#and build it up to an EMPIRE OF SALT

[mesmoe-rizing]

U know what id do if i was a fancy pants wizard with my own wizard tower and the ability to take on apprentices?

Id teach them basic shit like Teleport and. Then have them teleport to the nearest sea/ocean and have them gather saltwater, boil that shit down into salt, and sell that everywhere.

Id be a salt god wizard

The saltiest wizard that ever been seen

[seoksgrl]

rather be dead than cool, 1 : jjk nerd!jungkook x popular!reader college au, dislike to love genderbent shes all that au

tws: some slight bullying (?), rich people being rich people

m.list

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One thing could be said for you, and that is that you’re an overachiever. You set your goals way too high (some might say) and then struggle to reach them (also up for debate). 

Since you were a youngster clicking around the nursery yard in baby Gucci from head to toe, you’ve always known you were destined for greater things than the bumbling little town you happened to be born in. If it weren’t for your father building a large technology empire in your formative years, perhaps you would have turned out differently. But he raised you to work hard and to take everyone you know with a pinch of salt. 

High school had been a breeze, popularity and good genes meant you had many friends, but your father always reminded you that people could be bought. They always needed something from you, whether it be an elevation in social status or just a bite of your granola bar, your friends had motives. And you respected them when you were upfront about it.

As expected, you got straight A’s, entered one of the top colleges and built an appropriate social circle. Some call you conceited, shallow, rude - you’re just you. If they don’t like it, you don’t waste any more of your time. People didn’t affect you as much as they did your friends, especially boyfriends. You’d grown up with the knowledge your father instilled in you, meaning that when Park Jimin ended things with you, there wasn’t a tear spilled or an ounce of makeup smudged. 

Jimin had been your boyfriend for the longest of the guys you dated in college - lasting a whole year, in fact. He was good for your popularity, something you’ve grown to enjoy. Why feel bad for taking advantage of something you have no control over? You dated him, now you don’t. You can easily move on and find someone else, or not. You’re well aware of the fact you don’t need anyone. 

Your friends don’t think the same way, however. 

“Oh my god!” Irene gasps, her dainty, ring-adorned hand falls on the shoulder of your Prada sweater and you resist the urge to shrug it off. After all, a snag would just be inconvenient, and those rings house many gaudy diamonds, “Are you okay?”

The question isn’t surprising to you - people have asked you every time you’ve had a break up. The answer is always the same.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Mina’s brows pull together, and you wonder if she waxed them herself. They’re looking uneven, “Well, you guys were together for so long. I mean...did he dump you?”

You shrug, scrolling through Instagram, mainly Jimin’s posts from Spring Break are all that clog your feed. He ended - you both ended things a week before he left. You pause momentarily on a photo of him with what appears to be a cheerleader and close the app. 

“It was mutual,” You check over your acrylics, happy with the peach colour. It matches perfectly with your purse, “I’m good. Really,”

Mina and Irene don’t look convinced, though you truly do feel okay. It wasn’t like you were in love with Jimin or anything - you’d said it to each other, but really, how do you know when you’re in love. Nobody tells you how you’re supposed to feel. Jimin had said it, and so you replied with the same. You had your own way of knowing you didn’t feel much more for Jimin beyond simply liking him, and it was the same measure you used for all friendships and relationships. 

If you were planning to go to the movies, would you want to go with Jimin, or go alone?

The answer had always been alone. Jimin was a talker - he didn’t really watch the movie, and the couple times the two of you had chilled at his place with the TV on, he’d texted or tried to initiate sex with you. The idea of Jimin texting in the movie theatre made you irrationally angry. And so, you always went alone. 

“Jimin was cute,” Mina says suddenly, as if she had thought about it for some time, “You two were like...the It couple. You know?”

It wasn’t a secret to you that your relationship with Jimin had caught some attention in the social circles on campus. Things in a prestigious school such as Yonsei University worked a lot like high school - there are still the familiar cliques you would expect, and as such, you are known as one of the most popular individuals on campus. Popular and well-liked are not, as most might believe, mutually exclusive. You’re aware that some people dislike you, but it’s hard to care. How can they dislike you without knowing you?

“I mean,” You laugh, brushing away a stray hair from your bangs, “Jimin only got popular after we started dating,” And it was true. You would never lie about such a thing, “I feel like I could date anyone and we could become the It couple on campus. Almost everyone we know is single,”

Mina scoffs, a rice cake inches from her lips, “I could date, I just choose not to,”

Irene is the next to speak, her attention moving from your friend to you, “So, what are you saying? You made Jimin the man he is today?” She speaks through her laughter, but you don’t know why. It’s the truth - and you’re not even trying to be up your own ass about it either. 

“Yeah,” You reply, short and sweet, “Making a guy into high class material isn’t difficult. Men are pliable, like clay. You just mould them into what you need,”

Before you and Jimin became official, he was cute. But he wasn’t the kind of cute you would usually date. There was something inside you that yearned for a challenge, something to occupy your time. Doing well on assignments and quizzes was too easy for you. Thanks to your father’s money, he’d bought you the best tutor available to you and so you’re always pretty clued up on what you need to know in class before the semesters begin. 

“You know what,” Irene adjusts her bag on her shoulder, settling herself on the bench beside you. Class is in ten minutes, and you should really start walking, but before you can suggest it, her hand is diving inside her purse and pulling out a cheque book. It has daisies on the pages, and from what you can tell, it’s new, “My dad has lowered my allowance after I put a dent in his Jag. I could use some extra money,” Her smile turns devious, a little like when you were in high school and she confessed to shoplifting a jacket she was wearing, “How about we make this interesting, since you’re so confident?”

Mina is standing in front of the two of you now, cheeks stuffed full with rice cake and she bundles the wrapper in her fist, listening intently. 

You’re not just confident - you’re stubborn. And it was this, you would later realise, that would be your downfall, “Go on,”

“You have until the spring formal,” Irene writes on the cheque, her handwriting flows smoothly, little hearts adorning the i’s, “to turn some random dude into the newest campus hot boy,”

You chuckle, lips preparing to speak before Irene shushes you with the pen.

“To make this a fair bet, Mina will choose the guy,”

Irene wasn’t wrong, you were confident. So confident in fact that the concept of Mina choosing the guy you had to reinvent didn’t phase you at all. In fact, the fire of a new challenge began to build in your gut, and so you agreed, without even knowing what the prize would be. 

“If you win,” Irene speaks, “you get my car,”

Irene’s car is gorgeous, a white Porsche that her father had custom made for her twentieth birthday. Nobody else has anything like it in the world, let alone on campus. The idea of having it for yourself is more than appealing, “And if you win?” 

You raise your brow, waiting for Irene’s answer and fully expecting what you hear fall from her lips, “I get your Tiffany bangle,”

Irene had her eyes on your most prized piece of jewellery ever since you stepped on campus with it after Christmas with your grandma in Paris. Like the Porsche, the bangle was also custom made, and you believed it was probably worth just as much. Confident in your ability to create a new campus It boy, you agree. 

“Great,” Irene smirks, “If this guy doesn’t win Spring King at the formal, we’ll consider it as your loss. Happy with those terms?”

Anyone could win that plastic crown, you’re absolutely sure of it, and so you raise your manicured hand and shake it with that of your friend, sealing the deal and leaving the next part of the bet in the hands of Mina, who stands watching the whole exchange. 

The three of you agree to meet after class, during the free period you all share just after lunch. Your morning passes without issue, mostly because you had already read the book you’re studying during the summer. Now halfway through your senior year, it’s imperative that you remain on top of your game, but with your extra tutoring and excellent average, you have a feeling that would be straight forward. 

By the time you meet up with Mina and Irene again, Mina’s hair is just beginning to fluff up thanks to the humidity carried by the change in season. Spring is slowly morphing into summer, and the grass is at its greenest. As the other students laze about in the April sunshine, you and the girls seat beneath the shade of an old oak with rough bark and thick, flat leaves to shield you all from the rising temperature. 

“Mina thinks she may have found the perfect candidate for our little bet,” Irene begins, luxuriating on the grass, combing the long, black tresses of her hair with her fingers. Mina nods, halfway through braiding her own hair in an effort to quell its frizz, “If you manage to pull this one off, I’ll be very impressed,”

Mina finishes her work, letting her long braid hang over her shoulder before she crosses her legs, leaning forward to speak directly to you, “On my way to chem, I saw the Jeon boy,”

“Jeon?” The name rings a bell, perhaps from high school or middle school, but you can’t think of who Mina could be talking about off the top of your head, “Who is that?”

“Jeon Jeongguk,” She clarifies, “He’s in my art class - a photography major as far as I can tell. He takes fine art as a minor,”

“Do you have a picture? I’d like to at least know what I’m working with here,”

Mina pulls her cell out, just as Irene sits up, looking over your shoulder with a sly grin, “Looks like he heard you. He’s walking over there,”

What you expect to see, you aren’t quite sure. In your mind you’d pictured someone a little more...rough around the edges. Jeon Jeongguk is rough, definitely, but he seems to have a strange, delicate aura about him. From what you can make out as he walks across the back towards the library, he has long, dark hair - gathered up in a rushed pony that springs out the back of his head. He keeps his head down as he walks, clad in oversized sweats and a matching sweater, large backpack over one shoulder. He doesn’t look at anyone as he passes them, and it’s only when he looks up at the library that you see the white wire of his earphones swing into sight. 

From this distance, you can’t exactly know for sure, but you can already think of a few pointers regarding his style. The blank, unapproachable expression on his face intrigues you, and there’s that nagging sense of challenge within you that wants to get through to him. To do that, you will have to plan an approach. 

“What do you think?” Irene asks, and you turn back to your friends just as Jeongguk disappears into the building, “I did a little digging with some of the students in my class. He’s a loner from what I hear - a virgin. An excellent canvas,” 

With a shrug, you pop a raspberry into your mouth from the bento box sitting in your lap, “Doesn’t seem like too much work,” You grin, firmly confident in your abilities. The desire to prove yourself wins over everything else, and you continue with lunch, mentally planning a way to turn Jeongguk from loner to It boy in six weeks. 

What you’re doing right now isn’t exactly stalking, more like research. Shades perched on the bridge of your nose, you peek over them to where the Jeon boy is sitting; the target of your bet with Irene. The very same guy who will win you that Porsche. 

It’s a mere twenty-four hours since Irene proposed this bet, and you’ve skipped labs solely to begin your job as soon as possible, paying a girl to take notes for you and cover should your professor ask questions about your absence. No middle aged man can compete against a good menstrual cramp story. During said time, a half hour so far, you’ve learned some small things about Jeon Jeongguk. His hair looks damaged, grown out far too long and unkept for his face shape - a face shape that is, surprisingly, not bad. From this distance anyway. Said hair is currently hanging around his face, like a curtain, shielding him off from the world. He’d stayed like that for some time, and until a familiar student in junior year walked by, you hadn’t thought much of it. 

But then, something peculiar and, quite frankly, hard to watch happened. Jeon Jeongguk, famed loner of Yonsei’s esteemed campus, stood up and attempted to talk to the girl. As you’d lowered your shades, her face came into focus and you recognised her from one of the christmas parties you’d attended. Sana, her name was - very pretty, very shy. Though, from what you witnessed, not shy enough to shut Jeongguk down. 

And now here you are, almost fifteen minutes since the whole embarrassing affair happened, and Jeongguk successfully retreated once Sana left, crouching on the grass in a shady corner by the arts building, scribbling in a notebook. He hasn’t moved an inch since. 

You grin to yourself, going over the miniscule events over the past forty five minutes staring - no, observing Jeongguk, realising this is your in. This is how you’re going to get this guy to agree to the makeover of his college career. Everyone wins; you win your bet, and the chance to retain your impeccable track record, and Jeongguk gets the girl. Nobody will be able to resist Jeon Jeongguk when you’re done with him. As much as you hate to admit it, he’s not totally hopeless.

One thing your friends don’t know is that Jeongguk isn’t all that bad. Minus the overalls, haphazard man-bun and a complete lack of social skills. Okay, so he won’t turn into a stud overnight - so what? Hard work births the best results and at least you have a starting point: the guy’s tall. You know you can make this work.

You have no issues with approaching Jeon, sashaying over the patch of grass between you until you’re all but casting a shadow on his notebook. There’s some faint scratches of black, rushed and wild on the page, though he snatches it away before you can really see what it is, glancing up at you beneath his hand, shielding his hands from the final bursts of winter sunshine. 

He doesn’t respond to your outstretched hand, and upon further inspection, you note the ink staining his knuckles and digits, thinking better of your introduction and letting your hand fall back to your side. 

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” You grin brightly, a smile that has won you many a debate, “Y/N,”

“I know who you are,” Is all he says before he’s looking back down at his notebook, flipping it closed with a finality that indicates he believes your interaction is over. You frown. Jeongguk stands, and you realise how right you were about his height. The guy towers over you, enough so that now the roles are reversed, and you are the one shielding your eyes from the bright sky. 

“You do? I can’t say I’m surprised,” You reply, winning smile fixed back on your lips, your resolve as hard as steel, “I’m head of student government,”

Jeongguk doesn’t reply to that, he just gives you a weary once over and starts walking. Very rude, you can’t help but think. Though you won’t be deterred - you have a bet to win, after all. Your legs carry you across the grass, working a little harder in an effort to catch up with Jeon’s strides. He seems eager to get away from you, and that only makes you more determined to win him over. 

“I would have thought you’d welcome some social interaction,” You huff out, almost out of breath as you shuffle behind Jeongguk, his broad shoulders hunched as he approaches the sidewalk, heading to one of the buildings close to the science block. If your professor sees that you skipped class to talk to some guy, Jeon Jeongguk no less, you will be in danger of damaging your flawless reputation. 

Jeongguk scoffs at your words, though you barely hear it above the sound of your own breathing, and he leaves you no choice but to bring out the big guns earlier than planned.

“I noticed you were talking to my friend, Sana,”

He stops in his tracks, a great sigh heaving from his massive shoulders, and he turns, facing you with a look of trepidation and curiosity. His eyes are impossibly big, like really - you can’t believe someone can have such huge, doe-like eyes. He looks down at you, almost through you, and it has you blinking away for a moment. 

“You...know Sana?” He asks, his voice full to the brim with weariness, and you almost feel sorry for the guy. But, you’re not that nice of a person. 

“I do,” You smile, hiding the fact your lungs ache for you to take a full breath. It’s a lie, but only a little one. You’re the most popular girl on campus, Sana knows who you are. “I noticed you guys talking earlier,”

At this, he blushes, a faint bloom of red in his cheeks that looks so out of place on a face that was almost scowling at you moments prior. He clears his throat, apparently reigning in any outward evidence of his crush, fixing you with a confused frown, “You noticed?”

Fuck. “I was in the area. You don’t own the quad you know,”

You escape his scrutiny, just barely, and he lands another question on you. His hesitation isn’t surprising to you - after all, this morning you didn’t know this guy existed, you can’t blame him for being suspicious about someone suddenly prying into his life. But you’re stubborn, and eager to win. Your competitiveness can get you into the strangest situations if you let it, so when Jeongguk asks why you’re interested in him and Sana (or the absence of him and Sana), you know exactly what to say. 

“Well, I know Sana,” As you have said, despite it being a lie, “and if you wanna get her attention, you’re not gonna do it looking the way you do,”

His frown is back again, and he almost resembles a kicked puppy. 

“The template is fine. Basically, you just need some new clothes, a hair change. I can help - I like seeing my friends happy, and you don’t seem like an axe murderer or anything,” You flash him your winning smile again, and this time, it seems to be well-received, “Let me help. I’m acing all my classes, please give me something to do. I’m bored,”

He shoots you a look of mild bewilderment before he considers your proposal, still hesitant. Though, he glances behind you, eyes lighting up and you follow his line of sight towards where the girl in question stands, sitting with her friends. Sana is completely unaware of the way Jeongguk stares after her like a hungry mouse, innocence playing across his features, and you wonder if he’s as pure deep down in his soul as Irene implied. There’s a softness to him that continues to intrigue you the longer you stand here, watching him pine after his crush, and you’re only awoken from your inner thoughts when Jeongguk’s eyes meet yours, a little too wide having found you already watching him. 

“Okay,” He says, eyes once more finding Sana in the background, “I’ll let you help me,”

[comics-and-fanworks]

Idea for you class salt after the class is out of school and in the real world.

Marinette's phone gets broken so badly she needs a new number. She only tells a few her new number no one from her old class has it.

Some of her old class goes to bakery to ask why she hasn't called them back when they called her. They get told her phone got broken and all that.

The class member goes okay tell her to call me when it gets fixed or replaced it is important.

Only her parents forget and when said class member comes back later is told that but is also told Marinette has a new phone now. But not a new number.

Classmate rushes out to call her so she can fix their problems like always only it goes to voicemail as the person whom has her old number is like I don't know this person calling me. It goes on and on till it gets bad and the person with the new number goes to the police with worry over the threats they are getting.

Should I be worried for myself or the person they are trying to reach

It comes to a head when alya talks max into hacking the location of the phone and they go to have a talk with Marinette only it's not her

Thank you so much for the request! It's my first one so I went a bit overboard and wrote a lot! So sorry it took me so long to get to this! I'm taking organic chemistry over the winter so that has been kicking my ass. The first draft was deleted, so hopefully, this is a better version! Thank you for your patience with me!

TW: swearing, minor threats of violence

~~~~~~

"Well shit," Marinette's day was already bad, but this was just throwing salt into the wound. She had started her day with her phone blowing up with requests from her (former) classmates and friends. Ever since she returned from College they had gotten right back to their usual B.S. "Mari I need a new dress for a meeting with Prince Ali," "Marinette! I told my team you'd design some sick jackets for us and you'd have them done by our next swim meet!" "Girl! I need three new outfits! Adrien and Lila are taking me with them to a fashion show and this is my chance to interview some top designers! Oh sorry, you're not invited." She was up to her neck in demands and requests, to the point she was seriously considering closing her commissions, not like her former friends paid her anyways. THEN Hawkmoth decided that she hadn't suffered enough, she had to deal with Volpina, Frozer, AND Prime Queen and it was not even lunchtime. Volpina was easy enough to take down, why Lila was akumatized is anyone's guess. Frozer was a bit trickier, and since Chat had no plans of showing up she had to bring in Ryuko and Viperion. The trio ended up fighting Prime Queen, who was convinced that LadyNoir would still happen and the Cat Hero's absence was due to a lover's quarrel. Marinette was finally able to return to the alleyway she had transformed in... only to find her shattered phone. It must've fallen out of her suit's pocket (she had redesigned her costume since returning to Paris, she wanted a more mature, fashionable look) when she was rushing to get to the battle.

"Great! Just Perfect! This is just what I need now!" She sighed picking up the shattered phone. There was no way this was salvageable, the impact of hitting the ground had practically broken the thing in half. Tikki knew her chosen was stressed, between being Ladybug, being the Guardian of the Miraculous, building a blossoming fashion empire from scratch, and having to deal with her former friends' constant demands it was only a matter of time before she lost Marinette to Hawkmoth's akumatization. The goddess recognized that this was just the opportunity she needed to help her chosen, and she would start by helping Marinette cut off the people hurting her most. "Marinette! I have an idea! Why don't you get two phones? One can be your work phone, and the other can be your personal one. That way you won't have to worry about your work stuff getting lost in your personal stuff. You can get new numbers for both too!" Marinette looked at the Kwamii with some confusion, "Why would I need to change my number?" Tikki sighed, "Marinette, they haven't been very good friends to you, they haven't even been your friends for a while now. Think about it, your former classmates don't talk to you unless they want something, they expect you to use your connections to benefit them but won't return the favor, and they promise you and your time to other people without your consent.  That isn't right babybug, friends don't treat friends like that. They don't even pay you for your time, effort, and the cost of materials!" Marinette knew that Tikki was right, but she was still hesitant, "But..." "Would Kagami text you expecting you to make her something and refuse to pay? Would Luka text you telling you that he promised another musician you'd make their wardrobe by their next concert? Would Kagami and Luka use your work to get ahead, and then refuse to extend the favor? No, they wouldn't! Those are healthy friends babybug, you can give them your new number, I know they'll understand!" Marinette thought about it for a moment and decided that Tikki was right. With a renewed conviction she made her way to the nearest tech store to begin to take control of her life again.

Adrien was frustrated, he had been texting and calling Marinette all afternoon but she wasn't answering! That wasn't like his princess, so something had to be going on, but there wasn't an Akuma on the news, Ladybug, Viperion, and Ryuko defeated the three earlier today. He did feel a little guilty that he didn't go to help, but he was busy! He had modeling shoots all morning and then joined Lila and Alya for lunch discussing their upcoming trip. The topic eventually turned to the Wayne Gala that was approaching as well, with both models confirming they had been invited. Well, Lila had only been invited because she was an official Gabriel representative, but she didn't need to know that. The brunette was currently making a big show of bringing Alya as her plus one, which brings Adrien back to his current predicament. When he arrived home, his father told him that he had to invite Marinette Dupain-cheng as his plus one no matter what. Both Agrestes had been shocked when she had rejected Gabriel's offer to join his company, but her answer had been reassuring, "I greatly appreciate your offer but cannot accept it in good conscious. Adrien has been my friend for years and I would hate to potentially harm his, the company's, and my reputation by accepting. I am worried it could be misconstrued as me gaining the position, not by my own talent, skill, or merit but because I had a connection to someone with considerable sway." His father didn't seem to pick up that the last bit was about Lila, but seemed content. In fact, Gabriel had complimented Marinette's business savvy and remarked how good it would be if she followed in his footsteps by building a fashion house from scratch. He had mused that it would be even better to have the two great fashion houses merging together instead of just taking Marinette in as a designer. Now that Miracle Design Clothing (MDC) has risen to compete with the likes of Gabriel and Style Queen, his father had decided now was the time to begin winning Marinette over.

Adrien would never admit it to his father, but he had his own motivations for being so on board with the plan to invite Marinette to the Wayne Gala. They were now in their mid-20s, and everyone in Paris wanted to know everything about the Agreste Heir's love life. Lila had hinted multiple times that Adrien was dating her, so much so that the media was beginning to spin her narrative. However, Adrien wasn't entirely out of the running yet. He knew that the Wayne Galas were always a media frenzy so if he, a fashion empire heir, showed up to the Gala with Marinette, a rising star in the fashion world, on his arm the media would quickly assume they were dating. It was a brilliant plan, Marinette was charming, beautiful, intelligent, and incredibly talented. His father held her in high regard, and he knew that if Gabriel approved of him dating anyone, it would be Marinette. Besides Adrien had a trick up his sleeve, he knew Marinette was in love with him, or at least that was what Alya had told him. She told him about Marinette's crush right before the ravenette left for college, hoping to embarrass her former best friend. Their old class still believed what Lila had said about Marinette being a bully. In their get-togethers they would often mock the designer's success, reassuring Lila that the only reason they talked to her was to get stuff from Marinette. While it upset him a little to know Marinette was being taken advantage of, a larger part of him felt like she deserved it since she didn't listen to his advice about Lila. Oh well, it was her own fault. Adrien was brought out of his thoughts by Alya's shriek.

"OH MY GOSH! The Waynes just announced the Designer they got their Gala outfits from, and it's Marinette!" Adrien choked down a laugh at the sour expression Lila wore, as Alya continued to read, "The article says that Marinette and Timothy Drake Wayne met while they were in college, and he thought her designs were so incredible that he referred her to Bruce Wayne himself! She's considered a family friend and received their order along with an invitation to the Gala! Why didn't she tell me any of this??" 'Maybe because you only talk to her when you want something' Adrien thought as their former classmates began to text. Alya was trying to call Marinette, most likely to scream at her for not letting Alya in on such a big story, but she couldn't get through. "Ugh! Marinette is ignoring me! Who does that stupid bitch think she is?" Lila's eyes sparkled as she saw a chance to jump in and control the narrative, "I know right? You'd think she'd be more grateful after I introduced her to Timmy- oh I've said too much," She batted her eyelashes and made a show of covering her mouth. "YOU introduced Marinette to the Waynes? Girl you've gotta give me the details!" "Well, Marinette was going to college in Milan, and I happened to be there for a modeling shoot," That part was actually true, Adrien was sick and couldn't make that shoot, "We happened to bump into each other at a cafè, and Marinette apologized to me for how awful she was to me in our youth. She told me that the only reason she did what she did was that she was jealous and felt threatened by me, you were right Alya." That was how Lila worked, she mixed a little bit of the truth with what someone wanted to hear, which caused the lies she told to pass by noticed. "Anyways we had lunch and caught up, she was showing me some of her amazing designs," as much as it pained Lila to admit it, Marinette was truly talented. In fact one thing she regretted was not working harder to deceive Marinette back when they were still in school, if she had known Marinette would be so successful she would've fought like hell to take the spot of Marinette's Best Friend away from Alya. She would've been MDC's top model, instead of having a stagnating career as just another practically nameless model for Gabriel. "I remembered my dear friend Timmy, we met when my mother was stationed in Gotham, he had told me that the Wayne family needed suits and dresses for their upcoming Gala and that Gabriel was too busy." Another partial truth, Lila didn't know any Wayne, but she knew Gabriel was too busy being Hawkmoth to make their outfits. "I gave him Marinette's number as an olive branch because I had thought she changed, but I guess she was lying. Oh and Alya? Adrien? Please don't mention my friendship with the Waynes, I don't want people thinking they can get to them through me." Lila smirked as both Adrien and Alya promised her they wouldn't say anything.

When Marinette told them she was cutting off her former friends for good, Tom and Sabine were over the moon. They knew about the Lila situation and all its complexities after the faux fox tried to infiltrate the bakery and convince them their daughter had stolen her necklace. They almost fell for it, until Tom remembered that Marinette had been helping him in the bakery during the time Lila said their daughter took the necklace. He had sternly told Lila that there was no way Marinette could have done it, and even offered to show her security footage that proved Marinette was not the thief. Instead, the brunette stormed out of the bakery, and Tom and Sabine knew they had to talk to their daughter. After a bit of gentle prodding, Marinette broke down and told them everything. She told them about Lila, her classmates, and Adrien, and she told them about everything they were putting her through. They were horrified, and that feeling was solidified after Lila got Marinette expelled. After their daughter's name was cleared, that useless principal was trying to dodge removing it from her record, until Sabine threatened to contact the school board about how their daughter was expelled without an investigation. They did everything they could, but it seemed Lila had everyone else in her pocket, and it seemed to stay that way once Marinette returned from college. She had swung by the bakery and explained that her phone had been shattered while she avoided the akumas, and she was taking this opportunity to change her number and cut those leeches off. Sabine and Tom promised that they would say nothing because it was only a matter of time before her former friends wound up at the bakery because of the radio silence from Marinette.

The chiming of the doorbell confirmed their fears. In stormed Marinette's old class, with her former friend Alya leading the pack. They could see Lila hiding in the back, and decided it would be better to say nothing. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng! We have a problem and thought you could help us. We've been trying to get in contact with Marinette all day, but we can't reach her and we wanted to make sure she was okay." Sabine smiled as she tried to hold in her rage. They weren't here because they were concerned, those brats wanted something. It would appear that Alya and co didn't know that Marinette's parents knew Lila was lying or what they did, so Tom decided to answer in a way Lila couldn't twist. "Oh, she came by earlier today and let us know that her phone was broken. She dropped it during one of the Akuma attacks, and it was pretty smashed up. She told us to let you know if you came by since she would be off the grid until it was fixed. It might be a while though, it was almost as bad as the time it got caught in the bread mixer!" His answer seemed to calm the group down, typical clumsy Marinette strikes again. "Ok, well can you please let her know to reach out to us once her phone's fixed?" The two nodded and promised they would, and watched as the group of adults left. Sabine turned to the freezer, "They're gone! You can come out now!" The two chuckled as their daughter slowly poked her head out of the walk-in freezer, ready to dash back in at a moment's notice. Yeah, they're glad Marinette was finally cutting those people off and the bright glow in their girl's eyes confirmed it.

The Gala was in a few weeks, and Marinette was STILL radio silent. Adrien was pacing back and forth in his room, trying to figure out what to do. Her social media was most likely controlled by an assistant like his was so he couldn't message her there, he couldn't get into her studio without an invitation or employee badge, and he realized he had no idea where she lived so he couldn't even pay her a visit or send a letter! "I don't know what to do! No one has heard from Marinette and her parents promised they'd talk to her about it!" "Maybe she finally got tired of your bullshit and decided to cut you and the rest of those users off," Plagg snapped from somewhere in his room. After The Paint Incident, Plagg's attitude towards him seemed to change. He snapped at Adrien more, called Adrien out on his behavior, and started giving Adrien harsh (and desperately needed) advice. Other than that, Plagg was getting on his case about slacking off on his duties as Chat Noir, claiming that his behavior was a disgrace to the legacy of the Cat Miraculous. Adrien was getting fed up with him, hadn't the stupid cat heard the saying 'if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all?' "Marinette wouldn't do that! We're her friends!" "Some friends. And some friend YOU are. You knew Lila was lying and let her wreck Marinette's school life, get her expelled, and continue to lie to everyone. You told Marinette to shut up and take it, news flash kid, the high road does not mean stay quite and let people hurt you! YOU currently know that YOUR friends only care about what they can get from her and that Lila is planning to pull some bullshit at the Gala, but all you're concerned about is making sure karma doesn't bite you in the ass!" Plagg roared. It was hard to argue with the little god without sounding like a hypocrite, but Adrien was going to try. "Well... When Marinette agrees to go to the Gala with me I can fix everything! She likes me, so we can get together, and I can get Lila to apologize! Once everyone knows they're on good terms things will go back to how they should be!" Plagg was paying more attention to the cheese he was juggling, but he did glance back at Adrien, "One, IF she decides to go with you. Two, she may not even feel that way it's been years. Three, How are you going to get a narcissist to admit to wrongdoing? Four, How does Lila apologizing change how your ex-class treat Mari when that's how they treated her before Lila showed up?" Adrien chose to ignore Plagg and tried calling Marinette again.

Alya was STRESSED. The Gala was coming up and she needed a new dress that would wow everyone and make her stand out from other reporters. She had already secured her Press Pass, and because she was Lila's plus one she could actually get into the Gala. The only other reporters with that privilege were Clark Kent and Lois Lane, close friends of the Wayne Family. Lila offered to get her a Gabriel Original but she turned it down, both girls shared a sentiment that Gabriel's designs had really been declining. "I think it was the loss of his wife. She was his greatest inspiration, and especially with Hawkmoth on the loose, I can understand not wanting to leave your house. Maybe he's just out of touch," Lila had told her, and Alya agreed. What she needed was a Marinette Original, something to show she was in with both designers. She was thinking of something fox-inspired, to pay homage to her time as Rena Rouge. She'd talked to the other girls about why Marinette had never told her she would be designing for the Waynes, and they reassured her, "Well, maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested or were too busy?" Rose offered. "You didn't really report on fashion until Adrien and Lila took you to that fashion show. Maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested." Juleka suggested. "Als, you're overthinking it! Mari didn't tell you because she couldn't! A family like the Waynes has wicked good lawyers, they probably made her sign an NDA." Alix concluded. They were probably right, Marinette would have told her if she could have, and Alya needed that dress. So there she was at Tom and Sabine's bakery again, asking about Marinette. "Oh, she just called this morning! The damage was too severe, so she had to get a new phone." Sabine told the young reporter, who thanked her lucky stars. As she left the bakery, she sent a text 'Mari's back!'

Adrien nearly dropped his phone when he got the text from Alya, before excusing himself to run upstairs and call Marinette. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, before the call was answered, "Hello? Who is this?" A woman's voice answered, but certainly was not Marinette. Adrien was floored, he was sure he dialed the correct number. "Um hi. I'm looking for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I'm a friend of hers and was calling to speak to her." "Oh really? Well if you're her friend maybe you can explain to me why the second I had this number activated my phone was bombarded with calls and texts demanding things from dresses, to invitations to some Gala, and all kinds of other demands." Wait, had Marinette changed her number? No, she wouldn't have. "Listen, lady, I don't know if you find this funny but I KNOW Marinette wouldn't change her number. If you're her assistant you better give the phone to Marinette NOW or I'll see to it personally that you're fired!" Marinette should really have taken care to not hire such incompetent people. It was unfitting of an eventually-to-be Agreste. "I don't know who you think you are but I will make one thing clear: I DO NOT KNOW A MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!" The line went dead. Adrien pressed the redial button, and felt his stomach drop as the call didn't go through, he had been blocked. From the way the group chat was blowing up, he could guess the others were getting the same response. Lila was going on and on about how Marinette was abandoning them in their time of need, and adding fuel to the fire. Adrien decided he was going to do damage control. He had thought a bit about what Plagg had said and realized that he needed to show Marinette that he was still on her side, besides it would be tougher to get everyone to make up if they were mad at her for something her crappy assistant did. He sent the chat a message, 'Guys relax. The woman on the phone wasn't Marinette but has her number, so she's probably a new assistant! Miracle Design Clothing has really exploded since the Waynes announced she made their outfits for the Gala so Marinette probably hired some help and the lady didn't know who we were. We can try again later.'

Lea Dubois was having the roughest week in all of her fourty-three years. She had gotten a new phone, since she her old one was stolen, and decided to get a new number with it. Not even a couple of minutes after activating her phone it began blowing up with calls and demands for a Marinette Dupain-Cheng. After a particularly snobby boy threatened to get her fired from a job she didn't even have, Lea decided to do some snooping and figure out who this Marinette Dupain-Cheng was. Googling the girl's name directed her to a Miracle Design Clothing website, and after scrolling through she found a tab labeled, "Founder." Clicking on it, she saw a picture of a smiling young woman with shiny black (almost blue) hair and sapphires for her eyes. She was a truly gorgeous woman, and from what Lea read very talented. That explained the demand for clothing. She decided to check social media next, and quickly found articles about how the rising star had been personally invited to the Wayne Charity Gala! That explained all the calls from people claiming to be Marinette's friends and demanding to be taken to the Gala, to that one girl who demanded an interview and a dress for the Gala. Lea went through the messages that quickly went from demanding to insulting and toxic, and thought to herself, 'I see why that girl changed her number, I hope she knows these people aren't her friends.' She decided to look up the people who had called her, and see what she could find out about them. A girl named Alix and a boy named Kim were both athletes, although both played for the minor leagues of their respective sports, but it did explain the requests for jersey designs. A boy named Ivan and two girls named Juleka and Rose had been calling about outfits for their next concert, apparently they were in a band called Kitty Section. Lea vaguely remembered that it was a popular group, before their lead guitarist was kicked out and went solo. Two girls named Sabrina and Mylene had asked her to create costumes for a production in the Théâtre du Châtelet, a boy named Max called asking for a suit for his new tech reveal, and another boy named Nino asked her to design a couple of album covers!

A few other people called, but they seemed to be genuine friends. One standout was a boy named Nathaniel who had called twice, once to congratulate Marinette on her work with the Waynes and invite her to an event for his comic. The second time was to apologize to Lea when he found out Marinette had changed her number. He had also apologized for the harassment his (and apparently Marinette's) former friends had been throwing at her. He explained that when they were younger, Marinette didn't know how to stand up for herself, and was pressured by her teacher to constantly put her needs on the back burner to help her classmates. Nathaniel told her it had gotten better when Marinette left for college, but now that she was back in Paris, things had gone back to the way they were. Instead of their teacher, the role of pressuring her had fallen to three people, Lila Rossi, Alya Césaire, and Adrien Agreste. That last name caught her attention, could that have been the bratty boy who threatened to fire her? "Sweetie I hate to do this to you, but if you have time could you meet me in person? We have a lot to discuss, and I'm beginning to worry for Marinette." Nathaniel had agreed and had said he was bringing a couple of Marinette's friends, her real friends. "They've been harassing us too, maybe we can look into getting a restraining order or something." And that was how she ended up in a cafe sitting at a table with some of the most impressive people she'd ever met. There were Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel, the power couple of comics. She hadn't read comics since she was a little girl, but her nephews talked nonstop about the Ladybug comic the two had started in collège. Olympian fencer Kagami Tsurugi, and hit rock artist Luka Couffaine. There was academy award winner Zoé Lee and fortune 500 company founder Chloé Bourgeois.

The group exchanged pleasantries and got right to business, "So we heard from Nathaniel that you got Marinette's old number and that your phone has been blowing up with all the shit she used to get," Luka said. Lea nodded, "Yes. They refused to believe that she'd changed her number and one man even threatened to get me fired! I don't know what job he thinks I have that he can influence, but I digress. " "Ugh. That sounds like Adrien alright. I swear it was like a switch flipped in his head during Collége, he's acting like I used to," Chloé had come to terms with the kind of person she was, and had taken the steps to apologize and change for the better. A part of that was she swore never to touch a Miraculous again, she had become aware enough to realize that when given that much power she would be tempted to fall back into her old ways. "It's telling that their first reaction to being cut off is to harass an innocent person instead of reflecting on their actions and what lead them to that point," Kagami said, "I think we owe you an explanation since you have unfortunately been dragged into this." Lea nodded, that sounded good. "They weren't always this bad, well they weren't always this blatant about it. For a long time, Marinette was happy and popular, hell even when I bullied her she didn't seem bothered. Then Lila Rossi transferred. That girl is the type to convince people that two plus two equals five, you know what I mean," Lea nodded, her ex had been like that. "Well anyways, Marinette saw through her bullshit and called her out for it, so Lila declared war. Before anyone could process what happened, Lila had convinced the class that Marinette was the Devil's spawn. She even managed to get Marinette falsely expelled, and while that was reversed, it was the moment Marinette realized she couldn't rely on her classmates. Alya was an up-and-coming journalist and her best friend, but if she couldn't bring herself to fact-check this girl's stories..." Chloé paused to take a sip of her drink, and Lea thought of something, "Maybe Alya did fact-check and knew Lila was lying. I did some research before I came here, and I know that Alya ran the Ladyblog. I also know that her videos featuring Lila are her most viewed videos, but when I looked at the comments I noticed that a ton had been deleted. Maybe she knew but saw how much attention her blog was getting, and chose to ignore Lila's lies, or maybe she believes them, I don't know." The group continued to chat about their situation and were snapped out of it when the door to the cafe was flung open.

Alya was gonna kill Marinette when she found her. How dare she hire someone and not tell them who she was?! How dare she do that to her friends?! Doesn't she realize they need her? It didn't take much to convince the others, specifically Max, to ping the location off of Marinette's number and track it down. If she was going to be bitchy and ignore their calls and messages and hire some dumb assistant to annoy them, they were gonna make her pay! They had tracked her location to a cafe in the fashion district and were waiting for the last of the group to arrive. "I don't understand why she's being so petty," Lila whimpered, fighting back tears, "You all have been nothing but kind to her even when she's been such a nasty person!" "I don't understand it either," Sabrina said, "It's like a switch flipped in collège or something." Well whatever it was, they weren't gonna let her get out of this! Once Kitty Section had arrived, the group stormed into the cafe ready to give Marinette a piece of their minds! To their surprise, Marinette wasn't there. Their old friends turned enemies were there and sitting with them was a middle-aged woman, was she the one who had been answering from Marinette's number. "Where's Marinette?" Alya demanded. Chloé and Kagami lept to their feet. "She isn't here, and unless someone is dying you are not getting in contact with her!" Chloé was a lot less polite about it, "Wow, I'm surprised none of you got the memo. You've been cut off!" The older woman turned to face them, and Adrien snapped at her, "You! Are you Marinette's assistant or something? Get her here now!" Oh, that was it, Lea walked right up to him, ready for war. "I will do no such thing because I am not her assistant! I did not even know who Marinette was until you people began blowing up my phone with demands! I have never met more selfish people! And you," she pointed at Lila, "I've heard all about you and what you've done to that poor girl!" Lila began to sob, wailing about how she didn't do anything, and that she had been trying to mend bridges with Marinette by introducing her to the Waynes.

"Woah, Woah, hold on! You did NOT introduce her to the Wayne Family," Luka stood up and walked over, Lea noticed how Kitty Section seemed to shrink under his gaze. "Marinette met the Waynes at a fashion show in Gotham that Jagged Stone took us to. She met Selina and the two hit it off like a house on fire," Luka pulled out his phone and showed off pictures of a much younger Marinette with a woman who could have passed for her mother. "Notice the date? She was in high school when she met them. Here she is at Selina and Bruce's wedding. Know why she's there? She designed Selina's dress." The dress was a stunning white with elegant black lace. The top resembled the head of a cat, and if you looked close enough you could see little cats and bats hidden within the lace. "Marinette's been the Wayne Family's go-to designer for YEARS. Hell, the Waynes were at her graduation party, and the opening of Miracle Design Clothes Studio, and have been to every major life event she's had since she met them." Luka showed them More photos of Marinette and the Wayne family. "I don't know how you could introduce her to people she's known for years," Luka said, "Not to mention Stephanie tells me they're desperate to either adopt her into the family or have her marry into it," Marc added. All eyes were on Lila now, she had told them all that she'd introduced Marinette to Timothy Drake Wayne and that was how Marinette got the job, but with all this evidence it was clear her lie was dead in the water. Lea turned back to the group, watching as the realization crossed their faces that Lila had lied, and had most likely lied about various other things. Turning back to the people she had met she said, "It was very nice meeting you all. Please pass on my concerns to Marinette, and let her know if she ever needs friendly advice, she knows what number to call,"

The Wayne Gala was very... Awkward for Adrien. After their failed attempt to confront Marinette, Lila got exposed, and in the excitement, it came out that he knew about what she had been doing. Simply put he was excommunicated from the group. They figured that if they cut him, Lila, and Alya (who had doubled down on Marinette being the problem until it came out she knew Lila lied and had said nothing to protect her views) out that they could apologize to Marinette and she'd take them back. Their pleas on social media brought attention to the situation, and Marinette's friends and parents were more than happy to tell the world what happened to their favorite designer. When he, Lila, and Alya walked into the Wayne Gala, they turned heads but not for the reasons any of them had hoped for. People were polite to their faces and when speaking to them, but Adrien could hear them whispering behind his back. He needed to talk to Marinette, if he could smooth things over with her then maybe, just maybe this could be salvaged. However, the Wayne Family seemed to personally take offense to his plan, because whenever he saw Marinette (and she stood out in an absolutely jaw-dropping sparkling red mermaid cut dress) she was whisked away before he could say anything. First, it was Selina, who lead her over to some of his father's former clients and proudly told them the story of how she met the young designer. Then it was Bruce Wayne himself who came to introduce her to the Kents, who much to Alya's dismay didn't even glance her way. Finally, it was the Wayne Kids who were determined to dance with Marinette all night, Adrien swears Jason was smirking at him. Eventually, she broke off from the main party with Tim and the two were chatting on the balcony. This was as close of a chance as he would get.

Marinette was having an amazing night! She met so many amazing people and made so many new contacts! She even set up an interview with Lois Lane! She could feel Alya fuming on the other side of the room, and tried her best not to think about it. She knew Adrien, Lila, and Alya were at the Gala, and she knew what had happened a few weeks before. While she was happy Lila was finally exposed, she had moved on. She got to dance with each of the Wayne siblings, but her favorite dance had to be with Tim. When Selina had introduced her to him, their reaction to each other was to freak out. Tim was over the moon to meet the designer he'd followed for years, and Marinette was ecstatic to meet the young Wayne CEO (whom she may have had a bit of a crush on). The two had exchanged numbers and talked constantly, building up a close friendship. As time went on her crush on him grew as well, but she was too nervous to risk their friendship and say anything. Eventually, when she thought her feet were going to fall off, Tim led her over to the balcony. There they talked quietly about anything and everything when a cough interrupted them. There was Adrien, with a charming smile, but Marinette had learned not to be fooled. "Hello, Adrien. Enjoying the Gala?" Marinette asked, she knew he was up to something, and from the way Tim looked at him, he could sense it too. Marinette decided to take control of the conversation, "I heard what happened. With Lea Dubois and the phone number and everything. To put it lightly that certainly wasn't your best moment." "Well, I... I never thought you would change your number, so it kinda threw me for a loop. Anyways, I wanted to apologize for the part I played in all of this. I really dropped the ball and it lead to you getting hurt I never intended for that to happen," "Yet you continued to let Marinette's former friends use her for free things?" Tim butted in, holding up his phone and showing various text messages between Adrien and his friends. Adrien's face darkened, "How the hell did you get those?!" Tim just threw his head back and laughed. "I'm a tech prodigy. Finding texts is a piece of cake. I started looking after Nathaniel told me about what happened in the cafe. I also found the texts between you and your father, and no I won't let you use my girlfriend as a publicity stunt. We were gonna announce our relationship tonight-" Adrien turned around and stomped off before Tim could finish his sentence. Marinette sighed, he really hadn't changed. Turning back to Tim she asked, "Since when are we in a relationship?" The raven-haired boy blushed a little, "Well Unofficially since your graduation party, but neither of us knew it at the time. Officially now... If you want. If not that's cool and we can just pretend this never happened. Damn Adrien! I had a plan for this but he had to show up and ruin it!" Marinette chuckled and brought Tim's hand up to her cheek, smiling up at him fondly, "Officially now is fine with me."

[fannyyann]

Hey, hope you're doing okay. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I am rather new to the mattdrai fandom and I couldn't help but wonder:

Was Matthew really as bad as a lot of fic lead to believe in his earlier hockey years in Calgary? And was he really disliked in the room - where there rumours like that? So many fics build on this premise, and seeing him now in Florida and hearing all the nice things his teammates say about him and seeing the things he does himself and the insane good hockey he plays... it's hard to believe.

It's so strange also that it's so rarely mentioned that Leon was the one to be sent down to the minors, not Matthew.

Plus what I don't get: matthew is a lot hotter than Leon? why is it always told like Leon is the hottest dude on earth while Matthew is nothing? comparing early pics and pics from now... it's just not true? Leon looks good, a bit bland IMO, but Matthew is and was just hot in a very unique and special way. maybe because he isn't that bland generic good looking Leon is? But good looking in a special way? so that got a lot longer than I thought it would, hope you don't mind the ask.

i don't mind you asking at all! this is basically my roman empire so MY apologies if this gets unwieldy but i have FEELINGS about matthew's early fic portrayal lmao

in his six years on the flames, matthew was always one of the top five scorers.

his rookie year, he was sixth in rookie scoring

the season he was picked for his first ASG, the flames were 16th in the league at the time all star rosters were announced and matthew was their top scorer.

so it's not like he was the best player from a bottom of the league team or going because he was the home town boy, he was a playoff team's best player (both at the asg break and when the season was eventually suspended because of covid).

and even in his career worst year (2020-2022), he ended the year as their third best scorer and only six points behind johnny (the leader). and as one of calgary's beat reporters said in his end of the year review, Matthew was "good, but not quite as good as the Flames needed him to be."

so i've never really understood why people were portraying him like that either and still haven't figure out if most of it was unreliable narrator kind of stuff or if some authors actually thought he was bad before he had his breakout season, but it doesn't reflect reality.

as for him being disliked in calgary, that all stems from jake muzzin flipping the puck at him, and the subsequent players only meeting that took place after it, in which matthew allegedly told the team he was upset they didn't join him in the scrum after and he was then told him it can't be a riot every night.

before that there were never any rumors that i'm aware of that he was unliked in the room, and in 2019 gio, who most people tend to think is the one who told matthew to tone it down, said this about another players only meeting:

so while the 2021 players only meeting was a story because matthew wasn't playing like his usual self afterward, i've never thought it was indicative of him not being liked by his teammates. and honestly, you have to take it all with a grain of salt anyway because while guys obviously bullshit the media, at the practice after the players only meeting guys talked about how there was a general lack of emotion, and how they came out there trying to have fun with each other and put it behind them, and in the postgame the next night, gio specifically sites getting into scrums and mixing it up when asked how much more emotion they played with in that win compared to earlier losses, so if mixing it up was good the very next night, the math doesn't quite add up, yk?

but johnny did confirm in his spittin chiclets appearance about two weeks after the muzzin incident that matthew was pissed after they left him out to dry that night, and when asked about matthew's struggles that season darryl sutter said matthew needed to, and would, get back to playing to his identity, so the whole cause and effect of the muzzin incident on matthew's play that season isn't completely unfounded, but i do think multiple guys saying the team needed to play with more emotion, johnny saying in the chiclets episode that the guys skating off didn't find out about the puck flip until they saw it on sportsnet and saying he felt bad about it, and the new coach coming in and getting matthew to play back to his style shows that it wasn't as personal as it was made out to be.

anyway, the flames may not have be as tight knit as the panthers are, but matthew had his people there. he's bffs with hanifin and his friendship with sam bennett is part of what drew him to florida. johnny always says great things about him, blake coleman called him the heartbeat of the team, and was such an important voice in the room that the flames suffered when he and gudbranson were no longer around to tell sutter to chill the fuck out when he was being too hard on guys in the room.

he probably wasn't close with every teammate, most people aren't friends with all their coworkers, but he wasn't some sort of loner in that locker room.

as for the looks, that's all down to personal preference. leon is definitely very conventionally attractive and while matthew has definitely glowed up in the last few seasons, he was by no means ugly. i wouldn't even say he's really unconventionally attractive either. he's got a good face and was a cute teen and people who are like "oh no i find matthew tkachuk attractive now" have literally never made sense to me. but again! personal preference and all that.

again, my apologies if you weren't looking for THIS MUCH of an answer to your question but this isn't even all the sources i pulled up when i first got this ask so i did TRY to keep it short lol

[bongboyblog]

A walk through Bengal's architecture

Bengali architecture has a long and rich history, fusing indigenous elements from the Indian subcontinent with influences from other areas of the world. Present-day Bengal architecture includes the nation of Bangladesh as well as the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam's Barak Valley. West Bengal’s architecture is an amalgamation of ancient urban architecture, religious architecture, rural vernacular architecture, colonial townhouses and country houses, and modern urban styles. Bengal architecture is the architecture of Wind, Water, and Clay. The Pala Empire (750–1120), which was founded in Bengal and was the final Buddhist imperial force on the Indian subcontinent, saw the apex of ancient Bengali architecture. The majority of donations went to Buddhist stupas, temples, and viharas. Southeast Asian and Tibetan architecture was influenced by Pala architecture. The Grand Vihara of Somapura, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the most well-known structure erected by the Pala rulers.

The Grand Vihara of Somapura

According to historians, the builders of Angkor Wat in Cambodia may have taken inspiration from Somapura. Bengal architecture became known for its use of terracotta due to the scarcity of stone in the area. Clay from the Bengal Delta was used to make bricks.

The temple architecture has distinct features like the rich wall decoration, often known as the terracotta temples, which was one of the remarkable elements of Bengali temple architecture. The double-roofed architecture of thatched huts was replicated by Bengali temples. Square platforms were used to construct the temples. Burnt brick panels with figures in geometric patterns or substantial sculptural compositions served as the temples' adornment.

Dochala style

These served as models for many temples that were built in undivided Bengal. Construction materials used in ancient times included wood and bamboo. Bengal has alluvial soil, so there isn't a lot of stone there. The bricks that were utilized to build the architectural components were made from stone, wood, black salt, and granite. Bengal has two different types of temples: the Rekha type, which is smooth or ridged curvilinear, and the Bhadra form, which has horizontal tiers that gradually get smaller and is made up of the amalaka sila. Mughal architecture, including forts, havelis, gardens, caravanserais, hammams, and fountains, spread throughout the area during the Mughal era in Bengal. Mosques built by the Mughals in Bengal also took on a distinctive regional look. The two major centers of Mughal architecture were Dhaka and Murshidabad. The do-chala roof custom from North India was imitated by the Mughals.

Jorasako thakurbari

The Rasmancha is a heritage building located at Bishnupur, Bankura district, West Bengal.

Influence of the world on Bengal architecture: Although the Indo-Saracenic architectural style predominated in the area, Neo-Classical buildings from Europe were also present, particularly in or close to trading centers. While the majority of country estates had a stately country house, Calcutta, Dacca, Panam, and Chittagong all had extensive 19th and early 20th-century urban architecture that was equivalent to that of London, Sydney, or other British Empire towns. Calcutta experienced the onset of art deco in the 1930s. Indo-Saracenic architecture can be seen in Ahsan Manzil and Curzon Hall in Dhaka, Chittagong Court Building in Chittagong, and Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad.

Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad

The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, designed by Vincent Esch also has Indo-Saracenic features, possibly inspired by the Taj Mahal. Additionally, Kolkata's bungalows, which are being demolished to make way for high-rise structures, have elements of art deco. The 1950s in Chittagong saw a continuation of Art Deco influences. The Bengali modernist movement, spearheaded by Muzharul Islam, was centered in East Pakistan. In the 1960s, many well-known international architects, such as Louis Kahn, Richard Neutra, Stanley Tigerman, Paul Rudolph, Robert Boughey, and Konstantinos Doxiadis, worked in the area.

The Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban

This iconic piece of contemporary Bangladeshi architecture, was created by Louis Kahn. Midsized skyscrapers dominate the cityscapes of contemporary Bengali cities, which are frequently referred to as "concrete jungles." With well-known architects like Rafiq Azam, architecture services play a key role in the urban economies of the area. Overall Bengal architecture was influenced by various contemporaries of their time and continues to evolve.

Gothic architectural style seen in St. Paul's Cathedral in Kolkata.

Zamindar era buildings in ruin.

Belur Math in Howrah

[wumblr]

weird how much time we spend doing this charade of "the petrochemical empire should care whether children die." don't you think, if that were true, we wouldn't have bombed infant formula factories or used uranium tipped munitions in warfare? the oil was clearly far more important to the empire there. the "this is the only country where this keeps happening" line isn't really a thorough analysis (nor should it be, as it's from the onion) of why it is that this keeps happening in the imperial core. do you think we would suddenly have no extremists if we suddenly had no guns? do you think it is a coincidence that the capitalist empire is simultaenously the richest country and the one with the gun violence problem? how exactly do you think the united states became rich? meanwhile they've got you begging to build more oil pipelines because they pricefixed the gas, and that makes it expensive for you to pay to commute to be exploited for profit. ok. at what point was this ever about the life quality of children? cannon fodder doesn't matter to the cannon. they keep life quality low to keep military recruitment up. it's not an accident. any writer worth their salt has been telling you this for centuries now. hello?

[antianakin]

Tales of the empire trailer just dropped, what are your thoughts about it?

Personally I’m glad they are finally giving us some more backstory to Morgan Elsbeth’s character. She seemed pretty underdeveloped to me and it was annoying they never gave us anything new her character in the Ahsoka show.

I’m not surprised with them making Barriss into an inquisitor and I think that storyline could be really interesting. But I just have this feeling that they are doing these storylines in particular for the Ahsoka show, potentially making Barriss come back for season 2. Or just trying to make that show make sense.

I would love to hear your opinions on this new show, your blog is amazing :)

I just answered someone else's ask on this HERE a little, but basically it just looks kinda boring and stupid.

I do not care about Morgan enough to be upset that she's being featured. She IS underdeveloped, but she's also super dead and her character can't GO anywhere so why should I care about her backstory? Why build up a character who's already been killed off? This is the kind of story that would've made sense to do BEFORE the Ahsoka show came out so that we understood that relationship with Thrawn and knew more about her life as a Nightsister, etc so that it could be at least a LITTLE emotional when she died. Also, we've seen this story in different variations twice now. We already saw Ventress deal with the fallout of the Nightsister genocide and go on to become a bounty hunter, and we've seen Merrin deal with the fallout of being what she believes is the last Nightsister survivor on Dathomir and joining up with Cal's crew and becoming someone who helps others as a result. Seeing yet ANOTHER Nightsister deal with the Nightsister genocide just feels redundant now and it's with a character that was already removed from the story as like a third tier villain AT BEST. Who cares.

And then there's Barriss. It's not SHOCKING she became an Inquisitor, but it's incredibly lazy. I don't trust Filoni within ten feet of Barriss given what he already did to her character. She already had her character assassinated, so this is just going to be rubbing salt into the wound he created back in TCW. Nothing about it is going to be good, and personally I would've preferred a story in something like TOTJ of Barriss RECLAIMING her Jedi values and escaping Order 66 and the Empire and slowly healing from what had happened to her and what she'd become and turning to her old Jedi training in order to get through it all and find peace.

It DOES feel like it's incredibly connected to the Ahsoka show, which sucks because wow do I not want Filoni to keep doing shit with Barriss, in animation OR live action, but it does feel like this could be foreshadowing for yet another cameo in the Favroni Cameoverse.

But like. Silver lining, at least they're not calling it a show about Jedi and it's just very overtly a show about villains this time I guess. So I can know to avoid the fuck out of it because I'm just vastly uninterested in seeing Filoni romanticize more villains and continue to ruin Barriss's character.

[cardboardheartss]

Lisa and Taylor Swift’s First Impression of Each Other

⚠️DISCLAIMER! TAROT CARDS ARE NOT 100% ACCURATE! TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT! IF MY INTERPRETATIONS ARE INCORRECT FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME!⚠️

Lisa’s Thougts : 6oP, The Moon rx & 5oP rx

Lisa thinks Taylor got moneyyy! She also looks up to her? She loves how Taylor can just captivate the audience so easily all by her self. She also thinks Taylor is hiding many emotions, and thinks she’s moving away from something that was bothering her?

Taylor’s Thoughts : KNoP, 9oW & 4oC rx

She can tell Lisa is building her empire, and she loves it. She views Lisa as a mature and independent woman, who’s really career oriented. She could also think Lisa is quite exhausted and is drained from work, and all the pressure from finances are affecting her. Taylor noticed that Lisa meeting her made her feel more enlightened and re-energiesed lol.

Overall Thoughts : PoC

They were happy to see each other. They both have genuine interest in one another!🥹

[rustbeltjessie]

i smell like smoke from electrical fires — a year-end, happy-birthday-to-me mix.

I used to always make a mix tape or mix CD or playlist for the end of the year/my birthday. The mixes were always a combination of songs I listened to a lot that year, songs that summed up my year in some way, and then a few that I just felt like hearing at the time I was making the mix. I started doing it at around age 12, and continued the tradition until I was about 35. But that was the year 8tracks died for a while, and at the time I didn't have a way to make tapes, and also that was the year I started using Spotify, so I kinda just depended on Spotify wrapped to sum up my music-listening habits for the year. Well, since I no longer use Spotify, and since I do have a way to make tapes, I decided to get back into the habit.

As per usual, I made a YouTube version as well, in case anyone else wants to give it a listen. If you listen to we'll burn it & we'll build it again (the mix I made in July) followed by this one, you'll get a pretty clear picture of what I was listening to a lot this year/what my year was like.

Side A

MX LONELY - Rest in Salt

Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

World/Inferno Friendship Society - Burn & Scar

Daycare Swindlers - Darkness

Dave Gahan - Mother of Earth

John Doe - Big Moon (3Sirens Session)

Jolie Holland - 2,000 Miles

Big Thief - Vampire Empire

Superchunk - Crossed Wires [this is the song from which the title originates]

Green Day - When I Come Around

Jawbreaker - Want

Bikini Kill - Capri Pants

Worriers - Pollen in the Air

Team Dresch - #1 Chance Pirate TV

Side B

Sinead O'Connor - Black Boys on Mopeds

Grian Chatten - Season for Pain

The Smiths - Cemetry Gates

Squirrel Flower - Alley Light

RUSTBELT - Young and Punk

Partial Traces - Silver & Green

The Shivvers - Reckless

The Replacements - Swingin Party (Ed Stasium Mix)

IDLES - Colossus

The Pogues - Rain Street

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade

Operation Ivy - Sound System

[heyclickadee]

It’s only been a month-and-a-half, but I finally got a chance to watch another episode of The Bad Batch for my rewatch. So! Long, rambling, mildly nonsensical thoughts on TBB, Season 1, Episode 2: “Cut and Run:”

1. This is one of the episodes my brother has seen—he’s seen up through episode 8—and he doesn’t like it. He told me that this is one of the “bad” episodes, but rewatching it I just…I can’t agree with that. It’s not a big action packed set piece, sure, but it doesn't have to be. It's a good little episode that succeeds at what it’s trying to do, and sets the stage for the story moving forward.

2. The FONDNESS on Echo’s face as he’s looking at Omega all tired out after going through the ship I CAN’T. Also, I love how the discussion Echo and Hunter have about Omega, and Echo asking what in the world they’re going to do with her, is the first bit we see of the way Hunter and Echo are going to bounce off of each other. Hunter makes decisions, Echo asks questions and prods at whether they’re the right decisions, Hunter bounces more ideas off of Echo, and so on. It’s a dynamic I adore and I’m excited to revisit more of it.

3. This is a random background thing, but clouds in the background as the Marauder lands near the Lawquane farm are stylistically different than the clouds are going to be later on in the series. They’re very painterly here, but later on they’re going to be a little more realistic. I think it’s just one of those things that developed over time. Maybe. I kind of want to keep my eye on it.

4. Speaking of clouds, it is kind of interesting that there is that thunderstorm that’s building a few minutes after they land, which Hunter notices, and then Cut mentions the storm that’s coming (referring to the Empire) later on, and then the storm thing doesn’t come up again later in the episode. It might just be one of those things where there was a scene that got cut after the boarding process, but they didn’t revise the earlier parts of the episode script, but I also want to keep my eye on the storm motif through the rest of the series to see if and when it comes up again, and if there’s any kind of pattern. There probably isn’t, buuuut this hiatus is going to go on for a while, so. Ya know.

5. JUST FEEL THE GRASS, THE DIRT, JUST LIKE SHE DREAMED THEY’D BEEEEEEEEEE

6. Okay, but, I genuinely love Omega’s reaction to stepping out of the ship onto Saleucami, and how it contrasts with the rest of the batch. They’re all on alert, business as usual, and Omega’s so, so excited to be there. She’s wowed by dirt. She’s never seen anything like it. I love the little detail of her taking a deep breath of the air on this new planet. She’s probably never smelled air that didn’t smell like salt and antiseptic (this is just me, but I sort of imagine Kamino smelling a little like a hospital). She’s never stood on ground that wasn’t plastoid or durasteel or whatever Kaminoan floors are made of. She’s probably never seen so much color in one place or had a chance to run after a space butterfly or do much of anything. She’s so small and everything is new and she’s so excited for this big new adventure and nothing bad had better ever happen to her (and now I'm crying in Star Wars).

7. Another background thing, but what are these?

What are these crops? Is this space corn? Corn that’s just one giant kernel? Orb corn? Corb? Wookieepedia doesn’t say (as far as I can tell) and I know this is silly, but I want to knooooooow.

8. Tech’s little smirk as he says, “Why not? We’re all deserters now,” to Echo gets me every single time. Man just does not care about breaking the rules.

9. Regarding the Lawquane’s booby trap: One, the way that Wrecker immediately starts blasting is just…I don’t know. There’s something sad about how jumpy he is. Second, is the booby trap to keep local wildlife away, like the nexu, or unwanted visitors who might be looking for Cut?

10. Suu looks AMAZING in her new outfit (I'll admit I didn't love the monokini and chaps look for her), and Cut. Cut. Why? Is your facial hair like this?

11. I love Cut and Suu. I love Cut and Suu so much. Healthiest couple in the entire galaxy far far away, I swear. And I love their silly matching pun names.

12. Wrecker is SO DANG HAPPY to see Jek and Shaeeah and they are so happy to see him I can't. Wrecker is so soft with kids. It kills me.

13. Jumping off of that, though, there's a wonderful little untold story here with the CF99 and the Lawquanes. Because they don't just know Cut, who they could have theoretically met before Cut deserted or before the war even started, they know the entire family. And they know the entire family well enough that Wrecker's "Uncle Wrecker" and that Cut immediately asks about Crosshair and why he's not there, knowing that the most logical answer is that he died; Hunter's one-on-one conversation with Suu is just as casual and familiar as his one-on-one conversations with Cut. I don't think it was Rex who introduced them, because Echo didn't know about Cut until this episode, and Echo's got a much longer and closer history with Rex than the rest of the batch have; if Rex didn't tell Echo about Cut, he probably didn't tell CF99 either, meaning that Hunter and the rest probably met the Lawquanes independently.

And, on the one hand, I neeeeeeeeeeeed to know how they all met. Did they meet Cut when they were cadets and then Suu later on and then both of them and their kids all together later on? Did they just wander across the Lawquane farm while stationed on Saleucami? Did Suu help train clones on Kamino (she's a really good shot, after all), and is that how she met Cut? Did she meet CF99 that way? Did they all collectively help Cut desert? But, on the other hand, I don't actually want to know the story. I like that these people have history to which we're not privy. It helps them exist outside the bounds of the story and feel a little more real.

14. It's nice that Echo practically jumps to ask about Rex after Cut brings him up. It sets up the way Echo's going to go off with Rex's group later on, sure, but I think the reason Echo gets so excited here is because this is the first indication he has that ANY of the other clones he knows escaped the programming they talked about last episode and left the Empire. And the fact that it's Rex specifically…. It's a little bit of hope and normalcy he can cling to in a pretty awful situation.

15. "Where's Crosshair?" "It's…complicated." Yeah, I'll say. (Exhibit A of Hunter having to be dragged kicking and screaming before he will talk about a n y t h i n g I am putting him in a salad spinner)

16. The way this first conversation in the Lawquane home goes from Crosshair, to Rex and the "behavioral implant" he brought up to Cut, and then directly to the inhibitor chips is interesting, because it kind reinforces what we already know about Crosshair's situation from episode one--that he has a chip, that it activated, that his chip was turned up to eleven--while also emphasizing the fact that the rest of the batch doesn't really know or understand what that means. Even Tech, who just kinda sussed out that the chips exist because obviously the Kaminoans modified clone behavior and obviously that's how they did it, and who absolutely suspected that Crosshair's behaviour in "Aftermath" had something to do with the programming (the way he looks up at Crosshair when he says he "can't be certain" that they're immune), doesn't seem to one-hundred percent get what it means and how little choice a clone with an active chip has.

17. Omega knows about the chips because she grew up in Nala Se's lab. I want to know what else she knows (because she knows a lot she doesn't talk about).

18. The writers/animators/board artists/showrunners absolutely nailed the way a kid who hasn't been around other kids much hesitates around them with Omega here.

19. Hunter smiling after Omega as she goes out to join the other kids and then being surprised to see Cut and Suu watching him be all fatherly gets me every time. I love how pretty much half the conversations they have with him are basically just, "You're a dad now! Congratulations!" "What? No, I'm not." "Sure. Keep telling yourself that."

20. Jumping off of that, this episode is absolutely crucial for Hunter's development. Half of the reason Hunter is the way he is through the rest of the series is because he spends this episode watching Cut and Suu (especially Cut) and everything Cut does, and then, when Omega stays with the bad batch at the end of the episode, spends the rest of the series desperately trying to be like Cut. And, in some ways, that's good. He's gentler with Omega, more understanding of the fact that she's a kid, trying to keep her out of danger and allow her to have a childhood, putting the family he still has first, trying to leave their old lives as soldiers behind as much as possible, etc. But when he inevitably fails to be Cut, or to be a parent the exact same way Cut is, because he's a different person and his situation is completely different than Cut's is, he starts shutting down, because he can't cope with the failure. And that runs headlong into the way he feels he's failed as a brother AND as a leader, and so by the time we get a few episodes into season two Hunter is deeply depressed and visibly unwell. (Hey, another parallel between Crosshair and Omega--Hunter probably feels like he's failed both of them.)

21. Another reason I'm going to take the word filler and put it on a shelf where people can't reach it as far as this episode is concerned is because this episode is the first time we get a hint of how the rise of the Empire is affecting regular people. Not clones, not jedi, not former republic officers, not Kaminoan politicians, not freedom fighters--just regular people trying to live their lives. The way that the Empire is setting up the chain code system, regulating travel, clamping down hard on remote planets and former separatist worlds (Saleucami changed hands several times over the course of the war), all told through the story of CF99 helping this one family escape and get to safety, is an important story to have early on.

22. Aaaaand jumping off of that, I love how Hunter's focus over the course of this episode shifts from laying low and learning how to hide to, "Okay fellas, we are getting Cut and Suu and the kids out of here even if we have to blast our way out." And I know Hunter's going to hesitate to help people out more and more as the series goes on, but this is a pattern we're going to continue to see. The bad batchers aren't really heroes in a traditional Star Wars sense; with the exception of Echo, who has to leave the group to do it, they're not fighting the empire head on or trying to overthrow tyranny, not directly. But they do help out in small ways, usually a person or a family at a time, usually helping them escape a bad situation, and that's not nothing in a galaxy where the empire exists. I sort of wonder if this isn't pointing to where the batch is ultimately going to end up. They might not be freedom fighters or rebels in the end the way Rex and Saw are. Maybe they'll just be focused on getting people--clones, families, maybe even surviving jedi--to safety. Maybe they help organize something like The Path. Maybe. I guess we'll see, eventually.

23. Oh gosh this is getting long. Are you surprised, though? (Still sorry, though. Not sorry enough to pare it down, but still sorry.)

24. The kids immediately go to Suu for help when the nexu attacks, and it's great. Also ECHO'S AND TECH'S FACES when Omega almost gets hurt and Wrecker asking if she's okay I love how much they already care about her 😭

25. The way Echo goes from being completely flabbergasted by Tech's plan to get the ship impounded on purpose, to being completely for it, to being real snarky about it once things start going wrong sends me every time. I mean. I know, I know we all joked about how Echo would disapprove of the riot race in "Faster" if he'd been there, but you know what? No. Hunter would have shut it down if he'd been there, but Echo? It would have gone like:

Tech: I will be the racer.

Echo: GOOD. FUCK 'EM UP, TECH.

Later on, during the race

Echo: This is suicide! I can't believe you thought this was a good idea, Tech!

Tech, calmly going 200 mph: You also thought it was a good idea, as I recall.

Echo: I think it would be a good idea for you to shut up!

Anyway, I love their banter.

26. So…Tech made enough counterfeit chain codes that there was one for Omega, meaning he knew Hunter planned for Omega to leave Saleucami with Cut and Suu, and that Echo may have known as well (even though Hunter clearly didn't include Wrecker in the conversation), and that he planned on taking the chain codes to Cut and Suu himself. Meaning that he was probably also planning on taking Omega with him when he took the chain codes over so that she could leave with them. And Omega ran off and took the chain codes to Cut and Suu before Tech could, of course, meaning that that didn't happen, but I really want to know how the conversation would have gone if Tech had had to tell Omega to come with him on the code run. I mean.

Tech: I will need Omega to accompany me to the departure site.

Omega: Me? Why? Do you need me to get into a crawl space on a super secret mission.

Tech: No. You need to be at the transport because you are leaving Saleucami with Cut and Suu.

Omega: Aaaaaand all of you, right?

Tech, who mentally signed the sibling adoption papers the second Omega said she wanted to sit with them in the cafeteria scene in "Aftermath" (I will die on this hill, he does not stop smiling at her after that): Nnooo….

Omega: ….

Tech: I assume Hunter told you.

Omega: starting to cry

Tech, on the comms: Hunter. Omega is crying, Hunter. She is upset about leaving. Hunter. What do I do? Hunter?

(This is probably, in retrospect, why Tech apparently didn't tell her, either.)

27. The poncho and the floppy hat was such a good look for Wrecker. (Also, the audacity of having Wrecker bonk his head on that pipe in the background. I know it's a funny reference to Jango doing it in AotC which is a funny reference to that one stormtrooper in A New Hope, but it still fills me with dread.)

28. Shout out to Cut and Suu. Cut's technically a wanted man, they're escaping Saleucami by the skin of their teeth, they're about to be refugees, they've got two kids to look out for already, they have an uncertain future, and when Hunter asks them to take Omega they're instantly okay with it. They're ready to take in another kid simply because that kid needs to be taken care of. And THEN they talk to that kid and ask what she wants (we don't see this happen, but it's heavily implied), take what that kid actually wants into account, and let her go back to where she wants to be. They are the best and I love them.

29. The character animation on Hunter during the scene where he tells Omega that she's going with the Lawquanes is so, so good. Just. The way he can hardly look at her, the surprise when Omega says she wants to stay with the batch, the way his face hardens when Omega looks back because he's trying to hold everything in and the way Omega interprets that as Hunter wanting her gone even though he absolutely wants her to stay and just thinks he's doing the best thing for her--I want to bake the character animators cinnamon rolls and give them all a million dollars each. (Also an aside--this fits into a pattern of Hunter often doing what he thinks is best for his family rather than doing what he wants, and what he thinks is best often being different than what might actually be best.)

30. Another silly aside, and I didn't notice this until this watch through as I was looking at Cut stand next to Mr. Dorito, but Cut kinda has a little bit of a tummy. He's not fat, but he's definitely a little thicker around the middle than, say, Rex or Howzer. He's got a bit of a dad bod and it's honestly really nice to see a person gain a little weight while living a life they chose and clearly love.

31. I'm. I'm feeling a certain kind of way about Omega immediately assuming that she did something wrong and that the rest of the batchers don't want her around because of it (it's not just Hunter--when Tech and Echo react a little tersely to her being on the Marauder when it gets impounded she seems to assume that they're angry with her even though they're not), and Hunter getting rid of her (from her perspective) is some kind of reaction to that or a punishment for it, and it's not a good sort of feeling. Especially in light of the theories that Nala Se sent Emerie to Hemlock for some reason. I'm also feeling a certain kind of way about Omega losing her brothers once already as a very small child and losing them again at the end of season two and almost losing them in this episode because Hunter tries to send her away and. Just. Let this kid have her family, please. (This is another narrative reason why Tech has to be alive, btw.) (Also, I love the way that Hunter apologizes back and says he's got a lot to learn when Omega tries to apologize for "messing up.") (Also also the way Omega looks at her headpiece after she takes it off, complicated emotions are happening and I am really interested in her relationship with Kamino.)

32. "If this is where you want to be, then this is where you'll stay." 😭😭😭 I'm screaming because. I mean. What Hunter tries to do in this episode is exactly what Crosshair tells him to do with Omega in "Return to Kamino." And, on paper, Crosshair's right; living with fugitives in constant danger isn't a good life for a child. But being with her brothers no matter what is what Omega wants, and, after "Cut and Run," Hunter never stops taking Omega's choice here into account.

[cydanite]

Swamp Duo AU: Part 8

8/9 - (FIRST) (<PREV<) (>NEXT>) (AU MASTERPOST)

(Ao3 LINK)

"Well," Pix starts, shuffling the many books and papers bundled in his arms. Shelby quickly places a table of wood planks over the mud, upon which Pix hefts the academic mass onto with a heavy thump. Shaking the strain out of his arms, he carefully begins organizing them, setting most of the articles to the side. What remains in the center is a maroon colored tome, not especially thick but fitted with large pages. Imprinted on its cover, the words "Art of the Pre-Ruinous and Ruinous Eras: a Documentation of Historical Works."

"Shelby I’m not sure how much you know about the Old Continent’s empires. Where the northern region of the Seareach Peninsula is now, on its western coast. That is where the Codlands once was.”

“A kingdom built into the swamps and salt marshes, home to slime farmers and fishermen. Curiously, the majority of its citizens were not human, but are referred as cod in most documentation. There is evidence of massive aqueducts throughout the Codland’s capital through which aquatic life theoretically could traverse the city. It brings the question though, why would cod desire to build a governed kingdom, on land no less? And how could they have constructed it?”

“The answer, as hypothesized today, is that there was some kind of influence that drew the cod to that area. An offspring of an ancient leviathan, said to have walked out from the tide and built a kingdom upon the marshes. So if my suspicions are correct…" Shelby follows his gaze upwards, from the book's art onto Jimmy's pale face.

"Codfather, Emperor of the Codlands, one of 12 Emperors of the Old Continent. That's you, right?”

The two of them stare at Jimmy, who opens and closes his moth like a, well... like a fish.

"N- no."

"No?" Pix challenged. "But-"

“No I’m not, right?" He shrinks in on himself, no longer meeting their eyes. "The Codlands doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t steward the land, I've lost my connection to it. So no, I'm not an Emperor.”

The air goes quiet. Even without knowing what kingdoms made up the old empire, she of course knows how they fell. She knows about The Rapture. A miles-wide nuclear explosion at the heart of the continent, the kingdom it was detonated in leveled to the ground in seconds. Outwards the shock wave spread, shattering the earth in all directions. The ground gave way to chasms, molten rock erupted from the core, and the rivers and ocean receded. Crops burnt, buildings toppled, the sky was blotted in ash, and the Kingdoms of the Old Continent, only having started to recover from blight, fell one by one to pestilence and ruin.

She knows about The Rapture, everyone does. Even those who didn't pay attention in history class usually tuned in for this chapter. If not for the destruction, then for how it started. Following the imprisonment of a demonic threat to all the land, a ceasefire between two warring nations is cautiously left instated. One nation is a center of industry, powered by smoke and redstone and led by a genius inventor. The other a small seaside kingdom, their leader a punching bag with little power over the fate of his nation. The underdog leader meets in his enemy's capital, hoping to establish peace after decades of war. The inventor agrees, enthusiastic to stop the fighting. After much discussion and debate, the two are seemingly ready to finalize the decision. In an act of trust, the inventor leads the underdog into the heart of his city, where an impossible reactor pulses with the energy to power the whole of the nation. The doors close behind the two and... only minutes pass before it all ends.

She knows about The Rapture. Twelve whole nations brought to ruin, all because of the cowardly Seaside King who wanted just once to be the sole arbiter of fate.

Wait a minute.

Shelby takes a step back, the tension making it feel like she's walking on a wire. There's no way, right? She didn't just have tea with the man who caused the apocalypse? Pix watches her connect the dots in her head and follows her suit, stepping away from the fish man.

"No, you're not an emperor anymore. None of your fellow emperors were in power for long after that day. The Rapture ended your era in minutes. The Old Continent was devastated. And before us, Shelby, is the very man who pushed the button."

She watches Pix take another step back, eyes focused on The Codfather. His left hand slowly reaches behind his back, hiding a splash potion being pulled from his inventory. His right hand at his side, but readied to reach for the sword in his inventory. Oh no. She turns back to Jimmy. He's bristling, shoulders heaving with heavy breaths. Oh no. This just got very dangerous, didn't it. Pix is speaking to her in a low voice now, and she can hear the fear he'd been suppressing.

"Get ready to cast something or run."

Shelby tries to think of what she could do, what she should do. Things were moving too fast. Her stomach starts to go sour. Pix has quickly raises his voice again, shouting now. "Why did you do it? Why did you destroy all you had, just for the chance to feel power beyond your fellow rulers?”

In a split second, a lot of things happen. The Codfather, now shaking, makes a sudden move towards them. Pix launches the fizzing potion and jumps back, preparing for the worst. And Shelby, in a moment of pure stress, pulls out her wand and casts the first spell she can think of. Two bubbles, shimmering iridescent, form around both The Codfather and her and Pix. The thin glass of the potion shatters against the opposing bubble's outer edge, dull purple vapors dissipating harmlessly. The two stop and stare at Jimmy, who'd fallen forward on his knees. It takes a second for them to realize. He's crying.

Shelby dissipates the spell. She takes a step forwards, despite Pix's nervous stare. One more step, then another, until she is crouched before the Ancient Cod King, tears making soft plaps upon the mud. He doesn't take notice, wide eyes staring at the dead air in front of him. His breaths are quick and shallow, with each one making his chest shudder. Oh no, this is bad for different reasons now. Quietly, cautiously, she starts talking.

"Hey Jimmy? This is Shelby, your friend. I need you to take a deep breath in, okay? Just one long breath"

It takes a moment, and she isn't sure Jimmy heard her at first, but the short shallow breaths are eventually replaced by a single, clumsy inhale.

"Good. Now try and breath out, slow and steady."

The exhale is wheezed out, snotty and gross. But calmer. They go through the exercise a few more times. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale, until the steady breaths no longer need instruction. Jimmy is still crying but his eyes have focused again, now looking at the ground beneath him. Shelby is suddenly aware of the freezing-cold mud soaking through the knees of her overalls. Jimmy gives a shaky breath.

"...I- I can't remember. Which one of us pressed that button? I didn't- I... neither of us wanted what..." His arms wrap around his head. "We thought we had really reached peace. That we were all headed for an age of prosperity.... that's all I wanted."

The two of them sit in silence, save for the soft pitter of tears and the buzzing of mayflies deeper in the swamp. There's a squelch of mud behind them as Pix walks over, a water bottle and towel in his hands. Jimmy takes the towel, tissue sized in his hand, and starts to wipe his face. Pix, unsure how to start, kneels into the mud as well.

"I'm... sorry how that happened. That must've been awful to live through. I... I suppose history isn't fair to those not there to write it."

He stops there. History remembering Jimmy as a monster isn't the issue at hand right now. Instead they let Jimmy cry as much as he needs to. Shelby thinks about it, how accidentally being involved in the ending of the world would feel. She thinks about the old ruins in the forest by her hometown, the ravines carved into the earth just outside the Witch's Academy's campus. She thinks about her blunder with her potions hut, how she had ended a tiny part of the world right there.

She thinks if she survived causing the apocalypse, she would crawl into a hole and sleep forever as well.

After a few minutes, the tears are all out of Jimmy's system. He sniffles, wiping his eyes with the towel one last time.

"M' sorry about that. I, um..."

"Hey, it's okay. You, uh, really seemed like you needed that cry, huh?" Shelby stands up, offering Jimmy her hand. He takes it, but gets up on his own since she's too short to offer leverage.

"I think... that's probably enough stress for today." Pix pulls out a shulker box, carefully packaging his books and papers now that he has ample time to. "How about we go someplace with a bit more room and a bit less mud? I'll be honest, I had Joel on stand-by in case things got too out of hand." He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "I... I seriously thought there was no possible way it could be you, but I called Joel just to calm my nerves. I didn't want the situation to get dangerous." The shulker closes with a click.

"With that aside, Stratos should be spacious and comfy enough to accommodate you until we can build you a proper house. How's that sound?"

Joel's empire was, in fact, spacious and warm and much less muddy. And while the god was at first annoyed that "back-up" meant offering a room to the potential murderous fishman he was warned about, he soon determined the situation wasn't anything worth worrying about to him.

For the first night in many, many nights, Jimmy slept in a bed instead of a hole in the ground. And though he didn't let himself dream yet, he had to admit it was a lot more comfy up here.

[centrally-unplanned]

Since you mentioned it anyway... Ghengis Khan VOR?

Ghengis Khan does require a grain of salt, given our lack of strong historical evidence for his life and inner workings. But still, given what we have, his story is one of endless setbacks before his incredible victories. He is left destitute after the death of his father, kills his half-brother over a fight over hunting spoilers, is imprisoned by rival tribes multiple times, and spends several years as a slave later on of the Jin Dynasty after his early armies are defeated. A lot of his VOR comes from the fact that he was the one to do it at all; he shouldn't have even lived, let alone come back to forge an Empire.

Past that, the Mongolian steppe was in a constant step of flux of political (dis)unification, but even when unified was never built for sustained conquest. Meanwhile the Jin Dynasty had just had a string of victories imposing tribute on the various tribes - it was not the case that the Mongolians had this inherent "nomadic cavalry" military advantage that, if unleashed, bordering nations could not compete with, they got wrecked by them all the time. Re-unifying China as a successor kingdom, for example, is something of a given at some point, its inherent dynamics lead to that - for Mongolia that was not the case. Genghis just has this miraculous ability to get coalition partners into his camp, and all the way in, ride-or-die in, over and over and over.

Finally, he is a pretty tireless-but-flexible operational commander, combined with institutional innovator. His siege of Xongjing fails due to poorly constructed earthworks on their dam attempt, then a second siege of Xijing also goes poorly? We build an entire siege corps built out of captured and defected engineers of our Jin dynasty enemy that we then integrate into force structure and fling about as far as Persia. Next stab at the Jin Dynasty runs out of steam penetrating too far into their territory, so our army starts starving? Go back, build a new logistics & supply requisition system that we have never had before to extend campaign duration, and repeat. These might sound 'obvious" but no Mongol commanders really did these before - they instead would sign a peace treaty, take some tribute, and go home. This is a huge VOR - a demonstrated track record of asset-building where others simply settled for the equilibrium.

Finally he has many moments of "consensus bucking" - in particular on peace and restraint, funnily enough! It was very common - the first siege of the Jin capital & the planned invasion of north India come to mind - where his commanders would recommend pushing forward, Genghis would go "hold up", then retreat, sign a temporary peace, then come back next year or choose a new target and win for real. These you do have to be skeptical of - classic literary tradition, to portray the Great Leader as the wise one out of a sea of idiot advisors. But still, its attested enough to be worth noting.

So yeah, tremendous VOR - one of the few leaders in history who, if absent, could result in their empire simply vanishing from the record, never occurring at all.

[autumnslance]

Hey there! I saw there were entries on the Ivalice raid locations— are there any more interesting Dalmasca tidbits from them that we haven’t gotten before?

Hihi! And there's not really too much new on Dalmasca; they clarify that Noah van Gabranth ordered the aerial bombardment of Rabanastre in response to the liberation of Doma and Ala Mhigo, to thwart the rebellion factions still loyal to the B'nargin dynasty who were inspired to rise up once again. It was a drastic measure, and the few survivors of the city's destruction fled to oases scattered across the desert.

Nothing new on Lessalia, just summary of "the Lexentales and adventurers found it and fought Lucavi."

Ridorana Lighthouse they go a little more into its construction. The Dalmascans operated the main lighthouse part to warn ships away from the cataract, but 30 years of Garlean occupation has seen the lighthouse abandoned. There's water drawn up the tower and then its downward movement back to the sea powers things...somehow, but no one's quite sure how it works.

It was the WoL's party who figured out how to get to the floating islands and upper reaches, to the ruins of Goug. Wind Crystals were utilized to create the landmasses, and arrays of vanes to harness wind power for the city are all over, as opposed to the water-based power below.

For Orbonne and Mullonde, they go a bit more into the legend of Ajora, a hero who claimed to be the son of gods, who led rebellions against the corrupted officials in the later years of the Holy Ydoran Empire. Mullonde was destroyed when Ajora, in desperation for victory, performed a forbidden summoning and the being called forth unleashed devastation. Jenomis cen Lexentale's The Zodiac Brave Story is mentioned, as a telling of those myths and Ramza Beoulve's victory over Ultima, but he admits it's a fiction not in line with facts.

Of The High Seraph herself, the text for her claims she was simply a force of pure ruination at first; it was the terror people held of her shifting to a reverent fear that eventually affected her enough to quicken self-awareness. How much of that is true given what's learned in Pandaemonium later is debatable. Once again, the lorebook leaves a lot open to interpretation given they are "set" in times where the transcribers don't have all the facts, allowing things to change in later plotlines.

And since they're related...

There's a nice picture of Bozja before the disaster, all local brown stone and geometric decorative patterns; both the nation and its capital shared the name, and they detail a little more the devastation it suffered, the crater of the "Firelight Coffin," the previous site of the Lunar Transmitter tower and the center of the city, the crystallization waves covering the rest of the buildings.

The fortress of Alermuc to the north of the city, and the buildings near it, survived the disaster. Alermuc means "Eagle" in the Bozjan tongue, and it was mostly abandoned by Basch van Gabranth. His son Noah, however, used it, and renamed it Castrum Lacus Litore (lakeside) as it also is at the side of Igalj Kelo, the region's largest salt water lake.

Not really anything new about Delubrum Reginae, the old royal palace of the Queens, mostly summarizing the battle to get through the tempered and transformed Gunnhildr's Blades to try to stop the primal Queen.

Zadnor in the northeast was chosen because of the ancient Allagan armaments thought to be buried there. A little about the construct Saunion, whose fusion of a traditional ceruleum engine with a unique crystal reactor to manipulate aether is said to be an example of the IVth's independent research and innovations. The Diablo Armament is thought to be a vessel for a Diablo-class voidsent gifted to Emperor Xande by the Cloud of Darkness back during their partnership, and would have been used against the ancient Bozjans, until the Fourth Umbral Calamity buried the thing.

So it's mostly a clarification and compilation of little bits we got in game, some new ways of presenting it, some placement of geography and where things are in relation to one another. It's mostly summary of the WoL's adventure in the region, though there are new, small tidbits like those outlined above, which is handy for those who haven't done the content nor unearthed every little secret lore tidbit scattered between the instances and zones and NPC lore dumps.

[fakegingerrights]

Walk By Faith (7)

[A/N: We're finally starting to get somewhere with this! TW for mentions of Concussions and physical violence (choking)]

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Crosshair was silent on the ride back to Kamino, not a word to his squad except a muttered thanks when ES-03 gave him a water pouch.

He knew he looked awful, but most of the damage was surface level. His armor took the brunt of it. With his newly fixed helmet, he examined his injuries, noting the faintest outline of dusty handprints under his shoulders and similar dust drag marks on his legs and presumably his back as well. His whole body was covered in what felt like a minor sunburn, with some more scaly bits on his right side that stung and were beginning to itch.

Tech had known he needed his helmet to see. Had known how to fix his helmet. He had also, presumably, dragged him away from the blast of the ion engine or his burns would be way worse.

"An anonymous contact. I... don't think they're too fond of the empire. But they were willing to help you. More than willing."

"My contact was the one who came up with this, one of the first implantless neural networks of this scale."

Tech was the genius. Hunter was the strategist. Kriff, even Wrecker was brilliant when it came to weapons and explosives.

But Crosshair was no slouch either, and right now several pieces were falling into place. Tech was currently on the run from the empire. Tech was stupidly sentimental in his own right when it came to his brothers. Tech helped build Echo's upgraded hardware.

Tech knew enough about neural networks to devise a helmet like his.

Tech loved him enough to do this.

Tech lead him on a wild krayt chase

Tech was looking out for him still.

He didn't need Tech's protection.

Damn it you Cha'kaar, just admit you miss them!

Crosshair shook his head roughly, wincing as his vision glitched and flickered. He was getting a headache. But he had just figured out something more important than his current discomfort. Tech was your contact. You had been working with traitors.

You were a traitor. You had to be. You had to have known.

The white halls of Kamino jittered and glitched as he stalked down them towards the medical bay. He knew he needed to get checked out, but he was looking for you.

Traitor. You were a traitor. Was he a traitor?

Crosshair’s breathing was unnaturally loud in his ears as he staggered and fell to his knees. When had his vision cut out?

He ripped his helmet off. Salt stung his raw, burnt face as he gasped for air. Distant footsteps echoed around his head, muffled words, a familiar voice, was saying something. To him?

“-ss, vod, you’re hyperventilating.”

Echo? Was that Echo’s voice? No. Different reg.

“Bev?” He croaked, turning towards the sound. Hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him to his feet by his breastplate. His balance was strange. Bev was solid beside him, taking most of his weight and helping him to an exam room, shutting the curtain behind him and guiding him to a cot.

“Can I get you out of that armor, Crosshair?” Bev asked, keeping his hand on his shoulder.

Crosshair shook his head, murmuring your name softly as he tried to get his addled brain into focus. Bev kept his hold on Crosshair's shoulder as he paged you discretely. He checked him over for a concussion and started getting bacta on the burns on his cheeks. Crosshair flinched every time the cold gel touched him, still staring vacantly into the distance. Well, even more so than he normally did.

"Crosshair?”

He gave a start. Bev was tapping on his shoulder, against the grey-coated plating. “I really need to examine you.”

Mutely, Crosshair nodded. Bev’s quick fingers caught the catches of his breastplate, making quick work of the plates. A knock on the door startled both of them.

“Maker, what happened to you?” You breathed, stepping into the room and taking in his soot covered and burned face and the littered injuries around his body. You moved to help Bev with your patient’s plates, but as soon as your fingers brushed him he snapped into motion.

His hand wrapped around your throat as he slammed you into the medical bench, cutting off your airway. His eyes were glazed over and his face stony. Even blind, his eyes bored into yours with frightening intensity.

Bev was quick to react, yanking Crosshair off of you and stepping between you two. Crosshair snarled, his face a mask of fury.

“Traitor.” He snarled at you, moving to lunge but Bev held him back.

“Your Doctor is no traitor.” He hissed, holding Crosshair away. Crosshair went limp, all the fight draining away as fast as it had come. His knees buckled and Bev was quick to catch him.

You were sitting up, rubbing your throat and coughing weakly. Dark bruises were forming, but it could definitely be worse.

“What’s going on?” You demand, your voice croaking and hoarse.

“Not sure. He’s been off the whole time.” Bev said sharply, draping him back on the cot and jabbing a port into Crosshair's hand, holding him to the bed with his off hand as he paws through his bag looking for a sedative that wouldn't be too dangerous if his outburst was caused by a concussion. Crosshair didn't fight, just laying limp where he was left, his eyes wide and empty as his chest heaved. Hyperventilating.

Slowly, whatever Bev managed to give him took effect and his eyes slowly drifted closed, his panting slowing into the slow, metronome steady rhythm of sleep.

"Let me see your neck." Bev asked quietly, pulling out a tube of bacta.

"I'm alright." You rasp, but tilt your head to the side and let him apply a thin layer of the stuff, even though it wouldn't do much since there were no open wounds. Still, the pleasant cooling sensation was a relief on the fresh marks. "I'm... more worried about him, honestly."

"I know. I'm... anxious, about letting him back into the field. I was before but this confirms my worries even more. He needs help. Those chips alter your thought patterns and hormone levels to reduce trauma and depression symptoms, as well as any underlying mental illnesses. You saw how much of a mess I was after removing mine, but the special units go through literal hell in training." Bev rambled a bit, pulling out his datapad.

"I'm going to fudge his papers a bit. He needs rest. I'm marking him down as concussed and confused, explaining his violent outburst and get him put up in his current quarters with a 'treatment' plan. How's renovations coming along?" He looked up at you expectantly.

"...Better. I have the bed put together and everything, but I got a little distracted on my latest project." You explained, glancing back at Crosshair's pale form. Even asleep and drugged, there was a tension in him that hadn't quite left. A crease between his brows that never quite smoothed out.

You startled at your name, Bev placing a hand on your shoulder. "I know that look. You can't save them all. Doctor, I'm not even sure you can save him."

"Bev I can't just... I have to do this. This isn't..." You shook your head in frustration. "Where's his helmet. His face is damaged so his helmet must be too."

"He had torn it off in the hall. I left it there in favor of getting it to you. I'll go retrieve it." Bev offered, leaving you alone in the room with Crosshair. You took it upon yourself to get the thin blanket pulled up over him and arranged him in a more comfortable position.

As you went to adjust his thin pillow slightly, his eyes fluttered open, staring right through you. As if sensing your hesitation, he rolled his head towards you, a sigh catching in his rough throat as his temple connected with your hand. Some of the tension left his face.

"I forgive you." You murmur, not sure how aware he was. "We'll talk later, but I forgive you." You stroked his hair gently, fine silver curls soft under your fingertips. And sooty. Grey streaks were left on your fingertips.

"Here's his helmet, Doc." Bev called from the doorway. "Go nuts."

You caught the dirty gray helmet, instantly seeing where part of it had been smashed in and torn away. Wires had obviously been repaired after coming loose.

Tucked under them was a note that made your blood freeze.

"To the doctor in charge of CC 9904, otherwise known as Crosshair. And to me, I call him 'Brother.'....."

Crosshair ached all over. There was a strange weight on the forefront of his face, across his nose and around his eyes. He felt bruised and burned across his entire body. There was the sound of soft snores nearby, higher than a brothers' and feminine.

On instinct, he opened his eyes as he sat up wincing at first from the sharp pain in his ribs and back then blinking in the dim light of his room.

Oh. That was new.

A trembling hand reached up to investigate the weight on his face he couldn't see, fingers bumping against smooth metal and glass an inch from his cheekbones. Glasses? No. Goggles. They felt remarkably like the ones Tech wore.

The ones that pressed into his nose as he pressed his forehead against his brother's, the brother who had taken a shot meant for him

Ones that had often ended up digging into his shoulder as he and Wrecker wrangled Tech from his workbench to sleep

Goggles that-

Crosshair dug the heel of his palm into his forehead in an attempt to stop the haunting memories. He instantly hissed and lightened the contact, flipping his hand over to press the chronically icy backs of his fingers against his too hot face.

At his hiss, the snoring stopped and there was the sound of shifting fabric off to his right. You were curled up in a chair that hadn't been there before, stretching and rubbing your eyes. Now that he could see it, the entire room was different from when he had been here last. His bed had been changed, the mattress soft and thick beneath him. The blankets still smelled like sunshine rather than bleach, but there were more of them.

The closet doors had been pulled off, and now he could see a well stocked with civilian clothes. Male, civilian clothes. The desk by his bed had a lamp on it, off currently. There was also a window that he hadn't noticed, high above his bed. For once, it was sunny out on Kamino, lighting up the room without the need for lights.

"You're awake..." You yawned, stretching your arms over your head and running a hand through your hair, making a face as your fingers caught on a snarl from sleeping in a chair. "How're you feeling?"

"... Tired. Not... I don't know. And sore." He grumbled, wincing at the sound of his own voice. "What time is it?"

"Early morning. You've been asleep for a day and a half or so. Even after whatever Bev hit you with wore off." You explained, popping all your joints you could reach as you stood up, sighing in relief as the cracks sounded in the room.

"... I hurt you." He admitted, glancing at your neck. The bruises were faded thanks to the bacta, but he could still see them. "I... " He fumbled for an explanation, icy fear prickling at his neck. He could be decommissioned for that.

"You're forgiven, Crosshair." You broke him out of his building panic. "I know why you did it. Tech... left a note tucked into your helmet."

"Oh..." Crosshair wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"It... explained a lot of things. I thought I was a loyal citizen of the empire. I was so sure... The jedi had been traitors. That we had done the right thing. But those chips... I saw how it affected Bev. They're horrible. I don't know what to believe now."

Crosshair's hackles rose as he stared at you incredulously.

"I'm... me and Bev had a conversation. Bev and I. Whatever. I'm going to give you a choice."

You held up three fingers.

"One. You stay with the empire. Me and Bev will vanish, marked as traitors to the Empire. Neither us will fault you for that." You ticked off one finger, stepping closer. "Two. We tell the empire you're dead. You're sent back with your brothers. You go home with them." Another finger, another step. You're standing right next to the bed. Crosshair stares at you, pupils wide behind his new goggles. He looked so much like his brother right now. Your eyes traced over his tattoo.

"Three. We go with the plan Tech suggested. You stay here with us. We work to take the empire down from the inside out."

Crosshair starts, eyes going wide. He quickly looks down at his lap, fidgeting aimlessly with his hands.

Tech's plan.

Tech had a plan for him.

His brothers had a plan.

He wasn't alone.

"... I like option three." He muttered down at his lap. He jumped slightly as you put a hand on his shoulder.

"Welcome home, Commander Crosshair."

Crosshair hesitated, then leaned into the touch. "... Glad to be back." And he was. For the first time in a long, long while, Crosshair felt like himself.

Taglist:

@the-hexfiles @moon-wrecked @stunkbiggu @urfriendlyneighbornightfury @followthepurrgil @endo-bunny @renon4224 @tecker @rinwritesfics @pb-jellybeans @merkitty49 @chicknstripz @bambambunny @yeeteth-the-raven

[photogirl894]

@clonexreaderbingo

Square: Echo

Fun fact about this bingo one-shot...it is actually a sequel to another fic!! That fic is the Fives x reader fic "AWOL" by @l-lend 😆 We both figured out what bingo fics we were doing next and it happened to work out that she got Fives and I got Echo...then before we knew it, we were tag-teaming and came up with story ideas for both our fics together that would work as one cohesive story! There were a lot of people who loved her fic and now, in this one, you'll see more of the story of Fives and reader...and a reunion I know we all wish could've happened 🥹 Go read K's fic first if you haven't (cuz it's amazing) and then I hope you all enjoy this one, as well 😊

"Captain Rex…we found him."

The former Captain of the 501st moved over to the screen where his fellow Clone colleague was pointing at a planet on a galaxy map, one way out in the Outer Rim.

"Finally…there you are, Fives," Rex thought to himself.

Over a year prior, his brother, Fives, had gone off the grid after discovering a conspiracy with the Clones that would've put his life in danger. He'd faked his death and escaped to the Outer Rim with the medic he loved to start a new life together, away from anything that could threaten them. At first, Rex hadn't even known that Fives was alive, but Commander Tano later informed him of the situation, which had been shocking to say the least. However, after the events of Order 66, Fives and his medic suddenly went radio silent and disappeared. While building an underground Clone network to fight against the Empire over the course of many months, Rex had also been having some of his contacts trying to locate Fives…and now, he'd finally been found.

"Who's been found, Rex?"

The Captain looked over his shoulder to his other brother he was close to; one who'd recently joined in his efforts: Echo. He'd temporarily left his squad to help Rex find other Clones who needed help in the galaxy. Echo had been Fives' best friend who was also once believed dead in an explosion a long time ago and, in Rex's mind, the timing of Echo joining and the locating of Fives couldn't be more perfect.

Rex went up to Echo, laid a hand on his shoulder and simply stated in reply, "Echo...you're coming with me for this one."

Echo gave him a nod. "Is it another Clone?"

"Yeah, it is…a very important one I've been looking for, for a long time."

"Babe, I'm home!"

You heard the one voice you loved most call to you from the front of your home and a smile crossed your face. "I'm in the kitchen!" you said back, raising your voice so he could hear you.

While you continued stirring the soup you were preparing, you soon felt a pair of arms wrap around your waist and a warm chest pressed against your back. A pair of soft lips made loving contact with your cheek and a deep voice greeted you in your ear, "Hello, beautiful."

"Hey, handsome," you said back, turning your face so you could kiss him on the lips.

"Did you have many patients today?" he asked you, removing his arms from you.

You added a pinch of salt to your soup. "Just a couple," you answered. "One man got bit by a tooka on the hand and then a little boy fell from a tree and broke his arm."

"Was it Alby?" Fives inquired.

You chuckled. "Yeah, it was. Same kid who sprained his ankle last month."

"That is one accident-prone boy," he commented.

Since you and Fives had arrived on this planet, you'd already made a name for yourself here as a medic for the nearby villages. Luckily, this planet was far enough in the Outer Rim that no one recognized Fives as a Clone soldier, so that made things a lot easier for the both of you. While you accepted medical patients in your own at-home clinic, Fives worked at a nearby shipyard. You both had managed to make an enjoyable, peaceful new life for yourselves here and you couldn't be happier.

"By the way, you didn't clean up your hair in the sink from trimming your goatee again this morning," you chided him, raising your eyebrows at him.

In response, he purposefully averted his gaze, sniffed loudly and said, looking at the pot in front of you, "Mmm, the soup smells delicious, babe."

"Uh-uh, don't try and change the subject," you said, though you couldn't help but smirk at him. At one point in time, when you'd thought he was dead, you would've given anything to see those annoying hairs in your sink again. Guess all it took was him miraculously "returning from the dead" and running away together to a faraway planet for you to get that again.

He put an arm around your shoulders and kissed your temple. "I'm sorry, I'll do better next time," he promised. "I'm going to go change out of my work clothes and then I'll be down for dinner, okay?"

"Sounds good," you said as he left and went upstairs.

You got two bowls out and carefully ladled out hot soup into both of them. As you set them onto the table, there was a knock at your door. You were curious, you weren't expecting any visitors. You went to the door and pressed the button to open it. The door slid open with a swish and the face you saw was one you weren't expecting.

"Captain Rex!"

Dressed in dark blue and gray civvie clothes stood before you the Clone Captain you hadn't seen in a long time; not since before you ran off with Fives. You could tell there was someone else standing directly behind him, but you couldn't see their face.

"Good to see you again, (Y/N)," he said to you with a pleasant grin.

"How did you…how did you find us?" you asked.

"It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that," he told you.

Then he stepped to the side to reveal who was behind him: another Clone with pale, sunken skin, dressed in red and white as well as dark leather armor. He had a cybernetic headpiece wrapped around the back of his head and his arm was a scomp link, which you'd never seen before. However, something about this Clone seemed familiar to you. Having worked with so many of them, you picked up on smaller details that helped make each of them distinct in your eyes, apart from their normal distinctive features like hair, tattoos or armor. There was something about this Clone that your mind was telling you that you knew him well.

He recognized you the moment he saw you and his eyes went wide. "It's you!" he exclaimed.

You gazed at him thoughtfully, trying to figure out who this Clone was. You'd never seen any that looked like him yet you were positive you knew him. Why did Rex bring this one here to find you and Fives?

Once you thought about Fives, it clicked in your mind almost immediately. There could only be one Clone that would matter this much for Rex to painstakingly find you both and bring the Clone to you; a Clone that had missing limbs…most likely from a fight or explosion.

It couldn't be!

"Echo…?" you asked aloud, holding to the hope you were right.

He grinned. "You do remember me."

You gasped in shock and your hands flew up to your mouth. "I don't believe it! You're alive!" You stepped forward and placed your hands on his shoulders, taking a good look at him. "You look different, but I can still see that glint of hope in your eyes that you always had before. I can't believe it's you. It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too," he said back.

Waving your hand, you gestured for them to come inside and stated, "Come in and wait just a moment. I'll go get my husband." Then you took off quickly up the stairs.

"Husband?" Echo repeated, looking at Rex. "Is this another Clone deserter with a family like Cut?"

"Not a deserter, no," answered Rex. "This Clone's life was in danger for specific reasons, so he's been in hiding for a while. It's likely he'll have to stay in hiding even longer now that the Empire is phasing out Clones."

There were footsteps coming down the stairs and Fives suddenly appeared, wearing a set of gray and green civvies. He was just as surprised to see Rex, too. You appeared on the stairs behind him, where you stayed, watching what was about to unfold.

"Rex!" Fives exclaimed. He opened his mouth to say something more, but then his eyes found the other person in the room and any words he had failed him in the moment.

Echo's eyes grew large at who now came into the room and he quietly gasped. The goatee, the Aurebesh "5" tattoo…a face he never thought he'd see again.

"Fives…," he spoke softly, a faint tremor in his voice.

Even though it had taken you a moment to figure out who it was, Fives recognized his brother and best friend immediately, even in the state he was in with cybernetic limbs. Fives felt numb for a moment and was sure he had to be in the middle of a dream. Echo was dead; he'd watched him die. The anguished scream of Echo's name that had left his lips in that awful moment sounded in his mind. It had been real, he'd seen it…yet Echo was standing in front of him in his home in the flesh.

He slowly stepped closer to Echo and Rex moved back a bit to give them some space. Fives couldn't tear his eyes away from the now gaunt face of his long-lost brother, expecting to blink and see him disappear, but he never did.

"Echo…!" he gasped, his eyes looking his brother over.

Timidly, Echo said back to him, "Yeah, I…I've been through some things."

Fives smirked slightly and a quiet snicker left his mouth as he replied, "I'll say…you got taller."

Echo chuckled, not entirely expecting that response. "I…I thought you were dead," he said.

"I thought you were dead," Fives said, gesturing to him. Then with a small grin, he shook his head and asked, "I guess the galaxy just can't get rid of us, can it?"

"No…I guess it can't," Echo agreed.

Finally, the two of them couldn't hold back anymore and Fives pulled Echo into his arms, embracing him tighter than ever. The one good hand Echo had clung to Fives' collar for dear life, burying his head into his brother's shoulder.

"I've missed you, brother," Fives told him.

"I've missed you, too, brother," Echo replied.

Rex had moved over by you on the stairs and the two of you exchanged happy smiles at seeing Echo and Fives finally being reunited after so long apart.

Then you remembered something very important and you whispered to Rex, "I'll be right back." Then without waiting, you took off back upstairs.

Finally, Fives pulled back and placed his hands on Echo's shoulders. "Look at you! You look so tough now with the scomp arm and the headpiece…you've grown."

"You wouldn't believe how much I've changed," said Echo with a grin. Then he spotted Rex standing by the stairs and, peering around Fives, he stated, "Rex, you told me Fives was dead."

"At the time, I thought he was, too," Rex explained. "It wasn't until recently I learned otherwise, but I had to keep it a secret for Fives' safety."

Just then, you came down the stairs and you announced, "Echo, Rex…there's someone we'd like you to meet."

Then you emerged into the room, carrying a small bundle in your arms. When you pulled back part of the blanket that wrapped it, you revealed the small, sleeping face of a baby.

"You…you have a child?" Echo asked, astonished.

"We sure do. Echo, Rex, this is our son," Fives stated with pride as he came up beside you, smoothing back the boy's dark hair.

"What's his name?" inquired Rex.

You and Fives looked at each other, the weight of that question now hitting the both of you. You both thought no one would ever get to know, let alone these two now in your home, and it made you both smile.

"His name…is Echo," you answered, your eyes finding your son's namesake.

Rex looked to Echo in surprise and Echo's eyes flashed wider in happy shock. Then he stepped closer and glanced down at the little one that bore his name, feeling as though his heart could burst with joy.

"Hey there, little one," he said.

Just then, the baby stirred in his sleep and his eyes slowly fluttered open to reveal a pair of golden brown eyes looking up at him; eyes that matched both Fives' and Echo's.

You and Fives both gasped in delight. "Look at that! He knows you," you said gleefully.

"I would hope so after all the stories I've told him," commented Fives, tapping his son's nose. "He's got Clone blood in him. He recognizes a fellow brother…or in this case, his uncle we named him in honor of."

Echo smiled at him warmly.

Looking between Rex and Echo, you asked them, "You'll both stay for dinner, won't you? I've made plenty of soup to feed all of us."

Rex and Echo exchanged glances and Rex answered, "Of course, we will."

Through dinner, you and Fives explained everything that had happened in your lives over the past long while since Echo's "death". You both explained how Fives uncovered the conspiracy of the Clones' inhibitor chips the Kaminoans put in them after something that had happened to his fellow soldier and friend, Tup, which led to both Echo and Rex explaining how his discovery led to both of them getting their own chips out as well as the Bad Batch, the group of Clones Echo had joined. Knowing what he'd done had helped his two closest brothers made Fives glad and he was incredibly grateful. Then you both talked about how, after Order 66, someone in the city you'd been staying in recognized Fives as a Clone and you both knew he'd be in trouble if you stayed, so you packed up and disappeared, thinking it would be easier if no one knew where you were at all, not even the Jedi who had helped find your first hiding place to begin with. That was why no one had been able to find you two until now.

After dinner, Rex offered to help you collect the dishes while you ushered Fives and Echo out back so they could have some time with just the two of them.

"I don't think I've seen Fives this happy since the day we ran away together," you commented to Rex as you washed one of the bowls.

"I agree. I knew once we found Fives, I needed to bring Echo with me. The timing worked out well," Rex said.

"If it had been anyone else, I might've been annoyed that we'd been found, but I'm glad it was you two," you said.

Rex grinned. "I'm just glad you both are still safe."

"As am I."

Outside the house, Fives was being regaled with Echo's stories of how he survived the explosion at the Citadel, being captured by the Techno Union then held captive at Skako Minor and then how he was rescued by the Bad Batch as well as all of the events that had followed the rise of Empire.

Fives commented to Echo in amusement, "So you're telling me that you, the soldier who was always on our squad about following orders, actually joined another Clone squad that's notorious for not following orders? You're joking, right?"

Echo snickered. "I told you you'd be surprised how much I've changed."

"Yeah, you weren't kidding," said Fives. Then he sighed contentedly. "I can't believe everything you've been through and yet, you're still here stronger than ever. You always were stronger than me."

"That's not true," said Echo.

"Agree to disagree," Fives relented. Then he grinned and shook his head. "Look at us...Echo and Fives, back together. The last two Dominoes standing."

Echo's expression turned solemn at the mention of their former squad as cadets. "Yeah…do you ever think about them? Cutup, Droidbait and Hevy?"

With a nod, Fives answered, "All the time. And Tup, too. Sometimes, I wonder how different things might've been had they all made it."

"That's why I'm with Rex right now," Echo said. "You and I couldn't save our squad back at the Rishi moon outpost nor were you able to save Tup, but there are plenty of other Clones throughout the galaxy that I can save in helping Rex. That's why I'm still fighting: for my brothers I've lost and for the many that are still out there being threatened by the Empire."

Fives looked on at his brother with pride. This was the Echo he'd always known and gladly fought beside since their cadet days; the one who fought for Kamino alongside him forever ago. It had pained him to learn of the recent downfall of Kamino, knowing what they had done to try and protect it before.

With a small chuckle, Fives asked, "When did you get so wise?"

"Being trapped in a stasis chamber gives you a lot of time to think," replied Echo.

Then Fives laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Echo. I really am."

Echo smiled at him. "I'm proud of you, too. You've made a great life for yourself here. You married an amazing woman and you have a kid…you're a husband and a father, something I'm sure neither of us ever expected."

"You don't think of me as a deserter, do you?" asked Fives hesitantly.

"I'd never think that of you, especially knowing what you've done to help the Clones," Echo reassured him.

"Then you understand that…I can't go back with you and Rex," said Fives sadly. "I have my wife and my son here who need me. As much as I would love to fight at your side again--"

"I'd never ask you to leave your family, brother," Echo interrupted him. "I'm going where I'm needed…and you'll be where you're needed. That's all that matters."

They both then heard you and Rex coming over to them, you with little Echo in your arms.

"I'm afraid…we need to go," Rex stated, his face and voice full of regret.

Echo gave him a nod and then faced Fives once more. There was melancholy in both their expressions, not wanting to say goodbye and wondering if this would be the last time they'd be together.

However, Fives put on a positive grin, like he always did, grasped Echo's shoulder and declared, "This isn't goodbye, brother. We'll see each other again."

Echo nodded and reached across with his good hand to grasp Fives' shoulder in turn. "We will," he promised. Then he turned to face you and asked of you, "Keep taking care of him for me, will you?"

"You know I will," you vowed to him, "as long as you help take down the Empire and show them who's boss!"

"I can do that," he said, snickering. He looked down at his nephew, who was making small baby sounds at him. "And you, little Echo...you need to look after both your mom and your dad while I'm gone. Get big and strong like the little soldier you are." He slipped his finger into the baby's hand, which grasped it tightly. "Now that I know you, I need to come back and see you grow up…so I'm going to fight as hard as I can to make the galaxy a safe place for you. That's a promise from your Uncle Echo."

There were tears in your eyes listening to Echo's heartfelt oath to your son. In that moment, you knew you and Fives had made the perfect choice in naming your child after him.

You both bade a final farewell for now to both Echo and Rex and before long, you saw their ship take off into the evening sky. Fives had his arm around your shoulders and you leaned your head into the crook of his neck.

"Do you really think we'll see them again?" you asked your husband.

Running his hand up and down your arm, he answered you, "Echo and I have both beaten incredible odds and we've never been ones to give up easily. If he promised to come back and be in our son's life…then he'll keep that promise and Rex will help him do just that. We'll see them again, babe…I know it."

Clone x Reader Bingo 2023

[thotsofsolidary]

I took this photo in March of last year while in staying in Salt River, Cape Town. I ashamedly knew very little concerning the the 75 yr struggle that Palestineans had endured up until that time, and more importantly how its presence in Salt River revealed particularly sinister reminder of the global and interconnected struggle against neocolonial apartheid. Ahead of the ICJ hearing today, I began to reflect on my experience as a humble visitor of CT, a space that had resisted apartheid and persecution for 50 years at the hands of the same forces that are bombing Gaza at this very moment. I realized last year that my education up until that point was successful in conceslinv Salt River’s history of forced segregation, economic exploitation, and purposeful elimination of a community that was just one of many in SA. Apartheid isn’t just an abstract concept left to for historians to define or humanitarians to resolve. It’s a series of continued choices and policy changes brought down by our elected politicians all over the world as they work to maintain the demented and racist lie that one group of souls must enjoy the fruits of this earth at the violent expense of another.

Dehumanization campaigns on behalf of the state will never fail to do its job effectively, and us as a collective will continue to believe that these actions of violence are common and even necessary. These were the same campaigns that conceal/distort the history of my own ancestors as revolutionaries who were able to rise above the western imperialist project in 1804 as citizens of the first free black republic 🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹 I’ve had to weep at the stories of my relatives and the conditions of my ancestors as they continue to pay the price for daring to escape from a sinister, systemic, and never-ending violence under the cruelest form of apartheid, chattel slavery. Resistance has and always willl be a continuing struggle against western hegemony and their hunger to reproduce the same value as the Transatlantic Slave Trade once did! We are fighting against the will of empires that view the labor, land, minerals of the global south as spoils of the game to win and not intrinsically tied to the indigenous that have/will continue to live there. Since columbus crossed into these shores and shifted the global order in favor of mass migrations and conquest, the world has never seen a turning tide in favor of restorative justice. We live in an age of globalized aparthied whether that therm is recognized or not by the state.

The place where I was set to study apartheid as it was EXPERIENCED, not as it was written after the fact, was itself a historical rembrandt of the Continuous Struggle. story having the familiar ending of spirits young and old gone in seconds by the “wrong” missle, or a “mistakenly”dropped bomb, or a “stray” bullet. Spirits so quickly taken away and never seen again in this realm. Imagine my shock when I passed the Statement of Significance (ZOOM IN) that welcomed visitors of the center. in CAPE TOWN SA, upholding its legacy as the literal first colonial outpost the slave trade for centuries! 30 YEARS AGO the imperial DA Party felt that the safety of the state could only be ensured though the dropping of a bomb here in 1987(Read Above). Despite this, I was able to enjoy a building that was standing tall and continued to be a center for education and community gathering despite this!

Crazily enough I was graciously given a tour of Salt River shortly after hearing the history of the SR Community Center and it’s activists, and was given incredible retelling of the street art located here. Not only fighting the hisotry of apartheid era violence, street artists of today’s time are struggling with state sanctioned gentrification efforts simultaneously eliminating the freedoms of expression and collective action calling for the end to Palestinean apartheid. Despite this, the level of Palestinean solidarity displayed so clearly across the homes of SR residents was incredible to witness despite hearing their bloody history of their oppression and continued resistance.

Bottom line, not only does the struggle persist, it is carelesslessly replicated and repackaged until it is acceptabe enough for us stomach on our TLs or news channels years after the fact. Genocides, ethnic cleansing, slavery, all exist and are being documented live! If you are so blissfully unaware…could you look back at your present self and take that as an excuse? if your children asked you where you were and asked what you stood for years from now, would you want to answer ‘I had no idea?’ You know what’s going on. you know that the carnage that has taken place is unconscionable!!! the people we elect, the state, whatever you want to call it at this point, has never atoned for their collective sins of the past few centuries. Not with actual fucking reparations, we’re far beyond expecting anything close to receiving back the value of systemic violence that was never contained. all that the opressed ask is to LEAVE US ALONE!!! it’s that simple. Stop sending your bombs! Stop sending your diplomats! Stop sending your twisted policies. This is only my second election cycle and I refuse to play these fucking mind games. Not that I belive voting really matters atp, but we must take back power where we can get it. I am of the opinion that this only comes from demanding MORE from OURSELVES than the people that end up on our voting ballots! How have you genuinely re-examined your position in this world and used the thinkers of today to challenge your position?

All I can ask of this world is for us to question where our collective allegiance rests. Are you fighting for or against western neocolonialism it’s quite literally that simple. the other side is clearly operating under delusion. this delusion…no this privilege…clearly knows no bounds! Our collective consciousness has long been shattered. From 🇭🇹 to 🇿🇦 to 🇵🇸 no land on this earth has been untouched by the dropping bombs and destroying community/culture in the name of successful western diplomacy. What can be changed is our individual alignment towards rge support of the oppressed, the dismantling of global apartheid, . Youtube/Google/Public Libraries are free belovedss 💔 If you have an iphone you can take a couple hours to hear the other side for maybe the first/only time in your life. play it in the background of whatever you need to do but even at 2x speed if you have to! challenging your own mind is the bare minimum…