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mandoposting · 2 years
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hey, catch
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kark-trooper-echo · 21 days
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EchoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo! Congratulations on your milestone!
My questing is about clone armor! We are all familiar with clone armor and that it comes off an assembly line, as seen in the holo-drama Attack of the Clones. What's the process for customized armor? Do the Kaminoans just hand it to you, or do you submit requests and provide feedback? Or is customizations against regulations!?
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Hello...OoOo, and thanks. You've got me feeling nostalgic, and I'm on my third cup of caf (don't ask), so here's the armor rundown from start to finish.
On graduation day, new troopers left their cadet barracks for the last time, headed to the mess, then filed into the armor repository. Everyone picked up a standard armor kit and took it to their newly assigned trooper barracks, where they changed and deposited their old cadet uniforms into the recycler, never to be thought of again. From there, they headed to one of the assembly bays to pick up a helmet from the central conveyor. After that, it was a quick stop to the armory for a rifle before falling in for the ceremony. It was the proudest day in the life of any clone.
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Once you had your armor, it was yours. Technically, it belonged to the Republic, like everything underneath it, but that point was never brought up. It was ours, and we were permitted to alter it as needed for unit cohesion and utility in the field:
Chapter 8, Section 2, Article 1.3 Armor may be superficially altered to reflect the colors and symbols of a trooper’s assigned unit at the discretion of their CO.
Chapter 8, Section 2, Article 2.5 Non-component elements of helmet exterior may be superficially altered to reflect the colors and symbols of a trooper’s assigned unit at the discretion of their CO.
C8.S2.A2.5-1: No part of the visor, rangefinder, ventilation, filtration, vocoder, or comms are to be altered until schematics for such alterations are cleared and registered with a commander or higher.
As long as it wasn't distracting, our personal touches were always approved in the 501st. The Batch's changes were never a problem either. Tech's exact words were, "Commander Cody has agreed to approve anything of ours that comes his way, provided we maintain our 'impressive' success rate."
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sparkmender · 10 months
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"Your Grace." Sunstorm is mindful to stand a distance, from the garden. A good distance. Any closer and he would simply melt the entirety of the beautiful place. "I have scoured the vast expanse of space to find you, and here you are, in the last place anyone would ever look. Of course you would come home to lay root in the Pious Pools. Of course." Sunstorm holds her servos out. "Welcome Home."
“Er,” says the Ornament, his arms full of dirty gardening equipment and a befuddled look on his face, “That’s… very nice of you, dear.”
Goodness gracious. They’re a flightframe, a tetrajet, so already Rung is fairly certain he’s never met them before, though they’re standing far away enough that he has to squint to make out their faceplate. But scouring space for him? Your Grace??
He clears his vocoder with a polite little static pop and sets his tools aside, then slips off his apron for good measure, putting everything down in a neat pile on a nearby stone bench before picking his way over to step beyond the boundary fence and take one of their servos.
And winces, just slightly, as a radcounter comes online and starts to tick up in the corner of his HUD. Yellow tetrajet, fairly radioactive, speaks like he’s from the Iron Age? Rung had thought Megatron had just been making up stories to entertain him. It’s a little uncomfortable to hold onto them— like he’s losing feeling in his arm and getting odd pinprick feedback from his sensors at the same time— but his paint’s not bubbling off and he’s not in any actual pain as far as he can tell, just discomfort.
So.
“You’re Sunstorm, then? Hello. I, uhm. Would you mind telling me who sent you after me? I’d really hate to have to do anything drastic.”
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auntie-venom · 1 year
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Will of Fate
Chapter Four
Fandom: Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Story Rating: Explicit
Chapter Rating: Mature
Characters: Din Djarin x Original Female Character
Summary: There hasn’t been an unidentified spacecraft in the stratosphere of Arkadia in over two decades, let alone three in one day. Those skilled or mad enough to venture into the Chaos unguided were few and far between. That means no one has ever made it to Arkadia who wasn’t intending to be here.
Until today.
or
Din Djarin finds an unmapped planet filled with beings who have the same powers as the Child, but know nothing of the force or the Jedi.
Chapter Summary: Din, Eziriel, and The Child make their way towards civilization. Din asks Eziriel a question that has been on his mind all day.
Word Count - 4,614
Chapter Warnings: Language
Will of Fate Masterlist
Read on Ao3
A/N: A day late, but here it is! Thank you to those who have commented and given feedback, it has been very helpful and encouraging.
Feedback and critique is welcome, I am trying to get better. Reminder this is unbeta-ed. I hope you enjoy it!
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Chapter four
Din can already hear the woman, Eziriel, puttering around and humming to herself in the common space when he wakes up. The sun is coming brightly around the curtains of the window indicating it is later in the morning than he would have liked to wake.
He rises from the bunk and slips his helmet off momentarily to wipe the sleep that gathered in his eyes. While he appreciates Eziriel’s courtesy in giving him a secured room to sleep, Din did not feel comfortable shedding his armor in a relatively unknown location.
He goes through his morning stretches taking note to check on the various recovering injuries on his body. The bacta injection did wonders for the surface damage but there was still healing time with bruised ribs and concussion. Luckily, the more extreme symptoms of his concussion are gone and the pain reliever is keeping his rib pain to a moderate level.
He opens the pram to check on the kid and sees him still sound asleep, recovering from using his powers. Similar powers that Din witnessed Eziriel casually use last night.
Was she one of the Jedi he needed to find? It would make sense that they would inhabit a planet—Arkadia he reminds himself—that isolated itself as thoroughly as this one did. It would also explain how difficult it has been to get a lead on any of them.
Our secret keeps Arkadia alive.
That sentiment resonated with Din far deeper than she probably realized. He fully understood the need to protect one’s society. He knows what it means when secrecy is survival. The Armorer’s words ring in an echo to Eziriel’s, “Our secrecy is our survival, our survival is our strength.”
His helmet picks up Eziriel opening the outer door and stepping outside. He uses the opportunity to make his way to the refresher but when he opens the archaic hinged door of the bunk room he is greeted by the chair he was sitting in last night in the doorway with a steaming mug of caf and another ration pack on top of it. He feels his brow relax from its usual heavy weight at the kind gesture.
She is thoughtful.
He takes care of his business in the refresher and eats his meal in his usual quickness before following the soft humming from outside.
The sun is still low in the sky and it illuminates the vast canyon with its red rocky walls and the pillars that were topped with vegetation that he attempted to navigate yesterday. The trees that surround him are towering gnarled beasts with rich green leaves and house colorful chittering avians. Din admits to himself that it is quite a peaceful view.
“There’s my lovely Lori!” Eziriel chirps from his left and the sigh is through the vocoder before he can stop it.
She is a menace.
“Did you sleep well Mando?” The way she says his name is teasing and full of mirth. It’s irritating. He turns towards her and he finally sees his savior in the full light of day.
She is petite and the way her baggy green overalls hung on her only served to make her seem shorter. Her fair skin contrasted against the vibrant copper hair that was escaping the large braid in curly tresses. Her thick expressive brows arch regally over warm blue eyes and amongst the constellation of tan freckles scattered across her face lay a small brown mole on the apex of her left cheek right beneath the corner of her eye. He notices her ears were the normal size of most humanoids, but with the tips pointed and slightly elongated which was something he hadn’t seen before on a seemingly full human individual. The small laugh lines in the corner of her eyes and the scattering of white strands that resides in the hairline around her face tells him she is older than he originally thought. She wears a smirk in the corner of her full lips like it was a permanent fixture, and if Din had to guess it probably was.
“I appreciate the meal, thank you.” He dips his head towards her.
Her smirk softens to something more genuine, “You’re very welcome. I need you well fed for the journey. We have a two day ride through the beautiful Forest of Ga’ladora before we make it back to Helix.”
Din looks to the woods and asks, “Is it very dangerous?”
“Not dangerous, but it has dangers if you are ill prepared.” She goes to finish tying up her supplies to the speeder bike as she falls back into her teasing tone, “You are blessed enough to be in the company of an experienced guide.”
He feels his lips twitch upward at her levity. He doesn’t verbally respond to her but instead goes to help where he can in loading the speeder. Together they secure all the satchels and the pram with little fuss. With the pram taking up space on the back of the speeder it is going to be a tight squeeze for the two of them.
Din realizes that she hasn’t once asked about the pram. She has referred to his companion, but hasn’t invaded his privacy about it. Even when she was questioning him about his intentions last night she never once gave it a curious glance.
She is respectful.
She does one more walkthrough of the beacon station before closing the hinged door without locking it.
“I can't imagine how someone snuck tech into your system with all that security,” he says dryly.
She snorts at his jab. “The panels to the hardware are extremely locked down, but the beacon stations remain open to the public for those out in the wilderness. Citizens enjoy venturing into the woods for pleasure, so having a place to sleep safely and a cache of supplies lowers the amount of search and rescue adventures,” she says.
In other parts of the galaxy people live in the wilderness because they have nowhere else to go, and Arkadians have leisurely trips in the wilderness for sport. Din thinks it’s a very generous solution to a privileged problem.
He watches her tap on the brass colored device circled around her right ear and that violet holographic visor comes across her eyes. He watches her eyes scan it quickly before meeting his eyes through her visor. For a brief moment he wonders if she can see his face with how accurate she was in making eye contact.
“Your vitals have improved! Though I do read an influx of endorphins so I imagine you still have some pain.”
She is invasive.
“You could have just asked,” Din says.
“Sorry,” she says with an embarrassed look of genuine remorse. “I’m so used to just getting answers myself rather than being given them.” She dismisses her visor with a flick of her wrist and grins up at him. “How are you feeling?”
“Bruised ribs. Minor headache.” She stares at him with a raised brow like she expects him to continue. He doesn’t.
“Maker, what an informative assessment you delivered,” she snarks back with a laugh.
“What more do you need to know?” He asks flatly and she chuckles.
“You’re right, that is all I need to know.” She smiles at him as she mounts the speeder and pats the seat behind her in invitation. “Efficiency is the name of your game, isn’t it?”
“If you’re gonna be anything, be efficient,” Din replies as he swings his leg over the bike. He is so close he can feel her giggle in response and he feels his lips twitch again at her joy as she takes off into the woods.
She is droll.
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Din isn’t sure how she is weaving through the massive forest at the speed they travel, but it is nerve wracking. Her reflexes must be honed sharply because he barely has time to register an obstacle before she has already plotted her path around it. At some points it is dizzying to see where they go but that could be due to the lingering concussion.
They travel for hours this way, winding through the maze of trees navigating toward a mountain range. He feels Eziriel’s voice rumble where he is pressed to her back ever so often but it’s never directed at him and his helmet can’t pick it up over the rumble of the speeder. He figured she was talking to whoever was at the other end of her comms last night.
About an hour past midday he watches as her head cants to the side like she is listening to something and she slows the speeder down down.
He feels her laugh and barely hears her say something before her chuckling voice rings clearly in his helmet, “Your companion is awake and they are hungry.”
His body startles at her voice without his permission before muttering, “Dank farrik, woman.”
He listens to her laugh harder at his reaction as she steers the speeder bike to a clearing near a flowing stream. He notes her visor isn’t activated and it makes him curious how she knew the child was awake and hungry.
Eziriel parks them in the sun dappled shade of a weeping tree and the peaceful sounds of a steady stream fill the air once the speeder engine is cut. She knocks twice on the armor covering his thigh with her knuckles before standing and swinging her leg over the handlebars to dismount.
“C’mon, it was time to stretch anyway.”
Din watches as she goes onto her toes, stretches her arms high above her head, and lets out a high pitched groan of relief. He twists off the seat and goes to adjust the ropes on the pram so he will be able to open it without untying it from the speeder.
He feels a small rise of nervousness at revealing the child to Eziriel. He didn’t think she would do anything bad, but it was always nerve wracking to expose the child. He presses the release button quickly before he overthinks it too much.
“Hey kid,” he greets once the large eyes lock onto him. The child gives him a toothy grin and makes a curious noise at his surroundings as Din picks him up.
The child leans to look around Din at Eziriel, “Ehhh?”
“Well, hello little…Lad? Lass?” She questions towards Din as he turns around.
“Boy.”
“Wonderful to meet you little laddie,” she says as she holds two fingers out for him to grasp and she gives him a light hand shake. “How do you fit those ears in the helmet, Mando?”
“He isn’t my blood,” Din says, rolling his eyes at the joke he has heard dozens of variations of over the last few months and her continued teasing tone of his moniker.
“Doesn’t make him any less yours,” she says sincerely, looking up to meet his gaze accurately once again. The sentiment warms his chest with affection and she smiles at him with kind eyes. “Do I get to know his name?”
“I don’t know it,” Din says with a shrug. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“What? Like you’ve forgotten it? That concussion must've been more serious than I thought,” she remarks, going to her bag to pull out the ration bars. The child's ears perk up at her finds.
“No,” he scoffs and sets the child down when he starts trying to wiggle free. “I found him a few months back and he has been with me ever since. He's not verbal enough to tell me his name.”
The little green toddler waddles over to the woman and she plops down to the grass to greet him after tossing a ration bar to Din. She smiles and opens a ration to give to him, but he just crawls onto her legs and makes himself comfortable in her lap before reaching for the nutrition brick. She releases a mirthful giggle at his audacity and Din can’t help but lift the corner of his mouth a little.
“So he is your—what do Mandalorians call it—“
“Foundling.”
“—Foundling!” She snaps her fingers and points at Din with a grin. “What do you call him then? ‘Hey you’?”
“Kid, mostly.”
“Maker’s tits, Mando.” She dramatically rolls her eyes as she digs into her own ration, “Your naming habits leave much to be desired.”
“I’ve been quested to return him to his kind,” he says soberly. She gives him a sympathetic look of understanding.
“And you didn’t want to give him a name when he might have someone who knows his true one,” she says with a tone of compassion.
Time passes with the sounds of whispering wind and trickling water as she and the child finish eating their meal. She fishes out her canteen and offers it to the toddler and he messily accepts while she snickers.
“Well, I’ve never met anyone that looks anything like little laddie over here,” she says as she takes his hands and bobs him back and forth as he giggles. “But I’ve barely left Arkadia, so maybe someone in Helix will have a lead for you.”
The child slides off her lap and starts exploring the grass next to the stream. He starts pointing at things and babbling back at Eziriel and Din, the former of which nods and responds enthusiastically like he is telling her the most important information.
“You not going to eat? I can turn around or you can go into the woods and I’ll watch the kid,” she offers.
“Thank you, but no,” he states and she scrunches her eyebrows at him. “Please don’t take offense, you’ve been very accommodating, but it's just that I don’t know you enough to trust you in that way.”
“You could get to know me,” she says with a grin and an arch of her eyebrow. He tilts his head at her and she starts digging through her bag for something.
“What do you do?” He finally asks awkwardly.
“I am an electrical engineer by trade, but I am the head of a division in the technical operations of the Arkadian government.” She pulls out a case from her bag before continuing, “It’s a little more bureaucratic than I’d prefer, but I get access to tech I’d not normally. What about you?”
“I’m a bounty hunter.”
“Oh wow!” Her eyes wide as she smiles at him. “That is so wizard, it must be a life filled with travel and adventure.”
“That is one way to look at it,” he nods to her as his eyes track the kid chasing a bug.
“Which has been the worst planet you’ve had to chase a bounty?” She asks as she pulls out a thick tube with a device on one end out of the case. Din takes a moment to mentally go through the catalog of planets he has visited.
“Coruscant. Everyone is just stacked on top of each other, absolutely no space to breathe. Bounties think it is a good hiding spot because of that; and it would be if they were smart, but they usually aren’t.” Din leans against the speeder and watches the kid look at the bug he finally caught. Hooking his thumbs into his belt he continues, “They have a lifestyle they try to keep that involves being social and anyone will sell you out for the right price.”
She hums in interest as she twists off the device at the end of the tube. She takes the tube and puts it into her canteen. She smiles triumphantly at him as she stands up and walks up to him holding the canteen out which now featured a straw.
“You should stay hydrated in this heat, at least,” she says, pushing the canteen into his hand.
“You just had a straw handy?”
“It’s a filtering device for drinking from a body of water with unknown sources.” She shakes, what he assumes, the filtration system at him and leans against the bike next to him and turns her gaze to the toddler.
He is, once again, taken aback by her thoughtfulness. He is unmoving, just looking at her, and before he realizes it he has pressed the helmet’s button that releases the seal with a pneumatic hiss and slides the straw under. He tries not to over-analyze the act of trust he is giving a woman he met only a day ago as he drinks.
“In vids, Coruscant always looked way too crowded for me. It gives me anxiety,” she says with a shudder. He hums in agreement and looks at her. “Just all the buildings alo—NO! NO! NO!”
He drops the canteen and grabs his blaster as she is suddenly sprinting towards the kid and that’s when he notices a wriggling frog is now floating in the air above the pouting toddler.
She scoops the child up and says, “You are a troublemaker, little laddie, I can tell.” The kid giggles at her. “Mando, your kid was trying to eat a live frog.” Said frog was being lowered into the stream as Eziriel walked back towards him.
“He does that.” Din holsters the blaster and bends down to pick up the fallen canteen.
She did it again, using those powers that were so similar to the child’s. When the kid used the powers it took all his effort to concentrate while she just nonchalantly used them with barely any physical indication. Was it a different power or was it simply because she was an adult?
After she hands the kid to him with a slightly appalled but mostly amused face they each take a private relief break and load back up onto the speeder bike. The kid was secure in his pram once again and given an extra ration pack by Eziriel before they continued their way towards their destination.
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By the time the sun was getting low in the sky they were climbing through the mountains at a steady pace. The temperature was falling the deeper into the mountains they went, not enough to be biting but enough that Din notices goosebumps on Eziriel’s arms and for her to stop momentarily to pull out a dark plum cloak.
She started slowing down when they came across a river. Diverting from the direction they’ve been heading all day, she instead followed the flowing river. The river becomes wider and a mild roar of water becomes louder until they reach a deep pool of calmer water that is being fed by a plunging waterfall. She pulls under the overcrop of the cliff far enough away from the spray of the waterfall and kills the engine.
She stretches her arms above her head, bowing her back with a groan before dismounting. He follows and opens the pram to a grumpy face surrounded by crumbs of a ration. The child must be over being stuck in his pram all day.
“I’m getting too old for long rides,” she says, twisting her back in more stretches.
“Come on, you look like you are barely an adult,” Din comments with a teasing tone deliberately towering over her and looking down.
She gives him a look of faux outrage. “Sir! Don’t let my height fool you. I may have the stature of pubescent youngling but I am halfway through my thirties and my back feels every year.”
Din sets the child down as the last beams of sunlight punch through the trees to the west. He watches as the child goes waddling toward the water and picks up stones to start clacking together.
He senses Eziriel’s presence before a hand touches the armorless space on his elbow and he glances down at her. She slides her hand down his arm to flip it palm up and places a ration meal pack and an eating utensil in his hand. She grins up at him before pointing behind them to a dark cave in the cliffside.
“You can eat in there while keeping an eye on me and the lad,” she says. “It goes straight back so you can go pretty far back in the darkness while still being able to see us.”
“Why are you so concerned with my eating habits?” He asks.
“I swore to your safety and taking care of your needs is a part of making sure you’re safe.” She shrugs like it’s an obvious answer.
Right, the oath she swore in order to reassure him that she meant no harm. He didn’t know what the full scope of it entailed, but it sounded like it was broad. He was curious to know if that was normal or if Eziriel was manipulating him.
She holds out her canteen and he takes a moment to scan the surroundings before accepting it with a nod of thanks. He makes his way into the cave hesitantly, keeping vigilant for any wildlife that might be lurking. He hears Eziriel call the child over and ask him about which ration he would like to eat; to which he gives some sort of babbling answer that she agrees with.
Once he is far enough into the dark cave he leans against the wall and looks at the scene framed by the mouth of the cave. Eziriel is sitting by the water with the child on a rock next to her. They both keep their attention on the water pointing at different things only turning towards each other whenever the kid demands a bite of food. She eats while he makes comments in his toddler language. She nods and responds to him like she understands him.
Din removes his helmet and begins his meal as he wonders if she is a mother. The maternal side of her that he has witnessed seemed very organic, and if he was honest with himself, very charming. Seeing a pretty woman doting lovingly on his foundling makes his neck heat up in a way he doesn’t want to think about.
By the time he has finished his meal the sun is gone completely. He steps to the mouth of the cave just in time to hear the child coo in amazement and he has to agree with the assessment.
All around them a kaleidoscopic display of bioluminescent organic life begins to fill the darkness with light. Lichen paints glowing pink hues onto the rocks and trees; pulsing green comes from the scattered fungal formations; the trees themselves illuminate purple in the cracks of the bark; and the water glows a bright shade of blue from the algae along the rocks of the river with the churning waterfall emitting the most light.
Din steps up behind the pair glancing into the water they are looking at to see dozens of fish of all colors illuminating in the glowing pool. He watches as Eziriel drags her fingers through the water creating a swirling bright light in her wake.
“The algae-infused water temporarily reacts to an exposure of oxygen,” she explains to the child. “Here, you try.”
She picks the child up and tips him over the water so he can drag his tiny hands through. When it doesn’t work for his slow movement she easily calms his frustrations.
“You have to create a little more of a disturbance in the water for it to light up. Just go a little faster,” she suggests calmly. The child listens to the instruction, inadvertently splashing her, and coos in wonderment at his achievement. Din has never seen the kid take instruction this well before and is impressed with Eziriel’s patience.
He takes a moment to appreciate the calm moment where the kid can just be a kid. No Empire chasing him. No mystery powers. Just a boy in the arms of a woman who wants to show him the beauty of her planet.
With her kind smile gracing her delicate features and the blue phosphorescent light of the water reflecting against her skin, she looks like a celestial being that his mother used to tell stories of. Protectors from the stars who want to show people the woven threads of the universe and the beautiful tapestry it creates. It gives him a momentary sense of awe just looking at her.
She holds out a hand and a couple dozen of the smaller pebbles around them lift slowly off the ground. They float over the pond and she rains them into the water creating shimmering sparks of light as the pebbles breach the water. The child pointed to where the rocks hit the water and gave her an inquisitive noise.
“Are you a Jedi?” Din asks abruptly. Smooth.
“A what?” Her brow furrows in confusion as she glances up at him. The child lets out a high pitched squeal that catches both of their attention as he holds up his hand and a pebble flies into the water far less gracefully.
She cheers with a clap of her hands. “Your will is very strong buddy!”
“I was told his people are the Jedi. Warriors who use that—“ he gestures to the rocks “—power.”
“Power? Do you mean my Will?” She asks and he finally catches the way she says it. She’s mentioned her “Will” before, but it seems he just didn’t grasp its true meaning.
“Is that what you use to make things move without touching?”
“Well, yeah.” She shrugs nonchalantly before continuing, “But it’s not a power. Everyone has a Will.”
“I can’t do that,” he states matter-of-factly.
She gives him a considered look and says, “We just assumed adult offworlders didn’t have control of their Will because their cultures didn’t nurture the skill when they were younglings.”
“I was told that this power is called the Force.” He explains and her eyes go distant in thought.
“I’ve not heard it called that, but history and sociology weren’t really my favorite focus in my education.” She scrunches her nose at the statement.
Din sighs at another dead end and tips his helmet down in frustration. So on her planet everyone has these powers, but they aren’t the Jedi he was searching for. He wonders if anyone here would even know anything about Jedi since the planet has been isolated for so long.
“Hey CHI-CHI,” she says, breaking the silence. “Can you pull any information regarding Jedi and the Force and put it on my home terminal?”
“Of course I can, I am not an imbecile,'' a voice says coming out of her bracer.
She waits a beat before sighing. “Will you please gather the information for me?” She begs.
“From just our archives or would you like me to retrieve more from the holonet?”
“Access whatever you can, so long as you remain hidden,” she tells the voice.
“Obviously,” the voice says sarcastically.
“Thank you CHI, darling.”
“You are most welcome mother, dearest.”
She gives a dramatic eye roll before looking at Din. “We should have a plethora of information waiting for us when we get in. You are more than welcome to it.”
“Anything you find will be more than I have now,” Din says. “I am truly in your debt.”
“Nah,” she says with a wave of her hand. Before he knows what he is doing he kneels down and places his hand on her shoulder gently.
“Really.” He squeezes her shoulder. “I am very grateful for all that you’ve done for us,” he says with a soft voice looking directly into her eyes.
She grips the splashing child tighter and a look fills her eyes that he can't place. “You are very welcome,” she says before a mischievous smirk curls up her lips. “Anything for my lovely Lori”
His sigh is eclipsed by her chuckle.
<<  Chapter Three
Chapter Five >>
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Text
had to write a short story for a class and decided to make it vaguely about Buzzard
Twenty-seven came this time. The dog bounds from one metal husk to another, connecting dots in their lifeless constellation. I pick at my fingers as I follow the dog because it’s still too hot to pick at these corpses. Just a little while longer. The roaring fires will burn themselves out in their empty tanks.
They often arrive already dead. From what, I don’t know. Even dead machines can be used.
Silica grit and stardust waft in my wake as I trudge around the largest mech, kicking up the desert with every step. It's three times my size, titanium struts bared beneath the shredded ailerons, dripping ruby flame. Between the meteoric entry and the sandpaper landing, the paint is well and truly stripped, but I see some scarlet embossing in a cranny near the stern. That's where I'll go first, when I can stand the heat and the glass underfoot is solid enough to step on.
The dog barks, and I round a broken bow to see him gnawing on the next corpse. Small, not even burning, I know I can crack it open right now. There's a cable leaking pink caught between the dog's gnashing teeth, and I trip over myself to follow it upwards. The innards spill over sheared metal edges and I quest between them. Wires, tubing, gears as large as my eye—consolation prizes, perhaps.
A wheeze makes me pause. “H-h-he-hel-help—he-hel-help—” The poor thing’s vocoder is rattling in its setting just trying to spit out one word.
“Shh, hello,” I murmur. “I thought you were dead!”
With a twist I unlatch a crumpled section of the outer shell and find the loose connection of its voice box. A good thump elicits a squeal of agonized feedback, but now it can speak.
“Please,” it says, voice crowded with static. “Please. Help.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do what I can.” I pinch fuel lines, wipe away oil, and pick debris out of its chassis, alien metal contaminated with plain earth.
“It hurts.”
“I can see that!” I glance at the dog, now tugging on the leaking cable. Its sensors probably can’t feel that anymore.
There’s something sparking inside and I have to scrape away panels of circuitry to get at it. An unseated coupling spits electric arcs at my hand. If there’s still enough power to cause that, then…
“You will help me?”
“Yes, yes,” I soothe, flicking the coupling apart. The rattle-groan of unsteady metal covers the sound of something snapping while I dig deeper. Its face is lying there, caved into its chest cavity, blind optics wide—a better consolation prize.
“You will help?” Its withered antennae twitch. Its optics roll in pain.
“Yes—”
My fingers tiptoe across hallowed ground. The power core, still warm, hanging by a single plug.
“Yes, I’m helping.” I pop the plug out with a practiced motion. The now-corpse doesn’t twitch when I hoist the core up, satisfied.
This is the sort of prize I was hoping for.
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moonstrider9904 · 2 years
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Flora
Chapter 7 of The Hunt
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{crossposted to AO3} {join my taglist!} {crossposted to wattpad}
Wolffe x Fem!OC, some Comet x Fem!OC
Series summary: The 104th battalion’s new medic Rose comes into the scene dazzling everyone, ready for anything life as a battalion medic will ofer to her after having spent much too long secluded in a medical station orbiting Rishi. While she forms close friendships with the troopers, she and commander Wolffe never seem to get along. As arguments between them heat up, Wolffe is challenged to make Rose fall in love with him, a game that by no means will end well for either of them.
Chapter summary: Rose and Wolffe attempt to be as discreet as possible about their relationship (and fail in the process). The wolf pack are sent on a simple pick up mission on Balmorra that leaves the squad a vague warning.
Warnings/tags: Explicit 18+. SMUT. rough and soft smut, PiV unprotected (but please wear protection irl!), oral (female receiving), hair tugging, hot making out, floor sex, light breast and nipple play, canon-typical violence, mentions of injury and blood. Please let me know if I forgot to tag something!
Word count: 7.7k
Note: I know the hype for Kenobi is at its fullest right now!! So I'm just going to quietly cross-post the last chapter I've got of The Hunt so that it's now up to date on all my platforms before hopefully finally updating this baby sometime along the week. Thank you to everyone who has read or reread this, everyone who has commented, given feedback, you all mean the world to me! I'm finally getting excited again over the course of this story, I hope you'll all like it!
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People were beginning to notice.
Granted, despite the couple’s efforts, it was never really hard to miss. The commander, walking fully armored down a hall he didn’t use to cross before, never flanked by any of even his most trusted men. The medic walking down the same hall about fifteen minutes later. Her figure sneaking off one of the common rooms, squirming near the walls unconsciously as though she were being watched. But the most obvious factor was the lack of fighting. There was banter, but it was no longer the shameless feud of insults and growls that would linger between the two of them.
And yet, nobody ever said a word. It was common agreement within the wolf pack not to blow the cover of their relationship to the higher ups; it was common amongst all clones, as a matter of fact.
Since leaving Naboo, most of Rose’s encounters with Wolffe had been in the supply closet just outside of the barracks. The first few rotations, it had worked, taking up the time of their long voyage to the other quarter of the galaxy. But shortly after, more troops had begun to arrive, and the halls were more occupied and less safe for a quick fling. She’d grown close to that closet, but now, the medic was on her way to a storage compartment opposite to the barracks. Encountering very few faces on the way, she had the excuse of seeking medical supplies if anyone asked what she was doing. Eventually, Rose took a detour down the main hall and reached the thick gray door, perfect for isolating some of the sound, and she swiftly got in and closed the door, still facing it before looking inside the storage.
“Did anyone see you?” The commander’s voice had the filter of his helmet’s vocoder, which made Rose smirk instantly.
“No one at all, commander,” she said as she turned around to see him fully armored except for his belt, which he held beside him and let drop in a manner so seductive to her she felt her panties get soaked.
“Atta girl, bunny,” Wolffe purred as he removed his helmet, eyeing her with lust. “Get over here.”
Remaining faithful to the pet name he had for her, Rose hopped onto Wolffe’s arms and wrapped her legs around his torso with a little giggle. Wolffe chuckled seductively, pleased by her enthusiasm, as he sat down on one of the boxes in the storage room with her still in his arms and locked in a passionate kiss they both smiled and giggled through. Rose pulled bits of plastoid off, piece by piece, until his torso was just down to the shirt of his blacks. Wolffe removed Rose’s white uniform shirt, taking his kisses down her neck and to her cleavage, reveling in the warmth and softness of her chest. With a firm grip on her thighs, he lifted her up while she removed his codpiece with expertise.
After sliding his shirt off and freeing his erection from the confines of his blacks, Wolffe hungrily kissed Rose’s lips and went down her jawline and neck, tugging and fisting on her hair as he marked her as his yet again. Rose bit her lip to suppress the long moan that threatened to escape her as Wolffe suckled on her neck, whimpering softly as a result. Wolffe chuckled in response, his laughter morphing to a low, deep groan as Rose wrapped her fingers around his girth and pumped slowly, squeezing his member just enough to make the hairs on his body stand. Their kiss deepened too, their tongues brushing against one another, and at times, Wolffe would nibble on Rose’s lower lip just to hear what kind of noises she’d make—and how well she’d suppress them.
Despite his girl squeezing and rubbing on his cock, Wolffe could keep his composure fairly well, but he did want more. Slowly and with rhythm, he rocked his hips into her hand for more friction and felt as the liquid fire spread through his body. He ran his hands all over Rose’s figure, teasing at the edges of her bra before finally unclipping it and sliding it off her body. Wolffe was always mad for the way her hair fell down her skin, so delicate and sweet. After throwing her bra aside, Wolffe continued to explore every curve and dimple of her skin until his head rested on her shoulder when he could barely keep himself fully upright, body tingling and cock dripping precum as he reached the edge of his release. He needed to have more, both of them did, and he nearly became lost in the precipice of pleasure as his eyes went to the floor when he got an idea.
The storage room was considerably larger than the usual supply closet, and Wolffe secured Rose in his grip to take her down to the floor. Her breath hitched when her bare back touched the cool floor; Wolffe stuffed a box behind the door to keep anyone from coming in and went to lay on top of her, kissing her lips and soothing her body with his hands as he whispered tender praises to comfort her from the cold. Rose watched as his body loomed above her, his lips smirking and breath fanning over her as he pulled her pants and panties off of her. As her back got accustomed to the floor’s temperature, Rose smiled and cooed at Wolffe in excitement, arms wrapping around him and bringing him down for a loving kiss.
“I like this spot,” Rose purred.
“Me too,” Wolffe replied, his voice low and inviting as he bent down to kiss her again. While he did, his hands gently squeezed her breasts and softly pinched her nipples just the way he knew that she loved. Slowly, he let his hands travel down, teasing her with gradually letting his fingertips just barely hover close to her inner thighs. He reveled in every little noise Rose made, every time her breath hitched or panted at his touch. Wolffe loved feeling that she was entirely his.
Rose felt his cock throbbing up against the skin of her inner thigh, and her kissing became almost furious as she pulled Wolffe ever closer to her own body. Even after several times of having been intimate with him, Rose felt shocks go down her skin when his chest touched hers, more so whenever she could run her fingers and trace the elaborate wolf tattoo that covered his back, or over the lumps of the scars that were still prominent on his skin. She became distracted, however, when she felt Wolffe’s fingertips tracing her pussy lips before gliding fully over the wetness of her folds. A sweet, high-pitched moan escaped her as her eyes were flooded with plea, causing Wolffe to smirk into the kiss and back up to look at her.
She was splattered on the floor beneath him, her wavy black locks fanned out and framing her head. In the dim light of the storage room, it seemed as though ever one of her lines had softened. Somehow, she always looked so sweet when she was caged in Wolffe’s arms, so innocent and tender at her core, and every time he looked upon her like that, Wolffe just wanted to keep her there, shielded and immaculate, undeniably for him.
“Dammit, bunny…” Wolffe growled. “You’re beautiful…”
Rose blushed and her eyes traveled downwards as she bashfully averted her gaze. “You’re so romantic, commander.”
With another soft growl, Wolffe smirked as his fingers massaged Rose’s sensitive bundle of nerves, going from soft strokes to quick, accurate circles around her clit. Her head fell back on the floor and she grinned wide in lust, her breath deepening and chest heaving at his touch.
“You’re so wet, sweetheart,” Wolffe whispered before planting a tender kiss on her lips. “And you’re all mine.”
“I’m yours,” Rose echoed, kissing him back.
“What do you want me to do, bunny?”
Rose chuckled, trying her best to keep her voice as quiet as possible. She perked up slightly and let her lips hover over Wolffe’s ear, her breath sending chills down the commander’s skin.
“Surprise me,” she whispered.
Wolffe groaned softly in response, and he let his fingers work with more instinct over her folds. He rubbed from her entrance to her pearl, igniting flames wherever he traced. His precum began to leak onto her skin, girth already begging to be inside her. But he wanted Rose to squirm underneath him, he wanted to see her eyes rolling back as she desperately tried to keep in her moans, lest they’d both be found out and reprimanded for doing something so dirty in a storage room. The thought unconsciously made Wolffe growl, aroused only by the risk and by Rose trying to avoid it, and his finger traveled back down her pussy only to slide inside her and curl perfectly to stroke and massage her walls.
He could reach her most sensitive spots with ease. Stroking, pumping, or just barely grinding against it, he could feel the way Rose’s hips quivered as the heat pooled inside her body. In tiny, agitated whispers, Rose spoke his name and begged him not to stop fingering her; she’d begun grinding against him too, and desperate for pleasure, she took her hand to keep rubbing on her clit as Wolffe worked her inner walls.
Seeing her touching herself riled Wolffe up more than he ever imagined he could be in a storage room. His forehead rested on hers, gazing deeply into Rose’s eyes to see the way pleasure flooded her. Her breath hitched faster, her spare hand fisted his curls, and her whimpers, rid of any more control, announced to him how close she was to her climax. Wolffe smiled at her as he took in her beauty, the utter sweetness of the woman under him, mesmerized by how she’d gone from insufferable to irreplaceable.
Just before Rose came undone, Wolffe removed his finger from inside her earning a whine from the medic.
He chuckled. “Needy one, aren’t you, bunny?”
Rose whimpered in response, barely able to form coherent sentences at the pleasure, and before she rubbed her clit to orgasm, Wolffe stopped her from that too. She’d have whined again had it not been for the sight of Wolffe positioning his cock between her legs, rubbing the tip slowly from her clit and down to her entrance. Wolffe chuckled again at how sweet she looked when she was thirsty for him, and choosing not to torment her further, he slid himself into her walls and stretched them out granting her that sensation of fullness she longed for.
Again, Rose bit her lip in an effort to quiet herself down, only making her body quake at the pleasure of finally having Wolffe inside her. He began at a sensual pace, savoring every sensation, every movement, the warmth filling him and threatening to make him burst. His fingers clawed into her scalp, and thanks to the floor, he had more leverage to speed up and turn his luscious grinding gradually into a rougher fucking, until it finally became merciless pounding.
Rose’s body bounced with every time Wolffe jammed into her. Relentless, he growled out strings of curses in his mother tongue, relishing in the way her body felt, so warm and swollen and wet, and just so good. He always loved to hear her moan, but something about Rose suppressing her sounds only tipped him into bliss. It made him go faster, harder, with no more regard of the risks that lurked outside the storage room. He moaned her name out, growled out her nickname with a pure ecstasy of a man in love, and in his trance, he swiveled his hips with more speed than he knew he was capable of.
She remained looking into his eyes until her own rolled back just as she felt her walls tightening and clenching around his cock. Rose couldn’t help but to moan out Wolffe’s name, so sweetly and clearly that it sounded almost like a howl, and it only prompted the commander to move faster.
“Oh, bunny…” Wolffe grunted, taking the hand he fingered her with to her lips for her to suck on his middle finger before he growled again, inhumanly increasing his pace even more. Rose’s skin flustered and her eyes pooled with pressure begging to be let out, but in sucking Wolffe’s finger and tasting her arousal, she was able to remain quiet just for a moment before she couldn’t hold it in any longer, and a loud whine of Wolffe’s name escaped her, only to repeat it over and over.
Rose was the one to release first, wetness squirting with glee onto Wolffe’s skin and armor as she moaned freely with a mix of bliss and surprise, and right after that, Wolffe’s cum shot in delicious ropes into her walls and filled her to the brink, so much the hot white liquid leaked from inside her. Their bodies fell limp, only pushed upon by gravity itself as they rested on the floor. His head on the crook of her neck, Wolffe, gently traced featherlight patterns on Rose’s skin, smiling softly at the mess underneath them when he pulled out of her.
Rose panted, lips curving into a grin as she began to giggle and look into Wolffe’s eyes. “That was really dirty, commander. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Wolffe smirked back, his voice lowering into a seductive purr. “Woof.”
Rose laughed sweetly, charming every fiber of Wolffe’s body, and he hugged her to him and pressed a kiss onto her lips. Starting passionate, the kiss faded into something loving and genuine, soft as the petal of a rose. Wolffe held her in his arms, wishing for a moment he had a bed under them instead of the floor of the storage room, but even that sufficed if it only meant being by Rose’s side.
“You were pretty loud,” Wolffe whispered.
“Yeah…” Rose’s bashfulness was clear. “You think anyone heard?”
“It’s likely,” Wolffe chuckled. “But I don’t care.”
His lips traveled over to her cheek, her temple, her earlobes, pressing soft kisses on her as her gaze scanned the features of his face. His skin gleamed with sweat, emphasizing the expression lines around his eyes, those most prominent belonging to any sort of frown. Her dark brown eyes settled on the scar over his right eye and the grey-white mechanical eye that replaced his real one, and a pang of sadness hit her. It wasn’t long before Wolffe realized what she was looking at, and his hand wrapped softly around hers in a comforting gesture.
“How did it happen?” She asked him softly, distant and letting him know it was alright if he didn’t wish to answer.
However, as Wolffe looked her in the eyes, he realized just how much he trusted her.
“A Sith assassin named Ventress,” he said, his voice a low growl. “If it weren’t for my helmet, I’d have been a goner.”
Rose’s eyes softened with sympathy. “Were you scared?”
Wolffe looked up at the roof, evaluating his emotions even though the mere act of it was still foreign to him. “Not really. I was angry, mostly. Not in a vengeful way, but… I was just mad. Think I have been ever since.”
Rose tenderly traced her finger over the scar, not wanting to look as though she pitied him, but still extending her support to him. Wolffe watched her softly, feeling the touch of her fingertip over the scar that physically set him apart from his brothers, and when her fingertip was over his cheek, he softly took her hand and pressed kisses to her fingers and palm. Her big brown eyes looked into his, and wordlessly, their foreheads rested on one another for them to remain in silence with each other while time passed.
It was quiet, peaceful, warm; it was all either one of them wanted and needed.
Then, the silence was broken by Wolffe’s comm beeping. Rolling his eyes, Wolffe reached for the comm device under the heap of bits of plastoid on the ground and, placing a finger over his lips to tell Rose to keep silent, he answered it.
“Come in,” Wolffe said.
“Commander!” It was Sinker on the other end of the comm. “Listen, I know you’re off with Rose in some supply closet doing the dirty, but we need you both at the bridge. The briefing’s going to start soon.”
“I’ll be there,” Wolffe replied with his commander voice. “And if you gossip, you’re on cleanup duty for the rest of the cycle, got it?”
“Got it, sir,” Sinker replied with his sergeant voice in return. “Oh and… tell Rose to fix her lipstick. We can all tell when it’s been,” he cleared his throat, “smeared off.”
“Two cycles,” Wolffe threatened Sinker when he picked up on the mocking note of the sergeant’s voice while Rose blushed at the remark.
“Okay, okay,” Sinker chuckled. “Don’t be late.”
After that, he hung up. Wolffe got up and helped Rose back onto her feet, both of them dressing quietly and quick enough to be proud of.
“Shall I go out first?” Rose asked him.
Wolffe looked at her with a smooth smile, not quite able to explain the admiration he felt for her. “Sure. Head to the bridge for the briefing, I’ll meet you there.”
Rose walked up to him again and gave him a final peck on the lips before getting out of the storage room and making her way to the bridge. As she walked, she took out her tiny mirror and redid her lipstick, double checking it was perfect. While any Venator-class ship always seemed enormous to her, Rose found herself getting to the bridge fairly quickly, pleased to see the familiar grey armor of her division when she arrived. She averted her gaze from the front as she put her mirror away safely in her pack, and in that mere second, she stumbled onto someone. Apologizing with her signature charisma, Rose’s features dropped when she noticed the person she’d bumped into was Comet.
He had the same reaction. Rose and Comet had barely crossed gazes since they broke up, and as far as Rose knew, things were going well between him and… Gazelle, was it? Rose didn’t let herself care that much; it was her final defense mechanism.
“Hey,” Comet sighed, eyes bleeding insecurity.
“Hey,” Rose half-smiled, ready to walk past him. Just as she began stepping forward, Comet’s hand gently stopped her. It took all her might not to roll her eyes or sigh in utter dread, but there she was.
“I…” Comet began. “I heard you’re with Wolffe.”
“Did Sinker tell you?”
“No,” Comet replied. “No, Boost, actually.”
Rose nodded; it seemed Sinker wouldn’t be mopping for another cycle and a half.
“So?” Rose asked, her tone far gentler than the intention of the word itself.
“No, I just… I know we haven’t talked since that. I just don’t want there to be any hard feelings.”
Rose sighed, averting her gaze to a random point to the side. She remembered perfectly well what Comet had told her that night. That he still cared for her, that he still loved her.
“I’m really not at that point, Comet,” she said. “But I appreciate your intention.”
“Rose…”
“Look, if you don’t understand, just call Giselle and ask her how she’d feel if you told her you were leaving her for someone else,” Rose replied in a not-so-heavenly way. “She wouldn’t be happy, whether she’d drunkenly slept with someone or not. I at least regretted what I did.”
“You think I don’t regret breaking up with you? Rose, I felt terrible, but I had to do it. It was never gonna work.”
“Clearly,” Rose smiled poisonously. “Let’s just call it even.”
Of all things, Comet looked hurt. “I’m happy you’re with him. I really am. You’re better with him.”
Rose thought of all the things she could say for him, but only settled on thinking how much she hoped that was true if it meant he wouldn’t surprise her with any similar crap. But she couldn’t bring herself to say anything to Comet—she hadn’t stopped being angry at him, and seeing him still prickled the thorn into her skin that he’d left when he broke up with her. Instead, Rose just walked past Comet, not looking at him anymore. She wouldn’t burden herself with it.
As Rose approached the holoprojector in the center of the room, she noticed General Plo Koon stood behind it. It felt like ages since she’d last seen him, what with it not being uncommon for the wolf pack to take on missions without him as well as the long break they’d had on Naboo, but his presence was just as comforting to Rose as it had been when she joined the 104th. The troopers began lining around the holoprojector when the briefing was about to start, and just then, the door of the bridge opened to reveal the commander walking in with his regal, imposing aura around him.
“Are we all here now, then?” General Plo addressed Wolffe.
The commander removed his helmet and hugged it by his side; though his expression held his usual rough nature, Rose could notice the way his features briefly softened when he looked at the general now that she new him better, knowing Plo was clearly a father to him.
“Yes, sir,” Wolffe replied, authority reigning in his voice.
“Excellent,” said General Plo. “I am pleased to see that your time on Naboo has been beneficial to you all. This next mission will not be very difficult, in fact, the entirety of the division is not required.”
The general powered up the holoprojector which clearly displayed the image of the planet Balmorra as well as some of its stats, including how far away they currently were from said world and how long it would take to arrive.
“Balmorra is a Republic ally known for its diverse factories,” the general explained. “Commander Wolffe, you will have to take a small squad into the main durasteel foundry to receive the latest shipment of weaponry and bring it back to the ship; all details on location and shipment size will be on comm chatter for all of you to monitor. Once you have brought it to the Venator, the staff will take care of the rest.”
“How many troopers?” Wolffe questioned.
“About five, at most, including your medic,” Plo Koon then turned to Rose. “Respiratory infections due to fumes are not uncommon in such an environment, make sure you take the necessary supplies to treat any complications.”
“Yes, sir,” Rose nodded.
“One more thing,” General Plo now addressed the battalion in general. “Due to the nature of the place and the operations, the population is heavily intergalactic and the presence of multiple tongues may trouble you, which is why I have been instructed to send you alongside a protocol droid.”
Rose noticed as Sinker and Boost sucked air in through their teeth and, like twins, looked over at Wolffe in unison. She also heard various chuckles coming from some of the troopers around the briefing room, and her attention was brought to Wolffe as she could almost feel how hard it was for him to not roll his eyes in front of his general.
“Do we know which droid?” Wolffe brought himself to ask, his question making Boost blow a raspberry as the trooper tried and almost failed to hold in laughter.
“Yes, commander, it is the droid you are thinking of,” Plo Koon answered, a very subtle tinge of mischief decorating his voice. In the background, Sinker and Boost facepalmed, clearly dreading said droid, but it was more important to them how much they could laugh at Wolffe at the moment.
Meanwhile, Wolffe finally let himself roll his eyes, accepting his fate for the mission.
“The sooner we get it done, the better,” he stated.
Rose directed a confused look over at Sinker, who chuckled one last time before providing her the context.
“About a few months ago, we were assigned a mission with a very… peculiar protocol droid,” Sinker said.
“He drove all of us insane,” Boost continued.
“But specifically Wolffe,” Sinker finished. “If we hadn’t needed the droid for translation, I think he would have blown its head right off before it stepped off the ship.”
“Yeah, I’d never seen him roll his eyes that many times in one same day,” Corvis spoke up from the other side of the room. “And that’s saying something considering it’s Wolffe.”
“There was little I could do,” said Master Plo. “General Skywalker heavily recommended the droid. He has faith in it, of course, given he was the one who built C-3PO.”
The room fell silent; Wolffe’s gaze darted over to Master Plo with a blend of dismay and disbelief.
“General Skywalker built the droid?” Wolffe questioned.
Rose could almost hear the glass shattering inside Wolffe’s head. Master Plo nodded, a light chuckle escaping him.
“There go our chances of ever working with the 501st,” Sinker whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Yeah, Wolffe is never going to forgive General Skywalker for building C-3PO,” Boost whispered back with the same volume, clearly following along with Sinker’s game.
“Anyway,” Wolffe said. “Sinker, Boost, you’re on the squad. Corvis, you too. With Rose and I, it makes five. We ship out as soon as we jump out of hyperspace.”
“Yes, sir!” replied the troopers assigned to the op, all of them in unison.
“You are dismissed, then,” Plo Koon said.
No further instructions were given. Wolffe rounded up the squadron he’d take to Balmorra as the rest of the battalion left the bridge and awaited their own assignments. As Rose walked up to the group, her eyes instinctively found Wolffe’s, who were already looking at her as though he’d been watching her since the stars had been created. Her lips curved slightly, barely noticeable, as their gazes met, and for a moment, Rose began to wonder how much time they all had before reaching Balmorra.
Just like old times, Sinker nudged her arm and leaned beside her with a devious smirk.
“No, I don’t believe there’s time to sneak in a quickie,” he whispered at her with that smug look. “We’re already too close to Balmorra.”
Rose playfully punched him, though hard enough to make Sinker wheeze through his laughter. Still, the two were grinning as they laughed as silently as they could so as to not stir up the military environment, but Rose felt like it had been forever since she’d been on such terms with her squad. She was having an amazing time with Wolffe, but it felt nice to return to the old ways if only for just a bit.
“We should head to the hangar and be ready for our gunship to fly us to Balmorra upon arrival,” Wolffe stated.
“The sooner we get to the hangar, the more time we’ll spend with that droid,” Boost said through clenched teeth as memories of 3PO invaded his mind.
“I hate it more than you do, but they’re Plo’s orders,” Wolffe said as he began leading the squadron towards the hangar. “And now that we know Skywalker built him, it’s not as easy to shoot its head off.”
“Accidents happen,” Rose said from behind, a smirk tilting her lips.
Boost and Corvis whistled at Rose’s wit, always that charming quality that embellished all the others, and Wolffe looked over his shoulder with a smile only he could notice. It was just the type of remark he would have loathed coming from Rose, at least back in the days before he accepted she was everything to him.
“We’d have to plan really good for that type of accident,” Sinker commented as they walked down the last hall leading them to the hangar. “I mean, I’m confident in the wolf pack’s skills, but even we need to be careful with such a stunt…”
Sinker trailed off, and he alongside the rest of the squad ceased walking as soon as the door to the hangar opened and revealed to them the gunship they would travel to Balmorra on, and in front of them was the dreaded protocol droid who appeared way too golden, result of a recent polishing that it was showing off to any troopers who happened to be unlucky enough to wander by; those who were helmetless already looked pained.
“We won’t hear the end of it for the entire trip,” Corvis muttered.
“Not to mention a fancy polishing like that isn’t going to last in Balmorra’s industrial landscapes,” Rose added.
“Let’s just… let’s get this over with,” Wolffe grumbled as he put his helmet on.
The squadron of five walked up to the gunship, and it didn’t take the droid long to notice their presence. Lacking facial expressions, C-3PO giddily raised a hand and almost seemed to bounce upon landing sights on them.
“Commander Wolffe!” said the droid. “How very nice it is to see you again!”
Wordless, Wolffe merely stood before the droid.
“I do hope you are smiling beneath your helmet!” 3PO said.
“Right…” Wolffe hesitated, clearly doing anything but smiling.
“We will be at Balmorra soon, commander,” 3PO pledged. “I am most pleased to inform that you have my full cooperation. After all, I am fluent in over���”
“Yeah, yeah, you speak a lot of languages,” Wolffe cut the droid off.
“I am flattered you remember!” 3PO said with evident excitement. “Shall we review the briefing of the mission?”
Tension lingered in the air, and Rose was certain Wolffe was about to lose it. She swiftly stepped forward, positioning herself beside Wolffe, and she held her hands out in a friendly and welcoming manner to catch the droid’s attention.
“Actually, we have just been briefed, and we know you probably know this mission better than we do, so there’s no need for that!” She said happily. “How about you go take your place on the gunship? We have to ship out soon, and we don’t want to risk leaving you behind because we’re in a rush. You’re the most important asset in the mission.”
“Ah, at last, some appreciation!” C-3PO nodded and spoke kindly. “I am most grateful. Sometimes clones do not have the kindest of ways—did you know none of them have batted an eyelash to my polishing—”
“It’s wonderful, now go!” Rose swept him in the direction of the gunship. “We’re due to leave soon!”
“Will do, ma’am!” said C-3PO as he headed towards the gunship just as Rose had instructed, leaving the squadron with some long-awaited silence. Meanwhile, Rose turned around to look at the clones, a smug look on her face, while the three helmetless troopers looked at her with dropped jaws.
“We really needed a woman on the team,” Boost said, turning to Wolffe. “Didn’t we, commander?”
Wolffe shoved Boost just a bit more aggressively than other times, and the squadron remained peaceful while they waited for the venator to arrive at Balmorra.
*
“Doesn’t—”
“He ever—”
“Shut the hell up?”
Corvis, Sinker, and Boost respectively grumbled between gritted teeth as the never ending chatter from C-3PO plagued the ship. Rose smiled, her features scrunching as she forced her own laughter inside; she felt a gaze on her, Wolffe’s gaze, looming over her behind his visor, a gesture that tinted her cheeks pink. Sadly, any illusion created between her and Wolffe would be shattered for the moment due to the dragging of chatter that filled the gunship, mostly a one-man show from the droid.
“And then it appeared that the leader of the tribe had died—though how, I am not certain. R2 says it was my fault, but that cross-wired droid always blames me even though usually I am the one getting us out of trouble—”
Every trooper exchanged looks. All the clones donned their helmets now, but Rose didn’t need to see their faces to know just how miserable they all looked. 3PO’s monologue was loud enough to drown out the sounds of other conversation, especially aided by the vocoder of each helmet whenever the clones wanted to whisper amongst themselves.
“It would be a real pity if that stupid polishing got ruined, wouldn’t it?” Boost commented.
“A real pity indeed,” Sinker followed.
“Oh, gods, what are you two thinking?” Rose asked them.
“You were right, there’s a lot of ash and timber in industrial landscapes,” Boost said, his gaze hatefully on the droid.
“As long as it stays at that,” Rose warned.
Sinker and Boost nodded in unison, partly brushing off Rose’s concern as their only care was getting back at the innocent droid somehow. She rolled her eyes playfully, knowing better than to underestimate them, and just then, the engines’ whirring slowed down and they all felt the force of the ship on them as it landed for its doors to hiss open; the smell of molten metal and exhaust of oil filled the air, indicating they had finally arrived at the central industrial complex of Balmorra.
“We’ll need to walk about half a klick and make our way inside the factory,” Wolffe instructed. “Come on, let’s make it quick.”
As they all started walking, C-3PO’s concern became evident almost immediately.
“Is there not something we could do about all this ash in the air?” The droid asked.
“Oh, yeah, lemme ask the president of Balmorra if she can shut down all the factories,” Boost commented with sarcasm flooding his voice. He then turned to Corvis, grumbling under his breath. “Entitled much.”
“Droids, am I right?” Corvis grumbled in agreement.
“Droids,” Sinker echoed.
Meanwhile, as they treaded towards their destination, dust and ash began to settle on the plating of 3PO’s chassis, and the troopers chuckled at how it was already ruined—and how easy it would be to ruin it further. Sinker skipped forward a bit and positioned himself just behind 3PO and, with a gloved finger and featherlight touch, traced the silhouette of a large penis along the droid’s back, making Corvis and Boost laugh as quietly as they could.
Rose’s jaw dropped and she covered her mouth with her hand, only to glare at the boys in makeshift disappointment.
“You guys are such guys!” She whisper-yelled. “You really hate that droid?”
“Yes,” the three said in unison.
“Could you at least have drawn something else?” Rose whispered.
“Oh,” Sinker mocked her. “Don’t pretend you don’t like the D.”
“Baby, I love it, but I don’t want to see it drawn on a droid.” Rose raised her eyebrow at Sinker, challenging him further.
“What’s going on?” Wolffe’s voice spoke up from the front of the formation. “We’re almost there, I need you all on military-grade demeanor.”
“We just need to do a little something—3PO, look at me,” Rose made the droid turn around and pretended to wipe dust off his helm, its back now facing Wolffe and bringing the commander’s hand up to the top of his helmet at the sight of the drawing, probably wondering what he did to deserve the current course of events. Meanwhile, Corvis, Sinker, and Boost struggled to hold in laughter until they simply couldn’t anymore, and though Wolffe favored the idea of the dick drawn on 3PO and would have probably added a target and a shoot here sign somewhere else, he proceeded to erase the obscene drawing, simply claiming to be removing the ash from 3PO’s back.
“Thank you so much, commander,” even for a droid, 3PO seemed to display genuine gratitude.
“Keep it moving, shiny, we don’t wanna be late,” Sinker nudged the droid to make him walk again.
“I’d offer to carry you, but I can’t promise I won’t throw you at the nearest foundry,” Boost teased.
“Or nearest junkyard,” Sinker chuckled. “Spare parts and circuits always come in handy around here.”
“Children, can you please behave?” Rose glared at them, only making them laugh, but seeing how close they were to their destination, the three quieted down and regained their composure as Wolffe led the way in.
Inside, preparations for the Republic’s arrival had been thoroughly carried out. A few guards stood on the upper catwalks of the factory’s entry complex, and the manager in charge of supplying awaited along with two aides. Behind them was a cart already loaded with crates, big enough to fit at least twenty of them which each held about three dozen blasters.
The manager began speaking in its native tongue, foreign to all the troopers who had gone on the mission, and at least it didn’t render 3PO’s presence there in vain. The droid got to translating and the trade seemed to be going swiftly; as she stood there, Rose picked up on the burn in her throat result of the presence of gas and, she assumed, poor ventilation. If that was the condition in the trading dock, Rose didn’t want to imagine what it was like inside the factory. A gas like that was not only harmful to the people’s health, it also drastically raised risks of explosions.
Rose tapped on 3PO’s shoulder. “Hey, mind telling the manager to keep an eye on the gas levels in the factory’s atmosphere? It’s going to make all its employees ill sooner or later.”
After a light nod, 3PO proceeded to telling the manager as Rose had requested. In return, the manager seemed to scoff and have a defensive tone as he spoke, leaving for 3PO to translate with a tinge of hesitation in his voice.
“He says he appreciates your attempt at a contribution, but that he’s the one who knows about these things,” the droid spoke with remorse.
Rose rolled her eyes, knowing all too well what that type of man was like. Fine, she figured. If he didn’t care about his factory, it would be his loss somewhere down the road, but in the meantime, Rose shamelessly settled for taking a filtered mask from her pack for herself as well as an extra filter for the boys’ helmets.
As she searched her pack, she noticed subtle movement from just behind the wall outside, a figure lurking in the corner quickly seeking to hide. She could not have dreamt it up, and such a behavior was too odd for a factory setting like that one. She kept her gaze trailed in that direction, and soon enough, the figure popped up again only to hide once more upon seeing she was looking. Rose nudged Sinker for his attention, but in those mere seconds, the person who lurked behind the walls threw a single lighter into the factory.
The mere act of it seemed harmless, almost stupid, just a spiteful action from someone who didn’t know better. And then Rose inhaled, her filtered mask still not over her face, and she felt the gas fill her throat again.
And it made sense.
“Watch out!” She yelled, catching everybody’s attention to her direction.
Wolffe lunged forward and put himself between Rose and the lighter before it ignited. His first instinct was to punch the device away, getting it as far as possible from the gas-infested air. Wolffe’s fist made contact with it and changed its direction, but even that wasn’t enough, and the spark from the lighter caused an explosion that sent everyone flying back, primarily Wolffe, whose body crashed mercilessly onto the crates.
Rose knew she was yelling out his name, but the ringing in her ears prevented her from hearing it. She crawled on the floor, vision blurring, muscles straining as she looked up at Wolffe sitting on the ground. The entire front part of his armor was stained black with ash, damage which would have fallen straight onto Rose had Wolffe not shielded her from the blast. Knowing that, Rose forced herself to her feet, but stumbled over to Wolffe as best as she could if only to check he was okay.
“Rose!” The calling of her name was blurry to her ears, and it took her a long time realize someone had grabbed hold of her while a different pair of arms secured Wolffe onto the cart with crates and readied it to move out.
“Wait…” Rose mumbled. “I have to check on him…”
“She’s bleeding,” the muffled voice seemed clearer now. “She hit her head!”
“Get her on the cart with Wolffe and the droid, and get to the ship!”
“The target’s leaving!”
“It’s a goddamn spy!”
“Take them alive!”
She heard the sound of what she thought were stun blasts and a few more battle cries. Curses were yelled in Mando’a, orders were shouted, and in her hazy consciousness, Rose felt movement and the whirring of an engine beneath her, barely making out the figure of a trooper running beside the cart.
“Wolffe…” she mumbled again and tried shifting around the cart, unable to find him. She began panting when she couldn’t feel or see him, the hyperventilation making the edges of her vision darken and her head woozy and numb.
“Rose!” it was Sinker who yelled at her. “Rose, calm down, we’re almost there! He’s going to be fine!”
His name, however, kept leaving her lips as she frantically looked for him. Sinker knew she couldn’t keep that up for long. He pushed the cart for long enough for it to keep going without his strength and climbed onto it, rummaging around Rose’s pack to find a sedative and inject it into her arm to get her to sleep.
As her vision darkened fully, she barely recognized anything of what Sinker was telling her, but she sort of discerned an apology and the promise she’d be alright before finally falling asleep.
In her dreams, the flash of the explosion flooded her mind. Yells, battle cries, stun bolts, the feeling of going numb, the subtle prickle of a needle on the back of her head, Wolffe’s name whispered from her tongue, the smell of disinfectant. It felt like eternities when she finally darted her eyes open, the white distinctive light of a medical bay looming above her, staining her pride when she realized she was on a bed rather than helping someone else.
Her head ached and the presence of stitches on the back of her head alarmed her for a moment. She had a few scratches on her arms and legs, all of them topped by bacta patches that would help her heal faster. Whatever had happened, Rose at least found comfort in knowing she was safe now.
“Rose?”
All clones had the same voice, but she’d recognize his anywhere. Turning to her left, she saw Wolffe lying on the bed beside her, his body more covered in patches than hers was, skin moist after a full bath in bacta.
Frantically, Rose checked her vitals. As soon as she decided she was stable, Rose left her bed and went to sit at the edge of Wolffe’s, taking some of the equipment in one of her hands while the other one gently stroked his cheek.
“Wolffe, thank the gods you’re okay…” she whispered, scanning him for any other injuries.
Wolffe chuckled. “Rose, they already did all that.”
“Yeah, but I’m your medic,” she said. “I have to check on you.”
“Rose,” he spoke her name with a tender softness alien in his voice. “I’m fine. They put me in bacta for a whole night. I just need to rest. You have to get back to your bed.”
“You took a fucking blast to the face,” Rose said, her tone almost scolding Wolffe even though gratitude lined it in silver.
In his daze, Wolffe smiled at her. “I did it for you.”
“How many meds have they given you?” She asked him.
Wolffe chuckled again. “A lot.”
She calmed down and smiled at him, her eyes watering at the sight of seeing him hurt. Wolffe’s eyes were soft as he gazed upon her, and he took a bandaged hand up to lovingly cup her cheek. Rose leaned into his touch, the bandage feeling oddly soft against her skin.
“You saved my life,” she said.
Wolffe smiled slightly again, but said nothing. Their gazes were intense, holding within them an entire world of words, the feeling behind them unmistakable—and neither of them felt brave enough to speak it aloud. At that moment, both of them crippled and injured, it only mattered to them they were within the other’s touch. At last, Rose leaned down and kissed Wolffe’s lips softly. He tasted of the painkillers he’d been given, but it was still Wolffe’s taste. They kissed tenderly, each too afraid to do something that would hurt the other, and in the silent medical bay, only the sound of their heartbeat in unison glided in the air.
The doors opened with a hiss, followed by the sound of at least three different troopers clearing their throat.
“Good to see you’re both healthy enough to make out,” Sinker smiled, genuinely glad the two were okay.
With her cheeks tinged scarlet, Rose went back to her bed and sat as Sinker and Comet flanked her side, and the rest of the squadron surrounded the scene.
“What the hell happened?” Wolffe’s seriousness returned.
Boost sighed heavily as the mood of the med bay gradually came down. “We caught the culprit taking pictures of us. It was a spy.”
“Did they get away?” Rose asked.
“Yes, we… we tried to stop them but the explosions, the Balmorra guild ordering us to leave… it was a lot,” Corvis sighed.
Rose reached out a hand to comfort him, the gesture looked upon by Comet at her side.
“You saved my life and Wolffe’s,” Rose said. “Everything else will be sorted out in time. Do we know anything else about this person?”
“No,” Sinker said grimly. “We don’t know who they were, who they work for, or what they wanted.”
“So we wait,” Wolffe said lowly, confident the effects of such an odd attack would show up eventually.
“And so we wait,” Sinker sighed in agreement as everybody’s gazes got lost inside the med bay.
Too much mystery surrounded the simple mission that by no means should have gone wrong, and by the gods, not a single one of them liked it.
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Taglist: @zoeykallus @sageislostinspring @misogirl828 @dangerousstrawberrypie @salaminus @ladykatakuri @whore4rex
Link to join my taglist at the top of the post! Thank you so much for reading!
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petriform · 1 year
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my album "ultramarine" turned five years old yesterday. its name refers to the color of the photo that comprises its album art.
at the time i released this album, i hadn't released anything of significance that wasn't chiptune in about four years. the last such release was "brown plaid," the spiritual predecessor to this album.
("brown plaid" was also a december release, but don't worry - no anniversary posts for that one until next year, when it turns ten.)
that album was slow, personal, vulnerable. naturally, to my mind, this one Had™ to be slower, more personal, and more vulnerable in order to be "worth it." and that's okay, because i was in the space to do that.
see, within those four years since "brown plaid," i had:
begun to lean heavily into chiptunes for my live sets due to a number of factors, phasing out non-chiptune songs from my setlists
released two full-length chiptune albums ("veneer," "don't worry, you're great!")
gotten to do a lot of really cool stuff i would've never imagined as a result of said leaning into chiptunes
but the latter part of that period existed in overlap with an era of my life that i spent wounded and miserable. i was under an incredible amount of stress, staring into that feedback-looping void of capitalism being ready and willing to discard me. medical issues were popping up. the mental health care i had access to ranged from mediocre at best to abysmal at worst - for as long i had access to it at all, that is.
i wrote most of "don't worry, you're great!'' during this period as affirmations for myself because i desperately needed them, and i hoped that those songs could help others in that way. (some people have been kind enough to share with me that they really did, which i appreciate beyond measure.)
that same energy went into "ultramarine" - but instead of affirmation, it was for validation; validation of the more cynical feelings and experiences that weighed heavily upon me at the time. so to go back and release something like that was daunting because not only was it Not Chiptune at a time i'd come to be known for being Very Chiptune, more importantly, it felt like a betrayal of those who found something to connect with in the optimism of "don't worry, you're great!" i still kind of feel this way, to be honest. that's part of why i haven't gone back to celebrate this one very often. this was the first album for which i declined to press CDs, and i've never performed any of the songs live. hell, it's not even up on my youtube (fixing that soon).
but there's a lot in there that's special, i think. i go off-vocoder in almost every song, and it's easily my most vocal album in that manner. i mean, the first track is fully-acapella save for a sustained string chord! and having not followed it up, it's still very easily my most personal and vulnerable album. given the circumstances of the time, it might stay that way.
in retrospect, would i do some things differently? yeah. five years of music production experience later, the album sounds about five years of production experience worse. that's fine. i regret chickening out and revising the lyrics of songs like "precious" to be more optimistic than i truly felt. i didn't want people to worry about me. i guess it worked out.
anyway, i should stop before i go on too long. "ultramarine" is unique in my discography for a number of reasons, and it'll remain so (even with the spiritual sequel it's getting). five years out, i can say i'm glad i released it, despite everything.
listen to and download "ultramarine" for free / name-your-price here.
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thoraway125 · 2 years
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Tegan and Sara’s Instruments and etc
Fun fact they used Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds for the shaker in ‘Back In Your Head’
Tegan’s stuff
Guitars
Art & Lutherie Ami Cedar (black)
Epiphone Coronet
Fender Acoustic (gloss sunburst)
Fender Stratocaster
Gibson Blues King
Gibson G6128TCG Duo Jet 
Gibson Les Paul (goldtop)
Gibson Les Paul Junior
Gibson Les Paul Studio Gold Series
Gibson Maestro
Gibson Melody Maker Special
Gibson Joan Jett Signature Melody Maker (white, w/Zebra humbucker)
Gibson SG Junior 60’s 
Martin X Series LX1E Little Martin Acoustic
P-90
Martin 00 Acoustics
Seagull Acoustics
Vintage Gibson Melody Maker (natural Mahogany)
Yamaha APX-3M
Pedals- Upper Row: Boss NS-2, OD-3, LS-2, and TU-2. Lower row: Ibanez TS-9, Boss CE-2, MXR M-133 MicroAmp, Boss DD5 and a Zvex Fuzz Factory. 
Boss SD-1, RV-5. TR-2, DD-3, TU-2s
Keyboards
Alesia Micron
Angel AX-25N2 Glockenspiel
MalletKAT
MicroKORG Synthesizer/Vocoder
Clavia Nord Electro 273
Roland Juno-G
Sequential Circuits Prophet- 5
Sequential Circuits 2
Amps
Acme Lulu head into Dr. Z closed back 1/12-inch cab (miked with Heil PR30)
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Amps
Other
Dunlop Capos
Dunlop Nylon .73mm/.6mm picks
Couch Black Byloos
Gibson Masterbuilt Premium Phosphor Bronze Wound
Gibson Red Lightning Bolt strap
LP Shake-It Shakers
Ultra Feedback Buster
Victorian Strap
Sara’s stuff
Guitars
Art & Lutherie Ami Cedar (black)
Danelectro ’67 Dano Heaven Hawk Series (creme alligator)
Epiphone Les Paul
Fender Jaguar (olympic white finish) 1995
Fender Telecaster (sunburst)
Gibson Blues King
Gibson CJ165 (rosewood)
Gibson ES-335
Gibson Everly Brothers J-180 Acoustic 2005 (Chris Walla’s)
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
Gibson Les Paul Junior Special P-90 (satin cherry)
Gibson SG Junior 60’s
Gibson SJ-300
Gretsch Duo (jet black)
Gretsch G6131MY Malcolm Young Signature II (the yellow one)
Gretsch Malcolm Young (red)
Martin X Series LX1E Little Martin Acoustic
P-90? idk this might go with ^
Martin 000M Acoustics
Regal RC-1 Duolian Resonator (Nickel Plated Steel or 2003 Polychrome Grey)
Takamine EAN30C
Vintage 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline (black, w/Wide Range Humbuckers)
Pedals
Boss output selector; Liele input selector; Pro D2 stereo direct box; and Boss overdrive, chorus, reverb, delay and tuner out to amp.  Two DI’s, a dry DI signal. 
Keyboards
Alesia Micron
Angel AX-25N2 Glockenspiel
LP Shake-It Shakers
MalletKAT
MicroKORG Synthesizer/Vocoder
Clavia Nord Electro 273
Roland Juno-G
Sequential Circuits Prophet- 5
Sequential Circuits 2
Amps
Acme Lulu head into Dr. Z closed back 1/12-inch cab (miked with Heil PR30)
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Amps
Other
mac tower
Protools rack
D'Addario strings
Dunlop Tortex Standard Guitar Picks 0.06mm
Dunlop Acoustic Guitar Capo
Dunlop Capos
G7th 405 Capo
Gibson Masterbuilt Premium Phosphor Bronze Wound
LP Shake-It Shakers
Planet Waves Delrin .61mm picks
Other band members
Edward ‘Ted’ Gowans Guitars
1975 Fender Stratocaster 1965 RI Jazzmaster E1 Moog Fender American Deluxe Tele Fender Jaguar Gibson ES-335 (satin finish) G&L ASAT Gretsch Malcolm Young (red) Martin Acoustics
Pedals Boss tuner, Zvex Super Hard On, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Mosfet, Ibanez TS-9DX) Boss TU-2, LS-2, MXR Dyna Comp, Ernie Ball volume, Line 6 DL4, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, Z.Vex Super Hard-On, Line 6 DL4, and vintage chorus and delay 
Keyboards Nord Wave synthesizer
Amp Acme Varsity, AC10 Shaun Huberts Bass
Fender Jazz (natural finish, maple, mother-of-pearl block inlays) Fender Jazz (sunburst finish, tortoise-shell pickguard, rosewood)
Pedals Ampeg SVT Classic rig, SVT-CL bass head with an SVT- 810E bass enclosure. Taurus 3 Bass Pedals
Theremin Etherwave Plus
Amp Amp SVT-CL head into SVT-810E cab and Eden World Tour 800 Head into Eden 410XLT cab
Johnny Andrews Drums a Yamaha Kit
Mics Shure MS91 and Yamaha Subkick (bass), Shure Beta57 (snare top), Neumann KM184 (snare bottom/hi-hat), Shure Beta56 (rack tom), Shure Beta52 (floor tom), two Audio-Technica AT4033s (overhead)
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chkvedm · 4 months
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youtube
Leave a Like, - it helps with YouTube algorithm. Tap that Subscribe to stay up to date! Hit that notification bell to be part of my notification squad. Share it around if you enjoyed it. I support your feedback. Leave your thoughts in the comments. Also, I always appreciate when people submit their music. If you wish to send, send me an email. My eMail address is at the bottom 🔽
Just sharing & uploading my favorite tracks here on YouTube. Check out my Playlists, in which I categorize my channel's uploads.
Check out my selection of "Armada Music" label. From Armada Captivating, Armind, Armada Subjekt, Armada Record Box & Armada Trice. Really recommend Armada Night Radio (ANR), Armada Next & A State Of Trance (ASOT). Lots of great DJ's & Producers. A whole lot of great bangers all around.
Follow Me on: 🔹 Twitter: https://twitter.com/chikokevo_YT 🔹 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chikokevo 🔹 Tumblr: https://chikokevo-music.tumblr.com/
🔊🎵🎶 Tracklist:
Numb (Carola Remix) - Elderbrook [0:00]
Can't Be There (Extended Mix) - Kubi & Nickao [2:18]
Move For Me (Ekhoo Remix) - Kaskade & Deadmau5 [4:04]
Poison (Original Mix) - Paige & Nihil Young ft. Darla Jade [6:25]
Balamanca (Vintage Culture Remix) - Burns [9:40]
Higher State (Original Mix) - Shaun Frank [11:50]
No More (Original Mix) - Castnowski [13:17]
Ruh (After Hours Mix) - Taiki Nulight [13:50]
The Call (VIP Mix) - Valy Mo [14:57]
Take My Hand (Original Mix) - Diniz [16:11]
Pressure (Original Mix) - Kream [19:22]
Cold Heart (Dino Munaco Remix) - Elton John ft. Dua Lipa [20:24]
Close To You (Original Mix) - Constantin ft. Domino [21:12]
Ain't Nobody (Teddybear x ZADI Remix) - Felix Jaehn [22:43]
Symphony (Extended Mix) - Marcus Santoro & Roan Shenoyy [23:46]
Love Got You (Original Mix) - Röde [27:05]
Follow You Down (Zuffo Remix) - Her [28:47]
Watching (Extended Mix) - Vol2Cat ft. Milan Tavares & Lambi [32:25]
Innerbloom (Snouth VIP) - RÜFÜS DU SOL [35:08]
Burning Inside (Extended Mix) - GAWP [38:47]
Lafayette (Extended Mix) - Cassian [41:03]
Tethered (Original Mix) - Casmalia [42:31]
All I Need (Extended Mix) - Röde [47:09]
No Secrets (VOCOD REMIX) - Padé ft. Keeneng & Roxana [50:01]
Silenced (Extended Mix) - CamelPhat ft. Jem Cooke [52:33]
Aura (Original Mix)- Belcastro [55:07]
Deeper (Extended Mix) - Maurice Lessing [57:14]
Needed You Most (Extended Mix) - Citadelle ft. Dan Soleil [59:49]
TO OWNERS & COPYRIGHT HOLDERS: Background image has been found on the internet & considered to be public domain. If you have questions regarding visualizations, please feel free to address those to me. This channel is intended to promote songs, tracks as well as & inspire producers & DJ's. Absolutely NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. This CHANNEL CLAIMS NO RIGHTS OR OWNERSHIP over the contents posted. If you wish for a track to be removed, please let me know, so I can remove it from this feed immediately - [email protected] genre hashtags were selected from sources of Discogs, Traxsource, Beatport, iTunes or Amazon Music accordingly. No affiliate links in this video's description.
P.S. Pardon me for poor quality visuals… I have limited resources as it is, so I'm trying to make it as efficient & best looking as I can. Perhaps someday I'll reupload some old tracks into better ones with my new technology. Thank You all! You Like Night Dance Club Parties, Neon Lights Aesthetics, Alcohol & Dance Activities? Enjoying Huge Or Cool Dance Music Drops? 🔊🎶🎵
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audiokayness · 11 months
Audio
Idgo
Made with VCV Rack, MuMoPlat vocoder, feedback, Grainstorm, Bento, etc.
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Journal Week 2  Melody and Accompaniment
This week's presentation looked at Melody and Accompaniment, so we were introduced to terms like Hooks, Counter Melodies, Backing Vocals, Figures/Motifs, Sound World, and Drones and Pedals, there was also some debate about whether to use the word consonant or assonant. We then went over how to approach the assignment, and ways of detailing the presentation information. We then participated in a group activity where we were split up into 3 groups, the task at hand was to create a piece of music that featured some of the terms we were introduced to in the presentation, these were
Counter Melodies
Drone/Pedal
Hits
Stops
Backing figures
Figures/motifs in accompaniment
Our group's song went quite well, I know we used a drone, a stop, counter melodies by the girls singing, and maybe a motif. My drumming included an intro, an A beat that built into a B beat, and then back to the A beat to end the song.
We were then critiqued by the other students on our piece to see if they could spot the different parts/movements we added to our song.
Another part of the exercise was to do a critical analysis of the other group's songs, and then provide feedback on their performances. I didn't keep enough notes about the other performances, which I will make certain to do next week, but I do remember that their performances did include some of the concepts that were presented in the presentation, so melodies, backing vocals that had counter melodies, a stop, a drone and some hits, and think I can also remember a motif.
The last part of the class involved listening to a track and trying to recognise the different parts/movements of the song and itemise each term we had learnt from the day's class.
Here is my list for the song
Saturated Vocals - Vocoder/Autotune
Feels/sounds like a high school crush relationship
Childish lyrics
Basic Drums - straight, not many polyrythyms
Repeating Chorus
Part 2 - Introduction of Female vocal - Vocoder
Very repeating chorus
B Section - middle 8?
Mixed Vocal, lots of space
Big build into chorus - then
Keychange of chorus
Both Singing chorus Speeding up tempo at the End.
Now I know I'm meant to be using terms we have learnt about in class for these analyses, but I am still getting used to applying the terms, which I will pay more attention to next week.
END JOURNAL WEEK 2 MUSIC TECHNIQUES SMP014
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mandoposting · 1 year
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hey that andor show was pretty good
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person918x · 3 years
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Hey I was wondering if you have any tips for getting into making noise music? I don’t really know where to start and it’s kind of overwhelming lol
I'm by no means an expert, but to me the point of noise is "using technology in ways it wasn't meant to be used to get interesting sounds." My personal method tends to look like this:
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The trick is finding effects pedals that generate more interesting sounds than just "EEEEEEE" in this configuration. Phase/Flange/Echo are ok, but not very versatile. In my experience things like envelope filters, granulators, and ring modulators tend to generate interesting feedback sounds, but it depends on the individual piece of gear. Ideally, you want a few different sources of feedback that you can mix together. This can be accomplished with multiple mixers or by utilizing effects pedals that have multiple inputs and outputs to create feedback loops internally (vocoder pedals can be good for this purpose). If buying all this hardware is too expensive remember the central concept: getting things to generate interesting sounds in ways other than they were designed. There are ways to run some software effects plugins in feedback loops also, for example. When it comes to composing a noise song (track? composition?), try to think both about the shape of the song over time (its "horizontal" dimension) and the richness of the sound (its "vertical" dimension). For horizontal, standard song-structure ideas like "tension and release" apply. For vertical, you want to think about filling out the audio spectrum (low, medium, and high frequencies) or omitting specific ranges strategically.
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auntie-venom · 1 year
Text
Will of Fate
Chapter Three
Fandom: Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Story Rating: Explicit
Chapter Rating: Mature
Characters: Din Djarin x Original Female Character
Summary: There hasn’t been an unidentified spacecraft in the stratosphere of Arkadia in over two decades, let alone three in one day. Those skilled or mad enough to venture into the Chaos unguided were few and far between. That means no one has ever made it to Arkadia who wasn’t intending to be here.
Until today.
or
Din Djarin finds an unmapped planet filled with beings who have the same powers as the Child, but know nothing of the force or the Jedi.
Chapter Summary: Eziriel now has a concussed Mandalorian she has to get to safety and find out why he was even near enough to her planet to get here.
Word Count - 4,623
Chapter Warnings: Language
Will of Fate Masterlist
Read on Ao3
A/N: Sorry for the week-long delay, had a friend visiting and we went on adventures. I am considering posting a copy of this as a second POV reader fic for those who prefer it. Would that be wise?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. Feedback and critique is welcome, I am trying to get better. Reminder this is unbetaed. :) 
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Chapter three
The Mandalorian did end up sending the winch back down to Eziriel which eased her suspicions minutely and loosened the anxiety in her chest tremendously. She needs to know if he could be trusted and this was a minor assessment she put forth. She didn’t know if he threw the cable back down without a second thought or if he had noticed that the key to the speeder wasn’t in the ignition—it was definitely in her pocket—but she was thankful either way. She imagines he could have easily hot wired the speeder.
Her brief Infiltrator training had kicked in the moment she made contact with the unknown man. The responsibility to discover a person’s truest intentions in order to protect Arkadia was drilled into her head hard enough that she immediately casted her Will out. She is not nearly as skilled as others when it comes to using her Will to penetrate the mind, but she is able to glean emotions from others when she focuses. The problem was that his head injury is causing his emotions to jump in a disorientating way and her read on him is somewhat jumbled. He mostly cycled through panic, worry, and pain through the conversation she held with him on his ship, but he did have spikes in irritation from her verbal provocations which was a good sign.
Irritating a person of interest was her preferred tactic to elicit a truthful emotional response. It says a lot about a person when they don’t outwardly show their agitation or confront Eziriel’s vexing nature and it usually means they are presenting a facade to masquerade in some way. The Mandalorian not only physically reacted to her verbal jabs but he didn’t seem to hide his unease with her. She didn’t know if his authenticity could be truly trusted because it might be due to his injured state, but he did hold out an arm to ease her final ascent over the cliff’s edge which put a point in favor of trustworthy.
The man, like most adults, towers over her. He has a broad frame that displays his armor in a striking image. Each move he makes is self assured with no sign of second guessing. He keeps one hand resting on his belt while the silver armor gleams under the rain that pelts them both. The overall visage would be quite intimidating if she couldn’t feel the pain radiating off him.
After watching him scope his surroundings she activates her HolOmni to bring up a map of the local area. While showing him the projection she gives him a brief explanation that they were hundreds of miles away from civilization. She watches as his shoulders tightened and a resigned sigh left his vocoder at this information.
“I was staying there for the night and planned to head back to the capitol in the morning,” she says, pointing at the beaming light at the top of the beacon station that she previously exited in a rush. “You are welcome to join me.”
The T shaped visor of the helmet locks on her for a moment before dipping his head in agreement. He’s not much of a talker, it seems. It must be a Mandalorian thing because Rezzik also uses a silent demeanor when interacting with new people. She remembers when she was a child she asked him about why he was so quiet in public when he was a great storyteller at home; “People reveal who they are in silence,” he had said. She didn’t understand and hated the answer at the time, but that insight helped her misdirect authority figures who used that same silent tactic when she grew into mischievous adolescence. Knowing how the mind game worked before being forced to play it gave her an advantage that others did not.
The wind picks up and the storm rages a little stronger by the time she loaded him and tied his metal pod onto the back of the speeder. She feels the exhaustion of the being inside the pod and concludes they must be unconscious from how deep in sleep the mind is. There isn’t even the little spill of emotions from dreams most beings have when they sleep. Poor creature must have unwillingly gone under.
Glancing up at the Mandalorian she notices him holding himself very stiffly and he keeps correcting his head from swaying. She clocks this behavior and pulls up her visor so she could keep track of his vital signs while she drives. With a quick weighing of the pros and cons she sent a command into her HolOmni to have CHI sync her comm to the one in his helmet just in case they need to communicate on the ride. She didn’t want the man to fall off the speeder and injure himself further. Amarian would never let her live that down.
She kicks the speeder to life and makes sure to start off slowly so he can get used to the speed and balance. He grips the side handles tightly so she tries not to take turns too quickly. His head injury must be messing with him worse than she imagined and she makes a mental note to get the medkit to him immediately. About halfway there she notices his blood pressure dropping suddenly again and so she used the tactic that worked to stabilize him last time: annoyance.
“So my lovely Lori, you crash onto planets often or are we just lucky enough to get your handsome self?” She feels his larger frame jolt back into a firm stance and she watches as his blood pressure rises then stabilizes once again. She’d bet he had a hand on his blaster again, but didn’t look to verify her theory.
“How the hell are you in my helmet comms?” His unmodulated voice is a pleasantly low timbre. Through her earpiece she can hear the irritation in his voice and she feels his emotions match it. Still being authentic.
Good.
“Clever, remember?” She gives him a quick smirk over her shoulder and feels his irritation spike.
“Intrusive is more like it,” he grumbles back and she chuckles at him.
“Sorry Silver, I am bound to your safety,” she shrugs her shoulders, “and according to your vital signs it seemed like you were on the verge of going unconscious again. I had to keep you awake somehow.”
“And slicing into my helmet’s comms was your only way?” His voice seemed a little less slurred.
“It was the more fun option.” She smiles at the annoyance bleeding deeper into his emotions, “I mean, it also wasn’t exactly the most safeguarded.”
She hears a scoff that probably would go unnoticed if she weren’t directly in his comms. “What does that mean?” There is an air of offense in his reply.
“It means that anyone with a processor could get through that firewall if they had half a brain and an understanding of syntax patterns,” she verbally baits, and takes a turn a little harder than necessary hoping to keep him engaged and on his toes.
“I’ve never had a problem with my frequencies being hijacked before,” he states.
“Are you saying I am special?” She gives him a dramatized gasp, “You flatterer.” She smiles to herself at his heavy sigh as they pull up to the beacon station.
The door was still ajar and foliage and rain had made it into the entrance. She kicks as much of the mess back outside before dimming the interior lights in hopes to not make his concussive state more painful. She turns to invite the Mandalorian in and finds him right behind her and his helmet locked on her and the pod hovering next to him. She steps aside and gives a dramatic presentational bow to invite him in.
The ground floor of Ga’ladora Beacon Station is a cozy space. The main room has a small sofa that sits opposite of a round table. Along the back wall houses a small kitchenette and the storage cabinets of tools, emergency supplies, and the rations that were kept in all the stations. On one side of the room lay doors to a refresher and a small room with bunks while the other side is a staircase that ran along the wall that spiraled up to the top of the tower. Under the curved wall of the staircase lies the open utility door and the tangled mess of cables she left behind in a rush. She lets out a curse and rushes to deactivate the soldering iron that blackened the stone floor.
Glancing back she notices the Mandalorian standing just inside the entrance with the door still open. She reaches a hand in that direction and Wills the door closed, causing his shoulders to stiffen at the noise. She disregards him and peels off her drenched cloak, laying it on the back of a chair, and makes her way to the supply cache. Pulling out a medkit she gently sends it to the table with her Will before turning back to dig through the supplies for the kettle.
“I’m going to make some tea to go with these tasteless rations.” She pulls out the found kettle and turns to smile at him, “The fresher is through the door on the right if you want to use the medkit for your wounds. There should be some bacta injections for the head injury, and I can do some basic first aid if you need.”
He makes no movement from the entrance and she tilts her head at him curiously at the feeling of surprise coming from him. Her look seems to shake him out of his stupor and he grabs the medkit before disappearing to the refresher with that metal pod tailing him. She makes a face to herself at his behavior before setting up the kettle and pulling out rations.
While the kettle is brewing Eziriel takes a moment to fully go through what has happened this evening. The Cloak of Arkadia went down enough to allow undesignated ships into the planet’s airspace. She would guess that error had something to do with the odd signals she was receiving back in Helix from the south eastern beacon stations. It had been a three week journey to check all the stations in the quadrant and this was the last beacon station on her list. Every unit so far was fully functional upon her inspection and she was hoping to discover the source of the mystery readings here. Now that she was behind schedule she hoped she would get her answer tonight without losing too much sleep.
This malfunction was worrying enough as it is, but adding the possibility that the TIE fighter that got away could very well bring back more was disastrous.
“CHI-CHI, have Amarian send a drop team to the area the TIE fighter went down in. We don’t want any activated tracers bringing the Empire our way.” She gives a sigh at the thought before continuing, “We also need to make sure there aren’t any kriffing Imps on our planet from the wreck. It went down hard, but you never know.”
“Quite right,” CHI responds back from her HolOmni.
The kettle beeps and she goes to get mugs and tea bags while she tries to think about what to do about her new companion. She pulled a Mandalorian out of the wreckage of his own ship, bound herself to a man she doesn’t even know in order to gain his trust, and now she has to navigate the bureaucratic minefield of getting an unsanctioned person planetside when the person is already here. She’d rather spend three more weeks doing manual diagnostics scans on the beacon stations than have to play politics.
“King Amarian wants to know if he needs to send a real Infiltrator to interrogate the Mandalorian,” CHI’s bored voice fills the quiet space once more. She doubts that Amarian worded the offer quite like that.
“I’ll vet him, no worries.” She says with a shrug no one sees as she pours the boiling water into the mugs.
“Ahh, yes. The stamp of approval of a failed Infiltrator will pass screenings, surely,” they snark back, causing Ezirial to roll her eyes.
“Kindly, go suck some malware CHI,” she says as she drops a tea bag in each cup and turns around with both mugs in her hands to see the Mandalorian standing by the table. “Damn Silver, you are silent for a giant man of metal.”
“You were preoccupied.” He is giving her the opportunity to be honest about discussing him and she appreciates it over flinging accusations.
“Had to get a team to check out the TIE fighter wreckage. We don’t want any Imperial rubbish on this planet if we can help it.” She walks over and sets down the mugs and ration packs before sitting. “We have a very tight passage control on this planet. The fact that you are even here uninvited is a first, to my knowledge.”
She gestures to the food as an open invitation to sit and eat and he doesn’t move. She looks up at him in mild confusion at him just staring at her without doing anything. She reaches out and finds his emotions are less erratic, meaning his head is clearer and that bacta shot must have helped. He is giving off a solid stream of suspicion and curiosity.
“Uhhh, are you going to eat? Or–OH!” She interrupts herself with a memory of Rezzik explaining to her about Mandalorian how armor etiquette varied among the houses and clans. He grew up in House Jexum of Clan Borean that only wore helmets as a signal to inform others that they were in the presence of warriors, usually at training, war, or among enemies. Eziriel jokingly calls it “warrior mode” when she sees Rezzik with his helmet on which usually earns her a playful flick to the ear.
She gestures at the sleeping quarters and Wills the door to open with a groan.
“If you’d like, you can have your meal in there if you are from one of the clans who are persnickety about helmet removal.” She wiggles her fingers toward the door. “We can still talk if you want to keep the door open a smidge. You can even place this chair behind the door and sit on it to make sure I won’t barge in,” she says with a gentle smile.
He takes a moment to weigh his options before just sitting down at the table across from her and ignoring his meal. So that is a different level of trust that we are not at, got it, she thinks.
“So I need to be interrogated to be allowed to be on this planet?” he asks outright. She hums in affirmation into her mug.
“Typically.” She gives him a tired look before continuing, “Usually newcomers, like yourself, are sponsored by someone trusted and then we send agents to meet the newcomers offworld to do a few screenings. If they pass that then they are allowed to come here, but will have to tolerate drop-in screenings to make sure they can truly be trusted.”
“This planet wasn’t on any star charts I’ve seen, why all the secrecy? Where am I?” He props an arm on the table and leans his giant frame in almost like he is trying to intimidate her.
“Arkadia, ‘The Soul of the Galaxy’!” She spreads her hands in the air and wiggles her fingers in sarcastic exuberance and gives him a bright smile at the planetary slogan. After not getting a reaction from him she picks up her ration and continues, “This planet is deep in wild space and has been hidden to anyone who isn't our ally for thousands of years.”
“Why?” He asks.
Eziriel looks at him and casts her Will out once again to get a feel on him. There is a small hum of desire and confusion that usually correlates with curiosity. With no signs of maliciousness, she decides to be honest. She tells him a quick version of the planet’s history of being very rich with very rare elements of all types and how Arkadia was once a target of exploitation nearly a thousand years ago but was lucky enough to be able to hold off attacks and set up defenses which rulers used to lock the planet down for centuries after the attacks. She explains that after years of isolation, elected rulers of Arkadia opened the passage more with each generation until the fall of the Republic where they once again locked down; and how only recently with the destruction of the Empire were there talks about opening passage more once again.
She is finished with her rations and his tea is cold and over-steeped by the time she is done, but she keeps her focus on his emotions the entire time. Overloading information on a person is another one of her favorite tactics in getting an honest read. It’s harder to mask if you spike with emotion on a specific statement when someone is repeatedly hitting you with more and more information. His emotions stayed within the curious spectrum with nothing ever setting him off into another direction.
“Our secret keeps Arkadia alive. That’s why we are hidden.” She finishes before standing up to discard her rubbish.
“I understand,” he finally says almost gently through the vocabulator.
“Can I ask you some questions now?” She watches his shoulders tighten before nodding at her. “What’s a space like you doing in the wilds of man like this?” She asks with a smile hoping to break some of the serious tension. She can’t tell if the huff he makes is a sigh or chuckle but his shoulders loosen a little. She is enjoying the reactions from him, he seems a little wound up.
“Would you believe me if I said it was an accident?” His voice is deep and raspy, less stilted than earlier.
“My brother would say ‘there is no coincidence, only Fate’s Will’, but I find that mindset a little binary.” She moves over to the mass of cables she made a mess of, pulls out the glowrod to help her work in the dimly lit room and plugs her HolOmni’s scomp link in to restart her manual diagnostic scan.
“I was tagged by a TIE patrol squadron and I didn’t want to chance an uncalculated jump across unknown space so I cut through an asteroid field—”
“Wait,” she interrupts with wide eyes. “You flew through The Kusheri Asteroid Belt? Maker’s tits!” She whistles out an impressed tone before continuing, “It has odd gravity pockets caused by certain asteroids' electromagnetic fields. Our pilots usually wait until it passes before flying out and an offworlder just flew in on a whim.”
“Less of a whim, more a tactical desperation,” he says with the lightest tone she has heard from him so far as he crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. She unexpectedly falls into a full laugh at his witty explanation.
“Impressive, nonetheless,” she says to him as she digs out the datapad from the mess she left behind. She starts organizing the mess into piles of importance as her datapad gathers the readings from her HolOmni. He silently watches her as she murmurs to herself the list of things to check before starting her work. “So does the Empire have a bone to pick with Mandalorians or are you just special?”
There is a moment where the tension snaps back into the air. He lets the silence hang while she pretends a cable is more important to her than it actually is. She feels the rumble of anxiety in his emotions. He is special, but whether he is going to be truthful with her remains to be seen.
He remains silent.
“Right.” She nods at him. He is choosing to not lie to her but he also doesn’t want to give her the full truth. “Well, as long as The Cloak or Arkadia functions like it’s supposed to then you are safe here.” She turns back to get back to work before adding softly, “As far as I’m concerned, any enemy of the Empire is a friend to me.”
She asks a few more mundane questions that he answers honestly after she clarified that she has to ask these questions in order to clear him: Where did he grow up? Concordia. Makes sense after the purge, she thinks. Are you a part of a family, house, or clan? Clan Mudhorn. I’ll ask Rezzik if he knows them, she makes a note to herself. Any affiliations with other planetary system’s government? No. She smirks at his tone of disgust.
After pushing through some of the boring questions she lets the sounds of the storm fill the room once again as they both digest the information they’ve given each other. He watches her as she physically examines each cable, capacitor, fuse, and any other sort of connection before placing it back into the wall in a neat and orderly arrangement. She is over halfway through the mess when her datapad alerts her to the completed scan. She picks it up and she feels her stomach tighten as she reads.
That can’t be right.
“Everything alright?” His modulated voice breaks the silence.
“Someone hijacked my system,” she replies in an astonished voice before digging into the section of the hardware where the datapad claimed the problem was.
“Not a great feeling, huh?” There is a level of smugness in the gruff voice that would normally amuse her in any other situation, but her panic dulls the enjoyment.
“I think compromising a planet-wide defense system is a little more detrimental than me kriffing with your comms.”
She runs her hands along the supposed problematic snake of cables until she finds the anomaly that she can’t place. Under the casing of a batch of cables where wires input into a relay is an oblong device the size of her palm. There are no switches on the device, only two inputs and some lights along the side of the device that remain off due to her shifting The Cloak to emergency power.
She sees the wires that were input into the device had been stripped and spliced to fit into it. She carefully disconnects the wires and pulls the device free. She pops the casing at the seams to get a look into it. It’s well built with the circuit board having rudimentary soldering but organized overall and under one side of the shell is a manufacturing stamp.
Eziriel’s manufacturing stamp.
“What the bantha shit?” her voice cries out louder and higher than she expected.
This came from her lab. The lab that she was head of. The lab that only put out specific productions that she approved of. The thought of This is impossible is stuck in a loop in her head as her brain tries to catch up with this new information.
She breathes through the panic at seeing her designated stamp as she puts the device in her front overall’s pocket as she goes to repair the wiring to get the beacon back up on primary power. She did not approve of whatever this thing is and if it was the origin of the malfunction of The Cloak then this will be traced back to her. This is a problem.
The Mandalorian remains silent as she does the repairs, finishes her inspection, and checks her datapad’s scans all the while Eziriel mumbles to herself. By the time she gets all the tech back into the panel and has CHI switch back to primary power it’s well past midnight.
She turns around to see the figure still sitting in the chair and his helmet locked on her. He tilts his head in what she recognizes from Rezzik as a silent, but prodding, question. She walks over to the table setting the device down before dropping herself in the opposite seat and meets the black void of his visor.
“This device was trying to lower the planetary shields, which is how you got in.” She rubs her face in exasperation before continuing, “It has my seal of approval.”
“Which you didn’t give,” he surmises.
“Which I didn’t give,” she confirms and he bobs his head in acknowledgment.
She can’t do any digital forensics here, she doesn’t have the correct adapter for her HolOmni’s scomp link to have CHI read the circuit board and she tells the man as much.
Silence falls over them as she feels the wave of panic start to rise for her throat. She feels the spiraling thoughts begin to run amuck in her head. This is bad. This is treason. No one will believe it wasn’t you. You are going to be—
“C’mon Eziriel, get your shit together,” she interrupts her thoughts with a mumble to herself. She quickly catches the panicked sob that was making its way to her throat. She rubs at her wet eyes and breathes through the anxiety, before addressing the Mandalorian across from her. “Okay, I am going to focus on getting you safely to Helix and settled at home while I get your passage approval underway. You’re gonna be fine.” She says in a forced chipper tone and a strained smile not knowing if she was reassuring herself or the Mandalorian. Focus on what you can control.
“Is that your name?” He asks before clarifying, “Eziriel?”
“Wha—Oh! I’m so sorry! I’m Eziriel Kaita, an honor to save you from the wreckage of your ship,” she says with a dry smile and forced cheek before holding her hand out for a handshake. His helmet moves in a way that almost resembles an eye roll but he takes her hand in a firm shake.
“I allowed you to assist me in an evacuation,” he says as his leather covered hand retreats from hers and rests on the table.
“Of course,” she says with a tired chuckle. She waits a beat before asking, “And your name is?”
There is a stretch of silence that Eziriel is becoming familiar with. She waits patiently before he finally answers her.
“People call me Mando.” He crosses his arms and leans back in the chair.
“Mando as in short for Mandalorian?” She gives him a pinched look.
“Yes.”
“Is that your name though?”
“It’s what I’m known by,” he says with an exhausted tone and a shrug.
“Well that’s just lazy.” He gives her a questioning helmet tilt and she continues, “That people call you by what you are. Beings are more than their designation.”
“You’ve called me ‘Lori’ multiple times.”
“Yeah, but that was just to get a reaction from you.” She pouts a little when she realizes he isn’t going to give her his name. “Well, I’ll let you have the bunk room so you can feel comfortable and lock the door. Let me just grab a blanket and a pillow.”
She goes to get what she needs to sleep on the common space sofa while he stands up and gathers the rations she had given him earlier in the evening. He directs the floating pod into the room once she exits and gives her a nod at her melodic wish for sweet dreams.
Eziriel easily fits on the small sofa and turns the lights off once she hears the bunk room lock engage. In the darkness with the storm finally dying out she tries to think about finally coming home to Helix or the Mandalorian with the nice voice but the stomach dropping thought of The Cloak’s sabotage keeps sleep out of her reach.
<<  Chapter Two
Chapter Four >>
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lordabovehelpme · 3 years
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Home- Din Djarin x Reader
Request: hi! I love your pieces! Literally make my day! <33 Do you think you could do a din x reader based on the song "Home" by Bruno Major? I really think that it fits with what He would say to the reader! If not, totally cool! I LOVE YOU 🥺🤟
A/n: This is literally one of my favorite songs!!!! I hope this does it justice. I know it is kind of short, but I’ve been super busy. Anyway, thank you for requesting! Love you too!!! 
Summary: You comfort the mandalorian after the Crest is destroyed.
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“Okay, I just put the kid to bed, so we have the ship to ourselves.” Climbing up the ladder, you plop down in the passenger seat.
The mandalorian nods, but continues to stare straight out into the moving stars of hyperspace.
“You know, sometimes I still feel like there’s one of those scary ice spiders left on here. Like, it’s living in the walls, evily planning my murder. Its just sitting there, rubbing all eight of its hands together.” You shoot an apprehensive glare to the wall beside you.
“They do like dark spaces.”
“You’re not helping!”
He chuckles and turns to fully look at you. “I never said I would.”
Sticking your tongue out, you cross your arms and huff. “Don’t come crying to me when you wake up in a cocoon of spider web.”
“I don’t think I could go to you then.” His voice makes him seem unfazed and monotonous, but you just know he’s smirking under that tin can of a helmet.
“Your sarcasm is annoying.”
***
“Are you excited to go to the magic stone?”
Grogu squeals from where he sits on your lap. “Yeah, maybe you can find some friends! But you have to remember your dad and I, okay?” His little ears move up at the mention of the mandalorian.
“I’m landing.” His head turns back to look at you two.
“Okay, so you’re saying hang on tight or we all might die.” A smile breaks on your face as the warrior turns to look at you. His visor trained on your face, portraying his unamusement.
Giggling, you bite your lip. “Kidding, just kidding.”
***
You knew it was too good to be true. It seemed too simple, too easy. But now it seems too hard. Like it all is crumbling beneath your feet.
Hiding behind a rock, you try and muffle your whimpers to not alert the various storm troopers. It hurt, watching the dark figures taking the child away and into the sky. The Crest gone, the blast having thrown you backwards.
You don’t even want to think about what happened to your mandalorian.
“Are you okay, little one?”
Looking up you notice how another Mandalorian has their hand out towards you.
“Who are you?” Shifting away, your mind tries to find an escape route.
“I am not an enemy. Trust me.” He puts his hand out again and this time you take it.
After introducing himself and Fennec, he brings you over to the clearing above the rubble of your old home.
“Where is she?” Your mandalorian runs down the hill and immediately starts searching the rubble. “She was on the ship!”
More tears fall from your eyes as you watch the mandalorian stands in the middle of what was once his ship. A hand is held over your mouth and weak whimpers make it past your rough breathing.
You watch as he picks up the metal ball that Grogu had been so fond of. Before you can even register it, your legs are carrying you over to him and you throw yourself into his arms.
“Mando, I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine what you are feeling. The Crest was your home, your everything. I’m sorry I should have done something. I could have…” Your words fade away as your cries become harsher. Clutching onto his cloak, you just tuck yourself away into his shoulder.
He wraps his arms around you and pulls you in as close as he can. Soft cracks from his vocoder tell you that you are not alone in shedding tears. “You’re okay.”
You’re not sure if he meant you to hear it, but you nod. His hands move across your body, assuring himself that you’re not a figment of his imagination created from all the intense emotions.
“Mando, I’m so sorry. Your home…”
He shakes his head and slowly leans back away from you.
“Look at me.” One of his fingers lifts your chin, “It’s okay.”
Closing your eyes and shaking your head profusely you exclaim, “It’s not. It’s the one place you could feel safe and have security and now it’s gone.”
His visor tilts up, looking above your head in thought. Two silent minutes go by before he looks down at you again. “Wherever you are is where I call home.”
Your eyes peer up at him in confusion. “What?”
“Before I knew you, I wasn’t living. Sure I was alive but I had no purpose. I just went through the motions of life with no thought or care. But then I met you and my purpose became clear. I am alive to love you and keep you safe.”
Hiccups plague your body and tears fall quickly again.
“You and the kid mean everything to me. You’re my clan… my family.”
You can’t possibly find the words to say, so you just press your head against his helmet, knowing how intimate the action is.
One of his hands trials up and cups your cheek. “Please…” His voice cracks and his other hand squeezes your waist. “Never leave me. It’ll hurt too much.”
“Shhh,” Hushing him softly and wrapping your arms around his neck, you continue. “I promise. I’ll never leave you. I couldn’t even if I wanted too. You have my heart under lock and key.” Quietly, a small giggle falls from your lips.
The two of you just hold each other for a while. Both comforting and being comforted by one another. His cloak now wet with the mixture of your tears.
“Come on, we need to go get our son back.”
He nods against your head and pulls back. Letting you go from your arms, he once again picks up the small ball of beskar and takes the spear as well.
Grabbing your hand, he walks the two of you up the hill to where Fett and Fennec stand. Giving them a firm nod, he turns back to you and squeezes your hand, reassuring your doubts.
“Let’s do this.”
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I hope you liked it!!! 
As always, feedback is mega appreciated! 
Love you all so much, Lordy :) 
Masterlist
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forever-rogue · 3 years
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Step Into The Daylight - Part 11
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Summary: Cal Kestis offers some more insight into who your mysterious son is. 
A/N: Thank you guys for being so, so patient and still being excited for me to update. I feel like my Din muse has returned and I hope you enjoy! Taglists are open, and as always feedback is welcome! xx
Pairing: Din Djarin x Fem!Reader
Word Count: 5.6k
Warnings: spoilers for up to s2, e5
SERIES MASTERLIST
MANDALORIAN MASTERLIST
MAIN MASTERLIST
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"Oh," your heart fell as you looked down at the little one sitting on the floor and cooing happily. He looked between the between you and Din before turning his gaze back to Cal, and the figures behind "is there...do you know anything about him? I don't know how...I'm still learning how to properly wield the force and I can't..."
"Yes," he said  as he gently held out his hand to the little. You felt Din tense slightly at your side and gently put your hand on top of his, giving him a gentle squeeze, "come here, little one."
The child slowly clambered up, grabbing one of Cal's fingers and letting the Jedi pick him up. He cooed quietly as a wave of emotions splashed over Cal's face. You wondered if this was hard for him, if it reminded him of the mysterious Master Yoda, if it reminded him of the days before he, like so many others, lost everything. 
"We'll go," you offered quietly as you motioned for Din and the others to follow you, along with Jeele. Din stiffened at first but didn't question your judgment and then followed after you. 
You settled back down in the kitchen, the six of silent as you let a long huff of air.
“Where are my manners,” you shifted next to Din and studied each of the new figures in turn. There was another woman, older in appearance with warm, dark skin and a kind face, a younger woman covered in tattoo-like markings and white blonde hair, as well as a smaller figure that you recognized as a Latero. You offered them your name before turning to your Mandalorian, “this is Mando and I believe you’ve met Jeele already.”
“Cere Junda,” the older woman stuck out her hand and gave you and a firm handshake, “this is Merrin and Greeze. We work with Cal; you just be the mysterious Jedi.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever qualify to have that title,” you admitted, “not since the order is all but gone. But...you are. I can feel it - the force is strong with you.”
“It once was,” she confessed as a tight smile crossed her features, “but I no longer use it. Much as happened since the fall of the Order, and much of it I’d like to forget. The pull to the dark is too strong sometimes...I’m sure you must have felt it.”
You tensed as her words washed over and Din’s gaze shifted to you. You swallowed thickly as you realized that she was right; what you’d felt, especially in the crystal cave was strong, that call to chaos and violence, the pull to the dark. But you were strong enough to resist it then and you hoped to continue to be, “y-yes...I’ve felt it before.”
“It will get easier over time,” she promised, almost as if she could hear you fears and worries, but then again, you supposed she probably could, “Merrin is a Night Sister. You probably feel the energy from her too.”
“A Night Sister,” you said as the younger woman offered you a small smile, “from Dathomir? You use Magick, don’t you?”
“I do,” she agreed, “you are well versed in your histories aren’t you?” 
“I had a lot of time when I was studying by myself, I tried to learn a little about a lot, but I would not consider myself an expert by any means. Your people have been through much.”
“As have yours,” she reached across the table and gave your hand a gentle squeeze, “we’re survivors, we make due with what we have, and stick together.”
“Together is the only way we survive,” you agreed before you turned your attention to the last of Cal’s crew, “it’s nice to meet you too. Greeze?”
“At your service,” he sounded entirely neutral as he looked over the two of you, eyes lingering on the Mandalorian, “don’t see many of you anymore. What are you doing with a little Jedi? I thought Jedi were the enemies of the Mandalore?”
“It’s a long story,” you begin, thinking about the day you’d met your mysterious Mandalorian, sure that it was going to be the last day of your life. Little did you know that it would be the beginning of your entirely knew life, one will with more adventure, and love, than ever before. You turned to Din and offered him a small smile, sure that he was giving you the same one in return, “but to make it short, I had a bounty on my head, and he ended up saving me both from my injuries and capture, and the rest is history really.”
“Oh jeeze, another love story,” Greeze sighed jokingly as your cheeks turned warm, causing you to pointedly keep your gaze away from Din, although both of you now knew that’s exactly what it was, but so much more than that, “what is it with Jedi and forming attachments, I thought that wasn’t allowed.”
“It wasn’t,” Cere said sharply, “which is one of the many reasons the Jedi Order fell. I never quite did understand that part, I do...but it never made sense.”
“Good thing I’m not a Jedi then,” you said softly as the whole table laughed, “because I would have been doomed a long time ago.”
Din’s hand was on your thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze as he watched you closely, a rush of emotions coursing through his blood.
“Listen, Cal told us about your crystal. Which means it’s time construct your own lightsaber,” Cere explained as you sat up with excitement. You’d been through hell and back to get that crystal and you were going to build that saber no matter what, “we have materials for the hilt back on our ship, we’ll get it all out for you. When you’re ready, come find us and then you can build.”
“Thank you,” your breath caught in your throat as you stared at table and let out a long breath. 
“It’s a big step, and a right of passage,” Cere acknowledged, “take your time and find us once you’re sure.”
“I will,” you promised. The three of them stood up and started to head back to their own ship, with Jeele giving you a small nod and following them. It must have been a comfort to her as well to have other people who had experienced the same things around. They knew all the same heartbreak and loss. 
Once when they were gone and silence fell over the two of you again, you let out a long sigh, just as Din did the same.
"You don't think-"
"No," you promised, "I don't think Cal is going to do anything. We can trust him, I can sense it."
"Do you think we'll get answers...something? Maybe he can help train him," he started babbling as you reached up and put your hand on the cowl at his neck giving him a gentle, reassuring squeeze, "I don't know if...I’m not...”
"I know," you replied softly as you understood exactly what he was trying to say, "you know what we have to do. Whatever happens, we'll get through it. We're a family, Din and nothing is going to change that. You don't have to do this alone...I will be here with you every step of the way."
He remained silent for a few moments, and you could hear a few heavy, long exhales come through the vocoder of his helmet. You remained silent but put your head on his shoulder, watching as he put a hand on your thigh. You put your hand on top of his and he silently laced your fingers together.
In all honesty, you weren't prepared for what might be coming. You'd been waiting and looking for more information about the mysterious small child, your son, but now that you might be getting some answers it all felt...gut wrenching. You wanted to know more about him and how to help him for his sake as much as yours and Din's. But at the end of it all, his was Din's son, and yours. Parting with him... it would be...almost impossible, but if it was what needed to happen, then you would do it. You were sure it wouldn't be forever, something in your heart told you that at the end of the day, your family would always be together.
The silence was tense at first, stiff as you both tried to come to terms with things that might soon be happening. But it soon shifted into something much more bearable and comfortable. One of the many things that you loved about your ever blossoming relationship with the Mandalorian was how the two of you could easily read each other. You rested your head on his shoulder as his hand was firmly on your thigh.
"Din?"
"Yes, Mesh'la?" his voice was tired, bells, he was tired and exhausted but he kept going; because of you and your son.
"We're going to be okay," you promised him again, feeling the need to reassure both of you again, "just like I had to leave the two of you for a while, this might be the same. But look, we're back together. The force...it works how its supposed and I know we're going to be together always. I saw it..."
"A Mandalorian and a Jedi," he huffed lightly, "they would never have seen it coming."
"Times change as do all things," you agreed, "but we are neither. I'm just me and you're just you. Aliit."
"Aliit," he agreed. You could see him leaning ever so slightly towards the door as you laughed lightly, "do you think..."
"Let's go and check," you stood up and offered him your hand, which he took without hesitation. The two of you slowly padded down the hallway, remaining silent as you walked back into the hull.
You weren't sure what you were expecting, but it certainly wasn't the sight that met your eyes. On the floor, almost as unchanged as when you'd first, were Cal and your son, intently staring at each other. Din looked between the two of them before turning to you.
"They're communicating," you whispered softly, "they can understand each other's thoughts...its a skill you learn and improve over time...I'm afraid I'm not quite there yet."
"Thoughts," Din repeated as you nodded slowly. Almost as if on cue, Cal broke his gaze with the little one and turned to you.
"He wants me to tell you something," Cal as you approached the duo and sat down on the floor next to them with Din following suit. The little one turned me looked at both of excitedly, "his name. His name is Grogu."
“Grogu,” the name, gentle and soft, completely unexpected and yet perfectly fitting, caught in your throat. The tears that welled up in your eyes were immediate as you looked at the same green creature on the floor. After all this time, you finally knew his name. Grogu. He turned to, a little smile on his face as his ears perked up in excitement, “hi, my love.”
“Grogu,” Din repeated and the little one’s response was enough to make your heart melt. He cooed happily, nothing but happy little noises as he clambered to his feet and headed straight for Din. He stopped in front of his legs, holding his little arms up as he waiting for Din to pick him up. He hesitated for just a moment and you were positive you heard a small sniffle from under the helmet as DIn gently scooped him up in his arms before holding him tightly to his chest. It was silent for a moment as the two embraced each other before pulling apart as Din pressed the his helmet tenderly against his forehead, “Grogu.”
“Cal,” you reached over and back the child, no, Grogu’s back and gently rubbed it in a sign of reassurance, “can you tell us anything more about him?”
“I was able to get some more out of him,” he confessed, “but there’s a lot of...holes, dark spots, in his memory. Parts of his memory are almost blank; he spent a lot of time in hiding, in fear...he was alone and scared for a long time. He hid his powers, lost touch with them for years in order to survive. His ability to adapt and blend in led to his survival.”
“But he’s used them recently,” you raised an eyebrow as Grogu made a small sound.
“He feels safe,” Cal explained as Grogu appeared to nod, “he feels protected when he’s with both of you.”
“H-he does?” Din’s voice cracked as Grogu held onto one of his gloved fingers, “I’ve always wondered...”
“Yes,” Cal promised with a gentle smile of his own, “he’s formed a strong attachment to you, both of you. He thinks of you as parents.”
“We think of him as ours,” Din’s free arm found its way around your waist as you nodded, trying to take in and adsorb everything. That mean he understand you both, he knew just how much you loved him and how much you both cared. 
“Where was he before? Before he was found?” Cal’s face fell slightly at your question, an almost upset expression crossing his features, “Cal?”
“At the Jedi Temple on Coruscant,” he explained. Where your brother hand been. Where Cal had been. Before they lost everything, “he had several teachers over the years, but during the purge he was smuggled out and put into hiding. He was lucky...like me. We survived unlike so many of our brothers and sisters.”
“You both went through so much, Cal, but you survived, that’s the important part,” your voice was gentle as the ginger haired man closed his eyes and let out a long breath. You had no doubt that the memories still plagued him often; survivor’s guilt. You all had in one form or another, “but who saved him? Why just him? Not that I don’t love him, but what’s so special about him?”
“I don’t know,” Cal shook his head in defeat as he looked at Grogu with a sad little half smile, “he doesn’t remember...or he’s blocked it out.”
“Another piece we still need to figure out,” while you felt slightly defeated, you were happy in turn. You knew a little bit more about him and his origins, and if nothing else, you had a name and you knew that he loved you both as much as you loved him.
“The most important question is - what does the Empire want with him?” Din kept his voice down, although the frustration was evident as he held Grogu close to his chest. All the excitement of what had been going on had slowly worn him down and he was started to loose the fight against slumber, “there was a scientist, he was trying to do something to him, but I took him back before they could do anything further.”
“The Empire doesn’t exist anymore,” you reminded Din as the men sighed deeply in unison; if it wasn’t for the severity of the situation, you would have laughed. 
“The Empire still exists, it always has,” Cal offered as Din nodded, “under different names in different forms. Evil is always out there, and there’s been...stirrings about.”
“Of what?!”
“A new order,” Cal confessed quietly as you grimaced. None of that sounded good in the slightest, “but that’s just among many other things going on.”
“I...we’ve been tasked to bring him back to his people,” Din said as a look of realization crossed his features, “whether’s that his native people or the Jedi we don’t know.”
“There’s not many Jedi left,” Cal stated the obvious as you nodded, “especially not fulled trained Jedi like Jeele or Cere.”
“What about you, Cal?” you asked, knowing that Din was reluctant to do so. It would be hard on you both, but you knew what you had to do, “can you train him?”
“No,” he shook his head as you and exchanged a look of surprise with your Mandalorian, “his attachment to the two of you...it’s very strong. Emotional bonds by Jedi are forbidden for a reason-”
“Surely you can’t believe that.”
“We’ve all seen what an emotional attachment can lead to...it can lead to great things, but horrible, terrible ones as well,” he closed his eyes as his shoulders slumped forward, “Darth Vader was once a Jedi by the name of Anakin Skywalker. He was one of the most powerful Jedi of all time and yet we all know what happened with Darth Vader.”
You breath hitched in your throat as you thought back to all the horrors and atrocities that had plagued not just your childhood, but Din’s as well, and those of countless others, “what do we do then? How do we...”
“I don’t know,” he let his words linger in the air as he slowly leaned over and gently stroked Grogu’s soft ears. The little one was curled up in Din’s arms, the tiniest snores emanating from his mouth, “but I can’t take...I don’t want to set him down the wrong path.”
“Where do we go from here?” your question hung in the air as you exchanged a worried looked with Din. Part of your heart was elated that this meant you wouldn’t have to part ways with him just yet, but confused hung over in clouds as well. Despite all this time and effort, you were still no closer to figuring how the overarching mystery of it all, “if you won’t train him...”
“There is another place...Tython,” he perked up suddenly, “there’s a Jedi Temple there...it’s been long abandoned but has always had a strong connection, but if you take him there and he reaches out through the force, another Jedi somewhere might hear him and come.”
“If...”
“Like I said, there’s not many Jedi left,” he grimaced, “but someone might hear him. But it’s up to him, if he chooses to reach out. It’s his decision to make.”
“We’ll do it,” Din said quietly as he looked at his son sleeping in his arms, “if it could possibly help. Whatever it takes.”
“Yes,” you agreed, “we’re in this together.”
“I’m sure he’ll make the right decision,” Cal slowly rose to his feet, pausing as he studied the three of you. It reminded him of his own little found family, of Cere, or Merrin, or Greeze, and how no matter what, they were his family, “I think he’s already made his decision.”
"What do you mean?" you stood up and followed Cal as he walked towards the ramp to rejoin his own crew. Putting a hand on his arm, you gently stopped him, "what decision has he made?"
"You'll see," he promised quietly, casting a look back at the Mandalorian who was whispering gently to the small bundle, "I'm sorry I can't provide more answers, but I know you'll get them. But you - when you're ready, come and find us to build your saber. After that, I'm afraid our ways will have to part."
"Thank you, Cal Kestis," before you could stop yourself, you threw your arms around him and embraced him as though your life depended on it. He stiffened for a moment before responding in kind, "you've already given us so much."
He gave you a solemn nod, looking back at your Mandalorian before you, watching as your face softened, "may the force be with you."
"May the force be with you," you replied, closing the ramp back after he disappeared into the snow to keep the chill at bay.
You were silent for a moment, head practically spinning with everything going on, but one thing you for sure was that you loved your little family more than anything.
"Mesh'la?" Din tilted the helmet up at you, keeping your quiet gaze for a moment. You struggled to hold back tears as you slowly made your way over to your boys, "is everything okay?"
"I...umm...yes," not a position to even begin to try to explain your emotions, you held your hand and motioned for him to take it. Without hesitation, Din gently enveloped your hand with his and rose to his full height.
“I’m just...it’s a lot to take in. All of it.”
“Yes,” he commented gruffly, almost reminding you of the tone had adopted when you’d first met him. Your heart sank slightly at the thought and you hoped he wasn’t retreating into himself. Reaching up, you put your hand on the part of his neck that was covered in fabric and gave him a reassuring touch. 
“Let’s go and rest,” you whispered, feeling the gravitas start to weigh on you. Between everything that had happened in the last few days you were physically and mentally exhausted. The siren call of slumber was getting greater and greater with every passing second. Din seemed unsure for a moment but you weren’t going to let him pull away. You knew he was worried, maybe even terrified of what was to come, just as you were, but you wanted him to know that he was definitely not alone, “Din. I’ve got you, I promise. We’re a family, don’t forget that...please don’t shut us out.”
“I won’t,” it was a soft promise as he reached up and touched your cheek with his free hand, the other still holding tightly onto the little one. Keening into his touch, you exhaled slowly as he wiped away the single tray tear that had rolled down your cheek, “I won’t...”
“Come on,” you took his hand pulled him towards the small space that was deemed as your deemed, “the bed is small but we can make it work.”
And so he acquiesced, feeling calm and contented, almost as if he was glad to let someone else be in charge for once, glad to let be the follower instead of the leader. 
Once you were inside the small room, which made him look even more massive and broad, you reached for Grogu, taking care not to wake him up as you set in your bed, bundling him in blankets to keep him warm. He made a small sound, but quickly snuggled deeper into the blankets as your heart melted. 
Turning your attention back to Din, you reached for his arm, slowly, waiting for him to stop you if he so chose. 
But he didn’t. He made a small sound in the back of his throat as you worked to tenderly take off each piece of armor, starting with his boots. Setting each piece down gently, you didn’t stop until you were at his pauldrons, when you hesitated slightly. He was almost bare now, left in only his underclothes as he watched you work. Your breathing had become slow and methodical as you worked and you noticed that his had done the same 
Something palpable had shifted; you weren’t quite able to put your finger on it, but you could both sense it. Once the armor was stripped from his shoulders, you let your hands linger on them, offering him a reassuring squeeze before moving to pull away to switch off the lights so he could remove the helmet if he chose to. But before you could move, his hands went to your wrists and held your hands on his shoulders. 
“Din...” his name was soft but caught in your throat as you gazed into his visor. 
“I want...” he trailed off, a shaky exhale leaving the vocoder as you tried to pick his words carefully, “we’re family.”
“Yes,” you agreed with a gentle smile, “we are.”
“Y-you’re staying...right?”
“Always, Din,” you promised quickly, “always. We were meant to find each other, to be together. I love you more than anything.”
“I love you,” his heart settled a little bit as he spoke the words aloud, reaffirming himself that this was real, “and I want you to be my wife - my riduur.”
“Din...I...” you nodded, your words not needing to be spoken as you both understood loud and clear what you were saying. His hands were firm but gentle on yours as he slowly moved them closer and closer to his cowl and the metal exterior of his ever present helmet, “you don’t have to do this.”
“I know,” he rasped as you tried to keep your lips from trembling, “but I want to. You have never once asked, attempted to look, judged, or made a big deal out of it. If there is anyone in the galaxy that deserves this it’s you. The one I want to spend the rest of my days with. We found each other as hunter and prey, and look where we are now.”
“So different and yet utterly the same.”
“The first time you left,” he swallowed the lump in his throat as he tried to collect himself, “I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d never felt such a loss, such an emptiness before. I had to find you. But the second time...it was still hard, but it hurt less. I knew you’d be back, and we would be together again...”
“I felt the same way,” you confessed breathlessly, positive that your heart was about to burst out of your chest at his words, “it was the worst time of my life. Even once I’d accepted that you were gone, I still held onto hope that would we would be together again.”
“And now? I can’t imagine a day without you,” you sighed contentedly as you leaned forward and pressed your forehead against his beskar, “I will follow you to the ends of the galaxy, Mesh’la. You...you and Grogu are everything. You mean more to me than you will ever know.”
“Are you sure about this?” it was a mere whisper off your lips as it hung in the air for a few moments as Din weighed the gravitas of the moment. He inhaled deeply before nodding once. 
“I’ve never been more sure about anything in life than this,” his words were enough to make you melt on the spot as he slowly brought your hands to the side of his helmet. He didn’t remove his own, his large, warm hands covered your own as he slowly, painstakingly slowly, began to push it up. He halted for just one moment before whispered, “together.”
“Together,” you agreed as the helmet started to come up, higher and higher, inch by blissful inch. Out of habit, or instinct, or whatever you wanted to call it, you squeezed your eyes shut, not daring to sneak a peek. Once it was completely lifted from his head and he released your hands to set the helmet along with the rest of his armor. 
“Open your eyes, Mesh’la,” and gods did you almost choke as a strangled sound caught in your throat. His voice was warm and honeyed, that same baritone you’d heard before, but something was different about this. He reached up and touched your cheek, stroking it gently, “it’s okay...”
“Din,” it so damn soft that weren’t even sure that you’d said anything. And then slowly, little but little, you opened your eyes, blinking away the bleariness before finding him. And then you did it was like your heart stopped then and there as your world fell apartment and came back together all at once. 
Din. Din Djarin. Your love. Your soon to be riduur was starting at you with the softest expression you’d ever seen. 
He was a mixture of emotions, nervous, relieved, excited, overwhelmed, scared, happy. 
But then, as you reached up and found his face, studying him astutely, he realized what it was more than anything else. 
Loved. 
He was loved. So loved. And it radiated into every fiber of his being, golden like the sweetest daylight. 
“Hi,” you choked out as your tears welled up in your ears. He was so lovely, even lovelier than your vision made him out to be. Reaching up, you put your hands on either side of his face as you traced over his features, committing each little bit to memory. 
His lips, soft and plush, pulled in a little smile, completed with several days worth of stubble and a mustache that might have look silly on anyone else. His eyes, sweet and dark, crinkled slightly as his smile grew and a dimple of revealed. Those eyes that had seen such beauty and horror, so many things, and yet they still watched you like you were the only thing in the world that mattered. 
As you carded a hand through his dark curls, he made a sound of content as you scratched at his scalp. His was utterly beautiful, and while a small part of you wished you’d gotten to see this side of him earlier, you knew this was moment was perfect. 
“Hi,” he repeated as he waited for you to say something...anything else. Judging by your reaction, how still and soft you remained, he knew this was playing out just as it was meant to. 
“That vision had nothing on you,” you beamed at him, warming every part of him as he visibly relaxed, “you are...everything, Din. No matter what you think. “
“May I kiss you?” it was a timid, shy little question as you eagerly, wrapping your arms around his neck and breathing him in. He smelled as delicious as he always did, warm and musky, a comforting smell that both ensnared you and grounded in the same moment.
“You don’t have to ask,” his hands found your waist as he pulled you close and crashed his lips onto yours. It was proper this, for the first, and hopefully many more to come. His lips chased yours in a gentle manner, although there was a sense of urgency behind his kisses. 
Din pulled you against his body as you smiled against his lips, heart warming as you responded in kind. It wasn’t perfect by any means, a somewhat awkward, messy tangle of tongue and teeth as the two of you started to learn each other, in an entirely new way. But you wouldn’t have changed it any way at all. It was utterly perfect, and you knew then, just as you had before, that you were so in love with him. 
The force might have worked in mysterious ways, but this was destined to be. You knew that wherever the two of you where, whatever happened, your souls would always find their way back to each other. 
“I love you,” you grinned at him when you broke apart for a breath of air, foreheads pressed against each other. 
“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum,” you raised your eyebrows at his words, attempting to figure out what he meant. You knew it  was Mando’a, all of your time spent studying his culture had taught you that much, but it didn’t help with the translation. He laughed lightly at the confused expression, causing your mouth to form a small o. 
“What does that mean?”
“It’s similar to I love you,” he promised, “it more or less means I hold you in my heart forever. More or less I love you.”
“I love it,” you replied with a small grin, “and you. Will you teach me?”
“Teach you what?” he asked you took his hand and started pulling him towards the bed where the little one still slept soundly, completely unawares that two worlds were changing right next to him. 
“Mando’a,” you pulled back to the blankets and pointed at the bed, motioning for him to crawl under them. He was tired, his head spinning, and he was eager to take you up on that offer, “I’d like to learn, to be able to speak it with you...and one day, o-our son.”
“Cassian,” he remember as you nodded, feeling a flush of warmth enter your face at the sheer thought. You switched the light off and padded back over to him, watching as he scooted over to make room for you, leaving Grogu nestled in between the two of you, “are you warm enough?”
“Yes,” you made yourself comfortable, snuggling into the pillows and blankets as his arm found its around your waist, his longer legs tangled with yours, “perfect. I wouldn’t change this for anything.”
“Me neither,” he agreed as he felt his eyes start to get heavy with sleep. This moment was everything; the three of you together as one little family. Which, he now knew, was exactly what you always had been, even when neither of you knew it, “rest now, Mesh’la.”
“You too Din,” you grabbed his hand with yours and laced your fingers together, “promise me something?”
“Anything.”
“That isn’t a dream? This is all real.”
“It’s not a dream,” he reassured you, “this is all very real. And tomorrow we’ll still all be here.”
“Good,” you brought his hand to your lips as you kissed his knuckles, “good. I love you, Din.”
“I love you too, Mesh’la. Now and always.”
»»————- ♡ ————-««
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