IT IS I, THE CUDDLE PILE ANON. OK OK I KNOW I SAID THAT WOLFFE WAS MY LAST REQUEST BUTTTTTTT I HAD 2

Buzzcut -

Among the clone cadets, all the blondies have the same haircut.

In a collective of identical individuals who value their individuality as much as is feasibly possible, here's why -

When Boba is four years old, he doesn't quite understand why the clones are different from him. He knows they are, though. So he looks to the trainers to imitate how to behave, and he treats them kind of like toys. It's fun enough, for a kid with no one else to play with.

And one day he drags his newest playmate back to his rooms to show his father - "Look, he doesn't look right! Look at his hair! Isn't it funny?"

CT -7567 is a cadet who looks the same age as Boba, who has cowlick blonde curls over atop his tan face and his bright brown eyes and he stares up at Jango with wide, wide eyes as Jango stoops to look at him, swatting Boba's hand where it's dragging on the clones arm.

Jango remembers, for the first time in a long time, that his sister had hair like that. That she looked like that - round cheeked and brown eyed and bright haired.

He pats the boy on the head, ruffling his fingers through his locks, a little thinner than Boba's own thick brown. Than Jango's own.

The boy stands very still till Jango's had enough of running his fingers through the strands and stands back up, sending him on his way and ruffling Boba's hair when he pouts about it.

Jango decides not to think about it, after.

Four days later he enters the mess looking for that blonde hair, looking for any blonde hair, and he doesn't find it.

He does find CT-7567, half-hidden in the shadow of a template-perfect CC cadet who dares to fully turn around and face him when Jango focuses on his smaller companion.

That blond hair has been sheared practically down to the skin, those bright brown eyes big and wary of him.

CT-7567 doesn't remind him anymore of his sister.

Right, Jango thinks derisively. What was he thinking? It was nothing more than a defect in the process. the boy was nothing more than a product.

He leaves.

No blonde cadet ever grows their hair out, after that. Even back then the boys all knew - it was never a good thing to garner Jango Fett's attention.

Even after Prime dies, the tradition remains, one batch warning the next behind them to keep the blonde hidden.

Re-Write Snippet (A New Brother)

“There’s gotta be something I can call you other than CT-7567. That’s a bit of a mouthful.” No response. “How about… just 67? I mean, technically it’s not a name, it’s a part of your designation. Nothing in the regs that says we have to use our full designations at all times. How’s it sound?” Still nothing. “67 it is.”

Character development moment for both Anakin and Ahsoka: imagine Ahsoka is heading one small leg of a mission on her own, with Rex as her second while Anakin is on the other side of the planet managing another part. Disaster strikes. Ahsoka and her men are attacked on a cliff. She survives, but Rex is severely injured and her other men are dead. This is early enough in the war that Ahsoka's more inexperienced than not, and the inability to get to safety + lack of sleep + lack of food + worry for Rex have her panicking

So she comms Anakin, who despite the distance between them is able to step up as a master and get her to calm down and think before she breaks down. I have some rough dialogue worked out of when Ahsoka first comms Anakin after the dust settles and she realizes Rex may die

Ahsoka's speaking in half sentences because adrenaline is scrambling her brain. Anakin asks what's wrong, think they've been ambushed, and she says "no, I'm digging him out. I'm digging Rex out" and then she's able to explain what happened

She's a little banged up but okay because she was able to jump away (which she feels guilty for) but shes having problems sensing her other men in the force but she knows at least one has to be alive. So anakin has to not force himself to cross an entire planet to get to his Padawan and captain. He asks Ahsoka is rex is free, she says mostly. He tells her she can use the force to clear the rocks away, she keeps saying she can't, he says something along the lines of Visualizing scooping the rocks up with her hands rather than trying to yank them off the top, and it works. The entire time he's walking her through this, he's remaining entirely calm even though visibly he's extremely tense.

An earlier version of Anakin would have been Moving mountains to get to them. By the time Ahsoka is done moving the rocks, everyone else is dead. This mission is taking a toll on her. She's trying to check Rexs vital signs but he's unconscious and she doesn't know if it's safe to move him due to the risk of spinal cord injuries. Her voice sounds wobbly when she says "I don't know what to do" and Anakin has to firmly cut her off and offer a solution: lay both her hands on Rex and check if she can feel his injuries through the Force. It's a Force healing technique that beginners can Learn easily enough. Rex wakes up though and says that he can still wiggle his toes, legs, arms, and hands, but that other things are definitely wrong. He more than likely has a concussion and internal damaging, so he still can't be moved. Anakin asks Ahsoka what she thinks She's meant to do next. She calls a medevac, which is almost a blow to her pride because she'd been hoping that she would solve the problem and save the day the way she's seen anakin do a dozen times by now.

Parched

Gonna write a scene or two for my idea of some clones as vampires because it's in my head and I'm gonna consider it writing practice. Enjoy:

"Rex, you alright?" Rex blinks at Anakin. He's been awake for way too long and he wants nothing more than for this report to be over so he can rest, because that mission was long and slow and he's as exhausted as he is thirsty and this delay is not helping. "Just a little thirsty sir." General Skywalker nods and turns back to the holotable. Cody glances at Rex and subtly taps his wrist. Rex nods. Thankfully the meeting ends shortly after and Cody all but literally drags Rex away. "Really Cody-" "Shut up." Cody replies absently, pushing Rex into his room and following him inside. "How are you and the rest holding up outside of missions?" Rex rolls his eyes. "Mother hen. We're fine. It's the one ration we don't have to really worry about being short of." He finishes taking his armor off, frowns, and says "I could really uses a fresher. I smell terrible." "Drink first. I'm not having you fall over from thirst." Cody sits on the bunk, holding out a raised wrist. Rex rolls his eyes, muttering "mother hen" again, but he sits and takes Cody's wrist so that he can sink his teeth into the delicate veins. Cody barely winces at the bite and watches some of the tension ease out of his little brother's shoulders as Rex drinks, and lifts his other hand to gently run it over Rex's head. "I've got you Rex." Rex hums, gently pulling his teeth from skin to take a breath before sinking back. Cody leans against the wall and lets his brother drink his blood while he turns over the previous mission in his mind, trying to process the reports he'll need to make. When Rex is finished he leans against Cody's shoulder, stealing the small tube of bacta to put it over the tiny marks. "Thanks Cody." "No problem. Come on. You really do need that fresher." "Like you're any better."

Screw Procedure

I heard it’s “whumptober”

Here’s a rare piece form Cody POV.

Warnings; blood, injuries, barbed wire, off-screen pain for Rex I’m sorry. 

Day 1: barbed wire

Keep reading

Ruined, Or Not

“Jesse, so help me….” Rex was the image of stoicism, but his facial muscles were pulled so tight they ached.

General Skywalker snorted, clearly against his original intentions, and scrambled to cover the slip with a halfhearted representation of the typical placid Jedi face. Unfortunately, Rex knew his commanding officer far too well. The man was anything but sedate.

If Rex hadn’t known better - hadn’t seen him dismember entire squadrons of droids without even having to think about it - he’d have assumed the general was a shiny long ago.

And Jesse just grinned wider, the damage done.

From across the room, with the medics, Kix was already giving him a death glare. Hardcase, to Jesse’s left, shook with repressed laughter, his face morphing to a rainbow of colors that Rex was determined to not find even close to funny right now.

“Three….two….one….” the photographer called.

Fives lost it first. And the legion was doomed from there.

*******

“I’m sorry, but that is priceless!” Padmé dissolved into laughter, holding the holopic aloft. “May I keep it?”

And Rex had to smile.

The photo was a disaster. GAR command was not pleased. But if they were looking for an “accurate representation of your legion”, they really weren’t going to get more accurate than this.

They were all laughing, in hysterics from row to row. Hands froze where they found brothers’ backs, arms rested around best friends’ backs, and there wasn’t a single face that wasn’t painted in layers of exuberance. Their smile lines dug into their faces, their hair swept carelessly out of the way, their tattoos and the paintings on their armor beaming under the lights.

Even Skywalker had been roaring with laughter, Ahsoka doubled over next to him gasping for breath. And Rex stood in the middle of it all, his fingers strewn across his face in complete and utter hopelessness.

“You’d want to?”

“Of course!” Padmé’s smile softened. “So often we dehumanize and take for granted who you are. I wish everyone could see this kind of joy.”

Rex sighed. “It’s a terrible picture.”

“Well. I must disagree, captain.” She looked down at it again, bathing her features in blue as her smile crept forward again. “Aren’t you glad they can laugh like this?”

The crinkles by Kix’s eyes. The elation on Fives’s face. Echo, laughing so hard tears leaked down his cheeks. Jesse grinning so wide his lips hurt. Hardcase, cackling uncontrollably and gasping for a breath. The shinies, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, giggling together like they finally believed they belonged.

Yeah, by the GAR’s standards, the picture was ruined.

But all Rex had ever wanted was for them to forget their burdens, for a second.

“Yeah,” he said, and something scratched in the back of his throat. Padmé turned her gaze back to him, one side of her mouth turning almost furtively upwards. It was warm. Caring. There was something steady in it, something sure.

“Yeah,” Rex rasped again. Like he could still feel the unhinged chortles he’d tried so hard to hide.

Now, he wished he hadn’t.

*******

Awwwwwh, Rex.

My headcanon is that Padmé and Rex have a lil moment during switch day. She comes across the angry message from GAR command, convinces Rex to show her the offense, and is enraptured. They're all her babies.

I was a little unsure about writing a "Family Picture" for @clonetober, but once I got going I think it went okay! In this case, it's a bit of a curse to be a writer instead of an artist. I wish I could have this image for myself - but a mental picture will have to do.

They're okay, Rex.

Angstober Day 21

Can’t Save Everyone

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Sea Shadow

He exchanges a look with an equally desperate, confused looking Ahsoka. It’s reminding him so much of Mortis suddenly, of when the Son was controlling her and she attacked him. He doesn’t want to have to face that from Rex too, only months later. Everything that happened there still haunts him sometimes.

“Rex, it’s doing something to you,” he says, “Remember what I said about it influencing minds?”

Rex blinks, staring at him. “Yes. But it’s not here. This is…”

One of the Gungans yowls and jumps at them, half-blindly. It hits Ahsoka, and they tumble to the ground, rolling through the grass.

Why is he attacking her?

What’s happening to them? It’s like they’re all being mind-controlled, and he doesn’t know what to do, to stop it. Probably, they have to kill that thing.

Anakin yanks the Gungan off her with the Force, sprinting over to position himself between them and her. They’ll never be able to take everyone with them, either way. They’ll have to take Rex now, and come back for the others, as much as he doesn’t want to leave anyone else behind. There’s no choice. That doesn’t make him loath it any less, how it feels like he’s abandoning all the rest to their fates.

“Rex come, we need to go,” Anakin urges. Distantly, he can hear loud splashing. This is bad. The creature must be coming. “We have to leave now.”

“I can’t do that, sir,” he objects, though he takes a few steps closer.

They don’t have time to wait. If they don’t get out now, they won’t. And he doesn’t want to get Rex to the ship like this, but there’s no other choice. He picks him up with the Force, pulling him closer, setting him down lightly in the back, before he and Ahsoka Force-jump after – She obviously picked up on the same level of urgency.

The Gungans are snarling in noises Gungans shouldn’t even be able to make, starting towards them.

Just one more for Sans rest day, @undertalethingems made a great list of drawing ideas and I really loved the one of him and Alphys going to a museum to nerd out so I drew them into my local museum

Angstober Day 25

Mind-control / Brainwash

Spoiler: This is an excerpt from Inheritance, a fic we have yet to release. ^-^

It’s probably been close to an hour by now though Anakin’s not exactly sure when he finally pulls himself up onto a higher platform of the building. Right up ahead, light glints off a familiar armored figure, who’s standing his back facing him.

“Rex?” Anakin calls cautiously, taking a step towards him.

Something about his presence just feels off. Almost… double maybe. And he can sense the Son right around here, but he doesn’t actually see him anywhere.

“Rex?” he calls again when the clone doesn’t respond, “Come on, let’s go.”

Finally, he slowly turns around. “We can’t,” he objects, “He’s right. Right about everything. You have to join him.”

That’s… totally unlike him. Both what he’s saying, and the way he’s saying it. What did the Son do to him? “Rex, what’s wrong?” Anakin asks warily.

“What’s wrong?” he repeats like that’s the stupidest question he’s ever heard, “What should I go back for? To fight in a war I have no say in? As a slave to the Jedi?” Anakin flinches back at the unexpected question. He’s not exactly wrong. That is all the clones are, slaves to the Jedi and the Republic. They have no say in any of it, and even if they didn’t want to fight, it wouldn’t matter. He tries to take care of his own clones as well as he can, but he knows other Jedi aren’t the same way.

But he needs to focus on the situation at hand right now, not… this. An issue that bothers him all the time even if he never talks about it to anyone. “This isn’t you, Rex. He did something to you.” That he knows for sure. Rex may have a point, but he would never say something like that in his right mind. It’s not the way he is. It’s like – like the Son is somehow controlling his mind, and Anakin clings to that hope, because he refuses to believe that the man who’s always had his back would turn on him like this.

“He did nothing to me,” the clone retorts, “He just asked me to give you a message.”

“What?” Anakin demands, cautious and suspicious.

“He said if you don’t join him, he will kill me.” What?! No, he’s never going to let that happen.

“I won’t let him!”

“Then you will do it yourself,” Rex snarls suddenly, whipping out his blasters and open firing. Only years of constant training allow him to react in time, diving out of the way as the shots tear into the ground around him. He hastily ignites his lightsaber, deflecting the shots away, trying to avoid sending any of them too close to Rex as he does so.

No, just no. He doesn’t want to fight him. He can’t fight him. He’s like – something almost like a brother. Anakin takes a few steps back as Rex keeps shooting at him, then jumps down from the ledge and continues advancing towards him. The only way he’ll be able to stop this is if he stops just defending himself and disarms Rex. Somehow, without hurting him.

“I don’t want to fight you, Rex,” he says, but the clone doesn’t even respond, just keeps firing.

Fine. He raises a hand, Force shoving Rex into the wall behind him and ripping away his blasters with the Force, him in place. The captain strains against the Force grip, but it doesn’t break. This doesn’t really solve the problem of how he’s going to free him from whatever the Son did to him.

He’s still pondering it when Obi-Wan runs into view, pulling out his lightsaber. “Any suggestions?”

“The Daughter said she might be able to do something to break the mind control, but she’s fighting the Son right now.”

Then what are they supposed to do?

Sneak peek at the next thing on my to-do list

Shortly after the mission to the Citadel, Rex, Fives, and Jesse stumble across an artifact that permanently changes Rex. With his newfound abilities, he must navigate the war as it draws to a close...

There was a stone in his boot. Rex glared down at his feet as if that would make the stone leave, but it was still irritatingly there. It was small, of course, just barely big enough for him to feel it, but it was right on the arch of his foot, where it was most tender. Chalking up a blister before it even formed, he sighed, readjusting his hold on his blaster pistols. Jesse looked over at him. “Chin up, Captain, just because we haven’t found anything yet doesn’t mean there’s nothing to find.” “I think we’re supposed to want there to be nothing to find,” Fives grumbled, kicking a clump of grass as the walked through the narrow canyon that led out toward the grasslands from the small abandoned settlement the rest of the 501st had set up camp in. “Looking for a Seppie base, remember?” “I remember,” Jesse said, nudging Fives with his elbow, “Just like I remember you leaping at the chance to go exploring.”

“That was before I knew that ‘exploring’ just meant wandering down a straight path,” Fives shot back.

Ordinarily, Rex would have scolded Fives for his tone, but as it was, it had been less than a month since he’d lost his ori’vod, Echo, so he cut him some slack. Gesturing with his pistol, he ushered the other two troopers down the canyon, scanning the walls as he did.

It was only because of that that he noticed the small crack in the wall, just large enough for someone to squeeze through. “Fives, Jesse,” he called, drawing their attention before carefully making his way through the crack.

As the other two followed, he took the opportunity to look around the tunnel the crack had led into. It didn’t look naturally created, the walls rough and uneven in a way that made him think it had been carved out by the local fauna, but the ceilings were tall, stretching above his head and making him feel small. Some sort of bioluminescent fungus grew on the walls, giving the place a dim lighting. Squaring his shoulders, he flicked on his headlamp anyway, not wanting to stumble over anything in the low light.

Fives and Jesse managed to get into the tunnel behind him, and Rex gestured for them to start making their way through the cave. Rex led the way, the others’ headlamps bouncing off the walls as they looked around.

The tunnel meandered for some distance. Right as Rex was about to call a halt so he could finally get the stupid rock out of his boot, they rounded a corner and Rex sucked in a breath. In the middle of the small cavern they found themselves in was what looked like an altar of some sort, lit by sunlight filtering through an overgrown hole in the ceiling.

Floating above the table was something Rex had only seen once before. Jesse seemed to recognize it as well, as he straightened. “Is that a Jedi holocron, sir?”

“It looks like.” Rex glanced around the chamber, noting some smashed pottery in the corners and faded flecks of paint on the walls. “This looks Jedi enough, must have been a meditation spot or something.”

“Should we comm the general, sir?” Fives asked, looking worried. He hadn’t been with the 501st during the original Jedi holocron incident, but he’d heard stories, and Rex thought he was right to be afraid. Force only knew what the Seppies could have done with this if they’d learned it was here.

Rex nodded. “Might as well try. I’ve no clue if the signal will get out, but with the hole in the ceiling, it’s worth a shot.”

Fives nodded and stepped forward, activating his comm. “This is ARC trooper Fives, calling forward camp. Do you read me?” Static over the line, and Fives cursed before trying again.

This time, someone answered. “Fives, we read you,” General Skywalker’s voice sounded tinny and was layered with static, but it was there. “What’s the situation?”

“We’ve, uh, discovered a Jedi artifact in a cave, sir.”

Skywalker sounded surprised. “A what? Nevermind, how do you know it’s Jedi?”

“Well, it’s floating in midair, sir, and I’m not detecting any magnetic field holding it up,” Fives said, a hint of sass in his voice, and Rex, removing his helmet, shot him a look.

It didn’t sound like Skywalker minded. “Okay, okay. Does it look dangerous?”

“No, sir. It’s just floating there.”

Jesse made to touch it, and Rex grabbed his arm, holding him back. “Not till the general says to,” he said in an undertone, and Jesse nodded.

“Bring it back to base,” Skywalker was saying, “But be careful. There’s no telling how long it’s been there, and what defenses it could have. I don’t want you boys getting buried if the cave collapses.”

“Copy that, sir. Fives out.” Fives cut the connection and turned to Rex. “Well, sir, I think it’d be best we got out of here.”

Rex nodded, then reached out. What happened next happened in a blur. His fingertips brushed the holocron, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up, right before pain like he’d never known ripped through him. He was vaguely aware that he screamed, but he wasn’t aware enough to stop himself. Lightning was ripping his cells apart, searing his DNA, and stitching the cells back together.

He heard more than saw the holocron drop and the boys run forward. The next thing he knew, Jesse’s familiar helmet was in his face, and his frantic voice was calling for Rex to respond, but before Rex could open his mouth, a fog rapidly crawled into his vision, thickening before finally everything went black.