#I don't think 'but wait! this book is not finished' would make good marketing copy

[kwritesfanfics]

A bet to know

Bianca Barclay x fem!bookworm!reader

SUMMARY: A bet originally meant to set Bianca up with her ex turns two different worlds on their heads.

warnings: false pretense for a relationship, excessive use for periods, everyone is a bit of an asshole,

A/N- constructive criticism is appreciated

y/n walked in the forest on her usual way to the meadow, she held up her flashlight lighting the rest of the way once she entered the field she laid her picnic blanket on the grass taking her copy of ‘pride & prejudice’ out of her tote bag.

The bright full moon illuminated her pages. Focusing more on the book instead of the howling that filled the air, she was snapped out of her imagination when she heard her name “Hmm, do you know that girl,y/n?”y/n stayed silent “yeah I've seen her around” the voices sounded distant and for some reason, y/n could faintly recognize the voices “ okay good you have to make her fall in love with you without using siren song, and I'll get you a date with your ex ” the quiet silence was deafening “ill do it” the other voice said.

With that y/n stood up and packed her things. the walk back to campus was silent, emotions racing through her mind as she sneaked back to her bedroom ‘alright I at least know they're a siren’ she thought. she continued to wander until she felt her eyelids getting heavier.

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y/n awoke to a ray of sunshine shining through her window slowly rising she was grateful that it was Sunday. she had plans to go to the weathervane and then go to the old run-down book store near the farmers market but she still had to pass through ms Thornhill's class to turn in late homework.

three load knocks ricochet off her walls "whose there!?" "guess who" that soft voice could only belong to one person "yokooo" y/n's whine served as an invitation for the vampire "sooo what's the plan for today?" Yoko said while sitting down next to y/n "hmmm, just the usual" wait did you already finish the book you were reading?" y/n raised from her place under the blanket "not really" her voice was comfortably raspy for the late morning "well my little social butterfly, time to get up" laughter could be heard down the hall when Yoko pulled the blanket off y/n

their tug-of-war game ended when y/n pushed Yoko out the door and began getting dressed once she stepped through the doors y/n asked "so what are you doing today?" she began to walk "hmm nothing much just going to the lake. what about you ?" y/n found her tone of dishonesty curious "just turning in the homework from Thursday and going to Jericho" y/n waved goodbye to her vampire friend as they parted ways

as y/n turned the corner she heard a familiar voice "what do you think I should do?" the same voice from the night before said for a brisk second y/n thought about storming into the room but after minutes of consideration she decided not to. 'if they want to use me then ill GIVE them something to use" she thought continuing her stride towards the greenhouse

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"excuse me .. ms. Thornhill" y/n called out to the seemingly empty greenhouse "oh hi y/n," Thornhill said hastily 'weird' y/n thought "here's the homework from Thursday " "oh, is that all?" y/n thought for a second "yep, bye"

After all her chores were done y/n began heading down the stairs "no but seriously where does she usually hang out" the mysterious voice said "what will you give me if I tell you" wait a minute, was that Yoko? "I'll cover for you next time you sneak out." "like you don't already do that" laughter exploded from the archway between y/n and the pair "fine fine she usually hangs out in the library but today shes going to the weathervane" hearing this y/n felt a bit offended that a friend would give up her information so readily.

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"A mocha latte, please" y/n stated paying the cashier after grabbing her latte she made a sharp turn toward the exit and bumped into a speeding form "oh sorry," that voice sounded like the person that was talking with took “it’s alright”

y/n quickly exited the cafe her coffee slightly burning her hand and the cool autumn breeze burning her cheeks

on her way to the book store y/n's brain was full of rampant thoughts of piercing pale blue eyes.

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"y'know you gotta finish all your books before you buy new ones" a sharp laugh came from y/n's mouth "orrrr I could continue to build my tbr" y/n flashed the cashier a toothy smile "yeah yeah. did you bring me something?" tina teasingly said "hmm... no" y/n saw tina's face physically deflate "you know that my lunch break isn't for another 3 hours" although It was true tina couldn't help but smile seeing that y/n strayed away from the register towards the romance section

" speaking of the weathervane, do you know ....." a flash of dark brown moved outside of the window and y/n pointed "her" the bookworms voice sounded of soft poison "isn't she like the queen bee of your school" the air had a mix of old book smell and tina's vanilla perfume "oh yeah" y/n sounded off task when she answered.

The jingles rustled when another occupant entered the store "hi welcome to Jericho & hyde, can I help you with anything?" said tina's sickly sweet customer service voice "no thanks just looking" said a deep and soft voice, one y/n knew too well.

a million possibilities rushed through y/n's head "hey" the voice came from y/n's right and was slightly hushed "oh hi " the bookstore was dead silent "can I help you with something?" Bianca flashed y/n a charming smile "yeah actually I do" tina made a small cough and stepped into the back part of the store without another word "do you know any good books on romance" y/n almost forgot who the girl in front of her was when her eyes showed her eagerness to share her favorite book. almost. the eagerness turned into careful calculating malice. "yeah but it isn't sold in this store "

"hmm alright"

END OF PART 1

[shadowthief78]

Just finished reading my copy of Iron Widow that i got from idk where, thoughts below the cut. Spoilers, obviously!

also everything is my opinion, etc, leave me alone.

What I liked:

The Four Symbols used as chrysalises. Chrysali? Giant battle mechas? Cool idea, it's always just such a good quad group.

Yellow Dragon, nuff said. That's my fav of the four, special place in my heart for it

I thought that a lot of the themes regarding sexism were a little heavy handed but very clear and pointed out a lot of flaws that exist in real life, which makes sense bc this book was marketed as Young Adult. Still think that Wu Zetian (the PoV character) didn't really need to spell everything out but I can undersand why.

This bit that single-handedly made Yizhi my favorite character:

What I didn't like:

I wish that the book wasn't part of a series, just because I have been going through a standalone phase for the past few years. I liked it enough to read and have a decent time but not really enough to wait for and read a sequel.

I think the protagonist, Wu Zetian, has a motivation that can be hard to follow sometimes and her methods are something that I wouldn't do

I'm super biased and this really isn't substansive criticism at all but I think that poetry should've been a bigger focus. Like, in ancient China, poetry was a hugely gendered subject and Wu Zetian (the real empress, who really lived, not the character) was a huge influence becaus of both her position as empress that allowed her to be a patron and author of poems which was considered a male area in irl ancient China. Seriously, ancient Chiense poems by female poets are notoriously rare, especially when compared with male poets. The only reaon why there are, numerically, "lots" of poems by female authors is because China has a history of poetry that spans thousands and thousands of years and there are just a metric shit TON of poems. Not to mention her role in changing the civil service exams and massively expanding them, which (while debatable on specifics), made Confucian classics and poetry a major area of study for anyone wanting to have a government job, aka literally ALL noble sons. Though, to be fair, Wu Zetian the character hasn't really reached that level of power and influence (yet). This bullet point was just an excuse for me to ramble about Chinese poetry.

Some of the pacing felt a little weird, still unsure about a few characterizations, and maybe I'm blind and overlooked everything (a very distinct possibility because I'm literally so bad at recognising stuff like this) but some of the plot twists were a little sudden and felt, in my opinion, a little contrived. It's also possible I just don't have the brain for politics and power struggles like what goes on in the book

Overall Thoughts:

I think I would have liked this book better when I was younger, like middle school age. I personally thought this book was catered to the younger end of the YA spectrum, which is probably just me being not the target audience. Or maybe i'm misremembering who I was and my maturity level back then, it's been a few years.

I did see a few people describing it with tropes (no threesome, but throuple!! etc) and i think that kind of made me like the story less. Both because I knew what was going to happen and because I dislike that practice because it tends to disincentivise characterization and emotional attachment to characters in favor of "omg enemies to lovers!!" which I thought kind of happened, I didn't really emotionally connect with any of the characters beyond thinking Yizhi is kind of cute and also pretty funny. This is also criticism of the publishing industry and the need to be an author AND a marketing director so not a criticism of the book itself but the culture surrounding it.

I have no big complaints in regards to the technical skill or themes conveyed, but I also didn't love the book enough to really super want to seek out a sequel. I had a nice time reading, no regrets, solid 5/10.

[mercykatze]

I have some more questions! What’s the most popular forms of merchandise you guys sell, what’s your favourite, what else have you seen around, and if you were to branch out into more stuff, what would you try? :-)

I know from my own observations that some common stuff is pins, stickers, prints, keychains- but I’ve seen some obscure things such as patterned fabrics, comics/zines, sculptures, figurines,  sticker hoarder books (which seem to be on the rise) plushies, etc. 

clove wrote another nice long piece that summarised all my thoughts too so i'll put all that below

TLDR

most popular by quantity - badges most popular by profits - keychain or prints favourite to sell - zines best starter merch - anything you can make at home! things I'd like to do next - sticker books, pens, embroidery dream merch - plushies

every piece of merch has their ups and downs, and I find that some forms that I never have luck with selling fly off other people's tables and vice versa. it's all about finding your niche and what flows well with your style and business model.

for context for others, this is a summary my experience selling at large weekend long pop culture cons in Australia. this is going to be different for online sales, or for stalls at smaller events aimed at different audiences. adjust your stock accordingly. any prices I mention are in AUD

here's my thoughts

prints

always have prints. even if you haven't made much proper print worthy art, get some finished art printed up to put on the wall. I don't understand people that don't do this! prints have THE biggest cost to profit ratio (costs about $0.50-$3 to print and $5-30 to sell) and it makes your display eye catching from a distance, showing people what you're all about. I honestly haven't worked out the exact science to what makes a print a good seller, and sometimes prints I think will be a hit get zero sales. however, when they are hits I've sold upwards of 30 copies of it! find a local print shop for best service. i get 4-8 copies for most prints to start off

keychains

always a hit but the problem with keychains is the market is very competitive and saturated, so you really have to keep up with the trends. when I started selling at cons I handmade keychains with inkjet shrink film in the oven. these days everything is holo and glow in the dark and has fancy clasps. I think how you go about this depends on your art style and business model. i prefer the simple ones! it matches my very simple cartoony style. for your basic keychains, production price is about $3-5 and standard sell price is $15-20. I sell mine for $10 as most of the fandoms I draw for have young teen audiences and I want them to be able to afford it. I always accidentally understock but I'd recc 5-15 pieces per design with vograces low moq

enamel pins

high risk high reward! the sucky thing about enamel pins is the high moq if you're starting out. this is an investment you might want to wait to get into when you've found your niche. shipping is expensive too cause of the weight. i avoid fandoms and current trends if I can help it so I'm not left with a ton of stock when the hype fades. usual minimum order quantity is 50, and after you factor shipping from the manu in each pins cost averages to $2-5 depending on complexity. my sell price is $10 which is honestly too low but I haven't been bothered to check what other ppl sell theirs for lmao.

stickers

I'm mad about this one cause officeworks stopped stocking the only brand of sticker paper I trust. I know there's more brands out there but they're very expensive and some smudge so I've been ordering stickers since. if you can, print and cut your own stickers. either way production cost is usually 10-50c a sticker and I still sell them for $1 each but will likely increase that to $2 soon. this is solely cause stickers are on the table for the main purpose of people getting rid of their loose change, or for people who want to support us in exchange for having a nice chat with them. it is perfectly respectable to price your stickers from $3-5 for basic ones, and higher if they're large or there is something special about them! I sell about 50-200 stickers total per con, but I couldn't tell you what that boils down to per design cause it varies greatly

badges

BUY A BADGE PRESS. they cost like $90 from ebay last i checked and you will make that back instantly. you can print designs on your printer at home quickly and on demand. you can put anything on badges. they're an awesome space filler. fandom art, personal art, funny catch phrases, goofy edits, pronouns… i also recently learnt about cold laminate holo vinyl plastic to put on top which has changed the game. idk the exacts but the cost per piece for at home badge production is maybe? 10c? I sell them $2 for a 32mm small and $3 for a 54mm large. I sell 200-300 badges a con. buy a badge maker.

zines

zines are a talkpiece and a way to connect with other artists. they're your way of spreading your passion to the world. make zines. sell zines. trade zines. I print them at home on printer paper and sell them $2-5 each. there are dedicated zine collectors who make the rounds at cons, and zines (like the stickers!) are often purchased by ppl who like you and want to support you but aren't into your pricier or fandomy stuff. I never bring leftover zines home from a con cause I've always sold / handed out them all. biggest downside is they are hard to display once you have a lot !!

bookmarks

okay seller. people like them and they're cheap. I just don't like displaying them or making them and i just dont think many people read books these days but if I have spare room on the table or wall I'll put them up. I sell for $2-4 each. they usually sell (even when I don't have any displayed. somehow). ive had some people tell me they consider them mini-prints cause they cant afford actual prints. good cheap merch option when starting out and a table filler. not my jam.

notebooks

the thing about notebooks is… my demographic doesn't want to buy notebooks. I think they would be a hit if you drew nature or animals or ghibli stuff etc. I ran a kickstarter a couple years back but was unable to fulfil the orders (bad planning, my fault. a friend is dealing with it now) so I have somewhere close to 300 notebooks in my house. I've tried selling the excess at cons but i only make sales if I severely underprice them. might be a good slow seller if you only buy 10 at a time, not 300

notepads

sell worse than notebooks! no clue why! I love them and they're cheap! I think maybe people overlook them and don't realise what they are. sad.

pillows

great seller for me !!! however this is one of the ones where, by observstion, I make more sales from than others who sell the same product do. theyre the custom printed pillows from vograce, for context. production cost is high, about $10 a pillow I think. I originally sold them for $25 but raised it to $30 when I realised how much stuffing cost. surely you can buy cheaper stuffing online but I always end up running to spotlight or lincraft the week before the con and spending $70 on it. I can sell 10-30 pillows a con but I think I'm an outlier there. start with low quantities when you don't know what your niche is yet

lanyards

I love them! mine sold moderately okay but it's one of the things I took joy in making, yknow :) cost was about $2 per and I sold them for $12. sold about 10

tote bags

not a great seller at all, unfortunately!! perhaps it's cause the only ones I've made so far have had my ocs on them. they are another merch item I adore though so I don't mind having them as a slow seller. I also give them out to people who spend over a certain amount. costs are very variable

lanyard keychains

technically a keychain but different in my head. it has a mini lanyard and also acrylic keychains on it. I sell these at rat shows for $20 each and they sell fast. slower mover at cons tho

pencil cases

they sell okay. they cost about $2-4 to make each and I sell them for about $8-12. slow seller for me

temporary tattoos

I've only sold these at one con so far so I haven't gotten a good read on the vibes. they are so cool though :) please take into account skin colours because I didn't (fsr I thought they'd be opaque) and even on my pale skin you can see discolouration. next time I make designs they will be lineart only, cause I really don't want to have to explain to someone they shouldn't buy it cause their skin is too dark and it will come out shit. think I sold them for $4 each

commissions

hugely variable by con, and hugely variable by artist. I do "sketch page" commissions which is an a5 page of me just drawing mini doodles with a ballpoint pen and poscas whatever stuff comes into my head based on the prompt / character until the page is full. this sets me apart from other artists (though please don't worry about overstepping if you also want to try this) and harnesses the elements of my style that people like the most. it also means I can do little bits and pieces between serving people. other artists will do one large sketch, or a full inked drawing, or ipad comms, or just take commission requests for after the cons. I can't really speak to the success of those methods because I've never really asked. I charge $20 for a page of doodles and can get anywhere from 3 to 25 requests over a weekend. I originally charged $10 a page (i thought after are all, they're just silly doodles) but was so overbooked I spent the entire con with my head down and had a queue so long I was turning people away. don't undercut yourself here!! usual issues with undervaluing your comms aside, you want some time to enjoy the con too :) if you're overrun, raise the price point next time to cut down the demand.

lucky dips

people love lucky dips! it's psychology! these are especially successful for ppl with higher priced merch to make a good multi-buy bargain, or mainstream fandoms where every option is a good choice (pokemon, ghibli, animal crossing). I don't see a big point in us in particular making lucky dips, especially since the content of our table is Highly varied. I would recommend it if all of your stuff was in a similar category. the times we have made lucky dips before was to get rid of excess discontinued stock cheap, and once we had a "gender lucky dip" which included a set of random pronoun badges and pride stickers. it was silly and people had a laugh :)

and I'm so sorry that this is so long as is, but I'm trusting that you're still reading because this is valuable insight and well you asked. (honestly I'm considering I should write up an official guide thanks to you. I enjoy writing about my experiences, insights and and you're right that this info is hard to find!)

but since you asked and since I want to answer, here's my thoughts on stuff we don't sell

washi tape - don't like the idea for my own business model. I love the concept but for a small quantity the cost per production is higher than I would like it to be for what I'd want to sell it for. as I've said, my audience is mostly teens who usually have low funds. I would feel awful pricing such a small item at such a high price!! I personally would like to charge $5 for it, but they are usually sold for about $10-15 (rightfully so!)

standees - not for me, I don't believe my style would suit it. leave that to the anime artists.

patterned fabrics - this costs a lot more than you'd think, tbh. would be best to buy in bulk or if your niche was craft based. if I ever had a plan for how to execute this, I would. but as of now I don't.

comics - this is the dreaaammm. biggest problem is the time for creation. people do go around cons though just to collect original works. do this for yourself if anything, not to sell at a con

sticker hoarder books - at the most recent con I've sold at, many people were disappointed to find my notebooks weren't sticker books. big market for it right now.

sculptures/figurines/handmade plushies - this isnt something i would personally make (skill issue, literally), but its high risk high reward to me. you really need to value your own time and work, so these would r often priced high. means you only have to sell a couple to profit, but if they don't sell. ouch.

manufactured plushies - would LOVE to do this. would require lots of research but it's the dream to me. I'm not in the stage of life to work on this, too much on my plate elsewhere

ceramics- jay bought me a hand painted ceramic dish with tamagotchi characters on it :) I think it cost a lot of money. it was so cool.

embroidered stuff - another thing I would love to get into when I have less going on. oh to have an embroidery machine and time to make things with it

rugs - people love rugs right now theyre all the rage. I love them at least. I would love to make some :)

mouse pads - would try these one day. sounds fun

wooden pins / charms - inevitably will do one day. they personally have less appeal to me than enamel pins and acrylic charms tho. less versatile

fake video game boxes - ok this is just a personal idea / project but I had started editing the box art for a fake total drama ds game then skinned all my wife's ds game boxes to make and sell them. I gotta look more into the logistics and also this isn't a thing yet lol

earrings - pretty popular right now! I wouldn't make them bc my ears are hyper sensitive and it'd make me too sad

jewellery in general - more risky than earrings. I've seen this go badly for ppl before lol

pens / pencils - I would love to make and sell these!!

socks - I like to consider what stuff I personally like buying, and I love fun sock designs !!

fridge magnets - you can get printer magnet paper to print from home. good beginner merch

greeting cards - I think this is a good idea. depends on audience. probs not the best for me personally

I could probably go on forever about other various small ideas and niche things so I'll stop here. hope you enjoyed my ramblings :)

[itstheblob]

I am more active on @cassiesart these days if anyone is interested I know most of you are not interested because you were following this blog for a very specific type of content, and my other blog doesn’t post that content* but just so you know I’m not dead.

* Then again, neither does this one anymore. The itstheblob blog is likely to be inactive unless I get into a new fandom. 

[all-hallows-evie]

Chapter 1: Marooned

Rating: T, for language, Canon Typical Violence/Action. Honestly, this chapter isn't that bad, the T rating is just in case I forgot about something lol

Wordcount: 3,776

Warnings: Canon typical violence and adventure, female OC with name × Tech slowburn, but not too slow lol, NOT BETA'D, because if I have to stare at this first chapter again I'm not going to post it.

A/N: HAPPY TECH TUESDAY, LOOK I'M FINALLY POSTING SOMETHING, WHEEEEEEEEEEE

There were bad ideas, really bad ideas and then there was this.

The ship hums under her feet as it trudges through the far corner of the mid rim, chugging along on it’s route without any sign of trouble or disruption from it’s preplanned course.

It should have been a routine pillaging, something she had placed firmly in the ‘great ideas’ list but instead it had turned into a routine mutiny and finished the day as a routine marooning. She sighs as she lays her head back against the seamless panel behind her.

Fucking pirates. 

She has been stranded on the old freighter for at least two moons, but it was hard to say with certainty. The droids that man the ship have no need to eat so more often than not they forget to pass along anything to keep her mounting hunger at bay, adding along to the lack of any kind of panel to the outside world, getting her bearings is proving to be more difficult than usual. 

She hisses a swear to drown out the low growl of her belly and focuses her gaze on the far corner of the room. Another day, another chance to count the diamond shaped tiles above her cell, she swears the number changes every other time she counts. She doesn’t get farther than eighteen when the door of the maintenance room blows open. 

The dust fills the room, hiding everything under its grimy shadow. The grit in the air crackles as it’s pushed against the red of the electron walls that keep her prisoner with the ships cooling coils and a water filtration unit that has calcified and has never been fixed.  

"Well look at that, we found it! Lucky break!"

"Luck had nothing to do with it, if you had studied the schematics of this cruiser like I had asked-"

"Yeah yeah yeah." The first figure, a hulking shadow in the doorway brushes off the smaller one as he stomps into the suddenly too tiny room.

"The memory core should be at the end of the-" the smaller of the two figures stops in front of her cell as the big one charges towards the end of the room without stopping. They launch themselves into the piles of junk thrown haphazardly inside, "That's concerning."

"Concerning? You see someone in a cage and you go with ‘concerning’?" She replies as she pulls herself up to standing. She takes in his armor, modified clone armor from the looks of it painted pale with a bright red stripe down his chest, his eyes slightly magnified by the goggles on his face, the rest hidden by the elongated helmet.

"According to the intel we were provided there weren't supposed to be life forms aboard." He seems irritated to see her.

"Good old Republic intel, still living up to its reputation."

The other clone approaches, he rips open the metal box in his hands and yanks out the core as if the casing was made of thick flimsy and nothing more, "I've got the thing, time to go!"

She watches, dumbstruck for a moment as her ticket out starts to head for the gaping maw that used to be a door, "Wait, you're taking the old database?" The two of them stop and turn, "It's not complete! It's missing pieces of the coordinates!" Firefek she didn't want to sound desperate but she was.

"Likely story-" The big one chuckles.

"I was trying to steal it too, I almost got all of it before my crew turned on me!"

"A mercenary or a pirate? No matter, I trust you even less now."

She had never wanted to punch anyone's face as hard as she wanted to punch his, "Check the core Goggles, I swear to you! It's missing pieces!" He hesitates and in that baited pause she knows she has him, "Please, just let me out and drop me off wherever you dock next. You can have my data chip. No harm, no foul, just get me out."

The one with the goggles glares at her, the yellow tinted transparisteel of his visor snapping downl before he turns to the bigger man. Klaxons ring all around as he scans the core with a handheld device, but it's taking up time they do not have.

The two clones share a look, silently deciding her fate.

The bigger one caves first, "Aww c'mon Tech, we can't leave her! You saw what's on this ship, she'll be a goner on some mining planet!"

"Under normal circumstances I might agree but she's caged for a purpose, and I'm disinclined to put any trust in her."

"How much damage can she do? She’s smaller than you are!" 

Tech, the one in the goggles, sighs before he turns back around to face her, "If we spring you, you play by our rules. You follow our orders, no complaints, no rebuttals and if you put one toe out of line-"

"Out the airlock, understood." She nods furiously, hands pressed against the panel as she watches Tech short out the electron wall holding her hostage, the panel shudders and then it spews sparks on to the ground as the red fades and she's finally able to step through. 

"Lets go shortie!" 

"Wait, let me just grab-" She scrambles to the other side of the wall, trying to pull at something from the top of a shelf. The bigger clone reaches over and tosses the crate to the floor. She throws open the top and snatches out a bantha leather bag and a helmet.

"Run!"

Tech doesn't have to tell her twice, the three of them bolt out of the door and into the corridor, the lights above flash in time with the klaxons. There is a low rumble that joins the hum of the hyperspace engine, as whatever security droids are on board begin to activate.

"Back to the ship, short stuff!" 

The three of them book it down the darkened halls, ducking behind walls and crates as the first cluster of security droids pass through.

She tosses her bag across her shoulder, slinging it against one side of her hip, clipping it into place with snaps sewn into her jacket. They watch three more droids pass them by before she speaks again, "My name's Nox, by the way." 

"Doesn't sound like a girl's name." The big one chuckles, so deep and rumbling it almost feels like a growl.

"Well it's the only name I've got. My parents named me a bit of a mouthful, Nox just works better."

"Clear." Tech calls out and they continue on their way heading to the service hangar where their ship hopefully was waiting for them.

"How'd you end up out here?" The big one asks, with every flash of light above them she can see more of the large scary face painted roughly on his helmet, lines thrown on haphazardly only to be scraped away by carbon scoring.

She is about to answer when she is shoved back into a corner by Tech. He slaps a hand over her mouth before she can yelp, the leather slightly singed, it smells of electricity and grease.

“Wait.”

"I'm getting tired of all this sneaking around, I say we blow our way outta here!" The big one growls.

"We’re almost there Wrecker, it would be pointless to try now."

She shoves Tech's Hand away, "Blow your way out of here, are you insane? With the amount of baby on board you'd blow us into the next dimension!"

There are a few beats of silence before both helmets turn towards her.

"Baby?" Wrecker repeats but is shushed by Tech.

"You don't mean baradium-"

"Bisulfate? I absolutely do! There were containers of the stuff in the holding bay."

"This Imperial ship is headed somewhere to mine thorilide?" He repeats, tone stressed over every syllable in the word ‘Imperial’.

"That or some unlucky planet is about to be wiped from existence."

"The location of the Republic thorilide mines have been kept under the utmost security for ages, not even the Jedi Council was ever advised of its location."

"Can’t say I blame them, I barely trust them with those glowy sticks of death." She murmurs, making lightsaber sounds with her mouth as Wrecker snickers.

"Stop that. Do you know where this ship was heading? Do you have a copy of the manifest?"

"What, your amazing Republic recce didn't get you that information shiny?" He glares back at her, brows pinching together behind the dark frames of his goggles, "Maker! Did those cloners take your sense of humor? Yes, I know where this ship is going."

"Bet Cid’s contact would pay more for that bit of info." Wrecker’s grin can be heard even through the plastoid of his helmet.

Tech meanwhile has typed something to a com on his wrist, "Hunter, there's been a complication."

"What kind of complication?"

"There is more on board this ship than just the republic database-"

"What do you mean?"

"This ship is a mining vessel, out to mine thorilide."

Tech’s wrist comm goes silent, just quiet static while the voice on the other line thinks, "Ordinance?"

Both clones look at her, she nods emphatically, "Ordinance, med supplies, if there was coaxium on board I wouldn't be surprised, this place is the motherlode."

"Quite a bit of supplies on board, it would seem."

The comm goes quiet again for a few moments, "We don't have time for this, it's only a matter of time before they realize that your cruiser is stolen. Grab what you went in for and leave."

Tech shakes his head, it's so tiny and quick that if she wasn't looking at him in that moment she would have missed it, "Where is it being kept?" 

"Up, five or so floors unless I've miscounted."

"Tech, Wrecker, Get out of there, now!" The voice on the other end grows more and more irritable as they stand around in silence.

"We'll be out as soon as possible." Tech replies curtly as he cuts the comm. He makes it sound so easy like they were stopping by the nearest market to pick up fruit, instead of about to hijack high quality explosives from Imperial custody, "Lead the way."

"What? Just like that?"

"Are there, or are there not these items on board?"

"Yes." 

"You swear?" Wrecker leans in close, hovering over her.

"Yeah."

Tech nods, "Vital signs are stable, no signs of heightened stress-"

"What if I'm just a really good liar?"

"You can try all you want my dear, but the data doesn't lie."

"Does he do this to you too? I'm finding it a bit creepy-" She asks Wrecker as her eyebrow raises.

"You get used to it."

"Weird, so weird…" she mutters to herself as she turns and peeks around the corner. She looks around for anything that is familiar, when she sees a maintenance lift at the very end of the hall to the right. She motions them forward, and silently they sneak their way closer to the lift. She turns her attention to her side as she digs in her bag, her fingers grasp at the odd collection of junk in her pockets until her hand finally wraps around the cool metal of her code cylinder and she can finally stop holding her breath.

Tech's hand on her shoulder pulls her back to the task on hand as he drags her back a few steps. The catwalk above them from here to the lift is no more than a shoddy looking set of grates that creak as a group of security droids march along their patrol, oblivious to the three of them below. 

“The maintenance lift?" Tech sniffs as they come to a stop at its doors. He raises hand to push his goggles back into place, "Perhaps you have failed to notice but none of us are maintenance droids, the moment you try to access that panel they will -”

“They’ll what?” She asks as she jams the cylinder into the port, the lift clicks open silently and she steps inside. 

“The alarms-”

“What alarms? According to this," she snaps her code cylinder from the panel and drops it back into her bag, lost again to the chaos of the random junk held within, "I'm a maintenance droid doing routine inspections. How stupid do you think I am?”

"Hey hey, this one's pretty smart huh Tech?!" Wrecker is thrilled.

"Pirate." She reminds, "You don't see many my age that aren't intelligent and I'll give you one guess as to why."

The doors silently click open and before they can step out a team of at least half a dozen well armed sentry droids roll past. 

They all leap from the inside of the lift and fall into a crouch behind a stack of supply crates. They wait for a few moments before Tech quickly peeks over, "They don't seem to have spotted us."

"Fuck, there weren't this many when we tried this the first time." She swears a few more times under her breath.

"We should do this my way." Wrecker offers.

"What's that mean, what does he mean?!" Nox looks nervously over to Tech, "He doesn't mean-?"

"Explosives and violence? He absolutely does," Tech sighs, “ and I'm afraid we are running low on options and even lower on time. Wrecker, what does your ordinance look like?"

“But you said I couldn't bring any?”

“Yes, and when was the last time you actually listened?”

Wrecker, the fun if not absolutely homicidal one, pulls out a couple of detonators, a roll of plastic tape, a half dozen hand grenades and three droid poppers.

“Great, nice to know you could have turned us into a small sun if I hadn't told you about the baby on board.”

"Everything save for the poppers is far too dangerous to use around those crates." Tech hisses, "Any more of those brilliant pirate ideas floating around in your head?"

She chews on her lip for a moment, wracking her brain for anything else that might be useful as she ignores Tech's sarcastic tone. Apart from the crates on this floor littered with treasure, there didn't seem to be anything of any use...except for the busted water filter. “How big of a distraction do you think it would take to get all those sentries away from the haul?”

“It would need to be something quite large or destructive enough to threaten the integrity of the ship.”

“The water filtration system on board is completely calcified, I don't think it was ever fixed since there are only droids on board. If you could flood that with enough pressure the entire pipe should burst-”

“And flood the entire floor, along with the engine room, that might just do it.” He’s on his data pad before the words are even out of his mouth, he scans the room all around and matches it with the wireframe schematics on his screen. He stalks his way backwards until he finds the panel he is looking for. He pops it open easily and then begins to slice into the mainframe of the ship, “On my count, take Wrecker to wherever the baby is, let him handle it. You get your hands on as much of the medical supplies as you can, the security onboard is a little tighter than I would have preferred so I will have to stay here and continue to flood the filter.”

“Oh, easy.”

“Think you can handle all that tiny?” Wrecker’s thundering chuckle threatens to give away their location even with the steady moan of the alarms overhead.

She grins, Wrecker is back to being the fun one, “Try and keep up.”

There is a sound of roaring water all around them as tech funnels every liquid on the ship into the filter, then a sound like an explosion a couple of feet below them rocks the ship like a lightning strike. 

The sound of the alarm overhead changes as every droid on the floor turns away and heads to a lowering platform, all instructed to assist with the burst pipe.

“That’s our cue!” 

She shoves Wrecker forward playfully before they both break into a sprint toward the storage rooms where their bounty is being held. She points to one of the rooms as they approach, "This one's your big boy!"

The door is sealed shut, but not for long. Wrecker doesn't slow, instead he hunches low, bringing his shoulders down and tucking his chin into the collar of his armor before he barrels straight through, punching a hole through the doors with enough force to make even her teeth rattle.

She dips into the storage room across the hall, thanking the stars that her haul wasn't locked away like his was. She rips open any crate within arms reach, tossing open the tops and letting them scatter around the room wherever they land. She snatches bacta patches and hypos by the handful and packs the crate as full as she can, slamming her entire body weight against it to get it to close. She drags it out into the hall, placing it by the door before she bolts into the room right beside the one Wrecker is standing in. 

Wrecker watches her disappear into the room, the four small crates of explosives tucked carefully under his arms, “Wait, where are you-”

His question is answered as another crate hits the floor beside him. She comes running out of the room, grabbing this second crate by the handle and yanking it along, “Perfect! Not a single explosion! Love that for me!”

Wrecker bends down to offer her a hand but she has already snatched up the first trunk and is flying down the hall with them. She's faster than Wrecker would have believed she would be capable of with the two crates almost her height. She almost trips over herself as she stops and with a swift kick, the second crate lands at Tech's feet, “Come on 20/20, cut her loose, let's go!”

“What’s in that- I specifically ordered you to only carry medical supplies.”

“Yeah well, it sounds like you are used to not being listened to so, ship. Now!”

Wrecker races past, hopping off of the side and down to the level below, the halls are empty as all hands are called to help with the floor that is flooding. 

Nox peeks over the side, she watches as Wrecker sets the small boxes of baby down beside him, "Toss your crate!" He calls up. She nods and yanks the crates handle, flipping it up and off of the edge with a nudge from Tech. 

She helps him in turn, as they gingerly haul the crate full of ordinance over the edge before tossing it below. 

Wrecker sets the crates to one side before turning back to catch Nox, but she's already climbing down. Her fingers dig into spots on the wall where she should not be able to have any grip. She finds her own way down and with a little hop, lands right beside Wrecker as Tech lands beside her. The clang of his boots echoes down the empty hallway. "We'll need to make our way through the flooded floor of the ship in order to get back to the hangar." Tech types away at his data pad again before picking up the side of his crate.

Nox follows close beside the two clones, tossing the crate up onto her back to avoid making any unnecessary scraping sounds as they get closer to the flooded area, the sound of pouring water gets louder and louder with every floor. The next floor they walk through has the water barely deep enough to wash over the toes of their boots, but it rises rapidly after that. By the time they are on the same floor as the hangar, the water has risen up to their knees and Nox has a harder time trying to distract her mind from where all of this stagnant water has been hiding this whole time.

“Holding out ok over there tiny?” Wrecker chuckles. 

She turns to answer, when everything becomes...not alright. Her next step slips out from under her and she goes flying forward, crashing face first into the dark disgusting water, the crate on her back keeping her under the surface as she struggles to pull herself back up to standing. 

A hand at the back of her collar pulls her back up into fresh air, slimy water pours from her mouth and nose as she gags. She doesn't need to clear the water from her eyes to know what the dark figures that are starting to line the hallway are. Tech and Wrecker are on either side of her, blasters raised as the sentry droids file in.   

“I'm hoping you can fight better than you can swim.” Tech calls over as Wrecker leaps over them both and charges straight into one of the sentries.  Tech keeps a few of the others at bay, clipping them with bright bolts from his twin deecees, but it's not enough. She rubs the slime from her face and charges right behind Wrecker, using her entire body to check a droid in her path, she grabs the blaster from its hands as it goes tumbling backwards and into the water. Techs shots ring out around her as he stays behind, watching over the crates behind him. Wrecker tears through any droids that get within reach, sparks flying on to the water before they sizzle and die. She concentrates her fire on any droids Tech misses until the hall is clear.

"There'll be a second platoon on their way, we better get a move on." Tech calls back to them, she tosses the almost empty blaster into the water beside her.

"Are you always just, you know?" She makes growling and ripping sounds at Wrecker.

He laughs, "Not often enough." 

She stifles her laughter behind her hand as she walks back to where Tech is to retrieve the case of medical supplies, for a brief moment the last couple of days are forgotten and even the slime on her skin is the last thing on her mind. For a brief moment she was back with her men, waiting for that score of a lifetime, but when she grabs the handle of the crate and looks back it’s the clone armor that reminds her she is in fact alone. The sudden quiet of sadness doesnt last long as the doors behind them open and a new series of drods begin their march towards them. 

“Incoming!”

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