Lee, so maybe you wouldn't mind writing some family moment? 👉👈

[A little 'what if' scenerio. What if Lee talked to his son in ep 70 of Boruto. 🙃👍]

“Oh this? It’s just something that cures anxiety.” Metal held up the necklace.

“Anxiety?” Lee frowned before sighing. “Oh, Metal...perhaps you are not ready.” He turned away, starting to walk back home.

“But why?” Metal called, shocked. He had been ready! He was anxious, yes but he was totally ready to learn how to use the 8 inner gates!

His father paused, his back still turned to him. “This technique is a double edged sword. I’ve already explained that though it grants power it also comes with a heavy toll on one’s body.” He glanced back at him finally, eyes stern. “I cannot in good conscience teach this technique unless I am certain that you are ready.”

“I am! I am very ready!” Metal insisted, moving to close the distance between him and his father. “I-I just don’t want to mess up! Please, Papa!”

His father’s eyes softened somewhat. “Oh, Metal.”

“Please! I can-I can do it! Boruto knows how to use shadow clones like Lord Seventh.” He turned his eyes to the ground, trying to ignore the bitterness bubbling. “Inojin knows both techniques from his parents...all my classmates are learning amazing skills. I want to join them! Please!”

Lee stared before his eyes began to water. “Son.”

Metal clutched at his necklace as if the trinket would will away all the unpleasant feelings gathered before him. He ignored his father’s teary gaze. It wasn’t at all how he wanted things to go. He had been hyping himself up for weeks for this training. He remembered the excitement from his father deeming him ready. He too would learn a technique unique to his family! He could be just like his friends! All of that swept away because of what?

Angry tears began to gather in his eyes.

Why couldn’t he just be normal? Why couldn’t he just be calm and not so nervous all the time? It’s not like it consumed him daily! Nope! Just whenever things mattered it crept up and ruined everything! He hated it!

“Metal.”

His father never had this problem! Boruto or any of his classmates never felt physically paralyzed by stupid feelings! They performed and could move about with others watching easily! Everything was so damn easy for them! For once! He wanted the same! He wanted it to be easy! He wanted-

“Metal!” he gasped, feeling his father’s hands on his shoulders. “Son, look at me.”

He took shuddering breaths when he met his father’s eyes only to whimper at the sight of tears running down his face. “Papa?”

“Y-your breath was shallow...I thought,” Lee sighed shakily, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”

“What?” Metal took in more air, eventually steadying out his breathing only to hiccup as his body shuddered. Oh great. He wiped at his eyes. “This is...I’m just…”

“I have not been attentive. I have not been a good father. For that I am so sorry, Metal.” Lee’s voice was thick, he swallowed as he continued, “You keep comparing yourself to others and-and are consumed by thoughts you should not be consumed by.” He wiped at his face. “I did not want that for you. I did not want you to inherit my insecurities.”

Insecurities? His Papa? Since when? His father stood tall! He didn’t know anyone more confident than his father! His father was Rock Lee!

“I don’t understand,” he managed to say.

Lee took a deep breath, took out a handkerchief and began wiping his son’s face. “Come, let’s find a place to sit.”

Once composed the green clad duo found a shaded spot, beneath a tree.

“When I was young I faced many challenges.”

Metal nodded. He knew that much. After all...a ninja without ninjutsu was still uncommon.

“I held bitter feelings but I thought those helped me. Fueled me.” His father let out a sad laugh. “Do not get me wrong. Spite was a big motivator. I wanted to spite everyone who had made fun or doubted me.”

“And you did Papa! You’re a great ninja!”

“Yes but that was not all overnight.” He ruffled Metal’s hair, hand resting there a moment. “I think if I had not met Gai-sensei or my friends I would not have been able to get as far as I did. I owe them so much.” He sighed. “They were lights in an easily dark path and I fear that instead of being a light in your life I have done the opposite.”

“W-what?”

“It cannot be helped. We compare ourselves to others all the time. I always worried you would resent me because I cannot do ninjutsu-”

“I would never!” Metal interrupted, moving to embrace his father. “Never! You are my hero!” he felt his father shudder in his arms which just encouraged him to hug tighter. “My father is the best.”

“But I could have been better.”

Metal paused, looked up. “Better?”

Lee nodded. “From now on I will be better.”

“But-but I am the one who’s-”

“Do not finish that sentence, Metal Lee.”

Metal’s eyes widened.

“I will admit: I wish you were more confident but that is not something one can force. I will stop trying to force such a change but I will not allow you to belittle yourself any longer!”

“W-wha-”

“You are not ready to learn the 8 inner gates right now but you will. My son will not be caught unaware. He will have an arsenal that I never had growing up.” Lee returned the hug. “You are going to surpass me, Metal Lee. I promise you.”

“Papa,” Metal squeaked before letting himself cry.

“There there son...together we will be better!” With that said Lee also fell into sobs.

Metal was still disappointed he didn’t get to learn his father’s technique. His father insisted there were more things to learn. Like other types of taijutsu he had never thought to learn the forms to. They agreed that he would play to his strengths and try out different jutsu from people willing to teach him. He mentioned that Auntie Tenten had a plethora of weapons she’d be all too happy to train him in. It wasn’t the 8 inner gates but it was still a leg up from his friends who all seemed to rely on less than a handful of techniques.

“You will become a jack of all trades! Just you wait!”

Metal smiled.

One day he would match his father’s confidence in him.

One day.

#farty fic #metal lee #rock lee

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superhusbands4ever · 3 years ago

Text

The Chain - Chapter 2/15

Now to check in with The Bad Batch.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Full Work | AO3 Link

Fandom: The Bad Batch (Star Wars)

Characters: Crosshair, Hunter, Howzer, Rex, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, Omega, Various Clones

Relationships: Crosshair & Howzer, Crosshair & Rex, Crosshair & The Bad Batch, Crosshair & Omega, Hunter & Rex, Hunter & Omega

Additional Tags: Crosshair Redemption, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Found Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Violence, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: One year after the events of The Bad Batch, Crosshair struggles to reconcile his choice with the harsh truth of the world around him. He finds enlightenment in the most unlikely of places and realizes he may have made the wrong decision. But is it too late to do something about it?

Two years after the events of The Bad Batch, Rex reluctantly agrees to allow Hunter and his squad to help him rescue a man who's been captured by the Empire, an Imperial double agent who's cover has been blown. What Hunter thought to be a simple extraction ends up having far greater consequences for their squad than he could have ever anticipated.

At any moment the decision you make can change the course of your life forever.

- Tony Robbins

“How much longer until we’re there?”

Hunter turned from the navicomputer to look at the young girl beside him.

“We should be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes, so not much longer,” he said, fiddling with buttons on the computer. “You should go ahead and get your stuff ready for when we land.”

“Okay,” she smiled, bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly. “I can’t wait to see Rex. I want to show him how much better I’ve gotten with my bow.”

Hunter smiled. “I’m sure he’s excited to see you, too. It’s been awhile.”

She nodded, skipping away to her room to gather her things.

She’d grown so much since the day the Batch met her on Kamino two and a half years ago. Sometimes Hunter wondered if maybe Omega did actually have advanced aging with how quickly she’d shot up in so short a time.

Before where the top of her head had only come up to his chest, now she was tall enough to lean her head on his shoulder when standing together (though the others teased that had more to do with his own height than Omega’s.) Her hair was longer too, down to her shoulders in a frizzy mess of blonde curls. Her face had lost some of the baby fat she’d had nearly three years ago, and she was slowly but surely looking less like the awkward child they’d saved from the Empire, and more like the young teen that she was becoming.

She’d settled into her place in their squad much more comfortably now, too. Going on supply runs and various jobs for Cid would be impossible without her — she factored into all of their plans, worked fearlessly and flawlessly with the others, and had become so proficient with her bow it made Hunter’s chest ache when he watched her.

Her confident shooting and various games on missions with Wrecker reminded him so much of their missing family member it hurt. They hadn’t seen nor heard from Crosshair at all in the two years since they’d left him on Kamino. Since he left us, he tried to remind himself. He made his choice.

Their squad worked their hardest to stay under the Empire’s radar since Tipoca City, picking and choosing jobs that weren’t too risky, that didn’t grant too much exposure. Rex was right that day on Ord Mantell — being dead in the eyes of the Empire had its advantages. Especially when that meant the leftover bounties from the Kaminoans on Omega disappeared. From what Tech could glean from Imperial channels, as far as the Empire was concerned, the sole survivor of the destruction of Tipoca City was Commander CT-9904. The longer it stayed that way the better.

They couldn’t figure out why Crosshair would protect them, would lie and tell the Empire that they had perished in the bombardment. They thought maybe it was only a matter of time before they were caught out, before Crosshair’s anger at them got the better of him and he let it slip that they were still out there somewhere in the galaxy. But as a month turned into six, six months turned to a year, and a year turned to two with no Imperial bounties on their heads, they began to accept that maybe this was Crosshair’s last gift to them. A chance to survive the Empire, at least by him not giving them away.

Hunter would be lying if he said that knowledge hadn’t given him hope. That maybe his little brother, who’d slept in his bunk during bad storms as a cadet and gave him Lula to hold when the sensory overload got too bad, was still in there somewhere. That the cold, angry, and jaded man they’d seen on Kamino wasn’t all that was left of their kih’vod.

Nowadays he wasn’t so sure. As far as they knew, Crosshair was still with the Empire. And with each day as the Empire’s list of crimes and atrocities grew, Hunter’s hope for his little brother realizing his mistake and coming home to them dwindled. Maybe Tech was right. Crosshair was severe and unyielding and nothing could change that. Crosshair had made his choice.

This… is who I am.

Maybe this was who Crosshair had been all along, much as it pained him to consider.

The navicomputer beeped and pulled him from his ruminations just as the ship shuttered, dropping out of hyperspace in the Yavin system.

He stood and walked toward the cockpit, watching as the forest moon in front of them grew larger as they grew closer.

“Entering atmo shortly,” Tech announced, pressing buttons on the dash. “We should be landing at the base momentarily.”

“It’ll be good to see Rex again,” Echo said, stretching his arms above his head. “I wonder if he’s found any more clones since we were here last.”

“He seemed optimistic last time we talked,” Hunter agreed. “There were more clones than I expected there already a few months ago.”

“Rex is a proficient and effective leader,” Tech added as he brought the ship down through the clouds, “it is not surprising that he would have decent success on his mission.”

“I just wish we could help him more than doing the occasional supply drop,” Echo said. “It feels wrong to not be helping with the vode. To not be joining the fight.”

“Keeping off of the Empire's radar is more important right now,” Hunter reminded his brother for what felt like the hundredth time, “which we can’t do if we’re running rebel missions to help clones defect from the Empire.”

“I know, I know,” Echo grumbled, crossing his arms petulantly. He sighed. “I just…”

Hunter laid his hand on Echo’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

“I know.”

“Beginning landing sequence now,” Tech called as he flipped the landing gear.

As the ship touched down on the landing pad hidden away from the base in the trees, a loud crash came from the back racks, followed by twin groans.

Hunter squinted back at the pair. “What was that?”

“Nothing!” Omega and Wrecker both shouted back.

Omega stepped out of the hold, bow strapped to her back, fiddling with the strap of her pauldron. She saw Hunter looking at her and smiled brightly and innocently at him, moving to stand in front of Wrecker as he rushed to clean up the knocked over crates. Hunter rolled his eyes.

Soon after the five of them were offloaded and walking through the trees toward the base. It didn’t take long to reach - as they drew closer Hunter felt worry stirring in his chest at the sounds of raised voices, scraping crates, and the general sounds of chaos that, in his experience, indicated something bad was happening.

He sped up a bit, the others following behind him, and he heard them all make their own noises of concern as they drew close enough to the base for the others to hear.

A couple of Regs standing at the entrance of the hangar bay moved forward as if to stop them, but waved them through once Hunter pulled off his helmet.

“Captain’s inside,” he said, nodding to the chaotic scene behind him.

They all walked inside slowly, Omega jumping out of the way of a frantic looking nat-born woman, the upper half of her jumpsuit tied around her waist, waving a datapad threateningly and shouting at someone on top of the freighter in the middle of the room.

“What’s going on here?” Wrecker grumbled as they watched clone and nat-born alike clamber around, gathering supplies and loading them into the freighter.

Hunter’s brow quirked as he watched two men load a crate of explosives while another loaded a crate of ammunition onto the ship.

“It would appear they are prepping for an urgent mission,” Tech said, adjusting his giggles as they watched the chaos.

“We just commed Rex an hour ago and he said everything was fine,” Echo looked toward the group, concerned.

“Hello boys!”

They all turned at the sound of a familiar voice and watched Gregor walk toward them, fully armored, with a wave and a grin on his face.

“And lady,” he added once he was next to them, smiling down at Omega and offering her a high five which she accepted.

“What’s the hustle for, Gregor?”

“Bit of an emergency came up in the last hour or so,” Gregor said with a sigh, face falling into a serious expression as he looked around. “One of Rex’s main operatives sent out a distress signal. Looks like he’s been busted and needs extraction.”

“I didn’t know Rex ran stealth ops,” Hunter said, surprised.

“Oh, he doesn’t. But this one is a bit of a special case,” Gregor explained. “He’s had a man playing double agent in the Empire for about a year now. He’s the guy who’s been helping us save all these clones.”

Glancing around, Hunter couldn’t help but be impressed. He knew Rex had made it his mission to fight the Empire and save all the regs he could, but Hunter hadn’t realized just how many Rex had managed to accumulate even since they were last on base four months ago. There had to be dozens of clones just in the hangar bay. Who knew how many were in the rest of the base.

“One man helped smuggle all these clones out?” Hunter asked, surprised.

“Them and more,” Gregor nodded. “Even helped some get their chips out first.”

“And now the Empire’s figured him out.”

“Aye, vod,” Gregor sighed. “Rex wants to try and extract him as soon as we can. He’s done so much for us… we don’t leave men behind.”

Hunter nodded, very carefully ignoring the way Echo shifted at his back.

“Trooper! Make sure you load a couple emergency field kits and a med scanner into the cargo. I don’t know what sort of condition he’ll be in when we get to him.”

The group turned to watch as Rex rounded the freighter, fully kitted up in his customary 501st blue armor, helmet tucked under his arm. Captain Howzer followed close behind him, similarly decked out in full armor. Rex stood and directed a few of the troopers around before turning to the group huddled to the side of the chaos.

“Evening, Bad Batch,” he greeted as he walked closer, chuckling when Omega ran forward to wrap her arms around the man’s waist.

“Hey there, ‘Meg.”

Howzer nodded respectfully to Hunter and the others.

“What’s going on here, Rex?” Echo said as he stepped around Hunter.

“Emergency extraction,” Rex said simply, accepting the gentle kov’nyn from Echo when the man reached forward. “Bit of a sketchy situation. We need to leave as soon as possible.”

“Heard about your man,” Echo said, “how deep was he?”

“Very deep,” Rex sighed, expression pinched. “Hopefully we can get to him before, well….”

Hunter nodded as Rex trailed off. By this point, they were all familiar with the Empire’s idea of justice against those they felt had wronged them.

“We should head out,” Rex said, nodding at Howzer and Gregor. The two saluted and Gregor slid his helmet on. “It’s a couple hours to Daro and I don’t want to waste any more time.”

Hunter started. “Wait, Daro--?”

“Rex, wait!”

The group turned to watch as a rather gaunt looking clone with a handlebar moustache ran up to the three captains.

“I’d like to request permission to go on this mission, sir,” he said, snapping breathlessly to attention and saluting.

Rex looked at the other clone with concern clear on his face.

‘I don’t know, Boil. You’ve only been here a couple of days, you should be taking time to recover--”

“I understand,” the clone - Boil - said, relaxing. “But I owe it to the Commander to help him. It’s my fault he got caught in the first place.”

“No it wasn’t,” Rex argued, reaching out and clapping Boil on the shoulder. “He knew the risks and it was his decision. Besides, you have no way of knowing--”

“That signal went out within days of getting me out,” Boil said quietly. “I know how high of a risk I was, but he did it anyway. I owe this to him.”

Rex held the other man’s gaze for a long moment before sighing and turning to Howzer.

“I hate to ask,” Rex began apologetically, “I know the two of you are close, but--”

“I’ll stay here,” Howzer agreed, reaching up to pull his helmet off. “Man the fort, as it were.”

He glanced over Rex’s shoulder at Hunter and the others before turning back to the other man.

“Just…” Howzer sighed, face pinched, “bring him back safe, okay?”

“That’s the plan,” Rex assured him as the two braced arms.

He unclipped his bucket from his belt and slid it over his head.

“Sorry to dash on you like this, boys,” Rex said, turning back to Hunter and the rest of their squad. “We’ll have to catch up another time.”

“I understand,” Hunter said, reaching forward to clasp the other clone’s hand. “Good luck on your--”

“We can go too!”

Everyone in the cluster turned to look at Omega, who pushed her way forward between Hunter and Boil to stand next to Rex.

“You can?”

“We can?”

Hunter and Rex glanced at each other before Hunter turned back to Omega.

“Yeah!” Omega insisted, looking imploringly at Hunter. “We’ve been to Daro and broke out Gregor before, you know the facility. You guys are trained in special ops, and if this guy is as important as Gregor says he is then they’re going to need all the help they can get.”

Rex glanced back at Gregor who shrugged.

“Omega,” Hunter sighed, “we can’t-- they’re going into a major Imperial base. If something happens and we get caught, we’ll be in serious trouble. The Empire thinks we’re dead and we need to keep it that way. Besides, Gregor knows the inside of that base better than any of us.”

“But we can help!” Omega argued, frustration clear on her face. “Whoever The Commander is has saved so many people, if our help gives Rex a better chance at saving him, I think we should do it!”

“Omega, we can’t risk--”

“We can’t run from the Empire forever, Hunter,” Omega said softly, grabbing Hunter’s hand.

“Besides, I--” she glanced over to Rex who had yet to speak, before turning and leaning closer to Hunter.

“I have a feeling about this mission,” Omega said quietly, eyes bright as she looked at her brother. “This feels right. I think this is where we’re supposed to be. I can’t explain it, but I… I think we need to do this.”

Hunter sighed, staring down at Omega’s hand on his.

He knew logically that their safety from the Empire wasn’t meant to last. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to hide Omega and his squad from them forever. The Empire certainly wasn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, so running into them again was ultimately inevitable. It was hard enough keeping his squad away already, Echo arguing with him about helping Rex and the rebellion more and more as the Empire grew. Wrecker and Omega were starting to back Echo up whenever he and Hunter argued, so he knew it was only a matter of time.

He just thought they’d have more time than this. Two years was admittedly a long time to continue on without Imperial detection, but Hunter had been hopeful their peace could last a little bit longer. Omega may have been growing up quickly but she was still a kid. Kids shouldn’t need to worry about rebellions and Empires and bounties and missions and death.

Besides, this seemed like an unnecessary risk to Hunter. Whatever feeling Omega had about this mission, Hunter wasn’t getting it. It felt like a waste to risk their tentative peace and safety from the Empire on a rescue mission for some man they didn’t even know. No matter how impressive his work against the Empire was.

But as much as Omega was a bleeding heart about helping those in need, she was also stubborn as hell. A trait she shared with all the clones, really, but it had gotten worse in her time as a member of the Bad Batch.

Hunter looked back into Omega’s wide eyes and felt his resolve crumble. He sighed, glancing back to the rest of the squad. Tech and Wrecker looked impassive as they stared back at Hunter, likely waiting for him to make a decision and follow whatever option he chose. Echo was looking back at him with the same amount of hope, the same determined resolve that Omega had in her eyes and Hunter knew he was losing the battle here.

He sighed tiredly, turning back to Rex.

“Got room in that ship for five more, Captain?”

Rex was frozen in place as he stared back at Hunter. His body language gave no indication as to what he thought of this development, though the incredulous tone he’d used to question Omega indicated that this was not a turn of events he was planning, or even hoping, for. With his helmet on and staring blankly at him, Hunter had a hard time getting a read as to what the other man was thinking.

Rex’s head tilted just slightly to glance briefly at Howzer, who was standing to the side watching the exchange with a strangely intense look in his eyes.

“I don’t know if--”

“Please, Rex?” Omega said, stepping up to the older clone.

Rex shuffled under Omega’s intense gaze, a feeling Hunter was very familiar with. Finally he sighed, dropping his chin to his chest before turning back to Hunter.

“I don’t have time to argue about this— fine,” he said, ignoring Omega’s happy whoop. “But you have to do exactly as I say, okay? No matter what happens.”

If Hunter didn’t know any better he’d say the Captain sounded tense, almost nervous. Hunter nodded and heard the others agree as well.

Rex kept his gaze on Hunter for another moment before shaking his head and turning toward the freighter.

“Let’s go,” he ordered, commanding tone back as he barked orders at the men around them. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

Hunter turned back and nodded at the rest of his squad, who all nodded and slipped their helmets back on their heads as they checked their gear.

“Good luck,” Hunter heard Howzer mutter to Rex, who just shook his head. Something told him they weren’t talking about the mission.

Together they followed Rex, Boil, and Gregor up the ramp of the freighter, Rex and Tech headed for the cockpit. As everyone else got strapped in and the engines on the ship started, Hunter couldn’t help but wonder if he was making the right choice.

Omega may have had a good feeling about this mission, but Hunter had a feeling this mission was going to change everything for them, and he wasn’t sure it was for the better.

#cady writes #the chain #the bad batch #tbb #the bad batch fanfiction #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb tech #tbb echo #tbb wrecker #tbb omega #captain rex #my fic

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meandmyechoes · 3 years ago

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A Quinlan Vos Omnibus Thread

As a round-up, I think only until chapter three, do I really like Comic!Quinlan a bit. My taste for chapter one is quite soured by Villie being annoying and the story wasn't proper resolved. Chapter 2 is very out of place and dated in 2021. Chapter 3 showed the contrast of confronting one's fears with and without Jedi teachings. It's the one chapter that finally has a theme. And you actually see him struggle with the dark in his violence. We finally get psychometry in the spotlight and is shown his burden vs gift. Messy family but still appreciated lore and back story. Wouldn't lose much if one starts at Darkness really.

Twilight:

Villie is not really enjoyable but eh

Pol Secura can eat his own foot. In the meantime Ryloth Council's method for change of leadership is WILD

Not sure how feasible a twilight zone planet is but it does sound really cool

dying grilfriend(-ish) again (he's your cousin?? Is marrying your cousin a common thing in clan vos or do i just have no idea how clans work. Like I know their clan must be A LOT bigger than that but it's EXPLICITLY stated you're cousins and it seems to come out of nowhere?? The fact she has a crush on Quinlan isn't even important to the plot, like she can want to save him just because he is family and she felt guilty for wiping his mind etc)

Dathomir arc:

wtf did i read

the plot was so wild?? A portal engulfing Coruscant???

i don't even know how original the witch concept in this version is - and i don't remember they mentioned the word nightsister

I mean, outside the children's rating of tcw, what's depicted was probably not that far from possibility. But it's still so upsetting to watch, and i can't help feeling a little male fantasy throughout.

Ros Lai's costume lmao

I totally thought she was gonna follow the dead girl tradition lol

Every time Mace calls him Quin uwu

Darkness:

Yesssss go get Aayla back

Evil Aayla okay uwu

ahh Tholme and his tree lady friend (whom I totally remember from wookieepedia because they… are involved)

what actually is happening why are there so many jedi ex machina

zao the blind jedi cook is ok cool

hmm i have a bad feeling when Quin says he can't taste anything. He lost touch with the Force isn't he…

That Krakko guy was SO creepy

Boss battle 👌👌👌

LOL He knows Force Lightning in Legends further upset at Dark Disciple's ending

The Council is (again) so gun-ho on saving him and I appreciate that, a lot.

well if it isn't a reverse grip i spy

sharp teeth Aayla 👌👌👌

Quin yielding at Aayla 👌😭👌 I get why he is Master now

brb crying they just got each other back and quin's exiling himself why (don't see that working out seeing someone was very messed up during the clone war)

#sharp teeth Aayla my beloved #sw comics #sw reading #quinlan vos #star wars #three more arcs to go!#just to /imagine/ the Ventress rabbit hole i'll have to get into…#i was really just. trying to learn to draw him (in the fine suit) but he's always 深仇大恨 face lol #joke's on me his omnibus is only the first half

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arts-and-drafts · 4 years ago

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Unexpected Delivery

(This is the start of the Big Brother AU! I made it in fic form since my hand was out of commission at the time!)

Cleo hummed absently as she finished up the last of the DNA samples for the cloning tubes. It was routine by now; she was nearly halfway done cloning the other hermits for her zoo, the growing duplicates catatonic in their seperate tubes.

Cleo thought there was nothing wrong with her quote "questionable" science, but the other hermits seemed uncomfortable whenever she casually brought it up. Which was fine! She was sure they wouldn't mind that she didn't tell them they were being cloned this time. She'd take great care of them! It'd be a great feature of the zoo.

Cleo poured the last sample into an empty tube, having already confirmed the cells were reproducing as expected. She gave a soft smile as the tube filled with the liquid she liked to call "human fertilizer", which would help the clones grow to their correct proportions in the span of a few weeks.

Cleo removed her protective lab gear, carelessly throwing her gloves on the ground. She wasn't alive, there was no danger of hazardous disposal. And her lab was entirely Joe-proof, so not even he could mess this up. There was nothing left to do now but wait.

Cleo started in stunned panic at the last tube. Oh no. No no no.

Instead of a recognizable hermit taking shape by now, it was a small, bean shaped fetus. Something was very very wrong.

The other clones were nearly finished, already clearly resembling Cleo's friends. But instead of a nearly fully grown adult, there was a developing BABY in the last tube.

Cleo was terrified. She had no idea what could've gone wrong. She swabbed each hermits individual bases EXACTLY so this had no chance of happening. What was she going to do?! It was too small to even see any definitive traits of who the parents could be, but even if there was, what was Cleo going to do? Just walk up to them and hand them their accidental test tube baby, sorry and good luck?

Cleo paused her panicked fidgeting. That could actually work. She did just successfully create a scientific breakthrough, accidental or not. Surely that was something no-one could be mad at. All things considered she should be very proud of herself, actually. How hard could taking care of a kid be anyway? Cleo found it relatively easy; that's why she was a teacher before she died, after all. She loved the little buggers.

Surely it would be fine. Everything would be just fine.

Cleo sat in front of the cloning tube, now an artificial womb. The soft green light from the tube shone on Cleo's thoughtful face, her eyes focused on the small little creation growing in front of her.

What a miraculous turn of events.

Mumbo was awoken in the dead of night by something banging on the door to his hobbit hole.

He blearily looked around the bedroom, unsuccessfully trying to blink away the sleep from his eyes. He saw the light from his son's charging cord gently pulsing in the corner of the room, Grumbot still soundly resting in sleep mode. Rain battered the glass ceiling of the two-room house, the trees along the coast lashing in the monsoon-like winds.

The banging at the door came again, and Grian stirred at Mumbo's side. "Whazzit." Grian mumbled without opening his eyes. Mumbo listened intently at the knocks.

"Zombie." Mumbo realized, Grian groaning in annoyance in response. "You geddit." Grian stated, waving a hand vaguely towards the direction of the door. Mumbo sighed exaggeratedly, resigning himself. "It's raining," he complained, but was met with pointedly fake snores from his husband.

Mumbo shook his head with a small smile, pulling back the blanket to swing his legs over the side of the bed. He yawned and stretched as he stood up, shaking out his hands before grabbing his netherite sword from the bedside chest. Zombies weren't terribly dangerous, but Mumbo doubted he could take one on without serious damage if he was sleepy.

He swung open the door to his hobbit hole, sword poised to strike, but stopped suddenly as he recognized Cleo's face staring back at him, sopping wet and holding a mess of blankets. "I guess I was right," Mumbo stammered with a small laugh, not knowing what else to say. "There was a zombie at my door."

"Very funny." Cleo scoffed, wrinkling her nose to signify no harm done. "What--it's the middle of the night, what are you doing here?" Mumbo asked, sheathing his sword and yawning again.

Cleo opened her mouth, but was instantly cut off by a massive thunderclap. The mess of blankets she was holding suddenly came to life, squirming and bawling its lungs out.

Mumbo stared as Cleo frantically shushed the thing in her arms, gently rocking it back and forth. "Is that a baby?!" Mumbo gasped. "I would love to come in, if you don't mind." Cleo said dryly, purposely ignoring his question.

"O-Oh, of course--get out of this weather, goodness--" Mumbo stuttered, moving aside.

"Hold this." Cleo said distractedly, shoving the screaming bundle of soaked blankets into Mumbo's arms after he shut the door to the raging storm. Cleo shook off the water like a dog, spraying Mumbo and his nice furniture with a shower of droplets. "Ack--Cleo, come on!" Mumbo complained over the wailing of the creature in his arms.

"It's fiiine." Cleo responded, wringing out her hair over the doormat. "You can't just say 'it's fine' whenever you do something," Mumbo muttered, knowing he was fighting a losing battle. He turned his attention to the bundle in his arms as Cleo peeled off her soaked striped socks.

Mumbo pulled back the top covering of the screaming heap, revealing what he'd recognized from the beginning; a small human baby, very clearly newborn.

"Is that a baby?" Mumbo looked up to see Grian, out of bed and staring at the poor thing in Mumbo's arms. "Hi Cleo. Oh hi Grian! I'm doing great, thanks for asking!" Cleo flipped her hair back from her face and glared at Grian, the avian sticking his tongue out at her in return.

"Here--can you get new blankets, Gri? These are soaked." Mumbo asked, unconsciously slipping into Dad Mode. He freed the still crying baby from the soaking bundle, unceremoniously dumping the blankets on the floor.

Cleo moved to sit her wet butt on Mumbo's nice couch as he tried to quiet the baby. "Where--where did it come from? Why the middle of the night?" Mumbo stammered, wordlessly handing the child over to Grian, who had returned with clean warm blankets. The baby was dressed in a plain leather tunic, something Grian quickly replaced for an old nightshirt of Grumbot's. It was still too big, but at least it was dry.

Cleo took a breath, clasping her hands together on her knees. Mumbo and Grian sat on the couch across from her, the baby finally quieting from ear-splitting wails to snuffled fussing. "Please explain, Cleo. Who's is it?" Mumbo pleaded, moving a hand through his hair.

"Well, ah, it came from my lab." Cleo began nervously. "Yes, I have a lab." She interjected at Mumbo's surprised look. "And uh. Well, it's yours."

Grian snapped his head up from the baby, having the same shocked-slash-confused look as Mumbo. "Wh--what? Sorry?" Mumbo stammered. "We're both boys." Grian stated stupidly. "Men. We're men." He corrected, going red.

Cleo rolled her eyes. "It's not a traditional baby, dummies. It's a test tube baby. A--an accidental one." Cleo wrung her hands awkwardly at Mumbo and Grian's faces.

"How do you make an accidental test tube baby, Cleo?!" Mumbo exclaimed. He wasn't mad, just--well, extremely confused. "Why were you making a test tube baby in the first place?!" Grian continued. Cleo held her hands up in surrender. "I--okay--I'm making a hermit zoo exhibit! And I'm cloning you! For the zoo! And uh--well, THAT happened." Cleo explained, gesturing at the small being in Grian's lap. "I individually swabbed your bases, so--I'm not really sure how it happened?" Cleo stuttered.

Mumbo stared. "Cleo. We're married. We live together." Mumbo said, holding up his hand to display the ring Grian had made him.

Cleo stared back. "Oh. Well, that would make sense." She rubbed the back of her neck self consciously. "Cleo, you came to the wedding!" Grian stated incredulously. "You were my groomsmaid!!" Cleo winced. "Right. That's right. I remember now." She said apologetically.

"I--anyways. That baby is a perfect mix of your DNA, so--I mean, technically speaking, I managed to create life without the use of traditional means, so you should be not mad, you should be impressed, really." Cleo rambled.

Mumbo opened his mouth and then closed it again. His redstone brain was truly very impressed, actually, but his parent brain took over. "So you just--gave us a baby? We have a baby now, that's it?" He asked, his voice pitching.

Grian gasped quietly next to Mumbo, pulling his attention from an increasingly nervous Cleo. Grian was staring at the baby, who had finally quieted into idle murmuring. "He has your eyes, Mumby." Grian whispered, his voice catching. Mumbo leaned over, startled to see the same shade of red as his staring back at him. "Oh," Mumbo breathed, a strange feeling coming over him.

Grian held out his finger to the baby and was immediately grasped by the tiny thing's button-sized hand, letting out a coo of endearment and peeking the smallest of smiles. The baby was a naked newborn, hardly a day old, but Mumbo was instantly struck by how much the little smile reminded him of Grian.

Mumbo finally looked away from the baby to Cleo, who brandished a smug grin. Mumbo huffed in annoyance he couldn't bring himself to feel.

"Well...he needs a name." Mumbo reluctantly stated, silently accepting the new member to the family that Cleo had brought them. Cleo grinned wider, undoubtedly coming to the same conclusion that he had.

"Jrum--wait." Grian bit on a laugh. "We can't call him Jrumbot, Grian." Mumbo corrected dryly over Cleo and Grian's giggling. "Okay, how about Junior, then?"

Mumbo wrinkled his nose. "That sounds patronizing. And cliche." He disagreed. Grian hummed in thought while their unnamed son sucked on his finger.

"Okay, how about Juni? That's got a nice ring to it," Grian suggested. Mumbo smiled. "You're just saying that because you can't think of another name than Junior." He teased, letting out a laugh when Grian shoved him in response.

"I like Juni." Cleo piped up, visibly more relaxed after knowing they wouldn't be mad at her.

Mumbo looked down at their new son again, his bright red eyes now curiously swiveling around to everything he could see. He was so young, so small and fragile, and yet Mumbo could already see so much life in him.

"Yeah." Mumbo said, swallowing a sudden lump in his throat. "I like Juni too."

#big brother au #hermitcraft fic #grumbot lives au #meraki post

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thatringboy · 4 years ago

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All of my other TWST HCs

Because my Twisted Wonderland Headcanons have been my most popular posts, here I am giving the mob what they want! An almost complete list of Headcanons I have about every character and house!

This is by far my longest post and it took me three days to type, so I hope you guys get a laugh out of it!

WARNING: THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS ABOUT EACH CHARACTER. IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ONE, PLEASE DON’T ATTACK ME OR OTHERS WHO SUPPORT MY HCS. JUST DON’T BE A DICK.

Heartslabyul

The word “Queen” is gender neutral

Frequently allows students from other houses to study with them

Recently expanded into two buildings dedicated just for dorms to house all of the students

Actually lots of words are gender neutral

Riddle

Does rebellious things with Trey sometimes

Actually struggled with gender for a while because of his mother and responds to all pronouns (he/she/they), but identifies as male

Sometimes uses the label “Androgynous Male”

Is attracted to Trey, but he can’t tell if it’s because of his childhood or because he genuinely likes his Vice DH

Has Tea Time TM with Vil

Abolished gender roles in NRC despite it being an all guys school

During Summer Vacation he wears jean shorts and mint green tank tops with red flip flops

Has a pet crab that is red and named “Queen” despite Riddle not knowing Queen’s gender

Queen is the mascot for Heartslabyul despite being a sea creature

We stan Queen the Crab in this house.

Trey

Enjoys breaking the rules with Riddle, even if it’s not very often

He dyed his hair green as a joke with Cater during his first year, but decided to keep it

Has fallen for Riddle. Hard.

But between his dignity, his position and him not knowing if Riddle likes men, he won’t say anything that could ruin the friendship

Rook found out by accident and actually helps Trey try to work up the courage to ask Riddle out, but Trey always backs down

Invented a type of Tea that soaks clover leaves and it tastes like vanilla mixed with mint

Cater

#SELFIE

Not really a drama queen, but will egg on fights for views

Sometimes his clones will develop different accents and that’s how you tell them apart

Has a pansexual flag in his room

Spends more time partying in Scarabia than in Heartslabyul

Is close friends with Kalim and actually crushed on him for a bit, but got over it once he noticed the way he looks at Jamil

Actually gives good relationship advice

Deuce

Was Bi-Curious during his Pre-NRC days and actually tried to put it behind him like everything else

However, like, everyone at NRC is some flavor of gay

So he gave up on his internalized homophobia and now lives his full authentic life!

Still uses the labels Bi-Curious and Questioning and often goes to Cater for advice

But his buddies love and support him no matter what

Is a huge feminist

Cater fully believes that Deuce likes Ace, but he actually doesn’t

Deuce admits when men are attractive, no matter if it makes them uncomfortable or not

Didn’t go over well with Jack

But the two are cool now

Ace

Probably one of the straightest guys you’ll ever meet besides Rook

Actually learned what the different teas smell like so that he never messed up again

Enjoys his fights with Grim, even if Grim is a little shit

Like seriously Grim is a little flying rat shit turd fuck but that’s just my opinion

Almost never learns from his mistakes and always pays the price

Chaotic Good.

Loves going on adventures with the Prefect and Grim!

Has never gone back to the Mostro Lounge without Jack or the Prefect

Also got really into Mermaid culture and regularly goes back to the Atlantica Memorial Museum to talk with that one guard

Has memorized the script from the Little Mermaid

Can sing You Pour, Unfortunate Soul in a perfect baritone vibrato despite his high voice

Also takes singing lessons from Azul, but only if someone else is in the room with them

Savanaclaw

Throws pool parties regularly

Octavinelle is almost always invited

Magift between the two houses is insane

Leona

Raging Bisexual, need I say more?

Goes to great lengths to find loopholes and just be lazy

Also goes to great lengths to help Ruggie

Hates his brother, but loves Cheka and his sister-in-law

Can’t properly digest seafood, but eats in in front of Azul and the Leech twins just to be a bitch

Is kinda clingy

Even if he doesn’t want to, he goes to all of the Savanaclaw vs Octavinelle vs Pomfiore karaoke battles

Can’t sing for shit, but likes to watch Ruggie and Jack duet and destroy everyone

Constantly reminds Malleus about the time they swapped robes

Actually swaps clothing with Malleus quite often on purpose to see how they feel

Ruggie

A good singer

But kinda self conscious about it??

Also a Raging Bisexual

Play flirts a lot with Leona, even though they don’t like one another like that

Is FtM Transgender, fully transitioned, and wears his scarf to cover the fact that he doesn’t have much chest hair and his scars

Only Leona and Crowley know

Gets a little dysphoria because his voice is still so high and because he’s shorter than everyone in Savanaclaw, but takes one look at Riddle, Lila and Ace and forgets about it

Jack suspects, but the two make a killer duo during karaoke!

Jack

Is straight, but won’t get in your face about it

Actually learned how to become a fast swimmer just to flex on Jade and Floyd

Has memorized almost all of Heartslabyul’s rules just because he didn’t want to be disrespectful

Arm wrestles with Floyd often

Helps out in the Mostro Lounge pretty often when he’s bored

His karaoke skills are out of this world!

Also has memorized the layout for Ramshackle Dorm just so he wouldn’t get lost in there

Tsundere? Maybe.....

Knows something’s different about Ruggie, but can’t figure it out

Respects privacy like crazy

Just a cool guy to be around

Octavinelle

Hosts the karaoke battles

Now pays their employees in the Mostro Lounge

Gives free singing lessons

Azul

Choir Gay TM

Aromantic Homosexual

Constantly has Boss Bitch by Doja Cat in his head

Actually has shit handwriting and it made his Golden Contracts all the much more powerful

His handwriting is beautiful underwater, though

When he’s feeling lazy, Azul transforms into his Merman form and uses his 8 extra arms to do things for him

Has a single picture from his childhood that he has not edited (or tried to edit)

It’s of him, Jade and Floyd graduating Junior High

All three of them are linking arms and smiling brightly

It sits on his nightstand in a golden frame

Gives most of the singing lessons

But doesn’t participate in the karaoke battles

“I’ll join if Leona joins.”

Petty about the karaoke

Jade

Once swapped clothing styles with Floyd for an entire day and was just chaotic towards everyone

Does this more often now just to relieve stress

Only the Prefect could ever tell them apart

Not even Azul knew they had swapped

Is Pansexual and liked Azul during Junior High, but got over it once they started at NRC

Can scare someone so badly that they tell the truth regardless of Jade using his magic

50 students were asked who they’d rather have to fight, 42 of them said “Floyd all the way! No way am I fighting Jade!”

Was actually popular in Junior High, but turned down opportunities to be more popular to spend time with Floyd and Azul

Can cuss in 8 languages

Floyd

When he swapped clothing with Jade, he actually enjoyed being calm and responsible

Loves to do things like that for Jade

Raging Homosexual, need I say more?

His Bakugou impression is on point

There are several videos of him just standing at the end of a dark hallway laughing and whispering “Die, Deku!”

Also really likes Volleyball despite being on the Basketball team

Takes Bean Day a lot farther than it needs to be

Flirts with Riddle a lot, knowing it upsets Trey

But doesn’t know that Trey actually likes Riddle

Has sea related nicknames for everyone

Scarabia

Everyone has to help take care of Snake

Monthly competitions where Kalim hands out free vacations

The competitions involve taking care of Snake

Who is Snake? You’ll see.

Kalim

When he learned what Pansexual was, he went around Scarabia clapping pans together to come out

Cater was the one who explained it to him

Loves to party and flirt with Jamil, but can be serious if needed

Sometimes holds group therapy for his dorm residents

But also PARTY 24/7 IF IT HAS ALCOHOL WE CHUGGIN’ TONIGHT!

PARTY ROCKERS IN THE HOUSE TONIGHT

Named his magic carpet “Jamil Jr.”

Flexes on Azul with Jamil Jr.

Is open about his attraction to Jamil, but also respects Jamil’s personal space

He and Lila sneak out at night to mess with people

Jamil

Has a pet snake that he never named

Just calls the snake “Snake”.

When Jamil’s busy, other residents take turns taking care of Snake

There is an entire chore chart and half of the chores involve Snake

Snake isn’t even the dorm mascot, he’s just Jamil’s pet

Tsundere TM

The only reason he doesn’t accept Kalim’s professions of love is because of his family obligations to serve the Al-Asim family

Takes family and traditions very seriously

Internalized homophobia? Maybe....

Petty as well

Has poured sand into people’s shoes and hidden scorpions in beds

Pomfiore

Usually wins the karaoke battles

Unless Ruggie + Jack join

Make up tips

Vil

I’ve said most of my HCs about him

But I’ll retype them

Wine Mom TM

Musical Theatre Gay TM

Tea Time TM

Fashion Police TM

NRC James Charles

But also respective of people’s sexualities

Has poured water into people’s makeup

Has attempted to give Rook a make over, but Rook is more acrobatic then he looks

Has never actually sung in public

Likes to keep people guessing over his singing voice

Has a cherry apple tree in the school garden that he spends time every day taking care of

Runs NRC’s GSA

Rook

Heterosexual TM

Wears Doc Martens sandals with beige cargo shorts and white polo shirts when not in uniform

Can be seen back-flipping away in this outfit while Vil chases him around the dorm

Is allergic to strawberries

Epel’s bodyguard

Throws rotten fruit at people and calls it a prank

His bangs were by accident

But decided to keep them

Pretends to hunt, but can’t shoot for shit

However does go on fishing trips

Has to have some Heterosexual Hobbies TM

Epel

Is an actual Prince

Like owns land

Everyone in the dorm protects him

Is actually like Honey Senpai

Will put you in your place.

Like fr is a top.

Despite being so small

I don’t know what his sexuality would be

Probably Bisexual

Can lower is voice a lot if needed

Ignihyde

There’s magic inside of the dorm that turns all fire blue, but the fire turns back to normal once outside the dorm

Doesn’t apply to Ortho’s hair, though

Has the most LGBT residents - even more than Pomfiore surprisingly

Actually, not surprising - have you seen Disney’s Hades????

Iida

Cat-sits for Professer Trein

Everyone believes he can set his hair on fire, but he actually can’t

His hair is naturally that fire-y color

Loves to prank people, but never in person

Social Anxiety? Personified.

Before he rebuilt Ortho, Iida had a robot he controlled from his room that went to class for him

The robot was named “Meg”

Now he just uses his screens

Owns a crop top that has a cat face on it that Ortho made for him

Actually wears it a lot, but nobody ever sees below his shoulders on his screens

Oh yeah, also constantly questioning his sexuality

Currently likes guys, but that might just be because he goes to an all-guys school

Ortho

Has tons of cat plushies in his room despite not needing to sleep

Also has a mini library in his room, but he memorized all of the books

Burns things with his hair

Also sews a lot

Spills tea about the dorm residents with Trey, Jamil and Lilia

Has a couple pictures from before he became a robot, but doesn’t remember taking them

Has a bulletin board where he hangs pictures of his friends and family

Actually takes photography classes from Cater

Doesn’t focus on sexuality, so he just goes with “Queer”

People assume he’s scared of water because of his fire hair, but he loves playing in pools

Once cosplayed as Alphonse Elric and Iida was Edward from FML

Has pictures of that as well

Diasomnia

Basically one big family

Even more-so than other dorms like Ignihyde

Has a vault of hard liquor that has been sitting there for centuries

Malleus

Responds to Tsunotaro

Smuggles hard liquor into Scarabia despite not being a drinker

Has a YouTube account where he visits old buildings

Floyd ruined his Ramshackle Dorm video by standing at the end of a hallway and laughing

Can turn into a Dragon

His horns aren’t sensitive

Lilia once hung Christmas lights from them and Malleus didn’t notice for the entire day

Sometimes Lilia jumps and pulls on Malleus’ horns when he’s being dumb

Polysexual, but leans towards men

When he looks surprised by something - he genuinely is surprised, not faking it for someone else

Doesn’t believe in hiding emotions

Is actually like 300 years old, but was frozen for a good amount of it

Also immortal and is stuck at being physically 18

Damn Fairy magic

Oh and he didn’t mind wearing Leona’s ceremonial robes that one time

They were comfy

Enjoys swapping clothes with Leona a lot

Also had a crown made of thorns that is uncomfortable to wear

He burned it, but hasn’t told anyone yet

Takes the term “mom friend” to another level

Just ask Silver

Lilia

Only calls Malleus “old man” to be a prick

Is like 500 years old

Has gone through high school many times

Can undo stitches in people’s clothing without them knowing until their clothing falls apart

Asexual Homoromantic

“Who needs sex when you can be a bitch?” - Lilia Vanrouge, 2020

Is Malleus’ royal advisor

Spills tea like crazy

Has catfished people

Is the cool dad

Sebek

Is a Malleus fanboy???

He named his horse Draco

I don’t have many Headcanons about Sebek actually

Probably drinks tea with Riddle sometimes

Oh and definitely a bottom

Is he Bi? Poly? Pan? No one knows

But he’s a power bottom

Silver

Doesn’t have a last name because he was raised by Lilia and Malleus

Is indebted to Malleus because of this

and Lilia too, but like I said, Lilia is the cool dad

(he is actually indebted to Malleus in canon, but idk if it’s for this reason or not)

just let him have two platonically gay dads that go to school with him

Once in a Diasomnia/Savanaclaw sleepover, he and Leona passed out on each other’s shoulders while Ruggie and Lilia took photos

The photos haven’t been seen in a while, but are still around somewhere

Actually has several photos of him falling asleep with his head in Lilia’s lap

His bed stretches across his entire wall, forming a bench almost

Owns a suit of armor

It has a sword

He can use the sword if needed

Can he just get a nap????

Because of his relationship with Malleus, seeing fireflies calms him down

Is this guy wholesome? Yes.

Is he a Bisexual top? Also yes.

Can’t make everything wholesome

Holy fuck my fingers hate me. If you managed to read this far, I hope you enjoyed my headcanons for Twisted Wonderland students and houses! I don’t know enough about the teachers to make headcanons for each them, but I do have one for the staff:

Sam and Dire Crowley

Married

This is the only reason Sam runs the school store

Sam is not qualified for anything else

But Dire loves him too much to fire him

Forget the wholesomeness between the Dorm heads and their Vices

This is the most wholesome pair

Okay seriously - I need to stop making these headcanons it’s midnight at my house. I’ve spent probably close to 13 hours (give or take with a lot of breaks) writing these down and doing research on characters just so that my headcanons don’t seem completely out of the blue. Also, don’t be afraid to post your own headcanons, even if canon doesn’t always support them. That’s the thing about fictional characters - they’re open to interpretation!

And now to the long list of tags....

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wornoutmouse · 4 years ago

Text

Illumi x Poc Reader

I wrote this cause I don't see any Poc readers with hxh like I do mha😫 Also not sure if I'll make this into a story what do you think?

You weren't the strongest nen user in the world, hell you weren't even in the top 50. So if someone were to ask you why you were currently having dinner with the most feared family in Padokea you would have no choice but to just shrug your shoulders. You glanced around quietly eating your meal as your posture became stiff as a board the longer the silence became. You were not naive to the fact that there were many eyes on you both literally and figuratively.

Sitting across from you was a rather large man with long white hair calmly eating his food. He was almost a mirror image of the older man to his left. Although shorter in stature you could practically taste the power radiating from him.

'This must be Illumi's grandfather' you thought

Next to the old man was a large boy with shiny black hair similar to Illumi's noisily chewing while focusing with a mobile game in his right hand. Someone you deducted to be his sister sat next to him in a black and pink kimono quite similar to the one your were forced to wear before arriving, she ate her food quietly. Finally turning towards the lady of the house who's hard gaze you could feel on your face ever since you arrived.

Clearing your throat you opted for small talk trying to lessen the tension. "Who made dinner, it's delicious." The woman clapped her hands together in a gleeful manor, "Do you really think so? The new butler prepared it but I found it a bit dry so they were promptly fired!" She replied voice getting hard at the word fired. It was not hard to understand that fired was Zoldyck for killed. You stared down incredulously at the rice and beef on the table that was practically oozing in tenderness and moisture. "Oh really?" You respond lightly trying to keep a blank face as the woman snapped her silver spoon in half bellowing a obnoxious, 'Oh dear!'

You swallowed shallowly as you watched a servant immediately present her a new fork. You came to a decided conclusion that this woman was off her rocker. You opened your mouth to speak again before a quick sharp pain spread up your leg piercing through all the layers of your kimono. Tensed you pluck some beef into your mouth at the same time you plucked the object out of your flesh. Based on the thin length leading to a round end you shuddered glacing at Illumi who was now missing one of his needless from his vest. This was obviously a warning to stay quiet.

After the meal Illumi ushered you down the hall and up many stairs before shoving you into a dark room causing you to trip and almost fall. You huff angrily turning to your captor, "What is this about Illumi?" You ask flicking his needle towards his face marveling at how easily he caught it gently between his long slender fingers returning it to his place above his heart. "It was only to get you to stop speaking. It wouldn't have been long before my mother threw a fit and that would be rather annoying." He replied nonchalantly his dark eyes staring into yours before promptly turning and walking towards a linen closet.

You combed your hand through your disheveled afro that you were unable to fix after Illumi had made you open his heavy ass 'front door' you personally called bullshit on that one. But had no choice since you were immediately threatened if you refused.

"If you are unable to open at least one of the doors then you are not worth my time and will be disposed of."

Plopping down on the plush bed you gasp as you sank down a few inches grasping at the silk sheets. "What could I have possibly done to upset your mama? I opened 2 of your stupid doors and I put on this kimono just like you asked!" You asked exasperated as you tugged on the kimono that had clung to your round figure no matter how much you loosened the sash. Illumi closed the closet turning with two stacks of purple linen in his hands perfectly folded. "That is true. Infact she was estatic at your efforts at first. But that all changed of course when I told her that I was open to marrying you."

Your heart sunk into your stomach like your body in the bed at those words. You shuttered at the thought of marrying this deranged man and bearing his fish eyed offspring. His monotone voice and blank face only fueled your reasoning as he spoke about marriage as though he was shopping for bread. "What the hell do you mean marriage!?" The only reaction you received was a show blink, "You managed to intrigue me, anyone capable of that needs to be monitored closely and what better way to do that than marriage?" You roll your eyes and gestured universally, "How about, I don't know, literally ANYTHING! Be roommates you know, like normal people!" Illumi looked almost as though he was pondering on the idea before shaking his head

"No, besides it's about time I've settled down don't you think." You dead panned absolutely positive that your ideas of settling down where vastly different. "I'm sure your mother does not approve of you marrying someone you just met." Illumi's mouth twitched up hinting at a smirk, "No, things like that are common around here, her problem is about how weak you are." He paused for a moment waking towards making you mean away as he sets his long arms on either side of you, caging you between the bed and himself examining your features before continuing, "And she's not too keen on mixing different backgrounds into our pure Japanese heritage." Your blink slowly trying to calm your heart beat at the proximity before scoffing looking towards the window to your left so you wouldn't cry in fear, "Offend me why don't you?"

He leaned away plopping one of the purple stacks into your lap, "Let's go shower." He says heading to the bathroom stopping when he realized you weren't following. "Well, come along." You looked at him like he'd lost his damn mind, which he had apparently. "You got me messed up if you think I'm getting in the shower with you Playboy continue your journey and leave me alone." You say rolling into your side facing away from him in order for you not to go back on your choice in fear only to relax at the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing.

FLASHBACK

You gasped in exhaustion as you ran as far as your legs would take you. Flying through the dense forest trying to keep a close ear on the sounds of twigs snapping at your right. 'I'm totally fucked' you thought as the sound easily caught up to you.

You didn't understand how you got into this situation. You were simply visiting your uncle at his new estate. You knew he got his wealth in greasy ways but not enough to put a hit on himself.

You propel yourself off of a branch trying to get higher into the trees. You wondered if your uncle was still alive. He was a more advanced nen user so if he doesn't survive you surely won't. You pushed yourself harder through the trees thinking back to seconds before the ambush.

Your uncle was giving you a saphire necklace that he had aquired through questionable means. The only thing that gave away something was wrong was the fact that the estate was completely silent with no sound of his rowdy partners celebrating through booze and marijuana. At that realization, he ushered you though the bedroom window just as his room door slammed open. All you saw before you jumped was long ebony hair and dull black eyes. You landed on the ground in a awkward way, spraining your ankle but wasted no time pushing through the pain; breifly recalling what your mother said when she sent you here.

"You just learned nen basics so you're not adept to protecting yourself. Your uncle Ricky messes around with dirty folk so if he tells you to run then run baby and don't look back."

So here you were, flying through the air just 2 months after your first nen training, putting everything you knew to the test. After long last, you burst through the trees finally able to see your surroundings illuminated with the moonlight.

You began bounding across the tops before something sharp stabbed through your sprained tendon, causing you to fall far and hard back into the forest.

You groaned, sitting up and blinking rapidly, you try to adjust your eyes to the change in scenery. Standing up shakily, you take a step forward before you feel a large weight land on your back, pushing you face down into dirt and dried leaves.

"There is no use resisting child. Stay still and I will consider making your death quick~" Came a silky voice above you. "Such wasted potential~" Before you could respond, everything went black signalling that your clone had met it's demise. You blinked yourself bringing your consiousness back into your real body. "Wow that nen trick really did work, maybe that old lady wasn't crazy." You mutter wincing at the ghost of pain you felt drumming through your ankle. Once you casted your nen on a pile of twigs, you quickly ran in the opposite direction. Only watching from it's own eyes so the movements would seem fluid.

"I should hurry it won't be long till they realise they were tricked."

You quickly ran into a small tourist town and headed to the nearest bar so you could ease your pain. Sliding onto the stool you wave over the bar keep. "A shot of vodka for the road!" You call out, already grimacing at the taste you'd have to force yourself through. The bartender looked at you and smirked before sliding you a root beer float.

You stared at the ice cream floating in your glass before looking at him like he was crazy. "Sorry sweety but your babysitter said to give you something light."

He gestures behind you, and you turn to look choking sightly as breath catches in your throat.

Right behind you were familiar dull black eyes pearing down at you. This man was tall, at least 6 feet plus with pale white skin, and long hair. He was dressed like a Christmas tree with gold bulbs adorning his green top. "Can I help you?" You ask trying to feign innocence. The man stiffly sat down in the stool next to you ignoring you for the time being. "Barkeep please give me what you gave her." He said point to your float. Once he received his, he looked at it for a while as the ice cream sunk into the root beer. The silence was terrifying but you found yourself getting lost in his sharp features and his calculating hands as they wrapped around the tall glass.

"How did you do your little trick?" He asked pulling you out of your trance. You blink slowly, "What trick?" You ask tensing as his head turns towards you looking into your eyes almost daring you to lie

"I told my colleague to rid the area of any strays in the area. He informed me that he was persueing the 'cute Cocoa girl with the curly hair." He faced his drink swiping the dripping cream and slowly licking it off his finger never breaking eye contact. "So you can imagine my surprise when I find my self persueing the same girl. So I want to know how you did it."

You fold your arms and began drinking your float indignant to the situation. "Sorry, family secret, I can't tell you." You suddenly feel something thin yet sharp pressing into yout neck as a sultry voice chuckled from behind you. "How sneaky of you my dear, tricking me into following a ploy."

The ebony haired man watched your face looking for a reaction and you looked back the best you could without provoking your neck being slit. With a sigh the man drunk some of his float licking the ice cream from his lips, "Stand down Hisoka, we don't want a repeat of last time." And you could only imagine what that meant. There was a chuckle, "Oh Illumi my dear your no fun~" the mystery person replied. But the force was removed from your neck.

#illumi #hxh #illumi zoldyck #x reader #poc reader #hisoka

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