#count dokku

[creativemessbyvd]

Fic Idea Vault #11: Another SW Fix-it Fanfic Idea - The Shadow´s Plan

S I G H who wants to hear another of my plot bunnies that I will probably never write?

I'm writing it down bc it's a plot bunny so big it actually came with little bunnies =.= And it is such a big idea I just have to write it down, you know before it consumes my soul more

Star Wars ofc bc I'm currently just on that hyper fixation

Not a complete fix it, definitely lots of angst but also found family, drama, misunderstandings and the disaster lineage being a disaster

TLDR; Qui Gon manages to reach out to his master after his death and prevents Dooku from falling; Dooku confines in Yaddle who is the head of the Jedi Shadows and they start trying to stop the Sith's plans but things still happen, namely O66 is given out and the Empire rises with Anakin as Vader, but secretly, he had the younglings saved and all Jedi's deaths are "staged", moving them all to a secret planet while he becomes the inside man with the Sith after Dooku dies. Obi Wan, Ahsoka, and others' stories remain the same as everyone keeps secrets, pretends to be bad or fallen, the twins are separated and Padmé lives to lead the rebellion, meanwhile in Palps perfect Empire, his second in command keeps the Jedi safe with his "inquisitors" and a bunch of bounty hunter Mandos who never take off their helmets (wink wink) who are very good at finding Jedi and "eliminating them". It will end with everyone reuniting at some point some 7 or 8 years into the empire and Anakin becoming the chosen one by taking off Palps head :). But things wouldn't be so easy, families have been torn apart and being able to trust again is not easy when you thought your loved ones had died and or had fallen to the dark and were out there commiting murder in the galaxy. But maybe with the help of the galaxy's cutest twins and anyone they rope into their shenanigans they might just be able to set their family back together. Will feature Anidala, Codywan, Kesett, and a bunch of other ships, people adopting just about every teen and child around, DinLuke in the future and also all your faves that "died" not actually dead :) and that's it basically, if you want a more detailed breakdown, keep reading ;)

- Galidraan happen differently and Jaster and Jango survived with a bunch of True mandalorians, leading Dooku to investigate more closely and keep in contact with Jango

- I am not making Komari to be in love with Dooku, but rather she has more problems with anger and is actually choosen to become a Shadow and fakes going crazy to get inside info on the illegal substance trade

- Dooku is busy with all his investigations so he does not meet Obi, but he sets Rael to watch over Qui Gon and this leads others to wack Qui Gon when he is being a dick, which leads to a better padawanship for Obi, also Tahl does not die here but she does lose her sight and leaves for the AgriCorps (Obi deserves a mom figure)

- The true mandos and the new mandos start working together to take down death watch and get help from the jedi after they find someone is helping DW aka Palps

- Everything about Padme being almost killed, finding Anakin and Qui Gon dying is the same, but Qui Gon, now one with the force gets glimpses of the future and makes more of an effort to reach out to his family to warn them

- Dooku feels that Qui Gon is around and is very concerned, so he reaches out to Yaddle thinking he is going crazy and together Qui Gon is able to sorta communicate

- Dooku "falls" to be an inside man with the sith and takes in Ventress (but he is actually nice and get help from Komari and Yaddle to help the girl fake being dark, Komari is used as the prize to help decide who should be the template for the clone army (Syfo Dyas goes to Dooku only after he was pushed to make the order to the Kaminoans and they figure out Palps manipulated him to do it, so he has to also “die”

- Jango is still chosen to be the template for the clone army after he choose to leave Komari alive, and he recognizes Dooku and is included in the plan to secretly take out the sith trying to take over the galaxy. He still asks for Boba (he thinks the clones will be souless but quickly changes his mind as the first batches show that they are all individuals so he makes sure to have many of his True Mandos train and teach their culture to the clones). Jaster dies later on trying to defend Mandalore but this time Jango is not against the Jedi and welcomes their help as everyonw is suspicious of this clone army that the Jedi def didn´t ask for

- Obi Wan still raises and trains Anakin (albeit has a lot more people helping him, namely his Padawan brother Feemor and others from afar, including Dooku, Komari, Rael, Tahl and the Council) Qui Gon comes to both of them through dreams and Anakin can sometimes see him, but Qui Gon prefers to save his energy in case Dooku or the Shadows need him in stopping the Sith and their plans

- The clones are not treated well by the Kaminoans but they are raised more Mandalorian and their chips are reprogrammed (they can´t take them out bc it would be too suspicious) so now Jango can be the only one to override the orders Palps gives

- Dooku knows that Palps has his eye on Anakin but they can't do much except make sure to keep an eye on him, Anakin and Obi have a better support network so they are much more open. Anakin misses his mom and Obi is able to talk to others about maybe getting her freed

- Komari is still pulling the strings on the spice trade and has a lot of pirates working for her that secretly free worlds.Tatooine is freed but many people remain there and to the wider galaxy they are still under the crime lords. Shmi marries and has Owen and when Anakin is 15 they go to visit and he gets to meet his brother. Shmi is also in on the secret Shadow mission that Dooku is part of when he figures out that Palps might do something to her to break Anakin, She promises to keep an eye out and given that the world is free, the Tusken riders are actually making deals and becoming friends with the general population so no chance they will kill her. Palps does not know this :)

- The war still begins, Shmi must fake her death and is also taken to live out with others who have “died” like Syfo Dyas, Yaddle, Komari and in the end Jango as well (he impaled himself on Mace Windu´s saber so that is how he is clued in finally that there are secrets the Shadows are keeping), Anakin gets there in time to send his mom off, and must fake that he lost her (she can´t tell him the full truth only that someone is trying to isolate him and that he should only trust the Jedi, this leaves him with more questions than answers and while Padme Is safe from suspicion, Palps isn´t and he is more weary of him from then on)

- Ahsoka still becomes his padawan and he loves being her master and teaching her, everyone bonds with the clones and there are a lot more losses on the Separatists side than on the Republic side. Anakin still is with Padme (they don´t marry yet but plan to after the war is over).

- Boba is taken care of and also becomes a player in the Shadow plan, pretending to hate Jedi and learning to be a bounty hunter. Any losses that the GAR has are actually instances in which the clones are placed as mandalorians that never take their armor off and help settle a secret planet full of refugees

- Lots of things still happen, Maul is someone that gets help after Dooku clues in his mother and the rest of the Nightsisters on their secret plans and she manages to get him to be less murdery. Ventress helps alot in that regard as she pretends to be bad. As the end of the war draws close, Anakin starts having visions and then Padme ends up pregnant and he is very scared, although this time he does go to Obi Wan, who promises to help him out but Palps won´t let them stay together for long and keeps pushing for Anakin to be alone. Anakin is given a message that Ahsoka is next to be targeted and he urges here to resign (although this time, the Council don´t want her to leave but rather to have her have a trial within the order) and leave the Jedi, telling her that she needs to be safe as something else is happening. She is angry he won´t talk to her but agrees to take her men and Rex and help out Mandalore (which is not actually under Maul´s control, rather DW is acting up and Satine also had to “die”, although Bo-Katan is not in on it and is putting her foot in her mouth by still using the DW to get Maul out) Ahsoka is almost told the truth of the secrets of the Shadow plan but Dooku “dies”, O66 is given out and suddenly Palps is saying all Jedi are traitors.

- The real changed Order 66 is to have all Jedi incapacitated and to fake their deaths and destroy all temples, moving the Jedi to their safe planet. Since no one was expecting this so soon, lots of Jedi think they have been betrayed, so Cal Kestis and Ahsoka and Rex are forced to flee. Yoda and the Council go for Palps and Anakin realizes that if he doesn´t step in, they will be killed. So he pretends to Fall and throws everyone out the windows where the Guard catch the dead and take them off planet. Then Anakin takes the 501st and has them all take the children and Jedi left at the temple to safety and burns the temple down to. Obi Wan thinks that his soldiers have turned and leaves the planet, Yoda escapes and mistakenly thinks Anakin has fallen and him and Obi make their plans.

- Padme thinks that Anakin has also fallen and her and Obi go to confront Anakin, and a fight breaks out. He is trying to make them understand but still has an anger issue and with Palps darkness around him he still tries to take down Obi Wan. He doesn´t hurt Padme but seeing her scared has him pretend to fall into the lava to have them escape. She gives birth in space and survives barely. They fake their deaths and Padme even has a whole funeral (Sabe and the others are in on her plan to die to start a rebellion), which Anakin believes so he stops trying to look for them and focuses on the plan that Dooku and the others had been constructing for years.

- Padme knows the twins will be in danger together and she wants to help the rebellion take back the Galaxy, so Leia still goes to the Organas and Luke is sent to Tatooine. (She knew that Shmi survived but has no way of knowing where she might be and trusts Obi Wan to try to get that info). When the news reach Tatooine, all communication Shmi might have with Owen is cut and he believes that Anakin killed her after he went dark. He was never told the full truth so he doesn´t know of the Shadow plan, but Beru wants to keep Luke and  agrees:

- Anakin dons the Vader suit while everyone thinks he died. Secretly they run their own rebellion faction apart from the one that Padme and Ahsoka have. Clones are choosen to be bounty hunters that get Jedi lost in the Galaxy. Some Jedi choose to be Inquisitors like Reva and Trilla who pretend to be dark now but actually are with Anakin in hopes of taking down Palps.

- 8 years pass, and Leia gets kidnapped by Palps orders, making Obi go after her with a little Luke who felt his sister´s distress along for the ride. Cue in everyone trying to find Obi and the twins, from real Inquisitors, to Anakin and his fake inquisitors pretending to be bad but secretly wanting to finally get Obi Wan back and in on the plan, to Padme and Ahsoka on the side of the Rebellion, to Cal and his crew thinking they will save some poor force sensitive children from the Empire. Its a whole adventure, filled with everyone finally coming together and truths being revealed.

- The twins meet various family members they didn´t know they had, everyone who is in love being an idiot (Padme and Anakin, Obi and Cody, Cal and Boba) while also families being idiots and not communicating (Obi and Anakin, Qui Gon and Obi, Shmi and Owen, Cal and Jaro Tapal, Ahsoka and Anakin and Obi, the disaster lineage in general). Funny enough, Boba and Jango are the best family around alongside Dooku and Ventress, so they end up running interference alongside the Twins.

- Also, Din is here and he was adopted by Jango so he is Boba´s little brother. Han is also here and helps out in the Twins shenanigans.

- in the end, Anakin and the adults go after Palps and Anakin can fulfill his destiny as the choosen one. He decides to leave the order and after some time, him and Padme get married. The galaxy is still shit, but there are a lot of people in better states that soon everyone is able to be better. With the Agricrops Jedi still here, they immediately set out to help the worst planets. The inquisitors are no match for Jedi and Clones and the Rebellion Padme and Ahsoka build is a better basis for a better republic. Lots of slavery and spice trade was erradicated thanks to the efforts of the Shadow´s work, and its all better for everyone.

Bonus, Cal and Boba push for Din and Luke and Leia and Han in the future when everyone is at least 20 and various parents and family get in the way. 

[letitrainathousandflames]

(Un)leashed

Rating: M

Word count: 9.5 K

Summary: Rex has a secret relationship with a civilian, and he's a sweet, vanilla lover in the bedroom. After a very strange talk to Jesse regarding collars and such, he tells his girlfriend about it... and she seems very much interested in that talk. Jedi OC Miyala belongs to author NotSummer, borrowed with permission. [EDIT: if anyone knows their current username on tumblr, pls tell me so that i can @ them]

Tags: humor, leashes, fluffy smut, civilian OC, not a Reader fic

[NOTE: This is an older fic which i'm now copying from my old blog to add to the masterlist, hence the style not being the same as I have now]

-

It all began on a night off at the local bar after a mission. Rex and his men were finally chilling and toasting to the brothers who’d fought bravery…

“And to our general!” Hardcase boomed, throwing another shot down the hatch “And to the dead clankers! And to Dokku’s sorry ass being kicked outta here!”

While Kix tried to convince him to stop at the fifth shot, Fives was at the bar running his fingers over some civy’s knuckles, and the girl was giggling.

“That suave droidfucker.” Jesse cursed, a little tipsy already as he sad down by Rex’s side along with Hardcase, placing another bottle on the table

Rex turned the the bottle to check the label.

“‘Kashyykian Vodka’, Jesse?” Rex shook his head “Y’know, I wanna be able to walk when I get out of here.”

“Nonsense, sir.”  Hardcase said, pouring the thing into three glasses and grabbing one for himself “I’m sure we can take this.”

“I’m sure you can take this.” Jesse snorted, picking up his glass and pushing another towards Rex “You absorb and process anything in seconds. There really must’ve been something weird in your tube in Kamino.”

Rex examined the semitransparent, slightly green liquid and sighed. Oh well. He’d done worse choices in life.

Ten minutes later he wasn’t so sure. However, when Hardcase poured yet another glass for him, he downed half of it in one gulp. Hardcase can’t stop giggling at Jesse.

“He he he, I still can’t believe that Dogma, sweet, mercifully naïve Dogma thought you had a dog.”

Rex frowns at that, midly curious.

“A dog? Why would Dogma think that?”

Hardcase laughed so hard he was almost screaming.

“Oh, kriffing stars, he doesn’t know it!” and he pounded his fist on the table “Okay, get this…”

Jesse elbowed Hardcase on his chest.

“Uh, Hardcase, I don’t think the Captain needs to know this…”

“It’s okay, he won’t tell the Captain!” Hardcase was so hammered he seemed to have forgotten that Rex was Rex “Get this: Jesse here is a very kinky boy and he’s got some leashes he likes to use on his girlfriend!...”

Before Harcase could continue, Tup swept in, grabbing him by the arm.

“Hi Cap, ‘scuse me while I borrow Hardcase, we got ourselves tangled in a dart game with the 212th and we’re losing…” he hollered at the bar “because Fives there is too busy trying to get some!”

From the bar, Fives shugged back to Tup, speaking over the loud chatter around them:

“Love before vod!” and he pressed a kiss to the face of the girl next to him as she giggled

Hardcase was laughing his ass off as he walked away with Tup:

“Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes...”

And while the other men laughed and teased each other, Rex turned to Jesse.

“So… griffa. I mean gerfa… girlfriend.” He struggled to spell the word; His speech wasn’t what one would call eloquent after so much booze “You got a goff… a greff…”

Jesse nodded, letting the Captain know he’d understood what he was trying to say. Jesse was almost as drunk as Rex too.

“Yeah… Miyala… She’s… Amazing….”

Rex sighed wistfully and smiled quietly.

“Yeah, I got a gerf… A giff… I’m dating a girl too.”

The two of them just remained there, contemplating their own happiness until their eyes went wide as they absorbed the words from each other's.

“Wait, you got a girlfriend?!” Jesse half-screamed

“And you’re dating Miyala?!” Rex hissed “The Jedi?! That Miyala?!”

Jesse’s realization downing in his face would be the funniest shit to Rex if it didn’t mean that one of his best soldiers had simply ran over about twenty regulations and hooked up – no, was goddamn dating a Jedi. Not that it mattered. Although less troublesome, Rex’s secret relationship with a civy was also off regulations’ bounds and could cause him a lot of headache. But that was not the worst. Rex ran his hand over his face.

“I won’t say a word about regulations, long as you don’t get fricking caught by them. And if you do” he adds “They won’t harm you, that I promise, because I will have killed you myself by then, you dumbass.” He paused, Tell me what the kriff is the deal with the leashes.”

Jesse frowned at him like Rex was teasing him.

“Yeah, very funny, everyone made that joke already.”

Rex frowned back.

“What joke? What would you possibly use leashes for? Harcase said you don’t have a dog…”

Jesse’s eyes went wide as he still frowned.

“Rex” and Jesse wouldn’t refer to Rex without his rank over nothing but sheer shock “tell me you’re kidding me. You know what I mean like… y’know?” he gave him a look full of significance, like someone begging the other to take a hint, but Rex seemed to remain clueless

Jesse sighed and reached for the bottle and poured himself another glass, taking a swig and grimacing at it.

“The leash…” he paused, leaning in closer to Rex “I use it on her, okay? I tie a collar on her neck and there’s a leash tied on it and then…”

His next pause needed no explanation, and Rex pulled back like Jesse had told him the seppies weren’t so bad after all. The captains’ eyes were wide and his mouth had dropped open.

“A leash?!” he exclaimed, and at Jesses’ desperate signs for him to lower his voice, Rex hissed “What do you mean you tie her on a leash, Jesse, that’s sick!” Jesse sighs and tries to talk, but Rex speaks over him “You’re... you're treating her like an animal! I wonder how she hasn’t reported you to Fox and his men or the Jedi Order!”

“Rex…” Jesse seemed to be finding Rex’s reaction funnier by the minute

“Don’t ‘Rex’ me, trooper, I thought you’d know that this is no way to treat a significant other… don’t laugh at such a serious matter!...”

Jesse’s face was flushed all over and he threw his head back in the most heartfelt fit of laughter. Rex didn’t quite remember having ever seen him laugh so hard.

“Rex!” Jesse talks over him, laughing so much he can barely breathe “Rex, she likes it. We both do.”

Rex’s face was scrunched in disbelief and Jesse insisted “I swear, she does. We do this out of mutual consent, okay, and…” Jesse lowered his voice even more, leaning in again “she kriffing loves it.”

Rex begged the following hangover would wipe everything else that Jesse said out of his head when he got into the shuttle on the following morning, almost tripping on his own feet – goddamn kashyykian vodka – Fives was wearing his kama wrong-side out and Rex rolled his eyes; is every single soldier under my command a perverted di’kut?

The weird conversation remained in Rex’s mind when he arrived back in Coruscant, and as he hurried to wrap up his duties for the day and ran over to his girlfriend apartment in west Coruscant he was still fighting to push Jesse’s strange words to the back of his brain.

“Rex!” Tae smiled as she opened the door for him “I’m glad you could make it so early!”

She pulled back so that Rex could walk inside carrying his helmet under his arm, and closed the door behind him before giving him a peck on his lips; Tae knew how reserved Rex tended to be, and how he’d rather have any display of affection to be always shared behind closed doors. It wasn’t just about him being a captain and having a reputation. He thinks love to be something intimate and precious, not for other’s eyes. So when he runs his hand to the door behind him, locking it, he feels comfortable enough to place his hands on the back of Tae’s neck, pulling her into a kiss. She sighs into his lips, smiling. He knows she missed him as much as he did. When she pulls away, she’s smiling. To Rex, Tae is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. He eyes are small and of a very dark green, her wavy black hair brushes over her shoulders  and her pale skin makes her puffy cheeks look even more pink with excitement.

“I made food.” She says charmingly “And then I burned it. And then I ordered food. So… dinner?”

She was giggling, and Rex smiled, feeling at ease like he so rarely does. Those precious hours with Tae feel like vacations without leaving Coruscant. After eating and sharing their stories over a glass of water (Rex was not interested in wine or any other shape or form of alchohol anytime soon) Tae had slowly undressed Rex of his armor, just the way he liked it. Rex could feel his tension being let out at each piece of it that was removed, and when Tae kneeled down to remove his belt and his kama, Rex looked down at her and, for a moment, imagined how she would look like if she was wearing a collar tied to a leash on his hand.

Rex stopped that train of thought as if it was a clanker and his common sense was a blaster. What in the kriffing hell was that mental image?! No. No, no, this was wrong. Wrong and bad. Terrible. He never wanted to punch a brother so much as he now wanted to punch Jesse.

Tae, however, having removed the last bit of Rex’s armor and carefully placing the parts piled up on her empty coffee table, was now tugging at the neck of Rex’s blacks so that she could kiss the skin under it:

“Hmm, should we go to the bedroom, love?” and Rex let out a small laugh as she nuzzled at him “What?” she asked playfully “Does it tickle?”

Rex turned to smile at Tae.

“No, it’s not that, it’s some… weird talk I had with Jesse. I told you about Jesse, right? One of my men from Torrent Company?”

Tae nodded, curling herself close to Rex and kissing his chest over his blacks.

“Yeah, you told me about him. He seems nice.”

“Yeah, nice.” And at Tae’s questioning gaze, he shook his head “If I tell you what he told me, I don’t think you would say that, cyare.”

Tae scrunched her face in amusement.

“Uh, what did he tell you?”

Rex looked at her, and Tae wanted to giggle at the ‘you-will-not-believe-this’ gossipy face of his.

“He’s got a girlfriend, alright? And he likes to – get this – tie a leash on her when they’re…” he cleared his throat “In the bedroom. A leash! Like a dog’s!”

Tae raised her brows in mild amusement. That was not the reaction Rex was expecting. Where was the bewilderment? The shock? So he added:

“And the kriffing moon jockey tells me she lets him. That she likes it too. They both do.” Tae nods and she looks pensive. Rex frowns. “This is weird, right? You’re a woman, cyare, and a civy. Tell me – from your point of view should I notify Fox and or the Jed- the woman’s family?”

“Oh my—“ Tae let out a laugh, and only stopped when she saw that Rex couldn’t understand the joke “Oh my stars, you are being serious. Rex. Rex, some people like this kind of thing.”

Rex was skeptical. How? It was humiliating. Dehumanizing, even. How could someone date a man who would have his partner on a leash like a domesticated pet? Where would the romance of the act go? The long looking in each other’s eyes, the soft caresses, the whispered moans… none of that fitted in a scenario featuring a leash.

While Rex was arguing with himself, Tae tapped a finger to her chin pensively.

“Actually” she mused “I’m kind of curious about how it must be like, to wear a leash. Maybe it could be kinda hot.”

Rex was mortified, his mouth dropping open in shock.

“Are you- Are you joking? Tell me it’s one of your jokes.”

Tae shrugged.

“What’s the big deal? We could try it, see if it works, if one of us or both hate it, we drop it and no longer mention it.”

Rex bit over his tonge.

“A leash, Tae?” he runs his hand over his head “There are so many things that could go wrong, it could constrict your neck—“

“I think that’s kind of the point.” Tae added, raising an eyebrow

“Oh my stars.” Rex said sardonically “No, no constricted necks. And you’d be like—like some sort of—of pet! It’s humiliating.”

Tae looked at Rex like she was already anticipating his reaction:

“Uh… That, too, is kinda hot, to be honest.” Rex was so wide-eyed Tae reached for his face “Moons, don’t be like that, my love. We can drop the subject if you want to.” She leaned in close “Now why don’t we go to my room and…”

She kissed him on the lips, then his neck, and Rex hummed in pleasure as she threw a leg over him, straddling him and pressing her warm body to his as she claimed his mouth again. This is what things were supposed to be, he thought as he hugged her lower back and she wrapped her legs around his waist, still kissing him as he got up and carried her to the bedroom. Kissing and soft touches of kindness. This is how one is supposed to make love. What in the kriffing hells was Jesse thinking?

But afterwards, wrapped in Rex’s arms, Tae murmured:

“I just think it could be fun. The leash thing. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, or if you’re scared. Maybe it’s something that works for your friend and doesn’t work for you.”

Rex knew Tae didn’t mean it like that, but it sounded like two things: one, Captain Rex of the 501st battalion was scared, and two, scared of something that a lower rank trooper like Jesse could face easily, having fun even. That was a challenge he couldn’t pass. This was about honor. He had to do the most mature thing.

So that’s how he ended sitting down in a bar in lower Coruscant wearing civilian clothes and  the best i-am-not-a-clone-trooper-violating-12-different-codes face he had. And, on the table farthest from the door, there was a man in a brown jacket and jeans sitting by a gorgeous twi’lek dressed in a plain purple dress that almost made Rex not recognize her – that was Miyala, the jedi knight Rex had only seen a couple of times, and always wearing her robes, never dresses. In front of her there was Jesse and his unmistakable tattooed face. Rex sighed, walking to the two of them and sitting on the vacant chair at the table.

“Hello, sir.” It was odd seeing Jesse maintaining protocol even out of his armor and in a setting that was as far from military as possible, and he gestured to the twi’lek jedi in disguise “You already know Miyala.”

Miyala nodded at Rex with a small smile.

“I must thank you for not turning Jesse in.” she said hesitantly “We… We never planned for our relationship to happen under such complicated circumstances.”

Rex nodded back, and he would return the smile if he wasn’t so tense.

“I understand how you feel. I’m concealing a relationship of my own.”

“I’m sorry.” Miyala then had curiosity in her eyes “Jesse said you wanted to meet us to ask something?”

Rex cleared his throat. Oh well. He was down the sarlaac pit already, better come clean about his thoughts. Before he could speak, however, Miyala got up.

“I say, Captain, why don’t we go get something to drink at the bar and bring back to Jesse?”

At that, Rex stuttered:

“I, I, uh…”

“Come now.” She tapped him on his shoulder, walking past him, and Rex got up, following her to the bar as Jesse gleefully waved from their table; she leaned on the bar, ordering their drinks to then turn to Rex “What is going on? I can sense your tension.”

Rex pressed his lips into a thin line to then blurt out:

“Jesse and I got drunk and he mentioned something about using leashes on you and I respect your intimacy, ma’am, and I beg your forgiveness for intruding but if you are by any means scared of leaving your relationship count on me to get the help you need on…”

Miyala seemed to be in a good amount of shock and the same smile of Tae’s – like Rex haven’t noticed a joke that everybody’s gotten.

“Captain.” She cut him off “Captain, calm down. I’m not scared of anything.” She looked at Jesse and waved at him with such a threatening smile the trooper lowered his hand and swallowed hard “Jesse should be, for telling you of these things but… I’m fine. We both are.”

Rex wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Are you? But… But a leash…?”

Miyala picked up her glass and Jesse’s gesturing to Rex for him to pick his own up.

“Like I said, I’m fine. It’s… our little thing. We enjoy it.”

And with that, she began walking back to their table, and Rex walked fast behind her. The two of them sat back down and Miyala gave Jesse the same dangerous smile she had given him before.

“Say, darling, why does Captain Rex here knows of our…” she cleared her throat “…our little games?”

All color seemed to drain from Jesse’s face.

“I-It’s a long story, Dogma wanted a candy bar and I told him to get it in my locker but I forgot that the… the leather one I had bought you was still there and he saw it, then he told Fives, and Fives is a kriffing loudmouth so of course Hardcase heard of it too and then the Captain wanted to know and we were, stars, drunk out of our minds—”

Rex cut Jesse off sharply:

“My girlfriend wants to try it.” Jesse finally shut up, frowning at Rex while Miyala eyed him with the same polite curiosity of before “The leash thing… she said she thinks it’s… hot.”

Jesse gave a small laugh, then opened a wide smile.

“Well, then do it! If she wants to…”

Miyala raised a hand, interrupting him.

“Wait a second, darling. Captain, what of you? Do you want to try it?”

Rex lowered his eyes. What was with Jedi that got him so tense?

“I… I don’t know. I love Tae. I’d do anything for her.”

“But are you willing to?” Miyala insisted “Captain, these… games… they depend on mutual trust. Neither the dominant or the submissive can be in out of dull acceptance or just out of a wish to tend to the other’s needs. Both need to see fulfilment and fun in the deal, otherwise it’s off the table. This is how it works – consent, mutual consent, is the key of it all.”

The thought of Tae on a leash makes Rex worry for her, but it wouldn’t ruin the night, not if he focused on treating with all the love she deserved, caressing her, kissing her, telling her how beautiful she is…

Praising her. Like a darling pet.

Rex felt a sudden twitch in his crotch and he sat upright at that. What. In the moons. Was that? What was this feeling, this head rush, this cold excitement setting in his guts? He swallowed hard.

“I want this. I do.” He says, and it’s scary how much he means it now “But I’ve never… I’m afraid I’d hurt her. Can you teach me how…?”

“…how to do it safely?” Jesse completes, and Rex nods, feeling his face burning hot “Sure, leave it to us. I know quite a lot about it.”

“And I can tell you how the other side feels, so that you understand how to read your girlfriend signs.”

And so they started talking. It was a very good feeling, sitting there with Jesse and his girlfriend, seeing how much in love they were, and being able to talk about Tae, and hear others address her as “your girlfriend”. Sure, the conversation was the strangest one Rex had ever had.

“I don’t get this ‘safeword’ thing.”

“It’s a code for her to tell you she wants to stop playing”, Jesse explained

“Well, wont ‘stop’ be good enough for that?”

Jesse scratched his chin, and it was like Rex was a jet pilot asking him how does a ship fly. Like this was the most obvious thing.

“Sometimes she’ll say stop… When she doesn’t want you to stop.”

Rex cradled his head in his hands in utter nervousness.

“I’m gonna kriff this up, won’t I?”

Miyala chuckled.

“No you won’t. I can see you want to be a good boyfriend, and that you want to test new limits too. Everything will be fine. Now, let’s talk more about safewords…”

Rex would’ve given anything not to be greeted by Jesse and his shit-eating grin a week later, as they walked in lower Coruscant wearing civilian clothes.

“Your girlfriend doesn’t mind that you’re using what little free time we have between assignments to help me?” Rex asked, trying to wipe the smile off his face

“Nah.” Jesse was still grinning “She’s got stuff of her own now, some” he lowered his voice “Jedi business of some sort, so I’ll be glad to take you to the Little Secret.”

Rex cringed at the shop’s name. All of this seemed sketchy. Why on earth did Tae find these things interesting? But then again, so did Jesse and Miyala… Was he the weird one for not being overly into the idea of putting the woman he loved on a leash?

Rex had expected the place to look like a torture chamber, but was greeted with a clean-looking store with white walls and clear glass displays where the products would be exposed. There seemed to be a number of lace underwear pieces on a rack nearby, and Rex swept his gaze over the many little objects until…

“That’s a purple penis-shaped thing, I don’t even wanna know, I’m leaving…”

Jesse grabbed Rex by the neck of his coat, stopping him from leaving.

“Hey, Captain, fleeing the battle this soon?” he joked, and Rex shugged him off, squaring up his shoulders

“I just… Why is everything so weird here?” Rex looked around to then point at something he couldn’t quite understand what the hell was “I mean, what is even the purpose of this?!”

Jesse twisted his lips in amusement.

“That, sir, specifically, is an o-ring gag.”

Rex seemed torn between the wish to reprimand Jesse for knowing what the kriff that was on sight and the curiosity of asking him what in the moons did he meant by that.

“It goes over one’s mouth, like this,” he gestured what seemed like, well, someone being gagged, like, say a hostage would, “And it keeps the person’s mouth open on an o-shape.”

Rex scrunched his face in hesitation.

“Why?”

Jesse seemed to be trying as hard as he could not to laugh.

“Well. Well you see. If you were to put your…”

“No no no I changed my mind!” Rex rubbed his eyes tiredly “One more word, Jesse, I will shoot you, I swear to the stars.”

Jesse was still snickering when someone with a raspy voice spoke close to them, startling Rex.

“Hello, do you need any… Jesse!” it was a female weequay with long pink-dyed hair tied on braids and a small ring on her lip; she smiled fondly at Jesse “Looking for something new to your girl?”

Jesse smiled back at her.

“Not today, Leyla. This is my Cap… Ah, my friend, Rex.”

The weequay, Leyla, extended her hand to Rex, and he hesitantly reached to shake it.

“Welcome, then Rex…?”

Rex lowered his eyes, looking around nervously. The shop was empty, but he still worried about being recognized.

“Just Rex.”

Leyla smirked.

“Mysterious just like Jesse, eh?” Leyla shrugged “Well, as long as you pay and you get the ground rules for playing with your partner, what happens in your lives is none of my business.”

Rex looked to Jesse in confusion and Jesse nodded:

“The rules we told you about that day. Safe, sane and consensual.”

Leyla looked from Jesse to Rex.

“So, Jesse, are you adding this charming new player to your games with your girlfriend?”

Jesse, who until then had been calm and collected even while standing close to what seemed to be a massive, plastic dick in bubblegum-pink suddenly got very flustered.

“Wha- No- I-“ he shook his head vehemently “No, no, he’s my friend and he wants to… try some new things. With his girlfriend.” He added almost much louder than what was absolutely necessary, and Leyla snickered

“Ohh, I see” she turned to Rex “So, what are you looking for? Handcuffs? Paddles? We just got a new shipment of nipple clamps that will absolutely blow your mind off.”

Rex was moving his mouth on mute questions like Leyla had talked to him in Huttese or some other kriffing unreadable language, and Jesse placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Ah, Leyla, he’s more of a vanilla guy, he’s still just dipping his foot on new waters.”

Leyla tapped a finger to her chin.

“Blindfolds?”

At that, Jesse gave a sly smile.

“Heh, blindfolds are cool too, Rex, trust me on this one.”

Rex rubbed his temples. This was too kriffing much for his head.

“Why on earth would I want to be blindfolded? I love looking at my girlfriend. She’s beautiful. Why would I…?”

Leyla shrugged.

“Maybe she could be the one to be blindfolded.”

Rex was all defensive.

“I like to think she enjoys looking at me too, thank you very much.”

Now Leyla was placing her hand on Rex’s other shoulder.

“Yes, friend, but do think: have you ever been in a dark room?” Rex nodded; more times than he wished to, goddamn tunnels in missions on the Outer Rim and hell knows what else “Did you notice hou hypervigilant you get? All sensitive? Smell, touch, all that gets enhanced. What’s more, she’ll never be able to know when you’ll suddenly touch her pu….”

“Okay I got it!” Rex shrugged both Leyla and Jesse off, and he could kriffing feel the heat on his face now, so embarrassed he was “Listen, ma’am I’m here just for… Jesse, tell her what I’m here for.”

Jesse was back to doing his damned best not to laugh.

“His girlfriend is curious about leashes, Leyla. Can you show him some?”

Leyla smiled at Rex, not embarrassed in the least, gesturing to a display deeper in the store and walking ahead. Jesse nudges Rex on his back and the two of them start walking behind her.

“How is she all relaxed in a place like…this?” Rex looks at the leather mask placed on a mannequin’s head; it has a zipper for a mouth.

Jesse gives a small laugh.

“Captain, she works here all day every day of the week. She’s used to it. Well, I’m used to it. I have one of those” Jesse points at the fuzzy blue handcuffs on a display “And one of those” he points at what seems to be an amount of… rope? What would he use that for? “And I have one of those too.”

At that point, Rex had no idea what the oddly shaped object was meant for, and he didn’t have the energy to ask. They got to Leyla and she pointed to the leashes hanging on the wall. There was a number of them, in different colors and materials, some of them more simple, other more detailed. Leyla reached for one of them.

“So… Who will be wearing the collar and the leash? You, sir? I think studs would look fantastic on that strong neck of yours.”

Rex cleared his throat. He thought the feeling of awkwardness would subside but, no, he was still as embarrassed as he was when he first walked in.

“Uh, actually my, hm, my girlfriend is the one curious about wearing one.”

Leyla put the big studded collar back with an excited smile.

“Ahh, the cutest thing arrived yesterday, look at this!” she pulled a delicate leather collar tied to a leash; it had a small metallic charm dangling from it, rattling with a small noise. “This looks beautiful on a girl’s neck. I would know – got one for my girlfriend and she’s over the moons for it.”

Rex reached for the thing, hearing the soft ding-ding from the rattle on it. He thought of the concept of Tae wearing the kriffing thing. This was weird. Too weird. He ran his fingers over the soft leathery surface, his thumb on the inside of the collar. Smooth and safe; it wouldn’t hurt her. His maneuvering made the rattle make the same noise again, and he thought of Tae wearing the collar and smiling at him with that flushed face he’d only see when the two of them were in her bedroom, as he allow her to undress him of his armor and his responsibilities. He felt that same warm twitch at his groin, and barely failed to catch on to Leyla’s words:

“—you’re a newbie and a vanilla kinda guy, I recommend not tying it too tight. The clasp has an emergency trigger that will allow you to cut it off of her if she’s having any trouble breathing, but I don’t think you’ll have any trouble like that. Careful with sharp tugs, rough play is fun but the neck has a lot of sensitive muscles. So, will you take this one, or do you wanna see the others?”

Rex wrapped his fingers around the leash. Smooth and soft, the unique feeling of leather.

“This one.” He blurted out without looking up to Leyla “I’ll take this one.”

“Fives, Echo, can you cover for me?”

Fives looked over from the projected sceen with sleepy eyes. Echo, however, was typing as fast as a droid.

“What?” Fives asked in the middle of a yawn.

“I have… some personal matters to attend to.” Rex said, trying not to think of the black bag in his locker, the one with a leash inside “Can you just… take care of everything while I’m out? I’ll probably be back in a few hours. If things get more complicated, I might be back only in the morning.”

“What the kriff—” Fives started, but Echo clamped his hand over his brother’s mouth muffling his words

“We’ll be honored to take your place, sir” he said “rest assured that we’ll do our best.”

Fives shrugged Echo off of him, grumbling.

“Yeah, sure, sir, send your personal matters my regards, you’re quite a catch.”

Rex frowned at that.

“What?” he asked

“What?” Fives echoed; sometimes Rex really wanted to punch him.

“Very well then.” Rex said with a nod “Be back soon, troopers.”

Rex grabbed the black bag in his locker and walked out of the GAR without ant trouble. The whole ride to Tae’s apartment made his stomach twist in nervousness. As usual, she opened the door with a smile.

“Rex! I just got back from work, you’re so early today!” she pulled him inside to close the door behind him and get to pepper kisses all over his face “Ah, it’s so good to see you!”

Rex leaned down to press a soft kiss to Tae’s lips, and then he raised the hand carrying the black bag.

“And I got you something.”

Tae sat down on the couch with Rex, reaching into the bag and pulling the leash out of the bag, then the collar, and she let out a small giggle.

“Oh my stars, you actually got one of those.”

Rex felt his face burning hot but tried to seem collected.

“Do you like it?”

Tae turned to him with the smile that made him weak in the knees.

“Yeah! It’s so cute, I wanna try it on!” she held the collar out for Rex “Can you put it on me?”

Rex sighed and drew in a breath. He could do this. For Tae, he could.

“Sure, cyare.” He opened the collar up “Allow me.” Tae lifted her chin up and Rex reached for the back of her neck, placing the leather on it and running the strap into the small buckle and adjusting it so that the piece would fall lose on Tae’s collarbones; he wouldn’t risk having it tied over her windpipe “There. Comfortable?”

Tae nodded, and Rex lowered his hands, looking at Tae. It was still his pretty girlfriend, with her brighter-than-any-suns smile, except now she had a leather strap over her neck. No big deal. He could live with this.

“Ah, no, no, wait, safeword!” he then muttered a curse “I was supposed to tell you this before putting on the leash. We need to have a word one says to the other stop doing what they’re doing. I… A friend… Ah, hells, Jesse taught me that.”

Tae fowned a little.

“Is ‘no’ not good enough?”

Rex lowered his eyes, unable to look at Tae.

“He said that… one might say ‘stop’ or ‘no’ without really meaning it.” He say the understanding on Tae’s face “So, are you good with, uh, ‘droid’?”

“‘Droid’ sounds good,” Tae nodded and lowered one of the straps of her blue dress. “now I bet this leash would look better if I took this off.”

Rex and Tae had an unspoken tradition of taking each other’s clothes; she’d methodically and very slowly take his armor off and he, on the other hand, would always undress her, usually kissing her neck as he did so. Today, however, seeing Tae wearing the collar, the leash thrown over her shoulder…

“Take it off, then.” Rex said before he could stop himself “please.” he hurried to add.

Tae seemed surprised but before Rex could take back what he said she reached for the side zipper of her blue dress, pushing it down her body and down her legs until she was there, on her couch wearing just her white underwear and the black leather collar tied to a leash. Rex reached to cup her face, kissing her softly; his hand brushed over the leash on her shoulder and he grabbed it; he felt a pleasant twitch in his cock, just like he did every other time he imagined himself seeing Tae like this and holding the leash.

He pulled back, leash on his right hand, and he saw himself suddenly at loss for words. Tae, however, still smiled eagerly at him.

“So” she said in a small, innocent voice “is there anything else you want me to do?”

“I” Rex hesitated “I don’t know. This is a little strange for me.”

Tae leaned closer to him, stealing a kiss and nuzzling at his neck over the exposed part of his blacks.

“Bad strange?” she hummed

“Nah.” Rex didn’t want to ruin the mood for Tae, kark, please no. He just needed to understand what the kriffing hells was going on inside his head “Just… strange. You… This makes you look…” he remembered of Jesse’s words before he threatened to punch him again “Like a pet? Kind of?”

Tae moved to kiss at the oter side of his neck now.

“Am I a cute pet?” she purred

And kriffing shit, that wasn’t a small twich, his cock goddamned ached in pleasure at that.

“Y-Yeah…” Rex muttered, swallowing hard “The cutest.”

“And what do you want” Tae kept nuzzling at his neck “your pretty pet to do?”

Rex sighed heavily. It was like Tae had been thinking about these lines for a while; he can feel the excitement in her voice. Hells, if she was having fun, then…

“Take everything off.” he said close to her ear; it came out strange. Where was the romance? “Do it, cyare.”

Tae pulled back and obediently unhooked her bra, pulling the straps down her shoulders; Rex’s cock twitched at the sight of her beautiful breasts, the pink stiff nipples the goosebumps he could see all over her skin. She got on her knees, pushing her panties down her legs as Rex’s hungry eyes studied her figure over and over. She looks so fragile, undressed and tied by her neck. All soft, pale skin except for the black, unforgiving leather line over her neck.

When Tae sat back Rex reached for her with his free hand while the other still held the leash; his hand covered Tae’s right breast entirely. Rex had always been fond of Tae’s small figure; she was like a small, precious thing that needed to be protected.

“You are the prettiest pet.” He says endearingly, and the way Tae’s eyes flicker with happiness just make him feel his cock straining harder against his codpiece “So pretty, cyare. My little pet.”

The praise seems to have an effect similar to Rex fingering her; the same half-open lips in a needy expression, the arched eyebrows, the shallow breaths. Rex realizes most of the reason for his painfully hard cock is the pleasure he’s taking from Tae’s pleasure.

But he would be lying if he said that the leash wasn’t giving him one hell of a rush. So he tug at it very lightly.

“Why don’t you help me out of this armor, my love… my pet?” and still with a shallow breathing, Tae slides down the couch to her knees, and Rex straightens his back up “Wait, you don’t have to…!”

Tae cuts him off, crawling so that she can kneel between Rex’s spread legs:

“I-I want to. Let me.” and she gets at pulling his left shoe out.

The intimacy of the act, of allowing one to undress him of his armor, was highly romantic to Rex. He’d always seen it as an act of trust, of baring his heart, his real self to Tae. This time, however, seeing Tae reach for the back of his shin guard while she wears a collar, which is tied to a leash, that is in his hand… it looked more like the prelude to something deliciously dirty, and it turned him on in an unbelievable measure. Tae caught his look, raising her beautiful dark green eyes to him as she tugged at his thigh piece.

“Am I doing it right, love?”

Of course she was; Tae was more than used to the right way to unclasp each piece and she would carefully lay them on the coffee table, knowing how much the armor meant to Rex. However, Rex reached down to pet her dark hair, brushing the tips of his fingers back and forth, praising her like she had been doing it for the very first time.

“Of course you are. You are doing it perfectly… pet.”

Tae whines at that, unclasping his belt and carefully moving it over to the table. Rex almost reached to help – the holstered guns are heavy, and Tae was a small woman – the heaviest thing she lifts (more like, pushes) on a daily basis are the tables at the coffeshop she works at. But Rex held back, feeling oddly  entertained by the sight of Tae doing his every whim. When she turnes to him again, Rex petted her hair once more.

“There, you did that just fine, didn’t you?” he said in a low voice and he could see her kriffing shudder “Aren’t you a good pet…” Tae reached for his Kama, untying it and carefully folding it “There… The chest plate now, cryare, would you like to take it off too? Hm?”

Tae wordlessly nodded, looking up to Rex and biting her lip with her eyes sparkling with lust, and her desire, the sense that she was having the time of her life, made it all unbelievably hotter for Rex. The collar on her neck and leash in Rex’s hand, that strange new connection. The sight made Rex’s cock almost hurt against the tight, restraining cod piece. Kark, this was supposed to be awkward and strange, but all Rex could think is why he hadn’t tried this before.

Tae got up to her feet and leaned closer, first removing his pauldron to then remove his shoulder armor, the upper arm pieces and the forearm armor, unclasping Rex’s chest piece from the complementary back piece; as she pulled it out of him, she leaned in for a kiss. Rex got to half-opening his lips, but something crossed his mind and he tugged at the leash hesitantly, pulling her out of his reach.

“Not now, pet.” Rex said, not quite understanding why in the moons he was denying her – and himself – a kiss “Later. As a reward for your good behavior.”

If anybody asked where the kark Rex was pulling these lines from, he wouldn’t know how to answer. Sure, it might have something to do Jesse’s weird talk of “delayed pleasure” but that thing just sounded insane back then. Delay for what? She’s there, right in front of him, to take him and to be taken and yet… It felt so good being in full charge of whatever would happen next.

Tae looked so surprised and so hungry for a kiss Rex almost backed down, but soon enough she was laying his chest piece close to the others on the table, then his back piece – except that this time, instead of being on her knees she was standing up, giving Rex a fine view of her ass (and a bit of her cunt too, between her thighs). Rex was so used to taking things to the bedroom under a dim light and whispered words of love he was speechless on the face of the act under the living room lights, on Tae’s couch where they’d only share stories and some kissing, saving the intimacies for her bed.

Without thinking, Rex tugged on the leash, pulling a surprised Tae onto the edge of the couch, right between his spread legs. Still holding the lash to keep her close to him, Rex leaned closer and stuck his tongue out, licking over Tae’s spine between her shoulder blades and up to the back of her neck. The long, loud moan from Tae’s wasn’t a sound Rex remembered having ever heard before. There was a little bit of pain to it. Suddenly very tense, he relaxed his grip on the leash.

“Tae? Are you okay?” he asked in a rush of panic “Can you breathe? Is everything okay?”

“Hm-hm…” Tae hummed languidly, her breathing making her shoulder blades and her skin move beautifully as her lungs were filled up and emptied “Just… so intense…”

Rex hesitated, still very alarmed. He had no kriffing idea what to make of that.

“You… You want to stop, cyare? Wanna call it all off? All you have to do is say that--”

Tae shook her head, her voice hoarse under her shallow breaths.

“No… Please don’t… Now call me pet again. Please…”

Rex slowly - very slowly – leaned in to kiss Tae’s back. She was enjoying it. Enjoying it in a way Rex had never seen before. He twisted his wrist in order to wrap the long leash on his palm.

“Do you like it, pet?” he took a chance at the word and it was like Tae melted down like meiloorun ice cream on a hot day “Make that sound again, please. I want to hear it.”

He licked Tae’s soft skin, inhaling her scent – something that reminded him of coffee and cinnamon, could be from her work at the coffee shop, but the smells were now always associated to Tae in his brain. Tae let out another long, pained moan. Rex absolutely needed to get rid of that cod piece, his cock felt almost numb in its confinement. Rex straightened his back so that he could hiss the back of Tae’s head, bury his nose in the soft black waves of her hair, leaning to brush his cheek on her ear and nibble at it.

“Can you be a good girl and take off my cod piece?” he asks “I know you always enjoy it.”

Good girl, what the kark am I doing? This is how General Kenobi talks to that chemilizard he uses every now and then on his missions with Cody. And while Tae got up from the couch and knelt down in front of him again, bare naked except for the leash and looking like a delicious treat, Rex still got hold of himself and cupped her face as she reached to unclasp his codpiece.

“Hey, there.” He said gently “Do you still remember the safeword?”

Tae nodded, her cheeks flushed and a smile on her pink lips.

“It’s ‘droid’. I’m okay, Rex. I promise.”

This was what Rex needed to hurry and get rid of his hand guards, handing them to Tae as she got the front of his codpiece too – Rex lifted himself off the couch and she reached for the back piece, piling them all up and carefully placing them with the others – Rex felt much better out of the damn thing. Hells. He could feel himself twitch.

Tae nudged closer to Rex, still kneeling between his legs and reaching her beautiful, delicate hands over…

“Ah.” Rex gasped out; the feeling of her hands over his blacks was almost surprising, no matter if he was looking or not. “Ahh…”

Tae unbuttoned his blacks, pulling his zipper down. The sound of it seemed so loud, so obscene, the prelude of something unspeakably dirty, so different from their sacred lovemaking. A thought crossed Rex’s mind: it was like all this time they had been making love, and it was beautiful, and fulfilling, and so, so pleasant, and he wouldn’t trade it for the word, but tonight…

Rex looked down to Tae as she pawed at his hard cock, running her fingers over it like she’d never seen it before.

…Tonight they were going to fuck.

Tae gave a few tugs to Rex’s cock, and this was normal, this was what she’d do right before they’d start every time they slept together but then she leaned closer, her breath hot over his skin and then…

Now Rex could understand Tae’s sound, a moan stained by something that sounded like pain, as the same sound would now leave Rex’s lips. Tae’s mouth- her tongue- so hot- so wet- teeth grazing without hurting- her tongue- oh, her tongue…

Rex just dropped his head back, incapable of thinking or saying anything. This was like her pussy, but different. Her tongue was so kriffing hot and wet, and – ah! – she was poking at the slit – now around the head – hells, this was something else entirely- oh yeah, the… the things he was supposed to say…

“You’re so good pet.” He says, and it sounds like he’s drunk on kashyykian vodka all over again “So good. Ohhh.” Tae was karking bobbing her head up and down and how in the stars had he never tried this before, it feels like he could orgasm right now “Slower.” He gasps, tugging at the leash to stop Tae from keeping her pace “Slower, cyare… pet.”

Rex raises his head and looks down to Tae and sees her, his beautiful Tae, looking up to him with those dark green eyes full of a false innocence, and her mouth wrapped around his hard cock. It took all of Rex’s willpower not to shoot his load in her mouth right then and there. He drew a deep breath, trying to think of how many reports he still had to write, anything that got his mind off of how karking hot Tae looked with her hands on his thighs and his cock poking at her throat. Rex pulled very slowly at the leash to get Tae away from him. This made her lips slide up his cock until she let go of him with a loud, wet pop. The obscene sound seemed almost to echo in the room. Rex tried his best to sound more or less collected as he instructed:

“Get up, pet. On your feet.” Tae did. Rex stood up too, his stiff cock standing over his stomach, its head glistening with the precome that already leaked from its slit; Now, holding Tae by a leash, Rex could properly notice how much smaller than him she was, tiny and fragile, just like a little pet. Rex muttered “Do you remember the safeword?”

“Droid,” Tae said short of breath, and her lips were red and wet from sucking him

My girlfriend was sucking my cock, he repeated to himself in his arousal as he reached for her hand and kissed it. Tae whimpered at that.

“Get to the bedroom now.” He ordered dryly, placing the leash on her hand. Odd. It wasn’t like him to talk to Tae like that…

And as Tae smiled and turned around, walking – again, entirely naked – to her bedroom, Rex realized in a new rush of panic that this was the voice he used as a commanding officer. He swallowed hard, rubbing his temple. Like some people would say, he was down the vulptex burrow now. Might as well allow himself to enjoy these odd new discoveries.

So he walked in the dimly-lit room seeing Tae hand him the leash back. She looked so helpless, like she needed someone to hold her, to take care of her. Just like a stray loth-cat. So precious. Rex felt a strange simultaneous wish to both hug her pressing a kiss to her forehead and to fuck her into the mattress so hard she would scream out. He felt himself leaning a lot towards the latter.

So Rex picked up the leash, and Tae’s smile made his cock twitch again. Tae blinked slowly, again just like a loth-cat.

“What do you want to do, Rex?” her voice was a plea “I’ll do anything you ask.” She bit the corner of her lip “I wanna be a good pet for you.”

Rex had a feeling like Tae had been dying to say these words for a long time. So Rex gave a couple of sharp tugs to her leash, pulling her close. Tae kept looking at him with that kriffing innocent look that made him want to both pet her hair and push her head down to his crotch. He reached down between Tae’s legs with the intent of getting her warmed up like he always did before they laid down on the bed, but…

“Kark…” Rex’s middle finger ran over the engorged, slick clit and right into her drenched pussy; she wasn’t wet, she was soaking “Oh, pet, now this…” he pushed his finger inside, and Tae moaned “this is just beautiful.”

He worked his finger deep inside of Tae, and she clinged to his arm, spreading her legs wider for him. Rex paid close attention to her blushed cheeks, to her half-open lips letting out moans, to her screwed-shut eyes and her arching eyebrows, her tensed-up neck as he pushes in another finger, and her sounds—

Stars, Tae could make him cum just with her moans and small screams if she wanted to. But even as her sounds seemed to be the hottest thing he could get out of her lips, she whispered.

“Ah, please, please Rex, fuck me, I can’t stand any longer…” her voice was drawn out, cut off by her shallow breaths, messy in the most delicious way Rex had ever heard “Fuck me, please, I’ve been a good pet, fuck me…”

Rex pecked Tae on her lips, still working his fingers inside or her, pushing, twisting, rubbing. Tae reached for a deeper kiss but Rex pulled back with a smile. Jesse could be fond of delaying pleasure to his girlfriend how much he wanted, but Rex just wanted to give Tae what she needed – her begging was just too cute.

“I will.”

Rex couldn’t bring himself to say ‘fuck you’; this whole dirty talking business was going surprisingly well for a man whose vocabulary in bed consisted of ‘is this good?’, ‘oh, yes.’, ‘are you close?’ and ‘I love you, cyare’, but he wasn’t about to be a pro anytime soon

“Lie down.” He says as he guides her to the bed by the leash, and it’s his captain voice, dry and sharp and commanding; it flows easier that way “On your back, legs spread, pet.”

Tae obeyed; Rex knelt in front of her, and Tae looked hungrily at his hard, straining cock as he guided it into her wet hole, pushing inside very slowly. Tae always seemed highly pleased at the feeling of him entering her, but today she moaned languidly, rolling her hips in time with his moves, snarling and coiling like a snake, her eyes filled with a burning desire. Kark, this is hot. Rex pulled back, and as childish as it would sound, he asked:

“I want to hear those sounds again, pet. Can you please moan for me? Hm?” he pushed back in slowly, going as deep as he could until he could feel his balls pressing against Tae; Tae moaned loudly and Rex gave an involuntary grin “There. Just like that.”

He got up from his ankles and leaned over Tae, hooking one of her legs over his shoulder while the other remained folded close to his ribs, and he supported himself on his free hand, tugging softly at Tae’s leash as he bottomed out in her, and she positively let out a scream. Rex looked at her, and before he could ask if she remembered the safeword she whined:

“Please, don’t stop, harder, do it harder.”

Rex pressed his hand that still held the leash on the mattress to have better support and he pulled out halfway to then push back inside as hard as he could. Tae screamed, and the sound was so new, so exciting. Rex kissed her face softly, he knew she was enjoying the rough play, but he needed to be loving too. There was no other way for Rex. She would always be his Tae.

“I love you, pet.” he says in the best way he can think not to break the mood “You feel so good. I love you.”

Tae rakes her nails on Rex’s back, and it makes him shudder. Her face is flushed with pleasure and her lips are twisted in an unspoken plea.

“I love you too, Rex… Harder… Do it harder…”

Rex kisses her again and then he pulls out to then slam back in, and he does it again, and again, and Tae screams, clawing at his back, wrapping her leg on Rex’s waist as the other remains hooked over his shoulder to give him leverage. Rex pounded her in a way he never expected to, rough and untamed and almost violent, grunting and snarling and tugging at her leash, growling between his labored breaths:

“My pet… only mine… my beautiful pet Tae…” he was never good with coming up with dirty talking so he was just running his mouth, lost in his own pleasure “I’m so hard for you, pet… So hard…”

Tae seemed to be having the air pushed out of her lungs on each thrust, but Rex kept an eye on her, drowned in pleasure but still vigilant, careful not to pull too hard on the leash. Tae screamed out Rex’s name, and he could feel the tightening muscles on his cock, the shift on Tae’s shallow breaths how hard she dug her nails on his back, almost breaking the skin, and as she was still moaning in the final throes of her orgasm, Rex picked up his pace, pounding her sensitive, wet pussy harder still. He was too close, almost there, and a look to Tae as he bit her lower lip, squeezing him inside her was what he needed to just allow himself to tumble over the edge. He smashed his lips over Tae’s, letting a loud groan in her mouth as he fucked her in sharp stabs timed with each spurt he would let out inside her. He slowed his thrusts as his orgasm subsided, collapsing down on her and letting his eyes fall shut with a sigh. Tae let a breathless laugh.

“Rex…” she groaned “Crushing me…”

Rex’s eyes snapped open and he rolled over Tae, kissing her shoulder

“I’m sorry…” he breathed out “It just… Felt so good…”

“Yeah…” Tae’s smile as she turned to him was worth fighting a thousand enemy droids any day; she flicked the leash “Did you like it?”

Rex curled the corner of his lip in a half-smile.

“I’d say it grew on me.” Despite being breathless and exhausted, Rex sat up, reaching to the collar on Tae’s neck “And now, according to what Jesse taught me, this part is called ‘aftercare’.”

Tae’s neck was a bit red around where the collar had sat over. Rex ran a thumb over it softly.

“And how is that?” Tae asked, and Rex smiled sweetly at her

“Basically I pamper you like there’s no tomorrow.”

Tae giggled, her voice lazy and sleepy while Rex caressed her neck and shoulders.

“Hey, I like that.” Rex gave her a kiss to the forehead “Hey, Rex?”

“Hmmm?”

“Tell Jesse I say thanks.”

Rex shook his head, laughing wholeheartedly.

“Will do, cyare.”

[cralaofmandalore]

A happy obi wan in yoda's dream, I'm so sad look at him he looks so tiny

[writerofcreativity]

The Twelve Zodiac (Chapter 19)

Once everybody got a good rest, took showers, and are sitting at the table eating breakfasts that Misaki cooked but with her injuries, she received help from Toshiko, Niwatori, and Kanae.

"There are more warriors in the world, some decided to use their talents to do good deeds while others use their talents for their own benefits. The reason why all twelve of you are chosen to fight Celestial Beasts despite having different reasons." Duodecuple sat at the table with them as they eat.

"Why do we need to participate in a tournament to fight others? As far as I see it, there could be good people and together they can help kill off the beasts." Tsugiyoshi asked while grabbing a spoonful of cream cheese and placed it in his mouth.

Duodecuple made a file appeared in his hand and he placed it on the table, the papers from that file magically spread themselves and presented themselves to everyone. "These people are the twelve warriors you need to be concern. They are the western Zodiacs and are criminals fighting in the tournament." He said.

"Criminals? They don't looked like that, considering we have two criminals with us. Now the Tatsumi brothers are criminals at first glance." Ryoka spoke.

The two brothers did not know if they should be offended by that, so they did not say anything. "They don't look that tough, I can easily knocked them out of the park if I was fighting one of them." Takeyasu smirked, confident that he can take them out. "You idiot. If these people are chosen to be the twelve Zodiacs then they won't be going down that easily. Keep thinking like that and you'll lose your head." Nagayuki warned staring at each picture of his opponents, it doesn't matter if they are young or old, they should not be underestimated.

"Do we have some sort of information about them?" Usagi looked at Duodecuple.

"Well, there's not much about their abilities but there are information about their background." He said and begins talking about these twelve western warriors.

Meland Sherry, also known as Friend Sheep. A young woman who used to work in prison but abuses prisoners even those who had committed no serious crimes. Her way of killing is Count and Kill.

Luke Michel, also known as Look Me. A woman who kidnaps infants and strangely released them once they are not infants anymore. Her way of killing is Swear to Kill.

These two siblings, known as Double Mind. Strangely sharing the same Zodiac sign, assuming to born under the same months. The older brother is named M2222 and his younger sister is named W2222. These two are criminals for stealing a carrier and a submarine. Their way of killing is Kill without any Choice.

Caesar Caesar, known as Sir Kansa. A pacifist but became a war criminal. His way of killing is Kill Gentlemanly.

Dandy Lion. You can call him a mafia boss, considering he leads criminals and was an ex air force soldier. He was charged for overthrowing a government due to his methods. His way of killing is Kill Everything.

Andy Almull, known as Iron May. A young man who dressed as a maid to avoid going on battlefields, he displayed obscene actions that considered him a war criminal. His way of killing is Serve and Kill.

Aaron Smith, known as Baron Suu. A man who wants to forgive criminals despite all the actions they had caused, even the dire ones which resulted him being a criminal due to court contempt. His way of killing is Kill Slowly.

Skull Pyon. Not much is known about this person, not even their real name but is a skilled assassin. His way of killing is Kill at Random.

Usuki Sashitari, known as Umun Sajari. Former military employee, he had disclosed confidential data. He is a criminal due to the exposed information he held which killed ten million people. His way of killing is Aim and Kill.

Gotou Valkyrie, known as Go To Heaven. She had been treated very badly even as a fetus, she lost her mother, and a victim of human trafficking. She is a criminal due to the weapons she have in her possession and selling them. Her way of killing is Kill Morbidly.

Thomas B. Tholls, known as Muppet Bottle. He was charged of arson and burned down his home failing to extinguish his fire. His way of killing is Kill The Wet.

Nocturne Fuji, known as Doctor Finish. She was charged with murder and treating others like test subjects. Her way of killing is Keep Alive and Kill.

After finishing telling about the twelve western warriors, Duodecuple grabs a cup of water and drinks, considering he talked about twelve people. "The two siblings looked creepy as hell with those stares." Takeyasu spoke "true they are creepy, like those twins from that horror movie but I've seen creepier things." Nagayuki said wonders which sibling is the strongest, presumably the older brother.

Niwatori noticed Michio staring at the picture of Nocturne, it wasn't just judging how strong she is, it was something else. "Dokku-san, do you know that woman?" She asked "yeah I know her. I'm a bit surprised that she is a warrior in a team." He grinned.

"There's no doubt that we'll be against these criminals who had fought a lot of battles." Tsugiyoshi looked at Duodecuple "when will the tournament begin?" He asked.

"I wasn't expecting you to be eager for your match." Duodecuple spoke in amusement.

The teenager isn't eager at all. "The tournament will begin next month. It seems out of place to hold a tournament where all twelve of you will be fighting while the Celestial Beasts are still roaming around earth but there's nothing to be worried about. All of you will begin training and we will fight the Celestial Beasts until the day of the tournament." Duodecuple stood up from his seat.

"Can there be a substitute to take my place in the tournament?" Misaki asked making everyone looked at her.

"You're getting scared now? You're strong enough to knock anyone out." Usagi spoke.

Tsugiyoshi sighed "Sharyu nee-san, these people will be entering the tournament for a reason and I doubt that they want to sit down and chat about giving up fighting. You won't be killing anyone in this tournament, neither of us will. If you have the strength of killing an imposter that looked like me then you are strong enough to knock them out of the ring. It is simple as that." He said.

"Nezumi is right. You are representing one of the twelve Zodiacs, you are a strong warrior and I doubt you could find a substitute to take your place." Duodecuple smiled.

"Don't worry about killing, the only thing you can do is to beat your opponents until they black out which you are able to do if you refuse to kill. You can keep that in mind." Toshiko spoke which surprised everybody.

"Inonoshishi-san." Misaki said.

Toshiko can feel her leader staring at her "you have any complaints?" She asked as if asking for a fight "nope. I had thought you were a cold heartless woman who only cares about herself but that was wrong." He said. The Boar can feel her face turning red from embarrassment "I just wanted to be clear! If the tournament was a fight where only one can survive which I'll glad to do but this tournament we will be fighting as one. I won't forgive anyone who loses, I despise losing." She said wanting to smack him.

Duodecuple let out a chuckle "if you all don't want to lose against the Western Zodiac then I advise you all to train for the battle against them. They already have informations about all of you and I doubt they will be easy to defeat." He said.

"Ha! I'm ready to kick their asses!" Takeyasu said.

"Then you better train your ass off, ototo." Nagayuki laughed.

"I wonder if they want to be my friends." Usagi questioned.

"My claws are ready for them when the time comes." Kanae smiled.

"I hope that the young ones won't disappoint me." Sumihiko spoke.

"I'm looking forward with my fight against Nocturne." Michio grinned.

"I will be ready to take on their attacks." Yoshimi spoke.

"As long as nobody dies then I suppose it's alright, even though I hate to harm others." Misaki said with a small smile.

"I'll be ready!" Ryoka spoke with determination.

"If there are any warriors that use swords then I shall test their skills with mine." Eiji quietly said.

"I will fight bountifully." Toshiko said.

"The stars and the animals will clash. Who will be superior than the other?" Tsugiyoshi asked.

[holytheoristtastemaker]

Having some self-hosted services and tools can make your life as a developer, and your life in general, much easier. I will share some of my favorites in this post. I use these for just about every project I make and they really make my life easier.

All of this, except OpenFaaS, is hosted on a single VPS with 2 CPU cores, 8GB of RAM and 80GB SSD with plenty of capacity to spare.

Huginn

Huginn is an application for building automated agents. You can think of it like a self hosted version of Zapier. To understand Huginn you have to understand two concepts: Agens and Events. An Agent is a thing that will do something. Some Agents will scrape a website while others post a message to Slack. The second concept is an Event. Agents emit Events and Agents can also receive Events.

As an example you can have a Huginn agent check the local weather, then pass that along as an event to another agent which checks if it is going to rain. If it is going to rain the rain checker agent will pass the event along, otherwise it will be discarded. A third agent will receive an event from the second agent and then it will send a text message to your phone telling you that it is going to rain.

This is barely scratching the surface of what Huginn can do though. It has agents for everything: Sending email, posting to slack, IoT support with MQTT, website APIs, scrapers, and much more. You can have agents which receive inputs from custom web hooks and cron-like agents which schedules other agents and so on.

The Huginn interface

Huginn is a Ruby on Rails application and can be hosted in Docker. I host mine on Dokku. I use it for so many things and it is truly the base of all my automation needs. Highly recommended! If you are looking for alternatives then you can take a look at Node-RED and Beehive. I don't have personal experience with either though.

Huginn uses about 350MB of RAM on my server, including the database and the background workers.

Thumbor

Thumbor is a self-hosted image proxy like Imgix. It can do all sorts of things with a single image URL. Some examples:

Simple caching proxy

Take the URL and put your Thumbor URL in front like so: https://thumbs.mskog.com/https://images.pexels.com/photos/4048182/pexels-photo-4048182.jpeg

Simple enough. Now you have a version of the image hosted on your proxy. This is handy for example when you don't want to hammer the origin servers with requests when linking to the image.

Resizing

That image is much too large. Lets make it smaller! https://thumbs.mskog.com/800x600/https://images.pexels.com/photos/4048182/pexels-photo-4048182.jpeg

Much smaller. Note that all we had to do is add the desired format.

Resizing to specific height or width

What about a specific width while keeping the aspect ratio? No problem! https://thumbs.mskog.com/300x/https://images.pexels.com/photos/4048182/pexels-photo-4048182.jpeg

Quality

Smaller file size? https://thumbs.mskog.com/1920x/filters:quality(10)/https://images.pexels.com/photos/4048182/pexels-photo-4048182.jpeg

You get the idea! Thumbor also has a bunch of other filters like making the image black and white, changing the format and so on. It is very versatile and is useful in more scenarios then I can count. I use it for all my images in all my applications. Thumbor also has client libraries for a lot of languages such as Node.

Thumbor is a Python application and is most easily hosted using Docker. There are a number of great projects on Github that have Docker compose setups for Docker. I use this one. It comes with a built-in Nginx proxy for caching. All the images will be served through an Nginx cache, both on disk and in memory by default. This means that only the first request for an image will hit Thumbor itself. Any requests after that will only hit the Nginx cache and will thus be very fast.

To make it even faster you can deploy a CDN in front of your Thumbor server. If your site is on Cloudflare you can use theirs for free. Just keep in mind that Cloudflare will not be happy if you just use their CDN to cache a very large number of big images. You can of course use any other CDN like Cloudfront. My entire Thumbor stack takes up about 200MB of RAM.

In conclusion I think that Thumbor is a vital part of my self hosted stack and I use it every single time I need to show images on any website or app. Once you have this working properly you never have to worry about image formatting ever again since the Thumbor is always there.

Hosted alternatives to Thumbor: Imgix, Cloudinary Self hosted alternatives: Imaginary, Imageflow

Searx

Searx is a self hosted metasearch engine. It will strip any identifying headers and such from your searches and then it will use one or many search engines to run your query. It can search on for example Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. What makes Searx great as a self hosted service is that it has a simple JSON api. Simply tell it to use JSON and your query will be returned as JSON. This will enable some pretty neat combinations, but more of that later. It can also search for images, music, news and more.

Searx in action

This is another killer service. The JSON formatting is what really sells it for me since it can be combined with other services in lots of different ways.

Searx is another Python app and is easily hosted through the use of the official Docker image. It uses about 230MB of RAM on my server.

InfluxDB + Telegraf + Grafana

InfluxDB is a time series database. It is built to receive time based event data from sensors, servers and so on. For example it is very good at things like storing CPU load data every 5 seconds. It also has built-in ways to makes sure it doesn't fill the disk with all this data and much more. There are client libraries for most languages as well as a very simple HTTP API for adding data. It goes very well together with Huginn where you can create agents to poll data from somewhere and then use the HTTP API in InfluxDB and a Post Agent to store it . There will be examples of this later on!

Telegraf is a service that will collect data about your server and send it to InfluxDB. It can also send the data to other databases and such but for this we use InfluxDB. It can collect just about any data about a server that you want, include statistics from Docker containers. It has a very simple out of the box configuration that you can tweak if you wish. I install it on all my machines to send data to InfluxDB, including my at-home NAS.

Grafana is a graphing, analytics, and monitoring tool. It can graph the data from many different sources including InfluxDB, AWS Cloudwatch and PostgreSQL. It also has alerting capabilities for Slack for example. It is a delight to use and you will quickly be able to create some very nice looking graphs of your data. You need to be careful though because I find that it is very addicting to graph all your things.

A Grafana dashboard for server monitoring

There are many Docker setups for this stack that you can find on Github, so hosting this is easy.

Grafana is truly delightful to work with and it is probably the slickest graphing tool I've ever used and it can easily be compared to commercial projects like Datadog.

Docker Registry

This is a simple one but oh so useful. It is good to have a place to store your own Docker images and this is what you need. You can use Docker Hub for this but private images cost about $7 a month. It is however very easy to host your own registry. A Docker registry is a requirement to be able to use OpenFaaS.

Ghost CMS

Ghost is an open source publishing and blogging platform. It was originally kind of a replacement for Wordpress but it has since grown to be something more. I use it as a headless CMS for this blog as well as other websites. It has a great GraphQL and REST API that you can use to pull your articles and pages out to use in a static site or show on another website. I have another article about how my blog works with this if you want to know more.

The Ghost editor while typing this

Ghost has a great editor that makes it very easy to include Twitter posts, images, Spotify links, and so on. It is also hosted on your server so you can write from anywhere. You don't have to deal with markdown files if you don't want to and I find it to be a delight to use and write in.

OpenFaaS

OpenFaaS is self-hosted functions-as-a-service aka serverless. I have another article about OpenFaaS so I won't go into too much detail here. You can use OpenFaaS to easily deploy functions in any programming language without having to setup a microservice. Also, I understand the irony of self-hosting a serverless setup, but it is a strange world we live in so just go with it.

It is very useful for a number of tools and combinations. I have a number of these functions and here are some examples:

Readability

Python function that uses the newspaper3k library to pull out metadata and the article content from any URL. I use it to render snippets from articles, prepare for sentiment analysis, and things like that.

Puppeteer renderer

Sometimes websites will not work at all without Javascript or they have systems in place to prevent scraping and interacting with the sites automatically. Rotten Tomatoes is such a site that will fight back against any automation attempts. Enter Puppeteer, the headless Chrome API. This function simply takes a URL, renders the page with Javascript and returns the resulting body. This is then ready for processing in a scraper for example using Huginn. There will be examples of how to use this later with Huginn later so stick around if you're interested in that.

OpenFaaS is hosted on its own server because that made sense to me. It is a tiny little thing though and doesn't use much resources at all.

Combinations

This is where we unlock the real magic of having all these things. You can combine these in clever ways to create something really neat. Here are some examples to get you started:

OpenFaaS+Searx = First image

This is a combination that I really like. Create a function in OpenFaaS in any language of your choice, I used Javascript, that will search for the given query in Searx, making sure to return the result as JSON. Then parse the results in the OpenFaaS function and return the URL for the first image result.

You now have a function that you can call with any query and it will return the first image result. This is useful in a number of different ways. You can for example search for bryan cranston site:wikipedia.org to get a good image of actor Bryan Cranston. Now you can use some cool Thumbor filters and such to process the image if you want!

Suggestions for improvements: Add more functionality to the OpenFaaS function. For example you can add probe-image-size to your function. You can now reject images which are too small for example.

OpenFaaS+Huginn+Trello = Movie recommendations

This is a simple one which adds movie recommendations to my Trello inbox daily. Steps to create:

Add a Website Agent to Huginn. Use the URL for the Rotten Tomatoes front page and add the OpenFaaS Puppeteer function to render that URL with Javascript enabled. Scrape the section with new movies.

(Optional) Create a Trigger Agent in Huginn to select movies with a minimum score. Perhaps you want only the movies which have a score of 80 or better in your inbox.

Add a Post Agent to Huginn that will post the movie names to your Trello inbox using the Trello API.

Suggestions for improvements: Add another step that will also link to the IMDB page for the movie. You can use Searx for this. Simple search for the movie like so: "fried green tomatoes" site:imdb.com

RescueTime+Huginn+InfluxDB+Grafana = Productivity graph

RescueTime is automatic time tracking software. It keeps track of what you do on your computer and will tell you when you are being productive and when you are slacking off on Reddit. You can use a Web Site Agent in Huginn to access your productivity data on RescueTime. You can then use a Post Agent to add this data to InfluxDB. Finally you can graph it using Grafana. I use something similar to get data about our hot water bill and such. Once you have Huginn and InfluxDB you can graph almost anything.

Huginn+Slack = Notifications center

If you're like me and you have a lot of notifications then you might want to use Huginn to sort these out. Instead of interfacing directly with Slack or whatever notification system you use, you can instead use a Webhook Agent in Huginn to create an API endpoint. Post your notifications to this endpoint. You can then use for example a Slack Agent to post the notifications to Slack.

What is the point of this then? Well, you can very easily change to using something else than Slack for your notifications without changing it on every site that creates them. Perhaps you want to delay some notifications? You can do that with a Delay Agent in Huginn. Perhaps some notifications should go to Trello instead of Slack? No problem using Huginn. You can even use a Digest Agent to group low level notifications and send them all at once by email or something. Don't forget that you can also graph all of this using Grafana.

Conclusion

This is by no means an exhaustive list of things you can self host to make your life easier as a developer. Do you have any favorites that I've missed? Please reply in the comments below

[beyshara]

I saw that count dokku post and while I agree with the whole dokku wanted to freedom from a republic that was corrupt and imperialist, he starved neutrals planets with people that wanted nothing to do with both the republic and the separatists

[dark-magic-waves]

Ahhh yes, I remember when the original trio was Luke, Leia and Darth Vader.

Or the second trio, Anakin, Padme and count Dokku. Good times.

[damianaandonova]

Dami’s Chicago

Back when I was a Gold Coast girl, I used to sip coffee at Mariano Park and people watch.  I was so in love with the people there, I wrote a poem about the Gold Coast’s aubergine sky once as horse-drawn carriages click-clacked to the sound of my fingers typing on my Mac.  The thing about the Gold Coast is that everything changes and stays the same at the same time. New restaurants settle in, others leave, but not without leaving their mark. 

I suppose I developed a routine...here’s a list of my favorite places (and a few that I avoid!) 

Where do you go for coffee? 

Saturdays, I’d run to Cafe des Architectes or HendrickX for a coffee reading my papers, or with girlfriends. At Hendricks, the Belgian owner would talk to me in French. I love their ham and cheese croissants too. 

Soup?

Winter-time, I sprinted to Tavern on Rush to get a hot tomato soup. I also love Pierrot Gourmet’s lentil soup, but they only have it on Sundays. 

Sushi?

Hmm. This is a difficult question. I am as loyal to momotoro as I am to my first love--I remain obsessed to this day. But you should give Jellyfish a go I suppose and Sushi Dokku. 

Where do you write at night? 

When I want to have a drink and write in company, I love the booths at Maple and Ash’s lounge area. I also like the terrace at Starbucks on Rush. 

Where do I take my girlfriends to lunch?  3 Arts Cafe, but don’t go too often, or else you’d tire of it. The salad with watermelon radishes is bomb, so are their cookies. 

Date night? 

Ahh date nights. I recommend you start at The Game Room at 12 S. Michigan and then go to the Gold Coast for dinner at the Pump Room (if it was good enough for Sinatra, it’s good enough for me!)  and then walk up to Lincoln Park to finish off the night on a swing set listening to GnR or whatever it is you’d like to do.  

Where do you hate to love to go? 

Agh, the west loop. A guy took me to Green Street Meats and I loved it despite my horror at the decor. I took my sister and she had a similar visceral reaction: “Awgaaaddd this is soo good--oh my gaawwwdd, is that a skeleton?!” The Allis is really good too for tea and brunch, quite instagrammable if I say so myself, but not as inventive as I would hope. The thing I hate about the West Loop though, and its why I avoid the Publican and other restaurants over there, is the strict “no reservations” rule that creates an air of false demand when you pass by. Some crowds get super attracted to the long lines thinking it must be good, but when I have 2 hours to spend with my guy and appointments all afternoon, every minute sitting and enjoying rather than standing counts.

So what about other over-rated restaurants? 

Ahhh Sienna Tavern. Lord oh Lord. The first time I went to ST, my octopus was beyond burned. The second time I went we friends, we blew over 400 dollars on a dinner that no one ate. The manager was shocked the plates were full when we asked for the check so he halved the bill. Haven’t been back since.

Latest obsession? 

Most recently, my friend and I went to Somerset, a new restaurant in the Gold Coast, where I had a pretty well-balanced halibut dish, a very light octopus appetizer, a really heavy polenta side and a St. German spritzer. Everything was delicious although the richness of the polenta killed me. I felt like two spoonfuls were all that I could eat. 

I also love the dragonfruit smoothies at Chicago Health Foods!

Guiltiest pleasure?

After a night on the town with the girls, I always end up at Velvet Taco to finish the night with a post-mort on all of the events. I end up getting fish tacos. 

Ethnic foods? 

Mehanata or Balkanica if you want Bulgarian and Barba Yanni if you want Greek food. I also enjoy Psisteria.  For the best best best cakes, I say go to Oak Mill Bakery.  And what about the best rooftop? 

Nomi if you have to impress the parents. 

Cindy’s when your bff from college is visiting Chicago for the first time and is asking you to wake up at 10 am on a Saturday, and you just NEED a Bloody Mary. 

Gene’s Sausage Shop rooftop when you and your boyfriend are on babysitting duty (cute niece is in town!) and both of you just want to drink beer and eat German sausage while the babe nibbles on Kinder. 

.