#but maybe I’m wearing shipping goggles

[like-a-bantha]

Sleep Study

Summary: When there's no time for piloting lessons, you suggest a sort of learning-by-osmosis experiment to Tech. What could possibly go wrong?

Pairing: Tech/GN Reader (No Y/N)

Rating: T

Warnings: Language, not beta-read

Word Count: 6.2K

AO3 | Masterlist

Now, this might sound weird – maybe even a tad disrespectful – but bear with me.

I’ve recently begun piloting lessons with Tech and I couldn’t ask for a better teacher. He knows, while I am a proficient mechanic, I’m a total novice when it comes to actually flying, and the man deserves a medal for his patience with me. I’ll ask the same question five times and he only gets mildly agitated around the third, but he’s always been understanding. Not everyone can be a certified genius, after all.

So lessons have been going pretty not bad, I’d say; it’s the workload that’s been causing problems. Cid’s got us going from job to job with almost no breaks. Lately we’re lucky if we get half a rotation to stop and refuel, let alone catch our breath. We’re all exhausted. We’re all on edge. It’s gotten to the point where we’ve had to put a pause on the lessons for a few days just to keep up with general maintenance on top of the back-to-back missions. Thankfully, in those few quiet moments where we can get to that maintenance, I’ve been able to sort of keep up on my lessons thanks to Tech’s rants. And maybe, for whatever reason, my brain decided these rants were incredibly soothing on one particular sleepless flight. And maybe, who knows why, I may have fallen asleep just a bit. It didn’t seem like Tech was angry, or even upset. He was almost apologetic when he gently nudged me awake.

Today, after landing on Ord Mantell for an incredibly brief pit stop, Tech and I work in silence below the ship. He’s been quiet with me since my last accidental nap and I just can’t figure out how to voice how sorry I am without sounding — I don’t know. Disingenuous? And if I’m honest, how do I avoid sounding like a total creep? But we’re just working next to each other, neither of us saying a word, and it’s nice but it’s not us and there’s this massive knot in my gut saying well, it’s your own fault, don’t you remember? 

This silence is awfully comfortable. It really would be such a shame if something were to change that.

“Hey, Tech,” I jumped in without a plan and I’ve given up hope on this being eloquent in any way, at this point I’ll be glad if my question is at least somewhat coherent, “I’m sorry about,” I trail off a bit, I don’t want to finish that sentence actually, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but I just, I had this idea — weird idea — and maybe a request? Feel free to shoot it down, I mean, if it’s too much. Would you mind sending me the audio files of your lessons? Sorry, just, they’re really interesting but also relaxing and, and, maybe it can be a sort of experiment, y’know? If I fall asleep listening will I retain the information? Strange idea, sorry.”

Tech stares blankly, and when I turn to meet his gaze after giving myself a moment to reboot, he continues to stare blankly. His head is just barely tilted, and he wears a look somewhere between genuine confusion and borderline concern. With a slight shake of his head he finally responds, “Forgive me, I’m afraid I do not follow.”

If only there was a way to smash your head into a wall a few times without doing any real damage. I’d kill for that right about now. I could’ve just kept my mouth shut but no. Real bang-up job on my part.

“I, uh, I fell asleep the other day because – well, because I was tired, mainly – I don’t know, I just find your voice really soothing? Like, everything’s been really chaotic lately but listening to you talk about paralight systems made it,” I take a deep breath, no going back now, “ah, it made it a lot less chaotic. Like everything was quiet for a minute. Safe.”

Another long exhale. Tech’s still silent, processing, but his brows are raised now and his eyes have gone a bit wide behind his goggles. I can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing just yet. It’s probably best to go against my gut and keep my mouth shut for a few minutes, but now the minutes feel longer than usual. Karked this one up a bit, I think.

“So you would like the audio files to… study?” I nod before he even finishes his sentence. “Or will you be using them to fall asleep?” I’m still nodding and it certainly isn’t helping his confusion at all.

“Both?” I shrug.

He raises his gloved hand inquisitively to his chin, and his face is blank aside from the visible pondering, and now I’m really starting to think I’ve karked it all up. I could’ve put more thought into it, taken my time both in the apology and easing him into the idea of sharing his pre-recorded knowledge, but instead I sloppily tossed all my cards on the table knowing I had a shit hand. And not just any shit hand, no, it’s an alarmingly weird hand. Just as I’m about to start spewing apologies his hand drops slightly from his chin, index finger extended, “An interesting experiment indeed. I shall transfer the files of our previous lessons as well as my own personal recordings.”

Huh.

Wait. “Personal recordings?” Why do my ears feel warm?

Luckily for me his face is buried too deep in his datapad to notice the tinge of red creeping up my neck. “Yes, before you joined our squad and long before our schedule became so hectic, I kept an audio diary of sorts. Detailed accounts of my findings on missions.”

“Cool,” Yes, I can feel how wide and dopey my grin is but I’m still riding the high of my botched opener somehow working and couldn’t care less. “I feel like I remember seeing you telling a bug facts about itself way back when I met you guys. Makes sense now.”

His brows immediately furrow as he finally pulls his gaze away from the glowing screen in his hands. “You assumed I was talking to the insect?”

Straight faced, I raise both my hands like I’m pleading innocent. “Hey, I don’t judge.”

I break first. My shoulders begin to shake, then my still-raised hands, as the laughter bubbles up. Tech isn’t far behind. We look at each other as we laugh and I can’t help thinking that if it were anyone else I’d hide my face, but it’s like I’ve just now realized turning away would mean missing this uncharacteristically uncontained joy. 

Normally I hate sleeping in my helmet. I know it’s for protection or whatever, but there are few things worse than waking up with a crick in your neck and the gnarly one-two punch that is the bed-head-helmet hair hybrid. Alas, I am dedicated to not only my experiment but also not getting mocked by Wrecker for the next week for listening to Tech’s lecture on, let’s see… “Botanical Symbolism in Folklore Across Kashyyyk”? Sounds interesting. But since I’m not on watch for another seven hours, I can actually take my time choosing rather than scrolling a few pages ahead to the B’s and picking the first one that stands out. I kept scrolling and skimming for a while, he must’ve sent his entire audio library to me; there are hundreds of pages and I’m barely halfway through the aurebesh. Then I’m suddenly scrolling rapidly back to the top of the page as if my subconscious just had a great idea that I’m simply too conscious to understand, and that great idea is to sort the files in chronological order.

I don’t have to scroll back very far at all, Tech wasn’t kidding when he said he only stopped his audio diary when the work started. There’s one titled “The mountainous planet of Guntcania 5” from a few days before we last left Ord Mantell. We’d been sent to loot a newly abandoned Imperial shipyard, driven out by a group of formidable freedom fighters whom we were told were not in it for the profit but the valiant cause. Turns out it was both. I remember Tech quietly commenting on the geological formations to no one in particular. I remember standing a bit closer to hear his comments. I fell asleep just shy of eleven minutes after hitting play.

He caught me in the kitchen not long after I woke up, both of us beelining to the instant caf.

“Thought your shift was over,” I grab two packets from the drawer as Tech retrieves two mugs from the cupboard, “Want some of that herbal tea instead? Get some rest, maybe?”

It’s nice, these quiet moments with him. I’ll watch the kettle, if that old saying is true maybe I can buy us a few more of those moments.

“I have yet to decrypt the schematics from the refinery,” With a heavy sigh he sets the datapad down on the countertop, his shoulders hang and his exhaustion is visible, “Once I’ve completed that and analyze the data I will rest. Until then, I will stick with caf.”

I give a sympathetic smile, “Y’know, I’d offer to help but I think that isn’t exactly my area of expertise.”

“I would more than appreciate the company,” Tech interjects, and by the look on his face I think it took us both by surprise. “If you would be so kind as to join me, that is. Though, if you have duties you must attend to I completely understand and–”

My surprise quickly melts into a warm smile. “‘Course, Tech. I’d love to.” And his face softens in turn. And then there’s a beat where we’re just standing there smiling at each other. Then another. And another. Have you ever seen a tooka knock a cup off of a table and jump at the sound of the crash? Now, imagine that but instead of a tooka it’s two mercenaries, and instead of the clatter of a cup it’s the kettle coming to a boil with an abrupt screech. I think we’d find it much funnier if we weren’t still in the vast realm of half-asleep. Right now, it’s just enough to elicit a soft chuckle at most.

Tech retrieves his datapad as I fix the caf. “Have you begun conducting your experiment? I’m sure you’ve already seen, but I have transferred all of my files from the past year or so, I’m interested to hear your findings.”

It’s enough to slow my movements, brain power diverted to processing his question as I reach for the milk at half speed. “Oh. I, uh, I played the one from Guntcania 5. Didn’t last long, though, I was out by the time you got to regional climates.”

“You were with us for that mission. Perhaps choosing a mission or topic you are unfamiliar with would better prove your theory.”

I nod once before turning to join him, a steaming mug in each hand, carefully placing the caf in front of him as I sit. “Realized as soon as I woke up. Any recommendations for tonight's file?”

He names several from memory as he works on his own task, giving brief descriptions of each without giving away too much — that could skew the results. I add them all to a separate folder, sorting them in order of how excited Tech seemed at the topic.

Of course, things got hectic again and I didn’t have time for experiments – I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been listening to those files, though. Five rotations, a standard week’s worth of sleeps and dreams in the tune of Tech’s voice. I’m waking up well-rested despite sleeping only a handful of hours at a time. I’m practically begging the force to fry some wiring or call off a job to spend even just a few minutes with him. I’m starting to think I may have a problem.

Cid called while we were out hunting down puffer pigs for one of her clients. Hunter walked away with the holoprojector about halfway through the conversation, he later told Omega this was to avoid scaring the animals but Echo and I overheard the real reason. That’s another ten credits in the swear jar. When we get one, that is; right now it’s sort of just an honor system. Next mission – big client, big payout, big enough to hack away a good chunk of our debt and take a couple days off – was called off at the last second, she’d try talking to the client again but, right now, and I quote, “He ain’t budgin’.” We’re still on call, though, and flat broke after our last refuel, so this is really just the galaxy’s worst vacation. Hunter’s hushed and extensive vocabulary perfectly summed up our feelings on the matter.

I was going to try to get some rest on the way back to Ord Mantell but puffer pigs are noisy enough in a relaxed state, toss six of them in a cramped starship and toss that starship into hyperspace and you’ll start to realize noisy doesn’t even begin describe it. Poor Hunter’s locked himself in the ‘fresher, of course Tech installed some sound dampening element to the audio relay in his helmet, but that can only do so much. Omega and Wrecker tried calming the animals to no avail, they’ve resorted to tossing bits of ration bars at them as – I’d say tasty, but eugh – edible bribes. Echo and Tech are arguing over something; it’s small, I think, but I’m too tired to step in and mediate right now. What was supposed to be a short flight felt like years.

“Never thought I’d be happy to be back here, but it sure beats being stuck in hyperspace with these things,” Echo says quietly, carefully lowering the crate in his arms, making sure not to wake the puffer pig that had just fallen asleep. I gently placed the crate I was holding right next to it, maybe when they wake up in this new place seeing one another will calm them down. Or they’ll freak out together.

“Between you and the puffer pigs, I must choose the latter,” Tech mutters, still snippy after the long journey, Echo and I turn to look at him in unison.

Echo’s expression is that of a brother who’s accustomed to that sort of teasing, flat and unphased. Mine, however…

“Hey,” I do my best to keep my voice down, “Not cool.”

Echo’s expression is no longer unphased. It is phased. There’s confusion, surprise, the hint of a smile; he seemed as tired as the rest of us before, but this clearly perked him up. Usually when I step in on these little disagreements I remain as unbiased as I can but I am now, very clearly, taking Echo’s side and now he’s visibly interested in seeing how this plays out. I know I still look hurt by the comment that wasn’t even about me. And Tech, his shift in emotion is visible, I could see him process his remark and my reaction, and his furrowed brows loosen as he looks between the two of us.

“You are correct,” Tech nods once, looking to his brother, “Apologies, Echo, I did not mean that.”

After a moment, a smile graces Echo’s face, “I’ll accept that apology.” And gives his brother a solid pat on the shoulder on his way over to the bar.

“I get grumpy-tired, too, I know how it is,” I bump him with my shoulder, an attempt to break a tension that was not there.

“You do not seem grumpy right now,” Tech breathes out a laugh.

I shrug, “Well maybe I’m not tired right now. Maybe I’m just–” My body decides this is the perfect time for an unsuppressable yawn. “Maybe I’m too tired to be grumpy-tired.”

Tech hums, “A valid theory, it seems.” With a tired chuckle and lazy nod I glance around the near-empty bar. Wrecker and Echo sit at the counter with their drinks while they recount the mission to Cid. Hunter’s setting up the cot for Omega, who is already beginning to fall asleep at Cid’s desk, before he joins his brothers. “I am going to head back to the Marauder and get some rest if you care to accompany me.”

“Yes, please, a quiet ship and sleep sounds like heaven right now,” He stands aside, allowing me to lead the way out of the parlor after saying goodnight to our squadmates.

The cool air of Ord Mantell is enough to keep me awake just long enough to carry myself back to the ship. I hear the ghost of a laugh beside me as another yawn takes hold of me. “I fear you may have conditioned yourself, the sound of my voice alone seems to be putting you to sleep.”

Turns out I’m not too tired for a good laugh, “Yeah, keep talking and you’re gonna have to carry me the rest of the way.”

“I assure you, I was trained to carry men twice my size across the battlefield, I can manage.”

“Right,” I nod, later I’ll blame my dopey smile on exhaustion, “Hey, wait, why men twice your size?”

“It is standard protocol.”

“No, like, isn’t it a one size type of deal? Clones and all, y’know,” He stares blankly at me. “Well, yeah, a few exceptions, but broadly speaking it’s just the one size.”

“I see,” Tech says, and I’ve got this look like I just beat a holochess master, “Your exhaustion has caused a state of delirium. Perhaps this means I’m forced to carry you the rest of the way to best keep you safe.” A barked laugh escapes me at that. “Very well.”

Wait. “Wait! No, no, I’m good! I’m up! I’m awake!” And I am, very much so now as I pick up my pace to evade capture. After my laughter subsides I slow my steps to a walk, and Tech quickly catches up, as we traverse the familiar streets of Ord Mantell.

The Marauder’s ramp lowers with a hiss as we approach. “Dibs on the sonic,” I call over my shoulder as I scurry towards the refresher, Tech makes no protest and takes his time boarding the starship. Our water supply, while it is thankfully abundant these days, always seems to be stuck at the average human body temperature – no warmer, no colder – but at least the cycle itself doesn’t last long at all. A full-body shower only takes about three minutes in the sonic, Republic standard for conservation of resources and time between missions according to Tech. While it is efficient, I do miss a good boiling hot, thirty minute shower to tell the truth; I’d never tell the squad that, though, I’m grateful for what we’ve got.

The chime of my datapad sounded halfway through the sonic’s cycle and I emerge to find a message from Tech. A new audio file and a handful of recommendations. I dress myself with an all-too-giddy smile. After hastily gathering up my things from the ‘fresher I elbow the door control, ready to shout my thanks to the clone and surrender the now warm ‘fresher to him. Instead, however, I am met with the clone himself, standing in front of the doorway, datapad in one hand while the other is in position to knock on the now open door.

He retracts that hand quickly, though, he still looks as if he’s about to say something but nothing has come out yet.

I decide to take the lead. “Hey, thanks for the message. ‘Fresher’s all yours.” 

His parted lips form a smile. “I- you are welcome.” But when I exit the refresher and step to the side he makes no move to enter. “After reviewing a handful of files I found those to be most interesting, I hope this helps your experiment.”

My grin widens, “Thank you, Tech, it’ll definitely help.” He nods just once with a smile before retreating into the ‘fresher. Maybe I stared at the door just a second too long. Maybe I even let out a quiet little giggle before heading over to my bunk.

I can hear the sonic start as I finally turn in, scrolling through highlighted files on my datapad while I try to get comfortable on the flat old mattress pad which always proves to be an impossible task. My sights lock in on a file between two of Tech’s suggestions labeled “Repairs and Maintenance”. Do I already know the in’s and out’s of most starships? Of course. Do I still learn something new everytime Tech talks about the in’s and out’s of the Marauder? Of kriffing course. Perfect.

The sonic’s still running when I put my helmet on and hit play, and I’m promptly out like a light.

I wake with a stir when I feel something plush fall on my helmeted head and open my eyes to see a large hand reach down and grab the offending object. Wrecker whispers an apology as he gingerly retrieves his Lula after dropping her into my bunk. Still half asleep, I can’t decide if that sorry was for me or the doll. The guys are back.

With a quiet, sleepy groan, I roll onto my side and pull my knees to my chest, blindly reaching for the datapad behind me. Waking the device is a mistake as I am instantly shocked by its brightness, my eyes snap shut and I dim the screen. I’ve moved onto a new recording, it seems. This one is titled “Atmospheric Changes of Taccoh”, about five minutes in. Taccoh was one of my first missions with them, I remember my excitement at how well we worked together as a team. I’m not usually good on a team, but clicking with these guys was just easy. It just felt right.

“—they seem to be adjusting rather well to mercenary work. I must say, they are quite the knowledgeable mechanic and are proving to be a great asset to the squad. Wrecker’s comments on their romantic interest in me are, in my opinion, absurd. Though I would not be opposed to such interest, I find the probability highly unlikely. Their interest, as I’ve observed, lies both in their work and the pursuit of knowledge. Qualities I find most admirable, as well as —“

Pause.

The heart rate monitor on my dimmed HUD glows an ominous red as the number rises.

Oh god. Kriff. I found Tech’s kriffing diary.

I pry the helmet from my head, foregoing any attempt to fix my surely frazzled hair, still damp from the fresher, and swing my legs over the side of my bunk to sit up. My whole body is tense, my knuckles pale from the force of my grip on the durasteel frame. Fresh air. Yes. Fresh air would do me good right now, I’d say.

The room seems to spin as I fumble for my boots and the sheer volume at which my mind screams nearly drowns out Echo, half-asleep and confused, staring at me through squinted eyes from his bunk.

“You alright?” His tired voice repeats.

“Yes, yeah,” I answer, all too quickly, “just need some air, is all. You okay? You good? Sleeping okay?”

Echo’s brows furrow, he shifts slightly to face me properly, “I was,” he suppresses a yawn and I hurry up with my boots, “but then you shot up like you saw a ghost.”

My laughter is quiet but crazed, and I can barely hear it, “Ship’s not haunted, Echo, go back to sleep.” 

I stand to leave but the quiet call of my name stops me in my tracks, I turn to face the sleepy clone. “You sure you’re alright?” 

“I’m fine,” I try to make it sound convincing but I know it’s a sorry attempt, “really, get some rest. Be back soon.” His gaze remains fixed on me for a moment longer before he shuts his eyes, nodding before settling his head on the pillow once again. I let out a portion of a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding as I hurry out of the ship and into the crisp night air of Ord Mantel.

My feet take me to Cid’s. She shut the sign off but I can hear the jukebox from the street, no luck kicking out the regulars for the night, it seems. My feet then decide to take me down the stairs. Then to the bar.

“Great, I try to kick two out and a third appears,” the trandoshan huffs from behind the bar, “If you’re looking for dark and broody and the kid, they’re sleeping. Not sure how, these two bozos won’t shut up.” She shouts in the direction of the booming jukebox and patrons as she pours two drinks before sliding one to me.

“Hey, can I get your take on something?” I down the drink, extending the cup in a silent request. 

She glances tentatively first at my now empty cup, then at her own drink, before quickly finishing it to pour us each a second round. “Depends.”

“On?”

“Tell ya after I hear it.”

I laugh into my drink. “This stays between us.” She laughs into her drink. “Or I can just finish my free drink and leave.”

“Fine, fine. Between us.” She waves a dismissive hand. “But it better be interesting or these are going on your tab.”

My brows furrow, I nod just once before finishing my second drink, and the second the empty cup makes contact with the sticky countertop I blurt it out, “I listened to Tech’s diary.”

She waits for me to go on, I wait for her to be a voice of reason. Neither of us get what we’re looking for. “Alright, you found Goggles’ diary. And?”

“And?” I echo, incredulously. “I accidentally listened to some really, really personal stuff that I can’t un-listen to, what do I do? Do I tell him? What, do I say ‘Hey, Tech, so the learning by osmosis experiment was a bust but a little birdie — you, you’re the birdie — told me you had a big ol’ crush on me, for, like a while, so I just wanted to —‘ I don’t know what I want. Kriff, this is bad, isn’t it?”

Cid stares at me like I’m a three-headed mythosaur for what feels like hours, I try to calm my breathing, try to take a sip from my already empty cup. I’m only pulled out of my thought loop by the howl of Cid’s laughter. It even manages to pull Bolo and Ketch’s attention away from the jukebox, if only for a second. In all the time I’ve known her, I’ve never heard Cid laugh so hard. My look of shock remains even as her laughter subsides.

“Good one, kid. You almost had me for a second there.” She gently wipes a tear from the corner of her eye, but the laughter returns when she notices my expression is unchanged. “Oh, you’re serious?”

“Obviously I’m kriffing serious! Cid, I’m kind of in deep shit here, I need advice, I don’t need you laughing in my face!”

“Oh, relax, it’s not like you didn’t know. You idiots have been pining over each other from day one. Didn’t think Goggles would make the first move, though, I owe Muscles ten credits.” She mutters, though clearly still amused.

“I didn’t know! Force, how would I have known!” I put my head down on the bar with a sigh. “So, what, everyone knows and I’m just the last to find out?”

“Got it.”

All I can manage is a dramatic groan.

“Just talk to him, what’s the worst that can happen?”

I don’t even need to think about it, “I say exactly what I said before, weird him out, and go back to working by myself because he never wants to see me again.”

“Yeesh, try living a little sometime, kid. It’ll do you good,” Cid cringes into her cup, “Talk to him. Trust me.”

With a roll of my eyes I extend my empty cup one last time, Cid fills it without a word and I down the drink before leaving the empty glass on the bar as I stand, “Those were on you, I could’ve gotten better advice from Bolo and Ketch.”

“Can’t argue with you there, they’ve been together as long as I’ve known them,” She rinses out the empty cup and tosses it into the washer. “He’s crazy about you, kid. Just tell him how you feel.”

Cid’s words play on repeat in my mind as I wander the now empty city streets. Talk to him right, easier said than done. What if he’s not ready for a relationship? What if I’m not? We’re already so busy, will we really have the time? What if this changes our dynamic irreparably? What if I lose my closest friend?

It takes hearing someone call my name to pull me from what could’ve been an eternal thought loop. I’m back at Cid’s, a weary Hunter stands below the glowing sign, his arms crossed and he somehow looks both concerned and amused, “Going for a fourth lap around the block?” My lips part as if I could form a response but I come up short, opting to shrug instead. “Care if I join you?” I nod and we walk side by side, allowing silence to settle between us.

“Thought you were asleep,” I break that silence. Better to get it out of the way now, I figure I know where this is going.

“Not with all that noise,” Hunter lets out a deep sigh, he must know he could just power the damn jukebox down and get some rest. “I don’t know how Omega does it, that kid can sleep through anything.”

“She’s exhausted,” I let out a sigh of my own, “We all are.”

“Cid’s focused in on this puffer pig client, that’ll buy us some time to regroup, rest up.”

“Good. That’s good.”

Hunter nods, the silence that follows is not as easy or relaxed as earlier. He breaks it first, “I’m assuming you know what I’m about to say.”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Talk, I guess. Can’t not now, huh?”

“That’s your choice,” He stops walking, catching me off guard, I stop a few paces ahead and turn to face him, “Never thought I’d say it, but I’m with Cid. The happiest I’ve ever seen him is when he’s talking to you. I get the feeling the same goes for you.”

I bite the inside of my lip, suppressing the smile that threatens to light up my face. Not the time. I nod, crossing my arms, “It does.”

“Good,” He smiles this warm, genuine smile before his serious sergeant demeanor returns, “Don’t let it get in the way of the job.”

“Copy that.” I give him a mock salute, to which his head drops with a tired laugh before his ears perk up. I raise my eyebrows in question as he turns his head in the direction of the parlor.

“Music’s stopped,” Hunter takes a step forward, extending an arm to pat my shoulder before retreating. “Get some rest.”

“Thanks, Hunter.” I give a little wave and watch as he retreats to the now quiet bar down the dimly lit street.

I begin my walk back to the ship, my mind still racing but not nearly as catastrophically quick as before my chat with Hunter. He’s probably still asleep, and I’m not planning on going back to the ship to wake him up and talk about this. My best bet would be to shoot him a message, ask if we could talk when he wakes up. Word travels too fast with these guys and the last thing I want is Wrecker bragging to his brothers about how he put his money on Tech and won. When I reach for my datapad I find the pocket is empty. Of course. I pick up the pace, almost frantically trying to recall whether or not I locked the device in my hasty departure. Odds aren’t looking great, though.

I take my boots off at the bottom of the ramp and tip-toe up in bare feet. Two out of the three men aboard are light sleepers and the last thing I want is to wake them as if I’m some teen sneaking back home after a party. Quiet as a mouse droid, I make my way back to my bunk as Wrecker’s snores reverberate through the durasteel walls. I’m greeted by my helmet, tossed haphazardly next to my pillow, but no datapad. Uh-oh. I glance into Echo’s bunk and find him sleeping, but the bunk above his, Tech’s bunk, remains empty. You’ve gotta be kriffing kidding me. Back to my tip-toes, I make my way to the kitchenette first, also empty, then the cockpit. The control panel is dimmed and all of the seats turned forward, if it weren’t for the tell-tale glow of a datapad screen I’d have thought Tech had simply vanished.

Without a word I join him, only releasing a quiet sigh as I sit in the copilot’s seat. He doesn’t look up from the datapad, its screen displaying the evidence of my discovery in bold text. “I didn’t intend to include such personal files.”

“Yeah, I didn’t intend to listen.” He nods before handing me my device, our gazes still not meeting. I take a turn staring at the display, rereading the title of the file over and over as I continue, “I fell asleep listening to ‘Repairs and Maintenance’, woke up to this one.”

“I, again, must sincerely apologize for any discomfort this finding has brought you, I was not planning to tell you in such an impersonal manner.”

“How did you…” I trail off, he was fast asleep when I left, I never pegged him for the type to pretend to be asleep and his quiet snores sounded so real.

“Echo woke me up, it was shortly after you had left. He said you appeared to be in a state of shock, I found you’d left your datapad open on your bunk.”

“That checks out.” Now that I’m here with him I can almost find the humor in the situation, I even manage a quiet laugh, “I’m sorry I flipped out, I just wasn’t expecting to wake up to that, I guess.”

He finally turns to face me, “You have nothing to apologize for.” “Neither do you,” I retort, meeting his gaze with a smile. I can almost see his thought process before his mouth forms an ‘o’ shape as he realizes the meaning behind my words. I continue, regardless, I heard him spill his guts, it’s only fair I do the same for him, “I feel the same way, Tech. I have for a while. Come to think of it, maybe I always have. Your feelings didn’t scare me, the possibilities did.”

He cocks his head in question, “Possibilities?”

“I’m scared of our dynamic changing, I’m scared I’ll kriff it all up and lose you. I’m no good at this kind of stuff and the last thing I want is for our relationship to suffer because of me,” I ignore the tears beginning to form in my eyes, turning my attention back to the viewport. Tech’s gaze, however, remains locked on me.

A hand reaches out, resting gently on mine, his thumb ghosting across my shaking fingers, “My darling, the fact that you are willing to voice these fears should be evidence enough that you have nothing to worry about. You contain a level of emotional intelligence that will never cease to amaze me. Should you choose to act upon these feelings, I assure you, we will be just fine.”

My eyes meet his, I don’t notice a tear has fallen until he reaches his hand up to wipe it away. When he notices how I lean into his touch, he cradles my cheek ever so gently, and I shut my eyes to savor the feeling, letting a warm smile wash away my worried frown. I rest a still-shaky hand upon his, opening my eyes to meet his once again, “What do you say we figure it out together, then?”

“A wonderful idea, darling,” Tech closes the small distance between us, placing a kiss upon my forehead. I can feel his smile. “However, I’ll need to review my files before you continue your experiment.”

I pull back, a look of faux shock on my face, too giddy to feel the real thing right now, “You mean there’s more?”

“Frankly, an embarrassing amount, perhaps we will review them someday but I’ve taken the liberty of deleting the more… risque files from your library.”

I’m glad the door to the cockpit is closed, otherwise the volume of my laugh surely would’ve woken both Echo and Wrecker, “Risque?!”

“I would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from mocking me,” Tech sighs, the mirth in his tone evident.

“Maybe that can be the next experiment,” I laugh with a smirk.

“Mocking me does not sound like an experiment I would have any interest in partaking in, thank you very–” His mild offense fades away in realization, “Oh. An interesting experiment, indeed.”

A/N: Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed! As always, comments and reblogs are greatly appreciated, I love hearing your feedback! Part two will be posted soon <3

#the bad batch x reader #tech x reader #tech x you #tech tbb #hunter tbb #echo tbb #the bad batch & reader #star wars x reader #reader insert

[shadelostwolf]

Paranormal AU - GhostRoachSoap

I’ve now got a new brain rot again oof. I really like the GhostRoachSoap ship and this is a Paranormal AU idea that I has been bouncing around for a few weeks. I’m already throwing it out that there is no MCD. But I have a Roach and a Soap version.

Roach version under the cut.

In the Roach version as a kid, he’s had this sixth sense for the unexplained. I’m running with the idea that Roach grew up with a grandparent that was in the occult, maybe a psychic or something. He also grew up in the states surrounded by ghost stories, maybe in Louisiana or in a southern state steeped in ghost stories. Anyways he’s always had a sense of it but couldn’t see anything. He’s used to the feeling by now, it helps him… sometimes. Gets him in trouble a lot more than normal but he’s gotten his call sign for a reason. He ends up getting invited to join 141 before remake canon events, only to end up in one of his death defying stunts and was placed on medical leave.

During the death defying stunt, he ends up hitting his head and maybe a broken arm. While on medical leave he starts to notice things are different. Seeing things not there and so on. He decides not to say anything worried about worrying his family. (They were still coming around on him joining the military and mostly because he was just accident prone as a child.) So he blatantly ignores that he can now see the dead existing. Almost causes a car accident when he saw the ghost of a squirrel run into the road while one of his family members was driving him to his doctor’s appointment. After that, he just avoids looking out the front of the car.

When he goes back after he gets cleared for active duty it’s a while after the canon events. But he ends up meeting Price first. He gets a tour of the base, the whole nine yards. Meets Gaz and hit it off, likes making new friends, will never pass on it. Gaz makes a comment about the sunglasses he wears inside. (Something he started to hide he’s seeing things that he doesn’t want to explain. Doesn’t want the dead to notice he can see them.) Uses the excuse that his last head injury made him sensitive to light. Says it’s temporary, but it’s not. Gaz just nods along and the topic is dropped. He’s glad no one asks any more about them and is curious as to why until he meets Ghost. And then it makes sense.

He’s heard about the man and the 141. He saw the news coverage in Chicago and wasn’t fooled by the news. Roach quickly surmised that the rumors didn’t give the men the justice they deserved. At least he had his own room and bathroom. It was at that moment he stopped and did a mental count before turning to Price to ask if there was someone missing from the group. His last captain had told him there were four men that he would be working with. At the look on Price’s face, he looked away and let the topic drop.

It didn’t take him long to get a feel for the routine of working alongside the others. That was until Roach started to notice the person tagging along with Ghost, catching glimpse of the man with the hawk. Roach just figured he was just another soldier from around the base that was brave enough to make friends with The Ghost. He didn’t blame the other soldier he liked the calm silence the larger man put off. Was a calming balm that helped when he just needed silence from all the noise from being able to hear both the living and the dead. Sometimes the noise was just too much.

But Roach just figured the soldier was just another soldier until Roach figured out he wasn’t. When he stepped onto the plane heading to his first mission with the task force in his full kit. Along with new tinted goggles and a gaiter mask (there is only so many times a person can handle eating dirt or sand when they fall face first into it multiple times) and a helmet that had a bug sticker slapped on the side someone placed there as a joke. Jokes on them he loved it. Roach was checking the pockets of his vest when he heard the snort of laughter. Looking up he noticed the man in a tee shirt and jeans sitting next to Ghost on the plane.

Roach almost said something sarcastic until he noticed the lack of gear on the man. He almost gave it away. He ignored the ghost following Ghost. Now that was an amusing thought. Until he realized that the ghost wasn’t haunting just Ghost, but he would also find him watching over the shoulders of Gaz and Price. He was just mostly at Ghost’s side.

Finds out the spirit is Soap. Que shenanigans and Roach falling for Soap and then Ghost while Roach tries to fix Soap being stuck outside his body.

After that Soap and Roach get to know each other. He finds out about what happened, or what Soap could remember before and after he became stuck. Roach figures if they could find Soap’s body they could try and fix the problem.

Roach get’s closer to Soap. Ignores the warning signs of his developing feelings. Finds out more about the team through Soap. He quickly finds out when Soap was talking about Ghost that Soap’s feelings may be more than platonic towards the other man.

At this time Roach starts poking around asking in roundabout ways about Soap. Ends up drawing the attention of one spooky namesake. Que Roach trying to pull off an olympic worth of bending the truth as he hides what he’s up to from Ghost. Around that point, Soap mentions checking his room for his personal files. That he could probably access his files using his laptop in his room. Maybe the hospital he’s in was mentioned in his files.

That’s how Roach found himself crouched in front of Soap’s room picking the lock. And caught by the one person he was trying to avoid when asking about Soap. He was lucky he had the forethought to slide his phone under the door as an excuse. But not only did he have Ghost’s attention on him, he now had Price’s attention.

He was already getting weird looks when he gets caught talking to Soap in an empty room.

Roach’s abilities get found out by Ghost during an op. An old factory that was filled with way too many spirits. He could hear them screaming or talking before they even spotted the building in the thick forest. While in the building with Ghost, one of the spirits became bold enough to try and shove him. He falls and so does Ghost trying to catch him. Soap somehow disappears trying to keep it from happening.

The two of them are trapped somewhere. Where Ghost confronts him about what’s going on.

It takes Ghost a while to believe Roach, but then weird things start to happen. Then they start working together to figure out what happened to get Soap stuck the way he is.

(I might expand on this but only here. Unless it takes off then I might move it somewhere else. I’ll post the Soap version after I have it figured out.)

#ghostroachsoap #ghostsoaproach #call of duty mwii #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #gary roach sanderson #ghostroach #soaproach

[tableintheteacherslounge]

Abbott Elementary S03E08 thoughts

Melissa schemmenti angry slut

THIS COLD OPEN I WAS CRYINGGGG

Barb’s protective goggles

“We gonna be down about $700

The squeeze my cheeks kid

Every one getting hit in the damn face

Ava pushing gregory

Greg vs tariq 🥵

Barb shooting in the wrong basket then saying “i’m carrying this team”

Gregory flipping the table

Just PERFECTION

“Why dont u look better” ava really says what i wanna say to people

What IS up with melissa to be snappy, always on her phone, hookups, staying out late

Heyyy manny 🤭 he’s foine I’m SORRY

But if Janine’s meant to be in once a week whys she not seen her abbott friends - not her and jacob not seeing each other 😓

“Girl was there a fire?” See this delivery is why slr has an emmy

Ok I KNEW melissa would hookup with burt hummel. I cant deny the chemistry and at least he’s a better actor than g*ry, but lets keep it casual yeah?

RICHARD TYLER WILLIAMS 💀

The delivery on “interesting 😀”

Tariq hosting the panel?!? I love that for us

Badass janine get it girl! She is ON IT

Not ava and crystal speaking over each other 😭

“I don’t think this is on 🎤 “ “IT IS” ijbol 💀😭

Barb is stroppy and sad ☹️ but why wouldn’t melissa trust her! I get it! But also it’s casual so maybe I get not saying anything too! But barb is so sad (jealous) that melissa didn’t tell her (jealous)

CASUAL GHOST

No bc whys that ur face after ur friend tells u its just sex BARB? I get being upset at not being told but why are u upset its just sex … unless… jealousy

Why arent they clapping abbott 🙁

Why is tariq scoring 😭😭

“Give it some razzle For the love of god gregory give it some dazzle”

Janine just caring about the gossip she’s me

Friend of over 15 years!!! I appreciate the work wives lore but that is literally inaccurate I’m sorry

“Since your lips already touched” GASP (also br*no could never deliver a line like that I’m just saying)

The workwives having a marital spat while ppl are just trying to get their certifications

Is it different? Mmm lowkey bc melissa should know what’s going on in her house but also she can acknowledge that actually barb was validly upset but we know Melissa is stubborn sooo

On her roof? Ew! I dont need to know honestly

Janine not reading Jacob’s text 😖

MANNY CALLING JANINE BIG TEAGUES TEEHEEE 🤭 KICKING FEET TWIRLING HAIR

Gregory sit down 😭 honestly that speech alone could give tyler an emmy nom

MR BOHNSON FROM BABBOTT BELEMENTARY HELP

“You talked to me about gary” aww 🥺☹️

“Because that was a real relationship that YOU approved of” ok poignant emphasis on you - Barbara’s opinion is so important to her 🥺 that’s her number 1

“Awwwmygod congrats” “thank you baby”

Melissa’s true apology 🥺

MELISSA DRAGGING BARB CLOSER TO HER EVEN THO BARB WAS STILL MAD i feel like that was lisa and sheryl

“Look how coy this boy is” jacob always gets great ppl as love interests bc first zach and now i love this guy too “i even showed captain robinson” aw 🙁

Janine aced it! Quintas physical comedy is soo good

Wait is mr j wearing a jacket over his uniform 😭

Cancelling on the fireman for barb 🥺

I fear burt hummel doesn’t want it as casual as mel

“Ok did he just make me fall in love with him” 😭

BI AVA BI AVA!! Wbk but BI AVA (but yk im a hardcore barlissa truther so shipping them w ava makes me gag)

MR JOHNSON PANEL beep beep beep that to my face!!!

Wish they ended on barlissa at the bar tho :(

Ok overall I honestly didnt love that ep at first

And the big reason is i didnt think the panel needed so much and i wanted barlissa to have more

Their conflict didn’t feel as real and earnest as other examples

It got wrapped up surprisingly quickly - they fell out more over safety scissors and ‘yous’

And I’d’ve liked them to share a vulnerable moment away fro everyone else.

It just felt eh

Also being away from school felt weird too

Based on teaser clips i thought it could be a lisa emmy consideration ep but no - could be for tyler though

Barbara’s jealousy is v v interesting tho 👀

After a few days I like it more

I still feel a bit confused tho

OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO MENTION KEEGAN MICHAEL KEY HELLO??!?? What a guest actor to get oh my god

#abbott elementary #abbott elementary season 3 #abbott elementary s3 #abbott elementary thoughts

[social-mockingbird]

keldabe kisses are the windows to the soul (pt. 3)

(tech x reader)

pt. 1 here!  pt. 2 here!

i rewatched the last three episodes of tbb season two with my friend since she was catching up on it and now i am sad. at least i found meme videos to numb my pain and got to study how tech reacts to flirting some more! hopefully this does him justice, i really tried to get how he would react in a romantic situation and Did My Best Because I Love Him. also reader continues to be a dork because i am. 

author’s rec: frog by cavetown because it’s adorable. 

________

You were never going to get the sand out of your shoes. 

Cid’s last mission had sent you to Jakku, a simple supply retrieval that had ended in a five-hour trek through the desert, since she’d failed to mention her contact was a hermit and lived in a tiny house way out in the dunes. There had been wind chimes all over the house, scraps of metal and glass and hollowed out pipes, so in the end, it had been a little bit magical. But now you were back on the ship, crusted over with sand, and Echo, bless him, was taking forever in the refresher. 

“He doesn’t even have hair to wash,” you complained under your breath, instantly feeling bad once the words left your mouth. Maybe all of his robot parts made it hard to clean up quickly, especially if they had sand lodged in them. You were blessed to be fully intact. And it usually took this long, right?

Then the door to the ‘fresher finally opened, and Echo came out smelling like higher-end lotion and cleanser and soap, and you recalled that Echo was very…fastidious about his appearance when he had the resources and time. 

“Your turn,” he said, and you were already closing the door to the tiny room before he’d finished talking. The industrial lighting was surprisingly comforting, and the water was cool on your hot skin as you washed the layers of sand off. 

“Hey, do you want me to take your clothes?” Omega called through the door. “We’re going to shake them off outside.” 

“Um–I’ll bring them out when I’m done!” 

You were worried the treasure hidden deep in your pants pocket would be discovered before you wanted it to be. At the hermit’s house, there had been a rough crystal of amber about the size of your hand sitting on top of the tiny crowded table in her kitchen. A night-beetle hung suspended in the middle of it, blue wings a rich brown through the orange of the amber. The hermit had seen you eyeing it and tossed it to you without a word. 

Night-beetles were Tech’s favorite. The last time you saw one, he’d told you facts about them for an hour straight, barely pausing to breathe. You were pretty sure the rest of the Batch wouldn’t remember that Tech liked them so much, so you were at low risk of being found out, but you were too worried about it to let your guard down. Thankfully, it fit snugly inside the pocket of your clean vest, and you were able to take it out of the refresher with no real concern. 

Now, how to get it to him without making a scene? 

Unfortunately, Tech was rarely alone. There really wasn’t such a thing as alone time on the Marauder, but especially not for Tech, since he was in charge of every little technical difficulty and listened the longest to Omega’s eager questions.

So should you put it on his desk? Would he even see it? Would he ask where it came from in front of everyone? 

And if you gave it to him directly, would you even be able to do it with a straight face? 

You hadn’t even noticed yourself pacing until someone tapped you. 

“Are you all right?” Tech asked, one hand hovering, unsure, above your shoulder. He wasn’t wearing his helmet and he must have just cleaned his goggles because his eyes were shining in the evening light seeping through the cockpit windows. 

“Yes, I–well–I was just–” 

Any half-formed plans you had exploded into sand. You shoved the rock into Tech’s hands, trying not to focus on the way they instantly closed around it. 

“Got you a rock.”

“I…can see that,” he said slowly. When he held it up to the light, the beetle’s wings glimmered, and he actually gasped a little. You had never heard him make a sound like that before. 

“A night-beetle. How extraordinary.” 

“I know you like them, and Cid’s contact just gave it to me and I figured you’d like it more than I would, so I just wanted to–” stop talking, stop talking–

“This is a very thoughtful gift,” he said softly, and ducked a little to meet your eyes. He wasn’t usually one for direct eye contact, and it startled you.  “You remembered what I like. Thank you.” 

Warmth blossomed in your tummy and you grinned. “I’m glad you like it.” 

When you next saw him, he was sitting at his desk, holding the amber at eye level, watching the blue computer light dance through the facets and bounce off the beetle’s wings. 

The amber was almost the same color as his eyes. 

____

You should have been in your bunk sleeping.

However, so should Tech, and neither of you were headed that direction anytime soon. During today’s supply run, a kicked-up rock from a speeder had cracked Tech’s goggles and caused Echo to use some curse words you’d never even heard of as the speeder drove off. You’d volunteered to change out Tech’s lenses and he’d had some work to do anyway. So here you were, mugs of instant tea cooling beside you, piddling away in companionable silence. Truth be told, you’d fixed the lenses about five minutes ago and you were pretending to tinker so you could spend more time with Tech. You hoped he hadn’t noticed, but his hands had been suspiciously still for a while too. 

“Um. Tech.” 

 “Yes?” 

You turned to look at him, revealing the goggles perched on your nose. They were smudged on the left lens where your finger had slipped and the prescription pulled a bit painfully at your right eye. But you blinked, meeting his eyes, sure you looked like a fish. 

“How do I look?�� You pasted a stupid grin on your face to hide how nervous you were. 

Tech’s chair creaked as he shifted to face you fully. He stared and stared, narrowing his eyes, leaning into your space. You could smell the regulation soap on his skin again, citrusy and clean, and whatever that nice warm undertone was that was always there. His forehead was nearly against yours. 

Why was he so close surely he didn’t need to be, oh no he’s really really close—

“I…well. I honestly have no idea.” 

… 

Right. 

You couldn’t even bring yourself to be embarrassed. You’d been trying to do something cute, be a romantic, get him to stare at you, and you’d forgotten he needed his glasses to see. 

A laugh burst from your chest, so sudden you covered your mouth. Wrecker’s snores in the back startled and stuttered. 

Tech tilted his head. “What’s so funny?” 

You slipped the goggles off your head, still giggling, and wiped away the smudges before settling them back into his hands. “Nothing. Tell me if they work.” 

“All right,” he said, putting the goggles back on. He blinked at you. “Oh.” 

“What? Did I do it right?” 

 “This was done quite well. I can see you much better now. Thank you for cleaning them.” Picking up his datapad, he powered it back on. “You have nice eyes.” 

“What.” 

“Nice eyes,” he repeated patiently. “I can see them better with my goggles on.” 

This definitely wasn’t happening?

“Thank you,” you murmured. “So do you.” 

“I would imagine my eyes are indistinguishable from the rest of us, since we all possess the same genes.” 

Now, hang on.

“But—they aren’t the same. Not at all.” You can’t stop yourself now. “Your eyes are so much more golden than, say, Wrecker’s, and lighter than Omega’s. They’ve also got this nice amber undertone and they’re a little bigger too. Really. They look totally different.” 

He blinked at you. “Well. Thank you. I’m…surprised you noticed.” 

“I used to know a lot more of you,” you said softly, unsure what to do with your hands. You let them twist and flutter. “I loved finding the differences in everyone’s eyes. I loved seeing the little things that made you all unique. I still notice. Even though there’s less of you.” 

Tech’s chair creaked in your direction. His hands, long and gentle, hovered above yours, not touching, but close enough to be warm. 

“I don’t mean to doubt your skills of observation,” he said softly. “I apologize if that is how it came across. I only meant that it is surprising, to me, to find someone who cares enough to notice.”

“Oh.” You fidgeted. “Thanks. Um. I hope it’s not..well, even if it’s nice, I don’t want to come on strong by saying those things to you, because I don’t want it to come across wrong, and–I don’t want you to think that–”

“You are worried about appearing as though you have…romantic feelings for me?” Tech asked.  His voice was so much quieter than it had been. 

“No! No, that’s not–I wouldn’t mind that at all, please don’t hear me saying that, Maker, no, I just–if you don’t feel the same way I would hate for you to feel obligated–”

“You aren’t finishing any of your sentences.” Tech’s facial expression hadn’t changed, but there was a different light in his eyes. 

“I know.” You buried your head in your hands. The silence stretched on for so long you had time to think through every way you could have offended him or said the wrong thing. But when you gathered yourself and looked up, the first thing you noticed was that Tech had moved closer to you, knees almost touching yours. Both of his legs were bouncing nervously. His hands were still hovering in your space, but now they were above your shoulders. 

“Tech, are you okay?” 

“I–I don’t know how to do this.” 

“Do what?” 

“I am not well versed in–in physical affection.” 

Oh. 

“Tech, hang on–don’t force yourself to do something you aren’t comfortable with.” You almost reached up to grab his wrists, but backed away. “Is–physical affection something you want to do?” 

“Yes.” He said it so quietly, and with so much serious intention, that you felt your stomach bottom out a little. 

“Well–I could always–here–” 

Gently, moving slowly so that he could see what you were doing, you scooted closer to him so that your knees were touching, and took his hands in yours, lowering them from your shoulders to your lap, running your thumbs, feather-light, across his knuckles. Tech was looking down at your hands, unable to make eye contact. You could see the reflection of his eyes darting around in his goggles. 

“Is this okay?” 

Instead of saying anything, Tech tipped forward, resting his forehead gently on yours. You could barely breathe. 

 The bouncing in his legs slowed, then stopped. He sighed. 

“This is okay.” 

You really wished you could see his eyes. But you were willing to sit as long as it took, holding his hands, foreheads together, the sweetest kiss. 

“Tech.”

“Mmm.” 

“Can I–try something else?” 

His eyes flicked up to you. “Yes.” 

You hoped your fingers weren’t shaking as you raised one of his hands to your lips and pressed the softest kiss to the back of it. Tech’s shoulders went up, surprised, and you dipped down to meet his eyes, see if it was okay. He nodded at you, and you pressed another kiss to his knuckles, then to the back of his other hand. You felt his fingers flex in yours. His eyes were shining. 

“Can I try something else?” 

“Please.”

You turned his hands over and kissed the inside of his wrists, one after the other. Tech was leaning into your space, utterly still. You reached up to cup his face in your hands. 

Up close, Tech had a nice golden undertone to his skin that was hard to see in the glare of the datapad he always had his nose pressed against. There was the tiniest freckle hidden under the lashes on his left eye, and another one just above his right eyebrow. His skin was a little rough and there were tiny scars from shrapnel and firefights. You wanted to kiss the tiny furrow between his eyebrows, run your fingers along the lines of his face. There was a pretty curve to his lips and if you weren’t mistaken, tiny tiny laugh lines right by his nose. You weren’t sure you’d seen him really laugh yet. You wondered if it was a loud laugh, if he went silent and wheezed, if he was a giggler or a cackler or merely scrunched his nose in amusement. 

“Tech,” you breathed. “Mesh’la.”

He blinked at the compliment. “You…know Mando’a?”

“A little.” 

He nodded, slowly. It was really cute, his head bobbing up and down in your cupped hands. Then his hands were on the bottom of your chair, pulling it into his space. It threw off your balance a little and you moved a hand down to his shoulder to catch yourself. He tilted his head, nose nearly brushing against yours. He wasn’t making eye contact, not quite, but his eyes were on your face, taking his time, memorizing your features as you’d done with him. 

“Mesh’la,” he repeated. Beautiful. 

Then he pressed the softest kiss to your mouth. It was a little awkward, quick; he was still nervous. You could feel him shaking a little. But his bravery gave you enough incentive to press into him, kissing him again, giggling when he sighed against you. You felt his nervousness start to fade after a while, as his hands came to rest ever-so-softly on your waist, as you brushed your thumbs across his cheekbones, skimming the band of his goggles. Tech was a sweet kisser and had an inadvertent smoothness to him that caught you off guard, circling his thumbs against your sides in a way that had you feeling a little lightheaded, mouth so gentle you had trouble thinking. 

Tech grabbed your wrists when he broke for air, keeping your hands on the sides of his face. You grinned, then tapped the sides of his goggles, asking for silent permission. When he gave it, you slid them off his head, giving you a full view of his eyes. They were darker than usual and unfocused, amber dipped in honey, tinted a little blue from the light of the computers. He blinked, squinting a little. 

“I love your eyes, Tech,” you said. “Really, cyar’ika. They are the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up in the cutest smile. He pressed his forehead to yours again, reveling in the feel of your hands on his bare face, in being with you. 

When Wrecker came yawning out of his bunk hours later, he would wake the two of you up with a roar of excitement, unable to control his explosive, contagious happiness at seeing the two of you leaning on one another, heads together, fast asleep. Tech’s goggles lay in your relaxed hands. 

Nobody minded the change. 

yo bro who got you smilin’ like that--

#the bad batch tech #tech the bad batch #the bad batch #tbb #tech tbb #vera writes #hopefully this all feels in character for him #tech is adorable #your honor i love him #thank you for reading my lil miniseries i hope you enjoyed it! #fluff #kissing

[myfairkatiecat]

Katie, this Ask is going to be much less organized, so I'm very sorry. If you think I've forgotten something, don't hesitate to correct me. I believe the Ask for Bod's game was"

🥰/😂/😭/❓ And then 🤩 for Merlin because you said you're getting back into that!

😔/😍 And 📖 for "Rewriting Destiny", since I'm still working my way through it

I hope this one works out, and I hope you are doing well, my friend!! Happy Penultimate day of being the year you are <3 <3 <3

Thank you so much for resending this! *glares at tumblr* this app sometimes. Removing people’s blogs, deleting random drafts…

Anyway *ahem* thank you for the ask!

—

🥰 a fluff WIP snippet

So. I don’t write enough fluff 😅, so I literally searched “TMBS” in my google docs and scanned through old fics and I found this thing I wrote when I was 12 about the books, and it’s surprisingly cute for something I wrote when I was twelve. (Warning: if you want to wear gen-goggles, the opposite of shipping-goggles, go ahead, because little Katie was a HUGE Kaynie shipper.) The characters are 17-18 bc little Katie felt so mature writing older teenagers.

Fun fact: little Katie googled common college application questions to write this fic. And now present Katie is literally answering that exact question for a college application. Time flies 😂

Here’s a snippet!

—

“Miss Perumal said you’ve been up here all day,” Kate said in the doorway.

Reynie looked up when he heard her voice. “Oh! Yeah. That’s because I’m working on my applications. It’s quiet up here.”

“Oh, I get that,” Kate said, making her way over to his desk. “But… all day?”

“I have to submit them soon if I want to be considered for scholarships!”

“‘Soon’ being November. Which is two months away.” Kate crossed her arms. “You need to relax! It would be good for you.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Reynie sighed in defeat. “I’m not getting anywhere with this anyway. I can’t figure out how to word anything.”

“You have to be kidding!” Kate exclaimed. “You write more eloquently than anyone I know. Your letters are far more interesting than some classics I’ve read.”

“Then you must not have been reading the right classics,” Reynie said with a self deprecating laugh. “Or you just like me better than you like Charles Dickens.”

Kate laughed melodiously. “I do like you better than I like him,” she admitted. “But then again, there’s not many people I like more than you.”

Something about Kate’s smile made Reynie’s cheeks heat up, and he coughed. “That’s… high praise. Especially for someone who can’t figure out what to write about how I ‘contribute’ to society? I don’t have any good contributions.”

Kate blinked. “Are you serious?”

—

Let me know if you think I should post the whole version. I know this fandom is very gen focused and that fic is very shippy, and also written by a middle schooler, even if that middle schooler was me 😅😅

😂 a funny or crack WIP snippet

—

“This is what people in the future consider entertainment?”

“It makes me want to vomit,” Constance agreed, having very conflicting feelings about agreeing with Curtain on something.

“Specifically all the pink.” Curtain shuddered.

Constance gasped, affronted. “Take that back.”

Curtain looked over at her, momentarily surprised, before glancing at her outfit, which was in fact a very similar color scheme as the one this “Barbie” character preferred. “No, I don’t think I will.”

Constance narrows her eyes. “Yes, you will.”

Curtain held his ground, crossing his arms and saying, in true four year old fashion, “Or what?”

—

I put my best angst one on bods’ ask, so check that out for angsty content!! So now onto…

🤩 a WIP snippet about or with dialogue from [Merlin]

So Sophie, I just want to say, I am SO HONORED that despite the fact that you aren’t even in the fandom, you actually like to read my writing for it 🥹🥹

My best Merlin dialogue is actually already published, so I’m bending the rules a little here!

—

“...Arthur,” he whispered. “You know that I have called you the Once and Future King. That means… more than you realize. More than you possibly can realize. You truly are destined to be the greatest king this land has ever known,” he said quietly, the words Merlin had said so many times before taking on a new meaning. “It has been prophesied. You are the fulfillment of that prophecy.

“But there is another piece. The Once and Future King can not achieve this alone… he needs his other half. The other side of the coin. The greatest and most powerful sorcerer to ever live, who will walk beside the king as his protector. The druids call him Emrys.” Merlin took a deep breath. “But I prefer the name Merlin.”

Silence fell, even nature entirely still as though it sensed the gravity of this revelation. “I’m sorry,” Arthur choked out, “did I just hear you refer to yourself as the ‘greatest and most powerful sorcerer to ever live?’”

—

Had to include Arthur’s reaction! It’s from my fic “you wouldn’t know a good liar if you saw one (that is, after all, the point)” (hyperlinks are FAILING ME)

And now for the ones MEANT for published works!

😔 published lines or section of a fic that was super sad, angsty or difficult to write?

Mhm. This is from a fic I wrote for a prompt from @mvshortcut’s ask game a while back, for @nobody33333333!!!

—

“Who hurt you, Nathaniel, so that you would isolate yourself like this? Turn your back on the entire world, caring about it only to control it?” Nicholas said, so quietly it could have been a whisper, but here in this blindingly white room it echoed so loudly it could have been spoken into a microphone.

“I make my own choices, Nicky,” and oh he wishes he could reach out into the air and take the nickname back like it was something tangible, but he knew he couldn’t. He blamed Nicholas for calling him by his old name, calling him Nathaniel, a reminder of the child he once had been and had finally and gloriously escaped being.

“I know you do, Nathaniel, but I knew you. You made me presents on my birthday, and caught me whenever I had narcoleptic episodes and quietly punished the kid who knocked me out on Easter a few springs before we were separated and I look at you now and I know that someone else had to have done something because you didn’t get here on your own!”

—

From “dont you ever wonder if I’m ok (after all you put me through)”!!!

😍 published lines or a section of a fic that you loved writing?

YES YES YES so I loved writing “SQ Comes Home” and this was my favorite part to write!!!

—

“Now aren’t you glad I didn’t let you drive,” Rhonda was saying.

“If you hadn’t been there, none of this would have happened.”

“It sounds like none of this would have happened if you didn’t try to brainwash the world,” the boy muttered.

Rhonda and Nathaniel both turned to him in stunned silence. “I like you,” Rhonda said eventually, a smirk on her face.

“Oh. Sorry.”

���No, don’t apologize, it was very sassy and I loved it.”

“I didn’t,” Nathaniel muttered.

“Sorry,” he said again.

“Besides, even if you managed to avoid mentioning your villainous schemes, at some point you were going to have to tell your son you had narcolepsy,” Rhonda said to Nathaniel.

Your son.

Your son.

Your son.

SON?????

—

And finally!

📖 a published snippet from [rewriting destiny]

Again, I CANNOT BELIEVE you like my writing so much that you care about my fics from fandoms you aren’t even in??? Star Wars AND Merlin! Do you know how happy that makes me?? IMMENSELY happy. I love you so much Sophie!!!

I didn’t want to spoil major plot points that are specific to the fic, so even though this is a major moment it’s the one thing you can always count on happening in ALL of my Merlin fics at some point or other: a magic reveal!

—

“Ic þé wiþdrífe!” Anakin heard Merlin’s voice shout, and Ahsoka suddenly lost her balance before flying into a wall. Anakin looked up to see the golden glow still fading from Merlin’s eyes as he ran over to him. “Are you alright?’

“I’m fine,” Anakin said as he moved to his feet. He retrieved his lightsaber from where it laid on the ground a few feet away.

“I’m not going to lie, that was kind of epic,” Merlin said, almost apologetically. “I’ve just never seen you actually fight with your… your light-saber before.”

Anakin smiled. “It’s okay. I just…” he looked over at Ahsoka. “I wish it hadn’t been necessary,” he said softly.

Pity was in Merlin’s eyes. “I’m so sorry, Anakin,” he said quietly, pulling him into a hug.

“Thank you for using your magic,” Anakin said gratefully. “You saved me from getting killed by my own apprentice.”

A loud voice cleared his throat. Anakin and Merlin both turned to see the cause of the interruption - the distraction that had given Ahsoka an advantage. The people who had burst into the room.

“You,” Arthur declared, pointing at Merlin, “and you,” he added, his finger shifting over to point at Anakin, “have a whole hell of a lot of explaining to do.”

—

Thank you so so much for the ask, and then for sending it AGAIN when tumblr made my life difficult. You’re the best!!!

#long post #ask game #tmbs #the mysterious benedict society #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #wip snippet #fic snippet

[quinloki]

How about 22 for the self-ship prompts, for the ship of your choice? 💙

22 is: Write about a member of your ship giving the other a special gift.

I have a few ideas, I might do them all in short form (warnings for angst, canon compliance, AU, sappy shit idk what all I’ll do xD - sfw though!)

Gifting Eustass Kid

I put the last few finishing touches on the scrapbook and made a face. It was the best gift you had been able to come up with for Kid, but maybe it too personal.

Getting my hands on a snail that took pictures had been a trial and a half. Pretending to take up photography just to disguise my plans hadn’t been nearly as bad, and as a side effect I’d gotten pretty good at snapping pictures. Even managed to soften the flash so I could take day time images sneakily.

I’m the end I had a scrap book of photos from the last year. Celebrations, conquests, and even a few somber moments had been caught on film. Accented and documented with dates and quotes, and the best doodles I could manage.

It was personal. Intimate on a level I wasn’t sure was okay, but at this point I had put my whole ass soul into it, I might as well deliver it.

Wrapping it some cloth and tying it up I went in search of the Captain. Luck was on my side, at least with the delivery, since Kid was alone in his workshop.

I knocked and heard the customary grunt that wasn’t the noise he usually makes when he prefers to be left alone. Stepping in I hang by the door for a moment until Kid waves me over.

“What’s up?” He asks. “And stay back, I’m welding.”

“I brought you a gift.” I say, trying not to sound nervous. “A birthday gift.”

I can sense the change in his body language, but he keeps welding.

“Let me finish this.”

“Of course.”

It only takes him a minute to finish and he sets the torch up after turning it off and turns toward me. Lifting his goggles up I get to see the cheeky smile and the glint in his eyes.

“Well, you’re not wearing it this year.” He muses looking over me before settling on the package in my hands. “That it?”

“Yeah.” I hand it over and take a step back. I haven’t felt nervous around Kid in a couple years, but this is different than our usual little dance. It’s not like we weren’t intimate emotionally, but even then it had been in the small hours of the day.

He unties it and unwraps it. There’s a small twitch across his brow, but I can’t tell if it’s disappointment or confusion. The cover was leather with inlaid words. I couldn’t do it myself, but Wire was really good at it and he helped.

House was good at book binding, and Hop had helped me make the paper. Heat made the ink for me, and well, by the end of it almost the entire crew had helped, even if it was just distracting Kid before he caught me working on it over the last year.

His eyes never leave it as he slowly turns each page. I’ve only ever seen him so focused on his gadgets like that before.

“It’s… I … er, kind of sap-.”

“You made this?”

“The… the crew helped. I don’t know how to tan leather, or bind books or make paper and ink, but I took the pictures and such.”

“But you made it.” He asserts. “Decided on all the images and words, told everyone else what to do?”

“Y-yeah, that’s fair to say.”

“For me.”

I almost laugh. “I ain’t doing all that for anyone else, so yeah.”

“… Fuck.” Kid almost chokes on the word, and before I can ask him what’s wrong he’s set the gift aside and hauls me into a hug.

“Haaa… I was worried it wasn’t going to be well received.” I admit, feeling my face heat up.

Kid holds me in place easily, and I return the hug as best I can. I don’t know if he’s crying or blushing or what, but I know that at least half the reason he’s hugging me is to hide his face. Part of me wants to tease him, but this doesn’t seem like the time for it.

“… Happy birthday, Captain.”

Gifting Sir Crocodile - warning there’s some post Wano spoilers, so proceed at your own risk.

“What’s this?” He raises one eyebrow, regarding the humbly wrapped box I had set in front of him with some akin to disdain.

“A gift.” I answer with a smile. He’s not truly put off, I can tell, especially after all this time.

“I explicitly stated I had no desire to celebrate my birthday.” He’s trying to look irritated but I can see the smile tugging at his lips.

“This is hardly a celebration.” I insist, coming around to his side of the desk, leaning on the arm rest of the chair and giving him a smile. “I could just tell Buggy today is your birthday. I’m sure someone as flashy as him-.”

“Point made.” He grumbles, true displeasure on his face for a moment before he sighs. “Very well, I accept.”

I smile as sweetly as I can. “Well, don’t keep me waiting, open it.”

“Demanding for such a small thing.” He teases, reaching out for the package, and opening it. An emotion flickers across his face, and it’s confusion more than anything else. “My dear, it’s beautiful, but I have several cigar humidors.”

The oak box had a cherry wood finish on the outside, decorated in bananawanis and quill feathers. White and yellow gold filigree decorated it, and dark crimson, nearly black stain had the phrase “Desert Flower” on the top. Against the cherry wood stain it was almost impossible to read.

“It’s not for cigars.” I explain with a smile. “Open it up.”

When he lifts the lid it reveals a velvet lined interior, and a strong smoky scent wafts up into the air. It’s filled with tea leaves.

“It’s a tea box. It’s designed to be mostly air tight, hence the lining. And the oak doesn’t have a strong scent, especially dried, so it doesn’t interfere with the tea’s scent. It’ll absorb them though, so as you come to enjoy more types of tea we’ll have to get you more.” I explain.

“But this is the first one you enjoyed.” I grin. “I think this is the tea that saved my life.”

“… You’re not entirely wrong, desert flower.” He admits. The expression on his face is much softer, and his arm sneaks around my waist as he pulls me in, stealing a kiss that tastes like his cigars.

At this point, it’s a flavor and scent I quite love.

“Thank you.” He says softly.

At that moment the doors burst open and Buggy walks in with a massive cake and an unamused Mihawk with him.

“You didn’t tell us it was your birthday!” Buggy huffs, pushing the cart into the room. “I can’t plan a proper celebration when I find out on the day of it!”

Crocodile growls and looks at me.

“This is not my fault.” I assert.

#one piece fanfiction #self ship #quin answers #sir crocodile #Eustass Kid #sappy and sweet

[quinntamsin]

If you like my stuff support me on Patreon, and see stuff early!

Kwyn zips through the atmosphere of Lothal, her HUD scanning for remnants of the Jedi Temple. Only the remaining signs of dead stormtroopers and more litter the entrance.

Obi-Wan Part 2

, Ben has recovered his saber and has caught a transport to locate Princess Leia, aka Little Leia. We open with the ship of Diyu, the massive ecumenopolis where Leia has been taken. Much like a mix of Corellia from Solo and a dirtier Coruscant above, it has it's own feel. What I do really like about this particular scene is that bleeds with a few elements of conurbations in the real world. Bits of Shanghai, Toronto and even Seattle are playing out before my eyes. THey established a nice sense of underworld using open gambling and I beleive we also see REx seeking donations.

I'm pretty sure its rex by his Blue and White armor markings. Hell, the Imperials barely patrol this city except some small teams. The Spice Dealer was especially interesting, almost appears Happan, but the scales near their ears make me think otherwise.

Hmm, the open grill of street food in the back is a nice athmospheric touch. Jayco, who is the "False Jedi's plant to lure in customers does a pretty good job faking it all. Using magnets to fake a telekinetic pull, Haffa is a good addition to the denizens of the underworld. I wonder how much work Ewan has to do to affect that Coruscanti accent. Jafee plays a pretty good of fake Jedi, but no real Knight. Ben pulls apart his con quickly and gets pointed to a strange an established of spice makers.

The entire scene has a pretty simplified breaking bad feel, and them wearing modified scuba goggles is pretty funny. Seeing all of the particle effect aliens is also great. It gives us a greater sense of groundedness which was lost in the prequels and some of the sequels. Ben gets steamrolled by the gang, who pulls him into a trap with a doll. He ends up using the "free Spice" to get away and finds the real Leia.

Reva meanwhile has come to gain her prize. Now, I want to divulge some thoughts on Moses Ingram. People have disparaged her acting in this series and I'm comparing her to Sith characters from Six Sister to Bastila. She has menace, and she's savage. This all makes sense since we know from Jedi Fallen Order that former Jedi are literally FUCKING tortured to turn to the Dark Side. It makes sense that she is that ferocious. I will say she does seem a bit wooden, but I think this is twofold.

First the Grand Inquisitor as shown lacks the panache of the one from Rebels, he's okay, but I prefer Reva. This ends up with our Sith characters seeming far less restrained as I guess people expect. I think most of the whining fans are either too use to the mouthy Sith and never paid attention to fucking Ventress or Savage. Or hell mother fucking Dahtomiri witches.

Yeah, fuck those folks Reva is a good character and it wasn't until THIS episode I saw some dissonance between how she's acted and how I feel she was directed. Moses is a good actor, in this case, I think there was some issues maybe with how things were filmed or how they decided to direct specific scenes.

BACK ON TOPIC! Our show off between Reva and the Inquisitor is what I expect from Dark Jedi. A bunch of shitty posers.

Leia grabbing random shit and trying to touch stuff in the market bazaar really reminds me of my niece. The baby who has to shove everything in her mouth. Except this is a kid who just wants to check out the world around her. Ben's TRYING to keep a handle on their cover, but Leia knows fucking best. This is HOW kids act. The writing for Little Leia who basically goes around demanding the Jedi float her is, the best.

Who the hell is playing Fifth Brother? Sung Kang, fuck, he's way more creepy than he was in Rebels. Definitely gets that silent malace of a brute he's suppose to be. Switching back to our heroes Ben talks to Leia who appears to be warming up to him. And, shit, it goes south Leia does the smart thing and questions shit before running away. Yes, honestly Bail should have considered teaching Leia a way to identify safe people. I think hindsight is forthought, but it would have made sense if she knew a password among bodyguards that Ben could know as well.

Heh, the Bazaars live food section is nice, and the various Inquisitors are all the proper dire threats. Fifth Brother is toting out his Troopers as Fourth Sister is deciding to go alone. Leia is still running as we get a shoot out above the tops of Daiyu city. Our local Haffa pops up and watches the whole thing just as Inquisitors bgein to close in. Leia jumps and rops and floats. Fuck sakes, time for Ben to evolve and stop letting his past hold him back.

She is saved, of course, but Ben has obviously lacked practice and it pains him to grab her. The various people around see it happen, and you can see they are surprised. ONLY Inquisitors use the force, and seeing someone do it to save a little girl would be a fucking cryptid level event. Ben tells Leia a bit about our recent Dark Jedi and Haffa shoots out the last of the Bounty Hunters. Haffa passes an item (a sort of redge bad or token) and he walks away to play Anime Hero who holds the line.

Heh, Grand Inquisitor goes all spinny blade on the poor gang leader and Reva is using her parkour powers. Do love how they appear to be relying more and more on real life effects and stunts. It's giving this serious that nice grounded feel without the sketchy VFX we see in some series. Reva tossing Haja against the wall has a certain level of bruising effort we should expect from a rage filled Dark Jedi. Good blocking and direction here.

Leia takes charge and starts channeling her mom. Ewan delivers a nice whispered story about Padme here and why we all love her. Even in Clone Wars, Padme made shit better.

And yup, in pops Reva ding her slow Sith entrance, and invoking all the great sbefore her. I don't mean vader, I mean fucking Assaj Ventress and fucking Maul! KENOBI!

How does she know that Anakin is alive? Was she told by Vader or is she lying. I am going to go with she is lying! She seemingly murks the Grand Inqusitor (I really hope they don't conflict this with Rebels), and our heroes get away in a transport. Off to Mapuzo I think they are! Damn, the race is on for them to hopscotch back to safety.

Hottakes:

Obi-wan being in complete fucking shock near the end and cutting away to vader in the bantha tank was a good touch.

I like Reva, I like her more compared to Grand Inquisitor who has the weakest part in this series so far.

Fifth Brother is JUST KILLING IT!

Heh, all the little costuming touches in this show make me wanna cosplay that girl with the weird hexagonal frame dress.

#lgbt #queer #lgbtqia #lesbian #le$bean #les #gaygirl #nerdgirl #gay #gayboi #bi #bisexual #pan #pansexual #trans #transgender #transwoman #transfemme #transmasc #transman #jedi #star wars #obi-wan kenobi #star wars tv

[aarafox]

Discussed syl/ki with friends today, me saying I don’t like them as romantic couple

One of them said “I wouldn’t mind if they got together”

And I got like... yeah... bc they’re an f/m ship

Watch loki fall in love with a MALE version of himself and everyone will riot

#there’s no way to win #as long as it’s f/m they’ll accept anything :))) #it just makes no sense to me #you confirm he’s a genderfluid bisexual icon and yet you settle for an f/m selfcest couple? please... #anti sylvie x loki #don’t get me wrong I LOVE Sylvie and I love her bond with Loki #I just DO NOT want it to become romantic #Loki spoilers #Loki #Loki series #lokius #lokius makes thousand times more sense to me #but maybe I’m wearing shipping goggles #so much more potential in a familial or platonic bond... at this point a successful believable PLATONIC f/m ship is incredibly rare #it sucks #not every f/m bond has to be romantic #if the show doesn’t let them get together romantically good for them!!! I’ll stop being bitter #but if they do... #yeah I’m not gonna be happy about it #at this point it’s not even my love for lokius talking anymore #it’s this severe lack of meaningful platonic f/m bonds #and the potential for it in this show is so incredible a #and will they screw that up? I guess we’ll find out next week #please don’t come for me hhhhhh these are just my honest thoughts #antisylki #antisylviexloki #anti sylki

[damnredthing]

Trailer tsunami

With all the character trailers in the recent days, I am sure a lot of fans are super hyped up now. I’ve already seen a bunch of screencaps, gifs, videos, tweets and whatnot. So, I try to approach the trailers a bit differently and just point out what I noticed after I watched them for the second and third time. Plus some thoughts about Pike in the end. My observations are in no specific order, they just follow my scatterbrained pattern.

Caution: Long post (no wonder after so many trailers!)

Uniform chatter – continued

The male skant is back. If you are very observant, you might have noticed a guy wearing a skant during the wedding scene in Pike’s promo trailer:

Where is waldo?

(I brightened the pic up a bit so you can see it better)

You actually don’t even have to ruin your eyes to find a guy in a skant. I think Chief Kyle (played by André Dae Kim) is wearing one in the Hemmer promo trailer:

There seems to be a variant for the male version, with black shoulder accents (which are missing on the female ones and also on the male one from the wedding scene). 

Looks like the shoulder accents go all the way down the upper arm for the male version. Or maybe it’s also a onesie (see blelow). Also, seems Kyle is an Ensign (no stripes and no cadet badge).

Cadet uniform gives me serious Star Trek Online vibes:

This looks almost like the default uniform in STO.

New tactical vest now shows divisions. In Discovery, the tactical vest was black for everyone, in SNW the tactical vest has an armor plating in the color matching the division of the wearer. So Pike’s is gold while La’an’s in red:

Gotte love me some Pike in action…

Away team combat armor. Apparently an away team expecting trouble doesn’t just beam down with an armored tactical vest. A light full body armor completes the combat gear. It looks water resistant, seems to be a tight fit and comes with a very cool Starfleet badge on the upper arm (cosplayers will be so busy):

I am not sure if this armor is capable of producing a space helmet.

The EV suits seem to look differently:

They also come in the divisional colors, but they seem more shiny and they have the Starfleet logo on top of the plate. At least in La’an’s case.

Uhura’s EV suit somehow doesn’t show the logo.

While Hemmer’s does. BTW, I like the detail of Hemmer wearing the hood. We do know that Andorian/Aenar’s tentacles regrow, but why risking them being cut off by activating the helmet if you can avoid it? 

Interestingly, Spock’s EV suit is all black:

Or the lighting is just so unwelcoming to the color blue…

Away team jacket. I am not sure what the rules are for the away team to wear armor or just the jacket. Maybe they wear the jacket if they do not expect (that much) trouble. Whatever the reason, I absolutely love the jackets. They also seem to be adaptable depending on the weather. They either come as a normal jacket:

Or they are more suitable for cold/rainy weather and come with an attached hood:

The awesome patch is also on the jacket.

This jacket definitely deserves more observation. When zipped up, you can see some V-pattern on the chest:

I also love the scarfs that work so well with the overall outfit:

And snow goggles…

Captain’s quarters

We actually get to see quite a bit of the Captain’s quarters. 

Pike’s quarters are HUGE! And he has a chimney??? On a starship? How does that even work? Also… Pike actually looks tired here.

Yep, it is a chimney!

Such huge quarters… looks like a megasuite!

Kitchen in the Captain’s quarters!

Big kitchen!

Chapel’s onesie. It’s neither a skant nor a jacket and pants. Chapel is actually wearing a onesie:

And she rocks it!

Pike channels his inner Elvis.

Or Johnny Bravo… (I’m sorry Anson!).

Everything is new on the Enterprise?

Pike’s crew seems to be partly renewed. La’an and M’Benga introduce themselves to Pike, while Pike welcomes Uhura and Chapel aboard the ship (sorry, I have no screencaps for that).

Also, we see the Enterprise leaving spacedock:

I’m not sure if they are repairing the damages from the season 2 finale of Discovery when the Enterprise looked like this:

They also showed in Discovery how the Enterprise was repaired. So maybe this is another visit to the spacedock.

Either way, with Enterprise being out of commission for repairs/refitting it would also match Pike’s timeout/vacation and allowing him to channel his inner Santa (sorry again, Anson!).

Additional badge for Ortegas.

I am not sure what it is, but at one point in her trailer Lt. Ortegas is wearing an additional badge above the normal Starfleet badge:

Patient’s name

The patient’s name is Rukiya. According to IMDB, Rukiya will show up for at least 3 episodes in season 1. Interesting!

Pike pondering his fate

The first teaser with Pike hiding in the back of beyond already hinted at his inner fight. What does knowing your fate do to you? In Discovery he seemed fine in the season 2 finale. Granted, with the fight against Control there wasn’t much time to think about his own fate. But later when Spock returned to the bridge all shaved and in uniform, Pike seemed happy to see him and he looked fine.

However, this doesn’t mean he is doing fine all the time. I can speak from experience. You can still function and even appear to other people completely like your normal self, while in truth you are deeply troubled inside.

I often hear critics about the new Star Trek shows, how giving all characters a troubled background is “lazy writing”. For Pike it all makes sense though. “Through the Valley of Shadows” IMO is one of the most important episodes of all Star Trek because it defines what Pike is all about. It adds to the explanation why he became one of the most decorated Star Fleet officers and even has a medal of valor named after him. But if you show such an episode, it should also be clear to the audience that such a fate cannot have no effect on the person.

I like that the writers let Pike question himself. He is apparently unsure what to do with this firm knowledge of his fate (which in part he misinterprets, but I’ll get to that in a bit). Will he take bigger risks? Or will it makes him hesitant? We’ll have to wait and find out.

The fact that he consults Spock is also interesting. It pays into their close friendship as it is revealed later in the TOS episodes “The Menagerie”. Spock is risking his life and career for Pike. There must be a reason why he feels so close to Pike. So, Pike telling Spock about his fate makes sense. But maybe this wasn’t so voluntarily. We already know of 2 people on board who are able to read minds, Spock himself and also the Aenar Hemmer. Or maybe Spock confronted Pike after he acted not his usual self or risked himself unnecessarily. We don’t know yet.

Will Pike keep this knowledge throughout the entire show? Or could we see another “Requiem for Methuselah” in SNW?

There is a problem with Pike knowing his fate. If he knows his fate, he knows he cannot die before that moment of his vision comes. That could lead him to risk his life way too often even to the point where he unintentionally also risks the ship and crew.

This leads me to his partly misinterpreted vision. He says he knows exactly how and when his life is going to end. I am not sure how exactly he concludes the “when”. All he knows is that he’ll be a fleet captain and he’ll be on a cadet vessel. But he does not know when he’ll be promoted and he does not know when he’ll be on that vessel.

We already know that the accident will not end his life. However, for him there is no way of knowing that because the time crystal didn’t show him what is going to happen after the accident. His conclusion that his life is ending makes sense for him. He does know what the explosion was. He does know that his initial injuries were just some burns. And he does know that he later becomes defaced and wheelchair bound with lung support. So it makes totally sense for him to believe he was poisoned by delta radiation and his body is going to deteriorate even further to the point until all his organs will fail and he’ll die.

From his point of view he knows he’ll die. That makes a huge difference to knowing that you’ll be disabled. What are you going to do with your life in the here and now if you know in maybe 10 years tops you’ll be dead? Do you still allow yourself to fall in love with someone (or admit your love to say... Vina), knowing your partner will grieve for you? Do you still have life goals? Do you still allow yourself to enjoy things, knowing it’s possibly the last time you’re doing it or you’re simply questioning the sense?

I actually hope for another Requiem for Methuselah; I wouldn’t want to see Pike fighting his inner demons throughout the entire show. But that is just my humble opinion.

And congrats if you read thus far. You are more patient than I am. :P

#Strange New Worlds #SNW #Trailers #Christopher Pike #Captain Pike #Anson Mount #Uhura #Spock #Hemmer #Nurse Chapel #Enterprise #NCC 1701 #just my observations

[rainydaydream-gal18]

(The Bad Batch)  How They’d React to You Going Undercover

(Author’s Note: How they’d react if you had to go undercover on a mission alone to charm the target and obtain vital information.  That’s right, I’m jumping on this trope.)

Crosshair - Saw you in the dress and didn’t want you to leave.

   “Are we even sure this is going to work?” Crosshair questioned, shooting a sideways glance at the sergeant.  “What if this guy doesn’t take the bait?”  He stood off to the side of the main group with arms folded across his chest and toothpick between his teeth.  You stood in the middle of the ship’s hall feeling uneasy as your comrades took in your appearance.  Working with the squad meant you didn’t get to wear elegant dresses very often, and this was the first time they all saw you in one.

   “Boy, someone woke up on the wrong side of the rifle today,” Wrecker joked, folding his arms.

   “Our target has a weakness for lovely ladies,” Tech spoke up.

   Hunter nodded, giving you a look of approval.  “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about the target not taking the bait.  Unless...”  he trailed off as his eyes flickered back to the sharpshooter as he raised a brow.  “...you’re actually worried he will take the bait?”

    Crosshair clamped his mouth shut and averted his gaze.  Warmth crept into your face at the idea of him being jealous or protective.  You took a deep breath and tried to focus.

   “Alright, I’m ready.”

    “Just….keep us updated,” Crosshair told you.

Wrecker- Complimented you and knew you could kick butt.  Still worried for you.

   As you stepped out into the hallway, you ducked your head a little at the sight of the entire squad’s eyes on you.  The eyes of the tallest Bad Batch member were what captured your attention the most.  You gave a twirl and offered an uneasy smile.  

   “What do you think?  Think this’ll work?”

   “Wowww,” Wrecker breathed before giving an enthusiastic nod.  “It’d work on me!”  Your eyes widened as you tried to hold back a giggle at the compliment, and he seemed to realize what he said.  He rubbed the back of his head and chuckled nervously.  “I mean...No disrespect, ________.”

   “No worries,” you laughed.  “That’s honestly very flattering coming from you.”

   “You sure you’re still up for it?” Hunter asked. 

   “Yeah, I can do this.”

   Wrecker’s booming laugh widened your smile.  “He won’t know what hit him.”  Then, his smile faded as the others started heading for the cockpit of the ship.  “Just, uh, be careful out there.”

   You met his gaze, his brows furrowed from worry, and smiled.  “I will.”

Tech- Felt a little possessive, but knew to step aside and let you work.

   “Alright, what do you guys think?” You gestured to the dress.

   “Looks good,” Hunter said, and Wrecker went so far as to give you two thumbs up.  

   Crosshair merely acknowledged you with a nod.  “It should get the job done,” he commented, tossing his toothpick aside.  Tech gazed at you in silence, nearly forgetting about the data he was organizing on his holopad altogether.  Your eyes were drawn to him.  Secretly, you desired to hear his opinion more than the others.

   “Tech?”

   He finally opened his mouth to reply, adjusting his goggles.  “You look, um, beautiful, ________.  The target will most likely take the bait and offer up the information we need.  Although, now I’m not so sure I am on board with this plan.”

   “Why not?” Wrecker complained.  “She’s going to do great!”

   “I know she will,” Tech said, avoiding everyone’s curious gazes.  He focused on his holopad, and eventually the others got the message not to pry.  Your heart, however, was doing flips inside your chest at the realization that he just might be a little jealous.

Hunter - Couldn’t stop staring...tried to be cool, and ended up being protective.

   You nearly crumbled under Hunter’s unwavering gaze as you stood there in the middle of the ship’s cockpit waiting on Tech to hand you an earpiece.  Your assignment wasn’t an appealing one, and to top it off, you weren’t exactly used to the Bad Batch seeing you in an elegant dress.  The one who you admired most hadn’t taken his eyes off you since you stepped out of your quarters in the dress.

   The whole afternoon, the squad had gone over the plan together.  But now, after seeing some aspects of the plan put into motion, Hunter didn’t look quite as happy with it.

   “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” he asked again.

   You offered a smile.  “Of course.  Anything I can do to help the squad.”

   “We appreciate it, but…” he paused in thought.  “Maybe someone can go with you.”  

   “The squad agreed this was the best way to engage the target.  Showing up to a gala with blasters might not go over so well.”

   “It’s still an option,” he mused.  You raised your brows, and he sighed.  “Sorry.  I guess I’m just a little worried for you.”  His admission had been unexpected, and the compliment following that was even more unexpected. “You look beautiful.”

   “Oh, thanks.”  You met his gaze.  “Don’t worry, things will go smoothly.  Even so, I’ll be sure to keep in touch.”

   “Alright,” he agreed with a nod.

Echo- Can’t get over how pretty you look and is more subtle in expressing his concern, a little protective.

   “Remember, if things go south, you can always comm us,” Echo told you again through the door.

   “Yes, we’ll be there in a pinch,” Hunter agreed.  “________, you ready?”

   “Just one second.”  You adjusted the hem of the dress and headed over to the door to your quarters where the others were standing in the hall.  The door slid open, and you were embarrassed to see all eyes on you.  A smile smoothed the worry lines on Echo’s face, and he offered his hand.  You took it and stepped out of your quarters.

   “You look nice!” Wrecker complimented.

   “You really do,” Echo agreed.

   Hunter smirked at the way one of their newest additions looked at you, and he spoke up again.  “Alright, let’s get this show on the road.”

   Echo escorted you the rest of the way to the ship’s exit, not releasing your hand until the very last moment.  His smile had been replaced with a worried look once more when it came time for you to set off on your assignment.

   “I’ll be back before you know it,” you assured him.

   “Just let us know if anyone makes you uncomfortable.”  He raised a brow at the rest of the unusual squad.  “We’ll take care of ‘em.”

   You grinned.  “Will do.” 

#the bad batch #bad batch hunter x reader #bad batch crosshair x reader #bad batch wrecker x reader #bad batch tech x reader #bad batch echo x reader #the bad batch preferences #bad batch imagine #hunter imagine #tech imagine #crosshair imagine #wrecker imagine #echo imagine #bad batch reader insert

[fireflykaizoku]

Hey!! I'm obsessed with your soulmates swap aus, really i love them they're so good i can't even explain 😭

Could i ask you one with kid but no one can really see they exchanged bodies 'cause they are literally the same? Like y/n has the same character as kid so they seems literally the same as always and it's quite a problem.

Thank you if you do, have a nice day 💕

helloo anon my love! ❤ i'm so so glad you like them! i'm sorry i took long, by the way! but here it is, and i hope you like it! have a nice day ❤

— What are you looking at? — you snapped at someone at the bar. That person was looking at you for you don’t even know how long.

— (Y/N), calm down. It’s your birthday, don’t stress trying to fight again. — one of your friends asked, holding your arm. — Just leave it.

You sighed, taking a sip of your drink. It was easy for you to get irritated and start a fight, you had quite a temper, and honestly, you don’t know how your friends put up with you. The only reason why you didn’t get into more fights, it was because of them.

— I swear, your soulmate better be someone calm. — another friend giggled. — Imagine if they have that temper.

— It’d be a chaos. — you laughed, forgetting about the fight you almost started before. — But I guess the world couldn’t handle a couple like that. I hope they’re level headed.

It was late when you went back home, and you fell asleep right after, hoping you wouldn’t have a hangover the next morning.

Your peaceful slumber got interrupted with a loud bang on the door. Since when your roommate got so aggressive? You barely had time to open your eyes, and realize you were sitting on a chair, in front of a desk, in a room that wasn’t yours. It smelled like oil and metal. What an awful time to switch bodies with your soulmate.

You knew it’d happen eventually, but it wasn’t something you looked forward to, unlike your friends who acted as if it was such an event.

— Kid, the ship just docked. — someone said. — We’ll go get some supplies and head to a bar.

— Go away! — you screamed, still in shock while looking at that body which obviously wasn’t yours.

The man had scars on his chest and right arm, while apparently he didn’t have his left arm, replaced with a heavy mechanical one. You looked at the long coat over your shoulder, the vest and his pants and couldn’t help laughing at his fashion taste. How tacky.

— What a clown. — you whispered to yourself, still laughing. — Out of all people, this is my soulmate? How lucky…

You got up and headed to a bathroom, maybe when you washed your face and actually felt awake, you could find a solution to switch back and go home. Looking at the broken and dirty mirror, your soulmate was very attractive. He had red hair, no eyebrows, a scar on the left side of his face, and goggles. He’s someone you’d look at if you saw him at a bar.

— Now, how do I find him? — you asked yourself. — Well, if he’s in my body, I’ll call my house. I’m sure there’s a den den mushi here somewhere.

When you left the bathroom, you tried to find the transponder snail. It took a while, walking from room to room, but you finally spotted one in what seemed to be the captain’s bedroom. You started calling your house, hoping that your soulmate would answer.

— What?! — the man answered. — If you’re the person who is in my body, you better find a way to switch back.

— Look, I’m not happy with this situation either. I want to go back to my body, so what do we do now?

He sighed, obviously as annoyed as you were.

— I’m the captain of this ship, so you tell my crew to come here to your island so we can switch back. Don’t let people know what’s going on, I don’t want anyone to know about that. I have a damn reputation.

— Are you even that relevant? — you laughed.

— Watch it, just because you’re my soulmate it doesn’t mean you can talk to me like that.

You rolled your eyes, hanging up before replying. First, you went to the kitchen, feeling thirsty. Luckily they had some beer. You took one, and soon enough, you found one of the crew members that stayed on the ship. You demanded to go to your island quick.

— We need to go there. It’s important, and don’t ask any questions, I’ll be working on something or whatever.

You went back to Kid’s workshop, slamming the door behind you. Being in another body was annoying. You didn't know who this person was, you were far from home, and his mechanical arm was so heavy it was bothering you.

When a tall blonde man wearing a mask knocked on the door, opening it right after, you just told him to go away, threatening to throw something at him if he didn’t leave. After that, everyone left you alone.

The only time when anyone knocked on the door after that, was the next morning, when someone said they arrived at the destination.

Finally!

— I’ll be back soon. I don’t want neither of you following me around, got it? — you asked and the crew nodded.

You left the ship, going towards your house. And when the door opened you saw your figure, which was very weird.

— Took you long enough! — he said with a frown. — How do we switch back now?

— I should’ve know you don’t understand about soulmates. — you sighed. — We need to kiss.

— Is that all? — he seemed surprised, thinking it was too easy to be true. — Then let’s kiss now!

— It’s not a simple kiss, you fool. It’s a kiss when we’re in love, which it’s probably not going to happen, so we need to figure something out.

Kid yelled, complained, cussed, and finally accepted how things really were. You two tried to talk without bickering on each other, trying to think of another solution. And after a long discussion, with you yelling at him, both decided that you needed to stay with him on the Victoria Punk until you could switch back.

The crew kept whispering, curious about who was that small person that their Captain just brought to the ship. Maybe an affair? A new member or an ally? No one dared to ask him directly, though, especially since he was in a bad mood.

Kid still didn’t want the crew to know, even though Killer was smart enough and could probably help. You spent many times together at his workshop, seeing him work while you complained you were bored. At night, you two agreed that sleeping in his room would be the best. The red haired man let you keep the bed, saying he didn’t want his body to be sick or in pain, apparently. Whenever his mechanical arm got too heavy, he tried to ease the weight or help you take it off.

Eventually, you had longer conversations with him, seeing you two had a lot in common, surprisingly.

The showers were a little weird, especially during the first few times, when he kept saying your body was very hot, making you feel flustered for the first time in your life. But after a while, it just felt normal.

It has been almost a month since you two met. The ship had docked and everyone was at a bar. A man was flirting with you, or well, with Kid, while thinking it was you. Indeed, you used to draw attention from people when you went out, and you forgot about that until a man was approaching Eustass, complimenting his beautiful looks.

Feeling annoyed, and perhaps even a little jealous thinking that other men wanted you, he got up from his sit and pulled you into a kiss. Of course, the crew had their eyes open. Who knew the mysterious person Kid brought was that straightforward, and who knew their captain would let someone steal a kiss from him.

The kiss wasn’t romantic or cute. It was full of passion and desire, it was unexpected and possessive, as if he was saying “you’re mine”. He bit your lip, and it felt like he was claiming you. Honestly, it was a good feeling, as if you’ve been waiting, without even knowing, for him to make this first move.

You felt butterflies, something you’ve never felt before.

When you opened your eyes, you saw his figure towering over you, and a grin that wouldn’t leave his face so soon. He pulled you closer, making it clear that you were his. He didn’t even ask, but your answer would be “yes” anyway.

— I can’t believe we finally switched back. — he laughed, flexing his arm. — I missed my body.

The crew gasped.

— Switch back? — Heat asked. — Wait, you were in (Y/N)’s body this whole time? And (Y/N) was in your body?

— I must say, I’m surprised. I couldn’t notice any difference. — Killer said. — You two are very alike.

At first, you two seemed offended until realizing the masked man was actually right. You two has the same personality, and it wasn’t what you expected your soulmate to be. Someone peaceful and quiet would be fun, but someone who could raise a little hell with you could be even better.

— You’re annoying sometimes, but I want you to sail with me anyway. — he said gently lifting your chin with his index finger, still with his signature smirk on his face.

#eustass kid #kid x reader #one piece x reader #one piece #eustass kid x reader #one piece scenario

[worth-more-than-two-thousand]

Returning from the Dead is Easier Said than Done...

Request: Welcome, Shiny! May I request an x Reader (can be fem or gender neutral) where Echo (post-citadel) comes up to their s/o's doorstep to give them flowers and ask them on a date? A plus if the Bad Batch teases him for dressing up nicely and buying flowers. Thank you! (@handmaidenthesimp)

Author’s Note: Enjoy! If anybody wants me to repost with a gender-neutral reader, just let me know. 

Story Notes: Some swearing, not much else to warn you about. Take place in-between Season 7 of CW and The Bad Batch. No Omega this time, sorry! 

🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑 🖑

Being declared dead was uncomplicated. Your Republic file was branded with a "KIA" stamp, everyone stoically mourned, and someone just a bit shinier would step in to fill your shoes. 

Being declared undead, however, was decidedly more complicated. Oh, Echo was reassigned to Clone Force 99 easily enough. But it was the little things that seemed to get mired in red tape. Getting his few personal effects back. Re-opening his modest credit account.

Approving a rental application.

Admittedly, it wasn't that Echo really needed his own place; clones were conditioned to be accustomed to share minimalist, often-cramped quarters. And they were always on the move, so it hardly made any financial or practical sense, in the long run. 

But right now, oh, did Echo dearly wish that he was dressing up in the privacy of his own space...and not the shared cabin area of the Havoc Marauder. 

He kept his face stoic, as though readying for battle, refusing to acknowledge his teammates goggling in the background. They had returned early from their supply run. Echo had meant to be out of here an hour ago, but (somehow) hadn’t counted on just how difficult it would be to get dressed into multiple clothing pieces with a scomp link for a hand. 

So that’s how his comrades found him: trying to wrangle a neck accessory into submission by sheer will. 

Oh, if Fives could see him now. 

“You look funny,” Wrecker had declared decisively after an unbearably long silence. “What’s that thing you’ve got on?” 

“It’s a suit,” he grumbled, refusing to look any of them in the eye. “I’m going to see Y/N.”

Wrecker gasped like a fishwife. He leaned forward, and pitched his voice low. As though the others couldn’t still hear him in the tinny space.  “Your girlfriend? You mean you’re going to see her for the first time....since…” Wrecker made a muted cartoonish sound with his mouth, clenching then expanding his fingers in a gesture for ‘explosion’.

Echo stared at him for a moment disbelievingly, before nodding slowly, forcing the sarcastic response he really wanted to say back down. He couldn’t fault Wrecker for being...well, Wrecker. He had all the tact of a rampaging bantha. 

“An’ what’s that? Around your neck?” 

Echo opened his mouth, but someone cut across his response. “A bowtie,” Crosshair drolled, though his eyes glittered with amusement. Echo tensed, knowing that he wasn’t going to like what was coming next. 

“Fifty credits says he chokes, and he ends up strangling himself with it in shame." 

“No way!” Wrecker exclaimed, always the optimist. He clapped Echo on the back, who was unprepared so his knees buckled. He felt his metal joints strain. “Don’t worry, Echo,” his brother rasped in the loudest whisper known to man. “I bet she’s gonna love it!” 

“You know,” Tech piped up unhelpfully, “Your strategy may backfire. The current deviation from your usual appearance may be so jarring for your beloved that she refuses your offer out of simple self-preservation instincts.” 

Echo gritted his teeth. “Right. You have stats to back that up, I suppose?” 

Tech blinked at him owlishly. “Of course I don’t. This is an obvious possible outcome.”

“I’m trying to look nice,” he snapped, scowling. 

There was a loaded pause. “...’trying’ being the objective word here,” Crosshair smirked.  

Before Echo could wipe the look off his comrade’s face with a well-placed ARC trooper punch that would’ve made Hardcase proud, Hunter wedged his way in between them, hands up in a conciliatory gesture. 

“All right, laugh it up, fellas. Personally, I think you’re all jealous because you don’t have a girl waiting for you like Echo does.” Hunter turned to face their newest member, took the bowtie that was clenched in Echo’s fist, and smoothed it out before proceeding to tie it around his neck with surprisingly deft hands. 

Crosshair ‘hmphed’ while Wrecker verbally agreed, looking slightly put out by the undeniable truth. Tech simply nodded in neutral confirmation. The group lapsed into a somewhat awkward (but not unwelcome) silence as Hunter finished tugging at the folded ends of the bow, then double-checking to ensure it was straight. He stepped back to assess his work.

“You look good,” he said sincerely.

Echo thought he was in the clear. 

Hunter frowned. “But...it looks like you’re missing something.” 

Or not. 

“Like dignity?” Crosshair drawled from a dark corner of the ship that Echo frustratingly couldn’t glare at. 

“A sense of self-confidence,” Tech suggested. He wasn’t joking. 

“FLOWERS!” Wrecker boomed confidently. “All girls like flowers. You gotta get her some before you see her!”   

“I...fine.” Echo relented, anything to get his teammates to shut up. He shoved his way through them towards the bridge. “I’ll get her some flowers. You all stay here until I get back. I mean it, Fives!” he warned.

An uneasy silence followed him, which he didn’t register until he reached the landing ramp. 

He shot an exasperated look back at them. “What?’ 

“...Your former comrade is not here, Echo.” Tech finally spoke. His words were clinical, as always, but there was a touch of understanding underlying his tone. 

Echo froze, just for a moment, then shook off the shock of his faux pas as best as he could. 

It wasn’t the first time that had happened, after all. 

Echo descended the landing ramp, squared his shoulders, and marched into town. 

Y/N lived in a run-down but culturally distinct district of Coruscant, characterized by food stalls from species and ethnicities all over the galaxy. Children often ran through the streets, sellers in colorful robes and attire shouting their wares and art for all to peruse. It was one of the nicer markets, he thought, having come here once. He had been accompanying Y/N on her usual run for specialized ingredients that made the diner she worked at the talk of the galaxy. 

Echo elbowed his way through the crowded street, content to simply blend in with the crowd, to forget about being a soldier for a moment. 

He paused at a flower stand and was mindful not to draw too much attention to his scomp-link hand as he ordered a dozen sunflowers, which he remembered were Y/N’s favorite. When his credit chip was declined, however, he sighed and reached into his pocket to see what spare change he could muster up. Being that he was wearing a never-worn suit, however, meant that there was no change to be found, and the unimpressed florist snatched the bouquet away. 

That’s okay, Echo. Y/N doesn't need flowers. She just wants to see you.

At least, he hoped that was the case. He hadn’t exactly written to her yet, unsure that he could sufficiently explain his sudden non-death in typed words...

Surprise! I’m not dead! Hey, you know that explosion on the citadel? Well, I survived! And out of it, I got an all-expenses paid trip to  the Techno Union research facility! Why didn’t I write? Well, I was in stasis most of the time and that part’s a bit fuzzy. I also was responsible for killing my brothers by using their own battle plans against them. Oh, and you might notice that I’m missing most of my fleshy bits these days… 

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, which were more rapid these days thanks to his enhancements. He was good at compartmentalizing, though. He had to be. He was still a soldier, through and through, and no one wanted a soldier who was about two seconds away from a mental breakdown.

Yeah, a letter to Y/N wouldn’t have cut it. But he still felt like maybe he could have sent ahead some sort of...heads up? A warning? A ‘Please don’t scream when you see me because I don’t think my heart could take it?’ 

His feet finally guided him to the front entrance of the building where he knew she lived on the 14th floor. Glancing around, he spotted some blue flowers sprouting in a planter near the entrance. He yanked a fairly healthy-looking handful from the soil, shaking the roots to get most of the dirt off. He tucked the strangled roots into his fist so that they would be less obvious. 

It was time. He nodded to himself, squared his shoulders, and entered the building. 

A short elevator ride later, Echo could feed the sweat beading at his forehead and neck. At least his fight or flight response seemed to be healthy and alive, and Echo tuned out everything but the door in front of him, adorned with a purple wreath of lavender flowers. 

He stood in front of the door, and raised his hand to knock. 

He stood…

In front of the door…

...and raised his hand…

...to knock, you coward. Just fucking knock. 

His raised knuckles, however, refused to move. Echo caught a glimpse of himself in the curtained window panes on the sides of the door, and at the sight of his bloodless face, suddenly felt a whole lot less sure of himself. 

He looked ridiculous. 

He and Y/N had barely gotten to know each other before his untimely death. 

What if she was with someone new? 

This was a terrible idea. Echo should leave now, before he caused himself any more embarrassment. Crosshair might get his fifty credits, after all. 

Echo had just convinced himself to turn around and admit defeat, when the door suddenly swung open. 

Two Y/C/E eyes met his. 

There were points during Echo’s battle career where time slowed to a crawl. When an explosive grenade was thrown just a bit too close, or the comrade you had just exchanged banter with received blaster fire to the face. 

Echo was experiencing the same sensation now, but he would voluntarily stay in this moment forever, if he could. He fervently hoped his nightmares would be replaced with the sight that was etched before him. 

She was wearing her yellow work uniform, white apron pressed crisply with starch...and was as beautiful as ever. Her hair was up in a messy ‘late-for-work’ up-do, a smudge of blushed color not quite within the lines of her lips smearing her cupids’ bow where she had applied it in a rush.

He couldn’t determine whether her reaction to his sudden appearance was positive or not, and so didn’t dare speak first, breathlessly afraid that if he did, the moment would shatter. 

He saw her swallow hard, glancing at him from head to toe, gaze landing on his right hand. 

He guarded his heart. 

“Ech? Echo, is that you?” she whispered. Her eyes tore away from the scomp link hand, and began searching his face as though just as afraid he would disappear. 

He nodded. “Yeah,” he rasped, then cleared his throat. “Yeah, it’s me.”

The silence stretched out, and the fight or flight response was creeping back. 

“I know I look a bit different.” He tried for a light-hearted joke, but couldn’t quite get his tone to match. “Had some work done. What do you think?” He winced slightly.

She stepped forward and he froze as Y/N lifted her fingers, hesitating briefly before gently touching one of the metal bolts by his left temple. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“...do they hurt?” 

He gasped a little as he remembered to breathe again.

“No,” he reassured her, raising his undamaged hand to steady hers. “No, it doesn’t hurt.” 

“...good.” 

The wind was knocked out of him as Y/N flung her arms around him, burying her face in his neck, tardiness to her job completely forgotten. 

She began sobbing. It wasn’t neat little sobs, like in the scripted holovids, but heaving sobs that wracked her whole body, and he worried slightly that she was going to faint on him. He forgot about his scomp link for the first time as he rubbed it in circles against her back, murmuring nonsense words of comfort in her ear. 

After several minutes, she sniffled, stepping back. She rubbed her nose ungracefully where snot was leaking out, but Echo could have cared less about any of that. He only kept his arms out to steady her, in case she needed support again.

Y/N glanced down suddenly, and flushed.

“Oh. I’ve crushed them.”

Echo followed her gaze and saw that he was still holding the blue flowers from the planter in his good hand, the bouquet having been caught in between their bodies when she had thrown herself at him. They did look a little worse for wear. 

He shrugged unconcernedly. “They were free,” he said, not wanting her to feel guilty. 

She stared at him for a moment before a bubble of laughter burst from her lips. She still looked like she was about to sob at any moment, but she smiled tremulously at him through shining eyes. 

Desperate to make her feel better, he began rambling. 

“I can get you better ones! N-not right now, though,” he stuttered. “Actually, it turns out that I don’t have any credits on me at the moment. Everything’s still kind of backed up at the bank regarding my accounts. Also, this suit is new. Well. Not new. It used to belong to this woman’s father who we rescued during a mission on Bith. Long story.” His brain, which worked faster than usual these days anyways, still couldn’t seem to catch up to his mouth.

He forced himself to get back to the task at hand. “I was actually here to ask you for a date. I mean, assuming there’s no one else at the moment…oh, but you have your job to go do…bantha spit, I forgot about that...” He would have to ask Tech if it was possible for his brain to actually short-circuit.

Echo finally trailed off. Now he was the one blushing. 

The whole of Domino Squad was probably having a good laugh at his expense right about now, wherever they were. 

But Y/N was still smiling at him. And her chin had stopped wobbling. She gently took the flowers from Echo’s hand and placed them on one of the side tables in the hallway before intertwining her fingers with his and grasping his right hand without hesitation. 

“Forget about my job. Let’s go on that date. My treat. Though, if I know Dexter, he’ll give us a free meal, on the house. And the rest of the day off."

For the first time since he had joined Clone Force 99, since he had been rescued on Skako Minor, and even before the Citadel...Echo allowed a true grin of happiness to spread on his face. 

“A free meal,” he echoed. “Sounds like a plan.” 

#fic request #echo #arc trooper echo #tbb echo #the bad batch #star wars tbb #star wars the bad batch #tbb #echo x reader #echo x you #echo x fem reader #sw tbb #sw the bad batch

[erectionsandtea]

Poly party summer fun headcanons bc 😄 (I'm sorry I'm advance that this is so fucking long please forgive me) (you can find part 2 here)

Part 1

Pool party:

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

- El learns the usage of the word "hot" (regarding attractiveness, not temperature) when she sees Max in a two-piece swimsuit

But then Mike is like "what about me?" cos he's totally jealous and wants El's attention too, but before she can respond Max is like "you're not hot, Mike, you're more like cute in a nerdy kind of way. I guess." and El is like "yeah, you're a cute nerd!" and Mike is like "ex-fucking-cuse me??"

And then Will is like "I think you're hot" and Mike is like "thank you-"

"but you're still a nerd"

"you're a nerd!" and he grabs Will and kind of traps him in this hug and says "but you're a cute nerd" and then a cute kiss

And El is giggling at byler but still staring at Max too, and Max is yelling Byler to get a room, and Lucas is just rolling his eyes at everyone but he also keeps getting distracted looking at Max, and Dustin is yelling at everyone

"for the love of god, can you guys stop flirting for like two minutes and help me set up the snacks??"

And Suzie is like "I'll help you, Dusty-bun"

"you're the best girlfriend in the whole world"

*giggles* "you're the best boyfriend in the whole galaxy!"

"well YOU'RE the best-"

(cos Dustin and Suzie like to do this weird one-upping kind of thing ???)

And then everyone is just like "okay okay, we're coming!" and "we're helping, geez!"

- Max totally helped El shop for and pick out her swimsuit, something that would show off her cute bod and drive Mike crazy (but also herself), and "damn girl, you have no idea how good you look" *wink*

- Lucas pushes Max in the pool

- Max obvsly gets revenger by pushing Lucas in the pool, while he's in the middle of doing something else like conversing, idk

- El wants to get in on the pool-pushing action, so she tries to push mike in the pool, but he grabs hold of her and they both fall in

- Underwater kisses! (with all the ships)

- mad flirting and lots of staring, lol (also with all the ships)

- El and Max sunbathing next to Suzie but they are on towels on the grass instead of a chair bc how are they supposed to get all close to each other on a single chair ??

- sunbathing girls ogling the boys in the pool

- boys in the pool ogling the sunbathing girls

- squirt guns, water balloons, and fights with pool noodles

- Suzie likes to sunbathe and read fantasy novels (she's totally a girly-girl nerd) and Dustin likes to just stop and watch her sometimes bc she's beautiful and also cute and hot, and sometimes she'll catch him watching from the pool or across the yard and they'll smile at each other.

And then she'll say something super cheesy like "I miss you, Dusty-bun" cos technically they are apart from each other. And he starts to say that he misses her too, but then Max/Lucas are like "jesuschrist, you guys are LITERALLY 20 feet away from each other!" and Dustin is just like "hey, I put up with all of your cute couple-y shit!"

- El wants to know what Suzie is reading and Suzie starts telling her the story in great detail (cos she's totally read the book before, it's one of her favorites? WHAT BOOK DO YOU GUYS THINK IT IS, LET ME KNOW) and then she recommends more books for El

- El totally takes control of the big inflatable pool floatie shaped like a duck or a unicorn or idfk

- Mike and Will try to push the floatie over but she clings to it, screaming, and even tho they manage to overturn her she still comes out on top and splashes them to make them stop

- Max helping El defend against the boys by jumping on some backs lol (more like grabbing and hoisting bc it’s hard to jump when in water)

- Max then trying to join El by jumping on the floatie (from the side of the pool), but she just ends up sinking them both

- El also tries doing those mermaid hair flips and just generally her and max doing funny things with both their hair (El wants to be a mermaid)

- pool volleyball, anyone? Or maybe pool basketball??

- Joyce is there to bring them lemonade and the burgers that Jonathan makes and other summer foods bc she is mom of the goddamn century

- chicken fights (top/bottom) (lmk who you think would win, lol)

Max/Lucas vs El/Mike

Will/Mike vs El/Max

Lucas/Dustin vs Max/Mike

Taunts and "insults" are slung, but also cheers, lol

Everyone falls down more often from loss of balance than actual pushing

- "no running around the goddamn pool, or you little shits will face some serious consequences!" (lol sorry I had to put Steve in there, but he's really not threatening at all 😆)

- Marco Polo (and El is totally not allowed to cheat by using her powers) (but even without cheating she's still pretty good, lol)

- sneaking up behind and dunking

- El wearing goggles and just being able to actually look and SEE underwater and it's so cool and beautiful, "but it makes everything sound weird"

- splash fights, and usually more than half the party ends up turning on one or two specific people

- the boys try to do that thing where you dive through inflatable donuts and it basically becomes a contest

Will can successfully dive through one donut, it's mostly just luck tho

"okay, you can dive thru one donut, but can you dive thru two??" (Mike kind of succeeds but he somehow gets his foot stuck and kicks the donut off)

"okay, but can dive thru three???"

And Dustin is like "come on guys, this is getting insane" but he sees the donuts getting stacked and everyone lining up and he's just like *sigh* "goddamnit" cos he knows he has to do it now too, he's not backing down!

El doesn't dive but she successfully pencil jumps thru at least one donut

Max dives thru two-and-a-half donuts (don't even ask me how) and it's not all three, but it's more than any of the boys can do so she totally wins the contest

- when it starts getting late, before everyone goes inside, Joyce takes some photos of all of them while the sun is still out (until Will jokingly begs her to stop), some smiling ones, some silly face ones, and a couple candid ones (Jonathan takes most of the photos tho cos duh)

If you have any ideas or anything to add, please feel free to do so, either by reblogging or my askbox! 👍🏻

#stranger things #my headcanons #mileven #byler #elmax #lumax #duzie #el hopper #mike wheeler #will byers #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #dustin henderson #suzie #joyce byers #headcanons #summer #pool party #poly party #the party

[resonating-kitty]

Dreambur - Pirate AU fic requested by @peppsta

Using the sentence “You’re too distracting with your handsome face and… your… everything!” (Took a bit of creative liberty to make it work)

I am happy with how this turned out. I've been a bit too critical of my writing lately but I generally like this one. Peppsta I hope this fits what you had in mind with the prompt! :)

I hope you all enjoy!

-

Wilbur laughed, joyous, as the wind hit his face. The open sea was such a wonderful place! His love of its wonders and mysteries and melodies was endless. He was a traveling musician, a quite successful one at that. His music was known all across the world and many lords and kings requested his presence to perform at their castles. That’s what he was doing now, headed back to England, summoned by his Majesty’s request to perform at the annual ball.

“Mr. Soot please get down from there!” The Captain’s orders barked hastily at him had him turning with a grin. He was standing up on the bowspirit of the ship and the Captain of the vessel was standing just behind him, hands on his hip and a growing annoyance in his eyes.

Wilbur relented, his boots hitting the bed with a thud as he hopped down to stand beside the Captain. He fixed the older man with an innocent look and a charming smile, “I do apologize Captain. I love the sea so much that I sometimes cannot help myself.”

The Captain regarded him with a knowing look and sighed, “Just please refrain from doing it in the future. It makes the crew nervous. None of us want to report to his Majesty that his requested musician fell overboard.”

“Of course Captain!” Wilbur saluted, mockingly.

The Captain opened his mouth, no doubt to reprimand the action, but was stopped by a frantic call from above.

“Captain! Captain! Skull and crossbones on the horizon!”

The Captain whirled into action, turning full circle to run to the helm. Curious, Wilbur followed closely.

“Pirates?” He asked, excitedly but none around him seemed to share his enthusiasm.

The Captain shot him a sharp look, wordlessly taking the spyglass that was handed to him. He looked through it, curses falling from his lips.

“It’s the bloody Speedrunner!” The Captain announced, turning for the wheel. He started to bark orders. Raise the sails, all hands on deck. “Mr. Soot below deck!” was the Captain’s last order.

Wilbur protested but the Captain cut him off. “Sir, whether you like it or not, you are under my command until you reach shore and you will do as I say and I’m telling you to go below deck.”

Wilbur was escorted below deck, not before he got a peak at the fastly approaching vessel. The light vibrant green sails of the ship stood in stark contrast to the jolly roger waving above them. ‘Tacky’ Wilbur thought as he was ushered below deck.

-

Try as she might, the merchant vessel was no match for the speed of the pirate ship. The Captain gritted his teeth as soon, his crew and his ship was completely taken over by the ragtag group of pirates.

“Dream,” The Captain gritted out with annoyance, heedless of the gun and cutlasses that were pointed at him and his crew. Dream usually never spilt blood during his raids and the Captain had been at sea long enough, had met with the pirate in these exact situations enough times, to know that the show of aggression was all bluff.

The Pirate Captain wasn’t much. He was tall and slim and didn’t even look or dress like a Captain. He wore dirty ragged clothes, a lime green bandana tied around his head to keep his dirty blond hair pulled back. He also wore a mask over the lover portion of his face, hiding all but his emerald green eyes from view. No one had ever seen his face and if they had, rumors had it they never lived to tell about it.

The Captain had no intention of doing that. He just watched the cocky pirate as he sauntered up to him.

“Sparklez!” Dream greeted happily, throwing his hands out, “what a surprise that we ran into each other again while you were transporting goods!”

Captain Sparklez pinched the bridge of his nose, insisting tiredly, “Just get what you came to get and leave”

Dream was grinning under his mask as he laughed, “Glad we have an understanding Captain,” he turned to a couple of his crew, “Alright boys, you heard the Captain, go see what’s below deck for the taking!”

A couple of the crew, a slightly shorter man with dark hair and a white headband tied around his head, a thin man with glasses and wearing a black, red trimmed, cloak, and another pirate that appeared to be in a full reindeer costume, headed below deck.

Captain Sparklez hoped they didn’t discover Wilbur but his hopes were dashed when muffled shouting sounded from below.

“What the hell?” Dream demanded, going to the stairs to call down, “Everything okay!”

“Look what we found!” Came the replying yell moments before the pirates were reappearing and dragging Wilbur with them. “He was trying to hide behind the salmon.”

Wilbur was pushed before the pirate captain. Wilbur looked up with wide eyes. Dark brown met emerald green. Both seem to freeze.

“Got something you wanna tell us Captain Sparklez?” The pirate in the black cloak asked, suspiciously. He glanced at Wilbur then his own Captain, who was still frozen.

“The boy is headed to Britian. He’s but a musician who hired me to ferry him.” Captain Sparklez answered hastily. He also was looking at Wilbur and Dream. “He is an innocent bystander in all of this.”

The pirate opened his mouth, possibly to ask more questions but he was cut off by his Captain.

‘Who are you?” Dream asked Wilbur, his voice soft and held none of the cockiness it had before.

Both crews, pirate and merchant, looked at the two with raised eyebrows and some with shocked expressions.

“Wilbur. Wilbur Soot.” Wilbur answered earnestly and Captain Sparklez facepalmed and muttered, “Boy, don’t engage with the pirate.”

“Why?” Wilbur asked, glancing at Sparklez, “He’s interesting.”

Laughter erupted from Dream. “Yeah Sparklez,” He said, his voice playful and teasing as he looked at the merchant ship’s Captain, “I’m interesting.”

“Please don’t feed his ego.” One of the pirates, a man dressed in light blue with a pair of goggles covering his eyes, warned in exasperation and Dream whirled around to face him.

“Oh shut up George, he can feed my ego as much as he wants to.” Dream demanded though the grin was evident in his voice. George just rolled his eyes at his Captain. Dream turned back, winking at Wilbur, who’s cheeks colored pink.

“So Mr. Soot, you do music?” Dream asked, conversationally as he leant against the mast of the ship.

“Dream, what about the cargo?” The pirate with the white headband asked and Dream waved him off with an order, “Start loading it on the Speedrunner obviously.”

“Dumbass,” the pirate muttered before motioning to a few of the crew and they disappeared below deck.

“I… I uh… yeah.” Wilbur muttered, “I’m actually on my way right now to perform for his Majestic at the castle.”

Dream whistled, impressed, “You’re Mr. Popular then aren’t you?”

Wilbur laughed softly, shaking his head. His brown curls bouncing on top of his head, “Something like that”

“What are some of your songs? Perhaps I’ve heard some of them?” Dream questioned. A crash was heard and his attention snapped to his crew and the box of produce that was now spilling out over the deck, hollering, “Hey be careful with the goods. We need those!”

“Sorry Captain.”

Dream turned back to Wilbur, “Sorry. Go ahead.”

“Let’s see there’s Jubilee Line, Since I Saw Vienna, Soft Boy, Saline Solution, Maybe I was Boring.”

“I’ve heard that one!” Dream exclaimed, eyes shining, “Maybe I was Boring. It was being sung in one of the pirate owned taverns. The guy singing it was trying to pass it off as one of his own but he didn’t look smart enough to come up with something so beautiful.”

“Yes well, as I’m sure you are well aware, there are thieves in every trade I’m afraid,” Wilbur sighed before he seemed to catch the last part of the sentence, “Wait you think my song is beautiful?”

“That’s not the only thing I think is beautiful,” Dream’s voice dropped as he reached up and closed the space between them. They were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Callahan was standing to the side, he looked apologetic.

“I do not mean to alarm anyone and I certainly hate to break up whatever is transpiring between the two of you, Captain but there is a ship on the horizon. Looks like the Navy.”

Wilbur was left at the mast as Dream stepped quickly to the side of the ship and took the spyglass from George. He looked through it, muttering out a curse before barking, “Everyone back to the ship!”

His crew reached instantly.

“What about this ship?” the pirate in the white headband asked almost eagerly as he headed for the ropes that connected the two ships together, “You said we could start sinking them.”

“What?!” Sparklez’s outraged voice rose up as panicked murmurs rose up from the crew. Wilbur’s breath caught in his throat.

“Not this one,” Dream said, his voice steeled with finality. Emerald eyes met dark brown once more, “Today this ship was saved by a distracting handsome face and everything else. So long for now and Mr. Soot? I’m sure you and I will meet again in the future”

Dream gave a little salute before joining his crew and soon the Speedrunner was just a speck in the distance as the Naval ship approached.

Wilbur stood at the bow of the ship, watching as the pirate ship disappeared in the distance. A soft smile on his lips and his whole body was warmed. The pirate captain certainly was charming wasn’t he.

“Charming?” Sparklez repeated with alarm as the Naval ship pulled up alongside them and Wilbur realized that he must’ve uttered the sentence out loud. A hand fell on his shoulder and the Captain leaned down to speak quietly, a warning, “Son let me tell you something, no matter how ‘charming’ he may be, at the end of the day he’s a pirate and you need to stay well away from him. He’s dangerous, not only in general, but also to your career.”

Wilbur tried to heed Captain Sparklez warning but he couldn’t get his mind off the oddly charming pirate. He hoped that Dream was being sincere when he said they would meet each other again because he was looking forward to it.

#dreambur #pirate au #writing prompt request #dream #wilbur soot #mcyt fanfiction #kitty writes

[ahsokasshoto]

gold: a bad batch fanfic

word count: 1,362

content: no romantic relationship, lots of dialogue, nothing but fluff and brubbers being sweet together, takes place between clone wars and bad batch (ps if you recognize the Coleridge homage in this please marry me)

summary: The Batch has some time off and they've decided to take a beach vacation. Echo is self-conscious about his cybernetics, and Tech comforts him through the power of music and brotherly love.

song: gold by fyfe and iksa strings ao3

"It's said that this bay in particular is known for the number of rare specimens which can be observed. I'm hoping we will see an emerald water snake." 

Echo sighed, shaking his head as he sat sullenly on his bunk. Tech had been babbling away like this for several minutes, detailing every aspect of their vacation spot. They had some days off and wanted to do something to relax, and everyone was excited about the idea of a beach vacation. 

Everyone except for Echo. 

"And did you know that there is a species of bioluminescent algae which blooms only once a cycle? If my calculations are correct, we should be arriving right in the middle of this cycle's--why aren't you ready yet?”

Tech interrupted himself as he came into their shared bunk space and saw Echo, sitting on the edge of the bunk, still wearing his blacks as well as a sour expression.  

Echo crossed his arms, looking away from his brother. "I'm staying on the ship." 

"What?" Tech pushed his goggles up on his nose. "What do you mean? This is supposed to be our vacation!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I need a vacation from all of you," Echo retorted. 

Tech rolled his eyes. "Your response is disingenuous, and indicative of a larger problem." He sighed and sat down next to his brother. "What is really going on?" he insisted.

"Maybe I'm just worried about all the water and sand screwing with my cybernetics."

Tech shook his head. "Wrong again. You know I applied a hydrophobic spray and sealant on your cybernetics."

Echo grunted, trying to turn further away from his brother. Tech responded by slowly reaching out, gently uncrossing Echo's arms and turning him back towards himself to look him in the eyes. Echo still cast his eyes down, avoiding his brother's gaze. 

"I don't want to be stared at, okay?" 

"Oh." Tech immediately looked away, a light tinge flushing his cheeks. "My apologies--"

"I don't mean by you, or our brothers. I mean by…" he gestured around vaguely, "everyone else. All anyone sees when they look at me now are my cybernetics. My battle. My scars. You said it yourself; I'm 'more machine than man' now, aren't I?"

"Percentage-wise, yes," Tech responded quickly, unthinking. Echo merely huffed in response. 

Tech's brow furrowed in a wave of thought and emotion. It appeared his words had caused his brother pain, and he was frustrated with himself for being so callous. He was only ever trying to be factual. He sighed softly. 

"That was the incorrect response. I did not mean--"

"I know what you meant. And I know what they see."

"Well, who cares what they see? I don't see you as a machine, Echo."

Echo looked up at Tech then, his eyes searching. "What do you see, Tech?" Echo was genuinely asking. Tech could be so forthright about everything but himself; you had to be direct. 

Suddenly, as if guided by the force, the memory of a song came floating into Tech's mind. 

"If life were a song, you're my favorite line...I wish that you could see you like I see you all the time," he sang softly. His voice was light and airy and sweet. He took Echo's scomp link in his gentle hands, fingers delicately flitting over the cybernetics, absent-mindedly making minor adjustments.

"No damage beyond a brother's delight," he continued, "I wish you knew your scars are precious too, no need to hide."

He looked Echo in the eyes then, a soft smile on his lips. "I see them like gold," he finished in a quiet, reverent whisper.

Echo watched Tech slowly reach out a hand towards his face; felt the fluttering of fingers on his cheeks brushing away the teardrops. 

He hadn't noticed he was crying.  

"It doesn't matter how anyone else looks at you. Because the people who matter will see you."  

Echo released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "The last person to sing for me like that was Fives."

Tech's eyes filled with worry. "I apologize if I brought on any painful memories--"

"No." Echo shook his head, then smiled over at his brother. "They're good memories." He threw an arm over Tech's shoulders; Tech felt Echo's weight shift against him as he relaxed. "Thank you, brother."

They sat there together for a few more quiet moments. "Besides," Tech piped up after a fashion, "if my calculations are correct, which they are, and we are able to witness this algal bloom, I don't think anyone will be looking at you, or any of us. It's said to be quite magnificent."

Echo chuckled at the normalcy of his brother always circling back to the data of it all. And Tech grinned, pleased with himself that he was able to cheer his brother up. 

"Alright, alright, I'm convinced," Echo said. "But this algae thing better be worth it."

Tech grinned wider, standing up to leave Echo to finish getting ready. "Oh, it will be. You'll see."

Echo's heart still hammered in his chest as he made his way down to the shore to join his brothers. Hunter and Crosshair were busy with getting a fire going to cook some meat over. Tech wandered up and down the beach with his nose in his holopad, presumably taking notes on all of those rare specimens he'd been talking about. Wrecker, of course, was already splashing about in the sea.

There were other people around as well--some couples, some families with their kids, some friends--but they were all so busy in enjoying the beach themselves, none of them gave Echo and his cybernetics a second thought.

He relaxed a little, silently chastising himself for being so worried in the first place. 

"There you are!" Wrecker called to him, waving excitedly from the water. "Come on, let's test that hydro-whatever Tech made! The water's great!" 

Hunter and Crosshair smiled at him as he came down the beach. "Food's gonna be ready soon," Hunter told him. 

"Oh! Tech, is that one of your snakes? Hold on, I'm gonna try to catch it!" "No, wait, they can be very territorial--" They could hear Wrecker and Tech shouting from the water. 

"Please go occupy Wrecker before he does something truly stupid," Crosshair asked Echo. "Alright, alright," Echo chuckled, making his way down towards the water.

"Haha! Got ya! Oh…" Wrecker looked up, eyes wide to see Echo completely covered with water from where Wrecker had splashed, trying and failing to catch one of the snakes. The cool water actually felt refreshing on his skin, and the water rolled right off his cybernetics without getting inside. "Looks like your hydrophobic spray is working!" he called to Tech. 

"Of course it is," his brother responded, not looking up from his datapad, but there was a soft smile on his face. 

Echo smiled too. The heat of the sun bearing down on the beach was no match for the warmth spreading through Echo, glad to be here and be himself among his brothers.

And Tech was not wrong about the algal bloom. The five clones stood together on the beach as the dusk softly descended down around them, and the beach slowly twinkled to life as the algae gathered at the shoreline began to glow with a delicate golden light.

"They look like stars," Echo whispered, admiring the way the algae dotted across the dark water. 

"I told you," Tech replied smugly. Echo could only chuckle and throw his arm around his brother again. Tech pulled Hunter in with his other arm, and Echo threw his other around Wrecker, who dragged Crosshair in as well until they were all standing, arms linked, appreciating this sea full of stars. 

Echo smiled too. The heat of the sun bearing down on the beach was no match for the warmth spreading through him, glad to be here and be himself among his brothers. 

"Oh, look, look!" Tech exclaimed excitedly as a couple of water snakes began to dance across the surface; from the shore, the brothers watched as they moved in tracks of shining light which glanced off their glossy green forms like glittering flakes when they reared. They coiled and swam and every track was a flash of golden fire. 

Tech's words reverberated in Echo's mind, and he hummed softly to himself, 

"I see them like gold…" 

tags: @itsjml @eyecandyeoz @kratosfan6632466 @archisstically-done @sstarwarsss @aspiring-spellcaster @captxin-rex hmm i can't think of who else to tag so lmk if you want to be tagged on future fics!

#tech fic #echo fic #tbb fic #tbb fanfiction #the bad batch fanfiction #clone trooper echo #clone trooper tech #clone trooper wrecker #clone trooper hunter #clone trooper crosshair #the bad batch #clone force 99 #cf99 #tbb #i cant hear this song without thinking of echo

[tragedy-for-sale]

Wild Blue

Look, it's not everyday I give you wholesome shit, hell not even every month. But you got luckily... apparently. Boys playing in the water and being stupid? Yes please, I think we need this.

◈ ━━━━━━ ◆ ━━━━━━ ◈

The boys didn't often have a minute to themselves, but when they did, when they had free time, Havoc was never quiet. "I'm saying it's impractical to wear our armor when we don't have a mission, we have civilian attire for a reason, Echo." Tech rolled his eyes, he, as you imagine, was not wearing his armor nor his blacks, but whatever clothes they'd stolen over the years. "... and if we want to go steal stuff, we'll blend in perfectly with the population." Tech smiled, knowing he and Echo had made plans to do just that.

Echo frowned, "Yeah whatever." He crossed his arms, pouting as he tried to think of something witty as a way to insult Tech, but that thought was quickly interrupted, "Uh Wrecker, why are you carrying around Hunter?" Echo asked, looking up from his holopad. Tech also looked up, the smallest smile on his face.

"Oh!" Wrecker's smile grew, "He was just sitting there so I picked him up, he's just living in the moment now! See." Wrecker then turned around.

Hunter, who looked as if he had been sleeping, lifted his head, "How's it hanging?" He smiled, waving softly. Echo chuckled a little, hand to his mouth to try to hide it. Hunter then let his head fall again, maybe he was trying to sleep.

"He likes it!" Wrecker said as he turned back around.

"Yeah!" Hunter assured, there was a little laugh in his voice, it was as if they were cadets again. Wrecker always picked him up. Hunter had been pretty weirded out the first time Wrecker did pick him up. But he'd gotten used to, Hunter was never doing anything better and Wrecker also took him to the right place. Where ever his brothers were.

Crosshair peaked his head out from the doorway, and with a giddy laugh he ran up to Wrecker and jumped, "Me too!" He would've tackled Wrecker to the ground, but Wrecker wasn't caught off guard. Also, Crosshair is not strong enough to knock Wrecker off his feet.

"Ah! I got 'em both!" Wrecker laughed, picking Crosshair up and slinging him over his other shoulder. Crosshair took a minute to ensure he wouldn't fall, once he did he looked down to Hunter and fist bumped him. "Time to go!" Wrecker started moving, getting nonstop laughs from his brothers. Tech and Echo trailed closely behind as Wrecker ran outside the ship.

"Just run and jump on him, you'll fit." Tech prompted, taking note on how Echo eyeballed the three.

"Oh no, I couldn't." Echo shook his head. Tech gave him a shove, "Oh fine!" He huffed, running and jumping up on Wrecker's back. "I'm here-!" Crosshair and Hunter both made sure Echo wouldn't fall, their hands on his back that only moved once he felt he wouldn't fall.

"Ah!" Wrecker laughed, adjusting to the weight of another brother. "Tech you coming?" He turned around and looked at his brother. Hunter lifted his head, almost falling in the process. Echo was holding onto Wrecker's head and Crosshair was just sitting there, sticking his tongue out at Tech.

"...I don't think there is anymore room, so..." He stated, a small smile creeping on his face as he came up with an excellent idea. "...See ya, losers!" Tech laughed as he bolted the other direction towards the lake they'd landed nearby. As he ran, he threw his helmet at his brothers, luckily Echo caught it before it hit Wrecker. Who was charging full speed after Tech into the water.

When Wrecker had ran deep enough into the water, he flung his brothers off, sending them flying into the lake. Wrecker then picked up Tech, "Can't escape me, brother!" he laughed as dunked Tech's head underwater, then dropping him.

Tech floated back up to the surface, lifting his goggles up to wipe his eyes, he then threw them to shore. "How about we play a game of- Shit!" He screamed as Crosshair, who was underwater, yanked on Tech's leg and made him fall again. Crosshair emerged and burst out laughing.

Hunter had Echo on his shoulders, they were going after Wrecker, the two tackled their older brother, he plunged into the water. He stayed underwater for much longer than he should have. "Uh oh." Hunter said as he scanned the water trying to see Wrecker under the water. "Echo abort! Save yourself!" Hunter cried as Echo jumped off, swimming to safety with Crosshair. As soon as Echo was gone, Hunter was pulled under the water, Wrecker waved to him before swimming up. Hunter lingered there for a minute before he resurfaced.

When he did, he saw his brothers playing chicken, which is what Tech was going to suggest before Crosshair interrupted him. He came over, watching them, a smile on his face. Crosshair lost against Echo, falling off Tech's shoulders and into the water. Hunter then intervened, allowing Tech to get on his shoulders for round two.

As you can imagine, the boys went about this until the sun had set. Echo and Tech had completely forgotten about their plan to rob several stores of their foods and alcohols. "...But could we even buy alcohol? 'Cause at 79's they know we're clones" Echo asked, he was laying on the ground with Tech, the two were stargazing, "Also, we don't have IDs and like, we're all twelve."

Tech turned his head, chuckling softly, "No, I don't think we could, that's why we made a plan to steal it, Vod." He rolled his eyes, flicking Echo's head.

"You were going to steal something without me?" Crosshair asked, sounding genuinely offended. He stood by their heads, looking down, he had plates of food in his arms. They two of them made Crosshair get them food, he was the youngest, he had no choice.

"Damn right." Echo smiled as he sat up, taking a plate, "Thanks bubba." He said, grabbing a fork and taking a bite of Hunter's 'infamous but not really 'cause it's Hunter's mac-n-cheese.' Tech took his plate and also thanked Crosshair, who sat down with them.

"The night is still young, we can go, but it's almost your bedtime, Crosshair, you'd have to ask Hunter." Tech smirked, eyeballing Crosshair as he took a bite of his food.

Crosshair shot Tech a defeated glare, he tried to be offended, but he failed. He made a face before turning his head, "Hunter! They wanna go steal stuff, can I go?!" He yelled. Echo and Tech burst out laughing, not expecting him to actually do it. He did it out of spite. Hunter would say yes and then they'd have to take him.

Hunter turned his head away from the grill, "What? Yeah, just don't do anything to the population!" He called back before turning back to Wrecker. "Yeah, so I was tellin' Tech that just because he's smart doesn't mean he can tie his shoes."

Wrecker nodded, "Exactly, doing algebra scary fast doesn't mean you can get all of us ready to fight in fifteen minutes before a battle." Wrecker took another bite of the mac-n-cheese, looking over to his brothers, who were all laughing together over in the dirt.

"You get me," Hunter said, "It's not about book smart, it's about street smarts."

"But I don't know shit about streets-"

"Not actually streets," Hunter shook his head, "... I think." He mumbled before shoving his face with food to avoid questions. Wrecker nodded, very wise was his little brother.

"Anyway, look at Crosshair, can you believe him?" Hunter shook his head, making eye contact with Crosshair, who had gotten up and had come towards the two.

"What did I do?" Crosshair asked, "I just wanted more food." He whined, shuffling to them as Hunter set down his plate, took Crosshair's and gave him more food.

"I can't believe you, you're atrocious." Wrecker gave Crosshair a soft shove, Crosshair tried to hide his grin as Hunter handed him his plate.

"Oh yeah, I'm terrible, ya'll should just leave me on Kamino one of these days." He laughed as he turned away, walking back to Tech and Echo.

"What an idiot."

"Ugh, I know right?"

The two shared another laugh and continued to diss their little brothers, but luckily, they were doing the same thing. "Yeah, no, Hunter's hair? Nothing special, now General Skywalker is fucking ugly," They all nodded in agreement as Echo spoke, "But he knows how to do his hair. Hunter needs to use better conditioner, the general would go to Amidala's place and come back smelling like an angel." Which helped with his face.

"I agree, in comparison to General Skywalker, Hunter's looks are not on a vomit-inducing scale." Tech added, stacking his empty plate on top of Echo's also empty plate.

"But he's still ugly."

"Oh, very."

Crosshair laughed as he chewed, trying his best not to choke. "Can we go now?" He said when he'd finished eating. Tech and Echo both glared at him for a solid thirty seconds before nodding and getting up. Crosshair got up, having to catch up with them. They dropped their plates off. Echo and Tech simply said they were heading out, but Crosshair lingered, "We'll be back, I- I can do the dishes when we get back," He muttered, "Uh, bye."

"Bye, bubba." Hunter smiled, waving Crosshair off. Crosshair had a giddy smile, giving them a nod and a thumbs up before turning around and running after Tech and Echo, who were practically already out of sight.

"Hey! You assholes!" Crosshair screamed as he ran after them, "Wait! I'm scared of the dark!" He called as he caught up with them. Wrecker and Hunter smiled fondly. It was a good day.

"....Crosshair isn't gonna do the dishes." Hunter said once they'd stood there in silence for several minutes.

"Yeah, no he isn't." Wrecker agreed as he helped Hunter clean up. Wrecker loaded their grill back up as Hunter took the plates and food back inside. "We'll make Tech do them." Wrecker called as he locked the compartment the grill was in, he then headed back inside, "Hide his armor so he'll have motivation." Wrecker suggested once he was back inside. Hunter was putting the dishes in the sink, he looked up to Wrecker and chuckled,

"Good idea!"

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#what do hunter and wrecker do without their brothers #do echo tech and crosshair get away with stealing booze? #found out in the next episode of Wild Blue #this episode was brought to you by #sibling interactions #references to memes #clones thinking Anakin is ugly as hell #and happy crosshair #who everyone collectively calls 'bubba' #I make the rules and I enforce them #okay but no angst #wtf #that's what I'm known for #clones #star wars #clone wars #tcw #sw #bad batch #tech #the bad batch #wrecker #Crosshair #Hunter #Echo #also them all collectively bullying each other? #yes please #you have been fed well