#hint: they didn't

[sapphire-weapon]

Sort of as a follow-up thought to this post...

I really can't wait for that Operation Javier project -- whether it's a full game or a DLC or whatever it is -- to come out and give us a closer look at what Leon's life was like between RE2make and RE4make. Because I think something that really gets missed in the fandom (likely due to the ridiculous misinformation listed on the wiki that then gets passed around the fandom like fact) is that Leon wasn't trained by the government to kill bioweapons. Leon was trained by the government to kill people. Ashley just got ridiculously lucky that the agent who was sent to retrieve her also happened to have experience fighting against bioweapons due to having been in Raccoon City.

It's subtle, but there's evidence for this in RE4make itself. It's actually baked into Leon's character arc.

At the Hunter's Lodge, Leon's trained response to encountering a person on the ground during a mission is to reach for his gun. He even starts taking it out of the holster. It isn't until the hunter appears to not be a threat that he puts it back down and tries to talk to him.

But when the hunter does become a threat, Leon doesn't hesitate in killing him. And not only does he not hesitate to kill him, but he even pulls out his gun and doublechecks that the man is really dead.

This happens before anyone knows that there's bioweapons at play. As far as Leon knows, in this moment, he just killed an old man in his home. Just an old man.

His subsequent conversation with Hunnigan is structured as such that the US's intel on the ground is only that Ashley is being held in this village. The statement "Something's happened to the people here" is tacked on as an afterthought, as something unexpected. Leon suspects that there's biological warfare involved after seeing the hunter come after him chittering and with a broken neck, but he doesn't get the chance to voice that to Hunnigan and ask for more information before he's interrupted and has to cut the conversation short.

Later, this happens:

Prior to Mendez mutating into his boss form, Leon didn't actually suspect that he was infected with las plagas. He was opening fire on and trying to kill a man who he thought, much like the hunter, was just a man. Because that's his job.

The line "I'll do my job" is particularly interesting, because most people think of Leon's "job" in this game as rescuing Ashley -- but that's not how Leon himself seems to see it. His mission objective is to rescue Ashley, but his job -- at least, in the context in which he says it -- is to kill people.

We also know that Leon was part of Operation Javier. This is never stated explicitly, but Krauser tells us this without telling us:

Krauser had a revelation in the jungle, and Leon was there with him in that jungle two years ago.

So, what was Operation Javier?

Well, we don't really know yet. I'm sure that it did involve bioweapons somehow -- Capcom wouldn't be making it into a separate title release if it didn't -- but that wasn't the original conceit for it set out by the US government in-universe.

This was the official mission statement for Operation Javier:

Eradicating drug cartels.

Which means going after people. Not BOWs.

And Leon being sent on this mission alongside Krauser and his unit didn't seem to raise any eyebrows or key anyone into the possibility that there could be BOWs involved. They all seemed to have been taken by surprise -- especially Krauser, which shouldn't have happened as Leon's trainer if Krauser knew that the purpose of Leon's training was BOW combat.

This also isn't the first mission that Leon was sent on alongside Krauser and his men. He says as much in the intro with the plural use of "missions" attached to his training.

So... Leon is a killer. He was specifically trained to kill people for the US government. He just happens to also be adept at fighting against BOWs thanks to his experience in Raccoon City. And what's chilling is that, during the intro, he also expresses a strange sort of gratitude for his combat training because it "kept [his] mind off things."

That's how broken Leon is going into RE4make. The kind-hearted guy who just wanted to protect people in RE2make spends the next six years following Raccoon City being turned into a hitman and murdering people for the federal government, and his response to that is "thank you."

That's why Ashley's contribution to his character arc is so important. At a certain point during RE4make, he stops fighting against the villagers and starts fighting for Ashley. She shakes him out of that killer's mindset and reminds him that, once upon a time, he was a boy named Leon Kennedy who wanted to save the world.

And the culmination of this is Leon's realization that both of these parts of him can coexist. He can use his intense combat training and killer instinct to protect people -- just like he protected Ashley. But he's not so naive anymore (like he was in RE2make) to think that he can protect and save everyone. And he was forced to accept, through his training and through killing Krauser, that sometimes some people need to be sacrificed in order for other people to be saved.

[tagerrkix]

rage.

[luifaro]

man asriel reincarnation would've been so peak if it was more about the moral ambiguity of choosing to take someone's soul to bring back asriel and less about how he needs to be saved have frisk be morally tormented by their choice. they had to kill someone. and in the end asriel should not magically become an "uwu goo boi" so that they're left questioning even more if this was worth it. if they made the right choice.

what asriel reincarnation could have been

[reunitedinterlude]

the 2019-2020 (dan and) phil secret project

april 2019 | july 2019 | august 2019 | january 2020 (1, 2) | february 2020 (1, 2) | april 2021

[waybeforeyourtime]

"I'm shocked - shocked I tell you - that Wille gave up his title at the end of the series! SHOCKED! Where did it come from?? It all just happened in the last 5 minutes! There were zero clues!"

Literally, the first promo.

[elsecrytt]

satoru gojo knows he's not wanted. only needed - a weapon for killing curses and curse users, day in and day out, the lynchpin of jujutsu society.

he's fine with that, most of the time. the truth is, when suguru left, he thought that was the end for him. he was never very good at friendship in the first place, at making people like him.

he has a difficult personality, and he doesn't want to change. people willing to deal with him as he was were few and far between, and they never had that immediate connection like he did with suguru.

even if it left him unbearably lonely. it's just not in his nature to mince words, to hold back, to play nice. if he couldn't be satoru gojo, then what else did he have left?

and it's fine, most of the time.

but some of the time, it's not. it's really, really not. sometimes, it's worth it to try, just the tiniest bit, not to be a complete ass and drive away a pretty face who seems unbothered by his attitude.

that's how he ends up with you - a non-sorcerer. he hasn't told you about sorcery in general and doesn't want you to know.

to him, your shared penthouse is his safe space. he never walks or drives there, only ever teleports so that no one can trace him there. no one, not even at the school, knows that he primarily lives there.

he spends every spare hour (sometimes even just ten minute) he can there. finishing missions early, darting off after lessons, eating there whenever he can.

satoru only sleeps whenever you sleep. he never showers alone, never does his nighttime routine on his own.

that's all precious time he could be spending at your side.

washing your hair, your face, cleaning up alongside you. laughing and splashing and making a little more of a mess if he can get away with it.

here, there are no curses, no former friends turned traitor, no one who needs his help.

you smile as soon as you see him, hear him, run up to hug him if your hands are free.

he's on the lock screen of your phone. once or twice he's caught you just staring at it, delight painted all over your lips.

all you want from him is his company -

and god, is he ever aware, you're the only one alive who does.

most of his coworkers dislike him to various degrees. even his students have mixed feelings about him sometimes.

he does his best, he really does, but he can't bring himself to get attached to someone who might one day leave.

you won't, though (you can't), so he's free to love you all he wants.

he'll freely confess - he's overcompensating. pouring all the missed opportunities to bond, all the awkward moments where his attitude turned other people away, into the dam that is your relationship.

you don't mind his funky schedule (too much), you're a huge homebody who likes having date nights at home.

you smooth off all the rough edges of his personality - the arrogance, the smarmy comments - with a laugh and a taunt, a hand in his hair that he can't help but lean into like the domesticated pet he is.

god, he loves you. he loves you so, so much, unreasonably so - loves coming home to a "satoru! welcome back~", loves bringing home meals from different places and watching you try them with delight (you joke that his mysterious job must be as a delivery man, which he laughs at more than he should), loves coming home to your unnecessary attempts at cooking every now and then, something indescribable curling in his chest.

he loves sitting and talking with you about the latest show you're watching, telling you about his "coworkers" and "juniors" (sometimes he has to stop himself from giggling about it) and how annoying his latest day at work was.

sometimes it's sort of vague and vapid but it's fun when it's with you. sometimes it's deeper stuff, real stuff ("my oldest friend passed away recently" "one of my juniors at work has a complicated family situation") and you seem to always know just what to say. talking to you always makes him feel better.

he worries, sometimes, that he's not as good to you as you are to him. he tries - god, does he try - to show you the extent of his love, if he can't afford the words or time, then in deeds.

you're taken care of for the rest of your life, that was a given. the penthouse is in your name, various trusts set up in the impossible event of his death.

you have full access to a joint account that was actually just yours, set up for you by him - he just didn't feel like trying to convince you to accept the money.

he buys you things, of course. food mostly, to eat together, but also little trinkets and manga and souvenirs of the various places he goes to. little pieces of his life to share with you.

and when he can, he does do dates. every second he gets to spend with you is like gold, and he spends them all fully invested, eyes locked on you and yours, walking on air the entire time just from your presence. ready to talk about anything you had an interest in.

he's just that infatuated. satoru could talk for days to anyone, but you're the only one who'd listen, who'd chatter back just as enthusiastically. he wants you on speed dial every moment he's away.

shopping trips, too, he's always happy to play dress up, to dutifully compliment you even though privately he thinks you look best without any clothes -

and that, too, he does for you. he makes no secret of his affection for your body. spares not even a second getting to his knees, nuzzling against your thigh, cheeks flushed as he looks up at you with pleading eyes won't you feed me, pretty please, i'm starving~

he shows you he loves you. with hands and mouth and body, as a sorcerer should. silent curses falling from his lips as his body joins to yours.

it seems almost cruel of you to let him have this. why can't he live here forever? why can't he always be inside you?

satoru gojo knows he is the absolute last person who should be complaining about this, but why is life so unfair?

why can't he spend every minute of every day by your side? touching you? talking to you?

in his wildest dreams he's not killing curses or sorcerers or changing the world.

he's in bed with you, by your side from the moment he wakes up to the moment he falls asleep. that's his dream, just you being there, always.

he worries most of all what he'd do if you ever fought.

you're not the type - you "need space to calm down" sometimes, which is usually just you going back to your room. you "want to have a calm discussion" where you sit and listen to him and talk about feelings, and you have this way of making him talk.

you're good at communicating, at making people feel better, and understanding others. sensitive in a way that he's not.

you're never out to hurt him, even when he can tell his time away is grating on you, his constant absences and flightiness rightly off-putting.

you never argue with him, never make demands, and that's how you got together in the first place, the perfect match.

(it scares him, really, being made for battle as he is. where's your fighting spirit? wouldn't you cry and scream and beg if he was going to leave you? wouldn't you go to war for your love? he knows he would.)

but deep down he knows it's there. a massive part of his life is hidden from you - things that are important to him; his mission, his students, his power.

he doesn't know what to do, really.

he wants to keep you safe, unworried. he wants to keep this island of peaceful, mundane happiness in his life.

he wants you to love him, wholly and completely, for all that he is. he wants to hear you tell him he's doing it right. that you're proud of him.

there's so much he wants now, compared to when his life was just teaching students, killing curses, and waiting for the day he'd have to kill his only friend.

satoru isn't sure which one is better. because even though he hopes he can have you how he wants, and the rest of his life too -

he's starting to think it might not be possible.

[violent138]

Batfamily member's civilian identity becomes some serial killer's target because it fits some profile. Cue said murderer going after this member of the Batfamily, earning a very shocked and mildly exasperated set of swear words and then getting their ass kicked. The Batfamily member doesn't even bother calling the cops, just tosses the would be killer in the back of their car (which has bloody gloves in the seat and weird files on people), leading the murderer to conclude they're in the presence of a much worse serial killer.

Tldr: Outsider POV fic where a Batfamily member earns the undying adoration of an actual murderer and it's a slow, convoluted process to getting the evidence to arrest them while also protecting their secret identity.

[thisdoesnthaveend]

Harlivy in Harley Quinn (2021) #43

[sqtorux]

gojo 'i am a man too' satoru when you keep teasing him about how he's younger than you and makes it his life mission to prove it.

[putting-kinger-in-places]

Armed Detective Agency, Yokohama

[wizard-laundry]

o superman

[ndostairlyrium]

Vacanze Romane playing in the background

Ankh: "I'm gonna get your ring back"

Cullen: "You better. That thing costed me a fortune"

[maeve-99]

Kotallo asking Aloy to accompany him to test out his new mechanical arm and then killing a machine together is really just the Tenakth way of taking someone out on a date.

You can't convince me otherwise.

[hoshinaideas4all]

Hoshina who's still stuck up on his first love from 15 years ago despite being married. Don't get him wrong, his wife is aware of your circumstance. Ever since they got betrothed by their clans, the two agreed to try to make things work. But after a few months in, it was clear to the both of them that their relationship was never gonna exceed anything platonic. They held mutual respect for one another and got along fine...just not in the way a married couple did. If anything, she was extremely grateful that she was able to escape her hell of a family, to the point of even dedicating her life to him. Any outsider could immediately assume that they were nothing more than friends. Heck, even their families weren't oblivious to this fact.

It wasn't until he heard his long time, mutual acquaintance mention your name that he finally got the idea to end things with his wife. That damned acquaintance just couldn't keep mouth shut— talking about how he met (Y/n) again about a month or two ago. He wasn't slick about his intentions, and Hoshina could see that crystal clear.

Then his mind drifts back to his and your memories together. He tries to keep his cool and puts on a poker face as a tinge of rage bubbles inside him. Did this guy seriously think that he's forgetten about you? Even if it HAS been 15 years, how could Soshiro forget about his first, greatest, and only love like that? He silently curses his acquaintance for bringing up your name.

As the day ended, Soshiro goes back house. To his house of 15 years and to his wife of 15 years. He wonders how things ended up like this.

He has a lovely wife who thinks of him as if he were her world. I mean, who wouldn't? He did save her after all. A tinge of guilt spreads across his heart for the one whom he had promised his faithfulness for all eternity. Yet here he was, thinking about the girl he left behind years ago. He tries to make his wife happy, he really does. But how much faith can one really offer in a loveless marriage?

He sits there at the dinner table with his wife, his thoughts beginning to drown out his wife's talking.

His sweet (Y/n). He wonders how his life would've been if his family hadn't found out about her. If his father hadn't found the ring he had hidden in his room, along with the letter he planned to leave once they successfully eloped. Maybe it would have been you sitting in front of him right now—eating dinner and talking about how your day went.

He was so in lost in thought that he didn't even notice that his wife stopped talking minutes ago. He lifted his head and found her already starring at him. He knew that look. That look that said everything he needed to hear and answered every question that he needed answered. She'd known about you immediately after they'd both agreed to remain platonic. She knew then and there that he will never be hers—not when he spoke of you as if you were HIS world, the only woman in his eyes.

"I'm sorry."

Those were his last words he ever said to his ex-wife before he booked a train to the city you lived in. At least that acquaintance of his was finally good for something. He huffs at the thought.

[tofixtheshadows]

I see a lot of people headcanoning that Marcille and Kabru will become friends postcanon over a shared love of gossip, but to me the biggest thing they have in common is that they're both deeply concerned with the inequality between the races.

I think before anything else, as the two people closest to the throne, they'll probably end up banding together over their shared desire to fix the divide between the races. Marcille has to give up on her dream of magically changing humanity, but she can help Laios achieve it Kabru's way, through political and social change.

[dyinggirldied]

Edit: So the purple flowers in the bouquet might be african daisy. Here's a picture for comparison and its meaning