#and lasko is cool but he’s a perfect candidate for death

[caelumsnuff]

why do you think Milo should have been clawed/killed during the Inversion? 👀 and any other Inversion thoughts if you wish to share them?

Why thank you for asking! This is gonna be so long!

Prefacing this by saying that, besides the usual issue of events and actions not having proportional consequences and effects on the story, I think Inversion was written okay. I will complain about how the effects of Inversion didn’t last anywhere near as long as they should have, but there is nothing offensive about the way it was written, unlike the usual things i complain about on this blog. This is me nitpicking (for lack of better word) the writing and doing a little bit of speculative rewrite for the sake of what i think would have made for a more satisfying and impactful story.

I kinda understand why no major characters died permanently. Redacted is trying to balance the traditional ASMR RP thing of having comfort characters, and telling a story, which makes it hard to make the decision to kill well-known and loved characters, but that makes Inversion seem like much less of a disastrous event like he wanted it to be.

So before i get into the Milo thing, my other thoughts about Inversion first; Xavier’s death was empty. He was a side character that was mentioned by name a few times, we talked to him like twice, and knew next to nothing about aside from the fact that he was a friend of Hux’s, a ridiculously strong fire contra-elemental, and the head of a sports team. The emotional impact of his death was nearly non-existent because we as an audience didn’t have any very strong emotional investment in him as a character, and neither did any of the characters in canon (aside from maybe Hux). Gavin and Freelancer’s reaction to his death, while not unwarranted, could have been far more impactful if he was someone who meant a lot to both of them. Yes, watching anybody die in front of you would be traumatic and incredibly distressing, but watching a dear friend die? Watching someone you know and love and admire have the life drained from them before your very eyes? Feeling their fear as they face a terrifying creature from death? Being absolutely frozen and powerless as it happens? That is an emotionally impactful moment that warrants spectacular feats of magic being ripped from the very depths of your being. And for these very reasons, I offer up the idea that Lasko should have been the one to die here. He was a close friend to both Freelancer and Gavin, and the effect of his death would have been felt deeply by both the audience and the characters. Plus, i think it would have made a lot of sense for Lasko’s character. I don’t think im wrong in saying Lasko is the type of character to not have the best sense of self worth. I think he’s the type of guy to put himself between his loved ones and danger, if not because he doesn’t value himself, at least because he cares about his friends more than himself. I also have a thing for juxtaposition and parallels in stories, and im a sucker for the “moment of strength in a life of weakness” type thing (and the inverse “moment of weakness in a life of strength” too). Lasko is and always has been an anxious, non-confrontational guy so him fighting is not going to be something we see from him often, if ever. But i do think Lasko taking a stand, being courageous when he’s shaking and full of fear, and standing between death and his friends while insuring them that everything is going to be okay, would have been an incredibly emotionally impactful moment and a good end for his beloved character. It could have been a moment to show all that he is as a character, and the hurt that it would have caused Gavin and Freelancer would have been proportional, and that's not even mentioning the emotional impact it would have had on Hux and Damien as well.

Okay so Milo. To be more specific than i was in my other post, i think Milo and Asher should have switched places during Inversion. I think Milo should have been trapped inside the stadium with David, and Ash should have been trapped outside of it. There are several reasons for this, but again, i want to clarify that i don’t think their situations were written badly aside from their injuries lasting nowhere near as long as they should have and not being as severe as they should have. Milo’s shifting problem was solved in two videos and Ash walked away with some cool ass scars, and that's the end of it. I think that’s ridiculous, but aside from that their actions made enough sense and did something to the people around them (particularly David, he had to hold his best friend in his arms wondering if he was going to die or not, and was ultimately able to heal him, but this undoubtedly fucked him up a little bit). I think Milo’s actions made sense character-wise, he is a little short-fused, and would do something as stupid and self-endangering as being a conduit for a ridiculous amount of magic when he doesn’t even know if it will accomplish what he needs. It was also another instance of him not being able to do a lot to help, which really lines up with his image of himself, especially with being insecure about being the smallest wolf of his pack. It highlighted his insecurities in a way which i don’t think is a bad thing.

But the attack during E&E games was foreshadowed with him and his story, and while now it does act as a sort of red herring with him being the one attacked with the singular shade that escaped and Sweetheart healing him, i wish this would have been a little bit more of proper foreshadowing and been used as a point of parallel.  Your audience should be rewarded for paying close attention to your story and noticing foreshadowing for what it is by you following through with what you foreshadowed.

So how does he and Asher end up switching places? I don’t know, but perhaps they were simply scheduled for eachother’s current positions, or they switched momentarily for sometime for some reason during the event, whatever. He should have been doomed from the start, and those of us who remembered and paid attention to his past and story should have known he was going to die the moment he gets shut inside that ward with those shades. We should have been clenching our chest because we know; This is where he dies. Everything goes as it does in canon, except with Milo in Asher’s place. Him and David make it through to the point that they meet up with Sam, they’re battered but they’re alive and they can push themselves to fight for a bit longer. We already know because of Milo’s actions in canon that he’s a little reckless, is a little insecure and doesn’t value himself nearly as much as he should, and he loves his friends enough to put himself in the jaws of death for them, and i think that is exactly what he should have done here.

Him and David are fighting in their wolf forms, protecting the people inside the stadium and scaring off shades. They are a little ways away from eachother but not too far. From across the stadium he sees David start to be swarmed by shades. He’s fighting them off, but more keep coming, and he’s getting tired. They’re becoming less fearful of the wolves. When Milo notices as two, three, four shades get closer to David, his body moves on instinct towards him. He needs to protect him, he needs to keep his alpha safe. The pack needs David, the people in this stadium need David, his human mate needs David. He doesn’t think about the fact that he too has a mate, or about how he has friends in the pack, or how people love him right in that moment, he just moves. He growls and swipes at the shades but they don’t back off of David. He’s a strong wolf, but he’s small, and he moves on to do the only thing he can think of in that moment: put himself between the shades and David. The shades swipe right through his thick fur, claw deep lines into his chest. He whimpers and shifts, and his human form falls to the ground, quiet. Sam speeds over to fight off the shades as David shifts to cradle Milo in his arms as he calls out his name, trying to get a response out of him. Nothing. No snarkly responses or “Ow”s like when his mate healed him before. Silence. His breathing slows, his body is starting to lose warmth fast from how much blood he’s losing. The smell burns in David’s sensitive nose, and he screams out for Sam to please help him. Sam and David put their hands to Milo’s chest, David trying his damnedest to heal Milo. One of his own, one of his wolves. Someone he was supposed to protect.

Because they are no where near as close as him and Asher, he doesn’t know his magic as well, and he is not nearly as successful in healing him. From here you could do two things: have David be able to heal him well enough to save his life, but have him end up in a coma, or... Kill him here. Perhaps, even, he ends up in a coma and ultimately dies while in it after Inversion is over, but i would prefer him dying here if i’m being honest.

So he dies in his alpha’s arms, who’s life he just saved with his own.

Now this scene doesn’t have exactly the same effect as holding your best friend on their death bed, but adds a different type of guilt and remorse on David’s plate. He’s the alpha of the pack, and thus far he’s been doing a great job and he knows it. He’s not insecure in his position or his performance as an alpha of  the most influential pack in Dahlia, this however very much could change that!!! Maybe Milo isn’t his best friend, but they are childhood friends nonetheless, and he’s a member of his pack. Milo is someone he was supposed to protect, and instead he died saving David’s life. He would definitely beat himself up over this, and question the legitimacy of his position if he can’t so much as save one of his own. Fuck that man up mentally over it. When he lies awake at night, he can feel Milo’s warm blood on his hands, can swear he feels the smell of it burning in his nose.

As for Asher, we rarely ever get to see him take up authority and act in his position as beta in an incredibly influential pack, and i think him being locked out of the stadium dealing with the department would be a great chance to do so. Milo has stated before how Asher gets real serious when it comes down to it, and i want to see this. I want our soft, playful, gentle Asher to be the one to put his foot down in front of a director. He has power, and he should be able to use it. While i think the “touch me and your life will be measured in milliseconds”  line hits when Milo says it, I think it would slap me in the face if it came out of Asher’s mouth. Maybe the beta of the pack would have lit a fire under the ass of the department to get things moving and the absorbing warding magic thing wouldn’t have had to happen, but i also think it’s something he could coordinate. I think if the department didn’t move, he would take things into his own hands, the consequences be damned. He coordinates the magic flooding with someone outside the stadium that can take Lasko’s place and do what he did in canon (cause in my version of this Lasko is dead dead ❤), and go with sweetheart to draw a bunch of magic into his body. This stops him from shifting just like it did to Milo in canon (but for longer than just two videos btw).

I think killing Asher and Milo would be a little much, particularly on David. I think having a childhood friend die in his arms, only for him to get out of the ward and to find out his beta and best friend is also dead would be a lot, especially after he ordered the ward be closed to protect people outside of it in the first place. That would be a cruel turn of events for him, but Asher should definitely be hurt and unable to shift for a long while. I’d like to imagine David didn’t even know Asher was outside the stadium the entire time. He couldn’t hear him or feel him and didn’t know if it was because he died or not, so when the ward comes down, and he sees Asher standing outside of it, he breaks down crying. Hugging Asher, sobbing after losing a member of his pack and childhood friend, he’s at the very least glad that Asher is alive and well (for the most part) in his arms.

I think if Asher died from this, Milo would have to go into a coma and wake up from it eventually. I cannot imagine how badly it would hurt David to get out of that stadium to find Asher dead. If this happened i’d expect a similar breakdown that Asher got in the other scenario when Milo wakes up. Either way, David is getting lots of trauma from this.

So yeah! I think their characters could have been used in a little bit of a better way in this situation. Killing Milo via getting clawed by a shade carries through on his foreshadowing, and alongside killing Lasko (like i think should have happened), would have made the impacts of Inversion feel far greater than they currently do. This would have really nailed home just how big of a deal Inversion was, or how big Redacted wanted it to be.

Thank you for asking, i had a blast writing this and i may have aheem aheem whimpered while doing so.