#especially in missions where survivability is a bigger issue

[you-shiny-thing]

hello i heard from my friend that you replied asking about how i made damage numbers go so high. The short answer is that that number is an outlier caused by the fact that sometimes an enemy is very weak and just gets extremely high rolled into every multiplier being maximum, the average damage for that weapon is probbaly below a million per shot, although I haven't maxed it yet. The longer answer is that I make basically pure crit and damage builds with no status, utilising an Arcane called Cascadia Overcharge and a lot of archon shards to get an unreasonable amount of crit chance, fortified by Yareli's immortality to make sure I keep overshields up always. When I first started my only wish was to make yareli's passive be Valuable and that has stayed my intention to this day.

feel free to ask if there are any more questions! i like yareli so sharing info about her is fun

Ohhhh I see, thanks for the response!

I really want to try eventually utilising Yareli's passive more than I atm am, though currently I tend to mix and match both crit and status mods, since I don't yet have access to all the mods that might help with that. I looked up Cascadia Overcharge, and it seems really useful for Yareli, I'll definitely keep it in mind for when I'm able to get it!

I am curious, is there a mod you think is a must-have for Yareli? Of course different builds will want different things, but still, if you have a favourite I'd love to hear it! I've lately been trying to make her Aquablades stronger - I adore the Aquablades, they're great - and have tried out the Surging Blades Augment, but I don't think I've quite gotten the hang of it. I'm not sure if it's more efficient to simply shoot with your secondary weapon or to use the Surging Blades.

[eternitas]

They never learn

A small one shot about Ava, once again, being challenged to a duel, with his opponent making a particularly bad move.

For the sake of convenience all languages have been reduced to be in english.

"What's going on?"

"Ava got challeged to a duel!"

"Ugh, again?"

The young rain division member looked at his Vincenso rather confused. Was this a common occurance? Noticing the young members look, the older man crossed his arms, seeing the crowd around the windows growing bigger as everyone tried to get a glimpse of the outside where the two opponents would hold their duel.

"Oh, there is constantly someone who comes here, new and with a lot of pride, believing that Ava got his position out of pure nepotism. Everyone who has been here for longer than a few months knows that that is absolute nonsense, but those kinds of people usually have more ego than common sense."

Sergey grinned when he heard the lightning division member explain the situation. These duels might've been a big annoyance to Ava, but to Sergey they became a source of entertainment. There was a certain pleasure he got from watching his collegue utterly obliterate his opponents, humbling them in the process. It was far more than simple Schadenfreude.

"Move."

He looked up when he heard the familiar voice.

"Oh, hey Lorenzo, welcome back, how was the mission?"

"Boring, did someone-"

"Yup. Fernando, one of your storms."

The tall man that had just arrived clicked his tongue in annoyance and crossed his arms, leaning against the frame of the open window.

"Jackass. He probably took the opportunity of me not being around."

Sergey laughed at that.

"Wouldn't be surprised! You're usually the only one in the storm division with enough common sense to stop people like that."

"Well, guess we'll have to see who takes over his work this week. He won't survive this."

Almost on queue a familiar voice started to advertize this rounds betting pool. Sergey looked at Lorenzo.

"Wanna bet?" They never joined the official betting pool, but they liked to still make a bet. Never if Ava would win or lose and rather how long these duels would last.

"500 Euro?"

"Are you crazy? I'm short! 50!"

"100."

"75!"

"Deal."

Sergey sighed.

"Okay, so? You have an advantage, the guy is in your division."

"I wasn't at the evaluation last time, so I don't know anything about him, aside of the fact that he is annoying as all hells." Sergey chuckled at that, eyes wandering back to the two opponents. Fernando was stretching, clearly showing off his muscles as he flexed and swung his big sword that was as 40cm wide and about an adult mans height. Ava was standing completely still and watching. Only ocassionally he moved to stretch and keep his body from going dormant.

"So?" Sergey asked and waited for Lorenzos estimation.

"Mh. Fiiiivv- no wait 7 minutes."

"You think he will pose such an issue?"

"No. Something else." Curious, Sergey looked back at his colleague.

"What?"

"Like I'll give you pointers. So? What you bet against?" He pushed air out of his nose, but then looked back towards the two swordfighters. Ava seemed to keep himself nible for the fight and already studied his opponent while Fernando wanted to boast and attract an even larger crowd.

"Then I'll say 5 minutes!" The two men shook hands, just before Sergey felt a tap to his shoulder and turned his head around to Leonard, a tall blonde guy, who looked especially anxious and signed in italian [I have a bad feeling about this.]

Sergey pat his best friends side.

"Don't worry. These things always end the same." Even if he said it to calm his best friend down, he knew that Leo wasn't particularly worried about Ava.

Slowly Avas patience was running out. How much did this guy want to stall? His eyes wandered up towards the open windows where he spotted Sergey and locked eyes with him. He signed him [Time?] and got signed back [16:48].

This is ridiculous.

"Fernando, could we please get on with this duel, I would like to be done with this before 5 o'clock." Ava heared a few people give a soft "oooh!" as if he had just deeply insulted his opponent, when what he said was 100% genuine. Fernando frowned and almost demonstratingly cracked his bones, moving his head from side to side. How pretentious.

"Yeah, sure. Didn't think you were so gung ho about getting your ass beaten, but sure! Let's give the people a show!"

"I'd rather end this quickly. I have a meeting with Captain Squalo." he said, watching Fernando wrap his hand around his big sword. Ava remained unmoving.

"Don't worry, I'll send your remains to him on time!"

Fernando was definitely quick, despite how heavy the weapon must've been, but it was still a big blade that Ava could sidestep-

Just as Avas foot touched the grass again he strongly pushed down to jump further back. His eyes were focused on the intricate swirls carved into the metal. Even if he had dodged the initial swing, they must've created a strong enough current that would've sucked him back in if he hadn't widened the distance.

"Not bad! You're the first one to dodge it right away! But that doesn't mean you can escape!"

He moved in quickly again, closing their distance and swinging his sword, using quick changes in his grip position to change the swing trajectory. Not bad. But predictable. Ava managed to dodge them all with just enough distance to not be sucked into the created vortex, when suddenly he felt a strong pull, way stronger than before and relaized he wouldn't be able to dodge this one. Instantly he yanked at his swords scabbard, the loop to his belt ripping, before he slightly drew his blade out and blocked the big sword with the steel.

"Ya think I'm that weak?! That the moment someone got behind the trick, I've run out of options?!"

Can't he just shut up and fight?

Repeatedly Fernando pulled Ava back in, forcing him to block with his sword and be pushed around due to the difference in their strength.

Up on the first floor a commotion began as people started to make space and mumbled, some even hushing a name and title. Sergey looked up as the people behind him quickly made space. Before he even saw his Captain the face of a blackhaired young man came into his view, leaning over the edge of the window.

"Isn't that, Ava?!" Yamamoto asked in japanese as he watched his mentors younger brother get pushed around the field. Squalo stood behind him, observant and calm. The rain division was so used to this whole ordeal, that it at most got annoyance from it's members and excitement at best. Nobody explained anything for the first seconds, before Sergey took pity on the confused young man.

"Ava gets regularly challenged to duels, because people think he got his position due to being the captains younger brother."

"But Ava is a great swordsman, he's really strong!"

"Ding ding ding! Exactly! That's why the only people stupid enough to try and fight him are those that need to be severely humbled. It's almost an initiation ritual for the new batch of recruits. Watch one of your colleagues get absolutely destroyed in front of everybody by the tiny shark."

"What's wrong, Ava?! All ya do is just defend! Are you that scared?!" Fernando yelled with another swing at the other, forcing Ava to widen their distance again. However Fernando didn't follow him anymore to pressure him. He seemed to get agitated. Just as planned. His ego demanded more.

"Will you properly draw your sword already and fight back?! I'm gonna look like an asshole, if I beat you without you attacking me too!"

"Shut up and just fight Fernando! We don't have all day!" Someone from the sidelines yelled towards him. It was someone from the Rain Division too.

"Ya really don't have any comrades here, huh? Not surprised, considering you are Squalos baby brother."

This again. Ava took the opportunity to get up properly and check for the snapped loop. Luckily he still had one he could use, but it was unfortunate-

"Honestly, don't even know why everyone's idolizing the guy anyway, he lost to a fucking middleschooler and tried to off himself in absolute shame! Honestly you're both pathetic. I'll go for him next! Then you two can at least reunite in hell!"

Immideatly the entire area grew absolutely silent. It was as if someone had already died. Squalo was the first to break the silence with a deep inhale and exhale, followed by Sergey sighing disappointed.

"Well, there we go."

"So, this will be over in about a minute." added Lorenzo.

Confused Yamamoto looked between the two swordsman and Lorenzo, then back at the fighting field and back at Squalo.

"Wait, what's going on?"

"Fernando just insulted the captain. And Ava is known for that being one of the few things you should NOT say in a fight against him."

Fernando yelled again.

"Go on! I'll even give you one freebie, goldfish!"

"Ooooh- yep, he's dead now." Sergey said once more as Lorenzo pinched the bridge of his nose. He had specifially told the others not to use that on Ava.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath, waiting for Avas next move. Just as Fernando got impatient and wanted to yell again Ava moved, carefully reattaching his scabbard to his side.

"I see. Very well then."

Ava drew his sword, slowly and deliberately.

"No turning back now."

In an instant it was as if the air pressure had trippled, as if all of a sudden a cold gust of wind straight from the peaks of the alps swept over the entire area.

Murder intent.

That slight moment of perplexity was enough to make an opening for Ava. As if he appeared out of thin air Ava was in front of Fernando ready for his swing. He could barely move his big sword into a block, but as the Katana hit at slight an angle a weird vibration seemed to go through Fernandos body. His muscles were suddenly not responding anymore and he abandoned his weapon to jump back to distance. What the hell was that?!

"What's wrong? Running away?"

Up at the window Sergey gave a chuckled "Oooh!". Now it was getting interesting! The surrounding members, especially from the Rain Division had now relaxed and were eagerly watching the fight, cheering Ava on.

Out of a weapon it was now Fernando who was dodging, though to anyone familiar with swordfighting it was clear that Ava wasn't seriously chasing him and more shooing him around a bit, leading him back to his weapon that Fernando picked up with still some trouble. When the blades crossed, Ava striked before the big sword could gain any momentum and overpower him. He always swung at a slight angle that pushed every attack of his opponent back, but-

Sergey frowned.

"Why is he stalling?" he wondered loudly. With a hunch as to what the reason might be Lorenzo looked over to Squalo, who had been watching this entire time without saying a single word. It was as if he was completely turned to stone.

Fernando grew more frustrated with every blow that he tried to land and ultimately got interrupted in. This guy was not just half his weight and size, but also half his fucking age! There was no way that this child could already have such skill and strength! This BABY and the clown with his stupid needle were supposedly stronger than him?!

A grunt of anger left him as he swung again, this time he wasn't blocked, but merely redirected as Ava used his swords blade like a slide to guide the others weapon away. His opponent lost footing as the sword dug itself into the ground and next thing he knew he got a kick to his face that send him staggering back. Cursing under his breath he held his face, blood running out of his nose and a broken lip. This fucking brat! Ava actually moved away from the others sword.

"Pick it up. Or are you scared?"

"You-!" Fernando growled deeply and ran to pick up his sword. Both had clear rage inside of them and were ready for a final confrontation when the loudest voice of all cut through the air.

"VOI! AVA!"

It got instantly quiet again, Sergey pressing his hands against his ears as Squalo pushed Yamamoto aside to be properly visible in the window. Then he stretched his arm out, thumb up, before in the next moment he turned the thumb down like a roman emperor at the colloseum. Once he was sure the order was registered he pulled back from the window and left without another word. Disgruntled Lorenzo sighed.

"Not like we're already short on members."

"Squalo!" Yamamoto called out, ready to follow the captain before his curiosity pulled him back to see what Ava would do now.

Fernando had frozen the moment he heared Squalos voice. A deep part inside of him had wished the Varia captain would've called his brother back, but now he knew he had made a mistake. When they had tried to stop him he should've had listened. And now he had to survive. At least survive! Then he could still get the hell out of this place that bred nothing but monsters!

He leaned against his blade that was still halfway stuck in the ground, trying to get his body to calm down while Ava slowly lowered his stance, every muscle tense and both hands on his blades handle. what followed next was hard to see with the naked eye, but those who realized what Ava was doing could follow his movement.

In an instant he had passed Fernando, stricken once through his blade and his torso. And yet there was not a single sign of anything having happened except for a stain of blood from Fernandos chest. Ava had pierced his heart. His opponent stood there absolutely unmoving.

With a swift swing of his sword Ava rid his blade of any stray blood and then reached for a handkerchief to wipe the metal clean before he sheathed his katana. Yamamoto blinked.

"Well that's done now- Fuck! 11 minutes?!"

"Pay up, bitch."

Sergey grumbled before Takeshi turned to him.

"Wait, what happened? Ava clearly cleanly struck him!" Sergey seemed surprised at that. He had expected Yamamoto to realize what had happened, but then with a serious tone he spoke.

"Then there is only one explanation, right? It was level." Sergey said simply and passed the young man, fishing for his wallet.

"You're impossible!"

"You were the one that wanted to bet. Pay up."

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

Yamamoto noticed movement next to him and only then realized that next to him stood a guy almost 2 meter tall. He looked pale, hand in front of his mouth as if he was about to throw up in horror and disgust, even shaking a tadbit. What was wrong?

"Leo! Let's go buddy. Ya don't have to see that." Sergey said and the tall guy just nodded and turned away from the window, to follow his friend. Yamamoto looked back out the window only for his breath to hitch in his throat.

So that's what Sergey meant when he said "it was level"

Ava had struck the other man completely level to the ground in one clean cut, that it had taken almost a whole minute for the body to fall into two pieces, as did the sword. They had been cleanly cut. Yamamoto swiftly looked away. If he had stared for longer the sight of the spilled organs and the blood- the sight of a corpse would've made him sick.

Yamamoto had known from their one spar that Ava was insanely strong. But this was the first time he had realized something that he prior to that had dismissed, because they were both swordsman and in his eyes sportly rivals.

Ava truly was the sharks brother.

[distortedkilling]

Mahito's value in cursed spirits I feel like goes through its own evolution. Something I've mentioned in another post but I still have thoughts on.

While with his gaggle of fucks, he's much more influenced to keep in mind the bigger picture beyond himself. The understanding of 'sacrifice for the greater good or evil' in terms of the 'bust Sukuna out' plan is one he wholly has no issue with. He'll die for a cause, no biggie, right? He reflects the ugliest parts of humanity back upon them but he gets along with curses who embrace their true nature. A willingness to be awful and be all the things Mahito is born from - the only things he knows how to be. Even if for the majority of his role he only acts upon the hatred and the satisfaction he gets out of generating negativity (hatred, fear, mistrust, disgust especially) in others. It isn't until his end that he finally experiences what he has always been suspicious of (betrayal) and what he has always instilled in the majority of others (fear).

To circle back though, the willingness to die for a cause is on the table. Especially when the others are present and willing to do the same. His confidence that his squad can handle surviving Gojo I think highlights his regard for the others. This isn't in the sense of, 'oh, Mahito is baby girl - so much softer than we think!' because no, he's an awful evil little fuck. But even with all his fuckery, it's a shining moment that he has enough regard about some others.

And in addition to that, while I think Mahito sort of regards the loss of his chucklefucks in his own way, I don't think it's in the same sentimental manner humans do. It's more of an awareness that guides him into doubling down. The plan to get Sukuna is done with, tossed out and trashed. His gang is dead (save for Geto). The disaster curses all instilled in him a confidence that he was their best chance of turning the tide and giving curses the advantage in the world again.

Only now he has no bumper rails to guide him down the alley. Mahito is still young, he's selfish and impulsive - most of all, he's hungry for his own growth. To understand the entirety of his own soul. And I think that's where things get really interesting. The plan becomes becoming the best/worst curse he can be in order to succeed. It means going down a new path suddenly, without restraint, to accomplish the mission. There's nothing he can do about his crew being dead now, but he can become more. Just like they knew he could be.

I'm not going to sit here and say it's a selfless gesture on Mahito's behalf, that would be silly. But I think there's an interesting acknowledgement within it of his evolving maturity as he grows into himself very quickly.

In a way, Todo's speech to Itadori on lingering over the dead and how it can be insulting to them is something that can be applied to Mahito, too. Even if he could feel agony over the matter, it would still be disrespectful to the efforts vs just getting the fucking job done.

Then you also adopt further parallels into Mahito's growth such as:

I get the difference between s1 frame being domain-related, but the way the scenes are styled with Mahito looking up and Itadori pursuing down I really love. Because on one hand, Mahito is realizing an 'oh shit' moment because he knows his disadvantage (surprised by Itadori and because of that awareness regarding what is about to happening with Sukuna). Whereas on the other, he's grown more confident in his abilities to combat Itadori. Domain be damned - it won't be a repeat of last time.

I think Mahito, despite his youth, was put in charge specifically because of the type of curse he is. Not just human born and therefore extraordinarily potent to their enemies. More specifically, because they knew if anything happened to them they could count on Mahito's nature and desires, left to run rampant, to get things done.

And to be fair, they were right. He did. He succeeded in a lot of ways. I mean that both with the gang, on his own, and even after Geto slurped him up just by extension of Mahito's technique. In the end, curses were victorious even at the cost of all of them.

Mahito may have laughed and been thrilled at the brink of death in s1, but after his growth and truly being pushed he felt the same fear he has instilled in so many. He discovered the value of his own life and purpose and wanted to see it through. His acceptance to die for this cause was one that still existed, it was just more potent when the crew was alive. It was especially more potent when it was the idea of, "hey, we won! Sukuna is out! And now he's killing us, whatever, we did our job." Loss became much harder to face the reality of when it came from someone you hate (Itadori), then when it came from someone you liked but could never fully trust (Geto). As well, the loss of what had been just recently gained - the true understanding of himself.

I think it's very easy to consider Mahito as, "Evil Fuck" because that's what he is. But there's nuances to all things, and I feel like not acknowledging the bare minimum of that - as in, curses have souls, discredits their characterization and the entire point of them/their personalities.

[everbrilliantheartbreaker]

5, 8, 18!

5. What game would you recommend to someone new to the series?

on one hand, I feel very underqualified to answer this because I haven't played any of the older games, so I don't exactly have the most well rounded opinion. on the other hand, though, I got into FE through one of the new games! so, while I've been told by friends that it plays a lot differently than older FE games, I do think that Three Houses is a fun way to get people interested in the franchise (and also in RPGs, which I also have never really played but now would like to). the game mechanics are neat, I think a lot of the characters are really fun and interesting, and I think the lore and plot are super fascinating. AND it succeeded at making me want to play every other FE game I can get my hands on (*stares at Path of Radiance* some day...)

8. Least favorite lord/protagonist?

Manna out here tryin to get me sent hate mail again, I haven't played very many FE games yet, so I don't really know most of the lords beyond names + faces, but right now my least favorite lord is Edelgard,,, I think she's a really interesting character and an excellent villain and I definitely don't hate her, but the more I reflect on 3H and CF specifically, the more she frustrates me. I could write a whole thing about it but my biggest issue is how much she just. lies and twists everything to suit her narrative. especially the way that she lies to Byleth, who she supposedly loves. there's a lot about how CF treats Byleth that I don't like, and this is one of my bigger issues.

as for protagonists...Shez is probably my least favorite so far. and it's not even that I dislike them; I actually thought that they were an interesting contrast and opposite to Byleth and I really like their relationship with Dimitri specifically. I just don't feel a huge amount of affection for them. granted, their case is not helped by the fact that I. really fucking hate 3 Hopes. I despis e that game it made me so angry. so unfortunately for them my freshest memories of them are from my least favorite route in the game, wherein they are partially (unintentionally) responsible for the reason the route sucked (although the actual reason is bad writing). like I said I don't dislike Shez tho. they're alright and they deserved a better game (everyone in 3 Hopes did).

18. How do you tend to play Fire Emblem? (es. casually, doing Ironman runs, playing it like a visual novel)

hard + classic full recruit perfectionist run lmao i.e. I try to recruit all characters, complete all paralogues, finish as many support chains as possible, and finish main missions with as many surviving NPCs as possible (VW Fort Merceus kicked my ass this time around tho and half the Almyran forces died :/ ) I would kind of like to go back to a more storyline-oriented recruit style tho. I full recruit because I can't bear to kill anyone I don't have to and I still have a lot of supports + end cards I haven't gotten; but, for instance, the first time I played Golden Deer I only recruited Ashe, and the first time I played Black Eagles I only recruited a small group of characters like Felix, Sylvain, and Lysithea. I don't like killing characters, but I do think it would be a nice change to go back to a smaller recruit group where I could focus on completing a set number of supports and sort of play out a storyline with them like I did with those two routes.

[mrslittletall]

GREAT news, I have been thinking about Kina for the past six months (maybe? it's around that) and am fully willing to put headcanons and some general thoughts in your inbox.

So you know how Maki's the Royal Blade? I don't think it's ever mentioned if she shares the rank, and she sure does seem to be left behind on a lot of missions. There's a decent chance Maki got promoted and just left her behind, and I think about that a lot.

You ever think about how much it might suck to have your brother, who might very well be your only currently surviving family member, constantly go off on deadly, top secret missions where you don't know if he's injured or dead or even what he's doing until he returns? I do. I think about that a lot.

Also, Yin. Imagine your brother's out on a top secrer mission, where you have no clue what he's doing or why, and when he finally comes back he just drops a child on you and tells you to babysit while he goes to risk his life again. And he returns with a heavily injured leg, to boot.

I think a lot of her general issues are rooted in worry for her brother, and I think that leads her to be clingier towards Maki, and that leads him to taking more missions Away so he can get more breathing room, and that in turn leads her to be clingier, on and on ad infinitum.

On things that aren't me showing up in your inbox uninvited to ramble about mantis family angst, uhh.

I think she's a chinese mantis. Big bastard, would probably be bigger if she lived in an area with better hunting grounds.

Maki bought her the bandanna to celebrate their first week as adventurers, and she cherishes the thing like nothing else.

I like to think that if you could get her to stay still for it, she'd absolutely melt into being pet. Fan of physical affection, absolutely horrible at getting close enough to people to be offered that physical affection.

Oh my god, that is absolute gold! I love that she might have abandonement issues and it is especially bad around her brother, her probably only living relative. At the same time, she barely gives him room to breathe which makes the whole thing even worse. And yeah, Yin. Also when you read the lore books, you learn that normally bugs that don't pupate early are failed to gain their mind and Yin pretty much came out as an adult, so Kina had reason to believe it would be a hopeless case. And sorry that I bring this up, but the thing with his leg made me think about a Youtube comment about Maki ^^ Maki: "Watch me inflict 6 damage on every enemy." Also Maki: "Ow, my leg!"

[sethmacenzie]

Spinner time travel quirk headcanons

For @whoatimetravel-main  whose answer to this post from @oldphone-whodis  my tumblr forgot to tell me and I saw by sheer luck.

 So thing is I have like a lot of different headcanons for different time travel versions, but all have in common that Spinner is not letting it happen again the same way, especially the death of Twice and Magne (even though they weren’t close).

And Spinner still wants to destroy hero society and be with his friends and wants them to succeed. Especially Tomura. And of course he does not want AFO to take over Tomura.

 Version 1: only Spinner gets time travel powers and it’s pretty much the original post base (some variations would be a little earlier, so Spinner can stop some other stuff from happening, but all versions where the League consists of already wanted criminals start this way.

Basically: Spinner can go two different ways, either he tells them, hopes they buy into it by using knowledge he should not have or he does not tell them and instead just tries to play it saver by reducing the damage the league gets, aka Twice and Magne alive, Compress keeps his arm etc.

While I do find the he tells them and convinces them interesting and a lot of fun it does lead to major changes in the story if the League can just ask Spinner: how did this go, he tells them, they do it differently and hope for the best.

But Spinner is the kind of guy who probably played enough games where one decision can change the entire outcome of the game, so he’d know that this could lead to way worse consequences.

So I think he’d play it safe and go with sticking to what he knows and only making sure his friends survive.

Especially because Tomura pre AFO imprisonment would still be under AFOs influence and saying something against AFO could lead to Spinner’s death, so while I think Twice and Toga would be on board right away with time travel person, Giran, Compress and Dabi could be persuaded through logic arguments, Tomura is the biggest issue to convince here, so Spinner would probably go and play it safe.

Even though I’d love the comedy of Spinner trying to get everyone to believe him. And I can see Spinner telling Dabi, Compress even Giran the truth, he’d probably be safe for them to keep the secret, the chances of Twice or Toga finding out and being distrustful (more so Toga, than Twice, I think he’d understand why such curtail information wouldn’t be given to him) are too high. And of course Dabi is a bit of a wild card in regards to his own goals.

So Spinner plays it safe: he doesn’t tell anyone and just tries to change things a little bit. The Forrest Training Camp and the Hideout ark stay the same (I know OP likes Mustard, and it’s really screwed up that this middle schooler villain just vanishes, but I just have to little knowledge about him to include him and I’d say unless that changes (bnha stand chapter 314) neither does Spinner, so he probably would let the 3 M get arrested.

And he’d definitely let AFO get imprisoned, so that Tomura is finally free of him.

He goes with them to the Overhaul meeting and stops Magne (and therefore Compress) to attack Overhaul, saving them. But he was still an ass, so the Overhaul ark remains relatively the same.  

So the next ark with big problems for the League would be the Meta Liberation Army which is where I am a bit torn like Spinner probably would be. Should Giran and Tomura get to keep their fingers? Issue being: if this goes down differently the outcome could be catastrophic for everyone. Tomura needs to win against Re-Destro (and unlock his childhood trauma) and so do Twice and Toga need their power up. So I’d guess that Spinner would let it slide because getting involved could mean a way worse outcome than 7 lost fingers.

Which leads to the currently biggest problem Spinner will have to face: the fight against the pro heroes and Twice death and maybe getting Tomura to not get surgery so that AFO can’t take over.

I’d say this would be a huge moment of Spinner going: this is the point where he’ll have to overdo everything because the outcome is too bad. Current standpoint: Toga missing, Compress arrested and in bad health, Maschia arrested, Twice dead, Tomura’s body got taken over by AFO, their forces lost.

So this would for me be the point where he decides to change everything he can to not let that happen, because saving that point seems useless for this outcome.

My personal favorite would be to get Twice to clone EVERYONE form the PLF and have them at the hideout but actually relocate everyone elsewhere so that the heroes are busy fighting the clones (we saw what the Re-Destro clone alone did). He would hate to find a way to hide this information from Twice as long as possible, until the last moment Hawks is around, then be fast of cloning everyone.

I’d say Spinner made himself a questlog for this, a to-do-list if you will, so in order to finish this mission he has to do the following:

Gets Hawks not to find out about the clones until it’s too late. Get the League into safety. Make sure Twice is as far away as possible from Hawks. Kill Best Jeanist probably, I mean he is just lying around in a bag in the corner right now. Get Tomura to not get into that tank. But have AFO believe that he does? Last thing would definitely be the hardest part but also might be the moment where he tells Tomura that time travel was involved, because by now they are actually friends and Tomura was out of AFO grasp for a while.

And of course to still stick close to the raid and the heroes getting Ujiko to knock him out and keep the heroes busy while the League gets out of there he’d need something to put into that tank. Twice clones would not be able to hold it up obviously, maybe Sceptic’s can?

Or Spinner forgoes the whole thing and just tells Tomura and the League just blows the hospital up themselves before getting to Tartarus to kill AFO before anything worse happens.

This is the moment for me where I go in like 50 different directions of what could happen.

Spinner could tell everyone about the future he stopped. Spinner could have everyone be complelty elsewhere and them just watching the heroes loose their shit because everyone is a clone.

The PLF having survived could go full on war against the heroes, which would probably not end well either.

Spinner might tell Dabi that he knows who he is and wants to help take down Endevour and they could make it bigger than what actually happened. I am sure Compress would help putting up a show and Toga and Tomura would be on board of: shitty father deserves to go down.

There are so many possibilities for this.

Other than that and other Version of Time Travel would be either completely different times, picturing baby Spinner trying to get to baby Tomura before he kills his family or stopping Dabi from burning himself, teenager Spinner straight up getting the gang together early, kidnapping Toga before she snaps and showing up at the bar with Kurogiri letting them stay (Oboro liked strays too), maybe it’s a groundhog day situation of the day of the raid and he has to figure out how to save Twice from Hawks and Tomura from AFO.

And then there are the versions of Time Travel where it’s not only Spinner but other people get it too.

Like every one of the League getting time traveled and now there have some meeting before everything goes down just sitting there like: now what? And Toga not stopping to hug Twice. Maybe ever person I currently see joining as a major player in the finale battle against AFO getting time traveled and they have to figure out how to not let that happen, with Shoto going all out trying to find his brother and talk to him, Uraraka reaching out to Toga and Deku knowing he has to save Tomura but not knowing how to in this timeline.

My personal favorite: Spinner and Bakugo being the only people who time travel and they have to work together to stop this whole mess and the whole thing just being an entire comedy because they keep in check with each other, planning out who does what like: If you take down Overhaul, we’ll take down the Doctor and his Nomus – We’ll have to wait until Daku wins this fight and unlocks this power otherwise it won’t work, -I forgot Toga can’t use quirks yet. Like the worst version of a buddy comedy you can think of.

[floralovebot]

I read your timmy/riven/helia headcanons and I LOST IT hahahaha I love it! I just got curious about that sad headcanon you mentioned about helia (I think about his past?)? Like you have said, like other people I project into him a lot so he's my favorite and wanted to know about that hc cuz now I can't stop thinking about it 🙊

AHH A FELLOW HELIA STAN MY BELOVED!!! HI!!!!

okay so,, i'd like to preface this with a couple things. 1. it's based off of a rewrite that i've had in my head since i was like, 10 and i'm never actually gonna write/post it kldhglahdgl. 2. i want to explain why i came up with this backstory and headcanon! cause ik anyone who isn't a helia stan or at least really likes him, probably won't understand (not in a gatekeepy way but in a "this character is so underdeveloped that if you haven't paid attention to every little thing about them you probably won't immediately catch on to the thought process behind this" kind of way).

So,,,, oh dear okay first no one is allowed to judge me. if you judge i'm gonna cry >:(

When I was trying to come up with Helia's backstory, a lot of different ideas went through my mind. Naturally being a Helia stan, I first went with the "he grew up at red fountain" route! But then I realized I wanted something with a little more umph, and as I realized certain things about him, growing up at RF (red fountain) didn't immediately make sense? At least,, not completely... You see, Helia is a major perfectionist (we've covered this in past lessons) and a major escapist. Something that stands out about him though, is that everyone we've seen that knew him for a long time (ie family members or childhood friends) are extremely supportive of him and understanding of mistakes (even bigger ones).

Helia's escapism has a direct connection to his perfectionism, ie if he makes a mistake, no matter how small or inconsequential, he freaks out and leaves. Something that makes him slightly different from other, similar characters though, is that his perfectionism only has to do with himself (usually). He doesn't worry about what other people think of him, only about the guidelines he's set for himself. So, if he makes a mistake that crosses those guidelines or rules, that's when he gets upset and leaves. (I honestly think him leaving RF for art school the first time could've been a product of this, though that's heavily just thinking and not canon).

While anyone can be a perfectionist and escapist without any big reason, I really wanted to explain why Helia is like that. His issues in particular seem more based on fear and invisible rules than just feeling inadequate (like some of the other escapists in the group... ahem bloom ahem). One thing that really stood out to me, was the arc in the comics where he left the school for a third time because he made a mistake on a mission that almost cost Brandon and Codatorta their lives. He let emotions and personal life get in the way of what he was doing and that allowed someone to mess with their ship, causing a malfunction that almost killed them. Helia, instead of trying to figure out what happened, immediately resigned from the school because "a good specialist wouldn't have done that". He places these almost impossible standards on his entire life, both personal and work-related. And again, while that can happen to anyone, the level he does this at is so much higher than the other characters (even the royals who are notorious for doing this).

I want to preface this next bit with I'm a dumb bitch who's obsessed with apocalyptic media. So like,, the backstory I came up with is that his planet basically got overrun with monsters born from wild/dark magic and that most people died in the chaos. This happens when he's very young and he only survives because he had adults taking care of him. Eventually, he would get separated from his family and come across another group of survivors are willing to bring him along. He ends up bonding with a young woman who he essentially uses to replace his mom (cause yknow,, kids need parents and all). At some point, they're looking for food or medical supplies and he makes a mistake (likely making a loud noise or something) that draws monsters to them. The young woman saves him and in the process sacrifices herself. Cue survivor's guilt that transforms into extreme perfectionism. After this, he would run away and eventually Codatorta finds him because specialists were sent to find survivors. Cue him growing up at RF where he can get the proper training but he's too young to go on missions. This sparks the perfectionism and starts the escapism. (Not even gonna pretend that this backstory isn't heavily inspired by tlou and twdg.)

I also wanted a reason for why he's so heavily protective of Saladin, a very strong wizard who's been in countless wars and by all means, doesn't need protection. Like,, obviously they're family so duh. But idk,, his protectiveness of Saladin tends to overshadow his own life (for instance in the comics I mentioned earlier, Helia only comes back to RF because he had to help save Saladin and in the process gives up his job as an artist). I wanted to explain why Helia is such a good specialist but is also constantly trying to get away from that life (ie he grew up there and doesn't want to live in war constantly). I also wanted to explain why Helia seems so unphased when things happen! Like he just,, he shows emotions, but they're so subdued compared to everyone else.

OKAY ANYWAY,, jeez this is long already (and I condensed it... I have an entire google doc that explains all of this in a much more eloquent way). The trivelia headcanon was about Helia feeling comfortable sharing these things with them. He would bond with Riven specifically over not knowing/having family. Over the years, Helia would share just the tiniest little tidbits here and there about what happened (this apocalypse coincided with the Domino war and as such no one helped them. the Magix news centers kept pushing this issue aside to the point where a lot of people don't even know it happened) and how he feels about it. Like I've said before, Helia has a hard time talking about his life and especially his emotions. So Riven and Timmy (and Flora :) ) would really be the only ones who get to hear these tidbits. Eventually, Helia would have to go back because there are rumors that the monsters are trying to spread to other planets. Timmy would be his main source of communication when he's there as the others wouldn't be allowed to go (since they aren't native to the planet and could be in danger with the wild magic around [.. things happened to the first specialists that got sent... not good things]). (Also not gonna lie that the monsters are heavily inspired by the aliens in a quiet place.. In the google doc, I have an entire section dedicated to the monsters alone alkgdldajg).

.... this is so long.........

[makerkenzie]

Sansa learns the limits of Family.

An idea that keeps coming up in Sansa’s arc is what I describe as: “Family is not destiny.”

Does Sansa love her family? Of course. She loves them, she misses them, she will always regret not having more time with her mother and Robb. 

Westeros is a setting in which politics are tangled up with family dynamics. A noble family represents power as much as it represents love. Members of noble families, especially children, are treated as assets of their Houses before they’re seen as individuals. Examples: any noble marriage ever, fosterage, squiring, service, hostage-taking, and expectations of combat service. 

Sansa knows this; she’s lived it. Her marriage to Joffrey would’ve represented an alliance with House Baratheon and, because we’re talking about the royal family, it would’ve given House Stark much more influence on the governance of the realm. Her being kept as hostage was meant to affect her brother’s political ambitions. Her marriage to Tyrion was supposed to put House Stark’s assets under the Lannisters’ control. She grew up with Theon as a de facto sibling but his purpose in the Starks’ household was to keep his father under control. 

In this system, the family determines the individual’s reputation. Individuals from more powerful Houses are generally treated with more deference and generosity than those from poorer and lower-positioned Houses. From the perspective of a noble child, individuals from the “right” Houses are to be trusted and those from the “wrong” Houses are to be regarded with the most uncharitable assumptions.

In the culture of Westerosi nobility, one is viewed by one’s surname, first, and one’s actions...later. 

As the child of a Paramount-level family---especially, having grown up with loving parents and affectionate siblings---it would be understandable if Sansa bought into this culture. Her own mother’s House motto is “Family, Duty, Honor.” It would be understandable if Sansa were inclined to conflate family ties with one’s sense of duty and honor, and assume everyone else did the same. 

Having been forcibly separated from her family for so long, while kept hostage by people who don’t care to make her feel safe and welcome...it would be understandable if Sansa became more entrenched in the belief of surname as a representation of character.

She’s going in the opposite direction.

Sansa has interacted enough with the royal family to see that they are not a monolith. The non-viability of her marriage to Tyrion is a separate issue from his behavior. When Aunt Lysa asks, Sansa recalls Tyrion as...kind. 

She knows Podrick Payne is related to Ilyn Payne and she doesn’t hold that against him. He’s a nice kid trying to survive in the Red Keep and he didn’t ask to be born into the same House as the official headsman. 

In an early chapter in AGOT, King Robert is making a loud drunken scene at Cersei, and Jaime is the only man there who tries to get him to settle down. Even after Robert knocks him on his ass, he keeps his cool. This is in Sansa’s POV. Contrast that with Ser Barristan, and Renly, and oh, all the other men at the feast who could have intervened, and didn’t. 

When Joffrey was having his Kingsguard knights beat her, Tyrion was the one who put a stop to it, and Sandor Clegane--a kingsguard at that point--used his cloak to cover her. This happens in front of the court in the throne room. Tyrion’s move is the bolder one but Sandor’s kindness is still meaningful. By putting that cloak on Sansa’s body, he is quietly showing the court that he sympathizes with the Stark girl, not the king. Later, he rescues Sansa from the mob in Flea Bottom, and not on Joffrey’s orders. She remembers Sandor coming to her aid. Meanwhile his older brother is leading the Lannister troops’ invasion of the Riverlands. Sandor is nothing like his brother and Sansa knows that. 

She knows Tyrion is not like Cersei. Tommen is not like Joffrey. Podrick is not like Ser Ilyn. Jaime is not like the other Kingsguard. Sandor is not like his brother, not like the other Lannister vassals, not like the other Kingsguard, either. 

Either way, Littlefinger takes her out of the Red Keep and up to Aunt Lysa and Cousin Robin at the Eyrie. It’s the first time she’s been around blood relations since her father was executed. First of all, Aunt Lysa starts talking about marrying Sansa to Robin, which, first of all, yuck, and second: because Lysa is the only adult family member presently available to Sansa, she’s not really in a position to refuse. Anyway, because Sansa can’t catch a break from people trying to plant their flags on her ass, Littlefinger starts molesting her. Aunt Lysa, being the nearest equivalent to a parent in Sansa’s life...treats her like a homewrecker.

Aunt Lysa was born into House Tully, the one whose motto is “Family, Duty, Honor.” When she sees her new husband behaving inappropriately with her teenage niece, she tries to toss the girl out the Moon Door. Is that what Family-Duty-Honor looks like? Granted, Lord Hoster fucked up with Lysa pretty hard, but there’s no need to take that out on your sister’s daughter. 

Now this much is bad enough: Sansa’s own aunt is trying to kill her out of jealousy. There’s that. The much bigger issue is where the conversation goes as Littlefinger talks Lysa down from the literal and figurative ledge. She mentions that she killed her first husband, Hand of the King Lord Jon Arryn, using the poison Littlefinger gave her. She wrote to Catelyn, at Littlefinger’s instructions, and told her the Lannisters killed Jon. 

If we recall: Ned and Cat spent all of AGOT trying to prove the Lannisters killed Jon Arryn. The fallout from that investigation started the War of Five Kings and cost Ned his life. Because of that fallout, Sansa was held hostage at the Red Keep and forced into marriage with Tyrion. Because of that fallout, Cat and Robb have just been murdered at the Red Wedding and Arya is off who knows where doing Seven only knows what. Far as Sansa knows, her brothers Bran and Rickon were killed by Theon Greyjoy and she has no way of knowing Arya is even alive. Aunt Lysa is the only family member left in a position to take care of Sansa now, because of the war she and Littlefinger started. 

In more news of Littlefinger’s machinations: because he conspired with the Tyrells to frame Tyrion for Joffrey’s murder, Sansa’s life at the Red Keep went from uncomfortable to untenable, with Littlefinger being the only one ready to rescue her. She’s dependent on him because of his political sabotage, so now he’s molesting her at her aunt’s house, and her aunt has to be coaxed and cajoled out of killing her. 

It’s because of Littlefinger’s machinations that the Lannisters became the Starks’ enemies. Granted there’s no version of this story in which the AGOT-era Starks and Lannisters are buddies, but there could’ve been a story where they haven’t been actively trying to kill each other. 

Sansa’s been places and met people enough to know the Lannisters are not consistently villainous and her own family are not reliably safe. 

Unbeknownst to her Sansa (yet), Tyrion’s squire Podrick Payne is traveling around with a big warrior-lady carrying a Lannister-branded Valyrian steel sword. A gift from Jaime Lannister. Cersei’s twin brother, and the one man with the backbone to ask the drunken king to stop embarrassing himself. Unbeknownst to Sansa, Ser Jaime has just deserted his army because he’s helping Brienne and Podrick rescue Sansa out from under Cersei. 

They have this assignment because Catelyn stepped away from her animosity to the Lannisters for a moment long enough to give Ser Jaime a chance to do the right thing. That Jaime is rejecting the Lannister regime in favor of Stark-Tully interests has a lot to do with Brienne’s influence, while the likely success of their mission will probably have to do with Sansa’s conduct at the Red Keep. It’s Podrick Payne who’ll recognize Sansa with her hair dyed brown, and Podrick who has the best chance to convince Sansa that Lady Brienne is good and Ser Jaime is on their side. 

Winter is Coming. The Stark motto isn’t nihilistic; it is a call to action. The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. It’s the spirit of mutual protection, care, and cooperation that keeps the pups alive in the darkest and meanest times. 

Sansa is gradually learning that “the pack” isn’t just those who share her family tree. The pack is made up of the ones who show up. When the wolves are tossed to the four winds, the pack may welcome the strength of lions. Unbeknownst to Sansa, the Hound showed up for Arya and may yet appear and join her pack. The real danger is the mockingbird. 

It was Sansa’s own family---her mother’s sister and foster brother---who created the conflict that drove the Starks into war with the Lannisters. Now it’s Lannister associates coming to her rescue. There may yet be a story in which the wolf and the lion work together and learn to trust each other. Sansa can help write that story. 

[spritewrites]

never fucking change

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy

Characters: Five & Klaus

Word Count: 1976

Divorcing the idea of a 58-year-old apocalypse-surviving time-traveling assassin from his skinny adolescent brother was something that Klaus was finding… tricky. As much as he respected Five and his efforts to save the world (and, more importantly, his family – and, most importantly, him), it was tough not to find him… well, kind of adorable. The sight of his brother sitting at the kitchen table at 8 a.m. in his schoolboy uniform drinking a whiskey on the rocks was pretty disturbing. In almost a funny way.

Klaus could easily flash back to their Academy days, when Five had been somebody he’d looked up to. When you’re a scrawny, hyperactive medium-in-training who’s afraid of ghosts, a brother who’s smarter, more confident, and more powerful than you are seems like a hero. And in some ways, Klaus could still see that know-it-all, snarky teenager when he looked at Five. In more ways than one, he hadn’t really changed much.

“He hasn’t changed at all.”

Klaus spun to see Ben leaning against the kitchen counter, grinning. More than a decade with no one else to talk to, and Klaus wasn’t that surprised that Ben could practically read his mind on his face.

Ben tilted his head toward where Five was stirring his drink. “Same kid who would cheat at sparring when we were little and then make fun of us for losing.”

Klaus choked back a laugh at the memory, causing Five to glance up from his drink.

“Something funny?” Five asked, clearly more out of politeness than curiosity.

Klaus had to bite his lip to fight his smile. God, same bored tone, too. “Nothing, just… remembering.”

Five took another sip. “Remembering? Really? Bad form, Klaus. I expected better of you.”

Klaus rolled his eyes and grabbed a bagel off the counter, twisting it apart like an Oreo. “You sound like dear old Dad.”

Five smirked. He always smirked, never smiled. “Do I? Sorry, must be the old man in me talking.”

Klaus giggled airily. “Remembering’s not so bad. This old house…” He gestured vaguely around the kitchen. “Well, it’s not what it used to be, but we had some okay times in here.”

Five snorted. “Yeah? Were they all after I left?”

“Oh, come on, you wouldn’t have tried so hard to come back if you hadn’t missed us at least a little bit. Can’t be all apocalypse, all the time, can it?”

Five fixed him with a stare. “When you’re living in the apocalypse? Uh, yeah, it can.”

“Okay, okay, fine. But you never missed the times we used to have? Going on missions? Bedtime stories with Mom? Sparring practices?”

Five rolled his eyes. “I missed winning, yes.”

Klaus crossed his arms, holding the bagel in his teeth. “Onfy becauv you sheeded.”

“Excuse me? And are you just going to eat a plain, untoasted bagel for breakfast?”

The bagel was removed. “Only because you cheated, asshole. And yes, I need my carbs.”

“It’s not cheating if I’m stronger than you,” Five grinned, leaning back in his seat. “Powers were totally legal.”

“Yeah, but it’s not fair if my powers don’t exactly help in hand-to-hand combat, Five and Dime,” Klaus pointed out, ripping his bagel into smaller pieces and putting some in his pocket. He winked at Five. “For later.”

Five wrinkled his nose, half at the bagel and half at the stupid nickname. “I could’ve done it without powers too, you know.”

Klaus raised his eyebrows. “Oh really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Prove it. Spar with me.”

“Jesus, Klaus,” Ben sighed, fixing his brother with his patented Ben look of utter annoyance, the one he’d perfected when they were still kids. Klaus ignored him. This was just getting fun.

“Unless you’re scared.”

He was baiting him. Five knew, and Klaus knew that he knew. But Klaus also knew that brotherly competition – especially in the Hargreeves family – always won out over logic.

Five rolled his eyes. “I’m not scared of you. That’s not the issue here.”

‘Just getting fun’ was Klaus for ‘getting out of hand’, but if there was one thing Klaus was good at, it was digging his own grave. He giggled again.

“You think I’m scared of you? You look like a discount Oliver Twist.”

For a moment, Klaus held his brother’s eyes, watching the cogs in Five’s head move in directions that he didn’t totally understand, but he had a bad feeling about. Then, Five downed the rest of his drink in one gulp and slammed the empty glass down on the table, a sadistic smirk on his face. “Fine. You want to spar, kid? Let’s spar.”

Klaus gulped. You know, when the idea crossed his mind, he’d kind of forgotten the whole assassin… thing. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

But before he could backpedal himself out of this one (another Klaus skill), he was on his back on the kitchen floor, fighting for his life – or, more accurately, his limbs. Seventeen years on, Klaus was much bigger than his brother, so it would be difficult for Five to adequately pin him. Difficult, but not impossible.

Five had been rigorously trained by Hargreeves in hand-to-hand combat, because his powers made it easy for him to get up close and personal with criminals. He had skill, technique, and years and years of experience, way more than Klaus had.

But Klaus? Klaus could fight dirty.

Five had both of his knees firmly around Klaus’ thighs and was fighting for his wrists when Klaus leaned in close and licked his ear. The former assassin let out a disgusted noise and recoiled, not much, but it was enough give for Klaus to roll them both to the side and spin so he was on Five’s back, half pinning him to the ground.

Five growled and rolled back over to face Klaus, taking one of his arms and shoving it behind his back, but Klaus simply grinned and planted a kiss on his adorable brother’s nose. Five spluttered, clearly flustered but not willing to give up. He got his knee around Klaus’ waist, then flipped them so that Klaus was being pressed face first into the kitchen floor, one arm still tucked behind his back.

“Give up, Klaus, you know you can’t win!”

Klaus groaned, a huge smile on his face. “Daddy said I can do whatever I set my mind to!”

He wrenched the elbow that was pinned behind his back, but he didn’t move it forward, like Five was expecting. He moved it back even further, just far enough to grab onto Five’s leg just above the knee and give a firm squeeze. Five yelped, jerking back his leg and toppling off of his brother. In an instant, Klaus was on top of him, pinning his arms to his sides. His devious grin would have been deliciously contagious for anyone but Five.

“You know, you didn’t always win at sparring, Saturday Night Five. Sometimes I’d manage to end up on top.”

“You’d cheat, is what you mean,” Five shot back, struggling against Klaus’ weight. Klaus feigned shock.

“Cheating, dear brother? You dare accuse me of cheating? Why, I don’t think it’s cheating to use my opponent’s weaknesses against them!” He orchestrated his point with a deliberate poke to Five’s lowest rib, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from his brother. Klaus’ smile grew, and Five turned bright red.

“Still ticklish, old man?”

“Cheating,” Five choked out, struggling harder. He couldn’t jump if he couldn’t focus, and he couldn’t focus if Klaus was gonna… He didn’t even want to think about what Klaus was gonna.

Klaus tilted his head. “You know, if I recall correctly—”

“Stop recalling,” Five interrupted, but Klaus soldiered on.

“—then I believe that you were weak here…” He traced his fingers over Five’s lowest rib. Five’s jaw snapped shut, and he closed his eyes and breathed hard through his nose with the effort of trying not to laugh.

“K-Klaus…”

“…but not as weak as here…” He skittered his blunt nails under Five’s chin, who scrunched up his shoulders and let out an uncharacteristic whine through clenched teeth.

“Bastard, I swear I’m gonna – NO!”

Klaus let out a delighted giggle. Using his brother’s distraction, he had snuck his other hand to rest threateningly on Five’s kneecap.

“Using my opponent’s weakness against him wins the day again, huh, Five-Alarm Fire?” He drummed his fingers casually on Five’s knee. Five arched his back and cursed quietly through his gritted teeth. Klaus leaned in, lifting his hand from Five’s leg for a moment. “What was that?”

“I said, I’m gonna slit your throat in your sleep, you deranged—”

Klaus never found out what kind of deranged thing he was, because immediately he was scribbling tickling fingers over Five’s kneecap and Five shrieked, dissolving into embarrassing high-pitched giggles.

Klaus hummed happily, frustratingly casual as Five writhed frantically beneath him. “Whoops, I remembered your weakest spot. Guess you’re right, I really should stop remembering.” He grinned down at his brother, who was currently red-in-the-face and cackling. “But you know what I think, Five-nal Destination? I think I’m the best at sparring! What do you say to that, hm?”

Five tried to say something that was probably going to be cutting and snarky, but he choked on his words as Klaus moved to tickle the back of his knee, making him tip his head back and squeal.

“Tell ya what, Five O’clock Shadow, if you say I’m better than you at sparring, I’ll let you go. Capeesh?” (Klaus was delighted to find that when he shut Five up for a minute, he got to use all the funny nicknames he wanted with none of the rude eye-rolling.)

“F-fihihine!” Five spluttered through his hysterical laughter, sounding a delightful mix of furious and desperate.

Klaus generously eased off his brother to let him speak, limiting himself to the occasional knee squeeze as Five fought to catch his breath. There was a murderous gleam in his eye, but his dimpled smile ruined the effect.

“I – AH!” Squeeze. “Y-you’re better! You’re better at – AIE!” Another squeeze. “At sparring! You’re better at sparring! Now let me go, you motherfucker!”

Klaus grinned. “Hey now, Grace is a lovely woman and I respect her boundaries,” he replied, climbing off his brother. For a moment, Five lay back on the kitchen floor, clutching his knees to his chest and catching his breath. He looked so peaceful that, when he spoke, it took a second for Klaus to hear him properly.

“…gonna get you back so goddamn hard,” he threatened, the ghost of a smile still etched on his face. Klaus gave him a gentle shove.

“Oh, come on, admit it, you had fun.”

Five fixed him with an indecipherable look, and for a second Klaus feared for his life. But then the corners of Five’s mouth tugged upward, just enough to show his dimples, and he was gone in a flash of blue light.

“You’re an asshole.”

Klaus spun to see Ben sitting at the kitchen table, a huge smile on his face despite his mean words.

Klaus pointed threateningly at him. “You’re lucky it wasn’t you. You were always even worse than him, and if anyone could stand to have a little fun, it’s you. Once I get strong enough to manifest you, it’s over—”

Ben held up his hands in defense, fighting back laughter. “Okay, okay! No need, I already know that you’re the best at sparring.”

“Damn straight,” Klaus replied, pulling a squished piece of bagel out of his pocket and taking a bite.

With a flash of blue, Five was behind him, digging his thumbs into Klaus’ waist. Klaus yelped, nearly choking on his bagel as he spun around to catch the culprit, but his brother was already gone. From a few floors above, he heard victorious laughter.

Some things never change.

[dreamer213]

Broken Machines: Lights the Dark

Chapter 3 Evening In Atlas Part 3

At the sound of his voice Penny breaks free from her trance. She looks back at her hand remembers that they were still in a life or death situation. Somehow of the gravity of the situation had been lost in her fawning over him.

Penny: Y-Yes Of Course! I-I’ll Get You Up Right Away!

Penny, now flustered, grabs his other hand and pulls him back up onto the balcony. Once he’s back on his feet and dust himself off Penny gets a look at his full figure. He was two inches shorter then her in heels, he’d be two inches taller than her if she was in her normal shoes, he had a model’s figure very slim and elegant, and his limbs are long and delicate especially his hands. Long elegant fingers with clean manicured nails and soft palms. He was like painting come to life and Penny can’t help but admire his beauty. While she’s admiring him Whitley fully composes himself and speaks up.

Whitley: Thank the gods I thought I was done for. If it’s wasn’t for you I could’ve died! Thank you, thank you so much Miss?

Penny: My n-name is Pe-

“Good Heavens Are You Alright?”

A sudden shout interrupts them prompting both to reenter the ballroom floor. Once they set foot back in they are immediately surrounded by group of “considered” onlookers. Penny recommend the woman who screamed as one of the ladies she ran into early.

Woman in indigo dress: Whitley dear, I saw the commotion and ran over as fast as I could! Are you alright?

Short business man: Yes we saw you being pull up and were too shocked to move!

Woman in red dress: And to think your fate was left in the hands of a little girl. Gods you must have been absolutely terrified.

The crowd turns their gases towards Penny, watching her for a reaction. Penny could feel the stares on her and tried to think of something to say, she doubted her normal response of “ just do what’s right” would be taken well but she couldn’t think of anything else. It was only reason she did what she did but there’s no way this people could understand that. She starts trembling a bit but before anyone else can start questioning her Whitley takes her hand and pulls her close. She turns to asks him what he was doing but he just gives her a knowing smile. He knows where this is going and he’d be damned if he was going to let foulness be thrown at the person that just saved his life.

Whitley: Actually I was quite happy. When I fell I thought it would be the end for me but this brave young woman thrown herself into harms way to save my life without any hesitation. And after such a daring rescue I’m sure my savior must be very tired and I myself am still quite shaken, so of you’ll excuse us, We need to go find a place to rest.

Woman in red dress: But of course after such a harrowing experience who would need a rest. Here, let me watch over the girl while you get some rest.

Whitley: Thank you Mrs. Dahlia but I can’t possibly ask that of you especially when you already have some much on your mind already.

Mrs. Dahlia (red dress): What do you talking about? Our business is doing wonderful and I just bought a new fur I haven’t a worry in the world right now.

Whitley: But didn’t your son Jacob just return from his health spa retreat? Certainly he needs your attention much more the I do.

Mrs. Dahlia: How did you-

Whitley: He was gone for so long I thought he’d never return but it looks like he’s finally pulled himself together. Though it seems he still has issues with slurring his words and maintaining his balance. So I think it be best if you go and checked in on him first before worrying about us.

Mrs.Dahlia: Y-your absolutely right! I’ll go check on him right now! Excuse me!

Dahlia runs off, face as red as her dress completely shamed. The short man, a Mr. Aster, is about to speak up again but Whitley spots it and goes ahead of him.

Whitley: Oh Mr. Aster I believe there was a man in a tiger print suit looking for you earlier. I think he said some about some debts you owe and lead pipe-

Before he can say anything else Aster has already scurried away. With that the crowd grow silent, they know that Whitley wasn’t going to tolerate their behavior and soon the sea of people parts down the middle allowing Whitley and Penny passage. Once they’re past the crowd Whitley whispers to Penny.

Whitley: (whisper) I’ve never seen you before did someone bring you with them? If so where are they?

Penny: (whisper) Yes I was brought here but we got separated. The last time I saw him he was talking with a large group of people at the entrance of ballroom.

Whitley: (whisper) How many people?

Penny: (whisper) Thirty six people when we separated but there could be more they were still coming when I left.

Whitley: (whisper) Then he should still be there, I’ll take you back to him.

Penny nods in responses and they begin to make their way through the ballroom. On their way they encounter more elites trying to make conversation with Whitley. But Whitley is able to bypass all of them using his practiced social skills. His methods consist of redirecting their attention to someone else, giving them a quick response and promising to continue later, or subtly shaming them until they take the hit and run off with their tails tucked in. For him this was sort of thing was like breathing, in effortless function he did to survive, but to Penny, who was getting a front row seat of this, it was incredible. It was like combat in verbal form with the strategic weaponization of words, tactical use of information, and well timed retreats. In this battle Penny was just a civilian, lost on a battlefield she doesn’t know how to fight on being carried to safety by a veteran soldier while he strikes down enemies left and right to clear their path. It was remarkable.

They’re near the dance floor all they have to do is cross it and they have a clear shot to the entrance. As they near the edge of the dance floor Penny spot General Ironwood across the room. He was just a few yards away from the dance floor if they cut across they’d end up right next to him! Penny tugs at Whitley’s sleeve then points in Ironwood’s direction.

Penny: (whisper) He’s right over there we just have to get across.

Whitley: (whisper) Well then let’s not keep him waiting.

Just as they’re about to move forward suddenly music starts to play and couples make there way onto and around the formally empty dance floor. With all the people on the floor there’s no way to walking across and the crowd of onlookers was far too thick to see through. There was only one way to get across the floor. Whitley taps his feet to the music, a standard 3 step waltz a beginners dance. He looks over to his savior and meets her gaze.

Whitley: (whisper) Do you know how to dance?

Penny: (whisper) N-no I do not.

Whitley: (whisper) Hmmm, Okay then just stay close, hold on tight, and let me lead.

Before she ask what he means Whitley pulls them onto the dance floor, he takes her left hand and places it on his right shoulder puts his right hand under her left shoulder blade, and raises their joined hands up to a little above shoulder level, at standard waltz position. He starts slow until Penny gets the rhythm of his movements. Once she’s got it he speed up a bit moving them a bit closer to the other people on the floor. They’re closing in on the other couples dancing they just need to match their speed then jump in. Whitley looks to Penny and mouths “Ready? she think for a moment then nods. With that he speeds up to match the song and the other dancers, and throws them into the sea of dancing couples. Whitley leads them around the dance floor looking for openings to cut through the other dancers to get across. Meanwhile Penny is bewildered, she’s trying to get her body to go on autopilot and just match his movements but she just can’t! Her mind is a jumbled mess and all she can focus on is trying not to step on his feet. This whole night had been an insane mess, here she was supposed to be on a mission but somehow she ended up here on the dance floor with him. To be honest it was like a fairytale and she was the heroine dancing in the castle with the prince, how enchanting. No no no she couldn’t think like that she had to focus on getting back to Ironwood not her own fantasies. Whitley notices her attempts to keep up with him and is honestly amused by it. Her face is scrunched up in focus and her eyes are trained on their feet, it’s so obvious and clumsy that it’s actually sort of cute. Just enough so that it makes him laugh a bit and puts a little smile on his face. The sound of his laughter gets Penny’s attention and she looks back up but only for a second as the moment she sees his smile she goes bright red. She may have lacked an actual heart but something in her chest was pounding like a drum.

It only lasted around four minutes but it felt like an eternity, once the first song ended they had already made it to the other side though Penny hadn’t noticed she was still trying to unravel the odd new feelings she was experiencing. How could one person make feel so nervous but so happy it was so confusing. As she ponders a familiar figure approaches them.

Ironwood: Penny.

Penny: General!

Whitley: General Ironwood?

Whitley stood in shock as Penny ran to Ironwood’s side, he couldn’t believe this small sweet girl Penny was here with General Ironwood. Now most of Whitley know about coming from the dealing between Ironwood and his father. The relationship between them hadn’t been good for long time as Jacques was too money focused to see the bigger picture while Ironwood was straight forward, always had a plan of action, and dislike compromise with Jacques on anything. But with global communication down they were stuck with each other. He also knew that Ironwood was a workaholic and an antisocial especially since Beacon fell. The charity gala was his first appearance in high since the catastrophe and for him to be at another event so soon was off kilter but bringing an unknown young woman with him as well, completely abnormal. Ironwood was here for a reason and While had to figure out why.

Whitley: General Ironwood it would seem that I found your lost companion.

Ironwood: Indeed you did. And Penny isn’t just a companion she also one of my soldiers.

Penny: I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. I was going to introduce myself but that crowd at the balcony frightened me and could not finish my sentence.

Ironwood: A crowd? Hmm, We’ll talk about that later but first I should thank you for returning my soldier Schnee.

Whitley: Please General call me Whitley and honestly I should be the one thanking you. If you hadn’t brought her here tonight I wouldn’t be standing here right now. Getting this lovely girl back to you was the least I could do. In fact I’d like to offer you a lending hand in you’re endeavors as thanks for your soldier’s heroic actions.

Ironwood: Really? And why a lending hand? Isn’t gifting a nice car, summer home or some other luxury item the norm from your family.

Whitley: (chuckles) Oh General I think you’ve gotten a bit confused that’s my father’s style of gifting. He likes to give people pretty things because that’s what he thinks everyone wants. While it can be very effective it’s just not my style. No I prefer to look past simple glitz and glamor to see what they really want and from what I’ve seen General you didn’t come here for a good time.

Whitley had been reflecting on what had happened tonight and a few things stood out. Ironwood had come to this party which was completely out of character, he brought a naïve young woman with him, and said naïve woman was a soldier and if her actions earlier were any indicator of her skill, a damn good one at that. There was only few reasons a man like Ironwood would come to an event like this with such an gentle but very capable soldier at his side and all of them led back to one thing. Information. That what Ironwood wanted and if Whitley could give it to him then his plan for the future might go smoother the he thought. All he needed to do was reel him in.

Whitley: If there’s something you’d like to know or need help find out about something I’d be happy to help. But if you’re non interested I could also offer some etiquette lessons for your soldier, seeing as she such a hard time tonight some formal training would surely be of great use to her.

Whitley existents a hand to Ironwood.

Ironwood: This will be kept discrete?

Whitley: Of course, discretion is absolutely necessary when dealing with the military.

Ironwood: We’ll go over the details later but for now I accept. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated by myself and by Atlas as a whole.

Ironwood gives Whitley firm handshake, it hurts a bit but Whitley shakes it off. He puts his now slightly pulsing hand in his suit pocket and pulls out two business cards. He hands one to each of them. Penny takes hers with both hands, reading very carefully. The information on it was standard but somehow felt significant, specifically his number. It was like a link, a way she could reach him to for…well she didn’t know there was just so much she wanted known, wanted say. She still hadn’t even properly introduced herself! After all that’s happened tonight she couldn’t leave without doing the one thing she was supposed to.

Whitley: Thank you again General Ironwood. We’ll contact you about the details in the morning. Have a nice rest of your evening.

Whitley turns to walk away but Penny quickly steps up behind him and grabs the hem of his sleeve causing him to turn back. Penny stand straight up, with a bright smile and her signature salute finally speaks the line she’s been trying to get out all night.

Penny: S-s-Salutations! My name is Penny Poledina, it was a pleasure meeting you tonight!

There’s a pause, silence falls over the scene until a little chuckle escape from Whitley. Once he’s pulled himself back together he looks at Penny with an almost sincere smile.

Whitley: It was nice meeting you as well Ms. Poledina and I hope to see you again soon.

With that Whitley walks off to go find his father to inform him over this new opportunity he’s secured for them. Penny returns to Ironwood expecting to be scolded for her actions but instead he pats her head and give her a nod of approval. She did well tonight as she just secured a life debt from what could be considered the royal family of Atlas high society. Not only that but it was with the most level head and even tempered of the family. This was the golden key of contention and Ironwood couldn’t be more proud.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Informing Jacques had gone better than Whitley expected. Though that was mostly because Jacques was absolutely thrilled by the prospect of Ironwood own him a favor given their tumultuous business relationship and planned to milk the situation for all it’s worth. With that Whitley was dismissed for the night and retired to his bedroom while Jacques return to the party.

Happy but exhausted Whitley baths and changes into his sleepwear then heads to his bed where he quickly falls asleep. As his consciousness fades slowly the darkness of his mind is illuminated by a white light. Whitley finds himself on a cold floor, he looks around and sees that his in the middle of a circle surrounded by a circle of lights and armchairs, soon figures begin stepping out from behind them, each give a wave before taking a set in their respective chair. Each figure was the same but different, all where the same white haired blue eyed young man but each dressed in their own fashion and adorned their faces with unique animal masks. This is council of thought, a reacquiring lucid dream of his was the only place in existence Whitley could speak freely and full engross himself in his thoughts. Whitley stands and looks around, there are five chairs and five figures. The smartly dressed owl in a sweater vest and plaid pants, the smirking fox with rolled up sleeves and pants legs, the lion dressed in battle wear with a red cape with gold lace trim on his back, the peacock dolled up in his finest with his usual over the top suit and long feather coattails, and the wolf.

Whitley: Looks likes everyone’s here, it’s time to proceed. Owl! State of current affairs.

Owl: We’ve been formally announced as new the heir, preformed well at the party, had an near death experience which led to us to extending a hand to Ironwood. We now have in opportunity to start repairing our family’s relationship with the Atlas military. Father was pleased with our actions and our awaiting further instruction. That is all for current affairs, the floor is now up to commentary.

Fox: (Yawn) Gods keeping that stupid smile on our face was absolute pain. But watching those vultures squirm on their boots trying to keep up with us was priceless! I mean that Aster practically fainted when we mentioned the tiger suit (Laughs) too easy.

Lion: That’s because we had one hell of a bounce back! I mean what other elite could almost fall to their deaths then jumping right back into the fire not two minutes later! (chuckles)

Peacock: Let’s not forget about appearances Dears. You can’t deny that us staying prim and proper the whole night was key in our success. Especially with the General, gods knows he wouldn’t have taken us seriously if we let ourselves get disheveled.(giggles)

Whitley: Looks like we’re all in agreement, the night went well despite a few hiccups. Isn’t that right Wolf?

The last figure, Wolf, was a far cry from the rest, as apposed to sitting in his chair he squatted down in front of it, his appearance was just as odd. Long and unkempt hair, his only clothing were a tattered pair of dress pants and silver chains shackled on his wrists and ankles with a tight collar around his neck. Scars clover the skin of his biceps, feet, and back. And then there was his eyes. They were almost completely devoid of life, the only thing reflecting out of them was pure unbridled hatred.

This was the one part himself Whitley never showed but kept at the forefront of his mind at most times. This monster had grown from the depths of his once innocent heart after many years of suffering. it’s hungry was the only thing keeping him alive when things had got to their worst in the manor. No matter how tiring this game of playing good boy for Father was, no matter how painful interacting with his mother and sister became, and no matter how hopeless he felt at times the wolf’s hunger would always push him back onto his plan. It needed him to see this to the end HE needed to see this to the end! He’d never be at peace until then and until then the wolf remains waiting for that day.

Wolf: (growls) Why most we give more to that damn BASTERD!....After everything he’s done to us… what he’s done to our sisters….to Mother…….TO KLEIN! (Anger Growl)

Whitley goes over to wolf, he bends down to Wolf’s level and pets his shoulder.

Whitley: Shh Shhh, there there Wolf be patient. Just a couple more years, a little more boot licking, and plenty of good behavior and then we will strike. And when we do-

Whitley looks deep into Wolf’s eyes, that same look of pure hate now reflected back into Wolf.

Whitley: We. Will. Be. Freed. And. You. Will. Be. Fed. We just have to be patient if only for a little while longer.

The wolf growls in agreement, he smiles wide showing off his big bright fangs. Having pacified Wolf the meeting of thought had come to an end for the night and Whitley should be returning to a state of darkness before waking up. But instead of the room fading away into nothing the sound of a chair being pushed can be heard behind Whitley and Wolf. Whitley turns around to see another chair has been pushed into circle with a small rabbit mask place in the seat. He’s confused, this had never happened before, the dream had never changed against his will. The rules of this place were simple, this room and everything in it were all there was and that there should be here. And it was a always ALWAYS under Whitley’s control. So why? Why had that changed? Suddenly a new voice calls out from the void. It was soft and small like the animal the new mask mimics.

??????: …..That girl….she…was..so nice….Her smile was so….sweet….so..pure…so…..real…How long has it been…since someone smiled at us that way?..... How long has it been….since someone looked at us that way?.....I…want…..I want to see her….I want see her smile again.

Suddenly everything fades to white and Whitley wakes up.

[lany-d-flow]

Whisper Talk: Going Against Alternate Timeline Theories with a Theory, and Answering Questions Saying Otherwise.

Those who look with clouded eyes see nothing but shadows. -Sephiroth, Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

SPOILER WARNING

Pressing “Keep Reading” will bring you into spoiler territory for, well... Final Fantasy 7 Compilation and Remake, so this is your warning, all right buddy?

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of another work. What I predict may very well turn out to be untrue, and if you disagree with my prediction then that’s totally fine! (If you’d like, we could chat about it).

But honestly, I have spent the last few months thinking about this game in an unhealthy manner. I think having all of these whispers inside of my head with my frustration getting bigger is not going to move anything forward. So it’s time to wake up, get up, get out there and write thoughts about what is actually going on with Final Fantasy 7 Remake, while trying to clear up misconceptions that may be leading people astray. Perhaps the latter is the intention of the developers. If it is? Well, let’s move past the clouds and find the sunlight. 

All right, let’s mosey into this nonsense.

It’s been months since the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. After a long five-year wait for many fans, we got a piece of the story on the Playstation 4 in March and April 2020. It was exciting to see the capital of Final Fantasy 7, Midgar, be brought to life with state-of-the-art graphics. Treading through mako reactors, Sector 7 and Sector 5, the nasty Wall Market, Shinra HQ, hearing conversations of lively NPCs, exploring the subtle easter eggs and symbolism through visual storytelling... Goodness, so much of what this game had to offer was a delight! The developers put their heart and soul into fleshing out a section of Final Fantasy 7 that was, at most, 6 hours long. This level of detail cannot go unnoticed, and I’m sure it’s made everyone excited to see the reimagining of Gaia when we receive future installments!!!!

Oh, but wait... the developers introduced a new monster called Whispers, otherwise known as Arbiters of Fate, and... What purpose do they serve?! Why are these things in Final Fantasy 7 when they never had a role in the original game? Based on everything we saw in the story, they seem to be making sure the story of Final Fantasy 7 runs exactly as it’s supposed to. Without these ghosts, the story will not be 1:1. To make things worse, we have Sephiroth who’s from the future?! No wonder these Whispers are here, Sephiroth’s trying to rewrite history because everything he has tried before failed him!

So based on what we saw in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the developers decided to create a metaphor for the fanbase, and since we defeated ‘destiny,’ we’ve defeated the fanbase’s say in where the story goes, thereby giving the developers permission to change the story the way they want it. Wow, this is pathetic on Square Enix’s part. Final Fantasy 7 is an amazing story with layers and layers of complex themes, why would they try to form it into something else? Now we’re going to have time travel and alternate timelines in the plot and Sephiroth seems unstoppable now. Heck, the developers are probably going to make sure impactful moments in Final Fantasy 7 do not happen, so Zack and Aerith are probably going to survive. And they’re also ditching the Compilation? Can these people be trusted? 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is ruined!!!

Still with me? Well, this is just some of the talk that I’ve heard based on the execution of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s plot. I won’t try to list every possible thing people are talking about, but I think we get the idea of the impression that our game’s ending put on a lot of players. So I wanted to give my input on what I believe is actually going on with the story, as well as answer many questions popping up about the circumstances of our game’s characters.

So, do I think the developers are changing the story?

Short Answer: No, at least not in the way that many people think. They’re “changing” the story by putting in new elements, moments that tie with the rest of the Compilation, but the main plot points (Overarching plot, the main crisis, the internal plot, the emotional climax, etc.) still need to happen. This series is more than 2 decades old, and with time it has received: a movie, 2 books, a sequel, 2 prequels, and now a remake with existing materials to tie into the game. 

Long Answer: All right, if you’re still with me, thank you. I will do my best to explain all of what’s going on. I’ll give my input via understanding how the FF7 Universe works; in other words, what the Whispers are, how the Whispers work, how they’ve actually always been apart of FF7 and are now receiving an expanded role, and how Sephiroth and Aerith showing meta behavior makes sense due to the power that the Planet has given to the Arbiters of Fate (exposure = visions out of context). I will also be answering questions that one may bring up as proof of an alternate timeline/story change and argue what their purpose may actually be.

So, let's Talk about A Whisper

Wait a minute...

So, let's talk about the Whispers.

Let’s start by explaining what the Whispers are, what function they serve to the Planet, and how the Planet creates them in the first place:

Whispers are souls that act as arbiters of fate and have been a part of the Planet for as long as the Planet has existed. They know the fate of the Planet from beginning to end, and their function is to make sure that a specific destiny runs its course. They all unite under the will of the Planet, just like the Sephiroth Clones all act under the will of Sephiroth, which is probably the reason why they were given a cloaky look: the Whispers' function parallels the Sephiroth Clones' function and both act under the authority of something else. They cannot be seen by everyone, and to actually see their physical manifestation, you need to either be 1) deeply connected with the Planet, or 2) receive some form of physical contact from someone who has a strong connection to the Planet. This is established early in Chapter 2 of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Cloud meets Aerith for the first time, and at first glance she seems to be blown away by the wind. After Cloud and Aerith have an exchange and Aerith gives Cloud a flower, immediately after this we are greeted with an illusion of Sephiroth tormenting Cloud and more importantly, Aerith touching Cloud, allowing him to see the Whispers floating around the street. This follows the logic of my two points, as Aerith is a half-Cetra who’s been receiving visions of the past and future for years (her mural of symbolism in her Shinra HQ room was drawn when she received a vision as a child, though she does not understand the full context of what it means), and of course she ended up giving permission for Cloud to see the Planet’s protectors in action.

So how do the Whispers make sure destiny happens as intended?

Well, they do so by constantly observing the actions of the Planet’s people, sometimes in sight, sometimes not. If something happened that is off course, the Whispers immediately act to correct the course of said issue. We see this multiple times in the story. Some examples include: Aerith trying to leave the street where she meets Cloud, then proceeding to leave the street after meeting Cloud, following the Whispers’ intentions; Jessie getting injured in Sector 7 because destiny needs to make sure Cloud goes on the next AVALANCHE mission. If this didn’t happen, then Aerith and Cloud probably wouldn’t have met again; Surrounding the debris on top of Jessie to ensure her death takes place on top of the Sector 7 Tower (I’ll cover the speculation on her “survival” later); stopping Cloud from remembering everything about the Shinra Research Lab; stopping Hojo from revealing the truth of Cloud’s past (no way in Hell are they going to let the internal conflict unfold this early); reviving Barret from the stab wound that the Sephiroth remnant gave him; lastly, pushing Wedge down the Shinra HQ tower to ensure his death happens. Destined events either eventually happened, or they got delayed. This implies that the Whispers are nigh-omnipresent beings, especially given how many they are and how they were able to surround Midgar entirely, and their part of correcting destiny follows the flow of a river. As Red XIII puts it, “The flow of the great river that is the Planet, from inception to oblivion… For it is the will of the Planet itself”.

Cool. So how are the Whispers born? Where do they come from?

It’s actually a pretty straightforward explanation, and Aerith tells us in Chapter 18: Destiny’s Crossroads. Before the Whispers became Whispers, they were “Those born into this world. Who lived and who died. Who returned. They’re howling in pain.” This adds on to what Sephiroth said a moment ago: “All born are bound to her.” All Whispers were once living people, animals, etc. And all that are given life on the Planet are bound by something like a contract: You get made into an image and are given a physical life. In exchange, once that time’s up, you must return to the Lifestream and become a part of the Planet, being one of many who follow her will. You’re born, you live, you die, and you serve another purpose in a collective of spirits who are now tasked with making sure the flow of destiny is as it should be. By following all of this, we can conclude that 1) Everyone who lives on Gaia could eventually become a Whisper, and 2) since Whispers are a part of the Planet, they are formed from the Lifestream, the Planet’s lifeblood. This leads us into the next question...

How do the Whispers know the course of Destiny from start to finish?

Great question! The logical explanation to how they know is quite simple: the properties of the Lifestream. The Whispers are made out of Lifestream, and that gives them knowledge of the Planet’s destiny. I argue it is not farfetched to make this claim, as the Lifestream has shown time and again what it is capable of. Infact, let’s make an analogy of Lifestream manifestations via state of matter.

Lifestream: Its Three States of Matter and their Benefits and Side Effects

Mako is the liquid form of the Lifestream, Materia is a solid form of the Lifestream, while the regular Lifestream itself can be most equivalent to something of a gas/plasma, at least one that can be seen. Throughout Final Fantasy 7 we’ve seen what all of these forms can do. Mako is an extremely powerful energy source that powers all of Midgar through reactors, and is also what SOLDIERs are bathed in to possibly receive superhuman strength; Materia are jewels capable of all kinds of powerful magic; summoning fire, lightning, ice, creating shields, copying abilities of other living beings, healing, elevating other materia abilities, and most notably summon manifestations of powerful beings (Bahamut, Shiva, Ifrit, Odin, Knights of the Round). While the Lifestream itself? That’s all the souls of the planet with a consciousness that follows the Planet’s will. Some can appear as a physical manifestation, but they’re not quite solid, which is how Cloud’s buster sword moves through the Whispers as if he didn’t cut through anything. Use of the Lifestream can also create projections (think Aerith’s Chapter 14 resolution), allow access into someone’s subconscious under certain circumstances, and of course, give people visions of the past and future without any context as to how those events happen(ed).

All three forms of the Lifestream have side effects, too.

Materia can degrade the vitality and strength of the user. Think of it as a trade-off for borrowing the Planet’s lifeblood in the form of a jewel.

Mako can cause extremely intense mental breakdowns and break the psyche of those without strong mental resilience, which is why Cloud was unable to make it into SOLDIER. But he eventually received Mako exposure anyway. What happened? Oh yeah, he went into a comatose state not once, not twice, but THREE times. First during experimentation, second when he arrived at Midgar before Tifa bumped into him, and when he fell into a pool of Mako and washed up on the shore of Mideel.

Meanwhile, Lifestream side effects are non-contextual visions, loss of sanity similar to Mako (think Tifa before she entered Cloud’s subconscious), and if the Lifestream has something in it, infection! That’s how Geostigma came to be: Jenova cells from Sephiroth, Jenova, and the remnants were floating in the Lifestream, and when the latter destroyed Meteor, it also exposed humans to Jenova cells, turning into a severe disease that is deadliest toward hosts with emotional fragility. This is why Cloud has a “Geostigma episode” in Advent Children when he runs into an injured Tifa.

Even with all these side effects, the benefits are far too great to ignore. All this power from the Lifestream is why Sephiroth and Jenova wanted to siphon it for themselves in the first place. By siphoning the Lifestream resisting side effects, one can receive unparalleled powers. Sephiroth himself said it in the original game: 

“By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life form, a new existence. Melding with the Planet… I will cease to exist as I am now. Only to be reborn as a god to rule over every soul.”

Notice how the last quote aligns with what Sephiroth said in the Edge of Creation about the Nebula? 

“Our world will become a part of it… one day.” 

We’ll come back to that statement, I promise. But for now, based on everything I’ve told you, here’s what I think is going on in Final Fantasy 7 Remake:

Sephiroth is not from the future. His exposure to the Lifestream for the last 5 years gave him the side effect of non-contextual visions. Among these visions, he probably saw his master plan fail. Eventually he realizes that the reason he has these visions is because of the Whispers and more specifically, the Planet’s Weapon Arbiter. The Whispers are fighting against Sephiroth as he’s gained both a rough understanding of the future and the Lifestream’s powers by siphoning it up. So, his new master plan? Defeat the Arbiters of Fate and THEN continue with his original plan. Sephiroth being omnipresent makes sense given his control over Jenova and her shapeshifting, S cells that allow him to puppetize clones and Cloud, and being in the Lifestream basically giving him more power with one form of that being omnipresence. What’s going to lead to his downfall is ultimately his arrogance: he probably thinks that just stopping the Whispers is enough for him to win. So while the physical manifestation of fate is gone, Sephiroth still needs to meet the same criteria to win: get the Black Materia to summon Meteor, his ticket to siphon up all the Planet’s Lifestream, which means he also needs Cloud to give him the Black Materia, which then means that eventually Aerith will have to summon Holy and eventually become one with the Lifestream to beat Meteor.

See how all of this comes together without time travel theories that go off on insane tangents? It’s established that the Whispers know the course of destiny from past, present and future. But WHERE did it say that they can travel through time? WHERE did it say that Sephiroth can travel through time with the Lifestream? That kind of power would be an enormous retcon to the story and the functions of Gaia, and it would also lead to a really convoluted plot that can deviate from the main themes of the story (trust me, some theories out there are wild). We do know that Whispers are in a singularity and it moves like a river, which as @silver-wield cleverly put in a post about the story of FF7R, translates to:

The arbiters of fate issued a correction to Wedge and made him fall out of the window in the Shinra building. Which means fate cannot be altered, merely delayed, which then leads to a more painful end for not accepting that fate.

...Or perhaps shuffled up with ultimately the same necessary outcome, because the river of destiny was put on a different course but is still heading to the same destination. There are multiple works in the compilation that the writers and developers would like to tie together to the main story. What’s a way for them to execute this? By making a metaphor for the OG storyline and by beating it giving them permission to add new things? From a certain point of view, sure, but the developers never needed permission to do this in the first place. But the side effect of beating the physical manifestation of destiny was likely shuffling parts of the story of Final Fantasy 7, prequels all the way to the chronological sequels. One can make a case for this based on the explosion felt at Midgar when the Arbiter and Sephiroth were defeated in the Singularity. The glitters of light could also reflect this change. From all this I argue freedom came to be, and characters from the Compilation might make an appearance during the main story such as Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. However, no matter what changes are present, the outcome will be the same. Cloud is not properly himself yet; he still thinks he made it into SOLDIER, he gets slight interferences from Jenova throughout the story (example: Cloud’s hand twitching when against Sephiroth at the Edge of Creation), he has the Buster Sword but still doesn’t remember who its original owner was, so his unreliable narration, downfall and emotional climax still need to happen. Aerith is the only character who can summon Holy and the only character who can call forth the Lifestream, and the only way she can call forth the Lifestream is by becoming one with it. How can she do this? There’s only one way: Death. Sorry guys, but if both Sephiroth and Aerith have prophetic visions of the future, there’s a chance that both know what must be done for themselves to get the upper hand. Sephiroth still wants to siphon up the Lifestream and become an omnipotent God, and the best way for him to do this? Summon Meteor. What does he need for this? The Black Materia. Who does he manipulate into giving him the Black Materia at the Northern Crater? Cloud.

My point from all this is that there are specific beats that need to happen to move the plot forward, no matter what new things they add from the Compilation. Using a different crisis for the overarching plot that isn’t Meteor is a retcon to the story, and why advertise Meteor and have it as the centerpiece of artworks and the title screen if you’re not going to use it in the first place? That’s just… really strange. We can add things in the middle of the plot to flesh out the main themes of a story while staying faithful to the outcomes. Adding something entirely different as a crisis like time travel in a game that has never been about time travel is out of place, unnecessary, and people are placing way too much faith in this being true while not looking at the bigger picture and function of Final Fantasy 7’s power tools. I believe the developers want you to think that the story is changing, that a happier outcome is in store for everyone. This all works with what Final Fantasy 7 did for many players in the first place: subvert expectations by placing us in an illusion with an unreliable narrative. We assumed Cloud made it into SOLDIER until we found out he never made it into SOLDIER and created a facade to conceal the truth that he was afraid to face. We thought Aerith was the love interest when the game kept making us appreciate her perky attitude until she ended up dying and then we discover in the Lifestream Sequence that Cloud’s romantic feelings, his whole reason for fighting, was for Tifa. We thought Shinra was the main antagonist of the game until shortly after going through Midgar, the main antagonist is Sephiroth. We thought we were fighting Sephiroth throughout the game until we find out that the real Sephiroth was encased in a crystal sucking up the Lifestream. We don’t actually fight him until the very end when he merges with Jenova and the Lifestream into Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth.

See where I’m going with all of this? The developers want to continue using red herrings and playing the theme of illusion by using different methods. The old methods will not work anymore, so they have to find a new way to subvert expectations in a way that gets us confused, excited, and uncertain what will happen until we actually play through the next installments. When that time comes, be prepared to get your heartstrings pulled, because reality hits our characters hard, just like it hits us hard. Think Biggs, Zack, Aerith are going to survive, and that Sephiroth is travelling through time to accomplish his devious tasks? Well, think again.

Now that we’ve gotten this far into this Whisper Talk, there are a load of questions I will need to address. So without further ado, Let’s mosey!!!

How is Sephiroth not from the future? His one-winged form from Advent Children Complete was shown in the final boss fight, the boss map looks eerily similar to Edge, and we saw multiple Sephiroths throughout the story. The game is heavily implying that Sephiroth is from the future and he wants to try to achieve victory a second time.

Well, for starters, First Class SOLDIERs having wings has been a thing for a while. Sephiroth was not the only SOLDIER to have a wing. As Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core showed us, Sephiroth’s comrades, Angeal and Genesis, were able to grow wings at will. They had different cells (G cells) which gave them a different ability, make copies of themselves, rather than control others who share their cells, sure, but that is NOT stopping any of them from growing wings at will. It’s something used across the board for all three of these really powerful SOLDIERs and it’s no surprise that this time around, they want to show Sephiroth using more of his abilities throughout the game.

Also, Sephiroth having one wing is nothing new. It’s part of his Safer form and is named on his track, One-Winged Angel. So, as an homage, they wanted the villain of the game to use a wing during his fight in Advent Children.

There’s also another way we can explain this. Sephiroth formed a body of his image in Advent Children thanks to Kadaj. And what purpose does Kadaj serve? He’s a strengthened remnant embodying Sephiroth’s cruelty. In other words, he’s another puppet Sephiroth can manipulate. And he uses Kadaj’s body + Jenova’s head to form his image. A clone and Jenova cells, or just straight up Jenova, allow him to shapeshift as that’s one of Jenova’s trademark abilities. So using this as an implication of time travel doesn’t add up.

When it comes to Sephiroth’s 70 alternative accounts, each of them have a straightforward explanation, including the one that confuses most people. Here we go, according to the FF7R Ultimania:

An illusion only Cloud can see:

Cloud has S cells injected into him. The same S cells are also Jenova cells. Jenova cells allow hosts to read the memories of those nearby, inherit the memories of other hosts, and give Sephiroth shapeshifting and puppeting abilities on those who have S cells. This is how Cloud created his SOLDIER facade thanks to Zack’s injection, similar memories and instinct to hide from the truth. What’s likely going on here is Sephiroth is able to make Cloud hallucinate thanks to said S cells, hence why it’s an illusion ONLY Cloud can see. We saw this during the Nibelheim flashback, meeting Aerith for the first time, after the Sector 7 Plate collapse when he was behind Tifa. This is another way of showing Sephiroth’s omnipresent power.

Also, if we're going to get really specific about the properties of Jenova cells, we can look at a source like FF7 Ultimania Omega:

Jenova's mimic ability Jenova has a mimic ability which allows it to read the memories and feelings of others, then adjust its appearance, speech and behaviour accordingly to imitate what it has seen. Jenova once used this ability to get close to the Ancients and infect them with its virus, which killed many of them.

This ability is not limited solely to Jenova itself, for those who have its cells within them passes it as well, though in an incomplete form. Immediately prior to the start of the game, when Cloud's mind was shattered, he ran into Tifa and seemed to immediately return to "normal"; this was because of the mimic abilities of the Jenova cells inside Cloud read her mind, seeing her memories of him, which were then combined with his own ideal vision of himself, fashioning a new personality for himself.

And there you go. Jenova's signature abilities are shapeshifting and illusion. It's mentioned in her backstory, It's shown in her boss battles, it's shown in Jenova-infected hosts, and it's even shown in her OST! The illusion aspect being something only Cloud can see makes sense, thanks to his Jenova S cells, so the developers are expanding this ability.

Black Robed Man:

Simple. These are Sephiroth Clones, also known as Remnants. Each of these puppets have S Jenova cells injected into them, which is what allows Sephiroth to create illusionary projections of himself via their bodies. They can also create an illusion of Jenova’s Lovecraftian forms. If predictions are correct, there’s a chance that a couple of them could end up becoming the Advent Children (more on that later).

Flashback:

Also simple. This connects to what was mentioned in Cloud’s illusion. Cloud knows events he should not thanks to his Jenova S cells, and flashbacks like, “Within my veins flows the blood of Ancients. This Planet is my birthright!” are events that will be featured later in the game in moments like the Kalm flashback. Moving on!

Unknown:

This is where people get confused. But believe me, the answer is MUCH simpler than most people realize. The Unknown Sephiroth is the last form of Sephiroth that we fought in Final Fantasy 7. Yes, the shirtless one. From here forward I'll call him SOLDIER Sephiroth. For reasons I do not know, they decided not to make him shirtless this time around (too sexy by far?) but believe me when I say that that Sephiroth is the same one we saw at the Edge of Creation. How am I so sure of this? Look back at how Cloud met that Sephiroth in Remake and compare it to what happened in the Crater. They have the same tunnel of light and Cloud’s visiting a persona of Sephiroth that exists in a dimension unaffected by time and space. The Lifestream gives Sephiroth the opportunity to pull Cloud's conscious mind into this dimension. Cloud being in the Singularity during the final battle of FF7R Part 1, and the Singularity containing Lifestream = ability to take Cloud to meet SOLDIER Sephiroth in a pocket dimension, the Edge of Creation. In OG, being exposed/near the Lifestream in the Crater allowed Cloud to visit Shirtless SOLDIER Sephiroth in another dimension and finish him off, with Aerith helping Cloud return his consciousness to the real world.

See?! It actually makes a lot of sense, only this time Sephiroth hasn’t been stripped of his God powers and is currently siphoning the Lifestream. So this time around, Cloud couldn’t beat down Sephiroth. The reason the FF7 Remake Ultimania labels this Sephiroth as unknown is because it’s following a narrative where it assumes you do not know everything yet. Final Fantasy 7 Remake has only covered Midgar, and there’s still many places and moments we have yet to explore. But the Ultimania is not going to cover them until they are published in the next installments, and why would it tell us unrevealed "secrets" of the story? So for now, it has to act as if this is a mystery. This is the same case with Zack being labeled as “Missing in Action” rather than dead in the Ultimania, because we have not reached that moment in the plot yet. But I’ll cover that a bit more on one of the next questions.

As for Sephiroth being prophetic in the Edge of Creation, it’s simply foreshadowing what we’ll eventually have to face. “That which lies ahead… does not yet exist” is telling us that the final battle still has years before it’s ready to be unleashed. As for the Nebula, “Our world will become a part of it… one day,” this is a more vague statement of what I quoted earlier:

“By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life form, a new existence. Melding with the Planet… I will cease to exist as I am now. Only to be reborn as a god to rule over every soul.” The Nebula that Sephiroth is staring at is stated in the FF7R Ultimania to represent Sephiroth’s wing(s). This same Nebula also has a similar shape to the original sketch of Safer Sephiroth. So, based on what SOLDIER Sephiroth told Cloud, we can conclude that Safer Sephiroth will one day be born and be the last fight for our team, maybe even taking place in the Edge of Creation. BUT it’s not quite time for that to happen yet, as Safer Sephiroth's physical body is still resting in a crystal at the Northern Crater. So there you have it!

Lastly, conceding the battlefield against Sephiroth, it is an homage to Advent Children and Edge, yes. That does not automatically mean that Sephiroth is from the future. We just fought arbiters of destiny who turned themselves into depictions of the three Advent Children. This is ultimately the developers' way of ending the game with an exciting boss battle and a somewhat familiar scene. It's just a manifestation of one of Gaia's locations while in the Singularity. Also, this whole boss battle was ultimately a fanservice-esque decision by the developers, particularly Co-Director Naoki Yamaguchi. They originally did not plan to have this boss battle in the first place, but they wanted to end this game on some kind of high note with the main antagonist. They could've ended the game with the Arbiter boss battle, and I think doing so would have confused less people, but the reason behind the Sephiroth boss battle has been spoken. We can conclude this: it was a Jenova/Remnant copy of Sephiroth using expanded abilities like his wing and absorbed some of the Whispers' power before this Sephiroth was defeated by the team and the Whispers were released from his grasp. There is no need to overthink this decision (but yes, I don't think it was entirely necessary).

But what about the Arbiters manifesting into images of Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo? Whisper Rubrum, Viridi, Croceo, and Bahamut SHIN are all representations of Advent Children’s antagonists and their bio says they are from a “future timeline.” Isn’t this proof that there’s time travel and alternate timelines going on?

Well, you are right about the enemy intel bio in Final Fantasy 7 Remake stating that these guys are manifestations of figures from a future timeline. BUT that does not imply that multiple timelines are forming. Technically speaking, we all live in one timeline that follows through a singularity. This is the same case for Final Fantasy 7, and the very place we are fighting these Whispers is called the Singularity. The reason the Whispers are forming into these creatures is because of their future knowledge. This is their way of shapeshifting into powerful foes that can defend themselves against the team. They are turning into foes that destiny will one day birth, but in the form of something akin to a Weapon just like the main Arbiter itself, and this is also the developers way of adding a homage and possibly a hint of the foes that will appear in the future. They are NOT the Advent Children themselves, otherwise there would probably show more personality, and they would also… look more like them. So what happened with “time” after defeating these Advent Whispers and the Arbiter Weapon? Well, it sharpened the curves of the river and put destiny on a new course, but to the same destination, hence the “set beginning and end” that the developers mentioned before. In the river’s new course, we’ll get new events that while still having original events that will all be more fleshed out. In part of this new course of destiny maybe there’s a chance that we will see the Advent Children themselves. How can I be sure of this? After speaking to a friend about it, the remnants we encountered give us a hint. Marco, #49, resides in Sector 7. Who was a teenager that resided in Sector 7 before becoming a remnant and then Advent Child? Kadaj, also known as the manifestation of Sephiroth's cruelty. Meanwhile, we have #2 in Sector 5, who shows strong features fitting for someone in SOLDIER. Who fits this category? Loz, also known as the manifestation of Sephiroth's strength. People have theorized that #2 is Zack, but I do not agree and will address that later. The only remnant candidate we have left is Yazoo, the manifestation of Sephiroth's allure. This makes sense as he’s the most silent of the trio, so the developers will keep his remnant in mystery for now. But there you have it. By Nomura stating, "Come back to me a few years later and ask me what remake means," what I believe he means by "remake" is write the original story of Final Fantasy 7 with characters in other parts of the compilation included. Hence, a shuffled story with the same necessary outcomes.

Okay, but didn’t the developers say that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not canon to the Compilation, thereby making it a different story from the Compilation and proving the developers are ditching the original story in the process?

Let me tell you right now: if those lines were what they actually said in full context, then they were lying. How am I sure? Because throughout FF7R, parts of what happened in the Compilation are included in the story. Zack’s Last Stand was featured in a flashback; Hollow’s lyrics greatly parallel the lyrical version of Price of Freedom; one of Cloud’s old Shinra Military comrades was featured and mentioned Kunsel, from Crisis Core; and of course the big Arbiters being manifestations of the Advent Children.

For saying the Compilation is being ditched and is the bad ending, why include characters and homages specifically from the Compilation? If they really were, they wouldn’t put pieces of it into the story like this. All that was stated by Director Tetsuya Nomura was that FF7 Remake is not canon to the Compilation YET. Keyword YET. The story is incomplete and the developers need to see Remake through from start to finish before they can say it’s truly canon to the Compilation. And what have Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima and Producer Yoshinori Kitase said about the story?

Does this sound like they’re ditching the Compilation to you? I think this should sum up how they are tying the series of Final Fantasy 7 into one big package, but there are some people saying that the team seeing Advent Children and the Planet 500 years later, followed by Red XIII saying it’s “a glimpse of tomorrow if we fail here today” as proof that what happens in the future is a bad ending. This is not entirely true. It makes sense for humanity to be gone 500 years later with the Planet living on because that was the life that the team was trying to save in the first place. What Red XIII told us was simple: that if Destiny wins, then the river of Destiny will run the same course, and that includes the events of On The Way To a Smile, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and of course humanity being gone 500 years later. This is another case of the team receiving future visions without context, as I addressed before. They saw an event where they maybe saw people they knew, but do they know what leads to it? No. So what they assume about the outcome of the future and what’s good and bad may not necessarily be correct. They will find that out as the next parts of Final Fantasy 7 Remake are released.

Okay, but aren’t the characters free to do whatever they want now that they have beaten Destiny? As Aerith said, they have boundless, terrifying freedom.

They have freedom from the Whispers, and like Zack once said, “The price of freedom is steep.” They can begin their journey without the worry of the Whispers acting up if they do something that strays far away from what’s necessary. That doesn’t mean that they are not going to head to all the destinations we needed to reach in the original game. We will still probably have the flashback at Kalm since it’s the nearest town away from Midgar. We still need to pass through the Mythril Mines to get to other destinations. We still need to pass through Corel, Barret’s hometown, to get to the Gold Saucer where we will meet Cait Sith and reach Barret’s character climax. We still need to reach Gongaga and this will likely be a required place to visit because of how much more importance Zack is given in Remake. There’s also no working reactor in Gongaga so there’s a chance that yellow reunion flowers will grow as foliage. We still need to head to Cosmo Canyon, where Bugenhagen will teach us more about the Lifestream and where Red XIII will learn the truth about what happened to his father Seto. We still need to head to Nibelheim where a lot of confusion is going to rise within our team--specifically Cloud and Tifa--and also where we need to release Vincent from the Shinra Mansion. We still need to cross Mt. Nibel (we might get a flashback from Cloud) and head to Rocket Town to meet Cid and drink some goddamn tea. We still need to head to the Temple of the Ancients for the team to find out what needs to be done to save the Planet, and also the place where Sephiroth will manipulate Cloud and the team into giving him the Black Materia. We still need Aerith to head to the Forgotten City as it’s the only place she can use her prayer to activate the White Materia and summon Holy. We still need to head to the Northern Crater as that’s where Cloud will likely have his downfall and submit to Sephiroth….

We could keep going on with this, but I’m sure you see my point. New things will happen but there are important locations that the team needs to reach in order to come closer to their goal of stopping Sephiroth. The simple thing is that, from here on out, the Whispers will not intervene, giving us the illusion that things will change, but we most likely will learn the hard way that the necessary outcomes will still happen. So once again, the river is on a new course to the same destination.

Okay. You’ve talked about Sephiroth not being from the future, but what about Aerith? Her prayer stance in the opening cinematic looks eerily similar to her stance in the ending of Final Fantasy 7. Based on this, is she from the future/did she see the outcome of the Meteor-Lifestream-Holy Conflict?

No. What probably happened was the developers paid homage to that ending screen. What follows immediately after that is Aerith picking up a crushed reunion flower, symbolizing the non-reunion that Aerith and Zack could not receive in life, but eventually receive in the Lifestream. And once again: Aerith has received visions of the future, but without context as to why and how they happened. In a novella it’s mentioned that Aerith received a vision as a child and drew her mural of symbolism in her room as a result. We know she’s been receiving non-contextual visions for awhile, but being forced into a big responsibility by the Planet is something she needs to learn to accept, and that’s part of her character arc we will receive in the next parts of FInal Fantasy 7 Remake. There is no evidence she can time travel, and she doesn’t always know the Whispers’ intentions. When the team asked her what they were doing while surrounding the Shinra HQ Tower, she simply replied, “Who knows?”. She’s not omniscient. She has some meta knowledge and a big responsibility, but does not know how to handle this role yet. And that's where character development comes in for our Maiden of the Planet.

Cool, but why are people like Rufus and Hojo able to see the Whispers in the first place? And maybe Zack, too?

Actually, there’s a pretty straightforward explanation for this. As we know, to be able to see the Whispers, once again you have to either be heavily connected to the Planet or touched by a special person. Aerith spent a portion of her childhood in the Shinra HQ Tower. Who else was there with her? Her biological mother Ifalna. These two are both Cetra, one half and one full-blooded. Hojo likely spent hours upon hours with both of them, especially Ifalna, so receiving contact from them is not farfetched. Also, that gross f***** of a scientist does unfortunately play an important role in the plot and keeping the flow of destiny on course. As for Rufus? This man was a teenager when Aerith and Ifalna were living in Shinra HQ. It’s very possible that he ran into one of the two cetra and maybe received contact from them. If he didn’t? Don’t forget, this man is the president of Shinra throughout almost all of FF7. Even if the team opposes him, they still need him. He is very necessary to destroy the barrier that blocks the team from getting into the Northern Crater. Without his actions, the team cannot make it to Sephiroth. It’s that simple. And even though he can see the Whispers, how much does it matter? It’s only going to matter if the Whispers make a resurgence sometime in the plot. There you have it.

Okay, but why is Zack alive after his Last Stand? And why were the Whispers present during this? Also, what about the Stamp bag? Isn’t this proof of time travel and alternate timelines?

And here’s where the red herring comes in! He did beat the Shinra Army. And yes, the Whispers were present. BUT why were they present? Remember what was mentioned earlier? The Whispers are dead souls returning to the Planet, and if that’s the case they have been part of the Planet for a LONG time. This means that they were ALWAYS present through the course of events in the Planet. The reason we see them during Zack’s Last Stand is likely to throw one off at first, until they connect the dots with how old the Whispers actually are. And they are showing themselves in the Last Stand because this is an extremely important event that has to happen for Cloud’s next journey to begin. We didn’t quite get to see how the Whispers changed up the event, but they likely did form it in a way where the developers wanted to trick us. It's also left ambiguous if he can see the Whispers or not, although they do not seem to alarm him IF he can see them.

Now, about the Last Stand, If you compare Remake’s Last Stand to Crisis Core and Final Fantasy 7 OG, you’ll notice that Remake’s moment has similarities to the OG scene.

Zack walks, drops Cloud in a safe place, and defends himself against the soldiers in all three. So here's where the cutscenes get different:

FF7 OG: Zack fights against Shinra infantrymen. We don't see the troops, but Zack thinks he defeated them. Afterwards he heads to Cloud but immediately gets shot by a group of Shinra troops, and I mean shot. Afterwards, there is no dialogue between Zack and Cloud, Cloud grabs the Buster Sword and starts breaking down in the rain. Thus, his journey--nearly--begins.

FF7 Crisis Core: Zack confronts the Shinra army. He begins his monologue:

Boy oh boy... The price of freedom is steep. Embrace your dreams, and whatever happens... Protect your honor, as a SOLDIER!

We then proceed to battle the Shinra army. Eventually, the screen fades to black and we see Zack mortally wounded. The same group of Shinra troops from OG come over and bullet Zack to death. Eventually, Cloud wakes up in shock, and Zack parts Cloud his sword and last words:

For the both of us... You're gonna... Live. You'll be... My living legacy. My honor, my dreams... They're yours now.

Cloud then proceeds with a breakdown, and afterwards begins his journey, where he'll bump into a certain someone while in Mako comatose. Sheesh I hate watching that scene due to its deadly side effect.

Where does Remake stop?

Right in the area where Zack’s grave is, a cliff with a steep descent to flat land. It’s the same spot where Zack got shot by a Shinra infantryman who pursued Zack throughout his running away from Shinra Mansion; it's the same spot where Cloud placed the Buster Sword to honor his close friend’s wish; and the same spot where Zack declared, “For the both of us… you’re going to live. You’ll be… my living legacy.” The developers intentionally stopped us from seeing the outcome of that moment because it’ll either be the same place where Zack will die, or we’ll see his fate get delayed and placed somewhere else. 

I have also seen people argue that #2 is Zack, or if not Zack, then Zack’s corpse.

This is false.

Remember why Zack was placed in a cryosleep tube in the first place? Because, like Cloud, he was considered a failed experiment by Hojo because the S cells could not turn him into a Sephiroth clone. Zack becoming a Sephiroth clone would be a major retcon to the story and how he was able to escape with Cloud in the first place. Zack becoming a clone would mean that he was never a failed experiment. And what would happen if he wasn’t a failed experiment? Cloud wouldn’t be able to escape and FF7 wouldn’t have happened. Could Hojo have picked up Zack’s dead body after his death? Maybe, but is there evidence that his corpse would still become a clone? That’s extremely unlikely in my personal opinion. We would have to assume that Hojo did another clone experiment this time around and the Shinra troops decided to take his body with them when they had no good motive or order to do so anyway. Their orders were likely  “shoot to kill” and that’s it. We don’t need Zack’s corpse to be remade into a clone, and we certainly don’t need him to be a clone if Sephiroth wants to do something like create an illusionary projection of Zack. Remember what happened in the Northern Crater? Sephiroth used Jenova to create an illusion of Tifa in order to trick the Black Materia holder into “helping” the team.

Lastly, that bag of Stamp's Champs, Original Flavor.

It’s interesting, isn't it? And Nomura told us to pay close attention to both stamps. This is probably the biggest case of an alternate timeline being real, but after thinking about it for a while, I argue that it's not proving an alternate timeline exists, but rather it's being shown to give focus to two different heroes. And how does this work in the FF7 world? Well, Shinra probably has simple rebranding of Stamp on a Shinra product. It’s not uncommon for corporations to rebrand their products into a different name (just look up Lay’s Potato Chips and you’ll come across Walkers, as shown in my poorly collaged photo). BUT there's another example to talk about, as a friend mentioned. Stamp's Champs are the "original" flavor. This original flavor and Terrier is being used to represent Zack in FF7, as he was once called a "puppy" by his mentors in FF7 Crisis Core. Now, that bag is calling to the original hero, who was Zack (could also be an homage to how Zack's design was originally assigned a "different" role in FF7 OG) up until he passed his dreams on to Cloud. So what this means is both Stamps are used for wither a different flavor or got rebranded after a certain amount of time passed, or the Stamp brand has the same flavor is different depending on the location in Gaia. Now for the second functionality for Stamp: It's being used as a red herring to mislead the players deeper in to the mouse trap. Remember Stamp’s original function in the context of Shinra? It served as a propaganda device for Shinral to promote its use of warfare for wealth to mislead the public into thinking Shinra’s deeds were for progress and beneficial for the Planet. It’s very possible that the developers are using Terrier Stamp as a propaganda device to trick the face-value players into thinking everything’s going to be different for the story until we're shown otherwise. And if it actually is an alternate timeline? It will not affect our team. As established previously, there is no time travel that our team is capable of, and the Whispers act on a fixed flow under the Will of the Planet and are almost omnipresent, so they must correct the course of destiny in the present and as quickly as possible. That alternate timeline would probably just be used to show us that no matter what we do, what’s set in stone needs to be kept in stone. So, don’t get your hopes up that Zack is going to survive, especially since he already passed on the Buster Sword to Cloud in the present "timeline" that we're playing.

But why is there a different Seventh Heaven sign shown during the ending sequence? Isn’t this proof of an alternate timeline?

Careful now. There’s a big possibility that what was shown during that shuffled sequence of events was the original Seventh Heaven bar. That’s right, there was a Seventh Heaven before Tifa’s in Sector 7. How do I know this? It’s a sidequest in Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. Zack met an unnamed carpenter in the Sector 7 slums and helped name the bar. The canon answer in the narrative is to choose the name Seventh Heaven. So what’s likely happening here is 1) we saw a past event of the first Seventh Heaven bar being worked on, as the folks of the slums are building their homes together; 2) we are seeing the folks rebuild the Sector 7 slums, and perhaps to honor what was once there, the folks are building another bar and making sure to keep the original name Seventh Heaven, or 3) pretty much what I said before and it’s happening in an alternate timeline. Regardless, there’s a good chance that Crisis Core is being referenced here. And if it isn’t and it’s different events happening in an alternate timeline? Once again, our friends can’t go to that alternate timeline because time travel is not a power they have. So, it doesn’t really affect the main beats of our journey. What may happen, though, is our team will visit the Sector 7 slums later down the line, and they’ll have a reunion with a rebuilt home before settling the score with Shinra and Sephiroth. Until we see it, though, that’s just headcanon.

But why is Biggs alive? Aren’t Wedge and Jessie alive, too?

Biggs is shown to be alive, yes, but at what point of time and for how long? Also, even though he is shown to be alive, how is that going to drastically alter the story for our friends? He may stick around and have a minor role later, but he could very well die again depending on where the Destiny River is heading, and there’s likely very little he can do to somehow drastically change the story. Is he going to suddenly appear and sacrifice himself to make sure Aerith survives? Highly doubt it. See what I mean? Even if someone like him is left alive, he’ll either receive the same fate in a different way or just get a role that won’t change much of the main story. So, are Wedge and Jessie alive? Wedge, absolutely not. He was pushed down Shinra HQ Tower and there is no way he was able to survive a fall that high. There is no evidence that he “survived” after that fall as well. As for Jessie, we saw her gloves and headband on a dresser next to Biggs, but that’s it. Why would they place those next to him and not next to Jessie if she’s still alive and being taken care of? She was high atop the Sector 7 tower and it’s very unlikely anyone besides our team was able to run up and grab her on time. She was also in a worse state than Biggs and probably got crushed by the tower collapsing. In other words, she got crushed twice. Once when she set off her bomb and Cloud and Tifa bump into her; the second, when the plate dropped. What the glove and headband are, are likely nothing more than the remains of a friend who couldn’t make it. There may have been time for someone to pick up Biggs and that’s how he ended up in a bed, covered in bandages. As for more proof he’s the only one who survived? Wedge had 3 cats he held. Out of the three, only one named Biggums survived. The other 2 missing, I believe, are symbolism for the fate of the AVALANCHE trio. There you have it, three charming but minor characters who had written character arcs that got fleshed out in Remake, but don’t serve an extremely important purpose to the main plot points of the game (no offense to the trio, I do like Mr. Not-Charlie-Sheen and I wonder what they will do when the inevitable happens).

This is cool and all, but what about Sephiroth's line? "Seven Seconds till the end. Time enough for you, perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see." Also, this Sephiroth used more informal phrasing in the Japanese acript, such as "ore." He seems to be aware of what the future holds, too. So what do you make of this?

Ah yes, this moment, also one of the first pieces of script the writers thought of:

Well friend, I actually covered this topic before:

Seven Seconds Before the End: Theory vs. Context

While that post was made to debunk a theory, I believe what I wrote in it can easily be taken into the context of this post. That's one thing people constantly overlook about this line: it already has a given context. What do I mean by that? Check out the story log here:

In the world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path toward an unknown future.

This is what Sephiroth was referring to: the end of the Planet. Unfortunately people are taking this line WAY out of context and using it to write theories that stray far away from the line's meaning in the first place. It's part of what Sephiroth is after, and it's part of what Cloud is fighting against. The team fought against the Arbiters of Fate because they believe what they saw was the end of everything for them without seeing the long-term outcome, while Sephiroth lured the team to fight against the Arbiters of Fate because he may have seen his failure, and believes that with the physical manifestation of the Whispers gone, he can continue his plan without any chance of failure. A part of the future, no matter what seems to happen, will involve making a decision seven seconds before the Planet's demise. What will cause the Planet's demise? Meteor. That is the main calamity we are trying to stop after defeating Sephiroth, and we need to defeat Safer Sephiroth and SOLDIER Sephiroth to make sure his will cannot block Holy from being summoned, as well as prevent Aerith from calling forth the Lifestream. So once again, this is from Sephiroth's rough understanding of the future, and it's a meta message for the players of what the ending of Remake might entail. It is NOT Sephiroth from the future suddenly sending his body/consciousness into the past in a really odd moment to give Cloud a warning.

Even with all this, the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake stated, "The Unknown Journey will continue." What do you have to say about this?

Yes, there is an unknown journey. This is a journey with new content to tie the rest of the Compilation together, like a possible story shuffle mentioned earlier. There's bound to be new and revised scenes in between the set beginning and end, hence "the unknown journey." I talked about this before, but for the developers to put something like "The same journeys from 2 decades ago will continue" is counter-intuitive to what they just showed us in the ending and would mess with all the anticipation for what's to come next. We have to think about this in a different perspective, and not the perspective of "oh, nothing is going to change." The developers need to keep people excited, and part of keeping that excitement is marketing a tease. It's pretty much how marketing works, too. A marketing scheme that only tells the literal facts without trying to juggle the consumer's emotions isn't going to interest the consumer that much compared to the marketing scheme that teases at the possibilities. As for the reason Yoshinori Kitase will then say that the team is continuing FF7R as FF7 has? He's in a different mindset during interviews like that. The game Final Fantasy 7 Remake is telling us things like a book, ending the events with a To Be Continued cliffhanger. Meanwhile, Kitase can state that FF7R will continue as FF7 because that's technically a vague statement. We know we'll get key locations and scenes, but we don't know how they'll get fleshed out. And we sure as heck don't know about any new scenes and how those are going to be executed in the next installments. In other words, think of a classic sandwich with a hipster rendition. The set beginning and end are the top and bottom buns, the protein is almost the same, maybe a couple spices added in there; and the unknown is all the new toppings added in your hipster-style classic sandwich. I know this is a strange analogy, but hopefully it gets the point across. So don't worry too much; Nojima, Nomura, and Kitase haven't shown us the new condiments yet!

Conclusion

If you're still here after reading through my wall of jargon, thank you! After all that I've written, I hope I was able to accomplish my goal: to ease your worries about the developers' plans with the story. And I hoped to do this by giving an in-universe explanation as to why certain things are happening. There is context to the Whispers' powers, and with the Whisper following a continuous flow of destiny, pieces of the future and past are scattered in that river. Sephiroth's been basking in this river for years now, so he got similar exposure as Aerith did and now has rough knowledge of what's to come. I think people who are clinging to time travel theories are taking the Whispers' powers out of context. We saw vague bits of the future; Aerith did, Sephiroth did, we did, and do you know who else? Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII. Heavy exposure to the Whispers gives visions as a side effect. They're not travelling through time from the future to fix things when they've always existed as dead souls who returned to the Planet; they're continuously moving around Gaia and watching folks--especially key players in saving the Planet. The flow of a river doesn't stop, it keeps moving through its closed course. Maybe it can change its course in a slightly different direction, or get shafted into sharper curves to delay the flow, but it will still head to its final destination no matter what. While we are in the current of this new course, we'll stumble upon some untouched terrain before we get to the set ending.

However, even if we know about the inevitable, that isn't going to stop us from feeling intense pain for our heroes.

Thus the journey continues.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sit my ass down and drink some god-damn tea.

Special Thanks

@otp-oasis-heavenxearth (Also known as @magicalchemist)

For taking the time to read my rough draft and pointing out the goofs, bringing in your theory ideas, as well as helping me solidify my confidence in Final Fantasy 7 Remake's future. Seriously, if you haven't, check out her blog. She's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to FF7 and looks through every different perspective while sticking to the facts. In other words, straight up awesome!

@silver-wield

For allowing me to cite your post, as well as being the first person that made me faithful the developers are staying true to their word with their direction of FF7R. Seriously, thanks! If you haven't, check out her blog. Her attention to detail is incredible!

[silver-wield]

Aerith's prayers

Okay, this one will blow your minds.

Every time Aerith does her prayer pose she changes something. Because she's meta, she knows a few bits of key info and because she's got more of her cetra powers than OG, she actually has the power to influence the flow of the planet. And she's been doing it this whole damn time. That's why the devs said to pay attention to her.

When she asked if Tifa was Cloud's girlfriend, it wasn't out of jealousy or rivalry, it was a prayer she made because she knows about them in the future and that Cloud has issues now. She was helping them. She changed something small. She redirected soldier Cloud's misdirected affection and put it back where it always belonged. On Tifa. Because she's their friend. Although, she's still not Cloud's at this point and actually since she looked so much happier to see Tifa in Don Corneo's than she did when she first met Cloud and at any point after, I think she's actually Tifa's friend more than his overall. Which is cute af because yes Aerith needs a BFF like Tifa.

And before people get butthurt this isn't me saying Tifa isn't capable of keeping Cloud without help. She's still gotta do all the same stuff as before. She's not the one who needed help. Cloud got a nudge in the right direction. Which he took because were yall paying attention to the rest of the game? Cloud’s a dick in sector 5 and wants to leave. No flirting. Only thinking about Tifa. Very focused and doesn't like Aerith much at all. And that makes me feel more sorry for her. She sacrificed her friendship with Cloud for this. Because everything has a price.

It's debatable whether this was needed since Cloud was already working towards making a relationship with Tifa before the extra help, but really, Cloud needs all the help he can get and Aerith doesn't know everything, just some things. And she had good intentions.

We don't know what her prayer is here, but we can guess it has to do with stopping the pillar collapse.

I'm thinking bigger prayers need more time to make changes. Like how holy needed such a long time to work. Hell, she could be using holy to do this without realising. Or maybe she knows how to use it and she's trying out its limits. Every materia has to level up, right?

Because they're right on top of the event, it doesn't stop it completely, but a lot of people survived and they were optimistic about rebuilding.

We don't see the price for this. I mean if summoning holy costs her life to save the planet, then does she have to pay the price personally or is it something that rebounds onto others? Maybe this is why Wedge still dies. His life is the cost of delaying the pillar collapse. Maybe it's just the fact a lot of people still die, so the cost balances itself out?

A helicopter is about to crash into the bar but Aerith's prayer makes the tail snap off and it hits the ground in front of her.

By saving Marlene she draws attention to herself and Tseng captures her. A fair price for saving a little girl. Seems like a selfish prayer costs her personally, where an altruistic one doesn't. Makes sense. She shouldn't use her gifts for personal gain. Wish making 101.

And I feel someone already about to point out she did it to save Marlene. Yeah, but expecting nuance from the lifestream is a bit more farfetched than I'm willing to go especially when it does random shit like twist Jessie's ankle to stop her going on the reactor 5 mission.

I mean, the novellas are called black and white. The white materia wouldn't deal in minor details surely? The pure path is the only path. If Aerith deviates she suffers for it.

She's praying to save Zack.

She looks at the lifestream in the distance for much of this. She sure af isn't paying attention to Cloud, almost as much as he's not paying attention to her. So, guess that early prayer worked. There's this definite sense she's talking to someone, besides the audience. The line itself is odd. It stands out because it's such a random thing to say in this conversation. And since this is Aerith's resolution, it's got more layers than we can count. It's like she's explaining by delaying Zack's death she's not preventing it because everyone dies eventually. Zack will die one day, but not when he originally did. That's what this prayer is saying.

Her declaration at the end of the game, "we can change it, make it right" seems more like her realising this is how she'll fix Zack's death. Maybe she thought she'd see him again afterwards. She doesn't know how it'd work and that's why she stops when she passes him in the final scene. The price she paid was knowing he lives but he's still out of her reach.

[queenrose730]

Reckless

Part 11

Master List

Three months seems to fly by.  

T’Challa was right to have you stay far from the city. Apparently his cousin came back looking for revenge. You had wanted to help. Especially after you learned T’Challa died but Shuri told you to stay hidden and be ready to flee. There was also a CIA agent in Wakanda. That was enough deterrent to keep you hid away. She assured you that Bucky would be safe for now. You begged her to give you the codes to get him out if things got worse. She did and gave you specific instructions only to do so if it was the last option. Not only you going back into the city but trying to get him out would be tough. So you stayed put waiting for any word from her. It wasn’t until after the battle when T’Challa showed up at your house. He survived and Wakanda was safe for now. The two of you spent most of one afternoon talking. “I appreciate everything you have given me T’Challa but I also don’t want to take advantage of you. Is there something that I can do while I’m here? I’m a good pilot, I can track just about anyone down, I also spent some time working with Tony in weapons development.” You leaned forward in your seat, looking ahead of you at the water. “I’m sure we can find something to occupy your time yn. Please do not feel like you are a burden here.” “I know.” You let out a sigh. “Part of me is yelling to just take a break. Even when I was tracking down Bucky I was still doing a lot of other surveillance. I don’t think I even know how to slow down.” “Shuri will be sure to help with that.” He laughed. “She always finds time to slow down and have fun. Even while working harder than almost everyone I know. I think you two will get along.” “I hope so!” You turned to him and smiled. “It will be nice to have someone to maybe be a little girlie with.” “In that case you are more than welcome to work with her.  She can definitely put your skills to work.” He set his drink down and stood. “If you are also interested, I think we can find you a place in the city to stay.” “Are you sure?” “Yes. I don’t foresee any issues now. Wakanda maybe opening her borders but you will still be safe.” “Thank you.” You stood as well now and shook his hand. I am really grateful for everything and I don’t think I will ever stop saying thank you. He just gave you a smile and laugh as he walked back to his transport.

It took a few weeks to get everything in order for you to start work with Shuri and move into the city. But once you finally got settled it didn’t take long to fall into a very familiar routine. Mornings were spent having breakfast on the balcony of your apartment. It was the perfect size for you. A large living room that was able to comfortably hold a couch and tv. But also a work station. Shuri was really throwing you into the deep end of Wakandan tech. You couldn’t get enough of it though. It was amazing the things they could do with the vibranium. It touched just about every part of their lives. The kitchen was probably bigger than you needed. You rarely cooked anymore. It reminded you too much of Steve. That shit head had only called you once since he left. He found Nat. Wanda was doing better. She was still having nightmares about the Raft but having Nat around was helping. They were still going out on missions to help where they could. He asked how Bucky was doing even though there wasn’t much to tell. Shuri had one of the doctors on it. Every day they were going over scans and what not. You tried to not be there. Using that time instead to train with the Dora. They had such a different fighting style. You were so used to the brute force that Steve taught you. They were graceful. Using their weapons as extensions of themselves. They regularly beat your ass. Shuri got you to go to the clubs a couple times a week. T’Challa was right. She worked hard but wasn’t going to let any fun pass her by. And now she made it her job to make sure it didn’t pass you by either. Any time not in the lab or training was spent doing something fun. First she mostly just drug you out shopping then it became actually wearing those clothes to go out. Natasha would have been proud at how much you had grown comfortable in your skin. Anytime the Avengers had a party she made sure you didn’t get away with wearing anything that didn’t show the most skin possible. Now that was second nature. It also helped to forget about the frozen super solider. The first week was hard. So many dreams about him. You only actually knew him for less than a week. But he infiltrated your mind thoroughly. Now he barley crossed your mind. Only coming up when Shuri would talk about the progress they were making. That was taken care of by going and sparing with Ayo. “I think we should be able to wake Bucky up in a week or so.” Shuri was chatting with you while you tinkered with a new design for a suit. “Already?” “What do you mean already! We have been at it for almost three months.” She walked around the table so she was across from you. “I know I know.” You leaned your arms on the table. “What would the next steps be?” “Probably a few more weeks for scans and maybe some reconditioning. Then testing the Winter Solider words.” She talked like that was the easiest thing in the world. “He’s not going to like that. Hopefully Steve can be here for that.” The thought of using Bucky so Steve would come back made you smile. “If not, I’m sure we can handle it. And I think you will be able to talk to him about making sure the words don’t work anymore.” You looked up just in time to see her give you a smirk. She knew just enough about the dreams when Bucky first went under and then how you are always absent during his scans. You just rolled your eyes at her though. Bucky was an ass right before he went under. Even though he tried to apologize the words were still there. You were there because of Steve. You cared because Steve needed you to care.   The next week you spent almost no time in the lab. You didn’t even go out with Shuri. Instead all your energy went into sparing. It felt like you were there from sun rise to sun set. It got worse after the first three days. That’s when you finally got Steve on the phone. He wouldn’t make it back to be there when Bucky woke up. And the likelihood that he would be able to come when the words were tested was still up in the air. “If not for him Steve. For me? I miss you.” “I know sweetheart heart. But with us running missions I just can’t risk it.” “Fuck you.” You headed outside from the sparing room. “I went two years barely seeing you and now this.” “I know.” You heard him sigh. “I want to be there. Even if it’s just for you. But I need to make sure that you are both safe.” You heard voices through the phone. “Is that Nat?” “Yea. I got to go yn.” You didn’t say anything back, just hung up the phone on him. “Everything ok?” Ayo had joined you on the balcony. “No. But there’s nothing I can really do right now.” You knew that at least until Bucky woke up you needed to stay put. Maybe after you could start chasing down Steve and beat his ass for leaving you again. “Do you need a break?” “Nope. The only way to deal with this is fighting.” You smiled and headed back in. Shuri and Ayo were staring to get concerned with the amount of time you spent in the gym. If it wasn’t sparing, it was lifting. Anything you could do to take your mind off Steve and Bucky.

You knew that today was the day. You couldn’t sleep last night. Just scrolling through surveillance feeds and running some tracking software. T’Challa had let you slowly help with some missions the Nakia was working on. Right now she was tracking down some bad guy in South Africa. He was dealing in weapons and people. It was nice to get more distractions other than training the last few days. Now the sun was starting to come up so it wouldn’t be so obvious if you went to the gym. After sending off the information to Nakia, you changed into workout clothes and headed out. Shuri caught you just as you were walking into the citadel. “Oh. Where are you off to?” She knew. “Gym. Just the usual.” You pushed the button for the elevator. “We are waking Bucky up today.” “I know.” She followed you onto the elevator. Before you could press the floor you wanted she hit the button for the lab. “Good. T’Challa is waiting for us.” “Shuri I don’t think-” “Nope. You are going to be there. Kings orders!” She damn near skipped off the elevator. You trudged behind her. This was going to be a long day. Everything was set up just how it was when Bucky was placed in cryo. The only difference was Bucky was in the cryo tub and you stood alone. Even T’Challa was busy talking to someone. You just took up a spot behind the busyness of the room. As much as you tried to look anywhere but, you keep finding Bucky. He looked at peace. His features relaxed while he slept. The longer you watched him the more your surroundings faded away. It felt a little odd just staring at him while he was frozen. But you could stop. You noticed all the small scars on his face, the way his skin met the metal of his shoulder, the definition of his muscles under his shirt. “They are ready to start.” T’challa’s voice broke you from your thoughts. “Ok.” You nodded slightly, allowing all the noise of the room to come back. “How long will it take?” “Once he’s clear of the chamber, it should take about an hour or so for him to wake up. The whole process takes about two hours.” Shuri shouted at you over the noise. T’Challa placed a hand on your shoulder and offered you a chair. “Thank you.” You sat down and scooted the chair so you could still see Bucky. The minutes dragged on as everyone went through the checks to get Bucky awake. T’Challa stayed next to you. He was talking about something but you mind went back to Bucky. “When is he going to have the rest of the HYRDA arm removed?” You knew that you had interrupted whatever T’Challa was talking about. “Hopefully in the next few weeks. It will be up to him though.” You could feel T’Challa watching you as you watched Bucky. “I’m sure he will want it gone soon.” “I sure he will.” “He’s stable. Ready to open.” One of the doctors moved toward the chamber.  Shuri quickly glanced back at you. You gave her a slight nod. “Let’s crack him open.” You heard T’Challa snicker at his sister’s remark, but you just stayed focused. The chamber opened. Several men came forward and maneuvered Bucky around to lay on the bed. A steady beeping was coming from the monitors. “Still stable. Getting ready to start phase two.” Shuri moved forward to the bed and injected something into the IV line. Slowly you noticed people staring to filter out of the room. Soon enough it was just Shuri, T’Challa and you left. “Yn?” “What’s up?” You stood and headed to Shuri. “All that is left is to just wait for him to wake up. I am going to head over to weapons and do some work. Will you stay here with him?” She noticed the worried you had on your face at her words. “If anything starts to go wrong, you can just hit this button and I will be right back.” “Right. Ok.” T’Challa moved the chair you had been sitting in next to the bed. Both of them quietly headed out of the room. Leaving just you and a sleeping Bucky. “Well shit.” You plopped down into the chair and laid your head on your arms on the bed. You let your eyes close, finally tired from the night before.

“Yn?” You head shot up. “Bucky?”

tags- @ginger-swag-rapunzel

[fuckyeahharryhart]

BECAUSE NO ONE ASKED ME, HERE IS MY DISSERTATION ON KINGSMAN THE GOLDEN CIRCLE AND WHY IT DIDN’T HAVE THE SAME MAGIC AS THE SECRET SERVICE

What do we want from a sequel? Personally, I want to see all the characters that I love again. I want them to be true to how they were in the first movie. I want consistency.  I want to know more about them. I want them to build stronger relationships with each other. I want to see them grow. Evolve. Change if they need to. I want good things for them. I want them to be able to face conflicts.

One of the great reasons to have sequels is that we want to see our favorite characters grow and develop.

In TGC, right away, we’ve lost Roxy. More on that later. We lose Merlin. More on THAT later. Right there, they’ve lost so much potential for the third movie. We’ve lost relationships that were meaningful and could have strengthened. So much could have happened within this core group. Their experience could build on experience and add so much history and depth. Their loss wasn’t even handled in a way that really made us feel like it was a crucial point of the movie. It was more like “That sucked, but oh well.” More on THAT, too.

We were introduced to new characters, but no relationships were developed between the Kingsman agents or the Statesman agents. There would be potential to create new relationships to replace the ones that were lost. But that never really happened either. We weren’t given a reason to REALLY care about Statesman. I mean, they were interesting and entertaining. But they weren’t even super helpful in the mission, and they mainly provided the resources that the Kingsman agents needed since the Kingsman HQ was blown up. And they saved Harry.

I can’t really name one close bond between the two agencies. Sure they sent over Tequila in the end, but we don’t even know anything about him other than he’s kind of a bad boy, does drugs and was from “the wrong side of the tracks”. Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if he and Eggsy developed a friendship? Both of them are from the wrong side of the tracks. It would make it more meaningful when Tequila got sick. We were supposed to care about him, but we weren’t even given the chance to. There was so much potential that was not taken advantage of. Basically, we met Tequila, he got sick, got better and then got sent to Kingsman.

There are so many other premises that could have worked for TGC. My main issue with THC it that it didn’t have “heart”. It didn’t have the same emotional impact that TSS did. We were invested in TSS in a way that we’d weren’t in TGC. They set up conflict, introduced new bad guys and new good guys, but there were no relationships between them, we had no particular reason to care about them or what happened to them. There wasn’t anything really behind the show, behind the action. No real character or relationship development. Everything that happened was a plot device or really had nothing to do with the story or the characters at all.

I understand that they wanted to keep things light and fun and entertaining and not be to serious, but that doesn’t mean that the movie can’t have depth and feeling. It was more like a group of kids got together and said “wouldn’t it be cool if we put this in a movie” and tried to build a movie around different scenes rather than starting from the heart. Like “wouldn’t it be cool if someone got tossed in a meat mincer? Or how about an out of control ski lift spins around and then then crashes into a tower? We can show it sliding down the side of a mountain!” And then the kids high five.

My point is that most of the action scenes were sort of superfluous, whereas the action scenes in TSS were crucial or at least connected to the plot or the main characters. Like the car chase scene in the beginning of TGS was cool and fun to watch, but would the movie be the same without it? Kind of. And it certainly didn’t need to be that long or drawn out. They got to show off cool gadgets, which seemed like the only purpose, other than Charlie’s robot arm hacking their computer.

I could start anywhere. So I’ll just start somewhere. Let’s say the beginning.

The movie starts out with Eggsy. He is now a Kingsman agent and seems to have his life together.

Immediately enters Charlie Hesketh, Kingsman reject. He had a beef with Eggsy. There was a huge car chase action scene. Charlie has a robot arm. They both survive and get away.  We get to see some old and new tech. Entertaining to watch,  but no real substance.

Bringing back Charlie would not have been my first choice. He was an asshole in the first movie and he’s more of on asshole in this movie. He had a satisfying comeuppance in the first movie and there were no loose ends in his case. We assume he died with the others from the exploding microchip. He had a complete character arch in TSS. He was established as an upper class asshole. Got kicked out of Kingsman for being a pussy. Still carried a grudge with Eggsy and held him at knife point in Valentine’s lair and ratted him out. Got shocked by Eggsy for his trouble. Assumed deceased and that was fine with us.

Eggsy never did anything mean to Charlie, certainly not enough to warrant serious violence. Apparently, Charlie was that much of an entitled asshole and sore loser that he took his rejection as a blow to his ego, especially being beaten by a pleb like Eggsy. I didn’t like Charlie. We weren’t supposed to like Charlie. We were fine with Charlie dying.

So why would they bring him back?  Well, I suppose it’s a way to link the two movies together. It provides a reason to rehash what happened at the end of TSS for people who did not see it. Introduced some old tech, the electrocuting signet ring, the shoe blade. The car chase was a way to show off all the old and new spy gadgets.

My problem with Charlie right off the bat was that they didn’t give him a reason to come back. How did he and Poppy find each other? How did he get mixed up with their group? We know he doesn’t like Eggsy and the Kingsman, he decides to blow all of them up? Was that Charlie’s idea or Poppy’s idea? Is Kingsman more of a threat to them than any other independent intelligence agency? Charlie no longer lives a life of privilege and considers himself a pleb. He is still bitter about Eggsy beating him.

We have no idea what happened to Charlie between TSS to TGC. We have not been given a reason to invest in him either as a threat or a source of conflict. There’s no complexity to his character. He was an asshole that came back a bigger asshole.

If they wanted to bring back Charlie, wouldn’t it have been more interesting for him to come back as an ally? Who after VDay and losing his family and life as he knows it, decides to change his ways and upon meeting Eggsy and he actually asks for his help? He doesn’t know anywhere else to go but Kingsman. They could  still have a car chase scene with an unknown enemy that attacks Eggsy, but Charlie helps Eggsy against the enemy and they have to work together to survive. Thus proving that Charlie has changed his ways.

BUT- PLOT TWIST - he’s a mole for Poppy to get inside Kingsman to take them out from within. And this is all part of their plan to destroy Kingsman. And then we have to see him struggle with his role as a double agent as he gets to know all the Kingsman better. They are accepting of him in a way he never accepted them when the roles were reversed. He was always just a competitive jerk. So he’s conflicted. And we want to know, well, will he turn out bad or good in the end? And of course, this is all off the top of my head. Just some examples of things that could have been done differently that would have made the movie more interesting (at least to me).

I’m going to be jumping around some and might go off on tangents. Sorry.

In TGC, I didn’t feel like the bad guy brought anything new or different to the table. The issue of a drug cartel taking over the world with hostages was too broad and general. For me, there was no real urgency. Other than blowing up Kingsman, there is no link between Kingsman and the Golden Circle.

Let’s say instead of Charlie, Poppy and the Golden Circle as the bad guys, well, we could still have something like the Golden Circle... but it’s an underground network of bad spies who want to take out all the good intelligence agencies. Like spy vs spy. Could be interesting. One of the problems I have is that the Golden Circle only blew up Kingsman? I’m assuming because Charlie had a beef with them? But what about all the other intelligence agencies around the world? I guess it would make sense if we knew Kingsman was a direct threat to TGC, but Kingsman didn’t even know they existed. My point is that TGC could have done everything they did, release the virus, hold the antidote hostage, without having to blow up Kingsman. Kingsman was not an obstacle that TGC had to get rid of. So for me, it didn’t make any sense. The only reason we have is that Charlie’s fragile ego couldn’t  stand that he was rejected. Would the biggest drug cartel in the world take the risk of blowing up a whole agency over some dudes hurt feelings?

So what are the alternatives? Well, other than double agent Charlie. Let say we have a scenario where Charlie has a little sister who survived VDay. She was on a retreat to save endangered animals on a remote island far from civilization so she was not affected by the SIM card transmissions. She survived to find everything and everyone she loved gone. We’ll call her Kay. Kay was genuinely a good,  kind, sweet person.  But her entire family was killed and she was devastated losing them, particularly her brother. She was the one person who Charlie didn’t treat like an asshole. She loved her big brother and had a close relationship and when he and her family died, her entire life changed. So we learned that Charlie was actually not an asshole ALL of the time and that his soft spot was his little sister. (Eggsy could relate to this as he is protective of his half sister)

So let’s say, she wants revenge. She wants to destroy Kingsman and take down Eggsy, Merlin and Roxy and everything they love. Just like they did to her. There doesn’t even need to be a Poppy. No drug cartel. Let’s bring the threat closer to home. In the first movie it was a “save the world” type situation. How about doing something different for this one? This time, Kingsman is being directly threatened.

Let say a mysterious group of people took Kay in the aftermath of V day, when no one else would. BUT she discovers they are actually an international syndicate- like Kingsman- but for bad instead of good. They can be called the Golden Circle.

Let’s say she’s super smart, both tech wise and with weaponry and she has mad skills that the syndicate can use. So she joins forces with them with an ulterior motive. Even though she doesn’t agree with everything they do, it’s a way for her to have the resources to get her revenge against Kingsman.

Let’s say this group wants to take out all the international intelligence agencies, since they are a threat, starting with Kingsman. The Statesman are next. Kay plans on only staying for Kingsman, so she can take them out and specifically Merlin, Eggs and Roxy. Then she plans on running away on her own. Because, as much as she wants her revenge, she isn’t essentially evil herself. She is just so angry and alone. She’s a complicated character, linked to Kingsman and the plot of the first movie through Charlie, but she presents new challenges. Unlike Charlie, whose issues just rehashed conflict from TSS.

Then there’s so many options from here. I’m just going to brainstorm so stick with me if you want.

Let say, the movie opens with Roxy and Eggsy both coming out of Kingsman, joking around and teasing each other after completing a dangerous mission and want to celebrate. Merlin is on the glasses comms, telling them to behave and not drink to much or get in trouble. They are about to get into the taxi to go get a drink but then Kay comes out holds gun on them with her underworld support. She knows who they are, calls them by both their code names and real names, but they have no idea who she is.

They try to identify her, but as there is no existing reference to her, their first scan comes up with nothing. So they don’t know who she is, they just know she is a threat and she has backup. The car chase and everything can be basically the same, but with Merlin’s help on the comms, they are able to get away.

So the main conflict is that Eggsy, Roxy and Merlin need to find out who is threatening them (the TGC evil syndicate) and at the same time find out specifically who Kay is. They don’t know she is Charlie’s sister yet. They find out later in the debrief where they compare her facial structure to their database and Charlie comes up as a match.

So how does Harry Hart come back into the picture? I’ll get to that soon.

Well, Kay/syndicate blow up all the Kingsman agents, but Roxy, Merlin and Eggsy survive. But now they have no resources. They can do the same doomsday scenario as in the movie,  but Roxy is still alive. (It was horrible how she was killed off for no reason. She deserved better.)

All three survive the explosion. Maybe even because they were doing something fun together, or bickering over something silly, showing how close they’ve become.  This way we can strengthen the relationships between the three of them before anything happens to any of them. I thought the “Roxy as my Best friend and she was killed” plot device was forced. She had a couple lines helping Eggsy with Tilde, and he calls her his best friend and agent. (At this point I’m not even sure if we need Tilde in the picture.) And then Roxy gets blown up. Sucks.

I’d forget about the whole Tilde relationship angle and focus on the friendship between Eggsy and Roxy instead. (Don’t worry, they’ll stay friends. They don’t get into a relationship together.)

There are so many other ways to show they are best friends and agents who rely on each other, so if or when one of them dies, it’s much more meaningful. We feel her loss as Eggsy or Merlin would. Her death in THC was essentially meaningless.

BACK TO THE FILM:

Kingsman HQ and the shop have been blown up. Roxy, Merlin and Eggsy are devastated but Merlin pulls himself together and takes charge. He says that they need to rely on their training. That they’ve lost people they love before and yet they keep on going, to honor their memory, because that’s what a Kingsman does. (Reference to Harry)

They go to the winery, proceed to get drunk, which would be funny with the three of them together, when they discover the Statesman logo on the whiskey bottle and go to Kentucky for help. All that is fine. It can be the same as the movie.

The three of them go to Statesman. They try to break in and are overtaken and tied up by Statesman agents.

This can be all the same as the movie as well. The three of them are tied up and Tequila is questioning them. He’s also flirting with Roxy at the same time because he’s a southern boy. But he still doesn’t believe them.

BUT WAIT!....(READ MY EXCERPT OF FAN FIC ON HOW HARRY RETURNED HERE: https://fuckyeahharryhart.tumblr.com/post/635251512219729920/kingsman-the-golden-circle

KEEP READING HERE IF YOU WANT THE SHORT VERSION:

Ok. I had a real issue with how they brought Harry back. Don’t get me wrong, I am sooo, sooo grateful that they brought him back at all, but the character that he became from the amnesia, for me, was not Harry at all, not even a young Harry.

I know some people liked the soft, timid, shy Harry. And that’s sweet. But he was the antithesis of the Harry I grew to love from the first movie. During the whole TGC movie, I didn’t really get the same energy and presence as the first Harry Hart. (Ok, I know this is kind of Eggsy’s movie, anyway.)

Sure, we got background on what Harry was like when younger. He wanted to become a lepidopterist. He had the choice of being one or joining the army. He joined the army and then Kingsman. This doesn’t really add anything to the film or to Harry personally. I don’t feel like I know him better. I know facts about him. I want to know what was behind the choices he made.

I want to know, why did Harry chose the Army? Did something significant happen that led him down that road? From the film, we know he missed his mother, but doesn’t mention a father. What happened to his father?

Maybe his father was military, and was away for most of his life. His father never understood Harry’s butterfly fascination and hoped that he would follow in his footsteps and become a military man, but loved him and supported him none the less. Let’s say his father was killed in action and that is why Harry joined the army and gave up Lepidoptery. For the memory of his father.  So when he mentions to Merlin that he wants to see “Mother” that is why there is no mention of the father, because he already died.

And then we find out that he relates to Eggsy so much because “what’!?!” Harry lost his own father the same way as Eggsy did! In action, on a mission. BUT, Harry feels even more guilt because HE was the reason Eggsy’s father was killed. It’s his fault that Eggsy had to go through the same loss that he did. So he knows exactly how Eggsy felt. He feels extra responsibility for him and wants to be his mentor and be the father figure neither of them had growing up! Now we understand Harry sooooo much more, what motivates him to be the person he is and the relationship that he has with Eggsy is that much more meaningful.

(WHAT!?! I would soooo watch this movie.)

So, at least it would be helpful to know what happened to Harry’s father. It would give us more motivation on why Harry is the way he is. Our dear Harry Hart. You are so quiet and so brave that we forget you are suffering. Our hearts go out to him. We imagine Harry as a young man who lost his father and joined the army to be close to him and honor him. Sigh.

How much weight has Harry Hart carried with him? Never complaining, never using it as an excuse. We only know through his actions that he wants to make up for his past mistakes. We love him that much more. Underneath his stoic polished exterior lies a young man who lost his father. But he also has to carry the guilt of being the reason another boy lost his own father, as Eggsy’s father was saving Harry’s life, while sacrificing his own.

So back to the movie. Amnesia Harry, to me, was not Harry Hart. I can’t believe this soft, timid man became the brave, sophisticated super spy that he is now. I think it would have been more effective for amnesia Harry to still have qualities of spy Harry, but the amnesia makes him forget KINGSMAN. And it’s painful for Eggsy Roxy and Merlin, because at first, he seems like the Harry they know and love. But to Harry, they are complete strangers. Imagine if your significant other lost the memory of you, but other than that they were still the same person. You had a whole life of memories that you shared. They wouldn’t know that you shared them. What would it be like to be so close to someone, yet at the same time, just out of reach? Harsh.

STAY WITH ME HERE. This is what I would have imagined for the return of Harry Hart. It would be fairly similar to what happened, but with some crucial differences. AGAIN: ONLY IF YOU WANT, REFER TO:

:https://fuckyeahharryhart.tumblr.com/post/635251512219729920/kingsman-the-golden-circle

Let’s go back to the scene where Merlin, Eggsy AND Roxy are tied in chairs getting grilled by Tequila, who is actually flirting with Roxy because that’s who Teauila is. And Roxy is having none of it because that is who she is. This dynamic could be pretty funny, with Eggsy teasing Roxy (but that’s for later).

So all three of them are saying they were only following clues from their doomsday scenario protocol. They lost everything and all they have left is their honor. They are still getting threatened by Tequila. They aren’t budging because that’s the truth, they aren’t lying about the circumstances that brought them to Statesman.

Teauila has to change this up a bit. And what does he do? Threatens to bring in their finest interrogator. Says how this agent is skilled in ways they can’t even imagine. He is not someone that they want to fuck around with. Nothing gets past him. If you don’t tell him what he wants to hear, don’t worry, he will make you. He is definitely someone who they don’t want on their bad side. They still don’t have anything else to say.

Tequila calls in the agent. And who is that agent?

IN WALKS HARRY HART, in all of his secret spy glory!!!! (OMG I WOULD DIE) He’s impeccable in his familiar suit, hair immaculately in place, posture perfect. The only real change are the shaded eyeglasses to protect the eye he lost and the Statesman issue gun he carries. Everything else is exactly the same from his pocket square to his cuff links.

Roxy, Merlin, and Eggsy are mindfucked.  They can’t believe this is THEIR Harry Hart. But Harry doesn’t recognise them, doesn’t remember them AT ALL, as he has lost all of his memory of Kingsman. BUT, he has retained all of his skill and personality as an agent and individual. The only thing different is that he doesn’t remember them.

They are confused and overjoyed at the same time. They don’t even know how to react when they try to get Harry to remember them and he doesn’t. We get all the delicious visuals of Kingsman Harry, but are faced with the fact that he actually doesn’t remember Kingsman at all.

Statesman Harry continues to interrogate them as if they are the unknown quantity and possible enemy, because to him, that’s exactly what they are. They are speechless at this point and don’t know what to do, or how to react, or how to get Harry to believe them. They don’t know how to prove they are who they say they are. They don’t know how to prove that Harry knows them, and that they know Harry.

Harry, not for wasting time, unholsters his revolver and points it at Eggy’s head. Are they ready to talk now? They yell for him to stop, not to shoot, to let them explain. Harry starts  to count down from three, and just as he gets to one, Ginger Ale comes in and throws Harry the umbrella. Their story checks out. Harry inspects the umbrella, sees the statesman’s logo and pauses. He looks over the umbrella turns it over, twirls it in his hands almost in a familiar way. Does it help him remember Kingsman and his friends? It looks like it might. He contemplates the umbrella for a moment, but then he says “not good enough” and aims his revolver at Eggsy and switches off the safety.

Eggsy and the others are beyond panic, when Eggsy throws a Hail Mary. He tried to look at Harrys right hand, but the gun is blocking his view and he doesn’t know for sure, but fuck it, takes the risk and yells to him that Harry wears a signet ring on his right pinkie finger. That gentleman are traditionally supposed to wear it on the left hand. But Harry wears it on his right hand because his right hand is dominant.

THIS makes Harry pause and slowly puts down his gun. Because he does wear a pinkie ring on his right hand. He was wearing it when he was shot and wanted to keep wearing it. He doesn’t know why, just that it feels right to him. He asks Eggsy, “how do you know that?”

“Eggsy says, “Because I’m wearing one too.”

(WHAAAT JUST HAPPENED!!!!????)

Statesman Harry holsters his weapon. He says, “It seems as if we have a lot to discuss.”

Ok, so that’s just an idea I came up with while writing this. Let’s see if I can continue.

Because TGC needed much, much more of the Harry Hart we know and love.

This cuts to the scene where they are in the Statesman HQ dining room. Harry is also there but sits on the Statesman side. Ginger and Tequila are there as well.

Merlin, Roxy and Eggsy sit opposite the Statesman.

They meet Champagne/Champs - who wants to know what’s going on.

Cut to when Ginger explains how Statesman got readings of low frequency waves from Valentine’s test in Kentucky. All of this can remain the same. Ginger Ale and Tequila save him by using the alpha gel, they help him recover. But when he does, he can’t remember anything from his past.  He knows his name, he has the same personality and all the same skills, which they discover when he wakes up.

When he wakes up for the first time, Ginger ale and Tequila are there. Harry is slowly coming to. We don’t know how he is though yet. As he is coming into consciousness, his agent reflexes kick in. He scans the room, finds the exit, determines any possible threats and locates the nearest weapon. In a flash, Harry sits up, grabs Tequila’s gun and points it at him. Harry asks them who they are and what is he doing there.

They look at each other and say that they have a lot to talk about.

I’m just gonna go with this and see how it plays out....

Statesman knew he was intelligence from his eye glasses, but they didn’t know whose. And Harry couldn’t tell them anything. They knew he was possibly British as he spoke the Queen’s English. But he could still be from a number of other places as well.

Obviously, international intelligence agencies are not going to be listed on the internet, but while Harry was recovering, they put out feelers for possible missing persons that matched his description, particularly in Europe and Great Britain, and then broadened their search to the commonwealth countries.

They scanned news on anything surrounding the Kentucky event, who was involved, but they only found information on Valentine and his cohorts. They even kept their ears open on the secret spy wire, to see if an agency was looking for an operative, or had an agent who had gone rogue, or had one go dark. They didn’t have any luck. It’s not like they could put out an “if missing an agent, please call” flyer.

But as Harry got better, they found out the extent of his abilities. They were far greater than Statesman expected.

—-here can be a montage of him going through his skills, slowly getting better and stronger until he is at full capacity.- plus it would be really hot and sexy to see Harry Hart’s repertoire of skills. (I heard that Colin Firth is pretty good at archery, too.)

For some reason he can’t explain, he insisted on only wearing suits, styled exactly the same as the one he was found in, shirt, tie, cuff links and his pinkie ring. The only thing he would carry is the Statesman issue pistol and the occasional custom weapon or flask. Or maybe a fedora.

He was grateful to Statesman for saving his life. We find out that Harry started working for Statesman, actually becoming close to them like he was with Roxy, Merlin, and Eggsy and becoming an integral part of their organisation.

His English mannerisms often pop up, much to the amusement of Statesman. They respect him and find him endearing at the same time. They still kept an eye out for someone matching his description gone missing, but without as much urgency since they liked having him around.

The others are overjoyed that he is alive, at the same time devastated that he doesn’t remember them. It’s like he’s almost there, but just out of reach.

(OMG, I NEED TO SEE THIS VERSION OF TGC.)

How does he get his memory back?

There are a number of ways. We could still do something similar to the puppy scenario, let’s say that Harry, for some reason he also can’t explain, wanted a cairn terrier. So he has one  that follows him around Statesman HQ.

This scenario could play out similarly as the movie. As a last resort, Eggsy threatens to shoot his dog, triggering the memory of Harry when he was a trainee having to shoot Mr. Pickle.

OR let’s say at a certain pivotal moment, something happens where Eggsy is tied to train tracks just like in TSS, but this time, there is no false floor. Eggsy is in a life or death situation and as seconds tick by, it’s looking more like death. Eggsy is yelling at Harry to please cut the ropes, when Harry’s memory is triggered. The combination of the bright lights of the train, the roar as it barrels down the tracks, Eggsy screaming, fearing for his life...Harry starts to remember the same circumstance during Eggsy’s training when he was almost hit by a train.

While Eggsy is struggling, Harry’s memory is flashing back to all the significant moments in his life, like a seizure he can’t control. His father. Butterflies. Harry joining the army. Eggsy’s father sacrificing his life to save Harry’s. Meeting Eggsy, training him, being a father figure to him. Everything to the point when he is shot by Valentine.  Harry is trying to process all of this when he hears Eggsy yelling to cut the ropes again and Harry comes to, just in time to save him.

As Eggsy recovers he notices something different about Harry. He stops and just waits, looking at him.

Out of the blue, Harry says “bloody well done” which is what he said to Eggsy when he passed the training. Harry pauses and then says with meaning “Eggsy” (not eggy as he’s been calling him)

“Hello Harry.” Eggsy says in return and goes up to hug him, which Harry returns. And he says Eggsy’s name again as memories return to him. Agent Galahad is back.

Eggsy finally had his chance to say I’m sorry to Harry and how much he meant to him and how devastated he was when he thought Harry had died. And how happy he was to find out he survived, and how devastated he was when Harry didn’t remember him. It doesn’t have to be all mushy and serious, it can just be simple and touching. Like Harry saying something like “It takes a lot more than a bullet to the head to kill Harry Hart.”

I had an issue with the dynamic between Harry and Eggsy on their first mission with Whiskey. Obviously having Harry back is the best thing in Eggsy’s life right now. What a gift to basically have him back from the dead. I personally would be extra considerate and caring of any lapses that he may be experiencing due to the gunshot. And knowing that he was still recovering (as depicted in the bar fight scene) I’d make a concerted effort to look out for his well being.

So when they are all trapped at the cabin in Italy and Harry out of the blue shoots Whiskey, my first reaction wouldn’t be “Harry you’re a fucking idiot! You’re out of control!” It was be “OMG, what’s wrong Harry? Why would you do that?” And make an effort to understand what Harry is going through. I know they’re in a life or death situation and they don’t have time to have a heart to heart. But if my best friend and mentor came back from the dead, like, days ago, I wouldn’t be calling him a fucking idiot. I first reaction would be worry and concern.

Back to my alternate scenario. This sets up a new conflict. The call of Kingsman is strong and wants to lure Harry back to Great Britain, with Eggsy and Merlin and Roxy, but he will be forever indebted to Statesman for saving his life, helping him find himself and giving him purpose and meaning within the Statesman family. He knows he will have to choose eventually, but at the moment, the pressing issue is the Golden Circle and to defeat them, the two agencies will have to work as one and who better to do lead them than Harry Hart. (I love Harry Hart so much)

What else is a possibility? Roxy is slowly won over by Agent Tequila’s charm, but she gets kidnapped by Kay and the Golden Circle. Now Agent Tequila and the others have to race to rescue Roxy before The Golden Circle blows up, because why? BECAUSE KINGSMAN HAD ALREADY SET UP EXPLOSIONS TO DESTROY THEM! So if Roxy dies in the blast, it’s basically because of Kingsman.

What else could Roxy’s story look like? Hmmm. Kay is the same age as Roxy. So despite each of their misgivings, they begin to relate to each other. Roxy is sorry about Kay’s loss and recognises that she isn’t an inherently bad person like the rest of Golden Circle. She’s just a sister, a daughter, a person like Roxy. She is just in pain and doesn’t know how to handle her grief. Kay realises that Roxy was just looking out for her friends and trying to do what’s right despite insurmountable odds. Without really realising it, they begin to bond. They really don’t want to hurt each other, but are afraid they are too far down the path of destruction and revenge to turn back.

Let’s throw in Whiskey, too. Because I don’t like how they utilised his character in TGC at all. First off, his reasoning behind wanting all the junkies to die was weak. Almost 22-23 years since the death of his wife and he was still willing to kill all the good people as well as the bad? He didn’t differentiate someone like Tequila, his fellow agent, from the meth heads that killed his wife?

I don’t think that an agent who has dedicated his life to save others would be that selfish as to want the deaths of all those people. So I’m going to throw that whole plot device in the can. Plus, the foreshadowing that Whiskey was a bad guy and that Harry was on to him and shot him was weak, of no fault of theirs, the story was bad.

Let’s say In this version, he is not a bad guy. Let’s say he’s a Statesman through and through. And he is very very protective of Statesman and is determined to protect it and the other agents at all costs, in a way he wasn’t able to protect his wife and unborn child.

As a result he is less welcoming to strangers and outsiders than the others. He has a long history of tradition within the Statesman family and wants to preserve that legacy. He is the one that was less than excited to have Harry join the agency. Whiskey was the one that continued to be suspicious, and at times could antagonise Harry, implying that no matter how good an agent he was, that he would never truly be a Statesman. That he would be an outsider. Which he now feels is justified because they discover Harry is actually a Kingsman. Whiskey avoids spending time with them, outside of the mission and continues to remain standoffish.

But slowly, as they all work together, the Kingsman agents especially being open and accepting and kind to their counter parts, Whiskey begins to slowly, begrudgingly come around. He begins to thaw and we realise what a cool guy whiskey really is, he is just ultra dedicated and loyal to Statesman and will do everything he can to protect and honor his agency. He gets to know everyone, realises that all of them have experienced their own personal loss and that their losses are what drives them to help others. And this common understanding of loss brings them together.

What if, instead of getting killed because he tried to double cross both Statesman and Kingsman, he ultimately shows his true self, when they are all trapped in the enemy HQ, by offering to stay behind, fight off bad guys, to give the others a chance to escape, including the Kingsman, at the risk of his own life.

Perhaps he asks Harry, Merlin and Eggsy to go and save Roxy and lead everyone out of danger. And to take care of Statesman, and Ginger and Tequila as Whiskey would and has his entire life, because they are ALL family now and families take care of each other.

(ALL THE FEELS. RIGHT HERE.)

What if Whiskey demands that they have to go and leave him behind to his own fate. That even if he gets overpowered, Whiskey won’t go down without a fight. They all do their agent handshake of brotherhood and leave him to fight the enemy. So Whiskey, instead of being put in the mincer, gets one last epic battle, fights harder than he ever has before because he wants to give the others a chance to survive. This is why Whiskey became a Statesman, to serve his fellow man, to protect his family. His whole life has led to this point.

The scene could be intercut with Whiskey battling the enemy, with the others making their way out of the enemy headquarters. Whiskey, the entire time fighting to keep the bad guys from following them. Let’s say that during Harry’s and Whiskeys handshake, Harry passes Whiskey his lighter grenade, as a message, agent to agent, never let the enemy capture you. If it gets to that point, use the grenade and take the bastards out with you.

The battle gets more and more hectic, Whiskey gets cornered. He’s out of options, save one. He triggers the grenade, but not before he says “this is for statesman”.  Or something else along those lines that’s super cool and badass. We don’t see the blast, but it cuts to the others who hear the bomb go off and they know that Whiskey did as much as he could and even though they are running for their lives, they take a moment to acknowledge his sacrifice.

(OMG- I’m going to make myself cry.)

How much of a better end would that be for Whiskey? Such a better part for him to play rather than the secret bad guy plot twist at the end of TGC. In this new version, we get to see his compete character arch. We feel compassion for him, we root for him, and we mourn his loss. Ugh. I just hate how so many of the characters deaths got the short shift.

Or if it’s not whiskey, If Merlin still has to die, (which I don’t think he does) he could be the one that stays behind. But death would be more than accidentally stepping on a landmine. There would be more at stake, more on the line. More urgency. If both Whiskey and Merlin had to die, what if they had to detonate a bomb, but the bomb had a fail safe where to detonate the it, two people have to trigger it at the same time, and the likelihood of survival is slim. But they offer to stay behind, one man from each agency. There can still be an epic battle, but this time Merlin gets a chance to fight, too. And he fights alongside Whiskey for as long and as hard as they can until they have to detonate the bomb. Merlin gets his moment.

In TGC, Merlin didn’t even get half the chance to be a bad ass in his own Kingsman suit and glasses. It wasn’t fair to him. He should have had more of a chance to be a part of things in the end. Merlin deserved a much more meaningful send off. There were so many other ways to handle his death.... if he had to die at all.

Let’s say in my version he survived the blast, we don’t know, there’s a chance he did. And that gives us hope. We really want him to be in the third movie with Eggsy and Harry, the three of them have such a good dynamic.

I felt like Merlins death in TGC should have been much more impactful. It seemed like an afterthought. After he died, his name was only mentioned 4 times. Eggsy said his name when he killed Charlie, Harry said his name and Rest In Peace, when explaining the heroin injection to Poppy. Whiskey said his name about putting pieces of him and Harry into a bucket, and lastly, that releasing the antidote was in Merlin’s honor. But emotionally, it didn’t feel like they felt his loss at all. They nodded their goodbyes, and then went dead in the eyes before they went after poppy’s men. That was the extent of it.

Merlin wasn’t recognized at all after the whole poppy ordeal. Not at the meeting at Statesman or at Eggsy’s wedding. I know they were planning on having Merlin survive the blast and be there when Eggsy got married, just with prosthetic legs. And at the last minute decided not to. I know Merlin and Ginger ale were supposed to kind of be into each other. We got a little of that with them working together. But that relationship was cut from the final version. As a result, it felt abrupt. We didn’t get her reaction when Merlin died. Or get their reaction when they found out that Whiskey had double crossed them.

Back to Kay and Roxy...

Let’s say Kay is ordered to take out Roxy. Kay actually begins to feel bad, begins to doubt herself, but is determined to stick to her plan. She is supposed to shoot Roxy and then join the rest of the Golden Circle bad guys to get the others.

As she points her gun at Roxy, Kay says something along the lines of “I’m sorry that this actually IS personal and it’s something that she has to do. For her family. For herself.”

To Kay’s surprise, Roxy is calm, collected and replies in understanding. Roxy can imagine how she is feeling, because if she lost her family like Kay did. If Eggsy, Merlin and Harry died, her own family now, she would feel the same way as Kay does. And she doesn’t blame her for wanting revenge. Roxy says simply, do what you need to do, so you can get over their deaths. I accept my fate. And closes her eyes.

Kay, switches off the safety and takes two shots at Roxy. Roxy flinches, but realizes that she is not dead. Kay has actually shot off her handcuffs that were binding Roxy to her chair. Roxy takes a moment to be impressed with Kay’s  sharp shooting skills.

Kay, feeling defeated and empty, tells Roxy to go. To hurry and find her friends and escape before the GC men return. Kay gives her the gun. Roxy is set to leave, but stops when she realizes that they will kill Kay when they realize that Kay didn’t kill Roxy, but instead set her free. She says so aloud to Kay.

Kay replies, “I know. It doesn’t matter anymore. I’d rather be with my family, anyway. Like you said, I accept my fate. Go. Now. Before it’s too late.”

Roxy hesitates before deciding. She asks Kay to come with her. That she truly doesn’t belong here. That she’s just lost and afraid. But that she doesn’t have to be alone.

Kay is taken aback at the offer and tells Roxy that Kay blew up Roxys headquarters and tried to kill them all and kidnapped her and was about to shoot her in the head. “I’m not the kind of person that you want to have around and I don’t think your friends will be to excited to see me again.”

Roxy says that it wasn’t really Kay, that it was TGC, that took advantage of her grief and skill. Kay is not a bad person. She’s just trying to deal with a bad set of circumstances, with bad company. Come with me. Instead.

Kay asks her how does she know that Kay is trustworthy. Roxy tosses her back the gun and says, I just do. Kay looks at the gun for a moment. Realizes she had nothing to lose, gives the gun back to Roxy and pulls a second one from behind her back. And tells Roxy “let’s go.”

Perhaps Kay can become a new agent to help fill all those they lost in the explosion. And Agent Tequila came to Kingsman to help as well AND because he likes Roxy.

So at the end of TGC, we have Harry, Eggsy, Roxy, and Merlin (he survived the blast. Excuse I wanted him to. RIP Agent Whiskey) and new agents Kay and Tequila. We have all of these characters for the 3rd instalment. How amazing would that be?

OK, NOW IM DONE. IF I WAS RICH I WOULD FUND THIS MOVIE JUST SO I COULD SEE IT. I’D PAY THEM (COLIN FIRTH) WHATEVER THEY WANTED SO THEY WOULD COME BACK (AND LOOK REALLY HOT AND SEXY IN A SUIT.)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE FOR THE NEXT/FINAL INSTALMENT OF KINGSMAN?



Sent from my iPhone

[commander-rory]

I thought I would doodle up the current gw2 characters I have (or at least made in game thus far). I have three commanders in their own universes doing their own shenanigans. I’ll put some descriptions of these dweebs under a read more :D

Commander Rory - Asura Holosmith/Scrapper: He is by far my most played character. Rory sort of stumbled into the Commander role more by accident because he has a habit to run towards danger with the idea that he can be helpful in resolving whatever happens. He’s soft for a commander and for being an Asura, but he is definitely a workaholic. He’s the least likely to condescend because he’s excited to teach, and will always try to be anyone’s friend. Rory firmly believes ideas can come from anywhere, especially from the most unexpected places, so he enthusiastically likes to learn from others and try his own spin on things. He’s the krewe leader of Znappii, Rixxitt, Vallixx, and Quizzik. He adores Aurene, and later the Charr cub (who I’m currently developing aha) he adopts in the Charr civil war shenanigans.

Znappii - Asura Ranger: She is very dignified and reserved, but can also come across very arrogant and standoff-ish. This results from being disregarded by most Asura since she had a preference for understanding the natural world more than the technology they were developing. Rory’s earnest interest in her version of the pursuit of knowledge is what lead her to joining this krewe. She ends up cleaning up the messes that can result of her krewe’s shenanigans, especially of Rixxitt. Znappi relies on her panther, Blink, and spider, Webster. 

Rixxitt - Asura Elementalist: He’s beauty, he’s... not grace. Rixxitt is likeable, but by no means tactful. He will definitely do dangerous things for the sake of science, and will be the most likely source of trouble. He comes across as the “loveable idiot”, not because he’s actually stupid... rather just very impractical. His catchphrase could very much be “What’s the worst that could happen?”. Rixxitt is head-over-heels for Znappii. He joined this krewe upon Rory’s request after working together on some projects in their earlier days of Asuran college. 

Vallixx - Asura Mesmer: Acts as the krewe’s muscle in a lot of circumstances, and will handle the “dirty business” if need be. There is some secret joy in sticking it to the inquest when he gets the chance. Vallixx likes to use his abilities of illusions to his advantage and relies on intimidation to get his way. He is soft for Rory, but struggles with the fact his krewe leader is very oblivious to this. There never seems to be a right time to tell him either as Rory is always off doing something be it helping someone get their cat out of a tree or saving Tyria from certain doom. He joined the krewe because he was interested in where this particular band of misfits might go under the leader’s very open perspective to the world. 

Quizzik - Asura Necromancer: He comes across very stern and surly, but is actually a gentle soul. Social graces are not his strong suit, so he makes better friends with corpses than the living. As a brilliant scientist and strong voice of reason, he helps keep the krewe and their experiments from getting too out of hand. Quizzik is convinced Rory only asked him to be a part of his krewe out of pity, due to the lack of invitations and struggles to form his own lab krewe. He has learned over time that Rory respects his insight, and knowledge on how life connects even through death and “undeath”.

Dis Solvidottir - Norn Engineer: A friend of Rory. She met him while he was on a mission for the priory. She very much enjoyed working with him on a variety of projects, and treats him like a little brother. To be fair she likes to act like a big sister to everyone because she always wanted to be a big sister. So far she only has an older brother. Dis is very interested in making golems, but more inspired by nature. She wants to shape golems after the spirits and the wildlife around her as her way to pay respect to these beasts of legend. While she enjoys a good hunt, she is interested in being among the first Norn to “hunt the beasts in knowledge” to find the answers to the big questions out there and make a legend for herself out of that. Dis is determined to be known for her might both in body and in mind. 

Commander Nerys - Sylvari Necromancer: This young Sylvari found herself born into this role of being the Commander, but has many questions as to why. Her wyld hunt never seems to end despite each foe she faces, but she knows of nothing else. She is committed to this role feeling like she’s too deep to leave at this point, and trying to find a way to claim it as her own rather than feeling like something she was thrusted into without choice. Nerys comes across to other as someone who grown a thick shell of withered bark etched with wisdom while somehow being utterly naïve and young deep inside. The wisdom comes from the battles she has faced, while the youth and naivety comes from the fact she is still learning so much from the world around her. There are many moments where she still comes across things she has only heard of from the dream.

Numeria Scrapshield��- Charr Engineer: This young Charr relies more on her wits than her strength, and is a proud member of the Ash legion. She’s soft at heart which gets her into a lot of trouble, so she does her absolute best to put on a tough act. Numeria meets Nerys in Elona during the hunt for Balthazar, working as one of the contact agents for the Order of Whispers. She admires the Commander’s strength despite the lack of experience she has lived in the world. 

Sianiss - Sylvari Ranger: Sianiss is a bold sylvari who isn’t afraid to say what she is thinking. She is bold and won’t stand for excuses, and loves the thrill of adventure. She was one of Nerys earliest friends who followed her beyond the grove to fulfill this grand wyld hunt she has been given. Sianiss struggled to make sense of her dream, but knew Nerys would somehow lead her where she was meant to go. Eventually after the death of Mordremoth she found her place as one who finds those who have been corrupted by the dragon and lead them back to some semblance of normality after the dragon’s corruption. Sianiss helps to heal the dragon’s corruption of the jungle as well, while learning the skills of survival from the natives who dwell there already. 

Zephyr - Sylvari Mesmer: A quiet Sylvari who has great compassion for living things. Zephyr follows Nerys acting as her right hand man when all else fails, and hopes to learn through her adventures of saving the world how to reach those who have become corrupted to the nightmare court. Overtime he has broadened this perspective to be a diplomat to try and unite the many races of Tyria, and not just the Sylvari themselves. He finds more success with the more “unwelcomed races” such as Skritt, Dredge, Grawl, and Centaurs than he does those who hold more power. 

Commander Qimmog - Asura Thief: This character was made to fit the more traditional Commander we see in game. Tactical and tempered through lots of strife. He’s sharp and a bit disgruntled which makes him difficult to approach. He had spent a period of time “undercover” among the inquest in the attempts to sabotage and dismantle some of their work within. With time Qimmog realized how corrupt the Arcane Council had become and has a strong distaste for the tolerance the council has for the inquest and their unethical research practices. He then turned his efforts to become a member of the Order of Whispers in the hopes through them he could dismantle the corruption within the council, but ended up focusing his attention on the bigger issues that come along in the in-game cannon. He has taken to the feisty, but reckless Jamie and acts as a mentor to her. He offers a lot of tough love in the attempt to push her towards the potential he sees. 

Jamie Shield - Human Revenant: Jamie is a young human, who also has a particularly youthful appearance and often gets treated like a child. She is determined to make a name for herself, following in the footsteps of her deceased parents. When she learned of the efforts being made to defeat Zhaitan, she was determined to take part and prove herself a worthy fighter. Qimmog saved her from nearly getting herself killed in one of the many battles of Orr, and she has stuck close by ever since with the ambition to one day return the favor to the Commander. Despite being treated as a nuisance by Qimmog, they have developed a good relationship. Jamie still has a lot left to learn, but she is growing under the Commander’s guidance. 

[lassluna]

Swan’s Hourglass (4/?)

Emma Swan had a mission. Find a place to start New Hyrule, her kingdom apparently. It was her mission as Princess or Savior or whatever. It’s going terribly if she’s honest. No one ever gave her Princess or Savior lessons growing up. She really has no idea how to be a Savior. She doesn’t even really want to in the first place.

But when the Demon Ship kidnaps her son and she gets stranded on a strange island with only an old woman and peppy fairy for help, Emma will have to do what she has to do to rescue her son, even if that means putting a certain self-proclaimed pirate captain in his place.

Ao3  FFN

AN: Thanks so much for the support! This story would not be what it is without the lovely @spartanguard​ beta reading, @eastwesthomeisbest​ for providing that glorious cover art( Have you seen it? No? Go check it out!!!) As well as @cssns​ for giving me a reason to finally start posting this creation.

Chapter 3: Isle of Ember

The goddamn mountain is on fire. 

Because of course it is. They couldn’t go to a regular island. The whole island had to be a giant death trap. It was the only island with a seer that could help her. 

She wondered if someone just made this stuff up to annoy her. 

“Come on, Swan, where’s your sense of adventure?” Hook calls, seeing her disgruntled expression. “I’ve been looking for the Isle of Ember forever.” 

Emma rolls her eyes. “Some pirate; this was literally like a few miles away from Mercury,” she responded.

“You do recall that map is an ancient treasure and the whole glowing thing it did, right?” Hook responds. “This place was concealed.” 

She sighs. Of course it was. Emma didn’t understand why she was even here, she should be out looking for that ship. It had found them so easily, why couldn’t they just…Emma didn’t know. All she knew was that the longer she spent away from her son, the worse she felt.

“Sooner we meet this psychic, the better,.” she says simply, looking away from the pirate.

“Of course, Swan.”

“You know it’s Emma, right?” she says, leaning into the railing of the ship.

“I have been informed. Swan just seems more fitting,” he replies, leaning against the rail. ”But what about this child the old bat mentioned before departing?” he asks.

“My son,” she replies. He has a right to know, and perhaps knowing what Emma stands to lose will remind him of how far she’s willing to go. “We were sailing on The Darling , a ship under Captain Wendy Darling and her brothers, when the Demon Ship appeared. My son, Henry went over to it. He thought he could take it; he thought we were right behind him. I heard him scream and tried to go and get him, but I fell overboard, that’s how I survived. It’s also how I ended up on Mercury Island,” she explains.

He nods knowingly. “We’ll find him, Swan,” he says. “We’ll find your boy.”

//

The seer’s house is surprisingly easy to find, especially with it being the only house on the island. It is small and wooden, which Emma finds to be a completely awful design choice, considering it sits at the foot of a not so dormant volcano which, according to Hook, occasionally spews out balls of molten lava.

However, when they get to the door, they find it in fragments, wood chunks everywhere, the small living room ruined with jagged claw marks and blood. It’s quite a lot of blood.

“Scorch marks,” Hook points out as he makes his way inside, “It looks like this seer fought back and managed to vanquish some of these creatures,” he observes.

“And the blood looks fresh,” Tink adds, although she looks like she’s trying not to look directly at it.

Emma just nods. “Then we should see if she’s still alive.” The claw marks seem to lead downstairs. “And I guess the basement’s a good place to start.” Because of course it’s the basement. It’s always the basement.

They hear something as Emma, leading the group, steps onto the basement floor. It’s a shriek and Emma only has seconds to move before a red monster jumps at her face. She swings her sword wildly, hitting the monster away from her. She curses as she sees it in the darkness, stunned but not quite done yet.

It’s bigger than the ones she fought on Mercury. And it’s not alone. She readies for it to jump again when Hook joins her in the basement, his own sword at the ready.

“You know, you swing that thing like a club,” he comments. “Perhaps some lessons are in order.”

Emma rolls her eyes. “Seriously?” she asks. “This is not the time for this, and I can sword fight fine,” she insists. He smirks at her.

“Darling, you wouldn’t survive two minutes in an actual sword fight. Would you like to see how a sword is actually supposed to be used?” he asks. She glares at him but says nothing as he steps towards the creatures. They eye him suspiciously, yellow eyes glaring at the sword. 

They shriek before they jump, all at once towards him. Emma readies her sword to try to help him, but she has a gut feeling he doesn’t need her. He strikes the first one and ducks out of the way of the other two, letting them hit something with a crash. He turns, not even watching as the injured one bursts into ash, before giving the next two killing blows before they even recover. 

Emma has to admit that he knows how to use that weapon; perhaps he was right about those lessons… He turns back around, putting away the blade.

“I could have done that,” she mutters, looking away from his smug face.

“But not as dashingly as me, love,” he snickers, looking around. “But are we sure there was a seer here? Perhaps she wasn’t home when the monsters broke in?”

She looks around and agrees; it just looks like a bunch of junk in here. She walks around the place, hoping for some kind of clue.

“Is it safe?” she hears Tink timidly call from the staircase. “I found a torch,” she adds.

“All good, love,” Hook calls. Tink glares at him as she emerges, the torch in her hand lighting up the room. 

“How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not your love! Can you please stop with the pet names?”

One of the walls looks different from the rest, Emma realizes. It’s not as smooth, and it’s hollow.

“You really suck out the fun out of everything don’t you, lass?” Hook notes. “A few pleasantries among friends isn’t going to kill you.”

Emma feels along the wall looking for something, anything that can prove to her what she’s suspecting, that it’s not a wall at all. She tries knocking on it, and after a moment, she hears something.

“First of all, I have a name; it’s Tink. Secondly, we are not friends. We are two people with a common goal: help Emma rescue her son. Thirdly, pleasantries with you might actually kill me,” Tink says fuming at the pirate.

“Will you both shut up?” Emma snaps. They do. She knocks again. She can hear it better this time (without the needless talking.) 

It sounds like help. “Hey can you hear me?” she says louder.

“Can I—“ Hook starts, but Emma shushes him.

“The monsters are gone; if you can hear me, know that it’s safe to open this door,” she says.

“ Is Kayto there? ” the voice says, muffled by the door but clear enough.

“No, just me and my companions,” she insists. “But we mean you no harm I promise,” she says gently.

“Kayto is the only one who can open the door,” the voice replies. “Please, you have to find my friend.”

She looks at Hook and Tink; she knows they’re thinking the same thing she is. The blood in the room—it was probably Kayto’s.

Emma considers telling this person that her friend is most likely dead and that there’s a good chance they’re going to have to blow the door down to free her, but Emma doesn’t have the heart to tell her that.

She doesn’t have it in her to leave someone behind, leave them to die. Or worse.

“Emma…” Hook says. He’s ready to tell her all the things she already knows.

“Ok. We’ll go find your friend.” Emma insists, giving Hook a look. “Will you be ok in there for a little while?” She asks.

“Yes, thank you. Thank you so much,” the voice replies.

 Hook waits until they’re outside to comment. She’s thankful for that.

“You are aware he’s most likely dead, right?” Hook asks.

Emma doesn’t respond. She just trudges out of that place, looking around for some direction as to where to go. She needs to hurry if there’s any hope for this guy. She notices a blood stain and follows it.

“Swan, this isn’t going to end well,” he continues. She doesn’t need to hear it, she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t have it in her to hear how she should just leave this guy behind. “He’s lost too much blood. You and I both know that.”

She does, but Emma doesn’t care. She has to try. She just has to.

Hook grabs her arm and Emma snaps.

“Then go if you don’t want to look!” she nearly yells at him. He recoils sharply. “Go if you just want to leave this guy behind, see what I care; but I’m going to go look for him, I’m going to go find out for sure one way or another, so stay out of my way.” She doesn’t wait to respond, just turning back towards the path. A single goal in mind.

She hears Hook following along behind her. He doesn’t say a word.

Good. She thinks. She doesn’t need his smug attitude anyway.

The trail leads along the perimeter of the island. Monsters block her path but she makes quick work of them, mentally preparing for more snark and comments about how she fights. She doesn’t care if she wasn’t trained right; it’s working. 

He still doesn’t say a word. Emma can feel his eyes boring into her, but she refuses to look at him. She doesn’t want him to say more things about how this guy was dead, more about how she’d fail, again. 

She was a Savior who couldn’t save a goddamn thing.

“Hello?”

Emma jolts, feeling something on the back of her neck. She turns around quickly, nearly hitting Hook with her blade. He curses as he barely dodges.

“I know you’re mad, but you do still need me to sail the Jolly,” he says with a hint of a joke. 

“Sorry, I thought…” she says, avoiding his gaze. She turns back around.

“You thought what, Swan?” he asks. It sounds crazy. It was this damn island, and a whole bag of issues playing tricks on her. “Come on, Swan—talk to me,” he insists.

She doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to hear any more negativity. 

“Doesn’t matter,” she mumbles. They keep walking. He takes up a position beside her.

“Something that didn’t matter almost made you take off my other hand,” he notes casually.

“I said I was sorry,” Emma snaps back.

“Can someone help me?” It happens again, a feeling in the back of her neck. She looks around, for something, anything to explain this…feeling.

“Swan? It’s happening again, isn’t it?” Hook insists, his arm grabbing hers. She tries to pull out of his grip, but he holds firm.

“Tell me what’s happening,” he says seriously. “I can’t help you if I’m left in the dark.”

She pulls away violently. “I don’t need your help!” she snaps angrily. 

Hook’s eyes darken. “Bloody hell, I’m not him alright?” he nearly shouts, his body rigid. “I’m not whoever it was that left you, so stop thinking every word out of my mouth is me trying to leave you, or this Kayto, or this quest. I’m trying to help and your own stubbornness is what’s getting in the way.”

Emma blinks. “How—“ Hook rolls his eyes, taking a step closer to her, getting in her space and staying there.

“You have the look in your eyes of someone used to being abandoned. I saw it the moment we met, but your outburst earlier showed me how deep it ran. Tell me—they said they loved you and then they ran? They left you in some peril; said they thought you were dead, aye?” he asks.

It strikes a nerve deep in her core, leaving her rattled. She can’t find the words. 

“Don’t think everyone is going to be the same. Don’t think I’m going to be the same,” he says sternly, gaze morphing into a smirk. “Trust me, love—you’ve never met a man like me before.” He adds a scandalous wink, making her cheeks turn red.

“Can anyone help me?” It’s louder this time.

“I keep hearing something,” she admits reluctantly, her shoulders sag. “A voice and it makes my whole body tense up, like something dangerous is near,” 

He looks at her calculatingly, eyes tracing over her face. “Well…what’s it saying?” he asks. She’s surprised by his response.

“It's…asking for help.” She wonders if he believes her, or wonders if he’s just humoring her.

“Well…have you tried answering it?” Hook replies with a bit of a head tilt. “Offer it our assistance?” 

Emma blinks in surprise. “You’re not serious.” Hook shrugs.

“Perhaps it can help us find our friend?” he suggests. “Can’t hurt.”

She turns around, trying to remember around where she heard it last. “Hey? Anyone here?” she calls.

Emma doesn’t expect an answer; she honestly believes she’s crazy, or sleep deprived, or both.

“Hello?” the voice calls again, almost as if on cue. 

“Hey!” she shouts. “I’m here; do you need help?” she asks, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. She doesn’t see anything.

“Be friendly, Swan,” Hook encourages with a wink. Emma rolls her eyes.

“ Can you hear me?” it asks. She sees something flickering in front of her. 

“Yes, I can.” It’s a blue flame of some sort. She looks at Hook; it’s obvious that he can’t see it. 

“ Oh that’s fantastic; I don’t know what happened to me!” it says, pure relief in its voice. The blue flame seems to morph as he speaks

 “What do you remember?” 

“ I remember cleaning My Lady’s home, sweeping, and the door burst open. My Lady was downstairs organizing her supplies. I called out to her, and told her monsters were attacking; usually they aren’t so strong, they fear My Mistress. They don’t bother us out of fear of her wrath, but these...these monsters attacked. My Lady got into the safe room, but I had to stay outside to close the door and—“

The ghost trails off, as the blue shape forms a person, short and small in stature, dark hair and eyes but a kind face. He seems worried.

Emma comes to the conclusion quite quickly that she’s speaking to Kayto’s ghost; they were already too late.

“ I don’t know what happened to her. Please—you have to find her and make sure she’s alright!” he insists.

Emma smiles sadly; she doesn’t know what to say, what to do. 

“Are they saying something to you, Swan?” Hook asks. Emma nods.

“Your lady is fine.” Emma tells the ghost. “She sent us looking for you. We can’t open the door; she said you were the only one who could.” He looks relieved. “She wanted us to help save you from the monsters,” she adds. “She’s very worried.”

He nods. “ Of course. The password is her name. Tell her to speak it without fear and the door will open.” She nods in understanding. She wonders if the ghost knows he’s dead, knows how to move on and not stay stuck here. 

“I’m sorry we were too late,” she says. He shakes his head, looking peaceful. His form flickers, his voice getting quieter.

“ Don’t be. Will you tell her not to think sadly of me? Will you tell her I was not in pain? Tell her to have hope, the change we are waiting for has arrived.”

Emma furrows her brows in confusion. “The change?” she asks.

He doesn’t respond to her question, she can barely see him.

“ Tell her I’m at peace knowing that she is safe and that soon, she will not be alone…” The voice fades as the figure does, but Emma feels…she doesn’t know. She feels something was missing. She feels like he isn’t gone.

“Everything ok?” Hook asks. Emma shakes her head; it’s probably nothing but while it looked to her like this guy was finding peace, she felt nothing. Emma doesn’t understand what’s happening, but she feels like peace should feel different from fading into nothing.

It feels wrong.

“It’s nothing,” she says. “Nothing that matters anyway. Come on; I know how to free our seer friend.”

When they return to the house, Tink is sitting on the floor, chatting happily with the seer. Tink is surprised to see them. “Where’s Kayto?” she asks immediately. Emma glares at her silently as she wanted to free the seer before breaking the news. You should have someone besides you when you learn your loved one was gone.

However, the seer surprises her.

“ He’s dead, isn’t he?” she asks. Emma sighs.

“Yes, but I know how to open the door,” she says hopefully. “And I have a message from him,” she adds. Emma tells her what to do and she can hear the seer chuckle.

“ Kayto was always silly like that, making the passwords my name, or my eye color or my favorite flower,” she laughs. “ Lily!” she says sternly and without wavering. Without hesitation, Emma hears the gears shift and the door between them drop to the ground.

“Welcome to the other side,” Tink says, holding out her hand for the Seer, Lily, to grab. She takes it and Emma can see the woman’s face is filled with tears, despite having a smile on her face. Tink pulls her into a firm hug. “I’m so sorry about your friend,” she says.  

“Me too.”

//

It takes some time to clean up as Tink takes Lily to her bedroom to rest. 

“Something bothered you, before,” Hook notes as he picks up pieces of the broken furniture as Emma mops. “When you were speaking to the dead.”

Emma shrugs, wishing he’d drop it.

“Sorry I wasn’t perky,” she says dryly.

“Does that often happen? The dead telling you their last wishes?”

“Not that I recall.” He doesn’t respond after that, seemingly getting the hint that Emma didn’t want to talk about it.

They have the room mostly clean by the time Lily and Tink return from upstairs. She gets a good look at her now. Lily was dressed in dark purple silks, tanned skin with darker brown hair. She was smiling, but Emma could see the grief radiating off the woman.

“You came to seek my assistance,” Lily says simply.

She feels nervous all of a sudden, unsure if they’d made the right decision to come here.

“I um…are you sure you’re up for this?” Emma asks. 

“You brought me Kayto’s last wishes; assisting you is the same as honoring my friend,” she confirms. “Tell me your—“ but Lily is cut off by the earth beneath their feet shaking. 

“Bloody hell!”

Bloody hell is right. Emma nearly loses her balance due to being forced to hug the wall to keep herself standing. Tink falls back on her butt, while Hook’s hook makes a scraping sound in the wall as he tries to avoid falling.

The shaking stops almost as abruptly as it begins.

“Sorry about your wall, lass…” Hook says sheepishly. Emma glances at the jagged marks in the wall. “I have something to patch it up onboard,” he offers.

Lily smiles kindly in his direction. “Thank you, Captain. It’s been a while since the island shook like that; it’s not a good sign,” she admits. “But that is none of your concern.”

Hook quietly makes his way out of the room. 

“Tell me your desire,” Lily says, pointing at a chair, now upturned besides the crystal ball on her table. “And I can take a glimpse into your destiny.”

Emma does as she asks; she’s not one to put much thought into ‘destiny’ and fate. She’s been screwed over by such thoughts before. But she’s willing to give it a try if it means finding Henry.

“I need to find the Demon Ship. There’s supposed to be something on this island that the Demon Ship wants. I need to know where it is,” she states.

“Many have come for this island’s treasure; none have found it.”

“Failing isn’t an option for me.” 

Lily takes her hands, and places them on the crystal.  “Close your eyes.” Emma expected it to be cold, but it felt like ice, sending a shiver down her whole body., She closes her eyes, trying to relax to let Lily work her magic.

“Mom?” Emma’s eyes snap open. She knows that voice.

“Henry?” she exclaims, seeing her boy in front of her. He looks the same—same clothes, hair rumpled and dirty, but same bright and hopeful eyes. “Oh, Henry,” she says pulling him into her arms. He hugs her close, burying his face into her chest. “Are you alright?”

He nods, “I’m fine, but I want to go home. Please come take me home,” he says, tears appearing in his eyes. 

“I will,” she swears. “I’m coming to find you. I promise nothing is going to stop me.” 

He nods. There’s a loud creaking sound, making Henry jolt to look away from her, in the direction she can’t see.

“Henry?” Her kid starts to fade from view, becoming translucent.

“Mom?” Henry says turning back towards her, looking panicked. “Mom!”

“I’ll find you, Henry!” But it’s too late, her eyes blink open and she sucks in a large breath, pulling away from the crystal and Lily. Her whole body is trembling.

“What did you do? Where did you take me?” Emma demands, her whole body is trembling and there are tears streaking down her face. 

“It’s you,” Lily says in amazement. “You’re the Savior.” Her eyes widen with delight. Emma’s widen in horror. “I thought it was...You’re here to save the island, and defeat the evil.” Emma shakes her head.

Not this again…

“ The Island needs you; you’re the only one who can do it,” she says, standing to embrace her, but Emma avoids her touch. Why this? Why this again? “The realm needs you, Emma. You can save this island; you can save us all from this evil.” She shakes her head. 

No. No. No.

“Are you sure?” Tink asks. “That she’s this Savior? What does that even mean?”

Lily turns to her. “The Savior was prophesied by my mother before I was born, to defeat a great evil, to restore balance. Now she is here, exactly when she is most needed. The Isle of Ember won’t last much longer.”

“Then it's a good thing she’s here,” Tink says with a nod. “I’ve learned not to doubt Emma. What does she have to do?”

“Why, climb Mt. Ember of course. Deep in the mountain lies a shrine to the Fairy of Power, but it’s been corrupted by evil—the same evil that has your child, Emma.”

They both look at her expectantly, like handing her responsibility for a whole island was a gift and not the burden it truly was.

“I don’t want to save anyone!” she exclaims loudly now. “I can’t do this. This savior you’re looking for its-its not me,” she insists. “I just want to save my kid. I just want Henry back,” she says in a smaller voice. “I don’t want to defeat some grand evil. I just want to go home!”

Lily and Tink look at her in surprise, or maybe it’s disappointment. Emma isn’t sure, so she doesn’t stick around to find out. She turns around and bolts for the door. She nearly trips as the ground shakes from another eruption, but Emma doesn’t care. She wants to run so that’s what she does. She just runs.

But with no destination, she happens to run right into Hook, quite literally as her body collides with his as he’s leaving the docks. Emma almost topples over, but Hook steadies her.

“Whoa, lass—what’s wrong?” he asks. Concern is written on his face, which is just great. Because if the pirate is showing concern for her then she must really be a wreck. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. She was supposed to find a home for her and Henry, not let him get kidnapped. What kind of a mother is she?

What kind of Savior is she?

“A bloody great mother, Swan,” Hook insists. Emma hadn’t even realized she had said any of that out loud. “What’s this about?” he asks; his hand is still on her arm, holding her steady, keeping her rooted to the spot.

“They want me to go there,” she says in a too small voice, pointing to the mountain. “They want me to defeat whatever evil thing has taken over. They want me to save this whole place and I-I just can’t. I’m not a hero, I’m not the one for the job. I barely know how to hold a sword,” she admits. Her knees tremble at the thought of going in there.

He doesn’t respond at first, but he doesn’t let her go. 

“Does going in there help you save Henry?” he asks. It catches her off guard.

“I don’t know. She said the same evil that has Henry is in there, but he’s not here, he’s…lost.” She knows in her soul that he’s not here; the vision—it felt darker, colder. He was scared; he wanted his mother.

Hook nods. “But going in there lets you weaken that evil, right? Help you find your boy?” She nods. Emma hadn’t thought of it that way; all she heard was another mission, another thing she’s expected to do because she’s the only one who could and she just…she shut down.

But if it’s for Henry…

“When it comes to your son, Swan—well, I’ve yet to see you fail.”

She turns to look at him, watch his eyes, his expression. He’s telling the truth—he believes in her and that feels…odd. A strange warmth settles in her chest.

“Do you really mean that?” she asks in a soft voice, frightened of ruining this feeling.

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” He says like it was nothing. Maybe it was. Maybe for people not raised how she was, being believed in was normal. “You’re bloody brilliant.”

Emma feels something in that moment; something precious and new. She felt like she could do anything if he kept looking at her like that.

“Besides,” he says, “How can you fail when accompanied by yours truly?”

“You're coming with me?”

“What else do I bloody have to do? Trust me, Swan,—I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Besides, perhaps you’d accept a sword lesson or two on the way?”