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kit-fisto-obsessive · 1 year

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Captain Rex Is In Trouble

Chapter 3: Downtime And The Duality Of Man (Cody)

AO3

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Summary

Rex didn’t get a lot of time to relax when he was aboard the Resolute. If they weren’t in active battle, they were either preparing for it or recovering from it. Even his leisure time was taken up with datawork, disciplinary actions, training, and making sure that Ahsoka was doing her independent learning, assuming Anakin wasn’t around to help her.

Notes

Sophi is named after my late dog. I will take no criticism on this.

Rating: T

Warnings

N/A

It was a sad statement about his life that these days that the most relaxing thing he did was datawork.

That being said, he reckoned he'd figured out a way to make it more enjoyable. Doing it with either a cup of kaf, tea, hot chocolate, or brandy in one hand was the first way, but he'd learnt that location and company also had a lot to do with making it more bearable. They’d cleared out a storage room on the Resolute, shoved a few old sofas in there and thrown blankets and handmade cushions about to make it comfortable. They called it the officer’s lounge, but really it was Torrent’s hang-out space.

Venators are big. They’re full of empty spaces, emergency bunk space and extra storage. Most companies have made themselves a similar spot, or kitted out their bunk rooms with homemade furniture and other things. Today, in Torrent’s designated chillaxing den - Anakin’s words and not Rex’s - the company was also as good as it got.

Ahsoka was lying on a rug, made from scraps of old black undersuits all woven together. She kicked her feet together, chewing her stylus thoughtfully as she worked on whatever it is she was working on. Anakin and Echo were working on reports, as was Jesse. Fives was supposed to be doing that too, but he was dozing instead. Kix and Hardcase were both filling out requisition forms, for medical and weaponry respectively.

The best bit though, was that Cody and Obi-Wan were there. Rex hadn’t actually seen Cody in person since the dinner party last month, but the joint operation they were working on meant that he and Obi-Wan were staying on the Resolute to prepare. Now they were lounging on one of the sofas, leaning against each other while they each did their respective work.

Well, Obi-Wan was working. Cody was scowling into his datapad and typing incessantly, so he was probably arguing with someone in his batch chat.

Dogma and Tup were there too, doing their own thing. Torrent’s newest members were both fairly quiet. Rex was trying to keep a close eye on them after Umbara. To say it had been a rough first deployment was a little bit of an understatement.

Not everyone in the battalion had seen how close they’d gotten to true disaster, but Dogma and Tup had been too involved not too. The top brass had decided to keep it quiet, which Rex wasn’t comfortable with but he was unfortunately used to by now. He wasn't sure how Dogma and Tup were taking it.

It was unfair they had so much to deal with on their first shakedown, but nothing was fair in Rex’s experience. He was keeping an eye on them both, still waiting for it to hit them. He or Kix would make sure they were there to catch them when it did.

Today wasn’t going to be that day though. Dogma was invested in something on his pad. It looked like he was reading, scowling deeply. It didn’t look like he was reading a story with an expression like that, but Rex didn’t know what else it could be. Member of the 501st’s premier company he might be, but he was still a little too shiny to be doing any actual datawork, however that was a datawork expression if Rex had ever seen one.

Tup, with his rapidly tapping fingers and tongue stuck out to one side, was clearly playing a game. He looked like he was having fun.

Rex went back to his datawork, smiling a little to himself. They reminded him a lot of him and Kix, or Fives and Echo, Fox and Wolffe. Everyone had a favourite batchmate, and if you were lucky enough, you might get to keep them.

"Oh that sith sucking son of a whore!"

Fives woke up, coughing.

Cody, while not Rex’s batchmate, was definitely tied with Kix for 'favourite'. Especially when he did stuff like this.

He’d only recently relaxed enough to remove the stick from his ass around Torrent and Ghost, largely thanks to Kenobi. It was odd, because according to Fox, Cody pretty frequently gushed about them, Fives and Echo in particular, on their private batch chat that Rex wasn't allowed into for bullshit reasons. However, there were plenty of things that were slightly odd about Cody, and one of those things was his obsession with trying to keep his professional and personal lives separate.

It was a losing game, for many reasons, the first of which being their personal and professional lives were one and the same. Did it even count as a professional life if you were a slave?

Anyway. The rest of Torrent hadn't yet been exposed to this side of Cody.

The deranged bastard side, that is.

There are six people that could make Cody pull that expression, and Rex was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything recently to earn it. Nor was Cody currently trying to beat the snot out of him, so it must be one of the others.

Actually, Cody was glaring fiercely at Obi-Wan, so it might not be any of them. Nice for Obi-Wan that he’d been promoted to the list of people that could make Cody absolutely lose his shit.

"Is there a problem darling?" Kenobi enquired lightly, not looking up from his datapad. It was absolutely the correct reaction.

Nothing could make Cody lose his shit faster than ignoring him while he was in a strop. This was going to be entertaining.

"It was you," Cody seethed, pointing an accusatory finger at Obi-Wan.

"What was me?" Kenobi murmured, still not looking up from his pad.

Kix, having known Cody for only a few months less than Rex, didn’t look up from his work either.

Fives, Echo, Hardcase and Jesse were looking at Cody with expressions of fascination, horror, glee and utter confusion, in that order. Dogma and Tup looked like eeyopies caught in speeder headlights, their faces identical expressions of shock. Ahsoka was watching him like he was a particularly entertaining animal at the zoo.

She wasn’t wrong. Rex loved it when Cody went off like this, especially in front of people who hadn’t seen it before. He was usually so calm and controlled, it was like he bottled it all up. Shake that bottle, and watch him explode. Rex wished he had some bangcorn.

Another good thing about having Ahsoka around was that Kenobi was around much more often too, something about lineage pride and not trusting Anakin with a child. That was what he said at least, but Rex reckoned it was because he adored the kid just as much as everyone else did.

Rex was friendly enough with Obi-Wan. Some days it felt like they were Anakin's parents, exasperated and bemused and occasionally banging their heads against the wall. It was nice to see more of him, but with Obi-Wan came Cody. No offence to Kenobi, but Rex much preferred his big brother.

That, coupled with the removal of the stick from his ass, had led to their current situation: off-duty datawork in companionable silence, until Cody started swearing about… well, Rex wasn't entirely sure yet, but it was bound to be entertaining.

"You told Fox all that stuff about me," Cody hissed, a little quieter.

That made Obi-Wan look up. Rex leaned forward.

"What stuff?" he asked, blinking confusedly.

"Stuff," Cody whined, "about me, that I don't want him to know."

"Wait," Anakin said, frowning. "You tell Fox stuff about sex with Cody?"

"What?"

Cody, Anakin and Obi-Wan all looked at each other with utter confusion. Fives looked like he was to vibrate out of his skin with uncontrolled joy. Dogma looked utterly horrified.

Kix sighed and put his datapad down.

"Where the hell did you get that idea from?" Cody exclaimed.

"You said it was stuff that you don't want Fox knowing!" Anakin shouted back.

"Not sex stuff," Cody exploded. "Unless-" he turned back towards Obi-Wan. "You don't talk to Fox about sex with me, right?"

"Of course I don’t!"

Fives and Hardcase started cackling in the background.

"Cody, what in the Galaxy are you talking about?" Kenobi sighed. "What ‘stuff’ am I telling Fox?"

"Embarrassing stuff!" Cody exclaimed. "Like. Me getting injured and Rex forcefully sedating me.” Echo smothered his laugh with a cough, badly. Cody glared at him before turning back to Obi-Wan. “I thought it was Rex that told on me, but then a few months after that Fox knew I got concussed walking into a door and Rex didn't know about that, and I didn't let Sophi file a report about it either, so it must've been you!"

"You got a concussion by walking into a door?" Anakin asked.

"Again? Cody," Kix sighed. "That's really not good for your brain."

"What brain?" Rex muttered. He ducked the random bit of metal Cody threw at his head with ease.

"It was only mild, my brain's fine," Cody dismissed, already moving on.

"Wait," Rex said, frowning. "Those were both months ago. How are you only figuring this out now?"

"Wait. You knew about it?"

"Sophi told us immediately," Kix said, stretching his back out. "Sent me the scans so I could see your lonely brain cell for myself. Poor sick thing."

Dogma looked terrified that Cody might explode Kix with his mind for the insubordination. Force knew it looked like he was trying. It wouldn’t take long for Dogma to figure out that insubordination may as well be Kix’s middle name.

Hell, they only had one name. It may as well be his first.

Cody gave up glaring at Kix and rounded back on Rex.

"So it was you who told Fox?"

"Nah," Rex shrugged, "I don't tend to tell him stuff I want to use as my own blackmail later."

Their audience watched on, fascinated.

"No. It was me, I'm afraid," said Obi-Wan, "on both occasions. I wasn't aware that you knew each other."

“Fox wouldn’t have told you on purpose,” Cody said easily. “Not your fault.”

He sat back down, steepling his fingers together and squinting.

“This requires revenge,” he glanced back at Obi-Wan. “You in?”

“Not in the slightest,” he replied, going back to his work. Cody pouted, but Obi-Wan just kept working on his datapad.

“I’m in,” Anakin said, crossing his legs and leaning forwards. “I’m always down for a little revenge, doesn’t matter whose.”

“You shouldn’t cross Fox, Anakin,” Obi-Wan murmured, scrolling through his datapad slowly. “He rents your arm back to you at a very reasonable price.”

“Excuse me?” Rex said.

“I lost my arm, my prosthetic one, to Fox in a game of strip sabacc,” Anakin explained as if it made any sense. “Or it might have been snap… it’s a bit fuzzy. We were very drunk.”

“Anakin and Fox are no longer allowed to socialise unsupervised,” Obi-Wan added.

Everyone stared at Anakin.

“I can see that,” Cody said after a brief pause.

“It wasn’t even that bad,” Anakin said, rolling his eyes.

“If you hadn’t spilled the last of that bottle, there is a very real possibility you both would have died from alcohol poisoning.”

“We barely hallucinated.”

“That’s not good, Anakin!”

“So what do you pay him to use your arm?” Rex asked curiously.

“The reasonable monthly cost of my immortal soul,” Anakin replied easily.

Ahsoka started giggling, rolling onto her back and clutching at her stomach.

“We also don’t play strip sabacc anymore,” Obi-Wan said. “Fox said he was bored of seeing us naked and wanted our money instead.”

“What?” Cody coughed.

“We started with strip sabacc on the basis that Fox didn't have any money, or many possessions to bet with.”

“After that last game of sabacc, I think he has more money than us now,” Anakin lamented.

“No. Wait. Stop.” Cody held his hands up, staring at Obi-Wan. “Fox has seen you naked?”

“Both of us. Several times,” Obi-Wan said. “He’s really very good at sabacc. It’s highly irritating.”

“Oh come on,” Anakin said, stretching his back. “If you actually cared that much you could win easily. You just let them have their fun because you don’t want to admit how nice you actually are.”

Obi-Wan’s head snapped up.

“What do you mean, let ‘them’ have their fun?”

Anakin blinked.

“You mean you don't know?”

“Know what?”

There was a brief moment where Anakin and Obi-Wan were staring at each other, both confused. It hung in the air like a bead of water hanging from the tap, mere microseconds before it dropped. Then Anakin’s face cracked into a wide, triumphant smile.

“Hah! I noticed something you didn't!” he crowed, jabbing a finger in Obi-Wan's scowling face.

“Anakin, tell me-”

“Me! I noticed something that you, Mr Observant, Mr Genius Investigator, didn't!” he leapt up from his spot on the sofa, hair flopping around his face. “This might be the greatest day of my life! Ahsoka, take a holo.”

“Anakin!” Obi-Wan cried, outraged.

After a brief staring contest, Anakin rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the couch.

“Oh fine,” he sulked. “You know how whenever you play sabacc with Fox, Vos is always there too?”

Obi-Wan nodded, slowly.

“And even though Vos is almost as good as you at sabacc, when you play with Fox he always loses even worse than you do?”

Obi-Wan looked confused for a moment, then there was a split second when realisation dawned before his face was overtaken with absolute fury. Rex hadn’t seen Obi-Wan look like that before, but it was the same expression that Cody had been wearing only minutes beforehand.

“Oh that utter fucking slut,” he seethed. “I'm going to murder him. What a fucking whore.”

He stood and began pacing the room, Ahsoka scrambling out of his way as she continued to giggle helplessly.

“I don't get it.” Hardcase said slowly.

“He's deliberately throwing the odds so that his boyfriend wins,” Obi-Wan explained, running a hand through his hair.

“Who is?”

“Vos! My so-called best friend!” Obi-Wan continued to pace. “I'm going to burn his hair off, I swear it. How did I never notice?”

“Because you're so unhealthily competitive that when you start to lose a card game you go completely insane?” Anakin offered. “Lose your grip on reality and turn into a screaming toddler?”

“You do, Master Obi-Wan,” Ahsoka said, resting her chin on her knees. “You really do.”

“If I wasn’t so incensed, you’d both be punished,” Obi-Wan said, thumbing his beard. “As it stands…” He turned towards Cody. “I retract my previous statement.”

“What?”

“Revenge. Let's do it.”

“This is why I love you,” Cody said, standing and clapping Obi-Wan on the shoulders. As he leaned forwards to brush a kiss against Obi-Wan’s lips; Anakin, Rex and Ahsoka made simultaneous gagging noises.

“Shut up,” Cody said as he pulled back. “So, Cyare, let's start planning.”

“I wouldn’t,” Kix muttered. “Last time you tried to get revenge on Fox you ended up with a serious concussion and sharp force trauma to your forehead.”

“What did he do to you?” Ahsoka exclaimed, looking up at Cody with wide eyes.

“Oh. Nothing. I was chasing him and I fell down some stairs,” Cody dismissed. “Besides, that's not the last time I tried to get revenge on Fox, that’s just the last time you knew about it.”

“Good thing I did,” Kix muttered. “Rex and Fox thought you were dead. They were going to throw your body into the ocean so they didn’t get in trouble with the longnecks.”

“In my defence,” Rex said, holding his hands up, “I knew Cody wasn’t dead, I just really wanted him to be.”

He dodged another flying projectile, laughing.

“Wait, Kamino doesn’t even have stairs,” Fives said, leaning forwards.

“The access walkways on the outside of the cities do,” Rex explained. “Cody chased Fox out there one day after Fox stole his contraband.”

“How long have you all known each other?” Tup said. He flushed a little as Rex turned to him.

“Cody and Fox and the rest of their asshole batch?” Rex said. “Since I was almost five.”

“I found Rex in the garbage and felt sorry for him,” Cody explained, wrapping an arm around Obi-Wan as he settled back down beside him. “Worst mistake of my life.”

Rex flipped him off with a grin.

“Known them for even longer than I’ve known Kixy over there,” he finished.

“Wait,” Hardcase said. “I thought you two were batchmates?”

Rex swallowed, glancing at Kix then Cody. He sighed, scratching the back of his neck.

“We were, but not originally,” he said quietly. “We were a scraps batch.”

Hardcase nodded, and Tup and Dogma glanced at each other quietly.

“What’s that?” Ahsoka asked quietly.

“A scraps batch is a batch made up of clones who lost their original batches,” Kix explained quietly.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all in the past,” Rex replied. “Sides, I did pretty well out of it. Kixy here, and Keeli. Sophi and Howie. We had fun.”

“Sure did,” Kix murmured, and they mimed high-fiving across the room.

“I’m your favourite though,” Cody said.

“Least favourite, more like.”

“I should have left you in the trash you ungrateful piece of shit.”

“Fox is my favourite. He’s nicer to me than you are.”

“Cos Foxes love garbage is why.”

Rex flung a pillow at Cody’s head, who ducked laughing.

“Back to planning revenge,” he continued. “It’ll have to be next time we’re on Coruscant, unless we’re sneaky about it. Anakin could help us slice into their comms or something.”

“Yeah,” Kix snorted, “because that's gonna go well. Have you ever actually managed to get revenge on Fox? Ever?”

“Once. It was the greatest day of my life.”

“What did you do?” Echo asked, leaning forwards.

“I farted in his helmet,” Cody said. Jesse choked. “He doesn’t know. Although, that helmet got destroyed so I need to fart up his new one.”

“I can’t believe you’re a Marshall Commander,” Kix sighed. “That’s the worst revenge ever.”

“Hey, it’s old school but it worked!”

“It’s childish!”

"It's awful, Commander," Fives said, grinning. "Really shit. Aren't you supposed to be a tactical genius or something?"

Cody gestured rudely at Fives, who started laughing so hard he collapsed sideways into Echo.

“I’m not sure I can think of anything belonging to Quinlan that you could fart in,” Obi-Wan mused, stroking his beard. “Not anything he uses often anyway.”

“Getting any kind of revenge on Fox is doomed to fail,” Rex said. “Especially if you throw Vos into the mix. He’s like… Fox but less bothered about appearing sane in public, and he’s a Jedi. He’s Fox with a lightsaber. You’re both fucked. No offence, General Kenobi.”

“None taken,” Obi-Wan said. “I’m fully aware of what ridiculously dramatic and sadistic bastards they both can be. Quinlan and I grew up together.”

Cody chuckled.

“Having Fox and Wolffe as older brothers growing up was great,” he mused, stretching his arms behind his head. “Both of them are such fucking assholes. As long as they weren’t pissed off at you they were so much fun. Fox could build paint bombs.”

“Commander Fox,” Jesse said, his eyebrow raised. “Really? The guy who busted us just for crashing a couple speeders?”

Rex remembered Fox laughing at him afterwards and calling his men a bunch of idiots while forcing Rex to watch the video of said idiocy over and over again. A few months ago Fox had even sent a video of him perfectly executing the move they’d been attempting, because he was an asshole.

“Him and Wolffe, they're kind of like Fives and Echo,” Cody explained.

“How’d you mean?” Fives asked.

“You know,” Rex said. “Echo uses Fives to distract from the fact he's even better at making trouble, but also even better at hiding it? Kinda like that.”

“Hey!”

“I once watched Fox eat ten pudding cups in ten minutes, just because Wolffe bet he couldn't,” Rex reminisced, ignoring both of the outraged domino twins. “He threw up all over his bunk. He's just…. Really good at being professional during work hours. Like Cody.”

“Damn straight,” Cody said, jabbing his finger in Rex’s direction. “And I can be just as much of a deranged bastard as those two can be too. Don’t you forget it.”

Rex snorted.

“If anyone has any friends in the Guard, you might want to warn them that Cody is about to get his ass kicked.”

“I’ll com Game,” Echo said. “She’ll be able to get us the holos.”

“Fuck the both of you,” Cody said. “Where the kark is the loyalty here?”

“With Fox,” Rex replied easily. “I’m not gonna bet against a sure thing.”

“Cheeky prick.”

Before he could even blink, Cody lunged. Rex was slammed sideways off his chair and to the floor in an instant. The others scrambled out of the way, laughing as he and Cody grappled with each other. Rex howled as Cody got a hold of his boxers and pulled them up, giving him the wedgie from hell.

If he was going to be like that, Rex saw no problem with digging his teeth into Cody’s arm. That meant he let go of Rex’s pants but it meant his hands were free to jab his knuckles into Rex’s sides. Rex grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked. His minor victory was short-lived, it was hard to keep hold of Cody’s freshly trimmed inch long regulation cut, but it didn’t make Cody’s shout of pain any less satisfying. At least not until he found himself being flipped over and crushed.

The door slid open and someone walked in. The boots were painted in 212th gold but Rex couldn’t see much else as Cody squished him into the floor.

“Kix, you got a minute?” Sophi said. “I need to discuss supplies for the upcoming manoeuvres with you. Hey Rex… Cody.”

Cody shoved Rex into the floor and stood, glaring at her. Rex stayed where he was, gazing at the ceiling as he caught his breath. He craned his neck to see his second favourite batchmate and the 212th's chief medic, datapad in hand as she raised an eyebrow at her Commander.

“You!” Cody shouted, pointing at her. “You ever heard of battalion loyalty?”

“Nope,” Sophi replied.

“What about patient confidentiality?

Sophi sighed.

“Is this about your endless string of concussions?” she asked. “I only shared that information with Kix, a fellow medical professional. Not my fault that Rex read it.”

“It was on your batch chat!”

“Whatever,” Sophi said, cocking her hip. “Boil was looking for you, needs you to sign some stuff.”

“Fine, but we’re talking about this at your annual review,” Cody said, scowling. He leaned down to kiss Obi-Wan goodbye, his sulky child demeanour being smothered by the ever professional marshall commander.

“I’ll try to pretend I care,” Sophi drawled, moving to sit beside Kix and handing him her datapad.

“Watch it, Lieutenant,” Cody said, straightening his off-duty reds.

No one could quite pull off the flip between sober professional and hyperactive arsehole like Cody. No one could change so completely, or so quickly. Fox almost had it down, but then sometimes that sardonic smile of his would creep in at the edges, when he just couldn't help himself. Bly was equally professional, but was also just a genuinely kind and calm person. Cody flattened his hair back down and the transformation was complete, no more boisterous big brother- only the steadfast and capable marshall commander remained.

Rex smiled fondly as Cody strode out of the door. No one outside would be any the wiser, and that was just the way Cody liked it. Rex had never minded if his men saw him goof off a little, though he did try not to act too much like an idiot in front of those who didn't know him well. He liked to think it made him more approachable.

Cody had more riding on him though. Rex was a Captain, Cody wasn't even just a Commander. He was a Marshal Commander, one of three. Bly, Bacara, and Cody; the buck stopped with them. Fox too, sort of. So yeah, Rex could understand why he was a little more careful about how he was perceived than Rex was. But he could also enjoy the times when his ori'vod got to let loose.

The rest of Torrent watched him go, expressions ranging between slightly stunned and highly amused. Ahsoka chewed her pen thoughtfully, then went back to her work as if nothing had happened. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan were engrossed in their work, both of them also acting as if nothing had happened. Fives looked overjoyed, Echo thoughtful. Dogma, Jesse and Hardcase all looked like they were having some kind of emotional crisis.

Tup was already engrossed in his game again, so Rex guessed he wasn’t too bothered by the whole thing.

He pushed himself up, leaning back on his palms and cocking his head at Sophi.

“Okay,” he said, “but you absolutely do tell Fox everything that happens to Cody, right?”

She snorted.

“Of course I do,” she said. “Do you have any idea how much candy and fancy food that man gets given by his senator friends? I know whose good books I'd rather be in.”

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#captain rex is in trouble #madz writes

4 notes · View notes

elysiadjarin · 3 years

Text

Sword and Shield 4

Tags: Bad Batch x reader (you), fem!coded, poly!relationship, multi-part series, nonhuman!reader, Echo later on

Part 3: https://elysiadjarin.tumblr.com/post/654100310923657216/sword-and-shield-3

Warnings: mentions of a rough past, otherwise none.

4: Learning Process

Closing your eyes and taking in a breath, you straightened and opened the door to the common space. You forced yourself not to freeze as you saw all four of them gathered in the room, turning to stare at you.

“Should you be up?” Tech instantly asked, eyebrows furrowing.

You shuffled into the room, then sat down on an empty chair, pulling your legs up. Looking down at your knees, you tugged at the sleeve over the arm that had been injured.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered into the tense silence.

“Why are you apologizing?” Hunter turned to you with an odd fierceness in his voice. “You kept Tech and I from getting badly injured or even killed at your own expense, but you’re apologizing? If anything, we should be apologizing to you.”

You stared up at him, eyes wide. For a moment, you tried to scoop up your scattered thoughts. “N-no,” you finally tried to stammer, trying to explain. “I- I’m- I got distracted, I- I made a mistake,” you confessed, taking in a burning breath. “Back in the vault room, I- I should have been paying attention, but I thought- I thought I’d done something wrong. I got distracted, and I should have- I should have been faster. If I’d been paying attention like I should have, we could have gotten out in time and- and-“

“What in nine Corellian hells are you talking about, Shiv?” Hunter demanded, staring at you incredulously. “What do you mean you did something wrong?”

You swallowed thickly. “You- you seemed angry, and I- I thought I’d done something wrong. I’m not- I wasn’t completely attuned to you and got distracted. I should have been quicker to find a solution, but I- I got distracted and-“ You bit your lip, frustrated at your own inability to just explain. “I could have paid attention and avoided getting anyone injured,” you whispered, looking down.

A silence fell over the room. Then Hunter let out a deep sigh. “Shiv, it’s my fault.”

Startled, you looked up at him. “Wh-“

He raised a hand, hushing you from protesting. “I was the one who distracted you. As your leader, and as... as the one who was... who was Bonded with you at the time, I shouldn’t have done something to distract or disorient you. I wasn’t mad at you, Shiv,” he said evenly, looking at you with his dark eyes. “You did everything I could have asked and more. You sacrificed your own body just to keep Tech and I from being injured. Why would I be angry with you?”

Despite yourself, tears welled in your eyes as you reached up to futilely swipe away tears. He... wasn’t angry? You knew that the 501st had been... very kind, compared to many of your previous Handlers. And you had barely realized it, but you’d automatically defaulted back to expecting the same treatment you’d always endured before the 501st had taught you differently. Yet here you were, not being punished for getting distracted.

Hunching up, you dug a palm into your eye and trembled with the effort of holding back the sobs of relief, the dull pain in your arm reminding you of your failure. “I’m sorry,” you gasped, “I- I shouldn’t be crying, I-“

You let out a gasp as you felt two giant arms wrap around you, pulling your into a surprisingly gentle hug. Looking up, you saw Wrecker’s face looking down at you.

“Hey, I thought you looked really cool out there, Shiv,” he said, voice more subdued than usual, though still pretty loud. But you appreciated the effort he seemed to be making to keep you calm. “I mean, there was that huge blast and it was super cool, and you saved the Sarge and Tech.” He grinned down at you, weathered face lighting up.

Despite yourself, you let out a little giggle at the goofy grin on his face as he recalled the blast. Sniffling, you tried to wipe away tears and focus. “Th-thank you, Wrecker,” you whispered with an exhausted smile.

He carefully set you down, and Hunter gave him a nod. “I was going to thank you for keeping us safe out there, Shiv. I understand if this incident makes you want to leave the team, but-“

“No!” You bit your lip, but shook your head adamantly. “Please, I-“ You looked down at your feet. “I’d like to stay, if you’ll... if you’ll give me another chance.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Shiv,” Hunter reiterated fiercely. “I don’t know what made you think that you did anything wrong, but I’m not angry with you.” He took in a deep breath. “Do you need any medical attention to your arm? We don’t really know... enough about you.”

You shook your head. “No, I-“ You rubbed your arm absently, still coated in the metal. “It will heal,” you said uncertainly, glancing over to the side uncomfortably. Normally people didn’t.... care if you got hurt. “Please, I can still... I can still function just fine.”

“Why do you talk like you’re some kind of slave?” Crosshair stared at you, eyes piercing.

You flinched. “I used to be,” you replied thinly, hanging your head. “Before... before the 501st took me in.”

A dead silence fell, and you could almost feel the anger palpably fill the air.

“So that’s why you-“ Hunter seemed to stop himself, breaking off. A snarl crossed his lips, then just as quickly disappeared. He let out a heavy sigh. “Shiv, you’re not a slave here, with us. You’re not just a weapon. You’re our teammate, one of us, and you’re a valuable member. You don’t have to sacrifice your own health or safety just because you feel some stupid need to or because you’re any less valuable than us.”

You listened, still fixated on the floor. You remembered the first time that Rex had given you this talk as well. Now things began to make more sense. Why Hunter had seemed angry, back in the bunker. Because he’d been like Rex, you now understood. He’d been upset that you’d called yourself a tool. He was upset about how you’d been treated.

It still felt odd to you, to realize that there were people out in the world that would see you as more than just a weapon. It was still hard to accept. Hard to grasp.

“Thank you,” you said at last, looking up at him. “I... Commander Rex and the 501st... were very kind to me and I-“ you winced. “Once I left, I... I went back to my old ways. I’m... I’m used to being nothing more than a tool. I was born a weapon. I... I’m used to being expendable.”

“You’re not expendable here. You’re not just a weapon here.” Hunter’s eyes bored into you, staring you down. “Don’t expect us to treat you as anything less than a person.”

You looked up, then, and gave him a genuine if tired smile. “Thank you, sir. I’m glad you and Tech are safe. I’ll do my best in the future to continue being a good teammate.”

He nodded curtly. “We’re going to drop off the intel we got at the next stop and let you get a bit of rest. We haven’t been assigned to anything yet.”

You looked around at everyone. “Um- should I start to... I mean, should I be prepared to start working with everyone? It might be best before the next mission to at least have Transference with everyone, so that I can easily be passed between everyone even in the middle of battle.”

“Do you have any sort of compiled profile about yourself?” Tech asked curiously.

You grimaced. “I tried that before, but everyone who’s tried to understand by reading has said that it’s not... enough. I can give it to you if you want, I should have it, but I’ve been told that while it’s informative, it’s not very useful until it’s been experienced.”

Tech nodded. “I’d still like to have a copy, if you don’t mind.”

You nodded. “Of course.” Fumbling with one hand, you tried to grab your datapad from it’s charging port. After a moment, you managed to grab it and pull up the correct page, handing it to Tech.

“Sorry, I- I won’t have full use of my other hand for another couple of chrons at the least,” you explained, pushing hair away from your eyes.

“Just take care of it until you’re not hurting yourself,” Hunter ordered, eyeing your arm sharply. “Are you sure you don’t need at lest a bacta patch?”

You smiled weakly, shaking your head. “It will heal more quickly without it, in this case. Bacta seems to leave scars on me more than letting it heal naturally. Although in an emergency I’ll use it.”

He just nodded. “We’ll be landing at the next designated spot in seven chrons.” Without another word, he ducked out the door and left, presumably to the cockpit to pilot.

“Hey Shiv, you wanna sit here?” Wrecker patted the empty spot next to him invitingly.

You hesitated, then decided to accept. After all, you’d have to get to know all of them pretty well, right? Might as well start now. Gingerly, you sat next to him, favoring your arm a little. The more you let it be, the quicker it would heal, you knew. Pulling your legs up, you leaned back in the seat, almost touching Wrecker’s side.

He casually draped his arm around the back of the chair, behind your shoulders, though not touching you. “Is this okay, Shiv?”

Startled, you blinked but nodded. “Oh- of course.”

He grinned. “Good. Wouldn’t want to make ya uncomfortable, ya know?”

“Thank you,” you whispered shyly, head ducking.

A little kernel of hope bloomed in your chest. Maybe... maybe this would be a place where you could belong.

Tech examined your arm closely, peering at it through your goggles. “Whoa. It’s almost completely healed,” he said wonderingly. There was some scar tissue still on your arm, but it was a far cry from the mangled mess it had been when you’d first gotten the wound.

“Is it because of the metal?” Hunter asked, glancing at your arm.

You shook your head as Tech let go of your arm. “Um, no, the metal is there mainly for protection and sterilization. My biology is not... entirely organic, so it fixes itself differently,” you offered awkwardly. “I don’t completely understand it either, as my kind is... extremely rare. I’ve only met one other of my kind.”

“So there are others.” Tech glanced up at you from his datapad. He’d apparently read the profile you’d compiled and had peppered you with questions once you’d woken up.

“I don’t know how many.” You shrugged. “Probably not very many though. We’ve been... pretty heavily enslaved or used. Worked to death, essentially.”

Hunter just grunted. Crosshair let out a quiet huff from his corner where he was polishing his rifle. Wrecker was off in the galley, getting a snack apparently.

You’d apparently slept through the drop off, and when you’d woken up you’d been informed that you had a couple of chrons left before you reached the place Hunter had decided you would train with the rest of the team. He’d made some notes to Tech about the Bonding Process from his experience, which Tech had added and already distributed to the other team members.

When you finally arrived at your destination, you felt rested and mentally and physically ready. Your arm was almost healed and no longer hurt, and you knew that it would heal fully in time for the next mission, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it being reopened somehow or interfering. A damaged weapon wouldn’t be of much help in any situation.

Following the others down the ramp, you looked around interestedly at the wide, open plains littered with some rock formations. In the distance shimmered the water of a lake, and hardy grasses waved in the slight breeze. It was a good place to train, with no one in sight and a wide line of sight. You turned your attention back to Hunter, who led the way away from the ship a safe distance before turning.

“Alright.” He nodded to you. “Is there a specific order that we should do this in?”

You shook your head. “Anything works.”

“I can go first,” Wrecker offered, stepping forward. He grinned at you excitedly, and you instinctively smiled back. You appreciated the way Wrecker had treated you so far, the way he was cheerful and smiling but also thoughtful in the way he approached you.

“That alright, Shiv?” Hunter addressed you.

You nodded, stepping forward to meet Wrecker. “Sure.”

“Alright Wrecker, do you remember the process?” Hunter asked.

Wrecker’s smile dropped, eyebrows furrowing and mouth opening a little in clear thought.

You stifled a smile. “Keep your mind open towards whatever you feel. You have to start the process by offering me your hand and saying ‘Permission to Transfer,’” you reminded.

“Oh, right!” He laughed, then stuck out his hand. “Permission to Transfer,” he bellowed.

You took his hand, closing your eyes. “Transfer Granted.”

Wrecker was the easiest Transfer you could remember in a long time. He was so unguarded mentally towards you, his thoughts blasting. They were coherent and clearly linked, just... loud, and fast. You found yourself taking a bit longer to settle into the Bond, stabilizing the flow of information and ‘tuning in’ to his mental frequency.

By the time you could focus outward, you realized with a bit of surprise that you’d actually automatically become an IWS in instant response to Wrecker’s preferences. Wrecker let out a pure, joyful laugh, then aimed at a nearby rock formation and sent a rocket hurtling towards it. He whooped in the aftermath of the explosion, effortlessly tossing you in the air and catching you as though you barely weighed anything.

You had to smile a little, materializing over his shoulder. You leaned your chin against his shoulder, quickly getting comfortable with the steady stream of information he kept feeding over the Bond as naturally as though he had been doing it for years. Weapons seemed to be something that came to Wrecker naturally, as well as using them. You found yourself fading away and falling into a comfortable, natural rhythm as he did a little target practice. His weapons of choice were pretty standard, and you even got to Shift into some lesser used heavy weaponry.

It was comfortable, to just lean back and be fed information in a steady, constant stream. Wrecker’s weapon handling was expert, though to others it might seem that he just randomly moved and fired. But you could see the natural nuances that he used to sight, aim, lift, and fire.

Wrecker stopped after a couple of weapons. “This is really easy, Shiv!” He laughed. “You doing ok? I can kinda feel ya there.”

You let yourself shimmer into view again, comfortably rested against his shoulder. Your voice came out wispy and almost dreamy, a reflection of your mental state.

“You’re very natural with being a Handler,” you murmured, hands sliding over his shoulder. Shadowy fingers trailed down his arm, brushing against his armor. “It’s very comfortable and... relaxed.” You giggled, feeling a little loopy from the giddiness that he kept pouring over the Bond. “Your thoughts are... constant, fast.”

“Oh, uh... I guess that’s a good thing?” Wrecker scratched the back of his head.

You Dissolved the Transference, landing next to Wrecker. Reaching up, you rubbed your eyes and blinked a little sleepily, letting out a wide yawn.

“Yea,” you slurred, shaking your head. “Sorry, it’s...” You gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re a very natural Handler. I’m feeling a bit high,” you giggled. “I’m very.... I tend to be influenced quite a bit by my Handlers’ emotions.”

Wrecker steadied you. “Glad to hear it! It felt really comfortable.” He shrugged. “It felt different from what you said, Sarge,” he remarked thoughtfully.

“It’s a bit different for everyone,” you said, starting to recover your senses. Shaking your head, you took in a bracing breath and looked up. “I’m ready.”

Tech hesitantly stepped forward. “I can go-?”

You nodded, stepping toward him.

He took in a deep breath. “Permission to Transfer.” He held out his hand, a determined look on his face.

You took his hand. “Transfer Granted.”

The moment you felt the Bond click into place, you mentally reeled. It was a barrage of... everything. Tech’s mind was constantly whirling, moving through thoughts, processing things, almost a nervous babble of information. You tried to process, to find a way to join the stream that rushed on and on, thoughts disappearing as quickly as they came.

Calm down, Tech, you whispered, trying to infuse a sense of relaxation into the words. There’s no need to be nervous. There’s no perfect way of Transference. It’s up to me to assimilate to you, to learn about you. Just be yourself. It’s just me... just Shiv.

You could feel Tech let out a breath, and the stream seemed to slacken a little. Just enough for you to ease yourself in, to begin to process and adjust to the new stream-of-consciousness. Tech’s thoughts ran into each other seamlessly, one thought clearly linked to the next. He had both visualization as well as full words and sentences, something you recognized as being a sign of Tech’s proficiency in using both sides of the brain equally.

You prefer double blasters, right? You recalled.

A tentative thought slithered its way through the stream as you picked it out. Yes... is that... possible?

You smiled. You are my Handler, now. Slowly, you let yourself shimmer into view. Sliding your hands down both his arms, you turned to whisper into his ear. What do you need me to be?

Tech stared down at both his hands, and between one blink and the next, he was grasping another blaster in his left hand. He offered a few schematics and modifications, letting you quickly adjust. Then turning, he focused on some rubble that Wrecker had created and began to pick them off, one by one. A few of the initial shots missed, but as you began to find his rhythm, he began to easily hit every single target he shot at.

By the time he lowered the blasters, you’d begun to understand his process. Tech was a true analyst, his movements clearly thought-out and calculated, the opposite of Wrecker. Wrecker’s movements came naturally, hardly without thought. Tech’s mind, however, made razor-sharp recognitions and calculations, thinking a step ahead as much as possible. It was simply a matter of learning to find his pattern and learn to predict it and run with it.

In the back of your own mind, you began to realize the work cut out for you. If you happened to be tossed from Wrecker to Tech in the middle of the battle, it would be like making a 180 degree shift within the space of a breath. It wasn’t impossible, but you knew it would take a close understanding of each of them, their thought processes, their preferences, and their individual personalities to truly perfect yourself as their personal weapons.

You Dissolved, the two blasters once more converging into one as you reappeared physically. For a moment you simply froze, staring blankly ahead as you regained yourself. Shaking your head, you blinked and refocused, looking back up.

“Ambidextrous,” you said almost without thinking. “Physically and mentally.” You shook yourself off. “Sorry, it’s... it’s a bit challenging to keep up.” You smiled at Tech. “Your mind is... so fast. There’s so much. It’s very impressive.”

He blinked, and you wondered if that was some color staining the tips of his ears. “Thank you,” he said.

“Guess it’s my turn.” Crosshair grunted, stepping towards you. He eyed you warily, eyes flint.

You turned to him. “I’ll do my best.”

He held out his hand. “Permission to Transfer.”

You grasped his hand, feeling the calloused palm under your own skin. “Permission Granted.”

Silence. Compared to the others, Crosshair was just... utter silence. The Bond was there, you could feel it, but there was just... darkness and silence. But it didn’t surprise you, after you took a moment to think about it. You’d worked with a sniper once before. They distanced themselves, so far.

So you didn’t say anything, simply waited.

After a moment, a single visual came across. A detailed schematic for the rifle, including the mods.

It only took you half a second to instantly respond, the rifle seeming to just appear in his hands. He carefully studied the rifle, lifting it to stare through the scope and aiming in a few directions. You stayed quiet, ready to instantly respond to anything, trying to remember everything in Crosshair’s profile and the previous sniper you’d worked with.

Crosshair abruptly turned and fired several shots, peering down the scope. A few other modifications appeared across the bond, and you Shifted seamlessly between his steady shots. He hit every single target, every single time. No emotion came across the Bond, only a split-second visual of the intended target and any adjustments.

He lowered the rifle after a few more shots. “Your response time is satisfactory,” he said aloud, turning the rifle over in his hands. “I’ll have to get used to your presence. I keep feeling like there’s someone behind me.”

You hesitated a moment before speaking. “Would it be better if I kept a shadow beside you, or just stayed invisible?”

“Try the shadow,” he said, lifting the rifle again.

You projected astrally, hovering just beside his shoulder.

He paused. “A little forward.”

You adjusted, realizing that you might have been in his blind spot.

“Other shoulder.” After another moment and a few shots, he nodded. “Better. Once I get used to your fixed location, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

You nodded, Dissolving the bond. With a wince, you clapped your hands over your ears and squeezed your eyes shut with a tiny whimper. Everything kept bursting in your senses, a sharp contrast compared to the utter silence and deprivation of Crosshair’s mind. Letting out a gasp, you dropped down and hunched close to the ground, scraping yourself together.

“Shiv!”

You shook your head. “I’m fine-“ you blurted shakily. “I’m fine- I just- it’s been so long since I’ve worked with a sniper, I-“ Sucking in a breath, you started to come back to, getting used to the normalcy again. Slowly standing, you leaned gratefully against Wrecker’s arm.

“You’ve worked with a sniper before?” Crosshair asked, eyebrows furrowing.

You nodded, peeling your eyes open. “Y-yes. But it’s been many years, since I was a child. Both of you have... your minds are like... like sensory deprivation tanks. It’s- I have to- to get used to it. I think like- like Sergeant Hunter experiences.” You shook your head, taking deep breaths.

“You alright?” Hunter asked, observing you carefully.

You straightened, nodding. “Yes. Could we try passing?”

He nodded. “Who do you want to start with?”

“You, please,” you requested, sending Wrecker a grateful smile. He grinned back and nodded, patting your arm.

“Permission to Transfer.”

You took Hunter’s hand. “Transfer Granted.”

“So, how do we pass?” Hunter asked as soon as he was holding the modified blaster in his hand.

“Just warn me who you’re passing to at least mentally,” you directed, materializing over his shoulder. “That way, even if you throw, I can direct myself to the person you’re intending to pass me to. It also helps me prepare myself to acclimate to the next person and try to predict what weapon and modifications they will want from me so they don’t have to waste time waiting for me to finish Shifting. I can Shift mid-throw. Or you could hand me over.”

Hunter nodded. Without warning, he sent you a name and whipped his arm back. “Cross!” he shouted.

You Shifted mid-throw, allowing your astral form to dart across the space and directing the rifle to Crosshair’s hand. He caught it, instantly lifting it to his shoulder. Taking a quick shot at a rock formation and hitting the target, he sent a single name across again.

“Tech,” he warned, sending you into a tail-spin.

You darted over to Tech, splitting mid-air to guide yourself into both his hands seamlessly. Tech spun, shooting quickly at two pebbles on a rock formation and knocking them off. He didn’t even turn around before slamming the two pieces together and tossing them over his head.

“Wrecker,” he shouted, though you’d already started Shifting.

Wrecker caught the IWS, hefting it effortlessly above his head. “That was pretty quick,” he said, firing a random shot into the distance. “You good, Shiv?”

You Dissolved, pressing fingers to your temple. “Yeah, I’m... I’m trying to get the hang of it. It might take me a couple of tries to be able to get better. It’s... it’s difficult to keep track.” A migraine started to build in the back of your brain, making you hide a wince.

“Well we’ve already at least formed a good foundation, so let’s give Shiv a break for now and head back to the ship,” Hunter decided, turning on his heel and heading back for the ship.

You took a step forwards and lost footing, pitching forward. Wrecker caught you before you hit the ground, making you gasp. He lifted you up.

“Whoa there, Shiv. You good?” he asked, holding you easily as you grabbed his shoulders for balance.

“A little- I- disoriented,” you managed, still reeling and dizzy. “I-I’m a bit- dizzy from-“ You winced, closing your eyes and burying your face into his shoulder. “Sorry- everything is- I’m going into sensory overload,” you stammered, feeling jittery.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll take you back to your bunk,” he said cheerfully, his steps long and steady as he walked back to the ship.

Your breath started to stutter as you felt sleep quickly creeping up on you. “Thank you, Wrecker,” you managed to whisper thickly, before the darkness descended irresistibly.

146 notes · View notes

milfjinart · 3 years

Note

I love pins too!!! What are your favorites???

omggg okay I’m glad you asked this because it made me actually sit down and pick out some favorites (it was so hard lol)

so. buckle up.

first off, there’s this absolutely gorgeous, gold metal LE50 Cody pin from ElectricInkStudios! They’re a smaller company, and I absolutely love the softness and detail of all their designs. I have their Rex and Obi-Wan pins too, but Cody is my fave. It’s so warm and sunny and goes perfectly with the sandstone-orange baseball cap I wear all the time!!

Next, this fuckin badass Ahsoka pin from Tomorrowlanddesign. I just loveee how detailed and dramatic the art style is!!!

Next, this LE66 pin of the 501st battalion from ZARPindom. I love pins with unique little details, and this one has a real cloth flag, handsewn by the grandma of one of the shop owners!! 🥺🥺

Also I love my “who the fuck is ahsoka tano” pin from Whatthewhatpins purely for its comedic value. Cracks me up every time I look at it tbh

Moving on, another of my favorites is this glow-in-the-dark holo Ahsoka pin from Hyperspacepins, as well as this beautifullll Threepio and Artoo pin from Punchitchewiepress!! Again, I love the Ahsoka pin because it’s so unique, and then honestly every PICP pin I own is just a work of art.

Then we have this awesome Plo Koon pin from TeamTanoAlive. I love how big and detailed it is and his pose is just so cool!! When it’s not summertime and boiling hot, I love wearing this pin on my farm overalls :)

Next up, more pins I love for their uniqueness:

1. Mando + Gideon’s TIE fighter by Macguffingoods! The little Din hanging off the chain is just. So good

2. Jedi holocron pin, another lovely one from Punchitchewiepress. The blue is sandblasted enamel and it is sooo pretty in the sunlight (I also have their Sith holocron pin and they go so well together!!!)

3. Death Star + Millenium Falcon pin from ZARPindom. These guys honestly always knock it out of the park with their pin designs, this one is absolutely gorgeous - from the silver plating to the translucent blue enamel to the screenprinted details on the Falcon and the TIE, I just love love love this pin!!

4. Mando flamethrower pin from bbcre8. It’s a sliding pin, so you can slide the flame back and forth as though it’s coming out of his vambrace! Again, just super unique and such a fun little detail :-) and the level of detail on the screenprinting is amazing!!

Last but certainly not least, all my clone helmet pins from FulcrumDawn. They honestly might be my favorite shop, and I could make a whole post talking about my pins of theirs! The one pictured below is of Captain Keeli, and I keep it on my backpack because the colors go so perfectly together. But I also have 11 of their other clone helmet pins and counting, along with some of their iron heart pins and a Sentinel pin! I just really love how they make pins of less popular characters. They’re coming out with a Colt pin soon and I’m definitely snagging that!! :’)

aaah okay this post is pretty long so I’ll stop but I definitely have more favorites!!! Like I said I could honestly make a whole post dedicated to my FulcrumDawn pins, or my PICP pins, or my Ahsoka pin collection, or my Mando pin collection, or or or —

Image IDs below the cut!

Photo 1

[Image ID: Enamel pin of Commander Cody from The Clone Wars. It is chest-up with his helmet on. The plating is shiny gold metal, and the enamel colors of his armor are shades of soft, muted orange and white. There is no black in the image, just dark gold for the shading. Behind Cody’s head is a large Galactic Republic wheel logo, edged in gold plating with white enamel for the blank spaces in between the spokes of the wheel. The pin itself is pinned on a sandstone-orange baseball cap. Below the pin are hand-embroidered desert plants - ephedra, rabbitbrush, and scarlet paintbrush. End image ID.]

Photo 2

[Image ID: Ahsoka bust pin held in my hand; it’s a bit longer than my fingers. The art style is kind of cartoony and dramatic. Ahsoka’s lekku are long, like they were in Rebels, and also her dark blue lekku markings are wavy like they were in Rebels. Her skin is dark orange, as though you were seeing her at dusk; her eyelashes are huge and dark, and her eyes are vivid electric blue. She is wearing a simple black cloak with silver trim, and a dark gray headband with a light gray stone set in the middle. End image ID.]

Photo 3

[Image ID: The first pin is of four 501st troopers, including Captain Rex, holding up a red cloth flag with a black Galactic Republic symbol on it; they’re in the pose of that famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph. they are wearing phase 2 armor and standing on brown dirt, and a discarded phase 2 clone helmet is half-buried in the dirt towards the right edge of the pin. The second pin is round and has a thin light blue border around the edge, followed by a thick band of dark blue with the words “WHO THE FUCK IS AHSOKA TANO” in light blue over top of the dark blue band. In the center of the pin is a padawan-aged Ahsoka; just her head and lekku. She’s wearing her akul-tooth headdress, and looking over her left shoulder and glaring at the viewer. End image ID.]

Photo 4

[Image ID: The first pin is another bust of Ahsoka... lol can you tell I love her?? With this pin, it’s just her lower back and up; she’s looking back over her right shoulder at the viewer, in the pose from that one scene in season 7 when she contacts Anakin. The pin is all light and dark blue, striped with pale white-blue like how the holograms in Star Wars look. You can’t tell from the picture, but the pin glows pale green in the dark. The second pin is a waist-up design of the droids Threepio on the left and Artoo on the right. It’s all gold plating, and Threepio is very shiny gold. He is resting his right hand on top of Artoo’s head. In the background is a jagged slice of space - black enamel with red, white, and blue dots of varying sizes to represent stars. End image ID.]

Photo 5

[Image ID: Large pin of Jedi Master Plo Koon. It’s about 4 inches tall. The design is him from the waist up, clad in his dark brown Jedi robe with the hood up, and wearing white clone armor vambraces and gauntlets, decorated with the 104th wolfpack symbol like he wore in the Clone Wars show. His right arm is stretched out and down, and he holds his blue lightsaber in a backwards grip, the blade extended up and behind him, extending past the left side of his head. His left arm is bent, his hand up near his face, and his fingers are extended, palm towards the viewer, as though he’s using the Force on you. End image ID.]

Photo 6

[Image ID: Pin 1 is a dark chrome enamel pin of Moff Gideon’s TIE fighter from The Mandalorian show. It’s sleek, dark gray and black. There is a metal loop on the bottom of the TIE fighter body, from which hangs a short dark metal chain; on the other end of the chain is another metal loop, attached to a tiny little Din Djarin pin. He is wearing his silver beskar armor, and one arm is reaching up above his head to hold onto the chain. His cape flares out behind him to the left, and his legs and other arm dangle down.

Pin 2 is a Jedi holocron, all gold plating and turquoise-blue sandblasted enamel that glitters in sunlight. It is a two-point perspective of the holocron, meaning you can see both the left and right sides and the top of it.

Pin 3 is the first Death Star, with chrome plating and light gray enamel and screenprinting to show all the details of the surface. It is a pin-on-pin design, and the Death Star is the lower pin; the pin attached over top of it is the Millenium Falcon, flying away from the Death Star, trailing blue light (shown with blue translucent enamel) and being pursued by a tiny dark gray and black TIE fighter. Red and white blaster bolts streak in front of and behind the Falcon, as if the TIE fighter is shooting at it.

Pin 4 is Din Djarin in his silver beskar armor, shooting his flamethrower out of his vambrace (forearm armor). He is facing to the left, and his right arm is held straight out in front of him, with the screenprinted orange-and-yellow flame shooting out from behind his arm. It’s on a sliding attachment, so you can slide it back behind him or fully extend it along his arm. His left arm is bent and his hand is held up in a defensive posture, as though to shield his face. The design shows him from mid-thigh and up, and his dark grayish cape swirls around him. End image ID.]

Photo 7

[Image ID: This is a pin of Captain Keeli from the Clone Wars. It is square on the left, right, and bottom edges; the top edge slants up from the left to the right top corners, so the pin forms a trapezoid shape. The pin shows his helmet, which is white with a light maroon-red border around his black visor, and darker maroon designs curling around the upper sides of the head and across the cheeks of the helmet. The curling designs resemble ram’s horns. The background behind the helmet is an even deeper maroon color, with a pale maroon ram’s horn curling design in the upper right corner. The pin is secured on my maroon red waterproof REI backpack; the fabric is the same shade as the ram’s horn designs on Keeli’s helmet. End image ID.]

94 notes · View notes

crystalessenceswrites · 3 years

Note

Hi Again! I was wondering if you wrote for the clones? (I'm thirsting for Wolffe!!) If not, that's ok! And if so, I thought maybe something fluffy and a bit hot with Wolffe? I'm a huge sucker for the trope- Reader tries to hide that she hasn't been feeling well and turns out she's pregnant? With twins! She's scared because even though they're committed, it wasn't planned? And then fluff and some love making?? <3333

Hi lovely, welcome back! I am open to writing for the clones, I just haven’t done so yet! I too thirst for Commander Wolffe so you’re in luck! This trope is def very cute, the end turned out more fluffy than spicy, I hope that's alright.

Commander Wolffe x fem!reader Rating: E (18+) Warnings: explicit sexual content, unprotected p in v sex, unplanned pregnancy, swearing (first time writing for Wolffe, may be slightly ooc)

[PART TWO]

There was never enough time. You really should not have been surprised by the revelation, you were at war, but it still sat heavy on your chest. Always needed elsewhere as soon as you completed a mission. Never time to rest, even in transit. Someone always needed your attention for reports, strategic planning or council meetings as the GAR cruiser hurtled through hyperspace. It never left you enough time for him. Thankfully, the stubborn nature of your clone commander allowed him to make time, even if just a spare moment, for the two of you.

“Oh fuck,” you throw your head back against the door as he reaches that spot deep inside you. Pushing you ever closer to the edge. “Wolffe, please-” you’re whining as he grinds up into you, throbbing inside you. He’s always had the uncanny ability to read your body, he knows better than you when you’re close to bliss and he enjoys drawing it out. To think Commander Wolffe was a fucking tease.

“Please what, cyare?” His smug grin slides across your chest following the trail of marks he’s littered across your skin where no one will see. “What does ner jetii need?”

“Please, ‘m so close,” you tighten your legs around his waist, trying to draw him in closer, anything to reach your release, “please, Wolffe!”

He groans into your neck as you tug at the curls fallen loose at the nape of his neck, “well when you ask so nicely, cyare.”

His sudden thrust up pushes the air from your lungs. Your mouth falls open in a silent scream as he pounds into you, all teasing forgotten. He’s relentless as you tighten around him, the coil in your belly threatening to snap.

“That’s it,” he grunts, “come on my cock ner jetii.”

His words and his gloved thumb brushing over your bundle of nerves has you falling apart around him. White hot pleasure rolls over you, leaving you a limp, moaning mess in Wolffe’s arms.

“That’s it, mesh’la. Squeezing me so kriffing tight,” he groans, hips stuttering, his own release fast approaching. “Fuck.” Wolffe manages a few more thrusts before he buries himself in you, spilling himself inside you. Whispered praises fall from his lips as he comes down from his own high. His lips ghost over yours in a chaste kiss as he withdraws, tucking himself away before he lets you down.

Your legs cry out in relief when they meet solid ground, not longer clinging to Wolffe for support.

“Good, cyare?” his hand sweeps over your brow, so tender for a man with such a fierce reputation, even amongst his brothers.

“Mhmm,” leaning into his touch, he chuckles at your blissed out expression.

“Someone’s bound to come looking for you soon, General. Let’s get you cleaned up.” You don’t protest as he helps you redress, though you do moan about how unfair it was he just had to remove his codpiece and you had to strip completely out of your robes for these little storage closet rendezvous’.

“I don’t think jedi robes were designed to allow for easy access, cyare.”

You pout, “you’re probably right.” There was that whole bit about no attachments you were blatantly ignoring after all.

Before the commander can come back with another sharp retort your commlink blinks to life. “Yes?”

“General, General Plo is looking for you on the bridge.”

You sigh, “thank you, Sinker. I’ll be right there.”

Never enough time.

The next couple of months continue much the same. You and Wolffe sneaking away between missions when you can, trying to find solace in each other despite all the horrors you both see on the battlefield. In a war that seems to stretch on forever he is your rock. As he watches his brothers fall, one after the other, you are his comfort. It breaks your heart to be apart from him but there is little you can do to control it. When the council requests you to join Obi-wan and Anakin for a series of missions you cannot object. Instead, you drag your tired self out to the far reaches of the outer rim to help them as best you can.

“You look exhausted, my dear.” Such tact this one possessed.

You roll your eyes, “you don’t look much better, Kenobi.” Though you doubt he has been waking in the middle of the night to empty the contents of his stomach like you have for the past week.

“This war does seem to be pushing us all to our limits.”

“I’ll race you!” Ahsoka sprints by, apparently headed for some target or another with her master hot on her heels.

“Snips!”

Cody chuckles under his bucket, shaking his head as the two disappear into the distance.

Obi-Wan scrubs a hand over his face, “it’s pushed most of us to our limits.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have the energy of a padawan again,” you groan.

“I agree wholeheartedly,” Obi-wan nods, “we should all try to get some rest while we can. We need to break camp near dawn.”

You agree and bid your fellow jedi an early goodnight. With the headache you could feel coming on, sleep sounded like a good idea. As you go to stand the world spins around you, any sense of balance you had gone. You reach for the crate you had been sitting on to try and stay upright but you miss by a mile. Knees giving out you collapse to the floor, the world around you still spinning. You can barely hear Cody shouting over the ringing in your ears.

“Call for a medic! The General’s collapsed!”

By the time you regain consciousness you’re no longer planet side. Obi-wan had been quick to have you medevacked to the closest med-station for testing. The unholy white lights of the station burn your eyes when you finally come to. Your sudden groaning draws Kix back to your bedside.

“General. Good to see you’re back with us.”

“Kix?” You try to focus on the 501st medic instead of the bright lights, “what happened?”

“You collapsed back at the forward camp. We weren’t able to determine what was wrong with the limited medical supplies we had on hand, so General Kenobi called an air lift for you.”

Another groan bubbles up, Obi-wan had been forced to waster precious resources on you. “Were you able to find out what’s wrong?”

The clone’s face falls, “yes.”

You’ve never heard the medic sound so meek before. “Kix?”

“I’m not sure what’s the best way to explain this, General… but you’re pregnant.”

Oh.

“H-how far along?”

“Looks like just over two months,” Kix shifts from foot to foot, pointedly not looking you in the eye. You can’t blame him for being uncomfortable, this isn’t quite the medicine he’d been expecting to practice. He was a combat medic not an obgyn. “We were able to get an ultrasound, would you like to see?”

Nodding, you sit up, your head now spinning for completely different reasons. Kix brings you a datapad displaying the grainy black and white image.

“Kix… am I seeing this right?”

“Yes, general.”

“There’s two…”

“Yes general. You’re having twins.”

Oh fuck.

Kix is a godsend, having worked with Anakin and Rex long enough to know reporting everything may not always be a good idea. The official report on your sudden collapse reads that you suffered from a foreign infection your body had not been prepared to fight, coupled with the battle fatigue, your body had shut down in order to force you to rest. Obi-wan and the council believe it, ordering you back to Coruscant to recover and rest. You knew you would have to tell them; it would not be long until you were showing, but you would much rather deal with the council in person than from your medbay bed.

Before your escort arrives, Kix slips you a disk with a copy of the ultrasound pictures, “in case there’s someone you want to show them to.”

“Thank you, Kix,” he blushes when you give him a quick peck on the cheek, “you’ve done more for me than you’ll ever know.”

You do your best to rest on your trip back to Coruscant but its incredibly difficult when your mind is going a parsec a minute. Besides the council there’s one other person you have to break the news to. While you two had talked about what life would be like for the two of you after the war, this was not something you had discussed. You were not sure if Wolffe wanted kids ever, let alone now. Having twins while the whole galaxy was at war was not ideal. Not when the two of you were expected to put your lives on the line for the Republic.

Panic washes over you when you arrive at the capital to find the wolfpack waiting for you on the tarmac. They’d just arrived back for some long overdue shore leave and Plo had informed them of your sudden illness. Normally you would be touched by how much they cared for you, but now all you can think about is how you are not ready to face Wolffe. Not yet.

You can feel his gaze heavy on your back as you field Sinker and Boost’s barrage of questions.

“I’ll be alright, I just need to take my medicine and get some rest. It shouldn’t be long before I’m right as rain again.” You hate lying to them, but you did not want them worrying unnecessarily either.

It seems to appease them; the pack wishes you well and invites you out to 79’s with them as soon as you’re recovered. Wolffe hangs back, watching his brothers go.

“I’ll walk you back, general.”

“No.” It comes out much harsher than you’d like. The surprise that washes over his face feels like a stab to your gut. “There’s no need, Commander. I’ll be alright.”

His voice drops, brow furrowed together, “cyare?”

“Not now, Wolffe,” you frown, “I just need to go lay down. We’ll talk later.”

But you don’t. You cannot find it in yourself to answer any of his calls or messages over the next few days. Instead, you wrap yourself up in as many blankets as possible and hole up in your quarters while you try to figure out what to do. You watch Coruscant go by from your window. It’s only when Sinker and Boost call that you’re freed from running around in circle inside your head.

“Boost? Sinker? What’s going on?”

“Oh thank goodness you’re alive, General!”

“Boost what are you going on about?”

“The Commanders been going crazy! He hasn’t heard from you in over a week and we don’t think he knows how to handle it!”

Although you and Wolffe did your best to keep your relationship hidden, in such tight quarters it was hard to keep it from Wolffe’s brothers. You’d never outright admitted it to them, but you figured they understood what was going on. You were glad for it now.

“I’ve seen him pace before, but never like this,” Sinker adds.

Oh Maker. “Where is he?”

“The barracks, General.”

“I… I’ll speak with him, alright? Hopefully that will calm him down.”

“Thank you, General! We were running out of ways to distract him!” That was the kind way of saying ways to annoy him to keep Wolffe’s mind off you.

“Thank you, Boost, Sinker.”

“Good luck, General!”

You were going to need it. This was not a conversation to have over the com so you make your way down to the barracks, doing your best to avoid attention when you can. It was not like you weren’t allowed there, but the last thing you needed was more questions.

Boost and Sinker were not lying about the pacing. Punching in the access code to his quarters reveals a tightly wound Wolffe, pacing back and forth across the length if the tight space. His armor has been haphazardly discarded around the room. You’re surprised he hasn’t worn a path into the floor yet.

“General?” Surprise and then relief fall over his face when he catches you standing in the doorway.

“Wolffe, I-”

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be resting.”

You’re thrown off by the sudden cold tone in his voice. “I-I came to explain, Wolffe… to apologize.”

“Apologize?”

“I’ve been avoiding you Wolffe,” your voice cracks despite your best efforts to remain calm, “and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have, I just needed to find a way to tell you and I couldn’t.”

His frown deepens, “tell me what?”

“That I’m pregnant.”

“What?” He looks at you live you’ve grown another head.

“I’m pregnant, Wolffe.”

It takes him a moment to wrap his mind around your words, but you can see the instant he does, his mouth dropping into an ‘o’ as his jaw falls slack.

“You’re pregnant? With my… with my baby?”

“Babies,” you correct.

His brain seems to sputter out again, “babies?”

You nod, “twins.”

Before you can blink, he’s got you wrapped up in his arms, spinning you around the room. “Twins. You’re having twins.”

It takes everything you have not to start bawling. Kriffing hormones. You’ve never seen Wolffe this happy. This was beyond any reaction you could have imagined. The awe on his face when he sets you down makes your heart melt.

“This is why you were sent back? Your sudden illness?”

“Well yes… but Kix’s report was that I had an infection. I wanted to talk to your first before anyone else. I just didn’t know how.”

His warm hand oh-so-gently cups the side of your face. You lean into the touch. After even just a few weeks apart you’re starving for him.

“Why were you worried, cyare?”

“We’d never talked about kids. And we’re in the middle of a war. Not to mention we’re not even supposed to be together on the first place… I didn’t know how you’d react…”

His face softens, his amber eye drifting down to your nonexistent bump. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised. It may not be how either of us hoped, but it is a pleasant surprise.”

“Really?”

“Really, cyare.” You cannot help but smile as he pulls you in for a kiss. His lips slanting against your own as he holds you close. “I know there may be somethings we need to work out, but we’ll take it one step at a time,” he murmurs against your lips, hands tracing patterns across your back. “We’ll figure it out together.”

#commander wolffe x reader #wolffe x reader #clones x reader #wolffe imagine #the clone wars #tcw #the wolfpack #nsft #smut #request #crystalessences writes

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wolffesimp · 4 years

Text

Ahsoka and Y/N’s Sleepover

a/n: ok so i tried to make it like a headcanon but got super carried away 1.3 K words carried away so its more like an imagine with incomplete sentences oops hahhahaha

ahsoka and y/n are two very tired padawans

though they typically enjoy to ‘pull shit’ and commit the crime of ‘general shenanigans’

they just have no energy

so the two girls decide to have a sleepover

an energy reboost, if you will

ahsoka told anakin if he bothered her that she was going to send the picture of he and padme kissing to all of the gossip columns in naboo

yeah, that shut him up

y/n and ahsoka first went shopping in downtown coruscant

they bought face masks, nail polish, junk food, holofilms with cute boys, and magazines with even more cute shirtless boys

the last two were more of y/n’s idea

y/n insisted on paying for everything and even ended up purchasing matching silk pajamas for themselves

they were giddy with delight as they passed by random strangers on the street

“this will be the best night ever, sokie!”

adorning their arms were their shopping bags

the jedi eyed the two curiously as they walked down the halls

obi wan kenobi stopped them in their tracks

both looked at him in an accusatory manner

“what are you two doing?”

y/n and ahsoka shared a smile

“we’re just having fun, old man!”

“i told you to stop calling me that y/n-”

but the girls were already walking away, hand in hand

kenobi shook his head, sighing at the two padawans

what a handful

y/n and ahsoka often held hands

signaling their close friendship and everlasting bond

y/n was like ahsoka’s older sister, having been plo koon’s padawan

she served as a mentor to ahsoka

teaching her valuable things like

how to walk in heels

how to apply lipstick

but most importantly

how to be a boss ass bitch

the girls first decided to have a dance party

because what kind of sleepover doesn’t have music?

music blasted through y/n’s droid’s speakers

they attempted to show off their best dance moves

neither could dance that well

and y/n didn’t want to show her the club dance moves she did with the clones at the 79s

after about 20 minutes of obnoxious music, mace windu sends plo koon to y/n’s room

ahsoka and y/n were known for their shenanigans

plo koon was very concerned as to what the two were doing

so he respectfully knocked on the door

to find two very breathless and sweaty girls

“what are you two doing?”

plo koon saw bags lining the walls

they’ve been shopping

“we are having a sleepover master plo!”

“i’m glad you girls are having fun, but maybe turn down the music a little bit.”

ahsoka smiled up at their father figure

“sure!”

the door slammed shut in his face

he blinked a few times, then walked away

y/n turned off the music

“hey sokie, why don’t you bring your mattress in here? it would be so much better for when we watch holofilms and paint our nails.”

ahsoka dragged her mattress from her room, bringing it to y/n’s

they conjoined their mattresses, leaving one massive bed in the middle of the room

shortly after, the girls changed into their adorable silk pajamas

ahsoka’s were navy blue

y/n’s were (favorite color)

the design was adorable

the shorts were ruffled and low cut

with matching spaghetti strap camis

who cares what amount of skin they showed off?!

it was just the girls!

they decided to paint each others nails next

ahsoka painted y/n’s her favorite color, as requested

soon, y/n was putting the finishing touches on ahsoka’s french tips

the girls laid beside each other on the bed

chatting about whatever came to mind

“how’s that one boy you were smitten with?

“oh, lux? he’s out of the picture now.”

“hmm...let’s look at hot boys to cope with our feelings!”

“what about you and rex?”

caught

“um what about it?”

“i saw what i saw”

“you saw nothing”

“sucking each others faces off isn’t nothing-”

“shh sokie! look at all of these boys in here!”

and soon, the girls were taking quizzes in the useless tabloids

find out which jedi master you are!

which jedi is meant for you?

y/n started giggling after reading those headlines

“hey sokie, which jedi would you smash?”

ahsoka gaped at the girl in front of her

“are you serious?”

“dead serious. and don’t be a wimp about it.”

ahsoka considered the question carefully

“all of them are too fatherly”

y/n snorted

“well i think master kit would be fun!”

ahsoka couldn’t help but giggle

“you’re gross y/n!”

“which holofilm should we watch first?”

they decided on a horror movie

needless to say, that was a mistake

the girls ended up switching on all the lights

“do you think the clown will be in your bathroom?”

“no, ahsoka! besides, i will slice and dice that stanky ass with my lightsaber!”

they needed something to lighten their mood

facemasks!

the girls turned on music once again

but quieter

dancing around the room

eating all of their food

the girls spun each other around

dancing for what felt like hours

both flopped on the bed

chests rising up and down

giggling heartily

“y/n, you are like my big sister”

heart. melted.

“don’t make me cry, sokie! you are the best little sister i could ever ask for”

their heartfelt moment was interrupted by a series of vicious knocks at the door

y/n opened the door, revealing all of the 501st

ahsoka put her hand on her hip, judging the boys silently

“did you not see the sign?”

oh yeah, did i mention they made a sign in the midst of their sleepover?

in bold red words it said

NO BOYS ALLOWED

echo pouted at y/n

“ah, i hate when you make that kriffin face. come in.”

the clones walked inside the room

it was unexplored territory to them

jesse smirked at y/n “lovin’ the outfit”

“i will beat your ass”

“sure”

ahsoka giggled as tup’s face lit up

“i can have some cake?”

y/n smiled, nudging jesse towards his brothers “everyone can have some, as long as you all share”

their eyes lit up

ahsoka and y/n shared a wistful look

they knew the clones never truly experienced life

no childhood

no parents

no junkfood

just each other

y/n’s sorrow soon faded away as she watched hardcase moan in delight

“love at first bite?” ahsoka teased

“sweet maker, what is this stuff?”

“it’s junkfood, fives.”

“i want some!”

“sharing is caring!”

“leave some for everyone else!”

soon enough, the food was gone

they were all full to the brim

another holofilm played in the background

y/n and ahsoka noticed the boys pile together

they shared a look of confusion

until rex’s arm guided y/n into his chest

next thing they know, ahsoka and y/n were tangled into the mound of clones

ahsoka laughed

“you all sleep together?”

“when you say it like that it sounds weird. we used to do it all the time as kids.”

y/n was nuzzled between rex and jesse

“no funny ideas, jesse.”

a sleepy jesse rolls over to look at his captain

even in the moonlight his tattoo stuck out

“aye aye, captain.”

subconsciously, rex’s legs tangle with y/n’s

he plants his head in the nape of her neck

smelling her soft hair

grumbling sleepily from behind her

“g’night cyar’ika”

masterlist for more of my content

#clone wars #the clone wars #tcw #tcw fanfic #ahsoka tano #clone trooper jesse #captain rex #captain rex x reader #sw ahsoka #captain rex x y/n #obi wan kenobi #plo koon #clone trooper tup #clone trooper hardcase #clone trooper fives #kit fisto

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stuffedeggplants · 3 years

Note

hullo pls can you tell me about your clone ocs?? any and all of them would be just lovely :D

Lieutenant Six! He’s a supply officer in Coruscant Guard Aviation Support Squadron 66. (They handle logistics and are also an OC squadron! So they don’t have pilots but deal with maintenance, parts, ordnance, etc..) Conveniently he’s CT-60-3102 which also adds up to six- twice. He likes making the kind of jokes that are usually way too obvious for most people to actually make, indulging in clone humor, and has a very optimistic personality. He’s creative with language (and chewing people out lol), but does not excel at lateral thinking and is routinely defeated by bureaucracy and his inability to think outside the box, (but that’s what he has friends for.) Very nice guy, will absolutely go out of his way to help you, but struggles with coming up with creative solutions on his own.

Trooper Eyes-up! He’s on the younger side and also in the Coruscant Guard where he works at the detention center. He got his nickname in very unfortunate and embarrassing circumstances wherein commanders Fox and Thorn caught him doing something he absolutely should not have been doing and told him to bring his “eyes up here, shiny!” So they gave him his name which he’ll never live down. He’s curious, enjoys reading, and is prone to pushing boundaries when he shouldn’t. But he’s also honest and owns up to his screw-ups and is kind of resigned to routinely getting shit for the nonsense he gets himself into, but people love him for it because the fallout is amusing. He was unfairly blamed for bringing granite slugs into one of the barracks (which then proceeded to eat the duracrete walls and cause a problem that only flame troopers could ultimately fix.) He’s good at reading people emotionally but his risk vs reward calibration is a little off. In worlds where Order 66 happens, Eyes-up never participates though the rest of his unit does- this is because his latest screw-up put him on SUFR duty (”sweeping up the fucking rain”), Fox telling him to stay outside in the rain and keep sweeping until it was completely dry. Well the ground was still wet when Order 66 was activated, and Eyes-up’s visceral fear of upsetting the commanding officer of the entire Coruscant Guard overrode his in-built compliance with Order 66, so he stayed and swept up the rain while his brothers went on to worse and darker things. :(

Corporal Corr: the Coruscant Guard Corpsman who ‘mysteriously’ has not managed to promote to sergeant (and likely never will....👀) He works under Thorn in the Diplomatic Service, is a great connoisseur of alcohol, and goes extremely hard for the Coruscant Guard (and nurtures a rivalry with 501st guys whenever they go planet-side for whatever.) He’s very serious about the concept of CG brotherhood and becomes a fixture in Diplomatic Service initiation rites (where shinies are ‘officially’ inducted into the group after their first milestone) to the point where he pretty much leads them. Part of this involves shinies mixing a drop of their blood into red paint, and then their older brothers in the CG mix in their own blood as well. The ex-shinies then use the paint for their armor. Corr has been implicated in brewing his own barracks moonshine which Fox and Thorn let him get away with just long enough to let him finish the process so they could see how good the final product actually was when they confiscated it. Corr also has an agreement with Toast clone, where he trades alcohol for the bread that Toast makes in a crematorium oven that’s non-operational on official records but which is very much operational in a hushed, practical sense. (He also has Toast score the bread surface with the pattern of the CG symbol because he can’t help himself, and has tattoos of the CG armor armbands and legbands actually over his arms and legs. Some might describe Corr as overzealous, but he believes you need passion and strong bonds in life or you have nothing. [This guy is also kind of a joint OC with my friend who runs a Coruscant Guard blog here!]

Are you sick of the Coruscant Guard yet? Well I have 12 more guardsmen alone where this came from and 13 if you count this next guy; I wasn’t kidding when I said I had half a platoon worth of OCs.

Kov, rank to be determined, pronounced like “cove.” (I might change the spelling to better reflect that.) He’s in one of the Special Tactics Groups of the Coruscant Guard, a unit which I made up to work kind of like a SWAT team. He and his STG are also part of a designated force that can respond extremely quickly to developing situations and get there first to deal with the trouble before anybody else comes in. His STG’s motto is “made to kill, decanted to die” and he has a target tattooed over the side of his face to go with it. (They get shit from non-CG and units that think all they do is give out parking tickets and stand around looking pretty in the Senate building- these guys very much do not do that.) His face is very expressive, and he’s decisive, straightforward, and unfortunately comes off as kind of low on empathy. He wants people to see him as very pragmatic though he’s actually rather idealistic and kind of naive about certain things. He and his best friend are very interested in plants- Kamino didn’t have any, and they’re generally rare on Coruscant. There’s something calming and ‘constant’ about them that he enjoys. He likes taking photos of the ones they find together and looking them up later to learn about nature/biology. Kov learns he really likes children, but is uncertain/a little afraid to let himself interact with them because he’s worried about what sort of influence he’d have on them (and on a deeper level whether he’d learn from them that he’s not actually the person he thinks he is or tries to be.) He and a Twi’lek woman who immigrated from Ryloth sort of fall into a relationship without meaning to, and they both learn a lot from each other and grow as people. (I’m planning on having her take him to a botanical garden that he had no idea existed, and sometime during their visit he realizes he loves her even. He has trouble putting it into words in his mind, but he definitely knows.)

Okay last one, I’m sorry! :(

Lieutenant Rakia of the 212th, part of Slick’s direct chain of command. He goes through Geonosis with his best friend and batchmate Arak. When they were cadets on Kamino, and Arak’s helmet saved his life during a training accident but was partially shattered, and Rakia’s random compulsion to bend down and pick up a shard of the helmet inadvertently saved his life too during this incident. Arak and Rakia kept the small plastoid chunk, carved designs over its surface, and exchanged custody of it for years. Before Geonosis Arak gave it to Rakia. Rakia survives but somehow can’t find the chunk where it’s supposed to be in his utility belt, like it just disappeared, and Arak goes missing and is presumed KIA during the battle. On a deep internal level, Rakia has similar realizations to Slick, but because his personality is different he takes that in another direction. He doubles down on a deep trust and faith in the Republic and the Jedi because he’s subconsciously afraid of what it means about his life and purpose if those things are not the things he should believe in. He sees that they’re all cogs in a machine, but his response is that that’s a good thing. He finds something very personally significant about the idea that all those tiny cogs come together to become something much bigger. So his own internal tendencies towards a collective approach and trusting the leadership he was instructed to trust all his life just get kicked up to higher levels after Geonosis in the face of his anxieties.

In normal speech he’s casual and kind of playful, but when he gets angry he becomes overly explicit/didactic about things and snaps a lot to the point where he can be condescending even without meaning to be. Rakia has an artistic side but doesn’t get to explore it much at first. He’s clean-shaven and lets his curls grow out a bit because he likes how he looks that way, but otherwise looks like everyone else and doesn’t want to visually distinguish himself from his brothers too much besides the slightly longer hair. He wants to be someone others look up to and tries to ignore/deny parts of himself that he doesn’t feel fit that ideal image he wants others to see. Part of that ties into him really struggling with grief but not even allowing himself to contend with it and find closure, stuffing it back down and ignoring it to negative effect. It also ties in to him resisting discovering himself as an individual beyond a certain point/his comfort zone because he’s afraid that will isolate himself from his brothers, but resisting that (and continuing to deny his grief/keep it bottled down) ends up doing that exactly, leading him to feel cut off and alone in certain ways that compound the problem in a bad spiral. (He gets out of it, I promise.) So because Slick is busy developing his own radical ideas and solutions which he can tell no one about (on top of feeling like he’s the only one who’s cottoned on to something nobody else can see,) that’s isolating too, and he and Rakia understand each other a lot better than they think they do in some respects, regardless of their disagreements.

I know you didn’t ask for a six paragraph essay. Sorry I just really love these guys.😅

#my stuff #my writing #asks #Rakia is an alcohol from the Balkans and Central Europe #Arak is an alcohol from the Near East/nearby regions #I don't really even drink but I liked those names so I made them into clone names #and made them batchmates #I love Rakia so much

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ionfusionpunk · 3 years

Note

For the Fic title ask game: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

[Did a little editing bc this got real long, lol]

Thank you, Nonnie! asdfghjkl I actually kinda blushed when I saw people had sent me asks for this, truly.

Now, for this title, I had a lot of feels. It’s very poetically put, and I had to put some thought into what I might write because this sort of title, in my book, deserves that level of forethought. Ultimately there were two stories I might write based on this, the first a tad more generic than the second, but I would read them both if someone else wrote them, so I kept them, lol. Seeing as I’m currently in a SW state of mind, I stuck with that fandom, though if you’d like to see something for another fandom (Naruto, The Hobbit, LOTR, TMNT, BBC Sherlock, BBC Musketeers, Supernatural, LEGO Ninjago - all of the fandoms I’ve dabbled in), send another ask! I love hearing from others. Out of curiosity, before I give you the story, though, do you mind if I ask how you came up with this title? It’s just - so lovely, Nonnie <3

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (First Idea)

Everyday is hard. Obi-Wan knows this. He lives this. He leads men into battle, he sends others off without his protection. He watches many, so many, fall, and feels the hundreds across the Third System Army snuffed with each campaign.

He fights with Anakin, struggles to come to terms with the idea that his former Padawan is now a Knight with a Padawan of his own - that Anakin doesn’t need him anymore. He tries to fill in Ahsoka’s education where Anakin, in his inexperience, falls short.

He takes on extra duties because he can, because the Republic needs him to, because he can’t bear to foist even more onto Cody’s shoulders (willing as his commander may be). He does everything he can to keep the morale and health of his men up, to spread hope and Light despite the dreary darkness the war saturates them all with.

Obi-Wan does everything he can. He does. He tries so, so hard. He trudges through each day until he once more finds himself at his desk with yet another datapad and cup of lukewarm tea, staying up all through the night to fulfill each of his duties to the best of his ability. Then the day cycle restarts or an emergency comes up, and he’s right back at it again.

It’s not all chaos, of course. There’s sparring with Anakin and Ahsoka. There’s the brief moments spent in the presence of his friends and fellow Councilors. There’s infrequent calls from Bant and Garen and even Quinlan.

There’s his men.

The 212th is, without a doubt, Obi-Wan’s second-greatest pride and weakness, tied with Ashoka herself. He loves them all - their individuality, their creativity, their dogged determination to push on as long as he does, and then more when they’re forced to carry him. Nothing brings quite as much joy or peace as walking through the halls of the Negotiator and greeting each clone by name or designation, nothing quite as satisfying as spending a quiet evening with Cody filling out paperwork and laughing over the latest stunts pulled by the 501st.

And Obi-Wan finds that, if he focuses on those good things, those small moments of peace, then he can push off his own worries and nightmares and needs until tomorrow. He can ignore the Darkness slowly spreading for another day. He can endure one more sunset on some Force-forsaken planet where the Separatist forces seem to keep coming without end and the elements conspire against them.

Until tomorrow.

Just think of Waxer and Boil exchanging their latest updates from Numa.

Think of Fives and Echo and the chaos they caused when Obi-Wan requested their presence for extra training for Ghost Company.

Think of Rex and his exasperated comm-calls about Anakin’s latest antics.

Remember the way Cody tore through two squad’s worth of droids with Obi-Wan’s ‘saber just to give it back to him - the way his eyes rolled in fond exasperation once the battle was over and he berated his “ridiculous general” for never managing to hold on to his weapon.

Everyday, think of them again. Drive the Darkness back until tomorrow.

And tomorrow.

Do that, and victory will come. Trust in your men, in yourself, in the Force.

The Force will be with you.

Always.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Idea Two)

Obi-Wan is killed on Mustafar. Anakin overpowers him and drives his lightsaber through Obi-Wan’s heart.

And Obi-Wan wakes up.

He wakes up in his quarters in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He wakes up with a tiny Anakin pressed against his side and hair an awkward, chin-length tangle. He doesn’t know what’s happening, doesn’t know if this is the Force or a vision or real, but he makes the best of it regardless. He spends two months teaching Anakin again, doing things he had often wished he had Before. And just as he finally thinks things are changing…

Obi-Wan wakes up in his quarters on the Negotiator. His chrono tells him it’s nine months into the war, and his heart aches with the phantom pains of his death. He still doesn’t know what’s happening. But still he forges on. He has a duty to do his best regardless of his own limitations, his growing insecurities and confusions. For one month, this time, he fights alongside his men, does his best to prevent the various disasters that had occurred the first time around. And if he notices that Anakin is a bit Lighter now, well. Obi-Wan is still swallowed by grief every time he looks at his former Padawan.

He wakes up, this time, on Manda’yaim, Satine Kryze a few feet away and snoring softly. Qui-Gon isn’t there, and Obi-Wan ignores the ache in his chest. For seven months they evade Kyr’tsad’s grasp, and he uses all the negotiating skill he’d lacked back then to keep Satine from falling into such a black-and-white world view. He wakes before he knows if he succeeds.

This time he doesn’t recognize where he is. It’s hot, though, and unbearably bright. He walks outside into the waning daylight and counts two suns, observes nothing but sand and cliffs all around. He spends the next two days exploring, making his way to the settlement a few klicks west. He leaves more confused than before, because this is not the Tatooine he remembers. That night, as he meditates out beneath the triplet moons on the still-warm sand, he sees Qui-Gon. In fact, Qui-Gon talks to him. Obi-Wan is so overwhelmed, so confused, his heart pounding so sharply in his chest, that he cries. He cries for an hour, Qui-Gon hovering anxiously nearby until he can recover himself and explain in halting sentences everything that’s gone on. Qui-Gon promises to try and find some answers, then fades into the night.

And Obi-Wan wakes up in the embrace of the Force. Peace, it whispers.

He asks it why he’s here, why he’s seen the things he has.

To teach you, it admits. To offer you a chance.

Chance? What chance? A chance to torture himself with things that could never be?

To offer you a chance to go back and change things.

He’s shocked. Floored. All of that… was real?

Yes. You needed to see all the things you could change so that you can decide what would best be changed.

Me. You want… me to choose? Where I go, what I alter?

Yes. And wherever you go, we will place the knowledge you need to succeed in your path. It will be up to you to recognize it.

Obi-Wan thinks of all the good he could do, thinks of the Darkness he could prevent. “I want,” he says at last, “to be surrounded by Light. I want to go where I have the most chances of succeeding.”

The Force hums around him, cradles him close. He, in turn, basks in its Light, in the comfort of home. And he lets the Force lull him back to sleep.

He wakes up on the ground in one of the only dog piles he’d ever participated in. Cody has an arm thrown over his chest, and Waxer’s stomach pillows his head. Boil’s head rests on Obi-Wan’s arm, and someone else is curled around his feet. Everywhere he is surrounded by the peaceful quiet of men fast asleep, of men who radiate love and contentment into the Force.

Obi-Wan weeps silently for the Light that surrounds them.

And when he wakes again, it's the same Tomorrow.

#title ask game #anonymous #star wars #my writing #oneshot #well #two oneshots #which one do you like more?#this was a ton of fun #gosh i love writing #especially when i give myself feels in the process lmao

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ryder-s-block · 4 years

Text

Jaig Eyes (Ch 48)

Jaig Eyes (48/?)

Summary:

Kida, a former slave who now thrives as a bounty hunter, finds herself sucked into the war she advised Jango Fett against. Now that she’s involved, she has to finally mourn the loss of Jango, seeing his face in the clones that man the GAR. What happens when she allows herself to get attached to one, not for his resemblance to her former mentor, but for his heart?

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Chapter Forty-Eight: Get’shuk

“Something I don’t understand,” Plo Koon voiced, “Is how neither Anakin nor Ahsoka could resist the influence of the Son, but you could.” He turned to look at me at the end.

I shrugged. “Obi-wan did too,” I tried.

Anakin shook his head, struggling to remember. “No, you were there. Before...I don’t remember.”

“Curious, the Force is,” Yoda reasoned, brushing the topic aside for the moment. I fidgeted before them as the old master shared a look with his friend.

“Skywalker,” Windu spoke. “Have you any more to report?”

Anakin, still looking lost in his struggle to recover his memory, shook himself. “No, Master.”

“You are dismissed,” Windu responded, watching as Anakin and Ahsoka left. “Not you,” he called as I turned as well. I stopped, sucking in a deep, calming breath. I could do this.

The others left the room, leaving me alone with Obi-wan and the Council. “Yes?” I asked, trying to appear relaxed.

“What was it that made Skywalker join with the Son?” Windu asked, his tone dangerous. For a moment, I hesitated. If I told them that we were shown the future, would they be even more cautious around Skywalker than they already were? I swallowed, glancing at Obi-wan. He hadn’t reported that, despite knowing.

“We were in the Well of the Dark Side. The Son gave us...visions of something horrible. Of his own creation, I’m sure.” I wasn’t so sure. But I believed in Anakin. Believed that he was a good person.

“And how could you have resisted and Skywalker did not?” Kit Fisto asked, rubbing his chin.

I glanced down at my hands briefly. “I’ve had to resist the Dark Side before,” I allowed. “And I continue to do it. Besides, I had help.”

“Help?” Obi-wan asked. “I thought you said you looked away.”

“You couldn’t just not look,” I reasoned. “But in my memories...Jango came to me. He helped me look away. It’s his memory that has always grounded me when I face the darkness.”

The Jedi were quiet for a moment, all watching me.

Finally, Yoda spoke. “Strong, you have become,” he hummed. “Wrong, we were, to fear you.” There seemed to be some surprise at his words from the Council. Obi-wan, however, just looked proud.

“Master Yoda is right,” Shaak Ti said in her accented voice, giving me a nod. “We should have trusted you.”

To all of our surprise, I let out a laugh. “No, I appreciate your apology, but I think your worries pushed me to be this way. If I wasn’t forced to go sort everything out, I don’t know if I ever would have.”

I earned some smiles there. “Earned our trust, you have,” Yoda spoke with a solemn nod.

“I appreciate that,” I allowed, crossing my arms.

“Please, Kida,” Obi-wan said as the Council signed off. “Stay. you can get some food in the dining hall and make repairs to your ship. Or, if you’d like...you’re welcome to stay as you had before. The offer from the Republic still stands.”

I gave him a genuine smile as we left the war room together. “Thank you, Obi-wan, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for that yet.”

“I understand,” he returned. “Of course, feel free to still make repairs and rest before you go. Our ship will be jumping towards the Inner Rim soon, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, I’ll stay for the jump.” The jedi gave me a smile before leaving me in the hallway alone.

I received even more glances as I made my way back through the ship, but I did my best to block them out. My ship was still fueling when I got back to it, greeted by Apex reassuring me that the astromechs hadn’t touched it.

We immediately began to run diagnostics, revealing that I had to charge the back up vents, dump the engine backlog, and reboot the converter. I sighed, getting to work in silence. I wasn’t far into my work when I felt the ship shift under my feet, letting me know we’d jumped into hyperspace.

And it wasn’t long after that that I felt a presence approach quietly from behind. I was perched atop my shuttle, working at one of the vents to try and flush debris. Looking up, I saw familiar armor, Jaig eyes staring at me in royal blue.

I swallowed thickly as he looked around for me, scooting closer to the edge. “I’m up here,” I said gently, seeing him jump and look up. I didn’t say anything else, just offering a small smile as I finished working on the vent.

Rex stayed in silence as I worked, fidgeting below. Finally, when I deemed that the vent was properly cleaned, I slid to the edge of the shuttle and swung down to land deftly on the ground. The clone looked my way for a moment with his hands behind his back. He was rigid. Like he was when we first met.

I sighed. “Rex, I--”

“I’m glad to see you’re alright,” he cut me off with a soft tone, his voice automated through his helmet.

“Same to you.” I paused, glancing down at the panel I had started mindlessly working on. “Rex...I’m sorry.”

“You had to leave,” he allowed, giving me a small shrug from the gangway.

I looked away. “No. I meant for asking you to come with me. It was...unfair.” He seemed surprised at my words, his proper stance faltering. “I see that now. I know this is where your duty lies.”

Rex let out a breath, the sound weird coming through his modulator. He took off his helmet to let me look into his golden eyes, and stepped up the gangway into the hold of my ship where I worked. “Please believe me when I say that I wish it laid with you. But…”

“I understand, Rex,” I said gently from where I crouched. “I really do. I’m just sorry for putting you in that position. And for being so angry when you answered it right.”

The captain tilted his head at me. “You’ve changed.”

I hummed, “Yes, people have been telling me that a lot lately.”

“I like your new design,” he commented, obviously a little uncomfortable. He gestured to my armor, now painted in crimson. “Any meaning to it or…”

“Of course,” I chuckled. “When is there not to Mandalorian armor?” I turned a little in my crouch to let him see it.

“Is it for defiance or honoring a parent?” he asked, raising his brow. I heard his unvoiced question, though. Was it for Sith?

“Both, I guess. Obviously for Jango, since he more or less saved me when I was at my lowest. And defiance because...despite resisting the darkness, I’m not fully ignoring my heritage. I know what I’ve descended from. And the knowledge has helped me grow. I won’t just throw it away.”

Rex hummed at me, giving a nod.

“It’s your design still, though,” I added, looking away.

“I noticed.”

It fell silent as I worked on the panel again. I wasn’t sure how I had planned for this all to go. Or how I even wanted it to go. After all this time, I was sure my emotions would have calmed, especially considering the journey I’d been on.

“It’s been a year,” Rex voiced softly, stepping a bit closer, but looking away. “I thought seeing you...would be easier.”

I stopped short, my hand stilling over the panel. “Easier?”

He breathed for a moment. “I know you’re not staying. I thought knowing that would make seeing you easier.” He fidgeted. “Do you ever wish that you’d stayed?”

“No. I needed to go to figure things out.”

“And have you figured them out?”

I smiled gently. “Almost.”

“Will you come back when you do?”

I turned to look at him, finally standing. “I...don’t know.” What would I do? My list of to-do’s ended with fixing my kyber crystal. It completed the journey I’d started on a year before. Would I return to the war effort? It seemed the Jedi were fine with my doing that.

But was I?

Was that my path?

Rex looked down-trodden, nearly jumping out of his skin when his wrist comm beeped. He was being called to the bridge. He sighed, glancing at it and fiddling with his helmet. “Even with your changes, Kida,” he said gently. “What I said back then...before you left...it’s still true.” He put his helmet back on and strode away, leaving me to my thoughts.

I knew what he meant.

“Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.”

I could still hear the words clearly, despite him having said them a year prior. And he still meant them, apparently. My heart ached, knowing I had to leave. I breathed out slowly, watching him recede.

I’d fix things one day, I decided in that moment. But for now, I knew that I had to get to a forger. One with a very special skill set. And who wouldn’t ask questions.

“Miss,” Apex interrupted my thought process as my fingers touched the lightsaber still concealed in my pouch. The kyber hummed under my touch, seeming hopeful, rather than in pain. “Diagnostics are nearly finished. We will be ready to launch within the hour.”

“There’s no rush,” I resigned, knowing the Star Destroyer was still in hyperspace. “Do you have this covered?” I asked, glancing over to see some familiarly painted armor in the hangar.

“Of course.”

“Good.” I stashed my weapons away, especially the lightsaber, before making my way over to the clones I recognized in 501st blue.

Jesse’s face lit up as I arrived, ducking around the crates that littered the hangar. “Kida!” he cried, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “Care to join in?” He gestured to the group that was standing there, holding a ball. Get’shuk.

I chuckled. “I haven’t played in a long time,” I allowed.

“And you won’t be playing today,” Kix said with a stern look to his brother. “Doctor’s orders.”

I scowled, but rolled my eyes with a laugh. “Yes, sir.”

He put his arm around me, dragging me over to the crates to sit with him. Hardcase was there, removing the top half of his armor. “Blacks versus blues,” he explained to my questioning look. He gave me a smile before handing me a cup and jogging into the playing field they’d created with spare crates.

Sitting comfortably beside Kix, I took a long, slow sip of the clear liquid. I coughed slightly. “Is this tihaar?” I asked.

Kix shrugged. “As close as we could get it.” I couldn’t fight the smile on my face as I took another drink. “So...are you sticking around? I saw the captain talking to you.”

I hummed slightly into my cup. “No. I still have some things to do on my own.”

“After?”

I glanced at him, quirking my brow. “You guys really want me to come back, don’t you?”

Hardcase stopped on the playing pitch, ball in hand. “Well, you’re fun. We like having you watching our backs.” Speaking of, the man got tackled from behind. Hard.

“Focus, Hardcase,” one of his teammates chided, slapping him upside the head as the tattooed clone got up. Beside me, two clones chuckled. They looked younger. Sounded younger, even.

“Those are some of our newer recruits,” Kix said softly when he saw me looking. I took a sip of my drink again, already feeling the warm haze of alcohol. “Dogma, Tup. This is Kida.”

The two seemed more than pleased to be introduced, both turning in their seats immediately. “You’re Kida Fett,” one said. He had long hair that he had pulled up into a top knot and a teardrop tattoo on his cheek.

“You know criminals usually sport that tattoo,” I responded immediately. He glanced away shyly, not sure what to say. “And you,” I quipped, leaning casually. “What’s that supposed to be?” I was referring to the other’s ‘v’ shaped tattoo over his eye and nose.

The second looked insulted, but Jesse only laughed from the pitch. “Now, don’t feel special, boys. She does that to all of us.” The clone caught the ball as he talked, running along the pitch and dodging the other team.

The one with the teardrop chuckled gently. “I’m Tup.” His voice was a bit higher. Definitely younger than the clones I was familiar with. It hurt my heart to know how young he really probably was. Biologically? Probably in his 20s. Physically? He’d been alive for half that time.

“Nice to meet you,” I managed, forcing a genuine smile to my face. “So you must be Dogma, then,” I said to the other.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said formally, straightening his back.

I quirked my brow. “By the books, is he?” I muttered to Kix, making him laugh.

“Eh, he’s a good kid. Loyal soldier.”

I hummed at his comment. Loyal was a good thing. To an extent. I sensed an ominous presence about the particular clone. I wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something foreboding. I shook it off as I continued to watch the game in silence, sipping my drink.

“I had heard a rumor you came crawling back.” The voice made me jump, nearly spilling liquor on myself. Whirling, I saw a familiar bearded man leaning casually against a crate.

My face broke out in an immediate smile. “Fives?” Hopping off my crate easily, I approached him slowly, taking in his new getup. He grinned, letting me circle him. “Wow, ARC looks good on you,” I teased, taking in the new pauldron and kama.

“Oh, it looks better on me,” a second voice assured, making me turn to see Echo. Fives punched me in the shoulder gently, right over the kyr’bes. “Nice to see you, kid.”

I rolled my eyes, surprising myself when I dragged them both into a hug. “I’m so glad you guys are alright.”

“More than alright,” Fives bragged as we stepped away. “We’re ARC Troopers now.”

I smiled. “When did you guys graduate?”

“Not too long ago,” Echo explained. “So you didn’t miss too much.”

“Relax, boys,” Kix called from where he still sat on the crates. “She’s not staying.”

“What?” Fives asked, making some of the other clones roll their eyes.

“We just went through this,” Hardcase complained before being decked by the other team again.

I shrugged at the two brothers. “I can’t yet.”

“You say that like you will eventually,” Echo commented, walking with me back to my seat.

“Well,” I looked away. “Maybe.”

“Of course she will,” Fives joked, nudging me over to sit beside me and steal my drink. “She knows she can’t stay away from me.”

“That’s what it is,” I teased back. The group laughed, dissolving into playful banter as the game continued.

At some point, we all became rather intoxicated, the group divided between players, drunk clones singing terribly, and those of us who sat and told war stories and jokes, constantly refilling our drinks.

Amongst it all, though, I felt when he arrived to the scene. His golden eyes watched me from the other side of the hangar where he stood with Skywalker. He took in me enjoying the company of his brothers and felt warm inside.

He was practically projecting, his emotions were so easy to read. I worried that Skywalker would notice, but then again, I was sure he already had. He wasn’t stupid.

But neither was he cruel. He broke the rules for love. Why would he stand in the way of his captain?

I shook myself. Was it love? Maybe it was. Even after all this time, seeing him made my heart soar. Through it all, even when Darth Bane was turning my own thoughts against me, I always thought about Rex. What would things have been like if I weren’t who I was? Or if he wasn’t a clone?

Of course, such speculations would only cause harm. Things were as they were. There was no changing that.

Glancing across the hangar to where I knew I’d find him, I met his gaze. After a moment of merely looking, I offered him a smile. It was small, but real. The corner of his lips quirked slightly at the sight before he nodded slightly and turned back to his general.

As I felt the Star Destroyer lurch out of hyperspace, cuing my time to leave, I came to a decision. Spending the time with the clones. With the jedi. With Rex, even from across the room. I loved it. Sure, it was war. It was loss. It was horrible.

But I never felt more at home than when I was with them.

As I said my goodbyes and made my way to my ship, Apex already readying the engines, I decided that after I fixed my kyber crystal, my next goal was rejoining the war. I would live for balance. And I’d live for the people I cared about.

If joining the war was how to keep them safe, then so be it.

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

MANDO’A

Get’shuk -- A team game similar to rugby

#fanfiction #fanfic #star wars #star wars the clone wars #oc star wars #star wars oc #jango #jango fett #Daughter of Jango fic #jedi #obi-wan #Anakin Skywalker #ahsoka tano #captain rex #rex x oc #captain rex x oc #rexxoc #rex

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nny11writes · 5 years

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Pink Lizard Thunderbolt Incident

Ahsoka was twenty, bored, and taking a bet from Hardcase when it happened.

Her first mistake was being in the same bar as Hardcase. Quickly followed in order by entertaining the bet, her own youthful naivete, and her desire to push limits. Well, actually, her first mistake had been bragging to him about her ability to knock back starshine’s because human alcohol was “weak ass shit”. Hardcase commiserate and had promised to find her something better, after all, clones had a higher tolerance for alcohol as well. When they’d sat at the bar Hardcase had pointed at her and said, “This one can drink irongut, blood mashes, and thinks starshine is weak. What do you have to knock her flat on her ass?”

Ahsoka had laughed, punching him good naturedly until he’d smiled evilly at her and said, “S’amatter? You scared?”

She’d told him to pay for the drink and she’d drink anything.

When it arrived, the first thing she’d noticed was the small cloud hovering above it, little electrical bolts flying between the hovering vapor and the liquid.

“Holy shit,” she whispered, “is that a pica?”

The bartender, an older purple woman with stubby tentacles swept elegantly behind her head, had grinned and winked. “Nope. That is a pink lizard thunderbolt babe. Almost twice the alcohol content. It can literally eat through a human’s stomach, but you togs are built like gastric tanks. If you can drink this shit and remember anything afterwards, I’ll pay for the damn thing myself.”

Ahsoka stared at it in wonder, a stray bolt shocking her finger as she grinned. She probably sounded more excited than she should have as she asked, “Should we have an ambulance on speed dial or anything?”

The woman shrugged, “How should I know? I’m not your mom!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve just sent Kix a message and he is your mom.” Hardcase made a motion towards it. “You gonna chicken out or what?”

The last thing Ahsoka remembers is grabbing the drink. It’s surprisingly disappointing to say she doesn’t remember what it looked like as the cloud dissipated, she had no clue how it even tasted which just seemed like a fucking shame. Then next thing she remembers is waking up violently ill in an alleyway, and bitching on about buzz droids. Later she’ll be delighted to discover that she is still alive and hadn’t had a single thing stolen from her. Much later she’ll be grateful that Hardcase didn’t record a damned thing. Much, much later she’ll have bragging rights beyond bragging rights and a pin up of herself in a thundercloud painted on a LAAT/i.

But that is later.

Hardcase, for his suspiciously reliable sounding testimony, explains that Ahsoka drank it over a twenty minute period and that after thirty minutes she only seemed regular drunk. The bartender was impressed enough to give them some complimentary nuts. About five minutes after that Ahsoka had started rambling about starships, then blasters, then bitching about how cold Ilum was and how she wished her lightsabers were a “cool” color. She had apparently never explained what that was supposed to mean.

Ahsoka had devolved quickly into tattoo designs for herself, and asked several times in a row if Rex would want one too. Despite Hardcase repeatedly saying she would need to ask the Captain. Then got a little teary eyed that Rex didn’t love her, which the bartender took the wrong way but got a kick out of Ahsoka’s hiccuping, “But he’s my best- brother- frien’- dad and I need him!”

Hardcase had assured her that Rex loved her, and that every trooper in the 501st knew she was their collective best-sister-brother-friend-Commander.

She had sniffled and asked if they’d get tattoos with her which Hardcase assured her they would.

They had both been given orders to drink two glasses of water before leaving. Apparently the bartender wanted to keep visuals on Ahsoka for another hour before they left for liability reasons and also because this was the most fun she’d had all week. Which was fair. After the first glass was chugged Ahsoka almost threw up, managed not to, and had loudly declared that was why togrutas were the best.

Hardcase had gotten up at some point to keep Kix appraised of the situation (“I told him you were fine and you were, ‘s not my fault!), it took less than a minute and he had eyes on her for all except the last fifteen seconds.

No one is really sure where she was for the next hour or so.

Ahsoka finds a receipt in her pocket for a kebab, the used end of a death stick with heavy lipstick stains in a shade she doesn’t own, and a crumpled ticket to a concert that had happened a week before. All in all it’s not useful for much except she glad she didn’t root through the trash more thoroughly. Who knows what would have been in her pockets then. She guesses that she stumbled out the back door to wander a bit, but was probably too uncoordinated to get far. Regardless, drunk Ahsoka had still turned around and homed in on Hardcase at the bar.

The first place Hardcase checked was the dancefloor, then the bathroom, then the back alley. He explained in detail how his short life flashed before his eyes and the way he’d debated if he should call in backup to find her. He’d figured she couldn’t get far and did a sweep, he never saw her. Right when he decided to, and stepped into the back alley he found her sitting half hidden by the dumpster and nearly burst into tears. Hardcase then promised to get a tattoo with her and get her food and do anything as long as she didn’t leave his side again for the night.

Ahsoka had apparently said, “Nice.” while patting his cheeks.

Mama Bartender had come out a long while later with waters for them and asked if Ahsoka was still breathing. Ahsoka had tilted her head and shrugged, which was acceptable. A while after that Hardcase had helped her up and they had tried to go back to the barracks. She had been distracted by every pet they came across and asked to touch them. Hardcase had smiled widely as he explained he was not responsible for whatever photos those civvies had taken of a drunk Jedi playing with their pets.

“That’s on the holonet and I can’t stop it.”

Fair enough, although Ahsoka did feel he shouldn’t act so smug about it.

There had apparently been a memorable stop at a bathroom as Hardcase had gone in the single stall with her to make sure she actually peed in the damned toilet and not on her leggings. Apparently someone had thought they were engaged in more sexual games and had been horrified thinking a trooper took advantage of a drunk woman. Ahsoka had laughed herself nearly sick, again allegedly on civvie camera, explaining that Hardcase was her best friend and she loved him but not like that but if he was a girl she would totally have done it. Hardcase stuttered his way again through the explanation that she was drunk and needed to pee. Ahsoka had been offended at the accusation that she was drunk, right up until she tilted and almost brained herself on the sink while bitching about the gravity repulsors acting up again. Then she’d paused before petting the mirror image of her own face and saying, “Ok ’m drunk.”

The karking Coroc’s had been called in the meantime though, and Hardcase had been laughing too much to explain what happened when the two shock troopers arrived. He must have said something though because they were not, in fact, arrested for any of the things the probably should have been arrested for.

The fact that Ahsoka had received two pings with unknown com numbers to have a drinking contest with the Guard was a good indicator that she’d impressed them for all the wrong reasons. Boot and Chide had both assured her they’d welcome her presence as a judge if nothing else because she was funny.

Hardcase just snickered, “F-funny!” in a high pitched wheeze when she asked about it.

Ahsoka had tried to sleep on a bench and Hardcase had at least redirected her back towards the barracks. They made it halfway there before Ahsoka walked unassisted into another alley, leaned over, and threw up. Feeling better she’d again insisted on sleeping, and Hardcase got her to compromise and just sit next to him. There was no way she was being allowed to sleep yet. He kept an eye on her breathing and made sure she wasn’t getting cold.

“I know my ABC’s Commander!” Hardcase said with pride.

She opted to not make the obvious joke considering he’d shepherded her drunken ass around for at least six. Which was generous considering he was the one who had gotten her plastered in the first place.

That’s where she remembers waking up feeling like shit and grateful that she had the day off.

Kix had nearly blown a fuse when they’d returned as he’d assumed Hardcase was being an idiot and had been joking about the punch packed in her drink. Ahsoka had hissed through his rant, hands covering montrals best she could and accepting the pain killers and the electrolyte mix. She got a few hours sleep in the medical bay under his watchful eye before her woke her to eat a nutrient cube and discharge her with a lifelong case of Being a Karking Dumbass. Kix was adamant that it was chronic and would only become more acute with time. Ahsoka had rolled her eyes but didn’t try to argue because...well, she had drunk the damned thing hadn’t she?

She caught another hour of sleep before Anakin had arrived, stomping and shouting and forcing her up to train in the salle with him. As it was his right as her Master to determine how Ahsoka would spend the day off from the GAR. It wasn’t productive considering she spent the whole time cursing at him and he spent the whole time laughing.

“Best core workout I’ve ever had,” Anakin would say fondly, much later down the line when telling the story to embarrass her.

Obi-Wan had arrived afterwards with an evil smile to drill her on her studies, which Ahsoka managed to only avoid by saying, “You drink one Pink Lizard and everyone becomes an asshole!”

Anakin had panicked for a hot minute while Obi-Wan had immediately sat her down. She’d been quickly forced to explain that Kix had seen her and discharged her already, no she wasn’t dying, and no they only ate through the stomach lining of humans according to the bartender.

Anakin had eventually smiled widely, far too manic for anyone’s tastes, looking between her and Obi-Wan, “We’re high tolerance drinkers! That’s our lineage tick!”

“No,” Obi-Wan tried his best to discourage the notion. “I know what you’re thinking and we should definitely not-”

“Yes!” Anakin insisted, only getting more excited, “We need to get drinks together! Now!”

“No,” Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had both insisted, but for wildly different reasons.

“But yes!” Anakin chripped far to happy and loud for anyone to enjoy as he dragged them off towards their quarters. “So what are we having, I know how to get the good stuff in here.”

“Either get me herbal tea or get me another Pink Lizard so I can die in kriffing peace!” Ahsoka snarled and tried to get her arm out from the mechno grip he’d locked her into.

Obi-Wan said, “I second the motion! Let me go Anakin!”

“Cool, I’m thinking jet juice to start then some skee’s and we’ll see how we’re feeling.” Anakin said the same way some people might imply that eating a small desert after a meal might be one step too far.

Ahsoka and Obi-Wan looked at one another in horror, mute from fear.

“How are you still alive?” She whispered staring up at her Master with new respect.

To be fair, she doesn’t actually remember anything after that either, so maybe the respect had been given a bit to quickly. Suffice it to say they, luckily, survived the night. Although perhaps “luckily” is not the right word for the day that followed.

Regardless, Ahsoka looked up at her nose art with a smile and decided that she would never, ever touch a damned pica drink again in her life. She would have also sworn off drinking with Anakin, but that was a foregone conclusion.

Now if she could just get Yoda to come to one of their “our lineage makes poor decisions” nights, she’d swear off drinking forever.

#fanfiction #fanfic #Ahsoka Tano #Hardcase #CW: Alcohol #CW: Binge Drinking #do NOT do what these two idiots did #black out drunk is not cool kids #but it sure makes for fun fic writing #No one deserves to be trapped with Anakin when he wants to drink to excess #not even Obi-Wan I Take Shots in the Middle of Our Mission Kenobi and Ahsoka Fuck You I Can't Tano #star wars: the clone wars #Why yes that is Aetheyta #thanks for noticing #Kix is the Mom friend

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diyanimationshow · 3 years

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Season Break - Thank You Denver! DPCC 2019 Wrap-Up :: SB #6

Our DPCC 2019 Booth!

Hello, old and new DIY-ers! We are back from Denver Pop Culture Con!!

Now that both of us have finished our travels, we’re getting back into the swing of our usual schedules. We’re a little bit later posting this blog than we intended (jet lag is crazy), and so have had some good time to reflect on the amazingness that was DPCC.

We were lucky enough to table in the Artist Valley with some of our favorite artists, promoting The DIY Animation Show, meeting new friends and regular listeners (hey guys!), and selling DIYA merch (which you can find later in the post) and Jess’ art. It was super fun times, and we’ve gathered some of our fave highlights from the experience below!

Highlights!

Good times with fans and cosplayers who bought Jess' art and a Follow Your Heart print

Jess I’ve tabled at DPCC for a couple of years now, and it’s easily one of my favorite conventions. Between the gorgeous views of the mountains in Denver, the lively atmosphere of the crowd, and the all-around positive vibe of the show, I can’t get enough! One of my favorite things each year is catching up with people I’ve meet from previous years and meeting new ones, whether they’re fans, booth buddies, volunteers… the list goes on. Everyone is always so nice and welcoming, and I believe they represent the best of what the pop culture crowd has to give. Other highlights for me include spending quality time with friends and family that traveled with us, seeing Amanda Palmer in concert for the first time (mind-blowing!!), and finding a super cool Saitama action-figure from One Punch Man. Good times all around!

Lauren found her new vocation in a friend's Iden Versio helmet

Lauren Colorado is even more beautiful than I’d expected; for a long time I’d had a distant hope of maybe - just maybe - seeing those mountains one day. So wandering around Garden of the Gods was a dream come true. Never have I seen anything so sublime. Add to that a weekend of DPCC’s excellence and radness, meeting new listeners… and somehow having a knack for missing you regulars (Every. Single. Time. XD I’m so sorry!); there was so much good art and such a joy of expression, it really gave me a kick start in my own creative hopes and plans! Got the chance to attend Cary Elwes’ spotlight and discover just how hilarious he is, as well as deepen my love for astronomy and space with NASA’s roster of talks. And finally - the cosplay. This was my first time experiencing cosplay on such a scale, and boy, was it ON POINT. I saw Henry Jones Sr., Mermista and Katra, and - perhaps the cherry on the cake - got to try on a new friend’s replica Iden Versio helmet. I have found my new calling. 501st / Rebel / Mandalorian Legions… sign me up for all of them.

Overwatch cosplayers showing how it's done. Thanks friend Keith for the photo.

Shout-Outs!

We met so many wonderful people at DPCC, here are just a few we thought you'd like, too.

Will Terry children's book illustrator, teacher, & podcaster Website | Podcast I’ve been following Will Terry’s YouTube channel and podcast for a few years now, and he and his co-hosts always deliver great advice, whether you’re an illustrator, animator… you name it. We were able to catch up as the show was coming to a close, and it was just really great to see him!

AJ Nazzaro illustrator & character designer Website | Instagram A good friend from the early days of The Oatley Academy, it was so fun to catch up and see just how AJ’s hard work and indomitable spirit is paying off. Now illustrating for the likes of Blizzard and Overwatch, and trying his hand at a little animation now and again, AJ is nailing it.

Ajay Young comic artist & illustrator Website | Instagram If you’re in need of a good “potentially offensive” laugh and a super-awesome human to hang with, Ajay is another fellow Oatley Academy artist from years past. He and his wife are always a pleasure to catch up with at the show and see what new things they have in store. (“Mustache Duckstache” is a personal fave!)

Savvy Jensen illustrator Instagram Savvy’s art keeps growing more out-of-control in its awesomeness! Another fellow OA-er, Savvy and her tenacious spirit are always pushing the boundaries of her painting skills (those colors though!!), and it was fantastic catching up with her. Dude is rocking it.

Andrew Thompson illustrator Website | Instagram One of those happy con-connections, we got chatting and instantly clicked! Andrew’s art is super rad, bursting with acid pop colours and insanely energetic, filled with battles and hope. Can't wait to see what more he creates!

Booth Buddies! Last, but not least, we were so fortunate to have such excellent booth buddies this year! Fantastic art and wonderful humans: Erin Powers-Kim, AKA Lociro illustrator & webcomic creator Twitter | Instagram Erin's razor sharp wit coupled with her coffee cats and fun art kept our spirits buoyed all weekend. Thanks Erin! Sean Callahan & Alex Kmeto colourist & illustrator Sean's Website | Twitter | Alex's Website | Instagram (Some work NSFW) Along with their friends Martin, Hallam and Jason, this bunch made for a motley and hilarious crew - great art, lots of laughs, and a plethora of high-five techniques. Thanks guys!

The 'Follow Your Heart' print started out as a gif!

Merch!

We have a few ‘Follow Your Heart’ prints and sticker sheets left in stock for those who couldn’t make it to the show and want a piece of DIYA! You’ll find them over on Jess’ etsy store, in the DIYA section.

The package includes a signed and inscribed Follow Your Heart print, measuring 8x8” on matte 80lb cardstock, and a mini-sticker sheet of 6 unique designs. There’s only a few in stock, so grab them while you can!

Our DPCC Take-Aways!

Jess: My take-away, and honestly I’m reminded of it with each show, is that you and your art will touch people in ways you can’t fully grasp. Making the choice to show up and put yourself out there, whether to sell art, to promote a show, to talk to the people there, can lead to joy, new friends, and so much more. It’s always worth it.

Lauren: My biggest take-away from DPCC is that there’s so many different types of art, and so much out there to capture, so let’s make the art our heart desires! I’m so excited to play with my art, grow with it, and love it :D

Smiles and Satisfaction

And with that, Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 has come to a satisfying close!

We can’t tell you just how excited we are for the future of DIYA - we’ve had a taste of that Con Life, and we want moooore!!! It was incredible meeting everyone, and we’re looking forward to doing more shows in the future, getting more content to you all, and seeing just how far DIYA can go. Thank you all for your continued support! We appreciate you.

In the meantime, stay on the lookout for more blog posts this Season Break, and especially stay tuned for the upcoming Season 4 of DIYA!

Catch ya next time, and remember… Follow your heart, and have fun animating! <3 Jess & Lauren

DIYA Instagram | DIYA Twitter | DIYA Facebook | DIYA Ko-Fi Jess | Lauren Thank you Azureflux for our awesome music!

#animation #denver pop culture con #dpcc 2019 #comic con #convention #podcast #diy animation show #diy animation

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elysiadjarin · 3 years

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Sword and Shield 7

Tags: Bad Batch x reader (you), fem!coded, poly!relationship, multi-part series, nonhuman!reader, Echo later on

Part 6: https://elysiadjarin.tumblr.com/post/655814128564355072/sword-and-shield-6

Warnings: not really much, some mentions of fights etc.

Notes: Well, after this chapter y’all... I think. You know. Where this about to go...

7: Tumbling

Tipoca greeted you the way it always did: a bustle of commotion as soon as you stepped foot off of the ship. You’d dressed in the standard gear that the Kaminoans had given you: a modified pair of blacks that essentially fit you like a jumpsuit.

Following Hunter, you and the rest of the team let him lead the way down the halls. Clones moved through the hallways as well, some of them giving you looks but the majority just ignoring you. By the time Hunter had opened the door to the Bad Batch’s usual barracks, you’d begun to brace yourself for the usual checkups and procedures you knew would follow.

“Hey Shiv, looks like they’ve moved your stuff in already,” Wrecker said, bounding into the room and over to his bunk.

You went over to the singular trunk that had been set in the middle of the floor, labeled with your designation number Unit 526934. Opening the trunk, you found your extra few changes of clothes and the random odds and ends that you’d left behind. Most of your favored possessions you’d either left with the 501st or taken with you onto the ship already, so the little you’d left in your quarters on Tipoca held little to no value.

Digging through the trunk, you grabbed the one item you’d hoped they hadn’t forgot, relieved it was still there. You let out a breath as you closed the trunk and turned to the table. Turning over the small holoprojector, you placed it down on the table and flicked it on, watching the images flicker into view. You smiled as you flipped through the couple of pictures of you with the 501st when you’d first been taken to Tipoca.

Pictures of you, soaking wet from the rain, laughing with the 501st. Fives, splashing you as Kix chased after you both with a towel. Your smile faded a little as you came across a picture of Echo, his grinning face fixed on you and Fives as he watched you both slip on puddles and slick durasteel.

Flicking it off, you stuck it into your bag and looked around. Apparently you were required to stay with the Bad Batch now, not that you’d protest.

“Uh, Shiv— looks like they didn’t bother to put another bunk in here.” Hunter turned to you.

You shrugged. “That’s okay. I can go on the floor or something.”

“You could share with me.” Tech adjusted his goggles. “Mine can extend a little further.”

You turned to glance at his bunk. “Oh... are you sure?”

“Awww, no fair Tech! I wanna sleep with Shiv!” Wrecker leaped up from his bunk, promptly cracking his skull against the top of it and letting out a yelp.

You could have sworn your entire face flushed at the double entendre of the words, but you tried to swallow and push it away. “Um- if you’re alright with it....”

Tech’s face looked a little colored. “If you want.”

You gave him a grateful smile. “Thank you, Tech. You sure I won’t make you uncomfortable? I tend to gravitate toward heat... I’ve been told I’m a little cold-blooded.”

He opened his mouth to reply when Crosshair snorted. “Really Shiv, do you think any of us would complain about that?” he asked, sending you a dark smirk from the other side of the room.

You swallowed thickly as Wrecker laughed and Tech sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. Hunter chuckled.

“Well, it’s not as if you haven’t all fondled me already,” you said smartly, turning on your heel to go back to your trunk.

A dead silence filled the room for a moment as you bent over the trunk and started rummaging again, trying to search for the pair of night clothes you’d left behind last time. They’d been comfortable, and you didn’t want to give them up.

Then Wrecker burst into hearty laughter again. He walked up to you, grabbing you and hoisting you up as you squeaked a startled protest. “That’s the way, Shiv! Give it to him!” He swung you around as you squealed, grabbing onto his shoulders.

“Wrecker— Maker, wait—“ you tried to say through laughs, the world spinning.

He playfully tossed you down onto his own bunk as you shrieked, hair falling into your face. Grinning, he bent over you and handed you something.

“I want you to meet Lula,” he presented with a flourish. “Made ‘er myself!”

You brushed hair out of your eyes and took the little stuffed bunny, smiling at the stitched-on smile. Leaning forward, you had to bury your face into the plush tummy and breathe in Wrecker’s unmistakable scent. It smelled like the sizzle after a rain of blaster fire, the plume of smoke from an explosion barely wafting through the air, all underscored by a hint of sweat and a warm, thick scent that you just knew was wholly him.

“Lula is really warm, and soft,” you said softly, fingers squeezing the arms as you smiled up at Wrecker.

He hovered over you, face lighting up as you approved. “You like it? It’s coming apart a little, though. I gotta get ‘er fixed.”

You looked back down at it curiously, then turned it over. A seam had started to unravel at the back. “Oh— I can fix that, if you have the materials,” you offered, tugging carefully at the thread to see how loose it had gotten. Frowning, you tied a knot in the thread to keep it from further unraveling.

“You can?” Wrecker leaped up, managing to avoid hitting his head that time, and went to go rummage in all the miscellaneous parts.

“Here, Wrecker,” Hunter said, tossing him something from the other side of the room.

Wrecker caught it, squinting down at it. “Oh goody, it’s the thread.” Then he resumed looking for what you hoped would be a needle.

“Do you need anything, Shiv?” Hunter asked, turning to you briefly from his bunk.

You shook your head, scooting to the edge of Wrecker’s bunk and carefully holding Lula. “No, thank you. My trunk is here, and I guess I’m sharing with Tech, so... I should be good. Besides,” you sighed, rolling your eyes, “the Kaminoans will give me whatever they see fit anyway.”

“Oh, right.” Hunter walked over to you, handing you a datapad. “You’re being called into the medbay at 1800 Standard. I assume for a checkup.”

You glanced at it, then nodded and scrunched your nose. “Yeah, it’s going to be a long one,” you sighed, shoulders slumping. “Especially since that stupid stunt I pulled on that first mission.” You absently reached up and rubbed your arm, feeling the phantom pain of melting flesh tearing away.

Hunter glanced at your arm with a frown. “I thought it healed?”

“It did,” you said, “but now they’re going to poke and prod at it for a while to figure out the cellular regeneration most likely. Plus, they never have figured out why bacta patches tend to do more harm than good on me.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.” He walked back to his bunk just as Wrecker returned triumphantly.

“Found ‘em, Shiv!” He presented them, sitting back down next to you.

You set Lula down in your lap in order to take the materials, threading the needle with the thick, dark thread. Trying the knot, you turned Lula to the nearest light source and carefully inserted the needle.

“How’d you learn to sew, Shiv?” Wrecker asked, watching you start to mend the split seam.

You tucked in a bit of the stuffing. “Slave days.” You shrugged slightly, focused on getting the seam pushed together properly so it wouldn’t unravel as easily. “Gotta sit still and look like a useful and pretty ornament, y’know. Whims of the rich and whatever.”

“I still don’t understand,” Hunter spoke up, a growl in his voice. “Why would a Separatist choose to make you an ornamental slave instead of a weapon partner?”

You took a moment to tie the knots and snap the thread, then started re-threading the needle to do another tight layer. You finally answered with a sigh. “Bragging rights. Besides, I wasn’t a person to them. I was just a biological weapon, nothing more. What’s the point in treating me like an independent being? It’s one of the biggest reasons I found family in the Clones.”

The thoughtful silence told you that your point had hit home, and you started the second layer carefully. “I’m going to do another layer just so that it won’t tear as easily next time, Wrecker,” you explained, watching the needle push through the fabric and the stitches crisscross over each other.

“Oh, yeah! Thanks, Shiv.” Wrecker nodded, still apparently finding the process interesting.

You hummed, double-knotting the last stitch and snapping the thread again. Turning, you handed him the newly-mended Lula.

He cheered, taking her back excitedly and beginning to babble about it.

You had to watch him with a smile even as you pushed the needle through the spool of thread. Wrecker’s innocent joy in the simple things had always drawn you, the way he let himself be unapologetically enthusiastic about what he cared about. You had to fondly smile as you watched him toss Lula about and razz Crosshair.

Standing after a moment, you went and put the needle and thread back on the table and resumed your interrupted search in your trunk. Thankfully, you’d found the sleepwear and set it on top. Standing, you ran a hand through your hair and glanced at the wall chrono. It read 1730, so you grimaced and grabbed your ankle monitor.

“I have to go to the medbay,” you called over your shoulder, hopping as you slapped the monitor on your ankle. “I should be back around 2100, hopefully before.”

“Good luck, Shiv,” Hunter said with a nod.

You threw them a wave as you rushed out the door, headed for the medbay. They usually wanted you to be early so you could take a quick sonic shower and change into the proper clothes. As you’d expected, you found a droid waiting for you as soon as you entered.

“Greetings, Unit 526934,” the droid bleeped. “Please make your way to the showers. You’ll find clothes waiting for you when you’re done.”

You nodded, biting back a sigh as you made your way over to the shower cubicles. Getting clean, you clambered out of the shower and changed into the loose-fitting robes that they’d provided. Picking at the hem of the shirt, you walked out into the attached room.

The droid waited by an examination table. “Please lie here.”

Without a word, you climbed onto the table and laid down, staring up at the ceiling. The monochrome color swirled in front of you, making you grimace and close your eyes against the brightness. A few minutes later, the doors opened just as the wall chrono chimed. You didn’t even bother opening your eyes.

“Hello, Unit 526934. Welcome back.” The smooth tones of the female Kaminoan washed over your ears. She started to move through the room, her silent footsteps only marked by the rattling of tools. “I trust your missions have been successful.”

“Depends on your definition, but sure,” you said flatly.

“You seem distressed,” she noted.

“Tired,” you corrected. It wasn’t a lie. You were definitely tired of these checkups, the way they always insisted on poking and prodding at you, picking you apart, shoving things into your bones and veins. Taking things from you. You hated it. But this, as you knew, was the price you’d chosen to pay.

To stay with the Bad Batch? You’d be the most cooperative patient they’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Would you like a tranquilizer while we do this checkup?” She offered.

“No thanks.” You kept your eyes closed, not protesting when her long fingers rested against your wrist.

The rest of the preparations took place silently as you forced every other thought out of your mind. You’d have to make sure you weren’t projecting too much so you didn’t bother the others. Sometimes, the way the Kaminoans experimented left you with an aching jaw as you grit your teeth against the pain.

Hooked up to an IV for a blood sampling and a medley of other liquids that they regularly drained into you, you felt the table jolt as you were pushed to the other side of the room. You opened your eyes, staring blankly above at the top of the machine that now hovered over you. It hummed to life, a soft light glowing at the edges of the smooth metal.

“According to your most recent report, you received a substantial injury on a mission,” the Kaminoan remarked smoothly. “Did you sustain any damage?”

“No,” you answered blankly, voice expressionless. “It healed over in two days. I had to cover it.”

The machine beeped, the droid puttering around the room coming over to check your IV. The blood sample had been taken, so it unhooked that line and instead gave you a small injection. Your arm numbed almost immediately, and you closed your eyes in resigned exhaustion.

“It looks like your scans show that you’ve completely regenerated sixty percent of the tissue in your arm recently,” the Kaminoan reported. “I will have to take samples to test. Did the injury reach your bone?”

“No.”

“Did you sustain any broken bones?”

“No.”

The Kaminoan tapped at the screen controlling the machine, readjusting the table so your head was mostly covered by it. You closed your eyes again, ignoring the other metallic clinks of instruments being prepared.

The Kaminoan returned. “It seems as though the removal of the inhibitor chips has continued to prove successful. Your brain functions have seemed to recover well,” she remarked clinically. “In time, you may have regained enough stability to consider a new one.”

You sourly hoped not.

The Kaminoan pulled the table back out, then settled you against the wall. The droid kept the fluids steadily dripping into your veins, and you felt the cold start to creep its way into your bones. Despairingly, you hoped that Tech wouldn’t mind if you ended up clinging to him like a leech by the time morning rolled around. It always came as a side-effect of the fluids. Though you knew that they boosted a lot of your internal functions, it still demanded a price.

“I will start taking samples.”

You grit your teeth, jaw ticking as you felt the cold needle press against your arm. It pushed, entering your skin without a sting thanks to the numbing agent, but you knew it wouldn’t last the deeper it went. And it continued to push. The pain started welling, and while you were used to pain, there was something about the cold metal point burrowing further down that always took you off guard.

The needle hit bone.

It took every ounce of willpower you had to shove back the scream that tore through your chest, welling in your throat. Ruthlessly, you shoved the pain away from the Bonds and down deep into yourself, willing yourself to stay quiet.

Your eyes nearly rolled back up into your skull with sheer relief when the needle pulled back out. The deep-tissue sample was usually the worst part. You could feel the light sheen of sweat that had broken out on your body start to cool even further, adding to the way your temperature dropped.

The ankle monitor beeped, warning about your plummeting temperature, and the droid instantly began to dial the fluid drip back. The Kaminoan nurse swiftly pulled a heat lamp down over the table, letting the artificial heat wash over you. Your muscles had started to tense with the cold, your eyes still stubbornly screwed shut against the pain.

“Your temperature should start rising soon,” the Kaminoan tried to soothe, adjusting the heat lamp.

Darkness plucked at the edges of your consciousness, and you blacked out.

Exhausted and still cold, you limped back into the Bad Batch’s quarters with the ankle monitor still on and a medbay blanket wrapped around your shoulders.

“Shiv?” Hunter sounded incredulous.

You looked up and waved them off. “This is normal, don’t worry about it,” you sighed, going to your trunk.

“What do you mean, normal? None of us have every come back from medbay looking worse than when we went in,” he demanded.

“Lemme get changed and I’ll explain,” you promised, grabbing your night clothes and heading for the bathroom. Changing into the comfortable pair of shorts and tank top, you wrapped the blanket around your shoulders again and shuffled back out into the room.

Tech was already sitting on his bed, so you went to go sit next to him, pulling the blanket to cover your feet. With a groan, you reached up to rub at your eye.

“Are you alright, Shiv?” Tech turned to you with concern, eyebrows furrowing.

“No, I’m freezing cold,” you said miserably.

“What did they do to you?” Hunter asked again with a frown.

You sighed, leaning into Tech’s shoulder. “Normal procedure for me is going in and getting a blood check, physical, and brain scan. I also have to get a bag of fluids that’s made to boost some of my biological functions, kind of like how you’re modified to be enhanced. It helps with my physical upkeep, but the side-effect is brutal. I’m going to freeze like an icicle for the rest of the night,” you grumbled. “And since I had to regenerate sixty percent of the tissue in my arm, they took a deep tissue sample.”

“A what?” Wrecker asked, tilting his head from his bunk. He held Lula up, craning his neck toward you quizzically.

“A deep tissue sample is when an injection has to be made in order to obtain cells from a section of a patient’s body,” Tech answered for you. “Oftentimes I’ve heard it can be very painful when it reaches bone.”

“They’ve got that right,” you said, eyes drooping closed with a heavy sigh. “They even had to turn on the heat lamp this time to get my temp back up. Oh, Tech,” you added as an afterthought, “I hope my ankle monitor won’t bother you. I have to keep it on tonight to monitor my vital functions. Like I said, the fluids tend to drain me of any and all heat.”

“It’s not a problem, Shiv,” Tech reassured. “If it goes off, what should I be prepared to do?”

“The only reason it’ll probably go off is if my body temp drops too low,” you sighed. “If I can’t, tap the monitor for me and it’ll manually send a burst of heat to regulate me.”

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright? You said the process was painful.” Hunter checked.

You shrugged. “Nothing I’m not used to,” you said. “If anything, I hope I don’t bother Tech. I’m going to become an ice-cold leech.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing I volunteered, then,” Tech said dryly, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. “I’ll have to take advantage of whatever chances I get.”

You let out a laugh despite yourself. “Be careful what you wish for. You might regret it in the morning.”

“Nah, if Tech doesn’t want ya I’ll take ya, Shiv!” Wrecker grinned. “Lula and I can make room.”

“Thanks, Wrecker.” You smiled, feeling the sleepiness descend. Yawning, you leaned your head against Tech’s shoulder.

The cold dragged you into sleep.

“Shiv. Shiv, it’s time to get up.”

You let out a groan, pulled out of blessed sleep. You didn’t want to move. You felt perfectly, comfortably warm, and something heavy was draped across your waist. Instead, you whined petulantly and buried your head into the source of warmth you were so tightly pressed against.

A sharp inhale of breath hissed against your ear, but you were already falling back asleep-

“Shiv.” Someone’s mouth had pressed against your ear. “We have to get ready for the conditioning in an hour.”

Slowly, the words bled into your sluggish mind. Conditioning... an hour. Tipoca. Kaminoa. Right. Training exercises. An hour-?

With a yelp, you jolted awake and found yourself flailing. Your entire body went off the edge of the bed, slamming against the unforgiving floor. Grimacing, you reached up to rub the spot where your hip had landed.

“Ow, ow— don’t scare me like that, Maker—“ You opened your eyes to see Tech peering over the edge of the bunk at you.

“You alright, Shiv? Sorry I didn’t catch you, you startled me,” he said.

You stared up at him for a minute, your brain starting to put pieces together. You’d... probably been pressed against him. And that weight: his arm on your waist. The soft murmur and his kiss to your ear. You flushed.

“Oh, Tech— I’m sorry, I told you I’d probably end up being a leech,” you groaned.

“I wasn’t complaining, Shiv,” Tech said, swinging himself to a sitting up position.

You sat up, still rubbing at your sore hip. “Well there’s another bruise,” you muttered. “Thank you, Tech. I feel back to normal, I think.” You stood gingerly, patting at yourself. Your body temperature felt pretty normal, a bit chilly from waking up but nothing unusual.

“As much as I’d like to continue seeing you walk around in that, I think you might want to get ready for the conditioning,” Hunter remarked, walking past.

You blinked, then flushed as you remembered the shorts and tank top. Shaking your head, you grabbed your outfit from your trunk and went to go change.

By the time everyone was geared up and ready to go, you were starting to feel a little less sore from the needles. While the numbing agent had worked, it sill left a bit of an ache deep in your arm where it had hit bone. You walked down the hall following Hunter and absently rubbed your arm.

“Is your arm still hurting?” Crosshair asked sharply.

You started a bit. “Oh... I mean, it’s more of an ache. The needle hit my bone, so it feels weird,” you said, shaking your head. “It’ll go away.”

You arrived at the training deck on time. Taking in a deep breath, you tried to mentally prepare yourself. You didn’t know exactly what they’d throw at you this time around. You had to be prepared.

The Kaminoans watched from the observation deck above as you walked in, the doors sliding shut with a hiss behind you. The Prime Minister was there as well, to no one’s surprise.

Force 99, please prepare yourselves for a standard simulation. Unit 526934, please prepare to engage yourself as a non-lethal training weapon only.

You simply turned to Hunter, waiting for directions. He nodded to everyone as they started pulling their helmets on. “You guys know the drill. We’re used to Shiv by now. Just act like you would any other mission. Shiv.” He turned to you, holding out his hand. “Permission to Transfer.”

You sucked in a breath and grasped his hand. “Transfer Granted.” As soon as you’d Shifted, you didn’t even bother projecting an astral form as the simulation began. You’d already defaulted to Hunter’s preferred modifications, though you carefully made sure that your fire was stun-only.

The combat droids started to swarm, causing Hunter to duck and weave through the barriers and start firing. A pattern soon presented itself, and you picked up on it as soon as Hunter did.

“Tech!” Hunter yelled, tossing you.

You guided the weapon into Tech’s outstretched hand, instantly splitting into two. You whispered across the Bond. Pattern of four, flanking both sides and driving a wedge down the middle.

Tech nodded as he continued to fire and make his way closer to Hunter. “So it’s trying to funnel us toward the center and get us trapped,” he deduced.

“Wrecker, clear a path down the middle, Tech and I will cover you!” Hunter shouted.

“Wrecker, catch!” Tech called.

Wrecker whooped and caught you easily, charging straight into the middle of the arena. You formed yourself into a stun grenade launcher, and he eagerly fired a few into the swarm. Manually charging in as Hunter and Tech picked off the ones that got too close, Wrecker used you to both shoot as well as physically bat away some of the droids.

From a vantage point, Crosshair had already started sniping down the towers and picking off droids that threatened any of his other teammates.

Droids started swarming you and Wrecker even more, and you were pressed to focus on both keeping a second eye out for him as well as making sure your shots were still stun-only instead of live fire. They swarmed towards the center, and you quietly murmured across the Bonds.

Wrecker laughed heartily, elated by the action and the promise Hunter’s conveyed plan presented. “Let’s do it!” He roared, swinging you in a circle and firing gleefully. “Come and get it!”

It only took another moment before Hunter yelled “Now!”

Wrecker barely hesitated, pushing himself off the ground in a mighty leap to the side. He fired unerringly toward the mass of droids, a stun-grenade arcing through the air. A bolt from Crosshair hit the grenade dead-center, and it went off in a mighty pulse as you dragged Wrecker down to the ground to avoid the shockwave of the blast.

All the droids hovering in the air instantly dropped, sparking.

Slowly, Wrecker looked up. A moment of silence, then a bell chimed from above.

Simulation complete. Prepare for phase 2.

Wrecker scrambled to his feet. “What? Phase 2? What’s that?”

Hunter, Crosshair, and Tech quickly came up.

You materialized over Wrecker’s shoulder. “Phase 2 is my fault,” you said quickly. “It’s meant to be a test of how well I can switch between all of you as need be. There’s going to be most likely a set of obstacles of some sort that will lean on your individual strengths and see how well and quickly I can adapt.”

Hunter nodded. “Everyone keep as close as possible and support Shiv. Keep sharp and listen to the Bonds and each other.”

Everyone nodded and scattered to nearby barriers. For the time being, you stayed with Wrecker.

As soon as you caught sight of a droid staring to rise from a panel in the floor, you sent a pulse over the Bond. Wrecker barely paused before turning and chucking you clear across three barriers.

Hunter caught you as you Shifted into his modified blaster. “Any ideas, Shiv?” he asked tightly.

It’s a heavy fire unit, You guessed by its build. I don’t know what mods it might have, but I think treating it like an armored assassin droid would be best.

He nodded, then leapt over the barrier and started to run towards the droid. He weaved and dodged the bolts, and you Shifted into an energy shield to help block any stray blasts. Hunter dropped and skidded across the floor as you Shifted back into a blaster. Leaping up, he shoved the blaster into the crack between the two chinks of chest armor and fired.

Dodging out of the way, Hunter instantly turned and kicked at the droid’s legs. You Shifted into a vibro-shiv, and he slashed instantly at the droid’s back plate. The droid fell to its knees, and Hunter sank the shiv into its head plate, carving it open. You Shifted into a blaster again, and he fired instantly into the now-open head.

The droid crumpled, and Hunter whirled around to look for the source of the faint buzzing he’d heard. As soon as he caught sight of the tiny, round droid speeding around the edges of the room, he whipped his arm back.

“Cross!” He shouted in warning.

You Shifted midair, guiding yourself into Crosshair’s hands, already complete as his preferred modified sniper rifle. He smirked, then sprinted over to one of the towers in the room. You positioned your astral form in the usual place to his left. He climbed the tower, taking up a spot and propping you up on the railing.

Peering through your sight, Crosshair let out a quiet breath. You took the moment of complete silence in his head to gather yourself, preparing for his next order. His warning came a split second before the shot itself, but you were prepared. His shot hit the tiny droid almost dead-on, and a moment later you’d deflected a last ditch-effort shot made by the now-useless droid.

Crosshair turned his head to catch sight of the tower’s control panel flickering on. “Tech,” he hollered down, dropping you.

Tech looked up, catching both blasters you’d Shifted into flawlessly. Crawling around his barrier, he started into a dead-sprint toward the nearest tower. He lifted you as you Shifted into another shield, holding you above his head just in case. You took a single shot thanks to his weaving and dodging, so you were ready when he reached the tower.

He instantly propped you up and began slicing into the tower’s controls. It took him all of a minute while you braced yourself. You kept Shifting sizes of the shield depending on the shots aimed toward you. If you concentrated on a shot, it was much easier to conserve energy, maybe even absorb it and use it to refuel yourself. But the larger the shield, the more the shots would take out of you.

It didn’t take long for Tech to finish slicing and recoding the tower. Its turret rotated and started firing at the others until they were all down.

Tech grabbed you, letting you Shift back into his twin blasters. He sent you the schematics for a set of weapons, then shouted “Wrecker!” You automatically became an IWS as Wrecker caught you, but you studied the schematics Tech had given you with interest. A pair of armored gloves?

You started to copy the weapon, figuring why not? Wrecker looked down in surprise as you covered his hands, forming into the heavy gloves.

“Whoa, what are these?” Wrecker’s eyes lit up with interest as he turned his hands over.

Why don’t we find out? You asked with a smile. So far, this had been the most successful Phase 2 you’d ever experienced, and while you could feel the stress, it didn’t debilitate you like it had before.

Wrecker looked up just in time to see the center floor panel open up to reveal a giant droid ambling forwards. He grinned, then slammed his fists together in front of himself. The gloves started sparking, and you quickly made them stun instead of live energy.

With a whoop, Wrecker leapt forwards toward the heavy-duty droid. His first punch with the gloves made the droid shudder, sparking; but after a moment, it recovered itself and pressed forward again. You kept half a mind on Wrecker and continued studying the schematics of the gloves, refining the gloves and streamlining it as you familiarized yourself with it.

“Hey Shiv,” Wrecker grunted, still punching away at the droid, “what else do these do?”

You absently flicked on a button, and faintly heard Wrecker whoop as energy coils started threading between the gloves. Wrecker knocked the droid’s legs out from under it and started to wrap the energy coils around its head and neck joints. Still, you only half paid attention as you continued to study the schematics. They had aspects that made you wonder if Tech had been modifying it himself. There were mods that clearly hadn’t been made for a standardized weapon.

“Gimme a last good punch, Shiv!” Wrecker hollered.

You looked up from the schematics, shifting your attention, and powered up the gloves to as high of a safe extent as you could. Wrecker let out a shout and slammed his full weight into the chest of the droid. The entire chest plate caved in, and you winced as the stun energy rippled though the entire rest of the droid, reducing it to a heap of smoking parts.

Wrecker stood, nodding in satisfaction and smacking the gloves together. “These are awesome!” He cheered, shaking his fists in the air. “Hey Shiv, can we use these more often?”

You materialized over his shoulder, staring at them yourself. “I haven’t figured out all of it yet, so it might take me some time to make it better. But yes, if you’d like,” you agreed.

He turned his head to you in surprise. “You haven’t?” he asked as the rest of the team approached, the finish bell ringing.

You shook your head. “Tech gave me the schematics before he passed me to you.”

“You mean you made it functional on the fly?” Hunter asked, surprised.

You nodded. “Yes. I’ve studied weapons for most of my life, so it’s not as difficult anymore. But this schematic has modifications that weren’t meant for this weapon originally, so I’ll have to further study it to make it as practical as possible without compromising the rest of the weapon’s functions and overall integrity.”

Tech adjusted his goggles. “I didn’t expect you to try it right away. It was a weapon I’d found base schematics for on a mission. I thought I’d try to make some mods to accommodate Wrecker’s particular preferences. I figured I’d share what I had with you for the time being, since you’re now our partner and weapon.”

You disengaged, staggering a little as you dropped to the ground. Catching yourself, you shook your head from the giddiness that bled over from Wrecker.

“I like it,” Wrecker said with an adamant nod.

You smiled dizzily. “G-good.”

Hunter caught your arm. “You good?” His eyebrows furrowed for a moment.

“I’m fine, just-“ you squinted, balancing yourself. Taking a breath, you re-centered and shook your head. “I’m a little... that was the best I think I’ve ever done for a Phase 2,” you admitted breathlessly.

“You did great.” Hunter gave you an encouraging nod.

“I believe that was also one of the quickest battle sims we’ve managed to complete,” Tech noted, scrolling on his wrist unit. “We took a total of eight minutes and fifteen seconds for the first one. During Phase 2, Shiv Shifted weapons a total of 12 times in the span of twelve minutes and twenty seconds.”

Battle Simulations Complete. Performance Satisfactory. Prepare for mission assignment within forty-eight chrons.

You flushed as your stomach let out a loud growl. You hadn’t really eaten since lunch the day before, and you were now feeling it.

Wrecker laughed. “Let’s go get food!” He clapped your shoulder and started toward the doors.

Tech fell into step beside you as you all walked towards the now-open doors. “You did very well,” he offered. “I saved the footage in case you wanted to review it.”

You gave him an appreciative smile. “I’d love that, thanks, Tech. I’m glad I did well.” You let out a sigh of pure relief. “It was really stressful.”

As soon as the Bad Batch walked into the canteen, you mentally braced yourself for snide comments. It was always the same no matter who you were with, and worse if you were alone. Still, you hoped that the others wouldn’t be too effected by it.

Grabbing a tray, you felt your shoulders hunch a little. You just... wished others would simply ignore you. Their comments didn’t even matter, but it always felt so awkward. And sometimes, you’d found, ignoring them only earned you more trouble. Putting the bland food on your tray, you wished for a moment that you could just cook something yourself on the ship.

You followed behind Wrecker’s bulk as he confidently made his way to an empty table. Feeling a presence behind you, you glanced back with wide eyes to see Crosshair following behind you.

“Sit on my side of the table, Shiv,” Cross said coolly. “Wrecker always starts something in the canteen when others make comments.”

Though you didn’t really mind either way, you nodded and slid into the spot next to Crosshair on the bench. Hunter slid in on your other side, while Tech and Wrecker sat across from the three of you.

You just silently tucked into your food, grateful for the nutrition at the very least. Wrinkling your nose at the dubious soup, you decided to dunk your bread into it instead to avoid the taste as much as possible.

“The soup never is good,” Hunter said with a roll of his eyes as he copied you.

You nodded with a soft hum, spooning the other food into your mouth.

A group of troopers passed by your table, chuckling and nudging each other. “Well if the outcasts don’t find each other,” one of them sneered in your direction.

Another snorted. “Yeah, looks like the Sad Batch found the flimsi-opener.”

You were fully prepared to ignore it all when Wrecker leapt up from his seat.

“Leave Shiv alone,” Wrecker fairly growled, glaring at the group of troopers.

Choking on a spoonful, you pounded at your chest at the unexpected rush of heat that traveled down your body at the sound of Wrecker’s voice dropping that low and raking down your spine. It was the sound of his voice as much as the abrupt defense that took you off guard, and the way your body reacted to it completely unbalanced you. You could feel color burst in your cheeks as you stared wide-eyed up at Wrecker still glaring balefully at the troopers.

“Sit down, Wrecker,” Hunter said, waving his hand. “They don’t know what they’re talking about anyway.”

Wrecker huffed. “They don’t deserve to talk to Shiv like that,” he complained.

You shook your head wordlessly, trying desperately to shove the memory of Wrecker’s face contorted in a feral snarl, his growl rolling through your mind. You weren’t even sure why it had effected you so heavily, but... You shifted a little in your seat, realizing with despair that Hunter would probably be able to smell your reaction at this rate.

“You okay, Shiv?” Wrecker turned to you, back to his normal husk as he frowned.

You coughed, shaking your head and then nodding. Swallowing thickly, you pressed your thighs together and desperately tried to refocus on your food.

Beside you, Crosshair let out a low, knowing chuckle. His hand under the table briefly brushed up your leg, and you let out a squeak, instantly clapping your hand over your mouth.

“You look flushed, Shiv, are you alright?” Tech frowned, observing your face.

“No- ye- no-“ you choked out, pointedly trying to look down at your tray. Biting your lip hard, you picked up your spoon again. Why was everything suddenly so... sensitive?

“If they say anything again, I’m throwing this table,” Wrecker said darkly, glaring around the canteen.

You couldn’t take anymore. You needed out. Standing abruptly, you grabbed your tray. “Excuse me, I’ll- I’ll be in the room-“ You fled, choking on your own words. Fairly throwing the tray at the return, you started running down the hallway and out of the canteen.

You barely made it to the barracks before your knees gave out. Leaning against the table, you sucked in a burning breath and closed your eyes, shivering. You didn’t even know why, but something about the way Wrecker had instantly stood to his full 6 foot 6 inches and growled at the person who had insulted you just... did something. It was like someone had flipped a dusty switch in your mind and broken a dam in the process.

Sucking in a breath, you grabbed your sleep clothes and went to go change in the fresher. You needed out of your blacks as soon as possible. The heat that spread through your whole body was the polar opposite of what you’d felt the night before.

Still, even after you’d changed into the tank top and shorts, your body still felt like it was on fire. The heat puddled in your lower belly, making you press your hand against it. Your skin felt so hypersensitive, the comfortable clothes rasping against you in a way that made you squeeze your eyes shut.

Grabbing a datapad, you shakily tried to scroll to the report of your last medbay visit hooked to the ankle monitor you’d shed that morning. Scrolling through it, you pulled up the list of the fluids you’d been injected with. A particular side effect listed on one of them made you let out a broken groan and sink down onto the nearest bunk.

The door flew open. “Shiv?”

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#sw tbb #star wars #the bad batch #x reader #my writing #bad batch #clones #tech #wrecker #hunter #tbb x reader #tbb fanfiction #Crosshair #sword and shield #clonesimp #star wars x y/n #star wars x reader #y/n #Star Wars

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candyciangaming · 6 years

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Convention Review: 8-Bit Coference

https://8bitconference.com/

I had the pleasure of attending my first video game convention this weekend, and I'm happy to report it was a fantastic experience from start to finish.

8-Bit Gaming Conference took place on the 28th and 29th of July 2018 at Griffith College, Dublin. This is the second year of the conference and the organizers should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. I only managed to get to the Saturday event, but I soaked up enough throughout the day to come back satisfied, but it left me wanting more!

8-Bit is the brainchild of Graeme Moore, and with the help from dedicated volunteers and the staff of Griffith College, the event went extremely smoothly and was great fun for all ages. On site were security personnel, a fire marshal, along with first aid attendants. The event was backed by a multitude of sponsors, such as AllCast Irish Gamers, The National Computer & Video Game Museum, The R.A.G.E, Four Star Pizza, The Guild of Nerds and Republic of Gaming, to name but a few. The entire list can be found on the events Facebook page (link at bottom). Many of these partners set up as vendors or donated to the conference in one way or another. 8-Bit conference 2018 was in aid of Inner City Helping Homeless.

General admission started at 10am, but early entry was granted to people with special needs at 9am, and there was also a quiet room on-site for people who needed it. Beanbag chairs were kindly donated by the crowd at Beanbags.ie.

My first trip in (after a coffee in Arthurs Cafe), was to the room set up by the National Computer and Video Game Museum. The room was filled with arcade machines supplied by Mini Arcade Systems, and the Museum had a choice selection of video game memorabilia and retro video games. I was more than over the moon to see boxed copies of Final Fantasy IV, Super Mario 3, and Sonic The Hedgehog.

Mini Arcade Systems supply a retro bartop console arcade, complete with tonnes of old 8 and 16bit titles. I had a go playing the original Shinobi game, which was an absolute blast. I would have stayed longer, but I knew I'd never get to leave.

The next room was a mixture of retro consoles, featuring a Dreamcast, Playstation1, SNES, and more. It was like a trip through time. Most impressive of all was a Gameboy hooked up to a massive LCD TV. Playing Tetris in HD never felt so good. The Gameboy was also modified to be used with an SNES controller. It definitely made for a great gaming experience. Super Smash Bro's was also on the go on GameCube, along with House of The Dead on Dreamcast.

Unfortunately, the PS1 didn't feel like working which was a let down. I'm a huge Playstation fan and it was a shame this particular Playstation wasn't working. There were other Playstations on-site, but it's a shame how one faulty system managed to make it's way through.

After a quick go of Street Fighter II on the SNES, I went upstairs to the main conference room. As I ascended, I was greeted by some familiar 8-Bit music playing through a PA system, along with a huge Mario Kart flag draped around the stairway.

When I entered the main room, I didn't know where to look first, it was my idea of heaven. Game Vendors as far as the eye could see. People gaming, people dressed up in Cosplay, and it was only 11am at this point.

After doing a lap of the floor, I seen a few familiar faces. The Guild of Nerds were hosting a Cosplay competition later on in the day, and had prints of different Cosplayers for sale. The Irish Chapter of the 501st Star Wars club were out in Force (pun definitely intended), and the RAGE (Record Art Game Emporium) had also set up a stall in the room, along with generously setting up a SNES for people to come along and play some games. The Ghostbusters were also on call for any ghostly problems that might occur throughout the day, just to be on the safe side!

A row of tables had been set up for some casual gaming, Destruction Derby 2 and Rayman 2 were on PS1, an emulation of Streets of Rage was on the Wii, Ninja Gaiden was being played on Xbox. Tekken 5 matches were taking place on PS2, and Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time was on Gamecube. People were also on the Dreamcast having a few games of Crazy Taxi. A couple of Laptops were also set up with Wolfenstein 3D for those old school FPS fans, Quake 2, and Worms. It wasn't just games of yore however, Gamevan.ie had set up a few consoles with Fortnite on the go, along with having a vendors booth. I had my fair share of games at the retro table before heading off to do a little bit of shopping.

Rewind Retro Gaming and Retro Ralph sorted me out with some fantastic PS1 titles to ad to my collection. The games were all in fantastic quality along with being extremely cheap in price. I helped myself to a few games (and came back for seconds). Word of advice for people interested in coming to 8-Bit, I couldn't find an ATM machine on campus so come prepared.

I wandered over to Like The Bog Flower Designs and Beanies Art Mart who both had a fantastic selection of homemade figurines, stickers, badges, T-shirts and prints.

As the day went on, I took part in the Tekken 3 tournament, after days and days of training, I got my ass absolutely handed to me by Eddy Gordo, not the most graceful of losses, but it was a great bit of fun for all involved. Other tournaments were Mario Kart, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros.

One of the spectacles of the day was a 10-player Bomberman game being played up on the big screen in the main room. This was headed up by the lads at AllCast Irish Gamers, who were also the MC for most of the events throughout the conference. These lads know how to work a crowd and kept everyone entertained until the end.

I was in attendance for a few events on the main stage, the first of which being a panel of gamers discussing all things retro. It was interesting to hear other people's ideas about the way retro games are perceived by a modern audience, and do they still hold up as much today as they did when they were first released. They also held a relatively retro quiz which was a good laugh to see go down.

Ansonix was on the music side of entertainment for the day and kicked things off by performing his cover of the Streets of Rage theme song, before playing some of his own original works. I really dig this kind of 8-Bit style and I think Ansonix is someone we're going to be hearing a lot more of in the future. You can check out his music for free over at https://ansonix.bandcamp.com/.

I grabbed a Slushee from the Candy Pop Man and took a seat in time for the cosplay competition, headed up by the Guild of Nerds. Nate ó Cadhla was the MC for the competition, and there was a panel of cosplaying judges; Jichiie, Shonarrrrrgh, and Twin Tails Cosplay. Some of the Cosplayers really put in a lot of love and effort to both their costumes and their cosplay persona. A particual favourite of mine was Deadpool, who I tried to wind up by calling him Deathstroke (he wasn't too happy about that)…. The Cosplay competition was short and sweet, with the victor being Totoro (from the Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro).

The day wound down with the tournament winners competing on the big screen.

My only regret about 8-Bit Conference 2018 was not being able to hang around long enough to enjoy the entire weekend. I feel like I missed out on so much even though I was there for most of the Saturday. Next year I'll make sure to be in attendance for the whole weekend so I don't miss out on the fun. Graeme, and all of team 8-Bit should be really proud that they put on such a fantastic event that catered to the retro needs of veteran gamers, but was also a fun and insightful look for the younger generation.

My advice for people who would like to attend the conference in future:

Plan your route, Griffith college is located just outside of Dublin City and isn't a central location

Bring money, as there is no ATM on-campus

Most importantly, take part and have fun, you can sit here and read this review all you like, but trust me when I say, you need to be there to get the best out of it.

https://8bitconference.com/

Photos Courteousy of 8-Bit Conference

Partners associated with 8-Bit Conference

Griffith College Dublin

Trust Gaming

Ti.to

Beanbags.ie

Ansonix

The Pulse Group

Emergency Services Training Institute

Buyndplay/Video Games And Consoles Ireland

Republic of Gaming

Inner City Helping Homeless

AllCast Irish Gamers

National Computer & Videogame Museum

Mini Arcade Systems

The R.A.G.E.

LudoSport Ireland - Sporting Light Saber Combat Academy

Loud Room Studios

Bear Sporting Events Limited

Four Star Pizza

RetroGaming.ie

GameVan.ie

CCS Fitouts

Candy Pop Man

Facepainters Dublin

Retro Ralph Gaming

Rewind Retro Gaming

8-Bit Creations

Game Freeze

Like the Bog Flower Designs

Beanie's Art Mart

Guild of Nerds

The 501st Legion

Ghostbusters Ireland

Fierce Fun

Jairo Lopes

Altero-game

Dublin Games Festival

#8bitconference #8bitcon #griffith college #dublin #video game #retro games #review #review blog #gamer

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brandbaskets · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/star-wars-28-bts-photos-that-change-everything/

Star Wars: 28 BTS Photos That Change Everything

by Brendan Ward

– on Jun 02, 2018

in Lists

It’s been more than 40 years and since we first saw the iconic Star Wars opening text crawl. Since the franchise jumped to hyperspace in A New Hope, ten movies have added to the massive universe from the mind of George Lucas. The latest, Solo gives us a look into the history of the franchise’s beloved scoundrel.

Like Han himself, the Star Wars cinematic experience has a lot of backstory that isn’t always immediately visible. In the decades since the first movies, the franchise has built up a lot of lore. The cast and crew from all the movies shared looks into their lives on set. While the newer movies have kept a lid on behind the scenes snaps to stop spoilers, there is still a wealth of information out there.

Star Wars is a titan of pop culture. It’s easy to overlook the challenges that go into making such a spectacle. From tricky practical effects to pioneering CGI, the crew worked hard behind the scenes to bring the galaxy to life. Their hard work has been documented in pictures that show the special effects wizards at work. Meanwhile, photos of the tight-knit casts show the fun and strain of shooting these blockbusters.

Here are 28 photos from behind the scenes that will change the way you watch and rewatch these movies.

28 PETER MAYHEW PRACTICES CHEWIE’S LINES

With Solo in theaters now, we get to see to the meeting between Han and his furry companion Chewbacca. The giant Wookie has roared and growled his way through the original Star Wars trilogy, made a cameo in Episode III, and looks set to stick around through the sequel trilogy too. And for much of that time, he was played by the 7ft 3in actor Peter Mayhew. In this behind the scenes shot, we see Mayhew and the makeup artist Stuart Freeborn jokingly practice the Wookie’s lines. In the movies all we hear from Chewie are the signature roars. On set, though, Mayhew did improvise lines in English for what Chewie meant. This helped the acting feel natural. The roars came later.

Shyriiwook is the combination of four bears, a badger, and more animal noises.

The suit that Stuart Freeborn is playing with here was made of yak hair and rabbit fur. Freeborn was brought in because of his experience working with other hairy primate costumes. His work brought the prehumans of 2001: A Space Odyssey to life. Mayhew’s costume was understandably hot, and so for the Revenge of the Sith cameo, it had a built-in cooling system. Photos like this show the great relationships between the actors and the crew working together.

27 BLAST ‘EM

Star Wars has an abundance of futuristic weapons for the cast and crew to work around. The actors and lighting crew have had to imagine the finished product while filming. Sticks stood in for lightsabers in many of the earlier movies. In the original trilogy, the Imperial blasters were fully operational firearms with blank cartridges. Animators would rotoscope over the shots. In the prequel trilogy, too, remixed real firearms are the basis for the various blasters.

In the latest movies, their jobs are a bit easier. This behind the scenes shot of Daisy Ridley shows off a modified Airsoft rifle. It looks very close to the film’s F-11D blaster rifle. The new ‘blaster’ gives off a great kick without ejecting blank cartridges everywhere. The rifle has built-in lights which simulate the timing of the blaster shots. This helps lighting and animation teams to get the feel of the shot just right.

This photo also shows just how much fun the actors have with their props. While filming The Last Jedi, Laura Derne really enjoyed firing a blaster as Admiral Holdo. The only problem was that she couldn’t help saying “Pew pew” with every shot. You can still see it if you look closely.

26 CATCHING THAT TATOOINE SUN

Filming is a long process, with quite a bit of waiting around. When you and your stunt double are already in bikinis, why not use the time to get a tan? Peter Mayhew took this picture of Carrie Fisher and her stunt double Tracey Eddon on set of The Return of the Jedi. The pair made the most of the desert sun and the iconic slave costume for the Jabba’s barge sequence.

The movie took the Star Wars franchise back to Tatooine, where Luke began his journey. On the other hand, the film team didn’t go back to Tunisia and the location that lent the desert planet its name. The desert scenes for the third instalment of the original trilogy were shot in Buttercup Valley, Arizona.

The bikini is simultaneously an iconic and controversial costume. Fisher once wrote that it might be “what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell.” Later, though, she turned the slave outfit into a symbol of her character’s power. When asked by a father about a new toy featuring the costume, Carrie Fisher used it as a moment to address the controversy. She advised Fred Hill to tell his daughters “that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I [ended] him because I didn’t like it.” She did it with the costume itself.

25 TAKING ON MEN IN BLUE

In this rare behind the scenes shot from Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith, we see Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan sizing up the Blue Man Group. The finished version of the scene features the deadly MagnaGuard droids, but behind the scenes they were stuntmen in blue suits. It is quite impressive to see the actors keeping their intensity up.

By the time George Lucas came around to filming the first parts of the Star Wars saga, CGI offered new ways to bring his world to life. The CGI use in the prequels drew a lot of criticism, even though there were many practical effects in the movies. In this photo the line between practical and computer generated environment and effects is evident.

Looks like Obi-Wan isn’t a fan of the Blue Man Group.

Despite the criticisms of the prequel’s CGI, it offered some design advantages. The MagnaGuard’s skeletal design would have been impossible as a practical effect. Lucas had already seen the limits of practical effects in the unfinished C-3P0 of The Phantom Menace. Peter Mayhew simply couldn’t be built into the costume as he had been before.

For a sequence like the one in the picture here, CGI gave the team freedom to perform with stuntmen that could be replaced later.

24 STORMTROOPERS IN THE TUBE

While filing Rogue One, the extras playing the stormtroopers took some time to rest between takes. The Canary Wharf tube station in London was closed off for filming. The sequence shot there featured in the trailer, and many Londoners recognised it immediately. Behind the scenes photos like this proved them right.

The photo strangely humanises the stormtroopers. Seeing them sitting around with their helmets off turns them from faceless space fascists into ordinary working folk on a morning commute.

Director Gareth Edwards began his first TV job in the area and filming there was a bit like coming full circle. When he used to commute there he thought “This is like a sci-fi movie. If I ever get to do a sci-fi film in my life I’m gonna film it here.” He also described the night where the station was transformed into a set as a “secret mission”.

This isn’t the only movie to use Canary Wharf for a location. The tube station also featured in the apocalyptic 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle. Perhaps it is the severe industrial look that appeals to film makers. It certainly worked well as a stand in for the cold and dark Imperial Base.

23 PILES OF STORMTROOPER SUITS

While the clone troopers of the Prequel trilogy were mainly digital, in the original Star Wars practical costumes were all they had. Here we can see a fraction of the fifty low-detail helmets from A New Hope. Six ‘hero’ helmets had more detail for close up shots. The faceless white stormtrooper armor is now iconic. There’s even a famous cosplay legion, the 501st, that invades conventions everywhere.

The original helmets were not comfortable. Mark Hamill once freaked out while filming the scenes where Luke and Han disguise themselves. “You can see the inside of the helmet and it’s all sickly green plus you’ve got wax in your ears, because of the explosions and you just feel eerie,” he remembers. The helmet looks good, but it certainly got in the way.

This might explain the troopers’ infamous inability to shoot anyone. It also accounts for one of A New Hope‘s famous goofs, where a storm trooper hits his head on a door. As they come through a door way looking for C3P0 and the other infiltrators, one of the troopers in the back misjudges the height of the door. In retouched later editions, a little clang was added to turn it from a goof into a feature.

22 BREAKING THE PROPS

There were two roles that required huge actors for the first Star Wars film. Peter Mayhew picked Chewbacca, and David Prowse got to be the body of the most iconic villain. As Darth Vader, Prowse had to train for the one lightsaber duel in the movie.

The scene itself is fairly tame in comparison to the flips and frantic energy of newer duels. Despite this, Prowse and Sir Alec Guinness had to rehearse with wooden stunt props. In this picture we can see the towering body of Vader bearing down on Guinness in rehearsal.

Practice did not make the scene easier to film, though. Prowse was a powerful man, as a bodybuilder and weightlifter. According to stunt co-ordinator Peter Diamond, he swung the prop with more force than was needed. “Every time they touched swords, the blades kept breaking,” said Diamond.

This wasn’t the only challenge facing the team regarding David Prowse. Prowse had a thick West Country English accent, while he delivered lines on set Lucas had never intended to use it. Fortunately, he went with the rich voice of James Earl Jones. Documentaries and behind the scenes recordings let us hear how Vader would have sounded as Prowse.

21 LIGHT UP LIGHTSABERS

Gone are the days of the strange wooden lances used for training in the original trilogy. The colorful sticks for the prequel trilogy are gone too. The march of technology means that for new Star Wars films, lightsaber props feel a lot more like the real thing. Comparing this picture of Adam Driver rehearsing for The Force Awakens, it is amazing to think about how the filmmakers managed before.

These light-up props appeared in a limited form for a single sequence of Attack of the Clones. For Episode VII, the stunt team brought them out in full to help out. A big challenge for the lighting team on set is anticipating the changes from the lightsabers. The new props are highly interactive, allowing the team to make them strobe, move the light up and down, and change color. Shots like this really show how far technology has come.

The special effects teams worked throughout the history of Star Wars to work on the technology of the lightsaber. In the first movie they were a reflective substance that spun on a motor to catch the set lights. These were unreliable and, as we’ve heard, fragile. For the rest of the movies, carbon and then carbon-fibre rods were used instead. While the carbon-fibre rods didn’t break, they did injure many of the actors.

20 HUNGOVER IN CLOUD CITY

It’s not too easy to tell from this behind the scenes shot, but two of the actors filming here for The Empire Strikes Back were under the weather. Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford went out for a night of partying. The two Star Wars actors met up with Monty Python’s Eric Idle and the Rolling Stones. Idle introduced them to a drink called the Tunisian Table Cleaner, as both Star Wars and The Life of Brian were filmed there. The night of revelry left Fisher feeling unwell, delaying the next day’s filming.

In spite of this, feelings on set were festive as well and the cast got along very well. Billy Dee Williams, playing the roguish Lando Calrissian, was quite in character. According to Carrie Fisher, he “would say things. I would say them right back. He said something unmentionable when he kissed my hand.”

Williams doesn’t seem to have needed much getting into character as Lando. Lando’s roguishness, down to the “flair” of his name, appealed to the actor. You can see a little of his chemistry with Fisher in this interview where he discusses the character.

Williams has stayed very involved in Star Wars as Lando, and recently gave his support to Donald Glover’s portrayal of the character in Solo.

19 AN ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN SUIT

Bitter cold made filming the Hoth scenes for The Empire Strikes Back a challenge for the cast and crew. One cast member had a surprisingly sweltering time, however. Des Webb was the performer behind the giant yeti-like Wampa. In this shot between takes you can see how the suit totally enveloped him. Naturally, the suit was incredibly stifling for the actor to wear in his scenes as the marauding monster. Ultimately most of his footage was cut in the original release. An entire subplot of the Wampas attacking Echo Base had to be removed.

Who needs a wool coat when you can have a Wampa fur coat.

For the Special Edition, a second suit was built by Industrial Light & Magic artist Howie Weed. Lucas wanted to reshoot some Wampa scenes, and Howie found a way to open the monster’s maw into a more fearsome roar. He replaced the shorter Des Webb for these scenes, and recalls an interesting moment. As the Wampa loses an arm to Luke Skywalker, George Lucas wanted Weed to open the mouth wider and wider. “On action I pulled down the jaw as wide as I could, which broke dozens of little elastic bands inside the mask,” he said in an interview. The suit was ruined of course, but that last shot was the one Lucas was looking for.

18 YODA THE GNOME

In a film franchise full of pop culture icons, Yoda still stands out as one of the most memorable Star Wars characters. The little green alien is a fan favorite, with his strange manner of speech making him instantly recognizable. George Lucas created a character to fit a specific folklore archetype in a story deeply influenced by myth and fairytale. The archetype is of a seemingly “insignificant” and powerless creature that reveals itself to be magical. Yoda’s introduction on Dagobah certainly fits the bill.

In this piece of early concept for the character we see a very different look for the Jedi master. Instead of the long-eared green alien, Yoda might have been something between Gandalf and a garden gnome. With a bushy beard and a magic staff, this original concept definitely looks more fantasy than sci-fi. As with any creature design, the team iterated upon the idea until they reached the design brought to life by Frank Oz.

An interesting fact came to light thanks to a curator at the British Museum. Julian Harrison posted an image from a Medieval manuscript of a strangely familiar creature dressed as a monk. It isn’t clear if this is coincidence, or the strange workings of the Force.

17 CAUGHT CUTTING TREES

In this behind the scenes photograph from Return of the Jedi, art director Nilo-Rodis Jamero adjusts the miniature trees next to the AT-AT walker. The Endor forest scenes required a lot of miniature trees to be made convincing. Industrial Light & Magic had worked with many mini trees making the forest sequences for E.T. with Steven Spielberg.

Getting the miniatures to look good is quite a process, but for one ILM employee it was tense for a different reason. Working on E.T. taught the team that a certain kind of juniper tree was best for miniature forests. Cameron Noble noticed that a nearby doctor’s office had some of these trees, and snuck out at 2 am to get some cuttings.

The police came upon him in the dark cutting bits from the trees. Apparently he told them he was working on the newest Star Wars movie and they let him off. Working on a highly anticipated blockbuster has some perks.

While much of the Endor sequence was done in miniature, numerous scenes were shot in the Redwoods National Park in California. Unfortunately, the location for the bunker scene no longer exists, and logging activities have left many other locations inaccessible.

16 DROIDS DREAM OF PRINCESSES

This is one of the more famous and funny behind the scenes shots from Star Wars. Carrie Fisher often joined in for jokingly romantic photos, including this one with C-3P0 and others with Peter Mayhew in his Chewie costume.

Photos like these do show the good sense of humour among the cast, which flowed out in tributes after Fisher’s passing in 2016.

While this photo is just goofing around on set, Anthony Daniels had some poignant observations when the photo was taken. Daniels got into C-3P0’s mindset (or programming) to understand what drives the anxious droid. The actor commented: “I think he’s rather disconcerted throughout the film that he’s not human.” He linked that to things like the kiss the photo suggests. “There are times when he is suddenly pulled up short and I think that slightly upsets him.”

This dedication to his character extends to more than just his understanding of the droid’s mindset. The actor has played C-3P0 in every film the character features in. He’s the only major actor to appear in every Star Wars film, making a cameo in Solo (not as the gold droid, though). He has also done voice work for the many animated series and video games in the franchise, too.

15 BECOMING THE BAD GUY

Looming over the first six films is the ominous Emperor Palpatine. The Emperor makes no appearance in Episode IV, but he is mentioned a few times. Then we got a glimpse of him as a hologram, played by Clive Revill. From Return of the Jedi onwards, he would be played on screen by Ian McDiarmid. After the Emperor’s demise in Episode VI, we were able to watch his scheming rise to power in the prequels. In 2004, Lucas substituted his performance to the first appearance of the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back.

Throughout these appearances, Ian McDiarmid steals the scene whenever he is onscreen. The actor can go from cackling evil to underhanded artificial kindness with ease.

In this shot from makeup on Revenge of the Sith, we get to see the process of turning the phony kindness of the Chancellor into the scarred and aged face of the original trilogy’s Emperor. It is a moment that had to pay off the foreshadowing that began in Episode I. The picture gives a great look into the effort that goes into the makeup. You can even see a still from Episode VI stuck to the mirror as a reference.

Even more importantly, it gives us an idea of what the Emperor does in his downtime, lounging around in a bathrobe.

14 THE GIANT SECRET BEHIND BANTHAS

Before Lucas or any other director could pop any strange creature onscreen with CGI, creating giant creatures like the Banthas on Tatooine posed some real difficulties. Stop motion models worked fine for the clanky mechanical walkers of the Empire. For living creatures, though, another approach would have to work. For the shaggy giant ram-like Banthas, the team brought in Mardji, an Indian elephant.

The twenty-five year old elephant came from California’s Marine World Africa USA and she was taken to shoot on location in the heat of Death Valley. There, Mardji had to put on the huge hairy costume. Just like many of the human actors, Madji found her suit far too hot in the sun. She kept trying to remove part of it, and she delayed shooting many times.

The other large creature featured in Episode IV is the dewback. Giant lizard creatures were harder to as costumes do than the wooly banthas. The effects team created life size animatronic versions of the creatures for their shots. Mark Hamill climbed inside one during filming, and read a review of a David Bowie concert stuck inside it.

13 SUPREME LEADER OF MOTION CAPTURE

The Force Awakens introduced Supreme Leader Snoke, who looked poised to take the mantle of looming foe from the fallen Emperor Palpatine. His skeletal face, pockmarked with scars, made a strong impression on audiences. It also required someone skilled in motion capture to bring the CGI villain to life.

Andy Serkis could easily claim the title of cinema’s Supreme Leader of motion capture. His performances as Smeagol/Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and as Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes films cemented him as the master. No-one was surprised to see him in the motion capture studio for the role of Snoke in The Force Awakens and his surprising end in The Last Jedi. But, there are rumours and theories that Serkis may reprise the role for Episode IX.

Serkis’ performance as the malevolent and manipulative Supreme Leader was certainly memorable. It was sad to see him go.

Seeing Serkis in the stripped down and strange motion capture sound stage shows how much of a performer he is. He has a phenomenal intensity that overcomes the comical geometric wetsuit-like motion capture outfit. In fact, this photo looks almost as if it could come out of any science fiction movie on its own.

12 BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

Two of the biggest gripes among fans at the opening of The Phantom Menace were the clumsy Gungan Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd’s appearance as a very young Anakin Skywalker. In 2017 Mark Hamill said he was “still angry about the way [so-called fans] treated Jake Lloyd.”

Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar, has also spoken out about it: “Fortunately, I was in my 20s. I wasn’t eight years-old like Jake, who I think took it worse. Jake had it far worse than me. I’m a 20-year-old from the Bronx.” It’s a powerful reminder that the cast and crew are still people.

Beyond showing sources of some of the prequel’s biggest criticisms, this picture is an interesting glimpse into the significant CGI in the prequels. While many of the scenes did have practical effects, some like this were almost entirely computer generated. Ahmed Best was significantly shorter than the alien. To help young Lloyd and the other actors, he would wear this Jar Jar helmet to guide their performances.

Fans have since changed their views a little, with a popular fan theory suggesting Jar Jar may have been a secret Sith lord. Best mysteriously confirmed on Twitter and in interviews that some of the theory was accurate, but he might’ve been messing around. He also revealed that Michael Jackson had wanted the part done in prosthetics, but Lucas wanted to have Jar Jar as the first CGI lead in Star Wars.

11 BUILDING PROPS FOR CUT SHOTS

The original trilogy required countless models and other practical props to be painstakingly created. On the sometimes tight budgets, the ILM teams had to get very creative with perspective and cardboard to save time and money on model making. But for showpiece shots, they had to build impressive models. Some of these detailed miniatures include a large speeder bike for the chases on Endor, and a large styrofoam AT-ST that was crushed between tiny lead-filled logs during the battle with the Ewoks.

If any models required great details, they were the famous Rebel X-Wings. For A New Hope, the team created one full size X-Wing and many miniatures. They all had reflective glass cockpits for realistic lighting, and were built around surgical tubing to allow electrical connectors to the wing motors.

In this photograph of the prop workshop, we see Paul Huston working on a giant model X-Wing. The four-foot model under construction was required for a shot that would have pushed the boundaries of its day. George Lucas wanted the camera to swing in on a closeup of Luke’s face in a dogfight for Return of the Jedi. ILM’s Mike Fulmer and Ira Keeler worked on this model in their spare time, and even created a pilot model that was motorised. Sadly, the final shot using this model was never used.

10 UNDER THE JAWA HOODS

Jake Lloyd was far from the first child actor on set for the Star Wars franchise. Because the movies require such a wide variety of shapes and sizes for aliens, children often came in to act the more diminutive alien species. A New Hope‘s first act features the tiny, brown cloaked Jawas of Tatooine. These little aliens travel the deserts in their titanic Sand Crawler.

Interestingly, there has never been a canonical look beneath the hood of a Jawa. In every incarnation, the closest we get is seeing their glowing yellow eyes. Behind the scenes, of course, there were photos of the children who took on the role. One of the Jawas, named Datcha in the script, was played by the daughter of producer Gary Kurtz.

In an early concept, George Lucas envisioned the Jawas as ratlike creatures.

He decided against this and instead went with the idea of covering their faces with black stockings and using lightbulbs for their glowing eyes. Another small alien species, the controversially cute Ewoks of Return of the Jedi, also had a child actor in a major role. Many of the Ewoks were played by adult actors with dwarfism. A young Warick Davis, 11 years old at the time, played the friendly Wicket after the adult actor fell sick.

9 AN UNIMPRESSED SIR ALEC

George Lucas and Sir Alex Guinness had a famously troubled relationship in the filming of the original Star Wars movie. Pictured here together on set in Tunisia, the energy in this picture is different from the close relationships between other cast members.

According to Empire Magazine, it was around the time this picture was taken that the distinguished British actor learned that his character was going to fall in battle with Vader. Guinness wasn’t happy with the director’s plan and Lucas had to talk the actor round over lunch in London. This wasn’t the only strain on the relationship.

A letter written by Guinness during filming was posted onto Reddit and it gives insight into the actor’s frustration. In it he complains about “rubbish dialogue” that did nothing “to [make] my character clear or even bearable”. In a 1999 interview, however, Guinness claimed the death of Kenobi was his own idea, suggesting Obi-Wan would seem more mystical as a ghost. During the interview he dismissed the lore-filled dialogue he had to deliver as “mumbo-jumbo.”

The actor would go on to dislike his fame and adoration as the embodiment of Jedi virtue. He included an anecdote in his memoir that villainized himself for telling a young fan to promise not to watch Star Wars again. The whole story here is worth reading.

8 GHOSTLY APPEARANCES

Perhaps because of Sir Alec Guinness’s prompting and reluctance to reappear in the films, from Episode V onwards Star Wars has revealed what happens to some Jedi after they pass on. Audiences thought the old mentor was gone, and seeing him appear to Luke in the snow early in the next film was a wonderful surprise. In some of the behind the scenes photos Mark Hamill laughs and reminisces with the older actor.

For Return of the Jedi‘s finale, the force ghosts of both Yoda and Obi-Wan appear to see the successful Luke Skywalker again. In this behind the scenes picture, we see some of the old fashioned magic trick that created the effect.

According to Empire Magazine, in early drafts Yoda would appear in the flesh for these closing scenes. The explanation would be that Vader’s redemption brought the green Jedi master back. Yoda was going to prevent Vader becoming one with the Force to reunite father and son.

Force ghosts were always a challenge for the extended universe, especially after Episode I, where Qui-Gon’s body doesn’t fade away. Retcons and explanations abound to resolve the many mysteries of this power of the Force. When the DVD release of Episode VI replaced Sebastian Shaw’s aged Vader with Hayden Christiansen, many fans slammed the change.

7 RECLAIMED PARTS

An important part of the original trilogy aesthetic is the rough and weathered look of the technology. The models and sets all looked scuffed and lived-in, with aging details clear on all the practical models. The props and set teams took inspiration for many places and machines to achieve the WWII-inspired look for many of their projects. Here we can see Roger Christian, A New Hope‘s set dresser, getting found materials for his sets. Parts of old aircraft like this one supplied weathered and interesting metal.

Roger Christian was responsible for some of the most iconic pieces of the original movie, including the lightsaber hilts, Han Solo’s blaster, the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, and even the blue milk.

Found objects, like the hunk of airplane above, sometimes became unusual things. He used ejector seats in the Millennium Falcon. He also used mechanical parts from cameras to make the lightsaber hilts. In an interview, he talked about how George Lucas had not liked some of the early prototypes using flashlight-like designs. Christian went into a camera shop and rummaged through boxes of old parts. Like Rey finding Luke’s lightsaber in The Force Awakens, he opened only one box and found what he needed.

6 GREEDO BREATHES FIRST

A lot of behind the scenes photos reveal the challenges of acting in the extraordinary costumes for Star Wars. One of the worst might be the bug-eyed bounty hunter Greedo. This picture of George Lucas comes from some of the reshoots done back in Los Angeles to adapt what he had shot on location in Tunisia. Here he is checking in on actress Maria de Aragon, who provided the bounty hunter’s body performance.

The actress later recalled how dangerous the suit was. “It was hot under the mask and I almost lost my life because I was out of breath”. George Lucas noticed this and made sure the crew helped her out. His checking in kept things going smoothly for the rest of the shoot.

The debate over who shot first, Han Solo or Greedo, cemented the Rodian’s place in pop culture. Later versions of the movie tinkered with the shots to let the bounty hunter shoot first, making Han into a more sanitized good guy.

A strange piece of trivia is that, for a universe where almost everything has a name, the language Greedo speaks (in universe) has no name. The actual lines were Southern Quechua (a Peruvian language) played backwards.

5 PROPMAKER EXILE

In the parking lot of Industrial Light and Magic in the winter of 1977, the special effects team began blowing up their hard work. Pyrotechnics went off on massive models to create the climactic battle of A New Hope. They had poured effort into the props and set for the spectacular Death Star trench run. The prop surface of the station had to convey an appropriate sense of scale. George Lucas imagined that the actual size of the trench would be around 40 miles, so the effects team set out to create their 60 foot miniature.

Months of work went into creating the shot. The ILM team hand painted over ten thousand windows on the model. According to Joe Johnston, who eventually went on to be ILM’s director, “It was like being exiled to Siberia to be sent to work on the Death Star — and it was always there.”

Bruce Logan was one of the pyrotechnicians. He didn’t work on the trench run itself, but recalls some of the other explosive incidents. They did many detonations without safety equipment. “I remember wiping burning napalm off my arms after a particularly large explosion.” Explosions for the movie came from silt, gasoline, and magnesium.

4 ACTOR CRUSHING ON CUSHING

Today the actors from the original trilogy are world renowned, but Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher were relative unknowns when it all began. On the other hand, actors like Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing were well-known faces lending some star power to the ambitious movie.

While Guinness did not enjoy his experience, Cushing seemed more enthusiastic about the film. He got along very well with David Prowse, as Vader, and Carrie Fisher who said she struggled to find the vehemence to insult him in their scenes together.

While the charming actor did not return to Star Wars in his lifetime, pioneering technology brought him back posthumously for Rogue One.

Mark Hamill greatly admired Cushing’s work and watched the actor filming all his scenes. Between takes on one occasion, Hamill even got the actor’s autograph. In this photo of the two chatting between takes, it is clear that they got along well and Hamill speaks very highly of the actor: “Cushing is the ultimate English gentleman.”

Peter Cushing initially wanted the role of Obi-Wan, but couldn’t take it because of scheduling conflicts. Instead, he played the Imperial Grand Moff Tarkin and did so with enjoyment. He shared an anecdote about filming in the stiff uniform of the Grand Moff. He had very large feet and it took too long to create his boots and his stand-ins were too small. So he “stomped around, looking extremely angry” in carpet slippers instead.

3 GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE PUPPETS

The giant Exogorth provided one of the strangest moments in Empire Strikes Back, where the Falcon lands inside the creature while hiding in an asteroid. The name only came in the expanded universe, everyone on set simply called it the space slug. For its scene, the team created a puppet nearly 80cm long that could come gaping out of the crater after the Falcon.

The shot took over 50 takes to complete. In this behind the scenes photo, you can see the hands of John Berg, the puppeteer who controlled it for filming. As the shoot dragged on the crew added in some humor, shooting one version using a sock instead of the puppet. Another amusing part of shooting was getting the creature’s belch right. The burp for the exogorth came from Howie Hammerman, who created another famous belch for E.T.‘s titular character.

Behind the scenes shots like this can sometimes be quite strange to see. It’s impressive to consider the work that went into making a moving space slug puppet. But it also looks like he’s giving it a tickle behind its ears. The puppet itself has become a great joke too, spawning tributes like weird oven mitts.

2 YODA’S SKELETON

The rubbery green face of the original Yoda puppet was a great source of nostalgia when it reappeared in The Last Jedi. The puppet may have confused viewers used to the CGI version from the prequels. The original puppet was created by the team that made the Muppets, and was controlled and voiced by the puppet Jedi Frank Oz.

Behind the scenes, though, we see a very different view of Yoda. Dennis Lowe, the effects technician for Empire Strikes Back, poses here with a horrifying unfinished version. It plunges the charming and eccentric character right into the uncanny valley. The task of turning this animatronic nightmare into an appealing form fell to make-up artist Stuart Freeborn.

Freeborn modelled Yoda’s face on a mix of his own features and Albert Einstein. In spite of Freeborn’s work to make the puppet appealing, Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner disliked it at first. He said: “He scared me. But as we were filming, I came to adore him. He was completely real.”

There are already rumors that Yoda might appear in Episode IX. The positive reception of the puppet, voiced again by Frank Oz, means we might see the puppet feature in a scene mentoring Rey.

1 THE FACE OF THE TUSKEN RAIDER

The bizarre Tusken Raiders are one of the most enigmatic of the early aliens of Star Wars. The unsettling creatures wander the deserts of Tatooine, engaging in banditry. They appear in A New Hope as a frequent desert threat and in the prequels we see them firing on pod racers, and kidnapping people. Anakin’s fall to the dark side is partly triggered by this, as he slaughters a village of the sand people to avenge the kidnapping of his mother.

Behind the scenes, stunt coordinator Peter Diamon supplied the actions of one of the main Tusken Raiders. While this photo initially looks a little comical, it does raise the question of what they look like beneath their head wrappings.

Despite their many appearances in Star Wars media, their biology and culture haven’t been given much detail.

The iconic call of the Tuskens is a mix of different donkey brays mixed together at varying frequencies. In editing, the most iconic scene with the cry was extended, too. Originally, the Tusken Raider that attacks Luke raised its traditional fighting stick over its head in celebration only once. To add to the drama, these few seconds were rewound and looped again to extend the moment.

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Which of these did you find most interesting? Let us know in the comments!

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