#me the whole time: “the bad batch had it worst you can do this”

[collophora]

More minibatch adventure I need a full show maybe too XD

[neyswxrld]

head ache

Hunter x gn!reader

summary: Hunter has a big headache and needs a cozy day in a bed and and some scalp massages.

warnings: migraines and headaches, mentions of throwing up (but no one is throwing up, it's mainly soft and fluff lol)

words: ~1200

a/n: hello everyone! another day, another fic, right? i filled another promt for @summer-of-bad-batch: this time it's the "can you braid my hair?" prompt. i was just thinking about what helps me when a migraine hits and thought that hunter might like that, too. i hope you enjoy!

MASTERLIST

SUMMER OF BAD BATCH MASTERLIST

It's been just about a month since you and Hunter are in a relationship.

You met him as the handsome and purposeful man, who cares for his brothers and would do absolutely anything for his sister.

He is kind, and gentle, and looks after everyone as best as he can.

He is just so good and amazing, it didn't take you too long to fall for him. Hard.

You couldn't believe it when he agreed to go on a date with you.

And that it went well.

Now it's a few weeks later, and you feel like you're even more in love with him.

But during the time with him, you of course noticed that he sometimes has some issues with his health.

Most of those times, he has problems with his head.

He is prone to headaches and migraines. If they are on their worst, they get so bad he even throws up and can't move outside his dark room for the whole day. Sometimes several days, even.

Tech said that he occasionally got unconscious when they were younger, but by now they had some medicine for it, so at least it didn't get that bad anymore. Seemingly, the fresh air here also helps a lot.

And today is a day, on which your boyfriend already wakes up with a big headache.

You immediately know when he doesn't have his arms around you, like so often when you wake up.

Then you see the way he lies in bed beside you: he seems stiff, he's curled into himself and his breathing is accelerated and shallow, like he doesn't want to agitate his nose more than he needs to.

"Hunter?" you whisper and carefully lean over him.

"Yeah?" he murmurs back, and with the way he talks, it's the last sign for you to know that his head definitely hurts like hell.

"Are you okay?" you still decide to ask and carefully brush some lonely hair strands out of his face.

"Fine," he murmurs, clipped.

"Did you already take painkillers?" you ask. He huffs out a small 'no'.

"Do you need something else? Water? A cooling pack? Space?" you ask and he repeats his answer from before.

Nonetheless you give him a small kiss on his forehead, stand up, and sneak out of the room. 

You stayed over at your place overnight, so you're kinda relieved that you won't meet any of his siblings when you come down the stairs. It also might help Hunter when it isn't that noisy over the day.

You pour him a glass of water and grab some painkillers. Then you make your way up to your hurting boyfriend again.

When you arrive at his bedside, he carefully opens his eyes, but squints at the light from outside.

It's too bright, you remember.

You give him the painkillers and put the glass of water on the nightstand. Then you make your way over to close the curtains.

When you turn around to him again, you see how he swallows the painkillers with a swig of his water, and empties the glass.

"Yeah, no water," you mock him, smiling. Before he can say anything, you already run off another time to fill it up.

When you come back, he lays there again like tooka hit by a speeder.

"You need a bucket or anything else?" you ask to make sure, place the glass on the same place as before and sit down on the edge of the bed, carefully sliding a hand through his hair.

He furrows his brows and pulls a small face, and you immediately pull your hand away again, scared that you made it worse.

"No, it's fine, 'm not gonna throw up," he says quietly, "Jus' wanna sleep."

"Okay, I'll let you do that, then. Just tell me when you need anything, alright?" you offer him, still so worried. But when you try to stand up again, he reaches out for your hand.

"Stay?" he asks, kindly.

"Of course, where do you want me?" you immediately agree, trying to make him feel better in every way.

"Mhh, can you... spoon me?" he asks, almost shyly. You see a slightly red tint on his cheeks, and you're sure it wasn't there just a few seconds ago.

"Oh, you know I'd love to," you say and make your way over. If you wouldn't worry so much about him, you would find it very cute. But like this, you just decide to add this to the back of your mind and keep it there until you'll cuddle the next time.

You slide in behind him. His posture is still rigid and stiff, but you try to snuggle up to him. He lifts one of his arms and you put yours beneath it. The other one you put over and around his head, weirdly. Then you pull him closer, snuggle up to his back and place your head in a way his long curls won't tickle your face.

"You're comfortable?" you ask. "Yeah. Already feel better," he says and you could swear a small smile appears on his lips.

You roll your eyes, jokingly, and put your head in a more comfortable position, too, trying not to jostle him too much.

After a few minutes of silence, in which you can only hear your synchronized breathing, Hunter clears his throat awkwardly.

"Is your hand... good?" he asks and you hum in confirmation: "Yeah."

"Oh, do you... hm... No, forget it," he says, but cancels his sentence. You decide to not let it go.

"No, tell me."

Hunter moves around a few seconds, clearing his throat again and turns around in the end, so he can look at you. This time, his cheeks are bright red and you're wondering what made him feel so embarrassed.

"Can you braid my hair?" he asks after a few moments of looking around.

"Braid it?" you ask, just to be clear.

"You don't need to," he backtracks almost immediately, but you shake your head.

"No, I'd love to. I was just worried I might hurt you," you explain yourself, but Hunter just declines. "It actually felt like some of the pressure is lifted off my head,"  he admits.

"Well, then of course I can," you agree.

After readjusting your positions again, Hunter's head is comfortably laying in your lap, his body is placed between your legs, and your back is leaning against the wall behind the bed, padded with some pillows.

"You have to tell me if it hurts," you say, and Hunter just smiles: "I will."

You play around with his hair for quite some time. You try out different hairstyles, trying not to pull on his hair too much, softly massage his scalp, and decide that he could definitely rock a style with two braids that are placed across his head. He looks quite attractive like that, actually.

You enjoy the time of closeness and the intimacy the activity brings with it. Hunter seems to be quite content, too.

When he finally is able to stand up by midday, he almost looks fine again. Even though his hair is a mess, he declares his head doesn't hurt anymore, and you actually believe him when he says your hands did wonders to him.

@isthereanechoinhere96 @trixie2023 @freesia-writes

TAGLIST

[its-all-stardust]

Hey, so first of all, I love your work, it's absoluteley amazing!!!

I saw that your requests are open, so I thought that I would ask for a Matt Murdock x reader oneshot? You know, just something cute and fluffy?

Maybe I'm gonna sound a bit stereotypical but how about a reader that owns a bakery and wants to try out a new recipe. Matt tries to sneak a taste from time to time while "helping out" (honestly, he's just teasing and making reader's job probably harder [affectionaly]). Just domestic fluff? Maybe please?

You don't have to if you don't want to, but I thought I'd give it a try :)

Thank you!! I'm glad you like my writing!! 🫂

I'm worried with this one that I tweaked things just enough that it's not exactly what you wanted anon, but I did my best and wrote what inspiration gave me!! I'll be honest, it could be fluffier, but I'm also not offended by my own writing so that's something lol I hope you like it!! ❤️❤️

Check out this post for request guidelines

Masterlist

Matt Murdock/GN!Reader

Word Count: 964

Was turning your residential apartment into a glorified bakery after you moved in with your boyfriend legal? According to Matt, a very good lawyer, it wasn’t technically illegal, so you did it anyway and prayed your landlord never found out.

It wasn’t really a bakery, not in the traditional sense. You didn’t try making it into a storefront, nor did you want it to be one. You did, however, take specialty orders through your website. You mainly baked for small events or private parties. You weren’t touching a wedding with a ten-foot pole unless you made the cake or just one of the cookies for the snack table.

It wasn’t enough to pay the bills on its own—you still had a full-time job—but you enjoyed it, and the small amount of extra income it generated was nice.

Matt enjoyed it, too. So much so that you often joked he had ulterior motives for dating you.

But even though baking was a passion, it still came with challenges.

You let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against your elbows, bent over the counter, and buried your face in your hands. 

This is the worst part about baking, you thought.

“Do you need help?” Matt asked, hand suddenly on your shoulder. You jumped, letting out a small gasp. “Sorry. I tried calling a couple of times.”

“It’s fine,” you sighed, turning to wrap your arms around his middle, leaning into him, and pressing your face against his neck. “I just hate this.”

Matt huffed a laugh. “It can’t be so bad. You say that about every new thing you try.”

“But I really mean it this time!” you whined, though you actually didn’t.

You strived for perfection, but new recipes were always daunting. Either the first few batches didn’t meet your standards, or the very first one did, but the subsequent batches often failed. You thought once or twice about not adding anything new to your menu, but you needed to keep a refreshed list, or else you risked losing repeat customers—the ones who made this business possible for you in the first place.

“We can do it together,” Matt offered, lips brushing against the top of your head. “Will that make it better?”

You considered it for a moment. Matt’s taste was impeccable. You often used him—and Foggy and Karen—as guinea pigs, and he was always able to offer you the best advice. In another life, he would have been a fantastic chef. You’ve never baked anything with him before, only handed him the finished product.

If he helped you now, as you were putting everything together, it could make the whole try, try again process you had going significantly shorter, if not bypassed completely.

“Yes, actually. I think it will,” you answered, lifting your head up. 

The only problem: Matt was a complete and utter nuisance.

He wouldn’t do what you told him, at times completely forgoing your instructions—the one you found in an old cookbook that wasn’t like anything you found online—and adding either the incorrect amount of something or adding something that wasn’t even on the list of ingredients.

No matter how many times you told him baking was an exact science and the time for experimentation was after you followed the recipe to a T and tasted the finished product, he refused to listen. You thought he did, at first, but then you caught him tossing in almond extract behind your back, and things only went downhill from there.

“Would you please stop sticking your fingers in the bowl?” you practically begged after you caught him helping himself to the cookie batter for the fourth time.

“How else am I supposed to taste it?” he asked with a playful smirk. He seemed to enjoy the fact he was making you want to pull your hair out.

“With the spoon I specifically set out for that purpose!” You picked it up and thrust it at him. He ignored it and stuck his finger in his mouth.

“But I’m blind. How am I supposed to know where it is?” 

You raised an eyebrow, not fooled. “The same way you find the bowl even after I move it.”

Matt shrugged. “Fair point. But if I used the spoon, I couldn’t do this.” He stuck his finger in the bowl again.

“Matthew, I swear to—”

He stuck his finger in your mouth, not far but enough for the batter to touch your tongue, before he pulled away.

“—God,” you couldn’t help but finish as the first notes of the batter processed. Brow furrowed, you focused on the taste, brushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth, trying to make it last while you sorted out the different flavors. It was…

“That’s amazing,” you said, stunned. “What did you put in there?” You pulled the bowl toward you, forgetting the spoon in your hand as you dipped in a finger from the other. It wasn’t what you were trying to make at all, and you needed another sample.

“I tried telling you it just needed a few extra ingredients.” Before you could stick your finger in your mouth, Matt took your hand, wrapping his lips around your batter-covered finger. His tongue lapped gently against the pad, almost teasing. “Now it’s perfect,” he said when he pulled away.

“I think I need you in the kitchen more often,” you said, wheels already turning in your mind.

Matt beamed at you and tried leaning in for a kiss. You, however, didn’t notice and stepped away to find your phone, leaving him confused.

You opened your notes app and said, “Quick, tell me what you did before you forget.”

Matt could only shake his head in amusement before he dutifully listed everything he had snuck into the batter.

[takecareluv]

hi hi, can you do something with vin where he’s just have a bad few days and he wakes up on day and is just clingy and soft spoken with reader all day, and reader is like ???? you’re kind of annoying me but more so freaking me out wtf is wrong with you???? and just something that ends super fluffy. i feel like i always see the guy take care of the reader when they’re sad or stressed but never the other way around and i think it could be cute

cuddle day || vinnie hacker x reader

vinnie had been having a rough few days. first, he was getting over a bad head cold that kept him from attending not one, but two events he had been looking forward to for several months. and now he just received word that something had gone wrong in the production of his upcoming collection for purgatory, and the release would have to be pushed back another six weeks.

to say vinnie wasn't in the best mood would be an understatement. 

but one thing he would never do is take that out on you. in fact, you were his saving grace during times like these.

it was common knowledge that you and vinnie were an extremely affectionate couple, it was just how you showed your love for each other; but when one of you was feeling down or unwell, that affection grew to a whole other level. some saw it to be a little too clingy, but neither of you minded. all it meant was some extra cuddles and taking care of the love of your life, and how could you say no to that?

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏˚♡˚﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

 you had woken up a little earlier than usual on this particular morning, wanting to get a head start on the long list of things you had been putting off and desperately needed to get done. 

you expected to have an extremely productive day, that is until you felt vinnie’s strong arms wrap around your waist, pulling you close to his body so you were trapped by his warmth, unable to get out bed and begin getting ready for the day like you originally intended. “stay, please.” he mumbled into his pillow, not even bothering to open his eyes, probably still half asleep. and how could you say no to your adorable boyfriend and his raspy morning voice a total weakness of yours when he was begging you to stay and cuddle. 

your to-do list could wait. 

you leaned into his touch, wrapping yourself back under the covers, although you didn’t much need it from the way vinnie was like a human radiator, keeping you warm and cozy almost always.

“you okay, bub?” you hummed, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek before nuzzling your head into his neck.

“just need you today. stay with me please,” he faintly whispered.

“of course, baby. i’m not going anywhere, promise.” you cooed, your hands instinctively running through his curls knowing that always soothed him. “you wanna talk about it?” you asked gently, not wanting to press him.

he shook his head in response, “just want to cuddle.”

“okay, love. we can cuddle all day if that’s what you want. i’m here.” you felt his body further relax at your words. you realized he probably just needed a distraction from all the craziness going on from the last week, or more so last year, of his life.

you grabbed your phone from the bedside table, placing an order at one of vinnie’s favorite breakfast spots, getting his usual burrito and yourself a bagel. once the order was confirmed, you turned your phone to silent, wanting to devote all your attention to your sweet boy today.

knowing your boyfriend like the back of your hand, you knew exactly what he needed on a day like this.

cuddles, check.

his favorite foods, check. you even made a mental note to make a batch of your famous homemade chocolate chip cookies he adored so much, that is when he lets you out of his hold.

next thing he needed was an anime to watch; that was something that never failed to comfort him on his worst days. especially ones he particularly loved as a child. you quickly flipped on the tv, opening up netflix, and searching for his current favorite show. that’ll surely keep his mind distracted, you thought to yourself. 

and the last thing he always needed on a day like this: family.

there was no doubt about it that vinnie was in fact a momma’s boy, and with that being said, you made sure to send a short message to maria letting her know how vin was feeling and that he might need a call from his beloved mother later that day.

she was quick to respond with a simple praise, thanking you for letting her know and always being so caring towards her eldest son. i’m so happy he has found someone who loves him as much as i do. thank you for being there for him when i can’t. 

you smiled after reading the text, sending her a few hearts before turning your attention back to the ever so clingy boy next to you. “i love you so much, vin. i’ll always be here for you.” 

you watched as he titled his head up to face yours, a small smile spread across his lips. “i love you too. thank you for everything.” he quietly responded, placing a soft kiss on the top of your shoulder before cuddling closer to you. neither of you moving for the remainder of the day. 

[theladyfulcrum]

Come here children. Come here. Sit down. Take my hands. Listen.

Here’s what we are not going to do. We are not going to let them unravel us and leave us in a heap of bawling bodies. They want us to sob until our eyes fall out and we rupture our abdominal organs because they’re heartless and sadistic and part of STAR WARS—shhh, steady—but we are going to remain CALM. Call it denial, call it call it bargaining, call it what you will, but he’s not gone.

Deep breaths, all together now. Crying is cathartic and necessary for coping with the emotional abuse we endure at the hands of Filoni et al., but don’t cry from lost hope. I’m serious. Was it among the worst things we could have possibly been forced to watch? Has a good majority of the fandom been mulling where the hell we are supposed to find the will to go on after that? Of course. But they’ll be back. And Tech will be, too.

Hush, child. Listen to me.

There was a reason he fell into cloud-cover. He could have been falling into anything. Water can be lethal from that height, yes, but let’s all just remember what Hunter pulled in War-Mantle with falling OUT OF A SHIP and down a LITERAL MOUNTAIN and surviving that with JUST HIS KNIFE. HIS KNIFE, KIDS. Tech accepted what he was doing, and he was okay with dying if that was what this meant, but he’s Tech. Once he fell from view he did whatever he could to increase his odds of getting out of it alive. Trust.

Speaking of falling from view— we know the Clone Wars rules. No body, no confirmed death. Forget that— we know the STAR WARS rules. Even if someone gets SLICED IN HALF before your VERY EYES and FALLS AN INDETERMINABLE-BUT-DEFINITELY-NOT-SURVIVABLE DISTANCE, they STILL aren’t dead. Further still, if you had put the two scenes in front of me with no context, I would have said Echo’s death in an EXPLOSION of FIRE seemed more final and certain that Tech falling away from us. And no, I don’t care about the argument that it’s a kId’S ShOW so they wouldn’t show us the body. Go watch Colt’s death and get back to me. Or you know, pretty much any Clone Wars episode.

BUT THE GOGGLES, you wail. I know, dear heart, I know. I see the cracks in them every time I close my eyes. But Hemlock getting his hands on those isn’t confirmation of anything other than what we already know— no matter where he wound up, Tech is having a Very Bad Time™️. Whether he lost them on the extremely unpleasant way down or whether he’s being experimented on in critical condition is hardly a nicer thing to know, but we’ll take just about anything right now if it means we’ll see our boy again, won’t we?

Shhh, I’m not through. We also have that scene with Phee. If it had been a true goodbye, if Tech had shown an ounce of the development he had with Omega about differences in emotional processing and communication, you’d have seen my soul depart through the atmosphere. But no. That scene’s entire purpose was to be unresolved. Was it just to make us incurably sad in retrospect? Maybe. But my gut says no— there’s more he needs to say to her.

On that note, the same goes for Tech and Crosshair. I refuse to believe we’ll never see them together again. I don’t have anything stronger than my refusal, but my feelings on this are rock solid. There’s also the important issue of THE Bad Batch theme— you know how they’ve established a precedent of not using it unless the whole Batch is together? Collectively, we’re going to refuse to believe they’re going to break that now. And there’s too much love for that theme to never hear it again.

Finally, beloveds, we come to our old favorite: story analysis. You know I’m insufferable about this, but listen. If we look at screenwriting, if we look at story structure, if we look at BEATS, this is the old “DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL” for the Batch (and us obviously). It’s the ALL IS LOST. The EVERYTHING IS AWFUL AND THE HEROES ARE AT THEIR LOWEST LOW. It’s the classic “oh my god this second installment is EMOTIONAL TORTURE HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO ME” that we can point to in novels, shows, and film series again and again. It’s the ESB ending, it’s the Catching Fire ending, it’s the Rebels S2 AHSOKA IS D E A D AND ANAKIN KILLED HER ending. S3 will open as they enter Act III, where they use what they’ve learned to move upwards toward the finale of this particular story arc. Doesn’t that sound like something nice to cling to?

There now. If I’m wrong, I’ll give you all the choice of k!lling me first or tossing me alive out of a plane with no *hard swallow* parachute, jet pack, or functional grappling gun. But I truly believe you won’t have to.

In the year or two we have to wait, cry for his absence, cry for the Batch being more fractured and farther apart than they ever have been, cry for Hunter feeling like he’s failed everyone he loves, cry for all of it, but not because you’ve lost hope that all might not be lost.

Tech will be back.

[zoeykallus]

Hey! Happy Fourth of July! I’m not sure if you’re accepting requests so ignore this if you’re not lmao but because of my PTSD-fireworks are… tough lmao. Can you write a little something of the bad batch comforting their S/O while neighbors are lighting fireworks?

Aloha!

Wow! This one slipped through the cracks! I'm so sorry you had to wait so long for this one! 😱😱😱

The Bad Batch x Reader HCs - PTSD And Fireworks

Mostly Fluff/Mention Of PTSD And Audio Triggers

_______________

You know that it is coming. You are already uneasy inside, basically you are prepared for it, but you know the sounds will still worry and unsettle you. Fortunately, you are not alone tonight.

_______________

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

_______________

>Master List<

_______________

Hunter

He already knows you're uncomfortable before it's really obvious.

"Are you okay?"

You blink at him, puzzled, but then you remember how fine Hunter's senses are. Of course, he can sense that you're tense, no matter how hard you try to hide it.

"Sure, everything's fine. It's just the fireworks, they'll probably go off any minute."

He nods in understanding. Hunter already knows about your PTSD, you feel comfortable and safe with him, that's why you confided in him a while ago.

He suggests turning on some music, sitting by the window together, and watching the fireworks from inside. The music is supposed to muffle the noise from outside a bit, and Hunter thinks maybe if you see what's going on, it will calm you down a bit.

You sit down on the windowsill with some hot chocolate, Hunter holds your hand and squeezes it gently each time you flinch, smiling at you to let you know he's with you, and you have nothing to worry about. He talks to you gently, asks you a few questions, distracts you a little until the whole thing is over.

He's still very attentive later, when the worst is over, you're in bed, and people are still setting off fireworks sporadically. Hunter gently has an arm around you and murmurs soothing words to you every time you tense up again. You're in good hands with Hunter.

Echo

He himself doesn't like fireworks very much. Like you, Echo is a little tense tonight. As a soldier, especially one who has experienced things like Echo, such noises can also be very nerve-wracking. Echo has cooked for both of you, you've eaten before the sun goes down, in peace, but you both keep looking, automatically already nervous to the window. "You're thinking about the same thing I am, aren't you?" you ask quietly. Echo nods slowly and answers, "The fireworks." You ask him a little uncertainly, "You're staying over tonight, right?" He looks at you urgently and says, "Of course! I would never leave you alone on a night like this." You smile in relief, and Echo returns the smile gently. "Don't worry, Love" he says encouragingly, "We'll get through this together". You make yourselves comfortable on the sofa that evening. Snuggled together, your legs over his lap, your torso leaning against his, your arms around his middle, his arm around your shoulders. There's a movie on the television. You've closed all the shutters, windows and doors to muffle the noise from outside as best you can.

You both wince now and then when it booms a little louder outside, and calm each other down with short touches and glances. Now and then you talk a little, but for both of you the evening is really exhausting. Nevertheless, of course, you survive the night, tired, but happy to have had each other that night.

Wrecker

He loves the fireworks, but he knows how nervous they make you. And even though you insisted he go watch the fireworks, he shows up at your door just before sundown.

"Wrecker? What are you doing here?"

He beams at you, holds up a bag of goodies, and says, "I thought we were having a movie night."

Baffled and with your heart dancing with joy, you ask him, "But you love fireworks so much. Didn't you want to watch them?"

He waves it off like it's nonsense. But you know he's only here to watch you, and your heart literally leaps out at him in gratitude.

"I'd rather look at you," he says perkily, and comes inside.

The evening is much more relaxed than you expected. Even though you get scared and nervous for a moment occasionally, Wrecker is always near you, gently holding you close and talking to you to distract you while you watch some movies.

Of course, he feeds you snacks in between and steals a few gentle kisses.

Tech

He has already calculated statistics and probabilities for you; at the moment, numbers are floating in front of your inner eye. "It's very unlikely that you'll get hurt if you stay in the house," Tech says matter-of-factly, his famous index finger raised. You sigh softly and look at him. He blinks, your sigh not lost on him. "What's the matter?" he says softly, eyeing you carefully. "That may all be true, but fear is rarely rational, nor can it be always controlled by rational thought"

His eyes wander back and forth for a moment, thoughtful, then he says, "I see. So this fear probably stems from some trauma or disorder." You nod and shrug your shoulders at the same time, as if to acknowledge it and yet not admit it. Tech smiles and offers, "Do you want me to stay with you tonight? We could play cards or watch a movie. I can hold your hand, distract you." You smirk at him and say, "It would be great if you could stay over tonight. But I won't play cards with you" Tech beams, "I'd love to stay," but then his expression turns questioning, "Why won't you play cards with me?" "I've seen you play against all your brothers," you note, shaking your head. "So?" You laugh and reply, "No one can win against you. I've seen you play against yourself, and when I asked why you were doing that, you said the only way to make this game a challenge was to play against yourself."

Tech grins and finally nods. "All right, that's true, of course. So it's going to be a movie night." Tech keeps his promise, of course, staying the night and holding your hand. When, at a particularly loud boom, you automatically push yourself closer to him, he puts an arm around you and says softly, "It's okay, you're safe here with me"

Crosshair

He doesn't know anything about it. You haven't had a chance to talk about your fear. He is all the more confused that you don't want to watch the fireworks outside, and it's baffling to see how tense and jumpy you are. You were playing cards, and a particularly loud noise startled you so much that you jumped up and half hopped across the table onto his lap. He sighs softly, puts his arms around you and asks quietly, "Do you want to tell me what's wrong with you? Is it the fireworks? Is that why you didn't want to go out to watch them?" Your fingers are clawed at his clothing as you quietly reply, "Is it that obvious?" He laughs softly, "Just a little." You are about to let go of him again when several firecrackers go off in a row, and you clutch right back at him.

"Hmm," he softly utters, "How about we sit on the sofa, turn on some music or the holoprojector, and you just stay clinging to me, Kitten?" You look at him apologetically and smile lopsidedly. "That would be great," you finally say meekly. Crosshair nods, gets up with you, and heads for the sofa along with you. Even though he can be a grumbler, at heart he's very attentive and has a gentle side as well. He stays all night, of course, to watch over you.

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

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@allsystemsblue

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@either-madness-or-brilliance

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@andy-solo1

@hunterssecretrecipe

@heyitsaloy

@greaser-wolf

@extrahotpixels

@hated-by-me

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@malicemercy

@bebopsworld

@echos-girlfriend

@cpnt616

@dangraccoon

@jediknightjana

@pb-jellybeans

@antishadow2021

@sleepycreativewriter

@projectdreamwalker

@1vlouds

@starwarsnerd111

[sallowsdiary]

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s losing—especially to Gryffindors. But today, fate had the audacity to make me suffer the ultimate humiliation: I lost a bet to Garreth Weasley. Yes, that Garreth Weasley. The one who thinks exploding potions are a perfectly acceptable pastime.

It all started innocently enough. I was lounging in the common room, minding my own business (and by that, I mean plotting how to “accidentally” release a batch of Hiccough Sweets into the Gryffindor table at dinner), when Garreth swaggered over with that ridiculous grin of his. He bet me that he could create a self-stirring cauldron that would brew a perfect potion without any assistance. I, naturally, scoffed at the idea. I mean, this is the same boy who once turned a simple cleaning charm into a miniature hurricane in Potions class.

But no, I had to open my big mouth and say, “If you can manage that without setting yourself on fire, I’ll wear a Gryffindor scarf for an entire day.”

Well, guess what? He did it. Somehow, against all odds (and possibly by sheer accident), Garreth managed to create this infernal cauldron that not only brewed a flawless Elixir to Induce Euphoria but also played a jaunty little tune while it did so. I’m still convinced it was some form of accidental magic, but the fact remains that I lost the bet.

So today, I had to walk around Hogwarts draped in Gryffindor colors. Do you have any idea how many times I had to explain to people that, no, I hadn’t suddenly developed a passion for lions and courage? The looks I got! Even the Bloody Baron gave me a once-over like I’d suddenly grown a second head.

Ominis tried to cheer me up by suggesting that maybe red wasn’t so bad on me, but I think he was just trying to avoid another of my dramatic rants. Meanwhile, every Gryffindor I passed gave me that smug, infuriating grin that made me want to hex the lot of them. Even Professor Weasley couldn’t help but smirk when she saw me in her House’s scarf. I’m telling you, if looks could kill, the entire Gryffindor House would be nothing but a pile of ashes by now.

The worst part, though? Peeves got wind of the whole thing and decided to follow me around, singing an off-key version of the Gryffindor anthem. He even changed the lyrics to include my name and something about “Sebastian the Traitor.” By lunchtime, I was ready to strangle him with that cursed scarf.

But don’t think for a second that I’m going to let this slide. Oh no, I’m already plotting my revenge. I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve that will make Garreth regret the day he ever thought it was a good idea to challenge me. Let’s just say that the next time he brews a potion, he might find a little surprise bubbling up in his cauldron—something that’ll make his hair turn a nice shade of Slytherin green.

Until then, I’m going to burn this scarf, scrub every last bit of red and gold from my memory, and reclaim my rightful place as the superior person that I am.

—Sebastian

[notgonnaedit]

Healer's Hands

Chapter 5: The Base

Summary: When 16 y/o Althea Aaun's home is lost to the Clone War, she must find her way in a squad of rejected clones

Pairing: Bad Batch x Teen!OFC (clones being good brothers/dads)

Chapter summary: The Batch locates the Separatist ship and hones in.

Warnings: Depictions of grief, character death, mourning, canon typical violence, Althea has the worst day, Crosshair and her bonding, explosions, guns and their use (If I miss a tag LMK)

Master list

"I get my own armor?!"

Althea held the armor Hunter gave her in her arms. She and the squad were back in the Marauder, heading to their next destination.

Hunter chuckled at her excitement. "Yes. You've learned how to shoot, but that won't do anything to protect you in battle. You need armor, just in case you get hit. Even some Jedi wear clone armor."

Althea grinned. "Thank you."

Hunter patted her shoulder. "You're welcome. Go try it on."

Althea was still grinning when she went into the fresher to change. Hunter felt himself smiling, that was until Crosshair spoke up. "You're getting attached." He said.

Hunter didn't say anything, so the sniper continued. "What are you going to do when she doesn't find her brother? Or finds him...not the way she expected."

Hunter kept his gaze on his boots. It wasn't a secret that everyone except Althea had expressed some concern about her brother being gone. And while none of them wanted to scare the girl, they couldn't just let her go unaware of the possibilities.

"You need to tell her." Crosshair said. He walked away into the cockpit, leaving Hunter alone. Wrecker sat in one of the console chairs. 

"You don't think her brother is actually..."

Hunter looked at him. "We don't know what's happened to him, but we need to be prepared."

Wrecker nodded. Before any of them could discuss it more, Althea re-entered the hull. "Well, how's it look?" She asked.

The armor was especially made for her size, but it still hung off her shoulders loosely. The white of the armor contrasted heavily against her dark hair, and made her eyes look pale.

Hunter smiled. "A little big. But it'll get the job done."

Althea adjusted the belt. "How come they didn't give me a helmet?"

"Don't know." The sergeant told her. "The Kaminoans aren't exactly the most forthcoming people." He remembered all the times Tech asked why they did something as cadets, earning annoyed looks from the scientists. 

Althea shrugged. "I'm gonna show Tech and Crosshair." She ran off into the cockpit and soon after, Tech called Hunter in.

"Hunter," He said. "I've located the Separatist ship."

The sergeant walked into the cockpit, Wrecker not far behind. "Where?"

"The planet Ackron." Tech answered. "They have a base of operations there. It's small, and it looks as if it is the main source of intel."

Hunter hummed in thought. "Might as well take the whole thing. If we could get all of their intel, it might be enough to actually put a dent in their army."

"What about the kid?" Crosshair asked.

Althea frowned from where she sat next to him. "I'm right here, you know."

Hunter frowned. They needed to complete the mission, but they also needed to keep Althea safe. The sergeant knew that the girl would do anything to find her brother. After all, he would do the same if the Separatists had anyone of his squad. There would be no keeping Althea away from the danger. "She came come."

Looks of surprise were all Hunter saw. "Hunter," Tech started. "You do realize the probability–"

"I understand, Tech. But she needs to come."

Althea shot him a look of gratitude. "Thanks, but can we please stop talking about me like I'm not here."

Wrecker leaned over Althea's seat. "You ready for your first mission, kid?" He asked excitedly.

Althea forced a smile. Deep down, she was terrified. But she didn't want them to think she was helpless. Tech brought the ship out of hyperspace, revealing a large planet of rust orange. He brought them into the atmosphere, giving Althea a better look at the terrain.

Ackron was all badlands. Not sandy like a dessert, but it was hard to believe anything could live there. Not far away was a large tower. It was hard to see in the yellow light, but swarming the base were battle droids. Docked at the top of the tower was the Separatist ship. Althea swallowed hard. She would find her brother today, after a week of searching.

Tech set the ship down on a ridge, a click away from the tower. After the ramp was lowered, they made their way onto the ridge, hiding in the rocks and watching with binocs.

"Looks like there's only one way in." Hunter said. "Tech, Wrecker, you're with me." He stood up and turned to the squad. "Crosshair, you know what to do."

Crosshair had his helmet on, but Althea was sure he was smirking. She turned to Hunter. "What about me?"

Hunter faltered. He did say she could come, but he didn't want her to get hurt. "You stay back with Crosshair."

Althea frowned. "But I can help."

Hunter shook his helmet. "No. If you want your brother to have a sister to come back to, you'll stay here."

Althea scowled, but she stepped back to Crosshair nonetheless. Hunter nodded in approval before sliding down the ridge with Tech and Wrecker. Althea watched them. It should be her saving Thao.

                      •°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Crosshair let out a soft sigh. He was laying down on his stomach, his rifle at the ready. Sounds of blaster fire echoed up the canyon. He wished he could be there with his brothers, but his gift wasn't one for close combat. Instead, he was stuck in the hot sun babysitting an impatient girl.

Althea sat next to him, her eyes covered by binocs. She had barely said a word since they left, and as much Crosshair loved silence, it was starting to worry him slightly. The kid had to be anxious to find her brother, but as snide as he was, Crosshair felt sorry for her. All she wanted to do was save her brother, but he may not be alive. And the many times he had brought it up weren't to get rid of Althea, but to try and prepare her so she wouldn't be devastated.

Who was he kidding? No one could ever prepare themselves fully to see a brother dead. That was what made their squad so different. They were loyal to each other, and unlike the regs, Crosshair couldn't bear seeing one of his brothers injured, or worse.

The main reason he objected to taking on Althea was he didn't want her to see the horrors of war. Crosshair had buried it all down, but the sight of innocent dead shook him.

He looked over at Althea and saw she was staring at him. "What?" He asked.

She pursed her lips. "Do they always take this long?"

Crosshair shifted slightly. "Sometimes. I'm surprised there hasn't been any explosions yet."

As if waiting for a cue, a loud boom sounded from the base. Crosshair could've sworn he heard Wrecker's gleeful yell, even from a distance. Althea's fingers tapped her blaster. Crosshair knew that Wrecker had taught her to shoot, but that wouldn't be enough. She needed to learn to identify her targets and their weak points.

"Wrecker taught you to shoot." Crosshair said.

Althea nodded, so he continued. "Good, but not good enough. You can't just shoot randomly and expect your target to drop. You have to know where to shoot."

"What do you mean?" Althea asked.

Crosshair turned back to his rifle. He lined up the sights to a droid's head that had come into range. "Watch and learn."

BANG

The clanker dropped to the ground and others followed. Crosshair smirked when he heard Althea's gasp. He turned to her. "Now you try."

"Me?" Althea's mouth hung open slightly. Crosshair moved so his rifle was in Althea's arms and he was behind her. 

The sniper stared at her. "I don't see anyone else around, do you?" He showed her how to hold the rifle. Stock in her shoulder next to her cheek, one hand on the barrel, the other near the trigger. "Wrecker taught you about the trigger?"

Althea nodded. "Don't put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot. Squeeze, don't pull."

Crosshair nodded. "Good, but do you know when to pull it?"

"Er..."

"In-between breaths. Take a deep breath, and once it's finished, squeeze. Don't do it at the end of the breath, wait until it's completely finished."

She nodded.

Crosshair leaned on his stomach beside her. "You see your target."

"A droid." Althea was extremely focused on the scope.

"Aim slightly lower than where you want to hit." The sniper explained. "Normally you would have to aim higher because the laser would drop, but since we're elevated you don't want to overshoot. Fire when ready."

Althea took a deep breath, put her finger on the trigger, and found her target. She released her breath and squeezed the trigger.

CLANG!

The droid dropped, and Crosshair couldn't help but smile. Althea looked up at him, a wide grin on her face. "I did it."

Crosshair nodded. "You sure did."

Suddenly, Hunter's voice crackled through the comms. Crosshair and Althea pressed their fingers to their comm devices.

"Crosshair!" Hunter said. "We need you down here!"

Crosshair nodded. "I'm on my way." He looked to Althea. "You ready, kid?"

Althea nodded. "Hunter got me this armor for a reason." She gripped her blaster tightly, and the duo made their way down the ridge.

                      •°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Hunter and Wrecker covered Tech as he stole the data from the main control center. The clankers dropped easily, but Hunter still felt uneasy. On the other side of the room was the docking entrance to the ship. Hunter knew that Althea's brother was there, but was he okay? He couldn't wait any longer, he needed to know. "Wrecker, can you hold them off?"

Hunter could practically hear Wrecker's grin. "I was waiting for you to ask! Yeah?" He lept into the fray, leaving Hunter to go into the ship.

He passed through the doors, waiting to see if anyone was there. But he sensed nothing. Even though his helmet hindered his tracking, he should have been able to feel the presence of a person. The knot in Hunter's stomach twisted further. Something wasn't right.

He made his way through the ship, blaster at ready. His footfalls echoed down the metallic corridors. Then finally, the scent found him. Hunter stopped in his tracks. Not far in front of him was a small figure lying on the floor. It had curly black hair, but that was all Hunter could see. He moved closer to it, and felt his heart twist at the sight.

He had never met Althea's brother, but he could recognize those yellow eyes anywhere. But unlike Althea's, this boy's eyes were cold and unmoving. On his chest there was a blaster wound, but it was cold. By the looks of him, he had been dead a long time. Hunter didn't know what he was going to tell Althea.

                      •°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Althea found Tech in the main control room if the tower. Crosshair was helping Wrecker take out the droids. "What's happening?" She asked.

Tech worked furiously at the controls. "I've extracted the Intel from the database. I electronic charges all around when we made our ascent, and I am now linking them to this main center. When I am finished, the tower will be set to blow in ten minutes."

Althea bounced on her heels. She was itching to save her brother. "Where's Hunter?"

"In the ship."

Althea nodded before running into the ship. She was finally going to save Thao. Maybe Hunter already found him with his tracking skills. "Hunter?" She called as she ran through the metal halls. "Thao!"

Finally, she saw Hunter. He was standing completely still. "Hunter!" She called. He looked up at her and took off his helmet. His eyes shone grey in the dim light, as they so often did. But they held sadness as the sergeant furrowed his brow. Hunter looked at her then back at the thing he stood over. It had curly black hair.

Althea paled as she neared. A startled yelp escaped her when she laid eyes on her dead brother. His eyes, normally so warm and alive, were dimmed to a faded cream, devoid of all life.

"No." Althea kneeled down to Thao's side. "No, it can't be."

Hunter looked at her in sympathy. "Kid, I–"

"No!" Althea began to sob. "No! He can't be gone!" She combed her fingers through her brother's hair, clinging to a false hope. "He can't be gone!"

Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed down the hall. "Hunter! Kid!" It was Wrecker. "Tech set the place to blow! We gotta move!"

Hunter slipped his helmet back on, but Althea stayed by her brother and sobbed. Hunter squeezed her shoulder. "Althea, we need to move."

"No!" She refused, and Wrecker came over. It only took one look for the giant of a clone to see what was wrong. He wanted to comfort Althea, but they had no time. Instead, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her screams to be put down.

They ran back to the tower where Crosshair and Tech were waiting to go. Neither of them said a word about Althea's crazed state as the ran for the Marauder.

Wrecker set Althea down in the crash seats (the only seats with safety buckles), holding her by her shoulders as she screamed. 

Explosions rang out as Tech flew them away, jolting into hyperspace. Althea beat her fists against Wrecker's chest. "GO BACK! I NEED TO GO BACK FOR HIM!!"

Wrecker closed his eyes in pain, but not from her fists, from her desperation. Crosshair kept his helmet on for his own sake. He didn't want the others to see his attachment to Althea, and how much it pained him to see her like this.

Althea stopped trying to hit Wrecker and slid onto the floor. Sobs racked her body as Hunter and Tech came in. The sergeant felt his emotions swell as he watched the young girl grieve her brother. Tech frowned. No one should have to go what she's gone through.

The Bad Batch stood around Althea as she sobbed, all at a loss for what to do. Althea felt herself slip into a despair so deep, she wished it would crush her.

<- Previous. Next ->

[clonebrainrot]

Aftermath Season 1 episode 1 rewatch

A live reaction

The bad batch aftermath

So we begin

I completely forgot that they had a clone wars intro for this

Ah Kanan sounding like a 40 year old man

And here they come!

Ah POV shot my beloved

God they are so badass

God I am already getting emotional over fucking nothing lol

Tech no you can’t say the C-word

You gotta appreciate all these battles where they are working together it only happens like 3 times in the entire show

God captain grey sucks

lol Tech doesn’t even look up from his data pad when he is introduced by Kanan. He is literally me.

Any orders or shall we do what we do? God what a great line

Oh yay! Order 66!

And everything continued to go down hill from this point onward

smh rebels was contradicted in rebels he said her last words were run not Caleb! I can’t believe they would get this wrong. My day is ruined

Also I am literally just writing all my thoughts out as they happen I’ll have a lot more succinct post later.

Even this early I cannot get over how good the animation looks

You have orders from the chancellor? Wrecker doesn’t give a shit lol

Hunter saw Kanan and he wanted to adopt him immediately

Crosshair is an amazing shot anytime he isn’t shooting a good guy. Then he misses a lot. Although you can argue that he is subconsciously resisting the order if you want

Poor Hunter he is trying his best to

God I am so tempted to writer a the bad batch protests Kanan fic. I think Omega and Kanan would have such a fun dynamic.

God the scenery shots all look gorgeous I wish I knew how to take screenshots of Disney plus or else I would show you

I forgot how often Tech talked. I don’t know why

Remember when people said the dead Jedi here was shaak ti? Cause that made no sense. She literally has a green hand.

Also every line of dialogue between Tech and Wrecker is just hilarious

“Oh they seem the same to me” I love you tech

My exceptional mind! Another great line

Info dump more Tech I will enjoy every piece of dialogue you give me

First appearance of Omega!

Interestingly Omega notices when Hunter looks up at her. Hmm makes one think doesn’t it. Tap this one down as the first of “omega is force sensitive” (I won’t let this theory die”

There she is. She is just the best.

Also Omega has the worst haircut ever.

I love all of Omega’s weird little waves. She’s so socially awkward sometimes I love that about her.

Oh boy. Tarkin here he comes to ruin the day

lol the Kaminoasn really are like “bitch what are you talking about”

Oh my man soup clone is gonna steal the scene

I like to blow things up because I like to blow things up. You always know your ways with words tech

I can’t get over how horrible omega’s haircut looks it is so bad

Soup clone or should I say CX2!

I love that this food fight is a regular occurrence

Regular clone coming in With a metal tray!

I wish they had done more with Echo’s PTSD

I will leave you to process the shock of this revelation

Maybe this empire thing isn’t so bad after all (it was)

I just realized what happened to Lama Su? He just dipped out of the shows lol

And wrecker is shot for the first time. First of many. I think it might be four total. Wrecker takes an absolute beating throughout the show

What we did on Felucia. Well now I need a whole show about that

Tech riding the proto dark troopers is such a video game moment

I completely forgot how little Omega is in this first episode until like well over half way through

Crosshair’s knife shot may be my favorite of the entire show.

Ah the fetus room my favorite one on Kamino

I completely forgot Tarkin has met Omega.

Squad does not make a squadron. I thought squadron was just for aircraft and naval vessels? I know this is a nitpick and doesn’t really matter but it stood out

I love how Hunter always goes to Omega’s eye level. I love that about him.

Oh oh! Oh no! Kid you aren’t a soldier. Damnit I am crying now. She grew up to be a soldier! Ah I hate it I am going to bawl my eyes out for the rest of the episode

Saw you complicated man. I don’t hate you like some, but you always go about it the wrong way you drove so many people away you indirectly killed one of the brightest minds on Star Wars, but your heart was in the right place. It’s just how you fight. That’s what is important

I love how Tech knows who Saw is on sight. He knows literally everything I love that about him

Saw also does it. He gets to eye level when talking to children. I love this detail. Not talking down always talking directly.

Crosshair always the contrarian with “not that you know of”

Wait how did Tech know about the conversation with Tarkin where he talks about the five clones. He wasn’t there. There are a few instances throughout the show where characters know things they really shouldn’t

Someone is coming we need to go. That’s two strikes for force sensitive omega (again not letting this die)

God the wide shots on this show are stunning

Do you think it’s a problem that I can recognize all the trailer shots as they appear? lol

Strike 3 for Omega being force sensitive. Although this one you can excuse as just her knowing about the inhibitor chip. There is one that will be coming up that you can’t read as anything other than force sensitive IMO

Oh did I ever tell you how when I first saw Omega in the trailer I thought she was a boy lol.

I love Omega copying her brothers it’s so cute

I can’t get over how bad her hair is. I hate her original hair style. It’s just so bad lol

God even in this episode so early the music is absolutely banging.

Omega knows crosshair is coming before he actually comes. And then she’ll make this amazing shot. Omega is force sensitive. Nothing says she isn’t in the show. And so I will go to my grave believing it. Canon be damned

Also why is the Coruscant guard on Kamino? What happened to the gray colored Kamino police clones?

That’s a second shot for wrecker. Dude just keeps getting beaten the shit out of. Already planting the seeds for that inhibitor chip activating later

And there is the shot. Followed by shots that go completely off the mark. Makes one think doesn’t it…

Also Nala Se you sneaky sneaky. I hate you for fives and also love you for helping Omega in the end.

So begins Omega’s adventure. And so begins the beginning of the end for theirs

Next stop Cut Lawquane

God I am excited to go through these episodes. It’s like it’s starting all over again even If I have watched this show a collective 4 times lol.

[renton6echo]

Day 1 of 30 Days of The Bad Batch

Season 1, Episode 1: Aftermath

Alright. Let's dive into, probably, my favorite episode of the series so far. It's just such a great opening to the characters and the story. What a way to open a series right at Order 66. I just knew we were in for such a rollercoaster from the start of this show. Really, Order 66? That's where you're starting off the show? Force, have mercy on us all.

The biggest gem of this episode is that it's the only one we get where we get to see Hunter, Echo, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair just be a squad together. If I had my wish, I would have liked to have seen more of that before Crosshair and the rest of the batch split off. It was harder to see what the loss of Crosshair did to the team on an emotional and military tactics level. We didn't get much in the way of their team dynamic apart from Crosshair just being known as the surly, grumpy one. While I do love all the theories around how it was likely Echo who stepped into the role that Crosshair had like like being the peacekeeper between Tech and Wrecker's, it would have been nice to see more of that so we had an idea of what the Batch lost.

I've put my live musings of the episode under this thread for the sake of my followers. Sorry, not sorry!! Ya'll knew what you were getting into following me 👀

Not sure if anyone else is interested in doing this but if you're also re-watching TBB before the season 3 premiere be sure to tag all your musings in the #30 Days of The Bad Batch so I can read them!!

@floundrickthewayfarer @saturn-sends-hugs @the-bi-space-ace

First off, Captain Grey, I wish we had gotten to know you more before your chip activated because you seem like a sassy and salty man. I'm sure you and Rex swapped lots of stories.

Wee Kanan. I remember watching this the first time and having just finished Rebels. I saw and heard Kanan and literally said, "Oh, shit. Please no!! This is so mean." Good times. Good times.

So at what point did they realize they could use Echo's scomp as a melee weapon? It is so badass.

Oooff. That shot of the large canyon separating Kanan and Hunter that symbolizes the break between clone and Jedi *chefs kiss*

I really wish we had more scenes take place in TBB's barracks. So many fun details to dissect.

Will never get over Tech's matter-the-fact "My exceptional mind." Legend.

LOL. Echo's put-out expression when Wrecker notes how ugly Palpatine is! I've never noticed that.

Wonder how well the clones are informed in intergalactic politics. Echo seems to have a real knowledge of the larger political nuance more than the others. He is the first to openly question clones as soldiers of the Empire versus the Republic. I assume the Kaminoans would not have spent a lot of time educating clones on political structures and more on just being compliant with the system they were born into. For most clones, the transition from republic to empire is more or less just a name change, but Echo clearly takes issue with the implications.

Battle simulation time! Honestly, I could watch a whole series of clones just bantering and comming each other in battle. Such a fun, creative way to learn about characters and see them interact with each other. Wrecker and Tech sniping at each other is the best thing ever.

ALSO, Hunter why you whistling at them? You got comms for a reason you dramatic punk.

The implication that Crosshair also cried after seeing a fully stocked armory is just...I need that footage.

I never noticed that most, if all the weapons the Onderon insurgents have are Republic-issued.

Omega liking the batch's smelly barracks? Yeah, she's one of them.

Freaking Tarkin. I'm assuming he was just going to fry all their brains to make the whole batch compliant. Ugh. Poor Crosshair.

Oh, Shock troopers. Worst jobs with the worst rap. Do you think we will get to see Commander Fox in the last season? 🤞🏽

"You were down!" Echo has the best sense of humor.

[ley-med]

Hey! I want to apologise in advance because well I'm going to cry about my life in your asks and ruin your mood. I'm a second year? First year student? I'm not sure anymore. I had my first year final exams and got my results 2 days ago. I failed anatomy. Not by just a bit but by 18 marks. People who have not studied even a single day the whole year somehow passed. I was blaming the system, the checkers and what not but my mom kinda said that your failure is your fault more than anyone else's and she's not wrong. I always dreaded studying anatomy, I hated it cuz it was hard, maybe? Idk on the other hand i scored pretty good in biochemistry and physiology. I have a month roughly to prepare for my supplementry exams that are in February and if I pass I can rejoin my batch , I'll be with my friends again. But to study alone this month feels so difficult, fomo as my friends and classmates go to clinics and OT's constantly makes me anxious. My parents are very supportive, they were very positive and that I have gotten a chance to resolve my fear. My mental health is fluctuating so bad, a moment I'm so motivated that I can do it! And the next minute I'm in pits of sadness and dispair. Idk why im sharing all this but as a fellow in medical field I hope maybe i could have a word of encouragement or maybe a reality check. My friends believe hundred percent that I'll pass and I'm hopeful too but my anxiety does not rest. If I fail I'd have to repeat the year and be with my junior batch. Thank you for listening and I'm sorry again.

Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry, I feel your pain!

Do you know how many times I failed anatomy? Well I won't say the exact number because that's frankly embarrassing, but I'm probably on some sort of list of "worst students to ever disgrace the halls of the anatomy department"... I failed anatomy and biochemistry and had to repeat first year. Then I failed anatomy and physiology and had to retake second year too... Shit happens.

Do you know why they say med school is hard? It's because it is damn hard. Most students will fail some exams here or there, some will fail more than just a few exams, and very few will pass all of theirs. (Even those who don't study and somehow seem to always pass? Even their luck runs out sometimes). Sometimes it's unfair, and sometimes it's our fault.

Your exam results has nothing to do with how good of a doctor you will become! It's just school, nothing more, nothing less. See me, I was so bad at med school, just terrible at it, and now that I'm a doctor, I might not be the best ever out there, but I'm good at my job.

I know this sucks now, it sucks to fail, and it sucks to study again when you could be doing something else. But it's just an exam, not the end of the world. You cry, then you dry your tears, sit back, and study as hard as you can.

And there is no guarantee you will pass the next time either, passing is never ever guaranteed! You just study and hope for the best. And if you fail again, you cry some more, then realise that maybe your "study as hard as you can" wasn't really your hardest, or you realise you aren't studying effectively and you need to find a way of studying that better suits you. We all have to learn how to study...

And sometimes you just say, fuck it, and pass purely out of spite.

Anyways. Don't compare yourself to others. You live your life, not theirs. And unfortunately, yours now includes some more exams and studying... Allow yourself some time to wallow in despair, you absolutely deserve that relief, but after that, give yourself a pep talk sweetheart and get back to studying. And do something fun, and have some treats! You deserve that too!

And hey? You can do this! I believe in you, anon, you absolutely got this. Just be patient with yourself :)

[markrosewater]

I think the fundamental thing about using sales as justification for UB, or secret lairs, or a new plane, is that it misses the primary factor in why things sell . Eldraine sold well not because of the flavor of the plane, but because of the power level of the cards; If that set came out and was mechanically the exact same, but it took place on Rabiah instead, I’d bet my life that sales of the set would not have been radically different. The original batch of secret lairs sold well not because people liked the concept of the product, but because they contained reprints of highly sought after cards, which is also why “OMG kitties” was one of the worst selling out of the original batch, its cards weren’t as sought after as something like the Ur-Dragon, a popular commander that had never been reprinted before that. The warhammer decks have new, powerful cards AND sought after reprints for the most popular format, so people are going to buy them. Saying “people love universes beyond! They keep selling so well!” is bothersome because it seems like you are intentionally manipulating and misinterpreting the data so that it leads to the very conclusion that you wanted from the beginning. Let me give you a hypothetical. If you made a new product with tournament legal reserved list reprints, but they had Furbies on them, that product would fly off the shelves. But to then go and say “SEE! People love Furbies!” Would be either extremely foolish or woefully disingenuous, because obviously the Furbies aren’t why it sold so well.

I apologize for shorthanding success as “there was an audience for them” which implies sales is the only metric. There is lots of other data beyond sales.

Universes Beyond has proven successful in all the metrics we test. People say positive things on them in market research. They hit all the positive metrics we can observe online (things like Google trends). The various feedback we get from partners is positive.

It’s not good business to make people buy something they don’t fundamentally want to buy. If we truly believe a product would be better using different flavor, we’d use different flavor. To use other people’s IP, we have to pay them, so if a Magic version would just sell better, why wouldn’t we do that?

The whole reason I have a blog is to listen to what the players are saying. I want to make things you all want to buy, but different players want different things. Just because you personally don’t like an idea, doesn’t inherently mean it’s a bad idea. Often there’s an audience that does want it.

Also, historically, Magic players as a whole, often take time to come around on new things. There are key parts of the game that players would scream bloody murder if we removed that players screamed bloody murder about when we added them.

All this is a long way of saying, that we want players buying things because they want to buy it. Throne of Eldraine’s world tested very highly in market research. It having powerful cards didn’t hurt sales, but it doesn’t negate that players actually liked the world. It’s a big reason we’re going back next year.

[heyclickadee]

Honestly my (hot? cold? lukewarm?) takes on the main six bad batch characters boil down to:

1. Hunter is a good man who cares very deeply about what’s happening around him, but he’s struggling in his new situation and too paralyzed by the fear of getting the people he loves hurt or being forced to hurt them that he won’t confront either the Empire or the Crosshair situation head on. He’s in an impossible situation and he’s trying. He’s latched onto being Omega’s dad in a way that’s both positive (learning how to be more than a soldier, providing a kid with love and support and a safe place to be) and…not exactly negative, but less positive (being a little desperate to do the dad thing right because he’s so unsure of what to do about everything else) He’s also in dire need of a hug and has probably been crying under his helmet since episode one.

2. Crosshair is an asshole who cares about exactly three, maybe four, and maybe even five people in the galaxy at this point, but the whole thing he has going on in the show is more complicated than “it was the chip the whole time” or “it was just Crosshair the whole time.” His actions in the first half of the first season were the chip; during the second half of the season he had a lot more agency, but it’s still complicated. I expect that whether the chip is really out and he’s just experiencing the after effects of being electro-shocked into submission to turn the chip up multiple times, or whether it’s still in there but operating on such a low level he has at least some free will, that we’re never going to get a chip removal scene with him. This is just something he’s going to have to live with and that he’s going to have to sort out what’s the chip, what’s trauma, and what’s just him, and that his redemption arc (getting past choices he did make and getting over his attitude about the other clones) is going to come with a recovery arc.

3. Echo isn’t grumpy, he’s in @&$#%£# chronic pain all the time. He’s the only generalist on the team, which means that his role sometimes overlaps with Tech’s (mechanic, medic, pilot/copilot), but it also overlaps with Hunter’s (making plans, making calls, being the one who tends to fight up close). He’s also sort of the team spy—he’s the one who sneaks into places or maybe even out of places and gets intel that the rest of the team can use—and the guy in charge when Hunter’s not there. And more than everything else, Echo’s just…he’s just an exceptionally good guy with a solid conscience that won’t let him rest when there’s more he could do, he isn’t paralyzed the same way Hunter is because he’s already had the worst happen, and he spent a lot of that first season seething more and more at what was happening in the galaxy and that they as a team weren’t doing more about it. He’s the kind of guy who would fearlessly try to shoot Palpatine in the face if given the chance, even if he knew Palpatine was a crazy powerful space wizard.

4. Tech isn’t cold and he isn’t stiff and humorless, he’s just got a way of talking that makes it sound like he is. He’s actually very expressive if you know what to look for, he’s low-key the funniest character on the show, he’s extremely affectionate with Omega in his own way, and listen this is me grabbing y’all by the lapels when I say that their sibling relationship means the absolute world to me and that if we get an episode focusing on that in this next season I will become extremely deceased. I will be unhinged. You’ve been warned.

5. I’ve already gone on a bit of a rant about Wrecker, but basically; he’s not stupid, he’s an expert in his field and the only one on the team with an ounce of emotional intelligence, he picks up on what Omega needs more quickly than the other guys do most of the time, and he comes across as loud and reckless but if you pay attention he’s usually very aware and careful with how strong he is (for example, the way that he’ll punch playfully punch Echo in the shoulder the same way he does with everyone else, but he’s a lot gentler with Echo than he is with, say, Tech or Crosshair).

6. Omega is precious and I want to adopt her. She’s simultaneously naïve and a little too grown up for someone her age, which probably comes from a combination of having been stuck on Kamino, mostly in Nala Se’s lab her whole life until she left with the batch and having probably been more of…well, a prized goldfish or even a test subject in Nala Se’s eyes than a daughter. She’s got a self-worth estimation of about zero (she was so surprised that the batch came back to Kamino for her that it hurt) and is very quick to blame herself or push her own feelings aside when things go wrong, so it was very gratifying to see her start to grow out of it and start to become more confident towards the end of the season. She’s a tiny little bad ass and I’m excited to see where she ends up at the end of the show.

Edit: Okay, adding this because I’m worried I came across as a little combative on some of these. These are just my condensed takes on the characters; I know everyone’s going to have their own interpretations and I actually really like seeing those different ones, even when I don’t agree, because it helps me see the character in a new way.

[tacroyy]

first week of school. also want to add that ill try to do content warnings better for these! haven’t done a good job of that at all. mentions of racial and ableist slurs, discussion of stressed kids, food insecurity, institutional neglect and harm, general discussion of trauma

ok, thursday and friday weren’t bad other than me being beyond exhausted. i truly couldn’t have functioned without my adhd meds. the seventh graders are fucking amazing and we had The Best discussion, totally out of the blue, about prejudicial language, specifically the n-word and the r-word (both are problems at our school 🙃). i basically don’t have classroom management over them rn (or at least am not bothering to Exert It) bc their other teachers are Overreacting and being Too Intense bc it’s the start of the year so since they already know me it’s all steam blowing off in my class but honestly that’s fine. they don’t have to be non-feral until next week bc i just want them to Relax right now. the sixth graders just got lockers and are Going Through It emotionally so there’s a lot of “breathe, try again” and “nobody is doing tardies right now” bc some of them literally haven’t developed their fine motor skills enough yet and our locks and lockers are, no lie!!!!!, forty years old and Cranky. so that’s a lot of unregulated stress to channel off. i think i say this twice a week but i Do Not Understand how ANYONE teaches elementary school. makes No sense to me. beginning of sixth grade is often too young for me, really; so many of them haven’t developed that, like, independent rationality yet, and it’s A Lot when there are So Many of them.

the ideal way to end this first week would have been to have like a half day for prep so we could meet w teachers, contact parents/guardians, do sped referrals, seating chart upheavals, etc. there’s a lot of “ah, okay, here’s what This batch needs” even 3 or 4 days in, and it would just be so lovely and useful and productive and overall good for everyone to have that. for example i overheard a convo that made it clear that a family hadn’t signed their kid up for free lunch this year and so the kid didn’t get lunch so i had to run around and tell the right people (teachers don’t have access to that info) and make sure they got fed and all but it took my whole prep, and im obviously delighted to do that, but then i didn’t have any prep time and did my last three classes on the fly. not that this kind of thing doesn’t happen most days. it’s just that more prep time is imo the number one thing we need as a profession. i cant begin to express how much it would help everyone.

plus there are, as always, the kids that i just want to have a four hour productive meeting about every single day, where we hash out an Actual Plan. with a social worker, a reading specialist, a developmental psychologist, a pediatrician, a therapist, a sped expert, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a case manager, a para AND an ea and a secretary for notes. instead it’s me and the counselor who has a 250 kid caseload for ten minutes in the hall.

ive had a dream for a while, since grad school actually, of studying the affect of referred trauma on kids’ peers and school faculty and staff, especially peers and faculty and staff who also have trauma. the amount of shit that slides off of me now because you Have to grow the most perfectly balanced shield of “i will Act on this and Not ignore it” and “i must Remain Calm” and “I’ve just heard the Worst Thing Ever and have to teach for another four hours”. what does it do to you long term? what about the ones who get inured? and the ones who don’t? how can we actually help people handle this well? i know there’s So much stuff out there about secondary/vicarious trauma, and trauma informed education, and i want to be able to know if it’s at all useful or if it’s too tainted to use, like i now expect from basically all educational academia. to be clear i have already done a lot of work in this area but not for a while, and i wanted to reframe the fundamentals.

so glad we have a three day weekend now.

[mcrcki]

well, that sure was a scream of a time !! but now that the vampiric dust has settled, and the ten hour loop of the monster mash has been switched to ‘closing time’ i think it’s about right to get a post event plotting / starter call going !! like always, my rules are super simple : like for a plotting dm !! and then SPECIFY characters for the starters or like deadass i will not write it! the cap is four per writer !! i just wanna make sure i get to write with everyone!! 

** please note that i am more than happy to keep event threads, transition them or write them out for a little bit longer before switching them over! or just start something new!! i lowkey don’t remember all of the threads that i had pre event since i cleared those out before we started, so if you wanna drop something feel free, i will decide as i see each one posted what the vibe is !!! 

but y’all know the drill , below is too much information and me thinking i’ve got jokes about each of my babes after the halloween masquerade massacre!

daniela dimitrescu || resident evil : village  - ( 0 / 5 )

she/they pronouns. daniela’s review : “best party i’ve been to in so long, but your monsters could have been more durable. 4 out of 5 stars. will be back to steal the white house as my own home.” literally had such a blast and is more than a little bummed when the doors finally unlocked. will be vibing, looking for more victims, maybe find a girlfriend, who knows.

please let them flirt with you, they might leave you alive if you do :)

leia organa || star wars - ( 1 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. WORST. BIRTHDAY. EVER. and also the biggest flop of a honeymoon to date. baby girl is down bad now, if y’all thought she was all in in the sith before, it’s 10x worse now after what happened with han. any conversation with her rn?? doomed to fail. she will be inconsolably furious. i am so sorry for the somehow more rancid vibes from coming from the oval office.

han solo

marlene mckinnon || harry potter : marauders era ( 0 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. alright, she’s not afraid to say it. the white house should be barred from ever throwing parties again. this is what?? the third time something like this has happened?? absolutely never again. free drinks at mckinnon’s for anyone who went to this thing. the bar is open and marlene is gonna be going back to normal life with her now complete again friend group and pretending she’s not gonna fight every death eater she sees, but absolutely will be doing that.

free starter?? free shots. respond below

omega archeron || star wars : the bad batch ( 1 / 5 )

she/they pronouns. omega’s down !! bad !! you thought they were a mess after this whole messy breakup / acting out bc of their brothers hiding their genetic identity??? just wait till you see them after watching hunter die !!!! and being completely helpless to stop it!!!!! welcome to omega’s self destruct era, who wants to be a terrible influence for her!

sion val palpatine

pj halliwell || charmed ‘98 - ( 0 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. unlike the rest of my girls, lowkey ?? kinda thriving. like okay, yes, is she very stressed about the memory status of her family? sure, who wouldn’t be. but she’s got her whitelighter, she’s at least got almost all of her family here??? she actually made it out of this alive and is gonna be doubling down on training. also, got some of those venders numbers before everything went to shit. throwing a “we survived” party, who’s coming!

respond for a clown behavior starter

rowena ravenclaw || harry potter : founders era ( 2 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. not doing great, not doing terrible. will be doing everything she can to throw herself into her work, and to figure out what the hell is going on with the memory magic in this city. if anyone wants to listen to some pepe silva level rants about theories, she will talk your ear off for hours. maybe someone please drag her out so she stops sitting in her office for sixteen hours straight.

orpheus

hunter

sella palpatine || star wars ( 1 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. hey thanks for checking in ! WE’RE HAVING A TERRIBLE TIME. literally please can someone put her family in a fucking fortress or something, she is so tired of seeing the people she loves get hurt. will be attempting to convince her brother she deserves a weapon of some kind. gonna start self defense training or something. if someone wants to help sella learn to fight, hmu

sion val palpatine

sophie hatter || howl’s moving castle ( 4 / 5 )

she/they pronouns. freshly unaware babey 😇 sophie is a little thrown off, is very self conscious of the neck scar they got as a child that has definitely always been there. still running the flower shop, but more hands off, as their main passion is in fashion designing, and uses the flower shop to showcase their designs. aware sophie was more controlled and composed. unaware sophie, very unapologetic in their bluntness. why keep your mouth shut when something annoys you smh.

xie lian

howl jenkins pendragon

prince justin

chihiro ogino

tatum riley || scream ‘96 ( 0 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. this hangover kinda sucks, but at least she made it out alive. will be changing her instagram bio to ‘final girl’ and clinging to that. she actually made it out. that’s what matters. she’s got more family here, and is sort of just looking for something chill. but it has solidified that yeah, she hates halloween and masks. anyone wanna go decorate for christmas already??

new final girl unlocked, let her brag to you!!

victoria sutherland || twilight ( 0 / 5 )

she/her pronouns. pretty fun night, even if she spent most of it absolutely glued to james. she has her mate back and man she’s about to be even more insufferable. still very much looking for some snacks on her way out, or just any casual bites throughout the month. we’re vibing, we’re having fun. we’re fresh, flirty, and thriving. 

who’s looking for a nice bite ;)

[thirteen-jades]

16, 24, 31, 35, 42, 50, 67, 69, 76, 86, 93, 98

16: What's the worst decision you've ever made? What's the best decision you've ever made?

Best decision I’ve ever made may be joining your Discord server was back when we first met. That’s had an incalculable impact on literally every aspect of my life; I don’t think a single major thing about me would be the same if I’d not done that. As for my worst decision… I’m not really sure. If there’s a clear worst decision I’m pretty sure my brain has pointedly declined to remember it.

24: Does your name suit you? Do you think you "look" like your name?

I’ve no idea what my name should look like other than a greenish semiprecious gemstone, but I think it suits me. I rather like it, anyway.

31: Do you feel like you have a 'purpose'? What is it, if so?

Not especially. I’m just sorta here, living my life and trying to enjoy things. I think it’s good to be kind and helpful and understanding to the people around me, so I try to be that.

35: What's wrong with you? Physically, mentally, whatever comes to mind. What's right about you? What are your best and worst traits?

Oh god, there’s so many things. Mentally, abandonment issues might be the ones that plague me most severely. Attention span difficulties and residual effects from burnout too. Physically, the headaches are pretty bad.

42: Does affection come easily to you?

I’m… not sure. One of my major ways of demonstrating affection is physical contact like hugs and stuff, and I am presently quite alone in my local environment. For a long time I was kind of afraid of relationships, and those fears do crop up now and again. I guess I don’t have a lot of experience demonstrating affection? I tend to struggle with self-knowledge a fair bit though, so honestly you might be in a better position to answer how affectionate I am than me.

50: What qualities do you find charming?

Enthusiasm and passion are nice. People who have emotions but don’t express them a lot can be pretty cute too.

67: What did you need to hear as a child?

I really don’t know. Probably whatever I need to hear now, for one. Coupled with a lot of “this part of your life is gonna be shit, but things will be way better in the future” type things. Also, someone telling me I was trans and to do something about that would be cool if they actually persuaded me somehow.

69: Do you struggle with emotional expression or regulation? Do you suppress your feelings?

Maybe a little with expression? Not a whole lot though, I don’t think. I tend to suppress/ignore negative feelings sometimes, and physical sensations of hunger kinda a lot.

76: What do you label yourself as, if anything? What subcultures do you identify with, if any?

I’ve no idea what to label myself as. Trans and bisexual, I guess? I tend not to place very much weight on that sort of labeling though. Idk if there’s any specific subcultures I identify with, mostly it’s just my friends.

86: What could you talk about for hours?

Roleplaying games I’ve been playing or interested in are probably be big ones, my characters for those games in particular. If I weren’t so rusty, probably some electrical engineering/physics topics too. FFXIV is a rich source of infodump material, but I struggle to infodump at people who know a fair amount about the topic, so probably I’d need a specific sub-topic or batch of sub-topics to infodump about that one with you. Honestly, Pokemon Go might be a candidate for things to talk about, now that I think about it.

93: What are two facts about yourself that are true, but seem contradictory? Or two beliefs you have that seem unlikely to exist together?

I have an extremely active imagination, but also have aphantasia for all senses, meaning I cannot visualize, imagine sounds, or anything of the sort. All my imagination winds up being strictly conceptual or put in unspoken words.

98: What genre of film or literature do you think your life is? Comedy, romance, action, horror, etc.? Alternatively, if you were written into a fictional universe, what genre would you be best suited for?

My life doesn’t really seem to have a consistent storyline or like, main plot, so I’m not sure what genre it would fit into. Adventure might be nice as a genre to be put in myself, coupled with maybe sci-fi and/or fantasy.