Let's Not Talk About How It Took Me Nearly Four Months To Get Around To This.
Apr. 22nd, 2025 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rionaleonhartWhen 2020 was looming, I posted an entry about the media that had made a real impact on me in the 2010s. I had fun with this, but it's hard to narrow things down across an entire decade! Maybe I should start doing these media roundups more frequently? Every half-decade, perhaps?
Oh, hey, it's 2025.
In alphabetical order, here are ten canons from the last five years that I think I'm going to remember! Note that this is media I originally experienced between 2020 and 2024, rather than necessarily being media that was originally released in that period.
1. Celeste. One of my absolute favourite games. Great music, charming characters, satisfying gameplay. It's tough, but I rarely found it frustrating, and I was delighted to realise how much I'd improved when I went back to replay from the beginning. Playing Celeste is a lot like playing the piano, learning the right pattern and timing of button presses through repetition until you can run smoothly through a level. I'll often find myself replaying Celeste levels when I've got a little time and nothing else is grabbing me, in the same way I'll often take a moment to sit at the piano and play a few pieces I know by heart.
2. The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. The relationship between these siblings is just so awful and intimate and fascinating; I can't get enough of it. I want to swim around in all this hideous codependency. When I first drafted this list at the start of the year, I noted, There's a chance I'm being too hasty with this one; I discovered it right before 2024 ended, so I haven't had time to be sure it's going to be a lasting interest. But, having had my mind obliterated by the latest chapter, I can now say with confidence that I am never going to stop thinking about this horrible game.
3. Lost. What an experience! I love it when characters are stranded together and forced to bond under high pressure, and this is an absolutely stellar example. Went in some wild directions, too; I said 'what the fuck' so many times while watching this show. Jack Shephard is a wreck of a man in a way that I find fascinating.
4. Omori. This game fucked me up. A lot of it is fun and charming! And then there are the parts that severely messed with my head. Two separate aspects gave me trouble sleeping. Some really interesting uses of gameplay, including one of the best-executed plot reveals I've ever seen.
5. Person of Interest. In a lot of case-of-the-week shows, the case itself is the least interesting part for me. In Person of Interest, I found the individual weekly cases absolutely gripping. The fact that the murders they're investigating haven't happened yet gives each case a living main character, usually the would-be victim, which makes them so much more fun to watch. I really enjoy Reese as a character, too.
6. Persona 5. I picked up Persona 5 in lockdown, when it was heavily discounted. I'd heard good things about the Persona series, but I'd always been intimidated by how long and complicated the games sounded. Still, it was 2020, and I wasn't able to leave the house, so it seemed like the right time for a hundred-hour RPG. It was an incredible decision. What a stylish, fun game! What great kids! I played it non-stop for a month and a half and had an absolute blast.
7. Persona 4. I was a little concerned about going back to Persona 4 after playing 5. I'd loved Persona 5 so much; what if the previous game was a disappointment? But I ended up loving Persona 4 just as passionately, largely because of Yosuke; he's a good-hearted but slightly shitty disaster of a teenage boy who's helplessly in love with the protagonist, and I find him endlessly endearing.
8. Severance. I've always been compelled by stories about weird things happening to people's memories, and by stories about people developing intense relationships while isolated together, so Severance is essentially the perfect canon for me. By a long way, it's the most gripping show I've ever watched. I'm so nervous when I sit down for a new episode; I never know what to expect!
9. Taskmaster. What a show. It makes me laugh like nothing else. The way it keeps a single set of contestants for each series adds a lot to the experience; you really get to know the contestants and their approaches to these ridiculous tasks over the course of a series. The New Zealand and Australian versions are just as great to watch; Greg Davies remains an unparalleled Taskmaster, but, if I'm honest, Paul Williams is my favourite assistant.
Wait, that's only nine! Okay, I'm going to add a tenth, but this is definitely cheating:
10. Death Note. I absolutely did not first experience Death Note between 2020 and 2024; I've enjoyed it since 2008! But I feel it sort of fits in my 'canons of the last five years' post because I got back into it in 2023 in a way I'd never been into it before. I watched the stage musical, absolutely lost my mind and spent months thinking about nothing but Light Yagami. Let's say the tenth canon here is Death Note: The Musical.
Honourable mention to The Quarry for the burst of intense ficwriting it inspired in me! I wasn't that drawn in by the canon itself, but the potential in Travis and Laura's relationship really grabbed me by the throat.
EDIT: WAIT, I just thought of a legitimate number ten!
10-2: Die Hard. We were locked down for Christmas in 2020, and I was sorry that I couldn't visit my family, but the upside was that I joined in my housemates' Christmas tradition of watching Die Hard. This film was such a delightful surprise for me! I went in expecting a badass, stoic action hero; I got a desperate, terrified mess. I found John McClane's suffering so compelling. What a blast.
Oh, hey, it's 2025.
In alphabetical order, here are ten canons from the last five years that I think I'm going to remember! Note that this is media I originally experienced between 2020 and 2024, rather than necessarily being media that was originally released in that period.
1. Celeste. One of my absolute favourite games. Great music, charming characters, satisfying gameplay. It's tough, but I rarely found it frustrating, and I was delighted to realise how much I'd improved when I went back to replay from the beginning. Playing Celeste is a lot like playing the piano, learning the right pattern and timing of button presses through repetition until you can run smoothly through a level. I'll often find myself replaying Celeste levels when I've got a little time and nothing else is grabbing me, in the same way I'll often take a moment to sit at the piano and play a few pieces I know by heart.
2. The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. The relationship between these siblings is just so awful and intimate and fascinating; I can't get enough of it. I want to swim around in all this hideous codependency. When I first drafted this list at the start of the year, I noted, There's a chance I'm being too hasty with this one; I discovered it right before 2024 ended, so I haven't had time to be sure it's going to be a lasting interest. But, having had my mind obliterated by the latest chapter, I can now say with confidence that I am never going to stop thinking about this horrible game.
3. Lost. What an experience! I love it when characters are stranded together and forced to bond under high pressure, and this is an absolutely stellar example. Went in some wild directions, too; I said 'what the fuck' so many times while watching this show. Jack Shephard is a wreck of a man in a way that I find fascinating.
4. Omori. This game fucked me up. A lot of it is fun and charming! And then there are the parts that severely messed with my head. Two separate aspects gave me trouble sleeping. Some really interesting uses of gameplay, including one of the best-executed plot reveals I've ever seen.
5. Person of Interest. In a lot of case-of-the-week shows, the case itself is the least interesting part for me. In Person of Interest, I found the individual weekly cases absolutely gripping. The fact that the murders they're investigating haven't happened yet gives each case a living main character, usually the would-be victim, which makes them so much more fun to watch. I really enjoy Reese as a character, too.
6. Persona 5. I picked up Persona 5 in lockdown, when it was heavily discounted. I'd heard good things about the Persona series, but I'd always been intimidated by how long and complicated the games sounded. Still, it was 2020, and I wasn't able to leave the house, so it seemed like the right time for a hundred-hour RPG. It was an incredible decision. What a stylish, fun game! What great kids! I played it non-stop for a month and a half and had an absolute blast.
7. Persona 4. I was a little concerned about going back to Persona 4 after playing 5. I'd loved Persona 5 so much; what if the previous game was a disappointment? But I ended up loving Persona 4 just as passionately, largely because of Yosuke; he's a good-hearted but slightly shitty disaster of a teenage boy who's helplessly in love with the protagonist, and I find him endlessly endearing.
8. Severance. I've always been compelled by stories about weird things happening to people's memories, and by stories about people developing intense relationships while isolated together, so Severance is essentially the perfect canon for me. By a long way, it's the most gripping show I've ever watched. I'm so nervous when I sit down for a new episode; I never know what to expect!
9. Taskmaster. What a show. It makes me laugh like nothing else. The way it keeps a single set of contestants for each series adds a lot to the experience; you really get to know the contestants and their approaches to these ridiculous tasks over the course of a series. The New Zealand and Australian versions are just as great to watch; Greg Davies remains an unparalleled Taskmaster, but, if I'm honest, Paul Williams is my favourite assistant.
Wait, that's only nine! Okay, I'm going to add a tenth, but this is definitely cheating:
10. Death Note. I absolutely did not first experience Death Note between 2020 and 2024; I've enjoyed it since 2008! But I feel it sort of fits in my 'canons of the last five years' post because I got back into it in 2023 in a way I'd never been into it before. I watched the stage musical, absolutely lost my mind and spent months thinking about nothing but Light Yagami. Let's say the tenth canon here is Death Note: The Musical.
Honourable mention to The Quarry for the burst of intense ficwriting it inspired in me! I wasn't that drawn in by the canon itself, but the potential in Travis and Laura's relationship really grabbed me by the throat.
EDIT: WAIT, I just thought of a legitimate number ten!
10-2: Die Hard. We were locked down for Christmas in 2020, and I was sorry that I couldn't visit my family, but the upside was that I joined in my housemates' Christmas tradition of watching Die Hard. This film was such a delightful surprise for me! I went in expecting a badass, stoic action hero; I got a desperate, terrified mess. I found John McClane's suffering so compelling. What a blast.
(no subject)
Apr. 21st, 2025 01:20 pmgreghousesgfI have a really bad cold, I must have caught it at the con, there were about a zillion people there. I don't think it's covid. I had to drag myself out of the house to get groceries including cold pills, the only kind they had at the store was some kind I never heard of. They were also out of some things I wanted, including dental floss but I'm too tired to go to other stores. I hope they work. I have to do laundry too, I am currently taking a breather and cooking lunch. Apart from this cold I'm in a good mood.
Only when piglets ascend to beyond the cosmos and achieve a higher plane of existence
Apr. 21st, 2025 12:55 pmkiramoriPiglets are rotund, small-sized lifeforms rich in protein and affection. Their small brains make them poor choices for psychological counseling, but their therapeutic properties must not be overlooked. They thrive in their natural habitat: human households, where they hunt for snacks and belly rubs on a daily basis.
I was a bit bored at a very, very dull class at my college so i decided to model a little pig. I had to texture it home tho, since the pc i was using in college crashed every single time i opened blender materials tab. I just hate my OS classes, i had 3 different teachers in the span of half a semester and half of my classes were online using the god forsaken microsoft teams app (i feel like i don't express how much i hate microsoft in this journal), and they were on saturday too so i attended to two of them at most and did so while i played DDDA or HSR.
I kinda dislike the teacher the college settled with, he explains everything in very technical terms and he has a bit of a poor lecture. His slides are also, absolutely gigantic so it's very had to study them. I will have a exam tomorrow and i''m not really confident about it, he allowed us a single sheet of paper to use as annotation for the exam so now i must condense five hundred slides into one singular front and back paper sheet, it isn't even a blank papersheet since for some reason he wanted us to have the college logo in it so i'm losing space.
My semester is so cursed i'm not having energy to survive most classes, i'm barely awake most of the time at college, i'm drinking coffee again and even snuck a 3ds in my bag so i could play SMT IV to see if i could bear to listen to the whole lecture but it isn't working very well. I don't have a hard time learning something new so i am very laid back in my studies, but this time i'm a bit worried about my grades.
Despite that, and the fact i'm coming home from college 11 PM and having a single corn cob as nutriton most days, i'm okay. Decided to post something a bit more casual since i'm stuck in the college loop and can only manage to post once a week or so. I really appreciated the extended easter holiday, i've been home for 4 days straight barely doing anything other than play BG3 with my other three friends.
Easter was also really nice. My uncle gave me a very expensive pistachio chocolate egg, and i really appreciate it, but it made my dad a bit sad that he only managed to give me a bit of a cheap one, we are struggling a bit on money and these things are getting a little too expensive, but i did my best to show him i appreciated his gift and make he feel loved because i love my dad.
I think that's it for updates, my last short story was a bit of a experimental one, i really like existential horror and tried to bring something like it to my writing. I made that story based on some very cool sonifications NASA did of some of their telescope images, if you haven't seen yet, i think they’re worth checking out.
This is so eerie; I absolutely love it.
So to wrap this post up i will rank from best to worst my favourite states of matter as of april 2025:
1 - Dark Matter Condensate (Theoretical); 2 - Photonic Matter; 3 - Quasi-Time Crystal; 4 - Plasma; 5 - Gas; 6 - Liquid; 7 - Time Crystals; 8 - Neutron-Degenerate Matter; 9 - Electron-Degenerate Matter; 10 - Solid; 11 - Quark-Gluon Plasma; 12 - Quantum Spin Liquid; 13 - Superfluid; 14 - Supersolid; 15 - Supercritical Fluid; 16 - Bose-Einstein Condensate; 17 - Fermionic Condensate; 18 - Topological Matter; 19 - Rydberg Matter(no subject)
Apr. 20th, 2025 06:18 pmgreghousesgfI had so much fun at the My Little Pony convention! Lots of laughs, lots of partying, lots of food, looked at interesting swag. it was a great opportunity to get to know the two friends who invited me better and they are both super super nice and generous. Saw some amazing costumes. my friends gave me a couple of plushies. I swam 16 laps in the pool (first time I had my leg scar exposed in public which I was nervous about but nobody seemed to care or notice). First time I ever played Rock Band and I sang Freebird. I know that has fuck all to do with ponies but it was cool and I went over well. I'm super tired right now, did not sleep well over the weekend but it was worth it
Remixing my own fic: Fives Saves the Galaxy (redux)
Apr. 20th, 2025 06:59 pmsenmutSorry, this one lacks all the flavor ilyena_sylph brings to the table, but I just had to get it down on electrons.
Fives Saves the Galaxy (Redux) (2568 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-7567 | Rex, Ahsoka Tano
Additional Tags: Time Travel Fix-It, Mando'a Language (Star Wars)
Summary:
This place was enough to spook Fives right back into feeling like a cadet, once the world stopping spinning counter to his balance, and he could think past the taste of colors from the world going awry.
How in all the galaxies had he gone from covering Echo's six to this place — oh wait. He shook his head to stop the ringing, which worked exactly opposite of the intent, and glanced at the hand not currently holding a blaster.
Damn. This was some kind of hallucination, Force Thing, or he'd cracked his skull when he tried to catch the weird glowing tube. It was in his hand, but it was not glowing, and he was alone.
Completely alone in a hell-scape littered by dust and ash and debris.
A noise like a hunting raptor brought his head up to see a white bird, one he thought he'd seen on other worlds. He tracked its motion and it swooped toward… a person? His helmet let him zoom, and he saw a Togruta, making them the second living thing he'd found in this place, struggling down a path.
Might be dangerous, but Fives needed answers, and this was his only lead so far.
His fast jog in that direction alerted the person, making them stop and turn, though they did not attempt to make it to him or draw weapons. Just as Fives had almost gotten close enough to make out details beyond 'tall' and 'probably a woman', a ship of a configuration he did not recognize at all, adding to the weirdness of the day.
She — definitely feminine curves — tracked the ship, and he thought she looked very resigned at its leaving. Was it someone leaving her behind on purpose? Had that been her ship?
Who was she? Those were lightsaber hilts next to something like a kama, and armor over her chest as well as on her arms and legs. Something about her looked very familiar, and yet alien to him all at once.
"Well. This is not the kind of ghost I am used to seeing from the Force," the woman said once he was in view. "Nice touch, making the armor look right," and he could tell she wasn't talking to him, so much as about him, and… those marks on her cheeks really brought home why she looked familiar.
He didn't much care for the rest of her coloring — washed out, faded, a sure sign of injury — and she was so tall, so mature, but she had to be his Commander!
"Commander Tano?"
"Not in a very long time, but then… you marched far away even before the end."
Fives should not have let those words spill from his mouth, a rejection of the very idea and adding in all the things he felt about this creepy dead world, even as the bird thing came to alight upon her — his commander's! — shoulder. When he stopped blistering the air, he reached up and swiped the helmet off, so she could see him with her eyes, the real him, not just the bucket.
He wasn't sure that was the best idea as her eyes went all white, and he could almost feel the energy in the air around her. Even as he took a step back, the white faded, and she moved to reach for him, only to stumble.
Instinct had him there, steadying her, and he realized she was injured, probably severely from the marks he could see, and how pale she was. He cast about, hunting for shelter, saw a small portal leading into darkness and not much else.
"Help me get there, Fives, and then we can talk," she said softly.
"Sir, yes sir," he breathed, getting his helmet back on as he felt that she had accepted him for who he was, even if all of this was a karking holo-drama with a bad sense of humor.
Fives won the argument of 'first aid then talking', without actually having to insist all that much. He was noticing how much quieter his Commander was and really not liking it at all. Finally, satisfied all of his kit had been exhausted on her injuries, he settled beside her at her insistence.
"Got a droid popper? I need to show you a trick with it," Ahsoka said, making his curiosity light up. He found one, handing it over, then leaned in as she opened a side to recalibrate it. "This frequency, for this duration," she said, making certain he could see the settings.
"Doesn't look like that would penetrate much more than plastoid, let alone work on any droid I know of," Fives told her dubiously. "But yes sir, I won't forget the settings," he added at her very searching look.
"Good. And Fives? I'm sorry." She thumbed the switch then, and Fives felt a piercing pain in his temple, one that felt like fire inside his skull, making him grab for it. What in all of space had she done — no. What had the longnecks done that a droid popper worked like that on him?!
"Back with me, Fives?" the woman that his Commander was in this bad place was asking, every few seconds, it seemed like, or maybe time was just looping in his head.
"Yes, Commander." He brought his face up and met her eyes. "All of us?"
The sadness in her eyes said far too much, and he had to get up, walk away, just walk and move, though he didn't leave the small chamber they had found. He just kept moving.
Ahsoka Tano was an adult with montrals and lekku to rival General Ti's. There were no vod'e on her six, no one with her. She carried herself with precision, contained in the same way that older clones who had been through harrowing losses were.
There was a chip in their heads, and she had not only known about it, but short-circuited it before giving him a sit-rep.
The math was adding up to an ugly story, one he didn't want to hear, but one he knew he had to. Only… was there any good in hearing it, if he was here-now?
"How many died?"
"Too many. Vod'e and Jedi alike," she told him, voice soft and hurting. "I've rescued the ones I could, Fives. But… it doesn't help me deal with the pain anymore than it helps Rex to know he saved me."
At that, Fives came back to her, squatting in front of her, eyes lighting. "The Captain made it?"
"Yes. Him, Wolffe, Gregor — you wouldn't know him. They escaped the initial order that turned the chips on and took all of you from us." She reached out, a slender finger tracing his tat on his forehead. "You made it possible for Rex, but we lost you in that terrible mess. He told me the story, when we were hiding together.
"But now, with you here? Maybe — Maybe the Force can undo it all."
"How?" he asked her. "I mean, I want to. I'll do anything to save my brothers and the Jedi. But… how?"
She smiled. "I tell you a long story, with all of the details I know. Then you go back. I should be able to figure that much out, or the Force wouldn't have brought you to me."
Fives really took stock of her again, seeing a woman whose early confidence was now backed by fire-annealed skills. If she could make the Force do what she wanted it to —
— he wasn't going to argue. Any chance to save his brothers and the Jedi was to be taken.
"Fives?"
Echo's voice was overriding the taste of color and the sound of odors. All that Fives had learned burned in his head, written in a script he couldn't read on scavenged flimsi inside his blacks. He could feel it there, pressing against his skin like the mission he now had.
One way or another, he was going to save them all. He couldn't bear the thought of failure.
"I'm fine," he told his batch-brother, making certain that he hadn't missed any time — the commander had said he should flit right back into the moment the thing had taken him from. "Thought I saw something, but it's gone now." Not quite a lie, which made him feel better. Echo deserved truth, always, but at the same time, he couldn't bog his brother down with the weight of what was coming.
Tarkin was definitely a dead man if they wound up going on that mission, though.
He just kept his eyes focused ahead, working on clearing this sweep mission, as the need to save everyone burned in the back of his mind. He was going to need to win the Captain over, to get him to Wolffe, but Ahsoka had given him enough pieces to know how to do that.
It almost amused him, to know she had never let go of that deep bond with Captain Rex, and he wondered if it had grown to something personal, just to keep himself from going crazy.
While Fives hated bothering the Captain in his off-time, it was also the only way he was going to talk to the man alone. He saw Jesse and Kix were occupied, ruling out the rare comfort the Captain would take with their medic, and headed through the ship until he got to the cabin Rex had conceded was closer to the bridge and offered privacy for counseling soldiers in need.
He was let in to see the Commander — looking short and baby-plump cheeks with short montrals like she ought to — in with the Captain and debated how to go about this. He knew he could not involve their General, but he hadn't been warned about Ahsoka herself.
"Fives," Rex said, sitting on the edge of the berth while Ahsoka sat on the small desk, swinging her feet a little. She was searching Fives' face which felt a little unnerving after being with the older version for several days.
"I wanted to show you something I found out about the droid poppers, sir," Fives began, deciding that the first move in this was an exact copy of the Commander's with him. He settled on the Captain's side, trying not to fumble under those intent looks from Ahsoka Tano, or just the sheer physicality of invading The Captain's space. Rex leaned over when Fives opened the droid popper, and just frowned a little at the reset of the parameters.
"Doesn't look effective for much, from what little I can remember about them," Rex said.
"Only, it will help us, sir, with a persistent problem," Fives told him, before thumbing the switch for immediate use. Just as he'd done, Rex raised a hand to his temple, eyes wincing shut, face in a grimace… and Ahsoka all but teleported herself to Rex's other side, eyes not on the Captain but on Fives, even as she used instinctive Force-healing on the spot paining their captain.
"The nightmare."
Ahsoka's flat voice on those two words made Fives' eyes go wide. He knew she was Commander Vod'ika, considered more one of them than Jedi sometimes, but she knew?! Who had —
She trilled something, a familiar sound that had been used as whistle code among the cadets, a sound that meant comfort and safety and protection.
"I… you… yes, sir. The Nightmare." He set the expended popper down, and got an arm around the Captain's shoulders as Rex was bringing himself under control.
"What. The. Kriff."
"I told you I dreamed about those years again, of seeing all of you, of feeling your worries," Ahsoka said patiently. "Apparently Fives is now a part of whatever it is tying me to all of you in this."
"You don't know the half of it, sir," Fives said fervently.
"Knock off the rank stuff in here, Fives," Ahsoka told him. "I came to talk to Rex about it, he said it started for him on last sleep and he decided to go do target practice, so I wasn't channeling it off of him… which means some of the other first years probably are having it again.
"If you can help us understand, starting with what you just did to Rexter, we can start fixing it."
"The longnecks put a chip in us, to make us perfectly obedient… to the correct orders, when the time came," Fives said quietly, hoping these quarters were shielded enough to keep the General from appearing. The color Ahsoka turned, and the absolute wretched look on Rex's face said they had followed the right thought-paths… and Fives breathed out. "We can stop it.
"Because the Force decided to show me a future. One we're going to send to haran now," Fives said with all confidence.
"Trying to become a jetii now?" Rex said, dark humor flavoring the words, before he looked at Ahsoka, who had not left his side. "General?"
"No," she and Fives answered in one breath, before she tipped her head to Fives.
"He's got the Force-equivalent of the damned chip in his head, because the order can only come from one man," Fives whispered, ready to defend the truth he knew if he had to. "I don't like it, but… I can't disbelieve, not after having the chip fried in my head when I had no idea about it."
Several long minutes passed, and this time it was Rex putting an arm around Ahsoka, letting her turn into his shoulder for comfort, before Fives got to outline what he knew, and the plan that the adult Ahsoka had helped him work out.
The 104th got assigned to a long joint mission with the 501st on the 'front line' furthest from Coruscant. Every emergency designed to pull Anakin Skywalker back to the center of things was diverted by another Jedi or unit. Naboo's Senator was rumored to have two Jedi Sentinels in her bodyguards.
A mysterious headache swept through the Grand Army of the Republic but had no discernible cause. A handful of high-ranking Fleet officers had malfunctions during evac drills. And several Senators suddenly had all of their funds frozen, pending investigation from the Security Council, based on anonymous tips.
Fives never got close to the cause of it all, but the holos of CorSec attempting to arrest the Chancellor on charges of bribery, mismanagement of funds, and inciting riots let he and his brothers see their own people take down a Sith. Too many died… and yet. It was a tiny fraction of the deaths that would be, that had already happened, because two Sith chose to play a dejarik game with the prize being the destruction of the Jedi and the Republic.
Sometimes, after, Fives would swear that he heard that strange bird of the Force, or saw a white light centered on his Commander when there was no explanation for it. He tried to push it away, tried to just be grateful she wouldn't have to be that stately woman carrying the pain of the galaxy on her shoulders.
And no one but she, Rex, and Master Plo Koon had to know he'd had anything to do with unraveling it all, something he was glad of, as Fox and Thire became the Faces of their people for their part in it all. Fives was content to face a new future with Echo at his side.
ilyena_sylph brings to the table, but I just had to get it down on electrons.Fives Saves the Galaxy (Redux) (2568 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-7567 | Rex, Ahsoka Tano
Additional Tags: Time Travel Fix-It, Mando'a Language (Star Wars)
Summary:
A Force Thing shoves Fives to his Commander... right after she faces Vader.
Fives Saves the Galaxy (Redux)
This place was enough to spook Fives right back into feeling like a cadet, once the world stopping spinning counter to his balance, and he could think past the taste of colors from the world going awry.
How in all the galaxies had he gone from covering Echo's six to this place — oh wait. He shook his head to stop the ringing, which worked exactly opposite of the intent, and glanced at the hand not currently holding a blaster.
Damn. This was some kind of hallucination, Force Thing, or he'd cracked his skull when he tried to catch the weird glowing tube. It was in his hand, but it was not glowing, and he was alone.
Completely alone in a hell-scape littered by dust and ash and debris.
A noise like a hunting raptor brought his head up to see a white bird, one he thought he'd seen on other worlds. He tracked its motion and it swooped toward… a person? His helmet let him zoom, and he saw a Togruta, making them the second living thing he'd found in this place, struggling down a path.
Might be dangerous, but Fives needed answers, and this was his only lead so far.
His fast jog in that direction alerted the person, making them stop and turn, though they did not attempt to make it to him or draw weapons. Just as Fives had almost gotten close enough to make out details beyond 'tall' and 'probably a woman', a ship of a configuration he did not recognize at all, adding to the weirdness of the day.
She — definitely feminine curves — tracked the ship, and he thought she looked very resigned at its leaving. Was it someone leaving her behind on purpose? Had that been her ship?
Who was she? Those were lightsaber hilts next to something like a kama, and armor over her chest as well as on her arms and legs. Something about her looked very familiar, and yet alien to him all at once.
"Well. This is not the kind of ghost I am used to seeing from the Force," the woman said once he was in view. "Nice touch, making the armor look right," and he could tell she wasn't talking to him, so much as about him, and… those marks on her cheeks really brought home why she looked familiar.
He didn't much care for the rest of her coloring — washed out, faded, a sure sign of injury — and she was so tall, so mature, but she had to be his Commander!
"Commander Tano?"
"Not in a very long time, but then… you marched far away even before the end."
Fives should not have let those words spill from his mouth, a rejection of the very idea and adding in all the things he felt about this creepy dead world, even as the bird thing came to alight upon her — his commander's! — shoulder. When he stopped blistering the air, he reached up and swiped the helmet off, so she could see him with her eyes, the real him, not just the bucket.
He wasn't sure that was the best idea as her eyes went all white, and he could almost feel the energy in the air around her. Even as he took a step back, the white faded, and she moved to reach for him, only to stumble.
Instinct had him there, steadying her, and he realized she was injured, probably severely from the marks he could see, and how pale she was. He cast about, hunting for shelter, saw a small portal leading into darkness and not much else.
"Help me get there, Fives, and then we can talk," she said softly.
"Sir, yes sir," he breathed, getting his helmet back on as he felt that she had accepted him for who he was, even if all of this was a karking holo-drama with a bad sense of humor.
Fives won the argument of 'first aid then talking', without actually having to insist all that much. He was noticing how much quieter his Commander was and really not liking it at all. Finally, satisfied all of his kit had been exhausted on her injuries, he settled beside her at her insistence.
"Got a droid popper? I need to show you a trick with it," Ahsoka said, making his curiosity light up. He found one, handing it over, then leaned in as she opened a side to recalibrate it. "This frequency, for this duration," she said, making certain he could see the settings.
"Doesn't look like that would penetrate much more than plastoid, let alone work on any droid I know of," Fives told her dubiously. "But yes sir, I won't forget the settings," he added at her very searching look.
"Good. And Fives? I'm sorry." She thumbed the switch then, and Fives felt a piercing pain in his temple, one that felt like fire inside his skull, making him grab for it. What in all of space had she done — no. What had the longnecks done that a droid popper worked like that on him?!
"Back with me, Fives?" the woman that his Commander was in this bad place was asking, every few seconds, it seemed like, or maybe time was just looping in his head.
"Yes, Commander." He brought his face up and met her eyes. "All of us?"
The sadness in her eyes said far too much, and he had to get up, walk away, just walk and move, though he didn't leave the small chamber they had found. He just kept moving.
Ahsoka Tano was an adult with montrals and lekku to rival General Ti's. There were no vod'e on her six, no one with her. She carried herself with precision, contained in the same way that older clones who had been through harrowing losses were.
There was a chip in their heads, and she had not only known about it, but short-circuited it before giving him a sit-rep.
The math was adding up to an ugly story, one he didn't want to hear, but one he knew he had to. Only… was there any good in hearing it, if he was here-now?
"How many died?"
"Too many. Vod'e and Jedi alike," she told him, voice soft and hurting. "I've rescued the ones I could, Fives. But… it doesn't help me deal with the pain anymore than it helps Rex to know he saved me."
At that, Fives came back to her, squatting in front of her, eyes lighting. "The Captain made it?"
"Yes. Him, Wolffe, Gregor — you wouldn't know him. They escaped the initial order that turned the chips on and took all of you from us." She reached out, a slender finger tracing his tat on his forehead. "You made it possible for Rex, but we lost you in that terrible mess. He told me the story, when we were hiding together.
"But now, with you here? Maybe — Maybe the Force can undo it all."
"How?" he asked her. "I mean, I want to. I'll do anything to save my brothers and the Jedi. But… how?"
She smiled. "I tell you a long story, with all of the details I know. Then you go back. I should be able to figure that much out, or the Force wouldn't have brought you to me."
Fives really took stock of her again, seeing a woman whose early confidence was now backed by fire-annealed skills. If she could make the Force do what she wanted it to —
— he wasn't going to argue. Any chance to save his brothers and the Jedi was to be taken.
"Fives?"
Echo's voice was overriding the taste of color and the sound of odors. All that Fives had learned burned in his head, written in a script he couldn't read on scavenged flimsi inside his blacks. He could feel it there, pressing against his skin like the mission he now had.
One way or another, he was going to save them all. He couldn't bear the thought of failure.
"I'm fine," he told his batch-brother, making certain that he hadn't missed any time — the commander had said he should flit right back into the moment the thing had taken him from. "Thought I saw something, but it's gone now." Not quite a lie, which made him feel better. Echo deserved truth, always, but at the same time, he couldn't bog his brother down with the weight of what was coming.
Tarkin was definitely a dead man if they wound up going on that mission, though.
He just kept his eyes focused ahead, working on clearing this sweep mission, as the need to save everyone burned in the back of his mind. He was going to need to win the Captain over, to get him to Wolffe, but Ahsoka had given him enough pieces to know how to do that.
It almost amused him, to know she had never let go of that deep bond with Captain Rex, and he wondered if it had grown to something personal, just to keep himself from going crazy.
While Fives hated bothering the Captain in his off-time, it was also the only way he was going to talk to the man alone. He saw Jesse and Kix were occupied, ruling out the rare comfort the Captain would take with their medic, and headed through the ship until he got to the cabin Rex had conceded was closer to the bridge and offered privacy for counseling soldiers in need.
He was let in to see the Commander — looking short and baby-plump cheeks with short montrals like she ought to — in with the Captain and debated how to go about this. He knew he could not involve their General, but he hadn't been warned about Ahsoka herself.
"Fives," Rex said, sitting on the edge of the berth while Ahsoka sat on the small desk, swinging her feet a little. She was searching Fives' face which felt a little unnerving after being with the older version for several days.
"I wanted to show you something I found out about the droid poppers, sir," Fives began, deciding that the first move in this was an exact copy of the Commander's with him. He settled on the Captain's side, trying not to fumble under those intent looks from Ahsoka Tano, or just the sheer physicality of invading The Captain's space. Rex leaned over when Fives opened the droid popper, and just frowned a little at the reset of the parameters.
"Doesn't look effective for much, from what little I can remember about them," Rex said.
"Only, it will help us, sir, with a persistent problem," Fives told him, before thumbing the switch for immediate use. Just as he'd done, Rex raised a hand to his temple, eyes wincing shut, face in a grimace… and Ahsoka all but teleported herself to Rex's other side, eyes not on the Captain but on Fives, even as she used instinctive Force-healing on the spot paining their captain.
"The nightmare."
Ahsoka's flat voice on those two words made Fives' eyes go wide. He knew she was Commander Vod'ika, considered more one of them than Jedi sometimes, but she knew?! Who had —
She trilled something, a familiar sound that had been used as whistle code among the cadets, a sound that meant comfort and safety and protection.
"I… you… yes, sir. The Nightmare." He set the expended popper down, and got an arm around the Captain's shoulders as Rex was bringing himself under control.
"What. The. Kriff."
"I told you I dreamed about those years again, of seeing all of you, of feeling your worries," Ahsoka said patiently. "Apparently Fives is now a part of whatever it is tying me to all of you in this."
"You don't know the half of it, sir," Fives said fervently.
"Knock off the rank stuff in here, Fives," Ahsoka told him. "I came to talk to Rex about it, he said it started for him on last sleep and he decided to go do target practice, so I wasn't channeling it off of him… which means some of the other first years probably are having it again.
"If you can help us understand, starting with what you just did to Rexter, we can start fixing it."
"The longnecks put a chip in us, to make us perfectly obedient… to the correct orders, when the time came," Fives said quietly, hoping these quarters were shielded enough to keep the General from appearing. The color Ahsoka turned, and the absolute wretched look on Rex's face said they had followed the right thought-paths… and Fives breathed out. "We can stop it.
"Because the Force decided to show me a future. One we're going to send to haran now," Fives said with all confidence.
"Trying to become a jetii now?" Rex said, dark humor flavoring the words, before he looked at Ahsoka, who had not left his side. "General?"
"No," she and Fives answered in one breath, before she tipped her head to Fives.
"He's got the Force-equivalent of the damned chip in his head, because the order can only come from one man," Fives whispered, ready to defend the truth he knew if he had to. "I don't like it, but… I can't disbelieve, not after having the chip fried in my head when I had no idea about it."
Several long minutes passed, and this time it was Rex putting an arm around Ahsoka, letting her turn into his shoulder for comfort, before Fives got to outline what he knew, and the plan that the adult Ahsoka had helped him work out.
The 104th got assigned to a long joint mission with the 501st on the 'front line' furthest from Coruscant. Every emergency designed to pull Anakin Skywalker back to the center of things was diverted by another Jedi or unit. Naboo's Senator was rumored to have two Jedi Sentinels in her bodyguards.
A mysterious headache swept through the Grand Army of the Republic but had no discernible cause. A handful of high-ranking Fleet officers had malfunctions during evac drills. And several Senators suddenly had all of their funds frozen, pending investigation from the Security Council, based on anonymous tips.
Fives never got close to the cause of it all, but the holos of CorSec attempting to arrest the Chancellor on charges of bribery, mismanagement of funds, and inciting riots let he and his brothers see their own people take down a Sith. Too many died… and yet. It was a tiny fraction of the deaths that would be, that had already happened, because two Sith chose to play a dejarik game with the prize being the destruction of the Jedi and the Republic.
Sometimes, after, Fives would swear that he heard that strange bird of the Force, or saw a white light centered on his Commander when there was no explanation for it. He tried to push it away, tried to just be grateful she wouldn't have to be that stately woman carrying the pain of the galaxy on her shoulders.
And no one but she, Rex, and Master Plo Koon had to know he'd had anything to do with unraveling it all, something he was glad of, as Fox and Thire became the Faces of their people for their part in it all. Fives was content to face a new future with Echo at his side.
(no subject)
Apr. 20th, 2025 05:27 pmused_songsBusy day at my parents' house today. I tried a new recipe on them and it was a hit.I also made them ham, sauteed asparagus and corn. I always try to give them lots of veggies.
I did a lot of little jobs (changing light bulbs, cleaning, packing up things they want to donate, etc.) and then I also cut down 4 biggish trash trees, chopped them up, and put them in the green waste bin.
I did a lot of little jobs (changing light bulbs, cleaning, packing up things they want to donate, etc.) and then I also cut down 4 biggish trash trees, chopped them up, and put them in the green waste bin.
Various Links 4/14 - 4/20
Apr. 20th, 2025 05:35 pmsenmutSo new job keeps me a little too occupied to surf the net.
NSFW art figures of shibari (presumed female figure)
3-Master responds to sailboat SOS
Bird fishing with bait
Big dog, very much a cat
The Lady Doorman Comic
NSFW art figures of shibari (presumed female figure)
3-Master responds to sailboat SOS
Bird fishing with bait
Big dog, very much a cat
The Lady Doorman Comic
100words response
Apr. 19th, 2025 06:08 pmsenmutTesting Experience (100 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Raérilarr Aerasumé, Original Drow Character(s)
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:
"I could cast a spell, you know," Rae said, but he didn't stop looking for fallen brush that was neither too wet nor too brittle for the fire.
"Father would say that's breaking the spirit of the test," Kastan told him, continuing to work on making a proper camp.
"He said we could use all we were, and I am a wizard."
Kastan looked at him intently. "And you have decades more experience, and you have more woodcraft. But I need to gain those things."
Rae nodded, conceding the point, and kept letting Kastan lead.
His partner had to learn.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Raérilarr Aerasumé, Original Drow Character(s)
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:
Rae and Kastan on a test from Drizzt
Testing Experience
"I could cast a spell, you know," Rae said, but he didn't stop looking for fallen brush that was neither too wet nor too brittle for the fire.
"Father would say that's breaking the spirit of the test," Kastan told him, continuing to work on making a proper camp.
"He said we could use all we were, and I am a wizard."
Kastan looked at him intently. "And you have decades more experience, and you have more woodcraft. But I need to gain those things."
Rae nodded, conceding the point, and kept letting Kastan lead.
His partner had to learn.
Caseficexchange 2025 Letter
Apr. 19th, 2025 03:04 pmmusycDear ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
caseficexchange creator:
Thank you! I'm looking forward to your fic or art!
![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Musyc || ![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
willhavetheirtrinkets|| Exchange App
For all my requests, fandoms I've requested a lot over the years have more detail, but I love all my fandoms equally. I recycle my prompts from exchange to exchange, but this doesn't mean I'll only be happy with those specific prompts! I'm just not great at coming up with new ideas. I'd love it if you picked one, but they're only suggestions! If you hit the vibes of my likes, that's all I need. Check out my all purpose letter for a lot of detail if you want more information on what I enjoy.
Both art and fic are beloved as treats for any of my requests! Art likes.
Things I generally love in any of my requested fandoms:
◈ happy endings ◈ angst or hurt/comfort with happy ending ◈ missing scenes ◈ mysteries (whodunit, cozy, etc.) ◈ 5/n times (+1/n) ◈ outsider pov ◈ friends supporting each other ◈ friends annoying each other (affectionate) ◈ parties and/or gifts ◈ noodle incidents ◈ slice of life ◈ trapped together
Casefic tropes and ideas I love:
◈ Howcatchem over Whodunit
◈ Rashomon-style conflicting narratives (each member of the team tells the story slightly different)
◈ Race against time to: stop the criminal from criming again; stop the execution before the wrong person dies; solve the case before another agency takes over; etc.
◈ Clue-style house party/locked-room mystery
◈ Heists for justice
◈ Characters having an unknown-until-now hobby/interest/skill that leads to a crucial clue
◈ Absolutely positively officially forbidden to XYZ so we're going to do it when no one's looking
◈ Separate cases all turn out to have connections to each other
◈ Even criminals have standards (so they're going to help the heroes)
◈ Friendly competition (team gets a reward) and minor sabotage (how *did* the battery fall out of your phone tsk tsk)
◈ Secondary characters in the spotlight (lab rat/squintern-focused types of stories)
◈ Generally humorous shenanigans
Crime tropes I'm fine with:
◈ Sexual assault/rape (adult)
◈ Murder (adult or child)
◈ Kidnapping (adult or child)
◈ Serial/signature killers
For all fandoms: I'm fine with canon-typical levels of injuries or violence, including that suffered by requested characters. Explosions, GSWs, druggings, kidnappings: All good.
( Requests )
caseficexchange creator:Thank you! I'm looking forward to your fic or art!
For all my requests, fandoms I've requested a lot over the years have more detail, but I love all my fandoms equally. I recycle my prompts from exchange to exchange, but this doesn't mean I'll only be happy with those specific prompts! I'm just not great at coming up with new ideas. I'd love it if you picked one, but they're only suggestions! If you hit the vibes of my likes, that's all I need. Check out my all purpose letter for a lot of detail if you want more information on what I enjoy.
Both art and fic are beloved as treats for any of my requests! Art likes.
Things I generally love in any of my requested fandoms:
◈ happy endings ◈ angst or hurt/comfort with happy ending ◈ missing scenes ◈ mysteries (whodunit, cozy, etc.) ◈ 5/n times (+1/n) ◈ outsider pov ◈ friends supporting each other ◈ friends annoying each other (affectionate) ◈ parties and/or gifts ◈ noodle incidents ◈ slice of life ◈ trapped together
Casefic tropes and ideas I love:
◈ Howcatchem over Whodunit
◈ Rashomon-style conflicting narratives (each member of the team tells the story slightly different)
◈ Race against time to: stop the criminal from criming again; stop the execution before the wrong person dies; solve the case before another agency takes over; etc.
◈ Clue-style house party/locked-room mystery
◈ Heists for justice
◈ Characters having an unknown-until-now hobby/interest/skill that leads to a crucial clue
◈ Absolutely positively officially forbidden to XYZ so we're going to do it when no one's looking
◈ Separate cases all turn out to have connections to each other
◈ Even criminals have standards (so they're going to help the heroes)
◈ Friendly competition (team gets a reward) and minor sabotage (how *did* the battery fall out of your phone tsk tsk)
◈ Secondary characters in the spotlight (lab rat/squintern-focused types of stories)
◈ Generally humorous shenanigans
Crime tropes I'm fine with:
◈ Sexual assault/rape (adult)
◈ Murder (adult or child)
◈ Kidnapping (adult or child)
◈ Serial/signature killers
For all fandoms: I'm fine with canon-typical levels of injuries or violence, including that suffered by requested characters. Explosions, GSWs, druggings, kidnappings: All good.
( Requests )
Weejend Cooking: Buffath, or Curry with Vegetables
Apr. 19th, 2025 04:32 pmsnowynight
Fry one-half pound of meat, finely diced, with onion and curry powder. Add a little water from time to time, so that the meat will be tender and the onions soft. Then add two teacupfuls of water. As soon as water boils add a cupful of sliced radishes, potatoes, carrots, or any vegetables that will not mash. Cook slowly together until vegetables are soft. In India this curry is always acidulated, but that is not necessary. It is a good plan, however, to always serve sliced lemon with all curries, as some prefer them sour.
From The Khaki Kook Book by Mary Kennedy Core (1917)
Fandom50: #8
Apr. 18th, 2025 09:27 pmsenmutSo there are a LOT more than these 10 that I saw, loved, etc. Many that are part of the pop culture museum in my head. But ... I need to focus in on the ones that REALLY stayed with me over the years.
And I refuse to pick a favorite this year. You get my top nine with thoughts plus one that added to my issue with psych thrillers. ( A little wordy )
And I refuse to pick a favorite this year. You get my top nine with thoughts plus one that added to my issue with psych thrillers. ( A little wordy )
rionaleonhartIt's absolutely horrible fanfiction time!
If anyone prefers to read on AO3, I should mention that you won't currently find this on my AO3 account, because I've posted it anonymously for now; it's over here.
I've chosen to post this anonymously at first because, uh, I was recently interviewed about fanfiction for a newspaper article. I don't know whether I'll actually end up getting mentioned in the final article, but, if I am, I don't want unsuspecting newspaper readers to wander over to my AO3 account and discover this as the most recent fic on it; it's a little intense!
Particularly sharp-eyed readers may note that I've given the first warden a gun, when only the second warden had one in canon. This is because I can do what I want and you can't stop me.
Title: we're not going to do better next time
Fandom: The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
Rating: 16
Pairing: Andrew/Ashley
Wordcount: 2,700
Summary: Andrew is caught in a time loop. Infinite chances to get this right. It doesn't help.
Warnings: Sibling incest, (temporary) suicide, abuse, allusions to sexual assault, generally kind of fucked up.
( we're not going to do better next time )
If anyone prefers to read on AO3, I should mention that you won't currently find this on my AO3 account, because I've posted it anonymously for now; it's over here.
I've chosen to post this anonymously at first because, uh, I was recently interviewed about fanfiction for a newspaper article. I don't know whether I'll actually end up getting mentioned in the final article, but, if I am, I don't want unsuspecting newspaper readers to wander over to my AO3 account and discover this as the most recent fic on it; it's a little intense!
Particularly sharp-eyed readers may note that I've given the first warden a gun, when only the second warden had one in canon. This is because I can do what I want and you can't stop me.
Title: we're not going to do better next time
Fandom: The Coffin of Andy and Leyley
Rating: 16
Pairing: Andrew/Ashley
Wordcount: 2,700
Summary: Andrew is caught in a time loop. Infinite chances to get this right. It doesn't help.
Warnings: Sibling incest, (temporary) suicide, abuse, allusions to sexual assault, generally kind of fucked up.
( we're not going to do better next time )
(no subject)
Apr. 17th, 2025 11:01 amgreghousesgfYayyyyyyyy! I got invited to the last Bay area brony convention for the weekend! I'm leaving tomorrow night!