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phoenix-fell · 1 year

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Anti-Bumbleby criticisms answered with BB analysis - Big post

As expected, as Bumbleby gets more attention from the show, the anti-BB crowd have surfed in on their tidal wave of bitter lemons. So, I’d like to put my degree, job and training to use and compile my thoughts down in one place - a one-stop shop if you will - it’s long and will be largely unfiltered as I tackle the weirdest and most common criticisms and BB analysis. (I kinda miss Bumbleby analysis Megaposts, I might make one sometime to go alongside this as a point of reference as most I’ve seen end around Vol 6).

TIA for anyone who actually takes the time to read my ramblings and please feel free to give your thoughts/analysis and I’ll edit it in. FIRST EDIT - 8th Mar 2023 presenting labels and sexuality in Remnant - 4th from end.

Credentials: Double major 1st class grad in Literature and Creative Writing, specialising in fairy tales and WLW representation in media. Recipient of dissertation award exploring character psyche and the presentation of psychological themes. Literary critic, writer and content specialist.

Let’s start off with a cracker from Reddit!

“Why couldn’t the BB scenes be more of a background thing? Why do they need to focus on them like they’re a main plot or something?”

Is... Is it stuffy under all that homophobia? I could easily rhyme off a string of sarcastic quips like ‘gee, I wonder why, it’s almost like it’s important to the development of two of the main characters or something.’ But it’s so lost on some people that I’mma spell it out:

We’ve seen Blake and Yang’s trauma painted across the screen from ‘Burning the Candle’ when Yang first confesses her abandonment issues, to the White Fang / Adam arcs that gave us a picture of the abuse Blake has endured - not just as a Faunus, but from her partner (“Adam used to get into my head, make me feel small.”), right through to their separation that dealt with their respective issues with running away/being abandoned and the shared trauma which has tied them both together indefinitely. They’ve been apart, they’ve repaired their relationship, they’ve grown together. In a current volume that’s so inherently focused on character’s individual development, seeing Blake and Yang together was almost inevitable as they’ve been so completely involved in one another’s development throughout the entire series. This is without going into their fairy tale allusions that tie them together which I’ll go into further down or the references to Yin/Yang and numerous romantic tropes that show how integral they are to one another’s characters. Contrary to belief, it’s not romance for the sake of romance - in this instance, the romance very much strengthens their development individually.

Asides from all of this, it was decided from the very beginning that Yang would lose her arm (foreshadowed in the Yellow trailer). The moment they decided that Yang would lose her arm protecting Blake, was the moment a decision was made to invariably tie these two narratives together on a very fundamental level.

But also, don’t clown yourself into thinking you’re not a homophobe if you think any LGBT content belongs in the background whilst also rejoicing any onscreen developments between straight ships.

“If BB was meant to be a thing then they wouldn’t have had Sun as a romantic interest.”

Is there a universe where love triangles and bisexuals are a foreign concept?

But in all seriousness, I think that certain corners of fanbases seem to struggle with any concepts that are non-linear; something I often see with anime. By ‘linear’, I mean: love interest introduced > build up > canon > together forever. As opposed to ‘non-linear’; a character that goes on their own journey of discovery and, through which, has more than one interest and path over time and has the ability to change their mind. The show was never a ‘romance’ as a primary theme; it’s an action/adventure which has some romantic subplots. But to honest, Blake changing her mind shouldn’t really be this much of a shock to the fanbase given that our FIRST ever interaction with Blake, in her TRAILER, is her changing her mind about her partner (and first romantic interest) and deciding to pursue a new journey. A scene which is actually referred back to in the Season 6 opener when Blake uncouples the train and sees what she believes to be a hallucination of a hooded Adam on the opposite carriage, foreshadowing the importance of that original decision later in the series (“you didn’t leave scars, you just left me, alone”).

The arc that follows Blake thereafter is inherently tied to Adam (amongst other important themes), who is predominantly based off Gaston and the rose (or curse of the rose) from Beauty and the Beast. Blake and Yang are interchangeably alluded to as both Belle and the Beast throughout their character arcs from as early as the Red Trailer: “Black the beast descends from shadows / Yellow beauty burns gold.” and as recently as Blake describing Yang to the Hunter Mice in Vol. 9 Chapter 1. I can rhyme off these allusions until I’m blue, but again, I may save this for a master post.

The story that Blake is based on is a love triangle - she was never meant to have one set path from the beginning and romantic interests were always meant to play a huge part in Blake’s story/development; she was always going to have a romantic decision to make after conquering the curse / Gaston. Blake being haunted by her first romantic interest is foreshadowed in the ending of her trailer and first referenced in her conversation (with Yang) at Mountain Glen, and becomes an undeniable path of exploration once Yang loses her arm to Adam at the end of Volume 3. Let it be noted that Sun was present when Yang announced she was going to find Blake at the Battle of Beacon - a decision was made here for Yang to be the one to lose her arm protecting Blake, as was Adam’s poignant promise to take away everything Blake loves - “starting with [Yang]” or, otherwise, the solidifying of this romantic subplot. Which, again, is called back to with the infamous line: “What does she even see in you?” besides the obvious subtext, it’s setting the stage for these parallels between Adam and Yang, past and future, the previous love interest identifying something in Blake that used to be reserved for him, now directed towards Yang.

This season began with Blake declaring that Yang “seems scary, but isn’t”. Because, once Belle knows the Beast isn’t scary, she allows herself to fall in love (conveniently, this is said whilst walking through a fairy tale).

I could go into a big post about romantic foils and the ways in which Yang, Adam and Blake are all foils to each other but I might make a separate post instead for anyone new to the FNDM. Either way, I feel it’s worth mentioning as it’s Blake who directly compares Yang to a past love interest who was designed with semblances and characteristics that mirror each other. Point being, no one should be shocked that Blake has multiple interests given the character and fairy tale she’s based off and heavy allusions where Yang is concerned.

“Oh yeah, because Yang ‘literally purred at guys in their underwear’ Xiao Long and Blake ‘literally kissed a boy’ Belladonna are clearly bisexual because of [insert out of context reasons]” and “yes but Monty said...”

1. You mean... the one, and only one scene in 9 entire volumes where Yang shows any interest (albeit jokingly) in a guy, and the literal scene directly before she sees Blake from across the crowded room and proceeds to never express interest in men again? (Ignoring the very obvious implied trope here). And, in fact, only expresses interest in a woman from this point onwards? This is your frame of reference? Personally, I find it quite lovely that Yang’s perspective is never the same from the moment she sees Blake. Asides from this, while ‘bisexual’ is the label that these guys have gone with, Yang’s sexuality hasn’t been confirmed outside of being sapphic - it’s not outside the realm of possibility that she is, in all likelihood, lesbian. It’s important to note here that any young character expressing an interest in a man would not invalidate that same character being a lesbian. In fact, if we apply this to real life, it’s not uncommon for people not to realise that they’re queer immediately (I myself didn’t until I was 21). But in the opening episodes of the series especially, I’d very much chalk this up to writers exploring the characters.

2. As for Blake - there are, from what I remember, three kisses in the entire show so far. The one between Jaune and Pyrrha - on the lips after prolonged romantic allusions between the two (their romance is explicitly referenced by Nora - “practice what you preach, Pyrrha.” - almost fitting that it’s Nora to call out the Bees in Season 7 - A Night Off, no? Neat little parallel for y’all). The one between Ren and Nora after trying to work out the status of their romantic relationship - again, on the lips. And the one where Blake says goodbye (and thank you) to Sun by kissing him... On the cheek. (So hot, I know). Which is immediately followed up with Sun telling Neptune “it was never about that”. One of these is not like the other, can you guess which? I’ll wait.

As for referencing Monty - I could go on all day about this one, and the quote most notoriously used is ‘they’re a sisterhood’. Firstly, let me just say that I find it disturbing that anyone would use the show’s deceased creator as ammunition, whilst also disregarding his other comments on LGBT rep - specifically, ‘maybe there are LGBT characters there now / they’re just kids rn and figuring it out / it needs to be earned’. But also, it’s really disturbing and egotistical that anybody would pretend to know what Monty wanted better than the crew he handpicked, worked with, collaborated with and was friends with (special mention to the fact that his own brother is one of the cast). If you truly want to honour his legacy, then show respect to the people he put his trust in.

“I don’t have an issue with BB, but why does it always have to take away from Yang’s moments with Ruby?” / “All Yang’s feelings for her sister transferred to Blake.”

One from the hall of fame. The age old question of ‘can a girl have a romantic partner and still care about her family?’ I wish this wasn’t a serious question, but there are actual sides of the Fandom that seem to think that Yang’s forgotten about her sister that she raised because she has feelings for someone and that the sole purpose of Yang’s existence is to be her sister’s keeper.

I’mma address this on 3 fronts. 1 - Logistically, the episodes for RWBY, excluding the intros, are 15-20 mins long currently and typically oversee several different storylines particularly as the cast grows larger, leaving us with... What? About 5 minutes of team RWBY interactions? It’s not a lot of time to pack in character development, relationship development, plotline, strategy etc. so often if they’re wanting to develop more than one relationship, they will alternate between putting these themes in the background (such as the yellow in Blake’s sword, references from other characters etc.) and foreground, and some developments have to be shoulder-to-shoulder to fit them in. This isn’t an indicator of how much one character cares for one another and is more a demon created by people’s perception of how they ‘think’ a protective sister should act.

Additionally, it should be noted that Yang fawning over Ruby and not allowing her to develop other relationships outside of her sister, would actually offer us nothing from a development perspective for both Yang and Ruby’s characters and would, instead, steer these two strong female characters down a path of co-dependency.

2 - It feels like a very easy excuse for Anti-BB folk to throw out there, conveniently forgetting how great of a sister Yang actually is (contrary to the number of RWDE videos I’ve seen arguing otherwise, as this is an essay I could write in itself). These very often take isolated incidents out of context and conveniently forget important information like Yang 1. Literally sacrificing herself twice to protect her sister 2. Sacrificing her entire childhood to raise her sister and 3. Importantly, the fact that Ruby is her (self-sufficient) Team Leader needs to be factored into their dynamic, as Yang gives her space to find herself as a leader and steps in when her sister actually needs her - not when the audience thinks she does. People hear ‘protectiveness’ and seem to think that this should mean that Yang should be overbearing.

3 - Anyone who says this doesn’t have siblings. I have older and younger siblings and, having largely raised my younger sibling, I can safely say that I still love them even when I’m in a relationship. I also feel extremely secure in arguing/disagreeing with any of my siblings because I inherently know they will still be there at the end of the day - a sibling love goes deep (referencing ‘Fault’ from Volume 8). However, in a romantic relationship that is not established and very new... you will feel insecure, that’s normal, it doesn’t have the luxury of established stability that siblings do, and therefore you will overtly express more anxiety about this as a result. It’s a very strange concept that if you have a sibling, you need to give them all of your attention and ignore any love interests. Yang has gone through her own traumas, she has every right to care about others, heal herself, and have a life that isn’t defined by being a caretaker for her sister. ESPECIALLY as she already gave up her childhood to fulfil this role, unselfishly AND as the person she’s bonding with is best poised to understand Yang’s trauma. Yang as a character deserves to receive the love she constantly gives out. Again, this is a demon born from the fact that it either doesn’t reflect the relationship commentors have with their siblings, or the fact that they’re *imagining* how that relationship should be.

Bonus picture below: Yang putting aside her anguish for Summer Rose, who she considered to be her mother, to prioritise comforting her sister about that same loss.

“I hate BB shippers because they pass off BS interactions as platonic. BS made more sense, there was no build-up to BB until Vol 6 and they let the BS build-up go to waste to force BB.”

First off, there’s nothing wrong with BlackSun as a ship. Shipping shouldn’t be dictated by canonicity and people have the right to ship it and to their opinions. And while a few of these seem to have referenced BS, I don’t actually think that BS shippers are at fault for the hatred coming this way, but rather that the ship seems to get used as ammunition from the Anti-BB crowd - to summarise, Anti-BB and BS shippers are not synonymous. I personally don’t ship BS, but I do enjoy the debate and actually think that Sun is a very important part of Blake’s development and arc. There did seem to be some form of mutual attraction between Blake and Sun. Had they gone down that route, I wouldn’t have hated it, I just never felt excited by it, which seems to be a large consensus amongst BB fans. An appreciation whilst feeling there was a better alternative.

Believing all the development between Sun and Blake was ‘wasted’ is also very closed-minded given how much he helped Blake in the White Fang arc and also disregards the importance of their friendship. BS has the potential to be one of the best and most supportive friendships in the series, I stand by that.

That said, I don’t think it’s entirely wrong to acknowledge that a lot of (not all) interactions between BS were platonic from Blake’s pov while Sun’s feelings were more explicit. The only real hint I saw of Blake reciprocating was a blush at the Vytal festival. Maybe the dance at a stretch, but there’s hints at both BS and BB and I will fight you on it. Now, it might be a question of timing; Adam was still a prevalent threat during this time which will have been weighing on Blake given the resurgence of the White Fang, and is clear when Adam rocks up seeking vengeance in Volume 3. For this reason, I honestly think it would have been disingenuous to have explored Blake in a full relationship with anyone at this point given these loose ends, and Blake undergoes a lot of development over volumes 4-6 as a direct result of this.

Additionally, if BB didn’t begin until Volume 6 then that means that BS had 4-5 volumes to happen - 2 of which where they were in their own arc, separated from the main cast. It didn’t happen. What happens instead is Blake’s guilt over Yang weighs heavily on her while she deals with her arc and Sun helps her come to terms with this, ultimately redirecting her back to her team, and Yang, while Sun’s interactions with her become increasingly platonic from his side.

Lastly, the only way you don’t see build up for BB, is if you actively will yourself not to see build-up. If you replace Blake and Yang’s moments with Sun, I don’t feel there’d be any misunderstandings on how these moments are supposed to be interpreted. Take off the hetero goggles, and we’re cool.

But on a sidenote and personal pet peeve of mine, the cries of ‘BB is forced while BS had build-up’ will forever irritate me - BB has a slow burn, a full arc, developed from a friendship and partnership as well as several tropes and allusions without going into too much detail. BS, firstly, never ended up happening, but it starts when Sun runs past, winks at Blake, magically knows she’s a faunus, then proceeds to follow around a girl he doesn’t know for two days who, at his own admission, didn’t speak that whole time. But... BB is forced? I’d say it’s subjective, but logic defies when this is the barometer for a natural introduction of a romantic pair.

“BB is ‘queerbait’”

Let’s address the ‘Goliath’ in the room, shall we? ‘Queerbaiting’ gets thrown around like a reflex at the moment by pseudo-fans who I don’t believe actually know the gravity of their statements or the meaning behind the word. I often see this slur paired with BB being strung out to keep the shippers watching. Now, there’s an essay in itself that could exist in this section, but are people really still clowning themselves that a show that’s explicitly shown that it wants to have queer representation in the cast and foreground is ‘queerbaiting’ it’s audience? Even weirder for me is the part of the FNDM saying that it’ll be baiting if they make BB canon. Please stop this nonsense and do some research.

Now, one thing I would like to tackle is that, sadly, some will still see pairings on the show through heteronormative glasses, so let me use that here. If the pair were a m/f couple and had several seasons of development and increasingly intimate moments, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that 1. It was heading in the direction of canon and 2. That it was a slow burn romance that’s building to its’ climax. Interestingly, the show actually does use the hetero goggles to frame BB on several occasions by paralleling this budding romance with several straight ships such as Arkos and Renora. Why? Because this is a narrative technique often used by writers to frame LGBT romances to separate them from ‘just friendships’ and, let’s face it, use an unconscious heteronormative bias to their advantage.

“BB is badly written, they barely interacted in volumes 1-3 then didn’t speak for two volumes.”

Tickle me pink. Volumes 1-3 are a very strange reference point for ‘in-depth’ development between characters. Crumbs, sure. The odd scene, absolutely. But let’s be real here - the show started as a low budget web series with an onus on cool fighting scenes and, most importantly, the episodes were around 5 minutes long whilst entertaining teams RWBY and JNPR, the White Fang, the Vytal tournament and several other plots. Nobody particularly interacted much but the writers did the best they could with what they had and the rest is left to us, the audience, to interpret that relationships are developing off-screen. Though from a critique POV in the interest of fairness, I would say the current season is a breath of fresh air by re-focusing the plot on the central characters as I think the show can sometimes be guilty of taking on too many plotlines.

As for volumes 4-5, while they’re in different continents, it’s obvious that they’re prevalent in each other’s arcs. Whether it’s Yang admitting she’s struggling with Blake’s abandonment - in the same episode the first lesbian character is revealed confessing their feelings to Blake (sidenote, all of team RWBY left Yang, and it’s Blake she’s mad at, this was always meant to be framed differently to her other teammates and IMO the struggle they go through is meant to frame the characters coming to terms with the depth of what they mean to each other), the parallels of them both getting onto the ship (named ‘Pride’ - wink wink), or Blake actively struggling to talk about Yang, yet referencing it when Sun is hurt (“Not again!”) showing it’s at the forefront of her mind. All of which culminates in their reunion in the Vol 5 finale.

Is it the best writing ever? No, nothing’s perfect. But they do explicitly use parallels throughout the series to drive the narrative forward as a foreshadowing tool to strengthen subplots.

“Blake being bisexual makes no sense - she was interested in Sun, it just seems so out of the blue, she and Yang just seemed like friends to me.”

Funny, because she and Sun seemed like friends to me too.

There are so many things I wanted to fire back at this, from the insinuation that if a woman first shows interest in a man then it’s out of the blue that she’s bisexual now that she’s showing interest in a woman... Like, how do you think it happens for bisexuals IRL?! Did you want her to burst onto the scene in Volume 1, announce she likes men and women, and then express explicit simultaneous interest in both of them? Start a harem? Proposition a throuple?

This particular take amuses me most of all as someone who is very openly bisexual. Yes, she and Yang seemed like friends. Great friends, in fact. That hold hands and blush and want to spend all their time together. And check each other out when the other isn’t looking. And make excuses for casual physical contact and flirt and giggle like a couple of giddy teenagers. Just like me and my ‘best friend’ did, before I realised I was bi. I’m sure that a lot of people thought it came out of the blue for me too. Blake being oblivious to being bisexual until it becomes too obvious to ignore is actually a very realistic scenario.

Bonus headline - just because you don’t understand/identify with something, doesn’t mean that it’s not good representation or realistic. I feel it’s also important to mention Blake’s VA, Arryn Zech, is bisexual and has spoken numerous times on the matter. The reason I bring this up is because it’s clear that the way in which the bisexuality of her character is presented on the show is actually something that’s incredibly important to Arryn - because good representation is significant.

Presenting labels and sexuality on Remnant: A Theory and - “BB is a terrible representation of LGBT and your critique ignores the female and LGBT people that have spoken out against it.”

They say, to someone who is both female and LGBT. Credit to the Anon who charged into my inbox to accuse me of the above - hope you enjoy. Now, there’s a couple of things I’d like to cover before I go into how sexuality is perceived in-universe. The first is that if you use this argument against someone who is queer without seeing the belligerent hypocrisy of your statement, please check yourself as, clearly, you only care about LGBT voices on representation when it aligns with your own rhetoric and ready to dismiss any narrative to the contrary from that same community.

Secondly, the queer/LGBT community is a vast and vibrant community of *individuals* with their own opinions and own voices. I didn’t nominate anyone to speak on my behalf, just as I don’t speak on the behalf of the rest of the community. Moreover, any art is open to interpretation. My opinion does not override theirs, nor does their opinion erase my own. And, believe it or not, it’s quite possible to have two or more differing opinions within one community without being at war with one another. I respect their opinion, just as I hope they respect mine.

We clear? Great. Onto the analysis! Huge shoutout to @crimsonxe for the brilliant discussion and assistance with the analysis in the comments that helped me construct this section! You’re awesome.

Let’s dive in with the headline - Homophobia doesn’t appear to be an issue on Remnant and labels don’t appear to exist, in the sense that it doesn’t appear anywhere in-universe. Now just to pre-emptively disclaimer: this may change, but in 9 volumes and however many supplementary materials, we’ve not heard any labels or had any representation of this type of discrimination. If that changes, I’ll happily remove this.

So why is this important, you ask? Ultimately, when you take away the inherent ‘fear’ that a lot of the LGBT community face IRL along with prevalent ignorance towards the community and society’s insistence on labelling sexualities and gender identity, it creates a world divorced from our own and is, from a narrative point of view, a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows the characters to explore themselves in a non-discriminatory environment that is inherently more fluid and free, whilst the audience will inevitably want to compare that to their own experiences. But we can’t - not properly - due to the still very real stigma and discrimination that exists in our own world. Instead, what we see are characters who express an interest in other characters and find other ways to allude to their preferences or identity. A prime example of this would be May, canonically a trans character, who does not use this term in-world but instead says, “To the Marigolds that meant I wasn’t their son, and I made sure everyone knew I wasn’t their daughter.” This is a theme that is poignantly reflected in the accompanying media for the series - such as the books; for instance, Coco, canonically lesbian, referring to “breaking the hearts of many women.”

How does this tie into the relationship with Blake and Yang? Glad you asked. If you bear in mind that Remnant has a very fluid outlook on sexuality and more of a ‘love who you love’ ethos which is blind to gender norms, it immediately subverts the assumption that interactions between m/f are romantic while f/f are platonic. It’s an open field, if you will. BB is a steady build from partner/best friend (though I’d argue that at least Yang had an immediate attraction, with Blake figuring herself out) with interactions that become increasing more intimate. Eye rolls and jokes become winks and innuendo (“I love it when you’re feisty!”), nudges become intimate hugs (Burning the Candle), become hand-holding (it isn’t coincidence that these two have held hands more than any other pair in the series), becomes pining, blushing, forehead touches (BB and Renora - remember those parallels), which evolves into flirting and... More. And yes, some of their interactions will still resemble the friendship they built their foundations on. But in a world where labels don’t exist, that journey from friend-to-lover is much more subtle and embedded in a gentle upwards curve of increasing intimacy.

“BB is only happening because the horrible BB fans demanded it, the show caved and gave in to the toxic fanbase, it wasn’t planned from the beginning.”

I’ve seen this in so many places, like a broken record. I have no doubt that there are BB fans that are fanatical, and I’d never justify the behaviour of any so-called fan that resorts to death threats or violence in any way. I’m hoping this surely must be a minority that has, hopefully, shrunk over the years as the audience has matured. However, this also really isn’t how shows work...

As many have pointed out in recent weeks, the show would be a very different landscape altogether if CRWBY were, in fact, that easily swayed by fans; namely, I’m thinking of Clover/Qrow, Pyrrha, Penny etc. While I don’t doubt that show-makers pay attention to the fanbase where needed and where it’ll be beneficial (seeing how fans react to developments, if allusions are clear etc.), sending death threats or whatever is actually much more counterproductive than anything else. But also... You’re not on the crew, you’re not part of those discussions. I feel confident that Miles, Kiersi and Kerry aren’t writing BB content with a gun to their head.

Lastly, the ‘it wasn’t planned from the beginning’ war cry is a tale as old as time. Like Beauty and the Beast. (See what I did there?) Asides from the fact that 1. Yang and Blake were actually the first created out of the team, and made with each other in mind, regardless of in what context (check out the original character designs/concepts) 2. Even if it wasn’t planned from the beginning, what difference does it make? There are tonnes of examples where the writers have felt the chemistry between two characters as the story’s gone on and decided to put them together (case-in-point from outside the anime world.. Chandler and Monica from Friends). In fact, while some writers like to plan every element of their plot from the beginning, there’s a great many writers who allow the characters to steer the plot as they grow - especially arcs with romantic undertones. The series was made predominantly for the action - it’s not a romantic series, so if they didn’t plan it from the beginning that wouldn’t be unusual, especially given that the episodes of the first few volumes are literally 5-10 minutes long. But regardless of whether the romance of the two was planned or not planned, it does not make it any less meaningful.

But let’s be real, the issue at heart isn’t that they weren’t sucking face in the first 3 seasons, it’s that they thought Blake would be with a guy, and she chose a girl. To which I say... Get over your bruised ego, and move on.

“BB fans deserve the hate they get because of x, y, z and cos it has toxic shippers.”

And you’re... Not... Toxic? If you’re an Anti-BB shipper and go out of your way to stalk and comment on BB tags/accounts just to harass shippers etc, then are you any better than the toxic fans you supposedly hate? To me, following BB tags and looking at BB content whilst being an Anti-BB shipper is so weird, why you trying to hurt your own feelings?

Also, saying that innocent shippers who are just living their best life should bear the burden of the toxic FNDM, is literally the definition of tarring everyone with the same brush. Some of us just want to eat our crumbs in peace, and from our POV, you’re the toxic ones being disrespectful. Bonus point: others being toxic does not give you licence to be hateful to anyone you come across that doesn’t agree with you.

“I’m no longer watching the show cos it’s trying too hard to be ‘woke’”

This ain’t an airport, you don’t need to announce your departure. But since you are, if your issue is the gay representation in the show then wake up and look around... We’re everywhere. The show is literally just reflecting the diversity you see day-to-day; but you keep sipping that haterade, my dude, we’re here to stay.

#anti rwde #rwby analysis #bumbleby #rwby

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j4desblurbs · 11 months

Text

DISTANCE

obi wan kenobi x fem! reader

welcome to my second fic! this took me quite a while cuz motivation ebbed and flowed, but here it is. please bear with me if there are grammatical errors or anything that just doesn’t sound right; i’m still navigating this writing thing. thank you so much to my bbg @retrosabers for proofreading & editing, & thank you all for reading! i hope you enjoy :)

summary: obi wan has noticed you straying away from him, and decides to find out why.

warnings: just some angst

word count: 2.4k

obi-wan noticed it, the way you walked straight past him in the hallways instead of stopping to say hello. the way you chose to sit alone at lunch instead of joining him, anakin, and ahsoka.

and it puzzled him, because the change in your behavior towards him was so sudden, like a switch had been flipped. he didn’t know what he had done, if he had done anything at all.

“is something wrong, master?”

obi-wan startles, turning towards ahsoka, who’s looking at him expectantly.

“you looked kinda upset. i just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” she gives a small shrug.

he clears his throat. “yes, everything is fine. thank you for checking.”

ahsoka nods hesitantly, and then leaves.

obi-wan sighs. he really must talk to you soon.

it was lunch time. he already knew you wouldn’t be willing to sit with him in the mess hall, but perhaps it was worth a try to talk to you anyway.

obi-wan sees you exiting the line for food, and making your way to the usual table in the corner. he moves towards you and to catches you by the shoulder.

“hello.” he greets softly. he’s not sure what else he can say.

“hi.” you manage. and then you start to walk away.

“wait!” obi-wan says hurriedly.

but you don’t stop. you’re walking away, and it’s no longer towards your table, but out of the mess hall altogether.

obi-wan’s heart sinks.

was what he had done so terrible that you couldn’t bear to hold the slightest interaction with him?

over the next few days, obi-wan continues to seek you out, to no avail. he barely sees you during lunch or in the halls, and he doesn’t dare to try your quarters.

he doesn’t know what to do. he desperately needs to speak with you, but he also doesn’t want to force you. all of this leaves him with quite the situation.

it’s in the nights, the restless, sleepless nights mostly spent by tossing and turning, that he decides to just take the first opportunity he can get and talk to you. it will drive him mad if he doesn’t.

several days pass before he sees you in the hall, and his feet are moving towards you before he can process it. he should stop, think this through before he does anything, but his rationality is overruled by his heart.

he calls your name, but you don’t turn back.

he says your name again, and it takes every ounce of your strength not to look at him. but when you hear him get closer, and feel his hand rest on the inside of your arm, you can’t keep your guard up any longer.

“obi-wan.” you say, turning to look at him. you had your suspicions that obi wan wasn’t taking your radio silence well, but you weren’t expecting him to look so defeated. while he still maintained his normal air as a jedi master, you could see the mental exhausation in his eyes, and you could feel his distress in the force.

he gives a wry smile, before his face falls. “i’ve been meaning to talk to you, but i wasn’t sure if- i didn’t want to overstep, or make you uncomfortable or anything of that sort.” he stops and folds his hands in front of him, twisting his fingers. he’s nervous.

“okay. what did you want to say?” you straighten your posture and fold your arms across your chest.

he awkwardly clears his throat. “do you want to go somewhere less…open?”

he’s looking at you so earnestly that you can’t help but oblige.

obi-wan leads you to a small clearing just outside the jedi temple that you used to frequent back when you were closer. it’s peaceful, ringed with flowers growing in patches and tall trees in the distance. there’s an old, once broken fountain in the middle that you got anakin to help you fix.

“i…haven’t been here in a while.” you admit, bending down to run your fingers over a patch of flowers.

he sits next to you by the patch, deftly picking a flower from it and tucking it behind your ear. he smiles softly when you turn to look at him, a smile you return.

“i have. it’s a nice place to come to when i…need to clear my head.” he looks back down at the flowers.

you nod almost imperceptibly before brushing your hands off on your pants and standing up.

“so, what did you want to say?” you look at him expectantly.

obi-wan pauses, collecting his thoughts. he wants to make sure that what he says comes across clearly; the last thing he wants to do is say something that would offend you and cause him to lose his chance to express his concerns with you.

“i feel as though you have been avoiding me in the past few weeks. i sensed that you were becoming more distant, drawn in, especially around me. i want to make sure everything is alright. that…i haven’t done anything wrong. because if i have, i’m so sorry, and i will do everything in my power to correct it.”

you hesitate. you know that you’ve been growing distant, and that obi-wan deserves to know why. he’s been nothing short of a kind and loving friend in your life, and seeing him so rattled by your change in behavior tugs at your heart strings. but that’s where the problem lied. you didn’t look at him as just a friend. your feelings for master kenobi were growing stronger as the days went by, and putting up walls between you two seemed to be your only answer to the problem.

you didn’t realize it was hurting him too.

you struggle putting your feelings into words, the jedi code at the forefront of your mind. you can’t possibly tell him how you feel, not when you know he’ll rebuke you, and you don’t think your friendship, or your heart, could survive that.

“obi-wan.” you begin, but your voice dies in your throat.

he gives you a look. the kind he always does when he knows you need to vent, and a crack begins to form on your heart. you can’t bear to lose him, but the weight of lying hurts just as much.

“the reason i haven’t been talking to you lately…is because i don’t want to lose you.” you fidget with your hands as you speak, unable to bring yourself to make eye contact with him.

“i….as i’ve started to get closer to you, i’ve found myself feeling for you in a way i hadn’t felt for anyone before. i didn’t know what it was at first, and once i did, i tried to deny it, but it just kept growing. i knew it was wrong.”

you’re starting to cry now, the tears welling in your eyes and falling down your face as you blink.

“so, i started to distance myself from you. i knew i could never have you, that you’d leave eventually, because…”

“because?”

you force yourself to look up at obi-wan, into his eyes, and you find that he is much closer to you than you expected. he’s looking at you with concern, the emotion so clear on his face that you’re taken aback. it takes you a moment to collect yourself enough to speak again:

“because everyone who i’ve ever loved has left me in the end.”

obi-wan has an expression that’s an unreadable mix of shock, sadness, and pain. something stirs in the force, a heavy weight pulling you closer to each other, and you find yourself buried in his arms before you can fully process it.

his arms envelope you in a hug that feels like home. he feels like home. a place your heart will always belong, and always want to be. finally, the dam breaks, and a wrecked sob escapes your lips as he pulls you closer.

obi-wan’s voice is strained, like he’s on the verge of tears himself. “you’re never going to lose me.”

he’s stunned. he can’t imagine anyone wanting to leave you behind. you, with your sweet disposition, the way you smiled at the younglings as you walked past them, occasionally stopping to entertain one, the way you were so dedicated to honing your skills, becoming the best jedi you could be, the way you treated everyone around you with respect and kindness and loyalty.

how could anyone let go of that?

obi-wan gently guides you out of his arms, but rests his hands on your elbows. you wipe your tears with your sleeve and make eye contact with him. you can tell he wants to say something.

“who? who….left you?” he asks, concern ever so evident on his face. his hands rub your arms softly, as an attempt to soothe you, let you know he won’t push you to form your answer.

the question almost makes you start crying again. after what feels like months of ignoring obi-wan, having him be so concerned for you makes you feel terrible. you swallow the lump in your throat before speaking:

“back home” you sighed. “i was friends with this girl. we were close, told each other everything.” you smiled sadly at the memories. “one day she started to become distant...” you paused. the attention in obi-wan’s gaze encouraged you to continue. “she started growing distant and then before i knew it, it was like we were strangers. like our friendship meant nothing.” you close your eyes and let out a deep breath. “i didn’t let myself make friends for a long time i was so rattled by it. and when i finally did, they all eventually fell down the same path. it made me think there was something wrong with me.” your voice broke on the last word, your throat burning with the arrival of fresh tears. “i had to be the problem. there had to be a reason why no one would stay.”

“my spirit...well i’m sure you can tell it hasn’t been the greatest.” you try and brush off your feelings with a forced laugh, but it only makes the crease between obi-wan’s brow deepen. “when i came to coruscant i thought it would be a fresh start, a new beginning. and it has been.” your eyes glimmer for a fleeting moment. “but i guess i’m still really scared.”

you take a deep breath, the weight in your chest finally lifted. you look at obi-wan expectantly, waiting for him to say something.

obi-wan’s hand moves from your elbow to rest on your shoulder.

“my love, i…i’m so sorry you had to go through that. i’m sorry you ever felt like….felt like you had to distance yourself from me.”

“you must know” his tone is hushed, bordering on pained. “you must know how i feel for you.” as he fully engulfs your face in his hand, thumb caressing your cheekbone to wipe away a stray tear, you see the adoration in his eyes. you feel the strength of the force pulling you together, intertwining your souls. obi-wan is nearly on the verge of tears when he admits: “i have loved you since the moment i first laid eyes on you. my heart is yours. it’s always been yours.”

you blink softly at his words, your mind running as it tries to process them. it feels like time had stopped, that the maker had granted you this moment to claim as your own, something that no one could take away from either of you. not the sith, not the council, no one.

“obi-wan….” you start, but you can’t form words. no words would be able to fully express your feelings, your relief at knowing that your love isn’t unrequited.

instead, you move forward, your hands coming up to hold his face and your forehead touching his. he relaxes into your touch, hands finding their way to the small of your back. he pulls you impossibly close, like if he lets you slip even the slightest bit away this will all have been a dream.

you breath fans over his face, lips a mere few inches apart. his ocean blue eyes flick up to yours, asking permission to do what you’ve been wanting for ages.

you whisper his name, a desperate grant of permission, and his lips are on yours. the kiss is all of the unspoken words from over the years; a soft and gentle, yet soulful and passionate way of saying “i love you. i’ll always love you.”

his lips are soft against yours, and his hands tighten on your waist. he’s warm, and solid, and you lean even closer into his touch.

suddenly, realization strikes you. you straighten, your hands coming away from obi-wan’s face slightly. his brows furrow, and his hands shift on your hips a bit.

“darling? what is it? what’s the matter?” his eye contact is so unwavering that you can’t help but falter a bit before voicing your concern.

your voice is barely audible. “the code obi-wan.”

he deflates, but only a little.

“what are we to do?”

obi-wan takes a breath, and then gently, one hand moves back up to rest on the side of your face.

“there’s nothing for us to do. this is ours to have. the council cannot punish us for something that they do not know of. we sacrifice enough as is. you and i deserve to keep this to ourselves. you may tell the people you keep close to you if you wish, but do not for a minute think that this belongs to anyone else.”

you pause to think. for all your time on coruscant, the jedi code has been a large part in the way you go about things. it has greatly influenced your decisions and behaviors. so now, directly disobeying the code and the council that you admire (and fear) so much feels foreign, and wrong.

you value the code. but you have values of your own. and one of those is being compassionate. showing the people you care about that you love them. obi-wan is right. this is yours to have. you’ve wanted nothing more than to love him, and to be loved by him in return.

now that this opportunity is within reach, are you really going to let it slip away?

you nod softly. you want this. you want to be with obi-wan. and you weren’t going to let anyone interfere with that.

after all your loneliness and pain, you deserved this much.

#star wars #obi wan kenobi #obi wan kenobi smut #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi wan smut #obi wan x reader #jade talks about obi wan

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jayteacups · 1 year

Text

Remedy

Struggling to keep up with your university workload, you fall sick, much to your dismay. Your boyfriend takes care of you, but Levi's spent too much of his life watching a loved-one struggle with illness, and can't help the rising fear within him when looking after you.

Pairing: Levi x fem!Reader

Tags and warnings: SFW, University AU, sickfic (Reader is ill), established relationship, some hurt/comfort. (EDIT: in one line, Reader’s hair texture is implied to be straight or wavy.)

Word count: 2.0k

A/N: I wrote this a few days ago when I first fell ill, and my symptoms have changed a little since then, but I digress. Reader’s got one hell of a sore throat and all round feels kinda bleugh (since then my sore throat has turned into a cough and my energy levels have NOT improved fml). This is your regularly scheduled reminder to get some rest, drink water and eat properly so you don’t end up like me or Reader here lol

The shifting of the mattress underneath you interrupts your slumber, and a small whine of discontent escapes you. You feel oddly disoriented, a film of exhaustion clinging to your eyes.

“Sorry,” you hear your boyfriend whisper quietly from behind you, as he readjusts the cover over your shoulder and slips an arm around your waist. “Go back to sleep.” Nimble fingers slip through your hair softly.

“Mm. Okay,” you rasp, burying your face into the pillow, sighing at the welcome contact of Levi’s chest pressing up against your back. You’d spent the entire day slaving away at the library, desperately trying to force your overworked brain to focus and catch up on uni work, and his touch was sorely missed, and—“wait…”

He kisses the back of your head. “What?”

You just about manage to force your eyes open, focusing on the lamp on the bedside table. You’re in your room, judging by the random paraphernalia placed atop it. Levi’s room, to nobody’s surprise, is much less messy. “How’d I get back here? Was at the library.”

“D’you not remember?”

“… no…” Eyes drifting shut again of their own accord, you sigh drowsily.

“You must’ve been really out of it, then.” Levi sighs, holding you a little tighter to his chest. “You fell asleep at the desk, and Hange phoned me so I could come pick you up, since they needed to stay a little longer. I woke you up and you miraculously didn’t fall back asleep on the drive back, but you were practically a zombie the entire journey.”

“Oh.” His words are starting to sound a little fuzzy, but you just about understand them.

“You need to take care of yourself. I’ve never seen you this out of it.”

“I still need to catch up with work; I’m so behind,” you protest, cut off by a yawn. If you’d been more awake in the moment, hot shame would be running through your veins at just how bad of a student you’d become. You’d always been on top of things, and you’re still not sure how you’d fallen so far behind on lectures, assignments, everything. Struggling to wake up on time, struggling to drag yourself to classes, struggling to care at all; only until you’re hit with the sudden realisation that if you continued, you’d be so far behind it’ll be impossible to even consider catching up to your peers. Hence—the last few days of panicked overworking. But even then, you still can’t work as efficiently as you once could, and it just feels like the more you work, the larger the list of tasks to complete…

You’re too tired to care about it now, though. That’s a problem for tomorrow.

“Wake me up early.” Your tongue feels too heavy to formulate the words properly, but you hope he understands.

Levi clicks his tongue—of course he understands. “Not a chance. You’re going to make yourself sick if you keep at it like this.”

You’re deeply asleep by the time he finishes the final word.

———

You wake up to a dry throat and golden light trickling through your curtains.

Sluggishly, you roll over. The other side of the small mattress where Levi had been is now empty and cold.

Groaning, you wonder why all your limbs feel heavier than concrete blocks. Even your eyes are struggling to open, more so than last night. Feeling an unpleasant, dull ache in your throat, you swallow to get rid of the dryness in your mouth.

Shit. Your throat hurts.

I cannot be ill. Not now.

Against your body’s wishes, you open your eyes (the sun is definitely way into the sky, judging by the light seeping through the curtain gaps), lift an aching arm and turn the alarm clock to face you, bleary-eyed and blinking slowly at the time displayed. Confirming your suspicions, the clock tells you that it is quite late in the morning… much later than you’d hoped to… wake…

When you next come to, you want nothing to bury yourself so deeply into the covers that you fuse with the quilt permanently. A warm hand rests gently on your forehead, taking your temperature.

You call out Levi’s name—or at least, you think you did, but for all you know it could’ve come out as an incoherent mumble instead. Throat feeling worse than before, you can’t help but grimace. Levi’s hand moves away from your forehead, coming to cup your face tenderly instead. His thumb brushes over the apple of your cheek.

“Are you awake?” He ventures.

You open your eyes again, and squint up at him. He’s perched on the side of the bed, his hair falling over his eyes.

“I think I’m awake now.”

He looks down at his lap for a moment. “You look like crap.”

“Yeah. I don’t feel all too sunny, either.” You grouse, lifting a hand to rub at your face.

“That’s what I thought.” Something clenches in his jaw momentarily, before it smooths out. “Feel like drinking anything?”

It is only then you finally register the fragrance of a hot drink. “You didn’t,” you say hoarsely, turning your head to the side. A cup of steaming hot tea sits atop the bedside table. Dragging yourself up into a sitting position with a supportive hand on your shoulder from him, you say, “you’re too good to me, baby, thank you.”

Bashfully avoiding eye contact, Levi squeezes your shoulder before removing his hand. “Your voice sounded a little rough last night, too. At least you don’t have a fever, but… just drink up.”

Beaming at him, you comply. It tastes bright and sweet, just the way you like it—no, sweeter. He’d put a spoonful of honey in it to soothe your throat.

As you slowly sip your tea in bed, Levi disappears, likely to continue with household chores around the flat—chores that you should be doing today, since you and your flatmates created a rota. Currently, two are out of town and one’s been staying over at her boyfriend’s place more and more, so the entire accommodation is yours for now.

Tamping down on the guilt flaring up inside you, you set the empty teacup aside and lumber over to the bathroom, wincing at all the little aches and pains that comes with moving around in this state.

Freshening up takes far more effort than it should, forcing you to shamefully trudge back into your bedroom once you’re done. Flopping on your bed face-first, you moan.

“Hey,” Levi says from your doorway. “I emailed your professors. They’ll send you the material, and if you want, I can go to your lectures and take notes too.”

“You’re a godsend,” you groan from the bed. “No need to go to my classes for me, though. The digital handout will be just fine.”

He sighs. “Okay. Do you want to eat something too? It’s past noon.”

“No thanks, I’m not feeling hungry.” You sigh, clenching the sheets in trembling fists. The hot searing shame from the last few days has returned. You’re so fucking incompetent. “Please, don’t do my chores. It’s okay. I’ll do ‘em later, yeah?”

“I don’t mind doing them.” Levi’s footsteps approach the bed before you feel a dip in the mattress. He smells like antiseptic, the scent sharp and invading your nostrils. “Cleaning is therapeutic for me.”

The guilt comes creeping back in. No wonder he’s also been looking stressed every time you see him—he’s worried beyond grief for you. You don’t know the full details, but you know that his mother has ongoing health issues ever since his childhood, and that there had been a number of close calls and scares. Therefore, it’s not a surprise to you that he’s always been extra anxious about illnesses, mild or severe, or that he takes to intense cleaning sprees whenever somebody in his life falls ill.

You turn your head and crane your neck - he’s wearing a surgical mask over his lower face. “I’m sorry for making you worry,” the words slip from your mouth before you can think. “I promise it’s not that bad, I’m just a weakling… I’ll feel better soon, I swear.” you chuckle half-heartedly, frustrated beyond belief and trying to make the mood light-hearted to distract both of you, but judging by his furrowed brows, Levi doesn’t find any of this amusing. Neither do you, though. There’s absolutely nothing amusing about being such a shitty, undeserving student and girlfriend who fell ill due to her own fault and forced her boyfriend to put everything on hold to look after her.

He shakes his head instead, eyes darkening with sorrow. “Don’t promise me. Just do it. Just… get better soon.”

Wincing, you roll over so that you are now flat on your back and looking up at him properly. “It’s probably just fresher’s flu or something similar, nothing I won’t get over…” Your voice wobbles. “I’m sorry all the same, but please, don’t worry.”

Stormy eyes flutter shut for a moment. His next words sound heartbreakingly strained. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry or that I shouldn’t worry, damn it, you just have to get better, alright?” He swallows, and then moves to get up. Quieter, he adds, “let me know if there’s anything you need from me to help you do that, i-if there is anything I could do at all.”

Tears prick at your eyes. Damn it all—you weren’t feeling emotional at all ten minutes ago. Yet all the shame at your own shortcomings, the exhaustion from what little you did today, and worry for Levi’s sake come bubbling to the surface. The tears leak, and run across your temple and into the pillowcase. Sniffling, you wipe roughly at your face with one hand, and lurch out with the other to grab at his hand.

“Just stay, please.”

He freezes.

Time ticks by slower than a snail’s pace.

His hand closes around yours. Moisture gathers at his lash line, but he refuses to let them fall.

“I’ll stay.”

You smile weakly, shuffling to make room for him on your tiny bed. Cautiously, Levi sits on the edge, noting your wincing.

“You’re in pain,” he observes. “I can get paracetamol.”

“Just a little achey all over,” you sigh. “I’ll take a tablet or two in a minute, yeah? Just… be here with me. Please.”

He tilts his head. “I have an idea.”

“Oh?”

“Get on your front. I’ll give you a massage.”

You comply, but not without taking his hand and squeezing it first. “Like I said,” you say as you shuck off your sleep shirt and get yourself in position, “you’re too good to me. I’m going to be just fine, because you’re here, okay?”

He shakes his head. “Don’t be like that. It was never about me and I shouldn’t have made it so. You shouldn’t be worrying about me. Just relax and enjoy the massage now.”

“But I can’t help but worry—oh.” Levi’s hands grip your shoulders, rubbing firmly, but not painfully. “Oh. Yeah, keep going.” Burying your face in the pillow, you let your eyes flutter shut. In another context, there would be something undeniably erotic about this entire situation, but now? You just want to bask in his comfort.

“Tired?” Levi asks as your sounds of relief and words of encouragement fall sparser and sparser until the room is filled with nothing but silence.

“Mm hm.” You smile drowsily. “I’m good, though, thank you baby.”

“Get some sleep, then,” he says, as you readjust your arms that were resting underneath the pillow. “You deserve some rest. It’ll help you later with work. Okay?”

“Yeah.” You nod, unable to open your eyes all of a sudden. There’s still so much the two of you need to discuss later: his anxieties when it comes to illnesses, your insecurities and struggles when it comes to university life. But, you think, being lulled gently by a wave of sleep, that can be discussed later.

Right as you dangle on the precipice of sleep, another question escapes unbidden. “Can I get a kiss?”

You hear something akin to a chuckle above you. “No. Get better first, and then I’ll consider it, love.”

“It’s a deal,” you mumble, and your consciousness fades to the best sleep you’ve gotten in a long, long time.

Masterlist

#levi x reader #levi ackerman x reader #levi x y/n #levi ackerman x y/n #levi x you #levi ackerman x you #levi x mc #levi ackerman x mc #levi fluff #levi ackerman fluff #levi x oc #levi ackerman x oc #aot x reader #snk x reader #attack on titan x reader #shingeki no kyojin x reader #reader insert

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fantasy-anatomy-analyst · 1 year

Text

DnD 5e goblins and bugbears

are these designs racist? Well, as I am white, I can't really say I'm the expert on this particular concern, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone else point it out, so take this with a grain of salt.

They probably aren't intentionally racist designs. They do make me feel uncomfortable. I haven't finished my redesign for them yet, but I wanted to get this post started since I have other big projects to get to and if I just go straight to those, I will continue to forget about this one. So let's get started!

(image description: the official dnd 5e art for goblins and bugbears. They're related species, though the bugbear is much taller and covered in fur, while the goblin is very small and mostly hairless. they both have large triangular ears and a rounded hook nose with no bridge. The goblin has very yellow skin, the bugbear has very orange fur, and both have red-yellow eyes with flared eyebrows. Their weapons and armor look a bit scrappy, with bones and spikes and metal studs all over the design. notes on the image will be explained below. end description)

the fur color can probably be given a pass because it's fur, but the goblin's skin is so yellow. By itself, I don't think that would be enough to call it a bad design choice, but it is a little odd. what really makes me suspicious are the face shapes, especially the nose and eyebrows. And also the armor. There's not much armor, and it doesn't look like an exact match for any specific type of armor. Honestly I think it's a mix of inspirations, since the bugbear's leather skirt thing does look more like typical roman-inspired battle skirts. but there's enough going on with layered panels and metal studs, mixed with hide and bone and spikes for that "primitive" flair, that I do wonder a bit.

I gathered a few images that these designs reminded me of, as a visual reference.

(image description: both images contain screenshots of the huns from the animated disney Mulan film. The first image also shows old samurai armor and mongolian armor. the armor all has similar designs of layered metal and/or leather with metal studs all over it. The second image contains close ups of the goblin and bugbear faces with the animated film hun characters for comparison. They do all have similarly flared eyebrows and eye colors, as well as some similarities in the nose designs. end description)

Just, kinda makes me uncomfortable. Feels like someone should have double checked their work a bit before finalizing these monster designs. It's not blatant enough to be like, really on purpose, I don't think? I could be wrong, I very well may be missing some details. But the similarities to the hun designs alone are enough to make me say "oh gee, this doesn't seem right." Honestly, I think it's part of a larger trending problem with monster design. There are just some visual features that get used as the universal indicators that these creatures are Evil by nature. These features typically include some form of hooked nose, "primitive" armor, weapons, and clothing, and facial shapes that are angular and blocky, with a very heavy brow.

as a result of these common "evil" visual features, it's kind of inevitable that humanoid monster designs will end up feeling racist in some manner. It's much easier to avoid accidental racism with more animal or insectoid monster designs, but everyone always wants sapient-ish enemies they can use as cannon fodder, with even more humanoid final bosses. So they default to these visual traits again and again, because those are just the visual traits that have always been used. So it's an ongoing issue. Heck, if I tried to design evil humanoids from scratch for a job, I'm sure someone above me would request edits to give them the more obvious "evil" traits so they look more scary and intimidating. this is an industry problem more than an individual one. I hope I've helped point it out here, so more people can recognize it and add their own commentary.

I am also working on a redesign for these, in as close a stye match as I can manage. here's a WIP sample:

(image description: in the first image, a sketched redesign of the goblin and bugbear. Their noses and ears have been altered to look more bat-like, with prominent fleshy ridges on the noses that stick up away from the face. In the second image, the goblin is mostly finished with new colors and altered armor. It is now wearing a short leather wrap with strands of leather or hide hanging off the belt, alongside the arm bracers and leg bracers that were already there. Its skin is now a pale grey color and its hair has been redone as short bristly fur, with facial whiskers on the brow and chin. The bugbear has not been repainted, but it has been cut up and repositioned in preparation for the repaint. end description.)

fixed the poses while i was at it, making the goblin a little more dynamic and the bugbear a little more balanced. They're cave dwellers, so i went further with the bat-like features and the pallid complexion like other cave dwelling creatures have. It's going to take a while to repaint these, so this WIP will have to do for now. I hope it shows how a similar art style can be maintained while also making the designs a little more interesting and not so reliant on racist features.

#goblin #bugbear #dnd 5e #redesign process #creature critique

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grippingbeskar · 2 years

Text

The Element of Surprise | Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen: The Jump

mando x fem!reader

word count: 6.8k

warnings: ADULT CONTENT MINORS DNI (oral f recieving, m masturbation, overstimulation, kinda dom vibes) general sexual content, swearing

a/n: WOW FINALLY. I was feeling so unmotivated but all your lovely little messages and comments brought out my inspo!!! so yay another chapter!! im hoping to finish writing the story in the next couple weeks but I cant believe how far this has come WOW. anyways ill go now love u all bye!

p.s idk how well this is edited but just ignore the typos if they r there okay okay bye

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

“What even is a Mythosaur?” Din sticks a hand out to stop you as another ship whizzes past, your eyes not moving fast enough to track it as it disappears into the distance.

Corellia isn’t as ‘city like’ as you first thought. The buildings are smaller, shorter, but there’s just as many people crammed into them. Ships fly up and down the narrow streets, and you swear they are going to burst into flames when they inevitably smash into each other, but they never do.

“Like a big bug. With two legs. Giant.”

“Now you’re just making things up.” You roll your eyes as you round the corner, and you just hear him huff, making sure the kids crib clears the corner of passing traffic before returning his attention to you.

“I’m not. Things are fast, too. Ran me all the way across the desert.”

“Sure it did. Did it lead you to the end of a double rainbow? Pot of gold at the end?” Dins hand grabs on to your forearm to stop you from crossing the road. Just as you look up at him, a giant golden ship shoots past, kicking up dust and sending a gush of wind straight into your face, pushing you back a little. “You know, I can see the face your making right now.”

“Go.” Din breathes, and only because you’ve been studying him so closely do you pick up the light tone in between, and you know he’s smiling.

You’d both been walking for about twenty minutes, arguing lightheartedly about stupid things that pop into your head, and you had been taking the piss out of him about it for that entire time. Everything seemed simple, so straightforward, and it made you think about how long this was going to last. The only other time you had felt this safe, this sure that where you were was exactly where you were supposed to be was when you were a kid. You felt more free than you ever had, and stronger than before.

Just being around the kid made you better, more connected, and now that you had somewhere to focus your energy, things seemed to come more naturally to you. It was always the thing you had struggled with the most - trying to quiet your mind for longer than three seconds to actually get something done, but here it was almost easy. You hadn’t said anything to Din, but when you were piloting his ship, everything seemed so much clearer when he was there next to you, so you had been conducting little experiments of your own.

You tried to focus elsewhere, on the kid or on your own happy places like when you were younger, but nothing helped clear your mindset, helped you reset like when you imagined him. He was impossible to not think of, so you leaned into it, and found you were stronger for it. Every time you tried to lift something through the Force, tried a new technique with the kid, you honed in all of the racing thoughts your mind constantly flashed of Din, and streamlined them into your own personal muse. It worked; a bit too well. You had noticed an almost overflow of energy, and you were restless - antsy to let it out.

“In here.” A large hand rests on the small of your back, directing you into the side of a building. As you pass through the door, you see a glimpse of the main hall, fit with a small circular bar in the centre and a couple people milling around the outside. Din keeps you moving straight up the stairs, not even looking into the room.

You jog up four flights of stairs before you finally stop, and you try to hide how out of breath you were. You see the flash of a light and then the door opens.

“Wh- do we not have to, like, pay for it?” Din pushes into the room, and drops the small pile of bags down at the front. You follow him inside and let your back pack slide off your shoulders, flinging it into the door at the end of the hall and watching as it skids along the hard wood floor.

“An old friend.” He says simply, as if it’s enough to answer why you snuck up the side of the building and broke into an empty room. At least you hope it was empty.

“Since when do you have friends?” Another door opens, and with a low mumble of something you don’t catch Din slides the kid out of his crib and lets him on the floor. Immediately he waddles into the hallway between rooms, and you see him flip a couple times in the air before disappearing around a corner, a few clicks signalling him opening and closing doors as he explores. You can’t help the little smile that appears - just a few days ago he was hopeless at getting in the air, but now he’s flipping around without a care in the world. Din turns to look at you silently before moving towards another doorway to the left and walking through it, this time leaving the door open.

This place must be huge. As you move further into the apartment looking space, you look down the hallway to momentarily catch Grogu’s giant head wandering into the kitchen, door shuttering closed behind him.

Of course he would find the food first.

You turn your attention back to the door Din left open, and walk inside of it, breath catching in your throat. You don’t see him at first, too distracted by the space. The room is plain; light coloured sandy walls surround you, and you think you see a light on in the bathroom under the closed door. You take another step, and don’t bother searching for Din because your eyes are fixated on the thing in front of you.

A bed.

A giant, gloriously fluffy bed, complete with enough blankets and pillows to take up almost half of the mattress. You jump, flopping your entire body onto the soft covers and sigh into them, practically sinking. As much as you love your little place on the Razor Crest, that tiny cot has made your back lock up on more days than it hasn’t.

Your arms spread out not even touching the opposite side of the bed, and you stretch, enjoying the enormous space. Pushing some of the pillows off onto the floor you shuffle yourself up higher, and it’s then that you hear the door to the bathroom open. You flip over, but not fast enough to react before he’s on you.

Within a second Din covered the length of the room and landed on top of you, straddling you to the bed and pinning your arms above your head. He was still in his full armour, and the image in front of you was almost a little daunting. You had seen him in armour the entire time you had known him, and even seen him above you like this, but there was something about the way his chest was dragging heavily with each breath, and how one of his gloved hands easily held both of your wrists above you that sent a swirl of heat and a little bit of fear through your whole body, and your toes curled in response.

“Hi princess.” He whispers above you and you have to close your eyes to hide the effect. He lowers his body so he presses against you, the cool metal burning your skin in the best way. “Not so talkative now?”

“Hu-h?” You try to open your eyes, but he’s just so damn close to your face, staring straight at you that you have to shut them again.

“You’ve been on my ass all day. Pissing me off.” Okay, now you look at him. You try to hide the little smirk of excitement that bursts through your face, and your cheeks flush under his accusation. You’d only been poking fun, but seeing him like this makes you think you might have to try a little harder next time, just to see what he’d do.

“Have I?” You tilt your head underneath him, and feel his grip tighten on your wrists.

“Smart-ass.” His free hand rests on your hip, pulling up your shirt slightly to expose skin. The marks of his hands he left days ago still remain, and you watch as he lines up his fingers with them, picturing just how they got there. Goosebumps appear where he touches, and he looks up at you to watch your face as he begins to slide your pants down. You shimmy trying to quicken the action, but he stops when he notices you moving.

“Stop.”

“Din, I-“

“I said stop.” The voice he uses make you listen immediately, and your hips stop their desperate attempt to be free of the fabric. “I want you to listen to me. Keep your hands there.”

Still straddling you, he lets go of your wrists and you obey. The rip of velcro frees the skin of his hands. You don’t think you will ever get over the way he takes off his armour, piece by piece like he’s unwrapping himself just for you. It’s a bit of a possessive thing, you think. Knowing that he only shows those parts of himself to you, and he does so without hesitation.

You watch him as he works through the process, not touching you apart from the weight of his body on your lower half. He undoes buckles, unties knots and slides off pieces of beskar methodically, never taking his eyes off you. It feels like it takes forever, much longer than it ever has before, and every time he takes off something new or a tighter part of clothing is revealed it gets harder and harder to keep still. When he finally gets to his undershirt your a wriggling mess, shifting and fidgeting until you forget what you were meant to be doing and you lift your hands up, fingertips finding the hem of his shirt. The helmet drops and your hands still - remembering suddenly.

“What’d I say?” Your eyes widen and you let go of his shirt, putting your arms back over your head the way he left them, but rolling your eyes as you do it.

“Such a good girl.”

You are pretty sure you stop breathing. He’s called you a million names, praised you a hundred times and somehow every time it just makes you fucking hotter. Right now, though, it almost seems different. It’s like he expects it from you. Like you should do it. There’s a tiny part in you that wants to be defiant just for the sake of it - just to see how he handles it, but first you want to see where he’s going with this.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Close your eyes.” You do, so fast and missing any of that defiance you were so sure of only seconds ago. You feel his thumb come up against your face before four strong fingers find the back of your neck and lift you up slightly. With your head hovering above the flat of the mattress, the hiss of his helmet fills your ears and you feel warmth all around your head. It’s dark, and all encompassing. You know you have your eyes closed but it was light outside, so what is it suddenly so dark?

“Open them.”

It’s still unbelievably dark, and you let yourself adjust to your new surroundings. It takes a second, but as each of your senses relax, you figure it out. Your eyes see nothing, but you can smell him all around you. The warmth against your cheeks wraps around the back of your head, and you only notice it because of the line of cool metal that rests at the base of your neck.

Are you-

“Din?” Your voice makes you jolt, and you hear him laugh above you, feeling the sound on your collarbone. It was the only way you could tell how close he was. The sounds you made were unfamiliar - metallic. It was similar to hearing Din, but high pitched and a little squeakier, which made you laugh along with him. He must have shut the visor off, because there’s no way he could see out of this thing like this.

“Is that what I sound like?” Din says between kisses that he leaves along your shoulder, working his way down slowly, slipping over the bunched up fabric on your shirt around your chest. You shake your head, and realise how heavy the helmet is when it swings you both ways.

“You wish.” His teeth nip at your skin and you let out a squeak, the mood slowly falling back into darkness, your breathing slower but more desperate.

“Mm.” He shuffles down your body, giving himself room to slide your pants off completely, taking your underwear with them and leaving you naked from the waist down. The bed dips and suddenly his mouth is kissing at your stomach, licking at your rib cage and then your hips, spending a little extra time appreciating those fading bruises at each one. “No more smart ass comments.”

“Do-“ He nips at your skin again and your whole body reacts, a modulated moan breaking the silence as he licks over the mark. He sighs and his forehead rests on your lower stomach, his hair tickling your skin.

“Stop making this so hard, baby.” Swallowing, you move a little underneath him but keep your hands above your head. “Say something if you want me to stop.”

“What do I say?” Your heart was starting to race in anticipation. You can’t imagine him doing anything you would want to stop, but it just makes you melt even further into the soft mattress, knowing how safe you are with him.

“Choose.” He keeps kissing, every inch of skin open to him, and you shudder when he kisses the top of your thigh - an indicator he’s moving closer.

“Mythosaur.” You say half heartedly, and he snorts, his face pressing into the top of your thigh. You can feel his smile on your skin and your whole body flushes thinking about what he would look like smiling.

“You are not going to remember that.” Muffled, he moves to the other side, continuing his slow pace.

“Yes I will. Just - keep going. I will.” Your legs tense and the soft material of the covers feel soothing when you scrunch them up in your fist. Your trying your best to do what he says but all you want to do is grab his head, breathing is suddenly becoming harder inside of this suffocating helmet and you are so hot and this thing is so tiny -

“Shh. Deep breaths. Just take a minute.”You nod and his hand spreads across your tummy, soothing circles bringing your mind to attention. “Relax, cyar’ika.”

The reminder he’s still there is enough to calm you, and you feel the soft, spongey interior of the helmet become less squishy and more comfortable with every breath. Whatever he tells you, you do. Okay. Easy.

“Why is it so dark?” He drags his nose along your upper thigh, and you feel his head drop back against your skin.

“Blacked out the visor. Use it to sleep.” He murmurs against your skin, and everything feels electric when he starts to move again. “You okay?”

“I- yeah. Yes. Yep.” Broken words drop into the room in a metallic pitch and he breaths a laugh at your mangled sentence.

“You look so fucking good like this.” He hooks his arms around your legs and positions himself between you, letting your body completely relax and taking the weight off your thighs. You know how soaked you are, you can feel it as he breathes against you, waiting - for what you aren’t sure. “I- been too long I- say something if you need me to st-“

He cuts himself off as he tastes you - finally - and you start shaking immediately. He always has you strung so tight it’s impossible to control yourself, and one strong arm comes to hold you down across your hips, pinning you into the bed. He takes your clit into his mouth and sucks, tongue trailing after and drawing lines and circles that drive you dizzy.

You can’t stop your hands as they come down to find his hair, tangling into the slightly damp mess. He groans, the sound vibrating straight into your core and even though the helmet keeps you in the dark your vision starts to spot. The other hand that was holding your thighs open comes between them, and you drop your legs open - inviting as he slides and curls one finger inside of you.

“Oh sh-shit Din. That’s it.” He responds to your praise by applying more pressure, and your back arches into him, the arm holding you down coming under your lower back and holding you against his face.

“S’sweet, but such a fuckin’ smart-ass.” He murmurs. The sounds of his tongue is almost amplified in the helmet and you moan out again. Din was a whole body experience, and only after a minute or two he had you reeling - arching and swearing, inching closer to your release. “Gonna shut you up now.”

“O- ah fuck D-“ He adds another finger and curls it straight into your core. Every tight muscle relaxes and tenses and everything spins, the extra sensory deprivation of the helmet making everything grittier. His tongue flattens, tasting as much as he possibly can and you pull on his hair - but it’s when he takes your clit back into his mouth and you feel his fucking teeth-

You say his name in a long, drawn out moan as you cum in his mouth, and he does nothing to draw you out of it other than utter small praises in between your gasps. His hold on you is tight and unrelenting as you black out under the pressure, your legs swinging around the back of him and pulling him closer.

He doesn’t stop like you expect.

Doesn’t slow down, doesn’t let you recover before sending you straight back into the mind numbing pleasure. You can’t see him, and his mouth is so concentrated on the patterns he’s drawing with his tongue that you can’t hear him talking. All you can decipher is your own metallic version of his name and the wet sounds of yourself mixing with his mouth and fingers.

“You get so f-fucking wet af-“ He sucks and bites and licks in between words, every movement making your hips buck “after you cum.”

“D-din it’s- i’m-“

“No. You’re gonna take what I g-give you, cyar’ika.” He dives back into your heat, fingers working you faster and his thumb replaces his tongue. Everything is hot and the arch in your back presses your shoulders further into the fluffy blanket behind your head. All the sensations mixed with his words and how fucking good his mouth feels has you-

“Fucking h-hell- shitshitshit so good-“ Your eyes screw shut even though you can’t see and you roll your entire body into him just to be closer. His hand wraps around you tighter, the entire lower half of your body controlled in his grip making it impossible to escape the pleasure spreading up your spine and across your stomach. “Din- I th-think I’m gonn- cum.”

“Th-that’s it. Good g-girl.” Your second orgasm bursts like a balloon inside of you, starting low in your core and exploding over your entire body, and it’s seconds after that you are shivering underneath him, completely overwhelmed.

You can tell how wet you are, the blankets underneath you soaked with the evidence but he still doesn’t let up. Somehow he feels closer than before, lips and tongue seemingly everywhere at once and his fingers pump in and out of you, every time making your hips and stomach tense and jolt.

“Din pleasepleaseplease- s’much I’m g-“ Floating and completely molded to how he’s holding you, he never pulls away too far that his mouth isn’t on you, lips brushing your overly sensitive clit when he speaks. He kisses it and lets his fingers come all the way out before curling them back in.

“Fuckin’ bratty before. Want my nice girl back.” You weren’t sure if he was talking about the walk here, or when you made fun of him while you were dropping the ship off, or maybe when you sucked him off so good he was about ready to give you anything you asked for - there were so many times he could be paying you back for but you don’t care - you just need him now. “Pissed me off.”

“B-but i’ll be- f-fuuuck i’ll be so good I sw-“ Another kiss to your clit has you crying out, and you swear you nearly cum just from the light touch. His mouth draws a circle all around your pussy, gathering as much of your cum as possible and taking it into his mouth before returning to your clit. Tears start to form on your eyes because it’s so much but it’s so good-

“Still with me, cyar’ika?” His lower lip drags over your clit and you try to nod, but the helmet is so heavy that you just squirm, one hand leaving his hair to lift your body up and make the movement possible. He takes his mouth off you for the first time in what feels like hours and you miss it instantly - your body squirming to search for him in the simulated darkness. “You gonna be sweet to me now? Know you can be.”

“Maker - whatever you want, Din. I promise okay-“

“That’s it, princess. Always know exactly what I wanna hear.” His words are so sweet but he just keeps fucking going and god- there’s no way to hold back the sounds of your sobs because it feels like he’s electrifying you, every movement sending waves of pleasure that make you flinch. Your hands are grasping at strands and you feel the bed dip again as he gets on his knees, pulling your lower half into the air, one arm still wrapped around you.

He has complete control, just like he had the entire time, and your legs drag up his back to wrap loosely around his neck, although your muscles are so strung out that you can’t really find a grip. You just fold and crumple the way he wants you to - doing whatever he wants and crying out his name as you cum again and everything goes white.

The sounds are so strange it’s almost disconnected that it’s coming from you - modulator buzzing as you babble praise and curses in no particular way, just whatever you can wrap your head around in the moment. You aren’t surprised you end up just repeating his name because he is all you can think about as pleasure shoots and crackles through every nerve ending. Somewhere in between you fall back onto the mattress and he switches hands, hearing a few quiet whispers of praise before he groans and shudders against you. When he finally settles, he has you whimpering and sighing the minute his mouth comes off you and his hand finally leaves your warmth, gently placing you into the soft blankets, throwing the ruined one to the side and placing you on the clean, fluffy covers.

At some point he slides the helmet off, because your eyes are still closed but you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face. It’s the sensation that starts to draw you back to your body, that and the warmth at your back when Din curls up behind you, his bare thighs intertwining with your own. You don’t remember him taking his pants off, but then again you don’t remember much except the way his mouth feels against you. It makes you shudder against him when he presses that same mouth to the back of your neck - soothing.

“I love you.” Every part of your body sinks into him at those words, and the arms wrapping you closer bring the biggest smile to your face.

“I love you.” You whisper back, and you feel the same reaction when he smiles on the back of your neck.

“You okay? It wasn’t too- too much, was it?” He runs his hand up your thigh, and you can still feel the slight shake in your legs at the feeling of him. You like that - a reminder that he was there.

“No. Fuck no. S’good. Just sleepy.” You mumble. You can’t help it - this bed is so big and fluffy, and he feels so good wrapped up behind you that you don’t care it’s the middle of the day. The time zones you’ve been travelling through have your sleeping schedule all out of whack - so crashing right now feels like absolute heaven. He leans up to kiss your temple and drops back behind you.

“I have to go tonight. I’ll leave the comm link out for you. You’ll be okay in here, though.” Almost forgetting why you were here, you just nod and link your fingers together. “When I come back, I need to- to talk to you about something.”

Suddenly sleep is not an option.

Talk to you? About what? Why did he say it like that? Oh maker - is he kicking you out? Did something happen with the kid? Maybe he finally found that Jedi he set out for. Not like you have been overly consistent with your ‘lessons’. So many options - all of them incredible anxiety inducing, but why does he sound so nervous? You swallow and try to fog out the thoughts.

“I- Okay.” If you say anything else you think you might produce word vomit and -

“It’s not bad. I just- I want to do it right. The right way.” You try to suck in a breath and choke on it, spluttering and coughing. Smooth. “You good?”

“Yep! Fine. When, um- when do you have to go?”

“Couple hours. Sleep, you need it.”

“So d’you.” His hand continues to drag feather light lines up and down your exposed skin, and the touch practically rocks the anxiety out of you and sends you into a lull, heart beat starting to slow and exhaustion catching up.

“Mhmm. Sleep.”

“Don’t want you to not be here when I wake up.” You shuffle backwards into him and he groans, you can feel the thing material of his briefs against your bare ass. “Come closer.”

“Your killing me, cyar’ika.” He rolls against you, and your practically begging him to fuck you. “You made me cum just from tasting you. Won’t be sleeping if I’m inside you.”

The confession isn’t lost on you, and as much as you want him all the time, your body is so tired. He can always tell when your tired, too, because that’s the only reason he doesn’t bend you over the headboard and fuck you senseless. You feel his breathing start to slow, and your eyes flutter closed, drifting to sleep with the sun streaming in the small gap in the window.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

You feel him get up, and as much as you appreciate how quiet he tries to be, the clatter of beskar wakes you almost instantly. You open your eyes, careful not to catch him at a moment when his helmet isn’t on, but when you hear the familiar hiss you let yourself watch him, the utility belt clicking into place as you pull the cover down from over your head.

“I’ll be back soon.” You nod your head, believing him.

“I know.” Shuffling down into the covers, he comes to your side and a gloved hand brushes your cheek. “Kid around?”

“Mhmm. Ate too much and passed out in the kitchen. I put him in his crib. Want me to bring him in?” You nod. As much as you like how much privacy you are afforded in this giant place, you miss having the little fuzz ball around. Plus, it makes you feel safer when he’s next to you.

“Stay safe.” You mumble as the crib rolls in to your side of the room, and you see Din stop at the door. He turns back, and you think he might come back to you - he hesitates, and suddenly the air in the room gets a little colder.

You feel something - you aren’t sure what it is, but the Force always rushes over you when you least expect it. This feeling is unfamiliar and makes your stomach turn, almost like you are nervous for something, but you aren’t sure what.

He steps out of the room and you hear the door shutter closed behind him anyways. Maybe it’s the fact that he told you he needs to talk to you when he comes back. ‘Do it right’. What the hell does that mean? Why was he being so cryptic? Grogu yawns next to you and the crib opens when he stretches his arms out - grabbing.

“Alright. Just this once.” You pull him into the bed and he easily makes a little nest in the top corner, using one of the many blankets to curl himself around in a tiny ball. His calm energy nestles next to you, and you are suddenly too exhausted to overthink - drifting back into a deep sleep, and as good as the mattress feels underneath you, just before you fall asleep you find yourself imaging the cot on the ship, and Din curled up next to you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“CHECK THE BACK!”

A voice shouts you awake, and your instantly on your feet, rushing over to the bags at the door and grabbing the blaster. You don’t know the voice, but you swear it’s so loud the walls start to shake. Grogu mumbles himself awake, and he picks up on your energy, and that someone very much not The Mandalorian is inside your building.

Something breaks outside, and your heart beat pounds in your ears. Din said you were safe here - that he had an old friend. Din doesn’t trust easily, so something must of happened. You try to reach out with your senses but all you feel is chaos and determination. There’s at least 5 guys outside, and if you were on your own, with your new found strength you might take the chance to fight them - you have the element of surprise, but Grogu looks at you, big eyes wide, and you think better of it. You were still half asleep and awfully underprepared to fight one guy, let alone five.

Quickly you shove on a pair of pants, simultaneously placing the side table in front of the door with your mind and a flick of your wrist. The comm link sits on top of your table, so you grab it and move. You pick up your back pack and shove the blaster in, along with another unfamiliar weapon Din has brought with him.

Din.

He hasn’t come back. It’s light outside, and it was dark when Din left. Checking the clock behind you, you know it’s been at least seven hours since he left. Anything could have happened in that time, and he would never willingly let someone come after the kid, like when you thought those guys were going to break into the ship. Maybe he’s right outside, just biding time to take them all out in one swoop and safe you again.

You take one more second - just to check. You know what he feels like, strong and supporting, he would stick out in all this chaos with his calm energy.

You don’t find him, and the footsteps are getting closer. Din would never let anything happen to you - not if he had a choice. What if he…

No. He would have come back. You would know if something happened. Grogu would, at least. No. You would know.

Tightening the back pack straps you hear a crash right outside your door. Three strong bashes have the wood beginning to split. You scoop Grogu up into your arms. You look at the window, and remember the 4 flights of stairs you went up. You’re high up, and you haven’t made a jump this tall yet - but no better time than the present. Lucky you work well under pressure.

Quickly, you check outside below the window - no one suspicious. Ships still speed past, and you think if you time it right, you might just have a get away ride. You slide the window open. Another bang on the door and the table starts to slide out of the way, and a green arm reaches in.

“In here!” The voice attached to the arm shouts and you don’t take a second look. You leap - and for a second all you can hear is Grogu’s high pitched squeal in your ear. Everything slows, and you look down, watching as your feet lead the rest of your body and you plummet towards the ground.

You move in slow motion, and look to the right to see and white, flat like ship hurtling towards you. You let out all the breath in your lungs and shoot down, suddenly picking up an inhuman amount of speed.

The ship wobbles, nearly off course as your feet slam onto the roof, and you scramble to find something to hold onto. Grogu is continuously screeching in your arms and grabs hold of your shoulder, allowing you free reign to hold the ship with two hands.

As fast as the ships were going when you past them on the street it feels ten times worse when your on top of one. Holy shit. People looked and pointed as you flew past them, knuckles white with the force that you were hanging on to make-shift handles. Your stomach was flat against the exterior, legs swinging wildly out behind you every time the pilot took a hard turn. Maker - what the fuck were you doing? You look ahead, squinting, and try to make out what direction you were going but everything looks the fucking same when your flying through the streets on the back of some idiots speeder ship.

The pilot turns another corner and everything gets darker. You no longer have to squint as you start to get closer and closer to two giant buildings. Both towered over all the others, and were significantly darker, but the ship showed no signs of stopping.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” You take one hand off the part you were clinging to and bash onto the roof, but the ships pilot hasn’t even noticed you. They also continue to hurtle you towards certain death, because there’s no way this ship was fitting between those buildings. Oh god - you remember watching how these ships fly, and how they go horizontally to zip past buildings and avoid the main roads. You were going to get flattened if you didn’t let go soon.

The decision is no longer your own. Either you let go now, or you slam into the building and become road kill. Grogu’s little hand scrunches your shirt in a bunch and you close your eyes.

Din. Everything goes quiet.

He was there.

Walking you through the controls on the Razor Crest. You could smell him, it was like you were wearing his helmet again. He was all around but no where. You could see him in front of you, and you sucked in a deep breath as he began to take a step towards you. ‘Let go.’ He said. You can hear it in your ears, all around you like a sonic radar. It was deafening and soothing - and you grabbed at the energy that built in your chest.

“Let go.” He said. So you did.

For a second you thought you might have died. You pushed off the roof of the speeding ship with so much force - not Force but pure strength that you had to grab at Grogu before you lost him. It was weird; you knew gravity was going to hurl you onto the ground, and you knew you were going so impossibly fast that you should have been flattened into the wall in front of you. But none of that happened. You were suspended in the air - gliding towards the ground like you were a feather caught in the wind. You felt a lock of your hair brush against your cheek, and you watched as it floated; rippled in your peripheral vision. You blinked once.

Then it was over. You smashed on to the ground and rolled, wrapping the kid instinctively in your arms. You felt the pain of the fall instantly, and your arm was definitely bruised. You weren’t dead, though.

You weren’t dead?

Oh! You weren’t dead! As you came to a stop in an alleyway, smashing into an empty wooden crate, you started to put together the events that just somehow unfolded. You broke your fall. You flew. Kind of. All on your own.

When your brain stopped racketing around in your skull and you pushed up off the ground, the same hum of pride that you felt when you shoved the Razor Crest into hyperspace buzzes in your stomach. You brush off a few splinters of wood that the broken crate left on your arms.

The kid shakes his head, giant ears flopping wildley. You check him over - no cuts or bruises that he wouldn’t heal within a day. You sigh in relief, and then check yourself. Apart from a bruise already appearing on your arm, you were fine too.

You were fine. And you were the reason why.

All your life you had felt helpless - and now you were scaling speeding ships and Force jumping off them like no one’s business. All that un-used energy buzzes in your hands and chest, and you try to control your breath.

You were being chased.

Scooping the kid up and putting him in the top of your backpack, you slowly stand up and brush the dust off your pants. Ships continue to speed past the end of the alleyway, and you take a minute before you move towards the light of the street, not knowing if anyone saw what you just did. The street seems pretty empty when you peak a look, and after another minute you step out.

Two options. Left or right.

Where would Din go?

He was chasing a bounty. He would follow the tracker - only you didn’t have one. You did, however, have an uncanny ability to read the Mandalorian, and you may be able to use that to your advantage.

As much as you are feeling good about yourself right now, you know you need to find Din. You had no way of protecting yourself against that many guys without him, and there was also the daunting feeling that something may of happened to him. You need to find him - and fast.

The comm link! God - you were slow. Years on Tattooine had you never relying on technology, but you scramble to find the tiny little speaker and shove it in your ear.

“Hello?!” You take the earpiece out and shake it a bit, and then put it back in. Nothing.

The comm link was connected to his helmet. There is no way he wasn’t hearing you right now.

“Hey! Mando?!” You don’t want to say his name because you don’t know who can hear you right now. “Please. Are you there?”

Silence. Absolute silence. How was he not hearing you? You were yelling on the inside of his helmet - and there was only one plausible way that he couldn’t hear you.

“Ahh!” Grogu yells and hits you on the back of the head.

“Hey! I’m trying, okay?!” You hadn’t realised there was a tear in your eye until it fell onto your chest. No. You would know.

Shaking your head, you face the street again, keeping the commlink on, just in case. You turn left just because you feel you should, heading away from the giant building that nearly flattened you. A tiny ‘hm!’ of content comes from the back pack and you roll your eyes.

Grogu knows he’s okay too, and he needs you to focus because as strong as he was, he couldn’t do it without you. And you couldn’t do this without him. The sun begins to set as you run across the street, heading further into the city. You figure if a bounty was hiding out on a planet like this, they would go into the most populated area and hide in plain site. It’s what you used to do on Tatooine, and as much as you hate to admit it, all that hustling is going to come in handy right now.

You found him once - albeit by accident, but you could do it again. Din was fine - and you were going to find him.

***********

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#mandalorian fic #mandalorian x y/n #mando x y/n #mando x reader #mandalorian #mandalorian fanfic #mando x you #the mandalorian smut #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x y/n #mandalorian x reader #star wars fanfiction #star wars fan fiction #star wars tv #mando smut #mandalorian smut

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honks-n-stonks · 3 months

Text

save me.... I'm thinking about my goofy puyo x monhun au again..... (disclaimer: I have only played Rise/Sunbreak, GU (still in HR) and World (got to MR before my TV 💥)

EDIT ‼️‼️‼️ this thing got so LONG I'm just putting the entire thing under a "read more" because previously it was at the "characters" section but Jesus it looks so LONG on tablet I am so so SO sorry

nawr it's getting so bad I've been thinking about the TOWNS/VILLAGES now....

Primp (and Grimp, if we want to include Chronicle in all of this) would obviously become a village (Primp/Grimp Village oh how original you are Goose [not that I can come up with any better NAMES okay])

Not... sure about Suzuran.... Yeah it's a city, but MH doesn't have any modern or super technologically advanced civilizations (that are still around, anyway.) Something inbetween a kingdom and a village like. A Town. yeah. I don't know why the idea of a Town™️ seems so farfetched to me when Kingdoms Exist like does Sunbreak and the idea of Schrade (rip) not exist to me ????

Aahh,,, I really need to read up on the villages of the other MH games. Maybe that will help me get a feel for how I want Suzuran to be. Definitely much bigger than Primp or any regular village in GU/Rise, that's what I'll say. (Then again, the hubs don't give me a good feel of their true size. I need CONCEPT ART TO SAVE ME!!!!)

As for the Madou cast... instead of straight up being from another world, I think they'd just be from a distant village (or villages). I'm not TOO familiar with Arle's world, but that's the excuse I'm using! Same applies with Suzuran, and where Lemres, Feli, and Klug originate from. Comically far village! Though... this mainly stems from Primp Village being... prrreetty far away from other civilizations in general (stealing this from some HC that I saw where Primp is far from other towns, basically remote [unless that was already canon]).

As for the residents of the Tetra... well they uh. They live on a spaceship in the games. So, in the AU I'll just make them a traveling group of Hunters (sorta like mercenaries???? but for monsters duh) that go from village to village and help out with any particularly tough monster-related issues. Sorry, that's the best I can come up with...

Small tangent, is it weird I still want magic to be a thing in this AU? Despite the fact that none exists in MH- (Elders can do some goofy stuff, but it's usually from some special organs they possess/bioenergy crud [see: Ibushi and Narwa being able to float due to manipulation of the wind (Ibushi) and something akin to... magnetism, was it? Augh I KNOW it involves the thundersacs and electricity but I haven't played Rise in a fair bit])

Then again, it's an AU and I can technically do whatever I want..... bleh, they don't rely on it TOO much okay but perhaps the residents of Primp (and their neighbors) happen to have some... special powers that give them an edge in hunts and everyday life. I have no idea if I still wanna include Puyo themselves in this. Ehh.... I'll get to that eventually..... oughghjhjjdiskksiskj can you tell this is the most brainpower I've ever put into anything ever?

Oh god, this is becoming long. Too bad, I don't feel like stopping... I'll go onto some ideas for characters that I have... (aka The Trio™️)

Amitie: aw yeah!!! I kinda want her to be the focus in this AU? ahem. I think I want her to use a Sword and Shield, and as for her Hunter Rank I imagine her to be around Low-Early High Rank (4 stars?). I might have to make my own monster rank/difficulty chart for this AU, as there are some monsters I kinda feel are too dangerous for Low Ranks to take on? (see: Elders being in LOW RANK in GU for some ungodly reason, WHY WHY WHY ARE THEY THERE?! [not a complaint, just super hilarious, obviously i'm not taking that as "ooooohh canonically a LR hunter can fight Teostra" just a haha silly thought]) Probably basing it more on Rise/Gu's system works instead of World. Low Rank literally has its own storyline there! (Which obviously is expanded upon in High and probably Master Rank) That... and Hunter Rank isn't tied to the quest rank in World. Not gonna lie, that confused me a little...

Ugh, I went on a tangent.... anyways. Amitie. Sword and Shield User. HR 4 Hunter. I think... she'll have a Rath Heart SnS (why? PINK). Giving her a Fire element weapon might make more sense but... eh, she technically still uses magic in this AU, so it's probably fine. (I can imagine them using magic in tandem with their weapons, or using them as a... conduit? [is that it?] for magic. Think: Schezo's spells, where you can see the magic coming from the sword.) Typically goes on gathering/egg hunt quests, she's not quite good in direct confrontations with monsters! (Still a little klutzy, but when she's in a pinch, she manages to show an impressive-albeit brief- display of power. Not related to any sun goddess here, she's just stronger than she thinks she is!) Prefers to go on quests with other Hunters (Arle and Ringo, more on those two later), especially during a Hunt or Capture quest.

Arle: ALSO uses a Sword and Shield mainly because A) I can't think of anything better and B) hehe funny Arle and Amitie parallels though I can imagine her being proficient in most if not ALL the other weapons available, especially Bow. Can't think of a specific one she'd use though, sorry... I'll get back to that later. A more skilled Hunter than Amitie, she could probably tackle high-end High Rank monsters with ease (HR 7/8), even when going Solo. mmm, not sure about elders. I think it'd be neat if she managed to take down one or two (they're supposed to be fairly rare, I think), with a group of Hunters. (see: other Madou characters [Draco, Schezo, Rulue]). Probably Kushala Daora or Kirin. I consider them to be "easy" Elders (Chameleos is not here because I'd imagine him to be too elusive for her to have encountered... yet.)

Uhhh. Back on track. She currently resides in Primp Village with some other Madou characters. Maybe takes a sorta part-time job at Primp's canteen, I just think it'd be neat for her to make some KILLER curry. Always pumps up and invigorates anyone who eats it. Also just helps around with problems villagers have in general, she's pretty strong!

Ringo: Lives in the far off... town? yeah I'll just go with that of Suzuran. Albeit uncommon, her presence is always appreciated. I think it's mentioned that her family runs a small grocery store in Suzu, soo I think she'd be like... a traveling merchant? Of the food kind. Fresh fruit...? Perhaps her family even owns an orchid, with their apples being quite popular back home. HEY. WAIT. She could be the equivalent of the Argosy/Trader in the MH games! And the market in general. Anyways, although Ringo is not a hunter per say, she still can assist her buds in hunts (see: Sunbreak follower system). When out hunting, she prefers to use a Light Bowgun. (Modified, cause I imagine her with a Thunder or Paralysis iron tree LBG.) Hell, she's pretty damn good at it too. Probably has a good amount of experience fighting monsters, because a lot can happen when you travel around a lot with goods (especially of the food variety) in tow. Oh god, I just remembered those quests in Rise with this ONE dude who keeps getting his stuff wrecked in like... three different quests... by three different monsters..... that man CANNOT catch a break!!!!!!!!! Oh right. Not sure what Ringo's HR would be, cus' she's not officially a hunter. Sorta? Maybe. Would be around Ami's level, if not a tad bit higher. Since she's not quite really a hunter, she doesn't (or can't?) take quests solo. Not that I think she'd have too much of a problem with it, i think.

Um. That's all I got... well, not really. But this is becoming TOO LONG!!! If anyone sees this... lmk what you think? OH. YEAH WAIT BEFORE I FORGET... most of the characters probably are aged up in this AU (young adults?) because I don't think teens are really allowed to risk their lives Hunting that Monster if you get what I mean. No, I'm not counting the Rampage summons.... it's more of a "all hands on deck" kinda deal to be there!

As for how their designs would look.... Amitie's definitely gonna be based off her Swordfighter alt, and Ringo would probably have hers based around the Steam Ages one (but MHified, and that's obviously for her "hunting" look.) Arle? Uh. Probably a more armored version of her normal look. Can't remember any alts in particular. Sorry...

ANYWAYS THAT'S IT FOR REAL!!! Good god I spent too long rambling about this. I think I'm a little bit obsessed....

#fowl rambling #UAUAHAHAHAHAJJJM HELP KEEEEEEEEEEE #puyohunter au #<- yes I am fucking calling it that. I CAN'T THINK OF A BETTER NAME!#stop laughing....#monster hunter #who out here huntin they monster #puyo puyo #I'm so sorry to anyone who happens upon this bruh #puyo puyo au #monster hunter au

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bloodgulchblog · 2 years

Text

Still thinking about big visual Halo books. Like... Halo has a lot of big visual books? Not just art books, but also attempts at presenting parts of the lore to people?

A decent copy of the The Art of Halo is just on the archive, straight up, you can download it, the text is searchable.

It's from 2004 so it's Pre-3 but there's a wealth of material in there, concept sketches and story boards and silly things that Bungie artists made. This one is extremely common secondhand, which handily demonstrates how Halo was once a gamer culture juggernaut.

I only ever saw the first one in person at a book store one time, but the Halo Visual Guides look like they were kind of a follow up to the Halo Encyclopedia (2011 updated edition) that were put together by 343. They're shorter, and I haven't gone through but it kinda feels like the team re-consolidating its grip on the lore?

The archive does have scans of both The Essential Visual Guide and The Halo 4 specific one but they're not freely downloadable and are once again somewhat rough-quality library book scans. Which is better than nothing, but as always I see Amazon and Google Books have crisp digital previews of unattainable digital files and thus I softly hiss fuckers.

(They seem to be cheap secondhand though, the Halo 4 one specifically looks like it goes for $3. I bet you that's because other people also forget it exists.)

343i did their own take on the Art of Building Worlds in 2011 (which was the 10 year Haloversary) but I cannot really find much about it, unless I wanna sit through a video of someone flipping through it. I've never seen it in person.

(Halo 4 also got its own art book but that one's pretty obvious, I have that.)

Moving on into Halo 5 era, Halo 5 got its own art book too (which I have not found and have also not been motivated to pursue.)

But we also got these bad boys:

Cannot find digital copies of these anywhere for love or money. I've seen Warfleet secondhand a few times, but never Mythos.

Halopedia has a ton of the new art that was commissioned for Mythos, though. Novel nerds will appreciate that a lot of it is book scenes.

Mythos isn't an encyclopedia, it's an attempt at laying down the Halo chronology as it stood at the end of Halo 5 (and up to 2016), folding in the stories from the novels and the games. I think it's really cool, even though y'all know my opinion on this era of Halo lore. I was so stoked to get it when it came out, even though I was still pissed about 5 and had given up on Halo novels for 6 or 7 years at the time.

Warfleet is a comparatively slim book, most of these are around 200 pages and Warfleet clocks at 97 or so. It's TALL though, like, shelf-frustratingly tall.

U See. Mythos is a full on artbook sized, it's huge. Warfleet is taller and longer. I gotta turn this fucker on its side to make it fit.

Warfleet is small, it has a really slender rundown of the Halo universe/some of the planets but its real meat is the big centerpiece cutaway views of a bunch of Halo spaceships commissioned from artists who I am pretty sure had done similar work for Star Wars before. It's pretty cool.

A lot of art can be found over here.

In general I think most things that matter got consolidated into Halo Encyclopedia 2022, but like. Man.

Halo has had a lot, you know? The Microsoft dollar shows.

#halo lore #halo art #halo encyclopedia adventures #halo books

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scenetocause · 1 year

Note

Idk about you but I would sure like Norris / Fewtrell / Kodric to be given the emptyhalf words.

ok i guess

"You're unbelievable," Lando's laughing but he's like - it's the thing he does when he's actually kind of serious but he's playing it down, not his real laugh and it unnerves Max a lot.

"What do you mean?" He honestly doesn't know what he's done. Something, clearly; it's not bad enough that Lando isn't curled right up against him in Max's bed, Max's fingers threading through his hair and Lando's stupid palm tree necklace digging into Max's breastbone.

"You were flirting with Martin so much, oh my god."

Oh.

Well, guilty as charged.

"If my boyfriend didn't leave me at home all the time then maybe I wouldn't have to look at hot, uhm. Hunks." He's got past the word 'boyfriend' in his list of mental blocks but it's very hard for Max to sort of think of himself as gay beyond Lando. He's not really sure he is but then, Martin is pretty hot and so tall, too. Like Jake, who's also pretty hot and ok maybe he just... has some sort of very specific type. He should try checking out Marcus next time they're in the gym to see if it's all drivers or just specifically the idiot ones.

Lando pouts, curling more round Max. "If you'd actually ask instead of, like - you know I always want you there. Anyway, I guess Martin's kinda hot."

Oh. Oh, Lando isn't complaining, he's fantasising.

Except Max's self-esteem isn't as secure as Lando's, clearly and so what he says is. "Hotter than me?" And his voice sounds pathetically small.

"No." It's not possible to actually hear someone rolling their eyes but Max thinks he can. "You're - and mine. But y'know, for someone else he kind of is."

Lando presses an unusually tender kiss under Max's ear. "You're still my big boy."

"Jesus-" Max ineffectively swats at Lando, who's already successfully limpeted onto him and just holds Max tighter, peppering him with kisses. "Fuck off. God."

Max mumbles "I love you, Bob" into the bumps of Lando's spine when they've rearranged to big and little spoon, a few minutes later.

Nothing happens because why would anything happen. Martin's straight and if Max and Lando sometimes work it into their dirty talk, the idea of one of them getting fucked by Martin while the other one's watching then, well. Look. They've said that about, like - Lando has a weird crush on Niall from One Direction and sometimes it comes up, it's just a fantasy, it's fine.

Until Tom opens his stupid mouth and Max is gonna edit him for Insta again, he swears to god.

"Who'd you have in a threesome, if you could have anyone?"

"Martin," Lando says, without even looking up from his phone while he's posting some jpgs.

It's at the same time as Connor says "Dua Lipa" and Jenny hits him with a cushion but someone definitely heard because several people follow it up with what?

Lando glances round the table, unfazed. "It's be Martin, we've talked about it."

Max can feel himself turning blotchy crimson. "Mate, you can't just say things like-"

"Really?" It's only fair that Martin, himself, asks.

"Yeah," Lando is totally unbothered, tucking himself back against Max's shoulder and taking a sip of his drink, the only tell that he knows what he's doing the way he's suddenly glowing with that weird, malicious energy he gives off sometimes. "It'd be hot. Y'know, you could fuck Max or-"

Collective shouting around the table manages to preserve Max's honour and stop him having to find a way to murder the man he loves the most of anyone in the world. And that's kind of the end of it because they get into fuck, marry, kill with the characters from Friends but none of them can remember what half of them are called and shots dissolve the rest of the conversation.

Until Max is wobbling to the bathroom, a little while later and wondering where Lando's gone. He probably might have noticed Martin was gone, too, except that he's been studiously trying not to make any kind of eye contact with the bloke for several hours, so it's easier not to think.

Except that Martin is suddenly right up in his space and Max nearly trips over his own feet. "Uh - hello, what Lando said, like, just, ignore him it's-"

He's shocked by Martin shushing him. Realises Martin's shirt is unbuttoned all the way down, tries not to fixate on the trail of hair down from his belly button but looking up from that means he's staring into Martin's eyes.

"I didn't mind," Martin's accent makes it soft, voice deliberately gentle. "It's kind of cute."

Max doesn't have time to squirm, before Martin's hand is on his jaw and his sweaty palms are on Martin's chest to steady himself and the main thing he registers, when Martin kisses him, is Lando's shrieky laugh of glee much too close by.

"I knew it," there's the sound of a shutter closing, a photo that better not make it to the internet. "It is really hot."

#emptyhalf fic

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loserdiaz · 2 years

Note

so i saw this:

https://swiftiediaz.tumblr.com/post/689789455040757760/new-addition-after-he-finds-out-buck-is-now-the

and maybe could you write a drabble with genderfluid eddie and buck applying make up to him?? pretty please? i think it would make my day <3

ok so all of this started thanks to @two-cut-lines ( thank you very much, bc eddie in a skirt and eyeliner is everything and i would die for him )

and uh, if you wanna see eddie with eyeliner @gayedmundodiaz made a beautiful edit <3

also, i never wrote anything like this so i apologise if it's not what you were expecting from me lmao. ( it's also not exactly what you asked but it kinda got away from me )

Eddie loves his family, he loves Chris with all of his heart and spending time with his son is one of his favorite things in the world. Spending time with him and Buck is something that always makes Eddie's heart sing with joy and a warm feeling of peace.

But sometimes, like now, he needs alone time. To explore himself, to see what truly makes him feel comfortable in his own skin without having to explain or fear judgement.

He's been working with Frank in therapy for months now, and it's not like Eddie's cured. He still struggles sometimes, he still has bad days or even a bad week. He doesn't think that will ever completely go away, but he's making progress.

So, finally, he's at a place where he can finally admit that he likes wearing clothes that may not be conventionally masculine or made with him in mind.

So that's how he finds himself, home alone while Christopher is spending the day with Denny at Hen's house.

Eddie's in front of the mirror, admiring himself in th mirror, wearing short black skirt clinging to his hips in a way that makes his legs look so long, with a chain attached at the waist and some ripped fishnets. He's wearing black combats boots, and to finish the look, a green silky half-buttoned shirt, reveling his toned chest.

He also has strings of silver chains hanging in layers around his neck, numerous rings perched on his slender fingers.

They're a little expensive but Eddie's working on being a little selfish, so he thought it'd be good to spend a little on himself. Not a lot, but enough that he's now gratefully for it, feeling pretty and sexy and himself as he looks in the mirror.

He smiles, brushing a hand through his hair and hesitating a little before he goes into the bathroom and looks for the little make up he bought in a spur of the moment thing.

He applies it carefully, unsure of what he's doing but determined to see ot through. It's slow and it takes him a while but after half an hour his cheekbones are shimmering with silver and gold highlighter, and his eyes are outlined in black eyeliner, making them look impossibly wider.

And just because he has the worst luck in the history of the universe, as he's finishing doing his make up, he hears the front door open.

"Eddie?" Buck's voice calls his name.

Eddie's frozen in place. He's not ready for this. He was supposed to be alone today, just to explore and see if it actually felt comfortable. And it does, it so does. But– he's not ready to share this side of him just yet. Not with Buck. Not with anyone, for that matter.

But it's too late. As he looks up, he locks eyes with Buck in the mirror.

They stare at each other for what feels like hours but most probably are just minutes, if not seconds. Buck's blue eyes are wide but Eddie can't find any disgust or rejection in them.

He hopes.

"Buck? Say something, please." Eddie's voice comes out small and scared, still, and he hates himself a little bit for that.

"You– Eds–" Buck stutters. "You look beautiful." He whispers. "So pretty." It comes out breathless and so low that Eddie's not sure if he's supposed to listen or if Buck's talking to himself.

"Really?" He turns around, hopeful.

"Yeah, Eds. I mean it. You look— stunning. So gorgeous it's actually a little hard for me to think straight right now." Buck smiles, softly, tenderly. And then chuckles. "No pun intended."

"Buck." His voice comes out disbelieving.

"It's okay, Eddie."

It becomes a thing they don't really talk about. They don't ignore it, Eddie feels comfortable to show more of himself around Buck now, so it's not like they pretend it never happened. Buck even learns how to apply eyeliner and looks at tutorials on tik tok.

It warms Eddie's heart, to feel so accepted and loved.

But they don't talk about it. They don't talk about the way Buck's eyes fall to his lips everytime he does Eddie's eyeliner, so close he can see every freckle and imperfection in his face.

They don't talk about the way they progress to Eddie sitting on Buck's lap everytime the man goes to do his makeup.

And he doesn't want it to stop. When Buck does his eyeliner, he frowns and sticks his tongue out in concentration, it's adorable and Eddie lives for those moments. He wants them to last forever.

Maybe they're not ready just yet. Eddie thinks. They're dancing around each other and maybe one day he'll be brave enough to close that gap, to take everything he wants without being scared.

But for now, this is enough.

#lmao i really never wrote anything like this and i feel like it's horrible #so sorry if it wasn't what you were expecting #anon #eddie diaz #evan buckley #evan buck buckley #buck x eddie #buddie #911onabc #911 on fox #april writes #buddie ficlet #buddie drabble #my writing #april.txt

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punkslovepoints · 1 year

Text

THE A IS FOR ALLY: A STRANGER THINGS FIC (STEDDIE) PT 2

After his friends come out one by one, Steve settles comfortably into his new role as an ally. He moves to the city with Robin, joins groups, attends protests, even takes a gender studies class.

Then in 1991 Eddie comes crashing back into his life.

If you'd have asked seventeen year old Eddie Munson who he imagined he'd name as his best friend when he grew up, prissy Nancy Wheeler wouldn't have appeared on the longlist, let alone at the number one spot.

But living with her they had developed a friendship unlike any he had before.

It had taken a while. She wasn't the most forthcoming person, she was hard around the edges, something built up from years of grief, loss and having to be the smartest, most capable person in the room, but he kinda loved that about her. She suffered no fools. Yet she respected him, Eddie, who grew up feeling like an idiot, repeating senior year three times, Nancy Wheeler liked him for his intelligence, for his conversation.

They had started hanging out almost by necessity. Robin and Steve still committed to going on dates once a week, leaving the loft and heading off on adventures together. Sometimes it was as simple as a coffee, but often they'd come back covered in paint after attending a protest of some kind, or return with tales of how Robin had attempted and failed to steal a monkey from Indianapolis zoo, a story he never really got to the bottom of.

Their weekly adventures left Nancy and Eddie at a bit of a loss without their natural buffers. Nancy, being the more organized of the two had come to him with an offer. They'd try out their own dates. One to begin with to see what they actually had in common, beyond the obvious, then more in the future if the first one worked out.

They agreed to start small with a coffee date.

Nancy met him there from work, sat down opposite him, spine straight, hands clasped in front of her, her purse to her side. “I thought we could play twenty questions.”

Eddie laughed, "Jesus, Wheeler. Is this a date or an interview?"

She smiled a sly smile at him, "There's a difference?"

He laughed again. “So what are the rules of this date-slash-interview?”

“We ask twenty questions between us, ten each. You can’t ask what you’ve been asked and no follow-up questions.” She paused, then pointed at him, ”And we get increasingly personal the longer we go on.” Eddie grinned. This could be fun.

Nancy started. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Yellow?”

“Not black?”

“No. No follow-up questions. Favorite musician?”

“Blondie. What book have you read that stayed with you?”

“March 3rd 86 edition of Newsweek,” he joked. Nancy threw him a look. He put on a voice and quoted, “The Devil has come to America, ” then laughed, "I mean, obviously it's Lord of The Rings. Favorite contemporary musician”

“You.”

“Funny.”

“I dunno, Guns N Roses” Eddie raised an eyebrow and she shrugged. “What did you want to be when you grew up?”

“A firetruck.”

“Like a fireman?”

“No, just a firetruck. Spent weeks on end running around wailing at the top of my voice. No wonder my parents got rid of me.” Nancy winced, but no follow-ups.

“What did you want to be?”

“No repeats. You’re breaking the rules of the game already.”

“What can I tell you, I’m not a fan of authority. Answer the question.”

“A journalist. Unsurprisingly, I’m pretty single minded. Do you think your life would have been different if you'd graduated the first time round?"

"Yes. I'd never have met Chrissy."

"Shit."

"Yeah. What did you like the most about Barb?"

"That's a nice one.” Nancy took her time to answer. “She was always watching out for me even when I wasn't watching out for myself. Do you still dream about it"

"The Upside Down? Of course. Do you wish it had never happened?"

"Of course," she responded immediately and then thought for a little longer, "Some parts of it. Maybe not others."

"Which parts?"

"No follow up questions," she smirked. "Would you have done anything differently if you could do it again?"

"No. I don't think so. Running back to fend off the bats bought you more time. Sad I missed out on the finale though. Do you think your mum had an affair with Billy Hargrove?"

"Low blow, Munson. I know there were rumors. No, I don't think she did. I do think she wanted to. What happened with your parents?"

Eddie shrugged. "They didn't want me, Wayne did. How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

"Sixteen. Steve Harrington."

"Cute."

"Shut up. When did you realize you were gay?"

"Probably about fourteen, Magnum PI."

"Tom Sellek?"

"No follow up questions."

"That's not a question, I'm just surprised."

"What made you fall in love with Robin?"

"No one thing. She's just Robin."

"Cop out answer, but accepted."

"Next question. Tom Sellek?"

Eddie laughed, "It was the chest hair. I'm a sucker for overt masculinity. Question eighteen. When did you stop loving Steve?"

She smiled, "Romantically, probably a few months before we broke up my junior year. But I'll never stop loving him, not properly. We weren't right together, and what I have with Robin now is obviously so much better in every way. But he'll always be my first love. That means something."

Eddie smiled at her, stirred his coffee, "Your question now."

"When did you?"

"When did I what?" He knew what she was asking but he wanted to buy himself a bit of time.

"When did you stop loving Steve?"

“I thought repeating questions was against the rules.”

She smiled, “I think we've both broken that one."

He considered lying, considered asking surprised, asking what she meant. Despite how many questions he'd answered already, this one was different, this one wasn't in the past. Then he realized he'd left the silence to hang for too long. That was an answer in itself. He looked at her.

"Even now?" She asked. She didn't sound all that surprised.

He shrugged, "Even now."

"That sucks. I'm sorry."

Eddie laughed, "It's fine. It really is. You said, right. You're never going to really stop loving him? Maybe nobody does? Maybe once Steve Harrington finds his way under your skin he just stays there."

"Like a parasite."

"God, the hottest parasite I've ever seen." Nancy's laugh was a little snort. Cute. They watched each other for a beat.

"Final question. The most personal question in the world. What would win in a fight, a badger or a baboon."

Nancy laughed again. "Are we talking European badger or Honey Badger here?" She asked.

It was Eddie's turn to laugh this time. ”There’s a difference?”

They continued their dates. Any time Robin and Steve set off on their adventures, Nancy and Eddie would head for coffee, or something a little stronger. Their conversations would mostly revolve around asking each other increasingly perplexing questions about life, the universe and everything, but every once in a while, Nancy would ask about Steve. Check how Eddie was doing. He appreciated having somebody to talk to.

[READ THE REST OF THE CHAPTER ON A03]

Badges in the image credits:Buffalo State Activist Pin & Button Exhibit [c. 1970-2018] and The ArQuives Artifacts Collection

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #nancy wheeler #stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #steddie fanfic #steddie fanfiction #steddie reccs #steve x eddie #eddie x steve #god i love nancy & eddie friendship #apparently i write fic now

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ebony-etchings · 6 months

Note

cnai ask about reena?

Yes

Absolutely

Please ask me about my ocs please please please they live almost exclusively in my head and any notes I get from posting about them is the closest they'll ever be to paying rent

Anyway judging by the fact someone liked the ninjago oc post from a while ago recently, I shall bestow upon ye knowledge about Reena (Ninjago edition)

Below the cut. There is much to say.

So!

[Slaps roof of oc]

Reena is my oldest oc, first spawning into existence when I was but a mere 11 years of age

She is very special to me

She is also a horrible little bastard

Reena is a thief for hire with a stage name that has changed at least 3 times. It's either Phantom or Fox or some ninjago-brand villain pun name that I can't quite remember. It's been a while.

She functions as a minor/recurring antagonist that steals weird macguffins for shadowy figures for fun and for profit

She doesn't take most things very seriously, she's just here for for a good time, yknow? Crime gets her out the house and gives her a chance to stretch her abilities

She is the self-proclaimed "master of illusion", whether these powers stem from elemental abilities or if its more of a sorcery deal (ala Clouse) is a mystery

And like any self-respecting individual with illusion powers, she abuses the hell out of them, heavily reliant on disorienting and distracting opponents so she can slip out of trouble and snag whatever her prize is. She's fast, sure, she's stealthy, but a fighter? She is not

But what she is, is very, very irritating to deal with. The ninja have had run-ins with her a few times and they collectively conclude that she is insufferable. Not to say all their encounters are adversarial, or at least from Reena's perspective anyway. Honestly she quite likes the ninja. They save Ninjago like, all the time, and if Ninjago is consumed by giant snakes or darkness or ghosts then what? Nothing good probably

Speaking of canon characters, Ronin is also familiar with her. Reena used to be a kind of apprentice of his towards the beginning of her criminal career. And by apprentice I mean she helped Ronin steal things and Ronin gave her a very small cut of the profits. Apparently, she thought she deserved a bigger cut for some reason and ditched him not long after. Sometimes their paths cross when they're both off on quests to steal things. There's no hard feelings though, they just both like to bully each other

Anyway backstory

Also a subject of ambiguity and frequent change, the tldr of the original edition is she lived in ninjago city with her parents and little brother but then her parents got lowkey killed by the great devourer and I guess bc I was 11 and didn't think about the fact they'd qualify for adoption, this led the vastly unqualified Reena to start stealing things so they could get by. And then gradually expanding her enterprises into bigger things

Yknow, classic backstory

(When I was 11 Rebooted had only just aired so actually Harumi stole Reena's backstory- (This is a joke))

More recent versions of her backstory find her parents just. Straight up absent for most of her life for unknown reasons. She's part of a kinda thieves guild thing, and an additional part of her motivation for stealing is bragging rights. Still gotta look out for her little brother though. Vaguely.

So uh. Yeah.

That got a little long but yknow, that is a crash course on Reena Things, please ignore the fact her outfit keeps changing, it has never been consistent

#asks #anonymous #ninjago oc #squeb's ocs #oc: reena #bit of a ramble

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im-no-jedi · 2 years

Text

MLWTBB: The Monthly Problem (A Oneshot)

aka the (continued) journey into my self insert nonsense✨

story summary: Omega and the boys discover that Hannah isn’t feeling well, but it’s not from any illness or injury. Hannah, with some help from Tech, has to explain what a “monthly cycle” is to the rest of them, which garners some surprising responses.

notes: this is a (small) continuation of my story, “My Life With The Bad Batch”; I highly recommend reading that first before this one! I created a few new planets for this AU. I’m also not 100% versed in SW terminology, so forgive me if some things are labeled incorrectly! lastly, there is romance in this story. hope you enjoy! 💙

add. notes: this oneshot was edited and proofread by my sis @jam-n-ham! thanks sis!! 😋💙

3300+ words, rated G (there’s discussion of blood in relation to the menstrual cycle... which is literally the entire plot of this oneshot LOL)

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It was common knowledge to not walk the streets of Ord Mantell alone, even during the day. Despite this, it wasn’t unusual for young Omega to wander off on her own without the protective watch of her big brothers alongside her. She knew better than to go too far though, and especially to not go anywhere unfamiliar. More often than not, whenever she did go off on her own, it was to one of two places: Cid’s Parlor or Hannah’s apartment.

Today, she decided to go to Cid’s Parlor on her own, knowing her friend would be working there. She knew the way to the parlor like the back of her hand by that point, and she deliberately stuck to the safest path that Hunter had pointed out to her many times before. When she finally got to the parlor, she skipped down the stairs and through the door, eagerly looking for her friend.

Normally, Hannah would be either behind the counter serving one of the customers or cleaning up one of the tables or game machines. But today, Omega found her adopted sister sitting in one of the stools and slumped over the counter – a sight that reminded her very much of one of her brothers after having one too many drinks. But Hannah didn’t like to drink, which meant that something else must’ve been wrong. With gentle concern, Omega approached the slumped over Hannah and called her name.

Hannah groaned a bit and turned her head to face the small girl. “Hey, sweetie,” she said in a groggy voice. Aside from her position and the tired look in her eyes, there wasn’t anything obviously wrong with her.

“Are you ok?” Omega gently asked.

Another groan came from Hannah, this time morphing into a sigh. “Yeah... I’m just not feeling great today, that’s all.”

More concern showed on Omega’s face. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you getting sick?”

“Nah, I’m just...” Hannah’s face contorted into a wince. “Just kinda tired and got some cramps, nothing terrible.” She sat up straight and let out another small groan. “It comes in waves. I’ll be fine.”

Omega continued to look at her friend, but she knew how much Hannah hated being fussed over and didn’t press her any further. If anything, she wanted to give Hannah as much space as possible knowing it would all be over once her brothers showed up. Especially Hunter.

Sure enough, a short time later, Omega heard the familiar sound of armored boots coming down the stairs towards the parlor. She almost felt like warning Hannah about what was coming, but thought it might be better to just see how things played out. Maybe her brothers wouldn’t make a huge deal out of it this time.

Echo was the first one who came into the parlor. He waved at Omega and greeted Hannah, who was now behind the counter cleaning some glasses. Both girls returned the wave and the greeting. Hannah seemed to have a better control over her pain at the moment; in fact, if Omega hadn’t already known about it, there would be no way of knowing Hannah wasn’t feeling well from how she was carrying herself.

Wrecker came in next, with all the loud grandiose he usually arrived with. Omega actually saw Hannah wince a bit at the sound of Wrecker’s voice, but again, it wasn’t that unusual due to Hannah’s aversion to loud noises. The largest of Omega’s brothers plopped down in the seat next to hers, immediately going into conversation with Hannah about what he had been up to with the others that day. Hannah did her best to engage in the conversation, but Omega could tell she was struggling, especially after Hannah let out a few loud yawns. Echo actually pointed them out, jokingly asking if Hannah was bored by the conversation. But Hannah just laughed it off and said she’d not slept well the night before, nothing more.

Tech showed up in the midst of the conversation without anyone but Omega noticing. He kept to himself – his face glued to his datapad as it usually was – and sat down on one of the other stools quietly. Occasionally, he would briefly look up at one of the others, which told Omega that he was at least paying attention to the conversation. Omega actually wondered if he would be able to figure out what might be wrong with Hannah, but Hannah was still trying to hide her pain. Or maybe Hannah was finally starting to feel better.

The last of Omega’s brothers eventually arrived, again with no one but Omega noticing. She gave him a smile, and Hunter returned it, but his face began to contort into a concerned scowl. His nose twitched, and Omega could tell he was sniffing for something. Almost immediately, his gaze landed on Hannah, and his eyes grew wide.

Omega knew it was all over now.

With the concerned scowl still on his face, Hunter strode over to Hannah, nearly spooking her with his presence. She greeted him questioningly, as he was seemingly in the process of quickly scanning over her. Then he suddenly grabbed her by the arms and asked if she was ok in an obviously concerned tone. Hannah responded with a laugh and said she was fine, then questioned why he was freaking out so much.

Hunter stared at her for a moment, almost like he was trying to process the question. Then he took an obvious sniff of the air around her, which took her aback. “You... you smell like blood,” he said with concern. “Blood and... something else, I don’t know what.”

All eyes were now on Hannah, which coupled with Hunter’s words had brought her into a full blush. A nervous laugh escaped her lips, and she tried to look away from everyone’s gaze. “Oh, don’t worry about that, it’s fine really, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing?” Hunter responded with a scoff. He continued to look at her with concern, but she waved him off again.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it! It’s just... you don’t need to make a big deal out of it, ok?”

Now Hunter just looked confused. The rest of the boys did as well. They knew better than to press Hannah too hard lest she get angry, but it looked like any one of them could burst from worry at any given moment.

Then Hannah suddenly locked eyes with Omega. The little girl looked at her friend with concern of her own, but for different reasons than the boys. Wordlessly, she told Hannah to not keep the others in the dark; it wasn’t fair to any of them, including Hannah herself.

Hannah let out a relenting sigh and quickly scanned the rest of the room. Nobody else was in the parlor, save for Bolo and Ketch, who were minding their own business in the corner at one of the game machines. She visibly winced, both out of pain and her inevitable surrender. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she finally admitted in a soft tone. “But clearly you guys aren’t gonna leave me alone about it either, are you?”

“We just wanna make sure you’re ok,” Hunter replied in an equally soft tone.

“Yeah,” Wrecker added. “Cause if you’re hurt, then we wanna know!”

“I’m not hurt,” Hannah said, shaking her head. “I’m just in some pain.”

“What kind of pain?” Echo asked.

Ironically, Hannah winced again with a sigh. “Cramps, mostly. An on and off headache. Ridiculously tired.” To emphasize the point, Hannah leaned over the counter again, similarly to how Omega had found her earlier.

“Oh, is that all?” Tech bluntly responded.

“What do you mean ‘is that all’?” Echo scoffed.

“Well, it just sounds like she’s experiencing normal monthly symptoms is all,” Tech stated.

“Monthly symptoms?” Omega questioned.

Tech kept his face to his datapad as he continued to speak. “It’s nothing unusual. All child-bearing creatures experience some sort of discomfort as their bodies deal with the lack of growing offspring in their womb. It’s especially worse for those who bear live offspring, as their unborn eggs are released via the shedding of the inside lining of the ovaries, resulting in--”

“Whoa, whoa, stop stop stop,” Wrecker exclaimed, waving his arms around. “Too many words, Tech! What the heck are you talkin’ about?”

Tech let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m trying to explain how the menstrual cycle works, but clearly I’ve once again overestimated your ability to process information.”

“The what cycle?” Echo questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

“Sounded like he said ‘men straw’ cycle,” Wrecker replied. “What’s a ‘men straw’?”

“No no, menstrual,” Tech clarified. “As I was trying to explain, it’s when the inside lining of the ovaries is shedding, resulting in--”

“Oh my gosh, enough!” Hannah suddenly exclaimed, her head popping up from the counter. Her face had grown increasingly red, and she was clearly as flustered as she could be. “Let me try to explain it, ok Tech?”

“Very well.” Tech shrugged his shoulders and went back to his datapad without another word.

Letting out a massive sigh, Hannah righted herself again and kept her gaze down, unable to look at any of her friends as she spoke. “Like Tech said, this is nothing unusual. My body is literally just torturing me for not having children, that’s all.”

Wrecker let out a soft gasp. “It can do that?”

“The body can do many things,” Tech interjected, then turned to Hannah. “Sorry, that’s the last I’ll say about it.”

“That’s alright,” Hannah responded with a chuckle. “You were explaining it really well, actually. But anyway...” She let out a small groan and rubbed her temples. “Basically, my body is behaving similarly to what it’s like after having a baby. Which means...” She gave a long sigh and began speaking in a hushed tone. “I’m... bleeding. In... a certain place...”

“Where?” Wrecker asked in an equally hushed tone.

“You know...” Hannah looked like she was going to explode from embarrassment. “The place where babies come out of...”

Wrecker, Hunter, and Echo all immediately began to flush in a similar manner to Hannah, while Tech simply nodded in agreement.

“That... sounds awful,” Echo eventually said.

Hannah let out a snicker and replied, “yeah, it is.”

“Does it hurt?” Wrecker asked, his tone laced with concern.

Hannah nodded and said, “not constantly though. Like I said, it’s mostly cramps that come in waves, and a slight headache.” She winced and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Speak of the devil...” A soft groan escaped her throat. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and the presence of Hunter coming closer to her.

“Is there anything we can do?” Hunter asked with the same gentle concern Omega had shown earlier.

“Not really,” Hannah responded with a small sigh. “Normally it’s not this bad, actually. Sometimes I only get tired without any pain at all. This one decided to be particularly bad though...”

The hand on Hannah’s shoulder remained as Hunter continued to look at her with concern. Then his gaze drifted over to Omega, who had the same level of concern on her face. The little girl then hopped off her seat and came over to Hannah, wrapping her small arms around Hannah’s waist in a gentle hug.

“I’m sorry, Hannah,” Omega gently said as she nuzzled her face into Hannah’s side.

Between the pain and the treatment she was receiving, it took everything for Hannah to not burst into tears. She put an arm around her adopted sister and thanked her with an obvious hitch in her voice.

“Tech said this is a monthly thing,” Echo stated. “Is that true?”

“Yeah,” Hannah replied. “Just once a month, thankfully.”

“Once a month?” Wrecker exclaimed. “Every month?”

Hannah nodded. “Sometimes it skips a month, but that’s rare. It’s not the same day every month either, it’s completely random.”

“What the heck?!” Wrecker exclaimed again, throwing his arms into the air. “That’s terrible!”

“So you never know when it’s coming?” Echo asked.

Before Hannah could respond, Tech decided to join in the conversation again, seeing that Hannah was experiencing another cramp. “Actually, you can, to a certain degree. In fact, I’m not sure why I didn’t notice it before. I was curious as to why Hannah has been so clingy recently.”

“Clingy?” Hannah chuckled.

“Indeed,” Tech continued. “We’re all well aware of how averse you are to physical touch, much like myself; however, over the past several days, you’ve gone so far as to outright ask Wrecker and Omega for hugs and cuddles, something you’ve never done before. Not to mention how easily emotional you’ve gotten, seeing as you literally burst out crying after Echo accidentally knocked over your water canteen the other day. And let’s not forget the argument you got into with Hunter about where you keep your dish towels, of all things.”

Hannah looked like she had just been put on trial for murder and promptly flopped down on the counter again with a hefty groan.

“What does any of that have to do with this monthly cycle thing?” Hunter asked condescendingly.

“Why, it’s quite common to get overly emotional during the days leading up to the menstrual cycle,” Tech responded. “That’s when the body is preparing for the creation of the child, after all. Hormones are rapidly released in larger than normal quantities, which is most likely the ‘something else’ you caught whiff of, Hunter. I’m actually surprised you didn’t pick up on it earlier.”

Hunter suddenly turned quite sheepish and began to turn red. “W-well actually...”

“Aaaaaand we’re done with that conversation!” Hannah suddenly exclaimed, quickly erecting herself again.

Echo and Wrecker began snickering to each other, while Tech simply shook his head and sighed.

“Well, I think it’s good we’re learning about this,” Omega stated, clearly trying to ease the tension. “Now we know what to expect from now on!”

“I guess that’s a good way of looking at it,” Hannah said, now fanning herself from how flustered she had gotten. “Although it still feels weird to talk about it...”

“I don’t see why,” Tech said with a shrug. “It’s a perfectly normal way of life, not to mention an entirely new phenomenon for the rest of us to experience.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even know people got ‘monthly cycles’!” Wrecker added in. “Or that you could start bleedin’...” He leaned in close and whispered, “down there.”

Hannah managed a small laugh. “Oh, it’s even worse after actually having a baby. Honestly, the whole process is just one big literal mess. But I guess Tech makes a good point. And it’s not just me who has to go through it either. Omega will have to deal with it one day too.”

Wrecker looked horrified at the thought of his little sister having to endure that pain someday, while the other three just looked at Omega with concern.

“You know what?” Hannah continued, thoughtfully resting a finger on her cheek. “Since I’m being so open about this now, I was actually Omega’s age when mine started for the first time, ironically.”

At that, Wrecker actually let out a gasp. Tech made a thoughtful noise, while Echo blinked rapidly in shock. Hunter looked like he was about to have an aneurism. And Hannah let out the biggest laugh she’d made all day.

“Relax, guys,” Hannah said as she continued to laugh. “She’ll be fine. She still may not get it for several years. My great-grandmother didn’t get hers until she was 18; I actually got mine pretty early.”

Hearing that clearly eased the boys’ nerves some, with Wrecker actually letting out a sigh of relief.

“And besides...” Hannah looked down at Omega as she continued. “She’s got me to help her deal with it when it does come.”

Omega nodded and grinned in response.

“Well, I would ask for more details about all this,” Echo said. “But clearly, Tech has it all figured out already.”

“I merely know the science behind it,” Tech replied. “How to handle the whole process is an entirely different story that only the individual experiencing the plight of the menstrual cycle can dictate. Meaning you should still direct any of your questions about how to deal with this to Hannah, not me.”

Hannah agreed, saying she would be willing to answer any more questions the boys had. It honestly surprised her how curious they all were about the whole thing. It still felt weird to talk about, but she admitted that was just because she’d only ever talked about it with other women before. Her dad knew how to deal with it, but didn’t like talking about it much. And she wouldn’t dare talk about it with anybody she didn’t trust. But the boys’ genuine curiosity coupled with their concerns and wanting to help Hannah feel better eased her worries greatly.

There came a point where Wrecker thought Hannah should take the rest of the day off because of how she was feeling, and despite Hannah’s protests, he actually went to Cid’s office to go speak to her about it. He returned with Cid in tow, who began questioning what the heck Wrecker was talking about when he said Hannah “wasn’t feeling well”. Then of course, Hannah had to explain what was actually going on, which made Cid make a quip about “mammal problems” and how it wasn’t up to her to decide whether or not Hannah was capable of working the rest of the day. The only issue was that if Hannah chose to leave, she wouldn’t be paid for the day, to which Hunter replied that she could take it out of their next paycheck to make up for it. Hannah protested, but Hunter was insistent; he could tell she was too tired to continue working and deserved a rest. Cid said that would be fine and left it at that, wishing Hannah a speedy recovery.

Before Cid left, Wrecker stopped her and curiously asked if she also had a “monthly cycle”, which earned him a stern look and a bop on the head from Cid. “Never ask a lady about her body issues,” she told him before heading back to her office.

“I didn’t think Cid considered herself ‘a lady’,” Wrecker quipped to the others, which got several of them to snicker.

The rest of the day was spent back in Hannah’s apartment, with the entire Bad Batch tending to Hannah and making sure she was taking it easy. She admittedly despised having so much attention brought on her, but at the same time, she enjoyed being taken care of by the others. It was nice having a bunch of grown men being so sensitive and understanding about her “monthly problem”, and it was even nicer having another girl to lament with and educate about how to deal with it when hers would eventually come. Hannah even ended up sharing some of her embarrassing stories related to her time of the month, which included one time she’d gone to a friend’s house and gotten blood all over their couch. To her surprise, the boys actually related to several of the stories in their own way, as they too had accidentally bled on many things throughout their experiences in the war. Wrecker even detailed an experience he’d had where he’d gotten stomach cramps so bad, he had to miss out on an entire mission because of it.

By the end of the day, Hannah had gotten so tired that she ended up falling asleep on the couch, curled up next to Hunter. He questioned whether or not they should leave her there or try to carry her to her room, to which Omega replied that she might get a different kind of cramp sleeping on the couch like that. Gently, Hunter woke her up just enough to help get her into her bedroom and let Omega help her into bed for the night.

The last thing Hannah thought of before falling asleep again was how grateful she was to have such an understanding family. She didn’t have to deal with her problems alone. And she definitely didn’t have to worry about them making fun of her either.

Well, not for this particular issue anyway. But that was a worry for another time...

#the bad batch #star wars the bad batch #can y'all tell what the inspo for this was ROFL #sometimes you just gotta write about your favs comforting you when you're in pain ya know?#also I strongly believe they would all be super curious about this stuff #especially cause of Omega #but that's just me 😋#star warz #my storiez

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