#If anyone's completed Special Ops advanced course please let me know what you did

[meeeeeeese]

Day 16 of murdering purists

I'm beginning to know several of the market stall owners on a first name basis, I swim in a sea of purist blood and still, more come every day. How many more must I kill? When will the Xunlai Jade Spec Ops be satisfied? I thought we killed the demons, but maybe in my lust for their armor designs... I have become the demon. I no longer remember how many I have slain

I have ONE event left before I can get my hands on the pants, it feels like I'm doing the wrong event but there are no other 'purist champion' events in Kaineng and previous events in the collection have failed to award credit before.

[ultravioletsoul]

Maybe an unpopular opinion regarding Makarov/Character Analysis (part 1)

Sometimes I read comments of CoD fans saying that Vladimir always was an asshole for apparently no reason, that he was the typical Russian cliché villain doing cliché bad things (such an original concept, I know). And while I do agree that for the most part the games didn’t do a very good job at giving him any significant depth (and he acts like a jerk, it’s true), I also have to say that he’s probably one of the most misunderstood characters in the series. Not because I think he was some poor innocent man who did nothing wrong, but because his villainous portrayal tends to take the spotlight every time he’s onscreen and we literally cannot see anything else beyond that. Which, of course, makes him look very one-dimensional since the game always has to remind you in oh-not-so-subtle ways how evil he is.

The story of MW never goes into full detail as to what drove him to do the horrible things he did. And it’s not clear unless one bothers to analyze some obscure information hidden in the loading cutscene of No Russian and does a little research on the side. In all honesty, I wish his story would have been better explained and developed by other means than just a slideshow of newspaper articles and an overview of his dossier. I would have been content with a special trailer that actually explained his background, rather than have him say some pseudo Sun Tzu lines in a few teasers and let that be the entirety of his character development but okay… I guess this was as far as Infinity Ward’s story-telling capabilities went back then.

Sure, you may think: who the hell cares about his motivations? He was an evil mofo and needed to be put down. Well, unfortunately for these people, I exist and I do care because Vladimir is one of my faves— perhaps my most favorite character in the entire MW universe. And though I like him because he’s an unapologetic baddie, that’s not the only reason.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Vladimir is this super complex character that nobody else gets, but there are definitely some elements that give him a few extra layers and they’re worthy of being analyzed.

Beware, this is going to be a long post and will contain a few historical references. This isn’t a comprehensive breakdown, and I’ll probably make a lot mistakes along the way because I’m not a history buff by any means (please, don’t yell at me ;A;), but it should be a rough explanation of what I think led Vladimir to such extremist views and why I think he’s a good antagonist in Call of Duty. Also it could be a helpful reference for anyone who wishes to write a story about him.

I’m not claiming this is the most accurate interpretation of Vladimir, or that it’s the only valid one, but if any of this information comes in handy or offers a different insight into his character then I’ll consider my mission accomplished.

Without further ado, here we go!

Tagging @sunset-and-periwinkle​​​ and @renegad3spectre​ because they may be interested in this post :v

1. No Russian

So one of the first recollections that come to mind when thinking about MW2 is the infamous mission of No Russian. This kind of content was so violent and crude for its time that it caused quite the controversy and it still divides the opinion between people who think videogames should push boundaries and people who believe there are things that shouldn’t be portrayed in such an offhanded way. Whether including that level in MW2 was a good or terrible choice is not the point of this post. However, I’ll share my personal experience.

Me, back when I played this mission I didn’t give it much thought. I mean… it didn’t have this serious impact on me as I’m guessing the developers intended, from what I’ve read, but that’s mainly because I wasn’t mature enough to make a proper assessment of the story-line and to me CoD games weren’t about deep narratives either. Keep in mind that I was an immature kid and I just wanted to play a game that my brother enjoyed. So yes, without much thought I breezed through No Russian, accomplished the objectives and it wasn’t until the end of the mission that I realized I’d been played like a damn fiddle.

And my first reaction to seeing Makarov killing me was “bro, I thought we were allies”. Never mind the carnage that had ensued moments ago, never mind that I had participated in it. I was more offended by this unexpected 'betrayal' and well... imagine how stupid I was for thinking Vladimir could be my friend. The fact that Allen was a CIA agent completely eluded me and I didn’t understand a freaking thing of what was going on but that was on me. I shouldn’t have been playing those games at my young age because evidently I wasn't ready to handle adult themes like that.

Replaying this mission now that I’m older made me realize how messed up it was, and maybe not for the most obvious reasons. Yeah, innocent people die all around us and that's something we cannot stop from happening, no matter what we do. However, it’s not really necessary for us to hurt civilians to complete the level (we’re not punished for not doing it) so we can be simple witnesses to the brutality ensuing in front of us, which is as equally messed up perhaps. You can even skip the whole mission altogether if you want to, so no biggie: you’re spared the nightmare fuel and you can happily head to Brazil to capture Alejandro Rojas. Heck, you’re even rewarded a glimpse of Ghost ready to torture Alejandro’s assistant and all is back to normal, yay!

However, when you think about it, from the perspective of the story, Allen wasn’t given the option to skip anything. He was pushed to commit a vile deed and ordered to follow Makarov’s lead no matter how morally questionable those actions turned out to be in the end. Shepherd told him that this mission would cost him a piece of himself and he was right about it. Had Allen survived, I’m pretty sure he would have been scarred for life after what he did. I don’t know how he could have lived with himself knowing that he slaughtered all those innocent people. Vladimir killing him off was kind of… an act of mercy in a way, though of course we know he had completely different intentions for doing so.

So people may wonder, why the heck Vladimir carried out that massacre? Some common opinions I read is because he’s an asshole, because he’s crazy, because he wants to make a statement, because he enjoys being a psychopath and hurting others. All these may be true to some extent, we’ll never know for sure, but it’d be very simplistic to just leave it at that without taking into consideration other elements of the story that were left implicit.

I’m going to say that, from my perspective, I didn’t get the impression Makarov enjoyed killing those civilians (but hear me out, neither did he regret it!). It would have been pretty easy to make him this psycho that slaughters people with a smile on his face, but that’s not what we see in No Russian… and perhaps it’s even more terrifying when you realize how casual he is about the whole affair. You really get the impression that he’s a man on a mission and he carries it out in a very no-nonsense manner, does it all with a straight face, without batting an eyelash, without any trace of doubt about what he’s doing, not even a hitch in his voice, absolutely no emotion whatsoever. His actions, his words, his whole demeanor, all scream about being a professional at what he does for better or for worse.

He didn’t know these people, he had no quarrel with them, and yet he killed them all in cold blood. Why? Because they were stepping stones to his goals and there was a very established purpose for that op. To the rest of the world, yea, it  may seem like there’s no logical reason for what he did other than he’s nuts but, honestly, Vladimir could care less about that. The only thing that matters to him are the results.

Even if the whole world thinks that he’s insane, in his mind this was the most reasonable course of action. To him it had to be done, there was no other way, and he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger when the time came because he was truly convinced it was the right thing to do. The fact that he (a criminal who’s wanted by the entire world and probably cannot afford to leave himself out in the open) participated in that brutal event shows the utmost importance it had to his plans. Vladimir personally oversaw and carried out the operation, he didn’t leave anyone else in charge because of the very special meaning it had for him. He says “for Zakhaev” before engaging FSB units because this incident would mark the beginning of a new chapter in Russian history, a chapter Vladimir would write in honor of the man who was his friend and mentor— the man who started it all, who gave him a cause to believe in and fight for.

He definitely had his reasons for what he did. They were the wrong reasons of course, but Vladimir didn’t act on a whim nor did he waste his time on matters that didn’t advance his agenda. He didn’t start a war nor massacred hundreds of people at that airport for simple fun and without a solid motive (though this isn’t by any means a justification, it still was a pretty shitty thing to do). We all know that it was a false flag operation, as he wanted to put the blame on the US for the attack. His intention was sparking a war between Russia and America and he was willing to achieve that by any means necessary, even if thousands of his countrymen had to die, even if he had to make common cause with Shepherd (we don’t know under which circumstances and terms), a man who by all accounts should have been his worst enemy— a man who had set up an entire task force for the sole purpose of hunting Vladimir down. And don’t get me wrong, they weren’t buddies, they still hated each other’s guts and would kill the other in a heartbeat, but they were willing to work together towards the same goal because none of them would succeed on their own.

So, ultimately, Vladimir’s objective was riling up the public opinion to push for an invasion of America and provide the Russian government a ‘legitimate’ reason to do it. Does this have 9/11 commentary undertones? Well, I’m not gonna be the judge of that but it could be a possibility.

However, to understand this moment, we’ll have to go much further back in time.

2. His Childhood

This is going to be a huge oversimplification of Soviet history, I’m afraid, so my apologies in advance. Don’t take my word as the absolute truth, this is barely scratching the surface.

According to the information seen in No Russian, and Return to Sender, little Volodya was born on April 10th (not sure how reliable is the wiki since I was convinced he was born on October 4th *shrugs*) of 1970 in Ivanovo, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Or for those who, like me, don’t like those long names, better known as Soviet Russia.

As a curious fact, Ivanovo is known as the City of Brides because it was a very important center of textile industries in the Soviet Union that attracted many young women seeking work. It also has an important historical significance as hotbed for revolutionary activity in czarist Russia and was the city where supposedly the first Bolshevik assembly took place (earning the nickname of City of the First Soviet). During the Second War it proved invaluable as a front city, located close to enemy lines, receiving refuges and injured soldiers of the Red Army that treated their wounds in the many hospitals that were set up for that purpose. Also, in addition to producing armament and fighting in the war, the citizens made good use of their industries and donated huge quantities of fabric to make millions of uniforms.

Back to the topic, next thing we have to wonder is what Vladimir’s life was like as a child born in the 70s. We don’t know much about it and it’s never even mentioned anywhere in the game but, if we had to hazard a guess, he most likely had a relatively happy childhood— raised like any average Soviet kid at the time. His parents were maybe workers, maybe doctors, maybe engineers, maybe teachers, maybe in the military, but they surely weren’t bad people and they wanted their son to be a decent member of society. They didn’t raise him to be a criminal, they didn’t shape him into a monster. If Vladimir had at least one grandfather alive, then he would have served during the Great Patriotic War (a term used in Russia and other former Soviet republics to refer to the conflict in the Eastern Front during WWII). And as a kid, Volodya probably grew up in a typical khrushchyovka apartment with his family. It wasn’t very luxurious but, you know, it wasn’t so bad either and it was home sweet home for them.

Now you gotta imagine what growing up in the Soviet Union was like. Education was heavily influenced by the Communist party and children swam in a sea of propaganda. No, no matter what western propaganda says, they didn’t teach him to hate the west as a kid. Vladimir didn’t want to wipe out Americans from the face of the Earth or skin them alive as you probably imagined at some point, but from a young age he was taught to be proud of being born in the greatest country in the whole world and he pitied the ‘oppressed’ American workers for their lack of Soviet blessings, for being unable to stand up to their imperialist overlords. Heck, this was a popular song in the 80s, when he was about ten years old and probably every Soviet kid sang it at school, including him.

Speaking about that, at school he must have been in contact with several ethnic groups— remember that the industries attracted a lot of people to Ivanovo, particularly women, from many places all over the Soviet Union and, even to this day, Ivanovo is a multi-cultural city with over a hundred nationalities. It’s safe to say that Vladimir would have never given it much thought if someone wasn’t an ethnic Russian nor would he have cared. There weren’t nationalities or differences back then. Everyone was a Soviet citizen and everyone was equal or so it would seem at least, if you ignore the multiple genocides, mass killings, deportations and other horrors of the Stalin era before the Soviet Union adopted a more moderate domestic policy and started a process of de-stalinization after his death— eliminating his cult of personality and other institutions that allowed him to hold autocratic power.

This was also known as the Khrushchev Thaw period, and it was during this time that repression and censorship began to become more lax thanks to Nikita Khrushchev’s policies, and millions of prisoners were released from the gulags. It also opened up the Soviet Union to some economic reforms, trade with other countries, as well as educational and cultural exchanges in the form of foreign uncensored books and movies, music, dances, fashion, and new forms of entertainment in national television. So all this would seem a shift towards a more positive outlook for the Soviet citizens.

Our little Volodya shared and played with other kids in his neighborhood in the playgrounds of the apartment buildings, maybe fell off those Soviet swings and whacked his head a few times but that was okay, he still had fun and laughed and cried like any other child. He grew up listening to old pop music, synth (because people just didn’t listen to patriotic music all the time) and watching Bollywood movies which were all the rage at the time in the USSR as an alternative to western cinema. He had friends, a family that loved him. He spent weekends at the dacha (cottages outside the city) working the land with his family, growing fresh produce. He probably had an affectionate babushka that looked after him, told him many stories, and cooked hearty meals for him because she was a genius at handling finances and feeding the family. She surely was a god-believing woman despite the widespread atheism in a society where the word of Marx and Lenin had an almost religious significance, who took no shit from anyone, and who would  chew Vladimir’s head off if he so much went out under-dressed in a breezy day. Even as a grown ass man, she would still intimidate him because you don’t mess with babushkas!

Like a good Soviet kid he was taught to never lie, to help his parents and respect the work of others, to have good manners and not be a spoiled brat, to be considerate and kind to his elders, encouraged to be resourceful, to do things by himself and not expect others to come to his aid, to improve his culture and intellect, to study hard and become someone who would help build the future of socialist paradise. He probably collected silly trinkets like many kids do, he spent his time learning to carve wood and other crafts, reading about the great war heroes and the communist leaders. Year after year he played zarnitsa, a war game for kids and a very popular activity in the Young Pioneers (the Soviet ‘Boy Scouts’, so to speak) that trained young generations for military life, compulsory for every man, cultivating their love for the USSR and preparing them to defend the homeland from the enemy.

Life back then could be tough at times, true, but he must have been quite happy and there was joy to be had. He was raised to be patriotic, a good communist, living in what he believed was a place of peace where all were equals and all were comrades. Having little contact with western influences, he grew up listening to a carefully woven narrative and was told of the decadence of warmonger capitalists that feared the spread of communism so much that they would wage countless wars to stop it and destroy other peace-loving nations. So much could be argued regarding this statement, sure, but this is what he was told and it was during a time when Operation Condor (the US-backed campaign of state terrorism and wave of right-wing dictatorships in Latin America during the 70s-80s) was in full swing to eradicate communism and any Soviet influence from South America. Not to mention the many proxy wars waged throughout these decades, as well.

“For years the western hypocrisy has made the world a battlefield.”

Little Octobrists and Young Pioneers were a thing and the Communist ideology was still going strong even if some started to quietly question it. Not that many did, at any rate, since the dreaded KGB kept a close eye on everyone so dissidents wouldn’t spread the wrong ideas in the Soviet society. Well, at that time maybe you wouldn’t be sent to a gulag just for saying bad things but someone would ‘talk’ some reason into you and there would be subtle threats to tone your attitude down or else your life and that of your relatives could be screwed. Don’t say this, don’t do that, the walls have ears and you’re being watched.

You have to keep in mind that he also grew up under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. And much like American kids, Vladimir would have been greatly concerned about nuclear armageddon and be familiarized with procedures to follow in case such a terrible event came to pass.

The US and Russia pointed nukes at each other for many years and the NATO military exercises of Able Archer— at the peak of Cold War hysteria— didn’t help matters. These were annual exercises but that year of 1983, new elements never seen before had been introduced, and then there was the menace of the new Pershing II nuclear missiles that had been recently deployed in Western Europe. If launched, these would be able to reach their target in less than ten minutes (faster than any other missile known until then), landing with high accuracy and virtually no warning.

Until then the only thing stopping a nuclear war was the threat of mutually assured destruction, but these missiles tipped off the scales in favor of the west, since the Soviets would have no way to retaliate if their command centers or even their own missile launch facilities were targeted. So the Soviet Politburo was very concerned about this situation, in a time when president Reagan poured great efforts to fight the Brezhnev Doctrine (which established the legitimization of military interventions in Eastern bloc states, or any country that became a threat to international socialism) and show the world that the USSR wasn’t indestructible.

The increase in realism of these exercises, the strained relationship with the US under the Reagan administration, previous psychological operations, participation of heads of government in the exercise, and recent deployment of these new ballistic missiles, made the Soviet military believe that the US and NATO were preparing for a preemptive strike and that the exercise was nothing but a ruse. In response, the Soviets readied their nukes, air forces in East Germany and Poland were put on high alert to any funny business, and Soviet intelligence monitored the situation closely for signs of an impeding attack.

After nine days, the exercises came to an end and that was probably the time both countries were the closest to nuclear annihilation since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

So in those years, Vladimir was living under the administration of Leonid Brezhnev famously known for his era of stagnation and also for his passionate kisses (the famous socialist fraternal kiss, you guys :v). Though it’s worthy of being mentioned that in the early 70s the Soviet Union had reached the peak of international power and prestige.

Nikita Khrushchev, Brezhnev’s predecessor, had promised that by the 80s communism would be a reality and maybe that wasn’t so hard to believe at the time. The economy was growing at a rate of about 3% annually and things had started off relatively well in the mid 60s when Brezhnev assumed office. There was full employment, even minimal wage was sufficient to afford basic necessities, healthcare was a given, education in all levels was free and once you finished university or a vocational course, there was a job waiting for you. Things were pretty much settled for everyone. There wasn’t a lot to worry about, not many uncertainties. It was a pleasant predictive life for the most part. Not perfect, by any means, and it had its difficulties but Vladimir’s family felt protected and safe and they had great hopes for the future.

What went wrong then?

To be continued in part 2

[painfulstitches17]

The Fires of Spring

3. Breathe.

A few months had come and gone, now in the middle of summer. Their relationship had progressed, yes, but not in the way Bandit would've liked, far too friendly and platonic to his taste. He was torn between following his heart and following his conscience when he looked at Jäger. Right now ? He tried not to look at him, he couldn't stomach the frightening look of anger, wait, rage that he was giving the vehicle's floor and anyone who tried to calm him down. Poor Doc, sitting right next to a ticking time bomb, crazy enough to try and disarm it. It was better for the both of them (and any collateral damage) if he stayed away for a while.

Bandit, Jäger, Kapkan, Valkyrie, Doc and the accompanying crew. The mission had been successful, no casualties, little to no injuries, what you'd expect from counter terrorism experts, right ? Well, Bandit made sure that this outcome would be hard to obtain in the end.

Every operators deployed this morning had a hunch something was wrong with Dominic. He was worse than usual, looked like it, to the point that he told them to "shut the fuck up and focus" with clear frustration in his voice, killing the chatter on the ride to the site as everybody was either shocked or upset.

An hostage situation in the middle of the city, tricky. Several streets had been evacuated. On site, they managed to empty the building of most of the present white masks on their way in, it was now a matter of protecting the hostages of any new waves of attacks before back up arrived. They had underestimated their numbers, unfortunately. The fight was far from over, Jäger took a quick look towards Bandit, pure concentration as expected. When he saw him take down a white mask, however, something glimmered in Dom's eyes, something sinister, a thirst for blood he had seen before, something more.

It's when Bandit disappeared without a word that Jäger's stomach turned. "Bandit ?" He called softly over the radio. Silence. He tried again, met with silence once more. Something was up and judging by the C4 that had just detonated, Bandit had made his way downstairs. What was he thinking going alone, to an unknown number of assailants nonetheless ? "I'm leaving my position" he said, making his way to the room Bandit should've been in, then silently making his way down the stairs. It reeked of blood and he soon found the source, as it was plastered on the walls alongside little bits and pieces of what were once men.

He could feel the tension, dust still coming down after the blow. He thanked whatever god there might be for being such a trained soldier, he wanted to puke, not just the blood and gore but the fear that Bandit was gone, that he may even be standing in his remains. He had to keep going, he couldn't back down, he couldn't freeze now. His brain was screaming, begging for a breakdown. Breathe Marius. Where the fuck did that asshole go ?

Grunts coming from the floor below caught Jäger's attention, ignoring the calls coming from the radio, a familiar voice was luring him in. Two people were fighting in front of him down the wrecked corridor, lights flickering above them before drowning them in almost complete darkness for a few seconds, rinse and repeat. He could discern a knife in the upper man's hand, his wrist firmly gripped by the man underneath who was actively trying to stop the fist coming up to his face repeatedly. He missed a few times, then came the sound of bone crushing and a groan, Dominic's voice. The hand on the terrorist's wrist swayed and has he was about to lower the knife to his victim, time seemingly slowing down, a gunshot rang.

Bandit was alive. It had almost been over, almost. A wave of something incomprehensible at first washed over him as the dead man fell on him. "Let me help you !" Jäger was on top now, pushing the corpse away, frantically searching for any signs of injury. "Y-Your nose is bleeding Dominic. You'll be fine..." Worry was palpable in his voice "Don't worry about me." Back up on his feet, he muttered a soft "thank you", almost unnoticeable. Bandit had a hard time looking at Jäger. He fucked up, but he wouldn't admit it, especially not in which way he meant. He was a strong man, smart even if not as smart as some in Rainbow, not in the same way, but even the very best have flaws. They made their way back to their objective, reassuring their teammates in the process.

It was finally over, everyone could breathe again. The last one sitting in the improvised med bay, Dominic was trying not to curse at Gustave while he tended to his very much broken nose. "I reckon hearing Marius speaking about your little escapade while on mission Dominic, non ?" That stung more than the alcohol being applied. "I didn't go that far. I killed two of them and then got fucking ambushed." He argued back "Maybe, but had Jäger not been with you, or had he not realized you had left, you'd be lying in a plastic bag right now.  You depended on him and he did too, we all do. What would he have done had you failed Dominic ?" And he was right, what would've happened if his selfishness had gotten the best of him ? He couldn't answer, admitting his faults was hard, he had felt guilty plenty of times in his life before and each time, he preferred distancing himself as needed over apologizing, taking the blow. Unless Six was sitting in front of him, of course.

"Écoute, I understand you're going through a rough period right now judging from your files but you cannot let it affect you while on mission. I'm sure you already know this, Tu vois, you're smarter than this Dominic. You might get a talk from Six if she hears about it... If you need time off, come to my office, alright ? We could schedule a few more appointments with your therapist too, if you'd like. Oh, and your nose should be fine for now." Doc put a hand on Bandit's shoulder, a genuine smile as expected. He knew when to be harsh, but it never came without a good reason. Especially when your last name was Brunsmeier. "Allez zou, dehors ! I've got cleaning up to do." And with that, Bandit left with a thankful nod.

But the problems weren't over, they had just begun. He was now facing Jäger, still in his gear and visibly upset judging from his body language. Fuck. Once the younger man had spotted him, he grabbed his arm almost painfully and dragged him down the street.

Jäger was rather quiet in his day to day life, he could talk a lot if the topic was of interest, sure, but he wasn't loud, so when the entirety of the crew started hearing his voice in a crescendo of anger from the other end of the street, they were surprised. Bandit's nonchalant attitude wasn't helping, Jäger was getting visibly upset, pushing the other against the wall at one point, pointing his finger to his chest. They were both raising their voices now, but the engineer was louder, far more aggressive, making Bandit back down. It was so unlike him all of a sudden. People started looking at each other to know who would volunteer if a fist fight broke, it sounded that bad.

Most of the public left, leaving the special ops to assess the level of trouble Bandit had gotten himself into between themselves. "Are we sure he's mad ? German does sound like an angry language. They call ambulances krankenwagen after all." Kapkan was pleased by his joke until Jäger removed his helmet, throwing it at the wall next to Bandit who flinched, closely followed by his balaclava. "Nevermind." Kapkan added. They went their own way afterward.

Bandit had never seen such an outburst of anger coming from Jäger, to the point where he left crying and he suspected his old time friend unhealthy coping mechanisms to have followed where he went to hide. He had to admit, trying to downplay the situation he had put himself in hadn't been the best call. Saying that "well, he wouldn't have suffered for long" really threw Marius over the edge, hadn't it ? You acted like an asshole to the man who saved your life whether you liked it or not. Worse yet, the man you've realised you love. He knew how he'd been feeling since he had helped him, watching Marius scream at him in their mother tongue, disappointed. Disappointed in the fact that he hurt him not once, but twice. Disappointed that he treated Marius like everybody else, like he meant nothing. Disappointedthat he didn't miscalculate his C4 and blew up.Disappointed that he got saved when the knife should've met his throat, he would've been gone putting a fight. But he felt pathetic right now, puking on the side of the road. It was hard to breathe, containing any tears that might try to escape.

Maybe Dominic should take Doc's offer on therapy.

  -----

"Here's our resident asshole ! I've been looking for you. Shouldn't you be in bed ?" James Porter in person, nicknamed Smoke, hugging a sweaty Bandit from behind before he could hit the punching bag in front of him.

"Don't touch me. What do you want Porter ? I've only got a broken nose, I don't need to rest." Bandit spat back.

"Calm down Princess, I'm here to help you. I thought you'd be resting after the humiliation your little dove gave you. The lad burnt you pretty badly didn't he ?" Smokes' laugh felt like nails on a chalkboard right now.

"Stop saying that shit out loud, why did I ever tell a cunt like you of all people about it ?" Dom was getting increasingly upset.

"Because you know I'm an expert in that field, honey." He winked.

"Such an expert sending Mark" James jumped at Mute's name "a pair of lacy men's underwear, not even for Valentine's day may I add, in the hopes that he would forward your advances, which I'd call sexual harassment to be quite frank, Bärchen" Classic Smoke.

"Who said he didn't like it ? I didn't hear back, sure, but maybe he's shy about it !" Keep telling yourself that, Bandit thought.

"C'mon, stop wasting my time, what do you want ?" He still liked Smoke, so he toned it down a bit.

"I wanted to ask you how you were feeling. You kind of went on a suicide mission there Dominic. Would you like to join me on the roof with a few beers ?" Here it was, the serious Smoke.

And what about it ? It wouldn't have been the first time but it could've been the last, sure. Alcohol did sound like an option right now though. "Alright, just promise me you won't puke your guts out on me again."

"I promise baby boo. The beers packs are in front of the door, could you get them up there for me ? I have to drop this report." He was waving his papers in front of Bandit.

Dominic hummed in agreement, watching Smoke leave while blowing a kiss on his way out. Why did he feel like something was up ?

He could do with breathing some fresh air anyway. ___ Chapter Index.

[desperatelyseekingroleplay]

Looking for someone to do a voltron discord rp with me

Hello everyone! It’s just your average rp loving person from Australia looking to rp something that every sci-fi fantasy genre loving nerd should know about: voltron? It’s a show that’s captured the love of many people with the tales of the daring team of space explorers who fly lion space ships and form a mighty robot. Well, I’d like someone to rp this with me. Before you immediately assume that i’m Looking for something from legendary defender allow me to stop you. Eighties voltron (defender of the universe as it’s called) and voltron force (that aired some time in 2011) are the ones I love the most but legendary defender did have its moments where it was just as good. I’d like to make an rp that involves a mix of the three. Now I bet you’re wondering what exactly it is i’m Looking to do since there’s countless voltron au’s out there, well my dudes and dudettes i’m Looking to make something up with you OR we could do this idea that i’ll Put down below. Voltron au rp idea: The five lions of voltron are highly advanced technology, war machines thousands of years old and forever evolving and getting upgrades as the years pass by and the pilots learn their styles and places in team voltron. However, five unique ships alone cannot defend an entire universe against the countless evil forces that not even alfor himself knew of. After some complex thinking and countless proposals the idea was set to become reality: make other animal space ships and train the future pilots to fly them in teams that would be hand chosen by the voltron pilots themselves. Upon entering the garrison space academy the new cadets will be given the task of creating a robotic animal companion who’ll serve as a fighting partner and model for the ship they will build upon graduation. Thanks to the holt families love of tech special equipment has been built to reduce the work of building the ships. What once took months and even years to build could be done in three days thanks to the technology the hosts have developed. The type of animal the cadets choose, their personality,skills and ability to work with others will determine their eventual spot on the team that the voltron pilots choose for them. Pretty neat idea hey? That’s the general idea of what I like. However in this au there are going to be several changes to what is deemed canon, since this is going to be a mix of lore I have made (and yours ^w^) as well as mixed lore from vld, vf and dotu i’ll Provide a decent sized list of what to expect. The full list i’ll Give to anyone who contacts me for the rp. The list is below here: 1: the canon characters are going to still be piloting voltron with shiro piloting the atlas but they will also be teaching the cadets in the respective fields they are best at. For example: Keith is a skilled pilot, therefor he’d be the best teacher in flight training and techniques. 2: instead of only human cadets (as has been seen in about all the shows not counting voltron vehicle force since the aliens aren’t cadets but graduated pilots) there will be aliens being trained as well. 3: due to the fact i’m Not a big fan of “i’m Half alien but I don’t look it” trope any half alien characters will actually look like a hybrid. The exception being the galra hybrids of course since it is shown that galra genes are somewhat recessive (hence the reason why lotor merely looked like a purple skinned Altean and not more galra). 4: the bond that is shown between lions and the pilots will also exist in the cadets ships, however until a true bond has been built a special key is required to operate the ship. The keys will have the symbol of the cadets animal that they chose to build their ship as. 5: the animal ships will not be able to form their own voltron and the atlas won’t be able to form its voltron either (sorry peeps but even you gots to admit that having two voltrons kinda takes away the specialness of voltron being the only kind of robot he is). 6: the animal ships can be creatures that don’t exist in real life (dragons, Dino’s, any other mythical or extinct jazz) as well as non sentient aliens (think of aliens like the giant four eyed lizards that attacked shiro in the first seasons of vld). 7: there’s a special ‘super mode’ for the lions that cannot be unlocked by the keys (I don’t really like the concept of bayards so it’s getting replaced by the keys seen in dotu). It can only be unlocked in moments of desperate need when pilot and lion are synced. Same for the cadets ships. 8:whenever a voltron pilot has passed away their lion changes appearance and so do their powers (their elements won’t change but they may gain new abilities) and what they seek in a pilot. The same most likely will not apply to the cadets but that depends on a number of things. 9: that super neat coolio centre formation from voltron force will apply to voltron in this rp (if you don’t know what that is i’ll Fill you in on it). 10: allura has not died but she’s not that overly powerful magical bean she is in vld. Both her death and her powers were a bit much for my tastes, I don’t mind her having a strong connection to magic I don’t like how she’s so op because of her powers. She’s brung back the dead and this is supposedly fatally risky yet she’s survived it, she’s still an altean but not super op. Also zarkon, Hagar And lotor are still threats since this is taking place as of the events that killed those characters did not happen. That’s quite a lot of lore huh? Well don’t worry I’ve got plenty more, all you gotta do is ask. Now that I’ve got two important things out of the way i’ll Tell you about me in this nifty little list down below here: 1: i’m Literate and write in the third person (you won’t ever get less than four or five lines from me in times when a scene doesn’t require multiple paragraphs). 2: I live in the eastern Australian time zone but i’m Compatible with just about any time zone there is. 3: I role play only on discord since it’s the platform i’m Most familiar with. 4: even if my discord light says i’m Offline don’t ever hesitate to send a message to me. Chances are i’ll read it and respond even when my lights not green. Don’t worry i’m Not someone who has incognito on all the time. 5: I prefer to play as characters I’ve made rather than make them up on the spot. I’ll also occasionally play canon characters but i’ll Play them not exactly the way they are portrayed in the shows. 6: I only rp as male characters due to bad experiences I have had rping as female ones. That being said I do not care about what your preferred character gender is or their orientation is. 7: i’m Over eighteen so therefore i’ll Need you to be 18+, this isn’t for reasons such as smut (i’m Okay with smut but I don’t want it to be the only focus of the story) but because I don’t feel comfortable rping with people younger than that. Same applies to your characters. 8: romance and smut, completely fine with it. I’m fine if you wanna ship canon characters with other canon characters or with oc’s but please please PLEASE do not make it your only focus. I get it, you wanna ship to your hearts content (i’ll Allow that to happen provided it doesn’t become yours and the rp’s sole focus) but there’s a whole story we gotta do and it’s not a romance only one. 9: I like to rp as non human characters but I will rp as human ones as well. 10: I do not use picture refs or face claims for my characters, only written bios. 11: I do not ghost nor do I tolerate ghosters. If you’ve just vanished of the face of the earth and it’s been a month and you’re not responding because you can’t be bothered to do so do not expect me to be there when you finally decide to do so. That’s a lot about me! Now I have a list about what I require from you. The list is below here: 1: please be literate and write in the third person, also no one liners. Three lines is the least amount i’ll Accept. 2: please be 18+, especially if you’re coming to me looking for smut or other adult themes. Same goes for your characters. 3: you gotta be cool with rping with/as non human characters/characters with disabilities/ etc. please also be comfortable with lgbt+ themes and dark themes. 4: I do not care if you use pre made characters, make them up on the spot or prefer to simply be a canon character but please be flexible in how you write with them. 5: do not spam me with questions asking where I am if I haven’t responded for a few minutes. I may have suddenly gotten called to do something or had to go, i’ll Always respond when possible. 6: please let me know if and when you might not be able to respond to me. I do not want pin point accurate details of why you’ve suddenly disappeared but I would like to know why you haven’t responded for a while. 7: please never hesitate to talk to me if something is wrong or you’d like to add something to the rp. 8: please actively contribute to the rp, it’s no fun if i’m Doing all the work myself. 9: no Gary Stu’s, Mary Sues or god modding please. Still with me so far? Awesome! Now all I have left to say is here is my discord name. Discord name: tiberionsunsconqourer#6187 Please add me and we can get straight to discussing the rp. I cannot wait to rp with the people who want to do this. Peace out dudes!

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Chapter 007 A Man With An Agenda (Remastered)

A massive stellar explosion draws the attention of Earth. Prompting a visit by Colonel Vincent Trencht of the mysterious Omega Group. - Contains one scene of nudity, but I kept it PG-13 - 15 light years from earth Chapter 07 A Man With an Agenda A massive G.R.B? Does anyone here know what a gamma ray burst is? Not me kate, you’ll have to explain it It usually precedes the creation of a black hole A gamma ray burst is an explosion of massive proportions But this is different, because its continuous Caused by the collapse of a super massive star colonel vincent trencht Yes What were seeing here is a subspace rift or wormhole You son of a bitch How dare you show your face here!! Maty! Kate, this man is a member of the omega group, he represents a special interest for the Earth Government Its okay maty, he is here at my request Hes a leading astro-physisist He has an agenda Can you say the same about anyone else here I am merely a man trying to advance humanity I promise to behave myself Janice Well take two ships, colonel Trencht will be with me Maty, I want you and your ship along too Well chuchon, hold down the fort Id ask you to come along, but we don’t know what Gamma Rays of that magnitude will do to your synthetic brain Challenger and Longbow departing Earth Space You are cleared to enter warp, have a safe trip I see you still meditate Im here to talk Janice When you left the black ops division i never got the chance to ask you why What do you want Vince You were one of our best Janey The EDF offered me a better job you served our organization well I realized that your organization was not interested in advancing humanity, just yourselves Your part of something much darker Vince Your right Janice, Iam now part of a greater power and my associates have great interest in the power of that wormhole I have just one thing to say to you Just stay out of our way and you will be fine Commander maty to the bridge Our? Who is our? Great of course its huge, its the remnants of a supermassive star. Report Its huge admiral, 150,000 kilometers in diameter Im detecting the star maam. Amazing, something has caused the star to collapse into subspace, creating a tunnel Its unstable admiral. Im detecting intense Tachyon radiation. Tachyon, cease approach. Excellent, exactly what I was hoping for Tachyon radiation indicates the presence of... A massive Concentration of Higgs Particles The wormhole is unstable maam, it may collapse. Our shields protect us, but I don’t want to chance getting any closer. I know I asked you here, but this is my ship. We need to keep it open, ready a blast of Exotic Matter from our forward gun! excuse me mr Trencht Yes maam. Is that clear Mr!! Good now lets see if we can stabilize that thing I have an idea maam. That thing has a massive gravity well but its not quite there yet If we introduced some dark energy particles from our reactor it might finish the job agreed, release some Higgs particles and it should add enough mass Just what I was thinking Don’t worry you’ll get your wormhole Is that a ship? Musn’t have seen them due to the radiation Kate You are kathryn Talania ketcheyev of earth Yes I am communicating with you telepathically You can not stop the anomaly from collapsing you will cause the destruction of our home solar system How did it survive the initial explosion. Why am I nude? Our ships are capable of absorbing the radiation, we used them to shield our homeworld but if this goes on any longer our planet will perish. we didn’t think you’d notice. Im the next in command to kate The enemy is attacking us destroy those ships Hey stupid your not in charge here Its not an attack they’re trying to communicate with her This is janice maty to the bio-ship, please cease your contact we are not telepathic Its alright people im back They mean us no harm Do something kathryn save it! Admiral the anomaly is collapsing into subspace and its taking the star with it If i do colonel, I doom an entire race Is that really what you want one of humanity’s first legacies in space to be? Noooo! You just cost us a huge advance in warp technology Shut the Hell Up!!! Mr Trencht Your welcome They’re moving off The End 16 This is unacceptable maam! You cost us a huge advantage! I could go over your head and have you removed Id like to have my head removed right now This isn’t a joke kate. earth is a fledgling power in a dangerous universe, we need all the advances we can get! Mr Trencht and letting a races homeworld get destroyed and dooming them to extinction is an acceptable tradeoff? I just had my mind probed, I have a huge migraine, and you are not helping Yes! Kate, what is one race compared to our survival! You are a dangerous man colonel, one who should never be given any power You can’t speak to me like that, this may be your ship, but I work for the government and you have no right to question what the government decides! Now please kindly shut your damn noise making hole! Can we beam him into space!? I think we would be doing ‘the government’ a favour Ulp! Sorry maam, not unless a planet is in range, its a failsafe Alright... Ill be quiet But this isn’t over, not by a long shot Commander, were detecting some strange readings Define Wierd? Its a ship Is that what I think it is Battlestations Its an omicron ship maam They are heading in the direction of SOL maam They have not noticed us Stealth mode, switch to none necessary systems Sol? are they trying to find our homeworld? We have one chance at this, they’re more powerful than us I want a full blast from all our main guns Let me take the shot, I used to be a sharpshooter fire!! Try not to get in front of them They’re coming about 2 degrees up They’re moving off We caught them completely with their pants down! but I dont know if we just stopped them from finding our homeworld or tipped them off as to its direction. The End Read the full article