Boba Fett--a time traveler sent thirty years back into the past, and into his child self's body--reunites with an important figure from his childhood. Cody is a man that Boba knows will suffer, and eventually die--and suddenly, the full weight of what it means to be in the past sinks in.
AU Tag: #MandoBacktoTCW
Longpost: Hit “J” to skip on your dashboard!
(＊Creator note: This comic's POV is Boba. He is unaware of Kix, and the title "The Last Clone" indicates how Boba feels about his own situation, so please don't try to correct me about it! Thanks!)
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Rank/Title: Assistant to the Chief Clone Medical Trainer (former), Chief Medical Officer of the 212th Attack Battalion
GAR Affiliation: 212th Attack Battalion
Character status: YukiPri Original Character
AUs: The Prime Override, Mando Back, A Million Bites, Take Flight
Backstory beneath cut!
Warnings: the following backstory contains spoilers for multiple AUs. Also non-explicit mention of decommissioning.
~~
Background:
Stabber, or CT-9111 was never meant to become the 212th's chief medic, or even a medic at all. He was decanted as a standard 1st Generation CT-class clone, and that's all he was ever meant to be.
He had no hopes of ever becoming an officer, and knew he was lucky to even be alive. His batch all had the cosmetic mutation of gray eyes and slightly inferior vision, but these differences were minor enough that they were above the cutoff for decommissioning. Likewise, Stabber had average scores in most of his training and education, but was a relatively poor shot with a blaster. He still passed the Kaminoans' standards of an acceptable trooper (barely), but he lived with the understanding that he was on thin ice.
That thin ice cracks when as a young cadet, an accident during training injures the left side of Stabber's face, taking his left eye with it. It's the kind of injury that could swing his fate in either direction: a generous medic could fix him, given that the Kaminoans have more than enough technology and resources to do it, but landing a less generous medic would mean immediate decommissioning.
Stabber's luck continues to worsen: the medic who takes his case is none other than Nala Se herself. The Chief Scientist rarely handles such basic medical cases, but apparently she'd just come out of a more serious examination, and Stabber was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stabber already knows his fate as she skims dispassionately over his file, seeing the notes on his mutation and his scores. She orders him to be decommissioned, and leaves the room.
Stabber realizes there are two other figures left in the room: a clone who looks slightly older than him, who he recognizes with a chill as the infamous Decommissioner, the Kaminoan's pet and medic-in-training. The other is a tiny blond clone child with haunted eyes, who'd been tasked with taking Stabber's body to the morgue when they're done.
Stabber feels himself getting sleepy as the drugs the Decommissioner gave him hit his system, and he never expects to wake up again.
Except he does--and he can see out of both eyes.
He can hear too, and what he hears is the chilling voice of a furious Kaminoan--Nala Se, he realizes with terror. She seems to be reprimanding a clone--the Decommissioner--who is calmly explaining that he'd wanted to upgrade himself to be of better service to the Kaminoans, and saw an opportunity to prevent his bio-matter from going to waste. He says he understands that what he did was still against a direct order from Nala Se, and that he'll accept punishment for his actions, as well as responsibility for the clone who remains alive due to his actions. The Decommissioner--Ashe, Stabber learns later, his name is Ashe--says that while Stabber may not have been the best in his standard training class, his scores show that he may have great potential as a medic. Ashe requests permission to train Stabber to become his personal assistant, which after great contemplation, Nala Se grants.
When Ashe enters the room, he's got a patch over his own left eye, which he later reveals is now bionic. He tells Stabber that he's being switched to the currently in-development medic track, and that from now on he'll be answering to Ashe personally for training. Ashe coldly tells him that Stabber doesn't have a choice, and that he expects him at medical training at the start of the next rotation. He leaves before Stabber can thank him for saving his life and giving him a second chance.
Stabber joins the medical track, which at the time had around one thousand Generation One clones. After classes, rather than following his brothers to training, Stabber follows Ashe and learns as his assistant. In their down time, Ashe tutors him to catch him up on the rest of his education, and also demands that Stabber be his sparring partner. Stabber quickly realizes that Ashe's schedule means that he has little time to interact with other clones, and that his reputation means that those who are available want nothing to do with him.
It also means that Stabber becomes involved in Ashe's operation of faking decommissioning, and sneaking brothers away from certain death. Stabber quickly learns that Ashe is not the Decommissioner that most think he is.
When Stabber asks Ashe why he had sacrificed his own eye for him, instead of sneaking him out like the others, Ashe says Stabber was just extra unlucky. Nala Se had been there, so there was no other way to save him. That's all.
While Stabber does better in medical training than he had in the standard track, it's not effortless to him like it is for some of the others. But Stabber knows he has to excel, because Ashe had vouched for him in front of Nala Se. The weight that comes with knowing his savior might pay the price if he fails makes Stabber push himself even harder.
His proximity with Ashe means that Stabber eventually even meets Cody--the real vod behind Kote, who actually exists, and isn't just a whispered legend--who takes him aside and makes him promise to look after Ashe when Cody can't be there.
By the time the war breaks out, Stabber is one of the top medics, not out of any talent or potential, but sheer stubborn willpower. When Ashe announces that he's staying behind on Kamino, Stabber plans to do the same. After all, he'd promised Kote.
But then Ashe assigns him to the 212th--to Kote's division. Ashe asks him to look after their Glory, to keep him alive out on the field. Stabber knows the weight of that request, and what it means that Ashe is asking him, when there are other medics out there. With regret at leaving Ashe behind, Stabber goes.
~~
General info:
Outwardly, Stabber is loud and expressive. He loves chattering, and can hold a conversation with himself easily if no one else wants to talk to him (a habit he'd developed because Ashe was often too shy to talk). His facial expressions are also often exaggerated and ridiculously easy to read (another habit he'd developed, when he realized how much Ashe struggles to read their brothers emotionally, having spent so much time away from them and in the company of only Kaminoans).
Stabber considers himself friendly, but his brothers think "crazed" suits him better. He carries himself like a cheerful thug, itching for an excuse to pounce and let loose some energy, often in the form of violence. If asked to pick out the medic out of a group of clones, his brothers doubt anyone would pick Stabber.
He has a reputation for being pessimistically optimistic, and says things like, "Wow you look like shit, this operation's gonna suck! But eh, it's not as bad as the last guy," or "You might lose the arm, but hey! You'll keep your head, congrats!" or "You probably won't make it out of this. But look on the bright side, the rest of us have to slog back through this mosquito-filled swamp!"
Stabber isn't the best shot with a blaster (his reputation says he's terrible, but he was still good enough to pass trooper training, barely), but he makes up for it by excelling at hand-to-hand combat, specifically with small knives and wrestling. Combined with his love of sharp pointy things and the acting of stabbing with them (hence his name), many feel this is a dangerous set of skills for a medic. Stabber cheerfully agrees.
Obi-Wan once gifted Stabber a small beskar knife. Most of his men don't think this was a wise move.
Stabber's preference for physical contact isn't limited to fighting. He's a very physical guy overall, often using pats and touches outside of checkups and even full on hugs without any hesitation. If he senses any brothers suffering from lack of contact, he'll grab them and sit on them.
Despite his eccentricities, Stabber is well respected and good at his job. His demeanor alarms many who aren't used to him, but the 212th find a strange sort of comfort in his way of handling medical treatment. He doesn't exactly have the best bedside manner in a traditional sense, but they trust in his honesty. And under his boisterous exterior, he's surprisingly good at reading his brothers, and always seems to know what they need to hear.
Stabber doesn't believe in avoiding the medics, and he doesn't care what anyone else believes. If a patient is being uncooperative, he believes in, "Stab first, ask questions later," and all of the medics who work under him quickly learn to adopt this policy as well. Given that the only clone in the 212th who can consistently beat Stabber at wrestling is Cody, Stabber is relatively confident in his ability to get most of his brothers to medical.
The General is a special case. After a few initial hissy situations, Stabber gets it out of him that one of the reasons why Obi-Wan dislikes going to medical is because he can sense the echoes of pain and death there, and it makes it difficult for him to focus on his own recovery. Stabber has him agree to the compromise that if an injury is serious enough that it requires machinery that can't be moved from medical, like a bacta tank, Obi-Wan will go without a fuss or otherwise consents to have a clone drag him there. But in other cases, he can retire to his own chambers, as long as he'll allow Stabber to look over him there.
While Stabber has been with the 212th since it was formed and still retains his Chief Medical Officer position, the arrival of Ashe as the CMO of the 7th Sky means that he's technically the 2nd highest ranking medic in the 212th. Many of the 212th are at first confused why Stabber isn't upset or doesn't fight for his top medic position when they'd all support him, but he seems very happy to be second to Ashe. They later learn that it's because of their history--any other medic, and it may have ended in a fist fight (that Stabber would have won).
Stabber is intensely protective of Ashe and doesn't tolerate bad-mouthing or spreading rumors about him. Any brother who does is personally dragged to a storage closet for a one-on-one, and emerges later, shaken. They don't speak about what Stabber told him, but leave Ashe alone.
Whenever they travel with the 501st, Stabber is known for constantly teasing Kix. Kix, according to Ashe, is one of the best medics he's ever trained. Others are worried that Stabber is harassing Kix out of jealousy, but it's actually a weird form of pride for his Prodigy Medic little brother. Kix pretends to hate it, but is actually flustered by the attention from his protective bear of an older brother, and knows that Stabber's laying it on extra heavy because Ashe can't get himself to show affection.
Appearance-wise, Stabber's whole look is designed to showcase his love of sharp pointy things. His hair is an undercut, with the longer hair at the top styled to point to a tip at the front of his face (or as much as it can, given that it curls). His armor paint is covered in sharp points. He has two downward pointing triangles tattooed under his eyes, and two upward pointing triangles shaved out of facial hair at the back of his jaw. He has simple lobe piercings, and would honestly get more except he's very aware that having piercings while wearing a bucket on the field is a horrible idea, and vows to get more piercings if the war ever ends.
His eyes are different colors. His right eye is gray, his original eye color, and his left eye is standard clone golden-brown, and was originally Ashe's. He is incredibly proud of the eye he got from Ashe, and calls it his "CC-class eye." The color of his tattoos, piercings, and some of his paint reflect this right-side silver, left-side gold asymmetric coloration.
The left side of his face was also horribly scarred from his accident as a cadet, but many years of continued deep bacta treatment from Ashe has reduced them to barely-noticeable scars around his left eye.
~~
Related links:
Clone File on Ashe
Clone File on Morbs
OR
Read them all on AO3
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PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!
❀ You can see the rest of my art through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog!
I've made a number of clone OCs who appear in all of my various AUs. I wanted to formally introduce them, including sharing their visuals and backstories!
Here's the first one, my oldest OC, Ashe! He's one of my main two medics!
Basic info:
Name: Ashe
Number Designation: CC-2222
Generation: 1 (0.9)
Rank/Title: Kamino Chief Clone Medical Trainer (former), Chief Medical Officer of the 7th Sky
GAR Affiliation: 7th Sky Corps, 212th Attack Battalion
Character status: YukiPri Original Character
AUs: The Prime Override, Mando Back, A Million Bites, Take Flight
EDIT (as of November, 2023): I decided to give Ashe's armor a major re-design!
I decided he can look a lil cooler, so now he has a Plague Doctor-inspired bucket (hey, if scout troopers can look like hound dogs, why not?). It's my completely original bucket design, and I'm honestly pretty happy with how he turned out! He also gets a lil cape to further reinforce his plague doctor look.
I also updated the actual text in his backstory here, because I wrote it long before his actual intro in the main fic I created him for, The Prime Override. The essence of who he is and what he does is the same, but I adjusted some things now that I have better context for him.
Backstory beneath cut!
Warnings: the following backstory contains spoilers for multiple AUs. Also non-explicit mention of decommissioning.
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Overview:
Ashe (pronounced “ash”),or CC-2222 is technically not the 212th's medic—he's the 7th Sky's Chief Medic. This means that all of the medics of sub-divisions under the 7th Sky, including those of the 212th and 501st, answer to him. He's the medical equivalent of Marshall Commander, and fittingly, usually accompanies Cody and Obi-Wan. This is why he's often found with the 212th, even though like Cody, he doesn't serve only them.
Ashe was deployed considerably later than most other clones in his generation. As Cody's batchmate, he's one of the "early development CCs" (Generation 0.9), a small group of CCs with slightly boosted initial aging who served as trials for the training and educational curriculums of later CC and CT troopers. Clone medics are usually CTs because their training curriculums allow for more specializations, and CCs have a much broader command-centric training that the Kaminoans feel are wasted in limited fields. That being said, they still needed a group to develop medical training with, and Ashe was selected as one of this small group of CCs. Nala Se personally oversaw the training of this preliminary test group of medics.
Ashe stood out in his medic training, and was exemplary in everything the Kaminoans wished to see. He was smart, obedient, deferred completely even to the most lowly of the Kaminoan staff, and didn't shy away from tasks that his peers balked at. He had a bizarrely clear understanding of Kaminoan values and priorities, something rare outside of their species, and even rarer among his Fett clone peers. Nala Se, who supervised him most closely, began to place far more trust in him than most clones, and other Kaminoans followed suit. Eventually, Nala Se began asking for his input on training modules and exercises for other clone medics, knowing that his CC training would give him a more practical military perspective that the Kaminoans themselves lack. After Ashe repeatedly proves over the years that he is able to replicate choices that Nala Se herself would make, she eventually makes him the Chief Clone Medical Trainer, as well as an advisor and editor for clone medic training modules, all positions that usually would have gone to Kaminoans.
When the war began, Ashe remained on Kamino while his batchmates and students went out to fight. Nala Se wanted him to continue training medics, especially when those out in the field performed better than expected. Ashe remained on Kamino for a whole year after the war had begun, long after the main body of the clone army deployed.
Then, a year later, he was suddenly assigned to go out onto the field. The assignment request was from High General Obi-Wan Kenobi, who requested Kamino's best medic on the front lines, and had been recommended Ashe by his Commander. Given that Ashe had trained a significant number of reliable clone trainer assistants by this time, Nala Se grudgingly allowed the request, and Ashe was shipped out.
When he was first sent out to the front lines, he was an uncomfortable and unwelcome presence to most clones. He always appeared cold, calm, and aloof, and his attitude and various physical ticks like walking slowly and rarely blinking reminded them eerily of Kaminoans. He even spoke like a Kaminoan—his accent wasn't like that of other clones, at least in basic—and all of this only reaffirmed his reputation of being the "Kaminoans' pet." Most clones believed he was a plant sent by Nala Se who reported back to her on all GAR activity. He never socialized, and seemed to avoid other clones, which they were all perfectly happy with; it looked like he was more interested in admiring his own reflection than talking with brothers anyway. As the Chief Medic of the 7th Sky, he rarely went out into the field and usually remained on the ships, performing administrative duties and only personally entering the operating room for the most difficult surgeries. Other clones assumed he thought himself too important to mingle with the masses.
As if being a wannabe Kaminoan wasn’t bad enough, an even darker nickname was associated with Ashe: “The Decommissioner.” Every clone had heard rumors that he'd personally decommissioned countless brothers, performing the dirtiest tasks for the Kaminoans. Many clones worried about what he discussed with Cody behind closed doors, and were terrified that if they were sent to him instead of a medic working under him, it was a death sentence. There was also a rumor that he collected the bodies of dead brothers for terrible experiments. The title of the Decommissioner followed Ashe even long after the majority of these rumors were dispelled.
~~
The true story:
When they were cadets, as Cody's close batchmate, Ashe is one of the first clones who joins Cody in establishing his underground network of trying to support fellow clones. He's confident in his skills and smarts, and hates when Cody, who is a small but significant two numbers younger, tries to shoulder too many burdens. When they see the valuable opportunity to get one of them involved in medical training, Ashe volunteers himself to prevent Cody from attempting to take on yet another burden.
Ashe and Cody decide that in becoming a medic, Ashe has three primary objectives: 1) Learn as much about the Kaminoans as possible, 2) Reduce the number of decommissioned brothers, 3) Prolong all of their lives as much as possible. Neither of them are under any impression that they'll be able to stop the Kaminoans entirely. Ashe's job is to gather information and try to minimize the damage.
Ashe spends years sucking up to Kaminoans. He learns their culture and habits, using the trust he gains to access more information. He researches past cloning projects, and past cloned armies the Kaminoans have made. He tries to understand how Kaminoans see the clones, so he can better predict which of his brothers are in most danger, and better prepare for the Kaminoans' future plans for them. He sucks up to the stupider, lower-ranked Kaminoans who enjoy his subservience enough to make more mistakes. And most importantly, he molds himself into the ideal obedient servant for Nala Se, who quickly identifies him as a potentially useful asset to develop. After all, Ashe knows that Nala Se alone holds the authority and keys to most of what he his seeking.
Ashe knows that in order to stop decommissioning, he needs to get closer to it. The rumors aren't wrong—he has participated in decommissionings, many of them. He knows all of the methods the Kaminoans use to end the lives of his brothers. He at first just stood to the side, pretending to be unaffected as the Kaminoans murdered his brothers, but eventually he has to actively participate in euthanizing—an experience that leaves him traumatized, but he forces himself to get used to it. After all, Nala Se must first trust him and his results before she can leave the entire process to him, and only then will he finally get the opportunity to deviate from the course to save lives.
Ashe carts his brothers' bodies to the cremation chamber, and watches their ashes get expelled into the cold, rainy Kaminoan sky. He names himself "Ashe," because he knows they'll all just be ashes one day, but he'll do his damn hardest to make sure that day isn't today.
He learns that the Kaminoans are definitely creating them with a policy of planned obsolescence—they want the Republic to think the clones are good enough to want more, but they also want the clones to die off at a fast enough pace that the Republic will have to buy more to replace them. It's all about maximizing profit, because the clones are, in the end, just products. This is reflected in the medical training that Ashe first receives; the Kaminoans planned to intentionally train their medics to mark brothers who might survive as too late to save, and have intentionally limited the tools and supplies they can access so that that the loss of clone lives remains profitable to them.
Given that it's all the training most medics would receive, no clone would know better. Ashe knows better, because he alone was given the privilege of accessing medical training from outside of Kamino as a part of his unique early training. And perhaps most importantly, he knows the Kaminoans. He slowly tries to incorporate himself into training module development. It's a painfully slow, delicate operation that requires Ashe to write in things that will hurt his brothers—the Kaminoans must believe that Ashe is helping them profit off of his brothers' planned deaths, after all—but he eventually makes a low administrator position, and works his way up. With ever-present Kaminoan eyes checking his work, the changes he can make to the modules themselves are minimal, but it lets him supervise every clone medic personally, and slip them additional "notes" during in-person training sessions. He teaches the medics the realities behind their methods—what kind of fatality numbers the Kaminoans want to see in order for the medics to be "successful" in their eyes, and why—and he teaches them how to fake both deaths and reports well.
Ashe despises Kaminoans more than most clones can imagine, and his hatred towards Nala Se is deeply personal. He knows so much about all of the Kaminoans and their practices, and he uses his hate to fuel digging ever deeper into them. His only hope is that one day, he'll be able to help get all of his brothers and himself off of Kamino, and away from them. But he's just one cog, and he focuses on managing his one specialized area, and continues reporting everything he can to Cody.
The war starts, and clones begin to leave Kamino. Ashe desperately wants to go too—actually saving the lives of his brothers on the field, because he can with his skills, seems an infinitely better fate than standing alone in pristine lab rooms, being complicit or actively murdering his brothers with his own hands when he can't save them. But Ashe has also come so far, and knows there are too many things that only he can do at this point. He decides to remain on Kamino, under Nala Se, to continue his operation for as long as he can.
While Ashe thinks he's gotten far in terms of medical knowledge, training, and even decommissioning, cloning and their inbuilt DNA is more difficult. Cloning is a different specialization from clone medic training, and the information is more difficult for Ashe to access and far more classified. He still tries, and bit by bit, he gathers potential information that might one day help them.
His position means that he can access more Kaminoan resources than perhaps any other clone, and eventually, he manages to synthesize what he hopes might be an antidote to their accelerated aging. He thinks it's the best he can manage, at least unless Nala Se herself decides to cough up information personally. Not wanting to test an unknown drug on another clone, he injects himself with his concoction.
The next day, his previously black hair is all white.
Ashe panics, and hides under his bucket as he goes to consult Seventeen, who has since returned from the front lines and is a trainer himself. Seventeen takes one look at him, and sends a transmission to Cody, asking him to get General Kenobi to pull Ashe out of Kamino and to the front. Ashe tries to convince him not to—he can dye his hair black again, he can try to continue being useful here—but he's terrified and Seventeen knows it.
Ashe doesn't know to what extent, but he knows that the drug he'd administered had somehow affected him on the genetic level. All Nala Se would need is to get suspicious enough to take one sample, and she’d know Ashe has been altered. If she finds out Ashe had done it himself (not many other potential perpetrators), she’ll decommission him. Ashe is far less worried about his own death than he is that in investigating him, Nala Se will realize that he's compromised every single clone medic, possibly more, and will then in turn decommission all of them.
And so, reluctantly, Ashe lets Seventeen boot him out of Kamino, and under General Kenobi's wing, who Seventeen says will protect him from Kamino. It's around a year into the war.
Ashe hates it. He feels that he's failed at all of his life goals. Not only did he kriff up and definitely not discover the cure to de-aging, but he kriffed himself up in the process, to the point he can't continue being useful in his previous role.
Cody, one of the few who's aware of everything he's been doing from the beginning, assures him that he's done enough. Just as Ashe tells Cody that he can't be solely responsible for saving his brothers, neither can Ashe. Ashe has done enough, and it's time for his assistants back on Kamino to carry on his previous role. Being a medic on the front lines is plenty enough hard work, and there will still be other things for Ashe to do.
Ashe wants to be a field medic, but he's also missed out on the entire first year of action, and now all of his active students have more field experience than him. Ashe is also too confident in his skills. He was practically on par with Cody in their early CC training, making them top of their class, but unlike Cody, he's rusty from dedicating the majority of his time to medic training and research. Combined with his frustration and self-loathing, he's far too reckless the first time he goes out onto the field, and Cody forbids him from doing it again until he's proven himself capable of not being self-destructive. Ashe's experience and knowledge is too essential to the clones as a whole for Cody to risk him getting taken out by a stray blaster bolt. Ashe is furious that Cody wants to keep him locked up away from the fight, denying him his right to die alongside his brothers, but can't do anything to convince him to rescind the order.
Ashe turns his frustration into desperation to save as many brothers as he can aboard their flagship. His methods are brutal. Clone bodies are usually supposed to be cremated, as they were taught as part of their training, and at this point in the war, it's become a solemn parting ritual for their dead. Ashe demands that things change so every clone body that can be salvaged in decent condition be brought back to the ship. He methodically strips bodies of healthy organs to preserve, sometimes entire limbs or whole bodies. They’re clones; almost all of their body parts can be swapped out for that of another brother's. Their blood, their organs, even entire heads to bodies with Ashe's skills. Give Ashe two clones who are about to die, and he'll usually be able to save one of them with the other's parts.
All of the clone medics who trained with Ashe know how to save their brothers’ lives using Ashe’s methods, but can’t, at least openly, without revealing that Ashe taught them beyond their strict Kaminoan-approved curriculums. In order for them to be “successful medics” in the eyes of Kamino, the mortality rates of their patients must remain profitable. But Ashe comes with the additional label of being Nala Se’s personally trained “best clone medic.” He alone is allowed to disregard the mortality rates and rules set for other medics, as his personal success is directly reflective of Nala Se’s personal capabilities as a trainer. And thus, he saves his brothers, as many as he can, often in the most horrible ways imaginable.
This does nothing to improve Ashe's reputation among his brothers, who hate how Ashe talks about them like their bodies are droid parts. They essentially are, Ashe thinks, from a practical perspective, and that's a good thing; few other groups of organics would have this many interchangeable parts at their disposal. But while it's true that a dead brother has no needs for body parts that another brother might use to live, Ashe is perhaps too used to thinking of clones in the Kaminoans' terms, and too emotionally distant from his brothers who just see him as someone who wants to desecrate their dead loved ones. Cody tries to warn Ashe to be more sensitive.
When he's being a medic is the only time Ashe feels fully confident, and he embraces it to the point of obsession once out on the front lines. It's a persona he's maintained almost his entire life, and he's genuinely confident in his abilities. After all, he's been a medic longer than any other clone, and has trained all of the others too. He was not only involved in the creation of the clone medic modules, but has also learned enough from outside of their Kaminoan curriculum to have unbiased galactic context for his skills. He also knows all of the secret Kaminoan administrator tricks that make their particular bodies tick. No matter what his brothers may think of him outside of the med ward, Ashe fully expects everyone to obey him while in he's in medic mode. He gets the medic symbol tattooed on both sides of his head, and makes sure his entire appearance screams "medic" like it's the entirety of his identity (the other parts are, after all, "spy," "traitor," and "decommissioner," none of which he can or wants to have out in the open).
Ashe has no idea what to do with himself when he's not actively being a medic. He knows what most clones think of him, having only seen him trailing like a loyal dog after Nala Se. Many of the rumors are genuinely true. He understands their fear for him, their disgust, their hate. He's practically a Kaminoan himself, a traitor to all of his brothers, and Ashe hates himself enough to agree. He pretends he's too important and busy to go to the mess hall or rec rooms, but in reality the idea of socializing with other clones terrifies him more than decommissioning. He will often hide in his office or private quarters, either obsessively trying to work out a medical challenge or just stewing in self-loathing. If people are too persistent in looking for him for non-medical reasons, he'll hide out in Cody's room or even lock himself in a storage closet so he can get away.
It's different with those who know him. Cody's inner Commanders circle, who know what Ashe has been doing since the beginning, interact with him like normal brothers. Ashe is also comfortable with medics, the vast majority of whom he has personally trained at some point or another. They might not know everything he's done, but they know enough to know he doesn't actually love the Kaminoans, and he can fall back on their established and comfortable role as trainer and students. That being said, there are few he trusts as much as Cody.
Ashe also has a habit of constantly looking at reflections of himself when he's not otherwise occupied. Most other clones assume it's because he's vain, a notion he doesn't discourage because it's better than them knowing the truth: that he's worried he accidentally accelerated his own aging. He's not sure what exactly he did to make his hair go white, but it wasn't what he intended, and he's not sure if there are any other side effects, like if he'll wake up one morning aged a decade. If Cody's around, he'll have them line up side by side, because they were decanted within the same second and should look the same age. The fact that they're both constantly stressed and look older because of it doesn't help his anxiety. If there's one thing Ashe is grateful for, it's that the greater variety of physical self-modifying in the active army makes it easy for everyone to assume his white hair is bleached. He keeps his hair white as a reminder to himself both of his mistake, and how close he came to finding a solution to their accelerated aging. Cody isn't sure if that's self-loathing or pride.
Other physical traits includes his left eye, which is cybernetic. It's designed to look mostly natural and is passable as such from a distance, but has default dark red irises, and pupils that will shift in color or light up as Ashe switches scanning modes. Ashe swapped out his own organic eye so he could have the more useful tools embedded in his own body, or so he claims.
Ashe also has far fewer scars than every other CC of his generation, as not only has he been out on the field for a shorter time, as a cadet he was pulled from more dangerous training simulations once Nala Se started focussing more on his medic training. What few scars he had, Ashe has healed with deep bacta therapy, as he knows Nala Se finds physical imperfections like scars to be distasteful, and he wants to look as perfect as possible to remain in her good graces. For the same reasons, he's obsessive about other self-maintenance as well, including perfectly trimmed nails, perfectly clean gear, and perfectly clean body.
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Relationships with others:
Cody considers Ashe one of his closest and oldest confidants, and also feels partially responsible for the difficult situations that Ashe has found himself in, despite Ashe's firm insistence that he chose this path for himself. Cody's still the one who gave him the initial idea, and he does his best to look out for him now. Although they're only two numbers apart, Ashe constantly insists that still makes him older. When they're alone together, Cody and Ashe will sometimes fall back on their early cadet-life nicknames for each other which they used prior to finding names. Between them, it's affectionate. Cody is "Toofor," and Ashe is "Fortoos."
The clone medics are fiercely protective of Ashe, especially around their peers who don't understand him. They know they can't exactly tell everyone that Ashe has been teaching them how to save brothers that the Kaminoans want dead—that information is too dangerous to let it get out, and is a medics secret. They understand that what happens in medic training, stays in medic training. They still do their best to project their absolute trust in him, to try to convince their brothers to feel the same, and will try to keep him company on the rare occasions he tolerates it. To the medics, he's both their extremely competent and reliable superior who risked everything to help them help their brothers, as well as their very awkward, anxious mess of an older brother who has fewer social skills than a feral tooka, who they have to coax out gently if they want to domesticate him. Ashe himself has no idea that they see him this way.
Obi-Wan is at first very curious about their new head medic. He has a strong bond with the 212th's chief medic, Stabber, and doesn't fully understand why Cody suddenly asks him to request another medic to make Stabber's superior, when if anything, he'd prefer to promote Stabber. But he also trusts Cody, and trusts Stabber when his medic eagerly seconds the request, and puts it through.
When the man himself arrives, Obi-Wan is taken by the severe gap between his outward presentation, and his inner emotions. He appears perfectly collected to the point of cold, utterly in control, and professional to the point of droid-like. But through the Force, Obi-Wan senses his fear, his stress, and his near-overwhelming frustration and disappointment in himself, coupled with a dangerous amount of all too familiar self-loathing—all traits that seem odd and potentially risky in a medic with as much responsibility as Ashe is going to be given. Cody and Stabber are both fully confident in his ability to handle the pressure though, and Obi-Wan defers to their experience.
Obi-Wan finds that he's very much as competent as Cody claimed—the 212th's casualty rates drop almost immediately with his addition. His methods are a little…unsavory, but Obi-Wan lets Cody handle the talking, since Ashe seems extremely wary of Obi-Wan. It takes months of spending time in each other's company, always with Cody and/or Stabber supervising, for Ashe to begin to trust that Obi-Wan isn't like a Kaminoan. Then, his curiosity about Obi-Wan's body (he's never worked with a non-clone before) as well as Jedi healing practices start to peek through the cracks, and Obi-Wan realizes he might have finally found an opening through which he can connect with the skittish medic.
Obi-Wan gradually earns Ashe's trust. He very slowly catches hints that Ashe has been doing much more for his brothers behind the scenes, but also knows not to let on that he knows. Obi-Wan finds it saddening that the medic seems to light up about learning new things, but immediately tries to discard it or looks ashamed when it doesn't have direct relevance to helping his brothers. Obi-Wan tries to encourage his curiosity, and makes the most headway when offering his own body for study, since Ashe can satisfy himself with the excuse that compiling data about his General's physiology has the very important practical use that it could potentially save his life in the future. Whenever they're alone together and trying to relax, it's common for Obi-Wan to let Ashe poke him with needles and scan him and run other little tests. It's the only way to keep Ashe from realizing that he's actually willingly participating in socializing.
It takes many months for the 212th to fully embrace Ashe, given that the medic seems to be actively encouraging his own terrible reputation. But enough slip ups while he's interacting with Cody or Stabber, and they eventually realize how much of his reputation is just a facade. Once they realize that, it's a simple matter of catching the man and dragging him into some forceful socializing. His petrified reaction to that only proves that he's no Evil Kaminoan Decommissioner, and they realize that they just need to convince him of the fact. It takes months, but eventually Ashe can be coaxed into being in the same room as off-duty clones, though he usually hides ineffectively behind either Cody or Stabber. They even eventually get Cody to convince Ashe to add some 212th gold to his armor paint, instead of clinging solely to medical red-and-white. Ashe only manages to put a little bit on the back of his hand plates, but it's a start.
The majority of the clones outside of Ashe's immediate circle of interaction continue to believe in his reputation until the full truth of his reasons is revealed. Ashe seems fine with most of his brothers hating him, but those who care about him aren't, and take it upon themselves to protect him.
~~
Just because, here's his old design before I updated him:
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That's all folks! Thanks so much for reading!
Related links:
Clone File on Stabber
Clone File on Morbs
OR
Read them all on AO3
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PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!
❀ You can see the rest of my art through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog!
Din has a laser sword. Din does not want a laser sword. So, Din gets rid of the laser sword, and the Darksaber finds a new wielder...?
AU Tag: #MandoBacktoTCW
Longpost: Hit "J" to skip on your dashboard!
~~
PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!
❀ You can see the rest of my art including the rest of this AU through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog! Please check out my Patreon for WIPs/early access!
Din finds clones confusing--after all, they look simultaneously younger and older than Boba! But still, they seem nice enough!
(Or, enter ARCs Waxer and Boil, who will be joining the young Mandos on their travels--after all, Cody and Obi-Wan can't exactly let the kids travel without guardians!)
AU Tag: #MandoBacktoTCW
Longpost: Hit “J” to skip on your dashboard!
~~
PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, TRANSLATE, OR OTHERWISE USE MY ART. To share, please reblog! Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!!!
❀ You can see the rest of my art including the rest of this AU through the Masterpost pinned to the top of my blog! Please check out my Patreon for WIPs/early access!
First of all, love the Clonetober and seeing some edge eyes is making me fall for them.
Second, do you have any hc about the clones if so, TELL US PLEASE *baby clone eyes*
Thank you so much for liking my Clonetober project! <3
And well, "headcanons about clones"....I mean yes. I do. But that is such a massive topic, I would be here for twenty years ^ ^;;;
Instead, I'm going to point you at my fics, which are a much more organized presentation of my headcanons!
The Prime Override - May seem really weird at first (and okay, it is pretty weird), but it also includes a great many of my general headcanons for clone culture, clone physiology, clone backstory on Kamino, as well as backstories of individual clones. It is told heavily from Jango's as well as other clones' POVs, with a bit of Obi-Wan, and can be considered a sort-of fix-it, but told in non-chronological order. Most of my core clone headcanons are in this one!
Take Flight, Brothers All - This is my winged!clones AU! It's a multi-media AU with mixed art, fic, and reference sheets. While all of the story in this is obviously focussed around the clones having wings, I think it still incorporates some of my headcanons for clone interactions and personalities!
A Million Bites More Till I'm Yours - My Clones x Obi-Wan Omegaverse fic. This too definitely focuses on the Omegaverse elements, but it also contains headcanons for clone interactions and personalities.
While it hasn't updated in a while, I'm also going to mention my comic Mando Back to the Clone Wars, which is a brother story to The Prime Override. It's an entirely different premise and focus, since it's a Time Travel AU and the protagonist is Boba, but it'll eventually have more clone world-building as well.
Most of my general clone headcanons will be in The Prime Override though, and a lot of my ideas in there can be applied to all of my other works!
If you have very specific headcanon asks that I can answer in a few paragraphs and do not intend to cover in a fic, I might be able to answer in an ask ^ ^; But generally speaking, my fics and my end notes in them are the best places to find my headcanons!
