#Probably had interesting responses to that ending that weren't seen cause you were dead.

[y-rhywbeth2]

The most awkward game over is the one where Haarlep eats your soul.

Sure you have utterly ceased to exist and left behind a hollow flesh shell to be used as a sex toy by devils and visitors - but your companions are still around and presumably will be off to carry on the plot without you. Like... how is everybody dealing with the aftermath of your incredibly stupid death? You've embarrassed your friends who probably won't look each other in the eye for a brief time after this, and you've probably traumatised at least one or two of them. I picture Hope attempting a very erratic consolation that doesn't help while panicking about the likelihood of the rest of her rescuers dying.

[ambermistwing]

When I first watch the playthrough of the first and second gargoyle's quest, I loved everything about it, the music, the graphics, the gamelan and the story, how firebrand is a red gargoyle demon (Red Arremer) and a respected warrior and friend, and how he cares for his village and the other ghouls, seeing his allies die as they were giving him messages and his village being destroyed was heart breaking, and as he goes to help his people and fight the evil as the prophecized hero of the ghoul realm known as the Red Blaze I was engaged. Even the music was fantastic, like for example Hell Field, despite the name it is the most beautiful and peaceful music in the game, and so many different covers on YouTube.

There were so many moments that I loved from Gargoyles quest, some I would call wholesome, like when one of the ghouls offered to test Firebrand's strength and congratulates him at the end of the game. One of my most favorite wholesome parts was when firebrand, after learning that he is the decendent of the oringinal Red Blaze and gains the eternal candle from Rushifell, he hears a voice in his head saying "You are our son. Show us your real power and defeat the king of destruction." It really warmed my heart reading that, hearing his parent(s) encouraging him.

Gargoyle's quest II is chronologically and canonically the first game with the original Red Blaze (who was also conveniently called Firebrand), it's almost the same as the first one but had new graphics and colorful design, even new characters that help him, it was fun and interesting and new areas were fun, it was sad for him to have witnessed his entire village and king dying in front of him but he was able to overcome the evil in the end and be the warrior he always wanted to be (I could say more but I'm not as good with describing as others are, but I also don't want to make it too long for you guys) These two games were different from other games at that time because of how a demon was portrayed as a hero, instead of a human just fighting monsters, it had good monsters as well as bad monsters (it can also be said for the demon's crest npcs that weren't enemies) because usually in games we only see it from the humans perspective or we just play as a monster killing people, it is unique for me though I realize probably not for some of you, yes there are the tmnt who save humans, but I mean like from firebrand in ghouls and goblins he was seen as a boss you had to defeat, but in these games we get a look at how his kind views him and from his perspective.

Demon's crest was a different response for me, cause while the story was interesting but the gameplay was a little eh for me (I'm not dissing it, this is just my opinion of it, it doesn't mean it's bad, peopleactuallysay it'sgood so go watch or play it and form your own opinions) the story starts with firebrand fighting to obtain the elemental crests on them to end the Civil War in the demon realm or to discover 'true power' but as he was wounded he was attacked with a cheap shot by Phalanx, who set the realm on fire and blames him for it, he took everything from him except his will. The design of the game was good but reminded me of those games you would play at an arcade ( like the game Skull was playing in the movie monster house 'thou art dead', or other games like that which i think they were trying to base it off of) which to me was weird cause I was used to the first two games designs, the character design was cool (the head was weird for me) and I liked that he could change forms with every stone you gain, the music was great and I loved how you would fly from place to place in the overworld, but this would lead to some people going out of order or just go to the final boss, which would lead to one of the four endings (bad, neutral, good, and best ending) the time stone was confusing for me. But I loved still love that game and if you want to check it out, consider getting the game or watch the playthrough on YouTube.

If you wish to learn more about him then check out the wiki or just play the games and watch the playthrough https://ghostsngoblins.fandom.com/wiki/Firebrand

All in all I really love it but I fear that these games is super underrated and so is firebrand, he's amazing but feel like there is so much potential for him and the Fandom, but there's hardly any mention of him and no fanfiction about him or gargoyle's quest or demon's crest at all, or even any x reader fanfics of him (don't judge) one day I hope he gets his own game again in the future, maybe him going to the human realm in his perspective, and maybe different then just king Arthur's realm in ghost and goblins. Or most likely a fanfic of him meeting the Disney gargoyles (I think it would be an interesting story, also funny if they ask "why is this gargoyle naked, also he does kinda look like my man Brooklyn)

[xo-cuteplosion-xo]

Too late | Dazai x reader |

Too late | Mafia Dazai / dazai x fem!reader |

( A very shitty attempt at a song-fic. )

Warnings- toxic relationship (minor mentions of abuse?), death

A brunette sat on the cement. The tan folds of his coat fluttering out behind him. The wind brushed his hair from his face, it stung his eyes and brushed his skin with bitter cold air. His fingers dripped the brightest shade of crimson. His eyes had dilated and shook with shock and fear. The skin his hands desperately held, already losing its warmth. Lips stained the color, as well as the outfit that resembled his own. Those blood-stained lips coughed final words before letting go. How, how had this happened? Why had he never predicted this? Why would you ever do this?

He knew those answers like he knew his own crimes. After all, how could he forget? He’d been the reason you fell, he’d only denied it for years.

The sun fell softly along the stone. A boy, no older than 15, walked along the stone edge of a bridge. His brown locks flying within the wind whilst he adjusted the bandage over his left eye. He paid no mind to you, even as you walked behind him. Your feet carried you on the safer ground, next to the edge. It was common to find the two of them like this. You were always with him, whenever you could be at least. He never seemed to notice you were there; You didn’t mind it though. The rare moments where he did suddenly ask you questions were enough. Rushing to close the distance between you and him, you caught a glance of his eyes darted to the side. He was looking at you, the single eye that showed seemed puzzled, before he parted his lips to talk to you; His arms opened at the same time. Skipping around steps, he smiled, “Hey, why are you still following me, woman? Don’t you have a better hobby than stalking me?” so he did notice you at times.

Flustered you froze before chuckling with a light hum. “No, not really Dazai-san. I think you're interesting! You're the only one I can't read.” you were referring to your ability. It wasn’t much, so you weren't too high up in the ranks. You could read thoughts, see their feelings in the form of aura, and manipulate that aura. So far, you could make people freeze up and lose themself in an overdose of emotions. Also known as individual illusions created by their auras; things only they could see. It was hard to believe you were even in the mafia. Your bubbly appearance and lack of interest in killing made you look harmless. You never killed, but when you worked with another they sure had an opening to kill.

Dazai leaned down so he leveled with you. “I wonder, have you ever thought of using that ability to induce such outrageous depression, one acts on it?” blushing you took several steps back shaking your head.

“N-no, sir! I d-don’t think I could do that. Well, if Dazai-san really wanted me to, I-I could try it for him!” What were you saying? Knowing this demon prodigy, you’d probably end up not meeting the expectation and ending up punished. Though, would that be so bad?

He puffed his cheeks out, jumping from the edge to land in front of you. With a half-smile, he flicked your forehead. “You keep doing the opposite of what I predict. I really can’t get a read on you.” turning away you covered your face.

“I-is that a compliment?” you mumbled, looking through your fingers. He shrugged, jumping back to the ledge. His eyes lost their glimmer as he looked down. He seemed to be judging the distance; With a heavy sigh, he looked back to the sky.

“If only this was a little higher. I think falling into the water and dying right away, without the pain of falling to the ground, would be okay. I’d drown unconscious, how peaceful that would be.” you didn’t respond as he turned and began walking again.

~

Year after year you walked by his side, growing with him. Slowly that bubbly gaze began to fade ever so slightly. The fun-filled times like the day on the bridge no longer existed.

My head is haunting me and my heart feels like a ghost

Standing next to the demon prodigy you stretched out your hand with a sigh. “Ability: vortex of emotions.” from the shadows you worked alongside him. The enemy's hands reached their head. A perching scream echoing as they turned their gun to themselves. Looking to the side your eyes met the brunettes; They were colder than they were a year ago. Sighing, he raised his pistol and shot. He pushed past you, and you followed numbly.

I need to feel something, 'cause I'm still so far from home

Entering the box he called his home, his hands grabbed your waist pulling you towards him. His fingers lifting your chin. The flutter of your heart pounded against your chest, the closer his face came to yours. “You really should stop following me everywhere. If you won’t at least try to kill.”

Cross your heart and hope to die. Promise me you'll never leave my side

Nodding as he released you, he sat at his desk. “Mori won’t be happy that we clocked out so early.” he leaned back groaning. “Found a new suicide method? I don’t want to deal with his annoying voice tomorrow!” his older persona slipped through. The light in his eyes spread before it disappeared with your silence. Yet despite that, there was a caring hint to his posture. The way his hands moved softly, how he traced your bow. How he exhaled with a sigh when you closed the door

Show me what I can't see when the spark in your eyes is gone

~

Another year went by with a soft ease. You stood in Mori's office, a blank expression on your face. You were sure you were dead. Messing up like this, letting somebody get away. You were shaking, unsure why your breaths still rang. The doors opened to the brunette mafioso. Dressed in all black, a short ginger walked at his side. The way your emotions suddenly changed was unnoticed by everybody but Dazai. His eyes set in glares as you looked away. Your heart raced, why was it you still felt like this? He treated you as a pawn, yet you still ached to kiss him. Mori blamed your failure on Dazai’s lack of discipline with you. “I’ve been more than lenient with how she follows you around. If this happens again, it will be you who pays the price Dazai.'' Why did this have to happen in front of the ginger? His eyes looked at you with sympathy. It was weird to see such a thing. Dazai rolled his eyes stepping closer to the ginger as his eyes darted to you. Puffing your cheeks out you looked away.

Once you were in his office, he practically pulled you by the ear. Pushing you to the floor with his frustration. “I don’t understand why I keep you around! All you seem to do is put me in situations that bore me to death!”

You've got me on my knees I'm your one man cult

You looked up with begging eyes. “Please, I’m sorry Dazai-san! Please forgive me! I’ll do better! Please don’t leave me.” he was the first person to ever make you feel real emotions. Fear, excitement, lust, love, heartache, despair. He gave it all to you.

Cross my heart and hope to die Promise you I'll never leave your side

It was an unexpected look, an unexpected plea. His eyes showed excitement. “There, there’s the reason! You can’t stop doing the opposite of my expectations, every time I think you’ll do something, you manage to shock me, even in this kind of situation! I wonder, would you commit suicide if I died? It would be so unexpected!” his voice was full of wonder as he lifted your chin using the front of his foot.

Looking at him he smirked. He'd known, all along, about your feelings. He teased you all the time, but maybe he could finally get an expected reaction from you. It would be possible to toy with you. Maybe then he’d be satisfied with you. “Would you ever be only mine? Something only for my eyes?” with wide eyes you nodded.

Cause I'm telling you you're all I need I promise you you're all I see

With a smile, you brought your hands to press against your chest. With a desperate smile, your eyes filled with that childish light from when you were 15. “Even if I'm only being used for your satisfaction, it would be all I need! You're the only one for me." Once more he was shocked by the response. Nearly losing the balance he had, his hand reached to his face a soft snicker leaving his lips.

“You’re utterly helpless.” he hummed, removing his foot from under your chin. “Come here darling~” he was certainly stressed today. A little fun wouldn’t hurt, right? “Tell me you’ll never leave.” he hummed holding your chin within his fingers. The blush on your cheeks darkening in your complexion.

'Cause I'm telling you you're all I need I'll never leave

His lips met yours. Shivering you closed your eyes, letting a tear fall. You wished he truly loved you back.

~

Another year passed, you stayed by him no matter what he did. He was crueler than ever. He often left you at night to go hang out in a bar. Those nights were lonely but a ginger often peeped in to see you. “You look like hell.” he would always tell you how messed up you looked. “Why do you stay by him?”

The images passed by your head. The boy you fell in love with. The young 15-year-old. The one with a smile that would show itself here and there. The young boy who jokes around, the carefree one. You picture the feeling of his fingers over yours. Cold yet so warm in those years.

So you can drag me through hell If it meant I could hold your hand

“I love him.” you hummed watching the male drop a bottle of wine in your lap. He walked out leaving the gift. He knew you understood how cruel he was. He had never really pitied anybody before but you… you were something he pitied. A demon prodigy's toy, your relationship was nothing more than toxic.

I will follow you 'cause I'm under your spell And you can throw me to the flames

Sipping on the wine you drank yourself drunk. “I love him… he loves me. I love him. He loves me, I know he does. I’ve seen some softness in those harsh eyes.” you wiped the tears looking up to the ceiling. What had you gotten yourself into? Why did your heart have to play you like this?

I will follow you, I will follow you

~

He stood looking so conflicted, broken, and unsure. It wasn’t the first time you saw him without the bandages but it was the first time your dull lifeless eyes saw him this vulnerable. “Figures, you do follow me everywhere.” his voice was blank of anything; You could no longer read his voice.

Come sink into me and let me breathe you in

It was true, you needed him, so of course you followed him everywhere. “Go, we’re done! I’m not going back! This is all Mori's fault! He’d be alive if it weren't for inviting that damn organization here!” he was upset, yet he seemed so confused. Like a child, he had no grip on what he was feeling. Was he angry, grieving, sad? He couldn’t tell.

You ran to him wrapping arms around him. “I will go with you! I will follow you!”

I'll be your gravity, you be my oxygen.

You'd hold him down during this pain. You’d help him achieve whatever it was that he needed. “Even if it is death, I will not leave.”

So dig two graves 'cause when you die I swear I'll be leaving by your side

With a soft sigh, he pushed you away. “That changes nothing, follow if you have to but I never loved you.” you backed away smiling you curtsied.

“I know Dazai, I know you never did and never could. You are a demon prodigy, one that can’t understand his own feelings. I wish I could help, but your gift cancels mine out.” your voice was sweet as honey, but he shed you no more glances as he walked away. Following him, you sighed.

~

Two years later your empty eyes sat at an agency desk, you'd bought an outfit to match his. Those feelings refused to leave you even after all this time. They surged more than ever. He was like his 15-year-old self again, different but at least there was life in his eyes. He laughed and flirted just as he did those years ago.

So you can drag me through hell If it meant I could hold your hand

You looked to the cafe waitress’s hand, then your own. How you wished to be her. You stood up, walking out and to the office of the agency, sitting in your chair, Kyouka walked up to you. She once had your eyes. Dull, lifeless, broken, but then Atsushi seemed to save her. “Do you love him?” she asked tilting her head as you looked from your phone to her, you sighed.

“Yes, but I'll suffer for life over this. I had my chance and now it’s gone.”

I will follow you 'cause I'm under your spell

She set down a small piece of paper. “I found this.'' She tried to give you a smile that wasn’t pity. They often asked why you always looked so disturbed. Maybe it was the fact you were really all alone now?

And you can throw me to the flames

A tear dropped from your eye. Something, a feeling you hadn’t had in so long. It was worth it, these empty dull years. “A tossed away letter to apologize.” you held it to your chest.

~

I will follow you so you can drag me through hell If it meant I could hold your hand

You found yourself alone on a mission. This was assigned to both you and Dazai, but he had other things he wanted to be doing. Neither of you knew how dangerous this was. He had not batted an eye at this mission. It was simple, a simple recovery mission. A ransom kidnapping, simple in and out. You could handle it without being seen. You ached for the warmth of his hand. A little light lifted your eyes as you stepped into the building.

When his fingers opened his phone accepting the call, he nearly fell over dead. The mission you were attending wasn’t a retrieval; It was a set-up. Despite how careful he'd been, somebody had found out about you. More so his past with you. His mind was too focused on you to think of who let it slip.

I will follow you 'cause I'm under your spell And you can throw me to the flames

Dazai pushed past the doors too late. This was his fault, all of this. The loss of your true self.

I will follow you, I will follow you I will follow you, I will follow you

You'd always said you would follow him. It was always like that. He had taken years to figure out why he never ignored or let you go. He was selfish, he had grown attached. Ango and Oda had even offered the thought. The thought that, maybe in this heart; swallowed by black, he loved you.

It was his turn to feel desperate as he dropped down. The blood flowing from your stomach in spurts.

So you can drag me through hell If it meant I could hold your hand

He held your hand in his while also trying to keep the bleeding down. “I’ll get help! Just hang on, we just need Yosano!” it was the first time your heart slowed like this; The first time you could read him like a book.

I will follow you 'cause I'm under your spell And you can throw me to the flames

Your hand was growing cold, your breathing staggered. You looked to be in so much pain. “No, I won't be that long. You should leave, you don’t love me so…” your voice trailed off as your head tilted to look at his cheeks. Tears�� there were tears.

He shook his head pressing your hand to his forehead. “I will follow you.”

Your eyes widened as a light chuckle left your lips, “I will follow you.” you hummed, as the crimson left your lips. He was forced to watch you die in his arms. There was one final look on your face. A giant smile, a real smile on your lips. “I love you Osa…” then, you were gone.

Another, another friend in his arms, dead. No, you are more than a friend. “I… I love you.” he’d never said those words, and it didn’t matter now. There was no going back. He held you to him, cold and motionless.

Somebody from the mafia had done this. Somebody would probably be Mori… he’d dropped this low before, it wouldn’t shock him if he were trying to drive Dazai to murder again; To get him kicked from the light.

For you, for the wish left by Oda, he wouldn’t let himself fall that low. He’d be strong.

[sor-vette]

four, circus!! (index/description)

☜ three, an all-out fight club!!

☞ five, dots!!

t/w: dead bodies, mention of overdose

"This has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen," Yoongi thinks to himself as he blankly stares at Jimin, transferring the PPT file to the projector.

123 slides in "Reasonable arguments as to why we should date, _̵͚̾͌_̶̢̛̘̅͛̕_̶̡̧̝͗̒̋̌̚_̴̮̒̍̿̃͠ .

"Wrong PowerPoint bro," Jungkook grunts with closed eyes. No doubt the idiot had tried to stalk you throughout the night. It's been three days since Erik had officially enrolled.

Namjoon also has his eyes fixed on the projector, his expression giving nothing away.

"Resigned to death, poor bastard, as you should."

Jimin momentarily looks behind him to see why Jin had started to snort in laughter before scrambling to choose another file.

56 slides in "What do we know about Erik and what to do about it?"

"The title could be less verbose," Jin remarks, spinning his chair around the room.

"You're one to talk, literally," Jimin sneers but, there is very little malice in his voice if any. Besides Namjoon, V and Hope, who actually stuck to his word of minding his business, Yoongi didn't know anyone personally in the room. Though he sure has heard of the connections they had with you. Each weirder than the other.

Namjoon, the CEO, the one who went overboard in commitment and scared you off. Rumour was he offered marriage before the first "I like you." But that as well could be bullshit.

Hope, with the most cordial contact out of all. And also the most distant. You two had fundamentally different perceptions of how the world worked. Incompatible match, as the saying goes.

Jin. Despite the grandeur of his character, Yoongi knew very little of him. Even less as to why you left. He presumed the lack of commitment on both sides.

Jimin, the almost. For five months Yoongi had to hear nothing but coy whispers of just what good friends you two were. What good time you both had jumping back and forth from Paris and home. And then with zero explanation, you weren't. Every once in a while, he'd see the two of you in the hallway. Working hard to suffer through an exchange of pleasantries between long awkward pauses. The whispers had been effectively stomped to death, with no one the wiser as to what the hell had happened.

V, the one you hated and the one who hated you. How the two of you even met was beyond anyone's understanding. How you didn't rip each other's throat out even more so. Why he was here? God only knew.

And the last one, JK. Your trainee before Erik. The one who'd shamelessly bounced, leaving you in the dust when the enrollment came with a nary of thank you. After that, you officially joined the cleaner department and largely went missing from the public eye.

And, of course, Yoongi himself. The only official boyfriend. The one who officially broke both of your hearts.

"If all of you could please focus!" Jimin snapped, standing with a wad of paper in hand, waving it like a teacher in front of particularly annoying group of students.

"He even made notes," Namjoon whispered faintly.

"More like a manifesto," Yoongi snickered, letting his eyes wander over the sheer thickness of the file.

"Silence!" For a split second, Yoongi wanted to make a jab about a chihuahua being able to bark, but having considered his own height, he chose to be silent.

"So, let's start with basics. Erik Genyer. Joined two and a half years ago through a recruitment agent. He's 24, lived in Seattle before moving here. No known parents or siblings." Jimin recounted with ease.

"I hope you didn't look through his records," Namjoon frowned at the screen. "Because I did not authorize that."

"Does it count as looking if it's a brief glance?"

"Yes."

"And yet here you are benefitting from it." Namjoon could only breathe through his nose a tad harder.

"Why are you telling us this?" Jin interjected. "Mr CEO here could just give us his file - we'd read for ourselves."

"I will not. That's against company policy."

"And what you're doing here is completely legal and non - invasive." Jin raised his eyebrows, not phased even in the slightest that he was much below Namjoon's position.

"Silence!" Jimin yelped again at the front. "Has anyone here worked with Erik?"

"Hope definitely has," V piped up from his seat, looking as uninterested as one could. Yoongi narrowed his eyes at him. V took the piercing glare in stride, haughtily turning away.

"Well, yes but..." Jimin shuffled on the stage almost awkwardly. "He has strictly declined the invitation to our little... boy band."

"Wait does that mean he could tell _̸̢͉̦͔̣͈̱̅́́̓͊̇̂̓́̕͝ͅ_̸̨̙͚̻̬͖͉̻͔̑̓͐͜ - I mean R.D.?" Jungkook suddenly asks, eyes wide. Even Yoongi blanched at the thought. Everyone straightened in their seats. This was all fun and games until the moment you knew. Oh, you'd rip each and every one of them a new asshole. All of them could kiss goodbye to any attempt of trying to mend bridges. By that point, there wouldn't even be a river stretching underneath.

"I sincerely hope not." Jimin whispers and they sit in a moment of silence, weighing the risks.

"Heh, hope not." Jin suddenly gives a breathy laugh solely to be met by a general aura of disapproval.

"It's not funny." Namjoon scolds slightly but, Jin being Jin, openly looks him into eyes and goes -

"I know."

Amidst the banter, JK raises his hand shyly.

"I trained with him for a short while."

"And what is he like?" Jimin's eyes almost sparkled at anyone giving an actual insight.

"He must be wearing contacts or something," Yoongi mused, pushing the cap of his water bottle around the table. He knew Jimin to be attractive. No one in the entire company would shut up about it, nevertheless, something about him seemed almost supernatural.

JK shrugged in response.

"A bit rude and careless but talented. He finished training early."

"Did it seem like he was particularly going after her?" Namjoon interrogated further. There was a deep scowl of resentment on his face.

"Uhh, no. I think he was interested in the cleaner department in general. Apparently, he spent most of his orientation there."

"He also spent a month in surveillance. Did you speak with him...V?" If V was surprised by Jimin addressing him personally, he didn't show it as he continued to inspect his nails.

"Didn't even know he was there."

"Why did he stay so long in the cleaner department?" Yoongi asked as he ran over the information on the screen. Besides the already mentioned month in surveillance and a week in networking and relations, this Erik hadn't even tried to apply anywhere else.

"Poor communication skills. I had to throw him out. That's why he was only there a week." Jin explained.

"So you spoke to him?"

"Well, no, Irina," he was interrupted by a hollow thud. Without prompt V had dropped his steel thermos onto the desk, tea splattering everywhere and staining JK's jacket in the process. Both of them fumbled to clean it up with anything they could. V dabbed the desk harshly, the wood creeking at every aggressive wipe. Yoongi saw Jin looking sideways, the same confused expression echoed on his face.

"Well, as I was saying, Irina, R.D.'s friend, I'm sure you're familiar, came to me, said he was causing trouble and asked to refer him."

"And you sent him to R.D.?"

Jin gave a deeply suffering sigh.

"No, I did not send him. I referred him to general management and they gave him to the cleaners ."

"Ok, I get all of this. But what are we supposed to do about him?" Namjoon interrupted, jaw set in a tight grip.

Jimin fell silent at the front of the room.

"Yeah, this was the main question." Yoongi thought bitterly.

It was all a question of ethics, wasn't it? JK could pretend all he wanted to be above it all, to be respectful but then he trailed secret circles around you. Whether from guilt or perhaps a sense of entitlement. Yoongi didn't know or really care. Nevertheless the kid clearly had a hard time differentiating between what he said and what he did. Yoongi was however surprised to see Namjoon be so eager. He quite fancied making himself bald from worrying about the nature of evil. Just how easy it was to hide it behind big aspirations of providing aid. But it seemed as of late all of that was tossed aside.

Jimin was the one who orchestrated this in the first place, and so naturally, everyone looked at him for guidance. He was still shuffling around, nervously fiddling the blue pen.

"Well, first of all, I think we should talk more to R.D." A huff passed around the room.

"Talk to her?" V asked sceptically, mouth set in a straight line and heavy wrinkles carved between brows.

"Do you have any idea how difficult that would be?"

"Certainly it would be for you," Yoongi snarled, earning a harsh glare.

"Listen, at the end of the day, it's not really about us trying to force her into something. It's just to make sure... she's living a safe life. Well, the safest that's possible." Jimin said with enough sincerity to trigger certain insecurities within Yoongi and by the look of it also Namjoon.

It was no secret that between the seven, they were the most possessive over you. Both having the wrong idea that you were theirs. Which is why you left and why you probably were so caught up in Jimin. The purity and sheer selflessness of his sentiments acted like a punch to the gut. The genuine care that he reflected like a sun made the raw wound in Yoongi's chest seep even more. To be loved like that would be a dream come true. Yoongi shifted his attention to the laminated floor.

"We talk to her, find out what her life is like, keep a close eye on what Erik does. Talk to other cleaners about him, and once we find out, she's happy. That's. The. End. Of. That." There was no uncertainty. Jimin was dead serious.

The meeting was adjourned, quite amicably actually, but Yoongi knew that the rest of them had ulterior motives and plans. He had them too.

Jin and JK were no threat. Both were too uncertain of what to do with you.

Jimin had some deep-seated self esteem issues. Despite his 123 slide presentation, the way he spoke made it clear. That's probably why the abrupt parting, Yoongi mused. Both of you most likely shared the same anxiety about not being good enough for the other.

V was just V.

Namjoon was the only one Yoongi was truly worried about. Even from looking at his back, walking headstrong up the stairs, Yoongi could see how stubborn Namjoon was. In a way, it was like looking in a mirror. The possessiveness, the mulish mindset. They'd saw you, all of you and had decided that this was it. Yes, Namjoon would certainly be the toughest rival. However, Yoongi was very good at playing the long game. Especially if he wanted something so bad it felt like his thorax slowly being ripped out.

All that was left was Hope. But he wasn't even a viable player. After all, he hadn't even shown up.

***

"Why the fuck is he so heavy?" Erik grunted, swaying left and right and holding onto his dear life to the bagged pair of legs.

"Rigor mortis...set in," you huffed in answer, from the upfront of the body. "At least he wasn't rotting already. That's just nasty. 1, 2, 3."

Both of you lift the body into the van and let the poor bastard drop with a soft thud. Sweat pooled underneath your white hazmat suit with plastic glasses digging straight into your brain. You banged hard against the "EMT" van, and it drove away, carrying Dr. Martin Leyster to the morgue.

Should the neighbours see anything, it was a sad story of a depressed psychiatrist accidentally overdosing on his own meds. The evidence of him manipulating his most vulnerable patients into bankruptcy erased in you any stray feelings of sympathy though.

"You have the peroxide?" You rifled through the cleanup bag, but instead of answering, Erik began to actively point somewhere behind your back. A cold chill ran up your spine as you realize someone has been watching you stuff the body in the trunk. It quickly dissipates when you see a familiar smile.

"Hard at work, I see," Hope whistled, bounding towards you more like a kid on a school trip, rather than what the reality was.

"May I borrow your mentor for a bit?" He asked politely, still smiling up at Erik. There was no warmth in his expression.

"You are after all now an official member of the cleaner crew. Surely you can handle this on your own."

Erik looks at you for a moment before giving a loud sigh and trudging back to Leyster's office, the white toolbox angrily swishing back and forth in his hand.

Without hesitation, you remove the glasses from your head, revelling in the ease of pressure. Hope had stopped smiling altogether, looking quite pensive.

"What brings you here?" You ask lightly. To see him here is not worrying per se, but certainly interesting. He gives a quick shrug.

"Nothing much. Wanted to see how you were doing after that runt's little stunt." You only laugh at the shallow animosity. Erik's talent to drive people out of their patience was truly remarkable.

"I'm doing fine. You know... working. What about you?"

"I've been working as well."

You both fall silent.

"You ever thought about leaving the BH?" He suddenly asked, and you quirk a brow at the question.

"Not particularly. Have you?" Hope focuses a blank gaze at the grey walls of the multi-story apartment complex.

"A little bit. Last few days especially." You stand in muted shock. Hope was the last person you thought would quit. He was, without doubt, the most devoted, the most passionate out of all the hundreds of employees. He lived for the cause, he himself said so. And yet now he stood uncertain in front of you. Not really the bright and friendly Hope everyone knew, not really the strict and somewhat terrifying training teacher. He was just...quiet. It was an upsetting scene.

"Do you want to go for a drink or a lunch, maybe?" You offer, reaching for the zipper of the white suit. Yes, Erik could handle this on his own. He was a big boy. Hope hastily placed his hand atop of yours, pausing the movement. Even through the fabric, it radiated warmth. No wonder people called him sun. He frowned at the conjoined hands, lightly stroking his thumb over your knuckles before lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"No, no. I don't want to burden you with my problems." You didn't believe his smile for a second.

"Well, I won't steal you away for much longer, the pup might get anxious." He turned around, by the looks of ready to sprint off.

"Hey, wait!" He paused, not looking back.

"Do you why JK has been stalking me?"

"He has?"

He had. The first time you noticed a shifting figure in the background, you wrote it off to the combination of hangover and exhaustion. The second time he'd run off into the night faster than you could catch up. The third time you nearly flung yourself off the roof when seeing a pair of doe eyes staring back at you from an empty apartment building.

"There isn't like an alliance going around between some of my... acquaintances?" Truth be told, you found the very idea ridiculous, but it had wormed its ugly way into your brain and was now near impossible to get out. JK, Jimin, Yoongi and Namjoon wouldn't even get along with each other. Even though those four were most likely to meddle in your business. However, if looking realistically, it was probably just your paranoia taking an intensive round. Seeing suspicious cars, watchful eyes and snooping noses where there were none. Hope threw you a sardonic smile.

"That would just be stupid."

(a/n)

In this story people have their names and codenames and will be often used interchangeably. It all depends whether in the story the POV character knows the names of others or not.

[itsmyara]

About That Night... (Hisomachi Fanfic)

Note: Another translation, though my English is not that great ^^’. It’s 3532 words NO SMUT! I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Pairing: Hisoka/Machi

Summary: Hisoka realized that he was still analyzing her for a reason other than trying to investigate the possible sources of her drunkenness. He was mesmerized by the way emotions were running free in her face, something he had never seen before.

Warning: Drunk!Machi, Jealous!Hisoka, Alcohol, Mentions of Drugs, Mentions of Sex, Mentions of Getting Sick, Passing Out, Hangover, Mild Language.

[Link to AO3 in English] 

[Link to AO3 in Brazilian Portuguese]

Her body moved insanely under the colorful lights of the room to the sound of a repetitive and irritating electronic beat. Although she was dressed much more discreetly than the other girls in the club, wearing simple jeans and a black tank top, she drew attention and caused a small audience to gather around her. Dancing with a big, strong man covered in tattoos and looking like a local crime boss, she moved boldly and sensually, with a loose laugh that occasionally lit up her face.

"Is this just alcohol effect or did she use something else?" Hisoka questioned the man standing next to him, without taking his eyes off Machi on the dance floor.

The tattooed man's hand slid down her small body and slipped under the black tank top, pressing her waist against him while his mouth whispered something in her ear that made her laugh. Hisoka's fists clenched hard.

Illumi shrugged before answering the question in a monotone voice:

"I don't know, she was already like this when I arrived, so I called you. She's dancing with my target and it doesn't look like she's going to leave him anytime soon. So I called you. I figured you wouldn't want it to be me taking her out of there."

Hisoka moved his eyes to face the ever-so-cold colleague. He was right. If he used his methods against Machi, even if it was just to get her out of the way, he would have to make a little reckoning with him. But the assassin was smart. Illumi decided to turn the situation around and, by calling Hisoka, he won himself a favor to collect later.

When the magician looked back at the pink-haired woman, he saw the tattoed man leading her towards a door in a reserved corner of the nightclub.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Illumi observed the scenario calmly and then turned away, unconcerned.

"Just remember that no matter what he does to your girl. He is my target and I need him alive. I will wait outside."

Hisoka responded with an annoyed snort before walking in the opposite direction of his friend. The bloodlust that exuded from the magician made people open the way naturally, looking suspiciously at the strange man who carried a macabre look on his face.

He unceremoniously kicked down the door to the private room, much to the surprise of some people who ran away, but not Machi. She has been waiting for him, even though she was pressed against the wall by the other man's body. She could be intoxicated, but her perception would never fail to notice Hisoka's bloodlust.

Hisoka leaned against the damaged door frame, crossing his arms casually as he faced the scene in the room by the half-light.

"Oh, am I interrupting something?" He asked wryly.

The tattooed man immediately released Machi and faced him without fear.

"What's up, clown? This one is mine now, if you want the leftover you'll have to wait outside."

Hisoka laughed shortly. The man had given the worst answer he could when he was so obviously in a risky position. He was nothing between the two nen users — even though one of them was intoxicated — and the only difficulty the magician faced was being forced to use only his fists to bring down the thug. He didn't like having to control himself that way, not when he wanted to end the existence of someone so weak and unwary, but he would have to leave that to Illumi.

Machi only seemed to understand the situation completely when the man was already lying on the floor unconscious, and Hisoka was heading to her with an enigmatic smile.

"You could have chosen someone stronger, you know? This is almost an insult..."

"What are you doing here? After everything you’ve done, you decided to follow me?"

Even though the place was dark, Hisoka could see her cheeks flushed. Her eyes shone with tears and her lips swollen, red, and moist; probably as a result of the kisses she shared with that useless guy. He took a long time to analyze it, for a moment believing that it was because he had to determine if she was under the influence of a drug other than alcohol.

His hands grabbed her face, and the only reaction she had was to hold his arms as if she was going to try to stop him, but she didn’t actually apply enough force to it.

"I'm too busy to follow you, ok? But when a little bird tells me that you're out there screwing up, I have to act, don't I?"

Machi laughed sadly, her chest shaking almost quietly between them, and Hisoka realized that he was still analyzing her for a reason other than trying to investigate the possible sources of her drunkenness. He was mesmerized by the way emotions were running free in her face, something he had never seen before.

"You think I'm weak, Hisoka..." she murmured under her breath, and then in a burst, she pulled his hands away from her face and pushed him away. "Do you think I need you to defend me from this ?" She pointed to the dead weight on the floor and then laughed sadly again.

Actually, he was defending her from Illumi, who wouldn't be so patient with her drama, but Hisoka resigned himself to smile in response, making her snort.

"I hate you!"

There was a very sincere feeling in those words, which came out of her mouth as if they were ripping her up. This made Hisoka lean his head in curiosity. However, Machi simply looked at him from head to toes in disbelief before turning away and stumbling out of that room, pushing one or the other person off her way and randomly stealing a drinking glass from one of them as she headed to the exit.

Hisoka sighed, grabbing the unconscious man by the hair and dragging him along while he went behind the woman. He caught up with Machi near the door, where even the security guards had already moved away. Without saying a word, he wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her off the floor, carrying her out despite her protests.

"This is yours," Hisoka declared as he threw the unconscious body at Illumi’s feet.

The body that writhed and struggled, trying weakly to attack Hisoka without ceasing, was his.

"Do you want some help with her?" Illumi offered, watching the woman's wildness with some curiosity.

"No, she has the right to protest. When she gets tired, she'll see that this is in her best interest."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here, you wretch! Fight me like a man! I'm going to kill you with my bare hands!"

Between punches and kicks, Hisoka just waved a greeting to Illumi and went on his way.

[...]

When he crossed the threshold of his hotel room, Machi was less savage in his arms. In fact, at some point along the way, she had given up attacking him and started just pouring out words about him being a traitor, about Chrollo, and even something about Pakunoda's death. Some of her words actually made sense, but the state she was still in, which seemed to get worse by the second, made any response from him useless.

Therefore, in the face of silence, Machi finally burst into tears before reaching their destination, and Hisoka thought it was best to cradle her properly in his arms so that when they crossed the door she was being carried like a bride, but a tearful one against his chest.

When he tried to accommodate her on the couch, she clung more tightly to his shoulders, as a clear sign that she didn't want to part at that moment.

"Oh? I thought you hated me," he declared with a playful laugh.

"Why do you have to be like this?"

Her voice was so heartfelt that he couldn't help but sigh before settling on the couch with her in his arms. Machi wouldn't remember any of that the next day, which is why he stopped to think for a few seconds about what she just said. He knew that she was not referring to his jokes, but to the fact that he had lied for years and, in the end, revealed a goal that clashed with her own completely. If it weren't for that, maybe she wouldn't have to hate him that much.

She finally looked up and, not without effort, focused her reddened eyes on his. Hisoka looked at her expression legitimately surprised. He could expect hatred and tears on her part, but the way she looked at him now was... sweet. For some reason, he was sure that if he kissed her now, despite anything that preceded this moment, what he would taste on her lips would be something so deep and meaningful that, yes, it scared him.

That's why he didn't kiss her, allowing her to break the silence:

"You're spinning..." Machi murmured, and then laughed in a silly way, breaking the magic as well. "You're spinning and you're not going to tell me anything, are you? You're not even here, I'm imagining you," she put her face back on his shoulder. "At least you smell good…"

"Machi, what did you use?" Hisoka knew he probably wouldn't get a coherent answer, but that doubt had haunted him since the moment he saw her that night. It was hard to believe that only alcohol would do that to a woman as strong as her. There had to be some other chemistry influencing her altered state.

"What did I use?" She asked, confused, and then looked up to him again. "Ah… you wanna know if I did something," she approached his ear and whispered: "Maybe…"

Suddenly she let go of his shoulders and stood up, staggering a little and cleaning the tracks of the tears on her face with the back of her hands. She walked a few steps erratically and looked around in amazement before looking at him again.

"Do you pay to sleep here?" Machi asked in surprise and laughed right away as if it were really hilarious. "You pay ! You're such a fancy-pants."

Hisoka just settled down more comfortably on the couch, watching the scene. On several occasions, he wished to see her acting more spontaneously, freer, but this situation was just sad. He didn’t even want to take advantage of it or tease her about it — at least not until the next day.

He watched Machi shrink into herself again, leaning against the wall and letting the weight of her body drag her to the floor. She crossed her arms very specifically over her stomach, and he knew it was a sign that something rather unpleasant was about to happen.

"You’re feeling sick," he declared, standing up to meet her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" Machi flinched a little more, however. "I just miss them..."

Ignoring the way she was closing herself off, Hisoka lifted her from the floor by the shoulders, as if she were a small child. He looked at Machi’s eyes seriously, while pinning her against the wall.

"I know you miss them, but acting like this is stupid. I can't believe you're the same Machi I know."

"Pakunoda was the first person who cared about me in this world," she declared and then swallowed hard before continuing: "she was my family and now she’s dead. Chrollo is my family and now he's far away, unable to use his nen, and I know you had a part in it. The chain guy..." Machi closed her eyes briefly as if to take his name from memory, "Kurapika, you sold our secrets to Kurapika because you wanted to, didn't you? He didn't do to you what he did to Paku, you don't have a fucking chain in your heart. You don't even have a fucking heart! You are a..." eyelids closed again, this time, however, she couldn't remember the word. A single tear streamed down her left eye. "Damn it…"

"You talk as if you have a heart," Hisoka interrupted her coldly, which made her look at him with a sharp look, a faint bloodlust pulsing from her intoxicated body. "You don't feel anything for anyone but for a few of your friends. You're not much better than me."

Machi struggled in his hands for a fraction of a second, resigning herself to kill him only with her intentions when she was unable to leave. She looked a little more like who she really was now.

"You have no idea, you idiot."

Those words were followed by a few seconds of silence in which the blue of her eyes became indecipherable. That was when he remembered who she was and why he cared so much. Machi was the lady of the labyrinth, and he had never managed to get out of her tortuous paths because, very wisely, she had never given him her threads, leaving him lost forever in her maze.

"When I fight Chrollo, who do you want to survive?" He didn’t know where this question came from when it left his mouth, but the reaction it had caused in the woman justified it.

Machi blinked a few times, as if trying to calculate the seriousness of what he had asked, and then closed her eyes with a certain solemnity.

"I don't want you to fight Danchou. I don't want either of you dead."

Perhaps the answer was more than enough, but she had also progressively got closer to him, so much so that her lips touched his lightly at first, completing the touch quickly in a kiss. Without so much lightness, he finally advanced against her mouth, pressing her against the wall now with the weight of his own body.

Machi moaned at his advance, embracing him with arms and legs irresistibly, making him also express the delight that took his body and his aura when, suddenly, she stepped away from him, with such assertiveness and urgency that he couldn't stop it.

And he was thankful for that when he saw her turn and lean her body, finally fulfilling the omen he had moments ago, throwing up on the floor of the hotel room.

Hisoka gave a disappointed snort, but the way her back curved with each spasm of her stomach made him quickly accept that this night would really be unique in his life.

The night he would spend taking care of someone's booze.

[...]

Machi opened her eyes, but the ambient light hurt like a razor and she hid her face in the pillow by reflex. Both her head and stomach were aching with an intensity that made any thought difficult, but when she smelled Hisoka's scent on the pillowcase, she knew something was very wrong. She fought the pain and opened her eyes at once, sitting on the bed and trying to identify where she was. A messy double bed, a hotel room lit with curtains open. Then she found herself wearing only a stretched, cropped T-shirt with playing card suits printed and panties that she at least recognized as her own.

Her nightmare was completed when she heard the magician's happy voice humming at the bedroom door.

"Good morning sunshine!"

There he was, holding a breakfast tray and wearing nothing but one of his ridiculous pants.

Machi wanted to disappear, but the best she could do was cover herself with the bedsheets.

"Don't worry, I saw all this and much more last night," Hisoka stated at her gesture as he left the tray on the nightstand and sat beside her on the bed.

She wanted to emanate bloodlust to let him know it wasn't funny, but the pain in her body prevented her, so she just squinted, watching him pour coffee in a cup and hold it out to her.

"Take this, it will make you feel better."

Machi held the cup suspiciously, without bringing it to her mouth, however. The smell of the drink, which at another time would be inviting, made her stomach turn.

"What's going on? What did you do to me?"

"Now, now, don't you remember anything?" He lay on his stomach beside her, looking at her in that paradoxically, uncomfortable and inviting way.

Machi vaguely remembered some things, but none of them made sense. So she let Hisoka continue:

"I saw you at a party yesterday by chance, you were already… happy… so don't ask me anything before that. You were dancing with a man who is dead now. I got him out of the way because he wasn't treating you like you deserve. So we danced, I made you laugh a few times, I brought you here, we made many, delicious things on the couch, and then against the wall, but unfortunately, you got sick and, by the way, that's why I pay to stay here, they clean up this kind of a mess," the smile broke with malice on his lips, while she tried to assimilate everything he said. "Now you, I was the one who cleaned you up. We took a hot shower together and you fell asleep in my arms soon after."

The sharp pain in her head seemed to create a wall in her own memories and in her ability to distinguish, in his words, what were lies and what were truths. Machi knew he was lying; it was too perfect a situation for him. Too easy. But the way she found herself left her without arguments.

"Well, I don't feel like we did anything much last night," she tried to fish, her voice cold, but he just laughed briefly.

"I was gentle with you this time. Believe it or not, I care about you."

"Liar," Machi accused him coldly, and then abandoned the cup on the nightstand beside her, making an effort to get out of bed, despite the pain.

It was incredible how she, always so resistant, was now suffering just because of a headache.

Machi looked for her clothes in the room, finding them folded on a chair, and began to dress while her other headache who was lying on the bed brought to him the cup she had abandoned — using nen, most likely — sipping and mumbling something about how she really should have drunk the coffee to feel better. Her eyes looked at Hisoka briefly. From her position, she had a wide view of his back, and the absence of the spider tattoo there, which was no longer needed because he was no longer keeping cover, seemed to make her a little dizzy.

How had she not realized before that his tattoo was nothing more than his Texture Surprise? How had her intuition not warned her that he was lying all the time? And why was the real Hisoka — well, at least, the Hisoka who no longer had to pretend he belonged with the Troupe — bothering to bring her coffee in bed?

She shook her head, with the excuse of trying to fix her hair, when in fact Machi was trying to put away those pathetic thoughts, even if the gesture caused her more pain. As soon as she buttoned up her jeans she headed to the bedroom door, stopping in her tracks, however, by his words, or by the unconscious desire to hear them.

"You should stay, you're not completely recovered and it's cold outside."

Hisoka sat on the bed but just looked at her with that serenity of someone who knows what they want, and knows that the object of their desire wants them in return. But it wouldn't happen today, and possibly, on any other day after he revealed his betrayal, Machi tried to conclude.

"I know how to take care of myself," she replied, determined to continue on her way.

"At least get a coat before you leave..."

"Stop pretending that you worry, you know you don't have to fake it anymore!" Machi declared, like an outburst, and finally left the room, slamming the door behind her.

Alone, Hisoka deposited the cup on the tray and lay down on the bed, taking a deep breath when feeling its comfort. He had missed it after spending the night on the couch.

He had obviously intertwined lies and truths in the story he told her. After Machi felt sick, he had actually called the room service to clean up the mess while he undressed and bathed her in the bathroom; she was so lethargic that she didn't even protest. Nor had she protested when he dressed her in his t-shirt and left her sleeping alone in his bed. Just that, and nothing more than that.

Still, he knew that last night had been very interesting and revealing in many ways, and he was satisfied with that.

He looked to the side and found a pink strand of hair on the white pillow. He took it between his fingers, bringing it to him as if it were a beautiful and precious memento.

"You have no idea, do you?" He murmured to that tiny part of her she had left behind. "You have absolutely no idea..."

[segadores-y-soldados]

Honestly, I think the Overwatch Timeline is too compressed. But I am curious on when Moira joined Talon cause from what I can tell Vialli, Akande and Moira should have all become Council Members at roughly the same time. They weren't in power during Retribution but they are all seemingly council members soon after. So it seems the younger members got together and took out the old guard even if Vialli and Akande don't share a long term vision. I am curious about if that just happened or planned.

This is what I would like my next “consequences of Retribution” essay to focus on, actually, so I probably won’t go into a ton of detail in this answer.

However, I will touch up on the main points:

But I am curious on when Moira joined Talon

If you’re on my blog, then you know that I believed Moira joined Talon before she joined Blackwatch, or was recruited into Talon shortly after her recruitment to BW.  Either way, by the time of “Retribution,” she was already a Talon agent.

They weren't in power during Retribution but they are all seemingly council members soon after. So it seems the younger members got together and took out the old guard even if Vialli and Akande don't share a long term vision.

“New faces stepped up to fill the void in Talon.”

Absolutely, 100% agree that Antonio’s death motivated Akande to take out Akinjide.  Antontio is very comparable to Akinjide: it is implied that both men were merely interested in “hindering” Overwatch’s work, but they weren’t necessarily interested in waging a “full-on war” against the peace-keeping organization.  All they wanted was for their “profit-making organization Talon” to get less scrutiny from Overwatch and Blackwatch.  

So they attempt to bomb Gérard Lacroix.

...It doesn’t work.  Gérard survives the attack.

As a response to the attack in Rome, Gabriel escalates his plans to snatch Antonio and get information from him.  Moira forewarns him of the mission.  Because of this, Antonio is prepared for Gabriel and his team, and surrounds his mansion with a literal “army” of new, highly specialized Talon paramilitary units that Moira had a hand in designing.

However, what happens is that Gabriel figures out what’s going on, and very quickly realizes his team is compromised.

He also probably realizes that Antonio’s been played as well.

So Gabriel decides he’s not going to drag Antonio around and attempt to keep him alive when a hostage would be “dead weight” and virtually useless as a bargaining tool anyways.  So he shoots him.  Genji and McCree excel in shoot-outs and the sudden change in objective is enough to keep Moira intrigued by the turn of events.  So Gabriel plays into these things and the crew survives.

Did Moira want Antonio to die?

I honestly think she didn’t really care who lived and who died - she’s the real “winner” in the end, and the most important part to her was testing if her new experiments (the Talon army) could survive against Gabriel, who has at least some of his “Reaper” powers.  The army loses, which gives Moira “data” to realize that cooperating with Gabriel is beneficial for her research, and also gives her new ideas (e.g. the creation of Widowmaker).

Akande, however, has probably been waiting for things to kick off in Talon, and uses the social and emotional loss of Antonio to undermine Akinjide and his influence in Talon.  This is the wording in his Hero Profile:

Adeyemi was a useful asset to Talon, but the organization saw far greater potential in Ogundimu, with his intelligence and his ability to inspire as a commander. While Adeyemi was content to profit from raids on Numbani, Ogundimu had a grander vision. This difference in aspiration would lead Ogundimu to kill his teacher and take on the mantle of Doomfist, along with the eponymous gauntlet.

Akande’s fight with Akinjide was 100% ideologically-motivated.  He wanted Akinjide’s Talon forces, he wanted the “Doomfist” title, and he wanted the seat in the council.  He had a vision for destroying Overwatch and the world Talon could help create after it fell, and he was going to see it through.

So, was Antonio’s death “planned” by the younger members of Talon?  I don’t think so, not entirely.  Did they seize the opportunity to take over Talon and push against Overwatch more aggressively?  Yes, absolutely, and McCree’s narration + the video confirms it.

Doomfist (Akande) says to Symmetra:

Order...chaos... Means to an end.

Akande will use both deliberately planned attacks and “unplanned” tactical opportunities to his advantage.  We see “history” repeat itself in his “Masquerade” comic, where Akande has finally seen the right “confluence” of events - some planned, some “random” - that motivates him to break out of prison, overthrow Vialli (who has “stagnated” with money), and reclaim authority over the Talon council.As for the timeline being too compressed - I don’t disagree, but “Retribution” expanded our “fall” of Overwatch to roughly 2-3 years instead of “just one” like it was before:Moira’s recruitment: 8-9 years before RecallRetribution: 8 years before RecallUprising: 7 years before RecallThe fall of OW: about 6 years before Recall

It’s still a very tight timeline, and so much stuff happens in those years that it definitely feels like a lot to take in.

[u-can-makeadifference]

SHOULD THE U.S. SIGN A PEACE TREATY WITH NORTH KOREA AT THE UPCOMING VIETNAM TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT?--- On September 3, 2017, North Korea shocked the world when it detonated a 100-kiloton hydrogen bomb, producing a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. In the future this nuclear device would be mounted on a missile. The attached message to the U.S. was: It’s time to end your “hostile policy and futile sanctions”. This unprecedented demonstration of North Korea’s nuclear power came after President Donald Trump had warned the DPRK that any further threats would be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”     This menacing scenario is but one in a series of the toxic hostilities between the U.S. and North Korea. In that same year, Trump announced he would be hitting the DPRK with the “heaviest sanctions ever imposed before”. Then he flexed U.S. muscle by test firing a Minuteman III ICBM while continuing to conduct military exercises off the coast of the Korean peninsula. The naval operations were impressive but extremely risky as they came at a time when Pyongyang was on full alert, and any military action could have been wrongly interpreted as a prelude to an attack on North Korea.     The malevolent statements and actions between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un would not be so troubling if it weren't for the fact that both of these heads of state are sitting on nuclear weapons that are immensely more powerful than those that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions. And prior to 2017, I don’t think our military was that concerned about Kim Jong’s short-range missiles, and we certainly didn't think he had the ability to reach the American mainland. But this notion vaporized when he successfully test fired the Hwasong-14 on July 4, 2017, and then the Hwasong-15, both long-range ICBMs, the latter capable of reaching the entire U.S. continent. The June 2018 Trump-Kim Summit – A Success or Failure? The Summit of June 12 brought with it great expectations for a new relationship between the U.S. and Kim’s regime. Though nothing was officially formalized, several points were discussed in the meeting. To begin with, both the U.S. and North Korea committed to establishing new relations between their countries to bring about peace and prosperity. And it’s believed by various sources familiar with the negotiations, that Trump had conveyed to Kim that he’d sign a peace declaration after the summit to give a formal end to the Korean War. A similar option called for U.S. and North Korean cooperation to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula; and in accordance, North Korea would work towards complete denuclearization; and last, the North agreed to transfer remains of American soldiers from the Korean War to the U.S. Prior to the 12 June Summit, Washington officials had urged President Trump to take a tough stand against the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and to demand a complete removal of his nuclear missiles. But it was at that time that Trump began to tone down his rhetoric. He was no longer pushing for a CVID "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization", but had opted for a more diplomatic approach:  "We're not going to go in and sign something on June 12... We're going to start a process," he told reporters. Technically, in the interest of obtaining military leverage over North Korea, this change of attitude from the U.S. President seemed like an almost complete diplomatic failure. But in the interest of stabilizing the nuclear threat and working toward mutual peace, this could be seen as wise negotiating for reaching those goals.     Following the summit, concessions were made on both sides. Trump agreed to suspend the upcoming U.S.-South Korea military exercises; and his administration said it would refrain from dishing out new sanctions against North Korea as long as negotiations continued, adding that it would work together to build for peace on the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un took a couple of first steps at denuclearization by proceeding to blow up one of his nuclear sites, and then called a freeze on his nuclear and missile tests. So now, a few months’ later, political analysts are saying the points of the summit were vague and not substantial enough, and that Trump should have been better prepared for that important meeting with Kim Jong Un; that he should have made concrete locked-in requirements to assure the complete denuclearization of North Korea. Others believe the administration should now increase the sanctions, stating that Kim will not denuclearize until he faces tougher measures.     At the end of 2018 the sanctions against the DPRK had been ratcheted several notches and the response from the North was that U.S. sanctions are a 'miscalculation' that will backfire. Later on December 20th of that year, North Korea declared they would not denuclearize unless the U.S. removed its nuclear umbrella. North Korea’s nuclear Pandora box   The fighting ceased in Korea in 1953 when the U.S., North Korea, and the U.N. Command Delegation signed the Armistice Treaty. Because of the high expenditures of the war, the U.S. resolved to reduce its military force and economic aid to the ROK (South Korea). There was strong opposition to these decisions from the South Korean President who did not want the U.S. to diminish its shield of protection from his country. Probably because of this and other reasons, the U.S. decided they would have to deploy nuclear weapons to South Korea to make up for the removal of conventional forces and weapons. But there was a problem with this course of action. To introduce “new weapons” to South Korea, they would have to breach a key clause in the Armistice Treaty that had been signed by China, North Korea, the U.S. and the UN Command in 1953. And so we abrogated Article II, section 13-d of the Armistice Treaty, which prohibited the introduction into Korea of new armaments, such as nuclear weapons.       The presence of nuclear missiles in the South came as a strategic blow for North Korea who only counted on conventional weapons to deter any future hostilities with the R.O.K. and its powerful American defender. The D.P.R.K. panicked as they now feared the threat of nuclear attack from the U.S. missiles present in South Korea. They responded by digging out immense underground tunnels and structures as protection against nuclear blasts. At this time North Korea also began seeking help from China and the Soviet Union to help them get started with their own nuclear missile program. A few years later in 1962, they constructed their first nuclear research center at Yongbyon, and by 2002 their nuclear program was in full swing, and several countries were alarmed and protesting. Their first missile test came in 1993 when they fired a Nodong-1 missile into the Sea of Japan. So in retrospect, we can assume that by being the first to introduce nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, that it was the U.S. who caused the nuclear Pandora Box to open in North Korea.     Other recent U.S. strategies and attitudes that may have made Kim Jong Un a little jittery, or maybe a lot, have been some of the military options we've had on the table. One of these being the idea of using a Libyan “decapitation” model to remove Kim’s regime. Another is talk of a preventive nuclear strike—this is when you start a nuclear war because you fear another nuclear state might attack you in the future, an action which goes against Article 2, Chapter VII, of the UN Charter. There have also been the U.S., South Korean war games---which are mock attacks on North Korean targets, and these have definitely kept Kim Jong on edge. And although U.S. nuclear weapons have been removed from South Korea in past years, the North Korean leader still considers his country vulnerable to attack from the U.S. nuclear umbrella that hovers over the Korean Japan area and beyond.     Consequently this modern North Korean warrior has given close observation to his current military disadvantages over the years and has ultimately decided to update his Jingum swords for something bigger and more powerful, like nuclear-tipped Rodongs, Taepodongs and Hwasongs. Some military sources have revealed that Kim Jong Un may now have as many as sixty or more of these missiles in his nuclear stockpile. The newest in his arsenal is the Hwasong-15 that has a range of 8,100 miles, more than enough to reach any city in the U.S. Now the big question in the on-going diplomatic talks is whether or not Kim Jong Un will allow for a complete denuclearization of his country, and pronto, as per the demands of John Bolton and other defense hawks in Washington.   BABOON AND THE TIGER -- A PARALLEL OF NORTH KOREA AND THE U.S.?   A while back I watched an African wildlife video where a tiger was in hot pursuit of a baboon that was running desperately to escape. The baboon had seen the long sharp fangs in the jaws of the tiger and knew that if it didn’t run like mad, those sharp teeth would soon cut his life in pieces---and so it ran hard and fast until it found itself in a dead-end at the base of a mountain wall. The baboon knew it was trapped now---so it quickly turned and faced his foe. Spreading his arms in a threatening manner, he bared his fangs which were almost as big as the tiger’s and in no uncertain terms let the tiger know that if he was attacked, he was ready to retaliate. The baboon, the smaller of the two, knew that most likely he would go down, but not before he’d used his sharp fangs to inflict formidable damage to the tiger. Meanwhile, the tiger, seeing the baboon now facing him head-on, and brandishing a set of sharp menacing fangs, put the brakes on. Realizing that a direct attack was no longer viable, he began to move cautiously from side to side, trying to find another way to strike the combative baboon. But no matter what strategic angle of attack the tiger analyzed, the baboon would snarl and bare its dagger-like teeth. The fangs looked mighty big and sharp to the tiger---and they proved to be enough deterrence for the tiger to finally back off and walk away, probably thinking it was too much of a risk to try and eat that little baboon.       My narration of this wild-life video may not be a fully accurate analogy of the current North Korean-U.S. missile crisis, but I think there are some aspects of it that we could benefit from. Kim Jong Un, as the baboon, may feel threatened and trapped by the U.S. tiger and its sharp nuclear teeth that could easily destroy it. Had the U.S. tiger found this Korean baboon early on, when it was still developing teeth, it might have been a different story. But now that North Korea has a fully developed set of nuclear teeth, teeth that could inflict widespread destruction to U.S. cities, it may benefit the U.S. tiger to rethink its military and political strategy as did JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis, avoid a head-on nuclear war and go the safe route of deterrence.   How Reliable Is Our Missile Defense System? At present we have the Thaad system; Terminal High Altitude Area Defense to protect South Korea, Japan and Guam from North Korea’s missiles. But in August of 2017, the DPRK fired a missile over Japan, and the Thaad defense installations in Japan didn’t stop it. After the incident a Japanese official said, “We didn’t intercept it because no damage to Japanese territory was expected.” This was true as the missile had been programmed to land safely out at sea. However, even if the U.S. or Japanese had launched interceptors, they would not have been able to stop the missile that had flown 475 miles over Japan. The existing arsenal of defense missiles cannot ascend to stratospheric levels.     Our defense interceptors are capable of hitting missiles on the way up or on the way down. The question then would be, why don’t we hit these missiles on their way up? But in order to accomplish that, a Navy ship equipped with Aegis would have to be stationed very close to the launch site, most likely right off the coast of the country that fired the missile. And of course that kind of maneuvering for a big ship takes time, and it wouldn't have the luxury of just floating idly by, waiting to see if and when a missile would be fired. Even if we succeeded at sending out one of our missiles to stop the enemy rocket after launch, we’d have a missile chase, one which we’d probably lose, as it would be almost impossible for our rocket to reach the enemy missile as it soars into the atmosphere. Another con against knocking out a missile at the launch pad or on its ascend is the simple fact that we wouldn't know if the missile was merely a test firing, or if it was actually aimed at Japan, Guam or an American city.     Now let’s take a look at GMD, our Ground-Based Midcourse Defense. This is our system to stop intercontinental ballistic missiles, ICBMs, aimed at the continental United States. The GMD is a complex defense system consisting of ground-based radars, satellite sensors, and interception missiles that can knock out incoming warheads. But there is concern as to the reliability of the system.     Kingston Reif, director of Disarmament and Threat Reduction policy at the Arms Control Association, said the following about the GMD. “The only system designed to defend the U.S. homeland, known as the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, has suffered from numerous technical and engineering problems, and testing in controlled conditions has not demonstrated that it can provide a reliable defense against even a small number of unsophisticated ICBMs.” The key words here are “controlled conditions”. In other words, situations where the test firing is pre-planned, knowing where the target missile is coming from, the size, angle of trajectory data, and the launch time, etc., in contrast to real-time battle conditions where there are only a few minutes warning, and multiple unknown factors to contend with.      Then again, in 2016 a Pentagon assessment indicated that the GMD program still had low reliability as far as knocking out incoming ICBMs. In an effort to break its poor track record, GMD conducted a live-test in May of 2017. An interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and successfully destroyed a target missile. The hit raised the stats to nine successful tests out of eighteen since 1999, a 50 percent hit average in mock exercises. This is not an impressive performance record for a defense system that’s supposed to protect our cities in a nuclear war. However, it’s all we have for now.   WHAT WOULD A WAR WITH NORTH KOREA LOOK LIKE?   Jeffery Lewis, who is an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and geopolitics, gives a chilling account of what could happen in a nuclear confrontation between North Korea and the United States. In his book, “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against The United States”, Lewis depicts an imagined future with a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and North Korea. The writing is fictional, but everything that takes place in the book before August 7, 2018, including the supporting endnotes, is true and based on actual events, says Lewis. In the narrative, our most feared nightmare emerges; a nuclear war breaks out between North Korea, the United States, and its allies. The story begins with the accidental shoot-down of a South Korean passenger plane that had strayed into DPRK airspace and mistaken for a military craft. In retaliation, South Korea strikes back with six missiles aimed at specific targets, and then it begins. After analyzing the attack on his country, and slapped by a harsh tweet from Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un fears he can wait no longer. He gives the order for a nuclear strike on South Korean and American forces stationed in the south. Later, on the same day of March 21, as per the book's chronology, American satellites warned our military that nuclear-armed ICBMs had been launched by the DPRK, all aimed at the U.S. mainland.     The North Korean nuclear strikes, says the book, were carried out over the course of six hours. Of the thirteen missiles fired at the U.S., six managed to penetrate our defense shields. Two of the missiles veered off course and exploded off the coast of California, near San Diego. Another missile aimed at Mar-a-Lago, hit Jupiter, Florida. But then a direct hit devastated Pearl Harbor, while yet another struck Manhattan. Two other missiles fell on northern Virginia. The 200 kiloton nuclear weapons struck with a force twenty times greater than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. In this fictitious scenario of March 2020, the lives of 1.4 million Americans were lost, and another 2.8 million were seriously wounded in the nuclear strikes from North Korea.       DO WE WANT PEACE OR WAR?   At their September summit of 2018, Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in made a historical move towards peace and agreed to a unification of their countries as they flew a blue united-Korean flag at the event. Then on November 29th of 2018, they further demonstrated their inter-Korean cooperation as a South Korean train traveled the rails into North Korean territory. This was definitely a sign of peaceful cooperation as such a thing had not occurred in ten years.     The events between the two Koreas accentuate statements made earlier in the year of both countries seeking to sign a peace treaty. When the Korean War ended in 1953 an armistice agreement was made to stop the fighting between North Korea and South Korea along with its powerful ally, the U.S., but this did not progress to the formal signing of a legal peace treaty. However, such a path of peace would not have been acceptable to the U.S. But even in spite of the wishes of Washington and our military, a strong union of peace and economic cooperation is already beginning to gel between the two Koreas. And why would such a peace agreement in Korea not be acceptable to the U.S.? Kim has repeatedly reached out to us, emphasizing the importance of formalizing a definitive declaration of peace between their country and ours. But our administrations over the years have set out pre-conditions before they accept any talk of a formal peace treaty with the DPRK. They want, first of all, an open door to all the nuclear sites and missiles, the dismantling of all nuclear weapons, and in short, the complete denuclearization of the North.     North Korea wants a confirmation of peace, but before anything else, we want all of the above. What is obstructing the path to these goals? What is failing in our negotiations with the Pyongyang leaders? Why isn’t our policy of “Maximum Pressure” working? Why doesn’t North Korea allow us to go in there and destroy all their missiles and nuclear facilities? Perhaps we need to step back from the forest of our political and military demands and see with more clarity what the reality of our actions and expectations is. Let’s for a moment envision the interplay between the U.S. and North Korea as a movie-clip from a cowboy film; In act one we see the guy in white (U.S.) in a standoff against the guy in black (North Korea), and the guy in white says, “Drop your guns and I won’t shoot you!” Then the cowboy in black answers, “You said the same to the other two guys (Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi), and when they dropped their guns you shot them dead. In act two the cowboy in black says, “Why don’t we agree to settle this peacefully, then you drop your guns and I’ll drop mine.” Hopefully in act three both the cowboy in white and the cowboy in black will agree to forgo any gun shooting and end hostilities with a peace accord and agree to not attack each other or any of their friends or neighbors.     CAN WE LEARN TO LIVE WITH A NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA?   At the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Scott D. Sagan life-streamed a talk entitled, “The Korean Missile Crisis: Why Deterrence Is Still the Best Option.” Scott begins by admitting that we’ve been unable to prevent North Korea from securing nuclear missiles and that the DPRK no longer poses a nonproliferation problem, but rather a nuclear deterrence problem. And even though North Korea is an illegal nuclear state, we should nevertheless realize that it has become a nuclear state, and to think more deeply and creatively about ways to deter North Korea. He believes that the biggest danger now is that North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. could stumble into a war that could have catastrophic consequences.       Sagan reminds us that the world has traveled this dangerous path before; when in 1950 the Truman administration thought to implement a preventive nuclear strike to assure the Soviet Union would not acquire nuclear weapons. Then again in the 1960s, the Kennedy administration, worried about the mental stability of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, proposed a joint strike against the Chinese nuclear program to the Soviets. Both of these ideas were rejected. The fear that this type of strategy would blow up into a conflict resembling World War II made the military opt for the safer ground of containment and deterrence. And in one of the most jarring statements of his speech, Sagan said that if “the United States learned to live with a nuclear Russia and a nuclear China…It can now learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.”                 Scott makes it known that at this point there is no longer a window of opportunity for a successful U.S. attack that could halt the North Korean nuclear program. He believes the U.S. military should make plain to their political superiors and the American public that any first strike on North Korea would result in a terrible loss of U.S. and South Korean lives. And that our leaders must assure Kim that the U.S. will not seek to overthrow his regime unless he begins a war. February 2019 Trump-Kim Summit – What will be the outcome?   There is great speculation about the upcoming Trump-Kim summit which is tentatively scheduled to be in Vietnam, and which some are hoping will be a turning point. The administration may again resort to pressure tactics to assure the full denuclearization of North Korea, or they may accept a piece by piece strategy to induce a gradual removal or freeze of the North’s nuclear missile program. And most likely we will emphasize the closure of the uranium-enrichment plant in Yongbyon, as well as any other site that could be used to produce new fuel for nuclear weapons.     As for North Korea, we already know some of the items on their wish list. They have stressed their desire for a formal peace agreement; the removal of the nuclear umbrella and U.S. troops in South Korea, and sanctions relief.     In one of Kim’s messages aimed at Washington, The Telegraph on January 1st said Kim is offering a gesture of peace but that it could be removed if the U.S. does not meet their expectations on the process of nuclear disarmament. But Washington is more interested in what they want and that is the complete denuclearization of the North. Many U.S. leaders still believe the first summit meeting nose-dived because it failed to secure a substantive agreement that would have assured the elimination of all of Kim’s nuclear weapons.     But now there’s a new ingredient in the Korean-U.S. missile crisis that was not a factor during the first summit meeting in Singapore. And namely, it’s the historical peace initiative birthed during Kim’s and Sun Moon Jae-in’s Korean summit where both leaders signed a peace accord as a first step to reunite their countries. This monumental peace summit portends to change the course of events in the Korean-U.S., social, economic, and military theater. With the peaceful unification of North and South Korea, there will be little, if any leverage left to sustain a U.S. military presence in South Korea, or even a nuclear umbrella. These military land and air strategies were crafted after the Korean War, with the express purpose of protecting and safeguarding South Korea from any military aggression or attacks from the DPRK. Briefly put, the existential purpose for any U.S. military/nuclear presence in or around the Korean peninsula region, no longer exists. Japan may object to this line of thought and say they still need to be protected from North Korea. But in effect, the peace initiative between the North and the South has removed the threat of hostility to any in the area, including Japan.       Presently the Korean peninsula is on a roll with their peace initiative, and now Kim Jong Un and Sun Jae-in have made another bold move towards consolidating that peace. They each walked across the Korean border into each other’s territory, something they had never done. At this point it would behoove the U.S., more than ever, to exercise their role as “Peace Keepers of the World”, and join this movement for peace on the Korean peninsula, that is, if we haven’t already forfeited our right to the Peace Keeper of the World title. Credits: -North Korea detonates 100-kiloton hydrogen bomb. From an article in QUARTZ - https://qz.com/1068659/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-its-latest-claims/ -North Korea successfully test fires the Hwasong-14 on July 4, 2017 – From an article in THE DIPLOMAT - https://thediplomat.com/2017/07/north-korea-just-tested-a-missile-that-could-likely-reach-washington-dc-with-a-nuclear-weapon/ -North Korea test fires their new Hwasong-15 missile. – CNN - https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/asia/north-korea-hwasong-15-missile/index.html   -Donald Trump’s “Fire and Fury”- From the Independent online newspaper. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-north-korea-fire-and-fury-like-the-world-has-never-seen-nuclear-threat-a7883386.html -At June 12 summit the U.S. and North Korea commit to establishing new relations to bring about peace and prosperity. REUTERS - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-agreement-text/trump-and-kims-joint-statement-idUSKBN1J80IU -North Korea agrees to transfer remains of American soldiers from the Korean War to the U.S. - From Vox News - https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/12/17452616/trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit - Donald Trump statement: “We’re not going in there to sign something on June 12…” From article in The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/01/kim-jong-uns-top-aide-delivers-letter-to-donald-trump -John Bolton suggests a Libyan model to handle the situation in North Korea. CNN -  https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/30/asia/north-korea-bolton-libya-intl/index.html -Fighting stops in Korea in 1953 with the signing of Armistice document- Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Armistice_Agreement -Kim Jong Un may have as many as 60 nuclear missiles. – USA Today - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/02/north-korea-kim-jong-un-estimated-have-up-60-nuclear-weapons/1495480002/ -The U.S. breached Article II of the Armistice Treaty in 1958 when they set up missiles in South Korea. -Article from JSTOR -  https://www.jstor.org/stable/44080503?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents -Japan’s Thaad system could not have stopped North Korea’s missile that flew over their island. – Article from Defense One - https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2017/09/no-we-cannot-shoot-down-north-koreas-missiles/141070/ -(GMD- Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System) “… has not demonstrated that it can provide a reliable defense against even a small number of unsophisticated ICBMs.”  So says Kingston Reif, director of Disarmament and Threat Reduction policy at the Arms Control Association.                                      - https://www.foxnews.com/world/can-us-military-shoot-down-a-north-korean-missile -On November 29th of 2018, a South Korean train traveled the rails into North Korean territory for the first time in a decade. – New York Times -  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/asia/north-korea-train-south.html - Why Deterrence Is Still the Best Option- A speech by Scott D. Sagan at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. - https://vcdnp.org/the-korean-missile-crisis-why-deterrence-is-still-the-best-option/ -2nd Trump-Kim summit might put emphasis on Yongbyon facility shutdown- Article in the HANKYOREH -            http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/880917.html -Kim Jong Un and Sun Jae-in walk across the Korean border into each other’s country. – Associated Press -                  http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_31836660/kim-jong-un-steps-across-korean-border-makes An essay by Carlos A. Cedillo Author of “Myra and Joe”, and soon to be published “Defusing the North Korean-U.S. Missile Crisis”, a book based on the above essay.