#blades 2 seal rift ending

[megas-choices]

Tyril feeling his age if we seal the rift

[zathra]

ch 18 spoilers blades

ch 18 seems to be a series finale, as there is a 'thank you for playing blades 2' message and there are branched ending choices. we were already fooled like this with COP 2 so let's wait for pb's official announcement to be sure

valax is a dragon and we get to ride her, and there is a valax cg. you get to choose whether you seal the last rift (and stay stuck in the shadow realm with your friends), leave it (which will result in magic dying out) or join the two realms which will create a new world order. epilogue based on your choices.

[tk-duveraun]

15/? Luo Binghe is SO NORMAL about Shen Yuan

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (here), 16

Read up through even numbered parts on Ao3

[Objective Complete: Rendezvous with Shen Qingchun.]

I fucking know, Luo Binghe directed at the System even as he slashed at the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python. Small spatial rifts cut through the clearing, hovering in the air and buzzing like a combination of bees and bad dial-up. Functionally, the tears served as atom-thin blades removing chunks of whatever passed through them. They didn't last long, but they were easily the deadliest thing in Jue Di Gorge.

Shen Yuan fought alongside him. His guan was missing a chunk and a thick lock of hair ended at his shoulder from the rifts. Worse, his eyes were bloodshot and his upper lip stained from a nosebleed, but he'd had those when arrived in the clearing and jumped off of Xiu Ya.

Luo Binghe lost a chunk of his bicep and his leg burned with venom, but finally the beast was dead. He shoved a mediocre panacea in his mouth and approached Shen Yuan to check on his injuries.

[Quest "Pledges of Frost and Flame" Updated! Objective: Survive.]

The System text froze Luo Binghe with his hand outstretched. With effort, he tore his eyes away from where Shen Yuan was panting and clutching his chest to look directly at the System display. What do you mean survive? What kind of objective is that?

[Answering Host: When not debuffed by status effect "Without a Cure" Shen Qingchun's power level easily eclipses that of Luo Baixiao]

Luo Binghe barely managed to dodge Xia Ya in his shock. The blade cut a thin line over the bridge of his nose. He jumped back, holding up Zheng Yang in defense even as his thoughts spun.

"Shizun, why? Surely you don't think that I-" He had to cut himself off to dodge another thrust.

Though not poisoned, Shen Yuan was clearly debuffed by something. Luo Binghe shouldn't have been able to dodge the Sword of Qing Jing at his level, strongest disciple or no.

Shen Yuan was still panting. He clutched his right bicep with his left arm, his hand leaving bloody creases. A thin stream of blood leaked from his right eye. When he spoke, his teeth were bloody. "Run, Disciple Luo. Run!"

Luo Binghe blocked a strike from Xiu Ya, the impact rattling his entire body. Zheng Yang screeched in protest at being used against Xiu Ya. Luo Binghe wholeheartedly agreed, but he also didn't want to die.

Despite bleeding from several orifices, it didn't look like Shen Yuan was undergoing a qi deviation, but he definitely wasn't in control of his actions.

"Shizun what's wrong?" Luo Binghe asked as he tried to make space between them. From his time reading IRS and then the years spent as a personal disciple he knew he had to stay at mid-range. If he went too far from Shen Yuan, his master would transition to using sword seals and qi techniques. He was called the Sword, but his offensive power was primarily long range with Liu Qingge or Wei Qingwei dealing with the opposition up close.

Shen Yuan closed the gap with a vicious overhead strike that Luo Binghe only just blocked in time.

"I told you to run!"

That close, Luo Binghe saw that the blood vessels hadn't just burst in Shen Yuan's eyes, but they wiggled and writhed gruesomely against the whites. His horror was so great that his concentration wavered and Xiu Ya broke through his guard, slashing deep into his shoulder, breaking his collarbone and rupturing the top of rupturing the top of his left lung.

For a moment, his vision blacked out and all Luo Binghe could see was the System blinking at him.

[Quest Objective: Survive]

The text morphed from a bright cyan to a blinding red as the characters swirled and then melted across his vision. He tasted blood. His muscles tore under his skin like cheap cotton. He only realized he was screaming when his voice gave out and he spat out what felt like a gallon of blood.

Luo Binghe came back to himself on his hands and knees in a puddle of blood. But his hands were wrong. They weren't his or Luo Baixiao's. His fingers were black and tipped with sharp claws that glittered with blood. He tried to send a thread of qi through his body to triage his condition, but it hurt like acid injected directly into his veins.

Focus brat, the seal locking away your demonic heritage is broken. Meng Mo's voice had never before been comforting, but any kind of answer in this situation was a blessing. You'll go into qi deviation and die if you're not careful. Few half-demons survive this, do you plan to be one?

Luo Binghe clenched his teeth and nodded silently to the demon in his head. He took a deep breath and then raised his head.

Only for the sight to make him spit another mouthful of blood.

Across the clearing, Shen Yuan was pinned to a tree by Xiu Ya. The gorgeous blade was pierced through his stomach. He was bleeding from all of his seven orifices, but despite everything his expression was grimly satisfied.

Luo Binghe tried to take a step toward his beloved only to feel like there was a collar around him neck yanking him back. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that a massive gash had opened in the ground under the corpse of the Rhinoceros-Python. The Endless Abyss had opened. He was well and truly in the climax of the arc but unlike Snowballing, he couldn't just jump to another POV.

With a howl, Luo Binghe fought the tether holding him back and surged toward Shen Yuan, collapsing on the ground at his master's feet. He lifted his hands and let them hover on either side of Xiu Ya.

"Shizun… who… how..?"

"Nevermind that, listen to this Master," Shen Yuan said around the blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. His perfect, blood-stained hands reached down and cupped Luo Binghe's cheeks. "The sect masters won't stand idly by." Each word was a struggle.

"Save your energy! This is, this- Mu-shishu will be able to heal you fully, Shizun." So close, Luo Binghe was able to better-judge the placement of Xiu Ya. While it was a horrible sight, it seemed like it could be at the perfect angle to have avoided all of Shen Yuan's major organs. It was just a macabre taunt.

"Listen!" Shen Yuan's hands tightened on Luo Binghe's face. "My little demon… Disciple Luo is part Heavenly Demon. They will kill you on sight. The barriers surrounding the gorge were reinforced." Shen Yuan turned his head to spit more blood before continuing. "The only way out is down. Go into the Endless Abyss."

Some part of Luo Binghe suspected that Luo Baixiao had survived the conference by exiting stage Abyss, but the order still struck him cold.

"Shizun, I-"

"No, listen." Shen Yuan panted heavily, his strength draining quickly from the wound in his stomach. "There's a sword, Xin Mo, in the Abyss. You need it to kill him. Linguang-jun. Get it and be free, my little demon."

"Shizun, please! At least let me-"

"There's no time." More blood leaked from Shen Yuan's eyes. It looked like he was crying. "Save us both."

Luo Binghe felt Shen Yuan gather what remained of his spiritual energy, but he could do nothing to resist the sharp push that launched him back and into the crack in reality. As he fell, the sky disappeared above him.

[lover-also-fighter-also]

Thoughts on BOLAS chapter 11

Okay so I am done playing this week's chapter of Blades (though it seemed so small). This chapter seems more relevant to what will be coming up in the future chapters.

1. The watcher is not exactly a saint

I knew beforehand that the guy was a sus character, like with MC & Co. blindly believing him. But looking at how shadow magic is more or less helping the dwarves, I feel that sealing all the rifts might cause more harm than good. If he turns out to be the evil guy attempting to drain away one source of magic, I will say I totally called it.

2. Nia's and Tyril's faiths are questioned

Nia and Tyril were those characters who believed in all the light = good and shadow = bad stuff. But after this chapter, something they have been taught since childhood has been questioned. This chapter especially hit Tyril hard on that topic, and it relates a lot to real life as well.

3. Using true magic (light and shadow)

Nia has been suppressing the shadow inside her but if she is going to be able to use those both sides in harmony, she is going to be a wielder of true magic. I bet anything that this skill will turn up as a diamond option for MC to learn.

4. Valax's Story

Okayy, I don't know if anyone is ready to admit this but Im tired of this never-ending cycle of the gang going after the rift-> making new friend -> friend coming and going out of the grp -> Valax fight -> repeat. I theorize that Valax has more intentions behind getting to MC. It makes no sense that she would keep MC alive for a year and not knock them back unconscious if taking their blood was the only objective.

In relation to my first point, maybe the watcher and the Ash empire have history.

To top it all up

I am happy to see you too bestie 😂😂.

[mythris]

finished blades 2! here’s some of my thots (that no one asked for)

Let’s start with the pros:

- the world building was absolutely stunning, I enjoyed the places we got to go and things we got to see and the new characters/races were so beautifully written and drawn

- the storyline started off rocky, but the payoff was really really worth it

- character development, it this is also in the “rocky” category because I frankly hated the reunions (other than MC and Imtura’s), but they somehow salvaged that by the end by actually letting MC acknowledge the fact that they are not doing well

- along with character development, i really enjoyed the valax and aerin redemption arcs, they were slow burns and felt very organic, something that was missed

- having the option to be poly! i missed this! this is the antithesis to the heinous single LI concept and i missed this so bad, i felt a whisper of the old choices which wasn’t smut all the time

now for the cons

- threep and loola: we paid diamonds for loola only for her to show up for all of 4 chapters. and threep made book 1 really fun and i got some genuine laughs from his character, this was sorely missing from book 2, and i hope it’ll be rectified for the next one!

- not being able to use the book 1 skills… like it would’ve been fun to combine those two together, but alas, we couldn’t flirt our way out of everything with the seduction skill

- pacing: the early chapters were not paced well and i kinda just had to not play for a few weeks bc i just wasn’t motivated to play for a minute, also Mal felt so out of character for a minute there

- with the rift sealing choice, i’m worried about how they’re going to handle that in b3

- AI art! PB PUT THE AI DOWN OR SO HELP ME GOD!!! the Aerin CG at the end was not cute like where are your real, human artists??

all in all, i had a lot of fun and it brought back that little excitement i had for this app. I’ll see y’all in 4 years when BOLAS 3 comes out (jk i’ll be here when COP3 releases for non-VIPs). PB, if you’re reading this, bring Threep and Loola back full time or else!!!

[lostworldss]

Blades Book 3 Predictions with the different endings

I’ve been thinking about how the narrative is going to go with the 3 different endings for Book 2. Because they all impact both where MC and the gang is at the end and also the state of magic in the realm(s).

In the Seal the Rifts and Stay in the Shadow Realm ending, MC and the gang is all stuck in the Shadow Realm. With this ending, magic is completely gone (or at least they say). The realms are forever separated as there is no more magic to use to get back to the other. Also, Tyril and the rest of the elves are getting weaker since they can actually feel the affects of their longer lifespans. The goblins are also dying out in this ending since they rely on magic too.

In the Combine the Realms ending, MC and the gang are just in the singular realm that is both the light and realms combined. There is no other realm anymore. Magic still exists in this ending, and it also doesn’t have the negative affects of taking a person’s life force for using light magic or corrupting a person’a mind for using shadow magic.

In Keep the Portals Open Ending, MC and the gang are in the light realm, but they can go back and forth to the Shadow Realm whenever since the portals are always open. The two realms still exist separately. However, magic still has it’s negative affects and it’s existence is also getting weaker.

The issue that the writers have to deal with for book 3, is how to get back to a shared linear narrative that will make sense for all of these endings. How are they going to make a story that can be playable for all players no matter which ending they chose? If you ask me, I believe that there could be 3 possible ways they go about this.

Option 1. They find a way to “ignore” the choice so that it doesn’t have an impact on Book 3.

By this, I mean moving the setting away from the realm(s) altogether and putting MC and the gang somewhere new. A way I can see this happening is if the person that they teased at the end is Nifara or a New God of some kind, who has the power the teleport MC and the gang to the environment where they live (perhaps this city of rain?)

One reason I can see them doing this is that it will give us a new map to explore. At this point, MC has been everywhere back and forth in the realm maps, going back to the same things again might be a bit tiring. Having a whole new map would make more sense.

Also with this, our choice of what happens to the realms doesn’t really matter, because we’re not interacting with it during the majority of the book.

The biggest flaw with this option, is that it doesn’t fix the issue of there being no magic if you chose the Shadow Realm ending. But maybe in this new map, the gods can give us magic that works only in this specific area? The only way I can see magic coming back is through divine intervention.

Option 2. They find a way “undo” the choice so that the realms go back to the way they were before or forces only one of the endings.

What is Choices if not an app where most of the choices do not actually matter? Not really a dig, but that’s just the nature of how these games/apps go. With choose your own adventure stories, it often becomes a battle of implementing actual branching choices verses having a good linear narrative.

With this option, every player would be in same spot regardless of whatever choice they made at the end of the last book.

I would be annoyed if they did this, because even though I would know why, it would just feel like a slap in the face to the players who thought this actually going to affect anything. If they really do this, it’s kind of like, what was even the point of the branching endings at all? Why include it if you know you’re making another book and are probably just going to retcon it anyway? who here worked at DC comics?

I could see them doing this possibly with Nifara or whoever that god is being OP and just controlling the portals/realms to being whatever they want it to be. Either that or random time travel that makes no sense (please no, please beat the endless summer allegations).

I could see them doing this because it does set everything back up simply and also gives us magic back. (I really can’t see them making MC, Nia, and Tyril go the whole book with magic).

Option 3. They actually do the unexpected. They make the branching choice matter. There is no linear narrative (or less of one).

Who knows? Maybe they will try to do the unexpected. They do put a lot of effort and resources into making Blades compared to the other books, so maybe they will try to be ambitious with it.

This could mean having 3 separate storylines, but I think that seems a little more unrealistic. More likely, the overall plot line will be the same, but the settings where it takes will be different depending on the choice. Maybe if you chose the Shadow Realm ending, they will make MC, Nia, and Tyril unable to use it the whole book (or at least in the beginning).

This would be a very bold move of them to do, and it could either be really bad or really great depending on how they execute it. I would at least give them props for the effort, because it certainly would be the hardest option to do.

To be honest, I never really considered that they would think about actually doing this, and found myself thinking it has to be one of the previous two options. But, as I thought about it more, I think there is a slight chance. And who am I to completely rule it out of the equation.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or if you have any other ideas!

[choicesbookclub]

Did you vote for the ending you chose originally? Has your thoughts on the other endings changed based on screenshots or replaying? How do you think this choice will effect book three?

[Join the Blades 2 Book Club]

[dddragoni]

Rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to ao3. if you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics.

blatantly taking advantage of a general tag by @idonthaveanyurlideas to self-promote 1. New Cities, Old Faces

Cedric Spliff hit the ground hard.

2. The Whole Kit and Caboodle

Tot Best sat on a couch in the LA Unlimited Tacos’ clubhouse, scrolling through the news on their phone.

3. Unlimited Until the End

The parking lot of Al Pastor Memorial park is a paradox. Infinite in scope, but somehow perpetually crowded.

4. Blasetober 2022

A door is opened to a dark room buried deep beneath the earth. Within it lies a plinth, and on the plinth lies a Book, its cover bound by chains and sealed with a heavy lock.

5. The King and the Frog

King Weatherman had always been an early riser.

6. A Tale of Two Sextons

It was a beautiful day in the Infinite Cities of Los Angeli. Sun2 was high in the sky, its rays filtering through the countless dimensional rifts in a kaleidoscope of shining rays

7. Something to Hold Onto

"I'm home, darling!"

8. Holding a Grudge

"GOD DAMMIT." Bobby Mitchell hurled her controller against the wall as the knight she'd been playing as was eviscerated by a wheel of spinning blades for the seventh time in a row.

9. A History Lesson

McDowell Mason had been a member of the LA Unlimited Tacos since the very beginning.

10. Enter Oko

Rogue Umpire incinerated Goobie Ballson!

Al Pastor Memorial Ballpark was silent as the last ashes of what had just moments ago been the newest addition to the Tacos’ lineup drifted to the ground.

So it seems my tendency is to start a fic with the full name of the POV character, if not immedately at least very early. While these are the most recent fics, they’re not necessarily the most recent stories since two of them are big long anthologies.

I took advantage of an open tag so I’ll leave this open as well for anyone that would want to do it

[sabraeal]

Sic Semper Monstrum, Chapter 6

[Read on AO3]

Obiyukiweek 2021, Day 2: Death Upright: Change, Ending, Release Reversed: Refusal to Change, Unfulfillment, Stagnation

A seam strains along a well-worn shoulder, so stretched he can actually hear it creak over the din of the canteen. That clinches is: that asshole’s got to be picking out too-small fatigues from the GI bin.

There’s no other way for him to look like that, biceps testing the tensile strength of cotton every time he takes a sip of his coffee. Sure, this guy’s jacked the way all the active rangers are, ready to heave 750 tons of metal onto their backs at a moment’s notice, but he’s not Mitsuhide. It makes sense when he pops buttons off his coverall, or stretches out one of their dingy cotton tees. But that’s not this asshole.

He’s lean, the kind that telegraphs that taking an elbow from him might be career limiting. There’s no reason the general issue tee should cling to his back like it’s painted on, his coverall hanging off his hips like he’s got an occupation other than freeloading. Shirayuki leans over, fingertips brushing over his sleeve with a laugh--

“Just punch him already,” Kiki drawls, “get it out of your system.”

Zen blinks, suddenly aware there’s still some Taco Tuesday left in his mouth. “What?”

“Kiki.” Dark bruises circle the skin beneath Mitsuhide’s eyes, underscoring the weary strain in his voices. “We shouldn’t be encouraging that sort of behavior.”

“Why not?” Her elbows dig into formica as she leans over her plate, shoveling rice into her mouth. At her father’s table, Kiki knows the use of every spoon, the name of every fork, but this deep in the dome, Ranger Seiran’s never met a meal she can’t inhale in five minutes flat. “I did it.”

Air hisses right through his perfect teeth, the only sign he’s annoyed besides the tense bar of his shoulders. “And you’re lucky you didn’t get caught.”

Kiki hums around the lip of her mug. “You mean like you did with Lugis?”

Mitsuhide doesn’t have skin like his, the sort that flares up like flash paper at the barest hint of sun or taunting. But still his neck flushes red as a burn, so bright Zen’s half tempted to slap it, just so he knows what it’s like.

“T-that was an accident,” he insists, even as his mouth settles into a satisfied smile. “Even the inquiry said so.”

It’s a struggle to keep his own from curling at the edges. “Only because Lugis didn’t want to press charges.”

“Only because he didn’t want it getting out that a girl ran circles around him on the mat,” Kiki corrects, each word a scalpel’s slice, excising those particulars from that shitshow with surgical precision. They can talk about this; Lugis’s challenge and the way Kiki swept him; that he was hardly on his feet when Mitsuhide somehow mislaid his fist and found it in his face, but everything else, the whys of it--

Those are all off the record. Forever. Or at least they would be, if Lugis wasn’t crawling through the dome like a stoat that’s caught whiff of an egg.

But that’s not what this is about. “And you want me to do that with that asshole?” Zen mutters. “Since it made Mitsuhide such good friends with Lugis, after all.”

“Obi isn’t Hisame,” Kiki informs him with the kind of steel in her tone that suggests she won’t be taking critique on that particular assessment. “All your issues with him are external.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snaps, teeth gritting down.

It’s a mistake, a rookie one at that: never ask a Seiran a question you don’t want the answer to. “He’s got Shirayuki’s attention and you don’t.”

Mitsuhide clears his throat, shoulders set like Zen better plan to shelter in place. This particular storm isn’t about to hit its usual conversational breakwall. “Attention you’d have, if you hadn’t skipped out on your session.”

Zen grips the table to take that hit. But it’s not nearly the last; the stare Kiki turns to him is wide-eyed, half-betrayed. “You didn’t say anything about that.”

“It’s none of your business.” Even as the words fly from him, he knows it’s not fair, that he’s spitting nails into the wind so that they’ll hurt someone else instead of him. It doesn’t stop him, it never does, but a guilty knot settles in his gut. “The sessions are voluntary. They always have been. I don’t need--”

“Someone to keep your head on straight?” Every syllable snaps like ice, her eyes twice as cold. “That was the whole point, wasn’t it? So if something happens to us, you’d have--”

He can’t listen to this, not another word. “That was never the plan! I would never plan for you guys...”

Not coming back. For Redwood Dancer to be left a ruin on the sea floor, their bodies strapped in, hermetically sealed until the ocean wore the jaeger down to parts.

“Nothing is happening to you guys,” he grits out. “Shirayuki was always an addition, not a-- a replacement, because you’ll never--”

“No one can promise that.” Mitsuhide’s never one to throw a first punch, but oh, does he know how to end a fight. All the breath’s knocked clean out of him, and there’s Dancer’s right hand, shoveling down another bite of rice like it’s nothing. “Every time we go out there it’s a flip of a coin. It doesn’t matter how good we are, one day there’s going to be a kaiju that kicks us clean off our feet.”

He shakes his head, wishing the words would fall right out of them. “No. That’s not--”

“Zen.” He’s never heard a siren’s call, but it can’t be as inexorable as Mitsuhide saying his name in that tone, both firm and pitying and mournful all at once. “You know better than anyone. Rangers don’t grow old.”

There’s no thought when he levers himself up from the table, just up with away chasing its heels. He just can’t be here listening to this, not now, not after they just barely crawled home from another kaiju clawing its way across Korea’s shoreline. Not when he knows he should be fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with them-- that he would be if they stopped trying to saddle him with every rookie that rolled out of the simulator and finally put him with the only person that could fill that brace beside him.

“Zen!”

It’s easy to ignore Mitsuhide’s shout over the dinner rush; it’s just part of the noise, a buzz at the edge of his senses. Something to goad him, to push him out of there before either of them think to follow after. Their pity’s the last thing he needs, the last thing he wants. After all, it’s not him that won’t climb in the Conn-Pod, but his--

“Boss!”

Zen blinks, the empty corridor resolving around him. He’d let his feet carry him, their only imperative away-- and now he’s all turned around, every bulkhead the same. He’s heard about this happening to rangers when they lived in the dome too long; chasing the Minotaur, a ranger called it, three drinks down at the local hangar. And no fine little princess to give you string to find your way out.

Except he did have one of those. A person to help him through the labyrinth, even if she couldn’t show him the way. He’d been avoiding her.

That seems stupid now. It’s not like she’s on that asshole’s--

“Hey! Hey, boss.”

Speak of the devil. Zen turns, and there he is, too-tight t-shirt and all: his own personal problem. “What do you want?”

“Nothing.” He holds out his hands, as if that’s proof enough to clear him of ulterior motives. “I just...saw you head out and it looked like...”

Zen’s shoulders square, body braced like they’re back on the mat. “Looked like what?”

Obi’s breath rushes out of him. “It looked like you shouldn’t be alone.”

It’s not until he lifts his hand that he realizes it’s trembling, barely able to push his bangs back where he needs them. “Yeah? And you thought-- what? I’d want to see you?” Even to his own ears, his laugh is bitter, wrong, like it came from someone else’s mouth. “You, the guy who won’t get out of my way?”

Something ripples across this asshole’s face, too fast for him to catch more than its wake. “You think I’m the stick stuck in the mud here?” When those strange cat’s eyes stare at him, it’s out of placid waters, but that grin on his face-- it doesn’t reach them. “Rock, meet hard place.”

Zen’s hands clench, so hard his knuckles creak. “You think this is a joke? You’re trying to shove your ass in a seat that isn’t for you, and you--”

“You think I want to be out there?” He lets out a bark somewhere between pitying and derisive, arms folding over his chest. Zen takes special care not to check how stressed his seams are. “I did my time, Your Highness. I got out. I got told no one would ever look for me again.”

“Then why are you here?” Zen spits. “No one wants you.”

“You don’t know how true I wish that was.” A hand pulls at his shoulder, long fingers digging in around the blade. “But your brother dragged me down the coast because I’m not done. I’ll never be done, because I can’t sit on the sidelines and watch Snotju or Head Banger or whatever cosmic asshole crawls out of the rift wreck another wall.”

His hand lifts, scrubbing through the bristle of his hair, just a shade too shaggy to be regulation. “It’s fucked up, isn’t it, Master? I’m the one who doesn’t want to be here, but I’m the one who’s got the balls to get back in that jaeger. And you--” a cold gaze rakes over him-- “you’re content to sit there and watch the world burn just because I’m not--”

“Shut up.” He’s trembling, every muscle straining against his self-control. “Shut the fuck up. You don’t know a goddamn thing--”

“I’ve been in your head,” that asshole reminds him. “I know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“You don’t.” He can’t. “You don’t fucking know a thing about me.”

He cocks a hip, grin loaded like a bullet. “The prove it.”

Kiki’s right: in the instant where his knuckles hit that cut-glass cheekbone, Zen feels great.

Shirayuki’s office has always put him at ease; he stepped in here the first time before she’d even properly covered the walls, the tension seeping right out of him into the push carpet under his boots. There’s just something about how she fills a space-- something that has nothing to do with furniture or wall hangings or motivational posters-- that makes his brain put out whatever chemical that means safe. He’d never understood why the other rangers avoided her, not when they could have forty minutes in the room equivalent of a warm hug.

But it’s different this time.

“Izana made you call me here.” He’s ramrod straight on her worn couch, hands clenched in his lap. Or rather, right over the throw pillow he moved to sit. “Didn’t he?”

“The Marshal’s personal feelings have nothing to do with this.” Her words snap like a window on a sill, closing on that topic with a sense of finality he expected from the top brass, not their therapist. “The PPDC’s code of conduct is quite clear on the procedure to be followed after a non-sanctioned physical altercation between personnel.”

There’s a loose thread right by the fringe; he’d noticed it months ago, but never dared to tug it. Every time he’d felt the urge, he’d think of dominoes and load-bearing pillars, of the whole edge unraveling in his hands right as she looked at him.

Today, he pulls. It comes right off with a snap. “And that’s the only reason you brought me in?“

Shirayuki turns to him, one incredulous brow raised. “You were the one who cancelled our last session--” her mouth twitches as she twists the knife-- “last minute.”

Well, he deserves that one. Sure, he’s had his reasons, but Shirayuki-- well, she deserved more than one step up from ghosting. If the thought of having to look anyone in the eye after all that hadn’t made his stomach turn for three days, maybe he would have come to that conclusion before Kiki ripped him a new one over it.

“Sorry about that,” he mutters, aware with every word that it’s not enough, that there’s not enough apologies to patch up the trust he broke. “I wasn’t...ready to talk.”

He expects the clap back; yeah I got the message, or but you were ready to take a swing? But he should have known: that’s not how Shirayuki works. She’s a professional, whether that’s what he wants from her or not.

Instead he face softens, right back into his friend. “I know. What happened in the drift can be...intense.” She hesitates, teeth sinking into the plush bow of her lip. “I just wish that you had felt comfortable conveying that to me. As my patient, you’re supposed to be able to control--”

“I don’t want to be your patient.”

Her mouth closes with a grunt, hand pressed to her stomach as if he hit her. “O-oh,” she murmurs, breathless. “I hadn’t realized that you, ah, wanted to terminate our sessions--”

“No!” God, it would be nice to be able to say this all smooth like he’s sure that jacked asshole can, leaning against a wall with his hand right by her head, sexual tension rocking the Richter scale. “I just meant--” his teeth try to grind down his thoughts into something palatable-- “Shirayuki, I don’t want to just be your patient.”

He could fall into her eyes they’re so wide, rounded ‘o’s that match her mouth’s geometry. “Ah, Zen, that’s...”

“I don’t mean because I-I like you.” Even though he does, but there’s rules for that. The kind the PPDC will look the other way on, but not Shirayuki. She’s not from under the dome; she still worries about what people might think outside of it. “I just...wish you were on my side.”

“I am on your side.” Her shoulders pull straight against the back of her chair, her soft look hardening into resolve. “Which is different from telling you want you want to hear.”

He jerks back, cheeks stinging like he’d been slapped. “I didn’t say I wanted that,” he mumbles, hands clenching over his lap. “But I don’t need you to tell me to do whatever it is Izana wants me to either.”

“I wasn’t going to.” The notebooks in her lap closes with a snap, and with trembling fingers, she sets aside her shield. “Izana wants you back in a jeager for the legacy. For the unbroken line of Wisterias standing between humanity and the rift. But I...”

Her eyes lift to his, and they’re no longer the lush, leafy green of a forest, but the hard glint of emerald. “If you get back in that cockpit, you need to do it for yourself.”

It’s an effort not to say, I don’t see the difference.

“I saw you when the siren went off.”

Zen scrubs a hand over his face; he remembers. Their eyes had met over that seething mass of fear and competence, and-- and he’d been so sure that if he saw her, something more than that glimpse of red in the corner of his vision, he’d forget every inch of his resolve and go to her. That he’d just take her in his arms and tell her all the thoughts roiling in the sea of his mind, but--

But he hadn’t. He’s taken one look at her and, without even a pang of guilt, left her there. A real hero.

“Zen.” She says his name so firmly, so seriously, that his head jerks up, gaze tangling with hers. “You don’t want to be on the sidelines. You don’t want to be the general hiding being his troops. You want to be out there, Rex Tyrannis shoulder-to-shoulder with Redwood Dancer. And you could be.”

It’s his breath that’s rasping, the death rattle of the man he’s let himself be these past few years. “How?”

There’s not an ounce of hesitation in her when she says. “You have to choose to move forward.”

And cozy up in the cockpit with that asshole. He thinks about that grin, cocked with a confidence he’s never been in the neighborhood of having, and...

It’s so familiar that his double vision makes his head pound. “I can’t work with that-- Obi. I won’t.”

“I know that...” Her lips press together, bursting apart with a pop. “I know there’s no limit to the amount of people a ranger could potentially drift with, but there’s something...special when you find the right one. That there’s something right about it than can’t ever be replaced.”

He stares, head galloping in his chest. She shouldn’t know that-- there’s no way she could. Most rookies out of the academy just drift successfully once, and that’s it-- that’s their partner, for better or worse, like marrying the first kid you kiss. There’s exceptions-- emergencies, injury, irreconcilable differences-- but even though this job has a high turnover...rangers rarely die alone. There’s not enough people for a paper.

“Yeah, I’ve...heard that too.” Probably from the same mouth she did, though it seems Mitsuhide’s polished the speech since he last gave it. To him, at least.

“I understand that you have a vision of who you want beside you in the pod,” Shirayuki presses, voice growing tighter, more tense with every word. “But Atri’s gone.”

Every drop of blood in him turns to ice. “Atri?”

Her breath hisses out through her teeth, relief slumping her shoulders. “I know no one can be him, but--”

“You think this is about Atri?” A giggle bubbles up from him, bitter on his tongue. “I’ve been sitting here for weeks-- no, months! And you think all this, the whole reason I won’t climb in a jaeger with just anyone off the street is because of Atri?”

Every corner of her face lost. “Isn’t it?”

“No, I...” He pinches the bridge of his nose, like it might stem the pounding of his heart behind his brow. This whole time he’d been so careful, trying to be understood for once, to let someone see him instead of his mistakes--

But he should have known; as long as his brother is obsessed with sending him an endless parade of nobodies which he sits behind a desk, it’ll only be his hang ups hung out for everyone to rifle through.

“I should go,” he finally manages, levering himself to his feet. The room spins, his heartbeat thrumming in his ears, but he can’t stay here, not when she thinks-- when she’s always thought--

“Zen,” she murmurs, voice muffled by distance. “Are you all right?”

--That he’s pathetic. “Yeah.” He stumbles to the door, swinging it open. “I just need to--”

And of course, standing right there is that asshole, hand half-raised to knock.

“Boss,” he breathes, clearly stunned. “I, uh, didn’t think you’d be...”

The awkwardness in the office is palpable, so thick that he might as well be moving through molasses. Before this guy showed up, he’d though he had half a chance; he was practically the only one outside of K-Science that would even look at her, and his sessions always felt like more, but now--

Well, it’s no wonder he didn’t stand half a chance next to him, if she thought he was waiting for Atri.

“Don’t worry about it.” Zen pushes back him, shoulder clipping his. Or at least near enough to claim the feat. “I’d hate to keep you two from your--” date-- “dinner plans.”

Shirayuki’s breath gasps from her. “Zen, wait, we’re not--”

“It’s fine,” he lies, every muscle tense where he stands, fighting the urge to look back. “A couple of things are clearer now.”

It’s not just her. They all think he’s waiting for him, that one day he might stroll back in here like nothing happened, and Zen--

“Please.” Shirayuki’s voice trembles, and even if he’s not looking, he knows she’s at the door, vibrating in its frame. “Let’s just finish the session.”

-- and Zen’s been giving them nothing else to work with. All these years, looking like a kid stood up on prom night.

“No, I just remembered there’s something I’ve got to do.” He forces a smile on his face, giving her a bare hint of it as he peeks over his shoulder. “I’ll see you next week.”

It kills him how much hope lights in her eyes. “Next week?”

“That our appointment, isn’t it?” he says, light tone limping. “Unless I see you around the dome before then.”

“Right,” she breathes, cheeks flushed at both corners of her smile. Obi’s watching her, concern writ large in his eyes, and well-- maybe he’s not as much of an asshole as Zen wanted to believe. “Until then.”

He gets halfway down the hall, before Obi calls out, “Hey, boss...”

It’s clear when he looks back that Obi hadn’t meant to speak, but now that he has, he clear his throat, giving himself a visible shake.

“You could come with us,” he says, hesitant. “If you wanted.”

It’s an olive branch, one he doesn’t deserve. One he should take, if he wants all this to heal over without a scar. But he’s not ready for that, not yet.

“No.” He shakes head. “I wasn’t joking about having something I got to do. Go enjoy yourselves.”

This is a terrible idea.

He knows it the entire time he’s walking, the anxiety cresting the second he sees the plate on the door, engraved and letters painted black: IZANA WISTERIA. MARSHAL.

“Well,” Izana hums from his desk. “Are you going pace outside my office all day, or are you planning to come in?”

Zen lets out a rush of breath and pushes the door open the rest of the way.

“You win,” he says, all in a rush. “I’ll do it. I’ll give him another chance.”

“I think at this point, he’s giving you another chance,” Izana tells him, barely glancing up from his pile of papers. “But...I’ll arrange it.”

He nearly says, I figured you’d have it all arranged already, but bites it back. “Thanks.”

“My pleasure. And Zen.” His brother looks up, capping his pen calmly before he folds his hands over the desk. “It’s not me who wins. It’s humanity.”

“Yeah,” he breathes, meeting that steely gaze. “But I’m not doing it for them.”

For once, his brother doesn’t have anything to say.

It’s Obi who’s locked in first this time.

His cheeky smile is already waiting when Zen steps on deck, body gripped by Rex Tyrannis’s hydraulics when he throws him a wink. “Second time’s the charm, right Your Highness?”

“Third time,” Zen mutters, keying in his code. “It’s third time’s the charm.”

“Right, but you were top of your class.” A guy like Obi shouldn’t be so comfortable when he’s got twenty tons pinning him in place, not when he’s got a face just asking to be hit. “So we can shave one of those off, right?”

“Depends.” His mouth twitches. “Where did you rank?”

Obi’s grin grows stiff enough to float. “I think you’d say I’m a natural talent.”

“That bad huh?”

A laugh saws out of him, raw in the loud silence of the pod. “You have no idea.”

“I think I could take a guess.” The hydraulics hug Zen tight; even lifting to his arm to the panel is a chore. “Ready?”

“For you?” Obi’s mouth stretches into a leer.  For once, he feels like he’s in on the joke. “Any time.”

Don’t chase the rabbit. It’s Obi’s voice that says it; not the way he had before, serious and concerned, a scolding and a reminder. No, this one is a laugh restrained, sing-song. One pill makes you big and one makes you small.

There’s a faint riff of guitar, and Zen’s about to tell him to can it, that putting trash in the drift just clogged up the flow, but--

But between one breath-- one blink and the next, he’s lost in the tide, rolling through his memories rudderless. When a hand grips his shoulder and--

“I’m ready.” Zen’s always too honest, too eager but he’s young here, younger than he ever remembers being wearing the badge. “To pick up the legacy. To be what father meant us to be.”

The memory runs true, his younger self still chatting away with Shidnote, unaware that his whole world’s about to be cut off at the knees. But he’s not watching that now, he’s watching the way shadows crawl across his brother’s face, a storm front that appears and vanishes in the moments no one looks.

“About that.” Izana settles his hand on the desk, but the drumming is no longer bored but...nervous. An asynchronous beat that runs at the speed of his thoughts. “I meant to tell you. I’m being promoted.”

“Promoted” The word still kicks his legs out from under him, still knocks the wind out of his lungs as efficiently as any punch to the gut. “But I thought we would--”

“They want me in a command capacity now that Mother’s taking over Anchorage.” Izana won’t look at him. The man who has built his career on being able to stare down Orochi in Sagami Bay can’t bear to look him in the eye. “I’m being taken off active duty.”

“But--” He looks between them. “But--”

“But--”

“But--”

The memory stutters. It’s him, he’s the one who’s pushing away. He’d always thought he couldn’t give this to someone, to some guy right off the street, someone who might pity him, but it’s-- it’s him. He can’t look at this. He can’t face failure another time.

And he doesn’t know how to stop.

Hey. Obi’s voice is too close, but he’s just an outline in the drift, blues and grays fuzzing between misfiring synapses. Hey, we don’t have to watch this.

They do. They have to, if he’s going to get through this.

Right. There’s no way for Obi to sigh here, where there’s no air, but he does, long and loud. It sounds...different. Almost...feminine. I have worse. Want to see me wet the bed when I was--?

The words fuzz before they can continue. Go ahead, Obi says, sounding like himself. Take as much time as you need. It’s not like we have clocks here.

Zen can’t nod here, not without a body, but he breathes, one solid in and out--

“It’s supposed to be us.” Even with the distance of time, every word is carves straight from his flesh, laid out on a platter for his brother to see. “We’re supposed to carry on the legacy.”

“Shidnote will continue on in his current capacity,” Izana explains, bored, as if he didn’t even speak. “He’s served me well. I’m sure you’ll both be sufficiently compatible.”

“But--” Zen grits his teeth. “It’s supposed to be us. Why are you giving me an excuse--?

He blinks. He never said that. He’d been thinking it the whole way to his bunk, but in the moment it had only been a yes sir. I understand, sir.

Then why--

“It’s an excuse.” The shine’s all worn off Atri’s grin, baring the raw edge beneath. “That’s all I’ve ever been to you.”

Scrap litters the floor at his feet; he’s never known what jaeger-grade parts sold for on the black market, but he knows it’s not pocket money. This is a small fortune if someone knew where to sell it.

Which clearly Atri does.

“You’re going to blame me?” Zen’s laugh limps with bitterness. “I catch you with stolen goods, and it’s my--?”

“It’s not stolen, it’s salvage,” Atri snaps, snatching a length of steel from his hands. “It’s not like they’re using it.”

A lie-- there’s not a shred of steel or wire that’s wasted in the dome. Jaegars come with a price tag that only governments can pay, and any corner that can be safely cut on maintenance is considered savings passed onto tax payers. There’s no way he can’t know it, not after six months, but--

He doesn’t care. He never did.

“This is why you agreed to be my copilot.” Every word aches as he births them from his lips, a truth that cuts even as he speaks it. “You didn’t care about protecting your friends. You just wanted access to parts.”

Atri shrugs, the barest twitch of his shoulders. “I never said I gave a single fuck about all that hero shit. You just assumed I did, because you do.”

“But the drift...” His breath wheezes, the way it did when he was a kid, before his dad paid for all that to be fixed. “How did you...?”

“I just thought about the stuff you cared about. Friends. Kaiju. Me.” Atri’s grin turns smug. “Some of us don’t wear our heart on our sleeves, Wisteria.”

Wow. Obi’s outline fuzzes as he circles behind Atri, a single brow raised. He’s a real fucknut, huh?

His memories are jumbles, him-now and him-then all tumbled together until his first instinct is to jump to Atri’s defense. He may not be an academy-trained ranger, someone who has a lifetime worth of experience in a simulator, but put him in Rex Tyrannis and he’ll--

Steal the toilet cover? Obi offers, mouth canting into that insufferable grin. The one that always reminded him of--

Ah.

Obi darts a glance to where Atri stands frozen beside him. Jeeze, you really know how to hit a guy where he lives. You think I look like this asshole?

Just the grin, really. He’s almost a head taller, broader in the shoulders, and Asian besides. Better looking too--

Obi’s smile stretches into a leer. You don’t say, bossman?

Maybe Atri’s right. He’s got to get better about what he thinks about in the drift. Especially with someone this insufferable around.

If anything, Obi’s more amused. So it’s this guy though, he’s whole hold up you have with me? It’s not--

Against his will, Atri springs to life, mouth curled into his nastiest sneer when he says “I don’t know why you’re acting so betrayed. After all, you only wanted me to get back at the Marshal, and I played my part, didn’t I? I’m sure he’d jump in the pod if that meant he could be rid of me.”

“That’s not--” true, he should say. He can’t though, not when he’s not this-Zen, when he’s just looking out from his eyes, straight into Obi’s.

“Yeah.” There’s no spit to swallow in the drift, but he does anyway, a force of habit. “It is.”

The memory fuzzes away from him, and it’s just them now, two men braced in the Conn-pod, staring at each other through their visors.

“Right hemisphere, calibrated.” Zen blinks, watching as his hand opens and closes, the robotic voice’s dulcet tones washing over him.

“I never wanted this, you know,” he murmurs, “not if it wasn’t with my brother. That’s how it was supposed to be, me and him versus the kaiju.”

“Left hemisphere, calibrated.” His arms seem to move on his own, and it’s strange how he can’t keep the smile off his face this time. It feels good, moving like this again.

“No,” he breathes. “It was supposed to be me and him versus the world.”

“Ready to activate the jeager.“

Obi’s arms lift, a fighting stance to mirror his. It’s easy, so easy. Easier than he ever thought it could be. “What changed?”

He’d shrug, if the hydraulics would let him, but this isn’t Redwood Dancer. “Seemed like a shitty reason not to save the world.”

“Calibration complete.”

Obi grins, teeth shining bright under the lights of his visor. “Doc tell you that?”

Zen laughs. “Pretty much.”

“She’s got a gift,” Obi agrees, hands moving in sync with his. “And it’s making you feel like an asshole.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Looks like you jokers are getting along,” Kiki deadpans through their helmets. “How do you feel about taking Rex out for a drag?”

“After being cramped under this dome for months, Princess?” Obi drawls, tossing him a conspiratorial wink. “It’d be my pleasure.”

“Just give us a sec!” It’s been a long time since Zen’s talked much with the crew in CIC, but he recognizes that voice-- Yuzuri, one of Shirayuki’s friends. The peppy one with the cute accessories. The one that told him she’d give him cement shoes if he made her cry. “Let’s see if we can get you off your leash.”

He’d always liked her. Hopefully the feeling’s mutual, since she’s right next to the plug.

“Hey, boss.”

Zen blinks, glancing across the cockpit. “Yeah?”

“I know Atri was supposed to be a big fuck you to His Majesty, but...” He hesitates, thoughtful. “You drifted with the Big Guy for a while after that. Why?”

“Ah--”

It’s impossible not to think of it, the siren rising in the air, the men running past them, voices drowned out by the drone.

“I’ll do it,” he says, glaring up at the man across from him. “At least you know you’re just a seat warmer.”

“Zen--”

He blinks, the memory stuttering beneath him. That’s not what Mitsuhide called him then, that wasn’t until after--

“Zen.”

That’s not inside the memory, that’s inside his helmet. “Mitsuhide?”

“You’re out of alignment.”

He shakes his head, uncomprehending. “What do you--?”

“You’re out of alignment.” He repeats, each words strained. “You both chased the rabbit, and...Obi went straight down the rabbit hole.”

It doesn’t make any sense. “But I--”

“You have to go get him,” Mitsuhide says, dire. “He’s pointing the plasma cannon at Mission Control.”

[guynamedultimax]

What if Kirby had a traditional fighting game?

Listen, I know I should’ve done more “FNF fighting game characters” but i doubt anyone cared for that, and even then I lost a bit of interest, so if you actually cared sorry about that, you can still come up with whatever you want for the characters I didn’t talk about!

That being said, I think all Kirby fans here know Kirby Fighters 2. Personally speaking most of it was just the same as Kirby Fighters Deluxe BUT there were five playable Dream Friends. FIVE. Priority to the Copy Abilities a bit too high, isn’t it HAL? Sometimes it feels a bit barebones if you ask me. So I’m here to discuss what would a non-platform Kirby fighting game be.

THE GAMEPLAY

It’s the same as any basic fighting game, there isn’t really that much that the Kirby franchise can offer to make the genre a bit more varied, and that’s mostly due to the fact that Kirby makes friends wherever he goes and combat is pretty much straightforward in these platforming games, the crazy stuff comes from learning specific moves with each copy ability/character in the games and that’s also true for this game.

THE PLOT

I have quite a few ideas for how this can go:

-It’s a “what if” re-telling of Kirby Star Allies where Hyness’ ritual (somehow) also causes space-time rifts across the entire universe to be generated, pulling in Kirby villains from previous games but also allies, which would ALSO explain Dream Friends in the game’s canon a bit more properly.

-It happens in an AU. Plot would basically be Kirby Battle Royale’s but instead of shooting a loadshit of Kirbies onto Kirby, Dedede would just call upon all of their friends to fight for that cake before things escalate and Dedede loses control of the tournament to greater evils, forcing him to work with Kirby to stop the threat, be it old or new.

-Another AU idea but this time it’s original/based on Milky Way Wishes. Galactic NOVA appears every thousand years above Pop Star’s skies, and everyone tries to fight for the right to get the wish. Villain wouldn’t necessarily be ONLY Marx though, most of the Kirby villains could easily win against him if they get to NOVA and get their wish granted. Which means yes, all plots happen at once and Kirby has to deal with everyone at once.

-The least interesting idea: it’s Kirby Fighters 2′s plot but without tag team duos and with all Kirbies replaced with the roster.

THE ROSTER

Now we’re about to have some fun.

RETURNING CHARACTERS: The Dream Friends (and Kirby, of course)

-First up, all Dream Friends are coming back. You don’t even need to change their movesets that much, just add/tweak things, but just for funsies (and for a specific reason too) we’ll also give them specific copy abilities or more than one to categorize them.

-Kirby is the specific reason. He has the same moveset as his Smash Bros incarnation, although he incorporates more copy abilities (and also super powerful stuff like the Star Rod that he usually uses in endgame fights) in it now due to being a traditional fighting game. And yes, he still has his inhale. Using it will have the inhale be replaced by another move in-game, the closest one to a “neutral special” in the opponent’s arsenal. His copy ability is therefore, Smash Bros. And since the game has multiple super moves, we can make his gimmicks from the Kumazaki games the super moves: his level 1 would be a random Super Copy Ability from Return to Dreamland (cutscene is random everytime but damage is always the same), his level 2 would be using the Robobot Armor to stomp foes around, ending with a giant ground pound/fist to the ground and his level 3 is Hypernova Kirby due to the inhale being one of his most unique properties.

-Meta Knight and Dedede will also have heavy Smash influences but they’ll also use techniques from most of their boss fights, such as Meta Knight splitting himself in four clones temporarily for an attack or Dedede actually pulling out an axe instead of his hammer for some attacks based on his Triple Deluxe incarnation. Their copy abilities would formally be Sword and Hammer but with heavy Smash Bros inspiration. Meta can also call in for the Meta Knights to help him in one of his unique super moves. They’d all be there except for Sailor Dee and Captain Vul (one’s an alternate costume and the other is never seen outside of dialogue text).

-Bandana Waddle Dee’s moveset incorporates both Spear and Parasol, but due to the Spear being his most used tool he’ll be categorized with that.

-Marx is the first character with Unique as its own copy ability due to his arsenal being entirely based on his boss fight. Inhaling Unique characters doesn’t always allow Kirby to get copy abilities but when it happens he usually has their most basic move replacing the inhale. Gooey is in the same situation, but i have no idea what would Kirby get from him as an ability since he’s technically player 2 in the Dark Matter trilogy’s first 2 games. Rick, Kine and Coo would technically be categorized as Unique only because they have Fire, Water and Wind in their moveset. You could say they’d be stance characters while Marx is a zoner and Gooey a rushdown character.

-Dark Meta Knight is categorized as Mirror, and Adeleine (with Ribbon as an assist of course) is Artist. Daroach would be Animal, which is missing since its debut in Squeak Squad, as far as I can remember, but he naturally still retains his moveset of calling the Squeaks to help him.

-It’s pretty easy to categorize Magolor as ESP, and Taranza as Spider, while I have no idea what would Susie’s ability be even. Spark? She is mostly around in the Robobot Armor to be fair. The Three Mage-Sisters would be treated equally to the Animal Friends

THE NEWCOMERS

-NAGO, CHUCHU & PITCH: The other set of Animal Friends. I theorize a moveset revolving around the Cleaning ability like in Star Allies would be easy to make, although it can also incorporate moves from other abilities that have been in Dream Land 3.

-CHEF KAWASAKI: I think it’s safe to say this one is pretty easy to do just like the returning Dream Friends. He has a unique moveset in comparison to Chef Kirby that also has him use Kirby’s Final Smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

-LOLOLO & LALALA: Aside from pushing boxes and Gordos they can be the Ice Climbers of the game, and most importantly one of their super moves could have them fuse into their original form in the anime to reference that further.

-SHADOW KIRBY: A clone (in terms of moveset) for Kirby that lacks the inhale ability and has more attacks based on his appearances in Amazing Mirror (and also on Kirby’s unique ability to split in four in these games) and the Kirby Fighters spinoffs. Simple as it is.

-THE MIDBOSSES: They all play the same as their fights too, so doing a paragraph for each of them would be a bit redundant. I chose to add minibosses in because most of them are pretty iconic among Kirby enemies and some of them are also technically friends of Kirby’s. I picked Bonkers (whose coconut throwing and some special moves could make him different enough from Dedede if you ask me), Mr. Frosty (also because we don’t have an Ice-based character in the game), Buggzy (which I can see being the ultimate grappler), King Doo (because we don’t actually have a Waddle Doo in the roster and he’s technically not only their king but also the most unique of them) and Grand Wheelie (look, I like Wheel as an ability ok? it’s like playing as Sonic in a Kirby game)

-KNUCKLE JOE: Taking stuff from both his Star Allies moveset and his Assist Trophy from Ultimate PLUS a few references to the anime and you have the ultimate Shoto character in the Kirby franchise. Ryu mains, this is the character for you.

-GIM: Look, my three favorite abilities are Yo-Yo, Wheel and ESP, in no particular order, so I HAD to include him and the Grand Wheelie. Magolor covers for ESP enough. This lil fella looks more unique than most of the generic Kirby enemies and even among the copy ability ones he’s always been a bit of an oddball due to being a robot. The trickshots you can do with this copy ability make Gim perfect to camp, so he’d be a pretty good zoner as well.

-TAC: He’s been a Helper in Super Star where he also has an unique moveset. Expanding on it and on Tac being generally a copy ability thief could mean more copy abilities can be implemented in a moveset, probably even more than what Kirby can do. Also his design just screams potential to me.

DLC FIGHTERS

WAVE 1: Spinoff Dream Friends

Cuz these guys have been done dirty by Star Allies’ devs. Elline would be the other Artist character in the game and call for Claycia’s assistance in specific attacks. Prince Fluff would play mostly just like Kirby himself did in Kirby’s Epic Yarn and implement specific transformations in some attacks, ending with the tank one from the end of that game. Then we have Gryll. If you know how to make a Tetris/Puyo Puyo based character in a fighting game then good for you, I absolutely don’t know how. What I KNOW however is that she has a float like Peach’s in Smash Bros and I-No’s in Guilty Gear.

WAVE 2: Dream Villains

These guys would all play exactly like their boss fights. Hyness and Sectonia would remain mostly unchanged while Haltmann in terms of moveset is the same as Susie, just without every non-Robobot move that she has.

WAVE 3: Clash of Blades

THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ALL ANIME SWORDFIGHTERS. They all pull from their boss fights, but Morpho Knight is gonna be a bit more unique compared to Galacta, Dark Meta and Meta Knight, having in the swordfighter equivalent of Akuma’s Raging Demon. Meanwhile, Dark Matter Swordsman and Galacta Knight are completely faithful to the source material, but they’d probably be a bit nerfed due to Galacta’s universe-breaking powers. (you can bet that if we get the remaining legendary heroes who sealed Void Termina in future games they’d be their own separate Wave 5 DLC pack)

WAVE 4: Revival of Old Faces

Nightmare and Drawcia are back and they’re here to stay! Their movesets don’t really need that much changes. Void however is an entirely different beast. He’d be a mix of Kirby, both Zero incarnations and Dark Matter. His design wouldn’t just be giant orb that switches between Kirby and Dark Matter faces, he’d be Kirby-sized and with legs and stubby lil arms like the pink puffball. And you can bet your ass he’d be broken as fuck.

SKINS

If a character’s appearance changed across the series’ history (like Marx Soul, Girl Blob Gooey, Shoppe Magolor, Mecha Knight, Dark Taranza/Taranza in the Super Kirby Clash games, Masked/Shadow Dedede, Anime!Knuckle Joe, Parallel/Pres. Parallel Susie, EX versions and so on) they’d just be an alternate skin/palette swap for the specific character. Multiple characters of the same species with little changes (like a normal Waddle Dee or Sailor Dee, or literally all Kirby colors including Keeby) are the same. I’m also debating on how Dark Mind would be a skin for Nightmare or if there’d be a skin inspired by him for the Dark Matter Swordsman. Zero and Zero Two would probably be turned into palette swaps/outfits for Void (imagine a white Kirby cosplaying as Zero Two that’d be so cute lol).

ATTACKING ASSIST CHARACTERS

Characters who appear in other characters’ attacks. Like the aforementioned Squeaks, Meta Knights and Claycia. Normal Dark Matter would appear in DM Swordsman’s attacks in some capacity outside of the eye laser and the Gordo Throw would return from Dedede’s previous Smash incarnations alongside the Waddle Dee Throw from Brawl. And naturally Magolor can call in the Lor Starcutter for one of his super moves. I am actually considering giving Tac the ability to throw random items/enemies at opponents, with the Bomber being one of these. It’d be a very RNG attack with the Bomber being the best outcome, blowing on the opponent’s face.

HELPERS

All characters in the game can be called on for an Helper attack, that can help you in some form against the opponent by either damaging or tampering with the opponent or by having you get healed or with some buff. Outside from the playable roster enemies that give you copy abilities would also be Helpers, but the specific ones I’m not so sure on.

BOSSES

Characters you can fight in Arcade mode, in Story mode or in a specific Boss mode. There’d also be a Ganon’s Fury (Hyrule Warriors) inspired mode where you’d play as the bosses pitting them against each other. I specifically picked Dyna Blade, Whispy Woods, Landia, Star Dream, Kracko, Great Edge, Pyribbit, Ice Dragon, Fire Lion, Masher, Grand Mam, Metal General, Kibble Blade and Pon & Con.

STAGES

There’d be quite a lot of stages, but I haven’t thought out specific ones except for Green Greens, Butter Building, a Ripple Star stage, one for Dedede’s castle with stage cameos by Tiff, Tuff and Escargoon from the anime and every final boss’s fighting arena.

THE MUSIC

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gonna be nothing compared to this one. We’re getting all the important music from all pre-Kumazaki games, all music from Kumazaki games and spinoffs, and online arrangements with focus on orchestral (Desolo Zantas), metal (GaMetal, of course) and EDM (Acid Notation, Qumu and various others), including stuff like Itoki Hana’s vocal arrangements. We’re going all out on this one.

Aaaaand that’s it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Stay hydrated.

[thetamrieliclibrary]

Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition: Skyrim

Skyrim, also known as the Old Kingdom or the Fatherland[1], was the first region of Tamriel settled by humans: the hardy, brave, warlike Nords, whose descendants still occupy this rugged land, and, although perhaps somewhat reduced from the legendary renown of their forebears of old, the Nords of the pure blood still unquestionably surpass the mixed races in all the manly virtues.

Exactly when the Nords first crossed the ice-choked Sea of Ghosts from Atmora, their original homeland, is uncertain. As recorded in the Song of Return, Ysgramor and his family first landed in Tamriel at Hsaarik Head, at the extreme northern tip of Skyrim's Broken Cape, fleeing civil war in Atmora (then rather warmer than at present, as it seems to have supported a substantial population). These first settlers named the land "Mereth", after the Elves that roamed the untamed wilderness which then covered the whole of Tamriel. For a time, relations between Men and Elves were harmonious, and the Nords throve in the new land, summoning more of their kin from the North to build the city of Saarthal, the site of which has recently been located by Imperial archaeologists in the vicinity of modern Winterhold. But the Elves saw that the vital young race would soon surpass their stagnant culture[2] if left unchecked, and fell upon the unsuspecting Nords in the infamous Night of Tears; Saarthal was burned, and only Ysgramor and two of his sons[3] fought free of the carnage and escaped to Atmora. The Elves, however, had reckoned without the indomitable spirit of the Nords. Gathering his legendary Five Hundred Companions (whose names are still recited every Thirteenth of Sun's Dawn at the Feast of the Dead in Windhelm), Ysgramor returned to Tamriel with a vengeance, driving the Elves out of Skyrim and laying the foundations of the first human Empire.

It may be that the exploits of the near-mythical Ysgramor conflate the reigns of several early Nord Kings, as the Elves were not finally driven from the present boundaries of Skyrim until the reign of King Harald, the thirteenth of Ysgramor's line, at the dawn of recorded history. King Harald is also remembered for being the first King to relinquish all holdings in Atmora; the Nords of Skyrim were now a separate people, whose faces were turned firmly toward their destiny, the conquest of the vast new land of Tamriel. Indeed, the history of the Nords is the history of humans in Tamriel; all the human races, with the exception of the Redguards, are descended from Nordic stock, although in some the ancient blood admittedly runs thin.

King Vrage the Gifted began the expansion that led to the First Empire of the Nords. Within a span of fifty years, Skyrim ruled all of northern Tamriel, including most of present-day High Rock, a deep stretch of the Nibenay Valley, and the whole of Morrowind. The Conquest of Morrowind was one of the epic clashes of the First Era, when ensued many a desperate contest between Nord and Dunmer in the hills and glades of that dire kingdom, still recalled by the songs of the minstrels in the alehouses of Skyrim. The system of succession in the First Empire is worthy of note, as it proved in the end to be the Empire's undoing. By the early years of the First Empire, Skyrim was already divided into Holds, then ruled by a patchwork of clan-heads, kings, and councils (or moots), all of which paid fealty to the King of Skyrim. During the exceptionally long reign of King Harald, who died at 108 years of age and outlived all but three of his sons, a Moot was created, made up of representatives from each Hold, to choose the next King from qualified members of the royal family. Over the years, the Moot became permanent and acquired an increasing amount of power; by the reign King Borgas, the last of the Ysgramor dynasty, the Moot had become partisan and ineffective. Upon the murder[4] of King Borgas by the Wild Hunt (See Aldmeri--Valenwood), the Moot's failure to appoint the obvious and capable Jarl Hanse of Winterhold sparked the disastrous Skyrim War of Succession, during which Skyrim lost control of its territories in High Rock, Morrowind, and Cyrodiil, never to regain them. The war was finally concluded in 1E420 with the Pact of Chieftains; henceforth, the Moot was convened only when a King died without direct heirs, and it has fulfilled this more limited role admirably. It has only been called upon three times in the intervening millennia, and the Skyrim succession has never again been disputed on the field of battle.

The lands of Skyrim is the most rugged on the continent, containing four of the five highest peaks in Tamriel (see Places of Note: Throat of the World). Only in the west do the mountains abate to the canyons and mesas of the Reach, by far the most cosmopolitan of the Holds of Skyrim, Nords of the pure blood holding only the barest majority according to the recent Imperial Census. The rest of Skyrim is a vertical world: the high ridges of the northwest-to-southeast slanting mountain ranges, cleft by deep, narrow valleys where most of the population resides. Along the sides of the river valleys, sturdy Nord farmers raise a wide variety of crops; wheat flourishes in the relatively temperate river bottoms, while only the snowberry bushes can survive in the high orchards near the treeline. The original Nord settlements were generally established on rocky crags overlooking a river valley; many of these villages still survive in the more isolated Holds, especially along the Morrowind frontier. In most of Skyrim, however, this defensive posture was deemed unnecessary by the mid-first era, and most cities and towns today lie on the valley floors, in some cases still overlooked by the picturesque ruins of the earlier settlement.

Nords are masters of wood and timber construction; many structures survive in use today that were built by the first settlers over 3,000 years ago. A fine example of Nord military engineering can be seen at Old Fort, one of the royal bastions constructed by the First Empire to guard its southern frontier. Towering walls of huge, irregular porphyry blocks fit together without seam or mortar, as if constructed by mythical Elhnofey rather than men.

The nine Holds present a varied aspect in people, government, and trade. The Reach could be mistaken for one of the petty kingdoms of High Rock; it is full of Bretons, Redguards, Cyrodiils, Elves of all stripes, and even a few misplaced khajiit. The northern and eastern Holds--Winterhold Hold, Eastmarch, The Rift, and the Pale, known collectively as the Old Holds--remain more isolated, by geography and choice, and the Nords there still hold true to the old ways. Outsiders are a rarity, usually a once-yearly visit from an itinerant peddler. The young men go out for weeks into the high peaks in the dead of winter, hunting the ice wraiths that give them claim to full status as citizens (a laughable practice that could serve as a model for the more "civilized" regions of the Empire). Here, too, the people still revere their hereditary leaders, while the other Holds have long been governed (after a fashion) by elected moots. It is fortunate for Skyrim and the Septim Empire that the people of the Old Holds have preserved the traditions of their forefathers. Skyrim has long been dormant, slumbering through the millennia while upstart conquerors bestrode the Arena of Tamriel. But now, a son of Skyrim[5] once again holds the world's destiny in his hands. If Skyrim is to wake, its rebirth will be led by these true Nords who remain its best hope for the future.

[TRAVELER: I found many of these mountain villages almost empty of young men, who have been seduced into joining Septim's army by promises of wealth and glory; the village elders see little hope of their sons ever returning.]

Snow Elves[6]

Nords attribute almost any misfortune or disaster to the machinations of the Falmer, or Snow Elves, be it crop failure, missing sheep, or a traveller lost crossing a high pass. These mythical beings are popularly believed to be the descendants of the original Elven population, and are said to reside in the remote mountain fastnesses that cover most of Skyrim. However, there is no tangible evidence that this Elven community survives outside the imaginations of superstitious villagers.

The Tongues

The Nords have long practiced a spiritual form of magic known as "The Way of the Voice", based largely on their veneration of the Wind as the personification of Kynareth. Nords consider themselves to be the children of the sky, and the breath and the voice of a Nord is his vital essence. Through the use of the Voice, the vital power of a Nord can be articulated into a Thu'um, or shout. Shouts can be used to sharpen blades or to strike enemies at a distance. Masters of the Voice are known as Tongues, and their power is legendary. They can call to specific people over hundreds of miles, and can move by casting a shout, appearing where it lands. The most powerful Tongues cannot speak without causing destruction. They must go gagged, and communicate through a sign language and through scribing runes.

In the days of the Conquest of Morrowind and the founding of the First Empire, the great Nord war chiefs--Derek the Tall, Jorg Helmbolg, Hoag Merkiller--were all Tongues. When they attacked a city, they needed no siege engines; the Tongues would form up in a wedge in front of the gatehouse, and draw a breath. When the leader let it out in a thu'um, the doors were blown in, and the axemen rushed into the city. Such were the men that forged the First Empire. But, alas for the Nords, one of the mightiest of all the Tongues, Jurgen Windcaller (or the Calm, as he is better known today), became converted to a pacifist creed that denounced use of the Voice for martial exploits. His philosophy prevailed, largely due to his unshakable mastery of the Voice--his victory was sealed in a legendary confrontation, where The Calm is said to have "swallowed the Shouts" of seventeen Tongues of the militant school for three days until his opponents all lay exhausted (and then became his disciples). Today, the most ancient and powerful of the Tongues live secluded on the highest peaks in contemplation, and have spoken once only in living memory, to announce the destiny of the young Tiber Septim (as recounted in Cyrodiil). In gratitude, the Emperor has recently endowed a new Imperial College of the Voice in Markarth[7], dedicated to returning the Way of the Voice to the ancient and honourable art of war. So it may be that the mighty deeds of the Nord heroes of old will soon be equalled or surpassed on the battlefields of the present day.

Places of Note

Haafingar (Solitude)

The home of the famous Bards' College, Haafingar is also one of Skyrim's chief ports, and ships from up and down the coast can be found at her crowded quays, loading umber and salted cod for the markets of Wayrest, West Anvil, and Senchal. Founded during Skyrim's long Alessian flirtation, the Bards' College continues to flaunt a heretical streak, and its students are famous carousers, fittingly enough for their chosen trade. Students yearly invade the marketplace for a week of revelry, the climax of which is the burning of "King Olaf" in effigy, possibly a now-forgotten contender in the War of Succession. Graduates have no trouble finding employment in noble households across Tamriel, including the restored Imperial Court in Cyrodiil, but many still choose to follow in the wandering footsteps of illustrious alumni such as Callisos and Morachellis.

Windhelm

Once the capital of the First Empire, the palace of the Ysgramor dynasty still dominates the centre of the Old City. Windhelm was sacked during the War of Succession, and again by the Akaviri army of Ada'Soon Dir-Kamal; the Palace of the Kings is one of the few First Empire buildings that remains. Today, Windhelm remains the only sizable city in the otherwise determinedly rural Hold of Eastmarch, and serves as a base for Imperial troops guarding the Dunmeth Pass into Morrowind.

Throat of the World

This is the highest mountain in Skyrim, and the highest in Tamriel aside from Vvardenfell in Morrowind. The Nords believe men were formed on this mountain when the sky breathed onto the land. Hence the Song of Return refers not only to Ysgramor's return to Tamriel after the destruction of Saarthal, but to the Nords' return to what they believe was their original homeland. Pilgrims travel from across Skyrim to climb the Seven Thousand Steps to High Hrothgar, where the most ancient and honoured Greybeards[8] dwell in absolute silence in their quest to become ever more attuned to the voice of the sky.

Annotations

Annotations by YR:

"Most of the Nords I met seemed amused by this 'Fatherland' nonsense ~ the war with the 'Aldmeri Dominion' was the furthest thing in their minds."

"!"

"Ysgramor's provocations and blasphemies have, of course, been long forgotten."

"Righteous slaying."

"A disputed claim."

"Uncle, I saw signs that might be Falmer boundary-runes, but nothing sure. If any survive, they are wary and withdrawn."

"Septim's new college is staffed by hacks and charlatans ~ the so-called Grand Master is said to have formerly earned his living as a street performer in Windhelm ~ the students are scions of the most obsequious Nord families, hoping to curry favour with Tiber Septim's New Order ~"

"~ At last, a few Men worthy of respect. I met with an ancient Greybeard who could actually converse with me almost as an equal ~ my only such experience among the humans so far ~"

~ Follow for more books, journals, and notes from the Elder Scrolls series ~ Updates daily ~

[megas-choices]

The owlbear cub joining MC at the last second if we seal the rift

[phinnsyreads]

FROM: Dr. Arthur █. █████ TO: Director Maria Jones, Recordkeeping and Information Security Administration (RAISA) SUBJECT: Revision of SCP-076 SCP File

Director Jones,

I have to go on record as saying that I seriously object to the proposed revisions of the SCP-076 Special Containment Procedures File. I know that Redact All Important Stuff Already claims it's a security risk, but you and I both know it's just top brass trying to sweep their biggest and most embarrassing mistake ever under the damn rug. Omega-Seven happened. It existed. Those people died because you screwed up, and you can't change that, no matter how hard you try to hide it.

For God's sake, man, those people guarding him deserve to know exactly what he is and what he did. What WE did. How we fucked up, so they'll know better.

---

Item #: SCP-076

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Containment Area 25b is to be located 200 m below sea level, tunneled out of solid bedrock in a seismologically stable area. Sole access to the containment facility is to be through a vertical elevator shaft separated every fifty (50) meters with a reinforced blast door, constructed of 20 cm thick material shielding. Elevator shaft shall be flooded with seawater when not in use.

Containment Area 25b is to be constructed with the following components:

An Outer Security Perimeter against outside threats, staffed by security personnel trained in close quarters battle and counter-intrusion tactics.

An Administrative and Support Area (ASA) consisting of support facilities and living quarters for on-site personnel.

A Primary Containment Zone (PCZ), consisting of a 7 m cube encased in 1.5 m of reinforced material. PCZ is to be designed to be flooded and drained as needed, and should remain filled with seawater unless access to contents is required.

A 150 m "killing corridor" which is to be the sole access to the PCZ from the ASA (including water, power, drainage, and ventilation lines). The walls and floor of the corridor are to be reinforced in a similar manner to the PCZ, with the addition of an electric deterrence system capable of delivering a 20,000 volt shock.

A security station located at the entrance to the killing corridor is to be staffed with no fewer than three (3) armed security personnel on watch at any one point in time. Armament is to include, but not be limited to, at least one (1) ███████ CIW system on a pintle mount with a clear line of sight down the corridor, with a plexiglass screen to protect the operator from thrown weapons.

In the event of a full breach, all on-site staff are to proceed immediately to the closest security station for weapons and armor distribution. Staff will remain at Alert Condition One until SCP-076-2 is confirmed neutralized. Should 90 minutes pass after declaration of full breach without a Stand Down order being given by Level 4 or higher personnel, Final Contingency Measures will be activated, flooding the entire facility in seawater and sealing off the access shaft for a minimum of 24 hours before retrieval is attempted. This will, by necessity, result in the deaths of all on-site staff.

Description: SCP-076 consists of two components: a stone cube (SCP-076-1) and a humanoid entity contained within (SCP-076-2).

SCP-076-1 is a 3 m cube made of black speckled metamorphic stone. All surfaces outside and within SCP-076-1 are covered in deeply engraved patterns corresponding to no known civilizations. Radioisotope analysis indicates that the object is approximately ten thousand (10,000) years old. A door is located on one side, sealed with a lock 0.5 m in width, surrounded by twenty (20) smaller locks in a circular pattern. As of yet, none of the keys have been found, making the door impossible to lock once closed.

Interior temperature is approximately 93 Kelvin, and cannot be altered by any means, internal or external. Directly in the center of the room is a 2.13 m tall stone coffin, held in place and sealed shut by several chains of unknown make and substance, which are attached to the inner corners of SCP-076-1.

SCP-076-2 resembles a lean Semitic human male in his late twenties. Hair is black, and eyes are gray, skin tone olive. Subject is 1.96 m in height and 81.65 kg in weight. Numerous tattoos depicting arcane and occult iconography are present all over the body (mostly in the form of leering demonic faces) and range from subtle to openly ostentatious. Subject, when encased inside SCP-076-1, is technically dead.

However, occasionally SCP-076-2 will awaken, effectively "reanimating", complete with all vital processes needed to sustain a living human being. Subject will then attempt to leave SCP-076-1. If successful, subject will enter a trance state and seek out the nearest human being, ignoring all other living things in the process. Upon coming into contact with living humans, SCP-076-2 will enter a rage state in which it attempts to engage and kill all human beings encountered. To date, only the subject's death has been shown to be effective in ending these rampages.

Terminating SCP-076-2 is often problematic due to its significant physical abilities. Subject has superhuman strength and speed, and although not invulnerable, has shown a remarkable ability to ignore pain and shock, pressing on despite what would be debilitating wounds in normal humans. Prior encounters have shown that SCP-076-2 has the ability to (among other things):

Rip through a reinforced steel security door over the course of four (4) minutes of sustained assault.

Clear over 64 m of distance in under three (3) seconds.

Take multiple .50 caliber BMG rounds to the head and survive for several minutes to continue killing, despite severe damage to the cerebellum.

Swat handgun and assault-rifle caliber bullets out of the air with a length of steel rebar.

Survive for over one (1) hour deprived of oxygen before finally asphyxiating.

SCP-076-2's most unusual ability, however, is its ability to apparently materialize bladed weapons out of nowhere. Slow-motion video footage reveals that the blades in question are actually pulled from a miniature dimensional rift described as a "small hole in space." Where these portals lead is unknown, as is how SCP-076-2 is capable of generating them. Footage of the blades in question shows them to be made out of a completely non-reflective black material appearing as a "black void in space." As the blades rapidly vanish after leaving the subject's possession, no structural analysis is possible at this time.

SCP-076-2 has effectively been killed several times in various manners:

Sustained fire from multiple heavy-caliber machine guns.

Asphyxiation.

Crushed beneath a 13.6 metric tonne piece of elevator equipment for use on SCP-076-1.

Cremation through the use of a Thermate-TH3 grenade placed directly inside SCP-076-2's open chest cavity.

During the worst breach to date, Containment Area-25 (which previously housed SCP-076) was forced to detonate its on site warhead as a last attempt to contain SCP-076-2 while it was attempting escape, resulting in total destruction of the site and all on-site personnel. SCP-076-1 survived.

Upon death, SCP-076-2's remains will putrefy rapidly, until reduced to dust. SCP-076-1 and the coffin within will then slam shut with great force, and the lock will rotate, sealing it shut. SCP-076-2 will then reform within the coffin, a process taking anywhere from six (6) hours to twenty-five (25) years.

What posthumous analysis of SCP-076-2 exists shows that it has a internal system highly different from our own, documented in [DATA EXPUNGED].

Additional: SCP-076 was found in ████████████, Mongolia, in 18██, by archaeologists from England. All members of the expedition were subsequently killed on the return voyage home. SCP-076 was recovered from the ship █████ ███████ by the ███████ Society (one of the organizations that later merged into the modern Global Occult Coalition) and placed on display in their Inner Sanctum.

SCP-076 remained in storage for ███████ (██) years, until SCP-076-2 became active and escaped on ██-██-████. The reason for SCP-076's activation is currently unknown, but it was at this point that the keys to the outer shell were lost. A massive manhunt, lasting over three (3) years and ████ ███████, took place until SCP-076-2 was incapacitated by ██████████ ███████, killing it and causing it to reform inside SCP-076-1, by then retrieved and secured by agents of the SCP Foundation.

Subject was in custody for three (3) more years, under constant supervision, and was terminated whenever it became active, although it occasionally was able to escape for short periods of time, often due to security breaches caused by attacks from other organizations. The Foundation's death toll due to this was [DATA EXPUNGED]

[DATA EXPUNGED]

[DATA EXPUNGED]

After the last incident, the current procedures regarding SCP-076 were implemented, although they are upgraded regularly with the increase in technological standards.

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

Addendum 076-2: "Project Abel" and "Mobile Task Force Omega-7"

!CLASSIFIED!

All information regarding Project Abel and Mobile Task Force Omega-7 ("Pandora's Box") are classified Q Clearance by order of the O-5 Council. By proceeding, you are acknowledging that you have clearance to view these files, and that you have received Need to Know permission from the appropriate Level 4 or higher authority.

FROM: Director Maria Jones, Recordkeeping and Information Security Administration TO: Level 4 Administrators SUBJECT: RAISA Update to Security Protocol Re: Supplemental Information Re: SCP-076

File Name: Addendum 076-1: "Project Abel" and "Mobile Task Force Omega-7"

Prior Classification: O5

New Classification: Level 3, Need-To-Know Basis.

Effective Date: ██-██-████

------

Psychological Profile of Subject SCP-076-2 by Dr. Pamela G████

<Begin Log>

SCP-076-2 either possesses a mind constructed much differently than our own, or is completely insane, with little empathy or ideas in a way we would understand it. Concepts such as sex, love and equality are completely foreign ideas to SCP-076-2, or at least in comparison to its way of viewing them. Also, while subject has admitted greatly enjoying the act of killing, causing pain (either emotionally or physically) holds no attraction to it. In short, a perfect sociopath.

Intelligence tests have been wildly inconclusive when applied to SCP-076-2, and no accurate result has yet been obtained. This may be due to the alien thought processes of the subject. SCP-076-2 has however, shown that it has great knowledge of human anatomy (although in a highly violent context), military tactics of open warfare, metallurgy, and, strangely enough, the care of livestock. Subject has knowledge of several languages including English, but most notable is its knowledge of several dialects of ancient Sumerian, which seems to be its preferred language.

SCP-076 has nothing but contempt for human beings, with one exception: it seems to hold a wary respect for those it acknowledges as its superior. This was discovered when Agent ███████, an agent who had previously had a large amount of experience with SCP-076-2, did not appear once it escaped. Subject seemed distressed, asking several personnel where Agent ███████ was hiding. When it finally did learn of the fate of Agent ███████ (killed as collateral damage in an airstrike intended to halt the advance of SCP-███), SCP-076-2 stopped its rampage and allowed itself to be escorted and restrained.

Subject was then interviewed on the sudden drastic changes in its behavior, recorded here:

<Begin Log>

Dr. ██████: Why are you so interested in the death of Agent ███████?

SCP-076-2: (Subject begins swearing in ancient Sumerian)

Dr. ██████: Why does his death bother you? You've killed many humans before, why is he so- (Is cut off by SCP-076-2)

SCP-076-2: (now speaking in English) Different? Because, unlike you [Sumerian word, untranslated], he was a challenge, a real enemy.

Dr. ██████: Why would that be good for you? Every time you have awoken you've tried to escape. He was responsible for apprehending you several times. Surely you must be glad he's dead.

SCP-076-2: I hardly expect you to understand. Do you know, he managed to shoot me in the head over ██ times? A man like that deserves to die in combat, so close to his opponent he can feel his breath. Not in some [Sumerian words, untranslated] destruction ordered by cowardly kings and princes safe in their palaces. The rest of you… (SCP-076-2 spits) you disgust me. I don't even have the urge to strike you down.

(Subject is silent from then on, refusing to speak or respond)

<End Log>

This indicates a possible psychological inlet into SCP-076-2's mind, and a possible control mechanism. Given the massive drain on resources SCP-076-2 causes due to its escape attempts, and considering Bowe Commission's stated desire to weaponize SCP objects for tactical purposes, I recommend that we pursue this course of action as soon as possible.

<End Log>

------

FROM: Dr. █████ █. █████ TO: Dr. P█████ G████, Project Omega Seven SUBJECT:

He said yes.

------

PROJECT PROPOSAL: MOBILE TASK FORCE OMEGA-7 ("PANDORA'S BOX")

Mission Statement: Support of SCP-076-2 ("Abel") in the field, in high risk tactical situations.

Task Force Organization: Task Force Special Asset "Abel," Task Force Leader John ████████████, 10-20 field agents divided into five teams of 3-5 each. Members of the team are to be personally selected from elite field agents by Subject Abel himself, in order to maintain a smooth relationship between the Artifact and the mundane elements of the Task Force.

Security Protocol: SCP-076-2 ("Abel") is to wear a device attached to the neck that, if triggered or tampered with, will immediately detonate, terminating SCP-076-2 by way of complete destruction of the spinal cord, trachea and all major blood vessels in the neck. A tracking device has also been attached to SCP-076-2's person. It is to refrain from killing unless ordered to do so, and is to avoid causing damage to the organization's facilities.

Armament and Equipment: Team members are to be armed and equipped in accordance with MTF doctrine. As Subject Abel has shown no inclination to use firearms, or in fact, no understanding of their use or tactical implications, he is instead to be armed with one or more edged melee weapons of his choice.

Addendum: Note from Dr. Arthur █. █████: For God's sake, John, find these guys something to do. Abel's getting bored, and he's started putting his team through live fire exercises: they get bullets, he gets training weapons. Have you ever seen someone break a man's jaw using a Nerf sword? He's not gonna stop until someone gets killed.

------

Report by Dr. Pamela G████, Project Omega Seven

In light of SCP-076-2's proficient use of the Sumerian language, researchers have asked it to translate several documents. While it originally replied with disinterest, it has translated some of the documents it found worthy of its attention. Most of the documents chosen by SCP-076-2 were regarding battles or legendary heroes, one of its favorites in particular being the "Epic of Gilgamesh".

However, one researcher presented it with the symbol from SCP-073. Upon sight of this, SCP-076-2 became highly enraged, killing several of the researchers before its kill switch could be activated. When revived and questioned about this, SCP-076-2 responded aggressively, and that line of questioning was immediately dropped. It is recommended anything pertaining SCP-073 never be brought to the attention of SCP-076-2 and that the two are never to be in the same facility.

Addendum 076-07: Recently, SCP-105 has been accepted into Mobile Task Force Omega-7, having beaten SCP-076-2 in a contest to see which of the two could activate several devices, each spaced over a mile away from each other and the starting point. SCP-105 managed to score significantly higher than SCP-076-2 by using her inherent abilities to her advantage. SCP-076-2 ceded defeat and allowed her entry into the group.

Addendum 076-09: Proposed introduction of SCP-076-2 to SCP-682 put on indefinite hold. Those with Security Clearance level 4 or higher may request access to Contingency 076-2 #3.

Addendum 076-23: Per the request of the Bowe Commission, Mobile Task Force Omega-7 is to be fielded in the ████████ region of ███████████ against [DATA EXPUNGED].

------

FROM: Dr. Arthur █. █████ TO: Dr. Pamela G████ SUBJECT: Don't do it, Pam

Pam,

For god's sake, don't do it. It's bad enough that they're trying to weaponize Iris too. Don't let the military bully us into doing their dirty work against some sand farmers in ██████████.

------

FROM: General ██████ Bowe TO: Dr. Pamela G████ SUBJECT: A Job Well Done

Excellent work, doctor. The mission went exactly as expected. We'll be calling you again if we need your help.

------

FROM: Dr. Arthur █. █████ TO: Dr. Pamela G████ SUBJECT:

I hope you're fucking proud of yourself.

<hello.jpg>

because you're a bigger asshole than this guy.

------

FROM: Dr. Pamela G████ TO: Omega Seven Team SUBJECT: Reassignment

As of this moment, Dr. Arthur █. █████ has been reassigned to SCP-682 as Level 1 personnel.

------

[DATA EXPUNGED]

------

FROM: Dr. Pamela G████ TO: General ██████ Bowe SUBJECT: Problems

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Despite our best efforts, Subject Abel is proving difficult to control. All our attempts to keep him engaged have been more or less unsuccessful.

The problem is, he's a perfect killing machine, and that's all he wants to do. Which seems like exactly what we wanted, but the problem is, we can't seem to turn him off.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

I'm running out of missions to give him, and the ones I've got left aren't engaging him mentally. He's starting to lash out at the other team members. It's only a matter of time before something goes wrong. Requesting permission to discontinue the project and neutralize Abel temporarily, until we can find something more for him to do.

------

FROM: General ██████ Bowe TO: Dr. Pamela G████, Project Omega Seven SUBJECT: Re: Problems

Unacceptable. Neutralizing Subject Abel at this point is going to cause an unacceptable delay. We'll have another mission for you within a couple of weeks. All you have to do is keep him busy until then. Send him on vacation or something.

------

FROM: Dr. Pamela G████, Project Omega Seven TO: All Staff SUBJECT: ALERT

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED ALERT

SCP-076-2 has disabled the explosive collar failsafe and gone out of control. All staff to high alert. Further requests as events warrant.

------

FROM: AUTOMATED DEFENSE SYSTEM, CONTAINMENT AREA-25 TO: All Sites SUBJECT: FINAL OPTION ENGAGED

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE

As of ██-██-████, ████:██, Containment Area-25 has engaged its on-site nuclear warhead on ten-minute countdown.

------

FROM: O5 Command TO: All Sites SUBJECT: Containment Area 25 Final Option: Response

As of ██-██-████, ████:██, Containment Area-25 has been destroyed by detonation of its on-site nuclear warhead. Sites 67 and 68 are to activate the FEMA protocol and secure the location as soon as possible. Official cover story will be released by RAISA to all personnel once drafted.

------

Revised Psychological Profile of Subject SCP-076-2

<Begin Log>

SCP-076-2 either possesses a mind constructed much differently than our own, or is completely insane, with little empathy or ideas in a way we would understand it. Concepts such as sex, love and equality are completely foreign ideas to SCP-076-2, or at least in comparison to its way of viewing them. Also, while subject seems to greatly enjoy the act of killing, causing pain (either emotionally or physically) holds no attraction to it.

Intelligence tests have been wildly inconclusive when applied to SCP-076-2, and no accurate result has yet been obtained. This is due to the fact that no communication is possible with the Subject when in its "rage" state. Subject has knowledge of several languages including English, but most notable is its knowledge of several dialects of ancient Sumerian, which seem to be its preferred language.

SCP-076-2 has nothing but contempt for human beings and will kill them on sight. No communication is to be attempted with the subject.

<End Log>

===

[The voice of Dr. Arthur █. █████ was provided by Christian Jasper.] [The voice of Dr. Pamela G████ was provided by Brittany Carlton.] [The voice of the interviewer was provided by @phantomancer.] [The voice of SCP-076-2 was provided by @phinnsy.] [The voice of General ██████ Bowe was provided by Lee Daniel.] [The voice of O5-█ was provided by @lapis-liberalis.]

===

[Enjoy the podcast? Consider supporting us on Patreon! Patrons get access to bonus Joke episodes, outtakes, and can even request episodes on specific SCP objects.]

[crazycatladyk]

1. Interloper - (Hawke/Fenris’ child!Inquisitor)

So I had this headcanon that I couldn’t stop thinking about so I just had to write it out.  What if Hawke and Fenris had a kid and (with some stretching of the timeline) she’s about 15 when Varric gets taken by Cassandra. So of course, this kid goes looking for her favorite dwarf and thanks to Hawke luck, ends up as the Inquisitor.

If she ever made it out of this alive, Varric was going to kill her. Although to be fair, it wasn’t her fault everything went completely to shit.  It was just her fault that she was there in the first place.  Maker, if Solea survived this nonsense with the Breach, and Varric’s anger, her parents were sure to be next in the line of things trying to kill her.  She was so screwed.

Varric’s eyes were glinting with that look that said he was holding back a tide of words.  Not normal for him, to hold back, but the reason for his reticence was also glaring at her.  The Seeker’s face was full of a mix of suspicion and anger as she glared between Solea and Varric.  Cassandra wasn’t sure what was going on, nothing new for anyone today, but she had clearly understood that something unsaid was passing between dwarf and elf.

Solea definitely deserved some of the Seeker’s ire; she hadn’t been very nice to her when they’d first met.  Not that she cared, Solea wasn’t exactly the Seeker’s biggest fan, considering her kidnapping of Varric was the only reason she was here.  The only person she cared about here was him; everyone else was just obstacles in her way.  Plus, her first meeting with the Seeker hadn’t exactly been in the best of circumstances.

Waking up with cold iron shackles latched around her wrists in a musty prison cell had sent Solea straight into a panic, her mind spiraling away from logic at the restriction.  Memories surged. It was too similar to before.  Heart racing, eyes darting, only a lifetime of practice at controlling her facial expressions, and the realization that it wasn’t templars surrounding her, had kept her from losing control.  That would not end well for anyone.

She’d kept her head bent and eyes shut resolutely until she caught her breath and was assured that her eyes weren’t glowing.  Solea thanked all the gods that she was still in the clothes she’d worn to the Conclave and that they were intact enough to keep her covered.  The lack of templars told her they didn’t know she was a mage and as Casandra began to interrogate her, Solea knew her life depended on that, along with everything else, remaining a secret.  They already blamed her enough.

The events that passed after that were mostly a blur of changing scenery, an ocean of new faces, most of them condemning, and a startling sharp pain pulsing in her hand.  The frigid iron snaking around her hands kept her on edge and reduced her ability to respond to the snarky comments of her self-defense mechanism.  That part at least she could blame on Varric, the dwarf had always been a bad influence on her people skills.  Of course, her father could take a fair share of that blame too.

Her biting wit didn’t do anything to endear her to her captor, and it wasn’t until she’d immediately volunteered to help at the first suggestion that the mark on her hand might be the solution that she’d made any progress.  Cassandra’s sharp eyes had softened around the edges slightly, clearly approving of her willingness to help, regardless of her remaining questions and suspicions and she’d even   She’d even relented to remove the shackles and Solea had thrown them away with no small amount of relief.  Breathing deeply and feeling her heart calm for the first time since she’d woken as she ignored the Seeker’s curious look.

The curiosity had only grown as they’d fought their way up the mountain, Solea’s expert use of the two daggers she’d discovered in the rubble drawing the woman’s surprise.  Dispatching demons was cathartic in a way for Solea’s growing sense of unease, although she didn’t appreciate the sensation of being appraised and evaluated with every move she made.  

She was as unsure of Cassandra as the Seeker was of her.  She wasn’t a templar but there was a similar aura about her, and it sent terror spiking down her spine.  It kept her muscles tense and she made sure to keep the Seeker in her sights at all times.  She wasn’t going to trust her just because she’d taken the handcuffs off.  They could just as easily be put back on.  As soon as she was done helping, Solea would take her first opportunity to escape.

The Seeker’s constant surprise at her skill felt a little insulting, she got that she was young but why people always assumed that meant she didn’t know how to fight never ceased to amaze her.  It was a dangerous world out there, if you couldn’t fight than you died. Solea wished that she could use the full breath of her power.  If Cassandra thought what she was doing now was impressive, she had another thing coming.

When they’d finally crested a rise in the path, they were greeted by a crackling green rift and a surrounding skirmish of demons and soldiers. The moment she spotted the familiar gleam of golden hair and heard the snapping melody of Bianca’s rapid firing, she’d almost burst into tears and run straight into a demon in her haste to reach him.

Months of worry and searching, wondering what was happening to him and he was finally here.  Varric was okay.  Only the screeching call of a wraith had interrupted her from sprinting to him right then. She’d waded into the battle with a vengeance, wielding her blades with a fury and slashing through demons as she moved swiftly through the battlefield.

The moment all the demons lay dead, a strange bald elf gripped her left hand and aimed it at the small tear in the sky.  The slowly growing pain had suddenly peaked, and she’d felt an instinctual pull connecting the magic in her palm to that in the sky.  Giving in, she’d used her own magic to foster the bond, sending energy along it and manifesting a physical pulsing green link between hand and rift.

A sound like a small Gaatlok explosion boomed out, and the rift was sealed in a burst of green tendrils that quickly disappeared.  Solea withheld a grimace at the resulting throb, shaking her hand lightly as she clenched her eyes shut.  A deep breath, she was still in control. Now was not the time to light up.

“Flicker?”  Varric’s open disbelief drew her attention to his approach.  

“Uncle Varric!” Relief at seeing him alive and unharmed flooded her and she threw herself into his arms desperately.  He immediately embraced her.  Despite being bigger than him, she fit comfortably into the hug.  For a moment, her worries eased and the knot of anxiety that had been steadily building in the pit of her stomach unraveled. Here at least, she knew she was safe. She happily inhaled the comforting leathery scent of his coat.

“Uncle?” Cassandra’s utter incredulity startled Solea into laughter as she felt the woman’s eyes darting back and forth between her and Varric.  Comparing Solea’s raven black hair to his golden locks, her piercing blue eyes to his warm hazel, her clearly elvish features to his dwarvish.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Varric drew back and like gathering storm clouds anger built in his eyes. “You shouldn’t be here. How did you- What- Why-” He was at a loss for words, another rarity for him and Solea had to bite back a smile at the thought.  Varric caught her amusement though.

“Dammit, this is serious, Solea. You shouldn’t be anywhere near here!”  He looked frantic. “Do your parents even know you’re here?”

Solea tensed, it was never good when Varric used her actual name.  She was careful to betray nothing in her face.  It was pointless though, Varric knew her far too well for her to ever successfully lie to him. Before she could even attempt to, he sighed heavily and leaned back against the crumbling remnants of a pillar, running his hands tiredly down his face.

“Shit kid, they’re going to kill me.” Varric seemed to want to say a lot more but his eyes darted over to where Cassandra was listening earnestly to their conversation and he remained quiet. He did shoot her a pointed glare that said they would be having a conversation later, in private.

“I came here to save you!” Solea explained desperately, wanting him to understand. “I wasn’t about to let you be captured and tortured without at least trying to rescue you.” She not a nasty glare over at the Seeker, who recoiled from the blazing fury in her gaze.  Solea smirked, pleased by her reaction, before turning back to Varric.

“Regardless, it doesn’t matter now.” She held up her hand, and the glowing mark that blemished her palm. “I can’t leave now. I’m the only one that can help fix this. I have to do this.”

Varric’s shoulders dropped and she could see the fight leave him as he mumbled. “Dammit. This Hero complex thing has got to be genetic.”

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

Chapter 2

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x12 – “The Zenith” (part 2)

8x12 – “The Zenith”

Because of how long this commentary is, I decided to post it as two parts. Here’s a link to the first part.

Picking up halfway through the episode, Voltron moves through the second rift.

Coran, Sam, and Slav are on the pyramid. Coran touches the two pillars of the pedestal. Only Allura and Honerva have ever been able to operate pedestals like this, but somehow, Coran can now use the pedestal too. Slav says, “If we hit [the rift] with enough energy, it should seal.”

Coran asks, “Are the Alteans in place.” I have no idea who actually answers Coran. Some ethereal, disembodied female voice says, “They’re set.” Is the Balmera talking to Coran? This is so absurd that I am literally laughing out loud.

Voltron arrives in another reality and there is yet another rift there. So, Pidge’s comment a minute ago that “the rift must lead directly to the reality Honerva’s been looking for” is now conclusively untrue. The show gives literally no explanation for why Honerva tore through all these other realities. I have never seen a story treat alternate realities like rooms of a building where you have to go through multiple rooms to get to the room you want to be in. This show treating alternate realities this way makes the whole premise simplistic and silly.

Allura gives us some sophomoric foreshadowing: “I fear [Honerva] has started a chain reaction that can never be undone.” Voltron flies through the next new rift.

The Balmeras send their energy into the pyramid, which redirects it to the rift, and Coran says, “It’s working […] holding the rift together.” Coran’s earlier stated goal wasn’t to hold the rift together but to keep the universe from collapsing. The presence of the rift was supposedly what would cause the universe to collapse, but now he’s trying to hold the rift together? Wouldn’t they want the rift to cease being open because it being open is what’s causing the universe to collapse? Also, the other realities Honerva has tore through are deteriorating rapidly, so why isn’t this main universe in a worse state of collapse than the other realities we’ve now seen since the rift has been tearing through reality here longer than the rifts in the other realities have existed?

Voltron makes it into the next reality, and Honerva’s mecha is floating there, waiting for them. She hits them with a wing-blade. Keith yells, “Countermeasures,” but I don’t know what he means by that because Voltron doesn’t do anything in response to him saying it. Then there’s a dark bubble around Voltron that Honerva created, but I don’t know what precisely it does beyond make Keith briefly grunt because she stops creating the bubble so that she can tuck her mecha into a ball and roll herself into Voltron, sending Voltron slamming into the ground. She then throws a ball of wispy black energy at Voltron. Keith yells, “Form sword” and volleys the ball back at her like they’re playing tennis. Honerva dodges out of the way. There’s a really, really large arch or some kind of structure above them that the ball hits and it explodes.

The combined form of Voltron and the Atlas does actually look cool.

Sam says, “Our current power level isn’t enough to maintain the rift.” I don’t understand why they’re holding the rift open if the existence of the rift is the problem. It feels like something is missing. Again, Coran coming here was supposed to be him working a plan to solve the collapse of the universe. But now that he’s here, his goal is holding open the rift.

Now, Coran says, “Then we’ll hold it as long as we can. Every tick gives Voltron a chance.” Something is definitely missing, or this episode is made out of different stories spliced together. What their goals are now are not the goals the episode had them speak about and act toward earlier. This is the first time that anyone has said anything about the goal being holding the rift open for Voltron. Coran’s actions are supposed to be about closing the rift, not keeping it open.

In warps several Galra ships. Krolia, who would have no idea Coran is leading this effort, calls out to him, asking what they can do to help. Remember the big war meeting at the beginning of last episode? Remember what Krolia said she was going to do? She specifically said that she was going to go get a zaiforge cannon to use in the fight against Honerva. Guess what the show has forgotten about: the zaiforge cannon. Just like the weapons’ upgrade and the needed Balmeran crystal to power it, the zaiforge cannon is now completely forgotten.

Coran tells her that they need more energy. How can Galra ships generate enough energy above what nine Balmera can? Coran says that they’re trying to “prevent the rift from expanding further.” But just a few seconds ago, they were trying to hold the rift open, not keep it from expanding. Sam had said that they didn’t have enough power “to maintain the rift” now they’re back to trying to “prevent the rift from expanding.”

This episode cannot make up its mind what is actually happening. What are these characters trying to do?

Krolia orders the Galra fleet to shoot their ion cannons at the pyramids. So, no zaiforge cannon.

Honerva flies up in the sky, spreads her wing-blades, and the tips of the wings shoot many energy blasts at Voltron. The multitude of new weapons and attacks being used in this episode is overwhelming. It makes me want to give up trying to follow the combat because there’s always going to be some new, random thing that they can do that has no set-up. Voltron again slams into the ground.

Voltron swooshes away from where Honerva’s blasts are targeted and then blasts at her in return with Voltron’s chest. They don’t hit. Honerva hits Voltron with another ball of black energy and then slams Voltron into the ground with her tail. She pins Voltron down with a couple of wing-blades and then draws energy out of Voltron.

This reality starts to disappear starting around the horizon and moving upward through the sky toward a rift in the sky that has not been there until right now. If Honerva had made it to this reality but ran out of energy and thus had to drain Voltron and use that energy to create another rift, then maybe that would explain why she was just waiting here to fight Voltron. But, Honerva is not shown creating this new rift. So, either this new rift comes out of nowhere without her having to create it, or the rift has existed the whole time but somehow was never shown and she had no reason to wait here to attack Voltron.

Honerva moves up through the rift. Voltron remains on the ground. Voltron is given time to pretend that this is the end of the heroes, the villain’s won, Voltron can’t move, the Paladins themselves are weak, and this reality has nearly disappeared. Nearly everyone – Lance, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge – makes a statement of failure or doom, but then Keith gives the rallying speech. Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery wanted Keith to be the main character, and here he is being the main character. It will always just emphasize for me how much Shiro and Allura were the leaders of this team in seasons one and two, and then both of them were demoted so that Keith could ascend to be the main character. There is nothing about Keith’s story arc though that makes this plot and this battle have anything to do with him. Plot and character in this series is, or at least has become, completely disconnected from each other.

The big rallying speech should produce an uplifting feeling in the audience, but it actually makes me feel even more exhausted.

Voltron gets up, its wings open up, and Keith orders “fire boosters” and they fly upward.

Meanwhile in the main reality. The Galra and the Balmeras have run out of energy. The pyramid starts exploding. Sam says they can’t “contain the rift,” so their goal in this moment is not to hold the rift open. Coran’s plan fails. Regardless of if his goal was to contain the rift or to keep the rift open, they’re not now able to do either. So, what was the point in all this time spent doing whatever they were doing if it’s achieved nothing? There’s a bit explosion and everything goes white, and the main reality seems to have been destroyed.

Voltron is flying toward the rift in the reality they’re in. Reality is disappearing faster than Voltron is moving, so there is no way at the depicted rate of movement that Voltron could get through the rift before reality is gone. Also, what exactly is Voltron supposed to be in as it flies toward the rift if the only part of this reality that’s remaining is the area of the rift itself? How is there still space between Voltron and the rift for Voltron to be flying through?

Everything goes black before Voltron can go through the rift.

Cut to somewhere in space. Honerva is calmly, quietly flying to somewhere. She is eventually shown to be heading toward this reality’s Daibazaal. How did she select this reality? Why didn’t she just directly go from the main reality into this reality. Why does this reality look stable even though she would have had to tear a rift into this reality to be able to get in. If the existence of a rift causes a reality to disintegrate, then why isn’t this one disintegrating? Also, why is she going to Daibazaal? She had specifically gone to the location where Altea had been in the main reality to tear out of reality into the others there. All the other realities she’s been to, she’s been at Altea. But now, in the reality she wants to go to, she’s not at Altea. If she’s been headed to a version of Daibazaal this whole time, then why didn’t she go to where Daibazaal had been in the main reality? Why hasn’t she been at other Daibazaals as she went from one reality to the next?

There is nearly no logic to anything that has happened in this episode.

On the surface of Daibazaal, Zarkon and some other Galra are sparring. Honerva arrives. She teleports out of her mecha and onto the ground outside and walks toward Zarkon. Zarkon points his sword at her and tells her to identify herself.

Honerva says, “You don’t recognize me?” Uh, she’s wearing a weird outfit that covers up her chin, jaw, forehead, and part of her nose, and she’s some distance away from him, so I’m not surprised that it’s hard for him to tell who she is. “I’ve searched beyond the stars to be here, to be with you—” and she is shown walking out of a shadow cast by the setting sun being directly behind her, obscuring her face in the glare, so there’s even more reason for him to not recognize her, making her having said “you don’t recognize me” seem silly. She finishes, “—and to be with my son.”

Zarkon now recognizes her as Honerva. I don’t know if she is delusional here and thinks this is her Zarkon and that this reality will have her Lotor, or if she’s lying to them in hoping that they’ll think that she’s their Honerva.

Cut to inside a space ship. They’re heading to Altea. It just seems so weird to have presented this whole episode like Honerva was trying to get to alternate Alteas, only to then, when she finally gets to the reality that she’s chosen, go to Daibazaal, but then now they’re going to Altea. It makes this episode feel like it’s running around in circles. Zarkon says, “I vowed to raise our son as you would have wanted. He excels in his Altean studies. Lotor has his mother’s intellect.” Of course, this is meant to contrast with how the main Lotor was subject to brutal Galra studies, as seen in 8x02 “Shadows.” It just reminds me of how Lotor was abused by his parents.

On Altea, Alfor and his wife welcome Honerva. Allura steps forward to speak, and Honerva glares at her like she wants to attack her. If an alternate reality has an alternate Zarkon and an alternate Lotor, and an alternate Alfor, why would she be surprised that there’s an alternate Allura? Allura escorts Honerva to Lotor. Here, Lotor is a little kid. He runs toward Honerva but stops short. Honerva asks him to come to her. Lotor says, “No.” Zarkon tries to tell Lotor that his mother has returned, but Lotor says, “She’s not my mother.”

I really like little Lotor. He’s something I can say that I like about this episode.

Honerva tries to convince him that “her love for [him] is that of a mother for her child.” She then turns to the same old Honerva that she’s always been, that she was long before she was poisoned by quintessence and possessed by a rift entity.

Speaking of rift entities, notice how the one in Allura is now completely ignored.

Honerva grows a bit angry, “Come to me!” Lotor stares her down and firmly says, “She is not my mother.” Zarkon tells him, “Don’t speak like that.” It’s amazing that this Zarkon just trusts a woman who shows up and says she’s his long-lost wife. In a well written story (I’m thinking of a specific one in particular that I love), if a long-lost wife showed up out of nowhere, the husband would insist on a lot of tests to figure out who she is and what happened to her. Zarkon does nothing like that because this show doesn’t have people behave rationally.

Honerva says, “Please,” and holds out her hand. Lotor rejects her, “No! My mother is dead, and you cannot replace her.” Zarkon tries to say that Lotor is just overwhelmed. Honerva glares at Lotor. Little Lotor is clearly scared since he’s holding onto Zarkon’s leg for protection. Zarkon kind of pleads with Honerva and says, “If we had some time.”

That’s not acceptable to Honerva. I guess she thought this would be instant satisfaction for some reason. This show has acted like she looked through a lot of different realities to find her perfect one, but this one doesn’t work for her. Did she only just look no further than to find a reality in which that reality’s Honerva was dead? This falling apart so quickly makes it feel like she didn’t bother really looking at all.

She says, “Time? You speak to me of time? I’ve spent lifetimes trying to get back.” What is she talking about? She hasn’t spent lifetimes trying to get here. At most, she’s spent four years. How am I supposed to take her character seriously when her dialog and actions are written in such defiance of what the show has already showed? Just because this Honerva has lived for 10,000 years doesn’t mean she’s spent that time “trying to get back.”

Also, if she didn’t mind having an alternate reality version of Zarkon and Lotor, then she shouldn’t have minded having a clone of them either. So, why did she decide on the much more difficult tearing through other realities until she got here instead of the comparatively much simpler cloning method?

She continues, “Countless worlds have fallen in the wake of my efforts to return to you. And this is how you welcome me.” She creates a ball of black energy in her hand. Maybe this is supposed to be some kind of depiction of her getting what she wants only to have it not be what she wants, but this doesn’t work like that. For that kind of development to happen in a story, the thing that the character wants has to actually be acquired. She hasn’t actually gotten what she came here for. That kind of development is born out of showing how a character has changed internally between when they set the goal for themselves and when they achieved it. But Honerva hasn’t changed. She’s still the same, mean, brutal dictator that she’s always been.

“My own child, my own husband question who I am. I have sacrificed more than you will ever know.” No, she has not! The way she’s speaking right now is exactly how an abusive spouse and/or parent talks. (Trust me, I know.) It is so frustrating that this episode is reaffirming how abusive Honerva is only to come to the end next episode and absolve her of her behavior.

There’s a sound. Surprise!twist Voltron made it through the rift. So, the depiction of the rift closing and everything going black before they could go through was all just really transparent fakery. It makes that fake moment of them not getting through absurd because of course the conflict isn’t finished yet. Voltron’s arrival does not have a sense of a new surge toward victory for the protagonists. It’s more that it leaves me wondering what took them so long to get here.

Honerva’s eyes go wide. “No! It cannot be!” Why not? They’ve followed you through other realities before this, why is their coming through one more so impossible? I mean, I guess she thought she left them absolutely powerless in the previous reality, but really. They were chasing her before now, it shouldn’t seem weird that the chase isn’t finished.

Also, given the other realities disintegrated quickly, why hasn’t this reality disintegrated? It’s not even showing any signs of disintegration. Of course, the entire premise of realities disintegrating because someone tore into them is contrived and fluctuates depending on whatever the creative team wants to be happening at any given moment.

Zarkon yells at Honerva, “You brought this abomination upon us!?” Why would he think Voltron is an abomination? He yells some more, “You are not the Empress! You are not my wife!” He yells for the guards.

Honerva scowls, “If there is no place in this universe for me, then there will be no universe at all!” She teleports away. That’s cliché. Whatever complexity the writers thought they have been adding to Honerva’s character, this scorched-earth simplicity erases all of that. She’s back to being nothing but the uninteresting 80s cartoon villain she was as Haggar in the beginning of the series. She hasn’t actually developed as a character whatsoever.

Speaking of character, notice how this episode is concluding without any connectivity of this series’ plot connecting to any of the main characters. Literally everything in this plot now is driven by Honerva and her desires. None of the main characters have any desires beyond stop-the-villain. This is a huge part of why this show has fallen apart. The executive producers and the writers absolutely lost sight of the show’s main characters. This story has become the Honerva Show. She is not compelling enough to carry the show, especially since she’s not the protagonist.

Everyone in the Altean city seems to be freaking out over Voltron landing. There’s a twinkle in the sky above Voltron. It’s Honerva’s mecha, which lands near Voltron. She can apparently call her mecha to her from millions of miles away. She teleports into her seat in her mecha. There’s an awkward split-screen stare-down between Honerva on one side and the Paladins and Shiro on the other. The lighting of the various images used for Team Voltron and the different facial expressions don’t create a sense of unity of emotion among the six of them. It again looks like they just took six random pieces of animation and used it here. The episode ends.

This episode is a disaster. It is so hard to follow what’s happening, why it’s happening, what characters are trying to do. Characters’ goals fluctuate from one scene to the next. The entire inner story of the episode is given to Honerva, making the actual protagonists kind of superfluous. This episode could have the protagonists in this episode be literally anyone, and the story would not change.

Given how much of a mess this episode is, I can totally see how people think there has to be a late-production re-edit. I definitely get a feeling that this episode is made out of parts. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a sign that there was a concentrated re-edit effort. But there are definitely times in this episode where it feels like two separate versions of a script or multiple different episodes are being stitched together. There is a severe dissonance in how things some dialog doesn’t match other dialog, how events have a discontinuity with other events.

Something went wrong with this episode’s production. 

[metalotaku-da]

shancelot/ kurancelot ending change

part 1 Final fight with lotor deviation. Prior deviation is Lance and lotor getting closer and being friends with sword training.

Lotor still snaps and lashes out at allura. He doesn't suggest galra genocide. His generals fight at his side in siciline. He forces Voltron out of the quientenncse field. And forces Voltron to split. The force of the blow hits most directly on Lance in red. Sending the lion towards one of the rifts.

The others in trying to reorientate after the forced split try to regather towards the castle, unaware at first that Lance and red are unmoving. Lance is out cold. Lotor seeing it as an act of abandonment by Voltron of the blue paladin who had tried to be calling voice of reason prior to the fight. Lotor stops red from crossing the rift. In his anger at the team he pries Lance from the lion before flinging the damaged lion at the other paladins.

Allura calls for a retreat. The others fight the order at first. Till she says if he wanted to kill Lance he would have. Not just pried him from the lion. That they will regroup and come back for him. Keith agrees with her logic. And grabs red. They get to the castle and wormhole away. To olkarion.

Just making lotor feel more secure in his decision. Lotor has axca call in a loyal commander to come to their aid. In the mean time they use the ship to close all but one rift. They also position the gate lotor built to the open rift. Allowing it to stay open yet sealed from unauthorized use.

Once on the galra warship he has Lance placed in a healing pod. Then he gets right to work as emperor. He has then start moving hq to the site of the rift. Into their original star system. He makes an announcement to the empire as a whole, colonalisies, loyal, and undeclared galra, the coalition everyone.

He declares the dissolution of their alliance with Voltron. Bringing it up first he controls the narrative, he paints the paladins as manipulated child soldiers, and himself as a victim of falling for allura's charms and manipulation as well in a bid to bring an swift end the war. That it was a naive idealism on his part  and maybe her own, and to do better for the galra and their own loyal colonies. He invites the coalition members to rejoin the empire if they wish for a realistic resolution. He shows Lance in the healing pod, an example how Voltron treats it's allies when they are no longer of use to them. Like they had tried to do to him. He understands that when his father ruled that Voltron was invaluable to those who felt loss alone helpless in their fear and hurt. That it did well as it's use as a symbol from the past to rally around and have faith in awe in like that of a child of which the stories were told too. But if they wanted a realistic peaceful future to leave the fairytale of Voltron in the past.

He ends the transmission there to focus on the immediate needs of his empire and his generals. Taking the time to find haggars notes to show them why he hurt narti. As she is not dead, she is in a healing pod in stasis in one of haggars labs. They have her moved to the same medical unit as Lance.

They find her notes on the kuron clone project. Zenthrid and ezor go to the site of the battle Keith had with the clone. Returning with a single salvaged clone and the arm Keith cutt from his clones body. He is also placed into the secure medical ward. Lotor has it staffed with his best and most loyal doctors and scientist, along with two druids loyal to him and the empire, not to haggar. He gives them access to haggars research, ask them to find away to take the memories from the destroyed arm and implant them in to the clone without anyway for an outside source to control him. He also asks that they remove Lance's memories from their battle. Just his last few hours. Nothing more.

He also starts flushing blade members from hq and rounding up loyal troops to go with him to the two hidden altean holds. He knows that haggar, allura and the blade will be targeting at least the one rommelle was from knowing it's location. He sends ezor and zenthrid ahead to prepare the alteans. He needs time to gather loyal generals and get hq in order and starting to harvest quintessence.

After 2 movements Lance is awake and out of the pod. However galra pods aren't as good as altean ones. It left him tired and weak. Lotor has him moved to a private room to nurse back his strength. Lotor visits him explains he needs to rest and eat. He will explain more once Lance is more stable. His first waking cries are for shiro. Lotor keeps a view on his tablet up at all times of Lance's room. He goes himself to ease Lance back from his night terrors.

After a few days Lance asked where the others are and what happened to shiro. The last thing he remembers is shiro fleeing with lotor.

Lotor goes with the truth, presenting it in a way to prevent anger. That rommelle wasn't a liar. She just didn't have the whole truth or picture. He presents allura's behavior in an understanding of it but it clouding her judgement. And that under their clouded judgement they fought, and they left Lance behind after the battle was lost.

Lance denies it at first calling lotor a liar. Lashing out. Lotor presents him the reports and few images of the team on olkarion. Lance is heart broken and in shock.

Then lotor begins to explain the whole shiro clone sharing haggars reports with him. Of the whole cloning project. He pulls up the feed of the surviving clone in the pod. How he has his people working aro the clock to bring back a version of shiro. The only one lotor had known. The one he cared deeply for without any corruption from haggar. . And that his own research leads him to believe the first shiro died in the battle with his father. And that he thinks Keith killed the clone they knew. Showing Lance pictures of the severed galra arm.

He holds and consoles Lance as he grieves. Only leaving him once he is sleeping once more.

He returns for when Lance wakes, explain what has go on while he has been healing. He transfers a still weakened Lance, narti and the clone to a large battle cruiser. And they head towards the altean colony. Lotor keeps Lance in the loop of his plans. Building trust and love between them. Leaving axca to run hq while he's gone.

On their way he asks Lance to help him resettle the clone shiro when he is awake and well. To explain what is happening to him. Because he will have all of the clones memories up till his arm was severed. And all of it and the truth will be highly traumatic. Lance is all for it. As a show of trust and just for his own nerves since they may face haggar outright he gives Lance his Bayard.

@shancelot-is-a-thing