Work Text:
Cody has experienced a lot in his life. Growing up on Kamino, chosen to be a Marshal Commander, he lives as a legend of Jango's pride and glory, no longer only among vo'de. And as emperor of an empire that is slowly rising again, his daily tasks include a lot of weird stuff, unless he hands it over to his staff. But he, the most powerful man in the Republic, has to hold various conversations. Like this one.
The goblin in front of him is grinning again, smiling so broadly that the last rays of sunlight falling through the window at Cody's back make his teeth shine.
"You can't be serious." Cody's head hurts, it's coming from his neck, as it usually does. No wonder after long sessions, he's already looking forward to his massage.
Goblin in front of him lifts his shoulders in slow motion, then, although Cody squints his eyes in warning, he puts one foot on the seat of the chair in front of his desk.
This shabuir.
"Grey. You want to hit the mat now?"
"Later, maybe." The commander smoothes his kama before grinning far too happily at Cody, reaching over the table and tapping the paper he'd walked into Cody's office with barely two minutes ago. "Here, look. We need to do something for our image, so this is a good idea..."
For their image. Grey is clearly hanging out too much with Mace's ex-padawan, because said Jedi Master has been on a 'how-do-we-reform-the-Jedi-both-inside-and-out' trip that makes Cody roll his eyes every day. Every time he has a com call with Rex, his little blond vo'd bitches about the PR campaigns, although they are slowly starting to bear fruit. A reason for Cody to tease up Sometimes-General-on-call Windu when he shows up at the meetings.
Forcing himself to stare Grey straight in the eye, Cody doesn't blink once. But his opponent doesn't even have the decency to flinch (Who taught him that, Wolffe?! Definitely Wolffe, it's always Wolffe!), instead twisting the corners of his mouth into the same wide smile he had on earlier. Karking asshole. There was a time when his rank had meant something, and really, Cody was twenty steps ahead now.
"Ori'vod, your holonet account is fine as long as our social media experts maintain it under Carl's guidance, but you need to offer the public a little more than two pretty pictures of you in armor and one in front of a gunship."
Grey's Black-wrapped finger taps the large white piece of Flimsi with the top corners missing. That's where the idiot tore it off, as he proudly explained to him earlier.
On the poster - Cody doesn't want to see it! -two silhouettes of Twi'leks can be seen holding a smaller version of themselves by the hand. Above it all, in garish basic lettering, is 'Bring your child to work', a phrase that Grey ruined forever at the very beginning when he shouted it in Cody's face.
"And normal companies..."
Not that discussion again! Grey ignores Cody's bared teeth, as well as the scowl and his growled, "We're not a normal company, we're not even a company, I'm the kriffing Emperor!"
Grey's only response is to nod weightily, tilt his head and make a sweeping motion with both hands, almost knocking the three delicate candlesticks off Cody's desk, the ones he had placed on the corner to prevent this from happening. "Now that you mention it, I do remember..."
To the Sith with little brothers! Next time someone asks him why Rex is Cody's favorite vo'd, have them look at the bunch Cody has to deal with every day.
At the same moment - Cody hasn't even finished the sentence - Grey leans forward, resting both hands on the desk top. There's something in his gaze that makes Cody's eyebrows furrow even more grimly. "Wolffe would do it, he's got the balls."
A half-second pause, Grey stares Cody in the eye before jumping back and sprinting off. Cody's outstretched arm reaches for nothing, then gravity makes itself felt, only thanks to years of trained reflexes does he not land face first on the table, where the stupid poster is still grinning at him. The doors snap shut behind Grey, the plastoid of his fleeing vo'd's soles muffled by the thick carpet in the hallway. He's already jumping into the holo-elevator when Cody grabs his com. "Captain Sparrow, Commander Grey is coming storming down the foyer, that karking little shit is not to leave the building, am I clear?"
Cody doesn't answer the minimally astonished-sounding "Sir?!" of his vo'd from the Caribbean platoon, he sprints out of his office, after Grey, past his bodyguard, whose helmets turn with him before they chase after him.
"Oh, cool, and what exactly am I doing all day now, do I get to push buttons or subjugate planets and enslave everyone who isn't able to say 'Tschechisches Streichholzschächtelchen '...?"
Jojo stands next to Cody, her dark hair in a complicated-looking braided hairstyle, pinning the thick strands to the back of her head. Colorful glittering stones in it - which Cody knows cost a fortune but look good, that's why he bought them - glow in the light of the sun glowing through the window panes behind them, painting colored reflections on the mountain of datapads Cody has to work on. And he would actually have finished the first one by now if it weren't for the actually older Natborn standing next to him, who has just armed herself with a clipboard and is looking at him with great attention..
"All right, what are we doing today, big Boss?"
"Not calling me big Bosswould be a start," Cody mumbles into his non-existent beard, causing Jojo to look at him with big innocent eyes. She absolutely isn't, her eyes sparkle again, as they always do when she has a reply ready. Before she can open her mouth, however, Cody decides to simply bombard her with information so that her brain has something to do. Although he's still not sure whether she has one and, if so, according to which weird, arbitrary star constellations it functions. "You'll like this, it's about a human rights organization calling for the immediate release of those imprisoned on Kamino. It declares that the conditions there are not worthy of a living creature, nor are they conducive to carrying out a prison sentence."
The woman with the clipboard tilts her head, followed by the ballpoint pen in her hand describing a crooked curve. "Then ask them why they're only coming forward now, because if it was so bad, where t hey the years before, when there were actual children living under these conditions?"
Bring your kid to work day, all Greys' fault, but it's starting to get interessting. While Jojo is definitely not his kid, he didn't adopt a little vo'd himself - unlike Rex'ika -, making her his first choice.
In the hallway, they meet Riyo Cuchi, who has a seven-year-old clone with her and tells him something about the former legislation of the Republic. Fox follows behind them like an angular, red shadow, slapping Cody on the shoulder as he passes. There's no one here but them, then the vo'de let protocol be protocol in the sense of 'Cody-is-everyone-vo'd-but-in-first-line-untouchable-and-the-imperator-so-takes-it-as-if-there-were-longnecks-here'. Jojo, of course, doesn't miss the opportunity to scribble on the clipboard with a very weighty expression, showing wild line patterns next to her surprisingly accurate notes from the first few hours, when Cody actually got through half of his other rations with her.
Fox's sentence in the com channel turns Cody's attention to his elder vo'd and batch mate, who, after saluting in Cody's direction, follows Riyo down the hallway. "Gree did think it was a good idea to take Nici to training. He's currently giggling his ass off, better not look at commander chat."
Because Cody has never listened to Fox for advice outside of a business nature, he proceeds to do exactly that, pulling his personal datapad off his belt while Jojo, as unbelievable as it sounds, follows half a step behind him, all in accordance with etiquette.
Because he knows the path here inside out, having walked it so often, Cody doesn't have to look at the ground and can focus his attention entirely on the forty new messages in the commander chat. The interface is the same as in the war, it's the only app that Cody hasn't had his web designers remake. For reasons of nostalgia, as he knows himself, but doesn't say it out loud.
For what, his vo'de know it anyway, Bly keeps teasing him about it.
DonotaGREE sent a video
DonotaGREE sent a video
DonotaGREE: Cody we should do this more often
GettingTHIREd: You gave her tennis balls?!
DonotaGREE: If you're too slow, you suffer the consequences
BLYisgettingthere: You're supposed to train Natborn recruits, not waste them?!
Dictionary has sent a video
Dictionary: General call-up @MayonnaiseWindows has brought his grown-up child. General-On-Call @Deepdown asks where she stands in the family constellation when @Dumenotdumbshutup is actually @GREYisalsoacolor kiddo.
ButbabyitsCOLToutside: My child is older than me
ButbabyitsCOLToustide sent a video
A'dentoaid: @CarolusREX your baby ARCs claim the rule applies to them too, that's why they're excused from training
CarolusREX: If I don't see it, it doesn't happen. Besides, I'm off work. Bug anyone who cares
TRACERtheonlytrueracer / BalrogtheFirstbowdown sent a picture
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: Can someone throw the kriffing CTs out of my chat
CT-6666: Outrageous.
ECHO ECHoo EChooo echoooo: Totally
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: @WhoseNameIsNotNamed Cod'ika, pick up your pets. Otherwise I'll get them
CaptainMARVEL: Killjoy
CaptainAMERICA sent a video
CaptainAMERICA: Child includes pet!
theHOUNDiscomingforyou: Grizzer agrees with you
theHOUNDiscomingforyou sent a video
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: Hound. What's a mastiff doing on your desk and why is she drooling in MY caf cups
HeyJESSYitfeelslikeapartyeveryday: Can we just get padawans from the temple and take them with us?
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: @theHOUNDiscomingforyou I await an answer
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: This is a COMMANDER chat, not one for karking little CT shits I don't give a shit if your ARCs now
BOILing: *you're
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: I will eat you.
theHOUNDiscomingforyou sent a video
theHOUNDiscomingforyou: I'm offline. Only reachable via landline
Dictionary: @WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked do you remember you pulled the number off @CarolusREX too
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: THERE IS NO KARKING LANDLINE AT ALL WE ARE NO LONGER IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: Hound. Come online. Now.
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: @theHOUNDiscomingforyou!
BactaPATCH joined the chat
BactaPatch sent a video
BactaPatch sent a GIF MIMIMIMI
BactaPatch: The CT is leaving again
BactaPATCH has left the group
HeyJESSYitfeelslikeapartyeveryday: Those hackers
Neyohatesyouall: I agree with @WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked , what are the CTs doing here, the chat is for CCs and only CCS!
ECHO ECHoo EChooo echoooo: racist!
NottooHEVYforme: Look at me, I have a different gene sequence uhhh
Gardener: *laughs in kaminoan*
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: @Gardnener That goes for RCs too, fuck off!
TECHisshortfortechnically: Well, originally this chat wasn't meant for private pictures or experiences,
CarolusREX: @TECHisshortfortechnically don't know where you got your info from, but that IS the point and always has been. Was @WhoseNameIsNotNamed idea. Cody likes to trash talk
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: FUCK OFF CT
Blyisgettingthere: @WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked That's Rex, he's with us!
Dictionary: @WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked Foxika, the blond one is ours
KEELIng it: Favorite child @CarolusREX?
HOWZthewettER: Definitely
ThebigbadWOLFFE: That's Cody's attached nerd, nothing else
CarolusREX: :(
Dictionary: @ThebigbadWOLFFE Shut up. You're officially demoted to youngest
GREYisalsoacolor has changed his name to GREYsanatomy
Harry STYLES: Nice idea, boss
Loki: What's going on here, I'm working for once
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: THE RULE WAS ONCE FOR ALL CTS
WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked: YOU GUYS ARE JUST TOO KRIFFING SOFT
WhatdoestheFOXsay -Hesaysgetkarked: @Loki Oh how nice, support at last, nice of you to pop in, Thorn
Rainbowdash: @WhatdoestheFOXsay - Hesaysgetkarked : He's about to turn red with rage
Loki: I think I'll go again. Work and all. See you then!
Bacara: You're all a disgrace
THE CAST:
Rainbowdash: Havoc
Loki: Thorn
WhatdoestheFOXsay – Hesaysgetkarked: Fox
GREYisalsoacolor | GREYsanatomy: Grey
Harry STYLES: Styles
CarolusREX: Rex
ThebigbadWOLFFE: Wolffe
KEELIng it: Keeli
HOWZthewettER: Howzer
NottooHEVYforme: Hevy
TECHisshortfortechnically: Tech
BLYisgettingthere: Bly
Gardener: Hunter
Neyohatesyouall: Neyo
BactaPATCH: Patch
CaptainAMERICA: OC (Yes, I've been wanting to make this joke for weeks and nobody can stop me)
CaptainMARVEL: Another OC
theHOUNDiscomingforyou: Hound
DerdessenNamenichtgenanntwird: Cody | Kote
TRACERtheonlytrueracer / BalrogtheFirstbowdown: Tracer
BOILing: Boil
HeyJESSYitfeelslikeapartyeveryday: Jesse (Yes, that's a reference to 'Hey, Jesse' on Disney Channel)
CT-6666: Fives
ECHO ECHoo EChooo echoooo: Echo
A'dentoaid: A'den; Senior Commander of Bly
DonotaGREE: Gree
Wörterbuch: Ponds
ButbabyitsCOLToutside: Colt
MayonnaiseWindows: Mace Windu
Deepdown: Depa Billaba
Dumenotdumbshutup: Caleb Dume aka Kanan Jarrus
GettingTHIREd: Thire