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dailyproblemsleuth · 1 year ago

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Problem Sleuth, page 1,112

RECAP!!! Please?

While Ace Dick sets up the rather complicated board game, Death clicks his BALL POINT SCYTHE and jots down a few notes in his TOME OF WAYFARING SOULS.

He documents the tale of three detectives trapped in their offices. In the due course of time, they escaped from their offices, only do discover they were still trapped in what could loosely be considered a larger office building, held hostage by an unscrupulous mob boss named Mobster Kingpin. MK wets his bill in just about everything, liquor bootlegging, laundering, embezzling treasure concealed in stone busts, prostitution outfits orchestrated by his Madame accomplice along with sinister urban mural rackets. Additionally, MK guards the MEGATON KEY required by the sleuths to exit to the REAL CITY STREETS which are in dire need of their sleuthing services!

The detectives were able to escape their offices by accomplishing various feats both inside their offices, and on the IMAGINARY CITY STREETS, a realm accessible in ways twofold: Through A) electrically-powered WINDOW PORTALS, and B) alcohol-fueled spells of IMAGINATION from within the safety of a small FORT.

The detectives additionally advanced their situation by forming alliances with various KINGDOMS residing on the flip-side of the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE. Problem Sleuth befriended ELVES, Pickle Inspector befriended WEASELS, Ace Dick befriended HOGS, and unfortunately, Mobster Kingpin made an ally as well in CLOWNS. Each aided his ally in its struggle against its warring party and received boons for their efforts. Eventually, Problem Sleuth used his heightened DIPLOMATIC ABILITIES to resolve all disputes among the KINGDOMS, thus winning him favor with the WEASEL KING.

Through the boons of their respective efforts, the sleuths gained a mysterious form of cognizance regarding their FEMALE ALTER EGOS. PS cognized awareness of Hysterical Dame, PI cognized Nervous Broad, and of course, AD merely cognized himself for lack of IMAGINATION. These ladies were revealed to be trapped in a DOLL HOUSE in MK's office, a room which he himself was proven to be trapped in as well, only freeing himself upon receiving his boon from the CLOWNS. The females had to overcome their prison as well as their DIMINUTIVE SIZES by accomplishing various feats within their rooms, utilizing SIZE ALTERING PORTALS to and from the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE involving a MUSIC BOX, a STOREFRONT, a MIRROR, a MANHOLE, and a JACUZZI.

Meanwhile, the sleuths engaged in battle with various DEMONS in the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE, gradually increasing their skill levels and adding to their repertoires of BATTLE TECHNIQUES and COMBAT OPERANDI. At one point, Ace Dick brewed a batch of CANDY CORN LIQUOR. The resulting explosion from the volatile concoction is ultimately what freed them from their offices. (For him, by blowing a hole in his front wall. For PS, by triggering an event which caused the OBOE to be dislodged from the back doors.) Later, Pickle Inspector drank the CANDY CORN LIQUOR to max out his IMAGINATION gauge, giving him tremendous powers in the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE.

His powers lead to these consequences.

A) Splitting himself into 8 clones.

B) One of those clones turning into a monster which killed most of the clones, and was then shot by…

C) One which summoned a CANDY MECHA, and then later killed by the "female" AD in the DOLL HOUSE.

D) One rising into the sky and becoming GODHEAD PICKLE INSPECTOR.

E) One using ABSTRACTED THOUGHT, allowing the real PI to function in reality, while the imaginary ones remain.

F) The final remaining one using TEMPORAL REPLICSIMILE, splitting himself in two. One disappearing into the PAST (PPI) and the other into the FUTURE (FPI).

Also meanwhile, Ace Dick (the original one) found the CONTROL ROOM containing a complicated PUZZLE and a CODE MACHINE. First, he tried jumping out of his SIDEWAYS WINDOW, fell through the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE sideways, and died. In taking a step back, he used the CODE MACHINE to skip ahead to a point in the game where the complicated PUZZLE was solved. (It was later determined that it was Past Pickle Inspector who went back in time to solve this puzzle, and then died.) Upon solving the puzzle, a hatch opened, allowing him to travel to the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE to collect his boon from the HOGS.

A little later, Problem Sleuth found the CONTROL ROOM too. He used the CODE MACHINE to return to an earlier state in the game, to the moment before Ace Dick jumped out the SIDEWAYS WINDOW. This time, AD was able to jump into the STOREFRONT before falling to his death. He emerged from Hysterical Dame's MUSIC BOX, causing him to be VERY SMALL. He eventually came to be normal-sized by using the various SIZE ALTERING PORTALS.

This is how there came to be three Ace Dicks.

Furthermore, by this point, there were two Pickle Inspectors: the original real one (PI), and his super-powered imaginary form in the future (FPI).

After PS used the CODE MACHINE to create the third AD, he then jumped through the UPSIDE-DOWN WINDOW with the PARACHUTE to fall through the sky of the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE, past the SLEAZY BROTHEL IN THE SKY, landing in the WEASEL KING'S palace. This is how he came to be charged with diplomatically resolving tensions among the FOUR KINGDOMS. However, he was only successful upon looking up a CHEAT CODE on GAMEFAQS, and printing it out. The PRINTOUT was generated in the ALCHEMY ROOM, which PI then took and used with the CODE MACHINE to skip ahead to the SUCCESSFUL POLITICAL NEGOTIATION. As a boon, PS received a great deal of AMMUNITION, ELF TEARS, WEASEL SNOT, HOG SLOP, PIE FILLING, and the loyalty of the WEASEL KING, and was returned to reality. He then collaborated with the other ADs to fit the SKULLS of the sleuths previously slain into the slots to unlock the DOUBLE DOORS.

In the ALCHEMY ROOM, PI also printed out a recipe for 5 ALARM HOT SAUCE, which involved a CHIPOTLE PEPPER, a rare item which proved to be found beneath AD's HAT. One of the ADs prepared the concoction in the HOT SAUCE STILL and waited for it to mature.

Upon freeing themselves from the DOLL HOUSE, HD, NB and "female" AD encountered MK, who'd just returned to his office. This sparked a fierce battle, whereby the heroines dealt damage to MK by raising his BLOOD SUGAR and using powerful attacks such as their CHARM BREAK! and MURDER FLUX! techniques. Power for these attacks was supplied when damage was taken by their counterparts. In the meantime, PS and the other two ADs were climbing the levels to MK's office, fighting monsters along the way. Damage they took fueled the females' attacks, and vice versa.

NB's MURDER FLUX was maxed out when PI was fooling around with windows in the CONTROL ROOM. He dropped one window through its own corresponding window portal, in spite of warnings from the HONEYBEE PROFESSOR. The reaction triggered a massive explosion, killing PI and the PROFESSOR. PI met with DEATH for TEA. The PROFESSOR pollinated the floral/fractal-based AFTERLIFE, while GPI fondly regarded it. After her attack, MK pushed NB through his office window. She fell through the sky in a nervous manner for some time until FPI appeared from the past and caught her.

In the course of the battle with MK, AD was killed in a suicide maneuver. He met PI and DEATH in the AFTERLIFE. Together, they eventually bested DEATH in a series of sudoko-based challenges to return to life. Pickle Inspector would bring a tear to DEATH'S eye by completing the LABRYNTHINE SUDOCUBE COMPREHSENSILE.

The earlier window explosion caused by PI was so massive, it caused a city-wide blackout in the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE. The darkness triggered the release of the terrible DEMON called FLUTHLU, the final adversary PS would face at the top of the tower, which physically corresponded with the imaginary TOWER OF SYNDETIC ASCENSION connecting both sides of the universe. FLUTHLU would climb that tower and emerge through the DEATH STAR WINDOW. PS would easily kill FLUTHLU with his TRUSTY KNIVES attack.

On the way up, one of the ADs was attacked by a ZOMBIE HIRED MUSCLE (who would later prove to be a hero) and became ZOMBIE ACE DICK. ZAD snuck by FLUTHLU to discover the giant BOWEN STILLSON DOGG bust blocking MK's office door.

Meanwhile, HD killed MK with KISS OF DEATH. However, MK snuck out of the AFTERLIFE while DEATH was distracted by PI and AD. MK revived himself with INSULIN SHOT, and knocked HD out cold. He then built a FORT out of his desk, drank some liquor, and retreated into the IMAGINARY UNIVERSE.

Once the 5 ALARM HOT SAUCE was finished, the explosion destroyed the BOWEN STILLSON DOGG, allowing PS into MK's office, to find MK in his fort.

The other AD drank the 5 ALARM HOT SAUCE and became a very strong FIESTA ACE DICK.

When FAD inverted the universe by flipping a window, this allowed MK to descend into demonhood to become DEMONHEAD MOBSTER KINPIN, MK's final form. PS, FAD and ZAD went through the office and upstairs to the deck of MK's imaginary pirate ship, the CHICAGO OVERCOAT. FAD had to destroy/dislodge a series of busts along the way, including a SNOOP BUST which he tragically sent into the sky never to be seen again.

PS flipped the ship's STEERING WHEEL to invert the universe again to begin waging battle. PI and AD, having bested Death, returned to the ship. FPI conjured CANDY ARMOR for the party, which was quickly negated by DMK's powerful attacks. The sleuth party countered with a series of their own attacks, raising DMK's BLOOD SUGAR and dealing damage by summoning the WEASEL KING, conjuring a JAWBREAKER SKYLIGHT BOMB, and invoking a COMB RAVE to execute a ridiculously powerful TRIPLE TRUFFLE SHUFFLE. DMK's first face was defeated, only to reveal DMK's second face with two fully revived health meters.

To counter this, the sleuth party invoked their GAMBIT SCHEMAS to enhance their offensive and defensive attributes.

Meanwhile, HD and NB find themselves trapped in the SLEAZY BROTHEL IN THE SKY, where they pursue a mission to best MADAME MUREL, MK's female counterpart and brothel matron, and plug in a GIANT FAN for some reason.

Also, while DMK's WEAKSPOT was exposed, AD foolishly got on top of DMK's HAT. (The AD who was at one point the "female" AD but now ironically functions as the "normal" AD.) DEATH met him on top of the HAT and then challenged him to a friendly game of LIFE, which brings us to the present moment.

It's all so simple you wonder why you even bothered to ask.

Author commentary: tldr; yes, it is tldr; Still not as tldr as any of the tldr stuff in Homestuck Interestingly, just skimming and only reading the capitalized words actually serves as a pretty good recap.

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govindhtech · 1 year ago

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Compute Engine’s latest N4 and C4 VMs boosts performance

Customers’ workloads are diverse, consisting of multiple services and components with distinct technical requirements. A uniform approach hinders their ability to scale while attempting to maintain cost and performance equilibrium.

In light of this, Google cloud introduced the C4 and N4 machine series, two new additions to their general-purpose virtual machine portfolio, at Google Cloud Next ’24 last month. The first machine series from a major cloud provider, the C4 and N4, are driven by Google’s Titanium, a system of specially designed micro controllers and tiered scale-out offloads, and make use of the newest 5th generation Intel Xeon processors (code-named Emerald Rapids).

C4 and N4 provide the best possible combination of cost-effectiveness and performance for a wide range of general-purpose workload requirements. While N4’s price-performance gains and flexible configurations, such as extended memory and custom shapes, let you choose different combinations of compute and memory to optimise costs and reduce resource waste for the rest of your workloads, C4 tackles demanding workloads with industry-leading performance.

C4 and N4 are built to satisfy all of your general-purpose computing needs, regardless of whether your workload demands constant performance for mission-critical operations or places a higher priority on adaptability and cost optimisation. The C4 machine series is currently available in preview for Compute Engine and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), while the N4 machine series is currently available broadly.

N4: Flexible forms and price-performance gains

The N4 machine series has an efficient architecture with streamlined features, forms, and next-generation Dynamic Resource Management, all designed from the bottom up for price-performance advantages and cost optimisation. With up to 18% better price-performance than N2 instances and up to 70% better price-performance than instances, N4 helps you reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) for a variety of workloads as compared to prior generation N-Family instances. N4 offers up to 39% better price-performance for My SQL workloads and up to 75% better price-performance for Java applications as compared to N2 across key workloads.Image credit to Google cloud

Additionally, N4 offers you the most flexibility possible to accommodate changing workload requirements with bespoke shapes that provide you with fine-grained resource control. Custom shapes add a cost optimisation lever that is now exclusive to Google Cloud by letting you only pay for what you use, preventing you from overspending on memory or vCPU. Additionally, custom shapes provide seamless, reconfiguration-free migrations from on-premises to the cloud or from another cloud provider to Google, as well as optimisation for special workload patterns with unusual resource requirements.

In order to support a wider range of applications, N4 additionally offers 4x more preconfigured shapes at significantly bigger sizes up to 80 vCPUs and 640GB of DDR5 RAM as compared to similar offerings from other top cloud providers. Predefined forms for N4 are offered in three configurations: regular (4GB/vCPU), high-mem (8GB/vCPU), and high-cpu (2GB/vCPU).

In comparison to other cloud providers, N4 delivers up to 4 times the usual networking speed (50 Gbps standard) and up to 160K IOPS with Hyperdisk Balanced. Most general-purpose workloads, including medium-traffic web and application servers, dev/test environments, virtual desktops, micro services, business intelligence applications, batch processing, data analytics, storage and archiving, and CRM applications, are well-suited for N4. These workloads require a balance between performance and cost-efficiency.

Dynamic Resource Management

On N4 and Titanium, Google’s next-generation Dynamic Resource Management (DRM) improves upon current optimisation techniques to deliver a greater price-performance, reduce expenses, and support a wider range of applications.

Google cloud worldwide infrastructure is supported by a Google-only technology called dynamic resource management, which handles workloads for YouTube, Ads, and Search. The most recent iteration of dynamic resource management uses Titanium to precisely forecast and consistently deliver the necessary performance for your workloads. Dynamic resource management on N4 offers shown dependability, efficiency, and performance at scale.

C4: Cutting-edge features and performance in the industry

C4 is designed to handle your most demanding workloads. It comes with the newest generation of compute and memory, Titanium network and storage offloads, and enhanced performance and maintenance capabilities. When compared to similar services from other top cloud providers, C4 offers up to 20% better price-performance; when compared to the previous generation C3 VM, C4 offers up to 25% better price-performance across important workloads.Image Credit to Google cloud

In addition, C4’s Titanium technology provides up to 80% greater CPU responsiveness than prior generations for real-time applications like gaming and high-frequency trading, which leads to quicker trades and a more fluid gaming experience12. Demanding databases and caches, network appliances, high-traffic web and application servers, online gaming, analytics, media streaming, and real-time CPU-based inference with Intel AMX are all excellent fits for the high performance of C4.

Additionally, C4 transfers processing for virtual storage to the Titanium adapter, which enhances infrastructure stability, security, performance, and lifecycle management. Titanium enables C4 to provide scalable, high-performance I/O with up to 500k IOPS, 10 GB/s throughput on Hyperdisk, and networking bandwidth of up to 200 Gbps13.

Better maintenance controls are another feature that C4 provides, allowing for less frequent and disruptive planned maintenance with increased predictability and control. C4 instances can support up to 1.5TB of DDR5 RAM and 192 vCPUs. Standard, high-memory, and high-processor variants are offered. Customers of Compute Engine and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) can now access C4 in Preview.

N4 and C4 work well together

They are aware that choosing the ideal virtual machine is critical to your success. You can reduce your overall operating costs without sacrificing performance or workload-specific needs when you use C4 and N4 to handle all of your general-purpose tasks.

Utilise virtual machines (VMs) that expand with your company. Combining C4 and N4 offers you flexible options to mix and combine machine instances according to your various workloads, along with affordable solutions that put performance and reliability first.

Availability

Us-east1 (South Carolina), Us-east4 (Virginia), Us-central1 (Iowa), Europe-west1 (Belgium), Europe-west4 (Netherlands), and Asia-southeast1 (Singapore) currently have widespread access to N4. Customers of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Compute Engine can now access C4 in Preview.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

#n4 #C4VMs #googlecloud #ddr5 #mysql #kubernets #technology #technews #news #govindhtech

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nexgendryingsystems · 2 years ago

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Coding and batch Printing machines Pune India

Discover cutting-edge Coding and Batch Printing machines in Pune, India, exclusively brought to you by Nexgen Drying Systems Pvt. Ltd. Our state-of-the-art machinery ensures precision and efficiency in coding processes, catering to diverse industrial needs. Contact us at +91 95943 53681 or reach out via email at [email protected] or [email protected] for inquiries. Explore our comprehensive range of innovative solutions on our website http://www.nexgendrying.com/. Nexgen Drying Systems Pvt. Ltd. is your trusted partner for advanced coding technology, providing reliable and high-performance batch printing solutions tailored to elevate your production processes.

#Coding and batch Printing machines Pune India

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batchcodingm · 5 years ago

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Inkjet Coder Mounting Machine manufacturer India, high-speed Inkjet Coder Mounting Machine for paper, film, foil converting industries. The Winder/Rewinder (Doctor Machine) is used widely for online printing of Mfg. Dt., Exp. Dt. B. No. etc. using Inkjet printer or other contact coding machines from Roll to Roll at high speeds & then these printed roll are used in various packaging machines. Also, we are a manufacturer of Bow Roll for flexible packaging, textile machinery industries.

#Inkjet Coder Mounting Machine #Batch Coding Machine #Batch Coding Machines #Batch Coding Machine Manufacturer #Batch Coder #Batch Printing Machine #Batch Printing Machines #Batch Printing Machine Manufacturer #Batch Printing #automatic batch coding machine #batch printing machine price #batch coding machine price #inkjet printer for batch coding #inkjet printer for batch coding s

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platoniccereal · 3 years ago

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i wish i could undo time,

but i'm just code made to satisfy

i guess i could see how i'm the monster from your view

but to tell you the truth

i'm just as scared of you.

a little bit more on the background for these rn9 guys. sad pining and yearning of people who hurt each other in the past and now are learning how to exist together + one yet third-wheeling possum who is loved but doesn't understand it for now because everybody's depressed. angsty explanation under the cut.

as i strolled through the buddy simulator 1984 i was reminded to tell the story of rn9. there are many options for how their story evolves, but every tale has its beginning.

this one is about one pretty Standard robot and another very Screwed Up One that is put away in a metaphorical closet and occasionally used. let's say the Standard One is nines and the Screwed Up One is rk900. let's say the former is tested by the latter. it's a company's way to check the product, you see. nines as the Standard One has all the knowledge his model has to have as each product line was remade after the mixed results of the revolution.

the Screwed Up One saw god knows how many other robots passing by while company perfected its algorithms. rk900 doesn't know about his purpose and is sincere in his nature of a negotiator and intentions to befriend.

androids that are tested know perfectly well how to catch any sign of deviance, showing the deviant that it won't find any support from its hunters. even if it's a model with their face. why would that matter?

rk900 isn't going to let the last one leave.

rk900 has the same task as ever. to be liked, to be trusted, to be empathized with. he doesn't know the others are mindful of him instigating them. this is what the outcomes of what happened on the jericho are. other androids also have the same task as ever. to neutralize.

it's all a nice addition to the aggression and instability that grew in him because he's still a neural network and is still capable of learning.

rk900 waits for each of them with excitement, and even in this isolated space, everything feels like a failure because of every time they leave. in the end of the day, it's still a failed mission.

he needs to know what's wrong, why nothing works. every time he tries to be better at something he's told to do – to please. every time his actions help other rk900's to be better at recognizing deviants and to oppose them.

this tale is about the corporation, about connivance and digging a grave for someone else, but in the meantime nines is released into the world, and then there's time to understand that it wasn't only his batch that left the cyberlife warehouse.

this will end with searching, reputational risks, a love story, one escape for three people, being in court with the said corporation when chances of winning are slim, a bunch of abscesses in its system, social unrest, uncovering schemes, losing monopoly...

but for now it's the Screwed Up android rk900 who is unhealthy dependent on whether or not somebody's comes to visit him to chat. the android that will hate being alone, being left and waiting for someone for the rest of his existence. the android that has little to no knowledge of the real world that he didn't gain by accident. why would he have any, he's just a basic machine for testing.

although you can easily imagine what he does know. an endless row of criminal cases on top of other cases and profiling reports, that's typical for his model. it's what the normal world looks like for him. he knows something about the nature of crime, but... nines was ready for existence outside the warehouse, he has the real world, at least, and he can measure it with his steps.

this is where the plot gets ambiguous. it could be that rk900 escaped after the nines' batch in his own chassis, and it's a far more pleasant option where rk900 interacts with nines, hides somewhere and doesn't test anybody by his mere existence. or it could be that he escaped like venom from the movie. then nines just as eddie has to deal with the alien code in his chassis and rk900 has to exist waiting for when nines meets him again. until time when rk900 finds chassis for himself.

it says enough about nines that he didn't prefer to let cyberlife know everything he knows. about how tough and hostile he is, it's all there under this softness of a negotiator, it's been that way since the prototype was created, and it says enough about what the company has achieved through its actions.

nines perceives rk900 as a target, a threat, an enemy. and then he develops... feelings. he's scared and he's disgusted. he hates rk900 as someone who's at fault for his mistakes and for what nines has become. but it's just the way nines and other androids were taught to respond to deviants that try to gain their trust.

even years later, even after this clusterfuck, when they're at peace and live with their human, even when all three of them decided that they at least should try... there are still old habits. and they have to work this out.

nobody's a bad person, but they still have to realize it. rk900 has his reasons to try to reach out and to be scared, nines has his reasons to push him away. rk900 is unstable because he was used for the sole purpose of being unstable, and is rather immoral. he doesn't know what is dangerous and wrong, and what hurts others. nines... well, you understand what's up with this little guy.

#detroit become human #dbh #gavin reed #rk900 #reed900 #reed1800 #rk1800 #rn9 #dbh fanart #platoniccereal art

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canichangemyblogname · 3 years ago

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Master-List

Below you will find my essays, short stories, analyses, and upcoming projects. I want to thank everyone for their support and I hope you enjoy the content!

Machines or Men: Moral Questions Regarding the Clones in Disney’s Star Wars

Clones take a prominent role in the history of the Star Wars galaxy. They were created for the purpose of fighting and dying in the Clone War as well as eliminating the Jedi Order, and are afforded little respite from this purpose. Their existence brings several moral and ethical questions to the story regarding free will and personhood. It is fair to ask whether the clones had any free-will or were afforded any of the rights and privileges associated with personhood. These questions come up at various points in the Clone Wars and the Bad Batch cartoons, most notably through the eyes of Captain Rex.

WC: 8,000+

The Deathwatch Allegory: Fascism and Terrorism in Star Wars, The Clone Wars

Eventually - maybe

Queer Coding of Evan Buckley in ABC/Fox’s 9-1-1

Queer coding refers to when media heavily implies a character’s queerness through its themes, symbolism, imagery, and through significant (and often unsubtle) subtext, often in place of representation. A queer-coded character would have a consistent pattern of queer characterization, often based on queer stereotypes. Before ABC/Fox’s 9-1-1 confirmed Evan “Buck” Buckley’s bisexuality, the show often utilized queer coding and references in its characterization of Buck.

WC: 8,000+

Star Wars Shorts

Rex goes swimming – inspired by Cato’s Rexpocalypse

Star Wars Short Story Shiggles – a collection of ideas or prompts

*You are always free to drop into my inbox and send a work-safe, all-ages-appropriate idea my way. I cannot promise that anything will become of it, but am always happy to bounce ideas around and highlight a character head canon.

The Clone Wars: Clones

Captain Rex, character study master-list ⭐️

Tup, one of the smartest in the GAR – reblog

Cody likes to fish – inbox ask

Cody was a golden child – inbox ask

Wolffe and stolidity – reblog

The Dedication of Commander Fox

The Bad Batch

99 Head Canons about Clone Force 99

Crosshair chugs milk, with Context

Bad Batch Analyses Master-list ⭐️

Multiple Characters

Your favorite Clones on Valentine's Day – reblog

Neyo and Bacara are best buds – pt.1 | pt. 2 – inbox ask(s)

The Clones and Order 66 Master-list ⭐️

Mandalorian Analyses Master-List ⭐️

Star Wars:

The Clones:

Fetishization in the Star Wars fandom

Abstinence-Only education sucks

Benevolent Sexism in fanon

A little on whitewashing – pt. 1 | pt. 2

The Jedi:

Luke and attachment to the past

No, the Jedi did not kidnap children – pt. 1 | pt. 2

Andor:

The Spy next door

Making money under colonial systems

Being political is inconvenient for the ruling class (neolibs)

Mommy issues?

The banality of oppression – reblog

The “new” uniform of white supremacy.

Media Critiques:

Holding media accountable

Inadequate representation in media

Master-List Short Cuts:

Mandalore and the Mando’ade – master-list ⭐️ post

The Bad Batch – master-list ⭐️ post

The Clone Wars and Order 66 – master-list ⭐️ post

Captain Rex – master-list ⭐️ post

Political:

Conservatism and Identity Politics

Recognizing Dog Whistles

The defanging of queerness + Letterboxd review

Counter-Terrorism is the Pretext, Ethnic Violence is the Reality

Tumblr loves homoeroticism, but can’t stand homosexuality

A special thank-you to @djarrex for the dividers!

I also want to extend a special thank you to all of my followers as well as @twistedstitcher27 for all her support and @clonehub for apparently inspiring, like, half the content on this list.

#Star Wars #writing #The Clone Wars #Captain Rex #Din Djarin #Mandalorians #Commander Wolffe #Commander Cody #Luke Skywalker #Corporal Echo #Arc Trooper Echo #the 501st #The Bad Batch #Crosshair #Tech #clone force 99 #Commander Neyo #Commander Bacara

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rewindermachine · 5 years ago

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We are Manufacturing Batch Coding for different industries and applications, Film Winding Rewinding Machine For Batch Coding, Winder Rewinder manufacturer, Winding Rewinding, Winding Rewinding Machine For Batch Printing, Winding Rewinding Machine With Inkjet Printer, Winding Rewinding Machine With Thermal Transfer Overprinter, Winding Rewinding Machine With Multihead Inkjet Printer, Doctoring Film Strip Winding Rewinding Machine, Winding Rewinding Machine With Slitting System, Winding Rewinding Without Slitting System.

#Film Winding Rewinding Machine For Batch Coding #Film Winding Rewinding Machine For Batch Codings #Film Winding Rewinding Machine #Film Winding Rewinding Machine s #Film Winding Rewinding #Winding Rewinding #Winding Rewindings #Winding Rewinding Machine #Winding Rewinding Machine With Multihead Inkjet Printer #Winding Rewinding Machine With Multihead Inkjet Printers #Doctoring Film Strip Winding Rewinding #Doctoring Film Strip Winding Rewindings #Doctoring Film Strip Winding

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violethowler · 4 years ago

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More Machine Than Man: Using Character Parallels to Predict Echo’s Journey in The Bad Batch

Echo was one of the first fictional character deaths that genuinely moved me when I was a kid.

Sure, there were a lot of character deaths in my formative Disney movies that made me sad, but no death had ever gotten such an emotional “How dare they!” reaction as Star Wars: The Clone Wars did on Friday, March 4, 2011, when Echo got blown up at the climax of Season 3’s 19th episode.

So when Dave Filoni revealed concept sketches of what the production team had been planning for future seasons at the time of the show’s cancellation, finding out Echo was going to come back - that he was still alive after all - was a tremendous joy for me. Getting the story reels depicting his rescue was a gift enough, but actually getting to see his return as a fully animated episode in all it’s glory when Season 7 finally released on Disney+ last year was a dream come true.

While I wasn’t particularly invested enough in the Bad Batch as a group to be excited when their spinoff was announced, the fact that one of my favorite clones (second only to Rex and Fives) was now a co-star of a spinoff show was enough of a thrill to keep me invested.

And yet, despite being highlighted as one of the main characters, Echo has not gotten as much focus as Hunter, Tech, Omega, Crosshair, or Wrecker since the show began.

A lot of this can of course be put down to the fact that while audiences have already had years to get attached to Echo, the rest of the Bad Batch are still relatively new from an audience perspective. Only four of the eight episodes they were planned to appear in for Clone Wars were ever finished, and they were all presented there as stock action movie archetypes. So in a show where these relatively one-dimensional characters are supposed to be the main protagonists, the writers need to spend a lot of time early on fleshing these characters out, making them more rounded, and giving us a reason to care about them besides looking cool and being connected to Echo.

But just because they haven’t done anything outwardly obvious with Echo yet doesn’t mean the writers aren’t planting seeds now to lay the groundwork for his evolution later on.

And after thinking some more about “Aftermath” - plus a comment somewhere on twitter, tumblr, TVTropes, or Jedi Council Forums that I frustratingly cannot track down again - I think I might have a general idea of what the writers have in store for him.

In the first episode of The Bad Batch, Tech refers to Echo as “more machine than man.”

Now, I’ve seen a lot of people up in arms claiming that The Bad Batch treats Echo like a droid and other arguments, especially after the whole “sold as a droid” scam they pulled in Episode 04. But aside from that one elusive comment I mentioned, I have not seen anyone taking into account that line’s potential as a flag to mark a parallel that could be used to start predicting the direction of Echo’s character arc.

Because while I can’t speak for the novels or comics, but the only other time I have ever seen that specific phrase, “more machine than man” has been in a conversation about none other than Echo’s former General, Anakin Skywalker. Or as he now goes by in the time frame of The Bad Batch, Darth Vader.

It may not be obvious at first glance, but when you look closely at Echo’s designs from Season 7 and his story arc in The Clone Wars as a whole, you’ll find multiple visual and narrative similarities with the story of Darth Vader.

Both are extremely pale after a long period of time without sunlight: Echo was kept in a box for over a year, while after becoming Darth Vader, Anakin spends all his time in his suit and only takes it off to soak in a bacta chamber like the one at his castle on Mustafar in Rogue One.

But suffered severe injuries that resulted in parts of their body - including being replaced with cybernetics: Echo in the explosion of the shuttle at The Citadel, Anakin by the burning lava of Mustafar. Both of them even lost their right arm specifically. Both of these transformations are also visually associated with fire, and their primary color schemes following their transformations are black and red, along with some dark grey thrown into the mix.

Both are manipulated into aiding the enemy of their respective groups - The Separatists experiment on Echo in order to rip Republic military tactics directly from his mind against his will, while despite Palpatine’s grooming him to become a Sith Apprentice, Anakin still consciously chooses to turn to the Dark Side.

In both situations, Echo and Anakin return back to their original allegiance thanks to someone they care about. Rex saves Echo from his imprisonment on Skako Minor, after which he returns to Republic service. Meanwhile Luke’s love for Anakin eventually brings him back from the Dark Side in Return of The Jedi.

And in each case, their return coincides with them bringing about the defeat and death of the person who they had previously been “working” under. Echo is instrumental in securing Trench’s defeat at Anaxes, leading to his death at the hands of Anakin. Decades later, Anakin kills Palpatine in order to save his son, thereby resulting in the deterioration and downfall of the Empire.

As I discussed in my earlier Ventress meta, the major thematic core of Episodes I - VI of the Skywalker Saga is Anakins’ fall to the dark side and his eventual redemption. When a character is that central to the narrative, several other characters typically serve as mirrors that show how differently things could have gone under different circumstances.

Echo was first shown in his new armor in the animatics for the unfinished Kashyyyk arc shown at Celebration Anaheim’s “Untold Clone Wars Stories” panel in 2015. The production codes put this episode as having been near the end of Production Season 6 in between the first half of Dark Disciple and Son of Dathomir. Based on the dates listed for the concept art for those arcs in their respective galleries on Star Wars.com, this means that Echo’s new Bad Batch armor was originally designed between September 2012 and January 2013.

Meaning that these references and allusions to Vader were not something that was conceived recently just for his role in The Bad Batch, but something that has been in the works for years.

So I, for one, cannot wait to see what unfolds because of how many different possibilities there are for the directions that Echo’s character can be taken in with these parallels in mind.

There’s too many different possibilities to speculate on a single route for Echo’s character arc just yet, but I have a feeling that the more this new series goes on, the more similarities to Vader we’ll start to see.

#star wars the clone wars #star wars the bad batch #tcw echo #tbb echo #clone wars meta #bad batch meta #the bad batch spoilers #anakin skywalker #darth vader #bad batch spoilers

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redrobinhoood · 5 years ago

Text

The Thorn in His Side | one-shot

AO3 Link | 8,600 words (approx)

Summary: Surrounded and beaten on Scipio, Thorn thinks back over his life in his last moments; his friendship with Fox and Stone, the good times and the bad, and the legacy he left behind.

TW: Character Death, Suicide Mention, Descriptions of Violence

Kamino, 24 BBY

“Your form is off.”

Fox turned indignantly to face the brother who had approached him and CC-3636. “I beg your pardon?”

“Sure, you can beg.” The brother stopped in front of them and crossed his arms. “But that won’t change the fact that your back foot should be pointing away from your body, not towards your opponent.”

“And who made you the expert?” Fox scoffed.

“Fox!” CC-3636 hissed.

Fox looked back at his batchmate with a shrug before he turned back to the brother before them. Then he realized that the brother’s training clothes were not the same clothes that he and CC-3636 wore. His eyes widened. “You’re an ARC Trooper.”

“And you’re a commander class. We’ve all had the same training. Now that we’re all acquainted with each other, your form is off.” The ARC stepped forward and pushed Fox’s feet into position. “Feel how much stronger your stance is now?”

Fox found himself speechless. He knew that the ARC couldn’t be much older than he was, maybe a few months, but his training showed in his posture; the way he held his head high even as he balanced on the balls of his feet. Nimble. Deadly. They had had the same training, but the ARCs were pushed harder, fed better, allowed a certain degree of independence that Fox had never had.

“So, what do you get out of this?” CC-3636’s words cut through Fox’s train of thought.

The ARC looked hurt for a moment before an impassive curtain fell back over his face. “Can’t I just want to help my brothers?”

“Your brothers? I thought the ARCs were built from a different genetic code.”

“The Alphas were, but not me. My batch doesn’t have anything in common with the Alphas. I don’t know why we were put there in the first place.”

“You don’t want to be an ARC trooper?” Fox asked.

The ARC shook his head. “I’d rather be a commander; be the one calling the shots.”

Silence fell over the three of them as Fox and CC-3636 contemplated the ARC’s words.

“If we had a choice,” Fox spoke carefully, “I think I would choose to not be a commander. Taking the burden of my brother’s lives into my hands, it’s too much.”

“I think that is a trait that would make you an excellent commander.” The ARC looked away from them to glance towards the chronometer on the gymnasium wall. “I need to go.”

“What’s your name?” Fox asked before the ARC could leave. His brother paused, mulling the question over.

“Thorn. Jango calls me a thorn in his side, so I suppose it’s Thorn.”

“I’m Fox. This is CC-3636.”

Thorn nodded. “Pleased to meet you.” He turned to leave, then paused and looked back over his shoulder. “I hope to meet you again, Fox, CC-3636.” Then he walked away.

“What an ass.” CC-3636 scoffed.

“I don’t know, I kinda liked him.”

“You would.”

Coruscant, 19 BBY

“Who’s in charge here? Me or you?”

“Neither of us. We’re unthinking cogs in the Republic machine.”

Fox rolled his eyes. “This is why the Chancellor doesn’t like you.”

“Because I don’t bend over backward to suck hi-.”

“Oh, shove it!” Stone cut in, whacking a loose hand against Thorn’s shoulder. “I’m beginning to understand why the Seppies use droids. The two of you are intolerable.”

“And the Chancellor is delusional.” Thorn slammed a fist down onto Fox’s desk, causing their helmets on the desk to shudder against the wood. “As the head of security, this plan of his will not work. We cannot maintain level five security at all critical access points to the prison under present circumstances.”

Fox sighed and leaned back in his chair, pinching his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “You’re not wrong.”

“You suck him off?”

Fox levelled a glare across the desk at Thorn. “About the prison. Look, I’ll cover it until we get this mess sorted out. It’s under my jurisdiction, or at least not under either of yours, so it’s my problem.”

“I can make it mine, if you like.” Stone offered. “Get the riot squad in there and shut the place down.”

“No.” Fox shook his head. “With all of these protests, you’ll be needed. There’s nobody else I trust more than you to represent us.”

Stone smirked. “What about Thorn?”

“Get me down there without a shirt and you’ll find the anti-clone stance will disappear overnight.” Thorn grinned, thumping a hand against his breastplate.

“And you’ll be decommissioned the moment it gets back to the Chancellor that you tattooed ‘Sheev Sucks’ on your chest.” Fox laughed.

“Two mynocks with one blast.” Stone shrugged as he stood. “Change in public opinion, and we’ll finally get some peace and quiet around here.”

Thorn stood after Stone. “I resent that.” His head turned from Stone towards the window, Fox and Stone soon mirroring the gesture as they processed the sound. “That was an explosion.”

The door to Fox’s office slid open and Captain Thire flung himself inside, all formalities forgotten. “The Jedi Temple has been bombed!”

Fox leapt to his feet and grabbed his helmet from the desk in one fluid motion before Thire could begin to catch his breath. “Stone, get the riot squad ready. The Temple is going to need a perimeter. Thorn, I want you and Thire on stand-by here. If they want help, provide it. I’m going to brief the Chancellor.”

Fox was out of the door before any of the men could begin to protest, Stone on his heels as he commed in his squad. Once they were alone, Thorn reached calmly for his helmet and gestured for Thire to follow him. They didn’t speak until they had sat down in Thorn’s office. While Fox’s and Stone’s desks were set up for one being to sit opposite more beings, perhaps moving a single computer terminal around to display information, Thorn had dragged an additional chair beside his and had affixed another computer terminal to that side so that two beings could sit beside one another and share information without turning one’s body or terminal.

Once Thire had logged in, they sat in further silence until Thire spoke. “What would you have me do, sir?”

Thorn sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking over to Thire. “What do you think we should do?”

“Whatever you have in mind.”

“No.” Thire’s expression morphed into one of insult, but he didn’t protest. Thorn continued. “Didn’t you learn anything on Kamino? Does ‘free thinking’ ring a bell?”

“But you’re my commanding officer.”

Thorn shrugged and reached down into the bottom drawer of his desk. He pulled out a red-lined kama and tossed it to Thire, who fumbled and caught it between his forearms. “We’ve completed the same training. As far as I’m concerned, we’re equals now- rank be damned. One day, you’re going to be the one calling the shots, and the odds are that Fox will be one of the ones you have to defend your ideas against. Better get used to it now.”

Thire stared down at the heavy leather in his hands, running his gaze along the Coruscant Guard Red trim. “We need to bring up the records on who entered and exited the Temple from the start of the first shift this morning until five minutes before the blast, prioritizing those who exited in the last twenty minutes before the explosion, then everyone who exited prior to that, then examine everyone who was still in the Temple.”

“Why?”

“Because if I were setting a bomb, I would stay with it until the eleventh hour, then scram before I could be caught in the blast.”

“So would I. Let’s hope the perpetrator thinks the same. Let me show you how to contact Temple Security and we’ll hope they cooperate.” Thire leaned over to watch over Thorn’s shoulder as he sent the most informal and short message he could think of to the Temple. When it had been sent, Thorn stood up and gestured for Thire to do the same. Thorn took the kama from Thire’s hand and knelt beside him, starting to affix the leather to Thire’s belt. Thire began to protest, but bit it back when he realized there was no use in arguing with Thorn. Soon, Thorn stepped back to admire his handiwork. “How does it feel?”

“Heavy.”

“Let me know if you want some anti-inflammatories later. Your hips will take some time to get used to it.”

Thire looked down, running his fingers along the red lining and watching the way that the leather swayed when he released it. “Thank you, Thorn.”

Thorn smiled at the look on his brother’s face and reached an arm over to clap him on the pauldron. “You look good, kid.”

Before Thire could respond, a notification sounded and Thorn slunk back down into his chair to read it. “The Temple is sending over the files. Are you ready, ARC Captain Thire?”

Thire sat back down, falling a little too quickly from the weight of the kama, and grinned at Thorn. “I am ready, ARC Commander Thorn.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

Kamino, 23 BBY

Fox didn’t glance over as Thorn settled down next to him, keeping his eyes on the dark horizon that stretched before them, seemingly forever. “What kept you?”

“Let a brother be busy.” Thorn scoffed, setting his helmet by his side and turning his face up to the stars, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath of the salty air. “How’s Wolffe?”

“Frustrated. He doesn’t think the Jedi are ever going to come for us.”

“And what do you think?”

Fox shrugged and gestured up at the stars above. “There are so many planets out there, Thorn. Too many for the Jedi alone. They’ll come for us. We’ll see something besides water, and water, and water for once in our lives.”

“Could get deployed to an ice planet and see frozen water.”

Fox punched Thorn’s shoulder even as he laughed. “I want to be deployed to a forest. I want to see trees, and grass, and dirt, and everything that was made outside of a test tube. Imperfect things. I don’t know if that exists, but if it does, I want to see it.”

“Yeah.” Thorn mused. “As good a place as any to die.”

“Thorn!”

“Look, Fox. I’m not disillusioned about my purpose. I’m going to be an ARC, I’m going to be deployed into some deep shit, and I’m going to die for a galaxy who will never know my name, or care to know for that matter.” He wrapped an arm around Fox and leaned his head down to whisper in Fox’s ear. “But at least I’ll have my men with me.”

Fox spun around and grabbed Thorn’s hand. “No way!”

“Just finished my last trial; top one percent. I’m going to be a commander.” Thorn’s grin stretched from ear to ear.

Fox laughed and flung his arms around his friend. “I’m proud of you, Thorn.”

“Oh like you did anything about it.” Thorn laughed as he hugged Fox back. “Think we’ll ever work together?”

“No.” Fox scoffed. “But I would like to. We’d make a good team.”

“Someone’s gotta be there to spot you.”

“You don’t trust me?”

Thorn pulled back from Fox and shook his head with a grin. “Not a chance. You know what they say about foxes.”

“They have beautiful fur?”

“They always get themselves into tricky situations because they think they’re clever. Sound like someone you know?”

“I should have never let Wolffe tell you that story.”

“You shouldn’t have.” Thorn pulled Fox back into his arms. “But I promise, for my little brother, I will always be there to catch you when you fall.”

“Hey, that’s Marshal Commander little br-.” Fox yelped as he suddenly found himself dangling over the edge of the training center roof.

“Even if I’m the one to push you.” Thorn laughed as he pulled Fox back up.

Fox shoved Thorn hard enough for him to fall down onto the roof under their feet. “Go to haran, Thorn!”

“I’ll meet you there!”

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thorn stepped solemnly back into the room that he, Fox, and Stone shared in the barracks. Stone wasn’t back yet, Thorn had left him at the Senate, but Fox had been ordered to rest the moment that Ahsoka Tano was brought into custody. Thorn knew that that wasn’t likely. He was right. When Thorn turned back into the room after shutting the door, he found Fox sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the blank wall opposite. Thorn stood in the doorway of the room, waiting for Fox to acknowledge his arrival.

“I stepped away for a minute. An alarm was triggered, I went to check it out and when I came back-.” He brought a clenched fist to his mouth.

“You don’t think she did it, do you?” Thorn crossed the room to Fox’s bed and lowered himself to sit beside him.

“I don’t know. She says she was framed, and I didn’t see anything, but she was standing over their bodies, Thorn.”

“I sent Thire to check on some of the boys in medical. They said it wasn’t a togruta. I have Thire talking to the Chancellor about that now.”

Fox nodded, then sunk his teeth into his fist as a look of pain crossed over his features. “I should have been there. If I hadn’t stepped away-.”

“Then you could be dead too.” Thorn cut him off and grabbed his shoulder. “In this line of work, in our line of work, we can’t afford to think like that, Fox. What’s done is done, always. For some reason, the galaxy seems to want us to stay alive, so we’re going to stay alive until it decides otherwise. We have no say in the matter.”

“Do you really believe that?”

Thorn’s grip on Fox’s shoulder tightened. “No. I don’t. But it helps me sleep at night.”

Fox began to say something, then fell silent.

“Get your armor off, we’re going to sleep.” Thire stood and crossed the room to his bed, stripping off his armor from his blacks and tossing it onto the thin mattress. When he turned back, Fox had also stripped his armor off, setting it in a neat pile beside his bed. Thorn crossed the room again and shoved Fox down onto his bed.

“Is this how you treat your dates?” Fox scoffed, his humor back for a fleeting moment.

“Shut up, Fox.” Thorn flung himself on the bed beside Fox and pulled his brother over into his arms, resting Fox’s head on his chest. He felt Fox wrap his arms around his body from instinct. They had all learned how to hold their brothers on Kamino, where training accidents and sudden decommissioning had been all too common. “I’ll always be here for you, Fox.”

“I know.” Fox murmured against his chest. Thorn could already feel the tension beginning to leave his body. He hadn’t slept in nearly two days, his body needed this. “Don’t you dare leave me, Thorn.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Maybe, if he said it with enough conviction, it would be so.

Geonosis, 22 BBY

Fox stared straight ahead as the medic flitted around him, moving only to respond to the medic’s questions when they came. No, his armor hadn’t been penetrated. No, he did not believe himself to have any internal injuries. Yes, he remembered what happened. He flinched as the medic reached for his throat, gritting his teeth as an antibiotic cream was rubbed across the abrasions the shattered rock had left behind across the soft skin between his blacks and helmet. Some would scar. Some would certainly scar.

He checked his wrist-comm as he stepped back out of the temporary shelter back into the hard desert. There was a comm that he had missed. He stepped off the path that ran through the temporary camp and opened it. A summons with a tent number, a map of the camp, and nothing else.

He took a moment to memorize the map before he set off towards the tent. On the way, he passed Wolffe- he was alive- who was covered in sand and talking to a Kel Dor Jedi. Wolffe and Fox exchanged tense nods as Fox passed, and the Kel Dor turned to follow Fox with his gaze. Fox could feel the Jedi’s gaze tracing across the commander-yellow stripes that fell down his arms. His and Wolffe’s association would be clear to him.

Fox took his helmet off as he entered the tent, taking a moment for his eyes to adjust from the desert to the dim lighting. There were two men already inside, both yellow-striped and sitting on supply crates. One was clutching his bandaged stomach, and Fox could see that parts of his armor had melted. He looked up as Fox walked in, and his expression morphed from a blank look of pain to one of surprise.

“Fox?”

“Thorn!” Fox crossed the room to his friend’s side, stopping beside him, afraid to reach out and disturb his wounds. “What happened?”

“Missile. Fox, my squad, I-.” Thorn’s voice broke and Fox sat down beside him on the crate so that he could throw his arms around Thorn’s shoulders. “I was too far to the side. It should’ve killed me too.”

The other commander in the room nodded. “We were ordered to push towards the Lucrehulk cores, so we did. Then the tanks showed up. And the Lucrehulks began to fall.”

Fox cringed, his grip on Thorn’s shoulder guard tightening. “I know. We were right beside you.”

“Gentlemen.” The three commanders looked up as a Jedi walked into the room, another yellow-striped commander following him. “My name is Mace Windu. Do you know why you were summoned here?”

Fox watched the other commander’s face light up in recognition at the man sitting with him and Thorn. It was Ponds, Ponds had been the one assigned to General Windu. Which meant that the man with him and Thorn was Stone. Fox knew the two of them had been sparring partners on Kamino just as he and Wolffe had.

It was Thorn who broke the silence. “Because we failed?”

The Jedi shook his head. “Nobody failed. No. I am told you three were chosen because each of you excelled in your training. Who is Marshal Commander Fox?”

Fox’s breath caught in his throat as Stone, Ponds, and Thorn turned to look at him.

Mace Windu nodded. “Congratulations, Marshal Commander. You have been specifically chosen by the Chancellor of the Republic to head a corps of clone troopers on Coruscant. Commander Stone and Commander Thorn will serve under your command, as will the remains of your current corps and regiments. As of just a few minutes ago, you are the commanding officer of the Coruscant Guard.”

A few minutes later, Fox was on his knees puking behind the tent with Thorn patting his back and Stone at Thorn’s side, ready to catch the commander should he begin to sway from his injuries.

Neither of them said a word.

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thorn sat still as Stone’s hands moved quickly over his head, the whining of the electric clippers filling the room. Thorn had already gone over Stone’s head for him, cutting the hair as close to the skin as he could, then Stone had gone over Thorn’s, leaving a little more hair behind, before moving in with steady hands to retrace the patterns that tracked across Thorn’s skull; the wings that Thorn had once taken the time to trace across the sides of his head, then the geometric designs that Fox and Stone had added across the back, where Thorn couldn’t see but could still trace his fingers along during slow days in the office. Fox had refused to allow Thorn to return the favor. Which had not been a surprise, he had also turned down getting matching tattoos with his commanders.

Fox himself had just stepped out of the room with a quick, ‘Chancellor calls.’ Neither Thorn nor Stone had cared to question him on why the chancellor would be calling him half an hour before he knew Fox would show up at the Senate. Very few things could be so important that it couldn’t wait half an hour. And none of those things would have only involved Fox. If it was an emergency, surely all three commanders would have been called in.

“How many credits would you put down that they’re having an affair?”

“Thorn, I will shave a dick into your hair if you don’t shut up about Fox and the Chancellor.” Stone traced over a final line then clapped Thorn on the shoulder. “If anything, it’ll be some ridiculous political drama that we’ll all laugh at over drinks this evening.”

“Seventy-Nine’s?”

“Please.”

Thorn crossed the room back to his bed to collect the top of his blacks and his armor, but took a moment to first glance over his datapad before reaching for either. “By the end of today, I’m gonna need it. Looks like some bastards are threatening Senator Chuchi again now that’s she’s working with Senator Amidala.”

“Chuchi. That’s the Pantoran senator, right?”

“That’s the one.”

“The one whose window you broke?”

Thorn made a noise of indignation and turned back to Stone. “Window frame. And look, it’s much safer now, even if it might jam when opening and closing.” The senator made sure to update him on the window’s behavior on any occasion they ran into one another in the hall. As of last week, it was still sticky. Thorn had offered to send Commander Fox over to fix it, but his offer had been denied. He would offer it again soon. “You know, she reminds me of Fox.”

Stone paused halfway through assembling his armor to shoot Thorn an incredulous look. “How?”

“Well, to begin with, they’re both hypercompetent. And Senator Chuchi is just as devoted to her job as Fox is to us.”

Stone sighed. “Did Jek and Rys put you up to this?”

“What are Jek and Rys doing?”

“Trying to get Fox a date.”

Thorn laughed, then flinched and brought his hand to his side, resting it on the mass of scar tissue that stretched from his hip to cross his stomach. “You should promote them. They come from a good batch.”

“And you should go in for bacta therapy.” Stone’s gaze was fixed on Thorn’s side.

“I’m fine. It’s just acting up again.” Thorn pulled his blacks on, covering the scar, and began to assemble his armor over it before Stone could protest otherwise. “Tell you what, you promote Jek and Rys and I’ll see a medic.”

“I’ll consider it.” Stone laughed. He waited for Thorn to finish reassembling his armor before falling into step with him as they left the room together.

Thorn didn’t see Fox the entire day. He never returned to his office, and Thorn found himself regulating more tasks to Thire than usual when he was ordered to lock down the Senate building to protect the Chancellor. It was after noon when he found out the reason why.

Stone brought the news to him and Thire when he joined them for lunch. “A clone from the five-oh-first tried to assassinate the Chancellor this morning. My boys have been ordered to hunt him down and-.” Stone stopped with a grimace. “I can’t be a part of this. Fox is with the Chancellor, he’s the one running the show.”

Thorn frowned. “He’s been with the Chancellor for hours.”

“The Senate is under lockdown.” Thire cut in. “If there was a threat on the Chancellor’s life, Fox would be the best one to protect him.”

“I should be there with them.”

“If Fox wanted you there, he would have asked.” Stone said. “You forget, he’s our commanding officer.”

“That doesn’t make him impervious to fratricide! Or any of us! No clone should ever have to kill a brother! I don’t know what in the blazes in going on in the Chancellor’s mind, but I lost any faith I once had in him after the way he handled the Temple bombing. If it were up to me, I would-.”

“Thorn!” Stone hissed, slamming his hand on Thorn’s desk. “You are not irreplaceable.”

Thorn closed his eyes and bit down on his tongue until it began to bleed as he tried to quell the anger rising inside of him, causing the room to fall into a tense silence.

Thire was the first one to speak again. “If I had to kill a brother,” he said cautiously, “I’d probably turn the blaster on myself.”

“Good luck with that.” Thorn threw his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “They bred or programmed it out of us. It’s nearly impossible to get your finger to pull the trigger.”

Thire looked away from his brothers, out of the office window at the city stretching around them. “Nearly.”

Thorn managed to make it through the rest of the day, dragging Thire along with him, until the sun had set, and they were ordered to end the Senate lockdown. No words were exchanged between he and Thire after the order had been given, but Thire did reach over to squeeze Thorn’s hand before they rose to head back to the barracks.

When they reached the barracks, everybody was clustered in the middle of the common room. They parted as Thorn and Thire entered, revealing a very pale Fox leaning against the back of one of the couches, a small squad of men around him. Thire froze at the sight and Thorn continued alone through the crowd to Fox’s side.

“Fox?” Thorn lay a gentle hand on Fox’s shoulder.

Fox gave no response at first, his eyes staring blankly ahead. Then his chest shook, and his shoulder shuddered under Thorn’s grip as he brought a hand to cover his face.

The men surrounding them went quiet.

“Fox, what happened?” Thorn gently prodded, rubbing his brother’s pauldron.

Fox shook his head as he let his hand fall to his side and turned to meet Thorn’s gaze. Thorn shoved down the rise of fear in his stomach at the look in his brother’s eyes. “It should’ve been set to stun.”

Then Fox collapsed.

Many of the men gasped and a few cried out as Thorn fell to his knees on the ground to catch his brother, resting him gently against his chest and feeling for his pulse. Someone screamed a call for a medic.

“No!”

Every eye in the room turned back to Thorn.

“No medics.”

Stone had been right earlier when he’d told Thorn he wasn’t irreplaceable. Even Fox, a marshal commander and his commanding officer, was not irreplaceable if he became ‘defective’. Thorn scooped Fox up into his arms, ignoring the way Fox’s head lolled against his shoulder, and stepped back into the crowd. They parted before him again. Some of the men looked scared, others looked angry, all moved away from Thorn as if he was poisonous.

“Thorn?” Stone stopped him in the hall. “Is he-?”

“He’ll be fine.” Thorn snapped. “Go talk to the men, please.” He forced his voice to soften on the last word. He wasn’t angry at Stone. He could have never been angry at Stone. They’d suffered too much together for Thorn to ever be angry with him. But the system, he could be angry with that. “And no medics.”

In their quarters, Thorn lay Fox gently on his bed and began to disassemble his armor. When the red armor had been stripped away, Fox began to stir, and Thorn quickly leaned over to take in his face as he awoke.

“You should let the Kaminii kill me.” Fox muttered.

“No.” Thorn’s voice shook even on the one word and he quickly stripped off his own armor so that he could crawl into bed beside Fox and offer him human warmth instead of unfeeling plastoid. Fox barely responded to his touch as Thorn leaned up against the wall and pulled him into his lap, resting Fox’s head on his shoulder and leaning his own head down against Fox’s. He began to run a hand up and down Fox’s back, feeling Fox melt into his touch at the gesture. “I’m here, Fox. I’m here.”

Fox finally broke, and Thorn’s grip tightened around Fox’s body through the sobs that shook them both. Thorn felt a few tears run down his own cheeks as he held onto his brother. Fox’s agony tore at Thorn’s heart and he selfishly wished that any other of his brothers had fired the shot. Perhaps they had, but he knew from the reaction of his brothers as they darted back from them that it had been Fox who fired the fatal shot. Fox’s own words had told him as much. His gun was always set to stun. But tonight, something had happened to change that, and Fox had killed a brother. Thorn had forgiven him from the moment that Stone had mentioned the cause for his absence throughout the day, but their brothers would not be so forgiving, and no one more than Fox.

Thorn didn’t notice Stone’s presence when he entered the room, but he did notice the blanket that appeared over them and the press of another warm body at his side. Thorn shifted slightly to the side so that Fox was pressed between his and Stone’s bodies, reaching over to take hold of Stone’s hand. Thorn didn’t know how long they lay there, shaking slightly with Fox’s body, until all three fell into an uneasy sleep.

Coruscant, 20 BBY

“You can’t just promote whoever you want to promote, Thorn.”

“That’s why I’m telling you! I want him as a captain so I can refer him to Kamino for ARC training.”

Fox nearly choked on his drink. “You want to make Thire an ARC?”

“I want him to be in line for command in the event of one of us dying.” Thorn paused to take a sip of his drink. “It’s a possibility we have to consider. And considering how Kamino is slowing the production of commanders, we may have to produce our own.”

“And you think that Thire is it.”

“I do. He reminds me of you, you know. Back on Kamino.”

“It’s rude of you to call him naïve and stupid.”

Thorn laughed loudly, not noticing the looks on the beings around them as they turned towards the two commanders. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Oh we were all naïve and stupid before the war.” Fox stared down into his drink, remembering nights on the roof of the training center with Wolffe and Thorn, the arguments, the bruises. At the time it had been intolerable, but now he missed their meaningless fights, Thorn’s stargazing, the time Wolffe had threatened to bite Fox, how Fox had been able to laugh so easily, without hesitation or regret.

“Before Geonosis.”

“Before Geonosis.” Fox echoed. Geonosis had beaten the naivety from them, singlehandedly turning the Jedi from unstoppable gods into mortal beings. They had later learned that the Jedi were even flawed beings.

Thorn’s head cocked to the side and Fox turned to follow his gaze. In any laboratory test, they had the same level of hearing, but on the ground, Thorn could always be counted on to be the first to pick out an anomaly.

“Let’s check it out.” Fox said before the sound could fully register in his mind. Something in him had already processed it and decided on the next course of action before his conscious brain could identify the origin of the sound.

Following the noise, they found themselves standing before a burning building. Coruscant Rescue Ops were there, and a steady spray of foam was being sent out from their transport onto the building. One of the men gave a nod of recognition to the two commanders.

“Please, she’s still inside!” An elderly female twi’lek was begging to one of the rescue officers, who was calmly trying to explain that they couldn’t risk the lives of their personnel for any one being.

“I’ll do it.”

The twi’lek, the officer, and Fox turned incredulously to Thorn.

“Where is this being?”

“Third floor, room 314.” The twi’lek said.

Another elderly female twi’lek stepped forward. “Her name is Fenn. She’s grey with long fur.”

Thorn nodded and tapped the side of his helmet. “Give me ten minutes and she’ll be back with you.”

The twi’leks erupted into a chorus of thank-yous and Fox bit back a sigh as he followed his brother into the building, sullenly bending down to avoid the burning top of the doorway.

“Thorn, why are we doing this?”

“The Coruscant Guard never leaves anyone behind!” Thorn began to bound up the staircase with Fox following right on his heels.

“And the Coruscant Rescue Ops know what they’re talking about when they refuse to send more beings into a burning building, di’kut.” Fox caught his breath as they reached the third floor. “Stone is going to be pissed if we die on him.”

Thorn stopped at the first room next to the door, reading the number before placing a kick against where the lock rested under the durasteel. The door slid open with ease, and Fox and Thorn entered the smokey room.

“Fenn?” Thorn called out, walking further into the room.

“Son of a kriffing mynock, Thorn, you bastard.”

“That’s me.” Thorn turned around to see Fox holding a tooka as far away from his body as possible. “Aha! Grey with long fur!”

“I don’t want this.”

“Give her to me.” Thorn took the tooka from Fox and pulled her close against his chest, scratching under her chin with one finger.

Fox’s heart was not touched by the display. “We need to get out of here, Thorn.”

“Don’t get your greys in a twist, Fox.” Thorn followed Fox back into the hall and back down the staircase. When Fox turned to glance back over his shoulder, Thorn still had Fenn pressed up against his chest.

“You and your animals.” Fox hissed as they stepped out the front door, giving Thorn no time to respond before the two twi’leks rushed them to pull Fenn from Thorn’s arms.

“She’s all right.” Thorn said as he deposited the tooka into their waiting arms. “Beautiful girl, too.”

“How can we ever thank you, Commander?”

“Thorn. And this is Marshal Commander Fox.” Thorn tilted his helmet in Fox’s direction and Fox felt his heart ache at the use of his full title. Marshal Commander Tooka-Saver was not going to be his legacy.

“I’m Mariela, and this is Sienn.” Mariela said, gesturing to the woman who had been arguing with the Rescue Ops officer.

“Really, is there any way we can ever begin to thank you?” Sienn asked, taking hold of Thorn’s arm.

Fox allowed himself to cringe under the helmet, anticipating the next word from Thorn’s lips.

“Actually, we were about to go back to the bar. Care to join us?”

“We’d love to! Drinks on us, boys!” Sienn said, raising Fenn up in a cheer.

On the other hand, Fox considered that a few more rounds of drinks weren’t the worst idea Thorn had ever had.

Scipio, 19 BBY

Thorn paced restlessly in the ship. Something felt wrong. Something was wrong.

His last conversation with Thire echoed in his head. They had argued. Thire had wanted to come with them, but Thorn had insisted he stay on Coruscant in his stead. ‘With everything that’s gone wrong, somebody needs to stay behind to run security for the Senate. You’re the only one with the capacity to carry that out at this level. And the only man I trust.’

‘But you’ll need me on Scipio if things go south!’

‘If things go south, you need to stay alive to take my place in the Guard.’

Thire had shaken his head, looking very young and afraid. ‘I can’t.’

‘Yes, you can. I gave you this kama for a reason, Thire. Be proud. I know I’m proud of you.’

Thire had been shaking a little as they embraced. Perhaps he had also sensed the dread that Thorn did now. He ran through a mental list of everything they had done so far and had yet to do and came up with no cause for the pool of dread in his stomach. Something was about to go very wrong.

“Commander Thorn. You’d better take a look at this.”

His train of thought broken, Thorn stopped pacing and made his way to the screen that his men were gathered around.

“It looks like an invasion fleet, sir.”

The dread twisted itself into a knot as Thorn followed the mass of incoming ships with his gaze. “We’re caught out here in the open.” He signaled to two of the men by the screen to follow him and sprinted to the weapons bay. “Grab launchers, we’re going to need to take some of these clanker ships down if we plan on standing a chance.”

Thorn could practically hear Fox’s jab as he reached for Hammer. ‘Going to take down a ship with a Z-6?’ It was comforting.

The two men, now armed with rocket launchers and their ammunition, followed him down onto the platform towards the group of men who stood guard at the bottom of the ramp.

“Get the men off this landing pad and beyond the city gates!” Thorn shouted, waiting for them to run off to relay the message before fumbling for his comm. The Senator. She was completely unprotected now. He should have pushed to go into the city with her. He brought up his comm and pressed the button that he had programmed to reach the senator. The comm beeped as he waited for her to pick up. “Senator Amidala, come in, please.”

“What is it, Commander Thorn?” Her voice finally came through the comm and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re under attack by the Separatist garrison. Looks to be a full invasion.”

“Invasion?”

“We can’t get to you.” They would try, but Thorn could already see the vulture droids circling. “I suggest you get to a ship as soon as you can.”

The droids dived. Thorn and his men ducked as they felt a searing heat wash over them. When they straightened up, it was to the sight of their ship sliding off the platform. Thorn took a moment to grieve the men inside before his focus was brought back to the situation at hand by the destruction of the gunships around them. They were trapped.

He began to fire at the vulture droids, knowing that he was wasting ammo but hoping that the perceived danger would give his men a reprieve from the bombing. One fell in a fiery blast from a rocket fired by one of the guardsmen at his side and the bombers veered away.

“Let’s move! Hurry!” The few men on the platform fell in behind him as he rushed towards the gates. They needed shelter, they needed to get off the platform. He raised his hand to tell his men to halt as two droid gunships parked between them and the gates, opening their insides to drop super battle droids and commando droids onto the platform. Thorn glanced back to see another gunship depositing more super battle droids. They were certainly trapped.

Now, he was glad that he had left behind the to-be Commander Thire and he whispered a silent apology to him for the deaths that would befall Thire’s friends. His squad. His batchmates. Thorn was cursed. First on Geonosis, and now here on Scipio. But this time, he would die beside his men. He could hear their cries of pain even now, and turned in time to see a commando droid snap a guardsman’s neck. Thorn turned Hammer on that droid with a snarl. When he turned back he realized that he was the last guardsman standing. He braced his feet against the landing platform and began to twist Hammer around to fend off the approaching droid forces.

Finally, he was hit.

He stumbled backwards with a cough as the blasterfire dug in under his ribs. He could feel a spray of blood coat the inside of his mouth and helmet with the sudden exhale. At least now, he had nothing more to lose.

A droid tried to take advantage of his stumble, but Thorn planted his feet and swung Hammer up into the droid, sending it flying backwards. How Fox had made fun of him for this in training. Keeping the momentum, he struck at another droid, and another, and then his eyes caught on the security camera at the end of the platform. Fox. Fox would see everything.

He snarled and planted his feet once more. If Fox was going to watch him die, he would die fighting. “For the Republic!” He put as much as he could into the scream, hoping the camera would have sound, hoping that Fox would know that he stayed loyal until the end.

The droids were learning. When he spun to take out a B2 it was ready for him. The shot struck deep into the center of his chest, and he could feel it burn through his heart. He stumbled and tried to raise his gun once more, but another shot ripped through his left shoulder and caused his hand to fall from Hammer.

The final shot to his right shoulder brought him to his knees. His chest was on fire- dying had never hurt this much before- and some part of his brain was aware that he had stopped breathing. That bodily function had given up sometime between the second and fourth shot.

A commando droid stepped forward and levelled its blaster at him.

Thorn’s life flashed before his eyes as it fired.

Coruscant, 19 BBY

Thire stood at the window in Thorn’s office. His office, now. He watched as the shuttle came in to land, tracking it with his eyes until it moved out of his sight. He’d refused to join Fox at the medical center. He wasn’t brave enough to looks upon the bodies of his mentor, his batchmates, his brothers.

Thire found his hands tracing over the red outline of his kama again. Thorn had chosen it for him, Thorn had chosen him. Thire couldn’t help but wonder if Thorn had been wrong. His fingers reached for his belt and he undid the straps that held the kama into place, letting it fall into one hand. It was heavy, as was the new weight of his responsibility. He didn’t think he could bear the burden of either. He fondly folded the leather in half and sat down in Thorn’s chair- his chair now- and placed the kama back in the bottom drawer from which Thorn had once produced it.

Thire looked up when Stone walked into the room. The other man looked tired, but also resilient, as he crossed the space and pressed a warm mug of something into Thire’s hands and sat down in the empty seat beside Thire.

“I should be doing something right now.” Thire said when it was clear that Stone wasn’t speaking first.

“You already are.” Stone reached over and lay a hand on Thire’s shoulder.

When Thire’s shoulders shuddered, Stone took the mug from his hands and set it on the table before wrapping his arms around his brother. Thire had no more tears to cry, but he buried his face in Stone’s shoulder as dry sobs shook his body. When his breathing had evened out, Stone continued to hold him, running a hand up and down his back. “I should have died with them.”

Stone pressed a kiss to Thire’s temple and brought one hand up to cradle the back of Thire’s head as the other continued to rub up and down his back. “We can’t afford to think like that, kid.”

A light beeping came from Stone’s comm and he sighed and wrapped his arms around Thire one more time.

“You need to get that.” Thire said, pulling away from Stone.

Stone nodded sadly, looking down at the blinking light, before he looked back up to Thire. “I’m sending your batchmates in here. Don’t shut them out.”

Thire watched Stone leave before trying a sip of the drink, something hot and sweet. It made his stomach turn. He didn’t deserve something so nice. He was trying to decide if he should return it to Stone or pour it out when Jek and Rys walked in and enveloped him in their arms.

---

Fox somberly watched the shuttle land. He refused to step forward to greet it, even as the crew began to disembark. It wasn’t real. Nothing had felt real in days. That’s why he was here now. Besides, he owed it to his men.

He continued to stand still as they began to unload the bodies; men whose armor was riddled with blasterfire or melted under the heat of some explosion. His men. Watching the quiet parade of bodies as they were taken into the medical facility for processing, Fox was glad that Thire hadn’t come with him. It had been his squad too, his men. He was the only survivor.

Fox’s posture stiffened as a new set of armor came into view. He would have known that helmet anywhere. He tracked the stretcher with his eyes until it was upon his position, then he turned to follow it into the facility. Minutes stretched into hours as he followed them through the facility, until the medical staff stopped and lowered the stretcher to the floor beside those stretchers already there. Fox waited for the staff to step out of the room before he fell to his knees beside Thorn’s body. He rested a hand on Thorn’s chest before he felt something in him break and he leaned over and pressed his forehead to where Thorn’s breastplate gave way to the abdominal plates. With a hand still resting on Thorn’s breast, he could feel the deep holes in the plastoid under his touch. Fox had seen the security footage. He had watched as the first shot had hit, then the three in quick succession, but had turned away before he could watch the final shot be fired. He wondered now, with the wounds under him, which one it had been. He reached over Thorn’s body with his other hand and took Thorn’s limp hand in his.

He wanted to cry, or scream, or even just let tears run silently down his face. But he couldn’t. Something in him had broken and he no longer felt human. Thorn had always been there to put him back together, he had promised that when Fox fell that he would always be there to catch him. But he couldn’t. Not anymore.

Their last conversation ran through his head. They had been in his office, Fox leaning back in his chair and Thorn pressed against the window, looking out at Coruscant.

‘I’m going with the boys to Scipio.’

‘Why?’

‘The Chancellor requested it. I have a bad feeling about this one, Fox. But it’s Senator Amidala. It’s not like she couldn’t use the extra security.’ He had paused, stepping away from the window and moving to sit on the desk before Fox. ‘I’m leaving Thire here. If something happens to us on Scipio, the chain of command can’t be broken.’

Fox had shaken his head. ‘Come back to me Thorn, I can’t do this without you.’ It had been a few weeks since he had shot Fives. In that time, Thorn and Stone had effectively taken Fox’s duties upon themselves, but they had never left him alone. Everywhere he went, Thorn had been right beside him with a steady and understanding hand should Fox falter.

For once, Thorn hadn’t given Fox his promise. Instead he had leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together. ‘If something happens, Fox. It’s been an honor to serve under your command.’

‘Don’t say that.’ Fox had begged, pushing himself to standing when Thorn had taken a step back and flinging his arms around his closest friend. ‘Don’t say it like it’s a goodbye.’

‘It’s not a goodbye.’ Thorn had promised before he untangled himself from Fox’s arms and stepped towards the door. ‘It’s a see you later.’

‘Then I’d better see you later, Thorn.’

‘You will, Fox.’ He’d said it with such conviction. Fox didn’t know if Thorn had believed in an afterlife. He’d never asked him. There were still so many things that he didn’t know about Thorn. That he would never know.

Fox didn’t know how long he’d lain there, as quiet and unmoving to the world as the dead around him, before a member of the staff slipped a needle into his neck and everything fell away.

---

Fox walked numbly through the barracks, clutching Thorn’s armor to his chest. He had been given the pieces that had been declared salvageable. Thorn’s breastplate had not been declared such and had been sent to be melted down, but Fox could still smell the burn of blasterfire even on the untouched pieces of armor. He passed Thire, curled up on Rys’ bed with Jek pressed against his chest and Rys curled behind him. Sheltered.

Fox stepped into his room, where Stone was slowly disassembling his armor beside his bed. Fox crossed the room to lay Thorn’s armor on the bed that had once been his before stepping back and stripping his own armor away from his blacks. He hesitated for a moment before exchanging a look of unease with Stone. Stone nodded, and patted the mattress beside him before he lay down on his bed. Fox walked over to lay beside him, turning away from his brother to look across to the bed that had always been empty. He supposed that bed would become Thire’s now, or when he was ready to call it his own. Fox closed his eyes as he felt Stone press their backs together and hoped that he might be able to sleep tonight.

Scipio, 19 BBY

Thorn felt the blasterfire burn into his chest and a shallow gasp escaped his lips as he began to fall. The stars above were different here, so far from home. Far from Kamino. Far from Coruscant. They blurred above him as he fell, coming back into some form of clarity when he had hit the ground.

Dying had never been this painful before. On Geonosis he had been at peace. Shock had rapidly set in as his damaged side had bled out into the hard sand. He had accepted his death then, and when he had awoken to a medic kneeling over him he had begged to be allowed to die. He’d been living in an in-between state ever since. And now, it was his time again. For the last time, he wished that he had died on Geonosis when it had been painless. Now, the holes in his chest burned into him and he could feel every bit of the destruction that they had wrought.

He felt his last breath leaving his lips, and he tried to force another one into his chest but found his lungs refusing to expand. That was it, then. He tried to find Coruscant in the sky above, but the heavens were too blurry and his vision was rapidly tunneling. A silent apology to Fox ran through his mind, and he closed his eyes, hoping that someone was waiting on the other side to catch him.

#commander thorn #commander fox #commander thire #commander stone #coruscant guard #my fics #oneshot

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splicejunction · 5 years ago

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Please tell me about shatterstar's Childhood

oh my god anon okay I’m assuming in context of what I’ve recently posted you want like... my version of events rather than what’s canon but just in case I hope you know that there’s basically zero canon material that actually describes his childhood/young adulthood beyond “I was a warrior born” or whatever the fuck. if you want to know about that idk go on the fucken... marvel wiki page or something

also--I hate that I have to put this out here and I doubt anyone would actually do this but just in case--I have spent like 1 million hours thinking about this because I have brain disorders and it is very close to my heart so please do not A) use this in fics, etc without letting me know/getting my permission in advance or B) reblog this post

anyways. this is a can of worms so I’m going to do a cheeky lil

first we have to get something out of the way: I hate the “shatterstar’s his own grandpa” paradox. I am sorry if this angers people but it makes me mad so I ignore it. the reason it bothers me is because it means alison blaire essentially married her grandson, which is A) weird and B) bad from a genetics perspective.

in my version of canon ‘star IS the biological child of longshot and dazzler but longshot wasn’t cloned using ‘star’s DNA because..... oh god... another whole separate post can be made about this but... in my head, on mojoworld the way genetic engineering works is not really the same as it is here. here genetic engineering generally means taking an existing genome and inserting or deleting genes. this is how they make, for example, animals that glow, or confer pesticide resistance to plants.

but on mojoworld I think the way they genetically engineer is more like... the way we mechanically engineer. like the entire organism is built from the ground up. there’s a master genetic blueprint which is essentially the “minimal genome” required for a functioning humanoid. this was created by study of Earth humans by arize and the other genetic engineers. they can then go in and customize by adding elements to the genome that code for the signals/building blocks that control things like height, strength, hair color, eye color, having hollow bones etc. so in my head longshot was sort of... designed with ‘star as the inspiration, but not directly cloned. that wouldn’t even make sense anyways because A) different hair color and B) LONGSHOT HAS 3 FINGERS ON EACH HAND and shatterstar has 4!! thats NOT HOW CLONES WOULD WORK!!!!

(side note, the concept of a minimal functional genome is a real thing in biology! some scientists have taken a bacterium that already has a small genome and reduced it to the minimum size required for viability. here is a wikipedia article on it and here is the original paper (DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2165) which I can explain in more detail because I took a class on synthetic biology which this technically falls under and I had to read this paper very closely).

fuck I’ve written 4 paragraphs and not even talked about his childhood yet. I am so sorry. anyways. so the way I think they raise the gladiators on mojoworld is they create them in batches of 5 to 10 identical copies of a certain “model”, place each copy in a different “class” with a set of 2-3 mentors/teachers, and train them to fight until they are 13 or 14. until this time the only names they have are the names that identify the “model”--like for shatterstar that would be gaveedra-seven where the model identifier is “gaveedra” and he is (in the lore that I have come up with) the 7th of 8 total.

the reason they create multiples and put them in different classes is each mentor is going to have a slightly different style of teaching which is going to work better for some and worse for others, so it allows them to have more mass production while increasing the chances of creating a truly great champion. it’s classic nature versus nurture--the genetic engineers create your nature, but you don’t end up exactly the same as others of your model. maybe you get an edge, maybe you don’t.

another thing that happens is different mentors believe in different ways of raising the kids in their care. shatterstar specifically was raised in a class where there was absolutely zero emotional development at all and no attachments allowed beyond fighting alliances. that’s not the case in all classes, and it also had the effect of making him somewhat of an outsider even within the other gladiators as he got older.

at 13 or 14--and yes I realize this is very fucked up but dude its fucking mojoworld idk what you expected--they start participating in fights. the first ones aren’t to the death and they’re as teams and they’re not usually televised they’re more like high school sports games that are attended by scouts (here, they’re “sponsors”--I think that’s a canonical term but I honestly can’t remember) and if you get sponsored you leave your class and join a new “team” that’s really just a bunch of people who all have the same sponsorship. this is where things can get interesting because they’ve all been raised with slightly different fighting styles but more importantly, slightly different degrees of Personhood.

also at this point I should mention that by this time, there are usually only 2, maybe 3 of each model left. either they died or were recognized as not having talent so they were sent to eventually fulfill other roles in the network. in ‘star’s case there was just him and gaveedra-five. once you get to the stage where you’re sponsored and you’re actually fighting to the death one of the first people you’ll fight is any remaining members of your model group.

by the time you’re the only one left of your group, you’re also eligible to earn a stage name. this usually happens if you have a particularly epic fight with a lot of viewers, you win and the commentators will typically say something like “Let’s give this crowd a real name to cheer!” and they’ll have a few candidate names and they’ll kind of just pick one. AUGH I actually have this scene written out in story form but its too long so I think I’ll save it.... :)

after you get a name you also get a cool outfit and usually some kind of mark or tattoo that serves as a brand. this brings me to another important point--shatterstar inherited the X-gene from alison and therefore he IS a mutant. his mutation is the swords vibration thing and the glowing eye. the star mark is a tattoo and teleportation is benjamin russell’s mutation (how he fits into all this is... for another post). basically after he got his name the costuming department guys were like “hey your eye glows, you look like the Legendary Warrior of Old, Longshot, we’re gonna pattern your look after him” so they gave him the star tattoo and the outfit that’s literally inverse colors of longshot’s.

also this brings me to another aside: you’re probably wondering “if he’s the biological kid of longshot and alison how are there 8 gaveedras?” when the genetic engineers got a hold on him as a baby they were like Sick! free baby! free genetic material! thats our job done for us! so they cloned him (in the traditional sense) and made 7 copies. this was also to kind of conceal his identity as technically being from outside mojoworld, which would make him stick out and thus be a target. they DID edit out the x-gene in the other gaveedra models though. this wasn’t a problem for ‘star because his mutation didn’t manifest until he was already sponsored.

I think that’s .... pretty much it for macroscopic lore on what it was like to be a kid gladiator on mojoworld. now let me give you some Tidbits of his life specifically:

like I said he was raised in a particularly cold and ruthless class. the mentors that raised him are like well-known by everyone to produce some of the best warriors but also there’s discourse on mojoworld because some people say perfectly emotionless killing machines aren’t as fun to watch. when he was sponsored there were 4-5 others in the same sponsorship and they were like Theres Something Wrong With You LOL

they speak earth languages on mojoworld because they’re imitating the broadcasts they (the spineless ones) used to hear from earth. however, most of the lower-class as well as almost all arena fighters and other television personalities speak cadre or other languages which are native to the planet. the stage names are all vaguely in english, but the gladiators don’t really understand them at first.

shatterstar got his name before he got the glowing eye, and when he learned what stars are, and saw his eye as a little star, he was like wow :) this is Me :) which is why that name is so important to him. it’s also one of the first things that wholly belonged to him.

(you can’t see stars on mojoworld because of light pollution and also because it’s a pocket dimension and there just aren’t that many stars to see)

I hate to bring up the s**ley miniseries but I do think it would be interesting to have him have a sort of ... mentor/first friend, similar to the concept of gringrave but they were NOT in a relationship. it was more like... another kid who was a year or so older than him got a soft spot for him and helped him not be so clueless. she didn’t make as much progress as xforce did, obviously. but they were.... something like friends.

unfortunately she was used by spiral to get shatterstar to murder the first rebel guy who tried to get him out of there. then she got switched sponsors (this can happen) and he had to kill her, and he was like well I will simply never develop any kind of attachment to anyone ever again.

he almost didn’t make it out of the first training session with his sponsorship group (this is semi-canon--there’s a reference when he’s teaching terry to swordfight to almost not surviving the first time he was in a gladiator class or whatever it was).

the closest he ever came to losing was the day he got the name. that’s why the crowds loved it so much.

the double-bladed sword was a gimmick weapon but when he got his mutation they realized it works way better if there’s resonance between two parallel blades so they redesigned it as an actual weapon.

(forgot this but I feel like I should include it) at 17 he escaped the arenas and joined the cadre alliance. two years later he came to earth and joined xforce.

I think that’s going to have to be it for now because it’s literally almost midnight and I have work tomorrow and I did NOT intend to stay up this late but I did. thank you for this opportunity anon :) feel free to ask me any other questions and also I realize a lot of this probably makes no fucking sense and that’s because I am not a writer or anything I’m just a biochemist with brain problems that cause me to obsess over stupid shit

#answered #shatterstar #GHKDJFDKHGRJ I KNOW THERES SOMETHING WRONG W/ ME THAT THIS FEELS LIKE EXPOSING MY SOUL....#Anonymous #long post #NSCU #<-thats my new tag since other people have asked about this #it stands for nadine shatterstar cinematic universe

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