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#tech crow
mudwerks · 8 months
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(via For the first time, research reveals crows use statistical logic | Ars Technica)
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screebyy · 3 months
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babygirl (affectionate) vs babygirl (derogatory)
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levi-venn · 9 months
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Cross and Tech and Omega and Egg
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (Final) Available also on AO3
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When CT-9904, the clone that would one day become "Crosshair", was first pulled from his birthing tank, he did not cry.  
This was by design.
Engineered to become a “stealth soldier”, 04's vocal cords were shaped so that he could not raise his voice above a frustrated rasp. It was often muted by his incubator.
CT-9903, who would one day adopt the moniker "Tech", was also silent, but this was always a cause for concern. When 03 was quiet, he was most likely attempting his next escape. He had kicked the latch off his first incubator. He had poked the hinges off his second. By the third, Nala Se had nowhere to put the baby escape artist.
Putting 03 in 04's incubator was supposed to be a temporary solution.
A week later, when the new, reinforced incubator arrived, she picked up 03, and found his hand locked with 04's with an iron grip. 
CT-9903 cried. 
CT-9904 hissed.
And so, the ever patient Nala Se left 03 where he was there.  There were no more escape attempts after that.
One day, CT-9903 began to cry.
Nala Se was in the middle of calming 05 who was trying to wreck the changing table with tiny, but mighty fists.
"Omega, see to 03, please, he needs to be changed."
Omega slid off her stool and without looking up from her datapad she said. "It's 04 who needs changing."
"How do you know?" Nala Se asked.
"03 cries louder when 04 needs help."
***
Too bright. Too loud. Deafening silence. Sudden isolation. Stimuli deprived and overloaded. Nothing. Everything. Relentless. Overwhelming.
Even if Crosshair did have the capability to scream, he'd never give the science officers the satisfaction. Let them wonder the limits of his body and the sanity of his mind. 
He lost count of how many experiments they put him through, but one thing always remained the same: He gave them no data to work with.
Until today.
Omega didn't see him. The stormtroopers were moving her and Nala Se towards the lifts, and the glass chamber he was kept in was too far from the main hall, and there were too many other cells and test subjects between them. But there she was, shooting defiant looks at the troopers as they shoved her along.
It broke Crosshair in a way these scientists couldn't.
He tried to call out to her, but his throat was dry, his vocal chords ached, and his very DNA denied him. All he could do was let out a raspy growl.
The scientists took note of the sounds. It was the first reaction they had received from him. They congratulated themselves on their findings.
Omega disappeared into the elevator. She never looked back.
A science officer turned a dial. There was a lightning strike of agony. And Crosshair passed out.
***
It was dusk when Crosshair woke up in his cell. An obsidian eye gazed unblinkingly at him. Egg's caw was subdued. It usually was on lab days.
He shakily rose to the window with his plate to share his corn and bits of unidentifiable meat, when he saw something that wasn't there for him this morning: a travel biscuit.
Tech came by. Crosshair told him not to, but he still-
Suddenly, Tech popped up in the window. "You're back!"
Crosshair was mid-bite into the biscuit and choked, turning away to cough. "Tech, dank farrik!"
"A human cough,” Tech declared, “has the estimated speed of a hundred and sixty kilometers per hour. A wookiee cough averages two hundred kilometers an hour."
"I told you to stay away."
“You did,” Tech said simply, breaking his own biscuit in half to offer to Egg. “But I disregarded your request. Consider this revenge for ignoring my wish for solitude when my legs were being reset."
“You carry grudges that long?" Crosshair asked, his amusement outweighing his exhaustion. "I just wanted your dinner roll."
“I see…” Tech said, then reached into the cell to snatch the biscuit out of Crosshair’s, hand. He took a bite, then handed it back. “Now we’re even.”
"Tech…Omega is here,” Crosshair murmured.
Tech’s face fell for a fraction of a moment, before it gave way to an analytical frown. “How long has she been here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were they experimenting on her?”
“Not that I could see.”
Tech was quiet for a moment. “When our brothers-”
Crosshair slammed his hand against the bars. Egg ruffled his feathers and let out a craah of protest. “I swear on the kriffing stars if you finish that sentence I’ll-” he stopped himself, not because he physically couldn’t do anything, but because the devastation in Tech’s eyes obliterated the empty threat. "If they do come, let it be for her. Let me rot here. I made my choice. I deserve-.”
"Give me your hand." Tech said, evenly.
“What? Why?”
Tech removed his glove and slipped his bare hand through the bars. “Because you need it.”
Crosshair stared at the hand, his memories drifting to the first record-shattering storm on Kamino he had ever experienced.
“When will it be over?” Crosshair had snarled, curling around his cadet rifle on his bunk while the storm raged outside.
“By my calculations," Tech said, laying in the bunk below him, "another three hours and then the winds will carry it Southward.”
“I hate your calculationsss,” Crosshair hissed, pressing his cheek against the cool metal surface of the rifle barrel.
“You can’t hate calculations,” Tech said, climbing onto Crosshair’s bunk. “They didn’t do anything wrong.”
Crosshair said nothing, hiding his face in his pillow.
“Give me your hand.” Tech said, laying down on the other side of the rifle. 
Crosshair wanted to say no, but just then thunder shattered the sky outside as if trying to get into their room and pull them all into the sea. Crosshair’s hand shot out and clasped his brothers.
“The fear of thunder and lightning," Tech said, "is called Astraphobia. It isn't an irrational fear as an ocean storm is the most vast and dangerous sort of storm. We, however, are in a structure designed to withstand a storm twice this size,” Tech said. "It is safe." 
It is safe…
Crosshair looked at his brother's hand extended to him through the bars. Scarred and callused like his, familiar and different, but always safe.
“We aren’t leaving without you both," Tech said, his hand suspended patiently. "I’m not leaving without you. You have my word."
Crosshair clutched Tech's hand and Tech pulled him forward slightly, giving Crosshair's hand a sturdy jerk as if to shake loose any resistance to his words. "Do you trust me?" Tech asked.
Crosshair tried to summon a biting reply, something to chase away the comforting relief this simple contact created. 
Instead he pressed his head against the cell bars and squeezed Tech’s hand tightly. “I trust you.”
***
A week later, when Tech woke up, he didn't know the Marauder was coming to Weyland the following morning.
Even if he did know, it wouldn't have changed his plans for the day. Egg still would still screech in his face, urging him to get up. He still would make the trek back to the facility. 
The last few days Crosshair seemed to be in better spirits all things considered. Today was lab day, Tech was determined to make it back to Crosshair's window before then, travel biscuits stocked on the window sill, hand ready to hold.
Until then, Tech and Egg were on a mission.
There were other windows to look into. Tech had looked into most of them searching for his sister without success. Today, he was down to his last four windows.
The first two were empty, the last one had a pair of Devronian hands clutching the bars. The third, however, a tuft of blonde hair could be seen and little else, as if a very small humanoid was gazing up at the cloudy blue sky.
It was then that Tech executed his three-phase mission:
Phase One: Establish that he is alive and well.
Phase Two: Inform Omega that Crosshair is also in the facility. 
Phase Three: An ongoing phase. Tech would do his best to split his time between Crosshair and Omega. This may prove difficult, both in travel times…and the length of time away from his brother. 
Even now, Tech found himself wishing he was at Crosshair's window, waiting for him to return. Waiting to be reassured his brother had survived whatever the science officers put him through that day. But Omega may need him, too. He would do whatever he could for his siblings, with his limited resources of travel biscuits and various informational tidbits.
Phase one began similarly to how he presented himself to Crosshair: A neatly carved message on a piece of wood light enough for Egg to carry. 
Egg made himself comfortable on Tech's shoulder, sometimes watching with keen interest and other times preening Tech's unruly hair.
The message read [Tech Lives]. 
Seemed direct enough.
Egg flew up to the window and Tech could hear his sister's startled gasp followed by an inquisitive voice. "Oh hello! Are you a crow? Where'd you come from? What do you have there?"
Tech used to ask questions like this to every single person and animal he met. He wondered if they both received this inquisitiveness from Jango Fett or perhaps Omega picked this up from Tech.
Oddly enough, he hoped for the latter.
"What?" Omega exclaimed, evidently reading the message. "Who gave you this?"
Tech raised a finger. "That would be me."
The whole point of this gently revealed plot twist was to avoid any loud outburst that may rouse a guard.
It didn't work.
"Tech!!!" Omega shouted.
Tech grimaced, but he waved. "We should keep our voices at a reasonable volume."
"I knew you were alive! I knew it! I kept saying 'we never saw a body. He's still out there!"
Tech touched the side of his temple, missing his goggles immensely. "The 'No Body, No Death' Theory is not an exact science, Omega."
"It is for us," Omega said, stubbornly.
Tech smiled. "Are you alright?"
Omega shrugged. "They brought me here to push Nala Se into working on a project. I've been assisting her. Don't know exactly what we're doing yet, but it involves clone science and advanced genetic manipulation."
"It may or may not have something to do with whatever they are doing to Crosshair here."
"Crosshair is here?!" Omega bounced up and down, presumably on a bed. "Is he okay?"
"No."
Omega's pained expression made Tech wish he could have presented that answer gently. "But he will be," he added.
"Is this crow a friend of yours?" Omega asked, stroking Egg's chest feathers.
"More precisely Crosshair's friend. His name is Egg."
"Because he likes eggs?"
"Evidently."
"I've missed you, Tech." Omega hoisted herself up to get a better look at him. "I'm glad you're okay."
"I'm also glad you're well. My advice is continuing your work with Nala Se. Don't raise a ruckus and-"
"And our brothers will find us! Soon!" Omega said with far more confidence than Tech felt at this point.
"My thoughts exactly."
"There's something else you should know." Omega said, stroking Egg's feathered chest. "There's a scientist here. She's a clone, too…I don't think she was made on Kamino, though. She might have been born here."
"That's unsettling. Jango's genetic code has been depleted as far as I know. She would be a very distant relation to us."
"She's not one of us," Omega said, venomous. "If she was, she wouldn't be hurting our brother."
Tech wished he had his goggles, more importantly the camera attached to it. He could have provided Crosshair proof that his siblings care about him, indisputably.
"I'm inclined to agree."
"If Crosshair's not okay, Tech, you should go back to him."
"You don't need me to stay with you?" Tech asked.
"I'm with Nala Se. I'll be fine. Go back to Crosshair."
Tech nearly left immediately, but his concern for his sister lingered. "Are you sure, Omega?"
"He needs you," she said, with a knowing smile. "And you need him too. It's always been that way."
Tech frowned at the pointed statement…and frowned further at the truth of it. 
He didn't have time to ponder, he needed to get back to Crosshair. 
He needs me. My need to know he's alright is purely a coincidence. 
Tech climbed up to Crosshair's window, ducking out of sight just as the droids dumped his brother onto the metal floor of his cell. Tech wasn't prone to anger, his logic cooled his temper before it could boil, but he felt the light crunch in his hand before realizing he had crushed one of the travel biscuits in his trembling fist. 
He waited for the sound of marching droids to fade away, then he sat up and set the biscuit on the sill. Then he waited.
Egg cawed. Incessantly at first. Then mournfully. Then sat quietly and waited, too.
Dusk turned to night. 
Tech felt a knot in his gut as he gazed at the stars. There was a time when he and his brothers would lay out on the roof of Kaminoan science center, watching for the clouds to part just long enough to see stars. 
Tech would try to identify as many planets as he could before they disappeared again. 
Crosshair would make up planets to annoy Tech and they'd get into a slap fight. 
Wrecker insisted they were just dumb little lights. 
Hunter swore he'd visit every single planet before the war was done with him.
It wasn't so long ago, but it was several lifetimes ago. They were different. The galaxy was different. Tech knew it was useless to grieve for the past. Life is ever changing and evolving. He did wish he had spent more time cherishing those moments, however. 
They are over too quickly to quantify.
Egg flapped and let out a soft craah. 
"Tech…"
Tech's glove was already removed when he sat up, reaching into the cell to clutch Crosshair's hand. "I'm here."
"You're late," Crosshair sneered, tiredly. 
"So are you."
"Omega?"
"She's fine. They aren't hurting her. I believe she's leverage to press Nala Se into the Imperial service. She asked about you."
"Course she did," Crosshair said, dryly.
"Believe it or not, Crosshair, I'm not the only one who mourned your loss to the Empire."
Crosshair grunted in response. 
He fell quiet. His grip on Tech's hand was weakening. When he spoke again, his voice sounded hollow…distant… "I'm tired, Tech. I don't know how much more I can take."
Tech tightened his hold on Crosshair's hand. "Think of it as a sunk cost fallacy. You've come this far. You've endured this much. You might as well keep going until-"
Crosshair's hand slipped suddenly from his. 
"Crosshair?"
He heard Crosshair collapse on the bed. 
"Cross?!"
Tech pressed his face against the bars, but could only see a blurry darkness. 
Egg tapped the bars insistently, letting out a distressed chitter. 
Then they both fell quiet.
And listened.
Faintly…Tech heard a very light snore. 
Logic did nothing to soothe Tech's nerves at this moment. He was tired too. He was also hungry. Starving actually. Travel biscuits didn't have enough nutritional value for a full day's energy and he saved most of the biscuits for Crosshair.
They were both on borrowed time.
Tech leaned against the wall beside Crosshair's window, then slowly slumped over, curling up as best he could.
In addition to being uncomfortable sleeping on the concrete slab it was also dangerous to fall asleep on a high ledge. He didn't care. Tonight, just for tonight, he needed to be near his brother.
***
Crosshair awoke to what sounded like a sarcastic rooster mocking the morning sun.
It was Egg. Of course it was Egg. And it was most definitely sarcastic.
When Crosshair slowly rose from his cot, still sore from the previous days experiments, he didn't see Egg's scrutinizing gaze, however, he saw his tail feathers.
"Egg," he wheezed, holding his aching side as he struggled to stand on the cot. "What're you looking at?"
Tech was curled up on the ledge. His brother slept here all night. 
Crosshair didn't remember much when he came back to his cell, his mind foggy from the drugs and his body pushed to a limit he didn't expect. 
He must have passed out. And it must have scared the dank out of Tech.
He sighed and picked up the half eaten biscuit left on the sill. There were a few peck marks but it seemed Egg left most of it for him..He threw it at Tech, which bounced off his cheek.
Tech didn't move. Crosshair rolled his eyes. 
In their cadet days, Crosshair often had to  physically roll Tech off his bunk to get him up. Tech didn't just sleep, he'd pass out. There was no such thing as a steady sleep schedule for him and every few days his body would crash. 
Crosshair had been so wrapped up in his own situation it didn't occur to him that Tech was more alone than he. 
…and what else has he eaten besides travel biscuits? 
The droids had already dropped off his stale hash brown and eggs this morning. Crosshair took two bites, gave a little egg to his crow and set the rest aside for Tech to wake up. That would be their routine from now on, he decided. Crosshair could live on very little food, he'd give the rest to his brother. 
His brother who needed him.
Something distant in the cloudy sky caught Crosshair's gaze. At first he thought it was another crow, though he hadn't seen another since Egg showed up.
It wasn't a freighter either. Not an imperial one. And it was coming in at an odd, off-kilter angle, something Hunter often did when flying covertly under radar, though not nearly as gracefully as Tech.
Hunter…
"Tech!" Crosshair wheezed. "Tech, get up!"
Tech shot up, hair sticking up every which way, his cheek creased from laying on the rough ledge. "CT-9903 reporting for…duty…." 
He blinked and looked up at Crosshair. "What happened?"
Crosshair smirked. "G'morning, sunshine." He nodded to the horizon. "You were right."
Tech followed his gaze, shielding his eyes from the sun. "They found us?"
Crosshair couldn't stop smiling if he tried. It was a thin smile, almost a sneer, and it made his cheeks ache. It felt good. "You sound surprised."
Tech whipped his head back at Crosshair, squinting and smiling. "Not surprised, just…shocked…that it took so long."
"Uh huh…Hunter and Wrecker aren't exactly the brains of our operation. You and I were always the smarter ones."
"I would never say that."
"You always say that."
Tech adjusted his non-existent goggles. "Perhaps…occasionally." He stretched and winced. "I better go meet them and give them the intel."
Crosshair dryly. "I'll stay here and watch the place."
Tech smirked. "Rest. Eat. We'll be together again soon."
Crosshair's jaw tightened, trying to summon the pessimism that kept his sanity stable, but he was tired, and in pain, and full of kriffing hope.
"Fine," Crosshair said, quietly.
Tech started to leave, legs swung over the edge of the platform. He paused. "Cross…?"
Tech rarely called him that. Just as Crosshair rarely called him "Techie". The names were reserved only for the rare moments fear and rarer moments of sentimentality. The last time he was called Cross, Wrecker had blown himself up with his own damn grenade. 
When they left behind cadet training and dove head first into combat missions neither of them could afford childish fear or vulnerabilities. They left the nicknames behind with their childhoods.
"After you're free, Tech said, "we will drop you off wherever you want to go…" Tech's eyes seemed bigger even without the goggles magnifying them. "But I hope you stay with us."
Egg clicked indignantly at Tech.
"Egg, too?" Crosshair asked.
"Of course."
"I'll let Egg decide. He's the real brains of this operation."
"While I can't argue with that as he was the reason I found you, how do we know what he will-"
Egg flapped noisily with a shrill squawk and landed on top of Techs head, seating himself and screeching pointedly at Crosshair.
Tech grimaced, careful not to move. "Well….that seemed evident to me. Do you concur, Cross?"
"I concur…Techie," Crosshair smirked. "Now get me the hell out of here."
---
Thank you so much for reading. I’m grateful for the kind words, memes, and I loved the fanart of Egg!
If you enjoyed my writing, please consider checking out my book “Error: Detective Not Found (A Cake Pop Noir)”. You can find more info on it on my main tumblr account @blueberryhelper
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I keep forgetting to post things. Made this as I finished up PoP
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six-of-cringe · 8 months
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Wylan and Jesper
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HE’S FINALLY HERE!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! THEY GAVE HIM SPURS!!!!!
Phew. Okay. Calming down. No, I wasn’t waiting all season for that cameo, why do you ask?
Honestly I have no problem with that cameo. Man shows up, does what he does best, gets paid, and leaves. He’s just living his life.
Did he seem tired to anyone else?
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chernobog13 · 21 hours
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The ladies of XIG (eXpanded Interceptive Guardians), EYES (Elite Young Expert Squad), and HEART (Hi-tech Earth Alert and Rescue Team).
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fallout-fucker · 10 months
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Crows Of The Commonwealth
I was on CrowTok and it made me come up with an idea.
So, obviously a lot of the crows in the Commonwealth are made by the Institute, though I personally like to believe that there are still a lot of crows that are regular ones, too.
Crows are an incredibly smart species of bird, which makes sense as to why they're the ones the Institute use. To my memory, I don't think there are any other birds in the game. Again, I'd like to headcanon that they're not the only ones left but if only a few species of birds managed to survive the bombs and the aftermath, I wouldn't put it past crows to be one of those species due to that intelligence.
Crows are known for recognising people, which also works in favour of the Institute as to why they'd choose them specifically. If you are able to tell the difference between individual crows, you'll be less likely to question if a specific one if following you if you are aware they likely recognise you.
However, they're also known to bring gifts and trinkets if treated right, or actually attack people who don't. And they remember faces. I don't get the impression that the Institute treats them too kindly if they don't even consider Gen 3 Synths as people, who are literally created with technology and human biology/DNA.
If we imagine that the Institute Crows work like Synths do, then that means that they are also able to become independent like Synths can. We know they have the level of intelligence, more so than another species of bird, to perhaps reach that level of independence. That's exactly why the Institute picked them. Wouldn't it be ironic if that became part of the Institute's downfall.
So imagine a Sole Survivor, fresh out of the Vault, scared and cold on their first few nights. Hungry, tired, likely sick, grieving. Alone. They have Dogmeat. They have themselves. A few strangers they saved. Nothing else.
They're trying their best one night to settle. They've only been unfrozen for a few days by now, but have yet to leave Sanctuary. They chose to stay for a couple days to prepare for their long journey ahead, and rebuild their home so they had somewhere to go back to. Preston has taught them basics self defence and survival, Sturges has helped them temporarily fix the holes in their walls. They're not close to these strangers yet, but there's a small comfort in knowing there's still people, and people nearby to run to if anything not friendly comes knocking on their door.
They're picking at a 200 year old box of stale cereal, not able to stomach the taste just yet. In the end, they end up leaving it in a bowl for Dogmeat to have, preferring to sleep, hunger be damned. They sleep on the floor that used to hold the dinning table, not ready to sleep in the now-too-empty bedrooms.
By morning, their sleep is interrupted. Not by the cold October air that their thin, makeshift blanket- That doubles as their coat during the day- barley keeps away. Not by the sunlight that seeps in by the broken shards of class where the window used to be. Not by drops of rain that fall through the cracks in the ceiling. Not even by Dogmeat licking then awake, like he did yesterday morning. This time it's the sound of pecking and squawking that has Sole prying their eyes open.
A small group of grows picking at the bowl of cereal. They must've gotten in through what once was the window, or literally any of the holes of missing metal panels scattered throughout the building. Sole barely has it in them to care. They know they shouldn't waste food that could've gone to them or their new furry friend, but they truly cannot bring it in them to mind. They wonder if the birds have a hard time finding food, too, and decide it might not be a waste at all.
They sit up. A few of the crows fly up onto the windowsill at their movements, one stays enjoying their breakfast, unfazed. Sole waits, sitting still until the birds realise they have no intention of harming them. They glide back down onto the floor, going back to eating.
After a few moments, the crow that stayed perks his head up, neck twitching into an angle that lets him look at Sole. He hops over, stopping just before he reaches their lap. Sole raises their hand, thumb and index finger moving slowly until they land on its neck. His feathers bristle under Sole's pets, his feet dancing happily beneath him. The other crows finish their breakfast. Salem, Sole decides to call him, joins his friends who hop back onto the windowsill. They fly off. He turns his head to the side, a beady eye looking at Sole again. He squawks at them before flying off to join the others.
Sole spends the rest of their day taking metal panels from some of the completely collapsed houses to fix the holes in their walls. They're able to find paint at the old Red Rocket down the road when looking for more equipped tools. Repainting isn't exactly their priority right now, just making sure the house will be fit to stand against the weather, and for when it gets colder in the next few months. The paint will be useful when they get to the stage of being able to consider making it look presentable, however. Unfortunately, the only paintbrush they find is snapped in half. They toss it in frustration. Less so because of the brush itself, and more so because Sole has a lot of anger built up from the events of the last few days that they have no other outlet for.
They end up going home when the sun starts to set, having avoided the empty tomb of memories for as long as possible. It wasn't safe to be out so close to dark.
When they set down their tolls by the door, something on the kitchen counter catches their eye.
Upon inspection, they realise it's an intact paintbrush.
Their confusion lasts barely five seconds, as they hear a familiar squawk. Hoping on the windowsill is Salem. His eyes study Sole. He's waiting. Sole smiles, pulling open the duffle bag they'd taken on their supply run. They pull out two wild mutfruits, which they'd harvested from bushes near the station. Sole cuts them into smaller pieces, before tossing them gently into the grass of their back garden from the car porch. Salem glides to the pieces, now satisfied in knowing that Sole approved of and appreciated his gift. Sole looks up to the trees that border their garden where other crows have started to also descend from to join in on the food offering. Apparently, there's a lot more in this group than what Sole had assumed from the smaller one earlier. About twenty feathered creatures dance about on branches decorated by orange and brown leaves or nibble at the mutfruit in the grass.
Salem flies over once he's had his fill, taking a seat on Sole's shoulder. His friends also begin hopping over gradually, and Sole ends up sitting down to welcome them and pet their small heads. Dogmeat also seems to love the attention, or perhaps just the warmth that radiates from Sole's body as he curls up next to them. Every so often, one of them drops a trinket into Sole's lap as they snuggle into them. A random screw, some gears, even some bottlecaps. Bits and bobs that a few days ago, Sole would've considered mostly junk, even if they'd still been appreciative, but everything now is useful. They even drop a few things by Dogmeat's snout, who sniffs them, tail wagging. Sole doesn't think Salem appreciates the happy licks Dogmeat gives him, though.
Regardless, Sole breathes out slowly, deeply, as they take in the sunset and birdsong before them. It's the first time they've honestly felt any peace since leaving that godforsaken Vault.
Sole makes a mental note to redesign the kitchen window when they get around to fixing it so that it'll be able to open widely. They also begin thinking about designs for birdhouses, feeders, and small fountains.
It's safe to say Sole feels slightly better than they did when they went to bed last night.
They feel less alone.
For some reason, as Salem nestles into their lap, against their stomach, a small pressure builds in their gut. They can't quite shake the instinct, the thought that comes with it. The feeling that Salem feels less alone now, too.
#Aka a story where Sole unintentionally befriends the Institute crows and teaches them actual love#To the point where they start to also rebel against their creators. Sole starts finding crows that have clawed out their own eyes#Or that have scratched chunks (Chips and cameras) out of their necks and turns Sanctuary into. Well. A Crow Sanctuary#Sole accidentally trains a crow army to be loyal to them#They start getting to the point where crows start being able to send messages like pigeons for the Minutemen and Railroad#Deacon hated the idea at first and when he found out Sole was basically housing Institute spies almost had a heart attack#Then he got on board when he realised the crows were also starting to runaway from the Institute#Salem likes to prank Deacon#They even steal Institute tech so their human friends can study it :)#Who needs to train Deathclaws when you have an army of birds that are already trained in spy work#And who you can use to find Synth agents because they recognise their faces and WILL attack them on sight#Who needs the Mysterious Stranger when every bird in the 'Wealth will swoop in to peck and claw at a raider's face when you're outnumbered#Sole being the King/Queen/Master of crows goes hard ngl#Their animal friend perk is maxed out. They DO also raise a baby Deathclaw just because they can#I might make a fic that includes this idea tbh because I love it#And I have been wanting to make a realistic fic about what it would be like for Sole. Especially in the early days.#Sole Survivor#Salem The Crow#Dogmeat#Deacon#Fallout#Fallout 4
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skyofnostars · 1 month
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Stories And Prompts Masterpost/Request Form
All my posted stories and writing prompts for you guys to enjoy! Links below the cut!
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OC Lists!!!
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OC stories!!!
Cal x Carmine (Calmine)
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luxthestrange · 2 years
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Obey me CrackHead Headcanons
This Headcanon was brought to you by @kur0m1x3
-Karasu and Mammon are childhood best friends, But Unlike mammon, Karasu did create his own business that is making him get tons of Grimm, Karasu sees Mammon as his true rival for Mc, compared to the others rivals after you "He's got a heart of gold, You can't hate the guy, you become attached to him"
-Aku is Leviathan's only non-Otaku friend, tho thanks to leviathan...he knows a vast ton of anime references, and he knows a vast ton of anime plots given he doesn't interrupt leviathan's info blast...He's kinda grateful you came to the devil dom, someone else to take care of his info blast of anime...But he lowkey does on occasion miss when leviathan came to him for help
-Majolish is the secret vice president of the Asmo Fanclub(He isn't in love with Asmo he just admires his charisma and confidence), He is actually one of the phew alike mc who is immune to his "charms", He is also the main source of income to Mammon's spending and is able to keep the witches at bay from mammon
-Majolish and Karasu are new members of the "Protect Mammon Club", Karasu and Lucifer are frenemies...both fight for rare cute pictures they have of mammon and stories of him...while mc and majo make bets on who wins
-Aku can't STAND Lucifer and Lucifer can't STAND Aku...their pride and temper and "resting bitch" frowny face are so similar...It is like that thing when two people are so alike instead of liking them...they insult them for the same things they do
-Aku, Kara, and Majo both hugs are incredible...but different, Aku Hugs you and it feels...amazing with those big muscles and that manly gozzongas squishing your face...Kara hugs are always surprised hugs he spins you around with him and always lands a peck on your forehead and it always ends with him giving you a shiny rock he found, Now Majo...If you think Luke, Sim, Barbs, or even Asmo smell amazing...Majolish hugs are always soft cuz of his fluffy coats and bouncy hair that smells like cinnamon and ripped apples...It's amazing
-Karasu has seen the search history of the brothers and dateables...he has never seen so many searches on "How to get a human pregnant","Do humans like demons?","How long do humans live?", "Human p*rn"...You be surprised who asked some of these searches
-The first to accept he had a crush on you was Karasu, the second Majolish...Aku still doesn't realize he sees you as someone special
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manufactoredxbyxdesign · 11 months
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The sound of the caw strikes the air with sharp percussion. Then dies as quickly as it happened. He watches from bellow as the tiny form vanishes into a puff of dark smoke. Feathers scattering across the place it had once perched.
Was it boredom that fuelled his need to constantly stay occupied or something more substantial? Sometimes he can’t decide the answer himself. Though testing the limitations of uroboros was a goal he had planned even before The Fog swallowed him, there was something particularly unsatisfying about the lack of options now.
He was getting faster. More accurate as time went on and the opportunity to finely tune the accuracy became more and more necessary.
The black tendrils hiss across the ground, slowly winding their way back up into the sleeve of his coat. If he could coerce the birds to sit in specific markers this would all be much easier to log, but for now it would have to do.
“Oh. It’s you…”
From the corner of his eye he notes the company he has attracted and waits just a few heartbeats too long. He can’t decide if it’s outrage or just annoyance on their face. Maybe a bit of both? Either way it draws him from his inner thoughts, forcing him to turn and face them properly.
“Passing through.” He suggests, eyeing them from behind the dark shades that he always wears now. “Or am I about to get a lecture from the Pro-Crow brigade.”
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ligbi · 9 months
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Saw this on Twitter and oh wow. The Phobos/Demios thing was always a minor annoyance that the Eternal movie resolved. But Cosmos pulling the same thing is moving well past frustration into hilarity. Net 0 info Troll work only good stuff love to hear it.
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Classic bad guy move... being so cocksure that you just let the protag see everything cause you are totally gonna own them in a bit and it totally won't come back to bite you in the end, no siree.
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levi-venn · 9 months
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Tech and Crow
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (Final) Available also on AO3)
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On Eriadu, statistically speaking, humanoids died more often from unnatural causes than old age.
Seventy percent perished from animal attacks.
Ten from disease.
Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 
One-point-ninety nine percent from the Empire.
The remaining zero-point-zero-one percent were given to those flinging themselves from a moving monorail car to save their siblings from death.
Eriadu is not an ideal place to die, Tech thought, midfall. But it’s preferable to dying on a fool’s mission for Sid.
For a few treasured seconds he seemed to be floating rather than falling, the cloud cover making it near impossible to orient himself in any direction, though his stomach was telling him his back would meet the ground first. It would be a painful, but hopefully quick death.
The trees, however, had other ideas, both on how Tech would land, and whether he would survive or not.
The first branch shattered against Tech’s pauldron sending him spinning. Another branch broke against his shin guard. There was a nest of twigs, cotton, and unfertilized eggs that slammed into his helmet essentially blinding him.
As he continued in this downward spiral he attempted to quantify how many branches were needed to slow his fall and increase his survival rate. The fact he was hitting branches once every half second told him the odds were in his favor. Evidently, the Eriadian redwood forest was an ideal place to free fall from a considerable height.
Good to know.
While he couldn't control the rate in which he was falling, nor the amount of branches he was shattering, he did manage to land on his back. And in doing so, he jettisoned the remaining breath from his lungs.
He lay there, very still, unfortunately awake, and gasping for air that wouldn't come. Darkness crept around the edge of his vision. He struggled to stay awake. Struggled to breathe. Panic was rising within him.
There is no need to panic, he tried to remind himself. This is just a reaction to present trauma. There is no immediate danger. Breathe...breathe...
Even as the breath returned to him, a new problem arose. He couldn't slow his breathing down, nor calm his heart rate, and the anxiety frayed his nerves as if he were still falling. 
He tried a different tactic: He recalculated the unnatural death toll on Eriadu:
Seventy percent perished from animal attack.
Ten from disease.
Eighteen percent from venomous plants. 
And now two percent from the Empire.
As a youngling, Tech's exceptional mind had mastered every intellectual acuity test presented to him. However, no amount of brilliance would help him when it came to combat training. All altered clones had a defect in one form or another. His came in the shape of bowed and twisted legs, not suitable for a soldier.
It was logical that the Kaminoans broke his legs to reset them. Logical and agonizing. Tech was bed-ridden for weeks. 
They gave him a datapad filled with as much reading material as he could absorb, but even then there was no distracting him from the pain nor the panicked episodes that came with it.
He didn’t want visitors. Didn’t want to appear weak to his brothers. Soldiers weren’t bed-ridden. Soldiers didn’t cry from fear of an uncertain future.
Crosshair ignored Tech’s request for isolation. He appeared every day, three times a day, always for meals. He claimed he was just there to steal Tech’s bread roll, but he only ever took a bite and stayed long after Tech ate the rest of the meal.
Crosshair wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but he would sit on the edge of Tech’s bed, cleaning his beloved DC-15A cadet blaster rifle, and casually ask Tech questions. 
“Why do Kaminoans have such long necks?”
“Who would win in a fight? A Jedi with a vibroblade or a Mandalorian with a lightsaber?”
“How many B1s would it take to equal the power of Jango Fett?”
Tech stared up at the Eriadian sky, mostly obscured by broken branches and his cracked and smudged lens. 
He’d give anything for one of Crosshair’s thinly veiled questions to distract him from the pain and panic.
And truly...he’d give anything to see Crosshair again, regardless.  
***
It took fourteen days and seventeen hours to find Mount Tantiss on the planet, Weyland. It would have taken half that time if Tech had his goggles, a working datapad, and (admittedly) his siblings. Fourteen days was plenty of time to heal his body from its fall, but even at peak condition the climb up the mountain was arduous. Tedious even. Slower as he had to make camp and find food and disarm Imperial sensors the whole way up.
Seventy-eight hours later, he found himself at the base of the Imperial science facility. 
He also found himself exhausted.
“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter had cheered all those years ago as young Tech clung to the middle rung of the monkey-lizard bars high over the training grounds. The platform might as well be located on another planet.
Tech’s legs had been reset the previous year. He was fully healed. There was no excuse for this fragility. Yet his muscles shook with effort, sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes.
“I’m gonna get him,” Wrecker said.
“No!” Hunter pulled his brother back. “He can do it!”
“No, he can’t! Look at him!” Wrecker whined, face full of worry. 
“C’mon, Tech! A little further!” Hunter looked worried too, even as he cheered his brother on. 
Even as Tech’s grip began to slip.
To this day, Tech didn't remember Crosshair's reaction to his failure that day. What was the point of recalling it, anyway?
Utterly meaningless, he always told himself when he'd try to recall. And he would attempt this often.
***
A carrion crow visited Tech the morning after he collapsed from fatigue a kilometer from the science facility. 
The corvid landed on his back, then proceeded to hop in little circle as if Tech was his own personal, albeit ineffective, trampoline.
Tech hadn’t noticed he had become an amusement ride for the crow until it cawed rather rudely and directly into his ear.
Jolting awake at the caustic alarm, Tech jumped to his feet, pulling his blaster and pointing it at...a few feathers that had been jostled from the startled bird. The crow landed on a nearly smooth boulder nearby, croaking as if flabbergasted by the audacity of Tech’s reaction, then flew off in a cackling rage.
The day was spent doing recon of the area. The sheer density of this side of the jungle kept troopers away, and by nightfall Tech had made a decent, albeit temporary, base.
That evening Tech dreamed.
“You remember ‘C’, don’t you?” Tech asked the small boy sitting beside him. It was a very real memory, but his subconscious twisted timelines, making him a fully grown adult sitting next to a small, gray-haired boy hunched over the datapad, stylus awkward in his little fingers.
“I remember,” Crosshair said, stubbornly, stylus making a vertical line.
“C is for curved,” Tech recited the pneumonic, smiling to himself as Crosshair quickly readjusted his stylus, making a shaky but clear C.
“Now an ‘R’.”
Crosshair hissed in frustration, stylus lifting and lowering onto the screen making little angry dots on the workbook page. “I don’t want to.”
“Shall we do it together?” Tech asked.
“No,” Crosshair insisted, even as he sat closer to Tech and leaned against him. Tech put his hand over his brother's to guide him. “Up, and around, and down to the ground.” Tech said.
“I can do ‘O’ by myself,” Crosshair said, pushing Tech’s hand off of his own, though he still leaned against Tech as he drew a mathematically perfect circle. 
The dream had taken liberties, but the scene was more or less how Tech remembered Crosshair writing his name for the first time. The dream neglected to recall Crosshair asking Tech not to tell their brothers that he struggled to write his own name.
But Tech was allowed to know. Only Tech. And Tech kept his word to this day.
“Let’s see how you did,” Tech said, in this more or less accurate dream.
He picked up the datapad and read in perfectly block letters.
[H E L P  M E]
Tech startled awake. 
He told himself it was just a dream. Memories and information and out of context stimuli colliding together into something nonsensical.
Utterly meaningless, he told himself, even as he wiped the tears from his cheeks.
It was still night. The moonlight punched its way through the canopy of trees, offering illumination that only helped to remind Tech just how alone he was on this mountain.
Actually, Tech corrected, the moon doesn’t illuminate anything. The light I’m seeing is a reflection of the sun. 
This factoid did little to alleviate the situation. 
But he felt better acknowledging it.
***
The crow returned the next morning holding something in its beak: a small pinecone, young and green. The pinecone had no nutritional value to the corvid, nor was it proper nesting material.
Crows have been known to offer gifts as a sign of gratitude for an agreeable exchange or action.
The gift was obviously not for Tech considering he had pulled a blaster on the corvid upon their first meeting.
Who are you giving your gifts to? Tech wondered. A bored trooper? A sensitive officer? A desperate prisoner?
“A desperate prisoner wouldn’t sacrifice food for trinkets,” he concluded to the crow.
The crow hopped around the boulder once, twice, then flew directly at Tech, who ducked just as the crow smacked a wing against his head mid-flight. Even with the pinecone in his beak, Tech swore he could hear a throaty cackle.
Tech continued his recon of the science facility as best he could without being discovered. Getting close to the building wasn’t an issue, it was getting near anything resembling an entrance that was the issue. He had one blaster against an unknown amount of guards, which meant all he could do was recon. And then he would fill his siblings in when they arrived.
It never occurred to him his brothers and sister wouldn’t eventually come to the same conclusion as he. They would find this planet. They would find Tech and receive his very useful intel, and then they would save Crosshair. The squad would finally be reunited.
It would all work out. It had to.
He couldn’t afford to think of the alternative. Worrying about it was useless.
Utterly meaningless…
***
The next morning, he awoke before dawn. No crow was waiting for him.
Trying a different tactic, he broke off a bit of plastoid from his cracked pauldron and set it on the crow’s boulder.
He waited.
Just after dawn, the crow landed on the boulder, cawing immediately at Tech, feathers literally and proverbially ruffled at an unauthorized object occupying his boulder.
But then the corvid calmed, eyeing the object properly, pecking at it as if appraising its value.
“I assure you, it is of a high-quality material,” Tech told the crow. “The fact it is broken means it worked as intended. It did not survive the fall so that I could.”
The crow listened, or at least stared at Tech with intensely black eyes, and then decided - perhaps entirely on his own - to take the plastoid and fly off.
This time Tech ran after crow. 
As he hypothesized, the crow flew directly towards the science facility.
Tech kept his goggleless eyes to the sky as he ran, thanking his imperfect genetics that he was far-sighted, allowing him to track the crow in his pursuit. So long as the crow didn't require him to read a datapad, he only needed to worry about the thick underbrush tearing his compromised under-armor, thorny vines scratching his cheeks, and the uneven ground threatening to trip and trap him.
“Come on, Tech! You can do it!” Hunter’s words echoed in his mind. He chose not to think of Wrecker’s face full of doubt. The crack in Hunter’s voice betraying his words.
Actually, Tech realized. I can do it. 
A crow is capable of flying over ninety kilometers an hour. Tech, even at his healthiest, could reach thirty kilometers an hour.
The crow wants me to follow him, but to where?
As if to answer, the crow suddenly dove towards a hole in the fortress and Tech skidded to a stop just below it.
He gazed quietly at the barred window approximately seven meters above him, the crow’s tail feathers twitching and wiggling as it seemed to be eating something on the sill. 
And then he saw it. Briefly. A flash of familiar fingers. Long and callused and always itching to pull a trigger. 
Fingers that used to wrap around Tech’s hand when the lightning was too bright outside. Fingers that would hold soggy bread in the rain, hoping to conjure a bird that would never come. Fingers that could draw shaky C's and perfect circles.
I found you, Tech thought, his heartbeat growing irregular from this sudden turn of events. Now to get your attention.
***
“Where the hell are your goggles?”
It wasn’t not the first question Tech expected, but a fair one nonetheless.
Tech touched his temple reflexively, trying to adjust goggles that clearly weren’t there. “A long story that I can narrate at a later time. Are you hurt?”
Crosshair pressed his forehead against the bars. “What do you think?”
It wasn’t the answer Tech had hoped to hear.
“How did you know the crow was coming to my cell?” Crosshair asked.
“You used to birdwatch when we were children. That combined with the lack of incentive for anyone on this base to feed a carrion bird. It was obvious. So I gave the corvid a message to give to you.”
“His name is Egg.”
“Egg?” Tech frowned up at Crosshair. “Why is his name Egg?”
“He likes Eggs.”
“So, by that logic, if he enjoyed Colo Claw Fish-”
“Does it look like they feed me sushi here?”
Tech raised a finger…then lowered it. “Point taken.” 
“How are you going to get me out of here?” Crosshair asked. His head disappeared from view a few times and Tech assumed it was to ensure they were speaking privately.
“We’re going to wait for our siblings to retrieve us,” Tech answered.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“When are they coming?”
“I’m uncertain.”
“Then how do you know they are coming?” Crosshair asked and the crow - Egg - seemed to echo with an indignant craah. 
“Because they were searching for you when we were separated, and I managed to find you on my own. Given that they are lacking my brilliant mind, it may take some time, but I am sure they will figure it out, find the path to Mount Tantiss and we will be reunited...eventually.”
“Eventually…fantastic,” Crosshair hissed.
It could have been Tech’s impaired vision, but it looked like both Crosshair and the crow rolled their eyes at the same time. 
Tech had missed his brother’s sarcastic wit terribly.
Even if it was directed at him. 
Part 3: Cross and Tech and Egg
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heidismagblog · 5 months
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ruins-and-rewritez · 11 months
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The Iron Wall (Date Tech)
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[Photo ID: black and white manga panels of the Date Technical High School Volleyball Team members and their stats on a five-point parameter of power, jumping, stamina, intelligence, technique, and speed. In order Kaname Moniwa, Takanobu Aone, Kenji Futakuchi, Yasushi Kamasaki, Takehito Sasaya, Yutaka Obara, Kosuke Sakunami, and Takuro Oikawe]
(Haikyuu!! Character Reference Master Post Here)
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