#not clonecest

[zealfruity]

WHEN THE OLD MEN

Rex’s mug has “#1 Dad Grandpa Brother” written on it. The shirt joke makes no sense if you think about it any further in the context if star wars but shhhhhh i had to make the joke it was in my brain

[waywardsou2]

Summer of Bad Batch 2024

Week 3

Alt Prompt: "Forget I asked"

A/N: I've seen variations of this scenario around and thought I would add my own iteration into the mix. I hope you enjoy. (Also side note: I am so behind on my schedule for the prompts 😅)

Tags: fluff, brotherly love, cute little cadets Word Count: 763

Crosshair was laying on his side in his bunk. His arms were folded across his chest, and he had a scowl on his face. It was well into the night but his brain was wired and he couldn't sleep. He started at the wall of their barracks, the grey the same dull, dank colour as always.

He didn't know why he was so hung up on this. If he just asked Tech he would get an answer and that would be the end of it. He didn't have to make this much of a fuss. But he was, like always he was spinning his thoughts around in his head like the waves on Kamino, over thinking something that was so simple.

Tech was breathing deeply on the bunk attacked to Crosshair's across from Hunter and Wrecker.

Just ask him about it, don't make a big deal out of is and if he says 'no' then that's fine.

He's going to be a soldier one day he can't let silly things as simple as a question stop him in his tracks, and he couldn't let the idea of Tech saying no stop him from asking in the first place. Tech was his brother, his twin, there was nothing for him to be nervous aboout.

Yeah, yeah exactly.

Rolling over with force that was unnecessary, he stands up and walks the three paces to Tech's bunk and raises his arm to tap Tech's shoulder but hesitates. He lowers his arm and opens his mouth instead but doesn't say anything. He closes his mouth and sighs frustratedly he closes his eyes as he does. Suddenly he feels a hand grab his knee and he jumps.

"Crosshair, what in Makers name are you doing?"

Crosshair shoves his hand in his mouth to muffle his yelp of surprise. Tech doesn't look amused and he waits for Crosshair to answer his question.

"Well-" he says pouting slightly at being caught off guard so easily. "-I just wanted to ask you something"

Tech looks confused at Crosshair "Could it not have waited till the morning?"

Tech doesn't seem mad, just confused and sleepy but it's still enough for Crosshair to regret his decision. "You know what, just forget I asked. It doesn't matter"

Crosshair goes to stomp back to his bed but Tech gets up and follows him back those three steps.

"No, it clearly is important, and if you don't tell me now it will bother me all night"

Crosshair sits on his bunk and puts his head on his fist. "I told you to forget about it Tech, you'll say no anyway"

"Well how do you know that? You haven't even asked me"

Crosshair puts his head in his hands irritated. A silence stretches on between Tech and Crosshair before Crosshair mutters "...I just wanted a hug"

Tech didn't answer, Crosshair knew it. He was being stupid; he should have just stayed in his bunk.

"Oh, was that all it was. I thought something was wrong"

Crosshair looks at Tech from the edge of his hand "So it that a yes? Or a no?"

Tech answers by sitting on the bunk beside Crosshair and placing an arm over his shoulder. Slowly Crosshair leans over and rests his head on Tech's shoulder, Tech doesn't move away so neither does Crosshair. The stay like that a while, listening to the buzzing of the lights, the sound of each others breathing and the light rain that is pattering against the window of their room.

Crosshair closed his eyes for only a moment, but when he opened them again, he and Tech had moved back into the alcove of Crosshair's bunk.

Tech was leaning against the wall, Crosshair's head was resting on his shoulder, and he had his blanket tucked around his legs. Tech was also talking to Hunter who was standing in front of the two of them.

Crosshair felt his cheeks grow warm as he looked sheepishly at Hunter.

But Hunter didn't tease him, no Hunter did something Crosshair didn't expect. Seeing Crosshair was awake he smiled at his brother, walked over to Wrecker's bunk pulling him sleepily out of his bed whilst grabbing their blankets and crawling onto Crosshair's bunk.

Tech must've told him.

Hunter sat down on the other side of Crosshair and wrapped his arm around Crosshair along side Tech. Wrecker yawns and lays down resting his head on Hunters lap.

All Crosshair wanted was a hug and he ended up getting more affection than he could have hoped for from the people he cared about most

[mythical-illustrator]

Only two sexy clones today as that's all had energy for. And also I felt like these two deserved a post all on their own.

Thank @freesia-writes for all of these.

Enjoy some sexy Waxer and Boil 💜

Hopefully I captured their energy. 😊

Art master list

[aenaxes]

thinking about batchmates howzer and rex as arc troopers under cody’s command before they were promoted to their own companies.

the og arc twins with one left pauldron and one right, because mirror images were still their own part of a whole. same heart, same blood, chiral.

they have the classic rough and tumble start of any archetypal duo; always pulling the high risk missions that earned them scoldings as much as it earned them praise; balanced in howzer’s level calm and rex’s sharp tactical sense; playing teasing games of one-upmanship on who could take out more droids, who could down the most shots at 79’s, who could hold a staring contest while the hull of a gunship rattled around them because they could never be too sure if this was the battle that would leave one the soul-crushing burden of burying the other.

and they mellow out. they get old. they lose parts of themselves to every jedi, every shiny, every brother they see fall, and eventually they lose each other when their combined strategic efficiency and battlefield know-how get them promoted to captains, each different shades of a dusty plastoid blue.

it’s not a complete loss, no. there are still the same planetside drinking games and occasional holocall rendezvous, but it isn’t the same when the truest thing to a brother you’ve had is a few hundred star systems away. there’s no rex to drop down and break up howzer’s carefully waxed hair. there’s no howzer to touch up rex’s roots and wash out the bleach. there’s no twin beacon of hope to climb onto a landed ship’s roof and map out the stars and fall asleep shoulder-to-shoulder under the cool night sky because even if they didn’t know what would happen to them tomorrow—much less after the war—they knew that they would have each other.

but they do their best, they care for their men the same way they remember caring for each other: leader, brother, friend. the loss doesn’t get any easier, but their respective companies flourish.

and then order 66 hits. howzer watches in mute horror as his brothers suddenly go cold—men with whom he’d shared blaster tricks and heart-to-hearts and tipsy paint days; suddenly they look at him glassy-eyed and brusque, and they don’t see a brother where he stands, much less a human. and it’s terrifying, sure, but that’s not what has him sprinting to the records once the blaster smoke clears and the bodies are pushed aside.

when the records show that rex is dead, maybe the relief that floods from the top of his head to the pit in his gut isn’t because rex is gone, but because death has always been that one looming force above their heads. the thing they’ve prepared for with letters and holorecordings and promises that would live on beyond a beating heart. maybe it was because dying in battle was a better way to lose rex than to have to confront a dead-eyed shell of a memory.

so howzer pushes on. he stands soft-spoken but strong at cham’s side, moving quietly in the new order’s shadows, living for himself, living for rex. and he thinks that it’s only fitting if he dies caught in his quiet subversion, that he would go out the same way he knows rex would have.

[striketrue]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

My take on how Tech would comfort Crosshair after a nightmare :)

Word count: 1,130

Oftentimes when everyone else was asleep, Crosshair would hear Tech tapping away on his holopad or working on some piece of hardware from his bunk. He would take comfort in the sound of his younger brother working on nights when he couldn’t sleep and it would eventually lull him into unconsciousness.

Tonight wasn’t one of those nights. Crosshair awoke gasping for air with a sheen of sweat that’s soaked his blacks. Throwing the thin cover that he calls a blanket off of him, Cross frantically sits up and remembers where he is. He’s on the Havoc Marauder with his batch and no one is in danger. This should calm him down but it doesn’t and he still can’t get his breath under control. All he can do is stare at the dark wall in front of him as images of his nightmare flash in rapid succession through his mind.

Blood. Red and thick, dripping off of his soaked hands. “This is your fault.” His horrified whispers reach his ears and he almost wants to scream that this isn’t his fault but his mouth won’t move. Crosshair looks down on the bodies laid face down out in front of him, unmoving and still. He knew that if he were to feel for a pulse on the body closest to him, all he would feel is cold flesh. They all have a blaster shot right through their heart and Crosshair recognizes his own precise marksmanship. A flash of blonde. The red of a bandana on dark hair. A bald scarred head. Short brown hair. Pale emaciated skin. No… he refuses to believe it. He turns over the body closest to him and is met with the slack face of Hunter. Hot tears roll down his face in horror. This is all his fault…

The scene played as clearly as if it were happening again right in front of him and Cross starts shaking uncontrollably. He screws his damp eyes shut and takes several ragged breaths. That was a nightmare… this is reality. When he opens his eyes and looks up he’s going to see Hunters hand hanging down from the bunk above him. When he looks over he’ll see Wrecker sound asleep with his limbs spread out haphazardly. His attempts to calm himself fail miserably and his breath quickens. Crosshair could feel himself spiraling and feeding into his panic.

Unbeknownst to Crosshair, Tech had been watching him with concerned eyes from the bunk that was positioned above Wreckers. He had been working on a broken comm unit when he heard Crosshair shove off his sorry excuse for a blanket and take fast shallow breaths. Tired of just watching when his brother obviously needs help, Tech decides to intervene. He carefully steps down from his bunk, narrowly avoiding Wreckers jutted out leg. Tech makes the short steps towards Crosshair and cautiously whispers, “Crosshair, are you alright?” In retrospect, it’s a foolish question. Cross is quite literally falling apart right in front of Tech.

He looks about wildly with wide eyes and Tech puts his hands up in an attempt to calm him down. “Crosshair? It’s Tech. I believe you’ve had a nightmare.”

He recognizes Cross’s behavior as someone who is having a moderate to severe panic attack. Tech is glad that he did offhand research on mental illnesses soon after Echo joined their batch. At the time, he had been concerned that Echo wasn’t handling his trauma effectively and instead only distracting himself. So Tech did the reasonable thing and looked up ways to be able to help Echo if he was ever in a mental crisis. Tech feels a surge of pride that his gathered information is being put to good use.

Cross’s breathing is very fast and Tech is afraid that he might pass out if he continues. Tech moves closer and dares to sit on the edge of the bunk facing the slender man.

He looks in Crosshairs wild eyes and proclaims, “Crosshair, I need you to breathe with me. Alright?”

Tech watched a holovid of a breathing technique that could help the situation and begins to breathe in the pattern. Inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four. Cross struggles to hold eye contact as he forces himself to take a few shallow breaths trying his best to follow Tech’s lead. He figures he should try to ground Crosshair and cautiously rests his hand on the taller man’s lower leg. Continuing the rhythmic breathing, he patiently waits for Cross’s vitals to return to normal.

Crosshair is attempting to follow Tech’s breathing but it’s as if there’s not enough oxygen in the ship and he’s suffocating. He looks into his younger brothers earnest and concerned eyes and feels a wave of gratitude. Crosshair is immensely glad that he’s not alone right now. Tech’s warm hand is resting on his shin and he feels soothed by the steady contact. Normally, he’s not much on physical affection but this instance is a welcome exception.

After several minutes of breathing along with Tech, Cross feels his chest releases its heavy tension and his breaths become deeper. Finally. That had been the longest minutes of his life, and Crosshair is accustomed to waiting for targets during missions. Now the only thing he feels is extreme exhaustion. For all he knows, he could’ve just ran several clicks at max speed with the way his head feels heavy and his shoulders slump. Tech seems to acknowledge his fatigue and motions for Cross to lay down. He obliges and settles back into his pillow with a small exhale.

Tech regards him for an instant and softly says, “One moment.”

He stands up and walks in the direction of a sleeping Wrecker. Confused, Cross sees him reach up and carefully grab a soft blanket from his bunk. Turning around, he unfurls the blanket and lays it across Crosshairs limp form. He can’t help the small fond smile that settles on his lips as he’s reminded how caring his brother is.

When Tech feels he’s done all that he can to help his brother get back to sleep, he pats the side of Cross’s arm and nods mostly to himself. As he turns to go back to his bunk and work on the broken comm, he feels nimble fingers encircle his wrist. He stops in his tracks and looks back at Crosshair in surprise. He searches Cross’s features with an inquisitive expression. Understanding the silent request Tech nods gesturing for Crosshair to scoot over slightly so that he has more room. Cross obliges, moving towards the inner wall of bunk and Tech sits back down beside him. This time, he gets more comfortable and crosses his legs. Tech would stay until Crosshair fell asleep, the broken comm could wait.

[zealfruity]

Got posessed by Domino Squad Lives AU emotions for the first time in a little while.

Idk where they are, but it sure is nice to vibe under the sun in some field with your bros, not having to worry about a war for once. Even just for a little while.

[zealfruity]

So. Those tragic ass siblings have been emotionally kicking my ass for the past week.

TikTok - Make Your Day

Link to the tiktok ver if you want to give it some love there :))

[zealfruity]

501st lounge. That is a void. With a couch? Couch void.

Appo should be allowed airbender tattoos.

I know that timeline-wise none of these guys would have been able to be in the same room like this BUT I CAN DREAM. This is MY happy times.

EDIT JULY2024: I redrew this completely! If you go through the 501st tag on my account, they should show up :)) please take a look!

A few closeups: