#i keep seeing shit about like federation workers??? and a thing called cucurucho????

[m0nochromem0use]

also i have been watching charlie’s qsmp vods because i said if condi got on i would watch it and i’m not a coward or a liar (even if he’s not actually in smh) and i have to ask guys what the fuck is the federation

[isa-ghost]

AU where Cucurucho can see through all the Fed workers'........ well they don't have eyes, but don't worry about it.

Do I even have to mention the angst potential between Tubbo and Fred? Or Walter Bob? Or any of the other workers we or the islanders actually got kinda emotionally invested in?

Something something eventually he can see through the islanders that work for/with the Federation's eyes too. Cellbit, Fit, Foolish.

Maybe also the ones that have pasts with or get too close to the Feds or Cucurucho himself. Bagi, Baghera, Jaiden.

And maybe also the ones the Feds have kidnapped and done things to. Phil, Felps, Pac, Mike, Roier.

Maybe the latter two groups aren't compromised yet, but Cucurucho certainly has aspirations to get to that point.

Once the islanders who aren't compromised are told about what's happening, paranoia explodes among the islanders. They start suspecting each other despite trying their best to keep trust strong. They start wondering if the eggs are being used too. Even SecurityCraft cameras start getting suspected.

This is the shit the Codes were trying to warn them about. They Know. They're the previous iteration of islanders.

It's Etoiles's time to shine. Granted, several candidates that were being considered eligible to join The Resistance are now compromised or Could Be compromised, but they can figure that out as they go.

He builds an underground meeting place in the spirit of Order Theoritas. He'd use The Order itself if it weren't for Cellbit being compromised and having full access to the hideout he built. This is the place he'll use to sort out what to do to stop Cucurucho, or at least to find a way to disconnect his eyes from the islanders. He calls it La Résistance Aveugle, which translates (perhaps incorrectly because Google Moment) to "The Blind Resistance."

He definitely finds a way to disconnect the eyes at some point, bringing the saved people under The Resistance's wing, letting them recover from it before recruiting them to help save the others.

At first The Resistance is made up of the other people who have been Touched by the Code. Charlie, Maxo. Luzu (or more accurately, Arin) is also vaguely involved, more like another informant that's not physically in the picture.

The Codes do their best to get Etoiles intel from within the Federation ASAP in an effort to try and stay one step ahead of Cucurucho, or at least so they have some ability to anticipate what the Federation's next move(s) will be.

Etoiles decides it's most important to seek out the vulnerable islanders and recruit them first, before Cucurucho can get to them. Bagi, Baghera, Jaiden, Phil, Felps, Pac, Mike, Roier.

But he's not going to just welcome them in so easily. They're essentially quarantined in a secret location meant to look like where The Resistance is based, but in reality it's a decoy. In this place, they're screened and monitored for a period of time to ensure The Feds didn't beat The Resistance to them.

Once they pass all the tests to ensure they're not compromised yet, they're brought into The Resistance officially and brought to the REAL hideout. And there's a diabolical plot twist I'm planning for this part. :)

Phil and Roier pass the tests for sure. Roier is particularly feisty throughout the process, he wants to save Cellbit ASAP. Phil's hatred of The Federation is potent. Etoiles trusts them wholeheartedly by the end of their testing. Codebreakers and Bloodhounds >>>>>>.

While the processes with The Vulnerable are ongoing, The Resistance also try and reach out to people they're confident haven't been compromised yet. Tubbo, Bad, Tina, Pierre.

It's a long shot to contact them, but they try to go to the people who are rarely around too, since they're also unlikely to be compromised. Missa, Mariana, Niki, Mouse.

Etoiles has mixed feelings about it, but out of necessity he forms a blacklist of members he absolutely refuses to recruit, for the sake of keeping things secure. Quackity, Antoine, Vegetta. He has valid reasons for all of them.

Tubbo's on board immediately, he's been grilling Cucurucho and challenging him since his first days on the server. With his intelligence and ability to plan combined with Etoiles's skills, The Resistance surely stands a better chance.

They successfully assemble Bad, Tina, Pierre, Missa, Niki, and Mariana (after an Average Slimariana argument and subsequent hatefucking). Mouse's correspondence is pending (she's a very busy demon!) but Tina and Niki are able to vouch that she'd be likely to help them too.

By the end of all their recruiting, The Resistance consists of Etoiles, Tubbo, Bad, Tina, Pierre, Missa, Niki, Phil, and Roier. Hopefully Bagi, Baghera, Jaiden, Pac, and Mike will join them soon, they're still going through their screenings. (Pac especially is working hard to earn their trust, he wants to save Fit as much as Roier wants to save Cellbit).

I'm gonna place this fic pre-Purgatory, which means the eggs are actually missing at the moment. It makes things easier plot-wise, LMAO.

But that isn't stopping Niki. She proposes The Resistance devotes a portion of themselves to figuring out what to do about finding the eggs. They can't just abandon the kids! Suffice to say it's a controversial idea to The Codes, but she has a point. Much spicy debating to be had about it.

As THE babysitter ever, Bad volunteers to assist her, though he also intends to be in the thick of everything, not just lingering on the side worrying about the thing they were all trying to resolve prior to this whole crisis.

Phil basically joins Bad, because 90% of his reason for living on the island are Chayanne and Lullah. But make no mistake, he too wants to be a smidge more involved. Anything for a reason to beat The Federation's ass. He also has experience with these kinds of things thanks to The Syndicate, he has wisdom to offer.

Ideally, over time and through so much DELICIOUS suspense and tension and angst, they'd find a way to stop Cucurucho. But I don't know if I'd end the story 100% happy so maybe not Everyone can be saved. I dunno. It wouldn't be a completely unhappy ending though. :)

EDIT: I GOT MORE.

This fic will be called Eye Spy With My Evil Eye! :D

Every chapter's title will complete the phrase, Chapter 1 being "Something... Wrong."

It'll start off with Cellbit, and he's the first to have a moment where a weird encounter with Cucurucho sets off alarm bells that something is more off than usual. Cue Investigator Mode.

Fit and Foolish will have similar moments in the chapter where something is Just not right enough for them to get wary there's some new fuckery afoot, but unlike Cellbit they kinda brush it off.

I'm incredibly proud of how I characterize Foolish already and in classic me fashion, my notes on the chapter are fucking hilarious. Behold:

After they each have their "Well that's even more weird than usual" moment, the chapter will return to Cellbit as he contacts Fit and Foolish because he suspects that their association with The Federation is doing something to them in a similar vein to how the Codes have affected Etoiles, Charlie, and Maxo.

The Horrors(tm) will unfold from there, I already have 4 chapters plotted and it'll definitely be more than that. No idea how long the fic will be in total though.

[haloberry]

Watching Quackity’s vod, gotta say the fact mfer was struggling in character bc he canonically couldn’t write or read is extremely funny to me, especially when put in the scenario where the only form of communication was too read and write.

But again, love that all the workers seem to be really friendly with one another. Adds depth, ya’know?

But, it pops up more questions..

They all felt like fucking college floor mates that ended up working in the same company as one another. And how silly the B and C tier workers acted? Almost like younger co-workers in a sense, and it was really cute!

And their whole thing with ‘Fred’s’ feelings for Tubbo? Like, it genuinely was so nice to see them all care for, not only the health, but the feelings of each other! They acted professional when needed, but that was it! They were their own person outside of that!

But, tf was Fred’s deal with then? Are tiers of workers based on how much influence the federation has over them? Based on number of years worked for them?

It feels like Fred is the Castiel of the Federation workers. If you understand what I’m saying.

The Federation workers acting like regular people, but Fred being the weird one for being the only one not understanding/knowing of human emotion when clearly the environment shown differently??

Also, I genuinely was getting second hand embarrassment from the acting. Like Quackity was choosing every wrong answer on a true or false quiz type embarrassing. (Even when that happens to me, I mask pretty quickly so it was making me even more embarrassed that bro was not adapting to the environment.)

Ughhh, but why were they calling Cucurucho Cucurucho? Wasn’t it mentioned before that they didn’t know he was called that? I thought they only knew him as the Census Bureau? Or, was Fred the only bitch that didn’t keep up with Island news??

All this shit just made me question Fred’s character like??? It genuinely feels like he’s the Castiel of the Federation workers… where all the others had their own personalities outside of their roles while Fred is like “my role is my personality” even though proof shows he was pretty chill just more workaholic in the sense.

Idk bro, I’m just— idk like Fred is he’s own person but didn’t know that that’s what being human is? If it wasn’t clear, I’m talking about Fred Fred not q!Quackity’s abysmal role play as Fred.

[northern-loner]

also because the poll you posted made me think of this, have a random headcanon of mine about the Federation and the Workers:

so like. idk why but the Cucuruchos (as i call them) give off the vibes of they aren't machines, but they also aren't anything..."normal," either. they're like eldritch entities but Not. (see: they can't seem to be harmed for some reason, they can fucking teleport, The Vibes, Man, they can like. summon items, right? that's a thing right or am i remembering that wrong. either way you get the point) they aren't actually anthropomorphic bears; that's just the form they've taken. like, my designs for them are that they look like big teddy bears with speakers on their chests and lil bowties. it's more like a weird...costume? skin? idk but like It Conceals The Horrors.

along with this, i envision the Workers are Actual anthropomorphic white bears, and the reason they appear to not have faces is because they're forced to wear blank masks on the top halves of their faces (nose-up).

so here's the actual headcanon:

when The Federation came the Island to basically take it over, the Cucuruchos were either A) not disguised at all, and it understandably freaked the Workers the hell out (keep in mind The Horrors), or B) they were disguised, but whatever the disguise was originally, it didn't put the Workers at ease even remotely. so they were asked to choose another form, one that might make the locals a little more...comfortable.

and what better way, in the Cucuruchos' eyes, than attempting to look like them?

so yeah. quite literally the only reason they don't appear as like Actual Eldritch Horrors is because they (poorly) disguised themselves as White Teddy Bears in order to "fit in" with the Workers. for the record, it doesn't freak them out anymore, but it still makes them uneasy (think of like. a human encountering a Fae creature that's trying to appear human, and that's the Workers with Cucurucho and Osito).

and another Workers headcanon: they basically speak the Animal Crossing language, and that's why they need to write in books to communicate with the Players; they can understand them just fine, but their vocal chords aren't really made to be able to make Human Voice Sounds.

anyway, that is all. thanks for coming to my Ted Talk-

Have you ever seen Poppy Playtime? I always thought of the workers & Cucurucho's as being like the creatures in that game. Their deal is that they're live sentient creatures built from the bodies of Playtime Co. employees and orphans from the company's fake adoption program(which is a whole other thing. believe it or not, Poppy Playtime actually has some of the best mascot horror lore that I've seen).

The plan was that the company was on a decline so they decided to make their own employees based off of their toy line to fill out the workforce and reduce costs. But in doing so, the company created literal animals with their own thoughts & instincts that they couldn't actually control. A part of that was them being vulnerable to hunger, and when you have a whole building full of ppl both who's work has turned you into a monster and who is quite literally fresh meat, you can probably guess how that goes.

That's what I think the Federation did for their employees, if only better than Playtime Co.. They either turned already living people into these creatures that exist purely to serve them, or genetically grew them from scratch. This also works bc we see traditional employee things like water coolers or coffee machines in their spaces, right? We also see them very clearly having their own thoughts and emotions towards nearly everything they experience later on in the story, they're obviously not mindless.

Yeah, that's my random babble.

I do think them speaking Animal Crossing is hilarious in context. Imagine being q!Cellbit or some shit trying to spy on them with a recorder & all you get is *waababaaakkakakawabababaabaa*.