#in his defense I'd also forget politeness in that sort of situation

[pianokantzart]

I was wondering why Luigi almost never says "Mario" in the Japanese dub, and only ever calls him "Niisan."

I looked it up, and apparently calling your older sibling by their first name is considered impolite in Japanese culture?

So it makes sense Luigi just calls Mario "Niisan." I think the only exception is when he first arrives in the Darklands, where after calling out "Niisan" and not getting a response he calls out "Mario" once... ...probably a last ditch effort to see if his sibling would respond, I guess.

#this might be common knowledge for some but heck with it. I learned something new today #Update: he also says ''Mario'' when peeking out of the dumpster #but I think he was just saying the name out of shock instead of addressing his brother directly #so my post still stands #Update 2: I forgot he also calls out his brother's name when Mario jumps into the manhole #in his defense I'd also forget politeness in that sort of situation

[sanerontheinside]

Cliche AU fic prompt: do you write Codywan??? Because I have a sudden need for some fluffy Codywan fic. I'd love a Celebrity AU or a Cops AU, but really anything, I'm not picky!!

jawejf;aoiejr I ran out of steam on this I’m sorry but anyone’s welcome to pick up? Or you can throw it back into sw’verse and make Obi-Wan Space Anderson Cooper, that would actually be fantastic. 

@aidava and I would be glad to see it 

especially “if you can incorporate the ‘the less anderson cooper is wearing, the more dire the reporting situation’ joke”, as aidava says :D

oh yeah! so basically since ‘sharing a cab au’ landed on that prompt list twice I figured I’d feel free and make another. so I smashed together cops au and celebrity au and got bodyguard au so uh there u go

Cody checked his watch as he popped the cap of the cheap coffee he’d picked up at the bagel shop near his apartment complex. It was quarter to six and raining, a cold, wet, and absolutely miserable start to the day.

Not that it was the start of the day for him—no, that had been at two in the bloody morning, waking up in a cold sweat and shaking with adrenaline, tangled in his sheet on the floor. It wasn’t the worst he’d been in the last couple months, but it did smack a bit of irony that now, when he finally had a job to focus on, the nightmares immediately came rushing back to ruin his first day.

All he had to do was drive some famous person around, possibly keep admirers off them from venue to vehicle to home. Not that he was currently parked and and waiting in an area that screamed ‘famous people’, but hells, what did he know. Rent-controlled apartments, Jewish community—apart from the synagogue he’d driven past, there was no mistaking the dark overcoats and hats. Cody hadn’t exactly been keeping up with the latest news and entertainment, but for the life of him he couldn’t imagine who it was he was meant to be chauffeuring. He knew where Maria Callas used to live—hello, odd bits of a past life’s study at Julliard—and he knew one of his professors’ assistants lived in this area. That didn’t give him any clues to go on.

Although, now he thought about it—Maria Callas hadn’t lived far from here, closer to West Side Highway. He tried to imagine providing security for a musician of her calibre, and couldn’t. It was too far out of the realm of his typical assignments.

He grimaced into his coffee, which got only less tolerable with every sip—he’d seen the new guy manning the coffee machine at the bagel place this morning, so he really should’ve known. At least the liquid had burned away half his tastebuds while it was still scalding.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cody caught a glimpse of something that must have been unusual. He looked up—yeah, the leather jacket and messenger bag were certainly a bit out of the ordinary, for what he’d seen so far. The man looked good, though, Cody thought—especially when he turned and started down the street in his direction. Right at that moment the windshield wipers sluiced off a generous bit of water and gave him a better view. It took two seconds for Cody to put a name to that face, and then connect it to the direction he’d taken. He choked and nearly spilled his cup of morning poison.

He knew exactly what his assignment was.

Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped into his backseat with a huff. “Good morning. I’m sorry, I thought I told Depa I didn’t need a car this morning.”

Cody swallowed. “Well, Ms. Billaba wanted me to let you know that she’d be covering expenses for as long as she thinks it’s necessary to keep you safe.”

Obi-Wan flashed him a wry grin. “Understood. I’ll direct all complaints to her.”

Cody felt his neutral working mask drop down, and put the lid back on his coffee. “We make every effort to provide satisfactory service to all our clients.”

“Oh, I have complete faith in your abilities,” Kenobi said with an absolutely disarming grin. “I’m just worried you’d be wasting your time with me, that’s all.”

Uh-huh. “Yes, sir.”

As far as celebrities went, Kenobi wasn’t exactly the first name that came to mind. In his own words, he’d been ‘uncomfortably thrust into the limelight’ about a year ago. He’d been a correspondent for a secondary paper—one that had recently gone bankrupt—enjoying his semi-anonymity. As Obi-Wan had said in interviews since, the loss of this anonymity was just about the worst thing that could have happened to his career in investigative journalism.

By all other accounts, though, it had only been a matter of time before Kenobi made a name for himself entirely without anyone’s assistance. He had a gift for finding a story, which was another way of saying he had a gift for getting into trouble.

The story that made him famous had barely even seen the papers. Kenobi certainly hadn’t penned it. Instead he’d turned around and testified in-camera against one Sheev Palpatine, then CEO of Empire Security—which is to say he went and stirred up trouble, and the fame was an unintended side-effect.

Palpatine, with what influence remained to him during the trial, had allegedly spent a hefty sum of money to ferret out a suspected whistleblower. His investigators ran up against several walls and a general or two before they finally grew an imagination and looked outside Empire’s employees, at civilians. From there it might not have been more than two short and easy steps to a bright young reporter by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Palpatine then tasked his best people with running an ugly smear campaign, with the sort of virulence typically reserved for a Senator who wouldn’t vote his way. But, as Kenobi was neither a politician nor running for office, he shook off much of the resulting noise like water. He was charming, earnest, always effusive about his love for his work. (Cody thought it probably hadn’t hurt that the man didn’t seem to have the faintest idea when he was flirting, and would likely have had chemistry with a wooden block, if it came to that, but never mind.)

Obi-Wan also left the country not long after the trial was over, vanishing into Africa to cover an ongoing conflict—aftershocks of a civil war long over. That report had gotten him hired literally within days of his return, as it turned out.

By now, Cody thought, there couldn’t be a cynic left alive who hadn’t already been aware, at least on some instinctual level, that Palpatine was bent. Palpatine’s company wasn’t particularly improved for the fact that it shared a name with a flooring company. The average citizen had never even heard of it, for the most part, and yet Empire handled a startlingly large percentage of Defense contracts. Cody’s experiences with Empire’s mercenaries had been unpleasant at the best of times.

He was beginning to see why Depa worried. Especially given that Kenobi had recently been offered a book deal for exactly the story that had landed him in the public eye, and Palpatine in prison. Particularly when there were rumours that Palpatine might get an early release.

He did stay close, though, when those nebulous rumours coalesced into verifiable news of an impending hearing. Cody watched Obi-Wan, in particular, when that bit of news crossed his desk. His smile thinned, his expression became pensive more often than not. There were more tense phone calls that week than usual, more late hours at the cramped, dark office, more takeout dinners. Cody half expected him to start sleeping at the office, though he didn’t want to know what the short couch there could do to a person’s back.

By then, Cody knew Obi-Wan’s routine so well he could almost sense the moment Obi-Wan needed his tea refilled. He’d taken it upon himself to do so anyway, having quickly realised that without someone putting a plate or a cup of tea in Obi-Wan’s general vicinity, the man would plainly forget to eat. Cody hadn’t figured out getting him to sleep at regular hours yet, but in his defence he’d never been particularly good at that himself. At least trying to keep up with Kenobi actually exhausted him to the point that he slept without nightmares—for the most part.

Cody was just passing Obi-Wan another steaming cup when he shoved the laptop aside with a heavy sigh and rubbed fiercely at his eyes. He eyed the mug blankly for a moment, then smiled.

“Oh, bless you, Cody,” Obi-Wan sighed, hunching forward and all but wrapping himself around the cup. “Your timing is impeccable.”

Cody grinned, a warm feeling creeping through him as he sat down beside him on the ragged couch. “Pressing deadline?” he asked, nodding at the laptop.

“Of a sort.” Obi-Wan sighed heavily. “You know, when I testified against Palpatine I thought that should be enough to bury him, for good.”

Cody shrugged. “He’s rich, he’s powerful, he owns three senators and their penthouses. What were you expecting?”

Obi-Wan shot him a politely abashed glare. “Pardon me for daring to be occasionally optimistic,” he said wryly—apparently completely unoffended. “In any case, I might be able to push the book out for an early release. Though, I’m beginning to suspect that was a bit ambitious of me.”

“I did wonder about that,” Cody admitted. “His trial didn’t get any publicity. Last year, no one seemed to know who he is or what he was arrested for.”

“They wouldn’t have, if he hadn’t drawn attention to me in the first place.” Obi-Wan scowled at his tea as he viciously toed off his shoes and put his feet up on the almost comically small coffee table. “It’s interesting, actually—the paper I worked for went bankrupt, and most of the places I submitted my stories to in the last year wouldn’t accept them, no matter how eager they when I pitched them. It was just starting to get a little easier in the last month or two.”

Cody barely stopped himself from turning to glare at the man. “Please tell me this isn’t why you thought I’d be ‘wasting my time’ watching your back.”

Obi-Wan seemed surprised. “Well, no, I mean—I’d just gotten a job here, and in a few months I’ll be temporarily replacing Jane as the anchor for the news. It’s not so much that I thought—oh, yes, all right. I thought it would finally stop. I got a job, I got an offer to publish the damn book. Logically, yes, I know, people like that never stop.” He huffed and buried his face in his hands, the mug resting mostly empty on the arm of the couch beside him. “Fuck.”

Cody sighed. “Daring to be occasionally optimistic, right.” That got him a faint snort.

“Honestly I just thought there had to be more interesting targets,” Obi-Wan mumbled. “I was abroad for a year, anyway.”

Cody couldn’t help himself and laughed softly, reaching out to grasp Obi-Wan’s shoulder. “If it’s any consolation, I’m here to be as pessimistic as necessary to keep you out of trouble.”

Obi-Wan huffed, collapsing sideways to rest his shoulder against Cody’s. “I trust you.”

They sat that way for another few moments, until Cody drained his own mug. It was only when he tried to put the cup down that he realised Obi-Wan had fallen asleep, and smiled fondly at the disgruntled sleepy mumbling. Not wanting to wake him just yet, Cody set his timer for twenty minutes and settled back, sighing. In twenty minutes, he would wake Obi-Wan up, take him home, and that would be the end of the night, yes…

Six hours later he woke up stiff-backed and with a faint headache, with faint snoring in his ear. “Shit.”

#Commander Cody #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Obi-Wan Kenobi is Space Anderson Cooper #it's great #fantastic #only I can't do it?? aaarrrgh #XD #anyway I've clearly been watching too much Leverage #wild ficcage and au spawn #myurbandream