#week 4

[99aceace]

@summer-of-bad-batch

Week 4: bonus prompt: "Do you know what today is?"

Is it by any chance Crosshair’s decanting day? Or maybe escape from Tantiss anniversary? Life day? Take a guess.

But whatever the occasion, Omega has a gift for Crosshair.

[baeurrow]

keep them coming please thank you

[katelyn102]

Brothers🧡

[izushiemi]

Miko (巫女) & Saiō (斎王)

[weekly-watchdogs]

Watchdogs running from Captain Tim

#4 CAPTAIN TIM!

[weeklyenoch]

[glittter-vamp]

“One at a time”

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

Can You Hear Me?

Summer of Bad Batch 2025 | Week 4 | Prompt: "Can you hear me?"

Summary: Alone on Tantiss, Omega tries talking to one of her brothers. POV: Omega Rating: G (Word Count: 2561)

Read on Ao3

“Tech? Can you... can you hear me?”

She lays flat on her back on the hard cot, staring up at the checkered shadows the moonlight from the barred window casts on the dark ceiling overhead. Her eyes burn with unshed tears; her whispered voice, the only sound in the heavy silence, echoes oddly in her ears; yet she presses on, speaking into the lonely darkness. 

“I... I know this is probably silly, Hunter says you're... Well, he says we lost you, but that's just a nice way of saying you're… dead, and...”

She pauses, then takes a deep breath and carries on.

“Well, some people say death is the end, and other people say it isn't, and I don't know what to believe, come to think of it I don't know what you believed about it either, I never asked and now I can't...”

Her voice had started shaking, tears now forming but, far from soothing, instead making her eyes burn all the more; she swallows hard to steady herself.

“Anyway, I like to think your, um, spirit or soul or whatever is out there somewhere, that you can hear me somehow. Because no one else can hear me. Hunter and Wrecker and Echo are too far away, and I... I don't want to be here.”

The admission makes the first tears fall.

“I tried to save Hunter and Wrecker like you would... did... but I… I think I just made things worse, and now I'm here and I don’t know where they are and you...”

The tears are falling freely now, her voice clogging in her throat, but she presses on, pleading now.

“Please, Tech, can you hear me? I don't want you to be dead, I can't believe you're dead, but... if you are, maybe you can hear me.” 

***

She stares out the bar-crossed window, looking at the dark, vast forest beyond, the stars and moonlight doing their best to brighten the otherwise dismal view.

“I finally found where Crosshair is, where his cell is.”

She hears a distant roar coming from the forest, a wild animal somewhere in the far distance. She tilts her head, momentarily distracted, wondering if she can recognize… She shakes her head. She knows none of the wildlife here. She doesn’t even know where here is.

“They’re strict with me here, but I’m not confined the same way the other clones are. I think I can visit Crosshair. I think… I think I can talk to him. Maybe…”

She bites her lip for a moment, thinking.

“Maybe if I talk to him, maybe I can convince him to come with me when I find a way to escape….”

She nods to herself and takes a deep breath, filling herself with purpose, filling herself with resolve.

“I’m going to do it, Tech. I’m going to finish the mission. You found Crosshair first, and you wanted to save him. I’ll save him, Tech. I’m not going to give up. I’ll find a way.”

***

She sits on the edge of her bed, barely noticing the tap drip, drip, dripping, incessantly dripping. Her elbows rest on her knees, her head rests in her hands. The room – her cell – is darker than usual tonight, given the clouds partially obscuring the moon. But the darkness doesn’t matter; her eyes are closed anyway, closed in a vain attempt to ward off the despair.

“I told Crosshair what you did, Tech.”

Her voice is so low, she almost can’t even hear herself.

“How you saved us, how you...”

She becomes still and silent in the shadows, so still and silent she practically becomes a shadow herself. It is a long time before she speaks again.

“Anyway, he got kind of angry and then he just... shut down. I don't know if he wants to see me again anytime soon.”

Her voice has gotten quieter and quieter.

“But I don't want to give up. What would you do, Tech? Would you give Crosshair some space? Would you keep visiting him?”

Silence. Always. She talks. No one listens. Always silence. She looks up, stares unseeingly at the locked door in front of her. Anger starts to build, anger and frustration and disappointment and agitation, anger with no outlet.  

“I want to help Crosshair, but I can’t do anything if he won’t let me help. He’s… he doesn’t want me around, he doesn’t want a sister. I don’t even know why I’m bothering anymore. Hunter and Wrecker and Echo are the only ones who might be able to get through to him, and they aren’t here.”

Her lips press into a thin line before she lets the bitter words spill out.

“You could get through to him, Tech, and you aren’t here. Crosshair hates me, and I’m stuck here all alone, and you’re…”

The hopelessness, the futility of everything she has done, the weight of failure drops on her, crushing her, crushing her heart, the pressure building until a flood of tears bursts forth in painful sobs, words choking out of her, barely intelligible. 

“Why, Tech? Why did you have to do it? Didn't you know how much it would hurt us? We got off Eriadu, but I don’t even know if they’re alive. I’m alive, but every moment without you hurts so much, I can't... I can't stand it!” 

She doesn’t know why she’s still talking. Much as she wants to hope the Jedi and the Wookiees and so many others were right to believe in some form of life after death, she knows they’re mistaken. She’s mistaken. All she’s doing is talking into the void. Tech can’t hear her…

She gasps and jumps, startled, looking over her shoulder so quickly she almost strains her neck. Nothing there but the wall, her prison – of course nothing is there… But she could have sworn that just for a second, just for the briefest moment, she had felt a hand resting gently on her shoulder, just like Tech used to do…

And for some reason, Tech’s words echo through her mind, as clearly as if he was standing right next to her, speaking them again.

We have not always agreed with Crosshair, but he is our brother. We do not leave our own behind.

She sits there, staring wide-eyed at the nothingness behind her, flood of tears abruptly halted with the moisture now drying on her face as she still sits there, hardly daring to breathe.

She doesn’t want to break the stillness.

She doesn’t want him to leave.

But she has to be sure.

“You would keep trying, wouldn’t you?”

An odd sensation of warmth fills her, spreading from her heart outward. Tears fall again, but these leave her comforted rather than distressed.

It is a long, long time before she speaks again; but now she sits up straight, wiping the last of the tears from her face, determination fueling the promise she speaks – not speaking into the empty void, but speaking to the living universe.

“I'm... I'm going to keep fighting, Tech. I'm going to keep living, that's what you wanted us all to do. I'm going to fight to save Crosshair, like you wanted us to do. I’m going to fight to save us from the Empire, like you would do. You wouldn't give up, so I'm not going to give up either. You wouldn't.”

Her wrestle with her emotions has left her exhausted, and she lays down on the bed to seek what rest she can. She closes her eyes, but she has one more thing to say.

“I’m going to keep living, Tech. I’m going to live the way you would. Maybe that way, a part of you can keep living too.”

***

She lays on the cushions, staring at the red-tinted viewport of the gunner’s mount, still hardly believing that she is actually here.

Here. On the Marauder. Home. With her brothers.

Well, not all of them. It will be a few days before Echo can come back to see her. And Tech…

The familiar pang of grief wells up again. She can’t see Tech, will never see Tech again.

But she can still talk to him.

She hugs Lula a little closer, whispering into the worn fabric of the tooka doll, whispering softly so as not to disturb her other brothers.

“You saved us, Tech. Again. Crosshair and I escaped. I was able to follow the plans and fly two different ships with no problems because of you, because of all your training. You were so strict about my studies, and now I know why. And it worked. It’s just like you said – we figured out a solution, as we always do.”

She pauses, the memory of the past few days replaying through her mind.

“Okay, there were some problems with the ships, but it had nothing to do with my flying. Or my landings. It was all because of the other ships shooting.  But you taught me what to do, and I was able to do it.”

She is quiet for a few minutes, thinking of what it was like to fly. Everything had happened so fast, it was like she had been on autopilot; but once she and Crosshair had gotten away from Tantiss and Lau, once they were away from the Empire and the shooting had stopped, underneath all the adrenaline and uncertainty and anxious anticipation while planning out what to do next, there had been a sort of… exhilaration… realizing she was actually flying.  

“It was… nice. It was nice to fly again, Tech. I LOVED learning to fly with you, you were the best teacher. And even this time it was almost like… Like you were right there beside me.”

Suddenly she finds she can’t hold in a giggle.

“I would say I could hear you, too, but I’m pretty sure the panicked noises were just Crosshair.”

She giggles again – she can vividly picture Tech’s distinct lack of amusement at her remark, him straightening his goggles as he reminds her yet again of his impressive talent for keeping a level head in a crisis.  

But her own mention of Crosshair now makes her sigh.

“Crosshair’s here too, but… Well, I don’t think he really wants to be here. Hunter and Wrecker – they’re doing their best, Crosshair is doing his best, but… I’m worried Crosshair will leave the first chance he gets. I don't think he feels like he's home yet.”

She sighs again, thinking about what to say, trying to describe the situation.

“I don't really know what you all were like together before the war ended and everything changed. But I... well, I don't know, like I said. Wrecker is a lot more quiet, and Hunter seems like he wants to say a lot of things but he won't say anything, like he’s trying to give Crosshair some space but I think Crosshair thinks Hunter’s just mad at him. And Crosshair... I just know he feels out of place. It's like something is missing, for him. Like he's looking for...”

She pauses again, sighs again, closes her eyes.

“You. Like he’s looking for you.”

She keeps her eyes closed, takes a deep breath against the grief that builds again in her chest.  

“I think we’re all still looking for you, Tech. Even me. Even though I saw you��� fall…”

She hates thinking about it. She hates thinking about that day. She rushes on, trying not to think about it.

“… I know you’re gone, but then I… I forgot. Just for a minute. And I was expecting you to come out with Hunter and Wrecker and greet us.”

No tears, not right now; just a dull ache that lingers.

“I think the same thing happened to Crosshair. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to stay, why he feels like he doesn’t belong. Everything's so different. Because… you're not here.”

She opens her eyes again, sees Lula, sees her room, sees the red-tinted viewport, and feels both happy and sad at the same time.  

“I’m so happy to be back, Tech. Is that okay? Is it okay that I’m happy? I think… I know you want us to be happy. But it’s… hard… because you’re not here. I can talk to you, but you aren’t here. And you won’t ever be again.”

She swallows.

“But I promise, I’m going to make sure Crosshair stays. I’m not giving up on him. I’m not leaving him behind. He’s part of our family, he just needs… time, I think. Time to remember. Time to settle in.”

She nods to herself.

“I’m going to finish the mission, Tech. I’ll find a way.”  

***

She sits in the crew’s quarters on Echo’s ship, smiling as she listens to her brothers talking quietly together on the flight deck.

"We did it, Tech. Crosshair’s back – really back. He and Hunter are talking now, and I know he’s going to stay.”

Her smile becomes a little wry.

“You probably would have found the ice wyrm fascinating. Even though it tried to kill us. But it did help get Hunter and Crosshair talking again without punching each other. So…”

She pauses, furrows her brow as a new idea comes to her.

“You didn’t send the ice wyrm, did you?”

She giggles a little at the thought.

“Anyway, we’re all okay. And Crosshair’s okay. He still misses you, I know he does even though he won’t talk about it... well, I know because he won’t talk about it.”

The void of bereavement opens up again. She’s used to it now – kind of. Not really. It still hurts, this gaping black hole of loss, still so empty, never can be filled.

“We all miss you, so much. That will never change. Some days are better but… We’ll always miss you. I’ll always wish you were here.”

She shakes her head a little, looking down at her hands, idly turning them over so they are palms up in her lap. And she smiles again, though the smile is sad.

“Maybe... I know this is silly, but... well, I still like to think you can hear me. If you are out there, Tech, if you know what I’ve been telling you about Crosshair…”

Her voice catches in her throat again; she takes a halting breath and continues.

“If you are listening, I hope you can hear this. We couldn’t have done it without you, Tech. Because of you, Crosshair is home." 

An odd sensation of warmth fills her, spreading from her heart outward. She smiles again, without realizing she’s doing so.

“We completed the mission. Crosshair is home.”

**********

It should be impossible. He is frozen in time, trapped in cryostasis with no way to free himself and no knowledge of himself or his surroundings anyway, tissues preserved but all biological functioning currently suspended until the Empire can figure out what to do with a defective clone like him. Even if he wasn't in cryostasis, he is hundreds of lightyears away from Omega without a commlink, and can't possibly hear anything, can’t possibly hear his sister when she tells him that their long-lost brother has finally come home.

And yet, hear her he does; he hears that Crosshair is home.

And though it should be impossible, in the cold dark nothingness of the cryochamber, alone and unobserved and unheeded by his captors, for the briefest of moments – Tech smiles.

@summer-of-bad-batch

[xx-completely-in-ur-car-xx-blog]

Week 4: Old Prompt (Fave S1 Episode)

I've been putting this one off— partly because I'm busy working on a couple things for future prompts (that I hope you all love), but mainly cause I really don't know which one to pick! I will, however, avoid being a coward & say I always vibed with The Brewed— it had a fun gimmick, and it's just so unapologetically stupid of an idea that I can't help but love it.

Still, in the spirit of loving them all:

Which poster is your fave?

[spidervman]

QB1 looking mighty fine on this wednesday evening (afternoon ig if you’re in california)

[99aceace]

@summer-of-bad-batch

Week 4. Main prompt: bioiluminescence

[runninriot]

Loud Like Love

belated entry for @steddiesmuttyseptember week 4

prompts: loud, vibrator | rated E | wc: 2.832 | tags: pre steddie, auralism, voyeurism, masturbation, gay Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson thinks he's straight, self-discovery, implied friends to lovers | complete fic on ao3

Moving in with Steve had definitely been one of his better life choices, maybe even the best. He doesn’t exactly remember when and how they’ve become so close but somehow they just... clicked, formed a friendship that goes beyond anything Eddie had ever experienced before. Eddie likes having Steve around, finds comfort in his presence.

They shouldn’t work the way they do, considering how very different they are. But they do.

Steve, despite his love for all things Eddie hates (like Sports and Pop music, ugh. Really, dude?) is like, the coolest guy he knows. He’s kind and funny, always has his back and never gets mad at him even if Eddie’s being an annoying little shit. He’s his perfect counterpart, the glamour to his grunge.

He’s his best friend and Eddie wouldn’t want to give this friendship up for anything in the world. He loves him. Strictly non-romantically of course, he’s not that kind of guy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not for him. He leaves that to Steve, who never made a big thing out of it, told Eddie right away the day they met that he – quote – loves dicks and if Eddie had a problem with that, he could fuck right off.

Eddie did not have a problem with that, not at all. Still, he remembers how baffled he was. Not so much because of the confession itself but rather because of how bold Steve was. Eddie envies how comfortable he is in his own skin, how open and unapologetically himself. Steve’s proud of who he is, just like he should be, and sometimes Eddie wishes he had just an ounce of his friend’s confidence.

Shame and self-consciousness are words that do not exist in Steve Harrington’s vocabulary. It’s something Eddie learned quite quickly after moving in with him.

Because while Steve hasn’t had much luck in the past when it came to long lasting relationships, he sure as hell has a very active sex life - contrary to Eddie who has neither one nor the other, who’s always on the lookout but never quite interested enough to make even a half-hearted move on the girls he meets because somehow, none of them quite live up to his expectations. There’s always something missing.

Steve doesn’t seem to have that problem, or maybe he’s just not very picky. That’s why Eddie has become used to walking in on a random stranger hanging off Steve’s lips for one last kiss before he kicks them out after he’s had his fill, never to be seen again.

It’s... okay. Eddie doesn’t mind, not really. Is he jealous? Sure, he won’t deny that. He hasn’t been touched or kissed or even casually fucked in forever, so forgive him for maybe, sometimes, staring a little too longingly whenever he catches sight of Steve in the arms of another man – hair tousled, dressed in only his boxers, all fucked-out and tired from not getting any sleep – when he sees his nightly visitor off the next morning.

It makes him yearn for something like that – not the ‘kissing a dude’ part, obviously. But the idea of having another person’s body pressed close to his own makes him turn into a begrudging, green-eyed monster.

Don’t get him wrong, Eddie is happy for Steve, but recently it's become a bit of a problem because-

Steve is loud.

    Fuck, he’s loud. Even with their bedrooms separated by a narrow hallway Eddie can hear him scream and moan and whimper through two closed doors whenever he- well.

They’ve never talked about it and Eddie never complained, never felt the need to bring it up, simply plugged his ears with headphones whenever he woke up to those unmistakable noises, blasting music until he fell back asleep.

But lately, his ability to ignore whatever is going on in the other room has been dwindling.

His involuntary celibacy must really be taking its toll on his sanity. What other explanation could there be for the fact that listening to Steve yell out the words ‘Fuck me! Harder! Right there! Oh god, yes!’ night after night after night has become something close to actual, physical torture?

    Shit, it’s even hard to admit it to himself but godfuckingdamnit, it makes Eddie want to do nasty things. Bad things. Things he should not want to do to the sound of his best friend’s moaning.

The urge to slip a hand into his boxers and fuck his own fist to these noises has become almost unbearable. And what’s even worse, so morally wrong, is the fact that for a couple of weeks now, every time Steve brings home another date, Eddie lies awake and waits. He waits and he listens, fully intentional, unable to stop himself from acting like a fucking creep.

It horrifies him, makes Eddie want to kick himself almost as much as he wants to touch himself.

He knows it’s wrong.

Eddie should probably talk to Steve, tell him to tune it down because he feels like a ticking time bomb about to explode any moment, too close to losing himself, to cross a line he cannot bear to cross.

    Oh god, he needs to get fucked like yesterday. Eddie should go out and find a girl to ride him until his dick falls off, or at least for long enough to satisfy whatever horny Devil has taken a hold on him.

This has to end.

continue reading here

[baeurrow]

praying rn cause if we lose tomorrow i’ll be loosing it all

[snips-fics]

It would feel like rebirth, to see yourself so glowing

@summer-of-bad-batch Week 4 | Main Prompt: "Bioluminescence"

Title from "Glowing" by The Oh Hellos

Cross-posted on Ao3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66946216

Rated: G | no romantic relationships | Words : 723

“Did you know that humans are slightly bioluminescent?”

The question came out of the blue, but then again, many of Tech’s comments did. Omega liked that about him; she never knew when she would learn something. It was just the two of them, plus Echo, waiting in the Marauder’s cockpit in amicable silence while Hunter and Wrecker dealt with a concerningly curious spaceport employee outside.

Echo raised his eyebrows. “You’re kidding.”

“Actually, I am not. It’s too faint for our eyes to detect, but as a byproduct of cellular respiration, we emit biophotons that can be perceived as light. So, technically, even in the darkest place we could possibly go, we’re never entirely without light, whether we can see it or not. We carry it with us as long as we are alive.”

Echo snorted. “Are we supposed to take that as a metaphor?”

Tech frowned. “It’s not poetry. It’s science.”

“Could they be the same thing, sometimes?” Omega asked.

“Practically speaking, definitely not.” He adjusted his goggles and regarded her curious expression, then conceded, “Philosophically, however, I suppose one could argue that they are so.”

Omega wiggled her fingers, trying to imagine them shimmering gold.

◇◇◇◇◇◇

Omega shouldn’t have tried to run.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time; the ship had escape pods, and they were supposedly only one level down. She could use them, just like how she’d escaped that old Kaminoan facility. All she had to do was run when nobody was looking.

She hadn’t gotten far. Of course she hadn’t.

The doctor himself had dragged her to the brig, his gloved hand tight on her arm even as his steps were measured and unhurried.

“Escape is impossible here, and it will be even more so once we reach Tantiss,” he warned in a soft voice that made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. He tipped his chin up, studying her like a specimen under glass. “I have a very special purpose for you, so you must behave.”

Omega bit his finger hard enough to leave a mark even through the glove.

He winced, but the expression turned calm and hard in an instant. “Very well. Let’s have a lesson.” He tossed her into the brig and shut the door.

She barely had time to get her bearings in the cramped cell before the light shut off, plunging her into total darkness.

If she hadn’t felt trapped before, she was now. She wasn’t used to this sort of inky dark; even at night on the Marauder, the cabin was dully illuminated by a myriad of buttons and tiny lights from the ship’s various computer systems. Even in space or on unpopulated planets, pinprick stars blinked back at her from the sky. Even in that cavern with Tech, there had been light underground.

This darkness was total, unnatural. It wrapped around her like tentacles. Like creatures crawling all over her, smothering her, dark and silent.

The gravity of it all stifled her breath. Tech was dead. Her family was gone. And she was trapped, trapped in a box in the depths of a ship hurtling to parts unknown through hyperspace. Her brothers would not find her.

There was no light, no light, no light.

Not like the Marauder, not like the night sky, not like the cavern.

This darkness would eat her alive.

The cavern.

Tech.

Did you know that humans are slightly bioluminescent? Even in the darkest place we could possibly go, we’re never entirely without light.

I’m glowing, she told herself. I can't see it, but I'm emitting biophotons. I'm making light. And then aloud, shouting to pierce the suffocating silence of her cell, “Hey! I’m glowing! It’s not all dark in here! I’m glowing!”

Her voice echoed in the tiny cell, and she wondered if the doctor could hear her screaming words that didn’t make any sense. She hoped he did. He wanted her to be hopeless, but he couldn’t take her light.

We carry it with us as long as we are alive.

Omega didn’t know where she was going or what would become of her. She was drowning in pitch black, all alone. But as long as she was breathing, the shadows could never consume her, not completely.

Even the faintest glimmer of light is the opposite of total darkness.

[ilovejustinherbert]

He's so cute!

[bittershroom]