Summary: Worried about their brother, Bug, the boys try to find a solution to his insect problem over lunch.
Inspired by @powdered-kneecaps mentioning Bug needs a Lizard. Also inspired by an ask that @azadump sent in about Bug's namesake. I tried, this was just to be a dumb little blurb and honestly if I can figure out how to write it I'll do a part 2. tags who i think would enjoy this: @fives-girlfriend @rexxdjarin
Mando'a: Vod: brother
Vode: Brothers
Ori'vod: Older brother
Vod'ika: Little brother
Shebs: backside, rear, butt, ass
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Jam sat down beside Beat at the mess table with a sigh. "Okay vode... we've got to talk about the bantha in the room." he said looking to the others who were mid bite.
Charge raised an eyebrow and sat his spoon down and took a sip of water. "Alright. I'll bite. What bantha?"
"What bantha?.. Oh come on Charge you've had to have noticed! You were the one that filmed the last incident and sent it to Rex!!" he accused while pointing at his commanding officer. "And were laughing!"
This made him stop to think, what the kriff had he found so funny that he had to send it to Rex? Then it hit him, Bug. Bug had been what had been so kriffing hilarious that he couldn't keep himself from sending a holorecording to Rex and Cody. Just thinking about it had him snort a bit in amusement. Bug's insect problem had been somewhat useful on their last mission, albeit still annoying to deal with for most present.
They had the rare opportunity to go to a planet that was well known for it's flora, which meant it'd also become well known for some of it's insects that fed off said flora. Which also meant, those insects took notice of Bug. During their scouting, a rather sizeable swarm of butterflies had decided Bug was the best thing to perch on. He was covered head to toe in bright colorful butterflies for most of the mission.
It wasn't the worst bugs he had to deal with, but trying to look like an imposing and impressive member of the GAR while covered in beautiful butterflies was damn near impossible. Charge is pretty sure he blinked once and they doubled in number. It got to the point he looked almost more butterfly than man. He could have just left Bug on the ship but they needed him on the ground, he was a damn good scout and they needed those eyes even if he was gonna have some friends along for the ride.
While that had been pretty funny, the hilarious part for him was when Bug stumbled on some clankers. There were so many damned butterflies that the clankers didn't know what the hell he was. Usually they recognize clones right away, the armor is a dead give away. But turns out if you cover yourself in a couple hundred butterflies… they have to stop and think and argue with themselves about what sort of creature they've just found and if they should shoot it or observe it in it's "natural habitat".
This ended up letting the others ambush the droids, and once Bug joined in on the shooting at least one droid shouted something about a butterfly monster as it tried to request back up. This was the part that had Charge laughing his shebs off after the fighting stopped. His helmet had been recording the whole fight so he could file reports later, but he wasn't going to wait till later to send this off to Cody and Rex. He was pretty sure both of them could use a good laugh, even if it was gonna be at Bug's expense.
"Alright.. I'll admit it does seem like it hasn't gotten better. But you can't tell me you weren't laughing either. Come on.. butterfly monster?" he smirked as he responded knowing his vod'ika had been one of the ones laughing hardest.
Sure enough Jam snorted and tried to quickly steel his face into something serious and failing as the visual of Bug covered in butterflies hit him again. "Okay but pfft… w-we've gotta do something about it or at least try."
"Yeah you're never going to hear this again.. but I agree with Jam." chimed in Doc as he coughed to cover his own laughter. "The mission before this last one he slept in his armor… and when we got back to the ship where he could shower. Maker… he smelled worse than Bitter's socks…"
"Hey! My socks aren't that bad!" clapped back Bitter with a growl. "I wash them… eventually."
"Only when you run out of clean socks and remember you've been piling them up in your bunk." commented Habit who scrunched up his nose in disgust. "You guys pick on me for my habits.. but at least I remember to wash my kriffing socks."
"Alright alright don't start guys." said Charge cutting in before they could start arguing with each other. "What do you suggest we do Jam? Even the General isn't sure what can be done about it the last it was mentioned in front of her."
Jam raised a finger and opened his mouth to speak only to shut his mouth when he realized, he had no clue what to do. He's got a point there, just how do you deal with bugs being drawn to a person. "What about just spraying him down with a big spray before each mission?" asked Beat trying to help find a solution.
"Not every bug will be affected by the same bug spray, and not every bug spray is really effective. Not to mention we wont always have that kind of time before we're sent out." answered Fluke who'd been trying his best to resist the urge to re-watch the holovid of his vod'ika being called a butterfly monster.
"What about those torch things that some planets use to ward off mosquitoes?" asked Burner with a mouth full of food.
This suggestion made his vode stop and think before several shook their heads no. "You're enough of a fire hazard Burner, plus we can't risk having an open flame all the time. What if we're sent to a planet where the air is flammable?" remarked Doc who did not feel like treating burns would be a fair trade off to at least cushion if not be rid of Bug's problem.
"Ugh… maybe the Jedi might have ideas? The General's pretty unorthodox for a Jedi, she's bound to have something to suggest." remarked Disk as he wracked his brain over a solution.
"Already talked about it with her once, she's not so sure either. It's such a very niche problem the GAR wouldn't put any funding into finding a solution, waste of funds if it's just the problem of one clone." answered Charge with a sigh. "She said she'd ask her master and some of the other Generals if they had any suggestions or ideas about what could ward off the bugs a little bit. Haven't heard back yet."
A silence fell over the group as they all thought hard on the situation at hand, every idea they had there was always a downside to it that pretty much excluded even really considering it a valid option.
"Okay I think.. I have an idea.." said Blank breaking the silence and drawing his vode's eyes to him. "What about a pet?"
"A pet?.. Blank where the kriff would we even keep a pet?" sighed Fluke while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Also how the hell is that supposed to help?"
"No no hear me out! Some reptiles eat insects. Least I think they do? I don't even remember where I read it.." he answered sheepishly rubbing the back of his head some. Just his luck he couldn't remember what it was he read as far as he knows he could have read that some insects eat reptiles. This wasn't important information, no way he was remembering this right.
"He's actually not wrong. Some lizards eat bugs to survive. As for where to keep one… I .. don't know maybe a little tank?" chimed in Disk, letting his vode know Blank actually remembered something that wasn't related to missions. "I'm sure we could find an empty shelf or something somewhere that's not being used."
This got the group talking a bit excitedly, a pet could be fun to have around and it might at least ease the problem for their poor vod. "Okay.. several problems with this idea." sighed Charge shutting them up once more. "First, the general has a pet tooka. Pretty sure Meowster Windu would eat any small reptile. Second, we go into active war zones. Can any of you really say that that's any place for a pet? What if something happens to it?"
"Meowster Windu isn't always on the ship though! Sometimes he stays on Coruscant." answered Jam with a grin as he always made it his goal to find loopholes in anything Charge shot down.
"And the second part? If we got him a pet lizard and something happened to it he'd be heartbroken… so which would you rather have? Heartbroken vod'ika or butterfly monster vod'ika?" clapped back Charge knowing exactly what Jam was doing. Charge wasn't against the idea, he just didn't want his vod'ika getting hurt. He also didn't want to put some poor lizard in needless danger.
This shut Jam and the others up fast, that had been the final nail in the coffin. Bug being heartbroken hit them all where it hurt most, an absolute low blow. "Ugh fair point… guess we just keep thinking about this until we come up with something." sighed Jam as he couldn't come up with anything to argue this point. Bug wasn't the baby of the group, but the ori'vod instincts were strong and Jam wasn't going to let his vod'ika get hurt over something that could have been avoided.
"Agreed. If anyone comes up with something bring it forward, we'll surprise him with it. In the meantime, we can at least try and ease up a little on the picking on him." said Fluke nodding his head in agreement.
"Before anyone asks. I'm not deleting that holovid." remarked Charge with a smirk. He may be a loving ori'vod, but he was still gonna give his vod'ika shit when the opportunity presented itself.
Notes: This features my OCs, collectively known as 345th Attack Battalion and informally as the Hellions.
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Jaro stood in the center of the landing bay, hands resting on his hips as he looked back and forth between the two teams. “Alright! Listen up, rules are so simple that even a drunk Weequay can figure it out!” Jaro barks out as he smirked at the rookies. “Single points are awarded at each goal. And since our medics are bored, full physical contact. What I won’t tolerate is any cheating.”.
“Yeah, yeah. No cheating, kick some shebs so Knockout isn’t driven insane by Voss’s riddles.” Legate says as he waved his hand in dismissal, he was the captain of the Wild Stars team, as they had idiotically called themselves. “Lets play already.”.
Jaro smiled slightly, looking towards the admiral. “A word from our sponsor, Admiral Varr!” Jaro responds, just to spite the kid and looked towards then old Corellian who chuckled fondly.
“Eight points to whoever takes out the infiltration expert on the enemy team first. They cannot take out each other. Rory, swap out with Chaos. Naast, swap out with Cory.” Varr states with a grin as both teams -- minus Reaper who simply shrugged -- blanched while the two infiltration experts grinned at each other evilly. They swapped out with Naast and Rory, only wearing bits and pieces of their armor.
Jaro backed out of the makeshift court. “Lets get started.”.
This was going to be one heck of a bolo-ball match! He was secretly routing for Chaos and Cory, which was fair since he wasn’t actually picking sides.
Okay dont see this getting much attention but I need help guys. I think I've decided on some numbers for the battalion of clones but I still can't decide on a color. So for Bug and his brothers( and potentially Shriek) what number and color should they rock?
513/Dark navy blue
213/Purple
413/Cobalt blue
Another color or shade of blue( add it to reply or in the tags!)
Okay making my boys with the SWTOR creator is a bit harder than anticipated cause options are heavily limited for me (gonna tag @fives-girlfriend cause she liked shriek so much and we talked about our boys)
Jam
Beat
Commander Charge
Bitter
Bug
I was sadly unable to make Captain Fluke, Disk, Burner, Blank, Habit and Doc none of the hair options really worked out for me
