Another Lil Slice

Im mad about no Crosshair this week. I’m also semi-sick. So y'all get a short little sick fic drabble (unbeta’d so typos lol) featuring sick Shadow and Crosshair!

I also feel bad (not really) about Ch 38 of OTRATTW so… Its a fluffy fic with their lovely banter! Enjoy!

Rating: Teen Warnings: Mild suggestive content, non-sexual partial-nudity. Words:  686

Taglist (open!):

@soundwavetherav, @mackstrut @haloangel391 @iwannaclonetrooper  @kamino-mermaid @the11tailedlovesclones @manda1orians  @h0tgluegun @shaddow-darkcloud​  @mangoberry99​, @a-lil-perspective, @the-silentium, @thegoodbatch, @peacefulwizardfox, @passionofthesith, @apathetic-catastrophie   @honeyray @leonidas-banana-phone  @pearlyarmor  @rose-of-chaos @bomboclaaty  @ahsokasleftbicep​ @thetrashbatch99​ @gjrain20-starwars​ @twitchstoleyourbagel @jessesriduur @s1st3r

Plo Koon after noticing how crappy the Trooper ID photos are in their files decides to organize a GAR-wide "Picture Day" like we had in school where uniforms had to be worm but you could add little touches like Boost walking in with a lil clip on bowtie or Tup with a pretty hair ribbon.

Plo proceeding to stand there, dip a comb in water, and give Wolffe a little comb over while he stands there grumbling before getting his photo taken

Someone else put on their most fly outfit but got a stain on it FIVE minutes before they went to take their picture (KIX)

Someone was mad confident about their ability to do their own hair… and uh, while their confidence adorable and appreciated, it is 100% misplaced (Boost)

So I've been thinking about this scene right here:

I always found it odd that Rex would mention Hevy in that list despite only knowing him for such a short amount of time. Especially when you think of Hardcase who we know has fought beside him for a long time or Tup who died right before Fives. That is until I remembered what happened in the episode Rookies when Rex goes:

And later in the episode we see this:

And then it shows Rex leaving first because "I'm always first."

And we all know how that episode ends.

Now move ahead to Plan of Dissent and what do we see?

Shadow for 50% of this Chapter:

Meanwhile, Crosshair:

Also, it’s a bit spoilery and won’t be published for a year or more, but have some reassurance that no matter now bad the angst gets, there is a happy ending:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12bLwk1v7Ec43ZFQL_B-Zelfvkv7egdy403qFVa4Tk6c/edit?usp=sharing

THESE CHAPTERS ARE KILLING ME IN THE BEST WAY.

THAT HUNTER SPICE.

I WAS

INCOHERENT.

IT’S SO SOFT YET STEAMY

IT’S PERFECT LIKE HOLY MOLY THAT DID SOMETHING TO A LADY.

AND THEN WE HAVE CROSSHAIR.

THE TONE SHIFT IS A++++ AS ALWAYS.

OKAY you always come for my feels with these Crosshair POVS and they are just super satisfying. I always look forward to where you’ll take him next. This chapter was a key shift in mindset for him.

Boom. And so Crosshair decides to trust.

He has clarity and assurance that he CAN. That he can trust Shadow—that he DOES.

Now he just needs to stop wallowing in his penance.

He is literally at his wits end here and he just wants peace of mind more than anything. It just breaks my heart. He’s so paranoid, over-analyzing everything and succumbing to the nasty voices in his head; you can just feel his turmoil and disarray radiating off him in heaps. He trusts Shadow but as you so skillfully said, he feels like he’s walking in thin ice. He’s too busy fretting over the prospect of messing up; it’s literally become an all-consuming train of thought. It’s like he’s got tunnel vision. With every single thing he does he wonders when he’ll fall out of Shadow’s good graces, wonders when she’ll finally leave him.

That’s no way to live. That’s a very stunted and lonely way.

So Crosshair trusts Shadow but that’s only half of the puzzle. He’s still got a long way to go. And I’m excited for the rest of the journey.

You mentioned in there how Crosshair hates physical contact, because physical contact to a sniper meant his position had been compromised—and WOW. That just hit me so damn hard. I never actually considered it like that. This was really really good Shadow, and it honestly makes complete sense. Snipers are not meant to be touched. They are always positioned far away, not in close-quarter fighting. So the parallels there were excellent.

Also when Shadow brought him his favorite part of the meat. The thoughtfulness there, and the way Crosshair slowly came to because of that was so sweet.

As always I love this and you so much. I’m very sorry to hear that things are so rough going for you. Take all the time you need and you know I’m always here.

———

Shadow Half Way Through the Chapter:

Tags:

WRECKER’S ENTIRE SEGMENT IN THE BEGINNING. PERFECTION. Anytime you do a Wrecker POV it’s utterly delightful. I loved the energy, his psychotic delight over the battle and overall exuberance felt VERY Wrecker. Loved that so so much.

OKAY THE CRAZED ROLLIE. LMAO I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT AT ALL BUT LET ME SAY I GOT A KICK OUT OF IT. The mental image it provided. XDD Now I actually need to see a Droideka just completely disregard its target and go slamming around into trees. XD

Also the vines. Miss Kiesha. XDD I always love the insertion of vines and the boys’ reactions to them lmao.

AND WILD BOARS. KARKING HELL.

I shouldn’t have found that funny but I did very much enjoy the murderous porkers throughout. XD

OKAY OKAY

*WHEEZE*

TECH.

TECH’S ENTIRE SEGMENT

WAS AMAZING.

AND I LOVED IT SO MUCH.

I seriously LOVE that Tech got his moment here. The crush admission and the events leading up to it were so gosh darn cute and honestly GOOD FOR HIM for taking initiative like that. XD

The whole thing was so very sweet and left me all warm and fuzzy. Tech depicting his crush as a bunch of symptoms. XD

This is one of my favorite parts. I really enjoyed getting to see Tech sift through his budding feelings; this part just delivered really well and had me feeling some sort of way. It was really profound. Like, babe is jealous and nervous and trying to navigate the strangeness of it all and I just love the entirety of this conversation here. Him being worried about making a fool out of himself in Shadow’s culture literally had me like🥺.

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT AND THAT LAST SEGMENT OF THE CHAP WAS EPIC.

BLOW THEM PORKERS TO HELL.

ENDORSEMENT FROM CROSSHAIR.

TPM:

Maul vs Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon: there's no indication that Obi-Wan leaned into the Dark Side here, or, rather, that Obi-Wan won because he leaned into the Dark Side. He wins after he calms down, even.

AotC:

Anakin vs Dooku: if Anakin tried to summon more power here, it sure didn't work.

RotS:

Anakin vs Dooku: Anakin does win this fight after getting visibly upset, but Anakin was also always meant to win this fight. This was a fixed encounter, and I hesitate to use it as weighty evidence.

Anakin vs Obi-Wan: if Anakin tried to summon more power here, it sure as shit didn't work.

ANH

Dark Side didn't keep Vader from being punted into space like a field goal

ESB:

I'm not sure what you could even suggest as potential line-toeing here. Ironically, neither Luke nor Vader achieves their objective on Bespin. If the Dark Side is a hax power-up, nobody used it here.

RotJ:

Luke vs Vader and Sidious: so here's the clearest case for a Dark Side power-up--Luke goes from getting bodied by Vader to just hammering him. A version of the script says this:

It does say "realizes he is using the dark side" right there! But it also says that Luke has grown much stronger since Bespin. I can agree that Luke drew on the dark, but I don't think his moment of superiority came solely from the dark side. I don't think this was a Super Saiyan level of magic power jump.

And Vader was not on his A-game, either; even Like can feel how conflicted he is, and Darth Vader absolutely does not want anyone to know he feels like that.

I also think it's worth pointing out that being able to pound Vader like that didn't actually save the day for Luke. If he had killed Vader right there and attempted to finish off Palpatine still in full loyalty to the Rebellion, he would have gotten fucked--as he does immediately after this scene, when Palpatine accepts his refusal and effortlessly fries him. It was not a case of "Luke could have won if he'd just taken a lil bit of dark side, as a treat".

tl;dr I don't the dark side is a powerlevel button. Sith are not powerful because they can throw chairs around harder than the Jedi ever could, they're powerful because they're willing to do that unethically. They all talk it up as hot shit because the entire arc of every Sith is someone who starts buying their own bullshit.

TPM: Obi-Wan uses anger and then is about to get killed (would have if Maul didn’t waste time gloating). He calms down, uses (and trusts) the Force to get himself out of the pit, grab the lightsaber, and defeat his enemy.

AOTC: Dooku gets defeated by Yoda. He has try to crush Obi-Wan and Anakin, while they’re defenseless, to distract Yoda so he can get away. Because Yoda is skilled with a lightsaber and is able to use the Force to not be hurt by lightning (which was awesome).

ROTS: Obi-Wan manages to win the battle against Anakin, and Palpatine fails to kill Yoda

ANH: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful then you can possibly imagine” and Obi-Wan becomes a ghost. Also, Luke uses the Force (probably as calmly as he could in that situation) and manages to blow up the Death Star.

ESB: Not really an example here, Luke was defeated because he wasn’t ready.

ROTJ: Yes, Luke beat Vader while he was angry (and it does seem he tasted the dark side), but he would’ve been killed had he done anything to Palpatine. Bringing Vader back to the light ends up being what defeats Palpatine and saves the galaxy.

The dark side seems able to grant someone some power at extremely high cost, with the person’s mental health going to shit and the people they care about getting hurt. Anakin trusts the dark side to save his wife, then he commits genocide and his wife dies, largely because of him. He isn’t even any more powerful either.

The light side has people work really hard to learn abilities. Yoda literally had to fight his own dark side in order to learn how to manifest himself after death. But the abilities actually work, they do get more powerful, and it doesn’t come at crazy high costs like being responsible for genocide.

note on my advice in the next paragraph: you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to. I’m not here to police how other people’s fics go. The advice is just something I think would help fics feel more Star Wars and more enjoyable for me to read.

The Stare, we all know the one: Fives, Dogma, Cody, Crosshair

The fake smile and “sweetie stop it please!” that tells you when you get home you will be scolded: Echo, Jesse, Bly, Waxer/Boil, Tech

“I don’t care if we are in Walmart BEHAVE NOW“: Rex, Tup, Wolffe

Whatever @bomboclaaty ’s mom does to handle her out of control daughter 💅: Kix

Are you kidding? His kids are scolding HIM for misbehaving: Hardcase, 99, Boost/Sinker, Wrecker

The Disaster first post

Maul Coffee Barist Diary Entry 1

Entry 2

Dear Diary…

It has been the longest week of my devastatingly tragic life here on this blasted planet.. Coruscant is becoming over run by troopers of the 501st as they are on planet for war… A few of these fellows seem to pop in once or twice a day for our pastries and to as Jessica puts it.. flirt… with us. One of them, a man they call Jesse, seems to have taken an extra special liking to me. The clueless fool..

In happier news… While in disguise in this disguise, Jessica and I wandered over to our rival coffee shops business to poke around and get ideas as to how we can pick up business and there he was, my brother Savage. He somehow managed to survive himself and also ended up in Coruscant, in disguise as well. I did not know what to say. He is alive and well, wearing a wig exactly like mine and… WORKING FOR the enemy! How dare he. Our triple espresso drinks are ten times better than theirs and affordable. Its unbelievable. I feel betrayed, heartbroken. He says I am missing the Big picture, that we are on Coruscant and can take on Darth Sidious once more but he does not understand I cannot just drop everything and plan. It is finals week next week and I am really enjoying my Intro to Galactic Policies class. Sandra (thats his disguise name, i scoff at the simplicity) will just have to keep our plans on hold until the semester is over. 

I must go, my flimsie little friend. Regina is coming over to assist me in polishing my horns and I must prepare refreshments. Until our next meeting

Didn’t get the PDF of Off to a Great Start out today but perhaps I can offer a fic of a different caliber. 

For those who know about that spoiler leak, you know exactly want this nightmare is about.

This is a short little self-indulgent comfort fic I wrote for myself, but maybe y’all can find some comfort in it as well. 

Content Warning: Spoiler leak mention, nightmare aftermath

Tags:

@soundwavetherav, @mackstrut @haloangel391 @iwannaclonetrooper  @kamino-mermaid @the11tailedlovesclones @manda1orians  @h0tgluegun @shaddow-darkcloud @mangoberry43, @a-lil-perspective, @the-silentium, @thegoodbatch, @peacefulwizardfox, @passionofthesith, @apathetic-catastrophie   @honeyray @leonidas-banana-phone  @pearlyarmor  @queenchaos-5 @bomboclaaty  @ahsokasleftbicep @thetrashbatch99

This is too precious and sweet.

I was very sniffly reading through. :’)

I love this so much. It’s so calming and comforting, which is exactly what you were going for so that delivered in every aspect of the word. I think this is the perfect antidote for us Crosshair folks right now. You have done a great service.

I love how he went into the water. It’s so profound. He doesn’t like the water. But he pushes through, for Shadow. And he does so gracefully. I’ve said time over again that Crosshair is a giving soul. He will give and contribute without thought. When he’s surrounded by people where devotion is mutual and he can fully apply himself, Crosshair can be the most selfless, reliable, loving person. I love how that is a recurring theme.

I love how reassuring he is too, so adamant, it’s almost like he’s telling us, you know? That everything’s okay, because that’s not him, and no matter what happens, whatever transpires, nothing can ever stave off the Crosshair we’ve forged and loved in our hearts all this time. That Crosshair will always have a special place; the dream, the vision, it belongs to us, and no one can ever take it away. This fic helped me realize that.

Lisa Frank everything crew: Fives, Hardcase, Cody, Wrecker

I live and breathe aeropostale, american eagle, and hollister fumes: Kix, Coric, Waxer/Boil, Crosshair

Horse Girl energy: Rex, Dogma, 99, Hunter

Anime is all that matters: Echo, Tup, Boost/Sinker, Tech