#clingy-ghost

[vicekings]

🎁 - Henry, of course!

[send me 🎁 and a character and ill describe them using images i already have saved]

[izzyovercoffee]

29. Surprises. I default to Eme/Mereel but also I would thrive with any ship.

I KNOW I’M MORE THAN A MONTH LATE BUT HERE IT IS

Prompt number: 29. “surprises” Fandom: Mass Effect, Republic Commando crossover Ship: Commander Emeline Shepard / Mereel Skirata Rating: PG words: 1100~ Warnings/Tags: none that I can tell, ask to tag if needed Summary: Twice he’s surprising, and once where he’s surprised. Notes: I really meant for this to be a short thing, but then it got away from me (as ... apparently everything I write tends to do lmao). I hope you like it, Eme/Mereel always holds a special place in my heart 😭💕

xxix. surprises

  He comes around the corner a touch too sharp and a hair too fast and he nearly collides with the Commander—or he would have, if he were a very different man, and she a very different woman. As it stands, she sidesteps him in a swerve to be remembered for the ages, and his steps falter as he's compelled to watch her go. 

He's been on the ship for only one day, but one day is more than enough time to field a first impression.   

*

  Training on the Normandy is a rote affair—but not for lack of trying to change things up. Space, and resources, and time—they're all desperately limited by need, and availability. The inevitable end of everything is coming, and unlike the Krogans—and the other expat Mandalorian refugees—everyone else seems to take that as a demotivator.

Right up until Mereel hashes together an Armax-Arena-friendly simulator out of pieces and parts everyone else swears shouldn't be able to work together. 

He catches a glimpse of a rare sight—Emeline Shepard's smile—and counts his lucky stars. 

Right before Vega blows a new hole through his holographic head, anyway.  

* 

  Night cycle on the ship is an interesting affair—different from the rotations in the galaxy he fled from. It’s a bitterness he usually keeps folded politely away, out of sight and out of mind of those who wouldn’t or couldn’t understand—and shares in the rare call to one of his vode. But here, in the dark recession of the Normandy’s mess hall, under warm if dim light to simulate nighttime, he holds a mug of behot in hand and scrolls through the feed as it updates periodically on his datapad. 

He isn’t as alert as he should be—hours of missed sleep and high anxiety does that to a man, no matter how jatnese be te jatnese he might be—so he doesn’t pick up the sounds of careful footsteps as she comes around the corner behind him. 

Mereel doesn’t jump, he doesn’t startle, he doesn’t even react—just tilts his head up in muted surprise as she places down a plate piled with cookies on the table in front of him. She takes another step to the side, and takes a seat to his right. 

It’s still dark, and the lights are still low, and the Mess is just as empty as it was before, with only one more person in it that wasn’t him, but the mood shifts in a way he can’t quite pin down. 

“I couldn’t sleep,” she says. She eyes the datapad beneath his graceful fingers sliding over its surface, settled flat on the table. Her brow arches as she looks back to him. “I’m guessing you can’t either.” 

He wants to say something clever. Uphold the charming, devil-may-care appearance he wears in the light. 

But he’s tired, and she just brought him cookies, unprompted—and she doesn’t, can’t, know what sweets means to him, specifically, but it’s… 

What can he do? 

“You know,” he says, in the way he does when he can’t be bothered with a segue into another topic bridged from the one before, as he taps the datapad to put it to sleep. He leans forward so his elbows meet the table, and his hand can raise to motion emptily at the ceiling, “where I come from, the lights don’t change on big ships between the day and night cycle.” 

There’s something in her gaze that says she’s equal parts annoyed as she is curious, which, really, is par for the course when anyone converses with him, so he’ll take that as approval. 

“Never noticed it was a thing could be done,” he continues, “until I got here.” 

“Here, the Milkyway, or here, the Normandy?” 

He smiles at her, soft, as he reaches for a cookie. It doesn’t quite crumble in his hand, but it flakes and comes apart if he holds it too hard. The crumbs gather on his fingertips as he tucks it away between his teeth, and chews silently beneath the dim light. 

It goes well with the behot, which is a surprise all on its own. 

“Me and my brothers,” he says, “are a very expensive, very high quality product. And, generally, most don’t quite care to concern themselves with the emotional state of an object.” 

There it was. That bitterness that had settled in his heart. The sharp bite of anger he couldn’t quite contain, though he could easily redirect it, now, to and fro. 

“Who do I have to kill to correct that?” she asks, and his brows jump high on his head. 

It appears she has as much difficulty as him to control her anger when she’s sleep deprived. 

He smiles wider, suddenly fond of this mysterious Commander and her wayward cookies, and her style. But, of course, it was her style that brought him here to begin with, wasn’t it?

“Careful, Commander.” His tone flirts warm as he takes a sip of behot to clear his throat. “Get anymore heated, and I’ll wonder if this is less about justice and more about impressing me.” 

“Please,” she snorts as she leans back in her chair, casual and arrogant and altogether put together in the way he didn’t feel so late in the day. “You’re already impressed.”

He laughs, then—warm, delighted, and echoing in his surprise; and so, so careful not to be too loud and risk waking anyone within earshot. 

“I am easy to please,” he says, when he really meant to say impress, but the way she stares at him across the table makes him forget to correct himself. 

He reaches for another cookie.

“Mereel—”

“They’re long gone, Emeline.” He taps the cookie against the mug that holds his herbal tea, and watches the crumbs fall to the saucer it rests upon. “And if not dead then far, far away—and soon to be.” 

He lifts the cookie to his mouth and takes another bite. It crumbles, and parts fall onto the table, but he figures he’ll just clean it up later. The sugary sweetness is an immediate comfort, soothing and healing all in one.

And then she reaches across the table, and gently grasps his chin in her hand. He holds still as her thumb comes up, and swipes away the crumbs caught on his lower lip. 

“Good,” she says, low, and oh. His heart dances in his chest. 

They’re both tired—sleep deprived—and she’d given him plenty of space in the week, but now he finds himself caught in her orbit, unable and unwilling to pull away. 

He gently kisses the pad of her thumb just as she pulls away. 

“Don’t tease me,” he says. 

“You like to be teased.” Her eyes twinkle with amusement in the dark. She stands up, deliberately slow, and he doesn’t look away. “Enjoy your cookies.” 

“I think I will,” he says, as he watches her go. 

She rounds the corner, and out of sight—taking the long way to leave—and he takes a steadying breath. Heart still rattling awake in his chest, he rolls his head back and closes his eyes. 

Now how is he going to fall asleep, after that?

[whosthewhatnow]

HAPPY WEEKEND! FRIDAY FOLLOWER SHOUT OUT:

clingy-ghost

bobthewonderllama

inkrose86

[coyoteprince]

35 and 43 for any of your characters.

*feat. deg’s two friends Rowan and Morley who always give him shit(deg) “ How does your character behave around people they like? “He tries to hide his feelings but he’s very quick to like people, monster and human alike. He’ll often give them a lot of random fae gifts (so many goddamn apples or rocks) and show high curiosity by quietly trying to examine them, which can appear weird or creepy if you’re not used to it. He’ll also do the cat thing where he’ll follow them into a different room, from a distance, because he wants to be near them but not exactly initiate any direct communication/activity. If you call him out on any of it he’ll get flustered but he won’t be able to lie.

(waite) “ Has your character ever had a dependent figure who was not related to them? “pre-mortem, nothing beyond a pet! He has had a couple dogs and cats in the past, which he loved very much and was very dedicated to. The last pet he had he ended up rehoming after he realized death wanted his ass.post-mortem, he joins Deg in looking after misplaced fae and ghosts until they can stand on their own feet. Deg is nervous about showing blatant affection outside of his husband so Waite often takes on the more upbeat, loving demeanor to counteract Deg’s colder appearance. Ghost dad.....

[oldtestleper]

25. senseless

It was dark, and Kharro was running.

Distantly she knew that she was not running be’hira tog, as an animal of civilization, as a man. It was dark, and she was running on her hands. Her lekku dragged across the ground as she ran in the manner of the ancestral Togruta species had run ten million years ago with claws and scales and a short brutish snout full of sharp teeth, the plains predator whose hearing-tails had laid against the ground to seek the vibrations of the small  burrowing mammals it hunted, whose montrals had been small and neat and allowed them to hunt even on the deepest of moonless nights, who had run on four legs in an endless grassland.

This place was no grassland, but this was the darkest of nights.

Kharro ran on her hands, and her lekku dragged beneath her chest, and she heard a great whispering sigh all around her, and she was bounding over the uneven earth, long dunes of a pure and solid darkness that rose and fell together. She could see nothing. She could only feel the rippled earth dip and sway beneath her feet, could only hear the sighing rush of wind, nothing around her but darkness. It was a ribcage.

Suddenly she was afraid, where she had not been before. She was running on her hands through the ribs of a great beast, a beast which had swallowed her whole, which consumed her perfectly.

Oh god, she thought, and the wind fell away. She ran harder, the rise and fall of the dune-ribs silent now, her breath in her own chest silent. Her only thought was escape, and to escape she had to keep running. The ground rose and fell, and then it fell and fell as if into a trough, as a starfighter falls when the engines die, and then the ground was gone as well. Still she ran, her clawed hands digging into nothing, propelling her forward into nowhere. Around her was gone, and was instead only the pure and unwavering black. Then even the dark was gone and Kharro fell into an endless primordial nothing, void of light and sound and touch and also of the absence of those things. It was unimaginable. It was unbearable. If it were a place where anything could be Kharro would have been afraid that she was going to die.

Then there was something—there was a light. It was small and cold and very far away, but Kharro ran for it, reached for it and realized that it was no larger than her thumb and as sharp and hard as a piece of broken glass. 

She seized the light and and it cut deeply into her hand, and she gasped in pain, and woke up.

[jacensolodjo]

@clingy-ghost replied to your post: Picture it: recently graduated clone troopers en...

I WAS SURVIVING THIS DAY WITHOUT O66 FEELINGS BC I CANT WATCH IT. NOW THIS. HOW RUDE. THAT THUD? MY HEART SQUELCHING TO THE FLOOR. B(

If you think that’s bad u should check the posts i made today that led up to that one. To say nothing of the posts yesterday. My job is done. 

[thesummerstorms]

Soft Headcanon meme with: Etain or Koa.

Etain:

what they smell like

caf, antiseptic soap and military detergent, blaster polish, eventually a faint/fresh citrus-and-floral perfume, occasionally a more berry-scented shampoo when she’s actually buying things for herself

what their favorite smells in the world are

Citrus, sea breezes, fresh caf, mint, very "clean" and simple scents in general. Nothing too sweet though.

what pajamas they wear/what they wear to sleep in

I still haven’t figured out what Jedi sleep in, but outside of that, I think Etain tends towards sleep shirts, or sometimes if no one potentially embarrassing is around, just one of Dar’s shirts a too-big t-shirt or her tank top and her underwear. Some of her sleep shirts have tiny marine animal patterns.

my favorite ship (if applicable) and a cute hc about them

Dar and Etain both save each other’s letters for, like, years after the war. They’re mostly sickly sweet yearning, but also just embarrassing enough to hide from the kids. They both save/hide theirs separately, without really talking about it, even though they both know the other is doing it.

my favorite friendship (if applicable) and a cute hc about them

Mereel keeps sending Etain tacky aquarium tourist mugs shaped like various fish and animals and at this point Darman is at a loss for where to put them. He also just... frequently lets himself in, so they find him at 2 am on the couch nursing a black eye and eating leftovers of whatever Darman cooked for dinner.

a song that reminds me of them

*puts massive ass playlist on shuffle* Under Stars by Aurora

what animal i think they would be if they were an animal

Listen, I don’t actually have cats for a real life comparison, but the jokes about Etain being a house cat who is Way Too Brave for a house cat continue to crack me up. I made her SW!Daemon a sea mouse though.

what position they sleep in

Alone she sleeps on her stomach or curled on her side around a pillow. 

In bed with a partner she's cuddly although she doesn't care if she's the small or big spoon, and actually enjoys being in the middle of there's an opportunity. Not infrequently uses partners as a pillow.

their favorite drink

Caf with a hint of cream, but shig and gatalentan tea are tied for second

a gift i would give them if i could

A book with all the people who have ever liked her and all the things they have ever said about her being competent or loved. Because God damn.

Koa:

what they smell like

typically earth/soil at least a little bit- as a kid she’s the one who likes helping Dar with the hydroponics, a task Etain hates, and as an adult she’s an ecologist and a gardner-, the rosin used on one of her favorite instruments, and honey, which she takes in her tea and uses in her shampoo/balms.

what their favorite smells in the world are

honey (thus the adding it to shampoo/balms, although it’s also an antiseptic), one of her father’s particular recipes for an uj cake, storms

what pajamas they wear/what they wear to sleep in

whatever the hell is laying around, comfy, and clean, in all honesty, though Etain and Dar buy her all the expected adorable toddler pajamas when she’s little. (her favorite had dinosaurs.)

my favorite ship (if applicable) and a cute hc about them

I know Koa dates women, but I’ve never worked out whether she ends up with a partner or not. Mainly I just know she doesn’t want kids and that’s respected.

my favorite friendship (if applicable) and a cute hc about them

I’ve never gotten to RP adult Koa, so I don’t have a lot of friendship headcanons for her, but she is a strong ally of Sabine’s at some point. Also, I imagine that she wants to be the “cool cousin” but she has a LOT of cousins to impress

a song that reminds me of them

none of the top of my head

what animal i think they would be if they were an animal

Oh Koa is absolutely a strill. Well. She’s better smelling/much more elegant than a strill. But personality wise? She’s very attentive and loyal to her family, and very sweet as a child. 

But she refuses to let go of things once she’s got her teeth sunk in. And as an adult, her mind is sharp as a garrote wire and as likely to cut you. She enjoys challenge the way a strill enjoys the hunt.

what position they sleep in

like her father, Koa can sleep almost anywhere any way any time.

their favorite drink

Gatalentan tea or Mandalorian wine.

a gift i would give them if i could

Koa’s already out there making her best life for herself; Idk what I would need to give her.

[aeroplaneblues]

clingy-ghost replied to your post “CURIOUS: who’s your fave artist that draws food?���� for me it has to...”

Paul Reinwand! He did a series with candy that was honestly so good that I wished I had money to buy prints to hang on my walls.

ooohh you’re right these are fantastic! I went to his portfolio site and the ramen ones?? amazing, everything looks so tasty😭