#i used to main her before i got goob i love her so much

[weirdlilhusky]

Oh my god im so fucking syupid i spelt my own user wrong in this

[blushingreid]

Eye Love You

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

A/N: shout out to @pumpkin-goob for this request💛 I absolutely love it bc I’m blind af, so it’s a vibe. S2 Spence always has a special place in my heart. Pls enjoy & slide me feedback <3

Note: I use the technical term for the equipment: phoropter (in case you’re privileged with 20/20 vision or you’re like me & just called it the eye machine your whole life).

“You know, three out of every four adults require glasses or contacts. Of the 75 percent of adults that need vision correction, 64 percent of them wear eyeglasses, while 11 percent wear contac-,” Spencer’s ramble cut short as he clumsily bumped into a display entering the eye doctors.

“Easy there Pretty Boy. Can’t have you wrecking your good looks,” Morgan teased, steering him towards the receptionist’s desk.

“Hi, what brings you in today?” the man at the desk asked, not even bothering to look up.

“Um I have an appointment for new glasses for Spencer Reid.”

The receptionist gave Spencer a nod before tapping away on the computer. After a couple minutes of awkward silence, he finally looked up at them. “So from our records it appears that you need to have your eyes examined for any changes in your prescription before we can get you new glasses. Just have a seat in the waiting room and the optometrist should be out soon.”

Spencer sighed as he and Morgan headed towards the waiting room. He just wanted to be able to see clearly and it wasn’t even his fault.

His glasses had gotten knocked off his face and crushed during one of the BAU’s recent cases. Spencer had been chasing after an unsub when out of nowhere, the unsub’s partner struck Spencer. Next thing he knew, he was basically blind.

Hotch had given Spencer the next couple days off until he got new glasses, since he wasn’t much help blindly stumbling around the bullpen. Morgan had volunteered to be Spencer’s “guide dog” until he regained his vision.

“Spencer Reid?” The optometrist called out.

Spencer looked up at the blurry figure and shyly waved his hand.

“Hi, I’m Doctor y/n y/l/n and I’ll be doing your examination. If you could follow me and we’ll get you checked out.”

“She’s very cute,” Morgan whispered in Spencer’s ear.

“Since all I see is her silhouette, I’ll take your word for it,” Spencer whispered back before getting up and following her. Morgan chuckled as he watched Spencer try his best not to bump into anything.

Once he made it safely into the examination room and onto the chair, Spencer turned towards y/n. He involuntarily squinted his eyes, hoping it would temporarily clear his vision long enough so he could assess her. Unfortunately, it didn’t do much.

“I see you’re here for new glasses. Any particular reason why?” Y/n asked as she cleaned and set up the phoropter.

Spencer felt embarrassed all over again, remembering why he needed new glasses. “Yeah uh they got ruined in a work incident,” he nervously laughed off.

“Well your job must be very interesting and hectic,” y/n replied before pushing the phoropter towards Spencer. “Please place your chin up on this bar, and lean forward until your forehead rests on the cushion. I’ve added your latest prescription, so we can see if there are any changes.”

Spencer placed his chin onto the cool surface, leaning forward so his forehead touched the cushion letting him see into the phoropter. He heard a small click before the darkness he saw in the machine was filled with light, and a clear view of the television on the room’s wall with rows of letters in various sizes displayed.

“Great! Can you see clearly now?” Y/n asked, wheeling her chair directly in front of Spencer and the phoropter.

Oh he could definitely see clearly and he certainly liked what he saw, given the heat that immediately coursed through his body once y/n came into his line of sight. It was most certainly love at first eyesight. Y/n was breathtakingly beautiful. Spencer had never seen anyone more perfect than her. He mentally appreciated the dimly lit examination room.

“Yes, uh things are much clearer now,” Spencer quickly said, realizing he had completely zoned out. Spencer was relieved and filled with glee that he would be able to admire y/n without her realizing it, through the phoropter.

“Perfect! I’m sure you know the drill with this thing, but I’ll explain it anyways. So I’m gonna block out your left eye first and each round, I’ll switch between two different lenses and each time you’ll tell me which one is clearer. Then, we’ll repeat the process with your other eye after,” y/n explained before flipping and turning the many parts of the machine to block out Spencer’s left eye.

A tiny hint of sadness hit Spencer when he realized he’d only get to admire her one eye at a time.

“Okay one or two?” Y/n asked as she flipped between the two lense options.

Spencer immediately saw that option two was clearer, but he didn’t want his time with y/n to be over too soon. “Um could you do that again, a couple more times?”

“Yes, no worries. Sometimes these are very close, so just let me know if you need more time or repeats.”

And so he did. What should’ve been a quick 10 minute examination became a 40 minute one. Not that y/n minded, she found Spencer very attractive and his presence quite comforting. Normally, she would’ve told a patient that they could say if they thought both were similar, and they’d immediately move on. However, she didn’t mind spending more time with Spencer. She just assumed he was an indecisive person. After the exam, she discovered that his prescription barely changed from his last one.

“We’re putting a rush on your glasses, since they were your only pair and you still want the same frames. You’ll receive a call letting you know in the next couple days when they’re ready,” y/n said as she lead Spencer out of the room back to the main lobby.

“Pretty boy! What took you so long? You said this would only take at most twenty minutes. I’m starving,” Morgan whined before extending his hand to y/n. “Hi there, I’m Derek Morgan, Spencer’s coworker, best friend, and current guide for his blind ass.”

“It was a pleasure to meet both of you, and good luck with your new glasses,” y/n said after shaking Morgan’s hand and giving them, mostly directed at Spencer, a kind smile.

As she turned to walk away, Morgan nudged Spencer. “Um hello, are you really going to let her get away without asking her out? There’s a chance you might not cross paths for a long time.”

“I can’t. I’m not good at that type of stuff like you are,” Spencer sighed, turning to look at y/n one last time. He wanted to remember every detail about her before he leaves.

“How about you just be yourself and ask her out,” Morgan advised. He was not going to let Spencer walk away from this woman. “Hey Doctor y/n!” Morgan yelled, before shoving Spencer towards her. “Spencer here has a question about his uh retinas that he forgot to ask.”

Y/n turned towards her name being called and was met with Spencer stumbling into her arms. As she helped steady him, she felt a blush rise to her face at the sudden close proximity they were in.

“Uh sorry about that,” Spencer apologizes as he steps back. “Ignore what he said. I uh actually came over because um I think you’re very b-beautiful and you i-intrigue me. A-Anyways, I was wondering if you would maybe um like t-to go out to dinner uh sometime. I completely understand if you don’t want to though.”

Y/n smiled at Spencer’s adorable nervousness as he asked her out. She’d been waiting all appointment long for him to ask her. After waiting a couple seconds, pretending to contemplate his invite, y/n slid her card in Spencer’s hand before leaning up to his ear.

“Call me once you can see again.”

[deadmancrawling]

Break My Heart // Ashton Irwin

ok,,, so i was inspired by hey violet and i was feeling angsty so,,, here ya go. i lowkey cried while writing this but whatever, right? lmao.

warnings: smut, angst. that’s it. you’ve been warned.

word count: 1,547!

enjoy goobs!!

        You’d known Ashton for the last decade or so of your life. He’d never given you any reason to feel that he was betraying you. You knew he’d come crawling back, every chance he got. You are his weakness.

        Your best friend, Calum, had introduced you two after their band had a show in New York bar. You’d never been so immediately attracted to anyone in my life.

There was something about Ashton’s hazel eyes and that one little curl that could never seem to hold itself back along with the rest of them.

You and Ashton quickly became a friend with benefits thing, despite Calum’s pleas.

        But things changed a few years ago, when Ashton had met her.

        Ashton began to put her first. Her needs were more important than yours. Her emotions were suddenly Ashton’s top priority. Her happiness was Ashton’s main concern. Her presence made you a she.

        But Ashton always came crawling back to you.

You are the one who held him when he was upset. You are the one who rocks his world when he needs it most. You are the one he calls when he’s having relationship problems with her. You are his rock. You are his girl.

He loves you.

But that didn’t matter, because he began dating her.

Ashton took her on dates.

Ashton proposed to her.

Ashton married her.

But despite being married to her, Ashton always came running back to you.

You weren’t too surprised when you’d heard a knock on your apartment door. Ashton had texted you a few hours ago warning you that he needed to talk about something important.

Ashton has always been one for dramatics, so you didn’t think that what he had to say would be too crazy.

“(Y/n), I need you.” Ashton says as soon as you open the door.

There’s almost no time to breathe before he closes the door behind him and plants his lips on yours.

You’re slightly taken aback, normally Ashton is one for formality before you get to fucking, but now you know something serious is bothering Ashton.

You kiss Ashton back, reaching up to entangle your fingers in his hair. His hands place themselves beneath your ass and you jump up to help him lift you. Your legs wrap around his torso as he walks towards your bedroom and then lays down on the bed.

“Take your shirt off, now.” Ashton commands, and suddenly the fabric of your shirt has been thrown across your bedroom.

Ashton’s lips contact your sternum, he’s leaving sloppy kisses and light hickeys along your chest, and you moan to let him know you’re enjoying it. His hands massage your boobs, making their way underneath your bra, his thumbs rubbing over your nipples as he kisses you all over.

Ashton then flips you over and begins unbuckling his belt and taking off his pants as you take off your shorts and panties. Ashton is about to push is dick inside of you before you push him off.

“No. Take off your shirt.” You tell him.

“(Y/n), please,” Ashton says, before kissing your neck.

“Nope. Take it off or I’m not fucking you.” You tell him, your voice firm.

Ashton grunts and rips his shirt off, a few of the buttons popping off as he flings it across the room.

You pull him down to kiss you as he inserts himself, you let out a slight moan from both pleasure and pain – you weren’t completely wet but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

The sound of Ashton’s hips slapping against you fills the room. Both of your moans are loud and obnoxious, but you don’t care since the neighbors can’t hear.

Ashton flips you over so you’re riding him. He’s sitting against your headboard, sucking on your nipples as he smacks your ass every few moments, causing you to moan and enjoy this even more.

“(Y/n), I’m about to come.” Ashton grunts. “I’m gonna come inside of you.”

“Do it, Daddy.” You moan, and Ashton flips you over again so he can have his way with you.

The two of you are so loud and so into it that you don’t even notice his phone ringing in the living room.

“Oh, Daddy!” You moan, making eye contact with him as he paces his strokes.

“That’s right, kitten, come on. Come for Daddy, sweetheart.”

“Unnnff, I want you to come inside me.” You groan, beginning to get agitated that he hasn’t come yet so he can finish you off by eating you out.

Ashton lets out a few throaty grunts as he fills you with his cum, and you lean back and close your eyes as he pulls out and begins to press his thumb on your clit.

He gets aggressive quick – quicker than you’d like, and before you know it, your pussy is clenching and you’re having one of the best orgasms of your life.

Ashton crawls up next to you and kisses your lips softly. You move the hair from his forehead and push it back behind his ears. The two of you make eye contact and he breaks it quickly by looking down and sniffing. You can tell he’s crying.

“Ash, look at me. What’s wrong?” You ask, placing your hand underneath his chin and bringing his face up to make eye contact with you.

“(Y/n) …” Ashton begins. You can see the tears in his eyes. He doesn’t want to say what he is about to say.

“Spill it, Ash.” You say. You’re annoyed.

“I’m gonna be a dad.” He says. His voice is so quiet you’re not sure if you made it up or not.

“You’re what?” You ask. You need clarification.

“I got her pregnant. I’m going to be a dad, (Y/n).” Ashton repeats, looking at you.

You can tell he’s hurting – he doesn’t know what this means for his future with you, and he obviously doesn’t want to be with Her, yet he is. It’s obvious he wants to be with You, yet, he still chose Her.

“Are you fucking kidding me, right now?” You ask, sitting up and looking at him. “You got Her pregnant!”

“(Y/n), I didn’t want to, it just happened.” Ashton says, defending himself.

“Obviously. You use that excuse all the time, Ashton. You didn’t want to meet her, it just happened. You didn’t want to date her, it just happened. You didn’t want to love her, it just happened. You didn’t want to marry her, it just happened.” You begin, crawling out of bed and putting your clothes on.

“It’s not like that!” Ashton cries, getting out of your bed and looking at you.

Tears are forming in your eyes. You’d never thought you’d see the day where your relationship with Ashton would turn to this. Everyone thought it would’ve been You.

You would date Ashton.

You would get married to Ashton.

It was supposed to be You.

“Then what’s it like, huh? Because I’ve been in love with you for the past ten years, Ash, and never once did I think it would end up like this.” You cry.

You can’t even look at him. It’s so hard to look at the man you love, knowing he loves someone else.

“(Y/n), you know I’m not in love with her.” Ashton says, taking one of his shirts from your dresser and putting it on.

“But you’re not in love with me, either.” You cry. You hate that you sound so helpless in front of him.

“I’ve been in love with you since the moment we met,” Ashton says. His eyes are wide and his mouth is slightly agape, but you know he’s telling the truth.

“No.” You say. “This can only end one way. Just do it now, I don’t want to wait.”

“(Y/n), you know I can’t do that.” Ashton says, wiping tears from his cheeks.

“Break my heart, Ashton. Tell me you never loved me.” You say, wiping the tears away. “Tell me it wasn’t real.”

“(Y/n) … I found somebody else.” Ashton begins. You know every word he says after those five is going to feel like a dagger in your heart. “It was never real; you and I… were never real.” He gulps, stepping closer to you.

“Tell me you never loved me.” You cry. “Tell me it was just a lie.”

Ashton lets out a soft sob before looking you in the eye. It pains him to say it just as much as it pains you to listen. But you know he’s only saying because you want to hear it.

“I never loved you. Our whole friendship was just a lie, (Y/n).” Ashton says. “We were bound to break from the beginning. We would’ve never worked out in the long run.”

“Just go.” You whisper, pointing to the door. “Just get out. Go to Her.” You seethe.

Ashton walks out of your bedroom and gathers his belongings. Before he steps out of your apartment he turns to face you once more.

You run into his arms and he catches you, and you plant your lips on his. He kisses back, and you both know this is your last kiss.

“I love you, Ashton Irwin.” You mutter.

“I love you more, (Y/n). Take care.” Ashton says before leaving your apartment.

[stillness-in-green]

Human Debris Masterpost (14/15)

Okay, gang, I am officially finished with the re-watch, and all that’s left is formatting and posting.  I’ll be doing that in two posts--one now, one later in the week.  in the meantime, lets get into the last big space battle, with...

EPISODE FORTY-FIVE — If This Is the End

We open right up with Chad and Dante this episode, engaged in combat with a some stripe of Graze unit or another.  These guys are taking more work to put down than the usual goobs, we see as it takes a lot of shooting, a grenade, and one of those Rodi machetes to get the job done.

Chad says that they’ve strayed from the battlefield and need to get back to the Isaribi.  Dante wonders aloud how the battle is going, and Chad, in a surpassingly rare moment of raising his voice, flares back that there’s no way it’s going well.  

Back on the main front, Orga is promising his teenaged followers girls and money (neither of which they have a damn clue what to do with, a disparity a number of reviewers observed back when this episode first aired).  Akihiro, ever the ascetic, fires back that he doesn’t have or need ‘em.

The fighting continues after the credits, with another brief shot of Akihiro, and, cursing at Arianrhod and still hurling machetes like a champ, Derma.  He’s down a Rodi-arm, too, which is a nasty bit of foreshadowing, I must say.  

Some Graze units close in on the Isaribi, but Chad and Dante return in time to drive them off before anything too serious can happen.  

Dante is the first one to react to—something, an alert beep starting up in his cockpit.  It could be the arrival of Isurugi and company, but, more likely, it’s a heads-up that Arianrhod’s forces are falling back, as another of Rustal’s signature false flag plays goes live.  

Dainsleif shots pepper the field, swiping the Hotarubi and Shino’s Flauros Ryusei-Go. Our Debris boys seem to have been enough on the outskirts that they don’t have to evade much; we get a shot of Akihiro, and can hear Chad and Dante reacting as well from their Rodis.

After two volleys, Arianrhod goes to standby, to see if any signals of surrender go up.  This gives Tekkadan some time to regroup, pulling people off the Hotarubi, and collecting some bodies, which we find Eugene, Chad and Dante paying some quick respects to, possibly having just finished moving the bodies in themselves.  Eugene uses harsh words—idiots cashing in before they got to the finish—while Chad apologizes that bodybags in a storage room is the best they can do for the dead at the moment, and Dante promises revenge for them.

Afterward, they report to Orga on the bridge, Eugene that they’ve finished moving things over, Dante with the more technical report about fried weapons control and reduced propulsion, and Chad with the bleak summary that the Hotarubi could be remote-piloted and used as a shield for the Isaribi.

Eugene asks what their next play is and, when Orga starts talking about McGillis and retreat, interrupts to ask where they’re going to retreat to. When Orga turns his gaze on this blatant display of lip, he finds the three staring at him very seriously indeed. Eugene looks actively angry; I think Chad and Dante are mostly just wondering if Orga’s really thought about what he’s saying.

Dante echoes Eugene, observing that they don’t have anywhere to go back to unless they win. Chad says that if it is the last battle (as Org has been repeatedly claiming), then they need to see it through. As I commented in the last post, neither Dante nor Chad show the slightest fear at the prospect of dying out here; they’re 100% willing to give everything they’ve got for the chance of victory.  (Orga’s used those tactics all along, of course, and here is where the fruits of those tactics finally begin to wither—but Orga’s tactical insight and how his deep-rooted insecurity feeds into his strategies are an entirely different essay topic.)

Shino interrupts to announce his own idea, and his audience goes from this:

to this (note the sudden profligation of sweatdrops):

Once the terminology is out of the way, however, the boys find that Shino’s plan is indeed to their tastes.  

‘Nice and simple,’ Dante says.  ‘Like us, right?’ Chad jibes.  

(Help, I love them.)

And we get one last lovely shot of this group-togetherness, as Orga allows himself to be pushed by his followers�� confidence into a plan you can see his gut instinct rejecting as too brash. Enjoy those smiles while you can, boys.

The whole gang guards the ships as the Hotarubi pulls the Isaribi on towards this last fateful shot; you can see Gusion and the Rodis swooping and circling around the ships along with all the other unique suits Tekkadan has.  

Akihiro and Ride, and probably a great many others, yell at Shino to shoot.

And—well, we all know how that went.  

One last thing to bring this episode to a close: it’s easy to miss in all the gut-curdling screaming Shino is doing as the credits kick in, but someone in a Rodi is bringing Hush back into the mobile suit bay.  No definite way to say who—maybe Derma, who’s backed-up Hush in the past?—but here’s the shot of it, in any case.

EPISODE FORTY-SIX—For Whom?

The bulk of the first half is taken up with the retreat from the combat, and the sacrifices made to ensure said retreat is successfully.  We can spot the Rodis here and there, but the first time one jumps out as significant is when Derma gets pegged by Arianrhod’s parting shots and an explosion goes off in his cockpit.  

A Rodi perched on top of the ship flies up and retrieves him, returning fire.  No one calls out on the commlines, so there’s no telling who it was.  Dante is the more dramatically appropriate choice, as he’s much more closely tied to Derma, but Chad does do an awful lot of rescuing people through the second season, and it might make sense for Dante and Derma to have been mirroring each other’s positions on the Isaribi’s sides while Chad held down the center.  

Thank god for whichever one of them it was, though, because as I believe I noted in posts made back when the show was still airing, Derma was the number one character I wanted to make it out of the series alive, and it’s thanks to the other Rodi’s quick response that he did.  

Later, we find Derma outside the medical area, now down one arm.  Atra apologizes that all the beds are full, to which Derma says it’s fine, that everyone else is worse off than him.  And I feel the need to point out here that, while several of the guys we see in the quick shot of the med-bay are indeed wearing more bandages than Derma, there are an awful lot of them who still have all four limbs attached, so I am—to say the least—skeptical that they are all in worse shape than Derma.  

Color me totally unsurprised that he would say so, though.

He slides down the wall, certainly already thinking about how useless he’s going to be even if he recovers, when our other three ex-red stripes show up en masse—a strikingly uncommon sight, outside of the opening credit sequences—to check on him.  

Akihiro goes down to one knee, saying his name, but there’s no response, and Akihiro himself is still clearly figuring out how to approach the issue.  

Dante jumps in to say that Derma’s lucky, that it was just his arm.  I’m sure he means well.  

Derma says, harshly, that he wishes he’d died out there, because—as he now says out loud—he’s no use to anyone as “an incomplete body.”  The camera cuts to an extremely tight shot of Akihiro, close enough to hear the low, ragged inhalation he takes.  

He then thanks Derma, which startles the boy’s eyes opened again.  

And it’s not, as one might expect who didn’t know exactly how many people Akihiro’s lost in his life at this point, a thanks for his service, or his sacrifice.  In a direct callback to the aftermath of the Silent War Arc (over ten episodes ago), when Akihiro told Lafter that he wishes he’d talked to Aston more when he was alive, Akihiro tells Derma that he’s glad he’s still able to talk to him.  

And then he thanks Derma again, for surviving, using the boy’s full name this time—Derma Altland.

Much like me by this point, Derma begins crying.  

God only knows how much of what Akihiro’s communicating he’s really receiving, but I think he must get the gist of it.  He knows Akihiro was Masahiro’s brother; he knows Akihiro had taken a personal interest in both Derma and Aston after Tekkadan took them in.  He knows, certainly, that Akihiro lost those Masahiro and Aston as surely as Derma himself did.  I’m sure Derma’s tears in this scene are, in part, shed for what he’s just lost, and for the uncertainty of the future, but my hope is that some of his tears are also for the gift that Akihiro’s just given him—the reminder that Derma matters, that there is at least one person in the whole wide, cold world that is glad of his existence.  

Shakily, he accepts the thanks.

And, barring a few shots taken from the closing moments of the first season, that is the last of the Human Debris for this episode.  Which is just as well, because much more would probably have destroyed me completely.  Lets move on along.

 EPISODE FORTY-SEVEN—Scapegoat

We rejoin our boys in Orga’s office in Tekkadan’s HQ, back home on Mars after quite a lot of time away.  They’re discussing McGillis when we first find them, with Dante putting in that he thinks the man is both dangerous and crazy, for still thinking about fighting Arianrhod.  

When Eugene floats the idea of turning McGillis and Bael over to Gjallarhorn, Chad and Dante get the first reaction, exchanging solemn looks, with Dante agreeing that it could be a chance for Tekkadan to just start over.  

It’s a nice thought, but one that ignores how much of a name Tekkadan has made for itself, as we will find.  Akihiro objects on different grounds, though, saying that the boss he knows would never betray an ally like that.  Recall that he praised Lafter for ‘seeing through her obligations’; even though he doesn’t really know and, given the man’s involvement in Aston’s death, probably doesn’t really like McGillis, Akihiro is against betraying him.  And of course, as far as his regard for Orga goes, Akihiro was handed his freedom by Orga, for nothing more than being an old ally and staying out of the way of the Third Division’s coup, back at the beginning of everything.

Orga agrees that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but hedges that ‘the right thing’ doesn’t matter to McGillis anymore.  We don’t get to see anyone’s reaction to this, as that’s when a news program starts talking about their ties to McGillis, and they have more pressing things to react to.  

Dante is impressed that Tekkadan made the news—as people thought of as revolutionary heroes, no less! I think this is probably a flash of Dante’s thing about recognition, rather than the first time he’s ever seen his group mentioned on the news—I mean, they have to have been on the news before, given all that stuff with Hashmal, right?  And protecting Kudelia?  And so on? But Dante’s always valued being known, and I’m pretty sure he’d take notoriety over being unknown any day, so even in a situation like their current one, he’s still a little pleased to see Tekkadan in the news.  

The others are decidedly less thrilled.

We find them again later, when Orga gathers everyone up to talk about how to proceed—namely, that anyone who wants to get out should do so immediately.

Dante protests, along with Eugene, while Akihiro watches with serious eyes, just saying Orga’s name under his breath.As protests grow louder, Zack cuts in to be the doom-saying Cassandra no one wants to listen to.  Derma is on-scene, we find in a series of crowd-pans, having drawn in close behind Chad and Dante.

Afterwards, as everyone is making their final preparations, Orga makes a last-ditch effort to give up first McGillis, and then himself, to Rustal Elion.  Rustal refuses—as to why Orga’s life alone isn’t enough, he gives Orga some schpiel about organizations being groups of members, and one person’s death not erasing another person’s crime.  Personally, I suspect it’s more that Rustal is canny enough to know it wouldn’t make Gjallarhorn look good, noble, or powerful to publicly execute a lanky Martian teenager for getting caught up in adult affairs—thus are tyrants exposed, and martyrs made.  The average citizen of the system probably only knows Tekkadan as an organization name, and better by far for them to stay that way—just a name, with no faces associated with it that might touch peoples’ hearts.

In any case, Eugene and Akihiro catch at least the tail end of this conversation, and while Eugene has Orga by the lapels, Akihiro is clutching at where his red stripe used to be once more, looking actually hurt that Orga would try to pull a stunt like this, that Orga could be so oblivious to how much he means to everyone.  (He’s a little off from where the red stripe would have been; I am willing to concede that he might also just be clutching at his jacket to keep from laying Orga out with a right hook.)

“You gave us life when we were nothing but walking corpses,” he says, and “You made a family for us.”  And more than a lot of the members of Tekkadan, Akihiro values family, as Orga well knows.  

Orga implicitly agrees to talk things over, which presumably is what leads him and Eugene down to the cafeteria, where we find Dante and Chad again.  Chad is summing things up, that they’re now on wanted lists and have nowhere to run, so long as they are who they are.  

This tips Kudelia off to the plan that will end up saving what few survivors that make it out of this series (good teamwork, guys!), and she asks why they don’t become someone else?  It’s impossible to change their personal data on Mars, but on Earth…

47.10

Chad namedrops Makanai as he figures out what she’s getting at, which I have to say I’m a bit impressed by, but then I suppose he had lots of time to figure out the exact nature of Arbrau and Chryse’s relationship when he was on Earth.  The gist of it is that, since Chryse is still technically Arbrau’s colony, all Chryse ID records are handled back in Arbrau, so if those records can be adjusted, Tekkadan can, in fact, disappear. And, as Chad has recalled, Tekkadan is on good terms with the best possible person in Arbrau to help them with that, its honest-to-god Prime Minister.  

The next bit of good news comes from Merribit and Dexter, here to announce that Tekkadan has scraped up some funds after all, and Dante turns a look on Chad like, “Holy shit, are we about to get away with this?” that I deeply enjoy.

Dante’s also the first to ask what’s going to happen to Tekkadan as the credits begin to roll, though. He’s not the only one the name means a great deal to, of course, but as I mentioned above, I’d imagine a significant amount of his current self-esteem is tied to Tekkadan’s fame, so it’s no surprise he’s the first one to voice hesitation about, essentially, betraying and abandoning the lily emblem they’ve been bearing all this time.  

Mika responds with a content smile that where Orga is, is where everyone belongs, which Dante accepts with a rueful kind of cheer.  Chad seconds that, even with a different name, they’ll still be themselves.  

Kudelia gets up to contact Makanai, and that’s when everyone realizes the outside lines have been cut.  Also we find out where Akihiro’s been, as he shows up with his lieutenant to announce that Tekkadan’s been surrounded by Gjallarhorn forces.  

EPISODE FORTY-EIGHT—Promise

After some intro material, Chad is the first person we hear talking after the credits, relating the state of Tekkadan’s communication—the cables have been cut, and all their LCS drones get shot down as soon as they send them up.  Dante summarizes as we cut into the group meeting, that without methods of communication, they can’t get any outside information, let alone contact Makanai like they’d planned. 

Eugene observes that, while Gjallarhorn hasn’t done anything yet, they could attack at any time, leading Dante to ask if they should attack first, then?  

Eugene shoots the prospect down due to the disparity in the size of their forces, and Akihiro asks Orga what they should do.  

Orga, for his part, reiterates that if they can make an escape, the victory is theirs—they demolish the building, make it look like they’ve been wiped out, then go ahead with the plan to contact Makanai.  This plan impresses Dante, who smiles about it only briefly before returning to a frown when Eugene stands up to remind everyone that they still don’t have a way to escape.  In lieu of two screenshots, I offer this in-between one.

(Do your best, Dante.)

Yukinojo gives the team a method, though—old maintenance tunnels—and Orga reiterates to everyone, over a batch of serious-face pan-overs, that the upcoming battle is not about killing anyone to end the battle, but rather about every single member of Tekkadan making it out alive.  

Dante makes a curious face here, as Orga tells them to never back down on living—he’s the only one to make a verbal response, rather than just nodding resolutely like we see Eugene and Chad do.  The obvious difference is that Eugene and Chad have both led before—even aside from his position as Orga’s second, Eugene was always in the captain’s seat of the Hotarubi, and Chad of course had his position as leader of Tekkadan’s Earth Branch. One can assume they’re both familiar with the concept of victory being how many heads you can count at the end of the day.

Dante, on the other hand, has always been out on the front-lines, in a mobile worker, a mobile suit, or even just a team of dudes with guns and armor.  I’m sure he’s very used to the idea that Tekkadan’s victory will be bought with Tekkadan deaths, one of which might be his own; historically, that’s what most of Orga’s battle strategies boiled down to.  Hearing that victory means him—means everyone—living is basically unprecedented for him.

As Orga walks away, Eugene complains a little about him, just like the old days, to which Dante responds in kind—that Orga seemed more like his old self just there.  Chad concurs, noting Orga’s confidence.  And they’re right; it’s been a long time since Orga’s had that fire and self-certainty.  Being free of all other chains and requirements, and no longer obligated to listen to McGillis, Orga is more like himself than he’s been in a long time—Dawn Horizon or earlier, I’d say.  (Orga and McGillis parallel each other in an interesting way in that regard, I think.  Neither of them is very good at adjusting the way they operate for scenarios outside what they know, though McGillis hides it better.  More on that another time.)

Feeling the group’s confidence, we get one of Akihiro’s rare smiles, and the four go off to get back to work.

At the tail end of the next scene, when McGillis finally realizes that he’s on his own for this one, he gives Orga a way to get a small group out, by taking a car while all of Gjallarhorn is focused on Bael breaking through the lines.  Orga contacts Chad to get the car prepared, and get Atra and Kudelia as well, as they’re heading for Kudelia’s Admoss Company.  This, I think, solidifies Chad as next in command after Eugene (who was off investigating the tunnels at the time), which is certainly gratifying to me.

We find Chad doing his best to carry out those orders in the next scene, where he, Kudelia and Merribit are having to convince a reluctant Atra to leave.  He doesn’t use an honorific with her name, I notice, which is a bit nice—it speaks to him seeing her as a peer, rather than someone removed from him by rank or social distance.  

This scene also puts him in the room for Kudelia saying right there out in the open that Atra is carrying Mikazuki’s child.  It’s easy to read it as a running gag in combination with his not knowing about Merribit and Yukinojo’s relationship, but it’s not played anything like as comedic, and Merribit’s reaction indicates that it’s the first she’s hearing of it, too. I’m pretty certain this is the first anyone outside the Bracelet Trio has found out.

For her part, Merribit is staying behind.  I’m certain she, too, is reluctant to leave behind the man she loves, but aloud, she claims that she still has work to be done.  She tells the other girls not to worry, that they’ll meet again—the iron flower won’t wilt so easily, which brings a smile to Chad’s face likewise.  

The next time we spot him, he’s finishing up getting the car ready.  

Two cars head out when Bael does; given later dialogue and setting shots, I’m assuming the second car is headed for Yukinojo’s best guess as to where the old CGS maintenance tunnels are going to surface?  Chad’s driving one car, we can assume since we don’t see him in the shots showing Ride and Orga or Kudelia and Atra seated, but someone else must be driving the other, and we never see the driver of that second vehicle.  

Anyway, they make it to Admoss in one piece, at which point Ride and Chad take up watch out the windows while Kudelia reunites with Cucubita, who’s been very worried.  When Cucubita drops the bomb that the news is saying Tekkadan is refusing calls to surrender, though, they close the curtains.

Chad’s the first one to articulate the understanding of why Gjallarhorn was so intent on blocking their communication—because Gjallarhorn is manipulating the media narrative, exactly like we saw them do back on Dort.  Orga knew already, of course, that Rustal had no intention of accepting a surrender from Tekkadan; now he knows that Rustal won’t even let the world see that Tekkadan tried to.  A scapegoat.

They put the talk aside, though, to get on with matters at hand—contacting Makanai.  Kudelia and Orga are the ones to make the call, though Chad and Ride are right on hand.

Makanai plays reluctant for a bit, presumably because he is so old and has been in politics for so many years that it is actually, physiologically impossible for him to just agree to something without being kind of an ass about it first.  (I love him.) As Orga goes to beg, though, Makanai interrupts with a cheery comment about how hard it is to refuse the one(/s) who saved his life.  He’s directing this at Orga, but it’s likely he’s referring to Tekkadan in general. Tekkadan, of course, is the organization that delivered him from exile and returned him to power.  One other alternative is also possible, of course.

Chad is the one who actually and directly saved Makanai’s life.  While we don’t know that Chad greeted Makanai at the beginning of this phone call, we do see Chad straighten up in response to Makanai’s aforementioned dialogue, and say the man’s name aloud in the way of one who knows when he’s being talked about and is responding accordingly.  Certainly I prefer the reading that Makanai’s line there is obliquely aimed at Chad, or at least Tekkadan-as-represented-by-Chad, because it means the Silent War arc was good for more than just stripping Tekkadan of assets and members, beginning the season-long process of knocking them all the way back down to where they started.  It means that Chad’s prior courage and devotion to duty are now the vehicles by which Tekkadan will be delivered.  Not bad for a third-stringer!

Makanai says, in any case, that they should hurry to Earth, as there’s someone there so worried about them that it’s hampering his (and therefore also Makanai’s) work, leading to a nice little exchange between the group and Takaki.  The prodigal returns!  Chad doesn’t lean over the video screen, but does contribute to the conversation, wide-eyed at the news that Takaki’s working at Makanai’s office now.

Takaki credits Orga for his current circumstances, though vaguely enough that we still don’t know exactly who landed Takaki this job, or if Makanai just reached out himself—a plausible enough idea, I think, given how much attention Makanai had clearly been paying to the young men of Tekkadan’s Earth Branch, both before and after the bomb.

In any case, after the call ends, Cucubita and Atra bring in some drinks for everyone (coffee?), which I imagine go almost completely untouched.  Chad points out that they still don’t have a way to get to Earth—Gjallarhorn will be watching the Isaribi. Seeing as Chad was piloting the Isaribi back in season one, and thus presumably the one dealing with port authority on both Dort and Earth, and Mars when they went back home, he probably has a good idea of what he’s talking about here.

As it has been since the first season, though, the girls from the Turbines are there to pick up the slack.  Orga is jubilant in his rebellion against certain death, and his mood is catching.

Chad and Ride bring the car around while Orga has a last conversation with Atra and Kudelia. Then, as Orga heads to the door with Ride, Ride says the cursed words: “It’s quiet.”  The soundtrack pretends not to notice what’s just happened, and we get a look around outside.  Chad is standing outside the car, and looks around at something.  

For the third time this season, I knew my favorite was dead, so dead, but nope, his luck continued to hold out!  Turns out he was just looking at Orga and Ride coming down the hall!  No problems at all!  

Ha ha…

I provide the rest of these screenshots with no further commentary, save to note that Chad’s reflexes are as sharp as ever, and wonder if this will be the scar that sticks with him where the healing tank washed all signs of the office bomb away.  I suppose it must be so.

Check back later this week for the last two episodes, and wrap-up, and thanks to everyone who’s read along this far.