#personally i think it would be great if he survived the bad batch and then died in kenobi

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

RIP, my dude

#commander cody #the bad batch season 2 #tbb #tbb spoilers #kenobi #obi wan kenobi #star wars #personally i think it would be great if he survived the bad batch and then died in kenobi #because then rex would be living thru his rebels era not knowing if cody is out there somewhere #he could have been on any of the imperial ships that the rebels blow up as far as rex knows #when in fact he's been dead for a couple of years or longer #the bad batch

[echo-lover]

Hello there!

A few of my favorite Star Wars headcanons about clones

• Parental instinct

I've noticed that some clones have a highly developed paternal instinct.

I think Cut with his little family is not only one.

Hunter showed concern for childrens safety from the very beginning, like Kaleb and Gungi (surviving Wookie Jedi). He looks after Omega like his own daughter, as do the rest of the Bad Batch. Hunter definitely plays the role od father in his team as a responsible and a little overprotective leader.

Echo is the most mature in my opinion and in my eyes he will always be a mommy.

Waxer immediately felt the need to care for the newly met child and had no problem with hugging or comforting little Numa when she started crying. I just know that he loved children and secretly dreamed of starting a family, but he put himself entirely at being a soldier and protecting those who can not protect themselves.

Even Boil had grown strong bond owith Numa after some time and wanted to protect her at all costs.

I think Rex would also make a great father figure. He felt a strong need to take care of others. He acted as a mentor or an older brother for Ahsoka, and when he met Omega, he immediately got in touch with her. It's worth mentioning how he immediately stood between her and Bad Batch when he found out that the boys hadn't removed their chips yet. He remembered perfectly well what happened during Order 66. I'm sure he felt guilty that he had almost executed his longtime friend who trusted him with all her heart. He also felt responsible for his brothers who died in this tragic event.

I think this paternal instinct comes straight from Jango Fett's genes, who cared for Boba and loved him, and adopt him as his son. Jango asked specifily for him and knew from the very beggining that he want to adopt this kid. The Mandalorian culture is known for being easily attached to children, and they often decided to adopt kids, as fathers and mothers, and raise them like their own.

• Overprotective Hunter

Hunter is, in my opinion, the most sensitive and emotionally mature of the Bad Batch. He can read the feelings of others, especially those closest to him, so he always knew when something was wrong. Perhaps his enhanced senses have something to do with this.

He also has a tendency to be overprotective.

As a leader, he put the good of the squad before his own. I'm sure that running and hiding from the Empire, the constant pressure on his shoulders, was very tiring for him.

Hunter tried to protect Omega and his brothers the best way he could. That's why, the loss of any member of his family was a hard shoot in the heart for him. He sees it as a personal failure, as he failed his loved ones. He may start to think that Crosshair's words as true, that maybe he shouldn't be the leader, but he hasn't told anyone about his feelings and his own doubts.

But I think Echo knew... Echo knew that Hunter was worried and tired of the constant responsibility.

• Hunter and his senses

Hunter is a synesthete. This means that what he feels with one of his senses also affects the others. For example: he sees sounds, he can taste colors or numbers have colors for him. His synesthesia is a side effect of his enhanced senses.

Due to his heightened senses, Hunter also felt pain more intense than the other clones.

I still remember the moment Omega snuggled up to him after rescuing her when she was kidnapped by Cad Bane. Hunter winced in pain for a moment as his chest wound still was fresh. He had been shot with a blaster and almost get himself k!lled, and yet the most important thing to him was Omega. He ignored his own discomfort and focused fully on Omega, making sure nothing happened to his little girl. The expression of pain quickly turned into relief.

• Family

Some time after Omega joined the Bad Batch, they agreed on the role of family members:

Omega is their little sister, of course Hunter play the role of a father, while Echo is hailed as a mother. Our grumpy little bean muttered something about this being stupid idea at first, but in the end he liked being called mommy Echo.

Echo is a great addition to this crazy squad. He is the most experienced and can keep his family in line. It will never stop to amaze me how much good and love is hidden in the heart of a man who has never known a moment of comfort in his life and to whom no one has ever shown love. His physical and mental health were very bad after the events at Skako Minor. There was almost nothing left of the inexperienced Reg from the 501st Legion. Despite this, he will always remain my favorite character in all of Star Wars universe.

Wrecker is basically a second baby and needs to be looked after more than Omega, because if you let him out of your sight for a moment, he'll probably make a big mess.

Wrecker had the mind of a child trapped in the body of a large man. He is strong and could cause fear, but he have a soft heart. He cared for those closest to him, especially Omega. When his little sister was having a bad day and was sad, Wrecker was the first to make her laugh and even shared Lula, his beloved doll, with her.

I like to think that Tech and Crosshair are sort of twins (like Echo and Fives) they're a great duo and I miss their interaction so much. Tech, as the wise one, did not get in the way of the others, offering his advice when needed. Crosshair, on the other hand, although he seems cold and very distant, I think he would quickly like Omega and become a supportive, slightly sarcastic brother to her.

• Crosshair is not as cold as he looks

Crosshair hated being different, and called a freak from the very beggining. All his life he tried to blend in, to do his job well as a soldier, and as a member of the team. He didn't show it, but he was touched by other people's words about their group, different look, and specific abilities. That's why he hated Regs so much, he wanted to prove his worth to them. And also to himself.

When I saw Crosshair for the first time, I thought that he must have quite low self-esteem and become nervous in stressful situations. Whenever he took off his helmet, we saw him immediately reach for a toothpick. He felt the need to have something in his mouth to relieve the stress and tension in his body. He always seemed to me to be the type of perfectionist who pays great attention to detail and will practice until he achieves perfection in a specific field.

Despite his specific style, Crosshair wasn't as cold as he seemed. He really cared about Omega, and I'm sure that if they had the chance to spend more time together, Crosshair would like the girl and treat her like his little sister. He will destroy anyone who tries to harm Omega.

I also think that Crosshair secretly loves animals, especially cats. I imagined that it started with Wrecker once bring a white, homeless kitten to the Marauder. The animal started fawning at Crosshair's legs and refused to leave him even for a second. In the end, Cross liked it, petted him and cuddled with him, and even let him sleep in bed with him. Having a pet was a stress reliever for him. He named his kitten Alpine.

• The past still hurts, just as much as before

Echo often had terrible nightmares. We can see in the Bad Batch, that his PTSD was still very strong. Every contact with medical equipment could trigger a severe panic attack and anxiety. Fortunately, Omega was there to support him at the time. I'm always touched that even though Echo didn't know Omega back then, he trusted her enough that her presence really helped him come back to reality and understand that he was safe.

I'm sure that he had nightmares about being tortured and locked at Skako Minor, and also dreamed of Fives. I think because of this he may have even been afraid to fall asleep, and as a result he slept very little.

He missed his brother so much and blamed himself for not being there when he died. Echo was afraid of being locked up and deprived of help, so he tried to get involved as much as possible in the fight against the Empire. I think that was one of the main reasons he went back to Rex.

I also think that Echo and Tech had long conversations and spent a lot of time together while repairing or piloting the ship. They got along the best of the whole team and only with Tech, Echo felt relaxed enough to be able to talk about his feelings and problems he was struggling with. Tech never asked, like the overprotective Hunter, he just listened, and that was enough for Echo to discover a soul mate similar to his fallen brother, Fives.

I imagine one night Tech found out that Echo couldn't sleep and asked him what happened. Echo was so surprised that someone actually asked him how he felt that he didn't know what to say at first. He finally decided to open up and confess what was on his mind. Tech understood him and they became very close from then on. That's why Echo suffered so much after losing Tech. He felt as if he had lost half of his soul again.

I imagine that, Echo was the only one from the Bad Batch to still use Mando'a. He and Fives used to speak this language among themselves. Fives nicknamed him Ech'ika (little Echo). Now, Echo used to call Omega ad'ika. After Fives death, Echo sang an old anthem - Vode an (Brothers all) to honor the memory of his fallen brother. They had learned it when they were still cadets and used to sing it together before going into battle and all 501st knew the lyrics. This is one of my favorite headcanons.

I'm sure that Echo got a tattoo of a five in honor of Fives' death. In this way he always carried his brother with him and wanted to honor his memory.

• Nightmares

Omega took a while to get used to her new home after leaving Kamino. I imagine she often had nightmares that made her afraid to go to sleep alone. Hunter saw that and let the little girl sleep with him. He told her some stories about the planets they had visited on missions, and the bond between them grew stronger. He didn't admit it, but he had fond memories of those times together.

• Fives and his twin

If Fives survived, he would be the first to side with Rex to save Echo. Seeing his beloved brother alive, but connected to computer and badly hurt, he would be both happy and devastated at the same time. Fives would do absolutely anything to be reunited with his beloved twin, even if the whole Galaxy was against him and thought he's crazy.

After being rescued, Fives would make sure Echo was fewling comfortable and help him overcome his PTSD episodes. Then he would join the Bad Batch with Echo, because he didn't wanted him to feel different. Despite some problems, the Bad Batch accepted them as their own and they became very close, like family. I pictured them sitting around fire and how they shared stories from various missions together.

Then Fives saw that Echo was trully happy. He hugged him close, and when Echo asked what happened, Fives simply replied, "I'm just happy you're here, vod'ika. That's all."

• Astronomy lesson

Tech taught Omega astronomy. How to read sky maps and name constellations. They often sat together at night, watching the sky. Hunter would get a little angry when they stay up too late, fearing that both his brother and little sister would be sick, but his anger faded quickly when he saw the smile on Omega's face. Papa Hunter would do anything to make his little girl happy.

• Two captains

Howzer is Rex's twin, like Fives and Echo. They are giving the same vibe. They trained together from an early age, still as cadets, and then the war separated them. They are also very similar in character. Courageous and great leaders, they do not abandon their people until the very end. I feel they would get along pretty well.

• Brothers for life

Cody was like an older brother to Rex. His ore'vod. He trusted him the most of all the clones.They were inseparable from the beginning of the war and became very close after the Umbara ARC. I imagine Cody was comforting a devastated Rex. He knew perfectly well that under the mask of captain's determination there was a lot of pain and suffering after loss of many brothers. They were both good people who saw a lot of evil and death in their lives. They carried mourning in their hearts and finaly were able tolet go all their emotions. It was the first time Rex had let tears flow in his brother's arms. He felt loved and safe, and Cody didn't let him go for a long time. From this moment, they looked at each other a bit differently, carefully analyzing the other's emotions and making sure that everything was okay. Besides being strong and serious leaders, they were caring and loving brothers on the inside.

Also, I just know that they were having small competition. The 501st and 212th were competing against each other as to which legion/batalion was more effective in combat. General Kenobi and Anakin secretly supported this fun game.

• Suffering medic

Kix put a lot of pressure on himself as a medic. He wanted to save as many lives as possible and not let a single soldier die. He always fought to the very end, refusing to rest until the last man was healed. Each death of his brother was equally painful for him and he treated it as a personal failure.

Umbara left a huge mark on him. He failed. So many of his brothers had fallen, and he worked until he was breathless. Only when he was so exhausted, that he could no longer stand on his own, he agreed to take a break.

Kix sat alone against the wall, looking at his hands, and cried quietly. His hands and armor were covered with the blood of his brothers. Some of them were badly hurt, others didn't make it. Kix wished he were in their place right now and felt guilty. It was hard for him to be the one that survived.

He didn't know how long he sat like that, but at one moment he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and a calm voice that he recognized immediately. It was Jesse. His best friend, his brother... Jesse told him that he did everything he could, that it wasn't his fault, but Kix wasn't convinced.

Then Jesse, seeing how bad his brother's condition was, that he started shaking, without thinking much, he wrapped his arms around Kix, pulling him into a tight hug. The medic did not protest and gave vent to his emotions and helplessness. It was the first time anyone was interested in his health. He had always been responsible for others and now someone was taking care of him. It felt nice, warm... Kix hugged back his brother and they both know that they feel the same way.

#clone wars #bad batch #headcanon #clones #captain rex #commander cody #hunter bad batch #tbb echo #tech bad batch #tbb crosshair #captain howzer #star wars #headcanons #family #brothers in arms

[kybercrystals94]

Scars and Toothpicks

By KyberCrystals94

Read here on Ao3!

Whumptober 2023 | Day 27 | Prompt 27: Scars

Rating: G

Words: 755

Summary: Omega worries about losing her brothers again.

[Author’s Note: Let’s just pretend for a minute that Tech survived the fall (which I am 100% on board that train, don’t get me wrong), and that Crosshair, Omega, and Tech have all been rescued…this story takes place after that. Okay? Great! Read on…]

Omega has a tiny scar on the outer edge of her left wrist. It is thin, slightly raised, and a touch lighter than the warm color of her skin. She doesn’t remember how she got it, or even when; but for as long as she can remember, she’s found herself rubbing it when she’s anxious, running her right index finger over it, back and forth.

She does it now, the imperfection soothing under her fingertip. “Do you think they’re alright?” she asks.

Crosshair sighs. “Why did you stay with me if you’re not going to be quiet?”

“I asked quietly,” Omega argues, pressing harder on the scar, making it feel more pronounced.

“They’re fine. Shush.”

Omega glares at her brother’s profile, sharp edged features that perfectly match his personality. She lets out a breath, louder than necessary, just to annoy him. By the glance he casts her, it works. She grins at her boots, but the gnawing anxiety in her stomach doesn’t go away, even with Crosshair’s reluctant reassurance.

She and Crosshair are on lookout while the rest of the batch works on the inside, searching for intel. It is a low-risk mission, Rex said; however, it's only been a few months since she, Crosshair and Tech were rescued from Hemlock. The internal and external wounds of their captivity still feel raw and exposed.

She can’t lose her brothers again.

She bites the inside of her cheek and keeps rubbing her scar.

Crosshair looks at her. “What?” he asks, a hiss.

“I didn’t say anything,” Omega protests indignantly.

“You keep messing with your wrist. What? Are you injured?” The question gives the impression of concern, even if the tone is discolored with ire.

Omega drops her hands. She hadn’t really realized she was doing it. “No,” she says, a grumble. “Just a nervous habit.”

Crosshair regards her for a moment more before turning back to the landscape. “I noticed.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

“In case you wanted to talk about it.”

“You said to be quiet.”

“Changed my mind.”

Even after spending weeks together in confinement, Omega still isn’t used to Crosshair’s bladed way of showing concern for his siblings, serrated but deep. It is so different from the rest of her brothers but comforting in its own way.

Omega shrugs, leaning back. “Just paranoid, I guess. I know nothing’s going to happen, but...something might.”

Crosshair reaches into his pocket and pulls out two toothpicks, flicking one at her. Omega catches it, barely, but she can’t help the triumphant grin. Crosshair smirks at her. “Don’t be so proud of yourself,” he mutters, putting his between his teeth.

Omega follows his example, grinding the toothpick between her teeth experimentally. “It tastes gross.”

“Is there a flavor of wood you prefer?” Crosshair snarks, and Omega wrinkles her nose at him. He chuckles and settles back beside her, eyes returning to their watch. “You know, something bad can happen anywhere...even that precious little bed of yours back on Pabu. You could fall out of it and break your neck. Are you going to be paranoid about that too?”

Omega rolls her eyes. “That’s different.”

“Is it?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm. I disagree.”

“You would,” Omega mutters.

“Ah, you know me so well,” Crosshair retorts. He elbows her. Not gently, but not hard enough to hurt. “My point is, kid, stop worrying about what could happen. It’s annoying, and it’s unhelpful. I should know.”

“Really?” Omega asks, looking up at him.

Crosshair pokes the scar on her wrist. “That’s your nervous habit, and this,” he takes out his toothpick, holding it out, “is mine.”

“Wrecker said you chew on toothpicks because you think it looks cool,” Omega says with a grin.

“Wrecker says a lot of ridiculous things.” Crosshair puts the toothpick back in his mouth.

“Are you nervous right now?” Omega asks.

“No,” Crosshair deadpans.

“But you just said...”

“I just said that worrying about what could happen is annoying and unhelpful,” Crosshair interrupts. “So, what are we going to do instead?”

Omega can’t decide if it is a trick question or rhetorical.

Crosshair rolls his eyes and says in a painfully slow voice, “We focus on the job we were given.”

“That’s it?” Omega asks.

“That’s it. Now, be quiet, or next time I’m going to make you go with Hunter, so you don’t bother me.”

Omega leans into him, resting her head against his shoulder. “You love me,” she singsongs.

“Don’t push it, kid,” Crosshair growls, but she feels his head rest on hers and smiles.

END

Tag List: @isthereanechoinhere96 @followthepurrgil @amorfista @mooncommlink

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#whumptober 2023 #Day 27 #Prompt 27 #Scars #star wars #the bad batch #star wars the bad batch #tbb omega #tbb crosshair #tech lives [mentioned] #post non-existent season 3 ;) #coping mechanism #nervous habits #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #star wars tbb #fics by kyber

[clonehub]

thinking about tbb for once in a neutral light and its because i was listening to a podcast where some film buffs/writers analyzed Silence of the Lambs, and I realized I've always had an appreciation where a character is in an interrogation of sorts (without it necessarily explicitly being that) and just watching them squirm. facing uncomfortable truths from a person whom you don't trust and having your understanding of yourself be meticulously torn to shreds by someone who might not even be doing it maliciously.

and in my head whenever these sorts of character interrogations happen, it's always by someone who has like. little to no stake in the interogee (??) changing their minds. for some reason i think of a very calm and calculating woman, one who's curious enough to ask these questions but not enough to be like super? invested in what happens afterwards--only that she's sensing a contradiction and she wants to explore/expose it.

so like w the bad batch. getting tech out of the way first im not gonna focus on him because atm i cant see any flaws in him, uneless he's like really confident to a fault at some point.

with wrecker it'd be rather straight forward and frankly manipulative--does your team respect you? are you the brother or the brawns? you might say "why not both", but what about every time they'd jabbed your intelligence or dismissed your concerns? and some other things

hunter...i think attacking how he views himself as a leader--if he's even a capable leader, if he's even making the right decisions for a child--would help to get under his skin, as well as "why do you keep ignoring the hole in your squad?"

echo wouldn't be so hard to pick apart if only because he already doesn't seem to be enjoying himself w the bad batch. his initial point of conflict is that he doesn't feel theyre doing enough to help others. this new conflict could be about how his skills as an ARC aren't being utilized; how he's often dismissed or ignored or patronized, and wouldn't it be better to both a) leave and be able to help people and b) get the respect he deserves? They dont outright hate him, but they still say "regs", don't they?

Crosshair would be fun, to be honest. He's so reactive to jabs at his pride/ego (like that normie death trooper talking about him being replaced). If he brings up how he's enhanced and he's superior, the lady would ask "how?". He'd give his reason and she would point out that he has one skill--one skill that is not even transferrable. "Jack of all trades, master of none--but better than a master of one". Is being good at one thing really an enhancement? the rest of the batch at least have some other skills/uses that can aid in things like survival. Are you better than anyone else when you can explicitly do less, in some ways, than the people you deride?

And this is something she'd pose to all of the bad batch. Again, roughly one skill each despite the description of "enhancements" and the ego that went with it. Are you really better?

(I wont' do Omega because frankly she's a kid and I don't see the point)

BUT guess what I'm throwing Rex and Ahsoka in here too.

I talk about Rex a lot but what would be great is to really jab his cognitive dissonance. "Is the Republic as good as you say? With the inequality rife on coruscant--let alone the rest of the galaxy?"

and i think she'd really attack his view that he's not a slave, but with a layer of actual concern for him. She wouldn't go about it nicely though--starting out with innocent-sounding questions about his sense of duty, whether or not he's dreamed of a life outside the army. Rex probably has in a neutral-curious way, but I don't think he'd admit that to her.

He'd also pick up on the angle she's getting at and try to preemptively argue, saying things like "we don't get to choose our path in life" and that he has to think beyond himself, outside himself because he has a duty to protect the citizens of coruscant. "Even though they neither protect nor respect you now?" "yes. Regardless. We don't have a choice."

And he doesn't mean it like that, but. She asks him to define a slave. He insists he isn't one. She points out his own words, his own speech--the fact that they're not citizens, they're hardly paid if at all, and they can't leave otherwise they'll be charged as committers of treason against a state that doesn't even register them as citizens. No legal or political protection, surveillance--where is the choice? Who's freedom is he fighting for?

Rex would argue back, especially if this is the younger rex we're talking about. Very much "I'm not a slave" and a Press X to Doubt face from the woman. 'you don't believe me." "I'm not sure you believe you, Rex."

But again, even with the real concern for him, she's not that invested. Her tone and body language throughout all of this is very calm, very chill, like she's asking about the weather.

and ahsoka! Younger ahsoka here, poking at her insecurity over her being too young and padawan to the chosen one. Her inexperience getting more people killed than necessary. I dont think I have much for her outside what was already addressed in the clone wars.

#ch posts #meta #all the bros #long post #hmm thinkin thinkin #i wanted to do anakin too but a) too long and b) he gets interrogated already #listen i see the like. the way these things are Shot the way theyre Set Up the force camera angle #just smack in the center its all about the body language the face the lack of physical ability to escape

[echoforpresident]

The bad batch but as Midnights song

So here is something absolutely no one asked for but here is what songs i think the batchers are on Midnights by Taylor Swift based on lyrics and vibes

Lavender haze - Omega

“All this shit is new to me”

Tell me this song is not her, I dare you. The beat, the vibes and everything about it

Maroon - Echo

“The lips i used to call home”

This has no real logical explanation besides from a fanfic I made up in my head about being echo’s S/O and them loosing him because of the citadel and them missing him and then getting him and the lips they used to call home back again. And then also recalling memories of spilling wine on each other

Anti-hero - Crosshair

How could I not? He is the anti hero of the batch if they ever had one.

However I dont think he is the problem, Its not his fault and to me he is still perfect.

“I wake up from dreaming one day i’ll watch as your leaving”

“I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror”

And for the crosshair girls: “it must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero”

Snow on the beach - Echo

Because sadly, man has insecurities

“You wanting me tonight feels impossible”

Also: “life is emotionally abusive” cause MAN HAS BEEN THROUGH IT

You’re on your own kid - Omega

This one is tough because well it could fit them all BUT I think it fits omega the most because well, She is the only kid and the only one of them that had ever gotten to feel like a kid

“Cause there were pages turned

With the bridges burned

Everything you lose is a step you take

So make the frienship bracelets

Take the moment and take it

You’ve Got no reason to be afraid”

Midnight rain - Crosshair

“I wanted that pain” enough said

Question… ? - Tech

Simply for the line: “i just may like some explanations”

I also feel like Tech would be one to day “thats nice, im sure that’s what’s suitable”

And just in general man would ask many questions

Vigilante shit - Crosshair

Okay so man seems like the type to get revenge when he has been wronged so this is just perfection for him

“Dont get sad, get even”

“Lately i’ve been dressing for revenge”

Bejewled - Wrecker

Simply for the vibes

Lanyrinth - Hunter

Hunter again because this line:

“You know how much i hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back”

Bonus!

Wrecker in this one specific line:

“You know how scared I am of elevators” from that one scene during clone wars where he is scared to get on the escalator and asks how far up they are going.

Sweet nothing - Echo

Seems like a sweet nothing type of guy

“ you’re in the kitchen humming’ he is a humming in the kitchen type of person and he also doesnt want anything from his partner except for their pressence and time

Mastermind - Tech

Man is a mastermind and man would make a very detailed plan to get you to fall in love with him after doing an insane amount of research so yes, he is the mastermind and i will take no arguments

“To asses the equation of you”

“I laid the groundwork and then just like clockwork the dominos cascaded in a line”

“And now you’re mine, it was all by design”

“Cause im a mastermind”

The great war - all of them

They all fought in the clone wars except for Omega but she was still effected.

I honestly cant listen to this without thinking of them

“ flashes of the battle come back to me like a blur”

“It turned into something bigger

Somewhere in the haze, Got a sense i’d been betrayed”

Them when they found out about the chips

Bigger than the whole sky - the whole batch minus tech

The batch after they thought they lost Tech in the season 2 finale. THEY THOUGHT THEY LOST HIM BUT THEY DIDNT CAUSE HE SURVIVED OKAY. HE IS ALIVE AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE ANYTHING ELSE

“Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

You were bigger than the whole sky”

Paris - Hunter when in love

“I want to brainwash you into loving me forever”

High infedelity - Crosshair

"You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love The slowest way is never loving them enough"

i'm just gonna go cry if you'll excuse me

Glitch - Hunter

"i was supposed to sweat you out"

would totally be the type of guy to try and swet someone out

would've, could've, should've - omega

"Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first"

dear reader - the entire batch

"Dear reader If it feels like a trap, you're already in one Dear reader Get out your map, pick somewhere and just run"

enough said

Thank you for your time and i apologise for the Crosshair songs

#the bad batch #the bad batch Tech #the bad batch Hunter #the bad batch wrecker #the bad batch echo #the bad batch omega #the bad batch x Taylor Swift #mastermind #tbb #tbb headcanons #tbb thoughts

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1108 review

Ooh, this is actually heating up right when I was expecting Egghead to start winding down and continue cutting off sources of tension. There was a point a year and a bit ago where the question might have been asked, 'why this arc, on this island?' If Oda is rushing to the finale, what does Egghead offer that Elbaf doesn't, and what will it add to contribute to the macro-level plot? Up til now, aside from wrapping up stories for supporting cast members like Bonney and Kuma, it seemed that maybe the main thing here was getting the scientists in the party and setting up more Void Century teases to develop more later. Well I think now we're getting the big thing that made Egghead unskippable.

But first we've got a Jump cover here, the latest in a long line of 'Luffy is about to punch you' covers, now in Gear Five form, and a very relaxed colour spread. Sure, why not give Uta another appearance in the manga. But what's that going on between Reiju and Tashigi? But my favourite thing here is the dapper canines in the portraits in the background. Cute stuff.

Caribou's scene feels like more of a recap than anything. I'm actually surprised to see him and the Blackbeard Pirates again so soon, I would have been satisfied if their time on Egghead wrapped up with the last chapter. Of course, there's no chance they choose not to take him with them, even if Oda leaves it ambiguous.

Now, I'm not a firearms guy. I don't live in one of those countries where you see them regularly. But is it just me or is Augur's form with the rifle really bad here, with the stock all the way out the back. You're meant to use that thing to brance for the recoil, right? So if he pulls the trigger this weird way he's holding it, the whole thing just slips between his arms and goes flying backwards, wouldn't it? I'll accept corrections for anyone who does know guns on this point.

I love getting names for all the vice admirals here. It's the details. Guillotine is still my favourite design of the batch.

The talk about taking back control of the Pacifistas by eliminating Bonney feels odd though. Is that how it works? So a person of equal rank in the hierarchy can't override orders, but the death of the current top dog will let someone lower down cancel their standing orders? Pacifista control is a mess, and for all the ways Egghead has been a breath of fresh air post-Wano, it's complicated contrivances like this that drag it down in the end-of-arc retrospective.

The giants' meetup with Franky's group has some interesting points. First: they don't recognise Franky because his bounty picutre was changed to the Sunny's figurehead. But that's still weird. It can't have been done just to set up this half-second misunderstanding. Franky's ready to square up, making the at this point safe assumption they've come as enemies, which is great from him. We learn that Usopp's been talking about his time with the giants to the crew since Franky joined. You have to assume that kind of offscreen bonding is happening, but it's always nice getting the little confirmations of it.

Glad to see one of the weaponised sea beasts survived. And Bluegrass and Doll manage to look very cool riding it back to Egghead. I wonder if Doll's connection to Saul is setting up a bigger arc or moment for her, or if it's just an excuse to remind casual readers of his name.

Saturn is truly terrifying in his new form. That's fantastic design. Even before Sanji points it out, you can see something is wrong with his eyes. That is one intense stare. And the fact that he doesn't speak once in the whole chapter makes him feel all the more inhuman. What is this man now, if he's still a man at all?

But where did Borsalino go after the last chapter's standoff. Has there been a little offscreen clash with Luffy and Sanji he's just retreated from? Was he forced to get out of the way as demon Saturn stampeded in? I'd rather have seen either of those things than releared what Caribou knows at the start of the chapter. It's not a hard one to explain, but it still feels like a continuity glitch, which is frustrating. It came up during the 'who fed Luffy' discussions in the past week that Luffy's position changes before and after the flashback, last seen in Franky's hands going in, then lying a decent way away from the group with no apparent action taken by him or Franky after. If there was one thing you could absolutely say in the Onigashima battle's favour, it's that it was intricately and carefully mapped. We had the layout of the whole castle and knew where everyone was inside it. No one teleported from one side to another in a single page, they got at least a little bit of offscreen time to travel before popping up somewhere new. The attention to detail was a highlight there, which makes it all the more disappointing that this battle's staging misses beats like this.

I can't help feeling really bad for Vegapunk as he lays dying here. Not because I'm super personally invested in him, but just because it feels so wrong for the character design. He's so goofy and cartoony with the apple head and forever-lolling tongue that he feels like he should be incompatible with blood. This guy should be giving me the tutorial of an edutainment game, not having his guts blasted out. Like a child, or a housepet, the apparent innocence makes it feel even crueller to attack him. (Apparent innocence only, we all know his morality is questionable at best given the horrors he enabled for the World Government.)

Borsalino getting to finish the job is a shock, and yeah, the monitor at the end does make me think the job is finished. Rough, and unexpected. I was better on Kuma's death and Vegapunk's rescue, but it looks like I got it the wrong way around. Luffy's giant transformation is an awesome panel, with just the intensity you want for a moment like this. No notes. I also love the smaller panel of the page showing him from ground level, towering over the buildings. Would love a bigger and more detailed form of that next week please.

And then the stinger. Vegapunk seems to have set up a dead man switch with some big secrets. This is great. Perfect thing for the smartest man in the world to do, especially considering how long he'd been expecting an attempt on his life was coming. And it has the potential to be huge for the world. A turning point. Potentially the start of a war or several. I don't think we're getting the full Void Century here, of course, but it's hard to imagine it playing out without at least one major reveal. And how will the Government respond? With the Buster Call running too slow, will Imu turn the Mother Flame on Egghead, triggering an escape sequence (and maybe cutting the exposition dump short because this is One Piece). The potential for this is huge. Huge.

I'm always happy to be getting three chapters in a row, but I'm so glad this one didn't line up with a break. See you all next week when the bombs drop.

Read on Wordpress!

#one piece #one piece spoilers #op spoilers #one piece manga #Monkey D Luffy #Luffy #Vegapunk

[showrunnerihardlyknowher]

Humans? Up MY Beanstalk? It's More Likely Than You Think!

AO3 Link

Danny's back on her bullshit and here to make everyone suffer with another WIP that's part of a fic trade with my beloved @hiddendreamer67 <3

Summary: I mean, Jack made it all sound so easy! Climb up the beanstalk a few times, steal enough riches to last himself ten life times, and live happily ever after as a heroic giant slayer with absolutely no repercussions.

Seriously, how hard can it be?

Aiden was no stranger to life events going from bad to worse at the drop of a hat, but more often than not he was able to go with the turbulent flow just enough to keep his head above water and out of any serious trouble. Such a feat was most evident in his adaptation to living within the labyrinth-like walls of the oversized castle he had foolishly sought refuge in weeks prior. Had it been weeks? Months, perhaps, or maybe only a handful of days. The passage of time was just as foreign to him as these massive surroundings, these massive people , and he didn’t have the gall to weasel his way towards an opening near the outside to gauge how high or low the sun was sitting in the strangely pink sky.

The irony was almost funny; where was that fool hearted bravery he had been swimming in when he first started his ascension up the winding stalk that sprouted who knows how many decades ago to reach its impressive height? He knew the stories of young boys trading cows for beans and getting far more than they bargained for. He knew it was down right suicidal to scale the plant in general given he hadn’t a lick of training when it came to climbing anything other than a ladder. The opportunity to live within a legend was too good to pass up, unfortunately. The flimsy promise of riches and adventure beyond his wildest dream outweighed the need to even consider how he was going to get back down from the towering growth when he was inevitably disappointed by the lack of golden eggs.

But he didn’t succumb to the thin air or fall to his death, and he wasn’t disappointed. If anything, he was given everything he envisioned. Almost everything. When he broke through the cloud line, he discovered the vine had tapered off in favor of clinging to a cliff side he was unaware even existed from below. Green tendrils served as almost a ladder to aid his climb up the mysterious rock formation until he was able to pull himself, huffing and panting and muscles tingling from overuse, over the edge to collapse on horizontal land. So the fabled kingdom of riches didn’t actually rest on the clouds, it seemed. A small let down, but hardly anything worth dampening the mood as Aiden took in his new world view.

He felt as if he had switched places with a weevil seeing how the small patch of grass he was in came up to his chest rather than swishing against his ankles. The euphoria of this great new discovery once again drowned out the more rational side of him, favoring exploration over potential survival. The logistics of returning home could be dealt with later, after he had slayed a giant and stolen only a penny of its wealth that would no doubt provide for him for the rest of his life. Naive. Gullible. Fool hearted.

Aiden had only trekked for a few hours before nearly getting swallowed up by a winged beast he likened to a bat, washing away over the edge of the cliff in a stream, and getting trampled by hulking soldiers doing their rounds. Each close call he survived by the skin of his teeth, luck and adrenaline driving him blindly to find a moment of safety. However, with each incident his bravery withered away into trepidation, especially the closer he came to the giants that roamed the lands. None of them had noticed him yet and part of him wondered if they would ever notice something as miniature as him scurrying around, but he wasn’t feeling bold enough to stay out in the open just for their reaction. No, once he had slipped into the fortress of metal and stone, out of sight from any predator's eyes, the will to venture back out had faded into near nothingness.

If he had it his way, he doubted he would ever again have the gung ho to leave the confines of his newfound sanctuary, not even for the bittersweet desire of returning home. He had made his bed in his haste to seek glory out of tall tales and now he must lie in it. Though his heart ached with anxiety and his hands ceased to tremble, his traitorous stomach refused to let him continue a life of solitude amongst the dusty beams. A weaker part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it would be worth it to live with the gnawing pain until it eventually overtook him. A fitting end, would it not, to starve to death like a rat in the walls? Alas, he was weak, but not weak enough to endure such aggressive cramping by the end of the second day, and so he mustered all the strength and courage he could just to snatch a few stale breadcrumbs long forgotten behind what he assumed was a cast iron stove.

Aiden truly was living up to his new rodent lifestyle, wasn’t he.

It was disgusting, but it was food, and though it made him ill the remainder of the night it had at least provided him with enough energy to go back out the next night in an effort to find something an inch more sustainable. By the end of the week, his newly discovered drive to live had him exploring every corner of the expansive kitchen during the wee hours of the night, when no giants hurried back and forth between the counters and the galley to serve platters of meals that could have fed his own village for months at a time. The rich smell of hot breads and meats made him dizzy, even more so now that he was getting accustomed to surviving off of dusty scraps he found on the floor. He needed to play it safe, he reminded himself as he watched one of the chef’s throw out an entire pan of fresh loaves because there’s too many chives in this! It’s too bitter for his tastes! , hardly resisting the urge to dive into the bins after the wasted food.

But...if they were so keen as to throw away an entire batch of fully prepared food over the fact that it was unsuitable for one person’s palette...surely there was no harm in taking what would be considered a nibble. Not when it was unwanted.

There it was again, that fool hearted bravery. If only Aiden had used it to find a way out of this unofficial prisoner rather than fuel his greed. He couldn’t be happy with the bare minimum he was given, could he? Always had to push the boundaries when he knew exactly where they lied, always run headfirst towards danger and then act surprised when it would bite him in the ass moments later. At least this time around he had the forethought to formulate some type of a plan, as flimsy as it was. Having become quite familiar with the inner structures of the fortress, he was able to determine the abode he was in was something along the lines of a castle. It was certainly sprawling enough, decorated with dark colors and glittering riches and constantly bustling with workers ranging from lowly servants to chittering socialites. Whether or not this was indeed a house for royalty he was unsure, having never been able to pinpoint which of the ambling lords or ladies might be the esteemed ruler of the lands. Assuming monarchies even existed this high, that is. Perhaps this was merely the norm of their society’s standards. It was unlikely, but it wasn’t as if he had many outside resources to compare this way of life to, not even in the way of his own village.

In theory, the heist should have been easy. In theory . All he had to do was wait until the dead of night for the bustling kitchen to fall silent as it normally did and he could slip out from the crevice closest to the scraps bin. Scaling in and out of the bin might prove trickier than he anticipated, but that remained a problem for future Aiden. The most important part of his newfound mission was being able to fill his stomach up with day-old bread and cold meats before they were discarded for good. If all went well, this could easily become a nightly routine of his, a way to feast like a king whilst living like a rat within the true royalty’s walls. He knew he was getting ahead of himself with that kind of fantasizing, perhaps that was even the beginning of his downfall, but he had so little to look forward to these days that he dared to get his hopes up for a semi-decent meal.

He hadn’t even made it halfway across the counter before he was spotted and subsequently captured.

But he had been so careful , he lamented to himself when the air was roughly knocked from his lungs after a massive hand slammed on top of him, pinning any squirms. True, he reflected as the stars cleared his vision, he never actually bothered to see if the kitchen remained vacant all night given that he was asleep...but he just assumed! Who in the world would be up during this hour!? Someone else sneaking a snack, maybe, just as he was. He could use that to his advantage, try and gain a few sympathy points by connecting with the giant on that level, convince them that all he needed was just a fraction of whatever they were probably getting for themselves and he would be on his way for good. A lie, of course, but the giant didn’t need to know that.

Once more, that short lived plan would never be put to use when Aiden felt himself being lifted in the air within a bone crushing grip, metal and leather digging into him in various places from the glove the giant wore. His eyes barely adjusted from the dizzying movements and dim kitchen before they were blown open at the sight, constricted breathing still entirely for a heartbeat. This was no ordinary giant, not like the ones he had grown accustomed to glancing at from the nooks and crannies. At first glance, however, it did fit the bill for the most part -- biped, guard’s armor, a human face -- but...did these giants typically have glowing purple eyes? He couldn’t recall for certain, yet the more he looked the more he found that appeared off. The outline of the guard’s figure seemed...fuzzy, like they were blurred rather than a solid defining line. His face, harsh and scrutinizing, was greyer than a corpse. He was otherworldly, and it was at that moment Aiden was painfully reminded he was in another world, one he didn’t belong in. One he knew he would be leaving quickly.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the guard rumbled, his voice grating more like static than a growl.

“N-no…” Aiden agreed. Anything to get on his good side. “I’ll go, I’ll l-leave!”

Though he had found his voice, he had yet to find the strength to attempt any kind of struggle, not that he thought he’d be able to budge the massive fingers in the slightest. However, if he showed just how eager he was to depart from this situation, maybe the giant would believe him and grant him that small mercy. Instead, he was given another rough squeeze that made his spine pop, the fist clenching him raising higher so that he was more at eye level with his captor.

“How did you get in here, human? ” The guard spat. Good news was that humans were a known creature, at least. Bad news was that humans, apparently, were not known for any pleasant reason.

Aiden panted, trying to suck in a much needed breath after all of his were forced out. “I-I don’t know…” He squealed in discomfort when the fingers tightened again, refusing to let up until he gave a more satisfactory answer. “Th-the walls! I came through the walls! ”

The guard snorted and slackened his grip to allow an inch of breathing room, “Of course you did. Little pest that you and your kind are.”

“Wh...what are you…?” A bold question, but since he was sure it was to be one of his last, Aiden saw no reason not to ask.

He wasn’t given an answer, the giant instead lowering him slightly to exit the kitchen and pace down the halls. The scenery whizzed by so fast that it made his head spin, catching a few looks at other giants that were loitering about. Just like the guard, they were similar to the ones he would see in the daytime but...different. The two guards they passed looked to be of the same race of whatever the one holding him was, a noblewoman in a shimmering capelet eyed him suspiciously and he could have sworn her ‘capelet’ flittered before settling back down her shoulders. How had he never seen any of these attributes in the day? Then again, he often viewed the giants in the fortress at a distance and never for very long, they could have all been magically endowed for all he knew. Or, another theory, the ones he was coming across now were merely nocturnal and their more...normal housemates were sound asleep as he typically was while these creatures did their rounds and had their fun.

The wonderment was short lived when the giant shoved his way through a heavy wooden door at the very end of a lesser used corridor. With each step down the spiraling stone staircase, Aiden felt his heart sink just a little lower. The long shadows casting against the walls from the torches mounted to them gave the dank atmosphere an even more sinister vibe, leaving too many unknown things able to hide in the darkness. Even the guard, who did not appear to be an overly friendly fellow to begin with, looked twice as menacing with how the shadows concealed the few human features he did have. Aiden swallowed thickly, unsure of where they were heading but already knowing it wasn’t good.

His hunch was confirmed when the guard entered another hall, one lined with cramped cells that were partially occupied. He tried not to look at them and their fates, not wanting to see what might be awaiting him as well. Likely not, though. He was far too small to shackle and imprison. A different punishment would have to be in store for him. Further down the hall, the dungeon changed its holding cells from ones with iron bars to ones with solid steel doors instead, obscuring whatever poor bastard was locked within. Was that considered a crueler punishment? Perhaps that was where the torturing took place, if such types of creatures indulged in those acts. He saw no reason why they wouldn’t and as a result could very easily imagine himself being thrown in there next.

Fortunately, or not, the guard instead opened another wooden door that was adjacent to several of the isolated cells, coming to stand before another giant sitting at a table. Aiden couldn’t tell what was on the desk or what this new giant was using these unknown things for, but from the jist of it he must have been busy.

“Sir,” the guard holding him said while raising him higher for the presumably important one to see better. “A human has been found within the perimeter.”

The guard, a captain if Aiden were to guess, frowned. “Any others?”

“None that I could sense in the immediate area.”

He sighed and waved his hand. “We’ll do a sweep before daybreak. Who knows the amount of damage it’s done...what it’s taken, what it’s told.” He fixed Aiden with an icy glare that made the poor human try to shrink in on himself.

He wished he could have found a way to defend himself, plead his case, but his voice was nowhere to be found now. All cowardliness and no self preservation.

“And how shall I dispose of this one, sir?” The guard asked and Aiden paled. Dispose!?

The one in charge shrugged a shoulder and resumed what he was doing previously, fiddling with tools and books and papers for one reason or another. “Put it on lunch duty. Give the lizard another rat to keep him busy.”

Aiden didn’t quite follow the logic of the order. Lunch duty didn’t sound half as bad as being disposed of. The ‘lizard’ was news to him, but regardless the guard nodded at his order and left the office back down the corridor of steel doors. He wasn’t sure if he should speak up and ask for clarification while he mulled over his rather lenient sentencing, doubtful the giant would even regard him. From the looks of disgust and distrust he had been given numerous times in the short span of time he had been discovered, he could gather that his presence was an unwelcome one, though why he was still unsure. Evidently, he was going to be put to work and he could most certainly live with that. Earn his keep, he reasoned. Give rats to lizards or something. Would these rats and lizards be the same kind as the ones back on his homeworld down below or would they be to scale with the giants? Another question he should probably speak aloud before he got in over his head.

Or, at least, he would have asked, had a wad of cloth not been jammed into mouth hard enough to make his jaw click uncomfortably. He gagged, trying to shove the offending material out with his tongue, but it was packed into his cheeks too tightly to budge. A different material, a thin rope, was quickly wound around his chest to pin his arms to his sides before wrapping further down to bind his ankles. It had happened in the flash, the guard giving him no warning or reasoning for the sudden confinement, but it wasn’t as if Aiden could offer up much protest now that it was all said and done. He was completely immobile, spun up like a fly in a spider’s web. The guard had done it with such efficiency that it must be something similar to a routine for him by now which did not bode well. In a last ditch effort to save his hide from whatever...this was, he looked up at his captor with wide, pleading eyes, begging for just a shred of sympathy or at the very least an explanation of what was about to happen.

All he was met with was the same cold, violet eyes as all the other giants he had come to pass. Equally cruel and indifferent. And it was then he understood, as he was being roughly shoved through a hand slot at the base of one of the sturdy metal cell doors, that he was not the one who was meant to be delivering the meals during “lunch duty”. He was the meal. He was the rat, which meant the lizard was…

Aiden wriggled as best he could manage in his position until he was able to roll onto his back and get a good look around the cell. It was massive to him, but compared to the size of the giants he could tell it was rather cramped. Dark and depressing, much like one would expect a lonely prison cell to be, with the scattering of tiny bones and grime along the stone walls. His breathing quickened as he tried to tell just what type of origin the gnawed remains had been, however it was too difficult to tell at this distance in such gloom lighting. Perhaps that was for the best, giving his brain a little boost of reassurance that maybe they weren’t all human bones, that this wasn’t a common fate most of his kind befell when they made the same foolish mistake of invading where they clearly did not belong.

Trying to avoid the glare of bones only worsened his situation tenfold when he turned his head and was met with what was, obviously, the lizard as previously mentioned. Well, partially a lizard? More human-looking than lizard just going off a quick glance which led Aiden to believe the nickname was meant to be a derogatory term for whatever species it was. It...he? Yeah, he was kneeling on the floor, not by choice, but rather due to the shackles that bound him at the wrist and was tethered to the floor with a pitifully short chain. The clothes he wore reminded him of something he might have caught a few nobles wear given the level of craftsmanship and hand woven designs. It was a shame they were soiled now in what he could only assume was sweat and dirt, how he hoped that was dirt. The prisoner picked his head up when he heard the food slot screech open and shut, waiting for any other sound before sighing at the responding silence.

The chain jingled as he shifted to reposition himself into something a little more comfortable, Aiden now catching sight of the black nails that blended into scales littering the back of his hand when he flexed his fingers. A tail briefly flicked into view before concealing itself behind him once again. As the human let his gaze trail further up his face, fully prepared to see another hateful glare burning a hole through his weak soul, he couldn’t help but notice another spattering of black scales along his cheekbones and down his neck, presumably up to his eyes as well, but...well, he couldn’t tell. Not when there was a tattered, red cloth tied around his head, effectively blinding the sense. He wondered if this was an ailment the giant already had or if this was another part of his punishment, curious if he even had any eyes still in their sockets beneath the shoddy wrappings. Whatever the case was, the “lizard” obviously couldn’t see him and Aiden was unable to alert him to his presence with the gag shoved down his throat, leaving them at an awkward stalemate.

A stalemate that lasted all of two seconds before the giant wrinkled his nose and frowned. “The hell kind of rodent is this…? ” he muttered to himself.

So much for not knowing he was there. With great effort, Aiden twisted his body until he was able to turn on his side, trying to push himself up into a sitting position. He froze when the giant started to move as well, pointed ears twitching in response to the light scuffling he was making against the floor to pinpoint his location. Despite one of his senses being dulled, it was evident his remaining ones were still working in perfect order, maybe even heightened to compensate for the lack of vision.

“Another live one,” he sighed, fingers flexing again, “Sorry about this little buddy. I don’t like live prey any more than you like being it, I’m sure, but, well…”

That was the only warning Aiden had before the giant lunged, teeth snapping an inch in front of his frozen body. From this close, he could see the needle-thin fangs previously hidden behind a grimace and instantly wanted to be far, far away from them. His only saving grace was the short lead the other had on his cuffs, preventing him from pushing off any closer and cutting him off just shy of his prize for the time being. He growled in annoyance at having missed the offered prey, pulling back to realign himself for a better pounce.

“Come on, just make this easy for the both of us,” the giant huffed.

Oh, absolutely not. No, no, no. No, this was not how Aiden wanted his adventure in the skies to end. Fuck the adventure, he wanted to go home and he wanted to do so alive and in one piece. Being ripped to shreds was not a fate he ever envisioned for himself. He wasn’t going to die like some...some rat!

The giant was inching closer, moving along the side as much as the chain would allow to get a better angle. It didn’t matter whether he ensnared the tiny between his claws or teeth or even batted its little corpse within reaching distance with his tail, so long as he was able to get a hold on its fresh flesh one way or another. Desperately, Aiden began to rock back and forth to shimmy his body across the floor, painstakingly putting centimeters of distance between them that the giant was able to make up in a single shuffle. When the chain pulled taunt again, the human rolled to the side and narrowly missed the clamp of teeth once more, hot breath blowing against his back and covering his body in goosebumps. Undeterred, however, the giant followed his scent that was so tantalizingly close and moved his body in unison with Aiden’s. With another bite, he was able to find purchase on the ropes that burned against his arms and sunk his fangs in what he supposed was meant to be an animal's tender flesh.

Aiden had tried to avoid the attack but simply could not scramble away quick enough, his only luck being that he was just far enough that the gnashing teeth only managed to puncture through the fibers of rope rather than his actual skin. He was lifted into the air when the giant pulled back, kicking and thrashing to the best of his ability against the hold. The humid air blowing on the back of his head made him nauseous now, only able to envision how the feeling would quickly be enveloping him entirely when he was thrown back and swallowed down the creature’s gullet. With one, final twist, Aiden prayed his limited strength would be enough to somehow dislodge himself from the giant’s maw and give him another chance at playing this unbalanced game of chase.

And then the rope snapped.

Having already been sawed and frayed in several places from the giant’s fangs, Aiden’s pull was all it needed to rip apart entirely, sending the human sprawling onto the cold ground. His vision clouded when his head smacked against the stone, ironically thankful for the wad of cloth in his mouth or he most certainly would have lost a few teeth. Without a doubt, he was going to have a nasty bruise coloring the majority of his right side in the near future, the ache still pulsing with every wheezing breath he tried to gain back. While the stars faded from his eyes, he watched distantly as the giant curiously grinded the material in his mouth before dropping it. He pursed his lips in confusion, expecting raw meat and the rush of blood rather than some scratchy coils of what almost tasted like hide.

“Gods, what even is this,” he cringed.

Me , Aiden wanted to cry out, it’s me, it’s a human!

The giant’s hang up with his unusual meal faded into resignation much sooner than Aiden would have liked. He was hardly to blame, though, if he had been given nothing but live pests to blindly hunt down without the use of his full mobility for an undetermined amount of time. They were in a similar boat, really. Creatures trapped in a home they had no business being in, trying to survive on what little scraps were thrown their way. The human sorely wished he hadn’t been relegated into the scraps category, but there was little he could do about that now. Knowing his prey had a pretty straight forward drop, he moved again with an open mouth to seal the foreign creature’s fate.

The sight of teeth rushing to greet him was exactly the adrenaline rush Aiden’s body needed to get moving again, much more successfully this time now that he had arms to push up with and legs to carry him a greater distance. As much as he would have loved to have sprinted to the other side of the cell, even find another crack to slip through if fate would feel the desire to be so kind to him today, he only managed to stumble a few feet out of the immediate danger zone before tripping over himself. His right leg screamed in agony from the second fall, a sign of something being sprained somewhere he was sure. He wanted to scream out loud as well had it not been for the gag. The gag he realized he could take out now. Unsure of how useful his last words would even be, the human ripped the wad of cloth out of his mouth in a frenzy while the giant prepped himself for another attack. If anything, at least Aiden could find catharsis in leaving some sort of statement about himself behind for someone to hear, even if it was just confirmation of his fool heartedness.

“Stop!” Aiden yelled, voice raw and itching his throat like it hadn’t been used in ages rather than half an hour. “Please, stop! G-get away! ”

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting the giant to do as a result, but one thing was clear and it was that he most certainly wasn’t expecting his meal to say anything. He reeled back like he had been physically struck by those words, if his eyes were visible he was sure they would be as wide as serving platters. It was almost comical how he stumbled back, the menacing creature suddenly so fearful of a tiny vermin it was trying to consume moments prior, mouth agape as he tried to process what was going on without being able to actually see it.

“You...did you just, oh my gods,” he gasped. While he was glad he was being spared for the time being, the giant’s nervousness did little to quell the anxiety that had been brewing in Aiden’s heart since the moment he came upon this accursed land.

“Ple-please…” Aiden whimpered, suddenly drained physically and emotionally from the whole ordeal and settling to just drag himself any extra distance he could away from his unofficial death penalty. It was a pathetic display, but on the bright side, one he wouldn’t be mocked for. “Don’t h-hurt me…”

The giant shifted again, hesitant, closer , and Aiden braced himself for the final bite to end it all.

“You can talk!? ”

#g/t #fearplay #g/t writing #giant/tiny #macro/micro #gianttiny #my writing #hiddendreamer67 #MANDY MY BELOVED #also these are officially her OCs so don't ask me for ANYTHING about them #these are HER KIDS NOW i sign over my parental rights #well #i guess they're mine until I get chapter two out

[thebahdbitch]

Inhuman

A Bad Batch Zombie AU

The Bad Batch x Reader

Minors DNI, 18+ only.

Part Two

Read Part 1 here

Warning: Violence, the undead, romance, smut eventually, cursing, use of Y/N and she/her/they pronouns, gore described, death, depression.

“Bite me then. Let’s turn together.” You pleaded with Andi.

“Stop it,” He grabbed your shoulders,” You’re gonna survive this. You’re gonna figure out what the hell is going on, you smart girl.”

“If you become whatever the hell is out there, then I will too.” You put your arm in-front of his face, trying to get your friend to bite you, tears starting to form up in your eyes,” Please.”

“Stop.” He turned his head, starting to feel like he was loosing control of himself. “(Y/N), don’t let me turn into one of those things, please. Just kill me before I turn. I don’t know how it will feel and it’s starting to hurt, help me.”

“No, don’t ask me to do that!” You cried out, having trouble containing your noise.

“Please, don’t let me turn.” He got on his knees, begging you with his head down.

You pull out and ignited your saber,” I love you.” You told him, your body was shaking and you didn’t think you had the power to lower it.

“Survive.” He managed to choke out, you could see he was visibly in pain, his face had turned red and you swiftly brought down the lightsaber on his head, turning away as soon as you were sure the job was done.

You felt sick to your stomach and managed to run to the house. You did not have the nerves to retrieve the keys from him, so you found a window and punched it as hard as you could. It didn’t work.

You weren’t functioning right. You didn’t think of using your lightsaber, you were just hurting, badly.

You were trained not to form attachments. Andi was the only person you got so close to and loved dearly in years. You had only known him for four months, but he was incredibly loyal. He would drop anything to help you. He was by your side during all this madness that you didn’t understand.

Now what would happen?

In the morning they had woken up in a docking platform, independent business, not ran by the empire so there were no issues, per Cid’s suggestion.

Hunter had been the first to rise, like usual. His sensitivity to everything around him made rest hard, but with some melatonin tablets and the right beside items he was able to get a good six hours rest, he felt nice.

Echo was the last to rise, but he was still in a good mood, matching the rest of the squad. Since the accident, Echo has been getting pains, physically and mentally, but right now he was feeling good. Being with clones that were so odd, like him made him feel in place. He had high hopes for this mission, no people involved to their knowledge, no creatures being rescued, just a safe? The location known. It felt too good to be true.

Omega helped Hunter make breakfast this morning. A few payments ago, Omega had talked Hunter into buying some things so they could cook on board, instead of eating prepackaged food. A hot plate, some pans, utensils and few ingredients, not much but enough for the squad to have some warm meals while they are on the go.

The two made pancakes together. Omega was quick to offer help during every step, and made sure to make plates for everyone. She loved helping, not to make sure to prove her place in the squad, but for her love for her brothers.

Omega didn’t have a favorite but Hunter was her oldest brother, she looked up to him as the leader and loved her place by his side.

“We made pancakes.” Omega announced, standing in the middle of the ship, to her brothers.

“Ooh, sounds great ‘mega! Thanks.” Wrecker grinned.

After breakfast, while her brothers were suiting up, Omega asked Hunter if she could come along during this mission. Hunter had been helping her practice shooting her arrow, and he felt confident in her abilities so he agreed to let her join.

Once the boys were suited up, the squad stood around Tech as he pulled up a map of Alderaan, and the group studied it.

“As you all may know, currently our ship is parked in a docking station. Our target is 15 klicks east, closer to the mountains. We will travel by foot as to not draw attention to ourselves. Our target is on the third floor of a building, I am sending the exact coordinates to all of you incase we get separated, but it should not be an issue. The first two stories were destroyed in a fire, according to my prior research, so we need to find a way to get to the top.” Tech rambled a bit quickly but they all were able to absorb the information.

“That’s a quite a long walk, are you sure that is the quickest way?” Echo asked.

“We could take the public transport system, that would remove ten clicks of walking, but we would traveling 17 klicks instead.” Tech explained.

“We can take the train then, how much will it cost?” Hunter asked.

“The train does not require money to ride on, public transportation is free in Aldeeran.” Tech informed.

It felt almost too easy to be true.

“Alright, let’s get headed out then.” Hunter leaded the way out of the ship, Omega close behind him.

“Woohoo!” Wrecker cheered, ready to have something to do.

When the company arrived into town, something felt off. Hunter raised his hand and the group stopped. He heard screaming.

“What’s the matter?” Omega whispered at him.

“Nothing, just be cautious.” The screaming stopped.

It was strange, there were not many people out, but it was midday, maybe everyone was working? The shops were strangely empty.

They have traveled about a click so far, only two more before they would reach the station.

“Tech, check the local news. See if today is a holiday or something.” Hunter was trying to search for reason that they were not seeing anybody. Vendor carts and stores looked abandoned.

Then it hit him, the strong metallic stench of blood, Hunter pulled out his knife cautiously, what had happened here?

“I don’t know why I didn’t see this before.” Tech muttered, watching a video on his holodevice.

“According to the local news, there is a rapidly spreading virus. It is recommended for everyone to quarantine at home. No evacuation orders.” Tech informed.

It made sense why no one was out or about. The boys all had helmets, which helped filter out illnesses, and clones were predispositioned to not get sick as often, immune to most common illnesses.

Echo searched in his pack, he had been carrying around a mask that was usually used to filter out toxins, he handed it to the kid,” Here, just in case.”

With the help of Hunter, Omega wore the mask on her face.

“See if the public transport is closed due to the quarantine order.” Hunter requested Tech.

After a very quick search Tech found his answer,” Yes. It is non-operational due to these unfortunate circumstances.”

“We will head to the trees and follow that route, instead of walking through town, to avoid people and being exposed.” Hunter used his hand to gesture to a few miles north where the forest was.

“Ugh! That’s so much walking! So boring!” Wrecker complained loudly.

“As soon as we are back we will have some fun.” Hunter promised, patting his little brothers back.

The squad headed in that direction, but not for long before Hunter stopped it again.

It sounded like a stampede, Hundreds of feet running in their direction.

“What the-“ Hunter said, hearing his own heartbeat increase at the sound.

His eyes searched around frantically, trying to determine where that sound was coming from.

“In here.” Hunter grabbed the handle to a door of a shop that was nearby them, he tried his luck, and to his avail, the door was open,” In here!” He ordered the squad to get inside of the building.

His family quickly went inside, confused on his actions but listening like always. Once they were all inside Hunter locked the door trapping themselves inside.

“What’s going on?” Echo asked. His weapons drawn just like the rest of them.

Hunter was close to the glass, his eyes searching for the stampede he heard. He searched into his pack and grabbed wire he kept in there, he used it to tightly tie the handles of the door together, and then he saw it.

A large stampede of people, running into the area at the sound that they had heard from the men. At a closer look most of them looked beat up and bloodied. They seemed to move in almost a rhythmic pattern.

“What’s wrong with them?” Omega asked, her little body shaking with fear, Wrecker hugged her into his side.

At the sound of her asking a man from outside flung himself against the door, the door shook but stayed steady, his face looked chewed off and you could see most of his flesh, his thrashing left blood all over the glass. Omega gasped while covering her mouth. The sight left them sick to their stomach.

The human man kept snapping his jaw at the glass, falling over with eagerness, more of these creatures came into view, almost like a pack.

“Well now I understand why they want everyone to quarantine.” Echo commented.

“Boys, set your blasters to stun. Tech find out what you can.” Hunter ordered.

When in battle, their targets were always battle droids, almost never humans. That was the main reason why the left the empire. He felt stuck, like he could not find an order to give to his squad, he almost always new what to say, or one of his squad would help him out, but they all felt puzzled. Thankfully they had Tech to bring some light to the situation.

Hunter heard movement and pointed his blaster at the door in the store they were in. It looked like they sold lotions and candles and other homopatheic goods. The door read ‘employees only’. It swung open.

The person to show their face was a middle aged Torgrutan woman,” Please don’t shoot.” She raised her hands, one of them holding a metal bar.

“I can tell you more than what’s on the web.” She offered, the men held their weapons pointed at her, Omega joining them, Hunter signaled them to put it down.

“Are you okay ma’am?” Hunter offered, scanning her up and down, she didn’t have any sores around her mouth like those creatures, or any blood on her.

“Fine. Thanks for locking the door, I didn’t realize. Those zombies are too damn dumb as bantha sh-“ She paused after she realized her language, and that there was a child present,” They can’t comprehend opening doors.”

“Zombies?” Wrecker asked a bit loudly, drawing the attention of the creatures outside, they slammed themselves on the glass.

“Yes, Zombies. It’s just like the movies, you know. The biting. They aren’t thinking either.” The woman shuddered.

“Well, can you inform us some of the information you know about those infected?” Tech asked her.

Where you were at your friends house, your wails were loud, you couldn’t help try to contain them. You kept smashing the window with your fist trying to open it, your blood painting the window. You grabbed your arm with the other and backed up, you were sure you would break your fist if you kept trying it. You choked out a sob. Your tear filled eyes glanced over to look to look at the gate, the zombies outside were piling onto the gate, slamming their torn up bodies, trying to get inside. You were too loud.

You clambered over to the fence behind the house and pulled yourself over to stand ontop of it. You had to leave, they were stacking themselves onto each other and if the gate did not collapse from their weight, you were sure they would manage to climb over, you tried to contain your cries, more focused on getting out alive.

You had creeped along the top of the fence, walking carefully along the next door neighbors house until you made it into an alley. You hadn’t run into the infected quiet yet because of your diligent movements, but you knew you couldn’t stay like this for long, you needed somewhere comfortable, something you knew well, but you had a plan.

“Tech, how much rations do we have?” Hunter asked his trusty companion.

“Enough to last us tonight, less if we provide some to our guest.” Tech referred to the middle aged woman.

“Saya.” The woman spoke up,” That’s my name.”

“We could try to get back to our ship?” Omega offered.

“We have to do it extremely quietly, as we were informed noise is what they are attracted to.” Tech replied.

“And smell. They can smell the uninfected.” Saya spoke.

“Uhm. I have an idea.” Wrecker offered.

All eyes turned to him, wanting to here his offer.

“Well, if they can smell us. What if we make ourselves smell like them?”

“Wrecker has a point, if we covered ourselves in the secretions of the infected, we may be able to blend in for an amount of time.” Tech, had a finger to his chin, thinking about how they would go about it.

Hunter, Echo and Omega all had similar looks of disgusts at the prospect of needing to cover themselves in zombie ‘secretions’.

“Instead of blasting, we can attack using quieter weapons. Our knives, and we can make weapons using what we find.” Hunter spoke.

“I have some chairs in the back, we can break them and make sharp weapons.” Saya offered.

“Okay, but we need a back up plan incase we cannot make it to the ship.” Echo spoke.

You went in through the back door. You had the perfect quarantine plan. You knew it like the back of your hand, you knew where all the rooms were, and you had keys, and would have endless supplies it was genius.

You punched in the key code and entered through the back, closing the door. You pulled out your lightsaber to check the perimeters.

Where were you quarantining? Your place of employment, a grocery store. If things ever became less of a shit show, you could definitely get fired for breaking an entry and stealing, but who cares? It’s not your first time you had to flee from the law.

The place was empty, besides the front doors, where you could see the occasional infected limping around, but they were too primal to try to pick the locks.

There was nothing to protect the glass, which you did feel a bit threatened by, no metal bars that slid down during closing time to protect what was inside, the outsiders able to look in.

You did a perimeter check, but it wasn’t much use, the store closed before the incident at the bar, which was around the time you figured it broke out around your city.

You grabbed a shopping cart, and started walking around the store. Emptiness surrounded you with a crushing weight. How many other survivors were there, were there any? Would they survive for long? Was anyone coming to save you? How long would you be there?

You didn’t have anyone by your side anymore, and you didn’t know if you trusted yourself alone. You had lost your Jedi Master and countless other members of the order, your only friend, and now you felt like you were losing yourself.

“Get it together, (Y/N).” You lectured yourself trying to focus. You grabbed some supplies, mostly food, some things to protect yourself. You were going to try to make a stomping ground in the staff break room, there was a bathroom in there too, if you picked up some cozy items, it couldn’t be too bad. Your store mostly focused on groceries, so it might be hard to find something to make a bed out of.

You found excersize mats, soft knitted reusable bags, and cloth towels that were ‘infused with essential oils’. You grabbed dry goods, planning on leaving the fresh foods on display, and some body products, the non-food item selection was low but you were going to make do and survive.

You got into the staff room, it was unlocked. You laid down the excersize mats in the center of the room near the chairs. You started unwrapping the reusable bags to mold them into something new. You managed to unravel one bag and you used the thread to hold together your homemade blanket that you were going to make. You grabbed the clothes that you had and ripped small holes in corners. You were trying to make something like a quilted blankets. Using the yarn to hold it together. Keeping it together was hard, and not just for the blanket.

You struggled a lot, you had great ideas in your head but it was a lot of work. You had to keep warm and your jacket was not enough to keep you comfortable while sleeping.

You decided to take a refresher break. You went to open the staff room refresher, it was locked. You tried to enter your code but it was not working.

Well fuck, you needed to go, badly. You pinned in your code and were barely able to make it in time.

After doing your business, while washing your hands, you got a good look in the mirror. Your face had some patches of dirt on it, your face oily and your hair was frizzed up. Your clothes were luckily not that bad. You grabbed some of the paper towels and put them to the side, you lifted up your shirt and pulled down your pants. You got some soap and water onto the paper towels and cleaned your most stinky parts the best you could and washed up your face. This was good enough for now.

You set your lightsaber in the staff room, along with the stuff you scavenged from around the store, some fresh and some canned food.

You locked the staff door from the inside using your code, the door slid down, keeping you safe inside until you keyed yourself back in.

Sleep felt nearly impossible. You were cold. The blanket wasn’t doing much and you were sleeping with your legs folded to try and stay as warm as possible. Not to mention, grief overtook and you couldn’t stop from silently crying until your nose was so stuffed you couldn’t breath from it. Sleep? Not really an option, it just felt good to lay your head somewhere safe.

In the morning you did a perimeter sweep once again. Then you took a cart and carried it around, getting more weaved bags and this time some hygiene products. All they had was ‘organic’ deodorant and some watered down ‘all natural’ lotion. And of course natural sunscreen.

“Curse these damn privileged Alderaanians and curse these ‘health’ food stores.” You said outloud, not like anyone else would hear except for the few zombies outside, desperate to bite someone.

You were going to have a lot of free time. A lot of time spent in your own head, which wasn’t very fun. You tried meditating, using the ‘force’ like you were taught before, but it was hard to channel that part of your old self. You were hoping to see some resolution to the issue, some help, even just a sign, but there was nothing you could see.

You decided you were going to start using the force again. It was probably the only thing that will keep you alive.

The plan was all based on hope. It worked at first. The zombies ignored them when they were quiet. The zombies used smell and sound.

Wrecker caught a zombie and smashed his head in, easy. They used their blood to cover their armor, Saya, unenthusiastically covered her uncovered skin in it.

It only worked for about 45 minutes, before the blood started drying. But by then they were traveling away from the roads.

It was hard for the zombies to bite through their armor anyways. But it was easy to bite through Saya’s soft wrinkled skin.

The group was traumatized the rest of the trip. The boys made sure Omega was protected because of her lack of armour, and only focused on running now that they were not protected and getting to the ship.

They gave up on being quiet long ago, even in life and death it was just too difficult for Wrecker’s heavy feet to be quiet, plus this was a situation they needed to communicate in, to help dodge and navigate away from the infected.

They had finally made it to the docking station, stunning any infected that they had met in the way. The squad was now walking carefully, winded from how far they had traveled on feet.

Omega was riding on Wrecker’s shoulders, her little feet struggling to carry her all this way.

“Where did we park again? I remember our ship was here.” Echo asked Tech.

“It was here.” Hunter said, crouching on his knees to touch the ground where the ship was, now missing.

“Tech, our ship was stolen. Can you track it?” Hunter requested, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to see if he could sense the ship nearby, nothing to his dismay.

Wrecker sighed, in frustration at their predicament, they came all the way out here just to have their ship stolen from them, their home, taken by others.

Hunter saw shoeprints, woman and two men, they must have taken the ship and fled the planet. If they were in that predicament they probably would have done the same, wasn’t like they didn’t steal speeders.

“I was able to track our ship..” Tech hesitated at the news,” It is out of the planetary system, in motion.”

Hunter snarled and hit the ground with his fist, what would they do?

“Tech, contact Cid and see if there’s anything she can help us with.” Hunter requested.

“Will do.” Tech replied

The whole group was quiet, Hunter was kneeling on the ground, trying to come up with a plan. Echo kept looking around, terrified of spotting one of those infected. Wrecker was just worried about his siblings. And Tech was quiet for once, feeling as though it was bad news after bad news.

Omega could sense all the distraught from her siblings, and on the inside she felt horrible, the poor kid couldn’t help but let some sobs escape her mouth.

“Mega?” Wrecker asked the girl on his shoulders.

“Oh no.” He realized she was crying, he helped her down from his shoulders, holding her in his arms, trying to be as gentle as possible,” It’s going to be okay. We are going to protect you.” Wrecker tried to comfort her.

Hunter quickly got up and walked over to Omega and Wrecker. He waited a few moments for her sobs to soften before speaking.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Hunter asked Omega, he knew why she was upset, but he wanted to hear in her own words what was going on.

“Saya- she died in front of us. We were so careful, and- she died. What if I’m next?” She managed to get out, lifting her head from Wrecker’s chest.

“Omega, you will never be left behind, I promise. Saya didn’t have the training and it was hard for her to keep up. Now we know the area better and getting around will be easier.” Hunter explained, gently rubbing her back. That didn’t work, she kept crying.

“Now Omega, did we even let one of the diseased get close enough to you to try to bite you?” Hunter asked, in a calm tone, hoping she would match him.

“N-no.” She turned her head to look at him while Wrecker easily carried her.

“All of us are looking out for you, and they can’t bite through our Armor. Keeping you safe, all of us safe, is our main priority.” Said Hunter.

Her sobs stopped, only tears ran down her face, Omega quietly asked Wrecker to put her down. On her way down, Hunter could hear the little one’s stomach growl.

“Let’s eat our rations and rest for a bit, I will keep lookout. Then we will head into town to get more supplies.” Hunter announced to his squad.

They all nodded or made a sound of agreement.

Echo was the first to sit down on the ground, the rest of his squad following suit except for Hunter, who looked around, knife in hand incase there were any infected who he hadn’t taken out yet.

Echo retrieved the rations and water and passed them out to the squad, it was the last of what they had. Omega took an extra cup of water and rations bar and ran over to Hunter to give it to him.

“Eat up, we’ve got a long way ahead of us.” Omega said with a tiny smile on her face, Hunter turned to her, offering a half smile on his tattooed face.

“Thanks Kid.” He took the rations from her and out it in his pocket, before grabbing the cup of water.

Omega trotted back over to her brother’s and Hunter couldn’t help but watch as she walked away, he really loved her, and not knowing what there next move was, scared him.

“Cid offered a transport from a nearby ‘acquaintance’ of hers, they would be here in… five rotations. I am awaiting more details.” Tech informed the group.

“Five rotations is not too long. We can hide out in the mean time.”

Hunter let his group rest, Tech offered to lookout after struggling to sleep, but Hunter refused. He had the altered senses, if anyone could sense the infected, especially in the dark night, it would be him. 

Yes! You had done it. You had sectioned off part of the store, and made a fire pit out of items you found. You had found a first aid kit in the bathroom and using stuff around the store you were able to start a small fire. You also found a fire extinguisher incase it got out of hand.

You were tired of eating cold food and a small fire like you had made was enough to warm it up. Life was good, you were ready to eat a warm meal.

There was also a television in the staff room, you were watching the news, waiting for a statement about how they were going to solve the crisis in Juranno, there was little information released. There was a travel ban in and out of the city and talk of a temporary walls being built, but nothing about a rescue mission.

You felt stuck at the moment, there wasn’t much hope you had. If the Empire brought their forces, hopefully because of your fake chain code they wouldn’t discover your former identity, but that was still a worry. To be killed by an Empire who wants you or to be turned into one of the infected, what would be worse?

You didn’t know.

Andi would rather have died than become an infected, so maybe being a prisoner or executed by the empire would be better than sitting in an abandoned grocery store by yourself. The loneliness was excruciating.

After eating you held up to your word and practiced your training, since Mediating  disappointed you last time, you stuck to moving objects with the force. You stuck to small stuff, like cans and even the fire extinguisher to not push your self to exhaustion, and it wasn’t as bad as you thought.

Maybe if you trained enough you could be ready to get out of there on your own?

If you had a holopad or even a map might make it easier to make a plan, or even someone who knew the city better than you, like your dear desceased friend.

Those thoughts just made you sad, and using the force again was starting to feel difficult. You stood by the glass window and looked out at your town.

The smell of those who had been killed, their flesh rotting in the streets sometimes wafted in if you got too close to the glass, and you had to breath through your mouth.

You watched as some of the infected walked around aimlessly, looking for some sound to snap their teeth at, something to feed, to tear apart.

Eventually after people watching for long enough that your stomach was turning at the sight, you retired to bed.

You were finally able to get decent enough sleep, but waking up was going to be alarming.

Literally, you woke up to the sounds of sirens, and a white light flashing. Were you being rescued?

You threw the ‘covers’ off of you and got up. You put your coat on, lightsaber tucked into the inside pocket.

The sound was loud, you could hardly hear over it, but using the force you could feel other people entering the building.

Were they your saviors? Here to kill you and take all the supplies? Didn’t matter either way if the zombies were going to raid the place from all the noise.

You managed the controls from the inside of the staff room, pressing buttons until the alarm shut off, you ran out frantically to see the store crawling with some of the infected, shit. You had accidentally opened the doors, you ran back inside of the staff room to press the door that closed. You came back in to see the door was jammed from the zombie hoard trying to push their way in.

You pulled out your lightsaber, rapidly ignoring it, and force pushed some of them back so the door would close, trapping you and the infected who had pushed their way in inside. You ran back and they followed you at the sound of your footsteps, You stood ontop of the conveyor belt of the cash register lines, using the found height as an advantage you fought the infected.

They weren’t the only hoard in the store but you heard blaster shots coming from the side of you but you were only focused on the infected infront of you.

You managed to kill of most of the infected in front of you. One grabbed your foot, making you slide down and loose your footing. The Trandoshian who grabbed you, had a mostly bitten off face, but their arms were still intact, They snapped their jaw at you trying to latch onto any flesh but their mouth was met with your foot as you kicked them away. You rose your lightsaber as they jumped back to get you, damn! This one was tricky. Before they could be met with the swipe of your blade a quick and accurate knife shot hit them in the back of their head and they fell to the floor.

Your eyes wondered over to see a masked figure, dressed in blackened and red armor, that looked like clone, not trooper armor. You froze for a moment, memories daring to slip back, but a voice quickly brought you back to the task at hand.

“Sarge? Come help us there’s still more! Ah-“ The scream brought you back to reality and you jogged over to where the scream was. You saw a couple of people in armor shooting at the zombies that had come in, and a really tall one grabbing them and slamming them across the room roughly, and snapping necks, What the hell?

You joined in on the fighting, and most of the nearby infected were not in the store, just pressed against the glass trying to make their way in, too stupid to figure out how to break the glass doors.

The fighting felt a lot longer than it was, but it had only lasted a few more minutes, these armored men seemed very experienced.

“Watch out!” You whisper yelled as a little blonde headed kid mis-shot their arrow, making the infected jump at her, the source of the noise, arms trying to grab the kid. You force pushed the infected away from her, and then used your abilities to bring the infected close to you so you could slice it with your lightsaber.

“Thanks!” The little girl called out to you.

The fighting was over and you rested your stance, exhaling deeply now that all of the infected inside were dead, some cut open, some smashed, some shot up.

You tried to catch your breath, you lowered your lightsaber, but didn’t put it away. These folks had on republic armor, you didn’t know if you could trust them or not.

“Thanks for that, earlier.” The girl spoke again, a polite but awkward smile on her golden skin.

You nodded your head,” Of course.”

The really tall one threw off his helmet sighing loudly,” Ugh! I stink like zombie!”

“You smell the same to me.” Another armored man spoke, he had yellow goggles on and kept his helmet on.

“Is that a lightsaber? Can I see?” The little girl asked you, you hid it behind your back before turning it off and slipping it back into your coat.

You noticed the one who had threw the knife earlier was quietly staring at you, helmet still on. You were worried that they might have a problem with you being a former Jedi, Andi was the only one you ever told.

“It is. But it’s not mine, I found it.” Technically that wasn’t a lie, half of the lightsaber was your old masters, he had a two lightsabers, one being yellow like your orignal, the other half was yours and you joined them together.

She came closer to you, you held out the lightsaber and she curiously looked at it, with a grin on her face, laced with curiosity. She was adorable.

“Can I?” She asked, her honey eyes big. You smiled softly at her.

“Sure, just don’t press this button.” You referred to the button that switched your saber on, she just touched it, she didn’t take it from your hands.

“What brings you guys here?” You asked, mostly to the girl but the man who was staring at you, and still was, you could tell he was with your abilities, even if his face was covered. The staring man spoke up.

“We are looking for supplies. Are you okay if we have some? Are there others?” He asked you.

Your heart dropped, you thought you were going to be saved. These men looked like they knew what they were doing, you assumed they were looking for survivors, seeing as they had a kid with them.

“Just me,” You turned on your heel to walk away, to go back to your hiding place,” Oh. Go out the back on your way out, less infected and it won’t trigger the alarm.”

“I told you we should have proceeded from an alternate entrance, but no,” The one with the goggles started rambling on, comparing the the man with a scomp on his arm.

You turned back to walk away.

“Wait! Miss,” The one who was starting at you approached closer to you, taking his helmet off to talk to you better. The little girl followed closely behind him, his daughter maybe?

Your eyebrows quickly turned up at the sight of him, when you turned back to talk to him. He had a chiseled sharp looking face, long hair with waves, rugged brown skin, half of his face was covered in a tattoo that seemed a bit faded and he had stubble on his face. Oh and, don’t forget those honey eyes that you could just melt into.

He noticed the small motion but said nothing,” Why are you here?”

“Hiding out until this thing is over.” You answered him.

“Over? Not a bad idea, but only temporary, you can’t stay here forever.” The man said, it seemed like he was leading onto something.

You paused not saying anything, at first, but he kept staring at you,” Well, the empire’s pretty big, they’ve got forces, they’ll find a way to rescue us survivors.”

“We didn’t really see any survivors. There may not be any. This thing is spreading rapidly.” The man answered you, a soft look in his eyes.

“What’s your plan then?” You asked him.

“Get supplies, then find somewhere safe until our transport gets here.”

“Good luck. This place is rather safe. Well was rather safe, until you guys showed up. You can stay here.” You joked.

He let out a chuckle at what you said.

“Well, this store isn’t that big, I guess we will be seeing more of each other.” He gave you a soft smile.

“See you around then.” You nodded your head before heading to the staff room. You couldn’t help but let a smile out as you heard one of the men talking loudly, his friend reprimanded him for being loud.

You had finally found other people in this lonely desolate and violent city.

Maybe you shouldn’t be held up in this room, avoiding them?

Maybe you shouldn’t let your shyness hold you back? You put on a swipe of the natural deodorant under your pits, you had only had a ‘bird bath’ the day before and you didn’t want to be too smelly. You fix your hair with your hands before stepping out.

“Where’s the canned food?” One of the men, with a scomp asked outloud.

“Isle D18.” You answered him, he looked up at you, he looked like a standard clone now that his helmet was off, with a pale face, he looked sick, except he wasn’t nipping at the chance to murder you even though he saw you with a lightsaber earlier.

“Oh, thanks.” He offered a small smile.

“Hey little Jedi!” One of them called out, he was sitting in front of the ‘fire pit’ you had made, in the rolling chair you dragged out from the staff room.

“You look comfortable, in my chair.” You joked to the incredibly large man.

“Oh, sorry.” He stood up and you shook your head.

“No it’s okay.” You got a good look at him, besides being rather massive, he had a bald head, it looked like he had burn marks on his head, he had one of those honey brown eyes, the other was a bit white, was he blind in one eye?

“Are all do you guys clones? If you don’t mind me asking.” You asked curiously. They did not look like clones exactly, but they all had the same honey brown eyes, and clone trooper shaped armor.

“Yup, all of us! Born and raised, woohoo!” He called out proudly, doing hand movements as he talked, you laughed a bit and came closer to him, on the floor.

“Want me to get this fire going? It’s pretty cold.”

“You think this is cold? One time we were stuck on an ice moon in the outer rim for three rotations.” Wrecker laughed, booming.

“Really? That sounds awful.” You decided to start up the fire anyways.

“You hungry?” You offered to the man. You loved cooked for friends, it was your hobby, it helped you relax, and you were getting the hang of doing things, you even managed to find a few glass pots they had in storage.

“Very!” He replied.

“Well I’m cooking some food if you’re interested.” You offered.

“Yeah! I haven’t had a warm dinner in a while!” He grinned at you. He seemed rather nice.

“Cool, want to help me?” You asked.

“I would recommend not letting him anywhere near the kitchen, well, any cooking space that is.” The man who you saw earlier spoke, with the yellow goggles.

You hadn’t noticed that he was only a few isles away and he picked up on your conversation. He was nose deep in a holopad.

“What are you doing over there?” You asked him, as his fingers were rapidly tapping the device.

“Researching, trying to update myself on local news and announcements.” He informed you, speaking rather quickly.

“There’s a television in the staff room,” You pointed to where the staff room was and he looked up to mind you,” I’ve got the news going on there.”

He nodded his head,” Good to know, now I can multitask quicker.” He rapidly walked over to the staff room.

“He’s a very busy guy, huh?” You asked the large man next to you.

“Yup! He’s the brains so he’s always figurin’ out everything for us. That’s why we call ‘em Tech!” The large man explained.

“Oh, what’s your name? Muscles?” You teased him.

His face warmed up a bit from your compliment but he just laughed really loudly,” No, I’m Wrecker! What’s your name little Jedi?”

You pondered for a moment, wondering if you should trust him and say your birth name or the name of your new identity, you decided to gamble,” (Y/N),” You stuck out your hand to shake his.

His grip was rather strong and he moved you as he shook your hand,” Nice to meet ya! Haha!”

You were greatful when he let go, your hand throbbing a bit. You went to stand up.

“Well, I’ll see you in a bit, I need to grab some stuff.”

Once you had grabbed the ingredients in a hand held basket, you set them close to the fire. All of the group you had met earlier, including ‘Tech’, who finally was taking a break from his holopad, little did you know, it was because he was letting it charge.

“Hi!” The little girl waved at you and you smiled at her, waving in response.

You laid out a bag and took out the ingredients. You took the pot and started crushing a bulb, because you didn’t have anything to cut it with.

“Excuse me?” You looked up, it was the long haired man.

“Yeah?” You replied.

He stood up, getting closer to you and offered his knife, the blade facing down,” Here, use this.”

“This is a vibro-knife? Nice.” You inspected his knife. You didn’t know how much he had pride for his knife, Wreckers eyes widened at the sight of him letting you borrow it.

“What are you making?” The one with the scomp asked.

“Just a stir fry, trying to use up the vegetables before they go bad.” You answered.

“Need a hand?” The pale man asked.

‘No but you do’ You thought in your head but decided not to make the distasteful joke, you didn’t know him well enough.

“If you could pick out some aromatics or seasonings that would be really helpful, in G8 you can find them.” You looked over at him.

“No problem.” He stood up and nodded to you, you couldn’t help but smile at his willingness to help out. You started chopping up some of the vegetables, you were a pretty decent cook and you had good knife skills, and the vibro-blade helped you cut really fast.

The long haired one offered you some collapsible plates to serve the food in.

You made everyone a plate, the little one you served first and then you passed the rest out randomly, you all sat down near the fire, the men were chatting away, mostly Wrecker, but you were pretty quiet.

“You know, I never got your name.” The long haired one asked, he was sitting close to you, Omega sitting in between the two of you.

“(Y/N),” You told him your actually name, just how you told Wrecker,” And you are?”

“Hunter, and this is Omega.” He nodded to the girl next to you, she waved, her mouth full of food to say anything.

“I know the other ones names except, Wrecker and Tech but not the other one.” You said.

“I’m Echo, pleasure to meet you Miss.” He heard your conversation and saluted you with his hand.

Now at least you knew their names.

“Why are you called Hunter?” You asked him with caution.

He smirked at the hesitation in your voice,” Because of my skills. I can track things or people down with my senses.”

“Wait… are you force sensitive or something?” You asked him.

“No, thank the maker. Just sensitive to everything around me.”

“Sensitive on the inside too?” You joked.

“Maybe.” He put a hand on his heart, joking along with you.

You started to get a feel of everyone’s personalities, at least what they wore on the outside. Omega and Hunter were two Pea’s in a pod, she looked up to him and Hunter loved having her by his side. He was protective and watchful, a bit stoic but can take a joke. Tech is more interested in technology than people around him, but he doesn’t mind conversation nor social cues. Echo seems like a gentleman, willing to help at any moment, but also a bit stoic. And Wrecker? Terrifying when you see him, especially in battle but a dramatic jokester with a soft side.

They were an odd bunch, they didn’t look like quite clones, but you didn’t mind, you weren’t the typical Jedi. You were still a bit goofy in some ways, you weren’t as peaceful and calm as you used to be, a bit reserved but you craved company, and it was right in front of you so you were going to at least try to pursue it.

#bad batch #tbb #star wars #tech #the bad batch #wrecker #sergeant hunter #clone force 99 #hunter tbb #tbb hunter #hunter #tbb echo #tbb wrecker #tbb tech #tbb x reader #sw tbb #tbb hunter x reader #the bad batch fanfiction #hunter bad batch #bad batch x y/n #zombie #zombie au #hunter x you #bad batch hunter

[photogirl894]

Okay, I got some things to say for people upset about Crosshair...

(Not really any spoilers)

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a little sad that we hardly got to see him, too, and I'm anxious to find out what's going to happen to him, but people...

Have you forgotten that he's trying to freaking KILL the Bad Batch??

Yes, I know, he's part of the squad and their brother, but he's against them right now. He's tried to kill them TWICE! Both in situations where he had backup and they had no way to pin him down and get him to see reason. He was shooting at them and so were a bunch of other troopers in both scenarios. Not exactly a time to just stand around and talk!

"They're not even trying to save him..."

Again, he's trying TO KILL THEM!!

Hunter and Omega at least tried to tell him about the chip in episode 8, hoping he would see reason. How is that "not trying"? Plus, they had to run from him or else they would die. They can't exactly do much for him at this point right now! Don't tell me that you wouldn't run from an old friend or even a family member who's trying to kill you because anyone would! You wouldn't want to, but if it came down to it, you all know would run from them, too, if you had tried and failed. Plus, they can't reach out to him in any way because he'll find out where they are and the cycle begins again.

"They care more about Omega than Crosshair..."

Well, first of all, she's a freaking child! Of course, she's gonna get more attention. Plus, in the new episode, she's been kidnapped. What did you think the Bad Batch was gonna do?? Try and negotiate with their traitor teammate who's hell-bent on terminating them or go to rescue their kid who's been taken? The answer's pretty obvious 🤦‍♀️

Guys, I know we all want them to get Crosshair back and it's still possible because we still have 7 episodes left, but come on. Use your heads! You all have these headcanons of Crosshair being this perfect, precious being who deserves all the happiness in the world, which I agree, he does, but that's not who he is right now. He is a soldier for the Empire heavily under the influence of an inhibitor chip and is on a mission to terminate his old squad. If they tried to go to Kamino to rescue him, they'd be walking into a death trap and would surely be killed, so it would be for nothing. They haven't been able to get Crosshair alone since his programming was intensified; he's had soldiers around him, so they can't stun him or take him down to get his chip removed. There's literally been no opportunity to try and save him!

First episode: Crosshair turned and the Bad Batch had to run.

Second: they went to Saleucami to find Cut and figure out how to disappear, but they had to flee the planet from the Empire.

Third: their ship was falling apart and they got stranded. Not much they can do there.

Fourth: they're out of supplies and have to stop somewhere so they can keep going and get attacked by a bounty hunter who's after Omega.

Fifth: they go to Cid about the bounty hunter and she makes them do a job for her to get the info.

Sixth: they're working for Cid so they can get money to survive for the time being and they're going on another job.

Seventh: Rex shows up with information about the inhibitor chips and they go to Bracca to get them taken out.

Eighth: Crosshair arrives on Bracca and tries to take them out again.

Ninth: they escape him and go after Omega, who's been taken.

Where in any of that do you see any opportunity for the Bad Batch to have gone after Crosshair???

It's not possible yet!

Guys, be patient! It's still possible that they'll get him back somehow; we still have half a season, but you're all getting caught up in your fluffy, happy headcanons about Crosshair that you're missing the bigger picture. They had to leave Crosshair twice because he was trying to kill them and, like most people, they didn't want to die. Yes, Crosshair is their brother, but they also know he's not himself right now. Yes, they care a lot about Omega, but she's also a child who's still figuring out her way in a new world. Of course, they're gonna protect her more. They can't do much for Crosshair right now.

This is a pattern I've noticed among Star Wars fans. They get so wrapped up in their own theories or headcanons about how a story should go or what characters should be like and when things don't go the way they want, then they get mad and hate the content. That's what ruined the sequel trilogy for a lot of people (I don't want to hear anything about the sequel trilogy or why anyone hates it because that's not the point here) and I don't want that to happen with the Bad Batch. It is a great show! Let's not forget that! I know we all want Crosshair back with the Batch; believe me, I do, too, but I realize that there hasn't been a chance for them to really try yet. Don't let your personal headcanons for Crosshair ruin the show for you and just actually sit down and think about it. Dave Filoni has a plan and I'm trusting him. He's given us a lot of great things in the Star Wars universe, let's not forget. He gave us the Bad Batch in the first place!

Crosshair's time will come eventually. At least, that's what I'm hoping. Just be patient, guys. Have your happy headcanons for him in fanfics, but don't let them ruin your perception of the show. We've still got more adventures coming!

Rant over.

#star wars the bad batch #the bad batch #bad batch thoughts #bad batch crosshair

[dottiechan]

ICEBREAKER Pt. 7

Read on AO3 (link in bio)

Part 1 | Part 2&3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Pairing: Crosshair x Reader x Hunter

Wordcount: 2325

Summary: Bracca is nothing more than a blur. But in the midst of this chaos, there are flashbulb memories, vivid snapshots of moments that will be etched into your mind for the rest of your life.

Warnings: cursing, anxiety, injuries

You're sitting in the corner, mute. Everyone is tired, exhausted beyond belief in the belly of a rusting Republic warship, decommissioned just like you should be. You're all waste, fighting for scraps of individuality in a world that only values witless cooperation. Tech once called the Empire "the very death of critical thinking," and you wonder if he meant it literally. If he meant himself too, and his army of identical brothers, those ticking time bombs with switches sewn inside their heads. If he meant Wrecker grabbing him by the throat before trying to kill you. If he meant Crosshair's blind obedience to an Empire that could never love him back as you do.

Your hand glides over your tender arm, and you wince. You will be bruised, the imprint of Wrecker's hand will bloom purple on your skin, like a strange flower. Your back will be painted blue and black and purple too from where it kissed the ground after he threw you across the med bay. You don't know how many times you will be traumatised before you can find some semblance of peace in this godforsaken Galaxy.

And when you look at Omega - sweet Omega, struggling not to fall asleep, holding Wrecker's hand, hoping the man who tried to kill her a mere hour ago would wake - you somehow manage to feel even worse.

...

It takes time, for them all to undergo surgery. You look at their shaved heads, their confused faces as they look around. They won their own freedom, fought for it too. You want to imagine him here too, in the middle of this quiet victory over the unconscious, silver hair shaved on one side, shaking fingers placing a toothpick between soft lips, uncertain eyes searching for yours amongst his brothers. You want Wrecker to put an arm around those sinewy shoulders only to evoke a scowl on that beloved face.

Wrecker gazes back at you sadly when he notices you staring.

"On your feet, soldier," Hunter extends a hand to you with a small smile on his face. But you know him well enough now, and you see through his façade. You know just how shaken he is, shaken down to his very core. You take his hand and let him help you up. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

"You know that's not something I can do."

"I'm fine, I promise. Completely functional. I'm not the one who's just had surgery," you tut gently, taking his bandana from him when he tries to put it back over the bandage on his head. You're as careful as you can be, ignoring the stabbing ache in your arm as you fix Hunter up, gently brushing his short pieces of hair in the front back over the red fabric once you're finished tying a knot. "There. Good as new."

He catches your hands before you could withdraw them, and upon realising that most are distracted by Rex's and Echo's conversation, he holds them to his heart for a little while. His forehead comes to rest against yours gently, but at first you're not sure if he meant to do that, or if he just bowed under the great weight on his shoulders. But his eyes are searching your face now, and his breath ebbs and flows in harmony with yours. You've seen many soldiers do this before, brothers sharing a peaceful moment together before facing death on the battlefield. The Mandalorians call this a Keldabe kiss. But in his mind, Hunter just simply calls it arriving home.

"We'll be okay," you swallow thickly when he pulls back, placing a hand on the side of his face.

"We'll be okay," Hunter echoes, pressing his cheek into your palm, but if there's anything he's learned today, it's that he can never truly be sure of that.

...

"This is it, boys."

Rex almost looks reluctant, as if being around the Bad Batch has rekindled fond memories he's not eager to part with. This used to be his life, being surrounded by his brothers, saving the day. And while he feels satisfied, this victory leaves a bitter taste in his mouth when he realises that in the grand scheme of things, he's barely changed anything. One family saved, but countless others lost. Like his own brothers, for instance; his own stupid, stubborn, loyal brothers, buried on a bare rock of a moon. Their loss left a hole in his chest bigger than the crater their crashed ship indented on the planet surface, and saving your squad is like a bandaid over a blaster shot to the heart.

He allows his gaze to linger on Echo for a while, the last man he's known well to survive, the last nail in the coffin of his grief. He looks so different now, and yet for a moment he expects Fives to materialise behind him. Dominos attached at the hip, his very own double trouble, the dual curse that followed him everywhere. He used to grumble about how they behaved all the time. But he loved them, he loved his little brothers with all his heart. And look where that love got them.

Fives is not here, of course. Rex never dared ask where they buried him. He's heard rumours of unmarked clone mass graves, but he was never brave enough to accept that truth. That's why he and Ahsoka buried their own dead with dignity, marking an extra grave along the rest, empty but reserved still.

His gaze finds you then, eventually. The only one who isn't a clone here in this rusting medbay, the sore thumb sticking out, the lost one with sad eyes who's seen too much for a civvie. He saw the way Hunter held onto you just now, how you shared a quiet moment in the corner when you thought no one was watching. He promised himself he would do this for Fives, that he would tell you if he ever saw you again that he talked about you even months after that one night at 79's. That he called you the one that got away, that he jokingly said he was saving himself for after the war when he could ask you to marry him. Fives was always full of shit, and no doubt half of what he said were just jokes, but he knows he cared about you still. It's apparent that you're a remarkable person, easy to grow attached to, but twice as difficult to forget.

He wants to do this for Fives. He wants to tell you, he wants you to know that the man who ultimately saved the ones you love loved you in turn. But you already seem like you've been through enough and he hasn't the heart to put you through this as well.

You catch him looking at you, and you muster a small, tired smile. "Take care, Captain."

"Ma'am."

I'm sorry, Fives, he keeps repeating over and over in his head as he turns to leave.

...

The deck is about to collapse. It is the only way you even have a slight chance of survival, you know that. And yet you feel stuck in this very moment, unable to move, deer in the headlights, shaking from head to toe.

The squad is whole again.

You'd like to believe you wouldn't know what would happen if you approached him, if you tried to pry his helmet off and look into his eyes. You'd like to believe he'd let you, you'd like to believe he would listen to your pleas, that he would stop this madness. Order his troops to stand down. Come home with you.

You'd like to believe. But all you can think about is Wrecker, out of his mind and yet still so terrifyingly present somehow, grabbing Tech by the throat and throwing him against the wall before coming for you.

And you know Crosshair would gun you down without hesitation.

"Crosshair... Please don't do this. We can help you." The plea escapes your lips before you could stop it, however. Crosshair tilts his head towards you, and even though you can't see his gaze, just knowing that his eyes are on you is like being struck by lightning. How long was it since you last saw him? How long was it since he last gazed at you, and you at him? He seems almost as frozen for a moment as you, and you allow yourself to believe he's still in there, raging against the control of the Empire. You don't know what it was that you two shared back on Hoth, but you know it meant something. It had to. And judging by his consideration, and the hesitant way he shuffles a step closer to you, you know he must remember too.

But he moved too quickly for Hunter's liking, and he's by your side, trying to shield you as much as he shields Omega. Whatever moment you and Crosshair just shared is over. You can tell, by the tightening of his shoulders, by his stance turning defensive once more. You got through to the real Crosshair for a second. But the menace - like some demon possessing his body - is back in control once again.

"Crosshair, wake up! You're being controlled by an inhibitor chip." Hunter's reasoning falls on deaf ears now. It is over. You should accept it, but you can't. But at least you're not the only one who can't admit defeat.

"He's telling the truth. The Kaminoans put chips in all the clones. Remember what I told you in the brig?"

After Omega's spoken up, a stretch of silent tension follows. You're all nervous, weapons aimed, caught in a death trap with no way out but down. And yet you're holding on, you're still holding on to that last shred of hope that your words will finally get through to him. That you can finally put down the cross you've been bearing and rest.

"Aim for the kid."

You don't know how many times you can be traumatised before you finally give in. But you make room for one more, and the day is far from being over yet.

...

You're going to be sick, but you know you can't be. You've treated a thousand gruesome injuries before, but somehow a partial blaster burn to the chest will be your final straw, you can already tell. You gingerly lay the bacta patch across the scorched patch skin and flesh as your fingers tremble like a new recruit's. The internal damage was thankfully minimalised by his armour, but this is still going to take some time to heal from.

You don't know how long it will take for you all to heal from leaving Crosshair behind once more. From losing Omega.

When your breathing starts bordering on frantic, Tech nudges you aside and takes over, but you can't leave. You sit on the edge of the cot, and clutch Hunter's hand in your clammy ones. You can't lose anyone else, you can't, you heart wouldn't take it.

When he finally comes around again, the look in his eyes are so hurt you finally give in to the urge to cry.

"I guess I can't hold the mission on Bracca against you anymore," Hunter rasps through his pain, trying to ignore how choked up and panicked the thought of losing Omega makes him.

"No, you really can't," you agree quietly, wiping at your eyes as you try not to let your anxiety get the better of you. Not when you're supposed to be Hunter's comfort, when you're supposed to reassure him.

"This is the only thing I ever want to wake up to," he whispers, a weak hand reaching up, longing touch ghosting along your features. He's dying a little inside every time he fails, swallowing the shards of every heart he breaks as atonement. They're jarring his insides, leaving him breathless every time he moves. And yet he keeps pushing on, even now, even when he feels worse than he's ever felt - all because of you. You're his only remedy in this fucked up world, the only person who still makes him believe there can be a happy ending for you all. He loves his brothers, but they're just as guilty and cynical as he is. He understands why he can't pin all his hopes on a child, but for some reason, he can't make the same exception for you. His voice is quiet, but it's obvious his head is clear when he speaks next.

"Cyare."

A little to the side, Tech finishes checking the medical scans for the last time. Hunter's condition has been stabilised, and for now, all he can do is look into the bounty hunter who took Omega. He casts one last look at you and Hunter, hand in hand, eyes glued to each other's face, and he sighs.

"How's Hunter?"

"He'll live," Tech answers, placing a hand on Echo's shoulder. "We've been through a lot over a rather short period of time. I think they've earned a moment of peace alone though, wouldn't you agree?"

Echo's face rarely reflects the emotions inside him, but now an endless kind of sadness perches itself on his features as he nods and follows Tech to the cockpit.

"They deserve a lot more than that. Hell, we all do."

...

Crosshair would agree with that sentiment now as he's patched up at the medbay of an Imperial flagship, alone aside from the medical droids. His head is killing him, his thoughts are sluggish, but the pain in his chest is not only from his injuries. He keeps remembering you, over and over again, your beautiful face, the way you said his name as if he mattered, as if he still belonged to you. And you left him behind anyways again.

If he heard Tech's and Echo's conversation now, he'd agree. He deserves better too.

#dottiechan writes #hunter x reader x crosshair #hunter x reader #crosshair x reader #tbb x you #tbb x reader #the bad batch fanfiction #the bad batch x you #the bad batch x reader #tbb hunter #tbb crosshair

[boltwrites]

Misfits - Chapter 1

Fandom: Star Wars - Clone Wars / The Bad Batch Pairing: The Bad Batch / Reader (Polyamorous)  Rating: M (Rating May Change) Tags: Polyamorous Relationship, Force-Sensitive Reader, Slow Burn

Work Summary: After a year working with the 501st, you've been assigned a new post - Clone Force 99, aka the Bad Batch. You're concerned about the transition - you found it hard enough to fit in with the 501st, and now you had to acclimate to an entirely new squad. As it turns out, the Bad Batch is very accommodating.

read it on ao3 | or read more below

If you were being completely honest with yourself, you were nervous about your new assignment.

“Nervous” wasn’t a trait most people used to describe you. No, your former lifestyle dictated that you weren’t really allowed the luxury of nervousness – force sensitives left to fend for themselves, especially those expelled from the Order, had to grow a thick skin in order to survive. Force sensitives were valuable and much sought after, and not just by the Sith. From the day you had left the Order, it had been up to you to survive, to take care of yourself, and to make your own way in the universe.

But you were still a person – a sentient being that craved some sense of normalcy and security. And you had found that, for a fleeting moment, with the 501st. You hadn’t been thrilled with the arrangement – getting roped into a war that you wanted nothing to do with wasn’t exactly on your agenda the night you were approached by ghosts from your past and led to the Temple you had left behind so many years ago.

The Jedi had created a new program, meant to bolster their numbers in the face of the growing Sith. To create an alliance with unaligned force sensitives: the Jedi would provide protection and a generous stipend for the work provided, and the force sensitives would fight alongside the present Jedi. You hadn’t really been a huge fan of the idea, for multiple reasons… but you had been presented an offer that which you could not refuse. So you didn’t.

And it had been stable, for a bit. You hated to admit that you had grown to enjoy the company of the 501st, but you had. Your General, Anakin, was understanding, and not so uptight. He was so unlike the Knights you knew when you had been present at the Temple – he was reckless, and fearless, and he followed his own heart instead of the code. Perhaps that’s why you didn’t mind his command; you knew that he wasn’t so swayed by Council politics and related trivialities, and that he cared about his men first and foremost. You had grown fond of him, even discussing your personal philosophy regarding the force with him on a few occasions, and even sparring with his padawan, Ahsoka, on several occasions. A teenager holding a higher title than you was alien, but in the relaxed nature of the 501st, you had hardly noticed it.

But, as much as you enjoyed the company of the Jedi, perhaps the person you would miss the most was Rex. Holding the same rank didn’t seem to phase the clone Captain, as Rex had been more than happy to show you the ropes and introduce you to the men. He accepted you as his equal immediately, and you had been fast friends, bonding over your similar roles in the battle and joking about the most trivial shit that left you on the floor in stitches, Rex hunched over wheezing at perhaps the worst pun you had ever constructed. He had introduced you to the other members of the 501st, saved your ass on multiple occasions, and in turn, you had confided in him about how out of place you felt within the military structure afforded you.

“I don’t fit in,” you had rambled, waving your hands emphatically after one too many drinks at 79’s. “I mean – I’m a Captain, right? Like you. But I’m not a clone, obviously.” You laughed, feeling stupid for even pointing it out. “I mean, I know there must be more out there like me – force sensitives the Jedi picked out of thin air, coerced into joining this war…”

You had rolled your eyes, and Rex had raised an eyebrow. In turn, you had waved him off, nowhere near finished your speech.

“But – the point I’m trying to make – is that it’s not like I’m fighting alongside people that are like me. Even when we work alongside the 212th or some other battalion, I think I’ve only seen one other non-Jedi force sensitive.”

“And it’s worse, you know? You guys – the men – they all call me Jedi. Because honestly, what else do you know? What do you know besides Jedi and Sith? There’s nothing really to call a person like me – but calling me Jedi isn’t right, because then I go up to Anakin or Ahsoka, and yeah, they’re nice to me, but they don’t treat me the same as other Jedi. I’m not one of them. And I’m not one of you. So where the hell do I fit in this?”

Rex hadn’t had an answer for you, and you sure as fuck didn’t know.

Maybe that’s why you were assigned to Clone Force 99.

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

“Have you worked with these guys before?” you asked, fiddling with your bag as you waited in the hangar on Coruscant. Rex stood beside you, hand on his hip as he surveyed the sky above you, no doubt waiting for your transport.

“Once. You remember when you were off on that stealth mission with Hondo?”

“Ugh, I wish I could forget.”

Rex chuckled, shaking his head at your sarcasm. “I first met them then. Don’t worry. You’ll fit right in.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, and he raised both back at you, a little smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“Care to elaborate as to why, you bastard?”

Rex grinned wider, shaking his head and turning his eyes to the sky once more.

“They look at the world differently. Like you do.”

You hadn’t expected that, and you stood in shock, watching Rex as he searched for the ship that would take you from him. You thought, for just a moment, you saw a tinge of sadness in his eyes, that a sliver of grief passed over you both in the force at the thought of your parting. You opened your mouth to speak, but before you could, a ship started to descend, the roar deafening anything you might have wanted to say.

The ship landed, powering down its thrusters, and your heart flipped involuntarily. You didn’t want to be nervous – you really didn’t. You had come to know clones over the time you had spent in the GAR – close to a standard year, at this point. You knew that in order to earn their trust, you couldn’t appear afraid, or out of place. You had to act as if you belonged, as if you were already their friend, in order to actually become their friend. It was surprisingly similar to working with scoundrels in the Outer Rim – faking it until you made it.

So, you squared your shoulders and tried to seem confident, and Rex’s subtle smile and firm nod only spurred you on as he stepped to your side, prepared to introduce you to the men you would be working with for at least the new few missions.

The hatch hissed at the airlock released, the ramp lowering so that the crew could disembark.

You knew little about Clone Force 99. Your reassignment had been swift, ordered straight from the top – above even the Jedi, from the Senate itself. According to your official order, Clone Force 99, a special operations unit, was in need of a force sensitive for several missions. They didn’t operate under a Jedi General, and seeing as they were a spec ops unit, the Jedi couldn’t waste any of their precious men on such a small squad. You, however, as an unassociated force-sensitive, were ripe for the picking, and considering that you had previously been assigned to the 501st, a battalion that already operated under a Jedi Knight and Padawan, you had been the obvious choice for the job.

So, you knew that they were a special unit and that they didn’t work with Jedi on the regular. Great. That was such a detailed summary of how they operated. You were so prepared.

Well, you considered. You had gone into battle previously with even less information. It had been even worse when you were operating in the Outer Rim. It could be worse.

You tried to remain optimistic as the steam cleared from the change in pressure and temperature, the hatch hissing as the troopers disembarked. You stood transfixed as they did, and as each appeared, your eyebrows scrunched further together.

You had been told this was a clone force. As in, a clone-based unit. No Jedi, and obviously no nat borns, as beside the Jedi and force sensitives, they were restricted to the Navy, not the GAR. But these men…

It was strange. They looked so different – one large, one tall and slender, another with long hair and broad shoulders. But their biorhythms in the Force were all so similar. The force sang around them like it did with other clones – there was a distinct taste of battle to them, of shared battles, countless. Their signatures sang together, like the rest of the clones’ did, as they had grown and battled together, as they had trusted one another from the day they all met on Kamino. It spoke of a deep camaraderie that was never present among nat borns, that was specific to clones and them alone, and it dazzled you.

“Captain Rex. Good to see you.”

You blinked, snapping yourself out of your analysis of the force, only to see the clone with the longer hair greet Rex with a firm grip to the forearm. As he drew closer, you started to notice the resemblance – the same skin tone, the curve of his nose, the color of his eyes – and it was confirmed through your eyes as well that this man was, indeed, a clone.

“Good to see you too, Sergeant,” Rex replied with a nod, stepping back to gesture to you. You straightened up, standing formally to address the man you would be working with from now on. You weren’t one for formalities, but you did want to make a good impression with him. Some clones were not as openminded as Rex, and they tended to be sticklers for rules and orders, offended by the slightest deviation. Until you knew the Sergeant’s preferences, it would pay to be formal.

“This is Captain Andar. She’s the force-sensitive that’s been assigned to your unit.”

You offered Rex a small smile – he knew how much you valued the term “force sensitive” and how you wished to remain distinct from the Jedi, so you were grateful that he remembered your preference.

The Sergeant frowned, looking from you to Rex and back again, and you felt anxiety coil in your stomach. The downward tilt of his lip and his disappointment in the force compounded, leaving you feeling uneasy.

“We requested General Skywalker.”

Oh, there it was. They had expected a Jedi. Not you, some half-baked, half-trained force sensitive who wasn’t even allowed to hold a title higher than Captain. You should be used to it, at this point, the disdain and the dismissal. But it still hurt you a bit more than it should have, when you were reminded that you were only second best.

“Hunter, we’re stretched thin as it is,” Rex sighed, shaking his head a little. “I did submit your request, but this came from the top. The Senate has disallowed the allocation of the Jedi anywhere other than the front lines. We have a severe shortage of Generals – Commanders, even – but I assure you, Captain Andar is more than capable. She’s one of the best men I know.”

You smiled at Rex, a soft thanks for his kind words, even as Sergeant – Hunter, was it? – looked you up and down.

“So, you’re a force sensitive,” he addressed you. You nodded, trying to get a read on him. His large skull tattoo, which took up the majority of the left side of his face, drew your attention. Most clones turned to tattoos in order to assert their individuality – you had actually seen a few of your comrades getting their tattoos, as it was a communal activity among them. You laughed along with Rex as you watched shinies cringe at their first ink, and you even has a few pieces yourself, hidden below your clothing.

But somehow, Hunter’s skull seemed different. There was a lot about clone culture you still didn’t fully understand, and this may just be a part of it. His tattoo, however, wasn’t quite as intriguing as his hair – long and free-flowing, not tied back besides his headband. There were a few long-haired clones in the 501st, but they always kept their hair tied up neatly, either in a tight bun or a ponytail. Hunter’s was clearly too short for either of those options, and it made him look rugged. You wondered what he was trying to convey with this combination of identifying markers. Clones used everything they had to assert their individuality – to designate themselves as them, to emphasize their personality, role in the military, and who they wanted to be. What did Hunter’s want to present to you with his appearance, you wondered.

But, you couldn’t just stare at the man all day – for fuck’s sake, he had just asked you a question and you’d already spent a good half a second staring at him instead of answering.

“Yes – I possess the same abilities in the force as a Jedi such as General Skywalker or Commander Tano –“ you frowned a little. You were probably closer in skill to Ahsoka, despite being far older. That tends to happen when you’re expelled from the order at fifteen and spend more time trying to simply stay alive rather than train. “- I am more than capable of completing missions where force-related skill is necessary. And, I don’t have to answer to the Council.”

You added the last part on the end with a little chuckle, because Anakin had often asked for your assistance specifically because of that fact – the Jedi Council knew that it was a risk allowing you and the other unaffiliated force sensitives into the GAR, and it was for this exact reason. You had made it work with the 501st, though, and you wondered if this new unit would find that loophole as useful as Anakin had.

Judging by the raised eyebrow, Hunter was mildly impressed by at least something you said.

“Oh, she’ll fit right in, then,” Hunter seemed to soften, just a touch? As if understanding something you weren’t yet privy to as he flashed Rex a grin. Rex smirked back, patting you on the shoulder.

“Told you,” he mumbled to you, and you rolled your eyes at him. Well, at the very least, the Bad Batch didn’t hate you.

Yet.

#the bad batch x reader #the bad batch x you #echo x reader #hunter x reader #wrecker x reader #tech x reader #crosshair x reader #misfits #mine

[thefallenbibliophilequote]

Wildest Dreams

Loki x Reader

1989, chapter 9

"He only saw her in his dreams."

Summary: It's hard to find the one, but even if you do find him it's always going to be a daily struggle to make it work. Can you even make it work after he broke your heart? The answer to that is complicated, but it all started when you found each other again in the stark tower- and that's where our story begins.

Word count: 3,695

Warnings: language as always, angst and some tiny fluff (probably not in the way you want), alludes to sex, Odin. one malec reference.

A/N: okay so, this chapter is different since it is mainly introspective about Loki's time in the 6 months he has been back in Asgard- so that's that about the timeline.

A/N2: I really hope you'll like it so let me know by reblogging and commenting! If you want to be on my taglist let me know by sending an ask! Thank you @chrissquares for the dividers! and the amazing @nacho-bucky

No one is allowed to repost my writing or steal or copy my work! Reblog on tumblr is fine.

Series masterlist

Song on Spotify and YouTube

Month one in Asgard.

"Brother I assure you all will be well. I'll make sure she will be safe." Thor had told him that before he left for Midgard.

The gesture was nice but while he did want you to be safe he didn't want to know who you are hanging with.

You'll find a way to move on and so will he. Once this all will be over Loki will finally get some peace and his life will return to normal, nothing lasts forever after all.

Life as a prince was supposedly comfortable, and so a prince's chambers should be as well. But as he was lying on the big soft bed in his large room, he couldn't have felt more alone. The bed was too big, the sheets were too cold, and the surfaces of the room were too empty of life- he could find a million faults to his room if he tried.

Loki didn't stay in his room often then, as a prince he could do whatever he wants and he could go anywhere he wants- well, almost.

Sparring was a great hobby he developed when he was angry, having a chance to politely beat down another person often sounds delightful to him then. It was almost empty now at the sunset but he found an opponent.

He could feel and hear his own heartbeat as he took in a breath and looked into the sunset as the warrior took his stance in front of him.

'The Norse Gods are almost immortal.'

The sentence lingered in your head. Maybe buying this book was a bad idea. At the knock on your door you quickly shut the book and shoved it under the sofa cushion.

A moment later Loki walked in with a batch of freshly picked flowers, they didn't look like they were from around here, you only hoped these flowers can survive on their own so you wouldn't kill them.

"Hello my love, are you ready for our date?" you got up to him with a smile, he put the flowers in a vase that appeared on your table, once he was in your reach you gave him a peck on the lips.

"Yes, let's go!" The relationship was still new but you were happy that you still had that same chemistry that the two of you had before.

That sentence kept your mind busy as you drove out of the city, away from the crowd of people and into a high solitary space.

"I could've just teleported us there my love, you know that right?" he looked at you as you drove, the sun was shining over you and he couldn't look away. The view of you in the sunlight with your best dress and red lips is easily more stunning than anything he had seen in all the realms.

"Yes, but it's more fun this way." You insisted on having some of the dates be normal and human.

"How is driving for such a long time fun?" you saw him shake his head from the corner of your eyes.

"Just relax Loki, I'll put on some great driving songs." He groaned but you only laughed.

It was an hour or so later that you reached your destination- it was an amazing view seeing all the trees and rocks as you finally parked on the dry ground of the mountain hill spot you found for Loki and you.

Loki stepped outside and laid out the picnic you packed up as you looked down on the beautiful horizon as the sun began to set.

Loki came up behind you and curled his hands around your waist.

You could've stayed in that content moment forever. The sentence still lingered in your brain.

"Loki?" you called to him and he only hummed in response, his lips kissing your hair.

"Yes, darling?"

"Say you'll remember me." You asked him in a low voice.

"What?"

"Say you'll remember me, here at this moment, standing in a nice dress and staring at the sunset with you."

"I promise you my dear," he kissed your shoulder and you felt him smiling. "Every time I see you, I'll remember this moment. I'll relish it forever."

•

Month two in Asgard.

It was different, spending the time with her here was nothing like being with you there- but maybe that's a good thing.

He was trying to get used to all the same emotions he felt all those years go. The regret, the knowing that he has to let go completely, the anger and temporary solutions, and then there's the sadness.

It was a familiar process, but having you again just reminded him of everything he lost and how everything has changed after he first let you go.

The first time he let you go, it almost killed him. And now he didn't know how his own mind would work to survive this.

He spent days in meetings and peace negotiating. His father kept him busy whether it was with Iyllir or work, it didn't matter.

She was excited about the wedding- their wedding. He chimed him whenever she asked for his opinion.

"What do you think about the flowers? Besides the ones I already picked of course." The lady smiled at him and waited for his answer. Anything besides your favourite flower would be fine.

The only real thing in this month for him was the work he was doing- negotiating peace was not an easy task. Granted, he could've solved it long ago but where is the fun in that?

"It was a wise choice to listen to my advice. I'm sure your decision to marry soon to be Princess Iyllir will make everyone happy." Odin told Loki as he followed the Allfather into yet another meeting. Entering the room, Loki looked at the blonde who sat next to his seat- he wasn't supposed to be in this meeting.

Taking the seat next to him, Thor smiled at his brother.

"Brother," Loki greeted him and continued to look forward at the table. "Are you not supposed to still be in Midgard?"

"I am, but I returned for a bit," Thor lowered his eyes then. "I heard about the marriage, I'm happy for you."

His pat on the back felt gentler than the usual forceful ones. To Loki it was quite unsettling.

"To be quite honest, I thought you won't do it because-"

"Thank you brother, I look forward to the marriage, it's the right choice."

"Is it?" Thor asked his brother lowly, the meeting was already starting and Loki didn't respond but it was probably best to leave this topic for now. Thor had never seen his brother the way he was when he was with you, it was clear that you mean a lot to him, so it made it that much more worrisome that Loki was going to go through with the arranged marriage. Thor knew Loki would've easily gotten out of it if he wanted to.

•

Present day on Midgard.

"Why are you all staring at me?" Thor stood there with all of his friends from work looking at him silently.

Natasha was the one to break the silence, "Y/N has been kidnapped and we think the Asgardian problem that we have on our hands right now was the cause of it."

"Y/N has been kidnapped?" His brows furrowed and he put his hammer on the table. "When did this happen?"

"Last week, you weren't here."

"I had to attend a ball for my brother and…" he trailed off.

"Right, I'm sure the wedding was lovely." The captain retorted.

"We really don't need to talk about," Wanda started and looked between Pietro and Clint.

"The wedding hasn't occurred yet." Thor settled in a seat right in front of Steve. "Did you manage to find out where she might be?"

"If we did then she would've been home by now."

"No, we've got nothing so far." Nat glared at Steve before she returned to look at Thor.

"Well you could've told me sooner, I'm sure my brother will be able to help."

"What? Are you crazy?" Steve let out a bitter laugh and stood up. One of his hands was a fist on the table and the other was pointing at Thor. "He is not coming anywhere near here."

The dark tone in Steve's voice left no room for arguments. Tony only heard it once before and so he took Steve out of the room before anything could happen.

•

Month three in Asgard.

"I see that you've read the books that I recommended you already." Iyllir sat next to him on the dark blue couch in the large palace library. Gold and blue were all around and the smell of old books filled the air.

"Yes they were very interesting," She put a hand on his arm delicately. "You have incredible taste in books my prince."

He nodded at that and quickly picked up one of the books from the pile that was set aside on the table. The guide to the old weapons of the nine realms- he remembered reading it as a child, he used to sneak into the vaults and look around at all the hidden things he found there that he read about in his books. Whatever he didn't recognize he would pick it up and study it. There may have been a couple of accidents there- but come on, what did you expect?

Now the book let his mind wander to the happenings on earth. He heard Thor talk about how it is going there in hushed whispers, but he never stuck around to actually hear anything in fear it would be about you.

He didn't need to know how you were doing, who you were hanging with or what you were up to.

"Loki?" He got snapped out of his thoughts. He looked back at Iyllir who had an unreadable look on her face, he found it hard to read people when he was so caught up inside his own mind, but her face soon took on a gentle smile. "You drifted off a bit. You're here with me now, there's no need to dwell over anything- so let's leave this book aside, it seems to put you in a bad mood."

Iyllir took the book from his hands and put it behind her. She then linked her hand with his and caressed his arm, her head leaning on his shoulder.

His mind now wandered to her and their wedding that was coming soon. Iyllir did manage to put herself in his mind where you should be, so maybe this was the right call after all.

Loki smiled at her and they continued to engage in conversation.

•

Month four in Asgard.

It was hard to admit that he enjoyed Iyllir's company.

Her lips were soft, and he appreciated the way they made thoughts disappear from his brain.

"Did you really turn into a snake?" Iyllir's laugh joined his as he recalled the memory.

"He was quite shocked, we were eight at the time."

"That was quite clever of you, my prince." She laughed and let her head fall onto his chest as they lay in his bed, covered in green silky sheets.

"Well, I'm always clever."

"Now you're just giving yourself too much credit, you are not always clever." You laughed at him.

He shook his head and turned back to her.

"What do you think about going out of the castle for a bit, go for a couple of days to a small cabin far away from other asgardians just the two of us?"

She nodded enthusiastically and leaned up to a kiss.

•

"This place is beautiful, but I wish we would've brought maids with us- you shouldn't do any of these things, you're a prince. I sent a letter so hopefully the servants will get here soon."

"Oh, I was quite content with using my magic, but how thoughtful of you."

"Now you'll get to spend more time with me." She whispered to him and walked over to him, putting her hands around Loki's neck.

He pulled her closer.

"That is true." He said in between kisses, moving the two of them backwards until Iyllir's knees touched the bed.

"You know, it is not really proper for a man and woman to be in bed together like this before their wedding night." She moaned at the kisses he trailed down her neck.

"When did I ever care about such formalities, my dear?" she let out a breathy laugh as he laid her on the mattress and he hovered above her. "And I know for a fact that you don't either."

Loki was in bed, opening his eyes and seeing the redheaded girl still sleeping next to him, her bare back shone in the sun. They were twisted in bed sheets, and Loki looked back up at the ceiling and tried to go back to sleep, closing his eyes.

"Loki, come cuddle me, I'm cold." Your sleepy voice called out to him.

"Okay, love." He moved himself closer to the body next to him. Opening his eyes for a second, he got snapped back to reality when he realized that you weren't the one in his bed, he was cuddling someone who wasn't you.

He shook his head and tried to fall asleep when Iyllir pressed back against him.

•

Month five in Asgard.

The ballroom was massive and adorned with gold and touches of green. The people there were ecstatic about the upcoming wedding.

The crowded room was full of people drinking mead and eating and dancing. But it all seemed just a bit too much for him.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think this will happen to him that this would be his life. Every girl was here with the most beautiful dresses but all he could remember was you, dancing with him in your best dress, you could easily beat any girl here with that dress and your beauty.

Loki was seated next to the Allfather and Iyllir, watching over the room as more and more new asgardians came to pay their respects and congratulate the happy couple. Thor came up behind them and patted Loki on the back before he took him away to drink.

According to Thor it was a necessity.

After that he had a dance with his soon to be wife, only a few kisses were engaged, Loki didn't like being as affectionate out in the open, in front of so many people.

The dance ended and the mead started to kick in, and if he was honest it was quite amusing to see Thor drunk as he talked, or more so yelled, to his friends.

After the ball he didn't see Thor as much, he must be busy with… whatever that was happening on Midgard. He won't let himself think too much about it, so he kept himself busy with wedding preparations and council meetings.

He spent the month buried in work during the day, and clearing his head during the night.

•

Present day in Midgard.

"Tony, I already told you that her powers don't have any energy trackers that we can build on."

"Bruce, we already scoured hydra bases. We found no information about her." Tony looked at the screen in front of him before pushing it aside, startling Bruce. "Sorry."

The doors to the lab opened and they turned to see Thor coming in with a short smile.

"Have you got any news about Lady Y/N?" he looked around the room anxiously, his next words would certainly get a reaction from the two scientists. "Do you need my brother's help?"

"Thor, I don't think that's a good idea." Tony exchanged a look with Bruce and he rubbed his eyes. "But no, we still don't know where she is."

"Why refuse his help?" Thor's voice grew louder. He then looked at the door when it opened for Steve and Wanda.

"We already told you Thor, we don't want his help." Steve chuckled darkly, so Wanda put her hand on the captain's shoulder then, trying to ease the tension.

"Thor, this isn't something Loki can help with, this is hydra."

"He will still do whatever he can, he still cares for her-"

"Besides, he is probably busy preparing for his wedding, isn't that right?"

"You are being judgmental Steve," Thor came towards Steve. "You're not thinking rationally."

"Oh I am judging him just right. If you're only here to try and vouch for your brother than you may as well go."

"Steve!" Wanda called him but he didn't budge his stare from the Asgardian prince.

Thor left shortly after.

Steve ignored the stares.

•

"Father, the elves are calming down, if we send some aid we could make sure peace is settled." Loki talked to his father in the throne room.

"If we send aid, they could use it against us. They could just be faking submission." Loki held back a laugh.

"I'm not the god of lies for nothing father, I'd be able to tell if they were faking it. Trust me about this." The doors opened with a bang, shutting behind the blonde prince as he strode towards Loki.

"My son, what are you doing here?"

"Loki," Thor ignored his father and Loki got up and looked at Thor at the strange occurrence. "Y/N has been kidnapped, you need to come back."

"She what?" His heartbeat sped up and he could feel the warm sensation of anger rise in him from the fear.

"Who is this girl?" Odin looked between his two sons when none answered. "Thor?"

"A girl from Midgard, she's an Avenger." He looked over Loki and nodded his head, he needed to be the one to talk.

"She's just a girl that I knew from Midgard." He said to his father with his jaw clenched, then he turned to Thor. "Thor, what happened?"

"They think she's got taken because of her powers, or because of the Asgardian technology that was stolen."

"My sons, you will answer to the questions I pose. Now tell me, what powers does she posses? If she has a part in the problem we have on Midgard then I deserve to know that."

Thor nodded, encouraging Loki to speak up.

"She has the power to insert herself into people's minds and control what they see and feel." He shook his head at his father. "She has no role in this father, she should not be mixed with Asgardian business."

The Allfather was quiet then before he shifted in his throne.

"Son, you know her for quite some time isn't that right?" Loki nodded and looked down.

"And you seem to care for her, too." He was no longer asking but Loki found himself nodding anyway. "Did she know about you being an Asgardian?"

"Yes, she knew who I was."

"So have you ever used your magic on her?" Loki was halfway into shaking his head before he stopped and remembered that night he spent comforting you, sitting on the tile of your bathroom.

"Only once," he thought back at the ancient spell.

"Tell me now my son, has it ever crossed your mind that such powerful magic as the one you have will affect a mortal immensely?"

"What are you saying father?" Thor looked up at Odin.

"It was a powerful spell…" Loki was still in thought about his actions that night, he must have been emotional.

"Her powers can be of Asgardian source, the mortal's powers sound like old Asgardian magic- the reality stone that was stored here long ago. The spell must have been from those ancient time, and so it stored immense powers- the kind that a mortal could not bear."

"So is that why they took her? Because of my magic, they took her because of me." Loki mumbled to himself.

"Loki, no don't say that-"

"It's true Thor! I'm going to get her back." Loki didn't wait for Odin to object before he all but ran out of the door. Odin didn't object.

"Thor, go after him. If he finds her, he will find the rest of the stolen weapons." Thor nodded to his father before following his brother.

•

Steve looked at the papers scattered on the lab.

"This is a nightmare."

"I've had better nightmares." Natasha spoke from next to him. "You should go rest a bit, you look like hell."

He smiled at her but it barely reached his eyes. You were a part of his family, losing you is not an option. He didn't know where you were and he didn't want to think about what you may be going through.

He wasn't the only one who cared about you, he knew that, but it still felt like they don't understand.

He turned around to go get water, when he almost ran into someone.

Looking up he saw the blue eyes of the raven haired prince. His tiredness suddenly disappeared when he took in the cold demeanor and rage filled eyed.

"I've been away for six long months and meanwhile you let her get kidnapped just like that?" Loki's voice was low and Steve didn't notice Thor walk in right after Loki, he didn't hear Bucky calling him.

"You are not welcome here Loki, and don't talk about it as if it isn't your entire fault."

The answer he got was in a dark laugh.

"Oh captain, I'm afraid I'm way past asking permission." Loki moved past him. "How long was she gone?"

"Almost a month," Bucky replied, looking between Steve's clenched posture and the same one that Loki held. "Can you find her?"

"I'll do whatever it takes." He nodded to the soldier and Bucky recognized the vulnerability in his eyes.

"Her powers are Asgardian, they came from me." Loki looked at the different screens, the room was quiet. "Doctor Banner, do you think you could track my energy signature? She should have some part of it inside her."

Loki looked back at the doctor, awaiting a response.

"Yes, I will just need to take some of your-"

"Take what you need."

•

Tags: @ayybtch @buckys-other-punk @chaoticpete @madcrazy50 @mishkatelwarriorgoddess @the-departed-potato @rogerrhqpsody @onceupona-happilyeverafter-love @percabethismyotp14

#wildest dreams #my writing #1989 #1989 taylor's version #loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #loki odinson x reader #angst #loki laufeyson x reader #loki imagines #loki fanfiction #loki angst #loki show #loki series #tom hiddleston #marvel #mcu #loki x you #loki of asgard

[sepublic]

I think today’s episode of The Bad Batch might be our best one yet?

I think what makes it really stand out to me is that... It comes closest to The Clone Wars in terms of worldbuilding, in terms of that anthological nature, a look at various stories across the galaxy! I think this episode delivers most on that expectation of really getting to see the political intrigue of the Empire as an emerging force, and how different people react to it- I particularly enjoy it’s more nuanced takes as well!

I like seeing how Taa is just as corrupt as ever, and he’s fully submitting to the Empire- And seeing his self interests and resentment towards Cham, his paranoia at losing his control, while Rampart? Taa is just another disposable pawn, he’s less biased about the whole thing but still ruthless, his way of setting up Cham up to be framed for Taa’s assassination...

It’s very clever and twisty writing and paints the Empire as a more subtle kind of evil and dictatorship, and I like how it shows how people like Rampart are actively thinking and considering public interest, especially with Rampart acknowledging that Cham hasn’t committed a crime YET...! Very dark humor when he thanked Taa for his ‘role’, the moment Crosshair showed up onscreen again, I KNEW what he was up to!

The Hera backstory is great, Chopper returns! And Hera getting to hang out with Omega and pass her own wisdom on... I was legit curious how the Bad Batch would factor into this episode, and they were so seamlessly and neatly incorporated as the weapons dealers! I really am getting a better sense of them as people trying their best to survive in a shifting galaxy with new interests.

And the change of perspective when Omega came was also really well done and fluid! It was very sonder looking at our protagonists from a different perspective, as side characters in another story, and helps to further show how Star Wars is about a bunch of people and their stories, somehow intersecting in various ways- Again another strength of The Clone Wars and its anthological nature! It really is a bigger world with different people with their own lives and goals, forced to intersect and react to one another.

Gobi’s not the best, he’s right about the Empire but him using a kid in this, hmm... And Cham is rightfully concerned but you can also tell that he’s so damn tired of fighting and who can blame him? But he still has his sense and I love the insight into how the Empire is playing on the Republic’s past aid-

Especially with Cham bringing up the Ryloth Arc, and Howzer... Why does he still have a sense of self and markings? Was his inhibitor chip deactivated by Rampart as a means of making the ‘face’ of the clone presence here seem more personable, to lower Cham’s guard? Either way I like Howzer having a sense of morality here, again it shows the nuance of the Clones in a situation where they’re no longer the good guys.

I’m kind of disappointed Crosshair didn’t get to interact with the Bad Batch, the circumstances were perfectly aligned for another showdown... But luckily he seems to have handled the ion engine perfectly well, and his sight is just as intact as ever! Seeing the rebels maneuver around each other, as well as the Empire and vice-versa was a lot of fun...

All in all, this might be this show’s most solid episode yet imo! It hits closest to that emotional continuity of The Clone Wars, if expanding the setting and filling in the gaps between the films! I appreciate how the Twi’lek rebels only stun the Clones, because there’s still that familiarity there- That even if they’re only ever following orders, at a point in time those orders DID help them! Plus I feel like Twi’leks would understand the dilemma of slavery well...

And with how this episode ended, we might see the arc continue in the next one! Again, that was another neat thing of The Clone Wars, it was having arcs spread across multiple episodes so they could get in-depth into a storyline, instead of isolating it within a single episode, and continue that narrative across the season! I think this is the closest the show has felt to the original expectation that the fans had in mind, and I for one adore it!

#Star Wars #the bad batch #vice admiral rampart #cham syndulla #hera syndulla #orn free taa #crosshair

[brandywine-tomatoes]

Lightsaber Trials

Bad Batch Fluff

Prompt chosen by my wife @icedcoffee101

Masterlist

TW: arguing/bickering, a few dark implications here and there, ms. tano not leaving the jedi order, Ahsoka saving the day

Word count: 2163

Prompt/Inso: #4 from my list: Fun times with a lightsaber

QUICK NOTE: BSL stands for Basic Sign Language, and yes I made it up

--

“Why exactly are we giving our debriefings on Coruscant?” Crosshair asked, the question directed beside him at Hunter who was fiddling with a datapad. Something about booking landing zones?

“The Jedi want to meet us in person apparently,” Tech, who was bringing the Havoc out of hyperspace, answered instead.

“Haven’t we met them already?”

“It’s statistically impossible for us to meet-”

“I didn’t ask what was statistically impossible,” he sat forward in his seat. “I asked why we’re debriefing on Coruscant.”

“They ask squads to report to Coruscant whenever they feel it’s necessary,” Echo said from the co-pilot's chair.

“That must waste a lot of time,” Wrecker piped in from behind them all.

“The jedi just love to control everything,” Cross mumbled and sat back up, crossing his arms.

“I doubt you’d get away saying that around them.”

“Well then it’s a good thing we haven’t landed yet.”

“Will you ever stop being so condescending to authority?” Echo turned to face him.

“Guys,” Hunter interjected. “Enough.”

Echo rolled his eyes and turned back to help Tech land the ship.

“We have better things to do than meet the people who send us to die every day,” Cross wryly concluded. He got up and went to open the hatch. The bright Coruscant sun blinded him for a few seconds as he stepped out onto the tarmac, the rest of the batch following closely.

They lined up and stood at attention for the general approaching from the Jedi temple.

“At ease Clone Force 99, welcome to Coruscant,” Jedi General Plo Koon greeted them. “I assume you know why you’ve been called here.”

“Yes, general,” Hunter answered.

“There will be an evaluation of the mission's report and of course an extensive debrief...” Plo Koon went on about how the day would shape out for the batch and what was expected of them, Hunter nodding at every word beside him while the rest of the batch followed in their path.

“You’d think they’d be more efficient,” Crosshair mumbled to himself.

“Trust me, CT-9904, this is the most efficient and effective system for assessing clone squads,” Plo Koon turned to look at a flustered Crosshair.

He nodded and muttered an apology.

“Just through here, it won’t take an obscene amount of time I’m sure,” the general gestured to a doorway as they climbed the staircase of the temple.

---

“‘It won’t take an obscene amount of time’ he says. ‘This is the most efficient and effective system’ he says,” Crosshair complained on the way back to the Havoc.

The bustling city around the temple went on as the sun was crawling towards the horizon, casting a wave of deep orange over the little part of Coruscant. The clones walked wearily back to their ship, completely exhausted from the assessment and debriefing. The helmets under their arms were close to falling out of their grips as every step took more energy out of them.

“It could’ve been worse,” Wrecker tried to reason.

“Worse? What could’ve been worse than that!”

“Being court marshalled, decommissioned, reconditioned-” Echo started rhyming out, counting on his left hand.

“You know what I mean!” He threw his free arm in the hair.

Echo smirked. His favourite game was messing with Crosshair, it was just so easy, it was always an effortless achievement.

Tech was lagging behind the others, too busy sorting through his notes from the assessment on his datapad to contribute to whatever Echo and Cross were arguing about. Though, he wasn’t so tuned out that he missed the small cylinder his foot kicked. The metal tube made a small jostling sound as it rolled a couple feet away from Tech. He’d studied them enough to know what it was on sight. A lightsaber.

Not uncommon on temple grounds, but very uncommon just lying on the tarmac. Such a crucial part of the Jedi religion would never be left without its user nearby. He looked left, looked right, nothing but perfectly lined up ships on either side. No jedi to claim it, no general there to see him maybe...

He quickly picked it up and stuffed it in his satchel. What could happen? A Jedi would need to make another one, boohoo. They’ve made them for thousands of years, their stash wouldn’t deplete. The religion would survive, the temple would still stand, the war would go on. Who cares if he gets to study a lightsaber up close? He was becoming as giddy as a cadet. Who ever got to study a lightsaber other than their creators and the wielders?

As soon as they were in hyperspace, he whipped it out and started examining the intricate designs and mechanisms. Tech had fiddled with it for a solid couple of hours, trying to open up the hilt, before Wrecker noticed Tech had been weirdly quiet during their hyperspace trip.

“What is that?” He asked, pointing to it for emphasis.

Everyone turned to look at where Wrecker was pointing. Tech slowly raised his gaze from the small tool in his hand that was previously trying to pry open the hilt. His feet were on the seat, his eyes level with his knees and various small tools were balanced on them.

They stared at him, at first, with fear for their own skins. Then it turned to frustration. They all knew Tech wasn’t one to let go of something he wanted to study, but this definitely crossed a line.

“Tech,” Hunter said slowly, like he was coaxing a clanker into submission.

Tech sprang from his seat and darted down the Havoc, the rest of the Batch quickly following.

“Tech!”

He spun around and the green blade ignited from the hilt in his hand. Everyone jumped back immediately, hands held up in surrender. Tech practically threw it away from him in surprise. The polished dark metal hilt clattered to the ground and the green plasma retracted, leaving the crew in an adrenaline-filled silence.

Then all hell broke loose.

“What the absolute fuck were you thinking!” Echo yelled, not so much a question.

“It was just lying there!”

“You can’t just go around taking lightsabers whenever you damn well please!”

“But no one was using it-”

“We were at a Jedi fucking temple, Tech!” Echo threw his arms in the air.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it,” Wrecker tried reasoning.

“Really! He didn’t mean anything by it! Stealing a fucking lightsaber isn’t nothing!” Echo was fuming angry. “We could get in so much trouble, do you understand that!”

“Enough Echo, we all know how serious this is,” Hunter interjected.

“I don’t think you do!” He took a step towards Hunter, his fist shaking.

“Echo, they’ll know it’s a misunderstanding, it isn’t like they’re going to execute us,” he tried lightening the tension, but it seemed to only make it worse.

Echo looked at all of them with a dark look on his face. “You’re all lucky I have strings I can pull.”

“And what are those, exactly?” Crosshair smugly asked.

“I know people, and most of them own me favours.”

Echo dug through his belt of pouches to retrieve a single commlink.

“Oh yeah, we’re all saved,” Cross mumbled, walking back up the aisle to the cockpit, conveniently where the lightsaber was sitting.

“Rex, we have a problem,” he spoke into the comm, leaning against one of the bunks.

A few tension-filled seconds passed.

“Oh no, do I want to hear this?” Rex’s staticky voice filled the silence.

“Probably not, is Commander Tano with you?”

“Uh, yeah, hold on.”

The comm went silent for longer, everyone growing restless.

“Great plan, your reg Captain ditched you,” Cross said from the isle, no one noticing him examining the polished dark metal hilt.

“Echo? What’s up, what happened?” Ahsoka’s calm voice floated through the comm.

“You remember that place with the thing that one time and the promise you made?” Echo’s lips twitched up in amusement.

“Oh god, don’t remind me,” she groaned. “What do you need? How can I help?”

He gave Tech an irritated look. “Well, we accidentally stole a lightsaber-”

“Accidentally? How do you accidentally steal a lightsaber?”

“It’s a long story. Can you maybe just... I don’t know, work the force in our favour?”

She sighed fondly. “Who do I need to talk to?”

“I like her,” Wrecker tried to whisper.

Echo glared at him. “General Plo Koon.”

“I’ll holo him right now- oh wait, oh shit,” the crew heard Ahsoka ignite one of her lightsabers and deflect a couple blaster bolts. She shouted orders to Rex and the other clones who sounded like they were taking heavy fire.

“Slight inconvenience, I’ll have to holo him later. This won’t take long,” she shouted over the intense fire. “I’ll talk to you later Echo.”

The comm went silent and Echo looked worried sick.

“She’ll be fine, she’s a jedi. They don’t need anyone else’s help,” Crosshair bit out as he looked for the ignition button on the lightsaber.

“I guess- wait, Cross, what are you-”

The green sabre shot out, startling everyone except Crosshair who looked pleased with himself.

He spun it around in his right hand, getting used to the weight. “These are pretty cool.”

Hunter rolled his eyes. “Quit it Crosshair, they aren’t toys.”

“Oh, I beg to differ,” he tried to spin it in front of him, doing a terrible imitation of the jedi.

“Cross-”

As soon as he tried to switch the blade to his left hand, the plasma sliced through the thin aiming plate attached to his shoulder. The thin plastoid plate clattered to the ground and everyone burst out laughing while Crosshair looked absolutely heartbroken, his gaze never leaving the sliced armour.

He pushed the button on the hilt and the blade retracted. The thick tension evaporated and everyone walked up the aisle to the cockpit, patting Cross on the shoulder and chuckling to themselves.

“Switching course back to Coruscant then?” Tech asked, amusement still edged in his voice.

Hunter took his seat behind Tech. “Let’s just hope Commander Tano keeps her promise."

---

“We are incredibly sorry for the inconvenience, it won’t ever happen again,” Hunter practically followed Plo Koon out the temple and into the gardens like a sad puppy. The Batch held in their chuckles at his behaviour, all of them purely relieved Ahsoka holoed him in time.

“There’s no inconvenience, Sargeant. The padawan who owns this sabre learned a valuable lesson.”

The group walked around a cement corner to see a little twi'lek sobbing, holding her face in her hands as another padawan had an arm around her shoulders.

“Sapher.”

Her head shot up and ran to the group, seeing her hilt in Plo’s hand.

“You know not to leave this lying around,” the general knelt on the cement.

She nodded profusely, stray tears dripping down her cheeks.

“You’ve learned your lesson, Sapher?”

She nodded again. The general offered her the blade and she snatched it up, overlooking it with a keen eye. Tech felt a little bad for the scratches he made in the metal while trying to pry it open.

The kid must’ve put 2 and 2 together to figure out the clones decked out in red and black armour were the ones who returned it. She started moving her hands and arms around in precise movements, trying to convey her thanks.

“Uh, Tech, do you know what she’s doing?” Hunter whispered.

“You don’t understand BSL?” Tech rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t survive a day without me. She says she’s eternally grateful and she’ll always be indebted to us in the simplest terms, she’s using quite advanced phrases I doubt you’d understand.”

The girl looked very pleased with herself at his compliment and signed something back to Tech. They conversed for a few seconds more before she handed him a small circular piece of matte metal. He signed a goodbye and she ran back to her friend to tell her all about her new allies.

“We best be going then,” Hunter said to Plo Koon. They bid their thank yous and goodbyes and soon enough, they were finally en route to their next mission without any detours.

“What was that disk she gave you?” Echo asked.

“A holo. For once, I think we have an ally amidst the jedi ranks.”

“A holo that small? Impossible.”

Tech smiled slightly. “Very limited production, I’ve only heard about them from comm chatter.”

“How touching,” Cross sarcastically added, fiddling with a toothpick between his lips.

“You’re just sour cause you don’t have a levelling plate anymore,” Echo chuckled, turning his attention back to the controls.

“We’ll find someone to get it fixed,” Hunter cut in, not wanting another argument to break out.

“Fates forbid you don’t have the best sniper in the GAR watching your back.”

“From today's events, I’m not so sure I want you watching my back at all,” Echo jokingly mumbled.

Cross stood up. “Why you little-”

Hunter blew a fuse. “Enough already!”

--

A/N: This took so much fuc-fricking time to write!! I thought it was gonna be maybe 500, maybe 700 words, but I ended up with a 2000 word fic. Life just does that to you ig.

ANYWAYS, I hope y'all liked it, I loved writing that little Rex and Ahsoka cameo. I do want to note that this is after they rescued Echo from the Techno Union, but it's many months before the events of the Seige of Mandalore. It's also kinda a fix-it fic?? I wanted to bring ahsoka in and I was just so excited to do so that I forgot she wasn't part of the order during this time... WHOOPS

(Don't forget to drink some water right now and go eat a snack, you deserve it so much bestie ❤️❤️)

#hello y'all who read the tags #how y'all doing? #good I hope #so #for all of you wondering 'why did ahsoka owe echo' #my explanation #is the first time she got drunk after a successful mission #with a few clones she was working with #she drunkenly called echo #and she wants to keep her first drunken experience a secret #(those clones with her didn't remember anything from that night #they were so hammered) #the bad batch #tbb #the clone wars #tcw #clone wars #star wars #sw #echo #tech #omega #wrecker #hunter #crosshair #writeblr

[bellaireland1981]

A Gentle Push

Pairings: Chris Evans x Female Reader 

Warnings: None- just fluff

Word Count: 3,380

Summary- Your family and Chris’ have been friends forever, which mean you’d been best friends with Chris since childhood. Only problem is over the  years you’ve fallen in love with your best friend, but are too scared to risk the friendship. Your families decide it’s time to intervene... 

Part 1 of 3!

A/n- This is literally only the second story I’ve ever posted, so please be kind! HUGE thank you to @fluffymisha97​ and @denisemarieangelina​ for reading through, giving me feedback and LOADS of encouragement! 

Pictures found on Pinterest and compiled into a collage. 

Reblogs are always welcome but I do not give permission to copy, translate or post my work anywhere. 

You’ve been best friends with Chris, and a regular at the Evans’ household for as long as you could remember. You’d weathered your first heartbreaks together, spent endless hours at the local theater supporting each other in plays, went as each other’s date to dances so neither of you would feel like the oddball out, you’d been there for Chris when his parents had gotten divorced, and he’d been there for you when your dad passed away. You were each other’s rock, voice of reason, biggest cheerleader. You shared all of your secrets… well except one. There was a huge secret you’d managed to keep from Chris for a very long time. You were in love with your best friend.

Your  families are currently planning a ski trip in the White Mountains in New Hampshire during everyone’s Christmas break. Chris had booked a block of rooms for everyone at the Omni Mount Washington Resort for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. You were definitely looking forward to seeing him and spending time with him, as those opportunities don’t come along very often lately, but when you spent extended amounts of time together it was hard to keep your feeling concealed. As it was you were pretty sure your family knew how you felt.

You knew that Scott had for sure figured out you were in love with his brother. He’d cornered you after his mom’s annual 4th of July cookout the previous year. Since then, he’d made it his mission to drop hints and to tease you mercilessly whenever you were all together. Thankfully, it had been a busy year for Chris with films so he was gone a lot.

“So, Flower, how are you going to survive a week of skiing, and being in close quarters with Chris and not let it slip that you’re in love with him?” Scott asked teasingly, as you were settling in for a movie night at your apartment.

“Well, Bambi,” You respond, rolling your eyes, “I’ve managed to keep it under wraps this long, so I’m pretty confident that I can continue to do so indefinitely.”

“That’s flawed thinking,” He replied, “It’s bound to come out and you know it. He’ll either figure it out, or you’ll slip up.”

“I think the odds are higher that you’ll be the one that spills the beans, Bambi.” You said laughing.

“You may not be wrong there!” He laughed, “I don’t understand why you just don’t tell him already though.”

“Because that would ruin a life long friendship and I can’t, Scott.” I said sadly, “I can’t lose him, and can you imagine how horribly uncomfortable it would be when our families were together?”

“It wouldn’t come to that, Flower.” He reassured you, “You’ve got to trust me!”

“Just promise you won’t push it this week, Bambi.” You begged, “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to hang out with Chris and just have fun, I don’t want it to be ruined.”

“I promise” He replied hugging you, “It’ll all be great. You’ll see!”

___________________________________________________________

“Merry Christmas, Sweetheart!” Lisa said, wrapping you in a hug as you stood on her porch.

“Merry Christmas!” You reply hugging her back. “Sorry I’m late, I was finishing a batch of  cookies for the boys for the trip.”

“You’re fine! Come in where it’s warm.” She ushered you into the house that had been your second home growing up. “Everyone is in the family room plotting for the week ahead!”

You made your way to the family room where Scott and Chris were on the couch discussing (or arguing rather) who the better skier was. Dodger was laid out on the floor at Chris’ feet but jumps up when he sees you, excitedly coming over to you for attention. You bend down and drop a kiss on his head, giving him pats, and calling for him to come over to the couch with you.  You decide to plop down onto the couch in between Chris and Scott, allowing Dodger to jump up next to you. Due to lack of space, he was sprawled half on you, with his butt resting on Chris’ lap.

“Merry Christmas, Flower!” Scott said laughing at you inserting yourself on the couch, “Settle this for us! Tell Chris I’m the better skier!”

“Umm, Bambi, as much as I’d love to help you out here, there’s a reason I call you ‘Bambi’ and it isn’t just because you’re cute.” you reply laughing. The first time you’d all gone ice skating together as kids, Scott had ended up sprawled out on the ice, much like Bambi had in the movie. He just wasn’t always the most graceful. It was part of his charm.  “It pains me to say it, but Christopher Robin is the better skier.”

“Wow, I see how it is!” Scott pouted, “Come on, Dodge, let’s go find people who will appreciate us!” He got up and called for Dodger, winking at me on his way by.

“Merry Christmas, Dove,” Chris said, scooting over to you and engulfing you in a tight hug. He really did give the best hugs. “I’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you too,” You said hugging him back, “Merry Christmas!”  Chris kept his arm around you, hugging you to his side as you sat on the couch. This was pretty much the norm for you both.

“How’s the school year going for you, Dove?” he asked

“It’s going OK.” You respond, slightly distracted by being so close to him. “Definitely need these two weeks to regroup.”

“Carly and Shanna said the same thing” He laughed, “I don’t know how you all do it.”

“The good outweighs the bad for sure. I love my students and wouldn’t trade them for the world.” You reply.

“Well I’m glad I get to spend the next week with you!” He said excitedly, “I’m planning on being very selfish and keeping you to myself as much as possible. Fair warning.”

Butterflies erupt in your stomach at his words. You didn’t mind spending as much time with him as possible, and the fact that he wanted to just have time with you was exciting, but it was definitely harder to contain your feelings when it was just the two of you. You thought about asking Scott to run interference but that was a recipe for disaster, and you really did want to spend as much time with him as you could.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in chaos, as were most get-togethers with your family and the Evans clan. You’d all eaten dinner, played several games, and had even snuck a movie in before the kids were carted off to their beds.

You were helping Lisa in the kitchen with getting food put up and dishes washed, when she looked over at you, giving you the familiar “mom look”... similar to the one you always got from your own mom.

“Are you planning on ever telling him how you feel?” she asked, gently prying.

You stop wiping the pan and look up at her alarmed.

“Tell who how I feel?” you ask, panicked, how did she know? Had Scott told her? You make a mental note to kick him.

“Sweetheart, you wear that heart of yours on your sleeve.” She laughed, “Anyone with eyes and sense can see you’re in love with Chris.”

You look around to make sure nobody else is around or listening in. Thankfully, Chris had taken Dodger for a quick walk so you knew he wasn’t in ear shot.

“Umm, of course I love him, he’s my best friend.” You say trying to hedge. You should have known better that Lisa wasn’t having any of that. And of course Scott picked that exact moment to come into the kitchen.

“Flower, we all know you don’t just love him as your best friend. She’s IN love with him mom.” He said, ever so helpfully. The mental note to kick him just got upgraded to pushing him down the mountain.

“Scott, leave her alone.” Lisa chided him, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed how much joy you take in tormenting the poor girl whenever they’re together.”

“I prefer to think of it as nudging her in the right direction.” He responds laughing, “I’m cupid!”

“You’re a menace” You reply, glaring at him, then turning your attention to Lisa. “Ok yes, he’s right, but I’m not about to ruin a lifelong friendship with the best person I know because I caught feelings.”

“Oh, Sweet girl, I promise you you’re not going to ruin your friendship.” Lisa reassured you, “Trust me.”

“I’ve been telling her that for a year, Ma!” Scott pointed out. “Seriously, Flower, you trust us right?”

“Of course I trust you both,” you replied, “But I can’t risk it. The price is just too high.”

“What price is too high?” Chis asked, having impeccable timing just like his brother.

“Flower has had her eye on something extra special from Santa, but apparently he’s an idiot.” Scott said, popping a cookie in his mouth and making a hasty exit from the kitchen, oblivious to the look of death you were shooting his way.

“What’s caught your eye, Dove?” Chris asked, thankfully missing the cue Scott had dropped. “Santa may be an idiot, but you’ve got a totally amazing best friend that isn’t.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that” You hear Lisa whisper to herself, shaking her head. You glance over to see if Chris had heard his mom, but he was snatching  a cookie from the tray and looking at you.

“It’s not a big deal, really.” you replied, “I have to finish packing before we leave tomorrow morning, so I’m going to head out now.”

Lisa stepped around the kitchen island and wrapped you in a hug, “It’ll all be ok, Love” she whispered, “Have faith in him.”

“It’s still early though,” Chris whined, giving you a puppy look, “And I haven’t been able to spend any time with you lately!”

“We’ll have an entire week together,” You reasoned with him, “But if you want to leave early, I have to finish packing and sleep.”

“OK, then how about I come help you pack and then we can watch a movie and you can fall asleep like you always do!” He suggested, looking at you with a hopeful gaze.  You really did want to spend as much time as possible with him since it wasn’t often you got the chance lately.

“You’d be doing me a huge favor, Sweetheart” Lisa winked at you, “Take this one off my hands for the night!”

“Ok, it’s not like he doesn’t have his own home to go to,” You laugh, “But, fine, I’ll take him.”

“YES!” Chris exclaims high fiving you, “Let me grab Dodge and I’m ready!”  He ran out of the room to collect Dodger and you turned to Lisa shaking your head.

“Why do I always end up giving into him?” You asked, baffled.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” She asked, smiling gently at you. “Relax and just enjoy the time with him… everything always has a way of working out.”

“READY!” Chris yelled, excitedly coming into the room again with Dodger and our coats in tow. “Let’s get you packed, Dove!”

“You gonna follow me to my apartment?” I asked, taking my coat. “Or do you just want to ride with me?”

“I’ll follow you to your apartment, you can pack, and then we’ll take my car to my house because I have to finish packing too.” Chris admitted, flashing his boyish smile at you. “Besides, I have a better TV to watch movies on.”

“You seriously haven’t packed yet either?” I laughed, “And have you even met me? I’ll literally be sleeping within the first 15 minutes of the movie.”

“Even more reason to watch it at my house, it’ll be more comfy when you crash out!”

Chris ushers you out of the house towards your cars after saying goodbye to everyone. Once at your apartment, Chris and Dodger hang out on your bed while you throw your clothes and toiletries into your suitcase. You make a mental tally of everything, making sure you don’t forget anything.

“Bring a dress for New Years” Chris said, “We’re going to go out to dinner and then I organized a small party for our families and the gang’s all drivin’ up to join us.”

“Umm, Christopher, that is not something you throw at me last minute!” I complained, glaring at him, “How fancy is this party? Ugh! I’m going to have to go shopping now.”

“Relax, Dove” He laughed, “It’s not overly fancy, you’ve got a ton of dresses in your closest and you’ll look absolutely beautiful in any of them. You should grab the short, black one you wore to the Infinity War premiere…the lacy, sparkly one with only one sleeve, you looked amazing in that.”

“This one?” You asked, pulling what you believe was the dress he was referring to, but needing clarification from his description.

“Yes!” He exclaimed with a big grin, “I really liked that on you.”

“Thank you” You said, feeling your face heat up, “It’s definitely one of my favorites, but Chris, this is a formal dress, will it be OK for the dinner and party?”

“It’s perfect, Dove” he promised, “All eyes will definitely be on you that night.”

“I doubt that” You laughed, carefully placing the dress in a garment bag to prevent it from wrinkling.

“Ok, let’s grab your gear from your trunk and head to my house. You can help me pick out my New Year’s outfit while I throw all my other clothes into the suitcase and then we can watch a movie...or I can watch a movie and you can sleep.”

Once you got back to Chris’ house, you went inside and Chris got Dodger settled with food and fresh water before you both made your way to his room so he could pack. You plopped down on his bed, making yourself comfy while he drags out a suitcase and starts putting various clothing items in.

“While you finish packing, I’m going to go change and grab some snacks and drinks for the movie.” You said, needing a distraction. “And since all of my stuff is still in your car, I’m stealing one of your t-shirts and a pair of your pajama pants to sleep in.”

“Ok, but I want them back this time, Dove” He teased, “I’ve lost have of my wardrobe to you ‘borrowing’ stuff.”

“I make no promises.” You sassed back, rummaging through his drawer to find a shirt and pajama pants. In truth you’d only actually commandeered a few shirts over the years, he was definitely exaggerating.  

You settled on one of his Patriots t-shirts and a pair of blue plaid cotton pants with a drawstring so you could adjust them to fit.  You changed in the bathroom before heading to the kitchen for popcorn and drinks.

You’d just finished popping the popcorn, removing it from the microwave when Chris grabbed you from behind and yelled your name, causing you to jump about a mile in the air. Thankfully you’d already set the popcorn down.

“CHRISTOPHER!” You yelled, placing your hand over your racing heart, “You SUCK!”

You doubted he had heard you though, because he was laughing hysterically, a hand over his left pec. He was practically sprawled out on the floor. It was your own fault really. Thirty-five years of friendship, you should know to just expect these jump scares.

“I’m sorry” He gasped, trying to calm down, “I couldn’t resist!”

“You’re not sorry, Punk!” I replied, attempting to glare at him. It was impossible to stay upset with him, even when just faking it, his personality and the boyish looks he gave you always ended up melting your heart.

“I am! I promise, I won’t do it anymore.” He said, as got up off the floor. “At least not anymore tonight?”

“You better not have been recording that or post it to social media!” you said, “Don’t forget that I’ve got a LOT of pictures and videos of you over the years, mister!”

“Fair point” He acknowledged, “I promise, I won’t post it to social media.”

“Grab the popcorn and let’s go watch that movie.” You instructed him, grabbing the drinks.

“OK, but let’s go watch it one in my room, that way when you fall asleep you’re already somewhere comfy.” He suggested.

He grabs the popcorn bowl and you grab the drinks and you both head back towards his room. Chris calls for Dodger to follow. Once in the room you quickly staked your claim on the side of the bed closest to the windows and French doors, making yourself comfy with pillows propping you up. Dodger jumped on the bed and tried to settle next to you, but Chris was quicker and poor Dodger was forced to lay at the foot of the bed.

“Poor Dodge,” You said, pouting, “Did your mean Daddy banish you to the end of the bed?”

Chris laughed, throwing a pillow at you, “Mean, my ass! He’s the most spoiled dog ever!”

“And who’s fault is that, Christopher Robin?” You sassed.

“I believe you had a huge role in that spoiling” He replied, “What do you want to watch?”

“I can’t deny my role in that, but he’s the best boy ever!” You said, leaning over to scratch Dodger’s ears, “And whatever you want to watch is fine.”

“Ok, well it’s Christmas so we have to watch a Christmas movie…” He started flipping through what was available to stream, and after a minute settled on White Christmas.

“How many times did you watch this already this year?” he asked, knowing it was among your favorites.

“This will make four” you replied. “But if you count the times I fell asleep when I started it, it’s the 7th time”

He laughed, then laid back, crossing his ankles and tucking his left arm under his head. “Well come here and snuggle in then so you can go to sleep.” He extended right arm out for me to use as a pillow, pulling me into his warmth. Even with the butterflies erupting in my stomach being this close to him, his body heat and the comfort of his arms immediately relaxed me.

“I might actually make it through the movie…” You said in mock indignation. “Might be a Christmas miracle!”

“You say that, but already you can barely keep your eyes open, Dove.” He reasoned, smiling down at you.

“I can’t help it that you’re so comfy.” You yawned and your eyes drifted shut “And it was a very busy day.”

The opening scene started to play but your breathing had already evened out in sleep.

“Barely made it past the opening credits and you’re already passed out, Dove” Chris whispered, “Sweet Dreams.” He carefully shifted so he angled more towards you and leaned over to place a gentle kiss on your head. “I love you.”

(Part 2 will post TOMORROW!) 

#Chris Evans Fiction Chris Evans Chris Evans x Reader

[gospelofme]

57 Thoughts I Had While Watching Part 2 of The Bad Batch Season Finale (Spoilers ahead!!)

I do like how Part 2 picks right up where Part 1 left off. I prefer that method since it makes it feel like one connected piece. Like how Rogue One ended where A New Hope kicks off.

Ya know, I wouldn’t mind the thunderstorms.

Okay the explosions are beautifully animated. The blues, the sparks, the orange flames. And I like how they’re realistically placed. So many shows with explosions don’t have them right close to the characters, even if they’re supposed to be all around them.

This episode is kinda darkly lit. Not like Battle of Winterfell in Game of Thrones.

Okay yeah, that clone reporting the destruction…thats some sadness there.

That inner alarm has me thinking “oh shit my flight has changed gates again hasn’t it!!”

Damn, imagine being unconscious and wake up in a flooding compartment with a droid and that one kid who took your place.

Okay how strong is that knife. I kinda expect it to break in half. Wrecker would

probably try to trade with Hunter after that.

The shot of the burning buildings on the water is so beautiful too. The reflections were well done.

About AZ being like “oh hey homie, you survived being blown up but now you’re drowning. And I’m watching while this literal child tries to move metal debris off of you.”

Okay Omega using her bow like that is genius. But please wee baby don’t hit Crosshair by accident. And the way the bolts underwater were animated. 🤌🏻🤌🏻

And Crosshair being all “wtf?!”

Dang Omega is so take charge here.

Okay the sprays of water from the door is so well done. And omg they just pop outta there lmao!!!! About how Omega is caught and they just let Crosshair slide on the floor.

Haha Crosshair being like “Hunter, you fucker did you break something?!”

I really wish it wasn’t so darkly lit, but it does bring a sense of realism. The power is out, so what we’re able to see is what the characters are able to see with flashlights. Plus I’m sure this would look different on my TV than iPad.

The music is so pretty, so emotional. Oh damn poor AZ.

Oh never mind. He’s good.

Crosshair quit being a poop and follow them please.

Echo and that smell lmao.

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad.”

Huh. Interesting. But isn’t blind allegiance what the clones had in the Republic? Isn’t that what Clone Force 99 had in the Republic? At least mostly. Some clones didn’t have that obviously, like Cut.

Ooohh Crosshair’s expression when Hunter knocked his shoulder. That seemed like surprise. There is something to that.

Hmmmmmm I’m with Crosshair on that. Going through a glass tunnel with cracks in it hundreds of feet below the surface would be a no from me. Also, what about water pressure? Is that not a thing there? Like wouldn’t you get a massive headache traveling through that? Or maybe not….idk.

Oh fuck Wrecker letting Crosshair know what’s what. I do like that he’s finally expressing how he feels. I’ve always thought there was more of a brotherly relationship between Wrecker and Crosshair than Crosshair had with the others. And Wrecker has a point, Crosshair didn’t even try to come back to them. Of course that really isn’t a fair statement either I guess. Wrecker should remember how he couldn’t control what he did when his chip kicked on.

And Tech jumping in and saying that Crosshair has always been “severe and unyielding” is a good way to let us know a bit more of what’s normal behavior for Crosshair. I like how he’s reminded Wrecker that some things Crosshair can’t help due to just how he is (likely a byproduct of the enhancement experiments).

“Understanding you does not mean I agree with you.” Ugh if only more people had this mindset. Also, the whole “why are you defending me?” sounds like Tech doesn’t usually leap to Crosshair’s defense (even though that’s not what he’s doing here). Which further makes me think that the brotherly relationship that usually exists between team members (like Domino squad eventually, Rex/Echo/Fives/Kix/Jesse/Hardcase/Tup) doesn’t exist here between all the guys. It’s more sporadic. Crosshair seems to get along better with Wrecker (in their own way, teasing and their droid death counts) than he does with Tech.

Also perhaps they should not stop so often…ya know, just in case the tunnel implodes.

Oh nope nope nope. No underwater tubes and sea monsters for Bethany.

AZ is so peppy. Like he sounds so positive when relaying bad news. He sounds like the kinda droid that would be like “good news is you have great cholesterol, bad news is you have cancer. But yay no diabetes!”

Oh yeah I kinda forgot Hunter wasn’t with them they first got to the private lab. And oh damn, Omega is technically older than them. The whole accelerated aging thing is just so unfair.

Well we really couldn’t expect a glass tunnel to fully survive aerial bombardment. Better start swimming fuckers!!

Damn, someone find AZ a charger! I bet Tech has one for his datapad that boy is attached too. He seems like the type to never be without a phone charger. He also seems like the type to not want to share it because no one else in the squad treats their charge cords with respect.

Dad gum Crosshair, I didn’t hear you spouting off any bright ideas. Geez, who peed in your wheaties?!

Hunter takes things too personally?! Weren’t you being all Salty McSourpus over Hunter leaving your ass on Kamino for shooting at him and the others? Were you not taking that too personally? But kudos to Hunter for reminding him the Empire peaced the fuck out and left him to die on Kamino. Although…Crosshair does sound like he’s trying not to care about that. Like it does bother him but he’s acting like he don’t give a fuck.

“The Empire will control the entire Galaxy. And I’m going to be a part of it.” Uhm, sir…you’re currently in a secret lab at the bottom of the ocean with no means of escape right now. How do you plan to be a part of the Empire from down here? Like, are you going to establish the underwater branch of the Empire and assert the Emperor’s control over the sea critters?

Ugh Omega trying so hard to bond with Crosshair. Like the parallel between this scene and the holding cell scene. And her thinking she was wrong about the chip making him behave like a dick. Oh sweet baby, you’re not wrong. He still has that thing. But he has always been a dick per Tech’s words earlier. But she’s trying so hard to show him the similarities between them.

I’ve noticed Crosshair does a lot of pushing people away. Like he’s been doing that with Hunter and Omega this whole season. Speaking harshly to them both (although I think some of the things he says to Hunter, he’s always wanted to say). But I think it’s more that he wants to avoid disappointing them, so he shoves them away to prevent that feeling. Like perhaps he thinks he isn’t worthy to be around them, that they’ll be better off without him around.

Oh fuck, look at you contributing now Mr. I Am Going To Complain About Other People’s Ideas.

Did they have to draw straws to see who got their own pod and who had to team up with who? Like,

Hunter: “Someone has to go with Tech.”

Crosshair, Wrecker: “Not it!”

Echo: “not it, fuck I wasn’t fast enough.”

Oh the wee child is getting her own pod. Okay then.

Of course Hunter and Crosshair get doubled up. I bet they argue the whole time.

Crosshair: “stop breathing all the air!!”

Hunter: “stop standing on my foot!!”

Crosshair: “well it’s not my fault you have Sasquatch feet!”

Oh damn. Well bye Omega. It was nice knowing you. Crosshair probably has your eulogy already written.

Hm, so Tech never shared his datapad charge cord with AZ. Bummer.

Awww poor AZ. He was a good droid. We’ll remember how he OMG OMEGA WHAT THE FUCK?!!???

Again is water pressure not a thing in Star Wars?

Sweetie. He’s metal. You won’t be strong enough to pull him along with you.

Oh fuck Crosshair! Oh damn the look on his face is like “Hunter, get you ugly ass face out of my shot.” Oh damn, boy has got some good eyesight, I want a piece of that.

Bruh, that’s gotta hurt. You just saved the kid they all love and they got you at blaster point. Buuuuuut at the same time you haven’t expressed the most positive attitude towards said kid either. So maybe they have a good reason to think you’d shoot her? Still. Damn. That’s gotta hurt, since if it had been the good ol’ days they’d be like “nice shot buddy!”

Hunter looks more wary than upset honestly. Like he isn’t sure why Crosshair did that, but he’s not sure if Crosshair would want him expressing gratitude either. Hunter doesn’t seem to know how to treat him any more. Crosshair belittles him and speaks harshly to him, but then saves Omega. It’s almost like old Crosshair is still in there, knowing how attached the team is to Omega. Even if he does think she’s not in the safest environment with them.

Oh…omg what is this?! I just noticed, no rain on Kamino….AND SUNSHINE?! Like is that a fucking sunrise??!!?? Oh shit you guys there is symbolism here!!! Like a new start or something impossible has happened. Like there has never been sunshine on Kamino, it’s always stormed. Always. Always and forever it has done that. But after the destruction of Tipoca City, the rains cease and the sunshine comes out. Like….omg guys. It’s pretty!!

Interesting. Omega seems sad that a place she didn’t want to ever return to is gone. But I guess that’s probably the notion that she’s essentially homeless setting in. That the only home she’s had (before Clone Force 99) is gone.

Also, I have this theory that Ghost Fives probably travels with Echo, and he’d likely be like “good! Fuck that place. Killing Tup there and all. Bitches.”

Echo: “stfu Fives, she’s sad okay.”

Honestly I’m not surprised Crosshair refused their offer to come with them. He has his pride and I feel like he doesn’t want to admit aligning with the Empire was a mistake. That he was wrong and Hunter was right. Especially after being all Pro-Empire and talking about how they’re going to be what the Galaxy needs.

“Consider us even.” GIRL he admits it! He was saving YOU!! YOU! Not the dumb droid, YOU!!!!

His face says it all when they pull away. Like he regrets not going with them, but he can’t bring himself to stay with them. He’s really conflicted right now. He has programming in his head telling him one thing and another portion of his mind reminding him that Tech, Wrecker, Hunter, and even Echo care about him. That they’re a team. He even wanted them to join the Empire so they could all get back together. He does want to be with them, but it’s going to take time to get passed the war in his head.

Oh damn, Nala Se and some Commando buddies. Yeah there’s something up with her. She seems to have gained a lot out of this. Making herself more important than Lama Su and likely more important than the other scientists from Kamino. I wonder if this was her plan all along. It’s so hard to tell what Kaminoans are thinking because they don’t express emotions facially or even vocally.

I read a post somewhere about Nala Se doing childish science experiments. Like the baking soda/vinegar volcano. And now I can’t get the image out of my head of her teaching like a high school chemistry class where you get to do those classic science fair experiments. Things exploding, clones accidentally gassing each other at a table. Someone betting someone else 5 credits to drink a solution.

@leias-left-hair-bun @halzore @escapedthesarlacc @eyecandyeoz

#star wars #the clone wars #star wars the clone wars #the mandalorian #the bad batch spoiler #the bad batch spoilers #crosshair tbb #commander crosshair #sargent hunter #tbb hunter #tbb tech #tbb echo #arc trooper echo #tbb wrecker #tbb omega