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lonely-lost-soul · 3 years

Text

Since I've Been Gone

Request: what if...Platonic fluff things with reader and bench trio?... Like they're all in a flower field chilling then Tommy is like, "You guys wanna make flower crowns?" And reader, ranboo, and tubbo just look at him like 👁👁 what, Turns out Tommy picked up flower crown making from his big brothers techno and Wilbur so now he does it when he's either bored or stressed. Anyways hope this inspires you <3 -🐱 Anon

(Platonic!Bench Trio x Gn!Reader)

The server had been through a lot, Tommy was just recently revived and was coming off of finding out his two best friends were married. The young boy had a white streak in his blonde hair and was still trying to adjust to the life he missed. Especially when it came to his longtime friend and roommate (y/n). Tommy had recently found out they were off living with Karl and Sapnap in the Kinoko Kingdom...the bitch. After Tommy had disappeared after he...died Karl had found them hiding out in his old library. You had scared the time-traveler half to death when he found you camping out in a corner of the room. However, after seeing as you had nothing, no weapons or armor he concluded you weren’t much of a threat, especially after you told him your sob story. You told him you lived with Tommy and you couldn’t go back there now that he was dead, Ranboo and Tubbo were off doing married things and you had felt so alone. Karl decided at that moment he would take you in, no matter what the cost. Sapnap had a bit more trouble adjusting to your presence, but as soon as he saw you had some fire within your belly he began to warm up to you. It only took a few days for Karl to practically adopt you and since he was engaged to Sapnap the fire demon was stuck with you for a child.

Not that he minded, you weren’t a loud kid, very pleasant to be around hell even his dad took a liking to you. Sapnap was baffled when Karl told him you had previously lived with Tommy, the most obnoxious child on the server. The two of you couldn’t be more different, and when Tommy was revived, he and Karl weren’t enthused. Karl was worried he’d lose you to the trouble maker and it was well known Tommy and Sapnap didn’t have the greatest history. Their worries were quelled the moment you introduced them as your dads to Tommy, Karl burst into tears and Sapnap put you in a headlock much to your protest. Tommy stood by awkwardly, he had missed a lot, he hated the fact that he felt like his friends were happier without him in their lives.

He was brought back to the present by the idle chatter of Tubbo and Ranboo by his side Tubbo was on Ranboo’s back declaring walking was way too much work for him. You snickered nudging Ranboo in the ribs, he let out a yelp and glared down at you halfheartedly. Tommy watched you turn towards him a smile on his features,

“What do you think Tommy?” He blinked a few times at you, not wanting to admit he wasn’t listening to the conversation next to him.

“I don’t fucking know,” He scoffed “This conversation is bullshit anyway who cares.” You had a smirk on your lips that he was all too familiar with, he narrowed his eyes at you.

“You weren’t listening were you?”

“Of course I was listening bitch!”

“Oh really? What did she ask then big man?” Tubbo mused resting his chin on his husband’s shoulder. Hair covering his vibrant, green eyes, horns peeking from beneath his shaggy hair. Tommy glared at his long time friend flipping him off eloquently,

“Probably something stupid and useless.”

“She asked if you knew where we were going,” Ranboo piped up with a casual hum, bouncing in his step. “Cause we’ve been walking for a while, I know Tubbo’s tired.”

“Yeah Tommy, I’m tired.”

“You’re not even walking!” You argued as Tubbo stuck his tongue out at you, lifting his hair from his eyes to wink at you. His one eye glowing with a yellow nuclear symbol, “Put that symbol away! You’re not cool.”

“Says the person who doesn’t own nukes,” He mused letting his hair fall back into place while grabbing onto Ranboo’s horns. “Or who doesn’t have any cool powers,”

“Ow! Low blow! Just cause Tommy and I are the only two humans in the group doesn’t mean you can pick on us! Right, Tommy!”

“Yeah! Exactly! Fuck you guys!” Tommy agreed linking your arms together, “Plus, I know exactly where we’re going. We’re almost there, Wilbur used to take me here all the time when I was little.” Tommy said almost in an afterthought, the kids around him grew quiet, each one knew Wilbur was a touchy subject for Tommy especially after his time in the afterlife. Yet, people seemed to forget that Wilbur wasn’t always crazy, wasn’t always a manipulator, once he was an older brother. Once he cared for Tommy and wanted to protect him from some of Phil’s neglect, protect him from Technoblade’s voices. Tommy wanted to remember that Wilbur, not the one stuck in purgatory who blew up the country they all fought so hard to retain. He felt your hand squeeze his arm,

“I’m excited to see where Wilbur decided to take you, hopefully, it’s not a fish pond.”

“Oh gross.” Ranboo groaned pinching the bridge of his nose as Tubbo laughed loudly from above him. Tommy made a disgusted face,

“Stop talking about all the fish who fucked my brother!”

“I didn’t you did.” You hummed skipping ahead of the group feet crunching on the leaves on the ground.

“YOU BASTARD!” Tommy shrieked running after you,

“Onward steed!” Tubbo pointed at his two friends who ran off, Ranboo grumbled but trotted after the duo.

It only took a few more arguments and a few more minutes of walking before the quartet came to the destination Tommy was eager to show them. You stopped on your heels jaw-dropping in awe,

“Holy shit…” You murmured, in front of all of you was a gorgeous field of flowers a giant dark oak tree sat in the middle. It was giant spanning up far into the sky but it created a nice shade to keep all of you cooled off. Tommy had a rare peaceful smile on his lips as he let the sun touch his face, he slid off his boots and ran into the field of flowers.

“Take your shoes off so you don’t crush them or I’ll crush you!” Tommy snickered falling back, letting the flowers tickle his cheeks. He opened his eyes just a crack to see you sliding off your boots and joining him in the field, you didn’t lay beside him instead he watched your form head to the tree. Meanwhile, Tubbo kicked off his boots, Ranboo wasn’t far behind his husband. Tubbo laughed running over and flopping next to Tommy, holding his arm close much to the blonde’s displeasure.

“Ranboo! Help me reach the taller branches!” You called to the tallest member of your friend group. He nodded walking over to you, grabbing your waist gently he lifted you into the air. You grabbed onto the nearest branch and hoisted yourself into the air, Ranboo was always shocked at your upper body strength, but then again you trained on your own for years. Ranboo hovered at the base of the tree nervously, both of his tails flicking side to side.

“Don’t climb too high!” He called watching you slip and cling onto the trunk to steady yourself. “(Y/n) CAREFUL!”

“I’m fine, mom!” You stuck your tongue out at him from above, “I’ve fallen out of taller trees!”

“If you get hurt Sapnap would literally burn me alive! So PLEASE try not to fall!”

“Boo calm down a little!” Tubbo snickered, “if they fall I’ll film it.”

“Tubbo has the right idea,” you agreed as Tommy laughed from beside Tubbo. Ranboo frowned ears twitching in distress, you only continued to climb higher to his dismay. Eventually, you came down falling elegantly into the arms of Ranboo who caught you easily. He was breathing heavily, recovering from the shock of your sudden drop. His long nails dug into your skin as he clutched onto you like a lifeline, “Ranboo let go!” You huffed trying to wiggle out of his tight grip.

“Absolutely not! Are you a lunatic!” His voice broke, “I could’ve missed! You could’ve broken an ankle!”

“But I didn’t,” You poked his nose with a teasing hum. Ranboo groaned louder placing his head in the crook of your neck, you snickered as he finally let you onto the ground. You walked over to Tommy and Tubbo and sat down next to them, you leaned against Tommy’s back who grunted in distaste. “Deal with it gremlin, be my backrest,”

“Fuck you bitch!” He snarled but didn’t move or push them off, you smiled teasingly winking in the direction of Tubbo. He snickered into his palm as Ranboo pulled Tubbo into his lap, and the young goat hybrid got comfortable. The four of you sat in peaceful silence, letting the sun beat down around you all. A nice breeze blew through the area causing the leaves of the nearby trees to shake, a few animals rustled around in the bushes.

“We should make flower crowns,” Tommy spoke up suddenly his nails digging into the dirt. You titled your head in confusion and Raboo looked equally as baffled, the only person who didn’t seem surprised was Tubbo.

“Sure man but you gotta collect the flowers,” Tubbo said tiredly Tommy clicked his tongue stubbornly.

“We’re surrounded by flowers you’re just lazy.”

“Yeah obviously.”

You gave Tubbo a look and sat up on your knees, “What do you need to get started?”

“Can you grab me some of those daisy’s, tulips, and some bluebells?” You nodded standing up and popping your knees before heading off in that direction. Meanwhile, Tommy grabbed some lilacs and began stringing those together, his tongue poked out from his bottom lip as he gave his full concentration to the task in front of him. Ranboo watched curiously ears flicking every time Tommy let out a mumble, you came back and dumped the flowers beside him. He grunted out thanks making the final knot in the crown, “Done!” He declared looking over at Ranboo, he flushed a little under Tommy’s gaze.

“Didn’t mean to stare.” Tommy huffed holding out the crown to the halfling, he pointed at himself and Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Take it. If you don’t want it I’ll just give it to (Y/n)-”

“I want it!” Ranboo reached out to snatch the crown from Tommy, he placed it gently on his head mindful of the horns. Tommy’s eyes widened and he flushed red, he quickly turned back to the pile of flowers. “Teach us how to make them,” Ranboo offered to try to ease the awkward tension. Tommy huffed but nodded, a smile spread across your lips,

“Teach us your ways oh wise one.” You teased picking up the daisy’s spinning the stem between your fingers.

“Yeah! I am wise! Call me master innit!”

“I’d rather choke,”

“Fuck you!”

You snicked as Tommy punched you hard in the shoulder, you doubled over falling into the flowers. Tommy growled pulling you up by the shirt, “Pay attention bitch! I’m only telling you this once!” Sitting back up you nodded and followed his instructions carefully, he ended up taking the daisies and you the tulips. Ranboo grabbed the bluebells reaching over Tubbo to follow Tommy’s instructions as well, by the end Tommy’s was pristine. The one you made was decent but Ranboo’s looked worse for wear considering he was trying to put it together with claws. He put the crown on top of a snoozing Tubbo, he was proud of his work nonetheless, his husband smiled tiredly nuzzling against his chest. You on the other hand placed the tulip crown you made atop of Tommy’s blonde hair, he flushed and rolled his eyes. He brushed his fingers over the daisies and placed them on top of your head, you looked up at the crown and smiled warmly.

“Thank’s Big T,” you hummed falling back into the flowers and Tommy joined you in laying down. Both your fingers interlocked and Ranboo shuffled to the ground as well, although he didn’t reach out to take Tommy’s hand, Tommy reached out to take Tubbo’s. The four of you stayed in that field until your walkie-talkie screeched cutting through the quiet atmosphere, it was the gruff voice of Sapnap’s. One of your fathers

“Earth to (Y/n), come in (y/n). Your dad wants you here for dinner, George is joining us tonight. I grilled!”

“Ugh. Buzzkill,” Tommy sneered kicking the dirt with his barefoot. You shushed him and pressed the button in to speak,

“Yeah papa, I’ll make my way back soon. Give papa a big kiss for me and if you see Quackirty tell him hello!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice. Karl come here honey~” You snickered as Tommy gagged, you heard your dad meow before your walkie cut off then and you sat up. You stretched your arms above your head and popped your arms into place, you kissed your teeth hopping to your feet.

“I gotta head back unless I want dad to beat my ass. Thank you for today boys and Tommy thank you for sharing your place with us. I’m glad we were trusted with this special secret.” You winked wiggling your toes in the long grass, “we should do this again yeah?”

“Yeah!” Ranboo agreed as Tubbo gave a sleepy thumbs up, your smile only widened. Tommy nodded giving a thumbs-up as well, he watched you head off to collect your boots and head back home. Head to a family, a family who cares about your wellbeing, or if you’re staying out too late. Hell, even who cared about who you were hanging out with, Tommy couldn’t help but wonder what that was like, he didn’t think he’d be very good at listening to any parental figures. He didn’t have that, he would never have that, he looked at your retreating figure, then back over at Tubbo and Ranboo. They both were half asleep and he couldn’t help but glance at the golden rings on each one of their fingers.

He missed so much since he’s been gone.

But maybe all wasn’t bad, he touched the tulips on his head, thinking for a moment.

Maybe he didn’t need a normal family with a mom and a dad, or two dads or moms, he had a family right here. He brought his hand to the scarf on his neck and squeezed it in his fist, who needed that shit when he had everyone he loved in this field with him today.

For once in his life, Tommy was happy.

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invisibleanonymousmonsters · 3 years

Text

Training Day

AMHL – Masterlist

WARNINGS: PTSD, domestic violence & abuse, panic attack, anxiety

“I feel like you’re torturing me now,” Y/N groaned as she put the bar back down on the bench press.

Dick chuckled. “You gotta gain some strength before I teach you, otherwise you’re just going to hurt yourself.”

“You callin’ me fat, Grayson?”

His eyes grew three sizes and his jaw dropped in shock. “No, no, no, no, no. I would never!”

Then he jumped into a tangent about how beautiful he was and he loved her for how she looked and never wanted her to change, unless that’s what she wanted. And it went on and on and on.

Y/N finally took pity on him and started laughing.

“Dick, I’m just fucking with you.”

He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “That was cruel.”

But she only laughed more.

“10 pushups for that,” he demanded.

Her jaw dropped. “Noooo!”

“Yeah. Come on.”

She did as he instructed, knowing she did kind of deserve it.

Afterward, he led her to the training mats. They had done weight training for about 30 minutes or so, and Dick insisted that was going to be a big part of all this. He was right: some of the self-defense moves would only hurt her if she didn’t prep her body.

But when Dick turned to find Y/N standing at the ready on the other side, his tough-love coaching style disappeared.

She looked so small and fragile, clearly nervous for the actual fight training.

Sometimes Dick forgot that Y/N wasn’t like his family or his teammates. She didn’t graduate from field work to sitting behind a computer. Hacking and computer science was her first and only exposure to this life.

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing. You just…look nervous.”

“I am,” she admitted.

With that, Dick walked across the mat and planted a kiss on her lips.

He stepped back with a smile, “Ready?”

She beamed at him and nodded.

For the next half hour or so, Dick taught Y/N all the basics of self defense: how to get out of holds, where to hit an attacker for the most impact, and how to prevent herself from getting injured in the process.

“Things are going to be quicker in real life. You’re going to have to get over the feeling of panic and calm yourself down enough to properly react,” Dick explained.

Y/N nodded with her back to him as she returned to her spot on the other side of the training mats.

But she didn’t reach it before Dick surprised her with a chokehold from behind her.

Before now, Dick had been walking her through moves step by step. But he clearly was trying to prove the point that she would most likely not be expecting these attacks. And he wanted her to get used to reacting to the surprise of it all.

Except…Dick didn’t think this training tactic completely through.

Dick hadn’t taken into account that his student and girlfriend was also a victim of domestic violence.

Since she first escaped from underneath her parents’ roof, Y/N’s had improved a lot when it came to treating and handling her PTSD.

It used to be so much worse.

Loud noises would throw her into panic attacks. People just lightly touching her without her expecting it made her jump feet away. Anytime she got a whiff of alcohol that smelled even a little bit similar to her father’s preferred brand could set her off.

Over the years, it got better.

Therapy helped. Dick helped – his whole family had helped.

But Y/N knew it would always be there, waiting inside her.

And in this moment, it decided to reveal itself once again.

Y/N’s vision blurred. All she could hear was her heartbeat making its way to her ears.

It wasn’t until her entire body was trembling that Dick realized something was wrong.

He let go.

But before he even completely let go, Y/N dodged away so quickly that she almost tripped over her own feet.

She whipped around, eyes so wide. Like a deer facing a hunter, fully aware it was about to be slaughtered.

And Dick realized how much he just fucked up.

Without even realizing what she was doing, Y/N slowly lowered herself to the ground, not trusting that her knees to not give out at any moment.

“Y/N,” Dick whispered desperately.

It was hearing how sorry he was already that made Y/N’s eyes fill with tears.

As soon as she was shakily lowered to the ground, she hugged her knees to her chest and hid her face in them.

“Can we stop?” She begged, as if she had no choice and Dick had complete control.

Her voice and sob was muffled by her knees.

“Yes, we’re stopping,” Dick immediately answered with a clear voice. "You’re safe. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

But Y/N only nodded, not helping to convince Dick that his words comforted her in the slightest.

Her entire body was trembling as she continued to squeeze her knees as tightly as she could.

Dick kneeled but didn’t move any closer to her.

“Can I…Please…Can I touch you?” He whispered.

But she shook her head.

Not because she didn’t want him to, but because she felt like she had no control over her body right now. And she had no idea how it was going to react to being touched again.

And she was already mortified and confused and terrified.

“OK,” Dick sighed as he lowered himself to the mat as well. “I’m just going to sit here. OK? I’m not going to get anywhere near you.”

Y/N didn’t respond. But her body was still clearly trembling.

“Can you just breath for me?” Dick asked softly. "Deep breaths in, slow breaths out.”

She still doesn’t respond. But he can hear her trying to do as he asked.

Dick didn’t think he should say any more, worried that his talking was just making the whole situation worse. But then he remembered a tactic Bruce had taught him to console victims who were going into shock or scared of them.

“Can you count backwards from 100 with me?” He then asked.

“What?” She sputtered out, confusedly.

But it was good that she was clearly able to even process that he was talking to her.

“Countdown from 100,” he repeated gently. “100, 99, 98,” he started.

She eventually joined in.

When they reached 1, Y/N went quiet again.

It seemed to have worked.

After a few minutes, Y/N finally stood up.

“I-I’m s-s-sorry,” she whispered quickly, but it was so quiet that Dick almost didn’t catch it.

The next second, she rushed out of the cave.

Now that her PTSD had calmed down, she was clearly embarrassed.

“Y/N! Wait!” Dick called after her in a panic and jogged after her.

When they got to the main part of the manor and Y/N reached the stairs to go to the second floor, she had flown past a very confused and concerned Bruce Wayne.

Dick paused when Y/N sprinted up the stairs with her eyes blood shot and cheeks tear stained.

“What did you do, Dick?” Bruce grunted, not even considering that it could also possibly be Y/N’s fault.

Dick sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. “I was showing her some self-defense…and I…I trigged her PTSD and she had a panic attack.”

“You need to be more careful,” Bruce reprimanded.

“I know, I know. It was stupid.” Dick already knew he messed up.

Bruce remained disappointed by Dick’s mistake.

“I’m going to go check on her,” Dick mumbled and passed Bruce with his head hung.

Dick returned to his childhood room, the one they always stayed in while visiting.

The shower was already running.

He figured he should give her some time to herself and not rush into the bathroom.

Y/N was most likely crying and wanted to hide it from him. Even though she already realized Dick would know that’s exactly what she was doing.

10 minutes later, Y/N came out of the bathroom with a cloud of steam and a white towel wrapped tightly around her.

Dick’s heart broke even more when he saw her red, bloodshot eyes.

“Y/N, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, desperate for her forgiveness.

He should’ve realized that certain things in typical self-defense training could trigger her.

Bruce had taught him to always expect the unexpected. And Y/N’s PTSD should’ve be expected while he put her under such a tense and rigorous circumstance.

Y/N hung her head in shame. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Dick.”

Her voice was so small, so vulnerable. Dick had to hold his breath to hear it.

“Y/N, you have nothing to be embarrassed about,” he insisted and he slowly stood up from the edge of the bed.

Dick wanted to go to her, but he was so scared of making things worse.

“Will you please come here?” He finally asked in a whisper.

She practically tiptoed to her boyfriend, while she held her towel tightly to her body as if it were some kind of armor.

As soon as Y/N was a few inches away, Dick gently tugged her onto his lap.

He was a very tactile man, and not being able to give her physical comfort was slowly killing him. And he felt utterly useless to help her.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed or sorry. I knew better than to surprise you like that. I was an idiot. What happened was my fault, OK?”

She nodded slowly.

Eventually his words would get through to her.

“Can you still train me?”

Y/N finally shocked Dick with her question.

“Of course, Y/N. Let’s just take it slower next time. I promise to be more careful.”

She nodded quickly, fully believing him and trusting him.

Now he put his arms around her, holding her to him tightly.

Dick had always been protective over her. But when she showed signs of being triggered, he went full mama bear on her. But that was also Dick as a person. He was so caring of everyone in his life. He was a big brother, a leader, a stand-in father sometimes even.

But it often led to Y/N’s guilt when Dick felt the need to treat her like a piece of glass. But sometimes…she was. And that was OK.

“Wanna get to sleep?” He muttered into her hair.

She nodded again.

Dick carefully moved her from his lap and placed her on the bed before he stood.

Y/N watched with love in her eyes as Dick moved around the room and grabbed some of his clothes to give to her to sleep in.

What had she done to deserve him?

“I’ll give you a minute,” Dick told her as he handed the clothes to her.

Not that he hadn’t seen her naked hundreds of times before. He was just treading carefully now.

“Want some tea?” He asked as he walked to the door.

“Sure,” she agreed quietly.

When Dick returned with two cups of tea, Y/N was already underneath the covers of their bed.

Dick watched Y/N as she took her first sip.

“You want to talk about it?” He was ever so careful in his tone, making sure it was obvious that Y/N didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to.

“There’s not much to tell,” she admitted with a shrug.

“That’s alright though.”

Y/N sighed. “As fucked up as it sounds, I sometimes forget about all the things he used to do to me.”

She chuckled darkly, “Guess that’s repression for ya.”

Dick winced slightly.

“He used to grab me by the throat. Constantly. Because he hated whenever I tried to talk back or fight him with words. So he made sure I couldn’t talk at all. It was all about control.”

Despite being trigged and having a panic attack earlier, Y/N talked about her tragic past without any emotion, and it sounded so casually. She was numb to the memories, but the scars manifested themselves in different ways now – and that was proven today.

Y/N looked up when Dick hadn’t said anything.

She was taken aback by how he looked as if he was going to be sick.

“I’m fine, Dick. Really.” She insisted as she cupped his cheek.

It hurt Dick to hear these things more than it hurt Y/N now.

“You were dealing with your past all by yourself long before you met me,” Dick answered. “But I just need you to know I’m never going to let anything like that ever happen to you again.”

He took in a shaky breath. “Even if – fuck – even if something happened between us, and we weren’t together…I’d still keep you safe. Do you understand?”

Y/N smiled.

Oh, Dick. His gentleness never stopped amazing her.

“I know that, Dick. I’ve always known that.”

Before he could answer, she added, “Now enough talking. Can you just cuddle me now?”

Dick laughed at her demanding and teasing tone.

“Get over here,” he pulled her into his chest.

Soon his grasp was so soothing to Y/N’s body that she reached the ultimate level of relaxation, especially after being drained from her earlier panic.

Y/N felt Dick kiss the top of her head before she fell asleep in his arms.

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ALL BONUS CONTENT CAN BE FOUND: HERE

#AMHL bonus content #all ment have limits #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson reader insert #dick grayson x you #nightwing x reader #nightwing reader insert #batfam #batboys #bruce wayne #bruce wayne x platonic!reader #batman universe #dc

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sageinacage · 3 years

Note

Hellooo I saw you were taking requests again!! :D Would you be alright doing a bit of a hurt/comfort ish playful fic like Tommy asking techno to help train him. Techno notices that tommy starts to completely overwork himself and comforts him about like not feeling good enough to be techno's brother and techno playfully tickling him to force him to take a break? I'm sorry if this was a long prompt, it's 4am lol... Thank you so much!! :D

summary: tommy wants to be as strong as his brother techno, but doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to a/n: sorry i haven’t been active this weekend :[ im on the last 3 weeks of school and they’re piling so much stuff WAAAH warnings: swearing, self consciousness, self doubt (this is a hurt/comfort fic!) w/c: 1.6k

DSMP

“Techno, how did you get to be so… strong?”

“Hard work, Tommy. A lotta’ hard work.”

Tommy huffed, crossing his arms. That was definitely not the answer he wanted, because the boy wanted to be a force to be reckoned with now. “Well… what kind of hard work?” He egged on, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Well, experience is a big one- I’ve done a lot of fighting and gained a lot of perspective from that… uhhhh… I study books with ancient techniques? I uhhh, let me put some thought into this, kid,”

Techno continued to think, putting a hand to his chin in thought. None of these Tommy liked, as they both took much time, perseverance, and he was just too young to have had as much experience as his brother. “Oh, I’ve trained a lot-”

“Aha! Training! How do I train?” Tommy cheered, almost leaping with how excited he got. The boy assumed he would be able to be unstoppable after one training session, but his older brother didn’t know how to convey that it wasn’t possible- but also didn’t want to crush his spirits at the same time.

“Tommy,” Techno started, then let out a long sigh, “..it’s not that easy. I’d be willing to help but-”

“Let’s go now then, big man!” The blonde exclaimed triumphantly, marching towards the entrance to their house’s backyard. Techno watched him stomp out the room towards the back exit, shaking his head and following the boy.

When he arrived outside, Tommy was already in a set of armor with his sword out, grinning madly at Techno. With an amused huff, the piglin picked up his sword and stood a good distance from in front of him.

“Alright, the first thing is stance. Make sure you’re standing so you’ll be able to block on any side of you.” Techno placed his sword down, heading to Tommy. He gently moved his arms and shoulders to be in a preferred position. The boy stood there, completely stiff like a statue.

“Y’know you gotta loosen up, you need to be able to block and dodge attacks and can’t do that when you’re stone.”

“I gotta be like stone, so I can’t be knocked down!”

Techno shook his head, pushing his hand into Tommy’s side, making him fall on the grass. “That wasn’t fair!” Tommy whined, getting up and brushing the dirt off of his light armor. “All is fair in fights, kid. You never know what your opponent will do.” The piglin explained, pushing up his glasses.

Tommy muttered something under his breath, getting into the fighting stance his brother showed him. “I’m ready!” He announced, Tech sighing. “Tommy, you need to know the basics before going into battle.” He frowned, crossing his arms. “There are no basics in war!” Tommy rebuttals, using the phrase Techno used earlier against him.

“Actually there is-”

“I didn’t ask!” Tommy ran at Techno, falling onto the dirt as the man stepped to the side. “You don’t just run at someone and expect to get a hit on them, smartass.” He playfully flicked his brother’s head, who grumbled and got up, trying to get more hits on Techno.

The piglin continued to step out of the way, eventually sighing and easily disarming him from his blunt training sword.

“Tommy-”

“I can’t do it! How can I even be your brother?! I can barely even hold the sword, it's so heavy! I’m done with this, I’ll never be as strong as you!” Tommy fumed, throwing his armor off and stomping inside the house to go up to his room. Techno put his training sword away, sighing softly. ‘The kid has potential, he just gets ahead of himself.’ Techno thought, then heading inside to go upstairs to check up on his little brother.

“Can I come in?” He knocked on the door, hearing a small ‘no’ from inside. Techno huffed. “Please? I want to talk to you, Toms.” He asked again, then hearing nothing. “Fine.” Tommy gave him permission to come in, which Techno gladly took.

“Hey,” His brother sat at the foot of his bed, looking at him. “You’re just so cool. You’re Technoblade, everyone knows you as strong and scary. And… and I’m just Tommy. The little brother, the obnoxious one.” He ranted, sniffling softly as he curled his knees in and hiding his face.

“I wouldn’t say that, Tommy. I’ve heard people talk about how brave you are, which I’m gonna have to agree with. Also, you’re not obnoxious, I wouldn’t want to hang out with you if you were.” Techno showed him a small smile, opening his arms. Tommy leaped into them, wrapping his arms around his brother and holding his cape with an iron grip.

“Really? People think that?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you about that, kid.”

“I am pretty brave and cool, I gotta say,” Tommy chuckled softly at himself, his giggles slowly growing as Techno sighed at him. “Oh, I’ll give you something to laugh about!” He exclaimed playfully, his dull claws shifting around his waist.

“TEHehehechno!” Tommy made the poor mistake of shifting onto his back, so now he was just sprawled across his brother’s lap, stuck in his tickly grasp. “Tommy!” Techno playfully mocked, snickering at Tommy’s small growl in defiance.

“You’re really brave to try to rebuttal my attack, ain'tcha?” He spoke lowly, slipping one of his hands under Tommy’s loose shirt to lightly scratch at the sensitive skin around his belly. “Yohou suhUHUCK!” He complained, kicking his legs out in front of him. “What did you just say to me? You really are fearless.”

The boy was about to smile triumphantly until a blunt claw gently scritched over the bundle of nerves over his hip bone. “SHIHIHIT- Nohot thahahat!” Tommy complained. “Sohomewhehere else!”

“Y’know Tommy, when I tickle Ranboo right here he’d dip out right away. You must be tough if you can withstand this!” Techno praised, a fond smile washing over his face. Tommy continued to shake his head, the ticklish sensations making him tingle all over.

“Hmmm, let’s see if I could make you break. Highly doubt it for how well you’re taking it though, kid.” He chortled before laying Tommy down and skittering both his fingers up his sides. “IT’S SOHO BAHAHAD!” He arched his back, a wheeze escaping him. The claws continued to explore up his sides, dragging back down before stopping at his upper ribs to scribble over the ticklish skin there.

“WHIHIHIYYY?!” Tommy whined, slamming his arms down. “Because!” Techno smirked, drilling his fingers as they were trapped and he couldn’t wiggle them anymore. “THAHAHAT’S WOHOHORSE!” He screeched, the piglin just laughing. “Then free me, smarty!” His fingers continued to drill and prod as much as they could, shifting up to reach his underarms.

“NOHOHO! IT’LL BEHE EVEN WOHOHORSE!” Tommy grumbled, kicking his legs. “Good observation, Tommy! Never let your enemy get an advantage!” His brother praised again, smiling down at him. The grumpiness in the boy’s tone turned more gleeful, the pinkette grunting in success.

“But what if the enemy planned a surprise attack?!” Techno exclaimed, leaning his head down to blow a raspberry over the upper part of his tummy, repeating the action but on his navel next time. “I WIHILL SUHUHURVIVE!” Tommy retorted, trying to push at his head. “I’d like to see you try.” He challenged, lifting his shirt a small bit before leaning down to place nibbles along his lower belly and around his hips.

“FUHUHUCK! TEHEHECHNOHO!” He threw his head back, still holding onto Techno’s hair but not really pushing him away. Techno was genuinely surprised- usually, his nibbles can kill anyone and make them plead for mercy. “Wow Tommy, you can withstand my nibbles? You must really be a champ, huh kid?” He complimented, smiling at Tommy’s giddy squeal.

Techno knew how much Tommy needed this, he needed to hear how actually brave and tough he was, because the truth was the kid was strong, just needed to hear it to believe it. “You were able to survive that, but can you survive this?” He devilishly smiled, moving his claws over to scritch at his lower tummy as he nibbled up his sides.

“YOHOHOU’RE HOHORRIBLE!” Tommy shrieked, kicking his legs and arching his back, but still wasn’t begging for mercy like Techno thought he would. “Able to survive again? This is like the hardest time I’ve had tiring someone out, Toms.” Techno admitted, Tommy giggling and happily chortling in response. He was genuinely proud of himself, feeling stronger than ever.

“Alright. I give up.” Techno chuckled, pulling his brother in for a hug while he calmed down. “I wohohon!” Tommy announced excitedly, hugging him back. “Yeah yeah, whatever.” The piglin sighed contently, pulling away.

“You know Tommy, being strong is more than just physical strength. You gotta have the right mindset, and you’ve definitely got it. I’ve never met someone as strong-willed, enthusiastic, and brave as you.” Techno explained, rubbing his stomach and side area, trying to help with the after-tickles.

“Reheally?”

“Yeah, really.” Techno chuckled, getting up. “How about I teach you a lesson in some historic techniques in fighting, I think you’ll find it interesting.”

“Books are so boring- ugh, fine.” Tommy crossed his arms, standing up and stretching, before following his brother out of the room. “What were you boys doing?! I thought Tommy was being attacked for a hot minute.” Phil laughed from the kitchen, seeing them walk by. “I beat Techno in a tickle fight, that’s what happened!” Tommy laughed, nudging his brother.

“Yep. He beat me. Strong kid, I tell ‘ya.”

#SBI my beloved #mcyt tickle #lee!tommy #ler!techno #ler!technoblade #my writing

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thunder-at-dawn · 3 years

Note

7 with eternalduo? lee!eret perhaps?? idk -paper anon

i loved writing this one so much oh my god thank you for this galaxy brain prompt paper anon

word count: 1,805

prompt list can be found here!

prompt 7: "i happen to know a weakness of yours."

warning: this is a sfw tickle fic! don't read if that makes you uncomfortable :]

The Red Banquet was an event that shook the land. Everyone who attended left with something in mind. Whether it be hope for the future or a feeling of dread, it was a night that no one would forget.

For Eret, they were reminded that they needed to be more alert.

They nearly died that night. They were almost sacrificed, and had no way of defending themselves. While royalty normally had knights in shining armor and didn’t have to ever defend themselves, Eret decided that would no longer be the case. The monarch had never really been the fighting type, and hopefully, would never have to be. They just decided that it was time to practice some skills.

One of the things that Eret did was set up an archery range. It was behind their castle, and had a small variety of targets to shoot at, all different lengths away from the starting line. They often spent quite a bit of time there, regularly practicing their aim and making sure to hit as many targets as they could.

Today was a relaxing day, a cool breeze flowing through the air with a slight overcast in the sky. Eret drew back their bow, taking a deep breath. The only noises around were just the chirps of bird and the wind passing through. Eret calmed their mind, focusing only on the target.

PING!

They unclenched their hand, watching the bow zip towards it’s target. It landed right in the center. A perfect bullseye.

“Woo!”

Eret paused, knowing that cheer didn’t come out of their own mouth. When they heard clapping, they turned around to see an old friend applauding for them.

“A bullseye! Bravo, old pal! Bravo!” Foolish clapped his hands together as he walked towards Eret. The monarch smiled and took bow, both of them now laughing at the antic.

“How’s your day been?” Eret asked, walking over to the targets to collect the arrows they had shot around.

“Eh, it’s been alright.” Foolish shrugged, crossing his arms and resting them on the fence post that acted as the shooting line. “Just been building stuff like usual, and I was in the area, so of course I had to pay a visit to my old pal! And you were exactly where I’d thought you be.”

“My castle?” Eret asked, pulling an arrow out of the target they had previously shot at.

“No, the archery range behind your castle. You’ve been spending a lot of time here for the past month or so, I’ve noticed.”

“Well, you know what they say. Practice makes perfect.” Eret nodded, stepping behind the fence and loading an arrow in their bow. As Foolish nodded in agreement to Eret’s statement, the monarch pulled back the drawstring, taking a deep breath and focusing on the target in front of them. They released the string, watching the arrow fly straight out towards the target and landing in the center. Another bullseye.

“WOO! Man, you’re good at this! I feel like… you’re just unstoppable! You’re a force of nature, nothing can take you down!” Foolish said in awe before pausing, a small smile on his face. “Well, actually, there is one thing.”

“The wind.” Eret answered with a small chuckle. “It’s definitely made things a lot harder out here than they normally are.”

“Oh, no. I was thinking of something else.” The totem-shark stepped closer to his friend, now grinning widely. “I happen to know a weakness of yours.”

“Oh really now? And what would that be?” Eret pulled back the drawstring to the bow, focusing and making sure the arrow would hit the target. They took a deep breath, ready to fire. However, right as they let go of the drawstring, they felt two hands suddenly squeeze at their side. The bow’s aim was suddenly shifted down, and the arrow landed right in front of the target, in the grass instead of on the target itself. Eret whipped around, only to be greeted by a grinning Foolish.

“The fact that you’re stupidly ticklish.” Foolish smirked as he looked as his friend, who scoffed with a grin on their face.

“Betrayal.” They mumbled, although they couldn’t help but laugh a bit to themselves.

“Oh, come on. It provides a fun challenge, doesn’t it? You try to shoot bullseyes into the targets, while I try to not make that happen. It’ll help you improve your skills!” Foolish suggested.

They looked at their old friend, chuckling as they loaded another arrow into the string. “Alright, challenge accepted.” They nodded, Foolish clapping his hands with excitement and standing behind Eret.

Eret stood in place, pulling back the drawstring once again. Everything was calm and peaceful until they started to feel one-finger pokes across their torso.

“Heyyyy, Eret! Are you gonna shoot that? Are you gonna shoot the arrow?” Foolish asked as he prodded around the monarch’s sides and stomach.

“Ihi’m trying to focus.” Eret said, a giggle slipping out.

“Oh? Was that a giggle? I thought I heard something, I guess I’ll have to prod a little more to get it out of ya, huh?” Foolish started to poke at the right side of Eret’s body with two rapid fingers. They tried to keep their laughter in and focus on the target, but they eventually broke into giggles, stumbling away from Foolish and letting go of the arrow. It flew out and landed on one of the white rings of the target.

“Looks like you gotta get some more practice in, huh?” Foolish teased. Eret rolled their eyes, moving to a target that was closer to them. They drew back an arrow, taking a breath and holding it steady. However, things wouldn’t be peaceful for long. Foolish quickly shot his hands up into Eret’s underarms, surprising the monarch and causing them to accidentally let go of the arrow. It shot upwards in the air, landing somewhere on the blue ring, above the bullseye.

“Foolish!” Eret whined lightheartedly.

“What?! You agreed to this!” Foolish shot back. Technically, he was right, but whatever. A challenge was a challenge.

Eret made their way to other targets on the shooting range, wanting to shoot a bullseye, but Foolish would be there to thwart their plans every time. He would poke at one spot repeatedly, taser them in the sides, blow light air onto their neck, and everything else imaginable to throw them off guard. It would work every time, as Eret was unable to hit a single bullseye.

The monarch set their sights on the furthest target away from the shooting line. This would be the last arrow Eret would shoot until they had to go and retrieve the arrows back from the targets. They drew back the string of the bow, holding it steady and waiting for Foolish to try to distract them. They let go, the arrow flying and landing on the blue ring.

“You didn’t do anything that time.” Eret acknowledged out loud, turning towards their friend.

“That’s right!” Foolish commented, not adding anything else.

Eret wouldn’t lie, they were a little bit suspicious. They watched Foolish closely, but shrugged it off when it seemed like they had no mischievous intent.

“…Alright.” Eret set the bow on the ground, turning their back to Foolish. “I’m going to go get the other arr- AH!”

Oh, how wrong they were to think that Foolish was going to let them off so easily. The demigod had tackled them to the ground, and he held Eret’s wrists so that they couldn’t try to escape.

“What? I had to catch you off guard somehow! You know, you gotta be aware of your surroundings when you’re shooting arrows, old pal! You never know when a monster could sneak up from behind and attack you! You could get blown up by a creeper, shot by a skeleton, your brain could get eaten by a zombie, or in this case…” Foolish grinned, letting go of Eret’s wrists and forming his hands into claw shapes. “You could get snuck up on by a tickle monster!”

Eret nervously tried to squirm away, but their friend was quick to shoot his hands down, clawing at the monarch’s stomachs with both hands. They tried to keep their laughter hidden inside of them, but quickly broke after a few seconds.

“Fohohoolihish, nohoHOho!” They giggled, weakly trying to push his hands away.

“Eret, I’m serious, you should be more careful! Tickle monsters can be very dangerous!” Foolish playfully warned his friend, skittering fingers all over their torso. “They hide in plain sight, just waiting for you to be caught off guard, and then they pounce! And after they attack, their victims can get really tired out, and leave them to be more prone to being attacked by other monsters!”

He spidered his fingers up and down Eret’s sides, relishing in every bit of laughter that came out of their mouth. They tried pushing his hands away, but had no success, their arms likely tired out from pulling back strings and arrows all day. Foolish moved his fingers up his friend’s body, dancing over their hips now.

“They’re extremely dangerous, my friend. They have a variety of strategies that they use, and no singular monster is alike any other. So if you get attacked by one, it’s attack will be very different from the second one you encounter!” Foolish squeezed at their hips, watching as Eret wasn’t even trying to fight back anymore, only laughing their head off.

“Eret! I’m trying to warn you and be serious, why are you laughing at me?! This is no laughing matter, old pal!” He shook his head, moving his hands up to scratch and scribble up and down their ribcage. Eret’s laughter quickly escalated in pitch, squirming around and weakly trying to fight Foolish off.

“NoHOHO- FOHOHOOLIHISH! YOHOU- YOHOU’RE-” The monarch attempted to talk back, but was interrupted by frequent squeaks and laughter flowing out of their mouth.

“I don’t get what’s so funny, Eret! This is very serious!” Foolish tried to stay straight-faced, but couldn’t help but smile when he saw his friend’s face. Eret’s sunglasses were starting to tilt off of their face, their hair was disheveled from so much thrashing, and a stupidly wide grin graced their face as high-pitched giggles came from their mouth.

“You still hanging in there?” Foolish asked as he slowed down the movements of his fingers to a stop. Eret nodded, still giggling as they adjusted their glasses and put them back properly on their face. The demigod reached out a hand, helping Eret off of the ground.

“Gotta be more careful next time, old pal! You never know when a monster might attack.”

“Oh, shut up.” Eret shoved his friend lightly. The two friends looked at each other, smiles on their faces as happy laughter filled the fields.

#dawn writes #lee!eret #ler!foolish #c!eret #c!foolish #dsmp tickle #oh my GOD i loved writing this so much #this might be one of my favorite fics i’ve ever written!!#👑 eret: eyeless monarchy #🦈 foolish: totem of undying

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starilicious · 3 years

Text

der lagi lekin (hunter x force-user!gn! reader + ep. 8 fix-it)

》 summary: tbb episode 8 fix-it featuring a force-user reader who used to be a jedi. reader is a part of tbb and in a relationship with hunter, but the squad–nor hunter–knows that reader is a force-user. (disclaimer: all of this was written before episode 9 was released! see a/n for an explanation ^_^) (another disclaimer: if you want just the hunter x reader comfort, please let me know and i'll finish it up and post it!)

》 word count: ~8k (yeah, it's a lot LOL)

click here to read on AO3

》 warnings: in-universe swearing, mental breakdown, some slight sensory overloads, pretty mild panic attack, light canon-typical violence, angst + some comfort, survivor's guilt from surviving order 66, no use of y/n, slightly plot heavy because i got way too carried away in writing (whoops?) [if i should add more warnings, please let me know!]

》 spoilers: major ones for tbb episode 8 "reunion"

》 a/n: okay look, i gotta confess: this wasn’t supposed to be an episode 8 fix-it. really. i’m actually glad cad bane won because we get to see that the clones don’t always win every fight... i think it makes for a better and more complex story. anyway, i started out writing just reader and hunter comfort after episode 8 ended. but i’m weak for omega because she reminds me so much of my younger siblings and i ended up writing a wholeass fix-it to save her (even tho cad bane is a downright badass). i kind of liked what i did with building up the plot so much that i might continue this story of force-user!reader with tbb. but that’s a tangent we can deal with later. if you would like a part two with the hunter x reader comfort this was originally intended to be, let me know!

as i said in the summary, i wrote all of this before episode 9 came out–just be aware of that. because it’s so long, it took me a while to edit, which is why i’m posting after ep. 9 was released. but without further ado, i hope you like it! <33

》 misc. notes:

• title of the fic is from the hindi song "der lagi lekin" from the film zindagi na milegi dobara. i linked the song in blue and linked the english translations in green in case you're curious! it's not necessary to listen or understand the song, but i thought it went well with the fic :)

“Everybody get down!” Wrecker yells. You and the squad immediately do as he instructs, diving towards the ground and covering your head. Stars, I hope this works.

The charges the six of you placed around the gigantic cone that surrounds the core cylinder explodes in a deafening blast. You curl into the tightest ball you can manage, breathing so hard that the HUD inside your helmet temporarily fogs up. Metal shards of the explosion rain down on you hard.

For a moment, it seems like nothing happened. But then you hear the telltale, ear-grinding creak of the durasteel and the squad is roughly catapulted forward from the force of the cone beginning to fall down.

You struggle to stand up as you lurch this way and that, trying to regain your balance and stabilize as Tech calls out, “Hold on!”

You quickly glance at the rest of the Bad Batch, trying to see if any of them were hurt. Other than the absolutely terrified look on Omega’s face, all is well considering the circumstances. The metal groans and begins its descent, taking your feeling of being grounded with it. The weightlessness is uncomfortably familiar to say the least, but you ignore it as the six of you scramble to hold on to the side of the cone. You certainly did your fair share of acrobatics back in the war, but feeling it hum around you...it’s too much. It’s too much. You elect to push it back into the depths of your brain. But it doesn’t leave.

It never really does.

Omega’s anxious whimpers come in faintly through your thick helmet and you whip around, frantically trying to find where she is. But before you can find her, the cone lands vertically on its head and the force is so violent that your stable hold on the durasteel is broken. Panicked, you quickly fire a grappling hook towards the ledge where you were previously hanging on. The hook catches and you stop abruptly, the jerky movement almost wrenching your arm out of its socket.

You look down to see Omega falling from someone’s grip and into Hunter’s arms. You can barely tell where anyone is thanks to the lack of light and the incessant motion.

The cone begins to topple onto its side and suddenly, your wire snaps from the tension. You let out a scream of surprise as you plummet downwards, wind rushing past your helmet. ForceIdon’twanttodieohmyMakerohno–

But you never hit the ground, instead being flung sideways as the cone tears into two. On trained instinct, you tuck yourself into a ball to try and roll in order to break your fall instead of using it. That time is long gone.

You land with a sickening thud and hiss in pain as your back hits the metal hard. You hear something crack, but whether it is your armor or something internal, you have absolutely no idea, and don’t have time to check before you black out.

✧✦✧

You jolt awake, a sound making its way into your consciousness. Finally, the damn place stopped moving. You take a few minutes to try and relieve the painful pressure in your chest, reaching up to rip your helmet off because you can’t breathe, you can’t breathe.

You tilt your head back as you struggle to take in air and let the adrenaline subside. You hear voices in the distance and you strain your ears to pick up on the sound as you quickly check yourself over. As far as you can tell, nothing major is broken, and at this point, that is all that matters. Though, your head is pounding, and for more reasons than one

“–nter.. port side... what… status?”

You can’t tell who is speaking, the message too far away for you to hear. But the bits and pieces are enough for you to know that it’s someone from the Bad Batch and that you weren’t unconscious for long. You stand up and dust yourself off before slowly walking to where you believe the origin of the sound is.

“–engine… got company.” A blaster sound and then an explosion rings through the quiet.

Your eyes widen and you quickly pick up the pace, getting your blaster ready as you pick your way through the sharp metal that is jutting out from the ground.

You click on your wrist comm. “Echo, you there?” A faint crackle before his voice comes through, but the signal is scratchy. You frown in frustration.

“–are you? Hunter is... port side,” Echo says and you smack your commlink to try and get the electronics to work, but it’s no use. The device is broken, most likely from the fall, you deduce.

“Meet… Marauder.”

You don’t bother to answer, knowing Echo would probably not even be able to hear what you had to say anyway. Without a signal booster or repeater, there’s no way you can get your transmission across the channel frequency.

It takes a few minutes, but you eventually find the night sky of Bracca blinking down at you at the end of the ripped off cone. You run out to find that you’re in the middle of where the cone broke in half. Okay, new plan. I need to find Hunter. Hunter will know what to do.

You scan your surroundings. The HUD isn’t picking up on any lifeforms near you, and you realize with sinking dread that you have no more options. Whichever piece you climbed through to get to your squadmates, it would take too long for you to search for them since you don’t know their coordinates and your comm isn’t working. Frankly, the Empire–Crosshair–would find you first. You have to use it.

You have to use the Force.

A wave of nausea overcomes you at the mere thought of it and you sway. In an attempt to ground yourself, you tear off your helmet to breathe some fresh air and end up keeling over as the bile rises in your throat. Nothing comes out. You can’t tell if that’s a positive or not.

You could have saved them. Someone. Anyone.

It itches at you in the back of your head, wishing to be let out of its cage. But you can’t. You can’t do it. What’s the use anyway? All you would be doing is saving yourself. The choice of surviving it all has haunted you ever since. Your head pounds in agony.

You saw it happen. You could have helped them. And you ran like a coward. Only ever concerned about yourself.

You inhale sharply as the scene flashes before your eyes, clones shooting at you and the other Jedi. The blaster fire. The confusion. The screams.

How pathetic.

The last statement, an echo of Crosshair’s words, bounces around in your brain. You clutch your head as you let out a heartbroken sob, knee deep in the dirt and metal and grief. Tears create clean tracks down your face as you finally break down, the flood of emotions bursting the dam open. At this point, you don’t know if the emotions are yours or the ones you previously felt through the Force, all of them swirling and blending into one. The bottled up anguish merged together when you attempted to cut yourself off from the Force after the clones–your friends–attacked.

The pain of their death is perhaps the worst of all. Horror courses through you as you finally process your friends and mentors dying around the galaxy, their deaths, their distress, their fear reverberating heavily throughout the Force. Each one cripples you further as you once again struggle to breathe.

It feels like light years pass when you finally calm down to a practically numb state of being. The scenes stop replaying behind your closed eyelids and the echoing shrieks die down to a faint, hollow whisper. You’re suddenly exhausted, limbs heavy and energy sapped. It was almost relieving to finally let the Force once again flow through your body, your nerves lightly tingling with potential despite how tired you feel. You collapse onto the ground and try to recenter yourself.

But despite finally acknowledging the loss, it doesn’t feel right. You didn’t get to say goodbye. You hadn’t been able to even think about them, much less honor them, too focused on going on the run to concentrate on anything beyond the next day’s survival. Even once you joined the Bad Batch, you were paranoid about their chips, about your friends turning on you at any moment. You were always extremely reluctant to engage in the Force, even at the worst of times.

With a start, you realize that you don’t need to worry about your squadmates. Their inhibitor chips are now gone. You… you are safe.

You let out a shocked laugh as it sinks in. A glimmer of hope, of peace. I’m safe.

You sit up then, criss-crossing your legs as you survey the broken landscape of Bracca. Despite the planet being a graveyard, you feel lucidly alive. Perhaps something died in you, that wretched day. But something else, slowly but surely, began growing in its place. It’s meek, but it’s there.

You let out a breath and close your eyes, reaching for the Force like it’s an old friend. It accepts your invitation with hesitation, joining hands with you as if you did not try beating it to death for days on end. You sink into the gentle lapping waves of the Force, extending into it and widening your scope.

There’s something that lurks beneath the surface, in the deep. Dark and sinister and so utterly painful. It calls to you, quiet and low. Enticing. Tempting. And something in you knows that it’s the reason for your previous life’s demise.

But you can feel Hunter’s–and Omega’s, you realize–presence near you in the Force. Even with your relatively damaged connection to the Force after Order 66, the Bad Batch’s Force auras were something you could always hone in on. You let yourself direct your focus to the duo, letting their emotions be your beacon to the acceptance of the Light side of the Force.

In a split second, you decide to not dive deeper into the Force. This isn’t the place nor the time to discover what is prowling in the endless yawning of the Force, to discover why everything happened. So you direct your concentration to the beings on the planet, feeling and breathing your way through the Life Force.

You freeze. There’s something here. No… someone. Your eyebrows furrow as you divert your attention away from your friends and other organisms to the peculiar source. Something about this person strikes you as familiar.

Your eyes snap open and you gasp. I’m not alone. A Force-sensitive. Someone survived. Giddy beyond belief, you snatch up your helmet and begin trekking your way across the wreckage in the opposite direction of Hunter and Omega before pausing. Whoever this person is doesn’t know about your presence on the planet.

And despite the fear you felt emanating off of them in the Force, you somehow knew they were safe, at least for now. And they would remain so if you have anything to say about it. Maker forbid anything that jeopardizes this person’s fragile safety. After all, you know best what it’s like to constantly flee scene after scene.

Staying away is the best thing to do. I’ll come back for you, whoever you are.

You double back and make quick work of getting across the debris as you focus your concentration on Hunter’s and Omega’s Force signatures. As you get closer to the port side, you hear Omega’s high voice. Through your HUD, you can see her small form. You grin. She disappears then, and on closer inspection, you figure she jumped through some broken cargo doors.

The entrance she and Hunter took is too high for you to jump up to, even with the aid of the Force. Combined with your wariness of probe droids, you decide to take a different route from the right side, climbing up the broken ship. The slick oil mixed with the water still present on the metal makes for a difficult trek, and you slip more times than you would like to admit.

Hunter’s gruff voice floats up towards you and you scramble the last few meters to the edge of a hole in the ceiling before pausing. The Force is itching at the back of your head. Something’s wrong.

You peek over the edge of the giant slab of durasteel that created the hole to see bodies in white armor littered everywhere–clones, you realize. Your heart pangs in sadness at the sight.

Slightly to your right, a blue figure and a techno-service droid stand in front of a ship and a frightened Omega stands behind a defensive Hunter. Your mouth drops open. Kriff.

Cad Bane.

A memory from near the beginning of the war hits you in full force. You and Anakin had taken some time on Coruscant to catch up with each other after you passed your trials and were promoted to Jedi Knight. He told you about a mission where he had to stop a bounty hunter who successfully stole a Jedi holocron. You remember how surprised you were when you heard the bitter disgust in Anakin’s voice. The ruthlessly cunning bounty hunter not only threatened to kill Ahsoka, but he murdered Master Ropal.

Judging by the looks of it, Hunter doesn’t know who he is. If the Anakin Skywalker had a difficult time with Cad Bane, there is no way in sithhell Hunter can take him on, even with his enhanced senses. Frankly, you seriously doubt you can either, especially with how rusty your Force skills are now. And that means this isn’t going to end well.

You watch carefully as you tune into the conversation.

“Ain’t you smart?” Bane smirks. “The kid’s got it all figured it out.”

“You’re in trouble now!” the droid exclaims, pointing at Hunter and Omega. You grit your teeth in annoyance.

“Who hired you?” Hunter asks. Stalling. Not a bad move, Hunter.

“Son,” Bane sighs, already done with the brief conversation. “That’s confidential information. Now hand her over.”

Omega stays behind Hunter, taking a knee as Hunter walks forward protectively. You bristle. How am I supposed to help from up here?

“She’s not going anywhere.”

Your eyes drift over the scene in a panic and you take in the fallen clones again. An idea pops into your head. It is desperate, but at this point, you don’t have much of a choice.

Bane mimics Hunter’s movement, walking forward and putting a hand near his belt. The tension is as thick as duracrete.

“That’s unfortunate… for you.”

You grab the long barrel piece from your belt, fitting it over your blaster hurriedly as the showdown begins. Out of the corner of your eye, you see them staring each other down and you can’t help but roll your eyes. Men.

During the war, Crosshair helped you re-engineer your weapon so you could put together various pieces in the field to make a blaster gun that loosely resembled his own sniper. Seeing the clones reminded you of him. A wave of sadness washes over you, but you shake your head. Now is not the time.

You screw on the telescopic sight and set up your makeshift sniper. You peer through the viewfinder and find Bane’s chest. Your finger tenses over the trigger.

You let yourself sink deep into the Force, let it guide your actions. Inhale. Exhale. I can do this. As you relax, the mellow warmth you missed so dearly washes over you, gently eroding the torment in your mind and heart, guiding your focus to the here and now. Trust in the Force.

Wait.

Now.

You fire two bolts straight into your target the same exact moment Bane and Hunter shoot each other. Hunter’s shot hits the droid, breaking off its leg. Bane’s shot hits directly in Hunter’s chest, as yours did Bane. Both men immediately fall backwards and slam into the ground.

“My booster!” Oh. So not a leg. Got it.

“Hunter!”

Kriff kriff kriff. You jump down nimbly from your hiding spot in the ceiling and immediately sprint towards the duo. Is he dead? You would unapologetically release sithhell on Bane if he killed the man you love.

Omega panics as she tries to wake Hunter up, continuously calling his name before taking a glimpse of her surroundings. Before you can react, she grabs her bow and pulls it taut, aiming at you. She looks petrified.

“Whoa! Omega, it’s me!” you exclaim, holding your hands up in surrender. She takes a moment to actually look at you before sagging in relief. Suddenly, the droid comes speeding out of nowhere and Omega shoots, the energy bolt whizzing past your waist and straight into the droid before it can attack you from behind.

The shot rings true and the grumpy robot falls. You turn around to grab at its exposed parts under its head and yank them out to make sure it can’t power on again.

“Thanks, Omega. I owe you one,” you say and Omega gives you a proud smile.

You place a comforting hand on her shoulder before kneeling down to shake Hunter awake, but it doesn’t work. You take a moment to analyse Hunter’s Life Force. It’s a bit dimmer, but it’s constant, meaning he’s out cold and doesn’t have the life draining out of him. You let out a sigh of relief. He’s alive. You glance back to see Bane still not moving. Good.

“What’re we gonna do?” Omega whispers as you both peer down at Hunter. His armor is smoking from Bane’s blaster shot and you exhale through your teeth, trying to come up with a plan. You slip off a glove to check Hunter’s pulse–it’s strong. You don’t want to leave Omega alone, even if Bane is unconscious, but you aren’t sure you have a choice.

“Well we can’t carry him to safety, neither of us are strong enough for that,” you think aloud, gears churning in your head. You would have to wait for help, even if you were sitting ducks.

Briefly, you entertain the thought of taking Bane’s ship. The only problem is you don’t know what trackers or other gadgets are in there–it’s too costly of a risk and a price you weren’t willing to pay. You sigh, resigned.

“Omega, you try to comm the others and see if you can wake Hunter up. I’m going to go inside this guy’s ship and see if I can find something that can help us. We have to get out of here before the bounty hunter wakes up,” you instruct and Omega nods, youthful determination flooding back into her eyes.

You leave her to it, walking cautiously towards Bane’s ship. You look down at him. His armor is smoking in two places from the shots you fired. Based on what you see, he’s still unconscious, and his Life Force reflects the same conclusion. How long that would remain, you don’t know. Which means you need to work fast.

You board the ship while you remove the sniper attachments from your blaster and clip them back onto your belt. You keep your guard up as you look around. No droids. Guess that techno-service droid is his one and only.

In an effort to slowly re-familiarize yourself with the Force, you send out a quick pulse through it to see if there are any lifeforms aboard the ship, relaxing when you find none. You rummage through all the cabinets that you discover, looking high and low as you try to locate something of use. The secret compartment in the cockpit proves to be the fruitful reward to your search. With a wave of your hand, you unlock it with ease. Bingo.

Credits. Bags of them. And they’re unmarked creds, which make your score even better. Hopefully, it would be enough to pay off your debt to Cid and give the Havoc Marauder some much-needed upgrades.

Usually, you would feel bad about stealing from someone, but considering this was a bounty hunter – Cad Bane, no less – you figure you can risk treading the grey area of your moral code.

You grab as many bags as you’re able, stuffing them inside your backpack and clipping the rest onto your belt. At this moment, you’re incredibly grateful to Tech and Echo for designing a sturdy utility belt that fits you well. The standard ones were for clones and you definitely were not a clone.

You exit the cockpit and head to the second level of the ship to see if there’s anything else you can find. A stack of crates sits in the corner across from what you assume to be a prison. You scrunch your nose in disgust as you open one to find medical supplies. Bacta patches and gel, vitapaste, rations, water, gloves, sanitary napkins–it was all there. Delighted, you close the crate and click the repulsor to make it levitate. Oh how you love technology.

You turn around and walk back up the stairs to leave the ship. You freeze at the exit ramp. You have got to be karking kidding me.

“Sorry lil’ lady.”

Cad Bane stuns Omega in front of your eyes before rounding on you and immediately fires. In a desperate attempt to save yourself, you throw your hands up and the honeyed power of the Force rushes through every fibre of your being. The blaster bolts slow down to a snail-like crawl and your eyes widen. How did I…?

Never mind how you argue with yourself. Time to get out of here!

You tiptoe around each bolt, the effort of keeping them in stasis becoming more difficult with each passing moment. You grit your teeth as your arms shake, but you keep going until you are finally off the ramp. You lower your arms and the energy hits the inside of the ship, spazzing out the blinking controls inside.

Bane turns to you in surprise, astonished at how you’re suddenly in front of him. You don’t give him the luxury of processing the event and immediately punch him in the face with as much strength as you can muster. Bane pitches backwards and collapses onto the ground, just as he did the first time. You grab your stun blaster and shoot him as extra assurance. You really did not want this to repeat again. Hopefully he never wakes up with a memory of what I just did...

“Now stay down,” you mutter to a knocked out Bane, cradling your now injured hand. You have no idea how Wrecker ever does this because wow your hand is killing you.

You have to say, you’re pretty proud of yourself for being able to render him unconscious not once, but two times. You wish you could tell Anakin–the thought saddens you. He’s probably dead too.

With that vividly cheery thought, you stagger back from the ramp in exhaustion, weary from the sudden surge of the Force still ebbing and coursing through your body.

None of the Bad Batch knew you used to be a Jedi–not even Hunter. It was something only a few of your closest Jedi friends and the Jedi Council knew about.

But after what happened today, with Rex helping your squadmates get their inhibitor chips out, with you finally letting the Force in… maybe it is time to tell them. The secrecy wouldn’t be needed anymore now that you were sure you were safe around your friends. But clearly, the universe wanted to throw a nasty vibroblade in your plans by knocking Hunter and Omega unconscious and having the best kriffing bounty hunter in the galaxy be hot on your heels.

You take a few seconds to get your breath back and regain your mental energy. You aren’t out of the woods yet. You run inside Bane’s ship to grab the crate of medical supplies before sprinting back out towards Hunter and Omega.

You lean down and pat Omega’s cheek gently, trying to wake her up, but she’s out cold. Why is everyone around me unconscious? Frankly, you’re equally amused and terrified by the situation laid out in front of you.

You sigh, looking around to see if you can find some cover. There’s a giant sheet of durasteel to your left, big enough to act as a barrier in case trouble comes knocking. You bend down and pick Omega up before placing her down cautiously, leaning her small body against the metal. You repeat the action with the crate you found.

The third time proves to be much more difficult. Hunter certainly isn’t as muscular as Wrecker, but he sure as sithhell isn’t as light as Omega. You tap your foot nervously, trying to figure out a way for you to lift him. Yes, you could use the Force, but you don’t want to alert the other Force-sensitive on the planet. If they knew about your existence, it could put them in danger, and that was the last thing you wanted.

Giving up, you place your hands underneath Hunter’s armpits and effectively drag him all the way over, propping him up as you did Omega. You cringe at the sound of his armor grating the floor. There are sure to be dirty scuff marks on it now. Sorry Hunter.

Just as you’re about to sit down next to him, heaving deep breaths from the exertion, you pause. A warning is practically blaring in the Force and you tense, urgently trying to figure out the cause.

“Not again,” you mumble under your breath. You can’t handle any more action today. With Hunter and Omega both down, and your extreme fatigue from engaging in the Force, you don’t know how much of a fight you can put up. Not to mention you never trained as a soldier. There was a reason why you left the military planning strategies to the Bad Batch.

You hold your blaster close to your chest as you scan the environment. Bane is immobile and so is the dismantled techno-service droid. So what’s wrong?

Ten nerve-wracking seconds pass before you get your answer. Clone voices waft up to your hiding spot and you bite your cheek in frustration as your head continues to pound. Your headache still hasn’t stopped.

There is no way you can fight them all off, especially if Crosshair is with them. They are too far away for you to get a read on how many there are, and frankly, you’re much too scared to even peek around the durasteel to count.

One of Tech’s previous statements floats through your mind. About three attack shuttles worth.

You can feel your heart thumping wildly in your chest, blood rushing through your ears as anxiety ties your stomach into knots. I can’t do this, I can’t do this, Ican’tdothis.

You take deep breaths, doing your best to clear your mind and focus. You had to do this. There is no other option other than surrendering or dying. No, damnit, you would go down fighting until the Life Force left you.

You peer just past the edge of the metal to see at least twenty clones heading your way. Certainly not ideal, but you bide your time. If you started shooting now, you couldn’t use the element of surprise to your advantage and they would easily overwhelm you. But once they’re close enough, you hope you can at least take a couple out before having to resort to using the Force. It isn’t ideal, but it’s all you have.

Honestly, you don’t know if you could get out of this one alive, much less protect Hunter and Omega too. Maker help me.

It throws you off when they finally come into sight–you see how plain the clones’ armor looked without paint. You never really noticed it before since you were always running for your life in those circumstances. But now that you think about it, you are so used to seeing bright blue or green or yellow that the alabaster white just seems so… odd.

“Looks like a big fight happened here.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. All these men are dead.”

Now.

You whip your body around the metal and immediately begin shooting as fast as you can pull the trigger, trying to make every shot count. The troopers hesitate for just a moment, most likely due to their surprise of you being there. But that second is all you need.

You take out the three men closest to you before jumping back behind the metal as their barrage of fire rains down on you. You do your best to shoot back and manage to take out one more clone, but they’re beginning to gain too much ground too fast. I can do this. I have to do this.

As far as you can tell, Crosshair isn’t with the clones attacking you, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t set up shop somewhere nearby, waiting to shoot you.

You shudder. It’s a chilling thought.

You grab one of your last detonators from your belt and hurl it as far as you can. The rapid beeping rises quickly in pitch before the charge explodes. Anguished cries reverberate throughout the area, and you briefly feel sorry for having to take such drastic measures as you feel their Force signatures dim swiftly. But you don’t have a choice.

Peeking around the corner, you count around eight to ten clones down. Not bad considering the circumstances.

You continue shooting as much as you can but now the troopers are much too close for comfort and you’re feeling overwhelmed. The durasteel you are using for cover isn’t meant to take this kind of damage, and the integrity of your shield is quickly waning as told by the constant creaks and groans. You don’t know what to do. Will we make it?

In your haste of shooting first and panicking later, you don’t notice Hunter groaning, finally waking up. And before you have time to even glance at him, the familiar hum of the Havoc Marauder and its lights shine down on you. Your sag in relief. Looks like Omega was able to comm them after all. Never before have you been so glad to see the beat-up hunk of junk. (You would never say that to Tech though–the Marauder is his baby, his pride and joy.)

Echo, Wrecker, and Tech all race off the ship, guns ablazing. Wrecker and Tech stand guard, serving as cover fire while Echo bends down to help you out.

“Hunter, wake up!” Echo hisses and smacks his helmet lightly. Hunter mumbles in pain as he starts to move, trying to look around as his HUD boots back up. Seriously? Now you wake up? you think sarcastically. But you’re much more relieved at the fact that he has actually woken up.

“What happened? Where’s Omega?” Wrecker bellows, worried.

“She’s right here, I’ve got her!” you shout back at the same time Echo says, “He was shot in the chest plate.”

You pocket your blaster and gather the young girl in your arms with every last bit of strength you have left. You aren’t strong enough to hold her in one arm and shoot with the other. That is much more up Wrecker’s alley.

“We have to get him on board!” Tech exclaims as he helps Echo support Hunter. You pick Omega up in both arms and bolt for the ship as fast as you can while yelling at Tech to grab the crate of supplies.

“Incoming!” Wrecker calls out as a fresh wave of troopers advance towards the six of you. You grunt as you deposit Omega in a chair near the controls before pulling out your blaster and helping Wrecker shoot down the men racing towards you.

“Got him. Tech, fly us out of here!” Echo commands while Wrecker makes a gesture for them to get on the ship faster. Hunter stumbles as he does his best to upright himself.

“Go go go!” Wrecker exclaims. Tech shoves the crate next to Omega’s seat and makes a beeline for the cockpit as you continue shooting, moving to the side to make space for Echo and Hunter to come on board. Wrecker quickly climbs in right after them and the ramp closes shut.

Tech immediately pilots the Havoc Marauder up and away from the scene. You vaguely hear the sound of blaster fire hitting the bottom of the ship while you drop your blaster on the ground and wrench Hunter’s helmet off in a panic. You take his face in your hands as you scan him quickly, trying to figure out if he’s hurt or not.

Hunter bats your hands away. “He... he took Omega,” he says and you shake your head. Wrecker pipes up from behind you to respond.

“Who? Crosshair?”

“The bounty hunter,” Hunter mutters as he rubs a hand over his face. Before Wrecker can answer again, you step in.

“No, he didn’t. I took him down. And no, he’s not dead,” you tack on quickly when you see Echo open his mouth. Echo shakes his head fondly and you just grin at him.

“She’s right here,” Echo says instead, pointing to Omega’s sleeping figure. Hunter turns in surprise to see that his brother is indeed telling the truth.

“How...?” Hunter’s voice trails off. Echo and Wrecker look at you expectantly, and Hunter follows suit. You sigh and take off your helmet, setting it down on the ledge next to the controls. You don’t look at them.

“It’s a long story.”

You don’t have a chance to elaborate any further because Tech walks in, interrupting the conversation.

“I’ve made the jump to hyperspace. There was a cruiser in the atmosphere, but I was able to quietly go past them by disguising our ship as a bounty hunter’s. They didn’t interfere. I put in the coordinates for Ord Mantell. I estimate our time of arrival to be five hours and thirty two minutes,” Tech reports and Hunter nods while you voice your thanks.

“Looks like we got time!” Wrecker says cheerily, pulling out an extra chair. Tech looks to you in confusion.

“Did I miss something significant?” Tech asks, concerned about the information he did not receive as he adjusts his goggles. You shake your head but now, all eyes are back on you.

“She was just about to tell us how she saved Omega,” Hunter supplies helpfully and Tech nods in understanding. He grabs a chair as well and sits down, interested in hearing what you have to say.

You look around the room, realizing you can’t get out of it. You are exhausted and just want to sleep but based on the looks you are getting from the boys, there is no way you can leave without giving a sufficient answer.

You sit down on a chair in between Omega and Echo and begin explaining.

“When the cone fell, it separated. I got knocked out when I hit the ground, but I don’t think I broke anything,” you quickly reassure as Tech grabs a datapad to scan your vitals.

“After I came to, I tried comming Echo, but my commlink was broken – I could only hear bits and pieces of what he said. There were some voices near me so I just followed them and–” you pause, not sure if you should tell them what happened. What you experienced, what you found out. “–I saw Hunter and Omega. The ledge I found was way too high for me to jump to, so I climbed up the side of the wreckage to see them and the bounty hunter facing off,” you say, choosing to leave the detail out. It was too personal. You still needed time.

All of them are listening intently, hanging on to every word you’re saying. Hunter’s gaze on you is heavy and loaded with questions. Tech is still tapping away on the datapad, but you know you have his full attention. Multitasking may not be possible for regular humans, but it definitely was for Tech.

“When I saw the bounty hunter, I knew Hunter wasn’t going to win,” you mumble sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck. Hunter winces at your statement and you rush to explain why.

“Hunter, you have to trust that I genuinely don’t doubt your abilities. You are much more of a soldier than I will ever be. But this bounty hunter is one of the best, if not the best in the entire galaxy. He’s gone against the Jedi, and won. Based on what Anakin told me at the beginning of the war, Cad Bane is ruthless. He tortured Master Ropal and killed him. Believe it or not, I think he tried to abduct Chancellor Palpatine. Even Anakin had a difficult time fighting him.”

A tense quiet settles over you all as you mentally revisit your conversation with Anakin, and later with Ahsoka. She told you how it was one of the first times she was genuinely afraid that she was going to die, or at least get hurt very severely.

Echo’s rough voice shakes you out of your reverie. “How do–did you know General Skywalker?” he asks, clearly confused at how you referred to him on a first-name basis. You mentally facepalm yourself. How did I forget he served as part of the 501st? You feel incredibly stupid.

You could make up a lie, of course, but it wouldn’t be worth it. Hunter’s enhanced senses and Tech’s vitals scan could probably pick up on your biological signs, not to mention you would feel terribly guilty about not being honest. I promised myself I would tell them…

You blow out a nervous breath, deciding to at least give them something. They deserved that much.

“I’m–well, I was a Jedi,” you admit, staring down at your feet. You can’t bring yourself to look at them, feeling almost… ashamed.

The boys are shocked into silence and you cringe. There was probably a much better way for you to say that, but now it was out there. Yet the pressure that had been weighing down on you since you let the Force back in didn’t lessen.

“What?” Wrecker questions, thrown completely for a loop. “You’re a Jedi?”

Before you can answer, Tech pipes up. “When I reviewed your medical data, there was no note about an elevated midi-chlorian count or any sort of connection to the Force. Additionally, there is no documentation of you serving as a General or a Commander during the war in the Republic military records. How were you a Jedi? And why aren’t you one now? You used past tense in your sentence,” Tech adjusts his goggles as he attempts to register this new information that conflicted with his previous knowledge.

You sigh, drumming your fingers on your thigh. “I left the Jedi Order before the war ended. I promise I’ll explain everything in detail later, but for now, you have to understand that I’m just a Force-user. I trained as a Jedi, but I’m not a Jedi, not anymore,” you clarify, lifting your head up to make eye contact with each of them.

“Aw man, that’s so cool. You have to show us your cool mind tricks sometime!” Wrecker smiles and you agree to his request. It warms your heart to see him so excited.

“It makes sense. You must have seen the regs turn on the Jedi but didn’t know why. When you started traveling with us, you didn’t know if we would turn on you too, even though we’re not regs,” Hunter realizes, and you nod in affirmation. You’re secretly relieved by the fact that he doesn’t seem angry, just… just thoughtful.

“And then when I saw what happened to Crosshair, I knew I couldn’t risk ever telling any of you. But when Rex told us about the chips…” you trail off.

Echo picks up your sentence quickly. “You figured out you would be safe with us if we got our chips removed. No wonder you were so insistent on following what Rex said.”

You smile at the last part, a bit embarrassed. He wasn’t wrong. You were probably even more insistent than Rex was on telling them to get their inhibitor chips out. Better to be safe than sorry you told them. Though at the time, you hadn’t even thought about how removing their chips would impact you and your abilities. You were too focused on keeping the Force out of your body to entertain that thought.

Wrecker suddenly gets up and gathers you in a bone-crushing hug. “Well you don’t have to worry now! We got those stupid chips out of our heads, which means I promise we won’t kill you!” he says cheerfully and you can’t help but laugh as you hug him back, the knot in your chest beginning to unravel. You could always count on Wrecker’s wonderfully big heart to raise your spirits.

“You’re right, big guy. It’s honestly a relief. One less thing I have to worry about.”

Wrecker lets go of you and you pick up where you left off. “As I was saying, Cad Bane isn’t a bounty hunter we can take lightly. Crosshair helped me re-engineer my blaster to turn it into a pseudo sniper with attachable parts during the war. Because I was so high up, I could get a clear shot of Bane. From that vantage point, I shot him at the same time Hunter and Bane shot each other.”

Echo’s mouth drops open. “Damn.”

“What I didn’t expect was for Hunter to be rendered completely unconscious. So I told Omega to try to comm you guys while I went on Bane’s ship to see if I could find anything. And I did.” You pull off your backpack and dump out the contents. Bags of credits come tumbling out. You unhook the few bags on your belt and toss them into the pile.

“Bane had a secret compartment with a lot of credits. So I took them and that crate I yelled at Tech to get,” you explain as you reach into the bag to show off the Imperial credits.

Tech’s eyes widen as he lifts up a bag to inspect it. “I will have to calculate how much you took and mark it in the inventory, but based on my initial deduction, this may be enough for us to upgrade the Marauder and provide sustenance for at least a few months.”

“Nice one!” Wrecker compliments and you grin in response. “What’s in the crate?” he asks, walking over to lift up the top.

“Medical supplies. We barely had any left so I figured I might as well take that too,” you shrug as Hunter gets up to join Wrecker to peer at the contents.

“What happened after that? You said you told Omega to comm the others, which means she was awake. Did she get hurt while I was out? Is that why you look so exhausted?” Hunter inquires, astute as ever.

You bite your lower lip. “When I was getting off his ship with the goods, he had woken up again. Before I could do anything, he stunned Omega and then immediately shot at me,” you pause, wondering if you should elaborate on how you got out of the situation. You decide to come clean on this part.

“I… I don’t know how, but I was able to stop the blaster bolts and keep them – and Bane – in stasis with the Force. The problem was that it took a lot out of me. After not really using the Force for so long, my energy reserves were pretty much gone,” you sigh, absentmindedly rubbing your arms. Your muscles are still sore from the event.

“After that, I punched him and knocked him out again. I dragged you and Omega away from the ship so that I could protect you, and I ended up using that giant piece of durasteel as cover to fight off those clones. Then you guys came and rescued us and that’s that,” you finish, suddenly fatigued from the conversation. You slump back into your chair, perfect posture be damned.

“Wow,” is all Echo says, surprised by your strength. It took some serious stamina to be able to withstand so much for so long. Echo remembered seeing Commander Tano and General Skywalker be exhausted after some especially intense missions where they constantly had to use the Force.

“Yeah,” you mutter, massaging your dominant hand. It is still throbbing from the mean hook you threw at Bane. You don’t have any regrets. You glance at Omega’s sleeping figure and soften. The things I would do for this girl.

“Looks like I taught you well!” Wrecker laughs and you smile. When you first met the Bad Batch, Wrecker took it upon himself to teach you basic self-defense and how to overtake an opponent intelligently. Even though you already learned how to fight as part of your Jedi and military training, you couldn’t say no to him when he looked so excited. But it paid off because he’s right. Wrecker did teach you well.

“You did. You basically saved my ass out there with your amazing teaching skills,” you chuckle, glancing down at your hand. You think you’ll probably have to cover it in bacta gel to speed up the healing process before having yet another realization. (You seem to be having a lot of those today.)

I can just Force-heal. Before, you couldn’t Force-heal because it would look suspicious if something healed too fast. But now that they know, you don’t have to solely depend on medical supplies anymore.

Tech, as always, is right on cue. “Is your hand alright? For you to render Bane unconscious must have been no easy feat. Not to mention that according to the medscan I just took, you have a mild concussion, most likely due to your fall. I can run a medical diagnostic test to start and then run more specific tests to combat your pain...” Tech mutters the last part to himself, brain running light years faster than his mouth as his fingers fly over the datapad.

You debate it for a moment before nodding. “That would be great, Tech–thanks. But right now, I’m exhausted, so I’m going to go and crash in my bunk. Wake me up if I need to punch someone again,” you joke before shuffling away from your squadmates. You ruffle Omega’s hair affectionately as you pass by her and pick up your blaster from the ground before climbing down the ladder. You don’t notice Hunter’s troubled gaze or how his Force signature sours a bit as you leave.

You quickly clean up and throw on some bacta patches on a few nasty bruises. You sit down on your bed and pull the privacy curtain before deciding to open up your secret compartment next to your mattress. You stare down at the objects, the only things you have left as a reminder of the past. You reach down for one of them, about to touch it when you stop.

You shake your head and shut the drawer. Deciding to finally, finally hit the hay, you’re out like a light as soon as your head hits the pillow. Dealing with the Force and healing yourself could be done later. Not even your constant pain and crippling worry about your family friends could keep you up any longer.

please consider reblogging! it really helps me and is super encouraging ^_^

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#Yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #yami yugi #S5 #Ep20 #It's actually Ep 20 now I was wrong last time #Yugi muto #Grandpa Muto #Alexander the Great #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #TeaxYugi #never thought I would ever use that tag #in this show where they are canonically dating but sometimes it happens #Puzzles and Dragons #Because yes I had to talk about it. This collab is great

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years

Text

Headcanons for being Tony Stark’s son (Part 1)

Tony Stark x son!reader

warnings:

a/n: me and noah are abt to blow ur minds lmfaooo -> takes place around the same timeline as the daughter!reader ones aka y/n was born in 2000

prompt: i had to

part 2

the world was raving over this billionaire playboy’s newest title: father

and boy, did the headlines get interesting

among your favorite magazine covers, your all-time favorite was

Tony Stark: World’s Most Eligible DILF

^accompanied with a picture of your dad holding you

(tony stark’s superpower is being a dilf, it’s just a fact ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

“look at us, kid. that’s me and you! wow! you make me look magnificent”

*babbling*

you were so...boring to him

like tony watching you was wonderful, he absolutely adored having a kid to take care of...but babies don’t do much of anything

rhodey came to see you every chance he got

“rhodey! what’s going on?”

“i’m not here for you, i’m here for the baby”

ouch....

rhodey was a fuckin awesome uncle

one of the only level-headed people you could call family

back to dad:

“hey, little guy, what’s up? any baby-things you wanna do today? anything on your mind?”

he really wanted you to speak to him

your first word was “duck”

he’s pretty sure you meant “fuck”

“love this kid!”

who wouldn’t?

“let’s play ‘superman’” he runs flies you around the house

he talks abt single dad things to get women to swoon over him

tony always has baby food stains and spit up all over himself

YOURE SPOILED

he has a separate garage for those tiny drivable cars that kids can vroom in, you know what im talking about

“god, you’re gonna be so cool when you grow up”

tony stark is a rough-and-tough dad

loves to get wild when it’s playtime

“y/n, catch!” *ball hits you in the face* “alright, not an athlete, that’s okay”

“i’m good!”

tinkering in the workshop with dear ol’ dad

“alright, sport, what’s your million-dollar idea?”

“a car that’s powered by water”

“i knew i shouldnt have let you watch that 70s show”

you actually did become a handful growing up

if tony didn’t want to Dad(tm) for a few hours, he’d make happy take you to chuck e. cheese

“buy the kid as many tokens as he wants, it doesn’t matter”

tony would either take a long, much needed nap or work until he crashed

one time he heard you blasting black sabbath in your room and opened the door to see you playing air guitar and he shut the door and cried

so proud

you wanted to go to school but you were a budding genius so he wanted to teach you himself

this would be around the time that tony went missing

which was traumatic for you and it didn’t seem like anybody cared

pepper was your godmother so she had to take care of you while he was away, but she was super busy and emotional about the whole thing

happy and pepper honestly acted like divorced parents shuttling their child back and forth

“it’s your day, happy! pick him up, i have to go to work!”

but eventually, tony found his way back to you and you cried really hard and there were snot bubbles and he tried to lighten the mood with jokes and he was like

“hey, i brought you some sand from my vacation!”

sir,,,, please

this mf started making a suit of armor and you didn’t think a thing of it

“can i help? can i help? can i help?”

lab assistant y/n reporting for duty

“sure, junior. grab me that screwdriver”

“flat or philips?”

“lets try flat, i gotta wedge this thing apart the old fashioned way”

you were learning so much

and he was really supportive of any idea you pitched

“we can give that a try, no problem!”

you hacked into the avengers initiative files bc you were curious about what agent coulson had to say

“dad, you would be such a cool superhero!”

“are you saying i’m not a superhero already? hellooo, single dad?”

“you’re not single! you have pepper!”

“dammit, you’re right i cant use that line anymore”

you started to DREAM of becoming an avenger

you thought you’d be able to get an in if your dad committed to it

“my dad’s an avenger” -you to everyone when youre trying to threaten them

“so, mr. fury, when can i become an avenger?”

“how old are you?”

“i’ll be 13 real soon”

“ask your dad”

honestly tony liked the idea of a father/son superhero team

but in practice?

“hey, y/n, sorry if i don’t tell you this enough, but i love you”

“love you too, dad”

the avengers seemed to enjoy your company

you still radiated stark energy, so that really hurt your likable-ness

“c-can i get your autograph?” -you to captain america

“not you too!” -tony

“shhh, dad, i’m talking to a celebrity”

tony is majorly offended

soon the avengers were your family, which was odd to get used to

lots happens in your life, that was for sure

every time you turned on the news it was something about an avenger

“dad...cnn says steve is a fugitive”

“sucks to be him” *eats toast*

tony makes u breakfast special :)

“want a pop tart?”

“sure...yeah, nat’s a fugitive too, it seems”

“she’ll be fine”

avengers tower was pretty cool, you and thor played ping pong together when you were there

“thor, if you use mjölnir as a paddle again you’re gonna kill me with a ping pong ball!”

you hung out at the malibu house a whole lot

theres a framed picture of the “Tony Stark: DILF” magazine cover on your wall

your friends were other rich kids

“y/n, you know all your friends are douchebags, right?”

“i am well aware”

you threw parties at said malibu house when tony and pepper were gone

“sir, there’s a disturbance at your home”

“which one, JARVIS?”

“malibu”

“shit, y/n’s there! what’s wrong?”

“see for yourself” *pulls up cameras*

“are you kidding me, JARVIS? you think i care if y/n’s trashing the house? you had me thinking he was being attacked or held hostage or something, jesus”

you programmed “the panic protocol” into JARVIS’s system without tony knowing, which can sense when tony has anxiety/panic attacks and figure out how to calm him

JARVIS sends you a notification if you aren’t in immediately vicinity, then he troubleshoots to find the best solution for tony until you can help

either music, counting, breathing reminders, water reminders, etc

“dad, everything alright?”

“im good, son! real good!”

eventually you found a good excuse for getting a suit

“dad, i think terrorist attacks warrant a need for armor...for my protection!”

“fine, we’ll develop a suit for you”

“no need! i already engineered one while you were busy, it’s downstairs”

“impressive. you’re grounded”

“nooo! unground me please!”

“fine, ungrounded”

youre one foot in the door becoming an avenger

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @lokihiddles // @frostedgiant // @emygirl // @lotsoffandomrecs // @johnmurphyisbisexual // @teenwaywardasgardian // @pappydaddy // @captainshazamerica // @freya-xo // @ravenmoore14 // @purpleskiesstorm //

#tony stark #tony stark x child!reader #tony stark x son!reader #tony stark imagine #stark!reader #stark!son #iron dad #dad!tony #iron man x son!reader #iron man #iron man x reader #iron man x male reader #iron man imagine #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #avengers #avengers x reader #avengers imagine

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up-sideand-down · 3 years

Text

Holding Tight

This fic is for @thethrillof who donated to Stop AAPI Hate and requested a fic where Barret raises Sephiroth.

I messed with some timelines to age Seph down. I hope you like the fic!

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Barret wouldn’t have done anything if that shadow hadn’t looked so small. He had plenty to worry about without adding someone else to the mix. He had Marlene to think about., his prosthetic he fought Sakaki for months still ached and stung, and they still had no home. He blamed Myrna for going over. It had been a year since…he still talked to her from time to time. They had wanted kids, piles of them. Myrna wasn’t one to turn any of the Corel kids away. She’d be ashamed of him if she saw him ignore this one. All alone.

They were in Costa Del Sol, waiting a passenger ship Barret could bribe his way on. Barret presented it as “camping on the beach” to Marlene and she loved it. Sitting by one of the campfires for tourists and sleeping under the stars with her Daddy. It was all just an adventure for her. Barret would let her dream it really was like that.

Just a few feet over, was a small black figure sitting all by itself. It didn’t even have the luxury of food Barret had saved up and brought here and there for them. He had just finished cooking up the last of it, and besides shifting a bit…that shadow stayed there and showed no signs of moving.

But it couldn’t have been an adult…it was just too damn small. Barret stood up setting Marlene on his shoulders as they walked along the beach. She set her head on top of his, her arms drifting to almost his shoulders.

It was a kid, dressed all in black, trying hard to hide his face in the blanket he was wrapped up in. There was a stick next to him. He didn’t look okay. Myrna would scream at him if he kept walking.

So he approached.

“Hey,” he said softly. Strange green eyes looked up at his. He couldn’t read them…but he didn’t think they were dangerous.

“Mind if we sit with you for a bit?” he asked. Everything felt still for a moment. Then a small nod let a blonde looking lock of hair slide out of the makeshift hood. Barret sat on the stump next to the kid. He had to be ten…maybe eleven or twelve. Too young to be out on his own unless he had no choice. Barret wasn’t good at being subtle, so he just went for it.

“You waiting on anyone?” he asked. The kid’s eyes flitted to his shoes then back to the fire. He shook his head.

“Anyone waiting on you?” he asked. The kid didn’t move. Definitely a yes…but this kid didn’t look like he wanted to go back any time soon.

“Had anything to eat?” Those eyes went to Barret’s shoes again, maybe a little higher. He was looking hard at his clothes. He hoped they said the truth. He and Marlene were out on their own too.

“Running away too?” he asked a bit more softly. Those eyes met his…but they seemed softer. He was breaking down.

“Come on,” Barret said, standing up, “You gotta be starvin’.” There was that brief hesitation, but the kid stood up, picking up his stick. He stood a little back from the fire, watching Barret split his own portion of dinner into two (because he would never take from Marlene. He could be a little hungry for tonight). Barret offered the bowl. There was less hesitation then. The kid sat down, eating small bites at first. Then they rose up until the kid finished his whole bowl. Barret offered what was left in his. The kid shook his head.

“It's yours,” the kid said, his voice cracking a little.

“You’re still hungry,” Barret said, “I’m good.” The kid took it. Marlene shifted closer to Barret, more worried about the kid being a stranger than anything. Barret rustled her hair.

“Where you running to?” Barret asked. The kid paused eating, his face closed off again.

“You gotta home?” Barret tried again.

“I can’t go back,” the boy said, his voice had a harder edge to it.

“Why not?” Barret said. The boy didn’t respond.

“Is it like me and Marlene?” he asked, “we don’t have a home to go back to. It’s gone.”

“If I go back,” the boy said, his voice barely a whisper, “I’ll be lucky if they just kill me.”

“What?” Barret said, “who?” The kid stared into the fire.

“Sh-ShinRa,” he said. That was all Barret needed to hear. He looked at the kid more. He saw a lot more than just a kid. The blanket hood had shifted enough for him to see a military grade uniform. Boots, trousers, and turtle neck. Some lumps that were probably armor. Gloves. He hadn’t seen the kid in the dark, he kept close to the fire. But he’d bet those green eyes would glow. And he wasn’t carrying a just a stick.

“You’re a Soldier,” Barret said, “one of them…mako boys, right?” He’d seen the posters and the demonstrations on ShinRa’s propaganda channels.

The boy didn’t move. Good fucking gods. ShinRa was using kids to fight their wars now? Sending babies off to fight with a mako bath, smattering a armor, and a sword?

Like hell they were. Like hell they’d send this one.

“Well you can’t go back then,” Barret said. The boy blinked.

“I—“ he started…then faltered.

“I’m Barret,” he said holding out his hand, “Barret Wallace.” The boy took it, tentatively.

“Sephiroth,” he said softly. That was a mouthful.

“Well Sephiroth,” Barret said, “Marlene and I got a deep grudge against ShinRa. They’re the reason we ain’t got a home no more. Sounds like you got a grudge too.” He nodded a little.

“Then we should stick together,” Barret said. He put a heavy hand on the Sephiroth’s shoulder. He looked up, eyes glowing just a bit now with mako…or maybe something else. He nodded.

Barret woke up to quiet gasping and groaning. He looked over to Marlene first on the inn couch. She was still sound asleep. Then he looked to the other bed. Glowing green shone through squinting eyelids. Sephiroth was curled into a ball.

Third night in a row. Barret had seen mako withdrawal before, mostly after mako poisoning. Never seen it for a Soldier who was given the stuff on purpose.

Sephiroth had sworn the first two nights that he would be fine in a few days. He was burning off the excess from the shower he’d had shortly before he ran.

Barret didn’t doubt him…but he was done waiting and watching. He got up. He ran a towel under the faucet in the bathroom. The water was cool. He wrung it out once.

Sephiroth pulled away when Barret sat on his bet.

“No…” Sephiroth gasped, “don’t.”

“It’s okay Sephiroth,” Barret said, wiping the sweat off Sephiroth’s face. Sephiroth opened his eyes more. They burned bright tonight.

“It’s okay,” Barret said softly. Sephiroth panted and shivered at the same time, but his face was burning up. Sephiroth’s hands were fisted in his sheets. Barret just turned the towel over to the cooler side and started dabbing against the other side of Sephiroth’s face. Sephiroth grunted as another wave hit him. Barret pretended not to notice the drops of water coming from the sides of Sephiroth’s eyes.

Barret shook out the towel again, trying to cool it off a bit, before folding it up and placing it on Sephiroth’s brow. A bit tricky to do one handed, but he did it.

Trying to get Sephiroth’s fingers to let go was like trying to bend steel. Eventually his hold gave. Barret grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Gently, those steel fingers squeezed back. Sephiroth’s breathing evened out slowly.

“What did they do to you, kid?” Barret asked when he thought Sephiroth was asleep.

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It took two weeks for Sephiroth to talk. He spoke only about the present and tried very hard to not talk about himself.

“I’m fine,” was the most complete sentence Barret heard…but he stuck to Barret like glue. That said a lot more than anything Sephiroth probably felt safe saying. Barret fought really hard to not ask questions and tried to even harder to get Marlene to not ask questions. But she wasn’t thinking of Sephiroth as a stranger anymore…so the questions would be coming.

They had seen Soldiers, other older Soldiers, across the street in Junon. Sephiroth damn near had a panic attack trying to get off the street.

“Breathe, Sephiroth,” Barret told him, “they didn’t even see us.” Marlene came forward and put her little hands on top of Sephiroth’s. He looked at her and gave a the smallest of smiles. She smiled back and stepped back. Sephiroth closed his eyes, guilt making him bow his head.

“I was the first,” he said softly.

“The first?” Barret said. He looked around under the barren dock Sephiroth had run to. No one here. Not even the tide.

“Soldier,” he said, “I was the first one.” He turned away from them.

“I was supposed to be the best and the brightest,” he said, “I had been…designed that way.” His silver hair cut off his face. Cut him off from seeing them.

“I’ve been training to lead the others almost since I was born. I don’t know anything else. And if they find me…they’ll probably hurt you and Marlene too. Because I’m dangerous. I’ve killed people.” His voice cracked at the end of his speech. Barret recognized Sephiroth was trying to push them away…but like hell he’d let this kid.

Not after two weeks.

It wasn’t as if Barret had suspected this from the start.

“So why’d you leave?” Barret said. Sephiroth angled his head a little. A green eye peeked out. Met Barret’s brown ones.

“I…” Sephiroth swallowed, “They…”

“Did you want to?” Barret said, “did you want to stay?”

“No,” Sephiroth said.

“Why?” Barret asked.

“I…I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” Sephiroth said, “I didn’t realize…I didn’t think…It wasn’t until…”

“They made you,” Barret said, “And lied to you.” Sephiroth nodded once. Sephiroth flinched when Barret put his hand, still heavy, on his shoulder.

“I promise Sephiroth,” Barret said, “I’ll never make you harm another person. I’ll never do that to you.” Sephiroth looked up.

“I won’t let it happen to you again,” Barret swore.

Suddenly, Sephiroth had buried his head in Barret’s chest, his hands fisted in Barret’s vest. Barret softly wrapped both arms, whole and prosthetic, around the boy. He felt so small. Sephiroth’s shoulders shook, but he didn’t make a sound. Marlene wrapped her arms around Sephrioth’s leg.

Barret rubbed his back.

“You’re a good kid.”

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In under a month, Marlene had adopted Sephiroth. He struggled to tell Marlene no. Even to hard questions. It helped that Marlene…just never judged, never criticized. She had a pure curiosity. Barret encouraged it in her.

“Why’s your hair silver?” Marlene asked.

“I don’t know,” Sephiroth said, “It’s always been like that. I guess…maybe one of my parents had hair like mine. Or it turned that color.”

“You’re not old though,” Marlene said.

“No,” Sephiroth said. Marlene accepted that.

“Why do your eyes glow?” Marlene asked.

“I have some mako inside me,” Sephiroth told her.

“Why?” she asked.

“People put it in me to make me strong…so now my eyes glow,” Sephiroth said.

“Could my eyes glow?” Marlene asked, “it’s pretty.”

“I don’t want them to,” Sephiroth told her, “I think yours are prettier.” She had smiled at that and dropped it.

The one that Barret would always cherish and remember was when Marlene saw the stick Sephiroth always carried was really a sword.

“Are you…a hero?” Marlene asked, her eyes bright.

“I…I don’t know what that means,” Sephiroth confessed.

“It means you’ll help people,” she said, “save them.”

“Oh…” Sephiroth was quiet, “I don’t know. I think…I’d like to be.”

“Then you’re my hero,” Marlene said.

“What does that mean?” Sephiroth asked.

“You and Poppa are my family,” she told him, “He’s my Poppa. You’re my hero!” Barret knew it wasn’t the word she really meant, but Sephiroth wore his new title with pride.

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They reached Midgar after almost 18 months together. Sephiroth rarely initiated contact with Marlene or Barret, but he had stopped pulling away.

He even smiled.

His paranoia persisted. After the things Barret heard the poor kid went through…he didn’t blame him a bit. He helped Sephiroth blend in. Dyed his hair brown. Got him a matching pair of sunglasses. Sephiroth admitted he had been to Midgar before…but just ShinRa tower. Top Plate. They stuck to the slums. It took a while before Barret found them a place. They huddled in an old factory before he got the money together. Both kids lit up when they walked into the old bar for the first time.

For Marlene because it was this was the biggest house she and Barret had ever had.

For Sephiroth…because it was home.

“Home?” he said, his voice breaking again. It was happening less and less.

“Home,” Barret said. He let Sephiroth scrub at his face and didn’t say anything. Sephiroth leaned against him as they walked through.

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Barret heard of Avalanche after he finished teaching Sephiroth how to sew and how to cook without setting things on fire. He still hadn’t put out that fire in his heart though. ShinRa had to go down. The planet…the planet needed to be saved. For Marlene’s sake…for Sephiroth’s future.

He didn’t fit in, even there. He was too radical and not radical enough.

The breaking point shocked him.

On of the heads saw Sephiroth, recognized what his eyes meant.

“We could use his raw power,” he said, “Soldier fighter like that. If we get one…I heard a bunch defected a few years ago-” He never finished his thought. Barret shoved him against a wall.

“Don’t you ever, ever, think about using that boy as a fighter again,” Barret said. He left Avalanche without planning to come back. Nor was he welcome.

Instead he made his own.

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Five years after meeting on a beach on another world, Sephiroth called Barret "Poppa" for the first time. Barret didn’t reject it, just squeezed Sephiroth’s shoulder.

By then Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse had followed. They knew better than to recruit Sephiroth for Avalanche. The neighborhood watch was fine, but anything bigger was out of the question. Barret made that clear and Sephiroth seemed content with that.

But then came Tifa Lockhart. Her heart was in the right place and she fit in with the others. But when she saw Sephiroth…his eyes.

She nearly ran.

Barret hadn’t seen that shame in Sephiroth’s face in years. He went after Tifa. He pulled her story out like he’d pulled Sephiroth's.

Two Soldiers had burned down her hometown…killed everyone there 5 years ago. She was the only survivor she knew of.

“But not him,” Barret told her, “I swear to you…he’s just a kid. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“But I heard Biggs…those Gashtrikes in the-“

“That was different,” Barret told her, “that was protecting. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.” He coaxed her back into the bar.

Sephiroth was sitting with Marlene on the ground, helping her do one of her doll's hair. He was trying so hard not to look at Tifa.

But Tifa stayed.

Within a week she and Sephiroth took turns manning the bar.

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He knew he needed more manpower for that bombing mission. He knew the odds were stacked so high against them…they needed muscle. Like a Soldier.

He refused to do it.

So Sephiroth did it for him.

“I can go with you,” Sephiroth said, “I am a Soldier. I can fight. I want to help you.”

“No,” Barret said, “Absolutely not.”

“But…Poppa,” Sephiroth said.

“No buts,” Barret said.

“Why?” Sephiroth asked. The bad news with kids was that they picked up all your dirty tricks. Barret smiled and sighed.

“Because I made you a promise,” he said, “a promise I will keep until the day I die. I promised I wouldn’t make you hurt another person. And I won’t. This mission…you might have to.”

“I’d do it…for the planet I would,” Sephiroth said.

“That’s my fight,” Barret said. He poked a finger into Sephiroth’s chest. “You have a different one.”

“What’s that?” Sephiroth scoffed.

“Be a hero,” Barret said. Sephiroth blinked.

“Look…I can’t think of another way to save the planet…but I might hurt some innocent people,” Barret said, “but you…you won’t. You can help. That’s why you can’t go. I need you…to help.” Sephiroth nodded.

“We’ll find someone else,” Barret said, “take that weight off your shoulders. It’s my burden.”

“You carry too much,” Sephiroth said. He was damn near a grown man. How the hell would Barret survive when Marlene reached this age?

“I carry just enough,” he said, “but you remember what I say.”

“I will,” Sephiroth said. Sephiroth squeezed Barret’s shoulder before walking off to his shift on the watch.

#fic #gift #thethrillof #thank you so much for your donation #barret wallace #sephiroth #marlene wallace #ff7 #au

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tiecladartist · 3 years

Text

Okay, spoilers beneath the cut because I have some issues with Rise of the Titans.

Tales of Arcadia is one of my favorite series ever. It handled the "Kid is the chosen one" situation brilliantly, every character had depth (even characters like Steve, Eli, the teachers, etc). Theme was expertly handled with each part of the series. Destiny, heroism and sacrifice for Trollhunters; Family, duty and home for 3-Below; Legacy, prejudice and family (again) for Wizards. Every season brought me to tears, made me laugh, made me fear for the safety of the characters and want good things for them after watching them sacrifice over and over again. It is a comfort show for me and always will be.

Now, the movie...

So, I don't think it was bad. I also don't think it was good, unfortunately. The animation took a bit of getting used to after bingeing everything else leading up to this, but I can't deny it was incredibly beautiful. It was especially nice to see places other than Arcadia and Akiridion-5. It started off strong with the train fight, and admittedly there were a lot of scenes I quite liked during the movie. But, just the scenes. I liked moments, but overall it didn't come together quite as well as the shows did.

The biggest factor is likely time. I doubt making this a movie was the initial plan since I know production companies enjoy snubbing out strong series for various reasons. Honestly, I was surprised we got an "ending" at all based on the trends of recent shows being forced to wrap things up prematurely. Even Wizards felt rushed compared to the others and as a result a lot of interesting concepts were brushed over quickly. I mean, I for one would've loved to see more Camelot "filler" shenanigans since those less plot-heavy episodes that we had throughout Trollhunters and 3-Below helped us explore the characters and grow to love them, and we didn't get quite as much of that with Douxie, Archie, Lancelot, Charlemagne, etc. But I digress, this post is supposed to be about the movie, not Wizards.

So yeah, I think Rise of the Titans should've been a show rather than a movie. We could have more time before Nari is captured, focusing on the "where are they now" of all the characters after the year we skipped. Jim gets to cook and eat human food after losing that passion when becoming a troll, adjusting to being human again! Maybe him and Toby talk about Barbara and Stickler being together and how it's kinda weird (Toby could compare it to having conflicting feelings over his Nana dating an alien). Krel and Aja have a call about how it is being the Queen and Steve interrupts because he misses Aja. Perhaps we hear Eli in the background doing something related to the "Secret weapon" and the call gets cut off quickly because this leads to a small disaster on Aja's end that she needs to go fix. Claire is practicing her magic with the help of Zoe while Douxie is off with Nari. NARI AND DOUXIE INTERACT WITH EACHOTHER AND WE ACTUALLY GET TO SEE IT! (Like, I know that they were travelling together for a year and that that is why Douxie is sad when Nari dies, but it didn't impact at all outside of empathy because there was no emotional investment on my end towards their friendship). But yeah, we get to see what's going on with everyone, and then perhaps this first episode ends with the reveal of them being ready for a plan of sorts (luring the arcane order and cutting off their magic. That wouldn't be revealed though). Cut to the Arcane Order in their super secret clubhouse saying they're close to finding Nari and you get a decent cliffhanger.

Episode 2 would start with the train fight and go fairly the same way. We see Jim struggling with fighting with no armor. Or perhaps he has akiridion armor, but it's too rigid or keeps malfunctioning (doesn't fit, so to speak). Only difference is that Jim's arc wouldn't be about whether or not he's still the trollhunter, because we've been through that already and he knows. I could get having moments of doubt, but his full on denial was kinda out of place after everything he went through. Instead, it could be that he feels useless due to now being a burden in a fight. Or perhaps instead he's wrestling with guilt. He's blaming himself since the arcane order got the seals due to them trying to rescue him. Maybe both? Maybe he even misses his troll body and feels that he's too weak now. Yes, he's still the trollhunter, amulet or not, but he's feeling less and less capable of answering this particular call, and that bothers him. He doesn't want to be a burden after all. Fight ends with the train crash, arrest, Douxie swapping with Nari, all the same.

Now, this is where things would go very very differently. Have more time before Douxie and Nari switch back. Let the Arcane order monologue a little more. They want to reset the world because the balance has been shifted? Cool! Tell me more! Did they used to try to get along with the humans? Did they try diplomacy in the past only to fail due to the stubborn humans, and that's why they've decided to take drastic measures? Or if not, explore why they believe they're the ones allowed to decide the balance is off. Is it because they're powerful? Or how long they've been on Earth? Did they reset it in the past and thus know through experience? I don't mind not knowing, since not everything needs to be spelled out for the audience, but there was potential to make them characters rather than obstacles, and it wasn't really utilized to its full potential. Allow Douxie to pick their brains a little instead of immediately swapping him and Nari back and only succeeding in delaying things a few more hours. Hell, if it was a TV show I honestly would've had one or two episodes before doing that while we address how that initial failure (and the fact that magical creatures/aliens were revealed to the world) affected everyone.

Maybe I'll go through and like, actually plot out episodes and stuff, but since I only just finished watching, here's just some various things I'd change:

-Get rid of that whole Steve pregnancy. That was just out of place and rather than the "comedy" breaking the tension, it shattered it completely and distracted from everything. If you wanna explore his father-based character arc, maybe have him and Aja discussing the fact that now that she's queen, she'll need heirs. And maybe Steve isn't sure he could be a good dad due to his history with paternal figures. You could even have it that he's taking care of Nari while her and Douxie are switched, and that leads to a situation where he helps her out and realizes he may be a better dad than expected. Or perhaps Blinky gives him paternal advice. Or Strickler. Or even BARBARA AND JIM like, Steve couldn't be worse than Jim's dad, and letting Steve and Jim bond over that would be nice. There was so much potential, but instead, Steve was reduced to an out of place running gag instead of getting a resolution to his character arc. And hey, if you wanna keep the whole male akiridions give birth thing that's cool, but it's gotta be done in moments where it won't distract. Or, you could even have it be that it means Aja and Steve need to adopt because uh... she's inorganic and he's organic? His body likely isn't actually built for akiridion childbirth despite the movie glossing over this fact? And maybe Steve has mixed feelings about someone else being the dad of his kids, but Coach and him talk about how Coach isn't his biological dad, but that doesn't mean he loves Steve any less.

-GIVE DOUXIE MORE SCREEN TIME! Seriously, had this been a show he would have the most potential for character growth out of everyone. His series was the shortest, so really all he got was a confidence boost and moving past needing Merlin's approval. But there was so much to explore with him still. What was up with that extreme burst of magic after Merlin's death that was never brought up again? How has he been mentally handling singlehandedly guarding Nari against the Arcane order for a year? Once he and Nari switch back, does he feel guilt over not being able to protect her? "Merlin wouldn't have failed like that. He kept her safe for thousands of years, I lasted a little over one". Perhaps, in his constant desire to prove himself to the people he cares about, he takes risky moves to try and save Nari again and make up for his mistakes, similar to how Jim was acting in the movie. Eventually, when he and Nari meet up again when trying to break her controlled state, Douxie is apologizing and talking about how he wants to make things right. He sees Nari as a friend; as family, just as much as Archie, and he doesn't want to lose her like he lost Merlin. He doesn't want to lose anyone else (which would make Archie getting stuck in the other Trollmarket, and Nari's sacrifice even more painful later on if that still happened).

-Krel, Eli and Stewart also needed more time. I get it was a movie, so time was short, but still. Krel's entire thing is that he grew to see Earth as his true home, and we didn't get to address the fact that he was immediately at risk of losing it at all. Not to mention the sheer amount of stuff he'd built for everyone. Like, could you imagine an episode where, to break up the tension (in a proper way, not a weird pregnancy way), in the midst of everyone trying to figure out how to stop the titans, Krel has overworked himself fixing and managing everyone's tech. He has to spend a day resting and disasters ensue as no one knows how to fix any of the stuff he usually manages. Like the tech keeping Camelot afloat, for example. Stewart and Eli could be the ones that end up stepping up to fill the Krel sized gap for the day.

-And I know that these fillers would lower the tension a bit, but like, having the titans need to charge up after awakening (like, absorbing elemental energy or something), or perhaps making the Arcane Order have to collect certain things to break the seals in the first place that they had on their fortress but lost when that was destroyed , or any other kinda obstacle to give time between the train fight and the Titans waking up would give time for less plot-heavy, more character focused episodes. And even after the titans wake up, they were moving super slowly and walking across the planet. It's not like they'd be short on time despite the movie making it seem like walking from china to america was a short jog at most.

-Don't give Toby the amulet. Don't get me wrong, I love Toby very much and literally bawled out loud at his sacrifice scene. But like, it made no sense to give him the amulet? Jim doing everything again with years of Trollhunter experience would help solve a lot of problems from his first go around (and I'm not fully on board with the whole time reset in the first place. Resetting to the start of the movie, or even just the fight with Bellroc would be better). Jim knows the burdens of being a trollhunter first hand, and you really think he'd be okay dumping all that on Tobes? Toby, the guy completely content with being the wingman and helping the people he cares about. Toby, the guy who never worried about not having a grand destiny up until the movie. The guy who in his biggest dreams was a Duke, not a king. I think Toby was well aware of how important moral support is and wouldn't see it as a lame superpower. But even if he did, in a tv show they could explore that in a way where he comes to learn just how much that moral support does for his friends. And if you still want his moment of glorious sacrifice (because I count that as one of the well done moments), then do that! But rather than going back in time to save everyone, make it so they sacrifice the stone to turn back time a bit. Risk their victory to try saving Toby. Have them fight Bellroc together instead of it being just Jim, because it's trollhunters, not trollhunter. It always has been, always will.

-And if you're like "But if they don't go back then Strickler and Nomura stay dead!" Then how about they don't kill them for shock factor in the first place? Have Strickler badly injured instead, because by god Barbara deserves some happiness. And think of the potential scene of her treating his wounds, and the two of them think about how things have changed since that visit to trollmarket when they were both hurt. About how Strickler stuck around, and when Barbara thought she'd lost him it scared her. How she's sick of almost losing everyone she cares about. She could talk a bit about Jim's dad then too, and it could be revealed that Jim was outside because he was going to check on them, but stopped when he realized they were talking. And then later on, he asks about his dad, admitting he overheard, and we get that conversation they had in the movie. And if you keep the Nomura sacrifice, give her more of a moment ffs. Like, she deserved better! Have the death be a sacrifice to save someone else instead of just "oops I got caught and I'm in the sun now". Make it deliberate. Make it her decision after a life of serving others. Finally, she got to be the one in control of her fate, and she chose to protect the people she cared about.

There's so much more I could say about this and the potential that was killed by the lack of time, but this is getting long and I should probably try actually doing the work I need to do today.

Edit (Because this just popped in my head and I need to add it).

THEY WERE LITERALLY AROUND THE ROUND TABLE! THE NINTH CONFIGURATION (which like, screw that there are more than 9 heroes here to save the day) WERE THE NEW KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. They were there to protect the world, and like... did the bond between Lancelot and Steve just not exist anymore? Did that get timeline erased too? Could you imagine Steve fighting to protect the world, doing his best to protect the people he cared about so that he never loses someone like he lost Lance again? He gets to keep his promise to carry on the legacy of the Knights even after they died. THE POTENTIAL WAS THERE!!! THE SET UP WAS THERE!!! BUT NO! WE GET MPREG STEVE INSTEAD!!

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3-below #wizards #toa #toa trollhunters #toa 3below #toa wizards #rise of the titans #toa rise of the titans #rise of the titans spoilers

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give-grian-rights · 3 years

Text

Bets Against The Void c5

@petrichormeraki bet you forgot I even had this fic ! Thank you again for the gift that is Whitelist AU, which feels like a lifetime ago (For Tommy it was !)

Chapter 1 Here

Last Chapter Here

Next Chapter Here

and AO3 Crossposted!

Ask to tag and give me a headsup on any typos ! c!Tubbo in my interpretation is they/them and blind.

The Hobbit Hole was more than Tommy expected. Birch-and-spruce windows poked out throughout the hillside, a round entrance carefully carved from the wood. Poking his head inside, the blond’s eyes darted across the spruce-built interior skeptically.

“..Thanks.” Tommy halfhartedly grumble, pulling his hand off the entrance. He warily stepped in, his hand resting on the doorway entrance for a moment as he investigated for potential traps.

“You’re..Sure we can just- stay here?” Tubbo asked once more, their head turned back towards the dirty blond stood aside the messy front garden.

“Of course, I swear, I don’t need another place to hoard stuff! Chances are, I’ll only be out here if I finally get around to moving my villagers out of their old setup.” The older brit confirmed once more, his tone light. “Seriously, it’s not a big deal. Promise.”

Hesitantly nodding, Tubbo offered an appreciative smile his way before they turned back towards Tommy. “How’s it looking, then, Big Man?” They hummed, tilting their head.

“Fuckin’ cool as shit-” He glanced around, apprehensively surveying the ground for any traps.

“It needs a bit of cleanin’ up,” Stress chirped, sending a lighthearted glare towards Grian as he stuck out his tongue with a snicker. “We’d all be happy to help.” She finished, with a warm smile.

Tubbo politely nodded. “I think we’ll handle it. Thank you, again.” They ran their hand over the wooden arc in the entrance.

Grian shook his head. “Really, don’t worry about it. Stay here. Get settled. Either of us may be over to check up. Across the lake’s my neighbor, Scar, who you might see. But he shouldn’t come around here.”

With a bit of exasperation, ready to be left alone, Tommy wordlessly nodded as he bounced his leg.

Clearing his throat, Grian nodded. “Alright, then we’ll be out. We’ll see you two soon. Cya, Stress, thanks for the help!” He dipped his head towards the short brunette, who grinned bubbly back.

“See ya! Bye, loves.” Stress cooed, before deploying her glowing skeletal wings and ascending off with a quick poof of smoke.

Instinctively when the item had come to her hand, Tommy had thrown his arms around Tubbo’s ears- an action that didn’t go unnoticed by the sandy brunett man.

Grian simply put his hands up pacifying, as Tubbo was shrunk back curled, shielded away from where the brief poof was. “They’re duds, almost all fireworks here are duds.” He had calmly spoke, his tone soft. “I’ll come back to check up on you guys soon, ‘n make sure you have the supplies you need. You have free reign of that base!” Were his parting words, before he trotted off into the woodland.

Tommy uncurled himself from Tubbo. “You good, Bigman?” The blond tilted his head.

“Yeah,” Tubbo chuckled halfheartedly. “It doesn’t really.. Scare me it just- it startles me? Hearing it? ‘Cause I don’t really have time to prepare myself for the noise..Even if it’s not the same as- the kind from. Then.” Their voice wavered for a moment, before they took a shuttering breath. “Yeah, I’m fine, Man.”

“..Mhm..Alright. Well, this set-up is better than just ‘bout half the shit on’ the SMP.” Tommy diverted the subject, sweeping his foot over the top of the floor, watching the small streak it left beneath a thin coat of dust.

Tubbo tilted their head. “Really? It smells..Very dusty-” They sneezed into their arm, sniffling. “I.. feel like it might need a bit of work, yeah?”

The blond boy shrugged. “Yeah.. We can see ‘bout gettin’ a towel wet or something and wiping all ths shit down?”

Humming in agreement, Tubbo felt around, listening to the words their Comm robotically had been reading off.

“I’ll see ‘bout findin’ shit. They’ve gotta have wool in some of these chests,”

With a bit of digging, the two teens had gotten to work. Not everywhere in the practically abandoned place was dusty or dirty. A small lush crevice was fresh and clean- or, relatively so. Bright feathers had littered the area around it. A path from a window seal, which had been opened, and to said crevice was nearly spotless of debris outside of such molting feathers or a few leaves.

Now without dust on the outside, the two messed with the chests, rummaging through what could be found.

..Which was a lot. Just not in the places they had expected.

Out of the chests they had searched through, they managed to find almost a doublechest full of various stacked enchanted books-

“How..How did he just leave all of this here?” “Well, he has enough he defenitely won’t notice a few gone!”

A totem of undying in a michalanious chest-

“Woah.. WHAT THE SHIT..” “Dude… This is.. A gamechanger”

A golden apple held by an item frame-

“Finders keepers! This counts, its on a chest.” “Sick!”

Bafflingly, a diamond in the food chest-

“What the actual shit. WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT-” “What? W- WHAT? WHY?”

Two enchanted, nearly broken bows with enchants- “Better than nothing, I’ll see about combinin’ them unless you feel like pinnin’ the tail on the donkey.” “..Sounds like a good plan, yah.”

And in the middle of the room, a chest with an enchanted diamond axe-

“..Fuck. Wow- There’s just a wholeass enchanted axe! What the fuck is the point of the itemframes if theres no system here?”

“Whats it enchanted with..?” “..Fortune? What a waste. Uhh, some efficiency, too.”

There wasnt much in the main storage room, but they werent quite willing to push their luck and explore too far. At least not until they got some food and set up some sort of gameplan.

The two teens distributed some of the loot they scavanged, damaged iron armor going to Tommy, a shovel to Tubbo and a spare shovel to Tommy, The totem of undying to Tubbo, and the two diamonds they scavenged turned into a diamond sword for Tubbo as well, with the axe and golden apple going to Tommy.

They turned their focus to food. The two sat beneath the support pillars against the walls, taking the time to eat a handful of watermelon slices.

The wall of chests ahead of them had been broken, exposing the opened window with feathers trailing from it. It was an oddly live scene in the otherwise abandoned wooden hole.

Neither of them quite enjoyed the feeling of being holed in, or the small nature of the wall-home. Nor did either teen mention it.

Tommy explained the varying entrance ways from the mainroom. They had decided on splitting up soon, letting Tubbo find a place to dig out a room for the two of them, with Tommy going off and rummaging through more chests.

Tubbo found a dead-end room beneath a spruce-log room on the second story, and had begun trying to carve it out, as the other teen worked through more and more chests.

The blond eventually worked his way outside and into yard infront of the entrance, rummaging his way through the bits and pieces- the best so far, being another golden apple which he happily held onto.

Half way through his second chest, something caught his attention- or, more like, he caught something’s attention.

A blue, yellow-cheeked bird had fluttered around him, its head quirked curiously as it stared him down. Tommy shrinked.

“What the fuck do you want?” He squinted at the parrot as it lowered itself down onto the top of the open chest, hopping along the edge.

“F⚍ᓵꖌ!” The bird cooed in responded incoherently, chirping at him.

Tommy paused, eyes lighting up in realization. “Oi! You’re the one that flies into the house, huh?”

In response, it turned it’s head away, nodding. “Hobbit!” It shrilled.

As Tommy had opened his mouth to respond, the hobbit himself, Grian, had flown down, sweeping down with a soft thud.

“Sorry! Uh, Professor Beak has a little spot in there. He likes to go n stay there most days, its a lot cozier than the mansion,” The older Brit chuckled apologetically, putting out his hand for the parrot.

The blond boy snorted. “‘Professor Beak?’” He’d raise a brow.

The named bird chirped, stepping onto Grian’s wrist without hesitation. “Professor Ellen Taurtis Beak!” It cooed, its voice mimicking that of Grian himself.

It was… A strange display, to be sure.

Sheepishly, Grian hummed, running his spare hand through the bird’s feathers. “They may try ‘n break back in, they’re a pesky bird like that. I’m sorry for bothering you, though. You two doing good?”

“..Hm,,Yeah, thanks. Are you..Like, fuckin’ aware of all the stuff you’re leavin’?” Tommy eyed the strange man, folding his arms.

Grian merely gave a shrug. “Not really? But that just means they’re nothing important. If they help you both get started, they’re yours.”

Huh. Well, that was easy enough.

“..Right. Cool. Bye.” Tommy watched the man, as he easily nodded, striding off with his bird held by his chest.

The blond let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

“..This place is fucking weird.”

#dsmp x hc #dsmp x hermitcraft #bets against the void #whitelist au #dsmp x hc fic #dsmp x hermitcraft fic #writing #mika writing #mika-posts

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swan-of-sunrise · 3 years

Text

Taking Care of Business (Chapter Eight)

Summary: Din, (Y/N) and their passengers are trapped on a frozen planet and must quickly repair the Razor Crest if they have any hope of surviving.

Pairing: Din Djarin X Reader

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings/Disclaimers: None

A/N: I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Eight The Ship (Previous Chapter)

Jolting awake, Din pushed himself off the ship’s dashboard and groaned; the last thing he remembered before being knocked unconscious was the ship falling through the ice that he’d landed on. He was still disoriented when he glanced down at his armor and noticed the thin layer of frost coating the beskar. He reached up and flipped several switches but before he could determine just how much damage the ship had sustained, a small whimper behind him made him quickly turn around; the Frog woman was curled up on the floor of the cockpit, violently shivering as her arms wrapped around herself to generate warmth. He knelt down and helped her back into her seat as she began to quickly croak at him and gesture towards the cockpit door. Her eggs, he suddenly remembered, they were in the cargo hold when we crashed…

“I’ll find your eggs, don’t worry,” Din promised her. “Gotta get you some blankets, keep you warm…” He hurried out the cockpit doors and jumped down into the cargo hold; there was a gaping hole in the side of the hull, through which snow and freezing-cold air was blowing, and different wires and cables hung limp from the ceiling. Storage containers were strewn across the whole floor, all covered in frost, and he found himself muttering a quiet “Damn it.”

It was then that he remembered the child and his partner, and he hurriedly opened his sleeping compartment only to see the child’s hammock empty. Fear clenched at his heart as he turned back to the cluttered floor. “Kid? (Y/N)?” The Frog woman’s frantic croaking echoed down and Din called up, “Hang on, I’m looking for your eggs!” He carefully began stepping through the mess and, after hearing a small noise, bent down and threw a tarp to the side to reveal the child, an egg in his hands as he stood before the open container. “No!” He quickly closed the lid and picked up the container of eggs to examine it. It was the second time he’d caught the child eating eggs, and he was worried that the passenger would eventually notice their absences. “I told you not to do that.” The Frog woman spoke out to him again and he answered. “Found them!”

“M-Mando?”

Eyes widening, Din set the container down inside the sleeping compartment and locked it before hurrying over to where the captain’s weak voice had come from. “Dank farrik!”

(Y/N) was at the end of the cargo hold, hidden behind a storage container with her left arm pinned underneath another one, and her lips were nearly blue from the cold. “I tried…I tried moving it, but-”

“It’s okay, alor’ad, I’ve got it.” Careful not to jostle her arm, he lifted the container and set it down behind him, his heart dropping in his chest when he realized that her shoulder was bent at an unnatural angle and that she was shivering uncontrollably. “Osik…I’m gonna help you up now, okay? I need to push that shoulder back into its socket as quick as possible and I’ve gotta get you warm…” He leaned down and wrapped an arm around her waist, helping her stand before walking her over to another storage container. “Just sit here for a second, I’m gonna bring the Frog lady down here…”

Once he helped the Frog woman down the ladder and returned her eggs to her, he handed her a blanket and hurriedly fastened another over the hole in the hull in an attempt to begin warming the space. Then, he fixed (Y/N)’s dislocated shoulder and used the spare bandages from the med pack to bind her arm into a makeshift sling; she stifled her cry of pain behind her free hand and squeezed her eyes shut, but not before Din spotted the tears in her eyes. He knew first-hand how painful that kind of injury could be, so he didn’t judge his partner for what others would perceive as weakness. Once he was finished tending to her wound, he carefully wrapped a blanket around her and went to dig his spare heater out of the wreckage, turning it on and urging his companions to sit near it as he prepared a little dinner for them. (Y/N) quietly accepted her tray of food, her smile polite but her eyes betraying her anger towards him; suppressing a sigh of frustration, he turned away from her to glance at the Frog woman.

“If you hadn’t guessed, we’re in a tight spot; the main power drive’s not responding and the hull has lost its integrity. I suspect the temperature will drop significantly when night falls, and I’ll have a better idea of our prospects at that time.” He lowered himself onto the floor and leaned against the wall, making himself as comfortable as he could given the circumstances. The Frog woman began croaking urgently at him, gesturing to eggs while she did, and Din hopelessly answered, “I’m sorry, lady, I don’t understand Frog. Whatever it is, it can wait until morning.” He looked over at (Y/N), who was picking half-heartedly at her tray of food, and continued. “I recommend you both get some sleep.”

The captain didn’t acknowledge his words but when he crossed his arms and glanced back down, he noticed the child waddle his way over and cuddle against his side beneath his cape. Well, at least there’s one person who’s not angry with me, Din thought dejectedly to himself; (Y/N) was right, he shouldn’t have run from the New Republic rangers, but he’d panicked. He didn’t want to put any of them in danger, but that’s exactly what had happened anyway.

Before he fell asleep, Din watched as (Y/N) quietly set down her food and stood, removing the blanket from around her shoulders and placing it on top of the Frog woman’s eggs before settling down on the floor opposite him and wrapping her uninjured arm around herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Wake up, Mandalorian.”

Din quickly jolted awake as the all-too familiar voice rang through the cargo hold, his blaster in his hand before he could fully register what he was looking at. Zero, the droid pilot from the prison breakout job, was still in pieces and secured to the wall of the ship, but a wire was now attached to its head and its opposite end was being held by the Frog woman; when she croaked again, Zero’s voice emitted from the head. “This cannot wait until morning. Do not be alarmed, I bypassed the droid’s security protocols and accessed its vocabulator.”

As (Y/N) and the child began to stir, Din holstered his blaster with more force than necessary. “What the hell are you doing? That droid is a killer.”

“These eggs are the last brood of my life cycle.” The Frog woman explained, resting a hand on her egg container sitting beside her. “My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet that is hospitable to our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line. I must demand that you hold true to the deal that you agreed to.”

“Look, lady, the deal is off,” He growled in frustration, gesturing at the wreckage around them. “We’re lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives!”

The Frog woman was unperturbed. “I thought honoring one’s word was a part of the Mandalorian code. I guess those are just stories for children.”

Across from him, (Y/N) visibly flinched at her words and the child looked up at him with near-pleading eyes; Din finally capitulated, easing the child off his lap before clambering to his feet, grabbing his toolkit and storming outside to assess the ship’s damages. The ship was in a bad shape but as he continued to examine it, he determined that it could thankfully still fly, albeit with a fair amount of patches and repairs. He was busy rewiring some of the broken cables near the engine when (Y/N) slowly approached him, a look of apprehension on her face as she knelt on the snow beside him.

“It’s, um…it looks a lot worse than it is. If the repairs go well, we can be out of here as soon as tomorrow.”

(Y/N) nodded. “Good, good. I…well, on the off-chance that we don’t, I just…I wanted to apologize for using your Creed against you when we first met.” His brow rose in surprise at her words; out of all the things he’d been expecting her to say, that certainly hadn’t been one of them. “It wasn’t fair of me to throw it in your face to get what I wanted, and I’m sorry.”

Din was at a loss for words; almost from the moment he swore the Creed, people had ridiculed his way of life and would often try using it against him to gain an upper hand on him. It had bothered him at first but he’d eventually grown used to the jabs and insults, learning to ignore or shrug them off. (Y/N) was the first person he’d ever met who bothered to apologize to him for her words.

Seeing her begin to rise, he shook himself out of his astonishment and grabbed her wrist to halt her; she looked at him with widened eyes, and he cleared his throat before speaking. “Thank you. I’m sorry as well. I shouldn’t have run from those rangers, and I apologize for not listening to your warnings.” His partner’s usual cheery smile brightened her face at his words and Din blushed beneath his helmet, quickly turning back towards the ship and gesturing at the hole in the hull. “You should get some rest, alor’ad. Your shoulder-”

“Feels perfectly fine, Mando. I can still help you with…” She trailed off, looking past him and furrowing her brow in confusion. “I think the little guy’s trying to tell us something.”

Looking in the same direction she was, Din’s eyes fell on the child, who was babbling and pointing at something on the other side of the ship. With a sigh of exasperation, he called over to him. “How about you come over here and give us a hand? Make yourself useful.” Instead of waddling over to them, the child walked behind the ship and out of sight. “Hey, kid!” He exchanged a look with (Y/N) and they both got to their feet, hurrying off after him. “I said, hey! Where are you going?”

“Come back here, little guy!” (Y/N) added; they turned the corner and made their way over to where the child had stopped.

Din knelt down beside him, instantly noticing the fresh footsteps in the snow. “When did she go?” According to his helmet’s thermal scan, it hadn’t been that long. With a small sigh, he picked up the child and stood. “It’s not safe for her to be out there alone. C’mon, let’s go.”

They slowly made their way through the icy caverns, careful not to make too much noise as they followed the Frog woman’s footsteps. Beside him, (Y/N) had drawn her blaster and was holding it in her good hand while Din kept a tight hold on the curious child in the crook of his arm. They turned a corner and found themselves standing within a massive cave; icicles the size of mudhorns hung from the ceiling and strange-looking objects rested all along the snow.

The familiar sounds of croaking caught Din’s attention and he looked over to see the Frog woman sitting in a glowing hot spring, with all her eggs floating at the top of the steaming water. “There you are,” He exhaled in relief, hurrying over to the hot spring with (Y/N) close behind him. “You can’t leave the ship, it’s not safe out here.” He set the child down at the edge of the water and knelt. “Let’s gather these up…”

Their passenger made a sound of protest as he began carefully putting her eggs back in her container; while he worked, he noticed (Y/N) sit down by the edge of the spring and give the Frog woman a sympathetic smile. “I know that it’s cold, but night’s coming fast and we can’t protect you out here; in the morning, Mando and I are gonna start working on repairs and we’ll be off this planet in no time. When we get back to the ship, I’ll look through my clothes for anything that’ll keep you and your eggs warm, okay?”

Because of the stunt she’d pulled earlier with the decapitated droid, Din knew that the Frog woman had understood the captain’s soothing words and with a nod of her head, she began helping him gather up the floating eggs. He glanced over at (Y/N) and couldn’t help but take note of how the faint glow from the hot spring illuminated her features; without thinking, he blurted out, “You’re good at that. Talking to people, I mean, making them feel comfortable. I just usually tend to scare them off and-No! No.” Din scolded the child, who’d taken advantage of his distraction and tried reaching for an egg. The child, looking a little more than miffed, walked away and he continued placing eggs into the container.

“Well, you haven’t managed to scare me off.” (Y/N) remarked, the corner of her mouth curving into a teasing smile. “You must be slipping, Mando; I thought that bounty hunters, even former ones, were supposed to terrify everybody they come across.”

Just as Din was about to indulge in their usual playful banter, the child’s cry echoed throughout the cave and his head whipped around in alarm; the child was running as fast as he could towards them, fear evident in his large eyes, and it didn’t take long for Din to realize why. The strange-looking objects that were strewn across the snow were beginning to shudder and hatch, and pale spiders of differing sizes began to emerge.

Quickly standing, he hurried over to where the child was and picked him up before backing away from the hatching creatures. His eyes widened in panic as more and more eggs began to break open, covering the floor of the cave with an ever-growing crowd of spiders. While he closed the lid of the egg container and slung it over his shoulder, the Frog woman hastily threw on her clothes and (Y/N) ushered her out of the hot spring; an echoing growl made the three of them look up and Din’s jaw dropped when an enormous spider, easily the size of his ship, crawled out of a deeper part of the cave.

“Go, go, go! Back to the ship!”

All three of them sprinted out of the cave and into the maze of icy tunnels, closely pursued by the swarm of spiders. While they ran, (Y/N) aimed her blaster and began shooting at the spiders behind them and Din, seeing spiders beginning to appear in front of them, drew his blaster and fired. A tunnel beside them was quickly blocked off when the massive spider shot a web at its entrance, so they quickly hurried down another; the Frog woman leapt past both Din and (Y/N), who were forced to holster their blasters so they could run faster from the advancing spiders. Although he couldn’t see it, he could hear the largest spider pursuing them from above, the impact of its legs shaking the frozen ceiling of the tunnel. A sharp cracking noise above alerted him to danger and his free hand shot out to haul the Frog woman back just as the spider’s long leg broke through the ceiling and was pulled up.

“Take her and get back to the ship, I’ll buy you some time!” Din yelled to (Y/N) as they ran.

The captain frantically shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving you behind!”

Thinking fast, Din pulled out three bombs and threw two of them on either side of the tunnel, then threw the third at the ceiling where the largest spider was. The bombs exploded, causing the tunnel to cave in on itself and he turned to watch the creature’s lifeless body crash to the ground before running after (Y/N) and the Frog woman. His partner had drawn her blaster again and was shooting at anything that moved; Din quickly did the same but once it became apparent that there were too many spiders to shoot and kill, he holstered his blaster and pushed (Y/N) and the Frog woman behind him before igniting the flamethrower on his vambrace.

White-hot flames shot out towards the swarm of spiders and instantly burned them to a crisp, but as the three of them continued to run, even more of the creatures began pursuing them. The broken-down ship finally came into view as he and (Y/N) continued firing their blasters at the spiders, and Din silently prayed that they’d be able to get the ship into the air in time to escape the swarm.

“Cover me!”

(Y/N) continued shooting spider after spider while Din turned and handed both the child and the egg container over to the Frog woman; he’d just ushered their passenger into the ship when the captain let out a cry of alarm, and he turned to see that her good arm had been webbed to the side of the ship. A smaller spider leapt towards them and on instinct, Din caught it in his fist and crushed it before throwing it aside; seeing the spiders inching closer to them, he helped (Y/N) wrench her arm free before pushing her into the ship and following after her. He continued blasting at the spiders as they followed them into the ship, scrambling up the ladder and shooting at the creatures as they emerged from the hole.

Seeing that his efforts were useless, Din stepped into the cockpit and tried closing its doors but the influx of spiders kept them from closing all the way. Desperate, he began shooting at the spiders through the crack in the door and (Y/N) quickly did the same, firing at the spiders that were lower down. The child’s fearful cry rang out over the sounds of their blasters firing and Din looked over just in time to see the Frog woman shoot at several small spiders that had been attacking him with a small blaster; their gazes met and he hurriedly nodded in thanks before turning and using his flamethrower to take care of the rest of the creatures. The door finally closed, but the danger hadn’t yet passed; the spiders had begun crawling over the outside of the ship.

“Strap yourselves in!” Din dropped down into the pilot’s seat, pressing buttons and flipping several switches; his hands flew over the various controls as he prepared the ship for take-off, and they were soon joined by (Y/N)’s good hand. They shared a brief glance before resuming their work, and he muttered under his breath to her, “This better work.”

“From your mouth to the Maker’s ears,” The captain replied, reaching over him to press a final button and letting out a sigh of relief as the ship shuddered to life. “We’re good to go!”

“I’ve got limited visibility, so it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.” He called out as they both pulled on the ship’s main lever; after a long moment, the engines began firing and the ship began to slowly rise. It continued to rise and as spiders began dropping off of it, (Y/N) glanced over at him with a hopeful grin that he couldn’t help but match underneath his helmet.

Their happiness was, predictably, short-lived. Something large and heavy landed on the top of the ship, slamming it back down into the ground; the force of the crash sent (Y/N) toppling onto his lap and while she struggled to right herself, Din watched through the ship’s viewport as the enormous spider he’d assumed had died prepared to pierce its leg into the cockpit. Quick as a flash, he wrapped his arms around his partner and pulled her closer to him just as its leg slammed into the space where her head had just been. Another leg slammed into the cockpit before being pulled out; all four of them watched in dread as the massive creature peered at them through the viewport. Somewhere behind him, the child whimpered in fear and he felt (Y/N) tense in his lap as the spider suddenly latched its mouth onto the viewport above them.

Its attack was stopped by an onslaught of blaster bolts and moments later, part of the spider’s carcass slid off the front of the ship. The sounds of blasters firing continued, illuminating the cockpit with red-tinted flashes; with her eyes widened in shock, (Y/N) turned to him and shakily asked, “Who the hell could that be?”

“I don’t know, but let’s find out.” He loosened his hold on the captain and let her stand before getting up; he made sure that the Frog woman and the child were unharmed before drawing his blaster and cautiously making his way down into the cargo hold. The entire space was covered in sticky spider webs and spider carcasses, and he was quick to shoot at one that was still crawling; with a brief glance at (Y/N), the two of them raised their blasters and slowly emerged from the ship to see their saviors.

“Son of a mud-scuffer, you’ve gotta be kidding me…” Din breathed out, watching as the two New Republic rangers sat atop their X-Wings and expertly shot down spider after spider that was still on the ship.

They soon stopped and watched as the two of them stepped forward, and the man on the right called out, “We ran the tabs on the Razor Crest. You have an arrest warrant for the abduction of Prisoner X-Six-Nine-Eleven.” Din kept his eyes on the two rangers but he could sense that (Y/N) was shooting him a look. “However, onboard security records show that you apprehended three priority culprits from the Wanted Register. Security records also show that you put your own life in harm’s way to protect that of Lieutenant Davan from the New Republic Correctional Corps. Is that true?”

“Am I under arrest?”

“Technically, you should be, but these are trying times.” The man glanced over at (Y/N), who had already holstered her blaster. “We also ran the credentials that you gave us, Captain (Y/N) (Y/L/N) of the Alliance Starfleet. According to your service record, you saved the lives of thousands of civilians during your years of service to the Rebellion; the New Republic owes you a great debt of gratitude.”

Clearing her throat, (Y/N) replied, “Thank you, Ranger.”

“Let’s say I forgo the bounties on those three criminals…” Din interjected, realizing that his partner was uncomfortable talking about her service record. “Can you two help me fuse my hull so I can get off this frozen rock?”

“Let’s say you fix that transponder, and we don’t vaporize that antique the next time we patrol the Rim?”

Fair enough, Din thought to himself as they watched the two X-Wings take off. They made their way back into the ship, where the Frog woman and the child were waiting for them. “All right, we’re gonna repair the cockpit enough for us to limp to Trask. There’s nothing I can do about the main hull’s integrity, so we’re gonna have to get cozy in the cockpit.” His words brought back the memory of (Y/N) sitting in his lap and he was thankful that his helmet could mask his growing blush. “It’s the only thing I can pressurize. If you need to use the privy, do it now. It’s gonna be a long ride.”

With (Y/N)’s aid, the repairs were quickly completed and he said another silent prayer as he sat down in the pilot’s seat; the Frog woman was already strapped into her seat, her canister of eggs resting in her lap. (Y/N) dropped down into her own seat with an exhausted sigh and rested her feet on her storage container; since they couldn’t fix the main hull’s integrity, she insisted on moving her things into the cockpit to keep them safe.

“Okay, the repairs are all done,” Din informed the Frog woman, holding the child in his lap as he pressed the final buttons. “Let’s see if we can get this thing going once and for all.” He slowly pulled on the ship’s main lever and the ship shook itself to life; they continued to rise and in no time, they were leaving the frozen planet’s upper atmosphere. He breathed out a sigh of relief before turning to look at (Y/N). “Wake me up if someone shoots us, or if that door gets sucked off its rails.”

(Y/N) bit back a smile at his bad joke, but the sounds of the Frog woman’s concerned croak made the captain quickly look over at her and shake her head. “It’s okay, ma’am, that’s not gonna happen…”

“I’m kidding. If that happened we’d all be dead,” He continued, watching in amusement as the captain threw him an exasperated look and continued to reassure their passenger. “Sweet dreams.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading!

Mando'a Translations: Alor'ad-Captain Osik-Shit

Chapter Nine

Taking Care of Business Masterlist

Tagging: @remmysbounty @sinon36 @seninjakitey @thatonedindjarinfan @ginger-swag-rapunzel @mostclevermiss @momc95 @welcometothepedroverse @sarahjkl82-blog @zukoyonce @itsnottilly

#din djarin x reader #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #the mandalorian #din x reader #mando x reader #grogu #the child #baby yoda #frog lady

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jgvfhl · 3 years

Text

The Number Lads

Part 1/???? 3K words, no warnings :)

So I’ve created an audience on Tumblr for the Number Lads, and I’ve happened to got 3K words here for them. So! Here are the origins of the Number Lads! More to follow.... eventually....

For future reference:

Sevenset = ARC-7777 = ARCBoiiiii

Do-si-do = CT-2222 = Double Trouble

Trees = CT-3333 = Green Bean

Loops = CT-8888 = Loopy

Sixes = CC-6666

Double Trouble: i meant it as a joke sevens

ARCBoiiiiii: i didn’t

ARCBoiiiii: what you think you can drop that information on me and i wont use it??? how long have you known me

Double Trouble: okay okay but if you die i’m not mourning you

Loopy: ouch

Green Bean: how do you have this much time to comm us when you’re at ARC training, sevenset

Green Bean: who changed my name

Double Trouble: :3c

ARCBoiiiii: what you don’t like it? thought it suited you, trees

Green Bean: why did i let you guys talk me into this club…

ARCBoiiiii: we’re awfully convincing that way

Double Trouble: you felt compelled

Double Trouble: it’s the numbers gang bond

Green Bean: it was not that

ARCBoiiiii: was it loops space buns

ARCBoiiiii: i bet it was loops space buns

Loopy: what

Double Trouble: they are adorable

Loopy: oh kriff you, don’t you have arc stuff to do, sevenset?

ARCBoiiiii: ehhhhh my next training block doesnt start for another 4min, so....

Double Trouble: well i gotta run, we’re going hyperspace in a min or so--remember the meeting next week!!! be there or be square!

ARCBoiiiii: we dont have any perfect squares yet ;-;

Green Bean: Yeah, yeah, i’ll see you weirdos eventually

Loopy: stay alive out there

Double Trouble: especially the guy who wants to recruit Commander Death over there

ARCBoiiiii: I’ll be fiiinnnne whats the worst that can happen

Green Bean: i mean. his name. is DEATH?

ARCBoiiiii: ..... a fair point.... i guess you’ll just have to wait until the next numbers gang meeting huh :)

Loopy: maker help you

----

Sevenset was uncharacteristically quiet that day during second meal, but only because his mouth was continually occupied with food, not talking. He was on the clock today.

“Hey, Sevenset, are you inhaling those rations, or…?”

He looked over at Buster next to him, quickly swallowing his food. “I just got something I wanna do,” he said, taking a glug of water.

“Something so important you’re taking one of the few unscheduled breaks we have to do it? Okay then.”

Sevenset cleaned the rest of his tray, flashing a grin at Buster as he stood up. “Don’t wanna be late. Got a meeting with death.” He really couldn’t resist the pun. Honestly.

Buster’s eyebrow raised skeptically. His friend next to him, Sketch, asked, “Is this about some new way you’ve managed to piss off the trainers? Because yeah, I’m sure Alpha could arrange a meeting with death for you if you… I dunno, painted pink hearts on his armor.”

“Amazing idea,” Sevenset admitted, his brain automatically figuring out where the pink paint was (he’d have to make it), where Alpha-17’s armor lived (not sure on that one), and how possible it would be to sneak in and out to accomplish the task (a challenge). “However, no, not this time. See you guys later!” He deposited his tray and utensils in the proper area to be cleaned, then jogged out of the mess hall.

Kamino’s winding halls and levels really weren’t efficient--but compared to Coruscant… he couldn’t really argue. A healthy stretch of time in the Guard had given him plenty of tools to make his way around inefficient, crowded, twisty places like this. It didn’t take long before he reached where he was going. Aside from the resident Rancor Battalion, there were often troopers on Kamino from various groups throughout the GAR. They stayed out of the way of those training in separate wings of Tipoca City, and right now, Sevenset was very keen to speak to a visiting commander.

He slipped into a lift with two other troopers--visiting, by the looks of their battered armor. Luckily, they were too engrossed in their own conversation to really notice him, despite his rather colorful tattoos that usually made him stick out. But it was for the best this time. He got off at the level above and started down the hall, reading door labels as he went, searching….

Ah. Here. He pushed a button to open the door, but it was locked. Not entirely surprising, but… now what? If his internal clock was still fairly accurate, he had about ten minutes before he needed to be back for the next training block.

“It’s locked for a reason.”

He whirled, his body almost automatically snapping to attention at the low voice behind him.

Commander Sixes (AKA Commander Death, remember) surveyed him with a disturbing lack of expression. He was tall, for a clone. Probably closer in height to some of the Alphas than to Sevenset. His black armor stuck out like green plants on Coruscant in the brightly lit halls of Tipoca City, making him somehow look even bigger. Even more unnerving, he still had his helmet on, the visor lit with a dull green light, and fixed pointedly on him. Sevenset hated not being able to read people...

Sevenset hadn’t planned for this. Come to think of it, a lot of the “plan” he’d concocted relied on a few assumptions, and all of them seemed to be fading. One of them had been that he would have no problem talking to a CO--he never had before. “Sir, hi--hello--I was uhm…” He managed to clamp down on the first coherent thought to float through his head, so instead of blurting, “You’re a lot taller than I thought you’d be,” he stumbled upon, “It’s a nice room you’ve got. From the outside,” and immediately wanted to bash his head in on the wall.

The commander’s helmet never moved, just kept staring him down. “Get out of my way,” he finally growled, taking a step forward.

Against all better judgement, Sevenset stood his ground, although he squished himself a bit closer against the door. “Yessir, of course, just--one thing, really quick thing, I promise.” When the commander didn’t kill him or rip his arms off or something, he went on, finally finding his words were cooperating with him. “So, you’re CC-6666, naturally. I happen to be CT-7777--Sevenset, I’m Sevenset. There’s a group of us, see, sir--with the repeating numbers, and we have little meetings--”

“No.”

“--is what I thought you’d say, but just--” he paused, fumbling a bit to pull a piece of flimsi out of his pocket. “There’s the frequency, there’s the date of the next meeting,” he said, holding out the flimsi scrap. “I’m sure the other boys would love it if you dropped by.” The end of his final sentence shriveled into an undignified squawk when Commander Sixes reached out, grabbed his collar, and shoved him bodily out of the way of the door.

“Get back to training before I have some of my boys drag you there,” he said, entering the door’s access code.

“I’ve got six minutes--”

The door slid shut in his face. Well. He was still alive. So… that counted as a success. Perhaps not a resounding success, but a success. He stood in stunned silence for a moment, still clutching the scrap of flimsi in his hand, wondering if he should stick it in the door so the commander would find it later. However, he had no trouble believing the commander’s threat that his men literally would drag him back to the ARCs if he told them to, so it was probably best not to linger.

Sevenset jumped to attention for the second time that day when the door slid open again. He just stood there, dumb, as Commander Sixes stepped out, plucked the scrap of flimsi from his fingers, then returned to his room with about as much ceremony as befitted dumping pebbles out of a boot.

Oh, yeah. Definitely a success.

---

The first thing Sixes did once back in the privacy of his albeit temporary rooms was remove the top half of his armor, only leaving the gauntlet with his wrist comm. Turning his attention to said wrist comm, he entered Colt’s number. There was a short wait before the other commander answered it.

“Everything alright over there, Sixes, sir?”

“It’s about one of the ARC candidates.”

There was a pause. Understandable. The ARCs weren’t supposed to be in this wing of Tipoca City. “Which one?” His tone suggested he already had his suspicions.

“Calls himself Sevenset.”

He heard inaudible muttering on the other end. “What’d he do this time?” Sixes had suspected as much.

“Quite a pair he’s got on him, hasn’t he?”

Colt laughed dryly. “Yeah, sure. Hopefully, he’s worth the trouble.”

Sixes looked over the scrap of flimsi in his other hand. “Yeah… I think he might be.”

~+~

Leaning back in his pilot’s chair, Do-si-do watched the little light on the ship’s holoprojector, waiting for the others to join the meeting. He always took the calls in his ship. It was more private than his bunk most of the time, and frankly, the audio quality was so much better than on the hand-held devices.

Trees was the first to join, punctual as usual.

“Hey, Trees,” he smiled.

“Have you heard from Sevenset yet?” he asked.

Do-si-do shook his head, combing strands of his bleached curls out of his face. “Nah. Figure he’s been too busy. Graduation was supposed to be a couple days ago, right?”

“Three, yes.”

Loops’ holographic miniature appeared beside Trees’. He looked exhausted, but awake. His long hair was down from his signature twin buns, and he leaned his chin on his hand, fingers resting just over the infinity symbol tattoo on his cheek.

“Loops,” Trees greeted him.

“Mph.”

“What happened to you?” Do-si-do asked.

“Supply shipment,” Loops sighed. “General Koon’s having skeleton crews tonight so we can get some sleep.” After a stifled yawn, he asked, “Is Sevenset dead yet?”

Do-si-do smiled. “Trees asked the same thing, and I have no idea.”

As if on cue, a third hologram popped up on the ship’s control panel. Sevenset beamed at them, his new ARC pauldrons proudly on display. “Guess who’s not dead, fellas!”

“Hey hey! Look at you, ARC-7777,” Do-si-do grinned, leaning forward in his seat. “How’s it feel?”

“I really love the kama, gotta be honest.” He was only visible from the waist up, but they could see him sway his hips back and forth, clearly enjoying his new gear.

“Show us the paint,” Loops demanded, as firmly has he could demand it in his half-asleep state.

Sevenset obliged, setting down his holoprojector--his personal one, now he had graduated--and stepping back so more of his body was visible. The paint job was fairly similar to his previous armor--the sharp edges, the circle on his right shoulder bell holding four stylized sevens--but the new armor on his chest and arms had forced some alterations. They could see just about all of the kama now, the bright red sevens standing out against the dark grey fabric. Predictable, maybe, but still eye-catching. That was Sevenset’s main goal, if it weren’t already clear from the tapestry of tattoos on his bald head that ran down his neck under his blacks, and the several glinting piercings in his ears and nose.

“It’s definitely you.” Trees, bluntly.

“They let you keep the red paint, huh?” Do-si-do said. Sevenset had previously been assigned to the Coruscant Guard. After proving a bit more trouble than the Guard could take, and catching some CO’s eye, he’d been shipped back to Kamino a couple months ago to join Rancor.

“Hey, if Commander Colt can have it, I guess I can too. No one stopped me.”

Without warning, a fourth hologram appeared beside the others in front of Do-si-do’s eyes. A trooper--a big trooper, even in miniature--and in dark armor, helmet included. His brows scrunched together as he studied the person, failing to recognize them.

Sevenset did. “Commander!”

“I see Colt decided against tossing you overboard.”

Oh, no karking way. “Commander Sixes?” Do-si-do blurted.

At the same time, Loops made some unintelligible noise and suddenly disconnected, and Trees froze like a lizard when a hawk flies overhead, his eyes gone wide, one arm half-way to a salute. Frankly, Do-si-do could understand their reactions. Commander Sixes--like many of the CCs--was legendary. His wing of Star Fighters had fought through some of the toughest space battles so far, and always came out of it. As a pilot himself, Do-si-do had heard story after story about their skills. The fighter wing and the commander now wore the nickname Death, thanks to their brutal but effective tactics.

There was a brief and painfully quiet pause before the commander said, “Pride of the GAR, this lot.”

“Eh, they’ll get over it,” Sevenset shrugged, his hologram appearing to zoom in as he came closer again. “Right, Trees?” he added with a grin. Their friend was still in shock, it looked like. “Might have to tell him to relax, sir.”

The commander’s helmet turned towards Trees. “At ease. Take a breath before you pass out.”

Trees blinked, lowering his arm. “Yessir,” he said quietly, throwing a glance over his shoulder.

“I’ll try to get Loops back,” Sevenset said, a datapad appearing in his hands. Damn, ARCs really did get all the good stuff. Do-si-do still had to share a datapad with his squad of pilots.

“Shouldn’t there be more?” Commander Sixes asked.

“Of us? Yeah,” Do-si-do answered. “I guess there should be nine of us, in theory.”

“Nine or ten,” Trees said, his tone still a bit clipped.

“Ten or eleven, actually,” Sevenset corrected, still looking at his datapad. “We don’t know if a CT designation can be all zeroes. Might have been taken out of the system, who knows.”

“It’s hard when we don’t have access to the full GAR database,” Do-si-do went on. “We have to rely on hearsay and brothers from other battalions. Sevenset and I met by chance on Coruscant.” Loops’ hologram reappeared. He looked a bit more awake now, still visibly on edge from the commander’s arrival, and with a glower on his face. “Loopy! Welcome back.”

“I hate you.”

“Whoa, hey, I didn’t know he was coming either,” he defended himself. “Blame Sevenset.”

“I’m blaming both of you,” Loops said. “You told Sevenset about him, and Sevenset was stupid enough to go through with it.”

Sevenset, his attention off his datapad and back on the meeting, put a hand over his heart. “Stupid enough?” he repeated, doing his best to sound utterly wounded. “I think you mean ballsy enough.”

“He meant stupid enough,” the commander replied immediately and without emotion. “And I agree.”

Do-si-do snorted a laugh at the look of utter indignation on Sevenset’s face. Even Trees relaxed a bit more. “Okay, I can get used to having a CC around,” he grinned.

“Finally, someone with the authority to tell him off,” Loops said, expressing Do-si-do’s feelings exactly.

The recipient of their mocking pouted at them, folding his arms as best he could with his new armor. “Now I just feel unloved.”

“Why do I get the feeling Commander Fox was only too happy to get you qualified for ARC training?” the commander asked, his tone remaining impassive.

“For your information,” Sevenset said, then stopped, realizing, as they all had, that the commander had known where Sevenset had previously served. No one had told him this information. “How did you know I was in the Guard?”

They all turned to the commander. “I’m a commander. I can look anyone up. I looked you all up.”

Do-si-do leaned even farther forward in his seat, a huge smile on his face. “You have access to the full database?”

“You can find the others!” Sevenset completed, a similar smile on his face as well.

There was a pause. Do-si-do was starting to think Commander Sixes just liked the drama they created. In fact, judging by how he had yet to show his face and was wearing all black armor, it seemed Commander Death was fond of the dramatic in a few ways. “In theory, sure.”

“Yes! Oh, fantastic,” Sevenset went on, rubbing his hands together. “You can tell us where they’re stationed--”

“If they’re still alive,” Trees added in. He had a point.

“--and then we can find them!”

The commander’s helmet tilted, his expression hidden. “I’m guessing Fox declined membership,” he said.

Do-si-do snorted a gain, and Trees and Loops both smiled. They all remembered Sevenset’s story of trying to recruit Commander Fox to be number ten for their little group.

“If by ‘declined membership’ you mean, ‘shipped me out to Kamino for someone else to deal with,’ then yes,” Sevenset answered. “He declined.”

“Maybe you can ask him,” Loops said.

“Hey, yeah--”

“No.” The commander’s tone didn’t leave much room for argument, but that had never stopped Sevenset a day in his life, and Do-si-do was more than content to sit back and enjoy the show.

“But you’re his big brother, right? You can drag him into things--”

“I’m not a damn recruiter, ARC, now stand down.”

The effect was instantaneous. They all recognized a CO’s “talk back and you’ll be cleaning ‘freshers for the next month” voice. Combined with Commander Sixes’ already awe-inspiring reputation, his order shut them all up. Trees once again straightened to attention, and this time they all joined him, even Sevenset.

“Understood, sir,” he replied. Do-si-do could see the new training in him now. Sevenset wouldn’t be an ARC if he didn’t know when to drop the comic act, but the speed and discipline with which he’d done so just now was different.

The commander waited a second or two, then he nodded once. “At ease.”

They relaxed, mostly. It was hard to ignore the mood shift that had taken place. As cool as it was having a commander in the club… there were some obvious issues that needed addressing if this was going to remain a “just for fun” place.

Do-si-do found himself as the one breaking the uneasy silence. “But… you can help us find where the others are stationed, right, sir?”

The commander’s helmet dipped. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Can you do that… now?” Sevenset ventured.

The commander’s helmet tilted to one side, and it looked like he sighed. “Fine.” The others perked up. “But, I can only find their assignments, not their current locations.”

“We can work with that,” Do-si-do agreed, and the others nodded along. “Who’s writing this down?”

“I can!” Sevenset volunteered.

Trees reminded him, “Your handwriting is entirely illegible. Even to you.”

“Yes, but now I have a datapad. I can type all my notes.”

“I’m just going to start talking if you boys don’t figure it out,” the commander warned.

“Okay, okay, fine, Trees can copy it.”

Trees’ organization skills would always beat out Sevenset’s anyway. Maybe ARC training had fixed that, though. Trees shifted around, grabbing what he needed, then looked up and nodded when he was ready.

The commander’s helmet tipped down to look at something--presumably a datapad--as he spoke. “CT-4444 is with the Marines under Bacara. Probably has limited contact availability depending on the mission. Infrequent leave.” Do-si-do’s eyebrows raised, and he glanced at Sevenset and Loops. They hadn’t been expecting a tactical rundown of each person. But… they wouldn’t complain. “CT-27-5555 is the only ‘fives’ trooper in the GAR. He’s one of Rex’s freaks, so good luck getting your hands on him.”

“That’s the five-oh-first, right?” Loops asked. “Torrent, or something?”

“Yeah. Rex’s freaks. I’m sure he’ll fit right in.” Do-si-do smirked. He probably would. “And CT-9999 is with Ghost Company in the two-twelfth. Pretty decent chance he and number five have run missions together. Or will in the future, anyway.”

“Is there a CT-0000?” Loops wanted to know.

“What about eleven-eleven?” Sevenset added.

The commander glanced up at them, then back to his materials. “Yeah, the one-eighteenth has a CT-0000. Didn’t find an eleven-eleven, though.”

Do-si-do frowned. “Not even a casualty report?”

“No.”

“But… he could still be on Kamino, right?” Trees said. “Cadets don’t show up in the main database until they graduate and deploy.”

The commander nodded. “He could be a cadet.”

“I could look,” Sevenset offered. “I mean. I live here now, so I should be able to find out if a CT-1111 exists. It’ll just take a bit longer.”

“Yeah, we’ll figure it out,” Do-si-do nodded. “In the meantime,” he continued, leaning forward, “who’re we going after first?”

Ta-daaa!! @blsmjoon @nintendolover13-ts4 (I couldn’t tag your side blog sorry) @alamogirl80 (idk why I can’t tag you either ;-;) @23-bears @theultimatesandwich

#my writing #my fanfic #clone ocs #number lads #numbers gang #tcw fanfic #sixes my beloved #I love how min started that tag #and like #three other people have started using it #sixes bein all mysterious oooo #not taking off his helmet ooooo #I finished this #then realized #I've put sevenset and fives #right in the battle of kamino #WHOOPS #lol

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fallout-drabbles-n-stuff · 4 years

Text

Male Companions React To Their Baby/Babies Not Wanting Them To Leave.

Danse:

“I wish I could stay too, but..for now I trust that you won’t give your brother too hard of a time, right?”

He’d feel absolutely terrible. Having to bend down to peel his little one off his leg they attached themselves to, instead holding them up eye level with him.

Oddly enough, your child seemed to be calmed down when Danse spoke to them. They had all the faith in the world in their dad, even if he still left..they knew he’d be back soon....and usually with some neat artifact that him and their mom/dad banter about how “historic” it was.

However if they ever muster up the courage to let some tears slip? Danse would be beside himself trying to figure out a way not to fail you and derail the mission while also trying to make them stop crying.

Deacon:

“Hey kiddo, chin up. Daddy isn’t going to be gone for long. Look, as soon as I get back we can play hide-and-seek or anything you want, you name it.”

He internally was screaming when his kid stopped him by the door, little tears making their eyes glassy as they looked up at him with a quivering lip.

He wouldn’t allow himself to linger for long, knowing that he’d give in if he didn’t leave soon. However true to his word, he’d make sure to play to their heart’s content when he got back.

Gage:

“Quit that crying nonsense and hurry up. I ain’t going nowhere without ya, kiddo.”

As tough as he wished he would’ve been, he crumbled at the first sign of them crying. If there was one thing to get him to break, it was definitely that.

As such, regardless of just where the hell his daily misadventures took him- there would be his own little “mini me” piddling around. So long as they stay in his eyesight, he’s alright.

Hancock:

“Okay little buddy, you win this round. Let’s go say hi to Aunt Daisy..”

It didn’t take him long at all to crumble. All your babe had to do was grab his coat sleeve, looking up with their best “puppy-dog eyes” as they begged their father not to leave.

Knowing he still had to tend to his mayoral duties, he sighed. Eventually he’d just come to outstanding conclusion to be a major pushover and let them just tag along. Hell, he even let them wear his hat.

It was “training” them. At least that’s what he told himself to not face the fact that a little kid completely runs him. His little kid.

Macready:

“Fine, fine! I’ll stay, just please don’t tell your mom/dad that it’s you guys that made me...”

He has it the worst.

Imagine having to say, “No, I got to go this time” to one child. Okay, now imagine having to say it to three. Between Duncan, Shaun and any other children you may have, there will always be some reason why dad just has to stay home. So, unless it’s something absolutely dire, Mac is forever a stay at home father.

Maxson:

“Well...Dada is going to be really busy today but, how about the both of you tag along?”

His automatic reaction would be to lovingly scold his child, telling them that “daddy had very important things to deal with”. However it dawned on him..was that what his own father said when he was a babe? Was something similar the last words spoken by a man that he couldn’t even remember looked like?

So stopping himself before he said anything he’d regret, he looked down at the little dark haired babies tugging at each side of his battle coat, tears beginning to well in their eyes.

That’s it.

No matter what he was going out to do that day, the officers could expect two baby Maxsons at their father’s side. Imagine your surprise when you boarded the Prydwen with blood all over you and being greeted with your little ones’ hugging each leg of your power armor.

Nick:

“I’m sorry hon, this case is too dangerous to take you along..but uh, how about we go get some power noodles when we get back? Sound good?”

If he knew it would’ve been this hard to work, he might’ve reconsidered having children. Well, not really. Things were just so much easier when he didn’t feel like a traitor for leaving to work a case.

That was exactly what happened when his baby, his precious baby, stopped him in his tracks, asking just where he was going without them. With a whole lot of hesitance, he’d explain just why he couldn’t let them come along this time- hating everyone second of it as he saw the heartbreak in their eyes.

He’d make it right though. Even if it meant going to the ends of the earth while he was still out just to get that one particular flavor of nuka-cola they loved.

Old Longfellow:

“Sheesh, kiddo...I gotta...darn, alright come on. But, don’t tell your ma/pa......I’m getting to old for this.”

Naturally he’s always been the type to get into, if not incite trouble, so why would his child be any different? They weren’t.

As soon as they overheard him saying something about going to take a fishing trip out in the “storm-banks” they just knew they had to go with. Plus, they didn’t want their da leaving them for that long anyways.

So, they’d make sure to grab their ma/da’s helmet and meet him at the door, giving him a stern look and stating just what they wanted. How could he say no? Besides, he knew the waters well enough.

Preston:

“I’m sorry baby girl/boy, but some good people need papa and mama/dada’s help. I promise you I’ll be back soon.”

He’d be honest with them, trying to fight through the tug of his heartstrings when they gave him those “puppy dog eyes.” The sooner they understood, the better after all. So, he’d explain just why him and mama/dada were leaving and why it was important that they be good for “Grandma Murphy”.

Sturges:

“Aw..don’t do that sweetheart, you’re breaking my heart.”

He feels so bad. Being a first time parent leaves room for all kinds of new learning experiences...so far what Sturges learned is that this whole parenting thing is hard.

That was a no-brainer.

One morning his child saw him strap on his overalls, quick to retrieve his toolbox. They connected the dots. As quick as their little legs could take them, they literally blocked off the door and sat down in protest.

It hurt a lot but he eventually had to convince them that he had to go..leaving them more upset than sad. He’ll make it up to them though, having a brand new toy made especially for them.

X6-88:

“These measures you go to are..ruthless.”

Your child would go as far as to stealing his boots and ammunition, refusing to tell him where they put it until he promises to stay just a little while longer. So, X6 is more impressed than he is agitated.

His child learns quickly. How quaint.

Regardless, X6 would still feel a twinge or guilt when he finally leaves. Finding himself unable to think about anything other than reuniting with his little baby, which often leads him to not enjoying this whole “thrill of the hunt” thing as much as he used to.

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annebl4cksworld · 3 years

Text

Cold Blood pt.3

WARNINGS: None really, I don’t even think there’s swearing ^^”

NOTE: I do not own any rights to Marvel or The Originals, I have taken content directly from the shows in order to give you a better image of what’s happening!

A/N: Sorry i haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been going through a lot lately and haven’t had the chance to sit down and keep going.... also I haven’t figured out how to link my chapters yet so I’m sorry for new ppl

Word count: 1,500 (smaller than normal but the next part will be longer so it will make up for it)

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

Weak from the hours of spells and torture Rebekah stumbled trying to get away from Klaus, running through doors, falling against walls and eventually ending up in the basement where she met a dead end

“Tired of running?” he called behind her

“I know how much you love the chase and I’d like to deprive you of it” huffing against a wall, watching him round the corner. Klaus was suddenly on his knees and tossing someone away from him, it was Marcel

“Ah! The lovers reunited, this is actually perfect, I can deal with you both at the same time” pulling the dagger from his belt he waved it in the air.

“Klaus, it was my idea to call Mikael, he had nothing to do with it” she wheezed moving to stand in front of Marcel, unconscious on the floor.

Before anything else, the blade in Klaus’ hand was driven into his chest. Outside Briar gasped in pain, everything halted to a stop and she fell towards the ground; as the energy field dropped Steve ran for her, grabbing on at the last minute before hitting the ground himself. Briar groaned turning in the arms of the super soldier, she placed her hands on his chest and pushed herself up “Nice save capsicle”

He turned and sat up after her “don’t call me that”

“Somethings wrong” Briar brushed his comment off looking over at the sanatorium, she stood and watched as her aunt and Marcel sped out of the door and off into the night. “Oh no” she breathed turning back to see Elijah carrying Klaus with Tony and Natasha right behind them,

“Uncle-”

“He did it to himself Briar, I’m taking him back to the compound” Elijah interrupted as he walked past, he placed Klaus in the car and turned back to his niece “What about aunt Rebekah?”

“In hiding; a necessary sacrifice. Go Briar, you don’t need to be here for what comes next, you did your job beautifully. This is between siblings” Elijah placed a kiss on her forehead before getting into the car and driving off.

Briar turned to face the avengers “Ok, when do we leave?” Tony then turning to face Steve “You gonna fight me on this?” Cap clenched his jaw and looked away

“Seems you’ve already made up your mind” Steve turned to Natasha, “and I for one would like to get out of this city before any other vampires come sniffing around” the redhead flipped her hair and grinned at Briar.

Once on the quinjet Briar leaning against the wall next to Tony who was flying, she watched steve and he adjusted his uniform,

“He doesn’t like me” she whispered, Tony shook his head

“His loss then” winking at Briar she rolled her eyes, “He’s not so great, there’s times where I want to punch him in his perfect teeth”

“Down boy” Briar glanced Tony's way “what’s got your panties in a twist about him?”

“Grew up listening to how my dad ‘knew captain America’ as if it was some great feat, as if that made him some superior being. What I hate most of all is how freaking polite he is”

“Polite?” Briar scoffed I must have missed that

“Guy dies and wakes up 70 years later, finds out there’s aliens, androids, wizards and now vampires, witches and werewolves. Let alone someone who is all three; he’s bound to be suspicious. Stand off-ish, hell, maybe even a bit of an ass”

“Are you defending him? The guy you just said you want to punch in the teeth? I mean he’s got a hell of an ass but-”

“How close are we?” Steve asked cutting Briar off coming to stand behind Tony’s chair

“Friday?”

Nearly 20 minutes out, sir

Steve nodded and walked away eyeing Briar as he went, she winked, giving a devilish smirk.

“You were saying?” Tony asked, turning as Steve left. Briar shot him a ‘nevermind’ look shaking her head, she looked out the window as they flew closer to the compound.

Once on the landing strip, the back opened and everyone gathered their belongings.

“Labs all set up boss” a demanding voice called from outside the ship,

“Oh, no. He’s the boss” Tony turned to face the brunette, who was now on the ship, pointing to Steve who turned his head not making eye contact with anyone,

“I just pay for everything, design everything, make everyone look cooler”

Briar shrugged and turned to face the brunette, “what’s a girl gotta do to get a drink around here”

“Hill, status report” Steve called coming to stand in front of them “Sir-“ before she could continue; Steve pulled her from the ship and spoke in hushed tones. Briar huffed, feeling an arm snake through hers, “c’mere darling, I got you” Tony whispered in her ear pulling her off the ship.

Steve watched as they walked by, “I have everything you could dream of and if I don’t I’ll have it flown in, promise.” Tony announced loudly for everyone around to hear, Nat watched Steve watching you, “She doesn’t seem so bad”

“What’s her deal?” Hill asked

“Nothing, she’s not a part of the team” Steve stated grabbing the tablet from Hill’s hands to sift through the photos.

“Top shelf for little old me? Tony you spoil me” Briar winked taking the drink he handed her,

“You’re going to be meeting the rest of the team soon, a god, an Android, a witch, a rage monster, you know a little of this a little of that. Try to be nice, some of them have-“

“Anger issues?” Briar twisted the glass in her hands “They sound fun, who’s first?”

“Tony…” a timid man called from the doorway,

“Banner, - Tony smiled at Briar - Banner is first, what’s the word?”

“Uh- I need you -um in the lab” without making too much eye contact he walks off

“He gets nervous around beautiful women, it’s no big” Tony waved his hand dismissively and followed Banner, Briar close behind.

“The scepter, we were wondering how Strucker was getting so inventive, so I’ve been analyzing the cube and take a look at this.” Banner brought up a holographic image of the cube onto the floor.

“It’s beautiful” Briar commented leaning against the doorway

“It is; it’s like it’s thinking- i mean this could be- it’s - it’s not a human mind, i mean look at this. They’re like neurons firing.” he paced around the image

“Down in Strucker’s lab I saw some pretty advanced robotics, they deep six the data but… I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door.” shrugging Tony watched Banner come to a halt.

“Artificial intelligence.”

“This could be it, Bruce. This could be the key to creating Ultron.”

“Ultron?” Briar asked sipping her drink,

“Peace in our time Briar. Imagine that?” Tony beamed

“That’s a mad sized ‘if’ Tony” Bruce rubbed his neck

“Our job is if what if you were sipping margaritas on a sun dried beach turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for veronica”

“Don’t hate I helped design veronica” Bruce started pacing again

“As a worst case measure right? What about best case? What if the world was safe? what if next time the aliens roll up to the club they can’t get through the bouncer”

“The only ones threatening the world would be people” Briar stated leaving the doorway to stand beside Tony, offering her drink.

“I wanna apply this to the ultron program but friday can’t download a data schematic this dense, we can only do it while we have the scepter here that’s three days, give me three days” he took a sip of the drink

“So you’re going for artificial intelligence and you don’t wanna tell the team?” staring at Tony nervously,

“Right and you know why because we don’t have time for a city hall debate. I don't wanna hear: the man was not meant to meddle, medley. I see a suit of armor around the world”

“Sounds like a cold world Tony” Bruce looked back at the image in front of him.

“I’ve seen colder” Briar locked eyes with Bruce

“this one, this very vulnerable blue one, needs ultron. Peace in our time Banner, that’s all I’m saying” placing a hand on the small of Briars back he led her out of the lab and into the hall.

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ct7567329 · 3 years

Text

Wounded: Jesse x Reader

It was just like every other mission. Prior to departure, the boys of the 501st awaited in their barracks for their next orders as the Jedi Generals were debriefed. This was typically a rowdy experience. Arm wresting, sneaking some liquor, listening to music, anything to get their minds off the reality of war that was just moments away. But unlike most times, Jesse found himself sitting on his bunk, leaning against the cold wall, lost in his thoughts.

"You've gotta let it go," Fives groaned, playfully pushing Jesse's shoulder with one hand, a bottle on whiskey in the other.

Jesse rolled his eyes and looked away from his tipsy brother, pretending he wasn't even there.

Fives handed the bottle to Hardcase, "Jesse look, (Y/N) is an amazing girl. But, she's a Jedi. She honors her code. There's so many wonderful girls out there. So many that aren't her. I hate telling you this, I really do, but sometimes, it hurts more to hold on."

Jesse gulped and bowed his head, "It's not that easy."

"You two have a special relationship. She says things to you that she's never said to any of us. You clearly mean a lot to her. I hope that's enough to make you happy," Fives sighed, "Hang in there."

Before Jesse could speak, Rex commanded all the men to the hangar. It was go time. They all filed into the main hangar awaiting the orders of you and Anakin. You both stood confidently in front of a hologram of the palace in Theed on Naboo. As you began the briefing of the mission, Jesse couldn't help but stare at you through his helmet. You sensed this but continued with the task at hand, pointing to the crucial palace entry ways.

Upon conclusion of the briefing, Fives nudged Jesse and whispered, "Did you even pick up on any of that or were you too busy gawking?". Jesse ignored the statement and made his way to the gunship with the rest of his group, which just so happened to include you.

You spent the majority of the ride sitting down, leaning against the corner, scrolling through miscellaneous battle information on a holopad. The rest of the men were sitting down as well, conversing with each other.

"Hey, you feeling okay?" you asked Jesse, who was sitting next to you.

"Never better," he muttered, biting his lower lip under his helmet.

You weren't buying it, "Well, if you need anything don't hesitate." You sprung up and got ready for landing, leaving Jesse alone with his thoughts.

"It looks like the seppies already started attacking," you announced, "stand by for arrival."

You definitely weren't wrong about that. The gunship doors opened to absolute hell. Shots going in all directions, countless droids, and a droid barrier in front of the palace entrance. Across the landing bay, it was obvious Anakin was distraught about the idea of his wife being stuck inside.

It didn't take long for the 501st to break through the blockade at the entrance, but it was only worse inside. You ordered a split off, with you, Jesse and a few others taking the west wing. You looked over your shoulder and only saw five men. This would never be enough. Your group pushed forward, leaving only seven destroyers to decimate before conquering the wing. One of your men knew what he had to do.

"For the 501st!" he screamed, throwing charges at the destroyers. Knowing how heavy the explosion would be, you fell to the ground and covered your ears. Unfortunately, you were the only one to think to do that. Once the charges exploded, you got up and looked around. All the men were knocked on the ground. Quickly, you approached each solider, ripping off their helmet and taking their pulse.

There were no survivors, until you got to Jesse. You held your breath as you removed his helmet and placed two fingers on his neck. A pulse was there, faint, but there. You picked him up and put him over your shoulder, thanking your Jedi training for providing you with extra upper body strength. Only a few floors up there was a suite which Senator Amidala always let you stay in when on Naboo. You found the nearest elevator and made your way up there, hoping to not run into any droids. To your luck, the elevator doors opened and your hope came true. You hastily made your way to the suite and let yourself in, laying Jesse's limp body on the bed.

Figuring he just had the wind knocked out of him, you began to remove his upper armor to relieve weight off his chest. Starting with his pauldron, and finishing with the gloves. Sighing, you looked at the beaten up ARC. His underlies were dark, heavy, evident of stress. You caressed his cheek, acknowledging how soft it was. Freshly shaved. He would eventually be okay.

"Vaabir nayc chaabar a kebi. Anay kebi Kelir cuyir jate," you softly hummed over and over again, watching his chest slowly rise and fall. You placed a gentle kiss on his forehead and got off the bed, going to the refresher for a much needed shower.

Upon finishing your shower, you dressed in only undergarments and a short silk robe. It was the only things you could find that were suitable for you. You exited the refresher and went to towards the vanity, beginning to comb through your wet hair.

"General?"

You quickly turned around to see a confused Jesse staring at you.

"What happened?" he asked, shaking slightly. You threw your hair up into a low bun and sat on the edge of the bed.

"There was a pretty bad explosion. Lost everyone, except you. I figured I would bring you here. The Senator usually lends me this room while I'm on Naboo. Didn't want to see anything worse happen to you.

Jesse couldn't help but stare at your glowing skin, watching a single drop of water trail down you arm, "Thank you," he whispered, still in his trance.

"Would you like to freshen up?" you asked, "A warm shower might help you feel better."

He nodded and attempted to get out of the bed, grunting in pain. You rushed to his side and put your arm around his back, "Jesse?"

"I'm sorry General. Just some pain in my back. I've got this," he confirmed, trying to get up again.

"I'll leave some fresh clothes out for you, just holler if you need anything!" you smiled as he hobbled to the refresher.

The second the door locked, you sprung off the edge of the bed and rushed to the mirror. "oh maker," you said under your breath, looking at how disastrous you looked. With one swift motion you took the bun out and combed your hair straight, parting it perfectly in the middle. You dug through the drawers, trying to find anything to make you feel more confident. First, you found some mens clothing. You put the sweatpants and t shirt next to the refresher door then continued to search for something for yourself. All you could find was a perfume bottle, and dark blue lace under garments. Was this too revealing, absolutely, but it was better than what you had on. You changed and sprayed yourself a few times before sitting back down on the bed, turning something random on on the holovision. Patiently, you sat there and watched until Jesse was finished.

Not too long after you finished up, the water turned off and Jesse opened the door to grab the clothes. When he walked out of the refresher your eyes widened.

"Is something wrong General?" he asked nervously.

You stuttered, "No, but, well, we aren't on the battle field, you can call me (Y/N), but I've just never seen you in civilian clothes. It's so, so different."

Jesse stood there for a moment, silent. "Is that bad or-"

"Oh no. It's actually kind of nice," you interrupted him, "really nice."

Jesse was motionless, standing speechless. "Oh my bad!" you finally let out, getting off the bed and sitting on the nearby futon. "Take the bed, you need it!"

He looked down and walked towards the bed, laying down then sighing, "Do the rest of the men know where we are?"

"Yeah, I let Anakin know what happened and he knows you're here with me. Kix is a little overwhelmed with injuries right now."

"Good," he nodded, wincing in pain.

You noticed the wince and shot up, rushing to his side, "What hurts?"

"My side," he grunted, grabbing his ribs.

"Mind if I take a look?" you asked, pressing your lips together.

"Yeah, go a head," he nodded, taking off his shirt, then laying back down.

Your lips parted as you stared at his bare chest. His extra hours lifting at the gym were evident. You put your hand on his chest and dragged your fingers down to his stomach.

"Gene-(Y/N)?" he asked, confused with what you are doing.

You stopped in your tracks, "Oh right, yes, I am so sorry. I just. Yeah. Lemme take a look at that." Your cheeks flushed pink as you examined his side, realizing he definitely has a broken rib. As you were attending to his wounds, he couldn't help but stare at your robe, which was becoming loose, revealing a portion of cleavage. He swallowed hard, and began to breathe heavy. Jesse was in complete awe that this was actually happening.

"(Y/N)," he finally let out, causing you to direct your attention to his face.

You hummed in response. He tilted his head slightly, looking at you in silence.

"Yes, Jesse?" you whispered, inching closer to him.

His gaze was still locked on your eyes. Yours on his. Not even the loudest explosion in the would could break this.

"What are you thinking," you exhaled, moving closer to him yet again.

"Are you getting closer to me?"

"Perhaps."

"I think I want to k-"

"Me too."

His lips met yours with passion. Your lips fit perfectly upon his. As he deepened the kiss, you laid down on your side, moving your leg over his. His hand ran down your back, resting on your thigh that was thrown over his legs.

Jesse pulled away, looking at the beauty in front of him. He removed his hand from your thigh and placed it on your shoulder, which has been exposed by your robe being pulled down every so slightly.

"I've been wanting to tell you this since the moment I saw you, but, you are so, so, so, unbelievably stunning," he breathed, smiling at the vision of you.

"I can't tell you how long I've wanted to do this," you smiled back, kissing his chest softly.

With each small motion, your robe fell more and more off your shoulder, revealing much more than Jesse though he would ever see.

His stare of love became evident of agony, trying to prevent the urge of a growing heat between his legs.

You softly laughed and gave him another gentle kiss, "If it's bound to happen, let it happen." You removed the rest of your robe, exposing everything that wasn't covered by the lace.

Jesse could no longer hold it and cupped your cheek, passionately bringing you to his lips.

Though his physical wound may take a while to heal, his broken heart was officially mended.

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