unrepentant | ic contact.

[Rex you literally started it!!!]

Don't worry prying isn't my style. It's just

How'd it get in there in the first place? Did you get a prosthetic? Plates?

["Rex You Literally Started It" aka the title of his memoir, which would probably be ghostwritten by Robot since Rex never finished the seventh grade...]

not exactly either of those things, no

[ Rex hasn't discussed the operation with anyone since it happened, not even Eve, and certainly not in detail.]

i had a surgery when i was around thirteen. my body hasn't really been the same since then

it was a good thing, though

it made me stronger

Stronger huh?

Did you know that it would?

yeah

[He can say this with confidence, although at the time he had been afraid. He wept until his eyes were red and his face burned from all the tears. Rex had clung to Radcliffe's giant hands with an iron grip, only letting go when the anesthesia finally overtook him. Even though he'd been reassured that the procedure was likely to be successful, Rex knew that there was a chance he'd never wake up. The thought of dying at that age, before experiencing his first kiss or first love, or really amounting to anything at all...

It had shaken him to the core.]

i did

Is that why you did it?

[It's curiosity now that snags in him. Thirteen he said. Is he allowed to think that it's young when Ahsoka had been not much older and leading troops? Demanding that he let her follow him into the war.]

i'd say yes, but

[He had caught wind of what was really going on and it had cost him. Well, it had cost Radcliffe, mostly. In some ways Rex could say he got off scot free, he had survived to meet the love of his life, and the GDA was able to erase his seemingly infinite number of criminal offenses from his record. In exchange for his service as a fully-fledged, nationally recognized superhero, he would be protected and given refuge from those who wanted him dead.

To be fair, Cecil Steadman owed him big time. If Rex had made good on his orders, the man would not be alive today.]

i don't really think i had a choice in the matter

[It licks at him like fire does. I don't really think I had a choice in the matter. Anakin has always heard words like that a little differently. They've always landed with more weight, been more dangerously loaded.]

Sounds like one hell of a thing to get mixed up in at thirteen.

you're telling me of all people?

[That would be the Understatement of the Century-]

yeah! i know. and the damage that was done as a result of all that? permanent! fucked me up forever, but

if i didn't go through with it i'd be dead or in jail by now, so. them's the motherfucking breaks

Wouldn't call that much of a choice

Did someone put you up to it? Is that happening to other people?

look, pal

[Rex could tell him the whole story. How he was the first prototype of his kind to have survived the operation successfully. Eve was from another similar set of experiments, the whole lot of them designed to serve as super-weapons against one another. Duking it out for a bunch of disgusting tightwads in suits, the real supervillains of their universe.]

i was hungry, my parents were shit, and i was tired of being tired
what loser thirteen year old with no future and no friends would say no to a fucking boost? not me! that's for sure

[What thirteen year old boy, tired of being unloved and overlooked, would ever say no to being a superhero?]

the guys before me were duds, so they're dead now
they were outta the picture before i showed up
the fuckwad who scouted me messed with my head and made me think what i was doing was normal. necessary, even
he didn't count on me being smart enough to figure it out
joke's on him- i know killing's a part of the protection game, i'm not stupid
but i'm no murderer
not anymore

Hey, I get it.
[A thirteen year old who chooses to be a superhero, an eleven year old who chooses to be a wizard monk. He might not know all the nuance of Rex's story, but Anakin knows what it's like to come from nothing and nowhere. To want out.]

I just wondered if you were able to square things up with those guys after.

Or is that the process for everybody who does stuff like you?

i blew them up
so it's all good

[He skips the detail where he cried about it. How Radcliffe's death had been an accident, and even though the scientists has designed him to be strong enough to fall from bridges and get back up, that the punch to his nose had still made him bleed.

The physical pain was just that- Physical. Nothing he hadn't endured prior. But when it everything clicked at once, that all the praise and birthday presents and supposedly gentle encouragement were simply tools to get him to do Radcliffe's bidding, Rex had lost it. To this day, trusting people is impossible. He couldn't even trust Eve.]

i don't know anybody who got their powers like i did
not in the exact same way

[Eve's powers had also been designed, orchestrated, but her story was different. It was a part of why they got so close in the first place.]

but there were other experiments, yeah
people with shitloads of money n power blow wads of dough on expensive toys all the time
you'd think they'd be happy with what they've got but NOOOOOO

[Rex has no right to judge. He's the same way with women.]

Yeah that's been my experience too. No matter how much money or power people have, they always want more.

They don't know what it's like to really have nothing.

Makes you wonder why those guys aren't here and we are.

'cause nature would kill 'em?

also! this place seems to operate via wormhole logic

[Rex has had some experience with this.]

so it's random, p much
the clownductor could also be building an army!
that'd make sense! considering how many of us can throw a punch or 2

I don't know. Seems like an awful lot of moralists for an army.

it wouldn't be a bad strategy
they're already havin us work together, so we're all pals mostly
then when they pull out the big guns, some people would be all for it!
they'd probably lie about how they were doing this shit to "cleanse" whatever planet they're tryin to take over
make it a "better place," but for who?

[Someone's had a little too much experience with this to trust the moral redemption bullshit. If anything, Rex would like to evolve so that he will suit the hero mantle better, hate himself a little less, and get off this thing.]

i mean, has anybody in this place hit zero yet?
who,
the
FUCK
has got no problems. zip? zilch???
just think about it! it's an impossible task

Sometimes it feels like there's only a couple people here making real progress.

But that's what I mean. Whoever it is, they're the ones who decided what counts as "good personal growth" so if they really were trying to build an army, you'd think they'd give us enough rope to hang ourselves.

they already have? look around, dude

[Rex's powers are intact, as are Mark's. The terrain is dangerous and while some cars do provide the passengers with amenities like food and water, he can't help but shake that even if they do their best to be good and play by the rules, things just won't turn out right.]

whatever
so this place sucks and even if my number does go down
i'll probably end up in some fight to the finish

[Honestly, that doesn't sound too different from his usual life. The weight of that realization is enough to make Rex wrinkle his nose and do what he does best- Find a distraction.]

also, what's this about you thinkin the last car was the sexy one? so amnesia's the thing that gets u horny?

I'm not saying we shouldn't be suspicious

I'm just saying that even back with the deadly plague in that town, if they wanted us to go for justice then why have numbers tick up after killing Chadsef but go down for taking out the mine?

They want something. I'm just not so sure it's combatants.

[Maybe the difference between them is that Anakin has Obi-Wan and Rex doesn't. Not that Obi-Wan is always right (his friend has been especially pleased with himself since getting confirmation of their quest for self-betterment) but that there's someone else he can test his theories against. Someone else that feels things they can't quite articulate or explain. Telling Rex that he hasn't felt a large and lurking danger probably isn't going to bring him any real comfort.]

And I'm going to pretend I didn't read that.

you'd be surprised
there's all sorts of mind games people play
to make it seem like they're the good guys

[That is true. Anakin has, and will always have, Obi-Wan.

Rex has, and only ever will have, Eve. Robot, Kate, and perhaps even Monster Girl, are his "friends," but like his no-good parents and every other government tyrant he's worked for, in the present and the past, it's his body they want most.

A thing, a vessel. Something that was created and not born.

In that way, he is unlucky.]

holy shitballs u rly did screw somebody
deets????? 👀

[Anakin: Wow. I sure am glad no one's playing mind games with me to make me think he's a good guy.
The rest of the franchise: ????]

I JUST SAID I DIDN'T

it's cute that ur playin dumb with me, 'cause uh

[If Rex hadn't cemented earlier that he was a complete nuisance, well...

He scrolls upwards in their chain if messages and sends Anakin a screenshot. Look, the boy hacked his way into the Pentagon's security systems at fifteen, he can manage this. The douche sort of stopped trying after Robot wanted to take all the credit for being the smart one.]

u asked me what a keg stand was, so that can't be it
but as far as i can tell, the "last car" was either the sexy time car or big booby grab car and y'know what?
i should probably apologize, ahaha
since i was bein a teeeeeny tiny bit
redundant
with my wording, there, maestro

[THE WORST!!!! HE IS THE WORST!!!!!!]

so, who'd ya pork? oink oink lolol (🐷)
don't tell me it's the old man

[NOOOO!!!!!]

tho u do kinda strike me as someone who'd be ❤️‍🔥hot 4 teacher ❤️‍🔥
is that what he is 2 u?
i kno he's no spring 🐔
but he looks a lil 2 young 2 be ur real dad

[butt rex... he is anakin's real dad]

[The message that comes in takes Anakin on a journey. A face journey. A mental journey. Jedi don't discuss matters of love or sexuality because they're irrelevant- things that they aren't supposed to engage in and as a result, never come up. The clone army he's stationed with call each other 'brother' so there's no casual dialogue there either. The closest it'd come was seeing the pinups painted on Republic ships and the one that was absolutely of Padme.

He tries to follow the train of thought but spends at least half of that time recoiling to a mental chorus of no no no. And then embarrassment slides into sputtering indignation that someone could possibly impinge Obi-Wan's virtue. Of all people.]

I don't have a father
[Unfortunately, George Lucas decided virgin births would be cool in his space epic]

And I wouldn't tell you anyway
Maybe they don't want to remember.
[They]

Maybe they're embarrassed
Or maybe they regret it

yeah? well
i had two and they both got me fucked me up
trust me, ur not missing out on much

[This may, hilariously, seem like Rex had two shitty gay dads who were a couple... But he had two separate father figures in succession, unrelated. One biological and the other a mentor.]

bro did u nut on a pic of "their" dead grandpa or what
look, man, shit happens! sometimes people are too damn sexy for their own good, ok

[??????????]

just take it in ur weird space culty stride and uh
don't ruin any family photos next time

ic contact.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

will he be blown up by jedi mind tricks for this

no subject

no subject