#actually checked a lot of things off my checklist?

[starlazergazer]

I Will Come Back for You

Pairing: Anakin x Reader

Request: Anakin and the reader were friends since they were little, both slaves, when Anakin gives her a necklace to remember him by when he leaves for the jedi with the promise that he will free her one day. Years later Ani realizes he is in love with the reader and decided to rescue her. Only to find out that a prince has freed you and taken you with him so Anakin mounts a rescue plan to free you from the prince’s grasp.

Warnings: Some swearing, some jealousy

Word count: 7K

A/N: As always I may have played with the original request a bit so if @sweetcheesecakesblog​ has any issue with the story let me know! But I had a lot of fun writing this so I really hope you enjoy it!

“Alright helmet”

“Check” 8 year old Anakin called back out in a bored tone, more than used to your prefight checklist you made him go through every time.

“Seatbelt?”

“Check”

“Flux density compressor”

“You made that one up” he laughed with a shake of his head, flipping switches on the dash to bring the speeder alive.

“Did I or do I just know more about mechanics than you?” You taunted with a smile on your face, bringing one, as it always did, to Anakin’s as well.

“That’s funny. You’re funny”

“So do I get to come along for this one?” You asked him sweetly, wide puppy dog eyes staring up at him from the ground beside the speeder. He made a point to avoid connecting with them.

“Absolutely not”

“Ani come on” you whined with a roll of your eyes, “you never let me come”

“I’m going for a record Y/N” He shrugged dismissively, busying himself with the controls that honestly no longer needed his attention.

“So?”

“So it’s dangerous”

“How come you’re going then?” you demanded with a frown

“Because-because-“ And he didn’t even know what words he was reaching for, knowing he didn’t want you coming along on a dangerous run but not fully understanding why. Instead he said the first thing that came to mind “because I’m a boy”

“What and girls can’t do anything dangerous” you laughed back at him with a raised brow.

“Yup” he answered simply, resting his arms on the edge of the speeder as he looked down at you “I think it’s a law”

“Now who’s making things up” you grumbled

“Alright you’re right that’s not a law” he ceded with a smirk “it actually says girls named Y/N can’t do anything dangerous”

You pouted back up at him, crossing your arms defensively over your chest prompting him to sigh. “Come on Y/N I need someone to time me”

“C3-PO could time you” you protested

“C3-PO’s not done” he countered

“Exactly my point!” You exclaimed in exasperation “you’re giving me a job so simple an unfinished protocol droid could do it”

And now it was Anakin’s turn to pull out the puppy dog eyes “Y/N please”

And just like he knew you would you caved, sighing as you sank into yourself on the spot, taking a second to note that his helmet wasn’t even on before holding up the stopwatch so he could see, pointedly hitting the button to start the timer.

“Wait wait I’m not ready” Anakin called out in a panic, throwing on his helmet and buckling himself in.

“4…5…6” you counted with a smirk on your face, watching as Anakin rushed through the last of his preparations before tearing off.

Hugging each corner more than he realistically should have Anakin made the loop in what felt like record time, slamming on the breaks to bring the speeder to a stop before yelling out to you excitedly “what was my time?”

He couldn’t hear your response over the drum of the engine so he shut it down, pulling off his helmet before repeating himself “Y/N what-“ and the sight before him made the words die in his throat.

The spot you had just been standing in was empty, nothing but a stopwatch buried in the sand in your spot.

“Y/N?” he called out in confusion, hopping down from the speeder and desperately looking around. You had been in a wide, empty area no where to go or hide in the amount of time he had been gone, it didn’t make sense.

He knelt down to pick up the stopwatch before a glint in the sand caught his eye, a familiar gold chain just to the left of the stopwatch.

But that was impossible, he hadn’t given you that necklace yet, wouldn’t for another year at least when he leaves with Qui-Gon, a way for you to remember him until he comes back for you.

“Ani?”

The voice caught him off guard, it was your voice but different, older? He spun around on the spot to see you standing there, but it wasn’t the you he knew at 8 years old, it was a you that was the same age as him now. He barely even registered that he wasn’t that 8 year old kid anymore either.

“Y/N?” he asked hesitantly, gripping the necklace pendant in his fist as he surveyed you “what’s going on?”

And at this you laughed bitterly only furthering his confusion “I was going to ask you the same question”

“What?”

“It’s been years Anakin” you words came quickly and sharply, anger dripping from each one “you said you were going to come back. Going to come get me out of here”

“I am…I-I I will I just can’t-“ his words tumbled out of him as he struggled to speak, his mind struggling to keep up with what was happening.

“Oh I’m sorry have you been busy?” you sneered at him, pushing him back “too busy learning to be a jedi, making friends, saving the galaxy, that must have been so hard for you”

“Y/N I’m sorry-”

“Oh good” you laughed, taking a step back from him “I’ve been a slave stuck on Tatooine with no friends, no family, working under Watto for years but it’s nice to know that you’re sorry, that sure helps”

“Y/N I meant what I said” he pleaded with you “I’m going to come free you”

A humorless laugh escaped you, all anger dropping from you almost instantly as your whole posture sagged “yeah well, you’re too late”

His eyebrows scrunched together, taking a hesitant step towards you “what do you mean-“ the rest of the sentence hung in the air as a man came into his field of vision.

He was someone Anakin had never seen before but a very well-dressed man, a man that was very pointedly only looking at you, looking at you with an expression that immediately had Anakin on guard.

“She’s beautiful isn’t she” the man spoke softly, reaching out to drag a single finger up your arm, the touch causing your entire body to tense up, Anakin’s fist clenching down on the necklace pendant in response before he even fully understood what was happening.

“Who are-“

The man cut him off, reaching up to put a single finger under your chin, pulling your gaze up to his “she was wasted on a person like Watto, a planet like Tatooine” You’re entire body seemed to shake on the spot.

“Look I don’t know what is going on here but if you don’t-“ Anakin’s threat was cut short as he tried to take a step forward only to find his feet buried in the sand below completely unable to move.

The man laughed softly, “With a face like this” he suddenly grabbed your chin, fingers squishing harshly into your cheeks as he turned your head to face him, a mischievous glint in the stranger’s eyes as he looked back at Anakin “think of the possibilities”

“You lay one hand on her and I will end you” his voice had dropped dangerously low, fist clenched so tightly around the pendant it dug harshly into his skin.

“Oh” the man laughed again, dropping your face to pull you by your arm, crashing your body into him, his arms snaking their way around your waist as your eyes pleaded with Anakin to do something “I wouldn’t dream of it”

His hand went instinctively for his lightsaber only to find the spot where it was usually clipped to his belt empty, his hand fumbling uselessly around in his robes for a bit as the stranger watched in amusement.

“If you’re quite done with these empty threats Y/N and I have some place to be” he smirked, pulling you along by your elbow.

“Y/N no please” he called out desperately, weight shifting forward on his feet though they still refused to move.

You didn’t say anything as you were pulled away, didn’t fight back, didn’t do anything but look back at Anakin sadly, begging him wordlessly to do something, to save you.

“No…stop…Y/N” he called out but his voice was starting to die within him, knowing he couldn’t do anything while his feet refused to move, forced to just stand there as he watched you get pulled away from him.

He reached out with his hand towards you as far as he could, putting all his weight into his toes trying desperately to do anything to move. When suddenly it was as if they became unstuck from the ground, his whole body immediately pitching forwards, his face flying directly to the ground.

His hands came up instinctively to protect himself as he hit the ground but he didn’t ever connect with it really, instead he fell through it, reality shifting instantly so he was falling through the ceiling of his room, body slamming back down on the bed violently prompting him to bolt up inn an instant, breaths heavy and erratic as he took in his surroundings.

It was his room at the temple, his empty room, it was just a dream, at least that was what he told himself. But this felt different somehow than the dreams he had of you before. You had been his age in this one, that was what struck him, before you had always been at most the nine years old he had last seen you at on Tatooine but not in this one, why not in this one.

Something felt wrong, he could feel it. Not in the force per say but in his gut, you were in trouble he just knew it.

As he felt his heart rate start to go down, his breathing finally slowing back down to a normal rate, he brought his hand up to his face, looking down into his palm, an indent of a familiar necklace pendant etched into the skin staring back up at him.

-

You had never been one for court. The threats and promises Prince Willard doled out without a second thought as if he were a god, capable of controlling everything and everyone beneath him. As if he somehow deserved the loyalty of these people due to a position he was born into, as if he deserved to posses the fist that he too often used to crush innocent people.

It was why you barely paid attention to the next person that strolled into the throne room that day.

He had fluffy hair that fell nearly to his shoulders, piercing blue eyes that looked almost familiar if you stared into them for long enough but of course you didn’t. You never liked to note the hope in people’s eyes as they asked for favors before the prince snuffed it out.

It was the man’s voice that caught your attention. A voice that haunted your dreams, a voice that had  promised you he would come back for you, the voice of a kid you had long since given up hope of ever seeing again.

“Your majesty” the man said, dipping low into a bow as you sat up straighter, inching ever so slightly closer to the edge of your seat, eager to see the man’s face as he came back up only to see his gaze already on you, the edges of his lips turned up into a small smile “My name is Anakin Skywalker”

And you felt your whole world freeze, because it was him, that boy, the one you had grown so close to as a child, the one you had waited years for on an empty promise made when he was nine, the one now much older than when you had last seen him, bowing before you on the floor.

You felt a relief wash over you instantly, you’d spent all this time worrying for the worst: if he was dead, if he had forgotten about you, if he had never cared in the first place.

But now standing before you, eyes never breaking from your own as he smiled you could see that none of that was true, that he had kept his promise after all, that not so little anymore Ani had finally come back for you.

If only he hadn’t come too late.

“What can I do for you Mr.Skywalker” Prince Willard’s voice filled the silence you hadn’t realized you had let fall, not missing the way the Prince’s eyes flicked back and forth between you and Anakin suspiciously, a tightness in his jaw you never liked to see make an appearance.

“I come for the princess” Anakin’s gaze never left yours, but you tried to force yourself to ignore it, to slump back down into your chair, to force your expression into one of indifference.

A humorless laugh filled the throne room, echoing off the expansive stone walls as the prince looked between you and Anakin again “you come for my princess?”

“The republic does not condone keeping slaves Prince Willard” Anakin continued to threaten no matter how much you begged him behind your eyes to shut up “so I suggest you release Y/N to me and we can set this whole matter behind us”

“You must be mistaken” you hated how calm his voice was as he spoke, remaining the same even tone even as Anakin’s started to spike in anger “Y/N is not a slave here, she is as you said a princess”

“I happen to know for a fact that you purchased her servitude from Watto just two years ago” Anakin continued, stalking dangerously close to the throne as his voice dropped down an octave “thereby making her your slave”

“I freed princess Y/L/N from Watto two years ago” you could hear the smugness in the prince’s voice as he spoke, more than happy to put Anakin in his place “she is here of her on accord. Isn’t that right sweetheart”

You felt your heart seize in your chest at the nickname, watching as Anakin’s eyes broke back to yours wide with hope, begging you to say otherwise, to let him take you from here.

You practically choked on your next words “that’s correct”

You forced your gaze back to the prince’s before you could watch Anakin’s chest fall, watch the hope flicker from his eyes. It would make the first time in this room you had caused that instead of the prince.

“Nevertheless-“ Anakin tried to continue though his voice had lost most of its bravado in the process.

You watched as the prince’s hand started to snake further down the armrest of his chair, fingers coming dangerously close to the button you knew was at the end of it that would call in the guards and did the only thing you could think to do to stop it.

You leaned over and grabbed the prince’s hand, calmly lacing your fingers through his and giving it a soft squeeze.

You watched both the men freeze at the touch, Anakin’s eyes snapping immediately to your interlaced fingers on the prince’s thrown.

The prince’s eyes, however, immediately snapped to you and you could see the confusion in them. Afterall when was the last time you had shown him such affection, surely not since your first few weeks in the castle, not since you learned exactly what type of man he was.

But you forced a smile to your face, watching in some small satisfaction as a similar one grew on his, his other hand coming over to rest atop your own.

“I suggest you leave Mr.Skywalker” and there was some annoyance in his voice as the Prince said it. But annoyance was good, annoyance you could deal with, as long as it meant the anger had been washed away.

Anakin shook his head in response, taring his gaze away from your clasped hands and notably not stopping to rest on yours for even a second “not without the princess”

You had never wanted to throttle the Skywalker boy more in your life.

You could practically see the anger rising within the prince as Anakin continued to demand your freedom, his fist coming off of your hands to bang on his armrest as his voice for the first time rose enough that you were sure the guards were going to be alerted “now you listen here-“

You cut off the prince quickly with a simple “darling”, reaching out to his chin to softly pull his gaze to yours. The anger was wiped from his face in an instant, as if it had never been there in the first place and you could see him practically hanging off your every word. Afterall it was a nickname you only pulled out in the most dire of circumstances.

And though you knew it was a dirty trick to play, and that Anakin was standing right before the two of you, more than able to see everything you were about to do, you leaned forward a bit giving the prince a good view down your neckline, watching the way his brain lagged as his gaze was instinctively drawn to it.

“Do you think we could wrap this up I’m feeling rather tired” you asked sweetly, the prince’s gaze finally snapping up to your eyes.

“Of course sweetheart” he all but whispered, bringing your hand up to his lips to press a small kiss to the back of it, you doing your best not to flinch before he turned back to Anakin.

You could see Anakin’s clenched jaw even from your chair above him, not missing the daggers he glared in the prince’s direction as he waited for him to speak, his hands clutched tightly into fists at his side.

“I will not ask again Mr.Skywalker” the prince acted as if he couldn’t see the anger dripping off of Anakin, his eyes only straying from you for brief moments to address him “leave now or I will have you thrown out”

At this Anakin’s eyes broke to yours, this time not begging you to say something but rather daring you to, giving the stare but a moment’s pause before he bowed again, never taking his eyes off you as he spoke “as you wish” and you knew those words weren’t directed at the prince.

Nevertheless Anakin strolled out of the throne room slowly and you tried your best not to watch him go, not to wish he would come back and take you with him despite everything, not to want him to stay.

“come let’s get you to bed” the prince’s words broke you from your trance as he helped you from your chair, a soft hand placed on the small of your back as he led you down the hallway.

“What’s brought all this on my sweet” he asked innocently though you could detect the undercurrent of suspicion in his words, forcing your feet to stop carrying you forward, turning more fully to the prince as you spoke.

“Just…hearing someone lie like that…about knowing me in order to get close to me…it scared me honestly” you forced your voice to be as small and helpless as possible, exactly the way he seemed to prefer his princesses.

And you watched his face light up in response, a small chuckle escaping his lips before he pulled you softly into a hug, your head crashing lightly into his chest as he rubbed a hand up and down your back “there is no need to worry. I will always protect you”

And though you gagged on the inside, and had to fight the urge to push him away from you, you forced yourself to sink further into the hug, mumbling softly against the linen of his shirt “I know you will”

-

You woke in the middle of the night to a soft tapping on your window, familiar blue eyes connecting with yours from the balcony outside.

Swearing softly under your breath you slipped out from beneath the convers, careful not the wake the prince sleeping right next to you as you did so.

Only once the crisp night air hit you did it dawn on you that you hadn’t bothered to throw anything on over the simple slip you slept in with the prince, something that clearly didn’t escape Anakin’s notice either.

“Did you-“ he let the question hang in the air, his eyes flitting back to the prince still asleep in your bed inside.

“I’m fine” you answered simply, not caring that that was not the question he had asked in the first place “Ani what are you doing here”

You hadn’t meant for the nickname to slip out, the familiarity of being in his presence just taking over but you could see the way his mouth quirked up at the sound of it, his attention drawing completely back to you as you said it “I could ask you the same question”

“Yeah well” you crossed your arms protectively over your chest, gaze breaking to anything other than Anakin’s eyes as you spoke “only one of us is here willingly”

You watched the smile on Anakin’s face grow into a grin as you admitted it “I knew it”

“I’m so glad my enslavement amuses you” you grumbled back in response.

“Hey it means I can do something about it” Anakin responded just making you shake your head more, had he learned nothing from this morning.

“You cannot-“ and you cut yourself off, eyes darting back briefly to your bedroom to check on the prince’s sleeping form before you changed tactics, only focused on ending this conversation as soon as possible “Anakin you need to leave”

“What?” he asked in disbelief, blue eyes bouncing back and forth between your own “I can’t leave. Not without you”

“Ani I-“ you sighed, eyes breaking to the sides of the castle “look at least meet me in the guest bedroom okay, its just that balcony over there” you pointed to the balcony a few rooms down from your own “we can’t have this conversation here”

He looked down at you skeptically, eyes breaking back into your bedroom before reluctantly nodding.

You sighed back in relief, carefully slipping back into your bedroom and out into the hallway though not without grabbing a robe to wrap yourself in on the way.

And you had meant to go into the room telling Anakin off, demanding he leave before he causes even more trouble. But then you saw him standing there in the room, the perfect reflection of the little kid you had known on Tatooine, and you couldn’t help yourself.

You bound up to Anakin quickly, wrapping your arms around his neck as his snaked around your waist pulling you into a deep hug. You felt him sigh into it, pulling you tightly against him and you knew he needed this as badly as you did.

“You grew up” you whispered into his ear, feeling your whole body shake as he laughed in response, reluctantly letting you go.

“So did you”

And you relished the smile on his face as he said it, the familiar air that had encapsulated you in that moment, as if the years that had passed without him didn’t exist, as if he had been there with you the whole time.

His eyebrows suddenly quirked and you watched his hand come up to your neck, fingers grazing the skin around it as he pulled on the simple golden chain he had given you ages ago.

“You still wear it” the words came out in disbelief, a soft chuckle along with them.

“A good friend gave it to me” you responded with a smile “told me it was so that I wouldn’t forget him, or his promise”

“And did you?” he asked you, eyes breaking from the necklace back to you hopefully.

“Not for a second” you answered honestly.

His next words came quick and with the same veracity as that promise he had made you long ago “neither did I”

Another brief silence passed between the two of you before Anakin finally broke it, dropping the necklace, allowing its charm to thud softly against your chest “why did you agree to go with him Y/N? I promised I would come get you”

“How long was I supposed to wait Ani?” you asked him softly “I’d already waited so many years, I had no way of knowing if you were even alive, so when the chance to finally get out from under Watto came along. I took it”

“And the prince?” he asked in response “he treats you well? You’re happy here?”

“He treats me well” you assured him, taking one of his hands in yours and giving it a soft squeeze, pointedly ignoring his latter question.

“come back with me” he pleaded, taking your other hand in his.

“I can’t” you shook your head in response.

“Why not?”

You sighed softly at the question “Because I am single handedly keeping at bay three different wars by staying his hand” your answer slipped out before you could stop it “because the people here deserve better than to live on a war torn planet which is what this place will be reduced to if the prince is left to rule alone”

“the jedi order can-“

“The order can do what?” you cut him off quickly “there is a treaty in place and the prince has so far done nothing wrong. The order can’t step in until it is too late and you know it”

And again there was a moment of silence as Anakin digested your words, tried to think of a way to counter. “Please don’t make me leave without you.” He took a deep breath, eyes bouncing desperately back and forth between your own “I already did that once and I can’t bear to do it again”

And you couldn’t help but smile sadly at that, a hand coming instinctively up to cup his cheek, rubbing soft circles into the skin “Ani I can’t”

Anakin opened his mouth to respond but instead the prince’s voice came out startling the two of you “You know I knew you were lying when you said you didn’t know him” You and Anakin jumped back from each other hastily. The prince continuing on softly as if he hadn’t noticed “I never thought I asked you for too much. I gave you everything you could ever want: a castle to explore, a planet to rule over, subjects to wait on you hand and foot and all I ever wanted in return was for you to love me. Instead I find out you’re undermining my rule behind my back.”

Anakin grabbed your arm protectively, pulling you closer to him as he spoke “you don’t get to buy someone’s love like that. You earn it and if Y/N doesn’t want to go back with you than she won’t”

The prince in turn completely ignored Anakin’s words, his eyes only focusing on you “Now Y/N you know I don’t like to play this card but I do own you” he held a hand out to you, waiting for you to take it, already expecting that you would “now be a good girl and come back to me”

And he was right, it was as if your hand was being pulled by strings, your arm already lifting before Anakin was pulling you back behind him, defensively standing between you and the prince “As I already said slavery is illegal under the republic”

“As the leading supplier of weapons to the republic I’m willing to bet they will look the other way just this one time” he said it all with a smile, already knowing he had won, that you were bound to come back to him just as you always did.

“They may be but I am not” Anakin dropped into a defensive stand before you, hands making for his lightsaber strapped to his hip and illuminating it before him, casting an eerie blue glow in the room.

“I warn you this is not a battle you can win Skywalker” the prince threatened, giving Anakin a moment to stand down before calling out “guards”

In a second the room was swarming with guards, every available space filled with a new one, each with their blasters pointed squarely at Anakin.

And you could see from his stance that there was still no backing down, that he planned to go down fighting if that was what the situation called for.

The prince, however, kept his eyes on you, a smirk on his face as he held a hand out to you still, patiently waiting for you to take it.

“Ani stop” you all but whispered, setting a soft hand on his back as you made your way around him.

“Y/N, no” he tried weakly to stop you though you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He knew this was a fight he couldn’t win.

You ignored him as you stepped around him, reaching out to take the princes hand, not missing the way his grip was much stronger than necessary once you had grabbed it. “that’s a good princess” he cooed happily, smiling back at the daggers Anakin was glaring into him “now you and I are going to have a very important discussion but first” he turned his attention back to the guards, hand never breaking from your wrist “show the jedi out and make sure he doesn’t come back this time, I don’t need the entire order on my ass claiming I kidnapped one of their knights”

For a moment there was just silence, Anakin glaring back at the prince, no doubt imagining the thousand of ways he could kill him right now before he finally deactivated his lightsaber, turning his attention back to you just over the princes shoulders “I’m coming back for you” he promised, putting as much force into the words as possible before his gaze snapped back to the prince “and I’m not taking no for an answer”

-

It had been a while since you had been thrown in the dungeon, something that happened fairly rarely though still often enough that you had your own room.

Some furniture had been added, a more comfortable bed and all but there was still no mistaking it for what it was, a prison cell.

Anakin had said he would come back for you, the exact promise he made you as a nine year old on Tatooine, and sure he had fulfilled the promise the first time but that how many years? Could you really afford to wait that long again?

But Anakin didn’t owe you anything, you weren’t his responsibility, and further it made no sense for the jedi to sanction a rescue mission like that. Overthrowing the monarchy of the planet that supplied most of the republics weapons over one girl? That didn’t make sense.

But his eyes when he had promised you again, the tone in his voice, the conviction with which he said it, you believed him, you really did.

But logic won out, it always did, you just needed to sit here and wait, wait for the prince to forgive you, wait for him to decide he would rather have his arm candy at the next ball than be mad at you. Put your head down and play your part that was how you had gotten this far in this life and it was how you were prepared to continue.

So you waited, waited for an all too familiar apology, the same excuse of how he didn’t like treating you like this, or even worse that this hurt him to see you like this more than it hurt you.

Instead on the fourth day you were awakened by an explosion loud enough to shake the castle walls.

You were on your feet in an instant, pressing your ear desperately to the door trying to pick up any noise at all that would clue you into what was happening but the door was too thick, you couldn’t make out anything.

Swearing under your breath you gave up on that tactic, moving instead to pacing the room before deciding better of it, grabbing the only thing you could think to make a weapon (a pillow) and pressing your back to the wall right next to the door.

Forcing deep, even breaths you waited, only having to stand there for a few minutes before the door finally slid open, you waiting a single moment before swinging the pillow towards the person walking into the room.

Only a few steps in the person effortlessly turned to you and held a hand up to block, you only realizing with relief that it was Anakin after you had nailed him in the forearm.

“A pillow? Really?”

“I don’t exactly have options for weapons in here” you sighed, throwing the pillow back onto your bed.

“Literally anything would have been better” he chuckled “you could’ve just punched me”

“Then you could’ve grabbed my wrist and I’d have been restrained”

“Oh glad to know there was at least some thought put into this plan” he shook his head in amusement “now come on you’re ruining my knight in shining armor moment”

With a grin you took his hand, letting him lead you down the hallway to the stairs that would take you to the main floor, the sound of gunfire growing with each step.

“The order sanctioned a hostile takeover of the castle?” you asked him in disbelief.

“Its just the 501st battalion up there” he whispered back to you as he drew his lightsaber, pointedly not answering your question.

“And the jedi council and the senate gave you permission to use them to come here right?” you responded with a raised brow.

“When we get up there stay low and stay behind me we’re going to be moving quickly” Again Anakin ignored your question as he started to move up the stairs.

You reached out to grab his arm, forcing him to stop and look at you, you raising your eyebrows waiting for your answer.

He sighed as he looked down at you before shaking his head softly “I made a promise. And I already wasted too much time before fulfilling the first one”

“Ani but all this” you sighed back at him, gesturing to the sounds of battle above “people could get hurt, you’re going to be in so much trouble-“

“I told you” he cut you off with a small smile “I’m not leaving this planet without you”

And to your own surprise you had no response to that, a moment of silence hanging in the air before Anakin turned back to the stairs and whispered “now stay low and behind me we’re making a break for the ship okay?”

“Okay”

-

You can’t remember the last time you were able to just sit in the grass and watch the clouds. Honestly you weren’t sure you had ever been able to do so. There was always work to do, customers to overcharge, kingdoms to run. It was nice to just sit and do nothing for a change.

You heard footsteps approaching from behind you but didn’t bother to turn around and look, you knew who it was.

Anakin sat down wordlessly next to you, his shoulder brushing yours lightly as he leaned back on his hands, his gaze following yours up to the sky.

“How much trouble did you get into for an unsanctioned rescue mission like that” you asked him with a raised brow, laughing softly as you watched his gaze pointedly avoid yours.

“Why don’t we just say that doesn’t matter now” he proposed with a soft smile “you’re here, you’re free, that’s what matters”

“So a lot. I tried to warn you” you chuckled with a soft shake of your head.

“I free you from being a slave, from a literal dungeon and you’re still going to do an ‘I told you so’ moment” He laughed finally looking down at you.

“I mean I did” you shrugged with a grin, moving to sit up straighter, your smile slowly dropping from your face as you picked at the grass beneath your legs, letting you gaze stay down as you prepared for your next words “you know, waiting all those years on Tatooine, I was starting to think you had forgotten me”

“There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about you” Anakin’s answer came immediately, his tone soft but serious.

“Yeah?” You chuckled lightheartedly, eyes coming up to see that he was already looking down at you “nice to know I had such an impact on your childhood”

At this Anakin chuckled softly, wringing a hand through his hair as he spoke “I mean how could you not? We spent nearly every minute together, you were the one I always wanted to talk to, the one who made me laugh no matter whatever else was going on. Of course I thought about you. I meant it when I said I was going to come back for you”

“I know you did” you answered honestly “even back then, I knew you did”

A moment of comfortable silence fell over the two of you before Anakin broke it “you know I had this plan in my head on how I was going to rescue you” he chuckled  softly, eyes casting up to the clouds above as he spoke “I was going to storm in and demand you back, fight my way to you if I had to, and you would see me and be so grateful that I had finally come for you that you ran to me, threw your arms around my neck and…” he seemed to choke on his next words, a brief moments pause before a humorless chuckle escaped his lips “and that’s not how it ended up going at all”

“It did not” you agreed with your own chuckle

“then I saw you on that throne, looking more beautiful than you ever had before in that gown that I almost forgot what I had planned to say. I panicked and bowed instead”

And you couldn’t help but laugh at that, at the idea of the Anakin Skywalker getting so flustered by anything that badly was absolutely ridiculous.

“Then you acted as if you had no idea who I was” his voice seemed to hollow out at these words, “and this pit grew in my stomach, and I just needed you to look at me and tell me that you remembered me”

You took his hand without a second thought, giving it a soft squeeze as he continued.

“Then I saw you reach over and grab his hand, and you called him darling and smiled at him with that same smile you used to give me and I told myself that I could be okay with that. That I would be okay with that if you were in love with him, if you were happy. If being a princess gave you all you wanted then I would just walk away”

“Then why did you come back” you asked him softly “later that night”

He chuckled softly to himself again, giving your hand a squeeze “I told myself that I just wanted to make sure that you were happy. That if you looked me in the eyes and told me that you liked it there that I would leave. But honestly” he paused for a deep breath, looking down at you for the first time “honestly I just needed to know that you remembered me, that I wasn’t crazy for hanging onto those years we knew each other as kids for as long as I did”

And you couldn’t help but laugh at his words, resting your head against his shoulder as you did so “Oh Ani I could’ve never forgotten you”

“Yeah?” he asked you and though he tried to play it off as a joke you could hear the desperation beneath his voice, how badly he needed to hear you say it.

“Of course I didn’t forget about you” you sighed out, your other hand coming up to squeeze his bicep softly “I’ve been in love with you since we were five”

You felt him go rigid beneath you, a brief moment of panic coursing through you as you sat back up to look at him, his wide eyes planted squarely on you as you straightened up to meet his gaze “you what?”

“I thought it was obvious” you chuckled at his reaction “always practically hanging off your side, doing anything and everything to get you to laugh, to notice me”

You could practically see his brain working to catch up, to process your words “why…why didn’t you tell me?”

“And when would I have done that?” you chuckled again “when you were my only friend in the world that I couldn’t risk losing or after you left to go become a jedi?”

His eyes flitted back and forth for a moment, his head whirling at what had apparently been new information to him only making you smile and shake your head softly.

“And what about now?” he asked quietly

You smirked back up at him, a mischievous glint in your eye “what about now?”

He forced out a chuckle at your words, his grip on your hand tightening unconsciously “what do you think of no longer nine years old Anakin”

You couldn’t fight the grin off your face as you leaned back slightly, allowing your eyes to graze over him, pretending to scrutinize before answering “hmmm not bad. Could use a haircut though”

And you watched a grin grow on his own face at your words, the grip on your hand used to pull you closer to him. “I’ll have you know I like my hair”

“Oh no the long hair suits no longer nine year old Anakin” you assured him, reaching up to run a hand through it “just a little trim”

He caught your hand as you tried to withdraw it from his hair, pressing a soft kiss to the delicate skin on the inside of your wrist before he spoke softly “okay, for you, anything”

#anakin x reader #anakin x you #Anakin Skywalker #anakin fanfiction #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin imagine #anakin fic #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker fic #anakin skywalker x you #star wars fanfiction #star wars imagine #star wars x you #star wars x reader

[dailyadventureprompts]

Drafting the Adventure: Dungeons Without Walls

I love the idea of dungeons, but there was a significant portion of my life as a DM where they didn’t feature in my games. While Pathfinder and 5e provided a great framework for character building and tactical skirmishes that I could build story on top of, neither was really great when it came time to detour into a  dungeon. My players tended to get confused when we headed out to plunder the local ruin or cave system, spending a lot more time figuring out where they were and what they should be doing than actually doing anything. 

The problem as it turned out was limited information.  I had a picture of the dungeon in my head/notes but I couldn’t telepathically infer that to the party, and the back and forth questions where they tried to orient themselves within my mental labyrinth ate up a lot of session time prevented us from attaining that snappy pace that every table needs to keep the players invested.

Recently though I had an epiphany about overhauling exploration in d&d, and wrote up a whole post detailing how you could build and run wilderness adventures the same way you could a heist or a murder mystery. Because I was already writing a series about dungeon design it didn’t take long for me to realize that this exploration overhaul was 100% applicable, and could solve a lot of the delay and confusion my players usually faced on their next trip underground.  Spoilers: it worked amazingly.

 The key to this overhaul was giving my players enough information to see the dungeon as a sort of abstract checklist, and then giving them the power to investigate and check things off that list in whatever order they wished, when they enter a new level of the dungeon they get a new checklist to fill out which still keeps that sense of exploration. Folk love checking things off lists, and I as a dungeonmaster love it when players engage with the content I’ve spent so much energy creating even if it’s only poking their head in the door to realize they want to run away as fast as possible. Likewise, designing the dungeon this way let me tackle much larger concepts without having to sweat the details of filling up every little room as I would have to in map-centric design.

To summarize my exploration mechanic as It applies to dungeons:

During Design: After you’ve got the dungeons’ major concept, you divide it into unique “zones” (essentially what might be levels in a regular dungeon) with an interconnected theme, mechanic, or threat.

Each zone has a number of points of interest, which can be anything from trails to follow, odd sights they might investigate, to full complexes of rooms that you’ve mapped out. You don’t need to map out the points of interest otherwise, they sort of float abstractly within the zone 

When players enter a zone, they become aware of its name and general descriptor, as well as how many total points of interest are in that zone. They also become aware of some points of interest immediately to serve as landmarks and give them a direction for their exploration, but most remain undiscovered until they venture off the path and start checking out their surroundings. Hidden among these points of interest are the doors that lead to zones deeper within the dungeon, encouraging the party to explore in order to progress.

During Play: When the players enter the dungeon, one player is appointed as the surveyor, who’s job it is to keep track of the zones, fill out that checklist, and check things off when the DM tells them that they’ve fully explored a point of interest.

Rather than needing to be aware of the exact room layout, the party just need to know what zone they’re in and what options are available to them, Because this information is delivered in the form of a checklist with empty spaces, the party know exactly how much of the dungeon they’ve explored, what’s left to explore, and when they’ve cleared out an area.

Lets take the image above as inspiration. Say the party is trying to make it up to the tower, you can easily see a progression of zones and maybe imagine a few to go alongside them:

Ruins & Foothills: The first area, filled with the remnants of an ancient civilization. Picked over by looters and now a home to all sorts of wildlife,

Mountainside: The obvious next goal, but locked off behind a challenging climb, Filled with hazards that threaten to knock the party back down to the foothills if they’re not careful

Caverns: Secret area accessible only if the party explore a cave on the mountainside, or make a beeline towards the old aqueduct landmark in the foothills, realizing it might be easier than the climb. 

Spire Foundations: The door connecting to the foothills is guarded by a complex puzzle and arcane ward, but the party might be able to sneak in through the caves where erosion has caused a breakthrough into the cellars.

Spire Peak: High among the clouds, the party’s prize is somewhere here.  Access to the upper sections of the tower are guarded by a territorial sphinx under arcane compulsion, though the party might just be able to skip that fight if they figure out the riddle to make the portal mirrors work in the foundations.

Trying to design all this by pencilling it in on a gridmap would take weeks, to say nothing of the headache it’d cause you trying to make things fit together and fill up empty space with content. Designing it first as a sequence of zones and then filling those out with interesting fights, puzzles, and encounters is the work of an afternoon or two. Likewise, its easy on your players: five zones with six to ten points of interest is far easier to tackle when you can make a checklist and see how much progress you’ve made, despite the fact that the area they’re exploring is quite vast. 

I hope you find this as useful as I have, and if you need a more concrete example of how it might work, don’t worry, I’ll have one of those for you in the coming days.

#dungeon design #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #5e #dm advice #dm tip #dm tips #dm tools #writing advice #pathfinder #ttrpg #homebrew #5e homebrew #homebrew mechanic #exploration

[socksandbuttons]

Bean Eclipse Au has my love and seeing any post makes me very happy but now I want to get to know your Space au a little. May you give us some funfacts about the characters to get to know them better?

Aw thank you! I'll do my best describing some things! Its been a moment where I dont know what ive said about them on here. ((The ladies, are by @nekojaf so if u want info on them you gotta ask her!)) First, We got Eclipse (yes thats his name, unless we go au hopping its-)

-He's a captain of his own spaceship (however its mostly a ship that can house just a handful of people.)

-He's self confident, he's got leadership qualities and doesn't stand down often. However can be a huge flirt (as Beige unfortunately deals with). -I've mentioned before but Eclipse (like other models of his kind) are far more Emotive than the previous models.

-Eclipse is the reason Lunar has a collection of plushies. The guy is very good with sewing. -He's not familiar too much with the 'Star' like SAMS' Eclipse is. At least not currently. He's far more concerned with other things.

-His relationship with Earth is rather... interesting. He may be vocal about not wanting to speak to her but its mostly cause she's like a mom who tends to baby him. (Although he can't blame her frequent check ins.) -Most people avoid him, but that's cause he's made an interesting name for himself.

Lunar, my BOY who started this whole au actually.

-The space suit was given to him by Eclipse. Who may have taken it.

-He comes off as sweet, but don't think less of him in comparison with his brother. He's mischievous as well, and cunning when needed.

-Far better at keeping his emotions in check than Eclipse.

-Unlike Eclipse (again) he's actually rather good at y'know. Getting the girl.

-However, he is younger than Eclipse. In part not as experienced with the whole line their apart of.

-Rather handy with his shots, but better at driving. Also has a bit of a name for himself.

-Cannot actually believe how his brother acts around Beige from time to time. He's judging his brother immensely everytime. Just let her clear the hyperdrive so they can go!

Moon!

-It should not be a shock he's still a scientist in this au. (Mad scientist Sun would say...)

-But in part of that, its due to being part of a Space Camp. He's suppose to be in charge of the sciences of how rockets run. However he uses most of that to make his own things.

-It usually does end up with the kids handling it. Unless Sun gets involved. Kids love the anti gravity chamber a lot.

-Also in this AU he is still AroAce.

-However since Sun and him are under a company, they don't usually leave the Camp. They can't really.

-Moon has made a Star.

Sun, sweetie my darling.

-Although him and Moon run the Camp together, Sun mostly handles the kids. (Although, Sun more or less just doesn't want them getting hurt cause of Moon's experiments.) -He's been having trouble with some outsiders makings noise lately but it's usually something he can handle. The dome around the place keeps the camp relatively safe (and Safer with Moon's additional technology)

-He goes by his own checklist, although the one from the higher ups isn't something he wants to fully deviate from. It's kept things running, and their own job secure.

-He may be dressed up as a Spaceman, he's uh... not actually one. At least not by astronaut standards.

-They don't talk to other models of themselves.

-Earth and Sun usually can talk for hours. However, he tries not to keep her too long. She's got others to check in.

Bloodmoon, yes it's him!

-The possibly second youngest.

-He's the only model of his type that... well Ruby's seen actually.

-An avid fan of Invader Zim, due to many movie nights he's had with Ruby. (In an effort to help him learn some things about people...without being near too many.) -He doesn't understand why he needed clothes, unaware of his own autonomy.

-Unfortunately for everyone, WAS destroying planets and ships, destruction in his wake. No one could keep him contained. Until Ruby. But she's not really trying to contain him.

-His curiosity mainly keeps him in check, at least in regard to his learning program. He still seeks some chaos, even if it is on a isolated ship in the meantime.

-Comet Boy! Danger, do not engage.

Angel, y sweet sweett bababyyy

-Probably the oldest? He's quite a mess it's hard to tell.

-Has been passed around here and there from job to job so he's very well versed in many skills!

-Earth finding him again was a blessing. She thought she lost him. Incredibly thankful for Cosmo.

-Is far more interesting in helping Cosmo than being helped. He's survived quite a bit!

Killcode, don't you forget my giant man.

-Was made by Moon, or from Moon. In doing so, he's got a few quirks he picked up.

-Such as... He's actually less violent. However able to withstand radiation, rocket blasts, high velocity impact, mundicide... Assumingly.

-Incredibly Tall. A normal person would maybe feel incredibly intimidated by how much he towers.

-A darling cook, he mostly has to kneel for that though. Not many ktichens he's been in are for his height.

-He's a rather calming personality, has no qualms to start fights.

Earth and Solar Flare (or welll... the ACTUAL Sun)

-Two AI's made for well.. as you guess the Earth and the Sun.

-Earth is as expected to be motherly, warm, stern with her own wants. While SF has less expected results of being rather recluse, cold, to the point and selective in their interactions.

-Earth is partly why the actual planet is far cleaner. With her being actually forthright about the planets condition. It helps if theres someone who may be disappointed if you throw your trash on the ground, or company's dumping waste. She may have been made, but she more or less is her own being. Most don't mind since her main concerns usually fall with her own planets affairs. That doesn't mean she doesn't have concerns of other places.

-SF was made as a safe bet to monitor the sun. However, hue to unexpected AI developing their own personality. SF doesn't fairly speak to much anyone aside Earth. He rather feels she's better at relaying information than he is. Ironic, they find.

-Recently some reptilian android has started to make some impressions on Earth, SF doesn't normally hear her talk about individuals like this aside the 'children' she oversees.

-Earth also ended up supervising the celestial and eclipse models. Attaching to them far more than expected but due to- [The Rest is too glitched to make out.]

Well that was more typing than I thoguht it'd be. But me and Neko have quite a bit of art. The main inspiration for a lot of it is retro futurism. But thank you for asking! You also got Earth in there too. My sweet lady I love her.

#solar flares design needs some work actually but thats kinda because his OG look IS more on line with the style actually. #anyway theres lore here and there but also #missing a few things #lots of romance in this au more than u think #ALSO YEAH MONTY IS IN THERE BUT UH DFBHSJKDS #sams space au #space sams au #tsams #sun and moon show #myart #*looks at all the art i havent show* ah #i think about the models and their differences a bit more and time... but another day when it comes up

[mercurygray]

Hii Merc, could I please request #11. "the lover in the sky" for Fred and Brady? Thank you <3 — @shoshiwrites

Thanks for letting me take my time on this one, @shoshiwrites! I hope you don't mind Fred's having...a bit of a crisis.

There was a shiver in the air.

Fred hefted the empty coffee thermos into the back of the jeep, grateful that it had been a busy day and the thing was mostly empty. She was glad she'd thought to bring her tanker jacket, earlier - the warm one with the good zipper that fit nicely over her uniform coat. Summer was still cool, and night out on the tarmac cooler still. She'd left Ken and his crews with fresh coffee, the last of the day, and now it was time for home, and bath, and bed.

"Fred!" Lieutenant Brady's voice came up out of the rising dark. "What brings you out here?"

"Passing out the rest of the coffee. Ken said it was going to be a long night." She paused, and followed his eyes in the direction of the plane, Brady's Crash Wagon in large friendly letters on the side. (Everyone had heard that story, about how he'd brought the thing in from Greenland on no wheels, and they'd renamed it shortly after.) "I could ask you the same thing."

"Checking in on her," he said with a smile. "Looks pretty good, doesn't she?"

"I wouldn't know," Fred admitted with a good-natured shrug. "I've never been inside one." Not even for a little barnstorm, she wanted to add, before someone starting laughing about the absurdity of working at at airbase and never having actually been inside a plane. City girls don't take plane rides at county fairs - and Clubmobile women take boats to Europe.

Brady, however, wasn't laughing. "Do you want to?" he asked, sincere as anything. She snorted, and then realized he was serious, and shrugged in assent. "Are your fellows all done inside, Herb?" Brady asked, shouting under the belly towards the mechanic and his box of tools.

"It's your ship, Lieutenant," Herb said. "I'll leave the stairs out, for when you both need to come back down. You got a flashlight? It's getting mighty dark out here."

Brady waved his and Herb nodded and let them be, Brady steering her towards the tail of the plane and the hatch with its folded down stairs. "Here, you'd better take this," he said, handing over the flashlight, warm from his pocket. "Once you get up top, go along the gangway and watch your feet."

"Don't you want to go first?"

He shook his head. "Ladies first," he said, and waved her on forward.

It was dark, here in the tail of the fort, the only light the two large panels in the sides with their machine guns standing at the ready. She fumbled for a moment with the flashlight until it finally turned on, the small beam casting here and there over the inside of the plane. It felt like being inside the attic of an old house, seeing the ribs of the aircraft jutting out of the walls at regular intervals, the panel of the floor creaking as she made her way around the guns and the bubble of the turret and its enormous oxygen tank, carefully passing by a chair and radio to an even smaller gangway, and passing between an enormous empty space. "Bomb bay," she heard Brady say behind her. "Careful there, there's a step up past the turret. Go left once you're up there."

The step up was over a large opening that must have led to the nose - the light was slightly better down there. Fred hoisted herself up and tried not to move anything, flipping the flashlight off to appreciate the scene in the last bit of light from the sunset. All of this to put a piece of metal in the sky.

Brady climbed up into the right-hand seat, pleased as anything. "How on earth do you manage all of this all at once?" Fred said, trying to make sense of the buttons and switches, each with a name and label more arcane than the last.

"It's just practice," he offered, "A lot of flight hours. And there's a checklist we go through when we start - fuel levels, pumps, ignition switches. Then we pump and prime the engines and start them one by one. Put your hand here," he said, gesturing to the handle between the two seats. "When we're ready on the runway for takeoff, you'd push this forward -" his hand closed around hers on the double-handled throttle - "and away she goes."

She felt strangely powerful, her hand gripping the bar of the throttle, empowered by the feeling of his hand on top of hers. "So," he said. "What do you think?"

Fred looked out the windows once more. Around them the airfield was deep orange and purple, the sun nearly finished setting over the distant tops of the trees. They weren't all that high up, here in the cockpit, but it was still somehow both wonderful and strange to see the field from this height, and pick out the lights just starting to come on in the distance, the pairs of headlights winking and swerving out of the gates.

"Amazing," she said, her voice full of emotions she didn't know she had. All of this could go up into the sky, and fly and fight and come back down again. Day after day, week after week. Hundreds of men, in hundreds of planes, all of it part of one vast, uncountable effort, beautiful and yet terrible in its beauty.

She looked over at Brady, sitting sideways in the copilot's seat, one foot dangling over the door below, and didn't even have time to think about what was happening before he'd leaned over and kissed her right in the middle of her laughing lips.

Time stopped for a moment, and for a bare second it was only the two of them in the dark, breathing together, lips warm.

"You look so pretty now," he offered, almost breathless. And then his smile fell, and the light went out of his eyes. "Fred, please, say something."

There was pressure behind her temples, a high whine between her ears, a magneto that wasn't powering on. Words failed to connect. "…I think I need to leave."

She didn't quite know where she was going - she'd left the flashlight up front with him. She stumbled down out of the cockpit, taking the easiest route out and launching herself out of the pilot's door onto the dark ground below, the asphalt jarring her knees and eating into her hands.

Somewhere behind her she heard him call her name in the dark, but she was starting the jeep and fumbling it into first, hands shaking against the wheel and feeling like her whole heart was about to burst in her chest the same way she had in the cockpit, filled to the brim with the thought of all that love and all those lovers in the sky.

Her heart was still pounding when she parked and made her way back to the Clubmobile, leaning her forehead against its smooth, safe metal side. It's against the rules. This is against the rules. He kissed me. John Brady kissed me.

And the loudest, strongest thought of all - no one told us at training what to do when you don't know if you don't mind.

#asked and answered #shoshiwrites #tds cinematic universe #freda torvaldsen #i have written a thing #mercurygraypresents #john brady x oc #masters of the air oc

[compacflt]

i’ve got a question about your writing process: in order to write a 30 year narrative, you create it out of hundreds of individual moments & actions, and each one has to function by itself and also part of a whole—have truth to itself and emotional resonance in a timeline. imo the key to doing this successfully is to care about each moment and make each one memorable, which seems very difficult: you have to get at the meat of the human behavior, believably, in a way that matters and explains and progresses the story, every time. and to write 200k words of it you do it hundreds of times! could you talk a bit about idea generation for each moment and how you brainstorm and write them?

omg an excuse to make more diagrams ! Thank you so much for this lovely ask!

okay: in case you don’t want to scroll through like four/five months of my inane icemav Poasting, I’ve done a couple other posts that go into my process — here about specifically chapter 1 and here about the fatal flaw of my fics from a construction standpoint

but from an idea generation standpoint… it’s pretty boring and cynical. I literally just make checklists. “things that HAVE to happen.” here’s my notes app check list of stuff that HAD to happen for the story to make sense in my rewrite of what is now chapters 8 & 9. this is from last december lol

and here’s a checklist/diagram of the major story beats and the changes in relationship dynamics throughout the story. any one of these dynamics changing reflects on the others in a way that‘s worth talking about. the hard part is finding a framing device or scene to talk about them.

the A plot of the fic is ice’s relationship with the navy, primarily. his arc is defined by his rank. so that’s the number 1 dynamic I wanted to focus on in such-and-such scenes, and why I stuck as stringently as possible to the “one rank per chapter” formula until ice got to the top & had to reckon with what being at the top actually means. His change in ranks is inspiration enough for most scenes because it shifts the dynamics in a way that is worth remarking upon in and of itself.

as an example im thinking of this scene (mostly because it’s short but also) because i think it’s kind of representative of how my idea generation process works

It fills a lot of gaps that i needed filled at that specific juncture in the story. the idea started with a stupid little section of dialogue in my head (mav would be surprised that ice’s official Navy docusign signature isn’t his actual signature) that happened to be symbolically relevant too (of course ice would have two different signatures for his two different personas). Then it morphed into a discussion of Ice’s canonically unhappy-looking compacflt portrait, which is canonically unhappy-looking. Then add onto that ice admitting he’s only happy at home (home obviously meaning with maverick, given that he’s literally in his house right now and still doesn’t feel like he’s home) and maverick telling him, “well that’s a problem that has literally the easiest fix in the world. youre making this way more complicated than it needs to be. just come home to me.”

so it’s literally just checking off boxes of things I wanted to talk about. as I said, a very cynical creation process. ✅ ice and mav doing the long-distance-relationship phone call thing (framing device for the whole scene). ✅ mav knowing ice’s real vs fake signature ❤️. ✅ ice’s canon unhappy compacflt portrait that makes an appearance in TGM. ✅ ice not feeling at home in Hawaii. ✅ ice not being fulfilled by the job & only being fulfilled by mav. ✅ ice coming up with excuses to see mav at any possible chance he gets. ✅ ice still obviously thinking of mav and Bradley as his family & maverick as his home. Etc etc. You see what i mean? how many stupid little ideas, symbols, and dynamic shifts can i cram into a page or so? that’s pretty much my thinking.

#btw i was out with my friends when i got ur comment on ao3 and it literally made me burst into tears in public so thanks #apartment should be house or residence and drivers license should be DOD ID card #no way the compacflt lives in an apartment on ford island. not possible #also when i wrote ‘it’s not my job to be happy in pictures Pete’ i was kicking my feet and giggling like a little girl #it is actually a huge part of his job to look happy in pictures LMFAO #or at least content with proceedings #but that doesn’t fit the debbie downer narrative!! #top gun #top gun maverick #edts notes #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #icemav #asks #the extras I’m working on are similarly stupid wrt original ideas #Ice & mav celebrate Xmas!!! then turns into like a whole big angst fest #all my ideas start small! #theyre just framing devices for what I want to say

[olderthannetfic]

Here's my mini list about how to figure out if someone is a tryhard, and if you thereby should ignore them when it comes to recommending books. Obvs this is also paired with some sub conscious pattern recognition.

1) Cares too much about the author. Making mention of the author if it's relevant is ok. But some people will put too much weight on what the authors is, and who they are and let that influence the review. Also noticed especially with social media famous people where the author. So if the author's presented persona is brought into the review for no reason, it becomes a red flag. I don't often think there's any reason to really mention the author, unless it's a biography.

2) People who judge the author instead of the work. In some cases this can be valid, but in most cases the judgement of the author makes little sense in a review of the book. If you're reviewing a book, review the book.

3) Identity checklists in the review, especially if it's at the top, and they're counted as a positive, instead of a neutral fact. Yes having a lot of diverse identities can be a pro, especially if the book has diversity as a theme, but it shouldn't be presented as a grocery list for you to check off. A lack of elaboration can make it feel like the reviewer really didn't actually care that much about the identities listed beyond "They exist, so that means the book is good."

3.5) Too much random focus on the identities of the characters, but with no actual elaboration of how this is presented in the story. Just because the book has a lot of identities doesn't mean they're done well, or that the story is good. You can mention a hundred times that the gay character is gay, but is the actual character any good? Is the story written competently?

This is something that I noticed can really mess up a review streak. You can have two books with wildly different levels writing competency, and they get the same type rating and review, because the reviewer didn't actually care about more than the checklist. So a 10/10 book is treated as equal to a 4/10 because of the identities presented.

4) Double standards for reviews. Honestly pretty straight forward, are they excusing things for certain stories but condemning the exact same thing in another, for not actual reason? Are they biased against certain authors? Against certain demographics? Certain plot turns and arcs? No one is free of a little bit of bias, but when it's too obvious it's just not good.

This point actually goes back to author identity and the character identities. Author: A cishet author and a queer author can both write competent queer stories. If the only, and I mean ONLY reason the cishet author gets a worse grade is because of their identity, then that's a double standard. You're supposed to read the story on its own merits.

Checklist: Let's say you have an abusive character get their commuppance; if the reviewer thinks the abusive female character shouldn't have gotten punished, but are fine if a male character gets punished for the same crime.

I simplified those examples, and this point is mostly based on you noticing a pattern by the reviewer. If you actually are someone who follow reviewers, it'll at some point become something you notice.

--

[clambuoyance]

Hi! Sorry for all the notification spamming, I just really really adore your art & the way you draw characters. It's so cool how recognizable all the characters you draw are, like their features/proportions/style idk its amazing. Do you have any tips for how to make a character consistently recognizable in drawings? Also, methinks Tim as Stray would be so much fun in a TimKon relationship, would you maybe pretty please consider doodling a bit of what you think that would look like?

Your brain is galaxy sized, your art is fantastic, and I hope you have a wonderful day<3

Ty! I’m just going to answer your first question, even though you asked forever ago 😭 I’ve drawn stray Tim before but we’ll see if I’m up for drawing it again

Anyways, as for making characters consistently recognizable, I think it helps to make character sheets.

Using my ocs for example, when I redesigned Rolin in my new style, I knew I wanted to have a very Shapey look, so I’d write notes on things such as: how the cheek should curve, what the nose shape is like or how many Fronds in his hair he should have lol

As you can see, I even have arrows indicating the motion of the lines. If you’ve seen some of my posts of my redesigns for the dc characters, sometimes you can see notes in them too. Sometimes I write them, and sometimes I just catalogue the set of “rules” I create for a character in my head.

So yeah, for further example, I knew keiko had to have softer shapes to contrast her with rolin’s personality. I can’t find it, but I have a page in my sketchbook just working out the shape of her hair, which was initially supposed to resemble a butterfly 🦋 but then I made it have boxy angles. Whenever I draw them, I guess I go through their Individual checklists in my head.

Like for rolin:

-more sharp eyes, in an almond like shape. Check

-cheek is curved but “steeper” and leads to a somewhat sharper chin. check

- I usually have to redo the nose a lot but once it’s in the right spot for me I check that off ig

Or for keiko:

- rounder, bigger, more oval like eyes. Check

- hair bangs should start a little to the left of the middle of her forehead line, then to the edge of her ear. Check

- her cheeks should be squishy and round, and she should have a smaller face with her features more closer together. Check

And so on and so on, and the character sheets help because then you get into the practice of doing those same lines over and over, and at different angles or expressions. So even though I want to stretch their face as they contort their facial expressions, I still follow the same structure and adjust accordingly to keep their form, if that makes sense, I’m not perfect at it but I like to think my designs are at least distinct from one another and consistently recognizable

And this is a recent example, which I haven’t posted on tumblr yet bc I have yet to color it, but this is me trying to explore barts design and making sure I could still make it look On Model despite the different facial expressions.

So in summary my strategy would be to

1. Sketch and explore the character design, write notes and study what lines or elements work or don’t work

2. Create a list or repository of the essential elements or a set of steps to recreate the same design

3. Practice and make a sheet where all you do is actually recreate that design over and over again, until your hand can just do it without your brain having to recall the steps one by one , if that makes sense

Of course, I like to redesign all the time as well but I try to at least capture the character’s essence 😗

#clam answers #clam draws #art tip #art tips #character sheet

[reorientation]

Hi, this is uh random I think. I hope it doesn't come of weird. I'm ftm, definitely not into this kink, but you do you, guys. It was and still is one of my greatest fears that once people find out I'm trans, they'll only see a fake man with a pussy, you know? That the first thing that'll come to their mind will be my genitals and it scares me as fuck. Kink aside, is this really the case irl? Is this really how it works, ie I go to the doctors for some reason, they ask if I take any medications, ye ye T bc I'm trans then boom the first thing that comes to their mind is that I actually have a cunt? Idk I'm really paranoid abt it idk how yall can get off to it but I'm pretty jealous tbh

Okay, reality check: no, this is not at all what it's actually like. Being a trans man means becoming Just Some Guy, and when you meet Just Some Guy, you don't spend a lot of time thinking about his genitals; that would be weird.

I have a bunch of trans friends: men, women, NBs. Even for me, someone who runs an orientation play blog and therefore thinks about trans people's genitalia a lot more than most, it's really not salient at all. Like, I argue with these people at parties and play D&D with them. I'm not trying to fuck them, so who cares?

Similarly, doctors are busy - they've got a checklist of things to get through during your appointment and a bunch of paperwork to fill out afterwards, they're not going to be spending any mental energy on parts of your body they're not being paid to think about.

In general, I think this is one of those cases where anxiety about some aspect of yourself makes you focus on it, which makes you unconsciously exaggerate how much attention other people will pay to it - like thinking people will judge you horribly for having a pimple.

There's a variety of psychological underpinnings for trans people being into this kink, but one that I see a lot is transmuting exactly that sort of anxiety into sexual fantasy. (Eroticizing things you fear is one of the fundamental sources of kinks.) You're afraid of being "found out" and having people think about your genitals the moment they find out you're trans... which leads into you imagining people fucking you the moment they find out you're trans, or being put out as a free use hole so that your genitals are the only part of you people see. And for trans men in particular, this is often amplified by the fact that you're thinking about sex all the time, as a result of taking T.

That's all fantasy, though. In real life, almost no one will care. Why would they?

#my experiences are very colored by living in liberal cities in the US of course #YMMV based on location - but I think much of it will still apply #reor: reality #reor: anon reality ask

[russetruse]

I know I don’t post writings here often, but I wanted to write something for @lizadale’s Dimigi!au. I don’t know Libby if you dream about the Dimigi!au but sometimes I do. I blame you sis. But also I added a lot more since you read the smaller version, enjoy almost 3k words on only part one of many.

Sorry it is written in 2nd person, but I blame Libby for getting me to only function in this style of writing but I can’t seem to write in any other prospective anymore lol.

I color coded characters, but what sucks is that this one doesn’t have black so I can’t use one of my original colors for characters speak. So the color I planned for one character had to move to the heart and the hearts color was originally black >:[ But I hope you enjoy.

Calamitous Revelry

Part I

Luigi Prov

CW/TW: Trauma, abuse, triggers on abuse, mentions on drowning/strangulation

You run your fingers through his greasy, tangled hair. Every time he goes on a mission, it seems he neglects basic bodily functions. The longer he’s off on one of his Merloo missions, the more worried you become. It brings you back to the days of the Castle, how he only seemed to eat when the other members were shoving food in his face at the required meetings. Even back then, his mask didn’t hide much from you. He had long given up before joining that group. It just frustrated you so much, he puts his own well being always being last on his list.

”Can you be more gentle?” He spoke very softly, but the voice cuts through the silence. His fragile, small body, leaning against the frame of the claw foot bathtub. It knots your stomach seeing him like this. Why did he always do this? Why was being away from you for any extended amount of time so collapsing to his mental state? Were you the only thing keeping him from self-destructing?

”Sorry. You really knotted your hair this time. I am trying my best to be gentle.” You reply softly, not wanting to cause him to jump and flee. This was close to being just as bad as when you found him almost dead in the deteriorating remains of Castle Bleck. Dimentio being caked in blood and dirt. You were hardly able to handle how much came off of him then, but even this was trying to match up to that day. Right now, the bath water was darker than your tan skin. You click your tongue, a Dio habit that you had seemed to pick up sometime throughout the course of living with him. Very glad that you had rolled up your sleeves above your elbows before even starting to wash him. And the water being this dirty before you even started to actually scrub his body! You click your tongue again in annoyance and frustration.

You knew Dimentio wanted to teleport away. Especially after he walked into the house. Well walked was even an understatement. He half floated, half dragged his feet across the threshold when he opened the door to your entrance. You swore he was going to collapse there in the entrance if you hadn’t been there to grab him and hold him with your own weight.

What shocked you more was the jester actually complained as you fondled him in worry, going down your own checklist in your head as you did so. First, checking him for injuries since he did have some blood caked on his clothes, and you weren’t sure if that blood was his or another’s. Which raised even more questions that you knew he wouldn’t divulge answers to you. So giving up on even prying into the matter, you scoop him up bridal style, and rush him up the stairs. Your lips placing kisses on his scars around his left eye, making sure to not miss a spot and to distract him from what you had planned ahead.

He started struggling in your grasp as you started running warm water in the tub of the finished guest room and declothed him. The caked on clothes were a pain to get off of his dirtied skin. Through the frustration of removing the clothes piece by piece, you confirmed at least most of the blood on his clothes were not his. Which did not lighten the feeling of comfort you wanted from his return, it concerned you more. Whose blood was this and did they deserve such injuries from him? But you shake your head, another series of questions you would not get answers to. You needed to get him clean before you would even get any chance to put food in his system. Let alone would your mind allow you to put him on the back burner and cook food when you knew he needed to be cleaned up right away.

The jester complained as you worked on completely bringing him down to his birthday suit, still double checking for any injuries that may need stitches or extra care. He complained to you until you submerged him into the warm bath water, that’s when his demeanor changed. He then held onto you as if his life depended on it. As if the water in the tub would drag him below the water's surface and take his last breath. You also knew if you looked away, he would quickly teleport away. And your goal to get him cleaned up would long be abandoned.

It takes you way too long to comb out the knots and grime out of his hair, but this makes you feel a bit better. Well, until you wrap your arm around him; your forearm resting across his chest and placing your hand under his armpit. It always takes you by surprise at how tiny he is, not just in height, but in size. Your body is giant compared to him. And you were use to being called “too skinny”, but even you didn’t complain to the man you held in your arms.

You lean forward, and with your free hand, you begin to drain the dirty water in the tub. You really needed to replace it with fresh, warm water. His body tenses at the water starting to run again to refill the tub. The jesters heart was beginning to race in a panic from this. You press him tighter to you, slowly soaking your own shirt. What good did you get from rolling up your sleeves to only press a wet twink to your chest. But still, you do not let him pull away, hoping that he can feel your heartbeat through the wool top. Yet you also hope that he doesn’t feel the Chaos Heart beating as well in your chest.

”I am NOT letting you go.” You whisper softly into his right ear, your mustache tickling it. Dimentio squirms in your grasp, fighting his own instincts to flee. Every nerve he had, you knew told him to get away quickly. You bring your lips to his ear, pecking it with a soft kiss. His body squirms more at his own signals being challenged. A challenge to fight staying and be adored by you or flee due to the rising water in this situation.

”I won’t let you drown.” You speak sternly to him, not sure if it was in assurance for you or him. You start to nibble on his ear, your free hand grabbing the washcloth and rinsing it under the spout.

You can feel his fingernails dig into your arm as the water rises above his hips. You wince at this, but start to scrub the dirt and grime off of his legs and feet. You take extra time on his swollen ankles in another attempt to calm him. Letting your hand through the wash cloth slowly message his swollen ankles to make sure he didn’t do more damage to them then what appeared on the surface. You find yourself at a loss when you run the washcloth over his ribs. Your stomach turns seeing the jester's ribs through his skin so easily that you could count every one of them. It upsets you so much that he is neglecting himself when he is away from you.

”Luigi.”

You grumble, tightening your grip, mumbling under your own breath. Why was he like this? Why was he so willing to throw his life away? So many cared for him. He had more worth than he thought or believe he had.

”Luigi!”

You can feel your own anger bubbling and building in your body.

No one.

No one.

Not even yourself. Not even in the dreamscape. Not even against the chaos heart, or even in your own dreams, were you willing to throw your life away so easily. A growl builds in your throat and comes out through your own words. “Why are you like this?”

“Lui!”

Thu-Thump…

You freeze up, your body stiffens at your own thoughts. Only Dimentio was ever able to rile up so much negative emotions in you. King boo wasn’t even able to do this to you.

“Lui-“

Thu-Thump.

You feel his fingernails claw at both of your arms now. Digging deep enough to draw blood.

Thu-THUMP.

The nails dig deeper and deeper into your arms, clawing down from your elbows to your hands. With what little nails the jester had left, were tearing at your arms. You knew he feared water, but this was ridiculous at how much he was trying to get out of being cleaned by you. You tighten your grip to this, growling loudly in frustration and anger at Dimentio.

THU-THUMP!

Water splashes onto your pants, snapping you out of your own thoughts. The buzzing sound in your ears is replaced with the sound of splashing. Your eyes widen in shock as you quickly pull your hands away from his neck. Your arms and hands dripping from blood from the number he did on you.

You watch him in worry and shock as the ancient quickly yanks himself from under the water's surface. Dimentio’s body was shaking uncontrollably from fear, coughing and gasping from the need of oxygen that deprived him. You were unsure of how long you had held him under, but the water he was coughing up said enough. His lungs were trying their hardest to clear the water that you had forced into them. The ancients eyes never leave your bloody, shaking hands.

No…

No.

No! You would never do that to him.

Never!

THU-THUMP!

You can hear the heart beating loudly in your ears and chest.

”I’m sorry Dio. I-It wasn’t me,” you stutter though a shaky voice, “I promise. It was th-“

You reach your shaking hands towards him in assurance. But the second you do, the familiar sounds of the jester teleporting away before you can even finish your explanation. Your eyes now staring at a bodiless bathtub full of fresh water, with swirls of red in it.

”C-Chaos H-Heart….” You finish, your voice trailing off to a soft whisper.

THU-Thump…

You let your arms drop to your sides in disbelief. The heart had found another opening, this time by your emotions. It had taken advantage of your emotional loophole, and went after what was the biggest threat to it. The one you loved…

It wasn’t you. You would never do that to him.

Never…

Never!

The image of Dio’s scared. No, scared was an understatement. He was terrified. And when you closed your eyes, that expression from Dimentio showed on the back of your eyelids. The bathtub overflowing, starting to soak your jeans and socks.

You needed to fix this. But could you even fix it? You stand, ignoring the tub overflowing and slowly flooding the bathroom. Your soaked socks splash in the water as you walk over to the sink, ignoring your own discomfort. You pick up the phone with shaky hands. You were having such trouble dialing the number correctly on the keypad, that you changed to your call list and clicked the forth or fifth recent call down.

You lift the cell to your ear and after a few rings you hear an ecstatic voice that didn’t match the feelings you were having right now.

”Gigi! It’s been a while. What-“

”Mimi. I fucked up badly. I need Nassy’s help, now. It’s too much to explain. Please…Please tell her it’s urgent.”

”That bad? I’ll get a hold of her ASAP. Keep your door unlocked Gigi. You better be ready to explain then.” You hear the phone click to Mimi hanging up and you drag yourself out of the bathroom. Your wet socks slush against the carpet of your guest room, and you force yourself down the steps. The house sounds oddly silent, except for the sound of what you believe is still the bathtub running. You must have forgotten to turn off the water, but you don’t seem to have the energy to bring yourself back up the stairs.

You bring yourself to the couch and work on removing your drenched socks. Your hands are shaking so badly that the simple task is more of a challenge than it should be. You discard your socks on the floor near you and you pull your legs up to you on the couch, making yourself as small as your body would allow you to.

You bring your eyes to your hands. Your hands rough with calusis from all the tinkering and hard work you did, middle class work. Though it had been a while since you had seen blood oozing from them. You shake your head.

His body was so small, so fragile. He was so easy to force under the water with your hands. It was even easier to wrap your fingers around his thin throat and start squeezing. He would have been easy to break, easy to finish off. You could snap him like the twig he was. Would anyone really miss him? Didn’t he deserve to be dead? He still attempted to go after IT. He still wanted to go after his original goal with the heart. He wasn’t a fighter, he was weak in that aspect. You could so easily break him, all you would have to do is grab his neck and snap it. He deserved that.

“Enough!” You yell to no one in particular, grabbing at your own greasy hair. Heck there were times you would have never fought those thoughts after everything he had put you through, but these thoughts weren’t your own. You growl at yourself for letting the heart dig into your thoughts and emotions over Dimentio. He confused you so much and had your emotions everywhere. You had anger towards him, frustration, confusion, annoyance, but most of all…you loved him.

Thu-Thump.

You grasp your shirt above your own heart. You couldn’t imagine a day without him anymore. You wanted to spoil him with affection that he was long deprived of. You wanted to show him what the world should have long given him. You so badly wanted to let him figure out what the true meaning of his emotions towards you were. Why did this relic have to be such a problem, and everyday you were losing more and more to it. You bite your bottom lip. You couldn’t lose to it, so many would fall if you lost. It would return to where it was taken from. It would reopen the void that you had worked so hard with your friends to close. If you could rip it out yourself and stop it from what it was made to do you would, but you were already told what that outcome would be.

A loud bang on the door causes you to jump from the couch, almost hitting your head on the ceiling from surprise. Only for the silence to be followed by the door slamming open before you can even take a step towards the entrance. The voice booming louder than the door hitting the wall or knocking combined.

“Ye here lad? We rush’t here as fas’ as we coud. Dimensoon stil’ a’ problem withoot tae wee yin crossin’ tae gap fir us.”

#I wanted to post some trauma and shock #ptsd is real #it feels horrible when you fall in a loop #emotions control a lot #my own writing #Dimigi!au fanwork #Lizadale #gift writing for my sister #trauma #Chaos heart torments relationship more at 11 #They aren’t allowed to be happy by the Chaos hearts belief #Let me add more to your feels book sis #Part one of multiple parts #Calamitous Revelry #Dimigi!au #Dimigi #Chaos Heart #Luigi #Dimentio #Dio #Super paper Mario #SPM #my writing #Mimi #O’Chunks #Don’t come home neglecting yourself #you will get smothered #O’Chunks was original red and the Chaos heart interfering was suppose to be black but tumblr no let black text >:[ #The other parts won’t have color coordination this was more for the chaos heart interference

[beesmygod]

What would you say is a good goal checklist for someone trying to move out from a restrictive homelife with their parents in the middle of the woods in Connecticut to a place with at least more interesting people and things to do? I have a bit of money saved up but I don’t have a real desire to live in a specific area, just anywhere but here. Dont have a reliable support network, i just bounce off most internet communities. Asking for advice because I envy your independence

thats a very sweet thing to say when i feel pretty pathetic lately lol.

i think it might be difficult because of how expensive and fucked up everything is right now, so much of my advice from 10 years ago may no longer apply :(

im a pathological worrier so i would try to have a lot of ducks lined up before i left so that i can acclimate to a new environment without the stress of having to burn through my savings. i would move somewhere within driving distance (even if that means staying there overnight or whatever) where you can see your living space for yourself (these zoom tours are huge bullshit lol) before you move. try to move near or with people you know. i got lucky in that my roommate experience was largely positive overall and taught me a lot. but if you dont want that, i would try to move somewhere where someone (a friend or trusted family) can check up on you if something happens. try to see the apartment later in the afternoon after school is out to see how loud the local kids are and if you can hear them through the walls lol

this area of the east coast seems pretty pleasant and the services are better than the majority of the country, so sticking around here wouldnt be a bad idea. i would file for any and all state benefits you qualify for ahead of time after you get an address so that when you have to fight with them about it it only takes one month instead of two lol. try to put 10% of you paycheck aside every month for savings and put it in an actual savings account. try and find a credit union if you can.

get on medicaid if you can and get a physical with the clinic that is going to be "your clinic" from now on. same thing with getting your teeth cleaned. same with behavioral health if you need it. there might be waiting lists to call early bc they dont get any shorter.

then i would start trying to get a job lined up. benefits can help tremendously in case its tough out there in the job market and it takes longer than you thought. once you move, take a few walks to figure out the "mood" of your neighborhood lol. i dont know how to describe this. but it will help you pick up on any local social mores or customs (that sounds too dramatic) or just the vibe of the area.

uuuh im trying to think of other things. the most indulgent advice i can give is hire movers every single time if you can afford it. be ready for them to be late. i never ever want to move ever again in my life i HATE the process of moving. i would walk over broken glass on the rim of a volcano if it meant other people would move boxes for me up and down stairs.

oh shit thats right. ok this is a matter of preference but remember these basic things when picking out an apartment:

do not get a ground floor apartment. thats only if you want to get randomly murdered or creeped on. also everyone who walks by will look into your apartment bc thats just human nature.

all of my apartments were on the top floor (2 or 3) which meant no noise from above. i loved this. but YOU must be the quiet one now.

the higher up the apartment the further you have to walk to take the trash down to the dumpster in snowstorms

i hope all of this helps. my restrictive family wanted to be introduced to my roommates ahead of time which was a little embarrassing but understandable as i was moving in with 3 men. when they immediately realized they were dorks, their hearts were at ease. your family may be the same (maybe) and if your roommates are up for it you can use it as a bargaining chip.

[kill-the-feels]

terminal

a/n: a few lil life updates before this chapter: i graduated and passed my edtpa! i also started dating my best friend, which has been so much fun and inspired a lot of fluffy writing (not this chapter tho, y’all stay safe). anyways, i hope you enjoy the chapter!! we’ve finally caught up to That Scene™️ in the movie — you’re just going to have to trust me on this one ;) (previous part) (masterlist)

word count: ~3.5k

warnings: canon violence, language, angst (a whole truckload this time)

Despite the relentless pursuit of the Jedi, the three of you make it to Geonosis relatively unscathed, even after a chase through an asteroid field.

Jango lands in an underground hangar, the top closing and cutting off your view of the night sky. He and Boba run through the checklist of shutting off the ship before he turns to look at you.

“I’m going to check on stuff in the cargo bay,” Boba says. You raise an eyebrow at his back. There’s nothing in the cargo bay. He glances back at you, and you see the little smirk there.

You and Jango sit in silence.

“If something happens to me,” Jango says, at the same time you say:

“Are we really safe here?”

The both of you pause.

“Go first,” you tell him, and he hesitates, looking past your shoulder to the doorway, as if willing Boba to reappear.

“If something happens to me, I want you to take Boba and get as far away from here as you can.” The way he says it is strange, like he’s trying to tell you something, without actually telling you something.

“What’s going to happen to you?” you ask, making a face and Jango sets his jaw, fixing you with a hard stare.

“If something happens to me. Expect the best, but plan for the worst,” he says softly, in such a monotone voice it sends chills down your spine.

“Alright. Okay. So where do we go?” He sighs.

“Anywhere. Not here. Not Kamino. Not fucking Tatooine. Never go back there.” The last part is said with such vehemence you can’t help but nod.

“Yeah, not there. We’ll figure it out. If it comes to that. Which it won’t.” You’re expecting him to agree, and when he doesn’t, the knot of nerves tangled under your breastbone tightens.

You start to stand, to go find Boba, and Jango snags your hand, says your name softly.

You turn, and he’s looking up at you so intently it makes you weak in the knees.

“Promise me, Cyare,” he says softly, tugging you back down beside him. He rests his forehead against your, your breaths mingling.

“Jango,” you say, “it’s going to be okay. Things will be fine.” You try to pull away again, and he tightens his hold, almost desperate.

“Promise me.” You close your eyes. If you truly believe nothing is going to happen to him, then this should be an easy promise.

“Fine. Yes, okay, I promise. I’ll look after Boba.” Jango shakes his head.

“Not just look after him. You’re as much his buir as I am. You two belong together. Promise me you’ll stay with him. Protect him. Protect each other.” He’s really starting to scare you. You put your hands on either side of his face, leaning into him.

“Jango, I promise,” you say. His eyes stay closed for another beat, before he nods and tugs himself away.

“Stay in the ship?” he asks. “I shouldn’t be long.” Something in you tells you to argue. His tone is off-kilter again, too bright for the heavy moment.

But there’s something in his eyes that prevents you from arguing as he snags his helmet and starts to slip it on his head.

So you match his tone.

“No problem. Boba and I will figure out where we go next. For when you get back.” His response takes just a bit too long in coming. Like he knows the next words out of his mouth are a lie, and at the last minute, he decides to commit, instead of being honest and telling you he likely won’t be with you when you leave.

“Sounds like a plan.” With that, he tugs his helmet all the way down, ducking out the door and heading out. You watch him go, feeling the sick sense of dread increasing with every step he puts between you two. ~~~ Boba is, understandably, livid that he has to stay on the ship.

“This fucking sucks,” he says, crossing him arms and kicking his feet up on the dash.

“Boba!” you say in shock, at a loss over what to say to him. It’s the first time you’ve heard him swear — other than his first words — and while a teeny part of you is amused, the bigger part is frustrated with his attitude.

“Sorry,” he mutters. “But I don’t get why we have to stay here, again. I helped Buir get us off Kamino. And it’s not like the ship is that much safer.” He has a point. But still.

“I know,” you say. “But your buir asked us to stay here. So we help him out by staying here.” There’s a distant rumble somewhere, that rattles the ship a little.

“Can’t we explore? Just a little?” he asks, and you laugh.

“You’re probably not old enough to remember, but one time your buir took the both of us to Tatooine.” Boba leans forward, slipping his feet back down. You’re not sure why you’re thinking about Tatooine so much all of the sudden. Maybe there’s a parallel to be found between both trips. Whatever it is, you don’t like it.

“And? What happened?” Boba asks, interrupting your thoughts. You sigh, brushing some hair off his face. He bats you away with a playful scowl.

“We got caught. Nearly got the both of us in big trouble. Your buir managed to come rescue us, but he was pissed. And all because we wanted to go exploring.” He looks down.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go exploring this time then,” he says, looking sheepish. You knock your shoulder against his.

“Y’think?” you say. He knocks back and the two of you end up in a playful shoving war that lasts for just long enough for Boba to remember why he was frustrated in the first place.

“I hate waiting,” he says, going still and slumping down again. You sigh and join him in staring out the window.

“I know. It fucking sucks, doesn’t it?” It’s his turn to look at you in shock.

“Buir!” he says. You close your eyes and tilt your head back against the seat, pretending like you’re about to take a nap.

Instead, you crack one eye open at him.

“Maybe we can take just a peek out. We won’t leave the ship, just open the door and see what we can hear.” In truth, you’re as bad as he is as waiting. Boba shifts in his seat, nearly holding his breath, as he waits to see if you’re lying.

“Really?” You nod.

“Yes, really.” There’s a slight smirk on his face, the same one Jango always has right before he does something potentially dangerous, but in that moment, you fail to notice it.

Instead, you follow Boba down the ladder and through the cargo bay, aiming for the panel on the side, so you can lower the ramp just a bit.

“How long do you think Buir will be?” Boba asks, as he sorts through some of the excess junk stored in the bottom of the ship. You stop the ramp before it gets low enough to walk out — or in. Peering through the sides will have to do.

“Not sure. Could be all day. Maybe even all night. We’re supposed to figure out where we’re going from here.” Boba slips up beside you.

“How are we supposed to know where to go?” You shrug.

“We can always look at the ship’s database, see which places look off the grid.” Boba looks past you, at the barren wall of the canyon you’ve landed in.

“Good point. Hey, Buir, have you seen Ai-Ai anywhere?” A glance at Boba’s face shows you the true worry he feels, at odds with his casual tone. A tone that nearly makes you suspicious.

“You packed him, didn’t you?” you ask, turning away from the gap, poking back through the random collections of stuff. Boba doesn’t answer you, and when you hear shifting around, you take it to mean he’s looking for the beloved stuffed pet.

“Boba?” you finally call. “You packed him, right?” When you turn around, he’s gone.

You close your eyes, mentally berating yourself. The gap in the side. Just big enough for him to slip through. Always wanting to be a hero, to be strong like his buir.

“Shit,” you say, frozen with indecision. To go after him? Or stay, and wait? Which is better? ~~~ Jango is standing in the middle of the command center, listening to Dooku run his mouth about things he really has no care for, when the door whooshes open and two battle droids enter, hauling Boba between them.

His gut reaction is fear — if Boba is here, where are you? Then Boba sees him, and Jango sees the guilt flash over his face.

The little sneak ran off, he realizes, which means you must be panicking.

“Boba,” he says sternly. Boba hangs his head further, and with a wave from Dooku, the droids release him, letting him come stand beside Jango.

While he needs to get Boba back to you, he also can’t risk drawing attention to you. Not only does he not want to put you in danger, but you’re a fantastic weak spot for the Separatists surrounding him to exploit. Boba will just have to stay with him, until he can make his escape. He’ll try and comm you when he gets a chance, let you know Boba is safe. Ish.

Another droid approaches Dooku and says something too soft for Jango to make out. His unease grows. Something is happening. Dooku was none to pleased with Jango’s failure to kill the senator, and he’s worried about potential retaliation.

“It appears we have quite the show in store today,” Dooku says to him, gesturing to the balcony on the other side of the room.

Carefully, Jango escorts Boba outside, placing himself to the side of Dooku and the representatives for the Trade Federation, aware of every little movement, nerves stretched thin in a way that’s giving him a pounding migraine.

“What’s going on, Buir?” Boba whispers, and Jango tightens his hold on his shoulder, warning the boy not to speak too much. He’s trying to plan, trying to come up with an extraction. And it’s markedly more difficult to get out with Boba, than if he were by himself.

For now, he has to stay put. Has to watch for the opportune moment to make his escape. ~~~ Pressing your hands against your forehead to try and ease the stress headache growing with every moment Boba isn’t in your sight, you take deep breaths.

Okay. Okay.

Plan.

If you were Jango, what would you do? Go after Boba, but how, where, and for how long? You know there’s droids patrolling — you closed the ramp of the ship after a particularly curious set tried to come in. They got bored and left, but there’s got to be more where they came from.

This is a million times worse than Gardulla and her thugs — getting caught here could catapult you into the middle of a conflict you’re entirely unprepared for, with players much more important than a gangster in the middle of a wasteland.

So you have to figure out where on this maker-forsaken planet Boba got off to, and you have to do it stealthily.

No big scenes, no getting caught.

You have your little blade that Jango replaced, a blaster from his munitions locker. No armor or a jet pack, but you’re crafty and easily missed. Just keep your head down and blend in.

With another deep breath, you pull up the ship’s nav system and scanner, trying to piece together a path to take.

Geonosis is full of fucking tunnels. Just your luck. But there’s a city, or at least a concentration of settlements near where the ship’s been put down. That’ll be your start.

Deep breath.

You lower the ramp enough to slip out of, the same way Boba did, then start to pick your way towards the city.

The closer you get, the more a faint rumbling reaches your ears. As you navigate down a tunnel, ears straining for any hint you’re not alone, you realize the rumbling is cheering.

Okay.

Crowds can both work for and against you. Easier to blend in, harder to find Boba. The tunnel opens up on the left side, forming a half-wall, and you can see you’re over top of a battle arena. Your legs wobble a little, looking down at the sheer drop to the arena.

Across from you is a balcony, with a large congregation of people watching the scene unfolding beneath you. The stands are filled with Geonosians, each speaking in their clicking and rolling language, shouting jeers and cheering for the coming violence.

Someone on the balcony moves, and you see a flash of blue next to a glint of metal.

Jango. And Boba.

In the arena, three figures are chained to pillars, watching as three different creatures are prodded out of cages by Geonosians.

You feel pity for the three, but your bigger issue is getting to Jango and Boba. Briefly, you consider going back to the ship, now that you know Jango has Boba, but there’s a clatter of stone behind you and the tell-tell clicks, forcing you to move forward or risk being discovered and ending up with the others on the pillars.

Following the winding tunnel proves to be discombobulating, even as you try to navigate in the direction of the balcony. But the half-wall turns back into a full wall, and you can feel yourself descending, heading the opposite direction, with no cross tunnels to right yourself.

Frustrated, you grit your teeth and force yourself to stop and take stock of your options.

The cheering has reached a near-fevered pitch. In the distance, a single Geonosian speaks, the rolling cadence of his language muffled, but distinct against the cheers.

You turn back around. Going down will do you no good. You’ll have to backtrack and hope for the best. Head back for the ship and be ready to leave.

Footsteps shuffle down the hall, and you freeze, spotting a dip in the wall. You slip in and tuck yourself into the shadows, pressing as deep into the dirt as you can.

Two droids pass you, both armed with blasters. With a shiver, you dart behind them, racing back up the tunnel. You stumble as you reach the half-wall, nearly tripping over your own feet. The three figures are fighting back, one of them on top of the pillar. There’s shouting and chaos, and people jeering as the three hold their own.

Across the way, there is a sudden flash of purple, pointed straight at Jango’s neck.

You freeze, watching as he pushes Boba behind him. Around the arena, more lightsabers are activated, the bright blues and greens vivid against he stark landscape of the Geonosian arena.

“No,” you breathe, fingers clenching in fists at your sides. Not like this. Gasping, you continue back the way you came, frantically trying to map the city in your head. The central point. That’s where you need to be, to every try to get to that balcony. Jango said they’d be looking for him. But like this? He doesn’t stand a chance on his own, and you know he’s too prideful to ever back down on his own.

Back past the ship you race, towards a dirt road you initially discounted as heading away from everything.

But as you head down the road, you can see it’s taking you into the city, on ground level. You can work with this.

No longer caring if you’re noticed, you race along, weaving in and out of crowds of Geonosians, who voice their displeasure at being jostled. In the distance, the spires of the large buildings around the arena rise up. You’re on the right track.

Blaster fire echoes on the breeze, still too far to be much of a concern for the people who don’t know what’s going on in the arena.

But you know.

And you’re running out of time. ~~~ Jango can feel his pulse vibrating against his teeth, even as he takes a measured breath. Boba shivers beside him, and Jango glances out of the corner of his eye at the man wielding the lightsaber.

He speaks to Dooku, discounting Jango, which works in his favor. But he can’t make a move with the blade inches from his neck. Slowly, his hand creeps to his blaster, steady, despite the fear threatening to choke him.

In the distance, he hears the thump of battle droid feet, signaling the massive battle about to break out. The Geonosians start to fly away, and to his horror, he sees other lightsabers that have lit up across the way, far more than he can fight against, in addition to the two in the arena.

From the corner of his eye, he can see a small footpath, leading through the stands to a balcony attached to another room. Boba needs to get in there, he knows, so he’s shielded from any blasterfire.

And you. He still needs to warn you.

Battle droids are one thing, but a Jedi is nothing to mess with, and they’ll be after him. It’s only a matter of time before they locate the ship, if they haven’t already, and you won’t know they’re coming.

“It’s over, Dooku,” the Jedi says, and Jango takes another measured breath, looking down just enough to meet Boba’s eyes. Carefully, he looks pointedly behind Boba, to the other room. Boba looks at Jango, brow scrunched in confusion, and Jango swallows his frustration.

With another long glance behind Boba, he looks at his son again, pleading with him to understand. Boba can warn you too. If he can just get away.

Boba nods, finally, just once. Jango draws himself forward, putting himself between everyone and Boba, drawing the attention to himself in a practiced way.

The thumping of battle droid feet gets louder, and he feels Boba duck away behind him, as the first set of droids steps out onto the balcony. The Jedi removes his lightsaber from Jango’s neck, as the droids start to shoot at the Jedi. Jango snatches out his own blaster, noting the way in which Dooku steps back to let him handle the Jedi.

Disgust has him crinkling his nose, but he focuses on trying to down the Jedi, switching to his flamethrower when the Jedi manages to slip away, out of his reach.

With a huff, he flicks his blaster around before he holsters it. Dooku is still watching him, and he knows he’s expected to go after the Jedi, but he needs to ensure Boba has plenty of time to get away before Dooku even thinks about him.

So he’ll perform tricks to buy some time.

Without much more thought, he follows the Jedi down, off the balcony and into the heat of the battle. His blood pumps and he finds himself calculating escape routes even as he works his way through the Jedi and the creatures, aiming for the purple lightsaber, the lone one against the blues and greens.

With one last, quick glance back at the balcony, he sees the way Dooku stands over it all, seemingly unbothered by all the chaos and death around him.

“Forgive me,” he whispers, praying to the maker he no longer believes in that you hear him, that you find Boba, that you both get away.

The Reek slams into him, and he feels something in his ribs give way, as he’s tumbled over and over, head slammed around in his helmet until his ears ring.

When he manages to extricate himself, his whole body hurts, and his jet pack — already the back-up — is shot to shit. His blaster is in the dirt and he manages to grab it, just as the Jedi comes for him, waving his saber all around, a purple blur that’s too bright, too hot, too close.

Fear grips his mind, instinct flees him, even as he stands his ground.

Ten feet away. Seven. Five. Two.

Jango fires as quickly as he can, even as his mind races, telling him to run, telling him he can’t run, begging Boba to look away. To know how sorry he is.

He sees the swing of the saber, feels the blinding hot fire as it cuts through his hand, leaving nothing behind. Watches as the Jedi swings around again, this time for his neck.

Jango closes his eyes, even as he promises to meet death with them wide open.

Instead, all he sees is your face, you extending a hand to him.

He does not feel the next blow fall. ~~~ You burst onto a balcony at the height of the battle, and nearly turn, because this one is empty, and not the one you’re looking for.

It’s taken too much precious time to sneak past the droids — Geonosians leave you alone, battle droids do not — and everything is in full swing by the time you get there.

And then you see a small figured crouched in the shadows, watching it all go down.

You rush towards him, intending to tug him away, to get him to safety.

Instead, the both of you watch Jango fall.

#Jango fett x reader #jango fett x you #reader insert #angst #Fwwchtsam #Canon violence #Listen do you know how many times i had to rewatch the stupid fight scene with mace to figure out all the moving parts #A lot tbh and i still don’t think i got it all correct so please excuse any errors #Thanks for reading!! <3

[jils-things]

i guess i never actually really clarified why i fell for rhys

aside from the simple checklist of "what makes jil attracted to a man physically",

its already an ongoing thing (even in IRL occurrences but its inactive rn) that i have a thing for/appreciate big brothers - im not sure how it happened but i'll assume its because its a little window, a small sneak peak to see how someone could manage his younger siblings and that itself is just so appealing to me - i love the idea of seeing a guy act so sweet because all the people ive met are just really rough and almost always ticks me off. and,, ill be honest. i dont see myself to want to have kids but the cute imagery of seeing them look like the perfect dad to whoever he'll care for... idk it just makes me super whole.

also just from observation, a lot of sweet guys are usually big brothers. an obvious reason is that they learned to mature and care for the young, of course. though i know this big brother thing isnt always applicable. i know people whose older siblings are total assholes and i understand that

so put that with rhys, my supposed design for him is to be a very humble man despite his superior title. hes always there to help someone out - and oh, he loves his little brother so much. hehe

my biggest comfort character/platonic f/o is hero from omo.ri and he also just so happens to check off the trope of being a gentle sweet brother - he's very soft spoken and kind and its the kind of trait i look for in connections, be it romantic or not

#i just started looking at art of rhys and this question came to me just now ahehehe #honestly. i already knew he was attractive from the start but i just tried not to think much of it until it just did hehe #~ lovemail #rhys.insert

[thespianinthebackcorner]

Thespian is dainsleif a good father figure or am i just insane.

How come we ALWAYS see people say NASTY ARCHON USERPER ZHONGLI is a father and papa and granpops🥺🥺 but NO ONE ever considers DAINSLEIF, THE TWILIGHT SWORD, HUMANITY ADVOCATE, CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARDS a father figure. He has (had) a STABLE INCOME, has (had) A GOOD POLITICAL PLACE, has (had) SO MANY KNIGHTS WORKING UNDER HIM. SO MANY AUNTS AND UNCLES (halfdan rip he's in a better place than other khaenri'ahns now), has (had) EMOTIONAL STABILITY (i think. it looked like he had from that one halfdan cutscene), AND WOULD GIVE YOU THE MOST JUICY LORE WORTHY DADDY ISSUES POST CATACALYSM.

STUPID ZHONGLI HAS NONE OF THAT EXCEPT MAYBE THE AUNTS AND UNCLES POINT like yeah cloud retainer or whatever🙄😒 but is she as good as YNGHILDR/HALTAF/EDGETHO/HYGLACG/SERKIR/BULIWYF/RONETH/HERGER/RETHEL???? (various black serpant knights we kill for one gloomy statuette we use to level up ayato'a weapon) NO!!!

This is quite the ask do you need sleep? Don't hate me for the response please-

Right, so I think this ask requires a bit of standardizing as to what a "good father figure" looks like. I'm gonna put it in dot points.

Stable income

Emotional stability

Kindness

Has worked with kids before (optional)

Knows how money works

Has a place where you can certainly go to find him (work or home)

Wants or is comfortable working with kids

Family members they can rely on as backup

I think part of Zhongli's "father figure" reputation is because he actually has kids in a sense (the Yakshas) and hangs around kids a lot (Hu Tao and her friends). It's also affected by his personality, since he has that old man stereotype of not really knowing how new things work. He's six thousand years old and acts like it- he is literally old enough to be someone's granddad. Zhongli is also connected with Xianyun, Madame Ping and a couple other people he has for backup, like you said. He's also quite kind towards the Traveler, as well as other people he sees in everyday life. So he checks off most of my little list:

Stable income ✅

Emotional Stability ✅

Kindness ✅

Previous Experience with kids: ✅

Money knowledge: ...❌

Place to find him: ✅ (Wangsheng)

Comfortable with kids: ✅

Backup family members: ✅

Dainslief, on the other hand, disappears quite a lot, is constantly tracking down the Abyss Order and going into dangerous places, is generally very apathetic and from his treatment of Paimon probably doesn't like kids all that much. Since I used current Zhongli instead of Prime Zhongli for my analysis, I'm using current Dain for this too. And current Dain also has the issues of trauma from the Cataclysm, being sought out by the Abyss Order, not having a stable income because of Celestia, and also the constant pain from Celestia's curse iirc. So he's generally got a lot of problems. He's kind, but in an apathetic way, where he tends to leave his problems to himself and tells you to solve your own- it's only when there's a common interest that he helps. So going back to the checklist Dain doesn't do much.

Stable Income: ❌

Emotional Stability: unsure but I'm going ✅

Kindness: ❌ not to a father figure degree

Worked with kids: Unknown

Money Knowledge: unknown, Khaenri'ah might have had their own currency

Place to find him: ❌

Comfortable with kids: ❌

Backup family members: ❌

Not much there. Now, if we knew any more about Prime Dainslief, he'd likely check off a lot more- like you said, Prime Dainslief has a stable income, a home you could find him at, backup family members/friends to help, and depending on who he was pre-Cataclysm might even have been willing to work with kids. Having said that, if we compare Prime Dainslief to Prime Zhongli, then Dain would absolutely win (since Prime Zhongli was in the Archon War) but since it's Current Dain and Current Zhongli it's different.

So yeah, though they're both considered daddy they're not equally viable for dad status.

#genshin impact #genshin #dainslief #zhongli genshin impact

[codenamehazard]

.:Feast by the Fire:.

Chapter 23: Feast by the Fire

Hey guys!

Some cozy feels just in time for the holiday season! This one of the scenes I've been wanting to do ever since No Man's Land started to evolve from a silly little one shot to what it is today. I have to thank @rogueshadeaux for putting up with my ramblings as well as giving me the push to actually write the whole fic in general! Without further delay, let's jump in!

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Crimson light bathes the land as the sun begins to set, I start to make my rounds around the HEMTT. I had volunteered to take the first watch while the others set up camp, mainly to be alone with my thoughts and boy howdy do I have a lot to think about.

I look around at where we had stopped, some sort of abandoned ranch or farm. A place where we could scavenge for scrap should we need to, quiet enough to set up shop for the night. I can see signs that people before us have thought the same, remnants of human activity littered the area in the form of burnt firewood, disrupted stones and used cans. I take one of the metal tins and toss it up in the air before shooting it with a mild bolt and walking on.

As I milled about, I started to think back about the “Night Warped” the Misfits mentioned before we had set off for Tri-Point. Bigger, nastier monsters that could only be out at night due to the UV from the sun frying them. I have asked for clarification before, but couldn’t get a straight answer from them as, apparently, there were just so many different types that somebody could run into if they wandered off into the night.

I think back to the monsters I had dealt with in the past. The Swamp Creatures and the Icemen that terrorized New Marias, the giant cockroach that Bertrand turned into, the metal monstrosities that the Dust Men created… Then there was that four armed freak, David Warner.

Now there were the recent additions to the rogues gallery of things I had to deal with, the literal zombies that were trying to turn Droptown into an all-you-can-eat Conduit buffet… And the less said about the Summoner, the better. I shudder at the still fresh memory of that ugly fuck, another thing to haunt my nightmares.

I remember the fight with that tumor-turned-skinned gorilla thing, how tough it was and how it healed when I used my Beast abilities. How the only thing that stopped it was the Amp shoved in its back and 100 million volts of fuck you channeled right into the spinal cord.

How much worse can these things get??

The smell of fire catches my attention before I could get too deep down that rabbit hole of potential nightmare fuel. I turn my head to see Kestrel and Dove setting up a fire and Pangolin bringing over a big-ass witch’s cauldron looking pot. A voice draws my eyes as I see Mako with a checklist and her calling out to the other three. Something about checking stashes. As the three head back to their trailers, I head over to Mako to ask what all the shouting’s about.

As I head over, I watch the Shark pull out various ingredients from a communal food storage. Hm, must be getting ready for dinner. My stomach growls at the thought. Damn, forgot to eat lunch earlier today.

“Whatcha got going on here?” I ask as I look over the ingredients, looks like some beef, potatoes and some veg, looking promising so far. Mako grins and puts her clipboard down.

“You remember the stew I brought over for lunch back in Droptown?” She asks in kind. Of course I remember, it was amazing! Especially after spending so long eating mainly shitty protein bars and whatever else I can get my hands on. I smile and nod as the memory of the first taste of actual, proper food flits through my head. Mako’s smile widens as I reminisce. “That’s what's on the menu for tonight, it’s called Hodge-Podge stew.”

“Hodge-Podge stew?” I repeat, raising an eyebrow. She nods in confirmation.

“Yeah, it’s pretty much a staple for us and any other nomadic Wildlander. Simple, easy to make, filling, hearty, everything you’d need in a meal.” I feel excitement well up inside as I continue to remember that thermos lunch. If it was that good as leftovers, having it hot from the pot would be even better.

“Just… Don’t expect it to taste the same as the leftovers.” Mako points out as she starts prepping the veg. “It’s never the same way twice.” I chuckle and smile.

“Don’t need it to taste the same way, just needs to be good.” I state before stretching. I give a wave before leaving her to do her prep work after saying a quick good-bye. My stomach growls again as I start to smell the ingredients. I hope there'll be enough for seconds.

I watch as the Misfits go through their trailers to find their personal stashes and bring them up to a card table where the ingredients were laid out. Mainly some spices like garlic and cilantro and other things. Now I see where the Hodge-Podge comes from, everyone contributes something to the meal. Part of me wished that I had thought of something like that for when I led way back when, but then I remember how much of a pain in the ass Kuo would have been about it and how it wouldn’t have worked with the amount of people under my leadership.

The thoughts of the comradery makes me frown a bit, not because I had something against it or I disapproved of it, but because I really didn’t have anything to contribute myself. Food-wise anyways.

I think to myself, despite the spats I’ve had with Kes and Pangolin, these guys have been decent hosts. Never asked any favors of me despite knowing I’m the Beast, hell, the Beast topic doesn’t really get brought up at all outside of said spats. Maybe every now and again in a joking way, but never seriously. They treated me like I’m just another person, no different than them, for better and worse.

I know they wouldn’t expect me to do anything, as I am their guest, but the thought just didn’t sit right. I look over and see everyone falling into their roles and an idea pops in my head. While I can’t contribute with food, maybe I can contribute by lending a hand? I see Pangolin lugging logs out from a storage compartment before pulling out a clipboard and looking over it. I’m guessing I’m gonna have to play nice for a little bit and talk to him about if there’s anything that needs to be done.

I stretch before walking over to the Brick Spartan, Mako turns her head to watch, wondering what I am planning.

“Hey Pangolin!” I call out as I walk over to him, I see him stiffen a bit, but once he sees the neutral expression on my face, he relaxes some. Seems like my little chat with him made an impact. Good. “Is there anything that needs done?” I can see Mako’s eyes widen in surprise out of the corner of my eye, but I focus on the shit brickhouse as he looks over a list and at what’s around.

“I’ve pulled out some logs for the fire.” He starts as he gestures over to the neatly stacked pile of wood. I look over at it and hum. “If you’re looking for something to do while dinner’s cooking, I’ll give you an axe and you can get to chopping.” I smile and nod, I can feel a certain itch making itself known at the thought of starting fires, but when I look over to the cooking fire, I see that Kes had it handled. Oh well, prepping the fuel will sate the itch for the time being. I hold my hand out and Pangolin gives me a chopping axe. “What, not gonna give me the monster you have?” I joke a little, he and I may not be on the best of footing at the moment, especially with how he treated the Gunsmith, but right now is a peace time, no point in stirring up shit when it’s not needed. Besides, me and Zeke still had our fair share of laughs even when things were shaky and I wasn’t ready to forgive. Pangolin chuckled nervously before rubbing the back of his head.

“Sorry Cole, just as the Amp is your baby, Rifter is mine.” I give a chuckle and a grin, but I can feel a bite of anger in my chest. If you already had a weapon you loved dear then what in the name of God was with your behavior towards Kes, Pangolin?? I note it as something to question him about later, but for now I take the axe and I head over to the wood pile to get started.

Putting my backpack to the side for the time being, I unhook the straps of my vest and use them to tie the vest back to open it more before taking the bandana from around my neck and tying it on my forehead. Do I look like some hick? Maybe, but I don’t care. I need more airflow to keep me from overheating and the bandana will keep the sweat from getting into my eyes.

I give the axe a good feel and a couple of practice swings. They take good care of their gear, I have to admit, the blade actually gave me a slight nick on my finger when I felt it. Grabbing a log, I stand it up before centering and taking a swing. Chopping the hunk of wood in half and then into quarters before I pile them up nearby, ready to be used to feed the hungry fire. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mako walking over with an amused smile.

“I have to ask, who are you and what have you done with Cole?” She questions with a grin. I chuckle and roll my eyes.

“He didn’t go anywhere, Mako. I’m still me.” I hum between the swings. Even though the tool is light compared to the Amp and the movements are familiar, my muscles still give a slight satisfying burn from the repetition. In a way, I’ve missed this.

“I don’t believe you.” She teases as she puts her hands on her hips. “The Cole MacGrath I know wanted nothing to do with any of this. Any time the word “chore” is brought up, he’d walk away, put up a fight or would have complained the entire time!” I can’t help but to chuckle, it is true that I did throw up a stink whenever chores and labor were involved, but granted, I had a reason.

“That’s because “the Cole MacGrath” you knew was either “volentold” to help, pestered until he said “yes” or was outright demanded to help, even when he was in the middle of something else... Like trying to keep a bunch of mad-dogs from tearing each-other to shreds.” I point out, still keeping the playful tone. “Back in the Conduit Army, I really wasn’t given any choice in the matter. Here? I chose to help out. Nobody asked me to help, it wasn’t expected or demanded of me, I got to make the call of my own free will.” Mako nods in understanding.

“Besides, the pyro-itch was getting to me and I figured this would hold me over.” I can hear Mako snicker at my comment before I see a mischievous grin split across her face, oh god, not again. “Penny for your thoughts, Mako?”

“You’re just wanting to spend more time with the resident hothead, aren’t you?” Fucking called it. I roll my eyes before looking at her.

“And what, pray-tell, gave you that idea?” I scoff as I cross my arms.

“Hmmm… Let’s see. You’re working on a task that is connected to fire-tending, which is Kes’ responsibility… You’ve opened up your vest more so that the goods are on display… You’re standing in a spot where she can see you easily and watch you show off how strong you are…” My god, if I could roll my eyes any harder, they would have fallen out of my head. She’s losing her mind over this!

“Mako, how many of those sappy, fluffy, cutesy-wootsy romance animes have you watched since you’ve been on your own? Because the’ve rotted your brain, you’re looking for something that isn’t there!” I guffaw loudly, looking at her like she’s nuts as she just grinning away like the cat that ate the canary.

“Uh huh…. Suuuuuuure.” She hums while still grinning that shark-tooth smirk. “Don’t think I didn’t catch those wandering eyes.”

“What the hell is that supposed t-” Mako runs off giggling like a gremlin before I can even finish my sentence. What has gotten into her?! I let out an irritated sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose before going back to chopping wood.

Time seemed to fly as I got lost in the rhythm of my task. It’s only when I hear Pangolin bellow out to everyone that dinner’s ready and it’s time to eat. I stop what I was doing and use my bandana to wipe the sweat off of my brow and hands before wringing it out. As I walk over, I watch how everyone falls into place like a well oiled machine. Pangolin handing out the bowls and silverware that looked like they were fashioned from scrap and rebar, Mako at the giant iron pot, ladle in hand.

The two remaining Misfits line up and I take a cue from them and line up behind them. Moving with them and doing as they do. Taking the bowl given, heading to the pot so Mako can fill the vessel with the delicious smelling stew and then sitting down around the fire to relax and tuck in.

As Pangolin and Mako get their portion, I take a deep breath of the steam coming from the food and a big smile grows across my face as I take in the scents of the meal. Mmmmm…. Savory, meaty, hearty… Maybe spicy? Who cares, it smells tasty and I want to eat.

I take the rebar made spoon and get some of the broth from the bowl and blow on it before taking a sip. My eyes widen as I feel the tell-tale immediate burn of peppers and spice. The capsaicin stringing my tongue and throat and flooding my nerves with a sweetly tortuous heat that added thrill to the hearty and meaty flavors. Reminding me of some of my favorite dishes from New Marias. The more it burns, the bigger my smile grows before feasting, eating the meal like a man starved.

As I chow down, I started to notice a cacophony of pained gasps and pants. I look up and see the two brothers with red faces and angry tongues. Dove’s damn-near squawking while fanning his tongue with his hands and Pangolin was trying to keep a straight face, but the reddening of his cheeks and the tears pricking the corner of her eyes gave him away. I look over and see Kestrel happily eating while the corner of her lips twitch in struggle and Mako was trying not to laugh at the two dying brothers.

“What’s up with them?” I ask as I point over at the two while looking at Mako and Kestrel. Dove snaps his head to look at me in shock, staring at me like I’ve grown three heads.

“HOW IN THE NAME OF GOD IS YOUR TONGUE NOT ON FIRE, MACGRATH?!?” The pigeon squawks out and I have to cover my mouth to keep myself from spitting my stew in laughter.

“Quit your belly-aching, Dove!” I hear Kes snark out, her lips still fighting not to smirk. “It’s not even that hot! Barely a nose-runner!”

“Easy for you to say!” Dove croaks before glugging down a canteen of water. “You’re probably the one who spiked the stew again with your homemade god-damn hot hot-sauce!!” I struggle not to laugh as Kes puts on an overdramatic show of looking hurt and offended.

“Oh Dove, your cruel cruel words wound my heart!” The birdie teases in a faux hurt voice while doing the dramatic wrist to forehead arm and hand to heart thing. “Accusing me of such a thing! I would never ever eeeeeeeeeever do that!” I snort and sputter, trying not to absolutely lose it as Dove has a conniption.

“This is like, what, the fourth time this month you pulled this shit with the hot sauce, Morrison!” Dove yelps out as he continues to try to cool his tongue in vain. I can’t help myself anymore and burst out laughing. Holy hell, she has done this multiple times and they practically let her get away with it?!

“Well whose fault is that?” I chime in between laughs. “You’re the ones leaving her with the stock-pot unsupervised, so y’all got no-one to blame but yourselves for that.”

“How are you not dying from this?!” I hear Pangolin bellow out as he stares at me in disbelief. I laugh more as I try not to choke on soup. Kes looks at the brothers with a smug grin on her face.

“He likes it, three to two, you guys are outnumbered!” Kes points out with her spoon before taking another bite. It isn’t long before Dove and Kes get into a bit of a heated debate about hot-sauce tampering and if it’s sabotage so she and Mako could have the whole pot or not. I continue to laugh at the bickering birds as Pangolin continues to stare at me like I’m some sort of anomaly and Mako falls into a gigglefit.

In my fit, I thought I could hear the sound of scraping stone. I stop to look around, but saw nothing of note. I shrug and go back to watching the squabble. Probably just needing some rest.

After all, since when can a boulder move?

#infamous #infamous 2 #cole macgrath #demon of empire city #infamous: no man's land #xeno writes #caper #blast shard caper #pangolin #Mako #Kestrel Morrison #Dove #Damn #Now I'm hungry #But yay! Everyone's getting along-ish #It would be a terrible shame if something were to happen. :) #:)

[coconutcordiale]

Alright alright alright y'all I saw Devotion

This is not a glowing review of Glen nor this movie so if you don’t want to read that feel free to scroll.

I haven’t read the book, though the movie made me really want to! So that’s a positive for sure.

Also I know nothing about the Navy. Spoilers below the cut.

Disclaimer: I’m generally very critical of movies / tv, even ones I like, despite having zero real cinematic knowledge lol. My dad’s a producer so he and I love to pick apart movies and that habit has definitely made me hypercritical (as a frame of reference I have issues with TGM and New Girl too, two all time faves) so take my negative Nancy shit with a grain of salt please.

Things I liked in no particular order:

Jesse and Tom running the checklist just before Jesse crashes into the clearing

Every scene Christina Jackson was in - she was amazing

When the junior (I assume) sailors come out to watch Jesse’s carrier qualification - thought the reactions of the squadron were really interesting in this and overall a super emotional scene

The aerial scene in the beginning where Tom & Jesse fly by the lighthouse

Jonathan Majors. JONATHAN MAJORS, holy shit. He wowed me. Some scenes made me SO uncomfortable and I mean that in a good way (like him reciting things in the mirror) because he delivered them so viscerally without overplaying the character. His performance was incredibly balanced and overall outstanding imo. If it weren’t for him I likely would’ve hated this movie (sorry Glen)

The scene where the squadron is taking their flight gear before the funeral flight, thought this was cut beautifully with Daisy getting the news of Jesse's death

Glen’s my babygirl. He looks gorgeous in this movie. His facial expressions were generally great throughout. The first half of the movie I enjoyed him mostly (pretty much everything pre-Cannes). That’s kind of where my compliments end for him 🫣 I do not think this was his best performance by a long shot. Most of his line delivery fell flat for me.

That could’ve been because Jonathan Majors steals nearly every scene he’s in. It also could've been the writing, a lot of the dialogue felt very stilted and awkward, especially in emotionally heavy scenes on the carrier.

As a Glen fan, thought it was cute the girl Tom kissed in France was Gigi but most of the Cannes stuff was completely unnecessary. On the positive side there, the dynamic between Glen/Jonathan I thought was fairly likeable in the outdoor bar scene.

Joe Jonas was alright, my expectations were basically on the floor for him so he exceeded that, yay. There were scenes where I liked the CO and found his character engaging and then there were a couple towards the end where I thought he was awkward. I have nothing to say about the rest of the squadron, didn't dislike them or find them memorable.

My biggest gripe is that the pacing of this movie was ridiculous - it felt WAY longer than 2.3 hours. By the end I was beyond ready for it to be over. I probably would never be able to sit through this movie from beginning to end again which is unfortunate. The real bulk of the story is at the end but by the time it came around I was mentally done with the movie and thought a lot of the performances (especially glen’s) towards the end didn’t land. The timing of everything felt really off and although I thought the actor’s performances were generally stronger in the beginning, things took so long to get going that by the end I somewhat checked out.

Overall, loved Jonathan Majors and Christina Jackson. Adored their performances. Felt mostly neutral about everyone else. Extremely negative about the pacing.

Also I still think the world of Glen!!!! I completely understand how easy it is for me to criticize vs the constraints they actually worked with in making this! Sorry don't hate me for this :(

@wombtotombx & @fuckyeahhangman

#devotion #edited to clarify my thoughts because I reread it and realized what I was saying didn’t make sense

[orowyrm]

Your instincts are correct, your coworker is annoyed with you and instead of saying something is being passive aggressive about it.

Some people (and I am not say the are correct, even if I maybe sometimes find myself in this category) view pacing yourself at work as being lazy. If I have a task I want to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible so would likely end up annoyed if someone wants to do the task later. At that point it would feel easier to me just to do it myself. Which would then make me feel annoyed with you.

Even though- to be clear- you haven’t done anything wrong. I think if I were your coworker I would suggest taking some time at the beginning of each day to divide the tasks and then just mind my business and let you do yours however and whenever.

It sounds like maybe you tried a variation on that, though. So honestly, your coworker is probably just a passive aggressive asshole who is afraid to tell you how they really feel.

I don’t have any real solution to this, sometimes people just don’t work well together for any number of reasons. 😔

literally it’s like, i totally understand where she’s coming from and we’ve on several occasions tried to initiate a daily check-in system but it keeps falling apart because sometimes i forget and she’s the type of person who will watch me forget something and choose not to remind me in the moment when i can easily fix the mistake, instead opting to wait until the thing that got forgotten becomes a Problem so she can point out that i was the one who was supposed to do it, and also because she will just randomly assign me tasks on the checklist without actually discussing it beforehand which kinda defeats the purpose of our morning check-in entirely -_- we’ve had several talks about dividing out the workload and i’ve reminded her a lot that i don’t pick up on subtle hints and prefer to communicate directly, so if she’d like my help with something to just ask rather than wait for me to notice because i might not, it just feels like i’m getting ignored because… idk. is she trying to show off how good she is at being a lab tech at my expense? she acts like we’re competing for a job when this is meant to be a two person team. it’s annoying lol please let me contribute to the workplace without having to fight you to do my job??