#he may talk to Cass out of solidarity

[currentfandomkick]

100% agree with op

Also we can add that from Danny’s POV Damian got everything he wanted and was the one they went easy on. (Yes not good to compare truamas but Danny is fully aware they were Not a person to the al Ghuls)

Also given clones tend to be female in legit science and the league is infamous for having a lot of women assassins? No reason Danny can’t be afab and wasn’t just raised to be Damian’s bodyguard the way David Cane had Cass with Lady Shiva to get a ‘perfect weapon’ that (i could be misremembering) was raised also to become a bodygaurd for Ra’s. So.

I tend to see Danny as transman or transmac, so i’ll probably use he/they below this point

Danny shutting down any and all attempts at contact from Damian and Bruce, especially if they try to force it? 100% Danny’s course of action. But if Cass tries to make contact as a ‘are you safe? Are you happy? Do you want to talk about what the League did to us?’ Danny would be more inclined to talk about it as Cass Knew and got it.

And Cass? Is not passing anything to the others unless Danny says so, or he is in danger.

If you want this can be while ghostfighting is new to him, and have him see Phantom as the person he had to be to survive and Fenton as who he chooses to live as. Or they can see Phantom as the form that holds his truamas from the past and why he fights better and more competently sans powers as Phantom and a reason why he forgets about having them—they were not there when he trained at first, and he cannot connect the two separate trainings yet, and is unsure about doing so as if he’s dependent on his powers, won’t he be more vulnerable fighting-wise when he cannot access them?

Meanwhile Fenton is where he lets lose and tries to reclaim his childhood and control of his life. Yes they have a few hundred insecurities rooted in what happened before he escaped. (Hell, his may predate Damian being sent to Bruce by a few months or even weeks depending on how fast Talia moved there). But as a whole, Fenton is living their best life at last even if they struggle to have the same ability to get others to listen to them and attract people the way Talia and Ra’s do. He can handle it his way, right?

And Danny is fine without them. But sometimes he misses small things. The food. The heat of the cradle. Even the water itself tastes different here. But he doesn’t have to miss the Lazarus Pitts. He knew they’d never bother using them on him—he’s not a person. Never a child of Talia, just a tool she made for her precious heir.

And when Damian somehow found him and tried to reconnect Danny was not risking shit for him. He doesn’t even like this spoiled brat who got the easy training with Ra’s after he let out his aggression on the guards and then Danny. Or Danny and then the gaurds.

And when Bruce tries? Danny laughs at him. He hates Talia on a good day now, but he knows Bruce left her after she lost their first try when they were fucking married. When Ra’s was ready to make the League stop altogether if the rumors were true. And he doubted they weren’t.

Bruce abandoned his mother at her worst when he promised to be there. He blames Bruce for a large part of why Ra’s had so much control of her. They can’t love her—refused to after being her tool until they faked their death. But he can’t say he doesn’t believe she was entirely different before, given she stood against Ra’s multiple times before that and saved people regularly when she wasn’t studying law, apparently.

Danny won’t trust the spoiled heir getting his long awaited training from a man who can’t keep his goddamn vows.

He didnt even want to look up Batman’s history at first, but hooking up publicly with Catwoman not even two weeks after abandoning his wife after a miscarriage?

He wanted nothing to do with that integrity-of-tissue-paper-bastard.

They could both fuck off this plane of existence for all he cared. They just needed to stay out of his ancients damned life already!

Then he got a message from a new number he was ready to delete. But that wasn’t bruce or damian’s linguistic style.

The string of emojis took a few minutes to parse but made him smile. Just a touch.

‘Yeah i escaped too. Family safe. I chose them, and my big sister,’ he sent back.

The string of rainbows, party poppers and unicorn emojis had him laughing.

‘You?’

He got a picture of a red headed woman and a blond girl eating takeout. And a string if thumbs up.

‘Glad you got out and survived too. Wondered if you did or not everytime i heard about you.’

The string if question marks had him snorting.

‘Fyi the asshole donors of yours talk a lot about you as a benchmark for any new tools they make. Ta’s was pissed i didn’t give him a good spar until i was six since i was always behind on move reading and countering in real time.’

The string of frowny faces relaxed him.

‘Good to know you’re alive.’

He laughed at the finger pointing at him and the number two emoji.

He saved it under ‘best warrior’ and made a mental note to have tucker secure the line for them. Or bribe technus to do it in exchange for a ‘no phantom repercussions’ for taking over Damian and Bruce’s phones next time they tried something.

Danny got out.

Danyal al Ghul was created by the League of Assassins alongside his brother Damian.

Created, not born. Though they were both grown in the same lab, Danyal always felt the status quo. Damian was the heir, the real son, the one they cared about. Damian got to be a person, the one for whom human terms like “born” would fit.

Danyal was just the extra. The bodyguard to die in his brother’s place and a spare should he be lost.

And Danyal died.

Shed his old life like a snake’s skin and vanished into the bustle of a crowded city.

They would tell Damian say it was a mission went wrong. A failure, like Danyal always was.

But Danyal would call it his first real success.

Danny Fenton loves their new life.

Jack and Maddie, for all their unsafe work practices, care for them. That’s far more than their blood “family” in the League ever did.

Far more than they felt they deserved for the longest time.

So when their brother reached out, tried to reconnect as if they were normal siblings instead of born tools, is it any wonder they lashed out, told him to never come back?

Danny got out. Danyal is dead, one ghost Danny is happy to put down forever.

[bigskydreaming]

Doing some writing today off and on between errands and work, and jumping around various Kings of the Sky installments, specifically Dick, Jason and Cass stuff, so probably gonna post snippets from a bunch of them as I go. 

(Kings of the Sky is an AU that goes canon divergent from the point of Jason calling Dick for advice for dealing with Bruce after the Garzonas case and where things end up going dramatically different from that point on. Including Jason not dying, being part of his own lineup of Titans between Dick and Tim’s, Dick being adopted not long after the Church of Blood incident, Cass being the third Wayne kid to be taken in and adopted and with Tim and Duke being next and then Damian coming along later once they find out about him. This is basically my ‘the family’s alright’ AU with largely ‘Good Dad Bruce’ except for Dick and then Jason yelling some sense into him about the other, respectively, in the first two installments, just FYI).

Anyway, this bit is from a story called “In Their Shadows Grow Trees Of Good and Evil,” set about a year after Cass has been adopted, when she and Jason are both sixteen and Dick’s twenty-one. Also just FYI, because canon has never been specific about what ways Cass is neurodivergent due to the comic-book style ‘rewiring’ of her brain so that she could learn to speak later in life, I tend to go with her being dyslexic and having aphasia. She sticks exclusively to sign language and being a silent presence in her costumed personas, so that there’s no chance of people connecting the dots between Black Bat and Cassandra Wayne, as she mostly speaks verbally in her civilian persona and doesn’t hide her aphasia. The reason there’s not likely to be any obvious signs of aphasia in the snippets of her I post is because I wait until I complete something to choose words at random to replace with aphasia-born mixups, so its more realistic and I’m not gearing her dialogue towards deliberately placed moments. Just in case you were wondering.

In Their Shadows Grow Trees of Good and Evil

“Hey Todd,” sneered an exquisitely obnoxious voice. “Why’s your sister so fucking weird?”

Jason sighed the sigh of a soul a mere century into its eternity of damnation as he rose from the lunch table he’d been studying at and crammed the rest of his books into his backpack. Then he pasted a cheerfully bland smile on his face and turned around, geared for academia warfare (teenage prep school edition).

“Hey Craig,” he said brightly. “Why’d you come out of the womb so ugly your parents had to tie a piece of steak around your neck just to get the family dog to go near you? Mysteries abound.”

The advancing junior slowed a step, momentarily rocked by his truly impressive return volley. The grimace Craig’s already gargoyle-esque features twisted into made his face even more unpleasant to look at than usual, which was quite the feat. Jason would have applauded if just looking at it hadn’t already turned him to stone.

But the bargain basement basilisk kept on towards him rather than turn tail and skulk off to pop his emotional blisters, so Jason sighed a sequel to his first one. Looked like it was one of those days where Craig felt up to powering through. Guess someone had eaten their self-esteem Wheaties that morning. Joy.

“You think you’re pretty hot shit, don’t you, Todd?”

Jason shrugged. “I mean, to be honest I kinda have a one track mind, so right now I’m mostly just thinking about punching you in your mistake.”

“My what?”

“Your face,” Jason elaborated with exaggerated patience.

“Huh?”

“Oh my god, I’m saying your face is a mistake. See, its not as fun when I have to stop and explain it to you. Ugh, you ruin everything.”

He neatly sidestepped the older boy as R2-Dumbass stayed frozen, smoke coming off of his internal CPU while trying to catch up. For a second Jason thought he was home free, but then he remembered the universe fucking hated him so haha, sucks to suck. Also, a small crowd had gathered to witness the verbal jousting match, and nothing invigorated an asshole like Craig more than an audience of like-minded peers. So there was that too.

“Whatever. Laugh it up all you want, you little shit,” the junior rallied. “But just remember, mocking your betters will never change the fact that you were born street trash and you’ll be street trash until the day you die.”

Honestly? Not his best effort. Jason almost felt bad using any of his good material. Seemed like overkill at this point. But he did have a strict Scorched Earth policy to maintain, so.....

“Yeah but my dad could buy out and ruin your dad so that means I still win, right?”

He smirked as the barb landed and Craig’s face set into a sunset vista of strangled purple and furious red. Bam. Direct hit.

“Listen, you - “

“Oh for fuck’s sake, it was rhetorical,” Jason interrupted. “I don’t actually care what you think even a little bit. Nobody does. You don’t matter. Please go be irrelevant elsewhere, you’re fucking dismissed, you loser.”

“Speak for yourself, charity case.” Oh goodie, Craig’s backup singers had finally arrived. Now if only he could remember to care enough to learn their names in the first place. Seriously, who told the extras they could have lines? “All the jokes in the world can’t change who and what you are.”

Jason shrugged and continued nonchalantly up the hill to where his sister was standing with arms crossed, staring down at something on the other side.

“True genius is never appreciated in its own time,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll be immortalized in song eventually.”

The mob of morons deigned to let him go without further incident. Though he suspected that had less to do with his scathing wit and more to do with him being headed towards Cass. She was immaculately presented as always, wearing the Gotham Academy uniform like she was born to it despite hating its uncomfortable stiffness every bit as much as he did. But that was just Cass for you. 

For all that she still struggled at times to engage verbally or speak up in social settings, her mastery of body language remained without peer. She could chameleon-camouflage her way into matching poise and posture with anyone - a skill that had allowed her to walk into school on her very first day with her head held high as though she owned everything in her sight. Exuding so much Queen Bee Intimidation Factor even the other hive queens were afraid to approach her  themselves. Sending forth their drones to try and woo her into an alliance, only to see her remain oh-so-casually above it all, a slightly contemptuous smile adorning her lips.

Basically, she scared the shit out of their classmates without them having anywhere close to a true understanding of why, and Jason was outrageously jealous. Rude. Unfair. Why did his siblings always get all the cool toys when all he had was his rakish charm, scintillating intellect and debonair.....nah, who was he kidding. He was fucking awesome. 

“Sup, sis,” he said, cresting the hill to stand beside Cass. “Just FYI, I just took a popularity bullet for you, which means you owe me your dessert tonight. Its a family rule that’s totally a real thing and definitely not something I just made up right now because Alf is making chocolate soufflé.”

She made no acknowledgment and remained stock still, a Colossus at Rhodes peering down into the shifting shadows of the parking lot below.

He peered down as well, though with absolutely no idea what they were looking at. Solidarity, yo.

“So are we staring fixedly at anything in particular, or should I just pick my own spot and commit?”

His humor was totally wasted on her as always. Instead of laughing and telling him what a lovable goof he was, she just inclined her head in the direction of a blonde girl where she was standing next to the driver’s side door of a Mercedes-Benz, dictating final commandments to her peons before departing. Well, probably. Jason was just guessing, based on his own body language reads, and like, general disdain for literally everyone at this school that wasn’t related to him.

He made a face. An extra special one reserved just for this classmate in particular. “Ugh, Madison Dunleavy? She’s the worst.”

Cass raised a cool eyebrow. “I thought Craig Hendricks was the worst.”

“He is. They’re both the worst. Its a hotly contested position here at Gotham Academy.”

She rolled her eyes and nodded back down at the Queen of Air and Darkness. “So. You know her?”

“Nope,” Jason said. “Come to think of it, I’ve actually never seen her in my life. No idea who that is. Can’t help you, sorry. Shall we go home?”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition speared him with clear intent. Who the fuck needed words when you could pack the Encyclopedia Britannica into a single facial expression?

Jason sighed gustily. 

“I had a slight altercation with her freshman year that led to her declaring her undying enmity for me until the end of time. The word nemesis may or may not have been thrown around once or twice. I can’t recall.”

The Eyebrow of Inquisition lowered nary an inch. Ugh, she wanted more? Why did everyone in his family hate privacy, with the obvious exclusion of himself when snooping through Cass and Dick’s rooms for blackmail material, which was actually intel-gathering and thus another matter entirely.

“Okay so basically what happened was my first week here I overheard her talking shit about me and not even twenty minutes later she was pretending to kiss my ass in homeroom, like probably because of Bruce, y’know? So I just busted out laughing and told her to fuck off and die and she has inexplicably loathed me ever since.”

Avoiding further Eyebrow Inquisition-ing, he made a show of peering around aimlessly. When the silence extended and it was clear Cass was absolutely not going to break first, Jason waved a hand in dismissal and took to peering oh so casually at his fingernails. "I suppose I was less tactful back in those days.”

He chanced a look up, finally, and saw his sister’s eyebrow had somehow managed to mighty morphin power ranger its way into a configuration evoking both judgment and disbelief, with the latter perhaps aimed at the idea he was significantly differing in the tact department these days either.

“I don’t love the implications your face is making right now,” he told her.

She ignored him, because of course she did. 

“Does she know Dick?” She asked instead. Jason shrugged.

“I mean, maybe? She’s probably seen him around at one of those stupid galas we have to go to, and actually I think maybe she has an older brother who was either in Dick’s grade or like, one above or below it? I don’t know.”

Now both eyebrows were doing the dance of disbelief. Okay, so maybe that was poor situational awareness on his part, since it wasn’t like Gotham Academy was a big school with a ton of other kids and also he’d only been in the same class as Madison for like over two whole years, but whatever. There were extingent circumstances.

“Look, she’s a total snob who’s always looked down on me and in return I willfully ignore both her existence and that of everyone and everything even tangentially related to her. Its called equality, Cass.”

She pursed her lips and went back to the peering, because of course in the mind of Cass it made total sense that the Grand Inquisition didn’t need to be followed up by any explanation on her part, what the hell. Like was he supposed to have inferred it?

“What’s this all about anyway?”

“I heard her talking about Dick earlier,” she said without peeling her eyes away from her personal recon mission. “I don’t know what she said though, I just heard her say Grayson, and then I was busy looking at what her body was saying. I know it was about Dick because she shut down when she saw me. And I didn’t like the way she....looked....before that happened. The way she was talking. It was.....”

Jason frowned but held back any follow-up questions while he waited - with total patience because he wasn’t an absolute cad, thank you very much - for his sister to find the word she was hunting for. It was a major source of frustration for her, that whatever neural map her brain followed put body language and spoken language in totally different regions of her brain, separated by a fairly great divide. Meaning she usually had to make a conscious choice to focus on body language or conventional languages - whether verbal or sign. But it tended to be one or the other; she’d yet to master taking in and comprehending both forms of ‘language’ at the same time. And none of them had quite figured out how to convince her that she wasn’t actually missing anything when she chose to focus on one specific form of communication - that she was still observing far more than most people ever would.

“Proprietary,” Cass settled on at last. She nodded her satisfaction with her choice of word, and Jason waited a whole two point five seconds before sticking  his whole foot in his mouth.

“Proprietary?” He asked with a scrunched nose as he weighed that for possible context and implications. “You sure?”

She glared. He winced. It was a whole thing.

“Yeah, I know, sorry, sorry, I heard it the second it was out of my mouth. We don’t actually have to experiment with the legitimacy of if looks could kill.”

Cass rolled her eyes, but eh. That could’ve gone worse.

Jason swiftly redirected attention anyway. Discretion is the better part of valor, after all.

“So. The Queen of Air and Darkness was talking about our big bro, and her mood was.....proprietary, huh?” He recapped while digesting the info like a boss. “Well. Definitely not loving that, I gotta say. Hold please.”

Pulling out his phone and pulling up his most recent texts, he began typing furiously.

“What are you doing?” Cass asked.

“Texting Tom,” he replied, because duh. Hah, now it was his chance to have the answers that should be patently obvious and thus make with the ‘are you kidding me’ when she asked obvious questions she should know the answer to! How do you like them apples, sis?

“Why are you texting your boyfriend right now?”

Jason rolled his eyes, because fair is fair, but never ceased texting for a moment. Time was of the essence here, probably. Well, maybe. Okay probably not. But it’d still been like half an hour since he and Tom had last texted and that’s a very fucking long time in teenage years.

“To be our getaway driver tonight, obviously.”

She stared at him. He didn’t look up, but he could feel it anyway. He was very intuitive like that.

“What?”

Jason heaved another sigh, one keyed to tones of ‘oh my god, do I really have to spell this out,” exasperation. He was just racking up the bonus points here. It was really too bad this wasn’t an actual competition he could actually win and this was all just pettiness taking place wholly in his own head. Lame. 

“Well, clearly we now have to go snoop in Madison’s house aka lair to see if its actually a house or a full on lair. Because she’s either a creeper or like, legit evil, and its important to know which one before we proceed, because obviously we can only bust her for being a weird creeper about our brother as Jason and Cass, whereas if she’s legit evil, that’s gotta go down as Robin and Black Bat. I’ll handle the snooping, you’ll take look-out, but we still need a wheelman and that’s why I’m texting Tom. This is all very mission-oriented, okay. I’m a professional.”

“Right,” she affirmed, while sounding anything but convinced. “Why don’t we just tell Bruce?”

Without looking up or breaking stride, he said: “I’m going to give you til I finish typing this sentence to figure out what was wrong with what you just said. Remember that we are talking about hypothetical danger to our brother, and also Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response to any of his children being in even hypothetical danger. And also our brother’s idea of a proportionate response to Bruce’s idea of a proportionate response. Look, you’re still new so I’m gonna need you to just trust me on this one. Its gonna be a no on telling Bruce without further intel.”

Cass said nothing in response to that, which meant that she was conceding the point and recognized the wisdom of his words. Or maybe that she was just gonna go ahead and do what she wanted anyway and just wasn’t bothering to fight about it, but it was probably that first thing.

“Well you better not just make out with your boyfriend all night,” is what she said at last, and that got his attention reeeeeal quick like.

“Umm. Wow. Okay. So, first off, you’re not the boss of me and who I make out with and when, so jot that down. And second, now I’m definitely going to make out with my boyfriend extra hard, with the exception of when we are actually on our recon mission because as previously established, I am a professional. And also, again, you’re not the boss of me.”

Jason ignored her Eye Roll With Extra Emphasis, and instead just held up his phone to Text With Extra Emphasis, as he read along with what he was typing.

“By the way babe, we have to make out extra hard tonight,” he said, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth while he dragged out his dictation with the kind of focus that usually led to Bruce asking why he couldn’t apply as much intensity to training as he did to pettiness. “Cass has suddenly decided she can dictate terms to me and I need to shut that shit down ASAP, so thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter. Smoochies and other gay stuff to the best boyfriend ever.”

Jason frowned as a response pinged back seconds later. 

TheCatsMeow: ....the things I put up with for the sake of your weird family dynamics.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah, yeah. You’re a saint among were-panthers. Must you mock? Why can’t you just tell me I’m pretty instead?

TheCatsMeow: Sorry. Let me try again. OMG you’re so pretty Jase how did I get so lucky xoxo.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: No. Its too late. It feels forced and unbelievable now. You’ve ruined it forever.

TheCatsMeow: Got it. From now on I will only tell you that you’re repulsive and hideous.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: I’m breaking up with you.

TheCatsMeow: But after I help you with your mission tonight.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Obvsly. I’m a professional. Why do people keep forgetting this?

TheCatsMeow: And also the making out to spite your sister.

TheOnlyRobinThatRocks: Yeah we should do that first too. I mean we already penciled it in.

[autisticblueteam]

Different People (Carolina/Girlie)

Chapter 2 / 4: Waiting

[AO3] [Ko-Fi in Bio]

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Drowning, Paralysis [other tags on AO3]

Girlie survived Longshore.

The sole survivor of her team, she found herself thrown out into the world with nowhere to go and nothing to cling to except the burning resentment she held towards the Freelancers. After years of aimlessness, when presented with an opportunity for revenge she snaps it up without hesitation.

But reality is never as simple as fantasy. People aren’t always what you imagined them to be.

Chapter Word Count: 4397

Notes: Writing from Girlie’s perspective here is interesting because it’s making me write opinions of characters that are basically the exact opposite of my own, since she’s so negatively biased.

The conviction was nothing if not swift. Girlie barely had time to register her actual charges before she was pushed through the system and thrown into a prison on some obscure inner colony, but they weren’t hard to guess. Insurrectionist activity, especially this deep into the war, could come with a hefty sentence.

With her history it wasn’t even a wrongful conviction. It may have been years since their cell had disbanded and they’d signed up to the UNSC, but their time in the military and working for Charon didn’t erase the plethora of evidence against her. All Charon had to do was plant a little more evidence to fill in the gaps and ONI ate it up.

Didn’t need the lone member of your questionably legal private security force getting in the way of your rising political power. UNSC Oversight Subcommittee her ass. The shit they’d done for Charon was exactly the kind of shit he was now in charge of investigating.

Funny how that worked.

Prison wasn’t kind. The newfound support of her armour had been stripped away from her so swiftly that it left a sour taste in her mouth. Sure, she could move short distances without it, even train for short times, but she relied on her wheelchair for anything substantial. And prisons? Turns out that in practice, they’re just not that accessible.

Especially not when the wheelchair provided wasn’t designed for self-propelling and any requests for an exchange were ignored. Insurrectionists lay low on the hierarchy there, always had; since the war started it had only gotten worse.

It took a long time and a willingness to sacrifice luxuries to get on her cellmate’s good side, get her to push her as far as the prison’s gym. Keeping up with her exercises helped, fought away some of the hopelessness and restlessness that plagued her, but it wasn’t a fix-all. Most of her days were spent wasting away in her cell, with too too little to do and too much time to think.

“You got any Innie buddies waiting for you on the outside, blondie?” her cellmate, Cass, asked after another long, long day of sitting around doing nothing. She was still trying to decide if it was better or worse than the hospital.

“Nah. No one left to wait for me,” Girlie said, laid back staring at the ceiling.

(Sharkface’s heart monitor flatlining. Snipes, pierced by the same bullet over and over and falling dead on their face.)

There was a pause. “Aliens or humans?”

(Sleeves, his neck snapped by the sheer force of one punch. Demo, blown up and thrown into the water. The Chain Twins, crushed by a fucking crate.)

Girlie chuckled dryly. “We’re Innies. Take a guess.”

(Her back snapping on impact with the concrete platform, water in her lungs and the desperate fight to survive.)

“Damn. That’s rough. Least I can blame the aliens for my lack of welcoming party instead of— y’know, myself.” Girlie raised a brow at her. “You are an Innie. What’d you think was gonna happen?”

“I don’t blame myself,” Girlie said, rolling onto her side. And she didn’t, she never had. This wasn’t her fault, no; she knew who she had to blame and they wore white and aqua armour. Cass mimicked her raised brow and, in turn, Girlie mocked: “You did murder a UNSC official, what’d you think was gonna happen?”

“…touché.”

Huffing, Girlie rolled restlessly to her other side. “All we want is some fucking freedom and the right to self-determination, but nah, that’s enough to warrant killing us. I’ve never blamed myself or any of us when we lose people. Isn’t on us.”

“Shit, girl, sorry I asked,” Cass said, raising her hands defensively.

It had been years since she’d been able to think like that, been able to talk like that—but hey, if she was going to be treated like she was an active Insurrectionist again, then she may as well act like it.

For years, that pretty much summed up her prison experience: being stuck in her room with cellmates that were various levels of shitty; wheelchairs that didn’t suit her needs in prisons that were too big for her to walk; prison guards that didn’t care at best and were outright abusive at worst; long, uninterrupted hours of nothingness. No matter how many times she was transferred—and oh, she was transferred a lot—it was the same. Every prison, every cellmate, every year.

Eventually she came to the conclusion that it was worse than the hospital, much worse. In hospital, there weren’t multiple dangerous pricks in the building that could decide she was the next target at any time. In hospital, there was a modicum of freedom. In hospital, she had a goal.

Locked away in prison with no exit in sight, her anger felt more like a trap than a motivation. All of that rage she’d allowed to fester and target itself at the Freelancers had no outlet—but at the same time, it wasn’t something she could just let go of. More than just a driving force, it came from a place of genuine hatred and resentment towards those fucking Freelancers, from a place of consuming grief that never quite faded.

Just as that resentment and grief wouldn’t fade, neither would the anger that sprung from them. As the years went by it only had longer to simmer, to gnaw away at her.

Everything that had happened since Longshore was their fault—that was a fact to her just as much as it was a fact that you need air to breathe. Agent Carolina and Agent Maine and their team had taken everything from her. Because of them, she’d almost died. Because of them, her family was gone. Because of them, Charon had no use for her. Because of them, she was in prison.

It was all. Their. Fault.

And for all her anger, all she could do was hope that somewhere, out there, they were going through as much hell as she was.

Nothing was unusual about her move to the prison ship, Tartarus. Not only was it far from the first time she’d been stuck on a prison ship for transfer, but it wasn’t even her first long-haul trip with no clear timescale. The ship was filled with a co-ed selection of the UNSC’s least desirable prisoners—people like her, who they simply didn’t care about. People with quite the variety of convictions, from what she heard through the bars.

She’d always hated long-haul transfers. Prison ships meant even shittier cellmates and no time out of their cells. Sure, the cells were a little more spacious to make up for it—she was able to work out, thank god—but there was only so many hours you could share a room with someone without a break before you wanted to add murder to your list.

Weeks went by and nothing happened that challenged the monotony of the journey. The skeleton crew wandered the levels every few hours just to give themselves something to do. Prisoners yelled crude and violent things, but even those began to get repetitive after a while. Stassney did some dumbass shit at least once a cycle. Weeks and weeks of the same shit, of the same routine—it was driving her up the fucking wall, but it wasn’t anything new.

Honestly, the ship getting invaded was the most interesting thing that had happened to her in years.

One minute Stassney was walking past talking about ‘hitch-hiking cheerleaders’—Girlie rolled her eyes so far back she could see herself think—and the next he was returning with a shady looking asshole in full power armour. The way he tilted his head was subtle, but Girlie had years of reading helmets under her belt.

He was scanning the cells.

They disappeared up into the staff areas and the chatter quickly focused on the new arrival. They had to be in the middle of utterly empty, open space right now—where the hell had this guy come from?

Girlie sat on the end of her bed, leaning her elbows against her knees. Even on a full tank and emergency reserves, a Pelican couldn’t get out here on its own and they certainly weren’t staffed by one guy, power armour or not.

Something wasn’t right.

Her suspicions were confirmed less than an hour later when some big fucker strolled through with at least five people in black armour and killed the straggling guards.

It probably said something about her mental state that her only reaction was a dull, “Huh. Figured.”

Yelling filled the air, a cacophony of indistinguishable noise that only fell silent when a deep, commanding voice came over the intercoms with one simple order—

“Quiet.”

Absolute silence fell over the room.

“As of this moment, we are the new crew of this ship.”

Someone a few cells down from her yelled out, “Well who the hell are you?!” and there was a pause, just for a moment, before she saw the taller of the two take a step back and the original guy take the microphone.

He started talking and admittedly, she was only half-listening until she heard the word ‘Freelancers’ in the midst of some verbose speech about needing people for some war, or something. But she didn’t care about that, no.

Freelancers. Fucking Freelancers.

She was listening after that.

“…now, if this totally awesome idea doesn’t sound like your kind of job, we’ll let you off the ship. But if you’re willing to fight for your freedom, then please firmly grasp the bars of your cell in a sign of solidarity.”

Let them off the ship, huh? Nah, no way that was as innocent as it sounded; there was only one way off of this ship when they were out in open space. And she didn’t plan on dying today—especially not without finding out what the Freelancers had to do with this.

So she got up, grabbed the cell bars. All around her she heard the sounds of hands slapping against bars, of indistinct mumbling. Some people sat back down, paced their cells with dismissive waves of their hands. Their funeral, she guessed.

Weakened as her legs were, her upper body had remained strong and when the purge activated, she had all the motivation she needed to hold on tight. The sharp, gut-punch of a tug tore her breath away and filled her with a genuine fear for her life that she hadn’t felt in years—

And then it was over. Purge doors slammed shut and the screaming all but stopped. Girlie collapsed to the floor, waiting for her cybernetics to recover after the sudden jerk.

But she was alive.

And they’d mentioned Freelancers.

Now all she had to do was wait and see what the fuck was going on.

As it turned out she didn’t have to wait that long at all. Not even another hour passed before heavy footsteps approached her cell and she was confronted by both the leaders of this little invasion and another prisoner. A man with deep brown skin and a pair of dark eyes that glinted with something inscrutable.

She’d never seen him before in her life, but that look in his eyes told her one thing: he definitely knew her.

“Arianna Leoraine,” the tall, awkward one said, “we’ve been informed—” his helmet tilted towards the prisoner, “—that you have history with the Freelancer agents we’re up against. Is that true?”

Huh, just like she thought. Somehow, this random guy who just so happened to be on the same prison ship as her knew her and not only that, knew her history. There were only a couple of reasons she could think of that would explain that: either he used to work for Charon—unlikely, her team was known of by only a select few—or he used to work for Freelancer.

And oh, wasn’t that possibility interesting.

“Maybe. What’s it to you?” she said, even as she stood up. Folding her arms under her chest she tilted her head. “Gonna let me at them?”

“Maybe,” the small, talkative one said, one hand on his hip as the other gesticulated vaguely. “Depends on a few things, like if you can hold your own in a fight… if you know how to follow orders… that sort of thing. Boring stuff, but necessary. Can’t have someone causing us more trouble than we already have, now can we?”

Rolling her eyes, Girlie tilted her head forward and set him with a firm stare. “Look, you point me in the direction of one of those assholes? I’ll do whatever you need me to do. No questions asked. I’ve been waiting for a chance like this for years, I’m not going to mess that up.”

“Well then,” he shared a look with his partner, that tall, quiet one whose helmet gave away nothing, “I think we have some talking to do, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do. But if you want that talk happening up on the bridge? You’re either gonna have to bring me some armour or send one of your guys to grab a wheelchair from storage,” she said, folding her arms tighter and standing her ground. Her legs still felt shaky after the pull of the purge.

The tall one nodded towards a couple of their men that were standing by and soon, they returned with a chair.

Alright, that was a decent start.

Their names were Felix and Locus. They were some mercenaries working out here in the middle of bumfuck nowhere on some backwater planet named Chorus. Somehow the locals had gotten the help of a couple of Freelancers and their friends. All the mercenaries wanted was some manpower to help them clear out the resistance and to get rid of the Freelancers.

Couldn’t say she agreed with the principle of the thing, but she had fallen far beyond principles. Years of boredom and building resentment had left no room for that, not right now. Not when she was faced with the chance to get revenge.

There were only two of them, apparently. Two survivors out of the ten colourful suits of armour she could never forget. At first they didn’t mention names—she couldn’t tell if that was deliberate or not—but eventually, her prodding got an answer.

Agent Carolina and Agent Washington.

The assholes who fought Sharkface (the entire left side of his face crushed and scarred, his eye gone, the bone implants he needed to survive—) two of the assholes that dropped that fucking building on him and Demo (his arm, gone, absolutely mangled, the missing chunk of his torso—) that fucking aqua armoured fuck who stabbed her, who helped that big brute kill Demo and tried to kill her (her back snapping, so much water between her and the surface—)

Turned out the big guy had been dead a while.

She didn’t know quite how she felt about that, not getting the chance to take them out herself, but…

One was better than none.

“Seems like our goals line up perfectly,” Girlie said, sat in her chair. The helmets were still on, but she met Felix’s gaze through his visor. “I want the Freelancers dead, you want the Freelancers out of the way.”

“Exactly,” Felix said, gesturing his pointer finger vaguely in her direction. “A nice neat little arrangement. You get your revenge and we get those pesky Freelancers off our asses so we can finish what we came here to do.”

“You will be provided with armour and equipment,” Locus said, still unreadable behind that helmet. “You will work more closely with us and you will be guided by the Counselor.”

The Counselor hovered silently off to the side. She felt the weight of his gaze on her, observing, analysing. That look in his eye made sense when she realised he must have been some Freelancer psychologist or something, with a name like ‘the Counselor’.

Didn’t surprise her that they wanted to keep an eye on her, but it wasn’t like she really cared. So long as he didn’t get in her way, there was no reason for her to risk objecting.

But only so long as he didn’t get in her way.

“Alright,” she said, shrugging. “That armour better be the good shit. Oh, and I work best with knives.”

With a hand over his chestplate and mock reverence, Felix said, “A woman after my very own heart. Don’t you worry, Leoraine, you’ll be supplied with the very best equipment we have to offer. Just make it worth it.”

“Don’t you worry,” she retorted, “because making it worth it won’t be an issue. Also— I’d prefer if you called me Girlie. Not Leoraine, or even Arianna.”

Even with his helmet blocking her view, Girlie could practically see the quick blinks of his double-take. “Girlie. What kind of— seriously? That’s a little on the nose, don’t you think?”

Maybe. These days she barely even remembered the origin of the nickname—it wasn’t that she was the only girl in the group, after all—but that had always been the point of their nicknames, they were ridiculously, ridiculously ‘on the nose’. They were stupid, but they used them more than they ever used their real names.

She needed that back now, more than ever.

“Oh right, okay, says the guy who’s partner goes by the name of their helmet,” she said, raising a brow. Catching the slight tensing of Locus’ shoulders, she added, “Not being a dick, just making a point.”

“…touché. Alright, Girlie, congratulations, you’ve got yourself a job.”

No, she’d gotten a little more than that.

True to their word they got her kitted up and they didn’t skimp out on her, either. The armour was top quality and it felt good to be able to stand without pain again, without feeling like her legs were going to give out under her at any minute. All black and standard issue, it was nothing special, but it was more than functional.

Somehow, an off-hand comment to the Counselor about how she preferred her old helmet even swung her an old ODST model from somewhere. He was trying to make her ‘comfortable’, get her to open up or some shit—definitely a psychologist. For now, she let him believe it was working.

It had been days since the invasion of the ship and days since she’d been promised her chance at the Freelancers, but so far there had been no opportunity to act. Being stuck up here on the ship felt annoyingly like nothing had changed, but she held on to the fact that as soon as there was news, she’d be shipped out.

Hopefully.

Until then she was subjected to daily sessions with the Counselor. He was good at acting like he gave a shit, she’d give him that, but she wasn’t here to be psychoanalyzed. She gave him just enough to keep him satisfied without ever really revealing anything he didn’t clearly already know—even when he pretended he knew nothing. Offering up little bits about her teammates’ deaths and her need for revenge even got her some information in return, information outside of what he needed to tell her.

Agent Maine, the big guy, had finally been killed by drowning.

She’d be lying if she said that didn’t give her some kind of sick catharsis. Nothing could have been more fitting.

Days passed by and she found it harder to suppress the frustration. Sessions with the Counselor were tedious and she had to watch her words closely. Any time that wasn’t spent with him was spent training, running drills to get her strength back.

After almost a week of nothing, the Counselor brought her another ‘gift’: red spray paint.

At first, she side-eyed it, wondered what she’d said that made him bring it, but finding no point in letting the offering go to waste she picked it up; it would make it easier for Carolina to recognise who she was.

For once the Counselor sat mostly silently as she worked, using the tools he provided her with to mark up her lipstick print and heart—once on the helmet, once on the chestplate—but it didn’t last forever. Eventually, he opened his mouth.

“That symbol… I take it that it’s important to you,” he said, nodding towards both the work she did and the matching tattoo that was visible on the back of her shoulder. There was another one much lower down, but he wasn’t ever going to be privy to that.

“Suppose so.” Finishing taping it off, she threw her hair back into a messy bun and grabbed a face mask.

“Do you find it representative of yourself?”

“I find it representative of me being a gigantic lesbian, sure,” she said, finding herself holding back an eye roll and not for the first time. Fucking psychologists. “Look, we all had a symbol; Snipes had a crosshair, Boss had a pill, the twins had their smileys, Sharkface had his fucking shark teeth, so on and so on. It’s just a thing. It’s not deep.”

“Alright,” the Counselor said, in that tone that meant he really did think it was deep. “Have you chosen to recreate the symbol to honour your fallen teammates?”

God this man was insufferable. Like fuck she was going to tell him that. “No. I’ve chosen to recreate it because one, I like it and two, I want Agent Carolina to recognise me.” She started shaking her spray can. “Simple as that.”

“So you want her to be aware of who’s killing her and why.”

“No shit. Doesn’t take a degree to figure that one out. Yeah, I want the asshole who nearly killed me and did kill my friends to know who the fuck’s killing her.”

“I see,” he said, with that same tone; he really thought he had her on lock, didn’t he?

She was starting to rethink the idea that killing him wasn’t worth the trouble.

Opting to ignore him instead, she finished shaking her can and started spraying out the design on her helmet. The shade of red wasn’t quite the same but it looked good enough. Bright and distinctive against the black. There’d be no question of Carolina noticing the symbols.

Setting the helmet down to dry, she moved onto the chestplate. There was silence, for a while; the Counselor slipped back into that observant quiet, ever analysing eyes set on her.

She’d moved onto adding other red details by the time he spoke again.

“Once Locus and Felix have finished their work at the newest location of interest, you’ll be sent down to monitor the location for the Freelancer’s arrival,” he said out of nowhere. Forced her to restrain the burst of what was almost excitement in her chest, tense up to stop herself reacting too strongly. “I trust you’ve reviewed the files on Agent Washington and Carolina?”

“Of course I have. And no, I don’t have any questions.” Agent Washington was stubborn and survivable, but he was better with a weapon in his hand than he was at hand-to-hand. Agent Carolina was competitive and highly skilled in multiple ways; she worked with an aging AI called Epsilon and had units at her disposal. Nothing she hadn’t seen before. “No, actually, I do, but not about them. What kind of location?”

“An ancient temple of alien origin. There are several on Chorus, this particular one having been newly revealed. It’s a point of interest for both sides of the conflict, at least one of the Freelancers will certainly arrive.”

“Alright.” Alien temples. What kind of planet was this? “I can work with that.”

Stopping the spray, she took a moment to admire her work.

Striking red, unmissable and unmistakable.

Agent Carolina would definitely know what hit her.

The strange mix of anxiety, excitement and rage that filled her on the Pelican ride down to Chorus was… indescribable. A combination unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Years waiting for this opportunity, hanging onto the idea of revenge with a somehow resigned desperation. She didn’t know if she’d ever believed she’d get the chance, not after Charon turned her in.

But here she was.

They arrived on-location a little while after Locus and Felix had moved on, heading to some big confrontation out at one of the radio towers. Girlie only had time for a cursory glance at the temple itself and the strange bright light shooting out of it before she and her back-up had to duck into a hidden area, overlooking the central zone. Wait.

As the sound of Warthogs and voices approached the temple.

A voice that Girlie hadn’t heard in years, but would recognise anywhere, among them.

It took all of her willpower not to blow their cover then and there, to gather information first like she’d been told to. She had to stand there, gripping her knives tight to ground herself as she took in everything that was said—most of it was irrelevant, but once that alien AI appeared… well, she figured the mercenaries would like the information that followed.

The Purge. Any other day she might have felt some kind of hesitance in passing that information on, but as she typed and sent the communication she found she felt no such thing. Not with Carolina a mere hundred metres away.

Not when the mention of the multiple maps finally gave them a chance to act.

“Carolina!”

Four of the ‘space pirates’—really, what kind of title—jumped out from their hiding position, rifles drawn, firing—

And just like she’d expected, the bubble shield appeared. (The thing that had killed Snipes, the death trap that ricocheted bullets endlessly, shooting them over and over with the same fucking bullet—)

Like she’d ever have let the pirates have first shot if she thought it’d work.

“And that was close.”

“Affirmative.”

“Charon’s here?!”

“Urgh, they've been here the whole time.”

“That’s right.” Her heart pounded in her chest as she strode forward, out into the open. Looked down at them, at that aqua coloured armour that had haunted her for years. Rage, bubbling up in her chest—

Carolina looked at her. Girlie saw the intake of breath. Smirked.

“Well hello. What a pleasure to see you again.”

[jamiedodgerart]

the fade is a liar sometimes

aka, a really long post about how mal hawke survived dragon age inquisition. warning for big but kinda vague spoilers for dai and mentions of alcoholism

ok full disclosure i dont know how he survived the fade. but im thinking the nightmare like. didnt wake back up in time to block the way through the portal, and so never caused the Do I Kill The Warden Or Hawke dilemma. cos. that was kiiiiiiiinda bullshit. 

i had to pick between alistair and mal. and i really didnt want mal to be actually really dead bc at the time of here lies the abyss he’d be in a really shitty place, mentally, and i didnt want him to just! die! without resolving that! so i gave canon the finger and concocted a convoluted plan to give mal a better ending

background, after the events of da2, he ended up leaving kirkwall and fuckin’ around in the woods for a bit. i imagine he was helping refugees get out for a little while, until anders showed up and convinced him to help groups of renegade mages/circles on the verge of winning their independence. at this point he was pretty sick of the world at large, didn’t know what he wanted or where he was going to go next, and let himself be (guided? directed? pushed around?) by anders, drinking himself into oblivion and generally feeling like garbage. he fell out of contact with most of his remaining friends and began convincing himself that he was guilty for the explosion, by trusting anders (he’d suspected something was wrong with the ingredients anders was asking for and confronted him about it, but trusted him and helped him by distracting the grand cleric)

i rambled about this on my private twitter but mal and anders... ended up not being a great fit for one another and past me said it better than present me can

eventually, the inquisition came into being and grew in power. anders, still being a wanted man and mal too by association, avoided the inquisition’s patrols pretty easily. but stories started to spread about the inquisitor and his... particularly creative justice. see, pica really likes choices that have some poetic irony to them that also focus on rebuilding (he had alexius work for the mages, stuff like that), generally avoids executions, and is pretty chill with mages. the inquisition is also independent of any government, really, and is about as impartial as you can get in thedas. so when mal gets word from varric that corypheus is back, a problem, and something they need mal’s help with (that is also, in his professional opinion, his fault), he gets an idea.

he heads to skyhold, meets pica (who read the tale of the champion, asks varric questions about it constantly, was expecting a hero, and was not expecting the hero to be a depressed alcoholic) and iunno here lies the abyss happens with the aforementioned edit of no one important dying (i guess i could kill alistair and preserve a kind of important turning point in pica’s character with an added bonus of giving mal another thing to have survivor’s guilt about but i dont think i could go through with it. imagine the emotional toll. pica could get that change some other way anyway) mal by this point has gotten to know pica fairly well and has found what he’s heard to be true, and gives him a proposition

(i would like to add now that while ive read asunder, until i looked it up just now i didn’t remember where it sits in the timeline relative to da2, and it wasnt super clear to me just how much each of the two events affected the mage/templar war. so some text in sketches might be inaccurate, historically)

so you can imagine that anders is Pissed Off by this development, but justice is kinda like 

cos like. pica Is a real actual authority figure. who is down to dispense some quality justice esp re mages. and is coming at it from a “yo i know you meant well and you did kinda have a point but you also killed a lot of people so there does have to be Some kind of consequence of that”

(but neither of them are at all happy with mal turning them in)

anyway the trial ends up including a full investigation of the events in kirkwall, as well as the events at the spire (cole, rhys, and evangeline all give their testimony) and it’s more a straightening out of what was up with the whole start of this shitshow anyway, cos the confusion and misinformation about it is probably the worst part. 

pica finds anders guilty and sentences him to community service, which a lot of people disagreed with. pica thinks it was a GREAT IDEA though because that community service comes in the form of anders teaching the inquisition mages about healing magic!! something that anders is good at, loves doing, and can actually help people with!! why are we still fuckin about with herbs when there’s magic!!!!! this also has the added bonus of making mages less scary to the general populace- chuckin’ fireballs is a lot more alien and intimidating than healing up a broken arm, yknow? it can help mages seem more human and good for society than they were, separated from the public in towers.

anders is still a prisoner, though, which hes super not happy about, and part of his sentence is also that dagna gets to study him. he and samson are in grudging solidarity in the face of tolerating her extreme cheerfulness. and maybe he gets a cat too. i wonder if he and samson could talk about how shitty the chantry is re: lyrium addiction in templars? its obvs not on the scale of mage shittiness but it could be an interesting discussion

see in the grand scheme of things mal really didnt do all that much. he was duped by a lover into doing something he 100% would not have done if hed known what was actually going on. i feel like the most anyone could bust him on was aiding and abetting. and maybe helping hide an apostate. mal was found, as pica informally put it while distracted by looking at a transcript of a kirkwall templar’s testimony, “kinda guilty? just like. if ur asked to help blow up a chantry dont do it again” but cassandra elbowed him really hard and he said “look ok your sentence is, fuck, i dunno, work for the inquisition. what do you wanna do”

that was not what mal was expecting and he didnt have an answer. and pica looked at him and said “ill give you some time to figure it out, ok. just. take care of yourself, man. u look like shit” which got him another elbow, which he returned to cass with equal force

anyway. mal is now officially Not Guilty in the court of the law. which fuckin sucks bc that assessment does absolutely NOTHING to stop his shit brain from keeping being guilty about everything. so he tries to quit drinking, fails, and just has a rough time in general, while also sometimes visiting anders in prison. which probably really doesn’t help.

ENTER WARDEN-COMMANDER OF FERELDAN, MADRANA “MAD” TABRIS, AND HER PARTNER/GF/ADULT SUPERVISION EMMARIE “EMMY” COUSLAND

(you may also know mads as hester, as i called her in previous playthroughs. hester’s not a really elfy name and shes grown far enough away from her namesake that i felt a change was warranted. also emmy was created by @1500birds. i love her)

thats them (mads then emmy) so mad tabris, legendary fighter, unkillable blight-ender, bather in darkspawn blood, and general bottle covey is looking for a challenge. its been like ten years since shes had an actually hard battle to win and she’s near skyhold, and she’s heard that mal hawke, another legendary fighter, is also in the area. oh and some cadash guy. hes apparently good too. also, she’s looking for some way out of the whole grey warden death sentence thing. shes not keen on dying unless she’s killed, ydig, and apparently skyhold’s doing a lot of groundbreaking research these days

she and emmy swing on in to skyhold and finds that hawke is, well, a mess

important background. mads is not good at dealing with other peoples’ emotions. so shes not really equipped to deal with this. emmy, however, is kind, has nerves of steel, loves to help people, and is Very equipped to deal with this. and so the two of them adopt mal. (even though hes older than both of them.) 

theyve got really, really different ways of trying to help mal. emmy is a great listener, and understands survivor’s guilt and the lost-all-my-family brand of trauma pretty well. she helps him sort through all the shit that’s happened to him and offers a lot of support. and hugs. by god shes a hugger. also theyve got a symbiotic cuddling relationship bc emmy is always cold and mal is always warm, so they platonically nap together sometimes. mads is unfortunately too wriggly and pointy to be a good cuddler :’( she squeezes in the mix sometimes anyway though and it’s uncomfortable but nice

mads’s method of helping mal is in her area of expertise: getting out pent-up negative emotion by fighting. for a long time, mal has internalized a lot of shit, and mads is really good at annoying him into either yelling or punching out that shit. shes doing it out of concern for his well-being, she swears, and not because she takes joy in pissing people off. she does but thats not the point. it’s not a perfect strategy but it does help a lot

unfortunately for her, sometimes mal can be downright vindictive when drunk and angry, and can hit on the few things she’s insecure about

(i would really love to make a post about mads sometime, cos she ended up being a lot deeper of a character than i originally intended. i really just wanted a really sharp angry lady who fought with the subtlety of a brick to the face, and ended up getting that plus bravado covering up a whole host of insecurities. i feel like i should finish dao before writing it up though ahah)

(what mal said is also not totally accurate- mads cares very much for emmy. but yknow how when things get heated it doesn’t really matter if they’re really accurate anymore- they just have to be close enough to get a reaction, ydig)

anyway! the two of them together help mal get his life back in order- he cuts down and eventually quits drinking, starts taking better care of himself, and gets more of a handle on life. i guess you’re probably wondering where varric is, right around now. so am i mal pushed away a lot of people close to him after da2, including varric. but varric kept looking out for him (lying to cassandra to protect him, using his network of contacts to keep an eye on where he and anders were operating). when mal comes to skyhold i think he’d try to avoid varric out of guilt- yknow how when it’s been a really long time since you’ve talked to someone, and you know you should have called them back, but you never did, and they kept asking how you were, and you want to be in an actually good place before you call them back, but shit keeps happening, and it’s been like two years since youve said anything to them, and then you see them and do some serious acrobatics trying to stay out of their sight so you don’t have to confront their honest interest in your well-being that they have no right to still have after so long with no word from you, and you have to make it seem like you havent been avoiding them because that would be rude, and really it’s just easier to be constantly vigilant of where they are and make sure youve got plausible reason to be leaving casually yet quickly

well mal did that. emmy had to physically bar his way from escaping a room once when varric came in, and dragged him by the scruff of the neck to talk to him. varric was painfully understanding and ended up hitting it off nicely with emmy

so! someday mal gets a job. specifically, pica gives him one. because he still owes the world some community service. with his experience as a hunter and highwayman, he becomes a scout!

whoaaa color

more specifically, mal becomes a... specialized type of scout. some idiot who shall not be named but whose name sounds a whole lot like pica cadash gave him command of a small squad of scouts, heavier armored and armed than average inquisition scouts but not heavy enough to count as infantry soldiers. their job is to dismantle highwayman and rogue mercenary bands, in whatever way necessary. so! originally this was supposed to mean sneak attacks on their strongholds or whatever, but mal talked with him about his own experiences with crime (mostly that most people in his crew back then were in it out of necessity, and needed money to support family) and the squad kind of became. really heavy recruiters. it became kind of a joke that the inquisition would take anyone- and they would! practically any skillset could be used in an organization as big as the inquisition, and at this point it was still growing

like. barely any exaggeration here

so that’s where he is pre-trespasser! thank u for reading and if youve got questions or want to learn more PLEASE ask i lov my ocs and love talking about them

i want to add that in @1500birds‘s latest playthrough (miranda trevelyan, a pro-chantry mage cullenmancer) mal rags on cullen endlessly

that was supposed to be the playthrough where he survives the fade, but then bran realized that miranda would kinda hate mal and would 100% leave him behind

[chloelorraine112-blog]

Textual analysis Finished

1) Which genre does the piece fit into?

 The genre of Made in Dagenham is a comedy and is written by William Ivory.

 2) Where is the play set? Immediate location and the wider location.

 The play is set in Dagenham (A large suburb in East London).  It is set in the Ford Dagenham factory, and based on the women workers at the factory.  Other locations included in the play are Liverpool, America (President of Ford’s office), Eastbourne, and Parliament in London.

 3) What is significant/important about the location?

Made in Dagenham is based on a true story, where the ford workers in Dagenham went on strike in the 1960’s; this contributed to the women’s rights movement.  So the significance of the play being located at the Ford factory in Dagenham is that it creates a true image and teaches us about real history. It is important that we know who fought for equal pay and where the strikes took place.  Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson were both in parliament when the real strikes took place, and so part of the play being located in parliament in London is again a significant part in created a true image of the story.  In real life, the Ford Dagenham workers also went to Liverpool to get the Ford Liverpool workers on board with the strike. Furthermore, in real life the strikers also went to Eastbourne to the TUC conference.  So all of the locations where Made in Dagenham is set are very important in representing a true image of what happened with the women strikers in the 1960’s.

 4) When is the play set?

 Made in Dagenham is set in 1968.

 5) How much time passes during the play?

 The play is set in 1968, and equal pay way amended in 1970. However, there is no mention in the script how much time passes throughout the entire play.  In the opening number ‘’Busy woman,’’ there is reference to Pancake Day, which suggests the play starts around February time. We also know that Rita’s final speech at the end of the show is set in April, and so I believe about 2 or 3 months passes during the play.

 6) Is there any specific reference to day, season or year?

 In the opening number, Rita, Eddie and the children are all sat around the table in their sleep wear eating breakfast.  Later in this song, Rita asks Eddie what day it is, and Eddie replies with both ‘’Tuesday’’ and ‘’Pancake Day,’’ and so we are under the impression that this song is set in the morning, on a Tuesday in February time.

 7) How is the passage of time represented?

One way of showing that time is passing in the play is when the characters change clothes. The character Lisa Hopkins in particular is often changing clothes throughout the performance. This shows days going by. Another way of showing time passing is Connie’s deterioration, we see Connie’s illness go downhill right up until her death, this clearly represents time passing.  Finally, the song storm clouds represents time passing because the song is displayed through a montage of scenes blurred together, jumping through time and location .

8) How wealthy are the characters?

All of the factory girls and the factory men are working class, and so they aren’t very wealthy at all. When the girls are on strike we know that they struggle with money because of references made in the script, for example when Sharon tells Rita that their television has been cut off, and also when Sandra accepts a promotion because she cannot afford to strike.  Other characters however are wealthier, like the Hopkins household. We know that they are quite wealthy because of Hopkins job and his relationship to Tooley, and also references in the script, for example, when Rita and Lisa talk about Lisa’s designer dress.   Tooley is the American head of Ford, and so he is extremely wealthy. We can see his wealth by observing the way he dresses and the fact he has his own office. Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson are high up in politics and so they are also extremely wealthy, and both have their own offices and expensive clothing.

9) Is there a hierarchy?

There is definitely a hierarchy in this musical. The men are at the top of the hierarchy and the women are at the bottom. We know this because women earn only 87% of what men earn, even with the exact same job.  There is also a hierarchy between the classes, Tooley and Hopkins use their power and wealth to manipulate the girls, for example, when they offer Sandra a promotion to try and break the girls solidarity.

10) How does their wealth or lack of it affect them?

Harold, Hopkins, and Tooley’s wealth makes them less sensitive towards the strikers. Although the men at Dagenham do not like the women striking, they try to support them and understand their views. But the more wealthy men are a lot more selfish and not as understanding.  Barbara Castle’s wealth however restricts her from standing up for what she really believes in. Barbara wants to support the strike, but she would risk losing her job if she did this.  The factory workers income is very low, and their lack of wealth restricts their home lives by making them struggle to pay bills and wear nice clothes. Their lack of wealth affects their strike because they struggle to live on strikers pay, Sandra for example has to leave the strike and accept a promotion.

11. What are the social environments of the characters like?

All of the women in this musical are very used to coming second to the men. Even Barbara Castle who is quite wealthy and a very strong and powerful lady is looked down on by the men. The factory ladies are all very domesticated. The opening number ‘’busy woman,’’ shows all of the girls cleaning their homes and looking after their children.  The factory men all work to provide for their wives and children. Up until the strike everybody lives a very quiet and traditional life.

12) Are their differences in the social backgrounds and current environments?

In the script, there are many jokes about women having careers. Rita is seen to be laughing at her daughter’s idea of becoming a doctor, and Beryl is seen to be making fun of Cass for wanting to be a pilot. This is very different to today’s social environments. In modern day, we have many women pilots and doctors, but back in the 60s this was very abnormal. Harold Wilson and his men are all very shocked and surprised by how strong and confident Barbara is, her strength and independence stands out and makes them feel uncomfortable. But in today’s society, many women are independent and stick up for themselves.  Both men and women in today’s society seem more career driven than the characters in Made in Dagenham. In the musical everybody seems like they just make do.

13) How will this affect how the characters interact with each other?

Women having less opportunities than men will make the male characters act above the female characters. Perhaps they will be a lot more self assured and protective over their wives. They may also look down on the women. For example, Harold Wilson looks down on Barbara Castle, he is very patronising towards her and doesn't take her very seriously - rejecting all of her ideas.  Also, Tooley looks down on Rita, towards the end of the show, when Tooley rips up Ritas speech,  he comes across as quite threatening, although he thinks she is weak. 

14) Are any of the characters influenced by events/beliefs? 

All of the factory women are influenced by both events and beliefs.  The women start to rebel when the management in ford take C grade away from the girls. This makes the girls realise how badly they are being treated in work. Connie sets the ball rolling when she tells Rita about her past earning less than a man; she believes that both men and woman doing equal work should get equal pay. Connie helps Rita and the girls to realise that they deserve equal pay, and that is when the strike begins. 

15) What effects does this have on how the characters behave?

Connie becomes quite bitter towards men and the Ford Dagenham management because of her past experiences of being treated second best.  All of the girls are very passionate and fiery; their beliefs about equality drives them and motivates them to get everybody's attention. Barbara Castle is also a very strong and bitter character; she too talks of how she had spent her days wanting equality. Barbara 's beliefs and past events make her very blunt and tough. She does not get on well with Harold Wilson and she is often standing up to him. 

16. What clues are there to the past lives of the characters?

Connie sings ‘’Age old story,’’ to Rita, where she talks of her younger days and how she regrets not fighting for women's rights. Barbara Castle also sings about her past; she talks about how much tougher it was for women when she started out, and how they used to have to beg to get rights.

17. How will their past affect their future?

I believe that Barbara and Connie’s pasts will make them more bitter towards men and perhaps a lot more determined to fight for the future of women. Their pasts will help them to persuade the other women to stand up for what they truly believe in and not make the mistakes that they have made by just ‘’making do.’’

18. Are there any references to key events prior to the play?

When Monty goes to the factory to see the girls, Connie mentions that she's been looking for a revaluation of their grading for a while. This suggests that the girls have already been fighting for their rights before the show begins.

19. Do any of the characters carry scars or memories from past events?

In ‘’Ideal world,’’ Barbara gets quite nasty and fiery when she talks about her past of fighting for women's rights; this suggests that she is quite scarred from how she has been treated.  She is also very apprehensive around Harold - again suggesting that she has not been treated very well by men in the past.  Connie on the other hand seems quite bitter towards the Ford Dagenham management; she often refers to how she knows how sly and selfish the management can be.

20. How does this affect them now?

Both Connie and Barbara are quite strong and independent women; they are also both very defensive against the men and determined to stand up for their rights. Connie uses her past events to help Rita to lead the strike; she also uses her knowledge to create developments, for example, when she suggests that they go to Liverpool to get the factory girls there to strike.  Barbara on the other hand uses her past events to stand her ground and be more resilient in her job; she does not let Harold Wilson tell her what to do - she is very strong and very determined.

21. Are their conflicts of tension between what the characters want?

There is a lot of conflicts about what the characters want and a lot of tension. The men just want the women back at work, but the women want equality.  Rita and Eddie almost end up splitting up because Eddie wants his wife back at home, supporting him and their children, but Rita doesn’t want to let the strike down; this causes a big argument between the couple.  Barbara Castle is in a big conflict with herself, she wants the women back at work for the sake of her job, but she is also a woman who believes in equal rights for women, and so although she wants them back at work, she also wants to support them and fight with them.  The song ‘’storm clouds,’’ talks about how their is a lot of tension within the town because of the strikes.

22. Do the main characters want to change their situation?

All of the women want to change their situation. They all want equal pay. The men however do not want things to change; they just want the women to stay at work and for everything to carry on running smoothly. When the strikes are happening however, Eddie wants his wife to come back to her family.

23. Is there a difference in what the characters say they will do and actually do?

The women make it very clear that they aren’t stopping until they get equal pay, and they stick by these, even when it gets tough, they women stand by their word and keep fighting until the very end. There are a few falls along the way however, Sandra for example accepts a promotion from Ford when she begins to really struggle on strikers pay.  Also, in everybody out, all of the men - including Eddie, say to the women that they are, ‘’behind them all the way,’’ but Eddie breaks under pressure and leaves Rita; taking the children with him.

24. How does morality and upbringing affect the characters actions?

The characters financial background affects how they are treated, for example, Mr Buckton is prejudiced against Rita’s son for being poor, he canes him and Rita goes into school to complain; she believes he is being discriminated against. Mr Buckton clearly comes from a wealthy background; we know this because he talks down about factory workers. His background makes him narrow minded and prejudice against Rita’s son.

25. Are there direct references to the characters appearance?

One example of a reference to a character's appearance in the script, is when Barbara Castle speaks, and Harold and his aids say, ‘’Fiery, like her hair!’’ This comical line emphasises that Barbara has red hair, and is a very feisty lady. Although it is already clear that Barbara has red hair, it is important to emphasise this fact so that the audience can really recognise the character - Barbara Castle was a real politician in this 1960’s; she was also known to people as the red headed, fiery labour politician.

26. Are there any connections between how the character looks and behaves?

Sandra is a young, flirty and sexy character who is known to be quite fun and exciting; Sandra's appearance certainly supports her personality. For example, while all the other factory girls wear quite plain and classy dresses, Sandra wears a bright pink, tight dress with knee high boots and a leopard print coat. Also, in the opening number, ‘’Busy woman,’’ all of the women are cleaning, whereas Sandra is putting on her make up.  

Also, Harold Wilson is an older character; we show this by having Connor wear gray hair spray to show age, and also smoking a pipe; this gives him a sense of maturity that we do not see in the other male characters.

27. What is significance of the title? (Metaphorical or literal)

‘’Made in Dagenham,’’ is set in Dagenham, and is where the 1960’s Ford strikes really did begin. I see the title, ‘’Made in Dagenham,’’ as a reflection on the fact that the women's right’s movement began with these strikes, and that equal pay and equal rights were ‘’made,’’ in Dagenham.  I believe that the literal meaning however is that the characters in this play were born and raised in Dagenham, and therefore, ‘’Made,’’ in Dagenham.

28. Are there any key lines or speeches that summarise or capture the mood of the play?

I believe that a key line which often crops up in the play, is the references to an ‘’Ideal world,’’ At the start of the play, Cass asks Claire where she would get married in an Ideal world. Barbara Castle also mentions ‘’Idea world,’’ a lot; she even has a song called ‘’Ideal world.’’ I believe that this reference is extremely important; I believe it shows how the characters are miserable; putting up with the way they are being treated and simply living in a man's world - making do. I see the reference to Ideal world as the characters dreaming for a better life.  Connie’s song ‘’Same old story,’’ is a very important speech. In this song Connie tells Rita about how she has spent all of her life dreaming for better, but making do with what she gets given.  Same old story plays a big role in Rita’s final speech at the end of the play. Connie’s song is heavily referenced in Rita’s final speech.

29. What is the main plot and how does it develop?

The main plot is based on a true story in history about women machinists at Ford Dagenham striking for equal pay. The show begins with ordinary working class men and women working at Ford; it is clear that all of the characters simply ‘’make do’’ with their jobs and are not particularly happy with their working conditions. The women in particular are becoming extremely fed up of their poor working conditions, and the management taking C grade away from them and classing them as ‘’unskilled,’’ pushes their patience a lot.  Connie (the older lady at Ford) manages to convince Rita that it is not right how women are treated worse than a man in the workplace; Rita then starts to stand up for her rights as a woman, and the strike for equal pay begins.  The strike is not straightforward or simple; it causes a lot of problems financially for the ladies and their families. It also causes problems in their homes and for the men. The strike affects everyone in the country, from working class men and women to higher class politicians such as Barbara Castle and Harold Wilson. Everyone comes close to breaking point during the song ‘’storm clouds,’’ many of the women start to feel the pinch; Sandra for example gives up when she realises that she cannot live on strike pay.  However, despite the pressure and the strain, the women continue to fight and eventually get the backing of the TUC, which is a huge step forward in the women's rights campaign.

30. Is there a sub plot?

There is a sub plot between Eddie and Rita and their relationship. At the start of the play; before the strikes begin, Eddie forgets about Rita and forgets it is their wedding anniversary; this causes problems between the couple, and Rita tells Eddie that she is becoming extremely sick of being forgotten and not being appreciated. However, Rita eventually forgives Eddie and they sort out their issues. But later on in the performance, the tables turn and Eddie starts to feel that Rita is ignoring him and has forgotten about him because of the striking.  Eddie leaves Rita and takes their children with them; they split up. But at the end of the performance, Eddie apologises for leaving and the pair again sort through their issues, and become stronger than ever.

31. How can the shape of the play be best described - a story? Episode? A journey? As a diagram or a map?

I believe that the play is both a story and a journey. The plot tells us the real story of the Ford Dagenham strikes, but also takes us on a journey and shows us exactly what happened throughout the entire process of the strikes. An audience will get to learn what happened, as well as being able to go on the whole journey with the characters.

32. Which scenes are most important? Why?

The first scene I see as extremely important is Connie’s scene with Rita. In this scene, Connie tells Rita about her life, and how she has always ‘’made do,’’ with being put second place behind a man. She explains how she never questioned this inequality and never bothered to fight to make changes. She stresses how much she regrets putting up with being second best, and wishes that she was young again so that she could fight.  I believe that this scene is very important and explains to the audience how the majority of women probably felt - sad, unimportant and regretful. I also believe it teaches people a lesson on fighting for what you truly believe is right.

The next scene I find extremely important is ‘’Storm clouds,’’ this number shows time passing by, and it really shows the strain and pressure building up throughout the strikes. I believe this scene represents the true strength of these women; it shows that despite having no money, becoming tired and worn out and developing issues within their family homes, they carried on and never gave up. I feel this scene helps the audience to empathise with these women strikers.

I also believe that the scene in Barbara's office is very important. In this scene, the audience get to learn that Barbara too supports the equal pay strikes, but her job is too important to get too involved. I believe that this is important because it shows that having more money and power in the workplace does not give you more power in society. Barbara who is a very strong and powerful character is very trapped compared to Rita. Rita is able to fight and do what she feels is necessary to gain women's rights, but Barbara however is not able to fight like this.  It also emphasises that this strike is not about the money at all; it is purely about equal respect.

Finally, i believe that the end scene ‘’Stand up,’’ is very important. Rita’s speech includes a lot of Connie’s quotes from the cafe scene earlier in the play; this scene is also the big  step forward - where the ladies finally get the backing of the TUC. This scene represents the major step forward in the women’s rights act.

33. What scene is least important? Why?

I believe that the sub plot between Eddie and Rita is the least important scene. ‘’Im sorry I love you,’’ is purely a number about the couples relationship, and has no relevance to the 1960’s strikes. This sub plot is not a real story; although the strikes will have affected families and tested their relationships, the storyline about Eddie forgetting his and Rita’s wedding anniversary is not important to the progression of the main plot, and does not affect the main storyline at all.

34. How important to the piece is the set/lighting/costume/props/sound?

Costume is particularly important because it will represent the time period that this performance is set. Made in Dagenham is set in the 60’s and so it is important that our costumes make this clear.  Costumes also must show a clear difference between the classes of the characters. For example, the factory workers should wear clothes which show that they are working class citizens. Harold, Barbara, Hopkins, Lisa and Tooley however must wear more expensive; sophisticated clothing, to show that they are wealthier and from higher class backgrounds. Barbara and Harold are in the public eye, and must wear wealthier clothing which is also fit for business.

Set must also represent the time period, but is also important for showing the difference locations. For example, the set must show the london location where Barbara and Harold are, the factory, America, Eastbourn,

35. What is the climax of the play? Are issues resolved at the end? How much direction is given by the playwright in terms of stage directions?

I believe that the Climax of the play is in Storm clouds. This is the point in the play where everyone is feeling to pressure. Eddie and Rita’s relationship is strained, Connie becomes extremely poorly, Sandra leaves the strike, parliament are worried and all of the women are running very short of money. I believe that this point in the show is the make or break moment.  At the end of the play, the women are successful at getting the backing of the TUC. Rita’s final speech wins them over and this is a major step forward for women's rights.  There are a lot of stage directions in the script; they are also very descriptive and in depth. Here is an example photo of a part in the script where the stage directions are very in depth and descriptive:

36. Which character is the agnostic? (Opposes the main action)

I believe that Mr Buckton opposes the main action.  Mr Buckton very much believes that young boys should grow up to be punished and sent off to university. He does not believe in people working in factories for the rest of their lives. He has very old fashioned and traditional views.  The factory girls, Lisa and Barbara however believe that everyone should be treated and respected equally. Lisa and Rita are very much against the school punishing their sons. The factory men also disagree with Buckton about working in a factory for a living. The men say that they just ‘’clock in and do their time,’’ until 5 o’clock, when they can go home and forget about work. It is clear that the factory men do not see their jobs as a priority in life, whereas Buckton believes men should be striving for the better careers.

37. Are their other protagonist or agnostic?

Tooley also does not see equality as a priority. He does not care about respecting the women’s rights, all he cares about is making sure the business is running smoothly and that money is coming in.  He believes that his work is a priority in life, which again goes against the Dagenham factory men’s views of just working until 5 o’clock and then forgetting about work.  Tooley is very determined to ensure that the striking is stopped and that the women return back to work, he too; like Mr Buckton has very traditional views.

38. Do any of the characters change from one to the other?

The men who work in the factory change their views completely throughout the play. At the start of the show, the men do not see equal pay as a priority.  Although the men try and support their wives and girlfriends, they do not really understand the value of the strikes properly. In storm clouds, the men start to get angry with the women by saying, ‘’Equal shit for everyone, when you go on strike!’’ However, by the end of the play, their views have changed completely, Eddie says to Rita, ‘’I was wrong and you were right,’’ and all of the men stand up with Rita and support the equal pay amendment.

39/40/41.  How formal is the language used by the characters?

What is the level of education of the characters?

Do the characters use certain phrases or words or ways of speaking?

Language used by Barbara and Harold is quite formal; this is because they are quite high class. They also work in Parliament, and so it is important they they use proper; sophisticated language as they are in the public eye. They need to set a good example.  Lisa and Hopkins are also very upper class; they are well educated and their language is very formal throughout the play.  Mr Buckton also has a good; well paid career and has clearly come from a higher class background; he uses words such as ‘’Ergo,’’ which Rita sees as a very posh word; she uses this word in her final speech at the TUC conference.

The Dagenham factory workers however do not use formal language; in fact their language is very informal. Beryl for example is a very rough character, and she swears a lot, using words such as ‘’Fuck,’’ and ‘’Bastard,’’ throughout her performance.  The other factory workers also swear a lot and use quite common, un-sophisticated words such as ‘’bog.’’

42.  How are the song structured? (Monologue, dialogue, duologue, tiologue, short sentences ect)

Many of the songs in the show are structured as monologues. For example, ‘’Ideal world,’’ is structured as a monologue by Barbara, telling the girls what life was like for her and how they must keep fighting.  ‘’Wossaname,’’ is Clare’s monologue, where she is telling Monty that she knows what is right and what is wrong. ‘’Age old story,’’ is Connie’s monologue, where she is telling Rita of her life experiences. ‘’The letter,’’ is Eddie’s monologue to Rita about how lonely and lost he feels without her. ‘’This is America,’’ is Tooley’s monologue where he is telling everyone how powerful America is compared to Britain,  and ‘’Nearly had it all is Rita’s monologue, where she is talking to herself about how far she has come and how much she has learnt about herself.  All of these songs tell each character’s individual stories about themselves.  Songs that are structured as a dialogue include ‘’Busy woman,’’ ‘’Everybody out,’’’’Always a problem,’’ ‘’Viva Eastbourne,’’ ‘’Made in Dagenham,’’ ‘’This is what we want, ‘’Payday,’’ ‘’Storm clouds,’’ and ‘’Stand up.’’

‘I’m sorry I love you,’’ is structured as a duologue between Rita and Eddie. All of the songs within the performance tell a story. Either a story of a character, or a story between 2 or multiple characters.

43. What kind of imagery is used?

An example of imagery used in the show is the on going references to Martin Luther king. The characters refer to him in order to try and get others to understand the similarities between his fight for rights for Black people, and their fight for rights of women.  Connie says to Rita, ‘’Did Martin luther king as for 87% of rights for black people?’’ this helps Rita to understand that women should be treated equal.  Rita later uses this reference to Martin Luther king to try and persuade Barbara to get on board with the fight.  She uses it again in her final speech at the TUC to persuade them to get on board with the fight.

44. What is the objective of each scene/unit? What is the super objective of the play?

The super objective of the play is the fight for women’s rights.  The objective of most of the scenes is either to get equality, or to deal with the strikes.

45. What are the characters motivations and do they change in each scene?

At the start of the play the women’s motivations are simply to get better working conditions. Then Rita’s motivation becomes to get C grade back, as the women do not see it as fair to have been classed as unskilled workers. But this motivation soon develops to wanting full equality for women. The women do not believe that they should be treated differently to men and they do not believe that they should be classed as second best; this motivates them to stand up for their rights.  The men's motivations however are to live a simple, easy life; they even become angry with the women for dumping too much pressure and stress on them. However, but the end of the show, their motivations also change; they women manage to motivate them to help them fight for equal pay and equal rights for both men and women.

46. Does the play relate to any previous theatrical or written work?

The play does not relate to any previous written or theatrical work, however, it does relate to a real period in History, which is the Ford Dagenham strikes for women’s rights in the 1960’s. Written information about this event in history is used within the play, but the event as a whole is what the show is based on; here is a link to a page explaining the real events of the 1968 Ford Dagenham strikes:

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/Dagenham-Womens-Strike.htm

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