#operation epsilon

[slingshotsandrosarybeads]

My heart is broken , Crutchie is no more , 😭😭😭😭

But I’m also very excited to see this next week

[do-you-know-this-play]

[saveugoodmadam]

When Matthew Duckett did the whistle in Operation Epsilon and I nearly exploded with happiness >>>

[tenth-sentence]

Farm Hall, the secret place of internment for the German atomic physicists, had been built in 1728.

"Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists" - Robert Jungk, translated by James Cleugh

[whats-in-a-sentence]

The scientific head of the Alsos mission explained the secret maintained about the place of internment:

All this hush-hush was necessitated by our original assumption that the Germans had the atom bomb or must be close to its secret. As it turned out, they knew practically nothing of significance. But by tracking them down and making such a thorough investigation we might have shown our hand. Actually, the German scientists were sure of their own superiority. It never occurred to them that we might have succeeded where they had failed. But our military security experts could not be sure of this. They could not be sure that if these men were set free the supposition that we might have a gigantic uranium project would become a matter of common knowledge everywhere. The risk was too great. The only thing to do was to segregate the men and keep their colleagues and the rest of the world guessing.

"Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists" - Robert Jungk, translated by James Cleugh

[favvnsongs]

thinking bout like. yeah the whole wash&epsilon thing but also alpha&jimmy? like it wasn't just Sharing a mind and a body, alpha was the one driving he was ostensibly in control he had no idea that there had been an actual whole other living breathing thinking feeling person in that body. like what happened to him! the weeks or months between implantation and getting blown up. how much of alphas memories where wholecloth fake and how many were jimmy's. I'm just ;___; fuckign. lmao.

[feroluce]

I've only recently started having my own thoughts about Emanator!Sampo and I think my favorite version of this is that he is technically an Emanator, it's just that he doesn't talk about it because Aha is a dick who only blesses people that don't want it and Sampo hates it here dkjxkdkdck

Aha blessed the Mourning Actors! A whole faction of people who have specifically made it their life's mission to resist Elation! THEY made a literal worm THEIR Emanator just to see if it would be accepted into the Genius Society! And when it wasn't, Aha just as easily killed it and tossed it aside! So I feel like there is a good possibility that Aha looked down at Sampo, this little oddball who doesn't seem to even like Epsilon or a lot of the Masked Fools and was like.

Hey.

You know what would be really really funny.

And I feel like being an Emanator wouldn't even be a plus for Sampo, because of how he operates. Sampo excels at blending in; he managed to smuggle himself onto a planet

that had been isolated for 700 years,

with only one (1) single city on it,

and going even further, he snuck himself into the Underground,

where the population is even more sparse,

and STILL. Not a single accusation of him being an alien! Not even after the Astral Express lands and proves that interstellar space travel is possible! Sampo is so thoroughly ingrained into Belobog that yeah, some people admit they don't know his origins, but none of it ever comes with the question of whether he actually is a Belobog native or not. Sampo knows exactly how to blend himself into his surroundings in the most subtle way possible. And being an Emanator, something far more powerful than any normal human or Pathstrider could ever hope to be, would only throw in a massive extra variable for him. Sampo would have to be so so careful to keep a lid on his Emanator traits, to keep up the appearance of being totally normal and average at all times. It doesn't help him at all.

And this part is pure indulgence, but I love taking Aha's closeness with mortals, and THEIR tendency to take human form, and twisting it into a case of THEM using Sampo as a vessel.

I want Aha to look at Sampo the same way all of us look at Sampo. A chew toy. A plaything. Something to shove through the meat grinder. Aha thinks Sampo is hilarious and a funny, silly little guy, and THEY want to put him in Situations just to see what he does. Sampo is not a fan.

This though, this is what makes Sampo so wildly entertaining as a vessel. Because Aha knows that Sampo does not want to be a vessel, does not even want to be an Emanator, and THEY find it SO much fun to watch the mental gymnastics he has to pull to convince himself he's ok with it, this is fine actually, because he's not exactly about to tell off a literal god. He doesn't feel like getting a smiting today, please and thank you.

Because squeezing yourself into a human vessel is so different than merely adopting a human disguise, there's already a human soul in there, it's kind of a tight fit. If Sampo doesn't make room, doesn't all but dissociate right out of his own body, it could cause. Consequences.

And so, Aha always gives a warning, just to watch him squirm.

It begins with the sound of bells.

Just little ones, at first. Small, clinking little sounds that could even be considered nice. Something almost gentle, like a wind chime in a pleasant breeze on a warm day. This is the signal for the countdown.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Makes himself as small as possible within his own body.

The bells rise and multiply, tinkling wind chimes give way to sleigh bells, to shopkeepers bells, the sound of something inevitable approaching, something entering.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Dilutes himself, weaker and weaker concentrations.

The bells rise and rise, multiply and multiply, celebration and tragedy resonating in the sound of church bells, ringing bright and loud, the sounds of weddings and funerals both the same.

Sampo breathes in, breathes out. Becomes like smoke, like vapor. Hollows himself out.

Empty, empty, empty until he echoes, like a bell, like something with the sole purpose of being shaken and rattled around, a thing to be struck, the sounds jarring and punched out and gasping and piercing the air, the lung, the eardrum.

Sampo breathes in.

Beaten he rings, bashed in he sings.

Aha breathes out.

[phoenixblaze1412]

can i request a fem reader who has a terrible moodswing during her period? i couldn't help but imagine dottore getting yelled at by reader because of her mood hehe, also, how will dottore handle the situation?

-🧊

Code Red.

Every segment knows of this. An event that happens every month and usually lasts for a week. Yes, their darling's monthly period pain.

Dottore is already aware of it. He was the one who made the code after all.

He would already have the medicine and painkillers that you may need to help suppress those cramps you have to endure. Ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin and the like. All prepared and organised in a certain shelf titled 'For Pain/Cramps' just in case needed.

Ah, ah, ah. You are not eating various sugary treats or those cravings you want. The only treat you can consume is dark chocolate. Dottore explained that said product has magnesium that can also help alleviate your pain. Doctor's orders after all.

Dottore usually wouldn't be bothered when others would scream at him. But hearing your voice curse and yell at him would make him flinch. He knows it's part of your mood swings and it's normal but sometimes he would be overthinking some of the words you would say until you had to force it outta him during your post-period state.

If Dottore is busy in his laboratory or on a mission while you're on your period, he would send some of his segments to take care of you.

Dottore made sure to write a list of things needed for you and to take note of your mood swings because each emotion or reaction you show has various meanings that the segment has to understand to be able to handle the situation.

The segments, mostly the younger ones during Dottore's pre-fatui era, would be panicking over you. They read the notes given to them, yes. But did they understand? Absolutely not. They haven't taken care of you like this before but they were the ones ordered by Dottore himself to take care of you since they were available.

The segments even suggested of immediately putting you in the operating room right when they saw the blood staining your sheets and coming from down there. They thought that one of your organs must have popped and could require medical treatment immediately.

Dottore had to step in and rescue you right after Omega informed him that you were about to have surgery just because of some measly blood. He couldn't blame his segments for being so idiotic, he once thought you had an internal bleeding that he didn't examined carefully when he first found out about your period.

After that incident, he decided to hold a small meeting between himself and his segments and informed them of your monthly pain. He made sure the segments don't even bother to think of trying anything else to fix you other than follow the instructions he laid out when your menstrual cycle arrives.

Dottore may have forgot to inform them about the mood swings.

Later on, he found his segments sulking in the corner of your room with a hurt look plastered across their faces.

"..never have I seen a woman become so scary..."

"I blame you for this, Gamma."

"I didn't do anything! I was only giving her the medicine! Besides, Epsilon was supposed to bake treats for her."

"She already ate them all!"

"Enough of your chatter and stand up. She's acting like that because of her mood swings. It's part of her monthly cycle. So stop whining and get to work."

Yes, Dottore wrote down every little thing needed to do whenever you had your period but he left out a certain thing. Affections.

Any simple act of physical affection that he would initiate is already enough to keep you stable. From cuddles to forehead and cheek kisses all the way to whispering sweet words into your ear is enough to stop your mood swings from going haywire.

He wouldn't let his other segments know about it, just because they're him from different time periods doesn't mean he would let them give you affections. How ironic of him to be jealous of himself.

Nonetheless, when it comes to you, you are his and his alone.

[patricia-taxxon]

do you have any other sokoban recommendations? also, i'm curious if you have any opinions on Draknek's work and/or Patrick's Parabox

The Golem is really incredible and underrated but it's so hard that it makes me cry and I'm so far from being able to beat all of it. You've probably already heard of Stephen's Sausage Roll, but Can of Wormholes follows in line with that game and does it justice imo, even if I didn't like it quite as much.

I enjoyed Parabox quite a bit, but I found some of its later areas kind of logistically redundant? The puzzles kinda break down into permutating whatever new mechanic/consequence with what you already have in just a few operations, and it loses some of the mazeyness that I like in sokoban variants in favor of just the logic of sets containing sets. epsilon is *just* a portal.

I've tried a few Draknek & friends games, I loved A Good Snowman, enjoyed Cosmic Express but didn't really love it, played about 1 hour each of bonfire peaks and monster's expidition before just kinda putting them down and forgetting to pick them up again, they could be really good.

[zooliminology]

Gamma what was your most successful heist- I mean procurement of extremely generous donations?

Hello, Fluffiest Bugs, for legal reasons I cannot tell you about my most successful reallocation effort. I can however tell you about my most recent. Epsilon, that damn money pit, needed a new piece of lab equipment. Something called an autoclave? I try my best to repress anything to do with Epsilon, so I don't remember fully. Regardless, it came to my attention that the lovely folk over at the CIA had procured one recently. Thus, Pi and I did them a favor and installed it for them...at our base of operations.

Yours Truly

Researcher Gamma

[viviennevermillion]

And we love like fools

✧ ɴᴏᴛᴇꜱ: i know i still have plenty of requests in my inbox but i felt really inspired to write this. first full hsr oneshot. i love sampo.

✧ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴꜱ: sampo x gn!reader, fluff, pining, sampo and reader are both masked fools but don't know, there was only one bed, 4k words

✧ ɴᴏᴡ ᴘʟᴀʏɪɴɢ: fools — lauren aquilina

✧ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: reader has a sad backstory, mentions of bullying

There are many tales throughout the universe about the Aeons. About how they were born; where they found their resolve. A cynic might say that they resemble too much of our own stories; that one could hardly know what guided a being incomprehensible to most ordinary mortals. But you thought now; that maybe that was the beauty in it. That even gods could be touched by such simple emotions as sadness or joy.

The stories that are told throughout the Epsilon system speak of what appears to be chaos and randomness at first glance; each tale more absurd than the last. But the one you'd always remember was one that had started with eternal darkness and pointlessness as the Aeon Aha climbed to the highest branch in the tree of existence. The universe functioned like a machine operating to the whims of a force not even the Aeons could comprehend and all who lived within were merely pawns or cogs that kept it running. The truth was that our existence within the machine was so minimal and unimportant; that even the loss of the individual would mean nothing in the grander scheme of things. It was easy to feel lost within a place like this. You knew that better than anyone.

You had felt lost on your home planet all your life. You didn't know whether you were an outlier in their neatly and meticulously planned system or whether you were never meant to be on this world in the first place; but you had noticed that you didn't belong there at an early age. You would always look at the society around you like you were a traveler from outer space who was perceiving it for the first time; and always look at the stars like there was a future waiting out there for you. You had been a thorn in their eye; unable to work within the life that they offered you and unwilling to change enough to fit into their ideals. Your time there was so brief compared to the time that was ahead; yet the years of alienation and mistreatment had scarred you and left you lost without a point of focus. It was as though you, too, had been looking at the vast and black universe wondering what the point of all of this was.

You had left the planet you were born on as soon as you had the means to; traversing the universe as a vagabond; looking for a purpose or something that could bring the light back to your eyes. Epsilon was never a place that drew your attention. Your starskiff needed fuel and maintenance and this was the closest populated area available. You spent your days there mostly in hotel rooms, plagued by the nightmares about your past and the worries about your future. You had known that this was not getting you anywhere; so on your last day before you were ready for take-off, you decided it was time to go out and get some fresh air. Your aimless wandering throughout the city streets eventually led you to a tavern that was far from ordinary. Entrance was only granted if you wore a mask; which you found strange but there was someone willing to sell them outside for a couple of bucks; so it wasn't like you had to go out of your way to get one.

The atmosphere inside had been lively and almost whimsical. People gathered around the tables; each one waiting their turn to tell a story of their travels. Laughter filled the small establishment and it seemed as though every guest was in a competition with the others to fascinate and entertain the crowd the most with their tales of odd pranks and foreign worlds. It made you feel out of place once more. With the way the past few days had gone, you couldn't ever see yourself laughing along with them.

You thought back to how eager you were to leave your home world; thinking that everything would change once you started anew in a better place. You had tried connecting with people; had tried counseling and new hobbies. But you carried the weight of your sorrows around like a boulder tied to your leg or a shadow that would seem to follow you forever. That day had been the worst you felt in a while and you supposed your emotions just got the better of you in that moment. A horrible predicament, really. You don't cry in a tavern where the masked fools gather. Or at least; don't expect yourself to be crying for long.

"You're going to draw a lot of attention with that, you know?"

You had looked up at the masked stranger with quiet sobs forcing their way out of your mouth and you made it clear that you weren't looking to talk. That didn't deter him. The mask covered his whole face and he was wearing a hood but you could make out a few strands of dark blue hair falling out of it. You vividly remembered that encounter even today, after a few years had passed. Despite your protests, the stranger sat down next to you and seemed amused at your predicament.

A wiser person would have left the tavern at this point. But you were vulnerable and sad; not in a state where you could just hold your emotions in anymore. "Geez, you have no idea what place you walked into, do you?", the stranger had laughed and ordered another glass of what the menu advertised as "weird funky juice; god knows what's in there (lactose-free)". He was kind enough to educate you about the masked fools. Great, you had probably made a joke out of yourself that this guy was more than ready to find his daily share of amusement in, you had thought. But whoever he was, he didn't seem interested in making fun of you. At least not more than he made fun of himself. To his mind, all you needed was to see him try and balance his drink on his pinkie finger and failing miserably; splashing the entire thing over the bar counter. You just seemed as sad as you had been before.

"Aww, come on, I really thought that was going to get a laugh out of you", he pouted. You sighed and shook your head. "What's even in that drink?", you raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, no one knows for sure but it's lactose-free if you want to try", he shrugged with a chuckle, "so anyway, what's got you mourning like a sopping wet alley cat in this place of joy and whimsy on a Saturday night?"

In a more stable mental state you would NOT have told this overly enthusiastic, purposely clumsy guy your entire life story; but you were emotionally at the bottom and had been alone for too long. So you poured out your heart to him. And he turned everything you told him into a joke. All of those serious experiences that weighed on your heart. Whether it was the rules of the city you grew up in or the reasons a friend betrayed you or the noble who had made fun of you buying a cheap umbrella. "What, this guy?", he asked when you showed him a picture he wanted to see on your phone, "his hair looks like a paintbrush. Like he'd be great for painting my garden fence. Wait, hold on." He asked the bartender for a piece of paper and a pen.

You remembered the noble. He had always made fun of you for behaving "oddly" for what your world considered the status quo. He had spread rumors about you around the city that had the people whispering when you walked by. You remembered buying the cheap umbrella, hating the fact that you had run into him in front of the store. He had followed you for a while to the outskirts of town before he grabbed you and took your umbrella and drove away with it, leaving you standing in the rain after he called you a disgrace and a failure. You remembered how helpless and alone you had felt; how you made your way back to your house as the rain drenched you and your legs hurt. You remembered how you had gotten sick as a result and how he made fun of your sickly appearance when you went to buy your medicine at the pharmacy. How experiences like this had become your daily life for as long as you lived there.

And now you watched this masked stranger make the silliest drawing of this guy you ever could have imagined. "My apologies, I'm not the best artist but I hope this'll do", he said as you took a sip of water and he held up a stick figure sketch of him holding the noble by his legs like a comically large garden shear and painting a very badly drawn fence with the pompadour on his head. And it made you spit out your drink and let out a wheeze; much to your surprise.

"There we go!", he exclaimed. You could not see his face but you were sure there was a triumphant grin on it. You could hear it in the tone of his voice. You took the drawing out of his hands and snorted. "Why are his ears so long that they reach the ground?", you asked, laughing. "Those are supposed to be his arms", he whined and looked at it, "I think it turned out great."

He proceeded to tell you about all sorts of funny stories from his travels and invited you to dance. Your sorrows were long forgotten by that point.

The tales of the masked fools speak of the laughter of Aha that disrupted the endless nothingness of the vast universe. In your toughest times; this stranger's silly antics had gotten you out of your spiraling sadness and you had readily accepted the mask he had handed to you that night. "It doesn't seem like you have anywhere to go. Why don't you stay with us, then?"

That was five years ago. Everytime you came back to that tavern, the people welcomed you with open arms and they had long since accepted you as one of them. It felt as though you had friends there; even though you didn't know who was underneath those masks. That was the thing about the masked fools. As soon as you put on your mask; it didn't matter who you were anymore. It didn't matter whether someone was rich or poor; where they had come from or how old they were; in that tavern all were followers of the Aeon of Elation and looking to have a good time.

You still saw the masked stranger who had introduced you to his world once in a while, even though you passed each other by sometimes because you were both off to your own travels. You had played with the idea of getting to know the man behind the mask but you mused that this wasn't in the spirit of the masked fools and might make things unnecessarily difficult in a place that had always left you with good memories. But he had left your heart fluttering whenever your paths crossed.

You had gone off to another journey when you had seen the warning light on your starskiff blink again. You had the option to stop earlier and just fill up fuel everytime you landed; but you never knew what surprises were waiting for you if you let it just run its course. This time it was a frozen planet called Jarilo-VI. And truly, within the first few weeks there you had gotten roped up into all sorts of crazy adventures.

You had made plenty of friends there; some because you genuinely thought they were likeable people and some because they kept insisting that they were your friends before trying to scam you. Chaos seemed to follow Sampo Koski wherever he went and no matter how you felt about him as a person; you knew the people back at the tavern would love him and hearing about his misadventures. Natasha had reassured you that he might be up to no good but that he was in no way mean-spirited. "Besides, I think you caught his eye", she had chuckled. "Believe me, I noticed", you had rolled your eyes.

You always thought that Sampo was just a casually flirtatious person. Later on, you had come to realize that you had actually never seen him try his luck with anyone else. He argued that your sense of humor and your tendency to subtly cause a chain reaction of chaos around you was charming and had captivated him; unknowing that this behavior stemmed from your alignment with the followers of Aha. His comically bad pick-up lines and outlandish romantic gestures fell on deaf ears; however.

However, you had to admit that even though you at first only stuck around because he was a magnet for exactly the kind of jokes the masked fools would love to hear; you found that you actually enjoyed his company. For now he was still looking to scam you at every opportunity that presented itself; but maybe with time he would realize that you were better suited as a friend than a scam victim.

"Aw, come on, I'm really trying here", Sampo whined after having presented you with a flower balloon, "you're breaking my heart." You chuckled. "Sampo, your attempts at flirting are so bad that i do think you're just trying to get my money", you raised an eyebrow. The two of you had agreed to go to the overworld to get some medical supplies for Natasha. You were willing to help her out for treatment you received in the past. Sampo had to be bribed with money. "I'm not", he insisted.

"Last time you handed me a 'Congratulations! You just turned 85!' card that had the price tag still on it and you wrote 'Dear y/n, please love me back, I'm tall, blue and handsome. Yours, Sampo.' inside", you laughed at the memory of that. "I thought you would like it", he gestured wildly as both of you watched Stelle tackle a trash can in the distance, "that seemed like your type of humor." And you did like it. It just hardly came off as him having serious intentions.

The two of you got a coffee at a nearby vendor after having picked up Natasha's supplies. "It made me laugh, I admit that", you patted his head and he smiled back at you. "Well then, let's hear it, what's your attempt at a pick-up line?", he raised an eyebrow. You smirked.

"Did it hurt when you crawled out of hell?"

Sampo let out a laugh and sat down on a bench putting a finger to his chin. "Well now I'm not sure if you're flirting with me or want me to die", he exclaimed but you could tell he found the whole thing humorous. You chuckled and took a sip of your own coffee. "Let me guess; you've already got yourself a little crush on some outworlder guy on another planet", he teased, not knowing that he was absolutely correct in his assumption, "but maybe you should look around and consider what's right in front of you!"

You gave him a questioning look and pointed at Ronald the storekeeper. A grin found its way onto your face when Sampo playfully punched your shoulder and shook his head in disappointment. "I was talking about me", he pointed at his face with both fingers. "Let me guess - because you're tall, blue and handsome?", you rolled your eyes and laughed. "Finally you get it!", Sampo exclaimed, "I will count the coffee as compensation for breaking my heart."

You let out a sigh. "I didn't think I was going to get that money back anyway."

You were about to head back to the underworld when the rain started pouring down. "Oh no", you whined and Sampo led you to the Goethe Grand Hotel. "Fear not, I have a room booked here for my overworld stays", he explained and you let out a sigh of relief. He awkwardly put a hand on the back of his neck. "The only thing is; I locked myself out two days ago and I left the key inside of the room; so we're going to have to climb in. "Where do you keep your head?", you shook your head in disappointment. "It's your fault for occupying all my thoughts, heh", he winked and helped you climb up to the window on the second floor where his room was.

He got the window open and you climbed inside, finding the room empty and unused with fresh towels by the bedside and the "Hope you have a nice stay!" candy still on the desk.

"Sampo... did you just make me break into a hotel room?!", you turned around and looked at your friend climbing through the window after you. He put his index finger to your lips and whispered softly. "Shh... I paid for this room, don't question it too much", his mischievous smile made you believe that he did not, in fact, pay for it, "anyway; you want to go back out there? Be my guest, but I'm staying here where it's dry and warm." He took his shoes off and plopped himself down on the bed. He reached inside the night stand drawer and tossed you the spare key, asking you to lock the door. Unfortunately for you, the rain didn't stop for the rest of the evening.

"We can't just stay here, we broke in!", you hissed. "Sampo Koski would never commit crimes on a date." "We're not on a date." "I thought you were always up for fun and spontaneous adventures", Sampo protested. "Yes, ones that do not involve me getting arrested", you argued. But you grew tired and eventually found yourself lying down on the other side of the bed, listening to the quiet radio on the night stand that you had turned on. The news lady announced a blizzard warning and urged all citizens of Belobog to stay inside shortly before the signal died.

Wonderful, you thought and closed your eyes, praying you weren't going to wake up in jail. Unfortunately, the cold made you unable to get some rest. You looked around the room, searching for an old-fashioned heating only to find it broken. "The heater's broken", you told Sampo who did not seem bothered by this fact at the slightest. "We can always huddle for warmth if you want to", he suggested and crossed his arms behind his head while staring at the ceiling.

You rolled your eyes but thought about the idea for a while. Sampo was likely just joking with his attempts at flirting with you and he was a friend and you were freezing. You could just get up tomorrow and go your own ways again; no feelings attached.

That was how you ended up snuggled against Sampo's chest under the blanket, the storm still raging outside. He had gotten unusually quiet, simply having his arms wrapped around you and his head rested on top of yours. You thought back to the masked stranger at the tavern. The last time you had reported back to the masked fools, they had told you that he wasn't back from his travels yet and he'd likely be away for a little longer this time. But they were happy to hear about your time on Jarilo-VI. You were told they had especially laughed whenever you brought up Sampo.

You were looking forward to telling your friend about Sampo's antics when he was back from his trip, but you mused if you wanted this to go anywhere, you should probably leave out the fact that you cuddled said scammer in a hotel room you broke into. Now that you had accepted your predicament; you did see the hilarity in this situation. And what good was a masked fool who couldn't laugh about themselves once in a while?

You noticed you could hear Sampo's heartbeat. His chest felt warm through the fabric of his shirt and you had to admit that this was quite comfortable. "What's got you so quiet, hmm?", you broke the silence. Sampo chuckled. "I'm still thinking about 'Did it hurt when you crawled out of hell?'", he patted your head and you could feel his chest rise and fall with his laugh, "I'm going to use this the next time I'm surrounded by foes. This will confuse them and throw off their groove, allowing me to run away." You laughed and shook your head.

"You're so out of touch with reality sometimes, Sampo Koski." He shrugged. "As long as I'm able to bring a little joy to your life, what more do I want?"

Sampo eventually started running his fingertips up and down your arm. Your exhaustion eventually got the better of you and you closed your eyes. Sampo must have thought that you were sleeping because he pulled you closer and whispered quietly. "I really like you, you know that? What do I do with you?", you heard him sigh but said nothing.

You thought back to the masked stranger. You didn't even know who he was behind the mask. Was this really going anywhere? Or maybe Sampo was right and you were too set on a love that might not even be reciprocated to see other options. Despite all the times he had tried to scam you and perhaps because chaos seemed to follow him wherever he went, you felt comfortable around Sampo. You felt safe in his arms.

Maybe I should give him a chance...

You eventually fell asleep in his arms with that thought on your mind.

Sampo Koski woke up that morning to your cold hands on his exposed midriff, presumably after you had dunked them in ice-cold water. He shot up instantly, accidentally headbutting you in the process. He groaned from the pain and held his head. "Rise and shine", you teased and Sampo let out a laugh. Moments like these were what made him fall for you after all.

He was unaware of how similar the thoughts running through your mind were to his own. That you considered telling him about your true purpose for coming to Jarilo-VI. That you thought he'd make a great addition to the masked fools. That you considered asking him to join you.

"Can you get my phone?", he asked you, still struggling to keep his eyes open due to the bright light coming through the window, "it's in my backpack." You were about to tell him to go get it himself but curiosity got the better of you. What did Sampo Koski carry in his backpack?

As you rummaged through the bag, you found that the answer to that question was his phone, a notebook titled "scam ideas" and a finger trap.

You were about to pull out the phone and close the bag again when your eyes landed on a mask that looked all too familiar. Your heartbeat quickened as the realization kicked in. "What's wrong?", he asked, looking at you with a puzzled expression, "you look like you've seen a ghost in there. Oh...is it the scam list? I can explain that one." You held up the intricately designed mask, one much like your own but individual to its user. "Oh that? Won it at a fun fair a couple years back", Sampo lied and brushed you off. You wordlessly reached into your own backpack to pull out the mask he had given you all those years ago.

"Sad clown fella?!", he exclaimed in shock. "I told you to stop calling me that!", you retorted and Sampo ran a hand through his messy bedhead, trying to make sense of this situation. "What are the odds?", he shook his head in disbelief, "the universe truly is a joke."

You looked at him for a while as a painful silence settled between you. The masked stranger who had eased your sadness and introduced you to a life of fun and adventure all those years ago was none other than Sampo Koski. And the sobbing individual at the bar he got a laugh out of with a silly drawing turned out to be the outworlder Sampo found himself absolutely infatuated with.

And once more the silence and uncertainty was broken by both of you breaking out into laughter. A feeling of relief settled in your heart. "I can't believe it's you!", Sampo exclaimed and got up from the bed, "well, isn't that something? I bet they're clowning on us back at the tavern every day." "Oh god, yes", you held your head, imagining the reactions knowing full-well that both of you were on Jarilo-VI unmasked, "we accidentally became the butt of the joke we were trying to create."

"Well that's a wonderful conclusion to this journey, don't you think? All within the spirit of Aha", Sampo grinned, "well, to celebrate our reunion, how about we finally go out on a- hmph-".

He didn't get very far until you pulled him closer by his waist and your lips crashed into his own. Sampo was stunned for a moment, his eyes widening, before he closed them and kissed you back passionately. You buried your fingers in the hair that fell into the back of his neck and you could feel him smile into the kiss. "I love you", his breath was warm on your lips when he whispered those words. You pulled him into another kiss, your tongue clashing with his. Sampo held you very close; not wanting to let go of you now that you were finally his.

You rested your forehead against his with a smile on your face. "I love you too." He kissed you again, this time much more gentle than he was before. He cupped your cheeks and poured all the love for you into his kiss. Sadly enough, even this moment had to end.

"Room cleaning service!", you heard a voice, followed by a knock on the door. "Oh god, we need to leave", Sampo hastily grabbed his bag and was on his way to the window. "So we really did break in!", you hissed and grabbed your own things. "I thought you figured that out already, why do you still sound surprised?", he asked as you followed Sampo Koski out of the window, giggling about the absurdity of the situation.

Maybe being finally united with the one you loved was worth breaking into a room for.

A few days later you found yourself in front of a large broadcasting apparatus in Rivet Town, ready to report back to the masked fools. Sampo tightly held your hand in his, smiling at you from the side. "They'll never let us live that down", you sighed as you put on your mask. Sampo lifted it again to grab your chin and press one last kiss to your lips.

"Then let's give them a grand finale to the show."

[slingshotsandrosarybeads]

Trailer for Matthews latest project

[tvckerwash]

yeah this is exactly what I was thinking, york was probably apprehend, the dakota's, wyoming, and florida all didn't have any reasons to leave so they didn't, and wash probably couldn't leave even if he had wanted to (though I do actually have a headcanon that wash and york tried to leave after running into one another while trying to get out of the ship immediately after the crash, but wyoming and florida went after them and brought them back. then york leaves again a few months later, but at this point wash is in complete lock down so he's not going anywhere).

actually I want to ask something to you guys to see if opinions have changed since 2016ish, but basically when the fan guide first came out a lot of people had some issues with the way some events were ordered, and I still think some are 100% wrong and directly contradict the show (such as hargrove becoming chairman of the oversite committee 1 year prior to sending his first letter to the director in s10, but in show he's only the assistant to the chairman at that time), one I’m not so sure about upon my rewatch now is what agents went AWOL after the break in. 

prior to the release of the fan guide, most people (myself included) assumed that york, north (and south) went AWOL along with tex, but that’s not actually the case. the only freelancers that went AWOL according to the fan guide were tex, maine, and carolina. york left pfl a year after the break in, and presumably north and south never left.

upon my rewatch, I actually agree with the fan guide's version of events in this case. york staying with pfl makes sense because he could’ve been waiting for carolina to come back, and he left after realizing that the person he had been hearing about causing trouble was tex, and/or he was knocked unconscious during the crash and was secured by pfl and was unable to leave until a year later. north staying makes sense because south sided with pfl and wanted to stay (to get her hands on an ai) and he would’ve stayed for her, and if south was recovery 2, I think north was possibly recovery 3, and much like with south, wash was just never told that they were a part of the recovery force (because the director and the counselor wanted to keep their agents separated so they couldn’t rally together again like in s10).

so, basically what is the general agreed upon version of events these days? am I absolutely insane and a total clown for agreeing with the fan guide? or was the fandom just Big Mad over canon telling them that the head canons they've had for years and the fanon version of events based around those head canons was wrong?

[saveugoodmadam]

*leaves theatre* wow what a great show my favourite bit was how it fundamentally changed me as a person forever

[tenth-sentence]

Otto Hahn took hardly any part in these heated and often acrimonious disputes.

"Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists" - Robert Jungk, translated by James Cleugh

[january-summers]

Just thinking about some AUs.

Like: Wash having served on a similar ship to the MoI pre-Freelancer. Similar, but ever so slightly different in lay out so he keeps trying to auto-pilot navigate and getting lost, and Alpha's watching on the camera feeds and at some point just hits "this is too pathetic, i gotta step in" like any back seat gamer watching a let's play, except he actually can... if he can figure out how to get away with it.

So he comms Wash, either through a direct link in his helmet or through a regularly intervaled wall radio. "Uh yeah, I'm... uh... you can just call me... Church? I work in the... uh... yeah don't worry about it but I can see you on the camera feeds, again, and man i gotta tell you for a bad ass space marine this is pretty sad. Tragic really, anyway, turn around, 200 meters and take a left-"

And it keeps happening, and sometimes they just hang out, Wash hiding in a storage closet eating contraband foods (the good chocolate) while Alpha drops some funny stories from the command deck.

And Wash casually mentions him in talk with the other Freelancers, but they never get to talk to Church, and Wash can't introduce him properly, so everyone refers to Church as Wash's imaginary friend.

(... and then no one can figure out why all the AI are low-key obsessed with Wash, like they need him to like them even though he's not their human operator.)

or like (possibly the same AU): There is no Epsilon, Alpha has a moment of clarity about what's happening to him, what's being done to him, and fakes a fragment in order to port himself out and get put wholesale (what remains of him) into Wash's head. It's still pretty traumatic for both of them.

And then they skedaddle, go into hiding somewhere no one would ever think to look for them. Disguised as a sim trooper in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere.

... also thinking about Price deliberately pushing Wash's buttons and trying to provoke his PTSD so he has an excuse to put him on meds, except the meds are (on purpose) meds that Wash knows messes with his head and leads to psychotic episodes and he wouldn't take them, damn the orders, if he knew what they were.

but he doesn't, and he gets into a fight in one of the communal kitchens without his armour on and the first thing the other Freelancers know about it is when they get called for back up to the kitchen to help subdue a man that just killed three other Freelancers (bottom of the pack no-name annoying assholes no one liked or would miss anyway).

'cept the other Freelancers don't clock that it's Wash, because he's out of his armour and Wash is almost never seen without his helmet, unlike the others, so they aren't used to his face, and when they think of wash they think of bright yellow and steady charcoal greys, not "holy fuck that's a lot of blood did he fucking roll in it!?!?" reds.

But by the time they get there, psychotic episode is over, and Wash is in a semi fugue state, kinda clock's Carolina's blue and that he might have done something really bad, so he just drops the knife away from himself and half collapses to his knees like a puppet with cut strings, manages to lock his fingers behind his head before they try to tackle him to the ground.

Wash gets away with a slap on the wrist, and like a months probation. (Director was in on the 'experiment' to begin with, and now they're already down three Freelancers, no need to make it four. ... also Director won a bet about whether Wash could take on/out more than two opponents at a time.)