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stra-tek · 1 year

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Random spoilerific reasons to read Star Trek novels, with little to no context:

Ro/Quark is a thing

A Jem'Hadar joins DS9, tries to fit in but eventually snaps and tries to kill everybody

You learn the origins and final fate of the Borg

A thinly-veiled Dr. House clone joins the Voyager crew

Geordi briefly has 2 girlfriends at once (due to different writers not co-ordinating enough, but still)

There's a TOS book that's a musical

There are YA stories about Jake and Nog making mischief on DS9

YA stories about Worf, Geordi, Picard, Beverly, Kirk, Spock and McCoy at SFA

YA series about the Kelvinverse gang (including Gaila!) as cadets, taking on a drug problem at SFA and a very unique Borg scout in San Francisco

We very briefly meet the people who are to Q what the Q are to humanity

Janeway/Chakotay is a thing

Kirk's first mission in command of the Enterprise! Erm, at least twice.

Kirk was married between TOS and TMP

Her name was Lori

In the future, you have yearly marriage contracts that you either update or you don't and I think that's amazing

Trip didn't die! He faked his death to join Section 31 and go undercover as a Romulan

It's not great, tbh

The ENT books get better after the Romulan wars though, it's proper founding of the Federation stuff

We meet Jack Crusher (erm, the OG) when 4 timelines start overlapping and he's a bit unhinged

Teenage Kirk stole a car and his choice was go to jail or join Starfleet

What happened when Voyager got home? Seven broke up with Chakotay like 30 pages in

Kirk gets cloned, and his clone becomes the sub of an evil invincible super genius and its all very gay

George Kirk was Robert April's first officer on the first ever mission of the unnamed starship with the Naval Construction Contract 1701

Robert is a hard-core pacifist and has to turn command over to George whenever it's time to fire weapons

Data becomes fully human for a couple of days and it's really sweet

They never say "wristwatch" or "phone", it's always "wrist chrono" or "personal comm"

There are gays but they don't say that word because it's the 1990's and Rick Berman runs the franchise

Spock has a son in the past with Zarabeth

Everyone in the post-Nemesis era does spy missions all the time non stop, as if Starfleet has abandoned exploring the cosmos for doing Space Mission: Impossible

Bashir does it better than anyone else, he takes on Section 31 from the inside

Remember Control? It's from the novels, except the novels do it SO MUCH BETTER.

Remember how we never found out who Future Guy was? We do.

It's very underwhelming, nobody we know

We find out how the Romulans and Vulcans split

Surak was a Vulcan internet blogger

A Borg Cube eats Pluto

Janeway dies

Janeway gets better

At least one TOS book features a wizard

There's a Star Trek TOS/Here Come the Brides crossover novel

It had cameos from The Doctor (as in, Who), Han Solo, Starbuck and others

Whole book series about Section 31

Whole book series about the Department of Temporal Investigations

One time they do the Bill and Ted thing to escape confinement and it works

Wanna know how Riker and Troi met?

Wanna know what Picard got up to on the Stargazer?

Andorians have 4 sexes and it's very complicated

Data comes back from the dead as Data 2.0, and it was fresh and exciting because it happened long before ST: Picard did it twice.

Lal comes back too and we get father/daughter android stuff! They have a home and everything but keep having to save the universe

One time Mirror Seven is led around on a leash naked on Terok Nor

Geordi becomes captain of the USS Challenger, decides it's not for him because plot, and goes back to engineering on the Enterprise

Kirk is shot on the bridge and dies

Kirk gets better

They watch 3D holos of old Doctor Who episodes in the Enterprise rec room

The Enterprise also has an AI named Moira, which was Zora long before Zora

The TOS crew get together for one last mission. About three times.

There's a Perry Mason book except it's about Kirk's lawyer from that TOS episode

Data 2.0 owns and runs a massive gambling empire on Orion

Spock keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

Scotty keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

Bones keeps randomly showing up everywhere in the TNG era

You're on Tumblr so you already know about Killing Time

There's a guy named McKenzie Calhoun and he's a total badass and captains a ship of weirdos and misfits

Kirk comes back from the dead, saves the galaxy repeatedly, has an intersex child (who identifies as male) with a Romulan/Klingon hybrid

Kirk beats up Worf

Kirk's child has superpowers

Kirk's child saves the galaxy at age 6

The Kirk stuff is 100% ignored in the other novels

About 50% of the novels are ignored in the other 50%, and the ones that are meant to be in direct continuity with each other aren't always quite

Just like the TV shows and movies, then

Lwaxana Troi meets Q, and it goes as well as you'd expect

Someone tells Data, yes you idiot you had emotions all along and he's like, oh shit you're right

McCoy is left in command of the Enterprise as a joke by Kirk, who is then immediately kidnapped

Ro Laren is captain of Deep Space Nine

Picard/Beverly is a thing, they get married and have a child named Rene. No running away and raising your kid in secret here

Riker and Troi are married, serve on the Titan together with a bunch of adorable weirdos and have a daughter named Tasha

You get to watch all the 24th century characters die horribly in the end along with their entire universe. Holy fuck it's a bleak horror show. Personally, I love it. But if that's not your cup of tea I'd skip the Coda trilogy

#star trek #star trek novels #star trek novelverse #star trek books #kirk #spock #picard #riker #troi #star trek tos #star trek tng #ds9 #Voyager #enterprise #add your own

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tourettesdog · 2 years

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DP x DC prompt where Vlad attends a Wayne gala to try and strike business with Bruce Wayne. He brings along his child, hoping that the serial-adopter might favor someone in similar shoes.

What Vlad doesn’t account for is one Samantha Manson attending this particular gala. The Mansons don’t have a fraction of his wealth; he never thought to consider their attendance.

When Sam sees the person with Vlad, she doesn’t know what to think at first. For a moment she thinks she’s looking at Danny, only... this person looks much more like Danny before he started to transition, with much longer hair and a dress. The girl looks as if she could be his sister-- an identical twin.

She also seems nervous and uncomfortable, but is putting on a smile.

The striking resemblance to Danny, the fact that she’s with Vlad-- it’s all Sam needs to storm over to the pair of them.

And as Sam draws close she can sense the girl. The ectocontamination in her system has made her perceptive to ghosts, and this girl? She feels almost exactly like Danny does. Like a ghost, only faint.

Sam demands to know who the girl is. She’s not subtle about her aggression, and Vlad quickly tries to nip it in the bud with thinly veiled threats.

The girl with him introduces herself as Danielle-- Dani. If Sam wasn’t angry before, she’s livid now. She doesn’t know who or what Dani is, but the word clone comes to mind a little too readily.

Sam doesn’t even know where to begin. She asks the girl if she’s safe, if she’s okay-- but in the same breath she demands to know what game Vlad is playing.

“Were you really so desperate to have Danny for a son that you-- you... forced someone else to take his place when he wouldn’t?”

It’s hard for Sam to speak her mind in the public setting, using coded language. She’s cornered Vlad and is trying to speak quietly, but her anger is slipping through. Sam is very aware of people standing nearby, staring. She recognizes a couple of them as Bruce Wayne’s wards, after being introduced to them earlier in the evening.

Dani, for what it’s worth, seems just as confused. She rounds on Vlad and demands to know what Sam is talking about. Dani, up until this point, has lived a very sheltered life in Vlad’s care. She’s not aware of her original at all-- or even really being a clone. All she knows is that Vlad has taken care of her for several months now and that her memory before then doesn’t really exist.

Vlad is the only thing Dani really knows. He’s kept her on a short leash, teaching her everything there is to know about being a half ghost. She’s trusted him up until now, even when he yells at her or belittles her for things she doesn’t understand. It hasn’t all been bad, but she can’t really say she’s been happy.

And now this girl is arguing with Vlad, saying things that scare her and raise so many questions, and Vlad isn’t really denying a lot of it. Hearing the way Vlad threatens this ‘Samantha’ with a deep malice that speaks of an older rivalry has Dani’s core thrumming with unease.

That unease starts to bloom into panic and Dani feels the temperature drop around her (she’s been developing an ice core like Danny’s, but Vlad having a fire core has made learning to control hers under his tutelage difficult).

Between the ice starting to spread under her feet, Vlad’s sharp glare at noticing the chill, and Sam’s words sinking in-- Dani becomes overwhelmed and runs from the venue.

Sam tries to follow her, but Vlad stops her-- and tries to assure everyone else nearby that Dani will come back when she’s had some time to clear her head, and that they shouldn’t worry.

Dick, however, has no reservations about running after her. He’s pretty sure Dani isn’t going to stay in the building and the thought of some five-foot-tall little girl running around Gotham by herself-- when she’s not even native to the city, no less-- has him reasonably worried for her safety.

Dani sticks to running on foot. Vlad’s been very clear about not using her abilities at all while in public.

Dick loses sight of Dani pretty early on in the chase. She might not be using an obvious ghost abilities, but Dani is fast and she easily slips aware into the dark streets.

Unfortunately, seeing as it’s Gotham, Dani runs into trouble. She gets jumped and she’s a little too startled to think straight about what to do (if she can even dare to break the no powers in public rule to get away).

Fortunately, Jason happens to be in the area and takes up the search when Dick explains the situation over comms.

Jason hasn’t been searching for very long when he feels a strange tug from inside his chest, accompanied by a fearful feeling that he knows isn’t his.

#dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc #dogposts #dogprompts #batpham

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letitrainathousandflames · 29 days

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Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3.9 K

Character: CC-2224 | Cody, CC-5052 | Bly, Aayla Secura (mentioned)

Warnings: Major Character Death

Additional Tags: angst, drinking, suicide, grief, order 66 aftermath, major character death, post traumatic stress disorder - ptsd, canon divergence

Section Nine, Paragraph Twelve of the Clone Army’s Code of Conduct:

Should a unit, hereby referred to as “Clone”, suffer malfunction and self-destruct, their superior officer, preferably their Commander, must carry out cleanup of the remains and have your medic issue the following report:

“Clone trooper [insert number identification] has suffered a sudden illness and the medical team onsite was unable to resurrect him. The Clone Trooper’s time of death was [appropriate designation of time and date of the occurrence]”

Mental malfunctions are a non-standard deviancy from the norm, as all clones are design to withstand any amount of stress. Therefore, the body of a clone deceased in such manner must be immediately removed from the scene and shipped back to Kamino for further analysis of its anomalies.

Cody wakes up at what he is certain to be three, maybe four in the morning, which means he has only two or one more hour to sleep before he has to wake up, cranky and exhausted, only to then force his equally cranky and exhausted men to get up themselves as well.

Something feels weird. A buzz in the back of his brain. General Kenobi had once mentioned that, while not all beings could wield the Force like Jedi and Sith did, it did surround every living creature, even those as unusual as clones.

He would often say, too, that the creeping shiver Cody would feel up his spine whenever they set foot in a dangerous place could very well be a manifestation of the Force itself. A warning that reached the very core of his being.

Cody finds himself in the mess hall minutes later, dressed only in his blacks and boots, too tired to care for the proper use of uniform attire even though he was the Marshall commander and should lead by example. His commlink is still in his pocket, just in case any kind of emergency pops up. It’s not like anyone would be awake at this time anyway, not after that endless campaign in Cato Nemodia from which the 2224 had finally returned.

He realizes he’s wrong when he sets foot in the mess, only to see captain Rex sitting at one of the tables with a steaming cup between his hands. Rex is as careless as Cody himself, dressed in his Blacks and boots, his cropped blond hair a couple of inches longer than the Captain would usually keep it.

“Codes.” It’s murmured at him with a nod, and Cody takes a moment to fill his own cup before sitting in front of Rex “Sleepless?”

Cody nods, taking in Rex’s features. He looks positively shitty, bags under his eyes, five ‘o’clock shadow darkening his features and a gaze that said Rex was more sleep than awake at the moment.

Cody is pleased that he hadn’t seen a mirror in a long while, because he can’t be really sure he’s looking any better than that. Odds are that he’s looking even worse. He nods instead of answering, and Rex sighs.

“Heard you got captured. Are you alright, brother?”

A quick memory flashes through Cody’s head. The crack of a whip, screamed threats. Two of his fingers being pulled too far back until a nauseating crack came, followed by Cody’s own ragged yelling.

“Had worse.” He shrugs, downing a big gulp of too-bitter caf “General Kenobi got to me before they could quite get started.”

A troubled look passes through Rex’s expression, a slight tremor of his right cheek. Cody had seen the scars on Rex’s back in the showers, and he was honestly relieved that the men who captured him had only a bantha leather whip. Whatever those Zyguerrians had used on Rex had cut him almost all the way down to muscle tissue.

“Want me to fill in on anything for you tomorrow?” Rex offers, looking down to his cup “My general will be busy with, uh... some security detail duty for a senator so I’m mostly free.”

Cody shakes his head, drinking another sip with a grimace.

“Nah, I’m good. Life goes on, vod’ika.��

That was the last conversation he had with Rex before he got shipped away along with Commander Tano.

Before Order Sixty-Six happened.

Cody sits on that very same chair, looking at the empty space where Rex had been sitting on that very night one year ago. So much had changed since then. The Republic, now the Empire. The Chancellor, now his Emperor. His targets, now the men that had once been the generals leading his army.

It’s a sleepless night once more, this time due to the recurring dreams of his first – presumably dead – Jedi target. Obi-Wan Kenobi, falling from an incredible height, crashing into the waters below, disappearing in its depths…

Why does he keep thinking about it? He’s starting to look like-

Cody’s commlink rings, and he picks up the call.

“CC-2224…” he starts, trailing off once he recognizes one of his brothers’ voice; one that would often call him with questions they were never meant to ask themselves, or anyone else “Ah, it’s you.”

“Hey Cod- CC-2224.” Says CC-5052, sounding just as tired as the time demands one to be “Can you do me a favor? I won’t be able to take the men to that incursion on Dantooine.”

“I can’t keep covering for you, CC-5052. Get your act together for once. I don’t need more slacking clones now, with all this talking of phasing us out of active duty. Nothing’s stopping the brass from just kicking us all out in the street and replace us with those volunteers, and we need to show that we are still as useful as we were back in the clone wars.”

There is a pause, so long that Cody wonders if 5052 is still on the line. Then…

“Cody…” another drawn out pause “Don’t you ever think that what we did was…?“

“Silence!” Cody hisses, face tightening in anger “Kriff, 5052, how many times do I have to tell you not to talk about your- your deviant thoughts over the comms?! Just- Just hang up, get to your bunk, go to sleep…”

“I’m not at the base.” The drawl on the clone’s voice is much clearer to Cody now. he isn’t sleepy, he is drunk “I’m not coming back.”

Cody is aboard a transport headed to the location pinged from the other clone’s commlink within minutes, knowing that the missed sleeping hours are gonna be sorely missed at the meeting later that day.

He walks into the cheap hotel, places a hand on the grip of the blaster on his holster to get the flustered desk worker to let him in without a warning, climbs the creaky stairs and tests the old mechanical lock on the door, noticing it is unlocked.

He can hear the voice of a woman inside the room. His hand goes to his blaster, unfastening his holster. He slowly pushes the door open as its hinges whine in protest, and then he realizes that the voice isn’t clear enough to be a person’s. It is a recording.

“fifty-two?” he calls out, stepping in the room “Don’t waste my time, I have a meeting in three hours and I should be asleep.”

His eyes quickly assess the small room, his gaze being drawn to the small holoprojector placed on top of the desk in front of the opposite wall where an armored clone sits. The desk is pretty much covered in over a dozen bottles of different cheap alcoholic drinks, some of them tipped on their side, almost all of them either empty or half-empty. The shards of a bottle that must have rolled over are littered by the left side of the desk.

The old blinds are drawn on the window at the end of the room, shrouding the place in darkness. The only sources of light are the semitransparent blue hue of the holoprojection, and the rectangles of light cutting into the room through the broken horizontal blinds.

Cody walks further in, now recognizing the woman in the recording, a tall, blue-skinned twi’lek dressed in a brown headpiece, pants, a short top, and an open cloak. The recording seems to have been made with the camera of a trooper’s helmet, judging for the medium quality of the projection.

Cody knows the woman. She had been a Jedi General during the Clone Wars, and became a traitor to the empire near its very end. Her assigned clone battalion as successfully carried out her elimination in Felucia exactly one year ago.

“Alright, so we have Korin, Mar’eti or T’aleh. Which one do you like best?”

The twi’lek is grinning at the person filming her, and a clone’s laugh comes in response.

“Any name you pick will be good.”

The Twi’lek laughs at that, shaking her head and reaching her hands towards the camera. The image shakes, and the camera is moved until it is placed at their bodies’ height, most likely a crate, given the background that seems to be the weapons’ depot of a Venator-class Star Destroyer.

“Are you sure you’re okay, love?”

The clone, now helmetless and in view of the camera smiles brightly. His cheeks have yellow-colored tattoos and his hair is shaven close to his scalp.

“I’m still getting used to the thought that I’m going to be a father. It’s… it’s incredible.”

The twi’lek laughs again, this time nervously, her hands dropping to her stomach.

“I don’t know what we are going to do.” Her smile falters, vanishes “How are we going to raise a child in this war?”

The trooper gently cups her face in his hands, pressing a delicate kiss to her lips.

“Don’t worry about that. The war will be over before our kid arrives. We’re closing in on the Seppies, this whole mess is almost over, and our baby will grow up in a peaceful galaxy.”

There is a small beat of silence, and the twi’lek raises her arms to hug the clone, huffing out a long sigh.

“I won’t abandon my duty as a Jedi. I can’t. Even after the war is over, I will still be a Jedi. You understand that, don’t you, Bly?”

The clone pulls back just about enough to look down at the Twi’lek’s face and nod.

“I wouldn’t ask you to.”

“I might be called to aid others all the way across the galaxy, and I can’t refuse.”

“We will follow you wherever you go. Me and our ad’ika. We’ll make this work. Haven’t we made this work so far?”

“Commander?” another clone’s voice pipes up from afar, and the clone hastily grabs his helmet, placing it back on his head and cutting off the recording

“Just a moment, trooper!”

The recording stops there, and a different one starts. The background is different this time – colorful trees and leaves all around the Commander’s vision of the same commander.

“I have a bad feeling about this.” The Twi’lek says, looking around warily

Hundreds of clones seem to be lining in formations, preparing to an attack. AT-STs are being prepped and yelled orders fly through the air.

“We’ll be fine.” The Commander says, placing a gloved hand on the Jedi’s shoulder, his voice then dropping to a whisper that crackles on its way out of his vocoder “Aayla. Cyare. Please let me lead this time—”

“No.” the answer is firm, the Jedi’s eyes sharp and her posture commanding “I will lead.” Her voice then drops to the same whisper, barely audible among all the noise muddling the recording “There is no one else I’d trust to have my back, Bly. I know you’ll always keep me safe.”

“All set here, General!” An ARC Trooper yells somewhere from behind them

The Jedi places a hand on the Commander’s chest, smiling softly.

“May the force be with you.” before he can reply, she is turning around to march ahead “Alright, troopers, follow my lead!”

The commander sighs heavily.

The recording stops once more. A new recording starts, at a clearing of the same colorful woods, the commander and his men slowly trailing behind their general.

“It’s so quiet.” Bly mutters “Where have they run off to?”

Their general stops, gesturing at her men to do the same.

“Be careful. There’s something wrong here. I can feel it.”

A commlink rings, and the commander presses the blinking button on his gauntlet. A voice, raspy and all too familiar to Cody pours from the speakers over the ears of the Commander in his helmet.

“Execute Order Sixty-six.”

With trained muscle memory, the Commander raised his DC-15 rifle, the gesture echoed by the other six troopers of their assault squad as they moved in sync to form a semicircle behind the Jedi General.

“Good soldiers follow orders” he whispers almost too quietly for the recording to pick up

A large flying alien creature cawed from somewhere behind them as it crossed the gold-tinted skies, and the Jedi turned around with a startle, he eyes going wide at the sight of her men and the aim of their weapons on her.

The general attempts to raise her lightsaber despite the horrified shock taking over her features.

She doesn’t have enough time to power on the weapon on before something bright and blue flashes out of her own clone commander’s rifle, whistling through the air to strike her right between her shoulder blades at her heart’s height.

Her body is jerked forwards, her arms flying up as the second bolt hits her on the ribcage, the lightsaber slipping off her grip as a pained scream is punched out of her.

Two more bolts strike her on the back and shoulder, and Bly fires another just as she stumbles forward, her protective shirt smoldering brightly over her back as the fourth bolt hits her there.

She falls down on her chest, one hand shakily and uselessly trying to reach for her lightsaber, and the men keep firing over and over, blaster shots hitting her middle. Her arms. Her legs. Her lekku, which slowly cease all movement. They keep firing until the only movement from the fallen Jedi are the occasional twitches caused by the electricity charges from the blaster bolts.

“T-Target eliminated” the Commander says with an almost unnoticeable stutter “All of you, let’s rendezvous at the alpha location, we must assist the other troops. We can’t stop until every jedi is dead and accounted for.”

Nodding, the men turn away, leaving the ground of their massacre behind. The commander lingers for a moment, his breath catching and coming out in a stuttered, heavy exhale.

Then he leaves.

The recording loops back to the first video, where Aayla Secura is trying to get Commander Bly to choose a name for their unborn child. Cody walks closer to the desk, his gaze now looking past the blue light of the projecting and further to the man sitting at the desk.

CC-5052, known as “Bly” during the Clone Wars, watches Cody with weary eyes, the semitransparent projection floating between them from the small device placed on the table between several empty bottles of various alcoholic drinks. Cody stops in front of it, removing his helmet and placing it by a cluster of purple-tinted bottles. He, too, is fully dressed in his kit except for his gloves and helmet.

Bly’s elbow is resting on the arm of the chair, his hand supporting his chin, while his other hand rests on his lap somewhere out of Cody’s view. He gives him a drunken smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, which are reddened and swollen.

His eyelashes are wet and there are dried trails of tears down his tattooed cheeks.

“Hey there, Codes.”

“You need to come back to base.” Cody oders dryly.

“Told you I’m not coming back. I can’t.”

The recording has reached the moment where the troops are about to move out, and Cody ignores the audio overlapping over CC-5052’s words, pretending he cannot hear the trembling that underlines his own voice.

“You are a Commando clone, CC-5052, same as myself.” Cody says the words he had been told since his infancy back at the sterile white walls of the Kaminoan laboratories in Tipoca City “We can endure anything, and we do not deviate from our duty.”

He swallows down thickly, the sound of the blaster that had killed Aayla Secura along with the life growing inside of her echoing through the speakers of the projector on top of the table.

He had heard Bly’s confession of his anguish over having killed her during the issuing of order sixty-six multiple times. He had always told Bly to keep those thoughts to himself, and to never let their superiors hear these treacherous words.

But only today he truly understands the whole picture. There was more to his relationship with the deceased Jedi than that of a duty-bound trooper and their general.

Still…

“We will not have this conversation again – the Jedi were traitors” Cody presses on “and a threat to everything we fought for. They had to die.”

Good soldiers follow orders, whispers the Bly in the recording.

“I loved her.” Says the CC-5052 in front of him, and under the faint blue glow of the projection, Cody sees the glistening of the tears brimming in his eyes, trailing down his cheeks “I- I loved her, and we were gonna-- She was—”

An ugly, anguished sound comes through CC-5052’s - Bly's - gritted teeth, and suddenly the stoic mask of numb exhaustion drops, being replaced by an expression that is so twisted in agony, it reminds Cody of those he had seen in the battlefield on the faces of men whose limbs had been torn off by landmines and no amount of anesthesia could put an end to their pain.

Bly sobs, bringing to his eyes a hand that rattles against his brow with how hard it shakes. The pained noises being punched out of the clone between every sharp intake of air begin to die out as his breathing becomes more and more ragged.

A stuttered breath hisses out of him as he drops his hand, and he raises his swollen eyes to Cody again.

“I c-can’t do this anymore.”

Cody stares at him, at the hollow eyes and broken expression in that face that is a mirror of his own, and the two sentences that keep haunting his dreams.

Thank you Cody.

Blast him!

“You have to.” Cody says, the commanding tone slipping from his voice and giving place to a plea instead “You need to.”

Because a clone commander can withstand any kind of stress.

Even the horror of carrying out orders that changed the entire galaxy and the structure of their army and robbed them of the generals that would actually put themselves in the line of fire to protect them, even though they were nothing but expendable clones.

“I have nothing left, Cody. Nothing.” it’s like the words are being pulled out of Bly like shrapnel, fresh wounds being opened with every tug “I’ve served my purpose…”

The hand he’d kept resting over his lap, out of view from Cody’s gaze because of the desk between them is raised into view, along with a blaster in its grip.

“…and I hope you can find yours, brother.”

Slowly and without a hint of hesitation, Bly brings the muzzle of the weapon to the underside of his chin. Cody’s eyes widen, icy dread pooling in his core and sending a shiver up his spine, his entire body stiffening in tension as he understands what is about to happen.

“Bly— Hey, listen to me!” he tries to think through the distinct click of the blaster being cocked; he has to stop this, has to do something, anything “Bly, put the blaster down, now--”

“Never gone, only marching away…” Bly whispers with the faintest hint of a smile

“DON’T--”

The sharp whistle of blaster fire echoes in the room as a flash of bright blue illuminates the scene for an instant, Cody’s unprotected ears ringing loudly over the thudding of his own spiking pulse.

Bly’s head whips back with the blaster’s shock, a smoldering, perfect circle letting out smoke on the wound under his chin. His hand drops, the weapon slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor with a dull thud.

Cody stands there, breath shallow and cut off by small gasps as he tries to fight the instinct to just turn around and run away from this nightmare. His stomach clenches in nausea, and he covers his mouth with his hand.

He stares at the lifeless body of a brother with whom he had shared many battles and down times with, a man he had trusted with his life and who trusted Cody with his. A man who had been birthed from a tube like him, had blasters instead of toys since he was five like him, scientists instead of a family like him.

A good soldier who had followed every order. And that had killed him.

Cody doesn’t know how long he stands there, petrified, the recording of General Aayla Secura’s short-lived dream of having a child with the man she loved looping so many times that Cody could recite it from memory, and then looping enough for Bly’s words to dissolve into a cadence of joy, tension, and resignation, joy, tension and resignation, joy, tension and—

Cody walks carefully around the desk, standing close by Bly’s side. He is supposed to report the self-termination immediately and wait for the Kaminoan staff in Coruscant to retrieve the body. He is not supposed to interfere in any way.

Bly’s eyes stare vacantly into nothing, brown and formerly full of life, shaped exactly like Cody’s. After a small moment of hesitation Cody reaches up to close them, his gloved hand lingering for an instant on Bly’s face.

He had failed him. He had failed his brother.

He thinks of Rex, whose helmet was the only one not found in the mass grave of former 501st clones in a distant moon. Could he be out there, still alive? His own words to Crosshair in front of the memorial of the clone troopers who had died in service of the Republic - and later the Empire - come back to him.

Do you know what makes us different from battle droids? We make our own decisions. Our own choices. And we have to live with them too.

Cody moves his hand to rest over Bly’s chest, on the stillness of his heart.

“Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum, Bly, ner’vod.”

He straightens himself up, finally stopping the recording and removing the memory chip from the device, placing it in one of his belt pouches. Someone should keep Bly’s story and keep it from being forgotten.

Swallowing thickly around the lump forming in his throat, Cody picks his helmet up from the desk, placing it over his face with its expressionless mask of carved white and turning his back on the scene.

The armor would help him up until some point, and then he would do well to change out of it. The outline of a plan begins to take form in his mind. Safe locations, away from the Empire’s ever-watchful gaze. Old friends that might show mercy on him in spite of what he had become.

A hope, faint and delirious, that his former general might still be alive and willing to forgive him for what he had done.

Bly was right. Cody had to find his purpose. And he had to start now.

#all the goblins in my brain ceased all activity until I bled out this fic #pls comment uwu??#goodnight its three am #fuck #my fics #tcw

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lolotheparagon · 3 months

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Sofia the First Season 2 in a Nutshell

Two Princesses and a Baby - 10/10

Amber wishes she wouldnt have to share her birthday with her twin James, so he gets magically turned into a toddler. Hijnks ensue. Another brilliant moment of character growth for Amber and showing how much she really cares for James, despite them being polar opposites.

The Enchanted Feast - 9/10

Miss Nettle returns disguised as a visiting sorceress in order to steal the amulet but Sofia is having none of that shit so she gets her critter army to stop Nettle. Also Snow White is here in properly the best media appearance she will ever get since Kingdom Hearts

The Flying Crown - 3/10

Sofia befriends the brooding jock Prince Hugo cos apparently she doesnt have a life. Look, I know you need to work with him to do your flying derby race, Sof, but dont bother with this Hunter expy.

Mom's The Word - 10/10

Its Sofia's first Mother's Day in the castle and she gets left out when her mother is spending more time with Amber and James. One of the show's core themes is teaching kids about blended families and Sofia struggling to adjust sharing her mother with her step siblings is very potent.

The Silent Knight - 4/10

Aunt Tilly falls for some NPC knight, when Cedric is right over there. Like show, if you were gonna ship any couple. I want sorceror failhusband and chaotic adventurer wife. Or hell, the drama teacher Miss Elodie for a gay option.

Enchanted Science Fair - 7/10

James, Amber, Vivian, Khaled and Desmond fight each over a science project but they all realise that Sofia is always right and they would all be dead without her.

King For A Day - 6/10

James tries being king to see what its like and yknow, this episode's hilarious to watch in hindsight cos its revealed James isnt even the heir to the throne lol

When You Wish Upon a Well - -4/10

Amber does something incredibly illegal but gets off the hook cos Sofia and their dad are enablers

Gizmo Gwen - 8/10

Aw cool, a castle maid who's also an inventor and engineer! What a wonderful addition to the ca-annnnd she's not gonna appear for the rest of the series, is she?

Sofia the Second - 10/10

Sofia learning about how to keep promises even if it means giving up something else? An evil Sofia clone who's a delightfully evil gremlin? Sign me the fuck up!

Mystic Meadows - 8/10

Sofia's girl scout group goes to a wizard retirement home where Cedric's parents live and she helps Cedric win his dad's approval and stop his micromanaging bs. Also, Hell canonically exists in Sofia the First and that fact alone is both disturbing and hilarious

Princesses to the Rescue! - 9/10

James and his friend Jin get captured by a discount Tai Lung and their dads end up being captured too cos theyre that stupid. So its up to Sofia, Jun and Amber to save the day. Also Mulan is here and its a nice touch they gave her the armour she worn throughout most of her original movie.

Ghostly Gala - 7/10

On Halloween, Sofia befriends the undead and convinces everyone in the castle that they're not seeing things, honest. Seriously, this girl could befriend Eldritch monsters and convince everyone that they're chill.

The Emerald Key - 10/10

A Hawaiian princess has lost a precious heirloom and washes up on the shores of Enchancia, calling for help. Another Hawaiian princess shows up, declaring shes the real deal. The Enchanican royal family immediately decide the best way to tell these two indigenous princesses apart is to get them to partake in white royal etiquette and activities and automatically assume the one doing the best at all of them is the real princess. Sofia realises that the imposter is always the whitewashed one.

Scrambled Pets - 5/10

Pet hijinks: the episode

The Princess Stays in the Picture - 3/10

Man, after Amber became a good person, the writers really doubled down on making her friend Hildegarde the new alpha bitch. Supposedly this was the episode to humanise her but honestly after watching this whole series, she really hasnt improved since this episode so it feels like lightning in a bottle we will never get again. The highlight was definitely Sofia yelling at Hildegarde's constant know it all attitude.

Baileywhoops - 8/10

Finally, Baileywick gets a good episode. I love the idea that Baileywick is such a good steward that EVERY OTHER STEWARD IN EVERY KINGDOM WANTS TO BE HIM OR WANTS HIS JOB. He's like the Alfred of this show.

The Curse of Princess Ivy - 10/10

Amber steals Sofia's amulet out of jealousy, unleashes an evil princess by mistake and now all hell's broken loose. Sofia really rakes Amber over the coals in this special and its glorious. Again, another episode that develops Amber as a character and its great to see the message of earning forgiveness and actually putting the effort in to change, instead of putting pressure on the victim to just enable their abuser's behaviour. Rapunzel's there as well with a banger song.

Winter's Gift - 8/10

Sofia meets a fawn named Autumn, who freezes everything she touchs and she fucking hates it. (Hmm, wonder why Elsa or Anna didnt show up in this ep?) However, Autumn fears the witch who gave her the powers in the first place won't do it cos she hasnt got her a nice enough gift in return. Turns out the witch is super nice, actually.

The Leafsong Festival - -8/10

Clover's dragon friend Crackle gives up her fire powers so she can be in a talent show but she has to get it back or THE ENTIRE KINGDOM WILL FREEZE TO DEATH AND APPARENTLY A SMALL DRAGON CAN MELT A KINGDOM'S SIZED COAT OF ICE.

Substitute Cedric - 10/10

Cedric begrudgingly decides to be substitute at Sofia's school for a day but turns out he really enjoys teaching and helps the kids practice magic on some wizard bullies. Cedric becoming more of a cool uncle is the best. Also, Sofia yelling the phrase "prank day is over!" to the wizard bullies as a war cry is really badass.

Clover Time - 4/10

Clover acts like a shitty roommate to Sofia, which is weird cos I thought Clover already lived with Sofia. Yknow, him being her pet and all.

In a Tizzy - -5/10

Ruby gets her own fairy godmother to help her build a cart and practice for a go-cart race. Thats neat! And yet, this all could've been solved if Ruby's mum was in the episode

A Tale of Two Teams - 6/10

I love how despite being a royal for like a year now, Sofia always chooses her old friends whenever she can. Neat how this is the episode where Jade actually needs glasses as her vision is causing her problems during kickoff. Amber also learns to manage and be a good coach. Man, the writers really put their all into giving Amber little intricacies with her character and James has...knight stuff

The Littlest Princess - 7/10

Sofia befriends a group of freeloading spirites who cause havoc in the castle and has to find a way to convince them to leave since that's the only way to get rid of them. I like how Sofia's flaw of being too trusting to everyone she meets causes trouble and Miranda gets to shine as being the best parent/role model in Sofia's life.

Buttercup Amber - 10/10

For some reason, Amber joins Sofia's girl scout camping trip and unlike the last experience with Baileywick, this one is actually fun. Seriously, Amber brought her entire wardrobe of dresses to camp and the girls inspire her to create a huge tent out of them. Nice to see Amber has changed a lot since Season 1 already.

Carol of the Arrow - -8/10

Ah yes, I love watching Sofia the First talking about anti-royalism, despite being set in a world where the royals are super friendly and interventionalist, there is no classism between the royals and commoners and that colonialisation doesnt exist. And yet we have a non-furry Robin Hood trying to help the common folk and Sofia's standing there like 'oh she's my fave celeb i cant be a royal!! i'll pretend to be a commoner again so i can show her royals can do something' but SHE'S GOT NO REASON TO HIDE HER IDENTITY COS SHE'S A FAMOUS PRINCESS AND ISNT EVEN HIDING HER NAME AND APPARENTLY FEM ROBIN HOOD FINDS OUT ABOUT HER AND REALISES OH HEY MAYBE ROYALS ARENT LAZY GOOD FOR NOTHINGS AFTER ALL. WASNT THERE A SCENE FROM TWO EPISODES AGO WHERE THE ROYAL FAMILY WAS GIVING AWAY FREE GIFTS TO ALL THE PEASANT CHILDREN IN ENCHANCIA. WHERE DID SHE GET THIS PRECONCEPTION FROM? ASPFSCEVRH WHAT IS GOING ON??!

Sidekick Clio - 3/10

Hildegarde acts like an abusive bitch to her friend Clio but instead of Clio leaving her and finding a new group of friends, she forgives Hildegarde after one apology. Oh and before you ask, Hildegarde doesnt retain her lesson from this in later episodes. I feel so sorry for Clio. Especially since she has a lot of fun potential as a side character.

#sofia the first

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evilkitten3 · 1 year

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@blueper-saiyan

#Not sure if I’m allowed to pull out these tags as a separate reblog#but that is an interesting and fucked up theory I like it#and absolutely want to hear the long version#vegeta

you absolutely are as far as i'm concerned but since op's post was getting a bit long i'll respond here

dbz always reblog i have a theory that there's actually a reason for this it stems from my theory that vegeta's mom doesn't exist bc he's a clone of his dad basically it eventually become obvious that frieza was going to take whichever kid was heir to the throne so king vegeta (kv i guess) went ''aight we need a Super Baby (no tuffles allowed) and i'm the coolest guy on the planet. need a baby me'' so he gets a bunch of the buffest nerds imaginable (be real saiyan scientists like the job bc they get to fight physics) and start working kv: i need this kid to last as long as possible we're gonna need to buy some time scientists: got it boss *proceed to make the universe's most ridiculously hard to kill infant* how's this kv: excellent. frieza catch! frieza: oh this is adorable! i'm going to traumatize it =) <-an extremely brief summary of my hc

(^the tags in question)

ok so first there are a couple of things i need to get out of the way ahead of time– namely, i'm not the first person to come up with the vegeta-is-a-clone idea; the first person i saw with that idea was someone who wrote a fic i read a while back that i'm blanking on the name of at the moment, and while their version is massively different from mine, the core concept of clone!veggie is more or less the same

the second thing is that i get way too into world building sometimes and so a lot of pieces of my hcs get mixed up with one another and often don't fit in with established canon (which isn't like abnormal or anything but i want to clarify that i already know some of this doesn't perfectly slot up. in my defense the db timeline doesn't even match up with itself half the time)

the final thing is that while i've seen bits of the anime and the first handful of super episodes, i'm mostly a manga fan, so i view any non-manga parts of dragon ball as free real estate

buckle up, i was not kidding about the length (*immature snickering*)

SO.

first and foremost the relationship between the tuffles and the saiyans: the tuffles are described as being a peaceful yet technologically advanced race, but in my hc, they're a bit more complicated than that. for starters, i don't see how a supposedly peaceful race is going to have high-tech blasters, and while it's possible that they're for defensive purposes, it... really doesn't give off that vibe. also they were super into some fairly questionable science, some of which objectively involved human experimentation (or... humanoid experimentation, i guess)

jumping back to the future for a sec: gohan. gohan is a half-human, half-saiyan male hybrid, and while two separate species somehow producing a hybrid child isn't unheard of, male hybrids are almost always completely infertile. and yet, gohan grows up and has a kid (another explanation is gohan and videl are t4t, which i also love, but it doesn't really fit into this). so how are saiyans and humans not only capable of reproducing together, but capable of having children that can also reproduce? my theory here is that saiyans are genetically modified (early) humans– tuffles arrived on earth sometime prior to homo erectus finishing the jump to homo sapiens, grabbed a handful of various lab rats, and got to work.

this would also explain why saiyan tails look the way they do. to elaborate, here's a spider monkey skeleton:

notice how the tail is made up of more vertebrae that continue along the same curve as the rest of the spine. meanwhile, goku's tail looks like this:

it juts straight out, almost perpendicular to his spinal cord. to me, that does not look like how tails work– it looks grafted on. in the video game kakarot, bulma even makes goku a fake tail for him to fish with that he can just... stick right on there. i know dragon ball science is already broken af (someone please explain to me how dr briefs isn't basically a deity for inventing capsules), but if the tail is a genetic trait that didn't evolve naturally, it makes some sense (in the way anything in dragon ball makes sense, that is)

so– saiyans are a highly adaptable species that seem to be able to eat basically whatever, can both endure and dish out catastrophic amounts of damage, are biologically driven to fight to the point where it's hard to imagine how a society full of them could function at all, get stronger whenever they recover from being seriously injured, can transform into giant apes, and yet have a glaringly obvious weakness that can pretty much completely incapacitate them if you know about it? they seem designed for war, and not in the natural evolution-is-just-funny-like-that-sometimes way.

what we know about the tuffles sort of differs from source to source, but the most negative opinions come from the saiyans– according to vegeta, the tuffles basically treated them as slaves. which... yeah, that adds up, given everything.

anyway, here's where i divorce from canon entirely bc according to gt, king vegeta iii is the one who led the saiyans in the war against the tuffles, which raises... honestly so many questions. so i'm ignoring that; it was vegeta i and he was never officially king, but more on that later. i also need to note that the whole "saiyans lived on planet sadala, fucked it up, and moved to planet plant which later became planet vegeta" to my knowledge is not manga canon but since i like the general idea, i sorta moved it a bit.

in my version, the saiyans and the tuffles both lived on planet sadala, but the war between the two species got a little out of hand and the planet was kaputski (to be fair, if you suddenly got to turn into a giant ape and wreak havoc on the people who were possibly enslaving you, you might go a bit overboard too), so the saiyans stole all the tuffles' ships and gtfo'd (this is why everyone was so sure the tuffles were gone. bc typically blowing up someone's planet is a good way to get rid of all of them. at least in theory– i'm sure frieza can tell you all about how well it works in practice)

back to vegeta i– he wasn't a king, technically, but he was the saiyan who started, led, and according to all saiyan sources (which are biased but w/e) finished the revolt, and chose to die on the planet in an act of heroic sacrifice and/or symbolism and/or his daughter twisted a fact or two bc propaganda is a game we all can play, and the new planet they landed on was named after him. said daughter took the same name, declared the planet and the king to be one and the same, and set about conquering the shit out of it. so vegeta ii was technically the first king but if you asked her she was the second and also disrespecting her father and probably also about to be killed via spear (oh btw king vegeta ii is famed for her giant war spear which was very cool and intimidating and probably didn't see much use outside of ritual combat bc it's honestly more efficient to just blast people but all the statues and art and whatnot have her with it)

i'm going to take a minute to gloat about vegeta ii bc honestly she's one of my alltime favorite ocs that i've made, despite the fact that i don't intend to ever have her show up in anything (yass gurl haunt that narrative!!!) but basically she's a deeply respected figure in saiyan culture, although she died way before any of the saiyans still alive in dbz were born (except nappa), bc she... basically built saiyan culture from scratch. pretty much all the core beliefs the saiyans as a people had were from her very deliberately and surprisingly sneakily forcing them to be developed bc she was fully aware that the saiyans needed more than a love of battle to actually survive as a society independent of the tuffles. she basically had the whole thing set up and ready to last and become a proper empire but unfortunately the one kid that lived long enough to succeed her (by killing her in combat, obviously, and yes the others all tried and died– she's an important figure, not a nice one) ran face first into frieza and we all know how that went down

anyhow, vegeta ii's reign (which lasted a crazy long time bc she lived way longer than she should've and almost certainly used some kind of not-so-great method of living that long, but in her defense she needed to make sure at least one of her kids was cool enough to be in charge, so what's a few war crimes between monarchs) pretty much cemented all the saiyan pride and identity that vegeta iv is so fond of, and not just bc she was his grandma either.

the reason i have to get through all of that to explain my clone!vegeta theory is bc i need to explain why king vegeta iii became king in the first place– under vegeta ii's system, anyone could challenge for the throne at any time, regardless of who they were. her own children were expected - but not required - to do so, and if she died before an heir could kill her in glorious combat, the princes would become stewards and have the duty of finding the next king (who couldn't be one of them. fight and die for that shit like a real saiyan or no throne for you). however, there was actively incentive not to do that bc A) whoever's in charge has to actually be in charge and therefore gets to fight way less, and B) in order to become king you had to be ritually stripped of your identity as a person with the understanding that if you died during your challenge your name would be stricken from all records, none of your family or friends would ever acknowledge that you had ever existed, and you would simply cease to be (the afterlife doesn't follow these rules but most of the saiyans who are there still do, including the ones who by saiyan law no longer exist. say what you will about saiyans; they're a dedicated lot)

so anyway vegeta iii (before becoming vegeta iii – he had a different name bc names are super important in my version of saiyan culture but if i get into that here we will literally be here for the rest of the week - but i'll call him that for the sake of my sanity) is somewhat reluctant to challenge for the throne bc none of his siblings have managed it (not that they exist anymore whoops), but one of his colleagues/presumed ruling partner (not gonna get into saiyan relationships here either sorry) has been pushing him to do so for a while now

i think i've gone through a few names for vegeta's not-mom, but the most recent one is touga (from tougarashi, or capsicum annuum, and yes i was thinking of neon orange glimmer song by the mountain goats when i named her), so i'll call her that. touga is a pretty saiyan-y saiyan– she's violent, temperamental, proud, strong, and so forth, but another thing she is is deeply, deeply loyal to her people. she's also very aware of vegeta iii's weaknesses (such as "will probably care a little too much about kids if he has any" and "may make decisions based off of feelings instead of cold hard practical logic" and "seems likely to develop emotional attachments to family members"; you know, normal kingly failings) and has the lady macbeth-esque stainless steel go-fuck-yourself coldness to make up for her future husband's pathetic little morals or whatever

anyway, touga pushes vegeta iii to go for the throne bc holy shit his mom has been alive for way too long but also she has faith in hi or something and duty and whatever and dude do it if you ever want this saiyan tail, and eventually he caves and goes for it. he fights his mom, wins, gets a shiny new king name and is all set to run his kingdom. and then king cold shows up.

now in between killing his mom and our favorite chilly boys coming to town, vegeta iii and touga have had a kid, prince escallion (who is a girl ftr but i can't get into saiyan thoughts on sex/gender or the language or even escallion herself in this post bc we will never ever leave). escallion is pretty neat, just the strongest baby in history or whatever, but then post-cold arriving and politely yoinking the saiyans into his empire, rumors start spreading that frieza miiiiight be wanting a saiyan under his personal command. no prizes for guessing whose palace he's looking at for pickings. obviously the only prince they've got is not someone they can afford to lose, but they need a sure bet on super-infants and can't afford hoping for a genetic bingo, so vegeta iii assembles the universe's swole-est scientists and has them get started on making the Coolest Baby Ever (by cloning him, the king, bc he's the strongest but also bc frieza is an asshole and likes playing mind games with people so let's be real he's taking one of the king's kids no matter how tough they are)

so vegeta iv gets made (and named inappropriately but that's frieza's fault and a story for another time so ignore it for now) and eventually tarble is born and almost immediately sent off just in case frieza decides to be a bigger dick than usual (spoilers: frieza is going to decide to be an even bigger dick than that), and vegeta gets to spend the first few years of his life with his dad, big sis, and not-mom until he gets shipped off to go be a child soldier/slave/distraction, at which point frieza goes ahead and blows up the planet. there's more to it than just that, but i may actually want to write it out some day, so i'll keep the rest to myself for now.

#dbz #clone vegeta theory #dbz meta #dragon ball #dragon ball z #dbz headcanons #vegeta #vegeta iv #vegeta iii #king vegeta #long post #like super long #i said extremely brief and i meant it this is a long freakin' post #guest appearances by a monkey's skeleton and goku's ass #thanks for mooning the camera kiddo couldn't have done this without you #blueper-saiyan if you actually read all of this you may gain a powerup of some kind

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intermundia · 2 years

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which sw books would you recommend for superior obikin/obi wan content? i know the rots novel is supposedly really good and i plan to read it but i was wondering if there were any others that the fandom likes particularly?

I'm glad you mentioned Stover's Revenge of the Sith, that really should be the first priority. It transcends the genre with its elevated prose style and is one of the more deeply homoerotic texts I've ever read lol so yeah it is essential. I listened to it on audiobook as well as reading it and I'm pretty sure parts of it are now etched in my brain like cuneiform on clay lmao.

There is a lot of fandom famous obikin content in the works of Karen Miller, like Wild Space in particular, but also some in the Clone Wars Gambit duology, so her work is what I would probably recommend next. I think there's some great moments in Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno too. After that, there’s a couple good moments in the Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster and Dark Disciple by Christie Golden. Kenobi by John Jackson Miller doesn't have a lot, but it's still worth reading. I haven't gotten to it yet myself, but some of the stuff my friends have shared from Mike Chen's Brotherhood has raised my eyebrows in a good way. Jude Watson’s short story “The Last One Standing” will give you psychic damage from depressed post-Mustafar Obi-Wan, so be prepared for that, but it is absolutely worth a read.

If you are willing to look into Legends comics, there is a 5 issue arc called "Obsession" collected in Clone Wars Volume 7: When They Were Brothers, which contains homoerotic sparring, jealousy between the two of them, Obi-Wan over Anakin's attention to Padmé and Anakin over Obi-Wan's attention to Ventress, and other fun things. It is in continuity with Republic comics #55-58, where Ventress takes Obi-Wan captive during the Battle of Jabiim, and Anakin believes that he is dead, which believe it or not, he doesn't take very well lmao. Both of these I recommend very highly.

I will add that Greg Bear's Rogue Planet is a book that should not be read through a ship lens (Anakin is in his early teens), but rather read for the sake of understanding who Anakin and Obi-Wan are as individuals at their core, so that you see the cracks in the foundation of their relationship that are exacerbated by the Clone Wars and Anakin's transition to adulthood. Bear's characterization of each of them is so perfect, Rogue Planet a text that illuminates and deepens the value of reading the others above. Admittedly the plot is kind of silly, but it's not the point of reading it. The beating heart of the characters is there to be understood.

#obikin #book recs #so many #god #i don't even know if this is comprehensive #these are just what came to mind first #sw

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joycew-blog · 1 year

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I have so many thoughts about the finale!!! First off, I am so happy that Rick regressed!!! It's of course terrible for Morty and the rest of the family, but it feels way more realistic and interesting. The path to recovery is hard and will have roadblocks. You can't fix decades of bad habits in just a couple of episodes.

That doesn't mean that Rick hasn't been trying tho! Him helping Jerry with the Fortune Cookies, the whole Roy thing, Analyze Piss, that was still the real Rick! He still went to therapy, he did genuinely try.

But Morty being mad at him just triggers things in him that makes him go back in his old ways. It was a less bad reaction than in the past, cause last time Morty called him out on his crap Rick decided to replace him with two crows and before that we got the Vat of Acid episode (there might be more, but esp the Vat is so vivid in my mind of the bad crap he did to that poor kid). He wouldn't have made a robot that's actually kind to Morty and have him have a good time. In that sense I guess Rick knows his limitations, that he can't make Morty happy right now as he is.

But instead of discussing that with him and being emotionally open about it, he goes behind their back and replaces himself with a robot so he betrays their trust....again! (Cause he probably thinks it's better if he's not around while he's like this, but at the same time he's proving the point that it's better he's not around by putting out a robot that's 'better' than him. It's a self-fulling prophecy and he does this all the time.)

As for Morty, someone, anyone, please give this poor kid a hug! He just wanted a nice Christmas for himself and his family. He never gets a break and when he does it's just too good to be true!

I think when he broke down in front of the President it was more than just Christmas being ruined. His trust was betrayed, again, and the things he enjoyed the past episode probably now leave a bitter taste in his mouth since it was not his real grandpa. He probably thought at that moment that Rick would rather build a robot to be nice to him, instead of putting in the effort himself...

And then of course Curtis drives the knife even deeper by betraying Morty afterwards...

And Robot Rick! He was so kind and he tried so hard. I felt for him so much with how he felt so guilty about betraying the family's trust. And him trying to be honest about it made my stomach twist cause I knew it would just go badly...

And when it did go bad the family immediately went out to destroy him. They must be really traumatized from the robots and clones and the crap Rick has pulled them through with it…

Seriously Robot Rick was the final hero in this episode and I wished he didn't die...

And god the final couple of minutes...

They are going on adventures again, but dang the reason for it will be so different! For Morty the most, cause what will happen if they find Prime? And what does Rick mean he is on all the location that were pointed on his map?! Like, he's on all of them at the same time, or are those places he has been/has mini-homebases?

And the classic Rick ramble at the end. Normally they are done for comedy purposes, but in this scene it just felt....dark and sad. This is what Rick really is, an obsessed, traumatized person wanting to find the guy that killed his family. It broke him down to his core, the search for him even more so than the killing of his family. Even years later he still can't let it rest!

And now he's dragging his grandson along him with it...

This episode is the exact reason I love this show. Just when I think I lose a bit of interest they do something that's made me hyped up all over again!

I really am hyped and curious to find out what they are going to do for season 7!

#rick and morty #rick and morty season 6 spoilers

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sunntownn · 2 years

Text

➪

,,mech! reader,, romantic relationship

➪ ,,smokescreen assists in helping reader get around after returning to cyberton when the war ends,, smokescreen is a dork

➪

,, TW!! ,, none

➪

,, word count,, 618

• coming back to Cybertron after a couple thousand years of your home planet being a floating corpse in space and hopping from planet to planet to keep away from the war- it was a lot

• landing on your homeworld was a rollercoaster of emotions. it was in ruins, everything you had loved here growing up was dead or destroyed. it made you want to weep and turn around while you still could

• but the suttle, pulsing glow of the planet's core made you push forward. because dispite the death, the gore, the fear, your planet was alive again, and you were not going to abandon it a second time.

• when you arrived to the location of the autobot's temporary output, you initially freaked out because vehicons were swarming the place. in every direction, the clones megatron forged were busying themselves with some unknown task.

• but when a bot approached, the autobot emblem placed perfectly and proudly in the center of their chest, your worries calmed

• smokescreen introduced himself and welcomed you home

• you were home

• he then explained that the vehicons, after megatron was defeated, defected the decepticon cause and began helping rebuild our cities

• and with that, things went by pretty quick,, everyone was so busy rebuilding the planet, bringing lost soldiers home, creating a government that benefited all, and rebuilding a peaceful society

• you had moved into the autobot's temporary base, aka, the Nemesis, which they apparently stole,,, fair enough

• it was big enough to house everyone who has returned to cyberton so far, so why not

• smokescreen had been your tour guide as well as your history tutor,, he told you everything that happened on the autobot's side of the war leading up to optimus' sacrifice to restart the planet's core- well, all the parts he remembered

• arcee had let you in on how much smokescreen was dedicated to being destiny's chosen one, much to the mechs embarrassment

• the laughs it got out of you distracted him from his squaking at arcee

• smokescreen and yourself had been helping returning soldiers in the medbay under medical supervision. knockout had been getting too busy to sleep and ultra magnus gently asked for a few servos to assist out only qualified medic

• after a while, you did start to pick up on some signals of affection from the autobot,, lingering stares, always offering you a engeron cube, something he called "pick up lines" what ever the scrap that was, etc

• bumblebee had even shaken his helm in amusement when smokescreen all but skipped up to you, bowed for dramatic effect, and presented you with energon candies,, "for you my liege,," he had joked,, but you caught the blue blush on his faceplates before he could make it go away

• you had cut your servo open by mistake in the medbay one time and smokescreen was all over you,, even knockout was looking at him funny,, funny, but with a knowing expression,, as if he knew exactly why the young mech was acting so strange

• he was fretting as if you got stabbed through the spark, and as amusing as it was, you had to shut him up before you got a helmache

• so, in order to do so, you grabbed the chassis plating and pulled him towards you with you good hand, and swooped him into a firm smooch

• mans was left standing there in another dimension or something because even snapping in his face didnt seem to wake him up from his daydream after your lips had parted ways.

#transformers #transformers x reader #tfp #decepticons #smokescreen #smokescreen x reader #tfp smokescreen #tfp x reader #sunntownn writes

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let-us-cultivate-our-garden · 1 year

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Wish we could’ve gone more into depth of Belos’s religious beliefs; like most we know is that he was either Catholic or Puritan but even those religions have subsects and branches not to mention Gravesfield could’ve had its own version of religion. How does Belos see God? Does Belos believe the Boiling Isles is literally Hell™ or just one of many Satan’s creations? Is anything even associated with it tainted (including the Collector and the Grimwalkers) or just witches/demons? Idk for religion being a, if not the primary motivator for Belos’s actions we learn very little of his beliefs. And I understand he has to pretend to be messenger for the Titan but I’m sure there could’ve been a couple seems spared for this or at least some more implications/hints.

OMG same! However, since The Owl House is a Disney channel TV show aimed at 7-10 year olds, they really can't get too in-depth on religion for fear of making the executives upset. It's great to explore in fan creations though!

Given where he's from, it's highly unlikely that Philip is Catholic; Gravesfield is patterned off of English colonial towns which were pretty much Puritan dominant. However, since the Wittebanes are not originally from Gravesfield, then his family could have been originally Catholic which would have added another layer of irony to Philip's obsessive need to be a witch-hunter by fitting into the Puritan culture.

Personally, I do think that Philip does see the Demon Realm as Hell-adjacent since Puritans believed that witchcraft was only possible if one entered into a covenant with Satan. However, I think his biggest motivation is not religion but rather more personal: his brother.

Philip dove headfirst to save Caleb from witches, to save his eternal soul (we finally got confirmation of this in For the Future) but Caleb is killed and there's a popular fan theory that Philip did not intend to kill Caleb but Evelyn, so Caleb's death was accidental, and it is one that Philip has been trying to erase since then.

Since Philip cannot accept the fact that he killed his brother, he blames the witches and seeks to eradicate them for what "they" did. The funny thing is, along the way, Philip does A LOT of things that would mark him as a devil in the eyes of his fellow Puritans. Here's a post that goes into this.

The biggest indicator that his main motivator is his brother is the very existence of the grimwalkers; logically, he does not need to make clones of Caleb. But Philip is so emotionally dependent on Caleb and broken up over his death that he can't simply let go.

Ultimately, I think religion provides the basic framework for Philip's worldview and it's what he uses to justify his actions, but the emotional core of it is trying to get his brother back and going back to the way things were before.

#the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #asks

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askmadcomcrew · 9 months

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a penny for everyone else’s thoughts on the auditor?

Hank: He leads an entire agency dedicated to killing me. You be the judge.

Sanford: Well considerin' he's basically the main bad guy of this whole thing we got going on...I don't like 'em.

Deimos: Currently the head of the biggest threat to Nevada since the Nexus Core. What's not to love about him?

Doc: Needles to say, not good.

Jeb: He is a dangerous megalomaniac with an endless thirst for power, his agency is just a means to an end. He does not have Nevada's best interest in mind. Besides, he's not even supposed to be here.

Tricky: I GOTTA SAY, I KINDA MISS RUMMAGING AROUND IN HIS GUTS, IT WAS A NICE LITTLE PLAYGROUND FOR ME!! HE SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO LIGHTEN UP A LITTLE, I'D GLADLY TAKE TURNS KILLING HANK WITH HIM, BUT HE WANTS TO HOG ALL THE FUN FOR HIMSELF!!!!

Sheriff: I met 'im a couple-a times, and I ain't got no love for 'im either. Reminds me too damn much 'a Phobos fer one, even his men look damn similar. I try t' steer clear 'a folk like him these days.

Crackpot: An obstacle to be overcome, a simple roadblock. He needs to be removed from the picture. There are bigger, much more important things at hand than just Hank! He of all people should be able to understand that.

Phobos: Impatient, rude, temperamental, and not to mention bossy. He has the potential to lead the most powerful fighting force in Nevada but wastes his time on inferior clones. He's...An idiot. An all-mighty idiot.

#everyone answers #questions

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not-really-a-writer · 2 years

Text

The Jacket

Summary: On a night out, your new boyfriend tries to show off in front of some clones from your unit. They teach him a lesson.

Captain Howzer x fem!reader (nothing actually happens but the beginnings of this pairing are there)

Warnings: 18+only, talk of sex acts, people talking about experience level with sex, alcohol use, jerk boyfriend, cheek kiss, gaslighting, relationship red flags. Beginnings of friends to lovers while still in a relationship so like angsty pseudocheating? Sorry I have talked about irl shitty exes before but my questionable taste in men from my younger years has led me to writing a lot of jerk bf stories. i'm rolling a lot of my fav tropes in this story as always bc i like to lmao ;) ~3k word count

You sit in the large U-shaped booth between your friend Captain Howzer and your boyfriend, Lars. Accompanying you are a few of Howzer's squad members, and many empty pitchers of beer. The night has been long, but it has felt good to get out and spend some time away from work to relax and chat.

Lars is a civilian guy assigned to your unit. You are both familiar with Howzer and the other clones because you work as Republic contractors assigned to post-liberation Ryloth to support the clone battalion under General Syndulla.

Some civilians are there as medical support, or analysts. You and your boyfriend both have specialized training in repairing and refurbishing the Republic issued equipment, thus, your presence was a necessary part of maintaining the battalion readiness this far away from the core worlds and supply lines.

You had spent plenty of time with Captain Howzer going over reports and equipment inventory from his troopers. Your friendship with him grew from your working relationship to the point where you considered yourselves genuine friends. He would often linger in your shop after you’d reviewed all there was to review, just to chat. You would meet up at mealtimes a few times a week when your schedules crossed. Lately, you had been joining Howzer and his squad for physical training. Though you couldn’t fully keep up with them, they let you join in where you could, and let you do your own thing when you couldn’t.

Howzer was a nice guy and you would be lying if you said you didn’t have a little crush on him. A harmless crush you would never act on. But a small part of you was curious to know if Howzer might have a little crush on you too…

Being one of the only females around the base, you heard that you had caught the interest of many civilians and clones alike. Though you weren't necessarily considered beautiful, you did possess that 'girl next door' kind of look that many guys were into. Of course, you weren't aware of this fact until after you established a relationship with your boyfriend, Lars.

You had only been with Lars for about 8 weeks. Meeting the day after you arrived on Ryloth, you got swept up into a romantic relationship with him before you could realize it. You hadn't planned to start an exclusive relationship right away, but he assured you that he was a good guy, a safe person, he wanted you, and somehow you found yourself committing to him despite your plans. You magically had so much in common and of course, you had a lot in common career-wise. Lars came onto you - hard - but you let him. He seemed so into you. And he seemed so interesting with all his crazy stories.

After the first couple of weeks of your whirlwind relationship, things seemed to be fizzling out. As you tried to get to know Lars better, you began to find out that he was a very superficial person. That depth you were searching for was missing, and being with him felt flat. When you were together, you felt empty. It seemed like he only enjoyed when you hung out together with other people, so he could be seen with you. Lars knew that other guys liked you, but you were in a relationship with him. So, he liked showing you off because showing off is what he enjoyed doing the most.

And tonight was no exception to that rule. Lars engages with Howzer’s troopers in conversation, while you and Howzer chat on the side. You have no interest in what Lars was talking about. But Howzer… he told you earlier that he had caught mischievous little Hera and her droid setting him up for a prank, but he decided to go on like he didn't notice. You stifle a giggle as Howzer continues his story. As you listen to him, Lars suddenly and very sloppily throws his arm around your shoulders and pulls you in for a poorly timed kiss. "So, let me tell you what Sarah liked...," Lars continues nonchalantly, turning back to the other troopers.

You roll your eyes as you pull yourself away from Lars, the alcohol in your system inhibiting your ability to conceal your annoyance at your boyfriend and whatever explicit information he might be sharing about his ex-girlfriend with the group. Howzer looks away and chuckles, scrunching up his face. He's not laughing at you, rather, he's laughing at how absurd your boyfriend is acting. His topic of conversation with the others is becoming more and more ironic as the night goes on.

You catch the remains of laughter on Howzer's face. "What are you laughing at?" you ask with exaggerated faux suspicion. Howzer shakes his head and motions toward Lars and the other troopers. "He's still trying to talk to them about women!"

You and Howzer continue to face each other, but fall silent and listen in. *Cringe* He's right. Lars is still trying to 'teach' the boys about sex. Earlier in the night, you tried to shut him up, thinking that the topic may embarrass some of the more inexperienced troopers. Besides, you were getting a little uncomfortable hearing him talk at length and in detail about his sexual experiences with his exes. But your efforts fail and Lars just started on his 'lecture' anyway, pulling up old photos of his 'hot' exes to show off.

Of course, he would love a chance to demonstrate his 'superiority' over these troopers. They were all very intelligent, attractive, and in prime shape physically. No doubt he felt threatened by them. He needed to really stretch it to one-up them on something. So apparently while drinking tonight, he decided he can brag about his sexual escapades to them - The one thing he thinks he knows more about than them.

Howzer had seen men like Lars before. A know-it-all who does everything he can to sound more important, smarter, or better than what he is. Everything is done to maintain an inflated self image. He knew that there seemed to be many of these men scattered throughout the galaxy and they were all the same. Though they had different faces, they were like clones of the same asshole that nobody asked for.

Part of you is embarrassed at Lars' behavior, but earlier in the night, Howzer told you not to worry. You are not responsible for his presumptuous attitude and anything he says. If he wants to make a fool of himself, that has nothing to do with you. And that made you feel better. You and Howzer make faces at each other as you listen in on the ridiculousness Lars spews from his mouth. Stars, Howzer’s face. He has no idea how charming he is.

The troopers with you tonight weren't completely naive about women and sex, though they didn't have as much experience due to the nature of their lives. "Wait, wait, wait," one of the troopers says to Lars, "so your ex actually liked it when you drew out the alphabet with your tongue?" The other troopers all look at each other with amused looks, shaking their heads. Lars sits back in the booth and crosses his arms across his chest. "Yeah. I'm telling ya. All women like that the most," he says with 100% confidence as if he is stating a cold scientific fact.

"I dunno about that," one of the other troopers pipes in, leaning in toward the table. "I always hear about that alphabet thing from guys but no woman I've ever met asks for it. Women I've been with like rhythmic movement and pressure," he says looking to the others. "Yeah, that's what I've noticed too," another trooper says.

Lars pounds back his beer. He looks around them and shakes his head. "I'm telling you guys. I've been around. You should try it out next time. All women like it the best," he assures them.

"I think it's best if you just ask the woman herself what she likes," one of the troopers says, and the others look at him and agree. "Yeah, we're literally clones and we all like different things. Can't say all women like something like that based on your ex," another trooper snickers, bringing the others to laugh along with him.

Lars did not appreciate being laughed at. No doubt it made him feel small in the midst of this group of troopers. "I'm not basing this on just my one ex. All my exes liked it the best. They all said I was amazing when I did it... She likes it the best. That's what she told me last night," he says, wrapping his arm around you and pulling you sideways inward for another ambush style kiss that you were definitely not expecting or wanting.

You feel your cheeks reach boiling point and tears of anger prick your eyes. It would be embarrassing under normal circumstances for your boyfriend to lay out your sexual preferences to your friends, but what he said was simply not true. Why would he say such a thing? You are unable to speak in your anger, embarrassment and confusion.

"Lars!" Howzer says sternly, in his unmistakable Captain's voice, causing the troopers to silence their laughing by instinct. "That's going too far, don't you think?" Howzer bores into Lars's eyes with his hardened stare.

"Relax, I was just giving her a kiss," Lars slurs with a dismissive wave toward him. Howzer relaxes slightly and glances around the booth at his men. A nonverbal exchange happens in that moment, then Howzer continues. "Listen, you don't talk about your girlfriend like she's not sitting here. If she wanted to tell us all that, then she'd tell us. It's not up to you to reveal private stuff like that. You don't tell her business about what she likes or doesn't like in bed just to show off or whatever."

Amazingly, Lars literally pretends that nothing happened, and starts talking about fingering his exes. Most disappointingly, he didn't even notice that he upset you. And this was unfortunately not something new or something you could blame on the alcohol. Recently, he started saying random hurtful remarks, but then pretended that he either didn't say it when you let him know it made you upset, or he would straight up not acknowledge that he made you upset or apologize for his behavior.

Howzer puts a friendly hand on your shoulder and looks at you with a kind expression. He has definitely noticed that you are upset. "Are you OK?" he asks. You wipe your face and look up at him desperately. "I…I think I'm ready to go," you whimper.

Howzer nods, and without a word, looks toward the other troopers at the booth. Again, a nonverbal communication happens between them and they realize exactly what needs to happen. They start to get up and toss down some credits on the table. You take out some credits to cover the rest of the pitchers, and start to slide out of the booth with Howzer. Turning back to Lars, you tug on his jacket sleeve to get him to follow you. Then, your group heads out of the bar and begins the long walk back from the town to the barracks area for the troopers and civilians.

Your group spreads out on the walk back. Of course, Lars makes no effort to walk beside you. He walks a few steps in front of you. A couple of clones walk in front of him, while two troopers place themselves on either side of him. You and Howzer walk together in the back of the group. "...And guys...you gotta really put time into foreplay. That's the most important part," Lars slurs loudly. Ironic that he would say that since he never really did put much effort into foreplay with you. Well, he put effort into receiving it, but not giving it back. In the initial weeks of your relationship, he was a very generous lover, but he quickly revealed his true colors as a lazy and selfish partner in bed.

"But, like don't spoil her either. Because.... because girls will want you to do it all the time," Lars babbles. One of the troopers in front looks backward at his brother behind him. "Oh is that right?," he decides to humor Lars, just so he can hear whatever ridiculous thing he says next. The trooper next to Lars shakes his head and whisper-shouts "Shhh!" but it's too late. Lars is already replying. "Yeah, she'll want you to finger her all the time. Or eat her out or whatever aaaalllll the time. So, here's what you do...,“ he says slyly, pausing for dramatic effect. ”You gotta do it good only sometimes. The rest of the time, you just gotta half ass it so they get bored before your wrist starts hurting," Lars says, completely serious. The trooper in front bursts out laughing, while the other three facepalm and shake their heads.

The desert air is cold at night and regrettably, you are underdressed for the walk home. You feel Howzer's warm hand touch lightly across your bare back as he gets your attention. "Is he this bad all the time?" he asks with concern. You let out a harsh laugh. You wish you could say no, it's just that he's pretty drunk right now and trying to show off, but you can't. He really is that bad, that disconnected from you all the time. Alcohol and competition with clone troopers aside. You decide to answer honestly. "Yeah," you say quietly, allowing the sadness inside you to show on your face. Howzer says nothing while he watches your expression. A cool night breeze puffs by and he pulls you in next to him by your waist to try to keep you warm.

In response to him pulling you in, you wrap one arm around him as well. Your hand finds a home where his torso narrows into his waist. Under your hand, you can’t help but notice the firmness of his muscles as they shift from his movement. You feel his body heat radiating through his black under armor shirt. It feels good. You want to press your whole body into his but you can’t stop walking. You’re so close, you can smell the alcohol on his breath and his musky masculine scent. You want to bury your face in his warm body and breathe him in, but you can't. Not here. Not now.

Ahead of you, you can hear Lars droning on about how good of a boyfriend he is. Again, the trooper in front turns around and asks sarcastically for Lars to tell everyone how he's such a great boyfriend. Unable or unwilling to detect the sarcasm in the clone's voice, Lars proceeds to talk about all the great things he did for ex girlfriends of his and how the troopers should listen up so they can learn how to treat a lady. The trooper in front starts laughing so hard, you think he might fall over. The others are starting to get annoyed at the joke now and want more than anything for Lars to just shut up. You let out a disgusted groan at your boyfriend's words while Howzer hugs you the best he can while walking to try to keep you warm from the cool desert air.

Howzer suddenly interrupts Lars mid-sentence to jeer at him. "So.. you're such a great boyfriend right?"

"Yeah," Lars says simply because he assumes he knows more about relationships and romance than all these troopers combined.

"You sure are, " Howzer mocks him. "Give her your jacket, " he orders, again in his stern Captain's voice. Lars strips his jacket off and hands it backward to you in a wad, while continuing to stumble forward. One of the troopers next to Lars holds his arm and helps to steady him. Howzer helps you put on the jacket, and you continue your walk back to the barracks as a group.

Though you are swaddled in Lars' jacket, Howzer still pulls you toward him, and you wrap your arm back around him too. Your hand finds the familiar place it was before, on his waist, just above his hip. A place you'd like to become more familiar with not just your hand...

Lars stays uncharacteristically silent the short remainder of the walk back. The troopers next to him help him toward his stateroom in the civilian dorms, while Howzer walks with you toward yours. "I'm sorry. I think I was being a little mean earlier," Howzer says with his head down, voice laced with regret. "I think when we're all sober tomorrow I'll apologize to him," he adds.

You nod silently. Lars had a habit of 'forgetting' hurtful or offending things he had said or done. You wondered if he would even apologize to you or anyone else for acting out tonight. You wondered why you were even with him at all.

"Thanks, Howzer," you say, turning to face him. You take a moment to observe his handsome face. His dark eyes are softly focused on yours, his features highlighted by the lighting on the nearby barracks structure. "Thank you for standing up for me, " you say. Howzer’s lips part but he closes them, offering you a small smile as he tips his head in acknowledgement. ”And thanks for the jacket,” you add with a smile, smoothing your hands down the front panels which hang open. You giggle looking up at him, thinking about how funny it was for you to be thanking him for the jacket which wasn’t his.

Howzer returns your smile, but looks over your expression carefully before responding. "You wanna know something funny?" he asks. You raise your eyebrow curiously at him, and wait for him to continue. "Well,... when you first got here, I wanted to talk to you. You know..." Howzer's voice trails off as he runs his hand over the back of his head, looking away and chuckling at himself. "But I thought 'no, she's outta my reach.'" Your cheeks heat up listening to his confession, and you bat your eyes at him, giving him a sweet smile and shaking your head.

If only he had spoken up sooner. Of course, you had noticed him too, but you hadn't thought of pursuing anything further than your work relationship, and friendship. Especially not since you got entangled with Lars so quickly. But now you were starting to see more clearly what kind of partner Lars was turning out to be, and what kind of partner Howzer could be. You were definitely not out of his reach.

Howzer looks back at you with a soft expression you hadn't seen before. This hard soldier, a man of authority for his troops, never wore this kind of face in front of his men. "You deserve a nice guy." he says softly.

"I do have a nice guy already," you say, slowly stepping toward him, and pulling him into a hug. He says nothing, but reciprocates your hug by drawing you into his strong arms. While holding you, he rubs his hand up and down your back slowly, over Lars’ jacket. How you wished to feel his touch on your bare skin. How you wished to feel his skin, anywhere on your body.

Before you pull away, you decide to plant a tender kiss on his cheek. With your bodies still pressed together from your hug, you can feel rise and fall of his chest with every breath he takes. However, the moment your lips touch his face, just over the scar on his cheek, you can feel that he stops breathing.

Once you pull away and step back slightly, Howzer lets out the breath he was holding as a long soft sigh, and a little smirk lifts the corners of his lips. How you felt suddenly curious about feeling his lips on yours.

You exchange goodnights and plan to see each other later in the week when you have to catch up on inventory. Never had you been more excited to do mid-week inventory before.

Alone in your civilian dorm, you plan to make a decision on your relationship with Lars while completely sober, starting with a talk with him the next day.

Thinking back on the night, how ironic of Lars to try to 'teach' the troopers how to treat a lady when they already knew way more than him! Lars really exposed himself as a huge jerk, shaking away the remaining feelings you might have had toward him at the beginning of the night. Meanwhile, Howzer revealed himself to be a real sweetheart.

Lars thought he was teaching the clones a lesson on how to treat a woman, but he really should have sat down and taken notes. Howzer just taught a masterclass on the topic tonight. And you definitely took note of that.

#captain howzer x reader #clone trooper x reader #18+

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mwolf0epsilon · 1 year

Text

Of Hazardous Materials and the Irrelevance of Luck

Summary: Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it. Olly has walked on that thin wire many times in the past, but somehow his good luck seems more of a curse than a blessing in disguise.

[Olly's medical trauma is always "fun" to explore, especially if it has to do with what Sulu Ra did to him. This idea stemmed from a conversation between a few people in regards to headcanon clone heights, the fact the gene therapy Olly was subjected to altered his body substantially, and what would happen if he underwent further tampering with.]

Rhythm and Red Alert are @lost-on-kamino 's clone ocs. Nocte is @purgetrooperfox 's clone oc.

THIS STORY IS NOW ON AO3

---

The annoying part about all of this, is that the cot Olly is laying on creaks loudly beneath him anytime he moves. And not in that subtle whispering manner that most medical cots will do after losing their newness to a handful of patients. Rather, it practically groans in a fashion similar to that of the dying squeals of a battered and frightened hog. Desperate and begging for both relief and to be spared.

A great majority of the Coruscant Guard's medbay gear is rather old and worn out (from cots and heavy machinery, to cabinets barely clinging to the walls they were affixed to).

The equipment they "own" is older than them by two decades. Salvaged from medical facilities that had undergone extensive refurbishing in the last couple of years, during expensive and flashy electoral campaigns that promised to bring change to the underbelly of Coruscant. The kind of gum flapping that evaded memory after the elections were done and dealt with.

Its scuffed and scratched, chipping and creaky, held together by duct tape and whatever materials they can cook up into makeshift caulk in the supply closet. The same one that holds the Guard's distillery where they make their own home-brewed rotgut.

The Coruscant Guard works with what it has at hand.

Be it the many derelict and long-abandoned buildings that had been repurposed into the various barracks dotted across the many layered levels of the city planet; the recovery of junked crockery with which they could create culinary concoctions they had taught themselves to make, whenever rations were cut to lesser portions and the acquisition of ingredients presented itself as opportune; or even the various means by which many of the Guardsmen had turned to to make a quick credit, for the purpose of buying medication to supply their medbay with.

They are in a sense, self sufficient. Vode in a fixer-upper stationing. The lowest of the low in the eyes of others. Survivors without praise.

Olly grunts as he tries to get comfortable on the too stiff medical cot. The sounds it makes when he so much as shifts his weight onto his side, makes him think it might finally give up the ghost and just crumple into a heap. It doesn't, of course, but the creaking is a loud and irritating backdrop to his current predicament.

A couple of days ago a squad of riot troopers that he had been leading, had ended up caught in a warehouse collapse during what should have been a routine mission. The warehouse in question had been used as a base of operations for some wannabe homegrown bio-terrorist, and the number of unknown chemicals and agents that had been spilled and disturbed during the collapse was certainly worrying. Especially when the boys in haz-suits came out to dig him and his troopers out of the debris.

The most spectacular part was that, for once, there were no casualties to report.

The entire squad had lived through the collapse, which was an unprecedentedly lucky occurrence that somehow hadn't sat well with Olly in the slightest.

He should be glad that none of the young turtles he'd been helping coordinate had gotten seriously hurt or killed. But something deep down in his very core just told him to be wary. Even if he didn't quite understand why.

Well, it had turned out that he was right to be suspicious of the bout of good fortune...

The Guard medics had their hands full with whatever this turned out to be. This unknown ailment without a rhyme or reason to it.

Olly wasn't super close to any of them (he was still learning the names of most of them anyway). And, even if Rhythm had managed to get him to go to the medbay for his PT sessions with Remedy, he wasn't entirely familiar with the medical personnel and their usual demeanor.

Even so, he could tell his fellow vode in red weren't taking this too well. And not without good reason.

Some rather strange symptoms had cropped up a couple of days after the warehouse collapse the turtle squad had been caught in. Symptoms that Olly had initially ignored because they weren't too dissimilar from his usual aches and pains he already endured on a regular basis.

A rather persistent throbbing feeling in the legs (more specifically on the front of the thighs, the calves and behind the knees). Abdominal pain that surged like a stomach ache or heartburn. Headaches and migraines that made resting an agony. Toothaches that made eating difficult. And sometimes inner-ear pain that affected his balance to the point he couldn't really get up without the threat of falling over.

None of that compared to the back pain, but it compounded the effects it had on his mood. How disagreeable he could get if he wasn't entirely 100%. Olly was often lucky that these aches and pains often struck him in the late afternoon or early evening, and that they subsequently disappeared by morning. But sometimes there were bad days where it just wouldn't go away...

So imagine his surprise (and horror) when his squad began to complain of similar instances of his condition. Something had most definitely gone wrong.

Of course, as procedure mandated, Olly and the others had been thoroughly scrubbed and hosed down after rescue, and then quarantined for a period of 48 hours while under observation. Just in case the chemicals they'd been exposed to, turned out to be more than just base components for whatever the nutjob they'd sent to prison had been cooking up in there.

As a general rule of thumb, you didn't take chances with bio-terrorism and bio-hazardous materials. Good troopers either followed the correct protocol, or they suffered the consequences of their bullheadedness accordingly.

In this case however, they had indeed followed the protocol to a T and somehow they still ended up in a bad way. Nothing major had cropped up in the first, second and third day, so they had just assumed everyone was in good health. No one had considered the possibility of it being a sickness of a latent nature...

Remedy and Nocte were trying everything in their power to figure out just what exactly was causing their bizarre symptoms. Trying to single out what sort of strange strain of bacteria, virus, compound or whatever, might be behind the alterations in their bodies, in the hopes that maybe it could be stopped and reversed.

They were a two man team, but also the only medics that could honestly be spared right now. The other medics would have to focus on the influx of troopers that always ended up in their care during the dreaded Coruscanti flu season.

Thus far the only promising results came from the blood tests that had been run on every single trooper showing visible symptoms of the mystery ailment. It didn't look good. Or at least not for the rest of Olly's squad...

"I'm not exactly sure how, but whatever it is that you all were exposed to back in the warehouse, is reacting differently inside of you..." Nocte confessed as he showed Olly the datapad he'd been carrying with him. "The others show the same abnormal levels of HGH. That's to say, all of your pituitary glands are being forced to produce growth hormones at an elevated rate, which is causing unusual growth in the others... But not in your case."

Olly swallowed thickly around the lump forming in his throat as he processed this information. The terms were ones he was intimately familiar with from his time sequestered in Sulu Ra's private laboratory. The most layman way to say it being that he was under-growing another bout of growth spurts. Almost in the same manner as when he'd been put through the gene therapy that had ended up causing him so much hassle on a daily basis.

Only this time he wasn't strapped to some medical table and being injected with liquid fire, while the mad cloner of Kamino watched on in fascination. And this time he wasn't the only one. He was just the guy that had already experienced something similar (and as such had a better chance to survive it that everyone else).

"The others?" He opted to ask, finding to his dissatisfaction that he sounded weak and scared. He was usually good at hiding what he was feeling, but right now he couldn't really bring himself to be anything but pathetically afraid.

Nocte's frown said it all before he even responded.

"Remedy and I are... Trying to keep them comfortable..." The sadness in the medic's eyes bothered Olly enough that he couldn't help look away. "Your body is reacting almost positively to the hormonal imbalance. You're aching all over, have an appetite on you, and have been a little less amicable than usual... Which is honestly what one would expect of someone going through a second puberty of sorts..."

Nocte paused to massage the back of his own neck and to shift his weight from one leg to the other. He seemed to be trying his best to keep things relatively under control, but he seemed to be struggling with finding words that didn't feel overly clinical and impersonal.

The medics could often distance themselves from the patients when they were working. But this was one of those cases where the impartial act really didn't cut it. Vode were dying, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"The others are... It's not an even growth for them. It's reacting more like... Like a very aggressive cancer..." He didn't seem happy to use that word, but it was the closest he could probably find to match what he and Remedy had seen in the others. "Their entire bodies are getting covered in tumorous growths. Inside and out... And it's... It's painful for them, and they're not very likely to survive."

His squad wasn't going to make it. They just didn't have the equipment or resources necessary to save them.

Olly closed his eyes and tried to keep his breathing under control.

"I'm really sorry Olly... I really wish I had a better answer to give you." Nocte sighed sadly, sounding just as defeated as the large riot trooper himself felt. "Remedy isn't too happy about just letting them go either. But at this point trying to reduce their pain is the best we can do..."

So long as the boys weren't in pain... That was all he could really ask from the medics.

"And we'll also be keeping you under observation for a little while longer." Nocte added. "Even if you're not mutating out of control like they are, you could still deteriorate if we're not careful..."

The cot creaked loudly as he turned so that his back would face the medic. The sound didn't bother him as much as the awful truth he'd just heard. It was still very annoying however, but it hopefully got the message across.

He wanted to be left alone. Just for a little while.

"You should get fitted for Phase II armour." Rhythm suggested as he stood on a chair, measuring tape in hand while he balanced himself on his very tippy toes.

It had been a week since he'd been confined to the medbay, and a day since he'd finally been allowed to return to the barracks.

It was a hollow feeling, as he noted the empty space his squad used to occupy. They had all passed away peacefully in their sleep thanks to the combined efforts of the medics. But the reason behind their passing still left him feeling angry and disgusted.

He'd been lucky. He hated being lucky.

He also hated having to be measured to have his gear readjusted to properly fit his frame. A frame that was no longer within average human parameters.

"8'3"... Damn..." Red Alert whistled as he stared at the tape in astonishment. He had the decency to look apologetic when he got a glare for his troubles.

"We're going to need to get you a bigger mattress..." Rhythm scratched his chin as he looked around the barracks for where they could even put a new mattress to begin with. Was probably already considering all the scavenge spots from where they usually got their "furniture" from.

"We're gonna need to get him a bigger everything." Red Alert shook his head. "Armour, baton, shield..."

Olly moved away from the two of them without so much as a word. He didn't want to be a part of this conversation. Not right now. He was too tired to get angry with his two oblivious friends.

All of this was just... It was too much.

Sitting on his old bunk (having to hunch down noticeably so that his head and shoulders weren't pressed against the bottom of the top bunk ), Olly buried his face in his hands and groaned.

He hated all of this so very much.

"Olly...?" Rhythm had, predictably, followed him.

He closed his eyes tightly and groaned into his hands again, this time gritting his teeth as he did so. He didn't want to talk.

"Is it ok if I touch your arm?"

He shook his head 'no'. He did NOT want to be touched right now.

"Do you need space?"

He shook his head 'yes'.

"Do you... Want us to leave?"

There was a minute pause as he considered this. Finally, Olly shook his head 'no' once more. He didn't want to be touched, and he wanted a little space. But he didn't want to be alone. Not really.

He was scared.

"Ok... We'll just sit here with you for a while ok?" Rhythm asked softly, in that way he always did whenever he was trying to reassure someone. "And then, when you feel a little better, we can go back to sorting out your gear, alright?"

He nodded in agreement. That sounded fine by him.

"Looking good Olly! Phase II is very becoming of you." Rhythm grinned at the sight of the new armour Olly was currently trying out. He ignored his Guard vod's antics, noting how some of the pieces still needed to be fitted to his specific body type.

"The Phase I armour was perfectly fine..." He grumbled as he jotted down a few notes to send to the armoury crew. He also requested some paint while he was at it.

"It's outdated." Rhythm pointed out. "Your old one had charm and reliability yeah, but I'm sure this new one's going to serve you just as well."

"Hm..." The new shield would do that, no doubt. He quite liked the heftiness of it, but would miss the history he'd had with the old one. Each deep scratch had told its own story. Stories which he could use to teach the newbies how things worked around Coruscant.

But Fox hadn't been content with just refitting his old gear to accommodate his growth. And the riot trooper suspected Rhythm, Remedy and Nocte had had a hand in requesting him an upgrade. They worried too much.

"You should try being a little bolder with the painjob this time." Rhythm offered. "Not that writing your name on it wasn't bold..."

"I really shouldn't be taking painting advice from a vod who put volume sliders on his own armour, only to then nearly deafen himself by playing loud music all day..." Olly pointed out. "Remedy is still mad about that, last I heard."

"Nah..." Rhythm grins. "Water under the bridge! And hey my paint is very stylish, I'll have you know! Some would say my volume sliders are very fashionable and fun, even!"

"The DJ community is not known for having sensible taste in fashion..."

"You wound me..."

Olly rolled his eyes and continued to inspect himself in the much too short mirror. He might be able to make this work, despite the slight inconvenience his new height offered him.

Whatever the case, he'd be more wary in the future. There were only so many times he could be "lucky" until his "good luck" finally ran out.

Hopefully the next time wouldn't be so tragic.

#Eps Writes #star wars #the clone wars #clone ocs #riot trooper olly olly oxenfree #riot trooper red alert #communications corrie rhythm #clone medic nocte #remedy gets mentioned a bunch but he doesn't actually show up #also yes olly is now canonically 8'3" and he hates it

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littleeyesofpallas · 1 year

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Unpopular opinion: I know people love Jon, especially now that he's Supertwunk and all.. and I know Clark×Lois is sort of THE icon of squeaky clean, superhero embodies mainstream American values romance, and how the temptation is to give them that generic unmuddled and uncomplicated happy ending, but I really just can't let go of the headcanon that Clark should absolutely not be able to procreate with a human, and that the acceptance of that inability to have his own kids with Lois, as well as the struggle with notions of his, and Krypton's legacy that might come from that, should 100% be a core facet of his character later in life.

And that applies whether or not the alternative to explore is

not having kids at all,

adopting kid(s),

a clone situation like Conner(if not Conner himself),

or some kind of human sperm doner/kryptonian surrogate pregnancy situation.

Nothing against Jon personally; his run as superboy was fun, him as superman has been fine (but such a mundane "fine" that feels hard to justify at times), but he's honestly kind of the worst possible outcome of Clark and Lois's relationship. Not by any direct fault of his own but just because his existence is mutually exclusive to so many better stories that could be being told about Superman as a father.

Like... I understand the temptation- not even "temptation" but just reflex- to want, or even to just assume out of hand, that of course Superman would have the most effortless, uncomplicated, picture perfect version of any normal life event. He's SUPERMAN. He makes everything look good. Superman doesn't get into interpersonal drama, he's always optimistic, and hopeful, and inspiring, etc... It's what transforms the big blue boyscout routine from obnoxious unreality to aspirational exemplar.

And that's kind of why I'm so into the idea of him and Lois wanting but not being able to have their own kids; because that's a very real thing for a lot of couples, and it's something that is all too frequently treated as some great tragedy for them(even as i write this i struggle to think of clear terms for this that aren't built on questionable if not outright negative connotations) But it's far from an end of the world scenario. And that's precisely why the sparkling paragon that is SUPERMAN being able to shine an optimistic light on those alternatives to concieving a child feels so powerful.

(Oh and thats not even touching on the parallels with his own parents. I kind of forget that an implicit part of his backstory is that Jon and Martha never had kids of their own.)

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calyssmarviss · 2 years

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Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi Part V

So last week i had two people to scream at bit now I’m back to shouting at the internet instead.

I’ve seen, uh, not exactly spoilers but hints and inside jokes because i went on tumblr a bunch of times today forgetting it was Wednesday and i have high hopes for this one

Recap

Oh yeah Obi-Wan and Leia were both pretty badass in the last one, trench-coat incident notwithstanding

STOP SAYING HE'S AN OLD MAN OH MY GOD I CHECKED LAST WEEK HE'S ONLY 48

Titlecard

ARE WE IN CORUSCANT

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT

HELLO DARLING

SHUT UP THAT'S FLIRTING

Karen Miller was on that balcony in spirit

See, Vader’s blowing hard just thinking about it

Mhm I’ve fought GoH battles on that bridge

Vader: onto more important matters: where’s my boyfriend

“Kneel.”

Kinky.

Ew. Grand Inquisitor, really?

Field trip to Jabiim let’s go

Haja!

Why didn’t they drop her to Alderaan before. I could probably answer that but i would need to go to my maps and, oh, fuck it

Yeah so it would have not taken much more time to drop Leia first but idk maybe it would be harder to travel through the Core worlds with the increased imperial presence… like, checkpoints on the lanes and pitstop planets

How long can they travel without stopping anyway?

Vader staring into hyperspace is… something. Idk what but it gives me feelings okay.

I’m just like him when i go to new planets in Borderlands 3 i stand i front of the ship and wait for the reveal.

Why is it all so dark on Jabiim i can’t see shit

That second hand lightsaber stand

“It’s not her, it’s Vader.”

Why are they like this. I mean. He’s not wrong but still.

“He’ll attack next. He hasn’t the patience for a siege.”

why is this so funny to me

“How do you know?”

*flashback to Wild Space*

Oh it’s a little bit weird to see them both with blue lightsabers and i watched some Clone Wars a few days ago.

Man that haircut. I know people who must have wept with joy from seeing the return of Wolfman Kenobi.

That back to back.

“Mercy doesn’t defeat an enemy, master.”

Oh Hayden, I’ve missed you so

“Which is why you’re gonna lose.”

I feel like I’ve written a scene just like this.

God we’re only eight minutes in.

I paused on a really pretty shot of the destroyer right in front of Jabiim i wish i could take a screenshot so bad rn

I’m such a fucking nerd i see a pretty planet and a couple fighters and i want to cry

Ooh, this feels very Last Jedi suddenly. Without the salt and the foxes.

Why? Are they blowing up the door when they apparently can lock down the place? How could they lock it down? What the fuck are they doing.

“I’m going to need a ladder.”

Oh right, it’s Lola. Already forgot.

Yeah so they couldn’t ask Lola to keep the front door open?

Why is it so dark?

Bail mail!

“We’re in trouble.”

No shit. What were we even doing checking our emails and spilling our backstory when the Empire is right at the front door

Here comes the Negotiator!

“Lord Vader will have you at any cost.”

“You mean Anakin.”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HE GOT HER NUMBER

that’s beautiful payback for episode 2

“I was too weak.”

“They were the only family I knew. And he slaughtered them.”

“You’re not helping him are you? You’re hunting him.”

Well.

“Let me help you.”

“Why would i trust you.”

“Because we want the same thing.”

“Do you, Obi-Wan? Do you really want Anakin dead?”

Girl heard the stories you know. Two halves of a same warrior and all that. Damn, maybe she even spotted the Open Circle insignia on one of the thousands warships you put it on. Who knows.

“Where were you? When he was killing my friends?”

NOT WITH HIM AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE THIS PROBLEM. He went to Utapau and took Anakin’s single braincell with him.

Hey no not the mute droid

I swear those two motherfuckers have been having a… Force bond discussion of a sort since Obi-Wan has been aware of Anakin being alive.

“Tell her to stand down. Kenobi is already ours.”

What was i saying?!

“There’s no way out, Master.”

Yeah this is not a memory i think. That’s mental battle.

Oh no his face when he says

“Admit you are beaten.”

That’s unfair man.

Who wrote this show? I have no idea. Anyway.

Here i paused to full on cry for two minutes and then realized why the girl were talking about praise kink regarding this episode

Also this show is making me feel strangely validated about past writing choices

“It’s over. I’m going back.”

“Vader wants me.”

Joby and Andrew we need to talk.

Obi-Wan said there were other ways to fight than lightsabers and m’y thoughts immediately turned dirty until i remembered the state of Anakin right now

Man i hope those Force ghosts are having the best time

“You’re not bringing him to me. I’m bringing him to you.”

Well fuck for a second there i misheard i thought he was bringing her to him like hi babe here’s the traitor in your inquisition but no what he’s actually doing is breaking my heart again

“We could end this together.”

Ben you’re tearing this family apart

“Because all he’ll see is me.”

We get it okay. He’s obsessed with you.

Think none of the stormtroopers hear that little convo?

And… they just bring him back inside?

“There. Your weapon’s gone. It’s over.”

Hayden has such a pretty smile.

“Your need for victory, Anakin it blinds you.”

So much could have been avoided if he’d just told him he was a good boy.

“Where is he.”

He asked once more, with feeling.

Leia baby, they need you to haul ass. Not me though. Take as much time as you want. This is fun.

Leia vs Lola

From spy to lamp torch

Why weren’t those people already on the ship

That’s SO sexy 🤩

I found my next desktop picture Vader’s back on main stage

I’m so disappointed this was so hot listen i don’t give a fuck about those innocent people Anakin deserved to win this one for sheer badassness

He didn’t even get to see him :(

So what they’re saying is that he’s still a Padawan lol give him some pearls to clip to his helmet

Hahaha Reva what did you think would happen.

Well i guess he did give her to him in the end

Hahahahaha he’s playing with her

He doesn’t even have his lightsaber out

🎶 This is the Vader Show 🎶

And it’s beautiful

Bye Reva

“Did you really believe i did not see it, youngling?”

Hey, the Rebels fans were right about that guy! He’s not dead!

“Our hyperdive is down. And they’re behind us.”

So what say you, General Kenobi?

What is that?

Oh it’s his comm

Back to Tatooine we go!

“I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Right.

You look like you’re gaving more than a bad feeling about this.

Hey Luke.

I / II / III

#I’m gonna need some strong rots fix it when this show is over #calyss watches star wars #nothing of value here just ramblings #high hopes fulfilled #obi wan kenobi #the obi wan show #owk spoilers #star wars spoilers #obikin #vaderwan

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