The Fourth Addition To The ‘Bad Batchers As Horses’ Series. Here We Have Echo, The Grumpy One Of

Some more art of my OC Varel and Crosshair

Baby Crosshair doodle

I need him. HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN AS FLUFFY ANAKIN SKYWALKER

Just a simple Bad Batch fanfiction.

This is how I imagine Crosshair will react when Omega tells him about Tech.

Title: It's Okay To Cry

Word count: 854

It was dark and it was cold. His fingers felt numb, as did his heart, which beat listlessly inside of his emaciated chest. He felt a warm hand on his cheek, and then heard a familiar voice:

“Crosshair… Crosshair, wake up… I need you.”

He groaned. How long had he been in this terrible place? It was difficult to say, but he had a ready answer in his head: too long.

The voice persisted.

“Crosshair… please.”

His eyes flickered. A familiar face swam into view, creased with pain and grief and hopelessness. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. His throat felt dry.

“Crosshair, you're awake.”

He sat up. He was in that kriffing cell again. Omega stood over him. He saw tear tracks on her face and knew she'd been crying. “So they caught you. I warned you to stay away… why… why didn't you listen?” he asked. His disappointment was immeasurable. Why couldn't his brothers and sister just follow orders? Why was it so difficult for them?

Omega touched his shoulder. “Because we’re family. We don't leave our own behind.”

His eyes got a little misty. He looked quickly away, afraid she would see how moved he was by her words. He had to maintain a stern front lest she glimpse the now fractured soul within him.

“We have to get out of here,” she said, grabbing his hand and tugging on it.

“I'm too weak,” he protested. The very thought of attempting an escape seemed to sap him of what little strength he had left. He didn't think he could make it. Worse, he didn't think he'd be able to protect Omega. “How long have you been here?” he asked.

“That doesn't matter,” she answered, taking a seat next to him. “What matters is that we’re together now. I can save you.”

Crosshair passed a hand over his eyes. Even after all he'd done, she was still willing to save him. He didn't understand it. Glancing over at her, he smiled a little, weary and doubtful though he was. He no longer felt alone, no longer felt as though the weight of the world balanced heavily on his shoulders. He decided then and there that he would help Omega escape Mount Tantiss, damn the risks. She didn't deserve to be trapped in this terrible, forsaken place.

“You're right, you know. We must get out of here,” he said.

“But how?” she asked.

Crosshair rested his chin on the palm of his hand. He had a lot of planning to do. He closed his eyes and began to bounce his knee, wracking his brain for ideas. He had a duty to protect Omega at all costs. He would lay down his life for her, if need be. “We wait for the opportune moment,” he told her calmly. He knew it would come. A little dose of patience was all that was needed.

Omega plopped down next to him with an audible huff which ended in a wince. She had cuts and bruises all over her face and she was limping. He wondered about her injuries, but only briefly; his mind was soon filled with their future escape attempt and he could think of nothing else but leaving this place far behind.

Omega tentatively rested her head against his arm. He didn't know how to respond to that and so he simply settled a hand on her knee and gave it a little squeeze.

“I will get you out of here,” he vowed softly.

“I know,” she murmured, sounding exhausted. “I know…”

“If Tech were here,” he muttered more to himself than to Omega, “he would know what to do.”

Omega dropped her gaze and her lip wobbled, something that wasn't missed by Crosshair. His heart gave a painful lurch. He turned to her and, kneeling down, took her shoulders between his hands. He saw pain in her expression. Something had happened.

“Crosshair, Tech… Tech’s gone,” Omega whispered, lifting her head and meeting his gaze. Her eyes were full of pain.

“Gone? What do you mean?”

“He…. Plan 99.”

All at once, Crosshair was hit with a multitude of emotions. He knew a pain so fierce and powerful, he had to sit down. He didn't want to believe it. Tech… the brother he loved most. The brother who understood him.

Tears stung his eyes and he quickly dashed a hand across his face before Omega could see. It was no use. She saw anyway. She sat next to him and took his hand, administering a gentle, comforting squeeze.

“It's okay to cry,” she told him in a voice trembling with grief.

Crosshair put his head in his hands and wept. He didn't hold back. Regret tormented him. Regret that he had chosen the Empire over his brothers. Had he been there when it happened… perhaps he could have saved Tech.

“He sacrificed himself for us,” Omega said softly. “We can't let that be in vain.”

Crosshair turned to her and nodded. No, they couldn't. They would escape Mount Tantiss. He would make sure of it.

Tech Goldfish has himself a new playmate!

@techsbrowneyes and I decided to jump on the Bad Batch action figure band wagon, so here’s a picture of the twins in all their glory:

Beautiful! ❤️

I imagine Crosshair would be the “Hurt her and I’ll kill you” type.

Fan art of Crosshair and an OC named Elayna, who was created by @techsbrowneyes , @crosshairct4, and I.

Not as detailed as my last piece, but I’m trying out different styles to see which ones I like working with.

Here's my Jedi oc, her name is Varel!

I've introduced her on twitter before and I'm also a bit more active there lately, it's twitter.com/zaana_art if anyone wants to follow :)

I just had an argument with an AI supporter

And what I learned is that AI supporters are the most ignorant bunch you could ever imagine.

If someone ever tells you that AI is ‘inevitable’ and a natural step of ‘progress’ I give you my full endorsement to spit in their face. There is nothing inevitable about AI and the only people who want you to think so are filthy rich millionaires who want to get even more filthy rich. Don’t succumb to such transparent propaganda.

I just had someone argue with me and tell me that that’s not something they were told to believe but simply their own opinion. Completely oblivious to the fact that this opinion is being insidiously poured into their mind from every corner – newspapers, tv, online media. I know for a fact that you were reading a piece criticizing the strikes just the other day because you told me so. And yet you think that’s your opinion?

Well, even if it is, then please educate yourself for all our sakes.

Right now AI supporters believe in imaginary bogeymen, rich actors and Hollywood employees who are supposedly swimming in money. That’s exactly how these corporations want you to think. That there’s some privileged other you can stick it to by watching their godforsaken AI movies, filling their pockets with your cash while they pour toilet water down your throat.  

Meanwhile thousands of people on miserly pay are threatened by unemployment. The people who have been toiling and dedicating their life to art and giving you entertainment are threatened to be cast aside and have their livelihood taken away from them. Their work plagiarized by machines who will never understand it, much less make anything meaningful by mincing it and regurgitating valueless slop for some businessman’s profit.

All the people you see in the end credits, those lists that seem to go on forever, suddenly out of a job for years because of one AI generated film.

Someone had the nerve to tell me they would watch an AI movie if it made a good adaptation of the book they’re reading. (Which makes me wonder if Disney’s sh*tty adaptations weren’t planned from the beginning, to make you despise sh*tty adaptations so much that you’d rather turn to AI for them.)

How exactly are you paying respect to something by sentencing it to death? Your books, your movies, you cartoons, your comics, your art, your music, everything you love will be gone once we let AI take over. Because nothing, and I mean nothing, can replace humans when it comes to art. But once once you’ve allowed this to take off, there will be no going back. You will have driven humans out of art because people who are not able to make a living off something will not dedicate their lives to studying it and perfecting it.

They may try but niche hobbies cannot support the thriving landscape that art is supposed to be. Art feeds on time, passion, experience, reward.

But it’s progress, I hear some of them say, it’s machines that make your furniture and your food, that’s something people have lost jobs for too. I’ll say this only once: art is not a commodity. All criticism of capitalism aside, it’s not something you should speed up the making of by removing the human element. Fast production of commodities may be necessary to supply an ever growing population and ensure equal quality of life, give people of smaller means access to more things.

This is not the case for art. This is a false equivalence.

Art has changed and evolved in time but never before has the presence of the human element been threatened with complete removal from the equation. This is an unprecedented threat. Traditional artists have gone digital, playwrights have become screenwriters, authors sell ebooks instead of paperbacks but no matter what medium they work with, artists need to exist. They need to be the ones making art.

Sculptors are still sculptors whether they use clay or 3D software. Artists are still artists whether they use pencils and paper or a tablet. It’s sad to see some artforms go but it’s not nearly as devastating as the idea of purging artists from jobs, from culture.

How can a society be progressive if it sacrifices its creativity?? Its ability to express ideas?

‘Oh but it’s inevitable because in the end the majority of people will watch AI movies’. It doesn’t f*cking matter. You do things because they are right. Not because everyone else is doing it but despite it. You don’t vote because one vote will make a difference. You vote even if you know it won’t make a difference because this is a matter of principle.

Don’t parrot that fatalist bs rhetoric. Dig your heels in. Fight for what’s right. Boycott. Be vocal. Stand your ground and educate others. Even if you never get a pat on the back for it and the bad thing happens anyway.

All a society with herd mentality needs is for you to be a vehicle for ignorant propaganda until we’re all convinced of it to the benefit of those spreading it.

It’s inevitable, I still hear people say (what a lovely buzzword that is) well guess what: so is dying but we’re all still trying to keep alive every day, aren’t we?