#as a mercenary kind of person who is simultaneously quite loyal to the people they choose as theirs

[in-asterism]

a psychic and a clairvoyant walk into a room

'does it hurt, knowing what you know?' one asks

the other laughs, and says nothing at all

[deer-with-a-stick]

So Marvel made Agents of SHIELD not technically “MCU Canon” and in the show there are discontinuities revolving around Thanos. 

I’m bored and just somehow got sucked back into AOS despite being in like three other fandoms, so I’m just going to put down my headcanons for the differences.

Everything under the tag because it got a bit long.

MCU:

Project Deathlok is a failure and John Garrett dies somewhere in a secret base. 

Without anyone’s support, Raina’s persuasive ability can only get her so far. Her death appears in the newspapers as an open-and-shut murder case.

Ward wastes whatever potential he could have had in the prison system. He’s unfortunate enough to have been in New York in 2012 and an errant blast from a Chitauri ship kills him. 

Ironically, in the same city, at the same time, a twenty-four-year-old hacker stays in front of Stark Tower just a few moments too long. She dies as Skye, buried beneath a pile of rubble.

Her father never finds what he’s looking for, and the SHIELD agents are just a little faster. Jiaying never makes it out of that village alive.

By a miracle, Calvin Zabo survives and clings to life just long enough to find a certain Daniel Whitehall. The bastardized serum works just long enough for them to kill each other.

Coulson dies on the operating table, unwilling to be dragged back to life.

Melinda May stays behind her desk and is killed fighting off a swarm of HYDRA agents. The Mockingbird falls, and so does a mechanical engineer by the name of Alphonso Mackenzie.

Fitzsimmons die in an unmarked grave. For all their brilliance and usefulness, they’re too loyal.

The Inhumans see what happens to their kind and the doors of the Afterlife never open again. Terrigen never falls into the sea, and Elena Rodriguez isn’t fast enough to dodge the bullets. 

There’s no backlash against the Inhumans. For all the world knows, they don’t exist.

Lance Hunter continues on with his life, but the life of a mercenary is a dangerous one. He’s very good, but not everyone can outrun death.

Without the new SHIELD discretely taking down HYDRA cells, the Avengers become more involved. HYDRA agents, like Ruby, are killed in the ensuing destruction. 

But SHIELD agents that should have survived are killed too. Davis and Piper both die as humans. Casualties aren’t just a result of HYDRA. Antoine Triplett dies securing the Gravitonium, and after SHIELD falls, its left in the Fridge, forgotten.

The monolith finds no sacrifice, and Hive still waits on an almost lifeless planet for a chance.

Ghost Rider never hides the Darkhold, but Agatha Harkness discovers quite an interesting read.

AIDA and the Framework never exist, and Radcliffe is only ever known as the eccentric transhumanist.

Without the Destroyer of Worlds and the Inhumans, the Kree never intervene again, Captain Marvel’s warning is more than enough to deter the Empire... for now.

The Shrike continue to grow to be a problem, and eventually, galactical superpowers intervene. On Earth, Kamar-taj steps in, quietly taking care of the problem.

Chroncya-2 is never destroyed, and the Chronicoms remain peaceful.

SHIELD never recovers, and half the universe dies.

AOS:

The Sokovia Accords are simultaneously better and worse. More people are fearful, but not many will be so brazen as to announce such radical and violent ideas to the face of an Inhuman delegate.

Those who signed the Accords are pushed to make it better, to make it more humane, and to make it more of a support system for those who suddenly find themselves with powers.

Thanos invades Xandar, expecting an easy fight. It’s suddenly not so easy when the Destroyer of Worlds and a person made of energy punch their way through his fleet. Xandar is wrecked, but the planet and its people still live on.

The Asgardians face Ragnarök, but without Thanos in their way, settle down in Norway, further contributing to the widespread changes made to the Sokovia Accords in favor of superhumans.

Captain America begins an “Out of Time” club, and eventually, the Avengers are peer-pressured into reforming.

[razieltwelve]

Clean Up (Final Rose x Worm)

When Diana had landed in another dimension, she’d actually been moderately pleased. After all, she had just died in a blaze of glory after outliving everyone else in her generation, so being alive again was kind of a bonus. There would be plenty of time to meet her relatives in the afterlife. She still had things to do.

Alas, the dimension she’d landed in was pretty crappy. Not only was she on an unfamiliar planet but the unfamiliar planet was also on the verge of societal collapse. For obvious reasons, she could not allow that to occur, so she’d decided to lay low and do some research before making any real moves.

There were people with powers on the planet - apparently, it was called Earth - but she doubted any of them were more powerful than her. That wasn’t arrogance. It was simple fact. Bag of Tricks had the potential to be absolutely terrifying if it was allowed time to develop, and Diana had landed on Earth in her physical prime… but with Bag of Tricks as large as it had been at the end of her life and with everything she’d ever put in it still in it.

That was right. She had a subspace larger than a solar system at her command with every single object she’d ever put into it still there. Some of the heroes in this world were quite durable, but she doubted any of them could stand up to several million pieces of artillery firing simultaneously, to say nothing of everything else she had hidden away. It might even be nice to pull out some of the truly exotic stuff. It had been way too long since she’d had a chance to fire her false vacuum collapse ray at something.

With Bag of Tricks primed and ready, it was simply a matter of choosing a place to put down roots and begin recruitment. If she wanted to save the world - or possibly take over it - then she needed minions, territory, and resources with which to project her influence. An affluent city that was at peace would never have allowed her to go unnoticed. However, a downtrodden city beset by crime and on the verge of collapse? That would be perfect for her purposes.

Cue Brockton Bay.

In simple terms, Brockton Bay sucked. It really did. And Diana moved right in. Her first real step was to assassinate the villain Coil. He was a massive jerk who thought his power made him invincible, but she was nothing if not ingenious. There were ways to blind his power, and without it he was a baseline human. Some good, old fashioned poison gas in the middle of the night did the rest.

From there, seizing control of his operation was a mere formality. She could offer better pay and benefits, and his hired goons were hardly loyal. Still, they would be useful, and perhaps she could convert them into genuine minions. With Coil out of the way, she took control of his best assets: the Undersiders.

Money and influence were the things they required, and Diana could offer both. Compared to the technology she could build or already had in Bag of Tricks, the people of Earth might as well have been cave people. More importantly, her technology was not like tinker tech. Normal people could operate and maintain it, even manufacture it, with the correct training and education. Using some of Coil’s funds and her own resources from Bag of Tricks made gradually introducing some of it a breeze.

As for influence, her quickly growing stockpile of money made that easy. It was a sad indictment on Earth that the right bribe to the right person seemed to make everything easier. Oh well. She wasn’t about to complain about victory being easy.

With the Undersiders firmly in hand - Lisa had the makings of a wonderful, if incredibly snarky, minion - Diana turned her attention to her competition in Brockton Bay’s underworld.

The Merchants were a joke. It took her one night and some of her drones to wipe them out. The real challenge was concealing exactly how she’d done it from the local authorities. It wouldn’t pay to have them ask too many questions. She’d been particularly interested in Squealer. The woman could be a useful minion if she kicked her drug addiction and switched sides. Knocking her unconscious and throwing her into a detox tank was Diana’s solution to the problem.

The ABB and the Empire 88 would also have to be dealt with. Her first target was the Empire. Brian had suggested them, and as a Faunus, Diana had seen firsthand the danger such groups posed. The White Fang, after all, had been a Faunus supremacy organisation. Given the Empire’s links to other organisations of similar inclination, Diana needed to make an impression.

X     X     X

“Don’t worry,” Diana assured the Undersiders. “All you need to do is stand next to me and look menacing. I’ll do the rest.” She paused. “And speaking of menacing, Grue, you should stand at the front, maybe add some darkness to give you a more brooding and determined look.”

“Uh… right.”

Diana - also known as the Magic Magician - waited calmly as Kaiser and the rest of his cronies surrounded them. At some point, he started talking. She wasn’t really paying attention. Instead, she was watching some old episodes of Gary on the inside of her visor. When he finally stopped talking, she made a show of yawning.

“Are you done yet?” she asked.

Kaiser responded as she knew he would: with an even longer and more boring talk that basically amounted to ‘prepare to die’. Honestly, it would have been funny putting a hole through his skull with an orbital laser halfway through his speech, but, apparently, killing villains here was frowned upon. Oh well. If someone on Remnant had pulled even half the crap he had, Diana would have dropped an old satellite on them and called it a day.

“Okay,” Diana said. “That’s great. Now, let me just ask you one thing.” She pulled the hat off her head and struck a pose. “Have you ever seen someone pull a rabbit out of a hat?”

Kaiser stared.

Diana smiled sunnily. “Because you’re not going to see one today.”

One of the things people didn’t understand about Bag of Tricks was that it allowed her to open ‘portals’ that allowed weapons in her subspace to fire without ever entering really normal space. Moreover, those portals didn’t have to open right next to her. In fact, toward the end of her first life, the range over which she could open portals had become truly terrifying.

It was therefore incredibly easy to open portals behind all of the assembled Empire members and shoot them with her version of a taser. Now, the funnest part about her personally designed tasers was that they could ramp up to compensate for the strength of the target. Even someone like Alexandria would feel the buzz if she landed a solid hit and the connection lasted long enough.

The Empire? Hah. They all dropped like sacks of potatoes.

Just to be sure, of course, Diana doused the lot of them in fast dissolving contact-based sedative. It never hurt to be careful when dealing with people who wanted her dead. She had Bitch send her dogs over to poke and prod people to make sure everyone was unconscious before calling in the local authorities. They could take them off her hands.

As for the rest of the Empire’s forces - Kaiser hadn’t been stupid enough to bring everyone under his command - Diana had a simple solution. Crap loads of drones. It was her honest opinion that a sufficient number of sufficiently well armed drones could beat almost anything. Indeed, she’d already established several factories in her secret lairs (it was also good to have more than one) dedicated to producing a variety of drones that specialised in everything from combat to takeaway delivery.

The Empire might have been able to fend off a few hundred drones if they’d been forewarned and properly armed and trained. However, they were caught off guard, and Diana didn’t send several hundred drones. She sent several thousand.

All over the Empire’s territory, her invisible, shielded drones began to knock people out, steal things, and just generally make life absolutely miserable for her enemies. She’d already contracted Faultline and several other mercenary groups to attack in the aftermath, ensuring that any and all stragglers were dealt with. Provided her mercenaries did well, she was even willing to offer them a permanent deal since good help could be so hard to find.

“Well, that was easy,” Regent murmured. “Glad we’re working for you, boss.”

Diana smiled again. “The nice thing about being underestimated, Regent, is that if you plan properly, you only need to win once. And winning is easy when people aren’t taking you seriously.” She chuckled. “But this is just the start. We’ve still got bigger fish to fry.”

“Right,” Grue said. “Like Lung.”

“Think bigger. Leviathan is due soon, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him.”

“You think he’s coming here,” Tattletale said. “To Brockton Bay.”

“I’m almost certain.” Diana smirked. “But trust me, I’ve got a plan.”

“I don’t think tasers are going to do it,” Regent pointed out. “Unless you’ve got one big enough for him.”

“I do,” Diana said. “But I also have something a little better.”

[theycallmebuddy-blog]

My “Family”

As you have guessed by now, the mercs that found me took me in for much longer than they had thought they would, and eventually I became part of their family. I think before I begin creating actual blogs about regular daily life, I had introduce them first.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yankee

Real Name: Nathan [REDACTED]

Codename: Yankee

Age: 25 (born [REDACTED], 1980)

Nationality: American (born in Massachusetts, raised in New York)

Specialty: Run and Gun Renegade 

Desc.: 

A rebel of the highest degree, Yankee is a riot to be around. In fact, he’s the closest thing I have to an older brother. He doesn’t have much respect for those he doesn’t like (Megalo, Megalo!) but is quite loyal otherwise. He’s one cocky son-of-a-bitch, on and off the battlefield. His favourite thing to do on the battlefield is disappear, then reappear behind the enemy and give them a nice dose of “Oh shit” before he blows their head off. His favourite thing off the battlefield is watching baseball and spending time with his dog, General Woofers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Megalo

Real Name: [REDACTED]

Codename: Megalo

Age: ...we think he’s in his 30s?

Nationality: ...somewhere in Europe.

Specialty: “All known forms of espionage”

Desc.:

Sly, sassy, and downright classy, Megalo doesn’t take anyone’s shit and is ready to tell you if you’re being an idiot. He’s a man of mystery with a dark secret he’ll go to any lengths to hide. He obscures his face with a plastic white mask that’s molded so well to his face that it moves as if it was his face. His heir of mystery is helped by his absolutely indistinguishable accent and his way of never sharing any information about himself. He’s what we call a spy, though he’ll never “degrade himself with such a label”. His favourite thing on the battlefield is to slip away once he’s been caught. His favourite thing off the battlefield is to find out more about you, for better or worse (his regular favourite things to do are reading, writing, and sneaking off base to do god knows what). It doesn’t matter if you have a secret you’re hiding from the rest of the group. Megalo knows.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Root

Real Name: Daniel Brown

Codename: Root (I think it’s short for Rootin-Tootin but he’s never confirmed or denied)

Age: 41 (born [REDACTED], 1964)

Nationality: American (Texas, born and raised)

Specialty: Speedy Offense/Defense Construction (and occasional shootin’)

Desc.:

Always bettering himself and his craft, Root is a kind soul with a dedication to protection. He’s the fastest builder the world has possibly ever seen, though you’ll never hear that from him. He’s a humble man with enough childhood stories to last you an entire night curled up in a blanket, just listening. He’s often the voice of reason between any fights, though he’s not afraid to defend his honor as well. His favourite thing on the battlefield is when he gets to protect a teammate with his defensive builds. His favourite thing off the battlefield is learning new things (for the past year or so, it’s been mechanics), cooking, and telling stories of his childhood.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sergeant 

Real Name: [REDACTED]

Codename: Sergeant

Age: 47 (born [REDACTED], 1958)

Nationality: American (Wisconsin, born and raised)

Specialty: Sharpshot + Military Tactician

Desc.:

Blunt and forever to the point, Sergeant is your guy when it comes to any type of warfare. After being drafted [REDACTED] War between [REDACTED] - [REDACTED], Sergeant found purpose in his life in the loving hands of warfare and bloodshed. He spent [REDACTED] more years in his branch before being honorably discharged. Unfortunately, after being discharged, some of his less savory memories from the War began to haunt him, leading him to cope with copious amounts of alcohol. Recently, Lucifer has taken to developing a type of medicine for his condition that can be taken with alcohol (he doesn’t drink anything else, mind you) to administer to him without notice. Sergeant’s favorite thing on the battlefield is taking out the leader of the enemy forces. His favorite thing off the battlefield is watching old war movies, telling stories of his childhood, and secretly watching the 1985 “Adventures of the Gummi Bears” show (acc. to Megalo).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucifer

Real Name: Victor [REDACTED]

Codename: Lucifer

Age: 38 (born [REDACTED, 1967)

Nationality: Danish (Specific Location Unknown)

Specialty: Medical Sciences + Innovation

Desc.:

A scholar of everything life-saving, Lucifer is the true Mengele of the group. His codename came after he accidentally killed a past group member from performing twenty-three experiments with his self-made equipment on them for three days straight. He’s a bit loose in morals when it comes to thinking of others as people and not experiments, but he does care for his cohorts. In fact, he’s promised them that he will never experiment on a live body again, and now instead uses the cadavers of the enemy forces. His favourite thing on the battlefield is getting to heal a teammate that was close to death. His favourite thing off the battlefield is classical Beethoven and working on his “respawninator”...whatever that is.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miss Quill

Real Name: Emma Quill 

Codename: Miss Quill

Age: 24 (born [REDACTED], 1981)

Nationality: British (birthplace unknown, raised in London) 

Specialty: Administrator of the Mercs + Technological Genius

Desc.:

Despite being the youngest of the team, Miss Quill has quite possibly the most important job. She works closely with a person only known as “The Agent”, who secretly oversees the company from the shadows. Miss Quill’s job is to act as ringleader to the rest of the mercenaries, as well as run some of the tech in their base supplied by the company. She’s a mild-mannered, kind, and understanding genius who loves being able to help as much as possible, even if it means giving up something of herself. Her favourite thing on the battlefield is the victory, knowing she’s done a good job administrating her team. Her favourite thing off the battlefield is reading, listening to jazz/swing music, cooking, and teaching me the ways of life.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for me...well, I’ll try to fill in what I can.

Buddy

Real Name: Amélie Quill (previous name unknown)

Codename/Nickname: Buddy

Age: 14 (born Unknown, 1991) ((found after numerous tests))

Nationality: ...we think I’m Puertorican? Or Mexican?

Specialty: Parkour/Dodge Gunning + Robotic/Technological “Innovator”

Desc.:

After waking up in a desert, I spent 578 days searching for any signs of salvation. I found it in my “family”. I work with my “family” in the merc business, but have since been put on unpaid vacation so I may resume my schooling (against my wishes). I’d do anything to save my family, even if it means risking life and limb. My favourite thing on the battlefield is to watch the dazed look on my enemy’s face when I manage to dodge their bullets and simultaneously win the high ground. My favourite thing off the battlefield is writing, drawing (I’m finally starting to learn digital art), and listening to punk, rock, or and swing music.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------