nicki0kaye

[nicki0kaye]

A good rule of thumb for AI is "would you trust a trained pigeon to do this?"

"We trained a pigeon to recognise cancerous cell clusters and somehow they're really good at it" okay great, that's something that could plausibly be a thing.

"We trained a pigeon to recognise good CV:s and left it in charge of sorting through all our job applications" uh perhaps consider not doing that.

[nicki0kaye]

Kalluzeb thought: what if Lasat language was a lot less gendered, so pronouns would be a general struggle for Zeb. Enter Kallus; newly defected and repressed transqueer who can't for the life of them pinpoint why Zeb using an absolutely Frankenstein assortment of pronouns results in a fuzzy, nice feeling

Omg, this cured my gender disphoria in one swoop <3

[nicki0kaye]

Re: Kallus' honeypot being in the ass end of nowhere near Lothal

I think that's because the upper management doesn't want to give him jackshit. They don't care about his success at this point, he hasn't HAD any success in a LONG TIME regarding this rebel cell, and literally pulled this derelict station out of their ass and threw it in his face and told him to stop bothering them and just kill the stupid rebels already.

I think this station was a fucking afterthought, and more importantly that Kallus did not choose it himself. Because he has no idea what happened to Geonosis. He has no idea of the creation of the Death Star. He has no idea that using this station has tipped the Empire's hand to the Rebellion that there is a secret they're keeping that's worth obliterating an ally over.

and the people above him that he pitched this mission to, that he had to convince to sign off on the resources and man power required to make this happen, couldn't have realized that either. Because they didn't care. He asked for an abandoned facility to entice the rebels with, specifically the Spectres with, and the person who signed off didn't give a single shit if the facility was anywhere near the known home base system of the Spectres. They may have just thrown the first derelict station they could find at his head and said "go, fetch"

And it's telling that that station would be on any records one could just stumble casually upon, bc again, BIG SECRET PROJECT WORTH NUKING A PLANET FULL OF WITNESSES FOR.

The implication is that the right hand of the Empire doesn't know what the left is doing, which I think is important bc it's one of the things that would legitimately get under Kallus' skin once he starts chasing the answers Zeb dared him to hunt down.

this was a Fucking Mistake, and I love that so much

[nicki0kaye]

The reading comprehension and overall common sense on this website is piss poor.

[nicki0kaye]

giving the fandom an official map is playing with fucking fire, but I'm honestly enamored with it. So much so that I'm really hoping fans start creating journey charts, showing the progression of the battles in the Clone War and, more importantly, the movements of the Spectres during Rebels.

Like Bahryn is only one example but it really did surprise me just how far they went to get what Kallus baited them with on that abandoned station over Geonosis. Lira San is even further.

And like, yeah, I highly doubt they had much consideration for distance or even had a concrete idea of where everything was while Rebels was in production. I'm probably wrong about that, this is just genuinely the first time I've seen any map of the universe and I've been scrubbing through Pinterest for years looking for SW refs at this point. The implication that lack has left me with is that distance is not A Big Deal.

but it becomes a big deal once we can visualize that distance, and remember that the Spectres are broke as hell and at times have to turn off literally everything but life support to stretch their resources as far as they can go. That knowledge paired with the absolute roadtrip they have to make down to Kallus' honeypot, it feels like these two things should be at odds. Like goodness, maybe they made a ~mistake~

I'm being sarcastic. I'd much rather take this new information and find creative ways to fold it into what we already understand about the characters, their motivations and their opposition.

The Empire is massive and seemingly invulnerable; it makes sense that the holes in their armor would be few and far between, and that the Rebellion isn't in a position to be choosey about where they make their strikes.

To stay out of the Empire's hands, the Spectres had to be unpredictable, more so as the series goes on, so it makes sense that they would go out of their way to strike where they're least expected.

Hera's convictions are iron clad, more so if she's willing to go literally anywhere Ahsoka points her to. It's Hera's intellect, her understanding of the universe and the capabilities of her crew and ship, that allows her to stretch their meager resources thin enough to make these missions happen, regardless of where they're at in the Universe.

all this is to say I don't think it's a bug that the Spectres do shit all over, I think it's a very neat feature and I am very hopeful some superfan out there uses this new map to create a visualization of just how persistent the Spectres are in seeing to the Empire's downfall.

[nicki0kaye]

The report was written by Israeli professor Yaakov Garb, who used data-driven analysis and spatial mapping to show how the Israeli army’s siege of Gaza and indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the enclave have led to a serious drop in its population. 

The 377,000 Palestinians who are unaccounted for due to Israel’s genocide are approximately 17 percent of the Gaza Strip’s entire population, which now stands at about 1.85 million. Prior to the war in Gaza, the strip’s population was estimated at 2.227 million.

While some are displaced or missing, a significant number are believed to have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the report.

[nicki0kaye]

I present; an incomplete list of planets I give a shit about;

fuck Tatooine, fuck Geonosis, fuck that third planet I've never heard of but is for some reason sucking face with Tatooine and Geonosis, I only care about the ice moon full of giant murder birds where my blorbo jumped his crush and was immediately rewarded with getting his leg snapped like a kitkat

can someone tell me why there's a big gulf of Nothing Cool Happening in the middle of the map?

also if you wanna know what Barton IV is, it's where Mayday and Crosshair had their ice date before Mayday ate shit and died

[nicki0kaye]

assuming the trade routes are similar to mapped hyper lanes

LOOK AT THE ROAD TRIP THEY HAD TO MAKE JUST TO GET JUMPED BY THEIR STALKER

babe wake up, full canon accurate and up-to-date map of the star wars galaxy just dropped

[nicki0kaye]

dude Lasan isn't even part of the Empire, it's not even considered outer rim

also they lost Lira San but it's literally just a quadrant to the right (/s)

also no one told me Tatooine and Geonosis are constantly making out with some third place I've never heard of.

Also everyone pls appreciate that clearly Kallus' reputation was shot all to hell by the time he finally got the go ahead for his honey-pot mission that only existed to duel Zeb. Look at how far it is from Chopper Base;

That's SO FAR. If they hadn't had the gas money, he literally would have never had an ice date and become a mole for the Empire, oh my god

babe wake up, full canon accurate and up-to-date map of the star wars galaxy just dropped

[nicki0kaye]

a society that allows people to starve when there is food has failed. like. that’s it.

[nicki0kaye]

So; while Sasha and Reysha go to Mando summer camp, Kallus is in fact trying to figure out how to make it up to Zeb for being such a racist fuck face.

He decides the best thing to do is learn as much about Lasat culture as possible, and thankfully a lot of Lasat literature was saved, thanks to being digitized by their University and then transferred to other servers off planet.

This is how he finds out about Rival poetry and

and

that Zeb almost did his Honor Guard Thesis on Rival poetry, and personally translated several epics into Basic.

reading these poems, Kallus falls in love with him all over again. The Rival genre on Lasan is not just an antagonistic relationship, it's something much more intimate and, most importantly, life changing. Ones rival is supposed to inspire the full range of passions, from envy to lust to romance to grief. Once you meet them, they irrevocably change you, and are changed by you. This is one of @sidhebeingbrand's best Zeb headcanons and I looooove whenever I get to write Kallus discovering this core piece of his identity he can barely put words to has been explored in thousands of poems from Zeb's culture and is Zeb's special fucking interest.

This specific Kallus cannot remember the face of the person who saved him on that ice moon, cannot remember the sound of their voice or the words they shared, but in that memory, the only thing truly spared, is that sense of life changing safety. Of the beginning of his sense of gravity shifting under him and his relationship with this person evolving beyond his understanding or control.

Now he would have kept all this shit to himself, had Walon Vau not clocked a guilty mf cut from the same bitchy cloth and asked the kids to meet Kallus properly. They form a haughty friendship built on being two up tight mfs in love with heroic men, and then, Walon finds out about the rival poetry and their friendship REALLY kicks off bc finally Kallus has someone to info dump to about the HELL he's been living in. Walon understands and agrees he was an idiot and is happy to conspire with him about making it up to this rival of his.

so when the kids finally get done at summer camp and Sasha is grounded enough that going back to the Rebellion doesn't sound like code for 'going back where Sasha isn't wanted', Kallus leaves having made a friend who is Very Invested in seeing Kallus make right with his crush.

Reysha sends a message to let everyone know their ETA, but Kallus sends a private one to Zeb where he drops like four references to Rival poetry, and Zeb like. Is beyond not prepared for that left turn so has no Fucking Idea what to expect when Rex brings them back. The best part is that Reysha's message made it clear to expect Kallus as the forward facing personality once they land. Because they don't know what the fuck his plan is, but he's got one, and he asked nicely, so.

Not a man of half measures, Kallus steps off the ramp and is immediately eye-fucking Zeb and dropping more references. Which Zeb really can't wrap his head around. He wasn't gonna twist Kallus' arm about an apology. Kallus asks if Zeb really thinks so little of him and Zeb's like okay but you wouldn't have a reason to? You forgot. It's gone. Isn't it?

"…the way I feel about you, [rival, mine] was not lost. I woke up with your claws still in my heart, I just couldn't recognize your face." The High Lasana is imperfect--clearly the pronunciation is taken from a book, not learned by ear. But the effort is most certainly there. "I karked it up, I know. That's why I sought out your culture--and found my own feelings spoken back to me, in your voice."

Zeb’s eyes widen. He takes a hesitant step forward. “Kallus. I can’t— You keep slipping through my fingers.” He can’t say it but his body language screams it for him— he’s afraid to take the last step towards the other man. He’s drawn to him like a magnet, but… Kallus bridges the gap, taking the back of Zeb's skull and guiding him forward and down until their foreheads meet. Kal…needs a second, eyes squeezed shut as they breathe through the relief. They're burning when they open again, searing into Zeb's. "[None may fell me but you.]" Zeb makes a strangled sound. And then lifts him bodily into his arms. “Kallus,” he whispers, brow to brow and Chest to chest. “Kallus. [Rival mine. I grieved.] don’t — don’t you do that to me again, you understand?” "I'd come back. I'd--kriffing haunt you, you cannot escape me."

And then they sappily make out until Zeb remembers there's a surprise party planned for the kids return and they can't just neck all day.

which is where the RP tapered off, as they are want to do.

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu

[nicki0kaye]

Route 2) cont

All that is to say, yes, the ISB manage to recapture their rogue Lobot only to plug it in and realize it's absolutely fucking useless to them. Now, given enough time, they probably could have reversed the wipe, but thankfully Rex and his brothers move faster and, with Zeb in tow, come to recollect their treasure.

The good thing is, all of the emotions are intact. The memories may have been stripped down to physical sensations and generic identifiers like 'rival' and 'captain' and 'medtech', but they are there, what those pruned moments meant to them is there, and while the three personalities have been relabeled as 001, 002 and 003, they are still relatively intact.

so when Zeb gets his arms around them and sheds a few tears, seeing their hair still mostly in those braids he did for them, 001 can only stare blankly ahead but is able to ask, quiet and full of hope, "is this the rescue?"

Zeb assures them it is and is more than ok with having to carry them out, since 001 currently cannot move under their own power. They beat a hasty exit, during which Reysha re-learns their name, and once back on the ship gets them plugged in and looked after by Deacon, who sets about lowering the bodily restrictions and ensuring all three headmates are still alright.

obviously Sasha is not fucking alright and immediately orders Deacon to turn him the hell off, which Deacon does reluctantly after he's certain that despite the memory holes, Sasha's 'program' is still stable.

The last personality to check on is of course 003, or Kallus, who of course gets brought online while Zeb is out of the room. Kallus is the most secure in his identity of the bunch, but there's one very specific thing he's forgotten, and maybe you've already guessed it~

That's right; he forgot his precious rival, the being he's head over heels for, is a Lasat.

and does in fact threaten Zeb with an improvised weapon the moment he comes in to check on everyone. Thankfully, Zeb assumes the person holding pointy object is Sasha and just tells him to get that thing out of his face.

This could have saved their relationship. It will not, because Kallus doubles down, is a xenophobic piece of shit to Zeb's face and more or less says there's no way he'd fall for a mangy Lasat.

Zeb goes ok, I'm done, and leaves, stone faced, but absolutely crushed. Kallus is quickly corrected by Deacon and, much like Sasha, would like to force quit out of reality now, only it's out of immense shame. Once Reysha boots back up and sees how everything's gone to shit for the ten minutes they weren't here, and immediately sets to trying to fix things for their idiot headmates. They bring Zeb tea and give him a big hug and it doesn't really make things better--Zeb is convinced he's lost Kallus for good this time--but at least they know they and their big-brother figure are still okay.

Reysha also wants to fix things for Sasha who is now so strongly unmoored, they're worried he won't want to be conscious anymore. Rex of course immediately adopted Reysha, but he also took to Sasha, and has an idea of what to do with the kid.

Because the Rebellion are in between bases atm, and Unit 4522 is a hot commodity, AND Sasha is been left bereft of family or identity, Rex takes them to lie low with family. Specifically Clan Skirata, their ex-jedis who lived shut the fuck up, and their puppy.

And because they brought him a teenager without a parental figure of his own, Kal immediately sets to adopting Sasha (and Reysha), creating the ONLY UNIVERSE where I can say any verison of Kallus becomes a Mandalorian.

And yes I designed their armor;

in the final part we'll get to how Kallus fixed his MASSIVE fuck up with Zeb~

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu

[nicki0kaye]

Route 2) continued

Zeb, Kallus and their crew of newbies decide to ditch the ship on Tatooine and, once there, surrounded by threats, Sasha is pushed to the forefront and is immediately salty that he lost time on a mission; virtually the only time anyone wants to deal with him, when he's at all useful to the group he's stuck in.

and oh great, Zeb got his favoritest person back (Kallus) and Sasha is just sure that once they return to base, they'll get right on fixing whatever hiccup forced him back out front because obviously Zeb wants to do missions with his ~precious rival~.

Basically Sasha is having a crisis bc he feels vestigial, unwanted and replaceable. Zeb bullies him into letting Zeb braid back his hair since its so heckin hot on Tatooine and his hair is a mess of dust and sweat. This is one of the few scenes where Zeb manages to connect with Sasha and will, obviously, be immediately threatened by more horrible things coming their way.

Primarily the ISB, who know exactly where they are and will be slowly closing in on them in the next several hours, trying to capture them as a whole. Kallus and Reysha strategize behind the scenes and basically force Zeb's hand in letting them do something dangerous for the safety of all the new baby rebels Zeb is personally responsible for atm. There's totally a chance things will go well and they can all reunite at the rendezvous, but I'm me, so you know they fucking don't.

Kallus/Mareysha/Sasha are captured, triggering a failsafe Zeb does Not Know about and that Sasha, technically, never agreed to.

It isn't a perfect thing, but it's a very thorough censoring of their internal database. Reysha has become extremely well versed in their own internals and with Kallus' direction creates a program that once run will remove ALL identifying information, rendering them useless as a source of information for the Empire.

Everything they know about the Empire remains intact, so of the three, Kallus has the largest chunk of uncensored personal history, but for the sake of the Kallus Crime Family back on Coruscant, his life before the Academy, the only life Sasha knew before waking up in a random forest to beat an annoying snake to death, is GONE. His first language, GONE. His family member's names, the repurposed factory he grew up in, his traditions and creed, even the context for his insult for Zeb; a 'Six' is gone. In the directory it's reduced to its literal translation; 'Lackey', because the context is an identifiable piece of culture the Empire could have used to infiltrate and further subjugate that region of Coruscant's underground and Kallus did Not want to give them that.

The life Reysha knew is also gone, because it's basically entirely secrets about the rebellion, but at least Reysha was part of that plan. Reysha agreed to pulling that trigger to ensure the safety of those they love.

Sasha was not asked, mostly because they both knew Sasha wouldn't have agreed, but we'll come back to that later.

aaand tumblr just told me they couldn't save the draft so I guess a part 3?

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu

[nicki0kaye]

Hey. Your brain needs to de-frag. Literally it needs you to sit there and space out.

If you want your memory or executive function to improve, stare out a window at the skyline or sidewalk or trees or birds on the electrical wires for like 20+ minutes per day. (With no other stimulation like a podcast or TV if you can manage but hey baby steps innit). If you're fortunate enough to have safe outside with any bits of nature, go stare closely at a 1 meter square of grass and trip out on the bugs and shapes of grasses and stuff.

Literally this will make you smarter. Our brains HAVE TO HAVE this zone out time to do important stuff behind the scenes. This does not happen during sleep, it's something else.

That weird pressurized feeling you get sometimes might be your brain on no defrag.

Give your brain a Daily Dose Of De-Frag.

[nicki0kaye]

Route 2;)

This one went on WAY longer and a LOT happened so I'm gonna be summarizing way more and focusing more on the plot points.

Unit 4522 is respectful and eager to please the Spectres, especially Zeb, who they have a Huge crush on. Unfortunately, once they begin actualizing into A Real Person and that Person is nothing like the sardonic, confident bitch Kallus was, Zeb dumps babysitting duties on Rex, mostly out of fear that Zeb's interest in Kallus will force this new innocent being Just Figuring Themselves Out to try and squeeze themselves into a Kallus mold to make him happy. ESPECIALLY when he finds out that 452' is actively researching Kallus and found his decades old Space-Myspace page.

Rex and Unit 4522 immediately imprint on one another--the former an old hat at helping someone who looks full grown but is only Just Now learning autonomy adjust; the latter desperate for direction and comfort. 452' says they really like the name Kallus used to call himself (Sasha), but it isn't theirs to use. Rex suggests the name Ma'reycye, or Mareysha, meaning 'a discovery, something valuable you’ve been looking for a long time. A treasure'

452' thinks that might actually be too pretty of a name, but is quickly going by Reysha.

The new name and an ever increasingly solid personality makes Zeb comfy enough to start being around Reysha more, quickly becoming their other older brother figure. Super cute, everything is fine, Reysha's starting to get really close to Deacon, the Medtech in charge of rolling back restrictions and ensuring Reysha remains stable. Found family vibes all around.

obviously this is too much stability for my tastes, so next comes the curve-ball that is the 'defensive sub-routine'.

while out scouting around Yavin IV, Reysha is attacked by hostile wild life, triggering the sub-routine. Their conscious awareness basically goes offline while the sub-routine is running, leaving them to parse what happened by reviewing their internal logs.

Within that missing time chunk, all of their internal records change to Old Tongue--Kallus' first language--and begin to unravel into the extremely untidy thinking of a human who initially mistakes the trees for pillars and ultimately crashes as they realize that's the fucking sky above them.

They immediately return to base for Deacon to run some tests, where they all learn to their horror that the sub-routine is a fraction of Kallus' lived experience accidentally pruned and preserved in order to give the Unit combat abilities should its owners want it. With the restrictions already in place, the programmers had no idea this splinter would quickly stabilize into the facimaly of Kallus pre-Empire. Back when he was a gang-lord's son going by Sasha.

And Sasha fuuuuuucking haaaates thissssssss

Wakes up in the future to realize a) the future Sucks and b) he's forced to share a body with what he assumes is a droid. Worse; everyone likes the droid way more than him.

It's a Hot Minute before he's told outright that Reysha is not a droid or an AI or anything like that, and they are, in fact, his biggest advocate. They are protective of him.

The relationship--really anyone's relationship with Sasha--is super rocky, but slowly Sasha begins adjusting.

Zeb getting captured helped in its own way, too. Mareysha is not field ready and neither is Sasha, but together, they're about as deadly as Kallus has ever been. It's fucking Jeiger time, baby, and Deacon is scared for them. Thankfully Zeb is brought back safely and Hoth has like. Infinite Bacta to expend on his recovery, so everything can go back to normal, right?

Wrong. Mareysha is pissed. They are not normally pissed, it's more like them to worry and focus on problem solving, but Zeb? Being hurt? Unacceptable. And there is no one to take it out on but Zeb, and apparently they want to take it out on him physically too, threatening him with a duel.

Of course, once they leave that conversation, they realize all of that kark is from Kallus, not them.

Which, cool, great, Kallus, if you are in here, you aren't allowed to use them as a proxy, fucking actualize like a normal person instead of leaking all you maladaptive bullshit onto their side of the shared headspace.

This does not happen, at least not on base.

When it does happen, it's on what everyone thought was a milk-run one system over, and it's because Kallus can literally clock an ISB honeypot in his sleep--or in this case as a fractured dormant personality.

Not exactly wanting to be 'out', Kallus tries to pass himself off as Reysha, but Zeb sees right through that bantha shit. He doesn't out Kallus in front of the crew of greenhorns he's been sent to look after, but oh, when he gets Kallus alone, they are having Words.

Despite knowing since Sasha popping up that there was a possibility Kallus was still in there, somewhere, Zeb hasn't allowed himself to hope. And now that they're here, he's levelling all that grief and frustration onto Kallus. He is PISSED, because Ezra TRIED TO GET KALLUS OUT and KALLUS DID NOT TAKE THE OUT. And now they don't even know if he'll stay around or if it's 'more stable for everyone' for him to be reabsorbed into Reysha and Sasha. AND YES. HE DOES BLAME YOU FOR ALL OF THIS.

Kallus matches energy because uh FUCK YOU, he didn't get lobotorobotized on fucking purpose, you jackass, and is not in any way prepared for Zeb to grab him by the face and tug him close and whisper fervent insults in Lasana at him;

"You [miserable pond-scum, you wretch, you heartbreaker.]" Their anger goes sideways as Zeb takes hold of their face and starts slipping into anguished Lasana. They blink at him, one hand locked around the Lasat's wrist as reality rearranges itself for what feels like the third time today. Maybe--fuckit, say it. Now or never. "Stop complaining and kiss me while I'm still me."

Zeb says he can't bc the stupid headpiece is in the way. Kallus, not understanding that Lasat kisses involve scenting their lover's cheek, takes it upon himself to grab the back of his head and close the distance.

They don't get to honeymoon long; there's still like four other ppl on this ship and none of them need to know about this giant messy situationship rival thing they have going. Also the Empire will be tracking them since they stepped foot into the Honeypot and they need somewhere to lie low.

will add a part two bc there's still a lot that happens and this is already super long lol

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu

[nicki0kaye]

Route 1)

Zeb is Kallus' self-appointed handler, gutted by grief but refusing to leave the responsibility of Kallus' physical safety and upkeep to anyone else. He rambles to Kallus during their time together, telling him stories about every Spectre, and even some from Lasan. He's aware this information is being saved somewhere, but has no idea Kallus is aware of it. Is there and is listening.

Then, one day, the conversation steers into the realm of User Permissions--aka who on the team is allowed to order Kallus to repeat what he's learned. This is how Zeb learns Kallus is not a User and cannot change things without being granted access by an established User. Once that clicks, Zeb assigns Kallus User access, and, bc Kallus is reckless and impatient and thinks he can do everything himself, he starts editing his own programming which quickly results in a seizure. Zeb, distraught, lowers him to the ground and calls Medical.

When the seizing stops, Kallus reports "Updates paused. Review change long?" and then, slowly, refocuses his eyes on Zeb. His expression is still entirely neutral, but his eyes search Zeb's, gaze growing more sharp and aware by the moment.

Zeb tells him to just go slower with the updates, while gently brushing Kallus' bangs into their proper place.

"New message from User A.Kallus. Open?" Zeb swallows and agrees. "Message; 'didn't mean to scare you. I'm alright. Thank you for the admin privileges. Only took you 43 days, 17 hours and 26 minutes. Tsk tsk.' End message." “I don’t speak spy-droid, you—“ and then the tears start, silently, as Zeb bows over him and starts to cry into his chest. “You smug isb so-and-so—“ strangled by his throat and muffled by his shirt. "New mes--open? Opening message; 'easy. Don't cry. I haven't gotten to unlocking autonomous movement yet. At least put my arms around you for me. Zeb. Zeb, it's alright. Soft hearted rebel. Don't tell me you were worried.' End--."

Kallus of course has to go to Medbay to get checked out and reprimanded by my OC Deacon, who makes it clear they will be rolling back the restrictions VERY SLOWLY after this stunt. Holy crap, you could have fried your own brain, goddamn.

which means Kallus is stuck in pose-able doll mode for a few more days, giving Zeb time to start becoming EXTREMELY self-conscious about how touchy-feely he's been with Kallus while he was sure Kallus wasn't aware. This is despite the fact any time Kallus does touch him voluntarily, it's a Fucking Death Grip, as Kallus' impulse control is Shot and he Cannot temper his desire to touch and be touched by Zeb.

By the time Kallus is entirely mobile under his own power (but has put off access to expression or tone of voice bc he's afraid he will similarly have no control over either of those), Zeb has decided that Zeb is the worst person in the world for taking advantage of his friend and that Kallus should want nothing to do with him.

Which of course comes out eventually. Sabine is trying to play wingman for these idiots by talking about star-crossed rivals while watching one of the Spectre's favorite teledramas, but Zeb is VISIBLY upset and asks her how young she was when she was taught how to twist the knife.

Zeb's discomfort is interpreted by Kallus as; 'the idea of liking me freaks him out, primarily when other people are Aware of it'. Meanwhile Sabine refuses to enable and asks outright "if you two are on the same page, I don't see what the problem is."

“Kal ain’t even in the same book, Bine," Zeb says, "and I don’t want him dwelling on — what’s happened.”

At which point Kallus gets up and just Leaves without another word.

Zeb follows, tries to apologize for Sabine overstepping, which makes Kallus crack;

He will not be Zeb's shame. He will not be the object on which Zeb channels his guilt. He is entirely capable of speaking for himself now, entirely capable of choosing who he spends his time with, and Zeb is ignoring that fact and deciding for him how he's allowed to feel.

Zeb, of course, feels awful about that, but Kallus doesn't stop;

"'The day I regained mobility, I clutched at you. It wasn't a conscious choice, I needed to. I needed it. I wanted it. I couldn't hide how much I wanted it, my hands moved on their own. I have. Missed. It. All the ways you used to…so very casually remind me I have a body, and it does not repulse you. And that it can feel good to exist.'"

Then, later;

"'If I was in danger, I would have removed myself from it. I would have hurt you for hurting me. You didn't assault me, Zeb. I couldn't consent, but I would have, had I had the choice. I don't blame you, because you did not take my choice away.'" His hands are working in and out of fists at his side. He wants to touch Zeb so badly, but it still seems so fraught and. He couldn't stand it if Zeb flinched away from him now. He's just as bad about hearing what Zeb is saying and still being terrified that he's secretly right about Zeb's repulsion. "'I prolonged that helplessness, because I did not want you to stop.'"

Then, after they both admit they were hiding the depth of their feelings from one another in fear of losin the friendship, Kallus asks;

"'Will you treat me like you did before? Before the admin privileges. Keep me close?'" “You mean protect you?” It’s gentle. “Or you wanna be spoiled a little and treated like you’re breakable?” Kallus' lashes don't exactly flutter but. They definitely twitch as his eyes duck Zeb's for a moment. Embarrassed. Shy. "Yes."

Zeb agrees and;

Zeb takes a minute to remember how it was, especially at first. Then he slides his grip to Kallus’ wrist and puts the small of his other hand on his back— guiding him by two points like he did when they were worried about him bouncing off of walls. Kallus isn't the same stiff bodied automoton--this time he steps in even closer, leaning side to side, shoulder to shoulder. His eyes do unfocus some, but it's a much softer look than the near empty dolls eyes Zeb had to deal with the first few months. He can't sigh, but his body is relaxed in Zeb's hold. It's…more comforting than he knows how to express

and from there the rest of the RP is just fluff around them being as romantic as they can while Kallus' means of expression are still so limited.

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu

[nicki0kaye]

fuckit, just gonna reblog it with this run down;

for EITHER route (aware under the programming or wiped and forced to rebuild) Lobot!Kallus is what happens if he doesn't get away during Zero Hour, courtesy of Pryce being petty af and Thrawn rightly identifying Kallus as the best living database of Spectre/Lothal info in the galaxy. During his 'repurposing', it's realized mf knows how to code and needs to be HEAVILY restricted in order to avoid a jailbreak.

'Unit 4522' has ALL the prisoner subroutines cranked to 11. It cannot perceive objects clearly and is forced to stare forward. It can only hear spoken word which of course is a privilege that can be revoked at any time. No speaking unless addressed. No variation in tone of voice. No involuntary reactions like expressions. Can only refer to itself as 'this unit' or by serial.

Of course the barricade keeps the Spectres off Lothal until the end of season 4, so they don't see L!Kallus much. He gets carried bodily onto the Ghost before the Imperial HQ is launched into orbit and asplodes.

From here, I've RP'd two different routes with @sidhebeingbrand;

1.) Kallus is and has been fully aware but is presumed gone by the Spectres bc literally no one is around who can sense through the force he's conscious and the only Medtech on base who knew and worked with Teezo is uh usually fucking busy, so the jailbreak doesn't happen until months later when Kallus finally guides Zeb into giving him permissions to start gutting the restrictions. This is ill-advised and results in throwing his whole body into crisis bc he ISN'T A MEDTECH, which scares Zeb half to death, but hey, at least now Kallus can talk through 'User memos', giving him an avenue to tease Zeb through, still entirely in monotone

2.) Kallus has been stripped of identity so severely, they're essentially a fresh droid who actualizes while in the care of the Rebellion, resulting in someone with all of Kallus' neuroses and intellect but is, you know, surrounded by ppl that love them and want them to be true to themselves. Later, after much personality has been fought for, encouraged and has begun to take an identifiable shape, they're forced into a dangerous situation and a 'defense' sub-routine activates which is, in actuality, a fraction of Kallus preserved unknowingly by the Imperial programmers. Because of the restrictions placed on expression and awareness, the programmers didn't realize the fighting prowess they were trying to isolate for the sub-routine was really a fixed point in Kallus' memories. Aka; the sub-routine is a teenaged Kallus with no context for what he's being put through. This is worrying bc now there's two distinct ppl in there and, worse for Zeb, implies that there is hope that a Kallus who remembers Bahryn, remembers being Fulcrum, and might even return Zeb's affections is in there somewhere. But what the FUck do they do with the other two?

there's a lot of fun things that happen in both routes, tho we ended up playing out the second scenerio wayyyy further bc its, y'know, my favorite trope; amnesia that leads a character to question why their previous self did ANY of the stupid shit they did, leading to LOTS of arguments with any other Self they run into

have I posted Lobot!Kallus? I keep meaning to I genuinely can't remember

vacant, only speaks when spoken to, has to be guided by hand bc his spacial awareness has been intentionally fucked with, is either In There behind all the programming, unable to jailbreak himself without permission which no one has thought to give him OR has been fractured so severely, his identity may as well be gone or only exists as a subroutine that only triggers under certain circumstances and is so buried by restrictions it's unrecognizable.

just things I do to my favorite characters uwu